Mark, Mark and Freddie - November 2021

I’m sure we’ve all had events and happenings that change you. Big or small, for whatever reason, they force you to consider your position on things, and can sometimes change your mind. Hopefully these changes are for the better, for you and the people surrounding you. Thirty years ago, a significant event, and a subsequent conversation, changed the way I thought about some important things.

I was working in a retail store in Wagga Wagga. I was only there for a short time, however during that eight or nine months I became good friends with one particular workmate, Mark. When I look back, it seems that we shared very little in common. I think it was our slightly different humour that we both appreciated.

One of the things that my workmate and I had in common was an admiration for the music of Queen. One day, my workmate walked over to me and said “Did you hear? Freddie Mercury is dead”. The world had learned only one day earlier that Freddie was suffering from AIDS. To be told that he was in fact dead came as a bit of a shock.

AIDS filled the media during the mid to late 1980’s. AIDS was certainly around during my final year of school, which was 1984. 

At the time AIDS was known as the “Gay Disease”, as it spread very quickly around the gay community. The media pushed this narrative for years, which in turn made for a very fearful public. We were fearful of contracting this deadly mystery virus which reportedly came from monkeys. And we were fearful of homosexual people, especially gay men.

This narrative was developed by the US Chief Medical Advisor to the President at the time, Dr Anthony Fauci. Dr Fauci told us that AIDS was a “homosexual’s disease”. He told us that we could catch AIDS from casual contact. He told us that children were at risk, simply by living in the same house as someone suffering from AIDS. 

This, of course, turned out to be totally false. The truth around the spread of HIV/AIDS and the media’s narrative didn’t change until much later, when Princess Dianna was photographed visiting an AIDS ward of a London hospital, shaking hands and embracing AIDS victims without wearing gloves or any other Personal Protective Equipment.

However, most people - and I’m ashamed to say myself included - took too much notice of the media scare tactics, and were very fearful of AIDS, and, gay men. It was a stigma that I carried with me through my late teens. To my own shame, this is despite sharing the final couple of years of school with a gay man, who I considered to be one of my closest friends at the time.

So when my new workmate told me about Freddie Mercury’s passing in November 1991, I was saddened and angered. I was sad that someone whose talents I admired was dead. I was angered by the proliferation of a deadly disease that was being spread everywhere by gays. I can’t remember my exact words, but I expressed this outrage to my workmate. His reply was something along the lines of this: ‘Just because someone has a different set of values to you, or a different lifestyle, why should they suffer any more than any other person? Why should your personal beliefs be considered any better than anyone else's?’. Or words to that effect. He gently reminded me that people are people. He reminded me that I had no place in casting judgement upon another person.

He was right of course, which I realised almost instantly. So I started looking beyond the media hype, and especially beyond the pub-talk, into the truth behind HIV/AIDS. And what I found then is what is known by everyone now: HIV does not discriminate. 

Fast forward to now, November 2021. I rang my former workmate and left a voicemail message. I said “Thirty years ago today, you came up to me and said “Freddie is dead”.

He returned my call a couple of days later. We attempted to set a date to catch up over a meal and a few drinks, as we do every couple of years. 

I explained that they would have to travel to our home. Because I am unable to visit pubs, clubs and restaurants. I am also unable to travel outside of my LGA. Because I am refusing the Covid “vaccination”.

He went on to explain that we wouldn’t be able to catch up any time soon. He and his lovely wife are double vaccinated. He told me that he would be concerned about passing Covid on to his elderly mother-in-law., who is also double vaxxed.

I told him that I understood his concerns, especially regarding the elderly. Not to worry, maybe next year.

Over the last few days since the call, it’s been bugging me. I don’t blame him for his unfounded concerns. The mainstream media are doing an excellent job at maintaining the fear. Just like they did in the 1980’s with AIDS. And they are still being guided by Dr Anthony Fauci. (But I’ll save the Fauci rant for later.)

I don’t understand how people are willing to see our population be divided into two camps. How it’s OK to discriminate based upon someone’s own personal health choices. That Government has removed the ability for someone to work and provide based upon their non-compliance is abhorrent. 

I don’t understand how seemingly all levels of Government in this over-governed free and liberal society of Australia have totally forgotten their place in our society and became instant autocracies with that central power being gifted to unelected bureaucrats. 

Our sensationalist, biased, activist media; our power-hungry politicians, our gutless leaders, and our censoring social media, have a lot to answer for. 

