Paul Collits, writing in Quadrant, believes that “Australia …. Vanished While We Slept”. He is referring to the buy up of land and infrastructure by companies connected to the Chinese Communist Party; suburbs becoming ghettos of immigrant violence; strange, multicultural faces and dress in the streets, and our elites “bowing and scraping” to destructive, introduced (by the elites themselves), Middle East culture. No Australians were ever asked whether they wanted their country change beyond recognition.

Australia, along with the entire West is now controlled by “corporate elites moving people and capital around the globe”. National sovereignty is ignored. Elites deal with each other around the world with little or no concern for their countries, busily arranging for mass immigration that they are not personally affected by.

The character of immigrants has changed: “They often come for the welfare system, not for our lifestyle or values”. They bring their hatreds with them; they form ghettos and will not assimilate. They are her for an Australian passport and the dole. The will never belong here.

And your average 'Aussie' doesn't seem to give a damn. No wonder the politicians do as they please.

The average Aussie does give a damn but the politicians are the ones who don't give a damn.

No matter what happens they will still get there indexed for life pension plus in a lot of case very lucrative company board positions and speaking engagements.

In Western politics corruption is paid (rewarded) after they leave office, because it is harder to prove corruption.

Australia is the last frontier for the manipulators but no matter how much Australians get warned, they keep on ignoring these warnings. Perhaps turning off Sport on Tele for a few hours might jerk them into thinking ? Worth a try !

Yes. And we are not even very good at sport anymore.

The Australia I grew up in and loved

The Australia I loved and grew up with was one where one could become a senior from the shop floor by being a hard worker, dependable and reliable and take every bit of overtime offered. Did not have to have that piece of paper that plonked him in a senior position.

A bloke and his girl could get ahead by buying a house block and living in a garage while building their house as funds became available. A willing bloke could get out of bed at 3.00am and go to the fish or vege markets and do a few hours casual work before starting his normal work.

A couple could take their hols at fruit picking time and go off picking fruit in the hot sun and get paid tax free to reduce their morgage quicker.

A bloke could start a business with little capital and succeed if he was willing to work harder and longer than most others. He could make up for a lack of capital by working smarter and longer.

These things cannot be done anymore, one needs a piece of paper to be considered for promotion and cannot live in temporary place while building. One requires a massive amount of borrowed money to build a house or start a business, no matter how willing you are to work hard.

These days there are hand outs for all the lazy and nohopers and for thousands of unskilled from overseas. The willing and enterprising are left out of the equatio

Banjo- I like your direction. We need a better "business model" that empowers behavior to make Australia strong. Australia needs self sufficient people. I also dislike the idea that men have been forced into dependency. As a child I helped to build a house. "Red tape" exists where "opportunity" did. Gives a whole new meaning to Red (Communist) tape. In principle I don't have an objection to certain skills being learned before promotion but I have learned not to trust the universities. The army model of promotion is better in some ways. I would like to see more of our systems modeled after the army.

Hi there BANJO...

I couldn't have articulated my own feelings, about Australia any more eloquently than you have Banjo. A simple, yet nevertheless an emotional synopsis of the Australia that you and I grew up in, and a mirror image of my own ascent up the greasy pole of 'prosperity'.

Even in the early days of my military service I had a part-time job when time permitted. All I needed to do was seek authority from the Adjutant to engaged in part-time work, and provided it didn't bring the Service into any disrepute, its was usually granted.

Similarly with my early days in the police, I used to cut lawns during my time off, always cash in hand...today you couldn't do such a thing? Later I did 'Return to Base' cars; vans; or single axel trucks, that were a normal oneway rental, and needed to be returned to their original rental outlet. I was paid by length of journey, not hourly.

The best I did after an ordinary dayshift; was Sydney, to Cooma with a 4 x 4 wheel returning with an ordinary sedan. Finished my normal shift at 1500hrs and arrived Cooma with the 4 x 4 rental, 5 1/2 hours later, eventually getting home and to bed at around 0245hrs the next morning; arising about 3 hours later for my normal 0700 to 1500 day-shift with the coppers. Oh to be young again!!

It has been going on for years now. The piece of paper that says you are qualified is more important than what you can really do.

An old uncle of mine, 40 years ago was having a rant one day. He had at 71 been called back to Australia's major petrol pump maker Gilbarco. A fitter & turner, he had worked his way up to production manager, running every part of the planning & production.

