Dear O Sung Wu,

I'm more optimistic about our country's future.
The voters usually get it right in the end.

In Australia the writers of contemporary politics come
overwhelmingly from a left or "progressive" perspective.
In their accounts Labor usually emerges as the hero and
the Liberal Party as the villain. However, what we need
to do is look at the achievements of both sides as well
as to acknowledge the failures.

The Australian people are immensely likeable - cheerful,
extraverted, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging. Their
cities are clean and nearly always built on water. we have
a society that is prosperous, well ordered and instinctively
egalitarian.

You read that word a lot, that word "egalitarian", when you read
about Australians and Australian values.

I believe that because we are a young country our greatest glories
are still in front of us. Although we have had failures and
although we have not on every occasion lived up to the best
practice, the Australian achievement - political, economic, and
in lifestyle is one of the great successes of the world. And there
is still plenty more to be achieved in every sphere of life.
We need to solve our water
problem. We are the driest continent on earth. Water storage has
not been the subject of proper investment. We have wasted
water and we have not properly priced it. Scientific, economic
and engineering reform will be essential to fix this problem.

We have many other problems that need fixing. I won't go into
them here. However, I do believe that as we have done in the
past - so we shall continue to do in the future. We shall
thrive. As Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy wrote:

"We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
And sitting by desolate streams
World-losers and world-forsakers
On whom the pale moon gleams
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems."

Yep!....it's always someone else's fault......never ours....atts 'cos wer' 'stralian
It can't be that we're stupid and the flim flam men are smarter, because they take advantage of the collective stupidity and mental laziness of Australian society.
Senators that get in because of?.....could it be phlegmatic voters?
You can count the number of political representatives one may have a mind to listen to, much less follow, on one hand, and still have a couple of digits to spare.
Australian society has never been more fractured that it is today....so suck it up 'cos it's gonna be here for some time to come.
Australia, the country that never was.....

SD, now that's more like it. Foxy, you've written a very good attempt at a fiction novel. If we are going to compare or use a third world country to judge ourselves on, then yes, we are well above that level. But if we are to compare ourselves to other first world countries then we have to cherry pick to get the true picture. For example, unlike Aus, the US is forty odd different countries. You cannot see the US as one country. Every state is different, with different laws and lifestyles. That's one of the reasons I have always promoted the US. Don't like California? Fine try Texas and so on. For example Massachussets or San Fransisco are the places to be if you're a queer. By comparison we try to move states to get away from the baddies, guess what they're everywhere. The fools in govt led by the greens, the queers and the neuters have pushed so hard to get their ways as opposed to the lazy, weak, nancies which seems to make up the most of Aus, who have just sat back and relied on the pigs doing the right thing. Well it ain't gonna happen. So unless you all change your goody-two-shoes attitudes and put on a flack jacket and pick up your weapon of choice, get out there and start instilling some order and social values, we are not going to get better just because you girls say so. Forget this nice people crap. Aussies are no different from the rest of the world, when backed into a corner you come out fighting
The problem with that idea is that if you wait till your backed into a corner your dead.

Hi there FOXY...

You're always a ray of sunshine, while some of us have our respective jaws dragging along the ground. And it's true what you say, we're the lucky country no doubt about it. In passing you mentioned water. And reminding us that we're one of the the driest continents on the planet - which brings me back to 'Leadership' or the complete lack of it!

Neither the present PM or the Opposition Leader, have mentioned building more dams. Nor have they mentioned the construction of cleaner Power Stations. Hell no, they squabble like immature children, over sustainable energy processes. What we, the poor disregarded electorate want, is decent leadership, therefore for the sake of the country - 'DO SOMETHING' for hell's sake! That's all we ask of you at the moment, in return for your incredibly prodigious salaries, plus the enormous benefits package you receive. Show some real Leadership and do something.

Dear O Sung Wu,

You're spot on with leadership.

And Thanks for recognising what I was trying to say.

As Campbell Soup's Chief Executive Denise
Morrison puts it:

"You can either lead change or be a victim of it.
Now is the time for leaders."

The following link explains further:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/gloom-doom-and-optimism-20171221-h08ota.html

So Paul, looks like you have been brain washed as well mate. As for me picking on people, I have no problem with any able bodied person who has a go. What I object to are cue jumpers and bludgers. Foxy, economist at large, like governments, generally Annalise data then predict/react to same. Business on the other hand look into the future, then act accordingly. This is why despite what may be record profits, they shed staff, simply because they are looking at what's ahead, not what's happened. That is the biggest difference and, when hair brained governments make stupid 'on the run' calls, the future is effected not the present which is why many people say, well, the wheels didn't fall off after all. Big business damage make take years to take effect, but once they change direction internally, the damage is done. And why the hell do we introduce refugees, cue jumpers, into Sydney. Why not the bush where their welfare hand outs can at least stimulate the economy, not compete with over heated rents. Cast your minds back to where we were in 2006, then tell me we are not in trouble. By avoiding recession in 2008, we have simply delayed the inevitable made it ten times bigger. ( a figure of speech) Now to those on the paid pension. Ever wondered where that comes from, not the government but the tax payer. Your new best friend.