How the Murdoch media spins its web

Crikey 27 March 2013:

The Tele's article invoked some heavyweights to back up its case, including Saul Eslake, who told Crikey he'd been taken a little out of context in the piece. According to Eslake, Rolfe had contacted him to ask if Australia faced a debt crisis. Eslake's reply was that Australia didn't, and he compared us with Canada, which will not return to surplus for some years and will likely have a debt approaching 30% of GDP, compared with 11.5% for Australia. Over time, Eslake suggested, Australia might develop a problem due to the actions of a number of governments, including the John Howard government. This prompted Rolfe to ask how soon it would become a crisis, which Eslake answered by noting a debt crisis can come on very quickly — "the lights don't turn amber, they turn red". This, said Eslake, was portrayed as him saying a debt crisis was around the corner and it was entirely the fault of this government.

Public Forum on Coal Seam Gas, 8 April 2013 at the University of New England Armidale

At this forum supporters of coal seam gas mining and those opposed to this form of mining will be speaking.

The gentler, caring side of Tony Abbott in 1987?

Excerpts from an article by Tony Abbott in The Bulletin 18 August 1987 via Australians for Honest Politics:

*A little earlier, I had been appointed college infirmarian. This post was a legacy from quasi-monastic days and involved supervising the medicine cabinet and ensuring that the ill were not forgotten in their rooms.

But during winter, when up to 30 percent of the college would be down with “flu” at any one time, the infirmarian spent much of his day ferrying food and aspirin to the rooms of the sick. My view was that I knew nothing about medicine and that those too sick to eat in the dining room ought to be in hospital.

Anyway, I thought, most were malingering. So I encouraged “self-service” of medicines and suggested that meals would be better fetched by the friends of the sick. Many deeply resented this disdain for college’s caring and communitarian ethos. And, I confess, I did not have the courage to refuse room service to members of the seminary staff.

*I missed the glittering company of Oxford and the student burly­ burly. But mostly l felt “had “by a seminary that so stressed ”empathy” with sinners and “dialogue” with the Church’s enemies that the priesthood seemed to have lost its point.  

So determined are some journalist to see Labor in a negative light that they often get it gloriously wrong

The latest Australian journalist to get it gloriously wrong is Alex Easton writing in The Northern Star on 2 April 2013:

Snapshots 2 April 2013

The Financial Review addressed the very same subject three days earlier on 31 March 2013:

Federal Labor has created the first viral ad of the election campaign with a graphic about government net debt that has now been seen by more than 844,500 Facebook users since late Monday night.

To put that figure into perspective, it is more than the capital city audience that watched the ABC evening news on Friday, according to OzTam estimates.

This is the graph in question:

Dart Energy withdraws from the Northern Rivers and Australia

 

Dart Energy media release 2 April 2013:

 

Company restructures, cuts costs, cancels international IPO

 

Focus on near term value creation

 

Dart Energy (ASX: DTE, “Dart” or the “Company”) advises that it has instituted a restructuring, cost cutting and refocusing program. This comes in response to current market conditions, a reassessment of the Company’s priority projects, recent decisions in Australia by the NSW and Federal Governments relating to Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and shareholder feedback.

 

In summary, the Company’s forward strategy is focused on maximising the value of the company's UK portfolio, and taking those assets into cash flow on a 12 – 18 month view, while reducing the cash draw from the balance of the portfolio.

The following are the key features of the changes. Additional details are included in the separate presentation.

 

Strategy – Focus on UK

 

• The Company’s strategy in the short term will be to focus on its attractive CSG projects in Scotland, and on the company’s extensive shale assets in England, specifically the Bowland basin, which has to-date seen encouraging exploration and appraisal results. The Company believes that within its portfolio these assets offer the best prospects for near-term value creation, especially given the clear UK Government policy promoting the development of that country’s unconventional gas resources.

• Despite the lifting of the court injunction at Fullerton Cove on March 28th, field operations in NSW will be suspended until NSW and Federal policies are in place to support the industry in being able to meet the needs of projected natural gas demand.

