Hervey Bay Gossip

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie today announced the in-principle agreement between a Chinese airline and Queensland authorities to work closely together to remove possible barriers for flights between Chinese cities and Brisbane.

China Southern Airlines, Tourism Queensland and the Brisbane Airport Corporation will form a working group to further discuss the airline’s interest in operating from Guangzhou to Brisbane.

Mr Beattie said the airline had been investigating the possibility of a non-stop service to Brisbane and the working group was another step forward.

“There are a number of technical and operational issues being worked through but China Southern senior executives will be travelling to Queensland later this month and they will have further discussions with Queensland government, aviation and tourism industry representatives,” Mr Beattie said.

He said China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines have also shown interest in a non-stop service from Shanghai to Brisbane.

“The tourism growth potential from the Chinese mainland is huge. Between December 2003 and 2004 there was an increase of almost 71,000 visitors from China.

“The forecast growth of about 16 per cent annually over the next decade could mean as much as $6 billion to the Queensland economy,” Mr Beattie said.

And of course more Chinese tourists coming to Hervey Bay means more dollars into the local economy.

A total of four cane farms in the Childers area are now reported to be under quarantine as more suspect plants are found.

Movement of people, plants, machinery and soil off the affected properties is prohibited.

As resistance to Traveston Dam grows and the Teflon Premier refuses to look at other options we are seeing more and more reasons appearing for not building the dam.

There are suggestions that a government report that was commissioned in 1994 ruled Traveston out because of the high cost and loss of prime agricultural land.

Experts suggest that regional weather patterns around the proposed dam will only be full at the same time as any of the other dams that are currently at critical levels.

The Australian is currently reporting that their investigations show that the soil beneath the dam is so porous that there would be considerable loss of stored water through seepage.

The Queensland Farmers Federation syas that 180 productive farms will disappear under water and that 10% of southern Queensland’s dairy production happens on some of those 180 farms.

Even industry here in Hervey Bay will be affected when the Traveston Dam is built. The Dam will obviously seriously affect the flow of the Mary River into Hervey Bay and that will reduce fish stocks to the point where the local fishing industry will cease to exist.

Traveston Dam is not the answer to anything - all it will do is create major problems in the future - but by then Teflon Pete won’t have to worry about them because he will have retired on a nice fat pension.

Only last week there was a radiation leak at the Lucas Heights reactor and the experts still don’t know what caused the rupture in the pipe that released the radiation.

Now our beloved Federal Member Warren ‘lets ignore the dangers’ Truss - Member for Wide Bay is reported to have said that he would be happy to have a nuclear power station in this electorate.

Of course, he would want ‘certain criteria’ to be met …

Sure Mr Truss the only trouble is that if your ‘criteria’ is about as much use as a hip pocket in a singlet if something goes wrong and there is an accident because the damage could be catastrophic.

Let’s not forget that Chernobyl happened 20 years ago and that place has still not been stablised - do we really want a potential Chernobyl here on the Fraser Coast Mr Truss?

I think not and you should think again too. If there was an accident you wouldn’t have an electorate to represent anymore because most of your voters would be dead.

And just let me add a footnote to this piece

The ABC is now reporting late on the evening of June 15 that there have been three accidents at Lucas Heights since last Thursday. The director of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is quoted as saying that there is usually one ‘incident’ a month at Lucas Heights.

I’m sure their neighbours will be happy to hear that.

The Australian Government Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Warren Truss, and Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Paul Lucas, today released a draft joint study of transport options and issues for the Brisbane to Cairns corridor for public comment.

Mr Truss said the study will inform investment decisions for the Bruce Highway and North Coast Railway beyond 2009.

“The cooperative long-term plans will help identify future transport needs for the corridor and the priorities for meeting those needs,” he said.

“The strategies will provide a basis for making decisions on future project planning and construction timeframes.”

Mr Lucas said,”The Brisbane-Cairns corridor has 58% of Queensland’s population living along it and includes major urban, industrial, agricultural and tourist centres. And it’s growing all the time,” Mr Lucas said.

“The study gives us a blueprint for devising practical solutions to emerging problems before they become critical.”

Public comment is invited before 7 July 2006.

edited to remove a dead link

Late today, teams at the infected Childers-area property located a section in which there are a significant number of plants suspected of having sugarcane smut, Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries Tim Mulherin said today.

