australia's topics - tribe.net

Fair dinkum...

timbo — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:23:33 GMT

http://www.funnypoets.com/poems/jinglebellsaussiestyle.htm

posted in australia - 0 replies

Do you believe in..

YW — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:37:18 GMT

climate change? I do!

Sad that the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Turnbull's going to get turfed out by the non believers :(

posted in australia - 10 replies

I'm from Melbourne I have New Aussie Flavour Web Site

ascsingles — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:11:20 GMT

See my web page

http://www.articlemarketing.ozyid.com/

.

posted in australia - 2 replies

Remind me to keep my mobile with me next time I go to hospital..

Bloke72 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:04:46 GMT

A Tasmanian man phoned triple-0 from his hospital bed because nurses did not respond to his calls for urgent medical help, it has been revealed.

The shocking account emerged as the Australian Nursing Federation lobbies Tasmanian state authorities to deal with a chronic nursing shortage.

The patient awoke at Hobart Private Hospital's high-dependency unit after surgery to discover he was bleeding from a wound, according to the Health Complaints Commissioner's annual report, released on Tuesday.

He rang his bell and after 10 minutes there was still no response.

The still-bleeding patient called his wife and got her to phone the hospital's nursing station, but she too was unable to reach anyone.

It was only when the man phoned the 000 emergency number that he achieved a result.

A spokeswoman for the nursing union said the incident was "unfortunate" but that nurses are sometimes unable to respond immediately to call bells because they are tied up with other duties, The Mercury newspaper reports.

The spokeswoman said the incident highlighted the need to plan for adequate nursing staff levels, given that many are heading for retirement and few graduates are offered placements in Tasmanian hospitals

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/973249/hospital-patient-phoned-triple-0-for-help

posted in australia - 2 replies

Litigation driven by $$$

YW — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:03:44 GMT

Bloody cheek, accusations abound that the M@W classic Down Under was ripped off from the kids' sing-a-long Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. What b*ll ! http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/music/down-under-riff-not-important-singer-tells-court/2009/10/28/1256405418880.html

posted in australia - 2 replies

Stooopid questions

wimpehiker — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:11:49 GMT

This includes basic questions that Merkins (people from the U.S.A.) have about Australia, and questions that Aussies have about the rest of the world. Is there something that you're dying to know, but that you feel foolish in asking about?

posted in australia - 42 replies

Music from your cute little country....

blackegg — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:07:46 GMT

Happy Hour Brigade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE3nRyMtgko

Frontier Psychiatrist ~ The Avalanches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26bX0

posted in australia - 26 replies

Climate change

Bloke72 — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:51:02 GMT

This was interesting to find http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/ClimateChange/index.htm

posted in australia - 2 replies

2nd best job in the world

YW — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:24:58 GMT

The best job in the world at the Great Barrier Reef was won by a Pomm, now there's a vacancy in the UK. Come on you Aussies! Start applying! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5769160/Witch-required-for-Wookey-Hole-Caves---must-be-able-to-cackle.html

:o)

posted in australia - 2 replies

Bargain Banners, Signs, Banners, Stickers, Promotional Items. High Quality Low Prices in Australia.

Stephen Demeio — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:52:19 GMT

for all your Banners, Signs, Banners, Stickers, Promotional Item needs at High Quality but Low Prices in Australia. please visit www.bargainbanners.com.au or contact me by email at sales@bargainbanners.com.au

posted in australia - 1 reply

Racist? Never! We're Aussies!

YW — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:42:35 GMT

"I would say that Australia definitely is different [from] the US. In many ways it was like stepping back in time... But my point is that [racism] does exist and it's got to change because the world is full of a lot of people and most economies have to take advantage - including Australia - of a diverse set of people." - Sol Trujillo - ex CEO Telstra

"I think there was a bit of sour grapes in them actually," - John Brumby - Victorian Premier

"Indian students in Melbourne, Victoria protest over race attacks... Ethnic tensions after a spate of recent attacks on Indian students" - Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2585932.htm

"In Sydney, Chinese jobseekers needed to send 92 per cent more job applications than those with an Anglo-Saxon background, while Middle Eastern applicants needed to post 80 per cent more resumes." ANU research http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25649837-29277,00.html

posted in australia - 7 replies

Car Finance in Australia

ignatius-tse — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:20:13 GMT

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations on car finance companies in Australia?

Has anyone used this company before?

http://www.advancecarloans.com.au/

posted in australia - 4 replies

Costello will not contest next election

Bloke72 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:56:14 GMT

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/825664/costello-will-not-contest-next-election

Poor Pete.. the Prime Minister who never was....

posted in australia - 9 replies

Ahhh.. bugger..

Bloke72 — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:18:19 GMT

Bud Tingwell died.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/814153/actor-bud-tingwell-dies

I used to see him lurking around Balwyn.

Hard to say my fav movie or show he was in.. but I liked him as "Morrie" in the Castle, but he as in heaps of things over a very long career.

I am gonna miss him !

posted in australia - 3 replies

Our 'cute little country'

Jon — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:51:34 GMT

I don't think we need patronising comments like that. Our 'cute little country' stands proudest of all the anglo countries larger or smaller. It's certainly as big or bigger as Canada, the USA or tiny little Pommyland.

posted in australia - 23 replies

Australia is the arse end of the world

cup — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:38:52 GMT

The title is a quote from Paul Keating an Ex-Prime Minister.

As a proud Aussie, what things do you like to whinge about our country?

What makes are country shit?

What's the worst of the Worst?

<To our American friends: This is actually how we show our Patriotism>

posted in australia - 15 replies

It's not a recession, it's a ....

Daily_Something — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:14:08 GMT

Looking back at a previous thread about Aussies swearing overseas...

had anyone ever used or heard the phrase 'shit-storm' in popular circulation before a couple of weeks ago? I hadn't, even working as a wharfie. It is also possibly the least eloquent phrase I have ever heard used.

-G

posted in australia - 15 replies

The end is neigh for Melbourne...

YW — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:36:19 GMT

First the fires, now an earthquake
http://www.watoday.com.au/national/melbourne-hit-by-tremor-20090318-91ws.html

You guys ok?

posted in australia - 6 replies

"Labor" government blocks fight to defend Pacific Brands jobs

Steven — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:00:17 GMT

Australia: Labor government, unions and “lefts” block fight to defend Pacific Brands jobs
By Patrick O’Connor
16 March 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pacb-m16.shtml

Three weeks after clothing manufacturer Pacific Brands announced the sacking of 2,700 workers and the closure of several factories, the trade unions and the federal Labor government—with assorted "radical" left groups in tow—have mounted a coordinated campaign aimed at blocking the emergence of any struggle in defence of jobs.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his colleagues are acutely nervous about the continuing public anger over the Pacific Brands sackings. The government is determined to prevent the development of an independent industrial and political campaign by the laid off workers that would set a precedent for other closures and sackings and provide a rallying point for the entire working class to fight the destruction of jobs, wages and conditions.

That is why the prime minister has been emphasising the issue of redundancy payments, despite the fact that there has been no suggestion that they are at risk. Last week, Rudd told the laid off employees that his employment minister and deputy prime minister Julia Gillard would write to each of them personally "about the state of your entitlements to make sure that they are guaranteed". He continued: "If there is a problem with the company, we'll take it out of the company's hide."

Raising fears about redundancy is aimed at focussing the Pacific Brands workers' concerns about this, not the defence of their jobs. Once the legally owed monies are handed over to the retrenched workers, the government will no doubt hail it a "victory". Meanwhile, the affected workers will face the prospect of never working again.

The Textile Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFU) is functioning as Rudd's accomplice. From the outset, TCFU national secretary Michele O'Neil accepted that some jobs would have to go, appealing for discussions with the government and Pacific Brands management to prevent a "complete closure" of the Australian plants. Union officials have since concentrated on appeals to the Labor government to fund retraining programs and waive the usual onerous restrictions on accessing unemployment benefits.

Like Rudd, the TCFU wants an "orderly closure" of the plants slated to be shut down, thereby preserving its privileged status as industrial policeman in the textile sector. As a cover, the bureaucracy is resorting to an increasingly chauvinistic anti-China campaign. Ignoring the fact that the largest Pacific Brands factory to be shut down is in China—affecting 850 employees—the textile union has seized on the company's decision to outsource the work to even lower paid Chinese contract workers.

"What I'm seeing is that China has become the capital of Australia," TCFU official Hanisha McNabb told a rally in Wollongong on Sunday.

The TCFU has now launched a campaign to have the Rudd government legislate a "Buy Australian" policy for all procurement. Aside from being entirely utopian in the era of globalised production, this nationalist appeal is aimed, not at defending jobs, but at bolstering the textile manufacturers' profits by driving down workers' wages and conditions, offering never-ending "productivity" improvements, and promoting tariffs and corporate subsidy measures.

The defence of jobs at Pacific Brands can only take place on the basis of a fight to defend the jobs and conditions of all Pacific Brands workers, wherever they may live. This entails a struggle against the TCFU, which seeks to divide the company's workforce along national lines, and thereby weaken it. The only viable strategy is one that fights to unite all employees, in Australia, New Zealand, China and elsewhere against the corporate heads and banks driving the plant closures.

The starting point of such a struggle is the occupation of the factories threatened with closure. As the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) explained in its statement "Reject backroom deals! Launch an independent struggle to defend Pacific Brands jobs!": "To defeat the manoeuvres of the government and the TCFU, Pacific Brands workers must begin to take matters into their own hands. Mass meetings should be called, and the factories occupied, in order to make them organising centres for the development of a wider struggle. Delegations should be sent to other factories, building sites and mines to initiate a concerted industrial and political struggle throughout the working class to defend jobs, wages and working conditions."

Taking this forward requires a political struggle against the Rudd government. This is precisely what the various middle class "left" groupings that have intervened in the dispute oppose. Chief among them is the Socialist Alliance (SA), which has issued a petition calling on the Rudd government to nationalise Pacific Brands and save the 1850 "Australian" jobs.

The latest issue of the SA's newspaper, Green Left Weekly, declared: "The government could move to nationalise Pacific Brands if it had the political will. This is the only way the jobs could be saved. If the government won't act to save jobs, then the union movement must build a campaign strong enough to give the government no choice but to act."

This is not a perspective for defending jobs. It is a perspective for convincing workers that nothing can be done, thereby assisting the trade union bureaucracy to create as much demoralisation as possible, so that an orderly closure can proceed. Significantly the SA omits any reference to defending the jobs of Pacific Brands workers in China and New Zealand, sending a message to the trade unions that it completely agrees with their economic nationalism. In failing to mention the possibility of a struggle outside the auspices of the unions—such as occupations or rank and file committees—the SA sends a further message to the unions that it shares their hostility to any independent initiative by the Pacific Brands workers. Above all, the SA's appeals to Rudd are aimed at covering up the fact that, far from lacking sufficient "will" or being susceptible to pressure, his is a government of the very banks and financial institutions that are dictating the Pacific Brands closure—and closures and sackings throughout the country.

The task confronting Pacific Brands workers is to break out of the political straitjacket of Labor and the unions. That can only take place on the basis of an entirely new political perspective—an internationalist and socialist strategy that aims at placing the resources of society in the hands of the social force that created them: the working class, which constitutes the vast majority of the population.

Directly contained within the Pacific Brands struggle is the necessity for the complete reorganisation of social and economic life. Are the lives and livelihoods of workers and their families in Australia and internationally to remain subject to the imperatives of the capitalist profit system, with its drive to depression and war? Or should society's wealth, productive capacity, and technological developments be rationally utilised in order to ensure secure jobs, with decent wages and conditions, for all working people?

The latter alternative requires nothing less than the formation of a workers' government that will take the banks, as well as the major corporations, out of the hands of the financial elite, and transform them into public utilities, democratically owned and controlled by the working class. This is the perspective advanced by the Socialist Equality Party. We urge Pacific Brands and all workers to develop a discussion on these issues, contact the World Socialist Web Site, study the program of the SEP and apply to join and build it as the new revolutionary party of the working class.

posted in australia - 0 replies

Is this Pauline?

YW — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:00:02 GMT

She says: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25191035-5007133,00.html
He says: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25188788-421,00.html

posted in australia - 4 replies

The Bush Fires 2009

cup — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:59:40 GMT

Things are pretty bad.

It got so damn hot and those fires broke out.

Personally i think some of it could have been prevented, but it's not time to talk about that.

Those vulture Today Tonight are already profiting off the 'drama' of the tragedy.

People can donate to Red Cross to help out
http://www.redcross.org.au/

posted in australia - 16 replies

Vigil denounces Sri Lankan government atrocities

Steven — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:04:27 GMT

Australian vigil denounces Sri Lankan government atrocities
By our correspondents
27 February 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/tami-f27.shtml

About 250 people, mainly from the Tamil community, joined a candlelight vigil at Parramatta, in western Sydney, last night to protest against the atrocities being committed by the Sri Lankan military in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern Wanni region.

Many of those participating—who included entire families, as well as students and young workers—have relatives who have perished or remain trapped in the small area still under LTTE control, which is under heavy, indiscriminate shelling by the military.

Several people who spoke to the WSWS told of civilian relatives, including children, who had been killed or maimed by the Sri Lankan armed forces. They said that, contrary to the government's propaganda, more than 2,000 civilians had been killed in the onslaught and that a quarter of a million people were still caught in the war zone.

Everyone we spoke to angrily denied the government's claims that the LTTE was using civilians as "human shields". They insisted that their relatives refused to leave the LTTE-held enclave because they feared reprisals and detention at the hands of the government and the security forces, who are incarcerating all war refugees in large "welfare villages".

WSWS and Socialist Equality Party (SEP) supporters distributed copies of recent articles from the WSWS exposing the humanitarian catastrophe and war crimes being committed by the regime of President Mahinda Rajapakse, and highlighting the campaign waged by the SEP in Sri Lanka to demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from the north and east.

The articles also explained the political dead-end of the LTTE's perspective of an armed struggle to pressure the major international powers to support a separate Tamil state, and the necessity for a socialist perspective to unify the struggles of the Sri Lankan masses—Tamil and Sinhala alike—against the Colombo ruling elite.

Supporters of the LTTE stepped in to instruct people not to take the WSWS leaflets and even collected leaflets from those who had begun to read them. This anti-democratic response revealed a real fear of opening up a discussion about the SEP's socialist alternative to the divisive communalism of both the Sinhala establishment and the LTTE itself.

Numbers of people simply ignored the ban and animated debates began with SEP supporters about the contents of the WSWS leaflets. In the end, the organisers of the vigil asked one of the SEP team to address the rally.

The Tamil organisation speakers at the rally appealed for the Sri Lankan government to agree to an immediate ceasefire and ensure the safe passage of civilian refugees. They urged the major powers, particularly India, the primary regional power, to intervene to place pressure on the Rajapakse regime.

The main English-language speaker described in some detail the efforts of the Tamil organisations to petition and lobby the Indian government, as well as the Australian government and local politicians. He called on all those present to join these efforts, and to demand, during the next federal election campaign, that "politicians do something".

WSWS correspondent Mike Head began by thanking the audience for the invitation to speak, and expressed sympathy and solidarity with all those whose families were being killed, maimed and incarcerated by the Sri Lankan government.

Head denounced the war crimes of the Rajapakse regime and condemned all the governments, including those of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, that are supporting the war.

The speaker explained the necessity for a unified struggle of Tamil and Sinhala workers against the Rajapakse government. He emphasised that the victims of the war were not confined to Tamils and warned that any victory by the army would see the same militarist methods turned against the working class as a whole as the global economic crisis produced rising social discontent.

As well covering up the civilian death toll in the north, the Sri Lankan government was trying to hide the death toll among the soldiers, who predominantly came from the poorest layers of society. At least 3,000 had died in the offensives ordered by the government, affecting families across Sri Lanka.

The SEP speaker opposed the separatist program of the LTTE, which served to divide the working class. He explained that the emergence of the LTTE and the Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), arose out of the great betrayal of the former Trotskyist party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), in joining the Bandaranaike coalition government in 1964.

Following independence in 1948, the LSSP had opposed all forms of official discrimination against Tamils. But by the early 1960s the party had capitulated to the Sinhala-first platform of Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), abandoning the essential fight for a socialist perspective to unify the working class against the ruling establishment.

Head pointed out the futility of the LTTE's perspective of trying to convince the imperialist powers to reverse their backing for the current SLFP-led government's bid to wipe out the LTTE. Instead of the illusory hope of lobbying governments, the way forward lay in uniting workers in Sri Lanka, South Asia and internationally on a class basis against the capitalist system that was ultimately responsible for the carnage on the island.

The speaker concluded by urging people to read the daily coverage and analysis provided by the WSWS, which is also available in Tamil and Sinhalese.

Interviewed by the WSWS before the rally, Anu Prakash said the situation in the Wanni region was a "war without witnesses" because the Sri Lankan government had barred access to the international media and aid organisations.

"My husband's cousins are in the conflict zone, with two young children. My impression is that they would not agree to come out because of their political views—they support self-determination for Tamils. The government is screening all the people coming out for defiant or alternative political views. The government has clearly said: ‘You are either with us or against us.' So if you are not with the government, you are a terrorist. They are lumping the LTTE and civilians together."

Asked about the LTTE's perspective of trying to pressure other governments, which are all basically supporting Rajapakse, she said: "That's a good question. We are very disappointed about India's role in the war... We were very hopeful that India would change its stance. Right now they are supporting the Sri Lankan government's stand."

posted in australia - 2 replies

The Great Firewall of Australia?

wimpehiker — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:24:54 GMT

October 26, 2008
The coming battles for on-line freedom
By BJ

While most of the on- and off-line communities have heard of the Great Firewall of China, perhaps not enough of them realized that it was probably only a matter of time before the same technologies came to be used in what we like to think of as free and democratic countries. It appears that Australia may be the first to see the internet fall under the censors muzzle.

Is the Rudd government about to erect a Great Firewall of Australia - introducing a form of internet censorship that will infringe upon the freedom of computer users to browse the worldwide web?

That is the concern of online civil liberties groups, as the Rudd government prepares plans for a field trial of internet service provider (ISP) filtering products, with a view to introducing them nationally.

ISP filtering is the blocking of certain sites which the government deems illegal or inappropriate, and is the central plank of the Rudd government's "Plan for Cyber-Safety".

If you want to read the rest of the article, here's a link:
http://tinyurl.com/6ekqfz

posted in australia - 30 replies

Government hopes recession = military “recruitment bonanza”

Steven — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:41:17 GMT

Australian government hopes recession will produce military “recruitment bonanza”
By Terry Cook
26 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/aumi-j26.shtml

The Australian newspaper carried a front-page article on January 6 expressing satisfaction that rising unemployment could spur youth and displaced skilled workers to sign up to the military, providing a "recruitment bonanza" for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

It should come as no surprise that Murdoch's Australian flagship newspaper applauds the possibility that the wholesale destruction of jobs will effectively produce economic conscription.

