set up in the Deep Deep North
Paul1405,
Not in the deep North, everywhere in Australia & if you think that a sense of responsibility & harmony & belonging is hare-brained, well, I'd say you're the hare-brained one. But of course you've displayed a hare-brained mentality since your first post. I don't suppose you've put your mother up for sale yet, have you ?
My latest brainwave to improve Australia is a non-military National Service to give young adults the opportunity to think for themselves & out-breed the likes of you.
Once the likes of you are reduced in numbers & dependency on Government or rather taxpayer funding the rest can start re-building this great country. Imagine a population without the likes of you ? Harmony, plenty to go round, everyone pulling their weight, great !

Hello G'dayBruce,

We need reform in Australia - and this requires quality "debate". Not simply "complaining". It doesn't solve any issues in Australia.

Too many people in Australia are negative. I have three medical conditions - and after my recent appointment this week am now on seven medications per week - some I take twice per day.

But I'm not going to let that hold me down - I'm look at things as positively as possible - and what makes me do that, is that I can be negative (and go nowhere) or be positive in which I can do a lot more.

What is what is happening overseas is relevant to this topic. My parents met a couple, (who applied as refugees) to come to Australia. Of Anglo Saxon background, (under Robert Mugabe) they were racially targeted. The wife was shot so many times that one of her intestines fell out. At a hospital she was told: "You are so lucky to be alive, you should be dead."

People need to find their own solutions more and change their mindset. All Labor, smaller parties and independent politicians are looking for is publicity at present.

This can lead to a negative perception of people doing very good work in this very good country - something we should be proud of. Stop talking our country down.

NathanJ, good on you for your positive thinking, and good luck with your medical problems.

Take no notice of any nasty individual on this forum who may try to knock you down.
It must be very tiring for them to live in a constant state of anxiety and negativity.
And....very un-Australian!

Cheers,
Suse.

"Too many people complain in Australia - like the $7.00? GP payment. Why? Look at Palestine or many third world countries and their countires. Grow up Australia - and stop complaining! We are a lucky country!"

Er.....which is exactly why we need to to be vigilant that rabid right-wing govts don't white-ant Medicare.

The "$7.00" co-payment is not going toward Medicare. $2 towards GP's for managing it and $5.00 to a hastily confected "Medical Research Thingy"

This is apparently to send "a price signal" (something they don't think works with carbon)

Not to mention they've simultaneously cut CSIRO medical research funding...

http://cpsu-csiro.org.au/2014/08/13/csiro-to-cut-research-into-infectious-disease-and-biosecurity/

"Government cuts to science are set to hit CSIRO’s ground-breaking research into infectious disease with up to eight researchers at Geelong’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) set to lose their jobs.

CSIRO scientists at the laboratory recently began research into the deadly Ebola virus, currently the subject of a deadly outbreak throughout parts of West Africa."

So, yes, we have one of the best medical arrangements in the world...and we need to guard it jealously.

Or end up like the US or worse.

Poirot,

I put the question mark next to the $7.00? payment as I was questioning if people would pay $7.00 in any form - because whatever it was for - there would be people complaining - either for selfish reasons - or to simply attack the Liberal party (or both) - and give their favorite political party/person some media coverage in a newspaper or on television.

That is what is the media lives upon and wants - but it is not quality "debate" as my previous post said - nor does it lead to any good quality reform we could have.

As for research - I have put my name down for medical testing, a number of years ago. I very gladly did so, as we need to test on human beings for the public benefit. The medication was not suitable for me - but it could be suitable for somebody else.

Nathan,

I appreciate that.

We are so "lucky" to find ourselves in a first world country, peaceful (by many standards and civilised)

Some of us can see the ideological bent of this particular govt - and, frankly, it's alarming. They go beyond ordinary Conservatism.

Their tampering with Medicare is "ideological"....rolled out early in their tenure along with other ferocious policies earmarked to destroy - or at least to degrade - the social equity we enjoy in this great country.

Structural reform is always on the agenda with any govt - things change - but we must remain vigilant for ideologically-driven overkill.