ACCC chairman Sims argues the benefits of privatisation

Updated 1 hour 21 minutes ago

Photo: Australia Post has been put forward as a potential privatisation target by some think tanks. (Nic MacBean: ABC News)

Map: Australia

The competition watchdog is urging governments to sell assets to boost national productivity.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims says the root and branch review of competition policy by the Federal Government should be as broad as possible, as privatisation and more competitive markets offer the best possibility of productivity improvements.

Mr Sims says, for a start, state governments should privatise energy companies, a move he believes will bring down electricity prices.

“When the private sector owns assets that does provide better incentives for better performance,” he told ABC’s News Radio.

“I did comment on the energy sector, which is a sector I know fairly well. I’m quite confident that had the network assets in NSW and QLD been owned by the private sector we’d probably have lower electricity prices than we do now.”

An article in this morning’s Australian Financial Review, based on an interview with Mr Sims, says that he has called for Federal Government to sell Medibank Private and Australia Post.

However, Mr Sims has told News Radio that he was not advocating for the sale of particular Government-owned businesses.

“Australia Post, that’s really an issue for government, I was making a general point this morning, and I’ll really leave it at that,” he told News Radio’s Marius Benson.

“I think there are direct experiences you can draw from the energy sector, but I’ve really got no parallel from which to comment on Australia Post, or Medibank Private for that matter.”

Mr Sims adds, however, that the only good reason for government ownership is because it has particular social objectives in mind.

“If all you’re after is maximum efficiency then there’s no question that you’d have those assets owned by the private sector,” he argued.

“If you’re continuing to own them by government, then that’s because you’ve got some social objective to achieve.

“If you have a social objective, it’s worth specifying what that is, and I suspect there’s probably more direct ways to achieve that social objective.”

‘Fat removed’

The union that represents postal workers has rejected Mr Sims’s arguments around efficiency, saying that Australia Post has become “lean and mean” since being corporatised in the 1980s.

“Any fat that existed in the organisation has long since been removed, our members have delivered untold productivity gains over the past 20 years,” said Martin O’Nea, the national assistant secretary of the Communication Workers Union.

“There may be some fat within Australia Post that may be up the top of the organisation – the CEO’s remuneration this year went from $2.8 million to $4.7 million.

“But, regarding the corporation as a whole, we see it as a pretty lean, mean fighting machine and probably the world’s best postal service.”

Mr O’Nea says Australia Post has also returned more than $800 million in dividends to taxpayers over the past three years.

He also warns that Australia Post’s less profitable but socially useful services, such as relatively affordable and timely mail and parcel deliveries to rural and regional Australia, would likely suffer if it was privatised.

“With a privatised Australia Post, would them services that people have seen in the past three years remain the same?” Mr O’Nea asked rhetorically.

“We’d venture that the experience that regional and rural Australia have had with privatisation in the past would leave them to believe that it certainly wouldn’t.”

The Government has launched a scoping study into the possible sale of Medibank Private, which is due to report next month.

A woman shovels snow with the help of her dog after a New Year’s Day snow in the Chicago suburbs.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB CHWEDYK, Daily Herald/AP

Jane J. Lee

National Geographic

Published January 3, 2014

Happy New Year! Things got off to a roaring start for people in the path of a brutally cold snowstorm that plowed this week across the U.S. Midwest and East Coast.

From Chicago to Boston to Washington, D.C., folks were treated to up to a foot (0.3 meters) of snow, with windchill dipping into the negative digits. So far, nine deaths have been blamed on the storm.

Long Island, New York, and parts of coastal Massachusetts experienced blizzard conditions, said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesperson with the National Weather Service. Other parts of the country suffered under a nor’easter.

Nor’easters are simply storms that affect the northeastern part of the U.S., move in a northeasterly direction, and produce winds coming from the northeast. “That’s the trifecta,” said Vaccaro.

In the months of October or November, they can produce rain, while in January or February, they can produce snow.

They differ from blizzards in that—according to the National Weather Service—blizzards involve large amounts of snow, winds in excess of 35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour, and visibilities of less than a quarter mile (half a kilometer).

Visibility is the most important element in the mix, said meteorologist Matt Kelsch, with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, in an interview last year. “Usually, it takes that strength of wind—[35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour]—to pick enough snow off the ground to reduce visibility that much,” he said.

