Abbott Government killing Australia's sustainable energy future

The Guardian, Australia's investment in renewable energy slumps 70% in one year, 3 October 2014:

Australia’s investment in renewable energy projects has slumped below that of Algeria, Thailand and Myanmar, new figures have shown, with the sector “paralysed” by the government’s review of the Renewable Energy Target.

Just $193m was invested in new large-scale clean energy projects in the third quarter of 2014, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Investment in the year to date is $238m.

This represents a massive 70% slump on 2013 investment and has resulted in Australia slipping from the world’s 11th largest investor in clean energy to 31st in 2014.

This ranking is below Algeria, Myanmar, Thailand and Uruguay. By comparison, Canada has invested $US3.1bn in large clean energy projects so far in 2014.

The slowdown in renewable energy investment is pinned squarely by Bloomberg on the government’s review of the RET, which mandates that 41,000 gigawatt hours of Australia’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2020.

A recent review of the RET by businessman Dick Warburton found that although it has created jobs and driven investment, it should either be suspended or shut down completely.

The government has yet to formally respond to the report, instead holding talks with Labor on a “compromise” position that may see the RET altered in some way without being scrapped entirely. Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party all oppose any change to the RET.

Kobad Bhavnagri, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told Guardian Australia that the renewables sector is “in the doldrums.”

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

“The government’s position has caused this, it has had some pretty strong anti-renewables rhetoric, particularly anti-wind, and wants to close certain clean energy programs,” he said. “The review has been particularly protracted. The industry was fearful the recommendations would be extreme and they were. It has been shattering.

“I think the government has backed itself into a corner because the Warburton review lacks credibility. I don’t think it’s in Labor’s interest to agree to any changes to the target.”……..

"My comments get on the tellie - yours don't. You can't be heard!

YouTube may not be the tellie, however it records the Australian Education Minister Christopher Pyne for posterity just the same....

http://youtu.be/xt7CxXh5nQw

Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie's speech in the Senate considered by Standing Committee of Privileges

Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie rose to her feet in the Australian Senate and revealed the substance of a rather strange letter she wrote to Prime Minister Abbott calling for a Royal Commission into the Tasmanian management of indigenous affairs'

She also revealed that her staff taped a telephone call from a person she characterized as a "whistleblower". 

On 2 October 2014 Senator Lambie found out that voters have a right to hit back when unsubstantiated claims are made them in the Senate.

Australian Senate Standing Committee of Privileges 158^th Report, 2 October 2014:

1.1  On 1 October  2014 the President of the Senate, Senator the Honourable Stephen Parry, received a submission from Ms Heather Sculthorpe, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc., seeking redress under the resolution of the Senate of 25 February 1988 relating to the protection of persons referred to in the Senate (Privilege Resolution 5).

1.2 The submission referred to a speech made by Senator Lambie in the Senate on 23 September 2014. The President accepted the submission and referred it to the Committee of Privileges.

1.3 The committee met on 2 October 2014 and resolved to recommend that the response be incorporated in Hansard without change. In considering the submission, the committee did not find it necessary to confer with the person making the submission.

1.4 The committee draws attention to paragraph 5(6) of the resolution which requires that, in considering a submission under this resolution and reporting to the Senate, the committee shall not consider or judge the truth of any statements made in the Senate or in the submission.

1.5 The committee recommends:

That a response by Ms Heather Sculthorpe, in the terms specified at Appendix 1, be incorporated in Hansard.

                                                     

Senator the Honourable Jacinta Collins

Chair

Reply to speech by Senator Jacqui Lambie 23 September 2014

What the Australian Press Council thinks of Rupert Murdoch's national newspaper

Australian Press Council APC Update - Issue 41:

Clarence Valley - the area of the Northern Rivers which Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has failed to protect to date

Never one to stand firm on any issue unless it was of direct benefit to himself, NSW Nationals MP for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis, unsuccessfully attempts to straddle the fence on the issue of coal seam gas in this The Northern Star article on 2 October 2014:

CLARENCE MP Chris Gulaptis has welcomed an expert's calls for designated gas fields in New South Wales.

The state's chief scientist Professor Mary O'Kane made the claim in her review on the NSW CSG industry.

Mr Gulaptis said coal seam gas drilling areas must be geologically tested.

"It's all about science and fact, and not about emotion," he said.

"The most important thing is the science has to be done first before the coal seam gas extraction is proposed.

"Make sure that your geology and your hydrology is right and then I think everything else will follow."

Mr Gulaptis said there needed to be boundaries where the industry could not operate and agriculture had to be protected.

"There will be some places where it can be carried out, there will be other places where it can't be carried out," he said.

"If it's unconducive to gas extraction then it becomes a problem. Clearly there are some areas where there are some land use conflicts and those areas have to be very closely examined so that neither one is impacted on."

