Now is the perfect time to get rid of pointless green burdens on our economy
Thanks to the rude wake up call from a real global pandemic, suddenly the fluffy luxury of “Green” rules and strangling red tape are put in the right perspective. Few are going to complain.
Despite this outbreak appearing to tick the Green Left fantasy list, any reality check exposes how frivolous most fashionable angst is. There is a great opportunity here to clean out some of the worst of the Big Government burden.
The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is in the government’s sights:
Green tape to be cleared for recovery
Richard Ferguson and Dennis Shanahan, The Australian
Environment Minister Sussan Ley is set to cut green tape in time for October’s post-coronavirus federal budget, as a new report shows restrictive environmental regulations have grown 4½ times since 2000 and threaten to hamper the economic recovery.
Think tank the Institute of Public Affairs’s new study of federal environment laws found regulations have grown by more than 10 per cent each year and have delayed up to $65bn in new investment.
As Scott Morrison looks ahead to rebuilding the Australian economy after the coronavirus crisis passes, the government is moving to clear its backlog of environmental decisions on dams, roads, public transport, mines and other key projects by June.
National Cabinet will be asked to fast track review of Australian environmental regulations
Lanai Scarr, The West Australian
National Cabinet will be asked to fast-track a major 10-year review of Australia’s environmental regulations as a way to boost the nation’s economic revival and cut green tape post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many projects, including in the WA resources sector, often get tied up in environmental assessments for long periods, acting as a wet blanket for investment.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today reducing green tape would be key.
National Cabinet will meet tomorrow to consider the next steps forward for easing social distancing measures as Australia continues to keep a lid on new COVID-19 cases and keep the curve flattened.
“Ensuring that we’re moving quickly through approval processes and providing that certainty for business investment … will be … a key part of the economic recovery strategy,” Mr Morrison said.
A month ago Victoria suddenly allowed onshore gas exploration — a news item of a major backflip not-so-coincidentally released the same week as the coronavirus news eclipsed everything. But great news for Victorians who want cheaper gas that one day they might be able to provide more of their own. Though fracking was banned.
I am reminded of Gulliver’s travels. Gulliver is ‘The West’ a giant bound -with his tacit agreement-by hundreds of tiny green ropes, created by the Lilliputians.
Gulliver was initially able to easily break free of all the ropes that bound him, individually they were nothing but threads to him, but collectively, as the number of green ropes increased, he was nearly unable to through them off and escape.
Now Gulliver actually wanted to regain his freedom. The question is, does ‘Western’ Gulliver actually enjoy being bound by lots of tiny green ropes? Does he enjoy the restrictions he has deliberately placed on himself? Does he want to break free?
Time will tell, as this is the obvious time for him to make his escape. Should he want to do so
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Depre4ssingly it appears Lilliputians still have the upper hand and Gulliver wants to remain bound by their numerous green ropes
https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-battle-shifts-to-once-in-a-generation-national-budgets/
The first link ‘A majority in every country’ appears to show that respondents to a poll believes that Climate change is as big a threat as CV and need lots more regulations and lots more money thrown at it.
The poll includes Australia, who are just as enthusiastic as the rest of the West in wanting to burden itself. Surely Not? Where is the money to come from? Who ARE these people that feel as threatened by Climate change as by CV?
Unfortunately it looks like Gulliver will willingly remain bound for years to come and there will come a point very soon when he will be unable to break free from his green ropes, even if he should want to do so
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Tony, sounds like a Cook and Lewandowsky polling, likely of the universities and the schools.
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Likely just self serving rubbish !
With self selected ‘pollees’
Wanting to answer for ALL of us.
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Beth
Depressingly its an Ipso mori poll with supposedly representative samples from the major countries. So not an online poll carried out by a green organisation with a agenda. I personally find it extraordinary that people should be as scared witless by the climate as by CV.
I don’t want to go round trashing the environment so would agree with a number of green measures but this poll seems to suggest people want much more than merely mark time.
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Tony,
I surmise ’tis the madness of crowds, as re ‘The Day the Dam Broke, ‘ of which both you and I have written.
https://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/63rd-edition-serf-under_ground-journal/
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Well we got rid of several Lilliputians; Trunbull being their leader. Still there are a few left behind. Come on PM Morrison, finish draining the swamp. It should have been done already.