They had hired a couple of young bright eyed bushytailed graduate engineers to replace him as he neared retirement. They had been given 2 years training by him before he left. Six years later the directors had come begging him to come back to sort out the mess they had made of the place. All because they introduced the new fangled stuff they had been taught at uni, my uncle reckoned.

The most ridiculous thing about this was that Gilbarco had been started & made a major company by a couple of tradesmen plumbers, who had seen the problems when installing service station systems, & designed stuff to work properly. They should have known to avoid the "new fangled stuff".

No piece of paper replaces the requirement to be able to think & plan properly. This is why our public services are so hopeless.

Ah yes o sung wu, the strength of youth.

When I was racing I would close my workshop at 5.00PM on Friday night, load my Brabham into it's 19ft enclosed trailer, hook it onto the car, embark my pit crew & head for Melbourne, Albury or Brisbane a few times a year.

In those days of higher speed limits & would arrive at my destination with enough time to have an hour or 2 sleep before practice, but no more. Practice used up Saturday, & full of nervous energy we would check & recheck everything on the Brabham, until early Sunday morning. I would have a shower, & dove for a dew hours before Sunday race day.

After the race, it was off home, with perhaps an hour or two before work on Monday. I always found it difficult to sleep with someone else driving, so I did the transport driving.

These days 400 kilometres is all it takes for me to be tiring, & needing at least a meal brake before driving further. Yes the unappreciated joys of youth. Pity we didn't realise then that it would not last for ever.

Even greater pity is the fact that the marvellous country we grew up in & served, is winding down into something not worth much today.

"...strange, multicultural faces and dress in the streets..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_dress

I just couldn't resist!!

Banjo,
Was the pay from fruit picking really tax free? Or is it just that people cheated on their taxes in those days?

And why can't you live in a temporary place while building nowadays?

Then there's this lot.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=welsh+dress&rlz=1C1CAFB_enAU718AU718&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_xuvZlLTcAhUS87wKHZwjD_MQsAQIOQ&biw=820&bih=484

and these,
http://www.gaelicclothing.com/irish-kilt-kit

Dear Banjo,

You really need to pull your head out of your arse my friend.

The problem isn't “thousands of unskilled from overseas” it is that big business have blokes like you conned into thinking that is the issue while they are pouring hundreds of thousands of SKILLED 457s and migrants into this country.

Refugees make up a very small part of our intake. Traditionally they used to fill up our unskilled positions trying to make a new life, and while there was some disquiet about them most Australians felt they were doing the hard yards to establish themselves in this country.

Now we have the big companies bringing in not just plasterers and tilers and electricians and fitters and turners but also engineers and doctors, and nurses, and telecommunication workers and CEOs and IT professionals. These companies don't have to train them and they work for less conditions.

And we don't hear a bloody peep out of you lot rather it is the same tired old song. You have been fed a line and have swallowed it whole.

Take the blinkers off for once mate and go after the real culprits. There is a meme that is getting around Reddit at the moment and I will paraphrase it for you;

“No immigrant has taken a job from a “real Australian”. You were laid off by a capitalist who took advantage of that immigrant to increase his profits, and nothing makes him happier than to hear that you're a f..king idiot who's made at the immigrant and not him.”

Stop being that idiot for once.

Posted by Is Mise, Monday, 23 July 2018 12:16:01 PM- "We often speak Hindi so that I can keep up to speed and when my older children visit I practice my Irish with them, they're much more fluent speakers than I am, but I can beat them at reading as I've studied early Irish, which like Early English to modern is almost a different language."

Answer- Yes Ireland and perhaps Irish generally do seem to have accepted Indians. Interesting to see what their recently elected ethnic Indian Prime Minister's policy will be on immigration and what it will mean for the region. Is this a reaction against the Catholic Church in Ireland? What will it mean for the Catholic Church? Very interesting times... Given that "Is Mise has Hindi speaking children" he seemingly has made a permanent commitment on a certain outcome- is this what it means to have respect for enemies in war? The enemy of my enemy isn't always my friend.

Sadly HASBEEN you're so right in what you say. I suppose it's our generation that should at least shoulder the major part of it's decline, followed by recent generations I guess? There doesn't seem to be any partisan agreement in federal parliament for the good of the country, rather preferring to just block a Bill, purely along Party Lines.

