No sign of hope for uranium mining in Queensland
Uranium mining start faces hurdles, ABC News 2 Oct 2013, The Australian Uranium Association says it will be some time before uranium mining begins in Queensland……Mr Angwin says low uranium prices are a big deterrent.
“We’ve got low-cost competitors around the world who are doing much better than Australia is at the moment and we’ve got a relatively cumbersome assessment and approval process for environmental issues,” he said.
“So if you put those three issues together and particularly the low price of uranium then it’ll be some time before companies decide the time is right to mine uranium.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/uranium-mining-start-faces-hurdles/4993738
Climate Action Canberra reports that Bill Shorten will stick by the carbon tax!
Climate-Action Canberra 30 Oct 13, Belinda from Bill Shortens office just said he will not backflip and will stick by the carbon tax !
Keep the carbon tax – urges Labor’s national secretary, George Wright
Labor should stick with carbon pricing, national secretary tells party colleagues theguardian.com, Tuesday 29 October 2013 Katharine Murphy deputy political editor ‘We are on the right side of history on this argument,’ says George Wright in frank election postmortem at press club Labor’s national secretary, George Wright, has urged his parliamentary colleagues to persist with carbon pricing, declaring that the policy positions the party on the right side of history, climate science and economics…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/29/stick-with-carbon-pricing-labor
Labor supports dumping the carbon tax, and opposing Abbott’s “Direct Action” policy
ALP supports dumping tax not direct action HERALD SUN AAP OCTOBER 29, 2013 SHADOW assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh says Labor will support scrapping the carbon tax but insists it needs to be replaced with an emissions trading scheme. “We said we would scrap the carbon tax, the fixed price period, and move straight to a floating emissions trading scheme,” Dr Leigh told Sky News on Tuesday.
“That’s something that we will be happy to vote for on the floor of parliament.” This is consistent with the policy Kevin Rudd took to last month’s election, he said.
But he clarified there would still have to be discussions in shadow cabinet and caucus about the party’s final position on the government legislation…….
Dr Leigh said the lesson Labor had learned was from 2010.
“We were seen to walk away from carbon pricing,” he said. “I think it would be a mistake for us to do that again.” He says he doesn’t believe the coalition’s direct action policy will work to halt climate change.
Reported plans to attach direct action to the budget bills was “a classic Tea Party trick” used in the US Congress, to force Labor to vote for the “whacky” plan or make the whole budget fall. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/alp-supports-dumping-tax-not-direct-action/story-fni0xqi4-1226748787512
AUDIO: climate change causes dangerous jellyfish to move South, threatening Australia’s tourism industry
AUDIO Researchers say Irukandji jellyfish migrating further south along Qld coast http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/irukandji-jellyfish-migrating-further-south-along-qld-coast/5051580 AM By Nance Haxton and staff 29 Oct 2013,
Marine researchers say climate change could be altering the migration patterns of the dangerous Irukandji jellyfish along Queensland’s east coast.
The Irukandji is one of the deadliest marine animals, so venomous it inflicts excruciating pain that sometimes leads to death.
It has been on a relentless march southwards down the Queensland coast.
If the Irukandji becomes established off Queensland’s south-east coast, it would be devastating for the region’s tourism industry……
Climate change brings longer bushfire season to Southern Western Australia
Fire season is longer E Daniel Mercer, The West Australian October 30, 2013 Southern WA’s bushfire season is up to six weeks longer than 20 years ago, according to a leading firefighter who has warned that preparations are increasingly being hampered by climatic and urban obstacles.
Ahead of 35C temperatures forecast for Perth today, the Department of Parks and Wildlife’s Roger Armstrong said firefighters faced a double whammy as bushfires became more extreme but prescribed burning became harder.
The ominous comments from Mr Armstrong, the department’s principal fire planner, come after his agency burnt just 21,000ha out of a controlled burning target of 200,000ha across the South West last year.
Mr Armstrong said though an overhaul of the department’s prescribed burning policies had contributed to the most recent shortfall, in general it was becoming more difficult to do burns.
He said this was because weather conditions most suitable for burning – which usually happens in spring and autumn – were becoming less frequent so fewer burns could be carried out. He said that added to this was a growing intolerance in urban communities such as Perth of smoke associated with prescribed burns – a trend Mr Armstrong said was exacerbated by the tree-change culture.
Amid a dramatic decline in South West rainfall and rising temperatures, the upshot was likely to be more intense bushfires that would cause more damage to lives and property, he said.
“Certainly our observations are that our bushfire season tends to be about six weeks longer now compared to what it was 20-odd years ago,” Mr Armstrong said.
“Our prescribed fire opportunities have been constrained, which means we don’t get to treat as much of the landscape as we would like to. So the potential for bushfire, the area that’s available in high-fuel condition for bushfire, is greater.
