13 minute read
DAVE SHARMA, Fed. Member for Wentworth
DAVE SHARMA FEDERAL MEMBER FOR WENTWORTH
The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a sobering wake-up call. It makes clear that climate change is already happening. The planet is already warming, by about 1.5 degrees Celsius since 1850. Extreme weather events are becoming more common. Human activity is warming the planet at a speed that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years.
As the report makes clear, rapid and large-scale emissions reductions are needed. If the world can substantially reduce emissions in the 2020s, and get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, temperature rise can still be limited. This is a global challenge, and Australia must play our part in addressing it. This will not only help address the risks to Australia posed by climate change, but also position us to take advantage of the opportunities that will flow from this economic transition.
This transition is well underway in Australia. Our emissions have fallen by 20% since 2005. They are now at their lowest level since 1998. We now have the highest solar power generation per person of any country in the world, with one in four Australian homes now with rooftop solar. We are deploying renewable energy at ten times faster than the global average. We will meet and beat our emissions reduction targets under the Paris agreement.
Provided we continue to focus our efforts on technology and innovation, Australia can reach net zero emissions by 2050. This is why, beyond electrification of the grid, we are focusing on other areas where technology can reduce our emissions.
One important area is encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles. Australian sales of electric vehicles have risen at record levels in the past six months, with more affordable models now available in Australia. The Government is supporting consumers to make this switch by installing new electric vehicle charging stations. Just last month we announced $25 million in funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to install more than 400 new electric vehicle charging stations across the country, including several here in the eastern suburbs.
Another promising area for Australia is hydrogen. With our huge endowment of solar energy, Australia has the opportunity to create the clean fuel of the future in hydrogen. Under our National Hydrogen Strategy, we are investing in hydrogen projects and international partnerships to develop a safe, commercial and clean hydrogen industry.
There is also immense potential for Australian farmers and agricultural producers to benefit from this transition through soil carbon initiatives. Capturing more carbon in soil not only improves soil health, builds resilience, and protects against drought – it can also create a valuable income stream for farmers, as they can sell these carbon ‘credits’.
Australia also has an opportunity to re-industrialise with low-emission production of steel and aluminium, using our abundant sources of clean energy to process our iron ore and bauxite on shore and export the finished product. We should celebrate our victories but we should also remember that higher ambition is required of us all, Australia included. So, let us all work together towards that.
The office of Mr Dave Sharma MP Federal Member for Wentworth
Has relocated to: 179 -191 New South Head Road, Edgecliff Telephone: (02) 9327 3988 Postal Address: PO Box 545, EDGECLIFF NSW 2027 Email: Dave.Sharma.MP@aph.gov.au
TESTING LOCATIONS
LOCAL TESTING LOCATIONS:
Lyne Park, Vickery Ave Car Park, Rose Bay. 8am-10pm Daily. Sir David Martin Reserve, New Beach Rd, Darling Point. 8am-8pm Daily. St Vincent's Hospital, 34 Burton St, Darlinghurst. 8am-10pm Daily.
Bondi Junction Respiratory Clinic,
47 Spring St, Bondi Junction. 8-11.45am Mon-Fri, 10am-3pm Sat.
Bondi Junction Laverty Pathology
Drive-through Clinic, 34 Waverley St, Level 2 car park, Bondi Junction 8am-8pm Thurs, 8am-10pm Fri-Sun.
Bondi Beach Drive-through Clinic
Park Drive North, Bondi Beach. 7.30am-10pm daily.
Prince of Wales Hospital
Avoca St, Building 14B Ground Floor, Randwick 9am-8pm Mon-Tues, 9am-7pm. WedThurs, 9am-8pm Fri-Sun.
Cnr Fitzgerald Ave and Bunnerong Rd, Heffron Park Car Park, Maroubra. 8am-4pm Daily.
Chifley Histopath Drive-through Clinic
800-899- Bunnerong Rd, Chifley Sports Reserve, Chifley. 8am-4pm Mon-Fri.
Randwick Laverty Pathology
164 Belmore Rd, Ground Floor, Randwick. 7.30am-4pm Mon-Fri.
Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick
High St, Outpatients Department, Randwick. 8.30am-8pm Mon-Fri
Coogee Laverty Pathology Walk-in and Drive-through Clinic
Beach St, UNSW Cliffbrook Campus, Building CC2, Coogee. 8am-4pm Daily.
PLEASE MONITOR FOR SYMPTOMS, GET TESTED, MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING AND ENSURE GOOD HAND HYGIENE.
