AQ: Australian Quarterly 86.4

Vol 86 Issue 4 OC T–DEC 2015

The Race to Renewables Time for Australia's states and territories to shine Does Australia Have a Race Problem?

Disintermediation: Digital Wildfires in the Age of Misinformation

Speciesism

– the Ism that Isn’t

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CONTENTS

Vol 86 Issue 4 Oc t–Dec 2015

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34

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Does Australia have a Race Problem?

Speciesism

Dr Gregory Smithers

Dr Allen Greer

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The Race to Renewables

Disintermediation:

Time for Australia’s states and territories to shine

Digital Wildfires in the Age of Misinformation

Representatives from every state and territory

Alessandro Bessi and Dr Walter Quattrociocchi

– the Ism that Isn’t

IMAGE CREDITS: Please see article placements

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AQ

40 References

COVER IMAGE: © Christos Georghiou - Fotolia.com

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AQ

a word

Australian Quarterly

O

ver the last decade, climate change has become a hard-bitten Federal battleground, full of vacillating legislation, partisan recriminations and scientific disillusionment. The nature of the coverage, and its focus on the major policy points of the Carbon Tax and RET, has entrenching climate change as a Federal-only issue in the public mind.

Thankfully, the weight is shifting away from federally sanctioned-targets, with many of Australia’s states and territories reclaiming climate action as their own.

In this edition of AQ, we take a unique look at The Race to Renewables that is going on across the country; what are each of the states doing to mitigate climate change, which are punching above their weight and which are intentionally dragging their feet?

We invite experts from every corner of the nation to evaluate their region’s renewable energy sectors, and we highlight some of the best technology and companies that Australia is producing. This is what the future of green energy could look like.

Race politics have also been forefront recently, with the campaign for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition hitting a few bumps and the media storm around AFL player, Adam Goodes. Yet history is not too kind on white Australia and Dr Gregory Smithers asks, Does Australia have a race problem?

We also interrogate the nature of Digital Wildfires – the viral transmission of misinformation over the web. The historic gatekeepers of truth and information – the traditional media – have had the keys taken away from them. But with conspiracy theories, spurious science and rumour now travelling at the speed of light on social media, is it now a case of the lunatics taking over the asylum? Italian researchers, Alessandro Bessi and Dr Walter Quattrociocchi discuss their research investigating how misinformation travels in the digital age.

Editor: Grant Mills Assistant Editor: Camille Thomson Design and production: Art Graphic Design, Canberra Printing: Newstyle Printing, SA Subscriptions: www.aips.net.au/aq-magazine/ subscribe enquiries to: Camille Thomson, General Manager, AIPS, PO Box M145, Missenden Road NSW 2050 Australia Phone: +61 (02) 9036 9995 Fax: +61 (02) 9036 9960 Email: info@aips.net.au Website: www.aips.net.au/ aq-magazine/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ AQAustralianQuarterly ISSN 1443-3605

Lastly, biologist Allen Greer turns a critical eye on the concept of ‘speciesism’, the underpinning concept behind much of the modern animal welfare movement.

AQ (Australian Quarterly) is published by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science.

Hopefully you find this edition enlightening, if you have anything to say on any of the articles, you can find us on Facebook (AQAustralianQuarterly) or catch us on Twitter (@AQjournal)

This project is supported by the Commonwealth Government through a grant-in-aid administered by the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

Grant Mills

Editor

Notes for Contributors AQ welcomes submissions of articles and manuscripts on contemporary economic, political, social and philosophical issues, especially where scientific insights have a bearing and where the issues impact on Australian and global public life. All contributions are unpaid. Manuscripts should be original and have not been submitted or published elsewhere, although in negotiation with the Editor, revised prior publications or presentations may be included.

Submissions may be subject to peer review. Word length is between 1000 and 3000 words. Longer and shorter lengths may be considered. Articles should be written and argued clearly so they can be easily read by an informed, but non-specialist, readership. A short biographical note of up to 50 words should accompany the work. The Editor welcomes accompanying images. Authors of published articles are required to assign copyright to the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, including signing of a License to Publish which includes acceptance of online archiving and access through JSTOR (from 2010) or other online publication as negotiated by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. In return, authors have a non exclusive license to publish the paper elsewhere at a future date. The inclusion of references and endnotes is the option of the author. Our preference is for these to be available from the author on request. Otherwise, references, endnotes and abbreviations should be used sparingly and kept to a minimum. Articles appearing in AQ are indexed ABC POL SCI: A Bibliography of Contents: Political Science and Government. The International Political Science Abstracts publishes abstracts of political science articles appearing in AQ. Copyright is owned by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. Persons wishing to reproduce an article, or part thereof, must obtain the Institute’s permission. Contributions should be emailed to: The Editor at info@aips.net.au

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ACN 000 025 507 The AIPS is an independent body which promotes discussion and understanding of political, social and scientific issues in Australia. It is not connected with any political party or sectional group. Opinions expressed in AQ are those of the authors.

