Agmates

Leader of the Nationals in the Senate Barnaby Joyce writes to the Agmates community -

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I’m going to be serious and quite frank with you here as the issues I am about to raise will be contentious not only amongst coalition MP’s but also my own party.

Every age comes up with a witch to burn, a sect that apparently if it is not succumbed will bring about the destruction of an empire, an issue that occupies the rigours of the day.

It is almost as if those in the position of power and their surrounding Illuminati with time to spare are terrified of the banality of daily existence and so search for an issue that demands blind obedience to conquer it.

The most dangerous place to be in these times of immense fervour is in the counter position that calls in to question the logic of the euphoria. Those who dare to question are held as heretics. There is a communal life fest in being part of the pack or staying silent.

It is hard for them to separate from the reality that the world is fairly constant and predictable and that things of the greater nature of the universe have remained beyond our control in the past and generally shall remain so into the future.

It was interesting to hear the recent discussion between Freeman Dyson, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, with Robyn Williams, on The Science Show on ABC Radio National, when he rightly stated that the world has many problems but global warming is not one of the biggest ones. As Dyson said:

“Sea level rise has been going on much longer, long before global warming, and it probably has very little to do with human activities. All we know for sure is that sea level has been rising steadily for about 10,000 years and we’ll have to do something about that.”

I don’t pretend for one moment to be a scientist but in my role in the Senate it is implicit in my job to be a sceptic , to question and to consider all sides and be open to the views of many rather than one view.

My current concern with the emissions trading scheme is that a religious fervour has built up around the altar of global warming. Those who serve at the altar have become ruthless in their denigration of alternate views. This fervour has now received its imprimatur by reason of a new tax, or should it be tithe to be paid to the Rudd Labor Government.

The similarity in this newest forte of socialism can be defined by the ultimate purpose of divesting the individual of their asset or income stream on the premise of an apparent greater moral good.

But who becomes the benefactors of this divestment? The administrators and the traders. Their pockets are lined with the property and income of others.

I don’t remember anybody paying rural Australia for the vegetation that was divested from their asset, rural land, during the tree-clearing legislation so we could meet our Kyoto target and unfortunately I don’t hear any chorus of questioning as to why in the future rural producers, after trying to feed the nation and others, will have to be dragged into an emissions trading scheme that could make many of them unviable.

Where is all this heading?

The National Party has been at the forefront of saying this is all getting beyond ridiculous and becoming dangerous. They are also being supported by unlikely allies such as the Australian Workers Union who see their own members, who have been part of the process of delivering wealth to our nation from their labours have had their industries now termed ‘dirty’ by the new environmental high priests. In this new Orwellian frenzy everyone is looking over their shoulder.

Australia is going down a path of an ETS without the co-operation of the major emitting countries. It says that it is morally right to do so. The Rudd Labor Government and others say that unilateral action is a moral imperative. I look forward to that same fervour of moralistic rectitude as they approach the Mugabe issue in Zimbabwe. He is certainly in the wrong and it is on this new platform of morals that we await our dear leader to launch an attack in a very worthwhile and immediate practice of ridding our planet of this tyrant, Mugabe. That is something that would be of an exceptional benefit.

The government is currently honey-coating the fact that it will be collecting a vast amount of money from the Australian people. The ETS will collect $11.5 billion in its first year, $12 billion in its second, it will force up the price of goods and services, it will encourage industries to move to where an ETS is not present.

Australia generates 1.5 per cent of global greenhouse emissions and this ETS will reduce world levels by the smallest sliver, which self-evidently will have nil effect on global climate whether you believe in climate warming or not.

People will lose their job or their business because of the ETS. They will be the modern-day witches burning on the environmentalist fanatical pyre because their role in this new dynamic was unacceptable.

For regional Australia we look forward to the ridiculous prospect of 34 million possible hectares of forest to take the place of farming land, formerly the backbone of so many regional towns and generations of good, honest working Australians’ lives.

