Free Trade is the deadly sniper that is methodically killing off Australian agriculture industries just as it has our manufacturing industry.
You the reader like most people probably think that’s an outrageous statement. It goes against everything we have been told for the last 30 years. The media, our politicians (Liberal, Labor & National Party) and our state farming organization have told us what a great thing free trade is for Australia and Agriculture in particular.
Well lets have a good hard look at it.
Did you know? : Australia and New Zealand are the only country in the world to comply significantly with the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) demand that we reduce, and finally, remove all tariffs (manufacturing & Agriculture).
Did you know ? : For agriculture the 3 superpower economies, the USA, the EU and Japan have urged us to lead the world in Free Trade while making no significant reduction of Ag import tariffs themselves. In fact they have massively increased direct subsidies paid to their farmers. Those subsidies alone are now worth more than $230 US billion a year.
What happened when tariffs were reduced and removed in Australia?
Did yoy know? : In essence, tariff reduction and removal destroyed two thirds of our family farms and one third of our manufacturing sector.
Did you know? : Altogether, the demise of tariffs; along with associated GATS, GATT and free trade agreements, has cost Australian workers about three million full time jobs .
Did you know? : Most of those affected were from rural and regional Australia (primary and support industries), and approximately one million workers and their families were forced to move to coastal cities to find work; with disastrous results for rural communities.
The speed of this demise is rapidly increasing. Free Trade has seen Australia export most of our manufacturing industries (read jobs) to Asia.
Did you know? : The recently signed ASEAN Free Trade Agreement cuts any remaining Australian Ag tariffs to zero next year whilst nearly all of the countries in the ASEAN block will not begin to reduce their tariff protection for at least a decade.
This agreement alone will see the transfer of much of our Ag production to the ASEAN nations over the next decade just as we have seen most of our manufacturing industry transferred to China. That’s what Free Trade is about.
This is straight off the WTO Web site talking about the principles behind Free Trade:
.
“Comparative Advantage“
This is arguably the single most powerful insight into economics.
Suppose country A is better than country B at making automobiles, and country B is better than country A at making bread. It is obvious (the academics would say “trivial”) that both would benefit if A specialized in automobiles, B specialized in bread and they traded their products. That is a case of absolute advantage.”
.
When we compete with countries that pay their labour $2 a day with little regulation they have an absolute advantage. – Under the Free Trade model we end up transferring production / manufacture to those countries that have a Comparative or absolute advantage.
Look at the UK – they are a mess because they have transfer all of their manufacturing wealth to other countries.
Look at the China / USA relationship. – China makes the stuff and the USA consumes it. The USA is massively in debt – and the Chinese have massive wealth.
Work it out for yourself – with our dollar at 65 cents if we had a manufacturing industry left we would be in a very strong financial position to take advantage of that.
We still have agriculture. The reason Ag has a good outlook is because our dollar is so low, not because of free trade.
Our low dollar is the only thing keeping our farm sector afloat. God help Australian Agriculture if the US dollar collapses.
END
*****
Have Your Say.
March 28, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Good on you mate. In the US, tent cities are already springing up. There is
no way it won’t happen here, with banks confident that 30,000 families will
lose their homes this year alone.
March 28, 2009 at 7:53 pm
So now it is time for all of us to teach our children life skills . We need to take back control and not only teach our children but demand that we are heard and that our wishes are followed and acted apon
March 28, 2009 at 7:47 pm
G’day Tony,
Mate I’m pleased you also see the irony in it.
March 28, 2009 at 7:40 pm
You are right, Steve, it is wryly amusing that the generation that
campaigned for peace rights in its own time of youth, sat back and let the
United Nations impose hundreds of secret treaties on Australia, *that
abrogated parents rights and responsibilities*, ended the right to trial by
jury, and colonised our already crumbling education curriculum.
This is a generation that castigates kids for being functionally illiterate
and innumerate, while failing to take over-paid and under-worked teachers to
task for refusing to adhere to the curriculum the community originally
wanted; and for removing discipline and corporal punishment; a reform for
which the community most definitely did not ask, *as teacher unions now try
to claim*.
