Just a couple of hours after playing up for the cameras, both Frydenberg and Husic had their game faces on for Sky News.

Frydenberg said the government was doing the only responsible thing, in talking to AGL about keeping its Liddell coal-fired power station open beyond 2022, given what he said were the energy market operator’s warnings about supply reliability.

Bill Shorten, or Blackout Bill, says this is an issue for down the track. We take AEMO’s words at face value and are working urgently to ensure there is no supply shortfall.

We have already seen a press release from Delta Electricity, which owns Vales Point, which has said it is prepared to do due diligence on the asset. AGL have certainly not been public in saying the asset is for sale. When that, if that was to occur, then no doubt you would see parties announce that they were interested.

Husic appeared in the studio just after to set out Labor’s attack lines for the day.

I think it is important to note that Malcolm Turnbull has overtaken Tony Abbott for the amount of time spent in the top job and he has ended up looking more like the bloke he replaced, every day. Malcolm Turnbull was the bloke who crossed the floor of parliament to support an energy approach he is fighting right now.

So instead of actually thinking how to generate more energy and cleaner, he’s continually doing a throwback to the past, committing huge amount of government funds to generate energy in a way that is not as efficient as we could be.

For those keeping count, Tony Abbott famously resigned by fax on 15 September 2015, the day after the leadership spill, an anniversary we are rapidly approaching.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/sep/13/government-b...

Congratulations Australia. Two years have passed without a leadership coup being launched against a sitting prime minister. In our unhinged system, that level of stability is a genuine achievement.

So, hooray for #auspol. Except the voters are still ropeable, and politics doesn’t feel all that stable, does it?

Old debates churn round in enervating circles, deeply silly business persists, and one of Malcolm Turnbull’s rewards for surviving two years in the top job was a harrowing account of Tony Abbott’s wounding and scarring exit from the prime ministership “at the height of his political career” in the Daily Telegraph on Friday.

Poor old Tony (the paper’s political editor, Sharri Markson, noted by way of exposition) didn’t like talking about his emotions, “like most men”.

But given opportunity, Wronged Tony™ rose nimbly to the occasion.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/15/sound-and-fury-si...

I wish Tony Abbott the great deceiver, liar and disbeliever of planetary truths would disappear in the sunset. This would stop me from using bad words...

Any attempt by the Turnbull government to weaponise the competition regulator to force or even threaten energy giant AGL into splitting its power generation and retail power businesses would be a serious case of overreach.

It's far too convenient for the government to seize on comments from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the vertically integrated nature of power companies like AGL is responsible for the energy supply and pricing crisis.

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/energy/agl-turns-into-australias-most-mon...

AGL bought the NSW LIBERAL (CONservative) government's "assets" (OUR PUBLIC ASSET) in good faith. We were against the sale at the time knowing what was coming next which is now coming to roost: the Turdy Malcolm LIBERAL (CONservative) government is blaming AGL for making a buck in a market which is shifting towards RENEWABLES that the turdy Malcolm government does not like.... Hello? If I say fucking LIBERAL (CONservative) idiots, please god, forgive me for the sin I don't believe in since they deserve a boot up the arse for being loonies.

Meanwhile in Tassie:

The modest attendance at a Hobart Town Hall event last week belied the significance of the occasion: the launch of a major new community bulk-buying program for energy-efficient products and services.

Residents in all southern Tasmanian municipalities – Derwent Valley to Glamorgan-Spring Bay, Central Highlands to Huon Valley – are now eligible to join a bulk-buy of heat pumps, insulation, low-wattage lighting, rooftop solar panels and energy-efficient hot water systems.

With bulk buying’s economies of scale combined with the state government’s $10 million Tasmanian Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme (TEELS), announced earlier this year, this is an unprecedented offer to households and businesses to join the battle for a more sustainable future.

Ahead of last week’s launch the authority’s chair, Hobart Lord Mayor Sue Hickey, said it aimed to make emission reduction cheaper and easier. “We wanted to help home-owners reduce their energy use and we knew if enough homes did this there would be a big sustainability benefit,” she said.

