Senate Rejects ETS – Would The Democrats Have Improved and Passed this Law?
The dogs have been barking for some time – the Senate has now rejected the Rudd government ETS legislation. This sets in place, should the Rudd government choose to take it, a double dissolution trigger. Rudd can call a general election for the House of Representatives and all the Senate. Pundits are calling this for early March, others for August. In reality, it could be just six weeks away.
Liberal senators Sue Boyce and Judith Troeth voted with the government, but this support was far short of a Senate majority. The Mad Monk Tony Abbott, practicing as he does the “withdrawal method” when it comes to all things not conservative, forced the rest of the Liberals to vote NO despite minister Wong’s previous efforts to negotiate the bill’s passage.
The Greens voted NO – as is their custom on every piece of legislation before the house and the rest on the cross benches followed suit. Their eternal purity makes them politically irrelevant and a parliamentary menace. But politics isn’t about holiness, it is about securing the best possible outcomes, something the Democrats never, never forgot.
But what would the Democrats have done?
The ETS is not an ideal piece of legislation. The Democrats would have negotiated for improvements in line with our own policies. Fairer more equitable solutions, while not appealing to major polluters, would reduce the impact any climate change mitigation legislation would have on the overall economy and on the poor. Our view differs from The Greens’ “Put the oxy torch to all industries emitting a kilogram of CO2, dude!” economic vandalism.
We would have worked, as we always have, with the elected government to secure the best deal possible for the Australian people with a bill that, while limited, is a step forward. A step the Rudd government, despite having a fresh and clear mandate for it, will not now take.
That was role of the Democrat for 30 years in the Senate – negotiating. Ensuring the elected government functions, keeps its word and doesn’t cave in to sectional interests. That we are needed to do this line-by-line work is demonstrated by the failure of the ETS. A serious piece of legislation about a serious subject, one that ensures Australia’s future – from economy to environment – has been flagrantly reduced to petty party-based squabbling. John Howard must be laughing behind his hand as he eggs on the newly-anointed High Priest of Climate Denial – Tony Abbott.
Bob Brown is likewise congratulating the troops on a job well screwed with the rest of the cross benches looking for a pat on the head – from somebody or anybody!
Well done all! You’ve succeeded in reducing our federal Parliament to a circus. A national joke; a joke on the heads of the Australian people. Thanks a bunch!
I urge those entitled to vote in the Higgins by-election to send a message to Canberra. Use your ballot paper and the preferential system to its fullest. Vote 1 Australian Democrats – David Collyer, and if you’re a Liberal voter and feel so compelled then (and only then) send your second preference to those who have failed you: the Liberal Party of Australia.
Scott Kane
ETS Lynchin? Better Ask Minchin!
The temperature is rising across Australia this week.
The barometer and the thermometer are peaking out to red. The forecast – FAIL.
Suburban Melbourne faces the first SEVERE fire weather warning on Thursday under the new system. We follow the Weather Bureau’s predictions with our hearts in our mouths.
From Canberra, the news is even more serious.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Australian Greens are campaigning on Climate Change in the Higgins by-election while steadfastly refusing to negotiate with the Federal government in or out of the Senate chamber.
Five (5) Australian Greens Senators in the Senate. Five!
Negotiation? Discussion? Nil, Nix, Nada, Zero, Zilch.
What a waste of activist energy and tax payers money The Greens experiment is proving to be!
EPIC FAIL!
- The federal Labor government knows if they don’t get the Liberal/National Coalition on side their ETS bill will earn a “Catastrophic” forecast too. The ETS faces the same future as PM Rudd’s Grocery Watch scheme. Will we once again have politicians hiding behind “core” and “non core” election promises – as famously coined by John Howard? “Not happy Jan!”
EPIC FAIL!
- The Liberal/National Coalition, currently undergoing the worst ignominy a conservative political party can endure – opposition – are lurking in dark party corners with razor sharp knives for the ritual Seppuku of their leader Malcolm Turnbull.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Coalition opposition are flipping and flopping with contradictory statements of victory in respect of negotiating amendments to the ETS while simultaneously trying to torpedo it.
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has reportedly said:
He’s kidding right? Has Heffernan a future career as a stand up comic at the Melbourne Comedy Festival? He must, because on the same day Senator Nick Minchin states:
A “whole range of other coalition amendments”? Reads like “Our way or the highway” to me. This is not a process of negotiation – it is politcal castration being performed by an absurd and out-to-lunch far left (The Australian Greens) and a medley of Climate Change deniers within the Liberal/National Coalition.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Labor government’s Senator Wong meanwhile takes the fine art of saying nothing while implying new heights, when asked if the Federal government would be “willing to dump other sectors from the ETS to appease the coalition.”
Is that a yes, a maybe or are you just being contrite Senator?
EPIC FAIL!
And it’s not even Summer yet.
