Coalition MPs giggle, cackle, smirk and laugh in Parliament over climate change,Independent Australia , Simon BlackMany of our current crop of conservative politicians laugh like naughty children whenever climate change is brought up. This can’t be how the world ends
NERO NEVER FIDDLED while Rome burned.
It is a popular myth, but it’s simply not true — there were no fiddles back in Roman times.
Nero is, however, reported to have sung a song about the sacking of Troy while watching as 70 per cent of Rome was swallowed by flames in a single blistering gulp.
Some of our current crop of politicians have gone one better — they now laugh like small children whenever climate change is brought up.
Whish-Wilson told the floor and later posted on social media, that it was “the angriest I have ever been in the Senate” as he watched members of the house openly mock climate scientists.
Liberal Senator James McGrath stood to read what appeared to be his party’s talking points in a deadpan monotone stopping a number of times to smirk and chuckle.
Leader of the Australian Conservatives Party, Cory Bernardi, rose to make a point of order, informing the house that it was, in fact, he who had been raucously laughing.
Presumably, he was concerned the people who voted him in would be upset if he wasn’t earning his base pay of $199,040 a year by chuckling his way through Senate motions.
Nice work if you can get it.
It’s part of a trend in Australian politics for conservatives to openly mock, laugh and ridicule climate change, even as the Great Barrier Reef bleaches and dies, even as we notch up record hot year after record hot year, even as natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma increase in frequency and intensity worldwide.
When asked about climate change in June this year by a Liberal colleague, Australian Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg had a good laugh.
How Malcolm Turnbull has trashed the Liberal Party record and betrayed our oceans, SMH, Tim Winton , 17 Sept 17 “……
Australians have always loved the ocean, but now, more importantly, we understand how vital the sea’s health is to the future of our island home…….
In 2012, after an exhaustive scientific process and wide community consultation, Tony Burke declared a system of marine national parks, one of the biggest and best in the world, the most significant conservation gain in Australian history.
That took courage. Because it put science before politics, prudence ahead of expediency. And it was popular. But as soon as he came to power in 2013 Tony Abbott announced an immediate moratorium on these parks and instigated a review. The purpose was purely political. To delay implementation, corrode consensus and deny the science. A move straight out of the culture warrior’s playbook.
After decades of forward-thinking leaders, the nation had fallen into the hands of a man whose loyalties were only to the past. It was a low moment. But Abbott’s reign was as brief as it was fruitless. It was a relief to see him replaced in 2015 by a man who’d actually done things, who believed in the future. Malcolm Turnbull did not scorn science. He seemed to understand the value and fragility of our natural estate. So there was new hope the marine parks review would now be expedited and redirected towards real conservation outcomes. With coral reefs bleaching and miners pressing for even more coal ports and seabed to drill, the need for protection had only grown more urgent.
Well, that moment of promise is long gone. Turnbull’s period in office has basically been a hostage drama. The bargain he made with powerbrokers rendered him captive to the party’s most illiberal wing, and if his performance on climate, energy and marriage equality aren’t evidence enough, last month’s announcement that marine parks would be slashed beyond all recognition puts it beyond dispute.
……The draft management plans recently released for consultation by Josh Frydenberg don’t just signify the gutting of the national system, they represent the largest removal of protection for Australian wildlife in our history. What the government is proposing is a nihilistic act of vandalism. Forty million hectares of sanctuary will be ripped from the estate. That’s like revoking every second national park on land. Under its new plan, 38 out of 44 marine parks will be open to trawling, gillnetting and longlining, 33 will be open to mining, and 42 exposed to the construction of pipelines. In total defiance of the scientific advice upon which the original system was designed, 16 marine parks will now have no sanctuary zones at all.
Coalition’s pro-coal policy likely a vote loser; optional voting in plebiscite helps Yes, The Conversation, Recently the Coalition and its media supporters have condemned the SA and Victorian Labor governments for allowing coal-fired power plants to close. The Coalition is trying to extend the life of the Liddell power plant in NSW, and is considering building a new coal-fired power plant. This is an attempt to portray Labor as the party of intermittent, unreliable and costly power.
