Barnaby Drake
This would halt conflicts of interest, fast tracking of legislation and biased scientific reports that benefit commerce and not the people, and give the Minister full powers to intervene, instead of the limited ones he currently has.
Dear Kevin and Peter,

Now that the ratification of Kyoto seems imminent, would it not also be possible to have the Environment actually declared a ‘Public Asset’ at National level and formulate some protective measures above those of the vested interests that now seem to be in control of it?

This ‘Public Asset’ would then cover all issues concerning Air, Land and Water, and ‘all that in them dwell,’ and being Federal Law, all subsequent laws would be required to conform with these regulations.

Recently we have seen the Environmental Minister abnegate his duties and declare many of the environmental issues affecting Tasmania as ‘outside his jurisdiction’. This should not be so! This allows commercial interests to have more influence with local government bodies than the public they are supposed to representing.

The public have not been backward in expressing their opposition to these views at all levels, and every issue so far has been either ignored or overruled. In the interests of Democracy, this should be heeded. The voters that elected the government are people, not institutions, and the government has a constitutional duty of care to these people.

Could this not be put to the new Minister as being an essential part of his portfolio, and could we not have some broad based issues and laws of conformity defined? If this were to be done, all matters affecting the environment would have to pass his regulating scrutiny. This would stop individual States and especially large corporations from taking actions that could deleteriously affect this new ‘National Asset’.

This would halt conflicts of interest, fast tracking of legislation and biased scientific reports that benefit commerce and not the people, and give the Minister full powers to intervene, instead of the limited ones he currently has.

New and strong laws need to be made in a broad concept and definition, and all actions that affect the environmental must conform with the principles expressed in these laws.

It has HUGE ramifications, and would tackle issues like GM crops, Fishing, Forestry, Farm lands and the PAL Act, Air pollution, Chemical spraying, Sea pollution, Wildlife protection, Climate change, Mining and Health and give the Minister a say on any issue where these are affected, or perceived to be affected. After all, that is his job.

Part of this law should also be to ban payments into party funds from any company that has a vested interest in obtaining favours in environmental and associated issues. This would go a long way to allay the current public perception of fraud and corruption.

It needs something with some teeth, and it needs a far-seeing government to establish it.

Barnaby Drake
Lake highway
Golden Valley
TAS 7304