August 12, 2008
Conflict of Interest for Chairman of UK Environment Committee
Tim Yeo used his casting vote as chairman of the all-party Environmental Audit Select Committee to push through a report, published last week, which backed the decision by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, that new, higher rates of vehicle excise duty (VED) rates should apply to previously-purchased cars.
The committee had been evenly split, with three Labour MPs supporting the Government line while three Tory and Lib Dem MPs opposed it, arguing that the move amounted to retrospective taxation. Mr Yeo broke the deadlock by siding with the Labour MPs.
He is paid £40,000 a year as non-executive chairman of Eco City Vehicles Plc, a company which plans to market a hybrid car which would qualify for low rates of VED under the new tax regime, due to its low carbon emissions.
Telegraph.co.uk: Tory MP Tim Yeo in conflict-of-interest row over car tax report
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July 11, 2008
Panelists Named for Iconic Extinction
Queensland's former Douglas Shire is no more. Under amalgamation, the new Cairns Regional Shire extends where Douglas once existed, but not so far that its constituents remain entitled to elect representatives for the genuine care for development. Rather, for the first time in Queensland's modern history, this entitlement has been usurped by Parliament, so that its Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, currently the Hon. Paul Lucas MP, can decide who to appoint for such a care.
Former member for Toowoomba (1966-1972), Mr. Peter Woods, has been appointed. So too, former head of the Planning Institute of Australlia, Mr. Leo Jensen. Mr. Ken Dobbs, of the Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce and Port Douglas-based architect Mr. Gary Hunt have also been endorsed. Cairns Regional Councillor for Division 10, Ms Julia Leu, completes the appointment.
So, that portion of the new Cairns Regional Shire, declared as 'Iconic' by Minister Lucas, can forget about developmental self-determination. And rather than defending the jurisdictions of their respective divisions from the possibility of being similarly stripped of democratic integrity, the other nine councillors remain deafening in their silent opposition of the relinquishment. Then again, so too are the other elected officers around Queensland that have current custodianship of representative authority.
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March 10, 2008
Queensland's Proposed Iconic Legislation (part II)
Contrary to the intent of the outgoing Douglas Shire Council’s resolution to not allow Council staff to participate in the process of preparing submissions to Queensland’s Draft Iconic legislation, the Queensland Department of Infrastructure and Planning has contracted the Planning Consultant primarily involved in developing the Douglas Shire’s Planning Scheme, to prepare a Draft Iconic Values Statement for Douglas Shire.
Having previously thought that one-month public consultation for Queensland’s Draft Iconic legislation was inadequate, the six days offered this afternoon, for the Draft Iconic Values Statement, is remarkably challenging. We are advised, “Unfortunately any submissions received after 6pm on Monday the 17th March 2008, will be unable to be considered.”
Two days before this deadline, the inaugural Cairns Regional Council elections will be held, leaving the successful candidates with only one working day to respond within this window of eligibility.
One might be excused for assuming that a Draft Iconic Values Statement for Douglas Shire would be a relatively simple descriptor, given that 82% of the Shire is bedded in World Heritage legislation. The adjacent Great Barrier Reef WH area ensures another binding level of iconic constraint and at a lower level, the Integrated Planning Act ensures the preservation of Good Quality Agricultural Lands.
But no; the Draft Iconic Values Statement for Douglas Shire is unexpectedly more definitive, even down to the level of unsealed roads, oil palms that line the entrance to Port Douglas and the waterfront markets that are valued not only by tourists but also by local residents. It details iconic WH values, biodiversity values (including a new species of fish found in Cooper Creek), the Irrawaddy and Indo Pacific humpback dolphins, migrating birds, waders, flying fox, southern cassowary, stream-inhabiting frog species, Bennett’s tree kangaroo, estuarine crocodile and spotted quoll, among many others.
These ecological values are already protected under the various provisions of the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and World Heritage legislation, but with this new layer of Iconic legislation, it would seem that the forced amalgamations are merely a smokescreen for a de facto dissolution of local governance in the former Shire of Douglas and the expansion of bureaucracy.
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December 28, 2007
Monaro Farmer Seeks Compensation for Carbon Sink
In the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on Thursday 20th December 2007, the Court rejected the Commonwealth's application to strike out a Statement of Claim entered into the Court by Monaro District farmer Mr Peter Spencer.
Mr Spencer has claimed that Intergovernmental Agreements between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, along with the International Treaty the Kyoto Protocol that was signed in April 1998 that set Greenhouse Emissions Targets that Australia have to meet by 2012, bind both the Commonwealth and State together.
The Carbon Sink developed on his property by the State banning Land Clearing has expropriated Mr Spencers property and prohibited the lawful use of his land for Agricultural purpose and no payments for sequestration and storing Carbon has been negotiated, this acquisition was not on "Just Terms" as the Commonwealth Constitution provides for just compensation for the acquisition of property.
Counsel representing Mr Spencer in proceedings, Mr Peter E King said after the hearing, "This is the first occasion in Australia's legal history that it has been found there was an "arguable case" against the Commonwealth on behalf of farming interests that the Kyoto Protocol may give rise to Property Rights".
Mr Spencer said "I am delighted that my case will be heard and it vindicates my beliefs, farmers have as much right as coal - miners to recognition under the Climate Change Convention".
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** This is the text of a media release from The Commonwealth Property Protection Association made on the 21 December 2007.
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September 01, 2007
Queensland's Proposed Iconic Legislation
In August 2007, the Queensland Government introduced legislation to bring about forced amalgamations of many local governments in Queensland.
Extensive argument was responded to by Premier Beattie, who proposed the introduction of ‘iconic legislation’ to afford protection to the particular characteristics of distinctive places, particularly from the councils-to-be-subsumed of Noosa and Douglas.
One month has been offered (from mid August 2007) for stakeholders to suggest the form and intent of the legislation prior to the government commencing to draft the legislation. It will then be introduced into parliament in late October/early November 2007 and brought into effect by 15 March 2008, prior to Council elections.
‘Iconic’ has been described as including areas of state or national significance, areas of historical significance, areas of unique natural environment and World Heritage areas like the Reef, Daintree & Sandy Straits. It may be an area where development growth is restrained and sustainability is more important than growth.
The stated intent of the proposed legislation is to give the force of state law to already existing planning schemes in environmentally significant and important areas, to ensure those planning schemes now have more grunt and the clout to ensure icons are even more protected, to allow appropriate development to continue but with the new laws, planning schemes in these areas become more powerful than ever.
I can only imagine that the underlying motive of this exercise is to extract political capital from the illusion of parliamentary concern. In the Daintree, for example, World Heritage is already quarantined from development. The Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage is enabled domestically under the provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984. Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Protection and Management Act 1993, provides statutory authority to ensure Australia’s international obligations, as defined within the World Heritage Convention, are met. The Integrated Planning Act 1997 provides another level of protection and local government is utterly subordinate to state interests in the adoption of planning scheme amendments.
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