It is quite obvious that the politicians and policy that has been created has been undemocrated and one would also say that it amounts to a benevolent dictatorship.

It is time for something new in the political arena but this takes backstage and complacency to be thrown away and take the bull by the horns.

This you would have to agree with Leigh.

It is highly unlikely that any of the MP's consulted their constituents. We don't hear from them from one election to the next, and then only on behalf of the party they represent - they don't represent us, they represent a party, or themselves in the case of independents.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have NEVER been consulted on any subject by the politicians, state or federal, who want me to vote for them and/or their party
Posted by Leigh, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 11:53:30 AM

what we see i serious problem and until this is fixed you still get what you deserve.

for more info email; swulrich@bigpond.net.au

About 12 months ago, after I had written to the SA minister responsible for water chaos, I received a nice glossy brochure supposedly outlining how the state could ensure adequate water AND increase the population. Lovely photographs and lot of weasel words, but not one word on how it was all to be done.

Since then, the SA government has clearly show that it intends to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about ensuring a water supply, preferring, instead, to rely on draconian, third world restrictions in use. Still twittering about getting more people in, of course.

Rojo,

Yes. I did mean fluoride. Silly old me.

Your ideas are all sound. The problem is how to get the numbskull politicians to do anything about them. I have always been against privatisation of essential services, but I now wonder if private money and the lure of profit could help? If politicians cannot manage public services, is there much point in retaining them?

Goku,

Why do we need constant growth in production? Why do we need a larger population when we are already double what the environment can really take? What about small population countries like Sweden who have always done very well? What about New Zealand with a total population less than that of Melbourne? Not the most dynamic of countries, but a very pleasant and still wealthy little place.

Thanks for you comments, and I’m not knocking you. I just don’t understand this need for growth, and I’m happy to be enlightened.

Tapp,

Yes. We do agree on the calibre of Australian politicians. It’s the answers we don’t agree on

Well Leigh as you havnt taken the time to email or even bothered this is for you.

These are your comments not mine so

Is Australian Politics reaaly democratic or just a dictatorship

you have answered this time and time again.

Australian Politics is undemocratic and is a benevolent dictatorship.

LEIGHS COMMENTS
The draconian gun laws are a croc, as any one who thought about it at the time knew. Criminals are still out there with guns, killing, robbing and threatening. Nothing has changed.

Our politicians have once again fooled dopey citizens into thinking that they (politicians) were doing something to protect them, while merely wasting public money for nothing.

Unless Australians wake up to the fact that we have a benevolent dictatorship, they will wake up one day to find that the benevolence has gone.

Think about the real reason for disarming the population!
Posted by Leigh, Tuesday, 31 October 2006 9:31:54 AM

Sorry Leigh - didnt mean to imply that SA was backwards ;)

I know each town has a treatment plant, but my point is that the water going into this plant contains the effluent of other towns, albeit diluted. To me this is no different to drinking recycled water - in fact this is what recycled water is.

Even if we cant stomach drinking recycled water, how about we consider using it in other areas of the house - shower/bath, toilet, washing, garden, pools. The problem is that this would be a huge infrastructure investment, and we all know how much our various govts like that!

Desal plants only solve the problems for the coastal regions, and their cost would require support from all taxpayers. I am not necessarily against this, if it is the best option, but from what I understand, these things are pretty energy hungry, so we are just swapping one environmental problem for another.

I think the issue is that there is not going to be one magic solution that solves the problem. This needs to be attacked on a number of different levels. More rainwater tanks are a great idea, but lets make sure that everyone knows that they are better to have these aboveground and elevated, so that any water coming out is gravity fed (therefore doesnt need more electricity to pump out the water when its needed). Or, if your house eaves are very low, then use a two tank system - the higher one gravity feeds, and when its empty, pump it full from the lower tank. It takes a lot less power to run a pump for a length of time, rather than have it cut and and out even time you turn on a tap.

People who drink recycled water are dumber people.
This fact is often overlooked by our pollys and lawyers who want their private investments in water boards to increase by repeated use of the same water.
South Australians continually fail in the academic stakes and are a joke on the "Footy Show."(Australia's premier edu/entertainment show.
South Aussies use the dregs of the Murray/Darling basin water,and suffer by lack of quality water.
Pictures of Africans queueing for water will soon be the norm for Adelaide residents.
Australia has an abundance of quality drinking water and because of the provincial and State run water supply system in place in Australia.The rich are trying to price out the poor.
Go to any large country property run by a local politician or lawyer and see the gallons(sorry litres.)of water being pumped onto the soil.
The bore goes so deep that the water tables are dropping daily by these so called successful farmers.

Country Gal,

No offence taken. Someone (with not a lot to do one would think) recently did some work on blogs etc, and reported that we conservatives are bettered humoured and like a bit of fun more than the lefties do.

I’m all for recycling. The problem with attempts to date is that our unimaginative clods of politicians keeping talking about our “precious drinking water” (how many people actually drink the stuff these days?) and people in Toowoomba, for instance, thought that they would be drinking something nasty. Had it been touted for non-consumption purposes – gardens, bathing etc. – things might have been different.

In Mawson Lakes, a relatively new suburb of Adelaide (coping with the increased population!), there are no water restrictions because the developer introduced recycled water for gardens: they have two inlets and two water meters. As you say, expensive in older areas but, I’m afraid, maybe now a necessary expense because of lack of action by governments in the past.

Of course, if people accepted recycled water, this could be pumped directly into reservoirs, as it is in Los Angeles, where they have a mixture of recycled, river and nuclear reactor water.

Rainwater tanks are not really an option. New developments are squeezed into ever-smaller blocks of land, and there is simply not enough room for a tank of any practical use. Here again, blame politicians and their greed for more revenue that they refuse to spend properly.

Ludwig,

Keep up the population aspect. If we had had a population policy, we would not be talking about water shortages now. We can’t blame the original settlers, but we sure as hell can blame the knob-heads who persisted in high immigration after the ‘40’s and 50’s, long after substantial immigration was needed. Off the subject, but isn’t ironic that the greenies would now block the Snowy scheme many of the migrants worked on?