Category: Archive

Halliburton’s imported Indonesian workers exploited in SA desert

admin /13 February, 2006

Imported Indonesian workers have allegedly been paid as little as $40 a
day to dig ditches in the South Australian desert, according to The Advertiser
(13/2/2006, p.1). Drilling company Halliburton Australia employed a
team of Indonesians for labouring jobs at its gas extraction operations
in the Cooper Basin late last year.

The workers in poor conditions: Australians who worked alongside the Indonesians have now told The Advertiser
the imported staff worked 80 days straight, were housed in poor work
camp accommodation and had some meals laced with pork so they were
unfit for the Muslim employees to eat.

Global company employs imported workers: Halliburton last week
confirmed the global company employs imported workers from Indonesia,
Europe and the US for their operations throughout Australia. “(We
employ workers) from wherever we have an office base,” a Perth-based
human resources officer said.

No response to inquiries: When The Advertiser asked about
the claims that workers were underpaid and mistreated while employed by
the drilling company, Halliburton referred inquiries to its offices in
Houston, Texas. Despite three days of requests to Halliburton in
Australia and the US, they have not answered the claims.

Environmental cost calculator

admin /12 February, 2006

This organisation has built a calculator to help you calculate the environmental and energy cost of the products you buy. Other links like this are available under the links button in the left hand menu. http://truecosttour.org/truecosttour.html  

The Whale Hunt is Not Over

admin /12 February, 2006

The Whale Hunt is Not Over In 1946, Dr Harry Lillie, a whaling ship’s physician wrote: ‘The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it.’ What action are you taking to protest this? If you care, Greenpeace, WSPA and its international campaign, Whalewatch, Continue Reading →

Customers will respond to electricity pricing signals if usage information is clearly conveyed

admin /12 February, 2006

Idaho Power recently reported that only one per cent of the customers
on their dynamic pricing pilot looked at their hourly usage patterns,
and that they preferred overwhelmingly to see the information with
their bill, writes Patti Harper-Slaboszewicz, director of AMR and
Demand Response at US energy industry researcher Utilipoint
International Inc.

Customers can compare: She says that for customers in regions
with retail choice option, the decisions can be more complicated. “At
first glance, one might think that customers can not reasonably choose
between two potential suppliers with retail offers that offer different
time-based rates without knowing their usage pattern. If a customer
were to know what percentage of energy they used between 2 p.m. and 6
p.m. in the summer, this would arm them with valuable information on
which retail rate offering might be better.”

Sydney-based Darwin Clean Fuels plans $450 million plant to produce transport fuels from Timor Sea

admin /12 February, 2006

Darwin Clean Fuels, a closely held Sydney based company, planned to
build a $450 million plant to produce low-pollution transport fuels,
reported The Australian Financial Review (10/2/2006, p.64).

Condensates from up north: The plant will process condensates
from natural gas fields in the Timor Sea and North-West Shelf region.
The project involved new contracts for civil engineering company
Macmahon Holdings. Environmental approval has yet to be granted.

Brisbane Council attempts to add 20 million litres a day to compensate dwindling water supplies

admin /12 February, 2006

With southeast Queensland’s dams less than a third full and the state’s
wet season almost at an end, Brisbane City Council announced on 9
February a $5 million project to sink bores around the city in an
attempt to add 20 million litres a day to southeast Queensland’s
dwindling water supplies, reported The Australian (10/2/2006, p.4).

Possibility for drinking water: “If we proceed, these
underground aquifers could provide an additional 20 million litres of
water a day to Brisbane’s dwindling water supply network,” the
council’s spokeswoman Jane Prentice said. The underground water would
initially be targeted for irrigation, but if the current supply crisis
continued it would be used for drinking water.

“Scary” supply situation: Ms Prentice described southeast
Queensland’s water supply situation as “scary”. With only two weeks of
the wet season remaining, the region’s supplies had fallen to 732 days
of average water use.