Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

inductivist turkey:

This turkey found that, on his first morning at the turkey farm, he was fed at 9 a.m. However, being a good inductivist, he did not jump to conclusions. He waited until he had collected a large number of observations of the fact that he was fed at 9 a.m., and he made these observations under a wide variety of circumstances, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, on warm days and cold days, on rainy days and dry days. Each day, he added another observation statement to his list. Finally, his inductivist conscience was satisfied and he carried out an inductive inference to conclude, "I am always fed at 9 a.m.". Alas, this conclusion was shown to be false in no uncertain manner when, on Christmas eve, instead of being fed, he had his throat cut. An inductive inference with true premises has led to a false conclusion.

I"m sick of "its the oppositions Job to oppose anything/everything the government proposes"

But I’m sorry to say, when it comes to economic theory, Nash is left in the shade by Tony Abbott and his steady right hand man, Andrew Robb. Bugger trying to work out the equilibrium of cooperative gaming, Abbott and Robb have done nothing less than re-invent free-market theory! (And they haven’t needed to cite any lame economists to support it).

It all started on Sunday morning, where Andrew Robb was struggling through an interview with Barrie Cassidy on Insiders, when the topic got on to the Lib’s proposed “direct action” plan to reduce greenhouse emissions:

BARRIE CASSIDY: Wayne Swan quoted your position this morning on television. You said that the most efficient and effective way of managing emissions reduction is through a market mechanism. Is that still your position?

ANDREW ROBB: Well our direct action plan is a market mechanism.

BARRIE CASSIDY: In what way is it?

ANDREW ROBB: In the sense that we will say to different sectors: if you bid - we'll ask farmers to bid, we'll ask those within the large construction industry to bid for assistance if they can reduce the price, if they can reduce certain tonnages of carbon in their sector.

So in other words the lowest, if someone comes in and says, I can reduce 1,000 tonnes of carbon at $7 a tonne, the next one $8 a tonne, we put up a tender if you like and the one that can reduce the carbon at least cost, market based systems, tender system, they will get the assistance.

Now that is a system that has worked very effectively in New South Wales and around the world in different parts of the world on different commodities. It is market based. So there's not just one market based system.

Now I was going to give Robb all the credit for single-handily redefining what is meant by a “market mechanism”, but today Tony Abbott was over in Adelaide and on ABC local radio. He came out with this pearler:

TONY ABBOTT: Well, what we’re going to ask the market to do is provide us with proposals and we’ll look at them and pick those that we think are most cost effective.

IAN HENSCHKE: How will you pick them? Will you go to Tim Flannery, for example, because he’s got his climate change commission and say, or would you get rid of that if you were in office?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, it’s a bit like Government buys anything. You buy motor cars, you buy pharmaceutical drugs etcetera, you go to the various people who have an interest in providing them and you say give us your best price and your best product and you pick the one that you think is the most cost effective. I mean, that’s what the Government does with the PBS all the time. When I was the health minister we were always going to the market and saying, ‘what’s the best price for particular drugs,’ and it all works reasonably well and I don’t think anyone should think that this is something novel or shocking or anti-market. It’s the kind of thing that Government does all the time and it makes very effective use of the market.

That a a guy who wants to be Finance Minister, and another who wants to be Prime Minister of Australia, (and who holds an Economics Degree) could think that a Government going to tender is the market at work almost defies belief.

If Abbott seriously believes this then he must also think the Government should tender for DVD players and then sell those players to the public all at the same price because that is an effective market solution.

I must re-read my copy of Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, because I seem to have skipped the chapter where he writes the free market is the Government picking the winner.

A market solution is letting the market work – demand and supply, the invisible hand. It is not the Government engaging in a tender process (and if it is, then all those years in Eastern Europe post-WWII were idyllic periods of capitalism at its finest)

Here’s the thing; for all the bullshit being sprouted about only 1 person in the House of Reps (Adam Bandt) being in favour of a carbon tax, what 149 are in favour of (not sure about Bob Katter) is that by 2020 emissions will be 5 per cent below 1990 levels. That’s because that is the stated aim of BOTH the ALP and the Liberal Party to achieve this cut.

So we get down to how to do it. You can either side with the government putting a price on carbon and then essentially letting the producers use market forces and the profit motive to achieve the reduction; or you can believe it can be best done by paying the polluters to pollute less.

