I’m not entirely sure what the PM means by aspirational nationalism, but attempting to understand him fully it looks like it will be whatever he wants it to mean. Several readings of the full text and wording of his speech reveals a lot of big government intervention and father of the nation interference into the furthest corners of Australian life. From saving Tasmanian hospitals to launching parenting DVDs, clearly no task is above Howard’s personal aspirations and involvement.
And what of the States? Well obviously they are obsolete in Howard’s view, currently a foil for his electoral expediency, he’s taking it further by bypassing them entirely; in future it’s going to be all about community, civic mindedness and volunteerism.
But what happens when he runs out of states to name, shame, blame and there’s nothing left between him, his cohorts and us?
That includes looking at new ways of delivering government services and tackling problems that are more responsive to individual and community needs. The old rigid state monopoly models for health, education, employment and welfare services have become increasingly obsolete.
The partnerships this Government has built with the community sector, business and social entrepreneurs represent an under-appreciated thread of modern Australian Liberalism. Many initiatives such as the Job Network and our Family Relationship Centres are now being looked at internationally as new ways of delivering services.
Other Commonwealth programs that embody this localism based on grassroots community involvement include – Investing in Our Schools, our Chaplaincy program, Australian Technical Colleges, the National Heritage Trust and Community Water Grants. Most recently, the Commonwealth has indicated a willingness to support the Mersey hospital in Tasmania under a new model of community involvement.
The time has come to look afresh at how the Commonwealth can support social and community entrepreneurship at the local level. Further engaging the voluntary sector will be a priority.
The most recent figures on volunteering in Australia skewer the vague notion that somehow Australians have become less civic minded in recent times. On the contrary, there’s a healthy story on social capital to match Australia’s growing economic capital.
Clearly Howard feels there is a rich vein of public sentiment out there for a benevolent dictator, because everything he said yesterday can be viewed in that light, though I don’t think it’s just me thinking the benevolent part will get left out somewhere down the line.
What has happened to Liberalism in this country? When will they stand up against this shapeshifting nationalist? Or are they more interested in the spoils of power?
One weakness of parliamentary governments with control over both houses is that it’s the closest thing to a dictatorship you have without actually being one, and we rely on the good faith of leadership and other checks and balances in the system to keep a party and leader from spinning out of control, the states for all their faults are one of those.
Howard is now attempting to eliminate one of those checks to his almighty power and Australians should be very worried about what the Liberal Party has become under his leadership and how far he’ll go in reshaping the nation in his image.
Possibly FRIST…
I smell a National Aspirational Zealous Ideologue.
And can I caliam the Godwin Award for thsi thread, please, Phil?
That was “claim”, of course, sorry. Cal, I am not.
I blame overexcited and undercaffeinated typing fingers.
You’re the first and last to invoke Goodwin AndyC, wear the award with pride….. the N word is hereby banished from this thread
Believe it or not this post started out as a joke about a renamed Coalition, the ASS-NATS, there’s even a Facebook group for the new party but I woke up this morning and decided I didn’t like this at all, it’s a recipe for third world like corruption and a dangerous precedent.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4484229683
Phil, I share your concerns about what is happening to the checks and balances and there is a letter of mine on this topic in The Australian today.
It means trying to justify a giant fark-off pork barrel around election time and at all stages of the electoral cycle within Labor states.
more like revelling in the spoils of power, or rolling around like pigs in…..or massaged with fragrant oils with…
i now understand the value of the US system of two terms for president. for a great president it can mean getting rid of them too early, but it also weeds out the ones…. who just can’t help going for the ‘president for life’ title.
hewson was dead right – they’d carry howard out in a box, if left up to jwh.
Yep, federalism is a vertical check and balance. A good one too IMO. Unitary government is a structural weakness.
The word “aspiration” seems to be marketing code for “greed”:
First of all, what does “as appropriate” mean? It means this is a non-core promise. When rates go up even further, this policy gets thrown overboard.
Secondly, who is going to believe Howard on anything anymore, particularly this nonsense about putting funds away for investment. For example:
Reminds me of our “Foreign Aid” budget, which is spent on locking refugees in cages.
I don’t think Australians will buy this new “vision thing” from Howard. He’s had eleven years in power, for Gawd’s sake, and near-total control of government throughout his last term. The Constitution-altering priorities he now sets forth as urgent were considered secondary to WorkChoices and other abhorrent policies. Piss on him. It’s no wonder he can’t drag his poll ratings up from the gutter.
It all sounds like Howard wants a nanny-state run by businesses. Looks like Howard’s drifting away from Menzies and towards Thatcher.
I’m just completely gobsmacked by Howard’s speech.
What’s really amazing is that Howard is banking on a strategy that assumes that the public think that he can actually deliver on his promises. Even if we were to look over the outrageous abandonment of federalism that Howard is invoking (which I think quite a few Coalition supporters might be a little worried about), how many voters out there trust the feds to do a better job than their state counterparts.
