State of the nation

Australia behaves like a third world country. It spends billions on so called state of the art defence equipment manufactured overseas, paying for it with non renewable mineral exports. There is a useful old saying, “cut your coat according to your cloth”. Australia has a luxury boat industry looking for work; why not use it to build fast and cheap patrol boats? We should start to think outside the loop as the Somali pirates have done.

The movement of goods produced by the two major economic sectors in Australia, mining and agriculture, have been inhibited through poor infrastructure, now is the time to address this long outstanding problem in rural Australia.

As Rudd has noted in his article in The Monthly, the private sector is not the answer to solving all problems. There is no case to be made for the market place to regulate the flow and placement of water through trading. Water, like clean air, is a national commodity with equal entitlement of all citizens to adequate and clean supplies. Selfish sectional interests have cornered the supply with the connivance of government. The supply and protection of water resources must become part of the government’s infrastructure program.

Who will monitor state government expenditure of federal money on national projects? Handing money to the states for these projects looks like a prescription for double dipping. The states will take their cut through wages, real and contrived administrative costs, poor procedures and in some cases corruption - a growing problem at state and local government levels.

Governments must take a measured approach to the crisis, particularly the federal government. It must display prudence, wisdom, character and compassion, in other words leadership of a high order. However it is operating with one hand tied behind its back, having elected to keep on Howard’s toadies in many of the senior public service positions. It needs balanced and considered advice; the days of snowing with spin are over.

As the crisis deepens and the need to create jobs grows, the government might consider the introduction of national service for the ADF, national infrastructure, hospitals, aged care and social welfare institutions and organisations.