Political promises on the Never Never never never work well for the nation
NW Contributor Political promises in contemporary politics are characterised not just by their grandiosity but by the fact that they never need to be actually delivered. Hence Federal Labor has joined the international chorus of virtue signalling by solemnly pledging for Australia to produce net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But Labor won’t say how or at what cost to the Australian economy. The year 2050 is approximately 10 federal elections from now, several changes of government – a period of roughly a quarter of the time Australia has been a nation to date. It is literally a promise on…
CANBERRA OBSERVED: What’s China’s beef with our barley?
China’s aggressive retaliation against Australia for daring to demand an independent inquiry into the source and subsequent handling of the covid19 outbreak is testing the resolve of the Australian Government. Powerful business leaders, the universities, and Australia’s left intelligentsia are urging the Morrison Government to soften its stance or risk inflicting serious damage to the Australian economy. China has already banned imports from four of our abattoirs, one of which is actually Chinese owned, hiked tariffs on our barley over spurious trade transgressions, and flagged further damage to our wine, tourism and university sectors. Crucially Australia is not alone; hypersensitive…
Will survival instincts drive new industry policies?
by Patrick J. Byrne A perfect economic storm on a scale not seen since the 1930s has been created by the covid19 economic crisis, China asserting its power across the region and problems resulting from four decades of deep globalisation. The political lesson of the 1930s is that, when unemployment numbers mount, federal and state governments that fail promptly to deliver policies to grow new industries face certain electoral defeat. Australians now want real effective policies, not political talk. They want new industries as the country comes out of the crisis, partly because global supply chains are likely to be…