Backflip: Labor may adopt Tony Abbott “Direct Action Plan” but keep 45% brutal target?

A week is a long time in politics. Ideas that were stupid this time last Friday are suddenly mainstream.

Scratching to pick themselves up, the Labor Party may adopt Tony Abbott’s flagship program, but still cling to the idea that we can do a 45% reduction without major sacrifices. The Liberals must be praying the ALP keeps that target. What a gift for the 2022 election.

Even the Labor Party recognises that the anti-Abbott vote in Warringah doesn’t represent broader Australia:

Climate changes: Labor push to lighten green policies

 Ben Packham, The Australian

Labor is considering rejecting Scott Morrison’s mandate to ­deliver his full $158 billion in personal income tax cuts while flagging a dramatic shift on climate change policy and adopting a Tony Abbott-style “direct action” plan to cut carbon emissions.

Dear Labor Party — it’s not just the “market based mechanism” that stinks:

The warning came as Labor ­environment spokesman Tony Burke suggested the party needed to rethink its support for market-based mechanisms to cut carbon emissions, after its plan to use of international carbon credits to cut emissions was rejected by voters amid a row over the cost of the ­policy.

Suddenly the Labor Party is the spokesman for “the environmental movement”? Seriously?

“The Right and the environmental movement have shifted to a direct action model,” Mr Burke told the ABC.

Burke — sticks to double barrel denial: 1/ Denies there is “action” (while adopting the non-existent “inaction” plan as their own?) And 2/ pretends that “it’s less efficient” when Abbots plan cost 300 times less than the their carbon tax. Define “efficient”?

“Every other theory will tell you it is less efficient, and it is less efficient. But we are heading down the path now, once we get to the end of the next term, we will have had inaction for the past 15 years and that is not counting the 12 years the Howard government did nothing.

“We now need to be at the table of working through what are the other ways of reaching targets ­beyond simply saying we’ll have a market mechanism.”

Labor became bogged down in the election campaign over its ­“uncosted” plan to lower carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, while Mr Morrison had a $3.5bn direct action plan to cut emissions by 26 per cent.

Greg Brown, The Australian

Mr Burke said Labor should keep its 45 per cent emissions target but achieve it through direct action, which his party had previously ridiculed.

In other backflips: Amazing how fast the black-throated finch could be saved.

Adani mine: work on project could start in just three weeks

  • by Sarah Elks

Adani could start building its controversial coalmine in just three weeks, after besieged Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared she’d had a “gutful” of delays in her own government’s approvals of the project.

Ms Palaszczuk today said there had been a “breakthrough” in the impasse over Adani, declaring in Cairns that the deadline for a decision on Adani’s management plan for the endangered black-throated finch was May 31, while the decision on the company’s groundwater strategy would occur on June 13.

9.4 out of 10 based on 67 ratings

185 comments to Backflip: Labor may adopt Tony Abbott “Direct Action Plan” but keep 45% brutal target?

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    The Left has embraced a Greenist lunacy it cant contain, and will consume them……

    200

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      They’re struggling. No doubt. They’re in pain.

      The level of internal disintegration is growing as they consume each other in public.

      They just don’t get it do they? They need to take a leaf out of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s book. Read what the electorate has said and act accordingly. Burke has always been a bit of a berk, so it should come as no surprise that he performs true to form

      It’s part of the reason the electorate refuse to have them in government.

      181

      • #
        Vladimir

        Every Labor politician is suffering this week but only behaves in such a disgusting dishonest way. How can she even appear in public and demand action !!?

        100

      • #
        wal1957

        Palachook is an embarrassment.
        The only reason that she retained power in Qld is that the Libs up here are as useless as ….. on a bull!

        50

        • #
          Ted O'Brien

          Hang on a bit. I thought she won the election because Pauline Hanson told people to put sitting members last. In my view one of the few really dumb things Pauline has done.

          10

    • #
      george1st:)

      Exactly , the only “inaction” I see is their brain cells . The other “inaction” particularly in S.A and Vic of building wind and solar farms whilst destroying real power has resulted in terrible costs to our communities with Zero gain to their objective .

      30

  • #
    Sambar

    Meanwhile Greens senator Adam Bant is saying that more civil unrest is the answer to the democratically elected governments plan. Clearly Australia is full of unintelligent people who WILL do as they are told by, what was it 9% of people that voted for the greens

    260

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      That’s all they know, yelling and screaming threats at anyone who disagrees with them. I suppose it’s one version of “debating”…
      But I think it’s a form of terrorism.
      Cheers,
      Dave B

      190

    • #
      Annie

      That’s called bullying and is threatening, therefore illegal, behaviour. What’s up with these people?
      Interesting that the only Greens HOR member is from the soy latte brigade in the middle of Melbourne. What mandate does he have for telling the rest of us what to do? Grow up Bandt.

      210

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Nothing riot police on large horses and a water canon cant fix, Annie.

        I’m sure the instigators would turn on each other, once being questioned at Her Majesty’s police….

        They are all hat and no cattle…..

        70

      • #
        Greebo

        Grow up Bandt.

        Good luck with that. If you look at a pic of Bandt and Di Nutterly, can you tell them apart? However, they do manage to channel Whitlam in maintaining the rage. Fools. Can we expect news film of them overturning limos?

        80

    • #
      Yonniestone

      They’re all for civil unrest until its visited upon them and their property, the MSM in this country has gotten to the stage of taking notes of a childs tantrum then presenting them as news.

      50

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Will Adani actually start?
    The SMH says there is an economic problem for the mine and associated infrastructure , while
    The New Daily is saying that BHP is getting out of coal, Apparently, also in the New Daily, BHP is moving into copper, noting that EV’s need a lot of it.
    Mind you the New Daily is also reporting that the mine could open in weeks. I should point out that the New Daily is largely funded by the unions.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Mr Fitzroy, the SMH would say that wouldn’t it.It’s playing to the pain being felt by its Labor/Green socialist readership that were knocked for six on Saturday.

      As I mentioned, albiet briefly, in the recent Mid-week unthreaded, BHP’s management is delusional.

      RIO is trading at $100 while BHP plays PC green and languishes around $40. RIO’s management leaves BHP for dead.

      If BHP is so keen to develop its copper assets why has it backed off Olympic Dam?

      If BHP is so keen to go green and supply copper for EVs where does it think the electrons are going to come from? Renewables? Batteries? Hydro? Gas?

      The existing gas reserves are running out and state governments, bullied by the green totalitarians, won’t permit onshore exploration or fracking. Batteries have to be charged before they can power an EV’s battery. Hydro in a land of droughts is a joke. Solar can’t charge EVs at night; and wind is unreliable.

      Now,if BHP said it wanted to develop nuclear then it might at least demonstrate its understanding of the problem.

      No. BHP getting out of coal is a replay of BHP’s decision to get out of Nickel 10 years or so ago. It reversed that decision recently at considerable cost. Its thermal coal decision will also be reversed at some future date – at a cost to the poor old suckers who continue to hold the stock.

      211

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        RIO and coal?

        The’ve sold all their Australian holdings

        BHP and Olympic Dam

        you are just blowing smoke

        25

        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Who said anything about RIO and coal?

