Agmates

Whilst conservation, Green groups and Rupert Murdocks News media is pressuring the Rudd Government to announce deep cuts to Australia’s Greenhouse gas emissions, it’s own Climate Change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut is telling them not to go it alone.

In an article in today’s Australian Newspaper Professor Ross Garnaut writes:

“No country acting alone - not even the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, the US and China - can cause the risks of dangerous climate change to fall substantially by its actions alone. A co-operative effort involving all substantial economies is required.

Each country acting alone in its narrow national interest will calculate that it will be better off if it does as little as possible to reduce emissions, whatever other countries are doing, so long as it does not believe that its inaction will influence materially the actions of others.

In this, climate change is more difficult than other international policy issues.”

So what are the chances of an international agreement being reached?

It is more difficult than trade liberalisation, in which, despite the charades of trade negotiators, each country would be better off liberalising its trade whether or not other countries were doing so.

It is more difficult than arms control negotiations, in which there is at least a fiscal gain from doing more, whatever others are doing.

OK so the chances of reaching an international agreement on climate change appear to be worse than slim. What are the consequences of Australia going it alone. Garnaut is clear on this:

With climate change mitigation, one country acting alone accepts costs without substantial benefits.

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I was horrified that Baz Luhrmann’s movie Australia, depicted us to the world as the land of the ‘Colonial White Racists’.

It appears that Kevin Rudd’s Federal Labor government had more to do with this than Baz Luhrmann. Frank Devine writes in the Australian:

However, no movie company can expect to flourish here if shackled by the not-sufficiently-Australian standards that recently saw George Miller and Warner Bros abandon filming in Australia of the super-hero flick Justice League Mortal, after being refused film production tax concessions, which Australia got, reportedly after surrendering to government pressure to tack on a Stolen Generations theme.

Now I’m really happy to know that Australian tax payers money was used to depict us as a nation of racists. Thanks Kevin.

The Labor party’s ’social conditioning’ knows no bounds.

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Over the next 40 years Australia will convert a staggering 84 million acres of productive food producing agricultural land into tree plantations to fight climate change. That’s over 6,000 acres a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year for the next 40 years.

That’s the result of the ‘carbon sink’ legislation that the Labor government with the backing of the Liberal party passed into legislation in the Federal Parliament this week.

In the face of Global Food shortages this policy is at best stupidity, at worse it’s a crime against humanity.

If Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal party had not supported Labor this legislation would not have passed as it was opposed by the Nationals, The Australian Greens, Family First Senator Steve Fielding and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

Rural & Regional Australia holds Malcolm Turnbull personally responsible for this appalling outcome. He had the numbers to stop it, but chose not to. We won’t forget that come the next election. Liberal or Labor have consistently demonstrated that they care nothing for the people who live outside of the Australian capital cities.

TURNING tens of millions of hectares of prime agricultural land into carbon sink forests to fight climate change would dramatically increase food costs, destroy rural communities and take substantial amounts of water out of Australian river systems.

The ‘carbon sink’ legislation just demonstrates that both the major political party’s, Labor and Liberal only govern Australia for those that live in the Capital cities.It is only the minor parties, The Nationals, The Greens, Family First and the independent Nick Xenophon who stand up for rural and regional Australians.

Head of the Australian Farm Institute Mick Keogh [pictured] said:

By altering land use patterns and locking up millions of hectares in carbon sinks, rural Australia is being made the “sacrificial lamb” for Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading system.

“The resulting reduction in farm output would have a significant impact on food prices, as well as major socio-economic impacts. This is the dark underside of the glossy and optimistic conclusions about the potential costs of an ETS.”

The National Party Senate leader Barnaby Joyce [pictured below] who defied Liberal Leader Malcolm Turnbull to lead his Senate team across the floor to vote against the legislation said:

The law was “completely mad - akin to an art movie. You don’t know whether to be shocked or to laugh. It is outrageous when the major threat to rural communities is not the international economy but domestic tax policy”.

