We need to change our world so that local people have more power to control their own lives. We need to take power back from the hegemonic that we have lost in the last one hundred years. We will need new principles of democracy to do this. We will need to control how much power each level of government is allowed to acquire. We will need to control the excesses of our own nature- such as birth rate, sexuality, greed, etc to ensure that we have a strong successful community. It will be difficult- our parents did it- hopefully we will be able to continue their legacy

CM,

People have been crying out for a population policy (plan) for years, but both parties keep ploughing on with mass immigration of just about anyone who wants to come here. It is predicted that, by 2030, thirty percent of the jobs we know today will have gone because of automation. Bringing people here at the current rate is lunacy, for that reason alone.

I agree that there should be no sales of land or business to foreigners, and we should be buying Australian-made goods. But the latter is getting harder, because Australian brands have gone overseas to low-wage workers. The owners and importers of these goods are still charging Australian prices, though. We lose all the way.

Given the lethargy of Australians, I don't see any change coming before it is too late.

I was reminded again the other day of the spectacular failures of our political class, in this instance the ongoing comedy if the NBN.

Singapore is number one in the world for internet speed, with 60.39 mpbs. Australia comes in 52nd in the world with 11.69 mpbs. These figures were as at September 18th this year. A total failure and waste of money by Labor and Liberal.

11.69 mpbs.
ttbn,
I'm with telstra on a prepaid wireless which started out several years ago as a real winner for me.
However, over time I am now in a situation where I have to restart the (sixth) modem literally evertime I don't type something or look something up on the net for 5 minutes. Then mid-mornings & late afternoons I'm lucky to get a signal at all. So, count yourself lucky with your 11.69mbs.
writing to Telstra is like trying to get a Greenie to see reality.

Indy,
//trying to get a Greenie to see reality.//

You are also living up a tree somewhere in North Queensland, are you not? Besides you are a disciple of big business, and they don't come much bigger than Telstra in your neck of the woods. The mantra is "What is good for big business is good for YOU!". Is that not what you believe? That is your reality.

To Ttbn- When you undermine the strength of the nation it's no surprise that it becomes weak and vulnerable. The NBN is perhaps a classic case of industry trying to suck so much out of incrementally upgrading the infrastructure that the country is decimated. Telecommunications and Logistics are critical for any business- we suffer in Australia from the rural expanse- maybe if we allowed the cities to develop a little faster than the rural areas we would have the money to help the rural areas too. It's a difficult problem. Telecoms suffer from the "last mile problem"- which is more pronounced in regional locations. There may be potential in regional point to point "Ronja" systems offering cheap high bandwidth capacity by free space optical transmission in clear weather at up to 3 kms from the base station. Large directional dishes (similar to those used in satellite communication) on remote properties offer the potential of better and faster radio band reception. Mass production and transport of large dishes to remote locations could have a big impact. Telstra never really had a reason to upgrade from a business perspective- but Singtel/ Optus are not our friends either- as soon as it's in their interest they will raise prices. At least Telstra is Australian owned. It was probably a mistake to privatize Telstra but the government could see the cost of required upgrades coming down the track and dreaded the political cost.