Heyyyy Johnny..... whadaya mean I don't like to listen to Atheists ? grrrr

I don't care what a persons belief is.. I engage with what their ideas are mate.. Some atheists have great ideas.. Col Rouge is one.. we disagree on abortion but on most other things we click 100%

Eclipse now.... if you have serious Christian faith, I fail to see why you would not be supporting Family First?

The Greens are dodgy for a number of reasons, in fact for the same reasons we need to be wary about "big" Labor and "big" business..
Whenever they speak of the 'NATIONAL' interest they really mean the segment of it which benefits "them" most.

ECLIPSE.. please see just how perverted and power crazed and evil the Green movement has become in the USA.. look at the blatant deception, the use of brute force the corruption, the megalomania, the slashing and burning of individual rights and the constitution.... here it is in living color and black and white documentation:

BEHIND THE GREEN CURTAIN. (must see viewing for all of us)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7934453684194357754#

Dear Poirot

You say of your friend.....

She is not usually given to commenting much on politics, but on the last three occasions in my company has brought up the subject of the "danger" of the Greens gaining more power in this election.

Perhaps she is waking up to the type of rubbish the Greens are behind as in the vid ? (above) :)

PS.. just wait till you see the part in the Vid where the 'Environmental' group has shares in both Caterpillar and Cummins :)

It's a hoot.

Dear Al,

I think it's more a case of believing some of the things she reads are the "gospel" truth.

On the last occasion she came out the front door flapping a Catholic newspaper at her husband to show him an article - then she went on to share her concerns about the Greens taking funding away from Catholic schools.

Paul1405, "I can never understand why Churches do not pay tax.."

Taking your question at face value and not having an oar in the water in this discussion myself, you might find the quote given below useful and reassuring. Remember that donations given to the churches have already been taxed (the parishioner paid income tax on the money he donated) and there are other voluntary bodies delivering not for profit services of value to the community that are in a similar position:

"According to Myles McGregor-Lowndes, of Queensland University of Technology's Centre of Philanthropy and Non-Profit Studies, taxes that the churches don't pay are irrelevant.

"The argument is that the churches have never been part of Australia's tax system. So measuring income forgone from the churches is as silly as measuring the pocket money parents give children and calling that tax forgone," he said.

If churches had to pay income tax they would simply organise their affairs as business does so that they had no taxable profits. The result would be inordinate costs to the Tax Office and charities but no more tax at all.

He said the Productivity Commission denied that exemptions distorted markets."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/churches-reap-the-benefits-of-belief-500-million-in-taxexemptions/2006/04/28/1146198351877.html

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=10815&page=5

@ ALGORE: Family First? He denies global warming.

Now, regarding your video.

70 years ago we dumped walkable Urbanism for car-dependent suburban blandness. Suburbia is growing exponentially and paving over and ploughing up ecosystems. It has been a disaster. It has made us dependent on cars and oil, fat, waste time in traffic, and alienated communities.

I watched 22 minutes of your 40 minute video (but when they compared National parks to Nazi Germany I switched off).

So will you please watch this 3 minute video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJt_YXIoJI

See? Suburban growth is wiping out ecosystems 10 times faster than Urbanism would.

Ecosystem services are valued in the TRILLIONS!
http://eclipsenow.wordpress.com/ecosystem-services/

Ecosystems are important preserves of some of the last biodiversity and DNA on the planet. We HAVE to protect them.

When suburban growth bumps up against important ecosystems, someone is going to get hurt. Nature or people are going to lose, and I have no doubt sometimes governments and greenies will stuff up as badly as oil companies in the Mexican gulf! (We’ll, not that bad. We don’t have the same money or impact!)

But this movie is a rather pathetic paranoid infomercial, NOT a documentary. Some people really *are* too dumb to *really* study the zoning laws before buying a block of land. We didn’t hear the official point of view. And like any infomercial, it relied on the power of personal testimony. Sad people moan about evil greenies robbing their land. But the LAWS OF PHYSICS dictate that suburbia cannot grow forever on a finite planet. As I said, something’s got to give.

Lastly, EVERY accusation they unsuccesfully tried to throw at Greenies is actually 1000 times more powerful and truer of big oil and King Coal. These 2 energy sectors practically own our western governments. Greenies in a conspiracy against democracy? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Ah Banjo you talk about becoming a republic instead of a monarchy.
Actually we are a Commonwealth.
This was the name used when England was a republic under Cromwell.
Only in UK is C of E the established church

I see nothing obvious for which we need a new constitution

So I regard us a Secular Republic that just happens to have a Queen as a legal head of state. Let's save money and leave it like that