Mid winter is the time for my Magnolia stellata to start flowering.This small tree along with Camellias, Jonquils and now Hyacinths make the garden a lovely place to be on these cold but bright days.
Or even the recent, record breaking, 23 degree C midwinter day!
Such a high temperature for winter but preferable to the 40 degrees plus in summer.
The Australian Financial Review gave a succinct article on the state of Carbon policies following the Rudd ascendancy to Federal Politics and the current outpouring of policy 'changes'. Its a pity there is a paywall with all Fairfax newspapers meaning its no use linking to it, but look in your local library for "Up in the air" by Geoff Winestock and Marcus Priest, plus Alan Mitchell's "Risks in Rudd's European union", pages 14 & 15 20-21 July 2013 Perspective pages.
PS I have ordered a couple of copies of the new book "Killing Fairfax" by Pamela Williams for the library - should be a good read even though the papers are not dead, yet!
Via Flickr:
Small tree flowering after a warm spell.
Showing posts with label Australian Financial Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Financial Review. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Another take on the insulation debacle
After watching the savaging of Peter Garrett over the home insulation program I was pleased to see Kevin Rudd taking responsibility for part of the problem. We all knew the program had been rushed ahead with several other stimulus packages to cope with the GFC.
I was starting to get confused with all the attacks into thinking the points made by Garrett in his defense were perhaps overstated. However, in todays Financial Review (AFR- page 3) paper I have found a well reasoned article "Insulation fears: more hype than actual fires" by Geoff Winestock which has restored (somewhat) my faith in the ability of media to actually discuss facts rather than emotional hysteria as well as restored some trust in the Minister.
I would be the first to admit that if I had lost a son in an industrial accident, I would be extremely emotional, even hysterical.
However, the AFR article points out "based on data from fire brigades for NSW, Queensland, South Australia and metropolitan Melbourne...has found there were 115 house fires in 2009 attributed to faulty insulation. ...It was only slightly higher than the 75 house fires caused by faulty insulation in 2007... In the meantime about 1.15 million houses have been fitted with insulation, ..compared with an average of about 60,000 installations in 2007" So in terms of fires per installation the risk has fallen dramatically.
It would be extremely interesting to see if the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) or some other proper statistical agency, can confirm these numbers as it does back up Peter Garrett's claim to have introduced training and standards into the industry.
The Financial Review had a number of excellent articles - on page 30 "Flawed model, muddled message" by John Breusch on the problems with selling the Emissions Trading Scheme, and page 21 "Safe as houses" by Andrew Cornell which details why I would not be able to keep up with the housing market on a librarians salary!
So thanks AFR for an informative lunchtime read.
I was starting to get confused with all the attacks into thinking the points made by Garrett in his defense were perhaps overstated. However, in todays Financial Review (AFR- page 3) paper I have found a well reasoned article "Insulation fears: more hype than actual fires" by Geoff Winestock which has restored (somewhat) my faith in the ability of media to actually discuss facts rather than emotional hysteria as well as restored some trust in the Minister.
I would be the first to admit that if I had lost a son in an industrial accident, I would be extremely emotional, even hysterical.
However, the AFR article points out "based on data from fire brigades for NSW, Queensland, South Australia and metropolitan Melbourne...has found there were 115 house fires in 2009 attributed to faulty insulation. ...It was only slightly higher than the 75 house fires caused by faulty insulation in 2007... In the meantime about 1.15 million houses have been fitted with insulation, ..compared with an average of about 60,000 installations in 2007" So in terms of fires per installation the risk has fallen dramatically.
It would be extremely interesting to see if the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) or some other proper statistical agency, can confirm these numbers as it does back up Peter Garrett's claim to have introduced training and standards into the industry.
The Financial Review had a number of excellent articles - on page 30 "Flawed model, muddled message" by John Breusch on the problems with selling the Emissions Trading Scheme, and page 21 "Safe as houses" by Andrew Cornell which details why I would not be able to keep up with the housing market on a librarians salary!
So thanks AFR for an informative lunchtime read.
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