Category Archives: Sundries

Posts on sundry matters of life the universe and everything: Culture, Environment, Life, Politics & Government, Science, Social Science and Society, Technology etc.

Climate Action, Climate Policy & Planning, Politics & Government

Climate Change Authority review

April 22, 2014 Brian 3 Comments

In late February the Climate Change Authority published a Draft Report of its Targets and Progress Review.

The full draft report (all 265 pages) is downloadable from the first link above. Unfortunately I don’t have time to read all of it. Clive Hamilton at The Conversation has written an excellent overview. Continue reading Climate Change Authority review →

Politics & Government

The Qld Government’s People’s Budget Planner

April 18, 2014 John Davidson

I have just completed and submitted my views re what should be done about the Qld budget in the People’s Budget Planner.

The planner allows you to play with various ways of reducing the state budget using a mix of various tax increases, service cuts and asset sales alternatives. If you get below the debt budget target it also allows you to spend the interest savings amongst a range of spending alternatives.

The government obviously hopes that playing with the budget planner will encourage people to support asset sales as a better way to bring the budget back to a sustainable level compared with cutting services or, shock horror, tax increases.

The planner does have some serious limitations. For example, what you get when you click on more details is fairly skimpy. For example, in the case of selling the ports business there is no indication of how much revenue will be lost and/or what effect this will have on costs to port users. The details are a slightly extended explanation, what the sale will yield and a few examples of where this has already been done in Australia.

When it came to spending the interest saving there was nothing to give a feel for how much was already being spent in an area. For example, if you allocated 10% of the total interest saving to improving bike infrastructure you may have been choosing a doubling of the existing budget or something that was barely worth the effort.

Despite its limitations, the planner is useful for helping people understand some of the budget choices and as a mechanism for allowing people to state their preferences.

The interesting thing from my point of view was that the planner showed that the budget could be balanced by simply increasing a range of taxes and charges while doing nothing else. The planner is worth filling in and submitting if, like me, you think that taxes should be set at levels that allow governments to do their job properly.

Politics & Government, Social Science and Society

What Business Spectator thinks of our refugee policy

April 18, 2014 John Davidson 2 Comments

On Maundy Thursday, the Business Spectator lead story was this telling article on the Rudd/Abbott refugee policy by Rob Burgess. The article starts with:

“As many Australians prepare for a holiday marking the most important Christian festival of year, it’s worth remembering that Jesus of Nazareth began life as a refugee, taken to Egypt to escape King Herod’s slaughter of male infants.

The refugee family eventually went home, so there was no need to transfer the infant to an offshore detention facility – I mean, who’d even think of doing that?”

And ends with:

“While the nation spends a long weekend celebrating the life of the world’s most famous refugee, political leaders might take time to sniff the wind again and realise we’re standing out in our region for all the wrong reasons.

As Fraser sums it up: “Whatever else our refugee policy is, it isn’t Christian.”

In the middle there was a well argued article with useful supporting data that included:

“In years to come, people will look back at the Abbott Government’s practice of locking innocent children up on remote Pacific islands and shake their heads with disbelief,” said Hanson-Young on Wednesday.

It may not take years. Other nations, including key trading partners, are already shaking their heads at Australia’s offshore processing regime…….

” At this year’s human rights dialogue between China and Australia, vice-minister of foreign affairs Li Baodong said China had concerns “especially on the protection of refugees and asylum seekers, the right of the children of refugees in education and other rights … We have also asked about whether these refugees will be illegally repatriated to other countries….”

While the Greens have long used moral arguments to condemn Labor’s and the Coalition’s policy, economic and strategic concerns give added weight to opprobrium from our trading partners.

Recent history shows how quickly a latent dislike of Australia can become manifest – the fury on the streets of Indonesia during the recent phone-tapping scandal was fed by negative stereotypes of Australians that stretch back through the 20th century.

