And this is the NSW gas industry the Baird Coalition Government wants us to trust........

@LockTheGate 6 February 2015

The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 2015:

AGL's contractor did not test for toxic chemicals in flowback water before it was treated and discharged to Newcastle's main sewerage network, the state agency Hunter Water says.

Transpacific Industries discharged the so-called flowback water from AGL's four test wells in its Waukivory pilot project late last year into Hunter Water's sewers despite AGL and Transpacific being warned not to dispose of the waste water through the agency's network.

The Baird government and the Environment Protection Authority ordered AGL last week to suspend its CSG operations near Gloucester and began separate investigations, after the energy company disclosed it had detected BTEX chemicals in some of its flowback water.

The BTEX group – benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes – are banned in NSW in hydraulic fracturing operations. The chemicals occur naturally in coal and gas deposits and AGL said it did not use them in its fracking.

"Specific BTEX testing was not carried out at the time of discharge to sewer," Jeremy Bath, a Hunter Water spokesman, said on Thursday. "Independent testing of the stored raw water is now being carried out by [Transpacific]."

Energy Minister Anthony Roberts said the discovery of BTEX, and the fact AGL had withheld information on the findings for 12 days, had been the trigger for the government suspension of AGL…..

Hunter Water said Transpacific tested only for chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), total suspended solids (TSS) and acidity beforedischarging the water into the sewer.

Hunter Water had sent letters to AGL last year advising that it would not take the flowback water from the CSG wells because it did not accept waste from outside its region. It also did not have confidence that the contractor could effectively treat the water, which can contain Tolcide, a biocide that is potentially damaging to sewage treatment works.....

LIBERAL LEADERSHIP SPILL"We cannot govern ourselves in an internal climate of fear and intimidation. And that is the unacceptable situation we have endured for the past five years."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 'co-operative', 'consultative' and 'collegial'  party leadership style is finally exposed in three short sentences.

Teresa Gambaro, Federal Liberal MP for Brisbane, 8 February 2015

The question to be resolved at 9 am this morning is whether 101 members of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party will continue to support Tony Abbott or will they honour their oaths and place loyalty to their electorates, states and the nation first.

UPDATE

This morning, 9 February 2015, Liberal Party MPs and senators woke to the latest Newspoll published in The Australian: 

If a federal election had been held between 6-8 February 2015 with Tony Abbott as prime minister, the Coalition's primary vote would have been reduced to 35 per cent against Labor's 41 per cent.

On two-party-preferred preference flows the Coalition would have lost the election to Labor, 43 per cent to 57 per cent. 

Abbott's performance satisfaction rating was polled at just 24 per cent.

FURTHER UPDATES

# The leadership spill motion failed with the party room vote going 61 to 39 in Tony Abbott's favour, with one abstention.

# Suddenly Abbott discovers that the national economy is essentially strong…..

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s statement post-leadership spill motion on 9 February 2015:

The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us. We are absolutely determined to work for you the people who elected us. We want to end the disunity and the uncertainty which destroyed two Labor governments and give you the good government that you deserve. We think that when you elect a government, when you elect a Prime Minister, you deserve to keep that government and that Prime Minister until you have a chance to change your mind.

So the focus now is once more on jobs, families, a stronger economy and a secure nation. We do face many challenges. At heart, we are a highly successful country, justifiably proud of what we’ve achieved. In essence, we are a strong economy with so much creativity and dynamism and the challenge for government is to work with you, not against you. I love this country. I will do my best to help our country to succeed.

Desmond John Euen produces a slide show of his $22.6 billion plan to destroy the Clarence River estuary along with the communities of Yamba, Iluka, Goodwin and Chatsworth

The Clarence River on the NSW North Coast is home to the small Port of Yamba.

The Clarence River supports two towns dependent on tourism (including recreational fishing) at its trained river mouth, Yamba and Iluka.

Both towns also have commercial fishing fleets that in combination comprise one of the largest fleets in NSW. The Lower Clarence region seafood industry generates an estimated $40-60 million annually.

This is Lloyds of London’s Australian ports information for the Port of Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River on the NSW Far North Coast: 

Click on images to enlarge

This is Google Earth’s view of the restricted entrance to the Clarence River:

Excerpt from Port of Yamba Notice to Mariners, 12 January 2015:

These are the current upper range dimensions for vessels which can safely navigate the Clarence River lower estuary at high tide:

* 120m long

* 20m wide

* Draft having 10% Under Keel Clearance + 1.5m on approach and 10% Under Keel Clearance when underway.
Typical maximum draft appear to be 5m or under.

