38 South

The NBN – Life at The Top

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The Wall Street Journal quoted below puts the stimulus in perspective. It shows that Canada (forgotten by the Labor Party) also did not succumb to recession and just like Australia they had over the previous decade implemented proper banking regulation with budgetary measures to decrease taxation and pay off debt. Even more importantly they did not follow their neighbour America with grandiose gestures and poor political judgement and may arguably be in better shape than Australia.

We should all understand and remember that a balanced budget does not mean that the debt that Labor has incurred is not paid off, does not go away, and will cost this country dearly with interest payments that will mean infrastructure forgone, hospitals, schools, rail roads and dams all not built by what is now probably the worst Labor government since Whitlam, if not the worst, and all in the name of economic ignorance by following a discredited Keynesian theory that has been shown to have never worked.

The figures quoted are damming. Corporate income Tax is at 18% in Canad yet the Labour Government wants to Tax the Mining companies at 45% or higher. They must have a different economic theory to think that this will attract Investement, Oh that right they do its called socialism and Gillard true socialist alliance (nee Communist party) credential are clear for all to see. Be Aware! This is a simple lesson that Howard and Costello learned and taught us. It also shows the flattening of rates in serious countries and augurs well for mounting the Flat Tax argument as it continues to provide superior economic condition across the globe.

Learning from Canada

In 1995, the federal government, led by the Liberal Party, passed the most important budget in three generations. Federal spending was reduced almost 10% over two years and federal employment was slashed 14%. By 1998, the federal government was in surplus and reducing the nearly $650 billion national debt. Provincial governments similarly focused on eliminating deficits by paring spending and reducing debt, and then they started to offer tax relief.
…
Tellingly, the last three Canadian elections have all had key debates on tax relief—not whether there should be tax cuts but rather what type of tax cuts. Beginning in 2001 under a Liberal government, even the politically sensitive federal corporate income tax rate has been reduced. It is now 18%, down from 28%, and the plan is to reduce it to 15% in 2012. The U.S. federal rate is 35%.

Yet much of the tax relief since 2000 has been on personal income taxes. The bottom two personal income tax rates have been reduced, and the income thresholds for all four rates have been increased and indexed to inflation. Canada has also reduced capital gains taxes twice (the rate is now 14.5%), cut the national sales tax to 5% from 7%, increased contribution limits to the Canadian equivalent of 401(k)s, and created new accounts similar to Roth IRAs.

Government austerity has been accompanied by prosperity. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), between 1997 and 2007 Canada’s economic performance outstripped the OECD average and led the G-7 countries. Growth in total employment in Canada averaged 2.1%, compared to an OECD average of 1.1%.

Source: Wall Street Journal.

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Coming Soon to a Council, State, or Country near YOU

This should be compulsory viewing for any and all opinionistas before they utter a word regarding Islam. Below or here on Utube

This site has over time been very much in favour of Australia retaining its remarkable record of Immigration for both refugees and those who have chosen to embrace our culture and migrate to this country. This view has always been moderated by the view that new settlers undertake to follow our laws and cultural norms and assimilate. Conversely we have always thought that there should be an enforceable system to remove those that do not or renounce both our country and its culture through criminal activity of any kind.

We have been broadly supportive of tolerance and the prevailing view that Australian ways and culture will generally overcome old style prejudices and enmities that newcomers should have, but often didn’t, leave behind as they started there new lives. To a greater extent this is what happened in successive natural waves of immigration just as they did with the major programmed immigration waves of the 50′s and 60′s unfortunately that has not been the case over the last few decades and both globalisation combined with misplaced progressive policies has changed the prevailing circumstances we must now admit that the immigration program has become distorted and is failing Australia. It will require a deeper study and more research to confirm my thesis but I believe that the West, and in particular the countries of permanent immigration, have been duped and the tolerant civil rights in these and other Western countries are now being used against them to pursue the Global Jihad of Sharia.

The news from Afghanistan of the brutal slaying of 10 medical personnel bringing much need treatment to the area, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, once again being caught planning and instigating terrorism against the West (Australia again) the terrorist trials going on here and around the world of native born adherents to Islam just continues to reinforce the rational observers view and understanding that Islam itself is the problem not radical Islamists. The insidious spread of sharia is aided and abetted by the progressives who are not convinced by argument indeed it seems they are not even swayed by the evil deeds of these nihilists who have declared war or jihad against the West but these leftists and fellow travellers seem to be set upon appeasement and to willingly lay down the underpinnings of their own culture in Salaam and abasement toward a bloodthirsty pre medieval lifestyle.

