Agmates

South Australian farmer John Michelmore writes:

It is blatantly obvious to many that carbon is not a pollutant, but an integral part of the environment.

Again the government has the cart before the horse. They sign to Kyoto protocol and embark on the introduction of a carbon trading scheme.

They then spend money on a community education scheme (9 million dollars by October) knowing that the majority of the population hasn’t a clue about the long term impact on Australia, when our competitors USA, China, Indonesia etc etc etc may well not introduce this tax burden to their economies.

The government also knows that there are serious questions in relation to the science behind the IPCC reports and the Guano Report (sorry for the spelling error). The reports are in the mainstream media almost daily if one cares to look.

For example David Evens who was a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005 says of himself:

“I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.”

In this tremendous article in last Fridays Australian Newspaper David says:

It was great. We were working to save the planet. But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

“There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations by anyone that implicate carbon emissions as a significant cause of the recent global warming.”

An education scheme for the general public would include this, wouldn’t it?? Education is done as part of a decision making process, not after the fact.

Based on the governments ads I’ve seen, this is not education, its propaganda in its worst form.

Education is when the public is given both sides of the story and allowed to decide for themselves on whether man made carbon dioxide emissions are impacting the world climate.

Education is not, calling carbon a pollutant and blaming the poor state of the River Murray on climate change induced by our carbon dioxide emissions. The state of the River Murray is only a function of poor government in Australia, nothing else.

Australia adopting a carbon trading scheme will have NO impact on global climates because we as a population are insignificant in the world.

I only hope that the general public can see through the propaganda.

Sure I agree we need to look after the planet for our descendants; but economic suicide for Australia isn’t going to be at all helpful to our kids.

I just can’t believe that our government believe that Australia’s adoption of a carbon trading scheme will make any difference to what other sovereign countries do. In the meantime Australia and its population will go broke.

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Have Your say! Have you seen the Ads. I was offended the very first time. What do you think?

The Trucking stouch with the government that has been brewing for weeks is set to ignite into one of the most bitter and protracted disputes that Australia has seen for decades.

Truck drivers, owner drivers and the all powerful Transport Workers Union are lining up against State and federal governments across Australia. The dispute is over a number of issues that are forcing drivers out of the industry and owner operators out of business.

The first major salvo was fired last night on the ABC’s 7.30 report. You can watch the program here (scroll down the side bar and its the third story) or read the transcript here.

The 7.30 report basically outlines the Transport Workers Union(TWU) take on the issue. It is ominous when you see Tony Sheldon Federal secretary of the TWU saying:

“It’s breaking point. Drivers are literally being forced to put their lives and other’s lives at risk.”

The program takes a major swipe at Coles & Woolworths (you know the Supermarket Duopoly thats maintains it pays farmers a fair market price for their produce).

Apparently they won’t pay truckies more money to carry the goods either. In his interview when Tony says client, it’s actually code for Coles, Woolworths, major retailers and the major Transport compies that sub contract their work to 1,000’s of smaller privately owned trucking companies that are getting the short end of the stick (sound familiar). Tony Sheldon (pictured below) -

“The fuel costs mean the drivers work longer, harder and faster to meet the client demand. More drivers are getting killed, more people on our roads are being injured as a result of the pressures on truck drivers driven by economics of the clients.

The major retailers across the country are lying when they say that the prices have to go up because of fuel, because they’re actually not paying it to many of the people that cart their goods.

There would be hardly a driver in the country, whether they be employees or owner drivers that won’t be ruling out blockades.”

Meanwhile Mick Pattel who represents the grass roots uprising of drivers and owner operators agrees whole heartedly with the TWU stance. He has reported instances medium sized sub-contractors being threaten by Heavy weights in the Transport industry who carry for national retailers like Coles and Woolworths.

These huge multi-national transport groups are threatening to black ban any sub contractor who supports the shut down. This would effectively shut down many of these operators businesses. Mick has passed this information onto the TWU.

The drivers and owner drivers have a list of 20 demands that they want met. Top of the list is the scrapping of demerit points and fines for log book inaccuracies. It was clearly demonstrated in our recent article that a simple clerical error by a drive in a log book will cost them $600 and the loss of 3 points off the drivers license. Policing of these “poorly drafted laws” is causing many long serving drivers to leave the industry.

