1. This week 10 years ago, NSW Minister for Regional Infrastructure and Services, Andrew Stoner announced the appointment of a new Land and Water Commissioner to oversee the regulation of coal seam gas on strategic regional land.
Mr Stoner said the appointment would end the “royalty holiday for coal seam gas producers” and encourage them to contribute funds to local projects under a new community benefits initiative, and strengthen the position of affected landowners.
“Standardised land access agreements for coal seam gas exploration on private land will be introduced to deliver greater consistency and fairness for landholders,” Mr Stoner said.
2. NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell and Minister for Transport, Gladys Berejiklian unveiled a plan to introduce new single-deck, high-frequency trains as part of a major overhaul of the Sydney Rail network that would eventually include a second rail crossing under Sydney Harbour.
Mr O’Farrell said this would result in a more than a 60 per cent increase in the number of trains running to the CBD, catering for up to an extra 100,000 people per hour.
“The rapid transit trains will provide Sydney customers with more choice alongside suburban double-deck trains and intercity trains,” Mr O’Farrell said.
3. Also in NSW, Minister for Transport, Gladys Berejiklian announced Sydney’s monorail would cease operations in June 2013, clearing the way for removal of the infrastructure to accommodate the new convention centre at Darling Harbour.
The NSW Government bought Metro Transport Sydney, the company that owned Sydney’s light rail and the monorail, earlier in 2012 to enable the efficient delivery of the city’s future light rail extensions.
“The monorail will cease operations on Sunday, 30 June 2013, and will be removed after that date,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The monorail has never been truly embraced by the community and is reaching the end of its economic life.”
4. Commonwealth Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon announced Victoria’s new Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission would be given the power to tap phones and intercept telecommunications messages following special laws passed in the Federal Parliament.
Ms Roxon said the Commission replaced the Office of Police Integrity and would be responsible for investigating, exposing and suppressing corruption involving or affecting all public officials in Victoria.
“Telecommunications interception powers help State anticorruption bodies to investigate alleged corruption and misconduct, maintaining Australia’s robust approach to combating corruption,” Ms Roxon said.
5. A comprehensive, long-term plan for removing asbestos from Queensland Government buildings was ordered by the Minister for Housing and Public Works, Dr Bruce Flegg.
Dr Flegg said the use of all asbestos material was nationally banned at the end of 2003 but within Government buildings, including public housing, there could be up to 10 million square metres of asbestos-containing material still in place.
He said a wide range of targeted strategies was essential to reducing the risk of future contamination or exposure to the deadly substance.
“The lack of a whole-of-Government register of all buildings means that asbestos data is not centralised,” Dr Flegg said.
6. And a decade ago, seeds from a further 93 species of West Australian plants were sent to the Millennium Seed Bank in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the United Kingdom.
The seeds, which took the total of banked WA seeds to more that 1,250, were from the Department of Environment and Conservation’s Threatened Flora Seed Centre, which had been involved with the seed bank for more than 10 years.
Minister for the Environment, Bill Marmion said the seeds included some of the State’s most threatened plant species.
“These collections provide material for recovery and translocation of threatened species and are an insurance policy to ensure WA’s unique plant diversity is safeguarded,” Mr Marmion said.
