In such circumstances, Chinese offers of untied aid are attractive. China's aid offers do not mean Australia should abandon its generous but careful approach. The damage done by fire control clearing beneath a 35-kilometre power line through southern NSW has rekindled debate over the acceptable level of harm to protect the environment. The power line is part of the national electricity grid. Clearing beneath power cables normally involves pruning and lopping of large trees and the retention of shrubbery.
Licences have to be obtained before work can go ahead.
Neither Transgrid nor its contractor sought approval from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The NSW and ACT environment protection agencies, the NPWS and the Department of Land and Water Conservation are all investigating. The devastation along the Transgrid power line sits easily with the land clearing mindset that continues across Australia. In a timely warning, Dr Hal Cogger, of the University of Newcastle, estimates land clearing across the continent dwarfs any other threat to reptiles and amphibians, and is killing at least 100 million a year. The damage caused to flora and fauna living around the Transgrid power line is inestimable.