Can’t Wind The Clock Back
To be publicly referred to by local identity Sean Tuohy in this paper as Professor Browning a humbling read. Thanks Sean. From a humble working background and a limited education I must confess to being not the brightest spark. I have scratched a number of letters to the editor over the years, never involving personalities but always a strong advocate for fact, before fiction, and truth before lies and deliberate misinformation by those that know better.
Indoctrinated into myself from a very early age, work hard, don’t waste and indulge, and save to be self sufficient in your latter years. Heading for 84 not sure this was sound advice in this new world. From 13 years of age self funded for near 70 years with the support of my wife Pauline for 61 years and still chasing a few skinny cows about on our little farm way up here in Darkwood.
Having referred many times to my utter disgust for those who set out to shame our early settlers and protest to shut down everything that provide them with their armchair existence and free ride, many on the government tit. We must accept that none of us live a sustainable existence, with the world economy based on consumption and waste at the expense of the environment. We should all be reminded, including our local green brigade, that without the blood and sweat of those early pioneers who were responsible for what, far too many take for granted to-day.
Without the exploitation of firstly the red cedar and some of our hardwood forests followed by the clearing of most of our fertile lands to establish a dairy industry, Bellingen and all of you would not be here to-day to enjoy the fruits. Timber and dairying alone was the sole source to provide what remains to-day.
Much more effort required to preserve what remains, but not confident on that score.
Professor Darcy Browning
Big news: the Great Koala National Park is here!
The new national park will protect over 178,000 hectares of koala habitat from logging on the mid-north coast of NSW, on Gumbaynggirr and Dunghutti Country.
The establishment of this park is one of the biggest conservation wins for NSW forests in decades. It will help protect more than 12,000 koalas from further population decline, as well as protecting other threatened species like the glossy black cockatoo, and greater glider.
However, there are key areas of koala habitat that were not included in the park, such as Pine Creek and Tucker’s Nob state forests. We will keep working with communities to help secure their protection.
Because of this win, koalas now have a chance of survival in NSW, and this wouldn’t have been possible without people like you. You and thousands of Wilderness Society volunteers and supporters have been instrumental in making sure the NSW government kept their promise.
People like you have created real change by:
Signing and sharing our petition.
Calling the Premier’s office.
Hosting and attending events.
Engaging your local MPs, and
having hundreds of conversations all demanding the NSW government honour their commitment to establish the Great Koala National Park
Conservationists, Traditional Custodians, community groups and members of the public have been campaigning for this park for more than a decade, playing a key role in getting it across the line and protecting important koala habitat.
People power works, and this news is real proof of that.
This incredible achievement is because of you. The Wilderness Society is only as strong as the hundreds of thousands of people who back us, who take action, who show up, who care. Together, I truly believe we will soon see the end of native forest logging in NSW, and the protection of all our precious forests.
For koalas,
Sascha Hawkins
NSW Campaigns Manager
Wilderness Society
Racism and voting
Pauline Hanson is a racist. Of course she’s other things as well, but her defining characteristic, in contrast to almost every other Australian politician, is that she has always been a proud, open racist. She boasts of her white nationalism and always has.
The first we ever heard of her was when that famously woke Liberal Party leader, John Winston Howard, removed her Liberal Party endorsement for being too racist (back when the Libs had such a policy). This first offence, in the 1990s, was against indigenous women but she switched seamlessly to Australia being “swamped by Asians” in her maiden speech to Parliament and in the years that followed. In the 2000s she opportunistically progressed to defaming, fear-mongering and ridiculing Muslims (and especially Muslim women), and then African refugees when they became the favoured out-groups.
Thirty years on and the only thing that’s changed about Hanson is that she’s Senator Hanson, now openly funded by billionaires. First time around she was reduced to political irrelevance by Howard’s Liberals refusing preference deals with One Nation and denouncing Hanson’s personal racism. Her Party imploded under the weight of her ego and incompetence. This time the gutless Coalition leadership have abandoned what used to look like principles and are chasing her down some Trumpian, racist, migrant-hating rabbit hole, followed more circumspectly by the ALP.
So when some pundits and some voters start telling us that the forgotten Australians are economically anxious, and have no choice but to switch from their usual right-wing choices to vote for the white supremacist, climate-denying, billionaire party, don’t believe them. We’re all economically anxious. There’s always a choice. There are 47 flavours of conservative party to choose from in Australia but with Pauline Hanson and One Nation that choice has always been about the racism.
Sean Tuohy, Brierfield