https://www.themonthly.com.au/the-politics/rachel-withers/2022/10/19/against-windfall
Date: 20 October 2022 at 9:03:35 am AEDT
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Subject: Daily Links Oct 20
Post of the Day
Michael Vardon and Peter Burnett
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ federal budget next week will for the first time include a section on wellbeing, which aims to measure how well Australians are doing in life.
On This Day
Conferment of Guruship to Guru Granth Sahib – Sikhism
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Czech Republic
Australian National Field Days
National
This week’s rain is bringing the threat of dangerous supercells — the most intense form of storms
Most of the major storm events seen in Australia come from the formation of supercells. And it looks like today’s east coast forecast has the perfect ingredients for another one.
Origin gas earnings boom as pressure grows on energy sector
Booming gas prices have boosted Origin’s energy market earnings guidance to as much as $650 million, a 78 per cent increase on its full-year 2022 result.
Origin counts on profit boost from gas as it prepares for shift to clean energy
Origin will rely on a boost in gas earnings to underscore its business as it navigates the transition to clean energy.
Energy regulator says it should be easier to ditch your power retailer
The Australian Energy Regulator is unveiling a range of initiatives to make electricity cheaper and support vulnerable customers struggling with their bills.
Climate solutions powerhouse emerges to “demystify” clean energy and carbon markets
Renewable Energy Hub buys up competitor to form new entity to meet soaring corporate demand for net zero solutions.
Billionaire coal investor opens up on going green [$]
New Hope chairman Robert Millner says Australian thermal coal has an important part to play in the energy transition.
One-third of solar projects over-promise and under-deliver on generation, report finds
New data finds many solar projects are delivering lower production than forecast, with big impacts on investors.
Australia can slash emissions 81 pct by 2030 using six existing technologies, report says
BZE says Australia can’t afford to wait for new inventions and doesn’t need to, with off-the-shelf technologies ready and able to “eliminate”
AGL board hopeful: Unless it moves fast, big tech could trample the energy sector
Mark Twidell
As the world’s electricity utilities race to decarbonise, they are navigating the technology megatrends of decentralisation and digitalisation of the energy markets. Can traditional energy utilities evolve?
Beth Rounsefell et al
Many parents worry about the waste created by disposable nappies. But while baby nappy waste is well known, there’s a hidden waste stream that our research has found is actually a bigger issue.
Data retention law reform needed to combat serious crime
Binoy Kampmark
Unnecessary data retention measures are an incitement for unlawful access and Australia needs to follow examples set by the EU.
The renewables boom has arrived but coal and gas are creaming it too [$]
Jennifer Hewett
Producers of oil and gas are raking in the profits even as the renewables revolution accelerates. How do all these moving parts fit together?
The Murray Darling Basin Plan has fundamental problems and needs replacing
David Shearman
After nearly ten years of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, implemented to ensure the river remains viable, there is overwhelming evidence that the Plan is ineffective and should be replaced.
Where we work defines how we get there (and explains a lot about the public transport challenge)
Ross Elliott
If almost everyone worked in the CBDs and inner cities, the fantasy of public transport advocates (‘we must get people out of cars and onto public transport’) could be realised.
Get out for the count and spend some meaningful time with your birdlife
Toni Bell
I encourage everyone to take part, even if just for the 20 minutes spent outdoors alone and listening.
Why Labor must ditch carbon credits for climate credibility [$]
Bernard Keane
At the heart of the government’s climate efforts is the Australian carbon credit unit system. And it’s badly broken.
Rachel Withers
Voters don’t seem to want to pay for climate action, but there is an obvious solution
Tim Flannery holds court with investors [$]
Ticky Fullerton
When a house like Credit Suisse brings in a climate activist to headline a conference for top clients, it is clear markets want to know much more than they do about climate change.
Green eyes on federal budget [$]
Glenda Korporaal
Next week’s budget is the chance for business to find out more details on the green energy policies of the Albanese government.
Don’t mess with The Bureau – cartoon
Dyson
Victoria
Water released onto the floodplain where a farmer died
Water authorities are being accused of failing to operate flood mitigation infrastructure in northern Victoria, causing floodwaters to flow uncontrollably onto a flood plain where a farmer drowned last night.
Sea will swallow Victorian houses worth as much as $3m in coming decades, report finds
About 20 houses on Inverloch’s waterfront will be inundated by the ocean by 2070, according to a government study.
Could car congestion charge save Melbourne? [$]
One lobby group says a car congestion charge and cheaper public transport could go far in enhancing Melbourne’s liveability.
Climate protest shuts down Melbourne streets [$]
Extinction Rebellion protesters are causing major disruptions in the CBD to object to logging of the state’s forests.
We made shopping for power too hard for consumers
Clare Savage
Is it fair that those consumers who can’t shop around and compare energy deals pay the highest prices in the market?
Elisabeth Vogel
Some of Victoria’s most important agricultural regions are among the areas worst hit by severe floods inundating the state this week.
New South Wales
Beekeeper’s petition to stop varroa mite eradication attracts nearly 25,000 signatures
A central coast beekeeper is petitioning to stop the eradication of beehives in response to varroa mite, arguing that Australia must learn to live with the pest like many other countries do.
Knitting Nannas launch challenge over NSW anti-protest laws
Two climate-impacted “Knitting Nannas” have launched a constitutional challenge to the new anti-protest laws in NSW, in a move to protect democratic freedoms.
Barangaroo’s ‘phallic forest’ a monument to Sydney’s impotence
Clover Moore
Has the process of development in Sydney changed much since the Rum Corps held sway? It seems not.
