Australian Politics
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Joe Hildebrand: Real genius of Australia’s submarine pact is nothing to do with boats
The message that other major Anglosphere countries will give brotherly support to Australia is the main point. Considered as a whole, the Anglosphere is a substantial counterweight to China
Beijing is spitting chips about Australia’s US sub deal despite the first boat not being due for more than a decade. Their real anger is because of something else.
The biggest advantage of a nuclear submarine is that it never has to surface, which is also the biggest advantage of Australia’s nuclear submarine deal.
There has been much debate over the technical merits of the new nuclear subs we will get from the US and UK versus the diesel-powered subs we just ditched from the French. At least all our armchair epidemiologists have found a new area of expertise.
But the most critical characteristic of both the diesel and the nuclear subs is the one they have in common: Neither actually exists. Australia has no French submarines or American submarines — and it won’t be getting any of either for a very long time.
In fact, the seismic announcement that sent the French Ambassador storming out and the President sniffily screening his calls has almost nothing to do with submarines at all. Indeed, it is inconceivable that such explosive tantrums could be caused by an argument over aquatic metal.
Instead it is about something far more primal and real — and much more real than phantom U-boats.
Paul Keating knows it, which is why the former PM’s reaction was if anything even more visceral than that of the French. He may have landed on the wrong side of the argument but at least he knew what the argument was about.
The most precious commodities in the submarine swap aren’t underwater tin cans but the flags that stood behind Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden as the three leaders announced the new deal.
For Australia it was a clear message to China that we might not be the biggest kid in the playground but we’ve got both Blighty and Biff at our back. For the UK and USA it was a clear message that they now have not just an eye on the region but a dog in the fight.
Many on the lunar green left have sought to paint it as a provocative action but this is merely a form of geopolitical victim blaming. After the shameless trade war that China has waged upon Australia, its ubiquitous cyber attacks on our institutions, its open belligerence towards Hong Kong and Taiwan and its literal raising of the seabed in the South China Sea to create military bases — not to mention innumerable mass-scale human rights abuses within its own mainland — one wonders what they would consider an appropriate strategic response.
There was a time in global affairs just a decade or two ago when China was rightly considered a rational and reasonable actor. Sadly its more recent actions prove that while it may well still be rational — its hyper-nationalist and expansionist agenda is nothing if not calculated — it is no longer reasonable. Reasonable countries don’t put 200 per cent tariffs on wine.
So what do we do? The truth is there is not much we can do. Obviously Australia will never be any match for China in a straight fight, be it a trade war, a cold war or — God forbid — a hot one.
Our only option is to remind the Chinese that, as Princess Leia said to Jabba the Hutt, we have powerful friends. Some might sneer that the USA is a declining superpower but it’s the only one we’ve got. And, as Crosby, Stills and Nash once sang, you’ve got to love the one you’re with.
It should also be noted that if the United States can withstand its last two presidents then perhaps reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. If a nation can survive both Trump and Biden then surely that is a mark of infinite resilience.
It is thus both wholly and sadly unnecessary that this new — or rather renewed — alliance is causing such an identity crisis within the Australian Labor Party. Labor has always been a friend of America, to the point that it even uses the American spelling of its very name.
The great John Curtin made perhaps the most important decision in Australian history when he turned to the US to defend Australia from Japan after the fall of Singapore in World War II. It is then strange that the party has been infected by anti-American sentiment in all the decades since.
Of course in the 1990s Labor heralded the advent of the Asian century and it might have been right then. That doesn’t mean it is still right now.
Placating Indonesia while it oppressed East Timor was bad enough. Placating China while it oppresses Hong Kong and Taiwan is a whole new art of acquiescence. It certainly has no place in a party that calls itself progressive.
Anthony Albanese is right to support our reinforced position as a member of a Western liberal democratic alliance. As Opposition Leader he is obliged to ask questions and find fault but he needs to stand strong even as he is bombarded by the bonkers left.
Former PMs might carry on and cry but it’s only future PMs that count.
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And then there's the QUAD
Australia is also allied with India and Japan
Australia will intensify co-operation with the United States, India and Japan to ensure that China does not exert excessive control over the supply of minerals essential to modern technology in one of the key goals of the first face-to-face leaders’ meeting of the “Quad” nations.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will meet with US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House on Saturday (AEST) for the first in-person leaders’ meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.
In a separate speech to the United Nations on Saturday, Morrison will position Australia on the front lines of the battle to ensure China does not monopolise the Asia-Pacific.
“The global strategic environment has rapidly changed, indeed deteriorated in many respects – particularly in the Indo-Pacific region where we live here in Australia,” the Prime Minister will say.
“The changes we face are many, whether it’s tensions over territorial claims, rapid military modernisation, foreign interference, cyber threats, disinformation and indeed economic coercion.
“We must reinforce a sustainable rules-based order, while ensuring it is also adaptable to the great-power politics of our time. Our voice is clear, it’s respectful, it’s constructive.”
The Quad is rapidly emerging as an influential grouping of leading democracies working together to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The four leaders are also expected to announce significant initiatives on vaccine diplomacy, climate change, infrastructure and space exploration following wide-ranging joint discussions.
Morrison, Biden, Modi and Suga have agreed to map out supply chains for key minerals and products - such as semiconductors - to better understand the nations’ technological vulnerabilities.
China accounts for the majority of the global production of rare-earth minerals, including palladium and lithium, raising alarm that the rising superpower could block access to crucial consumer and defence technologies as part of a trade war with its strategic rivals.
An iPhone, for example, contains an estimated eight different rare-earth minerals, which are also integral components of high-tech weaponry such as fighter jets and guided cruise missiles.
Australia has the world’s sixth-largest reserves of rare-earth minerals, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, but they currently remain largely untapped with only two mines producing them. The largest by far is a mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia, owned by the Lynas Corporation.
In February the US Defence Department announced it had awarded Lynas a contract to develop a rare-earth processing facility in Texas.
The Morrison government believes the fellow Quad nations represent potentially lucrative export markets for Australian-sourced minerals such as lithium given their increasing concern about China’s reliability.
Rare earths were also a focus for Morrison during his previous visit to Washington in 2019 with then -president Donald Trump.
The leaders are expected to say that “resilient, diverse and secure technology supply chains for hardware, software, and services” are vital to their shared national interests.
Specifically, the four nations will “launch a joint initiative to map capacity, identify vulnerabilities and bolster supply chain security for semiconductors and their vital components”.
Australia's race against China's 'rare earths weapon'
A global shortage in semiconductor chips is driving up the prices of cars and other electronic goods such as laptops and televisions, leading the Biden administration to make boosting supply and reducing dependence on China one of its top economic priorities.
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Bid to remove ‘racist’ slave trader Ben Boyd’s name from Sydney street fails
The Kanakas were NOT slaves. They were contracted labourers. They were free to return to Kanaky at the end of their contract. Most did
Calls to remove the name of slave trader Ben Boyd, who was responsible for ‘blackbirding’, from a leafy Sydney suburb have failed.
North Sydney Council will keep the name of Ben Boyd Rd in Neutral Bay and Cremorne, on the lower north shore of Sydney, after a former Green’s staffer created a petition to change the name.
The petition caused a stir in the community with the council then asked to consider a name change.
The road was named after a colonial entrepreneur who lived in Neutral Bay in the 1840s.
Boyd was known for pioneering the practice of using cheap labour from the South Sea islands to work in Australia. It is known as ‘blackbirding’.
After the petition was circulated the council asked constituents for their thoughts.
A survey was put forward and 2318 residents responded, 54.7 per cent opposed the renaming of the street while 44.3 per cent were in favour. Just 1.6 per cent were unsure.
The papers also said there were 20 council installed street signs referencing Ben Boyd Rd. The cost of replacing these would be about $6200.
There are also two plaques in the community commemorating Ben Boyd with the council preparing to alter these.
“The larger of these are soon to be reinstalled with another plaque outlining the story of Boyd’s place in Australia’s historical narrative,” council papers said.
“With that, the naming of Ben Boyd Road will be put in context, and residents and visitors can decide for themselves the nature of the man and his deeds.”
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It’s a $50b-a-year export industry. How long until coal’s rivers of gold run dry?
If the end of coal is near, it’s hard to see it among the open pits and billowing cooling towers of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley and the Hunter in NSW.
Canyons of brown and black coal, set between green paddocks and sloping hills, loom large in these mining districts and dominate their economies as a source of great wealth, just as they have for a century or more.
A global push is accelerating to eliminate the use of thermal coal — the worst-emitting source of energy — to restrain the planet’s rising temperature and avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
But the mines in Latrobe and the Hunter are still operating around the clock. White steam still rises from the nearby power plants as they burn coal to supply more than two-thirds of Australia’s electricity needs. And, at the ports, huge volumes of coal are still being loaded onto cargo ships bound for Asia, bringing in billions of dollars of export revenue a year.
