Dear Mr Abbott
I met you a few years back at the Sydney Writers Festival.
I'd just sat through your session with Annabelle Crabb in conversation with you about Battlelines. You spent the first few minutes at the lectern in the Sydney Theatre Company delivering a paid Liberal Party advertisement. Problem was it was everyone in the audience, like me, who'd funded it.
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So Australia is now 23 million people strong! Or weak. Depending on the poll and how you interpret the results.
It got me in a statistical minded mood. Especially when I keep reading stuff about how the ALP has ‘stuffed’ the boom. You see, population is a very important factor. Hugely so.
It influences income tax revenue for governments, it dictates where spending is to be directed in regards to not only meeting services at a current level, but planning for services needed in the future. That is one of the reasons why they have census night amongst other things.
I consulted the interweb and discovered a rather interesting set of numbers. The population in 1996 according to the census taken on 6th August showed us there were 17,892,423 Australians that night. The results of the census of the 8th of August 2006 revealed that the number of Australians had become 19,855,288. A growth of 1,962,855 Australians extra seeking work.
Now while we have no 2016 data yet, we do know this.
In 2006, our population was 150,000 short of twenty million. And now in 2013, the population is now 23 million. A increase of 3,144,712 extra of us.
That’s about double the growth under the Howard period of government, and there are still three more years till 2016. More schools. More roads. More hospitals. Suddenly a High Speed Train for when the population is set to be 40 million is not that stupid an idea is it?
Yes there are now 23 million of us. But not all make up the workforce. In fact, the employment to population numbers are very interesting.
Employment-to-population ratio in OECD countries
Persons aged 15-64 years (percentages)
Country 1970 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Australia 66.7 65.2 68.4 69.3 69.0 69.4 70.0 70.3 71.5
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
72.2 72.9 73.2 72.0 72.4 72.7 65.1
Okay. Basically a number over 70% is good. And as you can see Australia reached a peak of 73.2% in 2008. But what happened in 2012 you ask?
Well there is that other boom I was talking about. The baby BOOMers. Retiring and leaving the workforce. Also shows you why the increase in 457 visas. Because of a huge percentage chunk in work force participation just went down.
So there you are governing and at the same time you get this world wide GFC, we also got to give out gold watches to about 7% of the work force. Just in time for a boom in the value of gold.
So when people talk about managing the boom, I got to ask. Which boom are you talking about?
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A.Ghebranious 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jonathan Winters, the cherub-faced comedian whose breakneck improvisations and misfit characters inspired the likes of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, has died. He was 87.
The Ohio native died Thursday evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes, said Joe Petro III, a longtime family friend. Petro said Winters died of natural causes and was surrounded by family and friends.
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Border controls are measures taken by country to monitor or regulate its borders. Border controls are put in place to control both the inflow as well as outflow of people, animals and goods. Specialised government agencies are usually created to perform border controls. Such agencies may perform various functions such as customs, immigration, security, quarantine, beside other functions. Official designations, jurisdictions and command structures of these agencies vary considerably. – Wikipedia
Wikipedia is more than sufficient for this discussion. First and foremost the lie that the Australian government has lost control of its borders is a lie and MUST stop. The government of one country has no power what so ever to stop people in another country from getting on a boat. None.
But what a government can do is MONITOR their borders and apply the laws of the land and international law. So when under the Howard era, 19 of the 254 boats that did arrive, arrive unmonitored and undetected, then THAT was a loss of border control. To make the observation that 278 boats have arrived under the Gillard governments last year is not a statement that is in any way the governments fault. And the knowledge that one boat arrived undetected out of 278 is actually an example of border control WORKING!!!
Now the government has to abide by LAW and diplomatic relationships. Something Abbot scoffs. You can not turn back boats in international waters Tony. Nor can Australia patrol the coasts of Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Not our countries. And Indonesia has refused to take back those boats Tony. Now Sri Lanka makes a lot of fuss about taking back boats, but I doubt they will if they were found to be genuine refugees.
So the government can only act within the law. And as we have seen in Parliament, that is the law that the majority of the players agree. Let me say that again MAJORITY. That is a important word to remember when you talk about minority government because it reminds you that other people helped pass this law. In this case, the coalition. The same people now complaining about it.
It is NOT illegal to seek asylum. It is NOT the government’s fault that people in other countries get on boats. And we have NOT lost control of our borders. The media must report the truth. You are creating racial hate where there was none before. For me, this is where the party ends.
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A. Ghebranious April 2013
In a dazzling show, the COALition Leader Mr Tinny Abbutt and his communications spokesperson Mallcome Turncow esquire switched on a light bulb in the newly completed offices of Ruptured Meowdock where they released their policy for communications in the 20th century.
On turning on the light, Mr Abbutt exclaimed that was not technology wonderful.
Mr Abbutt then announced that the COALition had looked into the plan offered by the government and labelled it a waste.
“The government are intending to install telephone lines and electricity lines to each household, each shack, and each flat. Even installing into buildings where there is no one living there! The COALition do not believe there will be the need for this as the population is so small. Maybe one day, they will have trains that travel at incredible speeds of say 30 miles an hour. You wont need to call anyone when you can travel that fast.”
“But the COALition also see that there is some merit to a communications network and so therefore propose a Telephone line to the public phone technology, or TPPT”
“TPPT will be the technology of the future”, Mr Turncow eschewed. “And our plan will see public phones installed two years earlier then the govt plan.”
Mr Turncow scoffed at the point made by your intrepid reporter. “Sure! We wont be connecting this public phones to electricity for 4 years, but as soon as we do, the phone will be directly active. And do not forget! The phone itself is here two years earlier then the governments plan”.
Mr Abbutt chipped in at this stage with “What does this button do?” On pressing the button the light exploded and Ruptured quickly rushed the media out of the room and away from any further questions.
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A. Ghebranious April 2013
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Watching the 1st world act as if it is not their problem to do anything about climate change and instead blame the third world got me thinking about melanin. That wonderful thing some of the lighter and paler of our species who mostly live in the 1st world have a lot less of then their darker skinned cousins in the third world.
You see as the temperatures rise, those of our species who belong to the classification Caucasian are in for an increase in skin cancer.
And that got me thinking about those browner/darker humans in the third world and how they are much better able to put up with the extra heat a little better.
And that got me thinking about the bible.
Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5.5
So go ahead. Lets build that other coal power plants. Let’s burn all the fossil fuel you can eat.
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A. Ghebranious April 2013
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The following graph is vital to understanding the difference between what the government is offering and what the coalition are supporting.
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Pretty clear difference huh? But wait! There’s more! To get the maximum speed on copper, you need much more electricity.
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So the coalition offer also means we need to build some extra power plants. Something conveniently missing from the coalition sales package.
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Lets compare the offers then shall we? The coalition are saying for 7 billion dollars less, they will do 75% less work in two years less. It’s like putting in a tender for a dam and saying ours is cheaper then theirs, but the dam height is much lower and the dam doesn’t span the whole river. But if you want the dam to go all the way across, all you have to do is pay for it yourself.
I will give you some thinking time since what is at stake is the jeopardy of digital communications in this country.
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A. Ghebranious April 2013
