they're back - so it's time to act!

Marathon's project rattles on for another 12 months despite it's chequered history and clear public opposition.

The Adelaide Advertiser has started examining some of the Labor links of the lobbying muscle being deployed on the company's behalf -

Labor mates' lobbying a 'threat' to Arkaroola

* Sarah Martin, Political Reporter
* From: The Advertiser
* December 21, 2010 12:00AM

POWERFUL lobbyists connected to the Labor Party are winning the fight to mine Arkaroola.

Negotiations between Marathon Resources and the State Government began yesterday after the Government said it would renew the mining company's exploration licence for another year.

Marathon was suspended from drilling for uranium on the northern Flinders Ranges site two years ago after dumping waste in breach of its licence conditions, but new exploration conditions are now being negotiated. Sanctuary directors and conservation groups say the powerful forces backing Marathon - including a Chinese government-owned shareholder - mean protecting the area faces tough opposition.

Former Labor senator John Quirke is the registered lobbyist for Marathon, while another former Labor senator Chris Schacht is a company director. Labor powerbroker and union heavyweight Paul Howes has also lent his support to mining in Arkaroola.

Premier Mike Rann and Mineral Resources Minister Paul Holloway have both met representatives from CITIC, one of the largest state-owned conglomerates in China and a 17 per cent shareholder in Marathon.

Arkaroola Sanctuary director Marg Sprigg said she feared the lobbying effort would be stepped up over the next 12 months to allow Marathon to resume drilling.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell said the project was being pushed by "a conga-line of Labor luminaries". "Governments should make decisions on the basis of sound advice, not the sound of highly paid lobbyists whispering in their ears," he said.

A Government spokesperson said it was considering conservation options for the sanctuary.

You can make your own comment on this piece here -

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/labor-mates-lobbying-threat-to-arkaroola/story-fn6bqphm-1225974152919


sticker up!


And you can secure yourself a place in environmental campaigning history by displaying a soon-to-be iconic 'No Mine in Arkaroola' sticker on your car (see above).

Grab your sticker by contacting The Wilderness Society here in Adelaide; phone 8231 6586, or drop in at 7th Floor, 118 King William Street in the city, just north of the Pirie Street intersection.

(While not required a donation would help TWS in the production of more of the stickers! Some organizations aren't quite as cashed up as others... :-) )

 

where are the Liberals? and everyone else for that matter?

The ABC 891 radio show with Matthew Abraham and David Bevan raised a very valid question this morning -

I spent the last few weeks wondering why the Liberals haven’t been able to seriously court the Green vote … I mean seriously, as in get together with Mark Parnell, who’s the Greens Leader in the Upper House here in South Australia, and do a preference deal with them and say … here’s some key issues that we can agree on – no mining in Arkaroola [emphasis mine] … the people who got Isobel Redmond into that position are people like Nick Minchin and Iain Evans, they don’t want any mining up there, so it’d be something that they would gladly hand over, concede to the Greens, it wouldn’t be a concession at all.

David Bevan ABC 891 Morning Show 09/03/10

The ABC has not done a particularly good job in reporting the Arkaroola issue throughout. For one, its performance during last year's lease renewal process was poor to the point of being misleading; I still meet people who tell me that the new lease was actually given to a 'different mining company' for an area 'nearby' ('and weren't they looking for gold or something?'), and all of this confusion was directly attributable to ABC reporting at the time.

(Let me restate here that exactly the same company was reassigned exactly the same lease - only the number changed, from 3258 to 4355 - in order to develop exactly the same Uranium deposit. The company - Marathon Resources - would be the first to tell you so.)

Likewise, last time I had cause to comment on the ABC's Matthew Abraham and David Bevan's performance it was, sadly, to note their contribution to the propagation of the bizarre claim that Marathon resources was only suspended from drilling operations for 'littering' in Arkaroola ( see Dial M for Misinformation) and providing a platform for some of Marathon board member Chris Schacht's other 'colourful' ideas.

However, I must say that exactly the question David Bevan has asked - or, at least, the 'why the heck have the Liberals not managed to capitalise on this obvious vote-winning issue?' variant - has crossed my own mind, and the minds of many others concerned over the fate of the Sanctuary.

I have actually written to both Isobel Redmond and to shadow Environment spokesperson Michelle Lensinck raising this very point. It must say that both the replies I received were unintentionally blackly comic, in that in each case they happily accused the Labor Party of not 'coming clean' and simply declaring whether it supported mining in Arkaroola or not, while simultaneously using precisely the same 'weasel' terminology as Labor uses in order to avoid making exactly this same commitment themselves!

And it's telling that Liberal leader Isobel Redmond, when challenged by Labor that she had 'turned her back on BHP' (as if! here we'll pause to note the usual silly, overwrought invective that characterises Australian politics!) responded as follows on radio 5AA in January this year -

As I’ve explained repeatedly, in the time since I’ve been leader I’ve met with Marathon, with Heathgate, with Santos, with Centrex, with all the major mining companies in this state

Well, if Marathon's the first cab of this mental rank I reckon we can pretty-easily surmise Ms. Redmond's attitude to them!


where the heck is everyone?


