'Clean Energy Future': Gillard's WorkChoices?

I find it incredibly ironic that the woman who played such a key role in dismantling WorkChoices (and who revelled in it with smug joy...) is now facing an almost identical scenario with her so called 'Clean Energy Future' scam - I mean 'scheme' - otherwise known as the Carbon Tax. The key arguments which brought down WorkChoices, and the Howard Government, are as follows...

1. Pushing such a far reaching reform through parliament is undemocratic: Howard had what most government’s dream of, control of both the House of Reps and the Senate. However such a rarity proved to be a poisoned chalice; where the Senate was once a counter balance to the government's power, a place for review and debate, it was now seen as a rubber stamp, blindly approving Government legislation. This made a lot of Australians anxious, with some believing that due to the makeup of the parliament that the government had too much power and that there was nothing to keep it in check. Australians a pretty accepting of new reforms, provided that we believe it has gone through a proper, rigorous review.
2. Tax-payer dollars for party policy adverts: There is nothing wrong with a government advertising and educating the public on new policy and reform. However when that policy is viewed by the public as being more around ideology as opposed to national interest, it ruffles feathers. Australians do not like to see their hard-earned tax dollars funding party policy... especially unpopular policy. The more the Howard Government tried to sell and promote WorkChoices, the more cynical and jaded the electorate became. It was viewed as a shallow attempt to sell Liberal Policy as opposed to Government Reform.
3. Dial 'M' for Mandate: "How can you do this?!" The unions and Labor decried, "You have no mandate to introduce WorkChoices! How dare you make such far reaching reforms of Industrial Relations without first getting approval from the people!" Nothing had been said before the election about WorkChoices, so how could the Howard Government claim that it had a mandate to introduce? If all large, far reaching reforms need approval from the electorate the responsible thing would have been to go back to the electorate and seek their permission to do so... At least Howard did not say "There will be no IR reforms under any government I lead"; could you imagine the uproar if he had...?

Sound familiar? Gillard, with help from Bob Brown, is pushing this tax that will be felt across every sector, through the parliament with no discussion or debate (and certainly no consensus!) while spending over $200,000 PER DAY advertising this [Greens'] policy, all the while lacking a mandate! Instead of crowing over the fall of the greatest government we have ever had the privilege to have, Gillard should have been learning the lessons of WorkChoices...

Why Australia should abandon the 1951 UN Refugee Convention...

We live in a dynamic, ever-changing world, so it seems incredibly odd to me that Australia in 2011 is bound by 60 year old UN convention on refugees that was designed to deal with post-World War 2/Cold War Europe. It is absurd - ludicrous even - that the people of Australia must adhere to a policy that was built to solve a problem that existed before many of us were even born. At the heart of my distaste for this convention is how the term 'refugee' is defined, and how this must change to recognise the difficulties governments face now, as opposed to 60 years ago.

The convention defines a 'refugee' as a person who has a "well founded fear of being persecuted" should they be returned to their country of origin. This made sense in Cold War Europe, with the KGB willing to take care of any traitors to the great socialist cause. Those brave few who managed to escape over the Berlin Wall and break free of the Soviet Bloc would have without a doubt faced persecution and death if they had been returned to the Red Side of the Iron Curtain. That is in stark contrast to the so-called 'refugees' that we have piling up on our shores today.

While those fleeing communism faced the very real threat of death upon their return, do those who Bob Brown and Sarah Hanson-Young roll out the red carpet for face their untimely end should the boats be turned around? Of course not! These are not people fleeing death and destruction, these are not wartime refugees, they are economic refugees. It is not push factors leading them to our shores, but pull factors, such as Australia's economy, our work, our opportunities, our indoor plumbing. If these people can afford to spend over AUS$30,000 to a people smuggler in order to jump the queue, for the sole purpose of economic gain, then they are not genuine refugees. They are opportunists taking advantage of an inept government that leaks more than the boats carrying these people here and which fails at everything it attempts. These are people too lazy to work to improve their own country that they travel to, and exploit, ours!

Do these people look like genuine refugees?

Australia must swiftly abandon this 1951 UN convention, an out-dated relic of history, and put the interest of its own people ahead of those who seek to steal our jobs and our opportunities. If we continue down this destructive path that the Greens and Gillard have set us on, whereby any and all have the red carpet rolled out for them at the expense of the Australia tax-payer, we are going to be over-run with every third world opportunist who can point their raft in the direction of Christmas Island and cry persecution. The truly sad thing is that while these leeches con their way into this great nation there are genuine people in need, with the very real threat of death hanging over them, doing the right thing and waiting in the UN Refugee Camps. These true refugees are having their place in our quota stolen by selfish opportunists who are exploiting this stupid, incompetent government.

