The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 7

Page 7. ROBERT DUFFIELD, in Perth, concludes his two-part series on the West Australian poll In a confused electorate, it's image that counts The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, February 8, 1983 issue, as Sir Charles would have. "You have to be realistic," he says, "there are communists out there, but the people do not vote for them. I see no reason why I can't work with the trade-union But what of image? It is the hallmark of Ray O'Connor that he is a simple man. He does not have to work on the differences between himself and Sir Charles; because they are patent.

Charles Court entered the war as a private but returned as a patrician, wielding a baton of indisputable authority. Ray O'Connor still has the air of an NCO: His appeal to the troops is to share his values, not to obey jobs are not there), Burke and his team have concentrated on in-depth policy papers (which few ordinary voters read) and on a series of "decision-makers' lunches" and big-business consultations in the same genre as Labor is attempting at the Federal level. Burke admits that all these elitist efforts might not get through to the voters, "We can only trust that they will see through the Liberals' gimmickry," he says. Brian Burke's unsought image of worried sincerity is perhaps the legacy of his background. He was only eight years old when the great split of 1955 fractured the Labor parties, State and Federal.

The leader in the fight against the Catholic groupers was the legendary F. E. (Joe) Chamberlain, West Australian and Federal secretary of the ALP; one of his victims was Tom Burke, Federal member for Perth since 1942. Tom was Brian's father. "None of that schism remains in Western Australia today," says Brian Burke.

"Not in my shadow Cabinet, not in the West Austra- BRIAN Burke and bis Labor Party must win six Liberal seats to become the Government of Western Australia on February 19. Six seats are vulnerable they will fall to Labor with swings of between 2.2 and 7 per cent. But to win all of them," and without losing any of their own, is a tall order in a State where both big and uniform swings are unusual The most likely outcome is that Labor will win four of those seats, but lose one of its own, thus forcing the Liberal-NCP coalition to rule with a paper-thin majority. The next most likely outcome is that the major parties will break even, leaving the balance of power with the two Assembly representatives of the breakaway rural party, the National Party. (Because of the existence of the National Party, the NCP could not change its name like the branches in other States.) The possibility of an outright Labor victory ranks third.

This is the consensus not of the polls, but of careful analysts testing out the feelings of politicians and observers. The polls have been useless, not because they are wrong, but because they have rightly Identified C' tNf HIP it 1 tiX'YA 1" i 1 I the Image of the alternative leaders. 3i This is why the "Brutus Group" within the parliamentary Liberal -Party was so keen, after the near thing of the 1980 poll, to knife Sir Charles Court before this election. It felt that Sir Charles on the hustings, sermonising about a pricked resources bubble, preaching nuclear power and contronting all those under-the-beds Reds, would be so out of touch with a recession-soured electorate as to cast them all into the wilderness for three elections to come. Sir Charles got the message and contemptuously retired at the end of 1980.

Ray O'Connor, by the way, was not one of the group. The same conventional wisdom brought Brian Burke to the Labor leadership, after each of his two predecessors had been knifed in the party room for the sin of failing to project the image. It could well be, then, that the end of the Court era explains the surge towards Labor, but that surge could be neutralised because so many people have not yet made up their minds between O'Connor and Burke. Ray O'Connor Is a self-made man, and proud of it. He claims to work 100 hours a week, a habit he formed at the age of 24.

His face is rugged, as befits a former boxer whose nickname, recently revived, is Rocky. But it is not a face which betrays the strain one would expect of many years of 100-hour working weeks. "Well," the 56-year-old Premier told me, "I'm fit. I don't really know why I'm fit, because I don't work on it. I guess the secret, really, is that I don't worry.

If work is a worry, it will kill you. But for me, work is the substitute for worry." His first job after leaving school was with Southern Cross Windmills. But after war. service he went out on his own, acquiring a tea-rooms and reception centre, a. second-hand car business and a founding directorship of a building society.

