AusBiz.
NEWS+VIEWS | MINING | AGRIBUSINESS | INFRASTRUCTURE
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12 P.3 buisness news+views p.6 driving diversity in mining P.12 real estate special p.16 farming and mental health p.21 australian wind farming P.26 charity spotlight: careflight P.31 education special
insoles
Business News+Views Maseur has looked after Australian feet for more than 30 years In Australia, 44 per cent of adults report having sore and tired feet. Incorrectly positioned feet can place pressure on knees, hips and spine as your body compensates. Maseur sandals help to reduce this pressure with contours and arches that gently and comfortably help your feet find their optimum position. This may help to relieve stress, tension, pains and aches. Maseur sandals come in two variants: Invigorating and Gentle. Flexible nodules on Maseur Invigorating Massage Sandals are designed to massage and help support healthy circulation, invigorating feet and body. The contoured footbed gently supports arch profiles to facilitate correct position of your feet and help relieve pressure on your body. The cushioning sole provides protection from hard surfaces. Maseur Gentle Massage Sandals alleviate fatigue and help recovery after sport. Its comfort soft straps align to the curvature of your feet and allow for adjustments to fit both narrow and wide feet.
NOW Leasing NT NOW Leasing NTÂ was formed by Joely Sullivan and Joanne Griffiths almost four years ago. They are long-term, experienced Darwin Property Managers with a reputation of providing personal and proactive service to clients in the management and leasing of residential property. In the current market, its commitment to service has the company outperforming its competitors in leasing in under 20 days on average compared to the industry average of 69 days. Managing property in all suburban areas of Darwin, the office in Darwin Corporate Park on the Stuart Highway means NOW Leasing NT are just 15 minutes away from almost any potential appointment. Call today if you have property to lease in the Darwin area on 08 8984 4404, or visit nowleasingnt.com.au OCT/NOV 2019
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Business News+Views
Dust control at its finest – from Pit-to-Port Achieving effective dust control in mines and across the supply chain is an ongoing challenge for operators. Relying on conventional methods alone, such as water carts and lowpressure watering systems, is rarely enough. A combination of customised measures tailored to specific dust issues is required. Dust-A-Side is a global specialist
in dust control management to the mining and resources sector. First established in South Africa in 1973, Dust-A-Side Australia has been in operation since 2005. The business has grown steadily from its core capabilities in dust control management and maintenance of mine haul roads to its current ‘Pit-to-Port’ strategy incorporating custom-designed dust suppression
solutions in fixed plant, freight transport, soil erosion control and road stabilisation. Dust-A-Side Australia operates in Brisbane, Perth and Newcastle and is investing heavily in sales and operational capability to meet demand. For more information, visit dustaside.com.au or call 1800 662 387.
Tropical North Queensland birds exposed from the air Environmental research into the rainforests of Cape York has revealed new insight into the life of large Australian land birds which incubate eggs in large mounds of rotting vegetation, aka megapodes. Hundreds of large megapode nesting mounds, including those of brush turkeys and yellow-footed scrubfowls, have been located by the Airborne Research Institute, using cutting-edge light detection and ranging (LiDAR) techniques. “It’s fascinating to think an eye in the sky can strip away the rainforest with this technology to record and study the terrestrial nesting patterns of Australian brush turkeys on remote parts of the Cape York Peninsula,” says Airborne Research Australia’s chief scientist, Jorg Hacker. LiDAR remote-sensing
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technology has been used across several worldwide archaeological applications, including the discovery of Mayan pyramids in Central America. “Now we have used our configuration of airborne LiDAR to [virtually] ‘remove’ the dense vegetation of the Australian rainforest to ‘see’ what’s on the ground in high resolution when it’s otherwise almost impenetrable to the human eye and aerial photography,” explains Hacker. Backed by the not-for-profit Maxim Foundation, which funds philosophical and environmental research initiatives, the aerial mapping research forms part of a greater biodiversity project in the region. For more information visit airborneresearch.org.au or news.flinders.edu.au
Business News+Views
Celebrating Indigenous Business Month 2019 This October marks the fifth annual Indigenous Business Month. Events will take place around Australia, as well as in New Zealand for the first time this year, celebrating and showcasing the talents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women entrepreneurs from across a diverse range of business sectors. The initiative is headed up by Melbourne Business School’s MURRA Indigenous Business Master Class alumni, with an aim to spark conversations about Indigenous business development and innovation. Since the inception of Indigenous Business Month in 2015, the Indigenous business sector has become one of the fastest growing sectors in Australia.
