A lithium battery industry for Western Australia.Why not?

Western Australia, like the rest of the world,  is experiencing a lithium boom. Lithium is an essential ingredient in battery production,  Renewable energy requires battery storage. The price of petrol is causing a surge in the production of electric cars that require lithium storage batteries. Anyone who bought an Apple product this year is using a lithium battery. Lithium has been called the petroleum of the future.

Western Australia has about 50% of the world’s known reserves of lithium. Imagine how happy we all would be if we had fifty per cent of the world's petroleum reserves. We are sitting on a treasure chest. Two years ago, WA had one lithium mine, at Greenbushes. It is the biggest lithium mine in the world. Earlier this month WA’s seventh lithium mine was opened, just south of Port Hedland.

Economists are predicting a billion-dollar windfall for Western Australia as a lithium exporter. Canberra correspondent, Nick Evans, (The West Australian, October 2) quotes Mark Scully, Chief Economist of the Department of Industry, saying that at present “Lithium exports for about $1100/tonne and processed lithium concentrate exports for about $23 000/tonne”. Quite a mark-up. No wonder that the state government is exploring ways of processing lithium and other energy materials. In 2017 lithium sales were worth $780 million with a workforce of 1200. These numbers will escalate exponentially as lithium processing develops. Some commentators forecast a $58 billion shot in the arm tot he WA economy from lithium mining by the mid 2020s.

Perhaps the government should also pursue ways of establishing a battery manufacturing industry in WA. For fifty odd years we have blown up our mountains of iron ore and sold it overseas for around $100 /tonne. The countries who bought our iron ore  turned it into steel and sold back to us as motor vehicles and various manufactured goods for about $1000/tonne. Again, quite a mark up.

About forty years ago some intrepid, risk taking individuals started up a ship building industry at Henderson, south of Fremantle. Henderson is a huge success story, building ships for the Australian Defence Force and selling ships to many overseas counties.

Do we not have people with the wit, the will, the expertise and the energy to establish a storage battery industry in WA. We not only have half of the world’s lithium, we also have good supplies of every other metal required for battery production; cobalt, manganese, vanadium, nickel, copper, tin and rare earth.

I am sure there will be those who say it cannot be done. Just as they told C.Y.O’Connor that he could not pump water 350 miles uphill. It was George Bernard Shaw who said, “Some people see things as they are and ask why? I see things that never were and ask why not?

A storage battery industry in WA. Why not?

Getting a reality check.

Australian TV  is awash with reality shows. Perhaps, that should read Australian TV is stained with reality shows. It seems that, in reality,  these reality shows are heavily scripted and are, indeed, very far from reality. I do not need to name the reality TV shows. You know them. People pitted against each other, and or the threatening environment, to impress the flamboyant, extroverted judges as they perform tasks, such as cooking, renovating a slum, surviving in the jungle or a houseful of hunks  and bimbos or even choosing the love of a lifetime.

People watching a reality show would expect it to be unscripted and actually happening, as in real life. Sadly, this is not really true. A good example of a reality show being structured in unreal situations was the last series of The Bachelor.

Now, I do not watch reality TV but I do know that in The Batchelor a bevy of beauteous redheads, blondes and brunettes  ( OK, mainly blondes) work their way through a filtering interview process until reaching an emotionally charged finale where only two  lovely ladies are left. The Grand Finale results in the hunky bachelor choosing one these luscious looking girls to be his ever loving lifetime partner. Cue violins, flashing lights, fireworks, love hearts, hugs, kisses, lustful looks and heaps of commercials. Not to mention massive sales for the glossy magazines which do follow up stories on the “lovebirds”.

But No! Not in this year’s finale at any rate. The bachelor in this series was a well known rugby player with a quirky turn of phrase, named  Neil “Honey Badger” Cummins. On the final night, the Honey Badger threw the reality show into chaos when he rejected both of the finalists .Oh, no! The cad.

Naturally, both girls were devasted. Millions(?) of viewers were stunned and the show’s producers went ballistic. Social media went into meltdown as people expressed their shock, horror, amusement, disbelief and total cynicism at the “reality” of it all.

The problem was that Neil ‘Honey Badger” Cummins had not followed the script. What should happen in the reality show which is The Bachelor is that on the final night, the handsome bachelor chooses a lucky girl, they vow their undying love for each other, have their photos plastered all over glossy magazines and then, about a month later, they “break up” and link up with their respective real partners. Again, the “break up” is accompanied by massive media coverage.

The problem, this time, was that bachelor, Neil “Honey Badger” Cummins, could not follow the script. He did not want to tell a lie and say he loved someone until death we do part when, in all reality, he did not. So, he told the truth. He let both finalists know  that he was not going to choose either of them. Pandemonium! A slice of reality crept into a reality show and the reality show just could not handle it.

The message is clear. Successful reality TV show must be based on liesypocrisy and manufactured situations that are far, far removed from actual reality. How sad. Even sadder, however, is the fact that most viewers of reality TV shows are well aware that it is all a charade based on lies. They just love the manufactured emotions, the stressful scenes, the joys, the disappointments and the lies that flow from the participants scripted responses.

Maybe, that explains why national politics is becoming a real blood sport.

Some pigs are still more equal

I found this story on a little used USB memory stick that had hidden itself on my rather cluttered desk. Obviously, I wrote it some time ago when Sussan Ley was in trouble for improper use of her parliamentary allowances. On reading it I find that it is still quite relevant to the Australia that we are living in today.