Directors of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science: Richard G McLean (Chair) Leon R Beswick Andrew Goodsall Maria Kavallaris Janelle Kyd Suresh Mahalingam Ross McKinnon Peter M McMahon Peter D Rathjen Robert Wells

Does Australia have a Race Problem?

When British comedian John Oliver referred to Australia as “the most comfortably racist place I’ve ever been” in April 2013,1 the response from talk-back radio and cable news was predictably defensive. On 2UE, Paul Murray rejected Oliver’s accusations by insisting that Oliver “probably went and found some nasty people – here in Sydney or other parts of the country” and used them to smear Australia’s reputation.

ARTICLE BY: Dr Gregory Smithers

M

urray’s commentary smacked of classism and the popular belief that only extremists hold racist views.2 No one wants to think they’re racist; what’s more, most people like to think that racism is in the past.

It isn’t. In fact, racism is embedded in Australian history as much as it is encoded in the social and political structures of the twenty-first century.

image: © AnthonyBrewster - Flickr

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Race to Renewables Time for Australia’s states and territories to shine

All renewable energy figures are taken from the CEC’s Clean Energy Report – 2014 unless stated otherwise.1

T

o get the support of the Federal Government and end a long period of policy uncertainty, the large-scale RET had to be reduced from 41,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of renewable generation in 2020 to 33,000 GWh – a drop of about a third on the level of new renewable energy.

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While this is disappointing, it means the amount of renewable energy currently installed across the country will need to double by the end of the decade. Existing jobs will be protected. And tens of thousands of new ones will be created.

The way the RET is structured provides an incentive to build the cheapest kind of renewable energy. This currently means wind power, but large-scale solar is also quickly becoming more competitive.

In the weeks after the amended RET legislation passed the Australian Parliament, the proponents of the Ararat Wind Farm, the Coonooer Bridge Wind Farm, the Collinsville Solar Farm and the White Rock Wind Farm all made announcements that their projects would look to proceed.

ARTICLE BY: Kane Thornton Chief Executive Clean Energy Council

Joining them later were the huge Bulli solar farm in south-west Queensland and the Hornsdale Wind Farm in South Australia.

With $10 billion of investment projected over the next five years, there are big economic opportunities if states and territories are prepared to work towards encouraging businesses to invest.

This point is certainly not lost on South Australia, which has set itself a goal of $10 billion of investment from low carbon generation by 2025, and has already racked up more than $5.5 billion for the state.

The ACT is probably the most ambitious of the states and territories per head of population. It has set a 90 per cent renewable energy target by 2020. It has already run two reverse auctions, one for solar and

IMAGE: ©

After a very tough 18 months, bipartisan support and stability has finally been restored to Australia’s national Renewable Energy Target (RET). And with $40 billion up for grabs, the country’s states and territories are already looking at policies that will attract lucrative renewable energy investment.

Race to Renewables

National How do the states compare?

Electricity Generation across Australia

Estimated percentage contribution of each technology to renewable generation*

NT

.1

QLD

1

WA

1.1

SA

3.5

NSW

.57 Estimated percentage contribution of each technology to renewable generation

*

ACT

Using Victorian per capita generation as a baseline (Vic=1) to demonstrate the magnitude difference of renewable energy generation per state, per head of population.

VIC

1

.2

TAS

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Australia’s Renewable Energy contribution by State

TAS VIC SA QLD

one for wind, with a second wind auction to be held later in 2015. The cheapest viable projects are selected on the basis of their value for consumers, and provided with long-term support.

Queensland and Victoria are looking at the reverse auction idea with interest, but even just moving to provide a more supportive planning framework can make a big difference.

The Victorian Government reversed harsh and arbitrary laws introduced by its former Premier Ted Baillieu, which made the state immediately more appealing for wind energy. The changes halved the minimum setback distance between turbines and houses from 2 km to 1 km, in line with the framework in South Australia

34.7% 17.2% 16.1% 12.9%

NSW WA ACT NT

11.2% 7.8% 0.2% 0.06%

that has proven successful at balancing the needs of communities and project developers.

