$25 Swan Levy...

[MATTY]

http://www.thewest.com.au/20030630/u...sto103153.html

no doubt most of you in w.a have heard,read or seen this proposal.any thoughts for or against this ?

[Bear]

I'd be more in favour of hitting up groups\companies that pollute the river. CSBP has a known issue with pollution and yet very little gets done. I'd hate to see our dollars go to fix up a problem created by polluting companies or repairing infrastructure that should be repaired by the government.

Spills into the Swan and Canning by burst piping, loss of wetlands and so on should NOT be paid for by extra taxes.

Tax the buggers that do the polluting in the first place. Hit them until they reduce pollution to an acceptable level. Any new extate on or near the Swan\Canning should pay a levy or be made to have systems in place that reduce the output of pollution.

I'm a bit fed up with the same old answer with these sorts of problems. To me it's no different than trying to get up to have a fishing license.

How do WE get to see where the funds go. Whos going to manage the funds. the Swan trust haven't shown us they can do their job properly. How do we trust them with another $30 million.

JMO.

[Geoff R]

I don't agree that "$30 big big ones"should be put in the hands of some group, I can see at least 10mill being used to set up offices and wages and crap like that. Some people would be riding on an easy meal ticket like pollies do, but i think we are all responsible for this one Bear . Yeah big business has to answer the call but it's gonna have to be a team effort, this is too bigger problem and is gonna take a bit more than some big companies writting big $$$$ cheques.
Regards Geoff

[Bear]

I don't disagree that we ALL aren't Geoff, but why the hell should be on the average Joe to pay for cleaning up after YEARS of government inactivity.

BIG BUSINESS MUST PAY IT'S SHARE. That goes for councils as well.

[Craig H]

I agree Bear, until someone actually demonstrates that they can appropriate funds in a worthwhile manner and the government can manage pollution/run-off, etc. then I don't really think taxes/levies/licenses or whatever they want to bring in should be dumped on the general public.

[Shane]

Hiya...

If it will get them off thier arses and get them doing something about the problem rather than just taking periodic samples then I will give them $30. But without pinging who I think are the main offenders then you wont achieve much.

I am assuming as with everything business are allowed to root up X% of the envinorment a year with government standards. The $25 will more then likely not go towards changing these values. Also I dont see you stopping alot of the run off from places like Burswood and the race courses.

If my $25 went towards changing the practices that escalates this problem then come knock on my door and I will give you the cash, but I want a reciept

In my opinion the problem wont be fixed with updating the rivers OS with hot fixes. It requires a change in mind on how people do things, residents and business. But aint going to happen and just get worse as Perth becomes more like the eastern states cities with the build around their CBD's.

...Cheers

Shane

[MATTY]

how do we know who specifically pollutes the river ? these big companies and organizations that have been mentioned as being major culprits why wouldn't the govt/epa or whoever prosecute them if they had enough proof.small operators who say pour a chemical down a drain get pinged big time but the bigger boys ,who we all suspect do the most damage,seem to avoid any blame.belmont racecourse is the only high profile case i know of that got done for pollution but only after it was proved to be a toxic leakage not a "naturally" occuring bloom.dont know what the fine was or if they actually paid the whole amount.restocking didn't do much as most will have been killed anyway.
what about the farmers and wineries upstream,midland and metro brick,any small hobby farmer who runs sheep or cattle on the tributaries like jane,ellen brook or the helena river.any farm or industry between here and northam could be implicated.
maybe the larger you are the more you pay,maybe a sort of tiered system.

[sam]

As I see it, as long as the gov gets more in the way of taxes and 'cash incentives' from the businesses that are susspected of the pollution than the revenue resulting from recreactional use of our rivers, we will see nother nore thn token efforts to solve the problem. Pessimistic, perhaps. DohDohDohDoh I think I just saw a bird fall from the sky, sconned by hail. Anyway, back to the subject. As they say it's gonna take a long time before we can rest on our laurels in relation to sustainable management of our rivers. A problem for all, yet a few need a bigger kick up the arse than the rest of us.

Sam

I'm afraid I have my doubts it's a lack of money for some more govt departments to all sit around polishing the seat of their pants doing SFA thats the solution to the problem, & which will fix the rivers.

Anyone could tell - that since the federal govt got the GSt - they have so much tax revenue they don;t know what to do with it.

Govt generally in Oz has never had it so good - they sold half of telecom - Libs federally have reduced our foreign debt down from 90 billion to about 30 Billion in their term in office.

Now they want to sell the last half of telecom...at the same time as this new GST has the Federal treasury awash with money.

They have so much money - they can invade Iraq on the other side of the globe looking for some non existent WMD's, they can take over East timor - they are about to play phunny boogers with the Pacific Islanders (solomons)...and so it goes on.

Did we ever consioder all this military muscle flexing when our credit rating was downgraded bye the Moodys rating agency from aaa to aa+ ??????

No - why? coz we didn't have the spare cash to play the "leo DohDohDohDohDohDohs" of the south pacific! (With aplologies to Hogues!). ;o)

All that cash - so much so that The worlds greatest treasurer can't wipe the smirk off his face - he looks like the cat that ate the cream....

