An article Bush Bites Back in Saturday’s Age provides a perspective on the Brumby Government’s daft ‘Food Bowl Modernisation Project’ which will cost $2 billion ($1 billion from recent Rudd Government generosity) to plug leaks and evaporation losses in irrigation canals in order to increase suppliers of water for all – for local farmers and for city dwellers alike – the latter getting their water from Sugarloaf Reservoir that feeds Melbourne’s population with water. Water resource economists have suggested that the scheme is a near total dud and that net savings after accounting for seepage that would anyway have found its way back into the river system will be much less than the 225 gigalitres sought annually.
The farmers seem upset because they sense they will have to share the phoney loss reductions with those in the city. The Age takes its usual cry-baby stance with respect to the plight of the charity-seeking farmers.
The best solution for Melbourne and the bush is to connect Melbourne's water supply to that of the bush and to sell the water into its highest-value use.
Update: the Victorian Auditor General slams both the foolish 'Food Bowl Project' specifically targeting the exaggerated claimed water savings and the other key component of the Brumbey Governments 'Water Plan' the foolish proposed desalination plant. $4.1 billion in public money at risk.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
"net savings after accounting for seepage that would anyway have found its way back into the river system will be much less than the 225 gigalitres sought annually."
How much less?
The (Adelaide) Mitsubishi car plant was finally closed a couple of weeks ago. The government had bailed it out for years. Finally they (the government) let market forces decide by pulling the plug on any more ridiculous "investment". The allocation of water in Vic and elswhere should be decided the same way. If you want it then pay for it. Geoff
Ooh harry I do luv it when you talk dirty about farmers subsidies.
As I reward I'm bringing you back a carton of ciggies - would you prefer "Double Happiness" or "Long Life"?
fx in hk
No I don't want any fags but would be grateful if you could find out anything about the market there. Are there warning labels? Restrictions on smoking in certain areas?
I've heard big things are happening among the Tibet-bashers.
The brand new airport has no smoking everywhere as far as I can see.
There are a few no smoking signs here and there - like in large upmarket department stores.
Men seem to smoke anywhere and everywhere especially in restaurants and cafes - before, during and after the meal.
Several times I saw nice clean cafes with besuited uniformed girls wearing mouth and nose masks and plastic gloves for handling food whilst the guy cooking was dragging on a ciggie over the stove and occassionally hawking a gob of spit into the bin. (many cafes have a glass window looking into kitchen from street)
Aside from the obvious western brands Marlbora etc there seems to be at least 40 or so different local brands with no english on the pack and with a very wide price range - from Y2.5 (au$1=6.4Y) to Y20.
There seem to be some state run tobacco shops by I think the State Tobacco Company.
I'm drinking local beer, nice tasting, for Y3 a 600ml bottle and 3.6 % alcohol by volume.
I had a good bbq type local rough red for about au$4. Loads of Australin wines around for au$15 - au$25
Local rotgut firewater Baijiu, or shaojiu, in small 100ml bottles at local shop about au$0.40c and 50% alcohol.
fxh in melb - i'm going back saturday am
BEIJING: Proposals in China to ban smoking in public and raise tobacco taxes are pitting health professionals against a state-run industry that contributes more than $30 billion to the government....more
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/14/business/tobacco.php
Surveys showed two-thirds of Chinese people think smoking does little or no harm, 60% think it does not cause lung cancer and 96% do not know that it causes heart disease.
Dr Zhengming said the increase in tobacco consumption did not seem to be due to promotion by tobacco companies since it had been rising since the 1970s - in much the same way as US rates rose between 1910 and 1950.
Only around 10% of cigarettes sold in China are imported.
Chairman Mao is said to have promised Chinese people food, shelter and cigarettes as part of the communist revolution.
Notes on Smoking in China from "The Sociology of Death"
by Yang Hongtai, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Publishing House, December 1998. pp. 156 - 162
Chinese smokers start early, smoke large quantities of cigarettes are make up a large part of the Chinese adult population. In 1995, 61 percent of the men but only 7 percent of the women smoked. Nearly 60 percent of male physicians smoked. About 35 percent of Chinese farmers smoke. The approximately 350 million smokers in China and antoher 450 million passive smokers. Chinese per capita cigarette consumption to 75 packs per year. Thy consume about one-third of world tobacco production. Minors begin smoking because their friends smoke or because their parents or other family members smoke. Chinese cigarette production is 20 times what it was in 1949 although the population has only tripled since then. Smoking in China is also an important source of tax revenue.
According to a report from the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, in 1989 the Chinese government received 24 billion RMB in tax income from cigarette sales but the economic costs due to disease brought on by smoking totalled 28 billion RMB including medical care, lost work time, and premature death. In 1993, tax income from cigarettes totalled over 30 billion RMB but losses from smoking came to over 65 billion RMB.
Post a Comment