Agmates

The Newspoll survey released in today’s Australian newspaper reveals to a massive 70% of Coalition voters oppose want the Liberal / National party to reject Kevin Rudds Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme when it comes before the Senate in two weeks time.

The Newspoll survey asked:

Which one of the following comes closest to your view about the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme?

Today’s Newspoll result is the  death knell for Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.   From Todays Australian:

“Mr Turnbull was openly attacked by outspoken veteran backbencher Wilson Tuckey and was yesterday facing further internal revolt when he was accused of putting political expediency ahead of the national interest by supporting Labor’s emissions trading scheme.”

Liberal MP’s are as outraged at Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott’s politically expedient back flip on the ETS as I was in this article posted just days ago:

“The tragedy for rural & regional Australians and blue collar workers is that Abbott and Turnbull are actually terrified not of the coalition losing the election, which is inevitable no mater when its held in this current term, but of themselves losing their inner Sydney ‘doctors wives’ dominated seats of Warrinngah (Abbott) and Wentworth (Turnbull).

Stuff the lives and jobs of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians, they have to be re-elected. Its a sad indictment on them as men.”

Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership of the Coalition is untenable – more from the Australian.

“The latest outbreak of dissent came just as public opinion turns against Australia taking a world lead on climate change.

Liberal backbencher Cory Bernardi, already sacked by Mr Turnbull for speaking out, said the party would suffer for the Opposition Leader’s actions in preparing to pass Labor’s ETS before Copenhagen. “The political price of supporting something you publicly acknowledge is bad for every family, every community and the country, for short-term expediency is likely to be very high. Moreover, it is payable in the most prized of political capital — credibility,” Senator Bernardi said in a newsletter to colleagues. Senator Bernardi told The Australian he believed changes on the support for an ETS would have a big impact on the Liberal Party.”

As far as Coalition supporters are concerned both Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal Leader and passing the ETS legislation in the Senate are unacceptable.

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Agmates Editor and Founder Steve Truman

Have Your Say!

Open letter to Leaders of the State Based Farming Organizations.

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I’m writing to you as President’s, Chairperson’s, executives and members  of commodity councils and Farming organizations, about a matter of the gravest importance and Urgency.

In just 16 days time the Federal Parliament with sit again. The Rudd Government will be presenting it’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation for passage through the Senate into Law.

The very survival of the Australian farm industry and our rural communities depends on the Senate blocking this legislation in its current form.

Two very important and significant things have happened over the past 48 hours.

1. The Climate Sceptics Party have announced that they are Coordinating a rally of Australians against the governments Emissions Trading Scheme to be held on the front lawn at Parliament House Canberra on the 13th of August . This is the first day back from the Parliaments 6 week winter recess and is the day that the ETS will be introduced into the Senate.

2. Yesterday Senator Barnaby Joyce launched his Agmates Group site. He has published an excellent post in his groups topics showing among other things that this legislation will wipe out Australian farmers and massively increase the cost of food to every Australian consumer. Click on linked headline below to read it.

GET TO KNOW YOUR ETS, TAKE IT OUT TO DINNER

Senator Joyce is urging every farmer in Australia to be at the rally at which he is a speaker.

Senator Joyce  says that we must put 1,000’s of people on the lawn to show the politicians, and mainstream media that we will not accept this new tax that will bring no benefit to the environment, but put 100,000’s out of work and cripple our farm industry.

I’ve spoken to the President of the Climate Sceptics Leon Ashby and he has agreed that we can invite farm organizations to march in the Rally under their own banner. The rally is for all Australians, be they from  mining, industry, farming , workers and everybody adversely affected by this flawed legislation.

We are urging the leaders all  the commodity councils and farming organizations to rally their members and March on Canberra. We expect you to lead your members to Canberra.

So now your challenge.

We are calling on each organization to hit the phones, email whatever and firstly explain that this is the most important issue to farmers (them) in our lifetime. We want you to rally as many members  as you possibly can to attend and get them to rally their friends.

No time to lose. We have just 16 days to save our industry. Once the legislation is passed its to late.

Yours in anticipation

Steve Truman

Agmates Founder

Leader of the Nationals in the Senate Barnaby Joyce writes:

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Barnaby Joyce

Mr Rudd is today lauding the vote in the United States known as the American Clean Energy Act (otherwise known as the Waxman-Markey Bill) as the indelible truth and righteousness of his position.

So let’s have a close look at what actually happened with this vote.

More than 200 Democrats voted for it and 44 four voted against it.

In Australian parlance those 44 would be describes as ‘crossing the floor’, eight Republicans voted for it, likewise crossing the floor, in the other direction and 168 voted against.

