The sustainability group met twice in November. At our first session John made a presentation about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This is due to expire in mid 2024 but is going to fall short of its water saving targets. These were established in the early this century to try claw back water for the environment. Diversions, mainly for irrigation, had stretched river and floodplain health to the point of environmental collapse. Getting water back from consumptive use for environmental purposes, and the manner of delivering 'environmental' flows, has been controversial for over two decades. Legislation to extend the plan for a further three years, which includes reinstating water buy-backs as a means of getting more water available for the environment, has caused enormous ructions amongst the competing forces. In fact the Victorian Government has pulled out of the inter-governmental agreement. The legislation is currently being reviewed by a Senate committee.
At our second session we listened to an informative podcast* in which Michelle Grattan interviewed Greg Combet, former Minister for climate change and energy in the Gillard governments. Greg had previously been Secretary of the ACTU and has recently been appointed as chair of the Australian government's new Net Zero Agency which has been charged with helping regional communities transition away from fossil fuel industries. The agency started work in July to help communities like those around Hazelwood in Victoria and Liddel in NSW, already dealing with coal power plant closures. It will work with state, territory and local governments, existing regional bodies, unions, industry, investors and First Nations groups to help former fossil fuel industry workers retrain and access support.
There will be a change of day for our next session - it will be at 10 am on Tuesday 5 December at the U3A. The reason for the change is that we are joining with the Stock and Land group to visit an innovative venture that's being progressing in Benalla. Alistair Cumming has developed a method of milling the leaves from a very specific species of eucalypt to extract substances to be used in the pharmaceutical industry. We'll visit his experimental mill located in Benalla and then visit his farm at Lurg where he has a plantation of the species he uses.
John Lane
*https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-former-climate-minister-greg-combet-on-australias-mission-to-reach-net-zero-217277
At our second session we listened to an informative podcast* in which Michelle Grattan interviewed Greg Combet, former Minister for climate change and energy in the Gillard governments. Greg had previously been Secretary of the ACTU and has recently been appointed as chair of the Australian government's new Net Zero Agency which has been charged with helping regional communities transition away from fossil fuel industries. The agency started work in July to help communities like those around Hazelwood in Victoria and Liddel in NSW, already dealing with coal power plant closures. It will work with state, territory and local governments, existing regional bodies, unions, industry, investors and First Nations groups to help former fossil fuel industry workers retrain and access support.
There will be a change of day for our next session - it will be at 10 am on Tuesday 5 December at the U3A. The reason for the change is that we are joining with the Stock and Land group to visit an innovative venture that's being progressing in Benalla. Alistair Cumming has developed a method of milling the leaves from a very specific species of eucalypt to extract substances to be used in the pharmaceutical industry. We'll visit his experimental mill located in Benalla and then visit his farm at Lurg where he has a plantation of the species he uses.
John Lane
*https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-former-climate-minister-greg-combet-on-australias-mission-to-reach-net-zero-217277
