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AusPoliERA |OT| Section 44’d straight to Manus Island
- Thread starter Bernie Bernbaum
- Start date
Well, none of that blurb is wrong in the main.
Even though it doesn't seem like it, we do have broad political consensus as our two major parties are not that far apart in the political scale and we haven't seen the political fracturing and rise of extreme fringe groups that other places have seen. The lurch to the right in the liberal party is concerning, but as we saw with Tony Abbott, the public doesn't have a tolerance for that and they always come back to the centre. Same with Labor when they move too far left and become beholden to unions. However, in the end, it doesn't matter which party is in power, as almost everyone's lives will be the same regardless.
We do have an affordable welfare state that is generally fair and equitable, but doesn't promote a reliance on welfare. I think we need to be concerned about rising health care costs considering our aging population, but generally we are living within our means.
Our incomes and standard of living are among the best in the world and we still have a good mix of industries that will allow us to continue to grow. Yes we have been blessed with natural resources aplenty, but that's the hand we've been dealt and we've been smart enough to use that to our nation's benefit.
We should stop victimising and demonising refugees. That is a fact. But, we are an immigration positive country and generally welcome new migrants with open arms. As a general rule, we are accepting of people, and welcoming and accepting of new cultures, which we have a great track record of integrating into our own broader culture.
I mean, things could always be better, but compared to almost every other nation, we're doing pretty great.
Even though it doesn't seem like it, we do have broad political consensus as our two major parties are not that far apart in the political scale and we haven't seen the political fracturing and rise of extreme fringe groups that other places have seen. The lurch to the right in the liberal party is concerning, but as we saw with Tony Abbott, the public doesn't have a tolerance for that and they always come back to the centre. Same with Labor when they move too far left and become beholden to unions. However, in the end, it doesn't matter which party is in power, as almost everyone's lives will be the same regardless.
We do have an affordable welfare state that is generally fair and equitable, but doesn't promote a reliance on welfare. I think we need to be concerned about rising health care costs considering our aging population, but generally we are living within our means.
Our incomes and standard of living are among the best in the world and we still have a good mix of industries that will allow us to continue to grow. Yes we have been blessed with natural resources aplenty, but that's the hand we've been dealt and we've been smart enough to use that to our nation's benefit.
We should stop victimising and demonising refugees. That is a fact. But, we are an immigration positive country and generally welcome new migrants with open arms. As a general rule, we are accepting of people, and welcoming and accepting of new cultures, which we have a great track record of integrating into our own broader culture.
I mean, things could always be better, but compared to almost every other nation, we're doing pretty great.
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I think we're doing pretty well but there are a shitton of developing problems. Income inequality is rising in large part due to massive productivity-obsessed/neolib whatever you want to call it trends of the past 25 years. We need to fix our economy and make it genuinely fairer because sure 27 years of growth sounds nice but doesn't matter much to me unless its making my life better.
Also it doesn't mention my biggest anxiety which is house prices which are going to kill me when I eventually need move out. If they fix that then I can maybe laud Australia
Also it doesn't mention my biggest anxiety which is house prices which are going to kill me when I eventually need move out. If they fix that then I can maybe laud Australia
Income inequality is actually not getting worse and the inequality that exists is in many ways offset, compared to other nations, by the broad equality that we have in access to education, health and social services.
You're always going to have pockets of disadvantage, but overall we are doing ok.
This is an interesting report on income inequality.
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018...must-improve-in-key-areas/9678982?pfmredir=sm
Could we do better? Yes. Could we do worse? Definitely.
The housing bubble will probably pop fairly soon though, making things a lot harder for a bunch of people.
I feel like they read a brochure published by the coalition and not much else.
true we have had no recessions and had uninterrupted(?) economic growth for a long time but I don't know if there's much to learn from australia. seems more like we just stumbled our way through and unless things change we might be heading downhill in not too long.
I can't recall hearing anyone ever say australian welfare is fair or equitable except liberal politicians. people on welfare live in relative poverty. how that is equitable beats me
when john howard of all people is calling for a dole raise you know something's wrong with it. the dole hasn't increased in real terms since 1994.
I can't recall hearing anyone ever say australian welfare is fair or equitable except liberal politicians. people on welfare live in relative poverty. how that is equitable beats me
when john howard of all people is calling for a dole raise you know something's wrong with it. the dole hasn't increased in real terms since 1994.
Ok then, which countries should be held up as the ones to learn from?
lol were gonna get fucked by the economists cover predictions almost always being completely wrong
We must look at one country specifically and copy EVERYTHING they do rather than you know, recognising different countries do different things well and imitating those positive aspects
This is one of those times when the English language fails us
User Warned: Inflammatory commentary
NDIS funds to be 'repurposed' for drought relief under Morrison plan
If farmers are happy to take this money, fuck the farmers. Go round back and eat a shotgun. We need to be focusing on the climate issues causing the extended droughts and promoting more sustainable farming methods, not robbing the most vulnerable in our society for some corporate welfare.
If farmers are happy to take this money, fuck the farmers. Go round back and eat a shotgun. We need to be focusing on the climate issues causing the extended droughts and promoting more sustainable farming methods, not robbing the most vulnerable in our society for some corporate welfare.
That's quite offensive especially considering the mental health issues of farmers, you should retract that.
Ya'll are both free to report me if you think it's that bad
Nah, I stand by it. They're free not to take money that's been robbed from the disabled if they don't want people talking about them like that.
As a queer person that's lived in rural areas and had to hear local farmers talking about "the poofter party" while voting in recent years I don't have a lot of tolerance for them at the best of times.
Haha, you're one to talk. You didn't seem to think the mental health issues the plebiscite cause the LGBT community mattered when you were in here telling us how good it had been for us.
Nah, I stand by it. They're free not to take money that's been robbed from the disabled if they don't want people talking about them like that.
As a queer person that's lived in rural areas and had to hear local farmers talking about "the poofter party" while voting in recent years I don't have a lot of tolerance for them at the best of times.
Haha, you're one to talk. You didn't seem to think the mental health issues the plebiscite cause the LGBT community mattered when you were in here telling us how good it had been for us.
Thanks, I learnt it from the farmers kids that used to call me a fag when we were in school
And that is your justification for telling people to commit suicide? Like I said, despicable.
Should all the parents of the kids who used to call me wog "go round back and eat a shotgun" too?
Are they taking money that was supposed to fund services for the disabled to prop up their unsustainable businesses? 'cause that was the big "if" that you seem to be completely glossing over in my original post.
I'm not reporting it because you are not arguing in bad faith. I just think we shouldn't use suicide rhetoric as it can be offensive to those that suffer from depression and deal with suicide and other people who have had loved ones kill themselves.
Note that I live on the DSP and suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts and have tried to kill myself before.
I also agree that farmers should not take that money.
That's fair enough, and generally I would agree. This is just a bit of a particular touchy spot that riles me up in a way that probably is inappropriate. I'm sorry.
Choodi sometimes I wonder if your a personal I know IRL because you are insanely similar, do you live in Sydney?
They sound like a pretty awesome person. Maybe you should invite them to join ResetERA. ;)
I think the Mod Lib quota is already being filled though
He's just got a job as a corp lawyer for Credit Suisse and those 50-hour weeks don't allow much time for posting
Barnaby Joyce; Australia's best retail politician. A play in two acts
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...cal-of-neo-nazi-infiltration-of-nsw-nationals
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...cal-of-neo-nazi-infiltration-of-nsw-nationals
I thought this was just a stupid News corp/Virgin Australia thing? What did Morrison announce?
morrison is backing the veteran's pin/discount card (newscorp article) though I can't on brief examination see a relation to the airline stuff, sorry
On face value, I don't see a problem with the discount card thing. If having a card means that people are less able to exploit service that they never did, even better. Seems like the cost of discounts will be borne by the businesses anyway.
However, fuck this whole salute people on planes bullshit. That's toxic and wrong. Glad to see that's being rubbished.
