As Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby prepared to deliver his first annual "statement of government intentions" to the opening of the 2008 parliamentary session on February 4, about 100 protesters gathered on the steps of Parliament House.
They represented groups campaigning against dredging in Port Phillip Bay, the north-south pipeline and the South Gippsland desalination plant. A joint statement was read out which made it clear that the groups represented had divergent views on some of these issues, but that they could agree on two things: Brumby's mismanagement of Victoria's water resources and his contempt for community involvement and expert advice on key environmental decisions.
The protest rally was addressed by representatives of each campaign group as well as Liberal, National, Democrat and Greens MPs.
A Plug the Pipe speaker explained that the government plan to pipe water to Melbourne from the state's north will negatively impact on food production in the Goulburn Valley. The Clean Ocean speaker pointed out that some 430 million litres of partly treated sewage is poured daily 25 metres offshore at Gunnamatta beach.
A Wonthaggi resident told the rally that the government's decision to impose an environmentally unfriendly desalination plant on their coastline was an unacceptable betrayal of its pre-election promise not to build the plant.
The Blue Wedges Coalition speaker told the rally about the group's fight with the government over its ecologically disastrous Phillip Bay dredging decision.
Greens MP Sue Pennicuik said her party had opposed Brumby's ill-conceived projects and argued that the only ones profiting out of the bay dredging project will be Dutch dredging company Boskalis and the project's financing company.
Campaigners against the logging of old-growth forests also made a showing. Opponents of genetically modified crops also took their message to parliament, accusing the Brumby government of ignoring the environmental and public health risks associated with the introduction of GM crops to Victoria.