Showing posts with label Queensland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queensland. Show all posts
21 July 2012
The Beach House - readings and writings for the week 10-16 July
22 March 2012
Heads up Queensland voters - you can really make a difference on Saturday. Here's how...
First a quick history refresher.
Queensland has only had a single house parliament since the ALP abolished the Upper House in 1922. So ever since then, any party holding a majority of seats got to run a rubber-stamp government for the entire term. Every single vote a foregone conclusion.
Imagine what that gives you...Oh that's right you don't have to imagine - you had Joh Bjelke Petersen! And Russ Hinze. And the Fitzgerald Inquiry...
Back in 1998, when I was a Councillor with the former Maroochy Shire Council, the guy who sat next to me in the Chamber was Peter Wellington. Wello decided to stand as an Independent against entrenched Liberal-National Party (he'd been both) incumbent Neil Turner. (As an aside, I had previously owned a computer store next door to Neil Turner's electorate office - can't remember more than a couple of words from him in four years...)
| Independent Queensland MP Peter Wellington |
Imagine what that gives you...Oh that's right you don't have to imagine - you had Joh Bjelke Petersen! And Russ Hinze. And the Fitzgerald Inquiry...
Back in 1998, when I was a Councillor with the former Maroochy Shire Council, the guy who sat next to me in the Chamber was Peter Wellington. Wello decided to stand as an Independent against entrenched Liberal-National Party (he'd been both) incumbent Neil Turner. (As an aside, I had previously owned a computer store next door to Neil Turner's electorate office - can't remember more than a couple of words from him in four years...)
12 March 2012
Disturbing homophobia in Queensland and Iraq...
First the man in the stupid hat. We put up with a lot of shenanigans from Bob Katter, and we are sure glad he isn't the only person in the current Federal Government balance of power situation, and that the other independents have far more rational heads. If there was any doubt, this campaign ad comprehensively removes it. (Just linking - not embedding that trash on my site.)
2 March 2012
Calling 'shenanigans' on political and media spin - two good articles. Can we please have more?
It's been a strange week in politics, by any measure and on a number of fronts.
But there's also been something strange going on - departures from spin. Nay - outright criticisms of spin...
The first was not really out of the ordinary - another solid blog piece from Greg Jericho on the ABC's The Drum (and his personal blog the famous Grog's Gamut). It's a longish piece - Greg's posts generally are - but stick it through as he systematically demolishes 'media by anecdote'. He loves graphs and uses them to great effect in demonstrating the lie of Gerry Harvey's pitch that online shopping is killing Australian businesses and the assertion by Terry McCrann and others that there is a looming wages blow-out.
Then today was this great piece by Daniel Hurst on the 100% online media outlet BrisbaneTimes.com.au.
9 December 2011
Queensland scramjet edges closer to real world test
Must have been at least 15 years ago I was looking around the University of Queensland campus in Brisbane and picked up a uni newsletter with an article about research they were doing on something called a scramjet.
A scramjet is a concept for a space rocket that first gets sped up above Mach 1, and then is jamming the thin atmosphere into a scoop and can use that with fuel to burn as propellent, instead of the usual rocket way of carrying all the oxygen compressed on board too. once it kicks is, speeds of Mach 10 to 15 should be possible.
On an off over the years, other stories have popped up about this research still going on.
A scramjet is a concept for a space rocket that first gets sped up above Mach 1, and then is jamming the thin atmosphere into a scoop and can use that with fuel to burn as propellent, instead of the usual rocket way of carrying all the oxygen compressed on board too. once it kicks is, speeds of Mach 10 to 15 should be possible.
On an off over the years, other stories have popped up about this research still going on.
7 June 2010
Regent Theatre Brisbane to be bulldozed
If you live in South East Queensland, you have just one week to have a final visit to the Regent Theatre on the Queen Street Mall.
In a fashion reminiscent of the Joh years, this wonderful venue is to be demolished next Monday. Only the heritage-listed foyer and marble staircase will be retained.
In a fashion reminiscent of the Joh years, this wonderful venue is to be demolished next Monday. Only the heritage-listed foyer and marble staircase will be retained.
