Agmates

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!

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.

The new National Transport Laws treat truck drivers like criminals. Three recent cases in Queensland show how truck drivers will be treated nation wide when the National transport laws come into affect in every state at the end of September.

We highlited in a recent article that while the laws were passed by the Queensland parliament with all good intent, when enforced by police they are frightening. This new legislation is one of the main causes of the planned national shutdown by truck drivers.

Case 1: Driver Dean Vilimovsky Lumbar Transport Deniliquin NSW.

Fined $2,000 - lost 9 Points off his license, Finger Printed & Photographed by Police.

Dean delivered a load of fencing wire to Bayrick station just east of Agathella Western QLD. He arrived late in the afternoon and so stayed overnight and unloaded the next day. I have confirmed this with Bayrick manager Matt Perters.

After unloading he headed back but and at 5.30pm in the afternoon was stopped just outside of Charleville by 4 Uniformed Charleville police.

After inspecting his log book he was given 3 breach notices. The first was that he had failed to record a change of activity in his log book - $600 fine and loss of 3 points. Dean says that he accepts that he had forgot to do this and the fine was in order.

The second and 3rd breaches were because the was a 30 hour gap in his log book (nearly all of this was spent at Bayrick). The officers maintained that all of his activity at Bayrick should have been recorded. He was fined $600 plus a loss of 3 points for the 1st 24 hours and then $600 plus 3 points for period over 24 hours.

The police then said because his log book did not show that he had rested as per the fatigue laws they were grounding him for 12 hours. This meant that he could not even drive the truck the 1 km into Charleville to get to a rest stop with facilities. The police required he spend 12 hours on the side of the road with no shower, toilet, food or water. If he wanted to get to town he could walk or hitch a ride.

At 11.30pm that night (6 hours later) Dean decided he’d had enough and headed off. He was stopped again further down the road by more police. After they checked his licence and log book which was now all in order. But after check their in car computer they told him that there was a notice out on him. The police informed him that he had disobeyed a police instruction and he had 7 days to voluntarily report to a Queensland police station and if he did not a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

Dean reported to the Goondiwindi police station on his way through and was finger printed and photographed by the police. He said it was a degrading experience. I felt like a real criminal going through that.

The upshot is that the case went though the Charleville magistrates court and uncontested he was fined a further $200 with thankfully no criminal conviction recorded.

The final result of Dean’s trip to Sunny QLD was $2,000 in Fines - 9 points lost of his licence. He told us he won’t be coming back.

Case #2: Driver for Hawkins transport Karumba Far North Queensland.

Fined $600 and lost 3 points.

I spoke with Karumba General transport owner Bradley Hawkins. They do a general freight run from Brisbane to Karumba each week. He told me that just this week 2 of his drivers had been fined. The first was doing the general frieght run.

He was stopped by the Cairns Main Road police just 100kms short of Karumba. His log book, rest times and all else were in order. However the driver had not drawn a line across the page after he’d entered his rest break and the recommencement of his journey.

The result $600 fine and loss of 3 points of his licence.

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Case #3. Driver for Hawkins transport near Charters Towers NQ.

Fined $600 and lost 3 points.

Once again just this week another of Bradley Hawkins drivers was pulling freight from Charters Towers to Normanton. Once again the main roads police from Cairns. He was pulled over just after leaving Charters Towers. The log book inspected. He had just started a new log book. The old one and the new one were all in order. However he had not filled in the name of his home depot in the front of the book.

The result $600 fine and 3 points off his license.

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The above 2 drivers more than half of their weeks pay. These are decent men who have families and mortgages to pay.

Heavy transport drivers have 12 points on their license just like car drivers. However if the loss all 12 points under the transport legislation they loss their license for a defined period usually for 3 months. That means their career and lively hood is usually finished.

No wonder 1,000’s of drivers across the country are willing to stay at home and fore go 2 weeks pay during the 2 week transport shut down to have these laws changed.

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Have your say! What do you think? Do you support the Truck Drivers?

Last week in Australian Dire Climate Change Prediction Just a Fantasy we questioned the validity of climate change reports prepared by Australia’s supposed leading scientific research organization CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industry Research Organization).

Those reports were extensively quoted by by Federal Agriculture minister Tony Burke & Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the mainstream media to convince Australians to act now on climate change or perish.

Tony Burke:

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has likened a scientific study into links between climate change and drought to the final chapters of a disaster novel. Mr Burke today released a joint assessment by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, which found that what are now considered to be one in 25 year climate events could become as frequent as once every one to two years.

Kevin Rudd:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told ABC1’s Insiders the report paints a very disturbing picture about the future of droughts in Australia…

“Exceptional circumstances drought conditions … will occur twice as often and with twice the area of droughted parts of Australia included. Now this is a serious revision of the impact of climate change on drought.”

Shock Horror - we’ll all be doomed screamed the mainstream media - without questioning the validity of the reports, after all they were quoting Australia’s own CSIRO. Well I was skeptical and so too were our readers. See readers Comments.

But then Dr David Stockwell, a leading expert on ecological niche modeling, decided to check the CSIRO’s figures and assumptions, and found, surprise surprise:

….it is highly likely the confidence intervals were grossly underestimated and so it is also likely that only one or two regions (SWWA) show statistically significant increase in predicted droughts, not 3 or 4 as claimed by the authors. I am more confident in my original assessment that the results show no significant increase in drought due to greenhouse warming in almost all regions of Australia

Stockwell’s conclusion is hampered by the fact that can’t get all the data and calculations the CSIRO used to fashion the latest of its alarmist reports.

