Month: June 2014
Al Gore & Clive Palmer: renewable energy breakthrough for climate politics?
Originally posted at DanCass & Co. View the original post here.
There has been a lot of head shaking about Al Gore and Clive Palmer’s unanticipated alliance this week but there might well be a lot of good to come from it. In particular it could shift the focus of the climate debate from an unpopular carbon price to popular renewable energy.
Australia’s carbon price is only one part of the Clean Energy Future (CEF) package produced under the minority Gillard government. The Clean Energy Future bills combined the central policy of a carbon price with a raft of ‘complementary measures’, such as the world’s biggest green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
These complementary measures were mostly supports for renewable energy. This unique combination of carbon price and complementary measures was largely due to the contribution of Senator Christine Milne and made the Clean Energy Future agreement a global…
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How to stop an ant invasion naturally
http://www.1millionwomen.com.au/2014/03/10/how-to-stop-an-ant-invasion-naturally/
How to stop an ant invasion naturally
Pesticides not only smell bad but also have many different negative affects on the environment.
They can travel far distances, flow with the rainwater into nearby waters or seep through the soil into the ground. Insecticides are generally the most harmful and toxic pesticide to the environment.
We are all familiar with the occasional ant invasion. We know what it is like to come into the kitchen early in the morning to find hordes of ants have taken over and set up shop in your bread basket, or are forming a queue into the accidently left open cupboard door.
Here are some great tips on how to avoid or eradicate the ant invasion without using insecticides:
LEMONS: The acid in the lemon wrecks the ants’ sense of tracking. Spray lemon juice around the openings to the house (doors, windowsills and cracks in the walls). This won’t work to kill ants already in the kitchen, but will prevent them from getting in.
CHALK:This is another way to stop ants from getting into your house. Draw chalk outlines around the openings to the house, for example, around the windowsill. Ants won’t cross a chalk line; they are repelled by the calcium carbonate in the chalk.
CORNMEAL: Cornmeal disrupts the way ants digest, eventually killing them. Sprinkle cornmeal around the perimeters of your home. Also try locate the ants nest and sprinkle it there too.
VINEGAR: Try mopping your floors and cleaning your kitchen with a vinegar and water solution. Also try finding the anthills and spray equal parts vinegar and water there or into the cracks around your house. Ants hate the smell of vinegar and will eventually move on to better smelling places.
CINNAMON: Try figure out where the ants are getting in and pour a line of cinnamon there, or sprinkle it around your garden. You could even try cinnamon essential oils. It will make your house smell nice as well as prevent ants from entering it!
Try these ways to stop ants from coming into your house. All these homemade remedies are easy to come by and are sure ways to deter the ant’s path of invasion!
The Global Energy Market’s Moment of Truth
Explainer: can the Senate block the budget?
In the days since the Abbott government released its first budget, the Labor Party, the Greens and the Palmer United Party have all said they will block parts of it in the Senate.
Threats to block the budget bring back memories of 1975 when the opposition, led by Malcolm Fraser, used its numbers in the Senate to stall the passage of the appropriation bills (sometimes referred to as “supply”). This ultimately led to the then governor-general, Sir John Kerr, taking the extraordinary step of dismissing the Whitlam government.
But would blocking aspects of the Abbott government’s budget bring about a similar constitutional crisis, the likes of which we have not seen since 1975?
Following the announcement of the budget, a mass of legislation necessary to implement the new policies and allow the government to spend money is introduced into parliament. The legislation falls broadly into three categories:
Appropriation bills (also known as the budget bills), which provide parliamentary approval for the government’s proposed expenditures;
Bills that amend existing tax legislation, or add new taxes; and
Bills that create or amend government schemes or services.
The implementation of the Abbott government’s budget depends upon the passage of all three types of legislation. Based on the mutterings from Labor and the minor parties so far, this year it will most likely be the latter two categories that receive the greatest attention on the floor of the Senate.
The appropriation bills
The government can’t simply take money from the Treasury. Parliament must pass legislation, known as “appropriation” legislation, authorising the government to dip into the Treasury’s coffers. On the night of treasurer Joe Hockey’s budget speech, three appropriation bills were introduced into parliament.
