Angry community groups yesterday called on mayor Bob Abbot to tell the State Government to stop interfering with the region’s green objectives.

Mr Abbot has been told to tell Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe that changes to critical planning documents for the region were totally unacceptable. Council briefed key stakeholders, including land owners and community groups, on the implications of changes it was ordered by the state to make to Palmview green field development precinct.

The government has altered maximum population numbers set by council to minimums, stripped out provisions for energy efficiency and other sustainability initiatives and slashed the size of buffers to ecologically sensitive wetlands and the Bruce Highway. Regional strategy and planning head Vivien Griffin issued a call to arms and will push for the setting up of a campaign committee to send a loud community voice to the government.

Ms Griffin said the region’s future was now at the crossroads. She said the council had a significant role to play; she said the State Government was proposing a new community whose minimum size would be equal to what Maroochydore holds; and she warned the government’s rejection of key sustainability measures made this a fight that affected communities from Beerburrum to Kin Kin.

Sippy Downs and District Community Association President, Murray Lyons, whose members would be most impacted by the development, said State Government changes would kill off any chance of building a sustainable community; ‘we have been telling the council since day dot that appeasement doesn’t work; Council has been saying it had to work with the government or planning would be taken from it; Council needs to stand up and say no to the impacts of the changes; if the State goes forward with this let it be on their head’.

Johanne Wright, who heads OSCAR, which represents the region’s community associations, said Mr Abbot would be expected to tell the government that “enough was enough”. The council’s sustainability advisory panel head Ian Christesen said population size was the number one issue that needed to be confronted if the council was to achieve sustainability.

He said carrying capacity should be based not just on biophysical constraints but also on the look, feel and character this community wanted for the future.
‘The SEQ plan dwelling targets are legally binding and mandatory; he said; we want them seen only as projections and a proper planning exercise started that fully involves the community and not just developers and their mates in George Street; by ripping out any mention of sustainability, Mr Hinchliffe has clearly shown where the State Government’s really at; it’s clear they want business as usual, development as usual to continue to be rolled out across the Coast. If that happens we can kiss goodbye to sustainability’.

Sunshine Coast Environment Council Manager Narelle McCarthy accused the government of arrogance, saying it had made no attempt to understand the region’s aspirations. Ms McCarthy urged residents to make submissions to the document which need to be completed within the next 30 business days and to get publicly vocal about how they feel about what the government has done.

She said the community had been given a window to how the state would treat the regional planning scheme now being developed by the council.

It’s time to fight Bligh’s growth

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/03/06/its-time-to-fight-blighs-growth/

In this case it was the Clive Palmer coal mine touted to create thousands of jobs by the chief spruiker – who is not taken seriously these days at all – Anna (bout time she walked the plank) Bligh.

How does it pan out in simple language?

Well in Queensland, we prosocute shop owners for selling cigarettes to under-age people, yet it’s OK for us to dig up our reducing stockpile of coal and sell to a most prolific GHG emitter, China. Anna says we Queenslanders will earn tens of millions of $’s in royalties, but she is seeking $100 million in federal cash to bring climate-friendly solar power back into the state’s energy mix.

According to the Courier Labor Party, Queensland was once at the forefront of solar power but what sent a shiver down the back of every solar power business was the State Government’s Office of Clean Energy having Stephen Robertson put in charge; if he succeeds in the Energy Department like he did as Health Minister, we can use that big hole Clive Palmer is soon to dig coal from and bury the remains of the photovoltaic industry. Ever since Peter Beattie came up with the ‘smart state’ identity, we’ve all become leery of any government utterence with the word ‘smart’ in it.

Anyhow, we will have a ‘smart grid’ system that uses communications technology to lift energy efficiency, for example by programming appliances to run on off-peak power; how we store the solar power and then change demand from day to night raises the question, is it really off-peak then ?  Mr Robertson said the Queensland Smart Communities project would build a large-scale demonstration smart-grid in Townsville, with several stand-alone projects at Zillmere in Brisbane’s north and in Toowoomba; the project would use solar *thermal-storage technology to capture the sun’s heat and store it for future electricity generation. Korean Government-owned electricity giant KEPCO will provide smart-grid technology knowledge. Mr Robertson said the Government hoped the project would create opportunities for businesses to develop clean-energy products to sell to Asian markets.

