SOLAR PANELS - THE BAD NEWS!

We are constantly bombarded with the benefits of solar energy; and we are urged to install solar panels on our roof to reduce our soaring electricity bills. (Good idea) Newspapers are full with advertisements and salesmen are ubiquitous at the moment preaching the virtues of solar energy and are offering good deals and great discounts. However, what they are not telling you is the following. I publish this as a matter of public interest and leave it to you to do further research. - Werner

Citizens Electoral Council of Australia.

Media Release 26th of August 2010Craig Isherwood‚ National SecretaryPO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC. 3058 * Phone: 03 9354 0544 * Fax: 03 93540166. *

Email: cec@cecaust.com.au

Those deadly, Green Nazi solar panels

Not only does solar energy cost more to produce than it gives back, but rooftop solar panels are dangerous to your health and hearth. In Germany, Australia, and the U.S.A., fire brigades are warning of the deadly threat of fighting blazes associated with solar panels.

In Germany the issue has recently become a major news item. While city and local governments, swept by the Green mania, are demanding more rooftop panel installations, many fire authorities have warned that fires cannot be fought on houses with rooftop solar panel units, and the property will be completely destroyed.

The largest solar panel blaze in history took place in June 2009 in Germany at the warehouse complex of BP Solar! Talk about “accident prone”. BP’s 200 square metre array, at Bürstadt, near Mannheim, was one of the largest roof-mounted installations in the world. And it was fabricated by BP Solar.

A rooftop solar array produces direct current electricity at a potential of 600 to 800 volts, more than enough to kill—and it cannot be turned off. The standard firefighting technique of opening up the roof to vent a blaze is not possible, because putting an axe through the solar panels exposes the firemen to deadly voltages.

Firefighters in the U.S. also have a policy of letting the solar panel-related fire burn out, rather than fighting it. Reporting on a 2009 meeting of New Jersey fire chiefs, a Florence Township chief wrote: “The final question which was asked really put things in perspective—someone asked that since California is number one when it comes to Solar Panel System installations, ‘What do their firefighters do when a structure fire involves these systems?’ Answer was ‘they let it burn’!”

And the solar panels themselves are often the cause of the blaze. Here in Australia, currently experiencing a government-subsidised boom in rooftop panel installations, a survey of 200 systems found 3 per cent were incorrectly wired, leading to serious fire risk. Apart from faulty wiring by installers, poor quality control in manufacturing has led to fracture in the joints between the solar cell modules, which can lead to electrical arcing. The resultant fires burn at quite high temperatures.

Solar electricity generation is ridiculously costly, and has only caught on because of huge government subsidies. Studies in the U.S. show that the true cost for the average home is 35 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), and 25 cents per kWh in the desert. Electricity can be generated from nuclear plants at 1.3 cents/kWh, if plant construction time is reduced to a reasonable five years or less. Uranium fuel is so energy dense, that the main cost of nuclear power is in the plant construction. Knowing this, the Green Nazis in the U.S.A. fought for punitive regulations which dragged out construction times to 10 years or longer. They thus ran up amortisation costs at high compound interest rates to high levels, making it appear cheaper, in the short run, for a utility to build coal or gas-fired plants.

Meanwhile, Green alternative energy is subsidised at huge taxpayer expense. In Australia, under the federal government’s Solar Credits scheme, a typical home solar package including panels and inverter is subsidised, astoundingly at close to $10,000. Additionally, five states and the NT subsidise net feed-in to the grid—power generated minus the household consumption—from rooftop solar panels at up to a guaranteed minimum 60 cents/kWh, while NSW and ACT subsidise gross feed-in—the total generated—at the incredible rate of 50.05 cents in the ACT, and 60 cents in NSW!

