Author: Neville

Community winning on CSG
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Paul Oosting – GetUp!

2:21 PM (16 minutes ago)

to me
Dear NEVILLE,

You are winning the fight against coal seam gas!

People power has today shown it is more powerful than the coal seam gas companies like AGL, Origin, Metgasco, Dart Energy and others! A network of community groups and individuals, led by Lock the Gate have organised a widespread defence of their communities, land and the environment. GetUp members like you have been a key part of this grass-roots movement, chipping in to run TV, newspaper and radio ads, attending events and rallies, lobbying your local MPs, making submissions to government inquiries and assessment processes and reaching out to your friends and family to make sure they know of the risks from CSG.

As a result the Premier has said that legal exclusion zones will be put in place around all residential areas and future residential growth areas. That means much of NSW, including all residential areas, no matter the size of the town, will be protected from new CSG expansion. For those in rural areas that aren’t yet protected, there’s more work to do; but today is an encouraging sign.

Furthermore, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) will be given new powers as the industry watchdog, with the power to revoke CSG licenses and the State’s chief scientist will be appointed to review impacts of CSG mining not covered by these reforms. There are also proposed exclusion zones around some industries such as vineyards and thoroughbred breeders.

We still have to ensure these commitments are delivered and that the other major impacts of CSG are addressed, such as the impact on:

People living in non-residential areas such as on farms;
Productive agricultural land;
Water catchments and aquifers; and
Natural assets like the Piliga Forest and other high conservation value areas.

Credit where credit is due. There is still more work to do but it is important we celebrate and consolidate this important and significant milestone. Please contact Premier Barry O’Farrell and thank him for this important commitment and urge him to deliver similar protections for farmers and agricultural land and natural areas too: Click here to tweet @BarryOFarrell, or click here to send him an email.

Together we’ve achieved so much and together we’ll need to remain vigilant to ensure these reforms and promises are delivered and that the impact of CSG on farmers, water and natural areas are addressed. If you’d like to support the continuing CSG campaign please donate here: www.getup.org.au/chip-in

Again, congratulations on what is your significant achievement.
Paul for the GetUp team. GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

Greens end Labor alliance
Yahoo!7 February 19, 2013, 1:01 pm

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Greens leader Christine Milne has used her speech to the National Press Club to announce the end of her party’s alliance with Labor.

Citing a growing rift in environmental policies on coal seam gas and coal mining, Ms Milne said Labor had effectively ended the alliance signed following the 2010 election.

“So be it”, she said.

Ms Milne said she is still determined that parliament would run its full term, and that an election will be held on September 14.
More to come

Final nail in PM’s coffin

Date
February 19, 2013
Category
Opinion

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David Day

Julia Gillard’s lack of leadership has spurred on her inevitable demise.

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Gillard trending down: Pollster

Worrying numbers for the Gillard government in the first Fairfax/Nielsen poll of 2013. John Stirton discusses the results.

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To paraphrase Labor’s campaign slogan in 1972, it’s only a matter of time. Politically, Julia Gillard is a dead woman walking. The Prime Minister may dismiss the latest polls, but the trend is clear. With a trio of polls all pointing in the same direction, they spell her certain demise.

If it doesn’t happen at the hands of her colleagues, it will happen at the hands of the Australian electors in September. Her colleagues may talk of it being a communication problem, but it’s much more than that. The Prime Minister is too low in the esteem of Australian voters to survive. Even her advantage over Tony Abbott among women voters has been eroded.

Some Australians might admire her steely strength and her negotiating skills, but her propensity for political stumbles have seen her repeatedly fall flat on her face. The September election date and the resignation of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans were just the latest of them.
Illustration: John Spooner.

Illustration: John Spooner.

More importantly, she has provided no clear direction as to where she is leading the country. As Paul Keating might say, the ”vision thing” is missing. This has not been entirely her fault. As leader of a minority government, she has had to spend more time managing the bilge pumps and less time on the bridge. She knows how to steer but not where to steer.
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The dominating issue of her government has been the carbon price. Although she was steadfast in her implementation of it, she did not convince Australians that she was personally committed to cutting carbon emissions. It wasn’t helped by stories of her having argued against the implementation of a carbon price when Kevin Rudd was prime minister. Nor was it helped by the measure being introduced only because of an electoral deal with the Greens.

