The number of arrivals is probably set by the systems ability to
handle the influx. Access to the limited seats is governed by whether
the passenger has paid for a business class seat or economy.
Because the planes are half or less full the airlines will take those
passengers paying the higher price.
That is why Australians overseas are having trouble getting home.
Also people traveling on government business, all governments, have priorities.

Foxy quoted a British politician;
cantankerous, climate-change denying, Trump-worshipping, misogynist,

Well as far as climate is concerned he got that right as all the
failed predictions have shown as well as the latest science.

We will see if Trump is again elected to his job and as far as being
a misogynist is concerned many who should know did not agree but his
accuser had a thing about men and their watches.

Oh well but it all does not matter anyway, what a storm in a teacup.

So Foxy, as per your link, Abbott's 'pension' is indeed a payment from the superannuation fund and therefore completely different to ordinary pensions. ("Australians on a pension are not allowed to be earning salaries elsewhere."). So all perfectly legit.

"And there have been calls for many clarifications
regarding the privileges of our former PMs.
One has to only do a bit of research."

Which you proceed to not do. And clarifications isn't the same as calls for withdrawals. Keating, Rudd and Gillard all get 'pensions' like Abbott and all have outside income. I look forward to you showing us where you asked for their 'pensions' to be withdrawn.

mhaze,

Abbott's pension is not just a payment from the
superannuation fund. There's much more to it than that
and had you done your research you would be aware of
the bigger picture:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/tony-abbott-s-pension-will-be-bigger-than-his-mp-paycheck-here-s-why

As for the withdrawal of pensions from our former PMs?

This is a topic that I have continued to raise quite a few
times on this forum. It is something of which most people are
already aware. Feel free to check my posting record.

Take care.
Stay safe.

Foxy,

I would give Abbott 100x what he will be getting if he just promises to never come back to Australia.

To JBowyer- I liked your points. Perhaps there needs to be an investigation as to why Victoria's corona cases are 20x higher than the nearest state. I suspect that Daniel Andrews and the Victorian Senior Health Executives have some responsibility. Daniel Andrews appears very left. Sorry to hear about your son's supplier- we should be trying to support these small businesses- not knock them on the head.

Ayn Rand talked about nationalizing industries and reducing competition to bring about communism under the guise of "public interest"... fascinating.

Posted by Mr Opinion-

"When we got rid of autocratic rulers like kings and queens and established our democratic systems all we really did was replace the autocrats with rule by self-seeking gangs of politicians and we the people are still at the bottom of the heap.

So the question is: It better to be ruled by a single thug or a group of thugs?"

Answer- I'm glad that you brought this up. I'm sure you're aware that this is what John Locke was trying to achieve in the creation of Liberalism- he wanted to create an objective ruler that would be above the thug mindset- but he seems to have failed and just created bigger thugs- because he underestimated the strength of "will to power". (I think that this was Nietzsche's thing). The founding fathers of the US had some sense of this when they wrote the right to bear arms and state militia into the constitution in 1783. Power is a hierarchy as it gets bigger- as you've said- the ones at the bottom become powerless- similar problem to the "tragedy of the commons". There needs to be limits to power between the levels- you could say for example that the first level of government should be no larger than 10k adults, the second no larger than 1k councils, the third no larger than 100 states, the fourth no larger than 10 nations, the fifth no larger than 10 regions. Parent entities should be able to manage only their own child entities.