From: "Andrew McGlashan" <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au>
Online petitions usually amount to absolutely nothing unless the numbers are far too high to ignore.
http://act.sumofus.org/go/4460 has more than 58 000 by now. Do you know that the ALP has an opposition leader? If you are a Herald Sun reader, you may still have to be introduced to him. It's Bill Shorten. Given that yesterday there was his budget reply, it is amazing how the Herald Sun can send it as a little article to page 7 or 9, sorry, I did not look which number it was - but it's practically "buried" and has probably a quarter of a page. Compare that to the coverage Abbott had as opposition leader. Does the budget reply matter for anyone in Australia? Maybe.. As said, there is the end of free Healthcare, and the punishing of young unemployed - all, by the way, mentioned by Shorten in a speech that was one worth listening to - because it was not much biting at Abbott, more concentrating on facts and impact for Australians. If you are unemployed and not in education and below 30, you do not get any money. Does it matter? We have two apprentices here, in their 3rd year I think. They both come from problematic family back ground and are happy to have found work and qualification. E.g. they do not touch alcohol - they have seen what it did to their parents. The company is going soso, smaller factory in the automotive industry... just imagine we fail and they are jobless tomorrow. No support from home, no support from us via Centrelink, I guess they did not save much from their money they got as apprentices: What chances do they have? What are their options? Do we go back to convict people for stealing bread? Or is it a heartless ploy to argue next for an abolition of the minimal wage? One step closer to Gina's $2 a day slave labour because we create a desperate underclass now? How do you justify the cut? The Liberals sound like we are in the Great Depression, not in one of the richest countries on Earth, with more than 20 years without recession and with comparable low public debt - Shorten is right to point out that we one of only eight countries worldwide with AAA credit rating. But there is no public discussion. If the safety net is too expensive now, in one of the richest country on Earth, what will happen if Australia finally goes into a recession? And will it hit you? Or your kids? Happy dreaming Australia Peter