Not only are we remembered as the lucky country that ran the white Australia policy, but our political leaders of the past have (often unfairly) been seen as colonialists seeking to impose a Western order on peoples who, from their own domestic perspective, were throwing off the shackles of a colonial past.

Whatever the roots of our negative image within the region, Australia’s national interest lies in the paring away of stereotypes, not augmenting them with stories of babies flown to Pacific Island prisons.”

Think about how those who used to be excluded by the White Australia policy must see us now: Here is a country getting all agitated about 18,111 protection visa applications from boat people in 2012/13 despite having a strong economy and an estimated 2013 net immigration of 234,000. A country that claims to be all about a fair go but thinks its OK to send refugee children to concentration camps in breach of a refugee convention that Australia signed. A country where both Abbott and Rudd are very public, white Christians being nasty to refugees who mostly aren’t Christian and who would have been blocked from entry under the white Australia policy.

Having an Attorney general who has stated that it is “OK to be a bigot” doesn’t help either.

Progress is being made whenever an important, Murdoch owned business blog is saying, in effect, that our refugee policy is not only non-Christian but also bad for business and our relationship with our neighbours.

Enjoy your Easter.

Appendix: Refugee Council of Australia’s data on Australia’s refugee performance compared with the 10 best countries:

Life, Sundries

Friday Salon: Easter edition

April 18, 2014 Brian 35 Comments

An open thread where, at your leisure, you can discuss anything you like, well, within reason and the Comments Policy. Include here news and views, plus any notable personal experiences from the week and the weekend.

For climate topics please use the most recent Climate clippings.

The gentleman in the image is Voltaire, who for a time graced the court of Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. King Fred loved to talk about the universe and everything at the end of a day’s work. He also used the salons of Berlin to get feedback in the development of public policy.

Fred would only talk in French; he regarded German as barbaric. Here we’ll use English.

The thread will be a stoush-free zone. The Comments Policy says:

The aim [of this site] is to provide a venue for people to contribute and to engage in a civil and respectful manner.

Follow that and you should be fine.

Life, Politics & Government

Ending the age of entitlement

April 15, 2014 Brian 23 Comments

“there are no cuts to health, no cuts to education, pensions don’t change…”

That was Tony Abbott at the National Press Club just days before the last election, as reported by Peter Martin.

JOE TO SLASH AGED CASH

was the headline of Samantha Maiden’s Murdoch paper report in the Courier Mail on Sunday.

Budget pain to hit all: Hockey

That was the headline of Laura Tingle’s front page article in the AFR on Monday.

Treasurer Joe Hockey says no group will be safe from cuts in the May budget, as he braces voters for potential changes to the age pension and tighter asset tests.

Large numbers are cascading everywhere. Maiden’s article tells us that 94% of Australians over 70 qualify for either a pensioner concession card or a seniors health care card. Some 78% of the cost of scripts claimed under the PBS is going to concession card holders. Half of the $40 billion age pension bill goes to households with assets of more than $500,000. The $40 billion bill could rise to $70 billion over the next decade.

Labor increased the aged pension from 65 to 67 but that is to be phased in by 2023. The LNP are considering lifting the eligibility age to 70.

Another option is to include the family home in the assets test if it is worth more than $1 million.

Moreover, Hockey reckons the age pension indexation needs to be sustainable. Labor increased the rate and indexed it to average male earnings, which escalate faster than the CPI. Hockey appears to favour a return to the CPI.

Cutting the ‘seniors supplement’ (I get $500 taken off my tax because I’m old) has also been mentioned.

Justin Greber quotes the savings (paywalled) calculated by Stephen Anthony of Macroeconomics. Anthony reckons we need to cut the budget by about 1% of GDP or $16 billion. Overall he says:

the primary focus for the government should be in stemming middle- and upper-class welfare, with the most obvious savings in the aged and family benefits, drugs, industry assistance and removing overlaps between different levels of government.

As to the oldies, he says changing the indexation back to the CPI will save $900 million. Including the family home in the assets test will save $1.1 billion, while cutting the seniors supplement would garner a further $500 million. Peter Martin identifies a further $1.5 billion in carbon price compensation, so in all about $4 billion could be screwed out of the oldies.

