power companies

I have just received a phone call from the company that provides the electricity to my home; it was a very interesting conversation.

They asked me if I would be interested in paying a premium to run the place on greenpower, sure it would cost me a little bit more in dollar but I would be saving in greenhouse terms.

This interested me so I asked how many kilowatt hours of greenpower do they produce and where are these green clean renewable power generators located. The person I was talking to couldn't answer this question, so I asked if there was some one in the office that could. Silence was the reply.

The next gentleman on the line I assume was the previous person's supervisor.

So I put the same question to him. The reply was rather vague. Some greenpower was being generated, but he gave no definite answer to the question of how much. There was also the inference that some of the money being collected in the greenpower scheme was being used to fund the development of this new generating plants.

So I said does this mean that if I pay the premium that only some of the power is from renewable sources and the rest is for future projects. I didn't receive a convincing answer.

The next question was obvious. If only x kilowatts of renewable are being generated (I still had not found out the figure) how many kilowatts of greenpower was being sold by his company?

He said he had no way of knowing that, so I pointed out that he would have a list of customers that had purchased greenpower and if they were receiving power bills their usage would also be know to the company. If not what sort of company were they running?

The reply was that that was private business information.

So how does the public know if their purchase of greenpower does come from sustainable sources? The company could be selling more greenpower than they produce.

I could see a way out of this dilemma so I asked the company representive how much would the company pay me if I spent around $30,000 to convert my whole enterprise to solar and sent the excess back on the grid. This would save me dollar since the batteries I would need would be far fewer and the company would have genuine greenpower to sell at the premium price.

It seems the company is not interested in these small scale solutions, which is a shame.

So why is the big end of town not interested in small investments like solar panels, backyard tanks or improvement to public rail services, urban rail networks? Is it because such investments can't be captured and controlled by private investors?

A decentralised power generation system would make sense since the more sources of power you have the more options you would have in time of power shortage and many small targets are tempting that a few large ones if you have terrorist leanings.

Anti-whaling Facebook group growing

The New Zealand-based Facebook anti-whaling group F*CK OFF JAPAN... LEAVE THE WHALES ALONE!!!! now has 145,306 members and 5,044 wall posts.

This is an open-membership group which can be found here.

This site lists the online petitions available.

Japan's whaling fleet remains in the Southern Ocean on its annual whale hunt.

 

Liberals rewriting history in an effort to gain distance from former policies

Bereft of any redeeming features and as politically effective as t*ts on a bull, the Liberals now overreach to 'discover' that John Howard was actually in favour of withdrawing troops from Iraq this year.

Pull the other one! Some in the Liberal Party might have privately favoured getting the h*ll out of Iraq, but Howard would probably have fought tooth and nail to keep Australia's combat troops in the Iraq War.

He was in love with the idea of himself as a 'war leader' - it made him feel oh so Churchillian.

Laurie Oakes defends Wayne Swann's economic credibility

Laurie Oakes writing in the Courier Mail comes to the defence of Federal Treasurer Wayne Swann after the halting start in his new portfolio.

 

"Swan has been very energetic and effective in spearing the Howard government over the build-up of inflationary pressures that are causing interest rates to rise.

But Swan has a more pressing concern than undermining the Howard legacy. His central aim is to get Australians to understand that there really is a serious inflationary problem.

He needs to explain the magnitude of the challenge so the community will accept the need for the tough medicine about to be prescribed.

Some of the Opposition's claims in response have been nothing short of ridiculous. We have had Nelson, for example, denying that rising interest rates are "all the fault of inflation". He should try telling the Reserve Bank that.

We have had both Nelson and Turnbull accusing Swan of "talking the economy down" with his warnings about inflation – as though voters should be kept in the dark, mushroom-like, and not informed of economic problems.

And we have had Turnbull's claim that "for a Treasurer to complain about economic challenges is like a fireman complaining about fires".

Firemen, of course, do complain about fires – as they should. They warn people about the danger of fires and conditions likely to lead to a flare-up. And they condemn people who start fires or fail to take proper precautions to prevent them. Swan is behaving like a sensible economic fireman."

 

It seems that Malcolm Turnbull is not as convincing as he would like, or that effective in his attempts to get enough bounce off his exchanges with Swann to see him gain credibility as the leadership contender.

 

Wealthy Aussie pollie's twisted view of the world

Millionaire former merchant banker and Federal Shadow-Treasurer, Malcolm Turnbull, is claiming that he is protecting Australian democracy by taking the parliamentary 'living away from home' allowance while staying at his own $2 million apartment in Canberra.

I kid you not - the media report is here today.

Stephen Conroy gets his ISP 'filtering' report

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has just received the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) report on proposed censorship at ISP level. 

