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We dropped back a little on our stats this month, but we assume the By-election will see a greater use of the information and forums. Our average hits per day has dropped from over one thousand to 850.

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Williamstown By-election
Who are you going to vote for?

Where has the famous Bracks commitment to governing for all Victorians gone? Looks like it’s been retired along with the ex-premier. The cynicism of the Labor’s preselection of Transport Worker’s Union national secretary, Wade Noonan, to the seat of Williamstown has amazed members of the community of Yarraville. Mr Noonan is from a family with a long history with the TWU, his father, Bill, is the Victorian branch secretary.

Francis St Yarraville (in the Williamstown electorate) carries more trucks than any other residential street in the country with in excess of 7000 trucks a day according to VicRoads; at least 40% of this traffic is using the street as a shortcut to the port in order to avoid CityLink tolls. The TWU has opposed every measure that has been put forward to limit truck numbers on Francis St and other streets in the inner west and Wade Noonan is a key figure in that organisation. Given this background how can he now claim to represent residents of Yarraville?

Mr Noonan was one of a number of candidates in the pre-selection ballot for Williamstown; he was handed the prize safe seat over Rhonda Rietveld who has a strong record of community work and advocacy. It makes you wonder what is going on with Labor when they pre-select a transport union official ahead of someone like Rhonda Rietveld. We need strong representation not someone with vested interests in one of the major issues affecting the lives of residents.

It’s even more perplexing given that, according to inside sources, Rietveld actually won the preselection ballot but was then overridden by the central organising committee. It seems if Labor isn’t branch stacking then they’re just flat out ignoring the wishes of grass roots members in order to give their union mates political careers. Wade Noonan just doesn’t make sense at all if you’re thinking of community representation.

If you are voting in the Williamstown by-election think carefully about your vote. If you’re sick of the trucks consider voting for someone else, even if you’ve always voted Labor. There are other candidates who do have a record of community representation.
Janet Rice, The Greens’ candidate has a strong record of involvement on the issue of trucks: she is the chair of the Metropolitan Transport Forum, a former mayor of Maribyrnong and a founding member of MTAG.
MTAG is not aligned to any party but it is important that we send Labor a message on this issue, which they have failed to manage much to the detriment of the residents of Yarraville.
 
Solving Melbourne’s Transport Crisis
A public meeting worth supporting:
5:30 pm for 6 pm to 8 pm
30 August 2007
Swanston Room, Melbourne Town Hall
Dr Paul Mees, Councillor Janet Rice, Peter Fitzgerald and Angela Munro

Click here to get flyer:

Residents Truck Impact Study up on website
The results and analysis of the MTAG Residents Truck Impact Study are up now on our website. As widely reported in the media the study reveals asthma rates in areas heavily affected by truck traffic at three times the national average. But there’s much more to the study than just asthma and other health effects. It also outlines a suite of proposals for solving the crisis and  observations by residents in their own words including the following:

“There is not a day that passes that I don’t worry about my son’s health. If I had more money I would not choose to live in this area. I constantly wonder if I should sacrifice economic security for the health of my son.”

“It has become so bad that we are looking at moving. The children are always sick and the truck traffic is dangerous. We love living in Yarraville but we have to put our children first.”

The full report is available from our website.
www.mtag.org.au

Latest research into link between cholesterol and diesel
A time bomb The latest research on diesel pollution from scientists at UCLA is not good news for the residents of the Yarraville, Footscray and surrounds. Their findings, first reported in the online journal Genome Biology in July, suggest that people with high cholesterol are especially vulnerable to heart disease when they are exposed to diesel exhaust fumes, "The combination creates a dangerous synergy that wreaks cardiovascular havoc far beyond what's caused by the diesel or cholesterol alone," said Dr Andre Nel, chief of nanomedicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Given that diesel pollution levels recorded by the EPA in Francis St Yarraville are among the highest recorded in Australia, and that around 20,000 trucks a day are using residential streets in the inner west, these latest findings should give cause for alarm for those with elevated cholesterol levels (around half the adult population). Added to other frightening statistics including that children living near diesel pollution hotspots are 12 times more likely to contract childhood cancer (reported in Sydney Morning Herald 12th August 2005), and asthma levels three times higher than the national average (MTAG Truck Impact Study 2007) it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that residents of the inner west are being made sick by all these trucks.

And for those living in the quiet leafy glades of Seddon and Yarraville who perhaps hope the pollution doesn't reach them or affect them, and that this research and these statistics only apply to those living on the truck routes, think again. Most studies into the effects of diesel pollution on health are based on a one-kilometer radius from pollution hotspots; this would include nearly all of Yarraville and Seddon and much of Footscray.  Latest research into health effects of living with excessive noise Here’s an interesting but disturbing article from The Guardian (August 24th 2007) on the effects of living with excessive noise. When you read the article bear in mind that the Victorian EPA conducted noise monitoring on Francis St Yarraville in 2001. The monitoring found that residents on Francis Street experience traffic noise that exceeds many traffic noise objectives currently in use in Australia. The highest reading taken, averaged over a 24hr period, was 70.5dB (average) measured on Wednesday 25 March 2002. There are currently no VicRoads noise objectives for ‘arterial’ roads such as Francis St even when, like Francis Street, they are lined on both sides with residences. VicRoads does, however, have a policy of retrofitting noise barriers on freeways where noise exceeds 65dB (average). Francis St noise exceeded this level on 18 of the 22 days that VicRoads measured noise following the introduction of the night curfews. If Francis St were a freeway VicRoads policy would ensure that noise barriers were implemented to protect residents from the truck noise. VicRoads, for the past four years, has been developing a State Environment Protection Policy (SEPP) that will set noise objectives for arterial roads. This policy has still not been completed despite being promised years ago.

What Can I Do Right Now?
Please write a letter or email to one or more of the following: Local newspapers:
Leader www.themaribyrnongleader.com.au (go to website and click "Letter to Editor")
The Mail fcnvic_westletters@fairfax.com.au
The Star star@starnewsgroup.com.au E mail your letters with name, address and phone number so they can verify (they only print your name)

Local Member for Footscray Marsha Thomson 206 Nicholson Street, Footscray 3011 marsha.thomson@parliament.vic.gov.au

Phone 9689 4283 Martin Pakula Member for Western Metropolitan Region Parliamentary Secretary for Transport 3 Ballarat St Yarraville Vic 3013 Ph 9689 6536 martin.pakula@parliament.vic.gov.au

Transport Minister Tim Pallas Minister for Roads and Ports Department of Infrastructure GPO Box 2797 Melbourne VIC

3001 Health Minister Bronwyn Pike 484 William St, West Melbourne 3003 Ph 9328 4637 bronwyn.pike@parliament.vic.gov.au

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