Australia’s core beliefs – where are they now?
What happened to a ‘fair go’ in this country? It has long gone, writes Jack Gleeson. So who is to blame?
Above all else, Australians value a fair go for everyone. We expect our governments to put regulatory frameworks in place that ensure this.
A fair go demands equal and unbiased treatment for everyone.
We believe that all Australians are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law and the agencies of our government.
We believe in equality between men and women. We reject any legislation, policy or procedure that has the effect of discriminating against either gender.
We believe that our leaders should focus on making an equitable society rather than widening the gap between the rich and the poor. We reject foreign ideologies designed to give advantage to the privileged few and/or facilitate laissez faire capitalism.
We live in a society, not an economy.
We reject government policy based on simplistic financial profit and loss. We demand that our leaders take everything into account when setting macro policy. Even though many of us don’t know the term itself, the concept of the triple bottom line measuring economic value, social responsibility and environmental responsibility strikes a chord with us.
We expect our governments to invest in research to develop proactive solutions rather than trying to fix problems with reactive bandaid solutions.
We want Medicare and the PBS strengthened and retained.
We expect education and training opportunities for all our kids based on merit – not on ability to pay.
We won’t tolerate attacks on the most vulnerable in our society.
We expect that our senior citizens and those with disabilities will be looked after by governments.
We want job security. We expect that the Australian government will proactively seek to ensure this.
We further expect that if we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves unemployed the Government will provide effective user-friendly support services to assist us to find a new position.
We expect corporations and the mega-rich to pay their way, not to be given a free ride by governments. We expect the Treasurer, the Australian Taxation Office and other government agencies to ensure that they do so.
We expect that Government agencies will be properly staffed and resourced to enable them to fulfil the role the Parliament assigns them.
We expect a fair return to the public purse for allowing our publicly owned resources to be exploited by the private sector.
We demand that full-time workers receive a living wage. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. We support the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration system. We are not fooled by ideologically motivated attacks on the unions that represent many of us.
We value Australia’s role as a responsible member of the international community. However, we expect our leaders to put Australia’s interests first.
We do not support free trade deals that don’t benefit ordinary workers and Australian industry. What we want is fair trade for everyone. The so-called level playing field.
We do not support unrestricted sell-offs of Australian land, companies and residential properties to foreigners.
We are comfortable with State ownership of key assets in a mixed economy. We don’t want our public assets sold and the revenue streams from them forgone forever.
We strongly support our Defence Forces but not politicians getting us continually involved in other people’s wars. We expect that our veterans will be looked after by the government.
We expect our leaders to ensure our security, but not to use “national security” or “law and order” as an excuse to suppress our civil liberties.
We expect that our leaders will ensure that Australia’s technological infrastructure remains on par with the rest of the world.
We expect that our environment will be protected and managed in a sustainable way.
As well as these policy areas it is increasingly clear that Australians don’t care for politicians with a sense of entitlement fattening themselves at our expense whilst simultaneously stripping us of public assets and the revenue stream that is derived from those public assets.
We do not accept that being elected to Parliament is a ticket to enrich yourself and your mates at the public’s expense. Especially if accompanied by the simultaneous grinding into the dirt of those who can least afford it.
Being elected to Parliament is not a carte blanche to do what you want without convincing us first that the proposed course of action is both necessary and reasonable. We do not take to blatant liars in our governments, especially after Mr Abbott’s relentless sustained derision of Julia Gillard over a single instance.
Which of course brings us to hypocrisy: We especially don’t like politicians who attack their opponents only to do the same things (themselves) later. Nor do we like arrogant dismissive leaders who think power means they never have to explain or account for their actions.
Finally, endless wars of words don’t impress us. We don’t particularly care who comes out on top in the verbal jousting in Parliament. You will only gain long-term respect and support by effective action in line with the above principles.
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Guy Jones
Return to home pageOh, we do ! – and for the last few, oh, we don’t ! 🙂
I shall re-post this one …
I am going to make rhubarb strudle from the last five stalks of our rhubarb plant. Watch this space!
