9 November 2007

Federal Election Email Interview - John Holder, Citizens Electoral Council of Australia Candidate for Canberra

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In our continuing series of Email Interviews with local candidates in the coming Federal Election we bring John Holder Citizens Electoral Council of Australia Candidate for Canberra.

John Holder - Citizens Electoral Council of Australia Candidate for Canberra

John Holder’s responses, in full and unedited, can be found below:

Q1. Provide a short (no greater than 200 word) employment application style Resume (CV), including what work have you done apart from being a politician or political staffer or party/union/lobby employee and what experience or qualifications you have with regards to economic management?

I am 44 years old, have 4 children, and have lived in Canberra for 33 years. Most of my work experience has been in sales and management, both retail and wholesale. For the last 6 years I have worked for a national electrical wholesale company that focuses on each of it’s branches being run as a separate business entity, rather than just being sales driven. This has given me a good grounding in the full economics of managing a $12M+ p.a. business in a very competitive industry.

Q2. What would you like to see as the first piece of legislative change brought about by your Government? What are your personal goals for your first year representing the ACT?

The most urgent change required is for Australia’s Government to erect a ‘firewall’ to protect our homeowners, farmers, industries, and banks against the global debt meltdown that is happening NOW. The whole World economic system is bankrupt, and cannot be saved, as it is not based on physical economic principles. The only solution is for a total reorganisation of the World economic system, and the writing off of hundreds of trillions of debt, and this can only be done under the control and partnership of the sovereign nations of the World, where each nation’s Government ‘utters’ it’s own credit. We must ensure that people do not lose their homes, farms, or industries, and that banks do not close, while this reorganisation takes place.
My goal for the first year representing Canberra, would be to show the people of Canberra that this crisis really is happening, and that they are not immune to it, but I don’t think this would take a whole year.

Q3. What private opinions do you hold which are different to those of your party?

On which issues do you disagree with your Party’s stated position?

I honestly cannot think of anything of major substance, where my opinions are radically different to those of the CEC.

Q4. Are you in favour of fixed election terms? Why or why not and if so what length of term are you in favour of and why?

I believe fixed 4 year election terms would be a good thing. It would give some stability to the process, and would stop the poltical advantage timing games that are played (as we have seen leading up to this election).

Q5. Do you think that it is important for the Prime Minister and their family to live in Canberra? Why or why not?

I do not think this is of major importance. If the leader of any current government is the best person for the job of PM, and his personal or family matters do not suit actually living in Canberra, then it shouldn’t be made to be a big issue.

Q6. Do you consider that making observations about the structure and makeup of the other major political party as beneficial to your own party’s role in the election?

Not quite sure I understand the intent of this question. If it means the constant ‘slagging’ that we see between the two major parties, then I really think this is so amateur and pointless. There are some very good individuals on both sides, who I am sure are true and moral people, but as Government and Opposition, they are both heavily persuaded by the finacial cartels of the World, which means they cannot truely govern for the good of the Australian people.

Q7. What are you thoughts on the permanent trading of water entitlements, as per The National Water Initiative (http://www.dpmc.gov.au/water_reform/nwi.cfm), and do you believe that giving water a tradable, economic value is really the best method to ensure that this scare Australian resource will be utilized sensibly in the future?

The NWI is a plan for the privitisation of water, which is the worst possible thing we could do. Water is not a tradable, economic commodity – it is essential for human existance, and should not be privatised in any way. We should instead be building Government (people) owned dams, nuclear de-salination plants, and diversion canals, so that we can prosper as a nation, drought or no drought.

Q8. Canberra has a large student population and Govt funding per capita for public education facilities seems to be on the slide with there being an apparent shift towards encouraging more people to enter the private education sector. What are your thoughts on this?

What initiatives would you pursue in regard to HECS fees, full fee paying uni courses, increasing/decreasing Austudy payments, funding for education/ R&D/communications infrastructure and assistance or encouragement to private sector research and technology companies?

What measures will you take to ensure the best possible education is available to all Australians?

The last 30 years of governance in Australia has been about the privatisation of everything – education included. This has caused a dumbing down of our education standards, and has seen a huge amount of R&D, technology, etc. go overseas. We will not survive as a nation if we do not cherish and develop education at all levels. We need to fund education as being essential for our existence. This will only be possible when Australia’s Government utters our own credit. It is not possible under the present system of borrowing the funds from the global cartels.

Q9. What’s the single most pressing issue in your electorate (local electorate issue – not a broader issue that has an impact on your electorate) and how do you plan on addressing it?

Infrastructure. Canberra is having a huge building boom – residential, commercial, and public sector – but there is no infrastructure to go with it. The only real means of transport is by private motor vehicles. We need to have major public transport infrastructure put in place in Canberra – like trains, trams, monorails. While this may be a Territory issue, it also becomes a Federal responsibility because of the size of the public sector in this city.

Q10. Suppose that you and I are stuck in an elevator for 5 minutes. You know nothing about me other than I’m enrolled to vote in your electorate. What do you say to convince me to vote for you.

I wouldn’t try to convince you to vote for me. I would ask you about what is important to you, and talk to you about my views on that subject (if you wanted to hear them!).

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Who on earth elevated economics to something that defined us as a society?

