Retail Financial Services 2009 on ABC Lateline Business

Doctor Malcolm Edey, Assistant Governor, RBA, spoke at IIR Conferences‘ Retail Financial Services 2009 Forum earlier this week and this event was reported on ABC Lateline Business news.

Progress has been made with National Water Initiative but more needs to be done

The progress and success of the National Water Initiative (NWI) was a topic of discussion at 7th Annual Australian Water Summit held last month.

According to the National Water Commission, the NWI is “Australia’s enduring blueprint for water reform…[and] represents a shared commitment by governments to increase the efficiency of Australia’s water use, leading to greater certainty for investment and productivity, for rural and urban communities, and for the environment.”

The agreement was signed in 2004 by the Australian government and all the state and territory governments.

Chairman and CEO of the National Water Commission, Ken Matthews said Australia’s water supply would be in a more adverse state without the NWI.

“It has initiated a whole lot of things that just would not be happening otherwise,” he said. “A whole lot of reforms processes, management improvements that were overdue and actually have started and in some cases, are finished.”

Demonstrable progress has been made in areas such as groundwater, water accounting, water trading, and urban water security.

However, Mr Matthews admitted there had been delays in implementation in almost every area of water reform which was affecting the progress of other reforms.

A number of urgent problems had also arisen including over-allocation, environmental degradation, the 4 per cent and 10 per cent rule in Victoria, cost recovery commitments by the Government, suspension of water plans and rural adjustment pressures.

“There have been developments since 2004 which are not being properly accommodated and the best example is climate change,” he said. “It now needs to be built more effectively into reforms.”

The NWI also had “forgotten areas” such as risks assignment & compliance and enforcement which had not been developed at all.

Mr Matthews said there were new risks emerging, particularly rural adjustment pressures which was the biggest risk to continuing water reform.

Other issues that needed to be addressed were the mining industry, adjustment arrangements and urban water institutional reforms.

Mr Matthews said there were grounds for reform optimism: the NCI had a plan, unprecedented resources being devoted to water, high levels of political attention and the loyalty of stakeholders.

“It could be different. We could be in a position where governments and important stakeholder groups were resigning from the NWI and we wouldn’t have a plan,” he said. “There are still big opportunities for further reform and big opportunities for improving water management.”

Water shortages, lack of water security, environmental degradation, the increasing impacts on communities and the lack of government agreements were still issues of concern.

Mr Matthew said he was very worried as a citizen that water reform in Australia was not happening fast enough.

“I worry that if it slows down even more, it will grind to a halt altogether,” he said. “[However], I think it’s important to communicate to people that there has been progress. Had there not been a NWC, a lot of things which are happening wouldn’t be happening.”
Managing Director of Yarra Valley Water and Chairman of WaterAid Australia, Tony Kelly said the National Water Commission needed to focus more on rural areas and the way water is managed in those areas.

He said the National Water Commission had been successful in its performance reporting in urban water as there were now national comparisons which act as a stimulus for further improvements.

“In the next three or four years, I think most of the capital cities in Australia will be in a much more secure position after investing 50 billion dollars in new sources.”

However, Mr Kelly said the imbalance between rural and urban areas needed to be addressed.

“On the national level… urban [areas] are only using 10 per cent of Australia’s fresh water and a majority of the balance is used in rural areas,” he said. “The emphasis now needs to be on rural areas and particularly on irrigation usage.”

Older irrigation systems needed to be upgraded as they could not longer meet the needs of modern farming.

Mr Kelly said the biggest national water issue in the next year and a half was the way water was managed in rural areas.

“Improving the efficiency of rural irrigation systems has been a major element in Victoria’s Reform Agenda but much less so in other states,” he said. “What’s happened down here in Victoria is that we have had the urban water users funding improvement in irrigation infrastructure in exchange for a share of the water savings.

The Victorian experience would provide cheap water for urban areas, increased security for farmers and benefit the environment as savings would go back into stress rivers.

In his address, Mr Kelly spoke about the progress of water reform in Victoria and the establishment of a state wide water grid which would link various regions together.

”These linkages really do need to be managed if we are going to exploit the potential of this grid,” he said. “Allying that with the introduction of more competition and third party access in the whole sale end of the system in particular holds great promise for further improvements in Victoria.

