Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Rudd’

Shortsighted ‘airport gate immigration’

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

This is a UK International Airport

Such crowding makes humanity a commodity, so wrongly destructive,

but then the British Government has reneged public transport accountability to Walker Guidelines.

Australia seems hell bent on trying to become more like overpopulated countries.

Why?  The selfish guise of  ‘economic growth’  by those who stand to financially benefit at others expense

Shortsighted ‘Airport Gate Immigration‘ ignores the triple bottom line cost of  ‘Fully Settled Immigration‘ into any country.

What I mean by this is that the Growthist Lobby’s  open door encouragement of immigration just to the airport, simplistically views a one-sided benefit –  that more foreigners immigrating can only positively bring more foreign dollars and so add economic demand by numbers to a host nation.  But it is as simplistic a view.  A tour operator seeing tourists arrive and seeing them as tour revenue – only revenue, no cost.

But immigration is not tourism. Immigrants stay forever.  Unlike tourism, immigrants represent not just revenue, but cost – Triple Bottom Line cost – a phrase that has been little used since the 1980s. ‘Sustainability‘ is more euphemistically malleable.

The economic, social and ecologial costs of immigration are selectively ignored by growthists, particularly government short-termism which just looks as quick fix employment – aka 457 Work Visas for the mining industry, too mean to invest in training the local population. Meanwhile corporate miner profits are at record levels. The banks are making a killing with more mortgage loans and their profits are soaring.

ANZ Bank’s new brand represents a bank “for the people”

The new logo has a central human shape representing ‘customers and staff’.

The marketing cost is $15 million to roll-out with the tagline “We live in your world”
Meanwhile, ANZ this month has sacked 1000 of its employees, and raised its mortgage rates, selfishly ignoring Australia’s Reserve Bank policy

All Australia’s greedy four big profit banks are set to sack 10,000 over the next year or so.

And 457 Work Visas keep being handed out to foreigners.

ANZ has become only for its CEO and its selfish shareholders.

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National government economic numbers look good because demand is up with its multiplier effect on consumer demand, housing demand and numbers employed. But it twists the definition of unemployment. It conveniently ignores the society and liveability metrics and ecological health indicators – these are worsening.

So ‘Airport Gate Immigration‘ has these hoards arriving. Australia’s Immigration Department handballs all the costs to the states and urban local governments, where most of these immigrants mainly end up settling.  ‘Migration to Australia has the potential to alter population dynamics, within and across cities and regions. In practice, almost 90% of new migrants settle in cities.”   [Source: Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) 2010].

‘The population projections affirm the dominance of our largest two cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which are projected to each nudge seven million people at mid century and the very significant growth anticipated for both Brisbane and Perth, which are each expected to more than double in size over this period.’

[Source: ‘Contemporary Urban Australia’, Australian Government – Infrastructure Australia,  ^http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/mcu/files/NUPBP_Ch3_Contemporary.pdf]

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Look at the statistics for Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth – the main destinations of choice by most immigrants into Australia by far.

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SYDNEY:    “With a population that is expected to reach around 9 million by the year 2031, NSW will require additional housing, more jobs and a host of critical infrastructure to meet demand.  Meeting the transport demands of that growing population is one of the biggest challenges facing NSW.”

[Source:  New South Wales Government, 2011, Transport for NSW, ^http://haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/faq/index/21]

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BRISBANE:  “Brisbane’s Lord Mayor says the city could support significant population growth if more investment was made in infrastructure and services.”

[Source: ‘Brisbane’s infrastructure can’t support growth: mayor’, ABC News, 20100722, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-22/brisbanes-infrastructure-cant-support-growth-mayor/915594]

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MELBOURNE:   ‘Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said population growth within the capital cities was a big challenge to infrastructure and planning.’

