A rather disturbing picture

In Focus: North Korea's Nuclear Threats 
The New York Times
12 April 2013

Dart Energy in trouble overseas as well as in Australia

Apparently Dart Energy’s ‘farewell’ to Australia* contained more spin than usual and bad business choices may be at the bottom of its restructuring, cost cutting and refocusing program.

Herald Scotland 7 April 2013:

The troubled Australian company Dart Energy has applied for planning permission to extract up to 60 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane at Airth, near Falkirk.

It has signed a £300 million deal with SSE for the supply of gas over the next seven years, and has said it hopes to start delivery before the end of this year.

But the Sunday Herald has seen evidence that the calorific value of the gas, which is crucial in determining its price for consumers, is unlikely to be high enough for the National Grid.

Dart has been warned about the problem by independent consultants.

The company has been told that the gas may need to be blended with higher-quality gas on the grid, which, if permitted, would have cost implications.

Alternatively the gas could be enriched by adding propane, a high-risk process that is not included in the current planning applications by the company.

According to experts, enrichment would mean importing nearly 100 tonnes of propane every day, in three large tanker deliveries.

It would also require part of the site to be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive as a "major accident hazard".

Dart declined to directly answer questions about calorific value, though it insisted that its gas would be saleable. Critics, however, claimed that the gas-quality issues could be the "final straw" for the Falkirk development.

Stirling Green councillor Mark Ruskell accused Dart of "fuelling suspicion" about its gas development plans.

"If the gas requires further treatment then it makes a mockery of the current planning applications under consideration by two councils," he said.

"It's clear that a moratorium is required at the very least until the planning system is able to address all the concerns that unconventional gas developments are raising."

Dart's applications to Falkirk and Stirling councils to sink 22 wells at 14 sites have prompted more than 700 objections to date.

The councils have postponed consideration of the applications, which will not now be heard until next month at the earliest……

* Interestingly when Dart withdrew from Australia it only had nineteen employees listed in this country.

Want to know what the Australian Federal Coalition's real policies are? Here's a list Opposition Leader Tony Abbott appears to endorse.

Excerpt from Tony Abbott’s 5 April 2013 Address to Institute of Public Affairs 70th Anniversary Dinner:

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is a big “yes” to many of the 75 specific policies you urged upon me in that particular issue of the magazine….

The Institute of Public Affairs 75 radical ideas to transform Australia published in August 2012:

1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don't replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.

2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change

3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

5 Abandon Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council

6 Repeal the renewable energy target

7 Return income taxing powers to the states

8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission

9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities

12 Repeal the National Curriculum

13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums

14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be 'balanced'

16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law

17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations

18 Eliminate family tax benefits

19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme

20 Means-test Medicare

21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

22 Introduce voluntary voting

23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations

24 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns

25 End public funding to political parties

26 Remove anti-dumping laws

27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions

28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board

29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency

30 Cease subsidising the car industry

31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction

32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games

33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books

34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws

35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP

36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit

37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database

38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food

39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities

40 Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools

41 Repeal the alcopops tax

42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including: 
a) Lower personal income tax for residents 
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers 
c) Encourage the construction of dams

43 Repeal the mining tax

44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states

45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold

46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent

47 Cease funding the Australia Network

48 Privatise Australia Post

49 Privatise Medibank

50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function 
51 Privatise SBS 
52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784

53 Repeal the Fair Work Act

54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them

55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors

56 Abolish the Baby Bonus

57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant

58 Allow the Northern Territory to become a state

59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16

60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade

61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States

62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts

63 Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport

64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering

65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification

66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship

67 Means test tertiary student loans 

68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement

69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built

70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising

71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling

72 Privatise the CSIRO

73 Defund Harmony Day

74 Close the Office for Youth

75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme

There is good news 10 minutes south from Byron Bay along the Pacific Highway

Tony Gilding of the Macadamia Castle today announced a major expansion and refurbishment programme. The programme is in part funded by two grants from the Federal Governments tourism industry assistance schemes. The total project budget is excess of $500,000 and the funding assistance from the Federal Government is $227,475. The balance will be funded by The Macadamia Castle.

The first project is an educational Frog Conservation Pod in association with Southern Cross University. It will serve the dual function of education about the importance of saving our local frogs as well as being a programme to breed and release local endangered frogs.

International Court of Justice to hear Australia's case against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean on June 26, 2013

Media Release

ATTORNEY-GENERAL TO REPRESENT AUSTRALIA 

 IN INTERNATIONAL WHALING CASE AGAINST JAPAN

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC will appear in Australia’s whaling case against Japan which has now been set down for a three week hearing in the International Court of Justice in the Hague from 26 June, 2013.
“I welcome the announcement of the ICJ hearing date. Australia wants this slaughter to end. We will now have our day in court to establish, once and for all, that Japan’s whaling hunt is not for scientific purposes and is against international law,” said Mr Dreyfus.
“The fixing of the date sets up the final stage in this case brought by the Australian Government. The oral hearings are the last phase of legal proceedings before the Court makes its decision.”
Australia commenced the proceedings against Japan on 31 May 2010. The International Court of Justice has received written submissions from both Parties.
Australia’s views on whaling are well known – we condemn all commercial whaling, including Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling,” said Minister for Environment Tony Burke.
“The Australian Government’s decision to bring this legal action demonstrates our determination to end commercial whaling.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr said Australia’s whaling case did not undermine the relationship between Australia and Japan.
“Australia and Japan have agreed that our differences over whaling will not affect the strong bilateral relationship we share,” said Mr Carr.
“The International Court of Justice is the appropriate forum to resolve these differences in a calm and measured way.”
Counsel appearing in the case with the Attorney-General will include Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC, Bill Campbell QC, Professor James Crawford SC, Professor Philippe Sands QC and Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes.
“We hope the Court will deliver its decision on the legality of Japan’s whaling before the start of the next whaling season,” Mr Dreyfus said.

April 12, 2013

ICJ hearing schedule

WHO IS THE AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Social Trends:

Despite many people's image of the typical Australian being male, the average Australian is in fact a woman: in 2011, just over half of all people in Australia were female.Throughout most of the twentieth century, there were more men than women in Australia, but since 1979, women have slightly outnumbered men. In 1911, there were around 108 men for every 100 women, but in recent years, the sex ratio has remained relatively constant at around 99 men for every 100 women.

Much has been made in the media about the specific characteristics of this 37 year-old Australian-born married woman, living with her husband and two children (a boy and a girl aged nine and six) in a three bedroom $1,800 a month mortgaged house in the suburbs of a capital city while working as a sales assistant - with little mention of the fact that 'she' probably doesn't exist in the flesh as an average over such diverse demographic sets will almost inevitably produce a statistical myth.

Saffin welcomes tax support for providers of ethics classes

Media Release 9 April 2013

Saffin welcomes tax support for providers of ethics classes

Page MP Janelle Saffin has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement that organisations running ethics classes in government schools will be eligible to receive tax deductible donations.

Ms Saffin said people had lobbied her about the issue and she took it up with Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury.

“Currently the tax laws contain general deductible gift recipient (DGR) categories for organisations which provide religious lessons in government schools to receive tax deductible donations, but there is no category for providers of ethics classes.

“The Australian Government wants to support ethics classes in government schools through the provision of the DGR tax concession.

“Minister Bradbury contacted me directly this week to tell me of the Government’s announcement.

“Under the changes, the Government will amend the DGR categories in the tax laws to include organisations approved by state or territory governments to provide ethics classes in public schools.

“This means organisations running ethics classes, such as Primary Ethics, will get the same benefits as organisations running special religious education classes in government schools.

“This is great news for these organisations, who will find it easier to collect donations because of these changes.

“It’s also great news for many parents as these classes give them more choices about the education opportunities for their children.”