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Where in the hell is Australia heading?

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sptrawler said:
Well that pretty well summs you up mate, no suds.
Must add to that I would like to nominate Smurph for a sainthood, for indulging this guy for so long.
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I'd like to nominate this thread for a change of title - "Where in the hell is this Thread heading?" ;)

[size=-3]Special thanks to Starcraftmazter for carrying out a successfull thread hijack.[/size]

Frankly, I think good ol' OZ is grinding inexorably towards the growing mountainous scrapheap of Westernised industrial nations...

Have an extra nice day, folks

:)
 
herp derp nbn bad i didn't vote for it so it's not democratic y u no see this?? ignorant leftist extremist lololo
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We had hundreds of thousands of people protest against Australia going to war with Iraq.

Which eventuated with us, going to war with Iraq. I dont recall John Howard ever receiving the 'mandate from the people' to take us to war 'democratically'.

We've had protests of a few thousand against a carbon tax. I find it hilarious that people are interpreting this as some sort of mass movement, when assesed in relation to the opposition to our involvement in Iraq.

Do people seriously think we are going to end up with anything but a carbon tax leading to an emmisions trading scheme ?

Especially that both major political parties have quite openly been supportive of such an initiative in the past.
 
RandR said:
We had hundreds of thousands of people protest against Australia going to war with Iraq.

Which eventuated with us, going to war with Iraq. I dont recall John Howard ever receiving the 'mandate from the people' to take us to war 'democratically'.

We've had protests of a few thousand against a carbon tax. I find it hilarious that people are interpreting this as some sort of mass movement, when assesed in relation to the opposition to our involvement in Iraq.

Do people seriously think we are going to end up with anything but a carbon tax leading to an emmisions trading scheme ?

Especially that both major political parties have quite openly been supportive of such an initiative in the past.
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I believe you may find under the Australian constitution, the presiding government can make decisions on National security without having a mandate from the voters.

I believe you will also find in Hansard, Kevin Rudd gave bipartisan support for that decision on Iraq.
 
Can we please not start that debate, because indeed it is debatable to say the least what effect our contribution to the ME wars had on our security.
 
RandR said:
We had hundreds of thousands of people protest against Australia going to war with Iraq.

Which eventuated with us, going to war with Iraq. I dont recall John Howard ever receiving the 'mandate from the people' to take us to war 'democratically'.

We've had protests of a few thousand against a carbon tax. I find it hilarious that people are interpreting this as some sort of mass movement, when assesed in relation to the opposition to our involvement in Iraq.

Do people seriously think we are going to end up with anything but a carbon tax leading to an emmisions trading scheme ?

Especially that both major political parties have quite openly been supportive of such an initiative in the past.
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LOL for gods sake man get with the program war is no where as bad as a tax..........
 
IFocus said:
LOL for gods sake man get with the program war is no where as bad as a tax..........
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One of the issues I have with the carbon tax is that I believe it will, if applied globally in the form proposed in Australia and elsewhere, increase the chances of war.

In short, coal is very well dispersed geographically with a huge number of countries having reserves of the stuff. Even within countries it tends to be resonably distributed - locally Qld, NSW, Vic, Tas, SA and WA all have operating coal mines. On the other hand, at the global level gas is largely concentrated in the Middle East and Russia.

A world heavily dependent on gas is a world heavily dependent on Russia, Iran and Qatar who hold two thirds of world reserves. Let's just say I have serious doubts as to the wisdom of such a move from a strategic perspective.

If it were a "fossil fuels tax" applied equally to coal, gas and oil then that would fix this problem. Gas industry lobbyists wouldn't like it however...
 
Smurf1976 said:
One of the issues I have with the carbon tax is that I believe it will, if applied globally in the form proposed in Australia and elsewhere, increase the chances of war.

In short, coal is very well dispersed geographically with a huge number of countries having reserves of the stuff. Even within countries it tends to be resonably distributed - locally Qld, NSW, Vic, Tas, SA and WA all have operating coal mines. On the other hand, at the global level gas is largely concentrated in the Middle East and Russia.

A world heavily dependent on gas is a world heavily dependent on Russia, Iran and Qatar who hold two thirds of world reserves. Let's just say I have serious doubts as to the wisdom of such a move from a strategic perspective.