Mr Mulherin said the discovery highlights the need to implement surveillance across the district, but it would not change the focus on planning to eradicate the disease.

“This does not alter the fact that we are going to do everything we can to eradicate the disease,” Mr Mulherin said.

There have been no suspect plants discovered on any other properties, to date.

The response to the disease is a collaborative project involving BSES Limited, industry organisations and the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

Sugarcane smut will be dealt with under the Plant Health Australia “Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed”, to which Canegrowers is a signatory.

Owner reimbursement costs will be paid for all plants or crops destroyed as part of the response. Full provisions of cost sharing will apply, which will include an industry contribution of 20 percent towards all costs.

Under the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed, the Australian Government is liable for 50% of the government component of costs, with the remaining 50% shared among state governments. Due to the national distribution of sugarcane production, Queensland will be liable for much of the state government component.

Sugarcane Smut is a serious, but controllable disease of sugarcane, which can reduce yields by 20-30 percent.

The Acting Premier has released this statement about the blue with WEally

Acting Premier Anna Bligh is outraged that the Wally Lewis statue at Suncorp Stadium has been painted blue.

The Acting Premier was at the Stadium at 7am to inspect the cowardly act.

“All this stupidity will do is motivate Mal’s team even more in tonight’s clash,” she said.

“To defile the King would once have had the perpetrator in the stocks, but for Wally and all proud Queenslanders we know that this cheap stunt won’t dent our pride.

“It’s such a typical Blues act. It’s just like their whinging about GST funding. It’s hollow and pointless.

“Come game time tonight every Maroon supporter will be cheering as Darren’s team do their best to defend the King’s honour,” she quipped.

“On a serious note this is vandalism and unacceptable. If anyone has any evidence to solving this crime they should forward it to Police.”

As Ms Bligh pointed out - it was an act of vandalism.

Warren Truss - the Federal Member for Wide Bay (which includes Hervey Bay) by accusing the Queensland Premier of bully boy tactics over the Traveston Dam in the Mary Valley.

“Mr Beattie doesn’t even seem to care that environmental, engineering, social and feasibility studies have have only just commenced. Nor does he care about the increasing number of Queenslanders who believe the mega-dam would cause irreparable environmental and social damage, not to mention the flooding of the Bruce Highway and many of the options for the Cooroy to Curra upgrade.”

Mr Truss has repeatedly said that it seemed incredible that the Queensland Government would declare its support for the mega-dam before it has costed the proposal or tested whether it can even be constructed.

“This latest outrageous statement from the Labor Premier is proof that the Queensland Government is simply trying to escape judgement in the cities for failing to address water needs over many years. Mr Beattie clearly has no concern for the disaster he is inflicting on the people of the Mary Valley as long as he entertains the people of Brisbane who are about to experience stepped-up water restrictions. Remember these water restrictions would not be required if the previous Labor Government had not cancelled the Wolffdene Dam.

“If Mr Beattie thinks he can forge ahead with the Traveston Dam without regard for its negative impacts, he is sorely mistaken.

“The Beattie Government developed the plan for the unwelcome Traveston Dam without consulting the people of Gympie and district and the Premier is still not listening,” he said.

Well … his statue did … for a short period of time.

The Courier Mail is reporting that someone committed a dastardly act upon the statue of the Queensland Rugby League legend Wally Lewis and painted his jersey blue around 4.30am this morning.

That dreadful act of desecration was quickly discovered and the statue of Wally was soon returned to the correct colours.

Dare I say it … GO THE BLUES!!

Imagine a trip to Fraser Island in or on one of these. There would be no need to wait for the barge and you could launch from just about anywhere along the coastline here in Hervey Bay.

Amphibious vehicles are nothing new - the Army has quite a fleet of them, there have been amphibious cars before and many years ago one very brave couple crossed the Atlantic in an amphibious Land Rover but Gibbs Technologies, a company in the UK wants to put amphibious technology within the reach of more than just the military and eccentric.

And they just might do it with these three unique vehicles:

The Quadski is the world’s first high speed genuine all terrain vehicle.

The Aquada is a genuine two seat amphibious sports car.

The Humdinga is a concept vehicle with full-time four wheel drive. It’s powered by a 350 BHP engine that gives it a top speed on land of 160kph and 64kpm on the water.