LIGHTING THE WAY: The South Australian Law That Powers The Nation

Energy isn't mentioned  in the Australian Constitution, yet Australia has a national electricity market with national rules and national regulators. The secret is in one state taking the lead, the others mirror its legislation, all of which include a clause to give the Commonwealth power over power and energy. In the case of energy, South Australia is lighting the way.

A conversation with Mike Holt.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

You're listening to the Cheryl Lacey show where curiosity meets courage, and I don't know about you, I'm not sure what your earlier memories are, but I'm thinking about things like when we think about energy, and that's a big issue in Australia at the moment and particularly also around the world, I'm thinking briquettes, briquette heaters, I'm thinking open fireplaces, I'm thinking electric blankets, and I grew up in in a Melbourne with an outhouse, so I remember the freezing cold and running back inside to enjoy those simple things, if you could call them simple, the brickette heater and the open fireplace. Mike Holt is with us to discuss energy and we are a long way from those realities that or that reality that we had in the past where we relied on those natural resources and we are playing a very dangerous game with energy. Mike, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Thank you. And uh very interesting discussions this morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

They have been, haven't they? Mike, uh you're a l if I could be so bold as to say you're a little bit older than me, and you know you did have many years overseas, so you may not have dealt with the cold weather as I did as a child. But it seems Oh no, I did. You did? So did you do you remember the briquette heaters?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

I do. I lived in in um Victoria in the sixties when I went joined the Air Force. I was at Laverton Air Force Base there. And I remember the the definitive smell of of briquette fires everywhere. And of course the smog that came with that too. Let's not forget that.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

No, that's true, that's true. And when we talk about climate, sometimes I think we're really talking about pollution, but that's another conversation. We have a real problem with energy here and i let's focus on Australia at the moment. And we have our Prime Minister running around Asia gathering and collecting promises from these countries uh to buy back the resources that we've sold to them in the first place. I I'm really at a loss as to what he's up to and what's really going on behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

I don't think he knows what he's doing either.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

It seems that way, doesn't it? But uh what we've really got is and what we're going to get into a little bit deeper. We are hearing about the energy issues at a superficial level, but it goes a lot deeper, doesn't it, Mike? We know that the conversations you and I have been having with regard to the constitution and who's running the country and who's running states, etc. Energy is a very, very good topic for people to learn about what's really happening uh with regard to who makes the decisions here.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Hmm. And uh I think it all really comes back to personal responsibility too, because a lot of people, as you've just discovered in your talks this morning, a lot of people are quite willing to uh abdicate their responsibility and hand it over to the government. You always hear why doesn't the government do something? Well they have. They have screwed our country.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Well, they have indeed. And what's really sad, and I will go back to Sam Belfield, my first guest this morning, terrific guy, and I can understand his admiration of, for example, John U John Anderson, the way John Anderson is sharing all of this, you know, responsible citizenship and and kumbayar, as I said earlier on. We cannot forget though that in the Howard government globalisation was exactly the direction they were headed in. And and now we're expected to listen to the people that destroyed our country to be the saviours.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah. Oh yeah, create the problem and then offer the solution. It's it's a standard government and uh control mechanism uh that they use all the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Now, just on that, in terms of control mechanisms, something that you and I were sort looking at together before we agreed on this particular topic today, and that is the way in which the states create legislation. So you talk about here's a problem, we have a solution. The states create a law that then all other states agree to that then enables the federal government to act on a topic or an issue that is not in our constitution. Energy is one of them. So because we don't have energy in the constitution, that goes back to the states, but for total control, the states agree so that the feds can look like they're making decisions. Is that sort of how it works?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I think that puts it perfectly, yeah. And the the problem is, you see, our constitution is outdated. It it hasn't been amended properly. We've we've had forty-four questions put to us for a referendum. Guess how many have been approved by the people?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Tell me, nine? How many? Eight. Eight, I was there. Go, I said nine, I thought it was nine, it's eight. Look, you're right, and let's let's that's a whole conversation about the amendments to the constitution, but let's stay with energy and power. So we've got the two hand in hand. We have energy being the source that we require for life, but then we have the power over that energy by government. And if we have in this instance, my understanding is that South Australia is the lead legislator for energy in the country. So other states have said, all right, well, we like your legislation, we'll follow that as well. And collectively the states have said, well, okay, that then will put a clause in there that gives the feds some sort of say in what we're doing, but we're really in control.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

