Northern Territory Chief Minister Martin woos Japan, seeks to creep Ichthys LNG project up the Western Australia coast, across the NT border

Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin had had top-level talks in Japan aimed at wrestling the multi-billion-dollar Ichthys LNG project away from Western Australia, reported Nigel Wilson, energy writer, for The Australian, (22/9/2007), p. 35.

iPods and portable USB drives remain key threats for data security; self-auditing software walks the line between security and privacy

Speaking in Sydney last week ahead of a conference conducted by Computer Sciences Corporation, Workshare chief executive Joe Fantuzzi said that providing a path into an internal network could be as easy as sending someone a Microsoft Word document, according to Joshua Gliddon, reported The Australian Financial Review (25/9/2007, p. 36).

Santos assumes carbon credits and seeks $275 million freebie for CO2 dump, 60km north of Moomba

According to Nigel Wilson, reporting in The Australian, (19/9/2007 p. 40), the Coal21 conference in the Hunter Valley was told last week the first phase of the plan to store carbon dioxide in a depleted gas reservoir would require a total investment of $700 million.

US suspends all land travel by diplomats and civilian officials in Iraq after law-immune US-paid mercenaries kill 20 Iraqis: Iraq’s Ministry of Defence confirms deaths

The US has suspended all land travel by diplomats and civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the US Embassy’s security provider Blackwater USA, reported The Mercury (20/9/2007, p. 20).

Greens leader wants plebiscites to allow local input on all major infrastructure decisions: pulp mills, desal, nuclear power plants and Queensland council mergers

Amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Democratic Plebiscites) Bill 2007 deserved support, said Greens leader Senator Bob Brown in the Federal Senate on 17 September 2007.

Dunning-Kruger effect: those with low levels of skill generally overestimate their competence while skilled people almost invariably underestimate

The reason the idiot you work for had no idea how bad he was at his job might be due to the Dunning-Kruger effect – almost without fail, those with low levels of skill overestimated their competence, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (22/9/2007, p. 47).

Greg Rudd, banned from lobbying any federal government headed by brother Kevin, gets onto WA government’s register Greg

Rudd, an elder brother of federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd, had just successfully applied, via his lobbying business, Open Door Consulting, to be added to the Western Australian government’s register of lobbyists, reported The Australian Financial Review (25/9/2007, p. 50). What to do when one door closes: The register was introduced after it emerged that Grill and his mate Brian Burke had cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats wrapped around their little fingers. The list of Open Door’s clients published on the register just last week was hardly blue chip, the AFR wrote, but it did show that Rudd was intent on picking up new business in booming WA — especially after Kevin announced that Greg would be banned from lobbying a future Rudd Labor government so as to avoid claims of a conflict of interest. For the record, Open Door’s clients include Ernst & Young, Phoenix Eagle Alcan South Pacific, BlueScope Water, Karcher, Workpac International, Diversified Construction Corporation, Heritage Properties and Hear & Say Centre.

The Australian Financial Review, 25/9/2007, p. 50

Dubai’s staggering construction boom continues; seeks to be future link for Asia, US, Europe

To see Dubai for the first time was to be confronted with a staggering construction boom that in its scope and ambition dwarfed anything the world has seen for decades, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (22/9/2007, p.44). Biggest and boldest: Seemingly out of nowhere, this tiny emirate on the Persian Gulf decided to force its way into the ranks of the world’s great business and tourism centres by building bigger than anyone dreamed possible. The city’s pursuit of the biggest and boldest was a deliberate strategy put in place by its ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al­ Maktoum, whose 20-storey image adorned downtown buildings.

Not just oil: Dubai joined six other emirates to form the United Arab Emirates in 1971. Then Dubai was awash with oil money from reserves dis­covered in the late 1960s but the state had nowhere near the resource potential of its neighbours, so it pursued a different path, aiming to become the financial and trading centre of the Arab world. Today, oil revenues made up less than 5 per cent of the economy. The majority of the 1.4 million people in Dubai were from elsewhere. Most were brought in to work on the more than 5,000 construction sites, mainly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and they did not live in the luxury that surrounded them, but in cramped communal quarters. Others were Western expatriates who worked in finance or property development, or in the burgeon­ing and profitable health-care sector.

Seeks world-hub status: As China and India emerged as the new centres of the global economy, Dubai has, by its own outsized ambition, tried to build itself into the hub that will link Asia with North America and Europe.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 22/9/2007, p. 44

Who Dares Wins: Australian SAS operators were on notice for a possible 2007 invasion of Fiji

Last year the Australian Defence Force’s Special Operations Command was ordered into East Timor. And they were put on notice again for a pos­sible intervention in Fiji following last year’s military coup.

Bank of England offered emergency loans to Northern Rock; customers ignored assurances that bank was solvent, but raced to withdraw more than £2 billion

Last week the Bank of England offered emergency loans to Northern Rock, the nation’s fifth-largest mortgage lender, in­sisting that it was willing to help British banks overcome the liquid­ity crunch but would not under­mine market discipline by bailing out the shareholders of banks that ran into trouble.

China silent on Burma protests, despite heavy investment in resources; India trying to gain oil/gas foothold

China, which had invested heavily in Bur­ma’s extensive resources such as natural gas, remained largely silent on the growing agitation, reported The Australian Financial Review (27/9/2007, p.14). India seeks oil deal: India, which was trying to gain a commercial foothold in Burma, has come under attack as it was a demo­cracy seeking to ignore sanctions already in place against the country. Its Resources Minister, Murli Deora, who travelled to Burma this week to sign an oil exploration deal and begin lobbying for the next deal, became a target for the protesters. This week’s protests came after the government doubled basic fuel prices with no warning, leading to a break­down in public transport services.