This video will remind us of what we are fighting against and a warning of the necessity to gird your loins.

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Governance – Appointments

The Herald Sun article of August 5th, is more evidence of how the changes made to our legal system have impacted on our society and is a cause, if not the root cause, to many of the issues of concern raised about Governance, Attorney General and Police on this site.

I would contend that we have not exercised due diligence or the necessary vigilance in ensuring an appointment process is in place that conforms to the needs of selecting individuals across our public and statutory offices that are based solely on merit. It is incumbent on us to ensure we have a system that cannot be misused, abused or manipulated not only when we hold power but most importantly when we do not. The system must be transparent enough that any interference in its operation must create such a public outcry that it remains inviolate of the government of the day.

That the appointments process is flawed is well borne out by the Bushfire Royal Commission report and its findings regarding a number of office holders.

However, this particular article finds that in the first instance our courts, county and supreme, are getting it wrong in 50% of the cases. This is an outstanding rate of failure, and reinforces the deep concern expressed privately at the bar and in legal circles at the appointment process, but also acknowledges the public concern about the justice system in this state is not misplaced.

Although particular cases pointed to get attention by notoriety or harrowing circumstances they are merely pointers to the failure of the system. Would we accept 50 percent of doctors getting it wrong or what about 50% of airline pilots or aircraft engineers. Perhaps 50% of train drivers, nurses, health inspectors, building inspectors is acceptable to Labor or 50% of accountants doing your tax getting it wrong. In all but the last example people lives and livelihood are at stake and the legal system should be no different.

Except here in Victoria, where our legal system is being systematically eroded and then reformed by a deeply committed cultural revolutionary and class warrior, the Attorney General Rob Hulls. Through his appointments both to the bench and across the broad remit of the Department of Justice and its mendicant authorities as well as funding decisions against any critical or presumed to be conservative volunteer non government organisations.

We must face the following explanation: Either the judges we appoint are getting it wrong or the judges on the appellate bench are getting it wrong or the legal system itself is not meeting the basic premise of the common law that of stare decisis, the principle that similar cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that they will reach similar results. Experienced reporter Geoff Wilkinson of the Herald Sun certainly thinks we have gotten it wrong when “the Court of Appeal admits as much, regularly ruling that a sentence under Crown appeal is manifestly inadequate but refuses to change it.”

It is seldom that the Chief Justice is drawn into public statements but we must conclude that for Chief Justice Warren to comment publicly that there is need for change. The Chief Justice may not be as enthusiastic as myself in a full revamp of the appointment system but for her to comment is indicative of the parlous state of affairs that has befallen our state.

It is not just the high profile cases cited in the article. Example after example of VCAT which is now acting in a similar and activist manner to the boards that Kennet had previously abolished. In what will result in a test case VCAT has just decided that people cannot build and develop their own land because of sea level rise forecast for 100 years hence even when they meet the criteria, assume the risk and wish to build in an already populated area.

Just some of the following examples show the range of how the government is increasingly interfering in the life and rights of its citizens through a now thoroughly politicised justice system. A fuller list of anomalies can be found here
• FEBRUARY 2010: A deputy president clears a sex creep who stalked young girls in his car to do voluntary work with children.
• OCTOBER 2009: Then-president Kevin Bell approved mega South Melbourne booze barn Neverland, with capacity for 1500 patrons, despite objections from the liquor licensing chiefs and Victoria Police.
• OCTOBER 2008: Doncaster GP Dr Sabi Lal, a convicted rapist, is given the green light by VCAT to continuing practising, despite objections by the Medical Practitioners Board.

Although the references above are primarily about the Justice system I would suggest they are indicative of the general malaise that afflict the provision of public services and the growth of bureaucracy and its impost on the citizen.

