Tasmania’s Labor and Liberal vote down Greens’ plan for moratorium on fracking
Greens lose vote to introduce a moratorium on fracking MATT SMITH MERCURY AUGUST 29, 2013THE Tasmanian Greens’ push for a moratorium on the mining practice of fracking has been voted down by Labor and the Liberals. Greens MP Tim Morris said his party would continue to work with concerned landowners, businesses and communities to protect the best interests of Tasmania’s environmental and economic future…… HTTP://WWW.THEMERCURY.COM.AU/NEWS/TASMANIA/GREENS-LOSE-VOTE-TO-INTRODUCE-A-MORATORIUM-ON-FRACKING/STORY-FNJ4F7K1-1226706169520
New meter to monitor risk of cancer-causing UV radiation
UV meter warns of sunburn risk http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/18714833/uv-meter-warns-of-sunburn-risk/ Phoebe Wearne, The West Australian August 30, 2013, The Cancer Council WA wants public UV index meters installed in school playgrounds and at popular beaches, parks and sporting grounds to warn of sunburn and skin cancer risks.
Australia’s first public UV index meter, which measures solar radiation intensity every minute, was switched on at Deep Water Point in Mt Pleasant this week. The solar-powered meter is on a 4m nautical-themed sculpture by renowned Perth artist Tony Jones, whose best known works are the sculptures Eliza in Crawley and that of CY O’Connor near Fremantle.
Cancer Council WA SunSmart manager Mark Strickland said the real-time UV index meter, which only recently became possible with new technology, would show when the UV level was above three – the level when people are advised to protect themselves from the sun.
Mr Strickland said it was important people were aware of the UV level because it was not linked to the sun’s heat and people could not see or feel UV radiation. “We hope people will find it a useful reminder to know when they really should be protecting themselves from UV and are at risk of sunburn and skin cancer,” he said.
“People tend to make the false correlation that they need to protect themselves from the sun when it’s hot, but it doesn’t work that way.”
The Deep Water Point sculpture was funded with $20,000 from the City of Melville.
Mr Strickland hoped other councils, schools and businesses with outdoor staff would express an interest in installing the UV meters in public open spaces, playgrounds and workplaces. He wants people to plan their day around the highest risk from UV radiation once they have the information to do so. “We hope people who are in the area will see the signs over a period of time and realise UV is not always correlated with heat,” Mr Strickland said.
“If people know the UV is really going to be cranking in the middle of the day we hope they might move their outdoor activities to earlier or later in the day when the UV level will be lower.”Melville deputy mayor Duncan Macphail said public health and safety was a priority for the city and it supported Cancer Council efforts to educate people.
Australian government urged to act on energy efficiency – Australian Council of Social Service
Australian social service council urges government action on energy efficiency http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/article/australian-social-service-council-urges-government-action-20130829 Renewable Energy Magazine 30 Aug 13 The Australian Council of Social Service is calling for urgent government action on affordable energy for low income households according to a new report.
The report, entitled Energy Efficiency and People on Low Incomes, identifies measures to empower households to become active participants in controlling their energy use as well as becoming more involved in the energy market and reducing energy costs.
“Energy efficiency should be a key policy response to address the impacts of rising energy prices, yet we’ve heard little mention of it in the current political debates about cost of living pressures and energy affordability” said Andrea Pape, ACOSS Senior Policy Officer. “ACOSS advocates an energy efficiency policy agenda which includes direct investment in building and fixture upgrades as well as incentives to stimulate private landlord investment in energy efficiency measures.”
Ms Pape added that the policy proposals are designed to improve energy efficiency in low income households including both private rental and social housing. Investment will improve affordability, climate resilience and health outcomes for current and future occupants.
People on low incomes in Australia, as in many other countries around the world, are especially prone to the burden of energy price rises but they lack the capital investment required to upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes and are also more likely to own inefficient appliances. This has resulted in a lower incidence of measures such as insulation in low income housing and tenanted properties. While government programmes have been beneficial, they also need to be complemented by measures that deliver energy efficiency over the long term, particularly with regard to building and fixture upgrades.