USA, German and Japanese technology companies dominate the global solar-power market. The USA Government claims to have strong policies in place aimed at producing cheaper solar power and expects solar plants – by 2020 or earlier – to be able to store 12-17 hours of energy, enabling 24-hour solar power that could replace coal and gas-fired plants. Problem is, that batteries to store such power are very expensive as the rare earth materials used to make them is a small finite supply.

The real dilema for politicians is how do you meet the needs of the people who voted you in by backing an energy source that will take years to be effective and in doing so, cut off the large amount of financial and media support paid for by the companies that profit from coal, oil and gas ? Givernments have squandered pension funds, taxed superannuation funds and provide little tax incentive to spur private funding for a massive rollout of pollution-free technologies that use the sun, wind and wave energy. You can forget geothermal / underground heat.

Australia’s electricity sector is the biggest source of GHG (greenhouse gases) but the electricity generators aren’t investing in a major way in large-scale, clean-energy projects because there is no price on carbon, Australia’s 2020 targets for emission cuts are weak and there are flaws in a current program aimed at increasing clean-energy capacity.

* Solar thermal energy is where the Sun’s heat is used to boil water (hopefully not so much oil) to create energy rather than solar panels which generate electricity directly.

Yes, Captain kRudd’s government is investigating granting MPs a pay rise in return for tightening other perks in a move that would deliver extra cash to State members, whose salaries are linked to Canberra.

But don’t be too concerned for our struggling pollies as our State MPs would get to keep their lucrative perks which can amount to a de facto salary boost of up to $100,000-a-year.

While Queenslands performance with jobs, population growth and housing starts was among the worst in the nation, even out-performed by South Australia, traditionally one of Australia’s basket case economies.

Premier Anna Bligh announced a 3.1 per cent pay rise for State MPs before Christmas, taking the base salary from $126,560 to $130,540, plus a 2 per cent boost to allowances.

According to COMMSEC, Queensland is ranked third in economic growth, second in retail trade, second in business investment, sixth in unemployment, third in construction, fourth in housing finance and seventh in dwelling starts.

David Goodwin (president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry) said Queensland was being held back by business red tape which was strangling the entrepreneurial talent; he said ‘the legislative burden in Queensland is greater than any other state’,

‘Members of Queensland Parliament are remunerated far in excess of Federal parliamentarians’ Mr Somlyay told The Courier-Mail, which also revealed that a high-powered federal committee (due to report by April) supports a hefty boost to federal salaries to offset cuts to entitlements worth up to $60,000, (why are we not surprised).

Under Queensland law, MPs’ pay is set at $500 less than the base salary of a Federal backbencher, who earns $131,040; however, Queensland MPs are entitled to more generous electorate allowances of between $36,652 and $72,741 plus a $30,020 miscellaneous allowance.

Both allowances are taxed and under the rules, MPs can keep the cash for themselves or spend it on electorate costs and claim a tax deduction.

He claims ‘electricity demand in the Gladstone area is being driven by strong long-term growth in the industrial, coal mining and minerals processing sectors, and is expected to increase by around 12 per cent in the next five years’.

What he doesn’t say is that the energy is for highly polluting industry in Gladstone.

The new Larcom Creek Substation, as well as the seven kilometres of new 132kV transmission line, which has the capacity to be upgraded to 275kV will help provide additional transmission capacity within the Gladstone State Development Area for industry … not for the benefit of the people of Gladstone.

Seems pretty simple to me, get rid of Bligh and Labor and the Coalition or any party that supports continued population growth in Queensland.

We need a big sign that says ‘Full’ try again in 10 years.

Premier Anna Bligh announced a high-level advisory team to help Queensland tackle the challenges of population growth when its quite simple really, stop people coming into the State unless they have a job to go into and just like foreigners coing to Australia, proof they have sufficinet funds to cover themselves for all medical costs and would otherwise not be a drian on the system.

We don’t need the Council of Australian Government to tell us there are too many people here in Queensland, we already know; there is no need for a public funded talk-fest on population growth and planning for it, because we know that unless this body was just recently formed (they first met in December 1992), then they have largely been inactive or unaware of whats going on as they take private helicopters to and from work.

Anna Bligh’s blithe statement that ‘growth is real and I’m determined to tackle it head on and protect Queensland’s unique lifestyle’ is bullshit pure and simple, its her continued policies and advertising for people – about 2,00 a week – to migrate to Qld that is the problem. we have to seize this opportunity and get this right.