          The comparison is between two major miners. RIO leaves BHP for dead. BHP has sucked the Kool-aid and has a bad case of delusion.

          BHP has backed off Olympic Dam.

          BHP’s Wednesday 22 May announcement:

          “The Wednesday announcement has downgraded the previously advised 330,000 tonnes of copper output to between 240,000 and 300,000 tonnes per year, implying the expansion may increase production capacity by as little as 20%, rather than the 65 per cent increase that was previously proposed”.

          What’s not clear about that?

          31

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            from your link

            BHP chief financial officer Peter Beaven confirmed that ground conditions in South Australia had forced a rethink of Olympic Dam expansion planning, while his assertion that BHP had ”no appetite” to grow its thermal coal business continues a broader shift away from fossil fuels across the mining and energy sectors. Costs of building the project were stated on Wednesday as “up to $US2.5 billion”, and the increased cost has seen estimated returns change from 20 per cent to ”between 12 per cent and 25 per cent”.

            BHP has traditionally demanded a rate of return beyond 15 per cent before committing shareholder funds to projects, and the new details raise the spectre that the brownfield expansion may join a long list of previous Olympic Dam expansion plans that have failed to compete for capital against BHP’s other growth options. It is an economic decision.

            So both BHP and RIO are getting out of coal, and the question is – if coal is good what are they leaving it?

            You are still blowing smoke, and I still think that Adani will not proceed, even if it gains the licences it needs. Neither will Clive Palmer’s bid, it will go the way of Titanic II

            14

            • #
              AndyG55

              “it will go the way of Titanic II”

              You mean like the Labor vote in Queensland ?

              The only possible reason for anyone going away from coal is because they have been INFECTED by the green anti-CO2 fallacy.

              PLENTY of new coal around the world.. so sad BHP chooses to MISS OUT !!

              But India NEEDS that coal, and Adani will go ahead, despite all the mindless anti-science harping from the anti-CO2, anti-life cult.

              If it continues to get blocked, Labor will end up with basically zero seats at the next Queensland election.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Rio and BHP are infected? As to Adani, I think economics will preclude the development.
                One thing which has been pointed out in the financial press is that a large mine like Adani will adversely impact other mining operations in Australia. Worldwide coal production is declining year on year, although there are some countries which are increasing, a lot more are scaling back.

                12

            • #
              Graeme No.3

              The perceived trouble in South Australia may have a bit to do with the high (and unstable) electricity supply. The last blackout of note reportedly cost BHP (at Olympic dam) $A136 million.
              With a State government not in favour of mining (in practice, see attitude to gas exploration, coal) and likely to arbitrarily increase any royalties at any time, what sensible investor would pick SA?

              30

            • #
              AndyG55

              “RIO are getting out of coal”

              “The sale of our remaining Australian coal assets delivers exceptional value to our shareholders.”

              Well someone sure wants that coal, hey PF.

              Why is it you always manage a hilarious slap-stick style faceplant whenever you comment ?

              20

            • #

              Ho Hum!

              Coal is just so yesterday, and so dead, that everyone is just leaving it, eh! (/sarc)

              Just in Queensland alone, there are 50 operating coal mines, and plans in place for 20 more of them, besides Adani.

              Both Rio (2 mines) and BHP (10 mines) mine for coal in Queensland, umm lots of it too.

              Other than the Bowen Basin, there’s seven other Basins, for both MetCoal, and Thermal coal.

              Of those 20 proposals in place, seven of them are the same coal output as Adani.

              There are maps at the link, and just check out the number of coal mines.

              If coal is good, why are they leaving it.

              Hmm! Seems no one really is leaving it, eh!

              Queensland coal mines (pdf document)

              Tony.

              80

              • #

                Other coal miners in Queensland include Stanwell and CS Energy, both owned by the State Government and include Callide Tarong, and Kogan Creek, which all have coal mouth power plants, all three of them SuperCritical, (SC) all of them staying in operation until (at least) 2050. (from the mouth of the State Government itself)

                Millmerran, the other SC plant is owned by Intergen, supplied by the Commodore mine, also owned by the same Company.

                So, even the State Labor Government is not getting out of coal.

                The royalties from coal sales keep the Queensland Government afloat, and keep in mind here that a royalty deal is still to be finalised for Adani, just one more sticking point, no matter what the Premier might say about it.

                Tony.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Rio with 2 mines? They sold them ages ago

                10

            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              Mr Fitzroy,

              What is it precisely that you don’t understand about this statement:

              the expansion may increase production capacity by as little as 20%, rather than the 65 per cent increase that was previously proposed

              That’s what most people who understand the English language call backing off. And if you’d ever worked in the real world you’d know that there always has to be an explanation to keep the stockholders happy. Any excuse will do. Especially, if you happen to be employed by a faux-green, triple bottom line, corporate socially responsible under-performer like BHP.

              On the other hand, maybe, just maybe, BHP does understand that EVs are not going to get the growth that you and the green left want everybody to believe is a lay down Misère, but it can’t bring itself to say it, because of the fragile nature of the people it’s seeking to keep on side?

              10

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Let me guess India is getting out of coal ?

      130

    • #
      toorightmate

      The Drongo says BHP is getting into copper.
      BHP is already the third largest copper producer in the world.
      BHPs decision-making is right up there with that of the ALP.

      131

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Breaking news Fitz, Texas is getting into oil and the Netherlands is getting into Tulips.

        52

    • #
      el gordo

      “I know initially people thought this was months, and what I’m announcing today is it’s in a matter of weeks,” she premier said. ABC

      50

    • #
      Greebo

      Will Adani actually start?

      Watch this space. Even the Royal Chook can read the writing on the wall. Politics is ultimately about votes, Fitz, and AP can see them running away from her like rats. Trad, not so much, but she is fast becoming irrelevant, going by the Ipswich vote.

      Adani will be a goer, as it should be if you care about third world conditions. You heard of the third world, Fitz?

      70

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Who writes this stuff? Adaro sells under the trade name of “Enviro coal” because it is so low in impurities including aluminium.

      It is in the centre of Kalimantan, trucked in B-doubles to where it is loaded onto river barges and eventually transferred at sea onto larger ships. There is no similarity between these mines, product or efficiency.

      50

      • #
        Greebo

        B Doubles? Bigger than those, surely. B Doubles are now almost metro trucks, given the places I’ve been asked to take one.

        40

        • #
          Hanrahan

          B-doubles it was some years ago [maybe 10 on reflection] when No 1 son did a contract there. Remember wages are very low.

          10

        • #
          Hanrahan

          They are two trailers with 13 load-bearing axels and carry 130 T, so “B-double” was a pretty lazy description. 🙂

          10

      • #
        toorightmate

        Plus some substantial overland conveyors.
        PT Adaro is very large.
        Indonesian thermal coal is inferior to that from Oz, BUT it is closer to China.

        20

    • #
      Hanrahan

      BTW $US66 is nearly $A100 and the April price for Australian steaming coal was $US86.77 which is well over $100. https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=coal-australian&months=60

      And I don’t see why the spot price matters when the miner is the end user. Two pockets in the same pair of pants. The only time the spot would come up is when the royalties cheque needs to be written.

