Where are our leaders?

Ron Pike I 12 December 2024 I Spectator Australia

As I watch with dismay and some trepidation the shenanigans going on in our national capital, I cannot but ask, do we have any leaders amongst our politicians in Canberra? Is there some yet-to-bloom rose of vision and hope? Someone who understands what is needed to lead a nation…

A nation that should be on the verge of greatness. A nation that should have rising living standards as well as budgets in the black and be capable of paying off our now repressive debt, instead of running up more debt as the present government is doing.

The country that made me what I am, has more fertile land, more water, more resources, more forestry area, more fish habitat, more open space, and more national parks per head of population than any other country on Earth. We are the only country that can naturally grow all the crops and raise all of the livestock that man uses for food and clothing, because of our unique geographic footprint.

Of the 77 minerals and compounds that are the building blocks for everything that man produces, 75 of those are in abundance here in Australia.

So, I ask our would-be leaders. Why are we not the most productive nation on Earth?

Why is it that only our miners and our farmers are capable of exporting products?

Why are we not value adding to our abundant raw resources?

We really are the lucky country but seem to have forgotten that luck does not visit the indolent. Luck is the product of careful analysis and ‘busting your arse’ until you succeed. Just as productivity is never an accident. It must be nurtured by a commitment to excellence, built on the rock of intelligent planning and focused effort. This planning can only come from visionary leaders.

So, again I ask where are they now, in this land of plenty?

Nowhere do I see the likes of Ben Chifley, John Macarthur, Thomas Playford, Charles O’Connor, or the John Bradfield, all of whom were practical in their vision for Australia. It was the implementation of their vision that grew Australia from a colonial outpost to a progressive, productive, and growing nation.

But that has stopped, because as I look at the present incumbent of the Lodge, I see a dithering incompetent who, even when surrounded by 16 advisers, has no vision, no plan, no idea, and no hope of making Australia great. Albanese, with a background only in politics, will never lead Australia to a better future. He is only looking after his own future.

But to this old Bushy it seems that the alternative, Peter Dutton, is incapable of making a decision until he has the results from at least four focus groups and the backing of the Party Room. This is not the stuff of leadership.

A leader capable of making Australia prosperous and great will take both the party room and the nation with him on a journey of egalitarian hope and excitement. A journey where the prize can be seen and appreciated. A population united behind one flag (a correct decision by Dutton, in my opinion), happy with our direction and striving to get to each goal along the way.

If Peter Dutton is to be such a leader, I implore him to passionately do the following. No ‘ifs, buts, or maybes’. Just do it and don’t look back. Of course there will be opposition, just as there was when Chifley announced the Snowy Scheme. This visionary initiative was opposed by Menzies and the Liberal Party and most of the media at that time. But Chifley overcame the opposition and Australia benefited.

Peter Dutton, or some other future leader, must immediately call out the imbroglio of ‘Global Warming and Climate Change’ for the scam which they are. This nonsense was implemented by the United Nations to transfer wealth from the first world to the third world and it has been to a large extent successful in this aim. Having highlighted this as a scam he should then halt all ‘renewable power’ plans and stop all subsidies to such expensive power production. We can and must produce our power as efficiently as possible.

From this starting point our aspiring leader must do the following, not necessarily in this order.

Halve the number of the public service and remove from the statute books all laws limiting freedom of speech.

Remove from Federal jurisdiction all control over areas of service which the Constitution specifies as State responsibilities. Particularly in the areas of education, health, and transport.

Immediately implement a plan of dam building, all with associated hydro power production. This plan would provide all of Australia’s water needs for the foreseeable future as well as cheap power and prevent most future flood damage.

The Welcome Reef Dam on the Shoalhaven River to supply Sydney’s future water needs.

A large dam on the Mitchell River to supply future needs for Melbourne.

The Chowilla Dam on the lower Murray River., which would have a footprint across three States thereby vastly increasing productivity.

The Upper Clarence Scheme which would be six dams and a complex hydro power scheme, supplying much of the power for the East Coast.

The Bradfield water conservation scheme in central Queensland.

This dam building would continue past those above and be implemented over many years, providing continuing work and increasing productivity on our ‘only lacking water’ fertile soils.

All excise and taxes on diesel should be removed immediately as the government faced the fact that Australia runs on diesel. Our farming, our transport system, our fishing fleet, our miners, our forestry industry, our defence forces – all run on diesel and we should as well as removing all taxation be seeking to produce our own fuel so we are not dependent on imported product.

On completed dual carriage highways we should lift the speed limit to 125 km/h.

Now is the time to implement some real nation-building policy and let’s start with the ‘Iron Boomerang’ rail line linking the iron ore deposits of Western Australia with the coal fields of central Queensland. We then build and run ‘state of the art’ steel works at each end allowing us to export finished product and not just ore.

If we are to implement the plans above, we must first accept that under present regulation and taxes it would never happen, so we must abolish much of the regulation beginning with abolition of all Aboriginal rights to halt projects.

It is way past time for the Aboriginal people to have the same, but not more, rights than the rest of us.

A truly visionary leader would recognise that our taxation system is cumbersome, onerous and involves thousands of people working on tax avoidance.

All present taxation should be abolished and replaced with a two cents in the dollar transaction tax with no exceptions. Simple, easy, and efficient.

A leader who had the energy and intellect to implement the above would grace the pages of history as not just a true leader but a nation builder.

Author: Ron Pike