I'm talking about how John Howard is sending 400 more troops to Iraq to guard the Chinese, who, according to the History and Discovery Channels, is still a Communist state.

whah whaat?

China is in Iraq?

Technichally he didn't really go back on his promise. He's not sending troops to Iraq he's sending a guardian unit to follow some chinese folk.

The Democrats in the U.S do thier best to make everyone think that only americans are doing work in Iraq and that there is no international help whatsoever.

I remember that.

Either way I have given up on the goverment. Voting sheet, now who to vote for, demon or the archdemon.. Ahh it doesn't matter they'll both us over.
Years ago I remember the Democrats had a nice motto 'We'll get those bastards' or something or rather

John Howard doesn't have it in him to try and change how he says something.

Usually he comes up with an excuse after the fact like "I was on holidays at the time" "I wasn't in the country and didn't know what was going on" and "I was given false infomation"

Australia had it's first fatality in Iraq a week or so ago. I don't suppose the US news stations said anything about him, did they?
Gah, I just don't understand this. Australian troops arn't even given their props for all their hard work.
I swear, when John Howard retires, he's going to start working for an oil company or something. There's just no other reason for him to keep this crap up.
And yes, he went back on an election promiss, he said so himself.

Anyway, I'm at an Internet Cafe at the moment, and this is costing me money.. so no more posts from me until I get back home! Talk to yas all later!

I just meant that we retain some forms and structures of English Parliament and we have a Governer General, but we are far more American than English. English by name, American by nature.

Yeah, and Quebec is part of Canada.

You are correct, Australia barely gets any of the credit they deserve over on the American press reports.

If people mentioned Australia they would be reminded that Fox has power in the U.S. Plus, France owns most of our media companies, and everyone knows they don't want Americans thinking there is any international support for saving the world.

The next time someone mentions oil and the current politics in Iraq, I'm going to shoot them with my crafty ascii arrow. ---BOOM--->

And that's still nothing to jump for joy about. It'd be a lot better if we were just Australian, but I guess that's the downside of having a world "super power" for a "friend"

I'm sorry buddy but I hate disagree with you there. Jonny Howard, while he is a funny little man, does a good job. Sure he sent more troops in, and sure he broke an election promise but he is doing an alright job

As far as interest rates go, you guys all seem to forget about the labour goverments 18%+ interest in the 80's. My old man was working 2 jobs, plus rennovating houses in melbourne just so he could sell them what he bought them for, and even then he had to pay out $10,000 a MONTH before he could eat, in interest payments.

The property markets on the gold coast, (south east queensland) have stayed bouyant becuase John Howard got re-elected, which is good news since I'm selling my place at the moment.

Liberals financial managament of this country has been bloody brilliant over the last couple of years, free trade agreements, the lot.

what most of you dont understand is that the governtment doesn't control interest rates, it is those crack addicts in the reserve bank of australia that do. Otherwise Jonny would go over with a few of his mates and say don't put interest rates up.

An sure we may see .5% interest rates. But really, .5% or even a whole % is NOTHING. Damn interest rates a few years back were at 9% and everyone thought they were low then, we still have a damn good interest rate, no-one is going bankruput (ALA the 1980's where rates were 18+%) so quitya bitching and be engrossed by his eyebrows.

EDIT: Annelia it was "keep the honest"

Also liberal having control of both houses is a damn good thing. I swear Labour used to just block all the stuff coming through the Senate just to be pricks, especially the free trade agreement. They were gonna lose the whole deal because of a few cane farmers, which were neveer going to be included. Why lose a whole deal for one party? It's , uytter .

I reckon liberal is gonna bring in some good legislatin without those labor communists blocking everything

EDIT: Watch your language. ~Shiri~

You really know.. nothing.

The Government has NORTHING to do with interest rates.

He's a stupid, backwards moron who wants to live in the 50s instead of getting with the times.

Oh, and He wants to stop volunteer university unions and groups.

Yes, setting us up for the future.

Just to clarify. Its not Chinese Engineers in Southern Iraq, its Japanese Engineers, who are hippies, not communists.

Elections are won and lost on the strength of promises. He should have known full well that he might need to send more troops, but he made a promise not to anyway.



And do you remember how much personal financial debt the average Australian carries now? The most in European Australian history. Not that I care or think it is the governments fault totally, but you want to bring up silly history then so can I.