The Australian has been in the forefront of championing Australian participation in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the military incursions in East Timor and the Solomon Islands, all of which the Rudd Labor government has continued since the landslide defeat of the Howard government in November 2007.

Citing the latest enlistment figures, the article declared: "It is hoped that an influx of recruits will signal the end of one of the most prolonged and damaging recruitment crisis in the history of the ADF." It welcomed "the first tentative signs that the economic slowdown is luring more young people to sign up to a life in the military".

During the three months to December 1, ADF job applications jumped by almost 20 percent compared with the same period 12 months earlier. The increases were 27 percent for the air force, 22 percent for the navy and 15 percent for the army. Overall, 6,136 applications were received in the three months, compared to 5,197 for the corresponding period in 2007.

Significantly, the last three months of 2008 saw the onset of mounting job losses as the global economic crisis began to bite. Layoffs spread from the financial sector into the auto industry, manufacturing, services and mining, are impacting on working families already suffering debt and mortgage stress.

According to the latest official statistics, the number of unemployed workers topped 500,000 in December for the first time since 2006, and financial institutions, including JPMorgan, have warned that the total could double to one million by the end of 2010.

During December the number of full-time jobs fell by 43,900, extending a four-month decline. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.5 percent, and would have risen further but for an increase in the number of people pushed into part-time employment, working fewer than 35 hours a week. In addition, about 85,000 people dropped out of the workforce.

The Australian expressed the hope that the worsening slump would assist the military to reverse its serious recruitment crisis, noting that the "military traditionally recruits strongly during economic downturns".

The Rudd government is making similar calculations. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said this week the ADF had about 53,000 personnel but was still 4,000 short of its immediate target. There is no doubt the single biggest challenge facing the Australian Defence Force in the coming decade is our people and skills shortage, he told the ABC. We're going to have to continue to work very hard to reach the targets... There is an expectation with a weakening labour market people will look for greater security in the Australian Defence Force."

The Labor government has been taking extraordinary measures to try to boost enlistment in order to meet the targets set by the Howard government for a 20 percent expansion of the armed forces by 2016.

In September, Fitzgibbon announced $6 million in retention bonuses to air force personnel, including $30,000 each to about 150 air-traffic controllers to stay an extra year. A bonus of $20,000 was offered to electricians, plumbers and carpenters who committed to two extra years.

The navy, which has been able to crew only three of its six Collins-class submarines, recently offered submariners $60,000 to serve for an extra 18 months. General service sailors were offered $24,000. The navy also gave most of its sailors an extended two-month holiday over Christmas, in response both to a shortage of staff and in a drive to attract and retain sailors.

In the army, soldiers from non-technical trades nearing the end of their service have been offered $25,000 to retrain as metalworkers and avionics technicians. Some technicians have also been offered a bonus of up to $25,000 to serve another two years.

The ADF's inability to fill its recruitment quotas and to retain trained personnel reflects deep-going opposition among broad sections of youth and working people to Australia's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and revulsion over the escalating level of US-led militarism.

Between 1999 and 2006, enlistment inquiries plunged by a third—from 150,000 to 100,000 a year, despite the Howard government spending $500 million in recruitment and retention campaigns.

Many young people who signed up for ADF service did not do so out of military zeal but to gain access to trade training because apprenticeships and other forms of training have become increasingly difficult to obtain. On completing their service in the ADF, significant numbers left immediately to take up civilian jobs. The military's separation rate—the rate at which people quit the military—has fallen over the past three months, but is still above the target of 10 percent.

With unemployment rising, the ADF is now hoping to fulfil the government's plan to increase numbers by around 5,000 to a total of 57,000 by 2016. This would allow the creation of two extra battalions and provide the air force and navy with sufficient crews for their new planes and ships.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year declared that the government "would spend what is necessary to develop a strong, flexible and well-equipped Defence Force to serve Australian interests over the next quarter century". His government has already signed off on the purchase of 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint-Strike Fighters, scheduled for delivery between 2013 and 2020, with a total price tag of at least $15 billion.

In its first budget, last May, the Labor government continued Howard's diversion of funds from social to military spending. It imposed a 3.25 percent "efficiency dividend" on every other government department, but announced that military spending would be boosted by 4 percent in real terms each year for the next four years. The budget also allocated funds to keep more than 3,000 troops overseas, primarily in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

No less than the Howard government, the Rudd government is firmly committed to participating in US-led wars, which seek to bolster American interests in the Middle East and Central Asia. At the same time, with Washington's backing, Labor is continuing to use troops to pursue Australian neo-colonial interventions in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the pages of the Australian and elsewhere, calls have been made already for the Rudd government to quickly answer any request from the incoming Obama administration for more combat troops to join the escalating war in Afghanistan. (See "Eighth Australian soldier dies in Afghanistan amid calls to boost troop numbers")

The fact that the Australian and the Rudd government expect soaring unemployment to "lure more young people to sign up to a life in the military" is a further warning that as capitalism descends deeper into economic turmoil and mass unemployment, it has no alternative to offer the working class but militarism and war.

posted in australia - 13 replies

Is Australia more 'progressive' than America?

blackegg — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:22:57 GMT

This is a personal question I'm having a hard time answering.
By progressive I mean does the gov tax you and then use that money to help the poor in you country 'get ahead'?
..... more than 'America'?

Found this:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/23856.html

Not sure how relevant that chart is as I don't think it mentions where the money is spent...just what % is taken.

Anyways thanks for any light you can shed on this subject for me.

Ben

posted in australia - 8 replies

Australian Marijuana Laws?

blackegg — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:40:07 GMT

I've heard a variety of differing accounts from a variety of sources.

What's the status of possessing and/or growing in the various states of Australia?

thanks,
Ben

posted in australia - 13 replies

some lighter bush fire news to cheer us up

Sandy Crotch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:21:46 GMT

Friend of mine had friends in Kinglake fires, lost their house and all family OK.

Threw all the bunnies, horses, cats dogs into vehicles to escape. 1 reluctant cat refused to get in the car, couldn't keep her in no matter what so they had no choice but to leave her behind.

On returning to the burnt property the cat came 'out of nowhere' obviously rattled by her experience and shot straight into the car, now they can't get her out! They have to feed her in there and she has wedged herself inbetween the car seat cover and the seat.

go CAT survivor!

posted in australia - 2 replies

Couch view of fires could trigger trauma

Bloke72 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:08:20 GMT

Watching the Australian bushfire tragedy unfold from the lounge room could be so traumatic for some people that it triggers depression, rage and anxiety problems, psychologists say.

The emotional fallout of the Victorian fires, Australia's worst ever natural disaster, could also be potent enough to alter the national psyche, it has been suggested.

People who have experienced their own personal losses in the past are especially vulnerable to an emotional breakdown because of the bushfires, Sydney psychologist Louise Rowling told ninemsn.

"If you have had a major loss yourself, then watching the bushfires could trigger an emotional response similar to what you felt at the time," she said.

"It would take you back in time and you could actually feel like you were reliving the loss over again."

Curtin University psychologist Josephine Hudson agreed, adding that the reaction could be especially strong among people who had not dealt with the grief in their past.

"For people who have experienced a loss in the past, but maybe have not dealt with their grief, watching the bushfires could trigger a loss response strong enough for some people to become depressed," she said.

The shock of seeing the bushfires could lead to people experiencing a range of emotions, Dr Rowling said.

"They could feel vey insecure and that could come out in crying, rage and anger at authorities," she said.

People already under a lot of stress are also likely to be hit hard, she said.

"It's the life stresses that people are under. For example, people who have already been affected by the economic downturn are likely to now feel like the world has gone mad," Dr Rowling said.

In the long term, the way people remember and react to the bushfires could well alter Australia's national psyche, she said.

"I think anything like this does," Dr Rowling said.

"If you think in America about the election of (President Barack) Obama, and the way that has changed the American psyche, this could do the same for Australia."

"It could reinforce the image Australians have of themselves as a hardy lot who are part of a nation that pulls together."

