PETE SEEGER

RIP Pete Seeger, who was a gifted folk singer who inspired not only many of our most renowned musicians but also tens of millions of people around the world with his progressive politics and the decency of his values. I am indebted to Bob Norlin for drawing my attention to the attached song from Pete about population, showing his insights, even in his nineties. I thank Bob for passing it on, because I daresay the public tributes to Pete Seeger won’t mention his views on population.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Spc_pKDHSk

Prime Minister Seeks to Rewrite History

In Davos at the World Economic Forum last night Prime Minister Abbott sought to re-write economic history when criticising the Labor Government’s stimulus spending during the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008-09. He ignored the widespread praise and recognition from around the world for Labor’s aggressive response, which averted a recession in Australia.

All developed economies were impacted severely by the GFC. As markets collapsed and workers lost jobs in their millions all governments scrambled to respond. Only one developed nation emerged almost unscathed from that turmoil: Australia. As private aggregate demand collapsed the Labor government stepped in with stimulus to shore up demand. It was textbook countercyclical budget policy as opposed to the pro-cyclical budget position of former Treasurer Costello, who in the boom years was throwing money at the electorate for political advantage. This had been inflationary and pushed up interest rates.

By 2012 Australia found itself a clear world leader on economic indicators with contained inflation, low unemployment, low public debt and low interest rates with a AAA credit rating. The only other developed country to avoid two negative quarters of gross domestic product growth and thus avert recession was Poland, which executed similar stimulus spending.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that Australia’s fiscal stimulus measures were amongst the most effective in the OECD in terms of stimulating economic activity and supporting employment. The organisation said that although Australia had entered the deep global downturn in good shape, including having a healthy budget surplus, by itself this had been insufficient to protect it from the worst of the world recession. They said:

"This would not have been enough if monetary and fiscal policies had not been developed to respond to the crisis. These have in no small part shielded businesses and citizens from the initial damaging impacts of the global recession."

Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz said:

''Not only was it the right amount, it was extraordinarily well structured, with careful attention to what would stimulate the economy in the shorter run, the medium term and the long term. When I look around the world, it was, I think, probably the best-designed stimulus program in the world and you should be happy that in fact it worked in exactly the way it was designed to work.''

The GFC was the moment of truth for the idea central to the neo-liberal faith and the Liberal Government – the superiority of the invisible hand of the market to the economic intervention of government. It was shown to be a myth. The fact is that, depending on the circumstances, both market forces and government actions have their place.

Joseph Stiglitz summed it up as follows:

“Most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal…The embracing by America – and much of the rest of the world – of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.”

If the Labor Government had not implemented timely and targeted stimulus, we would have experienced a deep recession and much higher unemployment, with all the destruction of capital and skills that comes with that. The Prime Minister’s Davos contribution makes it plain that the Liberal Party does not understand this, and that had they been in Government during the GFC Australia would have joined the rest of the developed world in deep and prolonged recession.

TRANS-TASMAN ARRANGEMENT IN NEED OF REVIEW

I saw a TV program about homelessness a while ago which used as its illustration of homelessness a man who was reduced to sleeping in his car after losing his job.  The man had come from New Zealand. This is not that co-incidental when you realise that the Trans-Tasman Arrangement gives New Zealanders an automatic right to come to Australia and stay indefinitely, but locks them out of Australian social security payments.  They’re fine if they’ve got a job, but not if they haven’t.

Anglicare Southern Queensland says the hardship for New Zealanders in Australia is increasing, with ‘lots of overcrowded houses with two or three families and lots of kids”.  Anglicare says we should lift the ban on unemployment and sickness benefits and pay them to New Zealanders in Australia.

But if that was all we did then we would generate an even greater exodus of New Zealanders to Australia than the present Arrangement does, because our social security system is more generous.  All out-of-work New Zealanders would be tempted to come to Australia.  Already over 648,000 New Zealand citizens, 12% of New Zealand’s population, is living in Australia. Of those, 84,700 were born elsewhere than New Zealand, and have come to Australia from a third country via New Zealand.

And Britain has had experience of open borders and a superior social security system.  It predicted in 2004 that around 13,000 Polish citizens would arrive each year after borders were opened, but in fact more than a million have arrived.

What might improve matters is if we renegotiated the Trans-Tasman Arrangement to put a cap on New Zealand migration of between 30 and 40,000 per annum, and then open up permanent residence and social security entitlements for New Zealanders who have been in Australia for a reasonable period.  I think this would be fairer all round. Australia would regain control of its migration program, and New Zealanders wouldn’t be at risk of sleeping in cars if they lose their job.

LIBERAL GOVERNMENT WAY OFF TRACK OVER WELFARE CRACKDOWN

The Liberal Government says that welfare spending is at unsustainable levels of $70 billion each year. This may be true, but their proposed solution, a crackdown on people on unemployment benefits and disability pensions, is a mean spirited attack on the poor which smacks of class warfare and will not give us a better society.