Regionally based NGOs deliver significant results to local economies New research undertaken by the University of South Australia has shown that for every dollar spent by regionally based Australian NGOs, there is a return of 2.3 times the original dollar value to local communities. The study found that the benefits flowing from NGOs in regional areas extend well beyond the direct services that they provide and play a significant role in reinvigorating local rural and regional economies. Director of the study Dr Catherine Mackenzie explains, “The findings in this study suggest there are enormous social, civic and economic benefits of supporting country based non-government community service organisations and the significant role they play in underpinning and supporting local economies and vibrant communities. They provide residents with something to build a community around and help to counter some of the problems associated with recent regional industrial and social change.�
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Mining
Darren Baguley Darren specialises in the fields of technology, mining, agriculture, energy and business.
Diversity and the mining company boardroom THE MINING INDUSTRY IS FACING CHALLENGING TIMES – PROPONENTS ARGUE DIVERSITY WILL HELP COMPANIES FUTUREPROOF THEMSELVES. The Australian mining industry is in the midst of a once-in-ageneration transition. William Gibson has oft been quoted as saying, “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” And nowhere is this truer than the mining industry. The mine of the future is close enough for its features to be seen and to transition to that future, companies must innovate, unlocking the power of digitisation. To do this they will need to attract a different type of talent. The pace of change in mining’s global operating environment would be enough for any industry to deal with, however mining faces a host of other
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Mining
challenges. Environmental issues and distortions in the economy caused by the long-over mining boom have led to governments, communities, investors and other key stakeholders scrutinising the industry more than ever. According to Deloitte’s ’Tracking the trends 2018’ report, “This level of scrutiny mandates new forms of co-operation and collaboration. To repair broken relationships and tarnished reputations, miners must also explore ways to operate more sustainably. These drivers make it clear that companies will need to make substantive cultural shifts. “Some companies have already taken steps in this direction by engaging in cross-functional collaboration, seeking out best practices from other industries, strengthening their executive teams and setting targets to achieve greater diversity and inclusion. To cement these changes, however, mining companies will also need to ensure that their boards are properly constituted to support transformation.” This new reality presents a challenge
for boards because they need to be able to embrace new operational realities before they can help drive the changes the industry needs. As shareholder activism ramps up, companies are held to higher standards of corporate governance and technological disruption alters industry dynamics, this will be especially critical. In the past directors were focused on oversight, however this notion is also under challenge. Today directors are increasingly expected to weigh in on corporate strategy, and studies show the best boards take a more active role in constructively challenging the executive team than merely fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities. According to Deloitte, “Boards mired in old ways of thinking will increasingly struggle to fulfil this mandate. Although experience can help inform opinions, it can also inhibit directors from questioning their current assumptions – leading to a form of cognitive bias that prevents them from considering non-traditional solutions. “Low levels of diversity among
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Mining
Fast Facts
46.9%
Women comprise 46.9 per cent of all employed persons in Australia.
13.7%
Women hold 13.7 per cent of chair positions, 25.8 per cent of directorships, and represent 17.1 per cent of CEOs.
35.2%
35.2 per cent of boards and governing bodies have no female directors.
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mining board members only complicate the issue by limiting their ability to uncover outside views or challenge their habitual thought processes. Diverse perspectives are necessary if mining boards are to effectively challenge organisational assumptions, assess the validity of new ways of thinking and help determine if the organisation is taking on too much risk, or perhaps not enough.” It’s not just mining companies that have issues with diversity. A recent Australian Institute of Company Directors report claimed that at 29.8 per cent, the ASX200 was just shy of the magic ’tipping point’ of 30 per cent female board representation. According to Swinburne Law School Corporate Governance Research Fellow Helen Bird, further investigation showed that when women who held multiple directorships were only counted once, the number came down to less than 25 per cent. Bird does however emphasise that recent research had shown the mining industry was no worse than any other industry when it came to diversity. “We did a networking study last year, where we looked at board networks
– looking to see what the network effect was,” she explains. “Our initial hypothesis was that female-dominated sectors such as health and education would be where we might see more women on board appointments, but we found no such connection. Gender diversity is an issue across the ASX and it’s not relevant to specific sectors.” Bird adds that it’s not just diversity of gender that’s important, “it’s also skills, ethnicity, cognitive diversity, experiential diversity. Nevertheless, although gender represents a divide of half the population, it doesn’t need to be as messy as we make it sound. Companies simply need to ask: ‘Who is our client base?’ A lot of this diversity stuff is used to make out that it is too complicated and an abyss, when what we need to do is simply sit down and determine who we’re selling to. If half your client base is female dominated, you have to wonder why half your board is not constituted by women. “No business sits still – there’s disruption, transformation and boards are increasingly accountable to a wider range of factors. Mining is a perfect example when considering the need for diversity because it’s a globally
Mining