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Don’t believe every thing that is told by these lillyputians.They speak with a”Forked tongue”There aren’t as many as THEY say.In fact,I would say they are a very small percentage of the population.It’s just that most of them are”Dole Bludgers”or”Uni Students”with a lot of free time on their hands,which is why they can spend so much time chained to trees or railway lines or gates.By the way.
In case nobody has noticed,Adani mine STILL hasn’t started up yet.Why Not?
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Well, hasn’t been a battle. My first time commenting here was a dozen years ago. I love this site and the people that have frequented it…gives me faith in human nature.
I now believe that common sense is in the ascendancy. A shame it took a pandemic to expose the scientific charlatans. Maybe the science can concentrate on the issues to improve the lot of mankind? Twas the way it was before it got diverted to the paganistic, middle earth, fantasistic, near orgasmic, ideological wet dream.
Almost there.
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Don’t comment here much these days but read all your comments. Comment at The Australian. I go after Silly Filly and the like.
Silly got hammered by you guys then decided to comment at the Oz. A nag is a nag, no matter what paddock.
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I’ve seen you and SF there scaper. The nag hasn’t changed much!
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We are not out of the woods yet. Far from it. We will be free once we no longer have the Paris Agreement, have started building coal fired power stations and dams, as a minimum. Until all that happens, we are not that much better off than when Turnbull was PM. A little better definitely but that’s all. I will break out the champagne once the first new coal fired power stations is started.
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Forget the Paris agreement. ScoMo reckons we’ll scoot it in, with our huge landmass and small population. So we just ignore it. Instead of thumbing our collective nose at the Paris scam, ScoMo will do it politely. We have nature on our side.
The sign of freedom will be when we hear about shovel-ready coal power station and dam projects. That will truly be a day for rejoicing.
Don’t hold your breath.
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tonyb – the coronavirus event has been a mighty wake-up call for Western governments in lots of ways, and it seems our government is thankfully now starting to understand how much the combined effect of all these ‘tiny green ropes’ has slowed down (or even stopped) key parts of our economy. Given the huge effort that will be required to get the economy moving again, I sincerely hope that Morrison and his team take a D9 bulldozer to these ropes, rather than following the typical bureaucrats’ advice of daintily snipping them individually. I thought of adding a short list of my suggestions, but soon gave up because there are hundreds of these critters and I just don’t know where to start!
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Boy from Tottenham. Your reply came in as I was writing my second post. Can you believe the article or the poll it carries? Our population in the West appears to have been terrorised by the climate propaganda and wants more of the same
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No can do!
You can treat the symptoms but need to go to the source of the infection. Our democracy was destroyed when they created the Career Politician.
These Politicians will not risk their careers to make the ‘right’ decision.
Easily fixed. Two year terms, no more than 2 consecutive terms and compensation not remuneration. Elections with paper and pencil and voting not compulsory. No payment to Parties or their hangers-on.
We elect people to go to the floor and speak for their community, not to represent the Party that pre-selects them.
Our democracy was raw and imperfect yet it worked. This ‘One Party State’ corrupts the Bureaucracy, the Judiciary and the Media and is incapable of making decisions other then to slowly strangle our freedoms and to hide their own failings.
If you need an example of these failings, there is nothing more ridiculous than tracking app or a ban from going to the beach or a park. The only thing more sinister is an invitation to ‘dob in’ your neighbour.
We are living Aynn Rand’s, Ben Elton’s, John Ralston-Saul’s and George Orwell’s nightmares and unless Trump survives the attack using the full force of the United Nations we can only hope as Ralston-Saul concludes, that those who conquer us are kind to us.
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That august(?)body is most of the problem.(see agenda 21,now agenda 2030)
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I see – despite the way the corona virus which arguably was a result of lax environmental regulation, it is fine to remove green tape?
Still – if gas is a few cents cheaper, and you can get all the cheep goods you want from china, why not.
after all we won’t have to worry about the consequences (said the the USA and the UK), its in China.
How about we get our water from Flint Michigan, as relaxing environmental regulations is allowing long wall mining under Sydney’s catchments, and previous efforts have shown how that removes rivers and creeks from areas above it.
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Now that’s the Peter Fitzroy I remember, where have you been .
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Not sure which one but still the usual nonsensical drivel.
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Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Using the cover of COVID19 as an excuse to scrap environmental protections is an act of bastardry, and everyday Australians will be appalled.”
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I don’t know who these everyday Australians are she’s talking about. I for one say scrap every green law that’s been introduced since 1980. Nix the lot of them.
