I’ve said it many times before. Australia is the best damned country in the world with the exception of some island nations in the Caribbean with some very liberal banking laws.
For all that Australia can be a confusing place, especially for Australians. There are three tiers of government, all pretty much worthless and in various stages of decrepitude shuffling between inertia, chaos all the way along to abject failure. We have a corporate world blagging its way around a laughably cobbled together regulatory system while trying not to snigger too much. There’s a mutant media that routinely crucifies people, more often that not for no apparent good reason and a taxation system that, frankly, I gave up on a long time ago.
Last week the Turnbull government announced a range of changes to the 457 visa scheme and rounded it off with tightening requirements for citizenship. At a presser and then again in an interview with Leigh Sales on the ABC, our Prime Minister, resplendent in an electric blue suit, equivocated in response to what were some fairly mild inquiries on his thoughts on Australian-ness and what he considered might be Australian values.
Full column here.
Great article, very ordinary Latin.
JTI,
Just read Australian Magazine…………..ugh.
Hope you are able to enjoy the (more than occasional) red, and would suggest a meal (” offline”?) for regulars to catch up in Sydney if it suits at somewhere cheap and cheerful??
Best wishes – and the Swans certainly gave you a present today…
cheers
Lovely. Well, I enjoyed it, Voltaire. The point was made by Roos during p the call Sydney is a very young side. They blooded some really good young players in 2016. We all marvelled at it at the time but they’re still developing. Sydney had a rebuild last season and they were so good at it, we didn’t notice.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports: ‘Total government debt is now rising by $5.3 million an hour — or $126m a day — according to calculations performed by David Lawson, a commentator who runs the Australian Debt Clock website.’
They are going to have to do something.
So that’s about a cool billion every week, with almost half of that to pay interest on debt already incurred. So that would be, what? The cost of four regional hospitals every week? Something like that.
I’m glad I’m not going to have grandkids (as far as I know). I’d hate to have to explain why they’re working to pay for grandpa’s good teeth and fast internet forty years ago.
Well they could start by stopping LYING
Ye gods! I just went to that web-site and I’m feeling positively ill!
The only thing I’m cheerful about is knowing that not a single dollar of that private debt is mine. Not much I can do to dodge the bit of government debt that I “own”.
Congratulations Carlton for playing some football in the second half but for the Swans, 2017 is history.
0-6 is too hard anyway but that was the worst rabble-like performance all but devoid of skills and closer to murderball (well that was both offence and defence).
Funnily, I started thinking this year could be the one for the Swans……yuck.
GWS was a little lucky against Dogs (who did not kick straight) but that GWS side has pace and size….. in theory they will only improve as the year goes on….
Interesting discussion today among 6 professionals of mixed political views but we all agreed that the current Federal government could not explain an economic principle to save its life. ” 50% capital gains discount” is a win for Labor by people who have always been PAYG and never risked anything…clearly ignorant of the cost of capital much less anything else: simply bring back indexed capital gains by CPI to provide some fairness for people who hold assets for a long time….and penalise (ie minimal adjustment of relevant CPI period) those who trade even if it is a year and a day!
Childcare, now affordable housing (applying this to the capital cities)….whatever a group wants suddenly becomes an entitlement which the government must provide: just say NO and resist the media BS. As usual I expect absolutely no attempt to fix teh structural imbalance in the budget and the recurrent spending will continue to grow instead of shrinking.
Every Minister defends his bailwick , but it sin’t rocket science: if you have official funded agencies like the Council for Australian Arab Relations (plus some number of administrative positions) and you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you are clearly confused but here is a hint: you don’t need that sort of organisation unless of course it is part of the Department of Defence as euphemism for strategic planning: which country to we bomb next? (need an emoticon for satire or someone will think that last bit is for real….)
I nominate for benevolent dictator : benevolence not guaranteed but will take a razor to so much of the bizarre programming including middle class welfare and restructure the tax system so everyone \(even on welfare) pays tax so they have a stake in the country and don’t just vote for frivolous extras. When the Kiwis can work it out, how hard can it be? Incidentally they don’t have CGT either (or an upper house) but have managed to turn an economy round (for the better) whereas we have executed the reverse tumble turn despite having enormous relative natural advantages.
Have to laugh – otherwise would cry (bit like my golf game)………..
cheers
Here you go Voltaire, satire it is 😜.
Swans are really stuffed 😪.
This governement, its predecessors, and I suspect it’s successor, can’t explain economic principles because they have none themselves 👺.
I’ve been an advocate of a benevolent dictator for a long time, so go ahead, you get first dibs at it 😈.
As for golf, when you play every week with two guys in their eighties, who still beat me, come over for a cry on the shoulder 😭. If that doesn’t work, try 🍷.
Lou,
Group behind me on Sunday was 3 generations of same family – and grandpa at 80 was till off 8 (complaining about having “blown out” his handicap) and still the best golfer in the group – and better than anyone in my group that day too!
Single figures golf handicap is just a dream…..
“a nation founded on democratic principles, participatory democracy, universal suffrage, compulsory voting, the doctrine of the separation of powers, religious freedom, freedoms of movement, speech and association has got a good thing going.”
they don’t just make us who we are, they are what protects human rights in Aus, and indeed wherever in the world they exist.
they are not just Aussie values but much wider than that. Generally Western Values, as they had their genesis in the western world, and in the Anglo world in particular.
but my word they are important, much more so than Human Rights Acts and Commissions and international law.
2. Thou Shalt remain loyal to Thy Footy Team; yea verily though they may lose; be unswerving in Thy fealty.
didn’t see the game, but losing to the Blues?
Starting to believe Hawthorn’s form. Sweet.
Loyalty Day!
Just what we need for Oz, too.
Of course, Mr Insider, we are all familiar with the fabulous Aussie Barry Crocker as Bazza McKenzie in his iconic 70’s movie, here singing from it in this short clip “One Eyed Trouser Snake”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MOcTv3Wgs