…. when the Prime Minister of Australia chooses to ignore the abuse and injustice, in Australia’s own rural and remote communities? (See links).
Children under 5 yrs, left defenseless,
little kids sexually assaulted by abusive adult predators
who ruthlessly exploit woman & children
left deserted to survive under extreme distress and despair.
To: The Honorable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia ... it’s time to act!
Since the last Great Depression of the 1930’s the world has witnessed advances in science, medicine, genetics, technology, education, nutrition, productivity, research and development; all of which have contributed to global prosperity; lifting billions of people out of poverty, extending life expectancy and improving the ‘standard of living’ for once poor and developing countries.
The consequence of this new found prosperity is that the world’s population has grown by an astounding 300% in the last 90 years, with further population growth expected to increase by 25% in the next 30 years to 9.9 billion by 2050. Many Scientists believe that 9 to 10 billion is the maximum carrying capacity of the planet.
It is expected that the continents most likely to experience this population explosion will be Africa and predominantly Asia; with Europe’s ageing population continuing to decline.
The question facing civilization is how long can the globe continue to sustain these rates of population growth, by simply continuing to rely on improved technology to develop the planets stressed and dwindling resources?
This overpopulation trend is causing great consternation at the center of Europe’s Global Financial Establishments, who recognize that a tectonic shift is required; a ‘great reset‘; to reverse the course and impact of population growth.
Sustainability is the excuse for their agenda, however the real reason is ‘power’. The Europeans plan to retain their influence, wealth and relevance, by not allowing future control of ‘Global GDP’ to shift back in favor of the New World and Asian economies; as was the case prior to the Industrial Revolution. The European Financial Elite understand that they cannot control global wealth and power, while the world’s economies are dependent on the top oil producing countries.
If oil production is eliminated, then the economies of USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Canada, who today account for 54% of world output, would be severely impeded. The extremist elite believe that ‘Degrowing Our Economy is A Necessary Climate Solution‘ which essentially advocates for global depopulation.
So, what is the global strategy of the ‘New World Order’ to reduce the planet’s population in the name of ‘Global Ecological Sustainability’? The ‘Building Back Better’ strategies will require severe and extreme authoritarian enforcement measures in the name of ‘climate change’ to purposely reduce global growth, by lowering international trade in ‘energy and resources’ and stalling all levels of production, including coal, oil & gas, (and therefore fertilizers), reducing crop yields; resulting in global shortages of cereals and protein; in fact the source of all nutrition/food produce.
Reduce the world’s food production and naturally, the globe’s population will decline. These harsh measures will have a massive impact on poorer countries, who will not be able to afford the escalating costs of essential commodities. The consequences of orchestrated ‘Food Inflation’ will be the biggest single ‘man-made’ survival issue the globe will contended with and it’s already started.
Highly leveraged economies will breakdown under the weight of their debt, as they will no longer be able to rely on ‘growth at any cost’ to preserve their Ponzi scheme economies. This means many western democratic governments will need to dramatically reduce expenditure and be forced to introduce levels of austerity never experienced before by the current generations.
There will be a concentration of powerful wealthy men, the white privileged, the European elites, from business, politics, academia and civil society, controlling these regressive strategies, the outcome of which will cause catastrophic social upheaval and devastation to the poor economies of the world.
Nations will be priced out of the New World Order and targeted for what looks like ethnocide. The only chance to avoid partial extinction, lies with those countries who have significant, influential and sophisticated military capabilities, who won’t be forced into participating in the self-destructive Fourth Industrial Revolution.
With global life expectancy 72 years, there exists a mismatch with the 30 year objectives of the Great Reset. So it is clear that the Organizations Dealing with Overpopulation Projects will need horrifying plans with harsh, cruel and inhumane consequences, requiring severe strategies to achieve their objectives. Be warned, the powerful survivalist will be completely desensitized by the obscene programs forced upon the oppressed and disenfranchised.
Nothing will stop the European Elite, such as the ‘World Economic Forum’ from rolling out their ‘Great Reset’, where you will be happy owning nothing as world economies degrowth towards ‘Net Zero Emissions by 2050’.
History will once again repeats itself! Remove the ability to have a cost-effective means to heat and nourish the population and you have a structured and purposeful plan, for what can only be called an orchestrated culling of the population. This will be caused by mass malnutrition, starvation and famine.
‘Net Zero Emissions by 2050’ sounds trendy to the Superclass, the apathetic wealthy, the political elite, socialists and all those who now stand to gain great wealth from government’s green subsidies. These ‘opportunistic environmentalists’ are currently forcefully leaning on weak world leaders to sign up to unachievable emission commitments; obligations that will impoverish their nations, well before they can be held accountable for their treachery.
The industrial complexes and global financial establishments are threatening harsh adverse ‘market forces’ against those who think they have no alternative, but to act against the best interests of the people they supposedly represent! It’s a shakedown!
This is the New World Order; the Great Reset; the Fourth Industrial Revolution; the Building Back Better; Extinction Rebellion agenda’s, that only Russia and China are unwilling to participate in; because they are smart enough not to agree to scuttle their economies.
Russia and China have experienced ‘cold and hunger’ first hand and with catastrophic consequences. They will not be in a hurry to participate in surrendering the gains and prosperity they have acquired during the 20/21st centuries.
The European ‘Green Politics’ has weakened the State and treacherously maneuvered the globe towards conflict. The Build Back Better, the Great Reset, the New World Order is upon us, the outcomes of which will be predictably apocalyptic. This is the theoretical end-game, however when faced with the actual reality of war, these non-egalitarian Justice Warrior’s and their ‘no borders’ extremists doctrine and non-violent ideology; will cower under the guise of ‘conscientious objectors‘, refusing to fight to defend their nations sovereignty.
