Banjo,

".....We now have hope that some adults with responsibility will be in charge of the purse strings...."

Don't hold your breath - the present govt borrowed $800 million this week "already".

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/australia-borrows-800m-whatever-2013-9

"....Then that the illegal invaders will be stopped from trying to come here...."

More pie in the sky....how do you suggest Mr Abbott and Co are going to do that?

Slogans can win an election, but.....

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/coalition-victory-fails-to-stop-boats/story-fn9qr68y-1226718874954

And we'll still have plenty of illegal invaders anyway. The Coalition hasn't mentioned any plans to stop the planes which is how most illegal invaders arrive.

Cheers,

Tony

Davidf, I agree with your analysis.

You make an interesting point about the minor and micro parties. They are (I presume) all pretty narrowly focussed on what they can achieve in their lines of interest in the short term, and thus are working against our longer term environmental health and good of society.

It presents a quandary: it could be argued that these parties are good for democracy and political diversity. Heaven knows we need to move away from the two big dinosaur parties. But it looks like it will actually reinforce short-term decisions and work against a healthy future.

I would love to know why the Sustainable Population Party did so poorly. In my experience of talking to a wide range of people over a period of more than a decade when I was doing vegetation management work and liaising with lots of property owners, miners and developers, was that there is indeed a great deal of concern out there about continuous high population growth and the worship of continuous growth in general.

Yes it was a meaningless election, as the new government will just continue with the same old manic-growth-pandering BS politics.

The only way that it could not have been a meaningless election is if Labor was to see the absolute need to change it evil ways and to embrace a sustainable future, as per Julia Gillard’s wishes and the long-time urgings of Kelvin Thomson and Bob Carr.

But alas, I see no sign of this under Albanese or Shorten.

Dear David F.,

I agree with you, this has been the least enlightening
and most dispiriting election campaign in Australian
history. We've had inadequate and scant political
information. We were deprived of serious analysis.
The contract that once existed between journalists and
politicians requiring a direct question to be honestly
answered seems to have been broken ages ago. No wonder
we've had a record informal vote of almost 6 per cent and
the success of micro-parties in the Senate.

Michelle Grattan points out in her article for The
Saturday Age, Sept. 14, 2013:

"Tony Abbott faces some big obstacles, from Indonesia's
opposition to key aspects of his "stop the boats"
strategy, securing the passage of legislation to scraping
the carbon emissions trading scheme, the mining tax, and
trying to implement his generous parental leave scheme,
to name just a few."

"The challenge for the next Labor leader, whoever he may be,
is to show that they're serious when they talk of making
the party more inclusive and reaching out to the broader
constituency. Currently both candidates have been party
to preselection decisions that reward patronage, not merit,
and both were senior figures through Labor's six years of
divided government. Their actions will speak louder than words."

Dear Banjo,

I think there should have been multiculturalism from the beginning. The English should not have forced the Aborigines onto mission stations which put their superstition on the Aborigines. The Aborigines had their own superstitions which were more compatible with their lifestyle.

A good way to eliminate the debt would be to raise taxes enough to pay it off. However, Murdoch and Rinehart back the Libs. They know that the Libs owe them big. Taxes will be kept low for them, and it would be political suicide for taxes to be kept low on them and raise taxes on others enough to pay off the debt. The debt will continue to grow.

Of course wages will be depressed for the Australian worker as there will be more 457 visas issued for Rinehart and other corporate interests that backed the Libs.

The environmental policies of Gillard which were responsible for national parks in the waters around Australia will possibly be negated by Abbott and his crew. If Rudd had won he quite possibly would not have seen that the ocean parks would have been monitored for violations. The heritage of Gillard would have been destroyed either way. Rudd pointed out that Gillard was a ‘childless woman’. That had no relevance to her competence as PM. It was only relevant to prejudiced noogieheads. Apparently many of them didn’t vote for him.

France and Bulgaria are aware of the damage that fracking can do to the aquifers and have banned it. There is enough opposition in the UK so that fracking is political unfeasible. It is still open slather in Australia.

The fauna, flora and soil of this great land will continue to be destroyed. The population will be encouraged to grow even more past the levels of sustainability.

Since I will be 88 next month I probably won’t be around to see the reckoning. However, it will come.

Parts of the Catholic Church are much more enlightened than Abbott’s buddy, Cardinal Pell. The following poem appeared in the 09 September 2013 issue of Eureka Street, the Jesuit magazine.

Unholy Sonnet
XIII
Strip out my heart, three-personed Gina;
As yet but truck, prospect and seek to mine;
That we may improve, export and ourselves refine
Your ore, to the US, Europe, and 'specially China.
I, like a usurp'd town, ignore union dues,
And admit labour, from all quarters,
Let them all flock, to the mineral slaughter,
That holds us captive, lest wealth you lose.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be Rineharted,
But have unwise ties to ideas green;
Divorce them, untie, or render them obscene,
Take me to you, make me minehearted,
Except you extract me, I never shall be free,
Nor ever rich, unless you ravish me.
P.S. Cottier
(John Donne-over)