Renewable energy saves money for consumers,
Green energy helps reduce power bills, study finds June 25, 2013 The Age Peter Hannam Carbon economy editor Wind farms, hydro power and other renewable energy sources will actually cut household electricity bills, not push up bills as detractors have claimed, a new study suggests.
Research commissioned by wind farm owner Meridian Energy found the national renewable energy target – which requires electricity generators to provide at least 20 per cent of power from clean sources by 2020 – will ultimately force down wholesale power prices.
It found the renewable energy legislation would save Victorian households about $35 a year if the carbon price stayed, and $50 if it were abolished. South Australia – which already gets more than 20 per cent of power from renewables – would save as much as $56 a year. Continue reading
Remembering Senator Jean Melzer , an anti nuclear hero
Jean Isobelle Melzer died on June 18, 2013. An Australian Senator, Jean Melzer represented the Australian Labor Party and the state of Victoria. She was elected at the 1974 election, becoming the first woman Labor senator from Victoria . In 1978 she was the first woman elected as the Secretary of the Labor Caucus. She served two terms. In 1980, despite Melzer’s great popularity in the labor party and electorate, the ALP executive moved her to an unwinnable 3rd ticket position, replacing pro uranium Robert Ray at the top ticket. This ensured Melzer’s defeat at the 1980 election.
In 1984, Jean Melzer as Convener of the Movement Against Uranium Mining led the campaign opposing Labor’s move to a pro uranium mining policy.
She also stood unsuccessfully as the lead Victorian senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party in the 1984 election.
Jean Melzer was also a great campaigner for Aborigines, migrants, pensioners, and for anti discrimination in all areas. She stood up for the rights of the disadvantaged.
Pushed out of her Senate position by the pro nuclear ALP, Jean Melzer continued working in the community and in environmental protection.
In 2004 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
Jean Melzer will be remembered for her many contributions to Australia, and for her warning:
“Don’t let Australia become the quarry and waste dump of the world” Noel Wauchope 25 June 2013
King Island resists anti-wind propaganda, votes for wind farm feasibility study
King Island community votes ‘yes’ to wind farm feasibility, rejects scare campaign http://yes2renewables.org/2013/06/24/king-island-community-votes-yes-to-wind-farm-feasibility-rejects-scare-campaign/ June 24, 2013 by Leigh Ewba In 2012, King Islanders were trusted to determine the fate of a proposed wind farm. Today, the results of a community vote are in.
Despite an anti-wind energy scare campaign backed by wealthy NIMBYs and big PR, the community has voted for a wind farm feasibility study. The result shows that King Islanders won’t be fooled by anti-wind energy spin.
TasWind, the firm proposing a 600MW wind farm for the island, has won community backing for a feasibility study. It gave the feasibility study the green light at a press conference in Hobart. The two-year feasibility study will examine the economic, technical and environmental aspects of the wind farm proposal. The community will now be able to get all the information to needed to make an informed choice about the wind farm proposal.
King Islanders, who have lived with wind turbines for a decade and a half without complaint, have dismissed absurd claims of ‘wind farm noise disease’. Now it’s time for the anti-wind energy campaign accept the community’s endorsement of a feasibility study and end its divisive campaign. Yes 2 Renewables have visited King Island several times in 2013 to observe the community consultation process. It’s apparent to us that the wind farm proposal has the potential to transform the King Island economy for the better. It can diversify the economy as it struggles in the wake of the closure of an abattoir, shrinking population and increased shipping costs.
The King Island community’s decision will put the island on the radar of new economy firms such as Google, Facebook and Apple, who are seeking renewable energy of the scale proposed by TasWind to power data centres. The island has the opportunity to become a truly clean, high-tech economy, mixing it’s renowned dairy and meat industry of today with clean renewable and web-based economy of the 21st Century.
Barbara Shaw speaks out against the Northern Territory Intervention
I have fought the Intervention from day one. We built a massive amount of support from people and organisations right across Australia to try and stop the government from continuing the Intervention for another 10 years through the “Stronger Futures” laws. But they refused to listen to us.
I will keep fighting. Self determination is the key to getting us out of the social problems that we face today. It is the only way to do this. It is just disgusting how much money has been wasted on bureaucrats to control us, or on ineffective non-Aboriginal services that can not engage with our people.
Northern Territory – Opinion Piece, by Barbara Shaw The Stringer June 23rd, 2013 Six years ago my family watched the TV in my living room as John Howard announced he would be sending in the military and taking control of our communities
I have never been more frightened in my life. I locked the gate of my town camp and kept the kids inside for two weeks for fear of them being taken. I worried constantly about my family out bush who didn’t understand what was coming.
