POLLIE’S DIARY — 365 SUGGESTIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD

The Pollie’s diary started as a one-year challenge. However, there has not been an overwhelming interest among the public in receiving daily diary entries. So we have lengthened this challenge to a long-term one. We will still aim for 365 entries, but will not attempt to achieve this with one entry every day. Subscribers will receive entries as they are added to the website.

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Diary entry 1:

Set an emissions reduction target of 25% by 2020. Our target of 5% is too low. The Government’s claim that our per capita reduction target is the same as that of Europe may be true, but Europe has done much more than us in reducing emissions. We need to catch up, not stay behind. Besides it should be easy to catch up, as the next 364 days of diary entries will show.

Low-hanging fruit is the easiest and safest fruit to pick off a tree. You don’t need ladders or fancy equipment. In terms of emissions reductions, low-hanging fruit refers to the simple things that we can do to reduce emissions, the stuff Europe has done but we haven’t yet done. We need to start picking the low-hanging fruit.

For more information see our article on the government’s weak target.

Diary Entry 2:
Councils should be required to place recycling bins next to every public rubbish bin. If we wish to encourage people to recycle their cans and papers, we need to provide convenient means for them to do so in public places.

Diary Entry 3:
Once councils comply with yesterday’s regulation and place recycling bins next to every public rubbish bin, it should become illegal for recyclable materials to be placed in public rubbish bins. These items should be taken home and recycled if there is no bin available, in the same manner that rubbish should be taken home and disposed of if there is no bin available. These items would include cans, bottles or newspapers, but would have to exclude scraps of paper or soiled containers. The penalty for this should be equivalent to littering.

Diary Entry 4:
Make public transport free on weekends. People should never consider the car to be a cheaper option, and it currently is for families.

Diary Entry 5:
Train lines from one capital city to another should be expanded and very fast trains introduced.

State governments should then provide a guarantee that any train trip will be 50% cheaper than the cheapest equivalent air-fare. Currently, it is cheaper for me to travel from Melbourne to Sydney on a discounted air-fare than on V-line. This is ludicrous.

Diary Entry 6:
Introduce a national gross-feed in tariff for household renewable energy. Our article on renewable energy includes an explanation of the gross-feed in tariff and the various state tariffs. Such a tariff in Germany has directly led to a massive increase in household solar energy production. We need a national tariff system ASAP and governments need to stop falsely claiming that it will add significant amounts to household electricity bills.

Diary Entry 7:
Introduce a national recycling deposit scheme for cans and bottles. Under such a scheme, a 10 cent levy is applied to every recyclable bottle and can, and the deposit is refunded when the container is returned to a recycling depos. South Australia is the only state in Australia with such a scheme, with a levy of 5 cents a bottle. The national levy should be 10 cents a container, enough to encourage people to return the containers. This will deal with a significant amount of the ‘non-recycling’ problem at public events, as savvy individuals will stay around and collect containers..

Proof that such a scheme works is found in South Australia, which recycles one third more aluminium cans than other states and 85 per cent of glass soft drink bottles, compared to 36 per cent nationally.

Diary Entry 8:
This one will not be popular, but it is necessary: Levies should be applied on all luxury goods which consume large amounts of electricity. Air-conditioners and clothes dryers are far too cheap, and should be more expensive than alternative options of cooling a house (such as awnings, blinds, clothes lines, etc). Levies should be applied to these items to discourage their use.

Diary Entry 9:
Certain basic electrical items that use a significant amount of energy should have a system of levies and/or subsidies applied to encourage purchase of efficient appliances. This would include fridges, televisions and washing machines. This would encourage development and purchase of more efficient appliances.

Diary Entry 10:
Car registration should be graded, so that it is significantly more expensive to register a car with a large engine. We propose three layers of registration: 2 litres and under, 2-3 litres and 3 litres and over. Such a system works very well in Europe, where a car with a 2.2 litre engine is considered a luxury. Exceptions could apply to cars on LPG (and possibly diesel).

Diary Entry 11:
Rebates for water tanks have increased greatly, thanks to the federal government who recently introduced the National Rainwater and Greywater Initiative. Now all our governments need to do is start charging us more for water, so that we pay the real cost of the water we use. To ensure that we all pay for the water we use, low-income families should pay the same amount for their water but be given a generous rebate on the fixed component of their water bills (the sewerage charge). Then it may be cost-effective for people to install rain-water tanks.