I would suggest that a proper appointments systems may well have spared us Police Commissioner Nixon, CFA Chief Russell Rees, to name just a few.
I would maintain that the real and signal danger is that of the Attorney General Rob Hulls remaining in power.
I would propose the following:
We nominate which public appointments are important enough to require an external approval process.
We explore a three step external approval process.
Step 1. Vetting approval and candidate selection, by an appointment panel (say 3 persons)
• Incumbent Office Holder
• Relevant minister or appointee or recognised authority
• Eminent Independent Person

Forwards qualified candidates for final selection to next step with recommendations
Step 2.
Cabinet or Ministerial recommendation dependent on position level
Step 3
Select Committee hearing for approval and recommendation to the parliament for appointment or not as the case may be.
This is a blend of the US Senate confirmation process and our current system but clearly removes the current capacity for patronage, ideologues, and specific bias for gender age ethnicity etc with the sole criteria being merit.

The proposal generally meets the governance issues of transparency and accountability we espouse.

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Governance – Transparency through Disclosure

Professor Judith Sloan writing at the Catalaxy Files blog provides an excellent suggestion for further transparency that has virtually no cost but provides a accountability to the people and treats politicians similarly to other citizens.

Impose disclosure requirements on Cabinet Ministers

With all this discussion about who did or did not attend National Security Committee meetings (memo to Julia – national security is about much more than Federal Police activity and being a bodyguard) as well as the broader discussion of the effective abandonment of normal Cabinet government by PM Rudd, it occurred to me that one way around this would be to impose the sort of disclosure requirements on Cabinet Ministers that the Parliament has decided are appropriate (and mandated) for directors of listed companies. Hard to see the problem in this, surely?

This would include a listing of the total number of meetings of Cabinets and its sub-commitees and the number of meetings attended by the Ministers.

Therefore, if there had been 24 Cabinet meetings in a year, say, and Julia had attended 22, this would be recorded and published.

There could be some scope for footnotes – say, if a Minister were overseas, although I would discourage the use of footnotes generally. In the case of the company reports, these are generally not used, save to acknowlege appointment/retirement during the reporting period. Major illness may be another exception.

While I am on this theme, I can also see no reason why all Parliamentarians should not have the full value of their remuneration packages disclosed each year – by name – including salary, perks, TA claimed, and the actuarial value of their superannuation entitlements. Relative to their opportunity wage/package, I think you will find that many Parliamentarians are pretty well-paid, which no doubt explains why plenty queue up to join their ranks.

And on this point, one of the better recommendations of the Cooper Report on Superannuation was to extend the coprporate disclosure requirements to all Superannuation Fund Trustees, including statements about related party interests. About bloody time.

Here is a simple easily adopted measure that will not only provide transparency but assist in promotion of a climate openess and accountability that we should expect from our public servants.

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Some Governance Proposals

Some suggestions based on recent events, ranging from the Royal Commission, to Police admissions, OPI revelations, Transport imbroglio, including the Federal mismanagement. Some suggestions starting with the State Government. We believe in the power of the people to discern wrongdoing, unscrupulous behaviour and deception in the delivery of government services and programs.

We believe that the ability and capacity to redress wrongdoing has been systematically removed from the citizen and although subsumed by the state it is dysfunctional, not from a disinterested public service, but from an uninterested one; a bureaucracy that is proving too close to government and to the furthering of its own interest so that it no longer functions as designed.

Some small simple reforms as proposed below may make reform relatively simple, economic and effective.

We should enact laws and regulations along the following lines if we wish to return the balance to the system.

Public Service Oversight

Parliamentary Committees

It shall be an offence for any public servant, official, contractor or its agent not to respond to and fully answer requests for information regarding their involvement, service, acts or omissions while employed or providing services for the government directly or indirectly before any properly constituted committee of the Legislative Council.

Such hearings may be held in camera as warranted by the circumstances, but shall nevertheless exempt Cabinet discussions. Security and intelligence operations and similar undertakings shall be separately over sighted by properly designated committees with relevant clearances or provisions for security of any and all information provided to the committee

Recording (Whistle-blowing, Balance of Power, Recourse to Government)

This measure would proactively redress citizens rights and the balance of power when dealing with the state. It is cutting edge and would be world best practise if not the leader in individual rights. It would clearly set the tone and agenda of limiting the overwhelming power of the state against the individual.

It is proactive because it acknowledges the new mediums of recording, communication and information dissemination. These mediums have the ability to disrupt government and indeed government programs by surprise revelations. By legislating in favour of the citizen, we would be providing citizens with the ways and means to provide evidence of their claim to already extant authorities.

This would actually enhance our stance on corruption at all levels and there are sufficient remedies at law through libel, slander, coercion, false statements and similar to protect against miscreants and misuse. It presupposes that the remedies be unflinchingly applied to wrongdoers who misuse the capability.

