the true price of desal

The only time the true price of desal water will be revealed to Melburnians, is when it arrives on their bills. Only then will Victorians realise they’ve been duped by Brumby and his Ministers into believing the desalination plant is the answer to Melbourne’s water woes.

The Greens know there are much better options for securing water for Melbourne, it rains more in Melbourne than what Melburnians consume. A recent 2007 study found “rainwater tanks are five times more energy efficient that desalination plants…Most Australian houses are suitable for a rainwater tanks…in Melbourne 72% of existing houses have potential for a rainwater tank….fewer than 6% of the houses in Melbourne have water tanks.”

The Greens have a sensible water policy to secure Melbourne’s future water supply. Water conservation, re-use and recycling should be prioritised over energy and capital-intensive strategies such as seawater desalination or long-distance pumping. It is possible for our cities and towns to use a diverse range of water sources including tanks, urban storm water and recycled wastewater, to achieve water supply security and waterway health.

The desalination plant will create 1.2million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions during operation. It will generate an additional 70,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing waste from the plant. It will intake 380,000 small marine organisms per second whilst discharging 8,800 litres of brine per second. Not only is this an economic disaster for the family budget it is an environmental disaster for Victoria’s coastline.

The desalination plant will cost tax payers dearly. Not only in a $5.1 billion construction bill and escalating water costs. It will dump 50,000 tonnes of toxic waste every year and secure big profits for overseas companies - why would we want it?

Written in response to Kenneth Davidson's article: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/time-to-come-clean-on-the-cost-of-water-20100530-wndy.html

mallacoota fight dismissed by court

Last Thursday was a dark day for the community who have been tirelessly campaigning against the construction of a large breakwater and boat ramp at Bastion Point, Mallacoota. The latest Supreme Court decision is disappointing for locals who’ve campaigned hard to see the development stopped.

“The Planning Minister, true to form, once again turned his back on local communities and gave the approval to proceed with this construction in the face of overwhelming community objection and EES advice”The Minister for Environment, Gavin Jennings, now has the final say as to whether the project goes ahead. What is hard to believe is that Planning Minister, Justin Madden recommended the option that “meets none of the evaluation objectives well and three highly significant objectives poorly. Overall it is unacceptable; having no demonstrated overall societal benefit, and should not be considered further,” (according to the EES panel).

“The Planning Minister, true to form, once again turned his back on local communities and gave the approval to proceed with this construction in the face of overwhelming community objection and EES advice,” said Samantha Dunn, Greens Upper House Candidate for Eastern Victoria.

Mallacoota is a pristine wild coast region of Victoria and should be maintained as that. The development of a 130mt long breakwater and ocean access boat ramp is an unnecessary and unwanted overdevelopment of the region.

“The most recent decision of Justice Robert Osborn is another nail in the coffin of community aspirations. All is not lost for the people fighting to oppose this overdevelopment of the area. It still needs final sign off from the Minister for Environment, Gavin Jennings,” said Samantha.

“Let us hope that the Environment Minister acts for the environment and the people and recognises this region for its true value as a pristine and special wild coast area of Victoria. “

Will the government do what is right and just to reject this unwanted overdevelopment?

logging costs us billions of litres

Over the last weekend I toured the Central Highlands with a group of concerned citizens from across Melbourne. The tour took us to logging coupes as well as pristine areas of wet forest across the Central Highlands region.

Cement Creek is a forest with considerable tracts of high conservation old growth forest, precious for its lead beaters possum habitat, it includes a site of aboriginal significance and not to mention its value as a carbon store. It is part of Melbourne’s Water Catchment.

The Cement Creek Water Catchment remains intact, but for how long? Back in 2008 Cement Creek received a reprieve from scheduled logging, however there is no long term guarantee that this pristine and important part of Melbourne’s water supply will not be logged in the future.

It is a travesty that our water catchments continue to be logged, back in 1999 the opposition (now the current Government) promised to cease logging in Melbourne’s water catchments, but we’ve seen no commitment to fulfil this promise. In fact the agency who manages our forests, Vic Forests, wants an additional 148 logging coupes across the Powelltown, Toolangi and Marysville regions.















This logging coupe is in the Starvation Creek region. Industrial logging of our wet forests is changing the make up of the forest, turning them into drier, more fire prone forests.

