FORTUNATE TO LIVE IN AUSTRALIA

I must say right away that I am sure other nationals around the world feel fortunate to live in their countries.  I am not holding Australia up as the be all and end all of nations.

My country's handling of the covid19 pandemic has been and is laudable and I thank our medical workers, our police, our service personnel and our politicians.

Another reason I am fortunate to live in Australia is that we have a political system that seems straightforward in comparison to that of the United States. Our system has plenty of room for improvement, but when I witness the agony of the 2020 US election I shudder.  I like many others am glad Joe Biden is the victor.

My pet grievances with our federal government are currently as follows:

We cannot get our act together in recognising our Aboriginal and Torres Islander people, our First Australians. We must accept the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.

We cannot bring ourselves to become a Republic. This should happen asap if we want to be taken seriously as a mature nation. It would fit neatly with recognising our First Australians in the constitution.

We are fiddling about in respect of climate change, sort of cooking the books as it were even though we are signed up to the Paris Accord. The ultra conservative elements of Australian politics have been like a sheet anchor slowing our progress on dealing with climate change. We cannot yet fully commit to 0 emissions by 2050 as most other responsible nations have.


May the Force be with we the great unwashed!


GD


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