Bad news in the Au Pairs saga for Mr. Potato Head now

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-19/emails-show-role-peter-dutton-played-in-au-pair-visas/10282822?sf197973485=1

Hello All,

on a related matter to the above ( FTAs ) , the Coalition bang on about "reducing red tape" but rarely do. ( The ALP is no better in this regard. ) While I am not opposed to Standards and Regulations to ensure that predictable outcomes are achieved , I am beginning to wonder if the red tape actually suits the larger businesses as it squeezes out the smaller competitor , and this is not helped when the regulations seem not to apply to imports.

For example, if you wish to make and sell an electrical device in Australia , the testing regime to get approval can cost in excess of $10,000- with no guarantee of final approval ( I agree that safety to the public is paramount here ) but you can easily import a non compliant electrical gadget because Customs sees the regulation of the product as a State responsibility , despite the fact that the product, although imported into one State, will be traded interstate, and the fact that the State is unaware of its import, then it is highly unlikely to be able to test or regulate it.

Great for the importer; definitely not great for the local gadget maker.

Regards, Radioman.

Hello All,

on a related matter to the above ( FTAs ) , the Coalition bang on about "reducing red tape" but rarely do. ( The ALP is no better in this regard. ) While I am not opposed to Standards and Regulations to ensure that predictable outcomes are achieved , I am beginning to wonder if the red tape actually suits the larger businesses as it squeezes out the smaller competitor , and this is not helped when the regulations seem not to apply to imports.

For example, if you wish to make and sell an electrical device in Australia , the testing regime to get approval can cost in excess of $10,000- with no guarantee of final approval ( I agree that safety to the public is paramount here ) but you can easily import a non compliant electrical gadget because Customs sees the regulation of the product as a State responsibility , despite the fact that the product, although imported into one State, will be traded interstate, and the fact that the State is unaware of its import, then it is highly unlikely to be able to test or regulate it.

Great for the importer; definitely not great for the local gadget maker.

Regards, Radioman.

Hello Radioman; I have additional concerns about things like bio-security and disease. Things like fire ants have the capacity to devastate our agricultural industries and despite re-assurances I've heard that they're still spreading across SE Queensland - once the genie is out of the bottle...

I'm really concerned about the import of quite substandard and unchecked things like honey and irradiated pollen from China etc. Would anyone bother to tell you if you're spreading Chinese corn syrup on your toast thinking that its real - and sometimes things will come from NZ and will be labelled "Product of NZ" when the country of origin is in reality China. Consumer protections aren't nearly strong enough on these sorts of things any more.

Fairfax continues to have a whinge about Rupert's unfair sacking of Malcolm Turnbull:

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch two days before last month’s Liberal Party leadership spill, urging the media mogul to stop a campaign against him.

Mr Turnbull challenged Mr Murdoch over the coverage of his government in News Corp newspapers and its Sky News television channel, arguing the media company was intensifying the leadership turmoil.

Fairfax Media has been told Mr Murdoch played down his part in fuelling the leadership speculation, saying it was primarily a matter for his son Lachlan, who is his co-chairman and a stronger presence in the company’s Australian operations.

Hmm... wasn't it Ray Hadlee and Alan Jones also calling for Turnbull to be sacked? And who owns their radio stations - none other than Fairfax.

It's been revealed that Malcolm offered the cross-bench senators a tiny increase in the dole and rent assistance to try and get them to pass the $50 billion company tax package - via Fairfax:

The Coalition government secretly proposed a $660 million boost to welfare payments in its failed efforts to secure Senate cross-bench support for tax cuts for large companies…

The proposal would have introduced a $5 a week boost to rent assistance payments for welfare recipients.

Pauline Hanson expressed concern when they were proposing the company tax cuts worried about where the money was going to come from in the future if they passed those very generous tax cuts - have to say I agree. Really it seemed to me that she's spot on, there's some really flimsy projections about a budget surplus at some stage in the future but even then we'll still be borrowing money to fund recurrent expenditure.

Those tax cuts were un-affordable in anyone's language.

