How green is gas?

This is an op-ed piece I submitted to the Newcastle Herald on 1 December (not yet published as at date of this posting).

Gas is often portrayed as a clean energy source that could play an important role in a transition from dirty fuels such as coal and oil to a renewable energy economy.

This portrayal is now being seriously questioned.

The clean energy claim is primarily based on the fact that natural and coal seam gas (which is mostly methane) produces much less carbon dioxide than coal or oil when burned for fuel.

Origin Energy – Australia’s largest natural gas producer – states in its 2010 Sustainable Energy Report that its gas-fired Darling Downs Power Station in Victoria emits less than half the greenhouse gases of a typical coal-fired power station with the same capacity.

The NSW Department of Industry and Investment website states that “changing from electricity to gas for applications such as water heating, space heating and cooking could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of four.”

Locally, this claim was repeated verbatim in a recent media release from the Hunter Business Chamber on the eve of a visit to Newcastle by Advent Energy CEO, David Breeze, to promote his company’s exploratory gas drilling 55km off Newcastle’s coast.

Given the massive expansion of the gas industry now hitting the Hunter Valley, such claims deserve closer inspection.

Like coal and oil, natural and coal seam gas is a non-renewable fossil fuel. Methane, which can leak in the extraction and transport of gas, is itself a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon dioxide currently produced by the burning of natural and coal seam gas is already a significant contributor to total greenhouse gas emissions, and this is expected to rise considerably over the next few decades.

In a recently published conclusion to a full carbon footprint assessment of the greenhouse impact of gas extracted from shale formations in the United States, Robert Howarth, Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University, urges “caution in viewing natural gas as a good fuel choice for the future”.

Professor Howarth says that “using the best available science, we conclude that natural gas is no better than coal and may in fact be worse than coal in terms of its greenhouse gas footprint when evaluated over the time course of the next several decades.”

The “clean fuel” claim for gas is also linked to the fact that it does not produce the range of chemicals and particulates associated with burning coal or oil.

However, a full production-cycle analysis reveals an environmentally darker side to gas, dramatically portrayed in the film Gasland, a nominee for this year’s documentary Oscar.

Modern gas extraction uses the controversial technique of “fracking”, involving high pressure hydraulic fracturing of the geological substrata (usually either coal or rock seams) that contain the gas.

Fracking uses large quantities of water and a chemical cocktail. The technique has raised a range of concerns about ground and water contamination, air pollution, subsidence, and the handling of waste. Off-shore operations present a slightly different set of concerns, mostly related to the impact on the marine environment.

The current surge in the development of the gas industry occurred earlier in the United States than here. This week, the New York State Assembly voted for a moratorium on further gas exploration to allow safety and environmental concerns about fracking to be properly investigated.

Communities and environmentalists in the Hunter are calling for the same approach here, before the region is locked in to yet another industry with dubious environmental credentials.

Laman Street trees saved by people power!

Outside city hall before last night's council meeting

Friends of the Laman St trees doing their thing last night

What a great feeling to be able to celebrate an all-too-rare victory for the community and common-sense at a Newcastle Council meeting last night, when councillors voted to save Laman Street's majestic avenue of giant figs from the chainsaw.

The current council is dominated by conservative "independents" (they call themselves this, despite accepting donations from vested interests, such as developers), many of whom were long ago - and all-too-willingly - captured by the council administration.

On 17 August, the council decided (by a 5-7 vote) to remove all 14 of the Laman Street figs "as soon as possible", refusing to consult any further with the community on a range of options for the future of the trees that the community had never had an opportunity to scrutinise and discuss.

In the ensuing period, the community learned that the council intended to circumvent the normal requirements of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act by using a section of the Roads Act intended to allow roads authorities to remove trees for road works or to remove a traffic hazard.

As far as I have been able to establish, this strategy had never been previously mentioned by council officers, and came to light just before the chainsaws were about to move in. To stop the imminent removal of the trees, the Parks and Playgrounds Movement lodged an injunction.

The ensuing case in the Land and Environment Court turned on the interpretation of the wording of s.88 of the NSW Roads Act. The council argued that the Act allowed them to ignore normal planning requirements, and the PPM argued that it didn't.

Eventually, the Court found in favour of the council's interpretation. The judge noted the contrast in the wording of that section of the NSW Act with the equivalent provision in the Victorian Roads Act, which would not allow a council to circumvent normal planning requirements to remove trees where there was no genuine immediate need to do so.

Because of the clear public interest nature of the case, the judge determined that each side should bear its own costs. The council's legal costs were around $150,000.

The Land and Environment Court decision on the interpretation of the NSW Roads Act (which has not been tested by appeal) was a landmark decision, indicating a need to change the NSW legislation to clarify that it is an emergency power, and to stop roads authorities from misusing it to get rid of trees where there is no genuine urgent need.

However, the legal proceedings did provide valuable time for further discussion between the community and councillors on the future of the Laman St trees, and eventually enough councillors were persuaded to change their minds about the need to immediately remove them, and to put in place a risk management and monitoring regime aimed at preserving them.

Of course, the intervening period has also demonstrated incontrovertibly - in the courtroom of nature and reality - that there really was no need to immediately remove the trees on the spurious risk grounds argued by the council, since not a single tree has fallen over or damaged anyone or anything during that time.

The original decision was an over-reaction, driven by an administration in panic mode, whipped up by a risk-aversion industry that itself often poses the greatest risk to valuable community assets.

I recall in my time as a Newcastle councillor in the 1990s that it was once seriously proposed to construct a chainmesh fence along all the elevated sections of Newcastle's coastline to prevent the risk of accidental or deliberate falls. Common sense prevailed, and the idea was quickly scotched.

