UPDATED: Dates for the West Australian Speaking Tour below
Magna Carta
The Thompsons protest on Monday was moving. Janet Thompson delivered one of the best speeches I’ve heard at a protest. I was going to copy parts of it and attach the full speech in documents. But so much is worth saying, I’ve put it here almost in entirety.
In Part I – Janet reads the eulogy to “property rights”: from the Magna Carta til Maxwell Szulc was put in jail for clearing firebreaks on his own land.
In Part II –– she recalls those who are not with us, and then those who are. Government infringements on rights destroys lives, and breaks up families. Janet gives us brief examples of other travesties unfolding.
In Part III — Matt reminds us that the government encroachment affects us all, contributes to suicides and points out that we bow daily to the UN. Every other time people have been subjected to centralized, unelectable power, the death toll has mounted. Now we are now presumed guilty until we prove our innocence.
Matt quotes Ayn Rand:
““When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours and approvals–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.””
JoNova
The Protest — Image thanks to Quadrant
Part I — The Eulogy to Property Rights
Private Property Rights was born in England on 15 June, 1215, and passed away in Australia on 26 July, 2010, after a long illness.
Private Property Rights was preceded in death by his father, Will of the People; his mother, Common Law Rights (née Magna Carta); and a sister, Right to Trial by Jury. He is survived by a cousin, Freedom of Speech, with whom he shared a close relationship. Even though that cousin is terribly ill himself, we are privileged to have him here with us today.
Our friend died slowly – not because of his enemies’ incessant attacks, but because we failed to stand up for him
Our friend was quiet and unassuming. In fact, even though we gathered here today consider Private Property Rights to be one of our best friends, we did not often speak of him, or even think about him. He was one of those friends that we took for granted. He did not resent this … he was forgiving. But his very existence depended upon our belief in him. Our friend died slowly – stoically — over a long period of time, not because of his enemies’ incessant attacks, but because we failed to stand up for him. We failed to be the antidote to his enemies’ poison. And without us, his best friends, defending and protecting him, he had no one. And so he suffered death by a million cuts while we tried to ignore the assaults and pretend that our friend would survive on his own.
Private Property Rights was our foundation. Our cornerstone. Our strength.
Because of him, we were able to use our property to access credit, adjudicate, lease, transfer, exploit for personal use, exploit for profit, use as a guarantee, access insurance, buy and sell, donate, and mortgage and pledge. And because we as individuals were able to do these things, Australia became not only a successful trading country, but a capitally-developed one. Our country prospered and grew.
Australia, the “lucky country,” developed relatively quickly and effectively, not because of a nebulous, undefinable “luck,” but due to strong principles and lots of hard work. Private Property Rights, which existed within our sovereign nation’s tradition of common law rights, was core to that development.
Since the UN’s 1992 Rio Earth Summit, we have experienced a stealthy assault on sovereignty. This is dangerous, as the United Nations does not rely on the same common law history and democratic principles that Australia does. In short, our sovereignty is vital in upholding our common law rights. Those rights are the very underpinnings to a successful and sustainable society. Our friend, Private Property Rights, is dead today because we continue to give ourselves over to faceless, unelected, unaccountable, and unscrupulous groups who are willing to leave us hollow and lifeless.
Assaults on our friend came in a variety of ways, through an array of Non-Government Organizations (like Conservation Council and Environmental Defenders Office) and Government Departments, like the Department of Environment and Conservation, or DEC.
DEC exists today because our society, with strong Private Property Rights, was so productive that we could afford the luxury of establishing a government department with a focus only on environment, with no other considerations. At the time this Department was established, as with all such beginnings, society deemed it important and necessary.
…
But DEC has evolved now to such a point that they are hindering the very economic activities that support their own existence. Bureaucrats are now making decisions about what producers can and cannot do, without any basis in science or fact, indeed without consideration of true environmental outcomes. Many of these bureaucrats have never produced anything themselves, and exist only because of the very producers they seek to regulate.
When non-producers have the power to tell producers what they can and cannot do, without that power being voted on by the people of our democracy, as is the case with regulations and policies, society is setting itself up for failure.
The death of our friend is the final and unquestionable warning bell.