“Targeted retrofits of the worst performing social housing where health, climate and hardship risks are greatest should be a high priority” continued Ms Pape. “We know that those most at risk from heatwaves are low income people, the elderly and people living with disabilities or health issues. We need to build the safety and resilience of our housing stock, and we need to start with the most vulnerable households first. This is a sensible approach in the current fiscal environment and we urge all sides of politics to commit to action on this important front.”
ACOSS proposals include the introduction of landlord tax incentives for energy efficiency measures in rental properties, the introduction of energy efficiency standards for rental properties along with mandatory disclosure of energy and water efficiency of all properties at point of sale, additional funding for targeted retrofits for the worst performing and highest risk social housing stock and financial support to help low income households afford the up-front costs of energy efficiency upgrades.
Further information: Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
Asserting Australia’s First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
“The argument is twofold.
• Firstly, the question of jurisdiction and the right of the Shire tocharge rates from Euahlayi living within their own territory, as the
Euahlayi Peoples’ are now asserting their pre-existing and continuing statehood under our Law and custom.
• The second point of contention is that the Brewarrina Shire Council, like all other shire councils in Australia, have and are being paid by the
Commonwealth government of Australia, allegedly ‘illegally’, for their Aboriginal population, under a 1975 funding agreement between the
Commonwealth government and the Local Government Association of Australia.
This makes every Aboriginal man, woman and child legal tender and a commodity for shire councils throughout Australia, with no accountability.
Rates Case back on track Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia www.sovereignunion.mobi 30 August 2013
Contact Michael Anderson 0427 292 492
Convenor of the Euahlayi Nation and the Sovereign Union of Aboriginal
Nations and Peoples
ghillar29@gmail.com
www.sovereignunion.mobi
Michael Anderson said from Sydney today: “The Rates Case in the NSW Magistrates Court in Sydney is a contest on the question of sovereignty and what law now applies to the land.”
Anderson pointed out to the court that, in respect the Euahlayi Nation, there is now an active legal dispute on the question of jurisdiction.
When appearing before the Chief Magistrate in the Downing Centre, Anderson pointed out that correspondence has now been entered into between the Queen and the Euahlayi government.
“In 2010 the Euahlayi requested that Queen Elizabeth II investigate whether British or Australian records have deeds of cession by the Peoples
of the Euahlayi, or any formal British Admiralty declarations of war against the Peoples of the Euahlayi. Queen Elizabeth referred our request
to her Australian representative, Governor-General, Mrs Quentin Bryce, who responded on 12 October 2010, under the signature of Mark Fraser OAM, Deputy Official Secretary to the Governor-General. He confirmed that no such documents exist. Mark Fraser wrote on 12 October 2010: Continue reading
Radio: Adelaide the hub of military industrial intelligence nuclear complex
The issue isn’t nuclear power. The issue is processing uranium for nuclear power that then can be used for defence
You have to understand this in terms of in terms of Adelaide, -it’s a military industrial intelligence complex
Simons is connected to the University College of London but basically he’s a front man for business interests, We can clearly question what he is doing given the fact that he’s getting funding from indirect corporate sources.
AUDIO: https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/nuclear-power-in-south-australia-a-golden-age/ Nuclear Power in South Australia – a golden age? Radio Adelaide 23 Aug 13 Chris Komorek spoke with Dr David Palmer from Flinders University to explore the changing landscape. Produced by Ian Newton. TRANSCRIPT by Christina Macpherson
Chris Komorek As the uranium debate heats up, so does the destroyed reactor in Fukushima, Japan.The International Energy Policy Institute at the University College London’s Adelaide campus is advocating a ramped up nuclear industry here in South Australia. We’re joined by Dr David Palmer from Flinders University.
Australia’s third force gathers strength: Christine Milne and The Greens
Inside the Greens circus, minus Bob and the freaks CRIKEY GUY RUNDLE | AUG 28, 2013 The Greens are still slightly in awe that they are a real, live party, as the Green tide rolls on….
Gripping the lectern, clad in a jacket as green as a rainforest or a roulette baize, Greens leader Christine Milne is in full flight, but stops for the laugh. Reminds herself, perhaps, to stop for the laugh. “I know, but it’s true …” Then she ploughs on. She looks Margaret Thatcher, she looks like your schoolteacher, she looks like a church lady, most ungreen, her delivery is wooden, reserved, there’s something held back, but she’s wowing the crowd, a couple of hundred Greens, come in from Canberra and the backblocks, all the senators and Adam Bandt people looking at them with “wow, there’s quite a lot of us, we’re kinda of a real party”, and a few enthusiasts/tragics flown in from the event.
