Abbott & Co.'s sovereign risk claims don't stand up to scrutiny

“Since 1999, the Behre Dolbear Group Inc. has compiled annual political risk assessments of the key

players in the global mining industry.”

In 2010 the Gillard Government announced it was introducing a national price on carbon, the 18 clean energy bills were passed by federal parliament in 2011. The start date for the provisions of most of this new legislation is mid-2012.

This is Australia’s global mining industry risk assessment ranking as one of the international Behre Dolbear Group’s “key players”:

2010 ranked at 61

2011 ranked at 57

2012 ranked at 57

Err, Tones, Uncle Joe, Poodle – what happened to the “sovereign risk” for mining companies you were all shouting about?

Australia’s risk level has gone down and not up since the PM announced the “toxic tax” you’ve been wailing about.

It takes very little effort to correctly fill in the Parliamentary Register of Member's Interests. So why does Tony Abbott continually mess up his form?

Here is the link to the current and updated Register of Member's Interests for Abbott, The Hon Tony, Member for Warringah.

In it he lists his spouse as holding an unspecified number of shares in General Gold Resources Inc. In 2007 he listed these shares as General Gold Resources NL.

However, this WA mining corporation changed its name in July 2002 to General Gold Resources Limited and a month later to Yilgarn Gold Limited. At some later date it again changed its name to Kairiki Energy Limited. The company is currently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as a petroleum exploration, gold mining, exploration and investment company operating in the Phillipines.

As all shareholders would have been informed of these name changes, one has to wonder why Abbott has not changed the details recorded on his RMI form for at least the last four years.

Given his history in relation to the Register of Member's Interests this current inaccuracy isn't good enough.

Though at least we know that he is still turning up to some doorstop interviews in tailored suits he hasn't paid for.

Wanted: A local hero willing to lay down their life for their council

A North Coast Voices reader contacted me the other day to draw my attention to the fact that Clarence Valley Council was not optimistic about attracting government funding for a roundabout at the intersection of Yamba Road and Treelands Drive, because local residents have been so inconsiderate as to not get themselves killed or injured in high enough numbers to satisfy the NSW Roads and Maritime Service.

Apparently the highest priorities would come from those with 3 casualties or more in the previous 5 years and, so far Yamba has only been able to produce two at that particular intersection and in that time frame.

The local wag suggested that Yamba trawl its 7,000 plus population for someone willing to lay down their life to make up the numbers, so that the roundabout could occur in his lifetime and a reluctant Grafton-centric Council didn’t have to put its hand in its pocket for the full $400,000.

Cartoon from Google Images

The Clarence River Historical Society’s January 2012 Newsletter reproduced a piece that appeared in The Clarence and Richmond Examiner on 26 November 1887. The CRE didn't claim it as a scoop - just as well, because it's suggested in some quarters that Gutenberg cast an eye over it but elected not to print it. However, the message it contains is as relevant today as when it first appeared.

 



Another Cansdell admission finally goes public?

The allegation of misusing parliamentary allowances has been quietly circulating in the NSW Clarence electorate since last year, initially making it into newspapers in relation to one instance of allowing a staffer to work on a federal election campaign in the seat of Page and initially denied by Cansdell.

However, this is the first time I have seen it in print couched as an admission of wrongdoing.

Barry to build himself a big legacy in News.com.au 25 March 2012:

Nationals MP Steve Cansdell was forced to resign from parliament after admitting to falsifying a statutory declaration and misusing parliamentary allowances.

Did Cansdell make undisclosed admissions to Stoner in September 2011 and, what else is the electorate not being told by Premier O’Farrell and NSW Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner concerning these allegations?

The question of contaminants in recycled plastic

Before reusing materials, recycling companies sort and shred plastic housings,

metal wires, and computer keyboards.

Recyclers continue to struggle with contaminants in electronic waste and in consumer plastics according to Naomi Lubik in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in Plastic’s Polluted Burden: ES&T’s Top Policy Analysis Article 2011.

In Europe researchers found that every class of plastics was contaminated. Overall, the team measured levels of cadmium close to or slightly above the levels set by the directive, but mercury well below the target levels. Lead in some places was very high, occurring at up to 7800 ppm…..

Recycling programs in Europe take in items including refrigerators, computers, cell phones, toys, and medical devices.

The wide variety of incoming plastics, as seen in the photo above, can be difficult to sort. In some of the more advanced recycling plants, mechanical shredding gets the plastics down to fingernail-size pieces, which must then be sorted by weight or optical methods to pinpoint the plastic type…..

Recycling contaminated plastics means that hazardous substances will never completely disappear from the market.

“We spread contaminants into a variety of products,” says Martin Schlummer of Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Freising, Germany. Schlummer works on methods to separate plastics and extract flame retardants. To get rid of contaminants, he says, “you should sort such plastics from e-waste and treat them separately.”  

According to ABS Australia’s Environment Issues and Trends 2010:

Australians are among the highest users of new technology in the world. Waste from obsolete electronic goods, or “e-waste”, is one of the fastest growing waste types.

In practical terms e-waste includes items such as televisions, DVD & video players, stereos, power tools, desktop computers and laptops, computer keyboards, scanners, printers, fax machines, mobile phones and PDAs, kitchen appliances, and ink & toner cartridges – from which plastic is often extracted for recycling.

Such e-waste can have components containing lead, antimony, mercury, phosphors, beryllium, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), phthalates, cadmium or arsenic.

Although many recycling facilities operating in Australia routinely separate e-waste from other sorts of waste**, one has to wonder if there is any ability to ensure that no contaminants have been absorbed into the plastic being extracted. Given that items containing plastic only appear to be manually sorted for visible gross contaminants, before being mechanically processed and separated into plastic/non-plastic material which had been reduced to tiny segments along the processing chain.

The entire question is complicated by the fact that Information about the disposal and recycling of waste materials and products is variable in scope and quality with some jurisdictions not collecting data and others having different waste categories according to the National Waste Report 2010.

** Veolia Environmental Services Australia states:

The recycling of the E-Waste equipment is performed at Sims E-Recycling, a joint venture set up between Veolia and the Sims Group. Electronic waste collected undergoes a manual dismantling process. The individual materials such as printed circuit boards, cabling, glass and plastics etc., are recovered and then processed so that they can be used as raw materials to produce new products.

Sims Recycling Solutions states that it:

dismantles a wide range of electrical and electronic products, ensuring all sensitive data is shredded to protect customer assets. Hazardous substances are recovered and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. Commodities such as metals, plastics and glass are then processed for recycling.
Recycling company 1800 E Waste states: Most electronic waste goes through a recycling system called a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which not only recycles 95-98%, by weight, of all ewaste passed through it, but ensures that any data left on hard drives and memories are thoroughly destroyed too. 
■Picking Shed – first all the items are sorted by hand and batteries and copper are extracted for quality control.
■Initial Size Reduction Process – items are shredded into pieces as small as 100mm to prepare the ewaste to be thoroughly sorted. This is also where the data destruction takes place.
■Secondary Size Reduction – the small debris is shaken to ensure that it is evenly spread out on the conveyor belt, before it gets broken down even more. Any dust extracted is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
 ■Overband Magnet – using magnets, steel and iron are removed from the debris.
■Metallic & Non-Metallic Content – aluminium, copper and brass are separated from the non-metallic content. The metallic can then be reused and resold as raw materials.
■Water Separation – water is used to separate plastic from the glass content. Once divided all raw materials can then be resold.

The Hon. Dr. Peter Phelps MLC - portrait of a political ar$ehole

Three pictures speak volumes about this ignorant pollie.













Snapshots from
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/
and
@PeterPhelpsMLC

Update

Finally found that Phelps swearing tweet: