Flannery remarks show independent scientists should have the last word on Howard plans

Project SafeCom Inc.
P.O. Box 364
Narrogin
Western Australia 6312
Phone: 0417 090 130
Web: https://www.safecom.org.au/

Flannery remarks show independent scientists should have the last word on Howard plans

Media Release
Friday January 26, 2007 7:30am WST
For Immediate Release
No Embargoes

"Australian of The Year Tim Flannery's remarks about the "grand plans" to shift agriculture and farming to Australia's north show how the Prime Minister's Grand Plans have been dreamt up by politicians without firm scientific foundation, and they show the absolute need for these plans to pass through the "cold shower" first, not just by scientists who are selected on their agreement with the PM's plans, but by scientists who are prepared to stand up to politicians," WA Rights group Project SafeCom said this morning.

Mr Flannery poured a bucket of cold water on the Prime Minister's plans by remarking that the rainfall in the northern parts of Australia is caused by atmospheric particles as a result of massive fires in Indonesia. As reported by AAP, Mr Flannery told the ABC, that

"...it seems reasonably well established now that the additional rainfall we're getting across northern Australia is not caused by global warming - it's caused by industrial particulate pollution in Asia, so that (is the) smog haze that they get across Asia. I can imagine a situation where we move farmers north, make a big investment there, but then as Asia starts cleaning up its air and its cities we may start losing that rainfall. So it really underpins the need for good science, to understand what's happening before we make that sort of shift."

"We have now repeatedly seen media reports showing how CSIRO Scientists are being gagged by Canberra, how CSIRO Scientists are even afraid that their telephones are being bugged by Canberra. Australia does not need this kind of bullying, and what Howard's grand plans need now, is an independent body, free of political interference and free of bullying, perhaps even a body that's been given the power of veto over politically convenient decisions," spokesman Jack H Smit said.

"And, in the light of Tim Flannery's remarks, the chief of John Howard's northern farming taskforce Senator Bill Heffernan's confidence in the farming plans should be seriously shaken, if not entirely useless, and therefore ready to be abandoned," Mr Smit concluded.

For more information:

Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom Inc.
[phone number posted]

Flannery casts doubt on water plan

news.com.au
January 26, 2007 08:38am
Article from: AAP

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21121240-29277,00.html

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