Ford closure goes with the territory

Ford closure. But, what about the torpedoed Territory Export program to Thailand, which could have helped save them?

Good to see the diversity of new posts on the site, including Ian's intriguing Redex Re-run series. (I still have some reading to do there).

Sticking with Matters Automotive, I  have just fired off the following to my federal and local reps, both of whom I know personally, and who are excellent fellows, and to Andrew Bolt. I should make it clear at the outset that I neither own a Ford, nor have done so for many years, but I do believe that the Territory is an excellent, international class leader, and that the next (and final, as things stand :-) Falcon, due out by 2015, will really knock socks off! (That's judging by the odd leaked report, artist's impressions and the like).

Since Thursday morning, every commentator and his brother / sister is right into caning Ford for a multitude of sins, and (at least from the Conservative side), the unsustainably high costs of manufacturing within Oz, But, no-one seems to be talking about the rotten ‘trick’ pulled by our friends in Thailand in torpedoing, after we signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with them, a very viable plan to export the Territory there.
 

Cartoonist Mark Knight

So, to go back, and expand a little on what I sent out (slightly edited):

 

" ........ While the release of the Ford announcement on Wednesday morning was not a suprise to me (and no doubt to many, given Ford's previous commitment to stay in local production only to the end of 2016), it was nevertheless terrible. And I am still shaking my head over how that can be. I know, the high $A, changing customer preferences, apparent obstinacy of Ford International to help Ford Oz into export markets, Free Trade Agreements, crazy Union – satisfying industrial outcomes etc ..........  But for me, 2 self – inflicted things stand out:

    . Our aforseaid uncompetitive and bloated work rules.

    . Our insanely ineffective FTA’s with Thailand and Malaysia.

 

Surely the government, which signed up to them, must be accountable? A very viable plan to export the Territory to Thailand was castrated for Oz, very soon after the signing, by the Thai’s introducing a ridiculously punitive ‘Sales Tax’ on so – called large capacity vehicles (3 litre plus) of 80%!!  Our tariff on the shiploads  of Thai – built vehicles flooding Australia is 0%!! That killed the plan in the bud. Why didn’t Ford Oz scream blue murder? Who knows, but they didn’t rock the boat. Why were they so inhibited?

 

I have never really been a fan of Past Premier Bracks, but I think these comments on the topic by him, last year, are stark and worth revisiting: (Please Click Here)

 

Could this topic be discussed within the joint party room?

 

PS As I type, PM Gillard has come on Radio National berating Ford for not developing export business. Cringing stuff!!   :-(   "

 

Well, this may well end up in WPBs but I have got it off my chest, which was therapeutic. But I do hope it might stimulate something. A final thought might be for government to encourage some J/V partnership with a 'can do' overseas source of money and manufacturing know how. Indian Zillionaire Mr Tata springs to mind  - he has done amazingly successful things with eg, Jaguar. (Remember, you read this here, first!!  :-)

 

Cheers al

 

Peter Spencer Update May 2013

by Ian Hampton

 

Since the High Court decision that ordered the matter to return to the Federal Court for the discovery of internal government documents, there has been approximately 4000 documents produced predominately from the Commonwealth and some from the State (NSW).

After the reading of these documents it has been found that there are documents that relate to some of the documents that have not been discovered, and some categories that have not been produced by either the Commonwealth and the State.

The Australian Government Solicitors (AGS) and the Crown (NSW Government) have refused to discover any more related docs and also the categories that have not been discovered.
 

Last Friday 17th May there was a directions hearing where the document categories in dispute were filed and a submission made outlining the reasons why these categories are relevant to Peter's case. Federal Court judge, Justice Cowdroy J will hear the case for further discovery at a Interlocutory Hearing next Thursday 30th May in Federal Court, Sydney 9.30 am.

 

Effectively Peter will be arguing the relevance to his case of the further discovery and the AGS and Crown will be arguing that the documents are not relevant and they have exhausted there resources.

 

At the directions hearing last week Justice Cowdroy J made it quite clear that after reviewing the history of the case that if the documents sought by Peter are relevant to his case and can be found, bthen they must hand them over.

The outcome of this hearing next week will be very interesting.

