Policy and geography

Noel Pearson makes an interesting, even if not new, observation that many Indigenous Australians are rationally choosing not to work, given the extent of welfare payments and other government benefits. However, this, and his proposal to eliminate welfare payments for people aged under 21 opens up some bigger questions.

Should indigenous people be given special treatment when it comes to welfare, employment and housing policy, or should the government set the same rules for everyone (regardless of cultural background) and then be responsible for ensuring everyone has a minimum quality of life?

Should government policies vary geographically, depending on the availability of particular types of employment, number and quality of schools, and housing prices and rents within different areas?

Perhaps a focus more on the geographic inequality of outcomes and opportunities, rather than on categorising people as Aboriginal and therefore inherently different to everyone else, would be a better way of going about things.

Compulsory student social fees

The Rudd Government must be absolutely crazy to be considering re-introducing compulsory student fees to cover social and sporting services. They are completely misguided to think that all student will happily go along with this if they are given a choice about becoming a member of the student union.

This is not all about union membership. This is about a group of people--many who aren't earning big incomes--being forced to pay for services they may have no personal need for or interest in. Course fees are high enough without adding on extra costs for students.

If the Rudd Government is so determined to improve sporting and social services in universities, it should fund these directly out of government revenue and see what the electorate thinks about it all at the next election.

Langton on Greer

Marcia Langton's comments on Germaine Greer and responses to these comments both seem to ignore what Greer is really saying. Maybe Greer is a radical left-wing feminist, and a racist too, but that is no reason not to refute her arguments on intellectual grounds alone, rather than taking a swing at her as a person.

A common response to Greer’s On Rage, as made by Langton and others, has been that perpetrators of violence need to be individually accountable for their acts and take individual responsibility for their actions.

Well of course they should. Attributing a widespread problem to a social cause does not excoriate from blame those individuals who have committed repugnant acts. When there is violence committed by men against women and children across numerous Indigenous communities--as there has been--"individual responsibility" alone cannot explain why this has occurred. Social problems stem from social causes.

Trying to identify such causes and, ultimately, work towards overcoming them is a crucial step for improving Indigenous communities across the country. Whether or not Greer is right to nominate 'rage' in Aboriginal males as such a social cause is up for debate. If she is “racist” and “just plain wrong” as Langton alleges, and this is not the cause, then what is?

Pacific migrant workers

It's good to see that workers from the Pacific Islands will be allowed to work on Australian farms if they wish to. It should be hoped that this scheme is soon made permanent and expanded to other economic sectors. Australia, faced with a shortage of skilled labour, and many Pacific Islands, faced with a shortage of appropriate jobs, make for a good labour-market fit. If the scheme leads to greater training and skill development amongst Pacific Islanders, then that is an added bonus.

Car industry assistance

Andrew McKellar, as head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, argues that because the Doha trade talks have recently collapsed, “the Government should rethink and adopt a phased or staged approach to [automotive] tariff reductions.”

This is the worst piece of economic reasoning that I’ve seen in a long time. Just because progress on freeing up trade (and thus boosting competition) around the world has stalled does not mean that it is desirable to continue handing the car industry billions of dollars of trade-distorting assistance via tariffs.

Regardless of talks at the global level it is still in Australia’s interest to get rid of automotive tariffs and reduce assistance given to the car industry. This also means that the Bracks car plan is just as bad as the tariffs. Removing all “industry assistance” will not only reduce inefficiencies and distortions in the economy, but will also greatly reduce prices for consumers (and increase options are most models become profitable to import) and avoid propping up thousands of jobs that are just not sustainable.

It is better to retrain and move workers now, while the economy is still functioning relatively well and government finances are in top shape, than to forgo taxation revenue and keep consumer prices high to maintain jobs in a dying sector that will eventually need to shed them.

With the kind of ignorance and blatant self-interest amongst top car industry officials as shown by Mr. McKellar, no wonder they need massive subsidies to be able to survive and are scared stiff of competition from companies who can produce high quality cars that consumers want for low prices.

Wien photos

My photos for Vienna/Wien are now online as well.

Slovakian excursion

I've just got back from a half-day trip to Bratislava. It's really easy to get to, only an hour by train from Wien and there's a special 'Bratislava ticket' from the train station ticket machines that gives return travel to Bratislava and use of the public transport systems for the inner cities of Wien and Bratislava. Valid for one day, 14€... which seemed like decent value I thought.