Now ScoMo is threatening to flood my home state with migrants just because we haven't had our amenity ruined like Sydney and Melbourne and therefore we should catch up to them (???) - via Fairfax today:

Prime Minister Scott Morrison threatened to “pull levers” to get growth under control on Thursday, including sending international students to regional universities to relieve urban congestion as he puts together a formal population policy.

“Up in the north, they want more population, in Adelaide they want more population,” he said.

“I can tell you, in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, they don’t.”

And we don't want the same thing here either! I've met heaps of other people here who have fled the eastern seaboard for the same reason that I did - because the huge cost of housing and traffic congestion in Melbourne is unbearable.

And what sort of jobs will the tsunami of migrants do once they get here? There's no big new private sector job-creating industries setting up here, we have the highest unemployment rate on the mainland (currently vying with Perth and the Sunshine Coast). We don't need mass-migration on the scale that's its happening in Sydney and Melbourne - we aren't set up up for it and there's no jobs here anyway.

Don. No idea what an influx of people will do for employment, medical,,,,,,,,, in SA. But a problem shared, is a problem halved.
The world according to ScoMo?
He,and his cronies have been pushing the line, nothing to see here, rather successfully, Despite the Dutton thing and MT. Billy Short pants, should be pooing his pants, he may the loose an unlooseable election. Unless Rupert steps in.

Don. No idea what an influx of people will do for employment, medical,,,,,,,,, in SA. But a problem shared, is a problem halved.
The world according to ScoMo?

The really infuriating thing is that it's like "okay, we've totally ruined Melbourne and Sydney by doubling them in size in 20 or so years - now time to use policy to direct them to other parts of Australia that could do with more congestion and real-estate pumping!"

No consultation with the people of South Australia, no extra Commonwealth money for the huge amounts of infrastructure that will need to be built to accommodate a doubling in the size of Adelaide (2.6 million) - and I really don't understand what ScoMo is burbling on about, SA is already growing @ 5% p/a despite the fact that a lot of young people leave for the eastern seaboard where all the jobs are; we already have a lot of interstate and international migrants here like any Aussie capital city. What we don't have is any real organic growth in private sector industries that will employ the million-odd people he's talking about getting to move here... we're all just gunna sell each other real-estate and services and that will be it... thank-you ScoMo, a true real-estate PM just like I predicted.

Added to that is the fact that my home-state along with WA is extremely dry and we're reliant here in Adelaide to a significant extent on the water coming down the Murray - a lot of which has been diverted and stolen by Queensland cotton farmers recently. Where does Adelaide get all the extra water that it's going to need to to keep the extra million people supplied? That's a lot of people and we're not swimming in rivers of stamp duty money here like they are on the eastern seaboard so we can't afford to build the world's biggest desal-plant on a whimsy as Steve Bracks appeared to do.

There's no policy to this insane population growth other than to keep fluffing the GDP figures so we don't fall into technical recession - that and "keep the building industry @ 10% plus of GDP and it's all roses"; it can't go on.

Don. No idea what an influx of people will do for employment, medical,,,,,,,,, in SA. But a problem shared, is a problem halved.
The world according to ScoMo?

The really infuriating thing is that it's like "okay, we've totally ruined Melbourne and Sydney by doubling them in size in 20 or so years - now time to use policy to direct them to other parts of Australia that could do with more congestion and real-estate pumping!"

No consultation with the people of South Australia, no extra Commonwealth money for the huge amounts of infrastructure that will need to be built to accommodate a doubling in the size of Adelaide (2.6 million) - and I really don't understand what ScoMo is burbling on about, SA is already growing @ 5% p/a despite the fact that a lot of young people leave for the eastern seaboard where all the jobs are; we already have a lot of interstate and international migrants here like any Aussie capital city. What we don't have is any real organic growth in private sector industries that will employ the million-odd people he's talking about getting to move here... we're all just gunna sell each other real-estate and services and that will be it... thank-you ScoMo, a true real-estate PM just like I predicted.

Added to that is the fact that my home-state along with WA is extremely dry and we're reliant here in Adelaide to a significant extent on the water coming down the Murray - a lot of which has been diverted and stolen by Queensland cotton farmers recently. Where does Adelaide get all the extra water that it's going to need to to keep the extra million people supplied? That's a lot of people and we're not swimming in rivers of stamp duty money here like they are on the eastern seaboard so we can't afford to build the world's biggest desal-plant on a whimsy as Steve Bracks appeared to do.