The Australian Greens also voted against the Bill. Tasmanian Senator Christine Milne [pictured] said:

the Prime Minister must explain to the people of regional Australia “why he is determined to drive them off the land and further undermine the viability of their communities with another tax rort for plantations dressed up as climate change policy”.

Gippsland Farmer Robert Belcher, chairman of Sustainable Agricultural Communities Australia [pictured below] said :

“As soon as you take a farm, you take a family, you take kids out of school, money out of the local community,” he said.

“We have had to work really hard to get the average punter to realise he’s been dudded.”

Size of Agricultural land to be turned into carbon sink forests (source: ABARE)

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GetUp reports:

What’s the internet worth to you? Imagine trying to conduct business, find information, or connect with friends without an open, fast or accessible internet. It’d be like trying to go through life with one hand tied behind your back.

Yet Kevin Rudd’s Labor Government wants to censor Australia’s internet with a system that goes further than any other democracy and experts say is unworkable, and will miss the vast majority of inappropriate material and threatens our democratic freedoms.

In just one week, an amazing 76,000 fellow Australians have signed the GetUp petition to save the net - imagine the result if we spread this message far and wide to the millions of other internet users and signal to the Government that, together, we won’t stand for this plan.

If you care add your name (like I have) to the GetUp online petition below.

Time and time again the GetUp community has demonstrated that when we all chip in to send a message to the masses, the sum total result is far greater than our individual parts. Let’s take this message online to defend our online freedoms.

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Nationals Senator Ron Boswell [pictured] writes.

Queenslanders can expect even more draconian electricity price increases under the Federal Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Queenslanders have had three increases in the maximum charge price for electricity since the industry was deregulated, but these increases, large as they are, will be insignificant compared to the electricity cost increases expected under the Rudd Government’s proposed ETS.

Treasury modelling predicts that, under a CPRS -5 scenario, the average wholesale electricity price will increase by 66% in Queensland between the years 2010 and 2015*.

This increase in the wholesale costs will translate to an average household electricity price increase of 21% in 2010 under the lowest target ETS (CPRS -5) and a 44% price increase in 2013 under the Garnaut -25 scenario**.

The modelling shows that the Rudd Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme will be a huge cost burden on Queensland Families.

(more…)

Australia under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is spiralling into a land of contradiction:

Freedom of Speech:

Internet Censorship; The Rudd governments proposed mandatory internet censorship if introduced will put Australia on equal footing with the most repressive governments in the world, China, Iran, Burma to name a few.

The Australian government will likely enact legislation that will make sweeping, compulsory Internet censorship a startling reality for all Australian citizens.

Spearheaded by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy [pictured] , and backed by $44.2 million from the government’s $125.8 million Plan for Cyber-Safety budget, the planned filter (part of the NetAlert program) will render Internet access in Australia similar to that in Iran or China.

By enacting such far-reaching, mandatory Internet censorship, Australia joins more repressive governments including those in China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea.

Proposed Bill Of Rights:

Kevin Rudd threw his support behind the principles enshrined in the declaration yesterday in a speech to Parliament marking the anniversary. “

As a middle power we believe in a creative use of diplomacy to build stronger human rights protection in every part of the world,” the Prime Minister said.

What the PM giveth, the PM taketh away. Australia can have a Bill of Rights guaranteeing Freedom of Speech in a Chinese kind of way?

Updated 10am.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy has repeatedly stated the the Governments Broadband rollout is designed to give all Australians a cheaper and faster internet. In fact he’s spending $4.7 billion taxpayers money to make it happen.

As a key element of its plan for the future, the Australian Government has committed to provide up to $4.7 billion and to consider necessary regulatory changes to facilitate the roll-out of a new open access, high-speed, fibre-based broadband network, providing downlink speeds of at least 12 megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses.

Yet industry tells us that the Governments mandatory internet filtering will slow internet access speeds by up to 75% and make the internet more expensive for all Australians.