“The coal industry is just so damn important to the regional centres,” says Peter Jordan, a Cessnock local and mining union official who worked in the sector for more than a decade.
“Our coal mining jobs are well-paid relative to other industries, but they support many others in the mining communities; services, retail, health … most of them wouldn’t exist without coal.”
With 50,000 coal mining jobs nationally, the industry’s head count is relatively modest in contrast to sectors such as manufacturing, which employs 900,000 Australians. But coal has an outsized influence in a handful of seats, where it is a provider of good jobs and rich revenue streams for governments.
“It sends rivers of gold to Sydney in the form of royalties,” Jordan adds, “paying for roads, schools, and hospitals.”
For now, coal is a $50-billion-a-year export industry. How long until its rivers of gold run dry?
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull lost his job over an attempt to reshape energy policy and push down emissions. Scott Morrison went to the last election warning voters that Labor’s “net-zero” target would unleash economic havoc and widespread lay-offs.
Most Australians now say they want stronger emissions curbs, new polling suggests. But fewer than half (49 per cent) think coal power should be phased out within a decade and 44 per cent want to keep mining and exporting coal for as long as buyers want it.
Australia’s coal addiction might seem hard to shake. While 10 coal-fired power plants have shut down in the past decade, coal still generates about 70 per cent of the nation’s electricity.
Winds of change are, however, blowing anyway. The clean energy era is firmly upon us. And powerful forces are radically reshaping coal’s outlook overseas and on the home front.
With 3.3 gigawatts of new wind and solar power capacity plugged into the nation’s main grid in 2020 alone, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has officially declared the transition to be the fastest of anywhere in the world, describing the pace as “absolutely staggering”.
A consequence of more wind and solar farms being built, and more Australians installing rooftop solar panels, is that coal is getting squeezed. In the past 12 months, the flood of cheaper-to-run renewable energy has pummelled daytime wholesale power prices to levels where just about every coal-fired power plant is considered at risk.
This year, EnergyAustralia brought forward the closure of its Yallourn power station to 2028, four years ahead of schedule. Last week, it said it would shut its Mt Piper plant earlier, too, sometime prior to 2040.
Other sites, though, are still licensed to be burning coal until the back half of the 2040s, or even the 2050s, putting Australia at odds with a growing chorus of world leaders calling for a markedly more urgent phase-out plan.
Ahead of the world climate summit in Glasgow, the United Nations has launched a push for all OECD countries to quit coal power by 2030, and non-OECD countries by 2040. “The alarm bells are deafening,” UN secretary-general Antonio Gutteres says.
Is it possible for Australia’s coal-dominated national power market to be rid of coal entirely by 2030? “It depends,” says Lisa Zembrodt of Schneider Electric, an adviser to many of Australia’s largest corporate energy consumers.
Put this question to the power station operators, and they invariably insist 2030 is far too soon and would raise the threat of a “messy” transition that could see price volatility or even blackouts.
AGL, which accounts for 8 per cent of Australia’s total emissions, says nine years is not nearly enough time for replacement capacity to be invested in, built and plugged into the grid.
“We certainly recognise that the date of 2030 is something that is on the table with respect of the UN targets,” AGL chairman Peter Botten says. “I believe that 2030 is a very, very challenging target.”
Still, at its annual investor meeting last Wednesday, more than 50 per cent of AGL’s shareholders including US investment powerhouses BlackRock and Vanguard defied the board and voted to support an activist climate resolution requesting consideration of new goals that would compel accelerated coal plant closures.
What it boils down to, according to Zembrodt, is a choice we have to make as a society: As expensive as it may be, are we prepared to invest in the transition — smart grids, micro-grids, demand-management technology, batteries, energy storage and infrastructure — to fill the gap?
“We should be seeking to phase out coal as quickly as possible … and 2030 is a great aim,” she says. “But we need clear policy, we need market design, we need coordinated efforts between government, the market operators and consumers to enable the transition and support it, rather than prevent it.”
Grattan Institute energy director Tony Wood agrees: Australia could be capable of retiring all its coal plants and replacing them with clean energy by 2030, but it would cost a “huge amount”.
“You would have to do a hell of a lot of things in the shorter-term that you otherwise would only have done in the longer term,” he says.
Because electricity production is a dominant source of emissions, exiting coal would help sharply reduce the country’s carbon footprint. At the same time, however, state and federal ministers have also become acutely aware to the risk of abrupt plant closures leading to undesirable outcomes for consumers.
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor is driving development of a so-called “capacity mechanism” designed to spur investment into “dispatchable” assets – those capable of supplying on-demand power when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining.
Taylor insists the mechanism would be technology-neutral, with equal opportunity for gas, pumped hydro and batteries. But the policy has drawn fierce criticism from environmental advocates who have dubbed it “CoalKeeper” because it may see coal plants paid to guarantee future supply by remaining in the grid for longer.
NSW thermal coal has rallied this year to $US180 a tonne – a 10-year-high, and a sign of enduring near-term demand despite accelerating emissions goals globally.
As economies re-emerge from COVID-19 and energy consumption rebounds, coal markets are booming. What will happen next, though, is decidedly less certain. Top Australian coal destinations – Japan, China, South Korea – are targeting “net-zero” emissions by 2050-60, which, eventually, will diminish demand for fossil fuel cargoes.
There is much still to be answered. How sharp will the trajectory in those countries be? Will the world seek to limit global temperatures to 2.5 degrees of warming, 2 degrees or the most aspirational 1.5-degree pathway, as targeted by the Paris Agreement? What does that mean for Australian coal?
When the Reserve Bank of Australia considered these questions, it modelled four scenarios. Under one scenario of no change to existing policies in those countries, Australian coal exports rise 17 per cent by 2050. In other scenarios in which temperature rises are kept at 2 degrees or lower, coal falls by up to 80 per cent by mid-century.
“Countries are unlikely to materially alter their energy mix in the near term, and ... demand for coal will likely remain robust this decade, the RBA said. “However, as global appetite for coal tapers off from 2030 onwards under all scenarios except for the baseline, Australian coal-related investments are at risk of becoming ‘stranded assets’.”
Coal producers and analysts say Australian coal – with a relatively high quality and energy content – could face a brighter future than coal from other sources, as countries across Asia retire their older, less-efficient coal generators and move towards lower-emissions facilities.
“If everybody else goes down, we could end up holding a bigger piece of the global coal pie,” says Herd. “But is that who we really want to be? Do we want to be the last coal exporting-nation in the world?”
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A major Queensland university is set to ditch lectures next year in a move which has been slammed by the tertiary education union and protested by students
Seems a lot of nonsense to me, as a retired lecturer
From 2022 the University of the Sunshine Coast will no longer have in-person or online lecturers, with students instead to be provided with alternative learning materials such as quizzes and podcasts.
In a message to students about the change, USC stated “traditional style lecturers have been demonstrated to have poor learning outcomes”.
But many students have already voiced their concerns with USC psychology students launching a petition protesting the change, which has gathered more than 600 signatures.
USC Pro Vice-Chancellor (students) Professor Denise Wood told The Courier-Mai lecture attendance had been dramatically declining over the past few years, and students would now have access to more “engaging” online learning materials.
“USC remains predominantly a face-to-face on campus learning environment and that’s not changing,” she said.
“However over the years learning and teaching has changed, we are now living in a period of contemporary learning and teaching practice.
“Over the last decade, as has the entire sector, we’ve seen a gradual shift from the number of students wanting to come to face-to-face lecturers.
“A decade ago, you would see about 50 per cent attendance by week four, now you’re lucky to see between 20 and 25 per cent.”
National Tertiary Education Union Queensland secretary Michael McNally said members were concerned the university was taking a “one size fits all” approach, by ditching lecturers for all subjects.
“That’s a bit of a slamming condemnation of everything all of the staff up until now have been doing,” he said.
“A lot of our lecturers are quite happy to do some or even all of their teaching in this kind of format, because it works for them, it works for the subject they teach and their students prefer it.
“But there are also lots of situations where that type of format isn’t the best, and the academic staff need to have the ability to decide what’s the best learning format for their students.”
Prof. Wood said there would be no job losses with the change.
“The academics will still need to be available … and of course still need to respond to students,” she said.
In their petition, psychology students argued the “proposed will have a negative effect on student learning, specifically the psychology undergraduate degree”.
“Many students feel that the introduced interactive platform is a way for less and less teacher contact time,” the petition stated.
Prof. Wood said the university would listen to student feedback, with a survey currently underway.
“We will work with the student senate on analysing the feedback from students, and we will be responsive to it,” she said.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Monday, September 27, 2021
Why has the price of aluminium skyrocketed around the world?