The history of human civilisations has the disturbing trait of devising ways to put themselves out of business, sometimes through no more than their own excesses and belief structures of their governing bureaucracies. The only protection against these excesses is the capacity of the general population to question, to doubt and to disagree.

I have no doubt that as a world we must become efficient with the utilisation of our resources. We must give the greatest number of people the greatest access to the highest standard of living, it is only fair.

Efficiency, more than emissions, must become the trading scheme that brings a cleaner, fairer future. Encourage efficiency and keep the government’s hands out of people’s pockets and off their assets and that will bring a greater propensity to a long-term broad-based better world for all of us.

END

Christmas Message:

To the Agmates Community,

I’ll lighten up here but be just as sincere when I wish you all a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Drive safely.

Barnaby Joyce.
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Have Your say.

Over the past 12 months Agmates has heaped plenty of scorn on Liberal Party politicians who represent rural & regional constituencies .

Two Liberal Politicians who have copped heaps from us for their blind faith and loyalty to Urban centric Liberal party policy have been NSW Liberal Senator Bill Heffernann and Western Australian Liberal MP for O’Connor (based around Esperance and the wheat belt ) Wilson ‘Iron Bar’ Tuckey.

But we have nothing but praise today for Wilson Tuckey after his letter in todays Australian Newspaper, supporting the Nationals stand and requesting a greater say for rural and regional communities in the Coalition Party Room.

In fact we are so impressed by Wilson Tuckey finally seeing ‘the light’ we are awarding him a prestigious Agmates ‘Onya’ award.

In an article yesterday I said Tony Abbott and the Liberals Just Don’t get It and it appears that Wilson Tuckey [pictured] obviously agrees:

I MUST politely disagree with much of the substance of Tony Abbott’s piece on the Coalition’s recent woes.

First, the Nationals are not always wrong or alone in the positions they take in the parliament on certain issues, and in fact have had the support of many Liberals in the partyroom on the issues discussed recently-climate and telecommunications.

Second, the problem for the Coalition is that our partyroom does not vote formally, and, historically, the leadership has too often chosen to ignore the obvious majority views expressed in debate.

The long-standing process is that the leadership, purportedly representing the view of the entire front bench, recommends a position to the partyroom. However, too often such a recommendation, which may be of doubtful value, is expected to be supported and some MPs feel they might best promote their own interests by their silence.

This problem is not new and those of us who were present during the last term of the Fraser government would remember Malcolm’s autocratic style.

Now that would explain why rural and regional Australia has had such a raw deal from the coalition over the past 3 decades. Tuckey’s suggestion to remedy the situation is a truly democratic one:

The need for this reform is highlighted by recent events where, in the belief that a decision of the executive actually overrode the position of the partyroom, the Leader instructed our senators to change their vote.

I have corresponded with all Coalition MPs and senators recommending binding secret ballots for next year. The first step is to have a functional partyroom were minority interests can be considered and votes taken.

Perhaps Liberal ‘knock their nuts out’ Senator Bill Heffernan [pictured] should take a leaf out of Wilson Tuckey’s book.

It would help redeem himself to the people he is supposed to stand up for and represent.

Wilson Tuckey now joins the  illustrious list of Agmates Onya award winners.

To win an Agamtes Onya you must do something extremely good or make a stand for rural and regional communities.

A big thumbs up from the Agmates community.

‘Onya” Wilson.

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No wonder Kevin Rudds popularity is at an all time high. Australia has to choose between the hyperactive Prime Minister or the stand -for-nothing leader of the liberal party Malcolm Turnbull.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s unlimited guarantee of bank deposits – “we’re supportive of it” – even though it caused a run on other institutions and left state governments unable to borrow. (Now, though, Turnbull correctly calls the guarantee “a financial blunder of epic proportions”.)

