Peak Oil Australian Senate Enquiry Seminar report

wildilocks

The seminar I attended last night was an unassuming, quite small affair - there were maybe 50-60 people, overwhelmingly male - I think there were 6 women in the group - and half of those were organising things, including the Senator Rachel Siewert. The age demographic was predominantly older, I would guess centering around 50 years old. But there were a few young folks too, though I don't think anyone under 20 - 25. There were several familiar faces, all people I had not seen for many years.

There were three speakers, and the talks were brief and fairly informative. Bruce Robinson gave a general peak oil background with a powerpoint presentation, made some jokes about economists - who never seem to be able to grasp the concept of resources actually running out for some reason [I have had personal experience in this and it really does make you want to hit your head against your desk repeatedly]. His public speaking manner was not terribly engaging, and I imagine most people there were well aware of the issues, though I suppose some people may have come along without knowing much, so it was an appropriate introduction.

The next speaker was Mike Upton from the RAC [Royal Automobile Club]. I was very interested in what he had to say - which started out promising, as he'd been concerned about peak oil for several decades - but his main argument centered on the defeatist statement "you will not be able to make people give up their cars". The way he put it brooked no argument, as if it were completely impossible for the majority of the public to realise how serious the problem will be. Frankly, I was pretty disappointed, but really didn't expect anything different. He proposed alternative fuels, but also realistically gave downsides for each and in the end, agreed there was no easy fix, but did not provide solutions, certainly not intending to try and change people's minds about car ownership. Probably the most important thing was the intention to try and encourage people to drive less - but not give up cars altogether. We have a well placed train network, and there has been a program in place for many years now called Travelsmart which encourages people to drive to train stations, and catch a train the rest of their journey [especially into the city for city workers]. The RAC as part of this gave all members free train tickets last year [I got one, I have a scooter and am a member.] All up, some good, some bad.

The final speaker, and the most engaging, was Rachel Siewert, WA Senator. She outlined the Senate enquiry terms of reference and talked about the submissions that will begin being presented on Tuesday. There were 173 submissions, from various organisations, businesses, and individuals from across the country [have a look at the list - it's pretty impressive!]. It appears WA is actually the most concerned and involved, but there were many from Victoria as well. She did not give any indications on whether the enquiry would actually affect government policy/law, or how. But she did state emphatically that the fact that a Senate enquiry had been achieved, and with a huge number of submissions, was a positive thing for the issue.

We won't know the outcome of the enquiry until June. I'll post about that when the time comes. On the whole, it was a positive experience. While there were few people at the actual meeting it was clear many of them were experts in their fields. I fervently hope this actually produces some firm government action.