Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor team have once again plucked the Goose that lays the golden egg – Australian Agriculture.
Labors urban boy wonder, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke announced increases in AQIS fees and full industry cost recovery that amounts to a massive tax increase of up to 1,300% on the nations rural exports.
Whilst many exporters will pass those increases straight back to rural producers it will drive a number of them out of business, destroying jobs.
At present agriculture is the shining light in the Australian economy. Not because of any great government policy present or past, but simply because we still have an Ag industry and with the Australian Dollar at 65 cents US we are competitive.
Thanks to the Free Trade policies pursued by governments of all persuasions over the last 30 years we don’t have a strong manufacturing industry, its now in China and other low cost counties. If we did still have a manufacturing industry then it too would be doing well with the dollar at 65 cents.
It is diabolical that Labor doles out $6 billion dollars to prop up Australia’s zombie Car manufacturing companies yet slugs the viable agricultural industry with a huge export tax.
Its reverse free trade, tax our exports that are then slugged a protective tariff by the importing country.
Why does the car manufacturing need $6 billion dollars of government subsidies to survive? Because in the World of Free Trade it can’t compete with cars built in factories in China and South Korea etc.
The Australian Agriculture industry, has survived despite being the only Ag industry in the world (along with NZ) that operates without the assistance of subsidies or the protection of tariffs.
The Rudd government is obviously broke. Why else in the time of the greatest financial storm in 90 years would you slug your only growing export industry and in doing so put 1,000’s of jobs at risk.
Kevin Rudd has quoted that the $6 billion given to the car industry is to protect the 50,000 Australians that it employs. Just one sector of Australian agriculture – the meat industry employs 50,000 people. The difference is that the 50,000 employed in the car industry are in key Labor held urban seats, while the 50,000 employed in the meat industry are in rural & regional Australia and predominantly coalition held seats.
So jobs in coalition held seats are expendable. Just a mere casualty to the game of politics in Australia, cannon fodder if you like.
In many respects Australia is the luckiest country in the world. We are rich in natural resource, mining and agriculture. The only thing that ruins this country is the ruling political elite who make decisions based exclusively on getting themselves re-elected and not in the national interest.
If it does not stop Australia will end up a third world country destroyed by party politics and ego maniacs.
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