Why is it that there is so much discussion about the amount of paid maternity leave when the real issue is if you can’t afford to have a child why are you having one? Continue reading →

A Melbourne Nursing Home is going to be closed because it failed a surprise audit by the Federal Government and so its residents will be relocated to other homes. You would think that the families of the 55 residents who had been poorly cared for at this home would be applauding the Government for doing something about the inadequate conditions. But no, the families have begun up a petition to keep the home open.

Why? Well, they say that their aged relatives are happy there, but I suspect that it’s all about the families baulking at the inconvenience of visiting an aged parent somewhere else.

Imagine if a tray containing faeces were found in a nursing home and the government did nothing about it, people would be clamouring for action. This is what was discovered at Rosden and yet the families of those wretches want them to stay put. This is in spite of Rosden having failed 17 of the 44 categories of the audit. Makes you weep at the callousness of some people towards their “loved ones”.

When I lived in Brisbane our home was cursed by marble floors. We were persuaded by the developer that marble floors were wonderful and so easy to care for. Since Pompeii and all those villas in Ancient Rome had marble flooring I was convinced that marble was the way to go. It wasn’t. Continue reading →

Senator Obama has criticised Senator McCain for not multi-tasking. He says that a potential president should be able to do several things at once. I disagree with Obama because, in my view, it is important to know how to prioritise. If there is a fire, first you put out the fire. Not much point in debating about what international fire brigades might be doing. What you need is a president who gets down to “tachles” (Yiddish for “straight talk” or “basics”) and stops mucking around with theatrical debates when there’s a genuine crisis.

I believe that Obama was caught with his pants down. When McCain says we have to do something, and he means right now before it’s too late, Obama says that a debate is doing something. He reminds me of our prime minister who would rather have a discussion than get down to actually doing something concrete. By the way, where is our elected frequent flyer today? Oh yes, he’s overseas again laying the foundations for his post PM career with the United Nations.

It is good that both candidates in the U.S election espouse the bipartisan approach to problem solving, but I did detect a hint of resentment in Obama this morning whereas there was none in McCain.

There is no point in discussing any other topic while the economy is in trouble. Without money, there is no funding for education, health, pensions, social security, defence, the environment or anything else. This trouble in the economy will affect everybody, even the democrats, if it is not seen to.

So debates and elections should be out the window until this problem is solved.

While the rest of the world busies itself with philosophy, economics and climate change, I devote myself to trivia… or is it? Stuff like ring-pull tabs on cans from the former Soviet Union which only a wrestler on steroids can open. Teapots that leak all over the place have occupied my attention as well. And my search for a toaster that toasts is a persistent refrain. Continue reading →

I just don’t get it. Australians worship a sportsman who makes millions of dollars for kicking a ball around some field. They love a rock star who earns a packet gyrating on stage for a couple of hours, but when it comes to electing a political leader, heaven help the man who has actually worked hard and made a success of his life. He will have to apologise forever for not being a loser. He will have to convince the ordinary public, and boy are they ordinary, that he can be trusted with their future in spite of the fact that he has risen to the top.

Why is it that Aussies seem to prefer a political leader who hasn’t got the ability to rise above poverty?

The irony of it all is that if you asked one of these vacant lots if they want to have millions in assets, not one of them would say “no”. What a bunch of hypocrites!

What makes them think that a man who has not been able to make something of himself will be better equipped to run the country’s economy?

If they don’t like Turnbull because of his personality or his policies then that’s fair enough, but it shouldn’t be because Turnbull is a financial success. The media keeps on referring to him as “the millionaire banker” in the same tone they would use for paedophile or sleazebag. How ridiculous!

When I vote for a prime minister I want one who has a proven record of achievement, a hard worker with ability who inspires confidence. For me, the fact that Turnbull is a self-made millionaire means that he may be able to do something about the economy.

I really can’t see why the voters are more impressed by a man whose wife has made him a multi-millionaire than one who did it by himself.

In my previous post I suggested that the baby bonus encouraged some women to have babies for the money. While I concede that this is not always the main reason for having babies, statistics have come out to show that many more babies were born on July the first than on the previous day. Why? Well, on the 1st July the payment for having a baby went up by $742. Continue reading →

When the former Howard Government decided that what Australia needed was more babies because the population was aging, it created many problems. Australia was just one of the developed countries where birth rates had declined. Continue reading →