Mood:
quizzicalTopic: nsw govt
Picture: Noel Plumb at left being ejected from a logging industry event inside Federal Parliament November 2009
We noticed an unusually long abc talkback earlier this week by "Noel" from "Ryde" on the ABC Deborah Cameron Morning show. He waxed lyrical about why ratepayers should pay their fair share for council services. Fair enough.
And he went on, and on, and on. Not so much talkback as open line, take as much air as you like. It was average sort of radio, neither good nor bad, but why so long?
This was the same Noel who waxed lyrical a week or so earlier about being a sailor on Sydney Harbour for 30 years in relation to concerns over the Barangaroo - Keating /Lendlease - monster. Fair enough only it went on and on. Very generous I thought. And we don't remember him sailing (?).
We do know Noel, a little too well, active in the conservation movement in NSW on and off since the mid 90ies. Here he is earlier this year out front of federal parliament again after haranguing the National Association of Forest Industries, photo taken by this writer, and sorry for the lack of red eye on the camera setting :
Now Noel has an interesting provenance in NSW politics. As we understand he helped deliver preferences to ALP Deputy Premier John Watkins in a usually Liberal area for the seat of Ryde until he retired earlier this year. This is in the same area as Maxine McKew, a well known former ABC presenter, in the federal seat of Bennelong. As far as we know Noel didn't run in the seat for the Watkins related byelection and it is now held by Victor Dominello (Lib).
Noel previously ran for the Australian Democrats, has been a staffer for Ian Cohen MP of the Greens and we are not sure who he is affiliated with now.
He leads a small but active Sydney affinity group called Chipbusters relating to woodchipping in south east NSW also this last 6 months or so, especially the koala habitat there. We remain concerned that name is too similar to ChipStop organised by Harriet Swift based in Bega already of 10 years standing but she doesn't seem to mind.
Of significance in the upcoming election is that as we understand it Noel was part of a narrow local lobby, including Dr Judy Messer former chair of the Nature Conservation Council, and contrary to public transport activists across Sydney, that successfully prevented a rail bridge over Lane Cove River at Epping which arguably resulted in major delays and perhaps $1B in extra cost for the new Chatswood to Epping line. That blowout arguably prevented the line ever reaching Parramatta as well as a saga of noise and gradient problems.
Watkins can be very deferential to Plumb as we have observed, and we notice the former Deputy Premier was on abc segment Partyliners a week or so back complimenting Premier KKK, from his perch as CEO of Alzhiemers Australia. A silent machine to quote fixer Eric Roozendaal MP (ALP).
We emailed Noel and asked him his plans in the seat of Ryde, as well as some dorothy dixers, and we wait patiently for an answer, as follows:
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 9:10 AMSubject: Community media re Noel Plumb as state election candidate in Ryde?Dear Noel,Given your increased public profile recently including quite long soliliquy on abc 702 yesterday morning around 9.25 am, as caller from the public on local council issues in Sydney broadly, some questions for community media publication:1. Are you intending to run as a candidate in the seat of Ryde now held by Liberal Victor Dominello?2. Will you run as an independent, or Greens or Australian Democrats, or even pre-selection for the ALP given John Watkins has retired?3. If as an independent, or minor party, what chances do you think you will have in influencing the final outcome in Ryde, and the state if it's a hung parliament scenario, with your preferences, including any relevant statistics from past elections?4. Given your role as convenor of Chipbusters around forest conservation will preference negotiations include for instance policy promises on(a) closure of the Eden Chipmill as promised by Bob Carr in the 1995 election?(b) Similarly rejection of power generation using native forest feedstock?(c) Protection of koala habitat on the NSW South Coast?(d) Protection of all NSW forest identified for comprehensive, adequate, representative reserve system given barely 10% of Australia has forest land cover with rare quolls, gliders, owls, possums, frogs and other wildlife live in these landscapes?(e) A ban outright of logging of any wet schlerophyll forest types as natural bushfire fuel management, which logging converts to dusty dry flammable regrowth?Look forward to your response in due course.Yours truly, Tom McLoughlin www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog tel. ....[current readership 35,000 per month]