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In China there is only red tape. Perhaps you should also try using some.
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… only if it’s not “Made in China.”
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A few questions. How did the IPA collect its data? How did they arrive at 10% PA given the huge amounts of “tape” removed 2014-16? Surely regulations had a big drop then? Or are they using a median which means that the annual reductions are statistically erased? What power is Ley planning on using to over-ride the states?
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Green tape is now a scourge in this country adding years to some approvals , I’m all for sensible laws regarding pollution etc but we are not talking about getting rid of sensible laws just industry killing green tape .
No better example of which is the coal mine in NSW refused because of a decision by the Environmental Defenders office on the grounds it would harm the Paris agreement.
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Yes indeed.Just look at how long Adani has been trying to get going.Ten years I believe.And Palletchook is still dragging her feet.
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Since you asked Gee Aye, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has been concerne4d about the drag on the economy by unnecessary regulations (red tape and green tape) for a long time. They have a lot of publications explaining their position. An entry point is here:
https://ipa.org.au/red-tape-project
The very first item contained there is THE GROWTH AND COMPLEXITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION.
https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IPA-Report-EPBC-Paper-1.pdf
Sources are mainly Government eg Bureau of Statistics and University studies.
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That 10% figure is way low , the Paris agreement will cost the economy a bigger hit than 10% .
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Ask them GI?
Don’t be lazy, or you could Google or Bing it?
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Since we are now in the era of 3 word slogans, I suggest “Green NO Deal” !!!
Ditching future green subsidies and financial funding up to 2030 would also release up to 100 billion dollars back into the productive economy, rather than just sending it offshore to China. Large scale investment in dams and water diversion projects that send our excess coastal water into inland waterways in the eastern states is something that is beyond overdue and must be on of the first priorities, along with the removal of those barrages at the other end 🙂
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Or “No More Green wash”
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Could the Australian lockdown have been ended earlier?
https://twitter.com/j_mccaw/status/1249592269977423879
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We are not there yet tonyb. Scomo says 3 more weeks.
But I would say yes. It could be ended earlier, at least in some places.
I ask why 3 more weeks? What is the plan?
Originally the plan was to “Save Our Hospitals”! That is still being shown on road signs. The hospitals are about to close from lack of work.
Now I think they might be going for elimination of the virus, although no one in authority has said so. Total elimination of the virus could take months, because a few seriously ill people are still in hospital and are not getting better very quickly. Surely we can get some activity going before then.
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The stated aim was always to “flatten’ the curve; never eliminate the virus. Now it has become obvious to the CMO and government officials what Jo said once the opportunity to prevent its entry was lost – that was to crush the virus. They clearly see that the virus can be eliminated in Australia. They will then be extremely cautious about letting it back in.
Victoria has 6 new cases an a care facility today. They plan to test everyone involved with the facility. So the virus is still present in the community.
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ScoMo, like all leaders said “flatten the curve” which was an admirable goal. A month ago alarmists were saying that Trump’s “delay” in introducing “hide under a rock” legislation, an order that would be unconstitutional, would cause an EXTRA million deaths. How is that panning out?
The logic of “flatten the curve” was perfectly reasonable when it was obvious that Italy’s medical resources could not cope, no nation wanted to be in that position and Dr John Campbell [does daily reports] doubted the Brit’s ability to cope. But even after NY’s Cuomo’s loud demands for extra hospitals, beds and ventilators was met it was obvious he panicked. A US Army field hospital was set up and dismantled without ever admitting a patient and he is offering ventilators to anyone who wants them .
A new report I saw today stresses how heat, humidity and sunlight greatly reduces the half life of the virus so we have been lucky, days are still over 30 deg here.
Our curve is now a pancake so there is zero chance of hospitals being stretched beyond capacity, case death rates are low and testing shows there are far more asymptomatic cases than previously thought. Herd immunity can be achieved without horrendous death toll.
Time to get back to work.
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I am in South Australia
It’s weeks since we had a day over 30 deg here.
In fact Winter has come early.
And even the BOM is issuing warnings about more colder weather next week
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Righteo Scomo.
Start cleaning out a few of your own cupboards. No hypocrisy. No duck-shoving.
Repeal Section 487 of the Commonwealth’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act (1999).
It is consistently used as a tool for vexatious litigation and to pursue ideological “lawfare” along the lines followed in the USA.