“[But] it doesn’t always have to be snowing to be a blizzard,” Kelsch added. In the U.S., areas of the Great Plains and western states can get something called “ground blizzards”: storms in which high winds pick up snow from the ground and whip it around, greatly reducing visibility.

Will blizzards become more frequent in the future as a result of climate change? That’s difficult to know for sure, said Kelsch, but warming oceans may increase the contrast between warm coastal air and cooler air over land, which could increase the frequency of storms.

“Weather and climate are directly connected. You can’t change one and not expect an effect on the other,” Kelsch said.

State of the Climate

The State of the Climate is a collection of monthly summaries recapping climate-related occurrences on both a global and national scale.

• Summary Information
• Monthly Climate Updates
• RSS Feed

• Global
• Global Analysis — a summary of global temperatures and precipitation, placing the data into a historical perspective
• Upper Air — tropospheric and stratospheric temperatures, with data placed into historical perspective
• Global Snow & Ice — a global view of snow and ice, placing the data into a historical perspective
• Global Hazards — weather-related hazards and disasters around the world
• El Niño/Southern Oscillation — atmospheric and oceanic conditions related to ENSO

• National
• National Overview — a summary of national and regional temperatures and precipitation, placing the data into a historical perspective
• Drought — drought in the U.S.
• Wildfires — a summary of wildland fires in the U.S. and related weather and climate conditions
• Hurricanes & Tropical Storms — hurricanes and tropical storms that affect the U.S. and its territories
• National Snow & Ice — snow and ice in the U.S.
• Tornadoes — a summary of tornadic activity in the U.S.
• Synoptic Discussion — a summary of synoptic activity in the U.S.

Global Summary Information – November 2013

November 2013 global temperature highest on record

Year-to-date global temperature ties for fourth highest on record

The globally-averaged temperature for November 2013 was the highest for November since record keeping began in 1880. November 2013 also marks the 37^th consecutive November and 345^th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20^th century average.

Many areas of the world experienced higher-than-average monthly temperatures, including: much of Eurasia, coastal Africa, Central America, central South America, parts of the North Atlantic Ocean, the south west Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Much of southern Russia, northwest Kazakhstan, south India, southern Madagascar, parts of the central and south Indian Ocean, and sections of the Pacific Ocean were record warm. Meanwhile, northern Australia, parts of North America, south west Greenland, and parts of the Southern Ocean near South America were cooler than average. No regions of the globe were record cold.

Selected November 2013 Climate Events & Anomalies

Global temperature highlights: November

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces during November was record highest for November, at 56.60°F (13.68°C) or 1.40°F (0.78°C) above the 20^th century average. The margin of error associated with this temperature is ±0.13°F (0.07°C).

November 2013 Blended Land and Sea Surface
Temperature Percentiles November 2013 Blended Land & Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in °C

• November marked the 37^th consecutive November and 345^th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20^th century average. The last below-average temperature for November was November 1976 and the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985.
• The global land temperature was the second highest for November on record, behind 2010, at 2.57°F (1.43°C) above the 20^th century average. The margin of error is ±0.20°F (0.11°C).
• Some national highlights are included below:
  • Russia observed its warmest November since national records began in 1891. Some areas of the Urals, Siberia, south of the Far East region, and on the Arctic islands in the Kara Sea had temperatures that were more than 14°F (8°C) higher than the monthly average.
  • Spain was 0.9°F (0.5°C) below its 1971–2000 average for the month, although the first half was (4°–5°F) 2°–3°C above average while the second half was 5°–7°F (3°–4°C) below average, the coolest such period since 1985.
  • November temperatures were 7.0°–9.4°F (3.9°–5.2°C) above average across the Republic of Moldova. According to the country’s national meteorological service, Serviciul Hidrometeorologic de Stat, this type of event in the north occurs every 20–30 years and every 10–15 years in the south.
  • According to the Fiji Meteorological Service, most regions of the country were considerably warmer than the 1971–2000 average, with maximum and minimum temperature anomalies exceeding 1°C at more than half of the official (21) monitoring stations. New November monthly minimum temperature records were set at four stations.
  • For the ocean, the November global sea surface temperature was 0.94°F (0.52°C), above the 20^th century average, tying with 2009 as the third highest for November on record. The margin of error is ±0.07°F (0.04°C).
  • Neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions were present across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean during November. According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, neutral conditions are favored into the Northern Hemisphere summer 2014.