UPDATE # 1
Spencer v Commonwealth interlocutory hearing 30/5/2013
Please read details in the comment section below

Previous related discussions

Peter Spencer Update November 2012

Peter Spencer Update December 2012 

SPENCER GAINS GROUND IN FEDERAL COURT

 

Rural fire service – Malone review

Volunteers in the Rural fire service especially primary producer brigades in areas west of the Great Divide in Qld were more than a little cheesed off with how the service was run with an administration seemly out of touch with the needs and the realities of fighting fires in the bush.

Photo sourced RFBAQ article



They were frustrated by things like ordered equipment very slow to be delivered; an overstaffed head office but with essential regional offices being closed down; an increasing move to micro management of rural brigades from afar instead of playing a supportive role to efforts in the field; local experience and local knowledge not respected; inappropriate, highly structured emergency response procedures and little emphasis on preventive mitigation; panic suspension of permits very early in the fire season when it was ideal for cooler preventive burns; red tape such as criminal check being made on volunteers even those with long service medals; training courses that were next door to useless and ever increasing paperwork.

In my Hookswood Rd Fire post back in early December 2012, I wrote about how frustrated and angry many volunteers were at the farcical mismanagement by Qld Fire & Rescue of a fire north of Miles. I mentioned that on the day before attending this fire that I was at a public forum in Roma for an inquiry into the rural fire service. This was known as the Malone review headed by Ted Malone Assistant Minister for Emergency Volunteers. Mr Malone and his review team conducted 13 forums across the state and received 240 submissions before the Malone Review into Rural Fire Services in Queensland was written and released.

The Roma forum was well attended and there was appreciation for the insights that Injune landowner, Ray Klein, brought before the review team. Ray had a 20 year career in the Rural fire service; he ran the regional office in Roma before retiring from a paid position in the service to move back to the family farm at Injune and remaining active as a volunteer in his local brigade in the rural fire service.

Below is a scanned image of a letter to the editor by Ray Klein in Roma’s Western Star newspaper. Ray gives high praise to the Malone review calling it as “nothing less than exceptional with its accurate findings.”

Also supporting the Malone review as “one of the most important and positive steps” is the Rural Fire Brigades Association of Queensland. From the RFBAQ newsletter is this article, Malone Review of Rural Fire Service Queensland announced, which list the following facts it found amongst the 91 recommendations of the Malone review.

• All RFS District Offices will remain open
  (No District Office closures in Queensland, possibility of opening more)
• All RFS District Office staff positions will remain
  (all current DI, ATSO, BTSO & Admin staff positions will be retained)
• District Inspectors will now be empowered to support their brigades and volunteers
  (District delegations will be greatly increased with most decisions made locally)
• The RFSQ will be led by a Deputy Chief Officer, Rural Fire Service Queensland
  (the RFSQ will be a separate organisation from the Urban Fire Service)
• Brigades and volunteers will be able to access more and a wider range of training
  (including 4wd, truck licences, chainsaw, first aid and the ability for recognition of prior learning and including skills portability from SES and other volunteer services)
• Existing BSO’s will be attached to District Offices with flexibility to meet local needs
  (over time the role will be extended to all District Inspectors Offices with role flexibility identified against local needs)
• There will be 3 Regional Offices within the RFSQ
  (District delegations will be greatly increased with most decisions made locally)
• Equipment and trucks will be designed to meet local needs incorporating local volunteer knowledge and requirements
• Red tape reduction will see Volunteers and Brigades using simple, workable, reporting and financial forms and induction processes
• Command & control of incidents
  Vegetation fire in rural area – RFSQ
  Structural fire in rural area – Urban with RFSQ support
  Vegetation fire in urban area –Urban with RFSQ support if required
  Structural fire in urban area – Urban
• Brigades currently receiving a levy from council will continue to receive same
• Brigades currently not receiving a levy from council will be supported by council in pursuit of levy or support if requested
• Fit for duty will be overhauled
• PPE will be more readily available
  (complete overhaul of the supply chain)
• RFBAQ elected volunteer Representatives will sit on RFSQ staff selection panels
• RFSQ appliances will remain yellow
• Formation of Ministerial Advisory Council for RFS & SES Volunteers
• RFSQ develop and distribute a less formal uniform for Volunteers and Brigades

