Red Alert? Australian Greens Showing True Colours? – Hands Off Australian Business, Watermelons!

posted by Scott Kane on Wednesday, September 30th 2009

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

It is time for Australia to Grit its Teeth, Stare Down the Moral Crusaders, and Legalize Heroin for Long-Term Addicts.

posted by David Collyer on Wednesday, September 23rd 2009

Please take a deep calming breath before you read on.  You will need it.

I support the opinion of Dr Alex Wodak, the director of the alcohol and drug service at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, who has called for Canberra to investigate whether long-term addicts who fail rehabilitation programs should be given a last-resort option of receiving the drug on prescription.

And anyone who is prepared to examine the issue without prejudging the matter, without fixed opinions about what other people should and shouldn’t do, will agree, however reluctantly.

Wodak is very highly respected by the medical fraternity for his clear eyed analysis of addiction and his life’s-work with drug addicts.

This very modest proposal seeks to supply heroin under strict controls to irredeemable addicts via prescription. He’s not suggesting selling it at the local milk bar.

”This group may be 5 per cent of all heroin users, but they have the biggest habit, and they account for a disproportionate amount of the crime,” he said.

Our society has a deep revulsion toward recreational drug use.  And we pay a very, very high price for holding these opinions.

Illegal heroin nourishes the black economy.  It spread blood-borne viruses. It corrupts our police.  It causes a significant proportion of serious crime, fills our criminal courts and then prisons when the perpetrators are caught and tried.  Upright citizens, taxpayers all, who insist heroin remain outside the law, pay the bill at every stage, including through higher insurance premiums.

Wodak estimates 400 people a year die from heroin overdoses.

Germany legalised the prescription of heroin in May, following a trial that found it reduced crime, blood-borne viruses and overdose fatalities in major cities over four years.

The country’s new laws allow people over 23, who have used heroin for more than five years and failed in rehabilitation, to receive the drug in specialised centres.

Switzerland also introduced similar laws last year.

Wodak’s proposal doesn’t supply drugs to anyone who just wants to get high.  Instead, he wants to break a small and desperately driven group out of their cycle of crime, ill-health and dangerous behavior.

Meanwhile, the community benefits will be enormous, freeing police to devote resources to a reduced criminal fraternity and freeing hospital emergency departments from a steady stream of violent and dangerous users.

I say, despite our distaste for the matter, we have nothing to lose by adopting Wodak’s idea.

It must be noted that these are personal views and not the policy or party position of the Australian Democrats.  And no, I have never tried heroin. I invite your comments below.

David Collyer

Queensland Bushfires- The Shape Of Summer To Come For Victoria.

posted by Scott Kane on Tuesday, September 22nd 2009

As Total fire bans came into force from midnight in much of southern and central Queensland, and a second wave of fire bans will start throughout the southeast, including Brisbane, from Tuesday night (11.59pm AEST).

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

Victorian Democrats Call On The Brumby Government To Suspend The Bushfire Royal Commission Pending Criminal Investigation by The Coroner

posted by Scott Kane on Tuesday, August 18th 2009

The Victorian Royal Commission has released it’s scathing, toothless interim report on the bushfires, while studiously avoiding the issue of forest fuel reduction.

I cannot accept that it should extend it’s scope to considering evidence around fire deaths ahead of the coroner, who has a particular statutory role in investigating the causes of death.  How can the coroner make clear-eyed recommendations and help the greiving if the evidence is muddied by a separate judicio-political inquiry?

Police officers have said they will withhold evidence from the commission where it reveals criminal behaviour by parties yet to be named, pending investigation by the coroner.  Quite right.

It is important to keep in mind that a Royal Commission negates and prevents criminal prosecution.  Yes, it does!  Those giving honest testimony receive a get-out-of-jail-free card.

It is time to suspend the Royal Commission and forward its evidence to the coroner.

The dead and grieving deserve no less.

There have been a number of serious allegations made to and investigated by Victoria Police.  These allegations can not be made public prior to court hearings.  Significantly, eye witnesses in places such as Kinglake West have not been heard by the commission – yet serious, damning statements have been made by these witnesses to police, including photographic evidence.

It is equally significant that Department of Sustainability and Environment employees were exempted from appearing before the Royal Commission.  By contrast, the coroner must hear from all parties of interest.

There are many important questions the Royal Commission has conveniently overlooked.

