The Foodbank press release: Financial stress pushing millions of Australians into food insecurity
One in six or, 15% of the Australian population, apparently has experienced “uncertainty” around food in the last 12 months. For some, that’s only one episode in a year but still, in a first world country which is a major food exporter, it’s not a sign of wealth and good times. If the survey is to be believed, fully 9% of Australians are experiencing a food shortage every month or even more often. Surprisingly, half of those experiencing food uncertainty have jobs — working serfs. Foodbank blames it on living costs — like rent and power bills.
A nation in decline: A ten percent increase in people seeking food relief across the nation
One thing is sure “bill shock” is hurting people, and it’s getting worse:
Foodbank provides food for over 652,000 people a month, however, the front-line charities report that demand for food relief has increased by 10% in the last year and they are forced to turn away 65,000 people every month due to lack of food.
How much does renewable energy contribute? Hard to say — all the factors are confounded and feedbacks flow like spaghetti. Adding unreliable energy adds hidden costs in managing wild swings in supply, and lack of spinning inertia. We have to have back up storage that we didn’t need before, so add batteries, battery subsidies, hydro storage, and also the inefficiencies for coal generators — which are cheapest and most efficient at constant supply. Then, add the cost of electricity into the cost of all products, so supermarket bills go up. The intermittent generators make us more dependent on gas, and that extra demand pushes up the price of gas too. Higher costs of living mean higher wage claims. Then the extra prices of everything (electricity, food, salaries) force companies out of business or offshore. Because it’s energy we are messing with, the flow-on implications touch everything.
The 10% increase in people seeking food relief applied across all Australian states. But South Australia started from a higher baseline. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) data shows that the proportion of residential electricity and gas customers on hardship programs in South Australia is twice as high as other states.
But I spoke to a well connected, influential South Australian last week and he tells me people there love renewables — they think they are cheap. We need to tally up the hidden costs.
This graph shows the total electricity generation capacity in each state and it’s breakdown by generation type. Remember, those grey bars are the capacity of “wind power” but the generation from wind sources is only one third or thereabouts of the total “capacity”.
All the states below are connected to the one NEM electrical grid. SA has more renewables than the other states, but this is electricity-sans-borders to some extent. Pain and problems in one state can flow into the grid. Though according to foodbank, the number seeking help has also gone up by the same amount in WA which is not connected to the NEM. A messy problem. The only thing we know for sure is that when we had hardly any renewables, we had cheaper electricity.
Electricity by generation source, Australian states, AER, 2017. Graph. (I don’t think rooftop solar gets counted at all here). Solar probably means only large solar projects, which make almost nothing — See the dark blue bar in NSW.
For completeness: those unemployment statistics:
…
The end of the mining boom in WA increased the unemployment rate and may also explain the increase in hardship cases and unpaid bills.
In South Australia the Advertiser picked up the issue. Read more from Eric Worrall at WattsUp and Scott of the Pacific.
MORE than 102,000 South Australians seek help from food charity Foodbank every month, as parents skip meals for days on end so children can eat and utility bills can be paid, astonishing figures show.
Foodbank SA chief executive Greg Pattinson said the high number of those needing assistance was staggering, but not surprising, because more and more SA families were being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to either “heat or eat”.
“We’ve heard it from so many people; the power bills come in and they have to decide: ‘Do we feed the kids today or do we not?’” he said.
The Foodbank 2017 report (PDF)
As as aside — one Foodbank recipient, Steve in Melbourne, wondering why the media is talking about Trump instead of about hungry Australians:
I’ve worked voluntarily for the Uniting Church and The Salvos so I’ve got a lot of food parcels from them and obviously I want to put back in as well. There’s more on our news about Donald Trump and what he’s doing in America than there is about hungry people in Australia. How is that even in the hemisphere of right? That just doesn’t make sense.”
The media are part of the problem. The deplorables are the ones going hungry.
