Scott Morrison’s brand damaged by silly cover-up of his Hawaii holiday
Prime Minister Scott Morrison pulls pin on Hawaii family holiday, but the damage is already done, ABC , By political editor Andrew Probyn , 20 Dec 19, Australia’s marketing expert Prime Minister has just had his first major product recall.Scott Morrison’s brand has been damaged, as he wings his way back to Australia from Hawaii, a trifle shop-soiled and humiliated.
And all because Morrison and his office thought they could engineer silence on a family holiday.
As so often in politics, it’s the cover-up that gets you.
No-one begrudges the fellow going on holiday with his wife and lovely girls who have probably seen less of their dad this year than any in their short lives.
And he’s undoubtedly knackered from a hectic year in which he pulled off a miracle election win…….
There was no official public note issued of his absence and when one Press Gallery journalist inquired with the Deputy Prime Minister’s office as to whether Michael McCormack was Acting PM, the journalist was referred back to the PM’s Office.
And when a couple of journos asked the PMO to confirm the boss was in Hawaii, they were told this was incorrect.
Here’s a tip for the PM’s minders: don’t compound a fudge with a fib……
Morrison is actually lucky more pressure hasn’t been appliedMorrison can be grateful that Anthony Albanese has been very measured this week. Albanese has visited members of the Rural Fire Service, making breakfast for volunteers, but has constrained his commentary……
It is now very clear that the Coalition must recalibrate its climate and energy policies.
Amid the smoke haze, the community horror and angst, this is a point of real clarity.
Morrison’s attempt last week to reassure Sydneysiders concerned by the incessant bushfire haze, by asserting he’d seen it all before, didn’t cut it. Nor does it now…..https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-20/andrew-probyn-analysis-scott-morrison-hawaii-holiday/11817356
Students’climate protest outside Scott Morrison’s residence. Greens MP arrested
‘Time politicians did something’: Greens MP among arrested at Kirribilli climate rally, Students rallied outside Scott Morrison’s Sydney prime ministerial residence to demand action on climate change. SBS News, BY TYRON BUTSON, 20 Dec 19, NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge was among 10 people arrested by police outside Sydney’s Kirribilli House as they demanded the prime minister take action on climate change.
Demonstrators rallied outside Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s official Sydney residence on Thursday, protesting the PM’s overseas holidays as unprecedented bushfires burn across the state.
Some protesters had vowed to camp out on site until the PM returned from holidays until they were confronted by police on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Shoebridge, a NSW Upper House Greens MP, was among those protesters charged with failing to move on. He took aim at Mr Morrison, saying it was high time politicians left parliament to join the community demanding climate action.
Mr Shoebridge, who alleges he was trying to comply with police directives to move on when he was arrested, will face Manly Local Court on 16 January. ….
Some of the demonstrates were clad in Hawaiian shirts, while others carried placards asking “ScoMo where the bloody hell are ya?” and “When do our firefighters get a holiday?”…. HTTPS://WWW.SBS.COM.AU/NEWS/TIME-POLITICIANS-DID-SOMETHING-GREENS-MP-AMONG-ARRESTED-AT-KIRRIBILLI-CLIMATE-RALLY
Flaws in the Senate Committee’s nuclear report
Parliamentary Committee Supports Nuclear – But Only If Everyone Is Into It , Solar Quotes, December 19, 2019 by Ronald Brakels “……..The Parliamentary Nuclear Committee used 214 pages to come to the wrong conclusion. But arriving at the right conclusion can’t be easy if you have no ability to smell bullshit in your own research.
One Solar Panel Does Not Cause 0.8 Tonnes Of CO2 Emissions
Take a look at this table included in the report, taken from a publication that advocates nuclear power:
Casually looking at that you might think CO2 emissions for both nuclear energy and solar PV are pretty low. But if we stop for one minute and use basic mathematical ability that’s available to anyone who doesn’t have to take their socks off to count to 20, then we can see that a Parliamentary committee saw fit to include a table in an official report that gives ridiculous results.
Looking at their minimum figure for Solar PV (Utility scale), I see they are claiming a large solar farm will result in at least 18 grams of CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour generated. While generating electricity from PV doesn’t result in any emissions, they are involved in the manufacture of solar panels, so they aren’t completely emissions-free. However, they are a lot bloody closer to emission free than this table suggests.
These days a typical standard sized solar panel is around 300 watts. In a solar farm in Australia on a fixed mount it will generate around 12,300 kilowatt-hours over 25 years. This means they are saying the solar panel will result in a minimum of 222 kilograms of CO2 emissions. If we use their maximum figure it will result in 2.22 tonnes of CO2, all for a panel that weighs about 18 kilograms. So they are saying manufacturing and installing one solar panel results in emissions equal to burning 80-800 or more kilograms of coal.