Source http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/750329/couch-view-of-fires-could-trigger-trauma

~~~~~~

This happened to one of my family members. She was a total mess.

posted in australia - 3 replies

Quiz

YW — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:23:32 GMT

http://www.nma.gov.au/play_aussie_english/game/game.html

Missed out on the ute :(

posted in australia - 0 replies

Sometimes we can all just use a joke....

Bloke72 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:38:59 GMT

Hope all your family and friends are well..

~

STOP CHOKING - AUSSIE STYLE

A woman sitting in an Adelaide Pub suddenly began to cough.
After a few seconds it became apparent that she was in real distress,
and two locals, Bluey and Bazza sitting at the next table turned to look at her.

Ken ya swaller? asked Bluey

The woman signalled 'No!', desperately shaking her head.

Kin ya breathe?' asked Bazza. The woman shook her head No!!!

With that, Bluey walked behind her, lifted up the back of her dress,
yanked down her knickers and ran his tongue up and down the crack of
her butt.

This shocked the woman into such a violent spasm that the obstruction flew out of her mouth and she began to breathe again.

Bluey swaggered back to his table and took a deep swig of his beer.

Bazza said in admiration 'Ya know Bluey, I'd heard of that bloody
Hind Lick Manoeuvre, but that's the first time I ever seen
somebody do it.'

posted in australia - 2 replies

Surviving 2012 - Australia

Happy Joe — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:58:48 GMT

As the "Axis tilt" is a proven periodic event, and we are overdue this cycle, the only question is how soon will this occur, and what we should be doing. In Australia, my view is that "escape capsules" should be developed that would at least save up to 6 people with basic food and survival gear. Public internet forums must explore what this would entail and how to implement this for the average family that wants to survive. Similarly, survival is not just individuals surviving the disaster, but how to form a functional survival group after, as a community that is self supporting will have a greater chance of success than ramshackle groups of survivors with guns trying to seize power and food from each other. Finally, even if 21 DEC 2012 is not the actual date - it is coming, and preparing for it by providing a capsule that can save your family or be improved and passed on to the next generation if not needed is a smart thing to do and should be discussed.
Cheers Happy Joe, Australia

posted in australia - 34 replies

PM announces $42 billion crisis stimulus package

Steven — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:08:54 GMT

Australian PM announces $42 billion crisis stimulus package
By Mike Head
4 February 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/rudd-f04.shtml

In a desperate bid to prevent an economic collapse and head off the eruption of social discontent, the Rudd government yesterday unveiled another multi-billion dollar rescue package—the sixth since last October. Under its latest "Nation Building and Job Plan," the government pledged to spend $42 billion over the next three years, claiming that this would "support up to 90,000 jobs".

By the government's own estimates, however, unemployment will still nearly double to 7 percent by next year, destroying some 300,000 jobs, illustrating how quickly the package will be swamped by the continuing global economic meltdown. This has already happened to the estimated $44.7 billion already handed out to boost the banks, businesses and consumer spending over the past three months.

Major finance houses and leading economists have warned that official unemployment will in fact rise to 10 percent by 2010, with another 10 percent of the workforce pushed into shorter hours, meaning that almost two million workers will be jobless or "under-employed".

The government's jobless estimate is as unreliable as the rest of its projections. Only two months ago, it was forecasting a 2008-09 budget surplus of $5 billion. Now, it is predicting a deficit of $22.5 billion—a $45 billion turnaround from the $22.5 billion surplus promised in last May's budget. As recently as last November, the government said the global slump would cut its tax revenues by $40 billion over four years. It has now almost trebled that estimate to $115 billion.

Rudd vowed to "throw everything" at avoiding the national economy falling into recession. But no matter how much his government spends, it is powerless to hold back the impact of the worldwide financial maelstrom. All the country's major export markets are now officially in recession, except for China, whose economy has been contracting for the past three months.

Chris Richardson of Access Economics commented: "What is happening internationally is absolutely diabolical. You are seeing economies very badly affected by the breakdown in the global banking system that happened in recent months and nothing Australia can do will stop recession here because it's recession everywhere."

In his announcement, Rudd himself referred to "the worst economic crisis since the Second World War" and the "rapid unwinding of the mining boom," which has delivered multi-billion dollar profit and tax revenue windfalls for the past 15 years.

In another sign of alarm at the speed of the downturn, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut its benchmark interest rate by a further 1 percentage point to 3.25 percent, the lowest level since 1964. This was the bank's fifth consecutive cut, with rates now down by a total of 400 basis points, from 7.25 percent in September. Despite these measures the latest data reveal that business and consumer lending dropped last year for the first time since World War II.

It will not be long before the government exhausts its capacity to continue offering stimulus packages. Even by the Treasury's current calculations, this year's budget deficit will be followed by larger shortfalls over the following three years—by 2011-12, around $118 billion, or about 12 percent of the annual gross domestic product.

Rudd will respond by demanding drastic cuts to welfare programs and social spending. While the government has predicted four years of deficits, former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating has warned that the global "catastrophe" is "way worse than it appears" and will last for at least six or seven years.

Yesterday's $42 billion package contained about $13 billion worth of various one-off handouts to low- and middle-income households. In their joint media release, Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan declared that these payments, together with similar ones in a $10.4 billion package last October, were "designed to assist those groups most affected by the flow-on effects of the global recession".

This is a fraud. There is nothing for the growing army of unemployed, who have to live on just $225 per week. There is no money for emergency relief, despite welfare agencies telling the government that demand from families has doubled over the past few months. There is no increase in the level of pensions and benefits, which remain far below the poverty line, and nothing at all for self-funded retirees, whose savings have been decimated.

Workers earning $100,000 or less per year will receive tax bonuses of $300 to $950. Low- and middle-income families will get a $950 per child back-to-school bonus and single-income families will get an extra $950. Similar bonuses will be paid to students and jobless workers who sign up for education or training. These amounts are puny compared to the scale of the growing hardship inflicted on working people, and their impact will soon evaporate. By their very nature, one-off handouts cannot address the ongoing social crisis.

Even where families receive several of these amounts, the total will not relieve the distress caused by the loss of jobs, cuts in hours and pay, and the drop in home prices and superannuation funds. Despite falling interest rates, many will lose their homes. Well before last year's crash began, millions of households were already under severe financial stress, incurring record levels of mortgage and credit card debt just to make ends meet.

Even as Rudd attempts to present a "caring" face his government continues to call for wage sacrifices and cuts on the pretext of "saving jobs". It is working hand in glove with employers to protect their profits, while imposing the full burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of workers.

The package allocates about $20 billion for school infrastructure and maintenance, community facilities, road repairs and social housing. These amounts also bear no relationship to reality—they are a drop in the bucket compared to the urgent needs produced by the systematic running down of government schools, public housing and every form of social infrastructure over the past quarter century. A recent report found that in New South Wales alone, $2.2 billion in extra funding would be needed annually to bring government schools up to adequate standards. There is not a cent for the crisis-ridden public health and hospital system.

While Deputy Prime Minister Julie Gillard described the $14.7 billion for schools as an "historic nation building investment," it amounts to just $1.54 million per school. Over the next three years Australia's 9,540 schools—including the wealthiest private schools—will each be eligible to build or upgrade just one building, such as a library or assembly hall, and to apply for up to $50,000 (small schools) or $200,000 (large schools) for maintenance or minor building repairs.

The government's package also includes token so-called "green" initiatives—subsidies of up to $1,600 for households to either insulate their ceilings or install solar hot water systems.

None of these programs involves any public works to provide jobs for the unemployed. Instead, the funds will be funneled into the coffers of the investment banks, construction companies and contractors that have fed off the privatisation of road and school construction, housing and every other social infrastructure program over the past three decades.

Rudd's latest package is also designed to provide a sop to the growing concern among ordinary people about the tens of billions of dollars already allocated in government bailouts and guarantees to the same major banks, financial institutions and companies that were involved in the looting operations that led to the economic breakdown.

According to Bloomberg News, a business publication, Australian banks, including the Macquarie investment bank, have saved at least $800 million in lower borrowing costs in the two months since the Rudd government started guaranteeing their deposits and bonds. While the banks are raking in the profits, however, lending for homes and businesses has substantially dried up, and business investment is tipped to plunge another 15 percent this year.

The government guarantees have also left taxpayers heavily exposed to the risk of further international banking crashes, which could engulf the local banks. Last month, the government announced the establishment of a new fund, dubbed the Rudd Bank, to raise up to $30 billion to protect commercial property developers should foreign banks fail to roll over as much as $75 billion of maturing debt this year. Commercial property loans cover only a fraction of the economy.

All the major business organisations, newspaper editorials and trade unions leaders have praised the latest package. Speaking in parliament, Rudd boasted that it had the backing of the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who were all consulted closely. Pledging the support of the unions, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence described it as "the right plan for very difficult circumstances".

posted in australia - 3 replies

Global Vegemite Crisis

cup — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:50:44 GMT

It is rumoured that places outside of Australia are chronically under-supplied with Vegemite.
In fact new studies suggest that the average human intake of Vegemite outside of Australia is less than 0.001%.

This is disgusting?

Wtf is Rudd doing about this?

Surely all the money we spend on the military in Iraq can be employed in better uses such as emergency Vegemite supplies drops to other countries?

I suggest a revolution by the masses.

posted in australia - 16 replies

Deepening global crisis shatters consensus over stimulus package

Steven — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:44:06 GMT

Deepening global crisis shatters consensus over Australian stimulus package
By Mike Head
7 February 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/stim-f07.shtml

A sharp conflict has erupted within Australia's political establishment over the Rudd government's latest $42 billion economic rescue package. The bipartisan consensus on the government's previous six bailout packages has collapsed in the face of the rapid deepening of the global meltdown, and the dawning realisation that Australia's ruling elite is powerless to prevent a severe and protracted downturn.

Within certain ruling circles, growing doubts are developing about the Labor government's desperate turn to Keynesian-style pump-priming in the hope of averting, or at least delaying, a recession. That became apparent last Wednesday, when the Liberal-National Party opposition announced it would vote against the required legislation. The package now depends on the votes of the four Greens and two Independents in the Senate, where a one-week inquiry is now underway, accompanied by all sorts of negotiations and horse-trading.

The government, and those in the financial and business elite who are backing its package, are anxious to head off mass unemployment and rapidly deepening social discontent. Their fears were summed up by ANZ bank chief economist Saul Eastlake, who told the Sydney Morning Herald that the government's latest cash handouts to families and schools had to be accepted. "Imagine what kind of policies would be proposed in an environment of rising unemployment and mounting social unrest?" he asked, citing the street protests that have already broken out in Europe.

But others, including Rupert Murdoch's editorial writers, are concerned that no matter how much the government spends, its efforts will be dwarfed by the worldwide crash, leaving huge budget deficits and debts. Warning against the government's series of attempted quick-fixes, which has seen it stagger from one multi-billion dollar rescue package to another, the Australian warned today: "Nothing Australia can do will end the global financial disaster."

Both sides of the debate appear to be shell-shocked by the continuing deterioration of Australia's major export markets, including China, Japan, South Korea and the US. After 15 years of super-profits and hundreds of billions of dollars in windfall government revenue, the mining boom has turned into bust in just a few months. It is now clear that the crash will last far longer than anyone in corporate circles previously imagined.

Month after month, official estimates have had to be revised. In its latest forecast, issued yesterday, the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed its growth estimate for this year from 2 percent to 0.25 percent, and zero in non-farm output, despite the $42 billion package and its own cut in the benchmark interest rate to 3.25 percent, a drop of 400 basis points since September. In effect, this means that the economy is already in recession and still contracting.

The central bank warned that because of the global financial crisis, credit had dried up for small and medium-sized business, threatening a new wave of bankruptcies. According to Dun and Bradstreet, 100,000 companies could fail this year.

The Labor government's $42 billion package has nothing to do with assisting the millions of working people whose jobs and lives are about to be shattered. There was not a cent for the jobless, whose numbers the government admits will double to nearly a million by next year, in spite of the package.

Like the pre-Christmas $10 billion package, the latest one contains a slew of one-off cash payments, which the government hopes will be spent quickly and resuscitate consumer demand. But the $950 handouts are more likely to be spent by cash-strapped families on lowering the historically unprecedented levels of home mortgage and personal credit card debt.

The other main element of the package—infrastructure funding, mainly for schools, community facilities, roads and housing—is primarily designed to prevent a looming collapse of the construction industry. The Housing Industry Association is warning that companies will crash and 85,000 jobs will be destroyed if the package is not passed.

At the same time, by distributing money to families and schools, the government is seeking to head off growing discontent over its allocation, since October 2008, of billions of dollars to underwrite or subsidise the big banks, property developers and major auto companies.

Many business groups—notably those whose members face oblivion—have backed the government, calling for the package to be implemented as soon as possible. Representing manufacturers, Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout told the Australian Financial Review that "aggressively targeting consumer spending is absolutely critical to our near-term economic prospects". Peter Anderson, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which covers large and medium-sized businesses, said the government had "ticked the boxes business has advocated as a response to the economic downturn".

Others throwing their weight behind the government included Westfield shopping empire boss Frank Lowy, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Australian Trucking Industry. Economists at Westpac, one of the country's four big banks, warned that without the immediate cash handouts, the economy would contract by 0.7 percent this year. The government also claimed the backing of the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Even the Liberals' only state premier, Colin Barnett of Western Australia, praised the package as "fantastic" and generally well-targeted.

Why then, in the face of this tide of approval, has Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, after a series of Coalition party room and shadow cabinet meetings, nevertheless decided to go out on a political limb by refusing to provide bipartisan support?

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his front bench claim that the Liberal leader is simply fighting for his political survival in the face of a possible leadership challenge by former Howard government treasurer Peter Costello, who reportedly led a party room push for rejection of the package.

Whatever Turnbull's immediate political calculations, however, the Coalition's stand reveals anxieties in ruling circles about the economic and political risks of the government's actions. In the first place, these relate to the sheer scale of the debt the government is racking up.

Turnbull told parliament: "The government is looking increasingly like a frightened soldier who fires off all his ammunition in a panic in the first minutes of an engagement. This downturn may be very long lasting and we cannot possibly spend larger and larger sums like this every quarter."

Defending Turnbull, Friday's editorial in the Australian Financial Review warned that while the government's plans to go into debt were currently manageable, "if the economic recovery is slower and more protracted that could change".

The $42 billion package allows for four years of budget deficits totaling $118 billion, but the government effectively conceded that the situation could get far worse when one of its bills sought to increase from $75 billion to $200 billion the limit the government can borrow to service debt.

Murdoch's Australian also came to Turnbull's defence, pointing to financial and ideological concerns with Rudd's abandonment of his previous commitment to "fiscal conservativism" and his adoption of Keynesian measures laced with populist attacks on "the forces of neo-liberalism", "unrestrained greed", "under-regulated markets" and "unprincipled merchant bankers" whose "entire ideology" had produced the financial crisis.

The Australian's Thursday editorial declared that while the government was right to take emergency measures, "we need a discussion of its intellectual underpinnings, of the idea Mr Rudd is pushing that the global financial crisis must change the market economy".

Rudd's claims to oppose "market fundamentalism" are absurd. He took office pledging to big business that Labor would carry through the next "wave" of the market restructuring pioneered by the Hawke and Keating governments from 1983 to 1996. All his measures, including the latest package, are oriented to bailing out the finance houses and other corporate giants that have benefited from the "free market" over the past quarter century.

Nevertheless, alarm is being expressed by some that any public questioning of the logic of the market could exacerbate what has already become a major ideological crisis for the capitalist system. There is also concern that any return to national regulation and protectionism could cut across the operations of international capital and severely harm Australia's export-oriented economy.

The turn in the latest package towards protectionism became apparent yesterday when Rudd warned of a "limited tolerance threshold for imports" in relation to supplies needed to meet the government's subsidy for the installation of ceiling insulation in around two million homes.

For their part, the Greens have rushed to assure the business elite that, unlike the Coalition, they will be "constructive" and not block the stimulus package. Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said that while his party would suggest improvements to "enhance" the package, "the government needs maximum flexibility to deal with the financial crisis"—in effect, a pledge to support the Labor government.

The trade unions also seized upon the Coalition's stance to reinforce their commitment to cooperating with the government and employers. ACTU president Sharan Burrow accused the Opposition of "jeopardising Australian jobs with its short-sighted political grandstanding". ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence called for "all parts of the Australian community—business, unions, government and community groups" to "work together". The ACTU, which has already called for workers to make wage sacrifices in the name of "saving jobs," is doing everything it can to prevent them from developing any independent challenge to the Labor government's pro-capitalist policies.

posted in australia - 0 replies

The Outback Restaurant

YW — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:45:12 GMT

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1897328
No beetroot on the hamburgers !!!

posted in australia - 3 replies

Australian unions impose wage cuts at Alcoa

Steven — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:35:27 GMT

Australian unions impose wage cuts at Alcoa
By Terry Cook
3 February 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/wage-f03.shtml

Under the guise of protecting jobs, trade unions in Australia have quickly signed up to the Labor government's drive to impose wage cuts because of the global economic meltdown. Late last month, unions at aluminum giant Alcoa in Western Australia not only dumped pay claims but agreed to forgo previously negotiated incentive payments.

Just weeks before, the US-based aluminium giant announced a $US1.19 billion loss in the last quarter of 2008 and the axing of 13,000 staff and 1,700 contractors worldwide, mainly from its US and European operations. Alcoa Australia managing director Alan Cransberg warned that while layoffs were not planned "at this stage", the company "needed to be aggressive... to maintain its competitive position in tough economic times".

Following Cransberg's announcement, Minister for Workplace Relations Julia Gillard joined the Australian newspaper, Rupert Murdoch's local flagship, to denounce pay claims by the Alcoa workers and assert that wage increases would cause job losses. Gillard urged all unions to seek "creative and responsible outcomes in enterprise bargaining".

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) mining division secretary Gary Wood initially declared that the union would still pursue pay increases of between 5 and 10 percent a year for around 100 members, saying they "work beyond expectations" and "deserve to be rewarded".

Within days, the CMFEU fell into line. Woods said the "claim for pay rises...could still be achieved" but "in better economic times". The union then also agreed to forgo two incentive increases for workers due this month and in June, amounting to around 4 percent. Wood proclaimed that the action had "created history" and was "a sign of responsible unionism amid the weakening economy".

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state secretary Steve McCartney said his union had agreed to forfeit a 4 percent pay rise and defer another increase due in six months time after the union had held discussions with Alcoa management on the company's situation.

The Australian Workers Union (AWU), which covers 2,000 workers across Alcoa, is considering similar concessions, while the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union will decide within two weeks on a proposal to "defer" six-monthly lump-sum payments introduced to retain senior trades people at Alcoa.

Despite obtaining the wage cuts, Alcoa is proceeding with its previously announced plans to shed 15,000 jobs from its worldwide operations and shelve a $A2.2 billion expansion at its Wagerup refinery in Western Australia. The company insisted that it had given no guarantees to the unions that the company would not slash jobs at its Australian facilities in the future.

As the outcome at Alcoa illustrates, the "creative outcomes" sought by the Labor government seek to ensure that working people pay the price for the economic crisis gripping world capitalism, through the slashing of both jobs and wages. After a year of soaring prices and with inflation still running at nearly 4 percent, the dropping of pay claims amounts to wage cutting in real terms.

Alcoa will now become the benchmark in the more than 5,000 enterprise agreements currently up for renegotiation across industry generally, with the unions acting as enforcers. Significantly, the three major unions involved at Alcoa—the CFMEU, AMWU and AWU—are prominent in the new round of enterprise bargaining getting underway.

Australian Mines and Metals Association director Tony Caccamo immediately hailed the unions' decision, declaring: "They could have dug their heels in because they already had an agreement on the matter, but I think they decided their members would rather have a job than wage increases." He called on unions in all industries to follow suit.

This was echoed by Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president, Sharan Burrow, who hailed "the decision of the Alcoa unions to temporarily defer previously negotiated pay rises as appropriate to maintain jobs". She added: "During the economic slowdown, unions are prepared to be sensible and flexible, as they always have been in similar periods in the past."

Burrow said unions would look to strike three-year enterprise agreements that forgo pay increases in the first year and then "over a three-year period we [the unions] will work with employers to see what is possible by the way of wage increases". She claimed that the restraint would be in return for "strong commitments" by companies on job retention.

However, holding out the prospect of recovering the foregone wages in the future is a hoax. The tying of pay outcomes to employers' "capacity to pay" is a formula for permanent wage-cutting under conditions of the greatest economic breakdown since the 1930s.

For more than two decades, the unions have used the pretext of defending jobs to overcome the resistance of workers to far-reaching restructuring including longer shifts, cuts to manning levels and the destruction of longstanding safety measures. Yet none of this has prevented the slashing of jobs and the closure of plants across the manufacturing sector.

In mining, the prospect was held out of a never-ending boom based on rising commodity prices and exports, to China in particular. Workplace flexibility and restructuring were an integral component of boosting production and ensuring high profits. Now that the minerals boom is rapidly collapsing, the unions are playing the central role in forcing workers to bear the burdens.

To mount any struggle against a global giant like Alcoa requires an international strategy to unify workers in a common fight to defend jobs, pay and conditions. But the perspective of the trade unions, in Australia and other countries, is to tie workers to their "own" employers. Not surprisingly, Australian unions have not expressed the slightest concern for the 15,000 Alcoa workers around the world who will lose their jobs.

The response of the unions in Australia to the global economic crisis underscores the worthlessness of these organisations as a means of defending even the most basic rights and conditions of workers. The defence of pay and jobs will not take place through the unions but in a rebellion against them. That will require a completely different perspective. Against their pro-capitalist program, a socialist alternative must be fought for to reorganise society for the benefit of all, not a privileged few.

posted in australia - 0 replies

Australian heat wave kills 60 people

Steven — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:47:57 GMT

Australian heat wave kills 60 people, triggers power and transport chaos
By Tania Baptist
2 February 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/heat-f02.shtml

A severe heat wave across south-eastern Australia last week resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people and precipitated a breakdown of electricity distribution and public transport systems in the states of Victoria and South Australia.

In South Australia, at least 31 "sudden deaths" in two days were believed to be attributable to the extreme heat conditions. In the capital city, Adelaide, residents have already endured four straight days of temperatures over 43 degrees Celsius (110 Fahrenheit), with the level predicted to remain above 35˚C until the end of this week.

In Victoria, police said that at least 30 people had died from heat stress. The state capital Melbourne experienced three consecutive days of more than 43˚C, the first time such a situation has been recorded since 1855.

Ambulance Victoria treated more than 1,300 people last Thursday after receiving a 52 percent increase in calls, and more than 1,900 people on Friday, a 72 percent increase. In Adelaide, 61 people were taken to hospital due to heat stress by 6 p.m. on Thursday, with paramedics experiencing a 15 percent increase in demand.

The hot spell also saw major bushfires. In Victoria, a 6,000 hectare bushfire destroyed 29 homes and threatened a major transmission line supplying power to Melbourne from Gippsland in the state's east. Hundreds of fire-fighters, most of whom are Country Fire Authority volunteers, worked throughout Friday night and Saturday to bring the fire under control.

Most of the heat-related fatalities appear to be elderly people. While the exact circumstances surrounding each death are yet to be determined, there is little doubt that living conditions were a factor in at least some of them. Many elderly people on pensions struggle to manage daily expenses, let alone afford adequate cooling and heating systems for their homes. They also tend to lead isolated lives due to the lack of accessible public services—including home care, nursing, and recreational facilities—leaving them more vulnerable to being overcome by heat stress and dehydration.

Whether the power blackouts that hit hundreds of thousands of households in South Australia and Victoria also caused deaths is not yet known.

In the days before the heat wave, the South Australian Labor government encouraged residents to restrict their usage of air-conditioners to conserve electricity. Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby, however, declared that the state's power supply system could cope with the anticipated spike in demand and was immediately proved wrong, as Wednesday, the first day of extreme temperature, saw more than 100,000 houses and businesses lose electricity in localised power outages.

On Thursday and Friday, the national power wholesaler, National Electricity Market Management Company, instructed private power retailers to begin "load-shedding"—that is, deliberately initiating rolling blackouts across South Australia and Victoria. No notice was issued to those whose homes had their power deliberately shut off at the peak of the heat wave. More than one million households were affected.

Electricity authorities have defended their actions, telling one South Australian newspaper that the public release of the scheduled blackouts would have been "unhelpful". Clearly the concern was for their public image and preventing open opposition, rather than the well-being of their clients.

The heat wave has again revealed the outdated and poorly maintained state of infrastructure throughout Australia. The country's power network is largely privatised, with the central motive being generating profits, not providing a continuous and reliable electricity supply for the population.

Victorian Premier Brumby summed up the contempt he and his colleagues have for ordinary people when he dismissed criticisms of the power system. "No government, no business would ever make the investment for an event that occurs on one day every 100 years, because it's a waste of money," he declared.

The only infrastructure investments regarded by the major political parties, Labor and Liberal, as appropriate are those that generate profits for the private sector. During the heat wave it was reported that private energy companies in Victoria, with the government's backing, will be installing "smart meters" ,which place a new $2 per kilowatt/hour charge on energy used during days when the grid is under pressure. Running an average air conditioning unit during the six hottest hours of the day will soon cost $78 per day. Such exorbitant charges could well lead to more deaths, as people shut off their cooling systems because they cannot afford to pay.

The heat wave also caused major disruptions to the public transport system in both Victoria and South Australia. On Friday, Melbourne's central business district was thrown into chaos after an explosion damaged two major power transmission lines supplying the city's west. Accumulated heat caused another explosion the same day at the South Morang Terminal Station, taking out a 500 kilovolt transmission line, with a second 500 kilovolt line hit soon after 6 p.m., causing power disruptions at peak hour. With many CBD buildings having to be evacuated, and city traffic lights failing, commuters were advised that all rail services had been cancelled and they would need to find alternative transport home.

For Melbourne's long suffering public transport users, the rail service cancellations were the last straw. Private rail operator Connex had cancelled about 200 trains because of faults in the week preceding the heat wave, before slashing approximately 1,500 train services during the three-day hot spell due to track-buckling, train breakdowns, air conditioning failures, and power stoppages. Tram services were also disrupted and, since fewer than half Melbourne's 486 trams are air conditioned, most passengers who were able to travel had to endure stifling temperatures and overcrowding.

As train cancellations started to mount last week, Connex sought to scapegoat rail workers, accusing them and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union of being overzealous in reporting petty faults in an attempt to gain leverage in enterprise bargaining negotiations. Without any evidence, Connex executive chairman Jonathan Metcalfe claimed that 8 out of 10 cancellations were the result of such unwarranted reporting by train drivers.

