Leaders must get proper advice and level with the people

If we are going to progress as a nation. leaders must start getting proper outside advice, then levelling with the people.

The half truths and misleading information told by the Coalition and ALP politicians who caused the power crisis and threaten Melbourne and Sydney gas shortages is still being duplicated over a wide range of areas. It seems to have become a disease that infects state and federal politicians and is set to really damage business and consumer confidence.

In power the state politicians did not know or lied when they told the community solar and wind would not need vast sums invested in the network plus backup and storage. By not investing we face blackouts which will damage the confidence of business and consumers.

Few politicians seem to have learned from the vandalisation of our electricity network. If we are going to progress as a nation then our elected leaders have got to start getting proper outside advice (the public service is either broken or not listened to) and then levelling with the people.

Here are just a few of cases where we are not being told the whole truth.

This week in the Federal Parliament our politicians are debating whether the should be a tax reduction for small and large corporations. There is a good case for small business tax cuts but for small enterprises it would far more useful if a proper tax appeals system was installed. As it now stands the Australian Taxation Office is investigator, prosecutor, judge, appeal judge and sentencer and courts are too expensive for small enterprises.

It’s a totally unfair system and countless small enterprises have been badly treated. If the Parliament made the Inspector General of Tax the final appeal body it would be a fantastic boost to small business confidence in Australia. But the politicians do not do their homework.

Similarly with large corporation tax cuts, you can’t have sensible tax change discussion without taking into account franking credits, which makes our tax rate lower than the nominal rates in other countries. Effectively it means the proposed tax cut applies to overseas shareholders and not locals in high dividend paying companies like the banks.

There has been some mention of franking credits but it should have a core part of the. Government proposal. Another half truth

When it comes to shift allowances Opposition leader Bill Shorten refuses to recognise that for a large part of the workforce Fair Work was merely reflecting the reduced shift allowance deals the union had done.

And then, of course, we have the question of power prices. The Prime Minister says the retailers are profiteering and he wants the ACCC to look into it. Yet Rome is burning. Hundreds of thousands of Australian businesses and retail consumers are being forced to buy diesel generators or batteries because of looming blackouts and Canberra is turning its back on the crisis.

Alleged retail profiteering might or not be right but it’s a smokescreen from the real situation where we are going to have to spend large sums to rectify the power network vandalisation undertaken by governments in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. To fix the system will require outside expertise and money and the expenditure will add to power bills. Industrial and residential consumers are set to pay dearly for the folly of their elected state leaders.

And just to double up, NSW and Victorian Governments are preventing the development of non fracked gas to contribute to gas price hikes and likely shortages in the 2019 winter. The Coalition and Labor politicians seem to live in a different world to the business community and honest Australians trying to earn a living.

But the political misleading goes beyond direct business issues. . What about telling the Australian people the real cost of the Joint Strike Fighter instead of giving out hopeless under estimates.

And what about telling the Australian people that we are paying about $US20 to $US 30 billion over the odds for a submarine that may not be available for a decade.

In both cases we desperately need experts to advise us — not the people who made the original decisions.

I do not want blackouts but if we are to have them I hope it will be a wake up call for the people that they need politicians on both sides who get the best possible advice on the issues and share the truth with the voters