Jinko Solar, the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer, has a figure from 2017 of just 2.19 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour generated by a solar farm. As this has been decreasing year by year it will be even lower now. However, this is just for the solar panel and doesn’t include emissions from the construction of its ground mount or inverter, so I’ll double it to 4.4 grams. This means the actual emissions per kilowatt-hour are probably less than the best figure on the table and more than 40 times less than the worst figure. Even if we triple the Jinko figure it still comes to less than their median emissions for nuclear energy and less than 4% of their maximum figure for PV.
It’s clear the committee had no ability to detect figures that were bullshit — or they simply didn’t care.
Renewable Energy Increases The Cost Of Nuclear
Here is section 1.50 of the report:
I note the committee has failed to understand the economics of nuclear power if they think it works well with solar and wind energy. This is because if a nuclear power station produces half the energy its capable of, it almost doubles the cost of that energy. This is due to nuclear fuel being very cheap1 per kilowatt-hour, so very little money is saved by ramping down, while nearly all other costs remain the same.
This means nuclear power, which is already too expensive when operated in the most economical way — almost continuously at full normal power — becomes even more expensive when used in a grid with a significant amount of solar energy and/or wind power capacity. Australia already has more than enough to adversely affect the economics of nuclear energy and, even if we approve and build a nuclear power station in one quarter the average time it has taken overseas this century, things will be much worse for its economics by the time it’s complete….. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/nuclear-energy-australia/
Questions on the research and legal help given to men who offered their land for nuclear waste dump
Are the land owners who nominated their properties at Kimba for the radioactive waste management facility fully aware of and sought independent technical advice on all aspects of the selection and development of the facility I understand that their surnames are Rayner and Baldock and are they prepared to disclose the nature and result of any independent advice that they may have obtained Can they explain why they are getting legal advice and whether any outside source is meeting Or contributing towards the cost of that advice Will they agree to the Kimba community having access to their respective nominations Were they given any assistance by any government persons in completing their nominations Finally has the Kimba District Council itself sought any proper technical advice independent of the federal government in its various capacities as to the government’s proposals for safeguarding the rights of the Kimba community If not why was this not done because of the importance of this issue and the legal obligations of the Council and its councillors to ensure that the population of Kimba is fully and properly protected This surely should have been done as part of the Council as respondent to the Barngarla application to the federal court I am rather intrigued by this personally and should add that I have been asked for the same information by the various politicians with whom I have been discussing then South Australian situation in the context of the Azark Project at Leonora https://www.facebook.com/groups/941313402573199/ |
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Australia’s big problem – P.M. Scott Morrison’s lack of leadership
“…….Scott Morrison’s holiday is not the problem, his lack of leadership on the bushfires is
The prime minister’s badly timed holiday has become a source of anger but while the reaction is valid it’s the wrong thing to focus on, Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor, @murpharoo, Wed 18 Dec 2019 Let’s talk about Scott Morrison’s holiday. The prime minister is on holidays, presently, while the country is still burning.
Morrison’s ill-judged holiday has become a thing, a totem, a social media event. It somehow epitomises everything that’s wrong with this bloke. As well as failing to show up at a critical time, leaving the running of the country to Michael McCormack, who struggles to run his own mulish political party, let alone anything else, Morrison is a hypocrite because he once blasted Christine Nixon for eating dinner during a bushfire…..
I think it might actually be a productive thing if Morrison stops moving for five minutes, stops trying to be the self-appointed hero of the hour. If he stops moving, then he might think more often. I think the country would benefit if Morrison thought more often, more deeply, about more things. We really do need him to think, rather than just maintain the constant barrage of humblebrag and marketing. If there’s been any lessons from the back half of this year, I think that’s the lesson. …..
What I give a shit about is we have a government, led by him, which is, in many different ways, failing to rise to the challenges of our time.
They. Are. Failing.
I get very impatient about that.
I get very worried about that.
People are angry about Morrison’s mini-break because it symbolises the lack of leadership he has shown on the bushfires; the lack of principled leadership Australia showed last week in Madrid on climate change and the Coalition’s indefensible record on climate at home; the lack of velocity in the government’s response to Australia’s stuttering economy, which was underscored by the latest midyear economic forecast, which had downgrades as far as the eye could see.
