“...a media beat up” indeed. The media beats everything up, and we shouldn't be taking any notice of their BS.

Tony Abbott is doing Australians a great service. True, he is suggesting things that he didn't have the courage to do himself when he was PM; and there is no way that he is now a suitable person to ever lead the Coalition or country again – because of his past reluctance to do what was necessary, and what he said he would do - but he is speaking the truth on the pathetic state that his assassin has brought this country down to.

I have the book, 'Making Australia Right', and it is an excellent read, which the bum, Turnbull should be made to learn off by heart.

Well they are predicting that most jobs will be automated within 20 odd years so abbotts idea to limit immigration seems right given that there won't be many jobs around that robots can't be doing.

TO READ THE ARTICLE CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=18883&page=0

A more honorable, self evidently, less inherently evil, power addicted man, would have simply resigned for the good of the party, clearly not assisted by the divisive tactics of born to rule elitists?

So ably supported by patently partisan commentary, or sniping from the sidelines.

Moreover, I see no merit whatsoever in Mr Abbott's entirely gratuitous grandstanding critique.

If the coalition is decimated at the next poll that counts, blame Mr Abbott and the dunderhead herd following him way out to the right?

In some destructive self defeating parody of the inmates unsuccessfully trying to not only to take over the asylum, but (if I can't have it neither will you) destroy it while so engaged?

Little wonder some commentators refer to him as the mad monk?
Alan B.

To read the article, just click all, at or near the top of the page!
Alan B.

Don,

Someone in the has to strongly present the views of Conservatives, a large component of the Australian electorate. If Abbott doesn't, then who else can?

Malcolm has dictator tendencies. He believes he knows what's best on everything. He appoints only those who share his beliefs. He was proven dead wrong on many of his beliefs (e.g. renewable energy advocacy, belief in CAGW, Ruddgate and much more).

We need Conservative views strongly represented - especially at this time when there is clearly broadly-based move across many high income countries to bring an end to control by the elites and their politically correct dictates.

Former Prime Minister Abbott's renewable worries are certainly justified and need to be said [1]. Australia's pathetic "energy leadership" will cause hypothermia, increased respiratory diseases and higher death rates among the aged in southeastern Australia from June to September this year.

The latest threat to southeastern Australia's electricity supplies is the closure soon of Victoria's Hazelwood Power Station [2]. Via major electricity cable extensions the renewable junky, South Australia, is also dependent on Hazelwood.

Hazelwood supplies up to 25% of Victoria's base load electricity and more than 5% of Australia's total energy demand [3].

Hazelwood is definitely closing by the end of THIS MONTH - 31 MARCH 2017. Multi-state blackouts won't be immediate but will impact 2 months later, in June 2017.

June will see very cold, still nights:

- with longer nights there is less solar generating daylight, and

- cold still air means windpower won't work

- dropping temperatures means more strain on the closure depleted base load power.

- prices for all baseload electricity as well as home oil and gase will jump by 30% over 18 months.

Under these conditions there will be greater "load shedding" ie. short term planned blackouts, especially during the coldest nights:

- starting with the renewable junkies of South Australia

- then the halfway coverted junkies of Victoria

- SA, Vic and Tasmania will need rely on the baseload power stations of Liberal NSW to feed them some power, but at unsustainably high prices.

As I've said after Hazelwood's closure there definitely won't be enough power to run heaters in the homes of poor, vulnerable and old. These people cannot afford sufficient insulation or afford sharply increasing energy prices.

Praise be Labor and Coalition politicians for talking but not acting at the Federal and State levels. Solutions lie further to the Right and certaing not to the Left (populated Renewable Junky Greens and other environmental extremists).

[1] http://tonyabbott.com.au/2017/02/transcript-hon-tony-abbott-mp-remarks-launch-making-australia-right-mlc-building-miller-street-sydney/

[2] http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/hazelwood-power-station-to-close-in-march-2017/news-story/12941ae68e41c0a4d05d5824bf1b3e3a

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station

Pete

The answer to the energy crisis is nuclear energy and all generation and distribution back in public hands.

It's time that massively overpriced energy (gold plated) distribution ceased being the personal ATM of cash strapped government, or foreign investors only concerned with maximised price gouged profits!?

And Mr Abbott had a chance to introduce when he had the power to do so, but as per usual for Mr No, whimped all the courageous decisions and remained true to his opposition leader's prime ethous!

Oppose for opposition's sake and to hell with what's best for Australia and Australians?