Private Property Rights has passed away.
But we believe that resurrection is possible. It is up to us to provide the breath of life, the active support, and the fertile soil within which Private Property Rights might live again.
…
Part II: Stories from producers fighting for their lives
First, let us acknowledge those not in attendance today.
- Out of complete despair, some have taken their own lives.
- Children have left the family farm due to uncertainty of tenure.
- There have been family break-ups.
- Several people suffer from severe illness due to stress.
- Some, after fighting for years, have lost all hope.
- I lost count of the number of people who said they supported what we’re doing today, but they could not afford to be seen or to have their name used for fear of retaliation.
- And many, after working hard and saving their whole life, having invested their superannuation into land, cannot be here because they’ve been forced to take jobs and are working for others.
Let us remember those absent today.
Maxwell Szulc
Now, as for those in attendance…
Several years after our Federal Government committed to emissions targets set in the Kyoto Protocol, they were able to boast about meeting those targets. They achieved this by locking up a full 19% of the entire land area held in private hands throughout Australia through Native Vegetation Clearing Bans. They stole billions of dollars from property owners in the name of the common good. A tiny minority of our population was made to bear the entire cost of that “good.”
One producer who suffered this cost, after years of fighting the injustice, in a final bid of desperation, went up a pole late last year. For 52 days he did not eat, in an attempt to bring attention to the fact that Private Property Rights was extremely ill.
That man’s name is Peter Spencer, and we’re very pleased to welcome him to Perth today.
Peter Spencer spoke with quiet passion
For months we’d been hearing rumours about the death of Private Property Rights, but it was confirmed on 26 July of this year, when a farmer, Maxwell Szulc, was jailed for clearing 40 hectares of fire breaks on his own land. Max was not even allowed to protect his own property (or the neighbouring state-held land). This funeral is being held today because Max is being released from prison, and will be joining us here shortly.
Finally, Ian Broad of Mingenew is here. Ian recently was fined $85,000 for clearing a bit of his property. The kicker of this story is that the authorities charged his wife, Dianne, as well, and so forced Ian into a plea bargain such that, in the end, Ian was thrilled to get only an $85,000 fine as opposed to him and his wife both being sentenced to jail.
The Wreath Laying Ceremony itself
Wreaths, representing 6 specific attacks on Private Property Rights were next laid on the coffin.
This is Brian Burns. He is 71 years old, and is transporting houses to earn money in what SHOULD be his retirement, because 6,000 of his 8,000 acres of land has been tied up in Native Vegetation Clearing Bans. He’s been fighting for 20 years.
Max Edwards represents Nicholas Michael Lucas’s family, who have been fishing in our southwest for 90 years. Through the most recent of Nick’s 30 years in the business, he has experienced a dramatic erosion of his ability to use his property in the way intended … primarily through licence restrictions.
Imagine that you own a home or a building in the Metro area. Someone comes along and proclaims that your property has heritage value … perhaps due to the fact that it’s very old, or maybe because a semi-famous band once practiced in the garage. Once that house or building is heritage listed, you are quite limited as to what you can do to and with it – from maintenance to capital works. Restrictions negatively affect the value of that property. This has happened throughout the metro and country areas.
Also, at this very moment, pastoralists, graziers, fisherman and tourist operators in the Kimberley are threatened with National and World Heritage listings, which would affect land and business values. Leo Killigrew of WA Property Rights Association, on behalf of the hundreds of property owners affected by the multitude of imposts under the guise of “Heritage,” lays a wreath today.
Jean is representing Darryl and Judy Shreeve, who own property at Gingin. Because theirs is one of 5 properties around Gingin on which the “Gingin Wax” plant has been found, the Shreeves can no longer use their land effectively. In fact, the Shreeves now have to seek permission to “take” these plants (which grow prolifically), in order to clear firebreaks.
Craig Underwood’s property is northeast of Jurien Bay. After Government approved a large private residential development (without a water provision plan) in that town, the Department of Water placed a groundwater protection notice on the seven surrounding farms. This affected value of his property to such an extent that Craig’s bank cut their lending limits, starving the Underwoods of cash to operate. Craig now works the mines to earn money to live. For that reason, he is unable to be here in person today. Keith Jackson lays a wreath on behalf of Craig and his family.