13 October 2021
“To be selfish, greedy and unwilling to help the needy gives rise to future starvation and clothlessness” Gautama Buddha.
What is going on in Australia, with the Government’s violent repressive attacks against demonstrator’s in Melbourne, citizens who were simply exercising their rights to protest for our LIBERTY and FREEDOMS against unjust and tyrannical government regulations?
Melbourne is the capital city of the State of Victoria, once known as the world’s most liveable city; now it’s infamous as an authoritarian, oppressive city with the world’s longest COVID-19 hard lock-down and curfew; brutally enforced by the State’s militarized and overtly politicized police force.
No wonder the city’s disenfranchised citizens are demanding their Freedoms back. Look at the ‘Human Cost’ of lock-downs! With the exception of ‘Essential Services’, the population has been in lock-down for approximately a year and prevented from working or allowed to open their businesses.
Many have lost their livelihoods and struggling to keep a roof over their family’s heads. Their children are left isolated with home-schooling; household’s are splinter, stressed from being forced into welfare dependency and the indignity of needing to rely on charity. Mental health issues have soared, with overwhelmed hotline’s flooded with cases of anxiety, depression and suicide prevention.
The long-term damage to the country’s economy, the personal financial hardship, the forced social-disconnect, plus the mental health considerations courtesy of prolonged lock-downs, will potentially be more damaging than the actual COVID virus i.e., the cure has become more harmful than the disease!
Critically, when COVID infection rates were low, there were no strategies to minimize lock-downs, in fact the opposite occurred. State Politicians actually slowed down the rate of vaccine roll-outs and failed to beef-up the capacity of Hospitals and Medical facilities, at a time when the warnings from the early modelling (April 2020) predicted “peak daily Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed demand is 35,000, which would greatly exceed Australia’s expanded capacity of 7,000 ICU beds“.
Dragging their feet, distorting the truth, cultivating ‘public fear’, quelling civil liberties and prolonging lock-downs; where all strategies to suppress political opposition and conceal mistakes, particularly those blunders made with ‘contact tracing’ and ‘hotel quarantine’ which was linked to 801 deaths. These ‘deceptions’ helped cover up the governments continuous incompetence, while securing political tenure.
COVID-19 was politicized when the vaccination roll-out was slowed to extend lock-downs. This was done by surreptitiously planting ‘seeds of doubt’ in the public’s mind, about the safety or efficacy of the only vaccine available in the country at the time – AstraZeneca.
The public were convinced the risks were too high, which persuaded many people to delay getting vaccinated until alternative products were made available in Australia. The State manipulated ‘community anxiety’ using fear to control a compliant public into accepting extended lock-downs!
The deception around misrepresenting the risks associated with the AstraZeneca was a national disgrace, as Australia allowed precious vials of vaccines to expire on the shelf, while hundreds of thousands of people in neighbouring countries were dying from the virus.
Adding to the public’s ‘fear factor’ were the daily roll-outs of the worsening COVID ‘infection rates’, which mathematically can only go up when the population was largely unvaccinated. Far better to monitor the ‘hospitalization and mortality’ rates of those who are normally healthy and vaccinated; but these statistics were never used as a realistic measure to unwind lock-downs and encourage people to get vaccinated.
The welfare costs of Victoria’s lock-downs are paid by the Federal Government, their political opponents. So, having your adversaries picking up the costs and taking the blame for your mistakes, was another motivation for the State government to go slow. That was a blatant weaponizing of COVID for political gain, all at the expense of the citizens; the good people of Victoria’ and those who died unnecessarily.
It has taken a long time for the Victorian public to wake up and realize that their government had no plans or exit strategy to get out of lock-downs. As the rest of the world started to return to something resembling ‘normality’ the people of Victoria realized that their government had managed to orchestrate an unmitigated disaster, where peoples Freedom were stolen, thousands unnecessarily lost their livelihoods and hundreds lost their lives.
What is raising eyebrows around the world are the harsh and especially brutal measures the Victorian State government has taken against ‘Freedom’ protesters; tougher than ever seen before. The government has squashed dissenting citizens in the most abhorrent and repugnant manner, in what was considered a civilized democratic society. Witnessing the full force of a militarized police, set upon ordinary people seeking to exercise their democratic right, to defend and preserve what was once a ‘birth right’ in Australia … shocked the world.
The State’s disproportionate and violent force was akin to combat, where armored Police pepper sprayed elderly woman, and using tear gas and rubber bullets against ‘the people’ to quash any public decent against the government’s draconian laws. The State government is using the Police to arrest and jail their political opponents, with questionable charges like ‘incitement – to break a fineable offence’ resulting in 22 days of imprisonment. Even the judiciary is embarrassed about having to deal with a pregnant woman, who the Victorian police arrested after storming into her home and handcuffing her in front of her partner and children. Her crime was to make an anti lock-down comment on Facebook.
It is clear that some Police are not comfortable with the level of overreach they are being ordered to participate in on behalf of the State. I cannot recall ever witnessing State Police randomly firing rubber bullets into the backs of retreating protesters before; or jailing political opponents; or arresting a heavily pregnant Mum for a Facebook post, certainly not in Australia!
So, why the double standards when ‘Freedom’ marchers are ‘shot’ and BLM protesters are only fined or threatened with fines? Why is the Premier taking the ‘Freedom’ civil disobedience so personally? Is it a ploy; a convenient distraction to deflect the public’s attention away from media stories, that the Premier, won’t stand down over reports that The Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission were probing past dealings?
It was the Leader of the Federal Government who declared that Covid-19 vaccinations were not mandatory. The Prime Minister of Australia’s declaration was ‘pro-choice’ not ‘anti-vax’. So why is the State of Victoria preventing Victorians from working, if they choose to exercise their pro-choice rights; rights declared by the country’s Prime Minister no less?