This is not happening in the USA under Trump – and he has only been pulling the reins since mid January 2017. Trump has worked it out – promote the cheapest source of energy (fossil fuels) to facilitate cheaper base load energy generation – businesses flourish, more jobs, less poverty etc etc. Let’s call this “TRUMPANOMICS”. In Oz the total opposite is happening under the “Turnbull Govt” – put simply Oz has been hijacked by populist “leftie green idealogy” e.g. the obsession with the 50% RET. “TURNBULLANOMICS” is bringing the Oz Economy to its knees as we speak – unforgiveable – and the MSM is promoting this “leftie green idealogy” – but in due course the “penny, I mean cent” will drop – the question is? WHEN????
171
The CO2 horsesh*t has to stop.
161
Politicians and other public servants who have indulged in the hoax should be put in prison.
171
As the old saying goes, give them a fair trial, then have them shot in the morning…
(no, this is not an endorsement of violence – I don’t want people killed, I would much rather these people languish in prison)
80
In the USA electricity is affordable, I pay 11 – 14 cents per kWhr. Housing is affordable. I pay $355 per month for my mortgage, petrol (gasoline) cost about 60 to 70 cents (US) per liter. I do not know what natural gas costs, no natural gas where I live. Food is inexpensive. I paid the equivalent of 61 cents (US) per liter for milk over the weekend. There is an oversupply of eggs right now, 59 cents (US) per dozen. If you go to the farm, you can get 5 dozen medium eggs for a dollar. I bet you did not hear about all these good things about the United States on the news in Australia!
260
Fascinating James. Down-under In New Zealand where 60% of power (essentially all domestic) is produced by renewable hydro (built from the peoples $), power prices are around 17 – 19 cents (US) kWh (excl. 15% tax). Petrol is a punishing $US 1.46 per litre (where a little more than >50% price per litre is straight tax — watch the e-car purchasers baulk when they eventually and inevitably have to meet the tax burden their ‘carbon’ fuelled compatriots pay to subsidise them). Food is very expensive, again for reasons that are not clear but appear to amount to a mixture of high labour cost and profit gouging. Milk from the country whose agrarian economy literally pumps the stuff all over the World, the price in the shops is around $US 1.72 (incl. 15% tax) a litre. A dozen eggs fetch anywhere from US$ 2.87 to 9.33. and a 1lb beef around US$ 7.0.
Since 2003, the CPI for a standard basket of groceries has risen 34% and for domestic power (inexplicably) 100%.
80
This absurd implication that the US is healed of poverty because of some things you’ve observed and come to an ad hoc conclusion about is not going to be refuted by someone experiencing US poverty first hand as they wont be wasting resources on the internet.
https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2017/08/22/poverty-in-america-by-the-numbers/#313e5e1c69d3
yes… the data for the last 6 months is still to be processed and I’m sure that 40 million American are now in employment that lifts them above the poverty line because… Trump.
15
Where did Jason mention… TRUMP ?
On your insipid leafy leftist mind, is he 😉
40
I never mentioned Trump, and was not discussing poverty rates, just doing a comparison of the cost of living. This Gee Aye clown is not that smart you know!
50
King Geo did and James (who is Jason?) was writing in support as a direct reply. Maybe I should have written
“because… eggs.”
04
‘Murican here …
we suffer a different kind of lefty abuse.
Under the Affordable Care Act, (choking as I type), my health insurance premium rose 62% last year.
This year my state has approved a 50% increase.
I reside in one of Blueist states in the country.
My crime is being a small business person.
I guess you Ozians have gubmint health care.
We have Carrier Battle Groups to feed.
You guys can borrow them anytime.
🙂
72
Investigate joining a Health Sharing Ministry. I pay $199 per month for coverage. They provide $1 million dollars per year coverage, 500 dollar deductible, with your choice of Doctor. They are exempt from Obamacare requirements.
60
Well the irony is that if the polls can be trusted, when the “cent” drop, the people ditch the government for Labor (especially in the rural areas of Aus – cut your nose anyone?), who will cause much more of this kind of hardship if they get their hands on the reigns.
