Australian Politics
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Why food prices could surge as farms are forced to close by 2030 under a plan by Labor Party activists
This policy is unlikely to get up but we have seen where Green attacks on orthodox farming have led in SriLanka -- to some real starvation. In Australia the effect would probably be just to jack up food prices. As if we haven't already had enough of that! It would be a great election-loser. It's a good comment on the unrealistic thinking of the Left that they are advocating a policy that would lose them the next election.
Food prices could surge as farms are forced to close by 2030 - leading to mass job losses - if radical Labor Party environmental activists get their way.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government is already committed to reducing carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, with support from the Greens.
But the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) wants carbon emissions slashed by an even more dramatic 50 per cent within six-and-a-half years as part of its 'climate, clearing and cows' campaign.
LEAN has support from 350 Labor Party branches and is urging them to push that motion at Labor's national conference being held in Brisbane this week.
With federal Labor under threat from the Greens in Byron Bay and inner-city areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, there are fears middle-class, left-wing activists within the party could prevail.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, whose gentrified electorate of Sydney overlaps with the Greens-held state seat of Newtown, was photographed at a LEAN event in 2016 holding a sign touting 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
While 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 is less contentious, it is part of LEAN's '50/50 branch motion' campaign to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.
National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said the push to halve carbon pollution in little more than six years could result in much higher food prices as farms are forced to close by 2030.
'This motion is about taking farms out of production, killing jobs and pushing up food prices,' she said. 'This is not a sensible policy for a mainstream political party.
'Voting this through would be an open-armed embrace of fringe views that are anti-science and anti-farming. It's as simple as that.'
LEAN describes land use as one of two major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, along with energy consumption, and is campaigning to halve agricultural carbon pollution describing it as 'cows; their burps and farts'.
'Around 51 per cent of Australia's methane emissions come from agriculture, primarily as a by-product of the way cows and sheep digest food,' it said. 'They burp and fart methane into the atmosphere.'
Ms Simson said truck drivers and port stevedores would also be out of work as a result of these policies.
'We're not just talking about farming jobs, but also in trucking, in stevedoring and of course in meat processing – our largest manufacturing industry.'
This would threaten unionised jobs and affect members of the left-wing Maritime Union of Australia who work on the ports, along with truck drivers with the Transport Workers Union and meat processors belonging to the Australian Workers Union.
Ms Simson said Labor Party delegates needed to keep jobs in mind as the party of trade unions.
'Delegates need to be clearheaded about what really matters to Australians and what the ALP stands for,' she said.
'Is it protecting jobs and tackling the cost of living?
'Or pleasing environmental outliers who have turned their back on science and common sense?'
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As 400,000 new migrants arrive in Australia, one expert argues high immigration makes us less productive, prevents home ownership and fuels inflation
Record-high immigration is fuelling inflation by making Australians less productive at work and stopping them from owning a house, an economist says.
Treasury is expecting a record 400,000 new migrants to have arrived in Australia in the year to June.
Close to 1.5 million migrants, on a net basis, are expected to arrive in the five years as the likes of the Business Council of Australia, the lobby group for millionaire chief executives, pushes for high immigration.
Australia's population last year grew by 1.9 per cent, among the highest in the developed world.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said immigration-driven population growth was in fact making Australians less productive at work, because they often had to travel long distances to the office.
'Very strong population growth with an inadequate infrastructure and housing supply response has led to urban congestion and poor housing affordability which contribute to poor productivity growth,' he said.
Weak productivity means companies are more likely to pass on costs to consumers to pay for higher wages, in turn keeping inflation well above the Reserve Bank's two to three per cent target.
'If wages go up four per cent and productivity growth is zero, business costs go up four per cent and they will pass this on to their customers likely resulting in inflation above the RBA's target,' Dr Oliver said.
He also argued that high population growth meant investors were buying homes for capital gain instead of ploughing their money into new business ventures or shares.
'Increased speculative activity around housing diverts resources from more productive uses,' he said.
Sydney's median house price of $1.334million is beyond the reach of an average, full-time worker earning $94,000.
That's because a million-dollar loan with a 20 per cent mortgage deposit would give someone a debt-to-income ratio of 11 - a level well beyond the banking regulator's 'six' threshold for mortgage stress.
Australia's wage price index grew by 3.6 per cent in June, down from an annual pace of 3.7 per cent in the March, marking the first annual drop since 2020.
It remained well below the 6 per cent inflation rate and the 9.6 per cent increase in employee living costs, as calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
How Australia's population growth compares
SINGAPORE: Up 3.4 per cent in 2022
CANADA: Up 2.7 per cent in 2022
AUSTRALIA: Up 1.9 per cent in 2022
NEW ZEALAND: Up 0.7 per cent in 2022
UNITED STATES: Up 0.4 per cent in 2022
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Stats NZ, U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics Canada, Singapore Department of Statistics
This meant workers were effectively suffering a six per cent cut in real wages.
