Oz Politics and Kulture! - by Suburban Boy

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Oz Politics and Kulture! - September 2006

Queensland: Beattie one day, Beattie the next!

September 18th 2006 02:58

Now that the dust has all but settled on the recent Queensland election it maybe worth making some observations.

An oppostition they cannot achieve unity amongst its own will not beat even the most incompetent Government.

Changing your leader just before an election is called will not get you extra votes unless you are replacing them with an already well recognised and well-known person (e.g. Bob hawke for bill hayden).

Queenslanders are not as stupid as some might say. They can recognise that health problems may occur because of increase in populations and decrease in available docotors. This is not to say that Beattie could not have done more to forsee the crisis.

They can recognise that drought is not brought on by governments and that if you keep telling people soemthing is wrong you have to also give them the confidence that you can do a better job then the current gorvernment.

Predictions:

Beattie will go full term and not step down before the next election. His ego just won't let him. This could casue tension between him and Bligh but i think she'd be prepared to wait at this stage. her only danger is the ALP right coming up with an alternative leader to her i'm sure they are pissed off a left woman seems likely to be the next Premier of Queensland

Springborg may have resigned from oppostion leadership and returned to the back bench but the Nationals will never win power without him as either leader or playing a large role in policy. Despite his loss he is still the best thing they have going for them. He is the only one of them there who will be able to connect with city people. Seeney is a complete joke and under his leadership they will really struggle.

The Liberals may have to wait till Howard is removed from office as all their best talents heads to federal polotics at the moment and avoid state politics like the plague.

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Posted By: Suburban Boy - Category: Politics

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Vanestone and Beazely sniffing the same substance?

September 16th 2006 05:22

What a weird week it has been. The great xenophobia auction is on in earnest.

Beazely kicks it off with the idea of having all visitors to Australia be they tourists or immigrants signing a pledege to respect Australian Values and some how linking it to the "War on Terrorism".

This single act has shown that Beazely has no faith in being able to win a campaign on good policy but in a desperate attempt to show himself as relevant to the electorate will stoop down to the "dog whistle" politics of the conservatives.

Then Amanda Vanstone weighs in with a spray at the Labor Party for its attack on foreign workers coming to the country with no grasp of the english language. She pointed to the fact that non-english speaking countries workers were being singled out and that most foreign workers come from the U.K..

Now forgiven me if I'm mistaken but this is from the same person who singles out refugee's for overstaying visas but fails to acknowledge that its U.K. tourist who are the single biggest overstayers of visas. This is from the same government who is telling us that people need to be able to speak english to get on here.

Lets not forget Howard's singling out of a small group of Muslims as not wanting to speak english.

It has been my observations that in the first generation of immigrants there are some who do not attempt to learn the english language. These are often the elderly, disadvantaged and those who may have been traumatised by the move. Not to forget that many immigrants to Australia to free themselves from oppressive regimes and while they are glad to have moved it's often a forced move due to circumstances beyond their control.

However I find the children of most of these first generation immigrants never reluctant to speak english and usually strive to learn it. Just like the Europeans and Asians who have come to this country their initial years on arrival are greeted by claims of not assimilating.

These things take time. John Howard himself congratulated the Greek community for its integration in to Australian society. I have only to think back to my growing up in the seventies to know how Greeks were accused of not speaking english and only mixing in their own circles. Now they are an accepted grouping in Australia. If we single out groups of people, particularly one based on a religion, we will ostracise them, making them feel singled out.
This is not a healthy way to address a problem. We all know what a caged animal does when it feels cornered.

It is time for all our Leaders to explain just what it is they are seeking to do? Or is it just to easy to jump up and down about so-called issues like this to make people forget about the bigger picture problems we have such as Health, Climate,Water and infrastructure.

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Posted By: Suburban Boy - Category: Australian Politics

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Kym and John Good Bed Buddies

September 15th 2006 02:06

It is very interesting to see just what it takes to get our Federal Leaders to come together in agreement on something.

One might think that with Australia facing several major areas of concern such as climate change, health crisis (in almost all states), down turn in export manufacturing and water problems that a spirit of co-operation may prevail.

Just look where we find agreement in recent weeks. Kicking immigrants and politicians wages.

It is marvellous isn't it. Both sides of politics seem to be engaged in an auction to see who can take the higher ground on ensuring that immigrants understand what Australian values are (though i have seen no definitive list of what they are).

When it came to changing superannuation for pollies not a word of dissent from either of the major political parties even though it was both these parties that agreed to the changes only two years ago claiming that ordinary Australians were sick of the gravy train they had established for themselves.

If only Beazley and Howard could find such agreement on how to deal with climate change or health.

it is just pathetic really. Can anybody tell me how either forcing immigrants to sign up to so-called Australian values or increasing politicians superannuation is going to do anything to help the Australian economy.

Howard argued that we needed to offer politicians better super so as to maintain a high level of candidate who are willing to enter the political "gene pool". Well I've got news for him. We have in recent times given politicians generous reward for their employment and in my opinion have not seen an enormous intellectual increase in our politicians.

Maybe now is the time to try the opposite and offer a reasonable and fair reward for their work and get politicians who want to be there not for the financial reward but because the have a passion for wanting to improve Australia. I have found that those who have a genuine passion an area do it well regardless of the financial reward that get from it.

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Posted By: Suburban Boy - Category: Australian Politics

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What is Beazely on????

September 12th 2006 12:03

Just after discovering this blogg site and deciding I would put my writing skills and ideas to practice. I figured I would right something of the major political topic in my part of the world currently, that being the Queensland Election.

Until I heard the latest utterances of Bomber Beazely. Just what was he thinking.What was he on? Had he been reading the Latham Diaries and had some weird flashback thing occur where he thought he was Mark Latham

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