Here’s Abbott explaining how his Direct Action will work:

TONY ABBOTT: Well, you go to the market and you say look, we are looking to buy cost effective emissions reductions. What market can you offer us? And I think what they’ll offer us is tree planting, which is a good thing. They’ll offer us soil carbon which will actually produce better soils as well as reduce our emissions and they’ll offer us smart technology like for instance, the technology which is started to be employed at some power stations where they use carbon dioxide emissions from the power stations to grow algae and the algae of course is very useful for bio diesel, for fertiliser and so on. So more trees, better soil and smarter technology I think, is the best way to go here.

Yeah Tony, and paying tobacco companies to make less cigarettes would have been the best way to reduce smoking.

Look, I don’t care if you think we shouldn't even bother cutting emissions because it’ll do nothing to global emissions, that’s fine; I don’t mind if you say we shouldn’t cut emissions until every other nation cuts emissions, that’s great. But if you agree – as do BOTH the ALP and the Liberal Party – that we should cut emissions, then all we are left with is the most effective way to do that. And if you agree with Tony Abbott and Andrew Robb’s way then just know you are flying in the face of economic theory and political history.

slide show: Oura Oura

20 Mar This weekend Senator Bob Brown gives his property ‘‘oura oura’’ in Tasmania’s Liffey Valley to conservation group, Bush Heritage Australia.
Photographs by Angela Wylie, Words by Michael Gordon

friend,

I'm sitting outside the front of Parliament House typing this on my laptop.

Just across the street, I can see the tents of conservative talkback stations from across the country (2GB, MTR and 2CC), who are all broadcasting their afternoon shows live from the anti-climate-action rally they've helped organise here on the lawns of Parliament House.

There's a crowd of about 1,500 here. Some of the banners here say things about Julia Gillard and Bob Brown that are too rude to email you -- other signs say "Get Up: p**s off!" And if you tune into these talkback stations you can hear why: shock-jocks have singled us out as the most effective voice around for putting a price on pollution.

That's why in the last few days, thousands of GetUp members have come together to chip in donations for our climate fighting fund - a huge campaign to last until we have a price on pollution this year. Please click here to join thousands of GetUp members who are chipping in:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

How will your contribution make a difference? In my earlier email (included below), I outlined what we can do together over the next 6 months to win the fight for action on climate change. Your support means we will be able to:
Hold events like the 8,000 strong rally in Melbourne to dwarf rallies against climate action. This costs real money: insurance and first-aid, staging, sound systems, power-generators, placards, posters etc.

Commission investigative research to expose the vested corporate interests and dirty money that's funding the campaign against climate action

Produce rapid-response radio and TV ads to counter fear with facts - particularly in the Independents' electorates, which are being targeted for ad scare-campaigns against climate action.

Build cutting-edge online tools to help you effectively advocate for climate action: connecting to talk-back radio, calling politicians and writing to voters in battleground electorates.
This won't be easy. As I write this with the anti-climate-action rally in front of me, behind me in Parliament, representatives of Woodside, Shell, Bluescope and Rio Tinto are holding a lobby day to convince politicians that they should be able to pollute for free and avoid responsibility for our kids' future.

None of us alone match the political power of those men - but our contributions together can build a climate fighting fund to match the polluter lobby's campaign where it counts: out on the streets and on the air.

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

Thanks for all that you do,
Simon on behalf of the GetUp team

Dear friend,

About an hour ago I received a call from a GetUp member in Port Macquarie. He's in the electorate of Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who has one of the deciding votes on climate change policy this year.

This GetUp member was worried because shock-jocks and ultra conservative groups like the 'Australian Tea Party' have just announced a rally against climate action in his area - and they're collecting money for a local TV and radio scare-campaign too. He wanted to know how GetUp members could respond.

But it's not just Port Macquarie. Across the country, ultra-rightwing politicians, radio shock-jocks and corporate polluter lobbyists are trying to engineer a dangerous lie - that Australians are mobilising against climate action. They've ripped it straight from the playbook of the Tea Party in the USA.

What does it look like to prove them wrong - to win the fight for a price on pollution?

Well, we started winning on Saturday. You may not have seen this if you're outside Victoria, but when we heard that talkback radio shock-jocks were organising a rally against climate action in Melbourne, thousands of us came together with local climate groups for a rally of our own, and we turned their media coverage on its head.

