Tony Abbott is barking mad and the Liberal Party refuses to put him out of his misery

This is what the Australian Parliament Library stated in December 2013 about public debt in the year the Abbott Government was elected:

# General government, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) comprises all government units (of local, state and national governments) and non-profit institutions controlled and mainly financed by the government.

The general government gross and net foreign debt currently stands at 14.1 and 12.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively.

There has been no change in the gross debt, but there has been an increase of 0.1 per cent in net debt as a percentage of GDP since March 2013.

The total Australian public sector (including general government, and financial and non-financial corporations controlled by governments) gross and net foreign debt currently stands at 19.5 and 13.5 per cent of GDP respectively. Gross and net foreign debt has decreased 0.7 and 0.8 percentage points respectively since March 2013.

# The private sector is responsible for 80.5 and 75.0 per cent of Australia’s gross and net foreign debt respectively. This is an increase of 1.7 and 3.1 percentage points of gross and net foreign debt respectively since the March 2013 quarter.

On the basis of these figures Tony Abbott and his Cabinet have been crying ‘debt and deficit disaster’ at every opportunity.

Now all has changed.

This was Prime Minister Abbott quoted in the Financial Review on 18 March 2015:

Tony Abbott promised voters a "dull" May budget and is content for now with current forecasts of a net debt equivalent to 60 per cent of the economy and no surplus for 40 years.

Mr Abbott said while such a debt ratio, four times the current level, was "too high" and "we want to get it in a much better situation than that", he added "a ratio of debt to GDP at about 50 or 60 per cent is a pretty good result looking around the world".

These are graphs of Australia’s net public debt between 1981-82 and 2013-14, with projections up to 2017-18 based on the Abbott Government's first budget, and net interest payments covering the same periods:

The Guardian 9 June 2014

The difference between the historical record, the last full financial year, what Abbott promised in May 2014 and what he now expects voters to tolerate is mindboggling.

In the space of one budget cycle Abbott has altered his expectations and now predicts that net public debt will grow by an estimated 46.5 per cent over the next 39 years.

What renders his new fiscal position so bizarre is that there appears to be no economic need for the level of debt he now wants the nation to carry as the only way this level of growth in public debt could occur is if, by his own admission, the Federal Government did nothing but sit on its hands for the next thirty-nine years and introduce no new finance policies.

Indeed I strongly suspect that Australia has not carried even a ratio of 60 per cent (or higher) gross public debt to GDP since the period covering 1942-1950, when the nation was in the middle of an almost six year-long world war and then was starting to pay down war debts.

The self-styled Australian Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs* "just doesn't have knowledge"

The Sydney Morning Herald 15 March 2015:

A passionate supporter of recognition, Mr Dodson said he feared that indigenous people would fail to see value in it against the backdrop of cuts to programs, especially those supporting indigenous rangers and legal services, and the push to cut funding to remote communities.

"If moderate indigenous voices make their concerns known, many of the well-disposed Australians will say, 'If the Aboriginal people don't see much advantage or opportunity or progress in the recognition, why should we bother to take that step?'

"This is a serious matter. If you are going to recognise Aboriginal people, what is the substance of it? The substance we are seeing at the moment is this: 'We're going to close down communities, force you into assimilation kind of activities, deny your right to have sites protected, and reject your cultural base to exist.

"It's an appalling concept to be saying we want to recognise your culture and your ancient history and your continuing existence when, in fact, that continuing existence is one that, in reality, you are trying to wipe out."

Mr Dodson, 67, was the founding chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and became known as the "father of reconciliation". He was also a commissioner for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

After some four decades of advocacy for his people, Mr Dodson confessed he had never felt so disheartened at the direction of policy.

"I've normally been a fairly optimistic sort of individual in relation to Aboriginal affairs because there was always an avenue for dialogue with whoever was running the country, whether it was the Liberals or the Labor Party.

"Now you can't even have the debate."

He called on Mr Abbott to re-engage with indigenous leaders, saying the convening of a meeting was the crucial first step.

"We've got to get away from just thinking about program and policy and start thinking in terms of a relationship.

"Does Australia want to have a relationship with Aboriginal people, or does it not? Or does it simply want to improve the management and control systems over the lives of Aboriginal people? That's the seminal issue.

"Everything to date has been about management. How do we keep them in the reserves, isolated from the public? Then, how do we force them into some form of assimilation? And now? No one knows where it is going now.

"It's a full-on assault on those areas where languages and cultures at least have been sustained. That's a recipe for disaster because there is no evidence that people in the cities and the towns have fared any better."

Mr Dodson expressed doubts as to whether Mr Abbott was up to the task, saying the Prime Minister's remarks about those living on remote communities exercising a "lifestyle choice" highlighted his lack of understanding.

