Tag Archives: barnaby joyce

“Selfless Shine Above The Selfish”: Barnaby

8 Apr

To a humble blogger whose most fervent core belief is that “PRIDE is the root of all evil”, Senator Joyce’s column in the Canberra Times resonates strongly:

Selfless shine above the selfish

Easter, Queensland’s state election is over, Parliament is out, time to relax with the family.

Relaxation is essential but in so many careers our life is like climbing a cliff continually reaching for that next foothold or crevice to pull us further up. If you stop too long you will cramp and fall off and if you have reached your top, well then, it is all downhill from there.

At the triathlon in Mooloolaba last week the general aim of competitors was to do a PB. At work, a career implies aspiration, as the alternative is regret. How many colleagues in the coffee room tell you that they are aspiring to a lesser job on lower pay? Spiritually, have you ever come across someone who told you they actually did find enlightenment but got bored with it in favour of banality?
Advertisement: Story continues below

Relaxation, like sleep, is an elixir on so many levels. So I am in Forster-Tuncurry ”relaxing”. At church on Sunday the local parishioners asked what I was doing. I told them I was ”relaxing with the family” which can be an oxymoronic juxtaposition. Some of the parishioners were ”relaxing” as well; some had been relaxing for years.

There are a lot of businesses that are very busy here helping people relax. To relax, apparently you have to consume lots of stimulants such as coffee, served at many shops up and down the main street.

You have to be eternally vigilant that you don’t go from purposeless relaxation to exercising as you go for a walk. Just as dangerous is reading the paper in which you may find a philippic written by some column troll and you will be taken back to work to write your rebuttal against this oxygen thief.

Then there are the questions you ponder as you stare at the ocean – what is the right proportionate mix of all these component parts; career goals, physical health, spiritual depth and how does one make sure that it is does not crowd out the most important responsibility to your family. How much is the appropriate amount of guilt you should feel before you are stirred from the slumber of ”there is more that I can do but I really cannot be bothered”.

Senator Judith Adams was a great example of an unselfish determination to serve. While some at Judith’s stage of life would have been content with relaxing, Judith instead took on board the major challenge of federal politics. Judith would have known her fate, but she worked until the end.

Born in Picton, New Zealand, she migrated to Australia and worked as a nurse. Judith began serving in the Senate in 2005 at the age of 62. I started then, too, I was 38. She was pro choice; I was and am pro life. Judith was a regional Lib, I am a regional Nat.

On so many levels we were likely to lock horns, but we didn’t. In 2008, I was honoured to attend the funeral of Judith’s husband, Gordon, a former Royal Flying Doctor pilot. Judith was a very matter-of-fact, practical and driven woman.

Politics is a job where you have the unfortunate experience of working with colleagues who die. Good people. It is the flip side of people like, and I will say it, Craig Thomson. I will say it because some drag the office down while others raise it up. A person can respect their public office while being completely at odds with a lot of what you believe in, but they conduct themselves in such a manner which deserves nothing but respect. Judith was such a person.

My recollection of Judith will be her intense interest in the lives of regional Australians. She committed to the task knowing she was never going to be a senior office holder. The reality is that many of the wider public would probably not even know her name. The strength about Judith was that this was not what was driving her.

She just wanted people to have their lives affected in a way which made things better for them. She didn’t want the fuss and the bother of the laurels. Even when she was going around on her electric wheelchair in Parliament, she always said that this was only temporary and that she was getting better. I have a sneaking suspicion she realised the truth but just didn’t want the attention to distract her from her job for others.

Barnaby is right.

How Powerful Is That Minority That Wants A Carbon Tax?

7 Apr

Barnaby Joyce has written an article for the Australian Conservative, posing a question that regular readers all know the answer to (my emphasis added):

David Murray, outgoing Chairman of the Future Fund has blasted the carbon tax as the worst piece of economic reform he has ever seen.

So if the unions don’t like it, big business doesn’t like it, manufacturing doesn’t like it, farmers don’t like it, the electorate pathologically hates it, well the question then is who actually wants it? And how powerful is that minority? Where is the constituency that wants this tax? In Warrego on the weekend, out of 20,000 votes, the Greens received only 325. Maybe this is an example of how toxic these types of green policies have become.

The Labor party have tried to change the name to make the tax more palatable. First it was a tax to deal with global warming, then it was a tax to deal with climate change and now it is a tax for clean energy. What’s next? The happy pet tax? The peace in our time tax? It’s all the same, it’s an insane and very economically dangerous bureaucratic rip off.