Meanwhile the State continues to deal out intense, cruel, tactical enforcement methods to crush those who have a Constitutional Right to protest against injustice.
Then there is the propaganda machine to discredit protesters. Politicians and the mainstream media erroneously label and stigmatize the pro-choice, anti lock-down protesters in Melbourne as, extreme anti-vaxxers, far-right groups, fascists, dangerous right wingers, and man-baby Nazis. This is a ploy to discredit, demean and trivialize the concerns of ordinary people.
This is what represents balanced reporting and informed commentary in one of the highest vaccinated and affluent democracies in the world. No wonder the ‘politically bias’ mainstream media are broadly associated with Fake news.
The lack of balanced reporting from the media, means the press act more like surrogate agents of the government, than independent reporters. They are ‘spoon feed’ the party line at televised daily briefings, clearly keen to retain favor with the Premier or are they too fearful of the ramifications if they challenge the government?
The government and therefore the media, disparage and ridicule those protesting for freedom and fighting for their livelihoods. It’s a case of the elite who are being fully paid during lock-downs VERSES the great unpaid. It’s a modern-day version of ‘Let them eat cake’!
One would have to question whether our democratic rights and civil liberties are under threat. It certainly looks like it. The State has exceeded its authority and misused enforcement agencies, like the elite Police Special Operations Group, to maltreat passive dissenters with a level of brutality previously unseen in this country and more akin to what we have witnessed on the streets of Hong Kong.
The Counter Terrorism Tactics Group has been rolled out against ordinary citizens who were armed with posters and banners exalting FREEDOM. The response from the State was clearly disproportionate, vicious and brutal.
Eventually, politicians will answer to the people, as this is not the democracy our forefathers fought and died to defend! As the Visit Victoria website states; Visit Victoria and plan your next great escape!
6 October 2021
“IN THE TRUEST SENSE, FREEDOM CANNOT BE BESTOWED; IT MUST BE ACHIEVED.” Franklin D Roosevelt.
All Australians have a right to a ‘presumption of innocence’, a guarantee in relation to legal proceedings contained in article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
So, what is happening in Australia, where we frequently observe the media publishing serious unproven accusations or allegations against prominent ‘high profile’ Australians, effectively circumnavigating the Judiciary System; as the press act as Judge, Jury and Executioner; to knock down a few tall poppies for commercial gain.
A single vicious allegation or malicious accusation, can render an innocent person’s ‘life legacy’ worthless, without an opportunity for redemption; even if one has the means to defend themselves. The reality is that the cost of ‘justice’ is well beyond the reach of most Australians and the media is well aware of this.
The press can disparage your good name, make statements devoid of the truth and you will still incur long-term reputational damage, even if you are able to mount and win a defamation case. None of that will matter because ‘mud sticks’ and the legal costs and loss of income will destroy your life’s legacy and future work opportunities.
Whatever happened to the ‘presumption of innocence’ i.e. proof beyond a reasonable doubt? We are now witnessing a metaphorical change where these unsubstantiated claims made by the press, raises an immediate public ‘assumption of guilt’, with the ‘lynch mob’ disregarding your right to a fair trial and/or due process in the Court of Public Opinion.
An unproven accusation can lead to the immediate loss of employment; dismissal or resignation as careers, reputations and livelihoods are destroyed overnight. ‘Life as you know it’ collapses, no income and a prompt erosion of wealth, with pressure and stress capable of breaking up strong relationships.
The support of family, friends and colleagues quickly evaporates; dare they risk vilification from the dissenting voices asserting guilt by association. In an instant it becomes impossible to survive.
Too frequently we see the media quick to execute their judgement based on sensational, salacious accusations, ‘allegedly’ of course. Whether it’s claims of bullying, misandry, domestic violence, racism, adultery, sexism, rape, paedophilia or misogyny, speculative accusations destroy lives, with individuals judged without consideration for their civil rights, the legal process and the TRUTH!
Reporting ‘The News’ and ‘Investigative Journalism’ have completely surrendered to the worst type of tabloid trash, with big media competing in a ‘race to the bottom’, against the online dribble that’s excreted from the bowels of social media. Below are a couple of examples of individuals whose lives have been targeted by the press in Australia and maliciously ‘taken down’ by a spiteful media for … money.
Renowned international actor Geoffrey Rush won his Defamation Case After Sexual Misconduct Scandal.
Successful comedian and actor Rebel Wilson won her ‘serial liar’ accusation case in defamation action against magazine publisher Bauer Media.
Actor Craig McLachlan found not guilty in indecent assault case.
ABC journalist Louise Milligan agrees to pay Andrew Laming $79,000 in damages over tweets.
Cardinal George Pell spent 13 months in jail before the High Court quashes his sexual abuse conviction.
Former Australian ‘Attorney General’ Christian Porter denies rape allegation with the Prime Minister stating the he is ‘innocent under law’.
The Law requires that ‘no guilt can be presumed, until the charge has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt‘ yet the media infers or assumes ‘guilt’ with or without charges. The media’s disregard for the ‘burden of proof’ is contemptuous and Australians should demand better! We like to think that we champion a ‘fair go‘ … but, clearly … we don’t!
28 August 2021
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
In Australia we are living in ominous times, as we witness the regression of our freedom and civil liberties. We are observing a societal transformation with an increasing loss of individual rights; rights that once lost will be hard to regain!
I never thought I’d witness a time when millions of Australians would be placed in, what feels like ‘house arrest’, with police and the Army patrolling the streets to enforce COVID lock down and curfews.
For months we have watched fear peddling Governments, advocating wholesale anxiety and stress with enforced shut downs, perpetrated by ‘risk adverse’ medical professionals; whose once good standing in the community is a front to conceal indecisive and incompetent politicians.