10
One in every eight Australians now live in poverty, thousands of them are children.
101
My cornflakes box tells me that one in seven children go to school without breakfast. The small print at the bottom cites the source as the ABS “CensusAtSchool Australia 2013”. It is now more likely to be one in six children. It’s unlikely that many kids would do this by choice.
131
This year through my work a few of us have volunteered to help out a local charity assisting the homeless and people in need, from talking to the people there I’d say the large majority are not actually homeless but need that bit extra food or clothes to get by every day, I’m not a bleeding heart activist so I’ll tell it as I see it, there’s a scale of customers that range from severely dysfunctional due to many factors (mental illness, substance abuse etc..) right though to people that just like getting something for free (yes it happens) but our policy is never turn away anyone and they can take what they like.
The middle demographic is where I see the results of years on the welfare cycle where people are generationally conditioned to accept relying on government for everything is a natural way of life not regarding the rest of society enough to stand on their own feet so others don’t have to incur further burdens to assist them.
Then there’s those that have simply been dealt bad luck and are struggling to get back into the workforce which is increasingly harder due to high unemployment and loss of industry in this country compounded with the rising cost of living is a good reason why they need help I guess.
Its been an eye opener sometimes but the generosity of the average Australian has astounded and heartened me in ways that renewed hope for this great nations potential.
130
If South Australia is happy with their unreliable expensive and increasingly unaffordable electricity let’s cut the umbilical cord to Victoriastan, the old saying teach a man to fish does not apply in SA, they’re happy to just be given the fish .
131
Given the fish? No no, the SA government will pay well above the retail price for the fish. You name your price, and Weatherill will pay more.
50
Climate change agenda and related international politics is our focus but we, many, are ignoring the elephant in the room, widespread corruption in Australia. Politicians protecting politicians and manipulating government law agencies to cover up.
The Trade Union Royal Commission was not allowed to continue, the many referrals by the Commissioner to law agencies have been filed “closed” with no further action considered. The covering up is bipartisan. Obviously the dirt files and incentives are behind this.
There is a case being heard in Perth WA with the next hearing set down for 20 December 2017, it relates to an AWU slush fund and one only person charged so far.
But there are others, including a Federal Court Judge appointed by a very senior now former politician, who are now being exposed.
When this scandal is finally brought to public attention again it has the potential to be Australia’s biggest political scandal ever.
And from there, but not necessarily attached, there are numerous other matters including union involvement in renewable energy subsidies by taxpayer schemes.
We are in a bad place and I sincerely hope that finally the web is exposed.
111
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com
51
Where’s WA?
41
It’s an NEM analysis presumably, John (except for unemployment).
Fortunately, WA seceded from the NEM.
That’s a start at least.
Nevertheless, we still subsidize the blood-sucking crow-eaters with our GST payments, notwithstanding our unemployment rate being just shaded by theirs.
Next year, on 17 March, the whole nation will be able to make an assessment of the collective intelligence of crow-eaters.
51
Sceptical Sam,
Yes in the ring we have in the Red corner Tweedledee. And in the Red corner we have Tweedledum. And joining them in the Red corner we have X** along with the Greens.
** The Sunday Mail had a cartoon of Alice asking the Cheshire Cat (with a big X on it) “Who are you”. The cat assures Alice “that it all depnds on who you’d like me to be”.
50
There is no such thing as a free lunch. When you try to fake that it does exist, you will lose. It might take some time but when the accumulated wealth is consumed and the ability to produce has been stifled, you can be found standing over the abyss without support. As it was with Wiley Coyote, there is no up. There is only down. Hitting the bottom can be quite painful but cannot be avoided.
This is the hard lesson that some knew up front. More could have known but chose let’s pretend instead. Unfortunately, everyone will get to participate in learning the hard lesson once again.
This could have been avoided had more learned the lessons of history, taken it to heart, and acted accordingly. Sadly, the main thing we learn from history is that most fail to learn from history. While history doesn’t not repeat exactly, it rhymes with precision to give us one more chance to learn its lessons. We might have a chance to survive the lesson but it won’t be pretty.