17 November 2009
Queensland's Sustainable Housing Declaration a poor solution
The Queensland Government has brought out a checklist that will be required of anyone looking to sell their home.
A checklist? Whoopy chook. There have been far better tools developed that the Qld Gov't could be using. The Sustainable Housing Code that was being drafted by Brisbane City Council's greenhouse team (on which I played a small part) on behalf of all the SEQROC councils was to provide a score for each key aspect of a house's makeup. The overall score would provide a better snapshot of the house, and even out aspects that the individual layout or orientation and environmental factors may not allow.
However, I also have little regard for the REIQ's Jean Hamer complaining about the cost of the scheme - no surprise there. There has been a constant stream of doomsaying from the development industry for decades. I recall attending a presentation by the so called "Environmental Advisor" of the HIA to their members in the late 1990s, in which he decried the absurd impost by the proposed Maroochy Plan 2000 that would require a minimum 3.5 star rating, and would force builders into the unnecessary measure of putting ceiling insulation into every new home they built.
A checklist? Whoopy chook. There have been far better tools developed that the Qld Gov't could be using. The Sustainable Housing Code that was being drafted by Brisbane City Council's greenhouse team (on which I played a small part) on behalf of all the SEQROC councils was to provide a score for each key aspect of a house's makeup. The overall score would provide a better snapshot of the house, and even out aspects that the individual layout or orientation and environmental factors may not allow.
However, I also have little regard for the REIQ's Jean Hamer complaining about the cost of the scheme - no surprise there. There has been a constant stream of doomsaying from the development industry for decades. I recall attending a presentation by the so called "Environmental Advisor" of the HIA to their members in the late 1990s, in which he decried the absurd impost by the proposed Maroochy Plan 2000 that would require a minimum 3.5 star rating, and would force builders into the unnecessary measure of putting ceiling insulation into every new home they built.
And now for the desal campaign...
Now Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh is trying to hit back spitefully at the Sunshine Coast after the rejection of her pet dam project, by trying to fast-track a desalination plant at Marcoola.
Talk about digging yourself a hole and then jumping right in. Go right ahead Anna Bligh.
The Marcoola site is in the midst of endangered wallum heathlands. This area was once national park that was degazetted by David Low to get the road that bears his name built in return for development rights over the coastal strip.
This Crown land was then designated by DNR as "Industrial" and "Investigation" for many years. After about two years of negotiations with DNR staff, personal discussions with then Ministers Jim Elder and Rod Welford, and a unanimous resolution of Maroochy Council supporting my push, the State Government agreed in 1999 (?) to change the designation to "Conservation". It was a great personal win, and was written up in SCEC's Eco Echo magazine at the time. Perhaps no-one has mentioned this conservation status of the land to Bligh, or mentioned that this is one of the few wildflower areas remaining on the Coast?
Talk about digging yourself a hole and then jumping right in. Go right ahead Anna Bligh.
The Marcoola site is in the midst of endangered wallum heathlands. This area was once national park that was degazetted by David Low to get the road that bears his name built in return for development rights over the coastal strip.
This Crown land was then designated by DNR as "Industrial" and "Investigation" for many years. After about two years of negotiations with DNR staff, personal discussions with then Ministers Jim Elder and Rod Welford, and a unanimous resolution of Maroochy Council supporting my push, the State Government agreed in 1999 (?) to change the designation to "Conservation". It was a great personal win, and was written up in SCEC's Eco Echo magazine at the time. Perhaps no-one has mentioned this conservation status of the land to Bligh, or mentioned that this is one of the few wildflower areas remaining on the Coast?
12 November 2009
Mary River saved
In simply brilliant news, Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has canned the stupid dam on the Mary River that was planned by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
I have a great affinity with this river, given that as kids a mate and I always paddled down it from near Kenilworth to Gympie (and beyond) each Easter.
The dam was to be built at a location called Traveston Crossing, and had some serious envirnmental consequences that would have come about had it been built. A biggie was that it would have drowned an area frequented by the lungfish - an endangered species virtually unchanged for millions of years that populates just the Mary and Burnett Rivers (although it has also been artificially spread to a few other SEQ rivers). When paddling down the river we would often sail over the top of these monsters, and could clearly see them cruising just about the reed beds. We were young and didn't know anything about them back then - originally thinking they were really huge eels! Anna Bligh was hanging everything on being able to spend some $24M to build a fish ladder for them. Clearly Garrett called shenanigans on that piece of tripe.