Her speech on Saturday at the Greens’ national campaign launch is hard-edged, upfront political, and eschews a lot of the more spiritual themes that former leader Bob Brown might have put in. She announces refugee treatment inquiries, a Clean Air Act, a party whip vote on equal marriage; every time, rolling back Labor’s welfare cuts, bang, bang, bang, and you get a picture of her parliamentary style: no-nonsense and forthright………
Indeed, it’s a new Greens style of sorts, fitting with the fact that they are, in some ways, the new natural party of government, not now, not even soon, but sometime, when more of the world looks like Canberra — if it doesn’t all end up looking like Fallujah — and knowledge production has so infused so much of the overall system that social classes have been substantially transformed. That gives the new Greens not only a seriousness, a demeanour that has no special pleading about it, but also, of all things, a mild born-to-rule mien, a new class sheen. ….
Formidable, and with a party at as good a level of support as it’s ever been, she seems ready for whatever may come on Threatened Species Day, September 7. http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/08/28/rundle-inside-the-greens-circus-minus-bob-and-the-freaks/
Parkes electorate could have bright economic future, with Greens renewable energy plan
Parmeter backs renewable energy Moree Champion 28 Aug 13 GREENS candidate Matt Parmeter visited Moree on Friday as part of his election tour around the whole of Parkes. Mr Parmeter is a civil engineer from Dubbo, he has two children and lives and works all around the area. Whilst in Moree last week, he visited many business houses and greeted locals to tell them about his passions and concerns.
He said his big passion was for renewable energy and told the Moree Champion how excited he was to see the Moree solar farm plans going ahead.
“The Greens have strong policies in place for the electorate to help increase jobs. Jobs develop the economy but the only way to get more jobs is to introduce new industries and I believe renewable energy is that new industry,” he said.
The Greens have been supporting four ideas to help the renewable energy industry grow and develop with one of those being a bank dedicated to renewable energy projects.
“By supporting this bank we can up the capital to see the go-ahead for projects needing large amounts of money to flourish,” Mr Parmeter said….. http://www.moreechampion.com.au/story/1737760/parmeter-backs-renewable-energy/?cs=8
How to destroy renewable energy funding – vote Liberal
Coalition Intends To Gut Renewable Energy Funding http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3913 29 Aug 13 Among its axing of renewable energy programs, the Coalition has announced it also intends to cut funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
In addition to dismantling the Clean Energy Future package and shutting down the Clean Energy Finance Corporation; ARENA is also in the Coalition’s crosshairs – however at this point in time how much funding will be slashed is unclear.
ARENA was provided approximately $3 billion to invest in renewable energy projects until 2022. Currently, around $2 billion is uncommitted and available for ARENA to invest in qualifying projects.
Dr Geoff Evans, Campaign Manager for 100% Renewable, says Tony Abbott and the Coalition appear to be ignoring community sentiment in relation to renewable energy in Australia.
“Australians overwhelmingly support an increase in renewable energy. We want government to support a transition to clean energy and to be a world leader in investment and jobs in clean energy.”
“But, based on today’s announcement, it seems like Tony Abbott and the Coalition aren’t listening to Australians, and that the incentives and market security essential for investment are under threat.”
ARENA commenced on July 1, 2012 and was established to support innovations to improve the competitiveness of renewables; plus increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
Dr. Evans says while the Coalition claims to be the “party of jobs and business”; the announcement to gut ARENA directly contradicts this.
“If the Coalition wants to win next week, they need to ensure they are listening to Australians. And ordinary Aussies are overwhelming saying the same thing: more renewables, not less,” Dr Evans says.
100% Renewable is a community campaign for clean energy. The group is behind initiatives such as Solar Scorecard; which rates how local politicians stand on issues relating to renewable energy. 100% Renewable also leads Solar Citizens; a project bringing together existing and potential solar owners to ensure the rights of solar owners are protected and to help further Australia’s rooftop solar revolution.
Fact Check: Abbott using outdated figure on carbon tax cost to households
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says households will be hundreds of dollars better off if the Coalition scraps the carbon tax.