This unsubstantiated claim was aimed at covering up the joint responsibility of Connex and the Labor government for the situation. Successive state governments have created the present under-funded, poorly maintained, and privatised public transport system. Prior to the heat wave, the state transport minister Lynne Kosky admitted that "underinvestment over a long period of time" was a major cause of the network's poor performance and conceded that privatised operating arrangements cost the government more money than running the system publicly.

These admissions serve as a devastating exposure of the "free market" arguments for privatised public services. The failure of social infrastructure in the heat wave has revealed the inability of corporations—and the governments that represent their interests—to provide the essential services required by contemporary mass society. Nothing less than the overturn of the anarchic profit system and its replacement with a system based on genuine democracy and rational planning, controlled and organised by the working class—i.e., socialist measures—will ensure the ongoing provision of decent social infrastructure for all, in every area of social life.

posted in australia - 4 replies

Global recession triggers sharp downturn in Australia

Steven — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:51:49 GMT

Global recession triggers sharp downturn in Australia
By Mike Head
27 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/aeco-j27.shtml

The onset of recession in nearly all Australia's major trading partners has produced warnings that the country has entered a "vicious cycle" of contraction that could last at least five years.

With Britain declared in recession last week, seven of Australian capitalism's biggest markets are now officially in that situation—the others being Japan, the US, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Germany. Another three—China, Thailand and Malaysia—are regarded as possibly already in recession.

Between them, China, Korea and Japan alone take 42 percent of Australian exports, mainly minerals and energy. Last week it was reported that Japan's exports fell a staggering 35 percent in December, compared to a year earlier, and that South Korea's output fell a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Even more ominous was the news that China's growth had officially slowed to a seven-year low of 6.8 percent in the December quarter, after soaring nearly 13 percent in 2007. This sharp turnaround means that China's economy must have actually shrunk, or nearly contracted, in the last three months of 2008.

These results helped send Australian share prices to new five-year lows, taking the total losses to $900 billion since the local market's November 2007 peak. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 10 percent in the first three weeks of 2009, taking its plunge to more than half in just 14 months. This fall is one of the worst in the world.

Months of self-serving corporate and government claims that Australia was "decoupled" from the deepening world economic meltdown—supposedly because of China's boom—have been shattered. TD Securities senior strategist Joshua Williamson commented: "We thought we were decoupled from the rest of the world. What we're actually seeing is how coupled we are."

Growing numbers of mining workers are paying the price for the economic breakdown. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, last week announced 6,000 job cuts internationally, with 3,400 to go in Australia. This was on top of the 14,000 worldwide cuts inflicted by Rio Tinto, about half within Australia, and more than 5,000 job losses from smaller companies.

In the space of a few months, the mining boom has turned into a bust that is producing virtual ghost towns in remote parts of Australia, with commentators warning that the experience is a microcosm of what the entire country can expect within a year.

Two small towns in southern Western Australia—Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun—are expected to halve their populations following BHP's decision to immediately shut its local nickel project, axing 1,800 jobs overnight. For several years, BHP touted the new mine as a model, based on the construction of a local community, rather than a "fly-in, fly-out" workforce. Now, the schools and other facilities face closure, together with the small businesses that were enticed by BHP to set up in the towns on the promise that the mine would last for three decades or more.

In the western New South Wales town of Cobar, there have been 600 redundancies in the past six months, about 10 percent of the population. Just last March, the management of Cobar's largest mine, the Endeavour, set a 2009 target to excavate a record 1.4 million tonnes of ore. Since then, the zinc price has dropped by 75 percent and staff numbers have been cut by 540.

Large-scale job destruction has also begun in the retail industry, with the collapse of Australia's biggest discount retail chain—the 400-store Crazy Clark's and Go-Lo operation—threatening to throw 4,500 people out of work. David Jones, a department store chain, cut 150 head office jobs and Harvey Norman, a large electrical and homewares retailer, closed a Sydney suburban store.

As many as two million people could be jobless or "under-employed" (working fewer hours than they want) by mid-2010, according to calculations by labour economist Professor Bill Mitchell of the University of Newcastle. Previously unreported figures from the Bureau of Statistics reveal that the labour "under-utilisation" rate is already climbing much faster than the official jobless rate.

While the jobless rate rose from 4.1 percent to 4.4 percent between August and November, the underemployment rate jumped from 5.8 to 6.4 percent, producing a total "labour wastage" rate of 10.8 percent. The official unemployment figures seriously understate the impact of the crash because they do not count the workers who have had their hours reduced or been forced into part-time work.

Banking and financial stocks have led the latest share market rout, reflecting another vulnerability of Australian capitalism—its reliance on unprecedented levels of corporate and consumer debt over the past 15 years. Since the start of 2009, a new wave of US and European financial and banking crises has thrown fresh doubts over the local banks.

Like their international counterparts, Australian finance houses are being hit by what the Australian's economics editor Alan Wood described as the "vicious cycle [that] has started to operate between the financial sector and the real economy". The initial credit crisis has led to recession, undermining the value of financial and property assets, leading to forced sales, and further eroding the asset prices upon which banks have lent billions of dollars.

Shareholders in Babcock & Brown, the country's second largest merchant bank, were told last week that their shares, valued at $10 billion only 18 months ago, were worthless. While Babcock & Brown, together with the larger Macquarie Bank, was one of the most aggressive lenders and speculators, the so-called big four banks are also bleeding. Shares in National Australia Bank have dropped to a 12-year low, and ANZ to a nine-year low, after a 15.9 percent fall last week.

Economic forecaster Access Economics warned in its quarterly Business Outlook, released last week, that the economy would "unwind scarily fast", costing more than 300,000 people their jobs. "Batten the hatches. This is not just a recession. This is the sharpest deceleration Australia's economy has ever seen," it stated.

Access Economics said the federal budget was "buggered" because of its heavy reliance on company taxes and mining royalties. "The glory days of big budget surpluses are over, and the feds are now staring down the barrel of deficits as far as the eye can see," the outlook said.

The total public sector deficit, which combines federal, state and local government balances, is forecast to blow out to $10.5 billion this financial year, and $29.4 billion in 2011-12. Such a shortfall will inevitably mean deep cuts to social spending, and also swamp the Rudd government's capacity to keep bailing out the banks and other corporate giants via so-called stimulus packages.

Because of the rapidly deteriorating economic situation, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week cancelled a scheduled overseas trip to India and the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and unveiled yet another bailout plan.

Saying "unprecedented" conditions required "extraordinary" measures, Rudd claimed the government would attempt to protect 50,000 construction jobs by creating a $4 billion fund with the four major banks to prevent partly-completed commercial property projects, such as shopping centres, industrial complexes and office buildings, being halted by the withdrawal of overseas banks from financing consortia.

Taxpayers would provide $2 billion, with the remainder coming from the banks. But the potential losses for the government could be far greater. The fund, due to be operating by March, can borrow up to another $26 billion backed by a government guarantee. Even this amount will not suffice to stop the destruction of an estimated 150,000 commercial property construction jobs. Loans worth about $75 billion are due to be refinanced over the next two years, just to keep current projects going, not to underwrite new construction.

These property project loans are only part of a bigger picture across the entire economy. According to a recent estimate from Merrill Lynch, the US investment bank, foreign banks accounted for more than half of the $285 billion in syndicated loans issued to Australian companies since 2006. Many of these loans could be withdrawn because of the losses and collapses being suffered by international banks.

The new fund will be the government's fifth economic rescue package in three months, including unlimited government guarantees for all Australian financial deposits, $8 billion for the car industry and a $10 billion pre-Christmas one-off handout, largely to families and pensioners. Writing in the Weekend Australian, Andrew Main commented that the $10 billion "seems to have disappeared like a puff of dust on the wind" because it had been "thrown against a slowing economy".

posted in australia - 1 reply

Changing the Date of Australia Day

cup — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:52:49 GMT

Australia Day is celebrated on the 26th of Jan. It's become a day of National celebration of our country. The date was picked for the landing of the first fleet. When I was a kiddie there used to be more emphasis on that, now it's more a party day than anything else.

Trouble is, it's not exactly a date to celebrate for our Indigenous. They call it invasion day.

Australian of the year 2009 Mick Dodson who is of Aboriginal origin has brought the subject into the media but suggesting the date be changed. There has been an indigenous movement to do this for years.

All the politicians have flat out said NO...... which I find kinda disappointing.

I searched myself and thought - you know Mick Dodson is right. Why not pick another day that is more unifying and that perhaps celebrates our Indigenous history?

As a White fella I don't have any emotional connection to the date of the 26th. I don't particularly dig celebrating the invasion anyways. In Melbourne they don't give a stuff about the First Fleet landing....because it happened in Sydney.

What do you guys reckon?

posted in australia - 3 replies

He has a point.....he has a few actually.

Gabsta — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:29:53 GMT

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/rudd-the-worst-thing-to-happen-to-working-families/2009/01/20/1232213642972.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

<Rudd's decision to defer a wage rise for federal politicians is a meaningless gesture for setting the tone for how many other Australians should behave. The financial pressures experienced by politicians with their $100,000 plus annual salaries and brimming superannuation entitlements - most of which, unlike for other Australians, are guaranteed - are negligible compared with those faced by many battling to save the roof over their heads.>

Didn't he just up the wages of two of his advisors to somewhere around the $200k mark & pinning him as a hypocrite??

posted in australia - 3 replies

Thousands rally for Gaza in nationwide demonstrations

Steven — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:52:23 GMT

Australia: Thousands rally for Gaza in nationwide demonstrations
By our reporters
19 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/aust-j19.shtml

Thousands of people across Australia again demonstrated on the weekend against the Israeli military assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza. About 6,000 people marched in both Sydney and Melbourne, while smaller rallies were organised in other cities.

The weekend protests—the third held in Australia since the attack on Gaza began late last year—highlighted the deep anger felt by ordinary people towards the criminal actions of the Israeli government and military that has seen some 1,300 Palestinians killed. Homemade banners and placards included: “Palestine don’t despair, Australians care,” “Palestine you are not forgotten,” “Stop the holocaust in the Gaza ghetto,” “Jews and Arabs—Refuse to be enemies” and “Please Israel; do not go the Nazi way.”

Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has issued his unwavering support for the Olmert government throughout the offensive on Gaza and is an accomplice in Israeli war crimes. (See “Labor government backs Israeli assault on Gaza” ) Protest organisers nevertheless continued their efforts to block the development of an independent political movement in opposition to the government and promoted the illusion that the Labor Party could be forced to change its policies if only sufficient pressure was brought to bear.

In Melbourne, organisers with the Australians for Palestine organisation told demonstrators that they had asked numerous parliamentarians to address the rally, but not a single Labor “left” had accepted. This telling response underscored the utter futility of appealing to Rudd and the Labor Party. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young nevertheless focused her remarks on an appeal to the prime minister to have the “guts and courage” to condemn Israeli violence.

A different note was struck in a powerful speech by Dr. Peter Slezak, an academic philosopher and member of Independent Australian Jewish Voices.

“History is being rewritten even as it happens,” he said. “It is a lie that Israel is defending itself. There are no Palestinian F16 jets bombing Israel. There are no Palestinian tanks in the streets of Tel Aviv. The assault on Gaza is not a war but a cowardly act of terrorism. It is perpetrated by the most sophisticated military force against a defenceless population. The casualty figures are sufficient evidence of this crime against humanity. But this is not how it is presented in our media or by our own politicians who endlessly, uncritically repeat the official lies of Israeli propaganda. Under the guise of balance, the victims are blamed for their suffering and they have no voice...

“I am here today because I share a motivation with many Jews around the world. My 83-year-old mother is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. I grew up with her questions—why didn’t anyone help the Jews? Why didn’t anyone else care? And why did the world allow it to happen? These are the same questions we must ask today about the crimes against Palestinians.

“I am here because the state of Israel does not represent all Jews. If we have learned the real meaning of the slogan ‘never again’ from the Second World War, we can’t remain silent when crimes are being committed in our name. We must universalise the tragedy to include others in our moral universe and to recognise our shared humanity with the Palestinians.

“The Nazis made Jews wear a yellow Star of David to stigmatise them and persecute them, and I grew up with an immensely moving image of other people, not Jews, like the King of Denmark and other people, who showed their humanity by wearing the yellow star to symbolise their solidarity with the Jewish victims of persecution. This is the spirit in which I am wearing a Palestinian badge today and the spirit in which many Jews and others around the world send to the Palestinians... Right now we are all Palestinians.”

Members and supporters of the Socialist Equality Party distributed recent statements and World Socialist Web Site perspectives, including “A socialist answer to the Gaza crisis”, at a number of the demonstrations.

WSWS reporters also interviewed several protestors.

Lina Mimawiyeh attended the Melbourne demonstration with her sister. They carried a banner they made which featured graphic photographs of dead and injured Palestinian civilians, including children.

“We wanted to put some photos of the children that are dead and put some facts down to let everyone know what’s really happening,” she explained. “And the difference between the Palestinian and Israeli death tolls, and the fact that it’s not a fair war. It’s not even a war—it’s a massacre. You don’t see any of these images on TV. If you don’t research it yourself and get it from the Internet, straight from sites that are coming out of Palestine, then you don’t get to see any of this.

“There are babies with bullet wounds. In Gaza’s hospitals the doctors have been saying that they have been shot at from close range—young children with bullets in their heads and their chests, being murdered at close range. To kill one person that they claimed was a Hamas leader, the Israeli army killed 15 other people, his family members. So they’re not just going after the so-called terrorists, they’re going after everyone and anyone. These are war crimes...

“They say there is now a ceasefire but I saw a report on Arab TV that Israel is still attacking even after the ceasefire. And the Israelis have previously used ceasefires to simply prepare for their next offensive.

“My parents are Lebanese. The Israeli military did the same thing in Lebanon. My family lived through the 2006 war. No one in my family was actually injured, but people we know were. My family is from a small village; it was the larger urban areas that were especially targeted. But anything that attached our family village to anything else—bridges, roads—everything was destroyed, so everyone was struggling at that time.

“The US, Australia, everyone, they’re all supporting Israel. I mean, Barack Obama was supposed to give us hope but he has made comments about how he is supporting Israel, how he has always backed Israel, and how anyone who attacks Israel is his enemy. Everyone needs to open their eyes. The whole world’s asleep—no one’s doing anything about it. There are protests—the people are saying no to the war, but these governments aren’t budging.”

At a rally held in the New South Wales city of Newcastle last Wednesday, the WSWS spoke with Year 12 school students Kevin Smith and Josh Head.

“The Israelis would like everyone to believe that the invasion is all about stopping Hamas rocket attacks that in fact are largely ineffectual,” Kevin said. “If this really was the question, there are many other ways that this issue could be have been addressed other than a full scale invasion that has claimed hundreds of lives. I believe the real motive behind the operation is to remove Hamas and to completely destroy an opposition movement to what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, not only in the Gaza but also in the West Bank.”

“This attempt to repress all opposition is also taking place in Israel itself where the government just banned two Arab parties from standing in elections even though both of them already have members in the Israeli parliament. I think that while many governments around the world are shocked at what is unfolding in Gaza, they do not come out and condemn Israel because they view it as a useful ally against any potential opposition from other countries in the region to their operations in the Middle East.”

Josh said he had not previously been involved in politics but had now attended two protests against the invasion of Gaza.

“I came along because I have become really concerned about what is happening in Gaza and because I know I need to learn more about the situation,” he said. “I was shocked to hear about the type of weapons now being used by Israel forces in the Gaza such as phosphorous bombs. There is even talk that depleted uranium shells are being used. Using such weapons in any situation is illegal and I think a real war crime. The fact that the Israel army had been informed by the UN that the school was a refuge for ordinary citizens, for children and women but then deliberately targeted, it is really shocking...

“The major powers talk about a two-state solution. This might be sound good in theory but in practice you can see the result. Gaza is like a prison and has been completely cut off, resulting in terrible hardship for its citizens. Now you have the war and the destruction and deaths because Israel disagrees with Hamas being elected by the people. I agree that it would be better to have no borders and for ordinary people throughout the Middle East to be united, but I don’t know if this could happen.”

posted in australia - 0 replies

So you think we're rude eh?

YW — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:03:28 GMT

Come on, it's our sense of humour :)

"AUSTRALIANS doing business abroad better watch what they say, after a survey found Americans and British colleagues think we're rude.

A quarter of Australians say it is perfectly acceptable to swear while doing business, while almost all of the English and Americans surveyed found it deeply offensive."

Bugger!
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24915214-953,00.html

posted in australia - 5 replies

Australian government calls for wage cuts

Steven — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:18:01 GMT

Australian government calls for wage cuts to “save jobs”
By Terry Cook
14 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/auem-j14.shtml

Amid mounting signs that unemployment will rise rapidly this year, the Rudd government and the media have launched a campaign to impose real wage cuts, as well as job losses, on working people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard last week called on trade unions and workers to lower pay rise demands, claiming that this was necessary to save jobs under conditions of "global financial crisis". About 5,000 enterprise agreements come up for negotiation this year.

Gillard's message, she insisted, was simple: "put jobs first". She added: "Responsible unions should be giving this issue their full attention ... and seek creative and responsible outcomes in enterprise bargaining to assist businesses to ride out this period."

The Labor government is using the threat of job losses to browbeat working people into accepting wage cuts and further inroads into working conditions—in other words, into bearing the burden of an economic crisis that is not of their making.

The tidal wave of job losses in the US, Europe and Japan has only just begun to hit Australia. The latest job advertisement figures indicate that the Australian economy is plunging into a recession that could see official unemployment double to more than a million by 2010. The latest ANZ Bank survey shows that the number of ads dropped 9.7 percent last month, down 30 percent from a year earlier—a level not seen since the recession of 1981-83.

Moreover, the fall in the number of ads has accelerated over the past six months, pointing to a long-term and worsening slump. It dropped 50 percent in 12 months, a decline that the ANZ head of Australian economics Warren Hogan described as "historically consistent with economic recession within the next nine months".

Wages are not to blame for this downward spiral. In fact, they have been driven down to historically low levels and working conditions have been steadily dismantled over the past few decades, the very period in which the seeds of the world economic crisis were being sown.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last June revealed the share of wages and incomes fell to 52.4 percent, its lowest since the March quarter of 1965, while that of profits leapt to 28.4 percent, the highest level in the 49 years since national accounts have been kept.

The ever-greater redistribution of income and wealth away from the working class and to the corporate elite, and the resulting levels of social inequality, have been bound up with the increasingly speculative and parasitic operations of the profit system that have led to the worldwide meltdown since mid-2007.

Gillard's call followed an article in the Fairfax media arguing for below-inflation rate pay increases this year and for the Australian Fair Pay Commission to grant the low-paid just $12 a week. Under the heading "Give your pay packet a shave and help save jobs", Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Mark Davis declared: "Wages have been growing at 4 percent a year as employees chase rising prices and employers face shortages of skilled workers. But with the economy turning, the old adage that one man's pay is another man's job will come into play again."

Davis's "adage" is traditionally trotted out by employers to demand pay cuts and sacrifices from workers whenever the capitalist system produces recession or depression. In the 1980s, the Hawke Labor government and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) used the same argument to drive down real wages.

An editorial in Rupert Murdoch's local flagship, the Australian, declared last week: "All of a sudden it's the early 1980s all over again. Now as then, the economy is slowing and there is a real risk that unemployment will rise rapidly ... [A]s in the 80s, what the unions do will decide in part how many jobs are lost in the coming year."

The newspaper denounced the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) for having earlier suggested it may seek inflation-level pay increases in the car industry. "[G]iven Canberra's car industry assistance package, this claim amounts to a case of the Commonwealth subsidising the industry's ability to pay staff more money," it said.

The editorial was referring to the government giving handouts worth $6.2 billion to the car companies, which have already axed thousands of jobs over the past two years and closed plants. The Australian had no objection to these large sums being provided in order to boost company profits.

The Murdoch media has also rounded on the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) for a "33 percent pay increase" claim for around 100 power plant operators at Alcoa in Western Australia. The claim, spread over several years, actually amounts to annual increases of 5 to 10 percent.

One aspect of the media coverage was to depict the unions as diehard defenders of their members, when in reality they have spent the past two and a half decades enforcing real wage cuts and trade-offs on workers, and ruthlessly suppressing rank-and-file resistance.

Interviewed on ABC radio, CFMEU (mining and energy division) national president Tony Maher responded to Gillard's demands by indicating that the unions would fall into line. "The union always takes into account economic circumstances" in wage bargaining, and had done so for the past two decades, he said. "Right at the moment, we're pushing for job security more than anything else."

Anxious to head off opposition from workers, ACTU president Sharan Burrow sought to argue that maintaining real wage levels would be good for the corporate elite itself because "collectively bargained decent wages would ensure that the spending power of working families is maintained". However, she added that unions "will negotiate wages based on the capacity of the company, and this will be different on a case-by-case basis, according to the industry and specific company involved".

In other words, pay increases will be based not on what is needed to relieve the dire situation facing working people but on "capacity to pay," that is, what companies require to maintain profit margins under conditions of economic collapse.

At the same time as refusing to defend living standards, the unions have no intention of mounting any campaign to defend jobs or stop plant closures. Instead, the ACTU has been working behind the backs of its members to allow companies to stand them down for up to two days a week, effectively imposing a significant pay cut.

The Australian Financial Review reported last week that workers would be expected to accept a "training wage" of around 80 percent of their normal base wage. Burrow said the ACTU had already endorsed "voluntary standdown days" in the car industry under the guise of "retraining" and wanted to see them extended to other sectors, including retail, manufacturing, construction and hospitality.

Burrow told the Australian Financial Review that employers and employees would also negotiate job sharing or rundowns of accrued leave—two other forms of wage-cutting—as tactics to prevent job losses, but said unions would not accept such arrangements being forced upon workers. This suggestion sums up the role of the trade unions. They will not oppose the slashing of workers' living standards, as long as they remain the agencies responsible for extracting them.

In addition, the ACTU is urging the Rudd government to provide an "income guarantee" and "training" for six months when "an employer can't keep someone on". The scheme is not designed to protect workers or provide long-term decent jobs but to help unions head off resistance to redundancies and maintain a ready pool of on-call skilled labour.

The scheme would amount to yet another taxpayer subsidy for big business, which is slashing spending on training. Last week, a survey of 500 chief executives by the Australian Industry Group (AIG) showed those in manufacturing planned to reduced expenditure on training this year by 7.5 percent, in construction 12 percent and in services 12.7 percent. The ACTU's proposal dovetails with a call by AIG chief executive Heather Ridout for the government to provide "incentives" to maintain spending on training.

Just as they did under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments of 1983 to 1996, the unions are working with the employers to force workers to pay the price of shoring up the profits of the giant corporations. Only this time, they are doing so amid the greatest failure of capitalism since the 1930s.

During its first six months in office, the Rudd government and the unions sought to impose annual pay rises of 3 percent or less in the name of fighting a "war against inflation,"—when inflation rose to nearly 5 percent. Now, with the world economy imploding, they are attempting to impose even deeper cuts.

posted in australia - 1 reply

Eighth Australian soldier dies in Afghanistan amid calls to boost troop numbers

Steven — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:02:17 GMT

Eighth Australian soldier dies in Afghanistan amid calls to boost troop numbers
By James Cogan
13 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/aust-j13.shtml

The eighth Australian soldier lost his life in Afghanistan on January 3. Thirty-year-old Private Gregory Michael Sher, from a Melbourne-based Army Reserve company of the 1st Commando Regiment, was killed by 107mm rockets fired into an Afghan army base in the southern province of Uruzgan. He had reportedly been in the country for several months.

According to reports, Sher was part of the 300-strong Australian special forces detachment that is operating in Uruzgan and mainly comprised of units from the Special Air Service (SAS) and the army's regular commando battalion, 4RAR. Its primary mission is to locate and capture or assassinate insurgent leaders and bomb-makers. Some 800 other Australian troops are in Afghanistan performing engineering, logistical or support roles.

The previous conservative Australian government authorised the deployment of the special forces into frontline combat in Uruzgan in mid-2007. The Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, which took office in November 2007, has continued and expanded their deployment. As a result, casualties have spiked sharply. Only one soldier was killed between October 2001 and October 2007. In the past 15 months, seven more have lost their lives and more than 50 have been wounded.

While the number is still small, Afghanistan is now the most costly conflict for the Australian military since its operations in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971, when 500 died and some 3,100 were wounded.

Sher's death has prompted another round of speculation in the Australian media as to whether the incoming Obama administration will request that Rudd deploys even larger numbers of combat troops to the Afghan war—with the prospect of greater casualties.

Under Obama, Afghanistan will be central to the US strategy of asserting its influence in Central Asia at the expense of its main rivals in the region—Russia and China. Establishing supply lines to Afghanistan, independent of the increasingly unstable route across Pakistan or a contentious path through Russia, is being exploited to bolster the pro-US client state in Georgia, strengthen ties with Azerbaijan and oil-rich Kazakhstan, and develop relations with Uzbekistan and gas-rich Turkmenistan which both border Afghanistan. (See: "US ‘surge' in Afghanistan threatens wider war")

Theoretically, a complex "East-West corridor" for both military supplies and oil and gas pipelines could be developed, stretching from Europe to northern Afghanistan. As Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar noted in the Asia Times on December 20: "The project, if it materialises, will be a geopolitical coup—the biggest ever that Washington would have swung in post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus. At one stroke, the US will be tying up military cooperation at the bilateral level with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan."

The US military is already preparing for a dramatic escalation in the Afghan war and stepped-up incursions into Pakistan to target insurgent safe-havens. It has announced that its troop numbers in the country will double from 30,000 to 60,000. Pressure on Australia to boost its commitment as well is considered virtually inevitable.

The January 6 editorial of the Melbourne Age commented: "With most Australian troops having left Iraq... Washington would be well aware Canberra has capacity to increase forces in Afghanistan. The military protection that Australia derives from the US alliance also carries expectations of reciprocity, so Mr Rudd will find it hard simply to deny any request from Mr Obama for more help in Afghanistan."

Sections of the Australian establishment support sending additional forces as they consider the protracted Afghan war an opportunity to finally dispense with the "Vietnam Syndrome"—the reluctance of governments to deploy troops into combat out of fears this could ignite domestic political opposition. The Army's infantry battalions and armoured squadrons, for example, have not gone into battle for 37 years.

Two Army officers wrote papers last year denouncing the policy of not sending the infantry battalions into frontline roles. The Murdoch press widely publicised their criticisms and supported the officers with a column in the Australian calling for Rudd to "let the infantry do its job" in Afghanistan.

