Jillian Meagher, Rest In Peace

We all know that there is evil in the world, but when we confront it face to face we are still shocked, in the literal sense, and disoriented, finding it hard to concentrate on our usual business.

My heart goes out to Jillian’s family at this terrible time and in particular to her husband Thomas. We can only glimpse the pain and grief and sorrow and anger he must be going through. I also wish to extend my condolences and sympathies to Jillian’s work colleagues at the ABC, who are doing it tough right now.

I want to congratulate Victoria Police for their mighty efforts in the days since Jillian went missing, and to thank Brunswick Police for the most co-operative way they have responded to requests for information from the Member for Brunswick Jane Garrett and I concerning community safety issues in Brunswick following Jillian’s disappearance.

The time will come soon enough for discussion about the issues which this crime raises – violence against and attitudes towards women, CCTV cameras, late night bars and clubs, and what actions we need to take to make our community a safer place.

But today we are mostly left to reflect on the cruel and capricious nature of life and fate. In 1968, near Marysville, four schoolchildren were killed by a huge tree which fell on them while they were enjoying themselves in the bush. A monument erected there asks the question, Why them?, And it is again the unanswerable question – Why this day? Why this place? Why this young woman?

“No men is an island

Entire of itself

Each is a piece of the continent

A part of the main…

Each man’s death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee”.

-John Donne

Let’s Accelerate the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Progress has been made since 2000 when world leaders committed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

More children than ever before are surviving to their fifth birthday and beyond. More women are receiving skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth. An additional 110 million children around the world are now in school. The MDG target on safe drinking water has been achieved.

Much remains to be done, however. I have called on the Australian Government in the past to adopt the United Nations General Assembly international aid target of 0.7% of GDP. The increase would bring us into line with countries like Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands.

I also think it would help ensure the effectiveness of our aid effort by investing at least 25% of the aid budget in health – including $500 million annually on water, sanitation and hygiene, with half of this amount directed towards sanitation and hygiene, where attention is most needed.

Tax evasion and corruption is a serious impost on aid effectiveness with developing countries losing more than USD $160 billion through multinational corporate tax evasion. Requiring companies to report their revenues, taxes and royalties on a country-by-country basis could help governments of developing countries hold corporations to account. Australia could also consider this reporting for all multinational companies registered in Australia, starting with those operating in extractive industries.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals will help lift the standard of living for people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, alleviating the grinding poverty and the associated problems that blight our world.

Importance of Manufacturing to Productivity

Some industry leaders have been blaming the Fair Work Act for not helping Australia’s rate of productivity and calling for deregulation of the labour market. I believe this is misguided view and misses the real issue.

The key to improving our productivity performance is a vibrant and innovative manufacturing sector in Australia, not a race to the bottom which sees offshoring of our manufacturing.

The economist Dani Rodrik has said that countries that ignore the health of their manufacturing industries do so at their own peril. He says that in the United States the fall of manufacturing's share of employment has been damaging to productivity because labour productivity is substantially higher in manufacturing than in the rest of the economy. The bulk of new employment in the United States has come in personal and social services, which is where the economy's less productive jobs are found. The migration of jobs down the productivity ladder has shaved 0.3 percentage points off US productivity growth every year since 1990.

In their book Seeds of Destruction, Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro, say:

“A strong manufacturing base spurs the technological innovation necessary to boost productivity, wage growth, and consumer purchasing power.”

Susan Helper of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, for the Brookings Institution, a think-tank in Washington, DC says manufacturing provides better-paid jobs, on average, than service industries, is a big source of innovation, helps to reduce trade deficits and creates opportunities in the growing “clean” economy, such as recycling and green energy.

These are all good reasons for Australia to engage in manufacturing. Manufacturing must be part of Australia’s future if we are to keep a balanced economy that does not rise and fall solely on commodity prices. By contrast the Coalition would slash investment in manufacturing, sending jobs offshore and reducing our research and engineering base, hurting our productivity and ultimately our national independence.

Bushfire Prevention Should Always Be About Quality Prevention

I agree with the comments by the Bushfire Commission Implementation Monitor Neil Comrie who said the target to burn 5 per cent of Victoria’s public land every year to ease bushfire risk should instead be focused on protecting high-risk fire areas and public safety rather than simply meeting a target.

In March this year I held a Bushfire Prevention Forum where experts came together to discuss the prevention of another Black Saturday from ever happening again.

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission recommended Prescribed Burning and Underground Cabling of electricity as two key bushfire mitigation approaches.

However the annual rolling target of a minimum 5% prescribed burning of public land as outlined in Recommendation 56 of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission is not directly linked to protecting communities and accordingly drives perverse public policy outcomes.