 

Previously Published related posts

Hookwood Rd Fire 

Preventive Burning  



A new year begins

 

REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Days 6 & 7

by Ian Hampton

Day 6 Sunday 19 May - Longreach to Winton

Snagged interview with Macca this morning, his sort of stuff I think, and anyhow Paul Watson had been “on” the show last Sunday, so Ian McNamara was already interested and knew we were around… Anyhow - all good PR for the event - hope this is maintained and actually builds up before we get back to Sydney in 3 weeks….
QANTAS Museum is next best aviation museum/cathedral to aviation after the Boeing Future of Flight Museum out of Chicago…. Outstanding and with no Government grants and only a little help from QANTAS who donated it to the Museum rather than on-selling to another airline like Aeroflot or something like that…. Some fantastic old machines, engines, turbo jets and turbo fans and a Boeing 707 and a Catalina and a beautiful old Avro and and…. I could spend al day there and then some… But this (in part) travelling road show has to move on, we have to report in and we need to stay in front of the “sweeper” Josh in the parts truck.
Brothers Boyd had solidarity and bonding session replacing busted diff in Keith’s 203 Van (real task for real men - II reckon), Lucy Robson-Boyd really proud of the 2 brothers….
Quick cruisey drive to Winton - only 180 km and now we are north of the Tropic of Capricorn… I.E. I reckon we are getting into the REAL Rerun rally…. Cruisey but lots of rad kill and bloody squabbling wheeling kites wheeling and “shouldering each other out” on the ground, and although they have outstanding aerobatic skills… Seems like they are desperate to get themselves smashed all over the front of charging Pugs and everywhere other vehicle… We crossed the real road train threshold sign this (western) side of Longreach… Now we are in the land of road trains… Truly impressive gargantuans of the road….

Day 7 Monday 20 May, Winton to Mount Isa

Not a difficult day 470 km from Winton to Mount Isa with stops at Kynuna, McKinlay, Cloncurry, a diversion to look at the remnants of Mary Kathleen township and on to the Isa….

Went for an early walk around Winton with Peter - good in the early morning freshness and the town coming to life… The galahs that we saw wheeling the night before with the last light lighting their underwings which evoked the John Williamson line “Galleries of pink galahs” are up and beginning to swirl into a day squadron, and these were somehow reprised by faded pink awnings on an old house.

Then all the Pugs lined up for a promotional photo shoot - primarily for the Matilda Country Tourist Park… This is a great place - practical, not expensive and charming… Then waved off by the fantastic Bush Poets from the night before… Out onto the road and stops at the above places…. think I liked the pub at Kynuna best - which effortlessly combines bar, accommodation, dining and coffee/tea. It seems that every town and establishment tries to claim a piece of the Waltzing Matilda story, I should do my own research….

The roads are mostly and fundamentally straight - so no challenge in the boy racing of last week, not drivers settled car into steady 100 km/hour gait which is effortless for the old thing.

Most interesting was diversion to the north to the abandoned and historic township - Mary Kathleen…. Can sense the town and the busy busy life that once went on from the streets, and concrete pads where the houses and the larger buildings once were and in the partial clearing of the trees, but there are plenty of them… I expect this was a pleasant town with shade in amongst the trees.

Navigator and driver both stuffed up leaving town and drove off down and old road heading west - sort of in parallel to the current highway…. Partly broken up bitumen and rock bits show that Maggie Bleu suspension definitely NOT up to the gravel sections planned for later in this run…. Priority work (after some home projects) will be (I think), rear suspension upgrade based on P403 coils and telescopic shock absorbers, then the front suspension - need to stiffen up the front shockers (which are shockers….)

Then approaching Mount Isa - how to describe thee bones rugged hills and such a range of colours - chocolate, blue (in the distance), faded purple… I thought of ancient dinosaur skeletons (which are also a local feature)

 

You can read all of Ian's posts in The Peugeot #53 Diaries

 

Previous related post

60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Day 1

 

.



In Defence of Carbon Dioxide.

How often do you hear about "carbon footprint" and "carbon pollution."

For example:

Use the most popular online carbon footprint calculator and it's free to use. Calculate CO2 emissions from Cars, Flights, Home and Public Transport.

