Menzies House

So You Think You Can Write Winners Announced!

At long last, and after much delibertation, it is with great excitement that I announce to you the winners of our So You Think You Can Write contest for aspiring young writers! 

I can only express my thanks to everyone who contributed to this competition. The length of time it took our judging panel to come up with the winners is testament to the extremely high caliber of submissions we received, and - for me personally - judging the final winner was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.

There were many excellent young posts, however, there can only be one winner of the $750 prize, and that is: JOEL SILVER, for his post "The Corruption of BDS by the Radical Left" 

Congratulations to Joel for winning the Grand Prize!

The second prize to be awarded is the "People's Choice" Prize - voted upon by you, our readers, with $250 up for grabs. This was very, very, very close, with - literally - only a couple of votes between the two frontrunners. However, despite a late surge in votes for the second place writer, the winner of the people's choice award is 16 year old Thomas Murphy, for his piece on Why Labor has failed on Border Protection. Congratulations to Thomas! 

Additional prizes awarded by our judging panel:

Best Post Exposing The Greens, winning a signed copy of James Dellingpole's New Book, Watermelons: The Green Movement's True Colors - Nathaniel Mikhaiel: A Rose by any other Name would Smell as Sweet

Best Post On Climate Change/Carbon Tax, winning a personally signed copy of Dr. Patrick Michael's Book, Climate Coup: Global Warming's Invasion of our Government and our Lives -Mark Sharma: Say "No" to Carbon Tax

Best post on riling the left, winning a personally signed copy of Andy Semple's book, Witch Doctors Vengence, Nick Sowden: Twibbon Extremists

Best exposition of conservative values, winning a  personally signed copy of Senator Bernardi's Book, As I see It - Murray Gillin: Progressive Conservatism

Best exposition of conservative/libertarian fusionism: A copy of FS Meyer's What is Conservatism - Jessica Muslin's contraversial post, Take Marriage Away From Government.  

On top of this, our judging panel have decided to award an additional award for Best Economic Post to Niklous for What Killed RedGroup. Prize TBD, but it shall be something off Amazon...

So there you have it! Thank you to everyone who contributed, and to everyone who read and voted in the people's choice awards! WE 

and we hope to receive many more posts from you shortly! 

Tim Andrews
Managing Editor
Menzies House 

Taking Only What You Need: A guide to improving quality of life in Australia

 Matthew R gives his take on how to improve quality of life in Australia:

As an independent young adult who has recently bought a home in Sydney, I was taught from a young age the value of a dollar. I was taught to only take what you can eat at the dinner table, only buy things you can afford and to put some money aside for a rainy day. When my wealthy father made me get a job at age 14 I complained about washing dishes for meagre pay, but am a better man for it.

The trouble in Australia is that we the tax payer have too many people at the tax payer funded dinner table, all eating more than their fair share of food. With Federal, State and Councils all sitting around with their hands out it’s no wonder that everyday Australian’s are struggling with cost of living pressures.

But too much is never enough, like an addict who has already sold their wedding ring and raided the piggy bank, the government is now searching for ways to get some quick cash. This is of course the carbon tax.

Twibbon Extremists

Nick Sowden looks at the hypocrisy and double standards of the Australian Media in dubbing protesters"extremists:

With the recent convoy of no confidence finding its way into Canberra, the expected media reports of extremists, right wing conservatives and tea party types once again materialized in record time. In keeping with these poor descriptions, social media was in overdrive with arrogant elitists doing their best to belittle those involved in the convoy.

Obviously, the only people who deserve a say are those sipping on their lattes at their inner city café, scrolling through their iPads updating their profiles with the latest feel-good twibbon and sharing a link to the latest ‘progressive’ e-petition – presumably something to do with whales, gay marriage, climate change – or any combination of the three.

Sophie Mirabella writes about the right to peaceful assembly by all and the mocking tone of journalists here . She writes eloquently about the lack of integrity shown by many throughout today’s media – both traditional and social. This is especially true when anyone decides to protest against a government initiative related to a twibbon – throwing the left into overdrive.  They then do their best to label anyone involved as somehow lacking in any and every aspect of humanity. From the purely mocking tone of many, to the straight out disparaging of those involved as stupid, ignorant and retarded. The usual allowances for democracy as espoused by the left of protest and activism are deemed to be less important when people argue against their precious religion of climate change or the faint political issue of gay marriage.