A government based on free Rhubarb strudle would get my vote. We want Rhubarb strudle kitchens for the poor and rich alike.
Apart from a couple of typos (sorry, I am a grammar nazi), this is absolutely spot on and should be seared into every politician’s mind, heart and soul before (s)he is allowed to take office. Bravo³
Graham, WordPress uses an American spell-checker, which does cause us a few problems.
I sent this article to my local member, Michael McCormack I bet I don’t even get a reply
Beautifully articulated and all politicians should be sent this excellent piece of writing and how the people’s needs are not being met, yea we all want things, but when politicians ignore peoples basic needs to survive and then even try to put more barriers up like the doctor copayment, they will be blasted back by the people like this gov have and have deserved every bit of what they are reaping now
Things NEED to change if the human species wishes to survive as a civil, fair society for all…..
the treat them mean and keep them keen never works as Phony Tony and his rabble gov have just worked out
They seem surprised, not as surprised as the people were when they said, they would be a ” surprise” gov
The hypocrisy has eaten any credibility the idiots did have….
Bill Shorten should read this and then build a policy platform around it.
This is what I was brought up to believe, I am 61. Howard and the never ending boom gave us a generation of greedy affluence whose motto is I’m all right Jack. Combine this with his legitimising of racism via Tampa we have a cruel and narcissistic generation whose first instinct is to blame and jump to stereotypes as they then can continue to think about themselves and dismiss anything or anyone who doesn’t support that position. This is the true Howard legacy and Abbott is the love child of that movement
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE POLITICIANS DONT GET. In this young country we have few firmly held beliefs. Fairness is the one that has not not been spun out of existence. We used to call it “A FAIR GO” and we meant for all.
The funeral pyre which has been building around Abbott and his mob has been precisely becasue they have beytrayed this value.
Prince Phillips knighthood was just a match struck. The pyre was there ready and waiting for the next Captains Call.
Labor do not watch and learn at their peril. Australians are growing up and learning that they DONT HAVE TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.
The MURDOCH cheer squad are losing ground which is why they are dumping Abbott. BUT Australians are not stupid- well not all of us- we know that it is the policies which harm us not the man.
If these dont change we will keep dumping the bastards until they learn. We are not USA. WE dont want neo-liberal policies which see the rich thrive and the rest starve.
Always a fair go? it is a mythology that sounded good? where were the Australian engineers for The Sydney Harbor Bridge? also the Sydney concert Hall, and the building that went up recently in Sydney, The Crumpled bag Look? the Federation Square, was initiated by the London firm? as for submarines? and planes that do not go I mean fighter jets, although we invented the Hills hoist? but why when we did have the quarter acre block? long enough for rope?
Hear Hear, Well spoken Bruce.
“A Fair Go” is all that most of us want. And somewhere to call home. Where our kids are safe. That wont destroy our lifestyle to obtain. Honest pay for honest work. Respect, and fair treatment for our parents, teachers, police forces, emergency services (to whom I owe my life) the elderly, disabled and our ex & returned service personnel, et al.
And above everything else, we expect our supposed leaders, political, social and religious, to lead by example and be better than us, not because they have more money or shinier cars, but because they are more aware of how to behave as humans, with dignity, that respect is a hard earned gift, that life is fragile, and that there but for the grace of the higher powers go I.
Being Australian is the greatest treasure that anyone can ever posses. It is time that our political leaders were reminded of what that really means, and what their decisions to give that away to the highest bidder will cost them.
We used to have a boat called “Fair Go” and she sometimes ran aground but always stayed afloat.
This is a brilliant article.
Rudd went because he was dysfunctional and could not work with others.
Abbot has to go because he is destroying people’s lives and the reputation of Australia with the rest of the world.
It is hard to see who among the libs could replace him and persuade the Coalition to change its diabolical policies and see economic good sense.
Bill Shorten – please read the article and act on its principles if you wish to remain leader.
