Carbon tax bill will benefit most Australians
Carbon tax bill is good news for Australia, Guardian UK, 14 Oct 11, Once the dust settles, the majority in Australia are likely to find that the bill will benefit them Thanks to a narrow victory for the government, Australia now looks likely to join the EU and New Zealand in introducing a comprehensive policy to make carbon polluters pay for the damage they cause. This is very good news. It has been an uphill battle, with the opposition and business lobby all but claiming that the sky would fall in should the bill be passed.
But once the dust settles and the lamenting subsides, the majority of people of Australia are likely to find that the bill passed on Wednesday benefits them. Much of the money raised from the carbon price of £15 per tonne of emissions will be recycled in the form of tax breaks and compensatory payments.
It will also be used to stimulate investment in new clean energy technologies leading to new jobs and increased inward investment. Hopefully over time this will boost Labour and the Greens’ popularity, so ensuring that the policy is protected – despite opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood promise” to repeal the legislation.
Australia’s energy system is among the most polluting in the world thanks to its heavy reliance on coal, but Australia’s climate is vulnerable to the impact that climate change brings. Acting to reduce emissions is in the country’s self-interest in the longer term, especially if it can act as an inspiration for other countries to follow.
South Korea and China are looking to introduce emissions-trading schemes and all eyes in the global carbon market are now firmly looking eastwards. There could be significant advantages for Australia’s financial institutions in being amongst the first to participate in this market, just as London has benefited from being the hub of the European carbon market….
Being out in front has its advantages and confers a moral superiority but there will always be forces of conservatism who will be made to feel uncomfortable. It is therefore more important than ever that countries in the early adopters group work together to defend their actions and encourage more into the fold.
No one, in Europe or Australia, can now claim to be going it alone, and with luck soon many more will step up and join the race to the top. As Australia has shown this will not be easy, but we must defy those who would rather participate in a race to the bottom where ultimately everyone is a loser….http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/carbon-tax-australia?newsfeed=true
Never mind Australia’s nuclear non-proliferation policy – Ferguson, Minister For The Uranium Industry is out to sabotage it
‘‘Opening up uranium sales to India would fuel the nuclear arms race under way between India
and Pakistan, which has potentially catastrophic consequences,” ICAN’s Australian director, Tim Wright, said yesterday. ”The threat of a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan is real. Selling uranium to India runs counter to Australia’s own security interests, and makes a mockery of its stated commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.”
The briefing note was written after Mr Ferguson met Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna in January…
The note was dated February 7, three days before The Age revealed a cable leaked to WikiLeaks that asserted Mr Ferguson had told the United States embassy in Canberra that a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel could be reached within three to five years.
Australia, India in talks over uranium sale, The Age, Michael Gordon, October 13, 2011 AUSTRALIA and India have already begun a ”dialogue” that is likely to canvass the sale of uranium to the nuclear-armed nation if Labor dumps its opposition to the trade at the party’s national conference in December.
A confidential briefing note to Resources Minister Martin Ferguson in February says the dialogue ”may prove a useful avenue to communicate any policy shifts on the issue” of uranium exports, which are banned to India under existing government and ALP policy. Continue reading
Australian company Lynas has no long term radioactive waste management plan for its Malaysian project
Lynas back to earth after loss, The Age, Greg Roberts, September 24, 2011, AUSTRALIA’S largest rare-earths miner, Lynas Corporation, has posted a 33 per cent widening in its full-year loss following a year blighted by controversy. Public protests this year prompted an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency into whether the Lynas rare-earth refinery in Malaysia presented radioactive risks….
Lynas’s operating expenses shot up 87.5 per cent from $30.65 million to $57.46 million. It says 11,000 tonnes a year of rare-earth oxides will be produced at Mount Weld.
Lynas received a favourable report from the IAEA about the refinery in Kuantan, but has been told to provide a long-term waste-management plan. More than 60 per cent of the refinery has been built. It is hoped the plant will curtail China’s monopoly of more than 95 per cent of the global supply of rare earths…… http://www.theage.com.au/business/lynas-back-to-earth-after-loss-20110923-1kped.html#ixzz1Yv9BaYWp
Despite hazards, Australian company Lynas pushing ahead with Malaysian rare earths project
Rare earths mining and processing is difficult, expensive and rarely ecologically friendly. It produces enormous quantities of wastewater, requires vast amounts of energy, uses toxic materials in the refining process and can produce radioactive materials with half-lives of hundreds of years.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and other government officials have continued to insist the plant won’t open until all safety and environmental concerns are met. …
Australian govt joins France in promoting nuclear energy as ‘safe and peaceful’ !
Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs Senator Scott Ludlam said the Australia-France Joint Statement on Civil Nuclear Safety, issued on September 11th – the day before an explosion rocked the French nuclear plant of Marcoule – was a “declaration of delusion”.
“The joint statement is bizarre even without the context of the deadly blast at Marcoule. The statement claims Australia and France ‘promote the responsible development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy’, with no mention of the fact France has the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, with an estimated 300 operational nuclear warheads, and as recently as 1996 was detonating nuclear weapons in Polynesia,” said Senator Ludlam.