Turnbull backed Rudd’s scrapping of WorkChoices, being too scared to deny what he said was Rudd’s “mandate”, even though he knew it would embolden unions and cost jobs.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s $10.4 billion stimulus package – “we are not going to argue about the composition of the package” – even though the mega-splurge was unexpectedly big and will leave us with little to show next year.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s bill to set up $26 billion of infrastructure funds because his fear that the cash would be blown without proper checks was less than his fear of seeming a party-pooper.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s $6.2 billion handout to international car makers even though it works out to a subsidy of around $100,000 for each car industry job, and we’d do better buying cheaper cars from overseas.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s idea to cut our gases with an emissions trading scheme (quibbling only over whether it be introduced in 2010 or 2011) even though the world hasn’t warmed in a decade, Australia’s gases are too little to matter, and this purely symbolic scheme will cost us jobs.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations, even though no one can name even 10 children stolen just for being Aboriginal.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s attack on rich bosses – “I think the level of executive remuneration in many companies over some time now has been very excessive” – even though executives are usually paid what the market says they’re worth, and governments should butt out.

TURNBULL backed Rudd’s tax breaks for new forests to store carbon, even though his National Party allies rightly reckon it a green con that steals good farmland and robs towns of jobs.

Turnbull backed Rudd’s $28 billion funding of private schools this month, because he was too scared to insist schools not be forced to agree to a yet unseen national curriculum.

And the Liberals want to force Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals into taking the same stand as they are. On current Liberal party form that would be a policy of oppose nothing. What a joke.

Source – Andrew Bolt / Herald Sun

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In an opinion piece today, Liberal front bencher Tony Abbott blasts the Nationals and takes a thinly disguised swipe at coalition partner The Nationals and Nationals Senate Leader Barrnaby Joyce.

Nationals senators’ considered decision to vote contrary to the shadow cabinet, though, was more serious. It may have impressed some traditional Nationals constituencies but it didn’t bring the defeat of the Labor Government any closer. … Perhaps 5 per cent of voters cheer when the Nationals reinforce their separate identity. The rest conclude that the Coalition is unready to govern.

Newsflash 1: Tony, thats why your in opposition. In your last term of government in particular you and your Liberal colleges stopped listening to the people of Australia, particularly Rural & Regional Australia. The Nationals have learned from that experience but apparently you and some Liberals have not.

Newsflash 2: It is not up to us to support you and any move you and liberals make to get back into office, even when that move is to the detriment of the very people you purport to represent.  You and the Liberals have no God given right to be the government. It’s up to you / the Liberal party to prove you have learned to listen and to act in your supporters best interest. I’m sorry to break the news to you but those best interests are not solely confined to being anything at all that gets you back in as the government.

Abbott’s thinly veiled swipe at Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals for standing strong on behalf of the people they represent demonstrates that he and the Liberal Party are a long way off being worthy of governing this country.

The prospects of defeating the Government shouldn’t be jeopardised because some people can’t decide which team they’re on. Incorrigible mavericks might sometimes win a seat as independent or minor party candidates but would ultimately find themselves less newsworthy and far less influential.

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Update 10.30am

Even rabid conservative supporter journalist Andrew Bolt is highly critical of Tony Abbott and the Liberal party.

Hear it from Abbott. The Liberals under Turnbull are so craven that they will vote for changes they know perfectly well will be disastrous for the country.

If I were Abbott, I wouldn’t defend this gutless irresposibility for a moment later. Better be silent than complicit.

Have Your say.

As much as the Labor government and Green groups desire to see Australia make cuts to its carbon emissions in the end it might be up to the Liberal / National Party to decide if it passes into law.

THE worsening economic downturn and deepening business concerns are hardening the Coalition’s resolve to delay the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme by one or two years.

National Party Senate leader Barnaby Joyce won’t be supporting the Emissions trading Scheme legislation.

National Party senator Barnaby Joyce has said there was no way he could vote for an ETS in the current economic environment,

The Liberals are saying they support the scheme, but want its start delayed by a year or 2. But you can take that with a grain of salt. As the Liberals showed in the Senate last week they will strongly oppose legislation right up to the final hour before the vote then cave in and support the government.