This is Syd Livesey. If you want to meet a true conservationist … a real environmentalist, come and shake this man’s hand. Syd has a property north of Albany in the Porongurups. For seven long years he fought the Ag. Department and the Soil Conservation Commission to be able to manage his land the way he deemed necessary. He finally won. Then DEC came in and took him back to square one. After spending over $300,000 in legal fees, consultancies, reports, time and effort, AND after getting a win, Syd still cannot use his land.
Do you know that the Southwest of Western Australia is a UN-declared “biodiversity hotspot?” I ask you this: If property owners are so bad, how could we possibly have such a diversity of flora and fauna in the southwest of our state when it has been held in and managed by private hands for the last 130 years? Sid lays a wreath today for the negative impact of “Biodiversity Corridors” on Private Property Rights.
The wreathholders
Part III — The things that matter to civilizations
The burial service at Cottesloe Beach – speech by Matt Thompson
The funeral party then moved to Cottesloe Beach, where the coffin was buried, and Matt Thompson gave this speech:
We are all here today because we sense there is something very important wrong in our nation and our society. This wrong is best represented by the death of the fundamental right to private property that we bury here today. However, the wrong is not limited to just our traditional notion of private property. People in all facets of society — both the public and private sector — find themselves choking in a sea of what is best described as red tape.
Teachers, shop owners, and transport operators find themselves spending more time filing out forms than they do with their students, their clients, or their trucks. They report suffering from that sickening, humanity-killing feeling that their own government doesn’t trust them to think for themselves, but rather expects them to act as a cog in a big machine unthinkingly punching out the next rivet.
The funeral today is a symbolic one. The coffin is empty. However, for many of us that have experienced first hand the loss of life due to environmental extremism and centralized control, the sight of the coffin hits home very deeply. In the last six months, I myself have lost a very dear and close friend, Lindley Boseley, who took his own life after seeing his great life’s work rendered useless by pig-headed bureaucrats just to prove they could.
I saw another trading partner and businessman Ned Borello take his own life. Ned had spoken out aggressively against excessive regulation and red tape which he saw as curtailing the growth and productivity of the state, only to see his own abattoir business and life’s achievement regulated more aggressively than others.
Loss of life from environmental extremism has resulted from various policies in various ways. Life-exterminating trees still stand within 2 meters of major highways and country roads, because worshippers of the God of Native Vegetation won’t let us remove them.
Private property owners have been restricted from prescribed burning and removing dangerous fuel loads resulting in destructive and fatal bush fires. The list goes on.
Environmental extremism has allowed laws to be passed in WA which grant DEC virtually unchecked power over every thing that happens in the state. As the age old saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Among other things DEC has done with their unchecked power is that they have abandoned the common law principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
DEC writes and implements policy based on what they call the precautionary principle. For those of you that don’t know, the precautionary principle says that any allegation of risk justifies implementing a policy without evidence of real environmental harm. Basically, in actual practice, this means that one is considered guilty until they prove themselves innocent. To illustrate: with this many people here today, there is a small risk that one of you is a murderer. On the basis of the precautionary principle I could lock you all up in gaol today without notice, with no proof whatsoever other than the simple fact that risks exist. As you can see, this precautionary principle is the precise opposite of common law.
Many policies of the Western Australian government today are not passed by Parliament at all, but are rather the policies of an agenda that is being implemented by Departments at the request of the UN. There is today a Korean man, living in New York City, who has more power over what happens in WA than the Premier. The people of WA have never been given the opportunity to vote for this man, Ban Ki Moon, and likely wouldn’t do so if they were given the opportunity.
Despite the clear and unambiguous lessons of history, we find ourselves in the year 2010 plunging headlong into centralized control and consolidated power.
Throughout the history of the twentieth century, every instance of centralized control and consolidated power led to starvation and destruction. When Mao Tse Tung replaced private property in China with government run farms, well over 30 million people starved to death. When soviet Russia abandoned the right to private property and implemented centralized control over all aspects of Soviet life, over 50 million people perished. Despite the clear and unambiguous lessons of history, we find ourselves in the year 2010 plunging headlong into centralized control and consolidated power. This can only lead to the same place it always has: starvation and destruction. Some environmental extremists view such death and destruction as a good thing because they view humans as a scourge on the planet which should be removed.
Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung on wall
A great philosopher wrote this about that moment in which civilized society is destroyed. “When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours and approvals–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.”
Today is supposed to be a very sad affair, and after what I just said, you would think that I am sad. However, as I look around my town, my state, and at this crowd here today, I am comforted that there is a whole lot right in Australia. I am standing next to a man (Maxwell Szulc) with the courage, decency, and dignity to allow himself to be put in gaol, rather than allow some bureaucrat to mismanage his property which he is responsible for.
I am standing next to another man (Peter Spencer) who was willing to risk his own life in 52 gruelling days on a tower to bring awareness to the importance of private property rights. Thousands of kilometres to our east, farmers, business owners, miners and country people of all persuasions are banding together to save their regions from the disastrously ill conceived Murray Darling basin plan. People all across Australia are awakening from their slumber and have determined to restore the private property and common law rights that have made this great nation so “lucky.”
We have a message to politicians that are here. From this day forward, we will judge elected governments not on how many laws they can pass, but rather how many they can repeal. We know the bureaucracies threaten and intimidate politicians in the same way that they do land and business owners. We are not going to take it any more, and we don’t expect you to, either. Just because some parliament 16 years ago erroneously passed legislation that says that elected officials can’t sack senior bureaucrats doesn’t mean that you can’t. We expect you to answer to us, and them to answer to you. This is a democracy and you are the government. You can simply pass another act that says that you can sack directors and restructure departments, then proceed to do so. We have your back, and we are determined to resurrect the rights that lay buried here today, and to restore the rule of common law to this great nation.
…
Post Note from Jo
People have emailed me to let me know that DEC has written a formal response to people who wrote in protest about the Thompsons (funny, I don’t seem to have received a reply?)
I will be responding in full very soon. The ten second answer to the DEC letter: The current and amended License is unbankable; the Thompsons have already met the conditions; the complaints are unverified, possibly solicited, often relating to some other business, and Minister Donna Faragher can teach you how to spell “business certainty” but she hasn’t got a clue what it is.
Bob Carter wrote about the protest with copies of the speech on Quadrant.
The one page information on The Thompsons for donations, previous stories and documents.
Speaking Tour Dates Next week!
Monday, 1 November 2010 — Perth
8:00 p.m. Curtin University,
Room 210, The Elizabeth Jolley Lecture Theatre (Bldg 102)
Kent Street, Bentley
Wednesday, 3 November 2010 — Gingin
7:00 p.m. Grandville Civic Centre
Weld Street
Thursday, 4 November 2010 — Narrogin
7:30 p.m. John Higgins Centre
Clayton Road
Friday, 5 November 2010 — Albany
7:30 p.m.Stirling Club
14 Stirling Terrace
http://tiny.cc/34s72
That is an outstanding speech.
20
Great job getting this message out!
In the USA there is also action to take away land rights: Minnesota Representative James Oberstar has craftily pushed a bill (HR 5088) to take away property rights. U.S. readers BEWARE!!
http://fightinwordsusa.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/oberstar-clean-water-bill-is-massive-federal-power-grab/
Excerpt:
We are ALL in this together!
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Did anyone have their video camera to record the speech, and if so can you put it on youtube
10
God’s blessing and mine also on your efforts to overcome these problems.
I have been at a loss for words as I read the Thompson’s story unfolding. But no more!
The UN has become a curse to the human race and needs to be overthrown and dismantled. If the election in California goes as I hope, I will lobby my new senator and my representative demanding that we quit funding the UN to the tune of 25% of its annual budget. Nothing will work better than the developed nations waking up and realizing that the UN is their oppressor. It may take a long time but it can be done. Rome was neither built in a day nor did it fall in a day. But it came and went nevertheless. I don’t think this will take as long as Rome did.
Suggestion: an Australian equivalent of the Tea Party movement. I think tea will not be a national symbol for you but there must be some equivalent for people to identify with and rally around.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. So go for it!
