Angela Martin, of Mullaley, writes: On November 23, 1972, at the UNESCO General Conference held in Paris, the delegates present approved the “convention of the list of World Heritage” – a list of sites that would officially come into force on December 17, 1975.
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Forty years on, the World Heritage List (WHL) is a “living document” that can be added to – or subtracted from – and includes those sites that seem to capture the twin histories of man and the Earth, the critical link that enables commerce to happen.
Although there is usually a distinction drawn between cultural heritage and natural heritage, some sites have been included in the WHL because they seem to have both characteristics, i.e. they have allowed for the development of human civilisation due to their natural resources.
The Liverpool Plains in NSW surely covers both fronts.
When we have debates in Australia around “protection of natural assets”, the unions scream “protection of jobs first”. These are indeed old wars.
It is only through a thorough understanding of our natural assets that we are able to safeguard the extraordinary wealth of this planet, wealth that has come too easily to many.
The Industrial Revolution gave a boost to living standards, and generated a dizzying acceleration in production, but this was production that was not sustainable by anyone’s view. This production was indeed “raping and pillaging” of the Earth.
The official job of the United Nations UNESCO Committee is to apply the criteria for the official recognition of a region into the list.
It must have been a surprise for the “unbending establishment” of the Soviet Union when, in 1957, ordinary citizens broke the silence and challenged the government of the time, located in the distant capital of Moscow.
So it is with the residents of northwest NSW, challenging the current government to come up with a new economic plan – one that will safeguard jobs, but leave some natural beauty in its trail.
The only sensible course of action, on the eve of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, is the recognition that this is a big firm “no” for Shenhua Watermark, but a definitive “yes” for the open-border policy to Chinese immigration.
What will drive the next wave of economic growth? Smart money – changing our energy system; smart money – from offshore superannuation funds investing in infrastructure that truly decarbonises the planet.
Another Snowy Hydro scheme near Ivanhoe. It sounds like a stretch, just as paying people less to work more sounds like a stretch, but it might be just what we need.
