Metro - Transport (Conduct) Regulations 2005

When one comes down to Melbourne and travels on it's PT (public transport) one may realise that it's not really public transport but corporate owned transport that moves the masses.

When one sees the 'Met Officers', the general public are blissfully unaware of their lawful lack of authority, yet the Met staff harass, intimidate and 'fine' travelers with full support of the corporate media's selective reporting.

A photo taken while on the public transport system is from Metro outlining the following:

It states:

On request these seats must be vacated for use by passengers with special needs.* Penalties Apply.

* 'Special needs' means a person who, because of age, disability, illness or pregnancy has a special requirement to travel in a seat. Transport (Conduct) Regulations 2005.

To the average person this may sound pretty lawful having some substance, as a 'Regulation' was quoted.

The the law person, the "Transport (Conduct) Regulations 2005, have no substance in law.

• A 'Bill' or 'Regulation' has no substance (in law) unless it becomes an 'Act'.

In any event all 'fines' are unlawful, but that can be left to another article.

Panel beater found not guilty of murdering man during attempted burglary

A PANEL beater who killed a would-be burgular with a single shot to the head made a frantic 000 call begging for help. 
 
“I’m just shitting myself,” a panicked Ivan D’Angelo told the emergency services operator in the moments after shooting Wade Vandenberg.

“He’s just lying there, that’s all I can see,” he said.

“I’ve fired a shot and panicked. I didn’t know what to do”.

Mr Vandenberg and two associates planned to break into D’Angelo’s Thomastown workshop to steal parts for his VL Commodore.

Puzzle over car-lover Wade Vandenberg’s death outside auto spray factory in Thomastown

 

Mollie Vandenberg holds a picture of her brother Wade Vandenberg, who was shot dead in a bungled burglary attempt.

 

But their plot was foiled after D’Angelo, who had been sleeping at the workshop, spotted them from his bedroom window.

D’Angelo told police he panicked, grabbed his gun and screamed out at the men from a window before firing.

He said he had not been aiming at the men and had only wanted to scare them.

“Soon as I fired the shot the other two guys ran and this guy’s just dropped,” he said.

“I freaked and I panicked,” he said.

He later called his brother and told him “there were three blokes with poles, I shot and I think I hit one”.

One of the burglars, who cannot be identified, told the jury he never head D’Angelo scream.

He said if he had, he would have fled.

“I just heard a big bang,” the man said.

“I turned around and looked at Wade. He had a hole in his head and blood was just pouring out.

“It took a second or two to realise what really happened. There was nothing we could’ve done.”

A Supreme Court jury today found D’Angelo not guilty of murder.

The verdict followed a Prasad direction by Judge Lex Lasry meaning they could return a not guilty verdict before hearing the defence case.

Following the verdict D’Angelo pleaded guilty to a single count of manslaughter.

The case returns to court on October 7 for a pre-sentence hearing.

D’Angelo has been remanded in custody.

heraldsun.com.au 14 Aug 2014

Another one of those stories where one can get away with murder?

What about the illegal firearm?

The $500-a-day service charge designed to kill solar

Queensland businesses are being hit with daily service charges of more than $500 a day on their electricity bills, in a move the solar industry says is designed to kill the roll-out of commercial-scale rooftop solar across the state.

The charges were quietly unveiled by the Queensland Competition Authority and the state government in July. But their implications are only now being absorbed as business operators do the numbers on proposed solar installations.

The new tariffs affect a range of businesses, but the worst hit are those that use more than 100MWh of electricity a year, and are deemed to be “large energy” users.



In tariff 46, for instance, those daily charges for “service” – originally a charge for reading the meter – have jumped to $488 a day from $42 a day. The “energy” price on consumption is dropped to 10.4c/kWh from 11.6c/kWh. (See right, does not include GST)).

The fixed service charge replaces a “demand charge”, which could vary according to consumption. There is still a demand charge, but only if a customer uses more than a 400kW threshold in any 30 minute interval.