exposed industry. We need to have a wide range of experiences and points of view if we’re going to identify future risks and opportunities. “In addition, there’s a strange similarity between mining and banking. When all is going well, the focus is on profit and there is little focus on issues beyond the financial cost of the business. Once the boom is over, other questions start to play a part, such as environmental footprint and digital disruption, and you need to have a more complex and diverse analysis of your business.” Deloitte’s ’Tracking the trends 2018’ report made the point that board members are often appointed because of their functional experience/skillset – ie. former mining company C-suite executives, but cautioned that those skills which were valid in the past may not be what the company needs for the future. According to Bird, “Companies need people with a range of skills and to not rely on the idea that a former CEO is a perfect non-executive director. Some studies have shown ex-CEOs are not the best directors because they want to tell the CEO how to do their job. No mining company, no company really, should have a board exclusively made up of ex-CEOs. There’s a natural attraction to stick with what you know, but experiential diversity is important as are reasonable periods of renewal.” Deloitte US Mining and Minerals Consulting Leader Amy Winsor closes the ’Tracking the trends 2018’ report, saying “Mining companies are considering new business models and driving step change through innovation and digitisation. To enable this broader transformation, they need the right board composition. Rather than having a firm grasp of how things were done in the past, today’s board members need to understand how the industry is evolving into the future.” OCT/NOV 2019
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Special Feature
Technology at full throttle for Singapore’s Grand Prix For the second year running, Singapore contractor United E&P was tasked with the preparing the racetrack for the country’s Formula 1 race which took place in September. Unlike many cities that utilise existing race circuits, Singapore transforms some of its city streets into race carworthy surfaces in just a matter of days, shutting down roads for the shortest periods possible to minimise impact to residents, visitors and traffic. To meet the tight deadlines and deliver a track that passed muster with the racing car elite, United E&P partnered with Topcon Positioning Systems’ largest distributor in the Oceania region, Position Partners. Using a full suite of design software, mapping and profiling technology, survey instruments and paving machine
control systems, United E&P began by scanning and modelling the planned track surfaces before optimising a design and paving the tarmac. “We really used every bit of technology we had at our disposal for this job to give a great result in a limited amount of time,” said Mathew Connelly, Position Partners Manger for South-East Asia. The racetrack had a specification governed by global motor sport safety association FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile). “The tolerances on this job were very tight,” said Graham Castle, Construction Manager at United E&P. “We had a riding index that we had to meet, a +/- 3 millimetre tolerance on our levels and also 3 millimetre tolerance under a four metre straight
edge for the paved surface.” United E&P utilised a range of Topcon paving machine control solutions (these steer the paver to deliver the smoothest results, automatically correcting the machine for optimal compaction). Topcon offers a unique machine control system for fine tolerance work including grading and paving applications. Millimetre GPS uses a combination of a high-performance laser transmitter and GNSS positioning technology to create a large working zone that delivers up to 300 per cent greater accuracy than a standard GPS solution alone. With the proven results seen from the Changi Airport project and this year’s Formula 1 track, Castle has been very pleased with the results this year. OCT/NOV 2019
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IMAGE: TOTAL DEVELOPMENT ARTIST IMPRESSION
Train Street Central is ideally located and surrounded by a growing customer base offered by two nearby high schools, primary school, day care centres, expanding retirement village and the established township. The airport at Moruya is 8km away and offers flights to both Sydney and Melbourne. The coastline at Broulee is stunning with golden beaches and sheltered coves and has long been the favoured destination of both locals and visitors from Canberra, Queanbeyan and Country NSW. Interest in this development has brought early sales in both commercial and residential properties. GET ON BOARD AT TRAIN STREET. To register your interest or to find out more, please contact Pat Jameson: 0405 442 905 or the First National office on 02 4472 5566, or email Pat on pat@bbfn.com.au
www.trainstreetcentral.com.au
Special Feature
TRAIN STREET CENTRAL Broulee, South Coast NSW The original vision for Train Street Central to become an exciting mixed-use development and opportunity for local businesses in our community – is now a reality! With all the buzz surrounding the sold-out completion of Stage 1, Train Street Central is now occupied, and businesses are operating! In the past 15-20 years Broulee has transformed from a haven for holiday homes to a community enjoyed by families and retirees alike. Train Street Central will offer more to a community that currently caters for three of the region’s major schools and one of the largest and still expanding retirement villages. It is envisaged that Train Street Central will add a further dimension to the community, creating more infrastructure for local businesses and tourists alike. Train Street Central is located on the corner of Cambridge Crescent and Train Street in Broulee. Train Street Central is divided into
three construction stages, incorporating a mix of office, retail, food spaces and north facing residential units. The concept of this mixed-use development is to act as a village centre mid-point between Moruya and Batemans Bay, catering for the growing population in the region. Stage 2 is comprised of four more luxurious two-storey two-bedroom townhouses and eight commercial units. Concept plans have been prepared for a potential Medical Centre and Café/Food Outlet to show prospective investors and businesses the endless possibilities. To register your interest or to find out more about this unique development becoming Broulee’s commercial hub, please call Pat Jameson on 0405 442 905 or the First National Office on 02 4472 5566. trainstreetcentral.com.au Images by @timtaplinphotography
Stage 2 selling now (Stage 1 sold-out before construction was complete) • Stage 2 – Commercial prices from $345,000 • Stage 2 – Residential priced at $515,000
Local area info • Redevelopment & upgrades of the Moruya Airport; to provide vital economic, social and medical links to Sydney and beyond. • $274M Batemans Bay bridge development providing better connections for commuters within the Eurobodalla region. • 150M Proposed Regional Hospital for Eurobodalla.
