What if you lived in Australia?

[blondifan]

The odd thing is that asylum seekers who can land at airports with papers intact are in an advantaged position. They are acceptable, because maybe there is some curious logic at play that they have not endangered themselves at sea.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...-will-be-cruel

Yet one of our dumbest career politicians was a 'boat person'.

[Sir Honkers]

If we could think up a way to export flies, and get people overseas to pay for 'em, we be in budgetary surplus overnight. Hell in the text ten minutes.

[effCup]

Originally Posted by loosegoose

If we could think up a way to export flies

Stop feeding them?
Yeah, not so easy.

[Tmee2020]

Abbott unveils $100 million Villers-Bretonneux educational centre to 'remember our victories'
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has unveiled a $100 million educational centre to be built on the site of the Australian Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux in northern France.
Mr Abbott said the Sir John Monash Centre would increase understanding of the Australian effort on the Western Front during World War I.
Some 46,000 Australians lost their lives on the Western Front.
The centenary of the Gallipoli landings at the weekend also marked the 97th anniversary of the Australian victory at the battle of Villers-Bretonneux, which halted the 1918 German offensive on the Somme and helped turn the course of the war.
Mr Abbott said Australians should congregate at the town in northern France each Anzac Day.
"It was an extraordinary story," he said.
"It was the story that we're familiar with, of valour, of commitment, but it was a story of success as well.
"As I said before, Gallipoli was a splendid failure but the Western Front was a terrible victory, and we should remember our victories as much as we remember our defeats."
(ABC News)


This was all after Abbott's visit to Gallipoli.
Let me say that I have a great deal of admiration for the soldiers of the 1st AIF. They contributed a lot to the Allied victory, something that has not always been acknowledged.
Do we need another monument to this, though? And who is going to fit the bill? Well we are, of course. $100 million, from a government that keeps banging on about how we must cut costs.
I have long suspected that politicians like these commemorations, because it allows them on stage, but without having to face difficult questions on the floor of parliament. Abbott is not the only one, but it definitely applies to him. And I really hate this triumphalism. No political leader ever says "This was a terrible tragedy, and as a leader I will not allow it to happen again, in my lifetime."

At Villers-Bretonneux there is an Australian cemetery.

The school in Villers-Bretonneux was rebuilt using donations from school children of Victoria, and in every classroom is the inscription "N'oublions jamais l'Australie".

That is enough.

[Motorboater]

I don't know what you all think about Chan and Sukumaran upcoming execution. But I've got to say. Having seen Mark Davis's piece on them a number of times on Dateline, I do feel uncomfortable that it's about to occur. If the purpose of a prison is to provide some form of rehabilitation, then I genuinely think these executions defeat the purpose.

[SanteeFats]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

If the purpose of a prison is to provide some form of rehabilitation, then I genuinely think these executions defeat the purpose.

Or it could be the ultimate reformation??

[effCup]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

upcoming execution.

I'm opposed to capital punishment in all forms and cases.

Originally Posted by Motorboater

If the purpose of a prison is to provide some form of rehabilitation

I'm afraid that's a pretty big if. There's a vast literature on the history, sociology, philosophy, and medical aspects of prisons. Just a couple of notable/particularly worthwhile authors: Michel Foucault & Roy Porter, but there's many others. Very broadly: the purposes of prison have been muddy/conflicted in pretty much all societies since perhaps the late-18C. Discipline/punish, reform, deter: each of these concepts are heavily freighted with ideology & moralising. Note the distinction from earlier debtor's prisons: modern prisons are creatures of the "enlightenment".

The UK/Oz series "Coast Australia" is currently on telly here. Last week they spent a bit of time in Port Arthur, Tassie, and brushed upon some of the themes, e.g. Panopticon.

[blondifan]

Originally Posted by tmee2000

Abbott unveils $100 million Villers-Bretonneux educational centre to 'remember our victories'

...Do we need another monument to this, though? And who is going to fit the bill? Well we are, of course. $100 million, from a government that keeps banging on about how we must cut costs...

Having been in power for less than 20 months, the Abbott government has added over $83 billion to the level of government debt.

With gross government debt increasing at this breakneck speed, and with Treasurer Hockey using the Intergenerational Report to sneakily outline his policy to never ever pay it off even if it stays in power for 40 more years, it is no wonder he was so keen to abolish the debt ceiling legislation soon after taking office.

From a level of $273 billion at the time of the election in September 2013, the level of debt now stands at $356 billion. There is no hint that the pace of debt accumulation is slowing despite the promises of Abbott, Hockey, Cormann, Robb and others to “pay it off”. It looks like an epic fail.

Sun, 26 Apr 2015 | Stephen Koukoulas

What is this cretin doing now? Making more enemies for Australia?

Wednesday 29/04/2015 Penny Wong.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-s...indonesia.html

[turat]

Not wanting to derail any current topics on this good thread. I just want to write that I think Australia is an awesome, kickass country that i would be proud and honored to live in.

You mates are patriotic.
You don't take crap from anybody.
You love liberty and freedom.
Your country is beautiful.
Your women are flat-out gorgeous.
Your food is delicious.
Your lust for life is contagious.

God bless your people and country!

OK. Carry on!

[Motorboater]

Originally Posted by effCup

I'm opposed to capital punishment in all forms and cases.


I'm afraid that's a pretty big if. .

It's actually a totally irrelevant point, now that I think about it. It was 11:40pm. I was tired. I was laso watching abc24. I was aware of the enormity of the moment.