BE THEIR HERO - Animals Australia

https://youtu.be/aKhl-FUpp8E

‘Be their Hero’ is designed to show Australians just how extraordinary this unique species is. That each and every one of these animals suffering in factory farms or slaughterhouses is a ‘Tottie’ – curious, intelligent, sensitive and loveable.

Tottie and Davo’s exploits (there's more to come!) are set to become beloved in Australia and will resonate with the hearts of those who are on the cusp of refusing to ‘buy into’ and support the suffering inflicted upon these beautiful animals.

We are only limited in our ability to create change by the number of kind hearts we can reach and inspire.

[Animals Australia, 4 April 2023]

NSW Perrottet Government in full election mode 9 months out from the state election and its hypocrisy is showing beneath a cloak of environmental concern

ARR News, 20 June 2022:

Australian Rural & Regional News has asked a few questions for the Ministers, set out below the release.

Matt Kean, NSW Treasurer, Minister for Energy (NSW), James Griffin, Minister for Environment and Heritage (NSW), Dugald Saunders, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Western New South Wales (NSW), Joint Media Release, 19 June 2022

Farmers around the State will be supported to adopt additional sustainable practices through a groundbreaking $206 million program delivered in the NSW Budget.

Treasurer Matt Kean said this landmark investment will reward farmers who voluntarily reduce their carbon emissions and protect biodiversity.

“This is great news for farmers and the environment. This funding will help improve biodiversity and lower emissions across NSW, and our farmers will receive tangible benefits for sustainable land management practices,” Mr Kean said.

Mr Kean said NSW has an early mover advantage to secure a leading position in the emerging global marketplace for low carbon food and fibre from producers who are also improving our biodiversity.

“This new era of natural capital could unlock up to $10 billion of ‘Environment, Social and Governance’ financing in Australia,” Mr Kean said.

“Natural capital will reduce farmers’ risks from climate change and biodiversity loss while improving long-term farm productivity.”

Minister for Environment James Griffin said the Sustainable Farming Program will help to shore up the long-term health of the environment and the agricultural sector.

“This $206 million new program is completely voluntary. We’re proposing to develop an accreditation scheme for farmers who manage their land for biodiversity and carbon, while enhancing their productivity,” Mr Griffin said.

“Just as we know what the Forestry Stewardship Council certification system represents, this is about developing an easily recognisable accreditation for sustainable farms.

“We know that investors and consumers are increasingly looking for sustainably produced products, and this program will support our producers to meet that demand.”

Many farmers are already undertaking sustainable practices as part of their day to day operations and this program represents an opportunity for diversified income, with the program offering farmers payments to secure and maintain accreditation.

In turn, the accreditation has potential to increase their market access globally, helping farmers sell their products at a premium and access emerging environmental markets. The accreditation will not impact existing accreditation schemes such as those used to access the European beef markets.

Accreditation could be achieved by actions such as restoring habitat, fencing for dam and riparian areas, rotating crops, and using best-practice feed and fertiliser practices.

Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW Dugald Saunders said the program will be developed in close consultation with farmers and landowners.

“The NSW Government will work with farmers and landholders on options to tap into the emerging natural capital market,” Mr Saunders said.

“Farmers in NSW are already natural capital specialists and should be rewarded for the productive and environmental outcomes they generate.

“This announcement will give farmers and other landholders more options to diversify their income while maintaining ultimate decision making power on how to sustainably and productively manage their property.”

Farmers will receive a payment for reaching milestones on agreed sustainable practices under an accreditation framework.

The accreditation program will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, and complements existing private land conservation programs offered by the NSW Government.

Learn more: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sustainable-farming

Questions

Australian Rural & Regional News asked a few questions of the Ministers. Their response will be included here once received.

1. When do you expect the programme to actually start?

2. Who will be the 'stakeholders' to be consulted in regard to the accreditation process?

3. Have there been any community meetings in rural & regional communities to discuss this programme? If not, are they planned as part of the consultation process?