All this was due to hard work, of course, although at one stage there was a bonus a string of lucky wins at the races. But there was no luck involved in his parliamentary career, which began in 1959 as MLA for Mt Law ley and made him by 1980 the most experienced parliamentarian IF Brian Burke can win 1 the Premiership on February 19, he will have done more than exorcise the West Australian cargo cult. He will also have laid to rest the ghosts of 1955. THE 0TII31 ELECTION them. He has made some egregiously naive mistakes since becoming Premier, but he is able to shrug them off.

His simple, unworrying goodwill assumes that the voter has the same goodwill, and many have. But others worry that Ray O'Connor is too superficial; that a Premier should give evidence of deeper thinking. Brian Burke, by contrast, projects an image of being both a thinker and a worrier. He looks much more worried at 35 than O'Connor does at 56. Thi9 is a true image; not necessarily the one he is trying to project.

Burke is a former TV news reporter, and it is this knowledgeable, urbane, professional image which his backers hoped would come across. It hasn't, but the sincere concern which is the real man does come across, and for some reason it comes across better than the equally sincere concern of his sacked predecessors, "Smiling Col" Jamieson and "Nice Guy" Ron Davies. Despite his TV background, Brian Burke doubts the importance of imase, although he readily concedes the importance of leadership in the voters' minds. "They may think I'm too young." he muses, "but the fact is that I have the best potential Cabinet of any party in Australia. They make O'Connor's Liberals look so visionless, so lucklustre, so directionless.

They are ad hoc they just don't know where they want the State to be by the year 2000. We the huge, still undecided swinging vote. The polls show a general increase in support for Labor over 1980, an election which itself converted several safe Liberal seats into marginal ones. So a Labor win is by no means impossible. But any poll-based prediction is confused by the undecided quotient of up to 17 per cent.

If they all go the same way one parly or the other will romp in, but they arc more likely to split. To typify the confusion, one poll showed Labor with a chance to take the Liberal seats of Whitford and Joondalup, although the swings required. 7.4 and 9.1 per cent, are well beyond the normal shift in Western Australian voting patterns. Yet the same poll showed the same voters indicating a preference for the Premier Ray O'Connor over Burke. In other words, they wanted a Labor Government but a Liberal premier.

It is conventional wisdom, in Western Australia more so than elsewhere, that in a confused electorate the deciding factor will be lian branch, not in the Trades and Labour Council. I'm a practising Catholic and so are half-a-dozen of my colleagues. "I'm very proud of my father, who was expelled from the party in 1 957 and reinstated in 1964. "But what 1955 meant to me, when I grew up, was a commitment to the Labor Party, not to any faction." What makes Brian Burke symbolic is that Labor's almost-equal share of West Australian Government over the years ended with the defeat of the Bert Hawke (Bob's uncle) Labor Government in 1959. Since then there has been only one Labor Government in Western Australia J.

T. Tonkin's, from 1971 to 1974. If Brian Burke can win the premiership on February 19, he will have done more than exorcise the West Australian cargo cult. He will also have laid to rest the ghosts of 1955. Brian Burke, 35 a thinker and a worrier.

Ray O'Connor, 56 a simple, self-made man. do." While the Liberals have launched a showy "Job Bank," bringing tomorrow's public works jobs on line today by forward borrowing (but not pausing to ask what happens when tomorrow's arrangements far those at Ringer's Soak, thus doing much to remove the bad taste of Noonkanbah. And, while he took on the unions with laws to ban the closed shop, he has not blown that confrontation up into an election Ray O'Connor tried to do so, after inheriting the premiership in December, 1980, by showing his conciliatory face. He moved quickly to grant a pastoral lease to the Aborigines at Carson River and to make special Parliament until 1959, O'Connor did so, he says, for the same reason as Sir Charles: to see that communism did not erode what they had both fought for. How, then, to present an image other than that of a Court clone? This refers, first, to war service in Bougainville and New Britain, where Sergeant O'Connor's commanding officer was Colonel Charles Court.

