I watch Location,Location,Location and Relocation,Relocation with Phil & Kirsty a bit down here on pay TV.

And saw a young couple get a 7 bedroom 2 story house with attic at a place near "Grantham" not far off the freeway on 5 acres for 811 thousand pounds (about $2 million AUD) I could get them a 60 square single story mansion on a couple of hundred acres 1/2 an hour out of Melbourne for that or alternatively 50000 acres in Western Queensland.

But I honestly can not see the sustainability in a real estate market that "hot" nor the endless sustainability of an economy that in my eyes is being mainly fed by a heavy reliance on a financial services industry, an industry that is undergoing a significant downsizing through advancements in information technology an industry which we are seeing move off shore from traditional western hubs such as London, New York and to a lesser extent Sydney to more economically efficient places such as Bangalore and Mumbai.

Seems to me that their is a very big bubble on the verge of imploding or exploding with the UK real estate market right now. Not to mention the pressure the current market is putting on those trying to buy their first dwelling expecially those who do not have an inheritance or loan/gift from their parents to go into the market with.

Interesting times ahead I reckon.

Ern, there are ways and means to go about eleviating poverty without damaging your economy.

Now of course, if you bring in death duties, capital will start moving offshore very quickly. Lifting company tax will stifle business investment, and companies will move offshore, and with them jobs. Cancel all immigration programs, and economic growth will stagnate and perhaps go backwards. Measures such as those will only make things worse, not better for people on the margins, i agree.

But what about consumption tax? Here in Australia, our CPI (government used inflation benchmark) is about 2-3%. Sounds great. But food is up 40%, Childcare is up 50%, petrol, cost of electricity, water, rates, cost of housing (mortgage and rent), cost of schooling - all the essentials are blowing out in cost. Yet that is balanced by cheap flat screens, mp3 players, cars ect - all the non essentials that people on the margins cannot afford.

Canceling tax on the essentials (at least on food), and lifting tax on the non-essentials would make a huge difference for those under the poverty line down here. (By coincidence, Queensland's poverty levels were released today. 330,000 - disgraceful in a boom state such as Queensland)

Tax rates on wages can and should be adjusted as well. Lift taxes and those earning more and lower taxes on those earning less. These are just two measures that can be implemented to address the poverty without causing too much economic damage. I would gladly sacrifice some of my pay for this to happen. I would then face less risk of having my stuff ripped off, thus paying less in insurance. We would not have to spent so much on police, which would free up money to be pumped into our ailing health and education systems. And i would worry less about my kids getting knifed for their shoes.

Well i am glad that it is all sunshine and lollypop's in merry old England. It is certainly not the case here. While racism is complex issue involving many factors, the violent, malignant variety is mainly confined to the poor areas. The fact is that poverty and malignant racism go hand in hand.

As to the more subtle, benign version of racism, well that is an issue that i am still exploring, yet still am yet to find any clear-cut answers. I will say though, that if those of non-white heritage left their ethnic baggage behind them and threw their lot in with Australia wholly and totally, they would be much more likely to be accepted, and the integration process would be much smoother. Such as Andrew Symonds - 100% Aussie through and through and we love him for it.

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Depends on how you view poverty, doesn't it? Do all of those people lack access to shelter? Electricity? Drinking water? And the big two- beer and cigarettes?

They've already been adjusted downward across the board, haven't they? Surely making use of the multi-billion-dollar surplus would be a better way to go than taxing at exorbitant rates? The days of Robin Hood are over, you know.

I'm with you all the way on that one.

Just for the record, there are no consumption taxes/VAT/GST on food in the UK**. That is a unique situation in the EU and one which the UK has stood firm on since VAT was introduced in 1973.

** Other than restaurant meals and hot take-away food, neither of which can be classed as an essential in my view.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Well, not the aboriginals. They were lucky to have the first three. And since we deployed our troops to militarily occupy their land, they don't have beer anymore either. We even confiscated their pornography, which at least would have alleviated their boredom due to lack of beer. Or jobs.



This is the problem though Aurelius. Australians have racked up record levels of personal debt. All the state governments are in debt. The only thing stopping interest rates blowing out is the federal surplus. If the Federal government start spending that surplus then good luck to all those Aussies in the mortgage belt is all i can say.



Well that helps OF, but they poor just get screwed trying to pay for all those other essentials.

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And rightly so, doesn't matter if it offends some, or if some hide it behind a cultural or race issue; pedaphilia is just not on full stop. And should be stopped with any means at our disposal including sending in the army.
Best move that Howard has made since the "gun buy back", is to get all the indigenous kids in those communities medically checked out.
Dont forget "Seamer" it was people inside those indigenous communities that were telling the government of the issue in the first place. Probably not the media well connected ones complaining about the intervention, but the ones spending every day living their life there watching that and the violence going on around them.
And alcohol, drugs and petrol sniffing seem to be constant pre-cursors to problems.

So- what are you saying? Do the Aborignes lack housing, shelter and electricity or don't they? As to "militarily occupying their land" I'm with Acker on this. For too long governments have been sitting on their hands for the sake of political correctness, and it's about time something got done. I expect we'll simply have to agree to disagree on this one.


Of course you're right- my brain must have had a bit of a wander there.

