The Parté of Economic Responsibility
Economics, Media, Plantation owners scams values, Rightwingers say the darndest things - - Posted on May, 16 at 2:01 pm by Sean
The claim that Australia’s Tory coalition represents economic responsibility has always been somewhat overstated, resting entirely as it does on the ALP’s unsuccessful attempt to nationalise the banks in 1948 and the behaviour of one Whitlam minister.
At least those two actual foundations mean that the said claim is not completely laughable. Which is unlike the claim that the same coalition is “the party of defence”; the Tory’s and their minor deity Pig Iron Bob have actually stuffed pretty much everything military they’ve ever touched, helping Japan to re-arm before it’s attempted invasion of this country, then giving us Vietnam, Iraq and variously massively costly equipment which is either incompatible with our defence priorities, unserviceable, or both.
Of course, the economic-responsibility shibboleth rests also on the fact that so many Tories are rich, so we paupers assume they must know what they’re talking about when it comes to the cashola. Like when Rupert Murdoch told us all how much cheaper oil would be after the invasion of Iraq… wait a sec! Perhaps we should consider the possibility that they’re rich because they’d sell their grandmother to Ivan Milat for 2 bob, rather than due to any special economic genius.
And surely that shibboleth is taking a beating lately? How in the name of all that’s holy can they claim that title while pulling the alcopop stunt, when the majority of the electorate seem to support the normalisation of the excise rate? The tough-on-drugs party of economic responsibility undermines Commonwealth budget planning because it insists on a special excise discount for a particularly dangerous intoxicant? As the kids say on World of Warcraft, “WTF?!?!?!”
By the way, on his other blog Tim has been coaxed away from the admittedly well-spun binge drinking argument (or rather, thinks “the elasticity point is worth taking on board”). But we should consider that les filles jeune say they like the alcopops because they’re cheap AND they can’t taste the alcohol.
Getting anecdotal, I well remember the introduction of wine coolers to my teenage years in the 80s. Previously the girls had largely been smirking and shaking their heads sadly at the beer drinking antics of we boys at parties, but thanks to Legs Opena’s appearance some time in year 12, the boot was suddenly on the other foot [and it was massively easier to get some action]. Back in the current millennium, if price signals get people onto something wherein one can taste the alcohol, it stands to reason that they probably won’t guzzle that something-else as if it were lemonade.
The Tories various other budget responses can be easily explained. Luxury car tax? D’uh, as hard to explain as the company directors backing their own share options. Same for opposition to means testing the baby bonus. The Tories have always been staunchly opposed to welfare - for poor people. Rich people getting free shit from teh guvment, on the other hand, has been the God given order, from the land enclosures that lead to the Kelly uprising, to the more recent gifting of various public assets to the afore mentioned Rupert Murdoch at fire-sale prices. It can even be said that watching Bwendan justify that policy on the basis that “all babies are equal” was like hoovering a cocktail of meth, steroids and happy gas - infuriating and amusing at the same time.
But what of their undermining of the machinery of government for this important principle of cheap Vodka Cruisers? The only recent Australian politician I know of who showed a particular interest in getting teenagers bent out of their minds was of the NSW ALP. One can hardly imagine Dolly Downer and Malcolm settling down for a nice osso buco, accompanied by several cans of Château UDL. And as I said, the electorate’s largely agin ‘em.
Speaking of which, it was telling to have a look at The Australian, whose headlines this morning told us only that the Evil Greens are threatening to “oppose alcopop tax” [which is to say, they haven't decided for certain and may want something in return], and that Nelson is not going to block supply [in its entirety]. Realising what a stinking dud this policy is, Rupert’s minions are apparently trying to protect the Tories from themselves. And this is of course how the twin shibboleths about the Tories arise in Australia, by virtue of them being regularly repeated, often passive voice a la “the Coalition is seen as the party of defence”. In a country where News Limited with its obedient editors owns the vast majority of the metro newspapers, false memes can become conventional wisdom with the Right support.
