Australian Politics
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Hiker Marc Hendrickx becomes first Aussie punished for defying ban on climbing Wollumbin-Mount Warning summit trail sacred to local Indigenous groups
This discrimination in favour of one racial group is grossly offensive
An activist has become the first person to be fined for defying a climbing ban on a sacred indigenous site.
Marc Hendrickx climbed the Wollumbin-Mount Warning summit trail near Murwillumbah in northern NSW on Australia Day despite the track being closed to the public since 2020.
Mr Hendrickx, a member of the Right to Climb advocacy group, and several of its members made it to the peak in time to watch the sunrise on January 26.
The group ignored several signs on the way up left by local indigenous groups which warned hikers to turn around or risk facing fines.
Mount Warning was 'temporarily' closed to the public in early 2020 but remains closed to this day and hikers fear it will become 'the next Uluru'.
The Wollumbin Consultative Group has been fighting for the mountain to stay permanently closed to all but a select group of Indigenous male members.
Despite this Mr Hendrickx proudly shared photos of his group holding signs at the summit advocating that it should be reopened.
He received a $300 fine for the stunt which was express posted to him on Friday - one day before a planned protest at the base of Mount Warning celebrating the 95th anniversary of the declaration of the site as a national park.
Mr Hendrickx copped the fine for breaching the National Parks and Wildlife Regulation 2019 for entering 'a park that is closed to the public'.
The activist said the timing of his fine was suspicious considering he climbed the mountain months ago and it came one day before his planned protest.
'For a fine to turn up now looks like it is trying to instil some fear in the community ... to make sure people don't climb the mountain,' he told the Courier Mail.
'I thought if they were going to fine me they would have fined me at the time and they didn't,' he said.
Mr Hendrickx's offence carries a maximum fine of more than $3,000 - which he managed to avoided.
A spokesperson from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service said a second person from the Australia Day group had also been fined.
They added that anyone who ignored the climbing ban would 'be subject to appropriate law enforcement'.
'We appreciate that there has been community uncertainty about the time taken to resolve this issue,' a statement provided to the publication read.
'It is important however, that we ensure all stakeholders, including the Aboriginal custodians, are appropriately consulted about future management of Wollumbin National Park.'
Mr Hendrickx however said that he will not capitulate to this 'intimidation' and still intends to deliver his keynote speech at the protest.
Another activist group, Save Our Summits, will host the event which is expected to draw up to 100 protestors and will feature a speech from NSW Upper House MP John Ruddick.
Mr Ruddick tabled a petition to parliament calling for the immediate reopening of the Wollumbin Mount Warning summit trail earlier this year.
Mr Hendrickx became the face of the Mount Warning closure controversy though a string of public appearances since he was apprehended by a park ranger in January.
He said he will seek 'further clarification' regarding his fine, which Sydney radio host Ben Fordham already offered to pay in March.
The Wollumbin trail once hosted more than 100,000 climbers a year and brought in more than $10million annually.
From April to October last year, private security guards were paid $7,000 per week to make sure climbers were prevented from attempting the summit trek.
Overall, nearly $200,000 was spent securing the mountain and security is still brought in on occasions such as New Year's Eve and Australia Day.
It was initially closed in order to comply with social distancing orders during the coronavirus pandemic but the closure has since been extended multiple times.
Reasons for the extensions have included safety concerns over the condition of the trail and that the trek was against the wishes of the local Indigenous custodians.
In 2022, the NSW Department of National Parks recommended fully handing over management of the site on the Tweed Coast to the small Wollumbin Consultative Group who support a ban on visitors to the popular hiking spot.
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Alarm bells over Australian universities’ financial dependence on international students
Australian universities’ dependence on international student fees has “fuelled a culture of revenue, profit and competition” and created an unstable business model, the head of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has warned.
Critics representing various interests in the sector joined in expressing anxiety at the position universities had found themselves in as the federal government aggressively tries to wind back the number of international students.
The chief executive of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, said tertiary institutions had “come to rely on international student revenue to fund everything we do in the face of declining government support in recent years – from teaching and research to infrastructure projects and employing people in well-paid jobs”.
In percentage terms, Australia has more international students than any OECD country bar Luxembourg – and well in excess of the UK, Canada and the United States.
