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SoapboxJoe

Listed below are comments made by SoapboxJoe between Sunday, 27th September 2009 and Tuesday, 27th October 2009.

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Asylum, Afghanistan and rugby: blog updates 10:21am on 27 Oct 2009 And I am not putting my money on Frankie again in the cup this year.
Big Australia 01:42am on 25 Oct 2009 To reach a population of 35 million, these people will be concentrated in the usual urban areas. For these to expand requires an end to cheap government, by that I mean government on the cheap.
From discussion with Aussies in my 4 years here, there appears to be universal acceptance that the state should collect water in the abundant north and pipe it south. A canal system pumping by solar powered pumping stations would be a logical move. Equally the debate over recycled water away from inflamatory terms such as effluent needs to be undertaken.
In Geelong recently there was a massive campaign against the introduction of floridation in the water, despite the known international precidents, health benefits (teeth are a health oversight for most people without health insurance).
Additionally cheap government must move away from piece meal action on transportation. A unification of rail gauges and a 'plan' of expansion is needed.
Melbourne has grown vastly in recent decades, and yet not one new rail line has been built to accomodate satellite townships being built on the city's outer. New free ways are typically toll ways and if these are needed due to necessity to gain access to work, then it detracts from any attractions to these growth, lower cost housing areas.
I believe that federalisation of much of what State government could and should do, is probably where it has to go. I suspect this to be only one hindrance in a chain of hindrances to achieving the new population levels.
Seeking asylum by boat or by plane 10:29am on 21 Oct 2009 I agree Nick, it is odd.
It almost borders on a national hysteria.
The debate is so purile with political stick pig the order of the day.
I find it strange to witness this national obsession and I cannot understand its origins especially since nearly all Australians are immigrants, or children of immigrants or their children.
Does Australia deserve its boozy reputation? 1:46pm on 08 Oct 2009 Been in Oz nearly 4 years now, and what is noticably different is the attitudes to drink driving. It is socially frowned upon but there seems to be an undercurrent of tasset acceptance. In the U.K to be a drink driver makes you a social outcast, it is socially unacceptable. Many times in conversations we are left to deduce that the person we are talking to about a night out was clearly drunk and drove home. It is not admitted outright, but the game is given away in the queues in the conversation. Driving regs seems to be less punishing too. Regularly we read about people being caught well over the limit in an unregistered car and suspended from driving for a previous incident (and frequently drink driving). The punishments by the courts do not seem to appreciate that extending a ban and fining them again is not the solution as they have just demonstrate complete contempt for judiciary by doing exactly what the legal system told them not to do.
I know I drink significantly less now in Australia than I did back in the U.K. The distances are a hindrance to a pub visit, which probably accounts for the earlier comments on driving under the influence.
Code dead? 11:11am on 07 Oct 2009 Seems the colloqial (SP?) colonial game called AFL is very frightened about the global reach that is Football. The fact that Australia will have featured in 2 consecutive World Cups will and should tell on the pyche of the people. To see their national team competing in a truly World competition in a mass participation sport will entice them to the dark side that is real Football where the ball is in contact with the foot more than it is any other part of the players anatomy.

Bren54, I have heard the AFL was first quote before. The problem is that AFL today is not the Aussie Rules football code that was originally played way back. The rules of the game change significantly every year.

Keep clutching at that claim if it defends your sensibilities against the tsunami that is (in Australia only) 'The World Game', but amazingly everywhere else called football.

With the salary cap, all codes should be safe. Bring in a bill of rights, and the salary cap will be undefendable and will break one or more codes.
Code dead? 06:00am on 06 Oct 2009 Been in OZ over 3 years and I am sorry, I just do not get the basket ball scoring competition that is AFL.
It amazes me to see (I have been to a few games) winning fans cheer their team frenetically for scoring when there is 5 minutes to go and they are 80 points up. Now scoring to go 3-1 up in football (soccer for my Australian neighbours), is worthy of celebrating. Going 4-1 up is equally worthy as this defines a drubbing margin. 5-1 or 6-1 and the response is more muted and begins to tend to mocking of the opposition fans' misfortune.
The problem AFL has is (from what I have learnt since being here) is that the fans actually want heavy contested physical encounters, and yet, the governing body is trying to make it a professional sport. With people needing it as a job and an income, they are keen to take out the career damaging or ending injuries and as such are removing the very elements the fans want to see! It seems most of the game is played on the floor, on your knees, diving in head first to move the ball, the game seems to break down. Why they call it footy when the ball is in hand more often than on the end of a foot, also dumbfounds me.

I still love my football. I go into jet lag mode whenever a big tournament is on (roll on the World Cup), and I can't see this changing.

All other sports (cricket aside) in Australia reflect only a passing interest. Even the A-League is near impossible to watch. Small pitch on big oval and English second division standards of play. I'm expecting Pele to get an 'international guest player' contract anytime soon. Perhaps they can't afford him until he has a zimmer frame and he drops his terms?