There shall be no recourse or expectation of privacy for or by any public servant, agent, contractor or person whilst acting or purporting to act on behalf of government (public agents). The recording, by any means, covert or overt of public agents interactions, operations and undertakings while acting or purporting to act on behalf of government (and only while acting or purporting to act) shall be deemed not to be an offence and any such recordings shall be admissible at law.

Appointment of an Inspector General

The appointee would rule on definitions, ensure their accuracy and report identified discrepancies, misleading or false reports to relevant agencies for further investigation or prosecution. The inspection regime would be auspiced by a range of criminal sanctions.

An Inspector General has applicability across the full range of Government undertakings both State and Local. This is not to be confused with the Auditor General and his responsibility, which, in general terms is after the fact. The proposed IG and its Officers is envisaged as a current inspection system that has plenipotentiary powers of entry and inspection that must report to the Parliament and be overseen by an upper house committee.

The powers envisaged are to inspect the correct reporting of all government services and undertakings including contractors with government contracts. Ideally this would be operated by the community in a similar manner to Community Visitors with a core staff augmented by trained and sworn volunteers (as applicable) reporting to the parliament.

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Its an Ill Wind

“As more and more wind farms come on stream this will become more and more of an issue. Wind power is not controllable and does not provide a solid supply to keep the national grid manageable. Paying multinational companies large sums of money not to supply electricity seems wrong.”

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I am Heartened

I am heartened!

As all who visit this blog would know, I am firmly in the anti AGW camp. But as most readers will also understand not so committed that I do not believe that the Globe has warmed or that climate changes, I simply cannot subscribe to the idea of science being decided by consensus, and more particularly that a consensus, not science, will and is going to create immense hardship for Australia and its citizens. Yet, I am heartened.

I am heartened because on Wednesday night I attended the Climate Forum held here in the Goldstein electorate and heard Senator Simon Birmingham clearly and lucidly explain the Coalitions policy of Direct Action. The policy is good and provides a method to reduce CO2 emissions without the imposition of swingeing tax increases or economic hardship while also providing renewal of many sectors of the economy, most particularly agriculture and its associated infrastructure.

This policy, as explained, meets the challenges of an agreed bi-partisan target of 5% reduction on 2000 levels. Many believe (including the Greens candidate attending) that this target is too low, but Senator Birminham and Andrew Robb the shadow finance minister pointed out that this was a realistic figure that actually meant that we would be targeting around 24% at today’s levels. (A quarter of our current output seems an heroic target to me!)

I am heartened because this policy provides infrastructure renewal, the incentive for alternate power technologies, water efficiency, household emission and power reduction and choice that will influence energy efficiency and will produce a general change in public perception on climate change. I firmly endorse the sensible approach of the coalition with this policy and applaud Senator Birmingham on its development. In doing so, I do not resile from my view that CO2 as defined by the IPCC and its emissions trading schemes is a fraud on a massive scale the likes of which we have not previously encountered.

I do however realise that my view and those of other sceptics (from the legitimate to lunar loons) will not carry the day at present. It is my view the scientific community, having been alerted through the disclosures arising from the Climategate emails and to the continuing discrediting of leading advocates, will act to recover its standing and authority with stronger and stricter methods of both peer review and oversight and that this oversight will in due course refute much of the earlier consensus. It is also my view that this will take approximately 3 to 5 years as researcher re check, investigate the providence of the data and provide either confirming or de-legitimise individual studies or the IPCC construct overall.

In the twenty years that the IPCC construct has developed from a couple of guys at Woods Hole many things have changed, but one of the things that hasn’t changed is scientific method. I expect that scientific method will have the last say as our instruments become better able to measure and as our data recording and logging system become more efficient and reliable. The scientific community is beginning to look more seriously at AGW and is now looking at solar cycles for example as well as other indicators that were dismissed out of hand early on by the IPCC . The current solar cycle as an example show sunspot development is lagging and the real evidence of cooling and warming will appear within the next few years, well within my time frame, and is likely to be conclusive. I am heartened because I expect to be vindicated but even if I am not, the Coalition’s masterly Direct Action Plan is the best approach to the politics of what must be done in the present climate (I know a bad pun)

I am heartened because this policy does not lock the economy and our people into a system of punishing costs that cannot be unwound but will actually deliver environmental benefits. I can see that with this policy strategy even if not one molecule CO2 is foregone the environmental benefits are such that the money will be well spent and create value for all Australians rather than just financial rentiers.