Global temperature highlights: September–November

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for September–November was the second highest on record for this period, behind 2005, at 1.22°F (0.68°C) above the 20^th century average of 57.1°F (14.0°C). The margin of error associated with this temperature is ±0.16°F (0.09°C).
• The global land temperature was the third highest for September–November on record, at 1.94°F (1.08°C) above the 20^th century average of 48.3°F (9.1°C). The margin of error is ±0.32°F (0.18°C).
  • Record warmth continued in Australia towards the latter part of 2013, as the country observed its highest average and maximum spring (September–November) temperatures in its 104-year period of record at 2.83°F (1.57°C) and 3.73°F (2.07°C) above the 1961–1990 average, respectively. The nationally-averaged minimum spring temperature was fourth highest on record, at 1.93°F (1.07°C) above normal.
  • Fall was 2.5°F (1.4°C) above the 1961–1990 average in Norway, with the southern mountains and some regions in the north observing temperature departures of +3.6°F (+2.0°C).
• For the ocean, the September–November global sea surface temperature was 0.94°F (0.52°C), above the 20^th century average of 60.7°F (16.0°C), tying with 2009 and 2012 as the fourth highest for September–November on record. The margin of error is ± 0.07°F (0.04°C).

Polar ice highlights: November and Seasonal

Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent, from the November 2013 Global Snow & Ice Report

• According to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the average November Arctic sea ice extent was 3.95 million square miles, 290,000 square miles (6.8 percent) below the 1981–2010 average of 4.24 million square miles. This was the sixth smallest November Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979.
• The November Antarctic sea ice extent of 6.63 million square miles was 340,000 square miles (5.3 percent) above the 1981–2010 average of 6.29 million square miles. This was the largest November Antarctic sea ice extent on record, surpassing the November 2010 sea ice extent by 90,000 square miles.
• The globally combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent during November was 13.42 million square miles, 111,000 square miles (0.4 percent) above the 1981–2010 average of 10.62 million square miles. The global sea ice extent during November tied as the 12^th largest in the 45-year period of record and was the largest since 1998.
• According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during November was 13.42 million square miles, 310,000 square miles above the 1981–2010 average of 13.11 million square miles, and the 16^th largest November snow cover extent in the 48-year period of record. The North American monthly snow cover extent was the third largest on record, behind November 1985 and 1996. The Eurasian November snow cover extent was below average and the 18^th smallest on record.
• The average Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during autumn was 7.54 million square miles, 710,000 square miles above the 1981–2010 average of 6.83 million square miles. This was the sixth largest snow cover extent during the autumn season for the Northern Hemisphere and the largest since 2002. North America had its seventh largest autumn snow cover extent, while Eurasia had its 10^th largest.

Precipitation highlights: November and Seasonal

• Record wetness was observed during November over sections of coastal China, central Japan, north central Australia, and north central Mexico. Record dryness was scattered across different parts of the globe, including some small sections of coastal South America, parts of north west Africa, a few regions of central and southern Asia, and parts of far west and southern Australia.
• Austria observed precipitation that was 160 percent of the 1981–2010 average for November, making this the country’s wettest November since 2002. Regions from Unterkärnten to Middle Burgenland saw November precipitation totals that were their highest since 1949.
• The September–November period was about 40 percent wetter than average across The Netherlands. De Bilt had its third wettest fall since records began in 1906.

Global temperature highlights: Year-to-date

November 2013 Global Supplemental Information.

• The first 11 months of 2013 tied with 2002 as the fourth warmest such period on record, with a combined global land and ocean average surface temperature of 1.12°F (0.62°C) above the 20^th century average of 57.0°F (13.9°C). The margin of error is ±0.18°F (0.10°C).
• The January–November worldwide land surface temperature was 1.76°F (0.98°C) above the 20^th century average, also tying with 2002 as the fourth warmest such period on record. The margin of error is ±0.38°F (0.21°C).
• The global ocean surface temperature for the year-to-date was 0.86°F (0.48°C) above average, tying with 2006 as the eighth warmest such period on record. The margin of error is ±0.07°F (0.04°C).
• A supplemental page shows three potential annual temperature outcomes for 2013, based on three simple

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Methane Hydrates and Global Warming

Jan. 2, 2014 — Off the coast of Svalbard methane gas flares originating from gas hydrate deposits at depth of several hundred metres have been observed regularly. A new study conducted by an international team under the leadership of scientists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and MARUM — Center for Marine Environmental Sciences in Bremen shows, that the observed outgassing is most likely caused by natural processes and can not be attributed to global warming.