RIP Australia 1788-2012

Originally posted by davethebear
I totally agree with what you said in your opening thread. I lived in Australia for 4 years and returned to the UK in August this year. I found the whole political thing in Australia so doom and gloom and as though there was nothing to look forward to. Even the charisma of the politicians is about as charismatic as a water melon asleep in a drain. They seem to say so much, but in reality what they say actually means nothing at all. All the politicians seem to do is waffle on and try not to give any kind of answer to any kind of question. They basically get paid for doing nothing at all, as for Julia Gillard, what a puppet and the most boring monotone voiced person who should not even be Prime Minister.

I know that the world is in crisis at the moment and the UK is not the happiest of places at the moment, but I am so glad to have left the shores of Oz. The smile has returned to my face and I never want to return to the shores of Oz again....

All the best to you........

Yes and we're always glad to see the back of a whinging pom such as yourself. not unlike the one million ten pound poms who moved here after the war and out of that one million poms who came here 100, 000 went home to crapy old England and out of that 100,000 poms who went home to crapy old england 50,000 came back to Australia because we were better fed healthier and wealthier..

Sucks to be you. Pom

Originally posted by rainychica
reply to post by xxdaniel21

 

sorry, I meant to reply to your post

I think the funniest thing I ever witness while I was down in Australia about a dozen years ago, is that when they had a referendum to "stay with the crown, under the queen" or detach from it, the majority voted for the Queen. I don't get it, even today, I just don't get it. Can someone explain (who's a native of Australia)?

Please could a moderator delete the other one, sorry for the trouble, thanks

That's because you didn't understand what was going on.

The then primeminister John Howard didn't want a republic ansd understanding Australian mentality he used political manipulation to stop it. he created a model of which in the republic we would have to vote a party in without knowing who would lead it and that party would then elect a leader. No Aussie was going to go for that so the only option was to reject john Howard republic model. He would have been out at the next election for what he did but a boat people thing saved him with his hard line stance rather than the open the doors to them policy of the labor party. Australia wanted a republic but not that one.

It kind of reminds me of a time when an American who had been to Sydney during the war and noted there were no sky scrapers once said to me in the 80's, not asked as of why but rather told me, that Australia didn't have the ability to build sky scrapers in the 40's little did he know that in the 1800 when New York and London were allowing undustry to build up in their cities, as in multi level industry like pillow making on one level of a building and shoe making on another, and over populating their cities causing slums, Sydney imposed a hight restriction on buildings to force industry out rather than up which helped to create suburbs and spread the wealth out and avoided slums. The CBD was to be the finacial base not the factory base. Those hight restriction were relaxed in the late 50's.

My point is if you come from another country what you see might not be what is and if you really want to know just ask someone dont tell them.
i'm not saying that's what you've done as you've just asked why.

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by davethebear
I totally agree with what you said in your opening thread. I lived in Australia for 4 years and returned to the UK in August this year. I found the whole political thing in Australia so doom and gloom and as though there was nothing to look forward to. Even the charisma of the politicians is about as charismatic as a water melon asleep in a drain. They seem to say so much, but in reality what they say actually means nothing at all. All the politicians seem to do is waffle on and try not to give any kind of answer to any kind of question. They basically get paid for doing nothing at all, as for Julia Gillard, what a puppet and the most boring monotone voiced person who should not even be Prime Minister.

I know that the world is in crisis at the moment and the UK is not the happiest of places at the moment, but I am so glad to have left the shores of Oz. The smile has returned to my face and I never want to return to the shores of Oz again....

All the best to you........

Yes and we're always glad to see the back of a whinging pom such as yourself. not unlike the one million ten pound poms who moved here after the war and out of that one million poms who came here 100, 000 went home to crapy old England and out of that 100,000 poms who went home to crapy old england 50,000 came back to Australia because we were better fed healthier and wealthier..

Sucks to be you. Pom

Bit of a knob really aren't you mate?