Read the whole article here.

And if you are a new reader who does not know the answer, try this – Ticking Time Bomb Hidden In The Carbon Tax.

$12.5 Billion And Then It’s “Credit Transaction Declined”

31 Mar

From the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), 30 March 2012:

Debt ceiling?

$250 billion.

Typical weekly borrowings?

Around $2 billion.

With any luck, the government will just make it to the May budget before hitting the debt ceiling.

Again.

So you can be certain that, just like last year, there will be a little piece of legislation quietly slipped into the May budget, to raise the debt ceiling.

Again.

For the fourth time in five years.

Looks like I was right:

2 November 2011 – “Australia On Target To Hit Debt Ceiling By Mid-2012″

13 March 2012 – “Australia Debt Ceiling Hit By June”

Oh yes … did I forget to mention that on latest RBA figures, around 84% of our debt is owed to “non-residents”?

UPDATE:

Thanks to Kelly in comments who correctly notes that the title should read “$17.15″ billion till credit transaction declined, as the actual amount issued subject to the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 is $232.85 billion, as noted in the fine print in the last line of the screenshot above. Of course, this begs the question “what kind of debt instrument have they issued to the value of $4.59 billion, that is not subject to the Act”? My first guess would be bonds used to finance the NBN, which I seem to recall reading will be listed Off Balance Sheet in the Budget (to achieve that “surplus”, you see).

“WindsorWorld” … Is That Like Wayne’s World?

30 Mar

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 30 March 2012:

Queensland election a message to Independents as well

Seven independent members of parliament have been voted out of office since Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott decided to back a Green-Labor government.

Tony Windsor’s claim that “independents actually performed quite well at the [Queensland] election” is a denial of reality.

On average Independent members suffered a bigger swing against them than the Labor party at the Queensland election. There were five seats in which independents were sitting members at the Queensland 2012 election.

Across those five seats, independent candidates suffered an average swing against them of 18 per cent, a more devastating swing than meted out to the Labor party.

In WindsorWorld apparently this is a great outcome. Windsor has an amazing analysis of history, it changes 5 minutes after the fact. The reality is the Independents got absolutely nailed.

People are just sick of this idea that you can sneak around and tell people that you are really part of both football teams when you are in fact part of neither.

Only two out of five independent Queensland electorates look to have retained their seats. This compares to three out of six independent members at the 2011 New South Wales election retaining their seats, an election that was widely seen as a disaster for independent members.

In total, since Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott revealed that they were actually closet Green/Labor supporters, 7 independent members have been voted out of Parliament and only 5 re-elected in the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland elections.

“It’s Time For Governments To Stick To Their Knitting”

29 Mar

Senator Joyce writes for the Canberra Times:

Gillard is on a suicide mission

A joke I remember well from school is that of the Japanese Wing Commander briefing his pilots before a mission in about 1945. In emphatic language he lauds the virtues of Japan, the Emperor and the war task, then orders that the pilots load their planes with bombs, fly low into the rising sun and on into the sides of US ships. The Wing Commander then asks ”any questions?”

”Only one,” comes the reply from a bandana-wearing pilot in the front row ”most honourable Wing Commander, have you gone completely crazy?”

I am waiting for some bandana-wearing Labor parliamentarian to ask the same question of Julia Gillard after she has ordered her troops to reload their planes with the carbon tax and fly it into the side of the electorate.

She has just seen the most precise example of an electoral annihilation in Queensland. The exit polling indicates that cost of living, trust and the carbon tax were issues foremost in voters’ minds. My own survey on the polling booths affirms these findings.

Predominantly voters wanted to speak to me about two things on Saturday, the carbon tax and debt.

What was the PM thinking when, after this disaster, she announces a rededication to this ludicrous cause? Anyhow, my colleagues and I will back Gillard’s stubbornness over discernment and capitalise on the Labor party’s inability to do the bleeding obvious and drop the carbon tax.

Tony Windsor claims that the Queensland election was a victory for independents; well of course Tony, how did the front pages miss that story? Only two out of five were re-elected; one sits in a safe Labor seat (Gladstone) and the other suffered a 10 per cent swing against him. On average the independents suffered an 18 per cent swing against them, even larger than the 15 per cent swing against the Labor party, but in WindsorWorld this is a job well done.

Hubris is our greatest foe. The Katter Australian Party, or its next reincarnation, will harvest a resentment vote on the aspirations of those whose lives or rights may not change enough for their vote to lock in where they last placed it. Labor will be still trying to ”get back to its core” but this will prove near impossible with Julia Gillard casting a clumsy shadow over all Labor grassroots philosophy.

The LNP has a massive task in front of it. It must start paying back debt; it has to put a broom through the areas of the bureaucracy that are not willing to go on the journey that the public vote has overwhelmingly asked for; it has to still invest in key infrastructure or the state business plan will not be able to raise the money to pay the debt.

Importantly it has to change the culture about how it sees itself and how the world sees Queensland. It has to brush the cobwebs from tourism venues that seem to be still living in the ’80s. It has to realise that the wealth, coal, cotton, cattle, grain and the troublesome coal seam gas start in the regions and the people in the regions know this.

The LNP has made a good start by scrapping more than $650 million in programs that aim to change the temperature of the globe. Trying to change the climate from a room in George Street is absurd. We may as well send Campbell Newman to South Korea this week to help the world dispose of nuclear material, and there would be more chance of success there than in changing the climate.

It is simply not the Queensland government’s core business. Every dollar spent on these woopy ”green” programs is a waste of taxpayers’ money if there is no relationship between the spend and a real outcome.

A fundamental lesson of the Queensland election for all political parties is don’t get too carried away saving the world when it is quite evident that is not the league we play in; leave that to the US, China and the 100 million population league. Instead, concentrate on roads being safe, nurses being paid on time, the public books to be kept in order and living costs to be kept under control.

It would be peculiar if Australia took the lead on regime change so it is doubly so when you try do it on climate change.

It’s time for governments to stick to their knitting.

Barnaby is right.

I particularly and enthusiastically applaud his astute observation that Australian political parties should not “get too carried away saving the world when it is quite evident that is not the league we play in; leave that to the US, China and the 100 million population league”.

Indeed.

We are a pissant little country; a big-arse island continent, with a tiny population.

A pimple on the bum of the world.

Nothing wrong with that.

Except when idiot, corrupt politicians decide to squeeze the pimple, thinking that they are “saving the planet”.

It is high time that Australian politicians – and Australians more generally, for that matter – gave our relative overachievement-in-sports-driven national hubris the big punt, and instead embraced the humility that would enable us to avoid being taken on the kind of mad “frolics” that Senator Joyce wisely resists.

Andrew Robb Speaking My Language

29 Mar

Last week I praised the Opposition’s Finance spokesman Andrew Robb for … well  … lots of things. Including an excellent policy on dams, courage in opposing his own leader on superannuation, and most recently, an epic speech in Parliament exposing the lies and deceit of Wayne Swan.

In the Weekend Australian, we learned more about the philosophy that is driving Mr Robb.

I like it.

Here are some selected excerpts from a lengthy article that you can read here if you are are paying subscriber to News Ltd:

Seeking a return to freedom of choice

ANDREW Robb, chairman of the Coalition’s policy development committee, is doing more than assembling a political platform for the next federal election. He is trying to build a philosophical framework that will support the platform when its details are revealed and, in the meantime, provide a rallying point for Coalition members that will boost their unity and discipline.

“A very clear set of four guiding principles have shaped our policy development, which are true to core Coalition values and present a stark contrast to the massive growth of government that we have seen under the Rudd and Gillard governments,” he says.

“We will live within our means, reverse the nanny state, back our strengths and restore a culture of personal responsibility. By adhering to these principles it puts us in the best possible position to help people get ahead.”

Robb, a senior figure in Liberal ranks since he became the party’s federal director after the 1990 election, is making a fascinating – albeit tacit – admission. He is acknowledging the Howard government lost its drive, direction and discipline and embraced big government conservatism, surrendering key Coalition points of differentiation from Labor along the way.

He is admitting policy populism and superfluous spending blocked traditional Coalition avenues of attack on the ALP that helped lead to its defeat at the 2007 poll.

…

“We have reached a point in Australian governance where philosophy really does matter,” Robb insists. “Since the fall of the Berlin Wall there has been a growing perception both here and abroad that there is little separating the two major sides of politics, but in this country at least the fundamental differences between federal Labor and the Coalition have become stark.

“It is the difference between a nanny-state ‘government knows best’ approach, compared with the personal dignity and control that comes from the freedom to make your own choices while taking responsibility for those choices.”

Robb says since 2007 we have seen the greatest growth of government outside the Whitlam years. “We were the only country to re-regulate the labour market during the global financial crisis and the only country I know which is renationalising its telecommunications sector under the guise of the NBN (National Broadband Network),” he begins.

“There was also the failed attempt to nationalise 40 per cent of the mining industry and on top of it all is the carbon tax, which is the highest-taxing, most bureaucratic and interventionist model imaginable and will come at the worst possible time for industry and jobs.

“We have also seen the government shut down the live cattle industry virtually overnight to the detriment of northern communities and relations with Indonesia.”

Robb dismisses Kevin Rudd’s efforts to see Canberra take over health services delivery as “amounting to nothing except more layers of bureaucracy”.

He takes a libertarian line, slamming what he calls “this government’s patronising proposal to impose mandatory internet filtering, which was unceremoniously dropped following public outcry”.

Robb characterises the newly introduced means-testing for the private health insurance rebate as “the erosion of personal choice, a mere cash grab prosecuted with nasty and divisive class warfare rhetoric, the politics of envy which Labor is renowned for”.

Robb is making a very traditional pitch and avoiding any radical policy prescriptions. After all, Robb, as federal director, and his leader, once John Hewson’s press secretary, have seen the Coalition in a position in the polls just like it is in now, yet go on to lose the unloseable election in 1993.

…

Here Robb returns to philosophy. “As a government the Coalition is committed to living within its means, reversing the nanny state, backing our strengths and restoring a sense of personal responsibility. It is true that in isolation these sound like little more than slogans, but in combination they present a powerful set of markers, the ballast of which guide the direction a Coalition government would take the country.”

Those core principles, that set of markers, that ballast, are designed to steer and steady his own party as much as convince voters ahead of the stormy months that lie between the forthcoming budget and the next election.

Live within your means.

Reverse the nanny state.

Culture of personal responsibility.

A “libertarian” line.

Mr Robb is speaking my language.

And speaking of language … and philosophy … have you ever paused to think about the problems that come from the use, and misuse, and simple misunderstanding, of language?

Let me give you an example.

Your humble blogger is very well-accustomed to being automatically and hastily prejudged on account of the mere title of this blog and Twitter account.

I must be a “right wing” “extremist”, you see, by virtue of my advocacy for the [ _____ ] views of Senator Joyce.

Why did I insert the [ _____ ] in that sentence?

To highlight the reality that we all tend to pre-judge. We “label”.

Folks see a blog title. And instantly make assumptions about the blogger. Without first seeking out more information.

The information needed to fill in the [ _____ ] in that sentence.

In this case, it is the [ debt and deficit ] views of Senator Joyce that this blogger supports, in particular.

But that does not mean they are the only views of Senator Joyce that I support.

Nor does it means that I support all his views.

Indeed, your humble blogger finds it ironic, and laughable, and lamentable, that so many people (especially mainstream journalists) incorrectly label Senator Joyce an “extreme” “right wing” politician … when he has always been an openly self-confessed “agrarian socialist”.

It is no wonder then, that new visitors to this blog and Twitter feed have a natural tendency to make false, hasty assumptions about the blogger, on the basis of no more information than the title, and their own often-false pre-judgments of … not the blogger … but of Senator Joyce.

It may come as a surprise to such folks to see the results of my completing The Political Compass test:

Click to enlarge

And for comparison, here are some examples of where notable historical figures feature on The Political Compass:

Click to enlarge

I will let you in on a snippet of my own personal philosophy, dear reader.

“Labels” are a problem.

I despise labels.

Sadly, we all use them.

And they contribute to all manner of personal and social ills.

False assumptions.

Bias.

Stereotyping.

Of others … and, our selves.

Pre-judging … that is, pre-judice.

Endless miscommunication … and all the ills that result from it.

Superficiality … that is, a failure to appreciate context, nuance, depth of character, and variety of ideas.

I have no doubt that there is far, far more to each and every one of us, than meets the eye.

And while we have all been born into a world and a time wherein it is habitual to use words in the form of “labels” in an attempt to identify or classify “things” and “ideas”, in order to communicate them to/with others, the reality is that every “label” is limited, and subjective.

We do not all attach exactly the same meanings to words.

What I understand a word to mean, may well be subtlely … or hugely … different to how you understand it.

I may attach more, or fewer, or different ideas to a particular “label” than you do.

Indeed, I think that “labels” are, far from being a help to communication, far more of a hindrance.