      Greens are hopeless lyres when economics is concerned so I don’t even take their figures with a grain of salt.

      50

    • #
      Ted O'Brien

      That was before the election.

      10

  • #
    Sambar

    Damn auto correct that should be Adam Bandt.

    50

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    45% reduction without will cause major sacrifices economic destruction.

    80

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Mr Burke said Labor should keep its 45 per cent emissions target but achieve it through an economic dictatorship.

      60

      • #
        yarpos

        Burke, there’s another one. Do you have to me particularly pompous and annoying to get ahead in the ALP?

        40

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Palychook is up sh..t creek with no paddle over Adani. Nowhere to hide. How many flips per week can she do?

    110

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Pluck-a-chook did you say?

      Her goose is cooked…..

      70

    • #
      Greebo

      Oh, I dunno. Ever seen a startled chook? Flaps per minute numbers are off the charts.

      30

    • #
      Hanrahan

      She was rushed into another mining announcement y’day. A silica mine near the old Greenvale nickel mine has approval to reinstate the old railway line and build a processing plant at Yabulu, pf Palmer’s nickel refinery fame.

      This mine is not new, it has been trucking ore to Charters Towers for some time so this approval is suspiciously convenient.

      40

    • #
      yarpos

      Its hard to believe Palaszczuk expects to be taken seriously after all this. Suddenly rushing around with great urgency doing what she could have done years ago. QLDers have seen through a lot of BS lately, I really hope they react to this in the same way.

      60

  • #
    Revo

    While I don’t believe that CO2 is a problem, surely the best way to achieve the ‘Direct Action’ plan would be to implement the Bradfield scheme in Northern Australia to capture wasted rainwater and turn it inland thus creating thousands of acres of productive farmland or forests.
    See: https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2009/12/which-plants-store-more-carbon-in-australia-forests-or-grasses/

    91

    • #
      Hanrahan

      The Bradfield Scheme is the second biggest crock after global warming.

      Here’s a novel idea, save hundreds of billions and grow the crops where the water is. The Burdekin is the only dependable source in the north so build Hells Gate Dam which is on the west of the divide and irrigate the black soil plains.

      Less crazy than Bradfield.

      30

      • #
        Bobl

        Not true, and not all crops will grow in the tropics, bringing water down from the tropics to reinforce the inland rivers is exactly what we should do and by my calculation would fortuitously sink at least 500MT of Australia’s 550MT of human CO2 turning that CO2 into food and oxygen AT A PROFIT. As I’ve always said the only thing that should ever be done with CO2 is feeding it to plants

        80

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Think about it. No east flowing river floods regularly and once the flood recedes there is only enough water for the locals. It just doesn’t compute, there is not enough water in any particular system to justify the cost.

          10

      • #
        Another Ian

        Remember the salt layer under those black soil plains before you pour the water on

        40

      • #
        scaper...

        Oh dear. No wonder Australia stopped developing sixty years ago!

        20

        • #
          Hanrahan

          OK, so tell me where you get the water. I mean a particular river system not some vague “up north”.

          10

  • #
    Another Ian

    “A week is a long time in politics. Ideas that were stupid this time last Friday are suddenly mainstream.”

    Dreading next week’s issue yet?

    80

  • #
    john karajas

    Puhleeeease let us give a great big thank you to Bob Brown and his moronic “Stop Adani” convoy. Talk about unintended consequences!!!!!

    260

    • #
      Another Ian

      Can we quote Napoleon at him now?

      30

      • #
        Greebo

        His forté is apparently the US Civil War, so perhaps he doesn’t know Napolean. Robert E Lee. might work.

        20

        • #
          Greebo

          I wish we had an ‘edit’ function here. You know I meant Napoleon, right?

          10

        • #
          David Wojick

          Not Lee, but Lee’s hapless opponents (I live where this part of e civil war was fought). The best analog was Burnside’s suicidal attack on Lee at Fredericksberg. The carnage was so great that Lee is said to have said “It is a good thing war is so terrible, or we might become fond of it” as he watched his enemy annihilated by his troops. The election has that aspect.

          Sic semper Greens.

          Historical note: Lee was never defeated in battle. He did get a drawn battle at Gettysburg, which he Union rightly considered a victory, Lee not having won for the very first time. He only surrendered when the siege line broke at Petersburg, but there was no battle, victory being clearly impossible, he did not fight.

          Lee never cursed the enemy. Neither do I. The greens are just a force to be defeated. And a strong force indeed. “War is not a place for deep emotion” (Billy Bishop goes to war). It is a place for serious and sustained reasoning.

          But we can enjoy winning.

          50

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            “War is not a place for deep emotion”

            Spot on David.

            Just as “truth has no agenda”.

            They will eventually all know that the evidence associated with the CAGW hypothesis supports the Null.

            They won’t accept it. But they’ll know. If they don’t already.

            20

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Hoisted by his own pretence.

      30

    • #
      yarpos

      When you are that totally arrogant you dont think of consequences at all. He was quite delusional about people across Australia supporting the convoy. Havent heard much from him in recent days.

      50

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    South Australia rides renewables boom to become electricity exporter:5 Jun 2018
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/05/south-australia-rides-renewables-boom-to-become-electricity-exporter

    How true is this? does anyone have any good links to counter the free energy machine from the Guardian?

    60

  • #
    jack

    :
    Little scam, Big scam
    Someone knocks on your door
    and tells you your perfectly good roof needs fixing.
    The Little roofing scam.
    Now multiply that scam by about 1,000,000,000,
    and you have the:-
    The Big scam -Global Warming.

    131

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    Food handouts increasing with skyrocketing power bills in South Australia
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-16/sa-electricity-prices-blamed-for-more-food-handouts/9053426

    Energy transmission lines and the laws of physics drive big, ‘unfair’ losses for SA businesses.
    Businesses close to folding
    Renmark grape grower Ray Hartigan said the increasing cost of power was driving his business into the ground.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-29/sa-businesses-cop-the-cost-of-energy-lost-leaving-the-state/11051718

    SA plastics recycling business closes due to $100k hike in power bills
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/sa-recycling-business-power-bills-rise-causing-closure/8654638

    South Australian Government says cost of new power generators is confidential
    The South Australian Government is refusing to say how much its new power generators will cost, dodging questions in Parliament about whether the final price tag is more than $400 million.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-14/south-australian-government-refusing-to-say-generators-cost/9150508

    Port Augusta solar thermal power plant scrapped after failing to secure finance
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-05/solar-thermal-plant-will-not-go-ahead-in-port-augusta/10973948

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      So we should rename that state to South Venezuela…..

      If businesses are collapsing, I’d say the Communist push is working well in SA.

      I wonder if the wine maker can make his own power cheaper with gennies than he can buy it by making his own bio diesel?

      100

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      I wonder when Steve Marshall
      Will come into SA’s state parliament
      With a big lump of coal ?

      Let’s hope it is soon !
      Only then will we have any
      ‘Renewed’ confidence
      In South Australia’s
      Future.

      61

    • #
      John in Oz

      I have a 14 may 2019 letter from the ‘Hon’ Dan von Holst Pellekaan, the SA Minister for Energy and Mining, after I wrote to my local member regarding the recent AEMC report on power in Australia and claiming that I did not consider ‘renewable’ generation capable of supplying affordable and reliable power..