When this is all blown over and has been forensically examined - unfortunately and probably when I’m dead and buried - I’m sure the historians and researchers are going to be saying “what were they thinking?” But not before our grand-children ask us “what did you do?”. “Did you stand up for people?” “Did you defend your workmates who were sacked?”

I’m disappointed that my friend and former work-mate can no longer look at the covid issue with the same clarity, foresight and humanity that he helped me with 30 years ago. 

Yes, we are still good friends. And I’m sure that we will remain so.

(Footnote: In the early 1990’s I eventually reached out to my gay friend who I hadn’t seen for several years. He is now back among my small circle of friends and his friendship is certainly one of my most valued).

Be Careful what you Wish For. September 2021

I see that Ms Berejiklian has said today that vaccinated people will be enjoying greater freedoms soon, and that she doesn't apologise for life being less free for those who aren't' vaccinated.

Good idea. That'll teach the selfish buggers for not conforming to the will of the government! It's a little uncomfortable, sure. But it is after all for the greater good.

Unvaccinated people, of course, won't be able to work for a living. The "No jab, no job" policy is already in place for several employment avenues. Who wants the unvaxed in their office? Gross. Risky. Dangerous.

It seems to me that the government is stopping well short of what needs to be done. The unvaccinated will be on public transport, at sporting arenas, concerts, festivals... and we certainly don't want the risk of sitting next to one!

But the cost of deploying a new branch of the police would be high. It would be a massive undertaking to check everyone's vax status on entry. So perhaps a Special Service police branch of the Army should be created. This would take pressure off our state police force, and place the control of the unvaxed into Commonwealth control.

Being asked "your papers, please" would slow down the pedestrian flow and throw any public event or service into chaos. Even for the "Special Service" police. So, we need another identification system, where the unvaccinated are easily and instantly recognised. After all, the unvaccinated look just like people, like you and me, eh?!

I suggest, because the policy would have to be nation wide, that the unvaxed unclean would be required to wear an icon on all of their apparel. Being a Commonwealth-wide requirement, perhaps the Commonwealth Star on their left breast.

Now, I know what you're thinking... It's just too easy to not wear the star, right? So to counter act that, all unvaccinated should have a serial number tattooed on their wrist. If the Special Service Police (the SS) spot a wrist marking without the Commonwealth Star, they will arrest those unvaccinated and unclean infidels immediately and remove them from the society that they are so selfishly destroying.

Such arrests would be unconstitutional, but today, Health Orders already gazump the rule of law and democratic process, for the greater good of the community, so that policy is safe.

The unvaxed would also be unable to visit places like hair dressers and clothing stores, such a confined space presenting an obvious risk to the safety of others. The unvaxed should be made to live all in the same place, built and provided and policed by the Special Service. These ghettos would confine Covid (as well as other diseases carried by the selfish and arrogant unvaxed) to their own kind, where they would be happier anyway amongst those the same, living off services provided by their kind, under strict oversight of the government police.

Escaping the ghetto would be impossible, as we already have an impressive culture developing where people are encouraged to report those who don't comply. Reporting non-mask wearers is a great way to make yourself known to the SS police, and you can walk a little taller knowing you are making the world safer, by eliminating non-conformists one at a time. And you can be sure that if one person is a non-mask wearing unvaxed, there'll be others in that family that should join the infidel on the ghetto.

Oh! Almost forgot! We need to make sure the unvaxed can't contaminate our minds with their selfish and destructive ways. All unvaxed should be deplatformed from all social media, internet and mobile devices effective immediately.

Still think Covid passports are a good idea? The governmental impositions being placed upon us right now would have been reprehensible, unconscionable, and unthinkable just two years ago. Where will our thinking be in the next two, four or ten years, if our current line of thinking continues? We are heading in a cruel and evil direction. The road to hell could not be clearer if it was painted in blood and illuminated by neon.

Please. Be careful what you wish for.

The World is Getting Worse (Part One) July 2021

 "THE WORLD IS GETTING WORSE"

Guess what? You're wrong.

When you have a good look, beyond the media narrative, the world is not getting worse. 

In a 2016 survey, 58 percent of people in 17 countries surveyed thought the world is getting worse (rather than getting better or staying the same). I’m hoping that this little article will persuade you that this downward spiral in humanity and the natural world is very good news. News that, for some reason unknown to me, is being hidden from the masses.