In the case of the Laman St trees, it's taken longer for common sense to prevail. On the night it decided to axe the trees as soon as possible, the council voted against an alternative motion (from Greens councillor Michael Osborne) to consult with the community on all the available options, which had never previously been scrutinised or discussed by the community. It's a pity that the council's refusal to do this at this crucial moment in the decision-making process ended up causing so much community anxiety and costing Newcastle ratepayers around $150,000.

All this could have been avoided if the council had been prepared to engage more positively and genuinely with the community on the future of the trees, rather than preemptively ramming through a decision that hardly anyone in the community supported, and that pandered to an extreme and bureaucratically driven form of risk aversion.

It remains to be seen whether senior council staff will accept the new decision of the elected council, and change their approach to a more cooperative engagement with the community.

Congratulations to the councillors who eventually came through for the community.

For the record, last night's vote to save the trees was:

For:

• Graham Boyd (Independent),
  
• Sharon Claydon (Labor),
  
• Shayne Connell (Independent),
  
• Tim Crakanthorp,
  
• Mike Jackson (Labor),
  
• Nuatali Nelmes (Labor),
  
• Michael Osborne (Greens), and
  
• John Tate (Independent).

Against:

• Bob Cook (Independent),
  
• Mike King (Independent),
  
• Brad Luke (Liberal), and
  
• Scott Sharpe (Independent).

(Councillor Aaron Buman (Independent) was absent, but previously voted for removing the trees).

The biggest congratulations go to the amazingly talented and committed group of grassroots community campaigners who came together so effectively to save this wonderful asset (you know who you are).

Media Release: Greens candidate signs on to Unions NSW Better Services Agreement

Newcastle Greens

Thursday, 9 December, 2010

Greens candidate signs on to Unions NSW Better Services Agreement

Signing up to the Unions NSW Better Services Agreement, Thursday 8 December 2010

The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, today signed the five point “Better Services Agreement” developed by Unions NSW, pledging support for a strong public sector, public ownership of public assets, better long term planning for services and infrastructure, workers rights, and government for the common good.

Mr Sutton was the first Greens candidate in NSW to sign the agreement, at a Unions NSW launch outside Newcastle Trades Hall Council at lunchtime today.

In signing the agreement, Mr Sutton congratulated Unions NSW for the campaign, and said he expected that all Greens candidates who had the opportunity to sign the Agreement in the run-up to the March state election would do so.

“The Greens see the principles behind the commitments in this agreement as fundamental to a healthy, democratic civil society.

“People in Newcastle and the Hunter know what it means to have to fight for adequate services and infrastructure, and for governance for the common good.

“Under successive Labor and Coalition governments, our community has suffered through decades of struggles over the privatisation of institutions and services such as the State Bank, GIO, the TAB, FreightCorp, electricity, prisons, and the NSW Lotteries.

“Unfortunately, the community can tick off precious few wins in that list.

“To their great credit, our local community won a long fight to stave off the privatisation of the Wallsend Aged Care facility by the current Labor government.

“Many of our public buildings and lands have been sold off or commercialised. Who can forget the sudden whim to privatise the Newcastle bus depot by the NSW Premier, John Fahey, in the ‘90s. And today, we have the former Royal Newcastle site as a sad recent example that this kind of threat to public land is still current, under both Labor and Coalition governments.

“Right now, the Labor government is pushing a major plan to privatise public assets along Newcastle’s coast, under the guise of a coastal ‘revitalisation’ strategy.

“After the March election, we face the prospect of government under the Coalition, which has already made rumblings about privatising Sydney Ferries (raising the obvious question of what would happen to our own Stockton ferry) and Sydney’s desalination plant (again raising obvious questions for the Hunter, given the local debate about desalination in the wake of the Tillegra Dam decision).

“The Better Services campaign provides an excellent opportunity to focus public attention on such issues as we approach the March state election, and I’m proud to be such an early signatory to it,” Mr Sutton said.

Click here to see the Five Point Better Services Agreement.

Media Release: New coal proposal shows need for new approach

Newcastle Greens

Thursday, 2 December 2010

New coal proposal shows need for new approach

The proposed development of new coal export facilities at the former BHP steelworks site would make Newcastle an even worse climate offender, and would further compromise the Hunter’s ability to diversify the regional economy away from its unsustainable reliance on coal, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

As a Greens councillor and environmentalist, Mr Sutton initiated the Hunter’s first climate-based campaign to phase out the coal industry during the 1990s.

“It’s sadly ironic that news of this new proposal has emerged at the same time as the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, while hundreds are gathering at Lake Liddell in the Hunter to protest against further coal mining and exports, and while inner-city Newcastle residents are expressing strong concerns about the impact of coal freight on local air pollution and amenity, and the Mayfield community is up in arms about potential local traffic impacts from another proposed development on the former BHP site.

“In recent discussions about their proposed Mayfield container terminal, the Newcastle Port Corporation has admitted that coal already consumes so much of our rail network capacity that only 20% of the freight generated by its proposed container terminal development could be transported by rail, with the remaining 80% forced to use trucks. This would apply equally to the Buildev coal development on the adjacent site.

“This is a perfect example of how the current open slather approach to coal mining and exports is directly restricting our ability to create a more resilient, diverse and sustainable local economy,” Mr Sutton said.

“From both a local and global perspective, it’s just not good enough anymore for governments to simply abrogate their responsibility to the whims of the market-place.

“Our local, regional and global communities are now asking when is enough enough, and demanding government action to curb the runaway expansion of the coal industry.

