RE: Is the Western world Sleepwalking into a Totalitarian Nightmare.
Australian values are being dictated by a right-wing press, controlled by the octogenarian oligarch, Rupert Murdoch, through Newscorp. I feel, if anything, that Australia has moved to the right, and has been doing so since the 1980s. The union movement benefits the people, and although they don't see it that way, also businesses by ensuring that people have enough money to spend on items beyond the essential. The reason that governments have been"in turmoil" as you put it is because the major parties are very close in the polls, and require only a 3% swing in electoral support to win or lose an election. Therefore, smaller parties have been able to carry the balance of power, when neither party or party coalition has been able to obtain a majority. I find it interesting that they tend to favour Labor over the Liberal-National Coalition. They are unaffiliated, but exercise their logic and what is best for the people. If they could have worked with the Lib-Nat Coalition, they would have. (Word on the street was the Lib-Nat Coalition was too arrogant and not open to compromise, whereas Labor was more willing to adapt its policies.) The best politician this country ever had was Paul Keating, and the press hated him. It was the economic policies of Paul Keating that laid the groundwork for John Howard's period of prosperity. He introduced compulsory superannuation, amongst other things. But discussion is good. Happy Steeming :)
Thanks for your reply.
Sadly I really don't beleive Newscorp as as much sway as it once used to have, 10years ago I would agree with that comment 100%.
Australia is most certainly swinging to the Left not the Right as can be seen with many of the recent Lib-Nat policies being labelled Labor-Lite.
But I do agree with you on the small margins, but I honestly think this is more because of the Senate rather than the House of Reps. If the Senate wasn't looking to push their own agenda rather than just do their job, much bolder and broader policies that would affect the nation would have been passed. Instead we have party lines that run through the Senate.
I beleive that much of the original Abbott/Hockey Budget was very good reform, but it was all blocked because of party lines. Not because of the best interest of the nation.
Also, you are correct, credit where credit is due Keating was an excellent PM and laid very good solid groundwork for the Howard Government to improve on. Sadly its just been economic vandalism since then with too many NO men standing in the way of any kind of reform. Opposition parties forget that they have also been elected to improve the standards of their constituents and to support the government.
Sorry I think I went way off topic there.
It's interesting seeing things outside a bubble. From other feeds I exist in, Labor is often referred to a Liberal-Lite, and we're 'definitely swinging right'. It wasn't until I was on here that I saw people mentioning the Liberals being Labor-lite, which I also think is reflective of how close the polls are, and how many of their policies are so very similar (or just blatantly stolen and slightly adapted from the others...)
I wish when I was younger I understood just how good Keating was.
He was vilified in the press, when really, he was amazing ! Maybe because the press took him down is why Labor hates to stick its neck out and follow its conviction?
Yes, her really was. How anyone reads the press as 'pro-Labor' I'm not sure, but I do know that they exist.
How true ;-) our press in particular is very pro-business and anti little-person-on-the-street. Not too many media outlets not owned by Murdoch. He was instrumental in getting Trump elected, too, LOL :-)
You didn't go off topic at all :) I enjoyed the read. But I do still think the press is quite rightwing. The Tele is subsidised, so remains. MSN news is all Murdoch. It's meant to blind the masses. And the Government is stymied because its majority is so slim. But maybe that's a good thing? Except they're not achieving anything. Without workers a country can't function. Keep the workers happy, I say :)
Let’s just make and keep workers in general. Make working rewarding for the people and welfare unliveable and the ENTIRE country will prosper.
I’d love to see major and revolutionary tax reform that basically incentivises hard work. Would only work if we could cut out the hoards of people with their hands out looking for free money.
Welfare is a necessary evil and I'd prefer if people got welfare than have to see kids living rough on the street. If that happened, I'd be one of the do-gooders who went out and gave them a home. I prefer them to have welfare because I wouldn't sleep at night, knowing there were thousands of cold, hungry kids without a roof over their heads. So I support welfare. But a UBI, payable to everyone would be fantastic. You could still work on top, but the awful paper passing jobs that support current welfare system would go....the paper-passing part would pass to the blockchain....
There was a trial on the UBI in Europe last year I beleive. I'm pretty sure they found it to be a complete failure as i didn't encourage anyone to work so less people did work and more people just slipped between the cracks.
It's been operating quite successfully in Norway for some time. Now, I'm going to do a study on it :-) Happy Steeming and just, BTW, due to having suffered the devastation of Cyclone Debbie, I haven't "worked" since. I've been supporting myself, trading crypto :) so I've found another means of income, while I oversaw the repairs to my place. They are now complete, and I'm loathe to return to my previous employment, from which I took extended leave. I like working for myself, and I must say, I've worked extremely long hours, and when I wake up, the first thing I check is the state of the markets....and I dream about them in my sleep. So I'm easing off now, been driving myself too hard. I think there is a high possibility that robots will take over an enormous amount of jobs previously done by people. At the moment, Wall Street is being run by bot-traders. When it all falls apart, there will be hell to pay :)) Happy Steeming, and I look forward to the introduction of a UBI :) I think life should be less stressful and more about family.