Reality is never fair, it simply is.
111
Ouch. Message to self, proof read more carefully: “doesn’t not” should be “does not” or “doesn’t”. Hopefully, I can learn from history.
71
Interesting. The mindlessness of the red thumb. I chided myself for an extra “not” and he didn’t like it. Perhaps he simply did not read the post and clicked thumbs down anyway. This last hypothesis is supported by the fact all posts up to this point have a ticked thumbs down. His disprovable has no more thoughtful content than a random scrawl on a bathroom wall.
102
Lionel, random scrawls on bathroom walls do on occasion have the propensity for insight and wit — “spellers of the World untie.”
BTW, you received a green TU’s from me.
60
Red thumbs ar the flak of the blogosphere. if you’re getting them it means you’re over the target.
71
I seem to be a red-thumb magnet 🙂
They HATE that they can never argue back with any actual facts or content. 🙂
21
You ar enjoyably droll Lionel.
00
You have a reputation for piercing to the heart of the matter, Lionell.
What you get in return, is a Pavlovian response to anything you write.
Wear it as a badge of honour.
41
too little, too late to save the Coalition, so it will be overturned following the next Federal election!
16 Oct: ABC: Cabinet dumps Clean Energy Target for new ‘affordable, reliable’ power plan
Lateline By Matt Wordsworth
Energy retailers will be forced to source a percentage of their power from reliable, dispatchable generation, as part of an energy plan to be presented to the Coalition party room tomorrow.
The ABC understands Federal Cabinet has agreed to put the onus on the retailers to make sure a guaranteed amount of reliable energy comes from sources such as coal, batteries, gas and pumped hydro.
Cabinet is also keen to adopt a generator reliability obligation, which requires three years’ notice of closing a power station, in order to prevent a repeat of the sudden closure of Hazelwood power station in Victoria in March.
It will also seek to introduce a replacement to the Clean Energy Target (CET), just four months after it was proposed by chief scientist Alan Finkel…
But regardless of the mechanism, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Question Time on Monday the Government would honour its commitment to the Paris agreement, which is a reduction in emissions of 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-16/cabinet-dumps-clean-energy-target-for-new-plan/9056174
50
It’s a start but they have lost my vote .
50
Really?
This is the socialists’ sheltered-workshop that thinks green schemes made up only 7% to Australians’ electricity bills.
Whereas the truth is that: “…just one page after that breakdown of your bill that the journalists have seized on, the ACCC adds that the extra generation costs that come from the switch away from coal-fired power – a switch largely forced by such green schemes – are in fact included under ‘wholesale costs'”.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/no-journalists-are-wrong-green-schemes-dont-add-just-7-to-power-bills/news-story/382afa4e4e0da557f36e4abc328bc5fb
What would the ABC know other that green-left brainwashing?
The ABC is a purveyor of disinformation.
Like all socialists.
121
“The populous do not need to be told the truth, they need to be told the believable”. Leon Trotsky.
90
The ABC or as I prefer to call them “Minitrue”
10
How’s that lead line, eh?
“Energy retailers will be forced to source a percentage of their power from reliable, dispatchable generation”
Oh the tragedy, the indignity, the horror!
It’s just hilarious, isn’t it?
We’re living in the reality that made parody obsolete.
It’s almost as though the people of the future will have more wealth and more knowledge of climate science so will be in a better position to judge it and deal with it than we can!
The skeptics have only been SAYING THAT FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS.
Grrr, I didn’t need this stir-up so late at night.
91
Jesus Priest! The more these idiots micromanage to save one job the more they dig a hole
Right intent but backwards! Dispatchable generation IS the energy plan. Renewables must lose their non dispatchability status. Renewables must lose their ability to create energy certificates. Renewables must guarantee their production on time and at the advertised capacity…with backup power to be charged at full rate if any shortfall. Anything less is still a subsidy!