Because negative news often impacts us more than positive stories, the legacy media often push the thought that ‘progress’ is not news. Because many of us follow the news, and the news tends to concentrate on events that shock and outrage the audience, we often think that the world is far worse than what it actually is.

It seems that as the world gets better, we become harsher critics of it, and this can cause us to mistakenly conclude that it hasn’t actually gotten better at all. Progress, it seems, tends to mask itself.

I’ve written about climate change a couple of months back, and have outlined why I think there is no Climate Emergency. Climate is one of our more minor problems.

So let’s look at the looming disaster of Global Overpopulation. This narrative was being taught in schools way back when I (begrudgingly) attended school. World population was exploding, and would continue to do so. The thinking for this is quite reasonable. It took two million years for the population to reach one billion, and just 200 years to reach 7 billion! The demand for food, water and shelter would soon outstrip supply of these three basic needs. Predictions of famine, disease and mass suffering was (and to a certain extent, still are) perceived as being inevitable.

SO what has actually happened?  Global overpopulation now seems unlikely, with more families in more countries around the world now having access to better education and technology leading to better family planning. The rate of childbirth per woman has fallen from 6 in 1960 to 2.4 today. It looks like the global population will max out at 9 billion and then decline and settle somewhere at the 8 billion mark.

And just like the Climate Alarmists, Population Alarmists didn’t (don’t) take into account the ingenuity of humans and their capacity to adapt. We are always finding ways of doing more with less, while maintaining, and improving our care for the planet. It’s something that doomsday alarmists always seem to forget. We’re really good at adapting.

Education, technology and adaptation will continue to improve as more and more countries lift themselves out of poverty. More than half of the world’s poorest people have done just that, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, by adopting democracy and free markets. (But that’s a whole other story for another day.)

We shouldn’t live by the mantra that humans are a scourge or even a cancer on the planet. This ideology is narcissistic, defeatist and flat-out dangerous. Historically there have been many people that have had the conviction that people (or certain sections of the population) should not be walking around, and that their elimination would be for the greater good. And we all know where that lead.

I also don’t like the thought that people are simply consumers. Sure, there may be more consumers than producers, but our producers are amazing at providing. Again, free markets and stable governance leading the way.

Now that doesn’t mean that we are managing things perfectly. Our oceans  and rivers in particular are suffering. But keep in mind the evidence shows that the more wealthy a nation becomes, the more environmentally aware and responsible they become. By learning to do more with less, by creating and applying technology, the planet will benefit as will its people.

So, no, we are not facing destruction brought on by overpopulation. Pessimism and a lack of imagination are far more dangerous. 

On a personal note can I say that it’s been interesting since last month’s edition. Thank you to the many people that have taken me aside and supported my thoughts, and encouraged me to continue writing. While I have found it virtually impossible to avoid political statements, the above I feel is a good start. 

And just to clarify one point from last month’s Coolamon correspondent. I do not get my information from Social Media. Anything I print has been checked by myself using several sources that include news publications from both sides of the political spectrum. H

Silence of the Conservatives - June 2021

So this month’s contribution hasn’t turned out the way I planned. 

I have been working on a commentary on the Morrison Government’s more stupid policies. That is, the government’s collective thought bubbles that have turned into bad policy and bad legislation. Maybe another time. 

Then the war broke out between Palestine and Israel. The fault of which I lay squarely at the feet of Joe Biden. I’d love to explain my thoughts, but that too will have to wait.

I’m sure that you’ve had times where you have so many thoughts running around in your head that it’s hard to make sense of it all. If you’re like me you sometimes struggle to make sense of other people’s actions and wonder what the thought process behind it was. 

Well this is me. I hear news on the radio, see headlines pop up on my socials feed, and hear of things in conversation with others that have me scratching my head. Not only do we struggle to work out where other people are coming from and what they stand for, often it’s difficult to work out your own position on things. 

A wise man once suggested that the best way to gain a better understanding of your own position is to write about it .He was right.  Putting your thoughts onto paper (or a hard drive) has been a great way for me to get things straight. Also, looking for more information on things that you might not be clear about, including opposing ideas, is crucial to the expansion of your knowledge, opinions, and ultimately your actions. 

The last few months I have contributed my thoughts to our community paper, The Ganmain Guardian. 

These thoughts are what I've come up with after looking at a particular issue, tapping into info from several different sources.

To date, only one person has approached me to see if I was indeed the author. This person also said that he liked the article and encouraged me to do more. (Update: make that two people).