But Malcolm Turnbull and his emissions trading spokesman Andrew Robb made it clear yesterday that they could force a delay because many businesses would be struggling just to survive the next few years,

Spot the difference:

Barnaby Joyce say ‘there’s no way’ which means – ‘there’s no way’

Andrew Robb says ‘that they could force a delay’ – which means, ‘ah maybe, not sure, depends’

Have Your Say!

ANU’s research School of Social Sciences and author Dr Linda Botterill [pictured] is on of the few academics in Australia who has extensively study the Federal national Party in Australia.

“I think the National Party federally would do better if they do what they did in Western Australia and that is be prepared to trade one side off the other to get their outcomes,” she says.

The national Party’s unque strenght is what many former leaders consider their weakness.

“The thing the Nationals have going for them is their distinctive rural identity,” Dr Botterill says.

“It probably isn’t a bad tactic for them in the Senate to be playing on that.”

“The Nationals have been independent in the past and I really think their future relies on being independent,” Dr Botterill says.

Botterill argues that the Nationals in order to move forward need to look back. The Country Party of Australia was formed 88 years ago. It’s inaugural Leader William James McWilliam [pictured] on March 10, 1920, rose to speak in the House of Representatives on the supply bill.

“I think it my duty to let honourable members of this house and the country generally know exactly the position in which we stand,” he said.

The Country Party is an independent body, quite separate from the Nationalists or the Labor Party … We take no part in the deliberations of ministerialists or of the opposition.

We intend to support measures of which we approve, and hold ourselves absolutely free to criticise or reject any proposals with which we do not agree … We crave no alliance, we spurn no support; we have no desire to harass the government, nor do we wish to humiliate the opposition.”

That sounds exactly like something the countries most popular National Party Politician Barnaby Joyce would say. No wonder he’s popular.

Have Your Say!

The mainstream media has made a huge deal of Shane Stones open letter about the coalition.

As usual the mainstream media ‘cheery picked’ the letter. Actually when you read the entire letter, I don’t think he is far off the mark with his advice to Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals.

Separate Parties in Opposition and then come together to form a Coalition Government, just like the Nationals in WA have done.

Bring it on is what I think. Tell us what you think?

In the wake of the Senate revolt last night the mainstream media is starting to wonder if Malcolm Turnbull is the right person to lead the opposition. From the Australian Online:

MALCOLM Turnbull’s [pictured] authority as Leader of the Opposition is under threat after the second Senate revolt in a week.

The Liberal leader’s ability to manage a fractious Coalition, a rebellious backbench and confront a rampant Labor Government is being questioned by some Coalition MPs and senators who are complaining about his style.

‘’He’s trying to run things too much like a business, giving out an order like a CEO and then expecting it to be followed,” one Coalition senator told The Australian Online this morning.

‘’There are some decisions you just have to stand against.”

The Nationals are once again emerging as the tough guys in the Coalition, prepared to die in a ditch over legislation affecting rural Australia.

Of course, there are Liberals who sympathise and some who have joined Nationals senators crossing the floor – but the Liberal revolt has been more contained to protect Turnbull’s authority.

It’s clear to us at in the Agmates community from the events of last night that Turnbull has no interest in representing those in Rural & Regional Australia. Which is a big call as approximately half of the Australian populations lives outside of a capital city.

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Incredible and unprecedented scenes in the Senate last night. No fewer than 27 Liberal Senators revolted against a last minute backflip by their leader Malcolm Turnbull that was a blatant sellout of rural & regional Australia.

The Federal Government’s billion dollar infrastructure package has passed the Senate but only after an Opposition back flip and extraordinary scenes that saw the Coalition split.

The National Party is outraged by Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to support the bill because the new legislation axes a Howard Government $2-billion rural and regional telecommunications fund.

