As for a good possible Australian Prime Minister, I can only see Penny Wong, from the Labor Party/Senate Leader, as a real possibility. She is a hard, driven, committed person with great mental alacrity and capacity...and far more a true bureaucrat than a matinee idol. I think she would do well. She could bring both consensus and clear direction. At least you would know that the serious responsibility was in the hands of someone who you knew was a serious being & who knew what they were actually doing. Wow, wouldn't Fox News be upset!

As for the um... Senior Royals ... standing back from Royal duties, I think there is a B grade movie in that story. The talentless useless Prince and the fast ageing cable TV ex-star facing the hurdles of real life in 21st century California, with Trump as President...having afternoon tea in the caravan park with his relative, the Royal Sweaty Pizza Eating Rooter, on the run from paedophilia and rape charges...yes, that film could work, it could work, if Disney does it nicely. It's the Royal Family, it's American Ambition, it's about Freedom; it's got it all.

I find the disturbing thing about the Australian Government, in terms of the ongoing ridiculously big fires etc, is that this is not a bunch of people who really are committed to fixing up things, nor do they have the skills, experience, or even desire to fix up things. It is not what they signed up for. Being on TV and talking at cameras is cool, but, beyond that, well...who can we blame? Can we blame China? can we blame Iran? Scott Morrison does do well in marketing and on TV, true, but, really, neither of those things have anything at all to do with the hard job of governance, of scope, capacity, endurance, risk, progression, or enduring social benefit at all. Scott Morrison and his very odd, to the point of peculiar, deputy, Peter 'That Odious Bald Cunt' Dutton. These are Morning Breakfast News camera folk. Light entertainment interspersed with positive advertisements for the banks. Matinee idols who really don't have a clue, & can't have a clue. What is happening, although Scott will be on the TV everyday, and Peter will be hiding until Scott gets the knife...is a failure of government through atrocious leadership, low quality untalented wishy-washy people with the great only desire to be in the News.

I've been trying to put my views on climate change and the Australian Government into 2 brief paragraphs, and I think I've done it, and it is a considered view: 1: Australia is the second highest polluter in the world, per capita, but, at the same time, there aren't many people here, and we really wouldn't be missed if we disappeared completely. We are not world leaders or a good example for anyone, anywhere. We never have been, & never will be. At 25 million, we are smaller in culture, history, meaning and impact than one decent Asian City. Still, climate change due to pollution is true so we should do our share to reduce these emissions in league with other countries rather than try to lie and cheat and tweak the numbers etc. 2: Accepting that pollution is causing a lot of climate change, the Government needs to invest huge amounts into making the transition to a Much Hotter World much better and safer for folk in this country. It should have been doing this for decades. It has failed us. It continues to fail us, its own people, and indeed, in our small part to play, and, yes, it is a small part, it is failing the greater world itself.

I think the Australian Political realm is like this: the Current Government is very anti-the notion of climate change, not because they don't think it is happening, but because they think it is mostly happening elsewhere, so, it's not important...what is important is running an effective Conservative government based on the usual principles...smaller government, less tax for the wealthy, help your mates, discriminate against the poor, and let the market fix everything while we all go on holidays, because we are great, but can't actually believe, or agree, even between each other, in the general notion of being a responsible...government. I think that's it in a nut shell. the fires will test them, I guess, but the real test is upon the majority of the buffoons who elected such buffoons because they believed in marketing spin rather in boring capacity and responsibility in governance.

One of the problems with using the Australian Military to save folk by ship is that they didn't have any life-vests for children, so the kids had to be saved... a bit later....after they found some appropriate gear. The Australian Defence Forces are far better equipped to drop white phosphorous bombs across the middle east on small towns than it is well equipped to help little folk of their own. The issue of using boats to save refugees of the Mallacoota fire also brings into irony the Prime Minister's proud claim to fame...of stopping refugee boats from coming to Australia for safety. "Go back to where you came from" as Australian International Policy, has a distinct irony in these hot unrelenting days. "Be careful, Some of those children, and the women, may carry terrorist fire with them..."

Violence and Women: as an Australian man, I have struck a woman once, when I was 28, my first wife, a slap across the face, in an Italian Restaurant in Brookvale, just after she struck me, with a slap across the face. As I recall it had something to do with sex. I expect neither she nor I have made any apologies about that moment, and neither of us are likely to. I grew up in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney during the 50s 60s and 70s and 80s and have never had any problem with gender etc, many of my friends being transexual, which is why my wife slapped me, anyway...never had any problems with folk being gay, I did that for a few years, and never had any problem with people of different races or cultures etc. I don't know what it is that fucked up Australia, but I remain pretty convinced that I just lived in that good yet poor time as a reasonable contributor to society before people and governments screwed anyone to the wall for being who they were based on some political agenda. The problem with gender sex disablement etc is not a historical problem, it basically started when Australians kept electing dickhead conservative governments. that's the depth of the problem, and if we elected someone else, then there would be no problem. There's no problem with Australia, really, apart from the cunts we continually elect, even now...and we know they are antediluvian cunts and still elect them. If there is something wrong with Australia, for fuck's sake, I didn't enlist to kill children in Vietnam or Afghanistan etc...it isn't me. I just chose to be respectful.