#Richard Denniss

[danicadenniss]

My Oc Dana Denniss

State: Alive

Pronouns: She/Her

Ethnicity: Caucasian/Native American

Weapons: Swords, Knives and Blades included shotguns

Age: 23

Dana was 13 years, her mother got killed by the walkers, she got scar from them, she was rescue by Richard Grimes and the herds, after training, she is now 23 to average her mother's death.

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Australia Has A Tax System Which Unfairly Taxes The Working Poor

The newly amended Stage 3 tax cuts are making headlines at the moment. Political point scoring about broken promises has been less effective than usual. Perhaps the cost of living crisis and the unfairness of the tax regime may have something to do with that. Australia has a tax system which unfairly taxes the working poor rather than the wealthy. The LNP Coalition under the aegis of former PM Scott Morrison wanted to accentuate that even further via the regressive stage 3 tax cuts for the highest earning Australians. Their federal replacement, the Albanese Labor government amended those tax cuts to be shared more broadly with middle Australia.

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Ordinary Australians Pay The Most Via Income Tax

Despite this relatively good news for the working poor the tax burden remains unfairly skewed in favour of the wealthy. The capital gains tax omission on the family home no matter the value of the designated home means billionaires can squirrel away untold millions via this measure. Family trusts are another tax minimisation way for the wealthy to avoid paying taxation in Australia. Superannuation in Australia has been another bolthole for the seriously rich to avoid tax on their wealth. Income tax is the workhorse of the taxation system in this country and the burden falls most heavily on those that can afford it least.

Photo by Kateryna Babaieva on Pexels.com Why Doesn’t Australia Tax Fossil Fuel Corporations Properly? In Australia we subsidise large multinational fossil fuel corporations and mining companies by lessening their tax burden for some strange reason. State and federal governments cut lucrative deals for these big companies. One wonders why? Few other nations around the globe make it so financially attractive for these multinationals to extract their profitable resources. Australia, unlike many other places offers a stable and friendly environment in which to mine. Australia is the third largest exporter of energy resources in the world. Our LPG gas is fuelling Japan and many other nations. Our petroleum rent tax brings in bugger all in the greater scheme of things, especially when compared to similar schemes elsewhere. It is as if some of our people have cut deals to benefit themselves at the expense of what could be raised for the nation as a  whole. “Norway’s Ministry of Finance projects that tax revenue from oil and gas will be a staggering A$127 billion or around $23,500 per Norwegian citizen in 2023 alone.” - (https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/norway-shows-how-australia-can-get-a-fair-return-from-oil-and-gas/) Australia’s Petroleum Rent Tax Revenue “There are 10 entities in the 2020–21 PRRT transparency population, with total PRRT payable of $926 million. The number of entities paying PRRT decreased from 12 in the previous year, and PRRT payable increased from $881.1 million.” - (https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/corporate-tax-measures-and-assurance/large-business/in-detail/tax-transparency/corporate-tax-transparency-report-for-the-2020-21-income-year/petroleum-resource-rent-tax)

Photo by Loïc Manegarium on Pexels.com Richard Denniss, the chief economist at the Australia Institute, recently presented a speech on tax at the National Press Club. He made these observations about our tax system and the unfair burden it places on ordinary workers. It seems in Australia we have allowed our politicians to rig a tax regime favouring the wealthy and the big end of town. Could this be a result of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry and political donations to our two major political parties? If you look at the records you will see the fossil fuel sector is the most active lobby group and the biggest political donor. “Four of the nation’s biggest fossil fuels companies paid over 13,000 times more in “donations” to the major political parties last financial year than they collectively paid in taxes in 2020-21. Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) data released this morning shows Chevron, Santos, Whitehaven Coal and Woodside together made $390,930 in political “donations” to the ALP and the Liberal and National parties last financial year.” - (https://theklaxon.com.au/fossil-fuels-donations/)

Australians Being Screwed By Vested Interests It is pretty bloody obvious that we are being screwed by a process tainting our governments and without recourse to proper oversight or remedy. Governments and the current political system are failing us. Meanwhile, the smokescreen of cultural warfare and the politics of grievance continues. Neocons beat up emotive narratives about Australia Day merchandise not being available in Woolworths and misplaced corporate conscience regarding the colonial invasion of the continent on that day. More inflammatory is the war in Gaza and the accusations of rampant antisemitism by anyone standing up for the Palestinian’s right to exist. Of course, the Palestinian people are in fact Semitic themselves. The protest against genocide by the Israel state is anti- Zionist if a label is required. Over in America the GOP are virulently anti-woke, attacking LGBTQIA folk and their right to exist. The culture wars hide the real stuff going on, which is the control of our governments by big money. Corporate dollars get politicians re-elected and they are, therefore, beholden to the donors and their interests. Our tax system reflects this relationship. https://www.housetherapy.com.au/social-housing/