Peter Martin also points out that the aged pension has increased by 25% since the indexation changed four and a half years ago, compared to the CPI of 13%.

There’s little doubt that rich old men could contribute a little more.

For context we need to note that the Australian budget is approaching $400 billion.

As a disclosure I’m modestly self-funded with no superannuation. I’d appreciate help with pharmaceuticals but get none other than the normal PBS. In this post I’m not arguing the merits or otherwise of any of the proposed changes. I do think, however, that we could consider paying a bit more tax.

Yet Peter Martin argues that tax increases are already included in the forward estimates because they don’t compensate for bracket creep. The CPI and bracket creep could make our incomes virtually flatline in real terms. He favours increasing the GST.

New Zealand increased the GST in two phases from 10 to 15% without stalling the economy or undue public concern. John Hewson says we are the champions in the OECD in tax concessions, including notoriously concessions to rich retirees and the fossil fuel industry. There are plenty of options available and Anthony stresses the problems are in the out years, not the next budget or two. There should be time for debate.

The Commission of Audit report is said to be available shortly as is a review of the welfare system.

My main worry in all this is that the poor and the vulnerable are going to be hit as well when there really is no need. Also there are sectors where we need to increase spending, such as skills, education including universities, research, innovation and smart industry development. Did everyone see the 4 Corners program on the hollowing out of sophisticated manufacture with the demise of the car industry? That at a time when the CSIRO prepares to cut another 300 jobs.

Meanwhile the Fairfax poll is now 48/52 in favour of Labor. There are some problems for Abbott in the regions, perhaps over foreign investment and trade policies. However, the Labor TPP surge is largely courtesy of a stunning increase in the Greens vote. 26% of 18-24 year-olds now favour the Greens. From 16-39 the LNP vote is lower than Labor, while within the margin for error. It’s the oldies that are keeping Abbott afloat. They don’t always vote in their own interest.

You can use this post as an open thread on politics.

Life, Sundries

Saturday salon: your say

April 12, 2014 Brian 32 Comments

An open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like, well, within reason and the comments policy.

Also, for climate topics please use the most recent Climate clippings.

Fred would only talk in French, as he regarded German as barbaric. Here we’ll use English.

Update: I’ve decided that I won’t put up a separate Lazy Sunday/The week that was post at this stage.

Please use this thread to share information about what you’ve been up to on the weekend or notable experiences during the week, shows you’ve seen, books you’ve read etc.

This implies that the thread will be a stoush-free zone. The Comments Policy says:

The aim [of this site] is to provide a venue for people to contribute and to engage in a civil and respectful manner.

Follow that and you should be fine.

Politics & Government

Work categories and voting patterns

April 11, 2014 Brian 8 Comments

Roy Morgan have done some interesting research on voting patterns according to how we earn our living. This table shows the work categories most likely to vote for the three major parties:

Roy Morgan_4971_600

To me there is a vague shape of a class analysis, with workers voting Labor and bosses voting Liberal, but one has to be careful about the actual numbers. If Labor gets a first preference vote in the low 30s there is plenty of scope for workers to vote Liberal.

There is interesting detail in the accompanying text. Primary school teachers are split down the middle. With the Greens we have to remember that the vote is low. While social workers are the profession most likely to vote Green only 33% of them do so. I would be interested in how many vote Liberal.

It’s now well known that Green voters earn more on average than other voters. Clearly they have spent more years in education.

I’m wondering what you make of it all.

Life, Politics & Government

From hero to zero politically: Campbell Newman shows how

April 7, 2014 Brian 8 Comments

All during the 2013 election campaign Kevin Rudd warned voters that Abbott would “Cut, cut and cut to the bone” just as Campbell Newman had done in Queensland. Commentators have remarked on Abbott’s lack of a honeymoon period. Campbell Newman certainly had one, but has now spectacularly squandered his political capital in various ways.

