Cash For Clunkers

Sometimes when trying to formulate a comprehendible opinion on an issue I appreciate a journalist that articulates my view so accurately that I am compelled to agree wholeheartedly, but in words that I could never claim as my own. It happened this week in an editorial by Andrew Bolt, titled “Green is the mantra of Gillard the gullible”.

His comments were directed at the PM’s plan to get old cars off the road only if buyers agreed to have their car scrapped and choose from a limited list of ‘green’ cars.

Regarding the PM’s intentions, Bolt writes:

Gillard's promise is to pay $2000 a piece to the first 200,000 voters to drag a pre-1995 car to the scrapyard, as long as they promise to replace it with a new green car, such as the Holden Cruze, Hyundai Getz or Toyota Camry Hybrid, now retailing for $39,000.

The aim of this $396 million plan, says Gillard, is to help save the planet from our wicked gases, which she claims are heating the world to hell.

"Australians own a lot of old motor cars, and those old cars guzzle a lot of petrol and they spew out a lot of pollution," she preached. "The amount of carbon we anticipate saving through this measure by getting the 200,000 old cars off the road is one million tonnes."

Regarding rorting that has become so rife in preceding plans by the labor govt:

Is this plan ripe for rorting? You bet, since cars that might have been scrapped anyway - or have been already - could now be driven to Gillard's taxpayer-funded knackers' yard instead for that $2000.

Regarding the car industry:

But won't this help manufacturers? Yes, if you're talking about foreign carmakers, who cleaned up most under Barack Obama's own "cash for clunkers" scheme last year. In fact, five of the seven models listed by Gillard as green enough to qualify for her $2000 trade-in deals are imports.

Will local manufacturers still win? Ah, now you may finally have touched on the real point of this charade.

Actually, Toyota's locally made hybrid Camry needs all this help and more.

Despite getting $70 million in handouts from the Federal and Victorian governments, it's been a market dud, selling fewer than 3000 so far.

Maybe that's what this is really about - a government spending millions to make the last millions it spent not look like waste.

Regarding the defence of the scheme:

So how can it be defended?

Why, it's green, isn't it? And aren't greens more interested in that seeming than any achieving anyway?

True enough, because that's just how Gillard's plan is defended even now by Climateworks, the activist outfit that proposed it to Labor.

Sure, conceded Climateworks executive director Anna Skarbek, this way of removing CO2 is about four times more expensive than most of the alternatives.

"You can cut carbon emissions by 25 per cent by doing things that cost not much more than $100 a tonne of carbon, but things like the cash-for-clunkers scheme can give you a role in signalling behaviour," she said.

This is just for "signalling behaviour", then?

So it's the gesture that counts - and never mind if what's actually achieved is insanely expensive and utterly futile.

Thank you Andrew Bolt, keep it up. Join his blog here or read the story in full here.

Battlelines

“Battlelines” by Tony Abbott

It is even more interesting to read this book now that Tony Abbott has taken over leadership of the opposition. It was published in 2009, written soon after Kevin Rudd won the election in 2007.

No one can accuse him of having no basis for his policy initiatives. Love him or hate him he has formed a solid foundation from which to base his policy. He stands for something, which is honourable.

Unfortunately at the moment that doesn’t seem to resonate with a general public still wrapped up in first female PM hysteria.

For those not understanding the right and left wings of politics, Abbott does a reasonable job of clarifying what is “right”. Like any political party there is a broad spectrum of ideologies on the one side of politics from conservative to liberal. What might be most confusing is that most members of the Liberal Party would draw from both conservative and liberal ideals. For example, conservative social issues. That is standing up for traditional family values ,while having a liberal economic policy. This is the promotion of self-reliance and small government.

An interesting read, easy enough for those not into politics. Although some economic jargon may fly above one’s head. Persist, it will be worth it.

Worm Off

Channel 9 has dubbed “the worm” as the star of the pre election series of debates. They must be expecting the debates to be boring because surely the debating should be the star of the show and not “who will the worm burn?”



The worm is an unnecessary distraction to what is being said and should be done away with. It rarely corresponds with what has been said. Analysts over analyse to the hilt.



Do yourself a favour and watch the ABC feed as it is 100% worm free.

Dubbo: Time To Smile

Much like many of its regional contemporaries, Dubbo offers a multitude of activities to suit all demographics.