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com Until we effectively ban all corporate and private donations to political parties we will continue to be at the mercy of their power and influence. One citizen, one vote does not work if the democratic system is being undermined by large political donations by wealthy folk and corporations. Big money is always the loudest voice in the room. The unfair nature of our current taxation regime is proof positive of that. Australia has a tax system which unfairly taxes the working poor rather than the wealthy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mwGnb4CkA Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©HouseTherapy

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[mtr-amg]

Are the Libs GoOd EcOnOMic MaNaGeRs? | with Richard Denniss

[literarypiano]

Of Note // 10.08.20

“Perhaps now we can hear whatever it is that our inner voice has been struggling to tell us”: Nyadol Nyuon wants to salvage from the wreck left by this pandemic a fresh point of view and a new way of life. “We have an opportunity to ask whether all the things we used to do, and which we can’t do now, brought meaning to our lives. We can now weigh up what truly belongs and what can be left in the life before the plague.” (Guardian)

“For years, Sternberg had been saying that the fashion industry was a giant bubble heading toward collapse. Now the pandemic was just speeding up the inevitable”: Irina Alexsander sort-of profiles designer Scott Sternberg, but mostly reports on a fashion industry in decline. As with so many other industries the pandemic has shone its exposing light on, the models for doing things are no longer fit for purpose. (New York Times Magazine)

“Illiberalism Isn’t to Blame for the Death of Good-Faith Debate”: Lili Loufbourow on why online “cancel culture” just isn’t a thing. The argumentative hyperliteracy of internet discourse is what inhibits intellectual exchange and the undermines the the concept of a free and fair debate. (Slate)

Speaking of arguments made in bad faith... Richard Denniss debunks the fatuous “trolley problem” debate circulating about saving the economy versus containing COVID-19: “False binaries force phoney debates about brutal choices while also stifling public debate about creative solutions.” (Saturday Paper)

You’re Wrong About had an excellent episode explaining the reactionary movement against disco and the ways in which aesthetic choices are exalted or disparaged, depending on whose choices they are. “Disliking something without being a dick about it is a fundamental skill of adulthood and a huge number of people seem to struggle with it.”

“The heroism of masculinity, white masculinity, it never dies. Even in the face of the politics we live in, in our government, that image in filmmaking always gets a roar of applause. To me it seems so … passé”: I really enjoyed Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, which opened Melbourne International Film Festival (the digital edition) last week. Part Western, part settler-colonial satire, part-heist movie, and a meditation on masculinity, friendship, immigration, nature, and capitalism. (LA Times)

[stevemaclellan]

Would the prime minister rule out protecting Australians from terrorism if it cost a single job? Would he promise that no nurse, teacher or other public servant would be sacked in pursuit of a budget surplus? Of course not. But when it comes to preventing dangerous climate change, the government whose policies closed the entire Australian car industry claims that every job is sacred. Yeah, right.

The one thing we can say with certainty about the coal industry is that, regardless of climate policy, automation will decimate coal communities in the coming decade. The coal companies sacked around half their workforce in the late 80s – the minute new technology let them – and the coal industry is gearing up to do it again. Adani promised its proposed Queensland coalmine would be automated “from pit to port” and the rest of the industry is publicly preparing for the same goal.

[mpare5]

Sunshine, rain and rainforest backdropped the inaugural Sunshine Writer’s Retreat in Montville. With air thinner than the finest mist, many a kindred spirit met. Our Masterclass presenters generously shared their writing adventures, including faux pas.

