Rick Wallace; 2/12/08; (2 Items)
The economic crisis appears to have killed off one of the most divisive trends in Australian agriculture: the growth of aggressively marketed, tax-effective investment schemes. The future of the schemes, loathed by many growers for buying up land and billions of litres of water, is in jeopardy thanks to the global financial collapse and recent tax changes. The two largest agricultural managed investment scheme companies, Timbercorp and Great Southern Plantations, are trading at less than 5 per cent of their peak values in 2006. Overall, their plummeting share prices have stripped more than $1.7 billion from their combined market capitalisation. Timbercorp will quit the MIS sector next year and has begun selling plantations to reduce debt while Great Southern has also announced a major restructure that will reduce its involvement in non-forestry MIS schemes.
See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24737450-5006785,00.html
Murray Lower lakes seawater threat
Siobhain Ryan; 2/12/08
South Australia has predicted its contingency plan to let seawater into Lake Alexandrina will have “dramatic and significant impacts” on the internationally recognised wetland and could harm some threatened species. The state has told federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett its option of last resort is still better than letting the Murray’s Lower Lakes’ acid sulphate soils become exposed and turn toxic if rains fail next year. But it has also revealed it does not intend to carry out its own environmental assessment of those impacts and is yet to consult with the local indigenous people over the rescue plan. Mr Garrett will decide by December 30 on the level of commonwealth vetting, if any, required of South Australia’s proposals to introduce seawater into the freshwater Lake Alexandrina to keep its water levels above acidification triggers. The waters of Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert, which are fed principally by the depleted River Murray, had fallen from their normal operating level of 0.75m to almost 0.5m below sea level by June this year. Some 13,500ha of lake bed are exposed at that level.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24737383-5013404,00.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Trade