She also said ‘next year (2010), we’ll have a growth summit which is a great opportunity to bring together people from across Queensland to help us lead the nation into the next period of prosperity and continue to enjoy the best lifestyle in Australia; a team team of experts, with a wealth of knowledge areas such as population trends, climate change, architecture, planning and industry, will play an important role in the summit and consists of Tim Flannery, 2007 Australian of the Year, leading scientist; Bernard Salt, leading demographer and trend forecaster; Michael Rayner, Qld director of Architecture firm Cox Rayner; Dyan Currie, Qld president, Planning Institute of Australia; Brendan Gleeson, Professor of Urban Policy, Griffith University; Heather Ridout, CEO Australian Industry Group and Ian Lowe, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

A South East Queensland Growth Summit would be held over two days next year on March 30-31 and Anna is looking for ‘strong representation at the summit from regions, including mayors and community leaders to discuss issues including growth, liveability and sustainability, and public transport.

COAG being held in Brisbane is a great chance to talk about these issues and I welcome the opportunity to sit around a table with the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders.

Properly dealing with the challenges we face requires a national approach. I can think of nowhere better to do it than in Brisbane – in Australia’s fastest growing region’.

Please contact Anna via her media on: 3224 4500.

Mind you, if you don’t have a vested interest – in the political campaign campaign funds for the incumbent Labor Party – don’t bother calling …

Queensland has seen a spate of under-performers who obtained office (in State politics), continued their lack-lustre operand and subsequently had the ‘expertise’ to act as a go between for corporate and government ‘cohesivness’.

Recently NSW has likewise been been put under the light, seeing the rats scurrying about all awhile distancing themselves from the known crooks and yet to be proven crooks; the latest pilfering of public funds – which will probably be glossed over by various media types (who view their ‘results’ similar to Police who stick radar traps about, to keep the numbers up).

The St Vincent’s board has ‘lost $24m on junk bonds’ courtesy of former CEO Mary Foley and a former chairman Nick Curtis.

Who knows if we will ever find out what their kick-back was for almost $80 million (earmarked for new equipment, research projects, education and salaries), was used to buy high-risk bonds, the same kind responsible for triggering the global financial crisis last year in the United States.

Of course doctors are furious because research projects – some of which had already been granted funding – may now be cancelled and donors will be upset to learn their money – intended for good work – has been lost.

Although the National Health and Medical Research Council forbids its grants being used for any purpose other than the approved project and is demanding the funds be returned if the research is not carried out; its unlikely the hospital is in the position to and there are rumours that the hospital has been attempting to fill an $11 million hole in its budget.

Although the NSW Government should launch an investigation, its unlikely anything will come of it while certain sitting members protect their own backs and keep their snout in the trough.

There has to be auditors and the like who must have known about the misallocation of funds and strangely, the hospital apparently said it lost 32% of its ‘investments’ because it bought securities known as collaterised debt obligations, which are now worthless, but defended its right to use public money.

The question remains on how trust money – bequeathed or given to the hospital – was used to ‘invest.

Donors would be upset to lose their donated funds to financial mismanagement by the board and will badly damage the St Vincent’s Hospital name even though the hospital promised to underwrite any lost money allocated for research projects and said it had changed its investment strategies since the loss.

The board claims they ‘did not operate outside the law in the way the money was invested’, but the damage has been done and in a tighter economic market, it will be difficult to get ‘new’ investors and of course the real problem is if politicians again use public funds to bail out rather than prosecute.

It makes you wonder how much the public will stomach this lackadaisical management style synonymous with political manipulations and ‘jobs for the boys’.

Mind you, there is a downside to this’ if you do get the job and miss the automatic ‘you’re in for life’ trial period, the LNP will most likeley sack you; but them again, they might not as unemployment numbers will surge, but that could be off-set by employing their part faithfull (and if previous voting trends are any indication, there’s hope for the likes of you and me as non-Labor voters.

But then there is also the likelihood of the LNP shooting themselves in the foot – again – as Springborg waits until the voting public gets real desperate and he again gets voted in as ‘the man who can spit his chewin tobacco the furtherest’ or lamb-crutching competition or whatever democratic system they use.