The Coalition has been in office for four years. In July 2014, they repealed the carbon price that Labor had introduced. Many people would now ask why energy prices have kept increasing in the three years since this repeal. In a mid-August Essential poll, 59% thought they were paying a lot more for electricity and gas than two or three years ago.
In February, 45% in an Essential poll said that recent blackouts were mainly due to failures of the energy market, 19% blamed privatisation and just 16% blamed renewables.
In mid-August an Essential poll gave the Coalition a net -34 rating on providing affordable and reliable energy, their worst score from a list of 12 issues. In last week’s Essential, 49% blamed private power companies most for rising energy prices, 22% blamed the Turnbull government, 9% environmentalists and 5% renewable energy companies.
People who blame private power companies are more likely to trust Labor than the Coalition to get tough, given the Coalition’s pro-business reputation……. [lots of figures given here]
As a result of the Coalition’s pro-coal policy, some Abbott supporters could return, possibly boosting the Coalition’s primary vote at the expense of One Nation and Others. However, respondent allocated preferences are currently more friendly to the Coalition than the previous election method, and this could change. The Coalition risks losing more centrist voters to Labor.
In some parts of the country, such as NSW’s Hunter Valley, coal is important to the local economy, and the Coalition is likely to benefit. In most of the country, being pro-coal is likely to hinder the Coalition.
SA has been the state most subject to attacks from the pro-coal lobby. It has a Labor government that is over 15 years old, and this would be expected to be a drag on Federal Labor in that state. We would expect the SA swing to Labor to be the lowest of any state.
Instead, the Poll Bludger’s BludgerTrack currently gives Labor their second largest swing in SA. Labor leads in SA by 58.4-41.6, a 6.1 point swing to Labor since the 2016 election. The SA sample sizes used in BludgerTrack are small, so this result is much more error-prone than the national BludgerTrack figure (53.7-46.3 to Labor, a 4.1 point swing), but this is still a large swing to Labor in a state that should have the lowest swing.
“The Liberal National Party (‘LNP’) Welfare Card programme is really a LNP rort for the benefit of the Liberal and National Parties and their members, donors and supporters.
“Indue Pty Ltd, the corporation awarded the contract to manage the Welfare Card programme
and to operate its underlying systems, is a corporation owned by Liberal and National Party members
and that donates to various Liberal and National Party branches around Australia.
“The former chairman of Indue is none other than former LNP MP Larry Anthony who is the son of former Liberal Country Party Deputy Prime Minister Doug Anthony.
“Anthony now holds his shares in Indue in his corporate family trust managed by Illalangi Pty Ltd.
“Other companies now owned by Larry Anthony, or by the corporate trustee of his family trust, Illalangi Pty Ltd, work under ‘sub’ contracts for Indue itself and make their profits from dealings with Indue
in the course of Indue performing its contracts with the LNP Government.
“These corporations are SAS Consulting Group Pty Ltd
– a political lobbying group that counts Indue as a client
– and Unidap Solutions Pty Ltd – a digital IT services corporation that provides Indue,
as well as the current LNP Government directly, with various IT services.
“Larry Anthony is also current president of the National Party of Australia, that is, the ‘N’ in ‘LNP’. … “
Celebrating 20 years of helping Australia stay nuclear free Aboriginal land continues to be in the firing line. SBS NITV, By Paddy Gibson, Senior Researcher, Jumbunna Institute UTS 15 SEP 2017
This weekend in Adelaide, Kaurna country, anti-nuclear campaigners from the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance will hold their annual conference to debrief and strategise for the struggles ahead.
At the core of Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) are Aboriginal people living with nuclear projects on their lands, including uranium mines and the toxic legacy of nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s, and others trying to stop new uranium mines or nuclear waste dumps being imposed on their country.
This year’s conference will celebrate 20 years since the network was founded in 1997 in Alice Springs, originally as the Alliance Against Uranium.
