Australian Politics
A day to remember -- 14 October
Yesterday was much happiness for antipodean conservatives
The Labor Party's racist referendum was defeated in every Australian state with the biggest "no" vote coming of course from Queensland, my ancestral and present home.
And on the same day the Left got decisively tossed out on their ear in New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern was the darling of the interntional Left but had predictably made a big mess in NZ and most Kiwis were aghast at it -- which they showed with their votes.
One of the messes Ardern left for her hapless successor was to give Maori representatives a power of veto over everything the government did -- the sort of racist horror Albo obviously had in mind for Australia with his ambiguous referendum. We dodged a bullet
And despite being riddled with cancer, I went to bed pain-free last night. I have got some amazing medications working for me. How many other 80year-olds went to bed pain-free last night? Rather few, I suspect. So yesterday was a good day for me personally as well as politically. And, no, I am not taking morphine or any other opiates. Just a a monoclonal antibody and ibuprofen
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All through this debacle, Albanese wouldn’t compromise or mind his language
Andrew Bolt
Thank God Australians voted against this racist Voice, but the damage is still done and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should resign.
He has failed Australia in his catastrophic campaign to divide us by race, to give one race extra political rights under our constitution.
It’s not just that Albanese wasted $365m of taxpayers’ money and months of his time, growing distracted and emotional, on a failed campaign that’s already set neighbour against neighbour.
And what a catastrophic failure. Early figures suggest the Voice will be thrashed in every state, and even in some towns with big Aboriginal populations.
Worse than this failure and waste is that Albanese kept smearing No voters as mean to Aboriginals.
I doubt he can ever unsay that poisonous message to our young, especially young Aboriginals, or fix the harm to our image.
Yes, he’ll now talk about coming together, but up to polling day he sold this referendum as a test of our niceness to Aboriginals. Of our racism.
We had to go “to the booth to improve the lives of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people”, Albanese insisted, implying No voters didn’t want to help.
“Thinking of others costs nothing,” he cried, implying No voters were selfish.
“We have an opportunity for Australians … to show respect for the First Australians,” he said, implying No voters had none.
His planned Voice was “a hand outstretched for us to grasp in friendship”, implying No voters wanted no Aboriginal friends. Didn’t Albanese realise the racial grievances he was stoking would fester long after the votes were counted?
Didn’t he realise he was also talking himself out of a job by claiming that without a Voice to advise him we’ll just get “the same failures”?
Well, he’ll get no Voice now, so should hand over to someone smart enough not to repeat “the same failures”.
But all through this debacle, Albanese wouldn’t compromise or mind his language.
A month ago the polls were so terrible for the Voice that I said it was dead. That was Albanese’s last chance to put Australia above his ego, and change his message so defeat of the Voice wouldn’t be sold as proof Australians were racist.
Again he failed us.
That failure will cost because a second war over the Voice starts now: how to interpret this result. If the Yes campaign wins by blaming racism, the consequences will be devastating.
Even before the vote, Professor Marcia Langton, one of the Voice architects, vilified No voters as “racists” and warned of an “intifada” from some Aboriginals.
Professor Tom Calma, her Voice co-designer, likewise declared “the referendum process taps into a deep well of historical racism”, and the Financial Review published a cartoon likening No leaders Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine, plus Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, to Nazis. We can’t now let them turn their defeat into Australia’s shame, or even civil unrest.
* Australians racist? Nonsense; they voted against racism. *
Besides, no country spending twice per head on Aboriginals than on other Australians can fairly be called racist.
Nor did No campaigners want Aboriginals to have fewer rights than anyone else. Instead, Price and Mundine – both with Aboriginal ancestry – insisted Aboriginals have exactly the same rights as other Australians. It was the Yes campaigners who didn’t.
But most telling is that a year ago polls showed two thirds of Australians supported the Voice. So were they racist then, or did they suddenly become racist now?
Albanese blames “misinformation” for losing all that support, but how could the Yes campaign lose an information battle when it was backed by every government in this country, 13 of our biggest companies, every major sporting code, many universities, big faith groups, and a circus of celebrities?
It also had a war-chest estimated at more than $50m, so could run a blitz of TV ads in the last weeks that drowned out the nickel-and-dime No side.
No, the truth is the simplest explanation: the more people learnt about the Voice, the more they thought it wrong.
The polls agree on what changed their minds, too. The Voice divided us by race, and there was no detail on how it would work.
So ignore those self-serving excuses from Yes campaigners, who can’t admit Australians simply didn’t want the racial division of their country.
Be inspired that Australians just said No to racism, despite all the bullying and all the corporate cash, in one of the finest moments of our democracy.
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Voice to climate: Can you hear me?
Judith Sloan
The Prime Minister has flagged that, post the Voice referendum, his government will turn its full attention to the decarbonisation of the economy and the prospect of Australia becoming an renewable energy superpower.