The first of these bills deals with the “ordinary annual services of the government”. This first bill provides government departments and agencies with the funding necessary to operate day-to-day services, including paying public servants’ wages.
The second bill deals with the authorisation of funds for items that are not “ordinary annual services of the government”. This will include, for example, funding for public works, the acquisition of sites and buildings or grants to the states.
The third bill provides money for the running of parliament itself.
The reason for multiple appropriation bills is that Section 54 of the Constitution requires that a bill dealing with the appropriation of money:
…for the ordinary annual services of the government shall deal only with such appropriation.
Other appropriations must, therefore, be dealt with in separate legislation. The reason for this is to prevent the government tacking important new programs onto these bills and forcing the Senate’s hand.
Blocking cuts to existing services
The way in which the legislation is structured to conform with the constitutional requirements has implications for senators seeking to block aspects of the budget.
For example, the money required to run organisations such as the ABC or the CSIRO is contained within the first appropriation bill as it is part of the “ordinary annual services of the government”. Senators seeking to block the budget cuts to the ABC or the CSIRO would need to vote against the first appropriation bill.
As constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has noted, it is unlikely that Labor would join the minor parties or independents in blocking supply in this way. As a consequence, the Senate blocking budget cuts to existing services seems doubtful, so we are unlikely to see a repeat of 1975.
Blocking the ‘debt levy’
The government’s “debt levy”, which proposes an increase to the top marginal tax rate by 2% for three years, is likely to face stern opposition in the Senate.
The debt levy is not included in the appropriation bills, but is instead part of a separate set of bills – primarily, the Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014.
The proposed legislation dealing with the debt levy is separate to the appropriation bills because it is a function of two constitutional requirements and allows the Senate to scrutinise each proposed new tax separately. First, there is the aforementioned issue of Section 54 of the Constitution. In addition, Section 55 of the Constitution requires that laws dealing with taxation can only deal with taxation, and only one subject of taxation.
The effect of Section 55 is that where a government seeks to introduce taxes on different subjects, each tax must be dealt with in a separate bill.
Section 53 of the Constitution prevents the Senate amending bills dealing with taxation or the appropriation of money for the ordinary annual services of the government. However, it can request such amendments be made by the House of Representatives.
Given the vocal opposition to the debt levy, it would appear that non-government senators are more likely to reject the tax outright than to seek amendments from the lower house.
Blocking new or amended schemes or services
The Senate blocking supply of funding to existing schemes or services is unlikely. But what about where the budget has proposed changes to the scheme or service itself?
For example, could the Senate block the proposed A$7 GP co-payment or the establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund? These initiatives would require either new legislation or amendments to existing legislation. As such, they would be open to review by the Senate.
In the case of the proposed co-payment, amendments would presumably need to be made to the Health Insurance Act 1973. When scrutinising normal legislation such as this, the Senate has the same powers as the lower house.
The new Senate from July 1
The composition of the Senate is set to change on July 1 this year. This, coupled with the way in which the Constitution requires many of these budget measures to be dealt with in separate pieces of legislation, means that each initiative could receive close scrutiny from the Senate.
While the Senate is unlikely to block the appropriation bills and prevent the day-to-day running of services, the close scrutiny that other aspects of the budget are likely to receive could stall and frustrate some of the government’s key reforms.
http://theconversation.com/explainer-can-the-senate-block-the-budget-26815
Winds Interrupted — El Nino is Tearing a Hole Through the Trades
Trade winds. The east-to-west flow of airs across more than ten thousand miles of Pacific waters. Starting just off the coast of Ecuador, these winds typically blow in the range of 15 to 25 miles-per-hour uninterrupted across the vast Pacific before terminating in the South China Sea. The winds are a normal condition in the Equatorial Pacific. So constant that sailors relied on them as a kind of ocean conveyor during the days when sailing ships still ruled the waves. Year in, year out, the trade winds blow. Usually only subject to minor insults and brief interruptions from the massive and powerful weather phenomena that is El Nino.
But, starting yesterday, something rather odd began to happen. A six thousand mile stretch of the trades simply went dead.
(Pacific Ocean wind pattern as of 1 PM EST, June 4. The brighter the green, the higher the intensity, the deeper the…
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