With politicians shrinking into the shadows to abrogate responsibility, it is the unelected health ‘experts’ who now sit in the political driver’s seat. Remember, these are the same privileged self-aggrandizing authoritarians who wanted to ban … of all things … ‘soft drinks’, long before the claims of ‘reverse racism’ were successfully crafted against soda manufacturers; courtesy of ‘identity politics’, ‘virtue signalling’ and ‘woke correctness’. I digress!
We are witnessing the political elite (earning large guaranteed incomes) forcing the working class further into poverty as a result of lock downs. Small businesses have been sent into bankruptcy, with an inability to rebuild; left with the weight of residual debts and no assets. The lower socioeconomic class are the biggest losers, struggling to survive and enduring incredible adverse health and economic suffering. Meanwhile many multi-national corporations are permitted to continue trading.
Also excluded from the ‘cost’ of lock down is the devastating effect on mental health and the associated increased rates of suicide; the young, the isolated and the elderly. What of the long-term educational ‘opportunity losses’, caused by school closures and the harmful impact that has on our children’s welfare and future; the social, health and economic toll?
These considerations should be included in the lock down cost/benefit analysis, before imposing house arrest and harsh restrictions which have cause to produce mortality rates, far greater than the COVID pandemic itself. Interestingly, those making these decisions are not suffering any losses, as they measure their pecuniary advantage in political currency.
We have thousands of people in quarantine with a small percentage COVID positive. The reality is there are very few COVID patients hospitalized in some large ‘highly vaccinated’ territories, where mortality rate are lower than that caused by the flu season. I think it’s time politicians started considering ALL the costs of lock down, not just medical statistics like infection rates.
Meanwhile we witness disputes over closed State borders and demonstrators arrested after enduring tear gas and rubber bullets. While I accept that these events attract the prerequisite anarchists, many protesters are just ‘hard working’ Australians seeking to protect their livelihoods; those who stand to lose everything as a result of freedom lost; … yet they are ALL labeled ‘boofheads’ by the arrogant political elite.
Fortunately, we have the media to remind us that ‘we are all in this together’! Whats going on; there’s got to be a better way?
24 August 2021
“How much of human life is lost in waiting.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Australians are starting to adapt to some of the ‘new norms’ with COVID-19: but it remains inconceivable that we still have empty supermarket shelves! We are facing big shortages of food staples the likes of which we have not experienced in this country since the dark old days of WW2 rationing. We have been led to believe that the shortages are a consequence of panic buying, as marauding hordes of crazed consumers embrace ‘bulk buying’ behaviour. But do consumers deserve all the blame?
We are starting to hear noise that the problem is actually a supply shortage, with Australians quickly realising that we no longer produce sufficient staples like dairy, red meat, wheat and rice to meet domestic demand. This was recently highlighted by the 60 Minutes program in relation to Australia’s food security, or rather, the lack of it. Many Australians were alarmed to hear that this country, once renowned for its safe clean, green food exports, is actually importing dairy, pork, wheat and rice, as we are now incapable of meeting our immediate consumption needs.
The reason for the shortages came about two years ago when the Federal government shut down farming in the irrigation area of the Riverina in the southern district of New South Wales, by turning the irrigation water off. This region once produced 60% of Australia’s dairy and grain, with the excess an export commodity and wealth creator for our nation. This is no longer the case.
The Federal government has effectively decided to shoot itself in the ‘food security’ foot and apparently cannot explain why! The only nonsensical distraction is that age old chestnut: the ‘blame game‘ by pointing the finger at another jurisdiction; i.e. States versus the Feds is always a good excuse to avoid responsibility and do nothing.
The concepts of food security and spreading dependency risk are lost on the nation’s leaders. Meanwhile the livelihoods of thousands of Australians are being destroyed, with the forced suffering of the southern farming communities and nation wide food shortages. It seems that we are all invisible to governments who remain aloof and indecisive.
To make matters worse, the countries who usually export food staples to Australia are now holding onto their produce fearing that their domestic food security is at risk. The expectation is that food shortages will get worse in Australia unless the government delivers irrigation water back to the farmers in the Riverina. They simply need to turn the tap back on otherwise no water, no fresh locally produced food!
This mess gets even more ridiculous when we ask, what happened to the productive irrigation water the government confiscated from farmers? Well most of it has been wasted for no good reason according to ‘Speak Up 4 Water’. The government’s epic mismanagement and absurd incompetence is simply bizarre, irrational and farcical. One of their more infamous blunders attracting international media attention, was running the Darling River bone dry, killing millions of native fish in the Menindee Lakes and wasting 900 billion litres of fresh water by washing it out to sea. How could they get that wrong?
The next rookie fiasco courtesy of the Murray Darling Basin Authority was the vast flooding of the Murray by running the river above capacity, bursting its banks and washing away 1,120 billion litres of water. The flooding caused massive environmental damage to the Barmah National Park‘s river red gum forest and a widespread ecological disaster for local native fauna and flora. This is another catastrophe to add to the litany of errors; one river system drained completely dry, while the other was flooded beyond capacity. They can’t even get the simple stuff right!
The 2,500 kilometre long Murray River eventually flows into the lower lakes in South Australia which was once a salt water tidal estuary. The fresh irrigation water flows through the lakes and out to sea. The surplus unused irrigation water just sits in these shallow saline lakes, an area of 508 sq. km which acts like a massive ‘evaporation pan’ and as a result, unnecessary water waste is estimated at 1,800 billion litres. Why not use this water productively upstream to produce fresh food, after all, water evaporating ‘on farm’ has to be better for the environment than contributing to the salinity of the lower lakes?
Remember: Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth and this is how its government treats our most precious resource. Why?
