Janet Rice
Standing for The Senate
Sunday 22 January 2012 at 08:29 amI'm currently standing for preselection as The Victorian Greens lead Senate Candidate. You can read my nomination statement and the statements of my four nominators here. Statements from over twenty Greens members and others are here
Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsFacilitation and consensus decision making
Thursday 19 January 2012 at 8:31 pm
I spent this evening working with The Greens Victorian Communications and Election Campaigns Commitee (VCECC) running some training in facilitating consensus decisions. After some introductory work, we worked through an item on the VCECC budget, with me facilitaitng, giving a commentary about what I was doing as I went, then reflecting on the proicess at the end. It went well, with some decisions made, some insights into good facilitation techniques, and a realisation that we were only scratching the surface. I've offered to come back in March to do some more work with them. I distributed two papers that I had prepared last year for the Melbourne Greens School - why-work-collaboratively.pdf, and What do Facilitators do? ; and prepared a fresh paper just for them - here it is hot off the press: facilitating-consensus-decisions-january-2012.pdf
Image: Principles of Facilitation, from a workshop of the Victorian Facilitation Network, 2011
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsSenate nominations closed today
Friday 13 January 2012 at 9:04 pm
While I was out enjoying myself in the wilds of Tasmania today*, back in Melbourne today was the day that nominations for lead Senate candidate closed. I submitted my nomination before I left for Tassie -you can read it and the statements of my four nominators here.
* It was a fabulous walk up Black Bluff, beginning with a traverse through amazing rainforest ( king billy pine, celery top pine, huge myrtle beech, ) to a spectacular waterfall, then a steep climb including scrambling up rockfaces and through thickets of scoparia and teatree up onto an alpine bluff with jagged awesome rock faces, then onto a gorgeous alpine tarn.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsOf tunnels, trains and trucks
Wednesday 14 December 2011 at 7:36 pm
So we're back talking about road tunnels for Melbourne. I heard Ted Baillieu tell us on telly tonight that the east west tunnel was important so we would cope better when the Monash Freeway was stuffed up like it was yesterday. $10 billion plus so as to avoid a day of disruption. Not a good deal I reckon, compared with the serious inroads we could make into Melbourne's transport woes by investing money like that into rail to Rowville, Doncaster, Melton, and Mernda.
I wrote quite a bit about the proposed East West link when it was proposed in 2008. I could have written it yesterday - nothing has changed. Here's a speech for example that I gave at a public meeting in Brunswick, and some analysis of what to do with trucks - how straightforward it would be to reduce port related freight movements by 40% for example, by getting containers on rail, and having fewer trucks travelling empty or half full.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No comments Used tags: freight, transportToday I'm in Queensland...
Thursday 08 December 2011 at 7:10 pm
Sigh. Too many important causes. Too many submissions one could write if only one had infinite time. But this one provoked me enough that I gave a donation a month ago to help get a film made about the importance of Bimblebox, and tonight I've just written a submission to the Environmental Impacts Statement being undertaken for the proposed massive coal mine which would destroy this nature reserve - and help destroy our planet with the carbon emissions from its 40 mega tonnes of coal that would be produced each year. You can find out more by going here, and read my submission below
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsTarkine update
Thursday 08 December 2011 at 10:32 am
Thanks everyone who wrote emails to Minister Tony Burke asking him to protect the Tarkine with interim emergency listing on the national heritage list - I'm told over 4000 people sent him emails. His response however was underwhelming - see this report for example. We'll just keep on campaigning
The good news is that at least 14 of my facebook friends and website subscribers wrote their emails, and as promised I had a prize draw of a weekend away at our holiday house at Sisters Beach on the north coast of Tassie as a reward/ incentive.
The winner was Warren Maloney, old friend and VLGA comrade from Daylesford. Congratulations Warren, and indeed Warren's neighbour - who Warren has told me he's going to give the prize to as he is in desperate need of a holiday. And Sister's Beach is absolutely a great place for that!
Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsSave the Tarkine! Write an email by 2 December!
Saturday 26 November 2011 at 4:02 pm
I've just written to the federal Environment Minister Tony Burke about the need to protect the Tarkine. My letter is below. Please join me - The Greens have a form on their website to make it easy for you. You need to send your email by 2 December when Minister Burke will be making his decision whether or not to include the Tarkine on the National Heritage List. See the Save the Tarkine facebook site for more info.
If more than 10 of my facebook friends, twitter followers or webpage readers send off an email to Minister Burke and let me know ( comment below or on facebook or twitter), I'll run a competition and one of you will win a weekend at our holiday house at Sister's Beach on the north coast of Tasmania, just an hour's drive frorm the Tarkine forests!
