Author Archive: roman

Greens demands for supporting a minority Labor government…

roman May 18, 2022

Greens leader Adam Bandt, released a $173bn balance-of-power wishlist at the party’s campaign launch on Monday night, outlining seven key concessions it wants from Labor in the event of a minority government.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has ruled out doing any deals with the Greens to form government, while Bandt has said the party will not support the Liberals under any circumstance.

But the Greens are preparing their list of key demands for Labor in the event that it falls short of the 76 seats it needs to form majority government, with the party confident of winning at least one seat in Queensland to give it two lower house MPs.

The party’s seven key demands are: no new coal and gas; dental and mental health into Medicare; building 1m affordable homes and better renters’ rights; free childcare; wiping student debt; lifting income support; and progress on all elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.

More details: “Adam Bandt outlines seven demands for Labor in Greens’ balance-of-power wishlist”, Sarah Martin, The Guardian.

Climate, Old_Notes

“We must wean ourselves off fossil fuels”

roman May 18, 2022

Joshua S Hill, reports on the NZ climate plan:

New Zealand’s Labour government announced on Monday [may 16th] its “landmark” Emissions Reduction Plan which is designed to set the country on a pathway to meet its 2050 net-zero targets.

The Emissions Reduction Plan targets climate strategies across a range of sectors including transport, energy, waste, building and construction, and agriculture and forestry.

The multi-sector strategy is designed to meet emissions budgets while improving the ability of those relevant sectors to adapt to the effects of climate change.

[…] the Emissions Reduction Plan includes the launch of the Clean Car Upgrade program, which provides targeted assistance to lower- and middle-income households for the uptake of low-emission vehicles.

The EV subsidies are part of $NZ1.2 billion worth of transport sector-specific investments, which also include $NZ350 million for public transport, cycling, and pedestrian access, and an EV leasing scheme trial for low-income families.

The larger Emissions Reduction Plan also includes just over $NZ650 million to decarbonise industry over the next four years.

There is also a further $NZ18 million to fund the development of an energy strategy, a regulatory framework for offshore renewable energy, and a roadmap for the development and use of hydrogen.

On a larger scale, approximately $NZ1 billion will be spent over seven years to decarbonise industry
— more details at “We must wean ourselves off fossil fuels:” New Zealand launches “landmark” climate plan, reneweconomy.com.au

Clean Futures, Climate, Old_Notes

Ambitious plan to make Paris a 100% cycling city by 2026

roman May 6, 2022

The French capital will continue its transformation into a sustainable cycling superpower with a new phase of the Paris Plan Velo that boasts an increased budget of €250 million.

The new Plan Velo 2021-2026 is set to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic cycling boom that has seen a seismic shift towards active mobility by Parisians. The increased funding will be channelled along several different lines with the common objective of reducing motorised traffic in the city and encouraging cycling, walking and public transport as the new normal.

Local cycling NGO and member of FUB (Federacion francaise des usagers de la bicylette) Paris en Selle explains that “one of the main objectives of the Plan Vélo is to complete the Parisian primary cycling network by the end of the mandate [of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo] in 2026. This ambitious objective is in line with our demands and, if attained, would make Paris a city where everyone, including children, will be able to cycle safely during their daily commute.”

Paris Deputy Mayor David Belliard, in charge of the transformation of public space and transport, announced that the main component of the plan would be 180km of new segregated two-way cycle lanes are due to be constructed, 50km of which are “coronapistes” (temporary pandemic-related infrastructure) that will become permanent features of the cycle lane network.

Segregated infrastructure is the most effective way of reducing new bicycle user hesitancy and is considered the gold standard when it comes to safer everyday cycling. During the previous election cycle, pro-cycling politicians advocated for a cycling equivalent of the metro system through the construction of a Vélopolitain network made up of so-called surface lines specifically for cycling.
More: Ben Luoma, ECF “Ambitious plan to make Paris a 100% cycling city by 2026”

Old_Notes, Transport

Housing Crisis Requires Nordic Policy Solutions

roman May 6, 2022

From the Australia Institute, Nordic Policy Centre

The key driver of Australia’s acute housing affordability crisis is its over-reliance on just two housing options – private home ownership and private renting.New research from the Australia Institute’s Nordic Policy Centre shows that Nordic countries have a wider repertoire of policies, and Australia can learn from policies that are already in practice in Nordic countries.
Key Findings:

In Australia, the proportion of social housing is estimated to have fallen from over 7% of all housing in Australia in the early 1990s down to just 4% in 2019. That proportion needs now to be ramped up to double digits.

In Sweden, public housing is more than triple the proportion it is in Australia. Sweden’s housing co-operatives amount to 22% of the total housing stock, while in Norway this figure is 15% nation-wide, but 40% in the capital, Oslo.

Sweden, Norway and Denmark also have extensive co-ownership whereby individuals own, use, and control their own dwellings but shared spaces and property are owned jointly and managed collectively with neighbouring members of a housing co-operative, which improves affordability.

Finland’s ‘Finnish Housing First Principle’ views housing as a prerequisite that will enable solving a homeless person’s social and health problems, not the other way round.

Coupled with the nation’s belief in the notion that people have a right to decent housing and useful social services, this has seen an impressive reduction in homelessness and the current government has a policy to eliminate homelessness by 2027.

Finland currently has less than one homeless person per 1,000 people, compared to Australia’s nearly five homeless people per 1,000 people.

“If we are to have any hope of tackling Australia’s housing affordability crisis, policymakers must stop favouring investors over tenants and shift the priority in housing policy to supporting low- and middle-income earners who simply want a secure place to live,” said Professor Andrew Scott, convenor of the Australia Institute’s Nordic Policy Centre.

FoE

Pine Gap’s role in China–US arms race makes Australia a target

roman April 23, 2022

Some idea of the growing importance of Pine Gap to the US is given by its extraordinary growth. Initially, it was a ground station for a single satellite to gather what’s called signals intelligence while orbiting 36,000 kilometres above Earth. There are now at least four much more powerful satellites connected to the base. Their antennas automatically intercept everything transmitted within their frequency range. This includes a huge array of electronic signals for intelligence analysis, including text messages, emails, phone calls and much more. In addition, ground-based antennas at Pine Gap and other Australian sites intercept a vast volume of information transmitted via commercial satellites.

Pine Gap’s own satellites also intercept signals from radars and weapon systems, such as surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, fighter planes, drones and space vehicles, along with other military and civilian communications. From Pine Gap, a vast volume of military data is fed into the US war fighting machine in real time.

Pine Gap operates in conjunction with similar intercept satellites linked to a base at Menwith Hill in England. Their use in directing botched drone strikes that have killed a large number of civilians has been highly contentious in England. The combined coverage of the two bases includes the former Soviet Union, China, South-East Asia, east Asia, the Middle East, eastern Europe and the Atlantic landmass.

[…] Together, this access to signals and infrared intelligence, and its location in relation to China, gives Pine Gap a crucial role in US plans for fighting wars in space. This capability will be improved by a new space-based detection and tracking system called Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR).

On April 6 the AUKUS pact leaders – Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison and Joe Biden – announced they would develop hypersonic missiles and subsurface robots after earlier promising to provide Australia with nuclear attack submarines starting from about 2040.