16 INQUIRER THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, DECEMBER 31, 2011-JANUARY 1, 2012 www.theaustralian.com.au The party’s over and Bligh is to blame Peter Beattie paved the way for disaster by arranging for his deputy’s succession ROSS FITZGERALD IN the new year, Julia Gillard and the poor standing of federal Labor will not be responsible for the de- feat of Anna Bligh’s Labor govern- ment in Queensland. The blunt reality is that Bligh’s government is one of the worst in Queensland history. Neither the Premier nor her government is up to the job. Its defeat will be primar- ily because of its incompetence. It is little wonder that eight key members of the Bligh team, in- cluding six former ministers, are retiring at the state election. They have simply given up on Bligh and Queensland Labor. The theft of $16 million of pub- lic funds by a Queensland Health employee is the last straw in a his- tory of incompetence that ranges from the health payroll debacle to poor financial mismanagement that led to the loss of Queens- land’s cherished AAA credit rat- ing. There are now 16 million more reasons for Queenslanders to vote against Bligh. Many senior Labor figures find the Bligh gov- ernment so embarrassing that they are distancing themselves from it at an alarming rate. When former premier Peter Beattie handed over to his deputy, Bligh, in September 2007, the popular Labor government en- joyed a two-party preferred vote of 59 per cent and a primary vote of 50 per cent. The transition fol- lowed years of Beattie promoting Bligh over other ministers into tough portfolios to enhance her experience. At the time it was regarded as an ideal transition. Bligh enjoyed strong public support until her policies and per- formance showed a rapid decline to the point where today the Lib- eral National Party under Camp- bell Newman enjoys at least 59 per cent two-party preferred support and is on track to give Labor an absolute hiding whenever Bligh goes to the polls. It was a serious error of judg- ment on Beattie’s part to promote Bligh when there were more tal- ented choices available, including John Mickel and Rod Welford. It seems Beattie was more inter- ested in putting Queensland’s first female premier into office than promoting the best candidate. State Labor’s problems started when Bligh became more focused on image than on performance. Her promotion of inexperienced supporters into cabinet at the expense of senior colleagues (such as Mickel, who is now Speaker; former police minister Judy Spence; former attorney-general Kerry Shine; and former ministers Lindy Nelson-Carr, Robert Schwarten and Margaret Keech) was designed to make her govern- ment look good but took its toll in poor administration in transport, health, infrastructure delivery and water, and in the cost of electricity. Bligh’s failure to sack former health minister and close friend Paul Lucas over the health depart- ment’s payroll fiasco showed per- sonal loyalty had precedence over performance. There also was not enough focus on detail. Instead, Bligh concentrated on managing the latest political disaster. The damage from this crisis manage- ment soon became irreparable. Also, many members of Bligh’s cabinet are lazy. Government ministers are rarely seen at busi- ness events in Brisbane or in key regional centres and LNP frontbenchers are being openly courted as future ministers. The Bligh government has lost the links with business vigorously developed by Wayne Goss and Beattie. It is a pale imitation of past Labor governments. The fat bureaucratic structure of super departments was so cum- bersome that one director- general was responsible to several ministers, making the public ser- vice process-driven rather than outcome-focused. Besides, the quality of directors-general slipped as Bligh appointed favourites or ideologi- cal fellow travellers over quality candidates. This resulted in a failure to properly oversee projects such as the desalination plant on the Gold Coast and the water grid; cost overruns on infrastructure; the protection of farmland from the expansion of the gas industry until it was too late; failure to build cyclone-proof infrastructure along the coast before last sum- mer’s cyclone season; and accept- ing without question the recom- mended electricity price hikes from the regulator. The govern- ment also blindly followed Treasury’s line to abolish the fuel subsidy, which means Queens- landers now pay more for fuel. The government ran away from tough decisions on matters such as the 10 per cent mandatory level of ethanol in fuel; taking the fight to Kevin Rudd’s federal gov- ernment over the building of the Traveston dam; and the use of re- cycled water. Crucially, it caved in to union demands for budget- breaking enterprise bargaining deals that helped drive the state over the financial brink. This was the underlying reason for the state’s loss of its AAA credit rating. The only tough decision the Bligh government made was on the sale of government assets such as railways to fund the budget shortfall. But even here Bligh made a