United States Accused Of Desablizing Australia

[Darkness' Edge]

what a heap of sh*t this story is...

who the hell is mike elliott? i'm australian, i follow politics for a hobby, and i've never heard of the guy...shows how important he is

and on stott despoja...
she just hasn't been given a go

from the moment she took over, the media bashed her
she was the only one of the democrat sheep to speak up against the GST, and if she hadn't deposed Lees, I suspect the party would have taken a much greater bashing at the last election.

Lees is a grudge-holding, pathetic woman afraid to lose her power.

[Case]

Re: Back on topic

Originally posted by CICSMaster
I also hope that some way is found to ensure that the Upper house (the Senate - something Roman about that, I always expect to see the honourable senators in Toga's) does not imped the legislation of the Lower house (the Representatives

Why not just abolish it then? If the senate can't function as a chamber of review then it's nothing more then a waste of money.

Personally, I like the Senate. While this may be becuase the party I hate is currently in power and the senate acts to block it's worst luncacies, I'd like to think that I'd have the same opinion if Labor was in power. Electroral dictatorship isn't a good thing IMO [look where it got New Zealand!]

[KrazyHorse]

We've got a functionally unicameral legislature+executive where I'm from too...

[Guest]

Re: Re: Back on topic

Originally posted by Case
Why not just abolish it then? If the senate can't function as a chamber of review then it's nothing more then a waste of money.

It can't be abolished until the people are protected from the government by a constitution that puts people before government.

That is why the Government will probably never have control of the Senate again. People don't trust the Government to protect their rights.

Besides to abolish it, it would require a referendum. And that can only happen if it passes both houses of parliament. Can you imagine the senators voting to abolish their jobs.

The Senate is not broken. It's just disfunctional.

[The Mad Monk]

Which is as it should be.

BTW, if nobody fixes the title of this thread soon, I'm going to have to start going on about anti-fur campaigns.

[Guest]

What?

Dysfunctional or Broken?

[DanS]

"Just to raise the signal to noise ratio of this thread, and to prevent our American Bretheren from completely overrunning the conversation with their inane drivel about the politics of a typical "think tank" organization on their beltway."

It's not on the beltway. Actually, it's on the outskirts of a rough neighborhood downtown.

I'm curious. Are think tanks politically influential in other countries? The CATO Institute is much more influential than the numbers of libertarians would indicate.

[Guest]

Think Tank Effectiveness

I Aus. I don't think they are as "effective" as in the U.S. of A.

But it depends on your definition of effective.
In Aus. all sorts of groups generally get TV time, if the media thinks that they have something controversial and therefore "new worthy".

Generally, when some topic, for example the middle east, comes up, there are think tanks that will make spokesmen available to answer questions and push thier views (the think tanks, not the spokesman).

We have Military TT's, Political - affiliated with political parties, environmental, business, economic the whole gamut.

I have not heard of them lobbying Government or Parliamentary/Senatorial members, however, the Government does commission papers from a broad range of TT's.