The initial meeting was an initiative of Mirarr people and their organisation Gundjeihmi, who were cranking up a major campaign against the Jabiluka uranium mine, along with environment groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), Friends of the Earth and other Traditional Owners. At the time, the Howard government was looking to massively expand Australia’s uranium exports. There was a wealth of experience in Aboriginal communities across the country, who suffer the brunt of this industry and people wanted to come together to fight back. There were growing opportunities to connect with wider civil society groups who shared a deep concern about uranium and recognised the central importance of supporting Aboriginal struggles for country.
Over the past 20 years, the ANFA network has provided vital support to many campaigns, from the victory at Jabiluka, to the battles for compensation for victims of nuclear weapons testing, to numerous struggles against new uranium mines and exploration projects. Lessons from the successful fight to stop a nuclear waste dump in South Australia, a victory achieved in 2004 after a national campaign led by the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, inspired a decade of resistance that eventually stopped a nuclear dump been established in the Northern Territory, despite attempts at multiple sites. International solidarity with other Indigenous peoples, and all peoples, dealing with similar threats, has also been central to ANFA’s practice.
Aboriginal land continues to be in the firing line. This year’s conference will deal with new moves to establish a waste dump in South Australia, being fiercely resisted by Adnyamathanha people whose country in the Flinders Ranges is under threat. Also up for discussion is the ongoing attempt to expand existing uranium mines and establish new ones, including the recent indication by the WA Labor government that it would push ahead with uranium mines in that state, in contravention of clear election commitments and the wishes of Traditional Owners. The growing threat of nuclear war, and the urgent need to rehabilitate country already badly damaged, are also on the agenda.
Below [on original] is a collection of statements from participants in ANFA over the last twenty years, taken from a report produced to celebrate “twenty years of radioactive resistance”.
These statements all demonstrate the importance of Aboriginal connection to country as a driving force behind the network, along with the power that comes from building networks of solidarity across society.
Fallout map from the day Adelaide got hit hard, 11 Oct 1956 …
I was luckily living elsewhere at the time, in NSW … I do remember having bad nose bleeds … we moved to Adelaide a few years later so many of my school and uni and work and sport mates and their mothers were in the thick of the fallout from the British bomb test called Buffalo 3 .. and there are many sad stories of retarded siblings and congenital cardiac issues and early cancers.
QUOTE:
In 1956 a series of atomic tests were carried out in the far north of the state at Maralinga, including the dropping of a bomb from a plane on October 11th, with devastating impacts on nearby Aboriginal communities.
Australian Atomic Confessions [Full Documentary]
Retired academic Roger Cross’s book “Fallout” focuses on the drift of radiation many hundred kilometres south of the site to Adelaide.
“Fortunately for South Australia it was rather a small bomb, but it was dropped from a Valiant Bomber and was designed to explode in the air which it did do,” Mr Cross told Ian Henschke on 891 ABC Adelaide mornings.
“Part of the cloud blew south towards Adelaide and the minor cloud then blew east as it was supposed to across largely uninhabitated areas towards the towns of Sydney and Brisbane and exit Australia between those two cities.
“But the main part of the cloud actually blew down south towards Adelaide and there was great controversy about that,” he said.
Mr Cross says this wasn’t admitted to at the time, causing great controversy.
He says authorities didn’t realise a man called Hedley Marston who was involved with the tests, checking thyroids of sheep and cattle around the area, also set up a secret experiment at the CSIRO building in Adelaide.
Mr Marston recorded a level of 98 thousand counts per hundred seconds the day after the bomb had been dropped.
“The average count in Adelaide at that time was between 40 and 60 counts per hundred seconds,” said Mr Cross.
Mr Marston also carried out some tests on sheep just south and north of Adelaide, finding elevated levels of radiation material in the sheep that were on pasture but not in others that had eaten hay cut the year before.
“This was a very elegant experiment because by luck he had a control, he had this group of sheep that were penned under cover that were just eating hay from previous harvests.”
Mr Cross says Hedley Marston was concerned about strontium 90 in particular and it getting into milk and then being consumed by young children and pregnant women.
