“So rather than augmenting supply with water you cannot sell at a profit, you simply impose restrictions and constrain demand. Because you have no competition, nobody can undercut you.” - Malcolm Turnbull (Brisbane Institute-July 2006)
Bottling and selling morality
stevem
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My unending quest to determine precisely what it is that constitutes morality takes a lot of twists and turns, and one of my major complaints is with the constant manufacture of new morality. Well, it’s Sunday, and time for the latest dish of manufactured morality. In this case, the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer unveils the new evil of bottled water
This would stop the dam, with a little reality?
In the 1980’s we stopped the wolfdene dam in Brisbane by putting Wayne Goss into power, in which he used my daughter Lisa Realph at the age of three years old by carrying her around, with a sigh stating I can not swim. The reality is if you wish to stop this dam your have to use the innocent with a corrupt want to be wishing to get their foot into parliament.
No Dental Sevices...Without Elections!
It was a truly positive announcement made by the Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, that a Howard Government would fund the establishment a dental school at the James Cook University’s Smithfield campus. For the last 10 years dental treatment has all but been denied to those who cannot afford private dental treatment and Australia wide the lack of dental services has steadily been approaching a crisis. The position is that unless you live in an area close to a capital city then even emergency treatment is just not available.
Australian Voters Dilemma....
The problem for the voter is that by voting for a member of a party the voter can be assured that what their member votes for will be the party view, almost certainly not necessarily that of the electorate. Just consider for a moment the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement legislation. Would anyone in Far North Queensland have voted to totally exclude sugar from the deal? Not likely, but that was the outcome. The question that naturally follows is who develops party “policy”. It is almost certainly not developed in the branches and, in fact, party membership is so small as to be virtually meaningless. Apart from a few good ideas from locals, interest groups drive policy and the interest groups that have the most say are the ones who can provide the most benefit to the party, [and consequently themselves] not necessarily in the best interests of Australia. In addition, there are countless ‘experts’ who provide advice to government, and for a backbencher to go against these experts can be politically hazardous to say the least. This is notwithstanding that there are usually equally ‘qualified experts’ suggesting an alternate approach but their views seldom get much publicity, unless of course they are following the directions of policy or can be used to otherwise raise the profile of an issue. Again exactly who influences the experts is an open question.
Australia's Fuel Prices...The Great Taxpayer Rip-off!
Fuel prices throughout the world vary greatly, from 3 cents a litre at the pump in Iran where it is subsidised, to $2.38 per litre in the UK where excises and VAT amount to about 75% of the cost. The prices vary from place to place so the figures given here are indicative as at mid September 2007. There is also a difference between the ULP petrol and Premium but so as not to unnecessarily complicate the picture the ULP prices only will be quoted. In addition all prices have been converted to Australian dollars to maintain consistency. Premium means RON 98, though Premium octane varies here. The UK has the highest ULP prices in Europe with a litre of ULP selling for about $2.38/L at the pump while Greece has the lowest at $1.62/L. Diesel presents a similar picture again with the UK having the highest pump price of $2.33 while Greece and Luxembourg share the lowest prices for diesel at about $1.65/L. In the USA the ULP retails for about 91 cents [Australian] and diesel for 94 cents. Australian fuel prices are based on the Singapore refined price, [referred to as TAPIS] and, based on a three day rolling calculation; the price has in recent days been around 59.75 c/L.
Australia pushes further Web censorship
A bill introduced this week by Australia’s Parliament would give the Australian federal police the power to control which sites can and cannot be viewed by Australian Web surfers. Introduced on Thursday, the bill—titled the Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism Related Internet Content) Bill 2007—would empower the federal police to alter the “blacklist” of sites that are currently prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
