*Governments are supposed to mitigate that constant push for expansion from the business sector where it is a threat to our future wellbeing.*

Ludwig, that push for expansion is coming from the people themselves,
who want more. You and I might be happy with our lot in life,
but we are not the majority of people.

So its back to the tragedy of the commons. Short term, wanting
more threatens nobody and people by nature, act in their short term
self interest. Politicians reflect what people want, or they
are thrown out of office, they know that.

Long term, unless we address the constant global population increase
of 80 million or so a year, what Australians do hardly matters
in the bigger scheme of things.

I once looked at the demographics of Indonesia and they were
forecasting a population of something like 500 million in 50 years
time. With that kind of pressure from the our nearest neighbour,
Australia will have no chance of living in blissfull isolation
from the global problem.

I think it hilarious that peoples loathing of John Howard blinded them to the simple fact that Mr Rudd was by and large going to continue his policies. Any sensible person knew that his climate change promises were just that 'promises.' Now that more and more realise that climate change is a hoax Mr Rudd knows he really needs to do very little except show up at free lunches making out that Australia is somehow a leader in this hoax.

Runner,

I was not fooled by Rudd's rhetoric although of course a tiny bit of hope of some change to the business as usual scene was better than no hope at all which the Liberals offered. One of these two demons, has as I said in an earlier comment, to be put ahead of the other on the ballot paper.

In the recent WA election the Carpenter government was punished by many of those who sought some reasonable responses to demands for positive environmental actions to reduce the environmental vandalism that has been part of the culture at all levels of government and business in this state.

Carpenter did nothing - not even the easiest of things that practically all the electorate were in favour of such as to reintroduce a container deposit scheme along the lines of that in SA.

Guess why they did nothing! The packaging industry? Of course. WHAT a surprise.

The left still don't get it! Private enterprise creates the wealth in this country which the left succor.

Well this is odd. Ludwig, usually I agree with your posts, but the precise quote that you singled out and agreed with, is the quote that made me dismiss this article.

"If corporate Australia does not trust a Labor leader, as history amply demonstrates, then the media that it controls will prevent that leader from attaining office."

Before this point I thought the article had merit. After this point, I found it difficult to take it seriously.

Not because of the point in relation to 'corporate Australia.' Indeed, when a candidate is not approved by 'corporate Australia' then they generally don't have a chance. I'll get to why, later.
My disagreement stems from these notions:
a) the public are spoonfed through the media.
b) 'corporate Australia' is some kind of malicious entity that operates with any kind of cohesion.
c) That this ambiguous entity waves some kind of magic wand and the media falls to heel.

It doesn't work like that. As I've said in other threads, the media certainly will pursue the lowest common denominator, and yes, they're out for profit - but outside of the imaginations of conspiracy theorists, there's no boardroom of evil-money-hungry powerbrokers stroking white cats and issuing directives to their media lapdogs.

There is a reason why candidates who don't appeal to 'corporate Australia' fail and it's not to do with the media, (except for the fact that they're not competent enough to project an electable image to the media which happily pounce on any slip be it an actual slip or perceived one).
It's more the fact that as you yourself have said, our economic system is predicated on growth.
Those who don't have the nous and ability to provide for the corporate sector are doomed to fail this system. If they can't figure that out and they can't project an image that shows they're capable of assisting corporate Australia to achieve that growth, then clearly, they will not be competent enough to project an electable image.

Perhaps this link should be the preamble for Bureaucrats and their expendable vanguard- Politicians- For when the basic principle is lost , so is society.

http://majorityrights.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/22/
And when you understand that principle , then learn ;
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/96/
I told you so.