Federal Bill to change powers of Australia’s nuclear watchdog, ARPANSA
Nuclear watchdog’s powers strengthened AAP http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/06/18/10/08/nuclear-watchdog-s-powers-strengthened The federal government is strengthening the powers of its nuclear safety watchdog.
A bill introduced by Health Minister Sussan Ley on Thursday updates the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency in line with international and local reviews.
The agency regulates Commonwealth bodies that use radiation.
These include CSIRO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and Defence in operations ranging from baggage X-ray machines at airports to a research reactor at Lucas Heights.
Ms Ley said the changes would give the agency greater powers to monitor compliance and act in an emergency.
They would also give it a clear legal basis to oversee the safety of contaminated sites.
Australian Greens want Senate inquiry into fossil fuel money to political parties and lobby groups
Greens mount fossil fuel donations hunt http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/greens-mount-fossil-fuel-donations-hunt/story-fni0xqi4-1227400237377AAP
JUNE 16, 2015 THE Greens are going on a fossil fuel hunt to track down how much influence the industry wields over Australian politics.
THE minor party wants the Senate to look into what donations fossil fuel companies make to the major political parties and tax-free campaigns run by associated lobby groups.
Environment spokeswoman Larissa Waters said an existing parliamentary inquiry into tax-free donations to environmental groups was a witch-hunt and it was time questions were asked on the other side.
Oil and Gas industry claims against environmental groups
Environmental groups ‘subsidise illegal activity’, oil and gas industry claims, The Age June 17 Heath Aston, political correspondent Environmental groups have been accused by the oil and gas industry of “subsidising illegal activity and activism”.
The government register that provides tax-deductible status for donations to groups like WWF and Greenpeace may have been “subverted” by some groups to channel money into illegal protests, according to the industry.
Groups that specialise in training protesters to take part in mining blockades are also qualifying for charity status through “affiliation” to groups listed on the register of environmental organisations overseen by the federal Environment Department.
The claims are contained in a submission to the Senate inquiry into the tax-deductible status of environmental groups, which held its first public hearing on Tuesday, by the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association……..http://www.theage.com.au/national/environmental-groups-subsidise-illegal-activity-oil-and-gas-industry-claims-20150616-ghphrm.html
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott boasts of his plan to restrict renewable energy
Mr Abbott had exposed the government’s true intentions on the renewable energy target.
‘Noisy compared to what?’: Tony Abbott’s claim wind farms awful and noisy dismissed, The Age June 11, 2015 Lisa Cox National political reporter Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described wind farms as “visually awful” and boasted slashing the Renewable Energy Target will restrict growth in the industry.
Mr Abbott also said the Howard government would never have introduced the clean energy policy if it had its time over again.
Victorian cattle farmer Hamish Officer lives a good deal closer to wind turbines than most people.”You don’t need to lift your voice to have a conversation under a wind turbine nearly as much as you would in a city street,” Mr Officer said.
“For someone like the Prime Minister to stand there and say they’re noisy – it’s a very blanket statement. Noisy compared to what?”
Northern Territory Mines Departments Credibility and ERA’s Contaminants both down the Creek
ENVIRONMENT CENTRE NT – AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION 5 JUNE 2015 On World Environment Day NT and national environment organisations have called on the NT Department of Mines to explain why Energy Resources of Australia, operator of the embattled Ranger uranium mine, should not be prosecuted over a major radioactive spill inside the boundaries of Kakadu National Park.
“Today – World Environment Day – marks twelve months since Energy Resources of Australia gained approval to restart processing at Ranger following a major radioactive spill from a collapsed leach tank in December 2013,” said Lauren Mellor from the Environment Centre NT.
“That a spill of over 1.3 million litres of radioactive slurry happened inside a World Heritage listed National Park is unacceptable: that we still don’t know why twelve months after operations have been resumed is derelict”.
Environment groups are concerned that a subsequent string of regulatory failures indicates that the NT Mines Department is ill-equipped to meet its responsibilities to protect the environment, workers and communities.
In the 12 months since the Ranger restart was approved DME has:
- Failed to release its report into the 2013 radioactive spill accident, even to other Investigative Taskforce member agencies or Traditional Owners.
- Failed to prosecute ERA for clear operational breaches under the Mines Management Act to improve safety and environmental protection at Ranger.
- Been unable to oversight ERA’s water monitoring due to staff shortages and deficient testing, meaning at some sites with contamination trends there was no independent oversight.
- Not implemented a key recommendation of the Independent Expert’s incident report into the leach tank failure and radioactive spill calling for a complete regulatory overhaul at Ranger.
- Failed to address contamination trends in Gulungul Creek, part of Kakadu National Park downstream from the mines leaking tailings dam. DME must apply statutory requirements to its deficient monitoring program as recommended by a 2003 Senate Inquiry into Ranger Uranium Mine. This is despite significant spikes of electrical conductivity indicating impacts from the mine are now being seen in Kakadu waters.
“The NT Mines Minister’s inaction on this major incident appears to be a case of prioritising the operations of Energy Resources of Australia above the protection of Kakadu National Park,” said ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney.