Bulk buying was behind an earlier arrangement between Sustainable Living Tasmania (SLT) and Tasmania’s venerable No-Interest Loans Scheme, or NILS, adding bulk-buying advantages to NILS subsidies enabling households to buy and install energy-saving hot water and space heating.

Now the idea has returned bigger and better than ever. Home Energy Bulk Buy is a partnership between SLT and the Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority, representing local government across all of southern Tasmania.

SLT executive officer Todd Houstein is enthusiastic about its prospects given the large range of products and services on offer and the many organisations behind it.

read more:

http://southwind.com.au/2017/09/12/going-where-governments-fear-to-tread/

Asked whether he would support an attempt by Mr Turnbull to legislate for a clean-energy target, Mr Abbott replied: "It would be unconscionable, I underline that word unconscionable, for a government that was originally elected promising to abolish the carbon tax and end Labor's climate change obsessions to go further down the renewables path," he said.

The Turnbull government has a one-seat majority in Parliament, underscoring the potential of Mr Abbott's threat to do real damage to the government.

In an opinion piece published in News Corp on Wednesday, Mr Abbott backed up his threats with the observation: "this is where the Liberal and National backbench might need to save the government from itself".

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-critic...

At this stage, Tony Abbott the Turd, with views that are irrelevant and false for the 21st century, is annoying beyond the ridiculously stupid. Meanwhile Tony Turnbull is gnawing ever so slowly at weak targets in regard to emissions of CO2, while appearing to move towards renewables which he is not. So the Abbutt-Turdbull scissors is designed to confuse you. Throw this mob out by whatever means... Ah I know considering that the Liberals (CONservatives) have no moral compass, it is difficult to use the cons, the corruption, the fiddles that would have made anyone else leave parliament. 

After warming his vocal cords for months, Abbott now says it would be “unconscionable” for Malcolm Turnbull to “go further down the renewables path”. By this he means implement a clean energy target.

Let’s be very clear about this.

What is actually unconscionable, and I don’t invoke the word lightly, is Abbott’s own behaviour.

Let’s also be very clear about what is happening right now.

Abbott wants to lead an insurgency with the aim of sinking Malcolm Turnbull’s climate and energy policy, which is now, and has always been, a proxy for his leadership.

Like an armchair general summoning a militia, using his favoured media proxies as loud hailers, the former prime minister has seeded a story that he might cross the floor.

If he does cross the floor (as opposed to threatening to, in order to pressure Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg into producing the most coal-friendly energy policy imaginable over the next few weeks), with a posse of sharpshooters (Craig Kelly, potentially; George Christensen, who is already on the record as a no vote; a handful of others) it doesn’t mean the policy is dead.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/20/a-clean-energy-ta...

In some countries they burn turds for heating... Time for us to burn ours...

From where he sits now, it feels more like life-and-death after his flying start in 2015 was squandered trying to cuddle up to party room recalcitrants.

Eyeing the possibility of a 2018 electoral recovery, Turnbull seeks not only to rise above the usual background noise of personalities and events, but in his particular case, the echo of the big bang that saw him displace Abbott.

In theory, Abbott's mercurial behaviour should provide a counterpoint to Turnbull's centrism.

In practice however, the former's startling post-leadership campaigns against same sex marriage and his own renewable energy target, and Turnbull's reluctance to stake his leadership on either, has simply reinforced the sense that one has purpose and the other, the prime ministership.

It is no accident that these are the two totemic issues for which Turnbull was most recognised in the community. Abbott et al have ensured he is neutered on both.

Last week, it was noted that Turnbull had taken to "firing off Abbott-like taunts" such as "Black-out Bill".

Abbott's response was typically shameless: to praise Turnbull for finally getting the rhetoric right, while demanding a pro-coal "reliable" energy target.

He has since labelled "unconscionable" Turnbull's clean energy target approach, suggesting rebellion, if pursued.

One message is loud and clear: Turnbull will never be conservative enough for his nemesis.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/big-bang-theory...

Even in today's often bizarre political environment, Tuesday night's encounter between Tony Abbott, Peta Credlin and Alan Jones on Sky News was surreal.