You really have to wonder whether Albo is smoking something if he thinks that moving from the toxic and divisive issue of the Voice to the fantasy world of climate action is a good idea. But if you live in the world of the vibe, one vibe is as good as another.
By contrast, most of us are living in the real world, wondering how we can cover the mortgage and the bills, getting the kids to school on time and thinking about what’s for dinner. Prosaic stuff to be sure, but beautiful thoughts about identity politics and climate change are generally back of mind, if at all.
To be sure, surveys tell us that people are concerned about climate change, which is not altogether surprising given the unrelenting and misleading conflation of weather and climate change perpetrated by all the mainstream media outlets. Several hot days in Sydney – climate change. Limited flooding in parts of Victoria – climate change. Bushfire warnings for parts of the east coast – climate change.
The implicit message is that Australia alone – or should that be NSW or the city of Sydney – can affect the pace of climate change and therefore reduce the incidence of unwelcome weather events. Most school students – OK, some, OK a few – would realise that this is a complete non sequitur as only global action counts.
But what the surveys also reveal is that, notwithstanding people’s concerns about climate change – economists call this elicitation bias or wanting to sound worthy – when it comes to bearing any additional financial burden to act on climate change, there is a marked reluctance to pay any significant price at all. The recent 20-per-cent rise in electricity prices, for instance, is well above the rate of increase that people are happy to pay for the sake of doing something about the climate.
The real paradox is why Albo thinks it’s an attractive political idea to emphasise the energy transition and the exciting world that lies ahead. Let’s face it, it hasn’t been going well, what with delays in the commissioning of new renewable projects, the growing opposition to the construction of new transmission lines and, let’s not forget, the disastrous Snowy 2.0 project. If I were to run a book on when Snowy 2.0 will be fully up and running, I’m not sure I would have too many bets on this decade.
I could do a similar thing with offshore wind installations, as the economics of these projects overseas deteriorate to the point that most investment is currently stalled. Rising costs, worker and equipment shortages and higher interest rates are an uncongenial mix. The UK government ran a tender for new offshore wind projects recently and there was not a single bid because the strike price was set too low.
The rent-seekers in this space in the US have declared that a doubling of the prices they receive is now necessary to make offshore wind a viable investment. This is another counter to the ludicrous proposition that renewables are the cheapest way to generate electricity, something to which Albo still clings.
The one bright light in the energy transition has been the rapid growth in rooftop solar by households and some businesses. This is seen as one means to save on electricity bills in the context of very limited options. According to the Clean Energy Regulator, ‘Australian households and businesses continue to install rooftop solar at world leading rates. 1.6 gigawatts of capacity from almost 160,000 rooftop systems were added in the first half of 2023. Three gigawatts would bring the amount of rooftop solar capacity added to the grid close to the 2021 record of 3.2 GW’.
There are two reasons for mentioning this. The first is that households’ fondness for their rooftop solar panels often morphs into their support for renewable energy more generally – something recognised by state politicians, in particular. The continued subsidisation of rooftop solar installations, albeit at reduced levels, is partly explained by the ability to cadge additional votes.
Secondly, the unexpected rise in rooftop solar is playing havoc with the economics of large-scale solar installations. For several hours during the day, electricity prices can be deeply negative. Those large-scale solar installations are in effect competing with rooftop solar.
To be sure, most of the large-scale installations have been backed by power purchase agreements or similar (mainly from state governments) which guarantee the investors/operators certain prices. But the reality is that large-scale solar is looking like a particularly bad investment bet at the moment save a substantial step-up in the prices being offered. It is already clear that the expected roll-out of new projects has significantly slowed this year.
Again as the Clean Energy Regulator notes, ‘it was a quiet first half of the year for new large-scale renewable energy investment (including wind) commitments. We’ve downgraded out expectations and now expect 2023 investment may not reach three gigawatts’.
Even the deep-green Australian Energy Market Operator doesn’t expect the 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 to be met. No doubt, Albo will have to downplay these real world realities.
And he definitely won’t want to mention the fact that the Victorian government is now propping up not one, but two coal-fired power stations in the anticipation that its energy transition plans are in tatters. The only feasible alternative is to hand out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars – although precise figures are kept under wraps – so they don’t close down. The NSW government will start handing out big bucks to the owner of Eraring to keep that plant going.
Let’s not forget that the cost curve for these plants resembles a bathtub. Towards the end of their lifespans, the costs increase dramatically particularly when they are used to back up intermittent renewable energy, something for which they are not designed.
He might also want to avoid talking too much about the much-vaunted green hydrogen revolution, something for which other rent-seekers are keen to hoover up as much government money as possible. It’s becoming clear that, at best, hydrogen will play a niche role in the energy transition.
Using intermittent energy to power electrolysers to produce hydrogen is inherently inefficient and the problems of transport and bespoke infrastructure just add to the costs. The winners are likely to be close to the demand and blue hydrogen (made from gas) has much more going for it in terms of costs than green hydrogen.