Green groups are notorious for making use of Section 487 of the Act, to not only delay projects and force up the costs of development but also to stop projects dead. They are grossly anti-development and that applies to mining, tourism or farming. They have no interest in finding ways to improve projects with which they disagree. It is about stopping them. And, if that doesn’t work then they resort to illegal actions such as property trespass and sabotage.
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Normalcy set to return, schools first and then sport to get a reboot.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8252161/Scott-Morrison-announces-plans-restart-sport.html
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Not if you live in the land of the CFMEU – Queensland.
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The title of this thread is music to my ears. Please PM Morrison, PULL YOUR FINGER OUT and stop procrastinating. You did a good job to smash the curve. We are about one trillion in debt so spending a mere several more billions to build some coal fired power stations to smash power prices will do wonders to the future of our economy. That money spent would pay for itself several times over on the long run. It will also send the Greens nuts – who cares?
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Dr. Birx’s logic.
Things are not always as they seem but this math has me shaking my head.
She said, and I paraphrase, that if 1% of the population is infected and you have a test that is 99% accurate and get a +ve result then there is only a 50% chance that the result is correct.
I can’t deny a scientist’s math but I do wonder what the point of testing is when, early on, Chinese test kits were notoriously unreliable and suspected of being tainted with the live virus anyway.
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Actually that answer is correct as per Bayes’s Theorem. That’s the theory. Now in practice as you hinted there are many other factors that will give a very different answer.
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In our little neck of the woods in CFMEU Land (QLD), my wife and I have had our temperatures checked daily for the past 3 weeks. The results are consistent.
I am 36 degrees which is consistent for someone in very poor condition coming out of anaesthesia.
My wife is consistently 35 degrees so she should be consistently dead.
Guess where the thermometers are made!!!
You guessed it.
Some things are a joke. It’s like Darwin being in the low 30s during the 1930s (to suit a global warming narrative).
Do NASA, BoM, etc get their thermometers from the same mob?
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People might need training to use thermometers correctly too.
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Jo
Yes, I remember your telling me how a thermometer should be used and it was nothing remotely like was being shown on the news every night. It must be asked how useful temperature checks really are, unless carried out correctly
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Depends on which answer you want,doesn’t it?
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Reality check my foot.
The Corona virus is the crisis the left always hoped climate change would be.
But there has been real suffering.
There never really was much fear, except by legislative types, of 2 degrees in a hundred years …. you
can only move the needle so far with bad weather.
Now, the left has a new fear tool toy. AS we move out of the pandemic, there will be flareups. And each on will be a whole new reason
to put government in charge because more government by the leftist elites is always better than we can do for ourselves.
It’s already evident with the calls for far more government control so we can “stay safe”.
The new mantra, ‘Only the government can keep you safe’.
‘Follow the rules or the virus will return’.
Unless you are licensed, controlled, regulated, limited, and controlled, with constant supervision and lots of new regulations, we’ll all die.
And the old chesnut, ‘Don’t question the science’.
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Yes,
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Heck, the worst thing you could do is start to have fun again.
Our US public media went apoplectic that a few cities in Florida opened their beaches.
Oh the horror. An affront to humanity. Somehow, this put the commentators in their basements in New York “At Risk”.
A few expressed to thought (and hope) that somehow, in a Dickensonian sense this would “Reduce the Surplus Population”
[of Trump Supporters].
I went to the beach, locally. Its abut 82 degrees, bright sun, 75% relative humidity. light breeze off the gulf.
Folks are easily 10 feet apart…it would take a long telephoto shot to make them look close together. Guess what ran on the news.
Hey, know what kills the virus quicker that sunlight? Me neither. Yes, a few folks were holding hands. Bet they did at they that when they
went home together later. So why was the media so upset?
Our county has had about 70 deaths in more than a million people, all but a dozen in a couple of nursing homes.
The maps of the virus fatalities are beginning to overlap, with remarkable consistency, maps of other social trends, attitudes, and statistics.
This is profoundly disturbing — the distribution of the virus should, at first thought, be quite different.
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“Reality” you say?
So address this then.
https://youtu.be/HmPnzmUmrSU
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A very well sliced set of cherry picked data using new unreliable tests that are likely not even FDA approved on the highest risk groups and highest risk counties and then pretending that says something about the entire state or country. These antibody tests are not random, but self selecting. The false positives alone often account for a large part of the test score (see Santa Clara).