      His response includes (my bold):

      It is clear that initiatives of the Marshall Liberal Government’s Energy Solution address concerns raised in the Review. Our initiatives are based on expert economic modelling and a non-ideological approach to ensure an orderly transition that makes the most of our world-class renewable resources.

      and

      The State Government’s major initiatives include:
      — significant distributed energy resources programs at both home-scale and grid-scale, including the $100 million Household Storage Subsidy Scheme, the $50 million Grid-Scale Storage Fund and continued support for the Tesla Virtual Power Plant
      — investment into demand management, demand aggregation and grid integration of distributed energy resources. This began in late 2018 with an initial tranche of $11 million out of $30 million of funding towards activities aimed at advancing the use of demand response to benefit consumers and the grid
      — acceleration of an interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales (NSW) which will put downward pressure on wholesale electricity costs and reduce household power bills as soon as commissioned, as well as making our system more secure by allowing us to share electricity with NSW when needed and taking advantage of our different weather patterns

      These programs are ambitious and world-leading, and the State Government is taking the necessary care to get them right for all South Australians.

      Expert economic modelling – ask 3 economists and get 4 answers. Bjorn Lomborg would disagree that renewables are the way to go

      Non-ideological – at odds with the last part of the same sentence whereby they are welded to ‘an orderly transition that makes the most of our world-class renewable resources. Coal is still the cheapest energy producer so a non-ideological stance that aims to reduce prices should go with coal.

      Demand response – major societal change to use power when it is available rather than ensure that cheap, reliable and constant power is always available. The ‘benefit’ to consumers is that we will still pay high prices but not as high as it would be if the power was always available

      Downward pressure on power bills – the standard argument we have heard from all sides of politics for every madcap renewable scheme they have promoted and we have yet to see any reduction in prices

      I notice that there are many ads on tv at the moment (in SA) for solar household systems. Every one of them starts with the argument that they are worthwhile because power prices are so high. I suspect the likes of von Holst Pellekaan do not watch tv.

      /rant

      40

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Adani coal mine delivers 97% more jobs

    Explained: Adani’s continuously changing jobs figures

    Will the Adani coal mine create ‘thousands of jobs’? No, more like 100 jobs

    https://medium.com/@TheAustraliaInstitute/explained-adanis-continuously-changing-jobs-figures-e2a67baac540

    2015: Kangaroos occasionally outnumber the two or three people needed to run the plant

    The sprawling solar farm – near the hills where Mel Gibson tore up post-apocalyptic highways as the Road Warrior in the 1981 movie
    Mad Max 2 – reached full production in October.

    During construction, about 150 people were employed there, resulting in a $15 million boost to the local economy, AGL estimates.

    Now, kangaroos occasionally outnumber the two or three people needed to run the plant.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/how-an-australian-mining-town-became-a-solar-power-trailblazer-20151221-glsks3.html

    40

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Qld Rail made a motza haulin’ coal on railway lines they built and with their own trains. That was Premier Joh’s foresight. Premier Bligh’s budget desperation forced her to privatise them via QRNational which was eventually sold. A premier with Joh’s vision would jump at the chance to do that again.

      There are many ways to spin a profit from such a project. Another that springs to mind is increased stamp duty on property sales.

      We should ask the same people who do cost benefit analysis on motor races to do them on a mine. The results would be markedly different than they are now.

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      • #
        WXcycles

        QR may have lost vast sums in the Joh era but these State funded and operated railway lines were the essential ingredient in getting profitable mines to operate, from which Royalties were earned, which served to cover the costs of the State infrastructure provision and the regular annual operating loses of Queensland Rail (About $350 million per year in the early 1980s). But this interaction produced a NET profit to Queensland, and also developed the mining heart of the state and its connectivity which remains to this day.

        In the meantime Queenslanders were all working, and bringing home the beacon, and building up what was then consistently the most vibrant economy within Australia. People forget all of that and what Joh did. It was a brilliant job of making life better for millions of people – ABC Moonlight State be dammed, they smeared everything he did because of police corruption and a dodgy police minister.

        Peter Beatty was a catastrophe for the State’s finances (gawd I detest that grinning phony) except that Anna Blight was even worse. And the only reason Anastasia pluckachook didn’t do an Anna Blight to the budget as well is because the cupboard was already empty.

        Queensland is crying out for another Joh-like political figure to fix-up the financial mess that these gutless lazy wanna-be Labor lower-case-p ‘premiers’ of Queensland have created.

        Labor is shameless, and true to form, Plucka thinks we’re all too stupid to see her coming from a mile off.

        20

  • #
    pat

    update from figures on Indian election posted in Jo’s Steggall thread – an even bigger win for Nationalist Modi.

    looks like BJP has 303 seats, BJP alliance 353 seats our of 542. FakeNewsMSM darling Rahul Gandhi & the Congress Party on track for a mere 52 seats, less than the 10 per cent needed to be official opposition:

    24 May: RepublicWorld: PM Narendra Modi-led NDA 2 Set To Storm Centre With The Largest Alliance In Three Decades.
    By Apoorva Rao
    •The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has won a thumping victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by leading a total of 353 seats in the 17th Lok Sabha…

    24 May: Congress Fails To Get Leader Of Opposition Post In Lok Sabha, Again
    The grand old party, which was reduced to just 44 parliamentarians in 2014, didn’t improve much on its tally, getting 52 seats in 2019.
    by Puneet Nicholas Yadav
    When initial trends on Thursday indicated a mammoth victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), there was one question on everyone’s mind. “Will Congress be able to secure enough seats to stake claim to the post of Leader of Opposition?”
    However, the grand old party, which was reduced to just 44 parliamentarians in 2014, didn’t improve much on its tally in 2019, getting only 52 seats.
    As per the rules, any Opposition party must have at least 10% of the total Lok Sabha seats — 543 — to have an LoP. With just 52 MPs, the Congress has once again fallen short of the required number to stake claim to the post…
    https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-congress-fails-to-get-leader-of-opposition-post-in-lok-sabha-again/330899

    24 May: TimesOfIndia: PTI: CWC tomorrow, Rahul Gandhi may offer to resign
    After a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, top Congress leaders will deliberate on party losses at a meeting of the working committee slated on Saturday where party chief Rahul Gandhi is likely to offer his resignation…

    30

  • #

    Adani is just product for money, which is okay, but, scale apart, it benefits Australia less than if we were selling wool or jellybeans to India.

    Anyway, coal exports are not what interest the globalists/Trotskyists. Stopping Adani is just a tree-hugger thing. Big Green doesn’t care if we dig up all Queensland and dump it somewhere else, because Big Green is not about conserving anything or even about reducing emissions.

    What concerns Big Green is the much smaller amount of Australian coal involved in generating electrical power domestically. Which is weird and sinister when you think about it (but thinking is not encouraged). What the globo-trots want is energy beggary and a general reduction in the circumstances and numbers of Australia’s middle class. A slave state won’t evolve easily from the present demography. So change the demos.

    Australians are their best crash-dummies and they know it. Do we know it yet?

