Tuesday, May 29, 2012

South Australia power supply? Coal and Uranium are the best bet.


SOUTH AUSTRALIA: lots of talk-back radio discussions on replacing/upgrading the Port Augusta old Playford A & B coal-fired power station (ca 330MW) with natural gas, or, the lady Mayor wants a solar-gas plant. The Playford plant was built in 1950's and the nearby Northern Power station (coal) of 520 MW was commissioned in 1985. The coal comes from the Leigh Ck coal field ca 280 kms north by dedicated rail link, mining ca 2.5 million tonnes annually.

Will the best decision be made???? God help us in SA!! Already the state is bristling with useless wind farms thanks to former Premier Mike Rann, and our power bills continually escalate. We have an unwanted/unneeded $2 billion desalination plant unfinished and earmarked to run on expensive power from windmills. We have the present Premier Jay Weatherall ignoring the MISMANAGEMENT of the Lower Lakes and how this stuffs up the management of the WHOLE of the Murray Darling Basin.

My suggestion for the future SA power supply, and this should be on the table for review and costing, is as follows: (it's is devoid of eco-BS). The existing Pt Augusta power stations which are coal-fired can be modernized and continued to use Leigh Ck coal. I am assuming that PM Julia's Labor Government and Carbon tax will be voted out ASAP, if not sooner. What Pt Augusta has now with its power stations are a very valuable asset producing the cheapest electricity.

Another prime site for a coal-fired power plant is where the desalination plant is located south of Adelaide (formerly an oil refinery site). A 500 MW plant could be built there with coal shipped in from the East Coast. It could power the desalination plant (God forbid!) and Adelaide city during heat waves etc.

Also, as I suggested and submitted to BHP about the power supply for the Olympic Dam mine expansion, was the idea having a nuclear power station there, building up in stages of say 250 MW to maybe 1000 MW eventually to power electrification of the Adelaide to Darwin rail link plus all the new mining activity in the region.

If you let the Federal and SA State Governments be run by eco-religious socialists you get what you voted for ... ever increasing power and water bills and poverty for the workers and pensioners. Do something about it! Allano

Monday, May 28, 2012

Jobs for the Boys


Today Greg Combet, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, announced that Hon Mike Rann (former Premier of South Australia) has been appointed to the Board of Low Carbon Australia Ltd, with a payment of $50,000 per year.

I look forward joyfully to after the next Federal Election when the new Coalition Government will disband all these wasteful eco-religious Green organizations that are providing jobs for the boys and spreading false propaganda by demonizing the element carbon.

Certain to go is Labor's Climate Change Ambassador, Prof. Tim Flannery who has been shown to be a false prophet and nut case. Even Minister Combet is unlikely to survive the next election, when Australians will get the opportunity to wipe Canberra clean of incompetent Labor and Green pollies, as was done successfully at the recent Queensland State election.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Murray Darling Basin water plan again under fire..please change the SA & Federal Government!


The Murray Darling Basin revised plan is again under attack by South Australian Premier Weatherall. How mind-contracted can you get? I am referring to all the South Australian Labor pollies and the Murray Darling Basin revised plan which they reject, or Premier Weatherall does, and his Green comrades. SA wants more than 2750 GL of water returned to the river for environmental flows to maintain fresh water in the Lower Lakes! What absolute bunkum. It is a stupid and wasteful idea.

Today's Australian newspaper has a front page foto of a farmer who runs 1000 cattle on Mundoo Island which forms part of the barrage system at the ocean mouth of the Murray River. He complains that the river and Coorong are getting too salty to water the stock. He and the pollies want the Basin Plan to set limits of salinity for the Lakes, river and Coorong!!!! Wow. How ridiculous can you get.

It's a bit like the supposed climate change problem. They haven't a clue whats sensible to do. The Greens have their logic tied up in knots and pointing only towards an expensive and ridiculous disaster.

I wont query the sensibility, or economics, of having a tiny cattle station on Mundoo Island, and why the adjacent water salinity levels should be adjusted, if possible, to the detriment of the whole of the Murray Darling Basin, which is the major food bowl of Australia.. no.. but I can ask what do other farmers do for water on coastal properties around Australia .. over 25,000 ? kilometers of coastline?

The Mundoo solution could be to periodically transport fresh water in by barge, or for properties on the mainland, by pipeline, just as we do for Adelaide and the northern pipeline to Whyalla and further. What about bore water, or setting up a mini-evaporative desalination plant to provide drinking water for stock?