Victorian Govt leading the way opposing anti-semitic protests

Adam McKee discusses the actions that the Victorian Government has taken condemning the anti-Israel Socialist BDS Movement: 

The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement who are attempting to shame and hurt businesses with perceived links to Israel are a hate-filled movement that need to be stopped. 

These protesters are rampaging through private shopping centres with little regard for the many retailers, small businesses and workers they hurt as they seek to spread their lies by targeting the Max Brenner chain of chocolate shops. The flow on effects to the neighbouring retailers in complexes including Melbourne Central and QV have been disastrous and show the left’s disdain for small businesses, their owners and their employees.

The democratic right to protest is important and is held dear by the right as well as the left however when protesters target a business based on race there can be no doubt of the need to shut them down.

The Victorian Baillieu Government is leading the way on this issue and is providing a model for other state Liberal Governments to follow. The Premier has strongly condemned the protesters, saying ‘This campaign is deeply offensive to the people of Israel, who know better than most the horrors that can follow from prejudice.’

The Minister for Consumer Affairs has also written to the ACCC to ask whether the protesters have broken any Commonwealth laws relating to secondary boycotts. Responding to a question on this issue the Minister said ‘A campaign like this global boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to target people or businesses in this state because of their national, ethnic or cultural background is entirely unacceptable.’

The leader of the Victorian Greens curiously described the issue to his Parliamentary colleagues as being ‘not in our remit’ despite both the economic impact of the protests and the need for Parliamentarians to act as community leaders. Thankfully this view is isolated in the Victorian Parliament with both Coalition and Labor MPs speaking out against the BDS protests and in support of our Jewish community.

Australia is a long-standing friend of Israel and the Jewish community have been positive contributors to Australian society since arriving on the First Fleet. It is my hope that governments across Australia follow Victoria’s lead and use the laws at their disposal to crack down on this disgraceful and hate-based movement.

Adam McKee is a member of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party who can’t understand why anyone would be against hot chocolate.

 

 

Drink Driving: Is alcohol to blame?

Dom Vasta pens a controversial post arguing that over-reliance on breath-tests ultimately makes everyone worse off:

There has been a lot of talk of reducing the legal blood alcohol level for driving from its current position at .05% to .02%. Many are for the move and many are against it. Proponents say that a lower limit will result in fewer road fatalities claiming the majority of fatal crashes occur under the .05 limit. What they fail to mention is alcohol is not the only factor involved in a crash, yet it remains the most commonly attacked one, both legally and in the media. The reason that the majority of crashes occur when the driver is under the .05 limit is because the majority of people driving haven’t been drinking. Let’s compare two common scenarios: the first is a man, who has been at the pub and has had a few beers, he’s not sure if he’s over or under the limit. The other, a man driving home from a trip, he’s been driving for hours and hasn’t had much sleep. Both these men are impaired; it is obvious from their manner of driving, both are putting other motorists in danger, the difference between them is: one is liable to be disqualified from driving, receive huge fines and even face jail time, even if he does no harm. Why do we subject a drunk driver to this and not a tired driver?

The technology of a breathalyzer has allowed us to measure blood alcohol content or BAC. Science has given us a “magic number” for BAC which translates to law as, “If a person is above .05BAC they are unfit to drive and everyone below is as good as sober unless they have red or green P’s stuck to their car.” While almost everyone agrees that this is not an ideal solution, most agree it’s better than nothing. But is it really?

A Rose by any other Name would Smell as Sweet

Nathaniel Mikhaiel looks at the similarities between the objectives of radical socialists, and those of carbon-tax-proponents 

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."

– Norman Thomas, American socialist

Like most households around Australia in the last few weeks we received a 19 page Government document entitled 'What a Carbon price means for you', resisting the urge to toss away that visible reminder of the tax we where told we wouldn't have I started reading all the lovely green headlines.

Millions of Households will be better off

How much will I get

Assistance will be permanent and increasing

Tax cuts for millions of people

Over 1 million Australians will no longer need to lodge a tax return

Increased payments for Aged pensioners

Tax cuts and increased payments for Families

9 in 10 households will receive tax cuts increased payments or both

Tax cuts and extra payments for self-funded retirees

Supporting people with disability

Assistance for students and low income earners

It occurred to me that just looking at what the Carbon Price will actually do, forget climate change for a moment the policy is going to:

1. Bash the most productive parts of the Australian economy
2. Redistribute the wealth of the country
3. Make 9 in 10 households government dependant
4. Export jobs and emissions overseas

  If a government tried to introduce such a policy without the banner of “saving the planet” it would be called a socialist welfare policy. Now given that in real terms it isn't going to save the planet either people where bound to wonder if there was an ulterior motive.

it also reminded me of something in a piece by Richard Glover entitled the 'The dangers of bone-headed beliefs' in which among other things suggested sceptics have their beliefs tattooed on them 

     “People on the left instinctively believe in communal action, the role of government and the efficacy of international agencies such as the UN. They were always going to believe in climate change; it's the sort of problem that can best be solved using the tools they most enjoy using.”

