James Cook University is the guaranteed loser in their appeal against the Federal Circuit Court’s decision that Dr Peter Ridd was unlawfully dismissed. Even if JCU were to win their case, currently before the Federal Court, they will have defended the promotion of junk science.
Dr Ridd exposed the faulty reef science that underpins climate change claims and much of the political attack on our farmers. If our farmers are sent to the wall on the back of junk science and JCU has played a role in that, then North Queenslanders will would have to seriously question the value of the university and anything that comes out of it.
Win or lose the appeal, the university has declared its hand. It would rather back junk science that supports its own ideology than back the truth. That’s about as far as you can get from science and it’s not the sort of enterprise taxpayers should be funding.
One outcome of the appeal would see truth, science, farmers, and JCU’s reputation on the losing side. The other outcome would see JCU’s reputation on the losing side. Launching an appeal seems like a baffling decision because JCU will end up a loser either way. When you’re looking at a taxpayer-funded organisation, you have to wonder what value there is in wasting more money on further destruction of reputation.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk remains committed to funneling cash out of regional Queensland and into the south-east corner with a bid for the 2032 Olympic Games. I sent a petition to the Labor government with more than 5,000 signatures calling on the Premier to cancel the 2032 Olympics bid and focus on more important priorities for regional Queensland and the State’s economy. In responding to the petition, Premier Palaszczuk refused to abandon the bid, saying only that discussions were “on hold” due to the Coronavirus impact and claiming the Commonwealth Games were a “great success”.
The Commonwealth Games, also hosted in the south-east corner, were anything but a great success. Those games and, in particular, the way athletes were treated at the closing ceremony were nothing but a joke, being roundly criticised by all and sundry, including the Premier herself, saying organisers should ‘hang their heads in shame’.
What’s worse is the Premier claiming in her response to the petition that the Commonwealth Games cost $1.507 billion for an estimated $2.5 billion boost to Queensland’s Gross State Product ($1.804 billion of which benefited the Gold Coast). You could get the same result standing on the street corner of Cavill Avenue with a wheelbarrow of cash, making it rain $100 bills. What little benefit spilled outside the Gold Coast didn’t make it past Brisbane but it was the whole state that had to fund that $1.5 billion photo opportunity.
The cost of an Olympic Games will be greater by a factor of about 10 and, given the State’s big money earners – mining and agriculture – are both being shut down by the Labor government, it doesn’t make sense to borrow that kind of money. The estimated average cost of hosting an Olympics since 1960 is $12.5 billion. That’s a big ask for regional Queensland to service that kind of debt, especially when any returns that come back to government from hosting the Games will only be used in campaigns against our regional economy.
Now is not the time for frivolities and political grand-standing, when scarce public funds should be directed towards essential services and long-term infrastructure, which will provide widespread economic benefits and permanent jobs. Ordinary people will benefit very little from hosting the Olympic Games. The Commonwealth Games left the Gold Coast under-whelmed despite the promises that it would deliver for everyone. Regional Queensland was disadvantaged once again at the very time of natural disasters and the drought weighing heavily.
State funding should be prioritised towards education and health with a stronger focus on regional infrastructure like water for agriculture and rural communities, delivering basic bitumen roads, and support for volunteer rural fire brigades.
Backing farmers instead of bashing them would provide a far greater benefit to the Great Barrier Reef and local jobs.
I have written to both the Prime Minister and the Queensland Premier, asking for taxpayer funding to be pulled from the Reef 2050 Water Quality program. Millions of dollars have already been wasted on studies and projects that do nothing but demonise farmers. All they do is tell us that greenies hate farmers and we don’t need a multi-million dollar study to tell us that. If a fraction of that money was used to back farmers, there could be immediate improvements in water quality on the reef and more jobs in regional Queensland.
I recently met with farmers Graham Blackburn and Allan Parker to discuss how fallow crops can help regenerate the soil and, at the same time, prevent run-off from their farms. But fallow crops are no longer economically viable due to high costs for water and electricity.
State and Federal governments have failed farmers by allowing electricity and water prices to skyrocket while billions of dollars were thrown at the reef without any positive outcome. If we are going to KickStart Queensland coming out of this pandemic, we won’t do it by wasting the $2.7 billion these governments have committed to the reef. We keep throwing buckets of money at studies and all we get back is farmer-bashing and recommendations for more money to be spent on studies.