The more water these chumps waste the higher the price of water and coincidentally the higher the cost of producing food. Higher water prices favours those merchant bankers who trade in ‘water rights’ that once belonged to Australian farmers. Separating primary production water from the farm and making it a tradable international commodity has priced productive water out of the reach of farmers and made food production unviable for irrigation farmers, who continue to watch government agencies pump fresh water out to sea.
The governments decision to allow ‘water rights’ to be traded on international markets has hinders the production of fresh food in this country while lining the pockets of international hedge funds, corporates’ and apparently politicians (See Cayman Island story).
Riverina farmers have also been abandoned by the peak industry body the National Farmers Federation (NFF). Why have the NFF sided with the government who reportedly funds this group for millions through the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment? I suppose its good management not to bite the hand that feeds you. Then again many farmers know the NFF is not representative of farmer’s interests. It is understandable that these types of bodies act in the best interests of their ‘Partners’. Perhaps the NFF should consider changing their name when their ‘Partners‘ are a national supermarket chain, a couple of telecommunication heavy weights, an insurance company and a superannuation fund.
Not surprisingly Mick Keelty’s Murray-Darling Basin review was another soft fluffy report destined for the archives with a complete absence of action or outcomes. Right from the start, I could never understand why cop Keelty was fronting a water review, given his history, judgement and background.
These water wastage figures are enormous and beyond the comprehension of most non farming punters. We should be asking our local member of parliament why, in just two years have they wasted the equivalent of 6.8 Sydney Harbours worth of productive irrigation water? How much rice, wheat, red meat and dairy could otherwise have been produced by our farmers; quality clean and green, local fresh food.
There are so many bad consequences resulting from the government’s massive stuff ups. What happens when you take livelihoods away from hard working minority groups and desert them for no good reason? These rural communities are experiencing real hardship, unimaginable anguish and if you take away hope, then expect desperate people to do desperate things. What is happening in these communities is leaving a trail of misery, physical pain and hurt caused by unbearable, sadness and despair, felt by those managing to hang on, those who have been forced off their land and those prematurely departed.
There is definitely a swell of rebellion or insurrection in the air. Make no mistake, listen to the political leadership’s rhetoric and narrative:
“I made it absolutely clear…I’ll tell you what will happen…they will rise in the street of the Riverina…they will rise with pitchforks…because what we are robbing these people and the generations…is the opportunity to feed this nation…and I’ll tell you what…I’ll be at the front of that line with my own pitchfork…because now is the time…and I want the Australian public to understand…now is the time…that we need to use our water for this nation…to feed this nation and…I tell you what…time has run out”! John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of New South Wales, 13 April 2020. (Starts at 6:45)
We talk about culture wars but now we are hearing language that amounts to civil war. It doesn’t take much to spark a wildfire! If anyone is in a position to influence actual outcomes it would be Barilaro but instead he delivers a soapbox full of tough guy, chest beating bravado, talking a big game but as we all know ‘walking the walk’ requires an entirely separate set of skills i.e. actionable outcomes. My deep concern is that this type of colourful language attracts the wrong types, those irresponsible extreme violent activists who interpret such language as a green light for a little anarchy and that won’t help our farming communities.
Perhaps a question for the Deputy Premier should be: Is it still an offence to incite violent crime such as riot or affray?
17 April 2020
“It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution”. Vladimir Lenin
Our supermarkets have been laid bare, no stock upon rows of empty shelves. Why is there no meat, no pasta or rice and limited dairy? The powers that be and some in the media would have us believe that it is the public’s bad behaviour and the herd’s ‘hoarding mentality’ that has led to all these shortages. But is this true?
Perhaps what they are not telling us is that there were shortages of these staple commodities in Australia well before Covid-19 visited our shores and this in part, has contributed to the madness and appalling behaviour we have witnessed in our supermarkets.
Most Australians believe that our country has a strong agriculture sector that produces excessive safe food to export to the world. Wrong! We actually have to import most of these commodities and that is why we have shortages of staples like dairy, wheat (pasta) and rice.
Few Australians understand the consequences of these prevarications; we continue to see dairies close and the industry brought to its knees. The red meat herd numbers are at a ‘quarter of a century’ low and we now import wheat. Australia once exported 80% of its rice crop and now we are forced to import rice, all because of government policies and mismanagement, not drought!
We tend to spend so much time on social media that we have ignored the warnings from the mainstream media. All you need to do is read the headlines:
‘Dairy expert says Australian industry at tipping point as demand puts pressure on supply’,
‘National cattle herd to hit 24 year low’,
‘Australia to continue buying Canadian wheat in 2019-20: analysts’ and
‘Imported rice in Australia: pesticides and chemicals found to be above safe standards’, just to name a few alarming articles.
Meanwhile the government insists that we have a secure, safe and self-sufficient staple food supply, but that’s simply not true. What makes matters worse is the government could easily resolve this situation by allowing irrigation agriculture areas like the Riverina in New South Wales to resume farming activity. However it seems that the interests of various political individuals are so financially entangled, that politicians are reluctant to address the issue for fear that full disclosure may incriminate them.
Many in the local electorate are questioning why the National’s MP objects to any political transparency in relation to ownership of water entitlements and why a ‘registry of interests’ for politicians was voted down. Why are the Nationals opposing the 11,000 constituents who petitioned for a Royal Commission?
The safety and certainty of Australia’s food supply chain is at risk at a time when a lot of people are asking, what do politicians stand to financially gain by closing down productive agriculture land; when the country not only needs safe food but could use the export dollars to help pay for the 200 billion Covid-19 debt the government has just borrowed.
The Riverina region was a safe food bowl that once produced 25% of the state’s agricultural produce. It was a viable mixed farming area (dairy, meat, wool, wheat, rice etc.); an irrigation area built early last century to provide a secure food supply in times of drought, as well as export dollars for an emerging nation. After 100 years of investment to build and develop a productive agriculture scheme, the government (and its agencies) decided two years ago, to stop supplying water for the purpose of irrigated agriculture.