Last month, the campaign was stepped-up by retired Major General Jim Molan, who for a time commanded the Australian task force in Iraq and was prevented from undertaking offensive operations by the then Howard government. While giving full support to the Bush administration's occupation of Iraq, Howard was acutely conscious that Australian casualties would have galvanised political opposition. In late 2002 and early 2003, some of the largest demonstrations internationally against the impending invasion took place in Australia.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Molan complained that Howard's deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq had "lacked military logic", as they did not allow troops to engage in combat. The Rudd government, he declared, had to consider the "option to deploy a joint combat group of up to 2,000 capable personnel permitted to fight and give itself the option of increasing its commitment up to 6,000 by about 2011" (emphasis added).

Again the Australian signalled its support. In an editorial on December 27, it declared: "There is one request the Rudd government must be ready to answer as soon as President-elect Barack Obama takes office next month—a call for more Australian combat troops to join the allied effort in Afghanistan....

"Major General Molan argues that Australia has got used to deploying the ADF [Australian Defence Forces] in international peacemaking and peacekeeping operations, and that we need a culture where the armed forces are equipped and expected to fight long wars."

The remedy, it declared, "could be to add one of the six regular infantry battalions, plus support troops, to supplement, or rest, the hard-working SAS" in Afghanistan.

The Australian speaks for powerful sections of the political establishment who want the population to become accustomed to troops dying in overseas interventions. In a period of economic and political upheaval, they expect Australian governments to be prepared to deploy military force to defend their economic and strategic interests, especially in the Asia-Pacific region—regardless of the human cost. A stepped-up involvement in Afghanistan is viewed as both a training ground to blood the Australian Army and a down-payment for future US assistance.

The Rudd government has not ruled out a major escalation. When questioned over Molan's column, Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon emphasised only that, thus far, Canberra had "received no approach from the US... to increase our troop commitment".

posted in australia - 0 replies

Position Vacant - Queensland Tourism

YW — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:10:38 GMT

Position: Caretaker
Location: Hamilton Island
Responsibilities: feeding turtles, watching whales and picking up the island's post.
Qualifications: good swimming skills and a love of snorkelling, scuba diving and other water sports are a must.
Salary: $150,000 pa
Additional skills: passion for the great outdoors and the ability to speak English are also considered to be an advantage.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24902129-662,00.html

posted in australia - 4 replies

Falling exports and home sales

Steven — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:57:40 GMT

Falling exports and home sales: recession “baked in Australia’s cake”
By Mike Head
12 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/auec-j12.shtml

The shockwaves from the global financial breakdown have well and truly arrived on Australian shores, with the latest figures showing precipitous falls in home building and mining exports.

Metal ores and minerals exports dropped by 13 percent in November, contributing to a 4 percent decline in total exports, while the number of homes approved for construction dived by nearly 13 percent to their lowest level in around eight years.

Both results were far worse than expected. Even before they were released, global banks were warning that the country was already in recession (two successive quarters of negative growth) and that worse lay ahead in 2009.

Recession "already is baked in Australia's cake," JPMorgan Chase Bank stated in an economic research note issued on January 2. "Australia is in the midst of the first recession since the early 1990s, the ripples of the global economic hurricane belatedly having washed ashore... Households currently are in a rare state of retreat, previously upbeat businesses are slashing investment and hiring, and commodity exports are in free-fall."

The bank said the Australian economy had most likely already contracted in the final quarter of 2008 and would do so again in the first quarter of 2009. JPMorgan estimated that Australia's official jobless rate could double to 9 percent by the end of 2010, or close to a million unemployed, up from 4.4 percent in November.

A sharp December fall in media advertising, including a 50 percent drop in newspaper employment ads, caused Goldman Sachs JBWere's Christian Guerra to comment: "We had previously assumed the 2009 financial year would be a cyclical low for the ad market. However, our economics team now believes Australia will endure a deeper recession and a shallower recovery. As a result, we see the downturn lasting through 2010."

Because both Japan and China, Australia's largest export markets, are now slashing production, hopes have vanished that the local economy would be sheltered from the worst of the global storm.

In fact, the heavy dependence of Australian capitalism on raw material exports, combined with historically unprecedented levels of household and corporate debt, makes it particularly vulnerable to the economic meltdown that began in the United States in mid-2007.

By the end of last year, the local share market had suffered one of the biggest losses in the world—stock prices fell 43 percent, or 47 percent from their peak in November 2007. By comparison, Wall Street's Dow Jones index lost 33.8 percent and the S&P 500 38.5 percent. According to the Australian Financial Review, the falls in Australia have already exceeded those of the Great Depression of the 1930s, when prices dropped 46 percent from their 1929 high to their low a year later.

One of the biggest factors is that export mineral prices suffered a major drop in the second half of 2008—the CRB index of a basket of commodities has sunk more than 52 percent since July. For Australian-based mining companies, including the two giants, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the situation will only deteriorate after April, when new price and volume contracts will commence. For hard coking coal, prices are expected to drop at least to $US120 a tonne in April, from $US300 a tonne in present contracts.

The reversal of the mining boom has started to flow through the entire economy. The sharpest fall in the number of homes approved for construction in November occurred in Western Australia, the most mining-dependent state, where approvals plunged 29.5 percent.

Nationally, approvals for both commercial and residential properties, regarded as indicators of future economic activity, plummeted 34.7 percent in the year to November. ICAP senior economist Adam Carr described the results as "completely horrific".

All the indications are that the building slump will intensify. A survey conducted by the Australian Industry Group and the Housing Industry Association showed construction activity at new lows in December, the 10th straight month of decline. As a result, major job losses are expected to hit building workers in coming months and the national economy, which barely grew by 0.1 percent in the September quarter, before the worst of the global credit crunch, will slow further.

November's plunge in construction came despite extraordinary efforts to stimulate investment. The Reserve Bank had slashed interest rates by 2 percentage points in the preceding months, and the Rudd government had tripled the first homebuyers' grant to $21,000. During November, the government also announced a $10.4 billion "economic stimulus" package, mostly consisting of minor one-off handouts to pensioners and parents to boost consumer spending in the lead-up to Christmas.

The failure of the government's efforts was underlined by the latest retail and car sales figures. In November, retail sales rose 0.4 percent in seasonally adjusted terms, but only food sales kept the data in positive territory. Once food was taken out of the statistics, sales fell by 1.1 percent—the worst result on record.

New vehicle sales dropped 11.3 percent in December, on top of a 22 percent plunge in November, producing a full-year decline of 3.6 percent. A much steeper 12.5 percent fall is predicted for 2009. This is despite the Rudd government's $6.2 billion assistance package for the car industry and a $2 billion special fund to prop up showroom finance after GE Money and GMAC announced they would pull out of the market.

These results give an early picture of the severe financial and social impact that the economic crisis will have on ordinary people. Even though mass unemployment has yet to hit, working people are already heavily in debt and being forced to cut back, delay or cancel spending on housing, consumer items and cars.

An Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey showed business confidence fell to record lows in December. Many firms have put capital expenditure, including vehicles, on hold, and expect jobs to be shed over the next six months. Companies reported that business conditions, sales and profits continued to decline over the final months of 2008 and were expected to deteriorate further in early 2009. A Dun and Bradstreet survey found that 20 percent of firms expected to have fewer staff in the March quarter than a year ago, 54 percent predicted sales would decline and 59 percent thought profits would drop.

Beneath the surface of economic life, a new round of asset and profit write-downs has started to emerge, reinforcing fears of a "second wave" of business bankruptcies that will spread from highly-leveraged companies such as such as Centro, Allco, ABC Learning and Lift Capital to trading companies, miners, manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers.

Last week, three prominent companies—Leighton Construction, investment company GPG and property group Tishman Speyer—joined a growing list of firms alerting shareholders to profit downgrades or asset revaluations that could seriously affect company balance sheets and breach debt covenants with banking syndicates.

Leighton warned that interim net profit would be down 60 percent and full-year net profit down 21 percent after taking into account $240 million of investment write-downs in six listed entities, including BrisConnections, RiverCity, Connect East, Devine and Macmahon Holdings.

Tishman Speyer said the valuations on all 18 properties in its portfolio had been written down by a collective $220 million to $2 billion. Australian commentator Adele Ferguson commented: "The reality is that Tishman Speyer and many other LPTs (listed property trusts) are yet to come clean about the real value of the properties in their portfolios. If they did, most would be in breach of their loan covenants, which would result in a liquidation of assets at fire-sale prices or a renegotiation of debt at a higher interest rate, which would savage their already mauled earnings."

Other well-known companies with a reported downside risk to their earnings forecasts include Wesfarmers, Qantas, Virgin Blue, Suncorp, Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Lend Lease. Those at risk of investment write-downs and dividend cuts include Westfield, Washington H Soul Pattinson, Goodman Group, Valad and GPT.

This list has serious implications for the banks. Australia's largest investment bank, Macquarie Group, has warned that the last quarter of 2008 was "exceptionally challenging". It said "unprecedented market conditions" had forced it to report $1.14 billion of write-downs during the second half of 2008, and it expected $400 million of write-downs in the first six months of 2009. The announcement sent Macquarie's share price down to $32.50, about one-third of its level a year ago.

Shares in the second largest investment bank, Babcock and Brown, were suspended after it warned that it would book more than $2.6 billion worth of write-offs, making its assets worth less than its debts. The company had $2.63 billion in assets at June 2008 and is selling off the bulk of them to halve its $3.1 billion in debt.

Babcock's syndicate of 25 banks has until next week to consider whether to keep the company afloat to February. Local banks have an estimated $800 million direct exposure to Babcock, led by Westpac (up to $250 million), CBA ($200 million), ANZ and Suncorp ($125 million each) and NAB ($100 million).

Under the headline, "Real carnage about to start," the Australian Financial Review last week reported: "Insolvencies and company administrations have jumped by about a third in the past year, but insolvency experts expect the real carnage will begin for a broad range of businesses early this year."

Australian Securities and Investment Commission figures showed insolvency appointments in October totalled 1,296, up from 1,018 in October 2007, with the number of companies entering external administration jumping from 633 to 847. A liquidator, Colin Nicol of McGrathNicol, told the newspaper that most of the major casualties during 2008 were highly-leveraged, but this year he expected many retailers to start folding after January, together with mining and car component firms, as well as construction companies.

posted in australia - 0 replies

Drug-runner filmed masturbating at 150km/h after buying SA cannabis with Dead Mother's Inheritance Money....Yawn.

blackegg — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:08:56 GMT

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24883558-2682,00.html

"A MAN who used his dead mother's inheritance to buy 5kg of cannabis in Adelaide and then filmed himself masturbating while driving at 150km/h has been jailed.

Brendon Alan Erhardt, 39, was pulled over by police on July 16 last year, 25km south of Daly Waters.

He was returning to the Northern Territory from Adelaide, where he had used an inheritance from his dead mother to buy a Holden SV6 and 5kg of cannabis.

Inside the car, police discovered 10 packages of cannabis hidden in a blue esky in the boot, two cannabis plants on the back seat, two drug pipes and a loaded .22 rifle.

Erhardt told the officers he had been masturbating shortly before being stopped for speeding on the 130km/h stretch of the Stuart Hwy.

He had filmed himself travelling at a speed of 150km/h.

"(It is) conduct one might expect of a much younger immature person to engage in," Magistrate Sue Oliver told Darwin Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Erhardt pleaded guilty to six charges, including carrying an unregistered and loaded firearm, driving dangerously and driving unlicensed.

Sentencing him to two months in prison, Magistrate Oliver said his behaviour was strange and humiliating.

"The circumstances of the driving are bizarre to say the least," she said.

"And I would have thought it would cause him some embarrassment to have it aired in a public forum."

Erhardt was also fined $2,000 and disqualified from driving for six months.

The father of two is already serving time in prison over the same incident, after he pleaded guilty in the NT Supreme Court to supplying a schedule two drug and possessing two cannabis plants.

He was sentenced last month to three years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 months.

The Supreme Court heard Erhardt "panicked" when he was stopped by police and told them that he found the drugs at a rest stop about north of Coober Pedy.

He said he planned to take them home and smoke them himself.

"The offending is serious. Such crimes are prevalent," said Justice Stephen Southwood.

"The offender imported almost 10 times the commercial quantity of cannabis into the Northern Territory from South Australia."

The two prison sentences are to be served concurrently."

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait...'.Such crimes are *prevalent*'?
This is some twisted Australian version of the word meaning 'not that common' right?

posted in australia - 10 replies

NASA tells Obama Australia is destroying earth with coal emissions...

YW — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:03:07 GMT

.... and what's do you think Obama's going to do about it....
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24880190-5001021,00.html

posted in australia - 4 replies

Labor government backs Israeli assault on Gaza

Steven — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:09:58 GMT

Australia: Labor government backs Israeli assault on Gaza
By Patrick O’Connor
9 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/rudd-j09.shtml

The Australian Labor government has declared its full backing for Israel's criminal military attack on Gaza. After more than a week of sustained air bombings and a ground invasion that has left around 700 dead, including more than 200 children, and thousands wounded, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his deputy leader Julia Gillard have adamantly refused to condemn the Zionist state's actions, echoing instead its lying pretext that they are a defensive response to alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas.

With Rudd on leave when Israel commenced its bombardment of Gaza on December 27, Gillard issued the government's first response as acting prime minister. "Clearly the act of aggression was engaged in by Hamas which commenced shelling with rockets and mortars into Israel," she declared. "That is what breached the ceasefire, and Israel responded."

Gillard's account of the conflict—which turns reality on its head—underscores the Labor government's complicity in Israel's war crimes.

In fact, not a single Israeli was killed by the crude, short-range Qassam rockets that were fired from Gaza in the lead-up to the Israeli military assault. Moreover, the ceasefire was earlier violated by Israeli forces in November, when they assassinated six members of the Hamas security force.

Even when formally in place, the so-called ceasefire was accompanied by an unrelenting Israeli siege of Gaza that effectively shut down the territory's economy and deprived its 1.4 million people of food, medicine, regular electricity, and other basic necessities. From January 2006, when Palestinian Authority elections failed to deliver a victory for the US-Israeli quisling faction, Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, the Olmert government and Bush administration have been carrying out an unrelenting "regime change" campaign against the elected Hamas administration. This has involved the physical blockade of Gaza, an economic embargo and theft of Palestinian tax revenue, and a series of bombings and assassinations. Israel's current military offensive marks the continuation of this criminal and expansionist strategy.

As the scale of Israel's assault on Gaza's besieged population became clear in the week after the initial bombings—making a mockery of Olmert's claims of a "defensive" response to rockets—the Labor government maintained its support. On Monday, for example, the ninth day, Gillard again condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the firing of rockets from Gaza, while insisting that "we recognise Israel's right to defend itself".

Not a single so-called Labor "left" parliamentarian has offered a word of criticism of these statements.

On the same day, Rudd held a press conference to echo the lies and pretexts earlier advanced by his deputy. Like Gillard, the prime minister cynically expressed his "concern" for civilian casualties, advocated a diplomatic solution, and promised additional Australian aid if required. This was nothing but an attempt to use occasional "humanitarian" rhetoric to cover his government's complicity in Israel's crimes.

Rudd's real priorities were on display in a revealing exchange between the government and the opposition that occurred after a news agency misreported his description of the Israeli ground invasion as an "insurgence". Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Helen Coonan attempted to use the erroneous news report to condemn Rudd from the right, accusing him of attempting to "equate Israel's military operations to the violent activities of terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda in Iraq". A government spokesperson yesterday leapt to Rudd's defence, chastising Coonan for attempting to score political points over the conflict. Rudd's office insisted that the proofed transcript of the exchange showed he had politely described the invasion as an "incursion".

While Rudd was bending over backwards to assure the Liberals of his credentials as an unconditional supporter of Zionist aggression, neither he nor anyone in the government issued any comment on the most recent Israeli atrocity—the murder of more than 40 children in a UN-run school at the Jabaliya refugee camp.

The Rudd government's open alignment with the actions of the Israeli government has clearly shocked many ordinary people who mistakenly believed the defeat of former Prime Minister John Howard would mark a significant shift in Australian foreign policy. Despite the extraordinarily biased media coverage—led by the Murdoch press, whose op-ed and editorial pages resemble nothing more than rehashed Olmert government press releases—public opposition is widespread and growing.

This week, more than 150 Jewish-Australians added their voice to the popular outrage, signing a public statement condemning the Israeli government's military assault. "History has demonstrated that military punishment has never broken the spirit of a people or produced peace," they wrote. "On the contrary, the assault on the population of Gaza will only inflame hatred of Jews and of the State of Israel while doing nothing to protect the lives of Israelis... We call for an immediate end to attacks on civilians by Palestinians and Israelis. However, since Palestinians have no means of self-defence against the most powerful military force in the Middle East, we particularly call on Israel to end its brutal assault on the vulnerable Palestinian people of Gaza and to reconsider its rejection of the UN Security Council's call for a cease-fire."

In Sydney, Melbourne, and other cities, thousands of people have attended demonstrations against Israel's attacks and against Canberra's complicity. (See "Australia: Thousands rally against Israeli Gaza attacks")

Conspicuously absent from the official platforms of these rallies, however, has been any serious explanation of the Rudd government's backing of Israel and the US. Some speakers have referred to the government being "captive" and "held hostage" by the powerful Zionist lobby, and encouraged protestors to provide a counter-pressure on the government by writing letters to MPs and continuing to demonstrate.

Such positions are nothing but politically dangerous illusions, aimed at covering up the Labor Party's long and sordid foreign policy record. Rudd's strategic orientation is entirely of a piece with that of his predecessors John Howard, Paul Keating, and Bob Hawke. Support for US imperialism remains the central pillar of the Australian ruling elite's international position, above all in the Asia-Pacific region.

Canberra's unwavering alliance with Washington has gone hand in hand with its bipartisan backing for Israel, US imperialism's chief Middle East proxy, and its militarist measures.

Ever since the founding of the Zionist state in 1948, the Australian Labor Party has been one of its most enthusiastic proponents. Rudd is simply continuing in this tradition. In March last year he initiated an unprecedented parliamentary motion hailing the 60th anniversary of the Zionist state's establishment and "commend[ed] the state of Israel's commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism". In another significant parliamentary vote held last December, Labor joined the Liberals in rejecting a Senate resolution moved by the Greens that called on the Olmert government to allow the world's media proper access to Gaza.

Labor's decades-long record stands as an indictment of any political perspective based on pressuring the Rudd government to defend the Palestinian people. As the World Socialist Web Site concluded in its perspective "Hands off Gaza!": "The only real ally of the Palestinian masses is the international working class... It is the united mobilization of the working class of all countries, including Arab and Jewish workers, that holds the key to a genuinely democratic and progressive solution to the crisis in the Middle East. This must take the conscious form of a struggle against Zionism, imperialism and the Middle Eastern bourgeoisie for a socialist federation of the Middle East, as part of the world socialist revolution."

posted in australia - 1 reply

Report: Australia may take Guantanamo inmates

blackegg — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:09:37 GMT

SYDNEY, Australia: Australia will consider accepting detainees released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay following an American request that it and other countries resettle former inmates, Australian media reported Saturday.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cautioned, however, that any inmate admitted to Australia must be vetted through the usual channels.

"Any determination for an individual to come to Australia would be made on a case-by-case basis," Rudd's spokesman said, according to The Australian newspaper. "All persons accepted to come to Australia would have to meet Australia's strict legal requirements and go through the normal and extremely rigorous assessment processes."

Many European nations — which have long been loath to accept detainees from the detention center — have recently indicated a willingness to resettle inmates. Officials from France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland have all said they are looking into accepting or are willing to accept detainees from the U.S. prison.

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison and American officials have expressed concern that some detainees might be persecuted if returned to their home countries.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/27/asia/AS-Australia-Guantanamo.php

posted in australia - 17 replies

ATO Email ? NOT !

Bloke72 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:56:38 GMT

From my sister..

Just heard on the radio that there is a dodgy email going around that appears like it's from the tax department. Apparantly it looks very legitimate with the offical tax office logo etc and is offering refunds, rebates etc. Just warning you all so you can delete it. They are warning people to not even open it.

posted in australia - 2 replies

I see that Oz has Fundie legislators too.

wimpehiker — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:03:03 GMT

I'd love to visit Oz some day, and the natural scenery is a legitimate part of the attraction. Hey legislators! It's OK to be concerned about UV overdose, but isn't this going overboard?

Australians angry over bid to ban topless sunbathing

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Sun-loving Australians reacted angrily on Tuesday to a mid-summer bid by a conservative Christian lawmaker to ban topless sunbathing on beaches in the country's most populous state.

Christian lawmaker and veteran morals campaigner Reverend Fred Nile won backing from key politicians in New South Wales state, counting Sydney and its famed ocean beaches, to tighten existing laws covering nude sunbathing.

"The law should be clear. It must say exposure of women's breasts on beaches will be prohibited," Nile said.

Centre-left state government lawmaker Paul Gibson told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that families at the beach during the summer holidays did not want topless women.

But scores of callers to radio talkback stations complained about the plan and Leanne Peters from the ACT Nudist Club in the capital Canberra said Australia would look like a "haven for prudes" in the unlikely event that laws passed parliament.

Australians love their suntans and topless sunbathing has been common on most beaches since the 1960s. Nude beaches are also legal in every state except tropical Queensland.

But the country also suffers the world's highest rate of melanoma skin cancer. A new and graphic government advertising campaign warns there is no such thing as safe tanning, building on decades of similar official warnings.

NSW Assistant Health Minister Jodi McKay said banning topless sunbathing was a step too far for most lawmakers. "We don't want to go down the slippery slope of banning activities like this. What would be next, banning breastfeeding?" she said.

posted in australia - 6 replies

Quest for knowledge results in life's harshest lessons

Bloke72 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:31:26 GMT

* Sushi Das
* November 15, 2008

JIMMY always carries his passport. It's all he has left.

Ask him the spelling of his real name and he pulls the battered blue book out of his pocket. But he won't be using his real name today because he doesn't want his parents to know the story he has to tell.

Jimmy is a 21-year-old citizen of Mauritius. His student visa allows him to study in Australia and work a maximum of 20 hours during term time. That's if he can find a job.

His parents in Mauritius borrowed thousands of dollars to send their only son to Australia for an international education in the hope it would set him up, and perhaps provide a cushion of financial security in their old age. Carrying the pride of his Indian family on his shoulders, he does not want them to know how he became penniless in a foreign city — why he was sleeping under a pedestrian bridge near the Rod Laver Arena, how he survived on charity van food, and why his loved ones couldn't contact him after he sold his mobile phone to Cash Converters for $10.

"I was the worthless son," he says. "I was on the streets and trying to ignore it. Couldn't. My school work was becoming degraded. I couldn't concentrate and I didn't know where to go after school finished. Only the streets. I can't tell that to my parents, because they trusted that I can do it."

He glances over the top of his steel-rimmed glasses and bows his head as if he's thinking. His black hair, uncut for months, falls forward. He's not thinking. He's sobbing.

Jimmy arrived in Australia in April last year after a Mauritian migration agent persuaded his family that an Australian education would help him secure permanent residency in the lucky country.

The agent painted a "rosy picture of Melbourne" where jobs were aplenty and accommodation was affordable. Cambridge International College, a Melbourne private college, was the place to go, she said. In the fiercely competitive arena of international education, a name like "Cambridge" resonates excellence. Jimmy's family trusted the agent and paid her generously to get Jimmy enrolled.

It was not the first time the agent, Devika Matadeen, and her company, GRS, took money from Mauritian families by providing a wildly unrealistic picture of life in Melbourne for international students. The Mauritian Government is currently prosecuting GRS for operating without a licence.

International education is a $13. 7 billion industry in Australia, making it the third-largest export after coal and iron. Migration agents employed by universities and private colleges to recruit international students are the linchpin of this lucrative business.

But it is widely acknowledged that systemic failures are leaving some students out in the cold — literally.

Jimmy's graphic design course at Cambridge International College cost $10,000 a year. Upon arrival in Australia, he was given homestay accommodation in Newport, where he stayed until the beginning of this year.

Jimmy attended classes, taking jobs as a kitchen hand, telemarketer and door-to-door salesman to help pay the $130 weekly rent. Sometimes he was paid, sometimes he wasn't.

He fell behind with the rent and, within 10 months, was asked to move out. With no family to turn to and nowhere to go, finding a place to sleep became a priority. Sometimes he fell asleep in McDonalds or on a train. Eventually he found a place "under a bridge near the Rod Laver arena where the Wattle Park tram goes into Swan Street." Jimmy adds: "I was scared at first. I was hanging around the streets in the city and meeting with so many types of people, sometimes drunk and violent. So many times, I used to catch the train at night to feel safe. Once I ended up in Lilydale. There were no more trains going back to the city and that's where I got bashed by five drunk guys and my glasses were finished. I can't see without them."

For the next seven months, everything was a blur. At college he couldn't see the computer screen, the projector screen or even read books. His couldn't afford the $50 fee the college charged to mark late assignments. He wore the same clothes every day and had nowhere to shave. He couldn't concentrate on studies."My mind was not there," he says.

When he sold his mobile phone to buy food, things got worse. Now he had no contact number to give prospective employers and his parents were angry they couldn't get in touch. "My father thought I was enjoying myself. Like I was getting money and partying all the time, when that was not the case," he says. "I would (tell my parents) that the situation was not going smoothly, but I never told them I had no accommodation. The truth would have shattered their hope."

He says he told Ian Gostellow, the head of computer studies at his college, about his predicament. Mr Gostellow has no recollection of Jimmy coming to see him. Hope faded fast. The fear of being deported without completing the course mounted. How would he explain to his parents what he was doing back in Mauritius? All the loans. All the hopes. All the shame.

The college cancelled his enrolment due to lack of attendance. Campus manager Joel Spencer says they couldn't contact him.

Then one day in October, after about eight months of sleeping rough, a Salvation Army van pulled up near the pedestrian bridge and offered him coffee. It was the first chink of light.

Since then, the Salvos and the Australian Federation of International Students have helped to provide him with food, emergency shelter, a mobile phone and new glasses.

Jimmy's student visa is still valid and he is in talks with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to resolve his visa issues.

The Salvation Army's Brendan Nottle is finding increasing numbers of international students who are homeless, living in unsuitable accommodation or simply struggling to feed themselves.

"I'm really concerned about Melbourne's reputation," he says. "Students come here in good faith thinking they will be accommodated properly and get a reasonable education. And in some cases they end up in horrendous situations."

Source http://www.theage.com.au/national/quest-for-knowledge-results-in-lifes-harshest-lessons-20081114-67bs.html?page=-1

posted in australia - 1 reply

"Australia" The Movie?

timbo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:25:35 GMT

To be released in the US on November 26th...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455824/

posted in australia - 3 replies

30 Million Dollar Tattslotto Draw 3 Jan 09

ascsingles — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:16:56 GMT

Hi All

Play tattslotto with me

www.tattslotto.love-au.com/

Add me as a friend.

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posted in australia - 0 replies

"What do Australians think of Americans and Limeys (the British)?"

Bloke72 — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:11:54 GMT

One of my American Tribe friends asked the question of me "What do Australians think of Americans and Limeys (the British)?"

I came up with the below to message him, but it is, inadequate, bloody long (sorry!) and it is missing… um, missing something… what's missing????

The "So in conclusion.. " is also a bit shit- I ran out of steam ("Thank God!" you will say if you are patient enough to wade through it all.. )

Please try and be constructive - we need to be nice to poor old American's - it's not their fault ! :)

I wrote it before David Hicks started plea-bargaining to get home… I also used memory for most of the facts - they're probably right though. I am a smart arse who should have a crack at "who wants to be a millionaire" :)

