BY LESLIE RICHMOND
ADELAIDE â Five hundred people marched on Glenelg's Grand Hotel on June 4 to denounce an official government World Environment Day conference. Rally organisers called Adelaide's official host city status a farce because South Australia has one of the worst environmental protection records in the country.
The rally was organised by the Save Our Gulf coalition, comprising community organisations, environmentalists and industry groups concerned about the environmental damage being done to the Spencer Gulf. SOG's Patrick O'Sullivan said the rally aimed to get the government to listen to the community and to not treat the environmental problems facing the state merely as an afterthought in the wake of uncontrolled development.
The key to this, O'Sullivan said, is the repealing of legislation that allows the state government to shortcut or override measures designed to protect the environment.
Local researcher Dr John Hailes called for an integrated management plan for the whole of Spencer Gulf and marine biologist Dr Mike Bosley called for stormwater control, noting that stormwater currently poses one of the greatest threats to coastal marine environments.
The rally was joined by a large contingent of anti-nuclear protesters who had earlier staged a radioactive spill. The action was organised by Everyone For a Nuclear Free Future to protest against the proposed nuclear waste dump in SA.
Neither Premier John Olsen nor Prime Minister John Howard responded to calls from the crowd to come outside the hotel and make themselves accountable.
In Canberra, a similar spirit reigned as environmentalists, horticulturalists, activists, politicians and Saturday shoppers braved the cold for a World Environment Day festival in Garema Place on June 3.
Leigh Hughes reports that urban services minister Brendan Smyth announced grants totalling almost $400,000 to wildlife and environment organisations, saying, it's not hard making people happy when you're handing out money. However, his speech was overshadowed by a vibrant and noisy protest by Save the Ridge, a group of residents and environmentalists opposed to the building of a motorway through parkland on O'Connor Ridge. They say that Smyth's grants are a feeble attempt to placate increasing public anger at the Liberal government's mismanagement of environmental issues in the ACT.