With the carbon price in place, the government should be earning kudos from the many Australians who care about the environment and are concerned about human-induced climate change. But the carbon price is more than offset politically by the government’s uncritical support for the coal and the coal seam gas industries.

And the contradictions don’t end there. When in opposition, Julia Gillard attacked the Howard government for its heartless, punitive policy towards asylum seekers, but then introduced much more punitive policies herself. What does she really believe on this issue? As on so many other things, the electorate has been left wondering. Apart from the harm and the cost, it’s not calculated to impress the voters in either trendy Balmain or western Sydney.

The Prime Minister has also disappointed many Australians with a foreign policy that is not discernibly different from that of John Howard. She kept the troops in Afghanistan and has thrown Australia open to American bases. She has rejected another referendum on the republic and keeps the portrait of the Queen at naturalisation ceremonies.

The only policy on which she has showed any passion has been education. And that was personal. She’d got ahead because of a good government school in Adelaide and wanted to improve the education system so that others could follow in her footsteps. Then, after commissioning the Gonski report, which showed how those improvements could be achieved, she has shrunk from implementing them.

On the question of jobs, the Prime Minister has left the running to Tony Abbott. Almost every night last year he appeared on the television news alongside workers in a factory or a shop bemoaning the policies of the Labor government and promising to create more jobs. Although his proposed sacking of public servants and harsher industrial relations policies would not be good for workers, Julia Gillard has not shown sufficient commitment to protect Australian workers. She seems content to have unemployment at about 5 per cent, to have about 15 per cent of school-leavers without a job and to punish unemployed workers with an unfair Newstart Allowance.

Indeed, despite the barbs about Rudd’s background, Julia Gillard has turned out to be less of a Labor leader than her predecessor. And on some limited measures relating to family allowances and foreign policy even less of a Labor leader than her Liberal predecessor, John Howard.

For the first 18 months or so, she rarely mentioned the fact that she was leading a Labor government and was pushing progressive policies because that’s what a Labor government does.

Her admirers like to tell us that in private the Prime Minister is warm and funny and kind to her staff. But few get the opportunity to see that side. Although it certainly helps, electors don’t have to like a politician to vote for them. However, they do have to feel that the Prime Minister cares about their welfare and they need a clear sense of the direction in which the PM is leading the country.

Kevin Rudd is in a sweet place. He has been humiliated twice by Julia Gillard and his caucus colleagues, once when he was swiftly deposed and again last February when he was forced to bring on a challenge before he had secured the numbers.

Now he can wait for the knock on the door if caucus forces the Prime Minister to go. Or he can wait for the bitter-sweet satisfaction that will come when Julia Gillard leads Labor to a humiliating defeat.

David Day is an honorary associate at La Trobe University and has written biographies of three Labor prime ministers. He is currently writing a biography of Paul Keating.

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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/final-nail-in-pms-coffin-20130218-2end2.html#ixzz2LIyAdjei

Greens to call for mining tax inquiry

AAPUpdated February 19, 2013, 10:55 am

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The Australian Greens will push for another inquiry into the mining tax to try to work out why the big resource giants aren’t paying as much as expected.

Greens leader Christine Milne has challenged Labor to work with the minor party toward fixing the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) before parliament breaks for winter at the end of June.

Labor MPs have ruled out redesigning the tax despite it only raising $126 million in its first six months of operation – well below the forecast $2 billion over 2012/13.

Senator Milne on Tuesday is expected to discuss the Greens agenda, such as calls for a MRRT inquiry, in an address to the National Press Club.

She said mining giants like Rio Tinto were “celebrating” the fact they hadn’t paid any tax on their super profits.

“Meanwhile the pockets of single parents have been raided to make up the shortfall,” Senator Milne told ABC radio on Tuesday.

“What we need to do is get to the bottom of exactly how flawed this tax is, and what has to be done to fix it.”

She said the Greens had the “courage” to stand up to the mining giants in an election year, but questioned whether any of the major parties had the mettle.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said a coalition government would scrap the MRRT so there was no need for another inquiry.

He said it was a bad tax that penalises the economy’s strongest sector.

“You do not build prosperity by whacking the economy with new taxes,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
“No country has ever taxed its way to prosperity, so we think this tax should be scrapped not reviewed.”

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Avoiding the Unadaptable: A 4°C World
Avoiding the Unadaptable: A 4°C World
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With increasing concern that global emission reductions are too little and too late to limit temperature rise to 2°C or less, attention is turning to the implications of much more severe climate change.

The World Bank recently released a report – Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided – that directly addresses those implications. Written by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the report pulls together the latest research from experts around the world to profile the impacts and risks associated with a 4°C temperature rise within this century. It is a sobering read.

Where are we now?

Before we dive into the 4°C world, though, let’s take stock of where we are at the beginning of 2013. The atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is 391 parts per million (ppm), the highest for the last 15 million years. The global average temperature has risen by 0.8°C compared to the pre-industrial level. The sea level has risen 15-20 cm over the past century, and is now rising at an average of about 3 mm per year.

Extreme climatic events are also changing, most notably heat waves. Since 1950 there has been a 10-fold increase in the land areas affected by extreme heat; the chance that such an increase would occur naturally, without any influence of human-induced climate change, is only 1-in-500. In some regions, extreme droughts and flooding may also have been exacerbated by climate change.
Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

Coral reefs are vulnerable to increasing ocean temperatures and ocean acidification.

What would a 4°C world by the end of this century look like?

To put such a remarkable climatic shift in perspective, it is useful to examine the geological past. A 4°C temperature rise would approach the total temperature difference between an ice age and a warm period. While the Earth took at least 5,000 years to transition out of the last ice age, allowing ecosystems time to adapt, the projected 4°C world would be upon us in only 100 years!

A 4°C average temperature rise means even hotter conditions over the land, up to 6°C over widespread areas. Today’s most extreme weather would become the “new normal”, with large increases in the risks of heat-related deaths, intense bushfires and crop harvest losses.

Ocean acidification would lead to the extinction of many of the world’s coral reefs. A 4°C world corresponds to a carbon dioxide concentration of around 800 ppm, and a 150% increase in ocean acidity compared to pre-industrial. Coral growth virtually stops at 450 ppm CO2 and hard coral structures start to dissolve at 550 ppm.

Sea level is set to rise by a further 0.5 to 1 m by 2100, but a 4°C temperature rise this century would push the odds towards the upper end of that range. Sea-level rise will continue for many centuries after 2100, given the thermal inertia in the oceans and large polar ice sheets. Evidence from climate shifts in Earth’s past shows that a 1.5°C global temperature rise would mean an eventual 5-10 m sea level rise, while a sustained 4°C world would commit us to significantly larger rises. The most vulnerable areas to even modest levels of sea-level rise are many of the small island states and coastal cities in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The implications for human support systems – food, water and ecosystem health – are severe. There is some evidence that wheat and maize production may have been reduced since the 1980s compared to an environment without climate change. Many areas of the world are projected to become significantly drier in a 4°C world; these include southern Europe, much of Africa, parts of North and South America, and southwest and southeast Australia. Ironically, the risk of both extended and severe droughts and severe flooding is likely to increase. The rapidly changing climate that a 4°C world implies will lead to accelerating disruption to ecosystems and increase the probability of a mass extinction event this century.

Many abrupt, irreversible or surprising changes in the global environment are much more likely to occur with a 4°C rise this century compared to 2°C or less. Such changes include large-scale population displacements as rainfall patterns change; the triggering of “tipping elements” such as destabilization of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets and loss of large amounts of methane, a strong greenhouse gas, from melting permafrost; and complex, cascading impacts such as the 2007-08 food crisis.
Wheat crop

The implications for food production are severe as large areas of the world are projected to become drier.

Where are we heading?

