Politics

Any momentum Weipa had last year to normalise the community appears to have evaporated as new Rio Tinto GM Michelle Elvy dismissed the matter last week. Speaking at Rio Tinto Weipa’s first community forum of 2021, Ms Elvy deflected the only question regarding normalisation.

For 150 years, European settlers have enjoyed the regenerative resource that is our redgum forests. Now, the industry faces closure at the hands of the Victorian Labor Government. The Andrew’s government plan was first mooted in 2019 and now, with COVID-19 easing, bureaucratic boots are on the ground to ensure Labor achieve their objective. If successful, all Victorian native forestry harvesting and logging will cease by 2030. Other key milestones include the end of current forest contracts in 2024, followed by a re-tendering process.

Narrandera may be a future home to a critically important research centre for one of the nation’s most iconic species, the koala. A notice of motion was submitted by deputy mayor David Fahey to Narrandera Shire Council to lobby Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service to establish a Koala Research Centre in Narrandera. Cr Fahey said the centre would research and protect the koala population in the Shire, create a tourism opportunity and employment for the town, and protect the disease-free status of the local koala population.

NSW Farmers Vice President and Liverpool Plains farmer Xavier Martin said the agreement ends 13 years of uncertainty for the region’s farmers. “It was the wrong mine in the wrong place,” Mr Martin said. “This area has some of the best soils and water in Australia and as a nation, short term energy extraction gains should never compromise long term food and fibre production goals.” Mr Martin said the Shenhua project also had an “unmanageable risk” factor on the quality and quantity of groundwater resources.

The National Farmers’ Federation welcomes today’s announcement to end plans for the development of the proposed Shenhua coal mine on the Liverpool Plains. "After more than 13 long years, farmers and the Liverpool Plains community can almost breathe a sigh of relief that this process has finally ended," President and Liverpool Plains farmer Fiona Simson said. "The fertile black soil of the Liverpool Plains is some of the best farm land in Australia. It is a region of national significance.

Geoff Helisma. Clarence Valley Council [CVC] has restated its opposition to any diversion of the Clarence River or mining within its catchment. The council’s general manager, Ashley Lindsay, concludes in CVC’s submission to the draft North Coast Regional Water Strategy: “Council reiterates its position that any proposal to divert the Clarence cannot be justified from an economic, environmental or social perspective.”

The digital potential of regional economies, communities and industry will be the key focus of a trailblazing festival being held in Greater Hamilton. Tickets are now on sale for next month’s Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture (DISA) 2021 Festival, with participants encouraged to take advantage of the earlybird 10% discount which ends May 11.

The Shire of Toodyay is one of the two WA towns to have achieved ‘wildflower-friendly’ status as a result of the 2020-21 Wildflower Friendliness Award Scheme. The scheme encourages local governments to protect WA’s valuable wildflowers and native vegetation along roads and in nature reserves for visitors and locals to enjoy. WA has one of the largest display of wildflowers with more than 12,000 species – which is a unique selling point for the State.

Western Cape communities have been urged to have their say on the Indigenous Voice process after workshops were held in the region last week. Prominent Indigenous leader Professor Marcia Langton was joined by Yarrabah mayor Ross Andrews for talks in Napranum, Weipa and Aurukun. The sessions were to discuss the key points of the Indigenous Voice report, released in January, and to garner feedback to take to the federal government.

Weipa Town Authority chairman Michael Rowland says officials must move quickly to bring the 20 men stranded on a cargo vessel to Weipa and take care of them here. Another crew member left the ship last week, taking the number to 20 on board, from 22 originally. Movers 3 has been anchored off the Port of Weipa for seven weeks and needs major repairs for it to be seaworthy. Mr Rowland said it was now a humanitarian issue and urged the relevant authorities to intervene.

The three levels of government will be meeting in Tennant Creek next week to acknowledge the key achievements to date of the Barkly Regional Deal and discuss future priorities ... The Barkly Regional Deal is the first Regional Deal in Australia - a 10-year $78.4 million commitment between the Australian and Northern Territory governments and the Barkly Regional Council. However Barkly MLA Steve Edgington said the NT Government was nowhere near meeting its commitment to the 28 economic, social and cultural initiatives to be implemented across the region over the first three years of the deal.

Bad decisions are made when people are in a panic and a lot of bad decisions have been made since the advent of Covid-19. Indeed, the responses to Covid-19 seem to have been driven by a desire to 'look tough and organised', as exemplified by the myriad of often 'extreme' lockdowns and the closure of our international borders. Generally unknown-about public health regulations lurking in obscure Acts of the Parliaments around Australia have armed politicians and health bureaucrats with previously unheard of amounts of power over our daily lives.

The past 12 months have seen Forestry Corporation of NSW implement a $46 million bushfire recovery program to repair NSW State forests, the largest in the organisation’s history. The equity injection has seen Forestry Corporation repair priority damaged public infrastructure, expand its Blowering and Grafton nurseries, and start replanting bushfire-affected State forests.

Rockhampton Airport has today welcomed one of Alliance Airlines new commercial aircraft with a special water cannon salute to mark its arrival. The Embraer E190 is one of 30 newly acquired aircraft Alliance is adding to its regional fleet with an exciting proposal on the cards to build a hangar and maintenance facility at Rockhampton Airport to help service the airlines entire fleet of over 70 aircraft.

The Coastal Fox Control Program will be underway again this autumn in an effort to protect our native wildlife from the predatory fox in coastal bushland areas from Maroochy River to Peregian Springs.

In the hope to improve native vegetation within the municipality, Greater Shepparton City Council are inviting schools and community groups to take part in the ‘One Tree Per Child’ project, a global project that aims to plant one native indigenous plant for every child under 18 years old between 2017 and 2021.

Steve Dobbyns. The native forests of the north coast of NSW are not just the backdrop for an idyllic seaside lifestyle for its 1.7 million residents, they also sustain a hardwood timber industry that has been in existence for more than 150 years ... The 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires have emerged as a tipping point for the hardwood timber industry on the NSW north coast.

“Fisher folk, stand-up boarders, kayakers and everyone are invited to bring their sailboats, tinnies or whatever and come along with us to stand up for our inland rivers,” says Carol Carney. Carol is the proud owner of "Sneaky Snag", a beautiful 4.8 metre long blue and white trailor-boat that floats around the Murray River and other waterways near Echuca, one of Victoria's primo river towns. At 3pm on April 16, 2021, boats of all descriptions will launch into the weir-pool above Lock 32, at Menindee in Western NSW.

For 90 years paramedics have operated from the pale brick building on Centre St in Casino. Richmond Valley mayor Robert Mustow said he’d been to the station “a few times as a young boy to get stitched up.” All that is about to change after an announcement on Friday about a modern ambulance station to replace it ... Paramedic Hayley Hemmings said they had outgrown the station: “The new station will have a lot more infrastructure, new equipment and training spaces”.

Geoff Helisma. Damming the Clarence River has long been a controversial subject – and the draft regional water strategy for the north coast rules it out (for now) – but one Clarence Valley man hasn’t given up on the idea, although he’s not talking about diverting the river westwards. Lawrence resident John Ibbotson has spent considerable time and money developing his idea for a dam located downstream from where the Clarence and Mann rivers converge, despite the North Coast Regional Water Strategy discussing dam proposals under the heading “options not progressed”.