Originally posted by EvanB

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by davethebear
I totally agree with what you said in your opening thread. I lived in Australia for 4 years and returned to the UK in August this year. I found the whole political thing in Australia so doom and gloom and as though there was nothing to look forward to. Even the charisma of the politicians is about as charismatic as a water melon asleep in a drain. They seem to say so much, but in reality what they say actually means nothing at all. All the politicians seem to do is waffle on and try not to give any kind of answer to any kind of question. They basically get paid for doing nothing at all, as for Julia Gillard, what a puppet and the most boring monotone voiced person who should not even be Prime Minister.

I know that the world is in crisis at the moment and the UK is not the happiest of places at the moment, but I am so glad to have left the shores of Oz. The smile has returned to my face and I never want to return to the shores of Oz again....

All the best to you........

Yes and we're always glad to see the back of a whinging pom such as yourself. not unlike the one million ten pound poms who moved here after the war and out of that one million poms who came here 100, 000 went home to crapy old England and out of that 100,000 poms who went home to crapy old england 50,000 came back to Australia because we were better fed healthier and wealthier..

Sucks to be you. Pom

Bit of a knob really aren't you mate?

Yep you're a pure pom. You can have a go but you don't like it when it comes back.

Don't call me mate as you're not one of mine.

Sucks to be you. Enjoy old dirty sooky England.

reply to post by EvanB


Mate isn't a very British word its more Australian, no offence.

reply to post by steveknows


Couldn't agree more with what you said on all of your posts here.
BTW nice background

Originally posted by AussiePatriot
reply to post by steveknows

 

Couldn't agree more with what you said on all of your posts here.
BTW nice background

edit on 26-9-2011 by AussiePatriot because: (no reason given)

Thank you. Great minds.

Originally posted by convinceme
now that a few of us have had our say what can any of us do about it?
how do we start the change, where do we start?

Do we wanna just whinge about it? Who will listen to us?

What is it we really need to do? start our own political party?
Love to hear your thoughts...

Hi ConvinceMe,
Where do we start? I would probably say Parliament house is a good place.
Who will listen to us? Well since the announcement of the carbon tax there have been many marches on Parliament house like the ditch the witch rally and the convoy of no confidence. But it seems the government as usual continues to ignore us and claims those who attend the rallies are either extremists or only represent a tiny part of the Australian people.
What is it we need to do? Well I know Bob Katter has started his Australian party as a alternative to the major two. While I like some of his ideas I'm not so sure I want Katter representing Australia on the world stage.
I think that would leave us with a violent takedown of this government and cleanse it out, yes revolution.
Unfortunately, the people are still quite happy enough to stop such an event occur on mass. But I predict it will get much worse, at the current rate I can't imagine how Gillard could still be PM by the end of the year.

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by EvanB

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by davethebear
I totally agree with what you said in your opening thread. I lived in Australia for 4 years and returned to the UK in August this year. I found the whole political thing in Australia so doom and gloom and as though there was nothing to look forward to. Even the charisma of the politicians is about as charismatic as a water melon asleep in a drain. They seem to say so much, but in reality what they say actually means nothing at all. All the politicians seem to do is waffle on and try not to give any kind of answer to any kind of question. They basically get paid for doing nothing at all, as for Julia Gillard, what a puppet and the most boring monotone voiced person who should not even be Prime Minister.

I know that the world is in crisis at the moment and the UK is not the happiest of places at the moment, but I am so glad to have left the shores of Oz. The smile has returned to my face and I never want to return to the shores of Oz again....

All the best to you........

Yes and we're always glad to see the back of a whinging pom such as yourself. not unlike the one million ten pound poms who moved here after the war and out of that one million poms who came here 100, 000 went home to crapy old England and out of that 100,000 poms who went home to crapy old england 50,000 came back to Australia because we were better fed healthier and wealthier..

Sucks to be you. Pom

Bit of a knob really aren't you mate?

Yep you're a pure pom. You can have a go but you don't like it when it comes back.

Don't call me mate as you're not one of mine.

Sucks to be you. Enjoy old dirty sooky England.

Yawn

You are no "mate" of mine either.. Slagging off the very people who built your country... I think idiot would be more appropriate in your case..
This guy is one of my direct relatives who helped to build your country. Another whinging pom who people like you are not worth brushing his boots..

