Tag Archives: barnaby joyce

Stealing Our Super – I DARE You To Ignore This Now

8 Aug

Caricature by Zeg | click to enlarge

My sincere apologies, dear reader.

I understand that you are probably a little concerned about the future for the economy right now.

If you own shares, then you are probably worried about last week’s bloodbath in global sharemarkets.

But I have a very important question to ask you.

It’s a bit of a reality check, I’m afraid.

Do you think your Superannuation “nest egg” is safe from the greedy hand of government?

If you answered “yes”, then …

I dare you.

I dare you to ignore the rest of this blog.

I dare you to ignore the fact that Senator Barnaby Joyce – the only Australian politician who foresaw and forewarned about America’s present debt nightmare – gave this warning on 5th May 2011:

In response to a question I put in Senate estimates, Treasury revealed that $64 billion of the difference between our gross debt and our net debt is made up of the cash and non-equity investments of the Future Fund. The Future Fund is there to cover the otherwise unfunded costs of public servants’ superannuation.

That is a little fact that the people of Canberra might be interested in. When Wayne mentions net debt translate that to, I am going to pay his debt off with my retirement savings.

I dare you to ignore the fact that Barnaby repeated his warning on May 13th, straight after the Budget:

Of course, the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt.

I dare you to ignore the fact that the US Government has been stealing federal workers pensions since May this year:

Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government

The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government lost its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt…

Geithner, who has already suspended a program that helps state and local government manage their finances, will begin to borrow from retirement funds for federal workers.

I dare you to ignore the fact that the US Government has been planning to steal their private citizens’ super too, since at least February 2010:

The plan, as sketched in the 43-page document, calls for the creation of something called  “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs). Biden slyly shifts the onus for the idea through weasel words typical of the federal government: “Some have suggested the creation of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), which would give workers a simple way to invest a portion of their retirement savings in an account that was free of inflation and market risk, and in some versions under discussion, would guarantee a specified real return above the rate of inflation.”

These accounts would be “free of inflation and market risk” because they would be under the direct and absolute control of the federal bureaucracy.

I dare you to ignore the fact that Argentina’s government stole their citizens’ super in October 2008:

Argentina’s center-left President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday signed a bill for a government takeover of the $30 billion private pension system in a daring and unexpected move that rocked domestic markets.

I dare you to ignore the fact that Hungary’s government nationalised stole their citizens’ super in November last year:

Hungary is giving its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension.

Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy announced the policy yesterday, escalating a government drive to bring 3 trillion forint ($14.6 billion) of privately managed pension assets under state control to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Workers who opt against returning to the state system stand to lose 70 percent of their pension claim.

I dare you to ignore the fact that France began stealing their citizens’ super in late 2010 as well:

France seizes €36bn of pension assets

Asset managers will have the chance to get billions of euros in mandates in the next few months for the €36bn Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the French reserve pension fund, after the French parliament last week passed a law to use its assets to pay off the debts of France’s welfare system.

I dare you to ignore the fact that “Europe’s economic superstar”, the one EU nation that (like Australia) came through GFC1 with positive economic growth, began stealing their citizens’ super in May this year:

It appears moving backwards on pension reforms has become the thing to do on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hungary last year moved much of its private pension assets to the state. Last month, new rules came into effect in Poland diverting 5% of the 7.3% of salary going to private pension funds to the state.

I dare you to ignore the fact that Ireland too, began stealing their citizens’ super in May this year:

Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions To Pay For Spending

“The various tax reduction and additional expenditure measures which I am announcing today will be funded by way of a temporary levy on funded pension schemes and personal pension plans.”

I dare you to ignore the fact that the UK Government announced plans to steal public sector workers’ pension entitlements in June this year:

Thousands of teachers, lecturers and civil servants joined a UK wide strike yesterday in a mass protest over pension reforms.

…

The government … wants to impose a 3%-of-pay levy on public sector workers’ contributions to help reduce the budget deficit. This amounts to a pay cut to follow on the heels of the current pay freeze.

I dare you to ignore the fact that the Liberal Party of Australia quietly announced a new policy on June 3 this year – sneakily disguised as a helpful “reform” – that should make your hair stand on end:

Further relief for small business

The Coalition will relieve the red tape burden from Australia’s small businesses by giving them the option to remit the compulsory superannuation payments made on behalf of workers, directly to the ATO.