And although he did not enter on eitner side ot tne House, Having successfully held 17 ministries. He is, unashamedly, a protege of Sir Charles Court. "After all," he says, "he was my CO for 38 years." RICHARD ECKERSLEY reports on the changing fortunes of solar power fir (i 1 1 ii rpi pMcndffl 3 ontlTs White Cliffs gets liMonfas 3 lion: is finlgBi Montis 3Moj rlo' 1- i i A 3 jMontjis 3Moiiiis- The White Cliffs solar power station. Don't ask yourself why we give the Sirius I a 12 month warranty Ask yourself why the others don't arranged for STC to provide maintenance support, so there can always be an engineer with you in under four hours. Finally, the Sirius is a product of the Victor Business Machine division of the Kidde Corporation, so you know the Sirius is going to be around long after most of its competition is gone.

So why compromise. Invest in a Sirius I and be sure! For more information and the name of your nearest dealer call Barson Computers or fill in the coupon below. The length of warranty is a manufacturers way of expressing faith in the reliability of a product. A short warranty means he doesn't have a lot of faith. So why should you! On the other hand, at Barson Computers, we know our Sirius I is the most rugged micro made, so naturally we give it the industry's longest warranty.

Its failure rate? A tiny .007. But the Sirius I is special for many other reasons. To begin with, it should more properly be called a mini Its Central Processor has a massive THE WHITE Cliffs solar power station is that rare project about which conservatives and radicals in the energy community agree. Both have heaped scorn on It. Mention of the station is apt to bring the response, "Ah, the White Cliffs white elephant." Energy traditionalists have regarded the $1 million-plus project as a fanciful gesture by the Wran Government to greenies and trendies, while many alternative energy enthusiasts have considered it an extravagant piece of high technology draining scarce resources from more promising renewable energy research.

The project won a lot of tion when the Premier, Mr Wran, announced it in September, 1979. It was a symbol of his Government's commitment to renewable energy sources. By the year 2000, Mr Wran said, solar energy could be supplying up to 20 per cent of the State's energy requirements. Times changed. On the world scene, the swing to conservative politics, a temporary oil glut and technical realities dampened solar energy's prospects.

At White Cliffs, the power station ran into problems and over time and over budget. The NSW Government's interest grew more distant: at one time media questions were always referred to the Premier's office; then the Energy Authority was authorised to comment; now, the role of spokesman has been handed to the station's creator. Professor Stephen Kaneff, professor of engineering physics at the Australian National University. The solar power station uses 14 parabolic dish collectors to generate steam at 550 degrees to drive an engine which powers an alternator capable of producing up to 25 kilowatts of electricity enough for the small school and hospital, post office, several houses and street lights, but not for the hotel and store. The ANU team found it had to develop its own steam engine when none of those available proved suitable.

The remoteness Mr Wran wanted the prototype station built in an appropriate setting added to the difficulties and costs. Each trip from Canberra, a return journey of more than costs at least $500. The original proposal had been to link the station to the power grid. At White Cliffs, it has to stand alone, and therefore be able to store power and run automatically. The latest problem to be encountered, and overcome, resulted from the scarcity of water in the town, which meant the station's cooling system had to be modified.

128K bytes of Rapid Access Memory. And this Dear Barson Computers, all that for $5495! Tell me more about the Sirius right away. Name installed kilowatt, White Cliffs about $12,000. He also argues that parabolic dishes are belter suited to modular or incremental construction than solar towers an advantage in today's uncertain energy climate while advances in heat engine design will make them even more economically competitive because they could allow the engines to be placed ut the focus of each dish, improving efficiency and cutting costs. This is not to argue that solar energy will completely displace coal-fired or nuclear power stations.

Solar power might not even be the answer for other remote towns like White Cliffs that now use diesel generators. Recent research suggests, for example, that wind power would be a much cheaper alternative in the west of NSW. And as far as solar technology goes, solar ponds or photovoltaic' cells could turn out to be better ways of generating electricity, although Professor Kaneff doubts this. He says it is not yet clear which option will win the market, and it is possible each will have a place. If the ANU's technology proves not to be the best way to produce solar power, it might still find an application in desalinating or providing industrial heat.