Here is what Queensland Minister for Transport John Mickel (pictured below) speaking to Arlie Douglas of Toowoomba ABC had to say about a recent meeting with Mick Pattel on this very issue:

“We won’t back down on one of the demands set by truckies planning to strike this Sunday.

Safety concerns will mean demerit points related to fatigue laws won’t be dropped.

One of the issues they wanted was the demerit points for log books which was introduced in March of 2007.

I will not be moving on that……..

There is nothing more dangerous than a driver who is fatigued being on the road with other road users.”

Mr Mickel might like to explain how fining a truck driver $600 for not drawing a line across a page, when the rest of the log book is in order including adherence to all fatigue laws is a safety issue. The facts are he and his Labor colleagues have drafted a ‘bad’ law.

Mr Mickels office told us on Monday that they realize there may be some issues with the way that the laws are policed and they will look into this. I’ll remind the minister that the police just enforce the laws they make. Have a look at the cartoon satire - Why Democracy is better. There is a line in there that Mr Mickel and all politicans should heed.

“Hi we are the Police force, we can only obey the laws, so whatever laws he makes, we’ve got to obey.”

It is the ultimate cop-out to blame the way police enforce the laws he and his Labor colleagues have made.

Agmates told the Minister that elements of the National Transport Bill were bad law making in our article “Lazy Labor Legislation will Impact Food Prices” back on the 19th of May this year. Indeed our articles on the issued formed a part of debate on the bill.

If the stand off escalates as it looks, that prediction about the laws impacting food prices will come true within months. As Geoff Thomas of Woolworths said on the 7.30 report:

“Blockades, depending on their nature and severity, could have a significant impact on Woolworth’s business.”

Blockades aside, food would be dearer in supermarkets if Woolworths and Coles were forced to stop using their 70% market domination to squeeze the life out of those that grow and deliver the product to their supermakets before they mark it up 100-250%.

The supermarkets rack up their margins and increase their profits whilst they squeeze the life blood out of every farmer and truckie who is responsible for putting food in their supermarkets.

They call this greater efficiencies in the supermarket business.

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Have Your say!

The yarding was 10,500 head at this weeks Roma store cattle sale. This was up 1,700 head on last week. The store index fell 1.4 points this week. it has fallen 3.4 points or 3.5% in the last 2 weeks.

Average Steer price Premium
It’s accepted that Steers in a weight range will make a 20 cent per kilo liveweight premium over heifers of the same weight range. I believe a good indication to future price movements is to track the Premium gap between steers & heifers.

Last week I predicted -

“Expect to see weaner heifers improve by up to 10 cents next week as a 30 cents gap is not sustainable.”

Weaner Heifer prices improved this week by 11 cents.

Last week I predicted that heifer over 350 KGs would ease this week. they didn’t. At present the price gap between steers and heifers over 350kgs is just 6-8 cents. Historically this is not sustainable, although good if you are selling heavy heifers.

Quotes from this weeks Roma Store Cattle Sale.

Click Here to see the most recent Roma cattle sale reports

A strange relationship between dogs and bears. Taken from the show “Jailed Polar Bears” FirstScience.Tv

This is a follow up to Play & Have fun. It’s good for you health.

Note - If Video stops and starts while playing - let it run through once then click the Play arrow and it will run through without stopping the second time. Its your connection speed thats the trouble. This may not work if your on dial up.

Please note that Agmates is not responsible for any content beyond the video we’ve selected. In other words, after you watch the video if you click on further links that come up to other YouTube Videos you do so at your own risk.

Click here to see Agmates ‘Videos of the day’ library

Physican and clinical researcher Stuart Brown:

“If you don’t already think animals are far more spiritually advanced than we humans, think again.”

Accomplished wildlife photographer Norbert Rosing’s striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered husky sled dogs in the wilderness of northern Canada’s sub-arctic Hudson Bay.

Rosing was set up to photograph the dogs when the wild 1,200-pound polar bear (545kg) appeared out of the white wilderness.

Rosing was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in.

The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.

See map below for location of photo shoot.

Stuart Brown is the founder of the National Institute of play. Brown’s research has shown him that authentic play is a state of being which can be accessed and used by everyone, and that play is as important to humans as vitamins or sleep.

“May you always have love to share, Health to spare,
And friends that care.”