Scott Kane
Media Release – Exempt Left-Handed From Climate Change
Today’s announcement by Climate Change minister Penny Wong excluding the agricultural sector from the costs of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme under proposed new compromise legislation is ridiculous and mistaken, say the Australian Democrats, and opens the door wider to further lobbying and rent-seeking by major polluters.
“If minister Wong is willing to destroy the effectiveness and universal consequence of the CPRS with this attempt to buy the support of the conservatives, I would advocate also exempting left-handed people,” the Australian Democrats candidate for the Higgins by-election David Collyer said. “After all, they only produce one twentieth of our pollution, are very nice people and are equally deserving of assistance.
“This proposal is no sillier that minister Wong’s nonsense.
Recent scientific studies suggest farm animals, notably ruminants, are major contributors to climate change through the emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with significantly larger impacts than carbon dioxide.
“These studies need to be repeated, refined and enlarged, but without an environmental ‘all clear’, exempting agriculture from the CPRS is a grave error and probably irreversible.
“Many members of the Liberal/National Coalition are Climate Change skeptics, who do not believe in anthropogenic climate change and are unmoved by the now-extensive scientific literature.
“Minister Wong is desperately trying to placate the implacable. The Opposition are laughing behind their hands at her weakness and impotence.
“Australia’s farmers are now well into their second decade of drought. They know change is needed. And while shifting adjustment costs to others is an old political game, accurately targeting the source of emissions for actions to change behavior is in the interest of all.
Exempting any polluter – let alone an entire sector – means the cost of adjustment must fall more heavily on the rest. The Garnaut Report gave this matter great emphasis and sternly warned against permitting ‘business as usual’ anywhere.
“If minister Wong is so willing to riddle this crucial legislation with exemptions and concessions, then by her measure the left-handed are entitled to a free ride too,” Collyer concluded.
Media contact – David Collyer 0413 248 193
“David Collyer is currently contesting the Higgins by election for the Australian Democrats against Clive Hamilton for The Greens and Kelly O’Dwyer for the Liberal Party,”
Greens Surrender Freedom
David Collyer Australian Democrats Candiate For Higgins
Clive Hamilton, The Greens’ candidate in the Higgins by-election expects us to abandon a wide range of important freedoms by trumping them with the hideous spectre of child sexual abuse. His position is morally bankrupt, say the Democrats. It delegates to government a power they plan to misuse before it even exists.
“Hamilton affirmed his support for the Rudd Government’s Internet Filter scheme as recently as a week ago. His position is breathtakingly naive and means all citizens can be denied access to any content deemed unacceptable by public servants for any reason,” the Democrats’ Higgins by-election candidate David Collyer said today.
“He and the government are taking a legitimate public concern – the need to protect children from inappropriate material – and are using it to push through a wasteful, secretive censorship program riddled with unintended consequences that cannot achieve its policy aims.
“Hamilton is in direct contradiction to The Greens’ position on the issue,” Collyer said. “Even if the issue of internet content and filtering means very little to you, it is important to understand that Clive Hamilton does not support core Greens policies.
“Everyone in public life wants a secure internet experience for children. However, the very structure of the Rudd Government’s Internet Filter means it cannot achieve this objective.
“The secret national blacklist of websites exposes us to government abuse in perpetuity: legitimate, legal businesses have already found themselves on it with no recourse or ability to challenge or appeal the decision. The blacklist works only on complaints made to the Government. It is subjective, incomplete and draconian.
“If the Australian Government awards itself this capability, it exposes itself to irresistible political pressures. For example, the Chinese Government could insist all Falun Gong sites be blocked to Australians. The Rudd Government would cooperate, and we would never know.
The Democrats position is reinforced by Civil Liberties Australia’s stinging denouncement in their most recent newsletter: “Dr Hamilton jumped on board the censorship bandwagon early and with a flourish. He endorsed a virtual “anything goes” approach to government censorship. It didn’t matter how slow the internet got, or how the government curtailed people’s freedoms to access information… all would be OK under the dictatorial approach of Dr Hamilton. ”
The Democrats believe it is possible to deliver a safer internet experience for children without compromising the social, economic and political freedoms of others through building on our censorship laws that already classify media – or denies classification – allied with existing and evolving net filtering software.
“The Government is elected to serve the people and secret Government censorship programs work against the people. Electing a Democrat will send a message to the Government that this is not the path of progress,” Collyer concluded.
Media contact – David Collyer 0413 248 193
“David Collyer is currently contesting the Higgins by election for the Australian Democrats against Clive Hamilton for The Greens and Kelly O’Dwyer for the Liberal Party,”
References: www.cla.asn.au/clarion/0911CLArionNov.pdf
Red Alert? Australian Greens Showing True Colours? – Hands Off Australian Business, Watermelons!
Big Business CEO’s are paid obscene amounts! There are few Australians who wouldn’t agree. It is sickening to see leaders simultaneously preside over fiscal disasters and receive breathtaking rewards.
But the solution is not to cap their salaries.
The Greens want a $5 million cap on executive salaries. This may seem a reasonable idea. It’s easy to rail against corporate greed. But we must be careful and bear in mind that government does not own these businesses, individuals do, directly or indirectly.
