I don't think I've ever read a positive piece of news from Australia regarding technology, Internet, law or (green) energy. Is the government there really as backwards thinking as it's portrayed? Most aussies I've talked to have seemed pretty liberal (but then again, they were also traveling abroad)
Australian's hey. I'm one, and Australian politics reminds me of all those things P.J. O'Rourke wrote.
"In the 2,500-year history of democracy since ancient Athens, a few politicians have arisen who more or less could be trusted with great powers, up to a point, briefly, in times of dire crisis, sort of."
Another of my favourites: "
Individual politicians can’t save us either. Democracy means electing people. Politicians are the people who get elected. I’ve spent some time with politicians. I like politicians. I’m friends with politicians from both sides of the aisle. Politicians are fine until they stick their noses into things they don’t understand, such as most things. Then politicians turn into rachet-jawed purveyors of monkey doodle and baked wind. They are piddlers upon merit, beggars at the doors of accomplishment, thieves of livelihood, envy-coddling tax lice applauding themselves for giving away other people’s money. They are lapdogs of demagoguery returning to the vomit of collectivism. They are pig herders tending that sow who eats her young, the welfare state. They are muck-dwelling bottom feeders growing fat on the worries and disappointments of the electorate. They are the ditch carp in the great river of democracy. And that’s what one of their friends says."
"The American political system is like a gigantic Mexican Christmas fiesta. Each political party is a huge piñata - a papier-mâché donkey, for example. The donkey is filled with full employment, low interest rates, affordable housing, comprehensive medical benefits, a balanced budget and other goodies. The American voter is blindfolded and given a stick. The voter then swings the stick wildly in every direction, trying to hit a political candidate on the head and knock some send into the silly bastard."
I think Australia has managed to get by as well as it has in spite of it's more recent politicians not because of them, along with some favourable economic circumstances, which the current set of silly bastards appears to be doing their utmost undo. I'm not so concerned though because not only are politicians generally incompetent they're also mostly impotent and economics tends to exhibit some cyclical behaviour regardless of what this weeks politicians are up to.
The government is completely backwards but brilliant at demonising and wedging the main opposition party on a range of issues: national security, energy policy, human rights, immigration, law (ably assisted by the dominant Murdoch papers). So what is happening is the opposition party is capitulating on pretty much everything hoping that they will survive until the next election (which polls indicate they will win).
There's traveling abroad and then there's travelling to SE Asia (Bali). Which is just another place to get drunk. If you're in America or Europe the cost of travel prohibits most drunk idiots getting there.
On another note, the current government has taken every opportunity to move away from innovation. Just a few things they have done is deny climate change, abandoning the national broadband network and allow a giant coal mine to be dug in the middle of prime farming land. Meta Data retention, Citizen stripping legislation (its a privilege not a right!); and more.
The next election can not come fast enough for us. But the real cost is the damage this general trend does for research. Scientists don't look at Australia for opportunity anymore, they just leave.