The Morrison holiday has accumulated public outrage because it symbolises absence: a prime minister missing in action on important things. A prime minister too regularly substituting rhetoric for action. A prime minister apparently too pleased with himself to understand that people need more from government than they are getting.
I totally get it.
But I’m not fussed about the holiday. What I care about, what I am minutely focused on, and will go on being minutely focused on, is what this bloke does when he gets home. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/18/scott-morrisons-holiday-is-not-the-problem-his-lack-of-leadership-on-the-bushfires-is
Smaller Nuclear Power Is Not Cheaper Nuclear Power
Parliamentary Committee Supports Nuclear – But Only If Everyone Is Into It , Solar Quotes, December 19, 2019 by Ronald Brakels “……..Smaller Is Not Cheaper
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are suggested in the report as a way of making nuclear power economically viable. The problem with this is they cost more per kilowatt than large ones. This fact should not be a surprise to anyone. The engineers who designed the large nuclear reactors in the world today are not idiots who are currently slapping their foreheads, saying, “I’m so stupid! If only I had thought of making them smaller instead of bigger!” Modern reactors are very large to keep their cost per kilowatt down. Going small has the opposite effect.
That small reactors are not cheap is made obvious by the fact Britain, which has the longest history of nuclear power generation of any country, decided to power their new aircraft carriers with kerosene and diesel rather than small nuclear reactors because of they are so expensive. This is despite the alternative being expensive oil products rather than much cheaper solar and wind energy.
An advantage given for SMRs is they will supposedly suffer from fewer cost overruns. But that sales pitch is not enough to make nuclear energy economically attractive — pay for a more expensive product so you’ll have less of a chance of unpleasant surprise expenses down the line.2…… https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/nuclear-energy-australia/
Australia just had its hottest day on record
It’s official: Tuesday was ‘Australia’s hottest day on record’, SBS, 18 Dec 19, Preliminary results show Tuesday was Australia’s hottest day on record. Tuesday was the hottest day on record with an average across the country of 40.9 degrees Celsius, preliminary results show.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the average temperature beat the previous record of 40.3 degrees Celsius recorded on 7 January 2013.
Southern and central Australia sweltered as temperatures reached eight to 16 degrees above average.
Tuesday’s record could soon be eclipsed though – with temperatures expected to exceed 40 in parts of Australia until the end of the week.
Adelaide is facing a four-day heatwave, with an expected peak of 44 degrees Celsius on Friday.
Victoria is also predicted to record its hottest December day on Friday if northwest towns such as Mildura and Swan Hill reach a forecast 47 degrees Celsius. ….. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/it-s-official-tuesday-was-australia-s-hottest-day-on-record
Australian Parliamentary Committee Want Money Wasted On More Nuclear Reports
Parliamentary Committee Supports Nuclear – But Only If Everyone Is Into It , Solar Quotes, December 19, 2019 by Ronald Brakels “….They Want Money Wasted On More Reports
The report suggests we get people to write another report on how much nuclear power will cost here:
But I have a different suggestion. A much cheaper one. We just wait for another country to build and operate a nuclear power plant at a low enough cost that would be competitive in Australia. Then we can look into it.
Better yet, to make sure they aren’t exaggerating how cheap their nuclear power is, we say:
“Hey, budget nuclear energy guys, how would you like to build a nuclear power station in Australia? We give you nothing, but you get the market price for whatever electricity you sell.”
If they say, “nyet” or “bu shi” or “piss off” then we can suspect it’s not as cheap as they’re making it out to be.
If they say, “yes” then we can talk about how they’ll be required to insure it for a reasonable amount based on the costs of nuclear accidents that have occurred in the past. While nuclear power is very safe, there must have been at least one or two minor little upsets.
Everyone Has To Love Nuclear Energy
The report says that social acceptance of nuclear power is necessary for it to go ahead. So it’s not going to go ahead because that’s not going to happen. Nuclear energy has turned out to be an economic disaster overseas, we have much cheaper alternatives, and now that I think about it there have been one or two major nuclear accidents overseas that have left a bad impression.
There was a problem with a nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan. The Japanese Government estimated the cost at around $270 billion dollars. As our government is currently willing to spend around $4.5 million to save an Australian life through public health and safety measures, if we lost that amount of money it would represent around 60,000 Australian lives that potentially could have been saved with it.
Since nuclear power — at the costs we see overseas — is only going to increase electricity bills, and we have far cheaper ways to reduce emissions that are quicker to deploy, and because Australians aren’t in love with a very very small chance of a nuclear accident that has a very high cost, there will never be acceptance for nuclear power in this country. Not in its current form. But be sure to let me know when a DeLorean compatible Mr Fusion becomes available.