50
Surely trashing the odd car manufacturer, aluminum smelter, coal fired power plant and plastics recycler will provide enough to massage an appearance of compliance and allow us to remain virtuous on the world stage. Carry on building houses, making coffee and operating the quarry.
00
It is (and has been) both an avoidable fiasco and a shame on the politicians that increasing numbers of people now struggle to pay their bills — more so electricity bills where politics has a major say in how they are priced.
In a land with such a wealth of both food and resources this can only be because of political mismanagement on large scale. Unfortunately, (when looking for outside the country) there appears to be no politicians, or political movement, with much public support that has the financial clearsightedness and management ability, to carry out the much needed nationwide restructuring required on so many levels.
Good luck Australia, it appears your huge wealth and fortune is being squandered.
🙁
80
being up late last nite, for the weather-delayed women’s tennis final in Hong Kong, I heard ABC radio’s news bulletins, with the following rated #2 headline, while the ACCC energy report –
Clean Energy Target: There’s nothing in the ACCC report that suggests it should be axed
ABC Online
was relegated to about 4th or 5th place:
Porn publisher Larry Flynt offers $10 million in full-page Washington Post ad for dirt that could get ‘dangerously unfit’ Trump impeached
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt took out a ful page ad in the Washington Post Sunday, offering $10 million for dirt on President Donald Trump
Daily Mail – 16 hours ago
The porn mogul laid out six ‘charges’ against Trump, including…’sabotaging’ the Paris climate accord.
‘But most worrisome is that, long before climate-change apocalypse strikes, Trump might trigger a nuclear world war,’ Flynt wrote…
—
ABC made no mention of Flynt’s Democrat credentials (just as they have failed to do – when I have heard them on radio – say something half-heartedly about the Harvey Weinstein case).
on the second ABC news bulletin I heard last nite, the ABC used a BBC Flynt report, tho BBC has not seen fit to document that coverage (who can blame them? after all, it’s not the first time Flynt & FakeNewsMSM have ***pulled such a stunt, so it’s hardly worthy of being called “news”):
Wikipedia: Larry Flynt: In 2003, Arena magazine listed him at No. 1 on the “50 Powerful People”…
Flynt disowned his eldest daughter, Tonya Flynt-Vega, after she became a Christian anti-pornography activist…
***On September 7, 2012, Larry Flynt offered a $1 million reward for information on Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns. On September 10, 2012, two full page ads appeared in USA Today and The Washington Post to promote the offer…
In May 2015, Flynt endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview with Marfa Journal later that year, he described his political views as “progressively liberal”…
FLYNT’S NEW SOUL-MATE?
16 Oct: Breitbart: Pope Francis: ‘Wars and Climate Change’ Are Root Causes of World Hunger and Migration
by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
Pope Francis addressed the FAO Monday on the question of world hunger, proposing that wars and climate change must be overcome in order to properly address the crisis of world hunger and immigration.
“The relationship between hunger and migrations can only be addressed if we go to the root of the problem,” the Pope said at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome. “In this regard, studies conducted by the United Nations, like many others conducted by civil organizations, agree that there are two major obstacles that must be overcome: conflicts and climate change.”
The pontiff expressed his optimistic view that scientists have discovered how to contain climate change and require only the political will of world leaders.
“Concerning climate change, we see its consequences every day,” Francis said. “Thanks to scientific knowledge, we know how to deal with the problem and the international community has also been preparing necessary legal instruments, such as, for example, the Paris Accord.”
The Pope added that “unfortunately, some are distancing themselves” from the Paris agreement, in evident reference to the United States…
Despite scientific knowledge on how to address the problem, “we see the reappearance of negligence regarding the delicate balance of ecosystems, the arrogance to manipulate and control the planet’s resources, and greed for profit,” Francis said.
The pontiff suggested that a change in lifestyles is needed to protect the poor and helpless from the worst effects of climate change.