    Don’t be distracted by Adani and the export issue. The big issue is domestic coal for domestic power, and it dwarfs all other issues. Frittering money and resources on green fairy-floss is doom. There should be no Direct Action and no mandated emissions reductions, which are just paths to oil dependence, import dependence, bureaucratic strangulation and general waste. Much later, but via the same paths, the globalist dream. (How many fingers, Winston?)

    The need is for modernisation and conservation of the superlative resource which lies in our very back yard. The need is for thrift and for coal – domestically!

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Agreed, the Chinese have invented plasma reactors to produce heat that produce no emissions. We should get someone to build one here.

      Coal shmoal…who needs it if you have one of these?

      https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a19350/chinese-east-fusion-reaction-sustains-102-second-plasma-blast/

      “Following the first successful test of the Wendelstein X-7 Stellarator—extremely sophisticated nuclear reactor in Germany—the Chinese have accomplished a wildly impressive in one of their reactors. According to the South China Morning Post, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was able to sustain 90 million Fahrenheit plasma (50 million Kelvin) for 102 seconds. For context, the center of the sun is thought to be only about a third as hot.

      “Unlike the mind-bendingly complex supercomputer-optimized shape of the X-7 Stellerator, China’s EAST is torus-shaped, like a donut, and uses magnetic field to keep its plasma fields in check. At a glance, the most jaw-dropping part of its most recent test is seems to be the temperature—hotter than the sun. But in actuality, other fusion experiments have reached up into the billions of degrees and ion colliders like the LHC have been known to reach into the trillions.

      “The really important part is how long the reactor was able to maintain that plasma. Keeping plasma around and under control for a long enough time is one of the chief barriers to practical nuclear fusion. The Wendelstein X-7 Stellerator’s first successful test was only a fraction of a second, though the team behind it hopes to be able to extend that out to a whopping 30 minutes, citing the Stellerator’s much calmer operation. It was much, much harder to build than China’s Soviet-designed EAST, but should eventually prove easier to operate.

      “In the meantime, however, EAST’s feat is a true triumph that places it on the leading edge of the nuclear fusion race. Other reactors of its design have a hard time maintaining plasma of this temperature for 20 seconds before a reactor meltdown starts to be a concern, much less a minute and 42.

      60

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Those temperatures are just the relativistic kinetic energy of the particles. No matter can be in atomic from at that energy.
        A plasma physicist said, cant find the ref. that fusion long term is probably out of human reach and a no goer. Guess will have to wait and see, maybe a very long time. 102 secs is a little improvement though. At the moment energy to run it is >>>>>>>> than its energy output.

        31

    • #
      Hanrahan

      scale apart, it benefits Australia less than if we were selling wool or jellybeans to India.

      Jelly beans are sugar, we are uncompetitive in the world sugar market.

      40

      • #
        yarpos

        Maybe if we stopped think about exporting bulk raw product and added value locally we could compete in the Jellybean market. Maybe we could even use some local coal/gas/uranium to power the Jellybean factory. We seem to have a fixation on being a quarry/well/primary producer for the world and rarely go the next step.

        50

  • #
    pat

    as for the biggest news of the day – President Trump ordering the declassification of documents related to 2016 campaign surveillance – I have not seen any mention on ABC or Sky Australia, which is all I have checked locally.

    in the US, FakeNewsMSM almost immediately called declassifying documents a “cover-up” and the meme is spreading fast:

    24 May: BBC: Trump orders new powers for Attorney General’s surveillance probe
    18 minutes ago
    Mr Barr is already subject to intense scrutiny and criticism by Democrats – who have accused him of acting on the president’s behalf and not in the national interest…
    The president has repeatedly suggested his campaign was spied on and accused intelligence agencies of abusing their power.
    He has also said this could amount to “treason” and has suggested those involved should be criminally prosecuted…
    In April, the attorney general told Congress that “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign, and said he wanted to ensure that any intelligence gathering had been legitimate…
    The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is among those who have criticised the expanded power announcement.
    “Trump and Barr conspire to weaponise law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies,” Adam Schiff said on Twitter.
    “The cover-up has entered a new and dangerous phase. This is un-American,” he added…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48393665

    24 May: The Atlantic: Trump’s Cover-Up Accelerates
    The president directs his attorney general to declassify information—raising the prospect of selective disclosures
    by David Frum
    (David Frum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. In 2001 and 2002, he was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush)
    Where’s the cover-up? This is the cover-up, as the White House and the office of the attorney general collude to conceal what the public deserves to know
    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/trump-tells-barr-declassify-documents/590215/

    Theresa May on Sky – will resign on 7 June.

    30

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    So, it wasn’t the black throated finch holding up the Adani coal mine, but a green throated polly.

    Ronnie Burns who was lucky enough to work with the Bee Gees in the studio, when it was the brothers Gibb, who lived in Australia in the mid to late 60s.

    In that time Ronnie, a talented Australian 60s pop star,was gifted with this tune – Coal man:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tXYSV07co

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Noticed Albo wouldn’t answer any policy questions but mentioned we need to act on dangerous climate change so nothing has changed they still want to save the planet .
    Also just heard Theresa May is pulling the pin on the 7th of June .

    60

  • #
    TdeF

    As I explained, Australia has the lowest CO2 per square km of all. 1/60th of South Korea and 1/5th of the US.

    So Direct Action works. 50,000 years ago, our rainfall was double and presumably our vegetation was double and we had 1 ton Wombats the size of cows and giant kangaroos. Then man and dogs and fire. If we can just put Australia back to where it was, we will earn trillions in carbon capture. Of course none of the other countries will pay. It’s only a device to tax successful silly countries outside Europe.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Well. how much can you get from unsuccessful countries outside Europe?

      40

    • #
      TdeF

      As Teresa May resigns, a dishonest and incompetent politician who promised Brexit and had no intention of delivering it, we in Australia have removed the spectre of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten, two politicians determined to punish Australians for having coal and oil and gas and try to impress the swamp people in Brussells and Washington and Canberra. It’s possible Julie Bishop was even worse, a trusted deputy who undermined two bosses. Then Bill Shorten who brought down two Prime Ministers on his own side, so he could have the job.

      While Morrison may lack sophistication and grand vision, he is a plain speaking honest and practical Christian man who does represent most Australians and resonates with most. If he persists in his reasonable view that Australians cannot change the planet and should not be punished for using and exporting and using coal, oil and gas, we will do well. The tide has turned in the US with Trump and it is turning in the democratic world with Hungary and Italy and Brazil saying they have had enough of UN/EU rule and progressive socialism and open borders and social chaos and rule by others. Look what it did to Venezuela and is still doing to Cuba.

      Even then May has given herself a teary farewell and yet another two weeks to tidy up 10 Downing Street and pack her bags. She will probably keep the key to the front door in case she has forgotten something. Like Brexit.

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      • #
        Greebo

        Sadly, it seems the UK has no ‘lame duck’ phase. She remains PM until a new leader is chosen in maybe two or three weeks. She may well be the PM who greets Trump in early June. What will they have to say to each other ffs? May still has incredible power, it seems. She remains as ‘caretaker’ PM. How is this a thing? She should go, tail betwixt legs, never to be seen again. Even Turnbull grasped that. Oh, wait….. I see a pattern.