Diary Entry 12:
A large proportion of our greenhouse gas emissions comes from the raising of cattle for dairy and food. The government needs to recognise this and to encourage people to eat less beef and lamb. Australians find it hard to get used to vegetarianism or eating kangaroo meat. Goat meat is likely to be a more palatable option – goats require far less land than cows or sheep and they emit significantly less greenhouse gases than cows. Farm development grants or subsidies could be provided to encourage the development of goat farming.

Diary Entry 13:
Plastic is currently graded with a value from 1 to 6 indicating the suitability of the product for recycling - we can call it the RDF (‘recycling difficulty factor’). The number is found inside the recycling symbol. Some councils can recycle all plastics and some can recycle only those with an RDF of 1 to 3 (or 4). The Federal Government should place a levy on the sale of items with plastic packaging with an RDF of 5 or higher.

Diary Entry 14:
Our governments support Envirosavers, who come into homes and replace incandescent globes with energy-efficient compact flourescents. The government should either start a parallel scheme or extend Envirosavers, in order to provide seedlings for householders to plant their own vegetables. This scheme would provide every household with one season’s worth of seedlings, and would encourage people to start growing their own vegetables and to get some experience of the benefits. Agricultural businesses and petrochemical industries may not like the idea but it has to be done if we are to get serious about reducing our carbon emissions.

Diary Entry 15:
Ban the growing genetically modified food in Australia. Genetic engineering is not simply an advanced form of selective breeding — it is a difficult process that our scientists have not yet managed to fully understand, and this lack of understanding is dangerous. The history of genetic modification in foods is full of public health issues, products going to market without adequate testing and contamination of natural farms. In the USA, companies selling genetically modified foods have been proven to be full of corruption and have been found to have inappropriate links with those in positions of power in government. The argument that genetic modification can feed the world has been disproven many times over. Read our article on GE foods to find out more.

Diary Entry 16:
Introduce cheaper public transport tickets for families. Public transport may be cost-effective for an individual, however not often for a family. Each member of the family must purchase a ticket for the day and this makes it very unlikely that any family over a certain size would choose to take public transport. Cheaper public transport for families may reduce our reliance on the car.

Diary Entry 17:
The following suggestion is based on the fact that agriculture is not currently being included in the Australian emissions trading system. The suggestion may appear funny, but it is no joke:

Introduce a wind tax on beef and dairy farms. Cows make an enormous contribution to the nation’s carbon emissions and they do this primarily through their wind. For too long, beef and dairy eaters have been paying far less than the true cost of their food. Such a tax was introduced in New Zealand a few years ago, but it was removed due to public protest. It is time to bring it into Australia. Such a law may sound harsh, but the reality is that the only way most people will change their habits is if it when such activities become too costly. The end result will be people eating less meat, becoming more healthy and living in a cleaner environment.

Please note that this suggestion was not written by a vegan or a vegetarian. I eat meat and dairy in low quantities and am happy to pay the true cost of these foods.

Diary Entry 18:
Remove the plans to cut fuel taxes during the initial years of the emissions trading scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to encourage people to adjust their habits and decrease their ‘polluting activities’. The government wants to give people time to adjust to the emissions trading scheme. However, we would argue that the effect of a jolt in prices will have a greater impact on our travelling habits than a gradual increase in fuel prices. The cut in fuel taxes will actually limit the effectiveness of the scheme.

Diary Entry 19:
Invest in the development of compressed air cars. These cars run on compressed air which is produced from electrical energy. As the air decompresses, the energy released is used to drive the car.

Compressed air cars are much simpler to produce and cheaper to purchase than hybrid or hydrogen cars. Their manufacture produces far less greenhouse gas emissions than that of the alternatives. They have a limited range (up to about 150km), but could replace over 90% of existing car trips.

Diary Entry 20:
Give rebates for the purchase of an air-transfer system designed to keep houses comfortable without fossil fuel energy. These systems transfer air in and out of the roof, in order to warm the house in winter and cool it in summer. These products can remove the need for air-conditioning and heating in some houses, or at least reduce their use, helping people cut down their greenhouse gas emissions.