Wouldn't it be great if, for just a couple of months, both major Parties amalgamated, and pushed through those important Bills necessary for the good governance of the Country? Bills, to assist to clear our National Debt, vital Defence and Social Welfare Bills, and introduce a special Bill to entice these dedicated and intractable Dole recipients to seek employment or give them mandatory employment assisting the elderly, or the homeless; or if that doesn't suit them, a form of civil National Service. And if they can't do 'anything' - manufacture work for them. Have no doubt, the Navy; Army; or Air Force wouldn't allow for a moment any idleness, within their ranks. Like digging a hole and promptly filling it in again.

No young person should be permitted to remain idle, unless special medical/psychological circumstances exist. Even if they have special needs, provide them with work they are capable of doing. After all, work is good therapy for us all, good for the soul, and good our wellbeing, according to our Medico's.

If there are any talking heads that need to be pulled out of arses around here Steely it is yours.

You really are a most unpleasant buffoon, far too impressed with your self to ever know which way is up. You obviously think that up is what ever way you say it is, but like all buffoons you are too self absorbed to have any idea of what a fool you prove to be with your self satisfied prose.

Your continual attempts to put others down merely prove how small you are.

Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“Your continual attempts to put others down merely prove how small you are.”

Stop yet again being such a snowflake.

I'm happy to take that criticism from almost anyone else on this forum but not you my friend.

You dish it out with gay abandon to anyone who has the temerity to disagree with your opinion. Your puffed up arrogance has been a feature of this place forever.

As to put downs you have said that anyone who is prepared to risk their life for this country is a fool thus labeling all our serving personnel as idiots.

Banjo makes it very clear he has huge issues with immigration in general and those of the Muslim faith in particular. He has denigrated and fear mongered his way through this place for years. Are you really suggestion I should treat him with kid gloves?

Now was there anything in my post you felt could be sustained? Or did it, as I suspect, hit the mark leaving you with little else to do except have a dig?

Who appointed SteeleRedux 'Defender of Muslims? Perhaps he is one himself. That would go a long way to explaining many of his bizarre comments and treasonous rants.

Canem Malum.

"... What will it mean for the Catholic Church?"

More Catholics and more devout ones at that, most Indian migrants to Ireland are Catholic and as Irish Gaelic is an Indo-European language it's not hard for Indians to pick it up, and that will put them onside with Irish speakers especially; Indians are usually multilingual anyway.
My wife speaks and reads/writes three or four Indian languages (as well as being able to make herself understood in another couple) plus being fluent in French and Arabic (but cannot read or write it).
http://scroll.in/article/839984/irelands-mythology-tells-us-why-it-is-not-surprising-that-its-next-pm-is-the-son-of-an-immigrant

Not very relevant but a good little read.

Aidan,
Fruit Picking was paid cash in hand, same as early morning barrow pushing at the markets. It recognized the hard yakka involved. Keating brought in the tax file number and sent inspectors to the fruit areas to catch the employers that paid cash.

You will find that housing blocks these days have a caviat to ensure building is done within a certain period. Hence one has to borrow the money.

I have no idea what you are talking about Steely.

You see when I come across a suggestion as crude as telling someone to pull their head out of their ass, I read no further, as would any reasonable poster.

Perhaps if you weren't so crude & unpleasant more people would bother with your posts.

Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“I have no idea what you are talking about Steely.”

Of course you don't old cock because as I said “Your puffed up arrogance has been a feature of this place forever”. One of the features of said arrogance is your belief that it is always the other bloke who dishes it out, never you.

Well let's see. I went to your user history and did a search for how many times you have used the word 'idiot' in the first 6 words of your posts. The answer – 54 times. Then I looked at how often you had used the word 'fool', another of your standard put downs. The answer - 114 times. 'Clown' featured 36 times. I'm sure if we were able to easily look at your posts in their entirety those figures would be a hell of a lot higher.

My figures for these words were 3, 5 and 5.

You are a serial mudslinger and you have the temerity to have a crack at me over it?

As I said, I'm happy to accept criticism from a wide variety of people on this forum over my demeanor in my posts, but you are most definitely not one of them, not by a bull's roar.

Again, stop being a bloody snowflake.

However, if you were prepared to moderate your language, I'm sure I could find it within myself to respond in kind. The ball is in your court.

Good evening to you STEELEREDUX...

You seem to have some sort of obsession or paranoia over HASBEEN? It would seem that he cannot mount an argument without you climbing all over him? I ask myself why? Is it a matter that some of his responses or retorts, have struck much closer to the mark, thus making you feel decidedly uncomfortable?

