Environmental Management of Cockburn Sound Fails

As some of us already knew and have been highlighting for years, the WA Auditor General has found the current management of Cockburn Sound is incapable of maintaining ecosystem health of the Sound.

This must read report can be found on the Auditor Generals website here.

The Cockburn Sound Management Council CSMC - FAILED;

The Department of Environment and Conservation DEC - FAILED, and;

The Environmental Protection Agency EPA - FAILED.

Basically all these Government Departments have been asleep at the wheel. But what is new?

While investigating this issue it is a shame the auditor general didn't ask us what actually goes on we would have informed him of a number of extremely suspect practices such as altering monitoring site locations to improve testing results then completely ignoring community concerns.

As usual one of the biggest problems (and one the Auditor General seems to have totally missed or avoided) is the self regulation and self monitoring of industry pollutants by the company emitting the pollutants.

Another issue the  Auditor General has missed or avoided is the real reason these agencies fail, that is because they are instructed by their political masters to protect industry at any cost.

One now needs to ask why did the CSMC, Kwinana Industries Council (KIC), and even a Government Minister mislead the community on the real health of Cockburn Sound.

You may also wish to read my related blog posts from 2008; Kwinana Industry Care Bears for Cockburn Sound and Polluter Should Pay.

Is Kwinana becoming a Dictatorship?

On 23rd June 2010 some of us attended a local council meeting to question council on what it was doing and what it intended to do about live exports through Kwinana.

In response to questions the Mayor made some rather concerning comments, such as: "Council has been working hard behind the scenes on this issue - Council has not even discussed what it should do or made a decision on what to do - Council will not get involved (like Fremantle Council) in the live export versus chilled carcase debate."

How the mayor can tell the meeting what Council will be doing at the same time as admitting council had not even discussed the issue let alone made a decision is beyond me.

So I waited for the minutes of the full meeting of council to be published and sure enough the comments made at the meeting did not appear in the council minutes and as has become the norm of late the minutes, were doctored with spin.

So I decided to request the tape recording of the council meeting, something we have done many times in the past. The community has for many years been entilted to this under Freedom of Information (FOI) and after paying a prescribed FOI fee to council.

The request was refusing by the CEO's assistant claiming that those tapes are only for her record and she now stores them on her computer rather than cassette tapes as was done in the past, therefore I could not obtain a copy of the record of the meeting.

So Kwinana Council has now removed another way of communities and/or community members keeping council honest.

In my view it seems that Kwinana could be coming, or has already become, a dictatorship. 

No doubt Kwinana Council and its Councillors will continue to brand me "negative", that is what they do in an attempt to discredit those who dare speak out.

Kwinana Council is not serious about stopping live exports

Kwinana Council has refused to join Fremantle Council in opposing live exports.

Kwinana Council claim they will not get involved in the animal welfare issue, and also claim they "are not interested in getting involved in the debate over live exports compared to transport of refrigerated carcasses."

Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams continues to claim that Kwinana Industry oppose live exports through Kwinana. 

Why is Mayor Adams speaking for Kwinana Industry?

How does Kwinana Industry oppose live exports when James Point Ptd Ltd the company that owns the port is an associate member of Kwinana Industries Council (KIC)?

Is this another example of the conflict of interest issue, the one the mayor won't declare?

The bottom line is that Kwinana Council is and never was really serious about stopping live exports. Once again it is all just a manipulative spin doctoring exercise in an attempt to make the council look good.

No doubt Kwinana Council and its Councillors will continue to brand me "negative", that is what they do in an attempt to discredit those who dare speak out.