So anyway, what do ya reckon? Has the alcopop industry forked over enough cash to warrant Dick Honan treatment?
Or is Brendan Nelson just an idiot?
Posted in Economics, Media, Plantation owners scams values, Rightwingers say the darndest things |
May 16th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Brendan Nelson is just an idiot.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Yes, like Brendan, its a no-brainer.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
+1 Brendan-call-me-Brendan is an idiot.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
So Nelson going to the mat over the rights of young woman to booze on just to make it “massively easier” for young men to “get some action”??
Did I read that right??
May 16th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Dunno sjk - does he have teenage sons? If so, it’d make Reith Jr’s phone card look lame by comparison.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Hmm, re-reading that, there’s a few apostrophe catastrophes in there eh? I blame the editor. Bad editor!
Also, I have the flu. A friend came in from out of town. My suit got lost at the the dry cleaners. There was an earthquake! A terrible flood!
Avagoodweekend.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
To be honest the Libs at the moment are beyond a simple WTF?!?!?!? There in a more OMG!!1!WTF??BBQSAUCELAZERSPEWPEWPEW!!1! kind of place.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Okay. I’m going slightly off topic. But the screeching and whinging from some of our fellow citizens in recent days is REALLY shitting me.
They whine that they are being unfairly tagged as rich just because they have an income of more that $150k or drive cars costing over $60k. They moan in the meeja that they’re just average battlers doing it tough.
A survey a few years ago showed that over 60 percent of Australians believed their income was insufficient to meet their NEEDS. This included 42 percent of the richest 20 percent of households in the nation. It’s been referred to as the “suffering rich” syndrome.
So categorising someone as “rich” is always going to be a tough call. It seems that most people will NEVER consider themselves financially well-off. When is it enough?
May 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Mars - you snuck in afore me - “they’re rich because they’d sell their grandmother to Ivan Milat for 2 bob,” seems to me most accurate as to why some are richer..errr.. have more money than others. As F Scott Fitz didn’t say,”.. the rich are no different, they just have fewer scruples..”.
But honestly, does Brendan Flip-Top suffer from coprophagia?
On any issue or choice, he unerringly gets it so wrong, not just morally or ethically but even practically (reduce petrol prices!?!? fer chriss sakes..)it’s as if he’s determined to become Uriah Heep, grovelling to the lowest, most base level of … humanity? No, he’s a politician with an exceptionally short tenure, so no question of sentience there.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Poor people,the elderly,the disabled,carers etc. are means-tested for their welfare. What these tools are really saying is that only poor people should be means tested.
I’m tired of these middle class tossers whining about how tough they have it on 150k.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I think you are being cruel to Ivan in a way.After all he wasn’t essentially criticised as a worker,and being inside for multi-murders isn’t at all fun! Whilst it is pretty easy to focus on the weaknesses of Liberals,and who you may believe vote for them,unless you have some information illegally got from the Electoral Commission,then just let the Liberals hang themselves!? I am sort of unoffended ,by Brendan Nelson,and I would of thought that is a great change!? Both Ivan and Brendan ,as much as it maybe hard to appreciate can be considered reasons why Australia is still an interesting place to live.If, um, you are alive! It is likely Ivan wouldn’t vote Libs.,as it is they dont want him too!? But what a prize it would be to be approved by the man,and all his difficulties!?I dont think it is right,to be a smart arse about someone in prison,unless you are willing to also cop a opinion from him,which will be automatically and forcefully censored in part!?
May 16th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Tories are not in favour of welfare, as moderate Australians know it. Rather, they’d prefer to think of it as wealthfare.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
You know what they say about “great minds”. And the occasional not-so-great, apparently.
Now… something about this discussion has me wondering about the age-bracket of RTS readers/posters.
I’m guessing that this end of the swamp is rarely visited by post-boomers. Dude.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Some interesting & insightful comments Sean. Certainly some people are rich because they’d sell their daughter to slave traders if it gave them access to the locked boxes & keys to the KINGDOM…
But you were specifically writing about Tories…who tend to be a strange mutation of opportunistic Neo-Libs & Neo-Cons these days who, like you point out, allow for uncompetitive practices, collusion & price fixing amongst monopolies & promote “welfare for rich”.