I’m guessing the entire section on social acceptance is only in the report so when nuclear power doesn’t get built, its supporters can say, “It’s the fault of normal Australians for not believing in the nuclear economic viability fairy hard enough”, rather than admit they themselves were wrong.
The Moratorium Means Nothing
Currently there is a moratorium on nuclear power in Australia. This means you’re not allowed to build it without special permission from the government. Well, guess what? In this country you are never going to be allowed to build a nuclear reactor without permission from the government. That’s just the way it is. I know it’s a terrible infringement of our right to build nuclear reactors in our backyards and squash courts. But on the other hand, it does support our right not to live next door to someone who’s building a nuclear reactor in their backyard, so I could go either way on this one.
The report suggests scrapping the moratorium or partially lifting it. I’m not sure what partially lifting it means. Maybe you have to ask for permission but you don’t have to say pretty please or maybe it just means they won’t be too worried if you have an eye patch, a cool scar, and introduce yourself as “The Jackal”.
Because the moratorium doesn’t really mean anything, there may not be any harm in lifting it and shutting up a few idiots who think the only reason nuclear power isn’t currently under construction in this country is because the government hasn’t muttered the magic words, “The moratorium is lifted!” So they may as well say moratorium leviosa and be done with it.
It’s not as if nuclear power is going to be built in this country one way or the other. Supporters will soon discover no one’s lining up to build reactors even with our current high wholesale electricity prices. The only way they will get built is with very substantial subsidies and the government is too busy trying to keep coal power afloat while Australia burns to waste its energy subsidising nuclear. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/nuclear-energy-australia/
Ominous forecast for Australia’s bushfire dangers
- The bushfire outlook from August warned of above-normal bushfire conditions for most of the east coast this summer, as well as parts of all states and the ACT
- Monday’s update expands the above-normal region further north in Queensland, across to northern Victoria and further along the Tasmanian coast
- Experts say the only thing that would change this outlook would be widespread rainfall, which is not likely this summer
The outlook was already bad, with above-normal fire potential for most of the east coast.We’re already dealing with a fire season for the record books — crews exhausted, millions of hectares burnt, scores of houses destroyed — but an update of the danger ahead paints an even more ominous picture.
Where is above normal?
Above-normal fire danger is expected for most of the east coast, eastern Tasmania, northern Victoria, Kangaroo Island and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, parts of south-west Western Australia and a patch up north.
But that doesn’t mean everywhere else is in the clear — for many areas of southern Australia, dangerous fires in summer are normal…..
Keep up to date with warnings from your local fire authority, ABC Radio and ABC Emergency on Facebook.
Australia, you have been warned. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/bushfire-outlook-update-makes-for-more-grim-reading/11802452
In the interests of the coal lobby, Australia sabotaged the UN climate talks
Australia took a match to UN climate talks while back home the country burned https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/16/
australia-took-a-match-to-un-climate-talks-as-back-home-the-country-burned Julie-Anne Richards The gleeful coal lobby stalked the Madrid COP25 meeting halls as the Morrison government threw out compassion and international citizenship. I’ve been at the climate summit in Madrid for the past two weeks. The question I was constantly asked was: “What will it take for Australia to treat the climate crisis seriously?” International friends, colleagues and strangers looked on in horror at the effects of the bushfires and outright amazement at the Morrison government’s denial of the link between the fires and Australia’s coal industry, and seeming lack of concern at this extreme impact of climate change.
The ray of hope is the youth, demanding their future back. The rest of us have a responsibility to join them, to back their calls however we can. Force our government to show compassion. Demand genuine climate action. We can do this. Other governments are – New Zealand is showing us up. It is our government that is failing us, failing our neighbours, failing our youth. We’ve got no choice but to demand they act, and refuse to give up until they do. See you at a youth-led climate rally soon.
• Julie-Anne Richards is executive director of Climate Action Network Australia
Liberal-Party-dominated committee recommends removing Australia’s ban on nuclear power
The Energy Minister says there are no plans to lift the moratorium, and any lifting has to be bipartisan. Labor wrote a dissenting report so there seems to be no chance of bipartisanship.
