Barnaby Joyce has been elected the new Nationals
leader after Warren Truss bows out. He will be our
new Deputy Prime Minister.

What are your thoughts on this?

Personally, I feel that it will be good for the
country to have someone with such a strong
personality. And I'm sure
that both Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce will work well
together. It's also about time that the rural
sector got some stronger representation in Parliament.
With Mr Joyce I'm sure they will.

Your thoughts please?

Does he have a $40K Rolex? If he hasn't then he sure is in a good position now to get his hands on one.

Hi Foxy, yes I am pleased Barnaby is the leader, as I am sure he will do what is right for the rural voters at least. I am a National Party voter because I live in the country and we have been recipients of the Royalty for Regions funding, and I hope this continues.

Sometimes it feels like the country voters are poor second cousins with politicians, because there aren't enough of us to really make a difference, but the National Party appears to try harder than others to give us a fair go.

Barnaby Joyce will hopefully continue this tradition, but I also hope he is careful with what he says because sometimes he has put his foot in it before!

Dear Suseonline,

I think you people in the country areas are not going to have anything at all in the not too distant future. Have a look on the link below (about halfway down the page of this article I ran across) and - if we take Sydney as an early indicator of where Australia's political power will be determined - you will soon recognise that the Coalition does not have much of a hope of shoring up the Coalition for much longer.

The percentages have obviously increased over the five years that the map was produced. My guesstimate is by about 25%, which means that the range should be read as 3.5% to 65.6%. Personally I think Hurstville is really more like 85-90%.

I would be very interested in hearing how you think the changing demographic of Sydney (and the other capitals) will affect the future position of the Coalition.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hurstville-sydneys-real-chinatown-20150218-13ia0l.html

PS You can click on each coloured section for some data on that section.

Dear Suse,

I have relatives who are stud farmers in the country.
My eldest son has a bull named after him. And they
have faith in Barnaby, So that's good enough for me.

I know Barnaby sometimes puts his foot in it - but
who cares. His heart's in the right place and I'm sure
that he won't sell this country out to foreign
investors.

Dear Mr Opinion,

I hope that my family proves to be right about Barnaby
Joyce. As long as he's able I'm sure he's not going to
sell us out.

Dear Foxy,

My understanding is that Barnaby Joyce is a bit like me in that he has a concern about the extent to which China has transplanted itself in Australia.

Did you have a chance to look at the demographic map of Sydney I uploaded (a few comments back)? I think it shows why I am critical of the extent to which China has been transplanting itself in Australia. That's why I say things like 'Sydney is one of the great Chinese cities of the world' and use the term Sino-Australia to describe what the country will be like in several decades.

Foxy

Maybe I should use the term planted in lieu of transplanted. Synonymous with the British plantings in colonial America. One similarity for sure is that the British and Chinese plantings can be seen as mercantilism.

Foxy,

I agree that Barnaby's heart's in the right place.
The trouble is his head's in the wrong place.
Hence he advocates economic policies which will hurt Australia, because he thinks inability to pay our debts is a greater threat — whereas in reality Australia only borrows in the currency it prints, so has unlimited credit.

Dear Foxy,

How do you do it? You tell onthebeach off big time calling him all sorts of things and everybody including onthebeach still want to talk to you. I call Aidan et al engineers and I'm the worst person that ever walked the face of the earth. I had no idea that calling a person an engineer was the worst of all insults.

The bitter Mr Windsor hates Barnaby which probably shows that he will be an excellent choice.Usually you can tell how good a person is by his/her enemies.

Turnbull had better be careful with Barnaby around. He doesn't suffer fools or bulldust readily, & can get very prickly when faced with it. He is likely to become rather exasperated with the bag of hot air & bulldust that is Turnbull.

Just one prick from one of Barnaby's prickles & the whole bag of hot air could easily deflate.

We can only hope!

runner,

WTF is your problem with Mr Windsor? Is it just because he was smart enough to know that an Abbott government would be unworkable?

__________________________________________________________________________

Mr Opinion,

Your link shows that Hurstville's the only part of Sydney where half the people have Chinese ancestry, and in most of Sydney the proportion's much lower. Even in Chatswood the figure is just 32.1%. And remember that's just the proportion with Chinese ancestry, not the proportion who are actually Chinese.

However I was wrong about one thing: Auburn was one of the parts of Sydney with few Chinese people, but it turns out 20.5% of people there have Chinese ancestry.

Dear Aidan,

Chinese is used in its commonest form to mean people of the Chinese race. They can be born in England, Russia, Egypt, Australia, or Disneyland: they are Chinese by descent as well as being citizens of a particular nation-state. This is how I define the Chinese in Sydney. According to your definition Aboriginals are not Aboriginals because they are Australians because they were all born in Australia. That's wrong but I won't go into the anthropology and sociology of it because you wouldn't understand a word I said.

I think the map shows that at a glance the Chinese make up about 25% of Sydney's population. And this will only increase over the next few decades to what I think will reach 50% of the population of Sydney. Keep in mind that mhaze has been arguing that the Chinese population of Sydney is only 3% i.e.. the map I uploaded would be completely yellow if mhaze is correct. I really think he has got it so wrong.