The Cost of Failure

It is becoming clear to even the most die-hard Labor supporter that their beloved ALP and its current patchwork government is a failure. Unlike Climate Change, it is something that everyone can agree on. The Labor Party is to failure as hats are to Bob Katter; it is impossible to separate the two. Now while this might be new for the burgeoning neo-Left, it is nothing new for those who can remember the dark times before the Howard Golden Age. Labor has a long, long, long history of incompetence, waste and failure on an unprecedented scale, giving rise to the adage: Labor spends and destroys the economy, the Coalition rescues it. The current question is not 'how much more failure can we expect for the current incarnation of Labor hubris, greed and corruption?' but rather 'how much will all of this cost us before we can turf them out?'

Kevin Rudd has become the 'Million Dollar Man', racking up a travellers bill of a cool mill over the past nine months. That is the equivalent of almost $4000 a day. Yes, he is our Foreign Minister, but even still that is a tad extreme, don't you think? In addition we all know why K-Rudd spends so much time overseas; Gillard doesn't want him around causing leadership speculation! So to solve a personal political problem, the tax-payer has to fork out $1 million every nine months just to keep Kevin out of Gillard's way!

The ALP; it is synonymous with failure...

That $1 million 'Keep Kevin Flying' fund looks like a paltry sum, especially when put next to Gillard's other tax-payer funded problem solver, the $12 million Carbon Tax advertising campaign. That's right, those annoying Clean Energy Future adverts have cost tax-payers $12 million since mid-July; based on my calculations, that is $200,000 per day. I'll repeat that because even I find that quite mind-boggling: the Carbon Tax advertising campaign is costing tax-payers $200,000 PER DAY! This figure doesn't even include the newest round of advertising, which is blatant ALP propaganda payed for by hard-working Australians like me and you!

This illegitimate government is burning through our money like there is no tomorrow (and for Julia there may not be a tomorrow for her political career if the polls continue their record breaking descent...). Unimaginable levels of debt funding unrealistic and un-Australian policies, policies which have the sole aim of destroying our prosperous economy and cohesive society. Gillard and Brown may want a Clean Energy Socialist Future, but I sure as Hell don't...

The event of this year's social calendar...

No, it's not a royal wedding or glamorous awards show where celebrities show up wearing the latest trends from their local butcher. I am talking about the far more exciting, and exclusive, 'Tax Summit 2011'. Wayne Swan is all a flutter, sending out handwritten invites to all of his friends (it's a short list...) and ensuring that the drinks are cold and everything is just perfect. Like all social events, it is a prime opportunity to woo and impress those you fancy which, in the government's case, is the independents and Greens. IT's also a chance to snub those you don't like, with Tony and Joe left all dressed up with no place to go; not that Tony would have gone to the "great big new tax summit". Also like all good social events, nothing meaningful will happen, it will just be a bunch of people sitting around blowing hot air at each other with very little substance.


Wayne Swan writing out party invites to all his peeps...

What is really interesting about the Tax Summit is the areas of discussion which the party-goers will be chatting about. "It's about engaging the community in a fair dinkum discussion about where we go into the future," Wayne Swan has stated. The Treasurer has also claimed that at this talk-fest of his "...will reflect the challenges which many businesses face [in the current economic climate]". So it seems strange that not only has the guest list been stacked so as only to invite those who will smile and nod politely, but also that the conversation topics have been so heavily vetted. So what will the guests be talking about?

The Carbon Tax, arguably one of the biggest economic reforms in our history? Oh no, there won't be time for that!

The Mineral Resource Rent Tax? Shhh! Don't mention that, Wayne is hoping everyone had forgotten about it...

How about changes to the GST? For God's sake don't mention the GST! You don't discuss that in polite company!

Negative gearing? Nope.

Congestion tax? Wayne is more than happy to talk about it, but he'll leave it to the states to implement because he is like super busy at that moment, you know, with stuff...

So, if Swan has no intention of discussing the raft of major tax cons he and the federal government are trying to unfairly foist on the Australian people, then what is it that he wants to talk about? If this summit is important enough to waste a large chunk of tax-payer dollars on, then what serious tax reform discussions are going to take place? Well here is a sneak peak at the big ticket item: changes to alcohol taxes to stamp out cheap wine...


While Tony Abbott wasn't invited to the Summit, he did bake a cake to send...

Something tells me that if the Treasurer leads with that one, his much maligned tax party will come to a screaming halt. Just like K-Rudd's big '2020 Summit', the 'Tax Summit 2011' is going to cost us a lot of money just so Wayne and Co. can sit around and have a nice party on the public's dollar. And like the 2020 party, I have a feeling it is going to fail miserably...

...but that's alright, it's Wayne's party and he'll cry if he wants to...