Then, last month, the Guardian’s editor was told about a post that appeared on social media which was quite the opposite, calling upon the Guardian to stop printing my articles. And that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone has the right to express that opinion. However, our editor Dezi has been copping some heat about it from some “keyboard warriors” who don’t like my brand of politics and philosophy. Which is a shame. Because that’s not what I was hoping to achieve. 

I am disappointed that those that are offended by my writings have not offered an alternative opinion, nor expressed to Dezi exactly what they found offensive. Because that’s how we become stronger. If I’m wrong on something, tell me how. Then I consider your opinions, and that may just affect mine. That’s community. That’s the Westminster system of Government and Opposition. Dictatorships don’t work and eventually collapse. Democracies, for all of their faults, are the best social system that the world knows, bringing more freedom and wealth to more people every day. Because opposing ideas are thought about, spoken about, and thrashed out, until an (often) stronger compromise is reached. 

I see Free Speech as one of the most important fundamentals of society. In order to think, you must speak. In order to refine or cement your thoughts, you must listen. I told our editor Dezi when I submitted my first contribution that it is not my intention to stir up trouble, and I certainly did not want to place her in the middle of any dispute that may arise. But that has happened, and to Dezi, I apologize. Some people do not want to hear ideas from outside their own world view, and that is their choice.

So, I will no longer contribute in this way to the Guardian. But I would love it if more people in our community would take the time to contribute in some way to the Guardian and keep our little community publication in print. 

Biden's Border Balls-up - April 2021

A few days after Joe Biden took office in the US’s White House, a (what I found quite funny) meme quickly circulated on the Socials. It showed a photo of Biden at his oval office desk, signing a stack of Executive Orders. The covers of said orders were labeled, (in a more crude language) “Fix This”, “Fix This” etc in a referral to his reversal of Trump’s policies. From what I have read, Biden signed 30 executive orders in his first 3 days, with 17 of them being direct recindation of Trump policies. This is despite Mr Biden once saying that only a dictator would rely on Executive Orders.
The first three months of the Biden Administration has been a chaotic disaster. Here’s what just a few of those signatures has meant for the people of the US, and the world. 
- Rejoin the WHO (World Health Organisation). Trump withdrew US support for the WHO protesting, among many things, the corruption and deceit trumpeted by the WHO when it came to investigating the origins and subsequent spread of Covid-19. The WHO’s inaction, and their blatant covering for China’s deplorable management of the outbreak. The shortcomings of the WHO and the PRC are well documented despite being covered up by a biased US media.
- Cancel the Keystone Pipeline. With the stroke of a pen, he immediately placed 11,000 people out of work. Eleven Thousand. But the follow-on to that will mean many more people unemployed. In his four-year term ,Trump made the US energy independent. Meaning the price of energy came down both in the US and for people like us who rely on imported oil products from other parts of the world. In the US the cheaper energy meant the rekindling of manufacturing. Steel manufacturing reopened. Manufacturers started relocating factories FROM China and Mexico to the US. Before the effects of Covid the US had the lowest unemployment figures since WWII, and highest workforce participation rates for minority groups like people of colour, and women. All of this has been undone. Of course, inflated energy prices is a problem we have here in Australia.
- Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. Which means artificial inflation of energy pricing to chase an impossible and ineffective CO2 target. Higher energy bills, less attractive manufacturing environment all lead to loss of jobs. Just like here in Australia. See a pattern emerging?
- Rescind the 1776 Commission. This is a complicated issue, but the commission stood to evaluate and correct the inaccuracies of what is being taught in the US about the nation’s foundation. This may be complicated, but warrants further investigation which I will look into in a future article. Because every bad idea from the US eventually makes its way to Australia.
- Undoes Trump’s expansion of immigration enforcement within the United States, and
- Rescinds the Refugee Program, and
- Halts construction of the border wall by terminating the national emergency declaration used to fund it. THIS has been Biden’s biggest blunder. There is a crisis at the southern border, and Biden is responsible. Biden has stopped border wall construction, released illegal immigrants into the community, and has invited millions more by promising amnesty (for 11 Million!) all without planning for handling the masses of people arriving. We have seen a massive surge in illegal immigration, the spread of COVID-19, and a humanitarian crisis at the border. Today's crisis is caused by disproportionate unaccompanied minors and lone adults being trafficked by “coyotes” (people smugglers). Border Patrol reported a record 18,890 unaccompanied minors at the border in March alone, nearly double previous record highs. In February, 100,441 migrants overall were encountered. There simply aren’t enough facilities to house, feed and maintain hygiene for these people stopped at the border. The pictures are harrowing. Sounds like the 2007 Australian refugee crisis, doesn’t it.
It’s interesting that, in response to the disaster, the US Government is now recommencing the wall’s construction. NOW it’s a good idea. 
- Revoked Trump’s industry-led apprenticeship program. Directly affecting youth employment by no longer allowing market forces to determine what apprenticeships are needed in which sector. 
Other gems that Biden has signed include the death of Women’s sport. Allowing any individual who “Identifies as a woman” to compete in women’s sports, regardless of actual biological markers. Yep, you can’t stop a man from competing against women. Not only that, you can’t prevent a man from using a woman's toilet facilities if he insists that he is a woman. And criminals who identify as a woman will serve time in a women's prison. No good can come of this. It’s mental.
And, like I said, the worst part is, all bad ideas from the US eventually come to Australia.