They said the Intervention was about stopping children from being abused, that it was going to stop the drinking and domestic violence. But all I have seen is racism and disempowerment of our people. It’s the old assimilation policy back again, to control how we live. The government and many non-Aboriginal NGOs have taken over the assets and responsibilities of our organisations, both in the major town centres and remote communities forcing us to comply with their policies that take no account of Aboriginal culture and our obligations.
Take income management, which I have been on for five and a half years. I ran for parliament in 2010 and outpolled both Labor and Liberal candidates in Central Australian communities. I have represented my people at the United Nations. But the Government says I can’t manage my money. On their own estimations of $6000 to 8000 per person per year administrative cost for income management, the government has spent more than $30,000 dollars just to control my small income. Continue reading
Australian interactive map shows you solar power numbers in your area
and the winner in terms of saturation is the electorate of Mayo in South Australia, with 25.43% of homes in that region having rooftop solar panel systems installed.
Australia’s Top Solar Electorates Plus Interactive Map http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3805 24 June 13, If you’ve ever wondered how many solar power systems are installed in your electoral region, this interactive map will tell you that and more.
Created by The Guardian’s Nick Evershed based on details from 100% Renewable’s Solar Scorecard project (which sourced its information from Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator), the interactive map displays the number of home solar installations by electorate, estimated capacity, carbon emissions reduction, electricity bill savings and installation cost.
Northern Territory – Lingiari Continue reading
Wikileaks giving diplomatic and legal support to Edward Snowden
WikiLeaks Statement On Edward Snowden’s Exit From Hong Kong – UPDATED http://wikileaks.org/WikiLeaks-Statement-On-Edward,253.html?updated Sunday June 23 Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, has left Hong Kong legally. He is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.
Mr Snowden requested that WikiLeaks use its legal expertise and experience to secure his safety. Once Mr Snowden arrives in Ecuador his request will be formally processed.
Former Spanish Judge Mr Baltasar Garzon, legal director of Wikileaks and lawyer for Julian Assange has made the following statement:
“The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person. What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange – for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest – is an assault against the people”.
Wake Up Australia! International Energy Agency shows that renewable energy will dominate.
the IEA makes clear that renewables will dominate the world’s new capacity – even out to 2020 – with some $2 trillion likely to be invested in hydro, wind, solar, biomass and other renewables.
Wake up coal: Renewables is now the main game REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 23 June 2013 It is staggering to observe that even in modern sophisticated economies such as the US, Australia and UK – which are supposed to have modern, sophisticated political systems (no really, don’t laugh) – that the role of renewables in the world’s future energy systems is constantly underplayed.
This has probably got something to do with the way that mainstream media handles the issue. In its pursuit of division, fear and controversy, it’s happy to oblige the tactics of delay and misinformation from the fossil fuel industry, that is seeking to protect and prolong several trillion dollars of investments and revenue streams.
Too often, renewable energy is portrayed as an expensive and unnecessary plaything or indulgence. But the media is not solely to blame. There is a shocking lack of vision at the political level too, with the notable exception of the Greens. Conservative political parties, in Australia in particular, constantly use green energy as a scapegoat for problems elsewhere; often for superfluous and inefficient grid upgrades.
But one thing should be made clear: whichever way you cut the future energy outlook, and whichever way you attack the challenge of climate change and the goal of reducing emissions, two technology solutions dominate all others – energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Even if the pro-nuclear lobbies and those who still hold on to the dream of carbon capture and storage have their way, the investment in those technologies will pale in comparison to that needed for renewables – be it in solar PV or solar thermal with storage, wind energy (onshore and offshore), hydro, biomass, or the emerging technologies such as wave and tidal. Continue reading
Australia’s news media now toes the line for big business
The real, untarnished news is getting through to a greater number of people after decades of being deliberately distorted or discarded by the power of money. Mobile phones have worked communication miracles in many countries.
The importance of Australia’s September election is beyond any in the nation’s history. The power of money has strangled good national government before. It can also deny us the full power of the NBN at the very time when we will most need its maximum capabilities.
Big money versus good government Independent Australia, Australia’s September election is more important than any in the nation’s history, writes Rodney E. Lever, as big money tries to strangle a good government. 23 June 13 “……Now newspapers are dying. Propaganda rules our lives. Good honest journalists are losing their jobs. Editorials expressing proprietorial views are on the front page.…..In the past few decades, Australia’s newspapers have gradually been taken over by ignorant multi-millionaire proprietors with other interests, and now journalists are ordered to write stories to political requirements….
… Rupert Murdoch ‒ who claims to be a journalist ‒ is a fraud. He has never written anything, except on Twitter, reads little more than balance sheets and dictates terse letters. He shows up in the working areas of his newspapers only when cameras are around.