Sorry, but i do not agree. It is a very dangerous precedent being set here. The army is designed to defend the country from outside threats, it is not there to be deployed against the citizenry. Once done, it can be done again. Get another race riot in Sydney and what's stopping the government deploying troops there? APC's rolling up and down the streets, military checkpoints, troops walking around with machine guns checking people's ID's.......... Sorry, that's not what i want to see taking place in Australia


Do you think Howard was unaware of what was taking place out there? It came as a sudden shock for him? For god's sake, the whole country has known about this problem for decades. Now how long has Howard been in power? How many years has he been in power, and how many of those years did it take for him to do something? 10 years........ What did Keating do? Or Hawke for that matter?

Well i would go back a step further and say poverty is a precursor to alcohol, drugs abuse, petrol sniffing. Had the poverty issue been addressed a decade or two ago, it never would have come to this. Give them hope, purpose and direction, not troops and emergency medical teams because we have left them to rot.

Now Acker, i notice that you have been living in regional Australia for the last few years - maybe longer - so it is likely you have seen the down to earth realities on what it is like out there. I myself, have never met an Aboriginal, and have only seen the odd one when traveling out of the city. And while my opinions lie in the vast minority, it doesn't mean my points aren't valid. I am a father and am not indifferent to the plight of kids. But in my mind, if you are to apply a law in a given country, it should apply to all. Alcohol is a blight on all of Australian society - if it is OK to ban it in aboriginal communities, then they should ban it across the board. Same applies to pornography.

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The army is also there to assist in times of disaster, this issue is not a natural disaster but a social disaster. Seamer they have not deployed Abraham's tanks to these remote communities. They have deployed army medical staff and some troops/engineers to help them set up. No one is running around with rifles and the army is not involved with policing the communities.
The army has been deployed to Darwin and various natural disasters since then, so your a bit late in worrying about whether it can be done again.


I think that the report into the extent of pedophilia occurring in those communities came as a shock to him, as it did to Kevin Rudd who agreed with him and took it out of the arena of being an party election issue.


There is more involved in that than poverty being a precursor as well. These communities have been set up where indigenous people have a bond to their traditional land. Unfortunately where most of the communities are is where most of our people needing industries are not. The indigenous population in these communities have the choice to live there and get a government payment or live somewhere else and get a job or get the dole.
Most of the young adults tend to end up in the larger nearby centers like Darwin and Cairns working. Although passive racism by prospective employers is still a big problem in this country.
Alcohol is a huge problem in small indigenous communities and many indigenous leaders are calling for it either to be banned or restricted in them. It's not perfect solution "seamer" but it is a solution along with "gambling". If both were banned from the actual indigenous community settlement (not from indigenous individuals) if they want to go somewhere else and buy beer fine. But the settlements should have a right to remain dry if that what they want, and the state governments should give them all possible assistance policing it.
Then the money will for the most come back into the communities and commerce also and the flow ons such a local jobs and opportunities as well. And poverty should retreat.
As for alcohol being a blight on all Australian society, its a choice that apparently 90% of the adult population willingly partake in (no politician will touch it with a barge pole). But it is a bigger problem for the indigenous community than the rest of the Australian community. If you want to pick on a real nasty social menace that is eating away at all groups of all ethnic origins in Australia, put the boot into the pokies.

Acker, in 2005, a bill was passed called the "Troops on the streets bill" Now this bill had wide ranging ramifications for Australians. Of course the media didn't say a word on the subject, no doubt because they were too busy writing about the latest Brittany Speirs drama or whatever other crap they go on about in those sorry little rags. Poor Australians - they go about their day in blissful ignorance, read the paper and convince themselves they are "informed" But i digress, and the subject of the sorry state of western media will have to be left to another day.

I can't seem to find a copy of the actual legislation (surprise, surprise) but i did find a report on it courtesy of Bob Brown prior to it being passed. Read here and you will begin to see what i am talking about.

Troops on the streets Bill Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2005

Two important things to note.
The ADF has greater shoot to kill powers against Australians, than what they have against insurgents in Iraq.

The Prime minister has executive power to call out the troops without reference to parliament.

Read it and ask yourself if you feel comfortable about it. Will you feel comfortable if a madman gains the Prime Ministership? When all this went down, everyone was going "Go Johnny" but not me. I saw it as a test run

The issue of endemic Aboriginal pedophilia is a much more complex issue that what people think. Of course to westerners like you and me, the whole idea of it is abhorrent. But so is forcibly putting a burkha on a woman, Japanese foot binding, beheading people ect ect. That's westerners. The aboriginals are not westerners, they have a different culture and in this issue, they are certainly not alone in the world.

If the government want to stamp it out then good. It is the deployment of troops that i have the issue with and if you read the above link, you will perhaps understand why i hold such grave concerns. I know my history.
Endemic poverty........social upheaval.........madman from either the left or right makes a grab for power and inherits powers far in excess of what Hitler had in 1936........Some might say i am alarmist, but it is dangerous to complacently say that it will never happen to us. I'm not saying Howard or Rudd want to create a dictatorship, but powers such as these and others hidden in the "anti-terrorism" legislation certainly make it a distinct possibility


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Mybe Rudd will unveil his anti-gaming, anti-alcohol policy in the final week of the election and Howard will win after all

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