Author: Neville

Thirty-six links in the chain will wipe the smirk off Ian Macdonald’s face

Amy Dale and Vanda Carson
The Daily Telegraph
February 12, 201312:00AM

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Obeid mine licence just luck -…
Ian Macdonald

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Obeid mine licence just luck – Macdonald

Ian Macdonald denies granting a coal exploration licence in order to financially benefit the Obeid family.

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Disgraced … Ian Macdonald arrives at ICAC / Pic: Cameron Richardson Source: The Daily Telegraph

IAN Macdonald was yesterday branded a “liar” over his attempts to explain away the “wicked chances” which saw the family of Eddie Obeid rake in millions from an allegedly corrupt coal deal.

As the former mining minister was grilled about how former Labor powerbroker Mr Obeid and his family made as much as $100 million from a coal mining venture under his watch, he was hit with the uncomfortable news that the fiercest of the interrogation was still to come.

Today is set to be ICAC’s most important day – with 36 links to be revealed which the corruption watchdog alleges add up to the highest-level corruption in NSW for 200 years.

The parting words of counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson SC as Mr Macdonald stepped down from the witness box after an hour in the hot seat were that he had touched on only four of 40 coincidences supporting the accusation the former minister rigged the tender process on a coal mining exploration licence for the lucrative benefit of “his friends the Obeids”.

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A few words in mate’s ear»

IAN Macdonald’s former chief of staff was paid $740,000 by miners to lobby his close friend and admitted yesterday he might have urged his former boss to reopen the tender process on behalf of mining company White Energy.
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Smile could well become a grimace»

HE entered and left with the grin of a Cheshire Cat. But after years to prepare himself for his answer to the reason he put a mining tenement on former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid’s farm, the best Ian Macdonald could offer was that he spotted the coal tenement on an atlas in his office – an atlas which he no longer had.
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Macdonald denies lying about Obeid land»

DISGRACED former minister Ian Macdonald has denied he created a coal mining tenement in the Bylong Valley of NSW to benefit the Obeid family.
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The inquiry heard that those four coincidences were: The request from Mr Macdonald for information about coal reserves a day after a May 2008 conversation with Mr Obeid, the creation of the Mt Penny tenement “smack bang” on top of the family’s property, emails about the little-known area where the tenement is and that secret maps of the site fell into Obeid hands.

Two months after the inquiry began with an explosive opening address comparing the actions of Mr Macdonald and Mr Obeid to the Rum Corps, at 2.57pm yesterday Ian Michael Macdonald confirmed his name and gave an affirmation to tell the truth.

His evidence had been anticipated all day by the scores of court watchers who lined up from 8am to get a seat inside ICAC’s hearing room, but he was preceded by the last of Eddie Obeid’s sons Eddie Jr, his former chief-of-staff Tony Hewson and accountant Bill Sweeney in the stand.Within moments Mr Macdonald and Mr Watson were sparring over maps of the Mt Penny tenement. The inquiry was told the tenement, created by Mr Macdonald in June, 2008, fell “smack bang on top of the Obeid family farm”.

“How did it come about that this tenement was created over the Obeid family farm while you were the mining minister? Is that a coincidence?” Mr Watson asked.

Mr Macdonald replied: “I did not know about the Obeids having the farm in the new area. I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or not.”

The inquiry has heard evidence from two of the state’s most senior geologists, who both said they had never heard of Mt Penny before the ICAC inquiry, but Mr Macdonald said he was directed to the area by a now misplaced atlas he kept in his office.

“I’ll be blunt. I’m suggesting you’re a liar and you’re making this up,” Mr Watson said, to which Mr Macdonald replied: “That’s not right.”

But he echoed the evidence of Mr Obeid and his five sons in being unable to explain how confidential maps of the area were found at the family’s office during a raid by ICAC investigators in 2011.

“You’re calling for reserves in the Mt Penny area of the Bylong Valley and this map goes in the possession of the Obeids,” Mr Watson asked Mr Macdonald.

“Are you just saying that is some sort of wicked chance?”

“It’s got nothing to do with me, I didn’t give it to him,” Mr Macdonald said.

High fliers get huge tax break

ANDREW CARSWELL
The Daily Telegraph
February 12, 20139:07AM

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SENIOR politicians and judges remain immune from paying an increase in superannuation contributions tax, – despite federal government claims the rise would hit all high-income earners.

The loophole has allowed Prime Minister Julia Gillard to avoid paying $151,000 in annual tax on her generous post-career pension, while also gifting Treasurer Wayne Swan and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott $80,000 and $70,000 respectively.

In its budget last year the government announced it would double the amount of tax on superannuation contributions from Australians who earn more than $300,000, taking the tax from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.