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Investment Special
QLD Invest deliver valuable property investments to Australian families Let’s face it, working for the man is good for paying the bills, but to really get ahead, we all know that property investing is a must. As a wise old investor said to me years ago: “This property will never be as cheap as it was when you bought it.” Well, I guess that’s why they call it REAL estate. Where do you start? Seriously! How much research do you need to conduct before you buy a property? When navigating all the contradicting property reports out there, it’s easy to follow the herd, simply because that’s what the herd does. Plus, who has the time to drive across the country investigating every nook and cranny, trying to locate that ‘great deal’? Well, enter Korry from QLD Invest. The really unique thing about what Korry does is he ‘manufactures’ the wealth into the property design. It’s a concept that takes time to wrap your head around. But once you get it, you’ll probably never buy a stock standard property again. QLD Invest was set up by Korry in order to deliver real wealth, to everyday families, through smart property investments.
Korry explains that his team spends most of their time looking at council zoning, and what would be allowable under council rules. Then designing a building that will deliver a specific commercial outcome to the investor. “We deliver a complete package. All the investor needs to do is be prepared to work with the mortgage broker to get the lending in place and sign a few contracts. “We’ve got dozens of clients currently involved in projects which will provide $80,000-$120,000 in immediate uplift, within six to eight months. Not only that, it provides big tax deductions. It’s hard to beat. And an investor on a normal salary can get into high return property, with around $100,000 equity or deposit.” Korry explains: “We named the business QLD Invest because southeast Queensland is in fact one of the best locations for investment at the current time and foreseeable future.
“Many of our projects are returning high weekly rents and incredible returns of 6 to 15 per cent each year. On top of that is the capital growth. One of our clients who wanted to move up from Sydney, is in fact getting a 25 per cent annual return on the project that we delivered. It’s basically allowed the family’s dad to stay at home. That’s life changing, and that’s when I get real satisfaction from my business. We are a family business, and we pride ourselves in helping families secure a great future.” QLD Invest makes the investment process seamless. With every step, from initial discussion through to securing lending, managing the project and getting it rented, the team at QLD Invest support the process at no charge to clients. “We deliver far more than most people would be able to achieve with their own knowledge, and we do it quickly, including high return SMSF property.“ Talking with Korry, you will learn more in three minutes than you may in a lifetime. qldinvest.com.au | 0439 425 855 korry@qldinvest.com.au
Korry and Roma from QLD Invest with their daughters.
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Mental Health
Ian Lloyd Neubauer With nearly 20 years’ journalism experience, Ian is abreast of global news as it happens.
WITHOUT WATER
WE MAY BE THE LUCKY COUNTRY, BUT MANY AUSTRALIANS DON’T FEEL THAT WAY. EVERY DAY, EIGHT PEOPLE IN THIS NATION TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES. 16
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Mental Health
Suicide is a major problem in Australia’s country regions. A recent study by the Centre for Remote and Rural Mental Health found suicide rates in rural areas are more than 50 per cent higher than in capital cities, while the suicide rate for farming men in Australia is actually double that of the general male population. The drought, the worst to have hit Australia in 50 years, is exacerbating the crisis. Research on Australian farmers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America shows a 15 per cent increase in the suicide rate among working-aged men during periods of drought. But the bush is fighting back with a small but determined army of mental health professionals and volunteers who go above and beyond to help farmers in need. We talk to three of them about the modern farmers’ plight and their experience working on the frontlines.