"I don't think he's capable of it, despite his good wishes or his best intentions. He just doesn't have knowledge and without knowledge he's not going to be able to do much to take the country forward around indigenous relationships and non-indigenous relationships. That's the sad part about it."

The Guardian 15 March 2015:

Tony Abbott has refused to concede that saying Aboriginal people who live in remote communities have made a “lifestyle choice” was a poor choice of words as the father of reconciliation issued a public plea to rebuild relations with Indigenous people.

The Australian prime minister has suffered near universal criticism from Aboriginal leaders over his “lifestyle choice” comments last week when he was defending the closure of Indigenous communities in Western Australia.

He has refused to apologise for the remarks and stood by them when asked if he would at least concede it was a poor choice of words.

“I’m not going to concede that. I accept people have a right to be critical of me, but I’m certainly not going to concede that,” he told Sky News on Saturday.

* "I want a new engagement with Aboriginal people to be one of the hallmarks of an incoming Coalition government and, if elected, this will start from week one with the establishment of a Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council." [Prime Minister Tony Abbott as then Opposition Leader on 10 August 2013]

And then he blocked me.....

On 16 March 2015 North Coast Voices posted The flood next time…. which looked at the issue of flood levees in the Clarence Valley that had sections that were in poor or very poor condition.

The post carried photographs of the Wilton Park, Waterview levee such as this:

This is the exchange on the subject which ended with Clarence Valley Council Mayor Richie Williamson blocking North Coast Voices’ tweets:

So I had a big grin on my face yesterday as I listened to this very same mayor (relying on the same facts as the North Coast Voices post) supporting a notice of motion that sought a report to councillors on the condition of its flood levees and, heard him admit the public safety issue and commit council to repair the damaged Waterview levee ahead of any NSW Government monetary compensation for this repair.

The grin grew even broader as I heard him address some of his remarks directly to local mainstream media.

UPDATE

Apparently breakfast announcer with Radio 2GF Grafton, NSW Nationals party member (and campaign manager for Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis), Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson, who characterizes his Twitter account thus;

has taken exception to North Coast Voices yet again;

Apparently official contributors to North Coast Voices (all of whom are Clarence Valley electors) are something to defecate on for this particular mayor.

For a local government councillor, who has been in office for ten years, it seems that à la Animal Farm some electors  are definitely more equal than others.

An impressive own goal for a mayor hoping to be re-elected in around 541 days. 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott just demolished one of his latest reasons for proposing deregulation of university fees

This was Prime Minister Tony Abbott being quoted in The Australian on 14 March 2015 concerning his desire to deregulate university fees:

Mr Abbott said just one Australian university was now ranked in the world’s top 50.

“Why not try to get two in the top 20. Unless we take the dead hand of Canberra away that is going to be extremely difficult,” he said.

It seems Mr. Abbott has either not bothered to research the issue and relied on a single recent newspaper report or he is just making things up again because he knows News Corp media is not going to challenge the nonsense he spouts.

The 2014-15 Times Higher Education world university rankings survey (covering 400 universities) lists five Australian universities in the top 100 and two, I repeat two, in the top 50 universities.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014-15/world-ranking

Food to cost more, be of poorer quality, often tasteless or scarce as the number of very hot days per year keep increasing in Australia

The bad news continues.....

APPETITE FOR CHANGE GLOBAL WARMING IMPACTS ON FOOD AND FARMING REGIONS IN AUSTRALIA (Melbourne University, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, March 2015):

With 93% of the food we eat grown here in Australia, the future of Australian farming matters to all of us. Australia is lucky to have a strong agricultural sector that plays a pivotal role in contributing to the Australian economy and defining Australian culture.

In 2012-13 the gross value of total Australian agricultural production was $48 billion.  But Australian agriculture is at a turning point. We are halfway through what scientists refer to as the ‘critical decade’ to act on climate change. And with less than a 1-degree global average rise in temperatures, climate change is already impacting a suite of Australian-grown commodities and will continue to impact farmers if stronger global efforts to reduce carbon pollution are not forthcoming.

Australian agriculture is heavily reliant on predictable rainfall and temperature to maintain production of high quality food. Australian farmers have always faced a highly variable climate, but now climate change adds significant additional complexity to their management.

According to the CSIRO, production from cropping and livestock is projected to decline by 2030 over much of southern Australia due to increased drought and the fact that the availability of nutrients will limit productivity in most Australian landscapes. Heat and drought are likely to reduce the quality of grain, grape, vegetable, fruit, and other crops. A 20% reduction in rainfall could reduce pasture productivity by 15%, and livestock weight gain by 12%, which would substantially reduce farm income.

