Foreign Aid and Thank You

To all those people who have sent me mail about Australia’s aid budget: Thank You.

Thank you for your thoughts on why we should stop helping people in other countries. I understand that you believe that we should stop sending food to poor people affected by massive floods and earthquakes. I understand too that you believe that we should not support education programs in Indonesia and economic development in other countries in our region.

I could say that it is my firm belief that such aid is in our own interest, that development of nearby economies will provide us with stronger trading partners. I could say that better educated neighbours will be better able to feed and support themselves, that their women and children will fare better and that their health will be of higher standard. I could say that the population of nearby countries might do better and not be so keen to board leaky boats bound for our shores.

I could say too that much of our aid money goes to pay a minimal living wage to the thousands of Aussies who give years of their life: Aussie engineers, Aussie doctors and nurses, Aussie teachers. These are who people who show our face to the world, the people who are trusted in the towns and villages of our region and the people who influence the next generation of leaders in the islands and nations nearby.

However, the real reason I respond here is that I believe that as members of a very rich country, we simply have a moral duty to help those less fortunate. No more, no less.

I am sorry that you don’t share this belief and chose instead to campaign against the kindness shown by Australia and Australians to those in need. I really hope that the recipients of these messages reflect and respond more kindly.

Have your say by clicking on Comments below and logging in as a name or anonymously, or just email me and I’ll publish your constructive comments.

Plastic Lawn- Is it Green?

In my suburb there are a few new street verge covers made of plastic lawn. Are these treatments environmentally responsible?

Plastic lawn of course uses less water, no fertiliser and doesn’t require energy for mowing. In these respects it seems to have less environmental impact. However a full life- cycle analysis shows that:

• It takes an very large amount of water, energy and labour to manufacture and ship the material
• The polymer plastics used are not bio- degradable, so they end up as land- fill or worse
• Eventual degradation releases environmental toxins to leach into the groundwater, our drinking water
• Plastic lawn surfaces are twenty degrees or more hotter than natural lawn or ground- cover: not good for the family, street or community
• The bright green surface year- round looks very un- natural
• Rain water runs off plastic lawn, to the drain and river, whereas planted ground- cover promotes infiltration to replenish our groundwater supplies
• The soil under good planted cover contains a healthy balance of bacteria, insects, ants and worms; the soil under plastic lawn is sterile
• A live ground cover uses CO2 and produces oxygen, plastic lawn does not
• A badly- maintained plastic lawn looks just as bad as a neglected verge, only made of plastic
• In a flood event the plastic mat will wash away and add to river pollution for a very long time
• A street verge is a public place, shared by neighbours, kids, dogs, birds and pedestrians. Plastic lawn is neither pleasant nor healthy for any of these users

Personally, I’d rather see good native ground- cover before lawn, for reasons of water and energy efficiency, because of Hay Fever, the birds and because of reduced fertiliser use, benefiting the river. There are quite a few lawn- alternatives; click here and here for some of them.

Have your say by clicking on Comments below and logging in as a name or anonymously, or just email me and I’ll publish your comments.

Efficient, Comfortable Homes

Our electricity and gas bills are rising. We live in bigger homes and we don’t design them very well. We don’t listen to our architects when they talk about energy use. We roll our eyes when someone mentions the operating cost of our house. Some places are just dangerous, especially for kids.

That will soon change when sellers and renters of homes will be required to produce a report, a bit like the star ratings on our fridges and washers. These sustainability reports will inform new residents about the future running cost, comfort and safety of their homes.

All Australian States agreed at Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2009 to set up mandatory energy efficiency disclosure for house sellers and renters. This is already compulsory in Queensland and ACT. Our Federal Government has released a National Strategy on Energy Efficiency.

Key areas of reporting will cover energy, water, safety and disability access. I expect that a report will cost about a hundred dollars. To date what the other States have not all done very well is to keep people informed.