World Environment Day is a perfect time to send a clear message that poor mining practises are neither acceptable, nor above the law. Kakadu deserves better than complacency,” concluded Mr Sweeney.
Contact: Lauren Mellor, Environment Centre NT, 0413 534 125 Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation, 0408 317 812
House of Representatives passes draft laws on Renewable Energy Target
Draft laws on renewable energy targets pass through lower house 9 News 3 June 15 Draft laws on a bipartisan renewable energy target have passed the lower house despite the concerns of two government MPs.Nationals MP Keith Pitt broke ranks during debate on the legislation, which pares back the target from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000,
………However, his vote was not formally counted among those in opposition, with only independents Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie voting against the bill.
Liberal Craig Kelly questioned the efficacy of solar panels, saying such an investment would simply be “pissed up against the window”.
He ridiculed how building 2000 new wind turbines would reduce the impact of climate change……..
The government included the burning of wood waste as a renewable source of fuel in the legislation, to much consternation from Labor, which wants it removed and omitted from any future laws on the target.
The opposition argues that what is considered wood waste is not just timber offcuts, bark and branches but also the whole of any tree not harvested………
Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/06/03/02/36/draft-renewable-energy-laws-pass-through-lower-house#HlQSdZTUvSdZvczq.99
Senators David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day salivate over thought of free nuclear-powered electricity
The Conservation Council of SA this week said it did not support an expansion of SA’s role.
“Uranium mining in SA has a history of very significant environmental impacts that show no signs of abating,” spokesman Jim Green said.
“All forms of energy generation have some environmental impact … nuclear power brings with it a range of unavoidable risks to public health and safety that other energy options simply do not.”
Senators David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day want atomic industry advanced 
to make nuclear submarines viable TORY SHEPHERD POLITICAL EDITOR THE ADVERTISER JUNE 03, 2015 CHEAP or free power for South Australia is an “excellent” idea, crucial crossbench Senator David Leyonhjelm says, arguing it could come through a nuclear or a coal deal.
The Liberal Democrat also joined South Australian Senator Bob Day in calling for Australia to get nuclear-powered submarines.
The Advertiser revealed earlier this year that Liberal Senator Sean Edwards was working on a plan to earn billions of dollars by storing nuclear waste and generating nuclear power, and using that money to deliver free electricity and abolish state taxes.
That would make SA a magnet for investment, he said. Continue reading
Senator moves to punish Greenpeace for its international Great Barrier Reef campaign
THE campaign over the Great Barrier Reef has erupted into all-out war between the Federal Government and Greenpeace,
Coalition Senator Matt Canavan yesterday moved for punitive action to be taken against Greenpeace over its Reef campaign in which it sought to have the World Heritage area listed by UNESCO as “in danger”.
Senator Canavan has written to Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt, urging him to investigate whether Greenpeace’s registration as a tax-deductible organisation can be withdrawn.
Australia’s nuclear lobby keen to “educate” schoolchildren
Forget the nuclear family we are soon going to have nuclear classrooms if ANSTO has its way BRUCE MCDOUGALL THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MAY 28, 2015
AUSTRALIA’S nuclear facility at Lucas Heights is spearheading a major push to encourage schoolchildren to become scientists.
Thousands of secondary students have been invited to tour the country’s only operational nuclear reactor, meet its scientists and study their research programs.
As Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne launched a plan to make maths and science compulsory in the final year of school, 250 students arrived at Lucas Heights yesterday to work on special projects.
The Year 9 and Year 10 students from seven schools took part in a series of competitive challenges at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)……http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/forget-the-nuclear-family-we-are-soon-going-to-have-nuclear-classrooms-if-ansto-has-its-way/story-fni0cx12-1227372012172
Australia’s public sector now losing its climate change experts
Canberra’s climate change brain drain becoming critical, The Mandarin 28 May 15 by David DonaldsonClimate change expertise is being lost from the public sector as the government fails to fill board vacancies and departments stop commissioning climate policy modelling from ABARES. Continue reading
Federal and Western Australian govts systematic attack on environmental critics
Funding withdrawal from Environmental Defender’s Office criticised as ‘systematic attack’ on community groups, ABC News, By Stephanie Dalzell, 28 May 15, The Conservation Council of Western Australia has accused the State and Federal Governments of launching a “systematic attack” on community groups which scrutinise policy decisions.
The criticism comes after WA’s Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO) had its funding completely withdrawn by the State Government, effective from the end of this financial year.
The decision follows similar action by the Federal Government in 2013.
The EDO, which also relies on grants and donations, said the combined cut in state and federal funding would leave it with a gap of $250,000 in annual operating expenses. Conservation Council director Piers Verstegen said the cut appeared to be a direct response to the EDO’s advocacy for groups which challenged policy or development decisions.
“The EDO is an extremely important organisation in our community and it brings scrutiny to environmental issues often where government make bad decisions or go wrong in relation to environmental management,” he said. “I think the Government’s keen to remove that scrutiny.
