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Be Consistent Mr Abbott

The age of entitlement is over for Australia - unless of course you vote for the Coalition. This is the the message of the A$324 million drought package comes across to Australians living in cities. The motor industry got not support, neither did SPC. Eighty per cent of Queensland is suffering drought. It is a serious crisis. However, a government must be seen to be consistent.

Taking the hammer to trade unions is to be expected from a conservative government. The Liberal-National Government is not in the center politically in Australia. It is definitely conservative: plainly an anachronism that we have to live with. The National Party would bring back tariffs if they had the power, but they will remain Liberal Party lap dogs forever.

Of course, other countries put up barriers against agricultural imports, so Australia should do the same. However, how can a government say one thing and act in a contrary manner. It cannot be taken seriously. A turn here, a flip there - What will we get next?

The government is putting disability pensioners on the dole while giving businessmen, namely farmers, unemployment benefits. This is very odd behavior. Put everyone on welfare and be done with it. If Tony Abbott follow the aggressive cuts carried out by the Queensland premier none of us will have jobs.

None are so blind as those who will not see. The "free" market will not provide the essentials that people require to live decent lives. They won't build roads, distribute water or provide adequate communication technology to everyone. Conservatives still believe that the market reigns supreme. It is their religion. Reality is that the free market is grossly distorted in the world, with monopolies and oligopolies running roughshod over smaller businesses.

Politics by Ty Buchanan

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Australia Post to Charge for Letter Deliveries

Australia Post is finding that the old model has died. The number of letters has dwindled while parcel deliveries are booming. Rather than use the old monopoly action of subsidizing one sector to support another, Australia Post wants more profit than ever. It is talking about charging for letter deliveries.

In the past, urban areas paid for the cost of deliveries to the thinly populated bush. Companies today are greedy, going for profit in all sectors. Talk about privatizing the postal service is not changing this attitude - it is enforcing it.

Free deliveries for only three days a week is on offer. with a significant weekly charge for full service. As critics have pointed out money will be needed to store all the letters on hold and sorting will become an almighty mess. Another thing for Australia Post to remember is that people who post letters already pay for delivery. The ACCC and the High Court should stop the national postal service charging twice.

The federal government could bring in new laws but there will definitely be a High Court challenge. The High Court has been a tough hurdle to jump over in the past.

Economics Ty Buchanan

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Recognition of Aboriginals in the Constitution a Waste of Time

Tony Abbott is planning to include Aboriginals in the Constitution as the original "owners" of the land of Australia. This is like like Kevin Rudd's speech apologizing for the lost generation of Aboriginals forcibly taken from their parents and put into institutions or brought up by White people. Talk is cheap.

What Australia needs is a planned development program to make life better for Aboriginals. The right for men to receive unemployment payments was taken away by a still paternal federal government in the Northern Territory. It was taken on the premise of bad treatment of Aboriginal children. This was a blatant lie. No Aboriginal has ever been charged for ill treatment of children.

Money is needed to spend on Aboriginal communities. Tony Abbott has no money to spare, particularly with his right-wing policy of reducing taxes for wealth whites. How is Australia going to decrease the deficit with such a policy? The only thing that government can do is reduce spending. This will hit the economy and bring hard times upon us.

How can a prime minister be known for development, as Tony Abbott announced, if he has no money to spend, unless he has a magic wand up his shirt. The private sector will not voluntarily help Aboriginal communities. There is no profit in it and business has only one motivator - make more money. Telling industry to employ more Aboriginals will change nothing: they have never been taught the needed skills.

Politics by Ty Buchanan

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The NBN May Never be Completed

We hear so much praise about progress of the new broadband network being rolled out by the National Broadband Network (NBN). The problem is - there has been little progress. Apart from the acclaimed network in a part of Tasmania, few customers enjoy ultra-fast broadband anywhere else.

The Internet divide still exists between city and rural. Obviously the NBN will be laid out in city areas because this is where the greatest income will be obtained. As it now stands rural regions will not get faster Internet until way past 2020. Many people will be dead by then. How do we know if fiber optics will be superceded? Soon the ocean protection walls will be finished around Venice and there are cries that it is old technology and will not save the valuable city. Perhaps the same will be said about the NBN.

In the present economic climate where will be few businesses left in populated cities to enjoy the improved communication. Only if the mineral sector declines and the Aussie dollar drops in value will manufacturing and service sectors become profitable again. But a fall in mineral income will mean less tax to pay for the NBN.

The Internet may make unforeseeable changes. For example, Skype and Gmail have pushed the cost of international calls down to a few cents a minute. Telcos can no longer make a profit from providing the service. Internet operations first offered this in the early 2000s. it faded. Now it is back with a vengeance. If Internet operators can find a way past the mobile barriers put up by the telcos that will bankrupt these monster companies who overcharge for mobile calls.

There is no question that the NBN is monopolistic. It will be the only Internet provider. Smaller companies will be given piecemeal resale access. However, this will be on NBN terms. Talk is all about the benefits. If the Coalition wins the next election they could dismantle the whole operation.

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