Either way, the voters will continue to be the biggest losers as these political monkeys (no disrespect to real monkeys) still both believe that more people makes you more successful, when really its really only their masters – the corporations that depend on a growing population of consumers – that truly believe that growth is good.

Really, less is more … with a lower population and capping development, property prices will rise as people vie to live in a State were school rooms aren’t over-crowded, when traffic pollution and congestion is the lowest in the Land and where politicians know their place …

With the Australian population hitting 22 million, it is exactly that.

While not having access to local data (given budgetary and political constraints placed on the CSIRO, Weather Bureau and DPI by the various political parties in controlling the public’s access to this information), we can reasonably suggest that there is a parallel in the USA, leaving aside that they are in the northern hemisphere.

In the Southeast Drought Study (in the USA), various sources tie water shortage to population, not global warming. The drought that gripped the Southeast (of America) from 2005 to 2007 was not unprecedented and resulted from random weather events, not global warming researchers have concluded; they say severe water shortages resulted from population growth more than rainfall patterns [http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/pub/seager/Seager_etal_SE_2009.pdf] in an issue of The Journal of Climate. Census figures show that in Georgia alone the population rose to 9.54 million in 2007 from 6.48 million in 1990 (a 46% growth).

Given the Bligh government’s fixation on dams, its worthwhile knowing that in 1990, the Queensland population hit 2 million (it took 36 years to double from I million) and in 2008, we hit almost 4.3 million, a growth of 115%, so America’s and Queensland’s Southeast population growth is the problem.

Bligh and her partner restricted their procreation in children, however, despite their assumed intelligence, they seem unable to join the dots that just as their house, household budget and other constraints put a ceiling on their immediate population, so too should Queensland be considered.

In the American study of data from weather instruments, computer models and measurements of tree rings, which reflect yearly rainfall, their conclusion was this drought is pretty normal and typical by standards of what has happened in the region over the century. Similar droughts unfolded over the last thousand years, the researchers wrote. Regardless of climate change, they added, similar weather patterns can be expected regularly in the future, with similar results.

As any such affected region’s temperature may rise – leading to more rain – evaporation will likewise increase. The Wivenhoe Dam had an evaporation rate calculated at some 1.74 metres per annum not long after its commission (the dam was built more as a flood mitigation initiative). However, building dams to mitigate drought effects in areas where population is rising, is a misnomer, particularly when these dams are always build on waterways where – over the millennia – topsoils have gathered.

Bligh and any government following them had better start the damming of every river to meet the needs of an ever increasing population; if it took 36 years for the population of Qld to double (1954 – 1990) and then double again in 16 years (1990 to 2008), then at this rate, the State’s population will be somewhere in the vicinity of 9 million by 2016; as you can well imagine, there will be harsh water restrictions, poorer air quality and human density and traffic congestion hard to imagine …

His bullshit claim that ‘this initiative will help lower electricity demand at peak periods and will ultimately help reduce upward pressure on electricity prices; and the proposal is expected to save the average pool owner $180 a year on what their pool would have otherwise cost to run; and that an estimated 10,000 residential swimming pools are constructed throughout Queensland every year; that the vast majority are not connected to an off-peak tariff and contribute an estimated 6.3 megawatts to peak load, which equates up to $18 million in additional electricity infrastructure costs annually; that the proposal will in no way effect a new pool owners ability to filter their pool and new pool owners will have the option to install a device to allow them to run their filter in peak periods when they are using the pool’.

Mr Robertson also said ‘this enables electricity distributors Ergon Energy and Energex to manage electricity supply at these peak times; and will save millions of dollars in expenditure on our electricity network which is ultimately passed onto all householders in the long-term; for every 1500 pool owners that connect their pool to an off-peak tariff, one megawatt of peak demand can be deferred, which saves $3 million on capital infrastructure spending; the Bligh Government is planning for the future and developing innovative ways to support Queenslanders with their electricity bills by reducing demand on the network; rather than spend millions building infrastructure to meet rising peak electricity demand, we will all benefit if we make off-peak use of swimming pool filtrations systems a requirement for all newly constructed residential pools; by 2020 we estimate that infrastructure costs of $188 million will be avoided through if this measure goes ahead’.