This is why Australian politics is in turmoil. People think they are being informed by what were once called “the mirrors of the world”. They are, in fact, reading manufactured pages of falsehoods and duplicity. On top of that, we are bombarded by mentally-deficient radio shock-jocks and screwed by much of the electronic media. Continue reading
Democratic process stops the uranium mining rush into Woomera area
Senate slows deal to give mineral explorers access to Defence’s Woomera testing grounds Adelaide Now, CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL Business Editor June 21, 2013 “…..Laws to keep Defence as the prime user and controller of access to Woomera Prohibited Area but giving certainty to mineral explorers were this week shunted into a Senate committee inquiry after earlier clearing the Lower House with bipartisan support.
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee now will seek new public submissions on the pact, which had been negotiated over several years between industry, government and Defence following an inquiry by former public servant Allan Hawke.
The committee is only due to report back on August 20, just weeks before the federal election. That means the reform Bill will lapse and have to await being reintroduced by the next Federal Government……..
Greens MP Adam Bandt said his party was “absolutely opposed to mining uranium” and also had concerns about Aboriginal issues.SA Senator David Fawcett said it was quite appropriate for the Bill to go to a committee inquiry and it should not be rushed.”If it’s not dealt with this week – and clearly it won’t be – it’ll be an issue for whoever forms government after September,” he said.
Senator Fawcett, who came to politics from a military career which included working in Woomera, said the area was crucial to Defence testing.
“Just because we have a State Government and mining lobby who are saying let’s go on with it, I don’t see that – short of a national emergency – we should be circumventing the democratic process,” he said…… http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/senate-slows-deal-to-give-mineral-explorers-access-to-defence8217s-woomera-testing-grounds/story-e6fredel-1226667870070
A win for wind in Victoria – Coonooer Bridge community wind farm
Finally! First new wind farm approved under Baillieu’s anti-wind laws http://yes2renewables.org/2013/06/21/finally-first-new-wind-farm-approved-under-baillieus-anti-wind-laws/ 21 June 13, The Victorian Wind Alliance has today welcomed the approval of a new wind farm project near Bendigo – the first since the Baillieu anti-wind laws were passed.
The Coonooer Bridge wind farm – a small five-turbine project – was approved by the Buloke Shire Council overnight, the first to be approved since former premier Ted Ballieu’s restrictive laws were introduced in 2011.
Victorian Wind Alliance state coordinator Andrew Bray said that Victoria should be approving many more wind farms.“These laws were costing the state billions in investment, thousands of manufacturing jobs and income for regional farmers and communities.
“It’s great that we are going to have a new wind farm near Bendigo, as it would provide certain and steady income to a regional community and clean renewable energy.“The project will combine community and corporate ownership and is part owned by the local community which means the profits will stay in the community.
“There are 30 owners to the new wind farm – and the turbines will benefit not only those whose land the turbines rest, but on rest of the community who are part owners of the site.
“There are communities like this one around Victoria who would love to take advantage of the wind to make energy and money. “Community owned wind power is hugely popular in Europe and could work well for Victorian communities.
“However it is disappointing that other communities cannot realise these benefits because of the current Baillieu anti-wind laws.“Many people around the state are calling for farms in their area, and all the investment, income and employment that comes with it,” said Mr Bray.
AUDIO: Julian Assange speaks about whistleblower Edward Snowden
AUDIO http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/assange-wikileaks/4770642 Assange says Snowden leaks will boost Senate election chances 21 June 2013 Matt O’Neil It’s one year since Julian Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden. But the controversial WikiLeaks founder says he has a bigger battle to fight—his bid for the Australian Senate is building momentum, and he hopes recent leaks about government surveillance will bolster his party’s message…..
‘We now have a regime of secret deals between a national security agency and major organisations like Google and Microsoft and Apple.’
Speaking with Fran Kelly on RNBreakfast, Assange said that America’s surveillance policies ‘affect all Australians’—and he believes Canberra has a lot to answer for. ‘How are they involved in this? Does the Australian Government swap that information? Is the Australian Government using that information from the US government?’
‘All of that is being kept secret, and it’s completely unacceptable. What kind of world are we drifting into where we have a transnational surveillance apparatus, [with] different rules for people in that apparatus compared to the rest of society. It’s very dangerous.’ Continue reading
Tony Abbott’s program for killing renewable energy in Australia
here are the five ways that an Abbott Government could kill renewables:
- Can the Carbon price:…… taking away the carbon price also increases the risk around investment in any sort of generation – be it fossil fuel or renewable. So, perversely, it will probably help increase the cost of electricity.
- Can or dilute the Renewable Energy Target …
- Can the Climate Change Authority…..
- Can the Clean Energy Finance Corporation….
- Cut funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency….. It would be an appalling step backwards.