“Then there was the claim ‘Australia and France possess world leading research reactor facilities’. If Lucas Heights is a world leading research reactor facility, it is likely the only ‘world leading research reactor’ currently the subject of four separate investigations sparked by serious health and safety concerns made public by whistle-blowers. Lucas Heights has been plagued by a series of major technical problems. The OPAL Reactor has been closed a number of times, sometimes for months at a stretch, due to leaks and other flaws.”
“The Government claims it ‘consider(s) it important that serious nuclear or radiological events are subject to review by independent fact-finding missions… with results made available publicly’, but has refused to disclose what its agencies knew about the Fukushima disaster and when they first knew it, and voted against motions in Parliament calling for disclosure of this information. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing.”
“This fudged and evasive joint statement stands in stark contrast to the comprehensive and meticulous report ‘Costs, risks, and myths of nuclear power’, a world-wide study by expert NGOs on the implications of thecatastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.” http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/publications/costs-risks-myths.html
“This Government needs to get serious about nuclear safety. There is only one sure way to make nuclear power safe – shut it down permanently.”
The threat of uranium mining to Tanzania’s environment
(relevant because Australian companies are trying to mine in Tanzania) Clear key concerns on uranium mining, The Citizen, 07 September 2011 Tanzania’s quest to allow investors to mine uranium in the Selous Game Reserve faces stiff opposition from some local and foreign wildlife conservationists.
Unesco’s World Heritage Committee maintains that the country should only allow in investors after an environmental impact assessment has been undertaken.And now, a Germany-based group calling itself Tanzania Network, has plunged into the fray. Its secretariat has reportedly written to President Jakaya Kikwete, through Tanzania’s ambassador in Berlin, Mr Ahmada Ngemera, pleading with him to halt plans of awarding uranium mining licences to any international company.
The organisation says it is concerned with the dangers that uranium poses to lives of living organisms as well as to the environment. …
Judging from the arguments by the government and conservationists, one notes that there is a sense of mistrust and some ignorance within the matter.It is evident that environmentalists don’t trust the government. Probably, they feel the country may blindly undertake a project that would have negative ramifications on the lives of its own people and the invaluable wildlife.
China may link Australian uranium imports to Australia importing Chinese nuclear reactors
an “envisioned” bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with the Chinese would be broad enough to cover “all eventualities” — including a possible deal under which Labor would import nuclear reactors in the future.
Chinese ‘coy’ in talks on importing uranium, MARK SCHLIEBS, The Australian, August 31, 2011 CHINESE officials were “a bit coy” about whether they were still developing weapons-grade fissile material during initial negotiations over the importation of Australian uranium, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Continue reading
USA now officially seeking to send nuclear wastes back to uranium mining countries
Official: U.S. in Early Talks About Int’l Nuclear Leasing Arrangements, NYT. By HANNAH NORTHEY, August 23, 2011 Department of Energy officials have spent weeks trying to knock down reports that they have been interested in building a nuclear waste repository in Mongolia.
Now, the Obama administration is going a step further, disclosing that what DOE hopes to do is “lease” uranium from other countries, then return the spent fuel to the originating country.
A senior Obama administration official told Greenwire earlier this month that the government is in preliminary talks with several countries, including Mongolia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, about setting up commercial nuclear fuel leasing arrangements.
In one example of how a fuel leasing arrangement could work, countries with uranium reserves could mine, enrich and fabricate the material and lease it to reactor companies abroad. Spent nuclear fuel would then be sent back to the originating country, the official said.
Discussions have not touched upon what those countries would do with the waste, the official said, but the United States hopes to prevent proliferation by providing alternatives to domestic enrichment and reprocessing capabilities…..
Australian teachers for Japan – in irradiated areas?
Australian teachers in Japan may be placed too close to leaky nuclear reactors, Liam Walsh ,The Courier-Mail August 20, 2011 A LEADING Japanese recruiter of teachers from Australia is placing recruits closer to leaky nuclear reactors than recommended by Canberra’s radiation safety agency.
The move by the Japanese Government-sponsored JET program reflects the gulf between what Japanese and other nations’ authorities constitute a safe distance……The program confirmed to The Courier-Mail that 31 new JET participants from English-speaking nations were offered placements within 80km of the nuclear plants. Three who took up the offer were Australians, JET said.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency recommends Australians keep at least 80km away from the reactors.”As a precautionary measure … Australians within an 80km zone from the Fukushima nuclear power plant (are recommended to) move out of the area,” an advisory guide says….”The US had made a similar recommendation in accordance with the standard guidelines of their Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”
JET’s explanation document details that it might place participants closer to reactors than advised by foreign governments.– http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/australian-teachers-in-japan-may-be-placed-too-close-to-leaky-nuclear-reactors/story-e6freooo-1226118370859
with the goal of a nuclear free Asia, Australia should engage with North Korea
We need to engage with North Korea, THE AUSTRALIAN, Danielle Chubb August 18, 2011“……….The fact US Northern Command believes the Taepodong-2 rocket is incapable of reaching US territory (let alone Australia) notwithstanding, the North Korean nuclear crisis is seen as evidence of a government whose goals and ambitions seem insusceptible to usual diplomatic routes, run as it is by a man with whom one can clearly not negotiate. Rather than reminding ourselves of the many ways in which North Korea is different to us, we need to begin our conversations with a recognition of what we have in common. Yes, North Korea deserves our condemnation. However, recent history shows us that treating North Korea as an exceptional case has not served us well.