This is an excellent and comprehensive statement of core Australian beliefs. I too will share it while hoping Bill Shorten and his team read it and absorb its implications. I would like to think Abbott’s mob would read it, and perhaps get a glimpse of exactly why they are all so on the nose. Fortunately, I think it is too late, and they are too unreconstructed, to benefit from the wisdom contained here.
I’m alright Jack. Bugger the rest of youse!!!!
If most Australians really believed in “a fair go” and “equal protection of the law “… the corporate meeeja would be out of business. They rely on our fear, bigotry, selfishness and insecurity to sell their product!!
This wonderful. Thank you for putting this into words. It is timeless except for the last few paragraphs which spoil the universality of it a bit.
Your 11th point is broken. Suggest something like “We won’t tolerate attacks on the most vulnerable in our society.”
Thanks Miriam. Good point. Done.
Excellent and wot miriamenglish said…
… and if you can get each point into a 3 word slogan – maybe our pollies will even understand it.
Poor Jackie Gleeson.. wants a society based on sweet reason and as to mode, use value rather than exchange value.
This gets close to a process Kevin 07 tried to initiate, at least as ambit. But Big Business, reactively clutching to its illusions of power and wealth- as ever- repudiated it. In a way, the thing is played out again in Europe with the far worseTroika/ Syriza event.
Probably the rest of us let things slip, comfortable in the knowledge that Australians would never again vote for nutters like Tony Abbott, surely now reduced to the antediluvian fringe…
Six years of carping destructiveness from Then, Abbott and the Murdoch press played on every subconcious, dark hang up or insecurity any Australian ever possessed, reducing many of us to Hansonist idiocy
Labor’s inability to repudiate some of the worst elements of Howard IPA policy worsened the impression, but even now the trog right faction carries influence directly out of kilter with its zip intellectual input as to that side of politics and in the meantime globalising financier neoliberalism has strengthened its grip on civilisation and even figured out techniques involving cultural mutilation.
So, the best thing to do is what has been done here, to put up a post that reminds us of the obscured main game- including the last three paras as implicit summary
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Kaye Lee
As usual ahead of the MSM when it comes to dirty dealings and giving THE AIMN readers a heads up before all others.
This is Kaye Lee's Article dated 16 November 2014 :
This is Fairfax Media on 7 February 2015 :
http://www.theage.com.au/business/uncertainty-over-massive-queensland-mine-after-election-shock-and-concerns-over-indian-company-20150206-137mbi.html
This is APN Media today :
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/just-in/
Congratulations Kaye Lee.
I fully concur.
Well done Ace reporter.
Australian politicians… wake up!!! The values we all hold dear are fast disappearing, and we will be nothing but a US suburb… with all the negativity that comes from that…..
Great article it is great to see that people still hang on to the ideals that this country was built on in the hope that one day the Catholic Capitalist Party (LNP) will be blasted into obliteration never to return. Over the past 70-80 years they have never changed, when times are hard, there is heavy lifting to be done or middle ground and common sense is needed there is never a Liberal in bloody cooee. Probably just a well because they all have passion fingers, they f@#k up every thing they touch.
Busy But watching. Great article.
It’s like you can read my mind. I totally agree with every word written
A post from the Guardian is of interest. Just another version but worth a look.
R_Ambrose_Raven RInglis 2d ago
Hooroo, mate, anyone want a list of the current takings of the sacred cows/snouts in the trough? A list of what they are getting is a good start to deciding what should be taken off them.