The ten hottest years on record for the planet have occurred in the last twelve years. Despite local extreme cold and snow in the northern winter, 2010 was still the hottest year ever recorded for the whole planet. We also see extremes of cold and heat, flood and drought, across many parts of the world and right here where we live. The new home assessment and disclosure measures are likely to help us adapt to the changes happening around us.

There will also be a need for measurement standards, training and accreditation of inspectors, auditing of reports and public trust in the system. There are opportunities here for business and for people to train and work in these roles. We can work with this system to reduce our personal carbon footprint. Well- designed homes will be more attractive in the market.

Click on “Comments” below to add your thoughts for everyone to read, or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

Canning Bridge- Perth Zoo Shuttle

Perth Zoo is perhaps WA’s most popular tourist destination. We see 600,000 visitors to the Zoo each year. Because it is not easy to get to the Zoo by public transport we see large numbers of cars nearby, especially in school holidays. Local businesses struggle to find adequate parking for customers and staff.

To get from Canning Bridge to the Zoo there are three existing options, all involving at least two journeys with trains and busses, and taking at least twenty three minutes. The direct route takes seven to ten minutes.

We hope to reduce car use in our city and increase use of public transport.We want to make South Perth a safer place. We want to reduce pollution. We want to stimulate the economy of the area.

We have hope for a South Perth train station but will probably not see it for many years. State Government wants to see a demonstrated demand for a rail node before committing funds.

What if we arrange with TransPerth to run a shuttle bus from Canning Bridge to the Zoo and Mends Street ferry. This would be similar to that paid for by Curtin Uni and operated by TransPerth. We would not buy a bus; we would not employ staff. The bus trip would cost one dollar and would run every twenty minutes. Ticketing could include use of Smart Rider swipe cards,

This service could facilitate business development in the Judd- Richardson Street area, allowing people to get to work by train and bus, leaving the car at home for use on the weekend.

The route would be as near to direct as possible. It might operate in conjunction with, or be a modified version of, an existing route. Bus sizes and frequencies could be adjusted with demand and the seasons, at no cost to us. Pickup at Canning Bridge would be at the same point as for the Curtin Uni buses.

Federal funding is available for such operations under the Carbon Pollution Reduction mantle. We also have about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars of income each year from parking in this area. Perhaps this could get the project started,

I think that this idea meets many of our objectives, especially about making this a more liveable and sustainable City. What do you think? How can we do this better?

Click on “Comments” in the blog to publish your thoughts or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

Swan River Stopped

The Swan River has completely stopped flowing.

The photo below shows our river at the Great Northern Highway crossing yesterday. No water at all is flowing from the hills. A picturesque pool stops at the little sand bar.

The only movement in the waterway is now from a flicker of current when tides squeeze past the bar at Point Walter. There is no fresh water inflow, no added oxygen, no flushing of silt. This means that anything we spill or allow into the river will stay there. Any living thing in the river has almost no available oxygen.

Please feel free to add your thoughts, by clicking on “Comments” below.

A Changing World

Today the Federal Government releases a set of sea level rise maps. These highlight low areas that are vulnerable to rising sea level between now and 2100. The message is that no amount of action is going to stop climate change in the short term. We have got to do what we can to live with it and learn how to care better for our planet.

Sea level rise depends on expansion of ocean water as it warms, local effects due to land rise and fall, ocean winds and currents and behaviour of polar ice caps.

As around 85% of us live near the sea this will affect most of us. We can use the maps to assess how we might adapt to likely water level rises and sometimes to mitigate these changes.

Ways that we could be affected go well beyond possible inundation of roads, services such as police stations and houses in low areas. There are likely to be changes to insect breeding patterns, fisheries, storm impacts on river and coastal areas, transport and other essential services. We will probably see Perth groundwater become more salty. Sewerage engineering will be affected. Water bird nesting sites could be under threat. Industries such as tourism, agriculture, construction, health and local government will have to re- assess what they do and how they do it.

