This is going to be a short post and then I'm opening up the floor to you. You can comment on this blog, which is an absolute rarity.
The media for the last week or so has been trying to create a leadership spill within the LNP saying Prime Minister Tony Abbott should stand aside.
He is the Prime Minister. He was fairly elected.
If there is a leadership spill it undermines the entire democratic process and makes us a dictatorship. The election is only 18 months away. Are people really so shallow that they can't wait another 18 months?
Yes the Queensland result last night was appalling but state and federal politics are not one in the same. At a Federal level there are different issues.
It is time people were educated and learned the difference between the two otherwise why even have state politics and councils?
The media don't seem to understand that Prime Minister Tony Abbott was elected by the PUBLIC. Any leadership spill would not be controlled by the public and would make us no better than North Korea or any other nation with a dictatorship.
People need to go back to school and learn what democracy is.
This isn't it.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Saturday, January 31, 2015
If you don't like the Liberals you should've voted more wisely on Election Day. Election Day is the day when people have their say.
Prior to the 2013 election Australian politics was filled with instability. In 2010 Julia Gillard successfully ousted then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from the top job. Then in 2013 another leadership spill took place and Rudd regained the top job until the September election. At the September election, Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister and Labor was ousted.
Before the 2013 election, the Liberals were unstable having been through two leaders - Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull before the caucus elected Tony Abbott for the party leadership.
The media is now having a field day with undemocratic commentary.
People vote in elections. Elections are held every three years. If you're not happy with the Prime Minister THAT is when you are able to voice your frustrations and THAT is when you can vote out any Prime Minister you do not like.
If people didn't want Tony Abbott to be Prime Minister then simply, that was what they should have voted against on September 14 in 2014. Election Day is when people have their say on how the country is run. Or during the political term by joining a political party. It is not midway through a term and it is not the months before an election.
If people didn't truly want a Liberal Government and aren't happy with policies they're introducing they shouldn't have voted Liberal. They should have actively engaged more.
If there is a leadership spill then it undermines the entire democratic process. It says "hey, we don't care what you voted for on Election Day" and worse, it makes us a dictatorship.
A leadership spill mid term does not give people the chance to say whether or not they are happy with the Government and a leadership spill does not constitute democracy. Why have elections if we're just going to have in party fighting?
If people can't understand why we have elections and can't understand the democratic process which Tony Abbott was elected under then as a nation we have major issues getting people engaged and we need to look more at political participation.
It is not up to the mainstream media to try and create political divisions and undermine democracy. Do we here in Australia really want to be like the Eastern countries we condemn for not allowing democracy? What's to say the public don't like Tony Abbott? I've spoken to people and the majority of them are unimpressed with the media.
How hard is it to wait another 18 months for the next election to have your say? That is why we have elections, so that if you're not happy you can make a difference. If you're not happy with what the Government is doing then write to your local MP or a Minister. It's what I do when I'm not happy (but that's because I can't yet vote as I've discussed in previous blogs).
How are we supposed to be taken seriously on the world stage when the media are trying to undermine democracy? We have elections. It's time people remembered what elections are for! Once every three years people have their say, not once ever 10 months.
According to polls Abbott isn't popular but remember, he was elected fairly and legally on election day. Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop were not elected as Prime Minister. Tony Abbott was.
Before the 2013 election, the Liberals were unstable having been through two leaders - Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull before the caucus elected Tony Abbott for the party leadership.
The media is now having a field day with undemocratic commentary.
People vote in elections. Elections are held every three years. If you're not happy with the Prime Minister THAT is when you are able to voice your frustrations and THAT is when you can vote out any Prime Minister you do not like.
If people didn't want Tony Abbott to be Prime Minister then simply, that was what they should have voted against on September 14 in 2014. Election Day is when people have their say on how the country is run. Or during the political term by joining a political party. It is not midway through a term and it is not the months before an election.
If people didn't truly want a Liberal Government and aren't happy with policies they're introducing they shouldn't have voted Liberal. They should have actively engaged more.
If there is a leadership spill then it undermines the entire democratic process. It says "hey, we don't care what you voted for on Election Day" and worse, it makes us a dictatorship.
A leadership spill mid term does not give people the chance to say whether or not they are happy with the Government and a leadership spill does not constitute democracy. Why have elections if we're just going to have in party fighting?
If people can't understand why we have elections and can't understand the democratic process which Tony Abbott was elected under then as a nation we have major issues getting people engaged and we need to look more at political participation.
It is not up to the mainstream media to try and create political divisions and undermine democracy. Do we here in Australia really want to be like the Eastern countries we condemn for not allowing democracy? What's to say the public don't like Tony Abbott? I've spoken to people and the majority of them are unimpressed with the media.