Dominating headlines for weeks on end the doctors’ dispute seems to have become something of a tipping point. Mark at his new blog The New Social Democrat has published an excellent link-filled post Newman v the doctors: a political fight that is poisoning the LNP, originally published at Crikey.

Mark sees the changes proposed in doctors’ conditions as carrying a broader warning for Australian health policy:

The contracts, read in conjunction with changes to the Industrial Relations Act, deny salaried doctors unfair dismissal protections, control over work location and timing of shifts, and require doctors to take direction on appropriate medical care from hospital and health service administrators.

The suggestion is that, having failed to find private operators for public hospitals that could actually provide cheaper services, the government’s agenda is to substitute bureaucratic cost controls for clinical judgement. That’s something the federal policy shifts towards paying hospitals for the “efficient price” of a procedure encourages. (Emphasis added)

The ground is shifting politically:

None of this is a good look for a government that recently lost the Redcliffe byelection to Labor with a massive swing. Polling conducted by ReachTEL for the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation in Ashgrove (the Premier’s seat), Cairns, Ipswich West and Mundingburra shows massive public opposition and significant impacts on the LNP’s vote. Newman would easily lose his seat to the ALP on these numbers, and it could be reasonably inferred that the LNP’s majority would be in danger.

Readers may recall that in 2012 Anna Bligh spectacularly crashed and burned, losing 44 of 51 seats to be left with seven in an 89-member parliament. With a walloping majority “Can do” Campbell may do the impossible and become a one-term government. A tweet from Possum Commitatus quotes a ReachTEL poll which says that if an election were held now the LNP would lose 36 seats and government.

Newman has looked gone in his own seat for some time. If people think he’s not OK as leader let them ponder the alternatives!

Elsewhere Kiwi doctors stand in solidarity with their Qld colleagues and are being advised to stay well away.

The electorate is volatile. Abbott be warned!

Culture

Posting strategy

April 6, 2014 Brian 7 Comments

Tomorrow there will be climate post, no risk.

In the welcome post I said I’d post as time and inclination permits, so there won’t always be a post every day. I still work outdoors on most days, so with the time available I’ll surprise myself if I average more than three a week.

In fact, however, I’ve been writing posts for the last six weeks, so at last count I think there were 17 in the bin. Back in 2012 when we were close to launch I actually published three which are still there, and I think worth a look. I might do link posts to them at some stage.

I don’t want to flood the place, so I’ll publish posts the binned posts between the new material for some weeks until the backlog is cleared. So for a while there should be daily offerings. However, I’d recommend taking a subscription, available at the foot of the page.

The posts in the bin include a bunch of Climate clippings posts, which I’ll also feed in. I used to aim for one a week. They’ll be a bit more frequent for a while and then as time and suitable material permits.

John Davidson, when he gets cracking, will do a parallel series under the rubric Climate action. There should be more from him about renewables, electric vehicles, new technologies, electricity prices and such and less from me. It will be a case of parallel play, however, and there may be some overlap. I don’t think either of us is madly territorial.

Open threads

Climate clippings and Climate action will also act as open threads on climate matters.

For tragics who would like to talk about other things I’m thinking we could have two weekend open threads, somewhat in the manner of LP. Can anyone suggest a name and an image for a Saturday Salon type post? I can only come up with boring stuff like Your say and Conversation corner. I did find, however, in my youth working as a reference librarian that boring names like Handbook of… had greater utility and were more readily remembered than snappy titles unless you can come up with something like Catch 22.

On Sunday I had in mind something like Lazy Sunday but extending it to the whole week and including information of interesting life experiences like movies or shows you’ve seen, books you’ve read, street protests and other activism, as well as what you’ve been doing in the back yard. Provisionally the title is The week that was. Again ideas of titles and images appreciated.

If we remember, each open thread will be categorised as such. So when you want to make a sundry comment go to the Open Threads link above the header and find the latest open thread.

