Who is Henry Ergas and why did he hop aboard Teh Rabbit's Fright Bus?

Prompted by a tongue-in-cheek Jeremy Sear tweet asking the questions “Where the hell is Henry Ergas pulling this "$1 trillion" figure for the carbon price from? And who is Henry Ergas anyway?” I went looking for answers.

This is Henry:

Pic from The Australian

This is what what Wollongong University has to say about Henry:

Professor Ergas is a well-known regulatory economist who held a range of leading positions at the OECD before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s. He chaired the Australian Intellectual Property and Competition Review Committee for the Australian Government in 1999-2000 and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Export Infrastructure Task Force in 2005 and the Defence Industry Policy Review in 2006. He has published extensively on infrastructure regulation and cost-benefit analysis."

This is what Liberal Party hacks have been saying about Henry:

“evidence before the inquiry by Professor Henry Ergas, the carbon tax will cost the Australian economy more than $1 trillion between now and 2050.”

This is what The Prof tells the Murdoch meeja:

“the carbon tax will cost a year's national income: that is, $1 trillion.”

This is what the Liberal Party’s best mate told the Senate Carbon Tax Inquiry on 10^th August 2011:

“Yes. What is available that Treasury have indeed released, and I congratulate them on doing so, is a spreadsheet that is similar to a spreadsheet that they had released for the CPRS model and that spreadsheet allows you to look at the change in the value of GDP under the base case, as it were, and with the so-called core policy, which is the primary abatement scenario that they model, and also under the so-called high-price scenario, which is where you go for more ambitious abatement. So what you can do, Senator, is you can use that spreadsheet—and you do need to make a number of assumptions—to calculate the value today of the change in GDP under those alternative carbon tax scenarios. To put it in perhaps simplistic terms—but this may help explain what is going on—say that in 2020 GDP would otherwise have been $2 trillion and instead, under the modelling of the core policy, it is $1.8 trillion, and in 2030 it would have been $3 trillion and instead is $2.6 trillion, you can take that difference and express it as if it were a value today. You can bring it back to the present. To do that you have to find some way of adding up amounts at different points in time. You have to take some account of the time value of money. In the calculation that I set out, I used a discount rate—that is, the assumed time value of money, as it were, that is used in the Garnaut report. When you do that, you get a GDP loss that is in the order of somewhere between $890 billion and $1.345 trillion for the core policy scenario. I rounded it to about $1 trillion.”

This is the conclusion he drew for the Business Council of Australia:

The Gillard government's emissions trading scheme poses a $9 billion risk to the already stretched federal budget in its first five years if carbon price estimates prove optimistic

And this is how good an economist ol’ Henry is:

Extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 20:14:00 on 15/10/2011

 

Name	NETWORK ECONOMICS CONSULTING GROUP PTY LTD
ACN	006 819 969
ABN	72 006 819 969
Type	Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date	27/07/1987
Next Review Date	27/07/2010
Status	Deregistered Date Deregistered 21/10/2009
Locality of Registered Office	not available
Jurisdiction	Australian Securities & Investments Commission
Former Name(s)	ERGAS & ASSOCIATES PTY. LTD.
	WATRON PTY. LTD.
Extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 20:41:54 on 15/10/2011

 

Name	CONCEPT ECONOMICS PTY LTD
ACN	129 990 530
Type	Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date	03/03/2008
Next Review Date	03/03/2012
Status	Deregistered Date Deregistered 08/05/2011
Locality of Registered Office	not available
Jurisdiction	Australian Securities & Investments Commission

From Bloomberg Business Week:

Network Economics Consulting Group Pty. Ltd. provides economic and strategic advisory services.

Mr. Henry Ergas Managing Director  

From Manta:

Concept Economics Pty Ltd

Henry Issac Simon Ergas Director

Inevitable conclusion – why on earth would I trust the carbon tax sums done by a Menzies House amigo who apparently couldn’t balance the books of two businesses?

Some advice for polluter: sell a couple of racehorses, pay your bills and get your house in order!

South Grafton abattoir owner Ramsey Food Processing has been found in contempt of court relating to initial charges of polluting waterways in 2008.

On Thursday, Justice Sheahan of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court held the company in contempt of court orders and noted "for the record" that the defendant did not appear at the day's hearing.

Ramsey Food Processing failed to carry out an environmental audit of the abattoir's operation and failed to place notices in local and State newspapers to notify the public.

Justice Sheahan adjourned the contempt proceedings for further hearing on conviction and sentence on December 7 and 8, 2011.

He ordered the defendant to pay the costs of the prosecutor's motion "as agreed or assessed".

Read the full report in today's Daily Examiner here.

