If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

Since he became Leader of the Opposition Tones the Terrible has been so unrelentingly negative about Australia’s present and future if he doesn’t get to lead the nation, that I’ve almost come to believe we’re all in a bad way
Then along comes the OECD’s Better Life Index which puts Oz into global perspective.
Seems Tony Abbott has a very jaundiced view. Because on the housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance fronts we are doing very nicely thankyou when compared to the other 33 OECD countries.
In fact - overall Oz leads the bluddy world.

Click on graph to enlarge

When social media goes wrong: Does Glaxo Smith Kline know where their anti-smoking campaign is turning up on Facebook?

We’re encouraging Aussies to Pledge to Quit smoking for World No Tobacco Day on the 31 May. Take our pledge and share it with your friends, maybe we’ll even set an Australian record for Pledge to Quit! states Glaxo Smith Kline’s Nicabate Pledge to Quit team on Facebook.

Unfortunately one of the Facebook accounts which advertises the pledge campaign is Grafton Goss (online since 12 May 2011) which carries what has been described by The Daily Examiner as “vile” gossip.

Snapshot taken 25 May 2011

In fact unsubstantiated allegations made concerning the sexual activity of named young people are so unpleasant and language employed so crudely graphic that I have omitted a direct link.

This webpage will soon come undone as Grafton Goss’ creator is not as anonymous as first appearance suggests.

In the meantime Facebook users can make Zuckerberg live up to his social media site’s undertakings regarding privacy and appropriate content by going to the Help page and following the prompts to report Grafton Goss and its posts.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to speak at The Red Dove international aid forum in Lismore on Saturday 28 May

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to attend aid forum in Lismore

Page MP Janelle Saffin has announced that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has accepted her invitation to visit the Page electorate for a forum on overseas aid.

“In this region there are a number of local organisations as well as many dedicated individuals who work to reduce world poverty by their involvement in overseas aid projects.

“I’m delighted to be able to invite them to this forum with the Foreign Minister to hear firsthand about Australia’s international aid program, where the big challenges are, and what is being achieved.

“It is a horrifying statistic that around the world 23,000 children die of preventable starvation or related sickness every day and globally about one billion people are living in extreme poverty.

“More than ten years ago Australia and 188 other countries joined the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and agreed to increase aid with the core focus of reducing world poverty.” Ms Saffin said.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says he looks forward to visiting Lismore and discussing Australia’s aid program.

“Lismore is a great place and Janelle is a great local member. I have visited Lismore many times over the years at Janelle’s invitation and this next visit is long overdue”

“I look forward to discussing with the community the Australian Government’s aid program and our responsibility is to ensure that this program gets real results”

“With one billion people living in abject poverty, we must not forget that we are talking about people who are part of our common humanity, people for whom each day is a struggle to survive.”

“Australians have a great reputation as being givers, and being volunteers and we should be proud that we are responding to the challenge of world poverty by being a real contributor to global development.” Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd will speak at an international aid forum The Red Dove in Lismore on Saturday 28 May. Details are available from Janelle Saffin’s office: 66219909.

Janelle Saffin MP, Media Release, 23 May 2011

NEWS FLASH: Penbo's head swells alarmingly!

Poor Penbo! His delusions of grandeur are showing – he clearly believes that every reader (including casual online readers like myself) actually vote for his own personal political opinions and those of Teh Great Rupert by perusing the tripe regurgitated daily by www.news.com.au:

“What these people fail to understand, and what Brown doesn’t get, is that newspapers have constituencies in the same way that political parties have constituencies.” {David Penberthy, Editor-in-Chief of News.com.au in The Punch on 23^rd May 2011}

 

Monster Twister Hits Joplin, Missouri, May 2011 (video)

Hardly a building was left standing in Joplin, 240km south of Kansas City after the tornado, reported to be 1.5km wide, hit late in the afternoon.

"I would say 75 per cent of the town is virtually gone," Kathy Dennis of the American Red Cross told CNN.

By nightfall local time, the death toll had risen to 24 and was expected to climb further.

The worst-hit building was the multi-storey St John's Hospital, where TV images showed nearly every window to be blown out. There were reports that debris from the building had been found 75km away, and local television reported fires throughout the building amid fears that broken gas lines in the hospital could cause an explosion.

The tornado was part of a series of severe weather patterns that hit the midwest, including in Minneapolis where a twister was blamed for the death of a 59-year-old man. A number of others were injured after tornadoes hit parts of Minnesota.

But Joplin and its population of 174,000 took a "direct hit" according to National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Griffin. "It went right through the centre of town," he told the Springfield News-Leader.

A man living almost 75km away from the hospital said that debris from the building, including medical supplies and X-rays, was found in his yard.

Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to make his way to a basement closet. "There was a loud huffing noise, my windows started popping. I had to get downstairs, glass was flying. I opened a closet and pulled myself into it," he said.

"Then you could hear everything go. It tore the roof off my house, everybody's house. I came outside and there was nothing left. There were people wandering the streets, all mud-covered.

"I'm talking to them, asking if they knew where their family is. Some of them didn't know, and weren't sure where they were."

The tornado struck less than a month after another tornado outbreak left 354 dead across seven US states.
[The Australian, Tornado 1.5km wide kills 24 in US midwest, 24 May 2011]



Images found at National Geographic and The Australian

The novel O'Farrell approach to the solar bonus scheme leaves this blogger cold

So the O'Farrell Government wants to abandon the principles of contractual law in relation to the Solar Bonus Scheme and introduce retrospective legislation to make its clawback superficially legal – all on the basis that it drastically needs to rein in the state's budget outlays due to massive black holes.

However, all is not as Premier O'Farrell would have us believe.
Besides ignoring the fact that the Solar Bonus Scheme take-up rate indicates that NSW was well on its way to meeting its obligations in relation to a particular national climate change target, it is closing-off the scheme in preference to making the energy industry adequately pay for renewable energy they receive from this source and, are misrepresenting the state of the economy to achieve its aims.

Firstly, NSW Government finances and the lies told.

Analysis and Advice on the Details of the "Report on Variance between Mid Year(December 2010) and March 2011 Update" prepared for the NSW Premier and Treasurer by the acting Secretary to the NSW Treasury, Michael Lambert, and Analysis and Advice on Claims in the Associated Media Release of 27 April 2011,"Black Hole Blows Out Further" by the NSW Premier, The Hon Barry O'Farrell states:

Moreover, the size of the accumulated budget deficit from 2010‐11 to 2014‐15, $4,384 million, even if it were to eventuate, would not itself imperil the state's finances or its AAA credit rating. That accumulated deficit estimate is less than 75 basis points of the revenues and expenses for the five years. And the government should be aware that, even if it took no remedial action, further parameter changes which will inevitably arise in the coming months and years will as likely improve the budget outlook as weaken it. Moreover, the general government's current net debt and unfunded superannuation level is about $8 billion below the level which might lead to a review of the AAA credit rating and there are few sub‐sovereign entities outside of Australia which enjoy a AAA credit rating……
A claim is also made that the "failure to take the additional budget impact of the Solar Bonus Scheme into account could only have occurred if Treasury advice on the scheme's impact was not sought or simply ignored". This is a speculative conclusion and the alternatives offered are not the only feasible options……
During the preparation of this briefing, the Energy Minister, the Hon Chris Hartcher, announced that the Solar Bonus Scheme had been placed on hold pending legislation to close the Scheme to new applicants……
The media release offers other claims of "gross economic incompetence". Insofar as fiscal policy is concerned, the state's AAA status does not support this claim. A fear that the budget deficit "could grow even further" is merely an assertion made without evidence. A claim that "Labor had 'cooked the books' to distort the true state of NSW's finances" is not supported either by the report issued by Mr Lambert or by this Office's examination of available data.

Secondly, the NSW Coalition's history of supporting a residential solar power scheme.

This is Google's cache of http://www.barryofarrell.com.au/protect-our-local-environment/the-nsw-liberals-nationals-will-introduce-a-renewable-energy-buy-back-scheme.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 10 May 2011 04:35:50 GMT. This page no longer appears directly on the O'Farrell website.The following clearly shows that the NSW Liberal Party and O'Farrell supported a solar bonus scheme.

Effective action on environmental issues requires sensible policies that deliver practical and real improvements.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will introduce market mechanisms that will encourage people to use renewable energy.

We will introduce a renewable energy buy-back scheme – sometimes known as a feed-in tariff.

The scheme will:

be a credit or payment to households, institutions or businesses for the renewable power they produce. This will include small-scale solar power from household rooftops; and

encourage households to make decisions that save energy bills over the medium term.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals policy for a gross feed-in tariff was first announced in October 2008. The Labor Government mimicked the policy when it adopted a Solar Bonus Scheme in November 2009 for small solar photovoltaic installations.

Despite this, the government has excluded many renewable and innovative energy sources, as well as involvement from many commercial energy users who are best positioned to take up decentralised generation.

It is estimated that if 5,000 households take advantage of the scheme, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is the equivalent of taking 16,250 cars off the road.

Decentralised generation can reduce demand for costly generation and transmission infrastructure, and can reduce the peak price of electricity.

The NSW Liberal & Nationals policy will ensure that NSW leads Australia in establishing a decentralised energy sector, by honouring the State Government's current commitments and improving the scheme to make it more effective. A comprehensive scheme could cut NSW's emissions by around 1 per cent per annum.

Thirdly, IPART's position on the existing Solar Bonus Scheme and electricity retailers.

From the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Electricity Draft Report April 2011:

The current gross rate of 20 c/kWh is lower than the price that some customers are paying for electricity....
The Solar Bonus Scheme is currently structured so that retailers receive a financial benefit. This is because although they earn revenue from customers for gross consumption, they pay the market operator, AEMO, on a net consumption basis (that is after netting off energy supplied by the solar panels). The NSW Government’s proposed Solar Summit aims to identify opportunities for reducing the costs of the Solar Bonus Scheme. One option for achieving this aim is for Government to require retailers to transfer some of the financial benefit they receive under the scheme to distributors (who pay the feed in tariff to the customer).
This would reduce the amount of funds required to be recovered from customers, or foregone by taxpayers, to pay for the scheme.
We note that the other gross feed in tariff scheme in Australia, the ACT Scheme, requires retailers to contribute 6c/kWh towards the cost of the scheme.
We recommend that the NSW Government, as part of its Solar Summit, consider requiring retailers to contribute to the cost of the gross feed in tariff, whether or not it terminates the current scheme......

Finally, this.

This is Google's cache of http://www.nsw.liberal.org.au/policies/cost-of-living/plan-for-an-affordable-and-sustainable-energy-industry.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 16 May 2011 02:01:02 GMT. In which O'Farrell seems to admit that he intends not only dipping into the pockets of residential suppliers of renewable energy and but into state funds as well.

"We will also ensure that households do not have to pay for Labor's failed solar scheme by redirecting uncommitted funds from the NSW Climate Change Fund to cover the cost of the Labor's failed NSW Solar Bonus Scheme," Mr O'Farrell said.

That national embarrassment is at it again....

Caricature from The Sydney Morning Herald

Australian Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell is taking his right-wing arsehattery onto the world stage preaching to contrarian converts - thus confirming to the English their enduring belief that Aussies are by and large the intellectually degenerate offspring of either 18th Century criminals or whores and ensuring that a pope will never come from the Antipodes in our lifetime.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation is pleased to announce that the second Annual GWPF Lecture will be delivered by

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney

Title: One Christian Perspective On Climate Change

When: 26 October 2011, 7pm

Where: Westminster Cathedral Hall, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW

Attendance at the lecture is by invitation only.

“The Global Warming Policy Foundation: Founded in November 2009, the Global Warming Policy Foundation is an all-party and non-party think tank and a registered educational charity. Its main purpose is to bring reason, integrity and balance to the climate debate. It seeks to inform the media, politicians and the public on the subject in general and on the misinformation to which they are all too frequently being subjected.”

Here’s its latest report:
Lord Turnbull: The Really Inconvenient Truth

Monday, 16 May 2011

Former Cabinet Secretary Questions Blind Faith In Climate Alarmism
For the full report click here

NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Electricity Transactions begins today

Special Commission of Inquiry Electricity Transactions

The Honourable Brian Tamberlin QC has been appointed as Special Commissioner to inquire into and report on all matters relating to the electricity transactions (occurring both
before and after entering into those transactions), including:

1. Compliance with applicable laws, policies and practices;
2. The circumstances surrounding the resignation and appointment of directors of Eraring Energy and Delta Electricity in December 2010;
3. The value for money achieved for the State compared to the retention value of the assets to the State; and
4. The costs and benefits to the State of the electricity transactions, including potential risks and liabilities and the extent to which the transactions can deliver the stated objectives for entering into them; and
5. Any other related matters.

Further, the Commissioner is to inquire into and report on options for future action that could be undertaken to further the public interest in a competitive NSW electricity sector, including options to:

6. Address any issues identified in relation to the electricity transactions; and
7. Promote competitive electricity prices and ensure reliability of supply.

"Electricity transactions" refers to:

A. The sale of the State-owned electricity retailers (EnergyAustralia, Integral Energy and Country Energy) by the NSW Government in 2010/11;
B. The sale of the electricity trading rights of the State-owned generators (Eraring Energy and Delta West) by the NSW Government in 2010/11;
C. The Cobbora coal mine development;
D. The sale of the development sites suitable for power generation by the NSW Government, including at Marulan and Mt Piper in 2010/11; and
E. The proposed sale of the electricity trading rights of State-owned generators (Macquarie Generation and Delta Coastal) that was not completed by the NSW Government.

The Commissioner is due to provide an initial report on or before 31 August 2011 and a final report on or before 31 October 2011.

In order to ensure that all relevant information is obtained, the Commissioner has been given the special powers under sections 22, 23 and 24 of the Special Commissions of Inquiry Act 1983 (NSW).

An initial public sitting of the Inquiry will take place at 10.00 am on 23 May 2011 in Court 8A, Level 8, John Maddison Tower, 86-90 Goulburn Street, Sydney.

On that occasion, the process to be followed by the Commission will be outlined, including the means by which the Commission will inform itself in relation to the terms of reference.

Submissions to the Inquiry should be in writing and lodged with the Inquiry by 4 pm 17 June 2011.

Submissions must comply with the Directions for Written Submissions which can be obtained by contacting Brad James, Executive Officer of the Inquiry at email address msciet@agd.nsw.gov.au

.
Individuals or organisations who believe they are substantially and directly interested in any subject matter of the Inquiry are invited to contact Clare Miller, Solicitor to the Inquiry, in writing at the address below in order to inform the Inquiry of their interest, and the extent of assistance which they can provide to the Inquiry.

Any person who has information and material which is relevant to the Inquiry is invited to provide it directly to Brad James, Executive Officer, at the address specified below.

Any person wishing to contact the Inquiry may do so at the address below.
Special Commission of Inquiry
Electricity Transactions
PO Box A1150 SYDNEY SOUTH 1235
Phone: 9377 5502
E-mail: sciet@agd.nsw.gov.au