What about all of this bloody debt? - March 2021

It’s common thought that politicians have worked exceptionally hard in the year of Covid, and if it wasn’t for them we would all be dead.  Untrue. They have also pushed the fallacy that were it not for them doing those long tedious press conferences, we’d all be suffering from the WuFlu. People seem to think that Dan Andrews did his 200 press conferences in a row as some kind of higher personal sacrifice. I don’t think so. The idea that any politician didn't want to spend one to two hours a day, completely hogging the limelight, while completely drowning out the opposition, is ridiculous. This was a brilliant way to starve their opposition of oxygen, and you saw that manifest itself in WA where Mark McGown was re-elected absolutely overwhelmingly. Same thing happened in Queensland. Incumbency during a crisis means you get the cameras. And this crisis is a boon for incumbents no matter how ordinary or incompetent they happen to be. 

Another myth that's taken hold is that they’ve had to make really tough decisions. In Australia they didn't because as soon as the rest of the world shut down, Australia could say “we’re following best practice”. But that was not a hard decision and of course then they say “we're doing this because what we want to protect you”. “We don't really want to take all of this power but we're doing it for your benefit”, and this is linked to the next myth that they had to make really tough economic decisions. Where? When? Spending lots and lots and lots of money is not a tough decision, especially when this is a government-made recession, and because it’s government-made, the government has a moral responsibility to compensate for the damage it's done. Of course this is not a traditional compensation case where you get money from the people who made the bad decisions. What we are doing is we are bribing ourselves with money that we just don't have. We are doing it today with the job keeper/job seeker government programs, and then it's going to occur in the future as we try to get out of the recession. And there’s little (or no) need for additional spending, because as the unemployment figures showed recently, Australia is not that badly off. Unemployment is actually pretty good. Government will not lead us to recovery, business will. But to show how much they care, show how much empathy they have, and how they feel just terrible about what they've done, politicians have been splashing our money at us. And because we're stupid, we all say “Thank you Sir, thank you, is it possible to have some more.” This shines golden light upon the incumbent, and their popularity goes up. The opposition can't give you that money, it’s all the wonderful government. Truth is, it is writing a check against your future. And somehow we're grateful to them for it. It's moronic. What politician has ever lost their jobs because they were splashing money about? Now of course smart people realise “hold on, that's my that's my money!” but it appears that there aren't enough smart people, so people get the checks from someone like Kevin Rudd in 2008/2009 and think “Wow! free money!” So they don't connect it with the tax rises or lack of services years later when the government has to pay it back. So politicians spend all the money, splurging it, and at the end there is nothing to show for it, except a whole lot of people asking “Where’d my money go?” Well that person asking “Where’d my money go?” will be you. Because we'll have to raise taxes to pay for these obscene splurges. About the only good thing that’s happened in Australia is that our splurge has not been as reckless or as large as the incredibly dangerous irresponsible splurge that's happening in the US at the moment, and apparently even though only two weeks ago they passed the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, they’ve got another $2trillion infrastructure bill lined up -  even though the money from one of the Trump stimulus packages hasn't paid spent yet. So we should be grateful that our spendthrift drunken politicians are not as bad as other people's. However. That doesn't mean we're off the hook. 

