Opinion

John O'Donnell reviews eucalypt decline and dieback in relation to the lack of low intensity fire management across Australia. John considers that exclusion of frequent low intensity mild fire is the primary cause of eucalypt decline in Australian native forests and woodlands and this has been inadequately recognised ... This lack of recognition is in itself a major environmental issue and ignores up to 60,000 years of Aboriginal burning practices across the landscape.

David Landini. The Federal Government Productivity Commission held one of a series of public consultation meetings at the Deniliquin RSL on 8/6/23 ... I took the opportunity to publicly describe the political problems associated with the Basin Plan.

John Hassell. The system of land title in Australia that currently proves and protects our right to property is called the Torrens system, which was first introduced in 1858 in South Australia ... one could argue that Native Title has failed to deliver for the simple reason that, unlike freehold title, it does not confer a real property right, a right that the banks place a value on.

The Voice will respect the tradition prohibiting people speaking for other people’s country, according to Thomas Mayo, one of the leading figures in the Yes campaign for the referendum this year. He and fellow campaigner Kerry O’Brien, a former prominent ABC journalist, appeared on the weekend in two well attended sessions at the NT Writers Festival in Alice Springs where they launched their  Voice to Parliament Handbook ... Mr Mayo spoke with Alice Springs News editor, Erwin Chlanda.

The devil’s in the detail of the federal budget’s announcement of a new 10 per cent Biosecurity Protection Levy ... Federal Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, has proposed raising $47.5 million per year across all producers from the added 10 per cent levy, as part of a ‘sustainable’ funding model for biosecurity protections ... we don’t know what the value proposition is for grains and if it will actually deliver better protections.

Questioning by the WA Opposition’s Mia Davies has revealed that the Forest Products Commission is not planning on issuing any timber contracts from 1 January 2024 until an indeterminant time in the future ... “It is a clear tactic to force businesses out of the sector”, said David Utting, convenor of the Sustainable Forest Industries Roundtable.

A fresh study on the environmental impacts of lab-grown meat has led an internationally recognised expert on the future of cell-based protein, Professor Paul Wood, AO, to confirm the economics of producing lab-grown meat at scale “just won’t work” and will be less sustainable than traditional red meat production systems. The new study from the University of California, Davis, argues the global warming potential of cell-based meat production could be up to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.

A recent analysis by EP3 of the wool market got me thinking about wool, which seems to be staggering around and yet again threatening to repeat its long term boom and bust cycle, despite what we are repeatedly told about the huge demand for clean green natural fibres.

Australia is now grappling with a labour shortage across multiple sectors including health, aged care and agriculture. And our policymakers seem to continue to overlook retirees as part of the solution to the crisis.

This week is National Reconciliation Week, the crucial annual event observed in Australia to promote reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians ... The Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Maldon, on Djaara Country, is deeply committed to cultivating understanding, respect, and relationships with the Dja Dja Wurrung people, as well as with all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Nationals leader and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud said the first 12 months of an Albanese Labor government had been tough for Australian agriculture, with the full effect to be felt in the coming few years ... Mr Littleproud said farmers and processors were making investment decisions not to plant and not to invest, because the government could not provide them confidence of a stable workforce, which was driving down supply and consumer prices up.

David Landini. The closure of the Victorian native timber harvesting industry has not occurred due to legal threats; it has occurred due to the Green orientation of the Victorian urban population and this population’s insurmountable political power ... There are more Green voters in Victoria, mostly in the urban areas, than the total number of voters in the 10 marked electorates.

‘Branching Out”, the latest report on the NSW native forestry by the Blueprint Institute, was released on 26 April and put into the media with the subeditorial line “Report outlines economic benefit of ending native forest logging’ ... The Report should be marked ‘draft’ given its deficiencies - and that is being generous.

Money ... It's time to pull stumps on Metronet and accept we are not New York or London ... Power ... exploring the unforeseen consequences of over-investing in renewables ... Guns ... no logic in capping firearm numbers for recreational shooters, sporting shooters or primary producers ...

"In three years, we haven’t seen any evidence or sign that the Premier ever had plans to deliver on his promises to support the native timber industry with new pine plantations or any form of alternative supply. Now the livelihoods of hundreds of locals are shattered in an instant without a single word from the Premier or his government": Cr Ian Bye, Wellington Shire Council Mayor

On 23 May 2023, the Premier Daniel Andrews said: “We’re doing everything we promised Victorians we’d do – and we’re not wasting a moment getting on with it”. What he perhaps should have said was: “We promised some things – we even promised to govern for all Victorians – but we will deliver only some things, dump plenty of others, and govern for a few.” For me there’s only one headline from this budget: Victoria is broke.

Frank Batini. Probably the world’s largest mine, in terms of area, is Alcoa’s bauxite mine, located in the northern jarrah forest, within a biologically rich area, close to the State’s capital city (Perth) and on its domestic water supply catchments ... In 2007, Alcoa reported that the loss in water yield from five monitored catchments, where mining had occurred on part of the landscape, was 40-50 mmpa greater than in the un-mined forest. In the intervening 16 years the trees have grown and would now be using much more water.