turboplanner

You probably wouldn't be too happy. On the other hand if we take out a world map and trace the route from Afghanistan or Iraq, we find India and a lot of other countries stand in the way of Ashmore reef, so for a start you'd be stopped in one of those countries. If you look at the Afghani "refugee's" travel problems, you'll see he has some big problems to overcome just to get to Indonesia, particularly with a family of six, and they'll all need papers. There seems to be a misunderstanding on this thread which is about Illegal Immigrants. A genuine refugee who manages to walk his family to his border and is fed by the UN is regularly accepted by Australia after suitable checks We never read too much about these genuine immigrants in the newspapers because they are just integrating and enjoying their new life. If you look at Afghanistan in particular which has had a clean out of extremists and Taliban, they are hardly likely to suddenly start starving and killing the good citizens who pleaded for help in getting rid of the baddies. So who would the "refugees" be then, who were skilled enough to negotiate their way through several countries, get to Indonesia at who know what cost, stay in accommodation until they could get a leaky old boat, and flop on to Ashmore reef with no papers - are they the goodies?

Proving to us all you can't count.

I suspect he was referring to the trend where in Australia: (a) our medical system is so much better at preserving life, but costs a bundle to do that (b) people have largely stopped smoking and drinking and also eat better, and that is prolonging life, where previously most pension contributors died before they could claim. Those two things alone have been exponentially increasing the cost burden © families are smaller, reducing the ratio of the 20th century of an increasing mass of young people paying for a decreasing mass of old people. Since the time he spoke, a compromise where people who are now much healthier and can be kept that way by today's medical standards, can work on past 60 and 65 offsetting significantly the paradigm Costello was trying to face up to. Also since then, governments have shifted more burden on to the employee to significantly fund his/her retirement with superannuation, which in the long run is the most effectice way of wealth generation. People let's say over 50 now will not see much benefit of this, since many grew up when superannuation was optional only, but it will eventually kick in and largely replace the pension.

Here's post 408 for those whose memories seem to be failing. Of course, at $50,000 assets, FT and Win are saying you shouldn't be allowed to get a pension if you own a home.

Good, I won't bother. I respond to evidence.

Show us the evidence

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary give psychopath the meaning most of us would be familiar with: mentally deranged person skeptic36 did not deserve a personal and totally inappropriate attack like this

Of course not, an opinion is a personal opinion. However the post from FT was "latest poll results are in....: followed by detailed analysis. Without a source note it carries no weight at all - it could have been put together by the town drunk. With a source, it's possible to judge the accuracy of the poll reasonably well.

A lot of hypothetical dribble coming in, and FT you need to name the source of your information, unless you just typed up what sounded like a good position at the time.

The Liberal Party philospohy is to keep kick starting new businesses because that's the best way of creating wealth which is then used to employ millions of people - the gold rush principle, where the miners rushed in and thousands came afterwards to make money supplying miners and camps became big cities like Ballarat and Bendigo. The average Australian has not had protections systematically removed by the Liberal Party or the Nationals, but is better off than most people in the world. Australian credit laws were fine; our industries suffered, and in some cases are still badly suffering, the knock-on effect from actions taken by a very small group of people in the United States who started lending money to people who DEMONSTRABLY had no means of paying it back. The rights and wrongs or that and the people who had the oversight and the people who should be charged and convicted, is a matter for United States forums. There is nothing to roll back here, we are fine. I already quoted the Parliamentary Agenda which was announced by the Governor General and not Rubert Murdoch, and there are equally non-partisan financial statistics for you to study as well if you are seriously concerned .

He's that rare person, a fascist - communist, or whatever make the best troll at the time You can get your bludging hands out of my pockets for a start FT.

Ah, we've returned to George Bush, even though President Obama is into his second term, Australia with a Conservative Government, even though we don't have a Conservative party, a government which has its leader acting Presidential style, even though our government has no provisions to operate that way, and now someone telling us socialism works.

Well the climate is definitely changing, we've had two full moons already and the month's not yet over.

There's no declaration of victory there FT.

