Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Carbon Tax is generating more heat than Global Warming

Posted to Letters To Editors, Monash Weekly on 13/9/2011
Carbon Tax is generating more heat than Global Warming

http://www.monashweekly.com.au/content/letterstotheeditor/

Contribution of carbon dioxide towards global warming is negligible. A degree or so increase is no comparison to 10 or 20 degrees Celsius difference in daily minimum and maximum temperatures. When somewhere in the world experiences drought, another part will receive the extra rainfall, which means while somewhere experiences higher temperature, another part of the world is colder or else the rain will not fall.

The reason why Australia is high on carbon dioxide production per capita is because of her small population. In any business, there are always fixed and variable costs involved. The same principle applies here that certain amount of carbon dioxide produced is fixed no matter how small the population is.

Compounding this is transmission of power over vast distances to generally very low population density cities and towns, unlike many smaller but higher population density European or Asian countries.

If coal power plants are closed, the brown coal will either laid buried in the ground in Australia, or dumped in the world market.

The latter option will be a total disaster for the future of our planet - assuming that coal power plants are evil. Developing countries will be buying the coal to power their generators, likely to be dirtier than our existing plants, creating more pollution than anyone can ever imagine.

Australia plays tough and acts as the good guy, but it actually is an accessory to the murder of planet Earth!

Coal power plants use a lot of Australian resources and labour - good for our own economy and employment. The resources are not overseas import and the labour cannot be outsourced overseas.

Starting from mining the brown coal to the final stage of burning it, involves a long chain of industries - transport, fuel, supply and maintenance of all related plant, equipment and vehicle, food and beverages, uniform, accommodation, etc.

It is undeniable that China is the factory of the world. Anything or component can be built in a country can be built in China at much lower cost.

China is going to release her new aircraft C919 at USD50m each in less than 5 years time to compete with Airbus A320 at USD93m and Boeing 737 at USD80m respectively, is a clear demonstration that any equipment and components used for renewable energy power plants will likely be manufactured in China at a fraction of the cost.

Loss of employment is disastrous and NOT renewable. Don't be a statistics!

Year after year, utilities and rates charges increase at a rate higher than the CPI (or loosely speaking the inflation rate), while the increase of the inflation rate itself remains relatively low. This only means that the imported goods are cheaper or getting cheaper, and that spells doom to our self-sufficiency and manufacturing industries.

For the past decade, Australia has been riding high on the primary and tertiary (service) industries. On the contrary, the secondary (manufacturing) industry is fixed on reverse gear. Business confidence and consumer confidence had been very high. Although Australia is a large island far away from the rest of the world, it is not isolated from them economically. It is time Australia has to face the music.

Australia has been blessed by the increasing demand of coal and iron ore in China, Korea, Japan, and India. However, the fortune of some these countries have changed and will change negatively as a result of the financial misfortune and financial mismanagement of other countries or natural disasters that have occurred within. The demand of minerals will decline because Australia's buyers are experiencing lower demand of their products.

Service or tertiary industries flourish during boom time, be it local, national or worldwide. This is evident in the downturn of Australia's tourism industry. On the local scene, retail and housing industries have slowed down dramatically, too.

In recent weeks, the world climatic conditions have gone topsy-turvy. Soaring heat waves hit many states in USA as well as large part of Europe. Scandinavian and Baltic countries experience many more warm sunny days than usual. China has unusual big floods that affect millions of people. To a smaller extent, Australia did not escape the destructive force of Mother Nature.

How can things just happen so suddenly? Is it due to global warming, extra-terrestrial influence or activities taking place under the surface and within the Earth? During the last few years, large earthquake, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions cause immense damages to many cities and affected neighbouring countries. There is no way in the world that these natural disasters are caused by global warming. On the contrary, these could be the cause of global warming!

Carbon tax is a nonsensical tax. Will Australians be taxed for polluting the planet by exhaling carbon dioxide every time they breathe out? Some Australians may be a few dollars better off the first year of carbon tax implementation, but the benefit will go sour in subsequent years because inflation will swallow up all the miserable handouts.

