NT Environment Centre - proposed water restrictions.

Dear Editor,

So Stuart Blanch from the mostly taxpayer-funded NT Environment Centre is calling on the NT Government to introduce water restrictions (NT News 30th November, 2010).

He goes on to tell us: “It’s a lot cheaper than building a new dam”.

Of course this is the typical “green” argument of no progress – just staying put and watching the world pass us by.

An argument which no doubt would advocate the following and a whole lot more:

No building of new roads – but putting restrictions on drivers;

No building of new ports – just restricting world trade to and from Australia;

No building of new power stations – just restricting power usage.

Well not for me. I am proud of man’s progress in Australia.

A country which prior to white man’s arrival was an under-utilised place inhabited by nomadic hunter/gatherers with no chance of developing a robust civilization able to take this huge land mass forward into the modern world in which we now live. A country which would have been unable to defend itself.

Of course the NT government should build more dams to store water for the future growth of our territory. It is a wise and prudent thing to do.

To do as Stuart advises would put us in the same desperate position as most of the other states where water restrictions are commonplace from time to time due to a succession of weak governments over the last 2 to 3 decades who have been afraid to build dams because of a fear of “green” whingers.

We should be using our abundant water supply here in the top end to make our city lush, green and attractive, like Singapore. Not the brownish dry-season dustbowl that Darwin can become - often resembling a Wild West frontier town.

The NT Government should be actively trying to reduce the cost of water, instead of increasing the price - on the back of some way-out “green” ideology.

And maybe Stuart should go back to wherever he came from if water restrictions really are so attractive to him.

Yours truly,

Dave Wane

Woodleigh Gardens

30th November, 2010

Retrospective legislation

Dear Editor,



Territorians who can still remember the freedom this place enjoyed before the Martin/Henderson Labor Government came to power must surely becoming increasingly frustrated with the CLP opposition, who clearly have become advocates of excessive regulation and big government.



The very idea of introducing a legal amendment to compel all homeowners to install smoke detectors in existing houses strikes at the heart of what the CLP should stand for. Simply put – freedom, freedom of choice.



Retrospective legislation is an abhorrent concept, and whilst popular with the Labor socialists, it should rarely, if ever, be considered by any party who professes to believe in freedom and the rights of the individual.



Of course, I have no argument about the value of smoke detection devices. They can save lives. But where does government intervention in people’s lives stop?



Since coming to power in 2001, the Martin/Henderson Labor government has trashed the rights of Territorians in so many areas – including: unnecessary pool-fencing laws; removal of open speed limits on our highways; forcing businesses to install no-smoking areas…. And a whole lot more.



Now it seems the CLP, together with Labor are supporting Gerry Wood’s crazy Container Deposit Scheme. This is yet another silly and totally unnecessary impost on Territorians, and one which will achieve nothing except to extract more funds from our pockets.



If Territorians want to live in an over-regulated nanny-state, they most certainly have one under the Martin/Henderson Labor government. But sadly they will also continue to have one under any future CLP government.





Yours truly,



Dave Wane



Woodleigh Gardens

Reply to Murray Schneider - NT News

Dear Editor,




Murray Schneider (NT News 30th November, 2010) like many youngish modern-day “environmentalists” makes the silly and totally incorrect assumption that people who were born in the immediate post war years (1945-1960) are not concerned about Australia’s natural environment.

What Murray and so many of his ilk obviously forget is that without a well-managed, productive, low-debt economy, the environment will eventually come off second best in any list of government spending priorities.

After Julia Gillard and the other economy wreckers in all Labor states and territories have once again taken Australia back to bankrupt, basket-case status (like Greece, Ireland, Portugal etc) through their massive unnecessary spending and atrocious management, does Murray really believe anyone will want funds allocated to such esoteric pursuits as “tackling” the theory of “man made climate change” - especially when Australia contributes only 1.5% of total world carbon dioxide emissions?

Only responsible economic managers, such as the former Howard/Costello government, can ever hope to achieve a high level of environmental outcomes whilst at the same time ensuring a good standard of living for all citizens with competitive prices for gas, electricity and water.

The Greens and their fellow travellers in the Labor Party will only ever be able to provide a warm-inner-glow for those folk, like Murray, who choose to believe in some socialist Utopia where the theory of Gaia is the guiding light.

Yours truly,

Dave Wane



Woodleigh Gardens