Dredging on the Brisbane River, 2022. In 1996, the left-wing Australian Greens party had recommended that the one-hundred-year dredging of the river be terminated. The river ended up becoming shallower than what was ideal, and this reportedly exacerbated flooding that affected more than 20,000 homes in nearby Brisbane and its suburbs in January 2011. Solmax
Dredging

COLUMN | Understanding the Greens party's initiatives and their crippling effect on Australia's prosperity [An Innocent Australian]

Stuart Ballantyne

Humphreys boatyard near the Southport Yacht club, like hundreds of boatyards around the nation, was a boat storage area either side of an ancient railed slipway and cradle.

Inside the slipway shed were lots of used maritime accessories – old propellor shafts, rudders, engines, gearboxes, all spread in an untidy mess amongst paint tins, rollers and assorted junk, which appealed to yachties such as myself.

Living on a boat near this slipway in the late 1970s, I got to know John quite well. Being involved in marine surveying, I knew many of the boatyard and slipway operators on the northern New South Wales and Queensland coasts.

So it came as a surprise, that during the 1980s, the national environmental authorities decided to check the levels of “environmental vandalism” by doing core soil samples around old boat slipways and boat storage yards, in search of trace elements of copper and later tributyltim (TBT) based antifouling.

Antifouling paint was, in those days (as is today), very expensive, and so it was that low-budget yachties like myself used the paint very sparingly.

What was mischievous about these investigations, is that the core samples were quite deep, and while people had already moved on to more environmentally acceptable antifouls, the old ones were just not available any more.

All these old boatyards were found to have, “minute trace elements,” of copper antifouling at depths of two metres and certainly no threat to the environment. A contamination order was then issued, not just to the owner of the boatyard, but to the holder of the mortgage.

This of course, encouraged these miserable, scrooge-like bankers to behave more miserably and withdraw the loan facility, and I watched in dismay as many of these boatyards, mainly family-run, closed down forever.

The rising Greens vote empowered their true ambition of destroying the nation’s prosperity and defence capability.

The emergence of the Greens party from its roots in the early 1980s in Tasmania saw the creation of a plethora of rules, regulations, and environmental science courses everywhere.

While the persuasive narrative of saving the environment was spruiked ["spruik" means "to speak in public," for the benefit of our non-Australian readers, ed] by the Greens, I watched the nation’s coastline become imprisoned in national parks, sensitive fish habitats, mangrove no-go areas, no-go anchoring areas, and no-go fishing areas.

The amount of these no-go areas has risen proportionally with environmental bureaucrats in federal, state and local councils and are inversely proportional to the industrial waterfront investment around the country.

The year 1996 saw the Greens flexing their jaw muscles without engaging their brains, by demonising dredging on the Brisbane River.

They convinced then-Mayor Jim Soorley that if he stopped the one hundred years of dredging, which provided most of the sand and aggregate to make concrete, bricks and paving and thus providing the cheapest house building in the country, this would turn the colour of the river from a tea brown to blue.

Fifteen years later in 2011, the shallowing river exacerbated flooding and killed 38 people in a heavy rain event. And the river, like every other river on the planet to this day, is still tea brown.

The same result happened in Lismore, after stopping the river dredging (see my Speccie column “Lessons for Lismore”, November 2022) where one hundred years ago, a 60-metre vessel could navigate all the way up the Richmond and Wilson Rivers to Lismore, due to a constant dredging program. Not anymore!

The rising Greens vote empowered their true ambition of destroying the nation’s prosperity and defence capability, with ideologists such as Senator Sarah Hansen-Young of South Australia. And in 2016, the Great Australian Bight Protection Bill 2016 was introduced by the Greens to prevent offshore oil and gas research.

In 2017, Hansen-Young was a key motivator in placing SA as the world’s renewable crash test dummy and wasted no time in demolishing their last viable coal power station, the 520MW Port Augusta unit, to lock in their ideological pursuit of an energy future free of fossil fuels.

The following brown-outs in the state and hugely escalating electricity prices, proved that SA should have actually thought the matter through, but the Greens were jubilant at "their victories."

The population growth of SA has lagged behind those of other states, due to its green focus on burgeoning bureaucracies and obstruction to existing and potential investors in the state.

Thanks to excellent lobbying by groups such as Advance, most Australians have finally woken up to the Greens' crippling effect on the country.

Up in Queensland, the 2015 election saw the Australian Labor Party with Greens preferences ensuring a victory.

Within six weeks of being elected, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk introduced the “Sustainable Ports Act”. This 630-page document ensured that no other port facility, not even tiny load-out ramp facilities along Queensland’s 7,000 kilometres of coastline, would be permitted in the state.

This ensured that the 10 ports owned by the state government would remain competition-free and with exorbitant charges, well above national averages.

Interesting that David Crisafulli, in his first seven months as Premier, despite being encouraged by experienced maritime advocates to repeal this Sustainable Ports Act and allow Far North Queensland to flourish, has not done so.

Limp LNP leadership indeed, in keeping with the pathetically poor performance standard of Morrison, Turnbull and Dutton. Where are you Pauline? Malcolm? Bob? Robbie?

Emboldened by the election of the incredibly weak government under Labor three years ago, the Greens increased the volume, venom and veracity of their rhetoric, blatantly exposing their real agenda of anti-Australian, anti mining, anti Christian, anti-Jew and pro-Palestinian policies. Their “saving the environment” mask was finally cast aside for all the nation to see.

Thanks to excellent lobbying by groups such as Advance, highlighting the real truth about the Greens, most Australians have finally woken up to their crippling effect on the country. Thank you, Advance!

But now we urgently have to find a Braveheart of bold leadership that will repeal at least 75 per cent of the EPA/EDO/green madness that has our nation financially weak, dispirited and unable to defend itself, lying like a regional comatose drunk, for all the neighbours to see, and for some to hatch their plots against us.