The link to the Dick Honan & his ethanol empire is a good one. King John, Tony Abbott & a number of other Libs need to be scrutinised on this slimey deal that undermined the cheapening of Aussie petrol in order to fill Honan’s coffers so he could pass some of the benefits on to his political “go-betweens” & moolah providers…at tax payer’s expense.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/12/1060588384214.html
(Howard meets Honan: You be the judge whether he lied about it By Margo Kingston
August 12, 2003)
Methinks Brendan Nelson is crying crocodile tears.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:45 am
No doubt I’m NOT the first person to wonder if Nelson is still secretly a Labor Party member?
May 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I HAVE TO ask… Is there anyone who won’t suffer under Kevin’s brutal “Robin Hood” style regime? It’s unstraaayn I tells ya!
There’s more pain for Rudd’s 110,000 ‘rich’ households
May 17, 2008
MORE than 110,000 Sydney households concentrated in the city’s north, north-west and key inner suburbs will be caught by the Federal Government’s new $150,000 benchmark for identifying the undeserving rich.
Census figures show that one in 10 Sydney households had a gross income of more than $3000 a week in August 2006, putting them above the new income cut-off for family benefits announced in this week’s budget.
These families live not only in well-to-do suburbs such as Mosman, Pymble and Wahroonga but in the “working middle class” north-west, in suburbs like Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, Cherrybrook and West Pennant Hills.
And, while $150,000-plus households are a minority, in Sydney they include two-income couples in a range of white-collar, technical and even blue-collar occupations…
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/more-pain-for-110000/2008/05/17/1210765188978.html
SO SAD, SIGH
May 17th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Some further info:
Dick Honan has been Chairman of the Manildra Group since 1952 during which time he has made the Manildra Group one of the largest starch wheat & gluten producers in the world. Over the past 25 years Manildra Group has grown to be one of the most successful privately owned companies in Australia.
(manildra. com)
Scroll down to the topic:
“Crikey calls for tips on Manildra ripping off the taxpayer on ethanol”
at this intriguing site & you’ll get heaps of info:
http://www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog/index.blog?from=20080227
surprise, surprise…NOT
Howver, I missed the bulk of this story…& I’m sure plenty of other Aussies did too…I was too focused on the American stuff…including that bloody invasion & the election campaign.
It demonstrates how we can be blinded by FIREWORKS & SOCK PUPPET SPIN from the mainstream media whilst “integrity” reporters do their damndest to provide us w/ THE GOODS -..tho ironically some in that Corporate sector were bringing this sh*t up…& like Margo found themselves turning INVISIBLE.
Good for you Sean bringing it up.
May 17th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
More here from Senator Faulkner on Howard Govts 10th anniversary:
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:m-YJ1M-fh50J:www.cfmeu.asn.au/construction/EyeOnCanberra/020306FaulknerOnHoward10Years.pdf+Dick+Honan+%3EAWB&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=au
The Howeirdians were just rolling in it.
May 17th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
LOL .. yeah I’m really gonna feel the pain for someone living in West Penant Hills …
the SMH is really sh1tting me these last few years … theier editorial today about the budget is a load of crap as well
May 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
MARS - Dude, “I’m guessing that this end of the swamp is rarely visited by post-boomers.”
Please expand this thought.
By ‘post-boomer’ I assume that you mean those under 40ish. A cohort that is barely literate, sentient or worth pissing on were they ablaze.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
You assume correctly. Groovy.
Loathe as I am to generalise (but EVERYONE does it, eh?), I can’t imagine the yoof of straaaya browsing here in great numbers. They’re prolly too busy exercising their rights to happiness through ignorance.
I know I was…
May 18th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
To clarify, the “rich” people I spoke about in relation to poor misunderstood Ivan (Travers!) are those rich enough to write Liberal Party policy.
