I AM WRITING THIS as I am at my wits end with the current political climate and the hopeless state that Australians find themselves facing.
We have two governing bodies that are hell bent on undoing years of environmental protection, further stalling and destroying progress, removing human rights and crippling the people of this nation. For whatever gains they are doing this are yet to be seen. A little like budget surpluses.
This country of ours has an abundance of natural resources — both in the ground and climatically.
Over the years, there have been numerous solutions to fixing our water problem (the sunburnt country), the Diamantina water scheme and desalination plants in dry areas being just two of them, but nothing has been done to harness the massive amounts of rain we receive every year during the monsoon (cyclone) season.
I would question why, when so much money can be thrown behind mining.
We mine our resources and send them overseas. We should be using those resources here and manufacturing the end products to send overseas.
I am well aware of the costs of this, as we are not a cheap population to employ, but this in itself is due to governments present and past, who have made this country a very expensive place to live. Australia is a high salary/wage nation, but this is relative to the cost of living in this country.
We are now about to remove incentives to convert to natural power solutions, which most people are adopting to alleviate the costs imposed on living. We should be, as a nation, promoting alternative power solutions, we have an abundance of sunshine, wind & water – these three elements allow a mind blowing amount of power resources. One has only to look at Europe & England with their new solar bridges to see what is possible.
We have now gone backwards with our heritage listed wildlife areas, with logging now allowed in Tasmania wilderness, losing us 74,000 hectares of protected forest, along with preliminary approval for dumping in the Great Barrier Reef.
This is unfathomable destruction and for what purpose — to export more of our resources to other countries. Do they really care if Australia becomes a wasteland?
Our crime rate is abysmal and the sentencing of people is not based on the crime they have done, but more on the reasons behind that activity. We see people who should be incarcerated getting a slap on the wrist and those that shouldn’t getting solitary confinement. There needs to be a strong message here for people that crime will not be tolerated and perceived crime must be tried in the correct judicial procedure. Not an invented judicial procedure decided on by a government as a means of prevention of perceived criminal activity.
We treat people who illegally try to enter our country worse than we would treat our worst enemy. These people usually come from horrendous situations, but regardless of the way they have arrived in this country, they do not deserve to be treated with less dignity than one would ask to be treated themselves.
Surely, there is a better solution than putting them on “island detention”?
We have so many small country towns that have lost huge amounts of infrastructure, that could benefit from an influx of population. These people could be utilised to boost these economies and learn whilst waiting for resettlement. You would find a lot of them would stay on where they were, and this would create a new lease of life for flagging country towns. This alternative was discussed with one town (I will refrain from naming it) and they were very supportive of this initiative. There are ways of tracking these people & monitoring them (we have bracelets for home detention criminals — so the means are there) until they have clearance to be allowed residency.
As a nation we need to show compassion and humanity.
Just because you may be different from me, does not make me any better or more privileged than you or anyone else. We all have the right to live and grow old and, if I was born in their country, I would have no hesitation to get on a boat and leave, whatever the risk. As a matter of fact, it is fast becoming a thought in my head regarding Australia — getting on a boat and leaving.
And now to my last gripe … well the one I will finish on, anyway, as I have many more.
We need to stop this reliance on oil.
We are now in the 21st Century and we still rely on a product that has caused more wars and civil disputes than any other factor apart from religion. It blows my mind that, for all the progress in the world, we are still relying heavily on a commodity that can be replaced with an alternative solution. The solutions are there, and they have been tried, tested and proven. It is time to move on for the sake of peace and harmony in our world, including our wildlife and natural wonders. We are fast losing vast tracks of natural beauty because of this commodity and it must stop.
I understand that none of this will happen, because the people that pull the strings for our political leaders would not see their riches depleted to ensure that we do stay the Lucky Country.
In the words of one lady:
“… there are enough rich people in Australia.”
We have a 17 year old son, who is having a “gap” year before university.
There is little or no employment for him during this “gap” year nor after university, I am hoping that he will get employment. He is not eligible for Centrelink benefits, as my partner and I earn too much combined income (mine is only $20,000) and this is now divided between three people — so it puts us on less than the average wage per person. Our tax pays other people, but our own son is denied. Justice and equality — none.
I fear at this stage that we will be supporting him for the next 10 years — until we reach pension age.
The middle income bracket is the mainstay support for unemployment and pension revenue for the taxation office, yet the people in this bracket of income is fast diminishing due to the high cost of living. Soon, we will have a nation of the very rich and the very poor with no middle class left.
It is a very bleak future for our once lucky country and one, I would say, a number of Australians can see happening, as you do not have to have any psychic ability to forecast this.
It is time to see the return of all that is good for our nation — before we slip to Third World status.
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