Melbourne recycle your water

The local council at Swan Hill has passed a motion asking the Premier of Victoria to make Melbourne recycle it's water, then it wouldn't have to take water from the Swan Hill area.
Here is the article. And reproduced below. I have been saying this for a few years now.

Woof.

Call for recycling instead of pipeline

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Royce Millar
October 30, 2007

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MELBOURNE should recycle its water rather than piping fresh water over the Dividing Range from the drought-stricken communities along the Goulburn River.

That is the view of Swan Hill's council. This week it will ask the Municipal Association of Victoria's state conference to back its call for the State Government to invest in recycling for Melbourne instead of building the north-south, or Sugarloaf, pipeline.

The Swan Hill motion notes that water recycling works well overseas and that purification technology is advanced and "could offer long-term solutions" to Melbourne's burgeoning water demands.

It also doubts the Brumby Government's guarantee to limit the volume of water diverted from the Goulburn to Melbourne to 75 gigalitres a year. "Unfortunately, political history demonstrates such guarantees have a limited life," it says.

The council's motion is likely to get wide rural backing but it is not clear whether it will secure the metropolitan support necessary for success at the association's meeting.

Senior local government figures are understood to be anxious that a successful resolution could embarrass the Brumby Government.

Municipal association president Dick Gross could not be contacted yesterday.

Some Melbourne councillors have already backed the Swan Hill campaign. Moonee Valley Mayor and Greens member Ben Opie said he supported the motion because much more needed to be done to boost levels of water re-use and harvesting in Melbourne.

Cr Opie said local councils were introducing recycling and other water measures but projects were limited.

"Local government budgets don't stretch far enough," he said.

Swan Hill Mayor Gary Norton said his council supported irrigation upgrades to reduce water seepage and evaporation "but we don't like the trade-off", meaning the pipeline.

He said it was not clear whether he would have the numbers to get his motion up on Friday. "But win or lose, we've got the message out there," Cr Norton said.

The State Government backed the pipeline as part of a two-pronged, $4.9 billion water strategy announced this year that also includes the controversial desalination plant at Williamsons Beach, near Wonthaggi.

Under the pipeline plan, up to 450 billion litres of water would be saved through a $2 billion upgrade of the 80-year-old Goulburn irrigation system, including the lining of open channels and installation of automated channel control.

Melbourne would receive 75 gigalitres of the water and the remainder would be shared between the environment and agriculture. The water would be piped 70 kilometres from the Goulburn River, near Yea, to Sugarloaf Reservoir, north-east of Melbourne.

Revolution

Over the last 500 years or so there have been a number of revolutions. In this context the main aim for human kind has been to free themselves from enslavement and oppression. The biggest of the revolutions have been to free the populous of oppressors like Kings and Emperors. Who in turn have extended their power via hierarchical power bases with brutal regimes in place to make them work.
These types of thoughts got me thinking about the present need for change. Climate change is going to impact on our lives like the Kings and Queens of yesteryear. There are in place big organisations that are trying to preserve the status quo for their own good. Our politicians have also become the lackeys for these powerful Organisations. They lobby and pollies listen. Elections are fought on the favours of big business.
So for the revolution to happen we need to sideline big business and find a new way of deciding what is important for our future. Because we are not going to get the answers from self interested large businesses that only want profits for their shareholders.
Woof.

Soar Panels ????

Here is an Article in The Age about Australia loosing it's solar panels.

Woof.

Tax Cuts

Why has Howard announced such large tax cuts. Does he want to buy my vote? If so he is going about it the wrong way.
There used to be a saying about a government that gives large tax breaks, it has either over taxed you in the first place, or isn't giving you value for money in providing services, such as Health, Education, etc.
Some of the most pressing needs at the moment are climate change, water, and alternative energy sources. If as a government you can't find ways of spending those tax cuts on improving those areas, you are bereft of ideas.
This election should be about the next 10 to 20 years a crucial time in our history. If you looked at the governments, 'steady as you go,' approach you wouldn't believe there was a problem.

So buck up Mr. Howard get with the message, Solar panel plan, Alternative energy base load plan, A water plan for the Southern states of Australia, reduce our carbon footprint plan. ETC ETC.

We don't want you to run this election on your past, you have been a conservative 1950s man. Step up or ship out.

In fact I hope you loose your seat to Maxime Mckew. You didn't know when to retire, and you have shown yourself to be really dirty when it comes to politics.
Woof.

John Howard's Road to Damascus

John Howard's road to Damascus, started yesterday when he woke up to the fact that indigenous people of Australia have been wronged, how wronged and how he will deal with his awakening is yet to be seen.

A cynic may say that with only two sleeps, before he calls a general election is a bit opportunistic, but Gerard Henderson [ a political commentator] says no. It is the real John Howard saying he wants the constitution to acknowledge the Aboriginal people. He hasn't accepted the stolen generation report and done nothing to advance Aboriginal causes in Australia. In fact he has hindered any real advancement. Now he brings it up on the eve of an election.

On another religious subject. The Health Minister Tony Abbott is getting into a stouch with the church leaders over work place reform, and whether it is christian to have laws that favour the employers over the employees. Have a read from The Age article.
Woof.

Governments on the wane

Governments that are on the wane can behave in strange a weird ways. The current crop of ministers, who are in the dying days of the Howard government are doing the same.

Firstly there is the Joe the Workplace Minister he his criticising a report into workplace agreements a big issue in the peoples minds at the moment, and all he can do is rubbish the author and researchers for the report. In fact he
The treasurer Peter thinks his opponent Wayne to be an unlikeable person so therefore a non starter as a treasurer, this personal opinion is supposed to be important. It is a bit like a school yard comment.
The Health minister tries to link running and funding of hospitals to a spurious Union link, and doesn't make much sense at all.
Lastly, Kevin the immigration minister says no more Sudanese refugees, because they can't assimilate into Australian life. But when he tries to justify his decision he just sounds racist.

The way that politics is played out has some traits to it that make you wonder.

One is that it is portrayed as bigger than it actually is. so we have an over blown sense of its relevance.

Two the mix of governance and political survival is blurred in many areas, including funding of political parties and the spending of public money on quasi Government information.

Here is the Link to the Age article that outlined some of the above.

Woof.