Jenny O’Connell – Leading From Within There are few parts of Australia the drought has hit harder than the Murray-Darling Basin, where below-average rains since the year 2000 have seen 60 per cent of dairy farmers sell up or go broke. “It’s very evident from doing the sums that farming is not viable anymore,” says Jenny O’Connell, a clinical social worker in Shepparton, Victoria. “But for some, especially the intergenerational farmers, their work, their lifestyle and home are all tied up with farming, so quitting the farm means losing everything. And when everything they have is being threatened by drought, vegans, water politics or any other source, their mental health can be compromised. “They feel like failures even though it’s not their fault – it’s the drought’s fault – and there’s a tendency to think there are no options other than suicide; that
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Mental Health
“Leading From Within is based on the principle that instead of internalising trauma, growth can come from traumatic events.” their families will actually be better off without them as they might get a life insurance payout.” During the day, O’Connell is a clinical social worker at a private practice in Shepparton. But at nights and on weekends she runs pro bono trauma-recovery therapy sessions under the name Leading From Within: a non-profit group she and her husband founded in 2000 after conducting an evaluation of the first-sector response to high-profile suicides in the area. “After those suicides, there was massive trauma in the community, but no one was interested in using private or public treatment,” she says. “My husband and I thought there should be a process to help people recover. Leading From Within is based on the principle that instead of internalising trauma and becoming victims with bad mental health, growth can come from traumatic events.” For more information, visit leadingfromwithin.org.au
Mary O’Brien – Are You Bogged Mate?
When a spate of suicides hit Dalby Downs in central Queensland a few years ago, people in the community turned to Mary O’Brien for help. “Friends and neighbours were ringing me to talk, which was great, but I was concerned about my lack of skills,” O’Brien says. “But what I discovered is that professionals from the city didn’t understand country people at all. They say men in the country need to sit down and express their feelings, that the men have to change. But it’s them that need to change their approach, and how they communicate with country men.”
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Are You Bogged Mate? is the manifestation of O’Brien’s research: a one-woman workshop that engages directly with rural men to break down the stigma surrounding mental health problems. “It started as something I tagged onto my work,” she explains. “I travel around the state teaching spray-application technology. Afterwards, I ask the blokes if any of them are feeling bogged, and because they already know me, they listen. My approach is fairly direct. I keep it simple, peel away all the fluffy stuff and talk to them in a language they can understand.” O’Brien reckons farmers are pretty much drought-proof. But it’s not just the lack of rain that’s draining them today. “Most farmers can cope with drought. In some parts it’s been going on for seven or eight years now,” she says. “But now there are new social issues that weren’t around 10 years ago, like the fish kill in the Darling River. There was huge public scrutiny, farmers were blamed for taking too much water from the river, their kids got bullied at school and now they’ve got this vegan activism to deal with. It’s put all this extra pressure on farmers that they don’t need.” For more information, visit areyouboggedmate.com.au
Mental Health
Dianne Gill – Rural Adversity Mental Health Program
“I always thought when the ground gets sick, so do our people. It’s very similar in the Aboriginal culture,” says Dianne Gill, a registered nurse from Condobolin in central NSW. “During the Millennium Drought, I started trying to figure out how we can help our farmers stay well and ended up joining the Drought Mental Health Assistance Package.” When the Millennium Drought ended in 2009, Gill’s work was folded into the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program. “To tell you the truth, the drought never really went away,” she says. “It takes cattle farmers seven years to recover from drought, while orchardists need 15 years to replant and regrow their trees, so even though there were a few good years of rain, for most farmers, the stress never left. Then they’ve got the isolation of modern farming to deal with. Going back a generation or two, you’d have five men working at a property. Today with machinery and the high cost of labour, they work long hours all by themselves. And while they’re very good at looking after their farms, they’re not very good at looking after themselves.” Gill connects with stressed-out farmers at field days, agricultural shows and via referrals from old patients and friends. “I am not a Florence Nightingale-type character,” she says. “I wear jeans and boots, I stand shoulder-toshoulder with farmers and ask them if they’re okay. “I also ask them to think of any mates or neighbours who normally come to these things and aren’t here, and suggest they visit them. I also teach people about the four signs that can indicate someone could be in trouble: a change in their physical appearance, substance abuse, comments about ‘ending it’ and a tendency to not talk – and then when they do talk it’s all negative.” For more information, visit ramhp.com.au
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Agribusiness
BUNCH OF HOT AIR
Ian Lloyd Neubauer With nearly 20 years’ journalism experience, Ian is abreast of global news as it happens.
THE WIND HAS BLOWN BOTH WAYS WHEN IT COMES TO DISCUSSING RENEWABLE ENERGY OPTIONS. HERE’S THE BECALMED TRUTH ON THIS MUCH-MALIGNED SECTOR. OCT/NOV 2019
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Agribusiness
Thanks to exponential leaps in wind turbine technology, wind farming is on track to becoming Australia’s biggest generator of sustainable energy within a few short years.