About 11 per cent of the networks capacity of electricity distributors is built to meet the peak level of demand which occurs less than 1% of the time (0.824%) / 3 days per year. If Queensland’s peak demand on Friday was 6,700 MW, the impact of moving 1,500 swimming pools onto off-peak would be 0.015% of demand; or to put that another way, you would need to move 100,000 swimming pools to off-peak to reduce peak demand by 1%, and that’s assuming their pumps were all on at the same time.

So this is yet another trick by the Queensland Government to make people think they are ‘doing something for the environment’, the same way they claimed changing light-bulbs (to poisonous mercury CFL’s) or pumping up your car tyres and running the fridge a degree warmer. If the government really wanted to reduce demand, they could close an aluminium smelter, but no, they want more aluminium smelters.

And that is why I pose the question in another article ‘Is The End Nigh’ ?

Now you will have noticed I said have a crack as opposed to mastered.

The reason they haven’t mastered it is because increasingly, more and more people are seeing through the lies, smoke and mirrors and any other second rate magician trick.

Even Labor supporters must be wondering how they came to give support to a few well spoken liars.

After a decidedly unhealthy ministerial term with Health, Stephen Robertson is trying out the new spin wheel as natural resources, mines, energy and trade. He is now applying his energies to mine for trading figures in natural resources of the last couple of years; in other words he says we never had it so good, problem is Anna (when will she walk the plank) Bligh knows different and that’s why we have to sell everything off to balance the books.

On the federal level, Captain kRudd and Shifty Swan claim we’re doing well with a 0.6% growth, but take away the billions of dollars borrowed that are being pumped into the economy, and we are not in a recession, we are in a depression, but of course nothing like other less well of countries that don’t have a backyard full of resources (mind you we are starting to run out; won’t have enough ourselves by 2100, but that’s another generations problem isn’t it).

There is a big concern for me when Robertson quotes Japan importing more and China is up but down (depending on who you’re talking) and that is how are we being paid? Are we earning real Aussie $s are we being paid in US$; if the Japanese economy has had no growth for nearly 20 years (that’s called a economic depression if you’re being blunt and factual) then how is the value of the Yen in relation to the Aussie $ calculated. I mean all you have to do is look at any country that has been exploited, the richer countries come in a buy stuff in (how did the Americans buy America) ohh that’s right. beads and blankets.

Some time in the 90’s I wrote that – in a year – we exported wood-chip (our native forests) and earned a couple of hundred million $’s (being paid about $17 a tonne; do the maths) yet spent over a billion $’s buying paper and magazines printed overseas. The Lucky Country … the Smart State ? Give it a rest.

So when we hear how tough it is elsewhere around the world, how can they afford to buy more of our stuff and more importantly, who are they selling it to ? If Queensland is doing so well, why is the Labor government – supposed to be representing the workers – trying to sell off stuff to a world that is in recession / depression and therefore has no money ?

Stephen Robertson told heaps of porkies (lies) as health minister and now he’s telling some more. The following is part of his press release or as Joh said, to feed the chooks and our spineless media (got to look after government that spends so much in advertising) just prints what they are told, no questions asked.

‘03/09/2009 Queensland goods exports breaks all records claims Minister Stephen Robertson; exports for the 2008-09 financial year jumped almost 60 per cent to a record $56.3 billion; a major increase of $21 billion or 59.5 per cent over the previous year and this means jobs for Queenslanders; given the current global economic crisis, this is a remarkable result. Japan (up $7.5 billion, 83.2 per cent), India (up $3.7 billion, 128.2 per cent), China (up $2.8 billion, 114.4 per cent), Korea (up $2.7 billion, 71.4 per cent)’.

[Get the vomit bucket ready] Minister Stephen Robertson said “These figures show the Bligh Government makes the right decisions and our export strategy, including maintaining Trade Queensland’s network of global representation, is the right approach to encourage continued export and economic growth in Queensland; our commitment to maintaining services has delivered remarkable export results, boosting our economy and delivering on our commitment to create and protect jobs; Queensland has vastly outperformed the other states, our growth in exports is more than double the national average; these figures strongly vindicate the Government’s continued commitment to maintaining and strengthening overseas trading relationships and proudly promoting free and open trade with the world’.

Are they not aware that China has cut back on production and is now stockpiling resources; what do these idiots have planned hwen the coal sales drop ?

Ohh, if you know of anybody who wants to buy a railway or any other state government asset, we are in the Labor business of doing deals, the number to ring is: 3224 7332