Was in a shop today and overheard the conversation between two sale girls. One of them is in the university studying a communications (Arts) degree. The other girl just saw on the news that a celebrity couple had announced that they are going to pay off all the university loans of the 2022 graduates for a university, so they can really start a life without a lifetime of burden.
So, naturally we talked about this.
During the conversation, the girl who is in uni reckoned that she would never be able to afford a house with the HECS debt she is going to accumulate, and that she needs to pay for all the daily expenses like rent and everything, when she, if she, is managed to find stable fulltime work. She had a pretty grim view about the whole situation and we were angry with the people in the current government that they received their education for free, and then decided that nobody else can have free university education.
Upcoming Saturday is the day we are going to decide what kind of country we want to live in, by deciding who deserves our hard-earned tax money.
For me, if I am going surrender a substantial part of my salary to the government, I want a government that focused on improving public education, public health and public infrastructure.
And this is not the current government.
Putting aside the integrity issue and the lying nature of Scott Morrison as the Prime Minister, the head of the government, the whole cabinet is not about the well being and welfare of common Australians.
In the last few years, we witnessed the active demolition of the public education system. From the year-on-year reduction of funding for public school, the overpayment to private schools, the JobKeeper payment to private schools, the refusal of JobKeeper to public universities leading loss of hundreds of jobs in the sector, and the active interference with research activities to fulfil the needs of its cultural war, this government has exhibited no care for the public education sector, and expressed no remorse for the uneducation of common Australians. They are trying to make education the plaything for the elitist, shutting out equal opportunity for everyone else, who are also going to pay for their salary through their tax money.
In terms of public health, the COVID pandemic in the last 2 years had exposed how underfunded the public health sector is. It also exposed the lack of duty and care for the aged care sector, leading to hundreds of deaths in this sector and talent bleeding in the profession. The strollout of vaccine because the government’s failed to order enough vaccine to save money, and the continuous attack on health expert so that they can ignore their duty, demonstrated the arrogance and lack of interest in public health matters. The decision to stop reporting infections and deaths leading to the continuous climb of case showed that the government is willing to risk common Australians’ lives to achieve their goals – to make themselves look good for the re-election.
As for public infrastructure, the overpaying of lands for their friends for the new airport, the pork-barrelling of carparks where they do not need one, the refusal to fund federal railways because a Labor state covers most of the rail area and the Sport Rort to build infrastructures for projects that are not qualified for the public money, are all clear display of this government’s immense arrogance and corruption with taxpayers’ money. The view that if their MP can pork barrel at the expense of the more needed areas not in their electorate by Scott Morrison demonstrated how lack of respect this government is with public money and the taxpayers of this country.
Scott Morrison’s pitch was ‘You know who you are getting’ – and I think for me is definitely what I don’t want to get in the next three years. He is right that we do not know much about Anthony Albanese’s ability, but Scott Morrison was an untested Prime Minister when he was elected by his cohort, and then displayed four years of corruption, lies, scare campaigns and failures. As Scott Morrison’s colleague said, he uses his Christianity as a weapon of deceit, but he is in fact a person who lacks a moral compass. When he wants to attack another woman, he would wheel out his wife to do so, thinking it is ok to have another woman to do his dirty work.
Anthony Albanese had improved during the campaign and composure is needed for this job, not to mention hard work on his homework. However, at least we know he has a great team to support him, especially displayed during his COVID isolation period, with Penny Wong, Tony Burke, Tanya Plibersek, Jim Chalmers etc. So, we know a green Prime Minister will be in good hands.
For me, the cultural war from the right and the far right has gone on for too long, leading to a sickly divided country. A stitch in time will definitely saves nine if we replaced the current corrupted cohort that promote white supremacy in time, and replace it with someone else.
Our country’s future is in the hands of the future generations of our country, and these people’s future is in our hands. We cannot afford to further destroy the upcoming generations by only caring for our own gains like another generation we know. If we know that it is very hard of us already, we should make the future better for our children and the next generation, if we do love them.
For me, this year, I will vote for anyone that has a chance to oust a Liberal or National candidate in the electorate, because I love Australia, and I care about Australia’s future.
I just hope that I am not the only one.
