Australia's recent gas crisis, real or imagined, is another example of how Australia is barely a nation and being held hostage by the tycoons who are busy negotiating for and selling off its assets. There's a grand film I've watched a couple of times called Australia (2008, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman) where a WWII cattle baron is buying up all competitors by hook or crook. Of course beautiful Nicole Kidman and her handsome cattle drover Hugh Jackman are the underdogs fighting injustice and saving the day by spoiling the cattle baron's plan to charge premium prices for cattle to feed WWII troops. The underdogs are also not racist, while the evil cattle baron denies his own illegitimate rape-fathered son (SPOILER ALERT). And so... the gas companies.
If the tycoons are to be believed, the gas problem is all because New South Wales and South Australia are squeamish and have put the throttle on fracking (locally referred to as coal seam gas). This points up another barely-a-nation aspect of Australia - is there a national energy policy or do individual states decide whether the free market, hostage-taking, or government fiat prevails? In the US, the current power swing is supposedly back to states' rights (except where it suits business interests), with some states desiring a return to slavery.
Never mind that rivers and tap water are catching on fire from fracking gone awry (if the environmentalists are to be believed). So why shouldn't Queensland be allowed to honour its low price contracts to Japan, while Japan is getting the gas so cheap it's oversupplied and re-selling the gas at a profit, while NSW and SA are paying much more for gas in a so-called shortage? And THIS: The government has also promised key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon it would fund a feasibility study into building a new gas pipeline between the Northern Territory and South Australia. Because... well ok, gas supply is as important in today's economy as hospitals (infrastructure). Yet NSW says it can't afford to build hospitals, so it's allowing private (mostly British) companies to do it with a guaranteed profit contract? But building hospitals is state business (making deals with British companies?) while a cross-nation pipeline (when these areas already have gas underground?) would be national business (though supposedly needed because of a cross-state spat over selling off local assets?)
Malcolm Turnbull has proposed that I need an extra four years to fully understand Australian values before citizenship might be granted. Yes - loudmouth, obnoxious American. I'm originally from Mike Pense country (Indiana), where citizens are encouraged to imagine that the business of government is just too complicated - leave it to the experts. But I spent a lot of time in California, where ballot measures meddle in all aspects of government. The Australian values of which Malcolm Turnbull speaks are more in the Donald Trump and Mike Pense vein - keep your mouth shut and don't question the ruling elite - and you'll get along just fine. Oh - and you need to dress, act, and speak like a proper Australian - or get out. And as for how much you pay for goods and services? Don't ask; just pay. Welcome to the Southern White House.
