Higher speed limits?

Good to see there's a move for more sensible speed limits. The cynic in me says it won't happen because of the lose in speeding ticket revenue.

Not according to pro-speed campaigners, who are agitating for governments around the country and around the world to raise speed limits, particularly in rural areas and on stretches of high-quality highway.

They passionately argue boredom and frustration, rather than speed, are the main killers when people are travelling between isolated rural communities.

With car safety rapidly improving, they see remote parts of western NSW and Queensland, the Nullarbor, north-west Victoria and parts of Western Australia and South Australia as prime candidates for a substantially increased speed limit. Some advocate the total removal of speed limits on these types of roads as a way of reducing the road toll.

Ken is gay

What other explanation can there be for a man to wear an outfit like that. I suppose it would explain why he never married Barbie, she's just his fag hag.

My letter to Senator George Brandis

Liberal Senator George Brandis recently gave the Alfred Deakin lecture.( The transcript was published in the Australian.) He went to considerable length to position the party as the party of freedom, something Malcolm Turnbull has also been pushing. At the same time he distanced himself from the conservatives, especially Tony Abbott.

I fully agree the party's central philosophical direction should always be  liberty, but to ignore its conservative base is suicidal. The mainstream of Australian life is conservative. It has to appeal to that base if its to succeed. Now, the Australian people don't give a stuff for political philosophies  but the do care about the policies politicians put out to address their concerns.

So this conservative libertarian sent the Senator the following letter:

Dear Senator Brandis,

Today I read your recent Alfred Deakin lecture and was moved to write to you.

Personally I don't regard conservatism as a political philosophy. I regard it as a world view based on practicality, compromise and common sense. Conservatives don't appose change but they are sceptical of it. As such conservatism is not exclusive to any party , Labor leaders like Wran and Hawke were conservative. As the Australian mainstream is essentially conservative a political party has to conservative to succeed.

I read Mr Abbott's book but as a small government liberal, I was disappointed by his big government, centralized government approach. In my view the end result would be big taxes and increased bureaucracy. We would eventually end up with a nation wide version of the NSW Rees government.

However to his credit, practical conservative Tony Abbott did provide policy options for various social issues everything from extending Medicare to include dental work to paid maternity leave for mothers.

I think its up to you and other self declared liberals of the party to come up with a proper response to "Battle lines". The conservative in me wants to know how different would your policies be? What different direction would they take?

I have been assured by House of Representatives members that Senators don't have much to do so perhaps you can turn on the word processor and come up with some liberal policies.

Regards

Ralph Buttigieg

Governor Schwarzenegger tells what he really thinks

The Californiaian governor has sent a law maker a special message:

Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger typically attaches a message to bills he signs or vetoes telling law makers why he took the action.


A Democratic assembly man who heckled the governor during a recent event in San Francisco actually received two messages: the veto letter itself and a not-so-subtle rebuke creatively hidden within it.


Like a find-the-word puzzle, the second message was visible by stringing together the first letter of each line down the left-hand margin. It consisted of a common four-letter vulgarity followed by the letters "y-o-u".

The letter is here.
.

Barnaby asks my question

Finally some parliamentarian asks the question I have been asking for months:

In Senate Economics Estimates Senator Joyce asked the CSIRO the million dollar question, or should that be the hundred billion dollar question, “Will the Australian Emissions Trading Scheme change the temperature of the globe?”

Thank you Senator Joyce!

Sadly the answer was pretty much what I expected:

The answer confirmed my worst fears in that I could not get the answer “Yes”. I was told it would depend on global factors of course! There will be no global factors if the rest of the world is not part of a global scheme. The CSIRO was sensibly and more inclined to tell me that my question was a policy issue. That is correct as it lacks scientific credibility that there will be any discernable change in the climate by reason of an Australian ETS. Later during the Committe hearing, the chief scientist said there would be a change in the climate by way of an Australian Emissions Trading Scheme. She also acknowledged there would be a change in the climate if I personally parked my car in the garage.

That is to say an indiscernible change, apart from the fact that the process involved in the most absurd form of minutia, follows the same mathematics as the overall equation of climate change.

Look, I not qualified to argue science but the ETS is a policy matter. Lets assume GW is as bad as the most hysterical promoters are saying. Then why the hell are we going to impose a multi billion dollar tax that will have no effect on climate and make us poorer? All it will do is make it harder for us to adapt to the change. The ETS is just nonsense.

Hazem El Masri Liberal for Lakemba?