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm in 1945. A classic tale of woe, demonstrating that, eventually, in any society, those with the power will exploit the less powerful. Even in a society that says all citizens are equal before the law, Orwell pointed out that “All pigs are equal. Some pigs are more equal than others.”

Just at present, Australia appears to be a facsimile of Animal Farm.

In fact, it is all beginning to resemble the world of Charles Dicken’s, A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens, writing about a time of great political upheaval, started his powerful novel about the struggle between good and evil and the rich and the poor by saying, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

In Australia’s case, we can say it is the best of times for politicians, millionaires and very profitable corporations. Politicians can access generous pensions without any restrictions as to age, assets or current income. Many millionaires and rich corporations can accrue great wealth while paying no income tax whatsoever. Nobody, least of all our pampered political legislators. seems very anxious to close the legal loopholes which enables the very rich to have a tax-free ride in our society.

On the other side of this social divide are the many, many people on welfare, stressed out and suicidal, because Centrelink is sending them letters saying that they have received welfare payments that they were not entitled to, and that the Federal Police will be after them unless they sign up to a repayment plan forthwith.

It has been shown that 20% of these letters were sent out in error to people who do not owe the federal government anything. This unfortunate situation has arisen because the LNP government has sacked many Centrelink employees and replaced them with a computer system that is using a faulty algorithm, erroneously crediting people with more annual income than they earned.

Of course, we need to have checks and balances and to make sure that welfare recipients are deserving of the benefits that they receive and that any over payments are swiftly refunded.

Apparently, the sacked, former employees of Centrelink, were expert at doing this in an efficient and caring way. The computer, using an incorrect template, is not so obliging. To think that Centrelink is sending bogus and threatening messages to one in every five people is appalling.

However, when the Minister for Social Service, Mr (un)Christian Porter, was told of this massive bureaucratic blunder and the great stress it was causing, he showed no sympathy whatsoever. He praised the scheme because it was raising much need money for the government. He blamed the welfare recipients for the problem. Then, assuming the well-practised default position of all LNP politicians when facing criticism, he blamed the Labor Party for the problem.

At the same time, another well fed and well looked after politician, Senator Leyonhjelm, said that all people on a pension should be ashamed of themselves for being so poor. Senator Leyonhjelm often shoots his mouth of without first engaging his brain. In fact, he is a champion of the Shooters Party and says every Australian has the right to own a gun.

Like a lot of people, I was incensed recently, to learn that Federal Minister, Sussan Ley, at taxpayers’ expense flew to the Gold Coast with her partner. She and her partner spent two nights in a Gold Coast hotel, again paid for by the good old, long suffering Australian taxpayer. She justified her taxpayer funded two-day trip to the Gold Coast because she went there to announce a funding plan for a Gold Coast based health programme. Of course, she could have made this announcement in Canberra but she felt she needed to be in the Gold Coast, at taxpayers’ expense. In fact, she and her partner stayed two nights in a Gold Coast hotel at around $380 per night. By the way, an unemployed person on the dole receives about $270 per WEEK in comparison with what a politician gets for one night’s accommodation.

Many politicians, of all parties, receive $390 a night whenever they stay overnight in Canberra. Remember former Treasurer, Joe Hockey. Joe, it was, who famously told Australians that The Age of Entitlement is over. He used to sleep in his wife’s house in Canberra and felt fully entitled to claim $390 for doing so. Joe failed as treasurer so he resigned from Parliament on a huge pension.

He was subsequently appointed as Australian Ambassador to the United States. In this position, he is paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and receives huge perks in addition to his salary. At the same time, he still collects his parliamentary pension. Unlike the poor old welfare recipient on a pension, there is no means test for Joe Hockey. There is no asset test either. He just takes all the money. Not sure how much tax Joe pays. He may even follow Prime Minister Turnbull’s example and park his tax payer generated wealth in the tax-free Cayman Islands.

Clearly, Orwell was right and some pigs are much more equal than others. What is equally clear is that these privileged politicians are quite happy to let their rich millionaire mates continue to grow their wealth without paying any taxes. At the same time, they have declared war on the very poorest people in our country. It is so true of our country that the rich are getting richer and the poor are being hounded for every penny.

What are we doing about this travesty? Well, apparently not much at all. The pliant Australian media lacks any real will to challenge the iniquitous and corrupt practices of our privilege politicians. The average voter seems to think that Pauline Hanson will fix everything up. All Ms Hanson ever does, however, is vote in favour of the ruling party, the very privileged LNP government.

It seems that Australians are pathetic when it comes to political action. We are too laid back, drinking a stubby, watching the cricket or the tennis or lazing on golden sands beside azure blue waters.

Now, if we were in France and French politicians were living in untrammelled luxury and the rest of the citizens were being shafted, then those free thinking, liberty loving Frenchies would be out on the streets, manning the barricades and letting those in charge know that they are our servants and that Equality is not just a word that comes between Liberty and Fraternity.

In fact, I think I can hear those politically aware and highly active Frenchmen marching along right now. Oh, how great it would be if we Australians could also rouse ourselves from our lassitude and take strong action to redress the social inequities in our political system as those young idealistic  activists did so nobly in Les Miserables.

’Do you hear the people sing?

Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes.

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?

Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see.

Unfortunately, our response is “Too right, mate. We all want to see a brighter tomorrow. But today I’m busy watching the Hopman Cup and tomorrow is the final day of the Test match in Sydney.

She'll be right! Hoo Roo.”