It isn’t as though Howard’s government has had a fantastic record in public administration this term:
1. Ruddock and Vanstone’s brilliant immigration departments (how many citizens have been accidently deported lately?)
2. Foreign affairs and trade (AWB)
3. The Federal Police (Haneef)
… I could keep going but you’ve all heard it all before.
It seems pretty clear to me that if we gave the Coalition a free-pass to do whatever the hell they feel like they’d probably screw it up. Oh wait, we did and they did.
When I heard Johny talking of “aspirational nationalism” I thought.. ‘flag pole envy’. You know, coveting thy neighbours ensign. In a jolly, healthy, competive Aussie kind of way, of course.
It is a well established fact that centralising control of everything to Canberra and allowing warm hearted and worldly public servants to decide and implement what is best for us is the the best way to run Australia.
This notion has always been popular with Australians. Especially, those living in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Please. This latest foray into centralism is disturbing because it suggests a desire to embark on a new phase of particularly bad public policy, but talk of ‘benevolent dictatorships’ and ‘presidents for life’ are hysterical. Have you forgotten that Howard is most probably about to lose a Federal election in humiliating circumstances?
Oh, and forgive me if I don’t take my cues on liberalism from you, Phil. The serious liberals have very rarely been on Howard’s side, for obvious reasons.
Cheers
BBB
Next stop: abolishing the upper house. It worked so well for Joh.
But hang on: that would put some valuable party members out to pasture, possibly before their superannuation has a chance to max out. Maybe just reform things a little. You know: regional representatives; rigidly defined responsibilities; limited power. Good ol’ rubber stamp stuff.
Lest we forget:
The quote was recently supplied by Paul Keating, whose speech last month now looks spot on.
I reckon this is not merely bizarre at a policy level, it’s bizarre at a political level. Greensborough Growler’s right – this approach could lose a lot of seats in the more parochial states if Labor is clever enough to exploit it.
Beattie will be putting the words “Canberra” and “southerners” into every speech from now till the election. Howard might even succeed in doing the impossible – make those council amalgamations popular.
Except that the upper house was abolished in Queensland in 1922 by E. G. Theodore’s Labor government.
This is all part of johnies “relaxed and comfortable” attitude to society and politics.
It fits the benevolent dictator argument mentioned above. In other words, way too many australians pay so little attention to politics, they are perfectly willing to throw away any notions of accountability and good governance just as long as Howard throws a few sheckles at them just before each election.
“aspirational nationalism” is a euphamism for “licence to pork barrell”
The Queensland government has just announced a Royal Commission into why the big oil companies are not passing on the State Governmentpetrol price subsidy to motorists. It will report in November. Bill Pincus, a retired judge, is due to report by November.
Pity that they didn’t have an inquiry into bank fees while they were at it.
C’mon DD, Howard is the benevolent father of our great nation etc, surely he can do no wrong? Queenslander’s would love to just hand over their state to a cochroach-loving Waratah supporter…
Somewhere in the bowels of Parliament House, John Howard found Ros Kelly’s whiteboard, dusted it off and blew it up to State-size.
But why stop there? If the States are doing such an ordinary job, abolish them (an idea I think I agree with). But shouldn’t we have have a referendum first?
I was fascinated by Howard’s comments on volunteerism, and how he wants to promote this further in the community. I spent 20 years in the not for profit sector working with international volunteering, with the last 7 years under the current Federal Government. During this period, I saw dramatic flowering of the volunteering spirit and contribution, until the late 1990′s, when the Federal Government used its financial and political power to harness our program to serve the Government’s aims.
They turned an NGO with a long and very successful history of tapping in the Australian community to create positive impact in communities in the Asia Pacific, into a contractor that expoited community goodwill to do this Government’s bidding on the cheap.
Anyone who takes on John Howard’s volunteering concept will soon find that the support you get is laced with a very heavy dose of his politics and ideaology, often enough to kill off what you stand for.
I think it means marginal seat porkism. Lucky dip nationalism.
What a hapless, haphazard way to run federal public policy. And all announced at 10 minutes to midnight.
The ALP can drive a truck through this one all day long, with radical ideas like:
- infrastructure for all Australians, not just those in lib marginals.
- a coordinated national approach v lucky dip giveaways.
The States are no longer necessary. They’re an expensive relic of the past.
They are a mere costly but inefficient duplication of government services provided nationally, and what could happen locally, on the ground, where the people are. It happens in the UK where there are at least 4 times as many people as in Australia (although the cultural interests of Scotland and Wales have belatedly resulted in the reintroduction of their own Parliaments).
Better services could be delivered by a combination of Commonwealth and local governments. Individuals and local communities are best at knowing and providing their own services and attending to their own needs. The States ignore those community needs for politically expedient reasons that recognises they must spend money or be seen to be active to those voters where the bulk of the votes are – but not necessarily for the overall good.