Gosh gully gumdrops. Talk about finding top candidates. According to todays' Telegraph football star Hazem El Masri has been approached by Barry O'Farrell and the NSW Liberals to stand as their candidate in the Lakemba:

El Masri has been approached by the Liberal Party to run in the Lakemba electorate vacated by former premier Morris Iemma for the 2011 NSW election. It follows the activation of the secret committee to be headed by Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell to take charge of the Liberal Party's election campaign strategy, campaign finance and give the parliamentary leader unprecedented power over choosing candidates.

El Masri , a devout Muslim and family man, is a local hero and has done good things in the community.  Lakemba is the Labor Party's safest seat, Iemma  held it with  a 34% majority but after the by election the libs got it down to 24.5%.  Taking it from Labor would be the equivalent of climbing Everest but if anyone could do it it would be El Masri.

I hope he does stand, because win or lose it would knock down the stupid belief that the Liberals are an Anglo only party. The Liberals are a mainstream party who draw their talent from the great mainstream of Australian life.

How to improve Medicare

I'm a free enterprise sort of a bloke but I do realise that  political  reality means some area will remain under the control of the state. However that does not mean we can't have  choice and competition.  The Howard's government privatizing of  the old CES through the Job Network is a fine example . Now John Humphreys has come out with an article proposing Medicare be opened up to competition:

What does work is competition. Besides a handful of pro-bureaucracy ideologues, most people understand why competition leads to a better outcome. The threat of losing customers drives providers to offer better quality care and lower prices, while the lure of making profits drives providers to do things in the most efficient way possible and quickly adapt to new innovations. Without competition there is little incentive for high quality, low cost, and efficient service.

The difficulty with reforming health care is that many people fear a more competitive system may not adequately protect the poor. But there is a solution that ensures everybody will have adequate health care while still allowing the benefits of competition.

First, everybody would be required to take out a minimum amount of health cover. This should at least cover catastrophic events, and perhaps other benefits currently provided by the government such as subsidised visits to the GP, subsidised hospital visits, and subsidised pharmaceuticals.

Health insurance can be provided by a range of suppliers, including a government supplier (a “new Medicare”) in an open and competitive market. People will still be able to purchase the same government cover they already have now or switch to a private competitor in search of lower premiums, better quality health care, or both. Regulations can be put in place to ensure that health firms do not discriminate against high-risk customers.

On the basis of current government spending, the “new Medicare” would initially cost about $3,000 per year to provide all the benefits currently available. Competition would result in a range of pricing options, allowing people to match their health cover to their health needs so long as they at least have the mandated minimum cover. Or they could just stick with “the devil they know”.

But how will people be able to pay for this?

The answer is that the government can provide each person with $3,000 per year. People who pay tax can have their tax lowered by $3,000 per year and use that money to purchase health insurance. Unemployed or low-income earners can receive $3,000 as a transfer payment to purchase health insurance.

For people who don't want the hassle and are happy with their current arrangements, they can agree to have their $3,000 go directly to the government “new Medicare”. So the worst case scenario is that people will be in the exact same position as they are now.....

The main problem I see is that the $3000 is just an average, older people are more costly to ensure while younger people less so. So perhaps the tax cut/credit would need to linked to the individuals age group.

Anyway I like it, free market when ever possible, pro market when not, thats what I say.

Germany's renewable energy disaster

 

Germans have been encouraging renewable energy through feed in tariffs, a scheme which allows renewable energy producers to sell electricity back to the grid at  higher cost. Certainly this provides an incentive to produce electricity, but as should have been obvious to anybody, increased electricity costs burden the economy are are a jobs killer:

The allure of an environmentally benign, abundant, and cost-effective energy source has led an increasing number of industrialized countries to back public financing of renewable energies. Germany’s experience with renewable energy promotion is often cited as a model to be replicated elsewhere, being based on a combination of far-reaching energy and environmental laws that stretch back nearly two decades. This paper critically reviews the current centerpiece of this effort, the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), focusing on its costs and the associated implications for job creation and climate protection. We argue that German renewable energy policy, and in particular the adopted feed-in tariff scheme, has failed to harness the market incentives needed to ensure a viable and cost-effective introduction of renewable energies into the country’s energy portfolio. To the contrary, the government’s support mechanisms have in many respects subverted these incentives, resulting in massive expenditures that show little long-term promise for stimulating the economy, protecting the environment, or increasing energy security. In the case of photovoltaics, Germany’s subsidization regime has reached a level that by far exceeds average wages, with per-worker subsidies as high as 175,000 € (US $ 240,000)

I note gross feed in tariffs are NSW  Liberal Party policy so I hope Barry is listening.