The Group of Eight (Go8) institutions are particularly reliant on international student fees, with foreign enrolments making up 47% of the total cohort at the University of Sydney and more than 35% at the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Queensland and the University of Adelaide.
Universities earn nearly twice as much from overseas students as from domestic students. Average revenue per domestic full-time equivalent student was $22,996 in 2023, compared with $41,117 for an overseas equivalent student.
The president of the NTEU, Alison Barnes, said a growing dependence on foreign income had fuelled “corporatisation” of the sector.
“[International students] add a lot to our campuses, they’re an asset – but they’re seen as cash cows,” she said.
“There’s a systemic risk associated with relying on international student fees that was demonstrated during Covid – it’s not stable. But it’s inherently problematic beyond the associated risks.
“The aggressive pursuit of international student income has fuelled a culture of revenue, profit and competition for students.”
When the federal government released its strategy to fix Australia’s “broken” migration system late last year, international students were squarely on the agenda.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said the government was sending a “clear message” it would act to “protect Australia’s reputation as a high-quality international education provider”, announcing tougher minimum English-language requirements and targeted visa scrutiny of “high-risk” providers.
Since then, a series of levers have been pulled aiming to reduce the flow of international students into Australia, which reached record highs in February.
First, the commonwealth proposed a cap on international students, giving the education minister unprecedented powers to limit enrolments by institution and course.
Then it more than doubled the international student visa application fee from $710 to $1,600, a move described by the International Education Association of Australia as “death by a thousand cuts”.
Sheehy described the government’s approach to international students as “policy chaos” that could cost thousands of jobs. The sector needed “certainty, stability and growth”, he told Guardian Australia.
“International education is a great Australian success story and any changes to the policies that underpin this $48bn sector must be weighed carefully against its significant and far-reaching impact,” he said.
‘A victim of its own success’
Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary at the immigration department, has been lobbying the federal government to implement a minimum university entrance exam score in place of its proposed reforms. He said the score, similar to an Atar, would limit the incentive for institutions to put tuition fee revenue above academic excellence.
Rizvi has been a longstanding critic of successive governments’ approach to international education. He told the National Press Club in June that the “underfunded” sector had “long been chasing tuition revenue from overseas students and sacrificing learning integrity in the process”.
But he maintains that an increase in visa fees will simply mean more government revenue – not better quality students.
“We’re actually shooting ourselves in the foot,” he wrote earlier this year. “The people it will deter will tend to be good students with options.”
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Australia may not be the quarry Asia requires for steel
A report released by WWF-Australia on Thursday urges the nation to be more than a quarry for its most valuable export commodity, iron ore, which is used to make steel and is a critical source of employment.
An economy driven by petroleum and raw material exports alone has significant risks that are harming our long-term economy, the natural environment and communities, chief executive Dermot O'Gorman said.
Australia's Green Iron Key recommends a $10 billion domestic support package to decarbonise the existing iron ore and steel industry and prioritise the development of export-focused green iron projects.
Governments must also combine their efforts to develop a skilled workforce and new technology, and keep onshore all domestic scrap metal to integrate into Australia's value chain.
A green iron and steel regional cooperation program to build a supply chain between Australia and East Asia could also combat Europe's headstart.
"The industry supply chain is starting to shift and Australia and Western Australia need to act quickly or lose out to faster movers," WWF-Australia's industrial decarbonisation expert Nicole Wyche said.
Australia is the world's leading exporter of iron ore for steelmaking, mostly to China where steel mills account for the majority of global steel production.
Major Asian steel producers are pursuing green iron and steel value chains involving Australia, but they are also looking elsewhere, WWF-Australia warns.
An ideal green iron plant could produce less than three per cent of the emissions of a conventional blast furnace, according to the report.
Iron will be produced where the cheapest renewable energy and the lowest-emission hydrogen can be generated, supporting steel products where manufacturers currently exist, and alongside the world's leading automakers and construction giants.
"Decarbonising iron and steel production is vital if we are to stabilise global temperature rise to 1.5C in line with the Paris Agreement," Ms Wyche said.
Global market responses such as the European Union's carbon border adjustment mechanism are forcing steel makers to reduce emissions.
