Cranky Queenslander

Readers will recall I wrote to Minister Garrett asking him to pull the finger out on Hydrogen as a fuel for transport, and recently he wrote back.

Most of the reply points to the challenges faced by anyone trying to bring Hydrogen to the market, but fails to suggest what the government might do to overcome those challenges.

The Australian Government that the use of hydrogen as a transport fuel has great potential…

…These difficulties are not seen as impossible to overcome…

Okay then, so why are there no initiatives in the hydrogen arena? Why is the government silent on the issue? Why is it proposing to spend $500 million on convincing Toyota to build the prius in Australia three to six years from now, and not spending anything now to promote Hydrogen?

What’s even funnier is that the letter cites a Howard Government initiative as one of the few positive policies that are in effect. Doesn’t Labor have any policies in this area? Apparently not!

I bet everyone who cares for the environment who voted Labor are thinking twice about doing it again; This governments environmental credentials are a joke, and will continue to be until Rudd wakes up and actually does something!

Further to yesterdays article about the Ipswich Motorway fiasco, a footnote to this story is that Paul Tully, often quoted but rarely relevant local councillor, was quoted as saying his office has received no complaints from locals regarding the Rudd governments plans for the motorway.

Firstly, that’s because you have virtually nothing to do with it Paul. The road is a federal road, and under current agreements, is built, upgraded or maintained by the state government using federal money. The local council has little to do with it.

But more importantly, I think it’s time locals DID write to Paul and tell him what a crock this upgrade really is. He obviously doesn’t read the paper or watch the news too often, or else he would know that most people were in favour of the bypass.

Just for the record, I’ll tell you why that’s the case. Building the bypass would have resulted in almost no disruption to the existing road while it was constructed. Once built, it would have taken most of the traffic off the existing stretch it bypassed, allowing upgrade works to be done on it much more easily if still required.

Okay Paul, your turn. Give it to me in the comments 🙂

I came across this article in the courier mail, and after reading it through twice, and recalling the labor party rhetoric of the last election, I thought it was a bit of a beat up. The labor party never promised to upgrade the whole Ipswich motorway did they?

So I went looking, and found the new member for Blair Shayne Neumann’s maiden speech to parliament. I did a quick scan for any mention of the motorway, and I found this;

Nevertheless, for many years now, the missing link for Ipswich and its surrounds has been federal funding. The most obvious example of the financial neglect by the previous coalition government has been the Ipswich Motorway, linking Ipswich with Brisbane. This four-lane national highway is at its capacity…….

….my Liberal predecessor opposed the full upgrade of the motorway from Ipswich to Brisbane, instead wasting years by running interference on this vital issue. We will fix the Ipswich Motorway. We will fully upgrade the Ipswich Motorway to six lanes and build a network of service roads to take intersuburban traffic off the motorway.

So the courier mail appears to have it right on; One of the very first things Shayne did as the member for Blair was promise this very thing, a FULL upgrade of the motorway, not just the Dinmore to Goodna stretch.

Was Shayne lying when he said that in parliament, or does he just not know where the Ipswich Motorway goes? I have heard stories locally of other clueless incidents, so perhaps its the latter. Either way, he needs to come out and apologise and make this right.

I also can’t seem to find a website with all his speeches and what not… anyone know where I should be looking?

My barrage of letters to local councils resulted in a mixed bag of responses. Having given proper time for the all to respond, here is the roundup of what they are all doing. It’s pretty shameful really; This is a long post, so if you are up for it, the rest of over the fold;

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Back when I blogged about the tax hike on pre mix alcoholic beverages, I wrote to Minister Roxon and asked her some simple questions;

Why are we taxing spirits so much more heavily than we do beer?

Why do we tax packaged beer at higher rates than draught beer?

Why do we tax wine on its value, rather than its alcohol content, like other alcoholic drinks?

Why don’t we tax “ready to drink” products on a sliding scale the same as packaged beer?

Doesn’t it make sense to encourage “ready to drink” makers to produce lower alcohol content drinks?

In her response, she fails to answer any of these questions, instead preferring to waffle on about all the wonderful things she’s doing to help with the alleged binge drinking problem. Basically, she has no answers.

One nugget of gold in her letter was her assertion that studies show that increasing tax on something decreases its consumption. Of all the stupid things she could have said, this must be the stupidest. What increasing the price does is convince people who CHOOSE to drink to drink less or stop completely. The people who are binge drinking are alcoholics, and are not going to stop drinking regardless of the price.

I think I’ll write back and see if she wants to answer my questions or just cite a bunch of PR BS again instead. It really makes me cranky when people won’t answer a simple question!

I was asked to post their reply, so here it is. Short and sweet, it seems there is no political will anywhere to investigate and prosecute those responsible.

Barnaby Joyce tends to run hot and cold, and this morning on ABC Insiders I witnessed comments that I hope he regrets deeply.

When being interviewed in front on what I think was a Toyota Prius, he described the car as being like a sardine can, and suggested the next move was scooters and rain coats.

Seriously, I’d own a Prius if I could afford one, and there is no reason why government fleets should not be predominantly hybrid vehicles.

Get over yourself Barnaby and think about whats good for your constituents, the country as a whole, and the environment.

Check out dear leaders latest stunt; The Labor Party’s green car initiative. Despite the fact that the productivity commission report into the matter suggests that the move will be carbon neutral and has a chance of increasing carbon emissions, Kevin decides to trot this one out on World Environment Day!

There are so many reasons to be cranky about this; One good one is that this policy starts three years from now, in 2011. This will be after the next federal election, and chances are the whole thing will be scrapped then anyway.

Why is it that the announcement doesn’t actually specify what a green car is? Surely there should be an emissions target, or a fuel consumption target, or something, to tell us what this new wonder car will do for us. I find it highly suspicious that there is nothing like this in the announcement.

Then there is the fact that the plan is contingent on industry ponying up three times as much money as the government intends on throwing at it; No word from Rudd on what happens if they don’t.

In short, this policy is a crock. There is nothing of substance here. If Rudd wanted to do something to help the car industry, he’d ring the chief at Toyota (Or get Lawsie to do it) and ask a very simple question;

"What do I need to do to get Toyota to build the Prius in Australia?"

Then, when he gets the answer, he’d just announce that’s what he’s doing, and he’d do it today.

I’ve written to Minister Garrett today to see what he thinks about the idea of just helping companies like Toyota to manufacture their already existing green car options here. I’ll let you know what he thinks. Feel free to download and send him the letter yourself.

Despite the fact that Seven News clearly pointed out tonight that the suspected perpetrator of the murder of Sarah Elston was her ex boyfriend, I’m sure there are plenty of Queenslanders tonight deleted their facebook profiles and demanding their kids do the same.

What a crock. Why is it that the media needs to find weird angles on stories? How about just reporting the facts, which in this case, having virtually nothing to do with Facebook at all.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of foolish young people who’s personal information is freely available on Facebook, My Space, Bebo and the like. A quick google search of the name of your local high school will usually turn up one or more. That doesn’t make these sites bad, though, it makes their users stupid.

So if you haven’t already got on the Facebook bandwagon, go sign up, but for goodness sake, understand how to protect your privacy BEFORE you do! Remember, if someone wants to do you harm, they have to physically find you first!