Could also be your Labor state government giving you a hand with that one, maybe? you have an excellent Premier there.



Yeah, I can agree with that (except about the Free Trade Agreement, I think it will issolate a lot of smaller countries and hurt our export market), but the economy has progressed at the expense of other important factors. We are a society, not an economy, yet all we seem to care about is dollar signs.



The government can't directly alter them but they have immense influence over them. Government spending is, afaIk, one of the most influential factor in setting interests rates.



Damn Labor doing its job as a opposition and representing the interests of its stake-holders and voters, how dare they!...No. Singular unopposed control is very very bad thing, and I don't care which party we are talking about; none should have it.



And with this one quote I must ask myself why I bother responding at all.

volenteer union makes no sense and is stupid.

If they are trulying doing a volenteer union its only to get a foot in the door so they can shove it in your face once its established.

I really hope your not talking about unionized grad students..... Leh sigh.

-Bitchslap Drago-

QUOTE: MURPHY SAYS
what most of you dont understand is that the governtment doesn't control interest rates, it is those crack addicts in the reserve bank of australia that do. Otherwise Jonny would go over with a few of his mates and say don't put interest rates up.

And Quidy was right.....Goverment spending IS a factor in terest rates, but I believe liberal spend less than labor every did.

and it's NOT silly history, its valid and if you had to live through that time as a property owner it wouldn't be silly or funny at all. high interest rates are bad news for everyone. History often repeats itsself.

the main reason for the interest rate rises are average household debt, although if people are already in too much debt, then interest rate rises are just gonna screw them more.

Its an organisation for uni students to have their say in the running of the university. You don't have to join is what the volunteer means.

Oh and, before someone decides to post saying the government controls interest rates, no they don't. The Reserve Bank does. The Government can influence the rates slightly but has no real control over it.

Anyone that voted Liberal because they think that the labour party is going to make interest rates rise needs to get kicked in the head.

I skipped that part of your post because interest rates should have nothing to do with which party is elected. I mean, COME ON, the labour party now isn't the same one that was in power when interest rates were up to 18%.

I can't even Remember when interest rates were that high.

I stand by my claim that he's a stupid, backwards moron.

No, but Bob hawke used interest rates as a means to control the economy, I dont know how long the RBA has decided % rates but one of his policies was the keep the rates high.

Bob Hawke wasn't exactly that great as a pm either, though i'd put him above Howard . Curse Australia and its crappy prime ministers.

How cool!
You guys sound like your talking about California politics. University unions and everything.

Again, if you have a volenteer union, its just the same as having no union. Which means the people who are pushing it have a long term plan they arn't telling you.

The type of government you have, how they spend money, and what they spend money on, has a HUGE affect (indirectly) on interest rates and economies.

California is suffering from the same problem because of people spending money that doesn't exist in the name of education and saving lives.

A governement may be about the society, but without the dollars the government can't do much for the society. In free countries and governments its the ability of poeple to have economic freedom that allows them to have political freedom.

You can see that concept played out in the first few months of Iraqi anarchy.

Actually, what I was saying, in rather blunt words, is that I suspect there is some financial compensation coming Howard's way when he retires from the Bushes or the Carlyle Group, or whoever.
While, frankly, I think that your President was more interested in oil than in the plight of the Iraqi People, that was not what I was saying in my previous post.. Just so you know.



So.. What? You don't think that we deserve to have leader who doesn't flatly lie?
And before you say 'All politicians lie,' isn't allowing that status quo to continue a failure on the parts of every voting age Australian?
And if all you need to do an alright job is a good budget, then surely you would prefer that the current Treasurer (Can't remember his name just now) became PM over 'Honest John.'



Okay.. Forgive me for being Naive, or whatever.. I was only born in 1985, after all.. But if those rates in the 80's were Hawke's fault, how is it that the rate raise at present isn't Howard's fault?


Yes, and one of those first things is most probably going to be banning gay marriages.

I agree with you.. to a point. Labour having control of the Senate was a bad thing. But, the Liberals having control of the Senate is also a bad thing. That is why there need to be more than two parties who can hold the sway.
I'm going to look into how you begin a political party, and then I'm going to see what I can do to get that done. We are just slipping closer and closer to being USA II. Australia does not have a two party system, and something has to be done to remind Australians about that.