Dear Pericles,

I'd like to respond to your last post and your criticism of the Government. I strongly disagree with you.

Australia has a particularly strong record of achievement in the life sciences. I don't want to go into too much detail here and sidetrack Antonio's thread but you need to be reminded that the
CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) has become one of the world's largest and most diverse scientific research institutions. Their work covers a broad range of areas of economic and social importance.

Australia's tradition of inventiveness affects the everyday lives of millions of people in many countries. Techniqies and processes as commonplace as industrial refrigeration, the ready-mix system of transporting concrete and the balloon-in-a-box cask for wine were devised in Australia.

Australia prints its money on polymer, not paper, and other countries are beginning to use this technology. When people around the world use the telephone or the Internet, they rely on basic research associated with scientists who work in Australia. Australians adopted the Internet early, and many Australian websites feature in international "hot lists," particularly those associated with academic research.

Some Australian inventions are not for everyday use: gene shears for genetic engineering' the Synroc system for storing radioactive waste; the Interscan microwave aircraft landing system; smart proton probes for research into materials and living cells; and nano-machines for bio-sensing.

Some inventive Australians have been:
1) David Warren invented the black-box flight recorder.
2) Earl Owen pioneered microsurgery,
3) Graeme Clark developed the bionic ear.
4) Sir Howard Florey shared a Nobel Prize in 1945 as co-discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin.
5) James Harrison devised the sulphuric ether refrigerating system.
6) Ralph Sarich engineered the orbital engine.
7) The late Fred Hollows developed cheap corneal replacements to cure types of blindness common in developing countries.

Then we have our list of Nobel laureates in science. I won't list them all but I will mention Barry Marshall and Robin Warren who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for their work in identifying the role played in a bacterium in gastritis and peptic ulcers.

CONT'D

I meant to add that without Government funding and support - none of these achievements would have been possible.

Foxy
I started this thread not because I have had a whole picture, in details for the paid maternity, paternity, parental leave but because I agree with its basic philosophy, its goals.
I do not know and I could not know how exactly the government will cover the cost of this scheme. I know that we can, I know that there are various ways to cover the cost, personally I am ready to pay more tax for it because I think this will be useful for Australia.
"I don't want to go into too much detail here and sidetrack Antonio's thread"
Foxy
For me the important is not if the thread is mine or not but how I, We, can promote with the best way the paid maternity leave, the goals of the thread.
PLEASE FROM NOW AND ON IGNORE TOTALLY IF THE THREAD IS MINE AND IF YOU AGREE WITH THE GOALS OF THE THREAD, DO EVERYTHING YOU THING RIGHT TO PROMOTE THE GOALS OF THE THREAD.
Thank you
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaid

Foxy, I love you dearly as a very compassionate and caring person, but you really should let your heart listen to your head sometimes.

>>without Government funding and support - none of these achievements would have been possible<<

I thought I would work backwards on your list, mainly because the last two were the only ones I had heard of.

>>The late Fred Hollows developed cheap corneal replacements to cure types of blindness common in developing countries<<

As I understand it, Fred had to squeeze hard to get a red cent out of the Government. In fact, the Aboriginal Medical Service was established without Government money. He refused to accepts the Order of Australia in 1985 as a protest against what he called "blatant government disinterest in eye care for Aboriginal people".

>>Ralph Sarich engineered the orbital engine<<

Ralph Sarich invented the orbital engine, won an inventor's competition in 1972, and then set about raising funds to develop it. According to the records, he floated the Orbital Engine Company on the stock exchange, and persuaded BHP to fork out $50m. The Federal Government invested - invested - $15m, and the West Australian Government $3m, all in the company. As shareholders. When he asked for another $100m, he was turned down.

>>James Harrison devised the sulphuric ether refrigerating system<<

For a brewery. He was a Scottish engineer. Not a brass razoo from the government.

>>Sir Howard Florey shared a Nobel Prize in 1945 as co-discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin<<

Errrr... I think you will find that his work on this was conducted at Oxford University. In England. In his own words:

"I got a Rhodes scholarship actually before the end of the medical course, and went straight off to Oxford. I think even in those days I thought it was highly improbable that I'd ever come back to Australia. And this may sound a very odd thing to say, but I think I left here thinking that there were no opportunities in the sort of things I was beginning to get interested in, physiology for example."

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s12220.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s12820.htm

ASymeonakis “I can not expect all Australians to support it BUT I AM SURE MORE THAN 75% AUSTRALIANS SUPPORT IT.”

Ah yes, well if I were to go and say “I have a great idea which will pay everyone a lot of money and cost them nothing”, which is the thrust of your proposal, I would get 90% of people to support it, simply because, when I choose to be I am extremely persuasive.

However, that does not mean what I say is true
It does not mean it is moral or right

What I have observed is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and remembering one of the lessons of history involving a Trojan horse, one should certainly “beware Greeks bearing gifts”

Re “I do not know and I could not know how exactly the government will cover the cost of this scheme.”

Then maybe you should do some research before shouting your mouth off.

I fcan tell you how, governments cover the costs of everything they do, by taxing the wealth generating taxpayers or retaining excess taxes (as in a surplus budget) or by retaining the capital gain from assets bought with historically levied taxes.

That is how.
There is no other way.

Personally, if a maternity scheme was a plank in some greater plan to guarantee high levels of employment indefinitely into the future, it might, just might have some merit.

But reality will determine

it will hinder future employment, especially for females.
It will contribute to wage inflation
It will reduce Australian competitiveness
It will favour one segment of the workforce (females) to the detriment of others (males)

Therefore, it has no merit and despite all your sentimental whining, remains a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.

Foxy “balloon-in-a-box cask for wine were devised in Australia.”

It was devised by a Mediterranean immigrant family who based it on the goat-skin wine containers used in southern Europe (dunno the proper name for these). They sold the idea to ACI, a privately owned company. (I worked for ACI, Packaging Division, back in the 1980s).

Foxy "I meant to add that without Government funding and support - none of these achievements would have been possible."

Following Pericles and my last posts suggests your "claim" to the virtues of government funding is exaggerated.

Whilst government can point taxpayer resources into particular areas, venture capital companies abound and can throw equal resources at them but do so with less bureaucracy and usually a better balance to their portfolio of risk with greater precision and insight to the "winners", than a bunch of bureacrats playing monopoly with tax payers funds.

Nothing of a commercial nature, which government does cannot be done by private enterprise, except doing whatever it is as badly as government -

because private enterprise is accountable but government cannot go broke, it just goes and milks more out of the tax payer.