I have a great affinity with this river, given that as kids a mate and I always paddled down it from near Kenilworth to Gympie (and beyond) each Easter.
The dam was to be built at a location called Traveston Crossing, and had some serious envirnmental consequences that would have come about had it been built. A biggie was that it would have drowned an area frequented by the lungfish - an endangered species virtually unchanged for millions of years that populates just the Mary and Burnett Rivers (although it has also been artificially spread to a few other SEQ rivers). When paddling down the river we would often sail over the top of these monsters, and could clearly see them cruising just about the reed beds. We were young and didn't know anything about them back then - originally thinking they were really huge eels! Anna Bligh was hanging everything on being able to spend some $24M to build a fish ladder for them. Clearly Garrett called shenanigans on that piece of tripe.
4 November 2009
Cubbie collapse
Apparently the giant (93,000 ha) Cubbie Station in South-west Queensland is in voluntary administration, with some $320 million in debts to NAB and Suncorp.
Barnaby Joyce thinks it is the Liberals' fault. I reckon it's a manifestation of the unsustainability of the Cubbie model - an example of what happens in a global warming scenario with a farming approach that doesn't factor in whole of cycle costs. If Cubbie was sustainable, then they should be able to ride out such dry years.
You have to wonder whether they've just been hanging on (maybe even trading insolvently?) hoping to get a buy-out offer from government.
The Queensland Farmers Federation reckons it should be saved and allowed to continue to mine the area's rivers for its water storage that exceeds the capacity of the Sydney Harbour. Curious to know what the NSW Farmers Federation thinks, given they represent all the farmers who miss out on all that water that Cubbie sucks up for wastful cotton irrigation.
The Queensland and Federal Governments should be seizing on this opportunity to buy up the water rights now and shut it down with regard to water wasting crops, instead allowing it to focus on more efficient crops.
Barnaby Joyce thinks it is the Liberals' fault. I reckon it's a manifestation of the unsustainability of the Cubbie model - an example of what happens in a global warming scenario with a farming approach that doesn't factor in whole of cycle costs. If Cubbie was sustainable, then they should be able to ride out such dry years.
You have to wonder whether they've just been hanging on (maybe even trading insolvently?) hoping to get a buy-out offer from government.
The Queensland Farmers Federation reckons it should be saved and allowed to continue to mine the area's rivers for its water storage that exceeds the capacity of the Sydney Harbour. Curious to know what the NSW Farmers Federation thinks, given they represent all the farmers who miss out on all that water that Cubbie sucks up for wastful cotton irrigation.
The Queensland and Federal Governments should be seizing on this opportunity to buy up the water rights now and shut it down with regard to water wasting crops, instead allowing it to focus on more efficient crops.
1 November 2009
Traveston dam is a travesty - and unnecessary
Anna Bligh's grand plan of a dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing near Gympie is now in the lap of Peter Garrett. This is a dumb dam plan in a dumb location that would produce a massively wide yet shallow dam with extraordinary evaporation losses. It will also emperil the already endangered prehistoric lungfish that live in those reaches of the river.
The fact is that there are viable alternatives to building more dams. And the Queensland Government knows it.
In 1999, the Department of Natural Resources advised the Caloundra-Maroochy Water and Wastewater Steering Committee (on which as a Councillor I was the Maroochy Council's delegate) that their research had shown that, despite facing runaway population growth, use of wastewater recycling would allow Queensland to cope with all the projected population growth without needing to build any more dams.
That's right - no more dams at all.
The fact is that there are viable alternatives to building more dams. And the Queensland Government knows it.
In 1999, the Department of Natural Resources advised the Caloundra-Maroochy Water and Wastewater Steering Committee (on which as a Councillor I was the Maroochy Council's delegate) that their research had shown that, despite facing runaway population growth, use of wastewater recycling would allow Queensland to cope with all the projected population growth without needing to build any more dams.
That's right - no more dams at all.
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