Small business will be given the option to remit superannuation payments to the ATO at the same time as they remit their PAYG payments.

This will require only one payment to one agency – rather than multiple cheques to multiple superannuation funds. The ATO will be responsible for sending the money to superannuation funds directly.

I dare you to ignore the fact that an “option”, can very easily become a “non-option”.

I dare you to ignore the fact that our Green-Labor Government announced plans in the May Budget that should also make your hair stand on end:

The Gillard government’s 2011-12 budget has proposed a raft of initiatives aimed at encouraging superannuation fund and private investment in infrastructure projects.

I dare you to ignore the fact that “encouraging”, can very easily become “enforcing”.

I dare you to ignore the botched “school halls” program, and the white elephant NBN, as you ponder whether or not you really trust this government to wisely and prudently invest your super in Government infrastructure projects, and achieve a reasonable return on your money, when even so-called “experts” have doubts:

The government’s plan to use tax incentives to encourage superannuation funds to invest in new infrastructure could be thwarted by inadequate returns on projects and a reluctance by the states to take on project risk, experts say.

I dare you to ignore the fact that the government’s white elephant NBN is a(nother) Green-Labor thought bubble, drawn up on the back of Kevin Rudd’s in-flight napkin, with no cost/benefit analysis:

Trust us with the NBN; we’re politicians

I dare you to ignore the fact that Bill Shorten, the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, already thinks of your super as a “significant national asset” … a kind of “sovereign wealth fund”:

Superannuation is our sovereign wealth fund

This week marks 12 months exactly since the government announced plans to take compulsory superannuation from 9 per cent to 12 per cent.

… our superannuation savings place Australia fourth in the world. Its $1.3 trillion in funds under management through superannuation significantly boosts national savings and provides greater retirement security for millions of Australians. Superannuation is also a significant national asset because it strengthens our financial sector.

I dare you to ignore the fact that our government has guaranteed our banking sector using the promise of your future earnings as collateral, and that Moody’s ratings agency has put our government on notice that our banks are Too Big To Fail – just like in the USA, UK, and Europe:

Heavens to Betsy.  It’s finally out in the open. The big four are too big to fail and Moody’s rates the Australian government’s implicit guarantee of the banks’ wholesale debt (as well as the explicit deposit guarantee) as worth two ratings notches. Moreover, by phrasing it this way, Moody’s has essentially put the Australian government on notice that if it dares back away from that guarantee then it can count on the result. The further implication is that the Budget had better remain shipshape to provide the guarantee.

I dare you to ignore the fact that the government’s carbon pricing scheme scam includes a new “independent” Clean Energy Finance Corporation (carbon bank) that will be permitted to borrow against future government revenue – your future tax dollars – in order to invest in “green” energy projects:

The Clean Energy Council will today release a discussion paper proposing the carbon bank, which it says could be allowed to borrow money to invest in renewable energy projects against the future revenue of Labor’s proposed carbon tax and emissions trading scheme.

…

The Gillard government is examining the creation of a multi-billion-dollar carbon bank to drive renewable energy technologies as the Greens demand “complementary measures” to cut emissions in return for accepting a lower starting price for the carbon tax.

…

6.2.1 The Clean Energy Finance Corporation

The $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation will invest in businesses seeking funds to get innovative clean energy proposals and technologies off the ground. These Government-backed investments will deliver the financial capital needed to transform our economy.

…

A variety of funding tools will be used to support projects, including loans on commercial or concessional terms and equity investments.

…

The Corporation will be independent from the Government. The Government will appoint an independent Chair who will have appropriate banking or investment management experience.

I dare you to ignore international banking’s core philosophy, now rendered infamous by GFC1: “Privatise the profits … socialise the losses”.

I dare you to ignore the fact that another sharemarket collapse – like in 2008 – would be a perfect pretext for nanny-state, “Big Brother knows best” governments everywhere to step in and “safeguard your retirement”, by taking and “investing” your super in Government-approved “safe investments” … just like the US Government’s planned, doublespeak-titled “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts”.

I dare you to ignore the fact that this blog has documented in detail the wave of super confiscations that is already rolling around the Western world, and the clear evidence that both sides of Australian politics already have their own quiet, sneaky plans to do the same.

I dare you to not bother reading any of my many articles on this topic –

No Super For You!!