We are swamped by reckless continuous politicking games that overtake our daily lives, because we have governments at too many levels with all too short Parliamentary terms. Too much governance is a throwback to our colonial, convict, 19th century era heritage, which seeks to control and direct our lives rather than governments being the servants of an intelligent, educated people in an information rich 21st century.
I look forward to the day, which can’t come soon enough, that the Australian Government accredits hospitals, major infrastructure like water, roads and electricity and non-government schools. I look forward to the day that the Commonwealth does what the States won’t like legislating International Human Rights Law, and establishes a justice system that hears allegations of breaches of human rights.
It’s only the Constitution that stands in the way of real progress. In the absence of changes to the Constitution, then the Commonwealth ought to act for the good of the people and the nation as a whole, not a bunch of States divided by their petty squabbles, lack of agreement and parochialisms, even when they’re run by the same (Labor) political parties.
We are over-governed and over-regulated.
It would be a real revolution if our now and then drunk, me-too Prime Ministerial aspirant could also put his mind to something future oriented rather than his backward looking view of life for the 21st century.
I spent maybe approx over seven years recycling fertiliser bags and beer bottles and cleaning up to a certain extent at the local tip..it wasnt considered voluntary work because the Howard government burdened everyone with the matters of legal definition….I could unburden myself here by those who moralise from within the experience of the legal definition.As a form of moralising I would unburden myself into Howard s ears completely so that only he can effectively categorize all the collected loud noises of my years of what I was doing.As a exercise in wondering wether you are brainwashed..tap together any glass bottles together rapidly,whereever you are,whilst we have a APEC meeting.And not in the restricted Sydney area. Whenever you become suspicious of background sound.
If I was a non-Gvt spinner, right now I’d be writing in big, bold letters that Howard has completely lost confidence in the Liberal State branches of ever winning a state government—ever. Then let the State Libs fight it, and explain how they would work collaboratively under such an interventionist federal gvt. How else can this be “justified” by Howard? It only makes “sense” outside of this political campaign if you make that the assumption. Else this would never be proposed if there was even one Liberal State Government, or a probability of one winning in the near future.
Derek says:
“I look forward to the day that the Commonwealth does what the States won’t like legislating International Human Rights Law..”
Ahem. Both Victoria and the ACT remain the only Australian jurisdictions that have Legislated Charters of Rights for their citizens.
It is the Commonwealth that has consistently refused to introduce one.
So much for “doing what the States’ won’t.
As Jon says, Howard apparently has no faith in the Libs ever again winning office in any of the States. Further, he must believe the Libs will retain power in Canberra for ever. It is no wonder Rudd is taking a “me too” position every time Howard extends the C/wealths control over State functions. He must be relishing the chance to exercise the new range of Federal power.
What really surprises me is the silence of State Liberal pollies. There are some still out there aren’t there. Howard is just neutering them every time he opens his mouth.
Conservative State pollies in the past such as Joh, Charles Court or Henry Bolte would have come down on Howard like a ton of bricks and openly campaigned against him in the Federal election. They would have been well aware a rampant Howard would destroy their fiefdom.
Just a quick one:
Can someone tell me how volunteerism and workchoices fit together?
My impression is that the “operational flexibility” provided by workchoices, greatly reduces people’s ability to volunteer. When Howard starts forcing something like the French law enforcing a 35 hour week, then I’ll believe he’s serious about volunteerism.
The conservative constitutional lawyer Greg Craven, in the AFR today, hit the nail on the head in his description of this latest manifestation of Howard’s increasingly desparate over-reach:
Remind me again why Howard is seen as a good economic manager??
Is it even possible to get rid of the states? You need a referendum to change the Constitution, which means a majority of States having a majority of “Yes” votes – plus a majority of people voting “Yes” overall. I can’t see the referendum getting the nod in WA or Queensland. So ALL four of the remaining states have to vote “Yes”. Is that even possible?
“When Howard starts forcing something like the French law enforcing a 35 hour week, then I’ll believe he’s serious about volunteerism.”
He is serious about “volunteerism”, Fozzy. For many of the out of work, it is….. compulsory.
Focusing on volunteering as a way to fill service gaps fills me with frustration and anger. I do volunteer work weekly (girl guides), but I see that as the ‘gravy’ on life – volunteering should NOT be providing the meat and potatoes of services.
What a way to kill people’s interest and involvement and ‘community spirit’.
Aspirational nationalism is an easy concept to grasp. Telling core aspirational nationalism form non-core aspirational nationalism, now that’s challenge. Howard loves monuments.
Aspirational nationalism, the Howard doctrine, deputy sheriff, etc etc. He now has his own ideology although it’s as contentless as the rest of his program. Can the the mass flash card displays and a little brown book be far behind?
It’s quite siple really, Fozzie, everybody gets to work long hours for nothing or next to nothing! Not a lot of difference between Workchoices and volunteering as far as I can tell.
