Media release news
Premier of Victoria
Victorian Premier John Brumby has released figures showing public transport use is growing dramatically in Melbourne. During the 2007-08 financial year, Melburnians made 201.2 million trips on trains, 158.3 million tram trips and 91.3 million on buses. Figures indicate that public transport use grew at over 7% during the past two years. Rising passenger numbers are beginning to strain the system.
posted by seamas on August 20, 2008 at 4:02 pm · filed under 
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
Despite Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson’s statement in February of this year that the liberal party had no plans to build a nuclear industry in Australia “at any time in the near future”, Shadow Trade Minister Ian MacFarlane has stated that if Australia is serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it must “include nuclear in our future base-load clean-energy mix.” Minister for the Environment, Hertitage and the Arts Peter Garret demanded yesterday to know where the liberal party would build the power plants, where they would dump the waste produced, and if the party still endorses the previous government’s plan to build 25 new plants.
posted by ruby on August 20, 2008 at 3:24 pm · filed under 
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has announced $13.9 million in funding for Australia’s seventh Solar City in Perth, said today. The Minister expects more than 6,000 homes and businesses will take part in the Solar City trial, which aims to deliver carbon pollution reductions of more than 15,000 tonnes – equivalent to that generated by the energy demands of 3,200 homes.
posted by seamas on August 16, 2008 at 5:56 pm · filed under
ACF
ACF Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager Paul Sinclair has cautiously welcomed an extra $50m allocated by the federal government to the purchase of water rights from irrigators in nothern NSW and Queensland, warning that the scheme’s success can only be judged on real rises in river levels and a positive impact on the Coorong and Lower Murray Lakes.
posted by patrick on August 15, 2008 at 5:02 pm · filed under 
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett today announced funding of $1.05 million to the Research Institute for Sustainable Energy at Murdoch University to build a national Small Wind Turbine Test Centre.
The Small Wind Turbine Test Centre will be funded under the Australian Government’s Renewable Remote Power Generation Program.
posted by patrick on August 14, 2008 at 12:02 pm · filed under
IUCN
An extensive review of the world’s primates has found the group in danger, with monkeys, apes and other primates vanishing as a result of forest destruction and hunting for food and the illegal wildlife trade. Of the world’s 634 kinds of primates, the review discovered that nearly 50 per cent are in danger of extinction, and within Asia, over 70 per cent are vulnerable to extinction. Conservationists are emphasising the importance of protecting forests and reforesting to provide habitat for primates, actions that can help to save humankind’s closest relatives.
posted by anna on August 12, 2008 at 10:38 pm · filed under 
Australian Government
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Tony Burke and Environment Minister Peter Garret have introduced the Queensland government’s $23m Reef Rescue program, a collaboration with farmers which aims to improve the quality of water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. The program aids farmers in reducing the quantity of nutrients, fertilizers and farm chemicals from entering waterways by implementing land management methods such as enhancing fertilizer efficiency and repairing riverbanks and wetlands. Peter Garrett believes that the introduction of the program will assist in the preservation of the reef and help protect it from global climate change issues such as coral bleaching.
posted by cecie on August 11, 2008 at 12:43 am · filed under 
ACF
The Inland Rivers Network and the Australian Conservation Foundation have identified six large Darling River properties that can be targeted immediately for government buyback to help prevent the ruin of the Murray Lower Lakes and the Coorong. The 300 gigalitres provided by these properties, which are already on the market, could be injected into the system immediately according to Inland Rivers Network coordinator Amy Hankinson.
posted by patrick on August 8, 2008 at 10:24 am · filed under
CSIRO
A new international Working Group aimed at developing better ways to utilise and distribute electricity has been established. Consisting of leading academic and industry specialists from China and Australia, the forming of the group was a major outcome of a three-day specialist conference on sustainable electricity held in Queensland.
posted by patrick on August 7, 2008 at 10:05 am · filed under
ACF
Conservation groups have commended Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on the return of nearly 182,000 hectares of land in Cape York Peninsula to its traditional owners with the creation of the Aboriginal-owned Kulla National Park. The McIlwraith Range area where the park has been established is the largest area of tropical-rainforest wilderness left in Australia.
posted by seamas on August 6, 2008 at 2:36 pm · filed under
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