US Treasury “Borrowing” Of Federal Pensions Brings Theft Of Private Pensions One Step Closer

Now The UK Government Is Stealing Super Too

Fresh Evidence Our Banks In “Race To The Bottom” Means You Can Kiss Your Super Goodbye

Fitch Ratings: Australian Banks Most Vulnerable To Europe’s Debt Crisis

Our Banks Racing Towards A “Bigger Armageddon”

Money Morning Agrees – Your Retirement Savings Under Threat

The Pricing Carbon Choir – Why Should *Any* Sane Person Trust Economists After The GFC?

Why Would Any Sane Person Believe Treasury’s Carbon Tax Modelling When Its Budget Forecasting Record Is This Bad?

How Wayne ‘Franked’ Another $20 Billion

Wayne: OOPS! I Did It Again

Liberal Party’s Sneaky Plan To Steal Your Super To Pay Labor’s Debt

Dear reader …

I dare you to ignore, mock, and ridicule Barnaby Joyce’s warnings … again.

I dare you to bend over … grab your ankles … bury your head in the sand … and keep telling yourself that “She’ll be right mate”.

I dare you to ignore the fact that …

Barnaby is right.

* A hearty “Thank You” to the inimitable Zeg for his brilliant cartoon drawn especially for this post, and at very short notice.

Please follow him on Twitter – @Zegcartoonist and subscribe to his blog – http://zegsyd.blogspot.com/

Better still … hire him!

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I Told You So

6 Aug

From Reuters:

The United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s on Friday in an unprecedented reversal of fortune for the world’s largest economy.

Five days ago, prior to the US raising their debt ceiling, I wrote this:

Why The US Is Doomed, And The Debt Ceiling “Crisis” Is Irrelevant

If you missed it, click on the link above to see the chart from the New York Times which explains why – whether it be now, or later – the US economy is doomed.

UPDATE:

Dow Jones Newswires comments:

Standard & Poor’s has taken the unprecedented step of downgrading the US government’s “AAA” sovereign credit rating, in a move that could send shock waves through global financial markets and potentially undermine world economic growth.

In a press release, S&P, today cut its top-notch long-term credit rating for the US Treasury’s debt to AA plus with a negative outlook. It is the first time in modern history one of the three main ratings firms has stripped the US of its coveted AAA rating.

S&P warned last month if the US government didn’t approve a credible medium-term plan to shrink its fiscal shortfall, it would downgrade the rating even if Congress approved a debt deal that raised the Treasury’s borrowing limit.

UPDATE 2:

The Wall Street Journal:

A cornerstone of the global financial system was shaken today when officials at ratings firm Standard & Poor’s said US Treasury debt no longer deserved to be considered among the safest investments in the world.

S&P removed for the first time the triple-A rating the US has held for 70 years, saying the budget deal recently brokered in Washington didn’t do enough to address the gloomy long-term picture for America’s finances.

It downgraded US debt to AA+, a score that ranks below Liechtenstein and more than a dozen other countries, and on par with Belgium and New Zealand.

What did then Opposition Finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce say, back in February 2010?

“If you do not manage debt, debt manages you”.

Barnaby is right.

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Barnaby: Good On You Wayne, You Are A Genius

5 Aug

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 5 August 2011:

Mr Swan is a precise reflection on the Labor Party’s total and utter financial incompetence. Mr Swan has carriage over, and a fascination for, a Climate Change modelling section in Treasury. The reality of course is that it has not a prayer of affecting the climate, but until the wave hit he denied the bleeding obvious about Catastrophic Debt Change.

But the Treasurer has done nothing to prepare Australia for the financial fallout on global sovereign debt, which some of us have been screaming about now for years. Yes, I was talking about this even before my brief tenure in Shadow Finance.

Instead, Swan and Labor have overseen the third largest proportional increase in public sector debt in the world. Ken Rogoff from Harvard will confirm this.[1]  Iceland, Ireland then us; good on you Wayne you are a genius.

Iron ore, coal and wheat saved us from the first GFC not $900 cheques, ceiling insulation and school halls. Heavy floods in Queensland also brought a severe decline in GDP for Australia recently just to remind us of what happens when coal can not get to port.

We have not heard boo on how this nation invests in where we make our money. It was pathetic that even as recent as yesterday they were talking about borrowing another $100 billion to build a not as fast as a plane passenger train.

Now Wayne what will that help us export to pay for your debt?