The idea that Australia will become an energy superpower on the basis of green hydrogen is fanciful notwithstanding the ongoing enthusiasm of Twiggy. It’s a bit like the underground electricity cable from the Northern Territory to Singapore – ain’t going to happen.
Albo may need to move onto another vibe – it’s just not clear what it will be.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/10/voice-to-climate
**********************************************We can only hope the ‘descent from civility’ dissipates quickly
Gerard Henderson
Former Australian prime minister John Howard has a good turn of phrase. His description of the anti-Israel protest that took place in Sydney on Monday as “a catastrophic descent from civility” is precisely accurate.
The unauthorised protest march took place from the Town Hall to the Opera House. I watched hundreds of protesters – men and women with children – march down Phillip Street chanting loudly: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” At the rear of the protest was a large number of NSW police vehicles, including members of the riot squad. The contingent gave the impression that this was a movement that required a police escort.
I did not know at the time that the march was unauthorised or that the police had instructed Jewish Australian supporters of Israel to remain at home.
Or that the only person arrested on the day was a man peacefully carrying an Israeli flag – he was subsequently released without charges laid. But he did not receive a police escort home.
When the protesters reached the Opera House, there were audible cries of “F..k the Jews” and “Gas the Jews”. The former is racially motivated abuse, the latter an incitement to murder, even genocide. No arrests were made on the night – not even when demonstrators threw lighted flares at the feet of police on the Opera House steps and burned Israeli flags in a public place.
On Wednesday morning, NSW Premier Chris Minns apologised to the Jewish community on behalf of the government and himself for what had occurred. He pointed out that the intention “to light up the Opera House” in Israeli colours had been to “create a place and a space for that community to come together to commemorate (following) these terrible events in the Middle East”. But he added that the Opera House forecourt “was obviously overrun with people that were spewing racial epithets and hatred on the streets of Sydney”.
In fact, the spewing of hate had begun the previous Sunday evening outside Lakemba station in southwest Sydney. At the time it was known that the Hamas terrorist group based in the Gaza Strip, and supported by Iran, had indiscriminately fired thousands of rockets into southern Israel and was attacking civilians on the Israeli side of the border as well as that part of the Israel Defence Forces that was in the vicinity.
Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun, an imam from United Muslims of Australia, said he was elated at the events, declaring this to be “a day of pride, a day of victory”. The next day pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Sydney.
We now know that Hamas terrorists, who like to be called militants, involved themselves in war crimes as they attacked and murdered children and babies, men and women (some of whom were raped). It wasn’t a day of pride and it’s unlikely to be a day of victory following the war that Hamas initiated.
There is not much that unites the extreme left and the extreme right in Western nations – apart from hostility towards Israel. The protesters marching through Sydney consisted not only of individuals with a Middle Eastern background but some white Australians of a green-left bent.
The chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” means only one thing: that the Jewish presence should be driven out of the land that exists between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. That is, the elimination of Israel (in which a large Muslim minority lives peacefully) that was formally recognised by the UN in 1948.
As Daniel Mandel documented in his book "HV Evatt and the Establishment of Israel" (Routledge, 2004), Australia’s external affairs minister at the time, Bert Evatt, played an important role in the creation of Israel.
On Sunday evening, John Lyons, the ABC’s Sydney-based global affairs editor, told viewers of ABC TV news the Israeli public faced this “big question”: namely, whether “the cost of maintaining its occupation over three million Palestinians in the West Bank and its blockade over the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza is worth the price that it pays”.
It’s true that Israel occupied the West Bank after the success in its defensive war of 1967. But the area in southern Israel that Hamas attacked has been part of Israel for ages. The Gaza Strip is currently blockaded by Israel to an extent as a means of a democratic nation defending itself from Hamas, which is intent on destroying it. In any event, there is an exit from Gaza into Muslim-majority Egypt.
On ABC TV News Breakfast on Friday, Ebony Bennett, the deputy director of the left-wing Australia Institute, described Gaza as “occupied” by Israel. There have been no Israelis living freely in Gaza for more than a decade.
It is possible that Israel and the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah on the West Bank (which has limited autonomy) can eventually bring about a situation in which Israel can exist within secure borders as part of a two-state solution. But there will be no deals between Israel and Hamas.
The key political opposition to Australia’s support for Israel comes from the left. On Monday, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi put out a post declaring “One colonial government supporting another – what a disgrace”.
This overlooks the fact Pakistan-born Faruqi willingly settled in what she terms a colonial society, in which she has achieved much success.
Many of the Muslim Lebanese who criticise Australia’s support for Israel overlook that they or their immediate ancestors became Australian citizens due to the decision of the Coalition government in 1976 to accept those affected by the Lebanese civil war despite the fact they were not formally refugees. I wrote about this in these pages on November 24, 2016.
The success of modern Australia is that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others live freely in a democratic society – despite differences.
However, right now some Jewish Australians – including students – do not feel safe. We can only hope that this week’s descent from civility as identified by Howard dissipates quickly and that relative peace returns to the Middle East.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
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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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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