Logging has a detrimental impact on the water quantity and quality in our water catchments. We have already lost billions and billions of litres of water supply from past woodchipping. We have a government that has spent $1 billion on a pipeline with questionable water supply and $4.8 billion on a desalination plant which will cause untold environmental damage.


This “habitat” tree has been left to provide a home for native animals. It is stranded in a desolate landscape with no connectivity to any other trees or undestorey at all. The coupe's ‘regeneration’ burn has damaged the tree’s inner core. This will ultimately kill the tree, which spans 16 metres at the base.






If our government stopped logging all our catchments tomorrow we would gain 18 gigalitres of water a year, that’s 18 billion litres of water returned to Melburnians every year.Post 2009 bushfires, the forest in the burnt areas of our water catchments is in a far more fragile state.















The forest near Marysville is undergoing regeneration, if left, fire affected forests will regenerate and once again be a place that flourishes. Salvage logging these regions will see them destroyed forever with no chance to truly regenerate back to a wet forest.

The best thing for Melbourne’s water supplies, fauna and flora would be to let the forest naturally regenerate however salvage logging is going on at an alarming rate in our water catchments right now (see blog).

A logging coupe just off the Acheron Way. Logging is undertaken back from the road so tourists travelling through the region see a tract of native forest, however look beyond this buffer and you will see countless logging coupes. Victoria’s Mountain Ash forests are the most carbon dense in the world, worth protecting, not worth woodchipping.

Victoria is in a fortunate position, we don’t have to log our forests. Victoria has Australia’s largest plantation estate and it’s finally reaching maturity. Our plantations have enough timber to supply all our woodchipping needs allowing us to protect our precious water supplies and retain timber industry jobs.

in the press - public transport

Bus fares in Upper Yarra not fair: Cr Dunn
Leader Newspapers
by Emily Webb
19 May 10

mcewen and seymour candidates launched

It was terrific to be part of the candidate's launch for the Greens in the federal seat of McEwen and the state seat of Seymour at Three Stories Artspace in Healesville.

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From left to right: Richard di Natale - for the senate, Samantha Dunn for Eastern Victoria, Steve Meacher for McEwen, Huw Slater for Seymour & David Jones for Northern Victoria.

Candidates who spoke on the night included Richard di Natale- The Greens Senate Candidate, Steve Meacher – Greens candidate for McEwen, David Jones – Greens Upper House Candidate for Northern Victoria and Huw Slater – Greens candidate for Seymour. Community members from near and far came out to support the launch and the Greens campaign.

Richard, a general practitioner and international public health specialist, has a keen understanding of the issues that impact on our health system. David was a councillor and mayor in the City of Greater Bendigo and has a wealth of experience representing community, Steve Meacher is well known to the people of the McEwen electorate and participates in many community based groups across the region, whilst Huw Slater, a local boy from Chum Creek, understands the things that matter to people in the electorate of Seymour.

All spoke with passion about the community and the issues affecting their respective electorates. They are a high calibre group of candidates and the community will be seeing much more of them as the Greens hit the ground running.

mental health and young people

Last week saw a Mental Health Forum on Depression and Young People held in Emerald and organised by the Rotary clubs from Emerald, Monbulk and Belgrave. It was a compelling forum, well organised and thought provoking for people in the audience.

The panel were well informed and highlighted the good work going on to help young people get through depression despite the many barriers in place. Also well represented were our local secondary schools, Monbulk and Emerald, whose Wellbeing Coordinators spoke with great empathy and care about the young people in the region.

Alarming to learn was the huge gap in mental health services in the public health system. Of even greater concern is the change to Secondary School support for students. In the past students were able to access on onsite psychologist, but under the new system, students must be registered through a centralised agency. This has created huge waiting lists and has serious consequences for young people seeking immediate help.

We know that between 8 and 17% of young people will experience a depressive illness.

It was staggering to learn about the lack of preventative measures in place to stop mental illness in the first place as clear indicators can be picked up at an early age. The Greens are committed to preventative measures to ensure that the right care model is in place when it’s needed.

This government is failing our young people and all those touched by mental illness by not providing the necessary funding for preventative measures.

The Greens recognise the need to fund community prevention and recovery centres as well as the need for early intervention programs.The Greens are committed to preventative measures to ensure that the right care model is in place when it’s needed. There needs to be serious commitment to tackle mental health, it’s an investment in the health of our nation.

in the press - state budget on weed control

Fire fight Budget boost
Mail Newspapers
By Casey Neill
11th May 10

in the press - replace hazelwood

Hazelwood closure calls at Spring St
Latrobe Valley Express
By Ebonnie Lord
10 May 10

replace hazelwood with renewables

Last week I joined with Colleen Hartland – Greens MLC, Brian Walters – Greens Candidate for Melbourne and hundreds of other Victorians at a community event to show support to close down Hazelwood Power Station and replace it with renewable energy.

