Today Labor launched its policy on animal welfare, although unfortunately in the hustle and bustle of a busy election campaign, it appeared to get lost in all the noise about Mike Baird and the Liberal Party’s power privatisation plan that appears to get shadier by the minute.
The policy Labor has launched is perhaps the most comprehensive animal welfare policy that NSW, and perhaps the nation has ever seen from any of the major political parties.
The 10 point policy outline is available via the link below.
NSW Labor Animal Welfare Policy
I am sure that there will be some that will nit-pick, however no other party that I am aware of has a policy that comes close in terms of covering the major issues in this portfolio.
The policy goes into many areas such as the euthanasia of animals, a review of compliance arrangements, a toughening up of the laws around food labelling on items such as eggs and meat, increased scrutiny of abattoirs, and the much talked about summit aimed at protecting koalas. The policy also goes into the protection of marine life, and goes into the expansion of National Parks as well as the abolition of hunting in all National Parks. There is also measures to crackdown on wildlife crime, and a $4 Million package to assist voluntary carers.
Another animal welfare matter that has been in the news lately is the issue of live baiting in the greyhound racing industry. Labor’s Animal Welfare Policy not only backs the calls for an Inquiry into the industry, it will ensure that the industry does benefit from Labor’s commitment to reforming racing industry taxes, potentially costing the industry millions of dollars if it does not cease the disgraceful live baiting practice.
Labor came under the attack of some lobby groups recently for its policies that had been announced on these tax changes prior to the 4 Corners report on the industry. It is fair to say that Labor is currently the only party that has a policy in place that will impact the industry in a major way if it does fall into line with public standards.
It is clear that the pointing of fingers and shaking of heads along with the current penalties are not doing the job, and Labor should be commended for taking a real stand rather than just seeking to seize an opportunity to score cheap political points with slogans and manufactured outrage.
However the part of the policy I wanted to focus on is one that I have been involved in and that is the policy surrounding the disgraceful puppy farms that many of my readers would unfortunately be all too familiar with.
I have to say that when I approached NSW Labor leader Luke Foley regarding puppy farming and the possibility of Labor having a policy on the matter not long after he became leader I was personally impressed with his enthusiastic response. It was clear from the way his face lit up that this was something he was passionate about and it was something he saw the Labor Party leading the way in.
This issue was not something that Foley was content to release a blanket statement and slogan on and refer to that as policy. This had to be looked at in-depth.
There had to be many aspects covered such as what actually constitutes a puppy farm. There are issues such as how many breeding dogs can be kept on a property, how many litters per bitch, and the issue of selling animals in pet shops.
Luke Foley and Labor have come to the position that there be a maximum of 10 breeding dogs per property, and bitches be only subject to five litters in her lifetime. There has also been the decision to phase out the sale of puppies in pet stores. Currently the vast majority of pet stores do not carry live animals as stock at any rate, so the impact on the public and the price of pets will be insignificant, however the impact on puppy farmers will be catastrophic to their business model.
The position that Luke Foley and Labor have taken has not come from thin air and the need to rush out a policy. This policy has come from lengthy consultation with those in the pet industry, animal activism organisations, the RSPCA and other stakeholders.
Luke Foley – Progressive polices
Image – Fairfax
One stakeholder in particular however has been instrumental in the policies creation and also the creation of a similar policy for Victoria Labor which is already having a major impact on the puppy farm industry, which I should also point out operates outside the law and therefore pays no tax.
That stakeholder is Deborah Tranter of Oscars Law.
Deborah Tranter is arguably the country’s leading authority when it comes to this despicable trade in animal misery and mistreatment.
Deborah had this to say on the Labor Party policy;
“Today’s policy announcement from Labor is testament to the hard work of our supporters and their campaigning that has raised awareness, lobbied and effectively pushed this issue onto the political agenda. At times it feels like we are definitely the underdog, with very little money, and no paid staff. But what we do have are an amazing volunteer team and incredible dedicated supporters who have stood by us every step of the way
This policy will turn pet shops into adoption centres and rescue pets will now have much more exposure increasing their chances of finding a home. This effectively takes away one market of the puppy farmers. The 10 dog limit also takes away the financial viability and will help shut down many of the terrible puppy factories we have uncovered in NSW. I am so pleased animals are well and truly on the political agenda in NSW.”
Deborah worked tirelessly in her assistance with Jaala Pulford in putting the Victorian Labor policy together, and that policy has been the framework for the NSW policy that has been released today along with other animal welfare policies. Deborah made herself available to Luke Foley’s office for guidance and advice 24/7 during the policies creation.