The last time we had bipartisan politics and policies, a much more pragmatic Labor was still, a workers party and even more pragmatic libs, semi retired and usually successful in their own right.

With both groups able to actually put the country first and save partisan politics mainly for the election contest.

And because that was so, we here in this place experienced a period of unprecedented postwar prosperity, the like of which not seen before or since!

But still possible with the right policy mix and courageous and far less timid leadership, more concerned with the country and less concerned with cronies and personal privilege and profit!

Those who don't like going in a far better more equitable and fair direction, perfectly free to leave and start or join another party!

It should be get with the agreed program or get out! We don't need spoilers or incompetents from the past engaged in a destructive power struggle they can never ever win!
Alan B.

I don't know where you are Pete, but as a Queenslander I am very glad the ratbag left, are slitting their own throats down south. Fortunately this act of suicide by the southerners will help stop our ratbags inflicting the same foolery up here.

Once the stuff hits the fan along the southern coast, & the lights go out continually, it is doubtful even these fools will continue this folly. They do plan to follow their southern cousins, if they get the chance.

I can only assume their leaders are assured of nice fat contracts by those who benefited from this government folly, when they leave politics. Surely even they are not so stupid as to believe more windmills is a constructive policy.

Hi Hasbeen

Yes I'm unfortunately south of the border among the Loony Left Lemmings who fail to look over the renewable cliff before leaping. Here they go http://youtu.be/AOOs8MaR1YM .

Their well earned ends will indeed act as cautionary tales for would-be renewable nutters up north.

Prime Minister Harbourside Mansion won't know or care about the old dying among plummeting temperatures and soaring electricity and gas bills. I expect Malcolm, with his banker mates, will get richer on stock exchange energy futures when he retires from politics later this year.

If I don't install a petrol generator - like you've earlier suggested:

I'll buy a cute little house on the praire, make it look pretty an all - not blow it to smithereens - but place 25 solar panels on the roof and a big Lithium-ion battery down below. I'll then disconnect myself from the world, if not my Internet and relative sanity.

Pete

"What I do see, in this short-lived fracas, is the media picking on someone they love to hate. I’m not one of his great admirers, but he is intelligent and thoughtful. He ought to be allowed to say what he thinks without his automatically attracting the ‘naughty boy’ label by doing so"

Agreed. It was disappointing that the ABC's political editor was so frivolous (and predictable where there ABC is concerned). There has been a lot of that from the ABC. Tabloid. Sensationalist. Playing the man.

Time to get some savings from cutting the duplicated services of the ABC and SBS.

Pete my experience with my remote controlled planes will not be good news for your plans.

I use the very best Lithium polymer batteries in them. Some of those, which have been only used 2 or 3 times, & carefully held on "storage" charge between uses have refused to charge one or more cells at no more than 18 months of age.

I suggest you make that a diesel generator, & use car batteries. The hot shot stuff is not all that great when you have no reason to save weight.

Not so sure that the greenies & elites, in their inner city high-rise blocks will respond too gently to loss of power either. Perhaps the best thing I can think of is those windmill lovers having to descend & then climb 20 or 30 flights of steps to go scavenge for a meal, when their fridge & cooking gear is not working. I am not too happy when a battery costing over $85 has worked for less than 20 minutes.

It was most noticeable up here the lack of greenie noise when Beattie was going to damn the Mary river, near Gympie. The threat of their comfort being disturbed by no water changed their response to damn building pretty damn [like it] quickly.

Nothing converts a greeny to a disbeliever so quickly as a minor inconvenience experienced personally.

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plantagenet,
The Right are reluctant to let the truth get in the way of their preferred narrative. In reality the lemmings fled over the cliff for the same reason the humans did at Appin: they were being attacked. And the lemmings' attackers were the Disney crew, falsifying proof of a myth.

The Right's bogus claims about renewables include that they're to blame for a shortage of dispatchable power, and that they (not market failure) are to blame for some gas fired power stations failing to generate power when needed.

And you don't seem to be aware that it's rare for the air to be still in both SA and Vicrtoria in winter, or that electricity demand is low for most of the night, or that Victoria has pumped storage.

Meanwhile it's the Right who prevented the development of solar thermal power by insisting the CEFC make a commercial rate of return on investment.

Ultimately the Right are trying to drive us off the environmental cliff in order to meet some utterly delusional economic targets.