How hard is it to wait another 18 months for the next election to have your say? That is why we have elections, so that if you're not happy you can make a difference. If you're not happy with what the Government is doing then write to your local MP or a Minister. It's what I do when I'm not happy (but that's because I can't yet vote as I've discussed in previous blogs).
How are we supposed to be taken seriously on the world stage when the media are trying to undermine democracy? We have elections. It's time people remembered what elections are for! Once every three years people have their say, not once ever 10 months.
According to polls Abbott isn't popular but remember, he was elected fairly and legally on election day. Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop were not elected as Prime Minister. Tony Abbott was.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
What happens when you don't have a mobile phone?
Last year I dropped my iPhone 5 at Town Hall Station in Sydney. It was okay because although the screen was cracked the phone itself still worked and I was still able to use it normally. I also had the 4S as back up should anything go wrong with it. The 4S had one or two issues but I was able to get those repaired as they were minor.
Last night however I was at the gym when a dumb bell fell on
my iPhone 6 Plus and the screen not only shattered, some of the LCD leaked and
the volume controls on the side bent out of shape. In other words, the phone is unusable this
time. I wanted to take a photo of it,
but I couldn’t because I didn’t have my phone to do so.
I marched down to Apple first thing in the morning to see
how much it would cost for a replacement.
It was $409. This was different
to the website, but I forgot about the fine print saying, “prices are in US
dollars”, so the $329 I thought, was significantly higher.
I have savings for emergencies but normally it takes three
days to access those savings. I was on
the phone to the bank several times and finally I was able to access the
money. I went back down to the Apple
store and was told it was a two hour wait so I had a quick look online and saw
that sometimes you can jump the queue, if you’re lucky. So that’s what I did. I purchased my new replacement phone.
Although the charge was higher than I thought it would be, the cool thing is, it was only a third of the price of what it cost new because of the limited warranty. The limited warranty does not cover accidents such as the one described. That's the bad news. The good news is that Apple do actually replace phones for a fraction of the cost of the original handset. All it takes is arranging an appointment with an Apple Genius and then going in and showing them the problem. Apple is great. They'll give you a replacement phone ON THE SPOT. Too easy.
Although the charge was higher than I thought it would be, the cool thing is, it was only a third of the price of what it cost new because of the limited warranty. The limited warranty does not cover accidents such as the one described. That's the bad news. The good news is that Apple do actually replace phones for a fraction of the cost of the original handset. All it takes is arranging an appointment with an Apple Genius and then going in and showing them the problem. Apple is great. They'll give you a replacement phone ON THE SPOT. Too easy.
I think a while ago I was going to blog about the cloud and didn't. Well now is the perfect time to do so. Basically the cloud is this magical place online which stores all your iPhone's data and I cannot emphasise enough, BACK UP your data and music. When you have to change devices it will make life so so so much easier. Did you know that when you restore from back up it even remembers your passwords? When we have a password for everything this is very very handy. I think I have about 10 passwords I use regularly.
So what was it like not having a phone for one whole day? It was torture. The only functions I could use, ironically, were the phone and iPod feature. You may recall previous blogs where I've talked about how in the past I was so anti the iPhone when it was first announced by the late Steve Jobs. I believe my exact phrase was, "why would you need an iPhone? Why would you need a pocket browser?" and "what if something goes wrong with the device?".
The phone still physically worked but the LCD had leaked so a third of the screen was gone and rendered useless.
I realised at that moment just how reliant I was on my phone when I couldn't do simple things like:
The phone still physically worked but the LCD had leaked so a third of the screen was gone and rendered useless.
I realised at that moment just how reliant I was on my phone when I couldn't do simple things like:
- Listen to the radio
- Send a text message
- Set the alarm
- Use the calculator
- Check the weather
- Do my banking
- Take a photo
- Record my workouts
- Check my email
- Check the news and browse the internet.
- Use social media.
- Use Skype which is cheaper for international calls. I was able to make phone calls but it was very hard to get the number entered because of just how much of the screen was destroyed.
- Check the time.
- Blog about not having a phone on my lunch break because I didn't have a phone to blog on.
And this is why you should always have a back up phone, just sitting there, just for emergencies. And I have my back up phone coming in the mail in a few weeks time.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Australian media's priorities
Given two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran face the death penalty in Indonesia for drug trafficking I would have thought Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's response on dealing with the Indonesian Foreign Minister would be the most important item on the agenda for journalists.