[1] Reinhart, C. and Rogoff, K. 2011, ‘A Decade of Debt’, Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper, p. 12, http://www.voxeu.org/sites/default/files/file/DP8310.pdf

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Barnaby And The Gambling Addicted Sadomasochist Sex Worker

4 Aug

Senator Joyce writes (brilliantly) for the Canberra Times:

While in a capital city on one of my 200 or so days a year on the road, I had a meal by myself, always good company, then took a walk through one of our nation’s “premier” gambling venues.

I beelined for the establishment certain to be this town’s answer for Daniel Craig or a central character in Australia’s version of Ocean’s Eleven. I think somewhere during the conversation with the gambling-addicted, adult sex worker I came to a dull, pulsating, flashing-light, bell-ringing realisation that the pizazz was not quite there.

Instead, overwhelming sadness is what I felt as she informed me that most of the regulars were as addicted to gambling as she was.

She had blown about $20,000 in the last year and bounded in an out of relationships; the latest one giving her the greatest of encouragement and support to expand her professional development in sadomasochism. Meanwhile, the lucrative payments she received could support the opulent establishment currently graced with my presence.

She told me they had a loyalty scheme! You put your card into the card slot, punch in some numbers and if you lose buckets of money you get to go to the special room where you will not be disturbed as you lose even more. Tragically, she has not been losing enough lately, not that she has not been trying, just that she has not been getting the breaks in her acting career to allow her the spare funds.

I asked her what I could do to help her better enjoy her pastime and she said it had destroyed her life and the best thing I could do would be to shut all the gaming machines down. Absurd I know. It was obvious to me that it was all part of a wonderful experience, that she used to do tricks for and she assures me others still do. She was just a little tired and needed a good night’s sleep.

I asked her, with all that ‘‘loyalty’’ information collected from her, whether anyone from the establishment had ever suggested that maybe she had spent too much on something where the probability of you hitting the big one is slightly less than being hit by lightning. She said ‘‘no, never’’, obviously having too much fun and no one wanted to disturb her.

She said that the machines are kind of addictive; the lights, the bells, the rolling pictures. She said that you get in a zone and will stay ’till all your money is gone, but once she left with $3000! Maybe this was my chance to be Daniel Craig. It was just so glamorous with all those poor bastards glued to the screens into the dim hours of the morning surrounded by mortgage belt misery. Fortunes were going to be made if they could just get the computer chip in the machine to allow five funny pictures to line up.

I won’t reveal exactly which establishment I frequented but I will say it wasn’t in Western Australia. There pokies are only allowed in one casino, Burswood, a bit like the situation that existed in Queensland and Victoria before state Labor governments needed quick cash for a budget fix and rolled pokies out in pubs and clubs in the early 1990s.

There are almost 100,000 pokies in NSW. There are just over 1700 in Western Australia. Some argue that if pokies were banned addicts would just shift to other forms of gambling, Dapto dish-lickers, trots, Keno, Sportsbet, Centrebet, two-up or two flies walking up a wall.

How did one survive before coin- a-copia? But the average Western Australian spends only $670 a year on gambling, compared to $1200 in Victoria and $1300 in NSW. The amount spent on pokies in WA is about the same as what is spent in the ACT.

There is something insidious about poker machines.

If Mr Wilkie is good for his word then very soon we are going to have an interesting time in Parliament House. It is time to learn more about the noble art of sticking money into a rather large box via a slot.

Humans are weak. We all are, just some swim deeper from the hooks than others in the stream of temptations.

But is it right to exploit the weak and create excuses for the fishermen of misery? Or maybe they are on a hook themselves?

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Barnaby: Government Must End Uncertainty On Water Act

3 Aug

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 3 August 2011 (my emphasis added):

Reports today suggest that the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been delayed because the “MDBA’s own lawyers had forced a delay as they found “inconsistencies” between the draft and the Federal Water Act 2007.”

It’s time for the Government to release all of the legal advice on the Water Act so it can remove the wall of uncertainty that is facing Basin communities.

Last year Minister Burke only released a “summary” of this advice to the Parliament. Only 10 pages of advice were released even though the government and the MDBA have received 946 pages of advice from the Australian Government Solicitor.

A Senate inquiry earlier this year found that “the Water Act does not provide adequate certainty regarding how water resources should be managed under the Basin Plan” and that under the Act “environmental considerations can be, and are, given substantially more ‘weight’ than social and economic considerations.”