STEELE, imagine if you will; if it were HASBEEN who decided to replicate precisely what it was that you'd done; by methodically trawling through many of your past contributions - you'd call him out, for this absurd level of literalistic stupidity. To a point where you'd accuse him of being obsessional; or were suffering from some acute form of mania or phobia. Think about it STEELE? If someone were to trawl through all your previous Post's, seeking out the number of times you employed terms like; 'idiot, fool, or clown'? Boy you'd be up 'em for the rent I reckon!

Your level of argument has declined somewhat from your earlier days Steel. When you were indeed a fierce advocate for your 'left leaning' causes. But to sit down and laboriously itemise the number of times, words like fools, clowns and idiots, are mentioned in another contributor's texts, suggests to me at least, the existence of a very desperate man, afraid of losing touch with his hitherto former intellectual abilities, together with his usual savoir faire. C'mon Steele, you can do much better than that.

Steely baby remember this...what once was is represented as what is now, and although flatulence can be detected it can never be responsible for it's presence....Hasbeen has no choice but to be what he is, and we what we are

Dear o sung wu,

The exercise of finding how often Hasbeen had used those words took a little more than a minute. Once you expand a commenter's history you can use the shortcut of Control + F to search for any particular word on the page and it will give you a count within a second.

It was certainly pertinent to the point I was making, that Hasbeen's a prolific user of derogatory terms in his posts and that for him to be accusing someone else of such was a bit rich. I stand by it.

You asked;

"STEELE, imagine if you will; if it were HASBEEN who decided to replicate precisely what it was that you'd done"

For Hasbeen to finally go to any trouble constructing an argument would truly be a day for celebration and I would be the first to congratulate him.

You charged;

"You seem to have some sort of obsession or paranoia over HASBEEN?"

I certainly have lost patience a while ago with his constant sniping, though I'm equally certain I'm not paranoid about him. The question is do I have an obsession since much of what he wrote before I commented appeared pretty innocuous?

I was initially prompted to respond after this from him;

"Even greater pity is the fact that the marvellous country we grew up in & served, is winding down into something not worth much today."

Yet dropped it until he addressed me directly. You will note in my post I referenced that he had claimed "that anyone who is prepared to risk their life for this country is a fool thus labelling all our serving personnel as idiots."

I will admit finding that quite obnoxious at the time. Does the fact that I have reacted the way I did on this occasion, despite Hasbeen only making an oblique reference in this thread, obsessive? Perhaps.

I make no apologies for finding him pretty insufferable. However do I need to put less weight on past exchanges with him and take each thread on its merits? The answer is probably yes.

Dear o sung wu,

Now a question for you if I may.

I can not recall an instance when you have ever pulled Hasbeen up on his language or his attacks on fellow forum members.

In this thread before I addressed him I was called “small”, “a most unpleasant buffoon”, a 'self-satisfied fool' and deemed “far too impressed with your self to ever know which way is up”.

I replied with 'puffed up arrogance' and 'snowflake'.

I know these things are in the eye of the beholder but I feel I would be on safe ground contending on balance what Hasbeen directed at me exceeded what I returned his way.

Yet I alone was the subject of admonishment from you.

Why do you think that was?

Hi there STEELEREDUX...

In your last question you asked me to explain, why was it, that I only sought to admonish you Steele, in isolation, rather than including HASBEEN as well?

A fair and reasonable question to answer. I'm always in HASBEEN'S corner. How can I be otherwise? We're both ex servicemen, admittedly he was Navy I was Army, but among servicemen there's this imperishable bond, irrespective of the Service in which you're in. We both served under the Australian flag, he in Naval Aircraft, me running around the countryside in a buggered ol' Landrover or similar.

As far as I know Steele, you never served yourself (I apologise if I'm wrong) so it would be perhaps, difficult for you to understand, why I would have an intractable link with him, even when he, or alternatively myself, might well err in some of our arguments. A case of C. O. A.! if you can imagine.

Apropos language - well he's at fault, as are you. You want language, walk into any barracks of twenty four beds, with 24 young fit blokes about to go on leave - talk about 'lock up your daughters' the Army's in town. The language is so prolific and thick, you'd cut it with a pair of blunt scissors! It's what blokes do, all blokes. Here on the Forum Graham Y. rightly demands a certain level of propriety, thus we're forbidden from using the usual vernacular many men use out of the company of our ladies. Steele, you'd have no argument with that surely, I know you're a man of the world.