This is the Minister's Press Release backing up the information provided by Gnarly Gnu "No illegal boat arrivals for more than three weeks Friday, 10 January 2014 Once again, there have been no persons transferred to Australian immigration authorities during the past reporting week under Operation Sovereign Borders, who arrived in Australia illegally by boat. It has been more than three weeks since the last group of illegal maritime arrivals were transferred to immigration authorities by Border Protection Command. While January is traditionally a quieter period of arrivals, the strong policies being implemented by the government mean that people smugglers are being denied the ability to ply their trade with any success. During the same period last year 419 people illegally arrived and in the two previous years there were 278 and 271 arrivals respectively. This year, none have been successful during this period. The latest weekly report on Operation Sovereign Borders is attached detailing such transfers, as well the number of persons transferred to our offshore processing centres and the population at those centres as well as Christmas Island. For operational security reasons, the government does not confirm or otherwise comment on reports of on-water activities in relation to Operation Sovereign Borders or disclose details of any operations. People smugglers have used official commentary on such matters to make dangerous assumptions about our maritime operations, which puts people at risk. The government's policy of no public comment on operational matters is based on the advice of border protection agency and operational leaders to protect the security of our operations and to ensure that they can be conducted with maximum safety and effectiveness for all involved. The government considers the illegal entry of boats to Australia as a significant affront to our sovereignty. The government will continue to take all steps necessary to stop the boats consistent with our commitments to the Australian people and to work with our partners wherever possible to achieve this result. The government has a strong mandate from the Australian people to restore the policies that worked under the Howard Government to stop the boats that were abolished by Labor and the Greens. Any suggestion that the government is doing anything other than acting on our long held policies and commitments, as claimed by the Leader of the Opposition, is ignorant and desperate. We will not be following Labor's failed approach that allowed more than 50 000 people to turn up on over 800 boats and in excess of 1100 people dead. We are restoring control over our borders that was surrendered under Labor. It is not the policy or practice of the Australian Government to violate Indonesian territorial sovereignty. Any suggestion that the government has acted contrary to this policy is false. Australia respects Indonesia's territorial sovereignty and will continue to do so, just as Indonesia has stated it respects Australia's territorial sovereignty. I also stress that personnel involved in Border Protection operations associated with Operation Sovereign Borders conduct their roles with the highest levels of professionalism, integrity and personal courage in extremely trying and challenging circumstances. Actions and activities are undertaken consistent with Australian domestic law and Australia's obligations under international law. Additionally, in the interests of preserving operational security, and to maintain the safety of any person within Border Protection Command's care, the procedures and techniques used to effect maritime security operations are not disclosed." See: Index of Media Releases URL:http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/sm/2014/sm210747.htm Last update: Friday, 10 January 2014 at 14:57 AEST

The behaviour of some members of the public, unfortunately represented also on this site, has become disgusting in recent years, and no, no one on any side of our governments should be subjected to it. If you spoke to their families you would be shocked at the impact is has on the wives and children

Now we have a Minister of the Crown described as "Mad Dog"

Since we have not been told what the exact circumstances were, we don't know enough to make comments. If you recall, the same people were accused of murdering people when refugees were drowning in unseaworthy boats. As to the feelings of the Indonesians following recent bilateral talks on the subeject, we're not hearing much from them either. One of the more interesting and amusing side to this is that the allegedly senile and out of balance Rupert, who only ever attacks the innocent socialists appears to be leading the charge to stir up fires with the above talk.

You're wasting your time with the extremists Bandit; they love to vilify something including their own country and it's leaders. If you do a plagiarism check, you'll find some of the original versions of their vitriol relate to George Bush who is supposed to have staged 9/11 for the benefit of the war machine etc etc. It doesn't matter if you give them facts, the vitriol just moves on.

Yes, they were Colonies; have a look at their powers now and in the 50 years it took them to agree to a Commonwealth, and yes, my point was we would get rid of States only over the dead bodies of the people who want to retain those independent powers.

"The big end of town did not agree with this and wanted lower wages and less tax (on the rich, of course). Notice how politics has gone much quieter now? So now we have a govt of tossers and liars. Not a bad trick I think" This was the sort of rubbish I was responding to - the Prime Minister and Minstry being called tossers and liars. He was luck to get any answers at all.