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Left to right: Samantha Dunn - Greens Lead candidate for Eastern Victoria, Colleen Hartland - Greens MLC for Western Metropolitan and Brian Walters - Greens Candidate for Melbourne.

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Hazelwood Power Station, originally commissioned in 1959, is the developed world's dirtiest power station, responsible for 15% of Victoria's total greenhouse gas emissions and 3% of Australia's emissions.

The people of Victoria have shown that they want to see a transition from coal fired power to renewable energy, hundreds of people came out to the Replace Hazelwood with Clean Energy by 2012 community action to show the government they want change.

The people of the Latrobe Valley deserve a secure future. That's a future based on renewable energy and a reinvigorated manufacturing industry. What we need is a transition plan out of old fossil fuel technologies to a bright new and secure future in the manufacturing and the renewable energy sector.

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Kevin Rudd has walked away from the climate change challenge, but John Brumby is the one in charge of most of our state's emissions. Brumby has not tackled the climate facts in last week's budget, except in the most tokenistic way.

Victoria is very well placed to develop a renewable energy sector, we already have a heavy industry manufacturing region in the Latrobe Valley with infrastructure already in place, it is time to revitalise this region of Victoria.

The Greens would implement a plan to close Hazelwood power station as soon as practical and we would make up the energy shortfall by reducing energy use and using renewable energy sources.

The privatisation of power industry has seen the gradual decline in employment in the valley, few apprenticeship opportunities for young people, no skilling up of our future generation and a region that is struggling to retain its viability and vibrancy as a community.

Without The Greens insisting on serious government intervention and changes to policy and regulation a sustainable Victoria won't happen. The Greens are committed to a renewable energy future and revitalising Victoria as a hub of renewable manufacturing.

The fundamental driver to all of this is a commitment to real targets to start to reverse our ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions. It is the Greens who are committed to targets that will drive changes across our economy and save the planet.

Transitioning to green jobs will see expansion in education and training, manufacturing, construction and public administration. That's a lot of employment opportunities across a range of sectors, that's a bright future for Victorians who want a job to secure their prospects and who want to actively participate in doing something to reverse global warming.

It is the Greens who have the political will to see it happen, securing a sustainable and just future for all Victorians.

failing us on public transport

The State budget is a kick in the teeth to commuters on the fringe of Melbourne.

For all the bells and whistles we hear about the Victorian Transport Plan we see a failure of the state government to deliver the promised additional trains to our public transport network.

Samantha Dunn, Greens Candidate for Eastern Victoria said "we have a budget predicting a 4% increase in passengers but we’re only getting 2.5% more train services and that’s if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with a train line. We all know if it’s not in the budget then there’s no real commitment."

The Greens would put our trains back in public hands so the system can be planned and run efficiently. The Greens are committed to creating a service that runs 24 hours, so that the people of Victoria will never have to wait longer than 10 minutes to get where they need to go in peak times.

"It’s even grimmer news for those communities who are reliant on bus services, there’s nothing in this budget for you", said Samantha.

The bus service review outcomes have been at best moderate and are not providing frequent and reliable services to communities across Melbourne’s interface. Lack of access to good bus services leads to social isolation and impacts on a community’s health and wellbeing.

The Greens recognise the problems with our bus network and are proposing to upgrade 448 km of bus routes to high frequency. These buses would run every 10 minutes from 6am to Midnight and every 20 minutes from Midnight to 6am, seven days a week. They would provide an additional 30.2 million km of bus service each year connecting train stations and Activity Centres.

"People on the fringe are so reliant on their motor vehicles and this has big consequences for the family budget. A frequent bus service will encourage communities on the interface to take up buses as a transport option, reduce traffic congestion and stop the over reliance on motor cars."

in the press - public transport

Budget ignores transport woes
Leader Newspapers
by Alex Munro
7 May 10

the bandaid budget - weeds are taking over this state

Those volunteers who work tirelessly to improve our environment have good reason to disappointed with John Brumby’s bandaid budget.