Even the Greens recognised this in their dissenting report arguing that:

The legal evidence to the inquiry is clear that, given the reliance on the external affairs power as well as the stated objects of the Water Act, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and the Minister are required to give environmental considerations precedence in developing the Basin Plan.

The latest delay in the basin plan means a continuation of uncertainty for Basin residents, an uncertainty which prevents them from planning and investing for the future. An uncertainty which brings business to a halt.

But worse than this latest uncertainty would be a continuation of legal challenges even after the Plan is released.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to get the Act right now and end the uncertainty.

More information – Matthew Canavan 0458 709433

Hunt, P. 2011, ‘Basin draft delayed’, The Weekly Times, August 3, http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/08/03/364465_national-news.html

Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications Legislation Committee 2011, Answers to questions on notice, Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities portfolio Additional Estimates, February, 4:MDBA, question 31 and 4.1:WRD, question 67, http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/ec_ctte/estimates/add_1011/sewpac/mdba.pdf and http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/ec_ctte/estimates/add_1011/sewpac/program_4-1.pdf

Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee 2011, A Balancing Act: provisions of the Water Act 2007, June, http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/provisionswateract2007/report/index.htm

Interesting.

This practice of releasing only very limited (“summary”) information on vital policy matters, and withholding some (or all) of the truly pertinent information, has become something of a habit for this government.

Consider their track record on the biggest, most controversial policy in the nation – their “carbon pricing mechanism”.

And in particular, the deliberate lies and blatant obfuscations presented to the public, in absence of any actual detailed information about the so-called “500 biggest polluting companies”.

Leaving it to concerned citizens such as your humble blogger, to research and expose their gross deception in articles (and spreadsheets) such as this –

The “500 Biggest Polluters” Exposed – Everything The Government Is Not Telling You.

 

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Barnaby: Putting The Lie To The Government’s 500 “Biggest Polluters” Claims

1 Aug

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce – 1 August 2011:

Local government to pay the carbon tax

Local councils will be hit the hardest by the news that landfill sites will be up for a $200 million carbon tax bill, Shadow Minister for Local Government, Barnaby Joyce said today.

“There are 565 local governments in Australia and all will have higher costs imposed on them as a result of the carbon tax. At a stroke this puts the lie to the government’s deceitful claims that only the 500 “biggest polluters” will pay the tax.

“Under the carbon tax, local governments will have to pay to turn on the street lights, they will have to pay to build a road and they will have to pay to take out the rubbish.

“All of these extra costs are being shifted on to them without any form of compensation or even consideration by the federal government.

“Ultimately, just like any other business, local governments will have to pass these costs on in the form of higher rates. I am sure everyone will be thankful for the carbon tax next time they get their rates notice.

“The Brisbane City Council has already warned that rates will have to go up by 2%, the Dubbo City Council has estimated that its power bill alone will increase by $500,000, while the Tamworth Regional Council estimates an impact on their electricity bill of $300,000.”

What a crying shame that Barnaby’s office staff – and those of numerous other Opposition Senators and MP’s – have apparently not bothered to check my 3-weeks-work-in-1 research analysis of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) department’s official Register of “polluters”.

Because it shows conclusively that there are only 16 local councils listed in the NGER Register of “polluters”.  And, that the entire government presentation of its official claims concerning “1,000 of the biggest polluters” … oops, make that “500 of the biggest polluters” … is an absolute litany of lies.

From alpha to omega, from beginning to end.

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If Barnaby’s An Idiot, Then What About The Financial Review?

1 Aug

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 1 August, 2011:

B the t’s

Long, long ago I remember getting my b’s and t’s confused, and my b solidly kicked by the fourth estate after a National Press Club event, apparently this syntax error was punishable by immediate dismissal.

I must admit when I see the same mistake on the front page of the Financial Review, I do have the expectation that News of the World like the paper should be removed immediately as a literary abomination.

“The US government’s $US14.3 trillion ($13 billion) debt ceiling will further harm the US’s faltering economic recovery”

Of course if the US debt is only $13 billion, then even I would have to say that they don’t have much of a problem, considering now that Australia’s debt ceiling is at $250 billion, which is quarter of a trillion dollars. Australia has to realise that we have extended our debt ceiling and our gross debt amount is currently $194.74 billion.

For all the other problems that the Labor party is responsible for, including the closing down of the live cattle trade, building the education revolution, closing down fishing, closing down forestry and piece de resistance, the carbon tax fiasco, the thing we have to always remember is that the debt keeps growing, just like a cancer, always with excuses of how we are going to cure it later.