Agribusiness
Temporal lakes, forested ridges and wide flat country bathed in soft pastel colours. These were the views enjoyed by people commuting between Sydney and Canberra on the Hume Highway for more than 100 years. But shortly after Labor won its last federal election in 2007, the landscape changed with the erection of dozens of massive wind turbines – high-vis proof Labor was keeping their promise to ensure at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply would be generated by renewables by 2020. “This is necessary to protect jobs into the future and also necessary to protect our environment into the future,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said at the time.
Attack of the clones
Fast-forward to 2014. Federal Labor is back in the Opposition and the wind turbines on the Hume Highway are making headlines again – for all the wrong reasons. “I drive to Canberra to go to Parliament… and I must say I find those wind turbines around Lake George to be utterly offensive,” Treasurer Joe Hockey told Macquarie Radio. “I think they’re just a blight on the landscape.” Hockey’s then-boss, PM Tony Abbott, followed through with a one-two punch combination. “When I’ve been up close to these things, not only are they visually awful, but they make a lot of noise,” he told broadcaster Alan Jones, who then alluded wind turbines can cause health problems like insomnia, headaches, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion, anxiety, irritability and depression. Later Jones also repeated a claim that wind farming was flawed because the wind doesn’t blow all the time. “No matter how romantic [modern industrial people] are, they don’t want to return to pre-modern life. I mean, what are you going to do? Live in the dark?” he asked listeners, reminding them yet again that the push for sustainable energy sources would increase the size of their power bills. All these claims are, of course, a bunch of hot air. The utility companies that provide us with power don’t rely on a single electricity source; instead, they use a mix of natural gas, coal, wind, solar and hydroelectric. So, if the wind doesn’t blow on Wednesday, we won’t be left in the dark on Thursday. On the health front, 25 different studies
– including a 2015 review by Australia’s peak medical research body, the NHMRC – have found no evidence wind farms cause adverse health effects. Yet there is ample evidence linking the particulate pollution from coal plants to heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer. And while electricity generated by emerging technologies like wind and solar power costs more than coal or gas, that’s only because there’s no level playing field in Australia. A 2013 report by think tank The Australia Institute found Canberra gives the mining industry $4 billion in subsidies annually, while state governments offer their own subsidies. And if you factor in the cost of air pollution created by burning fossil fuels with something like a carbon tax, wind farming becomes the cheapest source of electricity on the market.
Not in my backyard
Nevertheless, the writing appeared on the wall for wind farming when Hockey issued his rant. Installed capacity – the maximum output of electricity that a generator can produce under ideal conditions – increased by only 10 per cent between 2013 to 2016 compared to 56 per cent in the two previous decades.
Did you know?
Wind turbines reduce the number of fires started by lightning strikes by safely conducting the lightning to earth.
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Agribusiness
but I swear they were paid by coal companies; there’s no other reason why someone would say so many bad things about wind farms – noise, vibrations and shadow flickers. I’ve stood right under a wind turbine and felt the flicker. It did not bother me. “What the wind farm did cause was a lot of friction in the community, because the family who has the turbines on their land, they get $5000 a year for each turbine and there are 26 of them, while the rest of the community only got half a million dollars, which we used to build a park and hall,” Bonet says. “And the people who live right next door to the turbines are very bitter. They got a few perks like free Foxtel for life because they lost their TV reception, and double glazing for their windows to block out the noise. I’ve been to their homes and admit the noise can be bad. But again, if you compare it to living next door to a coal power station, well, you really can’t compare the two.”
Winds are changing
Did you know?
The first practical windmills were in use in Sistan, a region of Iran bordering Afghanistan, in the 9th century.
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In 2017 wind farming took another beating when it was falsely blamed for causing statewide power outages in South Australia after supercell tornadoes crumpled 23 major transmission towers. The culture war in which wind farms have been caught up is best summed up by a mock crowdfunding petition to erect wind turbines on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where Tony Abbott lost his long-held federal seat of Warringah to climate change warrior Zali Steggall in the May 2019 federal election. “It’s only fair that the wake votes in Warringah put up these monstrosities, like those of us who live out in the bonnies do,” commented Mike Trigs, one of 24,000 Australians who signed the petition. But according to Shlomi Bonet, an environmental scientist and farmer who lives 2.5 kilometres from Cullerin Range (one of eight actual or proposed wind farms in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales), having a wind farm in your neighbourhood is no big deal. “What amazed me was the way we were bombarded with so much anti-wind information by lobbyists during the consultation stage,” he says. “I know it sounds like a conspiracy,
Despite the campaign to stop wind farming in Australia, the industry has proven unstoppable. In South Australia, 41 per cent of its power is generated by wind. In Victoria, the figure stands at 25 per cent, while the national average is brushing 7 per cent – almost the same quantity generated by hydropower. But thanks to exponential leaps in wind turbine technology, wind farming is on track to becoming Australia’s biggest generator of sustainable energy within a few short years. There are currently 94 wind farms in Australia with another 24 either under construction or formally approved that will boost combined output by a third when they come online. The not-in-my-backyard phenomena will persist, but could be mitigated by strategies used in Denmark and Germany, like community sharing of rental incomes, free electricity or degrees of local ownership of wind farms. But we can also expect to see more anti-wind scaremongering by populist leaders who use the strategy to lure disenfranchised voters. “Windmills, wheeeee,” US President Donald Trump said during a rally in March 2019. “And if it doesn’t blow, you can forget about television for that night. Darling, I want to watch television. I’m sorry – the wind isn’t blowing!”
