July 2006 Newsletter

July has been a busy month...so busy the July newsletter is appearing in August! In this issue read about:

John Howard resolves to fight the next election .
Conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon
Toowoomba votes no to recycled water
Visit to Griffith , Leeton, Shepparton and Bendigo
Australian Government water grant secures water future for Qld's Capricorn Coast .
Federal funding for Rose Bay Public
St Vincent 's public hospital to have an MRI licence
New biotechnology research centre for St Vincent 's
Wentworth forum on community water grants
WAYS charity art auction at Bondi
New childrens playground at Entertainment Quarter

New speeches

"Confronting our Water Challenge" at the Brisbane Institute

"How can it be that in the lifetimes of even the youngest of this audience, during a time when the consequences of over exploitation of our waters was becoming more plain we managed to accelerate our withdrawals of water.

"I am reminded of the old 6 o'clock swill and as the minute hand on the pub clock approached closing time more and more rounds were ordered in a rush to imbibe as much beer as possible in the few minutes left."  More here.

" Sustainable Cities" at Global Cities Forum

"So if cities are especially human, it is their satisfaction of an especially human need, that of physical contact or the potential to make it, which makes the difference between a city on the one hand and a nation, or a region or even a world on the other.

"It is for this reason, no doubt, that transport or the means of transport has always been essential and defining for cities."   More here

Sydney 's public transport mess at SMH Transport Forum

" A reliance for our transport task onto private automobiles as opposed to public transport works real injustice and those who suffer are the young, the poor, the sick and the old. Lack of access to mobility is a significant contributor to poverty, social division, and isolation. Higher income groups are more likely to be located in well-serviced affluent inner city suburbs, whereas lower income groups are more likely to be located in poorly-serviced areas, often on the fringes of cities with the worst public transport." More here

The Prime Minister also made an important address about water policy. Read it in full here.

New opinion pieces

The No Vote in Toowoomba 

Public transport Upgrade the Ony Choice.

New media transcripts of interviews here. Even the dogs have been hitting the keyboard with new dogblogs

We have revamped the website too. Check it out.

Prime Minister decides to run again.

The Prime Minister has announced he will remain as Leader to fight the 2007 election. The Treasurer has also said he will continue to serve as Treasurer and Deputy Leader.

The Prime Minister was right to say the next election will be hard to win. Those of us holding marginal seats were particularly relieved to learn of their decisions!  For my ABC TV Lateline interview on the Prime Minister's leadership announcement and recent water issues see here and for Sky News Agenda see here.

Israel takes on Hezbollah

The tragic conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has dominated the international news. Many Australians have been caught up in the fighting. Thousands have been evacuated from Lebanon thanks to the tireless work of our diplomats and military personnel.

While there were no Australian deaths in Lebanon , in Israel one Australian, Assaf Namer, has been killed fighting in the Israeli Army. I sent my condolences to Sergeant Namer's mother and sister who live in Bondi. Sergeant Namer graduated from Moriah College in Queens Park in 1997 and moved to Israel two and a half years ago.

While our hearts are heavy with the suffering and the destruction in Lebanon and Israel, we should not forget the background to this conflict. 

Hezbollah is an armed revolutionary militia which has established itself among the Shiite communities in Southern Lebanon where it has considerable popular support. It is in some respects a state within a state providing many social services including schools and hospitals. Hezbollah was founded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and it is inspired and financed by Iran and Syria .

Like its sponsors in Iran , Hezbollah is devoted to the destruction of the State of Israel. The President of Iran, Mr Ahmedinejad , has called repeatedly for Israel “to be wiped off the map.” Sheikh Nasrallah , the leader of Hezbollah, is no less determined. He has said “There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel.”

The United Nations has resolved that the militias in Lebanon should be disarmed. The Lebanese Government, in whose ranks sit leading members of Hezbollah, has neither the will, nor the capacity to disarm Hezbollah.

In the six years since Israel left Southern Lebanon , Hezbollah has been digging itself into the mountains and building its armoury. The missiles crashing into Israeli towns and cities are postmarked Tehran and Damascus .

Hezbollah, like all effective terrorist organisations, embeds itself in the community, their fighters seeking to be, in Mao 's words, fish swimming in the sea of the people.