~~~~~~~~

What do Australians think of American's and Limeys (the British)?"

Complex……

Our current attitude is greatly shaped by History.

I have a strong interest in past and current events - but can hardly claim to be a Rhodes Scholar on these issues……

What is now known as “Australia” was established as a "British Penal Colony", but there was a mix of convicts and increasingly free and voluntary settlers.

Crimes committed in Britain that did not call for the death sentence often carried "Transportation" as a penalty. One of my ancestors was sent here (Auz) for pick-pocketing a handkerchief - typical of many non-violent and petty criminals transported to Australia … There was also many political prisoners (particularly Irish) amongst the convicts - this is often overlooked. I think these political prisoners, but all convicts generally, greatly influenced our national psyche - but this is weakening over time…. The British also sent convicts to North America Colonies, but the War of Independence (1775-1783) saw that end. Transportation to Australia continued long after America's War of Independence until circa 1853 but not officially taken off the books as a punishment until 1868… From the 1830's there was an increasing objection to Transportation to Australia from Australians.

Many of our early folk heroes were rebels.

Ned Kelly is certainly the best known. Romantics say that he and his family were persecuted by the local constabulary and he was wrongly jailed. After being released from jail he turned to "Bush Ranging" - became an "outlaw" in American Speak. He wrote a famous long letter called "Letter from Jerilderie" in which he states (basically and from my memory) that he (and his Irish Catholic family) was wrongly accused and forced to crime by oppressive police/government persecution. …… on the less Romantic side he was a murder, bank robber and thief. The truth is probably somewhere in between… He was finally cornered in a pub in Glenrowan in rural Victoria, police burned the pub and the Kelly Gang came out with guns blazing. They wore iron body armour they smithed themselves and Ned's Helmet (and body armour) is an Australian Icon of rebellion, freedom and resistance to perceived, and actual, tyranny…. Ned was captured, tried and convicted and hung at the Old Melbourne in 1880 (still standing and it is a tourist attraction today).

Another famous folk hero is Peter Lalor. He is credited with leading a rebellion at "Eureka Stockade". Like California - Australia, but particularly the state of Victoria, had Gold Rushes. Perhaps the biggest and best known was in the early 1850's where much alluvial gold was found. Once exhausted at certain places - panning for gold became digging for gold. On the Victorian Goldfields there was a License system for mining. Fees were increased and the police (not upstanding members of the establishment) under direction of the Governor of the Day appointed from Britain to the young Colony, used to carry out frequent "License Hunts" which became increasingly violent. A Group of Miners came together to protest the cost and methodology of Licence enforcement and built a stockade near a town called Ballarat. One Sunday morning (when many minors were hung over and even more had left to be with families) Government Forces moved in and killed many miners of the reduced force who were ill-equipped civilians. Peter Lalor was one of their leaders (along with an Italian and American -these three are often credited as the leaders - but there were others.. ) Lalor was the author of the miners “author of the oath of allegiance”. Peter survived the attack (lost an arm) was later acquitted of wrong doing as was elected to the Legislature ….

Kelly and Lalor would be heroes because they are often represented as resisting “tyranny”, fraternity and solidity and championing rights of the oppressed.

Another folk hero might be Harry Morant "The Breaker" - an Australian volunteer in the British Army who (like many others) fought in the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the last century. He was a poet, charismatic and a good soldier who served in an irregular Commando Force against the Boers. He shot prisoners and was executed for it. He (and co-defendants) claimed this action was taken on orders from Britain’s Lord Kitchener. It was claimed by the Prosecution that no such order was given and he had committed murder. It is likely that he was executed as a pawn in Sth African/German and British Political tensions. The trial certainly did not follow due legal process and soon after; the transcripts disappeared…. On the basis of “beyond reasonable doubt” AND “Balance of Probabilities” his defence on the basis that it was common practice and an order to shoot prisoners should have diminished his guilt. Witnesses were skewed towards the Prosecution and what we know of there testimony - it is likely not all were truthful. It was what we call here a “kangaroo court” - rigged in one party’s favour. The execution took place within days of the verdict, prior to appeals to England being able to be made by Morant's Legal Defence. Australians were hostile when they found out, (the Australian Government is believed not to have been informed until after the execution which seems extremely probable). This hostility endured and intensified after the debarkel at Gallipoli - discussed further down….

Morant might be held as a hero because of his loyalty to friends, the dignity he conducted himself with during the trial and execution. He was a scapegoat at the hands of a British Court Marshal.

There would be many Australians who have not heard of The Breaker nor Peter Lalor - it would be hard to find one who had not heard of Ned Kelly and not recognize his Armour…

Why is all this important - because there was a sense that Britain was not always benign but exploitative and oppressive…. Indeed many Irish Australians, particularly poor Catholics, were forced from occupied Ireland during the potato famine and would have been very hostile to the British.

There remains today a tradition of healthy scepticism of authority, and a willingness to resist authority when not acting in the best interests of citizens. I believe this is born of our Convict and Military past effected by Britain. It was later perpetuated by other groups, perhaps particularly the Labour Union movement….

