All governments try to silence dissent, that's one of the reasons that both Brexit and Trump were elected. Because the facade of "Peace" was shoved down the peoples throats for far too long.

Also I'm assuming you are referring to the asylum seekers? Because Australia cannot afford and never could afford to take them in. Many of them are unskilled economic refugees and the Australian government never should have helped them. If you can't help people the whole way through then you shouldn't have started in the first place.

Also I don't really see how the policies are increasing the gap between rich and poor when the poor just go on benefits, many people have stopped work because they earn more on benefits than by working full time. My English teacher in school was a single mother who worked her ass off every day to be able to support her son and put him through a good school. She joked one day that if only she earn't a little bit less then she could go on benefits too. Point is, there's a massive safety net for the people who don't want to work and they are the ones who are choosing to take the easy path.

So the Australian government is just incompetent with light corruption. The Australian people are as much to blame as anyone else. I still don't agree with the government pensions, that's just wrong.

@Lancer Noted.

I don't hate asylum seekers or anything. I just understand that with the current situation (AUS has no real leadership) we cannot afford to be spending even more money unless we improve the efficiency of the process of assisting these people.

@Lancer I'm sorry I didn't have time earlier to respond properly to your comment. You are dead right about no real leadership. I don't think any thought of 'efficiency' has crossed the minds of the people responsible for the current asylum seeker policy — it is a hugely extravagant program. I do not advocate an open borders policy, but many much more humane and economical ways of handling the situation have been proposed, and the fact that the government appears not to even consider them is to me a clear indication that their real objective is not so much to deter people smugglers as to punish refugees (which many of the asylum seekers are known to be). I still have some hope that the ministers and former ministers responsible for the current mess might yet spend some time behind bars, but given the lack of teeth possessed by the bodies charged with enforcing international agreements, I have to admit it is a very slender hope.

As for silencing dissent, you're probably correct that all governments do it (in varying degrees). But that does not amount to justification, and it does not, in my book, warrant a rating of 'fine'.

The latest OECD data show that in 2014 Australia ranked 22 out of 35 in terms of wealth distribution among OECD countries. An Oxfam report released ahead of this year's Davos summit says "Over the decade since the Global Financial Crisis, the wealth of Australian billionaires has increased by almost 140 per cent ... yet over the same time, the average wages of ordinary Australians have increased by just 36 per cent and average household wealth grew by 12 per cent. ... The richest one per cent of Australians continue to own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent of Australians combined ... The Federal government and Australian companies cannot ignore this inequality crisis and must act to curtail the widening gulf between the super-rich and ordinary workers." This was front page news in The Age (a Melbourne paper published by Fairfax) on Monday of this week (22 Jan).

The 'safety net' you mention is a far cry from massive, by the way.

I hear what you're saying. Also if you haven't already, I recommend having a look into NSW senator David Leyonhjelm. He's probably the best hope we have for an efficient MInister of Parliament.

As for the refugees. It's true, we need to stop them at the source. By that I mean we could make a program where people help to rebuild their countries even though it's a far cry and odds are the project will fail miserably since these people probably just want an easy life given to them than to work for it.

As for the economic situation I would defer to you on that. I don't claim to know a whole lot about economics since I'm still too young to have a handle of economy and law policies.

Also you're not the only one who wants to see the corrupt politicians in jail cells. But there's nothing we can do about that for now. The ICC only sees FIFA CEO's as the only types of people who can be corrupt.

Also Australia really needs better laws. And they need to make prisons more efficient. We have people committing crimes so they can get into prison and get 3 meals a day free. That's crazy. We have homeless kids and adults on the streets and we are feeding terrorists halal meat in prisons for free? Now that's messed up, wouldn't you agree?

@Lancer I agree with some of your points, but not about Leyonhjelm.

@Coffeo What do you dislike about Leyonhjelm? He has consistently been thinking of ways the government can save money, he fights for freedom of speech and he is the least arrogant/pretentious MP I've ever seen.

I just find that whenever he brings up an issue, he also brings a possible solution to the table.

@Lancer He has all the qualities you mention. I even agree with some of his views, but disagree profoundly on others. On balance, he is not one of my favourite politicians (not that I have many).

Fair enough. He's mainly my favorite because

1. I agree with most of what he says
2. I like how he thinks
3. When one of our past prime ministers died and all politicians said they needed a day off to think about him as a day of remberance. Leyonhjelm went to work because he thought it was BS to take a day off.

I know what you mean. My dad was once a consultant for a big oil company, they were going to clean and decommission an offshore facility and asked his opinion on what to do. He told them not to use high pressures if the facility as it may cause an explosion. The consensus was "but using high pressure is cheaper than the other method" so my dad left the room. 5 minutes later he was called back into the room where the live video feed showed the facility engulfed in flames and causing not only millions of dollars of damage but also an environmental hazard.