At least this idiot is guaranteed one vote. His own.

You know you’re on safe intellectual ground when you get called names. Childish much?

OK, MookRit, I’ll bite, with respect.

Thanks for the politeness. I think that you make a good point. Markets aren’t perfect.

But remember there are only two ways of distributing the economic pie:

1. Through voluntary cooperation via markets

2. Through government coercion or some higher authority dictating who will get what

There is no other way known to mankind.

I would submit that while markets aren’t perfect, government ownership and control is even less perfect. I think these videos would be useful in explaining the ideas:

http://www.ideachannel.tv

OK, MookRit, I’ll bite, with respect. Some people, mostly those with qualifications in economics, think that every activity is governed by economic considerations and that economics trumps all other arguments.

Some of us might disagree. We might see economics as an enormously valuable tool for analysis and as providing one set of measures (albeit one capable of being disputed by other economists). But we might think that there are values other than economic efficiency (eg social justice, fairness, transparency, honesty, tolerance, prudence in international relations) that should also feed into the matrix. One needs only to contemplate one economic shibboleth (that decisions are made rationally in perfect markets by perfectly informed consumers) to realise that the discipline is not perfect for working out the right answer whenever humans get involved. Humans can be dumb, or not invariably smart. They choose to buy Australian, eat unhealthy food, send their kids to Boys Grammar, buy inefficient vehicles when these steps make no sense. They have to survive in real markets where collusion, insider trading and frauds happen.

The libertarian claim is simply silly. Almost every activity is subject to some form of social regulation, and most of us would have it no other way. It’s a question of how much. My, how I laugh when I hear libertarianism espoused by public sector employees, academics and farmers.

At least this idiot is guaranteed one vote. His own.

Any non-crackpot minor parties out there?

Well, there’s only one economically literate minor party in Australia, and that is the Liberty and Democracy Party. It probably has the most economists of any micro party. Go ahead. I dare you guys to try and point out a single LDP policy that isn’t supported by empirical evidence:

http://www.ldp.org.au

The free trade one is a no-brainer, as is the minimum wage and tax policy. The majority of economists agree with the LDP on free trade and the minimum wage, regardless of their political persuasion.

I think the CEC may be the local version of the LaRouche mob. If so, I wonder whether the Queen and DofE will be arrested on the next royal visit because Lyndon thinks they’re behind the world drug trade. I am surprised that there were people prepared to sign a nomination form for this dingbat.

The high numbers on my below the line vote for the Reps are pretty clear and this bloke looks like a winner for the biggest number. I’m just not sure whether I want to put an obvious pedestrian (Ms Ellis) ahead of the probable pedestrian preferred by the Libs.

SO we are all “brain dead lemmings” if we disagree with this lot??? Hmmmmmm….

JWH yearned for things to be like they were in 1955, it would seem that the CEC would prefer 1855.

Unfortunately, pictures speak louder than words.

I looked at his picture and said:

“Bring back Natasha!”

Vic Bitterman7:16 pm 09 Nov 07

LOL at this alleged political party!!

That’s a bit off.

Anyway, from the CEC website, about it’s founder LaRouche:

“His own work located the determining, nonlinear factor in increase of society’s potential relative population-density in the relations exemplified by the role of the machine-tool principle in linking proof-of-principle experiments to the development of advanced designs of both products and productive processes.”

I don’t know what that means so he must be very smart.
That’s what I’m supposed to be thinking, right? Well, bad luck, that’s a pretty obvious attempt to bullshit-baffle your reader.

A
bit of background about the founder. Remember, John Holder said he doesn’t substantially disagree with his party on anything.

And to top it all off, check out that paedosmile!

“And while your at it stop posting your bullshit propaganda newsletters around the ANU lecture theaters..”

Yes, I second that suggestion! I rip them down as soon as I see them; they aren’t even any good for using as toilet paper.

OpenYourMind22:38 pm 09 Nov 07

These guys rock.
I love how they want education to be more ‘classical’. All this new age art, music and thinking is corrupting the children. Bring back Beethoven and Renoir.

I’m not sure their recipe of chopping down trees, building nuclear plants and despising modern art & music is going to win them a big percentage of the youth vote.

And while your at it stop posting your bullshit propaganda newsletters around the ANU lecture theaters..

Yikes. No more eeny-meeny-miny-moe for the later positions on the ballot paper.

Calling your constituents “brain dead idiots” on the front page of your website doesn’t exactly seem the way to electoral success.

The best you can say is that at least they’ve thought a bit harder about the issues than Pauline and her 2% flat tax rate. But not by much.

Any non-crackpot minor parties out there?

I knew I should have put forward a question about the Queen and the international drug trade 🙂

(Wikipedia entry on the political views of CEC foeunder, Lyndon La Rouche)

I do actually agree with the need to emphasise education, stop the brain drain, improve public transport and end privatisation of water though.

erecting a ‘firewall’…to protect against a ‘global debt meltdown’… good luck John.

I don’t believe Mr Holder or the CEC have any answers; CEC’s policies appear to be spend more money on almost everything, cut GST and forests and expose the fraudulence of climate change.

Dear John,

Thankyou for saving me evaluation time by confirming your loony status as early as question 2.

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