A question not yet being asked is 'How does this media release fit with a Perrottet Government farm forestry policy which encourages farmers to log native timber stands on their land for additional income and to support the dying timber industry, thereby further threatening extinction of the NSW Koala population by 2050?'

With less than 50 per cent of native forests on private land in Northern NSW and a deliberately weakened private native forestry code, that’s a clear threat to what biodiversity and undisturbed habitat remains on local farmland.

And for what? For a very few years worth of construction timber, power poles, flooring, furniture and firewood.

Meet the brand new Northern Rivers Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Sue Higginson

 Echo, 27 May 2022:

As a brand new MLC, Sue Higginson’s first week in the NSW Upper House has been huge but she says it’s a taste of things to come.

Higginson was sworn in on May 12 and made her First Speech on Tuesday last week. Two days later, she voted after the Upper House spent 10 hours debating amendments to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, before a final vote of support 23 to 15. ‘I came in at the very end, basically, but my vote helped and supported and counted for voluntary assisted dying becoming law in New South Wales.’…..

Our endangered furry buddy 

A precious tree faerie. Photo Tree Faerie.

Higginson believes that the recent classification of the status of koalas to endangered will add leverage in the fight to save forests. ‘It has to. Having our national icon listed as endangered – only a step away from extinction – the science is on the table and the evidence is there. There is the legal acknowledgement that we are at the end of the road for koalas.

‘If we don’t pull out all the stops and do everything we can, we know what that means. We have to protect koalas where they live and their habitat right now. Part of that is our public native forests. And we’re still logging the crap out of them. We’ve got to stop.’……..

Sue Higginson MLC at Lismore’s Trees Not Bombs Community Recovery Café. ‘I’ve got five years. I’m a mature woman – I’m a mature woman on fire and I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got a five year plan.’ Photo Tree Faerie.

Now that she has taken her seat in the New South Wales Upper House she will be there for five years and Higginson is on a mission. ‘I’ve got five years. I’m a mature woman – I’m a mature woman on fire and I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got a five year plan and that plan is about improving action on climate and it is to protect our native forests once and for all. It’s to try to stop the absurdity of the extinction crisis and to level up the playing field in this inequality crisis that we experience, and all the things that that means.

‘And of course, fundamentally, it’s New South Wales’ turn to start working on First Nations justice properly,’ she said.

‘Seriously – truth, treaty and voice – we need to do that at the New South Wales level, and we need to do that at the Commonwealth level. That’s massive for me.’  

Read the full article here.

Sue Higginson’s official biography at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=2268

Sue is an environmental law expert and has practiced as a public interest environmental lawyer. She is the former Principal Solicitor and CEO of the Environmental Defenders Office, Australia's leading public interest environmental law centre.

Sue has been responsible for high profile environmental litigation in Australia. She has represented communities challenging mining giants, proponents of environmentally harmful development and holding Governments to account for the environment. She has delivered environmental legal services to rural, remote and regional communities and First Nations communities across NSW.

Sue has operated her own legal practice where in addition to her environmental legal practice, she assisted environmental protestors who came into contact with the criminal justice system as a result of their activities to protect the environment. She has represented hundreds of people in relation to forestry, mining and coal seam gas and climate change protests in courts across Australia.

Sue has lectured and taught environmental law in universities across NSW. She holds a Bachelor of Laws, with First Class Honours and was awarded the University Medal upon graduation.

Sue has sat on a number of Boards of not for profit charitable environmental organisations in Australia where she advised on governance and compliance.

Sue is a farmer, she grows dry land rice, and other crops, with her partner on their farm on the Richmond Floodplain in the Northern Rivers. Central to her farming practice is biodiversity management and conservation. Her farm is home to koalas, where she has planted thousands of trees to try to secure their future.

Ms. Higginson's term of service in the NSW Upper House expires on 5 March 2027, when hopefully she will consider standing for re-election.

NSW Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet & Nationals Deputy Premier Paul Toole continue the Coalition's obsession with that fossil fuel without any form of social licence, Coal Seam Gas

 

Northern Daily Leader, 21 May 2022:

Gas companies will be permitted to explore for the mineral on 90,000 hectares of farmland surrounding the village of Bellata, after the state government resurrected the last "zombie" PEL in the North West on Friday.