Class A – utter waste of money:
> …owner-occupier c g tax discounts………. $23.3 billion/yr over FY16-18
> …c g tax discounts for indiv & trusts… ….$9.1 billion/yr over FY16-18
> …fossil fuel subsidies…………………………………..10 billion
…………….(24 TIMES car industry subsidies @ 200,000 jobs + $30b)
> . Abbott’s Direct Action replacing Julia’s Great Big New
…………. Carbon Tax……………… 4 billion (per year for 4 years)
> …mining industry subsidies…. ………….4.5 billion (fuel $2 billion)
> …negative gearing………………….. …………………6.4 billion
> …superannuation tax concessions… ……………….$36 billion in FY15
Class B – bloated subsidies of private profit:
> …First Home Vendors Grants…………… ………………….1 billion
> …child-care rebate (incl to states)………………………..8 billion
> …private education………………….9 billion ($36 billion over 09-13)
> …Private Health Insurance Rebate…………………………..5 billion
Class C – given away but recoverable
> …owner-occupier c g exemption……………….19 billion/yr over FY16-18
> …1.5% company tax cut in FY16…………………………….2 billion
> …transnational tax evasion…………………………….. $8.4 billion
> …excessive tax cuts to richest………………………….$15.8 billion
Class D – increasing taxation to OECD average
> …extra tax revenue………………………………………$85 billion
Class A+B+C Total: 93 + 23 + 44 + 85 BILLION = $245 BILLION ($A245,000,000,000)
Private education can be paid for entirely by those whose children enjoy it. Direct public provision of services such as health and child care would be far less costly and allow better service.
A fair go? when? and by who you can bet it won,t be the pollies who give australians a fair go they are to busy selling us down the river. All our industries are offshore,not enough jobs for people now , just cheap imports made in sweat factories that fall apart .Govenment housing ? don,t hold your breath if your an aussie ,. the woman i care for, 10 yrs on the list and still waiting,then told another 8 yrs as sudaneese have priotry,A fair go?when the devil throws snowballs in hell
.
Such a wonderfully simple, decent recipy for “Australia Felix”. So easy to achieve in the absence of greed.
I am sure that nice amaible Mr Turnbull will give us a serve given half a chance. Right after our new Porcine 35 bombers have made a fly-past in his honour.
Unfortunately past history is the best guide to the future behaviour of slick self serving, self interested and self satisfied bankers.
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stephentardrew
Got a Link to that comment ?
Fantastic read, and the comments would suggest I am not alone in thinking that. I suspect the “root cause” was a cultural shift going back to the 80’s, when it became acceptable to demonise victim’s. Since then, it seems to me, a victim (regardless of the cause of the victimisation) is a drain on “our” resources. A cultural shift takes at least two generations to become adopted. I think we’re there. The victims are now just leeches, and the business of providing for them is not just a fair go, it’s a revenue stream for the perpetrators. For the record, I really hope I’m wrong. Take care
There is nothing I like more than a story where the goodies win and the moral is laid there to be remembered.
Australia, by a majority voted for the destruction of refugees by shipping men, women and children offshore to be terrorised by recent cannibals, to be killed by PNG police and Australian security contractors and more recently to be treated in breach of our international obligations under several refugee treaties and undertakings. Where is the fair go in that?
We elect “leaders” from 2 parties who are entirely driven by a need to be seen as a friend by another country or two.
Our “leaders” are told what to do by an American media owning octogenarian who has no skin in our game and who changed nationality to comply with our friend’s law on media ownership which neither party pushes or enforces. We continue to vote for those parties no matter how many times they lie to us about the issue.
We continue to vote for those parties because they say they will create jobs, which time after time they do. Problematically the jobs are in other countries.
Our “leaders” try to run the country as a corporation. Blind Freddy will tell you that doesn’t work. So will our friends. We vote on the basis of economic responsibility without having a single clue what that means.
Government of Australia is not now and hasn’t for years been about fair goes. It’s about what’s good for our individual pockets and the career plans of those leaders.
We don’t want a fair go. We want an easy go.
The need is for Australia to completely change direction and until that happens among both parties and all representatives, nothing will change.
That won’t happen until we realise that doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different result is the definition of an idiot, or in our case, a nation of them.
“We further expect that if we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves unemployed the Government will provide effective user-friendly support services to assist us to find a new position.
We expect that Government agencies will be properly staffed and resourced to enable them to fulfil the role the Parliament assigns them.”
Could I suggest that anyone who finds themselves on hold for an inordinate length of time when trying to contact a government agency such as Centrelink or the ATO ring the relevant Minister’s office in Canberra.