As reported in The Age (Monday 23 January 2012) the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s planned burning program has achieved only 16% of its target in the densely populated central region, whereas in the sparsely populated North-East DSE has burnt 150% of its goal!

 

Aerial electricity transmission lines are a major cause of bushfires, particularly on Total Fire Ban and Code Red days. Recommendation 27 of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission proposed the progressive replacement of all SWER powerlines in Victoria with aerial bundled, underground cabling or other technology that delivers greatly reduced fire risk.

It is time the Baillieu Government made a tangible commitment to this Recommendation’s implementation. This would make a real, rather than imaginary, contribution to the protection of human life and the safety of communities.

Troubling State Government Plans for Development in National Parks

The Baillieu Government’s plan to allow ninety-nine-year leases for private sector development in Victorian national parks should ring alarm bells with the public.

The State Government says it is supporting the tourism industry by allowing this private sector development, and that such developments will need to be sensitive to the environment, but the recent track record of State Liberal governments on protecting national parks or the environment in general does not engender confidence.

The Baillieu Government had only been in power 5 minutes when it allowed the resumption of cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park, the O’Farrell New South Wales Liberal Government has permitted shooting in that state’s national parks, and the Newman Queensland LNP Government claimed in May this year that the protections for koalas in Queensland were 'needless duplication' and 'mindless green tape', despite overwhelming science that the Queensland koala has taken a massive hit over the last 20 years.

I strongly oppose the idea of permitting ninety-nine-year leases. I believe it is improper and undemocratic – it denies the community the right to say no to these developments, if the community disapproves of the commercialisation of national parks and votes out the government which has done this, it is still confronted with the legal reality of a 99 year lease. No Parliament should be able to find a successor Parliament in this way.

$100Million withdrawal to HRL Coal Power Plant Project- A big win for Community Environmental Action!

Friday 3^rd August 2012/ac

$100Million withdrawal to HRL Coal Power Plant Project-

A big win for Community Environmental Action!

I welcome the announcement by my Labor Government colleague, Minister for Energy Resources, The Hon Martin Ferguson MP, that the Australian Government is withdrawing the offer of a potential $100 million grant to the HRL Project in the Latrobe Valley.

This is a big win for community environmental action, with many people across Victoria raising serious concerns about the proposal. In February I presented a petition from 11,916 petitioners calling on the House to withdraw federal funding for the proposed new coal-fired power station in Victoria and invest in a clean renewable energy future for Victoria instead.

Energy Company HRL proposed to build a $1.2 billion 600 megawatt power plant, which would have produced around 4 million tonnes of carbon emissions. How we can reduce carbon emissions with projects that are plus 4 million tonnes.

The funding was originally awarded by the Howard Government in 2007, but since then the money had not been spent, conditions had not been met, and extensions had been granted until the end of June. Given HRL still could not meet the funding requirements, it was appropriate that Minister Ferguson withdraw the funding.

 The HRL project also had no private money. Environment Victoria advised me that in 2009 HRL lost their major Chinese partner, who withdrew their 50% stake. In 2011 Australia’s big four banks all announced that they would not be involved in the project, and in October 2011 a number of international banks declared that they too would not finance the proposed power station, with HSBC indicating that HRL was too polluting for them to invest in. According to Environment Victoria HRL’s project costs blew out.

This is a great win for local environmental action.

Kelvin Thomson MP

Federal Member for Wills

-       Speech to Australian Parliament calling on HRL Funding to be withdrawn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITGjJZhS9po&list=UUHJgaKR3Glj9bQW4VHYr35A&index=4&feature=plcp

Melbourne's population growth, is this good for Melbourne

Tim Colebatch's report on the rapid growth of Melbourne raises the question, is this growth good for Melbourne? As he points out, during the last decade Melbourne's population grew by much more than any other Australian city. Melbourne grew by over 647,000 people, with Sydney the next largest with an increase of 477,000.

It is clear that the pace of this growth has been way too rapid for State and local governments, as well as public and private infrastructure providers, to cope with. The consequences have been severe, with travel times to and from work blowing out, electricity and council rates skyrocketing, residents losing their ability to preserve their street scape and neighborhood character, and young people unable to afford a house with a backyard anywhere near where they grew up.

It doesn't have to be this way. As Tim Colebatch reports, 60 per cent of this growth came from overseas migration. Both our permanent and temporary migrant worker programs were greatly increased during the last decade, supposedly to deal with the mining boom, but instead many migrant workers end up in Melbourne. The migrant worker programs should be returned to the level of the 1990s and 1980s, and Melbourne would be able to cope much better than it is at present.

This is first and foremost the responsibility of the Federal Government, but it would help if State and local government started calling for it, instead of behaving like drivers of the getaway car, which is what they have done all too often during the past decade.