Mission & Justice

Greg Roberts; 10/9/08
Farmers in NSW have reacted angrily to moves by the Queensland Government to issue a water licence worth as much as $100 million to a cotton company headed by a former state Labor treasurer. State government sources said that Cubbie station, the biggest irrigator in the Murray-Darling Basin, would soon be issued a tradeable water allocation when the draft Resource Operating Plan for the Condamine-Balonne rivers was finalised. The licence would allow Cubbie to sell 94,655 megalitres of water a year. Last week, Cubbie Group chairman Keith de Lacy, the treasurer in the Goss Labor government, said the company would consider selling water under last week’s Council of Australian Governments agreement, which set aside $350 million for purchasing water entitlements in Queensland. Industry sources said Cubbie was heavily in debt and was required to pay National Australia Bank $60 million by the end of the year.

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Peter Alford & Dennis Shanahan; 10/7/08

Emerging industrial giants India and China have refused to fall into line with the richest nations on cutting greenhouse emissions, as Kevin Rudd urged the world’s most powerful leaders to build a “grand new consensus” on climate change. The Prime Minister warned of “a grave danger” that next year’s UN Copenhagen summit - designed to set a new global climate regime - could come to nothing unless developed and developing nations agreed on targeted CO2 reductions. In what would be a blow to Mr Rudd’s ambitious plan to introduce a carbon trading scheme by 2010, he said a post-Kyoto settlement on climate change was threatened by the failure of the Hokkaido Group of Eight summit to bridge the gap between rich nations and the emerging economies on sharing the burden of cutting greenhouse emissions.

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Zara Kanu, 9/7/08

East New Britain-based Open Bay Timber Ltd recently signed a new 40-year restoration project agreement with the PNG Forest Authority. The company has committed to increase the area from 12,000 hectares to a reforested 20,000 hectares with planting scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020 at a cost of K32 million. Established in 1971, Open Bay Timber is presently the only Japanese timber company operating in PNG. Company chairman Hiroshi Nakamura said the company started a large scale reforestation project in 1985 and would be one of the largest reforestation companies planting non-conifer trees in the South Pacific region when the new targets were reached. Mr Nakamura emphasised the importance of reforestation worldwide considering the rapid decrease in natural forest resources and the problem of world climate change.

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7/7/08; http://solomontimes.com/news.aspx?nwID=2043

Police arrested a 37-year-old Russian national following the search of a foreign fishing vessel last week. The 37-year-old man was arrested for possessing three illegally obtained yellow lorikeets which is an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act. Officers from Harbour Patrol and Central CID are investigating this crime and expect to lay formal charges next week. The Russian national was released on principle bail to return to Central Police Station on 9 July 2008 for a formal interview with the assistance of an interpreter. The Russian’s passport remains with police.

7/7/08

The Government has been urged to set up a commission of inquiry into the forest sector.
The call was made yesterday by Lae community leader and businessman Fred Wak following the revelation that earnings from log exports were diverted into a secret account at a bank in Singapore which had accumulated to K145 million. Mr Wak said this was a lot of money and the Government must take immediate action to clarify the report, deal with the MP and the logging companies concerned and recover the peoples’ money, if the account was true. “It seems that the Government is on one hand enacting laws and setting up high profile investigations into issues of maladministration, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds to ensure accountability and transparency. “On the other hand, it seems the Government is hellbent on harbouring corrupt leaders in its rank and file,” he said.

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Matthew Denholm; 8/7/08

Australia will defy a call by the 21-nation World Heritage Committee to extend Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area to include tracts of tall eucalypt forests scheduled for logging. The WHC meeting in Quebec called on Canberra to “consider extension of the property to include appropriate areas of tall eucalypt forests”… Mr Garrett said this report had found a further extension was not warranted “as the WHA already includes a good representation of tall eucalypts”. However, he accepted “in principle” the WHC recommendations that the 1.3million-hectare wilderness WHA be extended to include 21 existing areas of national park and state reserves bordering it.

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Greg Roberts; 7/7/08

Controversial water entitlements held by the giant Cubbie cotton station in southern Queensland may be purchased by the Rudd Government as part of its strategy to restore flows in the Murray-Darling Basin. Cubbie, the basin’s biggest irrigator, has signalled a preparedness to sell some of the entitlements that allow it to store 450,000 megalitres. Cubbie Group chairman Keith de Lacy said the sales would be considered after $350 million was set aside for buying water entitlements in Queensland under last week’s Council of Australian Governments agreement. “If an offer is made, we would be prepared to consider selling part of our entitlements,” Mr de Lacy said. “Our only condition is that any agreement involving compensation be voluntary.”

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6/7/08

Orangutans could become the first great ape to become extinct unless action is taken to protect the species from human encroachment in Southeast Asia, according to a US study. The number of orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia has declined sharply since 2004, mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, the study, released on Saturday, said. Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in the US state of Iowa, and 15 colleagues found the orangutan population on Indonesia’s Sumatra island had dropped nearly 14 per cent since 2004 to 6,600. No giant apes were found in parts of Aceh province. The study - which appears in the July issue of science journal Oryx - discovered the population on Malaysia’s Borneo island fell by 10 per cent to 49,600 apes.

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4/7/08

The Australian Government would commit every cent raised from an emissions trading scheme to help families and businesses adjust to paying a price for carbon, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. Responding to the draft report on climate change delivered by Ross Garnaut today, Senator Wong said it was in Australia’s national interest to take action sooner rather than later. She said the Government would issue a green paper later this month which would detail the Government’s response to the Garnaut report and provide an outline on the operation of an emissions trading scheme. “But the Government has made a very clear commitment that every cent of revenue that we gain through the introduction of an emissions trading scheme will be invested to ensure we assist families, households and Australian businesses to adjust to the impact of a carbon price,” Senator Wong said. “We will ensure that there are measures in place to assist Australian households with the impact of a carbon price.”

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Phillip Coorey; 4/7/08

The Rudd Government has finally clinched agreement with the states to hand control of the Murray-Darling Basin to a single independent body, but has argued that without rain authorities are powerless to save the stricken river system. The landmark deal for a federal takeover of the basin was reached at a meeting between the Prime Minister and the premiers aimed at bulldozing state barriers to business and environmental activity. The meeting made progress in a range of areas. The leaders responded to recent child neglect and abuse cases by setting up a system to share information on families at risk. Trade rules and regulations will be harmonised to allow plumbers, electricians and other tradespeople to shift between states.

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