This is how Ergon Energy has structured its tariff 46. With GST, the service charge rises to $537 a day.


The changes have horrified members of the solar industry, businesses looking to install solar, and those who have invested tens of thousands of dollar in energy efficiency measures such as LEDs or upgraded machinery.

That’s because, according to Steve Madson, director of Country Solar, one of the country’s largest installers of commercial-scale solar, the new tariffs reduce any incentive for businesses to lower consumption from the grid, either by installing solar panels for their own use, or by investing in more efficiency machinery and lighting.

Madson says the charges appear designed to stop the rollout of commercial-scale solar in Queensland.

“The changes are clever in their design,” Madson told RenewEconomy. “They do not actually result in an increase in total electricity costs, and in some cases they actually cause a fall. But they kill the possibility of reducing the bills by installing solar.

”How can they charge $500 a day to read the meter, that is what the daily service charge is after all.”

The QCA, and the state government has long been accused of acting only to protect the interests of the network operators and retailers, and to boost the dividends paid to the government.

Last year, as RenewEconomy reported, QCA came out in favour of special tariffs on residential solar customers, even though it admitted that they would be more costly, ineffective, unfair and possibly illegal. But they favoured the move because it would protect network revenues.

The raising of fixed charges has been a common response among utilities fearing the impact of rooftop solar and a “death spiral” of falling revenues on a fixed asset base.

Analysts such as Morgan Stanley have ridiculed the practice of imposing high fixed charges, saying it was ultimately self-defeating and could simply accelerate that death spiral, and encourage people to go off-grid, particularly when battery storage became commercially viable.

“There may be a ‘tipping point’ that causes customers to seek an off-grid approach — higher fixed charges to distributed generation customers are likely to drive more battery purchases and exits from the grid,” the Morgan Stanley researchers wrote.

Madson agrees: “In three years’ time (when battery storage improves), this will also be enough for a mass exodus from the grid altogether.”

It is not the first move by Queensland authorities against rooftop solar. In June, as RenewEconomy revealed at the time, new rules were imposed that allow the network operators to stop businesses and homes from exporting excess electricity from rooftop solar systems back into the grid.

Ergon Energy, which operates in the regional areas that cover 97 per cent of the grid, has admitted that the move could encourage more battery storage - and ultimately consumers to leave the grid, which would not be the most efficient social outcome.

John Grimes, from the Australian Solar Council, says the QCA ruling is discriminatory, and aimed squarely at shutting down solar PV in Queensland.

“It is also really dumb,” Grimes told RenewEconomy. “Commercial and industrial solar is exactly where we should be supporting solar, not locking it out.

“That is because when the sun shines, business is hard at work. Solar is feeding electricity into businesses at exactly the right time, when  the machines spin and the computers run. There is a direct correlation between the production and demand curves for electricity in this sector.

“In turn, this reduces peak demand, bringing wholesale prices down, and delaying or eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades. Queenslanders are already playing a heavy price for past unneeded infrastructure spending.   Now a shortsighted government wants to double up and compound the problem further.”

Madson has crunched the numbers for a number of clients in Queensland on various tariff structures, and how they will be impacted by the changes.

For those transitioning from tariff 20, and using 300kWh a day, the new structure and fixed service fee means the benefits of cutting consumption by one third will narrow from a 30 per cent reduction in the annual electricity bill to just a 10 per cent reduction. To those using more energy, the benefits of reducing consumption by one third will fall to just a 4 reduction in the bill.

These will affect businesses such as motel owners, and any other business with large amounts of air conditioning or refrigeration needs.

“This is a blatant cash grab by the Newman Government,” Madson said.

“The Queensland government is in such a financial mess because of coal, and the forecasted royalties from coal in particular that never eventuated.

”Small and medium business employee the majority of people in our state and yet small and medium businesses are the one constantly being slammed to provide for the short falls in coal revenue. Electricity prices have doubled in 5 years, gas prices are set to triple.

