It just gets better

(Submitted article)

Andrew McNamara wouldn’t know if his A#$% was on fire. Just look back at his laughable antics and statements over the last 8 or so years.

 He was the prophet of Peak Oil Theory before the last election. “Petrol will reach $2 per litre by Christmas” he was quoted by his free media publicists – the Chronicle. That was 3 or 4 years ago. Now it is $1.01. But it was great free media attention. What a joke! At least it would be if this guy were not supposed to be our serious representative!

“We will save the Dingos”. By fencing it the people? With gates and grids that are not dingo proof but have the potential to seriously injure people? What a joke! At least it would be if this guy were not supposed to be our serious representative!

“We will build Traveston Dam and take all the water and save Southeast Qld and hang the Mary Valley and Great Sandy Strait!” “Oh, it has rained now so we can forget all that controversial stuff.” What a joke! At least it would be if this guy were not supposed to be our serious representative!

“We must save these crocodiles. Lets move them to where there is plenty of food. No, it does not matter if that is near humans because crocodiles prefer barramundi”. What a joke! At least it would be if this guy were not supposed to be our serious representative!

“The Waterpark will be a testament to my greatness and wisdom. It will attract tourists from all over! It will be zero depth and therefore will not waste any water!” We all know tourists will not travel a long way to see a couple of squirts of water. But even more important, every farmer knows that if you squirt water into the air a lot of it evaporates before it hits the ground. And when it does hit the ground a lot more evaporates whether it is sitting on the top of a deep dam or on top of flat ground. Evaporation still happens! What a joke! At least it would be if this guy were not supposed to be our serious representative!

The list could go on and on (BBS: It does!!) ….. Name one significant and positive thing he has done for Hervey Bay? Not that he has to worry. He gets his permanent pension of $100,000 plus per year after Feb 17th. That is the main reason why we have not had an election yet. He and a large number of his fat-cat mates in parliament would miss out on that little bonus.

BARRAGING THRU

(The following is a response from Roger Currie to comments on our previous article regarding the Mary River Barrage)

My dear Gurgeena , yes i am aware of and agree with all of your points. The cabinet is about to approve the ROP ( Resource operation plan ) for the Mary river WRP ( Water resource plan ), this will entail using the regained allocations  ( 10,000 mgl) from the footprint of Traveston Dam , and telling the maryborough cane industry that they can have it,  to allay thier fears.

However , some clarification might help :

Traveston will not be built , a new wall at Borumba might , dependent on whether the ALP retains power and/or the LNP gains a greens /independent sharing agreement . The LNP is keen on the Borumba scenario , and the ALP may see it as a good fall back position , they can pump directly into  brisbane via the NPI pipeline.

Borumba may give them 20,000 mgl a year.

A crucial turning point for the Mary cane industry  , will be if the FC council has its sights set on the urban development project for Granville.

If Marybororugh Sugar has a win there , it will signal a further escalation in converting cane lands to urban use . My personal perception is that the ex Marybororugh councillors would not view this project in a negative light , simply because of its location and the Mary cane industry , does not vote labor.

I assume that the projected growth figures for the Hervey Bay area , are predicated on the flow of retirees from ‘down south’ continuing , this is dependent on the housing market  down south being profitable enought for them to make the move .

Should this fail to happen , and there are signs emerging ,  this will be the best thing to happen to the ecological health of the Fraser Coast, in my lifetime  . In fact if we are to see a major downturn in the current level of development within the Fraser Coast , this would be  a  ‘growth surge ‘ and a ’surplus’ in the biodiversity market. Where as at the moment we have a ‘deficit’ in biodiversity protection.

This will of course mean that pro -development councillors will become ’surplus to requirements’, and with their newly gained spare time , they can pursue a path of learning what ’sustainabe use of a resource’, means at the LGA level .

At present we have the pro development lobby screaming about the ‘poor performance of the councils planning processes , restricting economic development in the FC , to much red tape they decry , we need more development , and we need it now , because there is a depression happening ‘. The posturing of those who stand to lose the most from negative growth , is testament to lobby group who care for nothing but , ‘growth for growths sake’.

I have not seen the development lobby telling the local member and the Premeire to get their greedy hands of the Mary River and the Great Sandy Straits?

Depressing it must be for the rich guys , when they know that their reign  of manipulation is coming to an end , depressing it must be when they know that the greed that fuelled the meltdown , has reached out across the Coral Sea , and is sucking at their profits .

Intelligent people know that minimal development is not something to be scared of, the ecomony is a wild beast which cannot be controlled , it feeds off fear and depression , when the ‘phsycotic’ behaviour of the market settles , the beast will be calm .

Jobs on the go..

Latest buzz around Maryborough is the current round of redundancies from major companies.. just before Christmas several sawmills in the region closed down completely while another laid off nearly 20 personel.  Now we understand 3 major manufacturing companies are set to lay off between 50 and 60 staff each in the next few days.