Ms Laurie,
Maybe there is no surer way to kill “people’s interest and involvement and ‘community spirit’” than by taking social responsibility from individuals, households and private charity and placing it on monolithic government.
Perhaps where a government is responsible for almost everything social, persons of above-average means are less inclined to engage with the social needs of those less fortunate, because it is not seen as a human duty, rather a burden to be borne through narrow and impersonal economic transactions that arise from taxation. Of course, everyone remains free to contribute to others over and above their obligations under the tax system, but is it any wonder that people give less when every social evil can be explained away or swept under the carpet of the mind by reference to a failing bureaucracy somewhere?
Cheers
BBB
All other priorities suborned to consumerism and jingoism.
Guess you’d be dead against Howard’s latest attempt at creating the mother of all monoliths, then BBB.
Once again for the particularly dim-witted: “This latest foray into centralism is disturbing because it suggests a desire to embark on a new phase of particularly bad public policy.”
Do keep up, adrian.
Cheers
BBB
Of course not Adrian, he’ll excuse anything the Govt does and dress it up as some kind of new fangled version of Liberalism.
Is the emerging Howard policy of bypassing the states tacit recognition that at the state level the liberals in most states (if not all states) are a disorganised rabble and likely to be irrelevant at least for the medium term if not forever. This looks like a last desperate grasp at securing a place for conservative government in Australia.
This may be correct.
Fortunately, the Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, provided an efficient means for the people of Australia to change the relationship between levels of government.
It’s called a “referendum”.
With the exception of the British constitution, which is unwritten, the Australian Constitution is easier to change than any constitution that I know of.
If Mr Howard wants to change the relationships between the federal government and the states, he is welcome to try his hand at persuading the electorate to vote “Yes”.
If Mr Howard attempts to alter the Australian Constitution by any other means, Mr Howard could be accused of seditious intent to overthrow the Australian Constitution.
Maybe ther is no surer way to buid ghettos and poverty than behave as the Howard Government has and build up a vast resevoir of working poor unable to afford housing suitable to their requirements.
Nitpick: DVDs. Not DVD’s.
This is simply a policy to undermine the democracy of the States and eventually trash them; manage, threaten and intimidate any part of the community that wants or needs money; to hand money to friendlys and deny it to ideological opponents; to punish and to reward, in fact it sounds a lot like their intervention into the Northern Terriritory.
This policy/intention is far worse than WorkChoices it aims squarely to create chaos in the States and to assume their role or be a defacto or be a spoiler when they feel like it. It is institutionalised Pork Barreling and a licence to anarchy.
Has Howard gone mad? Has he in this desperate attempt to cling to power decided to take the country down with him? AND I note the murdoch press of given him a bit of space today.
This is a sad day in the history of our democracy, should Howard win this election.
Steve – the housing affordability issue is a State and Local one. It is State and local governments who control the new land releases, not Federal. The housing affordability crisis is purely a supply and demand problem. There is not enough supply to meet demand and that is pushing prices up.
In deference to Godwin we now refer to the Liberal Party as the Azni party
fuunny that it wasn’t in the last election campaign when keeping interest rates at record lows was all the go. The election campaign before that saw the $14000 First Home Buyers Scam but I know where you are coming from man, now it has all turned against the Feds.
Howard is putting new meaning into the notion of the withering away of the States(s). If he is elected, he will gradually suck the state governments dry of responsibilities (while porking the politically valuable marginals) and they will eventually collapse under their own irrelevance. Then we will be offered a referendum to kill them off totally, because it will be done deal. An eventual outcome preferred by many, including Gough Whitlam, but it will take years of chaotic blundering around, as political, economic and social systems attempt to adjust on the run. Meanwhile Howard will treat us to more of the “rising boats” rhetoric, aka the “trickle down effect”, aka we all get pissed on.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
-Samuel Johnson, 1775.
I notice that Australian troops are already taking up Howard’s new theme and applying a good ol’ dose of Aussie values in East Timor.
The States are an anachronism from colonial times. We should have Federal Government and Regional Governments. Getting rid of both States and the current local councils.
I can understand why the Federal Governemnt wants to step in where the States are failing.
I have stopped going to the Pilbara to visit clients because the last two time I went up I could hardly book a seat and had to take a swag and sleep on the ground at the Caravan Park in Karratha. Why? Because the State and Local Governments have failed to provide enough infrastrucuture and are making no effort to catch up. Then there is the Mandurah railway line. $2 billion dollars to shift maybe 60,000 people five days a week. Any simple analysis (J Quiggin should do one of his beloved cost-benefits and opportunity costs analysis) shows that it was a poor option. Then we have the terrible things happening in the Aboriginal communities. I don’t know if the East Coast has heard about all the recent charges laid in Fitzroy Crossing and Halls creek for child related sex offences, many tens of adults on hundreds of charges – and yet you have the Carpenter Government taking a holier than thou attitude towards the Federal Government intervention in the NT.
