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Opinion

Coming up to speed on farm connectivity

Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers -
If you understand the difference between 5G low and high band, fixed wireless, repeaters and extenders, then you don’t have to read this. While the tech savvy know their way around digital connectivity, the vast majority of us are staggering around in the dark when it comes to getting information on how to get a couple of extra signal bars on our mobile phones or stop the download lag on our broadband.

Why the quail is a strategic bird for Ukraine

Pavel Kuliuk, ARR.News -
During the war, quail could save millions of Ukrainians from hunger and poverty. Only 1m2 is needed to grow this bird. For this, 200 dollars is enough. Investments begin to make a profit after 2 months. The income is 25-40 per cent of the invested funds per month. However, several reasons do not allow the quail to become a national bird in Ukraine.

Koala monitoring and habitat: Vic Jurskis responds

The Editor -
Vic Jurskis responds to ARR.News questions including about the different methods for monitoring koalas, sustainable koala populations, koala habitat and the relationship with timber harvesting ... "Gathering numbers should not be an end. Deliberations of the TSSC assume that more is better. The koala’s ecological history of irruptions and crashes in numbers after European arrival clearly shows this not to be the case. Effective monitoring requires an understanding of the reasons for any real changes in numbers."

Pharmacist believes decision will benefit patients and GPs

Narrandera Argus -
Narrandera Capital Chemist pharmacist in charge Melissa Close has welcomed the NSW Government’s plans to offer people easier access to more medications and vaccinations at their local pharmacies ... Melissa believes that allowing pharmacists to prescribe medication for conditions such as urinary tract infections, skin ailments, ear infections and hormonal contraceptives will ease the burden on local GPs and reduce wait times for patients who need more specialised care.

The Victorian election and the Riverina State

The Editor -
David Landini, Riverina State Group. The Victorian election, with the re-election of the Daniel Andrews’ Labor government, and the election of seven Greens Members of Parliament, ensures that the suppression of natural resource-based industries such as irrigated agriculture and timber harvesting will not only continue, but actually accelerate and expand. That these Members of Parliament are all urban-based, while the industries being suppressed are all in the country, demonstrates the cultural and economic division existing between the urban and country populations.

Choke hold

Lloyd Polkinghorne, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper -
Even with more than 100,000 megalitres a day crossing the South Australian border, SA Water closed the barrages due to seawater flowing into the freshwater estuary. SA Water satellite imagery also shows the current flooding is still not moving down the Coorong. The real risk of constraints relaxation may be felt closer to home. The modification of the Barmah Choke has been seen as the crown jewel for accessing held environmental water. The choke protects Echuca-Moama and Koondrook-Barham from large Murray floods from Hume Dam, currently on display with the flows heading north down the Edward-Wakool system ... Community concerns over constraints relaxation flooding farmers and potentially impacting townships has been labelled as scaremongering by MDBA Chief Executive Andrew McConville.

What you should know about your local rural pathology service

Robert McGuigan -
When I came to rural NSW pathology in the 1990's, there were approximately six rural cytology positions employed in the government pathology laboratories in the state and a single rural cytology position employed by the private sector. So the number of trained cytology positions was never large and very much fewer in rural areas. However, as of 2016-17 they are non-existent in any rural NSW pathology setting, private or public sector. Similarly, numbers are greatly reduced for most of the other specialist pathology positions, especially pathologists themselves.

The Zylstra theory: a final comment: Roger Underwood

The Editor -
Having read the latest comment by Philip Zylstra in the ARR.News journal I was tempted to dismiss it as negligible, and move on. Then I realised that he had denigrated my colleagues, dismissing them as an emotional "lobby group”, and I realised that he must not be allowed to have the last word. To the extent that we are pushing for Australian governments to adopt a bushfire policy and management practices that minimise bushfire damage to the Australian people, to community assets and the environment, then yes, we are lobbyists. But we do so unemotionally, from the basis of science and experience.

Blowing in the wind in your window

Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers -
If you love the view from the top of your farm looking out over the surrounding countryside, then let’s hope you are not near the coast or major power lines or in a windy part of Western Australia because the state and federal governments and the men and women with white shoes are quietly pouring over maps looking for sites that will become tomorrow’s wind farms.

NSW koalas and industrial logging of the public forest estate: Sue Higginson

The Editor -
Sue Higginson responds to ARR.News questioning of the premise for the Green's introduced Forestry Amendment (Koala Habitats) Bill 2022 ... "All levels of Government agree that our Koalas have declined significantly in recent decades and that they are facing extinction in coming decades if threats to their survival are not stopped ... The legitimacy of the Law article is broadly contested": Sue Higginson, NSW Greens MP.