[Source:  ‘Population growth challenges capital cities’, by Stephen Lunn, social affairs writer, The Australian, 20100614, ^http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/population-growth-challenges-capital-cities/story-e6frg6nf-1225879194354]

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PERTH:   ‘Royal Automobile Club head of member advocacy Matt Brown says Perth’s road network is stretched and in need of urgent attention. “There is clear evidence that our road system is under considerable stress and it is struggling to cope with the traffic we already have, and with the population growing rapidly, these problems are going to get worse,” he said.  “Perth’s freeways and highways are becoming carparks at rush hour and this is only going to get worse. Creating a better and more accessible public transport system is just one way to help solve the issue of congestion.’

[Source:  ‘Traffic congestion adding to city’s growing pains’,  by Kent Acott and Geoffrey Thomas, The West Australian, 20010124, ^http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/latest/8699963/traffic-congestion-adding-to-citys-growing-pains/] .

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And so in these places social and governent infrastructure has exceeed capacity – road congestion, public transport congestion, hospital waiting lists, propert demand is through the roof (which contiunues to make growthist property developers richer).

Past PM Kevin Rudd and his infamous  ‘Big Australia Mein Kampf’:
…”I actually believe in a big Australia I make no apology for that. I actually think it’s good news that our population is growing”
The Labor national government still is pushing for Australia to have more than 35 million people by 2050.

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Australia’s public utilities are overloaded (water, electricity, public transport, roads) and so major capital investment is being undertaken, robbing treasury resources away from locals who have long funded government coffers from decades of paying taxes. So the taxes now go into multi-billion dollar desalination plants in these cities. Electricity transmission infrastructure can’t cope with the population increases in Australia’s major capital cities. Traffic congestion is undermining Australian traditional lifestyles as more people have to dedicated more of their day commuting.  The Australian Dream – owing a quarter acre block, has all but disappeared and now some growthists even curse it as a folly. Escaping to the backyard is now denied to most young Australians.

Try getting a job and see the queues!

Try finding affordable child care in an Australian capital city!

Try renting a flat in an Australian capital city!

Try buying a house in these cities where one’s parents live and like one’s parents once could. Children reaching adult age are forced to more away from their parents to more affordable areas, often to the country and interstate. Immigrant demand for urban housing is segregating established local families.  The children are forced to move out of the cities their grew up in.

A typical Melbourne real estate auction
The beneficiaries of high property values are the wealthy
and the banks who suck massive mortages foir life out of stretched family incomes

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Demand for housing is ruining urban amenity as more high-rise towers become imposed upon established locals. When new housing is built, the necessary public infrastructure is ignored by both the developer and national government – no new schools, child care, public transport, hospitals, etc. Local and state governments are unfairly expected to absorb the cost burden. Housing demand is also driving urban sprawl which is destroying arable land for vital food production. Sprawl is bulldozing ecology and reducing vital remnant habitat into smaller islands, with more species closer to the brink of extinction.

Coomoora Woodland
In outer Melbourne’s Keysborough this important ecology is threatened by urban sprawl
Ecology has no voice, no union, no political representation – because like all ecology before,
it is denied a right to exist, to have a say, to vote…like human slaves before.
(Photo by Damon Anderson)

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Airport Gate Immigration‘ is like burning down you house to keep warm, or eating you arm off because you’re hungry. Traditional Australia is seeing death by a thousand immigrants.

‘Marvelous Melbourne’ it used to be called
Now its Mega Melbourne – quantity sucking out the quality

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Fully Settled Immigration on the other hand, is about the full accommodating of immigrants until their are fully settled into their new country. They have work, a home, education, and have happily integrated into Australian society. Fully Settled Immigration respects the full needs and full costs of immigrants, rather than saying: ‘ok, your own‘ as one exits the international airport for the city.

In Australia, history since World War II has shown integration generally takes at least two generations. This is a realistic timeframe for Australian Govermment’s immigration responsibility and accountability.

It is time for a moratorium on all immigration until the full settled cost of immigration is known, made public and accepted by the Australian national government and the Australian people.  It necessitates nationalising all transport, housing, education, health and all the demands of immigrants in order to alleviate the immigrant cost burden from overstretched state and local governments. The growthist industries need to pay their way too with appropriate infrastructure levies and employment training levies for each on an immigrant per capita basis.