“The Greens have long called for a just transition, comprising a gradual and planned phasing out of the coal industry, and associated economic restructuring and community redevelopment programs to assist affected local and regional communities to build a twenty-first century climate friendly economy.

“The Greens believe that it’s both more ethical and practical to do this in a planned, phased and systematic way, because the longer this transition is delayed, the more disruptive it will be when the need for change inevitably imposes itself.

“Starting the process now will allow us to take greater advantage of the economic and social opportunities that a transition economy offers.

“Rather than wasting precious time and resources on a proposal for new coal facilities at the former BHP steelworks site, the state government should immediately reject the proposal, and develop – in full consultation with the community - an integrated plan for the site based on sustainable job-rich industries that will contribute to a more diverse local and regional economy,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Time to rethink Hunter water strategy

Newcastle Greens

29 November 2010

Time to rethink Hunter water strategy

The state government and Hunter Water should use the rejection of Tillegra Dam as an opportunity to rethink the approach to water security in the Hunter, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

“It’s wonderful news for the Hunter’s farming communities, water customers and environment that the state government has ditched the dam, but a major opportunity will be lost if the Corporation now automatically reverts to the option of an expensive and environmentally damaging desalination plant,” Mr Sutton said.

“During the debate over Tillegra Dam, Hunter Water consistently held the threat of a desalination plant over the heads of environmentalists who campaigned against the dam, arguing that if Tillegra did not proceed, a desalination plant was inevitable.

“Desalination plants are enormously expensive, consume vast amounts of energy, and present significant environmental risks.

“It would be a major lost opportunity if the state government and Hunter Water did not now engage with the wider Hunter community to develop a new sustainable water resource plan with more ambitious water efficiency and demand reduction targets, and more creative and diverse water supply strategies.

“The Department of Planning determination on Tillegra criticised Hunter Water’s needs analysis because it was ‘limited to a small range of options’, adding that ‘a more common approach is to consider a portfolio or suite of options rather than individual options’ [DG’s Assessment Report, p.27].

“It’s now time for Hunter Water to engage with the Hunter community to consider this broader range of options,” Mr Sutton said.

“Water policy is set to play a huge role in future elections in Australia, as Victoria’s Desalination Project proved in the weekend’s Victorian state election.

“In the Hunter, Greens parliamentarians and members have worked closely with local communities and environmentalists throughout the Tillegra Dam campaign, and will continue to campaign for sustainable water management.

“Sustainable water security will only be delivered if strategies have broad community support and are based on genuine ecological sustainability principles,” Mr Sutton said.

Tillegra Dam rejected!

What wonderful news today, that the Kenneally government has finally dropped the Tillegra Dam proposal.

The decision is s a testimony to the hard work and expertise of all involved in the grassroots community campaign against the dam: the No Tillegra Dam group, The Wilderness Society, and The Greens (especially Greens MLC John Kaye), who have all worked tirelessly on this issue for a number of years now.

What an excellent hiatus this now creates to look more carefully at how the Hunter can shift to a more sustainable approach to water security.

Let's hope there isn't a reflexive resort to desalination - the threat that was always held over the heads of environmentalists involved in the Tillegra campaign.

Media Release: Community transport plan a breath of fresh air

Newcastle Greens

John Sutton

 Newcastle candidate

26 November 2010

Community transport plan a breath of fresh air

The Greens today welcomed the public launch of Save Our Rail’s WesTrans proposal as a breath of fresh air in the debate on the future of Newcastle’s public transport system.

The Save Our Rail plan will be officially launched in Wallsend this afternoon.

“Transport policy proposals are often dominated by well resourced vested interest lobby groups, or by government agencies with development agendas, so it’s very refreshing to see a committed community-based group, motivated purely by a desire for a better public transport system, make such a positive contribution,” The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, said.

 “Whilst the proposals in the Save Our Rail study will need to be rigorously examined and costed, they offer a set of ideas that – if implemented - would make a serious start to getting people out of their cars and on to more sustainable modes of transport.

“Lately, we’ve been barraged with double-speak from the NSW Labor government about a ‘rail-based solution’ for Newcastle while they’ve been releasing proposals to cut the city’s rail infrastructure, and we’ve had so much negativity from the local anti-rail campaign against the Newcastle rail line.

“What Save Our Rail is proposing is a genuine rail-based solution, with a significant expansion of current inter-city rail services, and new light rail services that complement heavy rail and bus services.

“The plan looks at different transport modes (including light rail) in the context of the city’s larger transport system and needs.

“This plan is a serious attempt to show how we can begin the shift from our current reliance on private motor vehicles, toward more sustainable transport, such as cycling, rail and buses.

“Save Our Rail is showing the way here, and I urge the state government to treat their proposals seriously,” Mr Sutton said.

Copies of Save Our Rail’s plan can be found on the group’s website at: http://saveourrail.org.au/

Media Release: Sutton calls on McKay to declare stance on off-shore gas drilling

Newcastle Greens

25 November 2010

Sutton calls on McKay to declare stance on off-shore gas drilling

The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, today called on the Member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, to follow the lead of central coast Labor parliamentarians and oppose gas drilling off the coast of Newcastle.

“This is a great opportunity for Ms McKay to prove that she isn’t always the puppet of the Sydney-based Labor powerbrokers who recently succeeded in protecting her from a preselection ballot of local Labor Party members,” Mr Sutton said.

“Unlike Central Coast Labor federal parliamentarians, who spoke out against off-shore drilling during the recent federal election, Ms McKay hasn’t yet expressed any view about the recent approval of Advent Energy’s gas exploration venture, just 55 km off Newcastle, despite the serious risks it presents to precious coastal resources and fishing.

“Ms McKay has made much of her plan to commercialise Newcastle’s public coastal resources, but has said nothing about a proposal that has been secretly approved by the state Labor government, and that will operate with very little regulatory oversight,” Mr Sutton said.

 “Yesterday’s damning Montara Commission report into Australia’s largest oil spill in the Northern Territory criticised a similar lack of adequate regulation by the Northern Territory Department of Resources.

““Aside from being the local member, Ms McKay has Ministerial responsibility for Tourism and for the Hunter, so it’s crucial that she stands up for the tourism industry and for the regional community on this issue.

“Does Ms McKay and the state Labor government believe that drilling rigs off Newcastle will add to our tourism potential, or revitalise the region’s coastal environment?”

“It’s a chance for Ms McKay to show that she doesn’t automatically take the side of vested interests, as she has with her support for the unlimited expansion of the coal industry, and the proposal to cut the Newcastle rail line.”

Mr Sutton said he would be attending tomorrow’s community protest against the gas exploration project at 10am on the steps of Newcastle City Hall, and called on Ms McKay to come along and state her position on the issue.

Media Release: Labor powerbrokers snub Newcastle members

Newcastle Greens

24 November 2010

Labor powerbrokers snub Newcastle members

Today’s decision by Labor’s head office to protect Newcastle incumbent, Jodi McKay, from a local preselection shows that nothing has changed in NSW Labor since Ms McKay was imposed on Newcastle four years ago by the party’s Sydney-based powerbrokers, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

“However Sydney Labor might try to spin it, the fingerprints of the sinister “leadership group”, identified by the former Labor state Minister, Rod Cavalier, in his recent book Power Crisis, as the real powerbrokers in NSW Labor preselections, are all over this decision.

“In the Epilogue to his book, Mr Cavalier asks “Does party membership matter?” in the modern Labor Party, observing that “a leadership group has presumed to determine preselections for any seat that Labor has a chance of winning wherever the local membership might select a candidate unacceptable to that group”.

“Those same powerbrokers have now been cavalier in stomping on the right of Newcastle Labor members to nominate and preselect their local candidate because they obviously know that genuine rank-and-file Labor members in Newcastle aren’t as impressed by Ms McKay as they are,” Mr Sutton said.

“This same leadership group is now rewarding Ms McKay for dutifully toeing the Labor line on electricity privatisation, Tillegra Dam, and the unimpeded expansion of the coal industry; for supporting local vested interests on issues such as cutting the Newcastle rail line; and for being such a consistent apologist for Labor’s many failures in public transport and planning.

“This is a slap in the face for any Labor member in Newcastle who thought they still mattered in the modern Labor Party, beyond their practical usefulness in raising money, handing out how to vote cards on election day, and applauding when the leadership group says ‘clap’,” Mr Sutton said.

“It’s no wonder so many Labor members and voters are now turning to The Greens, whose local candidates are preselected by local Greens members,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Business Chamber caught out on gas line

Newcastle Greens

23 November, 2010

Business Chamber caught out on gas line

The Hunter Business Chamber was today caught out by The Greens for blatantly plagiarising a state government industry development website in a public statement in support of a gas industry in the Hunter.

The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, said that a HBC media release titled “Gas is a viable future energy source” (dated 22 November 2010) was almost entirely a word-for-word lift from the Industry and Investment NSW website (http://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/energy/gas), with the stolen words being attributed to HBC CEO Peter Shinnick.

A support document, titled “Member Information Bulletin, Hunter Gas Industry”, also steals entire slabs of text straight from the government website, without any acknowledgement of the source, Mr Sutton said.

“When I was a university lecturer, a piece of work submitted with this level of plagiarism would have been immediately failed, with a requirement for it to be done again properly,” Mr Sutton said.

“That’s what the HBC needs to do here.

“It’s not good enough on such an important issue, involving such huge economic, environmental and social stakes, for the HBC to simply cut and paste its material from a government website, and present it as its own.

“This is a huge embarrassment for the Chamber, and highly insulting to the local communities who have legitimate concerns about the potential impact of gas exploration and mining, and to the National Farmers Federation, who have expressed similar concerns, and have joined with The Greens in calling for a moratorium on further gas exploration in the Hunter.

“Concerns raised revolve primarily around the practice of “fracking”, which involves chemically fracturing subterranean rock formations to allow gas extraction, potentially contaminating aquifers and land, and creating air pollution and waste.

“If the Chamber wants to be taken seriously on this issue, they can’t just play the role of a ventriloquist dummy for a government website. They need to listen to people in the affected communities, and do their own research and thinking on gas mining.

“I hope that Mr Shinnick and other Chamber board members attend the showing of Gasland in Newcastle next Tuesday (30 November, at 5:45pm at Greater Union Cinemas in King St), which depicts the harrowing story of one person’s engagement with the gas mining industry in the United States.

“This is emerging as a major issue for everyone in NSW, as the residents of St Peters, in inner west Sydney, discovered recently, when they found out that Macquarie Energy had been granted approval for exploratory drilling there,” Mr Sutton said.

Labor lost on Newcastle transport

This was submitted as an op-ed piece for the Newcastle Herald

The two transport documents for Newcastle’s city centre released by the state Labor government last week are the latest evidence of how far NSW Labor has lost its way on public transport and urban revitalisation in this city.
The long awaited scoping study for cutting the Newcastle rail line and building a new Wickham terminus confirms that it would cost between $375 and $505 million, not including a long list of identified but excluded matters.

The most significant cost exclusion (not even on the study’s list) is the cost of any system to replace the lost rail service. No costings for any interchange facilities for passengers forced to get off at Wickham, as suggested in the discredited Hunter Development Corporation (HDC) report, nor for any light rail system, as suggested by the NSW Premier earlier this year.