There's no policy to this insane population growth other than to keep fluffing the GDP figures so we don't fall into technical recession - that and "keep the building industry @ 10% plus of GDP and it's all roses"; it can't go on.

Wow where Don did you pluck that 5% from? Nothing like letting facts get in the way of telling it how it is. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Adelaide pop grew by 0.7% in 2015-16 the rest of SA stayed virtually static. in 2016-17 the Adelaide population also grew by 0.7% met entirely by Overseas migration, it grew by 0.9% in 2014-15

Michael

Wow where Don did you pluck that 5% from? Nothing like letting facts get in the way of telling it how it is. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Adelaide pop grew by 0.7% in 2015-16 the rest of SA stayed virtually static. in 2016-17 the Adelaide population also grew by 0.7% met entirely by Overseas migration, it grew by 0.9% in 2014-15

Michael

Sorry yes you are right - between census years 2011-2016 it was five percent. Doesn't that sound much more sustainable than the figures being quoted for Melbourne and Sydney though.

Wow where Don did you pluck that 5% from? Nothing like letting facts get in the way of telling it how it is. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Adelaide pop grew by 0.7% in 2015-16 the rest of SA stayed virtually static. in 2016-17 the Adelaide population also grew by 0.7% met entirely by Overseas migration, it grew by 0.9% in 2014-15

Michael

Sorry yes you are right - between census years 2011-2016 it was five percent. Doesn't that sound much more sustainable than the figures being quoted for Melbourne and Sydney though.

No Probs. Sydney will be able to handle their population growth better than we in Melbourne as their rail system and future rail system is far more extensive than ours in Melbourne.

Michael

But Sydney is running out of water - again (ABC).

Scott Morrison is the preferred Prime Minister over Bill Shorten but Labor will still win an election easily according to the latest Newspoll (Nine News);

Scott Morrison has increased his personal lead, but if the latest Newspoll is correct, he will be opposition leader, and Bill Shorten the Prime Minister following the next election.

And while there's a hint of recovery for the government, the poll, published in The Australian, indicates a coalition wipe out, with the loss of 18 seats.

Mr Morrison now leads Mr Shorten by 45 to 32 as preferred Prime Minister, but although the Coalition has narrowed the gap after preferences, Labor still leads 54 to 46.

But Sydney is running out of water - again (ABC).

Down to 63% now (not as bad as 34% a decade ago).

Kurnell Desal plant won't be activated for a while yet: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/29/sydney-dam-levels-plummeting-as-desalination-plant-stalls

When the rains stop, it's clear we're going to struggle to sustain a big population.  Desal has lots of issues by itself (i.e. Boron, high energy consumption, cost, maintenance etc).

Perhaps build a big city near the Ord River Dam?  (Probably too hot for most)

If Sydney doesn't get rain and a resonable amout soon, might want to fire up the desal plant.
Warragamba seemed to sustain Sydney, for sometime during periods of little or no rain. Demand is outstripping supply. Wouldn't describe Sydney as full,but the amount of cranes visible my place, and I have no particular view, it must be getting close.

Scomo has me suprised me, a retail poly, ex salesman, but has acted on issues. Turnball said he was agile, but only his words were.

Next election,???

If Sydney doesn't get rain and a resonable amout soon, might want to fire up the desal plant.
Warragamba seemed to sustain Sydney, for sometime during periods of little or no rain. Demand is outstripping supply. Wouldn't describe Sydney as full,but the amount of cranes visible my place, and I have no particular view, it must be getting close.

Scomo has me suprised me, a retail poly, ex salesman, but has acted on issues. Turnball said he was agile, but only his words were.

Next election,???

I've always seen ScoMo as a fairly high-energy go-getter kind of guy.  I just wish he would act quicker on the deplorable situation of asylum seekers stranded on Nauru and Manus Islands.  But he probably won't because 'Skynews'...

I've always seen ScoMo as a fairly high-energy go-getter kind of guy.  I just wish he would act quicker on the deplorable situation of asylum seekers stranded on Nauru and Manus Islands.  But he probably won't because 'Skynews'...

