The Dead Roo

Another Democrat bill is at the senate inquiry stage and well worth looking at. It proposes a scheme for trading EECs (Energy Efficiency Certificates), and allows even domestic consumers to join in the fun.  So far, it looks like I’ll be putting in a short message of support.  No, not carbon trading, efficiency […]

The Greens have released a new energy efficiency proposal they’re calling EASI (Energy Efficiency Access and Savings Initiative). In short it proposes to:

do an energy audit on every home in Australia
government to fund energy efficiency refurbishment opportunities identified by the audits
house holders to repay the cost of refurbishment over ten years. A big part of […]

The Palm Island store is currently owned by the Queensland Government. It charges inflated prices to subsidise the transport of goods to other Aboriginal communities in Queensland. The government has recently announced that the store is to […]

Join Tasmanian scallop fisherman, John Hammond, aboard his trawler as he talks about the likely effects that “fresh water” effluent will have on his business, and the ecosystem he works in every day. It’s stories like this that put lie to the claims that another pulp mill is an economic necessity.
The video (put out by […]

My recent fasination with veggie gardening has brought me into contact with some truly strange people. Browsing permaculture vids on youtube, I stumbled across a series entitled Peak Moment.
Convinced that peak oil will mean the end of the world, they want to tear up everything and plant food. Lots of it. You see, without oil, […]

Steve Ciobo reckons he has a plan to improve housing affordability:
Double first home owners grant, says backbencher
Queensland Liberal Steve Ciobo says the grant should be increased to $14,000 and tied to state governments agreeing to cut stamp duty. - ABC
This would be the worst thing the federal government could do.
Increasing the new home buyers grant […]

Despite initial protests from industry about added food labelling costs, consumers welcome the ability to make informed choices, and producer have made improvements to product lines.  It’s time to start providing similar information detailing the carbon balance and virtual water content of food, and later, other items.
Carbon released by transport is the tricky part of […]

The nature of businesses is to work to sell more product at higher margins.  A key strategy for climate change mitigation is the reduction of energy and water use.  Ergo, energy and water supply (especially where statewide distribution creates a natural monopoly) should be in state ownership.
This applies to reticulation, and charges to consumers, but […]

This classics-loving-lefty was reminded of the sumptuary laws as a possible solution to conspicuous consumption that is harming both the environment and the Oz/Us trade/current-account balances.
These laws from Rome (Twelve Kings vintage, and expanded during the Republic) were created partly for economic reasons, partly to address ostentation of the aspirationals/nouveau-riche and restore “Roman virtue”, and […]

Those pesky lefties at The Economist again give Castro a (little) pat on the back in their 2007-05-14 GreenView Blog, which updates my Viva Fidel Verde post.
Governments are moving in this direction. Energy-efficiency regulations, already tough in California and Europe, are tightening further. The European Commission and the Australian government are planning to ban incandescent […]

Here is a questionnaire (with data to help) on the important econometrics for Australia (and tabular comparison to the Scandinavians and US at the bottom of the page), to respond to Howard/Costello lovers who think my bearishness is unwarranted.  Lefties should enjoy the questions, and even more, should start using the econometrics in their own […]

It’s worth reviewing the 2007-05-14 Research Note on Underemployment and other measures of labour underutilitization from the Parliamentary Library if you want to reconsider the Howard/Costello "successes" in managing employment.
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Australia’s skills shortage, and stalled productivity, may be due not only to the shortage of people with certificates, the increase in unproductive degress (such as business studies), but the change in the way those pieces of paper are issued.
This post extends Rebecca’s recent piece (which I applaud) but I’ll concentrate on the outputs of the […]

The approach of putting money into funds (be it a future fund for pension entitlements, or for university endowments) is odd.  It gives big bucks to fund managers, may have the objective of pushing up the stock market, and exposes these monies to a downturn in stock prices.
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Finally, progressive bloggers might be getting the message that Howard/Costello’s economic (mis)management is getting serious criticism from economists that have credibility with business readership!
It seems that my article pointing to Peter Martin’s article might have led to his site getting increased recognition in the blogosphere for his analyses of the real economic issues.  (He’s economics […]