ENVIRONMENT
Policy
As with all things we strongly support One Law For All which the government and its departments must be subject to the same laws as all other Australian citizens or other non Australians doing business in Australia. It is clear from the pollution caused by the Department of Defence that the Environment Department must be granted stronger powers to enforce the environmental laws and regulations even when a government department is involved.
The general principle in regard to the environment is we must use as little a we must, pollute as little as we can, and repair what ever damage we have done over the past years.
Global warming
This seems to be a faulty science using questionable computer modelling and there has not been done a true examination of history over the centuries as well the predictions that have been made have not materialized but are constantly being changed with the past predictions “lost” to the world media and hence the general public. The claims of catastrophic climate change are not sustainable and neither are they evidence based. However this does not give us any reason to consume more than we need to; destroy more than we must; and to pollute more than we ought to. Most western societies encourage a clean house environment to live in and so we should also keep our planet as clean and free of mess as possible. We should always choose the least polluting means for all we do as a community and personally in our own homes and places of work and entertainment.
Carbon dioxide reduction
I will seek incentives to encourage all Australians to plant or to sponsor the planting at least 2 trees per year. Sites for such plantings will include disused mine sites and other degraded lands to improve the soil over time and near waterways to assist in retaining ground moisture during dry spells. As this is a practical way to show the connection of looking after the world in which we live and there will be many excellent side effects as well.
A re-introduced carbon tax cannot reduce carbon dioxide emissions but will cause a dangerous shift in funds from one sector to another. There will be a flow on cost of living increases and losses of jobs in some industries. It is strange to consider reintroducing this tax and to increase the out put of coal for export as the using of coal is a large source of human production of carbon dioxide. It seems wise to me to move away from a coal dependant society and I will push to see that move commence.
Protection of food producing land
The aim is to be self reliant on food now and into the future as we have been in the past
We will seek to identify and to protect all good food producing land from:
- Sale to overseas interests
- Housing development
- Mining
- Industrial development
- Drought and floods
- Where and when possible reverse any of the above, that can be, that are adversely affecting our communities
Mining Tax
A additional mining tax is unwise it is just wise to make sure the tax system works well so that the right taxes are paid and not avoided by the mining companies and all other companies. Note well most of the overseas owned and multinational controlled companies have ways of avoiding taxes so a close examination of this part of the tax laws needs changing to rectify the ill conceived and badly targeted taxes. We need a fair tax system and I suggest consideration of an additional tax bracket for non Australians up about 51% tax on profits and dividends of all companies or persons not deemed to be Australian companies or citizens.
Ownership of land
No citizenship papers no title deeds – Australia for Australians
IWe will seek to amend the land ownership act so that:
- Private land in Australia will be owned by Australian citizens
- Commercial property may be owned by a company who shareholders are not Australian citizens but at least 65% of the shares will need to be owned by Australian citizens
- Private and commercial property may be leased by overseas interests or by non Australian citizens
Coal Seam Gas Extraction
No coal seam gas extraction until it is proven to be safe
At the moment we are not satisfied that Coal seam gas extraction is safe to ground ground water and will not contaminate food producing land and so I cannot support coal seam gas extraction until safer methods are discovered.
A company in Israel is looking to harvest from shale both oil and gas but will not be using fracking as they believe there is a safer method. We will seek to explore this method of extraction as to its viability to Australian situations.