August 2008

President's Message

At the end of September I will be in Dunedin, New Zealand for the Annual Conference of the Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand.  This will be my second trip to an RMLA Conference and I am looking forward to it.  The theme of the Conference is "Southerly Change" and papers at the conference will explore how the law, and those who follow, interpret and enforce the law, can adapt the changing environment.  While the focus will be on New Zealand's Resource Management Act, adapting to change is a universal issue so I am looking forward to picking up some ideas to apply back here in Australia.  We had a great group of New Zealanders for our National Conference in Perth.  I hope to catch up with some Aussies "across the ditch" in a month's time.

You will notice that we've made a few changes to the latest edition of the National Environmental Law Review.  Our fantastic editor, Wayne Gumley, has put a lot of effort into updating the look of the journal and also continues his quest, with the assistance of our State sub-editors, to source quality articles and updates for the journal.  In addition, Wayne has also been coordinating the publication of the Fremantle Conference Papers.  We were blown away by the quality of the papers presented at the Conference and believed that they were worthy of publication as a collection.  It's taken a little while but we are nearly there and, with the assistance of Thomson Reuters, the global legal and business publisher, we will have a high quality publication as a long lasting legacy of the Fremantle Conference.

In order for the work of NELA to continue, we rely on the contributions of our members.  Members financial contributions – your membership fees – are important to ensure NELA can keep paying its bills, maintain the website and produce the NELR.  If you haven't renewed your membership – could you please do so!  Chasing up membership renewals is a drain on the precious time of our Secretariat in Canberra so if that renewal form is still sitting in your in-tray, I urge you to pick it up and post it back to Canberra with membership fee this week.

We also rely on the contributions of members in participating on State and National Executive Committees.  Various State branches (and the National body) will be holding AGM's in the coming months.  I encourage you to think about joining your local Branch committee and contributing to the vibrancy of NELA in your State.  We have had a tremendous body of people who have volunteered their time to NELA over many years and it would be great to see that tradition continue and for new people to "join the ranks".  It is worthwhile! 

Robyn Glindemann