I don't entirely agree with this sentiment, personally. Regional areas by definition do not have large populations. There is be work to be done in the regions, and regional employment can and should be increased, but building more infrastructure to accommodate more people would be very expensive per person.
The real solution in my mind is more homes closer to existing services.
We are pretty allergic to densification in Australia, but we desperately need it. Seems to work fantastically for many European cities.
The car has lead to ridiculous urban sprawl in all major Australian cities, and we need to densify so public transport becomes more affordable to expand.
That and ending housing being an investment vehicle.
No worries with Socialist Alliance's GreenLeft, but my knee-jerk reaction to the CPA is that they are, not even embarrassed, Stalinists. Based on reporting and having gone out to the pub with some of them after a protest once.
I may have fighting words with comrades who think a one-party state who "consults with" the working class, and rules for them (their words, not mine).
Nothing wrong with "communists", but the CPA, in my view, and by their own admission (people I met), are maoists and stalinists - and those people hate democracy.
They very seriously told me that while China isn't perfect, it's a government who governs for the people. Which is some hilarious shit If I've ever heard it, considering how China is capitalist as heck and has no popular democracy whatsoever. Even less than us.
There is no socialism without democracy.
Apologies, but I feel very strongly against the CPA. It sucks, because what the common person thinks communism and socialism, is what they're espousing...
Thank Christ they're a tiny org in Australia.
(Maybe there is more than one org calling itself the a Communist Party of Australia???)
As much as this is deeply concerning, what exactly can the Australian Federal parliment do beyond making political asylum visas easier to access? Something, I'm told, is pretty difficult to do if you're a Chinese national, as many of these applications are rejected as illegitimate.
Unless we're willing to massively hurt our relationship with China, and lose the large pool of international students who come here to study, there's not really much that will be done about this.
You can bet the universities would lobby to not turn that tap off...
In conclusion, the only people who can fix this is the Chinese people themselves :/
However, from a programming perspective, it either works or it doesn't. From a legal perspective, that is something completely else, so I guess the comparison is not quite equal.
To me this is the crux of the matter. It's why AI is absolutely worthless for engineering (the traditional kind) beyond asking "hey, what's the part of the standard that says something like XYZ?" and then just going directly to the source.
but provided an exemption for funds transferred to registered political parties through their “nominated entities”.
The only parties with nominated entities registered with the Victorian Electoral Commission are Labor, and the Liberal and National parties. While laws allowed for the creation of new nominated entities, any set up after 1 July 2020 were subject to the donation cap.
Seems like the High Court made a sensible decision. This is some anti-democratic bullshit if I ever did see it.
Fuck the Labor Party. Watch them not reintroduce these laws at all now...
Like, I can sort of, SORT OF see the logic behind providing subsidy for fuel for the use of delivery or other legitimate business uses, and for people who live in the country, in order to suppress some inflation.
But for personal transportation in a city? Nah. Take public transport. Doesn't exist? Time to demand it. Bus routes can be spun up incredibly quickly, and yet governments aren't doing that at all...
As much as I think tobacco and nicotine are really stupid drugs (very addictive with the most boring mind altering effects one ever did see).
I support you doing that because at least people could "shop local" with you and not support mega corps or other large cartels.
The prohibition though, in my opinion, is sound.
There's a reason why smoking is being banned in more and more locations: it stinks, and smoked as tobacco, definitely causes cancer - which the community also has to bear the cost of in medical expenses and familial/fraternal trauma.
Understandably, alcohol and other drugs also have bad side effects, and there's an argument to be made about whether is appropriate to control that also - but heck, at least the mind altering effects are actually fun, and it's not chemically addictive.
Basically. Smoking sucks, and I wish people didn't do it, sorry bud.
For clarity, I'm not saying everyone can not own a car, but most people definitely don't need a yank wank truck, or a car that drives 1000 km in a single go, for the vast, vast, vast majority of their trips.
I think there's a case to be made that if one must have a car, and they have the option of choosing an electric car, they should do that, and in the rare cases they need a car that runs on fuel for range or lack of charging options, just rent one.
I hope you get some more transport options near you soon to tick you over to the car-free life!
Do we know if this includes benefits like healthcare, and public transport that reduce the cost of living?
Something makes me doubt it's worse to live in Australia vs the United states.