I’ve been one of those $150K+ households (but bugger that for a life) and, no, we didn’t exactly have the Australia Club beating down our door. Nor did we need welfare to raise the kid.
There’s another bit of selective snobbery for you. To say some young sheila had her kid to get the welfare is the nastiest of slag-offs. When someone from Castle Hill says the baby bonus decided ‘em in favour of fecundity, hey, cool, means testing that would contravene the equality of your baby.
May 18th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Y’all don’t know what it’s like being male, middle-class and white.
The pain.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am
“Y’all don’t know what it’s like being male, middle-class and white.”
You can console yourself by taking in the latest HYPED HYPED HYPED Spielberg DISTRACTION film that makes SUPERSTITION & ALIENS & STH AMERICAN CALENDERS the talk of the town again…backed up by heaps of dumb articles in the papers & on THE SHADOW BOX about same.
I’d probably prefer to go & see WAR INC.:
Cusack began working on his new film War, Inc., which premieres in Los Angeles and New York May 23, about a year into the US occupation of Iraq. From the moment US tanks rolled into Baghdad, Cusack was a voracious consumer of news about the war. He took it deadly seriously, regularly calling independent journalists and asking them questions as he sought as much independent information as he could. Watching the insanity of the erection of the Green Zone and the advent of the era of McWar, complete with tens of thousands of “private contractors,” Cusack set out to use film to unveil the madness. He wanted to do on the big screen what independent reporters like Naomi Klein, Nir Rosen and Dahr Jamail have done in print. Over these years of war and occupation, Cusack has become one of the most insightful commentators on a far too seldom discussed aspect of the occupation: the corporate dominance of the US war machine.
Cusack is no parachute humanitarian. While he continues to do the Hollywood thing with big-budget movies, he is simultaneously a fierce, un-embedded actor/filmmaker who has been at the center of two of the best films to date dealing with the madness of the Iraq War. Without big-money sponsors and the backing of powerful production companies, Cusack has spent a lot of his own money on these projects.
Cusack’s “Grace Is Gone,” was one of the most underrated and under-viewed movies of 2007.
(The Nation: Why ‘War, Inc.’ Works By Jeremy Scahill, May 16, 2008)
———————–
darn it…they gave it an R-rating in the USA…how unexpected…;)
mysterious censors working overtime…
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/scahill
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
Too late, poor old granny’s taken the long walk into Belangalo and the rellies have cashed in the insurance. And they’ve made a big saving on the funeral expenses on account of they haven’t found the body yet.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Oil has hit US$130/ barrel. Go Rupie!
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“Oil has hit US$130/ barrel. Go Rupie!”
Goldman-Sachs was kind enuff to suggest an upper limit of 200 hundred buckeroos a barrel of Texas Tea & Saudi treacly black coffee…just to get us used to a freakin’ HUGE number, then it doesn’t feel so bad. RIGHT? Apart from the cost of food & sh*t.
Best to grow locally methinks…or send over in massive gas balloon thingies…or on the backs of whales.
Still, what me worry?…we only drive a bit anyway…& tend to use public transport & walkways to get places. More the better I reckon.
When are we going to get here those big bikes w/ skinny sweating dude on front & plump posh arses sitting behind?
I can’t believe we’ve been doin’ this smelly petrol-driven car thing all my life…46 freakin’ years & countin’…bloody disappointing…I thought by now we’d all have flying vehicle like in the Jetsons. Or robot turtles to sit & chat on as we made our way slowly to the chomp & chat mall.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I live in the boonies, but it’s a good argument for my motorcycle. Suppose I could get a horse.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 am
mars Says:
Y’all don’t know what it’s like being male, middle-class and white.
The pain.
He he he.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
:)…i used to live in a cottage on a wheat/sheep property & use my motorbike to travel back & forth to town…can be a long drive. Not so good for large loads tho, so can empathise w/ you Sean. This petrol thing has become a real problem…bloody Howard & his lot should’ve shifted us energy dependency-wise years ago. I reckon Rudd & co…& SOME State govts (Bligh here in QLD)are trying to.