Silent Storm atomic testing in Australia
Anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott entered medical school in Adelaide in 1956 and told Ian Henschke there was no mention of a possible health impact of the tests, and she is not aware of a study of the human population following that test.
“We the population of Adelaide were kept in ignorance and for that I feel very bad about that as a doctor.”
She says you would have to test all the population exposed to radiation throughout their entire life and compare it to people who were not exposed to know if the incidence of cancer was high.
“My prediction is definitely I’m sure it was but we don’t have any evidence.
“Adelaide got a hell of a fallout, and I must say as a young medical student not being taught about that I have deep resentment that the public was not informed about it,” said Dr Caldicott.
If we continue to have warm summers like we had in ’16 and this year, the next one could wipe out the remaining coral. Now, I don’t want to sound doomsday, but that’s where we’re at right now. It’s still a wonderful place to visit. But if we continue on this trajectory it won’t be, very soon – within our lifetime. I think that this is the wake-up call that we need. If losing the Great Barrier Reef isn’t serious stuff, what is?
Farewelling coral reefsThe Saturday Paper, Karen Middleton, 16 Sept 17 We hear much about trying to contain temperature rises to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Why is that the magic number?
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg The 2-degree guardrail came out of the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. When you looked at how ecosystems were responding, you got into an unmanageable area at 2 degrees above the pre-industrial period, which was where the CO2 concentration had been stable for a long time. The trajectory we’re on today could raise temperatures by as much as 5 or 6 degrees on history.
One of the problems with 2 degrees is that generally people have the idea that it’s a guardrail. You go up to the edge of 2 degrees and look over it and see where you don’t want to go and it’s all very safe here. But it’s more like a slippery slope. Things get progressively worse until they become unmanageable. At the latest Conference of the Parties, the UNFCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ] governing framework started to say, “well actually we want to keep things well below 2 degrees, and hopefully aim for 1.5 in the long term”.
Steve DaleFight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 14 Sept 17, From the document – “The ANM facility will enable ANSTO to triple its production of Mo-99, meeting domestic demand and up to 25-30 per cent of global demand.” and “The increase in production of nuclear medicines will also give rise to an increased volume of low and intermediate level waste.”
If we are meeting up to 25-30 % of global demand, then based on population, we are exporting the vast majority of this stuff while the tax payer, Australia , South Australia has to deal with the toxic legacy.
ANSTO should be dedicating their time to creating NO-WASTE solutions for nuclear medicine. Dollar signs and an urge for self preservation have blinded their thinking. I think the top people in ANSTO have placed the welfare of the global nuclear industry above the welfare of the Australian people. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
“It of course comes as no surprise that Australia was one of the countries that voted against the declaration in 2007, given the prevailing community views, and that of the government, of Indigenous people here. …
“The implementation of the UNDRIP in Australia has been symbolic only, with the government conceding at the time of endorsing the UNDRIP that it had no legal effect upon domestic law.
Since the adoption of the UNDRIP in Australia, the prevailing circumstances for Indigenous peoples have not improved. … “
The chair of Australia’s newly formed Energy Security Board, Dr Kerry Schott, has stressed the importance of demand response in meeting the nation’s energy security and affordability needs, telling ABC Radio that if we could harness the technology effectively, we could “all stop worrying about building new plants of any description.”
Schott, who in her role as chair of the ESB is tasked with coordinating the implementation of the Finkel Review recommendations and co-ordinate the three major energy institutions – operator, regulator and rule-maker, and so is set to play a pivotal role.
Some, like the former chief of the Clean Energy Finance Corp, Oliver Yates, want the Coalition government to let her and the others “get on with their job.”
Schott says she is shocked by how little had been done to harness the huge resource that is behind-the-meter solar and battery storage in Australian homes and businesses. Schott (far left) at the AEMC forum on Tuesday, with AEMC’s Clare Savage, AEMO’s Audrey Zibelman, and AER’s Paula Conboy
“I am completely amazed at the low level of demand management,” Schott told a public forum on energy sector strategic priorities, hosted by the Australian Energy Market Commission on Tuesday.
