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the politics of energy in Australia

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What you have to understand about the current energy debate happening are the politics of energy in Australia. Renewables offer a largely free energy source from the sun and wind with battery storage to cover when the sun goes down overnight. We are in the midst of this transition with renewables powering around 40% of Australia’s electricity supply. This is growing as we speak.

“Key statistics from the Clean Energy Australia 2024 report:Continue Reading

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Free School Athens Raphael image

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Oligarchies have been around for a very long time in modern terms. The word itself comes from the ancient Greeks, like many of our words for social structures and types of government. What can we do about the oligarchs? Oligarchy versus democracy was first billed as a clash of governing systems some 3 millennia ago in Athens. The original Greek oligarchies were based on class and wealth, as the two most often went hand in hand. Democracy came about as a means to break the grip of noble families on governing Athens, the city state. This new expansionary form of government spread to other Greek city states.Continue Reading

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white bus on road near in high rise building during daytime

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Do you know who is driving the bus? By this I mean, who is leading our societies and who is making the important decisions that we all follow? It is not the obvious candidates and by this I refer to the politicians. Business leaders make the decisions which effect our lives and livelihoods. These profit driven CEOs are laser focused on the bottom line for their companies and shareholders. A major shift has occurred over the last 35 years, where workers and consumers have been shunted to the back of the queue and shareholders have become everything to companies under the guidance of their boards and CEOs.Continue Reading

close up of solar panels on a roof of a house

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Professor Martin Green and his team from UNSW developed Passive Emitter & Rear Cell (PERC) technology, which graces the billions of solar panels transforming the energy grids around the world. Australian science paved the way for the solar revolution. A solar revolution has been happening globally and it is only going to get even bigger. Despite this Peter Dutton has nothing good to say about solar power in Australia. New Corp, who owns much of the media in this country, likewise, rarely, if ever, has anything positive or even balanced to say about solar and renewable energy in Australia. This strikes me as unAustralian. I wonder why the LNP Coalition and Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and networks are in lockstep over deriding free energy from the sun? Could it be ideological? Indeed, could it, also, be about propping up the fossil fuel sector, and all those multinationals? Those campaign donors and mates in the neoliberal boys club, which likes to think it runs Australia?Continue Reading

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Post Office Postbox

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Many folk have been following the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry and many more have watched the Mister Bates vs The Post Office drama screened on TV. It is an emotive set of circumstances and an injustice on a grand scale. It, also, presages future issues with AI taking over the lives of workers and people, more generally. Computer trouble on the Horizon: Post Office scandal. It rang true for me and captured my interest as soon as it was brought to my attention. Possibly because I grew up in a small family business with a sub branch of the Post Office contained within it.Continue Reading

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Stoicism: above, suicide Seneca; middle

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I could begin with a brief history lesson about Stoicism but this is not the essence of it. Being Stoic: What is it? Doing stuff you don’t want to do but know that you have to do anyway. The expression ‘soldiering on,’ invariably comes to mind, as soldiers have to do a lot of shitty things they really would rather not. Duty is a big one for Stoics. Virtue, even, more so. WTF is virtue anyway? It is a word, which has not stood the test of time. It exists as an anachronism, a term draped in cobwebs and an echo from the ancient world. This is old stuff and does it truly having any bearing on our lives today?Continue Reading

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man in blue denim vest and black cap sitting on brown wooden chair

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Democrats in America are scratching their heads over Trump’s victory in the recent presidential election. Soul searching is going on, as to how they lost this contest. Democratic elections are popularity contests. They are part evaluations, part bribery, and mirrors held up to societies. Op eds are being written about the role of working class America in the outcome. Chasing this vote is problematic in my view. Why appealing to white working class folk is a race to the bottom? Demagogues, like Donald Trump, falsely court this vote and pretend to champion their grievances. Trump did not deliver for them the first time around and will not again. It is a cynical game and losers always lose out in the end.Continue Reading

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usa flag waving on white metal pole

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The pundits say you should always back the horse called ‘self-interest’ in any race. Donald Trump franked this adage once again in the US Presidential contest over Kamala Harris. A convicted felon who mishandled a global pandemic appallingly, when he was last President, Donald Trump was re-elected to the White House. Trump had plenty to lose if he lost, in terms of numerous upcoming criminal trials and the very real prospect of going to jail. ‘The man was motivated,’ as they say on the street. Self-interest is trending in America. The Trump campaign stitched up every deal and sold every favour they possibly could. Elon Musk was literally jumping up and down for Trump.Continue Reading