Now these wallies want teachers to teach real world life skills. What a
joke!
In general, teachers are, by definition, big kids who never left school.
They have no idea about the real world. They live in a facsimile model. God
help the poor kids who are therein misinformed.. The current *life
studies*is a big enough joke as it is without mandating a new pedagogy
of
ignorances.
Tony
March 28, 2009 at 7:28 pm
For many years I have been pushing the same things and still belive that if I ever get the chance I will endevor to bring forward some issues that are going to be to the benifit of all Australians . I belive that for a starter we need to get rid of all export duties and reintroduce very high levels of import duties on all goods that we now import into Australia . We also need to put in place protecionest policies to encorage the australian people to buy Australian Made , We need to protect our farmers and stop the importation of food stuffs from over seas . We need to re build our manufactureing industries and our steel mills , We need to look at and make shore that Australian inventions are made in Australia , We need to get rid of the duel taxation aggrement and we need a simple taxation system that get all people equaly .(A debit Tax ) We need to manufacture solar hot water and electrial pannels and wind generators and install them on every home factory and shop in Australia to reduce green house gasses and to reduce the amount of water used in power generation . This will also create around 200,000 long term jobs . We need to use our laws and our power of the law corectly and if you break the law you should serve the right amount of time not get a slap on the wrist . BUT we should not use our laws as an excuse to raise revenue ,We need to teach our children skills . Real life skills . We need to teach them to be tolerant of others To have respect for all others and their property and we need to teach them to have compasion for others . We need to rewrite the book and learn from our mistakes and go forward after looking backwards to make shore we dont stuff up any more . We also need to make shore our children are educated in real world terms and that they have the skills to look after them selfs when the economy does take a dive . We also have to look after the people that can not look after them selfs . We have to insure the disabled are looked after , The weak and the frail are protected and that we as humans care for the well being of each other .
March 28, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I believe that we are in for some tough economic times , Their are answers to the problems and ways to make it as easy as possible under the current situation . But just in case people start to be kicked out of their homes and have no where to live I am now setting up to be able to build cheap accommodation units that will sleep four people , Each unit will cost around $ 6000.00 in material costs . I have spoken to the local council about setting them up in places like show grounds and parks where power / showers and toilet facilities are already established . If it happens and we have to go this way I will need help from people that have experience in the building , plumbing and electrical trades to be able to mass manufacture these units . I will also need building materials . I have already started to build the first unit as a demo and it will have enough room for four bunk beds A toilet / shower and hand basin I will be looking at getting young people to help out to teach them skills in the above trades . Lets hope it does not come to this but if it does I am ready and willing to put in my two bobs worth .
March 28, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Can anyone else see the funny side of baby boomers being critical of or current educations system, or is it just my warped sense of the ironic?:
March 28, 2009 at 12:20 pm
G’day Agmates.
Please have a look at this weekends Readers forum, I’d like your thoughts – feedback on this topic.
Agmates Advocacy Group.
March 28, 2009 at 12:07 pm
On ‘man-made global warming:
In 1242, the Chinese Imperial Navy explored the Arctic and found no ice.
Two centuries earlier, Eric the Red, the world’s first developer, marketed his great new product, Greenland, named to promote it finest qualities…. vast acreage of green grass. Tens of thousands of Danes settled there and farmed successfully. Three centuries later it all froze over as a new cold cycle began, which did not finish until the 18th century.
The planet then warmed up, as it has been doing for four billion years, evidently due to solar activity.
Is CO2 a problem? Well it is only 0.38% of the atmosphere and it is vital for all plants to process and release oxygen so that we can breathe. The more CO2 the healthier plants are… meaning, the healthier the planet is.
Moreover, in the Jurassic period there was ten times more CO2 than now, and this was the period of most prolific life in this planet’s history.