It is beyond time that council and our elected representatives got behind projects such as the stalled marine industrial precint to bring more job diversity to the region.

Long term things will recover but in the meantime why not consider what you can do to help the local economy?  Lets all start by shopping locally and help preserve local jobs – the big chains really do not need our money!

No Traveston – now no barrage?

It alarms us to hear that the so-called minister for Sustainability Mr Andrew McNamara is about to reveal his latest wonderful ideas for water.

Now usually we’d say that any new water policy that works towards more sustainable practise has got to be a good thing but when it involves destroying the sustainability of a major local industry and jeopardising the emergency water supply of an entire community we must disagree.

The short version is that Mr McNamara has decreed that he wishes the barrage on the Mary River just upstream of Maryborough to be dismantled and removed within the next decade.  What this means that this important infrastructure will cease to exist and with it a reliable source of irrigation water many of our region’s cane farmers rely on to survive.  This barrage was also configured to provide additional water reserves for the city of Maryborough in time of drought.

Surely it does not make sense to remove existing infrastructure – unlike other more recent ‘dams’ this barrage works effectively, as does its fish ladder to our understanding (apparently Paradise dam’s fish lift still doesn’t work) and regularly overflows providing important flows to keep the river healthy..

Trade Deficit = Freedom Deficit

Trade deficit can be a difficult thing to grasp. Fortunately, we’ve found the following explanation:

“Consider what happens when individuals barter with each other,” he said. “A baker trades a loaf of bread with the farmer for a dozen eggs. A tailor trades a suit of clothes for a cow. A migrant worker trades an afternoon’s labor for a meal and a place to sleep. Is a ‘trade deficit’ possible in any of these cases? Could there be a deficit if, say, a shirt maker in China trades 1,000 shirts for 100 barrels of oil from, say, some producer in Texas?”

“Obviously, no. A gives something to B in exchange for something else and both get what they bargained for. No deficit is possible.”

“So how is it that when the farmer, or the migrant worker, or the Chinese shirt maker trade their goods and services for money, that suddenly the deficit problem pops up?”

“Because when individuals trade real goods, the exchange is complete. But when one half of an exchange is for money, the government enters the picture. Individuals create real goods and services with labor and capital, while governments create the money by “fiat” (i.e., by law), simply pushing computer keys and running printing presses. The newly created money, which cost next to zero to print, buys up real goods and services. And as the money percolates through the economy, it leaves a swath of destructive imbalances, including such things as inflation and trade deficits. Governments then step in with more laws and restrictions that purport to solve the economic problems that their fiat money policies spawned.”

“Money creation is a form of theft (and, as Richard Maybury once said, theft is just a nice word for taxation), albeit so subtle that the public never seems to catch on. In a world where individuals and not governments were sovereign, the marketplace couldn’t have trade deficits or inflation, as the marketplace has feedback mechanisms to deal with anyone who creates irredeemable money. But when governments usurp the freedom of individuals by passing laws defining legal money as the money printed by the government, all manner of economic evils follow.”

“What can a sovereign individual do? Forget futile efforts to influence the politicians, and assume everything they do to ‘solve’ the trade deficit will reduce your freedoms even more. Go to the root of the problem, which is fiat money. Historically, gold and silver have been the free-market’s choice for trade, and the ultimate refuge from fiat monies. You can regain some sovereignty in the monetary arena by holding and dealing in real money whenever possible. Gold and silver, whether held as assets to defend against depreciating currencies, or as mechanisms for trade through free-market exchanges like GoldMoney.com, or LibertyDollar.org, are real money. Hold and use real, free-market money whenever you can.”

NIMBYISM

Opposition to new development is fraught with so many acronyms that you need a lexicon to decode them. The catch-all term is NIMBYism, sufficiently well known to merit an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, which identifies its first use in a 1980 Christian Science Monitor story. The term arose to describe opposition to large infrastructure projects undertaken by public agencies or utility companies, such as highways, nuclear power plants, waste disposal facilities, and prisons. (These are known as LULUs, Locally Undesirable Land Uses) It has now extended outward in concentric circles of opposition, each with its own acronym: NOTEs (Not Over There Either), NIABYs (Not In Anyone’s Backyard), BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone), and even NOPEs (Not On Planet Earth!). It is also possible to find references to CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) and NIMTOOs (Not In My Term Of Office).

In any event, opposition to development has long since entered its second phase, targeting not just LULUs, but also ordinary development projects. It is now a standard feature of the development landscape, a form of ritual performance art. As a citizen activist and author of a NIMBY handbook unapologetically observes, “Everyone is a NIMBY, and no one wants a LULU.”

 

On a local level, today’s nonsense in the local about a certain councilor and business owner up in arms about a project starting on schedule is just another example of how prevalent this disease is in our community.  Very sad indeed.

Happy New Year

From the team Happy New Year to you all..

 

We’ll be back soon….