Sorry but wilagro is right

[malleefarmer]

Been through all the stuff thats happening with CWB in aust votes polls etc and had a few and every vote pro choice numbers got more and more until eventually we got change.

But i couldnt beleive the apathy of you guys in not voting saying it was rigged blah blah,i know i will get flamed here for my comments.

You all know im pro choice,if ive lost a few friends so be it.

If you all voted the barley nubers would have tipped the scales and wheat would have looked far different and you guys are a bit niave thinking the govt may not do a backflip and cwb have a few more tricks yet,you think they would give up that easy.

Youve started the long road to change your first year it took us 8 yrs and youve slowed the process by not voting.

Im not going to be game to log on and check this thread.......

[BreadWinner]

Freedom is a long hard battle that we will keep
fighting for and will eventually win. It will happen
next august believe it.

[charliep]

Will leave the survey alone.

Perhaps jealous that Australia has dealt with this issue and moved on. The process in your neck of woods was a lot slower and less revolutionary (well maybe not - you were there). Changes around the domestic processing industry (flour millers) and container lot sizes. Australia has also been able to deal with a lot of research and development issues through GRDC - a fight that is still going on here. Maybe the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence but sure looks good from here.

We do have models of commodity organizations that work. Canola Council of Canada. Pulse Canada. No surveys/plebecites. Just people in the supply chain who recognized a job that needed to done and went about business of doing the rights to get things done.

[Braveheart]

Canada is NOT Aus. Did the AWB keep farmers in New South Wales captive and not apply to farmers in Queensland? Does Australia have a horde of dingbat left wingers that care more about a socialist ideal than farmers themselves? Was the AWB brought in to supply cheap wheat to help Britain during and just after WW2? Did this true story on the creation of a wheat board somehow get bastardized into "farmers fighting in the street" for a wheat board. Did dead people, absentee landlords, old retired farmers that haven't farmed for years vote in your polls? (I have proof this happens here). Did AWB use its' farmers' money to hold illegitimate votes that aren't official in any way?

As has been stated before on this forum this is business, not politics!
Voting to see if my rights (as pertains to my property and business)are trampled should NEVER be tolerated!

[FarmRanger]

Mallee,
If the "plebiscite" had been set up in a fair way
(include all affected farmers) with a reasonable %  
of actual production having to be in favour before
any forced participation being invoked (75%?),
then I would have sent in my ballot.

As it stands, more ballots than farmers were sent
out, and yet many farmers who've quit growing
board grains were excluded.  My neighbour is 4
section actual farmer who never got a ballot for
wheat or barley because he refuses to grow
anything that the CWB has the ability to
expropriate.  How many others didn't get a barley
vote because they grow feed barley to avoid the
single desk, or had quality issues in the last 2
years?  These farmers were purposely excluded
from the plebiscite.   

This vote was rigged as much as they could
possibly rig it, and they still barely had a simple
majority, and nowhere near the degree of
majority required to justify trampling property
rights of western Canadian grain farmers.

I wouldn't participate in a totalitarian government
vote to decide which minority group to persecute
first and I refuse to participate in this purposely
deeply flawed, rigged voters list plebiscite.  My
ballot went to the Ag Minister with the request to
ignore the results and do what is right.  I make
no apologies for that.

[malleefarmer]

Did dead people, absentee landlords, old retired farmers that haven't farmed for years vote in your polls? (I have proof this happens here). Did AWB use its' farmers' money to hold illegitimate votes that aren't official in any way?
Spme of this supposedly did happen but the movers and the shakers for change all through the process urged farmers to vote no matter what and we did,even we the result was skewed until eventually the voice for change was that damning changed happened particularly with barley and the iraq scandle helped with awb change.

Never ever take anything for granted in this fight,we have organization called the accc, which is
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which time and time again during lobbying promised us change but reality they were a toothless tiger and did nothing we built our hopes up so many times.

think ive made my point and sure im not there but outside looking in its my opinion and thats what this site is about.

ps crops in australia basically are average to above and thats all over some dry spots but were at the bussiness end now a few more timely rains its almost in the bin.

tom will probably put me on a list woth burbert and bto and i-f after reading this sorry tom......

[Braveheart]

Mallee, I never take anything for granted, and never underestimate my opponent. But this board of directors is not acting prudently or with respect. To participate in THEIR illegitimate poll is not something I am interested in doing.

