whilst I think that Labor are doing a fairly reasonable job under the circumstances - Labor are hampered by the real shackle - just as governments have been hampered by the real shackles of Australia for decades -
those shackles are - Ozzies and culture.
the Ozzie characteristic is of an individual who strives for and believes in 'self', not nation.
Ozzies sit about the dinner table and want their kids to be educated - so that the kids can buy a house, a better house and fill it with more stuff - have a barbie, have a baby seat in the station wagon, have a dog and have lots of decorative pillows on the bed - and, that's it
Look at the budget - one has to go no further than that -------------- what do we see?
We see articles on 'who wins', 'who loses' - we have articles on 'what's in the budget for people'
we read about the budget - we read it with a primary thing in mind - 'what's in it for us?'
it's the basic flawed character - a flawed culture. And things could never have changed whilst that culture is in place -
can it change now? - well, it's possible - IMO, highly unlikely - but, even if we waved a magic wand and changed our culture overnight ----------- it's a bloody awful time to try to build a nation from here in this era - where competitors are miles in front, accelerating away - they are attracting the people we need, they are attracting the resources we need - we would be entering a race where the pros have already been running for decades - and we've been sleeping - have just got out of bed, bleary eyed and haven't even got our runners on
and that's - IF we had a cultural change -------------- which, we do not