• Why was the Captain of a CFA station not given assistance when he called urgently, multiple times in Strathewan?
• Why is this same man still waiting for the delivery of fuel for the tanker he radioed for on that day?
• Why was he, his team and other teams not given the benefit of counselling after the fire and are still waiting?
• Why were residents of Pine Ridge Rd – now dead – sent back to their homes from road blocks to perish there?
• Why was the alleged back burning operation carried out in Kinglake West prior to fire engulfing Pine Ridge Rd where 21 Victorians died?
• Why was the Kilmore spotting tower staffed with inexperienced people in a make shift operation early that morning?
• Why was the Kangaroo Ground tower effectively ignored when it reported not only fire but deceased persons in Strathewan and St Andrews?
• What happened to the allegations naming the electricity power poles n Kilmore as a potential source of the original fire?
• Why were communities not warned of imminent fire attack – yet certain government employee families were?
• Why were the people of Marysville consistently told there was no fire and the spotting tower and relay station ignored by the Emergency Operations Centre?
• Why is a certain shire council introducing “Green policy” by-laws without a council vote on all articles?
• Why have CFA stations been stripped of their fire sirens – a simple tool to alert people to fire?
• Why have the Federal government, states and the big telcos bumbled the emergency telephone notification system across years of inaction and and futile semantics?
• Why are green groups being given the opportunity to object to Fire Danger signs in outer suburban and rural Victoria?
• Why are The Greens, including the one who ran in McEwen in the 2007 Federal election,  about to play the “civil disobedience” game to protest for the closing of Hazelwood power station yet have remained utterly mute about Black Saturday?

There are so many dangling issues.  It is essential we suspend this Royal Commission.  Now.  And let the coroner – armed with good science and 150 years of experience – do what that office does best.

With the next bushfire season looming – and predicted be worse than the last – Victorians are the victims of a sham.  While politicians like John Brumby cry crocodile tears, the tears in affected communities are genuine.  For the real people no longer with us.  I fear the grief is not yet over.

Calls to “…not look for blame.” are a travesty.  Victoria needs a clear path forward and  the families of the deceased need justice – or it will just happen again, maybe as soon as this year.  The Royal Commission cannot and is not going to deliver this.  Despite its judicial trappings, it is not a court of law.  It is a truth and reconciliation mechanism.

Fran Bailey is the Federal Member for McEwen, which covers the areas sterilized by fire on February 7th.  As the Federal Member – and in opposition to Labor -  Fran should have been all over this with a jackhammer and hard hat.  It there was ever to be an objector to the indulgences of Premier Brumby and his farcical Royal Commission, then one would expect the Hon. Fran Bailey to be screaming about justice for her constituents.  But she isn’t.  Sadly, Fran Bailey – the Pink Fink of McEwen – has flunked again.  Perhaps she’s out covering the Great Barrier Reef in shade cloth to protect it from global warming? Think I jest?  Click Here.

So while Fran’s off putting pink parasols on parrot fish, Victorians await the election in twelve months or so, and the chance to send this message to the Brumby government:

“You are MAD Premier Brumby if you think Victorians are going to let this pass.

But then, maybe his catch phrase actually is:  “What – Me Worry?”

Scott Kane

To What Length Would The Brumby Government Go To Be The Definition Of Bastards? Burn The Bushfire Victims?

posted by Scott Kane on Tuesday, August 4th 2009

Surely the bureaucrats wouldn’t be allowed by the Brumby government to charge bushfire victims for caravans donated out of  goodwill by the people of Victoria?

No, not even Brumby would bushwhack these devastated individuals, he’s not that feral when it comes to basic decency – surely?

I mean, it would take one nasty, disconnected, uninterested, remote, malcontent of a politician to permit such a thing to occur – right?  Not here in Victoria!

The Reality – This Is Exactly What They’re Doing

Yes, for $25 a week, bushfire victims can camp out in a decrepit leaky strainer on wheels that lets in the elements.

It snows in Kinglake nearly every year, it snowed there this month.  It gets so cold the Department of Sustainability and Environment is forced to deny rumours of roaming brass monkeys looking for welders.

All is not lost.  For an additional $50 a week these tortured souls, rendered homeless by grievously incompetent government forestry management, can upgrade to a caravan that doesn’t leak.  Also donated by Victorians.

Now, if that doesn’t define “bastards” in government then what does?

This bizarre scheme is the exemplar of the all new shiny labor party of modern Australia.  They’re  so inconceivably morally bankrupt they’ve shafted the shafted.

Wake up Victoria!  When John Brumby and his henchpersons are tucked up tight in their warm beds at night, after a hard day negotiating with lobbyists for cash, the people of the fire devastated regions like Kinglake are freezing in a leaky caravan.

After five months they still don’t have:

• Toilets
• Hot Running Water
• Basic Heating
• Anything beyond basic cooking
• Compassion

Thorough Bastards – From Insult To Injury

No bureaucratic construct would be complete without a range of thoroughly vile conditions and rules:

• FIRE victims are banned from repairing the vans or making any addition or alteration.
• VANS must not be shifted without the approval of the head of the department.
• THEY can be taken back if any contract clause is breached.
• SURVIVORS must surrender vans if the department “reasonably forms the opinion that the renter has suitable alternative accommodation”.