[malleefarmer]

ok points taken i admit fault.

i just hate farmer apathy but reading the above and below im wrong.

but had a good friend involved with the voting of change here and was in the single desk camp and was a employee of a single desk company,and now works for a multi national company but has told me time and tie again years after the event none of the votes were rigged and nothing untoward happened with counts and i have no need to disbelieve him.

Guess ive got a trusting nature and accepted your plebicite on face value.

[cottonpicken]

No,you are dead right on apathy.

[TOM4CWB]

Mallee,

Had the CWB special 8 'single desk' directors had an ounce of INTEGRETY in what they were doing... I and our family would have voted.

The CWB refuses to clean up the voters list. The CWB refuses to ask the market choice question... It is our responsibility to live with a weakened CWB... if that was what we voted for.

Then there is the issue of marketing board confiscation. Your growers were allowed to export by container... we are NOT. Nor by truck.

As I stated earlier 75 percent in favour is required in Quebec and Ontario to have a marketing board installed. When Quebec put in their maple sugar marketing board... growers with retail sales were encouraged to continue developing the profitable markets... OUTSIDE the marketing board.

The CWB simply does not get it.

In 1973 there was a vote on Canola.

60 percent of growers had to vote in favour of putting Canola under the CWB... for it to be placed under the single desk.

It is generally understood that a 'supermajority' is required to confiscate personal private property.

None of these issues were resolved. A fair vote was NOT possible and a vote was not sanctioned by the Minister of the CWB ... if we were actually required to have one.

What Highwayman said is repulsive... but reflective of how many grain growers feel:

"Willy, if you received a ballot to vote on whether you should be able to have 1 night a week with your neighbors teenage daughter, would you send in your ballot or would you find the whole process insulting and ridiculous and a complete waste of time then toss the ballot in the garbage where it belongs."

Willy is wrong. The CWB wasted a million dollars. I am surprised that the barley vote was 50/50... I am totally insulted our farm was not sent a ballot on Barley.

Mallee... discussion is great... and thanks for helping us better communicate just how offensive and unjust our system really is!

Cheers!!!

[craig]

Mallee. When no one has access to the voter's list but
the CWB you have to be concerned. When ballots
mailed do not match permit book holders you need to
be concerned. To have an organization whose very
existence hangs in the balance having full control over
the process can only be a recipe for anything but
democratic process. The CWB has always been about
perception and not reality. The day farmers and only
farmers are voting on policy is the day they might get
my respect.

[riders2010]

Some may be that the guys knew the vote would not go their way so let's say we sent our ballots to the minister, that way when we loose we'll say that is why.

For others it was just stupidity at the highest level if they did send the ballot to Gerry, because look at how close it was if our side had won this thing would be over. But as Mallee said this is now long from over, Just heard on the radio the reporter basically saying the minister is going against democracy. This isn't about democracy deciding this, this is about individual rights, but our minister though right on the issue is right out to lunch on how it is being handled. If this keeps on being pissed around with the other side is gonna tie this up longer than some of you think. Score the first round to the supporters. Totally pissed!!!!

[begood]

Excellent point about a voters list, craig. I don't recall hearing that point made before; but I beat you by a few minutes under a different topic.


posted Sep 12, 2011 21:31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With a voters list, one could have pointed out that the ballots exceeded those entitled to vote. One could point out that deceased persons should be ineligible, duplicates should be cancelled, and other examples of how the list appearseddeliberately skewed.
But such a tactic of a lack of a public voters list is exactly in line with the way the CWB operates. Its also why I want no part of a compulsary organization with such ideas how democracy should work.


.

[begood]

First you have to correctly determine where the stupidly resides. Thats difficult when stupidity comes from every corner and direction....... Then you can count on even simple issues to be misunderstood and being made complicated by deliberate confusion so that a majority of those who participate cast their ballots based on what is best for themselves and creates most havoc for everyone else.
When was the last time that voters looked at basic principles which might move the farming industry forward; instead of fighting to preserve entitlements which have created our present situation. As Tom might say "God help us if the CWB is the only savior for Western Canadian farming"
More than 'nuff said.

[Happytrails]

Appearances can be deceiving. Mallee your comments caused me to look up my last CWB book. It was 2002-03. I still have the land but of course I didn't get a ballot for this show vote. If it meant something that would smart. Luckily it doesn't. HT