I attended another special fundraising event at The Deck Brighton hosted by Port Phillip EcoCentre featuring author Keith Badger with an introduction to his book ‘Joining Loose Ends’.
At the age of 58, Keith Badger suddenly found himself with a dream and desire to leave behind his corporate job and return to his birthplace in England, and walk. It was a simple plan, to walk from one end of Britain to the other with his wife Debby. And yet as they traversed the country over 139 days and 2,801km, Keith and Debby found themselves confronting far greater challenges than the landscape and shocking weather.
Port Phillip Baykeeper on the effects of plastic pollution in Port Phillip Bay
‘Joining Loose Ends’ at one level is an adventure story about a long walk that stretched a couple to their limits. However, in candidly sharing his life story and vulnerability, Keith reveals with great honesty how in walking and connecting to nature for the first time in his life, he found richness in the world beyond his former business and consumer lifestyle, eventually learning what it means to be human.
Keith is now an Iceberger, swimming in the Port Phillip Bay every morning. He is the long-standing Treasurer of the Port Phillip EcoCentre, a leading community-managed organisation with a dedicated team of scientists, educators and volunteers who design and implement innovative environmental programs, with expertise in Port Phillip Bay health and the urban ecology of Greater Melbourne, within the traditional lands and waters of the Kulin Nation. The EcoCentre’s vision is to create an empowered and engaged community actively cultivating long-term social and environmental well-being, and do this through a range of education, research, citizen science, public advocacy, and volunteering programs.
If you are interested in getting involved by volunteering your time or perhaps you would prefer to make a donation, please click this link https://ecocentre.comfor more details.
Students from Caulfield Grammar in Melbourne participating in rubbish collection activities with the EcoCentre at Elwood beach.
Macnamarra Candidates Forum on climate change & energy at St Kilda Town Hall
Open Media has been employed to film and report on the Macnamara Candidates’ Forum on climate change & energy held at St Kilda Town Hall on April 3rd, 2019.
One of the organisers, artist Anselm von Rood from Stop Adani and partner documentary film maker Nicole Ma are strongly opposed to the Adani / Wilmar / Carmichael’s earth shattering mining scheme being set up at the Galilee Basin in Queensland. A hot topic of debate in politics as it threatens The Australian Great Barrier Reef as well as earth’s atmosphere in general.
Eloisa Moses-McMahon Albert Park College
I had a not so informed awareness of the name Adani and threats to The Great Barrier Reef, but like many, I am prone to wearing blinkers when it comes to issues that I feel I have little control over. So I mustered the courage and googled Adani Australia.
I discovered on the Adani Wilmar website they proudly state:
‘…At Adani Wilmar, we are committed towards working for a healthy growing India…’
Adani Australia is a company privately owned by Gautam Shantilal Adani, an Indian billionaire industrialist who is the chairman and founder of the Adani Group.
Their partners for the Carmichael Mine and The Great Barrier Reef mining threat is the Singapore based company Wilmar owned by Vinod Adani, sole director of a number of Singapore-registered companies that control the Australian rail and port assets and are in turn owned first in the Cayman Islands and then in the British Virgin Islands.
Filmed by Tim Barnett / Edited by Simon Barnett. Produced by Open Media
Adani Australia website states it is an energy and infrastructure company, dedicated to delivering energy solutions for an advancing world. One question that springs to mind is advancing into what…
Kate Ashmore Liberal
I found it interesting that the Adani Australia website spearheaded their message to the world by showcasing Adani Renewables Australia first.
So far, one solar farm called Rugby Run near Morenbah became fully operational in early 2019. Apparently, there is another solar farm on the drawing board earmarked for Whyalla.
I learned that Adani / Wilmar / Carmichael conglomerant has mined coal in Australia for over 30 years and there is little doubt in anyone’s mind that Adani are good at employing people to mine coal and transport coal around the world.
I discovered that Adani Australia is keen to deliver power to the millions of Indian’s who have lived without coal driven electricity and that Adani have a power purchase agreement signed to sell 80% of energy generated.
I learned that Adani boasts owning the largest and most effective earth shattering dredging equipment. That this multi-dimensional energy and infrastructure conglomerate has acquired ownership of endless ports and rail transport networks around Australia and the rest of the globe.
