Australianewsflash

 What can one say as Australia's relationships with China plunge to new depths. Not sure that politically Australia's pollies understand fully the nuances of communicating with Asian nations, especially China. We made the mistake of setting off a chain of events by going out on our own and calling for an independent investigation on how the COVID19 virus got going in China.  We should have left this to the World Health Organisation.  I am sure China would have felt then and still does, concerned that the virus broke out in Wuhan.  They did not need to be reminded, but rather we should have embraced them with offers of concern and assistance if they needed it, offers to share genome sequencing of the virus rather than being seen to blame, even though blame was not part of the call we made. Having noted the above we have made decisions that have riled China in the context of national security, eg, banning Huawei from participating in the development and roll out of the...

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 ...

As one of the great unwashed, the voters, I have the sense of a Federal Government doing stuff but not really involving we the voters.  A government doing its own thing and not very much at that. In all my long life, and I am a very senior person, I also have never felt so much secrecy shrouding many of my government's actions.  It's as if we the voters do not have the right to know. I just do not have any sense of long term vision by the the Federal Government for our wonderful country Australia. I also feel that they stand back and let the environment continue to take a pounding. This Liberal National Party coalition still contains climate change sceptics. I worry for my grandchildren. May the force be with the peoples of Australia and the World. GD

Oh boy can't believe we are still trying to get better at supporting those who have served in our military forces and are now classified as veterans.  Now there is a call for a Royal Commission into this matter.  If it is called I hope the expense is worth it.  Might be better to keep shaping up the current system to cut red tape and ensure no veterans with PTSD and or physical injuries are out there alone and suffering to the point of suicide.  The rates of the latter among veterans should make us ashamed. Some good news is that a veteran in trouble now can receive instant fiscal relief and counselling while their overall  case is assessed for longer term help.  Need some veterans in the public service ranks to work on the cases put forward.  Hard for career public servants to have a deep grasp of the issues and for them to avoid the almost imperceptible desire to be ultra careful with the government purse. A suffering veteran faced with mountains o...

My partner and I were appalled to learn that Australia has been exporting waste paper products impregnated with various bits of plastic to Indonesia.  The aim is to have Indonesia manage some of our waste.  We also used to send a lot of our waste to China to be dealt with but the Chinese have stopped receiving this waste. In Indonesia some of the paper impregnated waste was on sold to tofu factories to feed their furnaces.  It all looked ghastly with the workers breathing in toxic fumes from the waste caused by the burning plastic. Indonesia is now returning such waste to Australia and good on them for so doing. Why can't Australia develop processes to handle our waste other than the invidious landfill method that has been used throughout my long lifetime?  Waste management is one of the challenges faced by Australia and I know of various university research projects that are breaking new ground in this area. It is time to act.  Imagine being able to expor...

The conservatives won in a canter despite the pre-election polls favouring the Labor socialist opposition. Labor was stunned and already has a new leader.  He is a down-to-earth bloke and could do very well. Labor proposed a massive change agenda that resonated with many but the reality was that they miscalculated how difficult it is to get people to readily accept the unknown that change offers.  Labor had insufficient time to explain the changes and they lost the election, badly. The conservative government is cranking up their activity to carry the country for the next 3 years. Climate change almost the number one concern of the electorate took a back seat to the security of having a job in a well-managed economy.  The electorate judged that the conservatives were the ones to deliver such basic security. It's not very inspiring as yet. The conservatives won by expounding that the policies they had been pursuing in government over the last 6 years were the way to ...