I watched in Mackay as some of the world's biggest dump trucks were being built, right here in Australia. Up the east coast there are literally square kilometres of industrial areas building infrastructure for the mines. I have personally sold millions of dollars worth of trucks to the mines and that money was spread over many working people here in Australia. I couldn't book motel rooms because motels were permanently block booked. I tried to get a McDonalds and waited ten minutes for a seat which was in the outside area which was twice as big as the normal inside eating area, Roma Airport is probably as big as Essendon was in your day, with hundreds of locally sold light commercial vehicles parked around. There are new roads going in at a rapid pace giving people access to the cities they wouldn't have had for decades. There are Spotless, Supercheap, KMart etc outlets in areas previously only services by high price low volume shops, the transport industry is running four trailer road trains to service demand. One mine owner I spoke to said he paid $17 million in taxes related to his employees, and still couldn't get enough. In terms of training my son spent around $2,500.00 in mine specific training through a local TAFE which previously would have been semi-comatose. And as far as I'm aware Gina doesn't own any mines in the area I'm talking about.

That's right, they weren't her Government until they were voted in. Oh silly me I see you think they are required to forsee all the events for the term of government, even before they control finance, and give us a list of what they're going to do.

So Greg Hunt has killed the whales? Do you want us to send a couple of FA18's out and fry the ship? And why would we send a ship out there when we have a surveillance satellite in that area which can be tasked to constantly monitor the ship and collect vision of much better quality than you've posted.

The Federal Government administers only two territories, the Australian Capital Territory and The Northern Territory, the rest is a commonwealth of six different British countries, all with a Governor, and a Parliamentary Head of State. I wish you luck taking these countries over - the Commonwealth Government hasn't been able to since 1901. For example we desperately needed National Transport laws and the way this was achieved just a few months ago was to get an agreement from the Commonwealth Government and all State Governments that a joint body would be set up - The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, and this would be the body to come up with new transport laws (sorry to the Gillard/Abbott haters - they don't get a say in it), and those new regulations will be gazetted by the Queensland Government, and all other States, and the Commonwealth Government will mirror the Queensland Acts without separate debate and changes. What you want is what we'd call Vertical integration in companies, where the idea is that you only need one managing director instead of eight, one General Manager, one Finance controller State Managers and so on and the Company will pull together in much more harmony with a lower overhead. What has happened in the larger companies I've dealt with through my professional life is that after about a decade the general opinion is that Head Office wouldn't have a clue what's needed in each State/Zone, they are never seen, and all the local customers have gone to the competitors, so a decision is made to switch to horizontal integration (decentralised management). Then about a decade later it cycles back. The same could be argued for National Government vs State Government, so eliminating one might cause problems elsewhere. If you then bring local government into the mix, on the one hand local councils are by far the most inept and inefficient generally, and I say generally because they are small enough that one smart individual can make one hum.) The electronic age certainly would allow much of the administration to be done in Canberra, but that's the form of government with the greatest need for local knowledge. Is there a problem now? Well I assume everyone has read the Governor-General's speech to the Opening of the 44th Parliament by now, which is just a few posts aboce. She doesn't seem to thing so, when she says: "Today, at the opening of the 44th commonwealth parliament, we celebrate the enduring health of our democracy. "One hundred and twelve years after the first federal election, nearly 14 million Australians have cast their votes in another free and fair election. "For only the fourth time in three decades, the Australian people have voted for a change of government. " Great Britain can't boast a record like that, the United States can's boast a record like that. Before falling for the vitriol of the extremists who spew hate, just remember the we have two of the greatest political Parties in the world who've managed to work together for decades. The Upper Houses came under scrutiny in the 1960's or thereabouts and there was talk of abolishing them, but since then they've proved to be very handy circuit breakers at times and these days usually contain a fair proportion of the Ministry and Shadow Ministry, and conduct many more Inquiries than they used to. They are the most powerful arm of the government, and can call you before them, make you answer questions under oath and deal out serious punishment. I agree with you on the delicate status we are sitting on by living off the mining boom. I see us in much the same position we were at the beginning of the 1890's where many Victorians were living of the gold rush and its associated taxes and business in three story mansions which even today have generally not been equalled, and building obscenely wide boulevards to take a few horses and carriages. It all ended with the end of the gold rush, most half starved, and the mansions were partitioned into multiple flats.