Our system of democracy allows each and every one of us to own property – money, business and land – without effective limit.
Each and every one of us has that right!
Enter The Greens…
Very few Australians will ever enjoy multi-million dollar CEO salaries. But there is no legal impediment to anyone doing it.
It can’t be stated more strongly. Once we limit pay, it limits our right to conduct free enterprise as we see fit – within the already reasonable limits of existing law – and I see a clear and present socialist agenda.
A dangerous agenda coming from a political party that has positioned itself far to the left of Labor.
This raises the spectre of the bogey man the Conservatives loved to throw at us for decades, but for once with some merit. Greenism Socialism.
Let me confirm I do not own shares or have a pecuniary interest in any corporations. I run a small business.
The fair and reasonable position on this issue comes from the group many Australians – and certainly The Greens – are likely to dismiss:
The Australian Shareholders Association.
The Australian Shareholders Association says legislation is not the answer. They are right.
“If there is a substantial negative vote against a remuneration … (and) if the company has not made substantial changes (in the following year) … we will be voting against the re-election of any directors,” Association chair Helen Dent said on ABC Radio.
That is how the system is designed to work. That is the proper process.
One could argue the system Helen Dent outlines has been remiss. It’s a fair point. But the people in that system – shareholders, management and directors – are the ones financially hurt if executive salary largesse continues. Let them sort it out. They have a direct interest in doing so – and will!
Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen identifies the issue correctly when he says “We don’t live in an economy where the government can come in and put a cap on.”
He’s right – though he should have also said we don’t live in a political system where the government can legislate a cap either – at least not yet!
Much to Senator Bob Browns’ chagrin.
Stick To Trees And Furry Furbies Bob Brown!
We know The Greens loathe business – they don’t waste any opportunity heaping compost on it.
We know they have serious issues with the number of people living on planet Earth and want reductions there too. Try to pin them down on the implications of what they call “sustainable population” in their policies some time!
Reduce who? You, your family, me - Black people? Poor people? The mentally deficient? Moslems? Calvinists? Jews?
They’ve turned the Senate from a “House of Review” into “The House of No”.
I suppose some readers are thinking “Stop scare mongering, Scott!” But making little snips here and there to our system, as The Greens do, only serves to diminish, undermine and ultimately damage our system.
They’ve caused enough damage to this country – witness Black Saturday February 7th 2009 and the nonsense we’re excruciatingly aware of when it comes to The Greens and fuel reduction.
But please…
Don’t let The Greens burn down our business and political system too!
Scott Kane
Queensland Bushfires- The Shape Of Summer To Come For Victoria.
Is this the shape of a summer to come for Victoria?
The question may be rhetorical, but the answer is definitely “Yes.”
With the Weather Bureau warning El Nino is with us in full force, the problems faced in Queensland are equally probable in Victoria:
We have done nothing to prepare for the coming bushfire season.
We’ve had a Royal Commission sift through the ashes, charged with the delicate responsibility of not finding fault, but we’ve had no decisive action.
Locally the greenie groups are still railing on about how the bush “buffers fire” – without a shred of credible science to support the assertion – and are not being called on this nonsense.
We’ve heard claims around where I live in the electorate of McEwen – the area destroyed by February 7th Black Saturday – that fuel reduction efforts will be met by “civil disobedience”.
This is probably the same ratbags who protested at Hazelwood power station a few weeks ago. Rabble using force for a cause no Victorian can afford to have implemented – the immediate closure of a power station with no replacement facility.
Such is the thought processes of the cult of Green.
Yes, the current power stations are filthy. But close them before viable alternatives are up and running?
Ridiculous!!
The power station owners have already announced a maintainance moratorium – condemning Hazelwood and Yallourn to an immediate decline – and the big new gas-powered peaker at Mortlake will be ready for summer. But this still isn’t good enough, oh no!
Our thoughts turn to the people in Queensland, in hope their bushfires don’t degenerate further. At the same time we pause to consider the consequences for rural Victoria of the lack of any real action or preparation or protection undertaken by the Brumby Labor government.
We should also consider why the Liberal Party have been so ineffective in holding the government to account – as is the job of Her Majesty’s Opposition.
We must consider what the feral fringe, and the party they ask you to vote for – The Greens – are doing to each and every one of us with their worship of eucalyptus totem poles, on which they insist every Victorian in fire prone areas be sacrificed like the witches of Massachusetts.
Every Victorian needs to be loud and vocal about this. It is time to say “no more”.
Caring for the environment is essential, but the decaying organic matter on a eucalyptus forest floor is not lovely compost or trapped carbon dioxide, it is fuel for the holocaust, coming to your home this summer!
We must reduce the fuel load by widespread burning off in the small time available before summer, or stop the rebuilding and evacuate the people. This is the consensus of scientifc advice to government.
Premier Brumby has stark and unpalatable choices before him.
Don’t burn us again.
Scott Kane
