by Ronald Kitching, retired drilling contractor and consultant and veteran classical liberal

Who Pays For Paid Maternity Leave?

Interviewed by Laurie Oakes, Tony Abbott stated that his plans to establish paid maternity leave for working mothers was “….a visionary social change”.

It is not; Tony’s social visions are impaired. The majority of Australian businesses are to be taxed to pay for the proposal, but it is the public who eventually become lumbered with the cost of Tony’s “do-gooding” interventionist initiative.

Having babies is a personal affair. If women are to be paid to have babies, it is up to their employer who should decide whether they are to be paid or not. Nobody else; least of all the government. Good government has nothing whatsoever to do with a vote buying disgrace like this.

The Federal government was established to defend us from internal and external thugs, run the High Court and deal with Foreign Affairs.

The numerous economic interventions of which The Canberra Kremlin have become the authors and guardians, are actually capital consuming organisations which lower the general standard of living of all.

What Tony is doing is displaying an abysmal ignorance of what good government stands for. He is proud of himself for wearing a dunce’s cap.

All About A Fair Go

There are those who think that society is best organised by bureaucrats. They organise and distribute production. This is communism. History shows that this system brings mass poverty.

These are those who believe in internal and external free markets.

This competitive system has been known as the Classical Liberal system. It is the system that automatically makes the best possible use of always scarce resources. It is the system that brought prosperity to the masses.

These are two completely opposing philosophical views.

But then there are those who believe in a system that is between the two above mentioned systems.

Their leaders believes that private entrepreneurs should produce essential goods for the masses, but that they should be controlled by the bureaucrats, who direct production, and reward the producers with what they consider to be a “fair price”. As is the recent case with mining profits. This is a Fascist system.

Respectable, Decent, Honest, Compassionate Criminals

Labor, Green and Liberal parties compete on the basis of robbing the productive sector to pay others for their votes. That is one point.

The other point is, that to do this, they need to employ an army of bureaucrats to collect and distribute the booty.

The election of officials to protect our person and property from internal and external thugs has become a charade, as they themselves, are protected from the odium of criminal acts by being cloaked in the respectability of compassion to the needy, and as decent and honest occupiers of the Canberra Kremlin.

Nobody in the media seems to notice their criminal activity, as the competition between the parties, is treated as little more than the attention paid to the entertaining episode of a sporting competition.

Equality, Sharing, and Freedom

Julia’s rush to tax the miners, and other measures to make us all equal, shows her complete ignorance of economics.

A free internal and external market system works best to maximise the use of always scarce resources. But she does not understand, that it is inequality that in the end guides the system.

She thinks that by having statistics available, she can by arranging taxation procedures against some, and, rewards to special groups, arrive at a fair economic and social result. A result which makes us all “more equal”.

Past figures have nothing whatsoever to do with the present here and now.  No single mind, even as brilliant or compassionate as Julia thinks hers is, or a group of people like Dr. Henry and his staff thinks theirs is, can have any knowledge whatsoever of the present market conditions. Prices and billions of decisions to buy or not to buy vary from second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, and day to day.

When the market produces a state of affairs with which they do not agree, like for instance, some miners making better than usual profits, they call that market failure and intervene economically and politically.

The entire society finally becomes, as was the USSR. Everybody was equal, but all they shared was abject poverty, and no personal liberty. And even Stalin was afraid of his own shadow.

Explorers and Miners Revolt

Deputy PM Swann and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, say the middle and small explorers and miners opposition to the super profits tax is a Liberal party initiative.

These whining thick heads are complaining that the miners have Liberal views – as though, being a Liberal “is not fair”.

It is indeed pleasing to see the explorers and miners at last fighting back.

The “agreement” between the CEO’s of BHP, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and the government is a black mark against these managers, who are little better than bureaucrats. If implemented it helps to keep smaller miners small, and limits their competition with BHP, Rio and Xstrata.

It would cut off at the knees a junior explorer lucky enough to make a rich high grade mineral strike, and or to make high profits at a time of high demand.

In other words it takes the incentive out of exploration, always a dicey financial venture.

None of these people know anything whatsoever about exploration and mining risk. It is completely beyond their ken. They themselves have no productive ability. What they do understand is seizing the reins of power to plunder successful entrepreneurs.

They really are criminals protected by a thin veneer of respectability, as residents of the Canberra Kremlin.