Hoping for a better New Years

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

Accidents will happen to the best regulated families.
 - Dickens, David Copperfield

(1/2021) Happy New Year to you all from everyone here in Australia.

And it will be happy. Although the pandemic is growing every day, the vaccine roll out has begun, and I can almost hear the sighs of relief. Unemployment has fallen, China has gone quiet, and we wish you well.

2020 will go down in history as the most important ever experienced in human history because never before have there been so many people affected by a disaster, its speed and the lack of preparation.

Let me bring you up to speed on how things are here in Australia, and although I don’t like to brag, we have succeeded in eliminating the virus, (the last case of community transmission as of December 14 is now 45 days ago), and returning citizens are isolated for fourteen day, with about six testing positive.

The only businesses not open are casinos and gaming venues, although there is pressure being applied for this to change as soon as possible. Limits on the number of people dining etc. have been increased, facemasks are needed only in crowded areas.

The places hardest hid by the shutdowns are booming – the arts are dancing, travel within the country is seeing very few vacancies, manufacturing unable to keep up with demand, and agriculture suffering from lack of backpackers and casuals who do most of the fruit picking each year.

This has put smiles on most people’s faces, and there’s a sense of joy everywhere you go.

Household savings have gone through the roof because shops selling all but essential items were closed, as were sporting venues, pubs, racecourses and other assorted money-eating pastimes.

Our conservative government plowed billions of dollars into support for workers who had either lost their jobs or had had them cut back, and many small businesses got various amounts, generally between 35 and 100 thousand, to retain their staff.

Naturally, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, but is now falling back to pre-pandemic levels.

And it was no miracle that we came through this relatively painlessly. Although we are really just a very large island surrounded by sea, the arable land is dotted around the coast and a population of our current twenty five million is spread mostly between our five main cities. There are no land borders by which people can enter and 99% of everyone who enters is well documented, which makes control easier.

There are two decisive factors that were responsible for this. Firstly, as a nation we mostly tend to obey the law, and consider it stupid to not do so, so that when mask wearing was mandated we did it; when contact tracing was presented we signed up and watched the numbers each night to see how we were doing.

Secondly, our system of government, inherited from the British and experimented with as only new governments can, saw compulsory voting put in place so that a prime minister was the choice of a true majority, and left the states to make most of their own rules.

No system is free from corruption and the use of influence to gain their goal, but our system does not permit any one person to pass laws. We have a Prime minister and Cabinet, and a majority in both houses is needed for any law to get into the statute books.

This is is in contrast to your system when one person has enormous power. Now I had no no idea just how much power the president has, (and I wonder; Do you?), so I looked it up and found this unbelievable list:

• He is the chief of state, meaning he is responsible for all the people.

• He is chief executive and so is in charge of the executive, who are often dependant on the president for their position.

• He is commander in chief, in charge of all military and defense matters.

• He can sign a piece of paper, which becomes law, impose tariffs and block imports as he chooses.

• He is in charge of all the diplomatic posts, policy decisions and treaties as well as the judiciary.

• He can elect to use ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ power in his dealings with other nations. That is, soft power is negotiation, hard is the use of force.

When all these are put together, the powers of the president of the United States look very much like those of a dictator. It certainly did not begin that way, but starting with Ronald Reagan, presidential powers were increased until you and the world were faced with the unintended result of the president being a man unfit for office by any standards.

But he’s gone, and his successor, Joe Biden, is returning the highest office to one of probity, decency and reason. World leaders are in dialogue, China has relaxed, alliances honoured, treaties reexamined, and real time plans put in place to address the economy.

And we, who look to America as a powerful negotiator and staunch ally, are right behind him.

Yes, we have huge problems, the chief of which is being dependant on China for our livelihood, but we can feel proud to be allies of yours.

We can boast about our COVID-19 success and mourn your appalling plight, but our relationship with you is back to being one of family. Families look out for each other, even as we disagree and fight.

So let me remind you that Australia is one of the best places in the world. Best to live in, best for equality, services, opportunity and peace. Very few of us want to live anywhere else, and we always come home from a trip abroad so glad and thankful that we have a way of life that is the best. Yes, the very best.

Please join us, we need your indomitable spirit, we need to show you how to reform your government.