Dear Minister Burke
I live in Melbourne and have a holiday house at Sisters Beach on the north coast of Tasmania. My partner and I intend to retire there.
A key reason why we purchased this property four years ago was because of its proximity to the Tarkine forests and coasts. We have had the immense pleasure of visiting the Tarkine a number of times since, and look forward to many trips in the future.
On the senate trail
Monday 21 November 2011 at 7:47 pmThanks to the Casey Cardinia Dandenong branch of The Greens for hosting me at their branch meeting tonight. A small meeting but a good one! I gave a version of this talk - well ok it did end up being rather different, but this was what I intended to talk to! Feel free to pass on!
Uncle Dave Carline, Kooma Elder at Murra Murra. "where are the Kooma people going to go when their country becomes uninhabitable?" asked Uncle Dave. Climate Change will be the ultimate act of dispossession for so many of the world's peoples.
Janet | ¶ | default | One commentProtecting the Great Barrier Reef and achieving a safe climate
Friday 11 November 2011 at 05:31 amA letter I just sent off to the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke about the Great Barrier Reef, dredging and coal seam gas
Dear Minister,
I am writing to ask that you immediately halt all dredging in Gladstone Harbour and throughout the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area until you’ve examined the combined impacts of millions of tonnes of dredging to expand fossil fuel exports.
It's so backwards, so 19th century, so destructive, so short sighted, so unnecessary, and so economically disastrous too because of the potential impacts on the reef and the harbour.
The science of climate change tells us that to be sure of having a liveable planet for our children , let alone our grandchildren and future generations we have to drastically cut our carbon pollution. Coal seam gas extraction and accompanying environmental disasters such are unfolding in Gladstone are not part of a clean energy future.
I have 20 year and 17 year old sons. They are likely to live until 2070 or so - well beyond the time when serious disastrous impacts of climate change are projected to have occurred on current emissions scenarios. We can't allow this to occur. We , you, I, peoples and governments of the world can change this bleak dismal outlook. And a good place to start is to stop the dredging and stop the explosion of coal seam gas extraction from Queensland.
Surely you and your staff understand this. You're good, intelligent people.
How you can allow this dredging to go on when you have the power to stop it? Surely it must make it hard for you to sleep at night.
groundswell –growing a safe climate economy by 2020
Sunday 24 July 2011 at 9:18 pm
There’s a huge amount of amazing climate change campaigning being done around Australia. So why am I working on starting something new?
Because despite all the fabulous work being done, those of us committed to action to restore a safe climate saw two big gaps:
1. the messages and asks of the range of campaigns are all over the place
2 we are still only reaching a tiny proportion of the population in a way which is capable of changing behaviours, attitudes, and votes.
We aren’t getting the political and societal traction we need for major change, particularly in the face of the increasingly resourced and organised opposition.
groundswell is aiming to tackle both of these gaps– and so work towards getting political support for urgent action restore a safe climate, here in Australia, and in partnership with similar activities throughout the world.
Here's a brochure about groundswell, or read on for some more details.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsOur Murray Darling needs your help
Thursday 26 May 2011 at 7:00 pm
I met Mark, Mog, Clancy & Lily Etheridge four years ago this month. I was travelling with my good friend and Greens legend Margaret Blakers to the Greens School at Murra Murra at the very top of the Murray Darling catchment, and we took the opportunity on our road trip from Melbourne to have a tour of various spots in the basin along the way.
Mark's family are the centre of GetUp's request to its members today to lobby the federal government about science based water allocations for the Murray Darling. Please go to the GetUp site and send your email to your member of Parliament!
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsProposed coalmine in Bangladesh
Wednesday 27 April 2011 at 09:24 am
Got 10 minutes to spare? Send this bloke an email now!
Stephen Bywater, Chief ExecutiveGCM Resources plc *
Email: info@gcmplc.com
Dear Mr Bywater,
My proposed great barrier reef carbon tax campaign. Let me know what you think.
‘I’ve only visited the Great Barrier Reef once. I loved it of course. As an Australian you grow up loving the Reef. Snorkelling off Cape Tribulation with my children was so special. The corals, the fish. We saw a whale too.
Climate change is destroying the reef. It doesn’t have to happen. We have to act to restore a safe climate, or the reef my kids and I visited will just be a memory.
Putting a price on carbon pollution is a critical step for Australia on our journey to a safe climate. Please ring or email your members of parliament now to let them know that you support the carbon tax. Visit www.xxxx to get their details and to get your free ‘I love Great Barrier Reef’ sticker.
If like me you love the Reef, please do it now. There’s no time to lose.”