If it were a "fossil fuels tax" applied equally to coal, gas and oil then that would fix this problem. Gas industry lobbyists wouldn't like it however...
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Is this the sort of issues you are alluding to Smurph.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gy-crisis-Russia-cuts-gas-supply-Ukraine.html

Shock, horror is this really happening in the world, I never saw it on the 6 o'clock news.
Isn't it lovely living in a cocoon. Aunty Julia will look after us with Uncle Wayne, sorry for being facetious.
 
Why is it now whenever someone passes an opinion or makes an adverse remark about what a politician wants or an adverse racial remark, there has to be an enquiry?

Andrew Wilke now wants an enquiry into a remark made on Channel 9 at a football game which appeared to be derogatory to legislation he wants to put before parliament about poker machines.

OMG. where is it all leading to?

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-on-channel-nine/story-e6freon6-1226156246972
 
Andrew Wilkie is becoming quite unbelievably precious. It will be good to eventually see him put back in his insignificant little box.
 
Julia said:
Andrew Wilkie is becoming quite unbelievably precious. It will be good to eventually see him put back in his insignificant little box.
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Do we need politicians making life choices for us. No!
 
sptrawler said:
Is this the sort of issues you are alluding to Smurph.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gy-crisis-Russia-cuts-gas-supply-Ukraine.html
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That is precisely the sort of thing that really concerns me. The notion that the world should depend more heavily on gas is ludicrous when you realise what that means in geopolitical terms. Even within a country, even within Australia, it all goes pear shaped pretty quickly when it comes to cross border trade in energy during an actual shortage. Some gets through yes, we don't want to make things too obvious, but those who have it ultimately put themselves first.

That's the lesson of history and it's not likely to change. If you depend on energy imports then you have to assume there's going to be at least a partial cut-off sooner or later. Oil and especially gas fail the test in that regard since they are geographically concentrated in terms of resources, and building a large stockpile in importing countries is physically difficult especially with gas. Coal doesn't have this problem, it is distributed (and generally in "friendly" countries) and can be easily stockpiled. As for the rest, hydro is geographically somewhat concentrated but if you have it then it's not as though someone can suddenly take it away on a political whim.

I don't have the gas industry, actually I own shares in a few gas companies, but I really don't think it's wise to be relying on the stuff for baseload electricity. That's all.
 
Julia said:
Andrew Wilkie is becoming quite unbelievably precious. It will be good to eventually see him put back in his insignificant little box.
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I think Wilke got around 13,000 votes, rode to power on the back of LIBERAL preferences and then holds the entire other 22 million people to ransom with his 13,000 votes and with no apparent respect to the liberal voters who put him there due to our forced preferential system.

And we call this democracy?

I think something needs to be done with our preferential system so that does not put those with a small number of votes into power.

And I also think we need a recall option for minority governments which would force an early election. Minority governments are clearly not good for the people due to minorities holding the balance of power.
 
sails said:
I think Wilke got around 13,000 votes, rode to power on the back of LIBERAL preferences and then holds the entire other 22 million people to ransom with his 13,000 votes and with no apparent respect to the liberal voters who put him there due to our forced preferential system.

And we call this democracy?
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It's especially ridiculous when the issue is such a minor one to 99% of the population.

I think something needs to be done with our preferential system so that does not put those with a small number of votes into power.

And I also think we need a recall option for minority governments which would force an early election. Minority governments are clearly not good for the people due to minorities holding the balance of power.
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Agree.
 
sails said:
I think Wilke got around 13,000 votes, rode to power on the back of LIBERAL preferences and then holds the entire other 22 million people to ransom with his 13,000 votes and with no apparent respect to the liberal voters who put him there due to our forced preferential system.
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He had a failed attempt at getting into state politics previously and much of what he said during the campaign did make him seem reasoanbly intelligent at the time.

His electorate covers the Hobart city area an inner suburbs, such that his vote reflects the stereotypical Green support base - higher income, urban residents.
 
Getting back on thread, as to where Australia is heading.
My thoughts at the moment are, unless China slows down and brings about a contraction in commodity prices, things will be put in place to wind in wages for mine workers.;)

http://www.smh.com.au/national/unions-push-local-supply-to-save-jobs-20111002-1l3za.html

Could be 457's for Chinese workers driving Haulpacs. Check the third paragragh, wage inflation, it will need the unions onside to pull it off.
That would be a classic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
noco said:
Call me a racist if you must, but I hope one day Austrlaia may take a leaf out of France's book and insist all immigrants speak english.
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That and mandating that all businesses/other places must have English signs, etc. Nothing worse than seeing chinese shops where everything is in chinese.
 
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