Liberal Rabble

Julie Bishop says the bleeding obvious:

DEPUTY Liberal leader Julie Bishop has told colleagues they were behaving like a "rabble" and were to blame for the Coalition's poor performance in opinion polls.

The Coalition leadership team served the joint party room meeting some home truths after the latest Newspoll showed it would have resoundingly lost an election held last weekend.

The Newspoll, published in The Australian today, showed Labor would have won in a landslide, picking up 59 per cent of the two-party preferred vote to the Coalition's 41 per cent.

Turnbull talks unity too:

"The public isn't interested in listening to us talk about ourselves," he told the joint party meeting.

While the Coalition was in power twelve odd years it mustn't be forgotten that Labor was in disarray as well and lost election after election. It's the Coalition turn now in opposit...

"They want to hear about issues of interest to them."

He reminded MPs and senators that disunity could be particularly dangerous during looming by-elections in the seats of Higgins and Bradfield, brought about by the recent resignations of Peter Costello and Brendan Nelson, respectively.

There was no such thing as a safe seat, particularly at a by-election, he told the party room.

He stressed the importance of "unity" given the approaching by-elections, expected to be held at the end of November.

If the rabble doesn't come to order they are facing disaster.

Malcolm Turnbull stands up for freedom

Malcolm Turnbull recently gave an important speech in London. Here is some of what he said:

In my view, now more than ever, political leaders of the centre right must stand up for freedom. Today, more than ever, we need to safeguard the spirit of independence, self-reliance and enterprise so critical to the long-term prosperity and security of our peoples.

We must stand up for a view of society which says government’s role is to enable each and every citizen to do their best, to realise their dreams, to start their businesses, to buy their homes, to choose where to send their children to school. That is the golden thread of freedom that defines what it is to live in a liberal democracy such as ours – the principle that, to the greatest extent possible, people should be able to rule their own lives.

Now in all of this, the best governments will be those that understand and accept the limits of their power; not those that seek to dictate from on high how business should be run, how society should be structured, which companies stand or fall, and how individuals should run their lives.

In my view, it is critical that parties of the centre-right not to be spooked or intimidated by the sense of crisis into a greater tolerance, let alone acceptance, of the notion of government intrusion into economic activity that is best left to the private sector or for heavy-handed and often counterproductive interference in the operation of markets.

Its worth reading. but practical people want to see actions not just hear  words.

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can anyone download this file

The Noble Peace Prize is a joke

He has been in office less then a year and has had no significant international success but Obama wins the Nobel Peace prize:

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today.

He was awarded the prize for giving the world "hope for a better future" with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Mr Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Mr Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.

"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said in a citation. 

Absolutely pathetic.

Gun violence out of control

Thats what was reported in the Daily Telegraph today:

GUN violence is so out of control there are three shootings a week in Sydney.

The city's shooting capital is Fairfield, with 34 shootings in just two years to the end of June.

Exclusive statistics from the Bureau of Crime Statistics show there were 157 drive-by and illegal shootings between July 2008 and the end of June, up from 129 the year before......

According to the Opposition they are illegal guns:Opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher said NSW was awash with handguns, which were being imported from overseas and then traded on Sydney streets.

"Criminals are getting their hands on illegally imported firearms," he said last night.

But I thought banning fire arms was supposed to prevent such problems. At least thats what we were told. by the government. Heres an alternative plan. Instead of  passing more useless laws how catching the crims and throwing them into gaol.

Liberals in Parramatta -12 months latter

As a supporter of smaller government I want to see local councils, the level of government closest to the people, to do well. So its good to see Parramatta's Liberal-Independent coalition government has had a successful first year with a orderly transition to a new Lord Mayor. 

Paul Garrard - Parramatta’s longest-serving councillor- was last night elected lord mayor of the city for the fifth time during his 35 years on council.

The independent councillor beat Labor’s candidate Pierre Esber nine votes to six. Liberal councillor Chiang Lim was elected deputy, against Labor’s Julia Finn by the same margin.

Former lord mayor Tony Issa, who had been mayor for a year, decided not to stand again.

In standing down, Cr Issa paid tribute to his fellow councillors in the way they had worked together. He said he was proud to have abolished politics in the chamber and to have reduced the city’s $6.9 million debt to a $4.6 million surplus.

 And they kept rates under control too:

``The State Government gives so little to Parramatta, a major city centre. We need money for transport, to bring people to Parramatta rather than just have people leave it, and for parking but other places get it before we do,’’ Cr Issa said. ``We are the only council which did not raise its rates above the CPI and we would like more government support.’’

Good luck to Cr Tony Issa and wishing a succesful year to new Lord Mayor Paul Garrard.