Would you be happy if they brought in a law that all our land remains in Australian hands AND Australians couldn't buy land overseas? I don't think I am missing anything, sometimes I think others here are missing reason. If I had my way, NO ONE would OWN land. We don't actually anyway, it's like money, you earn it, it's in your pocket, you can buy what you want with it, but it belongs to the country. To me, it is totally unfair, that some people can own land, some even vast amounts because ... a) They were born into the right family. b) They were lucky. c) They were more intelligent. d) They were given a break. e) They could and wanted to work hard. Now the first thing I expect in reply is "That's right, what about those that want to work hard, shouldn't theyn be rewarded more than those who don't want to work?" My answer is "Yes they should". BUT I refuse to put all those on welfare as bludgers, I even refuse to put all those who are chronic unemployed and show no real desire to get out of it. This includes drug addicts and those that just want to get up and surf each day. A significant amount of them have some sort of issue, and right or wrong it affects them in some way. There is a sort of sickness that is brought about more by our society then the individuals affected. Yes some are lazy, some are bludgers, some are just plain anti-everything, some are very mixed up. It is an issue I will be the first to admit it but let's look at reality. The amount of time and money that would need to be invested to sort out the genuine issues from the non genuine would be enormous. This is being done at present, but lack of resources and research makes it hard slow and at times unfair and they make mistakes, incorrect assessments and some slip through the cracks. To mend the cracks and do the research etc would be enormously expensive and time consuming. If we could sort them out, do we really have enough jobs to give every person a job, to have a genuine 100% employment rate. Until then, we should concentrate our efforts and money and resources into finding jobs for the 100's of thousands of genuine unemployed, many unemployed ARE searching hard for work, get all them jobs first, concentrate on them, put our resources at their disposal. Once we have achieved that, we can look at those that want to work, but for some reason have some impediment, physical or mental. Once they are placed we looked further at the bludgers. If we look at these as separate issues with separate priorities then we could get better results, not just better for us as a country, us as taxpayers but better for the unemployed as well. Currently we just see these as a strain on our economy and yes they are, but to just bundle them all into one basket, to offer a one size fits all solution, is just exasperating the problem. Solutions offered in the past have been targeted more to sooth the taxpayers then they have to find true solutions. Leaving them with out some sort of social security just leaves them to beg or resort to crime. Then we would be like the USA. Even tose that are upfront about not wanting to work, we cannot leave them to starve in the street or die of exposure. Very untidy.
There is no escaping the fact that some people want to be deliberately stupid, and that is there prerogative. The facts stand undisputable: no Australian freehold land; natural resources or public owned assets, should have ever been sold off to foreign companies or foreign Governments. Australians now find themselves nothing more than tenants in their own country, thanks to greedy incompetent politicians who sold off everything to prove they could balance the countries budget. I think I could employee the local town drunk as our company accountant, who could sell off all our major assets to our rivals, and balance our companies financial yearly budget also. It doesnt really take any one with overt intelligence to balance a budget, when they sell off all the companies major assets, and then start selling off the company piece-by-piece - now does it? Maybe the above is one of the reasons why politicians claim Australia has one of the best economies in the world, but is $200billion in debt, and it doesnt own a razoo to its name. No one in their right mind owns a house, and then sells that house, and then is forced to rent that house back, but that is what politicians have been making Australians do by selling off all their assets, and leasing them back from foreigners and foreign Governments. Doesnt say much for Australia being the clever country, when 90% of our natural resources is foreign owned. LOL LOL Just imagine how much revenue the Australian government and the Australian people would have collected over the past three decades, if that 90% was owned by the Australian people? Ever ask yourselves this question: why Australian politicians are always raving on about how Australia NEEDS foreign investment to survive and be competitive? Is there a reason why Australia and the Australian people cannot invest in themselves, and make a go-of-it? Dont small & medium Australian businesses do this everyday of week, by making a go of these businesses themselves, without any foreign aid or investment? If we can do it successfully, then what is stopping our Governments? If politicians are not up to the task, then they should all get the hell out, and let us get people into the job, who will start running our country the right way for a change. Alan Jones was right about the Hessian bag and one-way trip out to see the dolphins, but Gillard and her ALP crew should not have been the only politicians on his list.
I'm certain culdav mentioned a while back he isn't Australian, just visiting on business or something like that. C'mon culdav, have the balls to admit or deny.
Barnaby Joyce has publicly recognised he sees the problem with Australian prime agricultural land being sold to foreign companies and governments, and I believe he understands the future implications that will bring to Australians. I dont think he will be a push-over, and be convinced to shut-up like the other NP candidates dominated by the Liberal party. Many people voted for Joyce because of his strong commitment to protecting Australian industries form foreign take-over. If he doesnt fulfil his promises to the Australian people who elected him, and who are counting on his word, then he will just be known as another political clown and one-hit-wonder.
To be fair CD, politicians can only do what they`re allowed to do. In recent decades, we`ve seen growth in the attitude of welfare entitlement, we see more emphasis on rights, less on responsibilities. Our bludger breeding program has been a huge success. Any govt that tried to thin out bludgers and parasites here, would be out on it`s ear in no time flat, so they have to be seen to be trying to balance the books. Australians are now too soft, too weak, to face hard facts.
With all due respect Aussie, I dont see the correlation between welfare and politicians selling off the countries assets for the past four decades to claim they have obtained a budget surplus. Politicians can do anything they want by changing or ratifying any piece of Local, State or Federal legislation to suit their agendas. Did the Australian people get the opportunity to have their say when Howard changed the Anti-discrimination Legislation Act when he introduced the Aboriginal intervention plan? No. He did what he liked by changing and ratifying that piece of legislation to suit his political agenda. You know yourself Aussie, that when a business doesnt own anything, manufacture anything, sells off its major assets, and then starts selling pieces of itself - then that company has stuffed up, and about to hit the wall. The difference between the scenario of that company and Australia is - they are identical. I dont think its reasonable to push the blame of what has been happening in Australia over the past four decades with the sale of assets and incompetent politicians onto 500,000 unemployed Australians - do you? Politicians are also paying women/girls to have babies with NO regulations on who is able to receive these cash payments once the baby is born. You cannot say this was/is not a political mistake, that is directly caused, and is causing, a baby farming industry in some low socio-economic situations, and in some cases, has created generational welfare dependency.
That is almost verbatim what I said when KDudd won office the first time. Proved to be true Best way to throw a spanner in a country is to elect the ALP to power... we should put them in the military as a weapon of national destruction. All there fear mongering and hypocrisy when it happens to them destroys the target countries moral fibre on the inside, and financial incompetence weakens them for the outside to take advantage. We could then give awards to those victims of the ALP for having such great management.... and know they'd be so ignorant to believe it, like Worlds Best Treasurer (from the point of view of the competition).
BS..... The ALP powered ahead into debt..into rises in unemployment...into massive policy failures leading to waste and more debt. Tank you are delusional. - - - Updated - - - To the right mate. Thank god for that!
Kept meaning to get back to you on this. Time constraints again. To quickly clarify my previous post. One aspect of the problem IMO, is the growing mindset of dependance of Australians. We continually see less of a sense of responsibility for the well being of the country, and more of a sense of entitlement. Australians are undoubtedly weaker, more shallow people, than those of past generations, and our politicians reflect this The previous Federal government clearly demonstrated an agenda of spin above substance. We even had a PM who had previously been involved in union corruption, and the majority of lemmings didn`t even blink an eye. We had a PM who lied straight faced about a significant tax, and the lemmings were content to play cheap little word games, rather than face the truth. We had emotive footage of animal cruelty prompting the sledge hammer attack on our own live cattle export industry. When the government`s mishandling of this issue resulted in massively more animal cruelty, destroyed the lives of many Australians, and directly resulted in the deaths of many more, we never heard a peep from the nodding dogs. These are just a few examples of many. Should we wonder, when government treats us with contempt?
FYI, "economy", and "welfare", are two completely different animals. - - - Updated - - - FYI, "economy", and "welfare", are two completely different animals.
Do you mean, one of those recessions that we had BEFORE the mining boom? Which mining boom you ask? The mining boom that made all the difference during the GFC. It couldn`t make us idiot proof, but it kept us going.
Australia is now the record holder for the longest stretch of time without a recession. But yeah, the ALP destroyed us.
Paul Keating once spoke about the recession Australia had to have. Well, this was the defeat the ALP needed. Now it can begin to reform and reinvent itself. Already it has agreed to give its membership a vote in choosing the party leadership and local candidate. Good start. Now it needs to elect a new leader strong enough to kick heads to stop the internal personal bickering. By all means debate policy in public, but knifing and factional squabbling has to stop. Next, Labor has to stop trying to outflank the Libs on the right in policies about such issues as asylum seekers and welfare. Finally, and I write this as a committed unionist, it must loosen the hold of the union movement. That does not mean a complete break, but putting more distance between the two. Union corruption and militancy just gives the Libs a club to beat Labor over the head with.
Good post. My take on the union situation is this. Unions, are a zero risk, zero effort industry. For many decades now, unions have amassed obscene wealth, on the backs of their members. For example, unions feel free to tell their members that those "other people" should be paying higher wages. By that same token, how often do we see a union offer to lower membership dues, while the union amasses massive wealth? It`s time working people sent the unions the message that the unions are supposed to work for them, not the reverse. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.