As we watch our present Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and the man who seeks to replace him, Anthony Albanese, crisscross our country in taxpayer-funded aircraft surrounded by numerous advisors, photographers, and journalists – we are cajoled, pestered, and regaled into believing that they are supporting quite different policies. Policies that they trumpet as being ‘in the national interest’. On that basis, it is argued they are deserving of our vote in the upcoming election. 

But for this old Bushy, having had a more nuanced and detailed look at what each is proposing, I am having difficulty finding a real difference in their policy platform. It seems to me that both Morrison and Albanese (and the Parties they represent) are inseparable.

Both unquestionably accept that mankind is affecting our climate – something that I believe is impossible.

Both believe that the burning of fossil fuels is the cause of Climate Change.

Both would have us accept that by reducing our use of fossil fuel consumption we will limit temperature increase and by some miraculous stroke of genius, avoid dangerous Climate Change.

Both of our talkative would-be leaders believe that so-called ‘renewables’ can, in the near future, provide all of Australia’s power. They then unrealistically boast that the cost of this power will not only be cheaper but result in thousands of new jobs.

Both are calling for Net Zero emissions before 2050, inferring that this benchmark ‘will save the planet’. From what? I would like to know more about this apocalypse, but doubt I will have this question answered by TweedleScomo or TweedleAlbo.

Both our leaders, neither of whom have any background in (or understanding of) our water resources, steadfastly support the unnecessary and failed Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This Plan was rushed through parliament in 2007 and supported by both sides of Parliament based on the false claim that ‘our rivers are dying’. Which is not true. We have recently come through one of the worst droughts since 1788, but because of the practical planning of our forefathers in building dams, the rivers kept flowing with sufficient volume to meet our basic needs. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan that both Morrison and Albanese are supporting is doing huge harm to regional communities, wasting large volumes of water by sending it out to sea which will inevitably result in severe water shortages come the next inevitable drought.

This brings us to the productivity-destroying fact that neither of our leaders have any constructive plans to provide for the supply of ‘The Tools of Trade’ to our entrepreneurial people. The Tools of Trade are Power, Water, Gas, and Fuel. Without the building of new dams, power stations, and the quarantining of sufficient gas for local consumption, we will very soon be critically short of these basics for productivity. Our starry-eyed leaders seem to think these basics will just ‘be there’ when needed without any government-led planning.

There can be no greater example of this than both Morrison and Albanese supporting the Turnbull-inspired Snowy 2.0. This is, at last estimate, a ten-billion dollar project that will use 120 units of power to produce 100 units of power. But of course, we are told that the power required to pump water 600 meters uphill will be provided by renewable energy. This is idle nonsense. There is insufficient renewable energy anywhere near where it is required for this huge task and there are presently no transmission lines from where there may be power. So, how much for the transmission lines? TweedleScomo and TweedleAlbo do not know. They are like three-year-olds looking for Santa Claus to fulfil their wishes.

TweedleScomo and TweedleAlbo are backing that which gives us no more power and makes the power we have hugely expensive. They have no plans for a guaranteed supply of power, water, gas, and fuel. Without the immediate building of dams for water and both hydro and coal-fired power plants for power we will be very short of both come the next drought.

It seems to this old Bushy that ‘birds of a feather flock to Canberra’. In addition to bad energy policies, these two leaders also support the failed separate development of Australia’s Aboriginal population. This ongoing policy failure is presently costing taxpayers over thirty billion dollars annually to support people living in remote areas with no prospect of improving their situation. Adherence to expensive and failed activism has done nothing to provide the training and tools necessary for production for this large section of our population. The whole thing is a national disgrace and it would appear that neither of our leaders have a solution. If they did, they would start by supporting the truth – that all people born in Australia, regardless of ethnic background, are equal indigenous citizens and share the same rights and obligations.

Secondly, our leaders would put a stop to the Ernie Dingo-inspired ‘Welcome to Country’ charade that is, to most Australians, obnoxious.

At this federal election, rather than providing the voting public with a choice between two visionary policies, we are presented with two leaders backing the growing Canberra bureaucracy who are supplying our whims regardless of cost. Both seem happy to go along with increased borrowings to the point where increasing interest rates threatens to drive us into recession and businesses into bankruptcy. But of course, our leaders are of the ‘governing class’ and will not be personally impacted. They have legislated sinecures of plenty for the rest of their lives.

So, to this old Bushy who has lived through many election campaigns, these two ‘would-be if they could-be’ leaders have nothing unique by way of policy to recommend them for our support.

TweedleScomo and TweedleAlbo are indistinguishable.

This old Bushy will not be voting for either.

 

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