Money to waste...

[billybones]

There`s so many organizations out there that seem to be crying out for help but the governments answer is that there is little or no funds.

I understand that the government can`t help everybody bu it irritates me so much when they simply waste money on things I don` believe are important.

What`s better?? To buy a luxury car worth about $65000 that most times only ever sits one politician or to buy 2 cars worth $30000 instead and let one be used by a group such as RED CROSS???

What`s better?? To buy flowers so that a table can look nice in government house or to buy a wheelchair for somebody that can`t afford it???

What`s better?? Be able to give politcians 5 star meals at a subsidised rate only to them or give them baked beans and use the money instead to help a soup kitchen or meals on wheels???

I`m sure the list could go on...

 

[BigBlackCock]

Billybones, I don't think the government has said there are little or no funds so much as to say allocate their money to different things.

And it's hard - a Governor General's house must have flowers in it given the eminent types of overseas and local visitors they receive.

Sure, it'd be cheaper for our politicians to drive in made in China cars - and they'll then face the accusations of not supporting local industry. Also, I gather that most government cars are LEASED and others are bought with a sort of leasing plan whereby it's cheaper to auction off after the cars are still barely 3 years old, the money raised actually goes back to re-leasing the next cars. Could be wrong on that one. Again, I'm not sure where politicans get 5 star meals except at state or official functions.

I'm in contempt as much as the next person about politicians but surely they deserve a fair go - no? Whatever decision they make, they'll lose.

There is certainly some wastage going on though.

 

[Curious1]

Politicians do not deserve a fair go lol

They are all lists and cheaters. They all claim to get in ti politics to help and serve their community. What rubbish . They are in the job for their own gains.

 

[Master Yoda]

That is a great set of questions you bring forward. And I know that these questions can cure and solve a lot of what people percieve as problems in the world at present times.

Now I'm not into telling others what to do, so I'm going to speak for myself and what I would say if I was the one that asked these great questions.

There is one difference. I would ask them to myself, not direct them outwardly.

Any changes I desire I will start with me.

 

[BigBlackCock]

Curious, quite a sweeping statement there.

Can you tell me how the following were in the job for their own gains?

Nelson Mandela
Steven Biko
Deng Xiao Peng
Bill Hayden
Harold Holt
Bob Menzies
Lee Kuan Yew
Jim Cairns
Don Chipp
Gough Whitlam

What did they gain?

 

[Alecia the Foxx]

Politicians do not deserve a fair go lol

They are all lists and cheaters. They all claim to get in ti politics to help and serve their community. What rubbish . They are in the job for their own gains.

Sorry, Curious 1, I'm afraid I do not agree. Over-simplistic responses just do not carry any weight.

 

[Alecia the Foxx]

Curious, quite a sweeping statement there.

Can you tell me how the following were in the job for their own gains?

Nelson Mandela
Steven Biko
Deng Xiao Peng
Bill Hayden
Harold Holt
Bob Menzies
Lee Kuan Yew
Jim Cairns
Don Chipp
Gough Whitlam

What did they gain?

Yes, BBC, I quite agree.

 

[Happy2]

I dont have a great problem with Ministers in Quality leased Australian cars or flowers
at government house It is the perks on retirement that get stuck in my craw.

 

[BigBlackCock]

Again, I have to ask questions about this. Supposing, you've a corporation of 26 million shareholders. It makes shitloads of money and one day, two people apply to be the CEO/Chairmen of the corporation.

For whatever reason, the corporation stumbles on to make money some years and losses on the other years. The shareholders are aware of the perks etc and yet elect to have one of the CEOs to run the place. So why should the shareholders bitch about it when THEY put the person in the office in the first place?

So the place is called Australia Inc and a handful of candidates stand for election and get voted into and re-voted into office. It's really not their fault that they get the perks - after all they did it with the full knowledge of the shareholders.

If anyone resents it, the shareholders should either put up or shut up or wake up. I dread it when I hear people say incredibly stupid things like "Pauline for PM". I think the damage to Australia's economy and Australia's standing in the international monetary market woud be horrendous if she got in - not to mention the Australian people.

 

[BigBlackCock]

Actually Alecia you've just jogged my memory, in 1974 New Zealand lost a fine politician and Prime Minister in Norman Kirk. My dad actually met and knew him at several conferences. He was very much a humble man and died partly because of his impoverished background as a child - not having access to proper food. He was very much a working class man from a poor background.

"Two subjects in particular caused comment. One: Kirk's strong protest against French nuclear-weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean, which led to his Government along with Australia taking France to the International Court of Justice in 1972, and him sending two New Zealand navy frigates, HMNZS Canterbury and Otago, into the test zone area at Mururoa Atoll in a symbolic act of protest in 1973. The other: his refusal to allow a visit by a South African rugby team, a decision he made because the apartheid régime in South Africa would not accept racial integration for that sport. He was also highly critical of US foreign policy, speaking before the United Nations of the US involvement in the coup d'état in Chile in 1973."


Something else of interest in his past according to Wikipedia, "Also in 1943, Kirk joined the Labour Party's branch in Kaiapoi, where he and his wife had decided to build a house. Kirk bought a 1,261 m2 (13,570 sq ft) section at 12 Carew Street for just NZ£40 (compared to today's land valuation of NZ$126,000).[3] Due to a shortage of funds and building materials following World War II, Kirk built the house himself entirely, right down to the casting of the bricks. The house still stands today, albeit with an extension at the back and a hipped corrugated iron roof to replace the original leak-susceptible flat malthoid roof.[4]"

Imagine making the bricks for your house yourself - what a frustrating (not to mention hellishly hot) time that would have been.


He died of a massive heart attack when he was only 51 and many people also partly attribute it to the pressures of office. Speaking to elderly NZers today, many people of all different political genres wept openly on hearing of his sudden death apparently.

 

[Farm Boy]

Despite some peoples option about the politicians we have in Australia our country is quite well run by people just like us not elite's, eg John Howard a suburban lawyer Ben Chifley train driver , ordinary people.