Goodbye and Good Riddance

Goodbye Mr Howard and your right wing politics. As I had predicted and hoped for John Howard's government were decidedly beaten in the weekends election.
The reason I could see it coming was that the outer suburbs of our major cities where Howard had been elected at each previous election over the last 11 years, had turned against him. The voters out there are Mums and Dads with Mortgages and by and large employed in small to medium size businesses. The work place laws introduced by Howard were not popular, so they deserted him. Two other factors may of helped the Labor cause. John Howard was very slow in accepting Climate change and that is a big worry for many people now, and they don't want an old fart with all the privileges of high office telling them it is better to give tax cuts to millionaires than put money into alternative energy creation.
Howard along with his treasurer Peter Costello, have managed to waste 10 years of economic good times. They lauded their achievements but didn't plough the surpluses they so happily took through consumption taxes back into longer term policy. That is why I say good riddance. I hope the Liberal party learns from this drubbing and thinks about the future of this world next time they are elected and not some stupid right wing agenda to feather the nest of aspirational greedy millionaires.
Best of luck to Kevin Rudd
Woof

Cricket and Polls

Cricket and Opinion Polls, two things I could say who gives a flying fig about at this very moment.

We have had two test matches this summer, Australia versus Sri Lanka, the first ended in a massive defeat to Sri Lanka and likewise the second even if the end score looks closer, the Aussie declared at some unlikely score of 2 for 210 in their second innings. What is the point of having these test matches. Australia I think is the only nation that has this incredible appetite for winning at cricket. I know other nations like India [touring here this summer] and Pakistan, West Indies etc. all have 'Proud Traditions', but none of them have this military type approach to winning.

So what happens, we have these one sided test series that leave a lot of cricket fans and potential cricket fans, with boring days of cricket with no suspense what so ever. Even the commentators have become geriatrics, maybe because, no younger guys want the gig. I have no idea what to do about it except to turn off the coverage which I have done for a number of years now.

Opinion polls the panacea of the masses. Feed them another opinion poll, get the electorate excited, this age long election is being held together by endless polls. No matter, that they all say the same thing [A win to Labor] a small deviation here or there, up a percentage point for 'preferred prime minister' down a point in two party preferred swing. Hey cut it out there are too many variables to know exactly what you are talking about and you only tell us the sexy bits.
Time to put away the papers and turn off the news flashes we need an election free zone. And did you know that in the long and short of it all, neither side have the answers they are by and large reacting to things out of their control with the illusion of being in the driving seat making all the right decisions. They couldn't lie straight in bed, god bless them, dear born agains that they are.
Woof.

John Howards Time in Office

Have a look at this article from The AGE by Ross McMullin. It outlines the deceit and lies that have surrounded John Howard's time in Office.
Woof

Spend

The two major parties in this election are promising billions of dollars in hand outs, much of which is aimed at buying a vote. However the biggest vote buying, 'spend' came in the first week of the election. The 32 billion dollar tax relief proposed by Mr Howard. I have already commented on how I find that intolerable. I have thought some more about it in the light of election promises, and just the way elections can focus the mind.
The main thing we need to be doing over the next 10 years is to reduce greenhouse gases by making our world less dependent on fossil fuels. We need to make, solar, wind, tides, etc our main source of energy. We need our reliance on petrol/diesel cars to end. And an added thing we need to do here in Australia is find ways of supplying safe water in a what has become a much drier continent.
We want our politicians to consult with the public to work together to find solutions. Not to tell us that with expert advise they have found the one and only solution and we have to live with it. There are often many ways to skin a cat and we need to debate some of them. The Howard government has promoted a get rich approach to lifestyle and it is going to come home to bite us all in the arse. It has made us complacent and encouraged us to bury our heads in the sand over climate change and the future. Up until a year ago you would hardly of thought that we had a crises of this magnitude looming. I put a lot of that down to John Howard and his approach to leadership. If you look back over his 11 years it has all been about running surpluses and giving tax relief to the wealthy. He has done this by selling the crown jewels, spreading the tax base, [GST] and cutting services. No forethought what so ever, just that wealth creation, will in some way magic it's way into all the households. I don't think.
Some of the advisers are economists, they seem to think the only way to get things done is to make it attractive financially, for enough, for them to initiate change. Driven by profit, well it only works to a certain extent. As shown by big business. They stop being inventive and look purely for profit.
We need our politicians to commit to changing the way we do business in Australia, get rid of the status quo and find green ways of seeing our future.
Very soon now it will be the people speaking up not the lobbyists for big business. People will demand their councils provide the correct infrastructure to sustain our consumption. It will be people who say, 'forget the tax cut give us a break on installing and running alternative hot water services and solar panels.
Why these issues are barely being questioned in this election, says heaps for the current way of doing business as a government. Get elected and then rule by executive power. And only listen to the lobbyists from big business or political donors. Enough is enough let the people be heard.
Woof.

Climate change, An Election. Denial.

It's all here in an article from Kenneth Davidson in The Age. If we don't get our head out of the sand as far as global warming and Politicians start telling the truth about what we need to do to adapt then we are fooling ourselves and depriving future generations.
Have a read of THIS
Woof.