We have had a string of policy failures and little progress has been made towards either disarmament or non-proliferation. It is time to move past the notion that treating North Korea as a legitimate negotiating partner is akin to a form of appeasement.
Our Foreign Minister, rather than describing the North Koreans as “detached from reality”, as he did during the July ASEAN Regional Forum in Bali, would do well to start talking about lifting the visa ban that prevents North Koreans from coming to Australia for cultural and educational programs. Calling a country’s policies “irrational” is actually an admission that we don’t understand their rationale.
Such understanding is gained through interaction, not isolation. There are no quick fixes to the “North Korea conundrum” and moral posturing will not get us far. On the back of spectacular policy failure after spectacular policy failure, it is time to look with new eyes at this country that sits in the centre of northeast Asia.
Australia needs to open its doors to North Korean citizens and government employees, for it is not until we recognise that North Korea is a state made up of real people with real fears about their national security (well-founded or not) that we will be able to come some way to crafting a more intelligent and innovative response to the North Korea nuclear crisis and eventually achieve the end goal of a nuclear-free Asia…http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/we-need-to-engage-with-north-korea/story-e6frg6ux-1226116930716
Australia – secret deals for uranium to United Arab Emirates, waste returned to Australia?
Clamour to supply UAE nuclear needs, April Yee, The National, Aug 12, 2011 “……The UAE is in talks with nations to have used nuclear fuel returned, an arrangement known as “fuel leasing”. This would save the UAE the headache of having to store radioactive waste. France and Russia are the only countries that have agreements to keep other nations’ spent fuel.
“The UAE would favour an arrangement where spent fuel is taken back after use,” Hamad Al Kaabi, the UAE’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said yesterday. Continue reading
Australian uranium companies exploit workers in Africa
Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto is the majority shareholder in Rossing Uranium, the world’s oldest and largest open-pit uranium mine operation, which is in Namibia. Australia’s Paladin Energy wholly owns Langer Heinrich uranium mine and French nuclear utility Areva is developing the Trekkopje uranium mine, both in Namibia.
Extract Uranium is developing Husab uranium deposit, which could become one of the world’s largest and Canadian Forsys Metals Corp, Australian firm Bannermann resources are developing Valencia and Etango uranium projects in Namibia.
Uranium mining – the grim realities The Southern Times, South Africa, By Felix Njini 01-08-2011“……Windhoek – Namibia and South Africa are amongst African countries that lack regulatory capacity and technical knowledge to monitor environmental impact and radiation poisoning on workers and communities due to uranium mining. A study that delved into the environmental impact of uranium mining in Central African Republic (CAR), Namibia and South Africa concluded that mining operations’ health consequences on workers and the environment are severe. Continue reading
North Korea’s nukes a threat to Australia
Australia may be nuclear target: Kevin Rudd, THE AUSTRALIAN, Peter Alford in Nusa Dua , July 23, 2011 FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd says North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs are a direct threat to Australia……He lashed out following an intervention by Foreign Minister Pak U’i-chu’un at the ASEAN Regional Forum blaming the US, South Korea and Japan for provoking the current dangerous instability on the Korean Peninsula.
Mr Rudd told Mr Pak it was “unacceptable” for North Korea to blame on others the security problems it had caused for the whole region, Continue reading
Lynas’ Malaysian rare earths plant an experiment in irradiating local community
“We will see whether there is any increase of people afflicted with radiation-linked diseases or cancer,”…So what if the future health of the people is adversely affected. Nothing is mentioned about compensation….
It is now abundantly clear that the project had been scheduled to proceed right from the beginning, when it was surreptitiously approved without consultation of the people, way back in 2008.
How else can you explain Lynas construction of the plant, now at 40% completion, when they didn’t have government approval or sanction in the first place?
Gebeng residents mere guinea pigs for Lynas project, Malaysi Kini, Kuantan Resident, Jul 21, 11, All is not quiet on the western front. Some may think they have won the battle. But they have not won the war yet!
Yesterday’s Star report (20.7.2011) on ‘Lynas to compile residents’ health data for future comparison’ is laughable.
Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director general Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan said it would serve as a baseline data for Lynas before the operation began.
“It will be used later to provide a comparison for assessing the operation’s impact on the people living in nearby areas such as Balok. Continue reading
Australian uranium mining greed puts profits above World Heritage ecology
Australian Mining Company in $400m uranium project in Tanzania, BUSINESS WEEK, 17 JULY 2011 , MARY JOHN, DARES SALAAM, TANZANIA – An Australian uranium mining company, Mantra Resources, plans to build a $400-million uranium mine in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania within the next three years…….
“We hope that UNESCO Heritage Committee will not halt the mining in the Game Reserve as it did recently in Serengeti National Park road project, considering the effect of the uranium activities to the environment,” said the analysts. Continue reading
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20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
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