Some people have contacted me privately to ask whether my remarks about
land ownership for nature conservation were a criticism of Birds Australia.
The answer is no; the point I was making was that nature conservation
orgnaisations which lobby, educate and research have a certain tempo of
working, and those which manage land for nature conservation have a much
slower one, as it were. There will always be a temptation in organisations
which do both to divert money set aside for land managament for what are
perceived as more proessing needs elsewhere.
I think it is a very good thing that Birds Australia has bought Gluepot and
is going to acquire this new property. The only thing I would suggest is
that if BA is going to go into land ownership in a big way it might be an
idea to split itself into two legally distinct organisations, so that the
two can pursue their separate functions. Another advantage of this
arrangement would be that if one or the other organsation had to be wound
up the other half would not necessarily be involved in the other's ruin.
On the subject of taxes &c one intriguing idea I heard of recently was
this. That it be established that when you came to full in your tax return
you could specify that your contribution went to Consolidated Revenue, as
at present, or you could specify one, or more than one areas of government
services you wanted your tax dollars to go to, eg Health, Education,
Defence &c &c. The preferences expressed in any one year would take effect
3 years down the track (so that government could plan ahead), and 20% of
your tax would go to Consolidated Revenue anyway (for unforeseeable
contigencies). It sounds like a very neat idea to me, and way to make
people feel better about paying taxes, and a way to shifting some of the
decision-making about spending priorities away from government and back to
the people.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606,
Australia
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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