doog, the ONLY reason why we need to build public housing is because we keep bringing in migrants. Aboriginal & white Australians were being kept out of public housing by migrants because the tenants are not picked at random or by time waiting your turn. Priority was given to migrants.

we also don't need to create jobs. we need to stop importing migrants so that young Australians can have a job.

do you want rates of economic growth that are slower, but more stable or economically sustainable? or do want to inflate speculative bubbles that lead to another crash.

Aidan, quarrying, farming, tourism & manufacturing are productive. Whitlam lowered tariffs, raised wages & raised the dollar going from full employment to double digit unemployment almost overnight. our liberal PMs have done nothing to close down industries as the policies were all labor. yes i was revering to tariffs among other anti-industry policies, but we shut down high productivity industries too. you cannot ever compete against convict labor

imacentristmoderate, considering public housing is a state issue, it seems unlikely that they'd give priority to migrants (as migration is a federal issue). Do you have any actual evidence that they are? And if you do, have you any idea why they do so?

We need to INCREASE DEMAND so that young Australians can have jobs. Stopping migration is not an effective way of doing so.

I don't want economic stability for its own sake. Economic cycles can be exploited by governments, and doing so would bring both high growth and more stability than we have at the moment.

Forcing Australians to pay higher prices for imports (and hence raising the cost of living) is bad for our productivity. And how is it productive to manufacture something here for more than it costs to make the same item overseas? If we're making things we're no good at making, we won't be able to export them. Most service industries are far more productive than that, as they contribute to the wealth of Australians (who wouldn't buy what they sell if they didn't think it worth the money).

It's better to let our dollar fall a bit; that will make all our industries more competitive; not just our uncompetitive ones.

It was the Abbott government that pulled the plug on the car industry, though it probably wouldn'tve lasted long under Labor either.

There are restrictions on importing products made with convict labour. The vast majority fo cheap imports aren't.

The purpose of small government is open slather for predators and tyranny for prey. That's why predators promote it.

Dear Julian,

So you think that a larger predator at the top of the food chain could help?

There aren't many predators left today, you know, so currently if the gates of the Canberra zoo were opened, nobody would even notice the missing politicians that finally had a good use - as breakfast. If however there is a small government, then the escaped lions and tigers will be able to consume them in a reasonable time - surely nobody will shed tears over them!

Yuyutsu’s caricature of the process of representative government is not a description of reality. Predators acquire wealth from prey for their own use and further empowerment. The smaller is the government the fewer are the enforced obligations for the disposal of that acquired wealth.

With strong representative government there is a system of laws and regulations governing how the wealth can be acquired and how it can be used. A truly representative government is not at the top of any food chain. Nor would predators ruling any jungle food chain ever be breakfast unless the jungle was taken over by stronger predators from outside.

A representative government is, however, wide open to be bought by predators. Those who buy it go to the top of the food chain, but their prey is it the government, it’s the public. A form of government not so easily suborned by purchase is democracy. That would require Binding Citizen-Initiated Referenda (BCIR). With BCIR we would never have copped a GST to offset a reduction in company tax, or have participated in the rape of Vietnam or Iraq, or have allowed predatory plunder through privatisation of public assets.

Correction line 2 last par

"but their prey is it the government," should be "but their prey is not the government,"