1. Who is Di BELL?
2. Di, why are you running for Mayo?
3. Why do you think that you can represent Mayo?
4. I’m worried that your candidacy will split the vote
5. You’re only one person with one vote, how can you make a difference?
6. What is your policy on opening the barrages to let salt water into the system?
7. What are your guiding principles?
8. Every candidate says water is a key issue. How is your water policy different from the rest?
9. What other issues are you fighting for?
10. How can I vote for you?
11. Is my logo a Turtle or a Tortoise?
Di Bell is local.
Di Bell lives on the banks of the Finniss River. She’s passionate about the River and Lakes and our community wellbeing.
Di Bell is a thinker and Di is a doer.
Professionally, Diane Bell is Writer and Editor in Residence at our very own Flinders University, and Visiting Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Adelaide. Diane is also Professor Emerita of Anthropology at The George Washington University in Washington DC, USA - no mean achievement for an Aussie woman in the hard-hitting world of US tertiary education.
Di took many breaks to come back home during the seventeen years she lived in the US. Then, in 2004, she bought the property at Finniss and decided to return to Australia for good.
Di takes seriously the need to know the facts before making important decisions.
Di Bell knows how to negotiate and fight for what she believes in and she doesn’t back away from the hard decisions.
Since “retiring” Di has never worked so hard in her life. Di is proactive in her community work and her work for the river system. She is Vice Chairperson of the Finniss River Catchment Group and a foundation member of the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group.
Di is proud of her adult children, Genevieve and Morgan, and her grandsons Lawson, aged 3, and Clancy, aged 2. Di is determined that her two little grandsons will be able to grow up in a healthy environment.
2. Di, why are you running for Mayo?
I am passionate about the people and the environment in Mayo and I want to take that passion to Canberra. The people, our way of life, the River, Lakes and Coorong – it’s all connected. I am disappointed at the years of mismanagement that has brought us to this point. I am concerned that we’re getting mixed messages about possible actions for the River, Lower Lakes and Coorong from politicians. We need political leadership to act now.
3. Why do you think that you can represent Mayo?
I know the issues and I know the people. I stand for people power, the importance of community and the great Aussie traditions of looking after the land and waters and a fair go for everyone.
4. I’m worried that your candidacy will split the vote
My candidacy is about bringing people together around what’s likely to be the most momentous decision we will face in out lifetimes. Water is the single most important issue in Mayo and people are publicly putting aside their differences to unite on this issue.
The question is, who will work most effectively on this issue in Canberra?
As an Independent, I am not shackled by any party policies and platforms. I can and I will fight for Mayo’s needs in Canberra.
5. You’re only one person with one vote, how can you make a difference?
I will focus the debate on this critical issue that needs ACTION NOW. I can make a difference by convincing Canberra that Mayo will not stand by and allow the nation’s River to die. I am an Independent. I’m not bound by party politics.
6. What is your policy on opening the barrages to let salt water into the system?
No way! The Lakes have been a freshwater system for millennia. For 90% of the time the water flowed out the Murray Mouth. It’s true that at times salt water mixed with fresh but it was only ever brackish, not saline, and this was not a regular event. Letting salt in would be ecological genocide for a whole ecosystem – the death of an international RAMSAR site would be on our heads.
Read what the experts say:
The Lakes Were Fresh! - Terry Sim
Sea Water Myths - Kerri Muller
CLLAMMecology: towards a system understanding of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth - CSIRO
7. What are your guiding principles?
My policies are based on fairness and commonsense, listening to local people and their needs, and fighting for a fair go with regard to parity of services: schools, hospitals, transport and roads.
I’m about addressing underlying causes not bandaid solutions.
I stand for environmental sustainability. We want action now on the water issues but the long-term goal is to address the over-allocation issue. We need a truly independent body to administer the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole. We need government to understand that this will change a number of people’s lives and we need government to support the transition.
The tortoise is a good metaphor. It’s our canary down the mine. We need to create environments where people and environments can flourish.
8. Every candidate says water is a key issue. How is your water policy different from the rest?
My policy turns current water management practices upside down. We need an immediate audit and freshwater flow. After that we measure the health of the river by the flows at the mouth and then determine allocation.
9. What other issues are you fighting for?
I will be fighting for:
- * Immediate action to keep our community hospitals open and functioning;
- * A fair go for pensioners and families dealing with rising living costs and fuel prices;
- * Innovation in local community responses to national issues. This includes involvement of people in decision-making. Small is beautiful. Local is the way to go!
- * Recognition and support for the fundamental role played by the arts, and community cultural and sporting events, in our everyday lives.
If you are going to be away on September 6, please apply for a postal vote:
Contact the Australian Electoral Commission office on 13 23 26 or visit the website www.aec.gov.au. or
Attend a pre-polling booth in Mt Barker, Victor Harbor, Stirling or any electoral office across the country.
On September 6 cast a formal vote Di BELL 1 and follow the how to vote card (pdf).
I look forward to seeing you on polling day!
11. Is my logo a Turtle or a Tortoise?
Most herpetologists nowadays would say that it is a turtle.
Never mind if you prefer ‘tortoise’, as for many years that was the preference in Australia. The distinction is more semantics than anything else, and people in different regions often have different preferences.
Around the world, the convention now seems to be to regard turtles as species that live in or near water, and tortoises as terrestrial species that live mainly in dry regions.
It is a paradox then that in Australia, one of the driest continents in the world, we have no tortoises! Another oddity is that our species belong to an ancient group, the pleurodires, with a neck that flexes sideways, whereas those on most other continents are cryptodires, able to withdraw the head directly back into their shell.
In the Murray there are three species-the Macquarie turtle, Emydura macquarii, the eastern long-neck turtle, Chelodina longicollis, and the broad-shelled river turtle, Chelodina expansa.