But amid claims of double standards, federal politicians who were voted in before changes to the pension scheme were enacted in 2004 are not required to pay the tax on their defined benefit scheme – their for-life pensions – because they weren’t deemed to be contributions.

It is a similar case for judges and key bureaucrats, including the Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens who, according to Rice Warner, one of the nation’s key actuary and superannuation consultants, would have paid at least $53,000 if the tax increase for all workers earning more than $300,000 was applied.

Despite repeated claims by the government that it was looking at the issue, no draft legislation has been forthcoming, gifting 128,000 high-earners a year off from paying the increase, and allowing those on defined benefit schemes to pay little or no tax at all on their superannuation payments.

Superannuation experts believe both Treasury and the Australian Tax Office are struggling to include senior politicians and judges in their mooted super legislation and are yet to find an equitable solution. They are scrambling to have legislation introduced by June 30, legislation that Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten’s office claims will include politicians and judges.

“The measure will apply to federal politicians earning over $300,000, including those in defined benefit schemes,” a spokesman for Mr Shorten said.

Australian Super Funds Association boss Pauline Vamos said the government had its work cut out applying the tax to all high-income earners.

“The ability to apply the tax is quite hard because of the way defined benefit funds work, because you don’t actually pay contributions. What Treasury is still trying to do is figure out how they can apply the legislation to catch all high-income taxpayers,” Ms Vamos said

Michael Rice, of Rice Warner, said a gross imbalance remained that had to be rectified. But he doubted the government would be able to put the tax on all high-income earners who use a defined benefit scheme.

“It is phenomenally generous compared to what the rest of the nation gets,” Mr Rice said.

s”There is no particular reason why judges are being treated differently. It is hard to think that they are underpaid. Those funds should be closed for good, at least for newcomers.

“But politicians and judges will argue that it is retrospective to change people’s employment conditions.”

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Mining tax review on cards after MP pressure

Date February 12, 2013
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Mark Kenny

Senior political correspondent

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Mining tax volatile or just plain bad?

Why aren’t Australian tax payers getting more from their mining tax? Kelly O’Dwyer MP and Sen. Louise Pratt in the studio.
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THE federal government could change its underperforming Minerals Resource Rent Tax after pressure by the Opposition, the Greens, independents, and even from within its own party room.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said the issue of refunding royalties was still on the table with the states’ premiers, while the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said the tax itself would be reviewed.

”We will look at the performance of this tax, in light of prices, in the normal way, by our Treasury and, of course, by our tax department,” Mr Swan told Parliament.

The comments follow the government’s reluctant admission that the MRRT, which is a watered-down version of Kevin Rudd’s stymied super-profits tax, had generated only a fraction of the projected revenue.

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On Friday, Mr Swan said the tax had raised only $126 million in the first half of 2012-13, well short of $2 billion predicted for the full financial year.

The admission has embarrassed the government, which had already allocated the anticipated funds to a series of programs aimed at shoring up its electoral base, including increasing the superannuation guarantee from 9 per cent to 12 per cent, and the abolition of tax on superannuation contributions for the low paid.

The government blames the tax shortfall on low iron-ore prices in 2012, plus the belligerence of state governments in increasing mining royalties that have to be refunded to miners under the terms of the MRRT.

The tax’s shortcomings dominated Parliament on Monday, frustrating Labor’s attempts to move to its preferred ground of industrial relations with changes to the Fair Work Act to improve protection for vulnerable workers.

A raft of government questions centred on extending the existing right to ask employers for flexibility on working hours to women subject to domestic violence, and parents returning from parental leave.

Labor wants to draw the Coalition into a debate on industrial relations in the hope of reviving memories of the unpopular Work Choices laws introduced by the Coalition under John Howard’s leadership.

However, the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has stuck with the issues of the economy and the mining tax.

He asked if Ms Gillard retained her confidence in Mr Swan given ”the Treasurer’s failure to deliver the promised surplus this financial year; his failure to collect more than 10 per cent of the promised $9 billion in mining tax revenue, and his failure to deliver on his promise to create a least 500,000 new jobs in two years”.

The Prime Minister was asked if she would rule out design changes to the mining tax.

In her reply, Ms Gillard said state governments had been ”reckless” in increasing mining royalties, and indicated that the GST Distribution Review had advised that the situation was ”unsustainable and undesirable”.

”Interestingly enough, the Opposition that has always criticised an efficient profits-based tax in minerals has gone tick, tick, tick to Liberal royalty increases around the country,” she said.

In another development, the shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey, has dashed hopes of releasing the Coalition’s costed policies soon, after advice from the Parliamentary Budget Office that the most reliable budget baseline will not be known until the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report is finalised.

That brought a withering response from Mr Swan. ”This is a deeply deceptive ruse from the Coalition to hide the impact of their policy proposals from the Australian people,” he said.