Europe is positioning to be a leader in low-carbon steelmaking to combat climate change on a global scale, and extend the life of heavy industries that are at the heart of the region's economy.
There are also doubts in the industry about the suitability of Australian iron ore, with favoured low-carbon technologies requiring higher-grade ores from rivals such as Brazil.
A first-of-its-kind plant in Sweden is gearing up to produce five million tonnes of green steel a year, bankrolled by €6.5 billion from investors and lenders including a €250 million grant from the European Commission's innovation fund.
H2 Green Steel, founded in 2020 to end the dependence on coal-fired blast furnaces, will use one gigawatt of electrolysers, making it the biggest green hydrogen facility in Europe.
Established steel makers Thyssenkrupp and ArcelorMittal are also looking at renewable energy to power electric arc furnaces.
In the United States, $US1 billion will go to green steel projects as part of a $US6 billion pledge for new technologies to slash emissions from factories.
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Lawsuit Filed Against Australia’s Environment Minister for Not Considering ‘Climate Risk’
A legal challenge has been lodged against Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, claiming she did not adequately consider climate risks when approving two new coal mining projects.
The action, filed in the Federal Court of Australia, seeks a judicial review of the minister’s decision, arguing there were legal errors because Plibersek did not consider the potential harms of climate change.
In May, Plibersek approved four new coal mines in the country, including the Mount Pleasant Mine (New South Wales or NSW), Narrabri Underground Mine (NSW), Ensham Mine (Qld), and Isaac River (Qld).
The current action, lodged by Environmental Justice Australia on behalf of the small activist group the Environment Council of Central Queensland, targets the two NSW projects of Mount Pleasant and Narrabri.
“We must act now to avoid climate catastrophes—from droughts to floods and bushfires, that will harm all of us and our iconic Living Wonders,” said Christine Carlisle, president of the Council, said in a statement.
While senior lawyer Retta Berryman of Environmental Justice Australia said that if successful, the case could result in all future coal and gas projects requiring a proper climate risk assessment.
“Until now, this hasn’t been the case, despite the legal requirements,” she said.
“Our client argues the minister should have registered the harm these projects are likely to cause. They say that the minister’s refusal to accept and apply the science from the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], other authoritative sources, and even her own department was irrational, illogical, and unlawful.”
In response, the federal environment minister’s office said it had received the documents from Environment Justice Australia.
“As this is a legal matter, we are unable to comment further,” a spokesperson for Plibersek told The Epoch Times.
Labor Government Tries to Balance Net Zero Push With Economic Growth
The environment minister is walking a tightrope between fulfilling the Labor government’s environmental (and net-zero) credentials while also ensuring the economy does not suffer (coal is a major Australian export).
In early May, after cancelling two coal mines in Queensland because they did not supply adequate information on their environmental impact, Plibersek wrote on Twitter, “If companies aren’t willing to show how they will protect nature, I’m willing to cancel their projects—and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
It is a move that has compelled some pro-net-zero organisations to accuse the government of hypocrisy.
“Last week’s ’rejection' of the long-stalled China Stone and Range coal mines was laying the groundwork for the approval of new coal mines with more momentum and more powerful proponents,” said the Australia Institute on May 12 on its website.
“Thursday 11 May, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek quietly gave the nod to not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new coal mines.”
Climate Lawsuits Underway
The radical environmentalism legal movement is well underway, with several pending lawsuits in Democrat-led states in the U.S.
Big oil and gas companies are being targeted to pay the costs of disasters that are being attributed to climate change.
While there is some agreement on the impacts of climate change, there are those who disagree, saying the science is open to interpretation.
U.S. eco-modernist, Michael Shellenberger, has argued against the narrative that the planet’s environmental situation is in dire straits.
“The death rate from natural disasters has crashed; we have four times as many people as we did in the world 100 years ago. The death toll has declined about 90 percent in the United States,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Australia in October 2022.
“Somewhere between 305,100 people die every year from natural disasters. More people die walking from their bed to the toilet than they do from natural disasters.”
He also said there was more coral in the Great Barrier Reef than there had ever been in 36 years.
At the same time, forest fires have claimed 25 percent less land compared to 2003—an area the size of Texas.
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