Civilian casualties are a terrorist objective. When Hezbollah fires missiles from a Lebanese village or locates its headquarters in a crowded suburb it does so in the expectation that retaliation will likely result in civilian casualties and pictures of wounded women and children on the evening news. Their calculation is that these civilian casualties will inflame global opinion against Israel and reinforce the local population's hatred for Israel and support for Hezbollah.

Many people had hoped that Hezbollah would evolve into a mainstream domestic political party in Lebanon . It had considerable success in the elections last year and joined the Government.

But Hezbollah did not abandon its campaign against Israel . The current hostilities were triggered by a Hezbollah ambush, within Israel , of an Israeli army patrol. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two kidnapped.

This was on any view an act of war. It follows a similar ambush by Hamas and kidnapping of an Israeli soldier near the border with Gaza .

Israel responded with the campaign aimed to destroy Hezbollah. It has been criticised by many European countries as over reacting to a provocation. Others have said that Israel was too slow to send land forces across the border or even that it should have retaliated in force against Syria .

Armchair generals can be found in abundance but we should remember that not even the best conceived battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy. Too few people stop to think how they would react if their nation was faced with a threat to its existence, with neighbours vowing to annihilate it, to wipe it from the face of the earth.

Alexander Downer was recently asked by CNN whether he thought the Israeli response was the "right " one. He replied that it was " inevitable", noting that “No country is just going to sit there and do nothing when a terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of their country..[is sending] missiles and rockets raining down on northern Israel . They're going to deal with it.”

More important than the tactics of this or any other conflict between Israel and its enemies is the overall strategic context which the Prime Minister also underlines again and again. There can be no peace in the Middle East without the acceptance of two great principles, "the first of which is the absolute and unconditional right of Israel to exist as a sovereign state without fear of constant terrorism and constant invasion behind secure, internationally recognised and defensible boundaries. And the second great principle is the need for the emergence of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state."

Equally there can be no peace in Lebanon until the militias are disarmed and the Government of Lebanon has a monopoly of armed force within its borders.

I have been reminded of the visit I made to Ramallah in April last year which I recorded in a blog. In particular I recall one of the Palestinian politicians say something about Hamas which applies equally to Hezbollah;

“It has to stop confusing our people. What are we offering them: the liberation of all of Palestine ? Or the liberation of the West Bank and Gaza ? Or are we just offering them a martyr's death; go to Paradise ?”

The moves to a UN sponsored ceasefire appear to be accelerating and everyone would welcome an end to the hostilities. But unless the ceasefire involves the disarming of Hezbollah in accordance with the UN resolution 1559 and the establishment of the government of Lebanon 's authority throughout its territory, the cease fire will be no more than a temporary lull in the fighting.

Toowoomba votes no on recycled water for drinking 

The Queensland city of Toowoomba voted No to the indirect re-use of recycled waste water in their potable water supplies.

Toowoomba is our second largest inland city (after Canberra ) and it is suffering from a severe water shortage. Far from the coast, desalination is not a realistic option. It sits high on the Great Dividing Range and its three (nearly empty) dams are below the level of the city. It has very limited water options. International engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff reported on a number of alternatives; they were all either non-viable in the sense that they could not provide the water sought, or they were hugely expensive. The report can be downloaded here.

The Toowoomba Water Futures project was proposed by Toowoomba City Council and the Queensland Government to provide Toowoomba with a safe and sustainable long-term water supply. Both the Toowoomba City Council and the Queensland Government stated that Water Futures was the only viable option to secure Toowoomba's water future.

The Australian Government agreed to join with the Toowoomba City Council and the Queensland State Government to fund one third of the cost but wanted to be confident the project had community support. Evidently it did not.

Reuse of recycled water for drinking purposes in the manner proposed is sustainable and it is safe. But, as I have said many times, it is not compulsory.

For more on the Toowoomba vote see my blog and my media release, also my interviews  before the vote on Stateline and afterwards on Lateline, Charles Woolley and Sky News.