And the Minister is spending $51.4 million of taxpayers money to make it happen.

Labor’s high-speed National Broadband Network is a step in the right direction, but their plan to block inappropriate websites by forcing ISPs to install content filtering systems will slow down internet access and raise the cost of service.

A recent ACMA report on ISP filtering products showed that all of the products tested degraded Internet performance, with two of them reducing speed by more than 75 per cent.

What the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy giveth, Stephen Conroy taketh away. Spend $4.7 billion tax payers money to provide faster and cheaper broadband access for all Australians, then spend $51 million to slow it down by up to 75% and make it more expensive?

Does the Government have any idea of what it is doing?

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Courtesy of Prime Minister kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. Coming to your home computer soon.

With mandatory internet filtering Kevin Rudd & Stephen Conroy will decide what information you can access on the internet. Issues like Global Warming, The Murray Darling Water Buyback, The Northern Territory Intervention, The War in Iraq, or anything critical of the Australian Labor party could be blocked.

Once its in, there is nothing to stop them as Australians have no constitutional and hence legal right to free speech.

All Agmates articles on mandatory internet censorship in Australia.

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Kevin Rudd’s Australian Labor Government wants to impose the same internet censorship that exists in countries like China & Iran.

Those of you who use Wikipedia know what a great free resource it is. Here Jimmy Wales the founder talks about internet censorship. Wikipedia is a banned site in China.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications minister Stephen Conroy should abandon this transparent attempt to trample on Australians rights to free speech.

See all Agmates articles on Internet filtering here.

Agmates Video Gallery

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The Agmates community has been highly critical of the ABC and many mainstream media organizations for it’s shameless promotion of the Global Warming hysteria.

Now one of the ABC’s own board members Keith Windshuttle [pictured] has publicly criticized the ABC for it’s blatant bias.

ABC board member Keith Windschuttle said yesterday the national broadcaster was in breach of its charter to provide a diversity of views.

“The ABC and the Fairfax press rarely provide an opportunity for global warming sceptics to put their view,” Mr Windschuttle said. “The science is not settled.

“We are seeing an increasing number of people with impeccable scientific backgrounds questioning part or whole of the story. I don’t believe the ABC has been reflecting the genuine diversity of the debate. Under its own act, the ABC is required to produce a diversity of views.”

Did you hear that Kevin Rudd and the Labor team - “the science is not settled”.

Professor Bob Carter [pictured] of James Cook University whole heartedly agrees with Windshuttle:

With very few exceptions, press reporters commenting on global warming are either ignorant of the science matters involved, or wilfully determined to propagate warming hysteria because that fits their personal world view, or are under editorial direction to focus the story around the alarmist headline grab — and often all three,” Professor Carter said.

Former National Climate Centre head William Kininmonth is also in total agreeance:

“coverage of global warming had been hysterical and was getting worse, with a large public relations effort inundating the media with information from the alarmist side.”

Finally after 10 years of cooling, a bitterly cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere, expanding sea ice in the Arctic & Antarctic and tremendous spring rains virtually across the whole of Australia, it’s good to see the influential mainstream media like The Australian newspaper starting to report the physical facts, rather than the fanciful & hysterical predictions of the alarmists contrived computer models.

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Here we go again, after just 12 months under a Labor government, the budget heading into deficit, the economy heading into recession with the only things booming being Union power and unemployment.

A RADICAL overhaul of workplace laws, to be unveiled by the Rudd Government today, will propose a vastly increased role for unions, venturing far beyond the policy Labor took to the election a year ago.

Business groups are already branding Julia Gillard’s 600-page legislative package a “throwback to the Keating era” as unions stand to win back rights to demand industry-wide pay deals and access to the wage records of non-members.

Employers are furious that unions - which represent just 14 per cent of the private sector workforce - will get a seat at the bargaining table even if just one worker in a large company belongs to a union.

Then again it should not come as a surprise - try visiting our Treasurers Wayne Swans home page http://www.wayneswan.com/

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