Australia moved from Colony to Country at Federation in 1901, but remained, and remains, in the British Commonwealth. A recent referendum to amend our Constitution and become a Republic was defeated - probably in part because of the poor wording of the proposal rather than an unwillingness to cut constitutional ties with Britain and its monarchy.

Historically; Australia militarily acted with Britain. Until Federation of the Commonwealth of Australia (1/1/1901), Australians fought as part of the British Army like the Scots and Irish in "Australian" Regiments. (South Africa Boer War, Sudan, Boxer Rebellion in China- which we missed by the time we got there, New Zealand Maori Wars and that’s all I can think of.).

In the First World Australian troops were under direct control of British officers in the "Australian Imperial Force". Many members of the First AIF were from Britain or 1st generation Australians and still felt a strong link for England - fighting for "King and Country". Many Irish Catholic Australians would have seen the English as Imperialist Occupiers and Oppressors of Ireland…. Perhaps a huge watershed resulted after Gallipoli in the Dardenelles where a landing was mismanaged by British command, losses were much higher than they should have been and eventually a withdrawals was decided after failure to achieve strategic goals (the geographic goal of the first day was never successful - the troops were landed at the wrong place by the British Commanders). The ANZAC TRADITION (ANZAC - Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) was born - marked by bravery, ingenuity and loyalty to your fellow solider in the face of adversity and death. This has attained myth status in Australia - but it is a myth founded in fact that endures today in the conduct and aims of Australian Troops and the population's admiration for them… This admiration is often not extended to the Governments who sent them overseas. Without doubt the most famous soldier at Gallipoli was “Simpson and his Donkey” - he is known for self-sacrifice and heroism, not by fighting, but by acting as medic and retrieving wounded in very dangerous conditions. He was killed at Gallipoli during these efforts to help the wounded….

Many would say Gallipoli (and similar losses of Australian troops in WW1 resulting from mismanagement and outdated tactics - where there was almost belief that a bayonet charge of men with moral rectitude could withstand machine gun nests) was another example of British misuse of Australians - but the British also did this to their own. The stupidity of trench warfare was administered by distant and often Peered generals willing to see others make "the ultimate sacrifice" without positive results. ANZAC Forces were originally under command of British Officers - by the end of the War Australians played an increasing role in command (General John Monash is a great example)…. Australian Troops were known for "lax discipline" by British Standards - but also for their effectiveness as troops. Many Australians won military honours like the Victoria Cross in WW1, before and after. (VC - think Medal of Honour).

Australia's relationship with America is long. There was all sorts of nationalities on the Goldfields of Victoria (Chinese, Afghans, English, Irish, Scots, Italians, Greeks, and other Europeans). Many can from to Victorian Gold fields from the Californian Gold rush of 1848. It is often called the start of the "melting pot" which sees Australian comprised of many people from many nations - we share something in common with America there…

Obviously it was America’s huge commitment in WW2, particularly in the Pacific - our home turf - which probably transformed our relationship and brought our nations closer, and moved us away from Britain. There were many Americans stationed in Australia during the war (there was some hostility here as the Americans "Septic Tanks' [slag for 'Yanks"} were better paid and like the local ladies). Australia was bombed more than 150 times by the Japanese who were seem as a real invasion threat to our mainland. In 1942 five midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour and a ferry was sunk (22 dead from memory plus about 6 Japanese). The Japanese crews were killed and were given a full Military Honours Burial which impressed the Japanese. Latter the Japanese used Australian (and many other) POWs and locals as forced labour in Singapore and Burma where mistreatment, starvation and deathrates amounts prisoners was high. Many older Australians still hate the "Japs" for this - many have learnt to forgive but not forget. Most would (or should) recognise that atrocities are a part of most wars - Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden being good examples of horrible and huge civilian death tolls at the hands of the Allies…

America emerged from the WW2 as a true superpower while the British Empire was disintegrating. Australia continued to move closer to the States in foreign relations and followed the UN into Korea. Australian does not have Nuclear Weapons and our international defence was locked into American Nuclear protection through treaty (ANZUS). There are American Bases on Australian Territory (most notably Pine Gap - satellite and communications station). Many think Pine Gaps raised the likely hood of Nuclear Attack to the Australian Mainland during the Cold War and after… many Australians are antinuclear seeing it as a threat to mankind if an international nuclear exchange occurred… Since the end of the Cold War - this anti nuclear focus is also often discussed in the context of the environment - but the physical and environmental threat of a nuclear attack has not ended with the conclusion of the cold war - perhaps a smaller nuclear exchange or attack is more likely due to the political instability of the world today. With Australian exporting Uranium - it often comes up in our media. …. Any nationality's war ships potentially carrying nuclear power or weapons used to have to expect a civil protest… Now our country is "a nuclear free zone”. The Federal Government has reopened "the nuclear debate" on environmental grounds claiming it is clean power. Many disagree and are very unhappy about any proposal to see commercial reactors on Australian soil (there are research facilities).

Australia also followed America into Vietnam, also Iraq and Afghanistan. Trade relations have also been strengthened. Most of our heavily military equipment is purchased from America. Do you have a sense of Australia supporting America as a military ally? We do…. Sometimes we co-operate in Trade - we are also often competitors…

Australia also relies and feeds American intelligence services. Intelligence supply and exchange is an important element to Treaties between our and your country..

Indeed the Federal Government, and particularly our Prime Minister John Howard, has been domestically criticised by the current Opposition parties and many segments of the Australian population for "blindly following" America’s foreign policy. Many sight Tony Blair's called for the return of British Prisoners taken in the "War on Terror" as the path the Australian Government should have taken to ensure the freedom and rights of a Australian Citizens in Guantanamo. There was a wonderful post card with John Howard in a Superman outfit with "TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY" on it. The Truth and Justice has been struck our so "The American Way" was the only thing left….

David Hicks is an Australian in Guantanamo Bay. He has been there for 5 years without charge and trial. This has recently changed and he is currently in court. He will be the first conviction of the Military Tribunal. He is charged with giving "material support" to the enemy (al-Qaeda and Taliban) - many Australians are very critical of the Bush Government for not giving him a fair and prompt trial. Many Australians are critical of John Howard for not demanding his release or at least actively pursing a prompt trial. I am amongst them. Hicks is a large focus of discussions on relations with America.. Many (especially the Prime Minister and the political party he leads "liberal party") sight that Australia does not have a Law capable of charging and convicting him. Many think as the Laws are retrospective Hicks should not have been arrested, held nor charged. Have you heard of David Hicks ?

Certainly another strong element in the ingredients to Australians perception of America and Americans is Hollywood and American TV. We are flooded with films and television programs from America. (My favourite is the Simpsons :) Our radios play A LOT of music from America.

Often statements in movies of American Nationalism and American Culture’s and Values over others leave me (us?) cold…

The prevalence of Gun Deaths and violent crime in America leaves me mystified. Our Media probably makes much of this - but gun deaths make many parts of America look unsafe and violent. I am sure this is exaggerated by the media, but your rate of gun deaths is extremely high and does make you look like a war zone compared to other "developed" nations.. American States (Texas) use of the death penalty seems over used and inhumane. Indeed the death penalty was last used here in 1967 and has been removed from our legal system.. There has never been any serious call to reintroduce it and while it sometimes arises - I am sure that the death penalty is not widely supported here in Australia.

America's poor Social Welfare system is something Australians sometimes note. We have unemployment benefits here and a free health system (although many would say it is in crisis, others would say it is no longer “free”). There is a wide perception that Americans do not look after their poor as well as we do - and we need to do MORE to look after our poor.

There is also a perception here that Christian Fundamentalist in America are powerful lobby groups. We are not without our Christian Fundamentalists - but they are generally seem as intolerant and often extremists.

And as a aside and on a final and lighter point - we believe that Americans can’t spell. With your honor (HONOUR) and color (COLOUR) etc and other tendencies to omit important letters - it leads us to the conclusions you can't spell : )

