Tag: budget

ERF funding – is it a play on words.

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The Government is confident it will stem the march of climate change with its $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund and its Green Army of tree-planting enthusiasts. So confident, in fact, that it has commissioned $10 million for a new icebreaker in Antarctica.

At least one problem is solved – broken ice will be served with drinks. It sort of makes sense does it not?

But, where is the money, it was not mentioned at all in the budget speech. Even more interesting is submissions on the draft legislation for the ERF are due to close 23rd May 2014. So how will it be funded if it is to start 1 July 2014? As kids often say, Daddy it will just wish-t-appear – how mature of them to understand the minds of our pollies!

In her coverage of the Federal budget Annabel Crabb makes another point on health – why strip away the ability to service our health in order to fund health research. A similar parody could be said a tipping point is fast approaching that mankind is under threat for its existence – anthropogenic influences of climate change will outpace the ability to research a medical solution. Doesn’t make sense except give the opportunity for a fiddle! On reflection Annabel said something about twiddle – could that be what she meant?

Perhaps the last word should go to the Prime Minister, speaking on August 22, 2011:

“Nothing could be more calculated to bring our democracy into disrepute and alienate the citizenry of Australia from their government than if governments were to establish by precedent that they could say one thing before an election, and do the other afterwards.”

Source – Annabel Crabb is the ABC’s chief online political writer – www.abc.net.au .

Co2land org now asks about the $20 billion to be spent on health research, is that a play on words – a weasel? Another worry is as an Australian entity I am at a disadvantage at influencing the wealth of this country, and it is suggested we should register as an offshore entity and get preferential treatment in Australia? It is not a flippant comment: For example, register in Singapore as a $1 company ($500 setup cost), pass their Directorship rule test and there you go! You can sell back your Australian ideas as a new desirable off-shore package and thumb your nose on paying the correct tax. Albeit the UK now says money shifting will be discouraged via London markets. But I guess that only affects the likes of tech suppliers, mining etc. As they tend to use those markets.

What has this got to do with sustainable futures? Nothing. Even the economics make no sense in terms of society – but maybe a small community might do well from it!

Co2Land org has a theory it reflects in the term ‘hubris’. Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (9780307346827): Michael Isikoff, David Corn: Books

www.amazon.com/Hubris-Inside-Story-Scandal-Selling/dp/030734682X.

The theory is we are being spun the same text book sell on something of an ideal as opposed to a solution. It is even something tried and failed in other political arenas of the world. As in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland – Alice in wonderland grew a mile high after eating one mushroom. She was then subject to rule 42 which says that anyone taller than a mile must leave the court immediately. That thought line then mandates that if you think it is a joke you will be subject to rule 13. And, do not dare to ask what is rule 13. If you paraphrase this you just might understand Joe the Treasurer is a Lewis Carroll fan.

Maybe – yes, we are a fan of the real Malcolm Turnbull. He might just turn bull into hope. For those that did not know, he was a former Environment Minister in the Howard Government and is credited with strongly supporting sustainable solutions.

 

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Fantasy and Budgets – a dream time.

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Don’t pick that mushroom! Why – then it came back, Alice in wonderland grew a mile high after eating one. She was then subject to rule 42 which says that anyone taller than a mile must leave the court immediately. Just thinking out loud as I remembered our treasurer is a self-professed Lewis Carroll fan. So is the budget buildup all a big joke? Before we go on, rule 42 is a joke – said to actually mean the average number of lines on a page of a paperback book. Can we speculate what is contained in the budget is written down as 42 lines on a page?

Is this an allusion, a trip into the fantastic, extraordinary and, completely obvious. An amazing revelation and remarkable. WOW, it explains so much beyond the books. It even debunks the notion that a computer could provide an answer to the meaning of life. Do we have a Brian in parliament? Its ok it won’t hurt a bit! The pain is to be brought down on budget night.

Ok, Joe does not like science. But, he might still hope that science will come up with answers to the big questions. After all when looking for meaning, science has answered the most questions so far. However, it hasn’t provided answers to the most fundamental questions like why we are here, what is the carbon tax for. But just because it hasn’t yet, doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t when we own it. Having said that, it is possible that questions of meaning is simply of a different sort to question of what matters. We know the physical world is where science is proven so powerful. That being so, it is easy to understand why we are saying something rather than nothing, because just as with mathematics it might make no more sense asking if an equation is happy or if union people in a movement are friends, it can be satisfying just asking the question.

Now we get serious – do you know the mind of god. Is it possible? Let us pre-empt a possible answer: Though we haven’t run up against a class of questions that we couldn’t answer yet, it is a fiendishly difficult area, we have yet to exhaust all possible answers. Why all these questions are this some sort of deep thought madness?

When you have no answer, no meaning, no sense being made of the political universe, and you think you would not be any worse off if you had no government – That’s it the answer, install robots and computers for the job! But who would understand the need for life? Who would accept that life is a gift

To put it another way, life is a gift. It is good. It flourishes in experiences like love. But, such philosophy can no more provide meaning than science can. Why, because life’s giftedness, its goodness and its loveliness are essentially spiritual qualities. They can be assessed by rational enquiry. But they cannot be accessed by the cool calculations of reason. They must be experienced. I know now why Joe said we must experience pain! How else could we see a world in a grain of sand, and capture something of the world needed to be transformed through the beauty and meaning of his ideals.

Oh yeah, OK it was all a bad dream, I though I better write it down before I forgot it. Then someone really scared me and said the answer is rule 13! I must have dozed off again. Oh my god, he does talk like that! Bolt upright and awake now it is so real.