The problem is, if Australia really wants to be taken seriously in the World of ball sports, Football (OK again Soccer!) is the way to go.
I am just dying for Australia and England to be drawn in the same World Cup groups when the draw is made next year. I believe the Sport in Australia will rally for the exposure with the (old enemy/ashes associated) rivalry.

Australia loves beating other nations (particularly the old country) at sports (they still talk proud chestedly about the friendly when they beat us, "with two whole teams against us too!") and yet they stick to a game (AFL) that is going no where that in order to have any form of international arm to it has to be recoded and reworked with odd strange goals and rules so the Irish can give them a game.

Sorry in full rant mode now.

Perhaps allowing Australia to have the World cup would be a great start, especially as it was invented as a Winter game, and yet the pinnacle competition seems perpetually to be played at the peak of summer. No wonder England has only won it once. I recall Germany in 2006 was too hot for them when the pressure started to tell and players began to fatigue. An Antipodean World Cup would make all those northern European teams a better chance of winning because, that's how they play their games. Try sticking Brazil or Argentina into a World Cup run between January and February in England and see how many tournaments they win wearing all in one woolly body suits, which is the reverse senario.
Brand Australia 06:37am on 02 Oct 2009 The glorious place for glorious times.

Australia, a lifetime of discovery.

Australia, more British than Britain, every day.
Brown and markets 01:11am on 01 Oct 2009 Labour never lost its' centralist verve.
It has spent so much of the nations future earnings on things it decided society centrally needed.
How much money has been blown on ID cards most people do not want. Rather than extending existing identification to include photographs we now have something that is going to be impossible to maintain (bio-metrics indeed) and will cost people too much to acquire and retain.
Infrastructure has been built with scant regard to how it is to be paid for, creating an ever increasing debt burden.
All of a sudden the GFC meant that the government needed more of the nations future earnings to stop the rott. The debt burden is now so great, Britian has a very uncertain future ahead irrespective of who governs it. This is the legacy Brown has created for himself, a nation that could easily implode into a spiral of crime, poverty, and public unrest.
All that was needed from Labour when they came to power in 1997 was not the grand schemes or the iconic white elephants (there have been many, the dome must surely be at the top of the list), but a root and branch re-working of regulations to iron out the holes, holes the economy fell into.
A minimum wage was introduced to prevent exploitation of the masses by the few, but, no thought about regulating a maximum wage to prevent the exploitation of the masses by the few. The pay and remuneration of the 'upper working' class is obscene and has become ever more so on Brown's watch.
Setting simple rules for lending to capital ratios would have prevented much of the angst of the last 2 years.
Making sure that CPI and our monetary policy took note of all asset appreciation, rather than using it to con the worker out of a pro-rata increase in his spending power.
All of these things were basic stuff that would have rebalanced the rights of society against the advantage, prestige, and influence of the few. But no. We had to have Boom to Bust and all of the damage this does.
Labour bets on bashing bankers 08:52am on 29 Sep 2009 This is not an issue of just 'bankers' pay and remuneration, it is an issue of all senior/executive remuneration across the whole economy.

If Mr A owns company B he is entitled to as much of the earnings from company B as he sees fit, it is his property and his right.

If Mr A works for company B and has been gifted (by virtue of his position, expectations, and influence on the judgements of the remuneration committee) a substantial shareholding, he will be rewarded as an employee and for his part ownership as a normal shareholder would.

If Mr A works for company B and he owns no share of the company he is just another employee.
So, it is simple to set law in place to manage the reverse exploitation that is controlled by the minimum wage laws.

No employee to be worth more than 20 times average wage within the company. Full stop. Easy rule, job done.

Want a nice pay rise Mr company exec A, then a pro-rata increase across the working population is required.

Bonuses should be restricted to a 50% share of annual profits and probably better still based on a perentage of performance above target rather than actually being paid to achieve what you said you would.

If an exec deserves a bonus, then the people that made the performance targets on which his bonus is based, deserve and should receive one too.

All bonuses should be vested within the company for 5 years either as shares to collect dividend distributions, or as cash acruing interest at CPI rates. Same offer to the exec's applies to all the staff.

Watch all the risk taking ebb away from British corporate society then. Watch also as the average tennure of board rooms doubles or trebles as these senior people realise that they cannot play to a half full house for a year and expect to earn sufficient to retire on.

Perhaps then, these people will be dilligent and have the interests of the whole company ahead of personal short-term pocket filling.

I re-iterate, if society needs a minimum wage to prevent the exploitation of others as human nature tends, then we need a maximum wage to do exactly the same, but from a top down perspective rather than a bottom up.
No ordinary week for the PM 9:33pm on 27 Sep 2009 British politics is not fit for purpose.
The Tories are only viable candidates via the Homer Simpson method of qualification 'Default'.
Which party offers a defined and clear plan to resolve the nations ills - all will tell you they do, but none demonstrate it, and none elicits belief that they do.
There needs to be a disconnect from political donations (corporate) and politicians, and their campaigns should be publicly funded to allow independent none party candidates to have an equal footing onto the political ladder.
The despair of the electorate at our political system was in (reportedly) a dire state back in 2005 with liar Blair still heading the government, it must now be terminal.

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