The Australian Financial Review, 27/9/2007, p. 14

21 September: Crude oil rallies through $US84 a barrel for the first time in New York; Traders – and Iran – expect $US100 a barrel oil

Crude oil rallied through $US84 a barrel for the first time in New York on Thursday night when the October futures contract expired.

PEG concerns with WP gas benchmarking: allowed cost instead of actual data; “comparing oranges to tangerines”

The Essential Services Commission (ESC) was undertaking a gas access arrangement review (GAAR) for the three gas distribution businesses (GDBs) serving Victoria (Multinet, SPAusnet, and Envestra), noted PEG partner Larry Kaufmann’s response to Worley Parsons Benchmarking Analysis, Victoria (July 2007).

APEC-wide free trade agreement a good idea for future, especially if Doha fails, says Aus Trade Minister

Existing free-trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region could form the basis of an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group-wide free-trade area, said Trade Minister Warren Truss on the eve of a new report on the feasibility of merging existing FTAs, reported The Australian Financial Review (3/9/2007, p.7).

High Court rejects BP’s distinctive green (Pantone 348C) as a trademark

The High Court rejected the petrol giant BP Green’s 16-year battle to register its distinctive green – known as Pantone 348C – as a trademark. Companies that have successfully registered a colour include; • Commonwealth Bank of Australia for its trademark yellow and black;

• Kraft for the silver on its cheese packaging; and

• Tiffany & Co for the distinctive blue on its jewellery boxes.

Burmese protests began after sudden fuel-price rises: now a mass movement against military repression and economic hardship

At least three monks were killed in clashes with Burmese security forces who cracked down on anti­-government protests in Rangoon, reported The Daily Telegraph (27/9/2007, p.27).

Rivals China and Japan in fight to build key infrastructure for WA minerals; open tender between proponents cancels govt-Midwest deal

Midwest was promoting a $3 billion Chinese-financed plan led by Aus­tralian company Yilgarn Infrastruc­ture to build open-access port and rail infrastructure in the mid-west region, touted as the next Pilbara region for Australian iron ore exports, wrote Andrew Burrell in The Australian Financial Review (27/9/2007, p.11).

SP AusNet, Envestra related-company contracts not acceptable for regulated cost as inter-company billing not tested by tender

In the Gas Access Arrangement Review 2008-2012, The Victorian Essential Services Commission, Draft Decision, 28 August 2007 explained why the Commission may not be able to accept a contract payment as evidence of the prudent and efficient costs of providing services as SP AusNet and Envestra had achieved significant reductions in expenditure in 2005 which continued into 2006.

Carbon-exposure survey of Aus companies: BHP, Rio, BlueScope, Qantas account for half top-200 emissions

A survey of the carbon exposures of Australia’s top 200 listed companies conducted for institutional investor VicSuper found three out of four did not disclose comparable emissions data, wrote Peter Hannam in The Age (26/9/2007, p.2).

Hydro Tasmania: 1205GWh of inputs at an average price of $26 over the period since last April, and 422 GWh at an average price of $102/MW on export

Dr David Crean, Chair, Hydro Tasmania, and Vince Hawkesworth chief executive officer, Hydro Tasmania explained in March “we did 205 gigawatt hours of inputs at an average price of $26 over the period since last April, and 422 gigawatt hours at an average price of $102 per megawatt on export.

Proposed Vic enviro protection regs: large commercial and industrial energy, water users to develop Environment and Resource Efficiency Plan (EREP)

Notice was given in accordance with section ii of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 of the proposed making of the Environment Protection (Environment, and Resource Efficiency Plans) Regulations 2007, in The Age (21/9/2007, p.17).

Draft decision by ESC to cut amount Victorian gas suppliers can charge for distribution of natural gas: 10 per cent cut on distribution

A draft decision by the Essential Services Commission (ESC), to cut the amount gas suppliers charge for the distribution of natural gas would reduce average distribution charges by more than 10 per cent, will put some downward pressure on gas bills. The cost of distributing gas represents around 40 per cent of a customer’s gas bill.

Israel and US at war with Syria and Iran: mystery explosion at Syrian military installation near Aleppo followed by 6 September F-15Is bomber attack

The Syria installation where the July 26 explosion occurred is in the same general area as the alSafir site where the Israeli air attack was carried out on September 6 but there has thus far not been any indication of a connection between the two events. Jane’s Defence Weekly, a respected British journal, reported an explosion in a Syrian military installation near Aleppo on July 26 killed 15 Syrian soldiers and dozens of Iranian weapons engineers.

Spaghetti spike: Cost of 1kg of durum flour, used to make pasta, risen in last two months from $A0.43 to $A0.75 result of increasing demand for biofuels

According to Colleen Barry, Italians will soon be paying up to 20 per cent more for their daily serving of pasta, be it fettuccine, linguine or spaghetti, reported The Canberra Times (15/9/2007, p. 21).

Iran unveils new home-grown fighter jet: “Our forces like a thunderbolt will blind the eyes of the enemies of our land”

Iran has unveiled a new home-grown fighter jet amid growing tensions with the United States, and said the plane could “blind the eyes” of its enemies, reported The Canberra Times (22/9/2007, p.15).

“The Iraq war is largely about oil”, says ex-US Fed Reserve chair, Alan Greenspan

 Former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan created another Iraq-related crisis for the Bush Administration, alleging in his new memoir that “the Iraq war is largely about oil”, reported The Canberra Times (18/9/2007, p.7).