AUDIO: Government uncertainty about Renewable Energy Target is damaging the entire energy industry
AUDIO Energy generators says the uncertainty surrounding Renewable Energy Targets is killing investment in the industry ‘http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/ret/5716206A Central Victorian community which built its own renewable energy project may seek compensation from the Federal Government if Australia’s Renewable Energy Target is cut.
A review headed by climate sceptic Dick Warburton last week called for a drastically reduced target for renewables.
While the government will have to negotiate with minor parties in the Senate to make any changes, the uncertainty about the target has seen some projects mothballed or made unviable.
Two thousand members of the Hepburn community invested a total of $10 million dollars on two wind turbines to achieve energy self-sufficiency.
While local children invested smaller amounts of $100, some community members poured up to $50,000 of their life savings into the project.
Founding chairman of the wind farm project, Simon Holmes a Court, says the turbines were expected to start generating returns of around seven per cent later this year, but will be economically unviable if the Renewable Energy Target is cut.
‘Returns from renewable energy investments are already crashing because of the review. The community feels let down that a policy introduced by the Howard government in 1997, that has enjoyed bi-partisan support at successive elections, is now going to be dismantled.’
‘The review is a sham. It’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.’
Simon Holmes a Court says he’s now got no choice but to fight for compensation ‘if our members’ investment is damaged any further.’
Meanwhile a group of farmers at Crookwell in southern New South Wales has shelved plans to build 47 wind turbines.One of the group, Charlie Prell, says he was hoping the turbines would make his farm more sustainable as well as providing construction and service jobs in the surrounding community. ‘Climate change is real and I as a farmer am going to suffer dramatically the effects, so it made sense to do something about it.’
‘If the government tries to implement the recommendations of the review, there won’t be any investment in renewables.‘However the general manager of corporate affairs with the Energy Supply Association of Australia, Andrew Dillon, blames the RET for an electricity over-supply in Australia resulting in declining investment in renewables.
Andrew Dillon concedes that policy uncertainty is damaging to the industry as a whole.
‘Our members are always loathed to recommend the government start chopping and changing policies half way through.
Modern Australia’s ‘defining moment’ was in 1973 – with multiculturalism
Modern Australia’s defining moment came long after First Fleet , The Conversation Benjamin T. Jones Historian at University of Western Sydney 4 September 2014
“……….Independent identity emerges
Australia may not have a neat date from a legal point of view, but perhaps Australians can find a defining moment in their cultural history. The Liberal governments of the 1960s slowly dismantled the “White Australia” policy before Gough Whitlam’s government removed its final remnants in 1973. Whitlam’s charismatic immigration minister, Al Grassby, definitively declared:
It is dead. Give me a shovel and I’ll bury it.
Grassby introduced the term multiculturalism to the Australian political lexicon and it became the government’s official policy. Following the Whitlam dismissal, the incoming Liberal government of Malcolm Fraser kept and strengthened the policy. This was demonstrated most dramatically in the wake of the Vietnam War when thousands of Vietnamese asylum seekersarrived by boat and were resettled.
Australia passed a nation-defining moral test in the 1970s. Having rejected the inherent racism of White Australia and abandoned the desire to create a homogenous British mono-culture, Australians opened their arms and hearts to a new philosophy that sees the beauty in diversity……
1788 was not our defining moment. Rather, some two centuries later, we let old Australia fade into history and took our first steps into the new.
Through social pressure and political leadership on both sides, we decided that in new Australia our neighbours could be the Smiths or the Nguyens. Multiculturalism has brought to Australia a richness and diversity that Arthur Phillip and his reluctant fellow voyagers could not have fathomed.
As I stand before my classes in Bankstown, Parramatta and other suburbs of western Sydney, I see smiling faces from every background imaginable. I see the next generation of Australian leaders and am thankful to live in a multicultural society…….Overwhelmingly, multiculturalism has been an Australian success story.
Perhaps we do not need to go back to the days of empire to find our defining moment. Some 40 years ago, we took a bold stand as a nation and we see the benefits of it every day.http://theconversation.com/modern-australias-defining-moment-came-long-after-first-fleet-31160
Indigenous Land Council describes as ‘paternalistic’ the approach of Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest
Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest consults on Indigenous disadvantage report, ABC Indigenous, By Gavin Coote September 04, 2014“…….The acting CEO of the Wilcannia Local Aboriginal Land Council, Jenny Thwaites, said she is sceptical about Mr Forrest’s approach to providing employment opportunities for remote Indigenous people.
“His experience has not been in developing small sustainable businesses run by Aboriginal people, which is what is needed in Wilcannia,” she said.
“This is just another case of train people, so they’ve got enough certificates to wallpaper their houses, but don’t necessarily guarantee employment.”
Ms Thwaites said she is doubtful Mr Forrest has a silver bullet solution to providing employment for the community.
“His experience in providing employment is in mining, and unless there’s something I’ve missed, there isn’t any mining happening around Wilcannia,” she said.
“He has a totally paternalistic view of the way to overcome issues in Aboriginal communities.”
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