England may suck, but at least its not populated by faux, anally retentive snobs with chips on their shoulders..

reply to post by AussiePatriot

Secondly, this government is collapsing Australia by selling off all our resources.

If the government wasn't selling our resources you would be complaining saying they are lying idle and we aren't generating any wealth from them. I wish we had a large manafacturing base which produced and exported many goods, however in this globalised economy this is simply unrealistic. We would have to sacrifice our high wages and then the government would have more complaints. It is true we are a first world economy operating on the third world structure (i.e. exporting raw resources).

Thirdly, while I agree taxing mining giants is a good idea ie. higher prices equals more wealth. Also realise this is our last industry we have left since most of our farms are now sold (mostly to China)

News flash, the mining companies would still be here even if we doubled the current tax rate. Their is profit to be made, they aren't going to pack up and leave in protest to spite this government when they are greedy corporations eager to continue to make money.

Fourth, I agree with your claim on the carbon tax and I think the best Australia can do for the future is become an energy superpower (we have plenty of sun)

Sweet then what is your problem with the carbon tax. My problem is that I don't want to initiate a carbon emissions trading scheme and the proposed legislation requires amendments to ensure a push to increased competetivness in the energy sector. My other problem is that it may have come at a bad time, although really when is a good time?

Fifth, I don't live in Melbourne so I don't know the situation down there but in Queensland its in full blown recession especially on the Gold Coast. Also the housing market is only being propped up by high intake of immigration which creates demand.

Housing prices are obviously high all across the country especially inner city areas. Queensland is clearly worse due to the recent natural disasters. News flash: The government didn't create the disasters so don't blame them for it. In fact the government wanted to tax me here to pay for reconstruction, which I was all for. The housing prices are due to the forces of supply and demand (supply is low, demand is high), which the government has little influence over.
Our immigration rate is pitiful. We accept some 13,000 refugees every year which is a meer spec compared to the amount we could accept and the ammount other countries do accept. (We went through considerable hurdles to get a refugee VISA and once here the government didn't offer us much financial assistance, although the ammount they did offer was generous). Most our immigrants (over 70%) are skilled migrants on permanent VISA's or work VISA's (due to a lacking labour force). They largely come from England, New Zealand, China and Germany. I know this as I am related to someone working in immigration and settlement.

Many refugee's are now being processed into rural areas in order to ensure prices in the cities do not rise expotentially and those settled in suburbun and urbun areas are largely settled in lower-class or government housing areas.

As far as asylum seekers are concerned, our geographic location makes it extremely difficult for them to arrive thus we have small amounts arriving compared to America and Europe. Our asylum policy of mandatory detention, the proposal of sending them to Malaysia or Nauru would do nothing to halt migration as most asylum seekers don't know about our policies, many don't even know it is illegal and most would rather face Australian customs and border security then the Taliban, US rocket attacks, Somali famines, the Iranian dictatorship, Sudanese conflict and the Burmuse military governments. As far as I am concerned we need some form of community detention, sped up processing and stick to humanitarian principles. I don't advocate increasing refugee numbers but I can tell you we cant take more in easily.

Originally posted by EvanB

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by EvanB

Originally posted by steveknows

Originally posted by davethebear
I totally agree with what you said in your opening thread. I lived in Australia for 4 years and returned to the UK in August this year. I found the whole political thing in Australia so doom and gloom and as though there was nothing to look forward to. Even the charisma of the politicians is about as charismatic as a water melon asleep in a drain. They seem to say so much, but in reality what they say actually means nothing at all. All the politicians seem to do is waffle on and try not to give any kind of answer to any kind of question. They basically get paid for doing nothing at all, as for Julia Gillard, what a puppet and the most boring monotone voiced person who should not even be Prime Minister.

I know that the world is in crisis at the moment and the UK is not the happiest of places at the moment, but I am so glad to have left the shores of Oz. The smile has returned to my face and I never want to return to the shores of Oz again....

All the best to you........

Yes and we're always glad to see the back of a whinging pom such as yourself. not unlike the one million ten pound poms who moved here after the war and out of that one million poms who came here 100, 000 went home to crapy old England and out of that 100,000 poms who went home to crapy old england 50,000 came back to Australia because we were better fed healthier and wealthier..