10
Jo, This says it all for me.
The above statement and the wrongful use of the precautionary principle underpins just how tenuous is our grip on property and how the balance of power has shifted to the unelected. What is now required is a light horseman-like charge from specialist environment lawyers and QC’s to restore the balance in the interests of a better society. I know a couple and have sent this to them today.
10
Except that in any history book there are plenty of examples of societies that worked exactly that way, and prospered. The most obvious example would be Venice under the Medici family which was a huge hub of trade, but completely corrupt and probably traded more in graft and favours than it ever traded across the ocean.
It worked because graft is itself bound by the same rules as any capitalist investment — it needs to turn a profit. So you put this much money into maintaining your position of power vs that much return in protection payments. Eventually you will actually need to provide some protection in order to maintain your authority. Effectively all government works this way, and always has done.
It happens to work more efficiently when it is well organised, and when the rules are clearly established so everyone can follow.
11
Treeman, Tel,
This kind of graft is bent on destruction. Or has that lesson not reached you yet? The people behind this are not in it for the graft. They will take it if they can get it. But remember the WWF, Hansen, Farnish and so many others. The low level people are not the drivers of this.
The objective is destruction. I have not yet figured out how they can be so naive as to think they themselves can withstand it. But they quit obviously do.
Do some research on the Tides Foundation, George Soros and the UN. Ask yourself why George Soros has visited the White House four times since Obama took office. Ask why Obama has surrounded himself with leftist radicals. Ask how many in your own government have radical associates and ties.
This is not a game of graft or power by low level DEC functionaries. It goes to the top.
10
Bowing to the UN is on the agenda, in fact it seems the UN have moved into Parliament since the Election. Anyone can go to http://www.openaustralia.org/ and run a search to see which politicians are driving the UN agendas:
For example searching for “Global Governance” http://www.openaustralia.org/search/?s=%22global+governance%22 reveals many hits and also a speech by Senator Doug Cameron with the following extract:
“Labor will continue to meet the economic challenges outlined by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz in his recent visit to Australia. These include recovering from the global financial crisis, addressing global imbalances, creating a more stable global financial system, creating a new global reserve system, creating a new global financial regulatory system, addressing the problems of global warming and devising a better system of global governance. If we do not deal with these issues, it will not be the billionaires and millionaires in Australia who will suffer the consequences; it will be ordinary working families battling to put food on the table and educate their kids who will face the problems of further global financial crisis. So it is absolutely essential that we deal with that. Professor Stiglitz identified some of the key problems in the international economy. He argued that before the crisis global growth was supported by bubbles, the largest in the United States. Financial innovation had allowed the bubbles to grow bigger and bad assets to be spread around the world.”
This speech is 1 month old.
10
OzWaveGuy. You are correct. The main problem is the ignorance about the cause of asset bubbles. The bubbles are actually the result of an increase in the supply of easy to obtain and cheap credit. This excess credit is a direct result of manipulation of the cost and supply of money by the central banks. The easiest way to solve this problem is to get rid of all the central banks.
10
the following has a lot of americans concerned:
28 Oct: WaPo: Elizabeth Razzi: Title insurers drop demands on mortgage lenders in foreclosure cases
Mortgage servicers have successfully pushed back an attempt to make them explicitly responsible for title problems resulting from their handling of foreclosure paperwork and legal procedures.
Three major title insurance companies – First American Financial, Old Republic International and Stewart Information Services – told Wall Street analysts in conference calls Thursday that they had decided not to demand written indemnifications from lenders re-selling foreclosed homes. Combined, the three companies account for 52 percent of the title insurance market…
(First American Financial chief executive Dennis J. Gilmore)”It’s our understanding that in the marketplace, some servicers have indicated under no circumstances will they provide an indemnification,” Gilmore said…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/28/AR2010102807356.html
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must share this from abc Qld Stateline last nite. unsurprisingly, Ove also said “a rapid reduction in co2 emissions is a must”:
29 Oct: ABC Stateline: Climate change warning for State MP’s
JESSICA van VONDEREN: And what are the predictions, could we reach those one or two degrees?