The thing about government debt is that the person who racks it up is very rarely the person who actually has to make the decision to pay it back. They could go for austerity, (reduce services), or increase taxes, or both, and usually they end up losing an election. So they don't care, and then some other poor bastard comes in and has to make the tough and unpopular decisions. This is what happened in 1996 when the liberals were saying the debt is too high. But by the time we paid it all off, by the time we had net assets, by the time we had actual cash reserves, Kevin Rudd came in and blew it all. And when Tony Abbott arrived in 2013 and said “we have to start paying this down” we squealed like stuck pigs because we thought the good times should keep going. We didn’t want to pay $7 to see a Doctor, for goodness sakes. Oonce you get on the cycle of spend, spend, spend,  it is very hard to remain in government while you make tough decisions. 

The Victorian budget has plunged further into debt after the state government spent big on infrastructure and stimulus grants to businesses in an attempt to keep people in jobs throughout the pandemic. Treasurer Tim Pallas said the state was surging towards a healthy recovery after he released a 2021 media fiscal report recently. The total value of goods and services sold in the state grew by 6.8 percent in the 3 months to December. Why? Because when government takes its boot off the neck of business the economy will grow. Because we haven't been able to go out across Australia and spend money on things, like in Victoria they haven’t been able to go out to restaurants, because government treated everybody like a child, because they didn't think people were smart enough to be sensible, because they locked everybody down, (remember 15 days to slow the spread?), when the government takes its boot off business’ neck, businesses grow. 

My question to our leaders is: when the reserve bank says “stop spending”, are you going to listen to the reserve bank? When they say we have to raise interest rates because inflation is starting to become a concern, will you stop spending? Have you got the guts? Can you do it? Of course not, you don't want to be unemployed. Don't worry just create penury for the future generations. 

Net government debt in Victoria (for example) increased by $17.4 billion in the last 6 months. The Victorian government has repeatedly expressed confidence in its ability to sustain the level of debt, which it says is relatively low compared with the federal government. So is their capacity to raise revenue, dramatically so. Idiots.

What governments have done is use covid as the camouflage just for being crap at what they do. They are using this to hide all of their sins. The truth is our governments across Australia have been spending madly for years. And now they’ve got an excuse to do it, and try to hide some stuff, which they can’t do, because there are consequences.  For example, the two major credit ratings agencies which judge governments on how likely they are to be able to repay debt have both downgraded Victoria's rating in recent months. Moody's downgraded Victoria by two positions and said the decision was sparked by “...a marked erosion in Victoria's governance of its public finances”. That means debt becomes more expensive for Victoria. You cannot just keep spending without consequence. But of course, I can guarantee you that Dan Andrews will not be there when it comes to making the actual tough decisions. He will be remembered as the premier who got Victoria through covid, and  it'll be some other poor bastard who's going to have to pick up the pieces. 

Australia's unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8 percent according to the latest figures from the ABS, which the Prime Minister says means his plan is working. No, Mr Morrison, it’s because business is doing business. And they will do things and people get jobs. The number of Australians employed increased by 89,000 between January and February to reach over 13 million, the unemployment rate has declined by 0.5 percentage points to 5.8 percent with unemployment decreasing by 70,000 people according to the ABS. But Morrison said “In less than 12 months from when the recession began caused by the Covid pandemic there are now more jobs in the Australian economy than there were before the pandemic. (The recession was actually caused by government!). This is good news. This means the economy is growing. It's growing so much that he’s saying we need more people to fill the jobs. Jobs that pay more than being on the dole, which comes from productive people - idiots -  like you  - that have been at work the whole time. 

So it is now time to withdraw the stimulus and compensation, so we can get back to work. But, will government have the courage to withdraw services, to withdraw money? No they won’t. 

A couple weeks ago they increased jobseeker. Every single council of social services around the country has put in a claim for more money to reduce poverty. This is a myth. Throwing money at people does not reduce poverty. It makes them dependent on idiots like you that have jobs. What you need is people to get up in the morning and go to work. So they can invest, so they can build something for themselves. Just increasing money that they get for free from people who are productive does not decrease poverty. The best poverty reduction program as you've probably heard is a job. Good luck selling that at the moment. And because government didn't trust us to be adults, we have given ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and possibly beyond that, a massive debt, because government didn't trust us to assess risk on our own and do the right thing. So instead we overreacted with the shut downs, and then we overreacted with the response to it.