Picture Book Author & Illustrator, Peter Carnavas  gave us permission to daydream through our writing room window. A window as a portal to outside — to anywhere. And as you daydream, look, see, observe… the detail. Next, what can’t you see… behind that leaf, under that sill, in the mailbox? Daydreaming relaxes the mind, calms and frees us to imagine, create and write. Peter read the poem, ‘Monday’ by Billy Collins, which again showed the value of daydreaming through a window. From that, he focussed on his three favourite lines — minimal use of adjectives, yet ‘beautiful verbs’.

a bird grasping a thin branch, (not holding onto)

the headlight of a taxi rounding a corner, (not around)

those two boys in wool caps angling across the street. (not walking)

For poets, as for authors and illustrators, daydreaming is as essential as our pencil, paper, tea/coffee, laptop, dog/cat, time, space etc.,

Writing tools

Poem ‘Monday’ by Billy Collins

Music

As a musician, Peter uses music to place himself in the right frame for writing. While his books are full of hope, he likes to explore how something can be sad and beautiful at the same time. To illustrate this, he played the song ‘Bear’, while showing the lyrics, from Melbourne contemporary folk musician Paddy Mann of Grand Salvo, from their Death album. Then he played 10-second sound bites for us to listen, visualise, write. He said no matter how silly – write, otherwise ‘you’ll never write down the perfect sentence in one go’.  When Peter worked on The Elephant’ he’d play a chord progression over and over before he wrote — to create mood.

Song ‘Bear’ by Grand Salvo

Some words – ‘Bear’

Chunks of Time

To write, Peter preferred chunks of writing time, which was one of the hardest things writers found difficult to find. His tip was to schedule it, otherwise the book would remain unwritten.

Picture Book Process

He shared his process of creating a picture book. He usually starts with a story and the character follows. He thinks of an idea, writes the story (max 500), transfers it to a storyboard (similar to a comic strip with 32 page layout), then works on the roughs on the storyboard using word and illustration narratives. He showed us his folder for each book including the final paintings. In-between all the stages was the reviewing and editing process, then sending it to beta readers and editor for review. It takes about two years to publication. However, with The Elephant he had been playing with illustrations and story for five years.

Storyboard

Portfolio Illustration

Secret to Write Picture Books

When Peter learned to write picture books he buried himself in good quality books. He used to read reviews from the Magpies Magazine and CBCA Reading Time. Then he’d find the books in the library and breakdown what the authors did to make their books work.

Resonating Stories 

Write stories that resonate with you, things you’re passionate about, anything you’re interested in i.e., birds, trucks, sports, anything different.Trace Balla won the Picture Book of the Year with Rockhopping. Her passion has been sketching nature and the outdoors which she channels into her kids’ book.

Ideas

To gain ideas for stories, look, listen, observe. Peter’s book ideas came from the news, a conversation with a friend in Tokyo, books (Burke and Wills, Affluenza by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss), a news article, a picture. The Boy on the Page came from ‘not having an idea’. ‘I wanted the character to land on the page.’

Draw the Penguin

Yes, Peter encouraged us to draw the penguin. There were many different versions — easily identified as penguins, “because we are all different’‘ (Leigh Hobbs, 2016/2017 Australian Children’s Laureate). Putting on our illustrator hats allowed us to consider the penguin’s story from the author’s narrative. ( Raelene Purtill’s post also talks about the infamous penguin drawing session during our Retreat.)

Write Your Story

When Peter writes, he thinks about the story he wants to write — not about the kids. While he says it may seem selfish, he was a kid also. He specified that children’s picture books were ‘no lesser form’. And as an adult author, writing for kids showed respect for the picture book art form as ‘important and powerful as any other story telling medium’.

Many teachers will attest, a child’s first and earliest reading experiences will help form their perception of the world. Such is the underestimated power of the picture book. Children will always remember being read that special book way into their adulthood – not vice versa.

Window from writing space at Retreat

Who lives here I wonder?

Kookaburra calling.

Montville

Perched 400m (1312 feet) above sea level, annual rainfall 1709mm (67.3 inches) and population appx 886 (Census 2011).

Peter Carnavas books are available from publisher New Frontier Publishing and any good bookstores.

Facebook: Peter Carnavas Author/Illustrator

Blog Tag – Other Sunshine Writer’s Retreat Posts

I stepped into a Monet painting last weekend by Raelene Purtill

Greenleaf Press Newsletter 35: 2017 Sunshine Writers Retreat Round-Up! by Aleesah Darlison of Greenleaf Press

Sunshine Writers Retreat 2017 by Inda Binda

Montville, Queensland, Australia by Lucy Day Werts Hobor

    Maria Parenti-Baldey, primary teacher, writer, amateur photographer and blogger.  www.bigsisterblogs.com

You have Permission to Daydream Sunshine, rain and rainforest backdropped the inaugural Sunshine Writer’s Retreat in Montville. With air thinner than the finest mist, many a kindred spirit met.