Clearly journalists do not realise the seriousness of what we're dealing with here and would rather focus on more superficial crap than the human lives of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Then there is the way the media is fawning over interviews with the Martin Place terrorism survivors. Instead of focusing on the most important aspect - the risk the first escapees took, they've gone down their usual route of using sex and emotion to sell rather than the true seriousness of homegrown terrorism and immigration.
According to Hockey we'll live to 150
Australia's Treasurer Joe Hockey expects us to live to 150. He says this is why we need to start paying for our healthcare and other expenses.
If this is true then we need to work as long as we're capable. Maybe it's time to abolish state super. If you're capable of working then you should, otherwise it's unemployment, not retirement.
Having a birthday doesn't make you magically incapable of working and it's time people realised this.
Of course some industries require a person to be young and physically capable but office jobs can cater for older people. People could shift into management or other supervisoy positions.
It's alarming that people aren't planning for their retirement too. Are people really in poverty or are they just making poor financial decisions? It sounds like the latter to me.
Either way, I hope Hockey is right about living to 150.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Queensland Election - Newman's Liberals vs Annastacia Palaszczuk's Labor
Queensland Liberal Premier Campbell Newman called the state election for the 31st of January so as you can imagine, he and his Liberal colleagues along with Palaszczuk and her Labor colleagues have been battling it out for votes. The decision of which will be made in 13 days (not including tonight or election day).
Labor has campaigned on....not a lot really, other than saying the Newman government shouldn't sell assets. Meanwhile the Newman Government says the economy is their priority and they want to get the state out of debt.
Depending on what you believe, Liberals say that if Labor gets in the state will go bankrupt. Given Labor is typically anti mining and thousands of mining jobs were created in Queensland in the last quarter this is entirely possible.
Palaszczuk has given numerous press conferences where she has said the Newman Government shouldn't sell assets. What she fails to take into consideration is that the state debt must be paid down because not only is it gaining interest, having debt and no savings makes it very difficult if a rainy day should happen and the state needs some reserves to fall back on.
She also ignores that just because you sell one asset doesn't mean you can't buy new assets or reinvest some of the capital gained. It's like if you buy shares, once you get to a certain level you can either sell and reinvest in shares or use the money elsewhere.
Labor never really states why assets shouldn't be sold, and they don't think of things long term, only short term.
If people want a strong state then in the Queensland election at the end of the month they will vote Liberal and not risk economic growth on airy fairy statements from Palaszczuk.
Newman is the only leader who can be trusted to rule the state for another three years.
Labor has campaigned on....not a lot really, other than saying the Newman government shouldn't sell assets. Meanwhile the Newman Government says the economy is their priority and they want to get the state out of debt.
Depending on what you believe, Liberals say that if Labor gets in the state will go bankrupt. Given Labor is typically anti mining and thousands of mining jobs were created in Queensland in the last quarter this is entirely possible.
Palaszczuk has given numerous press conferences where she has said the Newman Government shouldn't sell assets. What she fails to take into consideration is that the state debt must be paid down because not only is it gaining interest, having debt and no savings makes it very difficult if a rainy day should happen and the state needs some reserves to fall back on.
She also ignores that just because you sell one asset doesn't mean you can't buy new assets or reinvest some of the capital gained. It's like if you buy shares, once you get to a certain level you can either sell and reinvest in shares or use the money elsewhere.
Labor never really states why assets shouldn't be sold, and they don't think of things long term, only short term.
If people want a strong state then in the Queensland election at the end of the month they will vote Liberal and not risk economic growth on airy fairy statements from Palaszczuk.
Newman is the only leader who can be trusted to rule the state for another three years.
Indonesia must not execute Chan & Sukumaran - the Australian Government must stop their executions
It's been a while since I've written a blog involving Indonesia and asylum seekers. There hasn't been much activity in either until recently.
Today in Manus Island some detainees have sown their lips together and are on a hunger strike because they don't agree with the Liberal Government's policy on NEVER resettling them in Australia. The bleeding heart lefties like Senator Sarah Hanson Young as you can imagine are waxing lyrical about how it's inhumane and they must be released into the community in Australia.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has made it very clear that will NEVER happen and that the Government's policy position has not changed.
Surely we would have learned our lesson on allowing Man Haron Monis into the country where he held Martin Place's Lindt Cafe staff and customers hostage on the 15th of December, eventuating in the death of two well loved and successful people, Tori Johnston and Katrina Dawson. He claimed he was a refugee, yet it later emerged he had sucked in Amnesty International and the Government. We must be choosy about who we let into the country or this will happen again. We already have allowed others into the country. Today it came to light that there are more young "Australian" (inverted commas because of the treason involved in betraying Australian values) Jihadists are fighting in Syria. Often these "men" are the children of immigrant parents.