Melbourne’s Westgate Bridge
Now even the four-lanes can’t cope
Developers and governments keep building more sprawl in the west
Count the buses.  Where’s the bus lane?

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Take the regional Victorian township of Alexandra with its 12,000 residents for instance. For every 12,000 immigrants, the national goverment needs to replicate the same infrastructure that Alexandra enjoys in order to maining Australian social standards. But it needs to do this with no ecological footprint, because ecology is already disappearing with the 26 million already insatiable humans here.

Victoria’s regional township of Alexandra
An Australian triple bottom line urban design standard
(click photo to enlarge)

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Further Reading:

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[1]   ‘Can An Immigrant Logically Oppose Immigration?‘, by ‘Tim, 20120214,^http://candobetter.net/node/2777

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[2]  ‘We can keep our leafy suburbs and still save the planet‘, 20091122,^http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/we-can-keep-our-leafy-suburbs-and-still-save-the-planet-20091122-isqz.html

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[3]  ‘Rudd welcomes big australia‘, 20091023, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-10-23/rudd-welcomes-big-australia/1113752

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[4]  ‘The Cars that Ate Melbourne‘, by Friend of the Earth Melbourne, ^http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=sc/the_issues

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[5]  ‘New brand and logo to cost ANZ 15 million‘, ^http://www.news.com.au/business/new-brand-and-logo-to-cost-anz-15-million/story-e6frfm1i-1225790269154

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[6]  ‘ANZ cuts substantial number of jobs in Melbourne‘, Herald Sun, 20120213, ^http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/anz-cuts-substantial-number-of-jobs-in-melbourne/story-fn7j19iv-1226269646858

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[7]  ‘The Impact of Mass Immigration on Canadian and Global Overpopulation‘, Marvellous Melbourne.org, ^http://marvellousmelbourne.org/drupal/?q=node/1205

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[8]  ‘Carrying capacity: can a big country with very few people be overpopulated? – Currents‘,  by Phoebe Hall, The Environment Magazine, Mar-Apr 2003, via ‘Find Articles,   ^http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_2_14/ai_98469934/

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[9]   CanDoBetter.net Immigration articles, ^http://candobetter.net/immigration

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[10]   CanDoBetter.net Overpopulation articles, ^http://candobetter.net/taxonomy/term/134

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Melbourne’s growing water supply for uncontrolled immigrants inflicted upon local country residents of coastal Wonthaggi.

 

This has been forcibly paid for by decades of Melbourne local taxpayers.

They stand to benefit nothing but cop population invasion from foreigners and government legislated destruction of Australian valued amenity.

This is the epitome of treason.

Yet Australia’s Liberal-Labor alternating time-swap governments say to Australians: cop it sweet, you are a tolerant society so be tolerant!

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Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

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Victorian Bushfires: ‘Gross Emergency Neglect’

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
This article was initially published by Tigerquoll 20090621 on CanDoBetter.net in the aftermath of the devastating Victorian bushfires that climaxed on 7th February 2009:

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A forgotten victim of bushfire

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The analogy of the Titanic ocean liner disaster of 15th April 1912 is apt in relation to rural communities entrusting those in charge to be able to deal with public/national emergencies.  The public trusted the Titanic met government standards.  But 2,223 people boarded and 1514 died from the iceberg collision.  Government standards were later revealed as substandard.

Public trust in government is appropriate (it’s why we pay our bloody taxes), but government systemically neglects its responsibility and abuses that public trust. Government has the nerve to entice volunteer members of the community to do its dirty work – aka the CFA.   So individuals have given up on their government to be able to respond adequately to emergencies (bushfires, floods, droughts, etc) feel compelled to take measures themselves. Building a bunker is a vigilante response. I’m not saying its not a constructive response, but it is a consequential reaction of government failing to protect bushfire-prone communities. It’s like residents losing faith in the police and feeling compelled to being vigilantes. It’s akin to Titanic passengers bringing along their own liferafts.

Stay or Go‘?