Sucks to be you. Pom

Bit of a knob really aren't you mate?

Yep you're a pure pom. You can have a go but you don't like it when it comes back.

Don't call me mate as you're not one of mine.

Sucks to be you. Enjoy old dirty sooky England.

Yawn

You are no "mate" of mine either.. Slagging off the very people who built your country... I think idiot would be more appropriate in your case..
This guy is one of my direct relatives who helped to build your country. Another whinging pom who people like you are not worth brushing his boots..

England may suck, but at least its not populated by faux, anally retentive snobs with chips on their shoulders..

Actually it was more the Irish who got it going. You know the political prisoners that England couldn't stand so sent them to Australia and actually did them a big favour as thier kids grew up better fed healthier and wealthier than the poms? And their kids were first Aussies who went to have a look at England and couldn't wait to get back home because they weren't used to an environment so depressing.

Sucks to be you. I guess clean air, sunshine and long beautiful beaches gave you nothing to have a sook about so you couldn't stand it.


Hey I've got a question for you. Which has the loudest whining sound. All the jet engines at Heathrow airport or the average pommy household?

Originally posted by AussiePatriot

Originally posted by convinceme
now that a few of us have had our say what can any of us do about it?
how do we start the change, where do we start?

Do we wanna just whinge about it? Who will listen to us?

What is it we really need to do? start our own political party?
Love to hear your thoughts...

Hi ConvinceMe,
Where do we start? I would probably say Parliament house is a good place.
Who will listen to us? Well since the announcement of the carbon tax there have been many marches on Parliament house like the ditch the witch rally and the convoy of no confidence. But it seems the government as usual continues to ignore us and claims those who attend the rallies are either extremists or only represent a tiny part of the Australian people.
What is it we need to do? Well I know Bob Katter has started his Australian party as a alternative to the major two. While I like some of his ideas I'm not so sure I want Katter representing Australia on the world stage.
I think that would leave us with a violent takedown of this government and cleanse it out, yes revolution.
Unfortunately, the people are still quite happy enough to stop such an event occur on mass. But I predict it will get much worse, at the current rate I can't imagine how Gillard could still be PM by the end of the year.

That's true. She's gone no matter what. As was pointed out when the labor party said there was no question of replacing her, in political talk that means she's gone.

Originally posted by SpeachM1litant
reply to post by AussiePatriot

 

Secondly, this government is collapsing Australia by selling off all our resources.

If the government wasn't selling our resources you would be complaining saying they are lying idle and we aren't generating any wealth from them. I wish we had a large manafacturing base which produced and exported many goods, however in this globalised economy this is simply unrealistic. We would have to sacrifice our high wages and then the government would have more complaints. It is true we are a first world economy operating on the third world structure (i.e. exporting raw resources).

Thirdly, while I agree taxing mining giants is a good idea ie. higher prices equals more wealth. Also realise this is our last industry we have left since most of our farms are now sold (mostly to China)

News flash, the mining companies would still be here even if we doubled the current tax rate. Their is profit to be made, they aren't going to pack up and leave in protest to spite this government when they are greedy corporations eager to continue to make money.

Fourth, I agree with your claim on the carbon tax and I think the best Australia can do for the future is become an energy superpower (we have plenty of sun)

Sweet then what is your problem with the carbon tax. My problem is that I don't want to initiate a carbon emissions trading scheme and the proposed legislation requires amendments to ensure a push to increased competetivness in the energy sector. My other problem is that it may have come at a bad time, although really when is a good time?

Fifth, I don't live in Melbourne so I don't know the situation down there but in Queensland its in full blown recession especially on the Gold Coast. Also the housing market is only being propped up by high intake of immigration which creates demand.

