There are always choices in the journey of life that will determine the ultimate destination. It applies equally to individuals, families, business owners and governments. Every decision is a potential alteration of course with known and unknown implications.
Often, the less consideration given to the decision, the worse the implications for the decision maker. That’s not to say that instinct and previous experience don’t have an important place in leadership, but a considered response is vital to continuing success.
That’s why I am worried about the passage of Labor’s carbon dioxide tax. From the moment Ms Gillard was reliant on the Greens and independents to cling to government, this tax was a fait accompli. Any pretence otherwise is simply wishful thinking.
The Greens have dictated the terms of this economy wide tax that will have no environmental benefit despite its masquerading as a green measure.
The effective function of this carbon dioxide tax is to impose further government intervention as a central element to the operation of business in Australia, redistributing wealth to those the government deems worthy.
The draconian compliance and regulatory regime attached to this tax, coupled with rapidly escalating industry costs will have a severe impact on our economy. These costs will continue to rise in the decades ahead which will place Australian industry at a clear disadvantage to its international competitors.
It will also hurt Australian families. Despite the one-off sweeteners that will see the carbon dioxide tax become the first new tax in history to have a negative effect on the budget, there is no built-in cost of living protection for the decades ahead.
In short, this tax will make balancing the family budget that much harder in the future.
So why would any sensible person support a tax that will not achieve its stated aims, will hurt industry and disadvantage families over the long haul?
To my mind, this is simply one part of the process that is slowly turning the Australian nation into an antipodean version of the European economies.
One review of the state of Europe was given by the head of China’s overseas investment arm Jin Liqun.
He said that Europeans are too reliant on state handouts and that their current troubles are “purely because of the accumulated troubles of the worn-out welfare society.”
He continued by saying:
“The welfare system is good for any society to reduce the gap, to help those who happen to have disadvantages, to enjoy a good life, but a welfare society should not induce people not to work hard.”
Unfortunately, by introducing a raft of new taxes and redistributing the wealth according to their social engineering agenda the Greens-Labor government is proceeding down a failed path.
The end result will be a society where the unelected bureaucracy will wield unprecedented power and where everyday Australians will become increasingly reliant on their largesse to preserve their way of life.
Neither of these options are the path to increased prosperity and the sooner we all reject this creep toward the European model of the welfare state, the better off we all will be.





Cory Bernardi is a Senator for South Australia.





Of Crickets and Oxen
So wrote the father of modern conservatism Edmund Burke. His words have rung true for well over a century and continue to discern some important truths for our modern world.
Indeed, the number of grasshoppers busily chirping in our public discourse versus the great mainstream that Burke’s magnificent metaphor represents as the thousands of oxen, is as relevant today as it was in 1790.
Unfortunately, the chirping crickets are concentrated in many of the institutions that have hitherto stabilised and guided our society through much of our history.
While small in number, their voice is magnified through the lens of the media, their engagement within the bureaucracy and their influence within our schools.
As such, they are shaping the future direction of society more than their numbers warrant.
Woe betide the politician who is prepared to suggest that the crickets’ voice is disproportionate to their numbers or out of synch with mainstream concerns. Yet that is precisely the case.
In modern parlance, we refer to the vocal minority and the silent majority. In this upside-down world of minority influence, the politician who continues to reflect mainstream constituent concerns is derided by the ‘crickets’ as fringe or extreme.
This is because the chirpers are scared. They are scared of critical analysis of their agenda and they are scared of losing their influence in the public debate.
But others are scared too. Few are prepared to enter the sacred PC zones self-declared by Burke’s metaphorical crickets for fear of being attacked, pilloried or marginalised.
It is not hard to find the evidence of this new fear.
Last weekend, I attended three constituent ‘surgeries’ spread over a Sunday morning. I lost count of the number of people who sought ‘a quiet word’ to raise issues that they were afraid to raise in front of others.
The fact that they all raised the same issue and shared exactly the same concerns suggests that the silent majority have been cowed into public silence.
Despite the time honoured evidence that the people are often more sensible than their politicians, too few of our elected representatives are actually prepared to listen to the people's wisdom and publicly speak up on their behalf.
Mainstream concerns are very real concerns. We need more of those in public life prepared to advocate for them, irrespective of what the crickets might have to say about it.
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