• Operations in Indonesia to assess the Company’s high quality projects will continue, albeit at a reduced pace. The near-term focus will be securing an off-take partner and establishing commerciality for the Company’s South Sumatra assets.

• In China, the focus will be on securing regulatory approvals for its shale gas PSC, and finalising the associated farm-out to fund that exploration program.

• Other operations (India, continental Europe, certain assets in Indonesia and China) are considered non-core, and will be scaled back substantially, with a view to partnering, farming-out, selling, or exiting, in a manner that best maximises the return to the Company. Additional capital will not be deployed to these non-core operations.

• The Board and management team continue to acknowledge the long term strategic value of the Company’s portfolio. However, the revised strategy better matches the company’s immediate opportunities with available resources.

 

Cost Reductions

 

• To reflect the changed focus of the Company, the Company’s global staff base has been reduced to c.50 people, a total reduction of 70%.

• The Company’s global office infrastructure is in the process of being reduced. Offices will be downsized or shut, as appropriate.

• Following completion of all changes, overall overhead cost savings, including at the Board level, will be in the region of 60%.

• The company's “burn” rate will reduce to approximately $12m pa (approximately $1m per month), of which 50% is G&A and 50% is costs directly attributable to projects.

• The Company currently has approximately $17m in cash and liquid assets, and in the coming six months an additional $5m will become available as cash-backed guarantees are released. Net of an estimated $2m in restructuring costs, the Company’s immediate cash availability is thus approximately $20m.

 

Board & Management

 

• The Dart Energy Board will consist of Nick Davies - Non-Executive Chairman, and Shaun Scott, Stephen Bizzell and Simon Poidevin - Non-Executive directors. UK based Norrie Stanley will join the Board as a Non-Executive director. Norrie has extensive UK and international energy / gas industry experience, and was formerly a senior executive at BP.

• John McGoldrick (currently CEO of Dart Energy International) will assume the role of CEO of Dart Energy Limited. Duplicate executive functions throughout the Company have been eliminated.

 

Funding and Dart International IPO

 

• The proposed IPO of Dart Energy International has been cancelled.

• This reflects the Directors’ view that recent NSW and Federal government decisions have materially impacted on the short-term prospects for the Company’s assets in Australia. Had an IPO of DEI progressed, the short-term viability of the Australian assets as a stand-alone business would not have been assured.

• The Company’s revised strategy and reduced cost base will provide time for the Company to pursue and secure its longer-term capital needs, including in particular via farm-outs, asset sales, and strategic partnerships.

 

Commenting, Nick Davies, Chairman, said:

 

“The Board of Dart has taken aggressive steps to respond to market conditions and shareholder feedback. We have done so in a comprehensive fashion.

With the changes we are implementing, and with the 2013 planned work programme now focusing primarily on the UK, existing funds will meet the company’s needs for the next 12 months. Value-adding joint ventures of the UK assets and other project sell-down initiatives are underway and attracting significant interest.

The Board of Dart is extremely disappointed with the uncertainty created by recent NSW and Federal government decisions in relation to CSG development in Australia. The consequence is that investment is leaving the country, field operations are being suspended, Australian jobs are being lost, and the impending energy crisis in New South Wales is not being addressed, and indeed, will only get worse. This is in direct contrast to the United Kingdom, where the Government is actively seeking to support the responsible development of unconventional gas resources.

It is with regret that Robbert de Weijer, CEO of Australia, will be leaving the Company. I would like to thank Robbert for his excellent leadership and his dedicated and passionate efforts to take the CSG industry forward in NSW. Until his departure, Robbert will lead an initiative to identify consolidation and farm-out opportunities for the Australian assets.

We have taken steps to reposition Dart so as to focus on building value in the UK in the near-term, through our CSG projects in Scotland and our shale gas assets in England. In the mid-term we still see considerable value in our Indonesian assets, the shale gas opportunity in China, and through preserving our high quality blocks in Australia until Government policies are reformulated”.