This lack of support raises a broader question - where the hell is everyone else on this issue?

The Greens have been the only party to consistently attempt to fight for this magnificent area - and, we should note, one of Australia's ecotourism icons and a phenomenally successful South Australian small business in its own right.

Senior Liberals Nick Minchin and Iain Evans have spoken out prominently in its defence. Their party, however, has not.

In fact, it seems that the remaining bulk of the state's politicians and the relevant Federals have been collectively washing their hair! (Yes, I have contacted Nick Xenophon's office - twice - to no avail.)

The lack of attention paid to this issue and the poor quality of reporting on it (with the notable exception of the Independent Weekly) has been a scandal in itself. Meanwhile the forthcoming state election seems to have degenerated into a risible soap-opera with the Premier cast as the villainous cad (a more unlikely suave lothario is hard to imagine, surely?), and this is about the most ridiculous reason for changing a government I can conceive of.

Yet here we have a real issue affecting one of the state's environmental and economic icons and the bulk of the self-styled custodians of our culture and heritage in both politics and the media are all looking the other way ('Ooh, something shiny!')

As many submissions on Seeking a Balance pointed out it's fortunately now pretty difficult to conceive of Queensland mining the barrier reef - but what is truly, definitely inconceivable is that anyone could propose to do so without provoking a roar of local public indignation that would be heard loud and clear all the way over here in Adelaide.

But attack a South Australian icon and the ruckus wouldn't rouse a light sleeper in the next room!

Apart from the the positive forces listed above we must add The Wilderness Society, the Spriggs themselves and their network of friends and supporters, all those who have been writing letters and making submissions (which in all likelihood includes you, dear reader!) and the heroic and time-consuming efforts of film-maker Tim Baier. I apologise if I've forgotten anyone, but my point is that the band is still remarkably - shamefully - small.

With what numbers we have we've all been struggling with little success to be heard in the vast, jaded shoulder-shrug which is nit-picking, cynical politics in SA, where caring passionately about something important is actually a disadvantage!

So, sadly, it seems South Australian are made of lesser stuff! I could say that we don't deserve Arkaroola - but, the real question to ask is whether Arkaroola deserves us!


 

a great day for the australian environment!

The 24th of November 2007 - the day Australians overwhelmingly voted to end the 11 year reign of John Howard's Liberal (read 'conservative' or 'neo-conservative') government.

This is great news for Australian environment !

Not least because the former Government's egregious, arrogant attempts to undermine international climate treaties - sadly largely successful, thanks to the connivance of the Bush administration - on behalf of the coal-lobby will ensure that our continent continues to warm and dry out for decades, no matter what beneficial actions we undertake now!

What a legacy - and what an appalling failure of leadership!

(His government's demise was ultimately sealed, of course, by the bridge-too-far class-warfare of his Industrial Relations 'reform' program!)

With a Labor Government now in Canberra and the Greens holding the balance of power in our Senate there is now much to be done for those who actually value the Australian environment.

And with the Howard government convincingly cast out (and no Liberal Party representative in any office higher than Lord Mayor in any state or territory across the continent!) this is a crucial time to undo the damage wrought by more than a decade of solid federal environmental ignorance.

Of all the blatant manifestations of the failings of the Liberals the inability to act in the face of the catastrophic collapse of Australia's only major river system was the most striking.

We may - literally - never recover. But we must restore what we can, bearing in mind that the Murray Darling system is not an irrigation ditch and cannot be treated solely as an adjunct to boosting profitability for agribusiness.

Naturally our primary producers are of vital importance, particularly in an era where an awareness of the issue of the carbon impact of 'food miles' is constantly increasing. But the river is a natural system, and will never properly function to support agriculture until it is able to sustain itself as a healthy one. A suffocating obsession with economic primacy is what has led us into the dire situation we now face in the first place!

Similarly, we come to the issue of the major focus of this blog at this time; mineral exploration and the attempt to mine uranium in the heart of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Howard's defeat and Labor's ascension is a blow to all who would choose to attempt to mine Uranium in a wilderness sanctuary. Not only do the Greens hold the balance of power, one of the new Green Senators is a South Australian, and her party now holds sway along with a feisty South Australian Independent, who would reasonably conclude that the people of SA do not want to see the Arkaroola Sanctuary violated in this manner.

Uranium advocates may well point to the recent 'conversion' of the ALP on the U mines issue. This certainly has some truth. But if they think that that will amount to an endorsement in this particular case, I suggest that they might do well to think again!

Firstly, state Labor need no longer compete for any putative economic 'credibility' with Canberra; a cooperative approach should now be the norm. Consequently I find it hard to conceive of a Labor party flush with an unprecedented victory, and needing to confirm its credentials as an environmental manager, allowing this one to pass, whether at the level of assessment of a state Class A Zone, or regarding the project's approval under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Of course, if state premier Mike Rann had simply intervened swiftly when this mine was first proposed, as he did in the case of the same company making an attempt to prospect for Uranium on the Fleurieu Peninsula last year, everyone - and the sanctuary itself - would have been spared a lot of unnecessary disturbance!