Even now, after his prophetic warnings about US debt caused him to be run out of town (and his job), the arrogant and hypocritical fourth estate cannot help but slyly ridicule Senator Joyce.

Here’s Barefoot Investor (and populist self-promoting shill) Scott Pape:

A few weeks ago three older ladies, presumably in their 60s, bailed me up after a speech I’d given. All were still working. None had a choice – they didn’t have enough in superannuation.

My explanation of the miracle of compound interest didn’t wash with these ladies. They were at the end of their working lives and were scared about losing their money again. The Global Financial Crisis was seared into their memory, because they’d seen their life savings cut in half.

Their belief in the system has been shattered. They have little faith that our politicians have a handle on the situation, and it’s little wonder: the party leaders are too busy scoring cheap political points and favouring spin over substance.

“I now listen to that Barnaby Joyce”, said one of the ladies. “He said the US was going broke, and everybody said he was an idiot. But he was right.”

She had a point. Then again, it struck me that we really are in uncharted territory when Barnaby Joyce starts to make sense.

Couldn’t help yourself, ‘eh Scott?

As usual, throughout the history of humanity, it is our silvery-haired elders who are the true repositories of wisdom and common sense.

And yet, our world is steered into hole after hole after hole, by know-it-all, clueless, mainstream-false-theory-peddling, TV-camera-friendly young smart arses like Scott Pape.

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Why The US Is Doomed, And The Debt Ceiling “Crisis” Is Irrelevant

1 Aug

One chart from the New York Times explains why it no longer matters what US politicians decide to do about raising their debt ceiling even higher:

Exponential rise = unsustainable bubble.

Whether now, or later, the US economy is doomed.

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Barnaby: Tree-Huggery Becomes Thuggery

1 Aug

Senator Joyce writes for the Weekend Australian:

The Greens are bullies in the purest, most dangerous, sense of the word

Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings this week declared peace for the forests. I trust she wasn’t waving a piece of paper from the foot of the steps after stepping off a plane. Green peace is an elusive concept, since the Greens can never be appeased. They have no concern for the pieces of people’s lives they leave behind.

When I was eight, green activists became active in Dorrigo, in north-eastern NSW. It was not the flashiest place on earth, but most had a job until the greenies put an end to the timber industry.

This week I have been in Tasmania, a state full of potential, but neutered by a philosophy that puts trees first, frogs second and families last. The Greens’ undergraduate pop-up-book philosophy promises the fairytale but delivers economic privation to those living many miles from the Manic Monkey Cafe in inner urban Nirvanaville.

If you really want to see what Green economic policy looks like, try Scottsdale in Tasmania. You won’t find many greenies or the green jobs they keep promising, but you will find economic misery left behind by Green policies.

One of the greatest attributes of Australian life is the expression of individual freedom. I can say, basically, what I like, pretty much write what I like, worship who I want, or not at all, and start whichever business I like. These freedoms are being curtailed by the inspired morality of the Greens, who are placing righteous caveats on the freedom of our economic development, expression of thought and even which science we can research.

The Greens have given the term “environment” an omnipotent, all-encompassing quality.

Whenever they utter the word it is a precursor that demands blind, unquestioning obedience.

Their cause always follows this path: find the high-colour issue, beatify the cause, then never be satisfied as they ride the horse called Insatiable Nihilism to the town of Shut Down.

The Greens started by opposing the Gordon-below-Franklin dam, but now the Wilderness Society in Tasmania opposes all dams, even small farm dams. The outcome is that it takes two years or more in Tasmania to get a farm dam approved.

The Greens have then been central in shutting down the other major industry in Tasmania, forestry. At the 2004 election the Greens were all about stopping the logging of “old-growth” forests. Now we have another forestry deal, old-growth forests have morphed into all native forests, including regrowth, and the Greens want to shut the whole industry down.

Global warming has morphed into climate change. A $23 carbon tax will, at the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen, morph into a $131 carbon tax to shut down the entire coal industry. How do the Greens achieve these results when nine out of 10 don’t vote for them? Don’t be fooled by the complexion of their kaftan; their thuggery is different. Recently the Greens have put pressure on a large retailer not to sell products made from Tasmanian native forests.

The tactics of commercial boycott, because you don’t share the culture of the targeted merchants, have historically been abhorred.

But we seem to let the Greens and GetUp! get away with it.

