We are now in an election year. Who can we believe or trust?
As Henry Kissinger once said, “Too bad 90 percent of the politicians give the other 10 percent a bad reputation!’
So, a group of Canberra-based Cockatoo members recently mused about the degree to which political mudslinging is damaging the voter attractiveness of federal politicians. We then decided to run a simple challenge past a sample of our members — ‘Please nominate three exemplary, or at least straight and good politicians, from both the Labor and conservative side, and throw in a Green or Independent if you like …’
Well, a grizzled bunch of former federal officials and ministerial advisers fell over themselves — some even offered views on state politicians or went back 50 years. A small sample admittedly, but the results are in line with what people here in Canberra think: i.e. the Independents are important in the current Parliament, and politicians need to let their personal values shine through. The Rudd and Hockey listings are a surprise to me at least.
Labor: Tony Burke and Greg Combet as the standouts – then (in no particular order) Kim Carr, Simon Crean, Peter Garrett, Jenny Macklin, Andrew Leigh, Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong and Kevin Rudd.
Conservatives: Malcolm Turnbull is the standout — then (as above) Ian Macfarlane, Russell Broadbent, Kevin Andrews, Judy Moylan, Greg Hunt, John Cobb, Nigel Scullion, Michael Ronaldson, Arthur Sinodinos and Joe Hockey.
Green/Independents: Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott as the standouts — then Natasha Stott Despoja.
State government: Gladys Berejiklian (Liberal – NSW) and Peter Hall (Nationals – Vic).
The winners of the inaugural Cockatoo ‘Fairest & Best’ Award are Messrs Turnbull, Windsor, Oakeshott, Burke and Combet. Next year there will be more science in the exercise — and readers are invited to nominate an appropriate name for our new award.
For the record, the ‘recent past MPs’ list looks like this:
Conservatives: Judith Troeth, Nick Minchin, John Anderson, Tim Fisher, Fred Chaney, Robert Hill, and Gary Nairn.
Labor: John Faulkner, John Button, Barry Jones, Bob Hawke, Kim Beazley, Peter Walsh, Barry Cohen and Lionel Bowen.
Greens/Independents: Bob Brown, Janine Haines and Don Chipp.
State government: Steve Bracks (Labor – Vic) and Phillip Costa (Labor – NSW)
National Broadband Network rollout
A number of regions have not done well out of the NBN rollout. The problem stems from the rollout plan being based primarily on engineering efficiency considerations (the lowest cost and quickest rollout schedule). There has not been any conscious consideration of commercial benefits; e.g. where high speed broadband would be most effective in addressing poorly served areas (rural areas and urban black spots) or targeting areas where the return on network installation would be greatest (business parks and high income/high density suburbs).
With the Federal Government having gone public on its support of the NBN rollout schedule, and defended its decision as politically and commercially agnostic, there is little or no chance the rollout will be diverted from its path.
We have therefore held talks with the Department of Broadband, Communications & Digital Economy (DBCDE) and NBN Co. in recent weeks about the scope for regions to now take advantage of NBN rollout by developing clusters and precincts.
In this regard, we are delighted to announce that we have joined forces with Dr Paul Paterson (ex-Telstra and ex-NSW Department of State & Regional Development) to combine our specialities. He can be contacted on paul.paterson@ppconsulting.net.au. (The annual update of the NBN rollout is due in March.)
Bushfire hubs
We are currently in discussion with some councils and fire authorities about an approach to the Federal Government for bushfire education and knowledge hubs. There is one of sorts at Mount Macedon, north west of Melbourne, and we figure there is scope for similar facilities in a range of regions. If this interests you, please contact us ASAP.
In support of air-cranes
While on the subject of bushfires, the Erickson S-64 air-cranes continually prove their worth — 9600 litres of water in one load certainly has an effect.
We recently spoke with the local representative of the US parent company. He says there are six leased to Australia for around three months each year — two are based in both Melbourne and Sydney, one in Adelaide and one in Perth. The cost per air-crane is less than $2 million all up (i.e. including pilots), which is very reasonable when the annual cost of fire damage is taken into account.
A dozen of these beasts wouldn’t be out of the question if you take into account that the annual losses are huge. A few Cockatoo members had first-hand experience of the Canberra bushfire 10 years ago (four deaths and 500 homes destroyed). The enquiry concluded that it might have been avoided if action was taken in the 24 hours after the lightning strikes; i.e. when the fires sat out in the Brindabella ranges virtually untouched.
The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has also concluded that ‘The critical condition for the economic efficiency of aircraft is their ability to reach and knock down a fire well before ground crews. This buys time for ground forces to arrive and complete the containment, an advantage which is much greater in remote or otherwise inaccessible terrain’.
In addition, The Fire Management area of the Department of Sustainability and Environment (Victoria) released a supportive analysis in the late 1990s, as follows: “The helitanker was effective in directly attacking the edges of going fires, hot spots and spot fires, in providing valuable support to the ground firefighting resources and in working with both the fixed-wing and other rotary-wing firebombers … Its ability to quickly deliver large volumes of fire retardant in potentially threatening situations under extreme fire danger conditions was well demonstrated. The large volume carried and the ability to split the load also allow it to deliver separate drops to several locations … by directly attacking high-intensity fires the Aircrane Helitanker was credited with several significant saves where high-value assets were under threat.”
The overall fire management task is funded by the feds and states, together with levies collected by the insurance companies in some states. This system is now apparently moving to a council rates arrangement (which is fairer, since insured properties have been subsidising the uninsured).
The bottom line is that if the feds, states and territories own, say, $20 billion worth of land and buildings in fire-prone areas, spending a further $8 million a year on four Ericksons would have to be good insurance.
If your council has an interest in this subject, please contact us.
Food Plan – slowly cooking
Readers will be aware of our development of regional food branding agendas, and our protestations regarding the pathetic food labelling arrangements in this country. We spoke to the federal agriculture agency (DAFF) in January to see where the Food Plan is at. The kind lady at DAFF provided a very official response, as follows:
“The Australian Government is well on the way to delivering the nation’s first ever National Food Plan. Feedback from the National Food Plan green paper consultation process is being used to develop the National Food Plan, which will be released as a white paper in 2013. The Australian Government is developing a National Food Plan to ensure its policies support its vision for a food system where Australians continue to enjoy a sustainable, globally competitive, resilient food supply that supports access to nutritious and affordable food. This is an important step to ensure a more integrated, coordinated and strategic focus to food-related policy along the supply chain.”
She could not give us a release date or any indication of a funding program to accompany the Plan.
Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant and lobbyist specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction and clusters, and accessing federal grants. He also runs the Cockatoo Network.
Phone: (02) 6231 7261 or 0412 922 559
Email: apdcockatoo@iprimus.com.au
Blog: www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com (750 articles)