Check out this video to see what happened on Saturday - and how, with your support, we can continue to win the fight for a price on pollution:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

We may not have mining magnates, carbon czars nor polluters' press on our side, but we do have the numbers. Together, each of us chipping in, our sum total will be far greater than its parts - and able to match the polluter lobby's campaign where it counts: out on the streets and on the air. Will you fund the fight for our future with $10 a week until we win the battle for a price on carbon?

(..... ) we'll be able to rebuff every attempt by the anti-climate campaign to win the battle for public opinion - like we did on Saturday. Together we'll:

*Hold events like the 8,000 strong rally in Melbourne to dwarf rallies against climate action. This costs real money: insurance and first-aid, staging, sound systems, power-generators, placards, posters etc.

*Commission investigative research to expose the vested corporate interests and dirty money that's funding the campaign against climate action

*Produce rapid-response radio and TV ads to counter fear with facts - particularly in the Independents' electorates, which are being targeted for ad scare-campaigns against climate action.

*Build cutting-edge online tools to help you effectively advocate for climate action: connecting to talk-back radio, calling politicians and writing to voters in battleground electorates.
For the next six months, your $10 a week can make the difference in the battle for a clean future. All we're waiting for are the funds to hit 'go'.

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

It's rare that we're blessed with opportunities like this - the chance to have a real impact on the decisive moments that determine the path Australia takes. Normally, the size of the task at hand - going up against Australia's most powerful lobby - would deter most individuals from doing anything. But we know that we have something more powerful: each other.

Thanks for all that you do,
Simon on behalf of the GetUp team

Brown 'appalled' by anti-carbon tax banners
Updated 25 minutes ago

Tony Abbott addressed the group of about 3,000 people in front of the placards. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

Greens leader Bob Brown says he hopes the Opposition Leader apologises to the Prime Minister for speaking at an anti-carbon tax rally in front of "offensive banners".

Protesters held placards with slogans like "ditch the witch", with one banner labelling Julia Gillard as "Bob Brown's bitch".

Tony Abbott addressed the group of about 3,000 people in front of the placards, and told the crowd they did not look like environmental vandals or scientific heretics.

He said he did believe that humans were contributing to climate change, but that the current debate was a matter of political honesty.

"There are a lot of diverse opinions about climate change," he said.

"Climate change happens, mankind does make a contribution. It is important to have an intelligent response - not a stupid one."

Senator Brown has written to Ms Gillard saying he was appalled that Mr Abbott spoke in front of such offensive banners.

"I am appalled by the photos of the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues speaking in front of Parliament House today in front of some most offensive banners," Senator Brown's letter said.

"I know that you have broad shoulders. However, from my own experience, I also know that such calumny, apparently endorsed by hundreds of other people present, can be deeply hurtful.

"I hope Mr Abbott apologises. However, if not, I extend to you a heartfelt apology on behalf of the many people in Australia who think differently."

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said some people in the rally crowd were extremists.

"We had the Lavoisier group - a group which, as one commentator points out, warned the Kyoto protocol was part of a new imperial structure that would relocate Australian sovereignty to Germany," he said.

Mr Combet was earlier presented with a petition of 10,500 names urging action on climate change.

video: Clarke and Dawe talk carbon
Source: 7.30 Report
Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 7:57 AEDT
Expires: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:57 AEDT

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe talk carbon tax.

Did you watch Hungry Beast tonight? Love that show. Bagged Stephen Smith's media management and let drop that Andrew Robb was CEO of Axciom before becoming an MP. Only in Aus.

Just received this email from GetUp, titled:
"friend, have you seen what they're saying about you?"

Quote:

.... That's why in the last few days, thousands of GetUp members have come together to chip in donations for our climate fighting fund - a huge campaign to last until we have a price on pollution this year. Please click here to join thousands of GetUp members who are chipping in:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

How will your contribution make a difference? In my earlier email (included below), I outlined what we can do together over the next 6 months to win the fight for action on climate change. Your support means we will be able to:
Hold events like the 8,000 strong rally in Melbourne to dwarf rallies against climate action. This costs real money: insurance and first-aid, staging, sound systems, power-generators, placards, posters etc.....

Quote:

....None of us alone match the political power of those men - but our contributions together can build a climate fighting fund to match the polluter lobby's campaign where it counts: out on the streets and on the air.

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion

Thanks for all that you do,
Simon on behalf of the GetUp team

Also this.

(I've removed the request for funding.) :

Quote:

.....Check out this video to see what happened on Saturday - and how, with your support, we can continue to win the fight for a price on pollution:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampion