John McRae

| MD @ VADR |
| CML | Promoter 25+ yrs
| PPV to Web3
| Freedom, merit & evidence over ideology ✌️

[John McRae @johnvadr]

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

[John McRae @johnvadr]

Blaming power bills on Liddell is a corporate smoke screen. You can draw a straight line from the 2010s LNG export boom to today's inflation because foreign gas giants extract our resources for free and ship them to Japan, leaving Aussie factories and families to pay triple. By fighting export profit taxes and offering taxpayer cash for corporate drilling, you are shielding the very cartel that hollowed out our local manufacturing.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@bobjcarr Stephen Walt. Captures the nature of the beast and return to spheres of influence.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

As Plato and Aristotle warned, letting concentrated wealth capture all public information shifts a democracy toward oligarchy. This is the exact playbook authoritarians use to kill a plurality of voices. First, they defund public options like PBS, then they weaponize regulatory bodies to threaten the broadcast licenses of critical commercial networks.Protecting the ABC isn't about agreeing with every viewpoint it broadcasts; it is about recognizing that a healthy democracy fundamentally requires a universal town square for everyone.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@godofprompt I've used this approach for a while. It's how Rockerfella used to run his meetings. Applied it after listening to a founders podcast.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@LowyInstitute @mfullilove @darrenpjones Just watched your 2014 session with Malcolm Fraser on Youtube. The future he predicted is now playing out. It's also in the Naval War College papers when you read them.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@RobertSmithIX @SaiKate108 I have no issue with oil. Always thought NZ shoul claim and explore the New Zealandia shelf. Finite resource, so also fully support sustainable sources.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

Australia should have a cost-plus model on LNG with an SOE approach to GTL conversion. Australians are paying the price of politicians who consistently subordinate national interest to US strategic alignment.. closing refineries, gifting LNG without domestic reservation, signing AUKUS without a fuel security mandate. Stephen Miran's Grand Economic Restructuring Doctrine is executing as designed. Our policy failure is our own.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

Technically true.. no red button. But you don't need one when the jet is on a digital leash. 80 Sqn might write our mission data, but they do it in a lab on U.S. soil. If the U.S. can tear up an FTA for leverage, they can just as easily pause the ODIN server handshakes.
​If we fly a mission the U.S. opposes or get on the wrong side of Trump, they don't need to fly to Williamtown. They just pause the automated "Priority 1" parts from the global pool. High-intensity ops would ground the fleet in weeks.
​This is why the NBN spend despite the mismanagement is justified. It’s the difference between a subscription air force and a sovereign network. If you don't own the data pipes and the source code, you're just a high tech vassal. No data, no parts, no fly.

[Jason Clare MP @JasonClareMP]

Today is the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.

There is no place for racism, hate or Islamophobia in Australia. Not today. Not ever.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@MrRexPatrick @JEChalmers Sth Korea has already triggered it's emergency response. Rationing more than likely.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@ajthompson13 She's not welcome. Think she forgets she locked out 150k kiwis living in Sydney at the time including pensioners. She also blamed NSW as the source. Hope your well.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

I wonder how many major party strategists remember their Plato? 🏛️
The Republic warns that when a "protector" [Labor] stifles free speech, and "oligarchs" [Liberals] prioritise LNG & special interests over the people, the "stung" masses look for a new champion.
30% primary. The decay is right on schedule. 📉🇦🇺
The only cure? A foundational return to secular, equal justice for all—not just the "sacred" or the "corporate" few. ⚖️

[John McRae @johnvadr]

I disagree on the ‘exploitation’ angle. My family research into the George Green deeds and NSW/NZ archives shows a different reality: Ngāi Tahu were highly entrepreneuria but they were deals of necessity where land was traded strategically to fund the maritime and defense needs of the South. I don't believe for a second the value of land was unknown—that was just a Crown argument used to squash deals like Green's so they could take the land from Māori themselves, then flipped to suit a counter narrative. When George Green landed in 1838, he dealt directly with these leaders.
My ancestor Kahuti and his daughter Motoitoi (who married Driver) were part of this world where both sides agreed to their terms. The fact that my ancestor Richard Driver's crew were attacked for trespassing when he landed in 1839 proves that land boundaries were fiercely understood and enforced. The chiefs weren’t 'tricked'; savvy leaders like Tūhawaiki and Tōpi Pātuki sailed to Sydney in 1838 to deal as sovereign equals. They sold millions of acres to fund an 'investment' in arms—money reinvested into muskets, gunpowder, and even uniforms for Tūhawaiki's 20-man bodyguard. This provided the deterrence needed to halt northern incursions, proven by retaliatory expeditions like the one at Tuturau.
The Waitangi Tribunal’s BG paper touches on these sales, but the original deeds tell a story the Treaty docs miss: a direct alliance the Crown only ‘struck down’ through the Land Claims Ordinance 1841 to establish a resale monopoly. In my family's case, the George Green Land Claims Settlement Act 1870 was the final tool used to officially extinguish those independent alliances and fold them into the Crown's singular legal system.
I am proud of both sides of this history—the entrepreneurial pioneers and the strategic iwi leaders. I don't disagree for a minute that wrongs should be righted, but if a line is not drawn, it will never end. While I believe the Treaty should be honoured, it needs to be closed off once settlements are reached. I doubt many elders would agree with my interpretation, but deep family research tells a story the official documents often miss but the documents exist when you connect the threads. It’s personal for me, as the Green and Driver/Motoitoi lines eventually married, uniting both sides of these deals in my own tree, they were allies and became whānau.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

Land was purchased pre treaty as well and the crown struck down deals that costs both sides post treaty. I've been enjoying researching the deals done by George Green and Hone Tūhawaiki’s in the Sth Island between 1838-40. the deeds identify other consenting chiefs who were instrumental in these deals, including Toby Patrick (Tōpi Pātuki), Auroa, John White, and Tyros. This group of leaders represented the collective authority of the southern iwi at the peak of their commercial engagement with European shipbuilders, golden pioneers, sealers and whalers. The chiefs signed the deals in Sydney in 1838. Pity they didn't stand my family own most the South island and one stage. Georges grand son married into Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Māmoe once he put roots down in NZ. Tūhawaiki’s and George stood by there deals it was the crown that spoiled the deals. Post treaty the screwed both sides.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@KobieThatcher Actually, the "forefathers" would have not been surprised, many Muslim Lascars crewed the very ships that founded Sydney and Australia. Furthermore, Macassan Muslims had already been trading with Indigenous Australians for over a century before the First Fleet arrived.

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@PhidMcAwesome Good son, great father. :)

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@CollinRugg Legend

[John McRae @johnvadr]

@sussanley Address LNG prices and we will stop importing inflation, govt wont need to hire so many unproductive roles.