Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought that both political parties had said exactly that.... indeed I thought that this was a view about Australias economy that was widely shared around the world.... and that the demand from China and India underpinned most of the GLOBAL economic growth of the last decade, not just Australias.

My comment which you quoted related to the internal domestic growth in our economy, which IMHO has been largely subsidised by the availability of credit....

I also think that holds true in most western economies.

For example, traditionally, the overwealming majority of home loans approvals/building approvals have been for "first home" buyers/builders....

In the last decade less than 1% of approvals/loans have been for "new" home construction.....(ABS figures)

The overwealming majority of loans have been loans to existing borrowers (mums and dads), often leveraging the equity in their own homes, for "investment" purposes.... because we were all told by the "wealth" gurus that we should have at least two or three homes in our "investment" portfolios and be either "negatively" or "positively" geared.

The housing market and prices have been forced to the point of unaffordabilty due solely by the capacity to pay by credit....

Most retail growth has also been fueled by credit and banks have actively developed the "youth" credit market.

I will always be prepared to learn and if need be correct my point of view if better information can be provided to me Josh....

Without actually saying anything, you would appear to hold views that differ somewhat to either mine or many other people and commentators...

Please feel free to contribute to the debate and perhaps help "enlighten" the less educated and/or less thoughtful members by sharing with us your experience and knowledge that has led you to maintain a different perspective....

Josh was only asking a question Rupert.

Sorry Sleepe... I thought he was being sarcastic....

From memory, there was more than one occasion during the last few days of the campaign when Howard actually referred to Australia's 16 YEARS of continuous growth....

Considering the Lib/Nat coalition was in power for 11 years then surely we must acknowledge that the inital first five years of our booming economy were overseen by a Labour government

If we are to accept the oft repeated "assertion" that the Labor party are inept economic managers then we can only be left with the position that factors totally beyond the control of the "encumbent" party of the time were in fact responsible for the economic boom

We might be in what everyone calls an economic boom Rupert but national foreign debt is still going up, we're buggered just like the US of A.

Another good observation Sleepe

Indeed our "foreign" debt now stands at over $500 billion dollars, with an interest bill of over $6.4 billion quarterly.....



http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ ... 07407.html


Be careful, there is a difference between "foreign" debt and "national" debt...

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/mesi ... gndebt.htm

And just as a comparison to the Keating days ....

http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2004dec18_e.html

Please read the above article in conjunction with the comments I made regarding "monetary" inflation and what I believe the be a major underlying influence on interest rates around the world over the next five years...


.

I've been wondering ...

What's stopping me from voting under someone else's name? (I didn't have to show any ID) & then repeating it at 20 seperate booths?

If I'd wandered over to Bennelong with a bus-load of friends, I could potentially get Little Johnny (aka bonsai) elected. (not that I'd want to, mind you)

They might detect multiple votes by some people, but they wouldn't know which votes they were & therefore couldn't be rescinded. They'd just fine a group of innocent people.

Exactly what I said too... Find a phone book, and go vote in a different suburb to the one that they live in, but in the same electorate....

Yep it's possible to do so I guess.... and no doubt that will be why in a few years we'll either be required to submit fingerprints, eye scans and/or DNA to a national database....

Maybe we should all just go get that barcode..... hehaw..... hehaw....

Ok, I'm taking bookings on the GREEN BUS for the 2010 federal election! Who wants a seat!?

Let's see if we can visit more polling booths than a politician.

...seems I'm not sneaky enough to think of that

Still a bit difficult to manipulate a vote though, need a few thousand extra votes to bias it properly and even using other names, duplications would show up quite quickly...then there is the time needed to do it

and all the fuel you would use

- bound to be endorsed by the greens in that case. Maybe mobilise the rorters on bicycles

And what exactly happens when you turn up at a booth and the person you are pretending to be has already voted and you are asked for ID?

or the staff at the booth know the person you are pretending to be?

Well, If you have checked out the phone book (or electoral roll - so you have the correct Christian names and gender, not just initials), then you will also know the address, so you would go to the polling booths remote from that person's address.