Senator Andrew Bartlett
Monday, April 11, 2005
 
from Birdsville to Sydney to North Queensland

The Friday session of the Local Government conference I attended at Birdsville proved to be interesting. There were a lot of reminders about the need for a sealed road and the basic safety issues involved in that – for tourists as much as for locals. Talks also covered the major environmental issues of weeds and water. I like the forests in Tasmania as much as anyone, and the Democrats have a long and strong record of working to protect that area, but I have found it irritating that this is portrayed as one of the most pressing environmental issues in Australia, when weeds and invasives are far more significant in the nature and scale of the environmental damage occurring. The Democrats initiated a valuable Senate Inquiry in this area last year.

While state Labor Local Government Minister, Desley Boyle was present, it was very obvious this is National Party heartland. The local and neighbouring National Party members, Vaughan Johnson and Howard Hobbs, were present, as was their State Leader, Lawrence Springborg. Federal Liberal Minister Ian MacDonald was there too, and new Qld National Party Senator, Barnaby Joyce.

I had an interesting chat with Barnaby, which I may write a bit more on shortly. After dinner – with me as the sole vegetarian again – out at a place called Dingo Caves about 10km out of town in a small amphitheatre in the desert, I flew back to Brisbane arriving home about 1am.

On Saturday morning I flew to Sydney to attend the national conference of the Migration Institute of Australia. I'll probably post my speech on my main website, so I won't go into it in depth here. Basically, I believe the time has come to put a much greater spotlight on the Government's many failures in its administration of the wider migration system. There has quite rightly been a big spotlight on issues relating to asylum seekers, and this must continue, but it has meant that there has been little focus on the other 99% of people who have to deal with the hundreds of other visa categories.

There were other interesting speakers at the conference, although Minister Vanstone made a late apology, which in my view is fairly representative of how strong her commitment is to working constructively to improve the migration system.

Sunday gave me a chance to hang out at home (and catch up on emails). I visited New Farm Park with my little girl – a fabulous park with a really good children's playground amongst a stand of marvellous old fig trees.

This week I am travelling in Northern Queensland, visiting Mackay today and working my way up to Cairns by Thursday. Among other things, I will be visiting the University campuses in those two towns, plus Townsville, to get a better idea of the potential impact of the Government's Voluntary Student Union legislation.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, April 11, 2005 Permalink
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