Banking taskforce report opens the gate for mass closures

Dale Webster, The Regional -
The number of banks closed in regional Australia in the six weeks since the Albanese Government quietly released the Coalition’s Regional Banking Taskforce final report is comparable to a dam opening its spillways. The blame for the acceleration – at least 71 branches across all states and territories – can be laid squarely at the feet of the two opposition MPs who led the inquiry, Michael Sukker and Perin Davey, and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, who released the report.

Andrews SEC plan is a mixed bag

Philip Hopkins -
When Daniel Andrews announced his plans to revive the State Electricity Commission (SEC), he said: “Unreliable, privatised coal will be replaced by clean, government-owned renewable energy.” This is a distorted claim.

Stop. Think. Vote! Australia’s peak animal welfare body says Victorian politics needs your vote to count: Animal Care Australia

The Editor -
Australia’s peak animal welfare body, Animal Care Australia, has published a score card of how each Victorian Political Party performed in supporting or opposing sound Animal Welfare initiatives for companion animals in this last term. Animal Care Australia painstakingly trawled through the last 3 years of Hansard (the official record of the Minutes of Victoria’s Parliament) to find how often each party spoke in favour of improving animal welfare and supporting companion animals, and those who blocked, or spoke against, those motions.

By their deeds you will know them

Gordon Wilson, ARR.News -
The NSW Government last week withdrew what is referred to as the dual consent private native forestry bill, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2022. It is possible in the past week to look at news headlines concerning all mainland eastern States and see open contemptuous rampant hypocrisy at play.   But the conduct around this Bill is possibly the better example.

Philip Zylstra’s response #4 – self-thinning forest understoreys and wildfire debate

The Editor -
The critique of our study of fire history in southwestern forests illustrates the difficulty of discussion around such emotive issues. We reported that according to Departmental records, bushfires were seven times more likely in areas of forest that still had the dense understorey that had been germinated by prescribed burns than they were in other areas where the understorey had self-thinned because it had been left alone. These are the facts, but they leave us at an impasse.

Playing for sheep stations

Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers -
Farmers in Australia are watching the New Zealand Government with growing horror as they move from the announced 10 per cent cut in methane emissions to actual regulatory rules mandating these cuts take place, starting 2025. The climate change game was great fun while everyone played with monopoly money and they could afford to outbid each other with their virtue, but now that that we are moving to playing with real money and going from targets to taxes, it is clear the virtue signalling has ended and the targeting of who pays has begun.

Caring for national parks – a conservationist’s perspective evolves: Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth

The Editor -
Cam Walker. After World War Two, a growing appreciation of the Australian landscape and an emerging conservation movement led millions of people to become involved in campaigns to protect our wild and special places ... Once a campaign was won, we often thought that the battle was over ... Several decades ago I was a volunteer with an environment group that campaigned to gain protection of wild ecosystems. In those days I supported a ‘let burn’ policy when it comes to managing fire in wild landscapes.

Parliament fails NSW timber communities: Banasiak

The Editor -
Both sides of politics are responsible for decimating the NSW timber industry following the withdrawal of a government bill that would remove dual consent approvals for private native forestry ... "The Government failed to articulate what removing dual consent means, and Labor failed to do their research": Mark Banasiak, MLC of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

Greens to introduce Bill to prohibit forestry operations in koala habitat – saying it’s time: Higginson

The Editor -
“This bill is a signal to the Government that this is an essential step to saving koalas from extinction and is as simple as an amendment to the Forestry Act. We could save money, protect jobs and stimulate the economy while also taking immediate action to slow the extinction crisis in NSW": NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson ... Sue Higginson responded to a question from ARR.News.

ANU southern forest timber report deeply flawed: South East Timber Association

The Editor -
An independent review of an Australian National University (ANU) report advocating for the closure of native forest harvesting in southern NSW, has confirmed the report is deeply flawed ... SETA secretary, Peter Rutherford stated “the flaws identified in the report totally undermine the alleged economic benefits of closing the native forest industry in southern NSW. Rather than a net present value (NPV) of $61.96 million over 30 years, closure of the industry would result in a negative NPV of -$252.43 million.”

Undera update – the water recedes, the community hopes to future proof

The Editor -
Daryl Wiltshire from Undera reports that while the floodwaters are receding, the community is waiting and hoping that the rain that is forecast will not affect the region too much. Undera people are "hoping for a show of resolve from the authorities who control levees to future flood proof the farming area."

The NSW Government has lost control on private native forestry: Higginson

The Editor -
The NSW Government is hanging regional councils and koalas out to dry with their latest plan to remove the right of local government to be involved with approvals for private native forestry. The koala wars that have defined the last 4 years of this coalition government are being refuelled under the noses of Liberal ministers and democratically elected councils by The Nationals: Sue Higginson, Greens NSW MP.
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