When you agree to become an Australian citizen you agree to uphold Australian values. Going to Syria to murder people and behead them is NOT what an Australian citizen would do and contradicts Australian values. So were these people lying when they took the citizenship pledge?
Some say that drug smugglers should receive the same punishment as those who commit treason do. I raise this point because two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are facing the firing squad in Indonesia later this year. As it stands Andrew Chan is awaiting his clemency bid and he, and Sukamaran will be executed together.
The Indonesian government has said they will not grant clemency. One has to wonder two things. Are they doing this because of Australia's hard line approach on asylum seekers? And why did they grant Schapelle Corby not only clemency, but parole? Was it because she was a woman? Did gender favouritism come into the equation? I would hope not.
Some say that when people do the crime they must serve the time, and that's absolutely the case, but they've more than done that. They've repented. They've contributed to art works and they have helped the prison population with rehabilitation. Surely those good deeds negate the mistake they made.
It's one thing to kill people because they commit an act of terrorism, but that isn't what Chan and Sukumaran did. They made the bad decision of trying to smuggle drugs into the country. The two aren't comparable. Incidentally Indonesia didn't come down as hard on the Bali nightclub bombers, so why the Australians? Is it because they're foreigners? Or is it an attack on Australia?
In an ideal outcome the Australian government would come to an agreement with the Indonesian government where either the Indonesian Government agrees to deport the men and they serve the rest of their natural lives in an Australian prison or they give Chan and Sukumaran back under the Prisoner Exchange Agreement (where Indonesia would also get back some of its citizens).
Whatever happens, the Australian Government must stop the execution of Chan and Sukumaran. The crime does not warrant the punishment. The Indonesian Government must also consider the effect on fellow inmates and how many future inmates may suffer without Chan and Sukumaran.
Today in Manus Island some detainees have sown their lips together and are on a hunger strike because they don't agree with the Liberal Government's policy on NEVER resettling them in Australia. The bleeding heart lefties like Senator Sarah Hanson Young as you can imagine are waxing lyrical about how it's inhumane and they must be released into the community in Australia.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has made it very clear that will NEVER happen and that the Government's policy position has not changed.
Surely we would have learned our lesson on allowing Man Haron Monis into the country where he held Martin Place's Lindt Cafe staff and customers hostage on the 15th of December, eventuating in the death of two well loved and successful people, Tori Johnston and Katrina Dawson. He claimed he was a refugee, yet it later emerged he had sucked in Amnesty International and the Government. We must be choosy about who we let into the country or this will happen again. We already have allowed others into the country. Today it came to light that there are more young "Australian" (inverted commas because of the treason involved in betraying Australian values) Jihadists are fighting in Syria. Often these "men" are the children of immigrant parents.
When you agree to become an Australian citizen you agree to uphold Australian values. Going to Syria to murder people and behead them is NOT what an Australian citizen would do and contradicts Australian values. So were these people lying when they took the citizenship pledge?
Some say that drug smugglers should receive the same punishment as those who commit treason do. I raise this point because two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are facing the firing squad in Indonesia later this year. As it stands Andrew Chan is awaiting his clemency bid and he, and Sukamaran will be executed together.
The Indonesian government has said they will not grant clemency. One has to wonder two things. Are they doing this because of Australia's hard line approach on asylum seekers? And why did they grant Schapelle Corby not only clemency, but parole? Was it because she was a woman? Did gender favouritism come into the equation? I would hope not.
Some say that when people do the crime they must serve the time, and that's absolutely the case, but they've more than done that. They've repented. They've contributed to art works and they have helped the prison population with rehabilitation. Surely those good deeds negate the mistake they made.
It's one thing to kill people because they commit an act of terrorism, but that isn't what Chan and Sukumaran did. They made the bad decision of trying to smuggle drugs into the country. The two aren't comparable. Incidentally Indonesia didn't come down as hard on the Bali nightclub bombers, so why the Australians? Is it because they're foreigners? Or is it an attack on Australia?
In an ideal outcome the Australian government would come to an agreement with the Indonesian government where either the Indonesian Government agrees to deport the men and they serve the rest of their natural lives in an Australian prison or they give Chan and Sukumaran back under the Prisoner Exchange Agreement (where Indonesia would also get back some of its citizens).
Whatever happens, the Australian Government must stop the execution of Chan and Sukumaran. The crime does not warrant the punishment. The Indonesian Government must also consider the effect on fellow inmates and how many future inmates may suffer without Chan and Sukumaran.
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