Gary Johns's view of the Right's objectives is something we should all understand, but we should also understand the opposing view:
The Right see the government as parasites; the Left see the government as symbionts.
The Right think less taxation means more freedom; the Left recognise that in a world controlled by money, improving the living standard of the poor results in far more freedom than tax cuts for the rich.
The Right see provision of benefits and jobs as bribery; the Left see it as one of the core functions of government.

Hi Hasbeen

Thanks a diesel generator with car batteries would be far cheaper than solar to counter blackouts. Can the noise be sufficiently minimised?

The cost of Li-ion batteiries may still be so high they need to be replaced every 5 or so years demanding lease payments?

The inconsistency of Greenies certainly exists. Even in South Australia (SA) (some years back) the Greens policy platform included greater usage of that local earner in SA - the Woomera weapons testing range.

Pete

Pete, I like your idea of going completely off grid and wonder if you've ever given thought to building a biodigester to make methane, which can be stored in a comparatively simple bladder, then used on demand to power a backup generator.

With free hot water one of the byproducts. And check out Australian invented gel batteries for more reliable enduring storage.

Also check out the solar roof before you build. These tiles are actually small solar panels that have the advantage of turning your entire roof space into a giant solar panel and are both cheaper and stronger than any other roof tile?

The good news is this cheaper, stronger roof tile will put a much as a 50 KLH system in your hands and be good for up to 25 years, where time will reduce maximum capacity to just 80%?

A bit of steel wool jammed into the air intake, below the butterfly, all you need do to convert a stationary diesel engine to a methane powered one.

Replace the energy consuming radiator with a heat sink tank and run the cooling liquid through a heat transfer coil inside that.

Otherwise lay a six by twelve metre black plastic sheet on the ground then wind a black plastic pipe back and forth over it while the pipe is warm. Black painted concrete or bitumen nearly as useful. Hot water inside the pipe will help it bend without crimping. And you need to wear oven gloves to prevent scalding your hands.

I've lived off grid when still young and able bodied and provided every amenity as self assembled handmade projects, from the water filter to the ontap endless hot water system.

We even turned a rotary hoe that just bounced on top of a sunbaked clay pan into a rotary heavy duty pick that ripped into it.

Consequently, the rain when it came all soaked in and we had a garden the envy of the district, where traditional local knowledge confirmed it was never ever possible! Mulch, chook poop and powdered gypsum helped.
Cheers, Alan B.

progressive pat, to bring this home I boarded a plane yeaterday in Brisbane. First we had to use the 'self check in' console, then it was off to the 'self serve baggage drop' where we had already placed our own labels on the bags,
In years gone by one would have to line up and wait for an attendant to check you in, label your baggage and send you on your way. All these jobs lost but hey, we cant demand cheap airfairs and save the jobs because someone has to fill the finacial void.

We are simply burning the candel from both ends with the end result ending in tears, even if we do stop immigration which is highly unlikely.

Oderlous, colourless Methane going BANG!

Hi Alan B.

SOLAR

Good idea "Also check out the solar roof before you build. These tiles are actually small solar panels that have the advantage of turning your entire roof space into a giant solar panel and are both cheaper and stronger than any other roof tile?

The good news is this cheaper, stronger roof tile will put a much as a 50 KLH system in your hands and be good for up to 25 years, where time will reduce maximum capacity to just 80%?"

METHANE

On the other hand I'm looking forward to your trial of the DIY methane generator, noting:

"Methane is combustible, and mixtures of about 5 to 15 percent in air are explosive. Methane is not toxic when inhaled, but it can produce suffocation by reducing the concentration of oxygen inhaled.

A trace amount of smelly organic sulfur compounds (tertiary-butyl mercaptan, (CH3)3CSH and dimethyl sulfide, CH3–S–CH3) is added to give commercial natural gas a detectable odor. This is done to make gas leaks readily detectible. An undetected gas leak could result in an explosion or asphyxiation." http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/METHANE/Methane.html

Given the above I don't know whether DIY methane is legal or covered by Life Insurance in this fair land.

Cheers

Pete

Yes Pete, my "silent" running 10KVA gen set is far from silent, but behind a small cement block wall shield, constructed for my old 2.5 KVA petrol generator it is about the same.

There are some almost silent units built for yachts as small as 45Ft, which are felt by their vibration, but not heard in the cabin if you want real quiet power. These are expensive of course.