For some reason the train there took nearly 2 hours, and the one back only 1 hour... hmm. (At least the one going there was air conditioned though). I arrived in Bratislava station--looking like an old railway station does about 40 years after construction without any maintenance--and managed to find a tourism office, map and the bus number I needed.

Well, the buses aren't quite as good as those elsewhere (including the other parts of Eastern Europe I've been to) and a few old people with soiled pants were shuffling around. Kind of smelly. The city was three stops away... and my first destination after that was Bratislava Hrad (castle), high up on the hill and the only thing in the city that actually stands out. It had mostly been destroyed at some stage (world wars I think?) and was still being rebuilt.

Strangely enough, there were no signs around the place; I found it hard to find the exit to the complex and the only things that were inside were toilets and a small museum... I waited at the counter for a few minutes and no-one showed up, so I figured they just couldn't be bothered and left. It looked like a small and boring museum anyway. There was no way to go inside the castle.

That was my first taste of Slovakia... it seems almost as if since Communism fell almost two decades ago this city has been stuck in time ever since. There's one wide pedestrian boulevard with gardens, fountains and bizarre statues (where I had a very nice lunch--pork and walnuts with baked potato, paprika and dark beer... yum!) but apart from that the rest of the city looks a tad on the worn side.

So I wandered around the streets, bought some tacky souvenirs, took some photos of random buildings... then made my way back to the train station. It was a hot, humid day and I don't think there's a single air conditioner in Bratislava, so it wasn't very comfortable. Even worse when I got to the station and discovered the next train back to Wien was 45 minutes away... and there was no-where to sit.

I'm glad I saw Bratislava (it has potential, I suppose) but I'm also glad to be back in Wien. I wanted to go see another museum this afternoon (I saw the Treasury yesterday, v v impressive) but now it's too late. And raining. Oh well.

And tomorrow I head back home... via four (!) flights. Sydney, here I come (via Riga, Helsinki and Bangkok)!

Budapest

Yesterday I went on a (whirlwind) bus tour of Budapest. It departed at 7.15am... and they said they'd pick me up from my hotel. Which they did, but I was told 6.15am, and it was a bit after 6.45am when they came to pick me up. Hmm. Other people on the tour had similar problems, and many assumed they weren't being picked up and headed to the main bus stop on their own.

Other than that, though, it was a good day, and reasonably well run. There were about 20 people on the bus, plus driver and tour-guide girl. Three and a bit hours after leaving Wien we were stuck in an authentic Hungarian traffic jam, winding our way through the streets of Budapest to some random hotel restaurant, where we could 'purchase lunch if you want, but you don't have to, you can just get a drink'... I was hungry so I had lunch, but it was a bit expensive, and it was terribly slow.

Afterwards was a guided walking tour with a 'local guide' (she was about 75 years old... but still walked faster than most of us could) on the top of the mountain on the Buda side of the river, near the castle, Fisherman's Bastion, and other monumental sites I forget the names of. The view was good, although it was hot weather and a little hazy.

It's really quite an impressive city. It's been around for yonks, was first settled by the Hungarians in around 800AD ish, although much of the gothic and renaissance architecture was destroyed in the two world wars. Nevertheless, it's all very impressive, especially the castle up on the hill, and the parliament building on the Pest side of the Danube (see the photos). Many buildings are newer than they look as they were reconstructed in older styles.

We then were dropped in the city centre, on the Pest side, and had just under 2 hours to wander about. So I went for a walk. First stop, St. Stephen's Cathedral, a big-ish Catholic church that houses the mummified hand of (Saint) King Isvan (Stephen) I, Hungary's first king. I'm not an expert in 11th century body parts, but it looked pretty disgusting. Thankfully the photo I took didn't turn out well enough, and all that can be seen in it is the shrine that houses it.

Then I went for a walk up to the impressive parliament building. You have to pay for a ticket to get right up next to it (!!) so I just walked around. I ended up on the river bank, but (what seems to be) a remnant of Communist times, big highways, hug the riverbank on both sides. I had to walk about 500-600m in the hot sun just to cross the road! Not fun.

So then after that was buying a bottle of water (by credit card... I got a strange look) and going to the toilet in Maccas (70Fl, or 50 euro cents... look up the exchange rates to see how anti-tourist that is). And, of course, sitting in the shade with a beer, watching the main pedestrian street.

Then a quick dash to the meeting point and a bus back to Wien. The End. (And I didn't even call the locals 'Pests').

Tomorrow is Bratislava (briefly)!