Five ways Abbott could kill renewables in Australia, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 21 June 2013 Apparently, one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement in the heated politics of this country is in the area of renewables. Both major parties – Labor and the Coalition – say they support the 20 per cent renewable target, but it doesn’t actually mean what it says.
Indeed, Tony Abbott may well want to have his photo taken next to a wind farm (well, maybe not), or a solar array in the lead up to the election. Behind the scenes, however, he is under intense pressure to pull them down. Continue reading
AUDIO: Obstacles in the way for Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium project
Wiluna uranium mine not officially protested http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/06/19/3785317.htm By Glenn Barndon, Sarah Taillier, Chloe Papas
ABC’s Sarah Taillier spoke to Mia Pepper from the Conservation Council of WA. Have a listen to the interview
Toro Energy’s potential uranium mine at Wiluna has been the subject of much controversy – but was not officially appealed during the required period. So, what happens next?
Toro Energy’s plans to build a uranium mine in Wiluna have been the subject of considerable controversy since the $269 million project was proposed last year. Recently, the company announced that no appeals were launched during the four-week protest period allowed by the Federal government.
Though this takes the company one step closer to putting plans into action, Mia Pepper from the Conservation Council of WA told ABC’s Sarah Taillier that a formal appeal was not the only avenue of protest.
“The fight against the Wiluna uranium mine is definitely not over just because of not lodging one out of many possible appeals.” Pepper told the ABC that not only are there other ways to attempt to stop the mine, but the company may have bigger issues than a formal protest. “They’ve been trying to take it to market for a long time and haven’t been successful, and I think they’re using this event or non-event as a platform to try and fundraise for the project – which is and has been their main problem for a long time.”
Australian governments manufactured shocking lies about Aboriginal people
THE WAY AHEAD: The new land grab Tracker, BY JEFF MCMULLEN, JUNE 21, 2013“……The Howard Government and the Labor Opposition rushed with obscene haste to pass the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act (2007) because of a manufactured crisis over child sexual abuse. The radicalism of the Intervention was concealed by the government’s media manipulation of the scandalising, shaming issue of sexual abuse.
No matter how much Mick Gooda, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, may protest on national
television programs that the Australian Crimes Commission found no paedophile rings in these remote communities, the extraordinary
collective smearing of Aboriginal parents everywhere disguised the neo-liberal assault aimed at controlling Aboriginal lands.
Canada’s best-selling author, Naomi Klein, wrote in her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, how neo-liberal
governments exploit shock therapy in a brazen campaign “of erasing and remaking the world”.
The Intervention exploited a national shock over the state of Aboriginal children to introduce harsh social management of families
and a clamp on Aboriginal organisations that further undermined their control over their destiny……”.http://tracker.org.au/2013/06/the-way-ahead-the-new-land-grab-2/
Nugget Coombs, an economist who understood Aboriginal society
THE WAY AHEAD: The new land grab Tracker, BY JEFF MCMULLEN, JUNE 21, 2013“……..Even in the Labor Party, some like Dr Gary Johns and Aboriginal businessman, Warren Mundine, then National Vice President of the ALP, jeered at what they saw as the old ’Nugget Coombs’ model of communal Aboriginal society and they cheered for private land ownership, arguing that “communal land holding was retarding Aboriginal people.
While neo-liberalism was beginning to shape the views of some prominent Aboriginal operators like Warren Mundine, Noel Pearson and
Marcia Langton, the biggest influence on John Howard’s inner circle of advisers and parts of the bureaucracy in Canberra came from the poison pen of Professor Helen Hughes, a Senior Fellow at the right-wing Centre for Independent Studies,
Hughes painted what I consider a grossly distorted picture of the Aboriginal policy of self-determination by attacking the vision of the
former Reserve Bank head, Nugget Coombs. She derided Coombs for his remote community “experiment that was to give Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders a socialist utopia, leading to the establishment of a separate nation.”
Nugget Coombs had and still has many bitter and twisted ideological opponents, but the truth is he was an establishment economist with a
good grasp of animist attachment to land. He advocated autonomy for remote Aboriginal homelands based on traditional Cultural divisions, the kind of Indigenous control that I have seen bring rapid improvement to the wellbeing of many First Nations societies in the
United States and on the Saami lands of Norway, Finland and Sweden…..
But Helen Hughes and other neo-liberals do not seem to be influenced by history or evidence.
The striking difference between this vision of self-determination and the neo-liberal approach to developing Aboriginal lands is that
neo-liberalism involves dispossessing people of communal lands through dubious promises of payoffs if they sign long leases and chase the great Aussie Dream of a mortgage and “private home ownership”…….http://tracker.org.au/2013/06/the-way-ahead-the-new-land-grab-2/http://tracker.org.au/2013/06/the-way-ahead-the-new-land-grab-2/
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.
.
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 