Now when the NSW Coalition Government revisited its mining policies in early 2013 the North Coast Nationals did not insist on comprehensive exclusion zones within the largest part of his electorate, the Clarence Valley, so presumably neither did Chris Gulaptis.

Gulaptis also did not attend the NSW Energy Security Summit on 26 September 2013, which meant that that Metgasco Limited and other coal seam gas miners had a seat at the government summit table but Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley communities did not.

This failure to protect resulted in the drinking water catchments of the Clarence-Coffs Harbour Regional Water Supply, upstream of the Nymboida Weir and associated with the Shannon Creek Dam, having no protection against coal seam-tight gas exploration and mining under the NSW Coalition Government’s coal seam gas exclusions zones included in the Mining State Environmental Planning Policy.

The policy he voted for also does not adequately protect Clarence Valley primary production, including the sugarcane industry, under current biophysical strategic agricultural land (BSAL) mapping, nor does it adequately protect the valley’s identified regionally significant farmland or place limits on the loss of prime crop or pasture land.

In a 21 November 2013 submission to the NSW Department of Planning & Infrastructure Clarence Valley Council noted:

It would seem from the actions and outcomes to date that the State Government is not intending to provide protection from CSG activity by way of exclusion of those closely settled rural residential precincts within the Clarence Valley LGA.

and

Council considers that not considering the drinking water catchments of the Clarence - Coffs Harbour Regional Water Supply as specified in point iv above for exclusion from CSG activity is not in the public interest and should be rethought to help guarantee the integrity of the drink water of the region that this Water Supply infrastructure and asset serves.

and

Whilst the “CSG excluded” areas and areas subject to gateway assessment through BSAL & CIC mapping will enjoy a greater degree of certainty and assessment respectively, uncertainty will remain about the degree of protection and assessment of the larger areas outside of these areas if and when they are to be subject to mining and CSG exploration & production activity.

This is the area of the Northern Rivers which Chris Gulaptis has failed to protect to date:                                                                                                     

Unfortunately for the Clarence Valley, to date NSW Labor also offers little protection under its coal seam and unconventional gas policy either.

Standard and Poor's has downgraded APN News & Media's debt credit rating

An interesting snippet from the AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 79 October 2014:

79.3.4 APN (2): Rating downgraded

Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s has downgraded APN News & Media’s debt credit rating after the media company canned a proposed offering of senior unsecured notes in the US bond market (Australian, 18 September 2014). S&P has lowered the publishing, outdoor advertising and radio company’s debt to BB from BB+. APN was expected to use the proceeds from the $US250 million ($270m) issue to repay its outstanding debt and to cancel commitments under a bank facility of $630m.

A BB rating is assigned when a company’s creditworthiness and ability to meet financial commitments is deemed to face “major ongoing uncertainties or exposure to adverse business, financial, or economic conditions”. APN abandoned the offering citing unsatisfactory “terms and conditions”, and said the decision would not impact debt level or maturities. The company recently entered into a new facility with a syndicate of domestic and international banks, and was carrying net debt of $482.6m as of June 2014. The debt downgrade comes as APN considers strategic options for APN New Zealand, which operates publishing assets including the New Zealand Herald as well as The Radio Network and the digital business GrabOne. APN has retained Grant Samuel to assist in the process.

Australian National University divests itself of certain mining shares

The Australian 4 October 2014:

THE Australian National University has become the first local high­er-education institution to announce that it will divest its holdings in seven companies — in­cluding Santos, Newcrest Mining­ and Iluka Resources — which it says have a poor record on environmen­tal responsibility.

ANU vice-chancellor Ian Young said yesterday that the value of the divestment was about $16 million of ANU’s $1 billion endowment.

The decision was based on principle but he hoped it would draw attention to companies that “do harm”. “We are saying we don’t want to invest in companies that are not socially responsible and are doing harm,’’ Professor Young said. “That is different from saying we won’t invest in any ­mining companies.”

The other affected stocks are Independence Group, Sandfire Resources, Oil Search and Sirius.

Julian Poulter, the executive director of the Asset Owners Disclosure Project, said the ANU’s gesture was largely symbolic but was also very “helpful”. “We are seeing people starting to hedge their portfolios against potential stranded assets, including divesting of the very worst,” he said.

In August, the University of Sydney called a halt to investments in Whitehaven Coal until it had completed a review of its investment strategy over environmental concerns on Whitehaven’s Maules Creek project.

The Australian National University (ANU) is attempting to establish its green credentials.

This is not the first time that ANU has divested itself of mining shares.

In 2012 the university was the 17^th largest shareholder in coal seam-tight gas miner Metgasco Limited holding 2,500,000 shares as of 21 September that year.

By February 2013 after pressure from its student body and individuals in the Northern Rivers (including the Clarence Valley) ANU announced it had sold all of its Metgasco shares.