Crops like soy and mung beans are great fallow crops for the soil and the reef but they are only economically viable with plentiful water. If the Queensland Labor government stopped ripping off farmers with electricity and water prices, farmers would not only provide better outcomes for the reef but would provide more employment in the local community. Farmers not only provide food for the nation and for export but put food on the table for themselves and their local community.
When a farmer grows a crop, the majority of the money goes around the local community and that is exactly what we need if we are going to KickStart Queensland in 2020.
The battle to end an ideologically-driven closure of gun shops in regional Queensland may be about to claim victory, judging by the last-minute “conversion” of Labor’s Maryborough MP, Bruce Saunders.
Mr Saunders, who has previously expressed his hatred of guns, has come out saying gun shops should be allowed to open. Such a conversion would usually indicates the Labor Party is about to back down and the MP wants to get out on the front foot to convince his constituents he was working for them all along.
I circulated a petition to have restrictions lifted but this is the first sign of support he had seen from the Labor MP. I don’t recall seeing Mr Saunders taking a stand or petitioning against his own government’s knee-jerk regulations. I don’t recall him rushing in to sign the petition.
This last-minute conversion is either an indication of an imminent backflip or he is trying to pull the wool over regional Queenslanders’ eyes. Central Queenslanders know the Labor Party hates guns and they hate the people who use them. They also know that the Labor Party has no regard for the needs of farmers or anyone else living outside the south-east corner so they won’t be fooled as easily as Mr Saunders believes.
The Queensland Labor government’s attempt to buy airline jobs with taxpayer-funded debt is proof they missed their own brief. We don’t elect a government to take our money and buy jobs. Governments don’t create real jobs, and they certainly shouldn’t buy them. It’s the government’s job to create an environment that enables businesses to create those real jobs.
If the Queensland Labor government wants to keep Virgin operating and keep their head office in Queensland, they should look at how their own government treats businesses. Labor needs to ask themselves (or, better still, ask Virgin management) why an airline would want to go to the trouble and expense of moving their head office to another state. Fixing those issues should be their priority.
Given Labor’s record of sending the State into debt, the last thing they should be doing is spending more borrowed money to buy an airline that is already losing money. Aviation analyst Neil Hansford earlier this week said the winning bid to buy Virgin would have to have strong aviation experience and a willingness to lose money in the short-term”. There’s no question that Labor is willing to lose money. They are experts in that field. The problem is that it’s not their money and the people of Queensland are not willing to see their money and their future thrown down the gurgler.
China’s “bully boy” trade tactics could backfire by making the “made in China” label toxic for average Aussies. China has retaliated to Australia’s pursuit of an independent inquiry into COVID-19 by threatening our beef industry (through their ambassador, Cheng Jingye) and then blocking imports from four major Australian abattoirs.
China is emboldened by its superior market position but that position is being put at risk. China thinks we need them more than they need us and, when you look at the trade figures, you can forgive them for thinking that. But the Chinese people need food more than they need the Communist Party and there will be a lot of pressure to import food from a world that is increasingly suspicious of China’s motives and market power.
Our farmers, growing beef, barley and many other products, produce some of the highest quality food in the world and that is an attractive product for an increasingly middle class Chinese population. China’s attempt to bully Australia into backing off on an inquiry will be incredibly damaging to the Made-in-China brand among ordinary Australians. Australia is a free and democratic country and our government doesn’t need to resort to such tactics (although we may). The market will put its own ban on Chinese imports – one family at a time.
One of the big lessons coming from COVID-19 is about the reliance on China and the resurgent desire to buy Australian Made and to encourage manufacturing back to Australia is a result of that lesson. Queensland farmers produced and exported $1.3 billion of beef for the Chinese market last year and the crackdown on exports affects three major abattoirs in the State, including JBS’s Dinmore abattoir (Ipswich) Beef City processing facility (Toowoomba), and the Chinese-owned Kilcoy Global Foods.
An escalating trade war with China would not be confined to Australia as other countries around the world also were pushing for an independent inquiry into COVID-19. China can’t afford to block trade with everyone or else they risk having the world gradually close its doors to Chinese exports. But that is exactly what will happen if they continue to ride roughshod over their trading partners. There has already been a worldwide shift in mood about China, including its market power and its motives, and there are many companies around the world looking for alternatives to manufacturing in the Communist country.