The water grid would allow Victoria to optimise their supplies across the state for the benefit of farmers, urban consumers and the environment. In the past this has been compromised by a lack of coordination across utility boundaries and a lack of a state wide perspective experiencing the same water restrictions, he said.

“We will be able to even out the pain a little bit but also when things return back to normal hopefully we will have access to cheaper whole-sale water. That’s got to be good for urban users and farmers because it’s going to keep pressure off the prices.”

NB
Readers may also be interested in a follow-up conference being hosted by IIR Conferences:
Water Pricing & Trading Conference
24–26 August 2009 | Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne
Analysing pricing mechanics of the Australian water market
www.iir.com.au/waterpricing

Terrorism, natural disasters have similar national impacts

TONY PEARCE, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia

Natural disasters are as big an issue as terrorism in the national security context, says Tony Pearce, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia (EMA).

“Natural disasters have very similar impacts, on the economy, the psychology of the nation, on the business sector and on communities generally,” he says in an interview.

Mr Pearce, who is to address the National Security Australia 2009 conference in Sydney in March, says EMA has two roles in managing risks to the community and environment.

“We have the pre-emergency phase where we work with communities, governments, schools and others on identifying risks and developing strategies, publications and education programs to assist in reducing community risk . This also includes coordinating and administering the Australian Government funded Natural Disaster Mitigation Program.

“In the event of an emergency where a state or a territory needs assistance above it’s own capacity, we coordinate the Australian Government response to the emergency and work with the aeffected jurisdiction.”

One objective of EMA is to develop ‘community resilience’, “trying to get the community to a situation where it’s able to bounce back from adversity”.

“It means communities working with government in partnership. It’s the government working with the private sector and non-government organisations in a collective sense to have people understand their risk, to be able to deal with the event and once the issue’s past, to be able to recover from it.”

Mr Pearce says that in his address he will look at the concept of ‘all hazards’ emergency management — the terrorism event as well as natural disasters and the similarities.

“I want to look at the potential consequences of the future risks we’re facing, such as climate change and adapting to climate change and how that’s going to impact on Emergency Management’s response.

“I’ll also look at some lessons we’ve identified from recent events and the community resilience issue.”

www.nationalsecurityaus.com

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews at the National Security Australia 2009 conference please contact: Nigel Dique
Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; nigel.dique@informa.com.au

Get ready for the boom, says minerals industry chief

South Australian communities need to be prepared for the coming mineral boom to avoid the mistakes of other states, says Jason Kuchel, Chief Executive of South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy.

Mr Kuchel will address the Mining South Australia conference in Whyalla on 3-4 December.

A new resource boom is on the way but it will be at least another year or two before South Australia experiences the “full swing”, he says in an interview.

“But the most important thing from South Australia’s point of view is it is and will continue to be very steady growth and it’s growth we can count on.”

Mr Kuchel also expects the demand from Asian economies like China to remain strong in coming years to fuel their domestic growth regardless of a cooling of world economies.

South Australia will not initially have problems supplying the necessary skills and services that it needs as it has not stretched capacity to the limit.

“We have skilled workers who are currently working in WA and Queensland who have their families in South Australia. I think many of those are looking to come home.”

Federal Government approval of the expansion of the Beverly uranium mine was welcome because it will give “greater understanding for other uranium projects in terms of how they should proceed”. However South Australia is fortunate in possessing a broad range of resources from base metals to mineral sands, even coal and oil and gas reserves.

At the Mining South Australia conference, Mr Kuchel will discuss how regional communities can take advantage of resources activity and ensure that other states’ past mistakes are not repeated in terms of social infrastructure and broader economic development.

Other speakers at the conference include Mark Malcolm, Executive Manager for Southern Flinders Ranges Development Board; Steve Arndt, Chief Executive Officer for Whyalla Economic Development Board; Dr Paul Heithersay, Executive Director for Minerals and Energy Resources, PIRSA; Jim Pollock, Mayor of City of Whyalla; and Geoff Brock, Mayor of Port Pirie Council.

Further information: www.iir.com.au/sa

NT a world-class place to explore for minerals

Geological studies reveal the Northern Territory as a world-class place to explore for a large range of commodities, especially uranium-based metals, phosphate, gold and rare earth elements, says Dr Ian Scrimgeour, Director of the Northern Territory Geological Survey.

