Australianewsflash

In the midst of all the election hype.  It's driving most of us to drink.  Who do you believe?  Labor promises $1 billion for this then the Liberal/National coalition $2 billion for that and so it goes on. We need some statesmanship or statespersonship, real leadership. We need to be assured that whoever gets elected won't stuff things up.  We don't mind a few mistakes as long as they are little ones and don't smash our economy or our way of life, yet we need to know that we are an internationally responsible country. The usual game of not answering the questions asked is on in earnest.   Occasionally a yes or a no would be reassuring when such a simple and honest response is appropriate. All this confusion has resulted in a lot of voters supporting independent candidates, who do not have to toe the Labor or Liberal/National Coalition party line.  We have and will continue to have a Senate, upper house if you like, that can regularly veto the House of...

Once again the ABC Four Corners program reveals the truth about another topic.  This time it is Australia's northern neighbour Cambodia, which has just run so called democratic elections.  Clearly the winner Hun Sen, is a dictator who rigs things to suit and uses very suspect means to achieve this.  He and his family have multimillion business interests in Australia.  He regards himself as a friend of Australia and Four Corners revealed that Australia seems to be hand in glove with the current Cambodian regime.  We have a deal with Cambodia to resettle offshore refugees in that country.  One refugee is already in Cambodia and the promise by Australian authorities of his family joining him there is not materialising. The lives of Cambodian Australians are being threatened by the Hun Sen regime yet what is Australia  doing about this? I feel pretty ashamed of our Federal Government after viewing that Four Corners program last night. May the Force ...

This morning I saw our PM Malcolm Turnbull on TV scathingly calling Bill Shorten the leader of the Labor party and the parliamentary opposition a liar.  He repeated the word with emphasis. Funny that as I thought I heard the PM say amongst other things that Bill Shorten stood for higher energy costs.  I am certain this is not Bill Shorten's position. As one of the great unwashed I am sick of our politicians from both sides using these personal attack strategies.  Best each says what they stand for and don't stand for, vis a vis the positions of the opposing side, and leave it at that.  I will be howled down for this naive view but it is how I feel. I can at this stage only hold a minimum level of trust in all of them.  At least I feel certain that the PM being a wealthy man is not concerned about holding his job for financial reasons.  Cold comfort. May the Force be with we, the great unwashed! GD

To his credit Bill Shorten has backed away from his captain's call on company tax cuts and has vowed that his party will support the cuts for businesses with an annual turnover of up to $50 million. You could see from the worried and confused looks on his colleagues faces on TV that they were going to bring pressure on Bill to back off.  They did, and he listened and acted. It's not about the business world trusting Bill Shorten, it's about the business world trusting the Labor Party and Bill has to get this message across. May the Force be with we the great unwashed! GD

Bill Shorten, the leader of the Federal Opposition and the Labor Party has made a captain's call on opposing cuts to company tax for any business that earns more than $10 million. In fact he has said if elected to government at the next election he has vowed to repeal current cuts that are being used by small to medium businesses to plan ahead for growth and jobs.  Bill needs to consult with his colleagues before making such announcements. As a died in the wool Labor Party supporter I feel Bill has made the wrong call.  He struggles to win popularity even though he is a clever politician and I can't see him carrying Labor to an election win if he makes captain's calls of this nature. Bill, very silly not to be too smart by half. May the Force be with us the great unwashed! GD

The airwaves in Australian political circles are abuzz with the view that the current cohort of Australian politicians, especially at the Federal level, are more interested in preserving their jobs and with arguments about the personalities of their political peers than policy that is relevant to the great unwashed, the voters. I feel that our PM, the honourable Malcolm Turnbull, would rather be focussed on policy, but so much seems to get in the way of this, not the least of which is a group in his party that are ultra conservative and often tend to undermine what the PM is trying to achieve. Naturally the federal leader of the parliamentary opposition is trying to outsmart the PM as is his job description.  He is a consummate politician, but the great unwashed tend not to support him as the preferred PM.  He sometimes comes over as a bit tricky, maybe too smart by half.  However his Labor Party is ahead in the polls should an election be held today. A Federal elec...

The recent Uluru meeting of indigenous Australians recommended to the Federal Government a council of indigenous persons that would advise Federal parliament on matters affecting indigenous Australians. This body would be like a group of honorary parliamentarians with the government of the day turning to it for advice on how to progress indigenous affairs. The people at the Uluru gathering felt this was a step towards true reconciliation for the First Australians and it would also lead to them being recognised in Australia's constitution, but the wanted this body first. I believe it would work wonderfully well as representation could reflect the various Aboriginal communities across Australia and through these representatives local issues would come to the fore.  It would be change from the grass roots up rather than the top down approaches of the past. In its so called wisdom the Turnbull federal conservative government rejected the proposal for this representative body. ...