Source: The Daily Examiner, 15/10/11

Translation: I really don't like the Nationals pre-selection candidate

One of NSW Nationals preselection candidates in the run up to the Clarence by-election gets a vote of no confidence from one local in a letter to the editor in today’s The Daily Examiner:
I HAVE written a letter that I hope can be published and shared among the people of the Clarence Valley.
This letter has to do with the preselection occurring in the area and may very well help the people of the valley to vote right in order to assure the best, most promising candidate is chosen this weekend.
In 2007, Nationals Party MP Ian Causley retired after serving the party for 11 years. It was then that Chris Gulaptis (local man of Maclean at the time) became the new Nationals candidate.
While Mr Gulaptis was putting up a tough campaign, he still faced a difficult contest from his Labor opponent Janelle Saffin throughout the election.
The November 24, 2007, federal election revealed that Janelle Saffin accumulated more votes than Gulaptis from within the communities and was sure to be the better MP out of the two.
This outcome left many National Party members and supporters extremely disappointed.
During the campaign, Mr Gulaptis made himself well known as a friendly, compassionate and dedicated candidate.
When the announcement came through that Ms Saffin had won the seat and defeated Gulaptis, it wasn't too long before the people of the National Party realised there was another side to their "perfect candidate".
It is only expected that after an election is held, win or lose, that the candidate shows some form of appreciation and gratitude towards his/her members and volunteers - normally an after celebration.
Mr Gulaptis provided nothing for his party.
In fact, for a man who loved the party so much, it proved easy for him to decide that working in politics was no longer of interest to him.
He walked from the Nationals and left the Clarence Valley with his tail between his legs.
It is for that reason Gulaptis sounded like a media clown when he commented: "The Nationals on the North Coast are like a second family to me." The former candidate has always claimed that he relocated to Mackay in 2008 for work reasons.
There, in north Queensland, he had found himself a new career at a surveying firm and became responsible for its management.
It was not his decision to leave that left the people of the Valley saddened, but the shock of how soon it happened after the election.
The people of the Clarence Valley should want their chosen candidate to be somebody who is true to themselves and can be trusted; somebody who will show more concern about the people and the community in which he/she lives than themselves and their reputation. If Chris Gulaptis is appointed to the seat, all we can hope for is that the going never gets tough.
THERESE MANNING,
Maclean

Pic from The Daily Examiner

Saturday's Adult LOL

2010

In the US and in the online adult industry making those DVDs

http://bit.ly/qtaQmd

2011

In Australia with complete memory loss concerning any adult content

http://bit.ly/niRA7X

The Movie Rights Group which obviously thought no-one would notice. LOL.

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia prepares to again walk away from truth in labelling

This is the Senate bill:

Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling--Palm Oil) Bill 2010 No. , 2010 (Senators Xenophon and Bob Brown) A Bill for an Act to provide for the accurate labelling of palm oil in food, and for related purposes

                                                                                                                           

This is the disappointing response:

Advisory report on the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling—Palm Oil) Bill 2011, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, September 2011

Here is the membership of the committee which produced this report:

Chair Ms Julie Owens MP

Deputy Chair Mr Steven Ciobo MP

Members Mr Scott Buchholz MP

Mr Stephen Jones MP

Dr Andrew Leigh MP

Ms Kelly O'Dwyer MP

Mr Craig Thomson MP

Supplementary Mr Adam Bandt MP

Members Mr Bruce Billson MP

Mr Shayne Neumann MP

Ms Laura Smyth MP

And this is who suffers:

Photograph from The Age in 2007

Clarence By-election 2011 date set

Voters in the northern electorate will return to the polls on November 19 after the resignation last month of Nationals MP Steve Cansdell.

GILLARD AND SWAN ARE LYING COMMUNIST TRAITORS !!!!

The crazy Abbott Army at play.............

The Daily Examiner Beyond 'fair comment' 13 October 2011:

It did not take long after the Gillard Government had the carbon tax legislation passed by the House of Representatives yesterday for the rednecks to stick their heads up. Many would have had their bile-filled commentaries ready to hit the blogosphere even before the legislation went through.

Here's an edited extract of an email sent to me by someone who claims to be William Jones with an email address communistfighter@gmail.com.

First the headline, as was written: "GILLARD AND SWAN ARE LYING COMMUNIST TRAITORS !!!!"

Then: "ELECTION NOW !!!!!!!

"CIVIL UNREST AND RIOTS IN THE STREETS ARE NOW ASSURED !!

"YOU AR...OLE COMMUNISTS HAVE BROUGH THIS HELL ON YOURSELVES !!!!!!!

"DIE YOU F.....G C...S !!!!!!!!!!"

It's all well and good to disagree with governments and government decisions. That is a healthy part of democracy.

But to stoop to gutter language, abuse and thinly veiled threats of rioting and civil unrest has no place in the Australian political discourse.

Then there was this from someone who goes by the name of Prakein Woldnomish, again with some of more extreme language deleted.

"F..K OFF AND DIE YOU PIECE OF S..T SENILE COMMUNIST !DIE YOU .... !"

We've always had lunatics commenting on political issues.

The difference this time is this shows every sign of being orchestrated and funded by wealthy third parties with powerful connections.

But they are not getting it all their own way. Here's one of the responses from a recipient of those emails: "Do you really think the use of block capitals (in red), multiple exclamation marks and the use of the most vile profanities adds intellectual weight to your spittle-flecked, conspiratorial rubbish?

"Please take me off your mailing list - my IQ drops a few points every time I accidentally open one of your offensive missives."