The victims of these cultural pogroms are hidden from the ABC audience of Q&A. Like the consequences of a conquering army, the fruits of a green victory are depression, unemployment and loss of property values and rights for the defeated people.

The results are there for all to see in Scottsdale, where the economic rug has been pulled out from beneath the town. For the people who stayed, their house values have halved and the Greens think a fair economic prospect is an unemployment cheque.

Last week Greenpeace activists used whipper-snippers to destroy a CSIRO experimental GM wheat crop. A local Greens politician gave his endorsement to this holy crusade to destroy scientific research and public property. He absolved his flock, saying “You have to stand up for what you believe in sometimes.” I’m glad he doesn’t believe in capital punishment.

For the Greens, sometimes they like the science, sometimes they don’t. Ask questions on the science of climate change and you are a denier; destroy a research crop and you are a crusader.

Would we endorse the same action for others? There is neither grace, nor charm, nor style from the person otherwise known as a bully.

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Time To Ponder

29 Jul

Dear reader, your humble blogger is taking a time out until August 3rd.

That’s the day after the USA is due to default on its debt.

Regular readers will know that I began this blog in early 2010, motivated by anger.

Anger at the dishonest, and economically-ignorant treatment that Senator Joyce was receiving as then newly-promoted Opposition Finance spokesman, due to his courageous and prophetic voicing of concern over US (and Australian) debt levels, and the risks that these debts (foreign and domestic) pose to Australia’s future.

With the “distant but real” risk that Senator Joyce predicted in late 2009 now only days away from being realised, I am taking time out for some much-needed R&R, way out in that wonderful place where our latte-sipping, concrete-jungle-dwelling, holier-than-thou, “green” totalitarian-wannabe paragons-of-hypocrisy never actually venture (the bush) … and there, to ponder the future for barnabyisright.com.

Rest assured that should the US default next Tuesday evening, I will definitely post again next Wednesday with a sad, but nevertheless a somewhat triumphal “Barnaby was right!”

Beyond that, however, I cannot say at present.

The fact is, whether or not the US does default next Tuesday evening is neither here nor there. Barnaby was right to warn of these risks that he foresaw, and was right to call for public debate on the wisdom of Australia having a “contingency plan”.

With the USA now on the very brink of default – and their only, very short-sighted hope being the chance that their politicians might agree to kick their $14.3 Trillion debt can down the road a little more – the evidence is undeniably clear.

Barnaby was right.

For any new visitors to this blog, or regular readers who have not gone back through the archives, I would ask you to please consider reading what I personally consider to be some of the crowning achievements of this site to date –

Labor Fakes GDP By 4.5%

Compassion For Malcolm – He Just Wants His Balls Back

I Was Right: Labor Hid The Increase

By Saul’s Own Words They Stand Condemned

No Super For You!!

Letter To Greg Hunt MP

The Pricing Carbon Choir – Why Should *Any* Sane Person Trust Economists After The GFC?

Try Asking 1.3 Billion Stomachs Armed With Nukes To Give Our Food Back

The People’s NWO: Every Man His Own Central Banker

Our Bankers’ Casino Royal – “Carbon Permits” Really Means “A Licence To Print”

Why Would Any Sane Person Believe Treasury’s Carbon Tax Modelling When Its Budget Forecasting Record Is This Bad?

Final Proof That RBA Governor Glenn Stevens Is Either A Liar, Or A Blithering Idiot

Our Government *Officially* Does Not Know Who Owns More Than 60% Of Australia’s Debt

Swan: We Created Every Single New Job In The Entire Nation Since We Came To Office … And 10,000 More, That Don’t Even Exist

Our Banking System Operates With Zero Reserves

Spread The Word – ‘Untouchable’ Turnbull Is A Goldman-Plated Turd

It Begins – Opposition Takes Up The Fight Against The Bankster Class

The “500 Biggest Polluters” Exposed – Everything The Government Is Not Telling You

There is lots more of course. But I consider the above to be perhaps the best, and certainly the most important of my efforts over the past 18 months.

There has been a handful of videos that I’ve made too. By far the most popular being this one, that I made in July last year especially for the Gillard vs Abbott Federal election, which has been watched over 24,000 times –

Please enjoy all these articles and videos. More importantly … please share.

Especially this, even though it is not my creation – The Most Important Video On The Internet.

And remember …

Barnaby is right.

Take care.

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