This instantly ceased the production of domestic staple food and surplus produce for exports. This decision also destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of inter-generational Australian farmers and their local communities.
So where did this valuable irrigation water go? Well simply put, the government wasted it through unnecessary mismanagement, just apparent ineptitude. Rural Community & Irrigated Food Production advocate group ‘Speak up 4 Water‘ claim that in the last 2 years the Murray Darling Basin Authority has wasted over 2 ‘Sydney Harbours’ worth of water by running the Murray River above capacity. This mismanagement led to ‘unintended’ flooding, not only wasting water but damaging native forests and destroying environmental habitats. A further 1.6 ‘Sydney Harbours’ of fresh water was allowed to just flow out to sea.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority fact sheet indicates that the volume of Sydney Harbour is 560 Gigalitre (GL) so the total amount of productive ‘fresh water’ wasted is in excess of 2,016 billion litres. It is unconscionable that the government of the driest continent on earth, wasted such a staggering amount of agricultural water in the middle of a drought. All this at a time when the government was increasing the output of desalination plants to meet demand.
It seems the more water wasted the higher the price. In August 2019 the ABC reported that the price for allocated water increased 140% to $550 a megalitre. That values the water wasted or mismanaged at over $1.1 billion dollars. There is a lot at stake for those profiteering from ‘apparent’ water mismanagement. There is deceptive behaviour rewarding personal gain thanks to conscious incompetence. There is a reason why this matter has been kept conveniently quiet from most Australians: there are big dollars involved, a dangerous amount of money.
The quick fix for food production is obvious, a little tweaking and water could easily flow again to support agriculture production in the Riverina to deliver safe and secure staple foods and national exports/income for Australia. The water wasted in the last two years could grow over 800,000 tonnes of rice, so Australia should not and does not need to rely on food imports from countries with uncertain providence. Governments should stop lying to the people and put the country’s needs ahead of any personal gain.
Treachery: meaning…the betrayal of trust. As a country, we are in the enviable position to be reasonable self-sufficient with food security, yet for some unfathomable reason, our government chooses not to be.
2nd April 2020
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within”.
Like many consumers in Australia, there seems to be a very high level of dissatisfaction with the outcome of the $75 million Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
What did it resolve? The Royal Commission seemed to overly focus on what service providers ‘earn’ for business referrals and not enough on what consumers ‘pay’. In fact, a consequence of the Royal Commission is that home loan borrowers (the consumer) may now end up paying a new upfront fee, just to apply for a home loan. Whether through a Bank or a Finance Broker, the consumer will pay. This is the solution to get rid of commissions paid by Banks to Brokers i.e. move the cost to consumers.
The Banks appear to have been left reasonably unscathed by the Royal Commission. In fact, it may be that they will financially benefit if they no long need to pay for all the business the Brokerage Industry will now introduce to them for free. Somehow, the Brokerage Industry attracted the wrath of the Commissioner and I’m not sure why, given that Finance Brokers write 60% of the home loans and attract only 1% of the consumer complaints. The proposal to have Finance Brokers remunerated by consumers instead of the Banks, simply hands the Banks a massive free kick, saving them millions of dollars in commission payments. If that’s the Commissioner holding the Banks to account, then I don’t think the taxpayers got value for their $75 million.
Then we find out from the Royal Commission that many government compliance, regulatory and enforcement agencies have not done their job, failing to police the Banks and as a result, failing to protect consumers with little to no governance or controls in place. It appears that government regulators like the ASIC, ACCC, ATO, & APRA, may have been compromised due to their very cosy relationships with the organisations they are supposed to regulate. As a result, their negligence has rendered them totally impotent; they were found to be incompetent and incapable of executing their duties.
The Royal Commissioner now wants to establish a new Government bureau, an overarching agency to police the myriad of existing Government regulators, to make sure these existing agencies actually do their job. That sounds like overkill, but it acknowledges what we already know, that the bureaucracy is completely incapable of doing what it is designed to do i.e. enforce the regulatory and compliance laws.
Instead of inflating the bloated bureaucracy, why didn’t the Royal Commissioner try and implement recommendations to change the existing incompetence and adopt some of the proven conduct and standards set by private enterprises, like paying people for doing their job. I’m not sure this country needs another layer of bureaucratic ‘keystone cops’ duplicating ‘inefficiency’ on a larger scale.
After the Royal Commission, the Banks are being subjected to closer scrutiny, but not really. The only difference is that the regulatory bureaucrats are now snugly embedded within the various banking organisations. The consequence of these changes is that the Banks, can only move as fast as the slowest bureaucrat, the noticeable impact being the length of time it now takes to get a loan approved.
Is this what happens when we ask legal professionals to solve financial problems?
Now we have another inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system, duplicating the many previously ignored inquiries such as the 2015 McClure Report. The reality is that personal financial and retirement planning is complex and, at the moment, we have a situation where all the vested interest are working against each other, competing for control of the industry and the big loser as always, is the consumer. Now consumers simply cannot afford nor trust the finance and advice industry.
The problem with the Royal Commission and all these inquiries is that the approach is completely wrong. The focus should be from the top down, starting with meeting the needs of the consumer. Consumers need assistance with their finances and retirement planning, yet Financial Advice services are unattainable for most. The complexities and costs are a barrier for the consumers who need assistance the most.
Government compliance is unnecessarily onerous and as the Commissioner pointed out it’s not working. Consumers are confronted with layers of expensive duplicated procedures, which simply adds cost and complexity for no other reason than to pretend that consumers are being protected by it.