The New South Wales Government has introduced a Renewable Energy Advocate, and a framework that is designed to encourage renewable projects, while brokering a spirit of collaboration between the government, developers and the community.

Beyond this, there is a suite of looming challenges associated with the move towards a clean and modern energy system. But with the states increasingly interested in the benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency, we are confident that we can work together to overcome them. AQ

In 2014 China saw the world’s biggest investment in renewables energy; a record $83.3 billion, up 39% on 2013. The US and Japan came second and third with $38.3 and $35.7 billion respectively.2 2014 saw renewable energy investment in developing countries rise 36% to $131.3 billion.

This came close to eclipsing the total investment by developed economies, at $138.9 billion.3 In 2013 Australia was ranked 11th in the world for investment in renewables; in 2014 we plummeted to 39th, behind such countries as Sri Lanka and Myanmar.4 In 2014 New Zealand generated 80% of its energy from renewables.5

www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au

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Race to Renewables

The Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory leads the pack when it comes to the race to renewable energy, with a 90% renewable energy target by 2020.

In 2013/2014 the ACT only generated ~64 GWh of renewable energy, primarily from rooftop solar, an approximate 2% of their energy requirements. Yet with their ambitious reverse auctions and the new 20MW Royalla Solar Farm now supplying energy, the ACT is set to quickly overtake the other states in per capita renewable generation.

According to ACT state government costing the total costs per household of achieving 90% renewables are expected to peak in 2020 at about $4 per household per week, offset by savings for households through new energy efficiency measures.

ARTICLE BY: Professor Ken Baldwin Director, ANU Energy Change Institute

www.energy.anu.edu.au

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he ACT is a unique jurisdiction, surrounded by NSW which, with 7.6 million people, has almost 20 times the ACT’s population. In 2013-14 NSW used almost 70 TWh of electrical energy1, while ACT consumed just under 3 TWh2.

This is slightly lower than the population ratio despite ACT residential usage being higher, primarily because NSW industry is more energy intensive.3 But being a small jurisdiction confers some advantages.

To start with, electricity is cheaper in the ACT (20 cents/kWh regulated price) than in NSW (29 cents/kWh regulated price, or 26 cents/kWh market competitive price).3 This is because the ACT is embedded in the surrounding NSW electricity grid, so that network contributions to the electricity bill (almost half in some jurisdictions3) are significantly less for the geographically compact ACT. In the race to renewables, being small and nimble is also important. Since the energy required for the ACT to meet its target is small compared to the National Electricity Market, the ACT has been able to move early and sequester the cheapest renewable energy resources in the country, leaving the more expensive wind resources to the bigger players when they eventually enter the market.

While Canberra’s solar resource is comparable to most capital cities4, the availability of wind energy within the ACT is severely constrained since the vast majority of the wind resource is located in national parks and reserves. Therefore, while the ACT Government solar reverse auction yielded three solar farms totalling 40 MW inside the ACT, the 200 MW wind reverse auction

had to buy from wind farms as far afield as South Australia and Victoria.

But by moving early, the ACT Government has secured the cheapest new-build electricity of any jurisdiction 8.15 c/kWh for the Coonooer Bridge wind farm.5 This is in line with predictions by the Australian Energy Technology Assessment that wind is the cheapest new-build electricity source, and will be followed by large-scale solar post-2020.6 For the past year-and-a-half the Federal Government has created enormous energy policy uncertainty over the Renewable Energy Target (RET), a price on carbon, and the defunding of wind and small scale solar. In this chaotic environment, the ACT Government’s renewable energy program has been the only game in town.

The stability and leadership provided by long-term certainty over the ACT 90% renewable target has enabled investment, whereas elsewhere the renewable energy industry has stalled.

Is the ACT Government on track to meet its target? The answer is yes.7 To achieve this goal the ACT needs 490 MW capacity by 2020. With 20 MW solar at the Royalla solar farm now on line, a further 20 MW solar and 200MW wind will eventuate from the previous reverse auctions.

A further 50 MW from the current next-generation solar scheme will be announced by year’s end. This will be followed by another 200MW wind energy from the reverse auction that opened on August 10th in order to again secure the cheapest national wind resources.

Together with contributions from the federal RET and domestic rooftop solar, the ACT’s 90% target should be readily achieved by 2020. AQ

In 1970, UK-based Richard Ryder became concerned that animals were missing out on the 1960s revolutions against racism, sexism and classism. As a hospital scientist he believed that hundreds of other species suffer fear, pain and distress as much as he did. And while in the bath, he had an epiphany. Humans discriminated against these animals because of “speciesism”1 – a prejudice in favour of our own species. So he wrote and circulated around Oxford University a leaflet in which he asserted, evoking a confused view of Darwinism, “if all organisms are on one physical continuum, then we should also be on the same moral continuum.” He did not elaborate on this assertion, so presumably he assumed its truth was self-evident.