In Germany, "Der Spiegel" reports that a study by the Arrhenius Institute for Energy and Climate Policy calculated that solar energy receives €2.7 million per day in subsidies! This figure is obtained simply by multiplying the 35 euro-cents/kWh which consumers pay as a subsidy on solar energy, by the overall production of one day, as measured on 8th July. Today, one of the largest solar panel installations in the world is atop the roof of the Reichstag building in Berlin. Shall history soon repeat itself in bizarre fashion, with a new Reichstag fire, this time caused by the solar panel mania of the new Green Nazis?

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My thought for today. - Werner

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. - Benjamin Franklin

Let’s have a laugh, before the Greens take control of our Country!

That the Greens will take control of our legislative process in the Australian Senate is not a laughable matter really. But humour will relieve us from stress and may see us through the pain the Greens have in store for us after July 2011, when they attain the balance of power in the Senate. So, enjoy reading the following, which I hope will produce a laugh for you. - Werner

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For more humour, click here.

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HOW DID YOU BREAK YOUR ARM??

Even if you aren't a skier, you'll be able to appreciate the humour of the slopes as written by a New Orleans paper:

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A friend just got back from a holiday skiing trip to Utah with the kind of story that warms the cockles of anybody's heart.

Conditions were perfect...12 below, no feeling in the toes, basic numbness all over........the "Tell me when we're having fun" kind of day.

One of the women in the group complained to her husband that she was in dire need of a rest room. He told her not to worry, that he was sure there was relief waiting at the top of the lift in the form of a powder room for female skiers in distress. He was wrong, of course and the pain did not go away.

If you've ever had nature hit its panic button in you, then you know that a temperature of 12 below doesn't help matters.

With time running out, the woman weighed her options. Her husband, picking up on the intensity of the pain, suggested that since she was wearing an all-white ski outfit, she should go off in the woods and no one would even notice. He assured her, "The white will provide more than adequate camouflage." So she headed for the tree line, began lowering her ski pants and proceeded to do her thing.

If you've ever parked on the side of a slope, then you know there is a right way and wrong way to set your skis so you don't move. Yup, you got it!!! She had them positioned the wrong way.

Steep slopes are not forgiving...even during the most embarrassing moments.

Without warning, the woman found herself skiing backward, out-of-control, racing through the trees.......somehow missing all of them and onto another slope. Her derriere and the reverse side were still bare, her pants down around her knees, and she was picking up speed all the while. She continued backwards, totally out-of-control, creating an unusual vista for the other skiers. The woman skied back under the lift and finally collided violently with a pylon.

The bad news was that she broke her arm and was unable to pull up her ski pants.

At long last her husband arrived, putting an end to her nudie show, and then summoned the ski patrol. They transported her to a hospital.

While in the emergency room, a man with an obviously broken leg was put in the bed next to hers.

"So, how'd you break your leg?" she asked, making small talk."It was the stupidest thing you ever saw," he said. "I was riding up this ski lift and suddenly, I couldn't believe my eyes! There was this crazy woman skiing backward, out-of-control, down the mountain, with her bare bottom hanging out of her pants. I leaned over to get a better look and fell out of the lift." "So, how'd you break your arm??

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Now to the National Broadband Network. Is Gillard flogging a dead horse?

The wisdom of the Dakota Indians says that:

'When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.'

In government however more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:Buying a stronger whip, changing riders or appointing a committee to study the horse.

Visiting other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included and reclassifying the dead horse as 'living impaired.'

Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse and harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

Providing funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horses performance.

Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

Rewriting the performance requirements for all horses. And of course, promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

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My thought for today. – Werner
Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. - Arnold Glasow

The aftermath of the Australian Federal election 2010

We all breathe a sigh of relief that this election is over. Every body got tired of the negative and deceitful political spin at which Julia Gillard and the Labor Party were excelling. Julia Gillard must have mentioned the word Mr. Abbott millions of times in a negative way. At the moment we are in limbo and it will take some time to see who will take the federal helm.

One thing is clear, the elected independents will become very important in the power mix. It is just a pity that we didn’t get a few more good independents to help to “keep the bastards honest” as Don Chipp once said.

