There are some well written reports online regarding yesterday’s anti-carbon tax rally outside Anthony Albanese’s Sydney office. These reports include informative images, such as on the No Carbon Tax website. Unfortunately there are many biased reports also, implying that the crowd jostled Anthony Albanese etc. One ABC report unfortunately also says that yesterday’s rally outside Anthony Albanese’s office was organised by the Consumers and Taxpayers Association, the same organisation which organised the Convoy of No Confidence. Yesterday’s demonstration was organised by CATA but The Convoy of No Confidence was primarily organised by Mick Pattel, a Richmond (NQ) roadtrain business owner/driver and president of the National Road Freighters Association; and supported by many others from regional Australia, such as the Just Grounds Community members.
And a quick poke around the internet reveals many other new organisations that have been formed to voice displeasure over our current Federal Government and the decisions being made.
Yesterday Anthony Albanese continued to pour scorn on those who dared voice discontent with the Federal Government and apparently the crowd of 500 responded accordingly, pouring scorn back in spades. His latest title is ‘The Minister of No Consequence’.
My advice to Anthony is – enjoy your parliamentary position while it lasts, because you’ve helped put in train a series of events that will lead to the demise of your government sooner rather than later. If you want to stir more and more people into actually taking action, continue to treat them with utter contempt. I still can’t believe that Melburnian MP Kelvin Thompson thought it acceptable behaviour to label the Convoy of No Confidence the ‘Convoy of Incontinence’. (MP Kelvin Thompson is also notable for vocally supporting the ban on live exports; and a quick read of his biography reveals he’d be flat out recognising a cow if he fell over one. Having spent a lifetime as a student then public servant in Melbourne, it’s likely that what Kelvin knows about running a business and northern Australia could be printed in big capital letters on a postage stamp.) While around 30% of our 22 million population may live in Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, that leaves a healthy majority living elsewhere. We’ve got jobs, family commitments etc and we mightn’t have enough money to travel for days to attend a demonstration in Canberra or Sydney to show our displeasure with the current Federal Government – but we vote.
What the rest of the Labor party evidently don’t understand is:
a) the cost of the carbon tax really will send many Australian businesses broke, especially small businesses, which are the undisputed backbone of the Australian economy. (I had to laugh at the Federal Government’s taxpayer-funded ads saying ‘businesses may pass on the cost of the tax…’. Businesses HAVE to pass on the cost of ALL inputs, one way or another, otherwise they don’t make a profit and their business ceases to exist! Businesses just can’t absorb a huge increase in the cost of doing business, with no affect on the price of goods or services they make an income from selling. The ‘”may” pass on’ statement beautifully sums up the complete Labor Party lack of understanding regarding how businesses function. Money coming in must be more than money going out, or the business ceases to be operable; just like a household, and a government [something Labor also seems yet to grasp].)
b) the carbon tax will simply shift polluting activities from Australia, where there are relatively tough restrictions and consequences for those who damage the environment, to countries where there are either no environmental protection laws or laws that aren’t enforced. Countries with massive populations – such as India and China. This is a much worse outcome for the planet as a whole. What’s the point in 22 million Australians smugly sleeping soundly at night because we’ve got a carbon tax, if we’ve just increased the pollution in overseas countries who supply us with goods and services? Utter madness and hypocrisy at it’s very worst.
c) yet again, the plight of rural and remote Australians is ignored. A carbon tax would affect Australians living in sparsely settled areas far more than anyone else in Australia, because the cost of living (especially when like-with-like standards of living are compared) is already so much higher than that of coastal and urban Australians. For example if the net cost for one family living in rural Australia is $60,000 per year and $40,000 for an urban family; one potentially pays $6,000 per year in GST and the other only $4,000 P.A., thus widening the gap further. It is a ridiculous myth that cities are more expensive to live in than rural areas. I’ve spent decades living in all sorts of places in 3 states, and it’s infinitely easier for families to live in a large town or city, relying on a lower income, to maintain a good standard of living, than in a remote area. There are so many ways of economising when living in town – from only buying food on special in supermarkets, purchasing household items when on sale & picking them up in person rather than having to pay freight, to purchasing secondhand goods at low prices, to saving on vehicle costs by living within walking or bike-riding distance to essential services such as schools, to changing to a higher-paying or better job without having to move the household (very expensive). On the most unbearably hot and humid days in Townsville there are families and elderly people who head off to shopping centres for the day, to spend their time in pleasant airconditioned comfort at no expense, to save on their personal power bill! (Ummm yes we have done that too, and I know bank staff who recognise retiree regulars.) Yes houses cost more to buy in larger centres, however when paid for they are an asset that can be sold or borrowed against to fund nursing home care or passed on to the next generation. Real estate prices in the largest towns rise steadily over time, keeping up with and even bettering the rate of inflation. A quick look at the long-term price trends for real estate in tiny towns in remote areas, reveals house prices that have remained stagnant for years, or even fallen. So the largest asset owned by rural town residents is often not much of an asset at all. The regular surveys showing our capital cities as being the most expensive places to live, are not an accurate picture of reality. I know they are not comparing equal standards of living.
Reading about Senator Ludwig, Anthony Albanese and Kelvin Thompson has reminded me of one thing, however. There has been much talk in recent years of the Labor party these days being like a watered-down version of the Liberal party. But reading about these three Labor blokes reminds me of the ‘chip on the shoulder’ died-in-the-wool ‘must toe the party line even if you don’t agree with it’ type of ‘born and bred’ Labor politicians that I thought had disappeared from our political landscape. Not so. These are the blokes pulling the strings behind the scenes, in the backroom ‘boys club’ you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours types of deals. The behaviour of the Labor party over the last couple of months, starting with the banning of the live export trade, is a timely reminder that there really are major differences between our two main political parties. Anyone in rural and regional Australia who votes Labor, is absolutely crazy. These blokes have spent their who lives in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney and they simply cannot relate to anyone outside of the bubble they spend their whole lives living in and nor are they interested in learning. Even more importantly, they couldn’t give a rats toss about the rest of Australia.
Tags: Living in the country and remote areas, Image of the bush, Australian agriculture