Northern Australia has huge and easily accessible deposits of of bauxite right by the sea (at Weipa) and only a short sail from Asia. So it is already a major supplier. It may soon become even more dominant as a supplier. It easily has the reserves to replace Guinea and buyers should see that
What happened this week was a huge spike in the price of aluminium, which goes into everything from cars and trucks to phones and beverage cans. The metal touched $3000 a tonne — the highest it’s been since the 2008 global financial crisis — before settling down a wee bit after a couple days. But it’s still almost 70% more expensive than this time last year.
Why has the cost soared?
Because of Guinea, a tiny country in West Africa. Earlier this month, a military junta ousted Guinean president Alpha Condé in a coup driven by frustration over a lack of social and economic reform during his tenure. (Ramming through a referendum to ignore term limits and extend his time in office didn’t win Condé any friends either.)
Guinea is one of the major producers of bauxite, the mineral that is the raw ingredient for the production of aluminium. With a country so dependent on mining producing a commodity the world is so reliant on, a military coup naturally introduced uncertainty into the market — and uncertainty often means volatility. Even though Guinea’s mines are making an effort to keep operations normal and production steady, prices can still rise because commodities are traded speculatively. This means traders are nervous about what could happen with this batch of colonels, or even the next government, whenever it’s formed.
Guinea’s travails have indirect effects. Any blip in the bauxite supply chain has potential to wreak havoc later on. This is especially true seeing that China, which turns much of Guinea’s rocks into shiny metal, has become a net importer of aluminium recently, so it doesn’t necessarily have the domestic back stock to keep up with industry demand.
Aluminium comes from an ore called bauxite. According to the US Geological Survey, bauxite is the “only raw material used in the production of alumina on a commercial scale”. In other words, if the world wants aluminium, the world needs bauxite. The process that turns bauxite into aluminium is called smelting, and it is fairly resource- as well as energy- and emissions-intensive. It’s a messy business.
While Australia was the world’s largest producer of bauxite last year, digging up 110 million tonnes, Guinea produced 82 million tonnes, or 22% of the world’s supply. For a country of just 13.6 million people, that is no small feat. More importantly, perhaps, it also has the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, with 7.4 billion tonnes. Guinea may not be to aluminium what the DRC is to cobalt, but it’s almost there.
What does this mean for the prices of goods that use aluminium?
Well it’s not good. Aluminium is everywhere these days. It’s used heavily in automobile production: Ford’s F-150 pick-up, the best-selling vehicle in the US, uses loads of it, which unfortunately got pricier thanks to former US president Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported aluminium. It’s in mobile phones. It’s in cans. The US uses it extensively in defence production. And the post-pandemic “greening” of the economy has led to increased aluminium demand due to its prevalence in electric car production and solar panels, as NPR’s Marketplace pointed out.
Increased demand, combined with continued political uncertainty in Guinea, could keep aluminim prices sky high. If that happens, the prices of consumer goods will inevitably inch upward. The more volatile Guinea’s political situation is, the bigger the effect.
How long will this last?
It depends on how long political instability in the country persists. Lately, consultations have begun to shift from military rule to a transitional government. But it could take weeks — or a whole lot longer — for a final decision to be made.
In the meantime, the leader of the coup, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, rushed to assure big mining companies he wouldn’t do anything to disrupt operations, which might take some of the froth out of the market.
Bauxite is Guinea’s golden goose, so it’s not likely the new junta will do anything to jeopardise exports in the short term. But if political instability continues — or if the government decides to take a bigger bite of mining revenues, potentially even leading to closures — supply problems could creep into an already jittery market. And if you drive, talk, or eat leftovers, that is not what you want to hear.
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Tim Blair: Inclusion actually means exclusion in the woke community
In the names of inclusiveness and social justice, girls and women are losing opportunities for athletic achievement – and even losing their gender identities, writes Tim Blair.
If ever you hear a woke type talking about the need for “inclusion”, brace yourself. It usually means someone is about to be excluded.
The latest victims of inclusion are female netball players. Last week several girls’ netball teams were swept aside in a state championship because netball administrators allowed a boys’ team to compete.
By “compete”, I mean “dominate”. The Queensland Suns Under-17 team, an all-male outfit, easily won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane against all-female opponents.
As you’d expect.
Parents and fans at the final expressed understandable outrage. So did NRL legend Cameron Smith, whose wife watched a game in which fellow former NRL star Matt Geyer’s daughter played against the boys.
“She just said Matt’s daughter’s team were a gun side and they had no chance. The males were just too fast, too physical. It was just a disadvantage to the girls,” Smith said on SEN.
“It’s crazy. How do you put one male team in against all the other females and expect the girls to compete? Particularly at that age when they’re still developing. It’s not fair.”
Damn straight. But according to Netball Queensland, allowing boys to play against girls was even better than fair. It was inclusive, the highest level of woke accomplishment to which humanity can possibly aspire.
Following criticism, Netball Queensland issued a statement boldly defending its decision to deny girls any chance of winning. It’s a masterpiece of social justice sophistry. Let’s take a walk on the woke side:
“We want to make clear that there is a place for everyone in our sport.” Except for a place on top of the podium. That’s now reserved for boys.
“We stand by the decision to choose inclusion over exclusion.” Says the same organisation that excluded girls from even the possibility of a championship win.
“We recognise that change is sometimes uncomfortable …” Especially for girls, who will probably give up netball entirely if they’re going to be beaten in every match.
“We are buoyed by the support of our wider netball community …” As one sharp-eyed observer noted, they really should have used a more inclusive term than “buoyed”.
“We’d like to address the assertion that the young women who played the State Titles were disadvantaged in any way.” Really? The boys won their games by an average of 29 points and took out the final 46-12. If that’s not evidence of disadvantage, then what the hell is?
“We see this as a great development opportunity.” But not for girls, at least in terms of claiming a title.
“The inclusion of both women and men in the competition in 2021 was about affording all netballers the opportunity to play and develop our great game.” And for boys, and boys only, the opportunity to win.
“While we have been subject to commentary around the different physical attributes it should also be remembered that men are new participants to our sport and play a different style of netball.” A style known as “successful”. Because they’re boys playing against girls.
“It’s also imperative that we provide a platform for men and boys to participate – because if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” I can’t see a girls’ team ever winning a netball championship again if boys are allowed to compete.
“And we aspire to be a sport for all.” You’ve taken a sport designed for girls and women and have handed it over to boys and men. Congratulations, ladies.
Queensland Netball’s idiocy, which if extended to other exclusively-female sports would scrub women from peak athletic involvement, is part of a broader woke war on women.
Last week the totally woke American Civil Liberties Union celebrated the memory of late Supreme Court justice and feminist hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg by promoting an old Ginsburg quote.
Problem was, Ginsburg’s 1993 quote used non-woke words such as “her”, “woman” and “she”. So the ACLU helpfully edited it, which turned an eloquent statement on abortion rights into an abortion itself.
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person’s] life, to [their] wellbeing and dignity,” the updated gender-neutral version reads.
“When the government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices.”
Fully adult humans should be capable of hearing or reading words that refer to women without having an inclusiveness-based panic attack.
Similarly, formerly-prestigious British medical journal The Lancet last week indicated its devotion to wokeness by also excluding women. “Historically,” The Lancet reported, “the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected.”
Seriously? “Bodies with vaginas”? That’s where wokespeak is taking us. They are reducing women to their genital component form.
Sensible people, such as psychologist and author Dr Jessica Taylor, took issue with this. How, Dr Taylor wondered, could The Lancet present itself as caring about the exclusion of female bodies and female biology from medicine and science when the journal won’t even name them?
“I would like to hear The Lancet explain their scientific rationale for keeping the use of the word ‘men’, ‘male’ and ‘man’ when they are refusing to use the word ‘woman’, ‘women’ and ‘female’,” Dr Taylor added. “Genuinely, I would like to hear that argument.”
They don’t have one. That’s why we hear nonsense phrases instead, like “if you can’t see it, you can’t be it”.
We are increasingly seeing women not mentioned in elite correspondence. What happens next?
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Qld, WA may face legal challenges over border closures
Barriers betwen the states are clearly ultra vires of section 92 of the constitution
Queensland and Western Australia could find themselves vulnerable to unprecedented legal issues as the rest of Australia embraces ‘Covid normal’ in the coming months.
Constitutional lawyer Professor Kim Rubenstein told Ten’s The Sunday Project that anyone adversely affected by the states’ refusal to open their borders could have grounds for a case.
“Any person who is impacted by these restrictions and who can show that this is a disproportionate burden on trade (could mount legal action),” she said.
“So that if it can show that it is, in fact, protecting one state over the other, without a legitimate or proportional response, then it really is available for challenge. And we may, in fact, see that ahead of us.”
Professor Rubenstein told The Sunday Project that the Australian constitution “was motivated by a desire to travel freely across the country”.