The consumers have been left to fend for themselves without a means to access appropriate, quality and affordable strategic planning advice and where applicable, financial product recommendations that are suitable for the needs of the individual.
What the Royal Commission should have done is made recommendations for a mechanism that would restore confidence for consumers, starting with an online search platform where consumers could find a legitimate, ethical, licenced Adviser with a proven track record. The information exists in the Government’s licencing database. Finding the right Adviser who can provide strategic financial advice to consumers on investment, superannuation and retirement planning with personal insurance and estate advice that compliments their strategic plan, would be a good start.
A major contributor to the loss of confidence in the financial advice industry is that too frequently illegal and criminal behaviour was perpetrated predominantly by individuals who were not actually licenced members of the industry in the first place. So what chance do consumers and honest advisers have unless there is a mechanism to assist consumers to identify an ethical and legitimate licenced adviser, thereby weeding out illegal operators who continually rip off consumers.
In the final analysis it seems that working people are pretty much on their own when it comes to making financial decisions that will hopefully enable them achieve their retirement goals. Consumer friendly legislation needs to be passed now, as it is widely acknowledged that the system is currently broken and the Royal Commission has done little to change that.
The reality is that superannuation alone cannot and will not provide adequate capital to reasonably fund future retirees and that means a significant decline to the standard of living for most Australians when they cease working.
Working people will need to make additional investments outside of their superannuation, if they are to have a sustainable self-funded retirement, assuming you want to stop working at 60/65 years and do not want to spend the rest of your days living on the poverty line, courtesy of a fortnightly welfare cheque.
9 February 2020
“More regulation is not the best answer to every problem“. Jerome Powell
There is no doubt that the globe’s climate will continually change; one only needs to look at the impact on the planet’s environment as global population doubling every thirty years. The evolving industrialisation over recent centuries has improved the human condition to the extent that in the last 120 years, the planets population has increased by some 370%. That’s bound to stress the finite environment and resources of planet Earth, the question is, will future advancements in scientific research, medical, smart technologies and industrial discovery allow the planet to continue to support this level of population growth and can it be humane and sustainable for the planet and all of its occupants?
Can the economies of the world continue with their unsustainable strategies of ‘growth at any cost’? These economies are effectively pyramid schemes, bringing forward future growth by borrowing exorbitant amounts of money to fund a standard of living well in excess of our means. These loans rely on that ‘future growth’ to be repaid, but again, at what cost to the environment (acknowledging that the planet has capacity limitations)? What happens to the global economies and its citizens when the planet’s environment can no longer support ‘growth at any cost’ strategies?
One of the United Nations strategies to prolong the inevitable (i.e. extend the planet’s ability to sustain population growth) is to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The intent is to reduce carbon emissions to slow climate change. Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world (7.692 million square kilometres) with 70% if its area made up of arid or semi-arid land. It is also the smallest, lowest and flattest continent in the world and the most sparsely populated (3.12 people per square kilometre compared to Asia at 95.03). These dynamics makes Australia highly vulnerable to the impact of global emissions so it’s not surprising that Australia is a signatory to the Paris Accord which is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Australia produces approximately 1.3% of world carbon emissions.
In Australia there has been a debate as to what extent climate change has been responsible for this Summer’s wildfires. The question being asked is whether climate change has reduced the time window available in the cooler months, to conduct the necessary ‘control burns’ to reduce the fuel loads feeding these massive Summer wildfires.
The intense bush fires we witness in Australia are due in large part to the excessive amounts of fuel on the forest floor. Unlike Europe, where the forest’s organic waste generally rots on the ground, Australia’s oil based eucalyptus foliage leaves layers of highly flammable fuel on the surface, where it accumulates year on year, unless it is removed by fire, preferably a cool controlled burn but more likely a wildfire.
Australia’s flora flourishes with controlled burning and the practice was introduced by Indigenous Australians who have conducted this type of land care for thousands of years. There is a consensus view that Australian authorities have mismanaged the forest for many years by limiting the frequency of cool, fuel reduction burns. The various reasons relate to disagreements over land management, resource limitations and population density, where a large number of residences have been constructed in high fire danger areas (approx 1.3 million in NSW alone).
The frequency of ‘controlled or fuel reduction’ burns clearly needs to increase, particularly if the available window for cool burning is limited. The efforts to reduce fuel loads need to be doubled and doubled again until the risk of these intensely destructive fires are manageable. Urgent investment in resources to proactively increase fuel reduction burns is needed as a priority, rather than the usual reactive expenditure on more fire retardant assets.
There has been a lot of global media inferring that Australia’s emission based climate change has been the predominant contributing factor for this Summer’s wildfires. This is simply inaccurate and misleading. What we don’t want is for climate change to become the excuse for not conducting the necessary cool control burns that should have been undertaken. Nor do we want unreasonably arguments that responsibility for Australia’s catastrophic wildfires lies with the rest of the world who produce 98.7% of all carbon emissions. Australian’s are well aware that the top three carbon emitters in the world produce approximately 52% of global carbon emissions (China, USA and India).
If we continue to mismanage our forests, then nature will continue to bite hard and history will repeat itself… yet again. Today is the 11th anniversary of Victoria’s Black Saturday Fires where 173 people lost their lives. We have chosen to ignore the recommendations handed down by the subsequent 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission by not conducting the necessary fuel reduction burns and now we wonder why, once again, we have catastrophic and devastating wildfires.
What we do collectively going forward will be a measure of our intelligence and so far we have failed! It’s too convenient to just blame climate change rather than accept responsibility for our mismanagement. Accountability actually lies at our feet, because of our actions or actually the lack of it.
7 February 2020
An old Australian bush saying about scrub… “burn the bush before it burns you”. Unknown
In early June 2019 the Australian Federal Police (AFP) armed with warrants, conducted searches on a journalists’ private residence and a media outlet, namely the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). The so called ‘raids’ (or appointment, as was the case with the ABC), were in response to articles published, apparently containing ‘highly classified’ information that was illegally obtained, leaked or provided by whistleblowers.