(Thanks to David Murtagh of The Daily Breakdown Podcast, who’s recent exploration on this issue is the basis of this article. Parts of his article have been reproduced here with his kind permission. https://dailybreakdown.com.au/ )

Fixing Climate Change - we're doing it wrong - February 2021

"YOU'LL DIE OF OLD AGE. WE'LL DIE OF CLIMATE CHANGE" We have all seen the picture of a girl, holding this sign at a school-hours “climate emergency” march. She, her peers, and people of all nations and ages, are living in absolute fear of climate change. And why not? This is the message being pushed on a seemingly hourly basis by the media industry. In recent times the message has been bumped up a notch or two by now referring to the climate change phenomena as a “Climate Emergency”, or “Climate Crisis”. Many news outlets have embraced the climate change ideology, with at least one, The Guardian, (not to be confused with the Ganmain Guardian) publicly announcing that they will (disgracefully) not publish counter-arguments to any climate stories that they publish.

Organised groups of people are taking their fears of starvation/drowning/frying to death to the streets, causing havoc in major cities around the globe. And can you blame them? With the constant flow of bad/worse/worsest climate stories featuring in seemingly every single news bulletin or print edition, it’s human nature to absorb the bad news, become angry, and become an activist in one way or another. Those of us who spent our youth growing up in the shadow of nuclear armageddon may know those fears and anger first hand. A 2019 poll showed that almost half of the world’s population believe that climate change will end the human race. This is affecting the way that people choose to live their life. Some people are deciding not to bring children into the world. And if adults are worried, then children are terrified. A Washington Post survey in 2019 showed that 57% American children aged 13 to 17 are “afraid” of climate change, 52% feel “angry”, and 42% feel “guilty”. The fear, terror and resentment felt by people, especially our youth, seems genuine.I am sorry that I couldn’t find any Australian statistics on this, but we can assume the results would be similar. Now. Climate change is a real problem, not just a perceived problem. The basic climate science has remained fairly consistent over the last twenty years. Projected changes haven’t varied much over that time. Science agrees that human activity is causing most of our climate change. It’s the political reaction to climate change that is manifestly flawed. The rhetoric around climate change has become more extreme, and less anchored to actual scientific findings.What follows this is irrational sensationalism from our failing print, radio and television media industry, hungry for sales, audience share, and ‘clicks’ to their web pages. With half of the global population living in fear of human extinction, the political reaction to this becomes more extreme, we adopt disastrous climate policies, we invest heavily in inefficient and unreliable renewables, at the expense of other immediate disasters such as food shortages, pandemics, sanitation and disease, political upheaval and conflicts. Despite these immediate problems being quite manageable and easily addressed, the obsession with climate change is causing governments to waste billions upon billions of dollars on what is proving to be ineffective climate change policy, now spiraling upwards, into the trillions. We need to stop, take a big breath, and re-evaluate our response to climate science, before this False Climate Alarm leaves the world worse off than it could be. Science shows us that fears of a global apocalypse are unfounded. The sooner we clear our heads of panic, the sooner we can get back to the actual problems at hand. Forget the rhetoric. Concentrate upon the real problems at hand. Global warming is real. It is caused predominantly by the consumption of fossil fuels. But it is not the end of the world. We can manage, and adapt to, climate change if we look at the science, pull back on the panic, look at the economics. and look at the problems in a rational and apolitical manner.  The current direction of energy policy is harming the less fortunate. It is taking money from the poorest, and distributing it to the wealthier. For example, rooftop solar. Some (many) simply can’t afford to install solar panels. But these very people subsidise those that can by way of a portion of their energy bill, and their taxes, going to those that install subsidised solar panels. To me that’s very unfair.It’s the anti-Robyn Hood. A fraction of current global spending on ineffective renewables, subsidies for renewable energy programs using current inefficient technologies, subsidies for electric vehicles, etc, could totally eradicate smallpox, for example. Could dramatically reduce malaria. Could significantly reduce the impact of AIDS/HIV. We should change our investment strategies towards new and emerging technologies. In fact, investment in new technologies such as fusion or hydrogen has plummeted due to the financial resources being consumed by an unbalanced and inefficient renewable energy market. The only people benefiting from this outrageously wasteful direction is the politicians and their business mates who are raking in the subsidies and benefits of a distorted energy market.  Let’s work together, to keep energy affordable, reliable and available, invest wisely, plan for a changing climate, concentrate on REAL emergencies, and the world will continue to become a better and better place for all of mankind.

I won't be signing Kevin Rudd's Petition - January 2021

 I won’t be signing Kevin Rudd’s Petition.
Several weeks ago, a friend tagged me into a Facebook post where former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was “..officially launching an official petition to the Australian Parliament, calling on the Parliament to establish a royal commission into the abuse of media monopoly in Australia, in particular by the Murdoch media, and to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership”... Sounds very official, doesn’t it.