See our incredible Video here Dogs & Bears
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Have Your say! Share your thought with us.

New South Wales farmer and Professional Shearer Alastair McRobert (pictured) writes:

The Green Paper released at the Canberra press club last Wednesday by Senator Penny Wong was a slap in the face for Australian farmers that have had their property expropriated by draconian and unconstitutional native vegetation laws.

Affected farmers had hoped that the new Rudd Government would make right the injustices perpetrated by the previous Howard Government, after recent comments made by Senator Penny Wong in an interview with Fran Kelly, ABC Radio National Breakfast

“KELLY: Do you have a view?

WONG: Look, I think there are plusses and minuses, there certainly are some issues still associated with measurement: how do you measure emissions from forestry and farming practices? But having said that, there is no doubt that those management practices can contribute significantly to your emissions profile, so there strong.

KELLY: And they’d (farmers) like to be rewarded for that?

WONG: Well certainly farmers who have complied with restrictions on land clearing have actually made a significant contribution to Australia’s Kyoto effort, but these are all the issues that we want to talk to people about and we will do so.”

The affected farmers are yet to be consulted as the National Farmers Federation does not represent them as witnessed by they’re failure to address the issues in its submissions to the Garnaut report.

Senator Wong’s response to Canberra reporter Ms Beeby’s question was shallow and misleading spin doctoring at its best.
In the Press Gallery last Wednesday Minister Penny Wong (pictured) said,

“As you know, most of the States have put in place land clearing regulation and that has actually, if you look at the emissions from land use change over the last 10 years, has had a substantial impact . So we did recognise that.

The second issue is, frankly, a practical issue. Because of the existing landclearing regulation a lot of what is left in terms of native vegetation, native forest on private land is reasonably small and is, if you were to include that into an emissions trading scheme, you would have multiple points of liability across this sector.

So in other words, you’d have the government in a position where it would have to try and ask individual landholders to remit permits on these issues for this activity and our view was that imposition of that was administratively complex and we questioned, given the other regulations that exist in this sector, what net environmental gain is benefited.”

This misleading spin must be addressed with the facts that are:

1. The Rudd Government has not recognised one part of the contributions made by the affected farmers in the green paper, no recognition at all, zero.

2. Senator Wong’s comments on the area of native forests on private land is completely misleading. The governments own National Carbon Accounts show the real truth.

In the latest National Inventory Report 2006, vol 2, page 4, table 7.3 submitted to the UNFCCC, June 2008 - the area of native vegetation locked up on private property, that meets the Kyoto definition for a Kyoto Forrest is 107,007,000 hectares (264,414,297 acres) which equates to 19% of the total area of farm land in Australia and 14% of Australia’s total land mass that is counted in the National Accounts.

Senator Wong say’s that this area is “reasonably small”. In fact this area of lock up equates to the only emissions abatement that has allowed Australia to be on target to meet its Kyoto commitments and offset the massive growth in the energy and mining sectors.

Take this carbon abatement; offset of 87 million ton of carbon from the national accounts and Australia’s Kyoto Target of 108% by 2012 is blown out to 138% with Australia facing huge penalties.

The unjust treatment by this Government in not addressing the affected farmers by compensating them for the expropriation of there property in there greenhouse policy mirrors the despotic attitude towards farmers of the former Howard Government.

It is ironic that the green paper and further commentary by Rudd, Wong and Swan since it’s release have confirmed that the big polluters and there Property Rights interests will be compensated with free permits to pollute and the very group of farmers that have had there farming interests destroyed through regulatory takings get nothing.

Guy Pearce (former Howard staffer), author of High and Dry summed the Green Paper up in interviews on ABC radio’s program the world today and Radio National last Thursday, saying the Greenhouse Mafia are continuing to run the Rudd/Wong agenda on carbon emissions and abatement.

Alastair McRobert

Farmer & Professional Shearer - Cobar New South Wales.

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Have Your Say! Tell us what you think?

1. Do you agree with Alastair?

2. Or are you happy with the way the subsequent governments have taken farmers property rights in the form of 87 million tonnes of sequestered carbon that will single handedly allow us to meet our 2012 Kyoto commitment?

3. Should it not be the big polluting energy Corporations that make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars profit are year that have to pay?

4. Why is it that 20,000 individual Australian farming operations solely have to bear the financial cost of meeting our National commitment to Kyoto?

