Frenemy

An opinion writer in the Kalgoorlie Miner wrote his column for today’s edition. Doug Daws bemoans the fact that the big C’s of Australian regulators ACCC, ASIC and CCC have not scored with any of their high profile cases. In  the latest setback to the ASIC, Federal Court Judge John Gilmour was brutal in  his judgement and in awarding costs against ASIC.

Doug Daws asks the question whether  ASIC was serious in its attempt or whether it was actually an attempt to further careers in ASIC and pad lawyers bank accounts. He states

As far as the Average Australian worker is concerned the Big C’s (CCC, ASIC and ACCC) are useless, overpaid, over-promoted, under-worked and hopelessly incompetent.

Harsh words but the ACCC has admitted that it knows how the Aussie petrol companies keep in touch and it can do nothing about it. News article is here. One of those companies is Caltex, which the ACCC has turned down in its bid to take over some Mobil sites as it will be anti competitive. I expect that this will be challenged and the ACCC will lose that too. Caltex is the company that issued the infamous FUD memo that instructed its employees to actively destabilise its franchisees confidence. Perhaps the Mobil retailers can expect something similar?

Nice people, so when the VP for SE Asia told me that her company would charge me a higher wholesale price as I was not following price guidelines I was not surprised. Nor was I surprised when the NZ Commerce Commission thought that was not anti competitive.

It appears that the Kiwi version of the Big C is just like its cousins across the ditch.

In the Pilbara region of West Australia, Fortescue Metals suspended work at their Sunrise mine after a Haulpack ran over a workers truck. No one was injured (apart from ego and pride) but it reinforced the danger that is inherent in using massive machinery. A picture of another incident like this is below and even though it is completely unrelated, that old adage about a picture and a thousand words springs to mind.

This is also how the legal system works in NZ. Justice is relative to size, so if like us you have a dispute with an oil co, you can expect to get heavy weight applied. Next time some fool talks about due process or the rule of law or some similar inanity, remember this picture.

Human Services Minister (that title alone should send a shiver up your spine) Chris Bowen, is expected to release details of a plan for a national “virtual” id card. Article link is here. It all sounds so warm and comfortable, so convenient and harmless that I am immediately concerned.

Louis Brandeis is quoted as saying

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.

and also

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

The usual cries of “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about” are being bandied about by the usual suspects, however I am far from convinced. It appears to me sitting on the sidelines that less is often better. With the volume of identity theft increasing all the time, a single unified system actually flies in the face of what the “experts” tell us to do. We are told to keep things separate, to use different passwords and to change them routinely etc.

Does this not also apply to Government? If you believe that the Governmental systems are secure and that only those who need to will access the information stored about you, then I have a bridge for sale in Sydney. An excellent investment that will give you guaranteed returns year after year. Just send your bank account details and passwords to my friends in Nigeria. That email you got about the millions from the late Colonel was not meant to go to you, it was a little computer error, honest.

At this time of year in West Australia the Christmas Trees are in full bloom. Nuytsia Floribunda is a spectacular sight with its bright orange flowers. Confined to the south west, it can be found on roadsides and bushland or even standing alone in a paddock of grass.

What makes this tree special, however, is that it is a parasite. Its roots have jaws on them that clamp on to the roots of other plants and suck the nutrients out. Being versatile, it can live off grass or trees, and, in some cases, the roots attempt to suck nutrients from underground cables. A  picture of the clamp it uses to attach to other plants root structure is here.

Politicians and oil cos obviously know about this plant, because they behave in a similiar fashion. They parasitically attach themselves to a host, and then begin to bleed it to death by sucking the lifeblood out of it. Like the organisms they steal ideas from, they are adaptable, and as one source of nutrients dries up, they find another.  So substitute Revenue Streams and taxes for nutrients, and you get the idea. Like the W A Christmas tree, they are usually very pretty to look at thanks to the various media depts and spin doctors, their real intent, however, is to suck the life out of an organism until it is on its knees and defenseless, leaving the host dependent on the parasite being merciful for its survival.

The comparison between Nuytsia Floribunda, pollies and oil co parasites go on forever, but I will leave them to your imagination. What is different, though, is the way the Christmas Tree doesn’t actually kill the host. Pollies and oil co parasites are incapable of this basic level of understanding. They are so caught up in looking at themselves in the mirror, they can’t see the death of their hosts. Perhaps it is a form of Darwinian humour?