PROF. OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: If we go on the current pathway and that is to continue to add CO2 to the atmosphere at the rate of two parts per million per year we’ll soon get beyond 600 parts per million and at that point global temperatures will be three to six degrees warmer and we’ll see vastly different outcomes for those ecosystems. The Great Barrier Reef will be gone, the marine, the biodiversity at the top of the Daintree range will be gone and so I guess the sound bite there is that with only a couple more degrees of warming along that business as usual pathway and we lose these things for ever.
JESSICA van VONDEREN: How real a threat is that, that that will be a reality?
PROF. OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: Well if you look at the IPCC which is the most reliable consensus on this issue they’ll put it as a very likely scenario that we will achieve those conditions over the coming decades and century. Now very likely in their parlance is over 90% so it’s highly likely and very probable…
JESSICA van VONDEREN: There was an MP in State Parliament here just the other week, disputing that humans have any impact on climate change and you’ve been conducting regular information sessions with MPs around the country. What do you say to the nay sayers?
PROF. OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: I would say that if you were taking advice from someone you’d probably have to look at their profession and then also their track record. Climate Science Australia is built up from people that have hundreds of peer reviewed publications in leading scientific journals and they are, their expertise is core to the issue that they’re talking on. Many of the experts that have been confusing the issue A don’t have any papers on the issue of climate change, so they’re speaking without any test of their ideas in the scientific literature and B often they’ll be geologists or mining engineers or so and of course you’ve got to be careful where you get your advice from. I mean you don’t go down the street when you’ve got a disease and talk to a mechanic about what the best remedy would be. Just as you wouldn’t go to the doctor and ask a technical question about a car. So I think that’s the root of the problem that busy leaders in Parliament need to make sure that they’re getting the best facts.
JESSICA van VONDEREN: And the scientific evidence being humans are contributing?
PROF. OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: Well unfortunately that is the inconvenient truth, that the rise in global temperature, the rise in co2 is a human driven signal and that is has consequences. That’s the conclusion, the consensus of thousands of scientists. We have a huge problem and we’re the cause of it. Now we need to fix it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/10/29/3052499.htm
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OzWaveGuy, thank you very much for the link and the excerpt from the senator’s talk. Does anyone still believe that the goal is not global governance? Why would we hand our sovereignty over so willingly? I think it gets down to a fundamental mind-set.
People no longer feel free or responsible for themselves. When their local government, then state government, then federal government fails to solve all their problems, then a global government must. Of course, we all know that only individuals taking responsibility for themselves within a free society will lead to success. Does that success exist without challenges? No. Does that success exist without pain? No. Does that success exist without failures? No.
Doers will meet challenges and experience pain and in their quest to succeed, will fail…often multiple times. That is the recipe for success. No government, no “common good” ideology, no self-serving gaggle of politicians will change that fundamental recipe.
Cheers,
Janet
10
Thumbnail @3… yes, we have a good mate who recorded, and we’re working on a video for YouTube. We’re going to take more footage at the Tower of Hope speaking events THIS WEEK at which Peter Spencer, Maxwell Szulc and Matt and I will be speaking:
Monday, 1 November 2010 — Perth
8:00 p.m.
Curtin University
Room 210, The Elizabeth Jolley Lecture Theatre (Bldg 102)
Kent Street, Bentley
Wednesday, 3 November 2010 — Gingin
7:00 p.m.
Grandville Civic Centre
Weld Street
Thursday, 4 November 2010 — Narrogin
7:30 p.m.
John Higgins Centre
Clayton Road
Friday, 5 November 2010 — Albany
7:30 p.m.
Stirling Club
14 Stirling Terrace
I’ve also been working on a YouTube for Syd Livesey’s story (it’s a whopper!). What I would like to do is to link to individual true stories at the bottom of the Death of Private Property Rights video. Matt’s and my story is already up, Syd’s is close. I’d like to do one each for Ian & Dianne Broad, Rob & Annie Klaasen, Darryl and Judy Shreeve, Craig Underwood & Family, Brian Burns, Maxwell Szulc, and Peter Spencer for starters. That’s going to take a lot of time, and if anyone out there is able to help out with the project, we’ll gladly accept your assistance. 🙂
Mega Cheers,
Janet
10
Re Pat @ 11
I can’t believe the rubbish the climate alarmists get away with and then claim the high scientific ground. Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg lists some outcomes not claimed in the IPCC report based on the IPCC’s most extreme scenario projection (one of six scenario families).