Tell us what you think?

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Talks held in Brisbane yesterday with the QLD state government have failed to avert the looming National Transport Shutdown.

Shutdown Convener and private transport owner & operator Mick Pattel updates us on the outcomes of his meeting with QLD Transport Minister John Mickel (pictured) and Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams.

Mick Pattel private Livestock Transport owner & operator (pictured below) reports:

“The Qld Transport Minister John Mickel and three members of his staff were gracious enough to give us an hour and a half of their time on Saturday morning (19th July 2008).

Liz Schmidt attended the meeting with me as a part of the delegation and she is able to verify the outcome of the meeting. Liz is the President of the Queensland Livestock Transport Association (QLTA) however she was there in here capacity as a private transport owner / operator and not representing the QLTA.

Unfortunately I can only report that we did not resolve the issues at hand. The biggest sticking point was the removal of demerit points from log book breaches, and on that point the talks broke down.

I do however believe that the Minister is now acutely aware what needs to happen to avert this shutdown, we are not scheduled to meet again at this point.

We still have not met with anyone in the Federal Government and expect that the standoff there may continue, which is unfortunate.”

Following the meeting Tom Desmond owner operator of Emerald Refrigeration Transport joined Mick & Liz at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) building to meet with with QLD TWU secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) and some of his people.

Mick reported on that meeting:

“Hughie gave us about one and a half hours of his time, it was a friendly and constructive meeting that made them aware of the reasons we are taking this action.

Hughie fell short of giving us full support however he didn’t condemn our efforts to head off these reforms. He told us he would wait and see how much support we received as a result of the shutdown before joining us. The TWU have 15,000 members across QLD.

I believe that the TWU are genuine in their concerns for where the industry is going and need some positive direction from the real people in the industry. It always seems that the minorities get the most attention and they do not represent or portray any of the true issues, and never offer realistic solutions.

I thank Liz and Tom for their support and their input and everyone driving this program. Our delegates across Australia are doing a great job in giving people the information and building support.”

Below is the names and contact details of the movements delegates. If you’d like to contact them or pass it onto your local transport operator so they can contact them to join the movement.

QLD - Mick Pattel Mob 0429-413161 Ph 0747413161

NSW - Leo Fardell Ph 0268844433 Mob 0429844433

VIC - Darryl Brown Ph 0354353589 Mob 0408322868

Western VIC & SA - Russell Borchard Ph 0350243247 Mob 0419007815

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Have Your say!

Queensalnd Member for Warrego and shadow minister for Main Roads Howard Hobbs (pictured) writes:

Heavy truck drivers were all-but being forced to break fatigue driving laws because of the lack of proper rest areas.

Parliamentary Estimates yesterday (17/07/08) heard that the Bligh government was failing to provide enough heavy vehicle rest areas by under-funding the Department of Main Roads which was responsible for half the 200 heavy vehicle rest areas on Queensland roads.

The recent Audit of Rest Areas against National Guidelines found rest opportunities for heavy vehicle drivers in Queensland were particularly scarce.

It’s disgraceful that the Bligh government has allocated just $3 million over the next five years to construct and upgrade of heavy vehicle rest areas.

Photo: An example of one of many designated Truck rest stop areas. Drivers are expected to stop and break here for 8-12 hours with no shower or toilet facilities. The only facilities in a number of these areas is a wheelie bin.

We need far more, and far more with better facilities. I am highly critical of the Bligh government for under-funding heavy vehicle rest areas, especially as drivers had to comply with national fatigue laws and Road Rule 200 which barred heavy vehicles from parking around towns and cities for more than an hour.

The government is forcing drivers to break the law and drive while fatigued because of the lack of proper rest areas.

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Have Your say!

National Transport Industry Shutdown Convener Mick Pattel will meet with Qld Minister for Transport John Mickel (pictured) tomorrow saturady the 19th of June.

At the meeting in Brisbane, Richmond Livestock transport owner Mick Pattel will present to the minister the log of claims that has been developed by transport owners & drivers after recent well attended meetings held in Toowoomba, Emerald, Townsville, Dubbo, Wyong and Bendigo.

The shutdown which is scheduled to start in 10 days time is an incredible grass roots uprising from drivers and smaller transport business owners.