        60

      • #
        Ross

        I thought it was for times like this you had a deputy PM. May should have just walked down the street after her grovelling little speech. How dare she lecture the UK on compromise –pushing the same agreement 3 times without change. Does that show show any sign of compromise?
        (I note some in the UK refer to her Withdrawal Agreement as the Berlin Agreement.)

        20

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      ‘Wombats the size of cows’, meh, we used to have cowombat-sized eagles that would swoop down and nail giant bush moa, which of course eventually adapted/shrunk into cute souvenir-sized kiwi, causing the existential extinctification of the mighty hokioi Haast eagle Harpagornis moorei. Six hundred years later, brave little kiwi can safely walk across bridges at night…

      “A kiwi has been spotted heading over a bridge to Rangitoto Island for the first time in 600 years”.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/112741399/kiwi-on-bridge-to-aucklands-rangitoto-island-a-pretty-exciting-thing

      50

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Harpagornis , the greatest bird that ever lived! We need to resurrect them! Mainly to scare the crap out of the greentards. The scull of those things was nearly as big as a modern eagle itself!

        30

  • #
    Hanrahan

    This Black Throat is an amazing little bird. It is a grass finch, that’s it, but one that should be protected none the less. Such a small bird must be able to fly miles to drink, in hot climate.

    But why is it so restricted in habitat? It shouldn’t be, and that habitat shouldn’t be in that tiny little patch in a vast continent.

    I have been trying to find the minesite on google.earth with no success until I searched on “Adani Carmichael mine” and there it was. DOH! A little bit west of the offices is the actual mining lease which is easily distinguishable by the grid pattern of drill holes. What a let down, it is arid ie zero permanent water and just low scrub that hasn’t been cleared for grazing it is so poor. I feed nutmeg manikins in my yard and my observation is that they constantly drink while feeding.

    So the two things a grass finch needs, grass and water are absent. There looks to be two [man made] dams outside the drilled area but if the finches live around them, there is no reason they should be disturbed and with a little effort their habitat could be enhanced. But I am not convinced that they are there.

    100

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘A DES web page on the endangered bird explains that the black-throated finch (southern subspecies) once extended from Inverell in north-east New South Wales, through eastern Queensland, to the Atherton Tablelands and west to central Queensland.

      ‘It said the finch (southern subspecies) range had “contracted by approximately 80 per cent of its former extent over the last 20 years and is now restricted to the northern part of its former range”.

      “The black-throated finch (southern subspecies) inhabits grassy woodland dominated by eucalypts, paperbarks or acacias where there is accessibility to seeding grasses,” DES said.

      ABC

      60

      • #
        Hanrahan

        I gave you the link on google.earth. Have a look and see if the mine site matches your description: grassy woodland dominated by eucalypts, paperbarks or acacias where there is accessibility to seeding grasses,

        No self respecting grasshopper would live there.

        80

        • #
          TdeF

          Well, they could hardly say a really boring, common as chips bird with no colourful marking was threatened. The really boring bird. The fact is this is an insane variety of black thoated finch which is attracted to coal, despite the hardships and was worshipped by ab*rigines for its dogged determination to live in totally unsuitable areas. Every variety of finch must be protected at all costs.

          Wasn’t it the clincher for Darwin in the Galapagos that the finches he brought back from two adjacent islands had become different species by selection? And of course all species of finch, no matter how rare and peculiar and non viable must be preserved for all time. Natural selection must not be allowed to happen or octopuses will adapt to lower oxygen, fish will tolerate less alkali water and prawns will start to like warmer water. G*d forbid.

          70

          • #
            TdeF

            If not G*d, then certainly the Gr*ens, the people against all change, all things. Especially if the coffee runs short, the avocado season is late or there is a shortage of Prosecco.

            81

          • #
            Hanrahan

            Well, they could hardly say a really boring, common as chips bird with no colourful marking was threatened.

            Au contraire, it’s a pretty lille bird. I wish I had some visiting my bird bath.

            20

        • #
          el gordo

          The finch likes a desert environment, which is why Adani has set aside 33,000 hectares to preserve the bird.

          Judging by how its population has dwindled over the past 20 years, its seems this mine is the best way to save the species from extinction.

          https://www.adaniaustralia.com/-/media/ADI0027_Black-throated-Finch_v11_WEB.pdf

          60

    • #
      Another Ian

      H

      Well we can blame the veg management act for promoting the conversion of grassland to that scrub /s

      40

      • #
        Another Ian

        H

        Interesting that you happen to raise that subject this morning. I was just talking to a bloke who has been there – to inspect a dozer pre-mine. He agrees with the scrub and mentioned that a D9 with blade plow would only get a few inches into what passed as soil.

        Also re grassland birds – years agone NSW National Parks (IIRC) put out a poster of a plains turkey with the caption “Save the poor bustard” but they neglected to say what it needed saving from. According to a bird book that included cats, foxes and “loss of grassland feeding areas”.

        So the caption should have read

        Save the poor bustard from tree thickening

        30

        • #
          Hanrahan

          The scrub turkey certainly isn’t endangered, it thrives in the suburban fringes. I throw my compostable scraps under the mulberry tree and the turkeys keep it turned for me. some local must hand feed them because the older ones walk up to you. I’m about 8 KM from JCU where the turkeys and students totally ignore each other.

          10

    • #
      yarpos

      One our ABC last night they did an overview of the movement in the Adani project. At one stage they talked about the finch (cut to pretty video of the frollicking finch) then talked about the impact on water (cut to video of a lush tropical Kakadu looking stream). Cut back to a helicopter view of the minesite out on very dry open country. Cherry picking 101.

      60

    • #

      H

      When I put “Adani Carmichael mine” in GE ProI get “couldn’t understand this location”

      Can you give lats and longs please?

      10

  • #
    cedarhill

    The Left finally re-read the fable of the camel’s nose and the tent. Cold days in politics does that.

    20

  • #
    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Thank You Lord.

      All our troubles are over.

      But hang on; isn’t there a rule of nature, economics and engineering that says that one Big one is cheaper, more efficient and less maintenance than a thousand Small ones?

      Talk is cheap.

      KK

      80

      • #
        RickWill

        Benefit of scale applies to fossil fuelled generators. It does not apply to generators that use ambient energy sources such as wind and solar. Wind does benefit from height but that can be achieved on top of tall buildings. However the benefit of height is more than offset by the cost of transmission for grid scale generators.

        Hydro storage can benefit from scale but batteries do not. 20700 cans have become a common size for the largest of batteries because their failure is less likely to cause propagation of the failure through the entire battery.

        It appears that 26650 cans are becoming popular for consumer goods. They have about 50% more capacity than the 20700 cans. Modern CREE LED torches can accept 20700 can, 26650 can and three ganged AAA cells.

        10

    • #
      Another Ian

      Another noise problem there?

      40

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      One problem is that it is connected to mains gas supply. Yes, I assume that it may be connected to bottled gas which is more expensive (see comment 3).

      Comment 2: it would be an open cycle turbine, hence about 35% efficient.

      Comment 3: With Australia’s high gas prices I wonder how much the generated electricity would actually cost.

