Bushfires - Food for thought from Bill Sykes

Re: Bushfires – Food for Thought

1. Financial Assistance

The State Government have announced grants from the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal for people who have lost family members, lost their home or been severely affected.

I welcome these grants.

However at this stage the needs of people such as farmers who have lost their businesses have not been recognised.

This must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

2. Public Safety – Boundary Fences

Hundreds of kilometres of boundary and internal fences have been damaged or destroyed.

It is absolutely critical from a public safety perspective to immediately replace or repair fences bounding public roads otherwise further tragedies will occur.

All outer boundary fences need to be replaced or repaired urgently to contain stock.

The All Party Parliamentary inquiry into bushfires recommended that the State Government must at least pick up 50% of the cost of fences adjoining crown land.

Given the devastation caused by recent fires I believe that the Government should immediately meet 50% of the costs of fences bordering public land.

3. Emergency Housing

New Myrtleford based company Mod-Eco is able to produce excellent emergency housing for location ‘on site’ within a few weeks.

Use of these houses would be a ‘win win’ situation – in that appropriate housing would be produced as well as providing employment and a source of income for the community of Myrtleford and district, which has been hard hit by the drought, bushfires in 2003 and 2006/2007 and the closure of the tobacco industry.

Bill Sykes MP
Member for Benalla
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary
for Agriculture & Water

Greg's View of Todays News - 02/15/2009

• Teens come forward to claim they fathered 13-year-old Alfie's daughter
  

  Two teenagers have come forward to claim paternity for the baby girl fathered by 13-year-old Alfie Patten, amid reports the child's mother Chantelle Steadman was sleeping with as many as eight boys.

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    • This is a disgraceful indictment on modern society.
      How on earth can these children ever hope to learn personal responsibility - let alone respect for themselves and others.
      Publicity of such an abberation is wrong. - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Pacific fruit-pickers head to Australia - ABC News

  The first of an estimated 2,000 unskilled seasonal workers from the Pacific arrive in Australia tomorrow to begin picking fruit.
  
  On Monday, 50 Tongans arrive in Sydney, en route to Robinvale on the Murray River in Victoria, to start work picking almonds on local farms.
  
  They are the first of an estimated 2,000 unskilled workers from Tonga, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu who will take part in the Federal Government's pilot unskilled seasonal workers program.

  With unemployment on the rise, some vineyards in the King Valley are moving away from foreign seasonal workers in favour of the locals. It is good to see them doing their bit for the Australian workforce.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Greg's View of Todays News - 02/11/2009

• Uni students to be charged for services

  Students have praised the Rudd government for beginning to undo the damage caused by voluntary student unionism (VSU), but are concerned Labor's proposed services and amenities fee will be controlled by universities.

  • Opposition youth spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella said the details of the legislation would be closely scrutinised.

    "As a starting point, our policy is to oppose compulsory fees on students," Ms Mirabella said.

    Ms Mirabella also attempted to cast doubt over the promise that the legislation would prohibit money being spent for political purposes.

  
  

• Stay or go policy should be reviewed, MP says - The Independent Weekly

  Sophie Ms Mirabella, whose electorate of Indi contains communities affected by the bushfires, spoke not just of the emotional heartache but the expected financial hardship. Mobile telephone bills would be "horrendous" following the disaster.

• Architect calls for bunkers in fire zone homes - ABC News
  

• An architect says fire bunkers should be included when rebuilding communities affected by Victoria's worst bushfires.

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    An architect says fire bunkers should be included when rebuilding communities affected by Victoria's worst bushfires.
    
    
    Retiring Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon will run a new agency that will help bushfire ravaged communities rebuild.
    Professor of Architecture at RMIT Norman Day says a simple and inexpensive concrete bunker in the ground next to or underneath each house would be the best protection

  • Professor of Architecture at RMIT Norman Day says a simple and inexpensive concrete bunker in the ground next to or underneath each house would be the best protection from fierce fires.

    He says little can be done to give new houses more protection.
    • This is a brilliant idea. With existing homes, a six foot concrete cube could still be built - especially on hilly properties where it could be cut back into the earth. - post by gnaylor

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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• Australian fires claim at least 173 people, police closing in on arsonists (americablog.com)
• Australian Heatwave: "Climate Change Link is Very Likely" (treehugger.com)

Greg's View of Todays News - 02/09/2009

• BBC NEWS | Marijuana testicular cancer link

  • Frequent or long-term marijuana use may raise a man's risk of testicular cancer, American research suggests.
    

    The study of 369 men, published in the journal Cancer, found being a regular marijuana user doubled the risk compared to those who never smoked it.
    

  • 
    • Well there you go.
      As an advanced prostate cancer sufferer, my research has shown cannabis to be an effective pain management tool. As I never smoked the stuff as a young man, I guess I am pretty well protected against testicular cancer ;) - post by gnaylor
  • Known risk factors for the cancer include previous injuries to the testicles, a family history of the disease, or suffering from undescended testicles as a young child.
  
  
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• Rudd angrily denounces 'mass murder' arsonists - ABC News

  An emotional Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned Australians to brace for more bad news in the wake of the weekend's lethal bushfires across Victoria, which are known to have killed 108 people.
  
  He has also described the lighting of fires as "mass murder" in the wake of the confirmation from Victorian Police that they are treating some fire-affected areas as crime scenes to determine if they were deliberately lit.

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  • And he lashed out at anyone who may have been responsible for lighting the fires, which have destroyed more than 750 homes.

    "What do you say about anyone like that? What do you say? I don't know," he said.
    • Those who deliberately start these fires must be punished to the extent of the law. It that means 'wasting' a young (or older) life with a penalty of life improsonment, so be it!. They should be charged under our terrorism laws where the penalties are the most severe.
      
      What if the wrong person is convicted? Until that can be proven, let them rot in prison for the sake of the community at large. We got it wrong with Dr Haneef - but that was ultimately rectified. - post by gnaylor

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Two charged with arson after deadly Australian wildfires (telegraph.co.uk)
• Australia fire toll 'to increase' (news.bbc.co.uk)

Conditions made battle at Barwidgee living hell

Written by JEFF ZEUSCHNER. - Wangaratta Chronicle 09 Feb 09

HE has almost 60 years of firefighting under his belt, but nothing prepared Max Allen for the firefight he and his crew endured near Barwidgee Creek on Saturday night.

"It was the worst I’ve ever seen," said the Everton CFA veteran, who captained the brigade for 28 years.

"The blazes at Tatong and Whitfield in 2006 were the worst I’d seen, but this was much, much worse because of the conditions.

"Working at midnight in 40 degree heat and against 80 kmh winds...and the noise was just horrendous."

Max and his crew were one of the first to respond to the fire which started along the Buckland Gap Road, near Beechworth, at around 6pm.

"We were there within 15 minutes of getting the call but it had already got away," he said.

"We went to Stanley but a wind change pushed it over towards Barwidgee Creek, which is where we got in front of it.

"It was touch and go, but we managed to save a few houses.

"But a few just up the road were destroyed, and one of them was where a couple of people died.

"You can’t help but think was there anything you could have done.

"On the way back to Myrtleford, between there and Mudgegonga, we saw about 10 homes had been destroyed."