   Now I think that we may be forgiven for being slightly suspicious of supposed problems that can best be solved by using the tools the left most enjoy using. When the solution hits the very people the left have always hated, when any scientists who comes out against the climate change orthodoxy are smeared as backers of big oil and when all dissenting voices need to be shut down “for the good of Humanity”

Consider for a moment the statements of some in the UN and Environmental community:

      “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”

        ~Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Climatology, lead author of many IPCC reports

     "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialised civilisations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?"

        ~Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme

      "We've got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy."

       ~ Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation

Climate change seems to be being used as a veicle by some to bring about the things they always wanted.  Long before co2 was ever thought of as a problem there where people who wanted the west deindustrialised, wanted capitalism gone, wanted all the wealth redistributed, wanted the 'evil' coal miners gone and they have jumped on the climate change bandwagon like ticks to a warm body.

I think it is just a little unnerving that the solution the left have always wanted to solve all our problems is going ahead in the name of environmental policy.

 Maybe its just a coincidence that this one policy has the potential to make all their utopian dreams come true and maybe the governments cries of “don’t worry its not what it looks like” can be believed, maybe I’m wrong but in front of me I have a 19 page document from the Gillard Government that reminds me that I shouldn't believe a single thing they say.

 

Nathaniel Mikhaiel was born in 1988 in Bangladesh. He is an aman Australian citizen and has lived in Australia for close to 23 years. He is an avid cricket fan, amateur musician, political junkie and a product of the public school system, and is currently doing a ceramics course at tafe. This is an entry in our $750 for 750 words contest and is reproduced unedited. 

The Other Half of Every Transaction

Nickolai Hubble takes an in depth look at the affects of monetary policy, and the price and supply of money, in Australia:

Despite all the bewailing of Menzies House contributors and editors, Australia is quite a free market oriented country – right? We are free to choose and pursue what we choose to a much greater extent than many nations around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in our choice of what we buy. The government may meddle in what’s in the package and how it’s packaged, but there remains choice nonetheless.

But what about the other side of the transaction? The other half of every purchase: Money. Who controls money?

Put differently, who controls the price and the supply of money? The idea that money has a price might seem alien to people. But when you borrow money, you pay interest. So, the price of money is the interest rate. This isn’t a contentious issue to economists, regardless of how odd it may seem at first.

So who controls the price of money? Private banks may set interest rates for their loans, but take a look at your variable rate mortgage and you will find that it references another interest rate. That rate is in turn dependent on the rate set by the Reserve Bank of Australia. To put it simply, the RBA sets the price of money.

Desalination Blues

Vadim Chelom puts his comments on Victoria's desalination debate into song! 

To all those of you not from Victoria the Sunshine State, let me catch you up. We the Victorians have been paying through the nose for a certain Desalination plant that was meant to save us from slow Climate Change-induced dehydration.

The problem is – it’s been raining non-stop last 6 months or so and the plant’s construction hasn’t progressed much.

Now we find out that the Wanthaggi Desal plant workers have been getting $50 an hour more (not $50 an hour – $50 an hour MORE) then workers in the same jobs elsewhere.

This has made me so mad that I had to write a poem about it. Maybe one of the readers can put it to music. Here it goes:

DESALINATION BLUES
Put back your hard hat and steel cap shoes
while the rain is coming down.
I’ve got Desalination Blues -
it’s the biggest game in town.

Wonthaggi’s tills are ringing mad
It’s a jackpot – full and proper
while I’m putting Victoria in the red
with taxpayer-funded copper.

You see my friends, I’m not a dweeb.
With my Union’s might and power
I sit and watch the raindrops drip
at 100 bucks an hour

Vadim Chelon describes himself as "just a regular guy - kids, family, mortgage, job". He blogs at www.middlegroundview.wordpress.com have a look,and has written book about Global Warming you can find at www.climatecountdown.weebly.com. This is an unedited entry into our $750 for 750 words competition.