Ocean Island, Central Pacific, 1964. Standing on a plank stage hanging off the side of a ship with another cadet, I was unenthusiastically cleaning some rust spots whilst the ship waited to load phosphate. We were close to the surface of these clear blue waters, with two-metre reef sharks cruising below.

Bosun Jim, with a face like a robber’s dog, leaning over the side, yelled down to us. ‘What are you scabs doing? You’re breaking down conditions that’s what you’re doin’! When the Union boss finds out about you scabs, you’ll be gone!’

The ship had 81 crew and only the 2 cadets (trainee officers) could do menial/risky tasks, as the powerful Seamen’s Union of Australia (SUA) continued to make life easier and better paid for their members.

I had no idea who the Union bloke was, but according to my shipmates – seasoned able-bodied seamen (AB’s) – he was likened to a militant communist by the boys, focused on taking Australia from a capitalist system to a socialist system, where we all get paid the same, live in the same type of housing, focus on the state media, and look as unhappy as Russians with constipation. Those shipmates told me stories of union bullying and standover tactics which had been entrenched in the Union culture since the pre-war 1930s. Even as a cadet for four years, I witnessed instances of snap strikes where this ship couldn’t sail for some pitiful reason, such as ‘an inferior brand of tomato sauce’ had been supplied.

Even then the communist message didn’t dawn on me until several years later, as the duty watch-keeping officer on a coastal ship. The lookout seaman asked me, ‘Why is it sir, that you get paid more than me?’ After a minute of thought, I responded, ‘Well that’s pretty simple, I can do your job, but you can’t do mine!’

He promptly responded, ‘Well, only until the Communist Party gets elected, then we’ll all get paid the same and have job security!’ This stuck solidly in my mind and I witnessed the results of communism in Russia during Perestroika, at the end of 74 years of a stagnated economy, after the Bolsheviks had brutally imposed socialism.

In 2013 Hal Colebatch wrote an excellent book, Australia’s Secret War: How Unions Sabotaged Our Troops in World War II. Read it for yourself. It’s a shameful account that I know is true, as I sailed with guys who were there.

Here I am in 2024, still in the marine industry, having watched the SUA morph into the MUA and the 1960s coastal shipping fleet diminish from 134 ships to just 11 today. All this in a nation that has jumped in population of 11 million in the 60s, to 27 million now.

Having secured control of superannuation funds, the MUA doesn’t have to worry about diminishing membership numbers, nor greater job security, it’s all about the money, control, and their lingering passion for socialism!

Having seen ten Prime Ministers come and go since I started my small business, I can tell you that the ALP is the worst outcome for the 6 million of us working in small and family businesses. The ALP playbook is always the same, promise free stuff to be elected, then empower unions, reward laziness, penalize effort, open borders to unsuitable immigrants, drop defence spending, lower judiciary standards, cause the dollar to drop, increase tax, and generally behave like village idiots.

Only my mate Horst celebrates when the ALP is elected federally, ‘Zey are so predictably stoopid, zat immediately zey get elected, I sell everything. Two years later I buy it back at half price!’

As to the ALP’s other master puppeteer, the United Nations, close scrutiny of this unelected bunch of bureaucrats is well overdue. Their antics in creating fear and control about global warming really let the cat out of the bag. Monetising this fear was the base objective and this can only be done with control, rules, regulations, and fees. As the evidence became clear against warming, the singing continued uninterrupted under the new name ‘climate change’, with stupid disciples like Australia following the Pied Piper like a mesmerised rat, or an innocent child following bright colours. Either way, we should stop following these fools.

Covid was a classic example of controlling the masses at every level of the Australian government, with the UN urging all to follow China’s narrative. Taiwan is an island nation of the same population as Australia and we should have followed them. The small business think tank, the MTG, did put out a YouTube in early April 2020, pleading with Prime Minister Morrison not to go to Glasgow.

My own experience is limited to the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which is like a bunch of Morris Dancers on drugs. Like most bureaucracies, it involves mostly people with no industry knowledge, grand titles, and unrelated tertiary qualifications. In the last two decades, IMO’s focus has switched from Safety of Life at Sea, to an avalanche of rules needed to prevent ‘climate change’, with regulations and fees of course.

The UN delighted in the Covid event and since then have taken every opportunity to exercise control through 17 specialised agencies, demonstrating how clever they are and why we should be listening to them. Yet again climate change is the common denominator in emerging rules, why am I not surprised?

On immigration and refugee matters, the UN policies seem to overrule national priorities, same as the UN’s bombardment of WHO, UNWRA, and WEF policies, with only gullible and weak leaders such as the Australian ALP dancing gleefully to these unelected puppet masters.

So, if you are in a small or family business, or considering starting one, think about whom you should elect and who will actually help you.

After watching and listening to leaders for nearly 50 years, the only parties who consistently advocate for small business are One Nation, United Australia Party, and running third, the Coalition.

This ALP are firmly focused on a socialism outcome and have a death wish for Australia. Small business, as the nation’s biggest voting block, can put a stop to this crap.

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