Australia approves dumping in Great Barrier reef

[Parmenter]

Originally Posted by Capt Rottnest

Looking at what's happening at Gladstone, sediment going nowhere near the reef, I don't understand what the eastern staters are on about...

Have you ever been to Gladstone?
Have you seen the layer of coal dust that is all over your boat in short time?
Could that have something to do with the cancer clusters in Gladstone?

More coal dust stories in local paper here

Did you not hear about the fishing industry being all but wiped out due to harbour dredging and diseased fish?

[Barra]

do agree with you on the sugar cane farming seachange but mainly cos its a protected industry. ie what makes me sick is that my tax dollars have gone into supporting that economically unviable industry for decades while the cane farmers these days swan around in million dollar waterfront mansions. (if your up there you'll know what i mean)

Of course are they more enviromentally damaging than the much cheaper south american cane growers though? Probably less so but still sucks we actually subsidise our lot to destroy the environment.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Barra

The problem with your arguments as i see it seachange is that you've made your living helping to destroy the environment as you say. Now your sitting on your boat and want others to stop making a living so you can enjoy the environment in retirement??? Sorry but thats just selfish mate.

The fast $$$ I made destroying the Australian environment as a young man was spent just as fast. So the environmental destructiom I caused had no long term gain. It was just dumb. That is my point.

The slow $$$ I made using clever country skills is what pays for me to sit on my boat. I have a small business, not mining related, that earns a little foreign currency for Australia and pays my bills.

I am still in my 40s and I've got some rusty skills that are valuable in the mining industry. If/when I go back to work, that is going to be one of the first places I look.

There are already plenty of mining jobs. So many that Gina wants to import $2/hour Africans. We do not need more holes. Last time I checked there was a huge shortage of people willing to get the work done because most people seem to prefer to flip properties in the city instead.

Even people invested in the mining industry can have a green perspective. It is possible. Really. I am just saying I am not supporting any new holes until I seem some real long term benefits. It is time to put a stop to unchecked mining development and think about what we are getting out of it.


Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

[Capt Rottnest]

Originally Posted by svseachange

Not quite so...Grandma's Dad drove livestock from Freemantle to the Kimberley after he retired as a Freemantle customs officer... my Grandma was a nurse Broome... her sister and nurse died in Derby at 30... my grandfather was an early Qantas pilot who flew the Port Headland to Daley Waters mail run... crashed three times...and I worked in the Kimberley as a young man... my grandma used to be proud becuase "helped build the country". We used to think it was hilarious that the construction workers in Perth stopped work whem the temp topped 37.5 C. You are not from Perth are you?!?

No, you can't shut down the debate that easily. I've seen the Fitzroy River in flood. I've spent a wet season in Wyndham. I've kissed a girl on Cable Beach. Love the Kimberley. God's country and part of my heritage.

I just don't think a fast buck or putting more $$$ in Gina's pockets is worth anymore environmental destruction unless there is a real clear long term benefit. No, I don't think Perth's ridiculous property boom is a long term benefit. Maybe that is OK for the fast buck people in Perth but it is not OK for me.

yep, Perth born and bred. Not construction industry though . But, always was a gulf between city and country here (almost as bad as Victoria). I'm glad your not of the Victorian school who have some strange belief about rednecks in WA. (where does that come from??)

WA has always used foreign investment, since beginning of settlement, because we know an investor needs to blow 95c here for each 5c in profit they take. Gina needs to spend a billion bucks here (borrowed from OS). Its how foreign ownership works, it .. works!

You've touched on a pet hate of mine, those property prices on Perth. That, like elsewhere in Oz, is fuelled by severely screwed up Canberra tax policy rather than mining boom (Kevin & Joe both negative gearers). Though the boom is helping to prolong the ponzi, then Kevin engineered overseas investors to prolong the ponzi yet again.. The system is corrupt.

The point is mining here is not considered so damaging when the desert it occupies came pre damaged. So when I hear comments from the east about not wanting to rely on selling dirt, I look at the trade figures. 49% of the nations export earnings are from one state (guess). Even before the boom (mid 90's), 35% of the nations export earnings were from that same state.(only 10% of the pop then).
Seems what they are really saying is, we don't want to rely on WA. LOL

Barnett did consider allowing coal mining in prime winery country, but "the people" rightfully put the kibosh on that. Mining in prime food growing country is such a "NSW thing" to do...

ps, its Fremantle - not Freemantle

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Parmenter

But can never provide examples.