Professor Kaneff believes there has been a lull in public interest in solar energy while the projects begun during the earlier wave of enthusiasm were developed and the problems overcome. 'The conventional picture among the public is that solar energy is in the doldrums. Hut the whole picture of solar energy has changed in the past year or two because of the technological changes which have come to fruition," he said. ''Australia should be getting into the act. The technology is within the grasp of Australia we can do it as well as, if not better than, anyone else." This way the company hopes to avoid locking itself into any long-term expensive power plant projects during the decade, focusing instead on smaller facilities to reduce the risk of miscalculation.

Other utility companies were initially sceptical. When the chairman of Southern California Edison attended a meeting of power utilities shortly after the new policy was announced, the head of another company looked across the table at him and asked, "And what has the tooth fairy brought you this morning?" Today several other US utilities are considering building solar power stations. France's first major, solar power station, generating 2.5 mW, began feeding power into the nation's grid last month. Like Solar One, it is a power tower, using an array of mirrors to focus solar energy on to one central heat collector on top of a giant tower. Other power towers are under construction in Spain, Italy and Japan.

The White Cliffs station uses a different technology in which each parabolic mirror focuses energy on to its own heat absorber, with the steam generated being piped from each mirror to the steam engine and alternator. Last December Professor Kaneff attended a conference at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to discuss developments in parabolic dish solar technology. The technology is used in solar power stations being tested in the American State of Georgia (about 400 kW), and Kuwait (about 100 kW), as well as White Cliffs. Professor Kaneff returned convinced that his technology is the most commercially advanced. He says it is even cheaper, per unit of power produced, than Solar One.

Despite the economics of scale, Solar One cost about $15,000 per Now, finally, the station is ready. Professor Kaneff says; White Cliffs can be plugged in. Last month the station ran up the 100 hours of trouble-free operations required by the Energy Authority before it would take it over, and its officers could well make their final pre-commission inspection this month. In other parts of the world, other solar power stations are being completed, undergoing trials and being commissioned. The world's largest solar power station is the Southern California Edison Company's Solar One.

Like the White Cliffs station, it ran into flak from both sides in the energy debate, being variously described as a "white elephant," a "gold-plated turkey" and "science fiction solar." The US Government, which provided 80 per cent of the $US142 million cost of the station, seriously considered abandoning the project when it was half built. Solar One was dedicated last November and has already met its goal of generating 10 megawatts enough for a town of 6,000 people. Southern California Edison is so impressed with it that it is planning to build another solar power station In times the size without Government support. It hopes to finish it by 1988, when it expects the solar electricity to cost about the same as that from a conventional power plant. The move is part of the company's policy to accelerate the development of solar and other renewable and alternative energy sources in the 1980s.

It now expects more than a third of its added "firm" generating capacity in the next decade will come from co-generation (where industries use their waste heat to generate power and feed it back into the grid) and alternative sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. The pre-1980 estimate was 14 per cent. Company. Address is quickly expandable to 896K and beyond. On the other hand the much vaunted new IBM PC has only 64K bytes of RAM upgradable to 256K.

The Sirius I has superb graphic resolution giving 50 lines of 132 characters as well as half tones. It has ports which enable it to be simultaneously connected to a printer, plotter and other computers. Its application software library sinus of over 400 programmes is the envy of the industry. It speaks every widely used high grade language. Back Barson Computers have i- 1 SiriusLIt does what we say it does.

And brilliandy. Distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand by Barson Computers Pty. Ltd. On nfMftFT Melbourne: 86 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford, Victoria 3067. Telephone 419 3033.

rvT Sydney: 331 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest. N.S.W. 2065. Telephone 436 2764. Auckland; 6 Fox Street, Parnell, Auckland 1.

telephone uuoocoo. Prand MaiMgenutt.