Victoria has a crisis in transport, a crisis in water, a climate crisis, a housing crisis, a preventable disease crisis and a weed crisis. This budget treats the symptoms, but it ignores the causes of the crisis.

The budget contains insignificant amounts of funding to address the serious issue of invasive plants and animals.

“Weeds are overtaking our environment, they have a significant affect on water quality and quantity, contribute to extensive land degradation, impact heavily on habitat and biodiversity and create greater fire hazards”, said Samantha Dunn, Greens Upper House candidate for Eastern Victoria.

The amounts allocated to tackle weeds in high risk rural areas, for control programs in national parks and to outer suburban councils is paltry and just window dressing. “If the government is truly committed to tackling the weed crisis, then they need to provide appropriate levels of funding, this budget is a bandaid and a flimsy one at that”, said Samantha.

The Greens want to get to the root of our state’s weed problems and see effectively funded programs in place.

Hundreds of volunteers work tirelessly to rid our environment of weeds, but they need help, they need the resources to help them. Amongst many weed issues is that environmental weeds are not declared as noxious or regionally significant so local governments and community groups miss out on funding allocations through current state government programs targeted at noxious weeds.

However environmental weeds cause major problems in many of the interface regions of Melbourne. The problem is so great that the state needs to provide greater levels of support to community, to local government and to farmers trying to hold back what is fast becoming an explosive situation in Victoria.

“This budget has shown the government has little understanding of the problem and no commitment to truly tackle the weed crisis in Victoria.”

getting greener

Yesterday was an opportunity to fly the Greens flag at the Going Green expo at Jeff's Shed in Melbourne. Greens candidates were out in force to talk to people about all things Green.

One of the subjects that came up often was the Rudd Government's flawed and now shelved Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. People were curious to know why the Greens wouldn't support the emissions trading scheme, a scheme that would lock our country into a high polluting future, cost tax payers dearly and reward those who pollute the most.

Even more were curious to understand why the Rudd government won't negotiate with the Greens to establish a carbon levy.

Pictured left to right: Mark Riley – Greens Candidate for Wills, Samantha Dunn – Greens Candidate for Eastern Victoria and Colin Long – Greens Candidate for Eastern Metropolitan.

A recent Galaxy poll shows 72% of Australians want the government to negotiate with the Greens on a carbon levy. The Greens carbon levy, adapted from Professor Garnaut's proposal, is the best option to start some serious action on climate change.

The levy would ensure that the biggest polluters pay for climate pollution. We can't afford to delay action on climate change and the Greens have the way forward. It's time for the government to act in good faith on behalf of the people and negotiate with the Greens.

sea shepherd finds some friends at sherbrooke

Last night I attended a fundraiser organised by Sherbrooke Community School student, Jordan Crooka to raise money for the Sea Shepherd. Jordan did a great job organising the food, entertainment and a myriad of auction items and raised over $3,000 for his efforts.

Pictured left to right: Campbell Holland (Ships Engineer), Kate Henderwood, Jordan Crooka, Samantha Dunn and Sara Keltie (Marine Biologist).

The event was well supported by the local community and the crowd were treated to entertainment by Sherbrooke student Kate Henderwood accompanied by Jordan Crooka, Athula Mamaborupodakqua, The Ineligible and Anna Paddick (a very talented ex Sherbrooke student).

People were captivated by the presentation by Campbell Holland, Ships Engineer on the Sea Shepherd's ship the Bob Barker. Campbell gave a great insight to being a crew member on board a Sea Shepherd ship and the sorts of tactics the Japanese Whalers resort to in the Southern Ocean. This year's whaling season saw the Japanese whaler Shonan Maru 2 destroy the Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil. It was an atrocious act which endangered the lives of the six crew on board and highlighted the lack of scrutiny our government gives to what is happening out on the Southern Ocean.

Sara Keltie, Sea Shepherd Crew member and marine biologist gave an insight into the shocking trade in shark fin and the plight of critically endangered species such as Atlantic Bluefin Tuna and various species of Sharks (18 species are listed as endangered which is alarming given their status as alpha predators).

Sold! Enthusiastic auctioneers, Denise Dempsey, Robert Pergl and Jordan Crooka ran a pacey and energetic auction. It was terrific to see Greens Senator Bob Brown support the event by donating a signed photo taken by him of Recherche Bay in far South Tasmania (now happily hanging on my wall).

Well done Jordan, you are a credit to your school, motivated and passionate, our future looks bright with emerging leaders like you.