Well you know, don't get on a boat to come here - spend the bit extra to get a student visa and it's all legit, even the poorest of developing world families can afford the thirty grand or so to get a child "studying" in Australia with a view to residency. Its got the added advantage of being Australian-government sanctioned people-trafficking - they never bother to check who these people really are or what they do once they get here. You can even be a terrorist intending to carry out a terror attack and they won't bother to stop you at the airport on arrival.

If Sydney doesn't get rain and a resonable amout soon, might want to fire up the desal plant. Warragamba seemed to sustain Sydney, for sometime during periods of little or no rain. Demand is outstripping supply. Wouldn't describe Sydney as full,but the amount of cranes visible my place, and I have no particular view, it must be getting close. Scomo has me suprised me, a retail poly, ex salesman, but has acted on issues. Turnball said he was agile, but only his words were.

Sydney and Melbourne have both doubled in size in slightly over two decades. These are huge, enormous numbers of people we're talking about - an extra four or five million residents with cities that simply didn't plan for growth to happen in such a fast manner. Melbourne in particular struggles with things like a rail system designed for a 19th century city of a few hundred thousand in scattered villages and a water catchment that simply can't cope with as many people as there are now - hence the enormously inefficient, expensive and environmentally-unfriendly world's biggest desal plant. What will happen in another 20 years - more water rationing and extreme measures as it was ten years ago?

ScoMo is more than happy to tell us that we have to keep shoving migrants into these two cities but there's no plan for the comprehensive provision of infrastructure required for all these extra millions of people - hell - there was no plan 15 years ago when the long-term rate was quietly doubled, nobody was even told that the policy had changed. And the fact is that we're hitting up against the natural growth barriers that this continent can handle - water especially will be the constraint.

But Sydney is running out of water - again (ABC).

Down to 63% now (not as bad as 34% a decade ago).

Kurnell Desal plant won't be activated for a while yet: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/29/sydney-dam-levels-plummeting-as-desalination-plant-stalls

When the rains stop, it's clear we're going to struggle to sustain a big population.  Desal has lots of issues by itself (i.e. Boron, high energy consumption, cost, maintenance etc).

Perhaps build a big city near the Ord River Dam?  (Probably too hot for most)

The concerns for Sydney's water supply are a non event.

The current catchment water supply can easily support the population most of the time. While the population is growing, houses and more importantly their backyards are getting smaller. Sydney historically used water inefficiently and this has started to change with "some" use of recycled water where as other bench mark cities will be very high. Brisbane has the capability of 100% recycle if required in a drought.

Overall Sydney's water consumption has dropped by around 20% per capita in last 10-20 years. (google)

The desal plant is a backup capable of supplying 10% of supply and will eventually be used continuously and there is nothing wrong with this. Many countries including by current home use 100% desal water for supply of their growing cities and the number is growing fast. The issue for Australia is that all the desal plants are stand alone rather than using waste heat from power generation which is the most common way in the middle east and very efficient.

When Qld was looking at building the Mary River Dam, I compared the cost from this dam, plus pumping over 100km to Brisbane against Desal costs. I cannot remember the details, but the gap was very very small. Issue with 100% reliance for catchment water supply is you have to over invest to cater for worst case drought on record and if the drought is worse than that, you run out of water with no other option. Having Desal backups as all the Australian capitals now do, you have the minimum supply guarantee and as there will be no more dams in the Sydney basin, the future growth will be desal and recycle.

Recycling waste water is the next step and requires a change of culture as most Australia's are used to the concept the water they brush their teeth with is good enough to flush in the toilet, water the garden and wash the car. Again something that Sydney and most of Australia is way behind in outside more rural areas. For example where  live, all water is desal apart from community gardens which are 100% treated effluent. Downside in summer wen its obviously bloody hot, many people (talking plus 25, probably much more%) leave for the summer and not enough effluent to recycle and plants often die or at least suffer alot and they have water trucks watering the nature areas. Sydney doesn't have this issue.  

Anyway, water supply is non-issue. Next!

 Anyway, water supply is non-issue. Next!

Australians will not drink recycled water under any circumstances - research what happened at Toowoomba in 2006. And desalinated water is extremely expensive to produce, isn't environmentally friendly and runs directly against the stated aim to reduce carbon.