Even more impressive is as this policy was being created Deborah was herself heavily involved in the investigation and exposure of some truly awful puppy farms in Northern NSW, much of the work being done throughout the night.
The unstoppable Deborah Tranter
While I’m sure Deborah loves her work, it is something she would be thrilled to see come to an end if it means the puppy farm trade is shut down once and for all.
It is the hard work of people like Deborah and the policies of progressive political parties like the Labor Party that may see this finally occur.
If you are one of those who would like to see the end of puppy farming there are two things you can do.
Firstly support Oscars Law, they are an organisation that does truly amazing work on a shoestring budget which is only possible through the generosity of a fantastic group of dedicated volunteers.
Secondly on March 28th ensure you vote for the Labor Party, there is no other way to ensure the demise of this evil trade.
Now I understand that some of those reading this may be voting independent or for The Greens, however I cannot stress enough how imperative it is that you do not just vote 1 and exhaust your preferences. With an election this close we need to ensure that we have government who cares rather than cuts, and for that reason we need to ensure every vote counts, so I cannot stress enough that you at least number Labor 2, as to not preference Labor is only helping Mike Baird and his right-wing agenda.
I would like to congratulate Deborah Tranter and the whole team at Oscars Law for pushing so hard on this issue, and take my hat off to Luke Foley and his team for putting together such a comprehensive policy.
This election voters have a clear choice, progressive policies or privatisation.
Save Wixxy from his own budget crisis by donating here
Like Wixxyleaks on Facebook here
Follow @madwixxy
Thank you for this wonderful article, Peter.
Having met Luke Foley & spoken with him (& what a great memory for names he has) I am impressed with his sincerity & passion for the environment as well as for the people of NSW. Their quality of life is in the forefront of his thinking. You have rightly pointed out how every policy NSW Labor presents is fully thought out & costed right down to the nuts & bolts of implementation. This something the Liberals neglect to do.
Everything NSW Labor announces is either ignored by the MSM or only briefly mentioned.
We are working hard in Clarence to help our superior candidate win but the welded-on National voters are incredibly stupid. They will elect a telegraph pole with a Nationals’ poster on it. Grrr
Great! Something really positive for a change 🙂
Thanks
LUKE FOLEY – ANDREW CONSTANCE NO FRIENDS OF LABOUR
TRAVIS KALANICK – CHIEF OF UBER
HE WOULD NOT PASS A PROBITY CHECK TO RUN A BROTHEL
PRIVATISE THE BUSES
MAKE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME
GIVE THE THE POLES AND WIRES TO SINGAPORE AIRLINES
GIVE THE TRAINS TO AMTRACK
GIVE THE TAXIS AS A FREEBIE TO GENERAL MOTORS HOLDEN
GIVE THE OPERA HOUSE TO KIM JONG-UN
MAKE EVERYONE A CASUAL WORKER IN NSW
12 TAXI DRIVERS KILL THEMSELVES IN IRELAND EACH YEAR SINCE TOTAL DEREGULATION
THE CELTIC TIGER WAS A FAILURE
THIS IS NOT AMAZON.com but complete GREED AND BARBARISM
The New South Wales opposition has called for Uber to be legalised, supporting regulation of the ride-sharing app and Airbnb.
The NSW opposition leader, Luke Foley, used his budget reply speech to announce he would be introducing a private member’s bill to legalise and regulate Uber.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/25/labors-luke-foley-calls-for-uber-and-airbnb-to-be-regulated-in-nsw
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Travis Kalanick-CHIEF OF UBER
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Kalanick
HE WOULD NOT PASS A PROBITY CHECK TO RUN A BROTHEL
TRAVIS KALANICK – HIS CAREER
From Wikepedia
01-SCOUR
In 1998, Travis Kalanick dropped out of UCLA with some of his classmates to found Scour Inc., a multimedia search engine, and Scour Exchange, a Peer-to-peer file sharing
service.In 2000, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) brought
a lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. In September of that year Scour filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from the lawsuit.
02-RED SWOOSH
In 2001, with Scour’s engineering team, Kalanick started a new company called Red Swoosh, another peer-to-peer file-sharing company. Red Swoosh software took advantage of
increased bandwidth efficiency on the Internet to allow users to transfer and trade large media files, including music files and videos. In 2007, Akamai Technologies acquired
the company for $19 million
03-UBER
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SIR ROBERT ASKIN HAD NOTHING ON THESE PEOPLE
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? – BILDERBERG GROUP
Peter Andreas Thiel (born October 11, 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, hedge fund manager, and social critic. Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Elon Musk (see PayPal Mafia) and served as its CEO. He also co-founded Palantir, of which he is chairman. He was the first outside investor in Facebook, the popular social-networking site, with a 10.2% stake acquired in 2004 for $500,000, and sits on the company’s board of directors.
