For the very few who many be unaware, Australia now has a new Prime Minister, its 6th since 2007 in an era of apparent political instability that this country is not normally known for. At around 12:30, Canberra time, Treasurer, Scott Morrison won a Liberal Party leadership ballot and will be sworn in as the 30th Prime Minister of the Commonwealth by Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove soon.

It is beyond the scope of this website to discuss the specifics. However now that all of this is out of the road I'd like the newly-formed government to do a few things for us.

1. First and foremost, govern for us, not against us.
2. Those who have threatened to sit on the cross benches, which would wipe out the Government's majority, should forget the idea and get on with their jobs. No politician is elected by their voters to jump ship. Do your jobs and put emotion and sentiment aside.
3. Governments of all persuasions have been discussing water storage and water harvesting for at least 20 years. Very little has been done to embark on this much needed initiative. The eastern states are gripped by drought and in this day and age when one drives a country highway and has to stop for a herd of livestock that is feeding by the side of the road, one know there's problems. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Why are our governments dithering on water storage and harvesting?
4. If one adds up all the debt owed by all three levels of government in Australia, it comes close to $1 trillion. That's 12 noughts after the 1. That debt is far too high for 25 million people. All levels of government need to embark on sustainable debt retirement programmes now.
5. We need to replace old coal-fired power stations, not just demolish them. It is reported that Victoria's electricity grid is crumbling due to a lack of maintenance and the loss of the Hazelwood Power Station in March last year and that rolling blackouts are likely in most parts of the state when the summer peak hits. Because of the heavy industry in NSW, such as the Tomago Aluminium plant in Newcastle, there is likely to be a shortage in NSW as well if QLD has no excess to supply via interstate connectors. Again, governments are dithering on energy security. The eastern states especially, require a guarantee that the lights won't go out during times of peak electricity consumption. Only replacing power stations will achieve this. Governments should get on with it and stop stuffing around.
6. Government stability requires much improvement. A change to the Commonwealth Constitution Act should be made, by the usual way of referendum, to disallow government leadership changes except where the leader wishes to retire or resign, the leader is either medically or legally incapable of holding the Office or the leader dies in Office. Whilst Australia's voting system means that we do not directly elect the Prime Minister, we elect a government with the belief that the party leader will go on to occupy the Office of Prime Minister.

Prime Minister-designate, Scott Morrison, has much work to do between now and the next election which must be held by May, 2019. He will have a better chance of carrying his government over the line if the Government concentrates on what I've outlined above, being the things that matter to all of us right now and ignore all of the politically correct posturing from single-issue groups and a republic, which is often dragged out as a distraction by both sides of politics when the heat is on.

It is safe to say we have all had enough and we want a return to stable, effective, debt-free government.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Brad,
I follow the US Politics for entertainment as it seem a little surreal from a distance so I can be entertained, but it saddens me to see what is happen to this country political environment in the last 10 yrs and I can assure it is not entertaining at all.
George

Well said Brad. The biggest problem I see is the "people" in charge have no idea how water or electricity or sewerage works. They all walk around tapping away on their Iwanker phones looking for an "App" to fix the problems! I think we need engineers and scientists to take the the joint over and run it not high school debating wankers. Both little Billy and Harbour side never actually made anything in their lives, why woulod "ScoMo" ( the man who cut my pension in 1/2) have any better clue? None of those clowns would last 1 day in actual commercial business. I look at the Clown show on telly (parliament) every now and then and just shake my head. My last boss would have sacked them all and put in competent people.
Fred.

The sad reality is that from the end of the Menzies era, the politicians have done little other than sell us out & move us into a third world country where nothing works, especially them.

What was the vote? 44 to 40 (or something like that)? Not exactly a recipe for stability.

Morrison is sitting on a pile of rubble instead of being head of a political party, and the election is only a year away. There's barely anything left in the cabinet, a whole bunch of new ministers need to be appointed and get up to speed. The former foreign minister (what was her name?) was conned into entering the ballot to be a leader and lost in the first round, so she had no alternative but to go. What a waste.

I dread what would happen if Labor got in, after what happened in the Rudd & Gillard years. They love introducing new taxes, and the carbon tax, and all this environmental power nonsense. That's what got us into this power debacle in the first place. If Turnbull hadn't been such a weak leader all of that could have sorted out ages ago. So now what will happen to the power guarantee? It was forgotten in the turmoil.

(conspiracy theory time)...
Back in the 70s, the powers that be (that is, the ultra rich who actually decide what happens in the world), looked at Australia, its high wages, high tax regime with much union power, and decided that it was no place for manufacturing and so on. That's the kind of thing that happens in countries with low wages, low taxes, allows worker exploitation and no protections. So Australia was relegated to being a consumer society which could be filled up with excess migrants. And, it has come to pass that there's barely anything made here any more. No cars, no petrol, no electronics, nothing of any particular value. We just mine it, send it overseas, and buy back the junk already made, and dispose of the rubbish.


Now for Brad's suggestions..
1. You're kidding, right??

2. Nice idea, but...

3. First thing to do about water is to change the law so you don't get a water bill unless you actually use the supplied water. You should be able to use your own tank water and disconnect yourself from the mains if you want. Currently you still get charged even if the nearest mains is 500m away, and you can't stop the charge. This is a complete disincentive to get tanks.

4. If you can drag them away from the trough, good luck.

5. Agree completely. We need many more coal-fired stations, and maybe nuclear ones too.

6. Well, maybe.. not sure about that yet.

I just see all of the Canberra shenanigans as a distraction from the banking Royal Commission which is showing up criminality in our major financial institutions and reducing eventual payouts from our compulsory superannuation. Before the start of Canberra's troubles there were noises about the need for an extension of time for the Royal Commission. That's been out of the news for several days now, and I doubt that there would have been an extension if the right faction had won the Prime Ministership.

