July 20, 2016: My view on the government's latest superannuation policies is that they must change because they attack the hard workers who do the right thing. I made these views clear at the Nationals Party Room meeting in Canberra this week. There are two aspects in particular which need…
AS if farmers don't have enough to deal with when it comes to tree clearing laws, we now have Federal Labor pollies from city seats announcing fancy plans to introduce more ‘green police’. Bill Shorten has announced a plan to overrule state tree clearing policies, and send in Federal 'green police to tell farmers what they can and can't do on their own land. So we would have jumped-up federal bureaucrats flashing badges, stopping landholders from doing the work needed to run a normal farming enterprise. Only city slickers like Bill Shorten would come up with such a restrictive and blatantly unfair policy.
Labor’s announcement today that they would essentially bring back a carbon tax if elected beggars belief. The Opposition’s climate plan also includes an option for them to further restrict farmers’ ability to clear their own land. Labor’s fearless leader Bill Shorten will go blindly where Labor leaders before him have gone, and that’s down the path of introducing a carbon tax which will cost jobs and drive up power prices. Shorten has announced that a Labor Government will introduce an emissions reduction target of 45 per cent by 2030, so this would essentially double Australia’s emissions reduction targets.
THE idea of a separate state for North Queensland should be determined by a referendum of North Queenslanders only, and I will write to all MPs, senators and mayors who represent areas above the Tropic of Capricorn to invite them to be part of a concerted push for such a move. This issue has been talked about for too long and what we really need now is some action. The people of the north deserve a fair hearing on this, and a group of influential state, federal and local government leaders would be well placed to push for a referendum on the formation of a new state of North Queensland.
MARCH 16, 2016: SMALL business operators and rural producers had a mighty win today with the Federal Liberal National Government moving to correct the abuse of market power by the big two supermarkets. Changes mooted will make it easier to successfully prosecute cases where such abuses…