Senator Gerard Rennick

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones made a Freudian slip yesterday. While spending 10 mins trying to convince Coalition MPs that the Digital Identity system will be voluntary, at the end of his speech he blurts out that once law it will be "mandated" later. #auspol

“The Australian Public Service is growing, and it’s growing fast, based on the latest Average Staffing Level numbers released in the official tally contained in Jim Chalmers’ 2024-25 federal budget. The bureaucratic body count will be boosted by 17,289 in the coming financial year. Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the vanguard of the renewables revolution, gains 961 ASL to 8,779.” I’m not surprised that the Bureaucracy is increasing, but I have to say I was shocked to see that almost 9,000 work in Climate Change, Energy and the Environment. None of these areas are the responsibility of the Federal government. There is nothing in S51 of the Constitution that gives the Federal government the power to deal with these issues. Yet somehow almost 9,000 bureaucrats costing at least $10 billion a year have inserted themselves into society imposing green tape, handouts for billionaires and shonky renewables onto the taxpayer. What a rort. Quote from: https://www.themandarin.com.au/246297-budget-2024-aps-payroll-headcount-surges-to-300000 #auspol

And of course the budget couldn’t forget Covid now could it. The government is spending another $490 million of your money on oral anti-virals. You know the ones that cost $1,300 bucks a pop. The government just loves Big pharma don’t they. And another $336 million on PCR testing for Covid. What a rort. For those of you that missed it last year the TGA won’t release the primers the PCR tests use so we can actually see what DNA sequence they actually test for. How many people got a false positive from those shonky tests! Seriously why is the government still spending close to a billion dollars on Covid measures when the money could be used for so many other more needy causes? The Covid rent seekers are a much greater threat to our health than Covid ever was. #auspol

“The Australian government’s $23bn package over the next 10 years to spur domestic manufacturing and speed up the path to net zero is shaping up as the most politically contentious element of the budget. But the opposition has rubbished its central measure – $13.7bn in production tax incentives for green hydrogen and processed critical minerals – as a “handout to billionaires” it cannot support.” Instead of wasting billions on net zero and billionaires, Labor should focus on net zero immigration and hard working Australians. These guys have their priorities all wrong. Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/14/australia-federal-budget-2024-future-made-in-australia-investments-renewables-net-zero-national-interest-framework-small-business-tax-solar-hydrogen-education #auspol

Labor is going to spend $3.5 billion to reduce energy prices, because renewable energy subsidies are driving energy prices higher. Taxpayers are being taxed twice to fund foreign made renewables. #auspol

Another doozy out of last nights budget. The Federal government is going to spend billions to lift the tertiary attainment rate to 80% by 2050. Now don’t get me wrong, tertiary education is important but there is no substitute for on the job training in many cases. If 100% of school leavers are engaged in tertiary education, then that is effectively reducing the workforce by 10% assuming they now spend 4 years out of a 40 year working life in the classroom rather than working. Furthermore the quality of tertiary education needs to be scrutinised, it is nothing more than a box ticking exercise. #auspol #budget2024

Bullseye. #auspol #qldpol

This one will give you a headache. The RBA admits they’re responsible for the distribution of wholesale cash and the that the banks are responsible for the distribution of retail cash. I then ask who is responsible for the distribution of retail cash when banks close their branches, noting the Federal government is responsible for managing legal tender. The RBA then starts passing the ball faster than Wally Lewis to anyone other than itself. Note that the RBA, CBA and APRA all used to be one body. Today of course they are separate bodies that don’t seem to understand what their responsibilities are. #auspol

So blow me over. I was contacted by a constituent last week who was asked to sign a form when visiting his doctor saying that he was advised about the Covid booster. Turns out doctors can still claim $38 for assessing whether or not a person can get a Covid booster. It doesn’t matter if the person takes the booster, the doctor still gets paid. This is just straight out bribery by the government on behalf of big pharma. Not only is it a waste of taxpayer funds, it’s deliberately risking people’s health given what we know about the boosters. See below for further information. 👇 https://www.mbsonline.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/026D05484FA1F70DCA2589390004DE31/$File/PDF%20Version%20Factsheet-Medicare%20Support%20for%20COVID-19%20Vaccinations-20.01.2023.pdf #auspol

“The federal government’s $91 million investment to boost the number of skilled construction workers will only give minor stimulus to a housing sector challenged by soaring demand, economists and industry leaders say. The plan to add almost 22,000 new workers would equal less than 2 per cent of the existing construction workforce of more than 1.3 million, economist Carlos Cacho said. “Despite a sizeable workforce of 1.35 million Australians, the industry has an annual exit rate of 8 per cent, and we are only replacing half of those people per year,” said Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn.” It’s almost 40 years since Labor set out to destroy Australia’s manufacturing and construction sector through the introduction of the Button plan that saw our manufacturing industry go offshore. This plan along with the Dawkins plan saw our skills sector destroyed in lieu of the University sector. As a result of these policies, the mix of school leavers going to TAFE and acquiring real world skills as they learnt on the shop floor, has been declining ever since. When my older siblings went to school, more people left high school in Grade 10 than continued onto University. Today most students go onto Year 12 and then University meaning they don’t start working until their early 20’s instead of their late teenage years. Many of the subjects they undertake aren’t transferable as skills in the workforce. This generation which saw more school leavers going on to acquire real world skills at TAFE, than continue onto University are now retiring. They are not being replaced as the above quote shows with 8% of the construction workforce leaving every year. Our productivity crisis has been decades in the making. We won’t solve it until we start teaching our children real world skills again and instil in them the motivation to work hard and produce real goods and services. Quote from:https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/government-s-91m-tradie-plan-only-modest-boost-for-home-building-20240508-p5gkkt #auspol