My brother and I spent two days in Dubbo recently yet we could have easily spent more. Considering me missed the two main tourist attractions in The Western Plains Zoo and The Old Dubbo Gaol. Then there are always the nearby country towns with their own attractions.

I have pumped up Dubbo now, but our main purpose there wasn’t exploration, that was merely a bonus. Rather we went to connect with family whom we previously had little interaction. That was the highlight of the trip. Not to detract from Dubbo at all.

While attractions weren’t high on our agenda we still managed to get around to some. The Western Plains Cultural Centre was impressive and also free. It had some great displays on local history, their aboriginal heritage and also works of art from local artists.

There are many wineries in Dubbo. Most needed bookings and suited groups. We found one called Red Earth. They had a great selection and could not leave without taking home some local product.

We stayed at the Formula One Motel, as it was simple and cheap. Given different company I would probably go more upmarket.

I recommend a holiday to regional New South Wales. Get out of the city or suburbs to slow down and relax.

Tuesdays With Morrie

“Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom

This is a wonderful story about an inspirational man. If only there were more like him that embraced death as part of life. For starters aspects of my job would be easier, but apart from that we would be a much happier, content and satisfied humanity if we took a leaf out of the book of Morrie Schwartz.



Morrie was diagnosed with the terminal illness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) in his 70’s. This began a journey for not just him. He had many passengers that he invited along for the ride.



One passenger was a former student, journalist Mitch Albom, whom he hadn’t seen for sixteen years but remembered vividly nonetheless. Mitch got back in touch with his favourite professor from college when he miraculously saw Morrie featuring on USA’s Nightline talking to Ted Koeppel about his ALS.



What started as just a visit to a dying man turned out to be a thesis, their “last thesis together”. His life was changed as he gained wise insights from Morrie as they met, on Tuesdays.



Morrie’s openness about ALS and its terminal nature is not the norm and this is a shame. As through this openness he didn’t change just Mitch’s life but thousands of people after viewing the Nightline report and follow up stories. Albom’s book was placed on Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club reading list, and automatically became a New York Times bestseller. Through Oprah’s production company the story was made into a telemovie. Morrie leaves a lasting legacy, “a teacher till the last”.



Despite admitting to only being an agnostic from Jewish origin and borrowing from many religions in his dying days, it’s interesting that many of Morrie’s revelations fit in well with having a faith in God. He commented on people living fast paced materialistic lives yet still feeling unfulfilled (Christian response: true fulfilment only comes from having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ).



Maybe Morrie had more faith than he cared to admit. As Albom added in his afterword in the 10-year anniversary edition, Morrie had admitted to Ted Koeppel in their last interview that he had spoken to God. Then came a statement when Mitch asked about life after death. Morrie said, “I have not settled on one yet……however, this is too harmonious, grand and overwhelming a universe to believe that it’s all an accident.” An amazing statement for a man who had, at this stage, lost all movement of his body and had become totally dependant on others.



Able to be read in a day, well worth reading!! You won’t be able to put it down.

Excessive Reliance

Listen to any politician when they are on TV or radio. There are always buzz words, some have been referred to here. Beyond the buzzwords there are tools that are constantly referred to but are being used as the basis for policy making. Both are fraught with dangerous inconsistencies.

Modelling
Modelling in this case isn’t the glorified coat hangers that traipse down catwalks, but rather the software packages used to predict the success or failure of potential new policies. Problem is that these models can only predict and are not conclusive. They are limited by the data that is put in to the system. Even if we assume the data is absolutely correct it still cannot take into account many variables. At the very most modelling should be used as an aid and not the ultimate authority on the potential success of a policy.

Unfortunately there have been examples of late in the areas of climate change and economic stimulus where it has been proven that dodgy modelling was used to prove a point.

Advice
Of course any individual can’t know everything about everything, Rudd has tried. He has a team of advisors like most politicians and a lot of faith is placed in them. Perhaps it’s due to their facelessness that they gain reference in parliament. Most of the general public have no idea who these public servants are or their credentials to be the PM’s number 2.

I am sceptical about the quality of their advice sometimes. Is it true? Is it the best information? Or is it something that has a half-truth and sounds good in parliament? Or is it what their employer wanted to hear, regardless of fact. Perhaps the politician referring to “advice” is just giving himself an out if it turns out to be dodgy.

Either way it can give off the impression of someone that doesn’t think for themselves, instead relies on a bunch of unknown advisors.