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WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT CAREFLIGHT In 1986 CareFlight established Australia’s first dedicated medical emergency helicopter service. Not only does the original rapid response helicopter service continue to serve the community in Sydney, the critical care team model it pioneered has been emulated around the world, making CareFlight an Australian success story in aeromedical training. Doctors teaching doctors
CareFlight was the first organisation in Australia to be accredited by the Specialist Medical Colleges for training doctors in critical care skills outside of a hospital. The doctor training program sets a benchmark both in Australia and internationally. It attracts and trains upwards of 50 specialist doctors each year, who will go on to fly all over the country and beyond, saving lives with CareFlight and many other organisations. For more than 25 years, doctors at the top of their game have been vying for the opportunity to attend what is a unique and independent ‘school’ developed by some of the nation’s most experienced and respected specialist emergency doctors. Today CareFlight trains doctors aboard its helicopters, propeller and jet aeroplanes, as well as in road vehicles.
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Nursing jobs like no other
The extraordinary conditions of Australia’s Top End call for a unique solution. CareFlight doctors, nurses, pilots, engineers, logistics, dispatch and support staff work together as one team, and across all operations. The team is Australia’s only fully integrated aeromedical service, operated on behalf of the Northern Territory Government. CareFlight nurses are on the front line of this busy service; they’re frequently a lifeline for families living in some of the most remote communities on the planet. Training as midwives and in other advanced skills is vital for nurses so they can learn to manage all types of emergencies and save seriously injured and ill adults, children and babies who might be hours away from a hospital.
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Fast Fact CareFlight trains some of the only nurses in the world who undertake downthe-wire rescues from the helicopter, day and night, over land and water. OCT/NOV 2019
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Darwin
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CareFlight’s social purpose and teaching on the ground CareFlight has grown to be one of the best known and most trusted charities in Australia. Its mission is unrelenting: to save lives, speed recovery and serve the community. All of the resources the not-for-profit can muster are strategically directed into growing the charity’s social impact. The helicopter services in Sydney and Darwin are the best-known examples of CareFlight’s social impact funded with community support. In recent times, helped by businesses and individuals, CareFlight’s education programs have branched out to touch the lives of Australians right around the country, and will be expanding into Queensland soon. Highly trained and experienced pre-hospital medical specialists now deliver advanced training to volunteers and clinics in remote communities. Together, it’s about building resilience in remote, rural and regional Australia.
Territory Generation CEO Tim Duignan
“The MediSim Trauma Care Workshops have provided invaluable and potentially life-saving training to those in rural and remote areas, including some of our own employees, who may be the first responders in the event of a serious incident.”
TIO CEO Daryl Madden
“The MediSim program provides potentially life-saving education in some of the most challenging locations in the Northern Territory, and empowering local workers and volunteers with the skills and confidence as first responders is a great outcome for these regions.”
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Cairns
Alice Springs
Brisbane
Perth Sydney Adelaide
Reach of mobile training since 2011 Total MediSim Training Sessions: 352 Total Responders attending: 5,011 We are looking for sponsors to expand our MediSim program into all states including Queensland.
Trauma Care Workshops
CareFlight’s award-winning MediSim program provides medical simulation training to rural and remote emergency service volunteers and workers. Given locals in remote locations are often the first to arrive at the scene of a major trauma incident, CareFlight trains them to deliver pre-hospital emergency care while awaiting the arrival of professional help. Educators use mobile simulation equipment and realistic scenario training to give participants the confidence to take action at an emergency scene that could ultimately save a life. CareFlight instils cutting edge prehospital knowledge and skills in the workshops. Participants are also shown ingenious improvisation techniques that will work on scene, for example to stem serious bleeding or make a splint. Dr Ken Harrison developed Trauma Care Workshops after years flying on the CareFlight helicopter. He was also able to draw on his personal experience of being deployed with CareFlight’s disaster cache to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, experiencing first-hand the need for improvisation due to lack of surgical equipment. More than 5,000 Australians have now been upskilled with MediSim. It continues to be delivered at no cost to participants.