Nothing can be done about the MDBasin Plan until the Water Act is amended to allow sensible management of the Lower Lakes that results in maintaining a stable water level during drought times by opening up the barrages to let sea water come in to the original estuarine system. Allano

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Governments are NOT good at picking winners


Paul Howes, senior trade union official, thinks governments should be involved in industry planning and development, such as renewable energy. Government subsidies and trade union super funds are what keep the uneconomic wind farm and solar industries afloat and our electricity bills ever higher. On the other hand, Henry Ergus of the Business Council counters by saying "LOSERS are much better at picking Governments than Governments picking winners". The myths of the renewable energy industry are well documented by Caldwell HERE

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Jacques Nasser, Chairman of BHP Billiton slams the Labor Government for mismanagement


The big guns of the mining sector have let loose at PM Julia and Treasurer Wayne Swan with a broadside from Jacques Nasser, Chairman of BHP. You can't get any bigger than BHP, which is the world's largest mining company, that originated in Australia at Broken Hill.

Nasser condemns the Labor Party for sowing hatred and envy amongst the working class not involved in the mining industry and for ever bringing uncertainty into the tax system. Labor has top priority the redistribution of wealth even before it is created! Nothing is done about making it easier to create wealth and of boosting productivity. Grandiose schemes of wealth distribution are legislated, the funding of which are dependent on supposed tax revenues from the mining sector that are at the mercy of fluctuating commodity prices and adverse geopolitical scenarios.

Don't kill the golden goose. Mining companies are like all other companies and are taxed at the 30% rate on profits. Also, on top of this, depending on the commodity, they are levied a State imposed Resource Rent Tax. Now, this temporary Labor Government of PM Julia has passed a "Super Profits Tax" which is earmarked to pay for all sorts of social security benefits, including an increase of superannuation.

My view is that we don't want or need any of this socialist nanny state legislation. Australians are perfectly capable of managing their own affairs and assisting the not so well off without such horrific Government interference, which is the slippery slope to a mind-contracted Communist Society. If you think BHP and other mining companies are making super profits and ripping off Australia then go and invest your savings in the company, which is what our Superannuation Funds are doing anyway. We don't need Wayne Swan telling us what to do.

I am hoping this awful Labor Government of PM Julia will come to an end ASAP, preferably by the end of this financial year (end June 2012). Let's make it happen. Allano

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ken Henry reflects on his stimulous package advice to Labor


Ken Henry, former head of Treasury, explains all on Lateline re Labor's economic stimulous package when interviewed by Chris Ulman. VG interview it was. Govn spent billions on much of what could be called rubbish projects to maintain domestic economic activity, which Ken Henry says was necessary, rubbish or not. However, nothing was achieved re building productivity and a sustained economic growth, which is still our problem today.

The pink batts home insulation project was a disaster and the school buildings program subject to price gouging. The underlying rational of the stimulous has been distorted by the supposed need to be "Green" and save energy at any cost, hence the continual rise in power bills and other utilities. Our cost of living should be static or be lowering if the economy was properly managed.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

PM Julia spins the brown stuff on a visit to Adelaide


Yesterday we had a visit from the Prime Minister to reassure wet fish Labor Premier Jay Weatherall that Port Adelaide would continue with its Defence Contracts to build 12 more submarines. A $214 million Feasibility Study was announced to decide which of four options to pursue for the Submarine Corporation, with the idea of building to commence in 5 years time and costing ca $40 billion over 10 years or so.

The option of not building ANY submarines was not considered, nor whether we actually NEED submarines, nor whether submarines today are OBSOLETE and alternative weapons systems being more useful, such as unmanned drone aircraft. The idea to continue with submarines is political decision to maintain a technical work force in the area which still has a Labor held State Government. You could of course more usefully decide to build Egyptian-style pyramids somewhere and boost the tourism and quarrying industry for a change. Our defense capability would be the same.

The present six diesel powered Collins Class submarines built at Adelaide have been a disaster and are essentially useless. The Minister of Defense, Stephen Smith was asked on ABC News what the score was. He replied that two submarines were in for long term modifications, two were having extensive repairs and the other two were sometimes operational, although they really have a full crew for only one submarine. The Submarine Corporation will be busy for the next 5 years keeping one or two submarines operational.

The idea of leasing or buying 1 or 2 operational submarines from other navies, such as from Spain, France or Greece, seems not to be contemplated. While extolling the supposed wisdom of building more homemade submarines at great expense, the PM warns that Defense Department is earmarked for cuts of several billion dollars to bring the Budget into balance. So its all SPIN, SPIN and SPIN, none of which makes any logical or economic sense. We are expected to swallow it all without comment.

Meanwhile our friendly neighbor India, last year completed and launched its first nuclear powered submarine of Russian design and is building another. In Australia the present ruling Federal Labor Party is so anti-nuclear that nuclear power stations are forbidden, so too are nuclear waste dumps. The good news is that Federal Labor is long over due to be tossed out of Government never to be returned for decades.