Opponents of gas expansion accused the government of trying to bury a decision to bring back PEL 427 from the dead, in the hours before the federal election.

It is the last of 12 decades-old petroleum exploration licences (PELs), covering 55,000 square kilometres of farmland, which had long expired but, like zombies, could be reanimated at any time. All but three other PELS have been destroyed for good in recent weeks…..

The Bellata PEL has been shrunk down to just 90,000 hectares, covering an area near Moree. It includes land in the Northern Tablelands electorate of Adam Marshall and the Barwon electorate of Roy Butler, both of whom oppose gas development in their electorates.

A spokesperson for the Department of Regional NSW said that the PEL "has been renewed in line with the NSW Government's Future of Gas Statement, which was released last year, reducing the total area covered by the PELs in NSW by 77 per-cent."

"The PEL remained in place while it was under assessment by the Department. The renewed area is significantly smaller than it was previously," he said.

"All PELs that were under assessment have now been resolved, with parts of them reduced, others renewed, and several refused."

Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Georgina Woods said the timing of the renewal showed disdain for farmers and a desperate attempt to avoid scrutiny.

"It's shocking to see the Perrottet Government continuing to permit coal seam gas exploration on some of the state's best farmland," she said.

"In less than a month, the Perrottet Government has put more than one million hectares of NSW land and the groundwater beneath it at the mercy of the polluting coal seam gas industry.

"Coal seam gas is incompatible with a thriving agriculture industry and resilient rural communities.

"The Perrottet Government has given gas companies the green light to pockmark farmland with gas wells and further fuel dangerous climate change, which is in turn making it harder for farmers to grow food and fibre.

"As recent community meetings have shown, locals will not passively accept the renewal of these licences. The Perrottet Government now has one hell of a fight on its hands."

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers member for Barwon Roy Butler said the government risked serious backlash from its strongest supporters, who had what he said was "white hot" anger about the issue.

"The strange thing for me is that you've got groups like NSW Farmers and CWA who strongly oppose this, they strongly oppose Narrabri, they oppose these zombie PELs. Those groups are bread and butter for the Nats," he said.

"Yet they just stick their middle finger up at them essentially and say we'll we're going to go do it anyway. You sort of sit there and think what the hell's going on? Why would you do that to your base?"

He said almost no landholder near Narrabri was in favour of a plan to turn the region into a coal-seam-gas development zone, and the industry continued to pose major risks to groundwater……

In April the government resurrected PELs near Narrabri, Boggabri, Quirindi and Gunnedah.

It approved the Santos-owned Narrabri Gas Project in 2020.

Bellarta NSW 

IMAGE: Domain.com.au

According to Visit NSW website:

Bellata lies 48 kilometres North of Narrabri and 54 kilometres South of Moree on the Newell Highway in North West New South Wales. A rich agricultural region, it is also known for its minerals such as petrified and opalised wood and agate.

The Bellata area is responsible for the production of some of the best Australian Prime Hard wheat in Australia and has large grain storage complex and silos. The countryside has beautiful rich soils and undulating land.

Bellata has a primary school, a nine hole golf course with sand greens and free camping is also available at the Bellata Golf Club, 24 hour BP Roadhouse and the Bellata Memorial Hall.

WATER IS LIFE: policy failures at Australian federal and state level just keep rolling on

 

The Guardian, 3 August 2021:

The Barwon-Darling is the main tributary for the Darling and was the focus of allegations in 2017 of water theft and users taking more than their allocations. Photograph: Mark Evans/Getty Images

New South Wales has been found to have exceeded its water allocations for 2019-20 in the Barwon-Darling catchment, one of the main cotton-growing areas of the state, raising new questions about the effectiveness of the state’s water enforcement rules.

The Barwon-Darling is the main tributary for the Darling and was the focus of the 2017 Four Corners report which raised allegations of water theft, pumps being tampered with and water users taking more than their allocations.

It led to a number of reports, prosecutions and an overhaul by NSW of its compliance regime.