Dear Mr Opinion,

You can if you want use "Chinese" to mean people of the Chinese race. But don't then make assumptions about the loyalty, culture and values of Chinese people.

"According to your definition Aboriginals are not Aboriginals because they are Australians because they were all born in Australia."
On the contrary, Aboriginality is dominant. According to my definition everyone with an ancestor born in Australia before 1787 is Aboriginal. As is anyone who they adopt. And also anyone initiated into an Aboriginal tribe.

"I think the map shows that at a glance the Chinese make up about 25% of Sydney's population."
Considering the large yellow areas on both sides of Sydney, I think you're misreading the map.

"Keep in mind that mhaze has been arguing that the Chinese population of Sydney is only 3% i.e.. the map I uploaded would be completely yellow if mhaze is correct. I really think he has got it so wrong."
I expect mhaze was referring to those born in China. And if you think a figure of 3% would result in a completely yellow map then you don't know much about maps, demographics or even statistics! There are always clusters.

Mr. Opinion, this topic is about Barnaby Joyce and not about your paranoid racist dislike of anyone who 'looks' Chinese.

Barnaby would be one of the first people to call you out for your views.
Are you still stuck in the 'Red's Under The Beds' era?

Barnaby is probably the only politician in Canberra that knows which way is up !
He is aware that the energy problem is a much bigger threat to our
comfortable life style than any other problem.

It is a bigger problem than the weather and the debt.

A part of me thinks, "Oh gawd, not this sweaty pig as our deputy PM."

But then I remember that this was the only guy who was trying to speed read his way through the 10,000 page document that was the "Work Choices" legislation when every other F-face in the coalition was ready to vote for it without having even having read a single word of what the legislation entailed.

It is for that reason alone that I suspect, and hope, he'll be a good deputy PM.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Joyce was, however, instrumental in the original ousting of Turnbull - in preference for the slimy grub Abbott, of all people. That does not demonstrate a good judge of character, and, if it is true, is an example of how he is not fit to represent anybody in parliament.

//That's why I say things like 'Sydney is one of the great Chinese cities of the world' and use the term Sino-Australia to describe what the country will be like in several decades.//

Melbourne is one of the great Greek cities of the world - they have a higher population of Greeks than any other city in the world outside of Greece, and have held that record for many years.

Despite the high concentration of Greeks in Melbourne, Australia has yet to become the Hellenic-Australia.

I have no reason to dispute your data, but I am somewhat less convinced by your extrapolation. Could you please state all the assumptions upon which you have based this extrapolation?

//It is for that reason alone that I suspect, and hope, he'll be a good deputy PM.//

Well he couldn't be any worse than cow Ju-Lie Bishop.

Wow, it's really easy to insult female politicians who have names containing then right phonemes. No wonder all the tories had so much fun kicking that football around for so long. All you need is a woman with the right name, and you don't have to apply any effort or imagination to think clever puns. Tories hate effort and imagination.

Dear Aidan,

The inevitability is that Australia is headed down the path of becoming a Sino-Australian nation within the next few decades. You, Suseonline, Toni Lavis, et al are in denial about this and try to disguise the fact under a rubric of an imagined community. You're like the climate change denialists who refuse to admit that humans are having an adverse impact on the ecosystem.

Dear Toni Lavis,

You need to come up with a map like I did in order to demonstrate your point.

Dear Suseonline,

Everything that could be said about Barnaby Joyce could be written on the back of a postage stamp.

Foxy dear, I have issues with the Nationals. Given they dropped the “country party” descriptive they still allude to represent rural Australia. I find that their charter on this to be tenuous as National Party politicians and political staffers have jumped directly into a role that involves them advocating for the Energy companies. Coal seam gas has fractured rural Australia and whom did we find in the employ of the Energy companies, former National party leaders, John Anderson and Mark Vaile. The Nationals have no credibility in the bush and no tenure in the cities. Although I do like Barnaby’s frank and direct manner.

Thanks to everyone for your various views.

I don't know that much about Barnaby Joyce
except for the fact that he says what he thinks
even if at times people don't like the direct
approach. I'd rather have that from a politician
then being lied to.

//You need to come up with a map like I did in order to demonstrate your point.//

Why? The map is just graphical representation of Sydney's Chinese population, but it should be possible for university educated people to talk about Sydney's Chinese population or Melbourne's Greek population without having pretty pictures to look at.

Now why don't you stop dodging the question, and state all the assumptions upon which you have based your extrapolation?

While your're at it, why don't you put some of that superior education you're always banging on about to some use, and explain why lots of Chinese people in Sydney will turn Australia into Sino-Australia, but lots of Greeks in Melbourne hasn't turned Australia into Hellenic-Australia.

Dear Foxy,

I was initially a bit of a fan of Barnaby's even though our politics did not align.

I have this silly notion of giving most people a fair go unless they do something that loses me completely then they remain on my blacklist unless something seismic serves to redeem them.

With Barnaby it was his position that Australia shouldn't progress toward legalising gay marriage because it might hurt our beef trade with our northern neighbours.