Visit to Leeton, Griffith , Shepparton and Bendigo

Last month I visited Kay Hull , the Member for the Riverina, in Griffith and Leeton where I met with irrigators and discussed the progress of the National Water Initiative. I was particularly interested to inspect the progress of the Barren Box Swamp a formerly ephemeral wetland that had been killed by constant flooding from the irrigation system. Innovative engineering works are ensuring that the ecology will be restored.

In Shepparton, the centres of the Goulburn Murray irrigation systems, I joined my colleague Dr Sharman Stone , Member for Murray and met with many irrigators including those from the Punjabi community who are a growing force in irrigated horticulture. At Tatura, we also inspected the Testarossa hydroponic tomato green houses, an enormous operation whose water use is especially efficient.

In Bendigo I discussed water issues with my colleague Senator Michael Ronaldson and we met with Coliban Water, the local water utility. Bendigo like many inland cities is facing severe water shortages and their hopes are pinned on a new pipeline to deliver water from the Goulburn Murray system…an initiative that has been the subject of more than a little criticism from irrigators.

Mark Twain was right when he said “Whisky's for drinking and water's for fighting over.”

Capricorn Coast water supply secured

There was only celebration in Livingstone Shire on the Capricorn Coast when I announced the Australian Government would contribute one third of the $50 million cost of a pipeline from the Fitzroy River at Rockhampton to Yeppoon. The project will not only secure the water supply for a rapidly growing part of Queensland but enable water extraction to cease from Sandy Creek 's important coastal wetlands. More here.

Funding for Rose Bay Public School

On 2 August I officially opened refurbished facilities at Rose Bay Public School at a special ceremony in front of students, teachers and parents. See photos here

Rose Bay Public School , with a student population of 350, received $80,853 in funding across three main projects under the Federal Government's Investing in Our Schools Programme (IOSP).

The project funding has been provided for an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) upgrade, an outdoor area upgrade and a grant to resurface the area under the school's play equipment.

Medicare-eligible MRI services for Darlinghurst

After lobbying the Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott   for greater access to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for Wentworth I am pleased Darlinghurst has been selected by the Federal Government as one of only ten new locations in Australia to secure Medicare-eligible MRI services.

The MRI licence is granted to a locality, and it is now up to medical facilities to make an application for that licence. Given that St Vincent 's Hospital is the only substantial medical facility in Darlinghurst, we can expect St Vincent 's to make a successful application.  The release for this important new service for the community is here

New Victor Chang Building in Darlinghurst

On 2 August I represented the Federal Government in a ground breaking ceremony with Cardinal George Pell and Premier Morris Iemma to mark the start of construction of the first stage of the development ofthe St Vincent Hospital 's Research and Biotechnology Precinct in Darlinghurst.

The first building will be named after the late Victor Chang , a pioneer of heart surgery in whose memory was established the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. The $71 million development was made made possible through a $24 million Commonwealth Government grant. Click on  release and photos for more.

Wentworth Community Water Grants Information Forum

On 17 July, I hosted a Federal Government Community Water Grants information forum at the Swiss Grand in Bondi, attended by Local Councils, schools and environmental groups. The release is  here

The $200 million Federal Government Community Water Grants scheme allows eligible community organisations to apply for grants for on-ground works that increase water saving and efficiency, recycle and reuse water, and treat water to improve surface or groundwater health. Projects deemed to be of community benefit could be eligible for Commonwealth funding of up to $50,000.

I encourage relevant community groups in Wentworth to apply. Round two applications are now open and close on August 25. Guidelines for applications can be found here.

WAYS Charity Art Auction

On 24 July, I was thrilled to be Patron of the Waverley Action for Youth Services (WAYS) Charity Art Auction at Ravesi's on Bondi Beach to raise money to assist disadvantaged youth in Wentworth .

The art catalogue included works by Cherry Hood, Tim Maguire , Tony Twigg , Luke Sciberras , Peter Kingston , Euan MacLeod and a host of other wonderful artists. Congratulations to the organisers for putting on such a successful event.

WAYS is one of the largest community based youth organisations in NSW, employing 45 staff and helping up to 1,000 young people a week. http://www.ways.org.au/

New Playgrounds at Entertainment Quarter Moore Park

On 8 July I launched two new playgrounds at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park. Pictures and story here