”The idea that the Coalition can refuse to release what any of their policies cost until deep into the campaign is unprecedented.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/mining-tax-review-on-cards-after-mp-pressure-20130211-2e8wk.html#ixzz2KddM0ZTy

Will it be cloudy on my birthday in 2015? (Hot new projects part 2)
Posted: Thursday, 7th February, 2013 | Author: Kirsten Lea | Filed under: General, Solar energy & the grid | Tags: ASI, CSIRO, Forecasting, solar, solar energy |Leave a comment »

We’re not quite sure why you’d need to know that, but if you owned a solar power station you’d be very interested in the weather forecast in 2015 we assure you!

Clouds have a huge impact on solar power. In fact, photovoltaic generation can drop by up to 60 per cent in seconds when a cloud passes over the solar panels.
Cloudy days will always be around but forecasting systems enable us to plan for them and use storage and other techniques to provide a reliable electricity supply. Image: istock

Cloudy days will always be around but forecasting systems enable us to plan for them and use storage and other techniques to provide a reliable electricity supply. Image: istock

Last year CSIRO released a world first report on this cloudy issue; we recognised that intermittency (cloud covering up the sun) is a major barrier to development of large-scale solar energy power plants and recommended that a solar forecasting system would help solve the issue.

Why is it such a big deal? For two major reasons: the grid and investor confidence.

The electricity grid requires a stable, consistent supply of electricity otherwise the grid becomes very difficult to manage and things like blackouts can occur. Intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar can be a tricky energy source – naturally they do not generate a consistent supply of energy. However, through forecasting we can predict the amount of solar power that will be generated over days, weeks and even years. In this way the grid network can plan ahead and build in the solar power to the general supply.

Investors aren’t going to invest in commercial-scale solar power until we can predict their energy yield, which is directly affected by intermittency, or the amount of clouds passing overhead. Map the clouds and you map the yield, which then gives investors a much better idea of the bang they get for their buck.

So there’s the problem… now for the solution! That’s where our $7.6 million forecasting project comes in.

Australian solar energy forecasting system (ASEFS)

Announced in mid December 2012 by the Australian Solar Institute (now ARENA), this project is huge. CSIRO and partners; the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Bureau of Meteorology, University of NSW, University of South Australia, US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will together change the future of large-scale solar in Australia, we have no doubt!

We will be using cloud forecasting techniques and data from across Australia to provide accurate solar forecasts ranging from the next five minutes up to seven days. In addition, we will be able to provide power plants with solar predictions for up to two years in advance. Imagine knowing the weather report two years in advance!

The expert running the project is CSIRO’s Dr Peter Coppin. He was also involved in CSIRO’s wind forecasting work a few years back. We asked him a couple of questions about ASEFS:

What are you most looking forward to with this project?

The most exciting aspect of this project is bringing the best possible solar forecasting to the Australian electricity system. It means we will be able to have much more solar power on the grid that we would otherwise been able to host.

What are the benefits of working with a number of partners?

This project has been able to bring together the best scientists from Australia, USA and Germany to work with the system engineers who can actually make the clever developments happen. Together we will build the world’s most advanced operational solar forecasting system.

Govt drops pension deeming rates

AAPFebruary 12, 2013, 8:01 am

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More than 750,000 pensioners will benefit from a drop in deeming rates, the federal government says.

Pension deeming rates will be reduced from March 20.

The decision will provide part-rate pensioners with an average pension increase of $6.80 per fortnight, Families Minister Jeny Macklin said in a statement on Tuesday.

Deeming rates reflect the standard rates of return that pensioners can earn from their financial assets.

They are used to determine how much pensioners receive under means-testing rules.

The lower deeming rate will decrease from three per cent to 2.5 per cent for financial investments up to $45,400 for single pensioners or $75,600 for a couple.
The upper deeming rate will decrease from 4.5 per cent to 4 per cent for balances over these amounts.

The high seas are too precious to be left to plunderers and polluters

Only now with the launch of the Global Ocean Commission are we finally addressing the ravages of the oceans
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Callum Roberts

The Observer, Sunday 10 February 2013

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The ‘endangered’ bluefin tuna: ‘Many high seas fisheries have little or no protection.’ Photograph: Brian J. Skerry/Getty Images/National Geographic

The oceans are changing faster today and in more ways than at any time in human history. We are the cause. Which is why I welcome the launch of the Global Ocean Commission, dedicated to ending the neglect, in international affairs, of the high seas. These seas lie far beyond the horizon – 200 nautical miles offshore to be precise – and begin where sovereign national waters give way to the global commons, owned by none, shared by all.