“Section 92 was placed there to discourage any restriction of travel within Australia,” she said.
Professor Rubenstein said the court would examine “whether these restrictions are needed for the purpose that they‘re seeking to achieve in terms of health protection.”
If they’re found wanting, the state could be much more “vulnerable” to legal action.
It comes amid criticism over Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was unwilling to reopen the state’s borders even at 80 per cent national vaccine coverage.
Ms Palaszczuk on Friday said she was unwilling to reopen as “80 per cent actually takes you backwards and I do not want that for Queensland”.
Her remarks have since come under heavy criticism with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg labelling it a policy that would keep Queensland families apart.
“The decision, and the announcement by the Queensland government, which means we may not see an opening of the borders consistent with the National Plan, is not good, and it would be a bad decision that would cost Queensland jobs,” he said.
“It would be a bad decision that would mean Queensland families are kept apart and it would be inconsistent with what was agreed at the National Cabinet.
“It’s really important that, in Queensland, the borders open in accordance with those 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates.
“People want their lives to come back to what it was, and it’s up to those premiers and chief ministers to give those people hope, to give them a chance to reopen their businesses, to be reunited with loved ones, to send their kids back to school.
“That’s what the people of Australia are expecting from their state and territory leaders.”
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Australian PM refuses to commit to phasing out fossil fuels
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to commit to phasing out fossil fuels as a major climate conference approaches, while his deputy doubled down on opposing targets for net zero emissions of greenhouse gases.
Australia, the world's top coal and a major gas exporter, is under growing pressure to come up with emissions reduction targets ahead of November's COP26 United Nations climate conference in Scotland.
The International Monetary Fund called on Australia to set a "time bound" target to reach net zero emissions on Friday, when the country's treasurer warned that Australia must brace for much higher borrowing costs if it fails to commit to a net zero target by 2050, as many peers have done.
In interviews with Australian media after a summit in Washington, Morrison said his government was still working on its emissions plans, declining to commit to curbing fossil fuels that account for a major part of Australia's export revenue.
He told broadcaster SBS in an interview that aired on Saturday night that he was not prepared to pull back any fossil fuel industries immediately.
"We don't have to, because that change will take place over time," he said. "We are working on the transition technologies and fuels and the ultimate technologies that will be there over the next 20, 30 years that can get us to net zero... This doesn't happen overnight."
Morrison, who has a largely undefined slogan of "technology not taxes", was part of a government that torpedoed a carbon pricing scheme after winning the 2013 election while opposing the mechanism as a tax.
His deputy prime minister, climate change sceptic Barnaby Joyce, dug in on Sunday against a net zero target.
"We look at it through the eyes of making sure there is not an unreasonable, or any loss of... regional jobs," Joyce, whose National party represents largely rural voters, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Joyce said proceeds from mining and agriculture industries were vital for people in regional towns, from hairdressers to auto service providers.
"You've got to remember, fossil fuels are your nation's largest export and if you take away your nation's largest export, you've got to accept a lower standard of living," he said.
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Spanish mackerel ban shows contemptible disregard for commercial fishermen
Peter Gleeson
If you like eating Spanish mackerel, you might have to start saving your pennies because the price is about to skyrocket.
It follows the establishment of a so-called working group, which will look at banning the commercial fishing of mackerel in north Queensland waters.
The plan is to ban fishing in certain areas from July 1 next year, abolishing the existing quota system.
Fisheries Queensland has been managing the resource through a quota system since 2004 under the sustainable fishing banner.
They have recently announced the East Coast Spanish Mackerel biomass is at a critically low level and changes to the management will be implemented next July.
Among other possibilities, the most likely result of this is a drastic quota reduction for the fishermen.
No doubt there will be the standard stakeholder working groups and public discussion papers so that Queensland Fisheries can be seen to be going through the consultation process, but the outcome is inevitable.
This is yet another hijacking of a perfectly legitimate business by the Greens and their Labor Left mates.
The Greens hate all commercial fishing. It’s a bread-and-butter issue. Greenpeace have made an art form of trying to destroy fishing industries.
Unfortunately, there are not enough commercial fisherman left to have any voting clout, so outcomes become inevitable.
The utter disregard for the consequences to fishermen’s personal and financial circumstances shown by Queensland Fisheries is contemptible.
Fishermen in the north Queensland area are in despair at the proposed changes.
For Spanish mackerel farmers such as Peter Guymer, the fish are all caught one at a time on a line.
There is no trawl or net fishery for this species, and the fish he catches are consumed by Queenslanders.
Mr Guymer says this latest issue for the Spanish mackerel industry is part of a broader campaign to undermine the professional fishing industry.
“The demand for wild caught local seafood has never been stronger,’’ Mr Guymer says.
“The ultimate loser here is the seafood-eating public who cannot or don’t wish to catch it themselves and will be eating imported farmed product.’’
The Queensland Seafood Industry Association has tried to talk sense into the State Government, but received little solace.
The Government says Spanish mackerel stocks are under threat from overfishing, with 300 tonnes commercially fished each year since 2004.
The latest damning Fisheries Queensland view follows a 2020 report, which said harvest numbers were good.
If a ban was implemented, it would throw dozens of fishermen out of work, and mean Spanish mackerel would be off the menu at most restaurants.
This is a typical Greens-Labor Left stitch-up, with a Labor government complicit in sending a section of the industry to the wall.
Let’s hope sanity prevails and the quota system remains. It’s a very fishy situation indeed
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Sunday, September 26, 2021
Australia needs a ‘clear plan’ for net zero to avoid energy crisis
Barnaby Joyce has hit thenail on the head. Greenies and their supporters have NO plan for what will replace coal-fired electricity. Nukes are anathema and natural gas is an increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuel. But only those two could keep the lights on at night and when the wind is not blowing
Mr Joyce has made a slight pivot in his stance on committing to a net zero target by 2050 after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg made an economic case for adopting the target in a speech to business leaders on Friday.
The Nationals have traditionally been opposed to the commitment; however, the remarks from Mr Joyce may signal a future shift in the party’s position.
“We want to make sure – and the Coalition is a prudent organisation – we want to make sure that any process forward doesn’t just follow rhetorical flourish, one-line headlines, but makes sure that we have a clear plan,” Mr Joyce told reporters on Friday.
“I have to show the Australian people what happens, what it looks like when you get it wrong.
“And the UK energy crisis, the European energy crisis, will be our energy crisis.
“At the end of that graph resides coldness and unemployment, and we don’t want either of those.
Mr Joyce indicated he believed the treasurer was “completely right if people make decisions that restrict the flow of capital”, however, Australia should not allow “third parties” to restrict the capacity to act within rules and within a process that is legitimate.
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Victoria Police censored 'vital' media coverage of Melbourne protests
Victoria Police censored vital media coverage of Melbourne's protests by banning the live-streaming of aerial footage, according to Digital Editor Jack Houghton.
On Wednesday the Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved a Victoria Police ban of all helicopters bar their own flying over Melbourne CBD.
"A media blackout," Mr Houghton said. "A pathetic attempt by an over-zealous police force which lost control of its own city.
"You deserve to know what's happening in your city every moment of every day, and in my experience, police only ever want you to stop filming when they are worried about stuffing something up."
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Australia signs deal with Nauru to keep asylum seeker detention centre open indefinitely
Australia will continue its policy of offshore processing of asylum seekers indefinitely, with the home affairs minister signing a new agreement with Nauru to maintain “an enduring form” of offshore processing on the island state.
Since 2012 – in the second iteration of the policy – all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat seeking protection have faced mandatory indefinite detention and processing offshore.
There are currently about 108 people held by Australia on Nauru as part of its offshore processing regime. Most have been there more than eight years. About 125 people are still held in Papua New Guinea. No one has been sent offshore since 2014.
However, Nauru is Australia’s only remaining offshore detention centre. PNG’s Manus Island centre was forced to shut down after it was found to be unconstitutional by the PNG supreme court in 2016. Australia was forced to compensate those who had been illegally detained there, and they were forcibly moved out, mostly to Port Moresby.
But the Nauru detention facility will remain indefinitely.
In a statement on Friday, home affairs minister Karen Andrews said a new memorandum of understanding with Nauru was a “significant step forwards” for both countries.
“Australia’s strong and successful border protection policies under Operation Sovereign Borders remain and there is zero chance of settlement in Australia for anyone who arrives illegally by boat,” she said.
“Anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia will be turned back, or taken to Nauru for processing. They will never settle in Australia.”
Nauru president, Lionel Aingimea, said the new agreement created an “enduring form” of offshore processing. “This takes the regional processing to a new milestone. “It is enduring in nature, as such the mechanisms are ready to deal with illegal migrants immediately upon their arrival in Nauru from Australia.”