“We have been successful in reducing peak demand which was the all evil 10 years ago causing rolling blackouts all over the state. “With Battery storage coming online in multiple forms we have the opportunity to level our demand which means that no capital will need to be spent on upgrading our network until our population doubles in 140 years!!! This is evident by the huge surge in profits by the networks.

“By preventing businesses investing in renewables and energy efficiency, this government are killing Queensland.”

“These businesses are spending their money in improving the state-owned assets, creating jobs, improving the environment and upgrading in efficient  infrastructure.

“We see that renewables are the push to teach these people that there are better ways and these are measurable, once a business sees the results of going solar they soon reinvest their savings into extra measures to get further reductions which creates more jobs.”

reneweconomy.com.au 15 Aug 2014

Net effect of connection will drive auto phobia

At present, most in-car internet access systems simply stream your mobile phone, but within a few years your new car will have a dedicated SIM card. Source: TheAustralian

 

WHILE Tony Abbott, George Brandis and Malcolm Turnbull dig themselves into an ever-deepening hole attempting to explain their internet privacy policy and allay public fears that it is, in reality, a total invasion of privacy policy, the automotive industry watches with interest. 

At present, most in-car internet access systems simply stream your mobile phone, but within a few years your new car will have a dedicated SIM card — compulsory in new cars in the EU from next year.

It opens up the possibility — some would suggest the certainty — that when you’re driving your connected car, you will be under the same level of surveillance, for good or ill, as when you’re sitting in front of your computer.

This won’t extend merely to the capture of metadata from websites but also to vehicle operating and tracking data automatically collected from your car’s computerised control units and potentially transmitted to all sorts of businesses and government agencies.

An Australian company, Connexion Media, is developing a range of in-car SIM-based internet connectivity products. Chief executive George Parthimos claims such technology can capture “up to 80 streams of data” from the vehicle, which, he told industry newsletter GoAuto, “we can package up and on-sell to third parties who are interested in buying real time data”.

Real-time tracking and data collection will render speed cameras, highway patrols and all other current methods of speed enforcement obsolete, because the moment you exceed the limit your location and speed will be transmitted to a business, probably subcontracted by the relevant state government, which will then generate a penalty notice and email it to you. Just think how much revenue state governments miss out on now because they don’t have the resources to ping every miscreant motorist who breaks the speed limit by a kilometre per hour or two? It must be billions of dollars. Will they be keen to access your in car data? Will they what.

So will insurance companies, because they too will be able to monitor exactly how, where and when you drive your car. This will allow them to turbocharge profitability by precisely tailoring premiums to suit each individual driver, to a far greater extent than they can now. If you never make a claim and drive infrequently, you’ll probably pay less. If you do a lot of driving and cop a few of those pesky speeding infringement emails, you’ll pay more. A lot more.

Then there are the car importers and dealers, your guaranteed new besties in the wired-up automotive universe. You’re driving your Mercedes C Class home from work and it’s about to clock up 50,000km. That’ll be an email from your dealer. Bring it in now and let’s talk trading up to the new model, Frank. (They’ll know your name, of course, and much, much more.)

Legislation specifying what data can be collected from your car, who gets access to it and whether or not you have any say in the matter will be the federal government’s responsibility, under the Telecommunications Act. Can you clarify these issues for us, George? Malcolm?

theaustralian.com.au 14 Aug 2014

Another part of the agenda to monitor and control the mass population.

Centrelink Rent Certificate form (SU523)

Many people have been asking where to obtain a Centrelink Rent Assistance form, officially known as Rent Certificate form (SU523)

Centrelink makes it (deliberately?) difficult to obtain their forms when it comes to making life easier for welfare recipients.

Please find below the form available for download:

Page 1 at 600dpi (2.6MB)

Page 2 at 600dpi (3.1MB)

Page 3 at 600dpi (3.2MB)

Australia faces unprecedented oversupply of energy, no new energy generation needed for 10 years: report

South-eastern Australia will not need to ramp up energy generation for the next 10 years, even under a worst-case scenario, a report says.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) report says Australia is facing an energy glut never before seen in the history of the national electricity market.