So in conclusion, I would say there remains a very small group of Anglophiles in Australia, we have continued to move closer to America, particularly since WW2 ( & ANZUS Treaty), but the move is not a totally comfortable one primarily due to American Nationalism, but also social problems and inequality, suspect pretexts and machinations for some of Americans international military interventions - and a perceived myopic focus on "American and American Values" which diminishes the cultural value of many other societies.

~~~~~

Well if you are still with me - congratulations - you deserve a medal ! - feel free to rip the above to shreds !

Maybe if you want to comment on something in particular it might be worth splitting your posts up and changing the subject in your reply to a related heading - just a suggestion..

posted in australia - 36 replies

My Aussie rant....

YW — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:27:30 GMT

X post

Australia, trying ride the technology wave and taking political correctness to a new dimension...

1) AUSTRALIA'S mandatory internet filter is being primed to block websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content". http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24645557-29277,00.html

2) A judge convicting a man over cartoons based on The Simpsons, in which children (Bart and Lisa) are shown having sex. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24767142-29277,00.html

3) It's illegal to watch the YouTube viral video of a man swinging a baby around a room, "child-abuse material" says the police. The baby laughing and smiling is part of a Russian circus family. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/12/11/1228585025766.html

posted in australia - 3 replies

David Hicks' details released by the US military

shazlaw — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:58:21 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070301/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_terrorism_trials_5

posted in australia - 3 replies

Transform Homelessness

Bloke72 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:45:30 GMT

Visit www.transformhomelessness.com.au and help raise $1 to help transform the lives of the 105,000 Australians who are without a home every night.

It won't cost you a cent and will take only a minute of your time! All you have to do is create a pair of butterfly wings – Mission Australia's symbol of positive transformation – of your own. Because for every butterfly created, Bayer will donate $1 to help Mission Australia transform the lives of the most disadvantaged people in our communities. We're aiming for a $60,000 donation* – and that means we need 60,000 people to create 60,000 butterflies.

So spread the word - once you've added your butterfly, ask your friends, workmates and family to do the same! Thank you,The Transform Homelessness Campaign 1.

ABS, 'Counting the Homeless', 2006* $60,000 is the maximum donation to Mission Australia from Bayer

(you can do this without having to supply an email address)

posted in australia - 1 reply

Thinking of a change

mark — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:03:08 GMT

Hi, I have a manufacturing business here in the U.S., its small (only 2 other employees other than myself,) and due to the recent economic melt down my business is on its ass. Things here in the states have really gotten out of hand this last decade and the worst is yet to come. We have only scratched the surface of this nightmare. A full one third of all home owning Americans have received a foreclosure notice from their mortgage lender this year, millions are facing unemployment due to the fall of the auto industry, and the banking system is grinding to a halt. We did this to ourselves; there is no one person that we can point a finger at. Most point at George Bush, but even though G.W. did a LOT of unpopular things, this crisis can’t be laid in his lap. The lending practices that led us here began in the Clinton years. No, this has been a long time coming, and it will not be over any time soon. My wife and I have been thinking that it may be time for a fresh beginning. She is a professional with a Masters Degree in something or other, and I still have my business, (even if the bank comes and takes everything else the business is paid for!) Is Australia the place to make a new start? I understand that you could use some more manufacturing businesses. You speak the right language and you seem to be open minded folks with a zest for life. You have plenty of beaches (our staple product is beach chairs) and a free market and economy. Maybe Australia is the new land of opportunity, (not saying that it didn’t have its share of opportunities before) I guess that I am looking for feedback from a few ussies, I mean, you better than anyone would have an idea if this would be a thing worth pursuing, I have done some homework, I have a rough understanding of your political system and what immigrating to your country will entail, still, I haven’t yet discussed this with someone standing on your soil. My wife and I are simply looking for a friendly place that we can work hard and do well. I enjoy owning and running my business and would like to continue to do so, if I wait about another 5 to 7 years here in the U.S. that dream can happen, but so far Australia seems to be the most appealing choice.

posted in australia - 9 replies

Visiting AU -help?!?

Taz — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:10:38 GMT

Hey all,
I'm a triber from Los Angeles, coming to visit South/West AU for a little over a month, and I'm looking for any burning many-style events, festivals, music or camping or parties, etc. I'll be around Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Tazmania & Kangaroo Island, variously, between Dec. 6 and January 14. Any recommendations would be appreciated, especially if you can send them to me as a message!

Best,
Taz

posted in australia - 0 replies

Oh Bugger...

YW — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:27:46 GMT

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24640997-10229,00.html

posted in australia - 1 reply

So - who'd you back for the Melbourne Cup??

Gabsta — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:57:43 GMT

I've got $2 on Zipping & Moatize to place & 50c on Viewed to run last.

Think I'll become a millionaire???

Think you'll become a millionaire? Anyone ever been lucky enough top win a shit-load on this race?? Have heard lots of stories, but had not personal experience.

What do we think about it being a "Spot the Aussie" race, as commented by Bart C?? I say - bring it on!!!

ps.....france has pretty horses!

posted in australia - 6 replies

American Politics - Bah Humbug

cup — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:50:22 GMT

Any Aussies find it hard to filter out American Politics news?

It's daily, it's constant.

I made the mistake in trying to engage discussion with Americans. Big Mistake.

For a country that is actively invading other ones, wanting allies in Wars on Terror, wanting Australia to sign Free Trade Agreements, that has secret military bases on Australian soil.......apparently to them it's the height of arrogance for an Aussie to have an opinion on who they should vote for.

Stop the planet, I wanna get off this luny place!!

posted in australia - 19 replies

Is Aussie humour dying?

cup — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:59:53 GMT

I'm a bit of a net head, on lots of forums. Most of teh peopel I chat with are Americans.

Their humour is not the same as ours. Also they don't have the same tolerance for 'swearing' as we do.

Is our wierd sense of humour going to die out??

posted in australia - 3 replies

Favorite national parks?

wimpehiker — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:43:16 GMT

I've never been to the land of Oz. But judging from the photos I've seen, Lamington NP in SE Queensland would be my top pick. In the US, my favorite is the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park. (Yes, I know that you have a park by the same name.) Kings Canyon is just South of overcrowded, overdeveloped, but-still-beautiful Yosemite NP.

What's your favorite Australian national park?

posted in australia - 10 replies

ahh....hhmmm

YW — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:58:00 GMT

So that's why we pay them so much... GOVERNMENT experts say the word "drought" is making farmers feel bad and want people to use the word "dryness" instead to describe Australia's worst "lack of rain" in a century.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24540439-29277,00.html

posted in australia - 14 replies

What do Aussie's think of Americans...LIVING in Australia?

Samantha — Fri, 11 May 2007 08:10:42 GMT

I'm an American living in Melbourne. There isn't a day that goes by at my job that I don't get shit from somoene
about being American. I am constantly bombarded with back handed comments fobbed off as jokes.
And being the type of person who is always up for a good laugh, even at the expense of myself, I think
I have been a good sport about it.

Tonight one of the employee's told me that generally speaking Australians have a real disdain for American's
more so than any other culture. Is that true?? She went on to assure me that another one of the employee's
would never give me the kind of grief that he does if I wasn't American. Being a minority here (at work),
I'm begining to feel awkward and a bit pissed off.

Having moved here with the intention of staying I am now begining to feel very confused about my ability
to thrive here under the "oppression" of my nationality. I wouldn't trade being American for anything,
I'm proud of where I grew up. I'm feeling like I need to apologize for being American here to prove to
people that I'm "ok".

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

posted in australia - 57 replies

Just in case :(

YW — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:30:46 GMT

Not abandoning Tribe but just in case, it pays to be prepared. Have started an alternative network on Ning, http://aussietribers.ning.com/

Check it out, you can start your own interest groups, group chat is available, so is private chat among members. Posts and threads can incorporate photos, videos, links etc...

Personal profiles can include blogs, photos, videos, music etc...

posted in australia - 1 reply

Eureka

newsfromnowhere — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:13:24 GMT

I created an Eureka Tribe (if there isn't already one?).

"...Although swiftly and violently put down, the Eureka rebellion was a watershed event in Australian politics. The preceding three years of agitation for the miners' demands, combined with mass public support in Melbourne for the captured 'rebels' when they were placed on trial, resulted in the introduction of full white-male suffrage for elections for the lower house in the Victorian parliament. The role of the Eureka Stockade in generating public support for these demands beyond the goldfields resulted in Eureka being controversially identified with the birth of democracy in Australia." [From Wikipedia]

http://tribes.tribe.net/eurekastockade

posted in australia - 1 reply

Dimmeys wall

roisin0908 — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:45:35 GMT

is finally finished and has great pictures of Aussie events, stars, tv shows & films and events.

It's certainly worth taking a trip down Swan Street in Richmond and reminising:-)

http://people.tribe.net/roisin0908/photos

posted in australia - 0 replies

Black guy looking for asian girl for relationship

Will — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:45:57 GMT

A professional black guy in Sydney is looking for an asian girl for relationship. Email me on timjim2008@yahoo.com

posted in australia - 12 replies

Make Australian Business Contacts

ascsingles — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:32:07 GMT

Join good online business communities

See http://www.networking.love-au.com/

Join my Australian Adlandpro Business Community

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/841077.aspx

If not an Adlandpro member see article below

My writings
http://www.apsense.com/article/104539.html

Join Melbourne Internet Marketers

http://groups.google.com/group/Melbourne-Internet-Marketers?lnk=srg

Regards Michael Clayton
http://www.networking.love-au.com/

posted in australia - 0 replies

About war in Georgia

Suzi — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:43:28 GMT

Do you know Randy Scheunemann?

Robert Scheer wrote (8/13/08) about Randy Scheunemann, ex director of the Project for a New American
century, ex lobbyist for the Georgian government and now Republican presidential candidate John McCain's senior foreign policy advisor

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/13/10959

Aussies and Americans often end up side by side in war.

posted in australia - 1 reply

SurfRider Donations with Jack Johnson

Jahvan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:01:05 GMT

Greetings all, I just received this little tid-bit from a friend at the Surfriders foundation headquarters in Coolangatta, thought it be a worthy cause to share. Strength in numbers!
Bless,

Dear Surfrider,
(Members feel free to forward this email to anyone)

All at once,
An individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change.
Jack Johnson is doubling every single donation until September 1st, so if you make a donation Jack Johnson will double it and you will claim your donation on tax. Your contribution to Surfrider Foundation will help us to:
-promote the protection and enhancement of Australia’s ocean, waves and beaches for the benefit of all the people in the community through C.A.R.E; Conservation, Activism, Research and Education.
-educate the community as the fragile nature and value of the Australian coastline.
-promote the enhancement of coastal recreational opportunities in a manner that promotes the environmental health.
-to approach government instrumentalities in any decision making process that affects the Australian coastline.
-gather information and access scientific research to provide an authoritive voice on issues relevant to the Australian coastline.
-finance any project or activity that lies within the Foundation’s goals such as “Bring Back Kirra”.
Not only you can claim your donation on tax but Jack Johnson will double it.

Donation forms; 07 55 36 10 21 or 04 24 35 27 92, or
At www.surfrider.org.au/secure/donate.htm
Best Regards
National Office

Fell free to forward this email to anyone.

posted in australia - 0 replies

Moaning& complaining South Australians

David — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:43:20 GMT

Why do some in S.A. complain about progress within the state.When for the first time in 50 years the tram was extended
along king William Street in the C.B.D. in the city all the narrow minded motorists thought it a waste of money. Even the liberal
opposition lost a election over this.Bravo labour government have now announced a further extention along North Tce.
and Port Road to Hindmarsh. Down the track to run the tram along the train line to Port Adelaide.Plus a spur line to Football
Park at West Lakes.State Government has now taken away the powers of Adelaide City Council on planning matters over ten
million.In a short period of time people will not be able to afford to run their cars.Improved public transport is vital.What do others
think?

posted in australia - 1 reply

Upside Down the Skies

Amanda — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:36:26 GMT

Australian skies show completely different constellations from those visible from the northern hemisphere. We may say that Australian people are born under a completely different sky. Being different, their horoscopes are different, and in fact requiring special skill and techniques.

It is always exciting to do horoscopes down under, thus, e.g. Australia has the same ascendant as the U.S.A. (Aquila), only upside down!

P.S.

Perhaps of interest.

Among the peculiarities, both Australian charts have Lilith in Sextans.

posted in australia - 0 replies

A can of worms?

wimpehiker — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:35:56 GMT

Here's a link to an article about the Bradshaw art in the Kimberleys.
http://tinyurl.com/5hsgf9
It also contains some speculations about the ancient artists who created the rock paintings.

Take a gander at the bloke on the left, in the top picture. He's white. And he appears to be wearing eyeglasses! (I see the glasses, but some people don't.)

My understanding is that some Aussies are close-lipped about the Bradshaws. The concern is that the Bradshaws may throw a monkeywrench into the process of sorting out the land claims of the various Aboriginal groups. What do you think?

posted in australia - 5 replies

What the....

Gabsta — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:19:39 GMT

Was trawling for new tribes yesterday & came across this -

http://tribes.tribe.net/58e6a1d8-c3b4-4da9-92c4-3098ddc3c2c2

It's description is :
"This is a site for Aussies living in Oz

What is an Aussie? Anyone whom is four or more generations born here in Oz.

Anyone can be an Australian, but not an Aussie."

I've never heard such a thing & am slightly (but incresingly) offended by the notion even though - according to these standards - I qualify.

What do you think?

posted in australia - 11 replies

Man World Youth Day is FREAKIN ME OOOUUUT! Im Glad I dont live in Sydney

Smelkstar's Universe — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:59:43 GMT

Jeeze I didnt realise there were so many religious youth in the world. Must be from an alternate reality.

posted in australia - 20 replies

What do Americans think of Australians living in the USA?

Suzi — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:56:22 GMT

I like that my friend Wayne moved to Washington State to Handfast with his lady and live there with her and her offspring. He was a kind and generous host to me during my visit to Queensland and Uluru. If gas prices ever stabilize ( yes, I am a dreamer) I just may go visit them.

posted in australia - 15 replies

Bless me Father for I have ......

shazlaw — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:10:10 GMT

For those Catholics in our midst, check this list before you go to Mass next Sunday:

http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/bccrime.html

posted in australia - 3 replies

Good Australian Radio Stations?

blackegg — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:02:13 GMT

What do you listen to?

What good talk-news stations are there?

any aboriginal broadcasts?

I'm just now getting into listening to streaming radio from around the world.
I found some interesting Punjabi and Bhangra stuff from Vancouver (Canada)
but that's about it.

i'm having a hard time cracking the language code and figuring out where to click
on certain forgein websites ro listen to the live broadcasts.

anyways, thanks in advance!

posted in australia - 10 replies

They're F***ing with Nature Again......

Gabsta — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:22:48 GMT

In a world first, scientists have extracted a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger and successfully inserted it into a mouse embryo.

It is the first time a gene from any extinct animal has been brought back to life inside another living creature.

However, the researchers, from the University of Melbourne and the University of Texas, say the technology will not lead to the cloning of an entire Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine.

"It's a nice dream to have, but it's probably not going to happen," said Marilyn Renfree, a University of Melbourne zoology professor and a member of the team.

However, the scientists say it may now be possible to reactivate genes taken from many extinct creatures, including dinosaurs and even the predecessors to modern humans, providing new insights into their biology.

Obtaining the thylacine gene, called Col2a1, was itself a major challenge, because DNA begins breaking down after death.

Professor Renfree and the project's team leader, Andrew Pask, also from the University of Melbourne's zoology department, managed to extract fragments of the gene from four 100-year-old thylacines - three pouch dwelling infants and the skin of one adult - preserved in ethanol at Museum Victoria.

The bits were combined to form a complete gene.

"Putting the pieces together is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle," said Dr Pask.

It was then genetically modified with the addition of a bacteria gene that produces a blue colour.

Professor Richard Behringer, deputy head of the Department of molecular Biology at the University of Texas, finally inserted the reassembled thylacine gene into a mouse embryo.

Cartilage in the developing bones of the embryonic mouse turned blue, signalling that the thylacine gene was working.

A similar gene is also responsible for developing cartilage in mice, so the experiment did not produce an embryo that was part mouse, part thylacine. "We were not trying to cause anything to switch on or off," said Professor Renfree.

Dr Pask said scientists were already able to study genes, taken from extinct animals, in test tubes. "We wanted to show it was possible to take a gene from an extinct animal and look at its function in a living animal."

Future experiments may be able to extract more specialised genes - such as those that were responsible for giving the thylacine its dog-like features, or its distinctly patterned skin, into a mouse.

"We might be able to produce a striped mouse," said Dr Pask, even one with a thylacine pouch.

"This has not been done for fun," said Professor Renfree. "It has been done to learn more about the biology of a creature that we, humans, made extinct."

Experimenting with genes from dinosaurs might reveal what their skin looked like, and resolve the debate about whether they were cold or warm blooded.

Genes from the fossils of Neanderthal man may provide clues to the modern human's evolution.

Dr Pask said that while he would like to think they had brought one microscopic part of a thylacine back to life, cloning an entire Tasmanian tiger would be immensely more complicated.

It would require recreating not just one gene, but 30,000 - which would all have to be reassembled correctly in chromosomal packages.

However, scientists should now be able to study extinct animals gene by gene, as long as they can find original DNA that has survived in fossils or museum specimen.

Their research has been published in the journal PLos One. See http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002240

Source: SMH.com.au (http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/extinct-gene-brought-back-to-life/2008/05/20/1211182749725.html)

posted in australia - 7 replies

Did I get ripped off ?

Bloke72 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:13:44 GMT

So I have Tribe mates overseas who I want to telephone.. So I purchased a "Boost Phone Home" card which is supposed to give me calls to the States for half a cent a minute.. I am thinking this is cheap so I check their web site and find there is a surcharge... this is described as " #A 9.9c per min surcharge applies to your calling card. No Refunds. Full terms and conditions available in this PDF file" http://www.boost.com.au/page/terms#calling so if I am reading that right it is 10.9 cents a minute or $1.09 every ten minutes...

Has anyone used one of these cards ?

Any advice on calling the USA cheap ?

posted in australia - 11 replies

Australian 'National Identity'...

blackegg — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:24:37 GMT

If the history of Australia was the story of a single person...
where would that person be in their lives? what would they be doing?

What stories are really 'Australian' to you?

The Castle? Ned Kelly? The Man From Snowy River? Galipoli? Pricilla? Romper Stomper?
Dogs In Space? All The Above? Kenny? Strickly Ballroom? (Sorry if these are outdated or condescending but they're the only 'Australian' movies I have personally seen. I love movies though so *please* suggest some good ones if you want!)

I have a friend who says that the stories of Banjo Paterson no longer apply to the national psyche as most people live on the coast and not the interior.

I countered that stories that take place in 'the bush' may still have something to offer due to nature being such a timeless setting in which to pit man vs. nature, other men, himself etc.

Also that perhaps there is no longer a unified national identity as countries become more global. Maybe there never was! You can read the whole involved conversation here:
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=303097&page=4

But what do the stories we tell ourselves mean when most of the stories come from somewhere else? Are we really all the same the world over? Or are there subtle differences between countries and even within parts or countries. Are there similarities between the people of a country? state? etc.

Or is the whole thing a farce?
Etc
These are just some topics to (hopefully) get the ball rolling...this should be fun!

posted in australia - 11 replies

Melbourne Oct 08

Pele — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:37:22 GMT

Not sure the exact dates but I am meeting up with a friend from Sydney in Melbourne.
Neither of us care about tourist traps.
We like out of the way beaches and cafes and fun.
We both ride motorcycles and love adventuring, hiking, outdoors stuff. I don't know about her but I have my scuba cert and love snorkeling.
We know some of the spinny/fire peeps there, but all they've given us are meets and we want...more.

So, would you mind making some suggestions for a couple of fun loving freaks? ;-)

Thanks!

posted in australia - 16 replies

the great australian wannabe novel...

harry — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:00:52 GMT

i have been fiddling with my story on blogspot/blogger during working hours (the dog shift) and would like to share the results with whom ever is interested. it is a work in progress. enjoy...

http://harrykruger.blogspot.com

cheers

posted in australia - 1 reply

Moving to Australia

Angie — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:25:35 GMT

Hey Everyone. I'm leaving The States thank the heavens and planning to move to Australia. I have a few questions for you guys and would like some input. I'll give you a quick synopsis. No I am not proud to be an American quite frankly I'm sick of it!!!!!

I met an Australian a few years ago and we fell in love and decided to marry. Awwwwww isn't that sweet? hehehe Well it was no hard decision deciding to live there versus here although I do have a house and a job here. I grew up in New York City and mostly we didn't refer to ourselves as Americans so much as New Yorkers. I grew up around so many different cultures and my own family was multi cultural but than...dum dum dum I moved to the greater deep south of The USA. God what culture shock! My assessment has been that the southern baptists rule supreme here and there isn't much room for anyone else as far as they are concerned. There is a famous saying here "yankee go home" hehehehe and believe me I think many of us New Yorkers would if not for the weather and the cheap housing. I say it light heartedly as two of my best friends are big ole rednecks but for the most part people here are scarey quite frankly. For example my divorce attorney has gun magazines and the ten commandments hanging in his law office and told me I shouldn't let the courts know that I'm a Buddhist because it might be considered a cult however the courts wouldn't care that my ex-husband gives the kids guns and lets them go shooting. Oh boy something is wrong with this picture!!!! Not just that but I've been held at gun point twice, I've had every place I lived in broken into not just in New York but here as well. Infact Atlanta has a worse murder rate than New York and most of it is gun related. The school my children were zoned to go to had a shooting and its just ridiculous I'm tired of it and the mentality here. Knock Knock let me in pleaseeee. hehehehe

Anyway my question is first I was looking at the housing costs there but they seem very expensive. What say you? Also the line of work I do here is completely different there. The system there for land titles is far different than here. It is a much better system there as you don't have search land titles for 50 years and its not nearly as complex as they make it here but the downfall for me is that thats all I have done for 14 years. So do you think it would hard for me to get my foot in the door in another sector of real estate as an American or do you think it makes no difference? I know it sounds petty but I have a New York accent and my experience here in the south is that they don't really like it and one firm I worked for didn't even want me to answer phones because of it. Will it make a sh** of difference you think?

In closing I imagine I'll run into good and obnoxious people everywhere in the world but hell I would much rather someone take a piss at my expense than have to worry about having a gun to my head or not being able to buy beer on sunday or see a thousand American flags hanging on the drive to work or having to pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america....rut row I'm a poor patriot and as I've been told many times by fellow Americans "if you don't like get the hell out."

posted in australia - 11 replies

New Aussie tribe

Smelkstar's Universe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:31:45 GMT

Being the greeny I am, wanted to create a place to share and inspire others with what we are getting upto in our own lives sustainability wise.

I love using my brain to live a simpler cheaper life, and want to know other people's ideas so I can make it even easier. I want to connect with other people and inspire change. Whatever you believe there is no avoiding the challenges of water, food, oil, transport, global warming, population, global consumption. Instead of being overwhelmed, its an opportunity to get creative and use our brains! Hope to see you there!!!

http://tribes.tribe.net/aussiesustainablecommunity

posted in australia - 4 replies

DO not fly Quantas ...

☼Sunshine☼ — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:26:23 GMT

I am in Australia at the moment, flew Quantas from LA and also within Aussie...... This airline is an absolute nightmare, it's reps... are full of it, give nothing but miss information, are nit witts and then some... be warned if you choose to go with them anyway... once in Australia you will be given the run around if you change your flight (I did, not really a change but not using one leg of my trip, they were going to make me drive 2 hours to the nearest ticket office, I requested to speak to a supervisor, who was just as incompetent, I told her why can't I just take care of this at the airport, since she insisted that my ticket needed to be reissued.... getting to the airport early to take care of that ... sure enough......... not necessary........ so please be advised.) Peace and Blessings.

posted in australia - 13 replies

As ANZAC Day approaches....

Les — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:37:48 GMT

On top of the great achievement of locating HMAS Sydney II and providing some closure to the relatives of those lost, here is a great story of a survivor of HMAS Perth II.
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=441581

Enjoy.
Les

posted in australia - 0 replies

ciao bellas!

Eurynome — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:59:56 GMT

off to the uk, eire, france and beantown masssssachusetts in 3 weeeeeks!

see ya round like a rissole!

xoxoxo

posted in australia - 0 replies

SUR*F~ "Acronyms welcome"....

Jahvan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:09:59 GMT

When someone "surfs" - in the liquid "physical" real-ality here on earth, they are actually showering themselves with pure creation~ & Embodying the the essence of life itself. The conscious choice to coincide their life with natural TIDE, is a prime example of our attuning to our birthright of Free~Will. And by placement- we reap great personal reward.
Wavesliding is all about how big/deep/shacked/ full-on, or tuned in you ALLOW YOURSELF to be! .......GoIT! -is a common phrase said up and down the coastlines and shores everywhere. Across the reefs worldwide it is a word of Encouragement form one conscious comrad to another- A sometimes not so gentle reminder to keep pushing yourself to the fullest potential... When it's big...it is Instantly Sobering. To immerse yourself in the raw power- the ALIVENESS~ of the swells pushing their way, literally, thousands of miles, and to actually ride a energy-rope made up of millions of molecules, is way beyond verbal explanation. What I CAN say, is that: it is very much akin to the energies to be found surrounding us ALL each and every day(and night) here on land!! No different than a shimmering school of fish, I Strive to see, and ride the energy as it passes through thin air~
There is, indeed another ocean. One in which we are inhabitants! All around us at all times, there exists a consistent flow of substance not at all unlike that of water, the {H2O} being just a thicker version... One particle at a time, ALL in an INSTANT!
Let us ALL~ JUMP INTO LIFE!
SWIM, DANCE & PLAY!
WOooHOoooooo Dive into the liquid bliss that is NOW~

S*U*R*F~ "Acronyms welcome"....

posted in australia - 0 replies

Wreck of German raider Kormoran found

Bloke72 — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:18:06 GMT

Wreck of German raider Kormoran found
Sunday Mar 16 12:16 AEDT
The wreck of the German merchant raider Kormoran, believed responsible for the war-time sinking of HMAS Sydney in November 1941, has been found off the Western Australian coast.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, along with Australian Defence Force heads, announced the discovery at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Sunday.

He said the search body called Finding Sydney made the discovery on Saturday, about 150km west of Shark Bay.

"We are one step closer as a nation to hopefully finding Sydney," Mr Rudd said.

"This is an important part in solving a 65-year-old puzzle."

Australia's greatest maritime mystery claimed the lives of the Sydney's 645 crew.

Sailing from Sumatra back to Fremantle in November 1941, the warship encountered what purported to be the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka off the West Australian coast.

But the freighter was really the disguised German mercantile raider Kormoran.

After an ensuing fight, the Sydney went down with all hands and represents the greatest ever loss of life in an Australian warship.

It was also the largest vessel of any country to be lost with no survivors during the Second World War.

The 317 survivors from the 397 crew aboard Kormoran were picked up over ensuing days, giving the only eyewitness accounts of what occurred.

Source http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=392419

posted in australia - 1 reply

The 2008 Archibald Prize Finalists (cross posted)

Bloke72 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:56:53 GMT

An enjoyable viewing of finalists with a commentary

http://www.theage.com.au/multimedia/2008/entertainment/archibald-prize-2008/index.html

posted in australia - 1 reply

Self condemnation

YW — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:52:05 GMT

Do Aussies have a penchant for self-castigation?

Adelaide recently had the city described as a backwater by Victorian Premier John Brumby, now SA's Treasurer has now dubbed them a bunch of whingers. Foley said "What I lament quite often is here in Adelaide we're a bunch of bloody whingers, a bunch of bloody whingers. We love to have a crook old whinge about everything."

What say ye?

posted in australia - 2 replies

Austalia to Apologize!

timbo — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:32:03 GMT

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h2Esw7ttubEjcCabNviVmCeevJ5QD8UG1E3O0

posted in australia - 17 replies

Surfers to ...

☼Sunshine☼ — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:49:17 GMT

Hey ... I am planning a trip in Queensland.... Want to go to Frasier Island, Port Douglas, Cairns ... any suggestions????????? I'd really appreciate any ............. Peace and Blessings

posted in australia - 5 replies

Best State in Oz

shazlaw — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:30:10 GMT

Adelaide: Regretted labelling itself the "city of churches" since the 60's. Commonly referred to as "never heard of it".

Brisbane: Population including Cane Toads: 5.2 million. Population minus Cane Toads: Nowhere near Melbourne and Sydney's. Interstate migrants have been introduced to correct this problem.

Canberra: The love child of a dummy spit between Melbourne and Sydney. The solution: Put the capital somewhere between the two cities. Everyone’s a winner. Except if you have to move to Canberra.

Darwin: Hot, humid and crappy with the slight chance of crocodile. Only capital city in the world where businessmen wear shorts and long socks to meetings about resources, company mergers and acquisitions.

Hobart: Where a yacht race ends once a year. Thought by many to be that "New Zealand" place. Sometimes considered to be a separate country infested with inbreds.

Melbourne: Typical concrete jungle with everything that signifies it - that is, traffic jam, air pollution and all things that only latte-sippers can put up with. The sheilas are bitchy and the blokes are always drunk. The city's favourite sport is "football" and all its dwellers hate Sydney.

Perth: A city that far away from the East coast cannot still be in Australia, can it?

Sydney: Typical concrete jungle with everything that signifies it - that is, traffic jam, air pollution and all things that only latte-sippers can put up with. The sheilas are bitchy and the blokes are always drunk. The city's favourite sport is rugby and all its dwellers hate Melbourne.

posted in australia - 27 replies