There was a time when foreign travel gave many people a familiarity with the high seas. Rather than a few hours in a plane, “long haul” often meant days or weeks spent staring at an endless canvas of sea and sky. Today, few of us know much about what happens beyond the horizon and still fewer care. Like all common spaces, the high seas are vulnerable to misuse and abuse. Our indifference is costing the world dear for the high seas are being plundered.

For most of our maritime history, the open oceans have been seen as dangerous places to be traversed as quickly as possible. Remote and enduring, they were home to giant fish and whales; seabirds wandered their featureless expanses and ancient corals grew in the eternal darkness of the abyss.

Whalers were first to spot the high seas’ potential as a source of wealth, slaughtering their way through the 19th and 20th centuries until the great whales were a few breaths from extinction. Ocean-going seabirds such as albatross and petrels were also early victims of exploitation due to the vulnerability of coastal nesting sites. But commercial fishing was a relative latecomer.

Fishing began in earnest in the 1950s as long-line and drift-net fleets sought profit in open ocean species such as tuna, swordfish, marlin and shark. By the 1980s, they were everywhere. The huge collateral damage done by these fisheries soon caused alarm. Drift nets spread lethal curtains tens of miles long killing indiscriminately, taking turtles, whales and dolphins alongside the target fish. They were banned by the UN in 1992 but long lines studded with tens of thousands of hooks continue the massacre. Enough long lines are set every night to wrap around the globe 500 times.

In a separate development, from the 1960s, Soviet and European vessels began to probe deeper in response to the decline of their shallow water fish stocks. They found riches on the Atlantic frontier, where continental shelves fall away into the deep, and around the summits of submerged offshore mountains. But these fisheries have proved highly vulnerable to overexploitation. Within the space of a few decades, species such as the roundnose grenadier and orange roughy have become so depleted they are considered threatened with extinction.

Deep sea fisheries carry another high cost in loss of coral forests and sponge groves. Life is glacial in the frigid inkiness of the deep, so these habitats have developed over thousands of years, sustained by table scraps sinking from a narrow surface layer where sunlight fuels plant growth. The bottom trawls that are used to catch fish cut down animals that are hundreds or even thousands of years old.

Without ever making a conscious decision to do it, we are losing unseen habitats whose equals on land would include the giant redwood glades of North America, the baobabs of Madagascar and Amazon rainforest.

Where are the regulators in all of this? Many high seas fisheries have little or no protection. Regional fisheries management organisations, where they exist, have been charged by the United Nations with management of fish stocks such as tuna. The best of them are sleeping on the job; the worst, as with the “management” of the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna, make decisions in the full knowledge that what they are doing is destroying what they are supposed to protect.

Fishing is not the only problem. Remote as they seem, the high seas are no further than anywhere else from the inescapable influence of climate change, nor are they beyond the reach of pollution. Mercury and industrial emissions from power plants and industry shed their toxic loads far out to sea. Chemicals concentrate in the surface layer that separates air from water and can quickly leapfrog across thousands of miles of ocean in wind-whipped aerosols.

Circulating currents gather the floating refuse of modern society into enormous regions that have been dubbed the “great ocean garbage patches”. Over the years, drifting plastics fragment into ever-smaller particles that pick up and concentrate chemical pollutants such as mercury and DDT. Small fish mistake plastics for food and pass chemicals up the food chain until they reach the flesh of animals we eat, like tuna and sharks. What goes around comes around.

If this were all we had to fix, it would be challenge enough. But there is more. Climate change is enlarging the deserts of the sea as surely as it is doing so on land. Surface waters of the open ocean have all the light but few nutrients, which severely limits productivity. Most of the time, upward mixing of nutrients is inhibited by a density barrier between the warm and light surface layer and cold, dense water below. Global warming is heating the surface ocean, making it even harder to cross between these layers. This in turn is starving deeper waters of oxygen that has to mix downwards from the atmosphere and surface plants. The living space in the oceans is shrinking.

There is one final blow to the integrity of the oceans that may yet prove the heaviest of all. Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is building up in the sea as well as the atmosphere. There, it forms carbonic acid (as in fizzy drinks). Acid is the nemesis of carbonate, the basic ingredient of chalk and a fundamental building block of ocean life, including shellfish, corals and plankton. If we do nothing to curtail emissions, ocean acidity will soar by the century’s end toward levels not experienced for 55 million years in a period of runaway global warming. It is difficult to predict the exact outcome, but let’s just say that last time around, corals and chalky plankton suffered badly.

We carry on today much as we have done for thousands of years, using natural resources as if they were endless. But population growth changes everything. We must get to grips with the consequences of our planetary dominance, otherwise the consequences will master us.

Out of sight and out of mind they may be, but the high seas are vital to everyone. By virtue of their sheer size they play a dominant role in the processes that keep our world habitable. They are too big for us to let them fail. The Global Oceans Commission has urgent work to do.

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