I hope that all readers of my blog will daily strive, as I (try to) do, to overcome our practiced tendency to rigidly “label” people, and ideas.

I consider that to be “keeping an open mind”.

That is also why I am consciously resisting the temptation to excessive enthusiasm over Mr Robb’s seeming to be speaking my language.

Instead, I wait and watch.

To see if the actions will match (my understanding of) the words.

“Call each thing by its right name”

~ Boris Pasternak, Dr Zhivago

Faked GDP, Faked Budgets, Faked Legal Advice – Nothing To See Here

28 Mar

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 28 March 2012 (my emphasis added):

Government response keeps Murray-Darling in the dark on the Water Act

The Labor government has once again refused to release legal advice on the Water Act in defiance of the recommendations of a Senate inquiry.

Last year, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee found that the provisions of the Water Act create a legal framework where “environmental considerations can be, and are, given substantially more ‘weight’ than social and economic considerations.”

Even the Greens, in their dissenting report, admitted the same stating that “the MDBA and the Minister are required to give environmental considerations precedence in developing the Basin Plan.”

The difference is that the Greens agree with this unbalanced outcome, the Committee recommended the Act be changed to fix it and that all of the government’s legal advice be released.

The Committee’s recommendations were based on legal advice from many sources including an ‘in camera’ briefing from former MDBA chair, Mike Taylor, submissions from Professor George Williams, Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, and Professor John Briscoe of Harvard University.

The government’s response to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Water Act inquiry has also called into question the validity of the summary legal advice the government has previously released.

So far the government has released just 10 pages of the more than 1000 pages of legal advice they have received on the Water Act.

In its response today, the government claims that the summary legal advice it has made public is “distinguished” from other legal advice because it was prepared on the understanding that it would be made public.

This calls into question whether the summary advice is a full and accurate reflection of the other advice the government has received.

The Murray-Darling is too important for the government to keep it in the dark. It must release all of the legal advice before the basin plan is finalised.

The Murray-Darling is home to 2.1 million Australians, provides water for 1 million others and produces 40 per cent of Australia’s agricultural output, including 9 of every 10 Australian oranges.

Over the past two years, we have seen that the Rudd-Gillard-Swan ALP government has faked GDP, and faked budgets, by becoming adept in the “dark arts” and “using some of what are now  the standard tricks“ in order to (in the words of former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner) “maximise political appearances”.

Now, thanks to Senator Joyce, we see that they will happily fake legal advice as well.

Funnily enough, the ALP and the Greens have recently expressed “confidence” that their carbon tax CO2 derivatives scam legislation is legally sound, and does not breach the Constitution.

Hmmmm.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see their actual legal advice.

You know.

The advice they have not released to the public.

What would be even more interesting is to see their legislation challenged in the High Court.

For that, it seems our fate is in the hands of big-promising-non-delivering Coalition State Governments.

And National Living Treasure, Clive Palmer.

Barnaby To Challenge For Lower House, Deputy PM

26 Mar

From The Australian (reproduced in full):

NATIONALS Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce will challenge party veteran Bruce Scott for his lower-house seat of Maranoa with the aim of becoming deputy prime minister.

In pressing his case to contest the sprawling western Queensland seat, Senator Joyce is expected to argue that his seniority within Coalition ranks means he could represent the constituency in a future Coalition cabinet.

Mr Scott, a 22-year veteran and Howard government minister who turns 69 later this year, has so far insisted he wants to contest the next election.

Preselections have not yet opened, as Queensland’s Liberal National Party put federal considerations on ice while focusing on the state election campaign.

One senior source told The Australian yesterday the state result would “clear space for us to talk about Barnaby”, amid a desire across the federal Coalition for facilitation of his proposed move to the House of Representatives.

The Nationals have been speculating for about a year about moving Senator Joyce to the lower  house to position him to succeed current party leader Warren Truss, who is 64 this year.

Senator Joyce, the Coalition’s water and regional development spokesman, is widely acknowledged as one of the Coalition’s best political communicators at least when he is addressing rural and regional audiences and has developed a good working relationship with Tony Abbott.

Mr Scott was unavailable yesterday.

Senator Joyce, who lives in the town of St George, which is in Maranoa, told The Australian he had made no secret of his desire to serve in the House of Representatives. “My first preference is where I live Maranoa,” he said. “My second preference is where I grew up (the northern NSW seat of New England, held by independent Tony Windsor). We are at least a year from an election and I will assess my options at the time pre-selections are called.”