Australia’s offshore processing policy and practices have been consistently criticised by the United Nations, human rights groups, and by refugees themselves.
The UN has said Australia’s system violates the convention against torture and the international criminal court’s prosecutor said indefinite detention offshore was “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law.
At least 12 people have died in the camps, including being murdered by guards, through medical neglect and by suicide. Psychiatrists sent to work in the camps have described the conditions as “inherently toxic” and akin to “torture”.
In 2016, the Nauru files, published by the Guardian, exposed the Nauru detention centre’s own internal reports of systemic violence, rape, sexual abuse, self-harm and child abuse in offshore detention.
The decision to extend offshore processing indefinitely has been met with opprobrium from those who were detained there, and refugee advocates who say it is deliberately damaging to those held.
Myo Win, a human rights activist and Rohingyan refugee from Myanmar, who was formerly detained on Nauru and released in March 2021, said those who remain held within Australia’s regime on Nauru “are just so tired, separated from family, having politics played with their lives, it just makes me so upset”.
“I am out now and I still cannot live my life on a bridging visa and in lockdown, but it is 10 times better than Nauru. They should not be extending anything, they should be stopping offshore processing now. I am really worried about everyone on Nauru right now, they need to be released.”
Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the new memorandum of understanding only extended a “failed system”.
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Coking coal price hits record highs as Chinese steel-makers face pain
The price of metallurgical coal has risen to record levels as trade tensions and border problems push the cost for Chinese importers sky-high.
Coal for coking purposes has soared despite declines in iron ore values attributed to Chinese steel-makers abiding by a government directive to avoid buying from Australia.
The value has surged to $US410 a tonne in the past week, representing a more than tripling in price since early 2020.
Coking coal is now overtaking iron ore as the largest input cost for many of the world's steel mills.
Mining analyst Peter Strachan said while the booming price appeared counterintuitive given the slide in iron ore demand, logistical issues in Asia were at play.
"Normally they get a lot across the border from Mongolia but COVID restrictions have meant they haven't been able to get enough truck drivers to do it," he said.
"Shipping costs have skyrocketed, the Chinese are just scrambling and paying over $US500 a tonne for the stuff delivered. Ex-Newcastle it's well over $US400, that's a new high."
With poor domestic supplies of metallurgical coal, Chinese buyers were racing to source shipments from across Asia, North America and as far afield as Columbia as a result.
As a result of China's hunt for new suppliers, major steel-making nations with limited domestic metallurgical coal such as India, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the EU are now increasingly turning to Australia.
Director of the Bowen Basin Mining Club Jodie Currie said the loss of the Chinese market had opened new doors for the region's miners.
"I think it gave them opportunity to look at other markets, Queensland coal is sought after across the world," she said.
"There were certainly shock waves sent through the industry but we've diversified, we've looked at other markets."
Property market-induced slide
Concerns over the financial woes of Evergrande, one of China's leading property developers has been seen by many commentators as a catalyst for the declining iron ore value.
Analyst Peter Strachan said, with increased recycling of metals domestically, metallurgical coal demand in China could reach a peak soon.
"Eventually there will be a correction, the Evergrande issue is going to put a hiatus on the expansion of steel-making," he said.
"We're also seeing a lot more scrap iron coming though the [steel production] system, eventually China's going to move towards 20, 30 per cent of their steel coming from scrap."
Falling steel production through July and August as a result of the planned cap on steel-making has been mirrored by a decline in other polluting industries such as cement, another sector blamed for poor air quality in Chinese cities.
"There are a number of climate-related, clean-air issues, the big polluters tend to cut back ahead of winter, especially with the Winter Olympics coming," Mr Strachan said.
After the price of iron ore crashed from $230 in May to as low as $93 a tonne in recent weeks, some stability returned to the market in recent days following indications Evergrande will pay interest payments due today.
The price rose back above the $US100 mark in mid-week trade.
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Vulcan metallurgical coal mine approved for Queensland
Vitrinite has been granted a mining lease for its new $160 million Vulcan metallurgical coal mine near Moranbah.
The project between Moranbah and Dysart will create at least 150 full-time jobs and is expected to deliver a major economic boost to the Isaac and Mackay regions.
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the Queensland company had invested significant time and effort exploring for coal on its Vulcan Complex project in the Bowen Basin.
He said it had led to the discovery of premium, high quality metallurgical coal seams.
Metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, is primarily used to make steel and is currently attracting record export prices.
Mr Macfarlane said the granting of a mining lease for Vulcan facilitated the first four years of an expected 15-year-plus mine life, which on its own is a $160 million, nine million tonne (Mt) mine.
“During this four-year period, Vulcan will contribute an estimated $170 million in royalties to the Queensland budget which will be used to fund essential health, education and infrastructure projects,” he said.
“On top of that, the project will contribute millions of dollars to the Queensland economy through taxes and the uptake of goods and services.”
Resources Minister Scott Stewart said the new Vulcan coal mine was the first mining project for Vitrinite.
“The project shows ongoing investor confidence in Queensland’s world-class resources, infrastructure and skilled workforce,” he said.
“Queensland’s resources industry has been integral to our economic recovery, operating through the pandemic and now supporting a sector record 85,000 jobs in our state.
Vitrinite founder and managing director Nick Williams said the company was grateful to be part of the Central Queensland mining community.
He said he was proud to prove a private, family-style business could succeed in Australia alongside some of the world’s largest companies.
“We started off small, but what began as the dream of a few, young entrepreneurs has evolved to a stage where we’re creating at least 150 full-time jobs, which will lead to more indirect jobs, and can make a significant contribution to the state economy,” he said.
“We are a family business, and we want to continue how we’ve started, to create a company that supports family and makes people a keystone of every business function.
“When planning the Vulcan mine, and everything we do, we also put a very large focus on minimising our environmental impact, to ensure we’ll leave this land better than we found it for future generations,” he said.
“We have implemented plans to minimise water usage, reduce overburden movements, use innovative technologies and conduct progressive rehabilitation beyond our statutory requirements, so we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously.
“While this is good policy for the environment, it also translates into good business practices which will allow us to maximise the value of these resources for all Australians.”
Mr Macfarlane said the community could be confident the Vulcan project had undergone rigorous regulatory assessment to establish its environmental credentials before having its mining lease approved.
“Queensland is widely regarded as having the strictest environmental regulations in the world, which our industry is fully committed to complying with, along with our determination to lower carbon emissions and implement sustainable mining practices,” he said.
“The Vulcan Complex mine project is also the first resources project in Queensland to have its Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan approved under new legislation introduced in 2019.
“A PRCP commits mine operators to progressively rehabilitating land while the mine is operating and returning the land to its pre-mining use at the end of the project, which in this case is low-intensity cattle grazing.
“This is the future of mining and ensures Queensland resources companies can continue to operate safely and sustainably with the support of their communities and government regulators.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Friday, September 24, 2021
Environmental showstopper: AGL has its Greta Thunberg moment
It was the shareholder meeting of 2021 that was worthy of top billing - Australia's biggest carbon emitter, AGL, came face to face (well screen to screen) with its environmentally concerned investors.
Numerous Australian companies have recently faced the environmental backlash from investors. But AGL has been squeezed by the pincer of big emissions and plunging profit - enough to upset any shareholder.
The entertainment even included the self-nomination of a young student Ashjayeen Sharif to the board - a proposal roundly rejected by other directors and, unsurprisingly, wildly unsuccessful.
It looked like a cut-down version of Greta Thunberg's United Nations speech on the need for climate action with a corporate twist.
To be sure, shareholders chalked up a victory of sorts - scoring the largest vote in Australia's history in favour of forcing a board to report emissions targets and report how pay packets will be aligned with achieving them.
Ultimately this proved to be a pyrrhic victory because adopting the shareholder resolution required a change to the company's constitution - and the vote to achieve this failed.
But after a couple of hours of verbal beating, AGL chairman Peter Botten managed to have all resolutions voted in line with the board recommendations.
That said, the company avoided a second strike on its remuneration package but only after it acquiesced to big shareholders and proxy forms to overhaul pay performance measures and transparency.
Botten and his board don't need a shareholder meeting to take the temperature of its shareholders' feelings about AGL's environmental credentials.
They understand that AGL has been caught on the wrong side of history. Ten years ago, it loaded up its balance sheet with coal-fired generators it now can't afford to close down but which impose a massive reputational cost on the company.
(And AGL and other energy companies are getting no help from the government, which has a hopeless inability to commit to larger cuts in carbon emissions.)
The enormous fragmentation in the supply of energy has come about with the fall in the cost of renewables - a situation that has seen consumers and businesses switch to an energy self-service model.
In the case of households, this has been primarily achieved through the installation of roof solar panels, while large energy using companies have taken to building their own energy infrastructure.
