Big Shifts: Governance

 

‘I won’t be putting pen to paper.’ 

He’s old, grizzled, and disaffected. 

‘I’ve been ‘commenting’ for years, and it doesn’t make any difference.’ 

Steve has driven into town to be part of thinking how to protect the health of the rivers of the Barwon. It’s the same examination of governance arrangements that is underway now for the Waterways of the West – our Maribrynong River, the Werribee and the smaller creeks that run directly to Port Phillip Bay.

The room swarms with government employees. They are bringing government decision making into the public realm. Around the walls are the objectives and process for each study: water availability, water allocation for the next 10 years, the coming 50 years of water supply in the region – these are big topics.

The machinery of government is on display. I’m sitting with the Ministerial Advisory Committee that will recommend ways to improve government regulation and planning that affects the rivers, creeks and wetlands of this region. 

Steve says he's disappointed that there’s been no mention in the just released discussion paper about educating young people about the rivers and catchment. ‘It’s the quickest way to change attitudes, and that’s what we need,’ he says. 

I have to agree. Here we are, talking with the few good souls who have turned up on a Wednesday evening, but collectively, we guzzle our way through cheap water while the real cost of that water is born by rivers choked by weeds and stagnant in summer, without their natural flow. 

We use the water that rivers need for their life. Costs are kept low for consumers, politicians deliver on their promises, but as a society, we choose human use over environmental use, and low cost over the full cost of caring for waterways. The government agencies whose job it is to look after rivers are under-funded; community groups do what they can to fill the gaps. Most of us are in ignorance of how badly the collective effort falls short of proper care for living rivers.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Smart technical experts were going to get the facts, and guide governments. We the general public were to leave them to it, trusting that government would do what was needed. But things are not so good, and it turns out that the facts of science may tell a story that politicians find hard to act on. 

Informed public opinion can make a difference, but what are we doing to bring these dilemmas to our children? How well-equipped are they to live responsibly in the natural world? 

This is a big shift, to participate in decisions that were once left to government, and our children’s education could do more to prepare them to be part of decision making. 

If we did, perhaps when the next Ministerial Advisory Committee holds meetings, in 2030 let's say, these children will arrive at their local hall to say what they think, to hear what others think, and to work out what is to be done. 

That’s what Steve thinks, and while he says he's not putting pen to paper, I’m happy to pass it on.

Big Shifts: Water

Climate change is front page news, but now it’s the climate emergency, and in some parts of the world, the climate catastrophe. 

The northern summer started with the Californian bushfires, then moved to the Arctic fires, smouldering circles of peat burning underground, impossible to control. I followed links to local newspaper articles in the Arctic Circle, to read what people there were thinking. I learned about methane released as the permafrost thaws and the feedback loop between more carbon and more thawing. By the time the Amazon started burning, I hadn’t exactly lost interest, but I was exhausted.

A graph of rainy days in Sunbury woke me up. Sunbury now has 3.5 fewer rainy days in August than it did 50 years ago. I thought August was pretty wet this year, but the trendline is down. Inflows to Roslyn Reservoir are headed the same way.

And it’s getting hotter. As last summer lingered, my body told me ‘This is wrong.’ It was too hot too late into autumn. The Japanese Maple told me too: in that hot weather in May, half its leaves shrivelled up and dropped to the ground, brown. Then when it got properly cold, the leaves didn’t turn their deepest purple/crimson.

Life has changed for that maple tree, and for us. We have wasted the last three decades letting the ultra-rich set the agenda; now we must completely redesign our energy and food systems, fast. If we can get these shifts started in the next decade, then we will leave our kids a habitable future. If we don’t, us old folk will be gone, but they and their kids will have a really difficult time.

There’s a lot for the big end of town to do, but a small town like Riddell what each individual does makes a difference. Over the next few editions of Riddell Roundup, I will tell you about projects that are part of the big shifts, leaning into these shifts and learning as we go.

Ross Colliver, Riddells Creek Landcare