ADVANCE AUSTRALIA WHERE?

When one takes into consideration that a considerable portion of this reproduced letter refers to the fighting men and women who have shed blood for this nation of ours, I thought the Anzac Memorial Ode to be appropriate. 

The World's most beautiful city. Sydney.

The Don.

Puff.  Reg Gasnier.

Sydney Ferry Race.

Summer at Bondi Beach.

United as one..... Lucky stars.

Aussie beach bum.

Australia Day on Bondi Beach. Floating Flip Flops.

Australia  2012

The last thing I wanted any of my tall tales from antiquity to be was political. I was taught from a very early age that you never discuss Sport, Religion and Politics, as opinions vary from person to person. The photos above represent what Australia means to me and I am positive there could be dozens more that could be included by others whose perception of OZ is totally different to mine. That is what Australia should be about. Diverse in so many ways, but united as one when it comes to love of country and our unique culture.

I was fortunate to be born and raised  during a period when the dreaded political correctness hardly existed and Australia appeared to be heading in the right direction on all fronts. We had political stability, a strong economy, religious freedom, riots and civil unrest were unheard of and migrants were expected to put any feuds and vendettas behind them and familiarise themselves in the ways and traditions of their new and adopted country. Most did just that and went on to literally transform Australia into a nation the whole world looked up to with admiration and envy.

Today it seems our elected leaders don't give a damn about us, or the country they are supposed to be running and looking after on our behalf. Yes, that's right, on our behalf. When concerned citizens are criticized and called racist for talking out against radicals, who are out to destroy our nation and its traditional values, it's time to say out loud, ENOUGH!!! I've taken time to reproduce a letter sent to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition by an extremely disgruntled Mrs. Jenny Bell of South Australia who is concerned, worried and angry at what is currently passing as politics.

Please make time to carefully read the following, as it accurately sums up the feelings of the silent majority............


To Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) and Tony Abbott (Leader of the Opposition).......

You both worry me! (In fact both your political parties worry the hell out of me!!!)

Over the last three years, I find myself becoming more and more fearful of the pair of you and between you, you are turning this country into a place that I no longer feel at home in, or feel a part of! I watch you in Parliament and no, not just the two of you, but every politician that I see, stand up in parliament sneering at each other and acting like children!!! (...and if you were my children, I would be ashamed of you all.... What an example to set)

Although you would like us all to believe that you are putting the needs of this country at the forefront, neither of you are doing that, you seem more interested in "one- up-manship", in scoring off each other and denigrating each other, to the detriment of this country and its people!!!
It seems to be all about you as individuals and not about what you can do for this country! It is fast becoming a place that I do not recognise as the place I always thought was the best place in the world to be!!!

But no longer!!!

You are not listening to the people of this country!!! And here in South Australia, your counterparts are afflicted with the same disease - is it endemic in politicians?

I am watching the deterioration of living standards in this country, (and according to you, on a world stage we are doing better than most countries...REALLY???)....And yet the gap is widening between the "haves and the have- nots." I see our homeless on the streets, our hospitals under-funded and understaffed, out health system is an absolute mess and a disgrace....And yet I see multi-millions of dollars being sent off shore, in aid to other countries, before attending to this countries needs!

I see the "selling off of the farm" in large amounts to foreign interests (In every State) including water rights to foreign interests too....And WHY....?
Especially when you go to great lengths to tell us that water is a finite resource and supposedly we must be careful with how we use it, so we have it for the future?

Foreign interests "Fracking" for coal seam gas and riding rough shod over farmers' rights to their own land AND USING QUESTIONABLE CHEMICALS. (You don't even KNOW what chemicals they use) and possibly causing damage to the water table in the process!!!
And those foreign interests I believe, do not have to pay anything in royalties back to this country, for the first five years of their tenure.....IS THIS CORRECT???

A Carbon Tax, (which you KNOW is just another tax with a "Starting Point dollar value") which will make NO appreciable difference to carbon emissions AT ALL.
A tax, which in spite of all your arguments FOR it, you are doing alone, when other major countries will NOT and DO NOT embrace it, or believe in it.
All that it will do for this country is put working families and small businesses behind the eight ball......what planet are you on if you think your few hundred dollars a year, will make even a scrap of difference to the carbon tax on people? Blind Freddy can see the holes in that argument!!! Do you really think we are that dumb???

The CONVOY OF NO CONFIDENCE was real!!!...and I haven't spoken to even one person who would not have liked to be there if they could, but the tyranny of distance and/or work was the only thing that kept them away. (myself included)....and you KNOW that only a part of the convoy was actually allowed to be in front of Parliament house and ON VIEW....the rest were streets away, unreported by the media!

For Mr Albanese to stand up in Parliament and call it the "CONVOY OF NO CONSEQUENCE" in his sneering tone shows just how out of touch with the people of Australia you really are!!!! WE WOULD  HAVE ALL LIKED TO BE THERE!!!