[bookstand]

Book review: Curing Affluenza takes aim at our all-consuming passions

Book review: Curing Affluenza takes aim at our all-consuming passions

“That strange desire to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need.” Zoriana Zaitseva/Shutterstock.com Marc Hudson, University of Manchester Richard Denniss doesn’t mind pissing people off. He’s good at it. His entertaining and punchy book Curing Affluenza will, with luck, kickstart a conversation about mindless consumerism and what we do about it. Denniss needs little introduction to…

[ebouks]

Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough

Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough

Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough Clive Hamilton, Richard Denniss Anyone concerned about the level of their personal debt or frustrated by the rat race of aspiring to an affluent lifestyle will appreciate this critique of the effects of over-consumption. This analysis pulls no punches as it describes both the problem and what can be done to stop it. Analyzing the increasing rates of…

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

#CorpMedia #Idiocracy #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #BLM #SDF #AFRIN #Humanity

Sadly, the neoliberal zombie hasn’t eaten itself yet

https://redflag.org.au/node/6396

I recently attended a lecture by Richard Denniss, author of the Quarterly Essay “Dead right: how neoliberalism ate itself and what comes next”. I was curious to see how Denniss justified his claim, as it seems to me that neoliberalism has not eaten itself. Its corpse continues, zombie-like, feasting on our minds and transforming our souls with its pervasive “rationality”. Sadly, nothing offered in Denniss’ presentation altered this view.

ALP senator Louise Pratt began proceedings by informing us that Denniss is not a “cloistered academic” but rather a “public intellectual”. As a cloistered academic, I know well the devastation that neoliberal policy can wreak upon a public good like higher education...

[wildernessphotos]

Is Malcolm Turnbull the only Liberal who understands economics and climate science – or the only one who'll talk about it?

Is Malcolm Turnbull the only Liberal who understands economics and climate science – or the only one who’ll talk about it?

Darren England/AAP Richard Denniss, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityYesterday, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was unceremoniously dumped as chair of the New South Wales government’s climate advisory board, just a week after being offered the role. His crime? He questioned the wisdom of building new coal mines when the existing ones are already…

[realindevelopment-returns]

Australia isn’t poor; it is rich beyond the imagining of anyone living in the 1970s or 80s. But so much of that new wealth has been vacuumed up by a few, and so little of that new wealth has been paid in tax, that the public has been convinced that ours is a country struggling to pay its bills.

Convincing Australians that our nation is poor and that our governments “can’t afford” to provide the level of services they provided in the past has not just helped to lower our expectations of our public services and infrastructure, it has helped to lower our expectations of democracy itself.

Everyone plays the game for the benefit of few

[sophreads]

Books I read in 2018

2018 was my second year of trying to read a ‘book a week’, or 52 books a year! Similar to last year, it’s been a joy to spend a lot of time reading – I’ve immersed myself in some fantastic stories and learn a lot about a whole heap of things.

This year I’ve really appreciated being surrounded by friends who also read a lot, including the ever expanding ‘book a week’ cohort and two book clubs. It’s been great to talk regularly about what I’m reading, hear what others are enjoying (or not), and to share books and recommendations with each other. Thanks to everyone who’s been down for a good chat about books in 2018!

Reading has brought me a lot of joy this year, but it hasn’t been a perfect run. At quite a few points this year, my life has been full and stressful in a way that has specifically cut into the time I spend reading. I’ve therefore fallen 4 books short of my goal of 52. That said, reading has been a wonderful escape and a way to de-stress in 2018 – I’ve sought out plenty of fiction and some trusty re-reads at a few points. And that bears out in the numbers – this year I read almost 60% fiction and 40% non-fiction (compared to 40% fiction, 60% non-fiction in 2017).

So here’s my list! I enjoyed most of what I read (although there are a few exceptions) – particular favourites are in bold, and re-reads are in italics (all re-reads here are also favourites).

1. A Most Wanted Man - John Le Carre - 8/1

2. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch - 17/1

3. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett - 28/1

4. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity - Katherine Boo - 1/2

5. An Isolated Incident - Emily Maguire - 5/2

6. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

7. The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler - 5/3

8. The Piper's Son - Melina Marchetta - 7/3

9. Places Women Make - Jane Jose - 13/3

10. A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin - 22/3

11. Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon

12. Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity - Steve Silberman - 12/4

13. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent - 16/4

14. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalinthi - 17/4

15. Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays - David Foster Wallace - 2/5

16. East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" - Philippe Sands - 13/5

17. The Legacy – Yr­sa Sigurdardottir - 14/5

18. Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future - Mark McKenna - 20/5

19. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett - 30/5

20. The Power - Naomi Alderman - 7/6

21. Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time - Jeff Speck - 13/6

22. Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next - Richard Denniss - 19/6

23. GDP: A brief but affectionate history - Diane Boyle - 26/6

24. The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality - Brink Lindsey and Steven M Teles - 4/7

25. Till the Sun Grows Cold: A Mother's Compelling Memoir of the Life of Her Daughter - Maggie McCune - 13/7

26. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure - Tim Harford - 31/7

27. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman - 2/8

28. On the Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta - 4/8

29. Writers on writers: John Marsden - Alice Pung - 6/8

30. Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta - 8/8

31. Froi of the Exiles - Melina Marchetta - 12/8

32. Quintana of Charyn - Melina Marchetta - 15/8

33. To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han - 28/8

34. P.S. I Still Love You - Jenny Han

35. Always and Forever Lara Jean - Jenny Han

36. The Dry - Jane Harper - 6/9

37. Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding - George Monbiot - 3/10

38. Follow the Leader: Democracy and the Rise of the Strongman - Laura Tingle - 10/10

39. The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu - 21/10

40. Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels - Dieter Helm - 3/11

41. Legacy of Spies - John Le Carre - 5/11

42. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle - 12/11

43. The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher - 23/11

44. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher - 28/11

45. Before the Fall - Noah Hawley - 18/12

46. Conclave - Robert Harris - 23/12

47. An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris - 25/12

48. The Girl from Venice - Martin Cruz Smith - 28/12

[literarypiano]

Of Note // 24.08.20

“You are not the work you do; you are the person you are”: life lessons from this 2017 piece from Toni Morrison. (New Yorker)

Ezra Klein re-shared a 2019 interview with Jia Tolentino, a conversation about how we live our lives online that opened up new meanings for me now that we are almost exclusively living our lives online due to social distancing restrictions. The conversation is mostly structured around five intersecting ideas about the internet, drawn from Tolentino’s book: “First, how the internet is built to distend our sense of identity; second, how it encourages us to overvalue our opinions; third, how it maximizes our sense of opposition; fourth, how it cheapens our understanding of solidarity; and, finally, how it destroys our sense of scale.” (The Ezra Klein Show)

“One of neoliberalism’s best tricks is to blame ‘the market’, ‘the bureaucracy’ or ‘rogue individuals’ for the predictable consequences of government decisions”: Richard Denniss on the failures of neoliberalism and an Australia that has dismantled the modern welfare state it spent the twentieth century building. (The Guardian)

“Welfare chauvinism” is another way of putting it: an Australian-bred aspect of populism, “the post-free-marketeer idea that government spending should be retained (or increased), on the proviso it is directed to preferred groups,” writes Richard Cooke on the Coalition government letting its ideological foes (arts, universities, the ABC) wither away during the current crisis. (The Monthly)

“Notable in a genre where women are frequently the objects of violence rather than the subjects of their own stories, this true-crime narrative is a distinctly female-centered one, with observations on gender and trauma”: I do feel ambivalent about ‘true crime’ or, at least, about its proliferation in recent years. Like any genre that becomes increasingly popular and established, certain formal features ossify into tropes, or tendencies... As a consumer, I feel uneasy about being curious and entertained by violence (usually enacted against women) and by a form that can over-identify with perpetrators simply by dramatising their actions. But, I found myself very moved by the series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, about the true crime writer Michelle McNamara. The title comes from a threat a survivor heard from her attacker but it also applies to McNamara herself, who died while investigating and writing about the Golden State Killer. One of McNamara’s own insights I can’t stop thinking about was how darkness begets darkness; the way her obsessive pursuit of this ‘dark’ person ate into her time with her family, with her health, with her ‘light’. And, on the conscious choices made to avoid over-identifying with the killer, the director Liz Garbus says: “With the cinematography and the way that we chose to shoot the scenes, it was very important to not take that killer’s perspective on a woman and really center the storytelling in the survivor’s point of view.” (The Cut)

Is it the pandemic, #cottagecore, an anti-capitalist pivot? I’ve read three things just this morning on the therapeutic, meditative, reflective, restorative, joyful, nurturing qualities of gardening: Rebecca Mead in the New Yorker, Caitlin McGregor in Kill Your Darlings, and Anne Helen Peterson in the free Sunday edition of her new newsletter Culture Study. “If it dies, it dies; if it thrives, that’s good too. It’s not about the end product, but the daily practice of the garden.”

