Europe

I have been much interested in the sovereign debt problems of the poor countries of Europe and how the creation of the Eurozone and the single currency, has removed the former main method of dealing with individual economic problems, namely currency devaluation, from the unfortunate members. How fortunate are the U.K. and the Czech Republic  under my favourite President, Vaclav Klaus, (to name two), in not being members. The linked speech by Daniel Hannan, the member of the European Parliament for South England, strikes an appealing chord.

The Riverina

I wonder if the Riverina got its name from all the water which flows thru' it?

Gail and I have just had a great trip out to Condobolin, down the Lachlan River to Hillston, across to the Murrumbidgee River at Hay and then across those various watercourses  (the Billabong and Yanko Creeks and the Edwards River that flow out of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers), to Deniliquin. We returned via Conargo, Jerilderie, Lockhart, Wagga Wagga and Gundagai. Crops west of Parkes down to Lake Cargilligo were mostly struggling. Across the southern Riverina pastures and crops were wonderful.

Our main purpose was to attend the Annual Ram Sale and the big party put on by FS Falkiner and Sons (the Bell Group) to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Wanganella Merino Stud which has had such an impact on the development of the Australian Merino's genetics over all those years. With fabulous sheep prices, (the auctioneers were able to announce at the ram sale that young merino ewes in the Hay Sale that very day had made $280/head) and much better wool prices, the mood was buoyant.

We had a wonderful trip meeting so many old friends including some Sydney and Melbourne based Bell associated friends who were having there first real exposure to the bush and the Merino world in particular. One group asked me to explain why I did not believe that irrigation extractions were having a negative impact on the health of our Murray Darling Basin rivers and why I believed that Commonwealth Government "buy backs" were a waste of taxpayer's money. For once the words seemed to fall out convincingly!

In summary, this is what I said:

• It rains or it doesn't. Our dams fill (or partially fill) or they don't.
• An irrigation license (entitlement) grants the holder the right to extract water when, and only when, there is an allocation.
• Allocations are reviewed several times per year and subject to water availability allocations are made, or not made.
• Allocation decisions are guided by water sharing plans and these plans, in general, specify that critical human needs have first priority, assessed environmental needs have second priority and when, and only when, these priorities are met are decisions made on allocations. These may be anything from nil to 100% of the entitlements specified in licenses.

Given this process the purchase of licenses by Government during say, drought conditions, when there are no allocations is pointless. In fact, the purchase of licenses under all conditions would seem to be pointless. The group appeared to get the logic.  

Murray Mouth

I today sent the following letter to The Australian. Probably too long for publication-but I felt better!
The article by Jennifer Marohasy (The Weekend Australian- Sea Will Save the Murray-27th August) is a very accurate, well balanced review of the Lower Lakes issue in the context of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

The key characteristic of the Australian rainfall pattern is massive variability. So much so that average statistics, with the massive spread around the average, are effectively meaningless. This variability results in fresh water flows at the Murray mouth being highly irregular. The Murray mouth was regarded by explorer Sturt as being the entrance to Lake Alexandrina with Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the northern end of The Coorong forming the river estuary, with the actual entrance to the Southern Ocean being an ever changing channel, difficult to negotiate at the best of times and sometimes closed altogether. At times the lakes were mostly fresh water, sometimes mostly salt, depending on tides, winds and most of all upstream river flows.

In the 1930's the South Australians constructed "The Barrages" between the lakes and the ocean outlet to convert the Lower Lakes (Alexandrina and Albert) into an all times fresh water storage held above sea level. This was beneficial for navigation, irrigators and more recently for recreation/canal style housing development. This action carried with it a quite unreasonable expectation that there would always be sufficient fresh water flows from upstream to maintain the lakes at their elevated fresh water levels, notwithstanding very high evaporation. When this failed to happen, the failure was always blamed on upstream extractions for irrigation when the major cause was simply lack of run-off.

This situation was dramatically demonstrated in the 2002-2008 period when catchment run-off was at record low levels and there simply was not enough water to maintain the lakes in their elevated fresh water state even though upstream irrigation extractions were effectively prohibited. Fortunately upstream storages were sufficient to meet critical human needs and maintain minimal river flow.

The bottom line is that under dry conditions there is simply not enough water to maintain the lakes in their unnatural elevated fresh water state and better management of the Basin strongly suggests that, at least under these conditions, The Barrages should be opened to allow salt water to enter. A weir (or lock) would need to be built on the Murray above Lake Alexandrina to provide fresh water for river and lake irrigators (piped) and to protect Adelaide's fresh water supply from downstream salt water intrusion.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus

This great man has charmed his way around Australia with his simple clear economists's logic. Although he speaks with a thick accent he has a great command of the English language and is worth listening to. I heard him in person in Sydney and closely watched his presentation to the National Press Club. His experience of communism makes him very alert to threats to freedom. Here is an edited version of his Melbourne presentation.
Later
Here is the speech to the National Press Club, which is even better.

Global Population

"The spread of birth control and a desire for smaller families tend to accompany economic growth and development almost everywhere." The Economist,21st July,2011

This fact has led demographers to project world population peaking at 9/10 billion by mid century and then beginning to drop continuously as it would already be doing in the developed world, if it were not for immigration.

To my mind this should encourage countries such as Australia to concentrate their production on energising,feeding and clothing the developing world in the knowledge that lifting countries out of poverty and disease will not only make life more bearable for them, but will have the environmental benefit of stopping global population growth. The sooner living standards are improved in the third world the sooner population growth will cease.

In the interim we'd better concentrate on lifting productivity growth in preparation for the economic challenges we will face when global population starts to decrease. For Australia, a more flexible deregulated labour market would be a good place to start. Unfortunately Julia Gillard as P.M. and Labour Minister has been taking us backwards in this regard.

Optimism

In these grim cold days of carbon taxes and incompetent Government,falling confidence and retail sales (David Jones), we all need something to cheer us up. Have a listen to Matt Ridley,The Rational Optimist. It is very refreshing.

My Climate Change Position

I just don't have enough basic education to evaluate the technical arguments. My firm sceptic position is more influenced by my view of human motivation, my tendency to want to challenge conventional wisdom and my attraction to the logic of people like Nigel (Lord) Lawson.

When I read the comments of Freeman Dyson (Princeton) and all the other sceptic material, I perceive a very compelling case on the sceptic side.

Then when I listen to the Parliamentary ravings of Wayne Swan, in particular, constantly quoting the Stern Report, discredited by our own Productivity Commission, and suggesting that Australia, with its tiny proportion of greenhouse gases, can change the climate, I smell bullshit!

I liked Tony Abbott's comment the other day- "socialism disguised as environmentalism"