Thiel serves as president of Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund with $700 million in assets under management; a managing partner in Founders Fund, a venture capital fund with $2 billion in assets under management; co-founder and investment committee chair of Mithril Capital Management; and co-founder and chairman of Valar Ventures.
Thiel was ranked 293 on the Forbes 400 in 2011, with a net worth of $1.5 billion as of March 2012. He was ranked on the Forbes Midas List of 2014 at $2.2 billion.Thiel lives in San Francisco.
Bilderberg Group
Thiel is listed as a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, a private, annual gathering of intellectual figures, political leaders and business executives
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PAYPAL TAXIS NSW
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/25/labors-luke-foley-calls-for-uber-and-airbnb-to-be-regulated-in-nsw
What It Takes to Replicate the PAYPAL MAFIA’s Success
Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Max Levchin are among the big-name PayPal alum who went on to have their hand in creating billion-dollar tech startups. Learn what it is that these men have in common.
By Thompson Wall
Web producer, Inc.@thompson_wall
When eBay buys your company for $1.5 billion, you might consider spending the rest of your days sipping cocktails on the beaches of Silicon Valley (or just go ahead and buy the beaches themselves). But that’s not what these seven former PayPal colleagues did. Instead, the so-called PayPal Mafia went on to invest in so many of the same wildly successful private tech startups that The New York Times had to map it out.
Take a look at the billion-dollar boys club below:
Peter Thiel, one of PayPal’s co-founders and the company’s former chief executive, has invested in four of the most valuable tech companies in Silicon Valley: Airbnb (valued at $40 billion), Palantir ($15 billion), SpaceX ($12 billion), and Stripe ($3.5 billion). Thiel was also one of the earliest investors in Facebook
+++++++++++
Jeremy Stoppelman, PayPal’s former vice president for engineering, similarly invested in Airbnb and Palantir as well as Square, Uber, and Pinterest.
+++++++++++++++++
Keith Rabois, PayPal’s former head of business development and current partner at Khosla Ventures, previously held executive roles at LinkedIn and Square and now holds shares in Airbnb, Stripe, and Palantir.
++++++++++++
Elon Musk, who co-founded the company that became PayPal, went on to launch SpaceX (now worth $12 billion) and Tesla (worth $23 billion). Oh, and he also invested in Stripe.
+++++++++
Scott Banister, a former PayPal board member, co-founded email service IronPort, which sold to Cisco in 2007 for $830 million. Banister has also invested in Uber and SpaceX.
++++++++++++++
Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder and its former chief technology officer, sold social gaming company Slide to Google in 2010 for $182 million and recently started online payments company Affirm. Levchin also has stakes in Pinterest and Stripe.
++++++++++++
Roelof Botha, former PayPal head of business development and current partner at Sequoia Capital, has investments in Square.
++++++++++++
The undeniable presence of former PayPal executives within Silicon Valley’s tech landscape goes even deeper than just the big seven. LinkedIn, now worth $31 billion, was co-founded by former PayPal chief operating officer Reid Hoffman. Stoppelman and lead software architect Russell Simmons co-founded Yelp, worth $3.51 billion. In 2006, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim–all PayPal alum–founded YouTube, which was acquired by Google for $1.6 billion. So how is it that one dot-com-era company continues to churn out billion-dollar success stories?
One part of the equation is that “success begets success,” the Times notes.
“There’s a network effect to these things,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman tells the Times. “If you have a name that’s associated with success, people will seek you out. Why do smart people go to Harvard? Because previous smart people went to Harvard.”
The second part of the equation is slightly more feasible for most entrepreneurs but nonetheless vital for setting up your business for industry domination at the get-go. In his book Zero to One, Thiel identifies seven questions that every business must answer if it hopes to reach the same level of success as PayPal:
MORE:
7 Startups That Want to Change the Way You Vacation
8 Books Warren Buffett Tells Millionaires to Read
The Future of Work
17 Simple Habits That Will Make You Look More Professional
25 Super-Successful Leaders Give Their Best Career Advice for Millennials
The Engineering Question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
The Timing Question: Is now the right time to start your particular business?
The Monopoly Question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
The People Question: Do you have the right team?
The Distribution Question: Do you have a way to not just create but to also deliver your product?
The Durability Question: Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
The Secret Question: Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
Check out an Inc.com article by Bill Carmody, founder and CEO of marketing services provider Trepoint, to learn how to ace each of these seven steps.
THIS IS NOT AMAZON.com but COMPLETE GREED AND BARBARISM