Productivity growth has been stuck below one per cent for the past decade, a level well below the two per cent pace of the 1990s.
Australia's annual net overseas migration level has consistently been in the six-figure range since 1999, excluding the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when skilled migrants and international students were included.
Dr Oliver said unless productivity growth returned to 1990s levels, inflation would stay higher for longer, but feared both major political parties were reluctant to liberalise labour laws.
'After nearly two decades of policy drift, declining productivity growth is weighing on growth in living standards and sustainable real wages growth,' he said.
'The political will for the sort of economic reforms necessary (particularly around taxation and labour markets) for another 1990s style rebound in productivity growth looks unlikely.
'This in turn makes the RBA's job in getting inflation down a little bit harder and will constrain medium term investment returns.'
The Department of Home Affairs has revealed how many applications were finalised during the first nine months of the 2022-23 financial year, compared with the same period to the end of March in 2021-22.
The skilled migration category saw a 111.7 per cent increase, with the permanent intake rising to 144,040, up from 68,055.
Student visa approvals, classified as temporary but long-term arrivals, increased by 154.4 per cent to 511,149, up from 200,941.
Another set of data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics showed a net overseas migration pace of 387,000 last year, following the reopening of the border to migrants in December 2021.
When 109,800 births were added, minus deaths, Australia's population grew by 496,800 to 26,268,359.
Australia surpassed the 25million milestone in 2018 - 24 years earlier than predicted in Treasury's inaugural Intergenerational report of 2002.
The 1.9 per cent population growth pace in 2022 was significantly higher than the American level of 0.4 per cent.
Dr Oliver said the political pendulum had swung in a left-wing direction, away from market-based solutions, blaming 'the perceived failure of the baby boomer generation to do much about climate change and housing affordability'.
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‘Handed over’: Ten Victorian councils blindsided by sweeping Aboriginal land rights deal
Ten Victorian councils covering an area half the size of Tasmania have been blindsided by a settlement agreement that includes a list of proposals that would hand Indigenous groups sweeping powers to rename all roads, bridges and public spaces, co-manage waterways and biosecurity, as well as “preferential” access to council procurement contracts and jobs.
However, the government insists the deal “does not contain legal obligations” or impact current laws and regulations, and instead is an “aspirational” list of ways the traditional owners would like to work with councils, with the help of state authorities.
“We’re not allowed to name roads anymore,” said West Wimmera mayor Tim Meyer, commenting on the proposals in the agreement.
“The land council has to tell us what the road names are going to be from now on. [Legendary AFL coach] Alastair Clarkson’s a local boy here – there’s no chance of ever getting a road named after him now.”
Some local mayors fear that, similar to the experience of the shambolic rollout of Western Australia’s controversial new cultural heritage laws, the agreement will give Indigenous groups effective “veto” power to halt a wide range of activities without approval.
“The land council has to be consulted on everything and you’ve got to pay for that consultation,” said Cr Meyer. “We don’t know [how much it will cost]. They might say it’s 20 bucks an hour, they might say it’s 1000 bucks an hour. We don’t know.”
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes signed the “expanded settlement package” with the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk (WJJWJ) Peoples last October, but the affected councils claim they were not included in the negotiations and were only made aware of the deal just over a month ago when it was presented to them as a “fait accompli”.
The agreement, which will be administered by the Barengi Gadjin Land Council (BGLC), covers 10 council areas in Victoria’s northwest – Mildura, West Wimmera, Northern Grampians, Southern Grampians, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Pyrenees, Yarriambiack, Horsham and Ararat – a total area of nearly 36,000 square kilometres.
The agreement “builds on our existing native title recognition” and is a “significant and respectful further step towards redressing the devastation and destruction that was brought about by the unjust dispossession of our family, country and lifeblood by the colonising Europeans”, the document reads.
Regional newspaper The Weekly Times first reported on the details of the agreement in early July, at which time the full document had yet to be made public, more than eight months after it was signed.
It was uploaded to the Victorian government’s First Peoples – State Relations website on July 21.
“The agreement will help pave the way for a future for our people that is founded on principles of justice and self-determination,” it reads.
“It will provide the means to provide for our economic self-determination and for our culture, traditional practices, and unique relationship to country to be recognised, strengthened, protected and promoted, for us and for all Victorians, now and into the future.”
The agreement states that the affected councils “have the means to offer significant on-ground and practical opportunities by which to improve the economic and social standing of Aboriginal people and communities within their municipal boundaries”.
