Below is an unedited response from Cait Hoogenbosch and her comments about the draft Vision 2020.
Please take time to read this as Cait makes some very important points.
I would like to thank Mario for allowing me this guest post and giving me an open forum to express my concerns with the Draft Vision 2020.
I attended the two-day community forum. My hopes for open discussions were dashed on day one when the Shire organizers, in its apparent need to control everything, decided what we should be discussing.
Day one was hijacked by various invited speakers. The worst speaker was the Greens party member who wanted to indoctrinate us into believing his ideology. Fortunately for us, the computer rallied against this Technological Taliban and his slide show didn’t work. One attendee, obviously annoyed, yelled out that he should just get on with his talk and forget the presentation. I would have preferred if he didn’t go on at all as he was trying to make a presentation in the fashion of Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth (AIT). Apparently the speaker was unaware that a United Kingdom court judged AIT to be a propaganda piece and found 11 inaccuracies in the film.
One inaccuracy is something that all Australians should be made aware of; that although the film, and all those in the man-made global warming camp, claim global warming leads to coral reef bleaching, the High Court could not find any evidence to support this claim. This has recently been confirmed in a study that has been published in a peer reviewed scientific journal, New Scientist. Corals can upgrade their symbiotic algae to a more heat resistant strain so coral bleaching is avoided. Now you know.
I could continue with the abomination of the day two forum, but that would take pages to write about. Suffice to say the entire Community Forum was a sham and many of us felt we had wasted our time.
Below I will highlight some new additions to Vision 2020 that were not discussed at the forum so I can only assume that these additions came from Council meetings with ‘special interest groups’ and the mysterious ‘stakeholders’. I’ve asked for the stakeholder list but the Shire won’t give me one.
The term ‘climate change’ is now in our Vision. Why do I object to this? Because it allows the harsh measures outlined in the Environmental Strategy to become realized. Vision 2020 is a statutory document. Council can create laws through what is stated in it. Council is already increasing our rates by 1.3% to fight ‘climate change’ – whatever that is. If Vision 2020 accepts the theory, too, that amount can and will be raised to whatever figure council decides. Let me be clear, the current 1.3% is on top of the already high rate increase. The 7% rate increase from a few years back would have been 5.7% had is not been for what I call the Carbon Tax. Last year’s 4.5% increase would have been 3.2% had it not been for that Carbon Tax. And let’s be honest, if every person in this shire disappeared it would not make one difference to the climate or worldwide human caused CO2 emissions. Not as long as there’s a China and an India in the world.
The draft Vision 2020 also talks about wind turbines. I’m not sure if they want them in the Shire, but the only place I can think of them putting them is in our Yarra Valley.
And the Draft Vision 2020 wants to get rid of the dairy industry.
There’s also a lot of talk in it about ‘Green Jobs’ and renewable energy. Too bad the Council won’t read the report from Spain, ‘Study of effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources’. An average of 2.2 jobs were lost for every ‘green’ job created. The subsidy for photovoltaics destroyed 9 jobs for each renewable job created. Spain’s unemployment soared to 17.4% in the 1st Quarter of 2009. Is this what the Council has planned for us?
They also want us to trade in carbon credits. Council wants to regulate energy use in all homes and businesses – read the Environmental Strategy if you don’t believe me. Homeowners will be ‘offered’ a ‘free’ ‘carbon footprint’ test. This will seem innocuous at first. But Council will eventually mandate that each homeowner in the Shire will only be allowed a carbon footprint of – pick a number. Those going above that number will have to either pay a fine, or purchase carbon credits. In Medieval times you could purchase indulgences to compensate for your sins; nowadays you can purchase carbon credits for your ‘sin’ of using your refrigerator, heating your home, or using your car. Is this really what the community envisions for 2020?
There’s more, but I don’t want to take advantage of Mario’s generous offer.
I am urging everyone to read and comment on the Draft Vision 2020. I do not believe this is a Community Vision anymore but Council’s plan for how they want the community to behave and what they want the community to believe. Please do not let the Council have control of our Vision 2020. If we do, our future is beyond grim.
Comments are due by June 5th. Council gave us over 70 days to decide about the green waste been, but only 25 days to comment on what is supposed to be OUR document. This alone proves that Council wants to thwart our voice. Don't let them.
Cait Hoogenbosch
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