It raises serious questions about the ongoing viability of existing coal-fired power stations, but might also result in more pressure on the Federal Government to reduce the Renewable Energy Target (RET).

A spokesman for AEMO, Joe Adamo, says there is no additional generation required to maintain the reliability.

"Now, that's under all three scenarios that we model. So what we're saying is that there's an oversupply of generation capacity at present. It doesn't affect the reliability," he said.

For the next year alone, Australia will produce up to 8,900 megawatts more than is needed. That is around four times the power produced in a year by Australia's largest coal-fired power station.

Electricity use in Australia has been falling now for about four years due to the take-up of rooftop solar systems, greater use of energy-efficient appliances and the downturn in some manufacturing industries that use lots of electricity.

Audio: Listen to David Mark's story (The World Today)

 

The principal consultant of energy strategies with Pitt and Sherry, Hugh Sadler, says the upshot is that if the coal-fired power stations want to stay running, they will be competing in a buyer's market.

"Many of them will have to trade unprofitably as many of them already have been doing for the last year or two," Mr Sadler said.

Just last week energy company HRL announced it would close a small coal-fired power station in Victoria's La Trobe Valley.

"It was one that was kind of earmarked for closure some three or four years ago but was propped up by some of the industry assistance measures of the previous Labor government," the Alternative Technology Association's Damien Moyse said.

"Those measures have now run out and so as soon as they have that power station has found that it's no longer economical to operate.

"That's really because there just isn't the need for so much base load power at the moment," he said.

Energy in oversupply, but prices still rising

Despite the oversupply, Australians have continued to pay more for their electricity.

"The prices have been rising because of the other parts of the cost of electricity, which is the cost of getting it from the boundary of the power station through the meters of all the individual consumers," Mr Sadler said.
"And that's considerably more than half of the total cost of the total electricity that's supplied to households or small businesses.

"That's the part that's been rising very rapidly over the last three or four years."

While all this has been going on, the Federal Government has been reviewing the Renewable Energy Target, which stipulates a certain amount of renewable electricity should be in use by 2020.

The big electricity companies have been lobbying the Government to axe or at least reduce the RET because renewables like wind and solar are hitting their bottom line.

"On a demand basis we don't need any additional investment for generations for some time, and that's what the AEMO report says," Mr Moyse said.

"But the mechanisms that leverage investment into renewable energy and into low-carbon technologies like the Renewable Energy Target are not about, ultimately, providing enough electricity supply to match demand.

"What they're about is industry development and restructure mechanisms. They're trying to, over time, restructure the industry so that more of our generation, irrespective of what the demand level is, comes from renewables or low-carbon technology and less from carbon-intensive generation, such as coal and gas."

At present there are millions of dollars in renewable projects sitting on the shelf while their developers wait to see what the Government does with the RET.

The bottom line, Mr Sadler says, is that there is no future for the large-scale renewable sector in Australia without the RET.

But he says that goes for other technologies too.

"In fact, some of the very new gas-fired power stations are going to be withdrawn from the market in a few months' time even though they are the newest power stations in Australia, apart from the renewable ones, because of the high price of gas means that they can't compete in the current market," he said.

In the meantime, Australians are increasingly voting with their wallets as electricity prices continue to rise.
There are around 1.5 million rooftop solar systems in the country and the number is increasing.

abc.net.au 9 Aug 2014

Ron Paul: US 'likely hiding truth' on downed Malaysian Flight MH17

Ron Paul (AFP Photo / Brendan Smialowski)

Former Congressman Ron Paul said the US knows ‘more than it is telling’ about the Malaysian aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine last month, killing 298 people on board and seriously damaging US-Russian relations in the process.

In an effort to inject some balance of opinion, not to mention pure sanity, into the ongoing debate over what happened to Malaysian Flight MH17, Ron Paul is convinced the US government is withholding information on the catastrophe.