“We’ll scrap the carbon tax so your family will be $550 a year better off,” Mr Abbott said at the Liberal Party’s campaign launch on Sunday.
The figure also appears in the Coalition’s formal policy document.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/abbott-using-outdated-figure-on-carbon-tax-cost/4912726
Australia’s media economic writers bought by Rupert Murdoch
We really must talk about Murdoch’s tame economists http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/we-really-must-talk-about-murdochs-tame-economists/ 28 Aug 13 In Australia, to bludgeon his readers and viewers into believing the opposite of the truth, Murdoch has a battery of high profile economists fudging the numbers, says Alan Austin. THE WEAPONRY in Rupert Murdoch’s global arsenal includes paying corrupt police, illegal phone-tapping, fabricating malicious stories, lying to official inquiries and a range of other criminal activities.
In Australia, to bludgeon his readers and viewers into believing the opposite of the truth, Murdoch deploys other heavy artillery, including a battery of credentialled economists. Continue reading
Australia’s low return high-risk uranium industry a part of global nuclear weaponry
Time to stop the (uranium) boats, SMH, Dave Sweeney, 28 Aug 13, “…….. Time after time the uranium industry promises big but delivers little. It contributes less than 0.3 per cent of export revenue and account for 0.015 per cent of Australian jobs.
The most recent independent assessment Australia’s uranium industry – a 2003 Senate inquiry – found the sector characterised by underperformance and non-compliance and urged changes to protect the environment and its inhabitants from “serious or irreversible damage”.
Sadly, in the decade since then little has changed, even though the need to manage radioactive materials over extremely long periods with specific security and proliferation issues make uranium mining fundamentally different from other types of mining.
Uranium mining remains a contested and contaminating industrial activity that poses serious and continuing problems – now and long into the future – and continues to lack community consent and a social licence.
But Australia can – and must – do better than this.
We are a rich nation blessed with a skilled workforce and abundant renewable energy resources. Instead of literally fuelling disaster we should be leading the world in clear and sustainable energy technology and generation.
Two decades ago nuclear power provided around 17 per cent of the world’s electricity, today it is close to 10 per cent. In China, Germany and Japan – three of the world’s four largest economies – renewable energy sources generate more power than nuclear reactors.
In France, a favourite of the atomic lobby, the share value of state utility EDF, the world’s largest nuclear operator, has fallen 85 per cent over the past five years.
Talk of domestic nuclear power is fanciful but Australia is a major global nuclear player by virtue of the uranium we sell to other countries and we now need a genuine debate about our role in fuelling this trade.
As home to around 35 per cent of the world’s uranium, the decisions we make here count and – like the waste – they count for a very long time. That is why Hawke’s call for Australia to become the world’s nuclear waste dump is way off the mark. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/time-to-stop-the-uranium-boats-20130827-2snau.html#ixzz2dIOX2ZZw
Australia’s hypocrisy on the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty
Declassified documents from the National Archives of Australia, including the 1985 Cabinet minute about the SPNFZ Treaty, show clearly that Australia designed the treaty to protect US interests in the Pacific, including the deployment of nuclear-armed warships and the testing of nuclear missiles.
Hayden’s cabinet submission includes details of Australian negotiating positions in the final months before the treaty was signed:
(iii) Australia oppose the inclusion in the draft SPNFZ Treaty of a ban on missile tests.
(iv) Australia oppose the inclusion in the draft SPNFZ Treaty of a ban on the facilitation of the stationing of nuclear weapons,
Delaying the nuclear-free zone in the Pacific, Inside story, 27 Aug 13 As Pacific leaders gather this week in the Marshall Islands, the United States continues to delay ratification of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. Using previously classified documents Nic Maclellan recounts a history of opposition to a nuclear free Pacific, and a reminder that Australia could be breaching the treaty
AT THE height of the nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union, a treaty to create a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, or SPNFZ, was opened for signature on Hiroshima Day, 6 August 1985, at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Rarotonga. Twenty-eight years after it was signed on that day by Australia, New Zealand and island nations, the United States still hasn’t ratified its protocols, Continue reading
ICAN calls on universities, Future Fund, to stop investing in nuclear weapons,
A lot of Australians would be shocked to learn that the Future Fund has more than A$130 million invested in companies that manufacture nuclear arms.