I am heartened because it can be stopped if and when, as I believe, the scientific evidence is presented on the fraudulent nature of the AGW and we will still have benefited on a sensible pragmatic approach. Well done to Andrew Robb for organising this forum and Senator Simon Birmingham for such a great presentation and response to the assorted questions and questioners. I am Heartened!

The full policy is available for download here and it is easy read that all should undertake.

PS. If I had any input I would like us to more definitively decouple CO2 emissions from environmental programs where possible as mixing it can detract from our overall environmental credentials.

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Alan Beattie’s generic Newspaper column, for all international meetings and summits.

By reporters everywhere :

An ineffectual international organisation yesterday issued a stark warning about a situation it has absolutely no power to change, the latest in a series of self-serving interventions by toothless intergovernmental bodies.

“We are seriously concerned about this most serious outbreak of seriousness,” said the head of the institution, either a former minister from a developing country or a mid-level European or American bureaucrat. “This is a wake-up call to the world. They must take on board the vital message that my organisation exists.”

The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an agreeable Western European city, was speaking at its annual conference, at which ministers from around the world gather to wring their hands impotently about the most fashionable issue of the day. The organisation has sought to justify its almost completely fruitless existence by joining its many fellow talking-shops in highlighting whatever crisis has recently gained most coverage in the global media.

“Governments around the world must come together to combat whatever this year’s worrying situation has turned out to be,” the director said. “It is not yet time to panic, but if it goes on much further without my institution gaining some credit for sounding off on the issue, we will be justified in labelling it a crisis.”

The organisation, whose existence the White House barely acknowledges and to which hardly any member government intends to give more money or extra powers, has long been fighting a war of attrition against its own irrelevance. By making a big deal out of the fact that the world’s most salient topical issue will be placed on its agenda and then issuing a largely derivative annual report on the subject, it hopes to convey the entirely erroneous impression that it has any influence whatsoever on the situation.

The intervention follows a resounding call to action in the communiqué of the Group of [number goes here] countries at their recent summit in a remote place no-one had previously heard of. The G[number goes here] meeting was preceded by the familiar interminable and inconclusive discussions about whether the G[number goes here] was sufficiently representative of the international community, or whether it should be expanded into a G[number plus 1, 2 or higher goes here] including China, India or any other scary emerging market country that attendees cared to name.

The story was given further padding by a study from an ambulance-chasing Washington think-tank, which warned that it would continue to convene media conference calls until its quixotic and politically suicidal plan to ameliorate whatever crisis was gathering had been given respectful though substantially undeserved attention.

Ends

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Guv’mint Action

In another “I’m from the Go’bmint and here to help you” comes another saga to remind you how really effective big government is. It is not just our socialists stuffing it up, Barry’s lot is also on the job

From the Henry Thornton blog a truly alternate view from Louis Hissink that puts a different light on the Gulf Oil spill and Peak Oil, and gee …. seems to make sense. This follows on from our post on the real problem BP faces in the Gulf regarding deep water drilling and discussion in the pages of the OilDrum.

The Financial Post provides the numbers on what was offered and also reminds us that foreign aid was also refused in the case of the Exxon Valdez. Clearly this is an altogether avertable disaster. And yes the US Guv’mint has got form. Well done boys and girls.

Louis Hissink on Henry Thorntons pages asserts that ‘Petroleum isn’t a fossil fuel, is abundant, but it seems to be in the interest of those who believe they know better than the rest of us, that this source of energy is to be restricted.. ‘

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38 South

Today’s Ray of Sunshine

Pommy Pundits

On the Wall

Wackers and Wankers

Currently Watching

The NBN – Life at The Top

GFC, Tax and the Real Deal

Learning from Canada

Coming Soon to a Council, State, or Country near YOU

Governance – Appointments

Governance – Transparency through Disclosure

Impose disclosure requirements on Cabinet Ministers

Some Governance Proposals

Public Service Oversight

Parliamentary Committees

Recording (Whistle-blowing, Balance of Power, Recourse to Government)

Appointment of an Inspector General

Its an Ill Wind

I am Heartened

Alan Beattie’s generic Newspaper column, for all international meetings and summits.

Guv’mint Action

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