"The US government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a Buk anti-aircraft missile," Paul said on his news website on Thursday.

Ron Paul to Obama: Let’s just leave Ukraine alone!
 
Paul’s comments are in sharp contrast to the echo chamber of one-sided opinion inside Western mainstream media, which has almost unanimously blamed anti-Kiev militia for bringing down the commercial airline. Incredibly, in many cases Washington had nothing to show as evidence to incriminate Russian rebels aside for references to social media.

“We’ve seen that there were heavy weapons moved from Russia to Ukraine, that they have moved into the hands of separatist leaders,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “And according to social media reports, those weapons include the SA-11 [Buk missile] system.”
In another instance, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters “the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions.” When veteran AP reporter Matthew Lee asked for proof, he was to be disappointed.

“I can’t get into the sources and methods behind it,” Harf responded. “I can’t tell you what the information is based on.” Lee said the allegations made by the State Department on Ukraine have fallen far short of “definitive proof.”

Just days after US intelligence officials admitted they had no conclusive evidence to prove Russia was behind the downing of the airliner, Kiev published satellite images as ‘proof’ it didn’t deploy anti-aircraft batteries around the MH17 crash site. However, these images have altered time-stamps and are from the days after the MH17 tragedy, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed, fully discrediting the Ukrainian claims.

In yet another yet-to-be explained event, Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet approaching the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. No acceptable explanation has ever been given by Kiev as to why this fighter aircraft was so close to the doomed passenger jet moments before it was brought down.

“[We] would like to get an explanation as to why the military jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same time and at the same level as a passenger plane,” Russian Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartopolov demanded days after the crash.

Paul has slammed the United States, despite its arsenal of surveillance technologies at its disposal, for its failure to provide a single grain of evidence to solve the mystery of the Malaysian airliner.

"It’s hard to believe that the US, with all of its spy satellites available for monitoring everything in Ukraine, that precise proof of who did what and when is not available," the two-time presidential candidate said.

"Too bad we can’t count on our government to just tell us the truth and show us the evidence," Paul added. "I’m convinced that it knows a lot more than it’s telling us."
Although no sufficient evidence has been presented to prove that the anti-Kiev militia was responsible for the downing of the international flight, such an inconvenient oversight has not stopped the United States and Europe from slapping economic sanctions and travel bans against Russia.

Moscow hit back, saying it would place a ban on agricultural imports from the United States and the European Union. Russia’s tit-for-tat ban will certainly be felt, as food and agricultural imports from the US amounted to $1.3 billion last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2013, meanwhile, the EU’s agricultural exports to Russia totaled 11.8 billion euros ($15.8 billion).

After the crash, Ron Paul was one of a few voices calling for calm as US officials were pointing fingers without a shred of evidence to support their claims. Paul has not been afraid to say the painfully obvious things the US media, for any number of reasons, cannot find the courage to articulate.

“They will not report that the crisis in Ukraine started late last year, when EU and US-supported protesters plotted the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych,” Paul said. “Without US-sponsored ‘regime change,’ it is unlikely that hundreds would have been killed in the unrest that followed. Nor would the Malaysian Airlines crash have happened.”

Paul also found it outrageous that Western media, parroting the government line, has reported that the Malaysian flight must have been downed by “Russian-backed separatists,” because the BUK missile that reportedly brought down the aircraft was Russian made.

“They will not report that the Ukrainian government also uses the exact same Russian-made weapons,” he emphasized.

Comments from article:
  
Prytyn 10.08.2014 21:50

There are very good arguments the Malaysian Boeing that went missing 4 months ago over the Indian ocean is the same Boeing brought down in the Ukraine.Of course the Western media lies its posterior raw but the photos do not lie; there has been blatant swindling with regard to plane ID numbers.The US has gone quiet because the operation has all the incompitant hall marks of 9-11, it being unbeievable hogwash complete with prescient Jews delighting in Western mortalities.

rt.com 10 Aug 2014