This friend that tagged me in the post is not only a Facebook friend, but also someone I consider to be an actual friend. But I won’t be signing the petition. 

Forget my contempt for Mr Rudd. His pathetic search for relevance, ten years after his own party sacked him, and several years after the Australian voting public resoundly sacked him a second time, is the least of my worries. 

In Mr Rudd’s video, Mr Rudd declares that the Murdoch Media has a “Monopoly” in the print media, and Mr Rudd wants to “maximise diversity”. He lamented on Murdoch keeping loss-making papers open to flex his political power, Murdoch’s bullying of media outlets that have a different point of view, and the support of climate change denial. He also accuses the Murdoch press of being anti-Labor and pro-Liberal. 

Here’s the thing. The Murdoch media is historically not biased towards any particular party. I’m old enough to recall Murdoch’s support of the Hawke/Keating government’s reforms, and more recently, their dropping of support for John Howard during the final months of his government. From my observations, the Murdoch press seems to support those things that we all should, namely, freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free markets. The very things that have made western democracies such as Australia the most liveable places on the planet.

Mr Rudd doesn’t want to destroy a “Media monopoly”. There is no monopoly. He wants to create a monopoly, by silencing conservative voices. 

Maybe the reason why there are more Murdoch papers than any others is because the others have gone broke and closed or sold out. The reason why newspapers go broke is because people don’t buy them. And people don’t buy them if they don’t want to read what’s in them. Simple free market economics.

Of course, the left-leaning Fairfax newspaper group has joined the left-leaning Channel 9, becoming a media giant, but Mr Rudd isn’t too worried about their “monopoly”. And consider the other media bias around the country. Ch 7 and Ten news and opinion shows are left-biased, not to mention the ABC and SBS who fly expressly against their charter and refuse to engage in alternative views of current affairs. And don’t get me started on the “Guardian”, who always take the moral high ground while conveniently forgetting that they are funded by money made by slavery. (Look it up).

And before you get your back up about the ABC being biased, just stop and think about it. Can you name one of their many commentators or anchors that you would consider right-leaning at all, let alone conservative?

So what’s Mr Rudd’s end game? Does he want to reduce the amount of papers that are owned by Murdoch? Does he also want to reach into electronic media? 

Conservative commentators on the 9 radio network (2GB, 3AW, 4BC),  have been shut down by their new Ch 9 owners, for example Alan Jones and Steve Price. This leaves no real conservative voice in Sydney radio any more.

That basically leaves (Murdoch’s) Sky News after dark. The only real place where common thoughts, ideas and opinions are challenged and discussed. Does Mr Rudd want to also shut down this avenue of conservative media? I think so. 

Also consider, if Mr Rudd gets his way and the Murdoch Press is forced to sell off a portion of their newspapers, then those publications will close forever. No one will buy them, they simply don’t make financial sense to invest in.

And Social Media of course, was supposed to be a platform for all. A place where the masses can discuss the matters of the day, and let their individual opinions be known to the world. Not any more. Big Tech, particularly Facebook and Twitter, has taken upon itself to become the thought police, imposing censorship, blocks and bans if you dare to express an opinion against the current trends in leftist thought. 

All of this above is why so many people are turning their backs from traditional media of all kinds, and are now sourcing their news and opinions from the new sources: Free speech social media (eg Parler), Podcasts and on-line journals.

In fact, Parler is the most downloaded app in the US today, it’s numbers surging following the US election. Conservative commentators hold the majority of podcast subscribers. People are seeking intelligent discourse, and our traditional media isn’t providing. And if Mr Rudd gets his way and shuts down, or even reduces the number of Murdoch publications and broadcast media, more and more conservatives will be forced into these alternative platforms. This is good for no one. We all lose. Without different opinions and views being freely exchanged, we can never improve. You can’t achieve good public policy without quality and robust debate.

And if Mr Rudd’s end game is indeed “media diversity”, then I suggest a royal commission into media bias within the ABC.

The world is riddled with problems. Most of them are fixable. It’s a pity that Mr Rudd doesn’t spend more of his time, his energy, and our money trying to improve the world, rather than pursuing his own promotion, and a personal vendetta against Mr Murdoch.

Since writing this, I see that the other great Labor Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has joined Mr Rudd in his crusade. Once again Mr Turnbull is showing his true colours. Red.