      Comment 4: Maintenance? Most OCGTs seem to be available to operate 15-20% of the time. Thermal stress cracking is a problem.

      Comment 5: What home needs a 20kW unit? I use 8.5kWh per day, the “average home” 12 -18 per day. Are they going to install a battery to ‘smooth’ supply?

      30

      • #
        yarpos

        Most turbines like to start and run for an extended period not cycle on and off for short periods. How that fits in a “renewables” support role is dubious.

        30

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    https://www.rt.com/news/460097-stupid-nationalists-hate-migrants/
    EU’s Juncker says ‘stupid nationalists’ are ‘in love with their country’ & hate foreigners

    50

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Verbalism, the ultimate form of attack which can be used to savage decent people and put them in their place.

      Thank heaven for Nigel Farage who, in a brilliant speech, was able to clearly show up the British EU Remain Manipulators for what they were.

      Later I stumbled on a resignation speech by Teresa May where she outlined all she had done to set up the Brexit required by the people, then she compounded the hypocrisy by bursting out crying and declaring, “I love my country”.

      It was possible she had intended to say “I love the British Pound”.

      Whatever, her behaviour suggests something other than goodwill towards those who voted for Brexit.

      KK

      91

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Junker like all socialists hate anyone who love their country and their freedom .

      40

    • #
      yarpos

      Juncker is chanelling Homer Simpson.

      20

  • #
    robert rosicka

    And just to make the voters of QLD love the Palacechook even more I just heard she has forked out $320,000.00 to get manbearpig to give a lecture .
    Wonder if she throws in an extra half mil if he will talk about the virtues of coal ?

    50

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    June 5 is the Goracle’s appearance for a three-day climate change training session in Brisbane during Queensland’s first Climate Change Week, beginning June 2.

    That should be worth the entry fee just to see all the teeth gnashing and apocalyptic wailing as the election winning Adani coal mine begins.

    And, being the middle of a doomsday global warming winter, the Gore effect is almost a prediction.

    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/al-gore-to-head-climate-change-week-in-queensland-in-june-20190401-p519jp.html

    It is the equivalent of Bob Brown’s fossil-fuelled anti-Adani convoy.

    Warm the tar, collect the goose feathers … run the clown outta town!

    80

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      Meanwhile, in Coolangatta, south of Brisbane, on the original Gold Coast, we shall be celebrating everything fossil fuels whilst the hypocrite Gore demeans them …

      Cooly Rocks On- June 5 to June 9th.

      Get ready to Rock at Australia’s favourite nostalgia event celebrating the 50s, 60s and 70s.

      https://www.coolyrockson.com

      40

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        ‘Cooly’ as in coldies, as in f-f-f-freezing? According to your BoM’s alpine forecast today, Winter 2019 has arrived early: their 7-day prognostications are a sea of cold blue snowflakes with temperatures prefixed by a (-) negative, minus, below-freezing sign.

        Thirty years ago when I was living/working on the Sunny Coast, we never got the cold southerlies (if at all) until July or August, yet now with the imminent arrival of the Most UN-Reverend Profit Algorithm, they’re kicking in early down south. Perfect timing…

        40

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          I suspect that with the solar downturn, the jetstream will waver more and the circum-antarctic lows will move further north.

          31

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Im waiting for the OH! Gores here to teach us about Krime-ate Change, from the media who will treat him like GOD as he has a NOBEL prize. (Alfred Nobel would turn in his grave on who gets his prizes).

      41

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        Alfred Barney Nobel –

        Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.

        The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort (The merchant of death is dead) and went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday”.

        Maybe we could start referring to Gore, Mann, and their innumerous ilk, by Nobel’s middle name – Barney.

        10

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Any politician that takes the (seemingly) populist stand against mining are lowering themselves to the childish notion that ORIGINALLY all food comes from the supermarket, fuel comes from a bowser, plastic comes from a factory, water comes from a tap, electricity comes from a plug, gas comes from a pipe etc….

    The day ANY politician goes without the above I’ll take notice, until then shut up and enact the policies you got voted in for.

    80

  • #
    Another Ian

    An example for Zali?

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/05/24/two-red-vipers/#comments

    The car is a V10 Chrysler Viper hydrocarbon converter

    If I’ve got it right the woman is Elizabeth May the leader of the Canadian Greens

    And comments – one of them

    “*
    hard choices for the “walking left“…

    “Growing a kilogram of Trudope injects a staggering 4600 kg
    of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.”

    but, otoh… it makes you smarter and better looking.”

    30

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘While former immigration hard-arse Scott Morrison’s makeover made progressive voters want to burst a valve, it worked in the regions.

    ‘National party MPs acknowledge that Morrison worked much better as a PM for them than Malcolm Turnbull, or even their own leader, Michael McCormack.

    “The Australian public generally will have warmed to the PM, who the day after a euphoric and historic win, did what a lot of Australians do – he went to church and the footy,” O’Brien says. “That’s the appeal.”

    Chan/Guardian

    30

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Hasn’t been the best few years for greentard socialists , Trump , Brazil , Morrison , Adani and now May .
    Palacechook must be getting nervous .

    31

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      RR:

      Hence her sudden conversion. A light on the road to Adani?

      20

      • #
        el gordo

        How good is Queensland.

        I wonder if our American cousins understand the significance of PM Morrison as an advertising executive, he virtually sold himself.

        Moving along, we need to turn negatives into positives. The black-throated finch has been saved from extinction by Adani.

        There is only a little extra CO2 in the atmosphere now than during the Medieval Warm Period, terraforming is highly beneficial for the planet and all who sail on her.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          I wonder if our American cousins understand the significance of PM Morrison as an advertising executive, he virtually sold himself.

          A bit like Trump. We’ll have to wait and see if there are other similarities beyond not welcoming squatters.

          30

          • #
            el gordo

            Trump is a commercial man and all his decisions are carefully crafted in that direction. He has endured strong headwinds, crash through or crash, whereas Morrison manifests an idea and sells it.

            30

  • #
    Zane

    A coal conference held at Goa in India in 2016 stated that India was planning 455 new coal-fired power plants. Coal, and only coal, can lift the third world out of poverty. Given the level of corruption inherent in gaining planning permission for anything in India, it will take a while to get the ball rolling… But at least they are backing the right technology.

    40

  • #
    Zane

    In case the wheels do come off the climate change bus, the neo-Marxists are ready to jump ship to the new trope, biodiversity and species extinction. Thus yesterday’s protests. Whatever happens, the West cannot be allowed to use fossil fuels to maintain its advanced standard of living. Chairman Xiputin and OPEC want us to stay addicted to their oil and gas and to shift all manufacturing to China. No fracking and no onshore oil and gas exploration allowed… Except in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Saudi A of course.

    41

  • #
    el gordo

    Premier Xi and Vlad are aware of Christian millenarianism and are taking commercial advantage.

    40

  • #
    Zane

    All of these targets, whether renewables or emissions reductions, are meaningless nonsense. Will no one state that the green emperor has no clothes?