Scott Morrison’s office will put you through to Marise Payne’s office if it has to do with Newstart. Ms Payne’s staff are very efficient.
Consider that a community service announcement that I think more members of the community should take advantage of 😉
In the unlikely event that my above comment may be seen by our many media monitors, consider it my contribution to the nation’s productivity because being on hold for an hour isn’t good for my work effort or your re-election chances.
Thanks for the tip KL – although I’m hoping to never have to need it again.
Kaye Lee, if I had been paid for the hours I had to waste trying get Telstra to fix up my accounts, I’d be so rich I wouldnt even have to blog-post anymore.
John been working late just looked at your post. Doing everything in a rush. Still searching.
I think we’ve been had ……..
Would really like some research done regarding the claims in these videos on YouTube
Australian Government Acts of Treason 1 -4
First – Insist (BY ACTION) that at least one candidate for election to any Parliament in each and every electorate be selected by a demonstrably Non-Party Citizens’ Committee in their electorate.
Kaye, I only watched the first part of the first video, but got the strong impression this guy is a conspiracy theorist playing with words and confirmation bias to “prove” whatever crazy beliefs he already has.
The use of both the generalised ‘we’ and ‘Australians’ together with nationalistic sentiment seriously detract from the overall tenor of the article. Australia is not and never has been an egalitarian (‘Christian’) democracy. The urban myth of an ‘egalitarian’ Australia underpins Donald Horne’s sardonic novel The Lucky Country.
From its ‘discovery’ by CAPTAIN James Cook and Declaration by CAPTAIN and later GOVENOR Arthur Phillip, Australia has been and remains a society characterised by clearly distinguishable socio-economic class divisions. The establishment/imposition of the British parliamentary political system at both State and later Federal levels – including large bureaucracies underpinning both structures – merely reaffirmed the status quo.
“We support the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration system.” Has the author not caught up with the fact that this particular system of social-political control was demolished several decades ago in yet another attempt to break the power of unions; or is he calling for its re-introduction?
Overall the article exposes the sort of poorly-educated myopic sentimentalism characteristic of Dame Edna’s pretentious lower middle class residents of Mooney Ponds.
Oops, sorry. I meant Kayla, not Kaye. 🙂
A good start for a Bill of Responsibilities for politicians
Add a Federal ICAC to that Lorraine Yudaeff.
@John Foster what was the point of your comment? To belittle the author of the article? Make yourself appear to be intelligent by insinuating others inferiority? Use big words in an attempt to confuse us low life scum? Insinuate that only poorly educated people support unions? Personally your comment proves to me that you do not have any vision of what could be if we stopped wasting government funds sending students straight from secondary school to university. We are stupid because we continue to allow people who have never done anything besides going to school educate our kids. Less than 50% of university graduates ever gain employment in the field they studied so at the end of year 12 we should send students out to work where they can prove they have an aptitude and the dedication it takes to be successful. There are a lot of very intelligent people on campus but it is very hard to find anyone with any brains. Lets stop the rot and start teaching “common sense” to students like we used to and then ensure people take responsibility for themselves. Maybe we would break the cycle of universities creating professional politicians like the idiot who is masquerading as our PM.
John Foster, thanks for educating me on something I was obviously wrong about. Here’s me thinking that Australia was discovered by some people in a canoe about 60,000 years ago. I stand corrected. It was Captain Cook.
If the statement/s of expectation by Mr Gleeson were put up as that, I would probably vote for them as a set of aspirations for the whole community.
We constantly vote for parties who have their own agenda, and what WE want comes very far behind – third or later.
When our “representatives” tell us about the “jobs” they are going to create, we have to add, “if the investment environment is okay for that”. If not “we didn’t see that coming”, becomes the excuse du jour for why the jobs don’t appear.