Few years ago, Target 155 was introduced by the former Victorian government to encourage people to save water during the drought. It was a very successful campaign. The success of the campaign lied not on taxing the Victorians; people used over 155 litres per person per day were not penalised, and yet majority of the Victorians wanted to save water. Saving water and energy should be a way of life, and NOT political or economic policies imposed by the Government.

If the government really want to flex her muscle, deadlines can be imposed on industries to clean up their act, invest in alternative power generation or their business registration / licence will not be renewed. Taxes on any industry will have a flow on effect on ordinary people. No business wants to be shut down!

By ignoring the poll is a sign of arrogance to the nth degree, self-centredness and disrespectful of the intelligence of the Australian public.

Will Julia Gillard continue to ignore what the rest of Australia is telling her that she is NOT on the right track?

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Greg Male tipped to be mayor

Posted to Waverley Leader (14/12/2010) on 14/12/2010 at 4:26 PM
Commenting on “"Greg Male tipped to be mayor"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/greg-male-to-be-new-monash-mayor/

I hardly hear about the Councillors - they don't appear in or write to the local papers, talk to the traders, or meet the residents

What do they actually do for the City of Monash, except asking more and more for their pockets? Do they know about the City budgets and the wellbeing of their wards

Councillors do attend Council meetings as a formality, but do they contribute constructively, except rubber stamping proposals or discussions? However, when election draws close, they tell the ratepayers what fantastic jobs they have done, or why a particular one should be chosen as the next Mayor.

Local Council is the lowest of the three tier-government system in Australia. While Council structure is not the same as the State and Federal Governments, Councillors are in a way politicians in the making / waiting. Get your butts off and start working for the ratepayers!

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Why are there shortages of beds?

Posted to Your News, Waverley Leader on 1/12/2010 at 2:11 PM
Title: Why are there shortages of beds?

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/why-are-there-shortages-of-bedsr/

Ted Baillieu has a tough job ahead, not only on health reform, but also on hospital culture reform.

There are wards in some hospitals not open, tying up many beds. There are no doctors and nursing staff to service them due to lack of funding. If remains at status quo, these wards will never be opened.

When Brumby opened "additional" new beds in hospitals, old beds were shut down, and the staff were reshuffled. In fact, there were hardly additional beds opened during election time.

New wings or buildings of hospitals were not well thought out and lack accommodation. In addition, some hospitals placed unnecessary emphasis on certain racial needs, wasting valuable funding resource.

Like many public services, unused monies before end of financial years are spent on unnecessary renovation or replacement of furniture.

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Gidley elated to take Mount Waverley

Posted to Waverley Leader (27/11/2010) on 27/11/2010 at 9:35pm
Commenting on "Gidley elated to take Mount Waverley"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/gidley-elated-to-take-mt-waverley/

Congratulations to Michael Gidley for your tireless effort to win Mount Waverley back for the Liberal Party. During the ABC election broadcast Michael said that Victorians were not happy with rises in utility bills, and wanted a change. I would like know how a Liberal Government and Michael Gidley can reverse the rises?

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Mulgrave Greens want tax review (Post 2 of 2)

Posted to Waverley Leader (13/11/2010) on 16/11/2010 at 10:13am
Commenting on "Mulgrave Greens want tax review"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/mulgrave-greens-want-tax-review/

It is always easier said than done. Promises are made by Party leaders and candidates during election time to lure votes, but once elected they seem to suffer from memory loss. They might as well come clean from the start and be honest to say that they are not miracle workers.

As consumers, we can complain or voice our dissatisfaction to statutory authority or customer service departments, and in many cases, actions are taken to rectify the problems. Unfortunately, we can't do likewise to a Government. We can't turn to anyone, including the Governor General, to reprimand or punish them for not keeping or delivering their promises.

