Updated on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 10:42AM by stevem

A Forty per cent increase in Sydney’s population over the next 20 years means the State Government has no option but to open up scores of suburbs for new developments, according to a radical proposal for Sydney to build 640,000 new dwellings. The Urban Renewal Action Plan compiled by major property companies argues a complete change to the way planning is done is Sydney is essential if the city is to cope with the explosion in population. In a document just provided to the Government, the NSW Property Council says the city is running out of old industrial sites like those in Alexandria and Pyrmont as areas for new housing and Sydney must move to a new, more difficult phase where there is large-scale development close to existing and new transport routes……. …..the Urban Renewal Commission would also have powers to compulsorily acquire land, some of which could be sold to developers for urban renewal projects and part retained for public use. Release of the Property Council’s proposals comes as the Government is preparing to announce a review of the five-year-old Metropolitan Strategy, the main planning document to guide development of the city.

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Updated on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 12:27PM by stevem

The Bligh Government may not admit it but there were quarters breathing a deep sigh of relief after federal Minister Peter Garrett put the ‘stop’ sign up for the Traveston dam project. The wheels were well in motion for damming the Mary River when Anna Bligh took over as premier — it was a Peter Beattie project. Fast forward to 2009 and the State Government simply can’t afford any more big-ticket infrastructure projects. To have the Traveston dam off the books is like winning lotto for this Government. And limiting water consumption to 200 litres per person per day is as much about delaying the need to sign a cheque for another desalination plant as it is about genuine water conservation.

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Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 07:46AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 08:02AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 07:20AM by stevem

Mayor Bob Abbot wants the state government to stop draining the Sunshine Coast’s water supply after Baroon Pocket Dam this week came close to its lowest level in more than two years. The controversial northern interconnector pipeline has siphoned 7800 million litres of water since it was completed in March, while the Coast region experienced less than half its normal rainfall during a long dry winter. The Bureau of Meteorology has also predicted below average rains this summer, with a similar El Nino effect forming to that experienced in 2002, which preceded the worst drought in Queensland’s history. Baroon Pocket’s level dropped by nearly 10% in the past two months and an average of 1% a week to its current level of 86%.

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Updated on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:36AM by stevem

A MAJOR economic analysis of the State Government’s $15 billion asset sale claims the plan has no credibility, could cost millions and is based on poor economic advice and manipulated Treasury figures. The report, by Sydney University Professor Bob Walker and his wife Betty Con-Walker, a former NSW Treasury boss, rubbishes the need for the privatisation and claims it would be fundamentally foolish. It describes the Government’s strategy as a “Magic Pudding” which could somehow reduce debt and build infrastructure with the same money. The report, commissioned by the union movement which is opposed to privatisation, also claims the Government manipulated figures to provide an economic picture that was far worse than in reality.

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Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 07:57AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 07:17AM by stevem

Premier Bligh has outlined a six month buy back scheme for the Mary Valley landowners who sold their properties so that the Traveston Crossing Dam project could proceed. Ms Bligh said normal rules had been waived so that tenant farmers and other former Mary Valley landowners could buy their land back at the same price they sold it for. Under normal State Government buy back rules that opportunity normally only exists for 12 months after the original sale of the property and many of the landowners in the Valley sold their land up to two years ago.

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LAST month’s announcement that the federal government would demand a say in planning the future of Australian cities saw Queensland premier Anna Bligh immediately jump in with a suggestion. Ms Bligh applauded prime minister Kevin Rudd’s approach but said her state already had the answers. Lauding her government’s infrastructure plan as an international award winner, Ms Bligh said it could be the model to guide the growth of the “big Australia” Mr Rudd envisaged. There is fat chance of that now. Central to that SEQ infrastructure plan was her government’s $9 billion water strategy which now lies exposed as an exercise in pure folly.

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FIVE million cubic metres of earth are being shifted to to make way for stage one of the Bruce Highway deviation, north of Cooroy. But the state government claims the big move was not made necessary by planning for the Traveston Crossing Dam. However, as heavy earthmoving equipment continues to dramatically alter once familiar geographic features, that claim has been disputed by residents, politicians and the government’s own documents. Behind Federal State School, a huge hill consisting of one million cubic metres of earth is being reshaped to take a route which would have skirted the dam’s eastern buffer if it had gone ahead. Work on the $613 million, 12km section from Sankeys Road to Traveston Road started in earnest only six weeks before federal environment minister Peter Garrett ruled the dam could not be built.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 06:55AM by stevem

Campaigners who have successfully stopped the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal yesterday called on Premier Anna Bligh to “stop scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s rejection of the dam. The Premier’s claims had already been shown to be spurious and that was one reason they were rejected, according to Save the Mary River Group president Glenda Pickersgill. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing Dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.

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THE Sunshine Coast will have more than enough water to keep it flush well beyond 2017, even though the Traveston Dam is absolutely off the table. The Australian Water Association’s Queensland conference was held yesterday at the Hyatt Coolum, just days after the dam was rejected by the federal government. When state minister for climate change and sustainability Kate Jones addressed the meeting yesterday, she said even after federal environment minister Peter Garrett “made the wrong decision in relation to the Traveston Crossing Dam”, our region still had a very secure water supply. Ms Jones opened her speech by saying, “At the outset, let me say the AWA sure knows when to schedule its regional water conference”. She said Mr Garrett’s rejection of the dam proposal, highlighted the strength of the region’s water grid, even without the giant piece of infrastructure.

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Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 08:34AM by stevem

While the Queensland Government kept screaming that the Traveston Crossing Dam was all about water, Environment Minister Peter Garrett was looking at the threatened animals. The Queensland lungfish, the Mary River turtle, the Mary River cod, Coxen’s fig parrot and the Giant Barred Frog. And that was where Wednesday’s decision was made. And Premier Anna Bligh should not have been surprised. Despite her insistence the Traveston Crossing Dam was all about securing water for South East Queensland, that was not Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s job. That was the Queensland Government’s job, and their choice of dam site threatened five species. Mr Garrett had to rule on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), not on any state or federal water supply legislation.

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