A friend of mine sent me some Christmas reading – an article from The Spectator Australia, written by Senator Barnaby Joyce. With kind permission from Barnaby, I quote from much of it here, given the import of its content to Australia.
‘Many have come to the conclusion that without a job you wit[ not be emitting much carbon and poverty as policy is best left to the clergy. The sad thing for Australia is that we have managed to get ourselves stitched up in an idiotic broad-based energy consumption tax, which is doing nothing to affect the temperature.
‘In the past week, I have been talking to a coil spring manufacturer in Rockhampton who currently exports to 40 countries including China. He informed me calmly that with the increase in costs due to a carbon tax he will still make money, but it won’t be from exporting coil springs. It will be from importing them from India. The vision of his employees is clearly etched in my mind as the good lady from the Fairfax masthead asks my views on global warming.
The year has been one of mad taxes, massive debt and the demise of the leftist liberal economics in the face of hardnosed East Asian business. As Indonesia has been paying its way out of debt, we are getting ourselves deeper in. As South America tries to work out how to trade beef into Asia, we have been shutting down the live cattle trade. The latest sector under threat is livestock selling centres.
They should be more ambitious and close down the whole Australian Stock Exchange, drain all the dams, ban lawnmowers and return us finally to hunters and gatherers on the forest floor eating sticks and bugs. Should I have told the learned scribe (Fairfax) that I have had an epiphany? Coal is an evil black rock and can only be made holy by passing over salt water, to another country. There, it becomes righteous in a power station. Likewise, iron ore’s inherent guilt is only assuaged if it moves overseas with the penitent black rocks. ‘
‘I should be thankful for the Left’s assistance in closing down the fishing industry, timber industry and large sections of agriculture, making our manufacturing industry less viable and making every tree sacred.
‘I should have thanked her for 30 per cent unemployment in Northern Tasmania, accompanied by a 50 per cent reduction in house prices. I should have been grateful for enlightened people joining hands and forming a human chain around any poor, sorry bastard trying to make a dollar.
‘Not that I’m at all bitter about it, as I remember the glee attending my demise as Shadow Finance Minister. I dared to extol the virtue of prudence and stated that if you have a static debt ceiling and an accelerating debt trajectory then sooner rather than later line A will intercept line B and you will either go back to the taxpayer for an extension of credit or cheques will bounce.
‘I initially issued this warning when our gross debt was around $100 billion. Now, three extensions of our overdraft later, it is just shy of $260 billion. It is fascinating that in the past three weeks we have borrowed in excess of $3 billion a week. Annualised, that is more than $150 billion in extra debt per year. To earn the money to deliver the tax to pay the debt, we need an extra net profit in the economy of $500 billion, at tax rates of approximately 30 per cent.
‘A business return of 10 per cent would mean that we have a gross income potential, which we are unaware of. of $5 trillion. That’s surprising: a threefold increase on top of the current economy and it’s just hiding out. Maybe I should suggest to the learned Fairfax scribe that a better piece of investigative journalism would be to go look for it. This current climate change omphaloskepsis appears more adept at hiding our economy than finding it.
‘The NBN (Next Budget Nightmare) is going to give impairment a good name. Of course you can cool the planet with a broad-based consumption tax, just like the GST did.
‘What if we actually did something away from leafy lefty climate change land? Imagine if we did something as dangerous to the world. Australia, the penguins and polar bears as building the inland rail between Gladstone and Melbourne to create intermodal port access between the southern capitals and our northern mineral province.
‘It is ludicrous to think that we should have a direct rail link between some of the biggest cities in our nation. Next you will want direct flights. Imagine if instead of making power dearer, we make it cheaper. Outrageous! Imagine if we expanded our agricultural industry by stopping decisions such as shutting down the live cattle trade or closing down irrigation in the Murray-Darling, or making it a criminal offence to cut down a tree. What if we actually tried to expand the economy through the construction of vital infrastructure such as dams? Very dangerous. We might actually grow more food to sell to South-East Asia.
‘Imagine if we stopped borrowing money for bureaucracy and getting up to our eyeballs in debt. In the past, our children wanted to travel to Europe, but in the future, we’re going to create a little piece of southern Europe right here in Australia just for them.’
Thank you, Barnaby, for giving up your time to write this article (and others).
Let’s at least think about some of the concerns and ideas herin, as our record debt increases. We need to find ways to attract investment and increase production in Australia, and remember that countries where unemployment increases, with lack of investment, also see increases in crime. Do we really want to turn our country into another Europe, with our debt burdens to be repaid by the next generations, when it is not necessary to do this? It could happen if enough of us don’t take the time to think and speak out.
Members of ANDEV are welcome. Please visit our website at www.andevproject.org. Further background Is in my book Northern Australia and then some. which is available via the IPA and the Small Business Association.
Let me finish by quoting Alejandro A Chafuen, Ph.D. , President, Atlas Economic Foundation: ‘I was born in a country. Argentina, which for many decades was as rich as, if not richer than, Australia. Unfortunately, government intervention from left and right corporatists drove most business leaders, Similar to Gina Rinehart, into exile, silence, or oblivion. Argentina’s economy is now a basket case.
‘If its civil society listens to Rinehart’s warning, Australia still has a chance to shine. I have spent more than three decades working for economic development around the globe. I know that the message that comes clearly from her book Northern Australia and then some: changes we need to make our country rich, if implemented into policies, would help put not only Australia, but many countries on a road toward lasting prosperity.
The world is full of areas where we have beggars sitting in mountains of untapped “gold”. Rinehart’s message is a call to release the untapped human and economic potential through respect of the human right to free enterprise and private property.’