“It’s easy to imagine that Australia is not involved in the global nuclear weapons trade, but with the Future Fund’s investments in nuclear weapons companies and the Federal Governments intentions to export uranium to India and other nuclear weapons states, it most certainly is,” ICAN Australia’s Outreach Coordinator, Gem Romuld, told IDN.
ICAN AUSTRALIA SHOWS THE WAY TO ABOLISH NUKES BY NEENA BHANDARI | IDN-INDEPTH NEWSANALYSIS, 28 AUG 13, SYDNEY (IDN)
“………..The Future Fund ICAN is calling on universities to develop ethical investment policies that exclude nuclear weapons companies both from their direct investments and their investments through fund managers. An Australian Government investment fund, The Future Fund, currently invests A$227 million in nuclear weapons companies.
A petition with 14,000 signatures was delivered in August 2013 to the Fund’s board members and ICAN members visited the Fund’s head office in Melbourne on Hiroshima Day (August 6) and Nagasaki Day (August 9), demanding that it divests from nuclear weapons companies.
Wright said, “The Fund has divested from companies involved in the production of other inhumane weapons such as cluster munitions and landmines. They recently excluded tobacco companies from their investments in response to public pressure, so we are optimistic that we can also convince them to exclude nuclear weapons companies.” Continue reading
Liberal Coalition talking about funding Victorian solar project
Coalition open to supporting north-west Victorian solar projects 27 Aug 2013, The Federal Coalition has indicated it would support solar projects in north-west Victoria if elected. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-27/coalition-open-to-supporting-north-west-victorian/4914666
The Commonwealth’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) says it is interested in funding future solar projects in Mildura. However, the agency decided last year not to fund Energy Australia’s Mallee Solar Park Project.
The Coalition’s climate action spokesman Greg Hunt could not make any firm election commitments for solar but says he would keep ARENA running. “We have the potential through both ARENA and the renewable energy target for solar farms and the third element which gives us opportunities through the solar towns program,” he said.
“We’re keeping … ARENA … and ARENA is the body which is looking at specific support for developmental projects in the solar space, so ARENA becomes the way forward but in particular, we also have the solar towns and solar schools projects.”
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Gary Gray says Labor is supporting future solar projects in Mildura through the agency. Although in a statement, he defended its decision last year not to fund Energy Australia’s Mallee Solar Park Project.
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) gathers strength, especially among the young
Students across the world are participating in the campaign. Earlier this year, students from Gisborne Secondary College in Victoria (Australia) made 1000 paper cranes and delivered them to the parliamentary secretary to Australian prime minister, calling for ban on nuclear weapons.
The school’s Japanese language teacher, Noriko Ikaga, has been taking Years 10 and 11 students to Japan every alternate year. “It has become a tradition to make 1000 paper cranes when we visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This year, the students also folded another 6000 paper cranes for the kids affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster,” Ikaga told IDN.
With Australia going to polls on September 7, these students are hoping that future leaders will take Australia’s nuclear obligations seriously.
ICAN AUSTRALIA SHOWS THE WAY TO ABOLISH NUKES BY NEENA BHANDARI | IDN-INDEPTH NEWSANALYSIS, 28 AUG 13, SYDNEY (IDN) – Even as the nuclear-armed countries continue to amass new warheads and build and modernise ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to launch them, the campaign for nuclear abolition is growing from strength to strength.
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ (ICAN) Paper Cranes Project – symbolizing support for nuclear disarmament – is urging governments to begin negotiations on a global treaty banning nuclear weapons this year. More than 190,000 paper cranes have already been delivered to world leaders, and messages of support have been received from the Secretary-General of the United Nations and amongst others national leaders of Australia, Afghanistan, Greece, Kazakhstan, the Marshall Islands, Mozambique, Slovenia and Switzerland. Continue reading
1 This month
17 October, Free Public Talk on Nuclear Issues in South Australia
David Noonan will speak on public interest concerns over the new Roxby Downs Indenture Act 2026 on BHP copper-uranium mining and ore processing in SA, and on how AUKUS may face SA with a High-Level nuclear waste agenda.
Dr Jim Green will discuss international developments in the field of nuclear power including ‘small modular reactors’ and Generation 4 ‘advanced’ nuclear reactor concepts.
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)
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