[kley-blog]

Huda Thunk . . .

But move right along, nothing to read here . . .

Enjoy your day dodging other people . . .

At least your pets won’t kill you yet . . .

[l-in-c-future]

The Wellbeing Manifesto (by Clive Hamilton, Richard Denniss and Richard Eckersley)

1. Measure what matters

GDP takes no account of how “increases” in income are distributed or of the bigger economic damages to the natural environment that economic activities can cause. Well, for those in Australia who SAW the HIGH SUPER TOLLS of the bush fires and drought, the loss of properties and economics had far outweigh the ‘increases’ in income.

2. Provide fulfilling work

In short, fulfilling work is essential for people to develop their capacities, begin to realise their potentials and meet many of our social needs. Workplaces that can provide secure, rewarding jobs should be encouraged. Workplace flexibility including quality part-time jobs, should operate in the interests of employees and employers.

Satisfying works can be found inside and outside the home. Work in the household is essential to the health and wellbeing of families and communities and it should be included and counted as part of the economy. (Think about the new reality of work at homes under the social knockdown!)

Employers need to be much more flexible to the realities in the society and that in ‘unprecedented’ crisis, works and family lives become integrated. In these situations, employers have to make sure that the wellbeings of their employees who work at home or not work at home are equally protected. 

Yet across the world, it is reported that scrupulous employers prey on employees out of the pandemic, forcing them to accept reduce pays and even no pays or axe them out. Governments should do more to protect employees to be exploited by employers.

3. Reclaim our time

The neo-liberalism ideology systematically overestimate the amount of wellbeing associated with high incomes and long working hours by ignoring the health (physical, mental, psychological and spiritual) consequences and the lack of sense of achievements in the miscalculation.

To thrive as a nation, our working lives should contribute to, rather than sap our wellbeing and that of our families. Our workplaces must be reshaped to allow us to reclaim our time. If we took productivity gains in the form of a shorter working week rather than higher pay we could improve our quality of life and create new job opportunities, all without any reduction in pay.

4. Rethink education

Educators should aim to give all children rich lives, rather than training them to win the rat race. Our schools should be dedicated to creating capable, confident, emotionally mature young people who are equipped to face life’s vicissitudes.

We should stop turning universities into businesses selling degrees and instead concentrate on making them places where students flourish as humans and academics feel free to question powerful institutions without fear of victimisation.

If Australia and the Western universities have practiced this, THERE WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM OF FOREIGN INTERFERENCE TO THREATEN OUR ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AUTONOMY, AND INTEGRITY RIGHT NOW! THERE WILL BE NO PRC NATIONALISTS CAMPUS BULLIES LITTER THE CAMPUSES. THERE WILL BE NO ROOM FOR CCP TO LAUNCH FALSE ‘RACISM’ AGAINST AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS.

5.  Invest in early childhood

Studies show that for each dollar wisely invested in early childhood education and care, we can save up to 7 dollars (the amount is much higher after 15 years’ time since this manifesto was published) in avoided costs of crime, unemployment, remedial education and welfare payments.

Shared parental leave should be extended to cover the first two years of a child’s life. Parents also need support so they can do the best job for their children.

6. Discouraging materialism and promote responsible advertising

Advertisers prey especially on children because they lack the critical capacity to distinguish between facts and advertising fiction. Sweden ban advertising to children below age 12. Advertising codes of conducts should be legislated to outlaw irresponsible and deceptive marketing.

7. Protect the environment

The big political parties in Australia (and in the West) have been propagated fossil fuels are the ‘only option of economic growth’ by depriving the green economies and green jobs simply because they are overly lobbied by fossil vested interests despite ever rocketing of astronomical economic lost caused by climate change induced extreme weather events and new epidemics. 

Doing the same thing of ‘economic stimulus’ will not solve the issues except more severe crisis will hit back. 

What need to be done is make the generation of wasteful consumption and un-thoughtful dumping of waste expensive while rewarding household and businesses to migrate towards the circular economy and to reduce the POLITICAL MAN-MADE OBSTACLES for full transition to renewable energies.

8. Build communities and relationships

Loneliness and isolation cause much unhappiness, especially among unemployed people, older people living alone and people living disabilities. 

Many nations face this common plague on top of the covid-19 plaque during the social lockdown.

We need to value all carers more. Governments and employers should do more to support workers with caring responsibilities.

Governments should support engagement in community organisations, especially among marginalised groups. Volunteers contribute greatly to our wellbeings and need to be recognised and rewarded.