So why do we have this AGW crisis? Simple, the global bankers will make an estimated $3 trillion per year from carbon taxes, meanwhile all those pesky national businesses will collapse and leave the world to the corporate giants.
March 28, 2009 at 11:56 am
A lot of the baby boomers in our western countries took off into the stratosphere in the ’90s – time they rethought what is imprtant in life quickly
Interesting comment to the article http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/27/the-coming-g20-riots-the-spread-of-mob-rule/ The coming G20 riots & the spread of mob rule
People are going to have to decide where they are going to take their stand – on the side of freedom and liberty, or on the side of “oh well, I can’t do anything, so I might as well just lie back and enjoy it.”
Freedom and liberty won’t be easy. It won’t be a popular choice.
“Lie back and enjoy it” or at least tolerate it will be easier, but it’s a sure path to both physical and mental slavery.
Too bad we’ve raised and educated generations now that view the easy choice to be the right choice.
March 28, 2009 at 11:20 am
G’day Peter,
I agree with what you have said and voted for you. We are responsible, The example we set and the instruction we give them is the main influence on their lives.
March 28, 2009 at 11:07 am
Sorry but I am not pointing the finger at our young people If any thing at all it is our fault for not teaching our children the basics they will need in life , If and WHEN the economy falls to bits most young people have not been taught to look after them self’s , Most cant change a spark plug , Change a tyre or they wouldn’t know how to grow fruit and vegetables to survive . Take your son and daughters to the bush , Give them some shelter and the basics , Salt Sugar and flour and see how they fair over three days . You will see what I mean . NO IT IS NOT THE CHILDREN’S FAULT IT IS OURS
March 28, 2009 at 10:57 am
Guys while you are bagging our young people consider this:
The largest demographic of all in Australia is the ‘baby boomers’ – that would be us.
So by proxy we are the ones who have the largest block of votes, therefore who is elected to the parliament and who governs the country.
We are the ones that own and run the businesses etc etc etc.
I think you all should give the kids a break.
You know when you point the finger, there is always three pointing back.
Just a thought.
March 28, 2009 at 8:51 am
Peter is right.
Children are not being taught life skills or how to look after them self’s . . – specially kids in the city
We have to teach our children to survive in the real world and we have to get back to basics . We also have to teach them morals , Honesty and to be able to hold their head up high and live a good life with out hurting any one else . We also have to teach them to help people that are not as strong as they are and to protect the weak . But we also have to teach them to be strong enough to right the wrongs and to stand up and be counted when every one around them is hiding or too afraid to speak out . - there is a lot of that going on these days.
The system does seem to want us and particularly our children DUMBED DOWN and defenceless – it saddens me greatly when I go to town and see some enormously obese young women walking around. I believe young women have been particularly attacked and made into air heads not able to think with all this celebrity and media rubbish that they have been hammered with. My 17 year old daughter told me recently she hates a lot of the media so her and a lot of her friends are becoming more aware thank heavens.
More brainwashing rubbish today for EARTH HOUR - our ABC seems to love pushing this global warming nonsense.
