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MatthewCheshire

Listed below are comments made by MatthewCheshire between Monday, 29th June 2009 and Thursday, 5th November 2009.

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The Republican Referendum: Ten Years On 04:47am on 05 Nov 2009 Hi Nick,

The monarchy has widely been regarded as an anachronism since long before 1999. But its a plush and comfortable anachronism. Like the flag that has failed to be replaced despite multiple competitions, the Monarchy's place in Australia's history tends to outweigh the irritation of it being outmoded. Trivialities such as deleting "royal" from the RSPCA and Royal Fly Doctors caused more consternation than Queen has since the dismissal.

And the Australian President is like a four blade razor. A solution no one has actually been asking for. The number of Australians that are desperate to create more power for more politicians could be assembled on a pin head.

Unless the constitution can be rewritten for $2.50, most Australians would rather pay off our brand new debt- isn't that the real danger for foreign control?
Seeking asylum by boat or by plane 02:05am on 22 Oct 2009 Nick, I believe your suspicions are correct. Boat people stories here are just easy points for Politicians and the media, with no victims to complain except the impoverished "criminals" they beat up.

Months ago I asked a number of friends how big the boat people problem is here. No one guessed less than 30,000 and one answer was 100,000. All were genuinely surprised that we expect only a few thousand.

They are hardly replacing our road toll.

I also ask how many illegals arrive by plane and the common response was "I didn't know it was a real problem".

This is the view media creates here. Mixing the threat of teeming millions of impoverished boat people poised to invade, and of organised crime as the driving force. Somehow desperate people all become hardened criminals when a boat and our media are involved.

If you ask people here if successful criminals are more likely to fly to Australia in comfort and enter with a tourist visa or risk a deadly and uncertain trip on a boat, you will be met with amazement at the concept.

Anyone who has entered Australia through an Airport will be given the impression that the biggest threat to Australia is actually stray fruit and untreated timber souvenirs. And the Australian Customs Service are probably correct there.
The fall-out from Utegate 05:50am on 29 Jun 2009 How can you hope lead a country if 1 dodgy email can lead you to derail your credibility? Would PM Turnbull run the country by reading his spam? At least Swan hasn't tried to quadruple our tax dollars in Nigeria yet.

But I am gobsmacked Labour can tar the Liberals with Latham. Are the Liberals so punch drunk that Labour can offload its worst baggage at will?

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