Google "Carbon Pollution images"  and you will see deliberately deceptive images like:

From Think Progressive

Why do they lie? The carbon footprint purveyors know that they really mean carbon dioxide emissions and, surely, people using images like the one above MUST know that carbon dioxide is a clolourless gas. Carbon Dioxide is a vital to life plant food.

Remember the Australian Government's use of  similar  deceptive images in their  advertisement parodied by "Say Yes to an Election."

Harrison Schmitt, an adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was an Apollo 17 astronaut and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico has co-written an article with William Happer, a professor of physics at Princeton University and a former director of the office of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy titled:

In Defense of Carbon Dioxide

They start:

Of all of the world's chemical compounds, none has a worse reputation than carbon dioxide. Thanks to the single-minded demonization of this natural and essential atmospheric gas by advocates of government control of energy production, the conventional wisdom about carbon dioxide is that it is a dangerous pollutant. That's simply not the case. Contrary to what some would have us believe, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will benefit the increasing population on the planet by increasing agricultural productivity.

Image: Happer WSJ

 They discuss the stalling of global warming and the fact that atmospheric CO2 has previously been at much higher levels. Then continue:

Using energy from sunlight—together with the catalytic action of an ancient enzyme called rubisco, the most abundant protein on earth—plants convert carbon dioxide from the air into carbohydrates and other useful molecules. Rubisco catalyzes the attachment of a carbon-dioxide molecule to another five-carbon molecule to make two three-carbon molecules, which are subsequently converted into carbohydrates. (Since the useful product from the carbon dioxide capture consists of three-carbon molecules, plants that use this simple process are called C3 plants.) C3 plants, such as wheat, rice, soybeans, cotton and many forage crops, evolved when there was much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than today. So these agricultural staples are actually undernourished in carbon dioxide relative to their original design.  

At the current low levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, rubisco in C3 plants can be fooled into substituting oxygen molecules for carbon-dioxide molecules. But this substitution reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis, especially at high temperatures. To get around the problem, a small number of plants have evolved a way to enrich the carbon-dioxide concentration around the rubisco enzyme, and to suppress the oxygen concentration. Called C4 plants because they utilize a molecule with four carbons, plants that use this evolutionary trick include sugar cane, corn and other tropical plants.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal HERE.

60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Day 1

Yesterday Ian Hampton (a contributor on this site) completed Day 7 for an overnight stop in Mt Isa in the 60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. Celebrating the 1953 Redex Trial around Australia
Ian has been quiet on this site for some time because of the preparation of his 1950 Peugeot known as Maggie Bleu for this adventure.
With Ian's permission below is a cross post from Ian's The Peugeot #53 Diaries of Day 1.





Rally proper Day 1 - Maitland Airport to Inverell

Is it true that Wayne Swan brought down “his” (actually our) budget tonight. CORRECT answer - who gives a rat’s a****!!! His goose is well cooked anyhow, and up here in the real world of rallying in the north of NSW, we were doing much better things and enjoying it all immensely…

Simple framework - Rutherford Airport (just out of Maitland) to Tamworth to Inverell… Real story - great great countryside and some great enthusiastic driving.


Scenery keeps changing and that is a delight. - beautiful, lush and heavily vegetated Hunter Valley to the more open plains out here but lots of grass playing in the breeze and lit in all sorts of ways by the sun at different angles as it cycles around the sky, and by the effects of the clouds. Light intermittent rain early - Peugeot manual wipers - the only way to go.. When the wiper motor is stuffed anyhow. Also - wonderful old buildings in every town… All of that past skill, enterprise and hard work left as brick and stone “monuments”…

 But still in use and “alive”..But the real story is today’s driving and what you can really do in a Pug 203… These are great old cars… Those little engines are in no way powerful but they just “ask” you to drive them hard - we are not belting the crap out of them… But it is enthusiasm from the engines and the cars that just sit down and hold the road solidly and beautifully and us… Learnt a lot from watching Peter drive this afternoon… how to read what is over the crest of the hill by how the lines are as you approach the crest and when and how to keep the momentum going… Basically we are driving these things at around 100 - 105 km/hour (and even 110 - downhill), but we (anyhow - me) feels like a boy racer….

