Opinion

John O'Donnell considers the economics of bushfire mitigation in Australia and highlights opportunities for economic reform with fire management across South East Australia, critical considering the high ongoing impact of disastrous bushfires.

A small South East Queensland council holds grave concerns over the future of their community as Inland Rail proceeds full steam ahead with plans to rip through the heart of their towns ... “We have been raising our concerns since this project was first announced and continue to advocate for our community in our ongoing objection to the unreasonable impacts of Inland Rail": Lockyer Valley Regional Council Mayor, Cr Tanya Milligan.

Back in May, NSW’s Natural Resources Commission and Department of Primary Industries, as well as three universities, quietly published a report about forest monitoring. It states that north coast koala populations have been stable for the last five years, despite 30 per cent of koala habitat being burnt by the disastrous Black Summer megafires ... NSW bureaucrats obviously know that the koala population wasn’t adversely affected by Black Summer. So, one wonders why they’re not shouting the good news from the rooftops.

The Victorian Government has been accused of “side-stepping the consultation process” over proposed changes to animals welfare laws that could see licences brought in for horse events and any commercial horse activity. Animal Care Australia (ACA) horses and livestock representative Karri Nadazdy said as a major stakeholder, ACA responded to the Animal Welfare Act Reform Directions Paper in December 2020 and said no warning was given that licensing was under consideration.

Licences for any professional horse activity and events in Victoria could be brought in under proposed new animal welfare laws. The proposal has been outlined in a plan developed as part of the reform process for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 and states that anyone “showing and exhibiting animals for a commercial purpose” would be subject to new regulations, including that a “licence is required”.

The topic I want to raise is one that in the last few decades has grown to become an Australian norm, performed at major and minor cultural, political, and sporting events. Unfortunately, this new norm is at risk of being overused by zealot government bureaucrats, attempting to force reconciliation through repetition, instead of accepting slow community adoption.

Regional Australians angry over continued bank closures have a chance to have their voice heard in federal parliament. The Regional’s Australian parliamentary petition calling for an immediate moratorium on closures and a new banking inquiry has been approved and can be signed online until 12.29am on October 6. It comes as the number of regional ‘big four’ banks looks set to slip below 1000 by the end of the year, a reduction of nearly two thirds of their network since 1975.

Glenelg Shire residents are right to be alarmed at an effective 20 per cent increase in their rates. Farm rates will go up 22 per cent ... This comes at a time when a 2 per cent rate cap is in place across the state. The council argues that it is technically still within a 1.75 per cent rate cap. “But in reality – the Glenelg Councillors have enabled a rate rise in excess of eight times the rate cap,” Mrs McArthur said.

If you are wondering why there is a labour shortage across the Western Australia wheatbelt then check out some of the jobs on offer across the state and what they are paying ... I’m going to try to make the case that we need to lift what we pay but also ensure we offer a safe interesting experience so we can grow the pool of working holiday markets that will consider working on grains farms.

Australia's success on the international sporting arena has earned the country a reputation as one of the top equestrian nations in the world. The Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame was started in 2010 and honours EA's greatest achievers, but maybe it’s time the panel took a new look and added a number of greats who are missing from the list.

‘The NSW Coalition and the Shooters Fishers Farmers Party have condemned the Darling/Baaka to longer periods of dry riverbed with stagnant slimy pools. This decline in river health started when floodplain harvesting exploded upstream during the 1990’s. The NSW Government has rewarded decades of unsustainable and unregulated water use with new licences while conducting no assessment of the downstream impacts on Darling/Baaka communities, native fish populations, groundwater recharge and important wetland areas’: Brian Stevens, spokesperson for Inland Rivers Network.

Looking at Western Australia’s Wheatbelt of 44 shires between 2001 and 2021, the census has tracked the population fall at a steady rate of just under 1% a year across most of the sub 1,500 person shires in the Wheatbelt ... maybe the current generation of national MPs can come up with a Royalties for Regions II plan.

John O'Donnell considers a recent US report on fire and land management, "Wildland Urban Interface: A Look at Issues and Resolutions", and finds that it holds valuable lessons that could be adapted for Australian land and bushfire management.

The latest issue of Australian Zoologist is titled “Out of the ashes: Lessons learned from bushfires and how we can better manage our fauna”. But the editorial wrap-up suggests we’ve learnt nothing. It seems our fauna will continue to suffer from mismanagement under a Lock It Up and Let It Burn conservation’ paradigm. The abstract mentions monitoring, mapping and research, but the only reference to management is “use of supplementary resources such as nest boxes and artificial roosts to replace those lost in fires”.

Some older farmers will remember the Australian superphosphate bounty of $12/tonne that was on offer between 1964 to 1974.  Some might have even been at this Perth rally when farmers roughed up Gough Whitlam after he said he was pulling the plug on the bounty ... more hard policy decisions should have been made to cut tariffs and industry support right across Australia to put an end to the endless drip of governments ...

Bob Burow was the only Mount Isa trainer to send a horse to Birdsville and he was duly rewarded when The Brotherhood scored an easy win on Saturday ... The two-day meeting was more like a circus ... The fields were already tiny before Todd Austin had to scratch his horses, but they continued to dwindle as rain hit the region.

The current timber supply shortages in Victoria brought about by vexatious legal action against VicForests is causing anguish among the people of Orbost, where 37% of its workforce faces the axe ... Forest & Wood Communities Australia went to Orbost last week to speak with what we thought would be a few families to get an idea of what they are going through ... FWCA MD, Justin Law, said the heart-breaking situation in Orbost was unnecessary.

When I think of tragedy and tales of woe, it is hard not to go past history’s greats like Romeo and Juliet, but Australia as a nation is penning an even more tragic story, one sadly not confined to fiction ... With water or the environment not being big enough portfolios for the Albanese Government to separate, Tanya Plibersek has the job of forcing Southern Basin communities to swallow the pill promised to South Australia in the federal election.

A diverse range of views were heard at the River People’s Forum held in Swan Hill on September 2. What do we want our river communities and river to look like? What is the balance between regulated flows and floods and natural ones? Do we want concrete giants like the KP regulators? Nothing was out of bounds.

Charles Sturt academic, Dr Joanne Connolly explores what makes koalas unique and how Charles Sturt University is contributing to saving endangered populations, including research into the Narrandera koala population ... ARR.News asks some questions of Dr Connolly.