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Update #3 (15/5/07 4:30pm):
The Premiers Office has lifted the block on email coming
from our server not long after Update #2. We are still waiting
to have a meeting with them to find out how this situation
can be avoided in the future. In discussions with them last
week, they were not giving us much hope, indicating that
they were not very sympathetic to our arguments.
The staff of the Marine Parks Authority
DID get transferred over to the Department of Enviornment
and Climate Change last week, however staff dealing with
aquatic threatened species will now be remaining with the
Department of Primary Industries rather than being transferred
to the enviornment department.
Andrew Cox, Executive Officer
Update #2 (27/4/07 12:00 noon):
The Government has just published changes to the Ministerial
Portfolios. Marine Parks will no longer be solely under
the Climate Change and Environment Minister but will revert
back to be jointly under the Minister for Primary Industries
(Fisheries) and the Minister for Climate Change and Environment,
as they were before the election. NPA had been seeking this
change for the last ten years, and we are disappointed that
we remain unsuccessful.
Other minor changes were made, but effectively
the new powers of the enhanced Minister for Climate Change,
Environment and Water have been retained!
Thank you to everybody who used our website
or wrote independently to the Government seeking to prevent
the windback of changes to the Environment Ministry. Many
hundreds of faxes and over 415 emails were sent over the
last three weeks.
While the Premier's Office blocked the
bulk of the emails since Tuesday, they were still delivered
to other members of Parliament, including the Greens and
Independents. NPA complained direct to the Premier's Office
and to the media (see media
release). We have been offered a meeting with the Premier's
Office in order to avoid a repeat of this situation.
Since our campaign on this issue has
come to a conclusion, the form below will no longer generate
emails to the Government. Instead it has been changed. If
you choose to keep you in touch with other NPA conservation
issues you can now enter you details below and we will send
you occasional updates or request for assistance.
A final media
release on the issue has just been issued by environment
groups this afternoon.
The Sydney Morning Herald have also published
an article
on the blocking of our emails.
Andrew Cox, Executive Officer
Update #1 (26/4/07 1:30pm): The
Premiers Office have just contacted NPA to say they are
blocking us from sending your emails to the Premier and
his Ministers and threatened us with being blacklisted and
charged for breaching the Spam Act. NPA does not believe
we have breached the Spam Act and have reluctantly removed
all the Ministers from being copied in the email that is
sent on your behalf, but it will still be sent to the Premier,
the Environment Minister and Independent and Greens members
of Parliament. The email to the Premier will be blocked
until they lift this. We have lodged objections with the
Govt stating that they are infringing on the public's ability
to participate in the democratic process using email.
Instead you may like to contact the NSW
Premier direct at:
Email: thepremier@www.nsw.gov.au; Fax: 9228 3934 and Phone:
9228 5239
and Minister for Climate Change, Environment
and Water, Phil Koperberg
Address: PO Box A250, Sydney South NSW 1232
Email: office@koperberg.minister.nsw.gov.au; Fax: 9995 6654
and Phone: 9995 6750
See NPA media
release on this subject for more information.
Andrew Cox, Executive Officer.
LETTER TO THE PREMIER
The letter to the Premier on retaining a
strong Environment Ministry is no longer necessary.
On 27 April 2007 we found out that we have
been successful in preventing the watering down of the Environment
Ministry, except in the marine parks area. The Environment
Minister has lost sole responsibility for marine parks.
This will now be shared with the Minister for Primary Industries
(Fisheries). See joint
environment groups' media release.
For those who have already expressed their
concerns, thanks for your support.
If you want to stay in touch with NPA conservation
issues, please enter your details below.
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