However the real challenge is extending knowledge in undercover areas, areas covered by thick sedimentary cover, he says.

Dr Scrimgeour, opening speaker at the Mining the Territory conference on 14-15 October at the Darwin Convention Centre, says in an interview he will focus on the NT Government’s $14.4 million Bringing Forward Discovery exploration initiative that aims to assist industry explore remote, under-explored parts of the territory.

“In particular I’ll be focusing on the newly announced successful applications for the first round of our geophysics and drilling collaborations, going through what exploration programs the government will be co-funding and giving tips to companies on how to successfully apply for funding in future rounds,” he says.

“I’ll also be touching on some of the new exciting geoscience data coming out of the initiative including the results of our first major regional gravity survey in central Australia.”

Dr Scrimgeour says Bringing Forward Discovery is all about bringing forward the next major mineral and petroleum discoveries in the territory and also working hard to raise the Territory’s profile as an exploration destination both nationally and internationally.

“We want to lower exploration risks through the provision of high quality geo-science data and prospectivity assessments. We also want to increase the intensity of high risk innovative greenfield exploration by co-funding selected industry exploration programs through a newly announced geo-physics and drilling collaborations program.

“In the geological survey we use a varied and multi-disciplinary approach to assist companies in identifying new exploration opportunities.

“We certainly have a focus in getting our geologists out on the ground in under-explored areas and doing geological mapping and collecting new data such as geochemical analyses, and getting the information out to industry as soon as we can.

“We combine all that data together to compile a framework of the stratigraphy, the tectonics of an area that form the basis of regional prospectivity assessments of an area for the industry.

“We also back this field-based work up with the acquisition of regional geophysics such as magnetics, radiometrics and gravity to allow interpretation of the under-covered geology.

“And we’re moving towards an increased focus on using that geophysical data to produce 3D visualisations of under-covered geology to assist exploration targeting.”

www.iir.com.au/territory

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews contact:

Nigel Dique
Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819;
ndique@iir.com.au

Conference to review SA mining progress

South Australia is entering an exciting new developmental phase, with around $13 billion worth of minerals and energy projects under way.

Leading the charge are BHP Billiton’s $7 billion Olympic Dam project targeting copper, uranium, silver and gold and OZ Minerals’ $775 million Prominent Hill (copper, gold).In addition to copper, uranium, silver and gold, companies have major investments in mining coal, zinc, lead, silver and mineral sands.

Analysts are predicting South Australia has the resources to challenge Western Australia as the country’s leading minerals producer.

“The continued interest in South Australia for exploration reflects the confidence minerals companies have to invest in this State,” says SA Mineral Resources Development Minister Paul Holloway.

Mr Holloway will be a keynote speaker at the Mining South Australia conference in Whyalla on 2-4 December. The conference will be held at the Middleback Theatre, to cope with bigger numbers following last year’s inaugural event that packed in 200 minerals industry representatives from around Australia.

Mr Holloway says investment in exploration reached a record $551.5 million for the 12 months to the end of June, almost level pegging with Queensland, Australia’s other resource-rich boom State.

The need for supporting infrastructure and services is expected to create major opportunities for investment and jobs in mine planning, engineering, procurement and logistics, project and construction management, maintenance, technical support and environmental management.

They’ll also create demand for accommodation, social infrastructure and skills.

These issues will be discussed at Mining South Australia, where speakers from government and industry will provide insights into the outlook for South Australian mining and the economy, and what’s needed to ensure operations proceed smoothly in the interests of South Australia and the nation.

Further information: http://www.iir.com.au/sa

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews please contact: Nigel Dique Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; ndique@iir.com.au

Spotlight on SA Minerals

With around $13 billion worth of minerals and energy projects at various stages of development, including BHP Billiton’s $7 billion Olympic Dam and OZ Minerals’ $775 million Prominent Hill expansions, South Australia offers major opportunities for investment in services.

Insights into what’s unfolding will be provided at the Mining South Australia conference in Whyalla on 2-4 December. The conference will be held at the Middleback Theatre, to cope with bigger numbers following last year’s inaugural event that packed in 200 minerals industry representatives from around Australia.

www.iir.com.au/sa/blog

You can download the PDF version of this article here:

http://www.prlog.org/10109147-spotlight-on-sa-minerals.pdf