I felt this was outrageous. That our sovereignty, and our internal values and politics, should be determined by others all in the name of protecting income streams for Barnaby's constituents was an anathema.

The Nationals are the most effective and formidable lobbying force in this country. Their influence in getting Australia to sign away its sovereign rights in the TPP is a case in point. To me their degree of power and influence is a negative and needs to be restrained for the good of the nation.

Dear Toni Lavis,

No. Get your own map!

And for Christ's sake stop talking like an engineer. It makes you look like an imbecile.

//No. Get your own map!//

Once again I find myself having to ask: why?

For such a well-educated man, you seem to be remarkably poor at answering extremely simple questions.

Dear SteeleRedux,

I'm still optimistic about Barnaby that he'll
keep us as safe as he can from foreign investors.
I suspect that if he does not do that he may be in
trouble with his electorate. Feelings are strong in
the rural sector about selling off this country's
land. And other resources overseas.
And Barnaby is no fool. But of course he does have
the Libs to contend with but I'm hoping that his
strong personality will be able to withstand the
pressure he'll be under.

We'll have to wait and see. I trust that Barnaby
won't disappoint and will prove to be a good match
for Mr Turnbull.

Dear Foxy,

The Nationals have had a rather destructive influence on the Australian political scene and are often quite venial in their abuse of influence.

Some of us still remember the Australian Wheat Board scandal. It was a privatisation, supported and promoted by the Nationals, that lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes being paid to Saddam Hussein. That National ministers were so strident in protecting the Board was telling never mind the large donations they received from the corporation.

To me they need a good counterweight within the coalition and I hope Turnbull is up to the task. Time will tell.

Dear Foxy,

When it comes to keeping us safe from foreign investors and preventing the sell off of land to overseas interests maybe Barnaby Joyce can hire Stuart Robert as his consultant. Anyone for a free $40K Rolex?

Barney Boy, will carry on as usual as a member of the unrepresentative swill, aka Country Party, aka National Party. What we have here is too little votes with too much power, pushing the interests of the last of Australia Squataucracy!
Should keep Malcolm busy as he runs around dousing all those grass fires Barney Boy will set every time he opens his mouth! That's not to say I don't agree with him on the rare occasion.

Hi FOXY...

My first question, have you or anybody else heard from POIROT recently ? I certainly hope she's not unwell, or something equally as nasty? I miss her well thought-out take on many issues, usually those with a political theme.

I completely agree with you on Barnaby JOYCE, he'll do a sterling job as deputy PM and for the bush. Warren TRUSS was a total gentleman, no doubt about that, but he didn't seem up to the usual 'cut 'n thrust' of federal politics. Where Barnaby will not back away from a decent blue, in fact he seems to thrive on it? I guess time will tell?

If memory serves me correctly, the Australian Wheat Board saga, turned into a criminal inquiry headed by the AFP? The outcome, I don't know but scandal's abounded as a result of that inquiry? Whether criminal prosecutions resulted from material deduced from the various investigations I really can't say, other than in a couple of instances the excrement really hit the fan?

Paul says, What we have here is too little votes with too much power, pushing the interests of the last of Australia.

Are you sure you are not actually describing the Greens old mate?

Dear O Sung Wu,

Poirot does make the occasional appearance on the
forum, I don't think she's ill. She stated some
time ago that she needed a break. She got tired of
being attacked personally instead of having her
arguments debated. It got too personal for her
and who can blame her. There's one notorious
poster who's absolutely vicious with attacking
women on this forum. I've thought about leaving
many times. However, the forum keeps my mind off
the pain since my accident.
It's a good distraction for me. Besides I'd miss
so many of you.

As well as giving some people something to do between PhDs.

Thanks for the info FOXY, I appreciate it. Some of what POIROT writes I disagree with fervently and emphatically , nevertheless she does argue her position very well indeed, and it would be a great pity, if she allowed some of those unkind remarks to discourage her from placing any further input on various Topics that arise from time to time. Or affected her so much, she might consider leaving the Forum altogether. That would be a great loss to all of us, if she choose to leave, as her contributions are always worthy of generating solid debate! If you happen to read this Poirot, please come back, sooner rather than later!

Dear O Sung Wu,

I second your words.

Poirot if you are reading this - come back.
You are greatly missed.

I agree Foxy and O sung Wu. I miss Poirot as well.
She did say she prefers debating topics on Twitter.

I tried that, but just couldn't get used to it!
I prefer the devil I know :)

Cheers,
Suse,

I'd like to Thanks You all for contributing to
this discussion. For me it's now run its course.
I look forward to the next one.

Thanks.

o sung wu,

Howdy...

I appear to have turned up again over on another thread - gung-ho, as usual..in as much as I tend to get into heated debates around here.

I always seem to feel that every third post here is going to be my last - as I'm particularly opinionated and apparently a little pig-headed as well.

But I do like to argue my points - and indulge in a little pedantic analysis - not just with the subject matter, but also with my fellow posters.

In any case, thanks for the thumbs up and for keeping me in mind - added a nice touch to my day. : )