And there has also been noises for a Royal Commission into the energy industry. Pricing practices there increase our energy bills, and government policy on energy has been in turmoil for ten years. What chance of a Commission being called by the right faction.

Can only hope that the influence of the right now is not sufficient to interfere with these actual and supposed Royal Commissions.

The Commonwealth Bank has been fined $700m and I think that is just a taste of what is to come as the Royal Commission starts to wind down. This is what happens when big companies are allowed to self-regulate. They get away with blue murder and NBNCo and our ISPs are not much better. Neither are the oil companies or Coles and Woolworths with their parallel conduct.

There is no true competition in this country, just cartels.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

The fines the big banks etc get fined are a bit like fining us $10. They are more worried about public perception. That will do the most damage to them. The fines are just factored in as running costs. As far as leadership changes are concerned I think an Election needs to be mandatory if they wish to change the Prime Minister. Rant over.

As an American, we have presidents, not prime ministers. I never did understand the difference... Something to the effect that the prime minister gets elected by the congress/Parliament? The USA does have this screwy thing called the electoral college, even though it's not a real college with classes, dorms, frats and so on...

A Prime Minister is usually a Head of Government. They are usually elected by their party to be its Parliamentary leader before an election, though in the last ten years that has come to include during a term of government too. A President is usually a Head of State though I believe in the US the President occupies both roles, to a degree.

On the subject of the US President, I was reminded the other night that Donald Trump used to be a wrestling fan. I saw him at ringside on a re-run of Wrestlemania IV, which he hosted. Apart from hair colour, he hasn't changed that much.

Irext: Yes, the banks will suffer and they are already in panic mode, damage control, etc but in the long term they'll get off almost scot-free because they have very little competition. Most of our building societies have become banks and most of those have been swallowed by the Big 4 banks and most of the mutual credit unions have either become banks or merged into bigger credit unions that now charge more fees than the big banks. Look at the pieces that became Westpac for example. Bank of New South Wales, Commercial Bank of Australia, St George Building Society, State Building Society, NSW (Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong) Building Society, Bank of South Australia, Challenge Bank and Bank of Melbourne. The other three have similar pasts.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

QUOTE: A Prime Minister is usually a Head of Government. They are usually elected by their party to be its Parliamentary leader

"Parliamentary leader" sounds like our "Senate Majority Leader" in our Senate and another person is the "Speaker of the House", the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. Neither of these are as powerful as the president.

We don't get taught about "prime ministers' in our civics classes. "Oh, that's something other countries do, don't worry about it..."

They should at least tell ya's about Canada, they are next door. Both Australia and Canada have adopted the British Westminster System of government. Not perfect but I think it works as well as anything else.

Parliament resumes here on the 10th September. You should, if you are awake at the time, watch Question Time in the House of Reps. It's probably a little different to what Americans are used to but an interesting experience. The US Congress is probably a little more, ummmm, orderly.

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/ATHTV

It's on at 14:00, Monday to Thursday during sitting weeks. When the House isn't sitting you can watch replays going back six months. Regardless of who's in government it is at times quite entertaining and is actually a popular choice on telly. Our Senate also has its own Question Time however the Senate only has half the number of members as the House of Reps so it's not as lively.

Our state parliaments also have Question Time however I think they only have live streaming so you have to catch the session when it's happening.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

If you follow RAKE, it puts the whole thing into perspective.

But I feel the only democratic way to do things, is to abolish the whole system.

A new way to do things is drafted.
A person is randomly pulled out of the listing of tax payers, to support the people of the area they are live in and know best.
Bit like a lotto draw, this would provide a very large cross section of the community.

You get the letter that you will be serving the community, for X amount of time.
Bit like jury service.

Of course there would many laws in place, to ensure no corruption. and many incentives to act with in the law, taken out the back door never to be seen again, would be a great incentive.

There would be no need for state government politicians or local council members.
Of course the public service, needs a shake up and all workers in the public service would be paid what people in the real world receive for wages, also productivity based, further reducing the waste of money.
(wow even just getting rid of the Federal Senate, would save the tax payer, so much money)
and no party politics.

There would be no need for the selected people to physically meet, this can all be done via the media systems we have in place, no need for a large expensive building in Canberra, save all those expensive travel fees, allowing more time for the pursuit of the goals they were selected for, to support the local community they know best.

All communications from and to the selected people, would be monitored and visible to the public.
So no hidden agenda's or corruption attempts from large business, in fact tracking devices could be implemented on the selected people.

Any major decisions, would be placed up for the public to vote on, no political advertising, saving more money for the tax payer.

well it's just a thought.
But the present system, is just a bunch of people doing dodgy deals to increase their own well being and not for the interest of the people that elected them and really, what sane person, would want to choose politics as a career.

Did I mention, getting rid of the senate would be a start in the right direction.

Everyone should watch the last Yes Minister prior to the Yes Prime Minster series, entitled "Party Games".

It's a double-length episode that describes very accurately I'm afraid just how a new PM gets the job in a Westminster system. Very, very pertinent to what has just happened

And find out who REALLY runs the country!

Being an ex treasurer, it would be hoped that he can exert pressure on the Reserve Bank [RBA] to keep interest rates low and the real estate/building boom going strong! This is important for GDP growth which foreign lenders/creditors like to see!

An even quicker way politicians use to grow GDP is to maintain high immigration uptake (Australia having the world's highest per capita immigration)(and, coincidentally, the longest continuous recession-free economic expansion!)