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Parliamentary committee recommends lifting ban on modern nuclear power technology The Advertiser,14 Dec 19
Stopping short of a full go-ahead, the government-dominated committee called for more economic and scientific analysis…… However, Labor members of the committee said the economics did not stack up and it would be “irrational” to pursue nuclear power. “There is simply no case for wasting time and resources on a technology that is literally the slowest, most expensive, most dangerous, and least flexible form of new power generation,” committee deputy chair Josh Wilson and fellow Labor members said in a dissenting report. Labor and independent Zali Steggall both called for a national energy policy but the recommendation was struck down. “A national energy policy is an essential prerequisite to the consideration of lifting the moratorium on nuclear energy,” she said. Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor, who initiated the inquiry, said the Government would take its time to consider the report. “The Government has no plans to lift the longstanding moratorium on nuclear energy,” he said. “Any changes … would need bipartisan support and broad community acceptance.” The committee, which received more than 300 submissions and held hearings around the country, made three broad recommendations. Firstly, it called for a holistic, strategic approach that would learn from international partners, identify opportunities, build bipartisanship and put “the community at the centre”. Secondly, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation should be tasked with categorising nuclear into old and new technology — so-called Generation III+ and beyond which have in-built safety features. The Productivity Commission should look at economics and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency at safety, waste, skills and governance. In addition an unspecified expert body should “educate and inform Australians”. Thirdly, the Federal Parliament should lift the ban on Generation III+ and beyond, conditional on the recommended scientific assessments. Finally, with state and territory government, the Commonwealth should commit to any approval only after “the prior informed consent of local impacted communities”.  |
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Pro nuclear nonsense from Geoff Russell – “we’re all toast without nuclear power”
Once again, New Matilda gave nuclear lobbyist Geoff Russell a forum for an attack on a critic of the nuclear industry. (Steggall’s Chicken On Nuclear Family, While Party Politics Buggers Inquiry, 16 Dec 19.) On this occasion, New Matilda was trashing a very mild nuclear critic, Zali Steggall.
So we’re “all toast” without nuclear power? This is nonsense. Even Geoff Russell knows that to get up and running the thousands of nuclear power plants that would be needed to stall global heating – would take decades. That means that, with the speed of global heating, nuclear power would be too late to make any difference. (And that’s if nuclear power really were effective against climate change – which it isn’t, when you consider the whole carbon emitting nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining to deep disposal of wastes) Meanwhile, energy efficiency, wind and solar power, are quickly set up, quickly effective, and provide energy fuel that is genuinely zero carbon.
Bushfire near power plant (just as well it’s not a NUCLEAR power plant)
| Blaze burns near power plant as another fire destroys homes, SMH 17 Dec 19 |
| A fire that has burnt almost 400,000 hectares in the Hawkesbury is burning in the vicinity of a power station responsible for 10 per cent of NSW’s electricity. The area, north-west of Lithgow, is home to the Mount Piper Power Station, the fourth-largest in the state, and the Springvale coal mine. |
An emergency warning was issued for the Gospers Mountain fire about 4pm on Monday as it headed towards Wallerawang, Lidsdale and Blackmans Flat, in the state’s Central Tablelands.
This area, north-west of Lithgow, is home to the Mount Piper Power Station and the Springvale coal mine.
Mount Piper is the fourth-largest power station in the state and has large stockpiles of coal……
NSW RFS Inspector Ben Shepherd said crews were aware that the fire was burning just six kilometres east of the station, but believed there was “no current threat”. …. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/blaze-approaches-power-plant-as-another-fire-destroys-homes-20191216-p53khc.html
In fealty to the global nuclear industry, the Liberals line up the nuclear dump site, amendments to law, deepwater port
1. Kimba = ‘Napandee’ to be announced by Canavan as the National radioactive Suppository in January;
2. Very shortly, ANSTO & ARPANSA will say that they cannot implement the recommendations from the nuclear energy select committee unless the Environment Conservation & Biodiversity Act is amended ~ so the Libs will attempt to cripple that legislation. Once they achieve that, then
3. This deep water port connected by rail to Kimba will allow not only the shipment of Australian, but also the 
importation of international waste……
Through connection to the national rail and road network, Cape Hardy will become an internationally significant intermodal hub for agriculture, mining, and energy investment that can drive the region’s economy into the next century.
https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/mccormack/media-release/25-million-support-cape-hardy-port-precinct?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news
In the rush to get a nuclear waste dump site, the Dept of Industry, Innovation and Science has ignored the transport dangers
Paul Waldon No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 16 Dec 19
The lack of consultation regarding determination of transport routes and availability of resources, training, and infrastructure for emergency preparedness, response, and risk management for potential incidents during shipment only shows the DIIS has yet put the nuclear cart before the horse in their rush to secure a radioactive dump within a non compatible environment. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
1 This month
4 November – Will AUKUS keep us safe – at what cost?
the Commissioners of the AUKUS Public Inquiry present their findings at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra. iview.abc.net.au/show/national-press-club-address
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
