Australia, stop whinging and grow up*

After suffering through an unusually tough, wet winter, don't you just love turning up to dinner and

getting stuck next to the suntanned bore who has been in some warm spot north of the Equator?

“Blah blah blah we were so hot blah blah blah you could always find a quiet beach. Blah blah blah

everything was so cheap blah blah blah check out this wallet − it's made of cork." Fancy.

I realised the other day I have become one of those blow-ins from the north. A house swap in Spain

and another in Portugal, plus an indulgent month in Greece where we actually had to pay for our

accommodation (you know, if you get away from Athens it is really cheap blah blah blah – oops,

sorry) has made me someone to avoid, at least until my tan fades.

The only thing is, don't ask if I am glad to be back.

I have tried to keep a low profile regarding the state of the nation but, when I turn on the radio

or pick up a paper, I wonder why it won't leave me alone. The media noise in this country, the

pessimism, the shrieking ignorance of talkback, the witlessness of truckies with too much time

on their hands, radio announcers proclaiming it would be a good idea to murder the PM. The

doomsaying of our media, egged on by Tony Abbott, an empty suit good for only three-word

slogans. It is relentless. Fair dinkum when will this country ever grow up?

It's like arriving back to a giant creche full of self-entitled dummy spitters.

By any measure, Australia is doing well economically. Unemployment is low, our debt is so small

it barely rates a mention. We have a massive minerals boom and the future is bright. The view from

Europe is: what are you whinging about? We should be so lucky I spent time in three countries with severe economic problems. Greece is an official basket case,Spain’s in trouble and Portugal is said to have problems but much of it is because of dopey rating agencies and the bond market drinking their own bathwater. This mob missed the GFC coming down the turnpike but feel they still have credibility. Unarguably, Greece is in intensive care; it may have actually died a year ago and is being kept alive artificially.

Did I detect the same level of negativity and pessimism in Greece as I do from the well-off denizens

of this country? No, I didn't. There was a shrug and wry smile and they just got on with it.

Sure, they think the politicians have dropped them in the moussaka but they tend not to blame the

current government. The previous one is in the frame after it cooked the books, with help from

Goldman Sachs, to convince the European authorities that they were ready to have the euro.

I have always wondered about that. You only have to spend a little time in Greece to know that

the government is a bit like a film set: looks good but not much behind it. Greeks opted out of

the political system years ago, except in kafeneions, where three Greeks constitute three political

parties. It is no accident that anarkismo is a Greek word.

Most of them don't pay tax, so finding the money to repay debts to Germany is not seen as a

pressing issue. Many Greeks still haven't forgiven the Germans for their appalling behaviour during

World War II and they’re not too fussed if Angela Merkel can't sleep at night. Most think they

should default and go back to the drachma. My Greek friends say, “We are not Europeans.” They

aren't. They are Greeks.

In Portugal and, especially, Spain, there is anger and they are facing big upheavals. But they bat

on. Europe generally is struggling with problems which, if replicated here, would have the whole

country on suicide watch.

It is pretty clear that, with the exception of industrialised Germany, Western Europe has fallen for

the three-card economic trick of shifting the engines of mass employment offshore to Asia and

Eastern Europe. So the jobs that fuel the economies and provide the sort of environment in which

the middle class flourishes are gone. In their place will be a banking and high-tech elite, leaving a

mass of discontented unemployed or underemployed people.

We don't have those problems. Yet. But if we allow the mining boom to roll on and mining

companies to exploit our minerals and energy without exacting a good whack for Australian

taxpayers, that is the future facing us. We will be left with a lot of unfilled holes and nothing to

drive our economy.

This is an important debate and wouldn't it be great if it were occupying the air space and columns

of our media? Instead, we have a lot of self-entitled people elbowing each other out of the way to

grab a microphone to tell us that, while they might earn more than $150,000 a year, they “don't feel

well off”. They should be laughed off the platform but the media give them air.

We have the head of David Jones trying to blame his inept performance as a manager on the

carbon tax, which hasn't even been legislated yet. Gerry Harvey thinks the internet is killing him,

yet he was happy to kill off Australian manufacturing and source his goods from cheap Asian

countries, then charge a huge mark-up. Ask Apple why, if the Aussie dollar is so high, it is charging

outlandish prices for its products here. The Housing Industry Association blames poor house sales

on the carbon tax. BlueScope Steel is putting off some 1000 workers. Before it blackmailed the

government into giving it a massive handout, the company was hinting that it was all the fault of

the (non-existent) carbon tax. It was poor management and the high Australian dollar, which would

come down markedly if we taxed the mining companies more heavily.

Despite the stream of rubbish that flows from Abbott’s mouth, the carbon tax will add about 0.7 per

cent to the cost of living and most Australians will get compensation for it. Everyone is moving to a

carbon tax. Yes, even China. California, the US’s largest economy, has a carbon tax. But I can see it

is depressing people – after all, they have been scared spitless by the media and political campaign

of untruths.

And if it is not the self-entitled whinging, we have endless noise about a few asylum seekers. The

ALP has gone from bad to worse to diabolical in its policies, when the only path was really to set

out for the moral high ground. Diving deeper into the racist muck that smears the asylum-seeker

debate in this country is a zero sum game. I note that in Athens at the moment they are processing

the claims of 40,000 asylum seekers. Last year, less than 7000 arrived in Australia. 

Now the High Court has told the Government that offshore processing is not only morally reprehensible but legally not and indeed that the Nauru option set up by Howard was illegal too, it's time the Government grew a spine and stared down the gibberers of talk back radio their foaming half-breed supporters and the scum bags in the Labor and Liberal parties and just processed onshore. Like adult countries do. If not for humanitarian reasons but for the reason that it is so much bloody cheaper.

The political debate is like tinnitus, to the point where our brain blocks out all other sounds, leaving

us in a state of permanent anxiety. It's time to grow up, people. We live in the fastest-growing

region in the world. We are well off and have a future. We need to have some important debates on

reshaping the economy. Arm yourself with facts and information and demand your politicians get

back to doing their jobs.

And, yes, thanks for asking, I had a great time overseas and I love most things about being back. If

only someone would shut down the white noise.

This post first appeared on  thehoopla.com.au