Has to be something worth fighting for

Overnight, something put Shane Howard's 'No Dams' anthem, 'Let the Franklin Flow' in my mind.


O Tasmania
The hardest heart could understand
Just to feel your wilderness
The silence sing to me

Let the Franklin flow
Let the wildlands be
The Wilderness should be strong and free
Kutakina - to the southwest shore
Has to be something worth fighting for

We fell the forests
And we scar the land
It has to be something worth fighting for
Desecrated with greedy hands
Destroy the beauty that nature planned

Let the Franklin flow, let the wildlands be
The Wilderness should be strong and free
Kutakina - to the southwest shore
Has to be something worth fighting for

A thousand people arrested and bailed
Has to be something worth fighting for
Voices crying in the wilderness
Saying this is something worth fighting for


I know a lot of people will be voting Green on Saturday.

Despite my strong Labor roots, I did a bit of soul-searching about this election and what it might mean for Victoria.

I hate the way that Conservative interests write off Green/Left politics as some kind of indulgent "watermelon marxism". I hate the way that, when Labor presents good policy on environmental issues they are accused of pandering to hippies.

Ultimately though, the idea of the Liberals winning Government has filled me with a real sense of dread and an ongoing stomach-flutter that I suspect suggests I will have to get very drunk on Saturday morning and stay that way until Monday so that the suspense doesn't cause me to drop dead. So I'll be voting Labor (before I get drunk).

I did check out the details of the Labor Environment Policy, to whit:

"Labor will create a new Cobboboonee National Park and Forest Park outside Portland to preserve the valuable Cobboboonee Forest"

"A re-elected Labor Government will immediately protect the remaining significant stands of old growth forest in Victoria, including the Goolengook Block, by adding them to the National Parks system. This will add another 33,500 hectares of State Forest currently available to the timber industry to the National Park system"

"Labor will create the Great Victorian Alpine National Park by adding a 5000 hectare section of State Forest currently available for logging to link the Errinundra National Park to the Snowy River and Alpine National Parks and pursue World Heritage Listing of a Great Alpine National Park in partnership with the ACT and NSW"

"Labor will immediately add 2,500 hectares of icon State Forest in East Gippsland currently available for logging to the National Parks and reserve system"

"Labor will provide $7 million to buy back the iconic Cores and Links area in the Strezlecki Ranges to be vested with the Trust for Nature for future conservation"

Creating National Parks is good. It's vital in protecting wilderness areas. And given Victoria's economic growth, there is no need to shy away from it.

I'm confident that Bracks and the ALP take the environment seriously. And I think their agenda on health and education can't be beat.

I'm not trying to start a fist-fight in the comments (if indeed there are any). Like most other things, I've thought a lot about this (possibly too much).

Geeze.

Joke quotient = 0.

Sorry about that.