Thread: Australian Politics.

Why is paper and air time wasted on Hawke and Keating.??

Those two circled each other with knives drawn for years and now we are getting their egocentric views of how each was better than the other!!!!!

Have we all noticed the tendency of modern day Aus. PMs to talk about what they think is good for the country and what they WANT for the country? Nuff to make you cry.

I WANT, and I think we NEED :

Politicians who can give straight answers

A government that doesn't squander the taxes they so readilly extract from us

A limit on parliamentary perks.

Politicians with a sense of ethics.

The list goes on but you get my drift.

I think we have endured a lifetime of waste with both Federal and State govts.,the thing that finished me with nsw govt was the cr.p onthe harbour bridge where they spent a million bucks putting grass on it so everyone could have a picnic.What a monstrous waste plus, the insulation debacle plus the school building debacle plus plus plus.When are the people going to wakeup ,at least here in WA the govt is spending the royalty money on infrastructure ,new railway stations,better roads, no wonder they told Rudd the dud to stick his federal money when they would not sign the health agreement.
But what are the alternatives?Dicky knee Brown? or the budgie smuggler?I think I'll vote informal!!

In America, when Martin Luther King was assasinated the populace showed their anger by burning whole suburbs.

In France people burn tyres in the streets.

Elsewhere buses and cars are set alight.

In Thailand the airport was peacefully occupied.

I do'nt suggest anything unlawfull or involving vandalism but there must be some form of mass and noisy protest we can organise.

acmegridley: Are they doing anything about port hedland ? It's a crime that a town so important to WA's wealth has been to terribly neglected for so long.

As for politicians I've been thinking about this lately. True of course that they are elected for the wrong reasons but consider doing that job yourself, exposing you and your family to that level of invasion of privacey. Even if your not actually guilty of anything constantly being at risk of frivilous but serious accusations. I bet it puts a lot of decent people off trying to run, certainly stops me.

It's the law of unintended consequences. All the male teachers I know have ditched teaching because of frivilous claims of sexual misconduct mostly by female students. Even if your found innocent the aggravation is huge. So you end up with all female teachers. You screw truck drivers down to below minimum wage and all the good drivers leave and your roads are full of cowboys. You sue your doctor because your pregnancy goes wrong and they all change specialties and suddenly no obstetricians.

An honest person trying to become an elected representative and do some good has the entrenched parties to battle, a disengaged superficial electorate to woo, and a voracious and disreputable media to hold off.

No wonder our standard of pollies is so low.

Alien vs Predator: Whoever wins, we lose...

Originally Posted by damian

It's the law of unintended consequences. All the male teachers I know have ditched teaching because of frivilous claims of sexual misconduct mostly by female students. Even if your found innocent the aggravation is huge. So you end up with all female teachers. You screw truck drivers down to below minimum wage and all the good drivers leave and your roads are full of cowboys. You sue your doctor because your pregnancy goes wrong and they all change specialties and suddenly no obstetricians.

An honest person trying to become an elected representative and do some good has the entrenched parties to battle, a disengaged superficial electorate to woo, and a voracious and disreputable media to hold off.

No wonder our standard of pollies is so low.

Alien vs Predator: Whoever wins, we lose...

And then there is the pay rates. The leaders of both parties after the last election both had no need to work They were doing it for the ego / common good. Most of the rest are career pollies and so are stuck in their career slots, and the super is goood. Its a good point, to quote Talking Heads "I wouldnt do the things that those people do"

Damian, just a comical comment, your observations don't seem to make all politicians resign and seek other employment.

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

And then there is the pay rates. The leaders of both parties after the last election both had no need to work They were doing it for the ego / common good. Most of the rest are career pollies and so are stuck in their career slots, and the super is goood. Its a good point, to quote Talking Heads "I wouldnt do the things that those people do"

But I do like the fact that they are to get a pay rise but its all secret squirrel stuff till after the elections..
Pay rise report shelved until after the election | Perth Now

A SECRET report giving federal politicians a pay rise has been shelved until after the election campaign.

The Remuneration Tribunal was to announce the size of the pay rise this week but has decided to sit on it.

The Prime Minister's annual pay could rise by $10,221 if the tribunal awards a pay rise of 3 per cent as it did last year, while the Opposition Leader could gain $7272.

A backbencher's salary could increase by $3931.

The tribunal said on May 31 that it would issue the statement about the annual pay rise in mid-July "and the reasons for it".