“It is therefore necessary to strive for concrete and practical consensus if we wish to avoid the most tragic effects, which will continue to fall on poor and helpless people,” Francis said. “We are called to propose a change in lifestyles, in the use of resources, on the criteria of production, and even of consumption, which concerning food reveals an increase of losses and waste.”
“We cannot sit back and tell ourselves ‘someone else will do it,’” he said…
The FAO itself recently made the remarkable claim that “millions are forced to migrate due to climate change.”…
Last week, Argentinian Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, papal advisor and Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said that “real” happiness can only come from pursuing higher values, such as “environmental sustainability.”
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/10/16/pope-francis-wars-and-climate-change-are-root-causes-of-world-hunger-and-migration/
51
It would appear that His Holiness, wants the populace to descend to the lowest common denominator of subsistence living, as was the norm in the Middle Ages, when The Church had real power.
90
His Holiness * cough* seems to see a portent of the apocalypse. A waste and barren Earth and the second coming.
10
The devil can appear in some ‘convincing’ disguises.
20
Australians now add to their ills,
More hunger from high power bills,
Not having the means,
To pay for the Greens’,
Subsidized costly windmills.
140
Turnbull’s energy policy is a total catastrophe. As is to be expected when government meddles in markets.
South Australia is moving jobs “offshore”. One wonders how the State could survive if it’s only populated by welfare recipients and public servants.
I hope that this cheers them up a bit.
80
Is that number plate material similar to the grossly over-reflective signs we are seeing in increasing numbers around Victoria? They are so bright that they leave wells of darkness behind them with no chance to spot wombats, wallabies, foxes, deer, kangaroos that infest the rural roads by night.
20
Some of life’s great mysteries is not a mystery.
Continents with vast resources have very different outcomes.
Countries with plenty of arable land and plausible weather nevertheless cannot feed themselves.
Countries with vast resources cannot exploit them, but are exploited.
Wealthy jurisdictions return to poverty many times faster than poor districts gain wealth.
A few small, resource bare city states are among the world’s wealthiest places.
Aus, with an interesting mix of original ‘settlers’, was one of those places that achieved peace and prosperity.
It is certainly not yet certain that the path has changed, but there are ominous signs on the road.
The attribute of success are simple and well known.
A significant amount of personal freedom.
Respect for individual property rights.
Respect for capital formation.
A significant amount of free market economics.
The attributes of decline and failure are equally clear.
Which brings us to the tendency of many in democracies to vote for bed and circuses, and obtain
leaders capable of little but circus like behavior.
Popular democracies and republics tend only to change course towards reality in the face of crisis;
in good times the devolution in favoring popular myths is affordable and seemingly unavoidable.
Thus we ask for a prediction: what is the crisis that will end the renewable energy myth, and who will have
the misfortune to suffer same.
For SA, it is a hard truth that an increased dependence on a government with socialist tendencies for the basic staples of life is not a bug, its a feature. Dependency is a lever of power to them, not a failure of execution…the blame for failure can always be rationalized elsewhere.
Poverty leads to government benefits which leads to votes lest the benefits be reduced or eliminated. Industry failure due to government intervention demands more government intervention to solve the new problems. Only when a blatantly obvious reality exposes the lies supporting the regime is there regime change.
Or, rarely, reason and a great leader combine to change minds. Good luck, y’all.
90
Renewables in South Australia cheap? Of course. They did not pay for them!
It is like so much else which goes to the tiny state to buy control of the Senate. The money for the hundreds of windmills came from the purses and wallets of ordinary Australians across the country thanks to the pernicious RET.
The RET has no way or intention of distributing the benefit to the people who actually pay. It goes to strangers who work out where they can get the highest return on our cash.
Solar because the highest insolation is in South Australia with fewer cloudy days than the tropics. Wind because you pick up the Southern Westerlies. That means they can generate the most power, far from where it is needed and very far from the people who paid for it, from Perth to Cairns. You see what matters in the RET scheme is how much power you can generate, which is legally quite separate from actually selling it or delivering it. You get $85 a MWhr for just generating power, so naturally you build in South Australia. Selling is a bonus.