In conclusion, I don't for a moment think HASBEEN has stung you deeply, with any of his rejoinders. Similarly, I don't believe you have damaged him, with any of the retaliatory dialogue you've launched as well ? So let the Games continue.

It's amazing how unaustralian people born in this country can be. They don't appreciate who keeps them safe yet they have no qualms knocking the hand that feeds & protects them. I find that so-called New Australians are more patriotic than the majority of those born here.
A weird Mob alright.

If this is true Government figure are a joke.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5989465/Population-expert-Bob-Birrell-wants-mail-order-bride-crackdown-900-partner-visas-granted-weekly.html

More than 900 foreigners move to Australia on spousal visas EVERY WEEK - amid fears 'mail to order' Russian brides are leaving their partners as soon as they're let into the country

More than 900 foreigners who start a relationship with an Australian citizen overseas or online are granted spousal visas every week.

The figures equate to about 48,000 foreign wives - and occasionally husbands - being allowed to move to Australia each year after being granted a partner visa by the Department of Home Affairs under the family migration category.

The rules on spousal visas haven't changed since 1996, when the Howard government introduced a two-year waiting period before foreigners could be accepted.

One of the country's most respected population experts has called for tighter rules to ensure those granted the visas can speak English, integrate into the country and work.

Dr Bob Birrell, the head of the Australian Population Research Institute, said the existing rules were open to abuse.

'My main concern is just how weak our rules are on spouse migration,'

'A person can sponsor a spouse about age 18.

'They could have arrived yesterday and there's no evaluation at all on the financial capacity or the financial security of the spouse, or to provide for the spouse.

Dr Birrell, a former Monash University academic and immigration policy adviser, said the existing system also allowed the unemployed to bring a spouse over.

'They don't have to have a job, they could be on welfare. That is not taken account of,' he said.

'Nor is there any evaluation of the sponsored spouse capacity to integrate in Australia: does he or she have any English, have any skills?'

Lawrence Shave, a 74-year-old Pentecostal evangelical pastor from southern Perth who is twice divorced, five years ago found a Ukrainian woman to be his bride.

Unfortunately for him, Oksana left him for another man.

Last year, he advertised for a Russian bride aged between 20 and 44 via the SingleBridesAgency.com dating website, which specialises in eastern European women.

Hi o sung wu, & thank you for your defence of me.

I was unaware of Steelys attack as I haven't bothered to read his last few posts, following his first vile suggestion to Banjo.

Yes the navy messes were similar in their use of language. Tell me did you have a personal rule about such language. For us such language stopped at the gangway. I & most found it had to stop completely, you couldn't just tone it down.

Thus most navy used very clean language when ashore. We considered it a courtesy we could pay a lady, so we went into polite conversation mode when ashore. I must admit to some confusion as the general public & young ladies started using mess room language in general conversation. It really left me with nowhere to go.

That courtesy does appear to have lost favour. It must be difficult when the general level has become so crude. My son & his navy mates sho no sign of changing their language when ashore today.

Dear o sung wu,

Fully understand and thank you.

I too will admit to perhaps being overly protective of some of the posters here as well as certain groups who are singled out by Hasbeen and others. I also make no apologies for doing so.

Perhaps this is a little difficult for you to understand but there are many good and gentle people out there who the likes of Hasbeen habitually tear strips off and I do feel a sense of obligation to stand up for them.

The reason I picked the terms 'clown', 'fool' and 'idiot' was not accidental. These have been long time go to words for Hasbeen's putdowns and since forgoing reasoned argument as at all useful when exchanging views with him I have taken to firing them straight back. He uses crudity like 'poofters' when discussing same sex couples and thinks nothing of it, but when I tell someone to pull their head out of their arse and he has an attack of the vapours.

The word is snowflake and it fits him like a glove.

This has always been pretty easy. If he tidies up his language and refrains from his collection of putdowns then I'm happy to stop firing them back at him.

However that is unfortunately unlikely to happen so I expect further tears from him and further admonishment from you as the exchanges continue, after all what are mates for.

Philip S,
It's australian blokes like this one who make a mockery out of beautiful young women & the partner Visa. These mutts are budget retirement village fodder & should be concentrating on learning nursery rhymes instead of destroying opportunities for sincere partner visa applicants.

It's the foreign women who are making fools of randy old goats and our pathetic immigration policies.

I blame the immigration policy, bring over mail order bride half there age or in some cases a lot more, what could go wrong.

Maybe a stipulation is they have had to live together for a period of time before they can do the visa.

900 per week somethings wrong.