Under a set of 39 “proposed actions”, councils are advised to engage the BGLC to recommend Indigenous names for “new local roads, bridges and public spaces”, “existing local roads, bridges and public spaces on WJJWJ land … with particular priority given to those local roads, bridges and public spaces that cause hurt or offence to the WJJWJ People”, and “establish a process for implementation of those recommendations, including payment of fees to BGLC for providing this service”.
Councils have been requested to install “appropriate signage”, fly the Aboriginal flag on council buildings, and attach plaques in public spaces acknowledging the traditional owners.
The agreement also proposes that councils consult or partner with the BGLC on nearly all aspects of local government business including planning applications, water and roads management, fire prevention, health and wellbeing services, local laws, rates and levies.
Councils should “consult with the BGLC in preparation of any new rating policy or strategy and commit to minimising rates and levies charged to the BGLC, or other entities wholly owned or controlled by the WJJWJ People”, one paragraph reads.
Another section calls for the development of a “framework for involvement of the BGLC in management of council controlled lands and waters”, adding that “recognition of the aspiration of WJJWJ People to be sole managers of their lands and waters should be a cornerstone of any such framework”.
A series of “business support” proposals suggest councils should “establish a preferential contracting and procurement process under which council agrees to preferentially source goods and services from BGLC or other WJJWJ entities or businesses”, including in relation to natural resources management, cultural awareness training, equipment or machinery hire, and “other goods or services for which BGLC and/or its subsidiaries or members have relevant supply capability or expertise”.
Councils are also requested to “commit to preferentially employ appropriately skilled WJJWJ people”.
But mayors in the affected shires say they have grave concerns about being kept in the dark by the Andrews government, the potential costs and lack of funding to implement any of the proposals.
“The agreement was signed off just prior to the state election last year without any consultation or knowledge of the councils,” said Northern Grampians mayor Kevin Erwin.
“We only found out probably about a month ago now.”
Cr Erwin said it was still “early days” as there was no clarity on if and when the proposals would be implemented, but he feared the agreement could grind ordinary council business to a halt.
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Gas bans ignite culture war, battery bonus is better, says Liberal Party senator
Bans on household gas use risk opening up a fresh culture war over climate policy, moderate Coalition senator Andrew Bragg has warned, adding that the derailing of households’ use of electrical appliances could stop Australia reaching its climate targets.
Bragg said the federal government should instead offer tax breaks for household batteries, which he said would drive the uptake of systems that will be crucial to harnessing Australia’s vast supply of rooftop solar energy to continue cutting the nation’s carbon footprint.
“If we lose electrification to a culture war, we may never get to net zero,” Bragg will say in a speech to the Coalition for Conservation group on Friday.
The Victorian state government announced in July that gas connections to all new homes would be banned at the start of next year.
Bragg told this masthead that moves to remove the right to choose energy sources had sparked a damaging backlash in the US and said he believed it would likewise harm public support for climate action in Australia.
“During debates in the US Congress, the following is standard fare: ‘If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands’,” Bragg will say.
“Australia can do a lot better than that. If we lose electrification to a culture war, we may never get to net zero.”
Household emissions including electricity use and personal vehicles account for more than 40 per cent of Australia’s annual emissions. However, there are fewer than 50,000 household batteries installed across the country.
Installing electrical appliances backed with household batteries to lower gas use, such as induction cooktops, water heaters and reverse cycle air conditioners, is widely viewed as a crucial way to cut emissions and reduce power bills.
Bragg asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to model a tax deduction for home batteries.
It found a tax deduction of 50 per cent, capped at $3500, on the installation of a new home battery would deliver a 10 per cent increase in uptake by the middle of 2033. This scheme would cost the budget $375 million over the next 10 years.
The Parliamentary Budget Office also modelled a tax deduction of up to 75 per cent, capped at $5250, which it found would result in a 15 per cent increase in uptake by mid-2033 and cost the budget $584 million.
However, some experts say a ban on gas, coupled with subsidised loans for new appliances, is the best policy to drive household emissions reduction.
The Grattan Institute’s Getting Off Gas report urged governments to impose bans on new household gas connections and said low-interest loans to home owners were also needed to spur the uptake of appliances.
Grattan found that by switching from gas to electric appliances, an average household in Melbourne could save between $12,000 and $14,000 over 10 years based on their energy consumption, while an average household in Sydney could save between $2000 and $7000.
Bragg told this masthead that experts had failed to factor in the community division that would be caused by banning new households from gas connections.
“Household electrification is an absolute no-brainer and I don’t want to see it lost in a political bun fight,” he said.
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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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