There is likely to be a southward movement of pests and diseases as the southern regions warm.  Food production in Australia will need to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. But there are limits to the temperatures and extreme weather events that farmers will be able to adapt to. Some industries are already relocating to new regions now more suited to their production systems, causing disruption to rural communities. …..

Excerpt from accompanying media release, 15 March 2015:

Key findings of the report reveal that:

* Dairy foods are likely to be affected by warmer temperatures and more heat waves, as heat stress on dairy cows typically reduces milk yield by 10-25 per cent, and by up to 40 per cent in extreme heat wave conditions.

* A warmer and drier climate will pose significant challenges to beef production systems in southern Australia. Southern pasture growing seasons are expected to contract, while increased heat stress may lead farmers to choose more heat tolerant cattle breeds possibly of lower meat-eating
quality.

* Warmer temperatures adversely affect the flavour of carrots, as well as their texture and physical structure. Higher temperatures associated with climate change are likely to make carrot production less viable in warmer areas with shifts to cooler regions such as Tasmania.

* Extremely hot weather can reduce the quality of bee honey and has other flow-on effects such as reduced pollination for fruit trees.

* Higher temperatures and humidity can cause “late blight” in potatoes, which rots the tubers and makes them inedible.

* Chickens are sensitive to heat stress, which will affect the quality of their meat. Increased droughts around the world are also leading to more volatility in the price of grain used to feed chicken.

* Temperatures above 27°C will potentially cause bolting (prematurely running to seed) and poor colouring in beetroots.

* Climate change is likely to reduce reliable rainfall and place pressure on water availability in Australia’s current major rice-growing regions.

* Rainfall and temperature changes will affect wheat growth, with lower and more variable production forecasted. The zinc and iron concentrations of Australian wheat are projected to be 5-10 per cent lower by the middle of the century, adding to pressures associated with malnutrition.

* Climate change is acidifying our coastal waters making it harder for shellfish to build their shells.

* Fruit trees and nuts in southern Australia will not get cold enough in winter to signal fruit development.

Destroy the Joint is counting dead women - Part Two

As of 2 March 2015 two women were killed by violence every week this year in Australia.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/destroy-the-joint/counting-dead-women-australia-2015/839061602808252

In which Australian Education Minister Christopher Pyne's nose grows longer and longer.....

The Australian depiction of Christopher Pyne and his deregulated university course fees

This was the Australian Education Minister Christopher Pyne being interviewed by The Insiders program on 15 March 2015:

Labor of course are the only reason why the crossbenchers are where the action is because Labor's taken themselves out of the conversation by being political opportunists, except of course we now see that they represent an existential threat to universities because of Kim Carr's policy of putting caps back on, paying on outcomes and shutting out low socioeconomic status students from university.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Education and Work, Australia, May 2014 clearly states that:

Of those engaged in formal study, approximately 1.2 million (40%) were attending a higher education institution….

More than one third (39%) of people aged 15–64 years who were enrolled in a non-school qualification were studying for a Bachelor Degree….

Leaving aside the fact that is was past Labor federal governments which introduced first free university education then later low, no-interest loans to meet the shortfall between government funding of university places and course costs and, even adjusting this attendance figure for overseas students studying in this country, that still leaves an est. 1 million domestic university students of which an est 17.5% are from low socio-economic backgrounds.

In fact, the reason that the percentage stands nationally at an est. 17.5 is because the former Gillard Labor Government uncapped Commonwealth supported student places at Australian universities under the demand-driven system in 2012 and, this led to an immediate 0.5% enrolment increase within twelve months of low socio-economic students [Socio-economic Status of Schools and University Academic Performance: Implications for Australia’s Higher Education Expansion, December 2014]

Some universities can now boast 20% or more students from low-income family backgrounds.

When comparing the percentage of such students in the final years of the Gillard Government with percentages during the Howard Coalition Government, it is clear that numbers being admitted to university from this group were lower during the Howard years – in the first three years the percentage never rose above 14.7% [Socioeconomic Background and Higher Education Participation, 2002] and didn’t reach 16% until the early 2000s.

Mr. Pyne appears to have offered up his strange claims to voters before this.

As Labor’s higher education policy, the Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Industry Kim Carr pointed out at a Universities Australia conference on 12 March 2015.

The Minister and some supporters of deregulation have chosen to wilfully misinterpret my past remarks as a signal that Labor intends to impose an enrolment freeze.

Let me categorically reject that claim.

Mr Pyne’s so-called analysis of these claims is based on a lie.

Under Labor, the number of student places will continue to grow. Under Labor, universities will be properly funded.