hash of its implemen- tation by not putting the issue to the people in the 2009 state elec- tion, thus costing her valuable credibility. The deal also meant Queensland sold off the most profitable parts of Queensland Rail and kept the unprofitable parts. On election night, Labor seats will fall to the LNP through- out the regions because of how the QR sale was handled. The Bligh government is guilty of 4 1 /2 dys- functional administration and Queenslanders know it. Deputies are often promoted beyond their abilities into the top job. Bligh was such a deputy and state Labor will pay a price. It is normally foolhardy to predict the outcome of an election with two or three months to go, but all pub- lished research confirms Queens- landers have reached the view that Newman and the LNP couldn’t possibly do a worse job than Bligh and state Labor. Prem- ier Newman will have a substan- tial majority. When Labor examines why it lost the 2012 Queensland election it should start with Beattie’s ill- advised decision to promote Bligh as his successor. Ross Fitzgerald, emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University, is the co- author, most recently, of the political satire Fools’ Paradise. PICTURES: DEBORAH CASSRELS A Lombok villager cooks with mercury to extract gold from rock under a sign urging people to buy the precious metal Destructive gold fever takes the shine off tourism Mercury and cyanide poisoning makes it unlikely Lombok will ever rival Bali DEBORAH CASSRELS Cocotinos Resort, the only luxury resort in Sekotong Gold-crushing equipment stands beside huge cyanide pumps Lalu Bayu Windya S. Hiden ‘It’s like the wild west gold rush. Literally, it’s like walking into a saloon’ DAVID PILLINGER DEVELOPER THE Indonesian island of Lombok is yet to become Bali’s nemesis as a tourist destination, but locals have found there are other ways to make a buck. Gold fever has gripped parts of the island, particularly the south- west peninsula of Sekotong, trans- forming areas prized by many Australians for their superb surfing and scenery into hotbeds of discontent and environmental disaster. Over lunch, served poolside at Cocotinos Resort, the only luxury destination in Sekotong, there’s scant evidence all is not well. Dubbed an eco resort, it is en- circled by pristine white sand bea- ches, verdant rolling hills, coconut groves and development torpor. Such is life on Lombok, a paradise in waiting. Foreign guests tuck into fresh salads, hamburgers and seafood, unaware that the produce is not from the crystal-clear waters in which they were recently diving, or from the lush vegetation or the local animals. Resort owner T. M. Wong whis- pers conspiratorially: ‘We are not buying local produce, as a protec- tion for clients. We get food and water from Mataram (Lombok’s capital) or Bali.’’ The coral reef, a stone’s throw away, has also faded from a rich, brilliant hue to a blea- ched aberration. Of paramount concern is the threat of mercury contamination in water, soil and food as locals en- gage in rampant small-scale illegal goldmining using toxic processing methods. Mercury, used to extract gold from the rock, causes neuro- logical disorders, trembling and fever, and produces shocking deformities in children. But with no regulations, nor education on the dangers, the toxic substance is vaporised or dumped, along with other mining waste including cyanide, on to land or into rivers and then flushed into the sea. Since 2008 the gold rush has been driving once sleepy villages in Sekotong. Government at- tempts to stop illegal miners have been ignored, while hundreds have died in collapsing mines and landslides. Earning up to $200 a day, the new rich earn substan- tially more than the few dollars they picked up as fishermen or farmers. Clashes with police, the mili- tary and mining companies — with corrupt officials fuelling re- sistance — are common; this week on neighbouring Sumbawa island police shot dead two locals pro- testing over the Australian Arc Exploration gold mine. In an incident on Lombok in October, violence erupted be- tween miners and Southern Arc, the Canadian parent of Indone- sian subsidiary PT Indotan, which was granted a mining permit ear- lier in the year. Miners blocked staff and equipment from entering the exploration site before de- manding permits to continue min- ing. Southern Arc countered by of- fering to recruit 400 local miners in November. Earlier a local was killed by police, and two were ar- rested for burning the PT Indotan facility. In response, locals at- tacked the police office. What they are fighting for is 1395 tonnes of gold in the hills of Sekotong. The spoils have at- tracted about 6000 illegal miners, who are digging up 12,000ha in 18 areas, much of which is protected forest and private land, according to the West Lombok Energy and Mineral Resources office. Drive round the winding, pic- turesque coastline and the telltale tarpaulins dotted over Sekotong’s hills — where locals live and die digging for gold — signal the locals’ desperation to do better. Sacks overflowing with ore are piled