THE BUILDERS OF MODERN AUSTRALIA
We continue the fascinating look at Sir Thomas Mitchell, a parishioner of St Mark’s Church Darling Point who first surveyed much of Eastern Australia and helped lay the foundations of a system of land tenure that enabled the development of prosperous lands to feed and keep clothed countless millions of people. SIR THOMAS MITCHELL – PART 3
Sir Thomas Mitchell was an army officer in the civil service. He conducted four substantial survey expeditions into the interior of Australia between 1831 and 1847 and covered much of Eastern Australia. To a large part, his expeditions relied on the availability of labour provided by convicts, over whom he exercised magisterial control.
Major Mitchell was not timid when it came to bringing convicts into his service. “The prisoners who had hitherto formed the bulk of all the exploring parties previously led by me into the interior of New South Wales, were chosen chiefly from amongst men employed on the roads, who had acquired good recommendations from their immediate overseers; but, on this last occasion, the men forming the party were for the most part chosen from amongst those still remaining in Cockatoo Island, the worst and most irreclaimable of their class.” Throughout Mitchell’s lifetime convicts constituted as much as 20% of the population of the new colony. Over 160,000 men, women and children, mostly small-time criminals were transported from Britain for seven years for petty offences such as stealing a loaf of bread or poaching, etc. More hardened criminals, like horse thieves, were mostly hanged or transported for life.
The overwhelming number of transportees could never afford the return journey at the end of their sentence and were destined to be absorbed into the free community in the new colony. In notable instances, their progeny were able to forge new lives as law-abiding citizens with their rights as British Subjects restored, fighting for respectability and seeking to cover up the ‘convict stain’.
Mitchell saw the reformation of law-breakers as a Christian moral duty and by and large he was rewarded. In his journals he states: “The colony of New South Wales has been the means of restoring many of our unfortunate countrymen to positions in which they have shown that loyalty, industry, public spirit, and patriotism, are not always to be extinguished in the breasts of Englishmen, even by fetters and degradation.” With many positive experiences, he expresses his pride that the more deserving of his men were rewarded with ‘ticket-of leave’ or absolute pardons, becoming valuable members of society. Convicts, by and large, had no rights during penal servitude and some serious resentment arose when First Nations persons were treated far more leniently for minor offences, such as pilfering. In stark contrast, a convict could expect to face the lash and triangle and, even worse, be sent to the dreaded secondary colonies so aptly described in Robert Hughes’, The Fatal Shore.
The management of these complex challenges was a constant problem for Mitchell as it was throughout the new colony. His journals provide an important contemporary insight on many of the social issues central to the development and prosperity of modern Australia.
Next month, we shall conclude our series on Sir Thomas Mitchell with a closer look at his legacy and the important role of the women in his life. Ian Tresise St Mark's Historical Society For more information please contact history@stmarksdp.org or visit
https://stmarksdp.org/history/
ST MARK'S ANGLICAN CHURCH
1 GREENOAKS AVE, DARLING POINT 9363 3657 office@stmarksdp.org www.stmarksdp.org
Image (left): The extent of Mitchell’s
expeditions. Source: The Gutenberg Project Australia.
Tw
Gordon H., courtesy of State Library of Victoria. Accession Number: H15361/35, Image Number: b13766.
MARRIAGE COURSE
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There’s no harm in asking
Well, if you’re referring to Oliver Twist asking “Please Sir, can I have some more?” Asking at that moment didn’t turn out so well, but that’s another story...
Back to reality, someone once asked me to write an article. And I immediately said “yes”, without a blink of an eye, because the night before I had felt someone would do just that.
And the other day I had a prompting to call someone. But I didn’t and had all sorts of non-sensical reasons why I shouldn’t, only to find out later that at that time the person was thinking of me too. Seems there’s more going on than meets the eye? old saying, “Ask and ye shall receive”? Children do it all the time.
But we adults, tend to allow our non sensical excuses to get in the way. Perhaps it would be easier if we just asked away, trusting our requests could met, and acting on those nudges to do something when they come and, who knows, turning a 40 year journey into an 11 day trip?
So why hesitate when we are prompted to do something, or find something? We all need to reach out to others build community connections, find new acquaintances and build new friendships. As truly, we are all pieces of the puzzle brought together, to create and fill the bigger picture.
SPREADING KINDNESS
Spreading kindness not Covid is how two young Sydney uni students built a business in one week to spread a bit of lockdown love.
One Sunday night two besties, Amber Linz and Chloe Shaw were brainstorming over Facetime about how to help their friends riddled with boredom, loneliness and Covid cabin-fever. They wanted to send more than a “virtual hug”, an actual gift that said ‘thinking of you’ without breaking the bank. LockdownLoveSydney.com was born.
