Politics, Economics and Current Affairs

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Why you should have to vote

Democracy is good right?

We should be able to vote for whoever we want.  And we should be able to not vote if we want, too.  Right?

Why we need the NBN

How much internet did you use 5 years ago - when Facebook had just 100 million worldwide users (it now has around 1.1 billion)? And before the existence of:
-Instagram
-WhatsApp and
-Google Docs

How much internet did you use 10 years ago - before the existence of:
-Facebook
-YouTube
-Spotify
-Twitter
-Reddit
-Dropbox
-Tumblr
-Khan Academy
and when Skype was just starting up.
Before Smartphones and Tablet devices were invented?

Why you should care about the #TPP

There is currently an Agreement being negotiated between a number of countries in the Asia/Pacific region, including Australia. It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP or TPPA).

It has been negotiated in secret, with the United States being particularly strong-armed behind closed doors, pushing unilaterally for a range of things that other nations are uncomfortable with.

David Leyonhjelm - you are wrong

"Why are we forced to be the defenceless victim?" he said. 'It's unthinkable you can't protect yourself. Jill Meagher . . . who was raped and murdered, if she'd have carried a weapon to protect herself, she could have been arrested."

From The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pro-gun-senator-cites-meaghers-murder/story-fn59niix-1226726496767

This is one of the new Senators, following the recent Election. His name is David Leyonhjelm, and he is from the Liberal Democrats Party, in NSW.

He seems to think that we in Australia should move towards a US-style policy on Guns, where more or less anyone is able to access a gun, and where the strong advocacy of the Gun lobby has seen politician after politician fail to do anything to stop the flow of murders by Gun.

But what about our freedoms? Well how about the freedoms of the over 11,000 people who have died THIS YEAR ALONE from Guns in the U.S.? This is over 480 THOUSAND years of life, stolen away by the cowardice of those wielding a gun. 

This is a terrific but terrifying graphic, that emphasises this fact.

RIP David Scott Thomson

RIP David Scott Thomson.

For those that don't know him, he was a true Australian hero.

He lived a life of service to this nation.

Your vote doesn't matter, right?

This Election, your vote doesn't matter.

It's just 1 out of around 13 million votes. Who cares?

Abbott's Economic Credentials

I'll admit - I reckon Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party have got some good policies. He wants to put more funding into Dementia research and the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine.

Their Paid Parental Leave scheme treats it as a "Leave" scheme like any other, like Sick Leave, Long Service Leave, Carer's Leave etc.. It should be paid at replacement wage. Whether or not people on $150,000 deserve the payment is a question for another time. But it's not a bad idea overall.
They want to lower Company Tax for most businesses, and want to get rid of the School Kids Bonus (which was just about buying votes anyway).

These are good. But the problem is, there is a LOT of bad to go with it.

Refugee politics: for shame, Australia

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister: "Let's just face some facts here. A whole bunch of people who seek to come to this country are economic migrants, who are seeking to comport themselves as refugees."

Bob Carr, Foreign Minister: "Well, there've been some boats where 100 per cent of them have been people who are fleeing countries where they're the majority ethnic and religious group, and their motivations is altogether economic" and "People are coming here, not now as a result of persecution, but because they’re economic refugees who’ve have paid money to people smugglers."

Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition: "Four years and he's finally woken up to the fact that the vast majority of these people are not fair dinkum refugees. They're economic migrants pure and simple,”

Scott Morrison, Shadow Foreign Minister, concurred with this sentiment today.

http://thehoopla.com.au/mmm-place-nice/

For shame, Rudd. For shame, Carr. For shame, Abbott. For shame, Morrison.