This is a plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to cut public transport infrastructure, services and patronage.

The other document, the Transport Management and Access Plan (TMAP) outlines uncosted public transport proposals that – if introduced - would still fall well short of the state government’s own public transport target for Newcastle.

It’s a plan that aims for failure.

In the accompanying media release, the NSW Minister for Transport , John Robertson, said that the state government remains “focussed on a rail based solution for Newcastle”. The only rail based proposal in either document is the Wickham terminus and the cutting of the Newcastle rail line.

The TMAP proposes axing the highly successful fare-free zone that applies to every public bus in the CBD area, and replacing it with a city loop service that will circle the periphery of the city.

Even if this service proves operationally and financially viable, it would mean that passengers forced off the trains terminating at Wickham and wanting to use one of the current bus services into the city would have to walk from the railway terminus to Hunter St, and pay another fare for a bus that is currently free.

The study doesn’t outline any special services that will make this forced interchange any easier for passengers with disabilities, prams, luggage, surfboards or other bulky items.

The scoping study cites estimates that cutting the rail line would reduce local rail patronage by between 7.4% and 23.7% a year.

The extra cars that this will put on the road will increase traffic congestion on Stewart Avenue, which will also receive the spill created by the closure of the Railway St level crossing.

This is a plan for a car-clogged city.

The traffic impact of the study’s proposal to close the Beaumont St level crossing is entirely unexplored.

The potential commercial impact of cutting Beaumont St in this way (including the option of a Beaumont St overpass) is also unexplored. No wonder the Beaumont St traders are up in arms, because this looks like a plan to kill the goose that has layed the golden egg of one of Newcastle’s most successful commercial strips.

This is well on the way to being Newcastle’s version of Sydney’s Metro debacle.

Let’s get to a genuine rail based solution for Newcastle, and build a public transport system that provides the basis for a sustainable revitalisation of our citycentre, and has a real chance of achieving vital federal funding assistance.

Media Release: Labor's Newcastle transport plan aims to fail, say Greens

Newcastle Greens

18 November 2010

Labor’s Newcastle transport plan aims to fail, say Greens

The state Labor government’s recently released transport plan for the Newcastle city centre aims to fail, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

“The government’s plan acknowledges that the proposals in it won’t achieve their own target for increasing public transport use in Newcastle,” Mr Sutton said.

“The Newcastle City Centre Transport Management and Accessibility Plan (TMAP) released this week along with the government’s scoping study for cutting the Newcastle rail line states that the initiatives outlined in the plan will achieve a peak period public transport mode share of only 15.7% by 2016 – a tiny increase on the current 14.1%, and well short of the 20% target set for 2016 in Labor’s own State Plan,” he said.

“This week’s Newcastle transport plan shows that the state government won’t even get close to its 2016 public transport target for the city a decade and a half later (by 2031), when it states that the peak period public transport share for Newcastle will reach only 16.5%.

“Labor’s Member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, is still wasting precious time and public money pushing the discredited developer-led campaign to cut the Newcastle rail line, whilst she and this dysfunctional Labor government mouth empty clichés about a ‘rail based solution’”.

“This is worse than fiddling while the city burns,” Mr Sutton said.

“This whole sorry episode is now well on its way to becoming Newcastle’s version of Sydney’s Metro fiasco, which eventually cost taxpayers $500million to achieve nothing.

“It was Sydney Labor who preselected Ms McKay to represent Labor in Newcastle, and she has clearly learned what she knows about public transport from the same stable.

“Newcastle’s public transport system has gone backwards under Ms McKay’s watch, and Labor’s latest plan to cut the city’s rail line (which she initiated) will take Newcastle even further from the government’s own transport policy destination.

“Ms McKay and the state Labor government should cut their losses now, and ditch this hair-brained scheme to cut the city’s rail infrastructure and services, so Newcastle can get on with developing a credible rail-based revitalisation strategy that could attract much needed federal funding,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Greens say time to stop silly rail cut plan

Newcastle Greens

16 November 2010

Greens say time to stop silly rail cut plan

The state government’s investigation into the feasibility and costs of cutting the Newcastle rail line and building a terminus at Wickham confirmed that cutting the Newcastle rail line would waste hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton said today.

“This report demonstrates that it would cost up to $505million of public money to lose rail patronage by cutting a major part of the city’s most sustainable transport infrastructure, without even putting anything in its place,” Mr Sutton said.

“Since the Member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, first thumbed her nose at her party’s policy to keep the Newcastle rail line and threw her support behind the anti-rail push by developers, The Greens have warned that this would undermine the city’s ability to access crucial federal infrastructure and revitalisation funding.

“A proposal to cut an inner-city rail line will be laughed out of town by any government funding body that is serious about urban revitalisation and sustainable public transport.

“In the light of this report, I call on the Member for Newcastle to drop – once and for all – the silly notion of cutting the Newcastle rail line, and instead develop a rail-based revitalisation plan that achieves the dual objectives of revitalising the Newcastle CBD and improving the city’s public transport system.

 “Instead of presiding over yet another public transport debacle, the state Labor government should be using this opportunity to rethink their whole approach to this issue.”

Mr Sutton said that the implications of the scoping study’s proposal to remove rail-crossings at Railway St and Beaumont St were entirely unexplored in the study itself, and could produce traffic chaos and simply shift the cross-rail connectivity issue westward.

Media Release: Greens welcome Herald transport study

Newcastle Greens

10 November 2010

Greens welcome Herald transport study

The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, today welcomed the Newcastle Herald’s announcement that it is commissioning an independent public transport study for the Hunter.

