NDIS, net zero proof of Labor’s dangerous spending addiction

Tom Dusevic gives us the update on this government’s spending, debt and subsidy mania. (“Welcome to Bailout Nation and our slag heap of debt”, 11-12/10). Every problem immediately cops a review or a few million, if not billion, to shut up. The trillions of debt grows with every subsidy on tap to conceal all bad news in the short term. Australia is being very badly governed and is in free fall as our economy staggers from one crisis to another, denying and concealing truth about almost everything. There’s a deluge of taxpayer money pouring on to spot fires, as the country continues to slide and ministers never admit responsibility. One classic is the NDIS, sold as designed for the totally physically disabled, but now lavishly funding any client who can bluff. No real reform has been articulated, let alone actioned. It’s diabolically badly administered, but its $58bn a year will be a flea bite compared to the real monster, which will always be Labor’s net-zero pathology renewables revolution failure.

Betty Cockman, Dongara, WA

Business model failure

We are losing our refineries, smelters and other businesses that drive our heavy industry, and the government’s answer is to continue to sleepwalk towards further disastrous shutdowns. There is no guarantee that once subsidies are applied, the businesses concerned won’t eventually shut down. This is part of a wider problem; the expectation that governments should come to the rescue of businesses and industries that have irresponsibly gone along with irrational government policies. If a business relies on government subsidies to survive, it should not be in business. The contra argument is that without such subsidies, jobs will be shed or not created. How about framing business models that are sustainable and adjusting them before a critical stage of a rescue package is needed?

Ron Reichwald, Frankston, Vic

Coalition must fight

Arguments among the Coalition are welcomed, and much preferred to dissent being stifled and another presentation of Labor light. To win the next election, the idiocy and danger of net-zero policies must be made more obvious. Videos showing once verdant fields covered by solar panels as far as the eye can see, forests laid waste by construction of wind turbines, and dumping grounds of debris from burnt-out turbines in Texas. Wide publicity must be given to climate scientists stating that we have to ruin the Earth to save it. This is the essential emotive campaign that was shunned in the last election.

Art Raiche, Killara, NSW

Conservative case

The conservatives will win back government if they campaign on getting government out of our faces and responding to what people want instead of telling them how to live (“Principles policy will help Liberals win battle of ideas”, 11-12/10). Firm commitments to repeal legislation like the digital ID, misinformation and disinformation laws and other socialist ideas, and ending the net-zero electricity farce that is ruining the country, will resonate with conservatives who are heartily sick of the pathetic government we have at present.

David Bidstrup, Plympton Park, SA

Gambling with lives

Will we ever have a government – any government – prepared to tackle the scourge of gambling where lives and families are torn apart by this addictive and legitimate government fundraiser? Obviously our current federal government doesn’t want to touch this huge income earner with a barge pole, saying it is working on it after two years of sitting on the proposed bill. This time delay will be of no comfort to families who have lost everything to this addiction. There is no such thing as safe gambling. A growing generation thinks a gamble is part and parcel of the next game of footy, with online betting being as close and available as their phone. So we continue to allow another generation to legitimately become addicted by both our governments, federal and state, who openly use the misery of thousands of addicted citizens to make up their monetary shortfalls. Whichever way you look at it gambling is a mug’s game.

Stephanie Summers, North Turramurra, NSW

‘Science’ challenged

Graham Lloyd (“Memo to Minister Bowen: the jig is up on net zero”, 11-12/10) shows how the push for net zero is losing momentum. I find the claim that the science is settled is the starting point for a lack of momentum. I find there is a lack of evidence that a gas with a concentration of 400ppm can have such a marked effect on climate. There should also be published statistics showing how this concentration is increasing as emissions of carbon dioxide keep rising, demonstrating the case to bring them back to the normal levels, but this data is missing or not happening.

Raymond Watson, Sunnybank Hills, Qld