“… At peak capacity the Carmichael mine would produce 60 million tonnes of coal a year, much of it “low quality, high ash…”
Josh Burne (ALP)
Perhaps Adani will conquer the world, literally, with their coal driven electricity trajectory.
The question beggars, are there other ways of creating electricity and energy and employing people in Australia and around the world in an eco friendly way? At the Macnamara Candidates’ Forum on climate change & energy I discovered there are other ways to power and employ in eco friendly, progressive ways, that will allow future generations of humans, plants and animals live.
Steph Hodgins-May The Greens
Open Media is working with Port Phillip EcoCentre, Australian Conservation Foundation, PPAS (Port Phillip Alliance for Sustainability. Stop Adani, CAPP (Community Alliance of Port Phillip. LIVE (Locals into Victoria’s Environment, unChained and AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
We will be continuing our coverage with extended film footage of the complete forum very soon as we head towards the Federal Elections on the 18 May 2019, so stay posted for other angles to this debate.
Reason Victoria, Liberal, Animal Justice, Labor and Greens Parties gathered at the Alex Theatre that hosted a timely Albert Park Candidates Forum organised by unChain Port Phillip and Live.org.au and supported by 22 other local community groups.
As an independent producer and volunteer journalist for St Kilda News I was invited to cover this event. I am please to report I found this forum to be very compelling and very illuminating.
The night was long, a three-hour gig.
Jarryd Bartle from Reason Victoria was first cab of the rank. He made clear his party’s policies on sex, drugs and rock n roll. He stressed the party’s desires to have an evidence-based approach to crime, drug law reform, harm minimization, religion, tax, transparency and accountability in parliament to name a few topics.
Next up was Andrew Bond for the Liberals, who spearheaded his party’s concerns on congestion, crime, safety and CCTV on the streets and how those issue have been handled over the last four years.
In answer to Andrew Bond’s statements on these issues was Martin Foley who has been an Albert Park member since 2007. Martin is also a current Minister in the Andrews State Labor government with portfolios that include Housing, Disability and Ageing, Mental Health and Equality as well as Creative Industries.
With robust experience working in the field, Martin eloquently made clear that Labor is on its party line track and looking to continue to set a positive plan for a progressive future with bold reforms using the potential of Fishermans Bend as a lynch pin site to getting things right.
Greens candidate Ogy Simic also gave a strong voice to the Greens policies making clear that this Victoria State election is very significant for an inclusive future in facing issues on the impact of climate change and a healthy society; naming issues of housing, poverty, transport and assisting the vulnerable, with a new view, attitude and approach.
To finish was Dr. Tamasin Ramsey for the Animal Justice Party who illuminated to everyone that humans consist of .02 of 1 % of the global population and how important it is for we humans to realize that other living creatures consist of 99.9 % of all life on earth. Working as a paramedic on the streets also gave Tamasin experience into the plights of humans and a clear, clean insight into the importance of changing our attitudes, practices and interrelationships for a positive and healthy future for all life on earth.
Our media team, consisting of pationpics commissioned by St Kilda News and Mynewsroom, have produced a short film of the Forum with an extended podcast of the entire forum giving you, the electorate, insight into these individuals and their party’s polices. We hope you find this useful for your vote.
Community Groupssupporting the forumare: unChain Port Phillip, LIVE.ORG.AU, Port Phillip Alliance for Sustainability (PPAS), South Port Urban Responsible Renewal (SPURR), Port People, Port Phillip EcoCentre, St.Kilda Junction Area Action Group (JAAG), Sacred Heart Mission, Port Phillip Bicycle Users Group (BUG), Community Alliance of Port Phillip (CAPP), This Week in St Kilda (TWISK), Bayside Climate Change Action Group (BCCAG), Veg Out Community Gardens St Kilda, (VEG OUT), Friends of the Earth (FOE), Beach Patrol Port Melbourne, Albert Park, South Melbourne and St Kilda and Love Our Streets (LOS) Port Melbourne and Elwood, Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association (BCNA), Montague Community Alliance, Friends of St Kilda, St Kilda News, pationpics.com, Mynewsroom.
Below is a Podcast of the entire Albert Park Candidates Forum which was organised by unChain Port Phillip and Live.org.au and supported by 20 local community groups, hosted by the Alex Theatre St Kilda.
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