The same applies to education. The States complain about Federal funding going to private schools, but the public schools are manifestly failing students. Parents who demand excellence in maths, science, humanities, culture and sport see this compromised by poor discipline, and lack of focus on the core subjects due to too much time spent on frivilous social engineering subjects. Sport in public schools is almost a complete waste of time.
State and Local Goverments in WA spend more time trying to remember to apologize to the aboriginals at the start of their speeches for being on “their land” than making sound policy decisions.
Chav – you’ve taken this completely off topic but I will respond.
Acquiring flags is a common military activity that has gone on for milenia. I have particpated in the activity (The Tent Embassy, Canberra was the easiest one ever). I have a mate who, on exchange with a British unit, was sent home in disgrace for getting caught acquiring a Serbian flag. He was pissed and it was Christmas day, but the Cavalry had a dim view of the Antipodean antics.
The claims by Fretelin that this is some sort of political thing are baseless. The claims they would have been used as toilet paper are also baseless. Acquired flags are prized trophies to be displayed in the future when the furore subsides.
The only problem I see here is that they got caught.
Interesting how today the wingnut element has fallen into line with the big interventionist Govt mantra. We’re against it, until we’re for it.
The problem here is how you see Govt, Lefty makes a good point in that Govt is either to serve you or master you, based on his populist form I’m thinking Howard is taking the master option.
Clearly, Mr Howard continues to perceive himself to be a very clever politician.
John Howard’s new policy, ‘Aspirational Nationalism’, ought to be quickly and loudly identified for what it truly is and, it’s ultimate ends. We have never before had such a deliberate attack on democracy or such an effort to create nation-wide chaos. This policy is quite knowingly designed to ruin States and to render them useless shells whilst simultaneously transferring all powers to a single person, the whim of the PM. In an effort to cling to power Mr Howard has decided to attack the core of Australia’s greatness and the core of our continuing peace and prosperity, the Federation of the States and the constitution of this country. This is selfish viciousness breathtaking in it’s audacity and frightening in it’s intent. This is a policy far worse than WorkChoices. Mr Howard should be told that Australia is not a personal toy to be tossed and banged in a tantrum when you can’t have what you want. Before, this was just a normal election but now, I am scared.
Two minutes on the internets…
Oooh, was that the screeching sound of a thread going off-topic? I heard the wonderful noise and came running.
I’m with Razor, and don’t see anything wrong with diggers making souvenirs of Fretilin flags. The whole point of the bits of rag is that they do so well in symbolising territory or ambitions to Statehood, so they’ve a natural value for yoinking.
If I was Fretilin, I’d feel pathetic whingeing about someone stealing flags. I’d want to souvenir a blue ensign or two from poles at the ADF compounds for revenge and amusement, though I admit that might not be so easy. Once upon a time, on a student occupation years ago of the NSW Liberal Party headquarters, we held a portrait of the Queen for HECS ransom… but that’s another story.
Personally I’d encourage a bit of flag-swapping, like international footballers do with jerseys, but hey, it’s the thought that counts.
Razor reckons:
“The States are an anachronism from colonial times. We should have Federal Government and Regional Governments…”
Watch out mate, you’re starting to sound like Gough Whitlam.
He had an identical idea about 40 years ago, but a little thing called the Australian Constiution got in the way. (I seem to recall the State and Federal Libs at the time getting pretty outraged about his plans too. I believe that “a transparent power grab” was one of the descriptions they used.)
But what the hell. If you can’t win a State election, abolish the States. The Constitution is just a bit of paper eh? (As George Bush said of the US version).
Says who?
They (the Australian troops) wiped…their…arses…with the flag that thousands of Timorese had died fighting for during Indonesian occupation.
Think about what that would mean to those people…
Liam, this is not off-topic. I was merely bringing to LP’ers attention an example of the sort of nationalism that Howard is so generously sharing with our neighbours. The actions of the Australian soldiers is highly symbolic of this.
Looks like Brough can’t decide if he is a Federal Government Minister, A Northern Territory Minister, or a merchant Banker socking money away for the future.
1. Absolutely what Kina said.
2. But to return to Derek Shepard’s point earlier about the States…
“They are a mere costly but inefficient duplication of government services provided nationally, and what could happen locally, on the ground, where the people are. It happens in the UK where there are at least 4 times as many people as in Australia (although the cultural interests of Scotland and Wales have belatedly resulted in the reintroduction of their own Parliaments).”
3 times, in total, not 4 (60 million versus 20).
The UK has for centuries had national, county-level and sub-county (district, parish etc) levels of government. Partial devolution of Wales, Scotland and NI could be construed as creation of a new analogue of the Australian States. Oz currently gets off pretty lightly with only 3 tiers of government.
“The States ignore those community needs for politically expedient reasons …not necessarily for the overall good.”
Just like the federal government in Oz.
“we have governments at too many levels”
No.
” with all too short Parliamentary terms.”