But now it says the report is being kept under wraps until after the election.
....

I bet its all kept under wraps imagine the back lash if it came out now.. But the media seems quiet on it as well....

I see Mark Latham has waded into the population debate, strange comments from an ex Labor leader in the middle of an election campaign.

Govt dogged by population issue

Originally Posted by cultana

But I do like the fact that they are to get a pay rise but its all secret squirrel stuff till after the elections..
Pay rise report shelved until after the election | Perth Now

A SECRET report giving federal politicians a pay rise has been shelved until after the election campaign.

The Remuneration Tribunal was to announce the size of the pay rise this week but has decided to sit on it.

The Prime Minister's annual pay could rise by $10,221 if the tribunal awards a pay rise of 3 per cent as it did last year, while the Opposition Leader could gain $7272.

A backbencher's salary could increase by $3931.

The tribunal said on May 31 that it would issue the statement about the annual pay rise in mid-July "and the reasons for it".

But now it says the report is being kept under wraps until after the election.
....

I bet its all kept under wraps imagine the back lash if it came out now.. But the media seems quiet on it as well....

Thanks for that. Im sure the media outrage machine would have a great time with this one. But the fact remains that a good middle level manager in a large Australian company will earn as much as a pollie. And the PM's salary wouldnt sit in the top 20 of Australian companies. There is an old rule "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" and its true in my business. Of course I am also ruthless with poor performance.....

I've never bought that line. The fact is in th old days many councils were voluntary, and the councillors did a good job. Now they get fairly good money and you get monkeys. Likewise the parliment. I see no correlation between the escalating pays of politicians and quality.

You either go into public service because you want to serve the public, or you go in to stroke your ego or make money.

I don't have evidence to support this statment to hand, so take it for what it is: an unsupported accusation. Shortly after the 83 election Hawke and most of his cabinet took short trips to Switzerland. It was never reported. Make of that what you will.

If you bother looking you will find that many prominent pollies get well paid board positions and public service positions after their stint. Many of those are with organisation which contribute generously to party coffers and whome you could accuse of getting good treatment by the government of the day.

Be aware I'm crankier than usual today. Some years back the Qld government privatised electricity retail. Origin got all the default business. I suppose you could find a justification for that at that time, but just now another retailer has been expelled from the scheme and, you guessed it, all their customers are being shunted to origin. Some people might wonder how much this cosy arrangment has cost them.

http://www.qca.org.au/

I went back to Origin last year (after my previouse provider pulled out of qld) on a pay 11 get 1 month free deal. They didn't give me the 1 month (I called yesterday to chase it up and they "promise" it'll be on my next bill). You'd think that was an honest mistake until you look online and find it seems to be happening to many many people. The thing that broke me though is I don't get auto flipped back onto the same deal (even though it was a free opt out deal) and when I asked for a re-sign only after I agreed to sign up again did they mention that it was now a 24 month contract with an exit penalty. And the last 3 months since they failed to pay up won't count.

And they wonder why they lost my business.

I'm just really fed up with corruption, dishonesty and nil service. Politicians or utilities...

And many of the councillors were real estate agents and crooks as well. They weren't all good hearted citizens
And if you look at Wollongong recently.... nothing has much changed except the corruption is now politically based
All councils should have professional management, a CEO and a CFO to run them on a business basis.
Elected officials can open fetes and chair meetings on climate change and present prizes at local schools.

Greg

YEAH but they get paid too much for that, Glorified building openers, the honourable wayne swan open the new AECOM ofice in Brisbane today, (AECOM is the consultant engineering company I work for)
Open th odd office, get paid 200K, blame any other bugger if anything goes wrong and then appear contrite, they get paid way too much to do that.

Originally Posted by Greg Ward

And many of the councillors were real estate agents and crooks as well. They weren't all good hearted citizens
And if you look at Wollongong recently.... nothing has much changed except the corruption is now politically based
All councils should have professional management, a CEO and a CFO to run them on a business basis.
Elected officials can open fetes and chair meetings on climate change and present prizes at local schools.

Greg

Greg, I could not agree more with your comments about professional management!

I note that women state they will vote for Julia, as she is female. (68%)
Just what we need, an election based on gender rather than policies.

Note that men (as you would expect from these even handed fair minded members of the species) are 50% divided.

I knew it was a big mistake to give women the vote.

Greg