Despite Senator Joyce’s diplomatic comments, LNP insiders have told The Australian they expect him to press hard to take Maranoa in a pre-selection ballot if Mr Scott does not change his mind and retire.

Senator Joyce’s supporters argue that Mr Scott is unlikely to return to the frontbench, while Senator Joyce could represent Maranoa as deputy prime minister in the future.

LNP sources said yesterday the party would spend the next few weeks focused on local government elections in Queensland before moving to federal pre-selections.

Tony Abbott has not given any indication of a preference between Mr Scott and Senator Joyce, telling colleagues the issue is a matter for the LNP.

However, it is understood the Opposition Leader and Senator Joyce are close allies, with Mr Abbott relying heavily on his Queensland colleague on policy formulation.

In recent months, Liberal backbenchers have complained that Mr Abbott gives Senator Joyce and other Nationals greater freedom to talk about policy than he does his Liberal colleagues.

Barnaby On All The Bloated Lunch-Eaters In Canberra

23 Mar

Senator Joyce writes … brilliantly … again … for the Canberra Times (emphasis added):

Labor will be history in Queensland

The lingering fear of many in a sedentary job is the unreasonable expansion of the body mass. In Parliament you have the tactic of those lobbying you that if they can hold you down and feed you, like a French goose for the purpose of pate de foie, they will get a favourable hearing, and in many instances they are right.

It is hardly a parade of the siblings of the Greek Adonis that are ceremonially carted into Parliament each day. Since we are not digging post holes, nor shearing sheep, meagre attempts and a few rather hyper intense ones are made to stay in nick. On Sunday I am going in the Mooloolaba triathlon. I will come in somewhere at the back of my age group but I am more fearful of Sunday’s pain than Saturday’s Queensland State election. It would be disingenuous to sprout the line that the result is uncertain.

The physical appearance of politicians is no recommendation for their managerial expertise. Lack of managerial expertise is usually covered up by consultants, an ever increasing bureaucracy and an ever escalating debt.

Labor is continually plastering up the holes with borrowed funds and external consultants and Canberra seems to be resounding with this theme at the moment as well. The Canberra Times revealed this week that the Labor party has spent $500 million a year on consultants in their four years in government.

Canberra would feel the nervousness of those employed by the government in Brisbane who are going to be lumbered with the lunacy of the previous government’s ineptness.

Labor is going to lose and lose quite convincingly in Queensland. The fear is that in the engagement in tight seats within the wider electoral battle, telling the truth about the electoral scorecard could be discerned as public hubris. My hope is that people vote with their head and not their heart; sympathy for the arrangement that has dragged Queensland to the bottom of the Commonwealth is misplaced.

You would not marry someone on the premise that you felt sorry for them. You would not go and have a dentist put a drill in your teeth because you think they are a good bloke, but incompetent and clumsy. It stands to reason therefore that you should vote on competency and capacity to deliver your state an outcome not on sympathy. Unemployment in Queensland is the highest on the mainland at 5.7 per cent. Queensland lost its credit rating long before many countries in debt ridden Europe did. Queensland has been home to the farcical health debacle where, for the life of them, they could not get the payroll system to work in a fashion that paid the nurses, however, they did manage to pay a ”Tahitian Prince” about $15 million.

The main east-west highway to the vital mineral provinces, the Warrego Highway, is a two-lane bumper to bumper disgrace once you have managed to crawl over the Toowoomba Range. Queensland debt is booked to hit $85 billion.

This is the same Queensland that used to be the powerhouse of the Commonwealth, with the same people, and resources that are now selling at a record price beyond that received in the past.

Queensland matters for the whole country. It is our third biggest state. When the floods hit late last year, and the coal couldn’t be exported, we experienced our biggest fall in economic activity since the early 1990s recession. The Queensland economy’s stumbles over the past few years have held back the economic performance of all Australia.

In a previous time Queensland built the dams, airports, motorways, electrified the rail, developed the Gold Coast, opened up the coal fields, built the beef roads and built South Bank, built the Art Gallery, developed Gladstone, ran hospitals that weren’t in the news every second week. While they did all of this and more they left government with the treasury overflowing with money.

The only difference between then and now is the Labor Government. Queensland people are not going to feel sorry for them, they are just going to get rid of them.

“They Are Pathological In Their Hate Of It”: Barnaby

22 Mar

Barnaby Joyce on fire in the Senate.

Enjoy:

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 80 other followers