A tsunami of supply collided with a COVID-induced shrinkage in demand - and the price of wholesale electricity fell accordingly - and with it AGL's earnings.
This move began slowly but in recent years has accelerated very quickly. AGL, which to be fair has also invested heavily in renewable energy, was overtaken by the environmental stampede. And it has a share price and earnings to prove it.
Less than two years ago, AGL completed a $650 million buyback of its own stock at $19 compared with the current price of $5.68. This alone demonstrates the board's failure to read the tea leaves.
While there was never any great threat to AGL's ability to push through the resolutions at Wednesday's annual shareholder meeting, the reality is this was merely a warm-up event.
The real action will take place next year when shareholders get to vote on splitting AGL into two separate companies.
These two companies can be roughly characterised as a retail supplier of energy and a wholesale generator of energy - officially named AGL Australia and Accel Energy - but more colloquially known as Cleanco and Dirtyco.
The challenge of navigating through this separation, avoiding saddling either sibling with too much debt and finding investors willing to retain a stake in a corporate environmental leper need to be addressed.
All this needs to take place against the backdrop of a further fall in AGL's earnings.
Wednesday's annual meeting will seem like a walk in the park in comparison.
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Landmark climate pollution case launched
Victorian environmental campaigners are launching landmark legal action against the state's Environment Protection Authority and three coal power stations over claims they failed to limit climate pollution.
Led by conservation group Environment Victoria, the Supreme Court case will be the first to test Victoria's Climate Change Act, which was introduced in 2017.
It will also be the first challenge to the regulation of air pollution from the state's coal-burning power stations.
The owners of Loy Yang A, AGL Energy; Loy Yang B, Alinta Energy; and Yallourn, EnergyAustralia are cited in the legal action.
Environment Victoria will allege the EPA "failed to protect the health of the community and the environment" by not taking any action against these three coal power stations while reviewing their licences in March this year.
"The Andrews government passed nation-leading climate change legislation in 2017, but Victoria's environment watchdog chose to ignore it when making a crucial decision about coal power station licences this year," EV chief executive Jono La Nauze said.
"The EPA took more than 1200 days to review the licences of three coal power stations and then failed to take any action on the greenhouse gases they emit.
"Our case will argue that they failed to properly consider key sections of the Climate Change Act and the Environment Protection Act."
AAP contacted the EPA for a response, however it declined to comment due to the upcoming court case.
Coal power station owners Alinta Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL also declined to comment on specifics of the case, while the matter is in court.
An AGL spokeswoman said it acknowledged its role in energy transition and is committed to ensuring this is done responsibly "balancing Australia's current and future energy needs with the commitment to decarbonise".
An EnergyAustralia spokesman said it had a strong record of environmental compliance and a commitment to improvement.
"EnergyAustralia is committed to being a leader in environmental stewardship and the responsible operation of our assets is paramount," the spokesman said.
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Victoria’s police commissioner comments on social media video of man being slammed to ground at Flinders Station
Victoria Police’s chief commissioner has commented on footage circulating of a heavy-handed arrest in Melbourne.
The 12-second clip emerged overnight on Wednesday and is believed to have been filmed during the day of protesting action across the city.
Footage shows a man talking to at least three police officers at Flinders Street Station.
Another officer then approaches the man from behind and appears to slam him into the ground.
The man appears to strike the ground face-first and the person who filmed the footage says he lost consciousness and was bleeding.
“This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police, you can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground,” the caption on the video said.
“You can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles. He was unconscious, blood and urine everywhere.”
On Thursday morning, Police Commissioner Shane Patton spoke to 3AW and was asked about the video.
“We’ll investigate that. I don’t know what the full circumstances are,” Patton told the station.
“There’s always context to everything. We’ll investigate it with an open mind.”
Patton said he was not “jumping to any conclusions”.
Victoria Police said in a statement it was aware of the circulating vision.
“The exact circumstances around the incident are yet to be determined and are under investigation by both Transit Safety Division and Professional Standards Command.”
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Josh Frydenberg’s plea to banks, super funds and insurers
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has urged banks, super funds and insurers not to abandon the mining industry during the economic transition to lower emissions.
In an online speech to major employers, Frydenberg will say businesses that recognise climate change-triggered trends will have the most promising futures.
“At the same time, there is a message to Australian banks, super funds and insurers,” he is expected to tell the Australian Industry Group on Friday.
“If you support the objective of net zero, do not walk away from the very sectors of our economy that will need investment to successfully transition.”
The treasurer believes it is wrong to assume traditional sectors like resources and farming will face a decline during the economic transition.
“To go the next step and achieve net zero will require more investment across the economy,” Frydenberg will say.
“An economy-wide transition is needed, as in the words of the former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, this isn’t about funding only deep green activities, or blacklisting dark brown ones.”
Instead, he favours a broad-based approach which invests in emissions reduction across all sectors including agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
“It’s a long-term shift, not a short-term shock.”
The Morrison government is under immense international pressure to commit to more ambitious emissions reduction targets ahead of a major United Nations.
Australia has become increasingly isolated over its refusal to adopt a 2050 net zero emissions goal.
While an increasing number of moderate Liberals have urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to adopt the target, Nationals and other conservative MPs oppose the move.
Frydenberg praises BHP’s investment in renewable power at mines and pursuit of net zero emissions by 2050, along with Fortescue’s expansion into green hydrogen for steel making.
The treasurer will also note three of the world’s biggest fund managers - BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard - have a net-zero goal.
“For them, there is an alignment between the commercial opportunities and the environmental outcomes.”
Frydenberg warns reduced access to capital markets could impact interest rates on home and small business loans, along with the viability of major projects.
“Australia has a lot at stake,” he will say. “We cannot run the risk that markets falsely assume we are not transitioning in line with the rest of the world.”
He argues the government is making progress on meeting emissions reduction targets and investing in new technologies.
State and federal energy ministers will meet on Friday to discuss incentives to keep dispatchable power running during the transition to cleaner technologies.
https://7news.com.au/business/dont-abandon-mining-investment-treasurer-c-4052667
************************************Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Thursday, September 23, 2021
(1)Males and females are different after all
An angry backlash has erupted after an all-boys netball team won a state title in Queensland by beating sides made up of female players in the decider.
The Queensland Suns Under-17 team was comprised entirely of boys and won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane this week, beating regional female teams en route to the trophy.
The Courier Mail reports after the Suns beat the Bond University Bull Sharks 46-12 in the final, some members of the crowd directed abuse towards the boys, with many believing it was unfair they were allowed to compete.
Suns coach Tammy Holcroft told the publication: “The abuse ranged from comments made courtside deliberately within earshot of the Suns contingent, to adults making vulgar comments directly behind the team bench.
“It’s disappointing that the frustration was directed at the players.
“At the very core of this, our boys just want to play and they copped the brunt of these comments and behaviours and were made to feel unwelcomed and unsupported.”
NRL commentator and radio host Andrew Voss said it was “bulls***” the boys team, which was undefeated throughout the tournament and boasted an average winning margin of 29 goals, was allowed to compete against the girls.
“How is that common sense?” Voss said on his SEN breakfast show. “You’re surely not going to endorse that as the way of the future, at Under-18s level.
“They say they want to be inclusive, not exclusive. That’s bulls***. It’s a farce.”
NRL legend Cameron Smith said former Melbourne Storm teammate Matt Geyer’s daughter played against the Suns team this week, and Smith’s wife went along to watch a game.
“She just said Matt’s daughter’s team were a gun side and they had no chance. The males were just too fast, too physical, it was just a disadvantage to the girls,” Smith said on SEN.
“It’s crazy. How do you put one male team in against all the other females and expect the girls to compete? Particularly at that age when they’re still developing. It’s not fair.
“That’s a weird one to enter a male team in the netball competition.”
In a Facebook post after the final, the Bull Sharks wrote: “Congratulations on an outstanding tournament to our 18U Women. Undefeated by other women’s teams for the week and runners up in the State Titles.”
The comments on a separate Facebook post promoting the final questioned why an all-boys team was competing against a girls side.
“Netball QLD in their wisdom thought it would be fair to include a young men’s state team against regional young women’s team and allow them to contest the State Title,” Jodie Muir wrote.
Renee Miles replied: “Netball QLD seems to be as intelligent as the QRL,” with a face palm emoji.
Netball Queensland posted about the success of the state titles on Facebook, but the comments underneath were extremely critical.
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(2)Males and females are different after all
Following the debut of MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin, an Australian advocate has called for transgender athletes to be banned from competing in professional women’s sports.
McLaughlin, the second openly transgender woman to compete in MMA in the United States, won her debut on Friday night via submission at the Combate Global prelims.
The 38-year-old used a rear-naked choke against Celine Provost to end the match three minutes, 32 seconds into the second round.
Provost landed multiple punches in the first round, but McLaughlin ultimately came out on top.