Well it’s clear that some members of the Liberal Party felt the same way. They crossed the floor to vote with the Nationals and many more abstained.

You will recall yesterday that Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce wrote to us saying:

An attempt by the Rudd Labor Government to rob rural and regional communities of future telecommunications funding has been stopped in the Senate by Coalition senators, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Family First Senator Steve Fielding.

That was the way it stood at lunch time until Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull pulled the rug out from under rural & regional Australia. This mornings Tony Eastley ABC AM program reported:

Just before lunch yesterday the Coalition, combining with the minor parties and independents, began amending the infrastructure funds bills in a way, it said, that made the process more accountable.

Then at 10 last night the bill was returned to the House of Representatives where the Government knocked out the amendments. The Coalition opposed that move.

In between that vote and the bill returning to the Senate just before midnight there was a last minute decision to let the legislation pass.

The Nationals are furious at Turnbull’s treacherous betrayal, from The Australian Online.

The Nationals were furious over the backflip.

Before crossing the floor, Nationals Senator Fiona Nash said the Coalition should have insisted on the change.

“Those people out in regional Australian need our support, they trust us,” she said.

“We won’t be walking away from the people of rural Australia.”

Nationals senator Ron Boswell said he would not betray regional Australia’s trust.

“I’ll walk across the floor before I walk away from that trust,” Senator Boswell said.

Senator Boswell has written to us explaining the situation. You can see that here.

Here is the incredible part, which shows that there are plenty of Liberal members with a conscience, even if they don’t have the courage of their convictions. Here is how the Liberals handled the vote in the Senate.

32 Liberal Senators

2 voted with the Nationals

5 voted with Labor

25 either abstained or did not vote

The two liberal Senators who have won the admiration and respect of rural & regional Australia for having the integrity and courage to cross the floor with the Nationals were:

Liberal Senator for WA Alan Eggleston

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Liberal Senator for South Australia Alan Ferguson

It is particularly pleasing to see Senator Ferguson standing up for rural & regional Australia with his farming background after Agmates name him in our Shame file earlier in the week. He has redeemed himself.

Here is how the ABC AM program reported what happened at the vote.

Then it came time to vote to allow the Coalition’s communications fund to be subsumed into the Labor funds and that’s when the situation became extraordinary.

Liberals melted away out of the Chamber. Some came in as the division bells rang only to walk out again. One Liberal senator did a lap of the Chamber before running to get out as the doors closed.

I am still trying to find out who the 5 Liberals that voted with the government were. I’ll update this when I do.

Now here is the Liberal Party Shame file.

(more…)

Nationals Senator Ron Boswell [pictured] writes from Canberra:

(the background to this article can be seen here – Malcolm Turnbull Dumps Rural & Regional Australia and His Party Revolts)

Last night’s Senate vote shows that rural Australia remains a force to be reckoned with on the national political stage.

Those who ignore the interests of the bush will pay a political price.

The Coalition set up the $2bn Communications Fund to ensure the needs of rural Australia would be looked after in the years to come.

Labor promised to abolish this and last night they did just that.

The Nationals could not go along with that because the Communications Fund was the deal breaker in winning bush support for the final sale of Telstra.

It was obvious last night that the sentiments of the Senate chamber majority were in accord with keeping faith with rural Australia.

The Senate vote reflected in the end the concern of the Opposition as a whole and some Senators in particular from both the National and Liberal parties who could not see this fund go down without a fight.

There is an important lesson to be learned from last night and that is to never, ever ignore rural Australia. Their voice will be heard in our Parliaments.

Rural Australia continues to have influence on the political agenda. Their voice was heard loud and clear last night in the extraordinary vote.

The bush knows it can’t win on everything because Labor simply doesn’t need them to win government. But they do expect us to hold the line on issues that are of utmost importance to them where agreements have been sealed.

No party can afford to ignore the bush. That would be a recipe for political meltdown.

ENDS

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