March 28, 2009 at 12:19 am
Ok It now seems that I have your attention , What is dumbing down , What have we taught our children , If tomorrow all of your money was gone , You had no access to a food source from your local supermarket How would you survive , How many of our children could catch and kill a rabbit , Kill and dress a sheep . How many could even change a spark plug or fix a small bore engine , How many would know what to eat if our monetary system collapsed and they had to fend for them self’s and live off of the land , How would they survive . Dumbing down , That in my opinion is teaching people things that have no real value if our economy was to collapse . Children are not being taught life skills or how to look after them self’s . . Most of them are not even being taught the three R s , They are taught how to operate a computer , Most can not spell with out spell check , Most can not add up with out a calculator . They are not being taught to think, They are being Dumbed down . We have to teach our children to survive in the real world and we have to get back to basics . We also have to teach them morals , Honesty and to be able to hold their head up high and live a good life with out hurting any one else . We also have to teach them to help people that are not as strong as they are and to protect the weak . But we also have to teach them to be strong enough to right the wrongs and to stand up and be counted when every one around them is hiding or too afraid to speak out . If you don’t have the strength to stand up and be counted , If you have no morals , Honesty , Integrity and if you don’t fight for what you perceive to be right , Then you are not being a human you are like a little rabbit and you will be eaten up by the system . You have to believe that nature has the knowledge to help us survive , We have to look back into the past and look forward to the future , Learn from our past history and not make the same mistakes twice when going forward . We are the guardians of our children and we are the teachers of the future generations and yet we seem to be teaching them ( Our Children ) nothing that is going to help them in the real world . when the economy does fall to pieces . You and they are now at the mercy of a corrupt system .Corrupt morally and finically system ,They control your food and your money and they have you were they want you . DUMBED DOWN and defenceless
March 27, 2009 at 10:41 pm
‘He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future ’ - The young are being brainwashed , they are not taught to think – the media bombards them on what to think. A young woman on ABC radio said this morning that beef production does just as much damage to the environment as mining. Many young people in the city have lost connection with nature and the land and they are easily brainwashed.
This brainwashing has been going on for all our life times and longer it seems but for some reason it has now come to point in time where people have to wake up and think long term.
I like this piece about truth , reality and nature.
’ our real god is the truth and even though a billion people maybe have forgotten, our real evolutionary goal is to find truth.
its time for society to step out of the matrix, finally. if finding out of some truth is the result of this change then it will be deemed successful by our god of truth.
we always have the choice to learn peacefully or violently. we did not take the easy way out which long term thinking would have suggested.
when jfk was shot they were allowed to sweep it under the carpet. all the sh#t that has happened politically since then was bad but still everyone voted and went along with things even though most knew it was all complete bullsh#t, obviously, i mean does anyone ever watch politicians ‘debate’ in a chamber its disgusting. enron was a microcosm of todays macrocosm, still no one cared.
nature was trying to tell us all along, time and again her law of truth exposed the true reality, but time after time we ignored, taking the easy way out. putting the weight of responsibility on the next generation, then the next, accumulating until this generation will have to answer for all the lies of our forebears.
ours is the weight of a hundred bloody murderous years and more. and now we get the final decision this time for keeps. lies or truth, which one does mankind favour most. this is the underlying question of all this mayhem and chaos. it will be decided in the hearts and minds of 7 billion people.
truth and learning? or the yoke of lying slavery?
we must turn our backs on the lies everywhere and once more turn our spirits towards the truth as provided for us by our mother nature.
and i would hasten to add no man or organisation can claim to know what mother nature is saying, it must be a personal and individual conversation and people who converse so are obvious to others by their harmlessness to others. therefore the opposite to truth is harm, violence and coercion.
nature is the only force in the known universe that seeks to order itself, every other system eventually decays but not nature, not yet anyway. if nature was allowed to guide us she would show us the path to calm consistency.’
March 27, 2009 at 8:40 pm
It is time for all good people to come together and form a society where we can look after one another and our families . Form if you like to call it our own state and keep the people that are corrupting our way of life out , It will never happen and one day soon we will all be completely controlled by our food and money , With out money you can get no food , Without food you die , People have been dumbed down and most could not survive in the bush or in any other place with out the current food sources , ( Shops ) See how they go when the government controls all of our food and our money , Their will be mass riots in the streets and all law and order will fall down .
March 27, 2009 at 8:31 pm
You are so right , Just ask your self what happened to our dollar and our gold reserves
March 27, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Is this just me saying this? No. You are clearly reading the Murdoch media or you would know all this too. Start reading some international authors, few of whom disagree on any of what I just said: Eric Margolis, Israel Shamir, Paul Craig Roberts, F.William Engdahl, John Pilger, Matt Taibbi, Alex Chossudovsky, Steven Lendman, Mike Whitney, Eric Walberg.
Each has his own overlapping area of expertise.
As some of these authors also acknowledge my own research you could save yourselves a lot of reading and just take my word for it.
