Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

 US ports cargo trade down: Date: October 10 2007:    Sydney Morning Herald: Ronald White and Leslie Earnest in Los Angeles

THE United States’ major ports were supposed to land a record number of cargo containers crammed with foreign-made goods in August, but things took an unexpected turn, with imports sinking by 1.4 per cent in another sign of a slowdown of the US economy. (more…)

Think Redfern-Waterloo Authority and you get the drift of what this is about.  Read the full proposal published in June 2007 : New Authority proposed for Airport/Port Botany Precinct  by none other than  Lisbet Spanjiaard.  Lisbet was employed by the Department of Planning, working in a group of 4 on the Commission of Inquiry submission for DIPNR, then for Brereton on the Railing Port Botany Containers and then for Richmond on the Review of the Railing Port Botany Containers. She now works for a private consulting firm - Saha International - and sits on the Freight Logistics Taskforce, along with Joe Tripodi; Vince Graham(RailCorp CEO), Sam Haddad(DG Dept Planning);  Chris Oxenbould (CEO NSW Maritime and former CEO Newcastle Ports); John Robertson(Unions NSW); Terry Tzaneros(Austate Logistics Terminal); John West(Dangerous Goods Logististics); Les Wielinga (CEO RTA); Geoff Farnsworth(Chairman of the Sea Freight Council).

The key recommedation from the report

 Creation of an Advisory Board which could include major stakeholders (e.g.the Port and Airport, transport infrastructure providers, representatives from the three tiers of Government, the private sector and the community; or

 Creation of a Statutory Authority or Commission, along similar lines as the Redfern Waterloo Authority or Growth Centres Commission, where there is legislative backing, Ministerial responsibility and dedicated resources for planning and implementing recommendations; or

 Bureaucratic responsibility for coordination of the precinct under the Coordinator General or similar office. Multiple precincts could emerge and be administered and/or coordinated from a single point.

START THIS ELECTION DAY BY SAYING NO TO AFFLUENZA:    Saturday 24^th November 8-11am Penrhyn Boat Ramp, Penrhyn Road, Port Botany for Birdwatching and Photography and Contemplation

… 27% of Sydney’s ‘trade’ = the export of empty containers.  

The majority of our greenhouse pollution is embedded in the goods we buy and transport. A third container terminal, intermodal terminals, tunnels and other $multi-billion infrastructure are being built in Sydney to accommodate the export of empty containers and other ‘trade’ that congests Sydney.  Some of the trade would provide opportunities if located elsewhere in NSW.

Further details on BUY NOTHING DAY:  http://www.bnd.dk/english.htm  and/or email chairperson@botanybay.info or just turn up with thermos, binos and camera.

For a no nonsense commentary on why we should ’shift to thrift’ read Richard Glover at http://www.smh.com.au/news/richard-glover/desire-and-the-green-cure/2007/10/18/1192300941282.html  Glover says that  ”The really radical response to global warming - the one you won’t find in any of the glossy green magazines - would be to rehabilitate the concept of thrift. The advertisers would hate it, but we could once more celebrate it as a virtue - in just the way it used to be celebrated by generations of Australians.”

With the introduction of GST cars and other consumer goods became cheaper while getting things repaired became dearer.  Likewise activities, such as getting the kids taught to swim or play musical instruments,  became 10% more expensive.  Governments have been encouraging us to increase our ecological footprints with the mantra that “GROWTH IS GOOD” without distinguishing ‘good growth’ from ‘bad growth’. 

Further details on Birdwatching: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/ - This particular day we will also remember Lance Ferris, The Pelican Man, who died 14/10/07.  Under the Ports expansion plan the Pelicans which now grace the area have been identified as birds to be actively discouraged.  20 million years of unaltered perfection the Pelicans are now considered a nuisance. 

The La Perouse Precinct Committee has written to the local member (for North Botany Bay area), Michael Daley, to express their fears about increased cancer risks, particularly for children living near the proposed route of the 2 x 132kv cables and those attending La Perouse Primary School which is also located on the proposed route.  The Precinct Committee is calling on Mr Daley to ask the Planning Minister, Mr Sartor, to have the cables located away from residential and school property.  The cables will be buried but this does not reduce the risk, see EAA submission to IPART.  The Precinct Committee’s letter and links to the Sydney Morning Herald report of 23 August 2007 and links to ABC reports of 22 and 23 August follow: (more…)

The annual growth of imports through Port Botany outstrips Sydney’s population growth by more than 12 to 1. In the 2006-2007 financial year the export of empty containers was 27% of Sydney Ports total ‘trade’. In 1999 the empties represented 18% . Within a few years they will equal ONE THIRD of the total ‘trade’. The THIRD terminal at Port Botany is effectively being constructed - along with the road and rail infrastructure to support it - for the repositioning of empty containers. MOVING EMPTIES IS NOT TRADE. This arrangement might suit the shipping companies but it is an unsustainable impost on Botany Bay and communities around the Bay and situated on major road and rail corridors. The excess empties should be heading west to inland intermodals like Parkes and thereafter conveyed to areas that require them.

Please join the Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance on November 24 - International Buy Nothing Day - to protest the support that the NSW government is giving to the unsustainable expansion of Port Botany.
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