The Herd immunity idea doesn’t wash with the PCR RNA tests en masse which show only 1% of Iceland or Austria have been infected, and we don’t even know if people will get lasting immunity.
But it’s high packed scripted cherrys one after the other with no mention of the larger contradictory studies.
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We wish!
But is that just wishful thinking on our behalf, like the Greens who think this is the opportunity to impose their zero non-poverty schemes?
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How’s the time for the Treasurer to go at the green and red tape. Don’t wait until
the virus allows us to relax. Currently, all the States and nationally have drained their
Financial positions and will be worried enough to forget chasing the green votes. There
should be more votes in policies that get people back their jobs and incomes rather
than in playing green politics. If they wait until the situation normalises, the politics will
come back and over-ride the sense of urgency to get the books in order. The Premiers
and PM are all in the same financial boat now. Strike while there is a sense of cooperation.
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Doc,
You’ve outlined the theoretical ideal future but they are already hard at work pushing the Link between climate change and the CV19 epidemic.
They’re good at it.
Why did we ever dismiss the gold standard? It used to provide a link to reality in public accounting.
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Homebuilding.
The amount of Green Tape in Homebuilding is Appalling.
And guess where most of the “compliance” items come from.
China. And guess how long the pump in your roofwater tank lasts: 2 years. And guess how long the heat pump on your hot water storage tank lasts, 18 months.
There’s more, but you get the picture.
Engineering monstrosities that appear green, no need for dams, use the energy in the air to heat your water, but all they achieve is more cost plus environmental damage in rectifying the stupidity.
We have a long way to go.
KK
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Watch the movie Planet of the Humans for free – 27 days remain.
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Just goes to show how gullible humans can be, including a lot of politicians on both sides.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=860XBGdQ6K4
There is ‘nothing you can trust’ about the World Health Organisation
@ 2:40
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The Green Tape in business and public life over recent dacades has been extremely damaging.
Time to face reality and Thrive.
Go Australia!
KK
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Green Dams.
From every point of view, economic, environmental and simply engineering common sense, large dams are the only answer.
Rooftop rainwater tanks are an expensive, environmentally damaging Ball and Chain.
KK
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Agree.
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Moderation for saying one totally innocent word?!
[ Sorry PeterS the auto filter seems to have taken a shine to you , all comments cleared .]AD
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The auto filter has been getting above itself recently.
It needs to be severely disciplined.
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In complete agreement.
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Still doing it! FIX IT or GET RID OF IT!
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I can’t — no access to it. But I share your frustration.
I can make (attempted) humourous/silly one-line comments which don’t say anything and the script accepts it. But when I put some thought into a comment which contains worthy information, I’m cheerfully told by the script it has been tossed into moderation.
Now that is frustrating.
On the other hand, the mods here do a fantastic job and it’s usually not long in moderation. I have not had to press the “HELP” button yet. Thanks mods! Take a bow (or two).
Maybe the script just gets bored.
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The only way to achieve the abolishment of red and green tape is to ensure that the ALP/Greens and left leaning “independents” never again hold the balance of power in the Senate. While those knuckle daggers have any say in how the country is run green mantra will never be destroyed.
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One good thing could yet come out of the tragedy, inconvenience and struggle of the Covid-19 outbreak, if in the rebuilding of the Australian economy after the covid-19 crisis pause, the government moves to clear away the massive and misdirected Green environmental blockages of dams, power stations (nuclear plants?), public transport, mines and other useful projects.
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Yes, let’s get all those infrastructure investments approved and underway now. While we are under lock down, any activist greenie protesters can be arrested for breaking the social distancing rules. 🙂
At last, Adani Australia’s Carmichael Mine is under construction in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, creating jobs and opportunities.
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Dr. Erickson COVID-19 Briefing (part 1 of 2)
Two Bakersfield doctors cite their testing data to urge reopening
“Millions of cases, small amount of death”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3115&v=xfLVxx_lBLU&feature=emb_logo
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DyPrime. You do not have a hope in the world on this blog of showing Jo who is only promoting her own very biased view.
The link did not work so here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfLVxx_lBLU
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I work in the gold sector, and the time for routine production permits and approvals at an active mine site has gone down from around a month to about a week in the last month, the quickest its ever been in at least 13 years that I and others have been doing them. Mining is deemed an essential activity, and the government wants to keep it that way.
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