Sunshine Coast Daily - Council draws a line in the sand

Sunshine Coast Council’s vision for future growth is an impressive line in the sand aimed at ensuring future development is both supported by infrastructure and sustainable.

In just what form the Sunshine Coast Growth Management Position Paper, the council’s preliminary submission to the state government’s SEQ Regional Plan review, will survive that process remains to be seen but there can be no doubt that it has delivered on the election expectation that things would be done differently from the past.

The document clearly had universal support when councillors went through its 65 pages line by line Monday to ensure absolute clarity of meaning and intent. It demands a future informed by the realities of peak oil, climate change and emissions trading and the need for water and food security.

SMH - A town taps potential from water down the drain

FOR more than a century, the mineral-rich waters of the famous Moree baths have simply gushed into the nearby Mehi River after delivering immense pleasure to those who have soaked in them. On winter mornings, the streets of Moree can look like they are on fire as the steaming hot water from the Great Artesian Basin deep below flows through its stormwater drains.

The Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins "took the waters" at the baths when his 1965 "freedom ride" exposed, and helped end, the colour bar that kept blacks from entering. But Moree's popular thermal-spa industry also puts about 500 tonnes of unwanted salt into the Mehi annually and the State Government has ordered that this must stop by June 30 next year.

So to safeguard its lucrative tourism magnet, Moree Plains Shire Council is planning to build a desalination plant for the artesian waste water. Historically, Moree is not short of water. The district on the north-west plains usually uses billions of litres each year to grow cotton. But with rainfall in the Murray-Darling Basin becoming increasingly unreliable and the price of water climbing ever higher, the council believes the desalination plant will pay for itself in 10 to 15 years.

NZ Herald - Qantas says Air NZ is on buyout radar

Qantas Airways chief executive Geoff Dixon has tipped the global aviation industry to consolidate into a few, very large players as carriers struggle to cope with higher fuel costs.

SMH - Call to slug petrol heads more for rego

Petrol guzzlers should be slugged more in vehicle registration than those who drive greener cars, according to Victoria's sustainability watchdog.

SMH - $1.20 for petrol unrealistic: economists

A motoring group's prediction of petrol prices falling as low as $1.20 a litre is unrealistic, analysts say, but drivers could soon see a 20 cent fall at the bowser. Crude oil prices have fallen about $US20 over the past eight days on the back of weakening tensions in the Middle East and a lack of refinery mishaps.

SMH - AGL buys Allco's wind assets for $12m

AGL managing director Michael Fraser said the transaction was consistent with the company's strategy of developing a diverse pipeline of renewable projects. He added this will help the energy company meet its long-term obligations under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) scheme.

"The development portfolio we have acquired from Allco effectively represents an early entry option for us over potential future wind sites which should become increasingly valuable as the expanded MRET is deployed over time," he said. "It would also deliver further diversity across our renewable portfolio."

The Australian - Altona and BP Australia extend agreement for SA project

The pair have extended a non-binding agreement to work together to evaluate development opportunities for Altona's Arckaringa coal-to-liquids and power project in the state to the end of June 2009. The agreement includes the evaluation of coal-to-liquids developments and market potential for coal-to-liquids fuel products, Altona said in a statement.

Business Spectator - INTERVIEW: Ian Gorman

Molopo Australia last week made a five-fold upgrade to its gas project reserves estimates. Its chief operating offer Ian Gorman tells Isabelle Oderberg about the current activities the group has on the go and reveals it is looking outside its existing businesses for potential opportunities in India.

IO: Can you first just give me an update on your current reserves total?

IG: Currently in Queensland we have just under 50 BCF (billion cubic feet) at 2P (proved and probable) and 235 BCF at 3P (proved, probable and possible). In NSW we have an additional 50 BCF at 2P and a further 100 BCF at 3P. And in China our partner has received a small amount of 3P certified reserves at this stage of which our net share is relatively small. So worldwide 100 BCF at 2P and 335 BCF at 3P and in addition, something like over 1000 BCF of contingent resource.

Business Spectator - Nightmare on Bourke Street

Dr Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, last night dropped in for a few hours at a club on Bourke Street, Melbourne, to scare the pants off the Chartered Financial Analysts Society at its annual forecasting dinner.

It was a compelling presentation, delivered, as it was, in his sepulchral Swiss accent against a series of gruesome slides. He has obviously given it many times before (it was memorised), although he has had to amend it slightly these days from predicting the bust to discussing the one that has occurred, and predicting worse to come.

Answering questions at the end, Faber relaxed and said what he really thinks: “I think the whole world will totally collapse. This is a completely unprecedented situation" ... “My advice (to the chartered financial analysts at the dinner) is to buy a farm and learn how to drive a tractor”. ...

And so the CFAs reeled out into the bleak Melbourne winter night thoroughly depressed and looking forward to living in interesting times. I doubt that any of them will be booking tractor-driving lessons today.

Larvatus Prodeo - Liberal lunacy

Tim Watts has posted at Tree of Knowledge on Andrew Bolt’s claim that the forces of the hardline right in the Liberal Party are planning to monster Malcolm Turnbull and Greg Hunt and push for an oppositional stance to the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme. Brendan Nelson’s latest confused comments about delaying the ETS might be some confirmation of this, but on the other hand Nelson’s line on climate change is a moveable feast at the best of times, and Turnbull was singing from the same song sheet today. Watts is no doubt right that such a stance would be political stupidity on the part of the opposition, but it’s just as likely that the story represents wishful thinking on Bolt’s part, obsessed as he is with climate change denialism. However, nutty calls from the Nats for a Royal Commission to examine the science certainly do highlight the continuing divisions within the Coalition.

SMH - Union wants money, jobs for carbon reduction

A UNION representing coal and power industry workers is demanding proceeds from the Government's emissions trading be invested in renewable energy to create new jobs to replace those that will be lost. At the same time, the Opposition has hardened its stance against the Government's proposed scheme, Brendan Nelson calling for it to have "near meaningless" carbon reduction targets until big polluters also acted.

SMH - Parties wrangle over emissions trading

The government would rather win the support of the coalition than negotiate with the Greens, who are pushing for a tougher scheme. But Greens leader Bob Brown says he's ready to talk. "We will be negotiating with the government to get the best outcome possible when it comes to legislation in the Senate," Senator Brown said.

SMH - Emissions target 'excluded population'

The Rudd government has little chance of meeting its 2050 greenhouse emission reduction targets if Australia's population continues to grow, a demography expert says.

SMH - Hungry Mile tipping point for Wynyard

A 30 PER CENT bigger development at the Hungry Mile could push Wynyard station to crisis point. An extra 12,500 people a day are expected to use the train station, including 6100 in the one-hour morning peak.

Crikey - Sydney infrastructure edges closer to breaking point

The signs of infrastructure collapse in Sydney keep coming yet nobody in government seems willing to connect the dots. Two more dots this morning are this call by Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey for a second airport in Sydney and warnings that the Hungry Mile development could clog Wynyard station.

But if the bigger picture is looked at, nothing happening to rail users or air travellers compares to the consequences of banishing working ships from a harbour that former Premier Bob Carr was determined to make safe for the café latteratti through waterfront retail and residential developments.

The inadequacy of the Port Botany solution has forced container truck hell onto suburbs that either have to be gashed open with future motorways or avoided with much more costly tunnel projects like the stillborn M4 East plans which are on a scale not yet seen in Australia. Efforts to divert some shipping to Port Kembla or Newcastle are dragging the woeful rail and highway links to both into chronic failure mode.

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