LockdownLove Sydney are beautifully wrapped gifts with a cheeky card, delivered within 24 hours. The cards say things like “I’m so Gladys we’re friends” or “Iso miss you so much” and allow the purchaser to customise the other side.
“It’s more about the giggle from the card and the excitement of receiving a gorgeous gift at the door that we wanted”.
Each gift is packed with either something fun to do, deliciously naughty to eat, or pampering to make you “feel the lerve” and they range from $22-$30. It’s a perfect way during lockdown to give a ‘hang in there’ or ‘cheer up’ gesture at a truly affordable price.
Freckly Faces
25-year-old Richard Habelrih who lives with autism in Maroubra, is spreading smiles around Australia with his handmade giant chocolate freckle business.
When Richard’s work was suspended during the most recent Sydney lockdown, his mother Randa suggested he throw himself into a new project that could easily be done from home, and so began ‘Freckly Faces’.
Since sharing ‘Freckly Faces’ in TikTok videos the business has taken off, with Richard making and sending home-made giant chocolate freckles all around Australia, brightening up people’s days. The business runs all from the dining room table and has seen so much success, that the whole family is now involved in the production line process, with Richard still handwriting every note in each order!
“We didn’t think it would generate much business, we started it as something to do during lockdown. However, the nicest part has been people commenting on our TikToks and requesting orders to send to people in lockdown as a ‘thinking of you’ style gesture.” - Randa Habelrih
Randa Habelrih also founded Autism MATES, which works towards educating the community about autism, and advocates for greater inclusion and acceptance in schools and in the workforce. The organisation was established in response to the exclusion and bullying that Richard experienced from a young age.
“We believe that exclusion is not always intentional but instead due to a lack of education and appropriate tools to engage with the autistic community,” she says.
“Richard has been destigmatising autism on TikTok - in his own way, he’s educating people. As the mum of someone with autism, TikTok has really helped me to connect with other mums in the community. Some of the comments we receive are so touching, and some even move me to tears, we’re so thankful for all the encouragement and support from our TikTok fans.“
Freckly Faces can be purchased from the Autism MATES website:
https://autismmates.org.au/product/ freckles/ TikTok: @autismmates
WELLNESS HQ
UNITING HEART AND SOUL DV COUNSELLING ROOMS
to open late September
By appointment only To learn more scan the QR code or call Vanessa on 0402 855 698
Rev Ness(left) and Rev Viniana Ravetali, Chairperson Sydney Presbytery
Rev Ness’s Angels (L-R)Bonita Chau, Jessica Chau, Katie Keum Photos: SOON KIM
A SPARK OF HOPE IN THESE COVID TIMES
How we respond to our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health in these Covid times is critical to our level of resilience. As well as being a Minister I am an exercise professional and what I know is that our physical health is paramount to our wellbeing. When Gladys says we can exercise outside for an hour a day we need to lace up the Nike’s put on the spandex and go for it, our bodies will love us for it.
Have your emotions been a bit like the Wild Mouse at Luna Park, all over the place during lockdown? One day I am happy and then the next day I want to cry, and I have even found myself yelling at the 11am news feed. One thing that can help us regulate our emotions is connecting with people we love.
On Saturday night I did cheese and wine with my friends on Zoom, we laughed and sipped and nibbled just like we would if we were at a restaurant. I left that Zoom feeling better because of the connection. God built us for connection with each other.
How is your spiritual tank? Our spiritual health requires nurturing, there are so many ways to connect with your creator God. You can take a walk in nature, there is nothing more peaceful than watching waves roll onto the sand and looking out to the horizon. God created this beauty for us to enjoy. We are blessed to live in this part of Sydney. singing and dancing like you’re a Rockstar to your favourite God tunes. I love to incorporate a lot of this into one activity. I came home from a walk and my daughter saw me dancing down the path singing loud, and she said to me “mum what are you doing?
You weren’t doing that down the street were you?” I showed her my 1980’s moves and told her I was dancing and singing and praising God for the glorious sunshine on this lockdown day and that it made me feel full of vitality. Her comment was “What will the neighbours think”.
I replied “No one cares we are in lockdown anything goes as long as you’re in a mask and can socially distance, after all I was praying for all our neighbours near and far for their protection and safety in these times. Praying that we can all gather again real soon but also taking stock of just how blessed we are to live here in these times”.
I will keep praying for our community of Woollahra and Double Bay.
If you would like to connect with me
revness@uniting heartandsoul.org
I am after some new friends!
