Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Whatever happens over the coming days and years it will be a bonus for this site. Maybe even as big as yahoo closing down. Politics will be interesting again, with real people taking on real issues, not professional politicians dripfeeding us carefully crafted spin.

I'd like to invite everyone here to participate in this event maturely and not scare off newbies by flinging mud everywhere. This is your opportunity to have your say and for once the politicians and the public will be listening. What do you want them to hear?

freediver wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 8:00am:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Whatever happens over the coming days and years it will be a bonus for this site. Maybe even as big as yahoo closing down. Politics will be interesting again, with real people taking on real issues, not professional politicians dripfeeding us carefully crafted spin. I'd like to invite everyone here to participate in this event maturely and not scare off newbies by flinging mud everywhere. This is your opportunity to have your say and for once the politicians and the public will be listening. What do you want them to hear?

Well done FD, and congratulations.
What do I want them to hear?  For starters, how about :

a/  Reducing the size of our beaureacricy, and beaurecratic system to a efficient and sensible level.
b/ We formulate a sensible population peak.
c/   We formulate compatiblity criteria for immigration.
d/   We seriously scrutinise govermental spending and impose penalties for waste.

Congrats FD, you have provided a site that people can share ideas with each other on, and have maintained it through thick and thin, offering all members the freedom to truly express their views openly and honestly, and it is nice to see so many enjoying that freedom responsibly.

We had an Election did we????
I had hardly noticed. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Yes, it has been an interesting election, and it is still far from over.
I love the idea of a Gillard government that HAS to develop policies acceptable to both a Greens Member, and a former Country Party member, because then we would se all the extremist ideological detritus stripped away, and policies held up to the most basic test of, Do they offer the greatest benefit to the greatest number?

I still have very grave concerns about Tony Abbott as far as the real personal ideals he hides from the public, but no doubt is strongly attached to, so the thought of a minority government with him at the helm is certainly much less frightening than the prospect of him leading a majority government where he might indulge more of his personal ideas than the country would like.

Well done FD, and congratulations.
What do I want them to hear?  For starters, how about :

a/  Reducing the size of our beaureacricy, and beaurecratic system to a efficient and sensible level.
b/ We formulate a sensible population peak.
c/   We formulate compatiblity criteria for immigration.
d/   We seriously scrutinise govermental spending and impose penalties for waste.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What....another white Australia policy......No.....you Liberal supporters are not racist at all are you???

:)

Hooray! I stood in line in the cold of the morning just to vote for you and OzPolitic, Freediver. Congratulations; all your hard work has finally paid off :)

Same here FD - well done.

This board coped amazingly well with the influx of right whingers with their one liner slogans and abuse.

:)

philperth2010 wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 8:36am:

Well done FD, and congratulations. What do I want them to hear?  For starters, how about : a/  Reducing the size of our beaureacricy, and beaurecratic system to a efficient and sensible level. b/ We formulate a sensible population peak. c/   We formulate compatiblity criteria for immigration. d/   We seriously scrutinise govermental spending and impose penalties for waste. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What....another white Australia policy......No.....you Liberal supporters are not racist at all are you??? :)

Not necessarily white Australia. I'd like to see immigration screening out those who oppose democracy and freedom on principle. Apparently that discriminates against Muslims (even the white ones), but that's OK, it would keep out all the loonies.

I have very stringent criteria for immigration that does in fact consider race as an important factor, based upon some fairly complex arguments. I am going to expound on them more once I have set up my new party's web page.

mozzaok wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 8:28am:

Congrats FD, you have provided a site that people can share ideas with each other on, and have maintained it through thick and thin, offering all members the freedom to truly express their views openly and honestly, and it is nice to see so many enjoying that freedom responsibly. We had an Election did we???? I had hardly noticed. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Yes, it has been an interesting election, and it is still far from over. I love the idea of a Gillard government that HAS to develop policies acceptable to both a Greens Member, and a former Country Party member, because then we would se all the extremist ideological detritus stripped away, and policies held up to the most basic test of, Do they offer the greatest benefit to the greatest number? I still have very grave concerns about Tony Abbott as far as the real personal ideals he hides from the public, but no doubt is strongly attached to, so the thought of a minority government with him at the helm is certainly much less frightening than the prospect of him leading a majority government where he might indulge more of his personal ideas than the country would like.

Well said - Abbott will be on a leash if he gets in.
( so will Labor )
We'll know in one week who won  - hopefully.

Ditto on that one FD.

We are a secular democracy, and any who wish to be a part of our country needs to support the principles of secular democracy as their real primary belief of what system we should live under.

Congrats, FD!

Bring on secular democracy...

philperth2010 wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 8:36am:

Well done FD, and congratulations. What do I want them to hear?  For starters, how about : a/  Reducing the size of our beaureacricy, and beaurecratic system to a efficient and sensible level. b/ We formulate a sensible population peak. c/   We formulate compatiblity criteria for immigration. d/   We seriously scrutinise govermental spending and impose penalties for waste. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What....another white Australia policy......No.....you Liberal supporters are not racist at all are you??? :)

I have no idea how you arrived at that conclusion.  I would have thought that the issue of the future peace of this country would have warranted some honest discussion, rather than  a no brainer, knee jerk, neurotic, irrelevant reply. Please consider the lives of future generations.

The question is, who is going too do the best deal for the country. One independent stated how both major parties have crippled those living out on the farms too a point he once had 250 constituents who where farmers now down too 50 and one point he said suicide was high losing 1 farmer every 4 days at one point.
What would make a real difference too those in the bush would too be too reduce this free trade rubbish that has been destroying Australian manufacturing, farms and country towns.

BlOoDy RiPpEr wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 9:56am:

The question is, who is going too do the best deal for the country. One independent stated how both major parties have crippled those living out on the farms too a point he once had 250 constituents who where farmers now down too 50 and one point he said suicide was high losing 1 farmer every 4 days at one point. What would make a real difference too those in the bush would too be too reduce this free trade rubbish that has been destroying Australian manufacturing, farms and country towns.

I live in a small country town with about 4,000 people and there is only 3 places that employes more the 50 people. You now know why the kids leave school and move to the cities looking for work, they leave their fmilies, friends and support groups it is no wonder small towns are dieing out. Small towns near more industries to keep going otherwise they will die out and become goast towns.

So the government should prop up small uncompetitive farmers and small towns?

freediver wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 11:44am:

So the government should prop up small uncompetitive farmers and small towns?

The Labor government has talked about attracting people to small country towns. It could be only talk, but there is no reason why immigration and populating the bush couldn't be combined.

If we don't put more money into propping up these little communities, they will be over-run with foreign investors, buying up little by little until nothing is Australian owned.

freediver wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2010 at 11:44am:

So the government should prop up small uncompetitive farmers and small towns?

Not at all, Small towns once held their own and can do again. What we have too do is look at what major changes have accrued in Australia. Two of the biggest changes have been free trade and the introduction of Multiculturalism.