Does Lee Kernaghan deserve Aussie of the year (1 Viewer)

[SipSip]

I don't think he does

 

[yosemite sam]

He's raised over a million dollars for drought support and aid for farmers.
And he does heaps of support for them and that.
So i spose it helps raise more drought awareness and support for the farmers.
So he's like the frontman for that.

 

[katie_tully]

I don't think he does

So who does?

 

[withoutaface]

He's raised over a million dollars for drought support and aid for farmers.
And he does heaps of support for them and that.
So i spose it helps raise more drought awareness and support for the farmers.
So he's like the frontman for that.

Why should we support our farmers if they can't support themselves?

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

^You gonna eat money? lulz.

I vote yes. He's done plenty of charity work. He's a model Australian citizen. Good on him.

 

[withoutaface]

^You gonna eat money? lulz.

I vote yes. He's done plenty of charity work. He's a model Australian citizen. Good on him.

Or I could, liek, import food.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Lulz so what happens when oil runs out and it becomes super expensive to ship food in from overseas eh?

 

[withoutaface]

Then Australian farming regains its competitive advantage and we just have to cop the higher prices?

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Doesn't it take a while to set up a farm? Wouldn't it make sense to keep those farms there, just in case Saudi Arabia is inflating the amount of oil they say they have?

 

[withoutaface]

In which case it would make sense for private investors either to start subsidising farmers' costs for the time being in exchange for a cut of their profits once Australian produce becomes the only real option, or for them to start buying up farms and keeping them in an arable condition in anticipation of their worth skyrocketing when oil runs out. This, of course, would only apply if the extra cost of producing locally is less than what it would cost to set farms back up from an abandoned state at some point in the future, but this was implied by your scenario anyway.

 

[incentivation]

Sometimes there's a lot more to life than pure economic rationalisation. Farming represents an important part of our heritage, and ulitmately, we would be stupid to completely subscribe to that type of economic purist thinking. Whilst at the moment there is little if any competitive advantage in maintaining certain types of farmland, we can't expect to know what will happen in the future in terms of world supplies, war or any other event that might restrict the importation of certain foodstuffs.

As for Lee Kernaghan, he's done a lot more for struggling people than many others, and Australian of the Year is a perfect way to recognise that.

David Marr blows on about recognising artists, writers and the like, but he fails to see the fact that these people do very little for anyone else but themselves, and are already funded by government assistance.

 

[withoutaface]

Sometimes there's a lot more to life than pure economic rationalisation. Farming represents an important part of our heritage, and ulitmately, we would be stupid to completely subscribe to that type of economic purist thinking.

The bulk of Australians live in urban centres, and I don't think it'd be controversial to say that the vast majority of those wouldn't even notice if Australian farming disappeared entirely and such produce was replaced by imports. On this basis arguing that it would severely impact upon Australian 'culture' is a misnomer.

Whilst at the moment there is little if any competitive advantage in maintaining certain types of farmland, we can't expect to know what will happen in the future in terms of world supplies, war or any other event that might restrict the importation of certain foodstuffs.

The market can anticipate such events better than the government.

 

[Evilo]

I don't think he does

Please show me the cheque for $1,000,001 you gave a charity, then i may consider otherwise.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

The bulk of Australians live in urban centres, and I don't think it'd be controversial to say that the vast majority of those wouldn't even notice if Australian farming disappeared entirely and such produce was replaced by imports. On this basis arguing that it would severely impact upon Australian 'culture' is a misnomer.

Oh I dunno, if that obsession with "organic food" is anything to go by.

 

[withoutaface]

Please show me the cheque for $1,000,001 you gave a charity, then i may consider otherwise.

Money given to stubborn old cunts who refuse to adapt to the times should not be considered charity.

 

[withoutaface]

Oh I dunno, if that obsession with "organic food" is anything to go by.

CALL YR LOCAL MEMBER

NO2GMFOOD!

 

[Evilo]

Maybe he could have given that money to say, people in Africa who are starving to death, rather than to farmers in Australia who are to stupid run a business without relying on welfare.

Amazing thing, there didn't used to be a drought. So they were able to grow crops easily. The only thing was they thought this drought could be a 'phase', but it hasn't ended - hence the problem.

 

[incentivation]

Because of course, the market has never failed to anticipate food shortages, or supply issues before, ever.

It is partially due to inept and corrupt government in Africa that deprives much of the population with the support it needs to sustain food produce, and/or importation.

 

[withoutaface]

Amazing thing, there didn't used to be a drought. So they were able to grow crops easily. The only thing was they thought this drought could be a 'phase', but it hasn't ended - hence the problem.

So they saw a situation, sunk all their money into it, and it didn't pay off. You know when this happens on the stock market, it's called "stiff shit".

Incentivation: I never said the market was perfect. I said it was better than any other structure yet created.

 

[Graney]

Amazing thing, there didn't used to be a drought. So they were able to grow crops easily. The only thing was they thought this drought could be a 'phase', but it hasn't ended - hence the problem.

A lot of the decline in productivity can be more attributed to Australia's barren unproductive soils. Australian soils have extremely low levels of nutrients. Land clearing, erosion, followed by each successive generation of crops has mined more and more of Australia's nutrient wealth. Now many former productive lands aren't even capable of supporting anything like the bush that was originally cleared.
This is a greater cause of the loss of productivity than any drought.

South-west WA's wheat belt is a startling example of this. The food bowl of Aus for many years is now ecologically fucked.

Noones blaming former generations for this. They worked hard, and did what was best according to the information available at the time. But with our current knowledge, we can see that much of this land should never have been cleared, and it's madness to continue stripping the land of it's remaining nutrients.