With 10 days to got to the QLD state election it is disturbing to watch the political games being played that directly impact the livelihoods of our state farmers. A few days ago I wrote an article:
If Labor Wins The Election On The Green Vote – Clearing Regrowth Across Australia Will End.
This article clearly outlined the tactics that WWF and the Greens are employing and it is confirmed in today’s Australian Newspaper
To quote from the article:
The Greens announced yesterday they would not give their preferences to the LNP ……..
Ronan Lee said yesterday the LNP decision to allow uranium mining in QLD had finalised the Green’s decision…… But negotiations with the ALP continued, with preferences in about 12 seats up for discussion.
He would like Labor to move towards the World Heritage listing of Cape York, abolish loopholes in tree clearing legislation …..
Seats where Greens preferences could decide the outcome include Chandler, Aspley, Cleveland, Pumicestone, Mudgeeraba, Mulgrave and Hervey Bay….
The Greens are making it crystal clear that they will only give Anna Bligh and Labor their CRUCIAL preferences in these marginal seats if they get an iron clad commitment to legislate those issued mention if they are re-elected.
And as we all know, after the election results are in, and if Labor gets up, particularly if its close Labor will ‘pay the piper’.
Peak farm body AgForce and QLD farmers can spill blood on the steps of Parliament house after the election over the stopping of regrowth treatment and it won’t make a zot of difference. Politicians are all about getting reelected and they don’t bite the hand that feeds them, no matter what.
The whole thing is an absolute set up by the Greens and AgForce has fallen for it hook line and sinker.
All AgForce has to do is be out their in those marginal seats explaining to voters that if / when the Greens get their way this will ultimately strangle our ability to feed ourselves. Mark my words if Labor gets up they will be stopping the treatment of regrowth exactly to the letter of what is published on the WWF site.
For Pete’s sake – we are not talking about the resumption of uranium mining here. We are just talking about maintaining our current capacity to feed ourselves.
How hard is that to sell to a urban population? What is happening is frightening – if Labor gets up – God help us.
We’ll look back and say John Cotter and AgForced took a massive punt. If Labor gets up, AgForce will have given away farmers ability to control regrowth without a squeak – Why would any farmer want to belong to a farm body that did that?
I know you are like me and most QLD farmers – “I rather die on my feet than live on my knees”
About time John Cotter and AgForce got of theirs and made a stand, while it still counts for something.
END
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Have Your Say!
March 15, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Too right Ray,
Agmates should be commended for giving rural Aussies an avenue for open discussion on this and other issues and also for it’s ability to call a spade a spade.
It is indeed time for concerned Aussies to use the tools and information we are given, hold these people to account for their actions (or in many cases, veritable lack of) and stop the rot.
There is no reason for this to continue. Most Australians do nothing but complain about the way politicians behave, the loss of Aussie industry and farms and the plethora of problems created by politicians, yet every 3 years they get bamboozled by the media circus and vote in the same bunch of cretins with their tried and proven disastrous policies!
We can stop it, but if you keep doing what you’ve always done (voting the same bunch in) then you’ll always get what you’ve always got….
That is, until you’ve lost the lot.
March 15, 2009 at 1:40 am
I have been watching this story in the news, here on Agmates, listening to the advertising blurb, and the politics is as stinking as ever. Preference deals, akin to blackmail, how low can we go? What about looking at the issues? What about the truth getting a hearing…?
Oh no, this is politics, where the deal is just to get re-elected for another term. It has NOTHING to do with the good of the country, the welfare of the people, or the reality of situations of the individuals whose lives are so terribly affected by the actions of these corrupt politicians. This is precisely why I created the website http://www.politicalguts.com – because the spineless rats that stand in for politicians need someone to show them up for what, not who they are!
Where are the people of decency and moral fibre that we deserve to have representing us? Are they sitting back, watching and hoping for the best? I know it’s a tough call, to stand for parliament when you have strong views. Just look at Peter Garret – very outspoken on so many things while burning with midnight oil, yet we see him singing off a totally different hymn sheet when in federal politics with his chosen team, a team that demands his loyalty to THEIR way of doing things! Where are his beliefs nowadays?
Yet, if Peter, who I personally respected although didn’t always or even often agree with and who has been so totally derailed from his formerly public political beliefs, tried to stand as an independant, he would be labelled a ratbag independant like a few of the others have been, or worse still, called some of the names the democrats have been called! However, Don Chipp’s original concept was possibly the most honourable political philosophy of any of the parties!
Where do WE stand after this? Ratbags who are prepared to blackmail the electorate have certainly lost the right to represent the electorate, in my opinion. It harks back to medieval times, of feudal laws and bargains between powermongers. And what of the core issue? What about the land clearing issue? What about the mining and perhaps employment opportunities? What about the people whose lives are affected by the politics, and could be greatly benefited by the truth? Does ANYONE in the political arena care? Why don’t we hear a clear policy statement from the majors on these issues? Why don’t they have the guts to stand up and confront the issues of the people involved here? Are they just prepared to play the politics and accept the political spoils or take the high moral ground if it goes against them?
It’s a sad state of affairs when political parties win elections based on their ability to pass off lies and half truths to the electors, the people they purport to represent. Is it any wonder that cynics are so prolific? However, where is the solution? How can anyone take the Greens seriously for using blatant blackmail, a crime under law anyway, to bludgeon a result that if successful, could only be described as artificial?
Despite what I say about the hell that people of principle cop if they stand up for their views, there is a HUGE vacuum waiting for someone with political GUTS in this election and in Australian politics generally, as we no longer have a statesman in parliament, any of them, from what I can see! If these crimes are not howled down, then by association, every other politican who doesn’t decry them and tell the truth about them is also complicit and guilty by association. That’s where WE need to call them on their actions, or lack of them. We are fortunate, we have Agmates as a voice and a rallying point, but we need people, lots of people to use it. I know Agmates doesn’t side with any specific political party, only with the facts and the people, but I have to commend the service for putting those facts out there. The rest of us need to pick up the ball now, having been given the tools!
Ray Jamieson
Author
Political Guts
March 12, 2009 at 10:43 am
With The Greens, Labor and “me too” NLP still pushing MMCC aka Global Warming, the question I’d ask is:
“Why are you still voting for them?”
Just to cool you off a bit:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2253646/Winter-falls-early-as-temperatures-drop
(yesterday)
And to show it is still cold elsewhere:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mqt/?n=lake_superior_ice
Lake Superior straddles the US-Canadian border, and the date is only 3/3/09.
And from my continuous observation of Antarctica on AMSRE, the sea ice cover is returning for the winter. (and it still has good cover in the Arctic)