Tasmanian Ferry Wealth Transfer
Bureaucrats Getting Rich On You

Here is a text book example of how the bureaucrats and their political status quo sponsors dissipate the nation’s resources to underwrite their business interests. In fact at http://governmentcrime.blogspot we call it the Aussie mandarins model.Conflict of interest? Of course not! Ethics? Of course they have their code of ethics, except there’s one code for the public and another for the mandarins. (The AWB/ wheat corruption exposes some of the extent of how far they will go and they know they are immune from any legal repercussions, because in the final analysis no one is really watching the watchers.)
The model looks complicated and the details are but the overall formula is simple enough. Insiders with unique opportunities to buy low and sell high! First as a bureaucrat identify a good cause that has good PR value for the political status quo. Then get some CBD investment banker mates to document a plan for this great nation building opportunity. The Sydney-Tasmania ferry had most of the ingredients. Then line up the construction. In this case despite the Australian ship building expertise and especially in aluminium catamarans and so on, that are being built for European markets and etc – while being subsidized by the Australian federal government- the ferries were built in Europe. This of course raises suspicions about kickbacks to Aussie mandarins and their political sponsors but kept offshore. (Which has probably happened with AWB but no one is going to look apparently.) The investment bankers make their fees after convincing everyone they have accurately forecast the feasibility of the service. (Any reasonable analysis would have identified its lack of feasibility.)The ferries started service in Australia after a $350 million plus investment by Australians in their construction, delivery etc. Surprise, surprise after about 2 years – a convenient time- the service turns out not to be economically feasible. So serious is the lack of business for the ferries that – surprise, surprise again – small bits of news start being spread around by the ever convenient Aussie media monopoly mafia that the service is not viable. (Notice how the media mafia avoids exposing any conflict etc. as they protect their political sponsors) After a reasonable period of propaganda this starts to be accepted by Australians and when there is little or no negative feedback from the majority the mandarins and their political sponsors put the ferries up for sale and given their clear lack of success they must be sold at a much lower price. Fire sale prices! The investment bankers are in there again lining up buyers (for another fee!) and the mandarins have lined up some of their mates through their combined network to buy them and operate them elsewhere for a profit. Such as the insider bureaucrats and their investment banker mates who have been running the ferry service from the beginning. As insiders they have unique information. Presto! How to get away with making $50 million plus from the nation through government ineptitude and mismanagement and no one figures it out. Of course they claim this is capitalism but being insiders with an exclusive insider’s advantage this is what they would say. Anything to sow some doubt in the minds of the majority so no one will challenge them.This is the basic model used by Aussie mandarins and their political status quo mates (either the coalition or the labor, or even combined if needed) to transfer public wealth to their coffers where it then becomes their private wealth. And by the way funds their power to remain as the political status quo etc. We have a large collection of these government crimes, scams and heists over many years and would like to publish them in detail but we need some support to make it available to the majority. For example in ICT the mandarins and their technology illiterate political sponsors have essentially sold out Australia’s ICT industry but it is a bit more complex than the ferry scam and far more fascinating for its many costs and the protection of mainly media mafia vested interests. Telstra for example continues to lose billions while the same bureaucrats responsible for these vast losses are continuing to enrich themselves. Remarkably the Telstra losses alone to the unrepresented shareholders including the 1.5 million plus who bought T2 shares at $7.40 are now around an amazing A$12 billion and rising. This does not include opportunity costs which are far larger and additional costs to small and medium business for example, which is paying an unnecessary price for it.We hope you like this brief introduction.
For a good overall solution to this government crime also consider supporting an Economic Bill of Rights. http://economicbillofrights.blogspot.com
But supporting an Economic Bill of Rights means voters probably must accept they have made a mistake in continually voting for the political status quo, which is why they become so corrupt in the first place as an entrenched vested interest. We realise it is difficult to admit to voting for them given their culture but when voters realise they have been manipulated by propaganda to do so then voters have a valid excuse and reason to support an Economic Bill of Rights, including payback. Either that or voters continue voting for corrupt parasites, which of course is the equivalent of rewarding them for their insidious culture. It isn’t logical to continue to do this! The logical thing to do therefore is to support an Economic Bill of Rights, which has the best chance of getting rid of them and their culture. ( And doing something about the rising foreign debt now at $650 billion and rising.) That’s healthy democracy at work. Perpetuating an insidious corrupt political status quo and their corrupt politicised mandarins is not a healthy democracy at work as the above example should show! Of course this is not one of those debates Australia must have because an informed Australia is the last thing the mealy-mouthed political status quo wants. It’s your choice!