Finally, there is this continual bewailing our lost democracy. I am beginning to feel like a parrot. Look in the Australian Constitution. Tell me where it says we live in a democracy.
Continued from previous panel…
Better still, tell me where in the enabling documents of government it says democracy.
It says it nowhere. Not in this country or any other, including the US.
If you want democracy, please send me a means of downloading the definition. When we are on the same page, I will tell you how we get it.
March 27, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Continued from above panel…
But a long term agenda is more relevant. This is the elimination of families and parenting. David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission has plans to eventually have men live in one set of dormitories and women in another. Breeding will be permitted under circumstances rigidly controlled by world governance. All cultures and religions will be sublimated.
Education, health services, police, armed forces, and all other services will be privatised and incomes will be the bare minimum to enable workers to perform.
David Rockefeller, who took on the mantle from his uncle John in 1970, makes no secret of his ambitions. He has openly admitted to financing and controlling (thrugh Murdoch) the feminist movement, converting the original objectives of equal rights and equal opportunity, to power over men. He was also the author of affirmative action in all its forms.
To quote John, we will take over the world by stealth, but if this fails, force. The Rockefeller fortune is estimated at $10 trillion, whereas the associated Rothschilds own around $100 trillion.
When David took over the ‘programme’ he invited Australian Rupert Murdoch to join him and take over the media function. More accurately, one might say Murdoch took over propaganda. In Australia he controlls all media, including SBS and ABC. SBS has always been part of the NWO propaganda machine.
The person who is the architect of most of David Rockefeller’s projects, including the Trilateral Commission, is Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is also Barak Obama’s prime advisor and has been since his campaign to be President began.
Now, in answer to those of you who wonder why no education programmes ever get off the ground, or why our children are being dumbed down, you now know the answer.
Continued next panel…
March 27, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I can answer the education questions for you. I was a primary school teacher when the takeover of education commenced.
Originally, applicants for teachers colleges had to present literacy and numeracy skills, and pass a series of tests that filtered out most of the unsuitable candidates.
Then one attended full time teachers training colleges for two years and learned techniques for teaching number, through to maths; and English, science etc. A great deal of class room skill was absorbed, and this was practiced in actual class rooms of children. A third year of practical teaching followed, and the teacher was accredited as qualified.
In the late 1960s, the UN, directed by John Rockefeller (whose family owns the UN HQ, and whose brother designed the UN), through its agency UNESCO, encouraged governments to close down teachers training colleges and transfer this role to universities, which are powerfully influenced by the UN. This was done.
The new crop of student teachers learned only psychological and academic educational theory, and were taught that their prime responsibility was to sever the intergenerational transfer of values, and instead teach children a new set of values, including gay rights, multiculturalism, feminism, political correctness, the rights of single parent families, the dangers of parental discipline and how this infringed on the children’s rights to self determination… and so on.
Children were encouraged to alienate their parents and even to have them arrested for child abuse if they punished their children. By 1980 this was in full swing, and by 1990 elitism was the new philosophy and children were encouraged to see each other as winners and losers.
Why did Rockefeller do this? Because parenting and families are seen as the core of resistance to the new world order, and family values would lead children to question government policies. Moreover, parents constitute ‘sale resistance’ in terms of the teen market that many corporations lusted after.
Continued next panel…
March 27, 2009 at 3:01 pm
G’day Ray Jamieson,
A figure I have read recently quoted that in the US, 46% of people believed in Creationism to some degree.
About the same time I read that the Grand Canyon guide book, must now, by law include an explanation of the age of the Grand Canyon in Intelligent Design reasoning.
The term Creationism has been replaced by “Intelligent Design” due to legal rulings
Your knowledge and mine of the geology, even in simple terms would know that a landmark such as the Grand Canyon, or in Australia – Uluru, is far older than 6,009 years old. (Creationist believe that the world was created in 4004BC).
Interestingly with Uluru, it’s traditional owners have been around much longer than the Intelligent Design concept.