This is Desmond Euen’s fanciful proposal to blow up Dirrangun Reef (a significant Aboriginal mythological site under claim as part of the Lower Clarence River registered Native Title claim) and, dredge an 18m deep navigation channel from the river mouth up to Goodwin and Chatsworth islands, with twenty 18m deep berths at the proposed two terminals sites. Thereby permanently diminishing and perhaps irrevocably destroying the environmental, cultural and existing economic values of the Clarence River estuary system:

Full presentation slideshow here.

These are examples of the proposed Post Panamax container and bulk vessels, typically at least 366m long, 49m wide with a draught of 15.2m:

This is an example of the proposed Cape Size vessels, typically 280m long, 47m wide with a draft of 16m:

What such proposed large shipping will have to contend with if it actually could enter, berth and exit the Clarence River which is situated on an extensive flood plain:

9. Flood Conditions. Vessels that cannot be maintained at a safe berth will be required to clear the port before the onset of flood conditions. A flood may be associated with a weather system that produces sea conditions that close the port. Where this is possible early action will be taken to clear the port.

10. Impact. Floods can produce debris in the river making it unsuitable for safe navigation, propulsion and cooling systems use. Navigation aids can be displaced and river depths changed including the location of the navigation channels / best navigable water.

11. Tide heights will result in a positive residual tide and continuous ebb streams may occur regardless of tide heights and times. The port will work closely with the shipping industry to determine the likely impact and resume port operations and the earliest safe opportunity.

BACKGROUND

Des Euen, the ex-lorry driver from Queensland, has put forward a number of variations on his proposal for the Port of Yamba.

One he has taken to denying since 2013 is the plan to turn the port into a coal loading facility.

This is what Mr. Euen stated in an ABC News item on 27 May 2014:

"There has never been any plan by Australian Infrastructure Developments, or YPR Australia Pty Ltd to turn Yamba into a coal port.

"Not even in the equation.

"YPR Australia's intention is to turn Yamba Port into a container intermodal terminal, handling import-export cargoes that we daily need throughout Australia."

Yet this is what can still be found on his website to date at
http://www.ypraust.com.au/competitive-edge/ and http://www.ypraust.com.au/?s=competitive:

To make it perfectly clear here is the relevant passage again:

CSIRO map showing the Surat Basin which has existing and proposed new coal mines in the NSW section:

The path down which Tony Abbott so recklessly trod

The Daily Telegraph political cartoonist Warren Brown 

 Part One: Team Abbott

The Guardian 8 February 2015:

Team Abbott sailed to victory, extraordinary gusts of hubris filling their sails. If opposition had been conducted within the confines of a box, the prime ministership was to become a fortress. The victors disdained the cultural moment and thumbed their noses at the zeitgeist with a towering kind of arrogance.

The coterie around the prime minister brought their conflict addiction, their brittle tribalism and their self-reinforcing insularity into government. The prime minister’s chief of staff stood sentry at the door, and the prime minister wanted the security blanket of the old rituals, like an elite sportsman insisting on his lucky socks.

Abbott then insisted that the entire government cede its freedom just as quiescently as he had. The culture of freedom and managed dissent in the Liberal party was to be replaced with command and control from his office. The Abbott cabinet lacked the talent and firepower of the Howard cabinet, and Abbott lacked the finesse and accumulated wisdom of Howard – so perhaps this was a gesture of insurance more than an outburst of gratuitous authoritarianism. But talent within government ranks did exist. It was just banished to the bleachers if it was mouthy. It wasn’t just ministers. Friends and confidants had the door closed in their face if the feedback was unpalatable.

The backbiting began almost immediately. The take-no-prisoners culture imposed inside the government created the bizarre cult of Peta Credlin, which was both vexed reality and collective mythology. The “witch in the office” began to loom larger than ministers, and project as a proxy for the prime minister rather than a conduit. The prime minister was rendered a sock puppet, and consented to his diminution.

Politics has a high tolerance for bastardry as long as the strategy is working. But the edifice began crumbling very slowly right from the start. The whole enterprise felt strangely vacant and unconvincing.

There was no real clean break, no fresh start. How could there be? Abbott began his life as prime minister knee deep in the wreckage he’d imposed on the polity. All the things to resent about politics since 2010 were not past tense because one of the main protagonists was still on his feet. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard had faded, sensibly, into history.

Abbott has always been a contrary figure, a complex person, and his stock in trade, aggressive simplicity, could only resonate when it was delivered in broad brushstrokes. The devil was always going to be in the detail. The basic contradictions started early. The man who’d elevated trust and competence to moral imperatives in national politics quickly proved himself neither trustworthy nor particularly competent. Small-target politics in opposition was replaced by an agenda the voters didn’t expect, and then Abbott blamed onlookers for failing to read the tea leaves.

At budget time the new Coalition government unleashed an ambitious referendum. Would we tolerate a society that was less fair? This was not supposed to be a surprise because Joe Hockey once made a speech about ending the age of entitlement. The answer to the question was a resounding no. Again, very little made sense. Low and middle-income earners copped the pain disproportionately, only to see savings spent on thought bubble priorities rather than directed to repairing the deficit. How could a genuine budget emergency produce net savings of only $3bn over four years? It was bollocks, and the voters knew it.

The agenda in Abbottland whipped around in the prevailing wind. Abbott didn’t know if he was freedom Tony, or security Tony, or austerity Tony, or double the deficit Tony. The treasurer thought poor people didn’t drive cars and high-income earners paid half their income in tax. Apart from gaffes and thought bubbles and brain explosions, there was a basic and persistent level of identity confusion.

In government, Abbott had relished the daily combat but his officials complained he wasn’t enamoured by detailed policy work. Government can’t just be a culture war, a raised fist against modernity, it requires focus and direction. It requires an intellectual core. Rather than soothing persistent anxiety in the community, Abbott heaped on the surprises to the point where it was impossible to define the government’s character. What was Abbott’s core? Why does Tony Abbott want to be prime minister? It is entirely unclear. Does he even want to be prime minister? That is also, sometimes, unclear.

Looking through the self-interested anecdotes various protagonists are feeding to journalists in order to deepen this current crisis in order to force a resolution, understanding that in a leadership crisis everybody lies and everything is quicksand – the simple facts are Abbott’s leadership is on death watch because he has lost, comprehensively, in the court of public opinion.

Full article here.

*************************

Part Two: Fiscal Frolics

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GENERAL GOVERNMENT SECTOR MONTHLY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS December 2014

Crikey 3 February 2015:

The Coalition that promised in 2012 to reduce Australia's debt by $30 billion delivered in 2014 an increase of more than $60 billion. Clearly Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have failed spectacularly to reduce Labor's "skyrocketing debt".

Outcomes for the full calendar year 2014 are now online at the Finance Department's website. Commonwealth monthly financial statements show year-to-date net debt and the projection for the full financial year. Hence it is simple to calculate the debt incurred — or repaid — each month.

Australia's net government debt — that is, money borrowed minus money loaned out — was $239.16 billion at the end of December. This was a hefty increase over the level a month earlier of $224.35 billion. In just one month, the debt rose almost $15 billion, or 6.6%. Compounded, that rate would double the debt in less than a year. Fortunately, the December rise was abnormal.

So what was the full-year increase through 2014?

At the end of 2013, the actual net debt was $177.74 billion. Hence the increase over the full year was $61.42 billion ($239.16 - $177.74). That's a rise of 34.6%.

That December 2013 actual figure is pretty close to the level that can reasonably be attributed to Labor. As Crikey explained last October, the best measure of Labor's debt is the projection for the end of the full year 2013-14 at the September 2013 election. At that time, projected debt at year end was $178.1 billion, although actual debt then was marginally lower. That year-end projection of $178.1 billion was affirmed in Finance's statements for October and November 2013. It did not shift until well after Joe Hockey had taken control of the levers.

So is it possible that debt has peaked and will soon tumble, as promised? No — Friday's figures also show a higher estimate for total debt at year end, still six months away. This is now projected to be $244.84 billion.

If $178.1 billion is the debt level attributable to Labor, then it can be argued that by the end of this financial year the Coalition will have blown out Labor's debt by $66.7 billion ($244.8 billion to $178.1 billion) or 37.5%. In one budget.

Full article here.