There is also the total imbalance in the GST which was a state tax engineered by committee to favor South Australia.
With the same population, they get 1/3 of what South Australians get. This is supposed to be fair? It is the reason Weatherill can throw cash to his friend Musk. Great Photo opps.
The unfair imbalance was mining wealth West Australians were prepared to exploit while South Australians fought mining and preferred to live on handouts. It is easily the most indulged area in the country and they like it. Who wouldn’t?
Then there is always the public service, State and Federal while the ore sits in the ground. Health, Education, taxation. The public service is a big part of the SA economy. The Greens recommend this formula for the whole country and with a total debt now exceeding $500Bn, the money will soon dry up, the GST handout will end and the Musk Battery will blow up under load. No problem. Buy another one. $30Bn for submarines. What’s $30Million for a big private diesel generator so the factory can keep going by avoiding the blackouts and the RET?
Meanwhile Weatherill has Pelican Point flat out burning gas to fill in the hole he made by blowing up cheap coal. Nothing is being said. He wants to win the next election, which means he has to survive the summer without too many disasters with his windmills.
91
Sorry, West Australians get 1/3 of what was basically a State Sales Tax, conveniently collected Federally now. A great chance for pork barreling and politicians seize every opportunity. When times were good, it was seen as churlish to complain about the great SA GST ripoff.
60
To put it more bluntly. In South Australia, windmills are not subsidized. They are free. There is nothing in the State budget to pay for windmills. Once again the people of Perth pay for SA windmills and 2,000km away, receive nothing back. This has to stop.
81
The cost factor of energy in every Australians budget is a given but people that eagerly embrace the renewable dream never seem to grasp the flow on effect of this dream for everything that a consumer pays for, of course there’s those in power that have used the climate scare to reduce the personal wealth of Australians forcing them to be increasingly reliant on Government thus broadening their ever growing power of the lives of the population.
When people say “we have squandered our wealth” its incorrect as the politicians are the “we” and the real wealth (after our nations people) is still locked in the ground by those same leaders that people elected, if any Australian wants to understand how much big government can strangle a resource rich country look at Venezuela and then for a vision of how difficult it is to unravel look at Trump’s fight against rogue bureaucracies and anti-liberty systems created by people that have the same ideals that our leaders have and are usually connected.
60
I first visited OZ in 1990, lived there for 5 months, and traveled back about 10 times or so.
What big changes since 1990. It is sad to see a great nation harming itself or fantasy energy policies.
90
It’s not my place to be a critic of Australia, except that what you’re talking about here, Jo, is happening in other places, including the United States.
I keep wondering how we, the human race, became suicidal and started working toward our eventual descent into the past where food was a daily struggle for not just one ot two meals now and then according to the luck of the hunt but for survival.
We appear to be moving along the same road but a little behind you in Oz. But we’re nevertheless going down that road. And I can only hope that congress wakes up and instead of saying to the president, “We don’t answer to you,” they say, “How can we help you, sir?”
And yes, that same defiant headline was on my home page yesterday morning. After sending several repeal of Obamacare bills to a president they knew would not sign them into law, I would think they were serious enough to send the same bill to a president they know for certain will sign it. But they don’t want to. And their excuses are as pathetic as their hypocrisy is.
This is a dire prediction to be sure. And I don’t have any better way of seeing the future than anyone else so I can only judge by the past. And the past tells a very scary story about the road ahead. You can only put off dealing with your critical problems for so long before they bite you very hard.
100
It is not the human race that is suicidal, it is Western society that is suicidal.
An American academic recently commented that, “In western society, everybody has aspirations of becoming the richest corpse in the graveyard”.
I think he makes a good point.
60
Good point except that apparently as the western world goes, so go the never visible second world — I’ve never heard of it/them, have you — and the third world banana republics.
We could debate this all day and not get anywhere but I respect your opinion and that of your unnamed American academic. So let’s agree to watch what happens and see how it all unfolds.