Housing prices are obviously high all across the country especially inner city areas. Queensland is clearly worse due to the recent natural disasters. News flash: The government didn't create the disasters so don't blame them for it. In fact the government wanted to tax me here to pay for reconstruction, which I was all for. The housing prices are due to the forces of supply and demand (supply is low, demand is high), which the government has little influence over.
Our immigration rate is pitiful. We accept some 13,000 refugees every year which is a meer spec compared to the amount we could accept and the ammount other countries do accept. (We went through considerable hurdles to get a refugee VISA and once here the government didn't offer us much financial assistance, although the ammount they did offer was generous). Most our immigrants (over 70%) are skilled migrants on permanent VISA's or work VISA's (due to a lacking labour force). They largely come from England, New Zealand, China and Germany. I know this as I am related to someone working in immigration and settlement.


.

Hi there,
Firstly, about the government selling resources- You misunderstand me, I mean the government is literally selling the land and allowing these companies to pillage the land.

Secondly, about taxing mining giants- I agree taxing them is good but it is becoming less and less attractive for these companies to do business here when it is much cheaper to go to Africa. Recently a Ukranian billionare stated that there is a limited future in Australia not because we are running out of resources but because it is becoming too expensive to mine here. Example, they have to build their own ports and railways just to mine.

Third, about the carbon tax- If the government was serious about the environment then they would subsidise clean energy technology and give bonuses to companies that went green. A tax like this is not necessary when all the power companies will do is pass the higher cost onto the consumer.

Fourth, about immigration- Almost 200,000 people immigrate to Australia every year, seeming as our population is only 22 million that is a very large intake.

Fifth, about the house prices and natural disaster- The governments first home owner boost has done nothing but added to the price of houses up another $15,000 or so. The biggest immediate threat to property is a recession leading to growing unemployment and a fall in immgration.(Which is what props up the market)
Also I never said it was the governments fault for the Queensland floods even though they decided to build homes on flood plains, and somehow forgot to warn people of the inland tsunami.

reply to post by Pervius


... and the purchasing price of housing as a primary place of residency is the second highest in the world as per cost, divided by average annual income.... go figure.

As for Buell, that was Harley Davidson Inc. dumping their over produced, now discontinued, product on an unsuspecting rev head nation.

Peace

Originally posted by AussiePatriot
reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics

 

I couldn't agree more mate. I would just like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread discussion and I am trying to answer as many people as I can.

.... and kudos to OP for having the spheres to kick start a thread of great importance/controversy and battle through adversity.

Cheers

Australia has definitely gone down since John Howard... whether thats the plan or not, no idea.

But thats not to say Australia is not an awesome place to live. Unfortunately the tax payouts from the honest hard working citizens are thrown in to the gutters...

Got to be grateful though.

It is true that we pay alot for food and daily necessities. It would suck being poor here.

and don't even mention Julia Gillard... she has destroyed my country with her weasel eyes.

Kevin Rudd will be back in power within weeks. Unfortunately I don't see anyone better to run this country at the moment. He did some good work while in the office. The mining tax was his undoing, but I had nothing against the mining tax.

Other countries are coming in and taking our natural resourses and and complain when Australians try to recover some of the profits that are going overseas. The exeption is the couple of Australian billionaires complaining using scare tactics on working australians. I say good on Kevin Rudd for trying to keep the money in Australia.

The carbon tax however, what a joke. Gillard should be sacked over that. Hopefully its her policy and not labours.

reply to post by AussiePatriot


Feel ya friend.

I think we are about to swap out one socialist for another.

The only one at the debates thats legit (Ron Paul) barely gets any air time.

Just realize that crashing the sytem will lead to THEIR demise. We wont have anything left to give a crap about so why not?

Originally posted by DerVerboten
reply to post by AussiePatriot

 

Have fun going back to the way of aborigines.
And being killed in your own country like south africa.

I'll be with you soon..

America, out.

If you are posting this in America and you aren't an indigenous American, that's is a little ironic wouldn't you say?

reply to post by SpeachM1litant


Hi, you posted that you don't vote for your PM, only for the political party - are you under the impression this is unique to Australia? In the UK the general public votes for the political party it wants to win the election. Party members vote for who is the leader of their party and if that party wins, the leader is the PM. I thought the USA was the same - in the primaries the party members vote for who they want to be their leader and then in the election the populice votes on the party.

Not sure that is really undemocratic as such.