This Nations rolling in cash - BUT Bad King Johnny and hios evil smirking Sherrif Peter Costusallalot, w0on't let any of the bounty go to a state (like WA) where theres an incumbent Labor party = who might actually LOOK GOOD in the eyes of the locals come next state election if they had any a that cash to start effecting solutions to the myriad of problems we face.

So it is - that while federally - they are flush with cash - that at a state level, schools, health, and the environment are all totally phukked!

You can die waiting to get into hospital, your kids will never see a university position, let alone any sort of a professional career in later life - and yet we have all this spare cash to solve every problem in micronesia, Timor, and freakin Iraq?

On top of this we should now PAY $25 to fix the environment?

I'd sooner spend the $25 on ammo for the Secession of WA from all them other leaches in the rest of OZ revolution, comrades!

Just think of all that gold, diamonds, iron ore, and natural gas - not to mention our wool and sheep we have in WA comrades! We'd be so freakin rich we could pipe evian spring water here from France to flush the Swan river, hell we could afford to make it bubbly even and give the bream a spa!

Just remember - vote trouty 1 for benevolent dictater of WA at the next election....them buggas with the purse strings are first to be lined up against the wall for summary deportation to the Eastern States where they belong!

You know - Ol Prince Leonnard from Hutt River Province had a mighty fine idea when he seceeded from Australia - You can bet ya balls that if this was the Hutt River with a fish kill - Prince Len wouldn't be waiting on any govt department to fix the bloody problems, no siree - it'd be all hands to the pumps and save the fish.

We get the Govt we deserve - and frankly - we deserve better than the bunch a dills with their snouts in the public trough who call emselves politicians in this nation at the moment.

I'm all for the revolution - get rid a the lot of em...they are all so crooked the couldn't lay straight in bed!

Cheers!

[madaff]

VOTE 1, TROUTY

I FISH AND I VOTE.

"YOU THA MAN" SHANN!!!

[Bear]

Scary thing is guys, short of a revolution, how else do we stop this cycle of crap politicians.

They've had so good for so long, they don't know how they got in power in the first place.

Wake up time.

WE BLOODY WELL PUT THEM THERE AND THEY HAD BETTER START DOING THE RIGHT BLOODY THING OR WE MIGHT JUST LOOK TO SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT COME NEXT ELECTION.

All these fish kills and bream netting and pumping our Southwest water to Perth have got me so cranky Rob, I'd like to go kick someones azz till their nose bleeds...
Just not sure where to start is all!.

I suggested a riverkeepers for WA, privately funded and run bye a board of directors...to do some real azz kickin...but so far - I'm the only one singing the tune. Satges to his credit suggested some "riverwatch scenario" - which may be just the same type of thing, but thats about as close as I've seen of anyone in the fishing community so far picking up the ball and running with it.

You know - if the Anglers of Wa gave a toss, and actually stood well known candidates in marginal seats at the next election, the two party political system could be knobled in this state, neither of em abpoe to form a majority govt without a coalition with the anglers party.

Then maybe we'd get some action...

As it is - like all the other algal blooms and fish kills before them Rob - thius one will result in SFA being done about it once the rain flushes the swan and the problem dissapears from public view as it always does.

I was witnessing algal blooms (with resultant fish/marron kills) in the Blackwood as far back as 1987 Rob, and here we are still with the same problems 16 year later, despite the fact all the same departments knew about the problem- it's causes and the available solutions for all that time.

No one gives a round rats touche Rob - then or now...

When I'm benevloent dick tater Rob, you can be my leutennant, and we'll set things straight in no time flat. I'd make them Cresco bugga's filter the ground water entering the Swan river water thru their kidneys before it entered the river, it'd have to be better result than we have now!

Can you believe that I used to swin in the Swan river at Garrat road bridge every day for years from about 1966 - 1973 before the Bayswater Swimming club moved to the new Baysie pool (now called "waves?) when it was first built.

Heck, I was there the day that kid at ascot club got mauled bye the river whaler...

You reckon Today Rob, just onme generation later, I'd let any a my 3 kids swim in the Swan?...not in a freakin fit.

How can just ONE GENNERATION kill off an entire river?

I reckon it could be fixed in just one genweration myself - IF we had the collective will....but I don;t believe as a people - that we do have that will Rob.

Sure - individuals like you me and a few others might care - but the general public at large arent "prepared" to "give up" anything to attain a healthy river once more..

They all wan't it "fixed" but no one actually wants to do the fixing.

Starting with some effective settling pond bio filters out thru all the swamps that once existed in Morley (now known as the biggest under one roof retail centre in the southern hemisphere Galleria) would be a good start...

Theres so much could be done that isn't being done...and every little bit helps...

All thiose drains that take that water direct to the Swan arent helping matters any and neithers the millions of square miles of concrete, bitumen & brick paving that seems to pass for "natural environment" in Perth these days.

I can say I swam in the Swan as a kid, My kids will be able to say they fished the swan as kids, their kids will say - "what fish in the river? and their kids will say, "what river?"...

Too little much much much too late is what the river will get in the way of help Rob, thats the sad reality...

Cheers!