The untold expense of being a Global Problem Solver...

There is an enduring saying which all parents will use at some point to allay the fears of their anxious children in those early years: “Don’t stress kiddo; for every problem there is a solution.” The advice is both sage and accurate, regardless of the obstacle which confronts us, there is inevitably a way to overcome it. It is an important message to impart as it teaches the next generation to approach difficulty and adversity with a sense of optimism. Now while I believe in having a positive outlook, I am also a pragmatist (which most confuse with pessimism...) which compels me to point out that while the saying is uplifting, it only tells half of the story. For me, the full saying would read: “For every problem there is a solution, and for every solution there is a cost...” The question is, therefore, how much cash are you willing to throw at the problem to make it go away? More pertinently, how much of the tax-payers’ dollars is the Prime Minister willing to splash to make all of the government’s problems go away?

Let us start with the much maligned ‘Malaysian Solution’. The problem which this plan was designed to solve is, of course, the fleet of illegal boatpeople flooding into Australia. The half-baked solution to send these illegal entrants to Malaysia exposed the extent to which this government is under the influence of the extreme left elements both within parliament and the broader community (I’m looking at you, GetUp!). The government will be sending 800 boatpeople to Malaysia for processing, as our centres are bursting at the seams trying to cope with the exponential influx washing over our shores. However, before we get too excited at the prospect of being rid of this burden we need to ask the very relevant question: “How much is all of this going to cost?” The answer will shock you, I know it shocked me: ($AU) $300 million. That’s right, your eyes are not deceiving you, and it will cost the hard working families of Australia, who are struggling to make ends meet as it is, $300 million to have Malaysia take these people off our hands. That means that each one of these people, who have come to our country illegally and unwelcomed, will cost us $375,000. The government will be supply them with everything they need to enjoy their holiday at Malaysia, on the tax-payer purse, while being processed. The crazy thing is that after they have been processed in Malaysia, there is a very real chance that they will simply be sent back to Australia for resettling. So, essentially, we are paying for a $375,000 vacation for these people just so that they can come back in a couple of months...

The costs do not end there. The figure of $300 million only covers those we are sending to Malaysia, there has been no mention of the cost the tax-payer will bear on the back of accepting 4000 of Malaysia’s refugees and resettling them here is Australia. If we work on the figure of $375,000 per person (which is not an unrealistic number given the government’s history of rolling out the red carpet for these people) we, the tax-payers, could be forking out in the order of a cool $1.5 billion for the great privilege of taking 4000 unwanted refugees off Malaysia’s hands... I wonder if that figure includes all of the Centrelink benefits the government will undoubtedly be handing out to them as they get off at the docks, along with the keys to their brand new, government supplied homes (although I would be wary of the insulation batts in the roof, I hear the government is still looking to off-load a few... maybe we can send them to Malaysia?).

So, all up, we could be looking at a bill in the order of $1.8 billion just for a temporary stopgap solution (if it can be called that...) to a problem which has no end in sight! But the violent haemorrhaging of tax-payer funds does not stop there – oh no! – for our foreign minister has be racking up the frequent flyer miles in a global cash splash. Kevin Rudd recently announced $80 million will go to the Horn of Africa because they are suffering from drought. I can think of somewhere a little closer to home which is more deserving of those tax-payer funded drought relief dollars: it is called regional Australia... you know, those communities on which this country was built, who feed us and who the Greens, especially Comrade Sarah Hanson-Young, seem intent on wiping out? The scary thing is that the $80 million being offered up by K-Rudd is just a drop in the vast ocean of Gillard and Rudd’s global handout scheme, with over $4.8 billion – that’s right, BILLION – which the government is handing out annually in foreign aid, a system which is frequently exploited and defrauded! How many Australia’s would think that China, an economic superpower, needs aid? Very few, except for their comrades in parliament, with Comrade Rudd handing out $22.5 million to the People’s Republic this year alone!

Shouldn't tax-payer dollars be used to help those suffering here, in Australia?

So what, exactly, is the point I am trying to make here? Well I can sum it up best with this reminder to Julia Gillard: Prime Minister, you were not elected to solve the problems of the world nor were you elected to tax the hard working families of Australia into poverty all so that you could pursue your – and Bob Brown’s – perverse wealth distribution agenda. Yes there is war, suffering and famine abroad, but the people of Australia, those who [unfortunately] elected you, are doing it tough. Do not compromise their wellbeing just so that you can alleviate your misplaced liberal guilt over living in the economically developed West... After all, charity begins at home...

So, my friends, what are your views on this matter? Am I right or have I simply confirmed my status as a conservative nut whose ideas make too much sense to be right? I would appreciate your input and feedback on this incredibly important national issue...