Customers know the rules
In regards to the article on Kmart’s bag search policy, please spare a thought for the staff members assigned to this arduous task.
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They are met with some very grumpy and abusive customers.
A notice is displayed at the entrance to the store advising bags will be checked on leaving. What's your problem, something to hide or can't you read?
As for each item being ticked off, I doubt it.
P Hudgson, Marong
Waste service challenge
I wish Councillor Andrea Metcalfe luck in getting a hard waste collection happening here in the CoGB.
That was one of the platforms of my original bid for council and I was very frustrated at not being able to bring it about over the four years.
Every time I would bring the issue up I'd be told by a director "it's not going to happen", "it would cost too much".
I don't remember any other councillor supporting the idea - they may have - but what the directors want ...
Helen Leach, Bendigo
Truth behind blackouts
It's appallingly simple to say South Australia has experienced repeated, serious blackouts, increases in electricity prices and job losses because of its high rate of renewable energy (“Energy claim flies in face of available evidence”, Bendigo Advertiser, February 18).
But this is a bit like saying Fido has a beautiful new fluffy blanket. Fido limps and has started trying to bite the postman. We'd better get rid of the blanket.
In the real world, the truth is usually petty complicated. It probably is with poor Fido and it certainly is with the electricity network in SA.
Let's start with the blackouts. The September 2016 event was caused by 80,000 lightning strikes, including a direct hit on a power station, and 22 towers flattened by almost cyclonic winds. If SA had been powered by 100 per cent coal the blackouts would still have happened.
The Australian Energy Market Operator's report on this month's blackout reveals a litany of failures, including faulty forecasts, management problems, software issues and failing fossil fuel plants.
Pelican Point (the gas-fired generator waiting on standby) was not turned on; several gas generators failed, some because of the heat and two because of failed electronics; "software issues" meant that three times more people lost power than necessary during the load shedding. It's just as well there is 705 MW of rooftop solar in SA or things would have been a lot worse.
South Australia suffered load shedding in December 2016 and in 2015, in both cases because of interstate network issues. NSW and Queensland, too, have recently suffered similar events, again as a result of network problems or failing gas and coal plants. Nothing to do with renewables.
Renewables are also unfairly blamed for price increases. Interesting then, that the price surges in wind turbine free Queensland have been so much worse than those in SA. Indeed, Energy Australia, one of Australia's largest operators of coal-fired power stations, has recently called for increased renewable energy as the solution to rising power prices.
The fact is that the old coal-fired power stations that have traditionally produced fairly cheap power are all nearing retirement age. In reality, the export of most of our gas inflates its price and hence the price of the power produced from it.
As regards to jobs, employment in renewables is booming worldwide, there are more jobs in solar than in coal even in Australia. However, we are currently missing many opportunities here because of investment uncertainty, the result of the federal government's perverse and, internationally speaking, unusual hostility to renewables.