It is manifestly clear that the Labor party greatly underestimated Tony Abbott; he pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat. If this election had been a football match, Tony Abbot would have been declared the “Man of the match.”

The great tragedy of this election is that the narrow-minded and visually impaired Greens attained the balance of power in the Senate. The pain from this will be felt in our hip pockets from July 2011 when they take their position in the Senate.

Like cigarettes and tobacco, which have to be marked with a health warning, if the Greens have their way, all our electrical appliances will need the warning that “Use of this appliance will affect your hip pocket health,” as most of us will not be able to afford to pay electricity costs. But this is not all, there is more Green pain in store for you.

If the Greens have their way, our waters around Australia would be closed to fishing, which will wreck our fishing industry, cause unemployment and all the seafood would have to be imported. Most of this would come from the highly polluted waters in unhygienic fish farms of counties to our north. This would put our seafood restaurants in a very uncertain situation, as they, undoubtedly, would lose Australian customers.

You are justified in looking with trepidation to 6 years of Green dominance in the Australian Senate. There is no use crying over spilt milk, we have to live with what the voters have imposed on us, the ones that were influenced by political spin, instead by substance. – Werner

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My thought for today. - Werner
None are as blind as those who do not want to see.

Attention Greens, here are some carbon facts.

These few facts will upset the Greenies, no doubt, who suffer from myopia and tunnel vision. Labor and the Greens are bed partners and co-sponsors of the Carbon Tax. To read two previous postings, click here and here. - Werner

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Climate Change Fraud! To read more click here.

Your vote counts. Refer to: http://onevote.com.au/

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This makes interesting reading.

Professor Ian Plimer could not have said it better! If you've read his book you will agree, this is a good summary. Australians showed sense in resisting the govt pressure to agree to a carbon tax before the Copenhagen Conference - which seems years ago now.

Are you sitting down?

Okay, here's the bombshell. The current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet - all of you. Click on picture to enlarge!

Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life.

I know, I know.... (group hug)...it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of Bali, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your $1 light bulbs with $10 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud any one time - EVERY DAY.

Oh, I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in its entire YEARS on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year - think about it.

Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

I'm so sorry. And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud, but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.

Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario.

Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just “Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.

And just keep in mind that if that same government is re-elected, you will have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.

But hey, grab a beer, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

PS: One has to wonder if Iceland is buying carbon offsets.

My thought for today. – Werner
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. - Edward R. Murrow

The National Broadband Network folly.

When it comes to hyperbolical political spin, or in plain language, enlarging things beyond the bounds of the truth, the Labor party wins hands down. In 2007 Rudd made so many promises, but up to his “assassination,” hadn’t delivered any of them. However he was able to fool enough voters to elect the Labor Party with him as Prime Minister.

Now Julia Gillard eloquently uses the same modus operandi in the hope that the electors can be fooled again, and re-elect her and her motley crew. We are only one week away from seeing if they succeed in hoodwinking the people of Australia once again.

This brings me to the $42 billion National Broadband Network. (NBN). There is a lot of talk about this from Julia Gillard, but what they haven’t told us so far is, if this is affordable to the ordinary Australian; namely, what it would cost per month to be connected to this network. They either don’t know this or are afraid to spell it out.

I am on broadband (ADSL Liberty) and this is fast enough for me. They constantly emphasise how fast one can download movies; the question begs, how important is this? Furthermore, a lot of people are opting to go wireless and this may be the cheaper option for the future. We could finish up having spent $42 billion on a network that is unaffordable to most Australians, but Labor has a proven track record of excellence at wasting taxpayer’s money. Just look back over the past three years to see what I’m talking about.

Unfortunately this exorbitant spending of money on the NBN will not deliver cheaper groceries and other life essentials to remote regional areas like our Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland, where people are paying exceedingly inflated prices just to eat. How important would this NBN be for them? I bet Gillard and Labor wouldn’t ask them.