The vote got through on a razors edge of 219 to 212.

Is Mr Rudd therefore endorsing the Democratic principal so well demonstrated in this vote that if you don’t believe in something you don’t vote for it?

Is Mr Rudd brave enough, if he truly believes in this principal and truly believes this global warming issue, to accord the people in his own party, who don’t believe in the Combet-Wong-Rudd Bill, to not vote for it on the premise that those on the other side of Parliament, who do believe in it, that they can.

Is Mr Rudd willing to have the Democratic principal break out in the way people vote or does he want the totalitarian dictate of what I say the Labor party must do and not only the Labor party but everybody else in the Parliament as well?

Don’t laud an American position if you don’t want to emulate the principals that brought it about.

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Have Your Say!

NSW Senator and Deputy Senate Leader of the Nationals Fiona Nash writes:

Tuesday June 23 marked the first anniversary of the end of the single desk wheat exporting marketing system and the first troubled year for growers under the new arrangements.

Approximately 30 disgruntled Wheat Growers and their families attended Parliament House in Canberra in a rally to register their protest on the anniversary of the axing of the single desk.

The Rudd Labor Government promised a major economic reform when it passed the Wheat Export Marketing Bill 2008 but has delivered uncertainty, increased risk and supply chain dysfunction.

The NSW Nationals at their conference at Wagga Wagga this month voted to support the return of the single desk export wheat marketing arrangements. Growers would prefer to have market stability, price security to combat drought and provide leadership to address industry issues and prepare for the future.

The abolition of the single desk has forced growers into a risky and precarious marketing system where they lack the capital, credit and confidence of the national pool hedging offered by the single desk.

As a receiver of last resort the national pool meant growers were sure their wheat would be accepted and sold to best advantage. Now, individual growers lacking time and skills are pool managers, holding their own pool of wheat. Many are storing wheat on their farm while hoping for the best price but no one except the grower knows how much wheat is held.

Senator Fiona Nash with Wheat Growers rallying on the lawns of Parliament house.

With this year’s crop in the ground growers are under pressure from traders and banks to sell what they are storing and to sell at lower prices. With good rains growers are in the invidious position of looking at better growing conditions but with less ability to sell their crop at the best possible price.

There have been reports of wheat being wrongly graded by traders, putting at risk Australia’s longstanding reliability as a wheat grower and supplier of premium grain. Bottlenecks at some ports have disrupted sales and shipments as well and driven away long-term customers.

Against this backdrop, the Rudd Labor Government is insisting on the introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme which the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics has said will see agricultural producers face increased input costs associated with the use of electricity, fuels and freight and may face lower farm-gate prices for their goods from downstream processors.

These will have implications for the economic value of farm production.

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Have your say!

QLD farmer and Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition Viv Forbes writes:

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Viv Forbes

Soon our elected representatives will be asked to vote on Senator Wong’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

This scheme is not about carbon or pollution. Its main effect is to provide for a cap on the human production of carbon dioxide, a colourless harmless natural gas. Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than oxygen or water, the other two atmospheric gases on which all life on earth relies.

The bill will also levy a tax on whatever carbon dioxide is produced, and levy an excess production tax on anyone whose production exceeds the legal cap. It is a carbon dioxide Cap-n-Tax Bill.

There is no human activity whatsoever that does not generate carbon dioxide. Therefore any attempt to measure, cap and tax human production of carbon dioxide must eventually extend to every human activity (the UK government already floated the idea that every person be issued with a personal carbon ration card).

This is a very serious proposal, with wide-ranging implications for all aspects of economic life and personal freedoms.

Click on the cap-n-trade Maze to see full size

It could only be justified if there was a clear and urgent danger that additional human production of carbon dioxide is highly likely to cause dangerous global warming.

There is no evidence that this is the case just computer models and scare forecasts. Neither the scientific questions, nor the cost benefit analysis has been subject to any critical independent analysis.

The Cap-n-Trade Maze diagram  illustrates the sequence of decisions that should be made before this bill gets assent.

If the answer to ANY ONE of the boxed questions is NO, there is no justification for Australia rushing ahead with its Cap-n-Tax Bill.

This Maze, although light-hearted, has a factual basis and conveys some very serious messages.

It is highly unlikely that anyone could honestly answer Yes to every question, which is what is required to justify passage of the bill.

This suggests that there is a high likelihood that the bill will have NO CLIMATE EFFECT WHATSOEVER and thus a costly exercise in self delusion.

The Carbon Sense Coalition’s strong recommendation is that all Parliaments reject all Cap-n-Tax Bills.

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Have Your say!