“Provided this turns out to be a genuinely independent study, which gives priority to the public interest over powerful vested interests, it could provide the necessary circuit-breaker out of the current paralysis in sensible public transport policy in the Hunter,” Mr Sutton said.

“I congratulate the Newcastle Herald for taking this initiative, and stepping in where the state government has so clearly failed to act in the public interest.

“The discussion paper for the study (available on the Herald website) provides a generally sound outline of the current state of public transport in the Hunter, and the range of challenges that we face.

“Given the Newcastle Herald’s own previous strong support for the anti-rail campaign by vested interests in Newcastle, the credibility of this study will depend on the extent to which it remains genuinely independent,” Mr Sutton said.

“As things currently stand, the advisory panel for the study appears to include enough members with a record of genuine commitment to sustainable public transport to provide the basis for optimism about the study’s independence and integrity.

“The fact that this study will be modelled on a similar highly successful initiative by the Sydney Morning Herald is also very encouraging.

“One unfortunate and significant omission from the Herald discussion paper (and associated terms of reference for the study) is the lack of any clear set of principles or criteria against which ideas and proposals for improving public transport will be evaluated.

“The discussion paper doesn’t mention the extent to which public transport planning and decisions should be based on social equity or ecological sustainability considerations, and doesn’t refer to key public policy challenges for transport planning, such as climate change and peak oil.

“It’s important that a study such as this is clear and transparent about the principles upon which its public policy approach is based, and I hope this deficiency is addressed at an early stage in the study process,” Mr Sutton said.

“The Greens have already identified public transport as a key local state election campaign issue, and we strongly endorse the Herald’s discussion paper’s recognition of the urgency and importance of addressing this issue and of the need to shift from private motor vehicle use to public transport, and its support for a major boost in spending on public transport in the Hunter.

“The Herald initiative offers an excellent opportunity for the community to come together to formulate a public transport plan that has a realistic chance of achieving major funding from Infrastructure Australia, and I strongly encourage the Newcastle community to engage in this process in good faith, and with the best interests of the community at heart,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Greens call on state government to keep Sunflower growing

Media Release Media Release Media Release Media Release

Newcastle Greens

4 November 2010

John Sutton (Greens candidate for Newcastle)

Greens call on state government to keep Sunflower growing

The Greens today called on the state government to find urgent funding to keep a key regional community-based mental health service from closing.

The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, said that the Sunflower Centre, based in Union St, Newcastle, would have to close by the end of the month unless it received $25,000.

 “Anyone who has tried to access mental health services in the Hunter can attest that this part of our health and community services system is in crisis.

“The Sunflower Centre is Newcastle’s only remaining one-stop shop for information, support, advocacy and referral, and we just can’t afford to lose any more such services,” Mr Sutton said.

“It would be a disgraceful state of affairs if the state government couldn’t find the relative pittance necessary to keep an essential local mental health facility like this afloat, when it seems to be able to find hollow logs with much larger amounts for funding such things as fireworks and visits by international football celebrities,” Mr Sutton said.

“The Sunflower Centre operates a community development program that includes a large network of support groups, a telephone outreach service, a house call service, a drop-in centre, a resource and information centre, and a school education program, and accommodates a community development worker who services the entire Hunter region.

“These kinds of community-based facilities do so much with so little – they run on the smell of an oily rag, with the help of committed volunteers, and have to scrape for money from various program grants.

“If they don’t get $25,000 in the next few weeks, they will have to close their Union St premises by 30 November, and shut down many of their current services.

“At a time when the community and national figures such as the Australian of the Year, Patrick McGorry, are pressing for increased government support for mental health, the closure of a local facility such as this for the want of such a small amount of funding would send a disturbing signal about the lack of government will to respond to this key issue,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Hatton right to reject Tate as genuine independent, say Greens

Newcastle Greens

2 November 2010

Hatton right to reject Tate as genuine independent, say Greens

The rejection of Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate as part of the new independent network established by anti-corruption independent John Hatton exposes serious questions about Clr Tate’s claim to be a genuine independent candidate for the state seat of Newcastle, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

“Mr Hatton is right to rule out endorsing Clr Tate as a genuinely independent candidate,” Mr Sutton said.

During a public meeting at Newcastle City Hall last night, Mr Hatton questioned Clr Tate’s record on accepting and disclosing political donations from developers and the alcohol industry, and his record on disclosing political donations as a councillor involved in development decisions.

At the meeting, Clr Tate defended his acceptance of such political donations on the grounds that he was “forced” to accept them in order to match the expenditure of the Labor candidate for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, and dismissed his censure by Newcastle Council for failing to adequately disclose political donations as “politically motivated.”

“Clr Tate was unable to deny the key facts of Mr Hatton’s allegations: that he had accepted substantial donations from developers and the alcohol industry, and that he had been censured by Newcastle council for failing to adequately disclose political donations on the basis of a recommendation by a legally qualified independent reviewer,” Mr Sutton said.

“It was clear from Clr Tate’s aggressive response to Mr Hatton last night that he doesn’t understand that there’s more to being a genuine independent than just ticking the required boxes on electoral funding disclosure forms, and that a true independent has to be free of the corrupting stench of political donations from vested interests.

“Clr Tate had a reputation as a genuine progressive community-based independent when I worked with him as a Newcastle councillor in the 1990s,” Mr Sutton said.

“However, Clr Tate has done a complete about-face since his election as Lord Mayor in 1999.

“Clr Tate now heads the most secretive, anti-democratic council in Newcastle’s recent history, and actively campaigns to unlock valuable Foreshore real estate in support of the developer-funded push to cut the city’s rail line.