00
Roy,
socialism is fine until the money runs out. The rich find ways of not contributing – how many of those fervent Hilary supporters in California and Washington have “tax plans”? and the middle class are crushed until they join the handout queue. Greek or Venezuela? But no chips with that.
To cheer you up I suggest you read
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/caution-swamp-draining-in-progress/
40
Pointman makes sense. In fact I think Trump’s shoot from the hip remarks are his way of keeping his enemies all stirred up and running in circles while keeping his agenda right up in front of his supporters. The man is smart and street wise or he could not have built the empire he has. And if you look at what he’s actually accomplished and his determination to not let anything stop him it’s very encouraging. But he has more real dyed in the wool enemies than any other president I can think of.
My fear is that he will succumb to his enemies before he can triumph over them. And in the meantime, at the state and local level Trump hasn’t much impact that I can see aside from the border patrol and deportation of those who don’t belong here. And Bannon has his work cut out for him because there’s no guarantee that he can win elections just becaus he wants to, even with lots of money. And a faction within California wants to try secession from the union. I don’t think their measure will pass but that’s the length some are willing to go to to keep their progressive utopia.
The states control their schools and the progressive agenda is still moving along at top speed on that front.
We shall see what his first term looks like near the end of it. I’m still convinced he’ll make it through all four years.
30
It’s interesting to see at the other end of the scale how the economy is going. Since Trump got in the US Share market has undergone one of the biggest surges in recent times whilst our market has barely moved. Politically the only major policies to get through relate to energy and coal. In Australia the main shock has been the unexpected fall in consumer spending. People not being able to afford to eat is due mainly to disposable income and work security. Energy policy affects both. High cost of energy means less disposable income and no prospects of wage increases. It also means a flow on effect to all products especially those requiring refrigeration. But the major impact is the job killer flow ons. Certainly no new business can contemplate setting up here but worse existing companies are being forced to reduce staff or close altogether or give workers less hours. Whatever criticism there has been of Trump it hasn’t reflected in how there economy is going. The critics still represents the spoilt brats who still can’t accept the umpires decision whilst in Australia those same critics laud the wonderful green credentials evident in the Australian economy. Obviously those critics have a job and can afford high electricity prices. In the US it is only a matter of time but their own South Australia is evolving called California and I suspect they are on the verge of an energy crisis not dissimilar to what we are experiencing.
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Critics like the chap in England who said that a little hardship was necessary. It was pointed out that on an income of £11,000 A WEEK that any hardship wouldn’t be noticed by him. Neither would I if my income was $A960,000 a year (rather than somewhat less than one tenth).
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I started out my adult life in hardship and I worked to improve my situation. I’m not about to go quietly back into that state where I started, trying to make my money keep me going from one month to the next. I did alright for the most part and I’m not suffering in retirement. But the cost of living is creeping up on every front and my available income is not. So if a little hardship is necessary then let your English chap volunteer to be the first in line for the pain. Then he’ll be convincing.
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California is definitely going to have its own little private energy hell. The governor and the legislature want exactly that. It’s still a ways in the future but it’s coming. They imagine prohibiting the sale in California of any cars except fully electric by 2040. By then I can’t imagine I’ll be worried about it but those I leave behind will.
On the other hand there are 49 other states to move to and nothing California can do can stop people from relocating both businesses and residences.
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Ok so the Turdball govt have grown a pair and scrapped the C.E.T , I’ll be impressed if they can sell it to the sheeple and get rid of the R.E.T .
They don’t need spin masters to sell it , the facts alone sell the story .
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Governments are running out of bullets and their tax take is beginning to tank .
Any notion that carbon taxes have anything to do with climate is purely coincidental .
Cutting spending is just no fun and makes it harder to pay off political donors so that is the last resort .
The new era of Serfs is just around the corner . See ya middle class .
00
Say hello to the Laffer Curve. More than a theory.
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The media are the biggest part of the problem. How can the truth be communicated to non-thinkers who believe most of the lies that warmist eco-crucifix worshipping media tell them?
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