The title of this blog, “Let them eat cake”, is a quote attributed to French Queen Consort, Marie Antoinette who lost favour with the French public with extravagant displays at a time of severe hardship. Misreading the public mood when support for the monarchy depended on them, brought on the French Revolution and cost her head in 1793.

While Australians have never resorted to the guillotine for elite arrogance, ignorance and inconsideration of human struggles, they have been known to protest disruptively. Irish political convicts protested over-authoritarianism of British protestant military administration, erupting into riots such as Vinegar Hill (1804) and Eureka Stockade (1854). The shearers’ strike (1891) established power of unions and Catholic schools protest in Bathurst (1955) asserted the right of Catholics to educational funding from the tax pool to which they also contributed. Many rioted over Premier Daniel Andrews overreach, violent police controls and extortionate penalties during the world’s longest COVID lockdowns in Victoria.

Today many of us are struggling to meet the increasing cost of energy, mortgages, inflated prices for food and fuel. At the same time, we are subject to ever increasing intrusion into choices in our lives: what we eat, drink, what type of housing and where, no gas stoves, pressure for solar power and electric cars, control over children, their education and gender, what we say, think and practice faith.

Being told what to do suits some people: it means they don’t have to think too much and can exercise conspicuous virtue lording it over the rest of us. In doing so they fail to mature, fail to use their gifted intelligence for society’s betterment, at the same time as clouding the “light” of others.

In each of my blogs, as a policy tragic I try to link the impact of policies with what happens in our daily lives, as a service to those without the time or interest to do so. Until, of course, they come under pressure of hardship, like now, resulting from elite policies.

Let’s look at why people can’t pay their power bill, have to sell their house because they can no longer afford increased mortgage rates, and have difficulty feeding the family. Shamefully, many of the policies are founded on the sand of lies, poor basis for building a secure, flourishing nation.

Energy bills

The poor pay many times over for switching on their TV, cooking a meal, cooling/heating their home: in energy consumed; subsidies to suppliers; construction of additional transmission grid; and ultimately, for disposable of ‘unrenewables’ yet to be dealt with.

High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
‘Net Zero’ to address global warming, driven by the UN and WEF, populated by elites	Save the planet Phase out coal and gas for “cheaper” renewables, and cars for electric	Elite get rich on subsidies Poor can’t afford to pay their energy bills. Small business closures, job losses, Transport costs increase, inflation rises, Energy supply becomes unreliable, patchy, pushing up prices Landscape ecology destroyed by wind and solar farms affecting food production and environment. Coal and gas, major export earners, demonized. Poor to pay additional costs for new transmission grid and yet to be resolved, waste management of ‘unrenewables’.	Stop believing the unproven ‘carbon’ cult fantasy. Newer gods can’t change the climate or part the Red Sea. Back coal, gas and nuclear energy, which are cheaper and less harmful. Vote accordingly.
Housing Buying your own home used to be a reasonable expectation, made affordable by considerate governments who understood the financial and social benefits of home ownership and produced policies to strengthen that knowledge. By contrast, today’s government, populated by elite politicians with multiple homes of their own, appears hopeless in empathizing with half the population who have no home and little likelihood of getting one. Social housing as a solution, centralizes housing policy to control the people.
High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
No coherent policy to manage housing, population and immigration other than to avoid recession	1.5 million new immigrants planned; 464K already this year Social housing scheme planned will be mugged by reality of supply issues.	Pressure on housing supply; increased housing prices to unaffordable; people living in cars and tents; builders going broke. Supply failures: State government release of land, local government slow approvals; not enough tradies; increasing costs of construction materials. Per capita recession already happening.	Coordinate between local, state and federal governments on population, immigration, housing and essential infrastructure. Apply cost penalties for slow LG approvals, to be paid to developer. Speed housing development design with appropriate infrastructure
Fuel prices Inflated petrol prices for our cars are yet another function of high level policy, part of the “Net Zero” global fantasy, pushing electric vehicles, another unrenewable.
High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
Net Zero policy of Australian government, UN, WEF	Remove all petrol and diesel cars from operation. Make all on/off road vehicles electric. Prevent exploration of minerals	Inflation increases as costs rise on everything transported. Price of fuel rises, putting pressure on budgets Elites become incredibly wealthy from government subsidies paid for by the poor. Additional infrastructure necessary to service electric vehicles, at cost to the poor. Pressure on electricity supply derived from unreliable renewables leads to blackouts (see California experience)	Stop believing the carbon cult fantasy. Plant trees. Protest policy stupidity that hurts the poor, enriches the elite and renders our national security vulnerable.

What we are facing is a distinct trend towards socialism with central control basic to Labor ideology, anchored in the belief government knows what is best for us. Large and expanding government bureaucracies seek to influence every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave, exercising authority and administering harsh punishment for non-compliance. The Palaszczuk government has added 50,000 more bureaucrats with no appreciable improvement in services. Big corporate and technology firms have been enlisted to collaborate with government. Corporate compliance is deemed essential, as favour is critical to winning work from government. Failed Marxist, Socialist and Fascist dictatorships are mere expansion of this model.

Conservative belief holds the individual, family and small business central. Freedom of speech, faith, thought and initiative are core values. People should be free to choose how and where to work, build businesses and homes, how to manage their food, families and body. Out of such dynamism and individual responsibility innovation and progress occur.

Australia’s “mixed” government model is a function of the size of the country to be serviced and the constrained finances of Britain at the time of colonization. Government needed to take over delivery of services such as roads, railways, water and communications, as private capital was constrained after the war of independence with the US. Extensive social services which evolved to support those  experiencing hard times, seemed to grow organically out of Indigenous “confidence in the hunt” – that there will be enough for everyone.

Families have their backs to the wall trying to manage the confluence of so many kitchen table issues, every one of which has its origins in bad government policy, taking a lead from bad international policy agreements, without responsibility. For instance, John Kerry, Biden’s “Climate Tzar”, has become a billionaire cruising the world in his private jet, even as none of his predictions over a couple of decades has been met.

Those less well-off have reached a turning point, having been crushed under the weight of stupidity and lies. Time to revolt in whatever way possible. At least support those who do protest. Demand that Australians be freed to explore, exploit and develop our god given natural resources to our own benefit, instead of the craven elite. We don’t want cake. We want wholesome food produced on our efficient farms, not plundered by green gods for solar, wind and transmission lines. For that we will have to become revolting.