You can't exactly fire someone who doesn't work for you.

Tried to block alongside the libs the West gate tunnel. Next day a truck accident caused a standstill and it got reinstated.  They want to ban all petrol and diesel cars and trucks by 2030. As a truckie that is moronic. Also wanting  to ban duck hunting.  The fact they have no clear policies makes me sick I supported them once

The West Gate tunnel has been criticised by experts and just gives more money to Transurban with little benefits for commuters. It's ironic that the Andrews government is going ahead with the project since one of the key reasons Andrews was elected was his promise to cancel the East-West link which was also criticised by the experts.

Petrol and diesel cars contribute to global warming and the ban is only for sales of new cars. Also electric powered trucks are on the way.

As for duck hunting there seems to be some good evidence against it: https://greens.org.au/initiatives/vic/end-duck-shooting <---- also a clear policy by the greens

Yeah lots jumping on the petrol car ban bandwagon without reading the details. Australia did something similar to phase out 'super' petrol back when I was younger ... (or more recent the phase out of analogue TV's). Also why they do this is so that A. more electric cars are produced now, so that way in 12 years time there are "old" cars on the market to buy too B. allows for car companies to set a future direction, that is put their efforts into new technologies that makes them cheaper, more reliable and durable (I believe it was Energy Australia CEO last year who took out a full page ad in national newspapers calling on the federal govt to make a policy on renewable energy, so that way the companies could have some security in moving forward ... as most energy companies are looking at renewable energy instead of rebuilding coal plants, but need govt reassurance that they have some vision along this line too). Setting a policy on sale of petrol cars in 12 years times would give companies a clear direction and strategy to work towards (might even mean manufacturing jobs are retained in Australia, might even create an export market from Australia if we become a major producer of electric/alt energy cars / solar panels / energy).

In regards to trucks I am pretty sure all buses in Perth run on gas (still not ideal but better than petrol / diesel). Also be interesting to know if the policy would include commercial based vehicles for diesel ... sometimes details such as those are given longer to run given the investment, reimbursements, loans etc.

lol the Libs took SA.

Topsy turvy.

-PB

Boundaries were redrawn so Labor needed a 3% swing to hold power. Managed to get 1.6-ish% swing. The fact that a 16 year government can do that is a pretty big indictment on the Liberal party.

Back to sleepy old Adelaide for 4 years...

In surprising news, Labor managed to retain the seat of Batman at the byelection. Turns out it was actually David Feeney supressing labor’s primary vote there.

Greens must be pissed off they didn’t get it.

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/17/batman-byelection-labor-declares-victory-for-ged-kearney

Di natale  is pissed . He is blaming internal divisions  in the greens 😀😁😂. That and he over  reached on issues that didnt effect the electorate of Batman  like adani.or the banning of all petrol and diesel cars and trucks and the fact the greens called another electorates  voters idiots for the labour party which  di natale didnt retract then .

I support the phasing out of petrol cars providing we have a mostly renewable grid that can a) sustain current levels out output and two 2) cope with surcharge demand. Our existing grid cannot even cope with peak usage (hi South Australia) so how the hell are we meant to be able to increase usage to power cars? 

I attended a science/engineering seminar on Wednesday regarding electricity. Seems people are fine with gas as it's cleaner than diesel/petrol but not ok at all with how we get it. There are no 'cleaner' ways to drill and extract gas. Technology hasn't really changed all that much since the 60's other than computerisation and the sensitivity of monitoring data. 

A lot of smaller QLD communities are getting massive solar investment which is awesome but my 2 cents is that every new home built in Australia should have solar panels. That will reduce demand on the grid and allow us to transition to electric cars a bit easier. 

I had a good laugh with old Billy Shorten going up to north QLD in a hard hat and talking about how Labor support coal miners and then heading to inner city Melbourne without his tie and talking up Labor's commitment to stopping the mine. Which one was it? haha

Di Natale will always have a hard job balancing moderate politics with the environmentalist/activist side of the Greens. 

South Australia is a basket case. Doesn't it seem a little strange that the sitting government gets a 1.6% swing towards it and loses the election?
That is some hard core gerrymandering.

Additional panels on homes is only OK if the installations are in tandem with either on-site batteries or off-site batteries.  At the moment most powered is generated during the day when it is least needed.  There are already areas where you can not put your power back into the grid due to network constraints and oversupply.