Even after being told not to do something and play it safe, even after being told exactly what not to do, people will inevitably do the wrong thing.

Also the Australian government really needs to grow a pair and get a leader, I'd vote for anyone, so long as they put the needs of the country at the top of their priority list.

@Lancer love your anecdote. I think that it applies to nearly every scheme adopted from overseas by Australian governments. And before you squeal of Australian originality I ask what happened after little Billy tried to conscript Australians into WWI, pig iron Bob tried to export it to Japan and little Johnny turned everyone into war criminals? ... Myths in lunch boxes?

@FrayedBear I don't quite understand the references you made but I appreciate the comment.

@Lancer In WWI PM 'Little' Billy Hughes couldn't conscript Australians to fight in Europe because of the constitution. So he came up with a wonderful Australian idea - hold a referendum to change the constitution and force conscription. The referendum turned in a No vote so Billy re-ran it and another No vote was returned. Pig Iron Robert Menzies tried to export iron to Japan prior to WWII. The maritime unions blockaded the shipments but the Japanese still bombed Australia. And the lastly mentioned is perhaps more an example of Australian gutless behaviour and self agrandisement than originality, John Howard who with Bush and Blair turned their respective country's citizens into war criminals in the eyes of most of the world.

Right, I get what you mean now. I never knew about the conscription or union blockade.

Also I'm sure you know but Japan was a terrible nation in WW2, they butchered people and turned the Chinese into human test subjects.

Also every western country is deplorable for their actions in the middle east. Sending soldiers to kill and die, ordering them to do so, then incriminating them for war crimes they were ordered to do is reprehensible. Blair & Bush should be in an underground gulag for the rest of their lives.

Also there's also the WA secession referendum where the majority voted to succeed from Australia and when the legally binding result of the vote made it's way to Parliament in the UK they ruled the vote "invalid" I mean talk about Tyranny in the modern Era.

So facts are pessimistic? I guess they are, why would facts be objective in any way? The government must be doing a great job and I'm just being a bad citizen by letting them get away with war crimes, environmental catastrophes, corruption, etc. But at least they can take my bins away every week.

To be fair, I don't really care what the government does, my people have been treated like 2nd class citizens for years but we just accept it now. As long as the government doesn't bother me, I don't bother it. That's the definition of a perfect co-existence relationship.

I'm just happy with enjoying life and having fun.

@Lancer Do non Australians understand sarcasm?
If your people are Australian First Nation's People (AFNP) then perhaps for the benefit of people from elsewhere it may enable them by explaining how until 1966 AFNP were not recognised as human beings. And how even despite international agreements and covenant claiming that Australia is a land of equality there is no Federal legislation, court or commission ensuring it. And that 50,000 year old heritage is wilfully destroyed and not protected whilst AFNP are dispossessed of their land and have genocide perpetrated against them by government forces and actions.

@Lancer No I agree that governments do fucked up stuff. I mean the part about never advancing past the stone age. Hold out hope for the future, things do tend to improve over time.

Okay @RoboGraham fair enough. I misinterpreted your comment. I just don't see how we have changed all that much over the years. Wars are still fought over resources, we have replaced the tribal system with patriotism, we continue to reproduce beyond our capacity to support such a large population and the only thing that has improved is technology.

I do hope for the future since a project I am working on depends on it and may have the potential reshape the future of humanity. So I agree that optimism is a great trait to possess.

@Frayed Bear Just for the record I am of mixed race and I was born in Australia but I am not of Aboriginal heritage. When I said 2nd class citizens I was referring to how West Australians are constantly exploited by the Federal government and how WA is the power horse that is forced to make the real money to support the blue bloods in Canberra who are as useless as they come.

Also I don't have anything against aboriginals, I agree that there were some racially aggravated crimes against them but some of them need to get off the bottle and really try to improve their image. I remember in a town called Kalgoorlie a aboriginal boy (14) stole a white mans motercycle from his house. The man drove to chase the boy and somehow the boy ended up dead (Possibly from crashing without any helmet, protective gear, etc). That week there were riots in the streets, police cars burned, liquor stores looted, police assaulted and the courthouse was badly damaged. For one criminal. The man was found guilty of manslaughter. This got a lot of news coverage.

Now, 1 week later in my neighborhood an aboriginal boy stole a 4x4 drive and drove on the wrong side of the road to avoid the cops. several minutes after the initial pursuit was called off, the aboriginal boy crashes into a car with a white family in a head on collision. The aboriginal boy killed a white family of 3 people and all it got was a small mention in the local newspaper.

If there isn't a racially motivated agenda in the media then I guess it was just a coincidence.