Diary Entry 21:
Provide subsidies to encourage growth in the organics industry. Organic food is still very expensive, and beyond the reach of some people. It should not be too expensive to eat food free from harmful pesticides and chemicals. The organics industry is a key factor in our attempts to create a society free from fossil fuels, as they provide food that doesn’t use petrochemical sprays and fertilisers.

Diary Entry 22:
This one may be controversial to some, but from an environmental point of view, it has to be done:

Stop chasing free trade agreements with countries all around the world. From a trade point of view there may be advantages to such agreements, but from an environmental point of view, they are disastrous (we won’t mention the effect on poor countries). Free trade agreements encourage the transport of goods all around the world. These are often goods that could be produced at the point of consumption. More free trade agreements means more imported fish, oranges, grapes and biscuits. It also means more jobs will go overseas as companies decide that it is worthwhile to move their production overseas and import the goods to Australia.

Diary Entry 23:
Government should make it mandatory to identify the country of origin on all foods sold in Australia. Packaged goods are always labelled with the country of origin. However, the origin of fruit, vegetables and fresh produce such as cheese and seafood is not always identified. It is very easy to go to a greengrocer or supermarket and buy oranges imported from USA without even knowing it. This should not be possible.

Diary Entry 24:
Ban ‘How to Vote cards’. These cards use a massive amount of paper (and no paper is better than recycled paper). Instead of the cards, how to vote information could be placed behind a piece of (reusable) perspex at the back of each polling booth. Such a ban will save massive amounts of paper. Other side benefits are that it will give the party faithful some time off and make voters feel more comfortable when walking to a polling booth.

Diary Entry 25:
Follow the lead of the Obama family and start a vegetable patch on the lawn of Parliament house. These vegetable patches don’t need to impact on the aesthetic appeal of the lawns. A competition should be started allowing the public to enter suggested designs for the vegetable garden. This would create publicity for the concept, and publicise the importance of growing your own vegetables. Then the vegetables can be used by the caterers at Parliament House.

Diary Entry 26:
Ban the filling of pools with tap water in drought-affected areas. A pool is a luxury item and water in a pool should be filled with purchased recycled water .

Diary Entry 27:
Permits should only be given for pools in drought-affected areas on the condition that a house has a rainwater tank with the appropriate plumbing fittings to enable collection of clean water for filling up or topping up the pool. If you can afford the pool, you can also afford the tank. No rebates would apply to such a tank, as it is being used to fill a pool.

Diary Entry 28:
A large proportion of the revenue from the proposed emissions trading scheme is being directed towards families. Unfortunately, all the funds going to households is being directed towards financial compensation, but not energy efficiency measures. This is missing an opportunity to directly encourage encouraging efficiency and renewable energy generation. The government should put a large portion of the revenue into developing renewable technology infrastructure, better public transport and energy efficiency, as recommended by the Garnaut review.

Diary Entry 29:
Legislation should be put in place to ensure that all Government entities purchase ‘greenpower’.

Diary Entry 30:
Don’t delay the emissions trading scheme. Start it in 2010. Instead of delaying due to the global financial crisis, direct the next stimulus package towards green industry infrastructure. This will provide much needed jobs in the right industries, and will also provide a cushion to lessen the impact of the introduction of carbon trading.

Diary Entry 31:
The mandatory renewable energy scheme is baed on a lie. The scheme aims to ensure that Australia produces 20% of our renewable energy by 2020. But the figure is set at 20% of our current electricity usage (45000Gwh), so if our energy demand increases (as expected), we will be producing less than 20% of our energy from renewable sources. The target must be adjusted each year to take into account our actual energy usage, so that we actually do produce 20% of our electricity from renewable sources in 2020.

Diary Entry 32:
Recently, we called for an honest mandatory renewable energy target. Today we suggest that it should be increased to 30% by 2020. The government also needs to begin making serious investments directly in renewable energy, not relying on private business to do its job. We need government supported wind, solar power and geothermal energy.

Diary Entry 33:
Actively support water recycling rather than desalination. Desalination is very costly and is only chosen because of an irrational fear of drinking recycled water (when in fact all water is recycled already). A simple way to do this is to mandate that all desalination plants must be powered by direct production of green power (i.e., they must produce their own green power and cannot simply buy it). Furthermore, any renewable energy certificates available in relation to production of green power for desalination plants must be voluntarily surrendered (and not sold, as is usual with such certificates). If this is done, the true cost of desalination plants will discourage all investors.