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To attribute blame on climate change ignores the role of government and in the case of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires lets government get away with manslaughter – literally.

Look into the history of the causes of the Titanic sinking and one can draw many comparisons with the failures of Emergency Management Australia in how it failed to protect life, property and ecological values from the bushfires across Victoria last January and February. The root causes of the (a) 1914 Titanic’s sinking and (b) the loss of 1514 lives were: management culture, poor contingency planning, design flaws, poor governance (e.g. inadequate safety regulations), poor operational response, amongst others.

Victorian CFA Chief during Victoria’s tragic 2009 bushfires

The root causes of (a) the 2009 Victorian Bushfires being allowed to grow into unstoppable infernos and (b) the tragic loss of 127 lives were: management culture, poor contingency planning, design flaws, poor governance (e.g. inadequate safety regulations), poor operational response, amongst others.

The basic question is what emergency strategy was adopted to deal with the Victorian bushfires and why didn’t it work adequately to achieve a best practice outcome – no lives lost, no houses lost, no wildlife killed?

Words from Strathewen
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A root cause of the firestorms being allowed to become firestorms from multiple ignitions is that insufficient dedicated resourcing was provided to deal with the hundreds of ignitions in extreme tinder dry conditions with high winds. The government agencies (CFA, et al) knew the fire index was 300, that this was the worst on record, yet did stuff all to prepare or warn the public. There was a wind change forecast, yet this was not communicated to residents. Relying upon volunteers to drive fire tankers to remote ignitions is proven as ineffective as pissing into a wall of flame.

The 1940’s fire fighting thinking needs to be overhauled – by the time the 000 call is received, the volunteers are called in, drive their fire trucks out to an ignition, two hours later, that ignition has spotted into a fire front and its too late! Happens all the time!

Trapped and no hope

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Another root cause is government allowing people to build in the bush in extreme fire risk locations and in houses that are not bushfire resistant.  The tragedy is that after the Royal Commission, the likely response is to incinerate the bush like no tomorrow – destroy the natural environment that people yearn to be near. It will fail to recognise the complexity of the causes and the solutions and will advocate a knee-jerk – troglodyte (‘ugg ugg’) burn the lot approach. The Commission’s verdict will fuel Brumby’s Final Solution to prescribe Victoria back to the Stone Age.

A key question is what is government leadership in fire fighting to do – i.e Emergency Management Australia? How about four fundamental approaches:

  1. Introduce world-leading scientific research and monitoring of bushfire threats – climate and weather conditions, bush conditions, arson investigation, lightning, and integrate these with bushfire fighting.
  2. Obtain state-of-the-art monitoring of bushfire-prone areas across South Eastern Australia to the point where ignitions and plumes in the remotest of locations can be detected within minutes of them starting, feeding this data to a central database and to a standby emergency professional and national response unit.
  3. Employ military-esque emergency services professionals to respond to ignitions within an hour of starting – airborne professionals, not a volunteer ‘dads army’ sitting in trucks.
  4. Resource Australian Firefighting with serious air resources to combat bushfires with military efficiency and scale. A chunk of Rudd’s $26 billion budget on Defence should have gone to setting up a national airborne fire fighting response division and an integrated satellite detection, alert and response system/unit. Isn’t this defence at home?

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Unless the above is done, nothing will change, but now that Titanic has sunk (Victorian Bushfires killed 173 human lives,  cost billions in property losses and contributed to many local wildlife extinctions) we no longer should be shocked when it happens all over again.

Kinglake aftermath – homes and lives incinerated

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As for bunkers, no government will guarantee a bunker to protect life ever.

One must attribute responsibility to the top of government, down. I hold Kevin Rudd accountable for the next bushfire tragedy and we are six months before next January.

Brumby, Rudd, Nixon- the ultimate emergency leadership responsible for the Victorian Bushfires outcome of 2009
Ultimate government leadership has ultimate responsibility for public emergency
– the resourcing, the planning, the risk recognition, the mitigation, the response, the compensation.

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In bushfire management, political will continues to be negligent.

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