When the likes of Adani say “28,000 jobs”, WE should ask our “representatives” to add the proviso “in Australia, for our people, not with a 457 visa in hand”. But we don’t. The Adani’s of the world ask for FTA’s and TPP’s that allow them to bring out their own “staff”, most of whom appear to be labourers.As soon as politicians hear “jobs” they hear nothing else. It’s as if all they want to be able to do is quote someone who said something that at some time in the future, we will have jobs, somewhere. Not automatically in Australia, or if in Australia, not automatically for Australians. See this link for a review supposedly underway by IBC Dept. http://migrationblog.immi.gov.au/2014/04/11/457-integrity-review/
We need to make the bastards responsible for their decisions in our names. All the decisions.
And we need to stop SELLING the farm. Without delay.
Hear. hear …but dont pick on 457’s or you’ll be accused of being xenophobic!!
@John Fraser February 8, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Found the link you asked for:
http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/47168790
Well, hate to be the piss on the parade here, and stand against this beautifully conceived and written piece, but… let’s make an obvious point. To say “Australians value…” (or “feel’ or “believe” or “think”) is pretty much such a generalisation as to be useless as factual assessment, just as much as saying “all women…” or “all Italians” or “all art lovers…” Like all large groups – and we speak of more than 23 million here – there’s a lot of diversity in thought and opinion.
Let’s look at some figures here. The latest Morgan Gallop poll finds that 35.5% prefer the LNP on primary basis (translating to 42.5% on a two-party-preferred basis) and that in the recent state election over 41% of voting Queenslanders cast their vote for the LNP. Now, even allowing for the fact that people might vote, or intend to vote, conservatively for other reasons (brainwashing by the Murdoch press, isolation, lack of education or intelligence) it’s still hard to swallow the contention that ALL Australians adhere to the values espoused in the article. Presumably a large group of people (3/10) are quite happy to eschew the love of a fair go in favour of other “advantages” – such as keeping the evil migrants out, the gays in their closets and the unwashed unemployed in their place!
As John Foster points out above, Australia is a country with a very strong and rigid class system (albeit one based on money rather than ancestry,) a population from which xenophobia and homophobia are not entirely unknown, and a tacit acceptance of corruption, elitism and cronyism from our politicians. It is heartwarming that their appears to have been a recent swing towards fairness, kindness and honesty in recent months, but it’s surely a bit too premature for self-congratulation just yet.
Alan, while it is true that Australians are a diverse people and some don’t feel any sympathy for the ideals spoken of in the article above, I see the piece as outlining a kind of mythical character that many (most?) of us liked to believe about Australia. There is great advantage in promoting that view.
Intelligent creatures have this strange characteristic where treating them a certain way, having certain expectations of them, actually produces that result. There is a terribly unethical experiment performed decades ago, in which children in a school class were given intelligence tests, then results were secretly switched before giving them to the class’s teachers. The smartest kids were given the lowest scores and the worst-performing given the highest scores. Some time later (a year or six months — I forget) the kids were re-tested and disturbingly the kids now scored according to the teacher’s erroneous expectations.
The same thing has been seen in kids and adults alike. Tell a kid they are clumsy and they become clumsy. Tell an adult that they are caring and thoughtful and they become more caring and thoughtful.
The same thing works with dogs. If you expect a dog to be smart it will rise to your expectations; treat it as stupid and it will never master much.
If we adopt (as we used to) the idea of the “fair go” and embrace diversity loudly, then we become more generous and that empathy ripples outward through society. If we are told over and over again that only the rich matter and that those on the dole are shameful and deserve nothing and aliens from other cultures are to be feared then we will come to act in exactly such a weaselly fashion.
I would like to think that Australians value a fair go for everyone …
But …
As Mars08 said ..
.”I’m alright Jack. Bugger the rest of youse!!!!”
Remember the history (such as it was) that we were taught at school?
All about the brave old pioneers but nary a mention of the shameful treatment of the Aborigines,
the massacres and so on, all part of early settlement.