But in the first year of compliance reporting, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority found NSW had exceeded what are known as the sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) in three areas – the Barwon-Darling watercourse, the Upper Macquarie alluvium and the Lower Murrumbidgee deep groundwater catchments.

The state claimed there was a “reasonable excuse” for exceeding the limits, and that it was adhering to its draft water resource plans for all three.

The MDBA accepted that as a reasonable and valid explanation for two of the areas, but not for the Barwon Darling.

“The MDBA found that NSW did not operate in a manner fully consistent with the submitted water resource plan in the 2019–20 water year for the Barwon–Darling,” the report said.

All other states were found to be compliant.

The NSW independent MP Justin Field said this was another black mark against the NSW Nationals on water management.

“Communities will be furious that water management has been non-compliant over a period which included the end of the worst drought on record and the first flush event. To have extractions exceeding limits over such a critical period raises serious questions about who benefited from the failures to properly implement water sharing rules.

“These findings make it all the more important that downstream targets to protect the environment and communities are included as part of any floodplain harvesting licensing regulations in the Northern Basin, including in the Barwon-Darling.”

Read the full article here.

On 5 August 2021 the Australian Government's Office of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance (IGWC) became operational. Responsibility for enforcing compliance with the Basin Plan now resides with the IGWC.

Image:IGWC

The IGWC is described as an independent regulator and its Interim Inspector-General of Water Compliance is former NSW Police officer & former NSW Nationals Member for Dubbo from 2011-2019, Troy Grant (left).

As NSW Police Minister Mr. Grant did not always obey the road rules and in his two year and one month stint as NSW Deputy Premier he failed to impress. Between April 2011 and  2019 Grant was a minister nine times over - with three tenues lasting less than six months.

In 2019 he did not re-contest his seat at the state election and in 2020 he resigned from the National Party of Australia.

His appointment as Interim Inspector-General was not universally approved when announced in 2020:

 “They’re not even pretending anymore,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“Troy Grant was in charge when some of the worst policy decisions that favour big irrigators at the expense of communities, farmers and nature downstream.

“Fresh from stinging criticism from ICAC about water management in NSW, the federal government has appointed the fox to be in charge of the hen house.

A little ray of sunshine out Casino way

 

Richmond River Times, 3 March 2021

A 52 ha mixed soybean, corn and cane farm on the Casino Coraki Road in the NSW Northern Rivers plants sunflowers as a rotation crop.

When the sunflowers are in full bloom in the roadside paddocks the mass effect attracts both locals and tourists. Photos with the crop in the background seem to be the order of the day.

This year cut sunflowers blooms were available at the roadside for a donation via a secure charity box to allow visitors depart with a handful of sunshine. 

All money raised went to the Casino Cancer Group.

Hopefully sunflowers will be a crop visible from the road again next year.

Australia's unique plant species declining in population numbers faster than mammals and birds

The Conversation, excerpt, 16 December 2020:

Plants, such as WA’s Endangered Foote’s grevillea, make our landscape unique.
 Andrew Crawford / WA Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions

Australia’s plant species are special - 84% are found nowhere else in the world. The index shows that over about 20 years up to 2017, Australia’s threatened plant populations declined by 72%. This is faster than mammals (which declined by about a third), and birds (which declined by about half). Populations of trees, shrubs, herbs and orchids all suffered roughly similar average declines (65-75%) over the two decades.

Of the 112 species in the index, 68% are critically endangered or endangered and at risk of extinction if left unmanaged. Some 37 plant species have gone extinct since records began, though many others are likely to have been lost before scientists even knew they existed. Land clearing, changed fire regimes, grazing by livestock and feral animals, plant diseases, weeds and climate change are common causes of decline.

Vulnerable plant populations reduced to small areas can also face unique threats. For example, by the early 2000s Foote’s grevillea (Grevillea calliantha) had dwindled to just 27 wild plants on road reserves. Road maintenance activities such as mowing and weed spraying became a major threat to its survival. For other species, like the button wrinklewort, small populations can lead to inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity.... 