Nail on head. Yes. This is important. 4-year fixed terms would reduce the proportion of time spent on pork and games, relative to time spent on governance.
The problem, Derek, is not that Oz has too many governments, but that most of them do not govern well. They prioritise looking after their mates and marginal voters and staying in power above the long-term best interests of the country.
Removing checks, balances and competing lines of power would be fine if we actually had competent, trustworthy political leaders and a well-informed, critical, non-complacent populace, but we don’t. Yet.
“I look forward to the day…the Commonwealth does what the States won’t like legislating International Human Rights Law, and establishes a justice system that hears allegations of breaches of human rights.”
??? The Commonwealth is the biggest infringer of human rights in Oz at the moment.
“It’s only the Constitution that stands in the way of real progress.”
Not quite. The Constitution is, admittedly, an out-of-date, difficult-to-update and largely useless document that discusses many things that are no longer relevant while failing to define powers and responsibilities of currently important offices like, for instance, the Prime Ministership. It needs replacing. And a new one could do a much better job of preventing power centralisation and other current maladies like the tendency of politicians to avoid acting the the national interest on anything serious when they can act as colonial governors for US-based multinationals instead.
Some things, I agree, could be centralised. National-level infrastructure, educational and healthcare standards, etc should probably be among them. But while a Federal government cannot be trusted to act in the interests of all regions, it will be necessary to have regional governments with the clout to defend against the Federal when needed. The current States may be too big and heterogeneous, and should maybe be replaced with a larger number of smaller units. And there is a definite need for a proportion of tax dollars to funnel up through them to the Feds rather than the other way round. A State/Regional tier of government is definitely needed until we obtain a much higher calibre of political class.
Anyone who’s had anything to do with Centrelink or the ATO would be very very suspicious of the claim that the Federal government is better at doing stuff than the states.
Like the chook cages the Iraqi Govt. locks insurgents in (going by an eye opening report on SBS news the other day)…the same government that John Howard & GW Bush support.
State government responsibilities might eventually be absorbed & shared out between ever expanding councils (amalgamation being a part of this process)…& by the Federal Govt…but at present i doubt this is any more than an election ploy by Howard in order to point out State Labor inadequacies…& an attempt to gain voter’s support in driving State Govts to make ports run more efficiently for his Corporate Resource mates & provide cover for his Government’s pathetic inability to demonstrate vision…
or come up w/ future proofing projects…primarily because their main goal is to minimise the tax burden on multi-national corporations & individuals who provide support to the Coalition & write its policies…& rape our LAND & send vast quantities of it to Chindia…in order to produce vast amounts of cheap goods (which helps their mates share prices shoot to the moon whilst contributing to mass quantities of carbon being released into the atmosphere & air + water pollutants overseas…rather there than over here…remind you of anything else?)…to be shipped back here for mass consumption…
& in turn ensures workers are driven into unhealthy mining jobs & tons of low paid retail jobs…in order to keep inflation & unemployment low…regardless of the consequences on the environment & mental/physical well being of WORKERS…
whilst relying on the War to eventually provide a cheap & obedient & grateful work force dictated to under AWAs (palatable Iraqi Christians, East Timorese etc & such coming our way…remember the Vietnam war?…War is constructed to kill twenty birds w/ one stone)…
BTW, on the whole most State responsibilities would be too much of a media nightmare & financial black hole for the Feds to take on full bore…so they set up a semi- election slush fund to purchase the odd failing hospital & school…& introduce AWAs & other cost cutting measures
- this is why ‘technical schools’ are so appealing…they can keep the Unions out, bring in more business/industry people to teach w/out usual educational qualifications like they do in America…sometimes older people who’ve lost the bulk of their company pension due to Corporate bankruptcy under Chapter 11 & then were made redundant but don’t have enuff to pay off their health bills etc…consequently willing to work for peanuts & sh*t conditions -
and in turn the taxpayer’s money is used to bring in teaching/self-learning modules, catering, equipment etc. that benefits the Coalition’s company mates. And chaplains (religious organisations) & war recruiters get easy access too.
Yep, i agree w/ Gandhi…aspirational means GREEDY…aspirational nationalism means let’s all be GREEDY CORPORATE TOTALITARIAN CONTROLLED SERFS.
More to the point, you just go and ask the people of Wales, Scotland and NI whether they’ve been better served since having their own parliaments. Cultural interests bollocks – it was the way that Westminster systematically neglected the country outside the south east counties as much as it could get away with.
There’s more than a few people who don’t trust Canberra to any more fully representative than Westminster was.
It is the responsibility of the Main Stream Media to now inform the public just what Howard’s policy really means so that an informed public can make informed choices. We will see very soon if the murdoch or fairfax press are in co-operation with the Government in pushing this policy along without due analysis.
Australia is an economic miracle under the traditionalist, family valued, and conservative spouting Howard government that we need to destroy the foundations of our democracy or we will disappear up our economic fundamentals!
Time for my soma.
