one cannot fix the frame and cladding of the house - if one doesn't fix the foundations
it is VERY clear to me that the expenditure of time, resources, money on areas like Vet Affairs, NDIS, - what we would spend on in housing, if we knew how to do it -- etc etc
are all expenditures and often very high expenditures because Australia has refused to spend and invest in decades past - where it should have
we've had decades of cut cut cut mentality - live within our means mentality - at the cost of nation building investment -----------
WHY is a question. And there's more than one reason why -
yes, it's obvious - wrong leaders, wrong time - a whole series of happenings in history -
BUT - there's another factor and it's a whopper -
a dysfunctional political system ------ FEDERATION -------- which supposedly gives states power ------ BUT, also has duplicate departments and then, local government underneath
How in the name of god can one build a country into a nation with a mess like that?
States in business to look after their own - that's their prime reason for existence - NOT for Australia - but, for their own state.
Look at several examples - health, education, aged care -
look at the aged care mess ------------ federal responsibility and oversight - states to run ??
wtf?????
You mentioned manufacturing ------------- how in the name of god can one run a nation to do with manufacturing - when we have -
states running education
federal funding education
states running power
federal close enough to powerless and the whole show having gone private enterprise
railways - states. Even with levels of private enterprise
roads - national roads, state roads, council roads
it is - one giant cluster root.
The whole show needs a total redo - a renovation - a pull out all the walls, drop the roof, repair the foundation and build
If we don't do that and go on with things like in your list - which IMO, we will do some of
what we are doing is to pull out the engine, fix a few things, give it a service and plonk it back in -------- but, the body is rusted out, the chassis has enormous cracks in it and the springs are totally shot
and why is that all that bad?? --------- because we refused for decades to do proper maintenance and we refused to upgrade regularly
so now - IMO - an engine fix and a quick spray paint - will do nothing in reality