It’s bad for you lot out in the boonies…& those in the bush. More public transport is handy for the suburbs but EXPENSIVE (the population MUST be convinced it’s worth it to invest in public/private partnership transport systems - PPPs- the whole “ME ME ME Individual wanna drive my car full speed thru the Nanny State” thing will only help the oil companies…I hope some of the Libertarians WAKE UP to this fact)…
I remember the Federal/State/Local govts. connecting the suburbs to the city of Toronto…each suburb became a mini-city….jobs, malls (when they weren’t just shops promoting the American way)…added good bus services, connected to schools…or nr. enuff…& then expanded the subway. Dotted the landscape w/ apartments that sometimes had shops (dry cleaners and such) in their lobby areas (but apartments can turn into poverty traps for migrants etc. unfortunately). And they used green corridors w/ bikeways/walkways to get from one major area to the other.
BUT…plenty of people still drove using petrol (”gas” as they refer to it over there).
It’s hard to see how we can get beyond that, until the waste from crops is used more effectively…& suburbs are transformed into self-sustaining, job creating, play park-ridden, health, education, child-care & community centre abundant, internet/subway/walkway connected CELLS…
The “Build Australia/Infrastructire Fund” or whatever its called should come in very handy. The Libs are demonstrating their allegiances by trying to scuttle the whole thing by focusing on absurd/useless strategies like reducing petrol excise. Here’s an eye opener from Greg Palast:
In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world’s top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.
The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week’s rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.
It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.
Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton’s team. There could be no more vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won’t learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.
Let me explain.
In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.
The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remain there, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.
Again and again, year after year, the world price of oil has been boosted artificially by keeping a tight limit on Iraq’s oil output. Methods varied. The 1928 “Redline” agreement held, in various forms, for over three decades. It was replaced in 1959 by quotas imposed by President Eisenhower. Then Saudi Arabia and OPEC kept Iraq, capable of producing over 6 million barrels a day, capped at half that, given an export quota equal to Iran’s lower output.
In 1991, output was again limited, this time by a new red line: B-52 bombings by Bush Senior’s air force. Then came the Oil Embargo followed by the “Food for Oil” program. Not much food for them, not much oil for us.
In 2002, after Bush Junior took power, the top ten oil companies took in a nice $31 billion in profits. But then, a miracle fell from the sky. Or, more precisely, the 101st Airborne landed. Bush declared, “Bring’m on!” and, as the dogs of war chewed up the world’s second largest source of oil, crude doubled in two years to an astonishing $40 a barrel and those same oil companies saw their profits triple to $87 billion.
In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a “windfall” profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn’t blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.
I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A war profiteering tax. War is profitable business – if you’re an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.
Indeed, the recent engorgement in oil prices and profits goes right back to Bush-McCain “surge.” The Iraq government attack on a Basra militia was really nothing more than Baghdad’s leaping into a gang war over control of Iraq’s Southern oil fields and oil-loading docks. Moqtada al-Sadr’s gangsters and the government-sponsored greedsters of SCIRI (the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution In Iraq) are battling over an estimated $5 billion a year in oil shipment kickbacks, theft and protection fees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge-backed civil warring has cut Iraq’s exports by up to a million barrels a day. And that translates to slashing OPEC excess crude capacity by nearly half.
Result: ka-BOOM in oil prices and ka-ZOOM in oil profits. For 2007, Exxon recorded the highest annual profit, $40.6 billion, of any enterprise since the building of the pyramids. And that was BEFORE the war surge and price surge to over $100 a barrel.
It’s been a good war for Exxon and friends. Since George Bush began to beat the war-drum for an invasion of Iraq, the value of Exxon’s reserves has risen – are you ready for this? – by $2 trillion.
Obama’s war profiteering tax, or “oil windfall profits” tax, would equal just 20% of the industry’s charges in excess of $80 a barrel. It’s embarrassingly small actually, smaller than every windfall tax charged by every other nation. (Ecuador, for example, captures up to 99% of the higher earnings).
