Socialism is driving us back in time

Steve Bracks plans to usher in a new era in Victoria where stores will no longer be allowed to offer free plastic bags to customers.
Brookesnews summarises my thoughts exactly:

Here is an issue that the state Liberal Party should get stuck into. Environment Minister John Thwaites is calling for a ban on plastic bags if retailers do not reduce their use. This is another example of ALP stupidity and ignorance. Retailers do not use plastic bags — their customers do. So what kommissar Thwaites is really attacking is consumer preferences. If those pesky consumers do not behave the way they should, so much for them!

That consumers might be right about the use of plastic bags is too painful a thought for the self-righteous Thwaites to consider. In his mindset only lefty politicians and their apparatchiks really know what is good for consumers. (And I bet you thought Soviet-style thinking died with the Soviet Union).

In other totalitarian moves, Bracks plans to make electricity and water even more scarce for Victorians with his moves to regulate the energy sector, and ban the construction of all new dams. We are heading for some dark times in Victoria. Ever since Bracks took power, he changed our slogan (which appears on license plates) from "On the Move" to "The Place to Be". Well we are no longer on the move, we are moving back in time and our standards of living will take a big hit.

Central planning has murdered scores of millions in the last century. It has impoverished the masses. But hey, it makes our central planners feel good about themselves and show the people they are "doing something".