Canberra
Melbourne
Hobart
Sick and injured kids in remote communities
Building lasting resilience is vital in remote and regional communities. CareFlight’s Top End team last year developed an additional clinical training program designed specifically to help sick and injured children in remote and regional settings, particularly Indigenous communities. Over the past year, eight workshops have been delivered at no cost to participants and health clinics. This is largely made possible with financial support from CareFlight’s partners TIO and Territory Generation. Paediatric cases are challenging for all clinicians, particularly when access to specialists is limited. The course was designed to help clinicians diagnose and treat children to ensure they receive the vital treatment they need. Experienced CareFlight nurse and midwife Dean Blackney led development of the course. He said it was designed to share the latest evidence-based knowledge in managing and stabilising unwell and injured children and babies. “Remote area clinicians are well trained, but they don’t see trauma after trauma like those working in a big hospital. Practising their skills can mean the difference between life or death in a lot of situations,” Blackney says.
PARTNERING WITH BUSINESSES TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY
To find out how your business can benefit the community Contact Stewart on 0408 240 785 or at partnership@careflight.org
Train your team in advanced trauma care at your location
Sponsor a trauma-training workshop for first responders
Sponsor CareFlight to boost your brand presence
Education Special
Yanco Agricultural High School Yanco Agricultural High School is a public co-educational residential high school specialling in agriculture. Established in 1922, this unique institution provides a broad, wellbalanced curriculum in a rural setting, beside the Murrumbidgee River just outside Leeton in the Riverina. The school covers 280 hectares, including 180 hectares of intensive irrigation and dry land agriculture, and 60 hectares of natural bushland boarded by the Murrumbidgee. For students who come from farming properties, Yanco is a home-away-from-home. The school runs both sheep and cattle studs and students who are taking equine subjects are able to stable their horse at the school. All students from Year 7 to Year 12 are either weekly or
Yanco Agricultural High School 02 69511500 250 Euroley Road, Yanco, NSW 2705 yancoah-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au yancoag-h.school.nsw.edu.au
full-time boarders. Apart from involvement in local team and sporting competitions, school facilities include a show stock centre, equine arena, tennis, netball and basketball courts, swimming pool, gymnasium, mountain bikes, kayaks and 10 hectares of playing fields. Prospective Year 7 students sit the Selective High School Placement Test in Year 6. Students entering Year 8 to Year 11 should apply directly to the school. Applications are accepted mid-year, although requests outside this time may also be considered. Yanco Agricultural High School will be having Open Days on Monday October 28, 2019 and February 17, 2020. For further information or to arrange a school tour, please contact Yanco Agricultural High School.
Puzzles
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AusBiz.
MIGHTY MONSTROUS SIZABLE TITANIC WHOPPER
Find all the words listed hidden in the grid of letters. They can be found in straight lines up, down, forwards, backwards or even diagonally. Theme: BIG, BIGGER
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GREAT HULKING IMMENSE KING SIZE LARGE MAMMOTH MASSIVE
WORD SEARCH
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BUMPER COLOSSAL CYCLOPS ELEPHANT ENORMOUS GIGANTIC GOLIATH
DOWN 1. For each grade, journalist put on an act (9) 2. Beat a retreat, initially, to pub (3) 3. Weird spade adapted for use by many people (10) 4. One who carries grizzly animal and queen (6) 5. Lord’s wife seen with Chatterley’s lover! (4) 6. Do they break in to steal mice? (3,8) 7. Insert a leader in Russia (5) 13. Anna kissed Dick, said to be anti-government (11) 15. Horse-drawn transport for a theatre instructor (10) 16. Sole position in the way (9) 20. Foil what’s often on the rocks (6) 21. Come before tea to see a heavenly body! (5) 23. Raised cattle, branded, and went (4) 25. Young chap started like a dream (3)
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ACROSS 8. Give lawful permission to call on league allies (8) 9. You can count on it (6) 10. Raft no longer right behind (3) 11. Be salver or be disloyal (6) 12. Temptation changed a bit (4) 14. I leave train games for ships (10) 17. Longed for Ned after 12 months (7) 18. Complaining bitterly about fence (7) 19. Depress some prudish ear? Tenacious! (10) 22. Dashes off other half of code (4) 23. Mistake made by Yogi’s partner (3-3) 24. Cancelled producing child before spring (3) 26. Hope deer is let loose (6) 27. Cook taco mix for parrot (8)
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