Threatened plant conservation in fire-prone landscapes is challenging if a species’ relationship with fire is not known. Many Australian plant species require particular intensities or frequencies of burns for seed to be released or germinate. But since European settlement, fire patterns have been interrupted, causing many plant populations to decline. 

Three threatened native pomaderris shrubs on the NSW South Coast are a case in point. Each of them – Pomaderris adnata, P. bodalla and P. walshii – have failed to reproduce for several years and are now found only in a few locations, each with a small number of plants. 

Experimental trials recently revealed that to germinate, the seeds of these pomaderris species need exposure to hot-burning fires (or a hot oven). However they are now largely located in areas that seldom burn. This is important knowledge for conservation managers aiming to help wild populations persist.... 

A quarter of the species in the threatened plant index are orchids. Orchids make up 17% of plant species listed nationally as threatened, despite comprising just 6% of Australia’s total plant species. 

The endangered coloured spider-orchid (Caladenia colorata) is pollinated only by a single thynnine wasp, and relies on a single species of mycorrhizal fungi to germinate in the wild. 

Yet even for such a seemingly difficult species, conservation success is possible. In one project, scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, aided by volunteers, identified sites where the wasp was still naturally present. More than 800 spider orchid plants were then propagated in a lab using the correct symbiotic fungus, then planted at four sites. These populations are now considered to be self-sustaining. 

In the case of Foote’s grevillea, a plant translocation program has established 500 plants at three new sites, dramatically improving the species’ long-term prospects.

The coloured spider orchid, found in South Australia and Victoria, is endangered. 
Noushka Reiter/Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has confirmed its major rural and regional insurer, WFI, will join its other subsidiary, CGU, in no longer providing public liability cover if there is "unconventional gas" operations on properties

ABC News, 10 June 2020:

Image: ABC Southern Queensland: Nathan Morris

Australia's largest insurance company says it will no longer cover farmers for public liability if they have coal seam gas (CSG) infrastructure on their property. 

The development has made farmers fearful they will have to cease farming altogether if they cannot get cover. 

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has confirmed its major rural and regional insurer, WFI, will join its other subsidiary, CGU, in no longer providing the coverage if there is "unconventional gas" operations on properties. 

IAG said for customers who "have operational CSG or shale gas activities or infrastructure on their property, such as a coal seam gas well, we will be unable to provide liability cover as part of their insurance policy". 

IAG said the company does not specialise in mining and resources operations and the change will affect existing customers when their policies come up for renewal. AgForce Queensland said that is as soon as the end of this month. Michael Guerin talks to a man in front of a book shelf. 

AgForce Queensland CEO Michael Guerin says farmers are worried the change could expose them to liability risks..... 

Queensland farmers said they were fearful the change could expose them to liability risks and could extend to other risks associated with CSG, such as the potential for groundwater contamination. 

It is understood the Queensland Government has been holding talks with insurers, mining industry representatives and AgForce, in an attempt to resolve the problem..... 

ABC News has obtained legal advice provided to the New South Wales Government in 2014, warning that insurance for CSG in Australia was "inadequate" and measures were needed to address the potential cost of contamination risks. [my yellow highlighting]

AgForce's Queensland chief executive Michael Guerin said farmers were deeply concerned. 

"Producers, like any business, can't operate without insurance," Mr Guerin said.

Spokesperson for the Lock the Gate Alliance, Rick Humphries is calling on the gas industry to compensate farmers.....

He said while some other insurers were providing cover for now, there was a risk they would pull out of the sector or jack up prices. "All of those dangers are there," he said. 

"There's a danger that insurance premiums will go up [and] there's a danger insurance will be harder to get." 

AgForce Queensland said insurance being withdrawn threatened the coexistence of unconventional gas and agriculture. 

He said there had been a lot of hard work in devising complicated agreements to allow the two industries to work together over the years. 

"If part of the insurance industry starts withdrawing cover, it puts that at risk, and that's the core of the concern at the moment," Mr Guerin said. 

