Originally Posted by
Clare Prop
Socialism is where the state owns and controls the means of production. Communism is when the people own and control the means of production, Similar to your example of little plastic Cosmonauts, a friend who lived in the USSR said there were shops full of identical ugly shoes, but no bread.
We have a mixture of socialism and capitalism in Australia and although far from perfect it works a lot better than many other places. Being a monarchy seems to be enough of a safety valve to protect us from lunatics becoming presidents...
The monarchy has zero to do with it. It is an enduring commitment by Australian's generally and even our leaders to date, that respect the law and quietly go when the people speak. The United States shows that when people decided to push the guide-rails at the edges, any system will potentially fracture. What we have in Canberra now is a government that has shown no shame when it comes to virtually ignoring the High Court (a la Dutton getting a visa cancellation overturned, then going back to his office and cancelling the visa again for a different reason, tantamount to contempt of the HC), raiding journalists for reporting the truth about government corruption and even the alleged murder of innocent civilians by our military and orchestrating to spy on a friendly and very poor country to fraudulently do them out of their oil and gas revenue, then the sorry sack of crap that orchestrated it left politics and along with his department head, took a job with the private company that stood to benefit. He's not in jail, neither of them are, but this corrupt successor government is currently persecuting the whistleblower and his lawyer under the guise of a secret trial - if there was ANY justice or descent laws against corruption, the former Minister and the Dept. Head would be in jail or being tried now.
People tend to point to Trump who is only ONE of 44 Presidents to be an imbecile and a crook, yes, what Nixon did was bad but he wasn't as bad as Trump and Buchanan was useless but that's three out of 231 years so one can hardly say we are 'safer' just because we have an imaginary figurehead who seems to be a person but lives in another country, that is skipping over all the facts.
This country is worse than the US when it comes to a rampant executive with virtually zero checks and balances which can basically do whatever it wants - with no restraint in terms of a bill of rights or any constitutional guarantees of process. Trump tried, but he was incompetent and the US Constitution is in many ways a very well structured document that effectively saw just about every attempt he made be resisted by the system. There is at least a chance Trump will go to jail for election interference if not for out and out fraud from the many State cases against him. He is desperately trying to hide documents and information from prosecutors and investigators. However, Congress is really the problem, it is a body that has basically, in many ways, ceased to function, being dominated to a large extent by morons who think wildfires are caused by Jewish 'space lasers' and who think nothing matters because Jesus is coming to rapture them.
Nothing at all to do with the fact they are a republic. Just look at some of the things Trump tried, banning certain religions from the country, overturned by the courts because it violated the First Amendment, attempting to illegally steal an election by 'finding votes' but was thwarted by the separation of powers and the independence of the State apparatus. He tried extortion of a foreign leader and was impeached by the House of Representatives, twice, he wasn't convicted in the Senate but the impeachment stands and at least a couple of Republicans voted for removal from office.
None of those protections exist in Australia and as I said, the Queen has nothing whatsoever to do with it, so I'm not sure what you're suggesting....... that there's some magical stabilising influence, if so, how did it go with the Coup in Fiji - QEII must have been so busy keeping Australia stable that Fiji overthrew their government and declared themselves a republic (not a republic actually in the correct sense of the word, just as China can call themselves a republic all they like, but they never will be a 'republic' in the correct sense while they are a one-party state). QEII's influence also didn't stop the US invading Grenada. The United States, a constitutional republic, overthrowing a Commonwealth realm when the Queen presumably ran out of stabilising 'puff'.
The notion that the Queen saves us is fantasy, just as the notion that this is a purely representative democracy. The current government in Canberra rules virtually by feat, they know they're on the nose so what do we get, with the myriad problems that need solving such as poverty, indigenous disadvantage, rebuilding the economy after the pandemic?? Voter ID, FFS, it's a solution searching for a problem. The number of irregularities in our elections which are HEAVILY scrutinised by party representatives and independent scrutineers is almost non-existent and invariably the result of confused people voting, then forgetting they voted and voting again - even that will be eradicated when the electoral rolls used at polling booths go to networked PCs that instantly update records so if you go to another booth, you'll be shown as already being marked off - the only difference to now is that it's picked up a little later after polls close by the machine reading of electoral rolls at each booth.
But of course, Voter 'ID' isn't a solution to any electoral process problem, real or imagined, it's a solution for a different problem, that being that this government has p-ssed so many people off, most of them poor (robodebt), has gone against its promises to retirees and has done nothing for the indigenous, ALL of whom are likely to vote against them so we'll pass this hasty and ill-thought out piece of legislation to make sure the sort of people who hate them, who also don't have the social mobility or wealth to own cars or a passport will be turned away at the ballot box and queues will be 10 times as long, effectively disenfranchising those they stand to lose through their votes. It is cynically and likely the most disgusting and shameful move by any government since federation. From a PM who can't lie straight in bed. I'm no fan of the French but think back and ask which other PM any of us can remember being called a 'liar' in public by an ally.
All of this happens, whistleblowers facing life in jail, laws that can put you in prison for satirical parody of a government institution - just ask Juice Media how they were brow-beaten by the 'Feds' and warned to stop using their clearly parodied coat of arms. The performance of the then AG was almost laughable.
And guess what, all this happens and QEII just sits in her castle, sipping tea and eating scones and doing what she's bloody well told when an Australian PM asks her to appoint a GG (or remove one) and a constitution that removes ANY power other than that from her and bestows it upon a GG who is not elected and MUST do precisely what the Cabinet tell him/her to do without question or face removal.
Sorry, but being a monarchy makes no difference. Thailand is a monarchy and their previous Monarch was considered a 'god' but the country can't go a week without a coup or shooting of people by the Army - and their current King is a buffoon.
Constitutional guide-rails, respect for the people's judgement and a general respect for the rule of law is what has kept us stable, not the Queen (for goodness sake, before he abdicated, Edward considered Hitler a great friend and he was an admirer.