“It’s a circuitous route and it’s here to stay.
“It is challenging, particularly where people with the sea-change, tree-change thing.”………………. Weather Bureau regional manager Neil Bennett said conditions typically associated with spring and autumn were becoming rarer as winter and summer increasingly prevailed in the South West. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/19597504/fire-season-is-longer/
A warning about the Trans Pacific Partnership
Most stunningly, these new rights in a public treaty could be privately enforceable. The U.S. is pushing for inclusion of “investor-state” enforcement. This little-known mechanism allows foreign firms to bypass domestic court systems and directly sue governments for cash damages
The U.S. proposal could also undermine the drug formularies of Australia, New Zealand and other countries that have successfully controlled drug costs.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a mega-treaty across nine or more countries. If the negotiations succeed they will put a straightjacket on the policies and laws our government can adopt for the next century. Corporations will gain massive new powers in Australia. Help us stop the TPPA! OCCUPY T.P.P.A PPA – A Stealth Attempt to Undermine Democracy March 7, 2012
Lori was recently in Melbourne for the TPPA talks and spoke at Occupy Friday on 2 March 2012.
It takes quite a “trade” agreement to undermine financial regulation, increase drug prices, flood us with unsafe imported food and products, ban Buy America policies aimed at recovery and redevelopment, and empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards before tribunals of corporate lawyers. Trade, in fact, is the least of the TPP.
Backdoor deregulation and imposition of new corporate investor and patent rights via “trade” negotiation began in the 1990s, with the “mission creep” of the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement. But the TPP now threatens a slow motion stealth attack against a century of progressive domestic policy, of an unprecedented scope. At stake is nothing less than a democratic society’s ability to regulate a market economy in the broad public interest…….. Continue reading
Labor likely to support axing of carbon tax
Labor’s carbon backflip October 29, 2013 The Age Tom Allard, Mark Kenny Labor is expected to support axing the carbon tax, with senior figures – including leader Bill Shorten – now convinced that its case for action on climate change is more easily sold if the politically ”toxic” tax is abolished……..
Problem with Abbott’s ‘Direct Action’ on carbon emissions – it doesn’t work
Decades of evidence against ‘direct action’ The Age, October 29, 2013 Editorial For all the sound and fury of Australia’s debate on climate change, there is a bipartisan target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Tony Abbott and his colleagues say they accept the climate science, but plan to scrap their Labor predecessors’ policy of carbon pricing. The Abbott government will use a $2.88 billion fund of public money over four years to pay for ”direct action” by business, industry and landholders. The problem with this policy is that it ignores real-world experience of achieving the most cost-effective emission cuts. Economists are well aware of the evidence of successful cap-and-trade schemes and, as The Age has reported, they overwhelmingly favour the carbon pricing policy model.
Of the 35 leading economists surveyed, 30 endorsed carbon pricing and only two favoured direct action. (One regarded a ”no action” policy as right for Australia and the other doubted humans were causing climate change.) Mr Abbott has defied economists’ opinion before and in 2011 ignored a Productivity Commission report that strongly endorsed carbon pricing and trading. He has also conceded the direct action fund may not be enough to cut emissions to 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, but insists the budget is fixed……….: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/decades-of-evidence-against-direct-action-20131028-2wbxt.html#ixzz2j8vd8k5z
Cut carbon emissions by 25% at least – Australia is told
Australia should cut carbon emissions by at least 25% by 2020, says report Oliver Milman theguardian.com, Monday 28 October 2013 Target of 5% not enough, based on warming ceiling of 2C and Australia’s ‘fair share’ of global carbon budget Australia has already eaten through at least two-thirds of its share of a “carbon budget” that would keep global warming below 2C, requiring it to drastically escalate its emissions reduction target, according to a new report.
The study, conducted by consultancy firm Ecofys at the behest of WWF Australia, states that Australia should look to reduce carbon emissions by a “bare minimum” of 25% by 2020, based on 2000 levels. Continue reading
AUDIO: Australia emitting more than its fair share of greenhouse gases
AUDIO: Australia’s ‘carbon bank’ full by 2020: report http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3877994.htm Lexi Metherell reported this story on Monday, October 28, 2013 TONY EASTLEY: A report out today suggests if carbon emissions don’t fall drastically, Australia will use up more than its fair share of the world’s carbon emissions by the end of this decade.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature-commissioned report, Australia has already used about two-thirds of its so-called carbon budget.
And as governments prepare to meet in Warsaw for the next round of international climate talks, the environmental group is urging the Federal Government to commit to cutting emissions faster.