“I think this is part of a systematic attack on community groups around the country that engage in advocacy on environmental issues and stand up for clean water, healthy land, and healthy ecosystems.
“And when that doesn’t align with government policy or the industries that government [is] supporting, that’s when government [feels] uncomfortable with that advocacy and [starts] to cut funding.”……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-27/conservation-council-criticises-funding-withdrawal/6499492
Australians overwhelmingly prefer solar energy – survey results
Survey Says Australians Prefer Solar Power Sputnik News 25 May 15 Australians strongly support the use of renewable energy, according to Ipsos research company’s survey. Some 87 percent of respondents were strongly in favor of solar panels on homes and 78 percent supported large-scale solar energy facilities.MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Solar power is considered the most efficient source of energy by an overwhelming majority of Australians, Ipsos research company stated Monday.
Earlier in May, following months of negotiations, Australia’s current government and the primary opposition party reached an agreement to scale back its Renewable Energy Target (RET) by almost 20 percent by 2020, due to declining power demand.
A recent Ipsos report based on a poll of nearly 1200 people funded by Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) revealed that Australians responding to the poll strongly support the use of renewable energy. Some 87 percent of respondents were strongly in favor of solar panels on homes and 78 percent supported large-scale solar energy facilities.
An overall 72 percent of respondents from across Australia said they supported wind farms and hydro energy, while tidal and geothermal energy was favored by 52 and 45 percent respectively……..
Since coming to power in 2013, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has repealed a tax on carbon emissions and eliminated the post of science minister……… http://sputniknews.com/environment/20150525/1022530489.html#ixzz3bHKV5Rpu
The Bjorn Lomborg recipe for inaction on Climate Change
Bringing Lomborg’s work to Australia seems to have been the personal project of Prime Minister Tony Abbott who found $4 million in a budget that cannot afford to support other scientific work on climate change. Abbott is, of course, famous for dismissing climate science as “crap” and choosing as his chief business adviser a man, Maurice Newman, who believes climate science is being used by the UN to impose authoritarian rule over the world.
The Lomborg Ruse, Clive Hamilton 23 MAY 2015 No one in Australia has more relentlessly attacked environmentalists, climate science, carbon taxes and the aspirations of the United Nations than Murdoch columnist Andrew Bolt.
So what does it mean when Bolt sings the praises of a man who is a declared environmentalist, accepts the body of evidence for climate change, supports a carbon tax and is a strong supporter of the United Nations? Oh, and he’s also a gay vegetarian who’s never out of a trendy black T-shirt.
And what are we to make of it when Bolt, who has complained bitterly that the nation’s universities are stacked with leftists, is now up in arms because a man with admittedly left-leaning politics is sent packing from one of those universities.
I speak of course of Bjorn Lomborg and the University of Western Australia’s reversal of its decision to host his Consensus Centre and so reject the $4 million offered by the Federal Government.
Bolt is not Lomborg’s only unlikely defender. John Roskam of the Institute of Public Affairs writes that the opposition to Lomborg “demonstrates all that’s wrong with Australia’s universities”. The IPA, from the late 1990s the epicentre of the dissemination of climate science denial in Australia, now claims that the man who declares “I believe in global warming” has been “muzzled” and must be heard. (The IPA hosted a Lomborg visit to Australia in 2003, at the prompting of federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane.) Continue reading
Senator Leyonhjelm – Nuclear power is fine: wind power is the danger!
Senator David Leyonhjelm wants government to monitor wind turbine noise, The Age, May 24, 2015 Adam Gartre It seems the only thing colourful crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm hates more than red tape is wind farming.
Despite typically being a fierce opponent of new government regulation, the Liberal Democrat is calling on the government to set up a new regulator to monitor noise levels near wind turbines.
He claims a Senate inquiry he set up has uncovered “credible evidence” that some people are suffering 
health concerns caused by low frequency noise and vibrations known as infrasound.
Australia’s peak medical agency this year concluded there is no direct or consistent evidence that wind farms damage human health, after conducting a year-long study into so-called “wind turbine syndrome”.
Bjorn Lomborg’s USA operation seems to break many USA rules
It is unclear that Lomborg himself is a legitimate charity anywhere, but most of the money seems under his control. One might also wonder where income taxes are paid.
Perhaps with his new $4 million Australia Consensus Center (covered here, here, here) Bjorn Lomborg may pick a better site than a US shipping storefront, since he’ll receive much more taxpayer money, directly, courtesy of the Australian government. That does seem simpler
Bjorn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center – Real Charity Or “Foreign Conduit”? DeSmogBlog By John Mashey • Sunday, April 26, 2015 Bjørn Lomborg is founder and president of the Copenhagen Consensus CenterUSA (CCC)), a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) “public charity” whose US physical presence is shown in the image: 262 Middlesex St, Lowell MA. Lomborg and the Copenhagen Consensus Center are known to DeSmog readers for efforts to downplay the importance of addressing climate change, a subset of climate science denialism that has infected the public debate across the English-speaking world.
Despite the name, it has not been based in Copenhagen since 2011. Continue reading
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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