DEFENCE...... Because Americans are our Allies and we support them in wars,......Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan,.....and you have sent our soldiers to those places and our soldiers fought for you and for Australia.....some coming home with terrible physical injuries and some with devestating Mental injuries as well.....BUT WHERE ARE YOU, WHEN THEY NEED YOU????? 
     
Veterans Indexation to CPI only is a disgrace....and is something YOUR Labor party Julia, used to get the Veteran's vote....BUT YOU LIED (Again)! You never had any intention of honouring your election promise to them....and it will come back to bite you at the next election!!!! (And Tony, Liberals were NO BETTER, Howard had more than 10 years to "fix it" and didn't!)

Veterans are not alone, they have families, friends and supporters, who are heartily sick of the deception your party perpetrated on them....AND THEY ALL VOTE!!!!

They are your obligation, first and foremost.....and it is not your first obligation to give aid to every man and his dog overseas first!!! Look after your own FIRST!!!! Is this what you call SALUTING THEIR SERVICE??

Have you any idea how sickening it is for our Vets to see you both, (Labor or Liberal) turn up to the funerals of our current young Vets for a photo opportunity, to be seen "caring" in the public eye, but only to turn your backs on them all when they need you??? (Just ask Breanna Till, an Afghanistan Soldier's wife, how CARING this government is!!!

And in light of what you don't do for our Vets......Lets talk about Multiculturalism..... People come here from other countries for a better life, for more years than I have been alive (I am 65 years old!).....my own family migrated here in 1883 from Germany and did find a better life....
Pre and Post war immigrants came for a better life and settled in and became wonderful contributors to this country, as did those who came here after the Vietnam War......all have contributed to the rich diversity of this country and some descendents have even fought FOR this country and they have become Australians and were glad to be....and they had no handouts from our Government either.......they worked hard for everything!

I have never before had a problem with all, or any, race of immigrants coming here......
.......However I DO NOW!!!

Please tell me me why we have areas like Lakemba, where police do NOT and will NOT go, for fear of their life?
Please tell me why we can no longer have religion in schools for fear of "OFFENDING" someone? (The latest little gem is that they are not having, or being funded, for "chaplains" any more, but "Counsellors"?)
Please tell me why religious Christmas observances are no longer allowed in some schools for fear of offending someone?
Please tell me HOW Christmas decorations in some stores might OFFEND someone?
Please tell me why we have to have segregated days in some swimming centres, for fear of "OFFENDING" someone?
Please tell me why we have some radical clerics demanding Sharia Law in this country..... when if we were in THEIR country, this would NEVER be allowed?
Please tell me why our laws need to be changed, so as not to OFFEND someone?
Please tell me why are we fast becoming a MINORITY voice in our own country, because of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS?
Please tell me WHY Australians cannot legally wear a face covering bike helmet into a bank... and yet it is OK to wear a Burqa which covers the whole face?
And please tell me WHY, when those people who want asylum here, can wreck our detention centre in Villawood and STILL be accepted here?

SO, in light of the above, WILL BOTH OF YOU......Please tell me WHY, when some of our Vietnam Veterans finally received (in the last 6 months) the regognition that they should have had after the Vietnam War (and which they received from the USA and South Vietnam during and after the Vietnam War), that the families of those Veterans were refused assistance by this Government, to attend that award ceremony and yet this Government....flew, accommodated and even took on bus tours, to the families of asylum seekers, after the funerals of those who were killed in the boat which sunk off Christmas Island? 

What does that say about just who are this government's priorities.?

The Australian people that I speak to have genuine concerns about becoming a second class minority in our own country and the reasons for it are some of the above.....Are you so blind that you cannot see this?

And no, I am NOT racist!!!....(if I did not like Catholics or Protestants, would I be considered racist?) Of course not.

Why is it, that if we object to what is happening in our country.....we are immediately labelled RACIST in an attempt to shut us up?

We are fighting Radical Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, are we not? I hear you say, yes, but the Muslims we have here are "Not like that"........well how would we know?....do we hear ANY of them coming out and speaking AGAINST radicals?? I haven't.....have you???

Islam is not compatible with ANY of the values that we hold here in Australia!.....Are not the experiences of Britain, France and the Netherlands an example of that? Why do you think it would be any different here? We even have an Australian born "radical", whose message is that Australia WILL become a Muslim country, under Sharia Law and we had "better get used to it."

Will both of you grow some "Balls" and start sticking up for this country and its people???

We are the people who put you where you are and PAY you to look after our interests!....And you are not doing that, by any stretch of the imagination!!!

I would appreciate an answer from both of you, if only to convince me that once again, I am not talking to a brick wall!!!!!

In case it has escaped both of you.....I would like to remind you that, in Australia the Government is "FOR THE PEOPLE, OF THE PEOPLE and BY THE PEOPLE"..........never forget that......because you sure have up till now!!!



There's not much more that I could add to the above, other than to state I sincerely believe it needed to be said and possibly a copy should be sent to ALL pollies, especially  to the Greens, who believe they are more important than they really are.

Good on you Jenny, our pollies may be short on guts and intelligence but you've got more than the whole of Canberra and the States combined.....God bless you.