I won’t mention Australia’s environmental record over the years …
I could go on …
Regardless of the divisions in our society, this sharing ethos did form a kind of national character. I remember hearing an interview with an old war veteran who’d been in a prisoner of war under the Japanese somewhere in South-East Asia. One thing that stuck in my memory was when he described the way the Brits, that Yanks, and the Aussies survived. The Brits shared only within ranks — the officers didn’t share with the lower ranks. The Yanks didn’t share at all, being every man for himself. The Aussies didn’t care about rank, but shared all alike so tended to outlive the Brits and the Yanks.
In an absolute sense we may not have all subscribed to the fair-go ethos, but it did have a kind of national characteristic — a sort of measuring stick, by which to judge behavior, so it did have genuine ramifications. Our psychopathic politicians and economists and business “leaders” have been leading us ever more towards the USA “never give a sucker an even break” way of thinking. We really should be doing all we can to push back to a more empathetic and sharing society, or like those prisoners of war, we are going to have a hard time of it when the ecological, climate, energy, population, and other problems really hit.
@miriamenglish
Nailed it.
This is what we are in danger of losing – AKA mateship – it was a necessary way of survival for the men and women convicts at the beginning of white settlement, moved towards being a male only thing, although, recent acknowledgement that women are as much a part of the mateship ethos as men. Our successive governments, Labor and more visibly Liberal, have actively turned against the idea of help and sharing among each other – as Miriam writes “leading towards the USA ‘never give a sucker an even break’ way of thinking.”
Abbott after the recent spill claims he will “socialise” policies prior to implementation – not very good use of the word “socialise” but the nearest thing this government has come to collaborative team work thus far.
@Dianaart – Unfortunately, we aren’t in “danger of losing it”, it’s gone, down the sewer of Americanisation.
Do you know we are the only country that has ever begged America for a role in a war? McMahon took us to Vietnam – “All the way with LBJ”. My father marched every time there was a moratorium march. He led a lot of the one’s in Newcastle. The self-servatives called the marchers “commies” and other such bovine claptrap, bu7t who turned out to be right?
Howard took us to Iraq and Afghanistan, in a desperate plea to Bush version 1, from memory, to show we weren’t useless and soft. Then to add insult to injury, did it again in Gulf Version 2.0. He was in Washington for some reason and begged Bush version 2.0 by this time, to let him play as well.
Perhaps Australia could form a squad or a platoon of self-servative sons, to be sent first to the war, instead of dumb-arse hillbillies from places like Logan and Parramatta, where the current cannon fodder are served from.
The “allies” in theatre in the middle east refer to Australian troops as “koala troops”, cute, but quite useless in theatre. Politicians put them in there, and they are prepared to fight and make an account of themselves, but our spineless, gormless, brainless, weak-livered nancy boy nonce politicians, don’t want them damaged, so they can show America what big balls they have (the pollies, there is no question our troops have balls), and tell the mothers and fathers of the non-self-servative voting population that the country is taking good care of their sons.
Of course that goes to the shit-house when @TonyAbbortMHR turns up and can hardly lift a duffle bag. God knows what he would do with an M16 or an RPG.
Our “fair go” got f***ed off to feed the American war machine, and no power on earth can deny that fact.
“TonyAbbortMHR ….God knows what he would do with an M16 or an RPG.”
I hate to think – the man is not so good with talk, but for the grace of God, he wasn’t born into a family of hill-billies – seeing as he is more of a shoot first, ask questions later, type of ding-bat – which passes for some weird sort of masculinity we could do better without.
However, I haven’t given up – we are here talking to each other, we are not alone.
😀
Where is the fair go for the real Australians?
All that nice list of ( justified ) requests will never see the day as long a we are trapped in the current corrupt financial system . The fractional ( city of London ) banking system creating money out of nothing is designed to create debts and take control .through the years they have bought our media and politicians ( puppets ) . They are NOT ALLOWED to change the established set up ( eg: Kennedy, withlam )Voting for either of two parties is a joke . . For a democracy to work the people has to be informed ..It is not ONLY Murdock but all presstitutes ABC included that keep people blind ..http://www.yourstrawman.com/