Anti-mining, pro-agriculture group Lock the Gate said the gas industry should be made to compensate farmers. Spokesperson for Lock the Gate and former mining consultant, Rick Humphries, said farmers should not be the ones facing the risk. 

"The onus is on the gas industry to get insurance products that cover their assets and protect the farmer," Mr Humphries said. 

"The farmer shouldn't have to run around and look for insurance products. 

"But the way that the system has worked is that the Government has knowingly allowed gas industry to enter into contracts with farmers that expose farmers to a whole range of business and natural resource risks around water and land contamination." 

He said laws needed to be changed to force the companies to act. "The whole mining and gas model is all about transferring as much risk away from the shareholder," he said. 

"The companies won't willingly step up and do this because it's an additional expense, and they have to take on the risk. 

"Governments have to intervene to force mining and gas companies to take out insurance products, or demonstrate they [have] adequate coverage that will compensate landholders."......

Read the full article here.

BACKGROUND

* Queensland Government Audit Office 2019-20 report on Queensland coal seam gas activities can be found at:
https://www.qao.qld.gov.au/reports-resources/reports-parliament/managing-coal-seam-gas-activities

* ABC News, 30 March 2020:

A leaked expert report shows the Queensland Government was advised to stop further gas fracking in the state's sensitive Channel Country, but a separate department had already extended gas exploration until 2030. 

A confidential report to the Queensland Environment Department prepared by environmental scientists recommended that infrastructure for gas fracking and mining was "unacceptable" in the Lake Eyre Basin floodplains, known as the Channel Country. 

The 47-page report, obtained by ABC News, lists scores of potential risks associated with so-called unconventional gas extraction, (also known as gas fracturing or fracking), including direct impacts on threatened species and water quality. 

As ABC News revealed earlier this year, the Queensland Mines Department in March 2019 had approved Santos to keep exploring commercial gas opportunities in the area until 2030, despite an election commitment to protect "pristine rivers" and work with stakeholders. 

A union of environmentalists, graziers, traditional owners and other stakeholders, known as the Western Rivers Alliance, said the promised consultation did not happen. 

The report, recommending that further fracking for natural gas be stopped, was received by the Environment Department in October last year.....

NSW farmers and graziers urged to adopt biosecurity practices to help limit the spread of dieback in sown & native grass pastures

Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Industries

NSW Dept. of Primary Industries, media release, 16 April 2020:

Biosecurity practices help protect pasture from dieback 

Producers can prevent entry, establishment and spread of pasture dieback, which kills summer growing grasses, via their front gate under a ‘Come clean, go clean’ regime. 

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has urged producers and contractors to adopt thorough biosecurity practices to help limit the spread of pasture dieback, which has been identified for the first time in NSW on the North Coast. 

NSW DPI pasture development officer, Sarah Baker, said producers can prevent entry, establishment and spread via their front gate under a ‘Come clean, go clean’ regime. 

“Producers should keep good records and ensure all staff and visitors are instructed to follow their business management hygiene requirements,” Ms Baker said. 

“Regular monitoring of grass pastures and crops and being on the lookout for any changes is important, as there have been additional reports of pasture dieback in northern NSW. 

“Mealybug infestations have also been reported and researchers are exploring an association between the two. 

“However, we believe the cause of dieback is more complex than the relationship with pasture mealybug alone.” 

Both pasture dieback and mealybug infestations threaten agricultural productivity. 

Ms Baker said dieback affected pasture should not be baled or sold and advised producers to regularly check areas where hay and fodder have been stored and fed out for dieback symptoms. 

“If you purchase grass hay from Queensland, where dieback-has affected large areas of pasture, ensure hay is from a reputable source,” she said. 

Pasture dieback kills sown and native summer growing grasses, which first turn yellow and red, become unthrifty and eventually die. 

Land managers who suspect dieback should contact the Exotic Plant Pest hotline, 1800 084 881, or email biosecurity@dpi.nsw.gov.au with a clear photo and contact details. 

More information is available from the NSW DPI website: 

Pasture dieback 

Potential spread of pasture dieback in fodder (PDF, 857.02 KB)