So yes, putting panels on roofs is good but not without other measures in place.

Personally I'm getting a Tesla wall or an equivalent when I get this bloody house built and Origin or whoever can go fuck them themselves.  So looking forward to that day.

Absolutely true. The whole network would need an overhaul. We have Energex transformers all over parks these days. I do not know how big a battery storage facility would be but surely we could do the same? 

Question for you energy experts. Have the past and current governments been terrible and slow to act on renewable energy? It's seems like they've done all they can to keep the coal industry strong, even when it is feasible to switch over to renewable sources. I remember glancing at some article that said Australia could have been a leading power in renewables or something like that a few years ago.

Personal opinion and that from people who conduct seminars I attend is that the government has sacrificed renewables to keep coal running strong for 'jobs and growth'. 

If you look at countries like the Czech Republic with its relatively poor currency and their fields of solar, if they can do it in an emerging economy, we should be able to do it. 

It was brought in to stop gerrymandering. SA had a ridiculous gerrymander for over 30 years that guaranteed the Liberals won all but one election in that time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playmander

SA isn't a basketcase, the previous state government did a lot of good work to progress the state and the fruits of it were starting to come through with significant global investment in future tech.  However, with the current mob I think we very well could be within a year. Hope I'm wrong on this...

I always thought a more decentralised energy infrastructure system would be the way to go with renewable. That is, do we need to have large state wide networks providing all our energy needs??

The whole bet with Elon Musk for that battery storage unit was great publicity for the government. 

Possibly. The problem is and always will be supply and demand in different places. So if supply in one spot is down, with decentralized networks you cant move it as easily. Needs more research I think. 

No, definitely not gerrymandering. It happened because at the last election the Liberals won the 2PP vote 53-47 and still lost the election. So the electoral commission under the fairness clause that was in place in SA, redrew the seat boundaries dramatically to try and make it so the side with the most votes on 2PP won the election. It seems to have been a huge success, the Liberals have won the 2PP by something like 51.5 - 48.5 and look to have gained a small majority. Given two seats which would normally go to the Liberals have been won by independents, and one likewise on the Labor side, it is effectively 28 -19 or 27-20. This is depending on which side wins the only seat in much doubt, but it seems about right for such a margin on 2PP. 
Now there is no fairness clause, it was removed on the last sitting day before the election, it will be interesting to see if any redistribution happens before the next election.

Fair enough. South Australian elections used to be worse (this honestly amazes me).
I was shocked at the previous election result where the Libs receive 53% of the TPP and couldn't get enough seats to win. I could understand this happening ie winning without the popular vote if the election results were close but to have a 6% lead and still lose seems shady.

In any case, thanks for the link. I had never heard of Playmandering before. Something interesting to read whilst I procrastinate at work.

It happens when a party makes gains in seats it already held and not in other places. Also helps when rural seats have 70-80% 2pp to you as well, though we're a highly urbanised state so not the main factor.

The redistribution law, while having the right intentions doesn't really work in practice so I'm glad they scrapped it. Makes it much more straightforward to work out what's needed to be done next election

They still gonna do that gigalink business in the CBD?

-PB

lol sounds like the Libs are looking to scrap the Tesla virtual power plant already.

-PB

Good.  It's certifiably fucking insane that a country as energy rich as Australia needs something like this.  

Energy rich?

We are rich in sunshine hours that's for sure.

-PB

Why not? It's so much better for the environment. 

Who knows. Liberals suffer badly from "Not invented here" syndrome.

The plan was to extend it north south beyond the CBD and also open it up to residential users too. The backbone is already there as it links the universities here (managed by SABRENet). It was a truly great plan that would have further encouraged innovative industries here but oh well.

I have some hope that it'll still go ahead in some form. The contract for the first 1,100 homes was already signed and Marshall said it'd be honoured. The rest of it was dependent on private investment so fingers crossed.

Their $100 million plan to subsidise batteries in homes isn't terrible but it does benefit people who can afford it the most which is classic Liberal party.

Somewhat global events, somewhat Australian Politics. We've had Dutton come out and say we will help white South African farmers. I have no issue with this providing they are treated the same as everyone else. 

Seeing the virtual signalling from certain groups is rather concerning. I mean read the ABC news comments, some are beyond embarrassing. We could see a reverse apartheid against a minority with land resumption without compensation (Whites are about 10% of the population) and yet the colour of their skin seems to invalidate their suffering somehow.