Finally…

… this post will be filed under Blog Matters accessible under the link above the header. When I have days off, like today, I hope to spend a bit of time doing posts about features of the blog, seeking your comments and suggestions.

Politics & Government

WA Senate election result

April 6, 2014 Brian 16 Comments

Now to work!

You can follow the WA senate election results at the AEC tally room or I think preferably at the ABC. There is seat by seat counting at Antony Green’s Election Blog.

Poll Bludger is here.

At time of writing (just after midnight EST) it seems that about 25% of the vote has been counted. It’s looking like two seats for the Liberals, one for Labor, one for the Greens, one for the Palmer United Party and the final seat a tussle between Liberal and Labor, with Liberals the more likely.

I’m not sure exactly what this means for the final balance of power in the Senate, but I think it means that Abbott will have a choice of coming to terms with Labor and the Greens, or assembling a combination of “others” which must include PUP. If anyone knows, please share.

It looks as though Scott Ludlam will be elected comfortably, which is good to see.

Update: This morning Antony Green has Labor slightly ahead for the last seat with just over half the vote counted.

For Senate composition go here.

So for the LNP it’s a choice between needing 6/8 extras or 7/8. See also my comment here.

Culture

Welcome to Climate Plus

April 5, 2014 Brian 6 Comments

When Larvatus Prodeo folded originally in 2012 the one option I ruled out was starting my own blog. The plain fact is that my computer skills are such that I’d never be able to create a place I’d like to live in. Then tigtog offered to help and help she did, putting up with my numbskullery and faltering comprehension.

So here we are. Welcome to Climate Plus. I’ve grown fond of the place and I hope you do too.

In Climate Plus we have a blog designed and customised by tigtog at VIVidWeb, powered by WordPress and hosted by DreamHost. It’s been in an advanced state of development since October 2012, when I put it aside to do some writing about family history. Then it was overtaken by the revival of LP.

It’s meant to be a friendly place, with simple but functional features.

As to what we might achieve here I’ll quote from Curt Stager’s book Deep Future: the next 100,000 years of life on earth:

In this new Age of Humans, our thoughts and desires have become powerful environmental forces in their own rights, and how we think and act can be as important to millions of other human (and other species) as to ourselves. The better we know and respect each other as people, the more we’re likely to learn from one another, the more likely we are to understand each other’s needs and goals, and the more likely we are to cooperate effectively for our mutual benefit. Greenhouse pollution problems will not be solved piecemeal, and there is also no way to avoid making a collective choice one way or the other. We’ll either decide to solve them as a self-aware global community or we’ll decide to suffer through them together as a disjointed mob of individuals. (Emphasis added)

We may be just talking about climate change here, but in our own sphere we are creating meaning. You never know when a sleeper may be planted that makes a real difference in the larger scene.

John Davidson joins as a foundation author who brings the practical perspective of a process engineer, not just any engineer, a process engineer experienced in setting up systems that work. You can read about him here.There may be others later.

I plan not to become victim to ‘feeding the beast’, so I’ll post as time and inclination permits. Soon my sister and her husband come from Canada to visit, when I’ll take a bit of time out. Later in July I’m joining my brother and my wife as part of a convoy driving out to Central Australia and back via Simpson’s Desert. We’ll have a satellite phone for emergencies, but that’s all.

You’ll notice that tigtog has brought across many of the posts I did at LP in recent years. In addition there’s Gillard on the world stage which I posted in February, in part as a trial. We have more in the bin which will be fed in over the coming days, so there will be plenty to chew on initially.

So welcome aboard, tell your friends and we’ll see how we go!

The image at the head of this post comes from Neal Elbaum’s collection.

As a concluding perspective I’ll post this shot of the earth from Voyager 1. In the Age of Anthropocene we have collectively become responsible for the future of our little space ship. But does the universe care? There are over 200 billion suns in the Milky Way and over 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, some of which have over 100 trillion stars:

What matters is that we care and we have to learn to care collectively.

Climate change, sustainability, plus sundry other stuff