You know, I think this really people need to understand where this is all coming from, because in 19, I think it was 1998 or 99, Kevin Rudd conspired, uh forget the other chap's name, but he conspired to amend the law and he created a thing called the Reprints Act. Now, if you don't know what that is, I suggest you look it up, because this is where they gave uh the federal government gave permission for the government to make up the laws anytime they like. In other words, what they've been doing is they've been taking the laws and amending them and then copywriting them to the private corporation that is uh that governs the government, and they also put a uh a disclaimer at the bottom for education purposes only. Now, if you go onto the Australian uh website uh where the government publishes all its uh legislative acts, uh uh it's called OSLE, A-U-S-T-L-I-I. And then you look up the Reprints Act, and then you look up any acts that have been amended since uh 19 well say 2000, uh, you'll see this message on the bottom of the act. Why would a government have to copyright a law and then then tell us that we are bound to that law when it's not a law?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

So hang on, so you've got you've got a copyright on an act of parliament, and then you mentioned also that there's something that says for educational purposes only. Can you just backtrack and say that again?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Well, actually you can go onto my website, CIRNow.net, and up near the top of the the first page you'll see there criminals in government. Go and watch the video on that page because that explains what Rudd did.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

And uh Was this under Goss?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Sorry?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Was this with Goss in Queensland?

unknown 8:06

No?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

No, this was after Goss.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

After after Hawke, too. Uh basically what they were trying to do there is to give the government carte blanche power to make up any laws they want. And that's why you see the government changing the the goalposts uh all the time. Now this comes back to energy in that they've made some very stupid decisions. First of all, phasing out coal because uh of some ideological bullshit, excuse my French, uh, about the terrible effects of coal. Well, that's absolute rubbish. China uh and India both are building coal-fired uh electricity generating plants like crazy. I think India is in the process of building 800 new coal-fired uh fired um electricity generators. Now, here in Australia, my group is not sitting on its hands. We've actually had one of our members go over overseas just recently and he's bought um equipment to start manufacturing diesel. So we're we're trying to provide a new infrastructure that people can use rather than just relying on the government. And this will be totally private, and uh we we won't be charging a a mint for this stuff. So we're also looking at um not only uh uh electricity or sorry, fuel generation, but also communications. I um I'm in the middle right now of setting up a meshastic sorry, meshastic um repeater station uh west of the the Sunshine Coast, which will then plug us into a national uh grid of uh radio controlled communication rather than the government system. So, you know, it's it's a messaging system, but it's it's secure. And so all we need is somewhere, say, up in um Montville, where I can put the repeater station that will gather all the all the signals from the Sunshine Coast up and down the coast for 250 kilometers, and people will be able to use their mobile phones to send mess uh encrypted messages to each other. So, you know, power is what's behind all of this.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yes, it uh and power it is. So we keep every week discussing the need for citizens to be more responsible. We started our show this morning with responsible citizenship. And as you've mentioned, Mike, we've continued to hear conversations where that is being taken away or we're relinquishing it. So it's a combination of the two. We can say that government is at fault, but we also have to take responsibility and make sure that we start to continue these conversations. So just as we wrap up this conversation back to energy and the whole notion of state and federal, uh you're you've highlighted very much this act of Parliament, the Rewrite Act. So essentially what you're saying is is that our laws are for sale and they are essentially purchased by people who want to use them to to their advantage against the Australian people.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, and actually it's the Reprints Act.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Reprints, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

That's your absolutely right. And and of course the government has actively encouraged people to re relinquish responsibility and instead rely on the government for the answers. Well, that hasn't worked out too well, has it?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

No, it hasn't. So in terms of the energy crisis that we have and knowing that South Australia is the lead legislator for the nation, it sort of goes to the COAG and and the National Cabinet that we've spoken of before. Back at In Victoria it was the lead for COVID, as they are, they call themselves the education state. So more on that next time. We need to start asking questions. Do we start with South Australia, who is the lead legislator in energy?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Uh I can't really answer that because it's up to us to make these decisions, and we can't rely on the government to make ri good decisions anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

No, that's my point. What I'm saying is, is should the South Australian people be the ones to drive this because they're the only ones that can vote at the state level, and that's just happened. So can we can we force more conversation in that direction?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Well, hopefully we can, and we can get people to start thinking uh logically and you know with integrity. That's the big problem that we face now. Most Australians um have uh don't realise that we've lost our integrity.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Indeed we have, and uh for many of us we have, and and for many of us we're desperate to get it back and uphold that integrity. So, Mike, short conversation today, but a very powerful one. And please go to Mike's website, CIR.net, to look for more information to start these conversations, particularly about energy, because it is our lifeblood. Thanks for being on the show. Let's have a longer conversation next week.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

CIRNow.net, please.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

CIR Now.net. Thanks, Mike. Okay. Speak next week.