Ms Credlin, Mr Abbott's former chief of staff, now works for Sky, where she more often than not is a sharp critic of the Turnbull Government. Jones, a highly opinionated voice on 2GB who has a weekly Sky program, spruiks for the former prime minister's return to the leadership.

Mr Abbott is running a jihad against renewables, increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the Government struggles to bring together an energy policy.

It was a cosy threesome, and the off-air chit-chat would have been gold...

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/tony-abbotts-anti-renewable-energy...

Michelle Grattan asks "when will Abbott stop his disruption"... It's easy: NEVER (unless he is run over by a bus) !

Growing global momentum to protect the world’s oceans from overfishing could be undermined by Australia, warns renowned conservationist David Suzuki and more than 1,461 other scientists.

Australia is currently considering the world’s biggest downgrading of a protected area with a reduction in the size of its network of marine reserves.

“If Australia does something progressive in 2012, and then walks back from that, what the hell are we going to expect [from] international cooperation?” said Suzuki, who described the move as “sickening”.

In 2012 the Australian government created what was then the world’s largest network of marine reserves. The move followed years of consultation, and despite limited protection for the most biodiverse coastal areas, it was welcomed by environmental groups.

...

In contrast, the Australian government recently announced draft plans to reduce by 40% the amount of its marine parks that are “no-take” fishing or construction zones.

According to WWF-Australia, that would represent the world’s largest downgrading of protected areas on record. More than 433,000 sq km would be downgraded to allow commercial fishing – more than half of that in the Coral Sea marine park, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the few remaining large parts of the Pacific Ocean still in good health.

Australian waters contain rich biodiversity ranging from the tropics to Antarctica. A statement signed by Suzuki and 1,461 scientists described these waters as a “global asset” and called on the government to increase protections.

“They support six of the seven known species of marine turtles and more than half of the world’s whale and dolphin species. Australia’s oceans are home to more than 20% of the world’s fish species and are a hot spot of marine endemism. By properly protecting them, Australia will be supporting the maintenance of our global ocean heritage,” the statement said.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/27/david-suzuki-austral...

Why would the Turdshitt government do things like this? recreational fishooes? professional harvestors? for fun? To annoy the shit out of us? And we thought the guy Malcolmus was smarter than a gold-fish in a glass jar... Idiot!

It is not a welcome sight for school holidaymakers on the NSW north coast, but an "exciting phenomenon" of baitfish coming right to shore has brought 100 sharks in tow.

A huge school of fish swimming from Seal Rocks to Nine Mile Beach, Tuncurry, is being followed by a wide variety of marine life, and local commercial fishers say they have not seen anything like it in 15 years.

Great whites, bull sharks, whaler sharks, dolphins, Brydes whales and big numbers of sea birds have been stalking the group which is unusually close to shore.

However the reason they have come so far in is still a mystery at this stage.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/sharks-come-into-shore-to-chase-ma...

Two things: 

warmer waters (global warming) and sanctuaries (protection for wildlife)... would this solve the mystery so far?...

Allocating $122m from a special fund to pay for the marriage law postal survey was lawful because the government reasonably considered it “urgent” and “unforeseen”, the high court has held.

On Thursday the court released the reasons for its unanimous decision on 7 September to dismiss two challenges to the postal survey, in which it accepted the government’s case the expenditure was unforeseen at the time of the May budget because the postal survey did not become policy until early August.

The case preserves the government’s broad discretion to use the finance minister’s advance for expenditure the minister believes is “urgent” and “unforeseen”, rejecting the imposition of extra legislative oversight on spending between budget cycles.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/28/high-court-accept...

This of course is rubbish from the high court for the single reason that the government is refusing to do the work it is paid for:  MAKE DECISIONS. The government should have sacked itself if Malcolm had the guts which he does not have... There were of course alternative available to the government — AND we have to consider that THIS SURVEY IS NOT BINDING IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM to the morons in government. Thus the exercise was a massive waste of money. The Government could have bought the result of this "survey" from one of the reliable survey professionals for the price of a slice of bread. THE RESULT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME But the trauma engendered by the postal survey would have been avoided...