In response “JESSICA van VONDEREN: How real a threat is that, that that will be a reality?”
Then Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg claims “it is over 90%, highly likely, very probable”!
What trash! So now his learned scientific prediction is that it is very likely “The Great Barrier Reef will be gone, the marine, the biodiversity at the top of the Daintree range will be gone” all within 100 years. No qualifications, no scientific support, then he warns people to check what qualifications, and what papers have been written by sceptics who argue against this type of propaganda. Sheesh!
On Thompsons and the DEC, yes, the meeting at Parliament house was moving, I couldn’t stay long or go to the beach, but glad I arrived in time for Janet’s speech.
I have been pursuing answers to specific questions from the Minister for some time now. This is their latests response to my follow up given their tardiness.
We apologise for the delay in responding to you.
We acknowledge receipt of your emails dated 23/10/10, 23 and 21/09/10 regarding the Narrogin Beef Feedlot.
We noted your comments and your correspondences have been actioned as appropriate.
We thank you for the time taken in writing to our Office and would like to assure you that a due response will be sent to you.
No wonder the Thompsons are going round in circles. After more than a month all I can get out of the department is a letter which makes absolutely no sense “your correspondences have been actioned as appropriate”, while admitting I haven’t received a response and promising, “would like to assure you that a due response will be sent to you.”
Yes it is certainly due – but when?
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Roy Hogue
Just because my post included the Ayn Rand quote does not in any way equate my sentiment with Tel’s. You are right about this going to the top however. From the top, UN IPCC Summaries for Policy Makers empower the unelected to develop policies only as long as member countries’ governments kowtow.
Local government ecologists and environment officers meet regularly to compare policies and make changes and we don’t get to vote on any of it. These bureaucrats are all true believers in the policies they are paid to develop and uphold. It is not the graft per se that is bent on destruction but the process itself that empowers the unelected. The process of governance is what has become corrupted and seemingly more from a lack of attention or adequate checks and balances, although there will always be a Soros or a Strong in there stiring the pot!
10
Good on you for standing against this creeping destruction of our rights. It takes bravery to stand up and call out your powerful antagonists, but it also takes a steely determination to continue beyond that in the long fight….. You have both.
And you are correct when you say that our system of representative government is fine. It is only as good as the elected officials chosen to represent us… and for the moment, we still do have the power to elect people who will change this system as per our instructions….. if we are clear enough and determined enough.
It is the Unelected Bureaucracy that is out of control, it has become a power unto itself, and then we also have a media and media marketplace that is skewed by the Government funded abomination that squats among it. The ABC is no friend to Conservative Australia nor to a Liberal open society. The ABC is entirely the creature of the Socialist left. The day it is disbanded. Is the day we know liberal politics and conservative views have ascendancy in this country…. That, and the day a farmer can clear his own firebreaks without fear of incarceration.
… The cheek of these people, they attack our right to speak, our right to own property and by doing that, they destroy our individual enterprise. They sorely try the patience of the very best of us.
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Andy
Agree – that is a great series of speeches. Coherent, clear and from the heart. If only our own politicians could speak (and more importantly – act) the same!
Cheers,
Speedy
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Treeman @15,
I see you’re following things re Soros etc. also. The UN — and I’ve argued this openly on this blog — has believed itself to be the world’s government for a long time.
However, I do not believe that lawyers are going to make any real headway against the problem. It’s going to take the people rising up in large numbers and simply refusing to put the wrong people back into office at every election. I guess we’re lucky here to have been born in a revolution with such an ideal symbol of our fight for freedom as the Boston Tea Party. You need some similar symbol that people will recognize and that will unite them in a common cause.
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A manure delivery would have been far more effective.
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Mark D. @2.
Republicans can filibuster in the Senate right now without trouble. I hope they have the nerve because if they don’t the lame duck session will be a killer.