 

For and on behalf of the Board

Paul Marshall, Company Secretary

For further information contact:

Nick Davies Chairman Tel: +65 6508 9840

Di Brookman Investor Relations Manager Tel: +61(2) 9146 6336

A weak APPEA* response last night to the ABC Four Corners program on the Australian coal seam gas industry

Australian domestic swimming pools generally hold between 22,000 and 60,000 litres of water,

with the average being between 40,000 and 50,000 litres. [Poolexpress.com.au 2011]

*  APPEA is the Australian Petroleum Production & Explration Association

Taking coal seam gas industry representative Rick Wilkinson’s statement at face value and using the highest domestic swimming pool volume quoted above, then the entire CSG industry in New South Wales generated only 120,000 litres of production/waste water in the fourth quarter of 2012.

That is only 0.12 of a megalitre from 1 September through to 31 December.

If true this is only part of the story, as the State government did not lift its ban on fracking until 1 September and the industry was not meeting 2012 exploration/production schedules by December.

It is also only part of the story because mining companies in this state appear to produce anywhere from 60,000 to 6 million litres of water annually per pilot well. While a production well might generate as much as 20,000 litres of waste water each day or an estimated 1.8 megalitres each quarter if Queensland is any example.

Indeed, at one gas field in the Bowen Basin Santos reported an average initial daily water production rate of 0.20 megalitres per well per day which only declined to two domestic swimming pools worth of waste water per day after twelve years. Coal seam gas well life is predicted to be between 5 and 20 years for each well.

The National Water Commission predicts that the NSW coal seam gas industry may generate approximately 5.7–46.9 gigalitres of co-produced water from production of NSW’s current 2P reserves(2469 PJ) of which 0.697 gigalitres (697 million litres) is expected to be drawn from Clarence-Morton Basin groundwater.

Metgasco Limited currently stores over 20 megalitres of waste water in holding ponds in the Northern Rivers and it is nowhere near commencing commercial gas production in New South Wales. That volume equates with 333 domestic swimming pools.

Of course if Mr. Wilkinson meant Olympic-sized swimming pools then this would have produced as much as 5 megalitres of water over the last three months of 2012, which still does not come anywhere near giving a reliable picture of the industry’s capacity to draw on groundwater reserves in this state if it is allowed to proceed with so little government scrutiny of its plans and commercial operations.

What was so offensive about this and other Wilkinson tweet's last night was not his attempts to wildly spin issues raised by the Four Corners program, but his obvious belief that the general public were so stupid that his spurious 'proofs' would be accepted without demur.

Women In Politics: Let's reach another milestone in the September 2013 Australian Federal Election

Source(s): Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, 2010

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010:  

The proportion of federal parliamentarians who are women has risen markedly over the past 20 years. On 1 January 1986, one in twenty members of the House of Representatives were women (5%) rising to more than one in four (27%) by the beginning of 2008. Similarly, close to one in five senators were women in 1986 (18%) rising to more than one in three in 2010 (36%) (AEC 2009; Parliament of Australia 2010b).

In the federal government ministry, as at the end of June 2010, there were nine female ministers and parliamentary secretaries (representing 23% of ministers and parliamentary secretaries), including the Prime Minister The Hon Julia Gillard MP and a further three who were Cabinet members. Around 17% of shadow ministerial and parliamentary secretary positions were held by women (Parliament of Australia 2010b).  

The Sydney Morning Herald 29 March 2013:

When she announced her new ministry last Monday, Julia Gillard made history. For the first time, women make up one-third of the Australian government. Although the cabinet remains unchanged, the promotion of three women into the ministry has radically altered the gender balance of the government.

There are four women, including Gillard, in the 20-member cabinet which in itself is a record (and the numbers were even better before the resignation of Nicola Roxon as attorney-general this year).

But it is the outer ministry where the radical change has occurred. Gillard promoted three women: Sharon Bird, Catherine King and Jan McLucas. This means that six of the 10 members of the ministry are women. That's 60 per cent. That's unprecedented in Australia.

L–R: Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Kate Lundy, Kate Ellis, Julie Collins

Australian Prime Minister with some of the federal ministers