Bitter pay dispute looms in Australian Prime Minister’s department/
Bitter pay dispute looms in Australian Prime Minister’s department
- From: The Australian
- August 18 th 2010
A REVOLT is brewing in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet over alleged “arrogant and bullying tactics” adopted by management during pay negotiations with staff.
The dispute centres on a 3 per cent pay rise offered to Executive Level and APS staff in an enterprise agreement due to come into effect on October 1.
Departmental staff believe they are being asked to accept a small pay rise without being offered comparable conditions, such as time in lieu, available to staff in departments such as Treasury and Finance.
But Capital Circle has learned that management declared negotiations at an end on August 17, sent the agreement to the Australian Public Service Commission for review and warned staff they will sacrifice a pay rise if they don’t support the agreement.
Outline of a Greens Australia: Bob Brown
Outline of a Greens Australia: Bob Brown Boost public education with mining taxConserve land for food and environmentAccountability and insurance against big party domination Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has used his Leaders’ Address to theNational Press Club today to outline why the Greens are needed in theSenate to guard against big party domination and Continue Reading →
Scientists map out wave energy hotspots.
Scientists map out wave energy hotspots
Updated
CSIRO’s study reveals if just 10 per cent of generated wave energy was harnessed, it would meet half of the nation’s current electricity needs. (User submitted: Jon Galpin
Australian scientists have mapped out the best places across the nation’s southern coast for generating wave energy, all the way from Geraldton in Western Australia to King Island in Tasmania.
A new CSIRO energy atlas shows that if just 10 per cent of the energy generated from waves was harnessed it would meet half of the nation’s current electricity consumption.
Australia’s southern coastline has been identified by the World Energy Council as one of the world’s best sites for generating wave energy.
The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research’s Dr Mark Hemer says even the small fraction of energy harnessed from Australia’s coast will be enough to meet future government targets.
“If we look at the sustained energy resource along the southern coastline – and we’re looking between Geraldton in West Australia and southern tip of Tasmania – that has a sustained wave energy resource of about… five times larger than Australia’s present day electricity consumption,” he said.
Southern Wave power a great untapped resource::CSIRO
Southern wave power a great untapped resource: CSIRO ABC August 17, 2010, 8:50 pm 1 Comment Australia’s southern coastline has been identified as one of the world’s most promising sites for the generation of wave energy. CSIRO researchers in Tasmania have been studying how much low-carbon energy can be produced in waves close to Continue Reading →
Ecological sustainability is one of the Greens’ core beliefs.
Ecological sustainability is one of the Australian Greens’ core beliefs; human economies exist within, and are dependent upon, natural systems. We recognise that resource management is central to good economic management.
The Australian Greens have launched a wide range of policy initiatives that aim to protect the environment. Our recently released National Marine Reserves Plan illustrates the important role in conserving the diversity and maintaining the health of our most precious marine areas. Please click here to read more about our marine plan.
The future is Green (Crikey)
1. At least Abbott’s honest about willful refusal to buy into global warming
Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:
BERNARD KEANE ON FEDERAL ELECTION 2010, CLIMATE CHANGE, FEDERAL ELECTION 2010, GLOBAL WARMING, JULIA GILLARD, TONY ABBOTT
No person who seriously maintains that “the various measuring organisations” show that the planet is cooling is fit to occupy a position of leadership in public life. Such a capacity to let ideology filter out basic facts on anything, but most especially a critical area of public policy; such a willingness to balance, say Christopher Monckton and the world’s scientific community and prefer the former, is genuinely dangerous in anyone with proximity to power.