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These people are bleeding their lives out and yet all the state is doing is administering increasingly larger doses of anti-coagulant. I hate to say this Jo but there is only one way to deal effectively with a parasitic infection of this magnitude. Words, no matter how heartfelt, aren’t going to cut it with the political ghouls pulling the strings. You need to take direct action. It won’t be pretty.
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Simply one of the best and most relevant speeches I have read.
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I have known for a very long time that the political elite are members of the class who believes “All those people out there who are doing things without permission must be stopped.” I say, do something today for your own benefit without seeking permission to do it. Then keep doing it. Teach them that they don’t have your permission to grant you permission.
He who is free never submits. He who submits, was never free. Stay free!
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Re Lionell Griffith:
October 31st, 2010 at 12:46 am
Some thoughts in this area in Rudyard Kipling’s “Danegeld”
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Another Ian:
October 31st, 2010 at 10:43 am
Sad to say but I had to look up “Dane-geld“.
It’s an exact analogy to our present situation. We have been paying Dane-geld to the progressives/greens/watermelons for over 100 years. All they ask for is just this little thing. Sometimes it was gold. Other times it was other things more important than gold. We gave and, as in the poem, they don’t go away. They stay and ask for this one little thing more again and again and again.
Give them enough little things and whatever we had that we valued is gone. We find ourselves enslaved and impoverished. The shame is, we agreed with every small step along the way.
It is time to say NO and make it stick. It won’t be easy and it won’t be pretty but, if we are to live in a future of our own making and worth living in, we must do it.
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Lionell #25:
Property rights under common law date back to even before the Magna Carta. King Alfred recognized the rights to compensation when private property is removed by codifying penalties in the Domboc (in the 9th Century). The recognition was of the common law; as had been practiced by the people for centuries (even B.C.) to achieve what were perceived to be fair outcomes by the people who chose to live under that system.
Subsequent invasions did not diminish common law, but worked further to codify those laws and to put into place systems for justice; justice that (is supposed to be) applied equally to all. Until recently.
Property rights has been buried because people have forgotten or never paid attention to why the laws exist; or that they exist at all. They have squandered the lessons of thousands of years on how people can live peacefully alongside each other.
Those who try to upset the apple cart must be blissfully ignorant of the historic precedents or even bigger fools to think that they can get away with it this time.
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Anthony Watts 19;
Not that I’m encouraging anybody to do that sort of thing. It’s unlawful.
The free trial offer of liquid manure spraying needs to be deferred until Parliament is sitting and it’s a little warmer. Then it shouldn’t be at that place, but the one up the road, the place colloquially known as “Bullshit Castle” (even by many of those who attend there for financial reward) but more properly as Dumas House.
Our brave Premier has fled the capital for the North-West and it’s fair that he get a whiff of the mess that his Minister has left on his front porch.
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@ Jaymez,
The phrase “your correspondences have been actioned as appropriate” is civil-service speak for “it’s been chucked into the waste-paper basket”.
I have used that self-same phrase myself!
Steve
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I am beginning to wonder if Australia is ready for a Tea Partyesque group to garner political support based upon the defense of property rights. It really is time to start pushing back against the faceless bureaucracies that are undermining Australian sovereign rights. This is the think edge of the EU-style commissar rule that Lord Monckton warned us about.
Thanks for posting the speeches Jo – I wasn’t able to make it to the Cottesloe burial but it was good to be up on the steps at Parliament House for the cause last week.
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Agenda 21 includes ‘grazing farmland’ in its list of unsustainables.
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“
”
That’s a neat way to call the DEC what they are – parasites!
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This thread might have “gone to sleep” but here is a great link to help understand who or what is after your property rights. It is US based but most all the points apply to anywhere.
http://www.takingliberty.us
or skip the introduction and go here:
http://www.takingliberty.us/TLHome.html
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Here is a report on farming you might be interested in om page 79 you will see what they say about BROWN COAL , very interesting http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/…/aus-farming-future-mrr.pdf
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Chris, this link is broken, but I searched for what you put up and got a 101-page report “Instinct and Reason” Australia’s Farming Future Final Market Research Report. It makes for interesting reading (what little I’ve delved in), but I was unable to find anything about brown coal. Do you have a different link, perhaps?
Cheers,
Janet
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