The world warmed by 0.7 degrees last century. Every year this century has been warmer than 99 of the previous 100 years. (OK, that was 1998). The IEA suggests that we will warm 3.5 degrees this century. The battle to limit global warming to a small amount is probably over.

We now must find ways to live with less fresh water, higher sea levels, less but more intense storms, weather extremes, changes affecting crops, weeds, birds and insects. We will be better able to do this if we have a resilient economy, good education and open public information.

This year’s simultaneous almost total drought in WA and floods in the East, consecutive record northern hemisphere cold winters, devastating floods in Pakistan and other events demonstrate the power of these effects and the need to learn how to adapt.

In a local sense we already see significantly less runoff to our dams, where we lose about 50% to evaporation anyway. Warmer summers increase this loss. Only about 2% of rainfall runs off to rivers. We can expect even less water in our dams.

Some of our adaptation will result from Government decisions but mostly it will be the sum of individual actions- where to move to, what crop and when to plant, what sort of house to build and so on.

As more people abandon cropping in marginal areas we’ll face the challenge of migration to cities, where we use less energy and water per head anyway. Maintaining food production without deforestation and destroying natural areas will require better farm management and information services. A push for biofuels might exacerbate these issues. World food shortages could lead to higher prices, perhaps to the benefit of good farmers. Species loss is likely as we expand cities and farms.

Town planning will require new understandings and guidelines. Will we still allow dark roofs, no eaves, green lawns? How can we plan for better public transport? How soon can we swap coal mines for wind and solar power? What will be the effect on our trading partners and the Asian region with which we are more closely integrated every day? What new ways of living and working can we imagine, in a world quite different to that which we have experienced?

Please feel free to add your thoughts, by clicking on “Comments” below.

 

Who We Are: City of South Perth

Some figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics led me to summarise our City of South Perth in numbers. Just for your interest I’ve published some of them here. You can do the same for other areas by clicking on the link above.

Population	43,800
Number of families	9,190
Couple families	32%
Single- parent families	9%
Receives age pension	6%
Vehicles per resident, all ages	0.7
Born overseas	35%
Born in North-West Europe	12%
Births per annum, approx.	470
Deaths per annum, approx.	350
Speaks a language other than English at home	18%
Has post- school qualifications, age 15+ years	63%
Does unpaid work for an organisation or group, age 15+	20%

The age distribution is really interesting. My notation is slightly tongue- in- cheek, with reference to the very large degree of public consultation that we do every year. Our long- term residents are really good at having their say. A challenge is to engage more young people in planning for the future.

This is how we work (percentage of employed people):

Managers	14%
Professionals	32%
Technicians and Trades Workers	10%
Community and Personal Service Workers	8%
Clerical and Administrative Workers	16%
Sales Workers	9%
Machinery Operators and Drivers	3%
Labourers	6%
Registered businesses with employees	1650
Registered businesses without employees	2680

Sometimes numbers add to our understanding. These have for me.

Please feel free to add your thoughts, by clicking on “Comments” below.

 

Joined- up Thinking

South Perth’s new cycle way has copped a bit of comment, but I must admit it gets plenty of use. The City has now committed to straightening some of the bends too, so transit riders will be safer.

However, when the path hits the Vic Park boundary there is an unlit pair of steel pipes right across the track, concreted in. This is right next to a very confused set of old footpaths. Vic Park seems to not be part of the commitment to encouraging cyclists. South Perth has even offered to contribute to the costs of getting this path to join up with an existing transit route but to no avail.

We really need to get some “joined- up” thinking here.

There seem to be a lot of situations like this around WA, where we have good ideas and great projects but where these don’t always connect well with other actions, ideas and values. Other popular ideas just don’t seem to address more than one set of values.

Some that I’ve seen recently go like this:

WA needs lots of skilled workers. Some on the national priority list get through quickly. Thirteen thousand others are stuck in queue because Federal Immigration will process only people with skills on WA’s “State Migration Plan.” The problem is that WA has not produced a ‘State Migration Plan”. What??

The State has heaps of water in the north and high demand in the south. Some suggest a pipeline is the answer, without thinking that the energy cost and associated emissions every year would be immense. Water moving in a pipeline has to be pushed, due to friction with the pipe and changes in topography. Meeting one requirement certainly doesn’t meet others. Could we join the thinking to include our own realistic expectations around water and lifestyle?

Perth’s favourite landmark is the Swan River. In recent years we have had massive fish deaths and six dead dolphins in the river. You’d expect that someone was paying attention to water quality, right? Enquiries lead to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Their web site has lots about the new, wonderful Australian Water Resources Information System being the place to find such data. However, there is no such public data and phone enquiries to BOM indicate no one there knows about it either. Calls to the WA Department of Water about public live access to current water quality information yield, quote “You can’t really.” The will however give out some very simplistic data if you specifically ask for a particular item. Surely someone is joining the dots between the health of our beloved river and the quality of water in the river? Surely too, each of us takes care to do our own bit to keep the river healthy.

On Sunday I went with a group of bushwalkers to enjoy the new season around Mundaring. Without exception everyone commented on how much they enjoyed the hills, the diversity of plants and animals, wildflowers and fresh air. Surely we can join up the thinking between valuing the Australian bush and managing the way our city spreads and covers what we value with bitumen and concrete.

We are facing rapid change, as WA did in the 1880’s, in the 1970’s and 1990’s. We can just let it roll over us, like we did before, with rubbish dumps on the river banks, a cement plant up- wind and an industrial area which leaked thousands of tons of pollutants into our drinking water aquifers. The alternative is to connect our thinking and do it right this time.

Can you help be part of this, please?

 

Energy Efficiency

We can make a difference locally. The WA Sustainable Energy Association is putting together a response to the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency to advise the Australian Government on options to improve Australia’s energy efficiency by 2020. A copy of the report can be found here Prime Minister’s Energy Efficiency Report.

What did you think?  What should be given priority? Was anything missed? You can comment on this blog and I’ll pass it on.

My own comments are that Local Government can do much more to promote awareness and practice of energy efficiency in:

• Design of residential, commercial and administrative buildings. This is much more about basic design, not just about ‘bolt- on’ features such as p-v panels.
• Use and working of such buildings. This is mainly about the selection of choices for operations, by owners, managers and individuals.
• Design and operation of systems of travel, including all modes- car, bus, train, cycle and possible other new technologies.
• Promotion of individual responsibility in daily decisions around all parts of life.

Local government is much closer to people’s lives and is much more likely to be able to exert personal influence.

Feel free to click on “Comments” below or just email me.

Perth Global Update

A new report on Perth’s Global Competiveness by researchers from University of Western Australia and the Committee for Perth shows some really interesting facts and conclusions, relevant to where we live.

For a start, 34 per cent of us were born in another country. Only 16 per cent of us are degree- educated, well below the proportion in similar cities.

Shell is moving their Australian headquarters to Perth; BHP, Chevron, Newmont and others have much of their Australian and Asian regional management located here. Very many smaller companies are based here. 41 per cent of companies on the Australian Stock Exchange have their head office in Perth. Sydney and Melbourne, on the other hand, account for only 29 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

We have a comparatively low proportion of children and a high ratio of aged dependants. Age plots show that lots of people arrive here aged between twenty and thirty.

While this might not be the experience in a particular local neighbourhood it is the big picture across the whole city.

Some key features that have implications for our local area are:

• an expectation for diversity of culture, accommodation and life style
• a likely shortfall of educated and skilled people
• a distinct, measured shortage of leadership skills
• significant pressures on our environment

Perth is projected to experience the highest percentage growth of any Australian capital city. Our biggest challenge is to manage this without destroying what we love.

My own view is that just doing what we have always done won’t be good enough. We must get better at being able to imagine the future, even if it is not much like our past. We will have to teach ourselves that just because we have done something for twenty, or even two thousand, years it might no longer be sustainable.

Please feel free to have your say by clicking on “Comments” below, or email me and I’ll be happy to publish your wisdom.

 

Local Government Leads the Way

Our local Councils are where it's all happening. South Perth and Melville are building ideas towards the future with their work on Canning Bridge precinct and many other issues. Several thousand people have attended workshops, information sessions and gatherings in the park, about Our Vision Ahead 2030 and about Canning Bridge precinct. Local people have been having their say about a plan for South Perth in 2030, about Canning Bridge and about what sort of city we dream of. The effect of this is that new ideas and vision are being put together with everyone’s involvement- the essence of Participatory Democracy.

Swan Federal Liberal MP Steve Irons this week spoke for an extended time in the House of Representatives in Canberra, bagging our consultative process, our public meetings in general and my blogs in particular. Why run down our City? Surely this is not a political issue, an arena for scoring points. We’re working for our future; the support of our Parliamentary representatives will go far to helping us progress towards our shared vision.

Federal Government is so far away they rarely listen to us at all. State Government has been an inspiration- free zone for many years, so public consultation has been totally unnecessary for them anyway.  In Council we do it all the time- in deputations and workshops, in blog comments, at meetings in the park and on the street. C’mon Steve Irons, and John McGrath, you can be part of this too.

This process is exciting. Of course, not everyone goes away happy, especially when a majority opinion differs from their own, but everyone is certainly heard. Sometimes the language and emotion get a bit spicy too. Local Government and community is where dreams for the future of Australia are born. Here people are demonstrating inspiration and courage, essential ingredients of vision.

Can we hear from you too? Feel free to click on “Comments” below.

Local Music

WA music is thriving. Last night’s music awards at the Fly By Night Club in Freo showed off some of the very best. I had the pleasure of presenting the Jazz award, sponsored by the City of South Perth and won by Chris Sealey. Chris will be playing at Ellington's, the fabulous jazz club in North Perth on 02 November. There is a full list of 2010 winners on the WAM web site.

Watch out for lots of music in South Perth in 2011. There will be events large and small, they all sound exciting and will interest all ages. This is really one area that Local Government can make such a difference. By organising events, providing venues, sponsoring competitions I think that we can do plenty to encourage local talent. Sure, we enjoy the big names for the big shows; we can also savour the work of new WA musicians. How about a Sunday afternoon Jazz event in McDougall Park or a school- age showcase event in the holidays?

By adding some music to our world, especially in a social setting, I think that we can improve our quality of life. Lucky Oceans, the Master of Ceremonies last night, spoke about melody being a feeling and lyrics being a thought. What are your feelings and thoughts about what we can do with music? Click on ‘Comments’ below.

Canning Bridge Vision Motion, My Summary

(i) Canning Bridge is the right place for Transit Oriented Development, consistent with WA’s Directions 2031.

(ii) Cassey Street bus exit component removed for now.

(iii) Manning Road South Freeway On- ramp be given Critical priority.

(iv) There is lots more work to do yet. Heights shown are not final and do not represent approval.

(v) Diagrams of building shapes are not be part of the Vision.

Canning Bridge Transit Oriented Design (TOD)

South Perth Council last night decided to move on with progress of our Vision for the future of Canning Bridge.

Since 2006 there have been in excess of forty events related to planning the future of the Canning Bridge Precinct. We have had mail- outs of proposals, public workshops, discussions, formal meetings, Ward events in the park, combined working groups with the City of Melville, consultants and other bodies such as the Departments of Transport, Planning, TransPerth, and other stakeholders. I acknowledge the vast amount of input, by staff, community members, Councillors and many others.