(By Greg Palast for TomPaine.com/OurFuture.org, 22 May 08)
—————
So Obama’s on the appropriate track…but a long way to go yet.
Note: I like the idea of Maglev (magnetic rail)trains & more Trams & more subways/Metro…even w/ high oil prices, parking fees, banning of cars in inner-city areas, tollways, high rego costs, high insurance…the Fed govt. won’t stop trucks moving freight & those who NEED to drive unless we offer a number of easily accessible, extensive, inter-connected, varied purpose transport systems that use private company innovation & input.
The time to GO FOR IT is NOW. And speed up once OBAMA gets in. Whilst the WAR is still raging…’cause once that oil starts pumping again full bore in Iraq the price will probably start to come down…particularly as OPEC conveniently turns the oil taps on…again…& fool us into a “comfortably numb” stance…again…whilst they pillage.
I’m wondering if the risky profiteering by the Busheviks & their mates is about expanding projects in the Gulf Region & Levant/Middle East that they can invest in & reap long-term rewards from…& an attempt to buy up as many clean energy companies, patents & intellectual property rights in the process (handy way to turn off the energy REVOLUTION once oil prices frop)…& pay to get their MAN into the White House…amongst other things…the whole support Israel/defend Jerusalem approach might be just a RUSE to garner support of Jewish voters in Florida etc…look how the Busheviks treated/dumped the Evangelicals (remember Rove’s scathing comments)…
And once they did turn on the taps & reduce oil prices again…well, it’s only a bandaid due to long-term DEMAND….& the OBVIOUS WARS they are now setting up for in Africa & Sth. America and so on. These guys like to THINK AHEAD.
We shouldn’t allow oil corporations & their puppet politicians to use the military again in the future to create wars that strain the public purse…undermine pensions & public services…cause BROKEN GOVERNMENT…use government & the RESERVE BANK as a profit-making tool…& escape hatch…
& in turn, screw over hard-working & under-privileged drivers…& taxpayers. The SUBSIDIES going to oil companies MUST be redirected into a GRAND INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN…& any corrupt & blackmailed types linked to transport, property development, malls, energy, politics & so on MUST be forced out.
Time for a CHANGE. No more being a HOSTAGE to the whims of BIG OIL.
(sorry for length)
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Yeah, more of a problem for your actual full time farmer who can’t forgo the quad bike to spray the Patterson’s with a back pack, like I can on my l’il spread. In the short term we’ll have to be smarter with fuel as we already are with water (my former poo waters my garden and about 2 dozen trees, for eg. The wonders of bacteria). As I say, for my transport it’ll be the bike unless there’s a load to carry.
And as you say, there’s an upside for Australian farmers, in that the 3rd world may lose some of its competitive advantage as transport costs increase. Alternative fuel tech will have to advance some before it has the HP to pull a tractor or a load of grain, I suppose. It’ll happen though - first company to make the equipment that can cut agribusiness’ fuel bill significantly will be a rich company, no matter how National voters feel about those damned Evil Greenies. The requisite price signals are there now (so thanks again for being such an idiot Bwendan Call Me Bwendan).
Also, you could probably make big fuel savings right now by having a hybrid engine pulling a grain train, with current tech and a bit of new engineering. I assume it’d be new - we have electric trains already of course, but we don’t want to have to hang more live wires accross the breadth of the land a la Sydney. So in-built battery/diesel set up of some kind like conventional submarines. Kevin 07’s even put some of the money in the bank in preparation, if those fucktard Liberals will pass the damn budget.
The tracks are all still out there, awaiting rennovation. We’ll be in bad habits when that happens - they’ll have to erect big signs at the crossings “THE DOUBLE E DO RUN THROUGH HERE SOME MORE - BRAKE!”
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
cool, doesn’t that bring new meaning to the colloquial statement “sh*t load of good that did ‘em”…
Good ideas.