There are two much fairer and more appropriate ways of reducing the $70 billion welfare budget. The first is to lift Australia’s workforce participation rate. The latest figures show our participation rate has fallen to 64.6%, the lowest level since 2006. We have over 720,000 Australians out of work, and over 820,000 Australians receiving the Disability Support Pension. Why, then, are we running such massive permanent and temporary migrant worker programs? Over one million temporary visa holders have work rights in Australia. We need to cap and reduce the migrant worker programs and give job opportunities and job security to Australians who are presently out of work. This will lift our participation rate and reduce the welfare bill.

Secondly, the government should not proceed with its extravagant Paid Parental Leave scheme – if it wants to collect more company tax from wealthier companies then instead of funding the Paid Parental Leave scheme it can use that money instead to help balance the books, rather than attacking Australia’s poorest and most disadvantaged.

REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JUNIOR DAY

As the United States celebrates the life and work of the great Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., it is appropriate to remind ourselves of his comments back in May 1966 about the issue of population:-

“There is no human circumstance more tragic than the persisting existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily available. Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of billions who are its victims”.

HEAT WAVE IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA

Crikey it’s hot. Mercifully today should be the last day of it for a while. Just as well; I don’t how much more of this I could take.

We should always try and learn from bad experiences, and I think there are three things that we should take out of this one. First, as Paul Gilding writes in the December 2013 edition of Spinifex, the publication of Queensland Conservation, while it’s understandable that people don’t like talking about climate change in the middle of a bushfire emergency, this is in fact precisely the time when we should be talking about it. As he says, people don’t like talking about uncomfortable things. The thought that major bushfire emergencies could become more common, with people dying and houses and communities being destroyed, is very uncomfortable. The thought that we are aggravating this by our greenhouse gas emissions is particularly uncomfortable.

 
So it is understandable that people prefer not to talk about it. But as Paul Gilding also says, the resistance from right wing politicians and commentators to linking climate change and fires is not just driven by compassion for those suffering loss. As the old quote goes, “Hell hath no fury like a vested interest disguised as a moral principle”. If the public learns to relate natural disasters that go to the heart of the Australian psyche, like fire, drought and flood, to climate change – those who resist strong climate policy will be in serious trouble.  So the first thing is that as a community we need to understand the link between carbon emissions and extreme weather events, and be willing to talk about it.

Secondly we had the experience in Melbourne of our electricity demand exceeding supply, and people being cut off at perhaps the very time they needed power most. It is at such times that renewable energy is not just the right option for the planet, but the right option for households and our electricity supply system. People who install solar panels contribute to electricity during these peak times when we need electricity most, so they are doing everyone a favour. Secondly, if people have their own independent means of electricity generation they are much better able to cope with power outages and cutbacks. It was a mistake for the Victorian Government to cut payments for solar energy in 2012 to households that supple electricity to the grid from 25 cents per kilowatt hour to 8 cents. South Australia has more rooftop solar, meeting 7 to 8 % of total demand, compared with Victoria’s 2%. We should be aiming to match and surpass South Australia in the field of solar panels. Similarly it would be a disastrous mistake for the Federal Liberal Government to discourage renewable energy, for example by watering down the Renewable Energy Target. Renewable energy is exactly what we will need more of to contain electricity bills, and build our independence and resilience to face the world of the future.

 
Third, Melbourne is leading Australia for heat-related deaths, because we are hotter than our surrounds. We have about 200 heat related deaths each year, and this is expected to more than double by 2030. The city centre is up to 4 degrees hotter than the suburbs because of the heat island effect. This comes from cutting down trees, leading to a lack of shade and open green space. I have constituents reporting their neighbours’ air conditioners spilling out hot air and foiling their attempts to cool their yards. High rise buildings are trapping and storing heat like a baking oven. The high ceilings of the early European settlers are largely gone. People who believe or claim that urban consolidation and high rise is environmentally desirable are wrong. As Nursery and Garden Industry Australia says, we need to increase, not reduce, urban green spaces. We need to maintain and increase our tree canopy and urban vegetation, not allow it to disappear to make way for dual occupancies, multi-unit developments, and high rise.

December 2013 Unemployment Figures

Today’s unemployment figures show nearly 722,000 Australians out of work, the number of Australians employed falling by over 22,000, and a drop in the labour force participation rate to 64.6%, the lowest level since April 2006. Australia also has over 800,000 disability support pension recipients.

The fall in our workforce participation rate is bad news. It is further evidence that both our permanent and temporary migrant worker programs are too big and out of step with Australian economic conditions. The 457 visa program is uncapped, and over a million temporary visa holders have work rights in Australia.

 
We need to cap and reduce the temporary migrant worker programs and give job opportunities and job security to young Australians. The temporary and permanent migrant worker programs are a recipe for more young Australians to be out of work, with all the negative consequences unemployment has in relation to mental health, drugs, crime, and social harmony.