Water is indeed a problem in Australia - you should have been living in Melbourne ten years ago, it was bordering catastrophic.

Christopher Pyne and the French consortium building our new submarines are at loggerheads over the terms of their contract (ABC);

The ABC understands Mr Pyne will only meet the chief executive of the majority French state-owned company once a crucial document, the strategic partnering agreement (SPA), has been signed. Negotiations on that document have stalled and it is feared they may not be resolved before next year's federal election.

Defence and industry figures have told the ABC that France and Australia will not be ready before 2019 to sign the document, which is needed before detailed design contracts can be finalised, and submarine construction begins.

There's already been projected cost blow-outs and disputes and the work isn't due to commence for two or three years. Not looking good.

 Anyway, water supply is non-issue. Next!

Australians will not drink recycled water under any circumstances - research what happened at Toowoomba in 2006. And desalinated water is extremely expensive to produce, isn't environmentally friendly and runs directly against the stated aim to reduce carbon.

Water is indeed a problem in Australia - you should have been living in Melbourne ten years ago, it was bordering catastrophic.

The Qld govt spent $10B to install a 100% recycling plant which discharges in the dam, not into the pipes. So mother nature has her chance with it as well. Its not desirable but as Brisbane found out when it doesn't rain, drinking treated water is better than drinking urine or nothing, however it was not implemented this time due to rains coming. In the mean time its used by industry thus prolonging the dam capacity or off-setting population growth.

Also note there are some parts of Aus that already have recycled water in their water supply, Adelaide being one of them, unless you are going to tell me no one pee's in the Murry/Darling catchment. What happens to the waste water from all the towns upstream?

Desal water is NOT extremely expensive, the typical water cost in some Australian cities I looked up this morning is A$2-3/kL, my water costs are A$3.5/kL. Yes its more expensive but not alot more. However most of Australia's major catchment dams for the major cities are 40-80 years old, debts long paid off, built in close proximity to the cities, in ideal dam building locations because they could.

If you want to extend the water storage with new catchments, the locations are limited, expensive and comparable to desal and potentially more expensive, generally environmentally and community not acceptable and distant from the cities thus resulting in long distance pumping costs which is in itself expensive. Once you pump +100km, a Desal in an industrial area near saltwater water source starts looking very much more favorable.

In the case of Brisbane, the Mary River dam over 100km north of Brisbane was rejected by ALP Feds. Smaller more costly per kL dams were built in SW, one is not usable for water supply. Previous options such as the Wolfdem Dam and the other branch into the Brisbane river near Wivenhoe were all stopped by past ALP govts and now even if approved land prices are significantly higher.  Desal and recycling is now the sole source for the future of water supply to Brisbane.

For Sydney, The only reasonable damable water course left was the Shoalhaven, coverted to a National Park by the NSW ALP govt to specifically prevent it from ever being dammed. The limited locations left are in the order of 150-200km away. Warragamba Dam is being looked at for yet another wall raising, which is pushing the catchmenmt less and less frequent heavy rains but beyond this Desal and recycling will be Sydney's future water supply options. A friend in NW leafy suburbs has an onsite treatment for his grey water for keeping is yard green. 20 years ago this would have been banned.

Adelaide and Perth's and future is in recycle and desal and I suspect Melbourne is not much better off.

Look up the boom in the desalination industry to see where the world is headed. If incorporated into processes with large volumes of waste heat such as power generation the costs can be much lower than stand alone desal and option even cheaper than catchment and this is what the middle east mostly does.

Having major cities running out of water and operating on tight water restrictions is not good for attracting business.

Mr Morrison might well be busy, but he was at the AFL Grand Final today. So was Julie Bishop - they were not sitting together! No doubt there will be some way to classify the visits as parliamentary business.

Julie Bishop was on TV last night arriving from Perth.
Bet she flew business class at our expense.

Morrison as PM should be classed as working being at the premier Grand Final in Australia.  
Bishop is a different matter.

[Morrison as PM should be classed as working being at the premier Grand Final in Australia.

Why? What work is he doing?  In a word; none.
I don't mind him being there, but don't come the parliamentary raw prawn and tell me it's work.