If Perrottet wants to raise the dam wall, he must raise the damn funds
Alexandra Smith
The budget in June included not one cent for raising the Warragamba Dam wall. Now the premier’s election baby, let’s see what the budget update delivers.
Don’t worry Darling Harbour, all is not lost
Letters
There is still a lot of useless water visible on Sydney Harbour, where buildings are yet to be erected.
ACT
Prescribed burns are by far the best way to protect the ACT
Letters
As a professional forester and National Park fire manager with over 35 years of extensive national and international forest fire experience, I found the article “Researcher highlights burn-off risks” (canberratimes.com.au, September 26) misleading, factually incorrect and of concern.
Queensland
The flood crisis has moved north into Queensland with warnings in place throughout the state.
How switching off your lights could help protect an endangered species
A team of young conservationists need you to turn off your lights for just one hour to reduce the effects of light pollution on baby sea turtles.
South Australia
‘Start getting ready’: SA prepares for Murray River flows not seen in nearly 50 years
Flows not seen since 1975 are set to reach South Australia’s Riverland, with the state government moving to ensure levees will protect towns in the event of more rainfall.
While floods have devastating impacts upstream, extra water flows will help the Coorong’s pelicans
Water from the swollen Murray River is due to arrive at SA’s Coorong and Lower Lakes in weeks, bringing a much-needed boost for wildlife and helping to reduce salinity.
‘We don’t want another ’56’: Renmark’s fear for levee safety [$]
Concerns have been raised a Riverland town is at risk of copping the deluge of Victorian flood water due to ‘substandard’ levees urgently needing repair.
First look: ‘Unloved’ Parklands to get makeover under new WCH plans [$]
Parts of the “dilapidated” Adelaide Parklands either off limits or off-putting to visit will be transformed into useable space as part of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Residents hit by North-South plans need to know [$]
Kathryn Bermingham
The government must release the review – or deal with the damaging public perception that it is sitting on life-altering information.
Tasmania
Big loans, but who benefits? Funding agreement finally reached for $3.8b Marinus Link power cable
Victoria has agreed to pitch in and help Tasmania and the Commonwealth fund the Marinus Link undersea power cable link between the states — but one expert is questioning the benefits to Tasmania and says it does not “make sense”.
Bass Strait link ‘deal of the century’: TCCI [$]
Why the state’s business lobby says Bass Strait interconnector is set to be Tasmania’s biggest-ever single infrastructure project.
Consultants cash in on state government climate plans [$]
In a move that has been slammed by the Greens, an ad agency will be paid big bickies to promote the government’s climate change policies.
“An ecological and economic disaster:” Green group slams Marinus Link deal
News that Marinus Link is being supported by the federal government’s Rewiring Australia program has been broadly welcomed. But not everyone sees it as a win.
Does Rewiring the Nation’s concessional finance really change the case for Marinus?
Bruce Mountain
It’s unclear how the economic case for Marinus Link is greatly improved by the concessional finance offered by Labor’s Rewiring the Nation policy.
Northern Territory
Mining company fined $340,000 for releasing polluted wastewater into national park river
Following a wet season deluge in the Northern Territory, a significant amount of mining-affected wastewater was pumped into a river in a national park, causing the potential for environmental harm.
Greenwashed: how the new “Middle Arm” fossil fuel hub was rebranded green
Callum Foote
They have dubbed it “sustainable”, about “clean energy industries” and “environmentally sustainable manufacturing”; yet Darwin’s Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct is all about fossil fuels.
Western Australia
A group of Fremantle Dockers members joins demands to end fossil fuel sponsorship of sporting clubs, calling on their team to cut its ties with oil and gas giant Woodside.
The environmental rule that’s left Perth homes ‘worthless’
The dreams and nest eggs of multiple families in Perth’s south-east have been crushed in a shock re-zoning change that they say has stripped millions from the value of their homes.
Lengthy annual fishing ban looms despite outrage [$]
The prospect of lengthy annual bans on recreational fishing for demersal species is firming, despite the pain it would inflict on the industry, with a decision on the controversial measure expected next month.
Sustainability
New Zealand or Alaska? How tech billionaires are planning for the apocalypse
This professor was invited to speak at a meeting of billionaire preppers. It got weird.
Mosquito study finds genetics at play when it comes to who gets bitten more frequently
In a new research paper, released today, scientists from Rockefeller University found mosquitoes are drawn to people who secrete an odour on their skin caused by a mix of naturally occurring acids.
Severe drought leaves Kenya’s Maasai herders struggling to sell starving cattle
Kenya is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years and the country’s Maasai herders are fighting to keep their cattle alive amid a lack of food.
Northern Europe’s Indigenous people, the Sámi, say their way of life is being threatened by a wave of “green colonialism”. Can their voices to parliament save them?
Fracking caused daily earthquakes at UK’s only active site
Between 2018 and 2019, the fracking site near Blackpool was responsible for 192 earthquakes over the course of 182 days.
The EU should stop exporting its plastic waste
Krista Shennum
If you live in the EU, chances are your plastic trash might be recycled by child or migrant workers in Turkey.
Nature Conservation
Surfers, miners fight over South Africa’s white beaches
South Africa’s west coast has become a battleground, pitching mining firms against environmentalists fearful that one of nature’s last wild treasures is being bulldozed away.
Bolivian gold miners push into national park despite country’s green rhetoric
As miners push into the Amazon and other protected areas, the Bolivian government’s support of the industry sits awkwardly with its environmentalist rhetoric.
Nic Rawlence
The impact of deer on Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural environment is never far from the headlines. Most recently, the Southland Conservation Board highlighted the damage the introduced species was doing to native forest on Rakiura Stewart Island.
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