“Mr Hatton understands, in a way that Clr Tate doesn’t, that ordinary people in the Newcastle community are entitled to ask whether Clr Tate’s stance on these issues has been influenced by the political donations he has received.

“Like other Greens candidates in the NSW election, I won’t be accepting any donations from any vested interests, and I’ll be declaring all donations over $50 as soon as possible on our public website, so that interested voters will know before election day exactly where every dollar spent in my election campaign comes from.

“I call on Clr Tate and any other candidate who wants to show that they are free from the corrupting influence of political donations from vested interests to do likewise,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: McKay’s city planning vision: government by developers, for developers

Newcastle Greens

1 November 2010

McKay’s city planning vision: government by developers, for developers

The Member for Newcastle Jodi McKay’s announcement on Friday about a new state urban renewal policy that will apply to the Newcastle CBD demonstrates everything that is wrong with the approach of the current NSW Labor government to planning in Newcastle and NSW, according to The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton.

“Ms McKay chose to announce the new planning policy at the general meeting of the Hunter Business Chamber,” Mr Sutton said.

“Comments reported in the media by the Hunter Regional Director of the Property Council, Kristen Keegan, indicated that she was familiar with details of the proposed plan.

“But, whilst these business and development bodies have been given privileged access to information about a state government planning instrument that the Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, states has not even been published yet, the general community will apparently be locked out of the process until the formal exhibition period,” Mr Sutton said.

“Planning policies such as this are specifically designed to override local planning controls such as Newcastle Council’s Local Environmental Plan and Development Control Plan, and to shift decisions about developments in the Newcastle CBD from local elected representatives accountable to the Newcastle community, to Sydney-based and appointed decision-makers such as the Minister for Planning.

“Once again, Ms McKay has made it abundantly clear who she and NSW Labor regards as inside and outside the tent in relation to development decisions.

“True to form, this revitalisation plan seems to have been developed with and for developers, and will be rubber stamped in Macquarie Street by NSW Labor powerbrokers acting as the ciphers and thralls of developers,” Mr Sutton said.

“The real discussion and decisions on this policy have obviously already occurred behind closed doors, and it will now go through the usual token, tick-the-box public consultation process that will be mostly ignored by NSW Labor.

“The Greens would welcome any plan that seriously addresses the need for urban renewal in Newcastle,” Mr Sutton said.

“However, Ms McKay and the NSW Labor government need to learn from past mistakes, and accept that the city belongs to the whole community, not just property developers.

“This is a time to re-establish local democracy in planning, and to bring the Newcastle community together, not to exacerbate old divisions or to reinforce the established culture of NSW Labor’s cosy relationship with vested interests, Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Tate credibility on the line, say Greens

Newcastle Greens

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Tate credibility on the line, say Greens

The Greens today said that public statements by Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate regarding his past stance on development of the Newcastle rail corridor raise serious questions about his credibility as a contender for the state seat of Newcastle.

Today’s Newcastle Herald reports Councillor Tate as saying that he had “always said that the railway corridor should stay as a corridor...a transport corridor ”.

“The full truth is that Cr Tate has supported major built development on significant portions of the existing rail corridor,” The Greens candidate for the seat of Newcastle, John Sutton, said.

“In 2003 Cr Tate was a member of the Michael Costa-appointed Lower Hunter Transport Working Group, and fully supported that group’s Final Report (released in December 2003), which indicated major built development on the existing railway corridor (see relevant excerpts below from that report).

 “The future of the Newcastle rail line is going to be a key issue in the March state election for the seat of Newcastle, and it’s important that all candidates are open and honest with voters about their record and where they stand on the issue,” Mr Sutton said.

“The 2003 report supported by Cr Tate recommended saving only part of the existing rail corridor for transport purposes, giving the rest over to other developments.

“Councillor Tate has received political donations from local developers who are actively involved in the campaign to cut the Newcastle rail line, and has already been censured by Newcastle Council for not adequately disclosing conflicts of interest arising from such political donations.

“The fact is that Cr Tate has blown with the wind of his own perceived political interests on the issue of the Newcastle rail line.

“During the 1990s he stood with the grassroots community campaign to save the line. Soon after he was elected Lord Mayor in 1999 (largely on his reputation as a community advocate on issues such as the rail line), he was captured by the vested interests behind the anti-rail campaign, and worked with Labor’s then Minister for the Hunter, Michael Costa, on the campaign to cut the line.

“Cr Tate owes it to Newcastle voters to tell the full truth about his stance on the rail line, and not hide behind partial truths and weasel words,” Mr Sutton said.

[See the maps title “Area 3: Newcastle - 3-D massing model of proposed”, p.29; and “Character Sketch”, p.33; and “Character Sketch”, p.35. All these maps and artists’ impressions depict significant built development on the existing rail corridor].

Media Release: Baldwin anti-rail stance “dishonest, cowardly and ignorant”, says Greens Newcastle candidate

Newcastle Greens

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Baldwin anti-rail stance “dishonest, cowardly and ignorant”, says Greens Newcastle candidate

The Greens candidate for the state seat of Newcastle, John Sutton, today accused Paterson Liberal MP Bob Baldwin of political dishonesty, cowardice and ignorance in joining the campaign to cut the Newcastle rail line.

“Mr Baldwin is trying to spin his anti-rail media statements today as an act of political courage, when the truth is that he didn’t declare his stance on this issue during the recent campaign for the federal seat of Paterson, and therefore denied his own constituents the opportunity to vote on it.

“Many of Mr Baldwin’s Paterson constituents use the Newcastle rail line to travel to work.

