Ludwig and Imperial,

Do you think voting for Tim Lawrence from the Stable Population Party in the Griffith by-election is the right way to go? Less people and all that?

Everald,

You have begun with a basic mistake, as Captain Cook did not claim Australia for the British Crown.

In consideration of the fact that the Pope in 1494 had divided the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese along the line of 129 degrees east longitude, he only claimed the land east of 135 deg east longitude. He declined to claim any of the Portuguese area as Portugal was Britain's oldest ally. It wasn't until 1829 that Captain Fremantle claimed the bit west of 129 deg that became Western Australia.

In this he worked better than he knew, as it acted to set up Australia as a federation, not a unitary nation. The federal and state politicians could spend all their time fighting each other, and not have much energy over to interfere too much. We ended up with our federal constitution, (which the people refuse to amend), which has been one of the most successful constitutions in the world, as well as being the fourth or fifth oldest.

This magnificent process has been greatly helped by the people, who regularly ensure that whatever party is elected to a majority in the lower house will not have a majority in the upper. Recognising that whichever party is elected, the government is still the enemy of the people, they have ensured that the power to do anything important is spread over a broad spectrum of people, thus protecting us from egomaniacs.

Thank heavens we have been spared from the proposal to change to a republic. If this were to come about, the people would have to elect a president from a different political party than that of the Prime Minister. Remembering that each would have the power to dismiss each other, the model would have to be labelled the Congolese model, with equivalent results.

Three cheers for Captain Cook!

Malcolm,
Definitely, SPP are the only sane political party in Australia

Hmmm, yes, I thought so.

But me thinks Griffith voters probably don't know Stable Population Party (SPP) candidate, Timothy Lawrence, is also an electronic games developer for the gambling industry. That's not very PC - if you'll forgive the pun.

He also lives in Taringa, which is not in the electorate of Griffith.

My research has shown that the anti-population and no growth groups, such as the SSP have their roots deep in to social engineering and anti-immigration measures. They believe society is a circuit board with simple inputs and outputs. People are units of consumption and babies are ‘carbon emitters’ and a threat to the planet.

The SPP believes the human race will only survive if we devolve capitalism and population back to the time of their founding father, the Rev Thomas Malthus in the late 1700s.

Good luck with that.

Whilst I agree with curbing poulation I also think that by increasing non-uni education we could do a lot more for the environment. Imagine a less stupid population, one that works together for the common good. I also strongly agree with Vivienne O's statement re very anthropocentric mentality

"State Governments would be created and they would do their utmost not to co-operate with one another"

Right, six governments have been such a problem.
Your solution? Create 50 of them!

"they had only one Viceroy in India who ran the whole show."

And at first, we had one Governor.
The Governor of NSW, a *single* colony which covered the entire territory claimed in 1770.

"There would be scant recognition that Asian nations are our closest neighbours, with vast populations, who need the goods and services we can provide"

Right, there'll be plenty of Australian-made goods flooding into Asia.

I can just see their equivalent of Kmart now: Everything is "Made in Australia". LOL!

"we are too petrified to lose our links with the Queen of England"

Well, if you wanted close links with "Asia", maybe it should have been Captain Wu Li Sung standing on Possession Island.
It wasn't.

Newsflash: Most of Asia is on the other side of the planet too.
Look up Australia on Google Earth.
They are no more our "neighbours" than anywhere else.

We didn't develop close links with Asia because until very recently they were as poor as Africa, and even now only a few countries have developed to equal European production/living standards/per capita wealth.

"and too frightened to live without the protection of USA."

Oh, yeah, I'd really feel safer under the "protection" of Tibet-invading, student-massacring China!

"I could list more, but it would be too depressing."

It would also be too pathetic.

Oh, and here's Malcolm 'Paddy' King trying to hijack another thread to pummel SPP.
Yawn!