Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been accused of "pettiness" for refusing to let a handful of Labor MPs accompany him on his private jet to attend a bipartisan event in Sydney.

The event was held to celebrate success stories in Western Sydney at the Rooty Hill RSL on Tuesday, June 3 when Federal Parliament was sitting in Canberra.

Earlier this month, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked Mr Abbott if he, an adviser, and three of his MPs could catch a lift to save taxpayers' money and the MPs' time.

But Mr Abbott rejected the Opposition's request.

The Prime Minister and a large number of his MPs from western Sydney flew to the event and were back in Canberra in time for Mr Abbott’s 7:00am media conference the next day.

Mr Shorten caught a commercial flight and stayed in Sydney overnight at taxpayers' expense, while his backbenchers spent about six hours driving up and back in time to attend Parliament the next morning.

SM,

It appears you are right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

However, 25% is not bad for any country.

Being as Germans are a highly innovative people, one might imagine that they're at the vanguard of renewable technology.

Where does that leave ol' Smokin' Joe, Australia...especially in the hands of a retro-techy like Abbott?

Same old, same old...Donald Horne was right:

"The title of Horne's The Lucky Country comes from the opening words of the book's last chapter:

Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck.

Horne's statement was an indictment of 1960s Australia. His intent was to comment that, while other industrialized nations created wealth using "clever" means such as technology and other innovations, Australia did not. Rather, Australia's economic prosperity was largely derived from its rich natural resources. Horne observed that Australia "showed less enterprise than almost any other prosperous industrial society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Country

Nothing changes.....

579,

Only a green could be so stupendously ignorant to make such a stupid comment. The website that I quoted and provided for your edification is a website that encourages renewable power. This information is also available from a variety of other sources.

See also

"Germany is importing massive amounts of nuclear-generated electricity from France following its decision to abandon atomic power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.
But it is still bracing for blackouts of the kind not seen since the Second World War as eight of the 17 reactors were switched off overnight in a populist move that is now seen as a rash decision."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031786/Germany-importing-electricity-France-decision-shut-nuclear-reactors.html

Secondly I see calling some one a "denier" is a knee jerk reaction to having the carpet pulled out from under you. I have always stated that I believed that CO2 emissions ever since I wrote a school thesis on the subject in 1980. I believe action is needed, but not the thought bubble knee jerk ideas that labor and the greens concoct.

However, having worked as a power systems engineer for part of my life, I clearly have a more in depth understanding of generation, distribution and consumption than any greenie.

As the jet is also used for conducting confidential business the PM is not obliged to offer "rides" to opposition members. (note I cannot recall Juliar or Krudd ever doing so.)

P,

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

What do you think of the huge costs and unreliability of power in Germany as a result?

SM,

It's actually quite complex when you look into it...and may require some rumination.

Found this somewhat illuminating article:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21594336-germanys-new-super-minister-energy-and-economy-has-his-work-cut-out-sunny-windy-costly

(Will do a bit of snooping on the subject when I have time)

It is rather the fact that energy suppliers are not passing on to consumers the large drop in wholesale prices that results from the rapidly expanding wind and solar generation capacity.

This is evident from an analysis of German prices. A similar situation exists in many other European countries. Unfortunately the latest Energiewende reforms initiated by the German government do not address this problem.

Over the last 3 years we have been hearing a never-ending flow of complaints from German electricity consumers about the high retail prices brought about by the increasing share of renewables in the electricity mix (25% today). It is not just households and small- and medium-sized businesses who complain, but also, perhaps more surprisingly, big industrial consumers, who are largely exempted from paying the renewables surcharge on electricity, the famous Umlage (although they are faced with relatively high gas prices compared to the US). The Umlage today amounts to 6.24 eurocents/kWh.[1]

In response to these complaints the Minister of Economy and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, announced on 3 March a reform of the Renewable Energy Law (Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz, or EEG). The two most prominent measures are the gradual reduction of the financial support for renewable energy generators ̶ from 17 to 12 cent/kWh ̶ and the preservation, by and large, of the principle of surcharge-exemption for big industries, in the name of competitiveness.