As she was declared the victor, McLaughlin wore a shirt with the phrase, “End Trans Genocide.”
Her debut comes as multiple states argue bills aimed at restricting transgender athletes from participating in youth, high school and college sports.
Speaking on 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live, Save Women’s Sport Australasia co-founder Katherine Deves said including transgender athletes in professional sport was “an attack on women and girls”. “Humans cannot change sex,” she claimed.
“Sex matters for sport. Sport does not care about your feelings or your identity.
“This is male violence against women. It is sanctioned, and celebrated, and monetised.
“It’s an attack on everything that women have fought for, for equality of access to sports competitions.
“How far do we have to fall as a society before the authorities stop pandering to the woke and start protecting women and girls?
“We don’t want to have mediocre males playing against the most elite women in the world.
“Women’s sports is not a dumping ground for men who can’t hack it in male competition.”
According to Sport Australia, there is no evidence of athletes transitioning from a man into a women in order to gain a competitive advantage.
McLaughlin, who began her gender transition after leaving the U.S. Army Special Forces in 2010, said she hopes to be a pioneer for transgender athletes in combat sports.
“I want to pick up the mantle that Fallon put down,” McLaughlin told Outsports before the fight, referring to Fallon Fox, who in 2012 became the first transgender woman to fight in MMA.
“Right now, I’m following in Fallon’s footsteps. I’m just another step along the way and it’s my great hope that there are more to follow behind me.”
McLaughlin began training a year ago and was cleared to fight by the Florida State Boxing Commission after having her hormone levels tested, according to ESPN.
She said it was a “nightmare” finding an opponent.
“I‘m getting a lot of variations of the same nasty messages calling me a cheater,” McLaughlin wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“She almost finished me more than once, and on scorecards she definitely won that first round.
“This is the only post I‘ll make about this. Transphobes are just making my block hand stronger.”
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Pauline Hanson's message supporting tradies who refuse mandatory Covid vaccines
Senator Pauline Hanson has come out in support of construction workers protesting in Melbourne with a controversial social media post.
The One Nation leader posted an image with the phrase 'Building Lives Matter' to her Twitter and Facebook accounts on Wednesday night.
The image was accompanied by a caption stating: '@OneNationAus stands with construction workers fighting for freedom of choice!'
Mark Latham, NSW One Nation upper house MP also shared the same image to his own public Twitter account.
Melbourne has been rocked by three straight days of protests which started over mandatory vaccinations for constructions workers and ballooned into wider unrest.
Senator Hanson is the founder of the right-wing populist party and has previously been criticised for her references to the Black Lives Matter movement against racially motivated violence and police brutality.
Many of her followers shared her support for the Melbourne protestors and praised her 'building lives matter' slogan.
'You're always there for the average bloke ... love your work champion,' one wrote.
'Good on you Pauline, it's just a shame so many people miss your point,' wrote another on Facebook.
'I don't always agree with everything you say, but you are a true patriot Pauline. You have a genuine love for this country and its people,' said another supporter.
But some social media users objected to Senator Hanson's support for the protesters.
It is also not the first time Senator Hanson has spoken out against mandatory vaccinations.
She has been reprimanded by health officials for making false claims about vaccinations and saying people should have the right to choose to catch the virus and deal with the consequences.
She has also made claims the government have been using lockdowns as a 'bullying tactic' to push residents into getting the vaccine.
Liberal senator Amanda Stoker was also criticised for her response to the protests.
She condemned the violence, but said the demonstrations reflected the effect of lockdown and a heavy-handed police approach.
The violent rallies began on Monday at the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) headquarters where construction workers gathered to protest mandatory vaccines and other government-imposed Covid regulations.
CFMEU boss John Setka said the majority of Monday's protesters were non-union members, and blamed neo-Nazis and 'right wing infiltrators' for the violence.
Ms Hanson also referred to the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020.
During global demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms Hanson attempted to put forward an 'all lives matter' motion in the Senate.
Her motion was denied formality by an overwhelming majority and did not proceed to a vote, with one senator walking out in protest.
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Furious former Victorian premier UNLEASHES at 'appalling' Dan Andrews for construction lockdown which prompted violent protest and is leaving thousands of tradies out of work
A former Victorian Premier has slammed Dan Andrews for his 'appalling' management of the state's lockdown which he says has led to the violent riots that have swept through the city.
Jeff Kennett spoke on Wednesday night after previously referring to the current premier and his government as a 'cancer' on Victoria.
Mr Kennett said the continual lockdowns were destroying the livelihoods of hard working Australians and slammed Mr Andrews' handling of the protests.
'The way they've managed it has been appalling,' he told A Current Affair.
'This doesn't only effect those in high-rise buildings, it effects tradies out on the street. Plumbers, electricians, small builders who are doing family homes.
'It's just been an across the board lockdown without any management.'
His comments come as Melbourne will wake up to a new world record of being the city with the most days locked down, having been under stay-at-home-orders for 235 days since the pandemic began - ahead of Buenos Aires, Dublin and London.
Mr Kennett, who was premier between 1992 and 1999, said the state has been 'going backwards for two years' under Mr Andrews.
'It's not the premier's fault we have the virus, it's certainly his and his government's fault for the way they've managed this crisis and led us to where we are today,' the former Hawthorn Football Club president said.
The 73-year-old said the government should be looking for broader advice on how to handle the pandemic, rather than solely focusing on health impacts.
'You can't exist on medical advice alone. Talk to single parents who are home schooling month after month. Children with no experience of the discipline of going to school, the disadvantage to their education and social education,' he said.
'I understand we need medical advice but you've also got to take into consideration the impact on children and businesses and the economy as a whole.'
Mr Kennett, who has been publicly critical of Mr Andrews throughout his tenure as premier, called for an overhaul in the government's planning that could see future riots avoided.
The former premier also condemned some of the protesters, saying there was a difference between demonstrating and violence.
Meanwhile, Melbourne will claim the unwanted record of city locked down longest in the world as it enters its 235th day of heavy restrictions since the pandemic began on Thursday.
Melbourne jumps ahead of Argentinian capital Buenos Aires for the record, slightly ahead of Dublin in Ireland and England's London as the cities with the most days spent at home.
'We've been in lockdown this year more than we've been out,' Peta Credlin said on Wednesday.
'Kids basically haven't been at school for two years. Tomorrow we are the world's most locked-down city. That's a terrible title for the once 'world's most livable city' to wear.'
Melbourne suffered through a 112-day lockdown last year and has endured six in total to claim the record.
Police arrested more 215 people at Wednesday's protest. Tap handles, golf balls and batteries were thrown at police, according to Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther.
Two police sustained head injuries after being pelted with bottles. They estimate between 300 and 400 people attended the protests.
The riots hit a new low on Wednesday after defiling and desecrating the sacred Shrine of Remembrance war memorial.
The group of tradies, anti-vaxxers and violent thugs stood on the steps of the memorial chanting 'lest we forget' and believing police wouldn't engage with them while standing on the hallowed military ground.
Instead police fired rubber bullets and pepper balls and threw stinger grenades as they were pelted by rocks, with scenes turning violent and ugly again.
Protests are expected throughout the rest of the week.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Morrison is making an enemy of China – and Labor is helping him
Paul Keating comes out as a Sinophile below. What he says about the subs is nonsense but I agree with him in deploring the nagging of China. Criticizing a Communist regime was never going to do any good. Western criticisms have caused China to lose "face" and that was always going to engender hostility
The Liberals, having no faith in the capacity of Australians and all we have created here, could not resist falling back, yet again, to do the bidding of another great power, the United States of America.
Menzies, even after World War II, did Britain’s bidding against the international community in attempting to wrest the Suez Canal from Egypt just as he deceptively committed Australian troops to Vietnam to appease the United States.
Howard, another US appeaser extraordinaire, committed us to an illegal war in Iraq with tragic consequences.
And now, Morrison, a younger throwback to the Liberals’ Anglosphere, shops Australia’s sovereignty by locking the country and its military forces into the force structure of the United States by acquiring US submarines.
And all in the claim of a so-called “changed security environment”. That change is China’s more aggressive international posture – the posture of now, the world’s largest emerging economy. This change in China’s domestic and foreign posture is labelled by Morrison and his government not as the shifting posture of a re-emerging great power, but as “the China threat”. As though China, through its more abrupt and ruder foreign policy, has also presented a military threat in its dealings with Australia.
A threat that, in fact, has never been made and that has never materialised.
The word “threat” explicitly connotes military aggression or invasion, a threat China has never made against Australia or even implied making.
Chinese tariffs on wine or seafood do not constitute a military threat any more than does China’s intolerance of Hong Kong domestic political management.
