Vote 1 Climate

Climate Change Coalition
Candidate for Parkes
Michael Kiely
believes….

The people of the Parkes electorate are treated like second class citizens by both sides of politics.

The two major parties assume we are poor relations. The quality of life out here is disintegrating as services shrink. … City people wouldn’t stand for it. But country people put up with it. And they can’t blame anyone but themselves.

There’s an old saying: “People get the politicians they deserve.” That’s because they vote for them. There’s another old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”

The majority of people in the bush vote for the same old Party. And so they get what they deserve… what they always got: declining living standards, shrinking services, low prices for the produce they grow.

Every National Party politician I have met has been a decent, likeable person. They are all good people. I’d vote for them myself. But… For anyone planning to vote for the same old Party, I have a two words: “Remember Telstra”. The Nationals voted with the Howard Government to sell off the telephone company that you and I owned… that used to give country people subsidised services. It’s now owned by wealthy people who live, in the main, comfortable lives in cities.

Black Jack McEwen would never have stood for it. But the heart of the old bastard does not beat in the chests of his descendants. McEwen would have threatened to break the Coalition on the spot over Telstra. He had guts.

I believe farmers have got guts. They stare despair down every day. They get knocked down and they get up again, and again. They take more risks than city-based businesses. They take on the climate, everyday. No backstops. No safety net. God. How this country needs their spirit. Man, woman, and child.

They must have the right to make choices about managing their land to be economically sustainable. The real farmer does not want to destroy the natural base that they rely on to make a living. If Governments want woody weeds to cover pasture or croplands, the landholder must be compensated. Farmers who are working as environmental managers should be rewarded with stewardship payments.

I believe government scientists and advisers should live and work on a working property (or have done so) because the reality of farm ecologies and economies must become second nature to them. Research based on unrealistic methodologies creates bad science and bad science leads to bad conclusions and bad decisions.

The science of climate change is about to change the way every primary producer can manage their property. If that science is based on unrealistic methodologies, rural communities will be dealt another blow. The science of methane emissions appears dangerously unrealistic.

I believe landholders deserve the right to have the research explained to them, so they can understand how the findings were made. Science is not religion. Every good scientist I know wants people to understand what they do.

I believe that land managers deserve the right to trade carbon credits based on the soil carbon they can grow with changed land management. The science of soil carbon has been misinterpreted and misused, to the farmers’ disadvantage. We want a fair go.

I believe we must bring the city and the country closer together. People should know where their food is coming from and where the fibre for their clothing is grown. Bring city people to the country and let them see for themselves the realities of life. They want to help; they feel bad about the way we are treated.

We need new ways to selling our produce that give the farmer a fair return. We need new structures and new leadership with new ideas. The leadership of my industry, the wool industry, is like the Howard Government. Dead, but it won’t lie down.

We’ve only got ourselves to blame for this. Only we can change the game and earn some respect. We have got to remember Black Jack McEwen. Don’t stand for it.

Don’t vote for the politicians who took Telstra away. Shock them. You get no respect when you let them roll over you, time and again.

Finally, I have a message for the other parties and candidates standing in this historic election – the first Climate Change federal election. The message is this:

“It’s the Climate, stupid.”

From all sides we have hand-wringing, half-baked ideas, grasping at straws, hoping it will go away. Well it is here to stay. It’s not simply an issue. It is THE issue.

It flooded Newcastle and smashed Lismore and belted Orange. Who’s next?

Climate Change is strangling our rivers and crushing agriculture. The people of Parkes electorate have been living with the first Climate Change natural disaster to strike a developed country for close to a decade.

The rest of the world is watching us. How have we acted so far? Like a bunch of chooks without heads. Squabbling about minor details and even absurdly denying it exists. We lost precious time. Kyoto was not perfect, but it was the best chance we had to protect the future for our children and grandchildren.

The Howard Government has blocked attempts to head off the worst of climate change, simply to please their mates in mining and energy. Read former Liberal staffer Guy Pearse’s book High & Dry. Go to the ABCTV website and read the transcript of the 4 Corners program “Dirty Politics”. Read the testimony of CSIRO and NASA scientists who were gagged. Read how President Bush’s oil industry connections rewrote scientific reports to play down the threat. Watch the Canadian documentary “The Denial Machine”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

I say this to those who deny Climate Change: If I am wrong, the worst that can happen is a world economic recession. We’ve survived several of those before. But if you are wrong, the worst that can happen is the destruction of civil society and the breakdown of law and order, like New Orleans after Cyclone Katrina. So, are you willing to risk the lives of my children and grandchildren?

What must we do about Climate Change? I believe all politics is personal first, local second, and national last. At a personal level, we must ask ourselves the Climate Change Question: “How should I live my life?” We must choose. Freely.

As a farm family, we are adapting to new practices to make the most of whatever rain falls and protect the soils that sustain us. Every business must choose. Freely.

As a community we must choose. Will we take half measures and hope it will blow over? Or will we get serious and make the changes necessary?

Think of this: A leaked Pentagon Report back in 2000 posed the question: would the US armed forces fire on swarming refugees arriving on Australia’s shores to the north on a flotilla of Tampas and fishing boats, after their low-lying countries had been engulfed by rising sea levels. (Australia would appeal for assistance under the ANZUS treaty.) More recently, the Commission for Federal Police Mick Kelty said Climate Change is the biggest threat to national security – for exactly the same reason. Guns won’t stop this tsunami of humanity.

I believe Climate Change is like War. Ask our WWII diggers and their spouses. Wartime brings sharp changes. No one likes change. But when Charles Darwin said only the fittest survive, he meant only those who could adapt to changing situations can make it through.

Australians are the most adaptable people in the world. We are inventors and innovators. “Stringy bark and rawhide” technology “will be the saviour of Australia”. We can lead the world… or we can hide behind a rock. I stand with those who believe that it’s never too late. We can change the future with our bare hands.

I am offering the voters of Parkes the opportunity to send a message to whoever forms Government after November 24th:

“It’s the Climate, Stupid.”

Vote 1 Climate Change Coalition in both Houses.

Do it for the children.

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