Howard has always been a Sydney chauvinist.
Here’s what he said in New York in 1999:
Now, I have nothing against Sydney. It’s a nice place to visit. But it is clear that Howard proposes to cross-subsidise Sydney at the expense of every other city in his dirigiste ambitions. This has depressive effects on real estate prices and job opportunities everywhere else in Australia. Let Sydney interests find their own path to success.
If Howard makes a grab for centralised power these ambitions will be untrammelled.
Can someone please tell me how the Mersey hopital is a Federal issue and not a Tasmanian one, how local Government amalgamations are a Federal issue and not a Queensland one and how the Northern Territory land grab is a Federal issue and not a Northern Territory one?
Just on the off-topic topic: With Razor, I seriously doubt the arse-wiping accusation by Fretilin, however it does seem clear the ADF nicked em.
What you need to understand is that flags and similar in Timor are a big deal. I mean a really big deal.
For example, you will still find pre-1910 Portuguese Monarchy flags being treated as Uma Lulik (sacred objects) today – still stored away in the sacred houses of in the regions, dragged out to show visitors.
The upshot: to steal a flag in Melanesia culture is way more offensive that we would understand it to be.
Try nicking Collingwood’s, or South Sydney’s old silverware from their club trophy room, and you’re getting a bit closer.
Again, I make this general point: if we are going to intervene more often in the so-called “arc of isntability”, however some basic training in Melanesian culture and language for the troops? So they’ve got some idea whats going on.
It would really help matters.
.. how about some basic training…. that was
This new vision of “aspirational nationalism” appears to be an umbrella approach to governing, which comes with three strategies to guide decision-making: trusting the states to take responsibility, co-operative federalism and bypassing the states to deal directly with local communities.
My interest in “nationalism” is broader than the concern about “concentration versus and separations of power”.
So while the editor of The Australian today declares that “Aspirational nationalism trumps co-operative federalism”, I’m reminded of Ed’s other recent appraisal of national vision expressed by former PM Paul Keating, who attempted to make a distinction between the meaning of related terms “nationalist” and “patriot”
Ed wrote about Keating’s recent speech to the Sydney Film School:
“Mr Keating claims the virtue of a patriot, as opposed to the nasty nationalist Mr Howard who has followed the exclusionary example of Margaret Thatcher and Adolf Hitler.”
Paul Keating was expressing concern about the consequences of nationalism, warranting us to think of both nationalism and patriotism as a dichotomy.
Perhaps you do not agree with the way in which he went about this. Certainly, our newspaper editors – notably from the often more contrasting editorials of The Age and The Australian – were both quick to condemn the Howard-Hitler association, however carefully Mr. Keating chose his words.
I do believe Paul Keating’s intended meanings have been taken out of context, that he certainly did not “mention the PM and a genocidal maniac in the same breath”, to quote an exaggeration from the editor of the Herald Sun.
I also believe that our newspaper editors lacked the courage to deconstruct Keating’s controversial words, making it easier for John Howard to express the following view in his speech yesterday:
“I’ve often said that there are two powerful trends in Australia today: localism and nationalism. Neither are of a brash, exclusivist variety; both embody a very Australian brand of quiet, understated pride and patriotism.”
However, I assert it is equally valid that the globalisation of culture, politics and economy, along with the complexity this causes, challenges us to “think beyond a national mindset”.
A truly “non-exclusivist” vision of the world today is to contemplate an organisation as being as small as the organised skillset of an individual and contemplate the environment such an organisation interacts with as being as wide as the entire world.
This is due to the trend that Thomas L. Friedman identifies as “vastly improved horizontal communication – to the detriment of the exclusively top-down form that communism was based upon.”
However, having been studying Public Relations of late, I can assure you that the “vastly improved horizontal communications” do not necessarily remove top-down forms of communication.
Not that I’m suggesting they should, but in globalised world, I do believe Paul Keating raises an important point in questioning the definition and relevance of modern-day nationalism and that the two opposing forms of communication (the vertical and the horizintal) puts a view of a nationalist-patriot dichotomy into context.
Now, please be patient with me as I slowly develop this argument. I’m in Tafe, while “sampling” one University subject per semester. This argument I’m developing is THE most difficult I’ve ever had to research.
I’m currently just finished reading two university readings from a future subject (Media Studies) that contemplates the relationship between Media, Sport and National Identity. I’ve got questions to answer from reading those, powerpoints to read, more of Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” to read.
However, I already do believe I’m on a course of very interesting inquiry and I challenge others to consider the importance of nationalism as an issue in the 21st century.
…From Justin
steve – they aren’t Federal issues, but the failure of State and Locl overnments make them furtile grounds for intervention to fix the problems. I think the Tassy Hospital stunt is a waste of money, however I’m not trying to win government.
Howard and co are not trying to win either. More like just be a nuisance before being relegated to the history books by the looks of this behaviour.
Lefty E -I have no doubt that you are correct. That said, the problem for these guys is that they got caught. People who are that attached to flags need to get over themselves.