“It absolutely stuns me. It’s low-hanging fruit waiting to be plucked, particularly now we have technology that will really help.”
Schott said the ESB – which includes representatives from the Australian Energy Regulator, the Australian Energy Market Operator, the AEMC and two independents – has an immediate focus on the summer ahead, and the potential supply issues faced by South Australia and Victoria, as outlined in AEMO report last week.
Another focus, she said, was on 2022, and any issues NSW might face when the Liddell coal-fired power plant was retired by its owner, AGL Energy.
But as the former head of Sydney Water, Schott compares the current squeeze facing Australia’s electricity sector to the water shortages experienced around the country in the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s, and says there’s plenty we could be doing, right now, and for little cost, to address a large part of our energy security concerns.
“In water, those people will remember having dual flush toilets put into their homes, and aerated water taps, and recycled water plants have been put in everywhere. That saved water demand between 10 and 15 per cent. It’s quite possible to save that much electricity,” she said.
“Overseas those demand responses have saved around 20 per cent, and if we can save that much, we can all stop worrying about building new plants of any description.”
As well as being an effective grid management strategy, and relatively easy to implement, Schott says it’s also cheap.
“If the cost of demand management is less than the cost of providing power, then why aren’t we doing it?” she said at the Tuesday forum.
Certainly, it is one of the mechanisms that AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman is keen to implement – as a grid-wide no-brainer solution for better management of resources, and as a way to mitigate the removal of coal-fired power capacity, like the Liddell closure. “We need flexible capacity that can be switched on and off,” Zibelman told the same AEMC forum on Tuesday.
“Our advice was fairly pragmatic,” Zibelman said. “We are concerned that on a 45°C day if we lose a generator (which AEMO has said is quite likely) we want reserves in the system to be able to respond.
“In our report we identified the fact that with amount of variability (from solar and wind energy and electricity usage) is changing rapidly, we need resources that can change rapidly.”
Zibelman also noted that the subject of demand management had been communicated badly and misunderstood by the public – particularly the idea that the market operator would turn off the lights or the air-conditioning.
“What we are talking bout is being able to use rotating mass, use battery storage, electric vehicles, and create a more integrated system.”
Zibelman said it was clear that the Australian market was heading towards 30-40 per cent “distributed generation”, which meant mostly solar and storage behind the meter. These technologies can and needed to be harnessed to ensure that they contribute to grid security, she said.
How can we overcome Australia’s renewable energy policy deadlock?
Despite federal government inertia, there is the potential for industry and community to influence the direction of energy policy. Here’s how it might be done.
How to replace Liddell with a dispatchable renewable energy plant
Wev’e done the modelling on how to replace Liddell with a dispatchable renewable energy plant – including wind, solar, storage and gas. We just need politicians to get out of the way and get on the bus.
This is just the start of the solar age – seven graphs show why
Striking new report by one of world’s biggest independent energy consultants shows dramatic decline in coal and oil industry and a peak in global energy demand. Solar dominates, and has only just begun its path to becoming biggest source of energy.
Environment group refutes media claims about threat to Mt Piper power station from Springvale coal mine clean up
Environmental group 4nature has dismissed as fear-mongering an article in The Australian on Tuesday that claimed its court action threatens the closure of the Mt Piper power station.
As the federal government considers a clean energy target, one of its MPs is looking to nuclear power as a long-term solution. Nuclear technology sits hand in hand with concerns about North Korea but one federal MP believes there’s also room for it in the energy debate.
Assistant minister Jane Prentice on Thursday again flagged support for nuclear power as a long-term solution.
“It is clean and I think there are opportunities,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“I think the new nuclear technology is much safer than the old one and I think it should be on the discussion paper if we’re serious about long-term clean energy.”
The government is weighing up a clean energy target, the only recommendation it is yet to address from Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s review of the national electricity market.
“Of course, our problem at the moment is short-term power and making it affordable, making it sustainable and reliable,” Ms Prentice said.
“I always believe that you need a longer term strategy as well.”
Antinuclear 