In the process we have learned of the wide range in that what individuals want from their house, their neighbourhood and their city. This includes such vital matters as shelter and safety (of course), real estate value, distance to school, ease of travel, number of bedrooms and access to shops. Also in mind were concern for the environment (local and regional), population growth, climate change, physical and emotional health and much, much more.

From the initial consultant’s model in July 2008 we have all had in mind that what we were working on was a transport problem, in a population, environmental and economic context.

Put simply, we have a city and lifestyle designed for cars. Our transport is becoming choked. We have rapid population growth. We are destroying the bush around us. It is costing us more and more, in many ways, to follow our old style of development. Change was coming over us and we were determined to make it happen our way, not to just do nothing or, worse, to be dictated to by a State Development Authority.

At the core of every conversation, and there were many of them, was the belief that our core values were around the Quality of Life for the people of South Perth. That Quality of Life was expressed in terms of social, environmental and economic measures- the triple bottom line of every conversation and debate.

Along the way we had plans with a huge roundabout over the station, tunnels under the river, a bus station over and along the train line and a bus exit up Cassey Street.

In mind were discussions around the relationships we share, our core values and our behaviour towards each other in South Perth.

While we have been busy on this project there have been many others under way around our City, such as at Wellard, Canning Central, Murdoch, Bull Creek and Burswood, in other States, such as along the Adelaide- Gawler line and in other countries. Many of our concerns are similar to those faced across the globe.

Where to now? Now that we have shown our support for this Vision, City staff and consultants will develop infrastructure plans, financial analyses and precinct building guidelines. As always in the City of South Perth, we will have lots of community participation at all stages. This way of doing business is now a major feature of how we do things around here. I appeal to everybody to stay on the bus on this journey to a future that we design and choose for ourselves

I offer tribute to the honest, intense and valued input of so many community members in so many ways. While we probably have not given every member of community the outcome they personally wanted, we certainly have listened to, noted, and responded to every word. The sum of this process is the resolution we accepted last tonight and whose text is here.

Canning Bridge Transit Oriented Design Decision

Last night South Perth Council voted to proceed with work on our Canning Bridge Vision. Text of the motion follows; please note that this is not an official Council document.

That....

(a) Council acknowledges that the Canning Bridge Precinct, because of its location and features (Freeway and Canning Highway intersection and bus and rail transfer station) is an appropriate place for Transport Oriented Development consistent with Directions 2031.

(b) Council supports the Canning Bridge Precinct Vision (the “Vision”) as the long term non-binding, non- statutory guiding document for the Canning Bridge precinct, with the following amendments and notations:

• (i) Council supports the spirit of the Vision, i.e. that Canning Bridge, because of its location and features (Freeway and Canning Highway intersection and bus and rail transfer station) is an appropriate place for Transport Oriented Development consistent with Directions 2031.
• (ii) The Cassey Street bus exit component be removed from current plans and reviewed upon completion of the detailed traffic planning study.
• (iii) Manning Road South Freeway On- ramp be given Critical priority.
• (iv) Council acknowledges that the final height and built form will be dependent upon the results of the further studies and detailed design guidelines. Heights shown in the Vision may be used in such further studies. This use does not indicate, and should not be considered as, approval by the City of the building heights specified in the Vision. These heights are likely to change during the period in which planning for increased density in the Canning Bridge Precinct occurs.
• (v) The diagrammatic shapes of possible new buildings within the precinct will be removed from current plans.

(c) the Chief Executive Officer be authorised to pursue and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Melville outlining joint support for the Vision.

(d) the City participates in a dedicated steering group with State and local government representatives be set up to oversee the implementation of the Canning Bridge Vision.

(e) the following further technical studies be initiated to progress the development of an activity centre structure plan during 2010/11 and 2011/2012:

• (i) Detailed built form and streetscape guidelines
• (ii) Detailed traffic planning study
• (iii) Parking and access strategy
• (iv) Landscaping design guidelines

(f) the Western Australian Planning Commission, the City of Melville and those who made submissions on the draft Vision be advised of points (a) to (e) above.