"This report investigates developments in internet filtering technologies and other safety initiatives to protect consumers, including minors, who access content on the internet. The report was prepared in response to a ministerial direction received in June 2007. ACMA will report annually on its findings for three years. This is the first report."

Not surprisingly the ACMA report points out that the mandatory ISP filtering that Senator Conroy, and his Coalition predecessor, wanted relies on a somewhat simplistic view of the Internet and goes on to list current Australian programs encouraging voluntary filtering by households and businesses.

In the end, this report is nothing more than busy work for bureaucrats, as legislated and regulatory mechanisms are already in place to deal with offensive content.

The Minister's own media release has more than a hint of embarrassment about it when he speaks of "no silver bullets".

It's all a bad dream! MPs who are loathe to let go

This last week Opposition MPs have shown by their behaviour in the parliament that they still see themselves as 'de guvmint'.

 

Member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull is one such, with his blog site still carrying the following at the end of the bio page yesterday;

"Malcolm was elected as the Federal Member for Wentworth at the general election on 9 October, 2004. Malcolm has had a long interest in water policy and water conservation in particular. Malcolm was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water Resources on 30 January 2007 having held the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister since 27 January 2006. Prior to that Malcolm was a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the House of Representatives Standing Committees on Economics, Health and Ageing and Legal and Constitutional Affairs"

 

The Member for Warringah Tony Abbott is another, with his website still carrying this at the bottom of his bio page;

"In January 2001, Tony was promoted to Cabinet as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 election he was appointed Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Leader of the House and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service

Tony was appointed Minister for Health and Ageing on the 7 October 2003."

 

While the Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker is in such deep denial that his bio page stops before his elevation to the Opposition shadow ministry;

"He presently sits on the House of Representatives Standing committee on the Ageing and the House of Representatives Standing committee for Employment and Workplace Relations.

Additionally, he also sits on both the backbench committee for health and ageing and tourism."

 

Wakeup and smell the roses, gentlemen.

Parliamentary conventions may be neither rules nor law, but the authority of the Speaker is the lynch pin of Parliament

I listened with mouth agape in disbelief yesterday, as Coalition MPs on the Opposition benches deliberately colluded to disrupt a House of Representatives sitting day and openly, repeatedly defied the Speaker.

 

With not a thought for conventions, precedent, or the fact that over hundreds of years good men struggled and sometimes died so that the institution of Parliament could exist, former Howard Government ministers and frontbenchers brought their parliamentary parties into disrepute and the House into peril.

Having lost government with good reason in a democratic election, the Liberal and Nationals MPs chose to disregard this fact and attempted to bully the Speaker and Deputy-Speaker into bending to their will.

 

The demonstration that these neo-fascists put on for public consumption had an international as well as domestic audience.

The US Secretary of Defense and Deputy-Secretary of State arrived in Canberra yesterday for the annual AUSMIN talks.

 

For all their pretended outrage at the change to sitting days, I do not think that it is sheer coincidence that the Opposition brought the House to anarchy yesterday as these US officials arrived.

Coalition parties see a conservative, Republican US Administration as a natural ally that they have been able to spook in the past by talking up the idea of a Labour federal government as bogeyman.

 

A blatant attempt to create an impression of a destabilised government may have worked to their advantage in the 1970s, but this set of Opposition MPs will find that they can't try the same confidence trick twice.

 

I remind those wilful and arrogant Opposition members that parliamentary conventions may be neither rules nor law, but the authority of the Speaker is the lynch pin of Parliament no matter who holds government and attempts to weaken that authority lead the House down a dangerous path.

Institutions exist at the will and pleasure of the society.

Societies have been known to dismantle institutions in which they no longer have confidence.

Parliaments are no exception.

Will NSW North Coast Area Health Service cost-cutting put lives at risk?

The Iemma Government fiscal madness continues and it is not only the nurses' union that need answers.

It has been reported that six beds are being removed from daily use at both Grafton and Maclean hospitals. Less nurses will be on duty during each shift.

The NSW North Coast already sees specialist services concentrated in two of the larger hospitals with little or no specialist services or full-time medical staff available at the smaller hospitals.

Local communities often experience these hospitals trying to discharge elderly patients early, often to highly inappropriate home circumstances.

This new policy has the potential to see unnecessary deaths occurring at home, because criteria for admission is based on annual budgets rather than the community's need.

North Coast communities deserve an adequate health service and an honest explanation as to why a second-class service is being perpetuated.

The Daily Examiner yesterday reported the NSW Nurses Association as saying that North Coast Area Health Service documents show that this service expects to save an estimated $253,000 at every public hospital implementing the 'surge bed' regime.

It also reported the association as stating that no additional resources have been put into community health so it could cope with the extra demand created by those who were discharged from hospital early under this policy.