Hong Kong and its affairs do not and cannot be represented as some military threat to Australia – an event that requires from us consideration of a military response. Even Chinese island-pumping in the South China Sea does not represent a military threat to Australia, unwise on China’s part, as I believe it to be.
But this is the construction Scott Morrison and his government have placed on China and its relationship with Australia.
It is a “threat”, implying by use of the word, that it is a military one.
This false representation of China’s foreign policy has also been condoned by the Labor Party, if not explicitly. In her five years as Labor’s opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, by her muted complicity with the government’s foreign policy and posture, has neutered Labor’s traditional stance as to Australia’s right to strategic autonomy – an autonomy unconstrained by any power, including, that of the United States.
Instead, Wong went along with the stance of Julie Bishop and Marise Payne – calculatedly, with not a cigarette paper of difference between her and them. And did it with licence provided by Bill Shorten as leader and, now, Anthony Albanese.
Now that long policy void is being exploited by Scott Morrison. At Morrison’s instigation, Australia turns its back on the 21st century, the century of Asia, for the jaded and faded Anglosphere – the domain of the Atlantic – a world away.
And Labor is complicit in the historic backslide. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been up to their necks in it also. Peter Hartcher’s bi-weekly froth-mouthed articles about China and its supposed threat, along with Chris Uhlmann and his wicked representation of China as marauding Nazis, has constituted an important part of the climate that has allowed Morrison to now shop the country to the Americans.
China does not attack other states, unlike the United States, which does attack other states, yet the Herald and The Age have portrayed China as an aggressor power with malevolent intentions.
In a measure of luck, Australians have been vested with a continent of our own. A continent having a border with no one – with no other state. And certainly, not remotely within any territorial contest or claim by China, which is 10 flying hours from Australia’s east coast cities.
The notion that Australia is in a state of military apprehension about China, or needs to be, is a distortion and lie of the worst and most grievous proportions. By its propagation, Australia is determinedly casting China as an enemy – and in the doing of it, actually creating an enemy where none exists.
So poisonous are the Liberals towards China they are prepared for Australia to lose its way in the neighbourhood of Asia, in search of Australia’s security from Asia, by submission to yet another strategic guarantor – 240 years into our history.
This strategy amounts to a massive bet on the United States and its staying power in Asia. Rather than Australia finding its own way around the region, including with China, as we have done so well in the past, Morrison and Labor have tied us to the unknown endurance of the United States and the pain it is prepared to wear in defence of what it believes are its core Asian interests.
I have said before, but it is worth repeating: the United States is a naval power, whereas China is a continental power. A continental power with the largest land mass in Asia occupied by 20 per cent of humanity. And competently served by a modern military.
The United States, by its aircraft carrier fleets, enjoys naval force projection but that projection is fuelled from its bases on the American west coast. Its capacity in a military exchange with China will be limited by the attenuation of its supply lines and the vulnerability of its surface vessels to Chinese submarines and ballistic missiles.
I have also said before, but worth repeating, that when it comes to major international conflagration, land beats water every time. Through this submarine purchase, Australia surrenders its naval forces to the command of the United States, while setting itself into a military position incapable of defeating Chinese land-based and sea denial forces.
It takes a monster level of incompetence to forfeit military control of one’s own state, but this is what Scott Morrison and his government have managed to do
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Clear majority of Australians want net zero emissions by 2050
This is nonsense. The survey showed what they have constantly been told to believe -- not what they "want"
A clear majority of Australians want the federal government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, lifting support for the target to 60 per cent as Prime Minister Scott Morrison faces pressure from world leaders to take more action on climate change.
A more ambitious target for 2030 also has slim majority support, with 52 per cent of people saying the federal government should deepen its emission cuts over the next decade, a crucial timeframe for a United Nations climate summit in November.
But Australians are divided on phasing out coal, with 49 per cent backing calls to close coal-fired power stations within a decade but 44 per cent saying the country should continue to mine and export coal for as long as buyers want it.
The majority support for greater ambition on net zero crosses party lines, with a new survey showing 57 per cent of Coalition voters and 67 per cent of Labor voters want the 2050 target.
Mr Morrison arrived in New York on Tuesday for talks at the United Nations General Assembly, including meetings with United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, two leaders who want him to do more to cut emissions.
Mr Biden has asked leaders to commit to deeper cuts at the UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November, putting pressure on Mr Morrison to go beyond his policy of reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030.
“We have to bring to Glasgow our highest possible ambitions,” Mr Biden said last Friday. “Those that have not yet done so, time is running out.”
Mr Johnson warned on Monday that “too many major economies are lagging too far behind” on climate, using a major speech in New York to say stronger action was not a matter for the “unkempt fringes” but a significant trade and security issue.
“In the years to come, the only great powers will be green powers,” Mr Johnson said.
The exclusive survey, conducted for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by research company Resolve Strategic, shows the national support has risen to 60 per cent from 55 per cent in a similar survey in June.
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Climate change to deliver suburban house price pain: RBA
As recent experience has shown, the big factor in real estate prices is interest rates. Low interest rates=high prices. Everything else is detail
Climate change could cut property prices across a swath of Sydney’s northern suburbs from Lane Cove to Ku-ring-gai, with Reserve Bank analysis showing many homeowners face declining equity in their houses and rising insurance costs.
As separate work by the RBA warned coal and LNG exports to key Asian markets were likely to fall as nations such as China and South Korea reduced their carbon emissions, the bank’s research on the Australian property market suggested climate change was a growing risk to the financial sector.
Economists Kellie Bellrose, David Norman and Michelle Royters found by 2050, about 400,000 more loans (or 2.5 per cent of all loans) would have a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80 per cent – half of those with an LVR of more than 90 per cent – as property values fell due to climate change.
They suggested there would be 254 “climate-sensitive suburbs” at increased risk of a drop in value by that time, rising to 1438 suburbs by 2100.
In Sydney, most of the city’s northern suburbs from Mosman to the northern beaches and across to the Ku-ring-gai area stretching past Hornsby fell into this category, along with the Cronulla peninsula. Almost every coastal suburb in Brisbane was considered climate-sensitive, as was the area around Lilydale, Croydon and Kilsyth in Melbourne’s outer east and Mandurah to the south of Perth.
In Australia, about two-thirds of major bank lending is for residential mortgages, making any change in housing values a key risk.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is working with the nation’s largest banks to identify their potential vulnerability to climate change amid growing global recognition of the risks it poses to the entire financial system.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report confirmed the world was on track to experience extreme weather due to global warming even if swift action was taken to limit global warming to 2 degrees. It predicted Australia, which has warmed 1.4 degrees since 1910, would experience rising average temperatures with extreme heat, more frequent and intense bushfires, droughts, floods and rising sea levels.
The RBA economists said the risks in climate-sensitive suburbs could further increase if the insurance costs for affected areas became prohibitive.
“That is, the technical insurance premium may understate the actual rise in premiums, particularly if insurers become more concerned about exposures to ‘high risk’ regions,” they said. “This may arise because many of the addresses within these regions are impacted by the same hazard (for example, an entire town is built in a flood zone or near fire hazards). In addition, if climate change causes incomes in these regions to also decline, it would result in even larger risks to banks.”
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Australian documents showed French submarine project was at risk for years
France shouldn't have been surprised that Australia cancelled a submarine contract, as major concerns about delays, cost overruns and suitability had been aired officially and publicly for years, Australian politicians said.
Paris has recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington, saying it was blindsided by Canberra's decision to build nuclear-powered submarines with the U.S. and Britain rather than stick with its contract for French diesel submarines.
Yet as early as September 2018, an independent oversight board led by a former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter had advised Australia to look at alternatives to the French submarine, and questioned whether the project was in the national interest, a 2020 public report from the country's Auditor-General shows.
Australian parliamentary hearings and reports on the project, first priced at $40 billion and more recently at $60 billion, even before construction had begun, also showed problems emerging. In June the defence secretary told parliament "contingency planning" for the programme was under way.
"They would have to have their eyes shut not to realise the danger they were facing," said Rex Patrick, an independent senator for South Australia, referring to France.
Government ministers said this week Canberra had been "up front" with Paris about the problems.
A French lawmaker also raised questions in the country's parliament in June about Australian concerns over delays, and whether Australia might be considering submarine alternatives, French government records show.
"We chose not to go through a gate in a contract," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters when he arrived in New York on Monday. "The contract was set up that way, and we chose not to go through it because we believed to do so would ultimately not be in Australia's interests."
An official from the French Embassy in Canberra said an intergovernmental agreement should have allowed for confidential discussions between ministers about changes to political or strategic circumstances.
"No warning, no proposals for discussion were offered," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The deal was first announced in 2016. A pre-design review was delayed in 2018 because the "work provided to Defence by Naval Group did not meet Defence's requirements", the audit said, citing lack of design detail, operational requirements and 63 studies not completed.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