ARTICLE BY: Dr Allen Greer

Speciesism – the Ism that Isn’t

A

philosophy graduate student, Peter Singer, read the leaflet, and in his 1975 book Animal Liberation2 identified “speciesism” as a major unresolved moral issue. The book launched the modern animal welfare movement, and anti-speciesism became a principal tenet of animal welfare philosophy and the animal welfare movement.

As developed in Animal Liberation, the argument against speciesism says that all

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Digital wildfires

Disintermediation:

Digital Wildfires in the Age of Misinformation The quantitative analysis of social traces from online social media has allowed the study of social dynamics at an unprecedented level of resolution. According to the World Economic Forum 2013 report on Global Risks1, one of the most interesting – as well as dangerous – issues our society faces is the virality of false rumours on the web leading to massive digital misinformation.

IMAGE: Jason Howie-Flickr

ARTICLE BY: Alessandro Bessi and Dr Walter Quattrociocchi

I

ndeed such a scenario, when combined with functional illiteracy, such as inadequate reading skills, and confirmation bias, our tendency to select information consistent with one's system of beliefs, can prove a florid environment for ‘digital wildfires’ – i.e, viral phenomena triggered by false or sensitive information online. Recent studies, focusing on the anatomy of misinformation spread online, have pointed out that the selective exposure to specific contents

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Digital wildfires

By selecting, sharing and commenting on information in cyberspace, users leave traces of their behaviour that allow for the understanding of social dynamics from a totally new perspective. leads to narrative based echo-chambers the production of content. Everyone can in which users tend to shape and reinforce produce, report and consume any kind of their beliefs. content without external filters influencing In 2009, Science published a paper entithe way users get informed.3 tled “Computational Social Science” which This has led to several studies theorisdescribed an emerging research field ing and speculating about the concept of aiming at quantitatively studying massive “Collective Intelligence”4,5 i.e. the producsocial phenomena by means of a multition of knowledge emerging from the disciplinary approach based on Computer synergy of people working and discussing Science, Statistics and the Social Sciences. together, on the web, without physical It recognised that by selecting, sharing barriers. As stated, this level of unfiltered and commenting on information in cyberinformation flow prompted the World space, users leave traces of their behaviour Economic Forum, an independent interthat allow for the understanding of social national organisation focused on global dynamics from a totally new perspective. problems, to list “massive digital misinforAlong this path, several mation” as one of advances have been the main threats made with respect for the modern to the understanding society. In particuMassive digital of the driving forces lar the report says behind the diffusion that massive digital misinformation sits at the and consumption of misinformation centre of a constellation contents and rumours sits at the centre on online social media, of a constellation of technological and as well as tracking the of technological emergence of narratives and geopolitical geopolitical risks ranging with respect to socially risks ranging from from terrorism to cyber relevant issues – e.g., terrorism to cyber global warming, politiattacks and the attacks and the failure of cal economy, etc. failure of global The agenda-setting governance.6 global governance. nature of traditional The massive media has been known diffusion of sociofor a long time, in which technical systems a strong correlation and microblogexists between the news reported on by ging platforms has created a direct path the media and the issue being perceived from producers to consumers of content as critical within public opinion.2 Yet the and changed the way in which users are informed, debate, and form their opinions. web brought about a shift of paradigm in

Indeed, everyone can produce or find information consistent with their own system of beliefs. In addition, through social media the selected content is brought to the attention of friends or followers, eventually setting the agenda of the discussion.

Such a shift of paradigm has been dubbed ‘disintermediation’.

This lack of expert mediation, in particular on complex issues, can foster confusion about causation, and thus encourage speculation, rumours, and mistrust. Pages about global conspiracies, chem-trails, UFOs, reptilians, or the link between vaccines and autism proliferate on Facebook creating and promoting alternative narratives often in contrast to the mainstream.

The peculiarity of narratives based on conspiracy theories is that they tend to reduce the complexity of reality and are able to contain the uncertainty they generate.7 However, being in contrast with official and mainstream beliefs, conspiracy theories create (or reflect) a climate of disengagement from mainstream society and from officially recommended practices—e.g. vaccinations, diet, etc.

An environment full of unchecked

IMAGE: www.diygenius.com

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