    30

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Down the road from here is the remains of the Green banner. It is quite long many meters of the same sign. It is made entirely of plastic (which comes from oil). It is of course all in green writing. On it says this plastic is totally recyclable, or will be recycled. Wonder how much of their beloved CO2 was used and let off to make that plastic? Including what will be used in (CO2 producing) power to recycle it!
    My guess..it will end up in the DUMP!. So much for their hypocritical environmentalism.

    31

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Great article , with maths! on energy prices (US based) but applies to all the fool countries going ‘un-renewable’.
    https://stopthesethings.com/2019/05/24/counting-the-cost-wind-solar-obsession-means-californian-power-prices-50-higher-than-us-average/
    I LOVE the photo of the busted windmill!

    31

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    Stephen Mueller

    I for one would like to see a great forest planted in the west of NSW and Queensland even north west Vic, my preference would be to water it with the treated sewage that we pump out to sea , at the moment we take clean water out of the environment fill it full of nutrient as it goes through the septic systems we treat it and send that water out to sea that nutrient is not needed by the oceans, however trees love it , this idea would create jobs for the people living out there , it would grow much needed timber , and it could help with rainfall east of it.

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      Perhaps you should do more investigation into the problem of woody vegetation thickening in those areas.

      The NSW Royal Commission of 1901 is a start

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        Stephen Mueller

        Fair go that’s well over 100 years ago things have change since then, genetics for starters , cultivation practices , better piping and infrastructure bigger and better machinery etc.

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          Droughts ago there were calls to pump Brisbane sewerage discharge up the range to the Darling Downs and that didn’t cut the mustard. Then a long way from Toowoomba to western Qld.

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      beowulf

      Ian is referring to woody weeds taking over and choking pasture land, which is a constant headache for graziers, particularly in the western pastoral zone of QLD and NSW.

      Watering plantation forests with effluent sounds good in theory. Timber grown under conditions of a heavy nutrient and watering regime would generally only be suitable for firewood or pulp, which might well be a useful outcome if you want to feed a paper industry provided you had a large enough area to provide a constant feedstock for a paper mill, but there would be a long lead-time before it could viably supply a mill.

      For structural or cabinet purposes effluent-irrigated timber is poor quality because it grows too quickly and is too overloaded with moisture. Its annual rings are very wide under such growth conditions, which detracts from quality. Timber with such a high moisture load is hard to season to stabilise it from warping and shrinking unevenly. If it is eucalyptus it checks (cracks radially) very badly due to competing stresses between the core and sapwood of the trunk. Even if seasoned to remove most of the moisture, the timber is still rather spongy compared to natural-grown hardwoods because of its distended cell structure. In NZ they only use such timber for firewood, which says a lot about its quality.

      Growing high-value rainforest cabinet timbers under such conditions is not worth the effort for the same reason, because they need to be tight-grained for high quality products. If you grow exotics like Paulownia that enjoy the excess nutrients, you end up with junk timber too. Weedy timbers like poplar and willow like lots of moisture and nutrients, but what do you do with them once they’ve grown? There is a limited market for matchsticks and cricket bats.

      There was such a trial in VIC from memory at Werribee (but don’t quote me on that) some years back with high expectations but it wasn’t a raging success. It was mainly aimed at using fast-growing eucalypts as nutrient sinks, which was only a partial success. Young trees suck up nutrients at a great rate, but once they reach a certain growth stage their nutrient needs change and uptake slows considerably as they pass from an active juvenile phase into more of a maintenance phase with a bit of growth tacked on. In other words their nutrient uptake is not a linear extrapolation with age.

      Effluent contamination of groundwater and surface water becomes a real issue too, especially in wet years. Human pathogens, heavy metals, antibiotics, hormones etc. are all present. The site load of such contaminants could be expected to build up and leach out over the long time frame of maintaining a rotational forest. A lot of this stuff would ultimately make its way into the western rivers. Algal blooms would probably become a big issue and you might end up with Murray Cod full of progesterone or something.

      Irrigation with effluent is not impossible, nor is it a simple fix.

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    pat

    22 May: AmericanThinker: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist cauliflower for brains
    By Monica Showalter
    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday that growing cauliflower in community gardens is part of the “colonial” attitudes that her Green New Deal will stamp out…
    “What I love too is growing plants that are culturally familiar to the community. It’s so important,” she said as she filmed a community garden in the Bronx.
    “So that’s really how you do it right. That is such a core component of the Green New Deal is having all of these projects make sense in a cultural context, and it’s an area that we get the most pushback on because people say, ‘Why do you need to do that? That’s too hard.'”…

    She went on to add that growing cauliflower in such gardens is a “colonial approach” and the reason communities of color oppose environmentalist movements.
    “But when you really think about it — when someone says that it’s ‘too hard’ to do a green space that grows [yuca] instead of, I don’t know, cauliflower or something — what you’re doing is you’re taking a colonial approach to environmentalism,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
    “That is why a lot of communities of color get resistant to certain environmentalist movements because they come with the colonial lens on them.”…

    Does it get worse? Yes, Ocasio-Cortez’s boosterism for yuca over cauliflower gets even worse.
    Guess who else was big on promoting yuca for the inner city locals in self-sufficient urban farms? You got it, socialist cult leader Jim Jones of the 1970s Jonestown Guyana fame. Jones promoted yuca as a panacea through his central directive, citing the same colonialism Ocasio-Cortez did. He ordered the cult’s people to grow it and eat it — and they pretty well starved, not knowing how to farm it and not having anything but that to eat. The urban farming disaster around yuca in the name of socialist self-sufficiency and going local can be read about here (LINK)…
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/alexandria_ocasiocortezs_socialist_cauliflower_for_brains.html

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    pat

    all over FakeNewsMSM. what a spin from AAP, with their little Twitter ending.

    25 May: news.com.au: AAP: ‘I hope he looks at Australia’: President Trump drags Australia into FBI probe
    In a historic first, President Donald Trump has publicly accused Australia and the UK for their role in the “Russia hoax” and FBI probe.
    by Adrianna Zappavigna
    VIDEO: Trump: Will he ever be impeached?

    US President Donald Trump has announced he wants Australia’s role in sparking the FBI probe into links between Russia and his election campaign examined by US Attorney-General William Barr.
    Despite Australia’s historically strong alliance with the United States, President Trump specifically named Australia as a nation whose part in what he calls the “Russia hoax” must be thoroughly investigated.
    “What I’ve done is I’ve declassified everything,” Mr Trump told AAP reporters at the White House on Friday before departing on a trip to Japan.
    “He can look and I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine.
    “I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.”…

    President Trump’s announcement made waves on social media, with users tweeting up a storm about the potential impact on Australia’s ties with the US.
    “Trump is declaring war against the UK and Australia,” shared one user. “Trump is accusing America’s two closest Allies of electoral interference. How did Russia get off the hook?” added another.
    https://www.news.com.au/world/i-hope-he-looks-at-australia-president-trump-drags-australia-into-fbi-probe/news-story/d35af038e7aded11c168ea4557de5c83

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      AndyG55

      Of course it does.

      Warming brings large tracts of once frozen ground back to life, massively increasing the breadth of the Carbon Cycle, hence biodiversity.

      Cold TAKES life away, because so much more energy is needed to exist.

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    Crakar24

    Thats no back flip……it’s a reverse forward pike with a double twist and a diff of 7.2

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