Nationals Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce writes from Parliament:

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Barnaby Joyce

The problem with the ETS is most Australians are unaware of the impact it will have on the cost of living or the reality of what happens to those industries that’ll be left to shoulder the cost.

The role of the Parliament on a major piece of legislation is to make sure that Australia is fully aware of what they signing themselves up for and what it will achieve if they buy the ETS ticket.

The longer the debate goes on the more people understand and if the debate goes all next week all the better for all Australia.

All over Australia views on the ETS issue are changing as people understand that they face increased costs to consumables like power and food.

The ETS is the employment termination scheme for regional Australia and the Nationals have led the way on this debate stating that you can reduce carbon emissions; if that’s what you really feel you have to do, without destroying the living standards of huge belts of Australia.

At the same time the National Party has been at the forefront of saying there are two sides of the debate and our Parliament shouldn’t be scripted into only allowing one.

If people don’t believe in global warming then that’s their right and no less a right than the person who believes in it fervently.

There are a range of views across and within all parties and wouldn’t it be nice if we had a debate where everyone could express their genuinely held beliefs in a truly democratic institution.

This is the most crucial economic policy in recent time in Australia and it’s vital we keep the debate going. If we get it wrong then the economic ramifications for Australia will be catastrophic.

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Breaking News:

• Coalition Senators and Independents Steve Fielding & Xenophon delay renewable energy laws

• Steve Fielding to have ‘get back to you’ meeting with Senator Wong Later today

Have Your Say!

Agmates member JeffT writes:

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You may remember the frightening pictures (recycled from previous year) of the Wilkins Ice Shelf breaking away earlier this year, as portrayed by the media (from the Australian)

A SPLIT over global warming has emerged in Kevin Rudd’s cabinet after it was revealed that a 13-month-old photograph was published this month to support the view that a catastrophic melting of Antarctic ice was imminent.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was disappointed with the way her ministerial colleague, Peter Garrett, weighed into the debate about global warming, claiming sea levels could rise by 6m as a result of melting in Antarctica.

The pictures below show what is happening on the West Antarctic Peninsula, in this case over a short period from 10th June to 16th June 2009. The yellow arrow is pointing at the area of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, a sea ice bridge between Charcot Island and Latady Island, shown as two little blue bumps, just below were arrow is pointing.

Antarctic Peninsular 16/06/09

Antarctic Peninsular 10/06/09

As today is 6 days away from the Winter Solstice(the Sun’s up North) , this ice should continue to increase considerably until at least late July.

So the disastrous Antarctic melting scenario of 20′ sea level rise from Wong/Garrett, with it’s Climate Change/ETS reasoning is again proven wrong.

From Todays  Australian: “Ice Shelves Stable over Six Years”

ANTARCTIC ice shelves are showing no sign of climate change, six years of unique research have shown.

“More than six years of observation has not revealed any significant climatic trends,” CUT associate professor Alexander Gavrilov said yesterday.

So at every chance, we should support Senator’s Steve Fielding and Barnaby Joyce – and any other politician who believes that the current push for an ETS under the guise of “Saving Our Planet” – or from Senator Wong – “for our children and their children’s children” (emotional blackmail) is a scam.

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First published here.

Have Your Say!

When Independent Senator Steve Fielding met with Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and her chief scientist Professor Penny Sackett he asked one simple question:

Isn’t it true that carbon emissions have been going up and global temperature hasn’t?

Simple enough question I would have thought. After all isn’t that why the Rudd government is pushing ahead with its Carbon pollution Reductions Scheme, because rising CO2 levels are causing global warming. Should have been easy enough to answer. Senator Fielding explains to AM’s Tony Eastley:

Look, firstly I would have to say I am not a sceptic but at the same token, I do want to get to the bottom of the issues. Now up until now, we have seen carbon emissions go up and global temperatures, the way the IPCC has been measuring them, not going up.

Astoundingly Penny Wong has told Steve Fielding that her and the governments scientists would have to get back to him on that.

Steve Fielding

they wanted to rephrase my question not answer it so I have got an agreement with Penny Wong that she would answer my question over the next day or so.

So I am hoping to get that either later today or tomorrow and then we can get to the bottom of it.

Because really, that is a fundamental question – is carbon emissions driving up global temperatures – and there is a question mark over it.

Haven’t we been repeatedly told the science is settled, runaway climate change is at a tipping point etc etc. Are we (the so branded sceptics) the only ones who have noticed for the last decade that the IPCC modelling of increasing global temperatures is not happening even though CO2 levels continue to rise.

What?.. the Australian Climate Change minister and her army of government scientist not to mention a house full of federal politicians (bar the Nationals who read Agmates and can use google search) have not seen the data which is accessible to anybody via a handful of computer clicks.