Lexi Metherell reports. Continue reading
Some important details on the Trans Pacific Partnership
Article 12.8 gives rights holders the right to demand personal information about customers of Internet Service Providers – or other service providers – on a mere accusation. . This is a fundamental attack on the privacy of the citizens of all signatory countries. There is nothing to stop rights holders going on extensive fishing expeditions, searching through millions of users, looking for people to sue. This power is not granted to law enforcement without due process. Handing such powers to corporations without any requirement to show a breach has occurred is an attack upon the process of law. We have a right to not be placed under surveillance by companies based upon their word that illegal activity has occurred
Pirate Party Australia’s Presentation to Trans-Pacific Partnership Stakeholders Meeting in Melbourne March 4, 2012 Here is the speech that was presented by Pirate Party Australia President David Campbell at 11.45am at the TPPA stakeholders meeting in Melbourne. Thanks to Simon Frew (Deputy President) for authoring the speech and Mozart Palmer (Media Relations) for his contributions.
Pirate Party Australia, like many other attendees at the intellectual property section of this Agreement negotiation, first became aware of the proposed intellectual property provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement when the United States negotiating position was leaked last year.[1]
Much of the content of the leak is a wish-list for old media corporations who refuse to adapt to the Internet and instead pay massive “donations” to their government in order to push their legislative agenda against the interests of modern society. This wish-list echoes that of the intellectual property segments of the Stop Online Piracy Act – known as SOPA – and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – known as ACTA. The US TPPA provisions have been nicknamed “the son of ACTA”. The proposed solutions to online file-sharing will fundamentally change the operation of the Internet, to its detriment.
The extreme position of the leaked United States’ Intellectual Property chapter is highlighted by the unprecedented request for the negotiating texts to remain secret for four years after the agreement is signed. This secrecy is a perversion of democracy. The public would not be given a chance to oppose such a draconian attack on both the Internet and the civil liberties of citizens in all of the signatory countries. All of this to protect the corporate interests of a small sector of one industry? What about the cost to our democratic rights?……..
In Australia, we have seen the harm that tighter intellectual property restrictions can cause through the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement. The Productivity Commission, a body that investigates the economic benefit or hindrance of various Australian economic policies, warned that agreeing to intellectual property provisions in free trade agreements needs to be subjected to a rigorous cost/benefit analysis.
The Australia–US Free Trade Agreement is believed to cost the Australian economy between 88 million and 763 million dollars a year in copyright enforcement alone. This is wealth being directly transferred from Australia to the United States – there is no net benefit to Australia derived from the tighter restrictions.[2]
If the US delegation gets its way, that and more will be forced upon your people and local economy, to what benefit? We urge delegates to reject the inclusion of any intellectual property provisions in your own national interests as they WILL harm your economies. Continue reading
Legal bullying threats now adopted by wind farm opponents
“We’re going to the bullying tactics, are we? I don’t know what it’s all about, but I assume that’s what it is, old school bullying tactics.”…..
Mr Poile said there were a lot of people and groups he did not recognise as locals, including anti-wind farm activist Sarah Laurie from the Waubra Foundation, based in South Australia.
Threat of legal action against wind farm hosts, Canberra Times, Hamish Boland-Rudder October 29, 2013 An anti-wind farm resident of Collector says he will sue his neighbours should they become turbine hosts as part of a proposed wind farm in the small community north of Canberra. Continue reading
Thai company to invest in solar energy in Australia
Ratch To Invest $232 Million In Australian Solar Farms http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4001 28 Oct 13 Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL has announced it will invest AUD $232 million in developing two solar farms in Australia.According to the Bangkok Post, the two solar farms will have a combined capacity of 53 megawatts and will replace the recently shuttered coal-fired Collinsville power station.
Earlier this month we reported Whitsunday Regional Council had approved an application by Ratch for the development of a solar farm at the Collinsville Power Station site. Continue reading
Nuclear Free Queensland protest in Brisbane, against uranium mining policy
Activists protest return to uranium mining in Queensland http://www.centraltelegraph.com.au/news/activists-protest-return-uranium-mining-queensland/2065510/ 28th Oct 2013 ABOUT 20 people staged a colourful protest in Brisbane today to mark the first anniversary of the Queensland Government’s decision to allow a return to uranium mining in the state. The protesters gathered outside the Executive Building in the hope of catching State Government ministers as they entered the building for the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Members of anti-uranium group, Keep Queensland Nuclear Free, spent about 10 minutes chanting “No Mandate for Uranium” before dispersing. Anti-Nuclear campaign co-ordinator Mark Bailey said regional centres like Townsville, Mt Isa, Emerald and St George along with a number of smaller towns will be at risk from nuclear accidents.
“Rather than arrogantly place many Queenslanders at risk the government should at least facilitate an informed debate about the dangers and risks of uranium mining through an independent inquiry,” he said.
“It is highly unlikely a majority of Queenslanders would support the resumption of mining when presented with all the facts. “Uranium mining is a dangerous, risky, small industry with big impacts on the environment, on workers, surrounding regions and potentially along transport routes.”
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 