The report concluded that “…there is a strong possibility that humanity cannot adapt to a 4°C world.” Yet, current policies, trends and emission reduction commitments have us on track for just such a world.

Although the situation appears bleak, and there is a growing sense of panic in those who really understand what a 4°C world might be like, the report also gives some hope, “But with action, a 4°C world can be avoided and we can likely hold warming below 2°C.”

The time for that action, however, is rapidly running out.

Author: Will Steffen
Tags: 4°C world, Climate Commission, World Bank
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Swan says Labor must win election

By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen

Updated 1 hour 32 minutes ago

Photo: Must win: Wayne Swan will address the AWU today. (Alan Porritt: AAP)

Related Story: Gillard calls on unions as polls plunge

Related Story: AWU boss Howes pledges support for Gillard

Related Story: Gillard brushes off poll slump as Abbott surges

Map: Australia
Treasurer Wayne Swan believes Labor can and must win this year’s election, although there is growing despondency within party ranks about the Government’s performance.

In a speech to be delivered at the Australian Workers Union (AWU) national conference later today, Mr Swan will tell delegates that Labor is facing one of the toughest elections battles in many years.

“Many of the usual pundits have written us off. My advice is to not listen to them,” Mr Swan will say.

“There’s no sure thing in a two-horse race, especially when one of the jockeys is called Tony Abbott.

“We can win. We have to.”

His speech comes a day after the release of a devastating opinion poll for Labor, which showed the Coalition would win in a landslide if the results were replicated on election day.

It also comes after Prime Minister Julia Gillard issued a rallying call to the unions in her own speech last night.

Ms Gillard’s leadership is coming under pressure as some Labor MPs consider the merits of reinstalling Kevin Rudd as prime minister. Mr Rudd insists he will not challenge for the position, saying the discussion needs to be put in “cryogenic storage”.

There has been internal criticism of Mr Swan’s performance as Treasurer in recent days, following last week’s initial refusal to rule out personal income tax hikes and later getting the unemployment rate wrong.

Video: PM issues call to arms to unions during address to AWU conference. (ABC News)

But he has sought to defend Labor’s economic legacy, arguing the Government has successfully steered the country through the worst of the global financial crisis and grown Australia’s economy at a time when others have shrunk or stagnated.

“I often think to myself, if only we’d got our chance when things were booming,” Mr Swan will say, according to excerpts of his speech provided to the media.

“We wouldn’t have wasted the boom years the way John Howard and Peter Costello did.

There’s no sure thing in a two-horse race, especially when one of the jockeys is called Tony Abbott.

Wayne Swan

“But whilst we all would have preferred the global financial crisis never happened, we should feel extremely proud of the things we have achieved together.”

AWU national secretary Paul Howes yesterday warned delegates they would be in the “fight of their lives” if the Coalition won the election, due to be held on September 14.

“The Liberals do not believe in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. They do not believe in good Aussie jobs. They do not believe in looking after the battler,” Mr Howes said.

“That’s why we have to prepare ourselves for the fight of our lives.”

Mr Swan will tell the AWU gathering that the Coalition has become “radicalised” by extreme right-wing political elements, similar to the Tea Party movement in the United States, and a Tony Abbott victory would mean a return to Howard-era workplace relations policies.

“The Liberals truly believe that the adversarial workplace relations system of the Howard government was the ‘golden age’,” he will say.

“They would rather see employer pitted against worker.

“Mark my words on this – whatever pledges Tony Abbott makes in blood, whatever he claims is dead, buried and cremated, whatever name he chooses for it, he will bring back the worst elements of WorkChoices.”

Some Coalition MPs want to make substantial changes to the Fair Work Act, but Mr Abbott has previously said that any amendments will be “careful, cautious (and) prudent”.

Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann has responded to Mr Swan’s speech on Twitter, saying: “How desperate must Swan be getting to try and link Coalition to US ‘extremists’. As if anyone reasonable takes anything he says seriously.”

Topics:federal-government, government-and-politics, unions, federal-elections, australia

First posted 4 hours 5 minutes ago

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