The wider media’s reaction to the execution of these warrants was outrage and shock, with broad condemnation and claims that this was a direct threat to ‘Freedom of the Press’. In fact, some sections of the media have been quite agitated with claims of intrusive ‘police state’ powers, yet no one disputes that the police acted lawfully.
The media is claiming that they have been victimised by the Australian Federal Police and the Federal Government, adopting Amnesty International’s slogan for persecuted press – ‘Journalism is Not a Crime’. Nonetheless unauthorised publishing of leaked ‘highly classified information’ remains a crime irrespective of your occupation!
The press clearly believes that the laws preventing the media from publishing certain leaked classified information are unjust and therefore a threat to ‘Freedom of the Press’. Should the media’s rights or their unrestricted freedom to publish be above the ‘law of the land’ and why would the judgement of journalists be superior to that of the nations security agencies, when it comes to releasing classified information?
The media argues that breaking the law is in the public’s interest i.e. that the unfettered ‘right to know’ is more important than potentially breaching national security safeguards.
The considered opinion appears to be that while Freedom of the Press is not ‘absolute’ it is a most basic tenet of our democracy. This viewpoint adds to the ambiguity but doesn’t change the fact that the legislation makes no provision for the press to be excluded from observing the law, no matter how righteous journalists believe they may be!
It is clear that a nation’s security depends on its ability to keeps secrets. That is why it’s an imperative that bureaucrats and employees of various government funded agencies honour their employment contracts and uphold their oaths to keep highly sensitive and confidential material secure.
In addition, our allies must be confident that they can trust our alliances when sharing confidential top secret information, without the risk of exposing their assets. Australia’s success in protecting its citizens is dependent upon maintaining the confidence of these various international agencies, with whom we collaborate and exchange highly classified intelligence.
It is therefore understandable that any breaches of employee contracts, where it relates to leaking top secret material, should have harsh repercussions, with similar consequences for those who publish it.
It seems the media can be somewhat hypocritical with regard to contract breaches, particularly when they stand to benefit financially. Why is the press okay with bureaucrats breaching their employment contracts, but not okay when it comes to Israel Folau breaching his?
The media makes commercial decisions to publish leaked ‘highly classified’ material and justify their profitable actions based on the apparent ‘public’s interest’. This is deceptive behaviour because frequently it appears that journalists’ only expose the evidence of anonymous witnesses, for the sole purpose of causing maximum embarrassment to the Government, without broader consideration to the potential highly damaging consequences of breaches to our national security?
There is a clear difference between the press seeking to embarrass the government and a whistleblower exposing the government’s illegal activity. The first may be a disconcerting ‘public interest’ story, however the latter is a clearer case of the ‘public’s right to know’; after all, the greatest hypocrisy and threat to our democracy is when the lawmakers seek to surreptitiously break their own laws.
Reporting illegal behaviour is an obligation for all citizens and is generally encouraged and rewarded in our society, except for some reason when it relates to reporting the illegal behaviour by our government and its agencies.
Why the distinction? What level of clandestine illegality and atrocities does our government commit, that are so repugnant and unjust that ‘national security laws’ are used to conceal the nation’s most obscene crimes?
Keep in mind: the national security laws were intended to protect our citizens, not hide dirty secrets, state criminality and the unlawful actions of the sovereign state.
Meanwhile if you expose state illegality the government will come after you with the zeal of the Chinese communist party and the vigour of Tiananmen Square’s state police, without transparency, judiciary protection, legal ‘due process’ and void of basic human rights. They will destroy you. Why?
Did we have a right to know about My Lai? Did we have a right to know about Abu Ghraib or that the Director of the NSA lied to Congress about the US spying on its own citizens? Did we have a right to know about the shameful illegal conduct of the Australian government, who’s atrocious covert fraudulent behaviour was exposed i.e. when they were caught spying on our closest neighbours and one of the world’s poorest countries, East Timor?
The purpose of Australia’s espionage against East Timor, was to acquire privileged and confidential information to unlawfully gain the upper hand in ‘treaty negotiations’ for the rich oil and gas fields in the Timor Gap. Australia’s objective was to have an unfair commercial advantage in the talks to exploit and deprive this small, poor country out of millions of dollars, by robbing them of their natural resources in the disputed area.
The whistleblowers exposing the above illegality face imprisonment. Why? They should be honoured for upholding the moral and ethical standards expected from our elected officials, who covertly cover up the crimes of their own governments.
If laws are not introduced to protect whistleblowers, then governments will continue to behave unlawfully, in fact, it will escalate if they know they can get away with it. Transparency is essential in any democracy and we shouldn’t have to demand it.
Perhaps the media should be slightly more ‘vocally outraged’ and reappraise or step-up their reporting on the immoral and cruel treatment of whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden, Julian Assange or Witness K?
Certainly the Australian Government’s attitude towards Assange is akin to paralysis, compared to the resources being thrown at the imprisoned citizen Yang Hengjun, yet their circumstances are not that dissimilar.
Journalists need to give their ‘victimisation’ line a rest, as it is actually the whistleblowers in the firing line, as they stand alone without support and at risk of losing everything, including their freedom. (Unlike journalists who have the backing of powerful multi-media companies standing behind them).
Perhaps the press should take a break from the continuous self-indulgent persecution complex, the excessive languishing and oppressive wallowing and start putting a little energy into lobbying for real change, legislation to protect whistleblowers, those who report and disclose the illegal behaviour of our politicians and the agencies they control.
4th September 2019
He who controls the media controls the minds of the public. Noam Chomsky
Billy Blogabout 