Even we in Cairns pay about thirty percent more for groceries than they pay in Brisbane. So, for us, cheaper costs of living would be more important than an expensive National Broadband Network. So, if Australian voters believe the Labor spin and re-elect them, and give the Greens (The Labor sub branch) the majority in the Senate, then they must be gluttons for punishment and deserve the pain in their hip pockets. Remember at Election Day: A people who are sheep get a government of wolves. - Werner - Click on picture to enlarge!

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Here are some excerpts from “The Australian.”

I Quote: EIGHTEEN months ago, Telstra proposed risking $10 billion of its shareholders' money building a high-speed broadband network. After that bid fell over, the government, dizzy with its success in the polls, decided to build a fibre network of its own. Why? Because, Kevin Rudd said at the time, the alternative would have been to pay Telstra "billions of dollars in compensation".

Last Sunday, the government announced an initial deal between Telstra and the National Broadband Network Company. Under its terms, Telstra will receive payments and benefits totalling $11bn post-tax. On top of that, taxpayers will have to invest about $40bn of their own money.

This, we are told, is a policy triumph. A triumph? As Pyrrhus said after the battle of Asculum: "One more such victory, and we shall be ruined."

Rather, the outcome and the process that led to it, epitomise the problems that marked the Rudd experiment.

They were part of a project conceived in secrecy and haste. That project involved a huge expansion in public spending and in the public sector, and would have been rejected by any serious process of deliberation.

Once problems emerged, the government, rather than reconsider, tried to get its way by threats of expropriation. And as the government became desperate to get an agreement it could announce, it took from consumers and taxpayers, from whom costs could be hidden, so as to buy Telstra's however reluctant acquiescence. Little surprise so little has been disclosed as to the details. But what is known shows how flawed the outcomes are.

Overall, it would be difficult to design a worse outcome. It is this kind of policy-making, caught in its thicket of confusions and contradictions that so fatally damaged Rudd's standing.Click on picture to enlarge!

And it is policies such as these that need to be reconsidered if the new Gillard administration is to be any more than old wine in a new bottle.

Yet they are now regicides. And like all regicides, they have little choice but to march backwards into battle, not merely because they must be fearful of themselves being the next victims, but also because they cannot simply ignore the past errors in which they played a crucial role. Those errors have now lost Rudd the historical reputation he was capable of and should have earned. Unquote. To read all, click here.

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My thought for today. – Werner
One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

We will regret it if we give the Greens the balance of power in the Senate!

If Labor is re-elected and the Greens attain the balance of power in the senate, adjectives like “lucky” Country will become distant memories of the past. But brace yourself, you have seen nothing yet. This is one of the most crucial elections ever in Australia; it is in your hands, whether you want an Australia you have known from the past or one that will be dramatically changed with Labor and the Greens having the legislative power in Australia. If this would happen you can kiss your lifestyle goodbye. Handing the balance of power to the Greens means it would result in unbalanced outcomes for Australians. Your vote is your voice; use it wisely. Click on picture to enlarge.

Since we have been predominantly governed by Labor governments in Australia, the cost of living has gone through the roof, which is more severely felt in regional areas than in metropolitan regions. I’m talking about food prices, local government rates, water, and electricity, just to name a few. A lot of low income earners, especially our pensioners, cannot make ends meet and are becoming increasingly despondent and feeling like second rate citizens, especially when they see how the federal government provides the illegal boat arrivals with food and luxury accommodation with the compliments of the Australian tax payers. Just think about the millions of dollars that could be saved and spent on Australians instead.

One thing is for sure, the ETS will be revisited. We all remember the Copenhagen conference and Rudd taking 114 Australian delegates there, wasting a lot of money for absolutely nothing. Nobody knew then or even now what the Rudd & Wong ETS plan entailed for us in Australia, but the plan will be the same under a Gillard government, with the willing assistance of the Greens.