outside houses and proces- sing plants, waiting to be crushed. The rock has been removed by hand and delivered by women carrying the sacks on their heads, ignorant of the gold content. New concrete houses are re- placing traditional thatched huts in the villages, and it’s de rigueur to sport multiple gold crushing machines in the front yard where water, high concentrations of mer- cury and tailings slosh about, fre- quently spilling on to soil where children play and animals wander. When Inquirer visited the area, villagers without protective cloth- ing were extracting ore, inhaling mercury fumes over naked flames. Despite suffering dizziness, vil- lagers say they are OK. They might be sick five years down the track but they don’t care. ‘‘It’s no big deal; we drink coconut juice, that fixes it,’’ says one. Sekotong is close to Lembar Harbour, the jumping-off point from Bali to spectacular diving and surfing spots, including the world- renowned Desert Point, so named by Australian surfers for its iso- lation. The town attracts foreign investors and visitors from Bali who cherish Lombok’s natural beauty. Authorities have their hopes pinned on the pristine Lombok mainland as their ticket to a booming tourist economy. It has plenty going for it: its long-awaited international airport opened this year; beleaguered de- velopment processes in the south are finally progressing; and Bali’s overdevelopment and overpop- ulation, along with a recent flurry of negative publicity, mean many are seeking an alternative. But gold fever, with its toxic by- products, may kill the industry before it’s born. The head of the West Nusa Tengarra (a region that comprises Lombok and Sumbawa) Foreign Investment Board, Lalu Bayu Windya, thumbing through a list of 87 foreign investments in Seko- tong, despairs that most land is ‘‘in- active’’, with tourism development flat. Much of the land was bought in 2008 in the heat of the gold rush. ‘‘The government has a plan to build marinas for cruise ships and yachts next year,’’ he says. ‘‘Foreigners have bought a lot of land, but they haven’t started building yet.’’ An exception, the European- owned Palm Beach Garden guest- house in Pelangan, embraces min- ing as a tourist attraction. Oper- ations manager Bukran, although he still takes eager tourists to pan for gold, has lost many friends kil- led in the pits. ‘‘One year ago there were many accidents, and in 2009, 200 people died in a big hole,’’ he says. ‘‘It was easy to get gold then. It paid rupiah 450,000 ($50) for one gram.’’ Now gold ranges in value from R425,000 for 24-carat to R280,000 for 18-carat. It’s still worth the effort in a country where the official minimum wage is $100 a month, although many earn less than that. Much of the ore is trans- ported to Mataram, famous for its jewellery stores, where the same perilous mercury techniques are used in processing. Perth and Bali-based developer David Pillinger was drawn into Sekotong’s environmental mining concerns a couple of years ago by a group of Australians who own land there but haven’t built. They share a love of surfing and diving, and an attachment to the spec- tacular landscape. Pooling resources and know-how, they tried to facilitate a sustainable plan, but Pillinger says corruption stymied it. ‘‘It’s like the wild west gold rush,’’ he says of the charged atmosphere. ‘‘Literally, it’s like walking into a saloon.’’ Their idea was to form a co-operative operat- ing under its own licence with security of tenure, with the local government receiving royalty payments. ‘‘It didn’t seem to be what the government wanted. Everyone had their little gold assay plant,’’ Pillinger says of the villagers’ archaic processing meth- ods. ‘‘They were crushing the gold down to a superfine slurry, then (panning) it. They were burning mercury over an open Bunsen burner. Then they get their wives to do it. They sit there with a wok, burning this mercury. ‘‘Some of the best snorkelling is in these beautiful reefs,’’ he says. ‘‘There used to be farming and fishing: it’s gone. The big prawn farms are empty; no one wants to do it. They get paid more for risking their lives doing gold- mining. It’s really dangerous and the by-product is killing and deforming everything of the fu- ture of that area.’’ Pillinger became involved with the regent of southwest Lombok, Zainy Arony, who has advocated a zoning plan for Sekotong with des- ignated community mining. Consultations between the provincial government and the national Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources are in flux. Meanwhile, the government over- turned Lombok’s tourism zoning last year to allow 1500ha of trad- itional small-scale mining. Despite health and environ- mental alarms, local government lethargy appears solid. ‘‘There are no reports of environmental monitoring carried out stating that the goldmining activities have shown a significant adverse and large impact,’’ investment board head Bayu says. That is no sur- prise, given the government’s aversion to funding studies, a lack of initiative to monitor effects of chemical use and an entrenched culture of corruption. A study undertaken last year by the head of the physics depart- ment at Mataram University, S. Hiden, found unsafe levels of mer- cury in Sekotong soil, but that ‘‘it’s normal, according to the city council’’. Government research funding was a paltry R5 million ($500). ‘‘We wanted to measure the water,’’ Hiden says, ‘‘but there is no more funding.’’ Contradicting this, the head of the government-run Environ- ment Agency, Tadjuddin Erfandy, claims no independent study has been undertaken. He cites a gov- ernment study on mercury and cyanide contamination about two years ago that ‘‘found the quality of water in Sekotong — in sea, rivers and creeks — was safe, with no indication of mercury contami- nation in the fish’’. Although annual checks are scheduled, they are irregular be- cause of funding shortages. Environmental engineer Yuyun Ismawati, a winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009, is completing a master’s deg- ree at Oxford University on mer- cury in artisanal small-scale mining in Indonesia. She cites evi- dence that mercury levels in Seko- tong’s water and fish far exceed the World Health Organisation’s safe standard of 0.001 parts per million. Mercury in river sediment is 600 to 3500 times higher than the WHO standard, according to a 2010 study conducted by Univer- sitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta. Mercury in fish in Glodok, a downstream area of West Lombok where several rivers flow to the southern coast, was up to 2000 times higher. Hair samples of local children also showed unsafe mercury levels. ‘‘Sadly, in hair samples from children aged 0 to 4 years mercury concentration was up to 20.07ppm,’’ says Ismawati, who featured in Time magazine’s 2009 list of environmental heroes. ‘‘In the next two to three years I believe there will be many children with congenital diseases as the mother eats mercury-con- taminated fish.’’ Compounding the problem is the sale of illegal mercury brought into Lombok and Bali. ‘‘One of the big mercury illegal importers told me he imported mercury under the table, paying off customs and police officials to import 200 tonnes of mercury,’’ Ismawati says. ‘‘While the official figure of mercury importation from the Ministry of Trade in 2010 and 2011 is only two tonnes: that is the total amount used by manu- facturing companies to make compact fluorescent lamps and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure meters).’’ To make matters worse, in Indonesia there are no laws ban- ning the use of mercury or cyan- ide, which are sold openly in shops and on websites. Ismawati sees Sekotong as a looming tragedy similar to that of Minamata in Japan, which claimed nearly 2000 lives after a mercury poisoning outbreak 55 years ago. Among the 900 hot spots in Indonesia, miners suffering tre- mors and fever indicative of mer- cury poisoning have been misdiagnosed as having dengue fever, malaria or stomach cancer. Reports have not been released. Regional autonomy, a legal quagmire, also hampers the regu- lation of small miners who slip through myriad gaps into unpro- tected territory. ‘‘It’s cowboy coun- try. There’s cheating at every stage, with no records of gold trade or of gold produced at hot spots,’’ says Ismawati, adding that child labour is common. ‘‘Many shaft openings are so narrow only a child could get in. Some have died in landslides.’’ When Pillinger opted out he was pushing for the banning of mercury: ‘‘I thought I could bring some expertise from Western Australia. I took some geologists and a couple of people from public mining companies who were will- ing to do something.’’ He suggested a community processing plant with sealed units that recycled waste and water, but ‘‘you can’t stop them mining, it’s like their god-given right. Indone- sia could have safe, Australian en- vironmentally approved proces- ses, but it’s too hard. You put your money in and they steal it.’’ JOIN GEORGE NEGUS ON THE VLADIVOSTOK TO MOSCOW Travelrite International Pty Ltd. (Licence number 30858) is the tour organiser. Neither News Limited, nor any of its subsidiaries nor any of their newspapers have any involvement in the tour, and have no liability of any kind to any person in relation to the tour. TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY JOURNEY Travelrite International invites you to join George Negus on the world’s greatest railway adventure – the Trans-Siberian Railway. Travelling east to west from Vladivostok, the tour passes through eight time zones and covers almost 10,000 km on its way to Moscow. The journey is on board the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express, which means that you will be travelling in style and comfort with private ensuite bathrooms in each cabin. The tour includes tours in Seoul, Vladivostok, Ulaan Baatar, Irkutsk, Moscow and St Petersburg as well as return flights from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth, plus much more. September 6-27, 2012 For more information and a brochure call Travelrite International on 1800 630 343 or email [email protected]