On the same day Mick Pattel is also due to meet with powerful Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) to discuss the Shutdown. Many of Mr Williams members will be involved in the shutdown.

Without any support from peak bodies such as the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) or State Transport associations who all oppose the shutdown it is estimated that 70% of drivers across industries such as Livestock Carriers, fuel tanks and refrigerated food trucks will stay at home for two weeks.

Many of the larger transport companies do not support the shut down but will be dragged into the dispute as more and more of their drivers elect to stay at home rather than drive.

The peak transport body the ATA who have been involved in the implementation of the new National Transport Legislation which is to come into effect at the end of September are vehemently opposed to the shutdown.

If the grassroots movement is successful in having 70% of drivers staying away from work the Peak transport bodies will extremely embarrassed as they will be seen as unrepresentative of their grassroots members.

Repeated request from Mick Pattel and his delegates for a meeting with the peak trucking body (Australian Trucking Association ATA) Chief Executive Stuart St Clair (pictured) have been stone walled by Mr St Clair who has stated publicly he is willing to meet with the group, but to date has never been available.

The shutdown is generating tremendous support with QLD State farming organization AgForce backing the shut down.

The owners and drivers delegate in Victoria Russell Borchard of Borchard transport at Mildura has told us that support for the shut down is growing each day.

“We have the backing of farmers, stock agents, fruit growers as well as hundreds of drivers. Everybody I speak to in Victoria and South Australia is right behind us. The numbers are just growing every day.”

I spoke to the head of the New South Wales Farmers Federation Jock Laurie at home on his farm today. He told us that the Organization was yet to consider whether they would throw their support behind the Shutdown as AgForce had.

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Have Your say!

Queensland - Peak State Farming Body AgForce is urging rural producers and those living in Rural communities to prepare themselves for the 2 week National Transport Shut down.

In a statement issued today - AgForce Cattle President Greg Brown (pictured) said -

“We are urging people to be aware of the potential disruption likely to flow from the upcoming truck stoppage on July 28 so that they are not caught unprepared.

Livestock sales and disposal will be affected by the proposed transport shutdown, particularly cattle producers moving stock out of drought-affected north-west Queensland.

However it is not just livestock managers that need to be aware because all supplies in and out of the bush are delivered on trucks, therefore a national road transport shutdown will cause inconvenience to all users and consumers if they do not take steps to stock up on essentials and plan ahead.

Both rural and urban consumers need to understand that a viable transport sector is vital because everything we all use is transported on a truck at some stage.

Consumers should get behind the truckies and tell the government in the strongest possible terms to stop implementing policy that will put transport operators out of business.

The issues that have sparked this truck strike are very concerning for livestock producers because everything we use in our businesses, and nearly all of stock movements, come and go in a truck.”

AgForce Cattle and AgForce Sheep & Wool boards are supporting the proposed stoppage by drivers and operators, in the hope it will highlight the increasing frustrations of rural road transport operators and customers.

AgForce has strong concerns that a number of recent transport legislative changes will not be practical and will significantly increase the operating costs of Queensland livestock producers.

The four main trucking regulatory changes that will impact on livestock businesses are changes to the chain of responsibility legislation, increased registration fees for B-Double trucks, changes in fatigue management regulations and log-book procedures.

New chain of responsibility laws come into effect in September and will dramatically change the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the loading, unloading and scheduling of road transport. Greg Brown goes on to say:

“AgForce Cattle and AgForce Sheep & Wool boards are concerned that transport regulatory bodies at state and federal level do not yet understand the complexities and practices of livestock transport in rural and remote Australia and the full implications these changes will have on beef and sheep producing businesses

Some cattle producers in outlying areas are already paying 15-20 percent of the animals’ value to truck them to market, so any changes that will increase these costs risk making rural businesses unviable.

In addition, for livestock transport you have to manage what appears to be conflicting road safety and animal welfare requirements, whilst operating on a commercially viable basis. That is why we want exemptions from some of the rules for livestock carriers.

Given this frustrating situation, we are not surprised that truck operators and drivers are organising this stoppage on July 28 and we feel obliged to add our concerns on behalf of livestock producers.

Hopefully this protest increases State and Federal government awareness of the scope of the problems facing the road transport industry for livestock producers and that the need of exemptions for livestock carriers will be recognised.

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Have Your Say! Tell us what are you doing to prepare for the 2 week transport shutdown.