Stopping Adani mine would pose no 'sovereign risk' to Australia, says economist Saul Eslake

Stopping the Adani coal mine would pose no "sovereign risk" to Australia, and politicians on both sides have willingly misled people into thinking otherwise, says respected economist Saul Eslake.

"Sovereign risk is not the risk a government might change
 its mind or make a decision I don't like": economist Saul Eslake.

The former chief economist of ANZ told Fairfax Media the major parties were "abusing the term" for political gain when in fact there had been no impact on Australia's sovereign rating as a result of decisions taken on environmental grounds.

In a paper commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation, Mr Eslake found there was "absolutely no reason" the country's sovereign risk would be affected if a future government stopped the Adani mine proceeding for environmental reasons.

Read Michael Koziol’s story from The Age - “Stopping Adani mine would pose no 'sovereign risk' to Australia, says economist Saul Eslake."

A ray of hope in the fight against unsustainable logging

Last week's injunction granted by the Federal Court stopping VicForests from logging certain areas in the Central Highlands until a court hearing next year is a ray of hope for those seeking an ecologically sustainable approach to native forest logging.

Mountain Ash forest.

The case – brought by Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum – is based on the failure by VicForests to abide by the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014, the regulations governing timber harvesting.

Yet the regulatory breaches cited to the court only scratch the surface. The Rubicon Forest Protection Group presented evidence to the current review of Victorian Regional Forest Agreements showing clear-felled areas far larger than permitted; blackberries rampant and unchecked; washouts on steep slopes that should not have been logged; the popular Rubicon Historic Area logged; tourist roads left with no buffers; retained trees killed in regeneration burns; springs and ephemeral watercourses logged and silted.

Read the story from The Age by Nick Legge - “A ray of hope in the fight against unsustainable logging.”

‘The Franklin would be dammed today': Australia's shrinking environmental protections

What if the Franklin river hadn’t been saved?

Mass civil disobedience saved Tasmania's Franklin
River - it might not have fared so well today.

Stopping the Gordon-below-Franklin dam was one of the Australian environment movement’s great victories: in the late 1970s, the state-owned Hydro-Electric Commission wanted to flood one of three last temperate rainforests in the southern hemisphere to create a power station.

About 33km of the Franklin, a pristine wild river home to breathtaking ravines and rapids, and surrounded by untouched Huon pine and myrtle beech forest, would have drowned. After years of heated debate, pro-dam Liberal Robin Gray took power in 1982 and passed legislation allowing construction to begin. What happened from there was partly down to luck and timing, but could not have been achieved without one of Australia’s most successful acts of mass civil disobedience.

Read Lenore Taylor’s story from The Guardian - “‘The Franklin would be dammed today': Australia's shrinking environmental protections.”

Malcolm Turnbull's former chief of staff to be new energy 'tsar' under alternative to Clean Energy Target

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's trusted adviser and former chief of staff Drew Clarke will take a key role stopping electricity rip-offs of Australians, the ABC can reveal.

The PM has picked one of his key advisers on energy for the new role.

Mr Clarke, a former secretary of the Resources Department and a key adviser to the PM on energy in recent months, will become chairman of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

The ABC understands he is expected to use the role to drive for rule changes to the electricity market, including targeting pipeline owners who have been found by the competition watchdog using "monopoly prices" to transport gas.

Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that a large number of pipeline operators had been setting higher prices for domestic access because they were largely unconstrained by regulation.

Read the ABC News story - “Malcolm Turnbull's former chief of staff to be new energy 'tsar' under alternative to Clean Energy Target.”