Politics is a dirty word

 The Victorian Government is still keen to go ahead with the wholesale destruction of native vegetation and wildlife on the eastern side of Westernport despite calls from the United Nations to limit the extent of sand extraction. The United Nations Environment Programme has called for urgent action to avert a "sand crisis," as global demand has surged to 50 billion tonnes a year amid population growth and urbanisation. In a report released on Tuesday, the U.N said “Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water, but its use is largely ungoverned, meaning we are consuming it faster than it can be replaced by geological processes that take hundreds of thousands of years,” It said “the needs and expectations of our societies cannot be met without improved governance of sand resources, "and  also called for a reduction in demand by reusing sand from recycled materials like concrete and mining tailings instead of using naturally occurring sand. S...

  Problems with Governments and their agencies are not confined to the State and Federal arenas. We have been unable to obtain answers from Bass Coast Shire about breaches of planning permit conditions involving the clearance of native vegetation and siltation problems on land adjoining our property in Grantville. For years the land has been subject to a planning permit for sand extraction however no site activity has been conducted apart from illegal clearing along the river.. Vegetation clearing across the block, right down to Bass River was first notified to the Shire in May 2021 and again early in September 2021. We contacted the Shire office as well as local Councillor Clare Le Serve, President Brett Tessari and CEO Ali Wastie. Cr Le Serve responded on Sept 16 saying she did not know work had started but she would follow up with officers and fellow councillors. We received a phone call from a Shire Planner, a Mr Patrick Doyle on 15.11 seeking further information. We sent ...