The problem I have with this whole conversation is that it is being driven by News ltd, so you know it's all about trying to Americanise the way we honour our service men and women. Ours has always been a quiet and dignified style of recognition, but the whole fetishising of dawn services at Gallipoli is very American and I don't like it.
We have always been able to "support our troops" without putting a sticker on our cars or flags in our front yards, thank you very much.
However, fuck this whole salute people on planes bullshit. That's toxic and wrong. Glad to see that's being rubbished.
The problem I have with this whole conversation is that it is being driven by News ltd, so you know it's all about trying to Americanise the way we honour our service men and women. Ours has always been a quiet and dignified style of recognition, but the whole fetishising of dawn services at Gallipoli is very American and I don't like it.
We have always been able to "support our troops" without putting a sticker on our cars or flags in our front yards, thank you very much.
Have we? Historically, we've hated the shit out of Anzac Day for a large magnitude of reasons. For a long time, the Anzac legend of Gallipoli (mateship, etc etc) was seen as nothing but bullshit for drunk dumbasses with nothing else to believe in. It was for a long time seen as nothing but white washing and glorifying military conflict. Nothing says "quiet and dignified style of recognition" like former military who ran my secondary school's cadet program taking huge dumps on Anzac Day.
Anecdotally but it wasn't really until the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015 where everyone, from Tony Abbott to Woolworths, tried to ramp up the propaganda. Just look at the sheer number of Gallipoli related theater shows, musicals, movies, TV dramas, etc that tried to make money during that period. In the midst of all of that was increasing negative sentiment towards Australia's creation myth that Australia Day* is based around so it doesn't seem to surprising that the far right nationalists would try another attempt to replace that creation myth with one much more bloody and heroic. In the words of Tony Abbott, Gallipoli was 'our greatest moment on world stage' after all.
*Does anyone remember that guy from the old forum who used to argue that Australia Day should be celebrated as it is because it brought Common Law to indigenous Australians?
My Catholic school basically had that. We used to have to sing the Australian anthem before start of class every day. Of course no one, including the teachers, gave a shit about it.
Anecdotally but it wasn't really until the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015 where everyone, from Tony Abbott to Woolworths, tried to ramp up the propaganda. Just look at the sheer number of Gallipoli related theater shows, musicals, movies, TV dramas, etc that tried to make money during that period. In the midst of all of that was increasing negative sentiment towards Australia's creation myth that Australia Day* is based around so it doesn't seem to surprising that the far right nationalists would try another attempt to replace that creation myth with one much more bloody and heroic. In the words of Tony Abbott, Gallipoli was 'our greatest moment on world stage' after all.
*Does anyone remember that guy from the old forum who used to argue that Australia Day should be celebrated as it is because it brought Common Law to indigenous Australians?
My Catholic school basically had that. We used to have to sing the Australian anthem before start of class every day. Of course no one, including the teachers, gave a shit about it.
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None of the sailors I've met seem very patriotic, if any of them give a shit I can almost guarantee it's purely because they won't say no to free shit.
As in US sailors? In my experience they are just regular people, usually migrants or people from a lower socio-economic background. The military is often a way to get an education.
The real problem over there is the non-military middle class bogan element who equate disagreeing with invading other sovereign nations with hating America or hating their soldiers. Probably a hangover from the Vietnam days where returning soldiers who were conscripted were literally called baby killers.
Maybe it's a generational thing, I'm not sure. Growing up in the 80s and early 90s, my Anzac Day memories of celebrations are definitely of the quiet and dignified type.
That's probably because Howard was big at making Anzac Day as a more patriotic rah rah thing. Nobody has had his touch as a culture warrior since then though.
Probably doesn't help as well that our last significant military deployment was a disaster for Iraq.
Probably doesn't help as well that our last significant military deployment was a disaster for Iraq.
Dollars to donuts they burn their relationship and he leaves the party/is kicked out before the state election.
Pauline doesn't like other personalities in the party drawing attention from herself.
Pauline doesn't like other personalities in the party drawing attention from herself.