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  • NSW opposes power sell off

    Source: ABC  

    A survey conducted for Unions New South Wales shows 85 per cent of people in the state are opposed to the privatisation of the electricity sector.

    Unions NSW secretary John Robertson says the survey found 96 per cent of the 1,011 respondents feared the State Government’s plan would push electricity costs higher, while 85 per cent were concerned jobs would go.

    The results have been released as the union movement prepares to launch a campaign against the Government’s plan to sell off the electricity retailers and lease the state’s power generators.

    Mr Robertson says delegates from across the state will meet in Sydney today to formally reject the plan.

    "I’m confident we’ll be able to run a very effective campaign that puts pressure on the Government to think again," he said.

    But Energy Minister Ian Macdonald is urging the unions to remain calm about the issue.

    "I hope that over the next six weeks or so, we can have a further dialogue with the unions and other stakeholders that is free from over-the-top reactions," he said.

    The unions are worried power prices will rise and jobs will be sent overseas if the sector is privatised.

    Premier Morris Iemma says he is not concerned by the unions’ action.

    "They are entitled to raise their issues and their questions, and the Government responds," he said.

  • Murray Darling Commission wants free trade

    Developing and implementing open, barrier-free markets for water trading in the southern connected Murray-Darling Basin, consistent with the National Water Initiative, was a key task.

    Trade principles: "Building upon the success of the MDBC pilot interstate water trading project, which commenced in 1998, state jurisdictions have been committed to expanding interstate entitlement trade and have spent considerable time and resources in developing the necessary principles to enable trade to be fully realised," according to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission Annual Report 2006-2007 (29/9/2007). "Since 1 July 2006, interstate water trade has been implemented in accordance with Schedule E as follows:

       

    • allocation trade between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, and entitlement exchange rate trade between Victoria and South Australia;

       

    • Ministerial Council determined in May 2007 that tagged transfers will commence 1 July 2007 while allowing exchange rate trade to continue;

       

    • tagged transfer protocols were approved by the Commission in April 2007 to enable implementation of tagged entitlement transfers.

    Legal basis for trade: "The protocols included tagging entitlements for extraction in another state, and adjusting valley accounts and state transfer accounts. The revised Schedule E to the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement and its supporting protocols provides for expanded interstate water trade with a strong legal basis in which transfers can be consistently implemented across the jurisdictions. The Commission approved a Schedule E protocol in December 2006, Processing interstate transfers of water allocations (temporary transfers), to ensure that interstate temporary transfers were processed in a consistent manner and that state accounts are reconcilable. During 2006/07 the Commission considered and approved amendments to the following Schedule E exchange rate entitlement protocols: calculating Cap adjustments, processing interstate exchange rate transfers, and restricting transfers between trading zones," the report added.

    Reference: Murray-Darling Basin Commission Annual Report 2006-2007.

    Erisk Net, 29/09/2007

  • Tasmanian Irrigators granted water

    Business viability threatened: Although the amount of water that could be taken into farm dams had been allowed to be maximised, this amount had been limited due to low inflows over the 2007 winter/spring period. If nothing was done, the viability of farm businesses in the River Clyde Valley would be threatened. This was the second successive year of drought in the Valley, and the release of a limited amount of irrigation water would provide certainty for farmers to maintain fodder and poppy crops over the coming months.

    Previous exemption: The Commonwealth Minister had previously exempted (7 November 2007), under section 158 of the EPBC Act, the release of water from Lake Crescent for critical human and stock needs (total volume up to 2,000 megalitres) from the usual requirements of assessment and approval under the Act. If approved, the referred action to release 3,300 megalitres of water from Lake Crescent for irrigation purposes would be managed concurrently with the release of water for critical human and stock needs.

    Reference: Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999; Release of water from Lake Crescent, Tasmania for the purpose of irrigation. Referring party: Hon David Llewellyn MHA, Minister for Primary Industries and Water. First Floor, Franklin Square Offices HOBART TAS 7000
    (03) 6233 6454, david.llewellyn@parliament.tas.gov.au.

    Erisk Net, 13/12/2007

  • Korean Oil Spill damages China’s coast

    The crew of the 147,000-tonne Hebei Spirit stopped the leaking on 8 December, and pumped the remaining oil out of the last of three containers holed by a barge in a collision.

    Major disaster: But with over 10,000 tonnes of crude oil spilled into the Yellow Sea and now polluting a long stretch of coastline, valuable sea farms were threatened, wrote Hyung Jin-Kim in The Daily telgraph (9/12/2007, p.4). A state of disaster has been declared in the region, where beaches and farms dependent on the sea have been badly affected around Taean, 120 kilometres southwest of Seoul. Over 6,600 people, backed by 90 boats and six planes, fought to remove oil drifting at sea or washing on to beaches. Lee Bong-Gil, who headed the Korea Coast Guard’s maritime pollution bureau, told Yonhap news agency: "The large size of the spill has made containment difficult but there will be no significant expansion of the oil considering the tide, wind and their speeds."

    Seafood industry and birds at risk: Officials reported the oil slick washing onto beaches in Taean was already 17km long and 10m wide. He said that while there was no official damage report available yet, there were 445 sea farms in the area for oyster, abalone, clam and other seafood. The tanker was berthed 8km off Mallipo when it was struck. This stretch of coastline was one of Asia’s largest wetland areas, providing important habitat for migrating birds.

    The Daily Telegraph, 9/12/2007, p. 4

  • Wong says water fund won’t wash

    Senator Wong told those she met yesterday her task was to find long-term solutions for the Murray-Darling Basin.

    She said her visit five days after the Bali greenhouse conference showed the priority she gave to hearing from the people who were directly affected.

    "I wanted to not just speak to the scientists and experts, but hear from the people," she said.

    The low-interest loan scheme for irrigators to buy water from upstream farmers was championed by South Australian Premier Mike Rann. He told the Howard government it needed to free up $250million immediately for the scheme.

    "We’re willing to consider any proposals put to us, but we need to ensure we take an approach that can be delivered nationally and we obviously want to make sure we don’t do anything that’s simply going to increase the price of water," Senator Wong said.

    Mr Whetstone said irrigators sought to make the new Climate Change Minister aware of the strain the drought had placed on growers, families and communities.

    "Really, we’re under siege at the moment with allocations that are not sustainable," Mr Whetstone said.

    "We’re trying to highlight with the minister to let permanent plantings die is not only a huge loss to the economy, but it’s a huge loss to communities and to the specialist industries that we support."

  • Planet Ark after 5000 tonnes of printer waste

    Planet Ark story 

    Environmental company Planet Ark and print cartridge recylcer, Close the Loop, have teamed up to recycle the 5,000 tonnes of print cartridges that are currently dumped as landfill every year in Australia. The initiative is known as Cartridges for Planet Ark and provides recycling boxes around the country to encourage people to starve landfill sites of the 34 cartridges that are thrown out, every minute. Despite the inefficiencies of recycling when compared to re-use, the printer companies backing the initiative point out that recycling the resources in the cartridges is more environmentally friendly than throwing them out.