We should not let these people get away with their false promises and lies. However, there is no way we can hold them accountable. We have to wait for 4 miserable years to "sack" them, and in many occasions, the alternative is no better.

Please don't just vote for a Party; instead vote for the person who is going to represent you in the Parliament. This person should be a people person, a good marketer who understands your needs and wants, your circumstances, and earns his money for a good day’s work.

Mulgrave Greens want tax review (Post 1 of 2)

Posted to Waverley Leader (16/11/2010) on 16/11/2010 at 9:45am
Commenting on "Mulgrave Greens want tax review"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/mulgrave-greens-want-tax-review/

John Janetzki, if stamp duty is cut, what will replace the revenue shortfall? I hope you are not another politician who specialises in policy-on-the-run, and knows nothing about costing.

Daniel Andrew, please explain a bit more clearly what "the tax needed to be viewed in context" really is in simple, easy to understand everyday ordinary people language. Not only stamp duty needs to be reviewed, but also land tax - which is another rip-off. Superficially Australia is in tip-top shape; this may be true for the banks and big corporations, but many small businesses will tell a different story.

Courtney Mann, what are you going to do about "a whole generation of families who are being priced out of the area" if you are concerned about this? Do you have any idea what the Liberal party's policy is, or hasn't the party any policy on this?

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

The battle for Mt Waverley

Posted to Waverley Leader (9/11/2010) pn 9/11/2010 at 10:42pm
Commenting on "The battle for Mt Waverley"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/the-battle-for-mt-waverley/

The political party leaders and candidates should be canonised for their ability to perform miracles in short space of time - yes, all the promises of buckets of money for schools, road, carparks, hospital, housing, police, etc.

The Government and Opposition have four years each term to debate all these issues. They don't have to come out with all these ridiculous promises during campaign time to lure votes. A Government can do a lot without any prior promises - they just allocate the money for the abovementioned things during budget time and materialise them. That's a Utopian Government!

Why do the Opposition only open their traps during election time about what will do if elected? If any Opposition can demonstrate that they have the ability and ways to fix the problems and mess a Government create, speak out in the Parliament. Who won't change his / her voting preference if the Opposition can prove that they can do a better job?

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Safety of the Leaders comes first

Posted to Letters to the Editor, Monash Weekly on 6/10/2010
Title: Safety of the Leaders comes first


It was wise for opposition leader Tony Abbott not to be present at the same time with the Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the dangerous war-torn Afghanistan. Should an attack take place on the leaders, the damage / loss to Australia will be immense.

Friday, 27 August 2010

Monash councillor Banerji to contest safe Liberal seat (Post 2 of 2)

Posted to Waverley Leader (26/1/2010) on 27/8/2010 at 2:10am
Commenting on "Monash councillor Banerji to contest safe Liberal seat"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/monash-councillor-banerji-to-contest-safe-liberal-seat/

It was a good attempt by Joy in Election 2010, but she needed to work harder! Kevin Andrews was a popular choice, and to win the seat from him, Joy should not just bank her resume for being the past role as Monash Mayor.

There are many arm-chair candidates in every election. Most voters have no idea who are running for the seats. The candidates cannot be bordered or too lazy to door knock to introduce themselves, despite their being preselected by their respective political parties months ago. Unlike Wyatt Roy, the 20 year old, youngest MP of Longman, many candidates do not make any genuine effort to change voter's voting pattern or intention, but to rely on preferences stated on the "how to vote" card.

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Monash councillor Banerji to contest safe Liberal seat (post 1 of 2)

Posted to Waverley Leader (26/1/2010) on 31/1/2010 at 11:14am
Commenting on "Monash councillor Banerji to contest safe Liberal seat"

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/monash-councillor-banerji-to-contest-safe-liberal-seat/

Should Liberal win the next election, will Joy Banerji "assist the government in achieving some success" and "further their cause"?

A good politician should represent the people at large, not just to serve the Party. Will she be a good politician from her statement? You'll be the judge!