Hi Poirot, I am glad to hear your mum is doing well.
You are right to say we need to remain vigilant with this Government re healthcare though.
Community health care providers like Silver Chain have to charge fees for service of about $8 a visit by the Government, which is not too bad for most people, unless you look at those who require a daily visit. This would cost pensioners $56 a week, which many could not afford.

If you are in the unfortunate position of being a part-pensioner or self-funded retiree, then you are charged $35 a visit by the Government (for nursing, cleaning , respite care, or personal care). Imagine if you needed several services?

The hospitals are told they can't hold on to elderly patients who need extra care to stay home, so they are rushed home ASAP, supposedly to have these community services.
What happens if they can't afford them?

The moral of the story is to spend all you have by the time you retire, and/or pour it all into your own home, which is so far not considered an asset for community service provision purposes.....yet!.

Suseonline,
You said, "We don't need to say anymore about how well multiculturalism has worked here".

Seeing you think that the benefits of MC are so obvious perhaps you can relate them so we all can share them. Note I am referring to viable and practical benefits not some 'feel good' feelings for our enrichness. Why is it that 'diversity' is the end goal of MC and to what benefit?

As well you claim MC has worked well here, so what is your yardstick? on what do you base your measure. Is it simply that we have had less civic problems than European countries. Less riots and less burnt cars and less girls raped.

Frankly, I consider MC a misnomer as we fully accept no other culture and our cultural foundations are still based on the Westminster system. We are certainly multi-racial but not multicultural

Foxy,
Yes I have raised this subject quite a few times and with you because you are the one that often praises multiculturalism but fail to state what the advantages Australia gains. To simply state there are benefits without saying what they are is not good enough.

Each time you have referred to someone else who again does not show what the actual benefits are.

Therefore I must conclude that you do not know what practical benefits MC provides for us. Perhaps you envisage that having the widest possible diversity of ethnic groups is, in itself, advantageous. Just how is another question.

So now I ask others to relate the advantages of MC, if they can. I have just asked Suseonline and perhaps Paul and Steele would care to outline the benefits as they see them.

Hi there POIROT...

I'm also glad to hear that your dear Mum is doing so well at her age ! You only have one set of parents, and when they're gone, well that's it. As time goes by, your memories of them do fade a little, until a particular event or something said, can immediately evokes recollections of some happier or more sorrowful events. No, it's so important we care for, and honour them while we can of course, as it's far too late when they ultimately pass.

Seeing you think that the benefits of.... something..... are so obvious - perhaps you can relate them so we all can share them.

Good statement. I was listening to radio recently where a physiotherapist said that if people lean forward less - and look up more this flows on to their mind. It literally changed my mind immediately.

I feel 100% differently - particularly as I have had to go to the Physiotherapy Department in the Royal Adelaide Hospital after having a bad seizure and waking up (after hurting my back) very badly and being in hideous pain.

Great job Ms or Mrs Physiotherapist on radio and those in the hospital!

Banjo, I doubt anything I can say will change your mind about multiculturalism, especially as you don't seem to know what the term means.
Why not look it up and check out the history of multiculturalism in Australia, which you have chosen to ignore.

Obviously, the first culture of Australia was the Aboriginal culture, but you obviously don't think we should all have stayed with that culture?

So, the culture we have in Australia today amalgamates the cultures of all the immigrants who have arrived in Australia since they first arrived hundreds of years ago.
They brought with them the foods, lifestyles, cultures and religions which have been absorbed into Australian culture.

How you can imagine that all immigrants who settle into Australia just forget the cultural practices of their country of birth is beyond me.
As long as everyone follows our laws and respects others beliefs, then it shouldn't matter where they come from.