Hear, hear.

The Sydney Morning Herald 13 October 2011:

The Liberal Party's official website yesyterday ran comments calling Ms Gillard "Madam Hitler" and calling on readers to "shoot the f---ing bitch".

Excerpts from the House of Representatives Hansard on Wednesday 12 October 2011 between 14:19 and 16:30 concerning the actions of certain people sitting in the public gallery:

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

The SPEAKER (15:25): Order! Everybody will sit down. I was not going to respond to the Leader of the House's question but, encouraged by everybody who has to have a comment, if you want me to investigate this morning, I will investigate this morning—but have the decency to get up and put your name to that question. And remember that the gallery where that occurred this morning is the public gallery. The difference is that the gallery where it occurred this afternoon is a gallery where people get allocated tickets that have been asked for by members. I would hope that some people would adopt some care about raising these issues without understanding what has happened both today, possibly, and previously. There is a responsibility on members who sign guests into this place, and from time to time members are reminded of those responsibilities. Quite correctly, not much public attention is given to that, so please tread carefully. All I am saying is that there is a responsibility on those who sign people in for their behaviour.

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/newsradio/audio/20111012questionreps.mp3

Abbott's Army in Action -video

Frank Walker in 2010 - background of an email pest

Biosecurity: a lesson begging to be learned

With free trade agreements placing so much pressure on Australia’s biosecurity regimes, it is well to remember that failure to stop the introduction and spread of agricultural pests and diseases is often the norm elsewhere.

CBS News 10 October 2011:

FRESNO, Calif. - Dozens of foreign insects and plant diseases slipped undetected into the United States in the years after 9/11, when authorities were so focused on preventing another attack that they overlooked a pest explosion that threatened the quality of the nation's food supply.

At the time, hundreds of agricultural scientists responsible for stopping invasive species at the border were reassigned to anti-terrorism duties in the newly formed Homeland Security Department — a move that scientists say cost billions of dollars in crop damage and eradication efforts from California vineyards to Florida citrus groves.

The consequences come home to consumers in the form of higher grocery prices, substandard produce and the risk of environmental damage from chemicals needed to combat the pests.

An Associated Press analysis of inspection records found that border-protection officials were so engrossed in stopping terrorists that they all but ignored the country's exposure to destructive new insects and infections — a quietly growing menace that has been attacking fruits and vegetables and even prized forests ever since.

"Whether they know it or not, every person in the country is affected by this, whether by the quality or cost of their food, the pesticide residue on food or not being able to enjoy the outdoors because beetles are killing off the trees," said Mark Hoddle, an entomologist specializing in invasive species at the University of California, Riverside.

Homeland Security officials acknowledge making mistakes and say they are now working to step up agricultural inspections at border checkpoints, airports and seaports.

A Crikey whistle-blower bites the dust?

On 9^th December 2010 an Executive Level 2 public servant went on leave until late January 2011.

On 22^nd December 2010 Crikey in its Tips and rumours segment published this:

“Climate Change in debt… The Department of Climate Change is planning a major debt recovery program in the New Year to recover hundreds of millions of dollars rorted under the Household Insulation Program/Low Emmission Assistance Program for Renters, and rescue packages including the Insulation Industry Assistance Program. The Department continues to mismanage not only the primary pink batts program, but all subsequent rescue programs as well at Australian taxpayers’ expense.
The Department is facing multi-million dollar lawsuits in which it does not have the capital to cover. Maybe this is the reason for Prime Minister Gillard appointing Dr Parkinson from the Department of Climate Change to the new role of Treasury Secretary to fund the bail-out.
…and sub-contracts training. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency sub-contracts Price Waterhouse Coopers to manage the Home Insulation Safety and Rectification programs. Price Waterhouse Coopers sub-contract CSR Bradfords and United Group Limited to conduct inspections and rectifications of houses who had insulation installed under the failed pink batts program.
The Department is paying all training costs of CSR Bradfords staff to be trained as Home Insulation Safety Inspectors but not funding any component of United Group Limited contractors to undertake the same training. How much is the training costing the Australian tax payer and why the inequity in funding arrangements favouring one commercial organsiation over another?
And pink batts still cause grief. Almost 12 months after the Department of Climate Change cancelled its failed pink batts program installers are still no closer to finalising their affairs. Some businesses have gone into liquidation, losing everything they have, while others have resorted to other more desperate means by attempting to take their own lives (which the Department is well aware of). Still the Department mismanages the clean-up of this disastrous insulation program. Not that you would know with a number of executives in the Department responsible for the program getting performance bonuses, awards or promotions as a result of their participation.”
There was another mention of the department in Tips and rumours on 10^th January 2011.

On 30^th January 2011 this public servant lost his job and on 7^th June 2011 his dismissal from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency was confirmed in a decision by Fair Work Australia. On 16^th September 2011 an appeal of this decision was dismissed.

Crikey was mentioned almost in the same breath as “potential breaches of the Australian Public Service (APS) Code of Conduct”. It seems Now with extra source has a dangerous ring to it if you want to walk those departmental corridors.