He’d asked the CSIRO to hand over the data for this peer-reviewing, but got this answer:

I’m not able to hand over the data from the 13 models, due to restrictions on Intellectual Property, but I can describe the methods used to determine statistical significance.

The CSIRO refuses to expose its analysis to experts for checking by independent Scientists even though Stockwell, believes it is seriously flawed.

The CSIRO’s report is the basis for a renewed Government fear campaign that could lead to the spending of billions of dollars on a problem that may not exist.

Scientist Steve McIntyre in Australia’s leading Science blog “Climate Audit is scathing of the CSIRO in his article on the issue.

As I had said in comments on the issue CSIRO now stands for Completely, Scary, Incredulous, Rubbish, Organization.

Convincing the Australian public that it must act now on climate change is actually more critical too the Rudd governments survival. See this excellent appraisal of the situation by the Australian Editor Paul Kelly to understand what is happening here. Government caught in Carbon Crunch

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Have Your Say! What do you think.

The Australian Transport Industry Shutdown Convener Mick Pattel (pictured) writes:

The National Road Transport Shutdown is only a short time away and still no-one in Government is taking it seriously.

All attempts to contact Transport Ministers have proven fruitless, it’s almost as if they hope it will go away. That will be a bad mistake, the transport industry has never been more committed to this demonstration of unity than at any other time in the past.

I believe the Prime Minister and State Premiers should be taking control of this matter before it is too late.

When the shutdown happens on the 28th of July there will be about two working days before the Government will react then a further two days to resolve the industries concerns.

By that time the Public, Retailers, Mines, Regional Centres, and Exporters both from Manufacturing and Primary Producers will be in uproar.

No Government can ignore the damage this Transport shutdown will do to the economy of the country, because the industry has voluntarily withdrawn it services in protest there will be nothing the government can do but capitulate.

The list of demands continues to grow as time goes on and it would not surprise me if other industries that are in trouble as a result of poor Government performance will join the protest and add their demands to the list. I believe the door is open for this to happen after the shutdown starts.

The ideal conclusion would be for Governments to head this off before the entire country becomes involved and the fallout could bring about the demise of the Labor Government.

I also believe that they are not going to let a badly formulated piece of Transport Reforms harm their chance of re-election, but then again when did Governments ever listen to the people.

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Have Your Say! Ask Mick a question or give your thoughts.

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:

The hypocrisies of the Australian media making us all feel guilty for destroying the Australian environment is mind numbing. The media reporting on ratbag radical greens illegal activities over the weekend is outrageous.

The weekend just gone we saw Greenpeace activist taking illegal radical action. In QLD 9 activists broke into Swanbank power station just west of Brisbane demanding it be shut down during the Rudd governments current term of office. In Newcastle almost 30 activists chained themselves to a coal conveyor at a Lake Macquarie power station.

Greenpeace activist Simon Roz was reported as saying:

“We make no apology at all for the fact that our action is highlighting the urgent need to address greenhouse pollution.

Coal is responsible for a third of our national emissions and we simply must replace coal with renewable energy if we’re to have any hope of averting dangerous climate change.”

Why as a nation do we let the media condition us that we should feel guilty because we are a resource rich nation? It has got to the incredibly mad state that in 18 months time Australia must wear the carbon tax ‘green hair shirt’ to pay for our wicked ways.

And pay for our sins we will thanks to the Rudd governments world leading emissions trading scheme.

This is how ridiculous it is in a world context. Lets look at The United Arab Emerates. A stretch of desert that just happens to also resource rick, not in coal - just oil. See my google map of its location

Photo #1: Dubai in 1990 prior to the oil boom. A hot dry desolate place.

Photo #2: The same street in 2003 just 17 years later. All this tremendous wealth from Oil.

Photo #3: The same street in 2007.

Photo #4: Dubai In the midst of an unbelievable building boom. Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes.

Photo #5: The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world. Click here to see Wikipedia’s description of the water front development.

Photo #6: Most of this was built in the last 5 years, including the man made island that looks like a palm tree. All from money from oil.

Photo #7: The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be built with the last one being the largest of them all.

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

Photo #8: The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. Currently the worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only ‘7 star’ hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Photo #9: Hydropolis will be the world’s first underwater hotel and is being entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai. It is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

Photo #10: This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. The building in the Centre is the Burg Dubai which began construction in 2005 and is expected to be completed this year. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world’s tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101.

Photo #11; But it won’t be the tallest building for long. Below is an artist impression of the The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. The final height of this tower will is expected to be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.

Photo #12: Currently being built - Dubailand Amusement park which will be twice the size of Walt Disney Land in Orlando Florida. Currently, the walt Disney World resort is the largest amusement park collection in the world and also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees.

Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

Photo #13: The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010. The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores. It will should be completed in this year.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the DubaiMarina.

The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.

The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.

Why don’t we see Greenpeace activists chaining themselves to oil wells in The United Arab Emerates.

The answer is because the Arabs would never put up with them. They would be considered for just what they are - environmental terrorist and be shot on the spot.

We don’t see the Arabs implementing carbon emission trading schemes that will harm their economies. We don’t see them willing to kill off the ‘goose that lays the golden egg’ to pander to the international whip of human induced global warming.

Australia and New Zealand are bit players in the world economy. Yet Labor governments in both countries are determined to lead the world into a low carbon future. They are willing to risk crippling their economies and cause immense financial suffering to their citizens to lead the world.

They would like us to believe they they can influence the Arabs, the Chinese, the USA and the Russians into following their lead.

If we as a nation are gullible enough to believe that spin - God help us.

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