What else can I say – Unbelievable.

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Agmates Editor Steve Truman

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Have Your Say!

QLD farmer, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition Viv Forbes writes:

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Any politician interested in preserving Australian jobs must vote against The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It will destroy real jobs faster than green jobs can be created.

Even with a crash-through program of investment in alternative energy Australia will suffer a triple whammy of job losses.

Watch this video of US Congresswomen  Michele Bachmann explaining the impact the transfer of the Spanish economy to renewalbles has had … 17% unemployment.

The first round of job layoffs will  come as a tax whammy.

Most industries will have to pay for their cap entitlement  ie they have to pay to do what they have previously been doing for free. Even after they have paid for production up to their rationed entitlement, any business which wishes to return to its pre-Rat scheme production levels (above the cap), must buy new ration permits in a speculative Emissions Permit market. This is another tax which has to be recovered from customers, other businesses or shareholders.

The first law of fiscal policy is this: If you tax something, less of it will be produced. This is the real aim of the CPRS Scheme and it will achieve that aim.

There are always marginal businesses in all industries. An increase in taxes will cause a few of them to close their doors or move to a more enlightened country. And there are always nervous bankers ready to pull the plug because of the extra risk in the speculative carbon trading market.

In the green new world there is also no room for new projects or new jobs in traditional industries  any new project will need to force closure of an old project by buying its Ration permits on the market.

These new and uncertain taxes on existing production will cause the second round of job losses.

Even those businesses that survive the production cap, the ration fee and the excess carbon tax, will be forced to increase their prices to recoup the extra costs. This makes them less able to compete with imports in the Australian market, or with other exporters in the world market.

Countries such as India, China, Brazil and South Africa, who have no intention of embracing the shackles of a RAT Scheme, will be the chief beneficiaries. Overseas is where the real new jobs will be created.

This unfair competition from foreign firms will cause the third round of jobs layoffs.

To date we have only looked at things from the perspective of existing industry. There is also a whole gamut of global warming policies that will directly or indirectly subsidize regulators, inspectors, auditors, lawyers, bankers, carbon traders, international conferences, and the manufacture and operation of subsidised facilities such as wind farms, solar arrays, carbon forests and facilities granted exemptions from the costs everyone else must bear.

The second law of fiscal policy is this: If you subsidise something, you will get more of it.

We will thus get more of these costly subsidised things the Climate Change Industry looks like becoming the biggest industry in the world. It will compete with real industry for materials, labour and rationed energy, but will not put cheaper food on our plate, cheaper or more reliable electricity into the grid or make a net contribution to tax revenue.

The growing costs of the Climate Change Industry must filter back to the real economy, causing more job layoffs.

Three places in the world have already tested the Green Job Creation Myth  Spain and Denmark with massive wind and solar power developments and California which tries to lead the world in everything green.

All three have seen loss of jobs as industries close or relocate because of costly or unreliable electricity supply. A recent study in Spain has concluded that more than 2 real jobs were destroyed for every green job created. In addition Spain has 17% unemployment, electricity shortages, and power costs up by from 30% (homes) to 100% (businesses). Denmark is selling unreliable wind power at a loss, and Californians climate madness has caused a huge loss of jobs and tax revenue.

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Have Your Say!

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong have repeatedly told us that they are pressing ahead with their Emissions Trading Scheme based on what the science is telling them on Climate Change.

Agriculture minister Tony Burke when presented with ABARE figures on the cost to farmers of an Emissions trading Scheme maintains that farmers will adapt.

So what is it that Minister Burke knows that nobody else seems to. Perhaps its the advise he’s getting from the scientists?

Professor Barry Brook,  Climate Scientist from Adelaide University is a key scientiist advising the government on Climate Change. Just watch Professor Brook explain to the Supreme Master TV vegetarian viewers how Livestock Methane Emissions are a greater threat to Global warming than all the coal powered fire stations in Australia put together.

He believes Australia can phase out cattle production completely in just the next couple of years. Is that what Tony Burke has up his sleeve for livestock producers? Is his idea of adapting, raising Kangaroos instead of beef and perhaps its growing trees for Carbon?

If he is listening to Professor Brook farmers future sure as hell won’t be raising beef or dairy cattle. Watch the video and you’ll be as horrified as I was.

The video may take a little while to load, but stick with it.

(Thanks to Agmate JeffT)

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Update:

Contact details for the good professor Barry Brook.

Work Phone – 08 83033745 – Mobile 0420 958400 – Email barry.brook@adelaide.edu.au

Thanks to South Australian Agmate Richard.

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Agmates Editor Steve Truman
Have Your Say!