Malcolm as a kiddie.
Malcolm is a sentimental bloke. He likes the trappings of being PM. Just the other day he visited flood victims in Qld. The volunteers offered him a snag. He politely declined. It may have compromised his vegan holistic organic food diet, and compromised his position on Coal and humanity that he zealously inherited from his predecessor. That’s what we like about Malcolm, he’s a sentimental bloke. That’s why he wants big tax cuts for the big end of town. He’s sentimental about feudalism. And thats why he loves coal. He’s sentimental about coal fired power stations, heating and steam engines. He’s sentimental about black lung disease and satanic mills and that’s why he chose a board of ex coal and mining executives to make up the governments energy taskforce.
Adani Coalmine. Almost as big as the Reef and it’ll employ 1 ;1000th of the people. That’s efficiency!
But sadly there is ‘Push-Back’. Push-Back? It’s the opposite of ‘Base-Load’. In spite of the best efforts of the Queensland and Federal Government to give Mr Adani a free kick, more and more people seem to be pushing back on this excellent development opportunity.
Tony Nutt, retiring. Nothing to do with this piece, but he must be responsible for something.
And the economics stack up. As start up costs for solar power and battery storage fall through the floor and destabilise the whole energy industry, Mr Adani provides certainty. That is the sort of certainty the Federal Government is glad to hear about. Since Mr Turnbull spoke of the “innovation revolution” he’s done his best to turn the tide of innovation and technology around. Kill it “stone-cold dead”! In spite of his best efforts it’s on the rise. The market is making the decision for him. It’s just not cricket!
But the good news is that Mr Adani will be pumping whatever is left of Queensland aquifers to supply his mine with water. He’ll have undisputed rights over anybody else on local water. Local farmers should just bugger off, cos after Adani’s started they wont even have flush water. And the best thing he gets it for over seventy-seven years. That’s a whole lifetime, and that’s the sort of security Mr Adani needs. On top of that, the federal and state government want to give him over a billion dollars of taxpayer money to build a train line to nowhere. Mr Adani’s mine may employ a thousand people, and it’s catastrophic consequences will kill off hundred of thousands of jobs related to tourism and the Great Barrier Reef. That’s why the Queensland and Federal Government’s are keen to kill the reef off. It makes good sense, the reef is stopping the kinda progress the government likes. Killing it off!! is ol school. Bit like wiping out most of the Tasmanian aborigines. It’s nostalgic. And tickles an old sentimental bloke.
Dead kids in Syria, a rotten filthy war.
Mr Turnbull is happy for the gas export boom to be a gift for the exporters. Not australians silly, but the companies who do the heavy lifting. They don’t pay tax, and so will have to be really clever how they distribute the company tax rate cuts. But like Mr Turnbull, they’ve got plenty of merchant bankers on board to sort out the red tape. And they’ll not pay revenue for thirty years. That’s sort of ol-fashioned. That’s how you deal with a third world country. Worked with China during the Opium Wars. Another sentimental journey of sorts.
Almost dead kids in Vietnam, a decent noble good ol fashioned kinda war.
And Donald is waving the sabre at Syria. Killing kiddies with gas is just not on. Killing them with napalm, bombing, death squads, starvation and incarceration is O.K . That’s old style. Donald’s is a bit of a sentimental bloke also. And when he asks us to join him, and turn Syria into another Afghanistan, (twenty years and no end in sight) we’ll do the right thing. The sentimental journey will ensure, obligation unquestioned, to join hand in hand, and jump for Uncle Sam. Hoping this time, the wretched, debased, servile, uncultured denizens of another part of the Middle East will reap full the benefits of Civilisation.