OK. After my laboring days I beccame a programmer, with the help of my brother and my friends

In short, using the skills I gained in those years I developed a software development company. 100% of sales are outside Australia. It is a foreign currency earner, akin to a small mine, but there is no environmental cost.

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[Capt Rottnest]

Originally Posted by Parmenter

Have you ever been to Gladstone?
Have you seen the layer of coal dust that is all over your boat in short time?
Could that have something to do with the cancer clusters in Gladstone?

More coal dust stories in local paper here

Did you not hear about the fishing industry being all but wiped out due to harbour dredging and diseased fish?

You got me there. I actually don't know much about QLD, at all.
re: fishing industry, here as everywhere else in the world, have been their own worst enemy.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Barra

do agree with you on the sugar cane farming seachange but mainly cos its a protected industry. ie what makes me sick is that my tax dollars have gone into supporting that economically unviable industry for decades while the cane farmers these days swan around in million dollar waterfront mansions. (if your up there you'll know what i mean)

Of course are they more enviromentally damaging than the much cheaper south american cane growers though? Probably less so but still sucks we actually subsidise our lot to destroy the environment.

Yeah, Barra, with you on that one, mate. One of the came farmers I worked for, an all round good bloke who had made money out of a newsagency in Mackay if I remember right, was in on that crazy gold rush. He was almost apologetic about it, especially when his pudgy son and dog used sit in Landcruiser, AC blasting, following us poor buggers around the paddocks.

That's probably it. Maybe I just a have a chip in my shoulder about the cane farmers and I can't see past it. Feel bad for being involved in thatnone. The road and pipeline jobs I did later were much cleaner.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Capt Rottnest

yep, Perth born and bred. Not construction industry though . But, always was a gulf between city and country here (almost as bad as Victoria). I'm glad your not of the Victorian school who have some strange belief about rednecks in WA. (where does that come from??)

To be honest, mining in WA doesn't worry me as much. The Argyle mine was a great project. Good for everybody in the Kimberley. And the mining of lead, zinc, iron ore, gold and diamonds worries me less than the mining of coal.

I worry more about the Queensland, where I feel like some critical mass has been reached.

[Parmenter]

Originally Posted by svseachange

In short, using the skills I gained in those years I developed a software development company. 100% of sales are outside Australia. It is a foreign currency earner, akin to a small mine, but there is no environmental cost.

Can every worker in Australia do that?
And if they did, to what affect?

[Parmenter]

Originally Posted by Capt Rottnest

You got me there. I actually don't know much about QLD, at all.
re: fishing industry, here as everywhere else in the world, have been their own worst enemy.

If you read the articles you would find it has nothing to do with the fishing industry.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Parmenter

Can every worker in Australia do that?
And if they did, to what affect?

I dunno. I just think a lot more Australians would be in clever industries if mining wasn't squeezing everything else out. We are a smart and creative bunch.

Looking forward to cruising the Queensland coast when I get this boat home. Hope to meet you along the way, then maybe we can continue this over a beer.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Barra

do agree with you on the sugar cane farming seachange but mainly cos its a protected industry. ie what makes me sick is that my tax dollars have gone into supporting that economically unviable industry for decades while the cane farmers these days swan around in million dollar waterfront mansions. (if your up there you'll know what i mean):

You sure about that? As far as I was aware unlike overseas growers, no subsidies paid, other than flood and similar natural disaster relief.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by Factor

You sure about that? As far as I was aware unlike overseas growers, no subsidies paid, other than flood and similar natural disaster relief.

Cane farmers don't get any preferential treatment. IIRC there was/is some government contributions for ethanol production.

Sugar production's claim to fame is giving us the Cane Toad.

[Capt Rottnest]

Originally Posted by svseachange

I dunno. I just think a lot more Australians would be in clever industries if mining wasn't squeezing everything else out. We are a smart and creative bunch.

You think that's the case? Mining only employs 5% of the workforce in WA. Think its 2% nationally.

[Lake-Effect]

Mining and other resource extraction only becomes troublesome when, as is happening in Canada, we're over-relying on it, to the detriment of other industries. If an educated, diversified, sophisticated country like Canada can only remain solvent only by selling off the furniture, so to speak... it means we're backsliding, and we'll be in big doo-doo if people no longer want our sandy oil.

Canada's excuse is that when the US sneezes, we catch a cold... Are the resource industries propping up the Australian economy as well?