“If Mr Baldwin supported cutting the Newcastle rail line before the federal election on 21 August (less than two months ago) he has been politically dishonest and cowardly in not declaring this during the election campaign.

“If he didn’t support it during the federal campaign, then his recent sudden conversion demonstrates just how vulnerable the Coalition is to the same vested interests as the Labor Party, and just how shallow his party’s approach to regional development and public transport really is.

“However he spins it, the fact is that Mr Baldwin, the Coalition’s federal Shadow Minister for Regional Development, is now publicly advocating cutting regional rail infrastructure in support of an anti-rail campaign bankrolled by developers and other wealthy vested interests.

“Mr Baldwin’s comments about the now discredited Hunter Development Corporation’s Newcastle City Centre Renewal Report suggest that he hasn’t read the report, or followed the ensuing public debate.

“Mr Baldwin claims that the HDC report outlines a clear strategy for “an improved public transport system”, when, in fact (as The Greens have continually pointed out) the report clearly advocates cutting rail services and using existing bus capacity to take up displaced rail patronage, and contains no costings or funding recommendations for any public transport improvements at all.

“Under the scrutiny of grassroots community groups (including The Greens), the HDC has effectively admitted that their report is a car-based strategy based on fudged figures.

“Even NSW Labor is now showing signs that it is finally recognising the deficiencies of the HDC Report, abandoning some of its silly and unsustainable transport related recommendations.

“Neither the Labor nor Liberal party seems to be capable of making and holding to the hard decision to retain Newcastle’s rail line as a key element in the city’s revitalisation, and to take simple, relatively low-cost measures to landscape the line and install safe, controlled pedestrian crossings to connect the CBD and the harbour,” Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Broken rail service another broken Labor public transport promise, say Greens

Newcastle Greens

12 October 2010

Broken rail service another broken Labor public transport promise, say Greens

New arrangements for rail commuters between Sydney and Newcastle demonstrate the state Labor government’s failure to deal with the challenge of public transport in the Hunter, The Greens candidate for Newcastle, John Sutton, said today.

“This week’s announcement that three daily rail services between Sydney and Newcastle will now be broken at Gosford will further reduce rail patronage, and is effectively another broken Labor public transport promise,” Mr Sutton said.

“When NSW Labor’s public transport blueprint for the decade (Action for Transport 2010) was launched by Bob Carr in November 1998, they promised that they would cut 30minutes off the rail journey between Sydney and Newcastle.

“Instead, we find in the target year of 2010 that trip times have actually increased over that period, and these latest changes mean that some rail commuters will now have to suffer further inconvenience and delays by the forced Gosford interchange.

“Aside from the inconvenience caused, the 8 to 15 minute delays that will arise from the new service changes can be crucial to a significant number of commuters with time-dependent travel needs, who may well choose to drive their cars instead of taking the train.

“Forced interchanges inevitably lead to a decline in public transport use.

“This is a real step backwards for Newcastle rail commuters, just at a time when the city most needs its vital inter-city transport link, and when the introduction of MyZone ticketing was showing real promise in stimulating greater patronage on the Sydney-Newcastle line,” Mr Sutton said.

“The current Labor government has presided over a gradual demise of Newcastle’s public transport system, and is even considering further forced interchanges to our inter-city services (e.g., the proposed Wickham terminus).

“The Greens intend to put public transport at the centre of local public policy debate in the campaign leading up to next year’s March state election”, Mr Sutton said.

Media Release: Greens announce John Sutton as Newcastle candidate

Newcastle Greens

Greens announce John Sutton as Newcastle candidate

Friday, 1 October 2010

Newcastle Greens today announced former Newcastle City councillor John Sutton as The Greens candidate for the state seat of Newcastle.

Mr Sutton was the first Green elected to public office in NSW when he became an alderman on Newcastle City Council in 1991, serving two terms on the council before retiring in 1999.

A former journalist and retired communication academic, Mr Sutton now works part-time as a support worker for Greens councillors around NSW. He has remained actively involved in the city’s public life through local grassroots community organisations and campaigns, including the current campaigns to save Newcastle’s heritage avenue of giant fig trees in Laman St and the Newcastle rail line, and for a more sustainable approach to the future development of Newcastle’s public beaches and parks.

“It’s a great honour to have been pre-selected as The Greens candidate for the state seat of Newcastle at this moment in its history,” Mr Sutton said.

“Our city is at a crucial political, social, environmental and economic watershed.

“As the world’s largest coal exporting port, we are at the centre of the issue of climate change. How we as a community respond to this has major local and global implications.

“As a major regional city we also face huge local challenges, such as revitalising our CBD and our public transport system, and ensuring that development occurs sustainably and equitably.

“Properly handled, these challenges present us with major opportunities for creating green jobs, and for developing a liveable and sustainable community.

“Two decades ago, Newcastle was the first city in Australia to elect a Green to its local council, and since then the Newcastle community has responded positively to Greens candidates and policies.

“The recent federal election result in Newcastle was our best ever. Newcastle voters have shown that they are becoming less rusted-on to an increasingly dysfunctional state Labor government, but are not strongly attracted to the conservative alternative offered by the Liberals and by local developer-funded Independents, who have represented vested interests but have shown little regard for grassroots community issues.

“The state election in March next year offers an exciting opportunity for Newcastle voters to embrace a genuinely progressive alternative in both the local seat, and in the NSW upper house, where The Greens may well hold the balance of power.”

Mr Sutton said he would be campaigning on climate change, coal, clean energy and green jobs; city revitalisation; public transport; port development; privatisation; reviving local democracy in planning and development decisions; improving health services (including mental health), and public education.