Don't gloat about your win on koalas Premier or you may regret it
Barnaby Joyce Member for New England and former leader of the National Party September 12, 2020 — 11.10pm
"War is politics by other means," so Clausewitz says. So I have a great interest in the tacticians of that horrific field. How do they inform us of the interaction of egos?
Mostly this inquiry is better kept in one's own notebook to avoid ridicule for pseudo profundity. But, as I take a deep breath in, I'm prepared to say publicly that Sun Tzu had some fascinating insights into how to win battles and they are as relevant in politics as, I presume, they are in war. The political challenge to "koala laws" broke nearly every rule in this 5th century BC strategist's book.
The National's attempts to roll back new koala regulations didn't follow the Sun Tzu rule book.CREDIT:NINE
Let's deal first with the spark that set off the skirmish. The regulations are a confusion of emotional irrationality. Let's deal first with the spark that set off the skirmish. Trees now included as part of threatened koala habitat mean there is a new presumption that koalas eat pine needles. The symphyomyrtus sub-species, let's just say gum trees, are a much better candidate to stand under and look up if one wants to see a koala. Additionally, there is no point looking anywhere where there is just no history of koalas or where sightings are so rare and so long ago it is more a fable than a record.
Lately the demise in koala numbers is not by reason of any action of farmers but, tragically, more by reason of incineration from bushfires, starvation post fires, chlamydia and predation by wild dogs. Farmers are not known to wilfully kill an animal their child has a toy of. Likewise, you could say all farmers are (now possibly were) fascinated and proud of the fact there were "koalas on their place!"
Not one of these new tree regulations is going to stop a fire or kill a wild dog but they will most likely change the attitude of farmers towards a national icon by reason of the threat these koala laws pose to their property rights.
If you understand the value you put on your house then you will understand the value farmers put on their land. If you take that asset off them, whether in fact or in effect, and don't pay for it, then it is little different to the state putting a new caveat over the use of your kitchen. It is in its essence a transfer of ownership and a diminution of your property rights.
Barilaro’s backflip amid koala policy dispute
In a sensational backflip, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has caved and will not lead his Nationals MPs to the crossbench after a standoff over koala policy.
When the state divests an individual of an asset and vests it in the state without payment then that action lives between socialism and communism. It stirs emotions way beyond the issue at hand and that is why in the city people refer to koala preservation and, in the country, they talk of property rights.
It is not that country people have any problem with the desire to protect any species but we have a big issue with the price of every problem; global warming, emission reductions, fish preservation, vegetation preservation, biodiversity and now koalas, all arriving on our credit card.
Sometimes you can only explain a frustration by posing an alternate conundrum. The one I have been using is how would Sydney feel if the environmental requirement to return Sydney Harbour to its pre-white settlement, pristine beauty was by an edict removing all yachts, and without compensation. And if this edict was given from Dubbo.
To understand Barilaro's koala implosion you need to understand where power truly lies in regional NSW
The attack on regional property rights has been happening for years. It stirs red hot emotions searching for a political voice. And if it is not found it will create one. This issue of property rights sits in the same compendium of grievances as so many other issues that affect country people, including fishing and shooting. I hope Premier Gladys Berejiklian understands this.
Koalas are rarely seen in trees around Newtown, Lewisham or Hunters Hill. No, in these areas you are far more likely to discover a wandering voter attracted to a green bait. These regulations are not there to protect koalas. They are there to protect Green preferences. Votes are being bought with our property and only the peripheral, not the underlying, problems of koala numbers are being addressed.
Now back to Sun Tzu. Warfare should be based on deception; well the Nats, as good country people, are about as subtle as a kick in the teeth from a black stallion.
You should know your enemy and yourself; I couldn't tell what the Liberals' tactics were, but I could watch ours on the rolling news cycles. Very helpful for those trying to counter them.
Sun Tzu also had a lot to say about the virtue of winning wars without firing a shot, by bluff and intimidation. I believe Premier Berejiklian read that chapter closely. John Barilaro not so much.
I don't believe this battle is won or lost yet and only offer the advice of not letting it become a war. The winners of an electoral war will be the Shooters' Party and Labor.
Premier, if you gloat and don't fix this problem by quickly getting close again to Barilaro and dealing with these ridiculous regulations, it will become one of the reasons you may lose the next election.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/don ... 55uvh.html