Following is an interesting article that was written before the Copenhagen conference by the owner and editor of the community based 16 page weekly newsletter, “Northern Herald,” which circulates on the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland. This article is still relevant for today and especially so if Labor and the Greens have the upper hand in Australia. The editor, Elisabeth Warwick, went into the “small print” of the draft treaty and analysed it. It will frighten you when you see how Rudd wanted to sell us out. You can rest assured Gillard and the Greens have no compunction about selling us out as well. In the following article you can now replace the name Rudd with Gillard, both have the same spots. – Werner

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Time to think for ourselves.
By Elizabeth Warwick

Mr Rudd has made his views quite clear and it is obvious that he can't wait to sign our country's future autonomy away for his fifteen minutes of fame.

Do any of us know anything about the proposed treaty? What has our government actually told us about what they are so keen to sign? So far it is just a 181 page draft, but shouldn't our government's first action have been to let us know what's in it? Us being the people, the one's they supposedly work for (you remember; when democracy used to be government by the people for the people.)

I have read the draft treaty; as it is couched in convoluted legal-speak it wasn't easy, but there is no doubt that there are some pretty scary things hiding in there that no one in power has bothered to tell us about.

Let’s start with money: Clause 33, page 93 states, “By 2020 the scale of financial flows to support adaptation in developing countries must be at least USD 67 billion per Year”. And Clause 17 states that developed countries should “(a) Compensate for damage to the LDCs' (least developed countries) economy and also compensate for lost opportunities, resources, lives, land and dignity, as many will become environmental refugees; (b) Africa, in the context of environmental justice, should be equitably compensated for environmental, social and economic losses arising from the implementation of response measures.”

And get this - Australia will have no control over how this as yet unnamed body spends our money.

This leads us to power: The "scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention" that starts on page 18 contains the provision for a "government." Christopher Monckton, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, has said: "This is the first time I've ever seen any transnational treaty referring to a new body to be set up under that treaty as a government. But it's the powers that are going to be given to this entirely unelected government that are so frightening. Monckton says the aim of this new government is to have power to directly intervene in the financial, economic, tax and environmental affairs of all the nations that sign the Copenhagen treaty.

Probably the most worrying part of the draft treaty is the beginning, where it bases the need for all this money and power shifting on “developed countries (having) a historical responsibility for their disproportionate historical use of a shared global carbon space” and that “warming of the climate system as a consequence of human activity, is unequivocal.”

Since when? To the best of my knowledge there are several theories on global warming, none of them “unequivocally” accepted.

Mr Rudd's deafening silence on any negative aspects of the draft treaty speaks for itself. Despite no final scientific data and a new survey showing that 38 percent of Australians believe the legislation should be shelved until after the conference; Rudd recently vowed to press ahead with his Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation before the UN meeting. This scheme will add even more financial burden on all of us. Multimillionaires like the Rudds and Turnbulls will scrape through, but it won't he so easy for everyone else.

Luckily there's not much chance of any agreement being reached at this particular meeting, but this may be the time for everyone to find out a few facts for themselves, before consensus is reached. Don't take my word for anything, I'm still making up my mind as I learn more, but at least I'm trying to make an independent decision. Read the draft - it's online. Do the research, read everything you can find, both for and against your beliefs.

Then actually stand up and let our government know what you think – we are still, at least in name, a democracy. Unquote.

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My thought for today. – Werner
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson

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Click on picture to enlarge!

New Zealand Food? Be suspicious of its authenticity.

Shopping for grocery items is increasingly becoming a nightmare, as well as time consuming if you want to know the origin and contents of the items. To find fully Australian made products is like finding a needle in a haystack and as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth. I and many others have chosen to avoid buying anything that originates from China.

The Chinese are still using herbicides on vegetables that are prohibited in Australia. We also have our drinking water forcibly “spiked” with fluoride that comes from China, yet they do not divulge what other toxins their fluoride contains.

Unfortunately, we are being tricked with the “product of New Zealand” labelling, see article below. (New Zealand FOOD) We are in election mode at the moment and none of our candidates has anything to say about this dreadful trickery.