Janet | ¶ | default | No comments Used tags: climate_changeClimate Summit 2011
Thursday 14 April 2011 at 3:59 pmI've just written this article for Greens Victoria News. It will get edited before it hits the streets, so here is the unexpurgated version just for you!
Climate Action Summit 2011. From the ground up? Yes we can!
It was during the session on messaging at the Climate Action Summit that I got really excited. I got the powerful sense that we as a movement are really getting it together. Our campaigning is about to really rock.
I’ve been working with the Climate Emergency Network and the Transition Decade Alliance this year planning a massive community mobilisation for a safe climate. Our main aim is to build commitment in the Australian community to initiate the transformation of the Australian economy by 2020 to drive the restoration of a safe climate. It’s a big task. We’re talking about reducing Australia’s carbon emissions to zero in the space of a decade. It’s what the science says needs to be done. It’s our job to make the impossible possible.
So the Climate Action Summit over the weekend of 8-9 April was a great place to be: with five hundred people who understand the enormity of the task ahead and are committed to taking powerful action, locally, nationally and globally.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsMobilising for a safe climate
Tuesday 12 April 2011 at 8:56 pm
I had a very enjoyable time at the climate action summit on the weekend, keeping busy with facilitating the workshop on zero carbon transport on Saturday and presenting on Sunday on the massive community mobilisation plans that I'm working on with the Climate Emergency Network. Here's the presentation on mobilising that I gave and a summary of what we have planned. Have a read and get in touch if you are interested in getting involved - it would be great to have you on board.
‘Is Environmentalism Failing?’Great Debate at Sustainable Living Festival Melbourne, 18 February 2011.
Sunday 27 March 2011 at 06:27 amI finally caught up last night with the Great Debate at the Sustainable Living Festival that I missed when it was on in February. It was broadcast on the ABC’s Big Ideas program on 15 March.
It was a really stimulating series of talks from six incredibly insightful people – Ian Lowe, Anna Rose, Clive Hamilton, Christine Milne, Philip Sutton and David Suzuki.
I strongly recommend you have a listen to their talks in full if like me you missed it at the time. But in the meantime, if you want a quick catch up, have a read of my summary of their talks below. I reckon it’s a really good checklist of the challenges the environment movement are currently facing, and what we need to be focused on now.
Stand firm Nicola!
Wednesday 23 March 2011 at 3:15 pm
A letter to my local MP Nicola Roxon about putting a price on carbon pollution
Dear Nicola
This email is to help give you moral support to stand up to the shock jocks and denialists, and to encourage you and the ALP to stand firm in your support of a price on carbon.
I'm delighted that we are on the same side in this debate! I was very pleased to be standing side by side with ALP members at the Melbourne rally the weekend before last. We had a very enthusiastic group of westie locals travel to the rally on the train that morning - it was quite an occasion as we left Footscray.
You know as well as I do that a price on carbon and a fair go for renewable energy via decent feed in tariffs are foundation stones of building a safe climate economy, which is what we need to do, must do urgently, if we are to have a fair, just and sustainable future.
It makes me so angry that the Alan Jones and Andrew Bolts of the world are playing politics with our future, and the quality of life that we will experience in our lifetimes, and that my kids John and Leon, your daughter Rebecca will inherit.
Kind regards,
Janet
Janet | ¶ | default | No comments Used tags: climate_changea letter to the Age - this time on carbon taxes
Friday 25 February 2011 at 09:41 amI’ve just been doing my sums. In contrast to Tony Abbot’s scare campaign that a $26 a tonne carbon tax will add $300 to the average electricity bill, I reckon it would add just over $100 to mine.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsRegional Rail Link should be reconsidered
Wednesday 23 February 2011 at 10:04 amI just sent this off as a Letter to the Editor at The Age.
Jason Dowling’s article on the regional rail link mixes up what is mandatory with what should be reconsidered. Major new public transport infrastructure in the outer west is mandatory. But the way of achieving it should be reconsidered.
The RRL project has many flaws. It’s not going to be an electric suburban service for Tarneit and Derrimut, it won’t connect these suburbs to the Werribee CBD, it will to sever the connection between Geelong and Werribee and make the trip from Geelong to Melbourne 10 minutes longer.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | No commentsComplaint to Metro!
Sunday 13 February 2011 at 10:52 am
I just sent this complaint off to Metro to protest about the proposed changes to the Altona line timetable - join me in doing the same here.
(more) Janet | ¶ | default | One comment"I'm writing to complain about the proposed timetable changes on the Altona line - its crazy that with almost $100 million spent at laverton station to improve services that the altona line will run at 22 minute frequencies and require passengers to change at newport during the offpeak.