Really good dinner in town in Inverell and then a drink and talk talk with the Boyd clan… who are camping opposite… Geoff Boyd can be excruciatingly funny…

Tomorrow is Inverell to Dalby with some great events… Visit the Inverell transport museum and first competitive event - motorkhana… all new for me… And finish in Dalby (isn’t that Barnaby Joyce country?). Time to practice our “Ay’s” and other Queensland stuff…

Fix the Budget by Cutting Climate Waste

by Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the federal government to reduce the burden of the Climate Industry on all taxpayers and consumers. 

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the biggest national scandal today was how the whole government apparatus, including the nationalised research and media industries and parts of the opposition, was totally captive to a religious belief that a destructive war on carbon energy will somehow provide benefits to some future generation of Australians by cooling the climate and preventing extreme weather events.  

“This is a delusion.” 

Quote: 

It was the great Milton Friedman who said “There is only one tax on the people and that is government spending”.

 

Cutting expenditure, not re-arranging expenditure, must be the total focus of this budget. 

Cartoon by Paul Zanetti

 

 

 

And the first candidate for spending cuts must be the totally useless Climate Change Industry. 

Every department, program, research grant, travel grant or salary with climate, warming, carbon, sustainability, renewable, sequestration, clean coal, ethanol or IPCC in its title or mission statement should be abolished forthwith together with its staffing. This list must include but not be restricted to: 

• The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) and its dependants, saving about $3.2 billion.
•  
• The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, saving about $10 billion. 
•  
• The Emerging Renewables Program, saving about $126 million. 
•  
• The Clean Technology Innovation Program, saving about $200 million. 
•  
• Subsidies to Coal-fired electricity generators, saving about $5.5 billion. (This has to be the ultimate madness - the government levies a crippling carbon tax on coal-fired electricity generation to force them to close and then pays huge subsidies to the same generators to delay their closure). 
•  
• All Climate Change “Research” focussed on carbon dioxide, saving about $300 million. 
•  
• “Contracts for Closure” - payments to ensure closure of some electricity generators (unbelievable - surely the carbon tax will do this). 
•  
• The Coal Sector Jobs Package - payments to coal mines to offset the cost of the carbon tax- just abolish the tax.
•  
• Coal Sector Assistance Package - Subsidies to some Coal Mines (another stupidity - repaying some of the carbon tax they took in the first place). 
•  
• Everything funded under the Clean Energy Future Plan 
•  
• All renewable energy subsidies. 
•  
• The Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund. 
•  
• The Ethanol Production Grants Program – a subsidy per litre of ethanol produced. 
•  
• All climate change officials, lawyers, inspectors and auditors everywhere, maybe 13,000 of them saving, say, $2 billion per year. 
•  
• The offices of the Climate Commissioner and the Clean Energy Regulator – whatever they cost is wasted money. 
•  
• The whole Carbon Capture and Storage empire – The National Low Emissions Coal Initiative, the CCS Flagships Program, the National Carbon Dioxide Infrastructure Plan, and the Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. 
•  
• Support for all the International Climate Forums and Conferences via APEC, CEM, G20, IEA, IEF, IPEEC, IRENA, IPCC and all the travel costs associated with attendance. 
•  
• All handouts under the Green Precincts Fund - $15M spent to date. 
•  
• All government advertising, market research, media monitoring, media advisers and logo designers promoting the carbon tax, the Department of Climate Change, smart meters or other climate and green energy initiatives. 
•  
• Donations to Green Friends such as the Climate Institute, the Australian Conservation Council, Climate Works Australia, Green Cross Australia, and the ACTU - $3 million spent already. 
•  
• To “balance” all of these reduced expenditures the government must also abolish the carbon tax and all fuel taxes not related directly to public road usage and applied to road construction and maintenance. 

Note: The above list probably includes errors, double counting and omissions, but such is the confusion and proliferation of the alphabet soup of what poses as “Climate Policy” that it is doubtful if anyone could prepare an accurate and comprehensive list. The only feasible solution is to start cutting, biggest first. None of them will be missed, except with relief by taxpayers and consumers.

 

 

Viv Forbes,

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition

www.carbon-sense.com