When I lived on the yacht, [for 12 years] I had 12 volt lighting from a large deep cycle heavy duty car type battery bank, gas stove & fridge, with a main engine driven freezer. 2 hours of main engine every second day, [only 12 horse power actually], would keep the very carefully insulated built in freezer down, & charge the batteries, & 3 hours of small Honda generator on alternate days put more into the batteries.

Many of the luxuries like the electronic organ actually run on 6, 9 or 12 volts, so could be run from the 12volt system quite happily with adaption. You still need a full 240 volt system if only because domestic appliances built for this system are orders of magnitude cheaper than special stuff.

It is always a hassle, & either time consuming or expensive, maintaining a home power system, & some are almost a full time job.

My brother in law until recently commuted to Sydney from his off grid Upper Colo property. He assures me the best thing he ever did was take a big pay cut to move to Wyong, & get connected to the power grid. He never wants to see a battery again as long as he lives.

Pete. Methane only goes bang when mixed with 2 to 1 with oxygen! And enough explosive force to bring the house down literally.

But only if you create a system that also generates oxygen? True, the first aerobic part of the two tank system requires oxygen to prepare the "soup". In this part of the process the only gas generated is Co2. Which is relatively easily dealt with.

Tank #1 operates around 31C, tank #2 anaerobic stage, excludes any introduced atmosphere and operates at around 55C.

Should you want to warm a glasshouse or house, this system lends itself to either or both.

With the methane extracted, all that's left is sanitised safe carbon rich soil improver, and reuseable water, literally loaded with phosphates and nitrates.

Gas can be stored in bladder, after you've piped it through lime water, which reacts with the Co2 component to fix as a salt. A 44 gal drum all that's required along with routine water and lime renewal quarterly?

Methane is as safe as NG and one and the same thing essentially.

However, a house powering ceramic fuel cell, will run quite happily 24/7 and completely silently on scrubbed methane, where a flameless chemical process eliminates any unintended explosive outcomes.

Batteries have limitations, whereas energy can be stored as gas or in upland dams as pumped water, then run back down to turn the pump and the motor into a turbine and generator.

Some enterprising northers have created their own pelton hydro, powering everything 24/7. Also, a 2 metre high weir over a thirty metre span, enough to turn a tirty metre wide waterwheel, to power 20-30 off grid homes?

Thorium is interesting, with some scientists focused on miniaturization and walk away safe systems that cost as little as $10,000 and able to power around ten homes for 100 years with routine inspection triannually.

That's just $100.00 a year per household! And feared and hated by now cash strapped power companies the world over, given they could never ever compete, even subsidizes!
Cheers, Alan

Hi Hasbeen

As I'm not technical on battery hookups etc, moving to an isolated area with moderate climate seems a good idea.

Cheers

Pete

Hi Alan B.

Although I have reservations about Methane, tiny little Thorium reactors in every home, apartment and bakery across Australia sounds feasible and inexpensive.

Pete

Pete. septic tanks produce methane and Co2, and as far as I know not illegal anywhere?

Digesters are used the world over, and a pig powered example on nearby Norfolk Island runs the farm. Also in england, where a council approved facility runs emergency generators for high rise towers.

The two tank system is Aussie innovation. And as far as I know, legal. And no more dangerous than NG, which by the way is also methane!

Which can also be catalytically converted to liquid methanol, which does burn with a clear colourless odourless flame.

At the end of the day, you could be killed by a silently dispatched and falling coconut, or a bunya pine cone. The latter large enough to pile drive you feet first into the ground.

Both of which can be found in warmer northern climes. And if your number is up you can be hit by a bus, a pine cone or asphyxiated by any one of a dozen gases, where the safety code and previsions are ignored!

We've been refining oil here in Australia for decades, where the tell tale flared methane is wasted over the world in millions of wasted tons. Minus any reported asphyxiation.

We use copious energy, to compress it into an incredibly volatile liquid, to ship it offshore up through the increasingly dangerous China Sea. Where one or two well placed RPG's could make a realy big bang, especially if followed by incendiaries/tracers.

As I understand it, sprinklers still operate even when a flame is odourless colourless. As do heat alarms. And essential if you want to include lithium batteries, some of which have apparently burst into flame, the consequence of overcharging?

A gas powered back generator is arguably an essential in the bush, even if only used to run the roof and other sprinklers, when ubiquitous bush fires threaten, and the best choice along with underground fuel storage, given gas alone doesn't sour with time.

Be careful around LPG as the vapor can asphyxiate, as can the unflued Co2, created in flueless LPG heaters used in unventilated rooms/houses.
Cheers, Alan.