Of course the conservative coalition aren’t doing a damned thing either – it suits them down to the ground to be as mute as mullets.

Equally, The Greens will talk about anything else apparently.   Senator Bob Brown has spent the last few days lecturing on his theories about Jimmy Hendrix.

What a waste of a senatorial salary and vote!

And what about the Federal Liberal Member for McEwen whose electorate covers most of the bushfire devastated region?

Urgent Public Appeal

“They Seek Her Here, They Seek Her There – They’re Seeking Fran Bailey Everywhere!”

Hon. Fran Bailout Federal "Pink Fink" Of McEwen

If anybody has seen the Federal Member for McEwen could they please make the sighting known.  The voters of McEwen are concerned about her whereabouts and welfare.  I’m so concerned I am considering sending out a search party to locate the corpse.  There is no sign of life at a time when her constituents are suffering -  living in third world conditions – and need her leadership.  Where is the representation?  The advocacy?

Maybe she’s “pink” with embrassment and is hiding?

Scott Kane

Countdown – 90 Days Till A Bushfire Season Worse Than The Last In Victoria – Forget El Nino, What About El Secrecy? What About El Greens?

posted by Scott Kane on Thursday, July 30th 2009

Yesterday Fairfax newspapers reported on a leaked document from the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment which stated the department’s firm conviction the bushfire threat in the coming 2009/2010 bushfire season – which begins  in just 90 days  – will be worse than the one that produced Black Saturday 2009.

But the government wasn’t going to tell us about that were they?  At least not until it was leaked to Fairfax.

Now, to be fair, we have to pretty much take Fairfax’s word on the leaked document.  That’s because, I  assume, Fairfax is protecting the source of it’s leak.  Perfectly understandable as Victoria’s flimsy Whistle Blower legislation of 2001 is unlikely to protect them from the most vicious retribution – jail, dismissal, loss of pension.

Naturally the “official” – read “paid” as opposed to “volunteer” – arm of the CFA has rushed to deflect this with gobbledegook that the bushfire risk is “…depending on what El Nino does”.

This is nonsense.  The problem is not dependent on El Nino anymore.  Victoria is beyond that.  The fuel load is still there -  untouched, denser and more explosive than a year ago.

The leaked document reportedly names the outer suburbs where the potential tragedy will unfold.  To the best of my knowledge details of which towns have not been released.

Why not?

Fear.  No – not the public’s fear -  the fear their own backsides will be kicked by the people of Victoria.  They know they’ve made a mess of this, they know why, they know how, they even know when.

The Liberal/ National Coalition appears to have handed out corks to stuff into their pollies’ mouths in a desperate bid to make sure absolutely nothing is said by them .  That’s pretty much been the case all year.   Cowards!  Who do they really represent?

Premier Brumby put on his serious and sorry face to appeal to us to be calm.  If the DSE predictions are accurate, he will be able to appeal for calm all summer long, as shocked and blackened evacuees camp out in relative’s lounge rooms.  Again.

Better not be any deaths this season, John Brumby.  You have been warned by DSE and the buck stops with you.

The Greens, the ultimate purveyors of bovine manure, on the other hand have been busy all year.  Their posture has been likened to the tobacco industry’s denial of the connection between smoking and cancer.

Victorian Greens Party spokesman Jim Reiher said on 16 February 2009:

“The Greens do NOT oppose controlled back-burning.”

(His emphasis)

That’s a strange and politically expedient statement from a party who, as recently as 2003, said in a submission to the Victorian Bushfire Inquiry:

“An effective strategic fuel-reduction burning strategy is required on scientific fire ecology behaviour information. It is critical that any revised approach to fuel-reduction burning is scientifically based, drawing on the expertise and further research of fire ecologists and fire behaviour scientists.”

To translate this Orwellian Doublespeak:  “The Greens will support fuel-reduction only after ‘further’ critical research.”

This is what the tobacco industry did.  They demanded more research.  When the research failed to match their position they simply demanded more research.  On and on and on…  This is to confuse voters, water down existing research by scientists and indeed the forestry industry, who whether we like it or not have a direct interest in this issue – just as The Greens, you, me and all Victorians do.

What is at the end of this cycle of “research” and “inquiries”?

Nothing.  No action.  You’d be better served watching a rock grow as there would be more positive action there.

The only “evidence” The Greens have reluctantly accepted are those with ambiguous findings, those that talk about animals dying in controlled burns  – but curiously omit the animals and people dying in wildfire.

It is so disappointing to realize The Greens are just as much “bastards” as the Labor and Liberal parties.  Perhaps more insidiously so having promoted themselves as a party that would watch the excesses of the big two.

They have their own clear agenda, and it doesn’t include those most at risk of losing lives and property in Victoria.  They’d rather you burned.

Scott Kane