Diary Entry 34:
Overhaul the laws relating to salary sacrifices for cars which lead to a situation where car owners need to travel a certain minimum number of kilometres before the lease becomes cost-effective. There has even been cases where drivers on such a lease have done a long trip by car purely for the economic benefit (not even for the purpose of getting to the destination). A driver should not be encouraged by a tax system to drive more. The system should (if possible) reward drivers for doing less kilometres.

Diary Entry 35:
Plastic is currently graded with a value from 1 to 6 indicating the suitability of the product for recycling – we call it the RDF (‘recycling difficulty factor’). Councils vary in their ability to recycle plastics. An incentive system should be established to encourage upgrade of recycling facilities in local councils with the goal of having all councils being able to recycle any recyclable plastic by 2013.

Diary Entry 36:
The government is working on phasing out disposable shopping bags. They should also be working towards phasing out plastic and foam cups and plates. If coffee can be served in a paper cup, food can be served on paper as well.

Diary Entry 37:
As we mentioned recently, we believe plastic and foam cups and plates should be phased out. We also believe that the government should limit the amount of paper plates and plastic cutlery used. This can be achieved by a simple levy placed on every piece of take-away plates, cups and cutlery bought at a food such as a food court. This will encourage two actions:

1. Food court outlets may start using real plates and cutlery, which everybody will enjoy; and
2. People may bring their own plates and cutlery. Some people may have some health issues with this, but if we are to become serious about catering for the environment, we must deal with our fascination with sanitation.

Diary Entry 38:
Our fascination with sanitation is a major cause of environmental issues. It causes us to over-use chemicals, use too many reusable containers and throw away perfectly good food. Some restaurants no longer give ‘doggy bags’, as they are concerned about being if the customer does not refrigerate the food properly. Some food courts outlets may be concerned about using a customer’s plate (although I have never had this difficulty) as the plate may not be clean and they may be blamed. The government needs to overhaul the legislation surrounding these issues, so that people can save resources without risking legal action.

Diary Entry 39:
Currently, our privately owned utilities make more profits if we use more gas and/or electricity than if we use less. In California, a policy known as ‘decoupling’ has resolved this issue and helped to make it the most energy efficient state in the USA. As the name suggests, the policy breaks the link between energy sales and profits. This removes the disincentives for utilities to provide energy efficiency and conservation among energy customers. It ensures that utilities retain their expected earnings even as energy efficiency programs reduce sales. Click on this link to find out how decoupling works in practice.

Diary Entry 40:
The option for people to salary sacrifice a car creates a perverse incentive for people to drive rather than use public transport. It creates a situation where people who have this option will find it cheaper to drive than to use public transport. The simplest way to resolve this dilemna is to provide similar options for employees to salary sacrifice public transport tickets.

Diary Entry 41:
The following suggestion came from my 11 year old son:
Provide subsidies for recycled paper or apply levies to non-recycled paper. The cost of purchasing recycled paper should not be greater than non-recycled paper. A simple system of levies or will alter this imbalance and encourage more people to purchase recycled paper.

Diary Entry 42:
It is great that the government is providing $1600 to provide ceiling insulation for those without (or for those with an average of R 0.5 insulation or less). However it leaves those of us inadequate insulation literally ‘in the cold’. We suggest a provision of $800 to be made for those with an average ceiling insulation of R 2.0 or less. This would assist people who have purchased or inherited homes with inadequate insulation, enabling them to top this up to a more suitable level of R 3.5 or more.

Diary Entry 43:
This diary entry is for the Victorian state government: Currently, a household can only receive one of each type of core water over the lifetime of the scheme. This means that if somebody purchases a water tank and receives a $150 rebate, they cannot later connect that (or another) tank to the toilet and laundry and receive the remainder of the rebate. So those people will not connect their tank to the toilet and laundry if they are not willing to pay the full amount. The law should be changed to allow people to ‘upgrade’ their rebate. A simple way to do this is to separate the rebates for installation of a tank and its connection to the toilet and/or laundry.

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