Boycott imported New Zealand food; it could be coming from China. (Buy Australian!)

Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets. The worrying aspect is: Our productive farmland is getting into foreign hands. Click here to read more.

Below this story are more links about our enemy within, the gormless Greens. - Werner

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New Zealand Food. By Reporter: Lynda Kinkade.

Cheap inferior toxic products that would be turned away at our border are coming in through a back door. Foreign products disguised in Kiwi wrapping. Our investigation tracked the raw products to factories in NZ where they were processed, repackaged and exported. Now branded with the trusty made in New Zealand label. (Trusty? No more! Werner)

"If you're buying cheap vegetables from overseas 51% of wholesale cost of goods is the made component - nothing has to come from this country to be called made in Australia or made in New Zealand" says Lynne Wilkerson from Ausbuy. Foreign fruit, vegetables, meat and fish shipped into New Zealand under what some describe as soft border controls, are getting the green flag into our country as part of the New Zealand Australian free trade agreement.

"I think they raise questions about the safety of imported produce." New Zealand Greens MP Sue Kegdely, warns Australians should be worried. "The testing at the border is woefully inadequate because we test such a tiny amount of produce coming into NZ."Chinese products are the main offenders, their standards are so poor, tests reveal many contain dangerous pesticides, banned cancer causing chemicals, lead and e coli bacteria from Chinese farmers using human and animal faeces as fertilisers.

China has free passage into New Zealand because of a free trade agreement. It's an agreement Australia doesn't adhere to. When China sends cargo direct to us it goes through rigorous checks by Australian customs, sneaking through New Zealand is their easiest option. In recent random testing in New Zealand this month of foreign produce has uncovered shocking results.

"Vietnamese catfish contained a substance gentian violet which has been linked with cancer. I think they raise questions about the safety of imported produce if we can find in one little bit of testing that 40% of the plums are contaminated with lead. What does that mean about the rest of the produce?" says Sue. The rest of the produce isn't tested regularly, we only discover the dangers, sometimes when it's too late. Cornflour sent from China and "processed" in New Zealand had to be recalled late last year. 22 tonnes of the cornflour makes its way to Australian shores in New Zealand packaging."We believe that a lot of foods made in New Zealand coming out of New Zealand are actually from China" says Lynne.

Ausbuy Chief Executive Lynne Wilkerson blames misleading labelling laws. "We're not told where ingredients are imported from or more importantly what percentage of imported goods are in this product" says Lynne. In the last year frozen vegetable imports has shot up by more than 15%. Officially 45 per cent is coming from New Zealand. 16 per cent from China and 12 per cent from Canada. "China has more than doubled the amount of food they are sending into Australia - but that doesn't include food they are sending which is processed in New Zealand and then gets sent here" says Lynne.

Many Australian producers can no longer compete with cheap foreign imports; imports that are dressed up like local made and owned brands. McCain’s is the latest company to close a food processing factory in Australia and move its Tasmanian base across to New Zealand. It’s happening around the world, western countries importing cheap inferiorproducts and allowing their own industry to suffer.

"If it doesn't actually say where this is grown you can be assured it's probably not grown where it's coming from" says Grain farmer Tim Duddley. He believes Australia should not have to import a thing. "We can produce in excess of several hundred times over what we need to support the nation; we export about 85 per cent of our food."

"At the end of the day we are exporting good quality clean green food, the best in the world and acknowledged to be the best in the world … and we are importing inferior quality to feed to our people" adds Lynne.

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Further to my comments, in my previous posting, about the dangers of the Greens, should they attain the balance of power in the Senate? Following are more “enlightening” articles about this motley crew, for your consideration, by Andrew Bolt.

Live Green before you vote. - Andrew Bolt

The Green plan to kill your job. Andrew Bolt

All that green can't hide the red. Andrew Bolt

My thought for today. – Werner
The world is indeed only a small tide pool; disturb one part and the rest is threatened. Gregory Bateson