I got a couple of Pro-government election flags out of Indonesia back in the late 1990′s. I was sweating that hard coming through Indon customs that I’m suprised they didn’t pick me for a mule.
Steve – I know the current polling doesn’t look good, but I have more faith in the betting market. And this site still shows it being a close run thing. We are nothing without hope.
At least they weren’t anti-government flags Razor.
Then you’d have a good reason to sweat in Indonesian customs!
“I have more faith in the betting market.”
Razor, you can back your faith and bet on the coalition at $2.55 on Centrebet. Very juicy odds indeed if you think they are going to win.
Coalition supporters have nothing left but hope. All sense of continuing the charade is evaporating and mudsling is all that is left. Fortunately even that is a losing trait these days.
Anyway, they won two elections more than they deserved so you’d have to be happy with that.
I’ve just read that speech. It reminded me a lot of that hairy-chested rhetoric Fraser came out with in 1983, “we’re not waiting for the world” ad all that. Interesting to note that there’s no place for Costello in any of it.
Better call off Maxine, she’s got ratty more excited than kevvie ever was in nooyork. And I think he wants to take us all down with him.
“they won two elections more than they deserved”
They won four more elections than they deserved, actually.
I saw an interesting sticker at Central railway station today: “Deliver us from Howard.”
The Prime Minister exhorts us all to be aspiring nationalists.
Think I’ll pass Mr. Howard.
Adolf Hitler started his political career as an aspiring nationalist and look where that led.
“And I think he wants to take us all down with him..” via zorronsky
Now, that is the scarey part. The rodent, in a corner, might well bring on a constitutional crisis of some description. I, for one, will not be heading to APEC, for instance, to protest that gentlemans’ meeting. If it looks like a ‘bait switch’, it probably is. It is worth considering that this Howard bloke might prove even more dangerous and will try, almost, anything on.
“Before, this was just a normal election but now, I am scared.” said Kina.
Hope the penny has dropped for than you, Kina. The stakes for this country are very high.
[hand to heart]
I, Lefty E, believe in pork.
Yep some of us read about it and some of us lived it . Never ever thought I would see the wheels turn so fast back to the youth of the last oldest generation that fort the great battle against nationalism.
Just for fun, one could argue that it is actually the Federal level of government that has become redundant, not the States or local Councils. You know, death of the whole nation-state in an age of globalization sort of thing.
In that case, we could just give the states more power, sign them up en masse to a bunch of FTA’s, and maybe even wipe our own asses on the Australian flag, given all the trouble such nationalistic nonsense has caused this sorry world over the years.
I’m just waiting for the ASS-NATS 4 eva, dude! YouTube video from JHo.
gandhi, nice, lateral thinking.
The Federal Government has all this money to spend and is only looking to ‘marginal electorates’ to drop it in, or….. ‘hog it’, to pay off their own super or for the minions.
There’s an angle in here about strengthening the share market (and their merchant bankers’ fees) with the “funds” too.
Jo:
For heaven’s sake!
He is ANTI-nationalist – despite all the flaggery and all the yapping about Australian values and Australian heroes.
He is ANTI-Digger despite all the cheesy grins at photo-opportunities with ADF personnel.
He is very very radical and ANTI-traditional – just look at how swiftly habeus corpus and personal privacy were destroyed using the excuse of fiddling with possible terrorist threats; look at how swiftly trespass became a weapon for the regime to use against its citizens in the dodgy “Intervention” ….
“Nationalist?” Pig’s ar*e he is!
actually, graham that was phil i was quoting….
Jo:
So sorry.
Now Howard has got people in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth paying for a National Party inspired vote for a shire that isn’t even being amalgamated in Queensland. The Winton shire has excelled itself with bringing National Party and Howard’s pork barrelling to a new low.
Kim,
That angle is a little weak. These are long-term funds that will have little effect on the long-term aggregate value of Australian shares, listed or otherwise. Even on shorter timescales, the effects are probably marginal. I understand that the Future Fund entered the market over the past few months, and it did little to stop the sentiment-driven volatility that we have recently experienced. We are talking about ~$70 billion here. From memory (don’t quote me) that is not much more than a single day’s loss across the All Ords last week.
Cheers
BBB
From the time I was a small child, I was always puzzled how German people (who I believe to be decent) allowed Hitler to rise to the heights he did. I am sorry to say, after the politics in this country in the last decade or so, I now know how it happened.
I bet there are a lot of comparisons between pre-war 11 Germany and present day Australia.
As much as we may hate it, the means are as important the ends. Maybe more so.
Florence
You are more than welcome to take your maudlin Teutonic projections back to Germany any time you like.
JG, you are more than welcome to take your pointless and rude comments to another blog.
What are these comparisons, Florence? Since you have been puzzling since you were a small child about how the German people allowed Hitler to rise to the heights he did I am sure you have a ready answer to this question.