Reads page quizzically

Obscene photograph

I read with interest this article by Tim Costello, former CEO of World Vision Australia, and now a fellow with the Centre for Public Christianity at Macquarie University, Australia. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/22/if-scott-morrison-acted-on-his-strong-christian-faith-he-would-phase-out-coal

I have heard Costello speak in person a couple of times, and have read one of his books, Tips from a Travelling Soul Searcher, published in 1999. I also knew about his work with the poor and homeless in Melbourne, as a Baptist minister and former mayor of an inner city council. Having said that, I am confused about his opposition to the Australian coal industry.

Back in the mid 1990s, Victoria was governed by the Kennett government, which held office from 1992 to 1999. Part of its agenda was to privatize public utilities. The State Electricity Commission was a government owned electricity supply company. The Kennett government split the commission up into smaller companies, which were then sold to private enterprise. 

Costello, who then, as now, was a highly sought after social and political commentator, giving regular media interviews, opposed its privatization because he believed that electricity, and the coal used to produce it, presumably,  that should be available to anybody, regardless of their capacity to pay for them, and not controlled by private companies beholden to shareholders. I don't remember him saying anything about renewable energy and climate change back then. 

If I remember correctly, he was also very concerned about the adverse impact that electricity privatization would have on the La Trobe Valley economy. This is precisely what happened. It resulted in thousands of job losses, business closures, a drop in home prices, and an exodus of people, as those with transferrable skills were forced to relocate to find new employment opportunities. The economic impact of this rationalisation is still felt to to the present day. As recently as 2019, these were the findings of analysis of demographic data carried out by the Victorian Department of Education, the census, and demographer, Bernald Salt. 

If Costello had compassion for the La Trobe Valley back then, why does not express it in this article now? He has worked directly with impoverished people both in Australia and overseas, so this is what I can't get my head around. What are the thousands of coal industry workers supposed to do for a crust if Australia's coal industry is shut down, as he argues for here? Where are the alternative jobs they are supposed to transition to? How will welfare services, health, and education be funded without taxation revenue from the coal industry? In short, the impact of closing the coal industry will be more severe than that of privatization, not just in the La Trobe Valley, but in many similar communities all over Australia. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-15/figures-show-latrobe-valley-youth-population-drop/11000784

No ambitions to be a copy editor

Attention to detail is an essential attribute in my line of work. Yet again I noticed more errors in today's edition of The Age. Exhibit one is from an article reporting that Australian businessman Dick Smith being asked to stand as a candidate against Bronwyn Bishop at the next federal election, due to be held some time this year. It states that Smith used to run his National Geographic business from inside the electorate.

The journalist who wrote this article got his wires crossed. Dick Smith founded Australian Geographic magazine and the Australian Geographic Society in 1986, and sold it to Fairfax in 1995. National Geographic magazine and the National Geographic Society were founded in the United States in 1888.

Now for Exhibit 2. I later found an inaccuracy in an article in the business section, analysing Australia's present economic conditions. "We haven't had a recession since late 1991," writes our esteemed journalist. Technically this is correct, because the recession technically ended in the September quarter of that year, but his statement is ambiguous. Statistically speaking, the recession lasted from 1990 to 1991, but it ended much later in Victoria, which was particularly hard hit. The meaning would have been clearer if he had written "we haven't had a recession since 1990-91."

If you aspire to a career in copy editing for print or online, please check the copy for incorrect information, or poorly worded sentences, because automated spell checkers won't fix these for you.

http://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-1990-lessons-from-the-recession-we-didnt-have-to-have-52153

At the bowser

As I drive to and from work on certain days of the week, battling traffic congestion and impatient motorists, amongst other things I ponder the madness of our car-based lifestyle, and the futility of urban planning policies that do little to encourage public transport usage. Petrol prices seem to be increasing all the time. As a solution to ease the financial burden this is placing on the budgets of working families, our federal government is planning to introduce a national Fuelwatch scheme, based on one already operating in Western Australia.

Under this scheme, petrol retailers would be required to give advance notice to the public of changes in petrol prices. I'm no expert on economics, but it is debateable whether this scheme will actually work, and may actually increase prices by forcing smaller independent retailers out of business, reducing competition. The canny motorist can already use MotorMouth and the RACV to find cheaper petrol prices, so I'd question whether or not Fuelwatch is really necessary.

In any event, if current trends continue, other more radical solutions will be needed. This is unsustainable, and in the longer term, some of us, myself included, may need to make some major lifestyle changes to reduce our car usage. One hates to be pessimistic, but unless other renewable fuel sources are no longer withheld from the marketplace, and hybrid vehicles find mass market acceptance, I wonder if it will get to the stage where car ownership becomes unaffordable for those on average incomes.