The pain of the Mineral Boom

The pain of the Mineral Boom

Tom Padula – 16 September 2011

   The more money comes into Australia from sales of minerals to hungry Asian Countries for our unlimited sub ground resources, the more this profit is used to capitalize this ultra profitable industry. Profits are spent and utilized to acquire more mines and provide infrastructure in other countries with similar resource opportunities or in more remote areas of Australia. The latter scenario is to ensure that more resources are found for the next generation minerals boom. It’s like well-fed cattle preoccupied for the next patch of green grass.

 Our overall economy has been invaded by one very successful sector. The mistake is made when we count this success alongside our everyday economy made up of various strands of production, manufacturing and services that impact on our everyday life and commercial relationships. We harbour the mistaken notion that the success in the export of minerals will reassure us that we are directly benefiting from this success. Reality is far from the truth. The retail sector depends on people having enough disposable income to be able to maintain the current availability of products and services in our shopping centres, malls and street fronted shops.

 The general feeling of unease is spreading amongst the general population and there doesn’t seem to be a fair appropriation of velocity in our two-speed economy. It’s as if the more successful the minerals based sector, the slower and more demanding the rest of the economy becomes. It’s the difference between the very rich and our proverbial battlers. It’s as if they live on two different planets. Only people in our nation involved in the faster lane of mineral exploration, production and exportation have that buoyant feeling of success. The others who don’t do ‘minerals’ can expect to be told that we are successful, that our interest rates need to go higher and higher, or remain at its current high levels. Great thinking! The less inflation there is… since noone can afford to spend… the more stable will our two-speed economy remain! 

   Ex Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had good intentions on two fronts. The first one was to take out some of the profits from the mineral boom and then ensure that every family, including all single people and all sectors of the Australian community, could only borrow no more than they could afford. So, in the second instance, new rules regulating banking and loans came in. The new rules of serviceability were brought in at the expense of equity holdings and more generous equity to borrowing ratios.

 A few years later we have very little income from the minerals boom that go towards financing our social obligations projects and maintenance:  pensions, schools, hospitals, transport routes that don’t go to the mines and so much more. These projects and maintenance have all been carried forward thanks to the years of saving under the traditionally financially tight belt attitudes of conservative governments. The income needed for all the new plethora of social obligations and high maintenance institutional organizations are extracted from ordinary Australians in the form of old and new taxes, higher interest rates, a raft of new charges from energy suppliers, the use of roads and services tolls, parking spaces (even in hospitals and airports!). Not one day goes by without someone in Government or in our Institutions thinking up some other scheme to extract more disposable income from the general Australian public!

   Well, at least we are not alone in doing this to our country. It’s not much better in similar developed countries. That’s why our politicians need to visit the rest of the world! New ideas are always needed to keep abreast of how to keep on taxing our very accommodating citizens! We understand that this is the price to pay for a better world! So the well-travelled good intentions of our ex Prime Minister have given over time the exact opposite of the original well thought out sentiments. All that generosity of spirit, good feelings of a government that came to power on such high hopes for social betterment and infrastructure improvements have been realized… but not thanks to the money generated from the mineral boom. The ordinary people of Australia in the last few years have been asked to finance these extraordinary projects: from the savings of the previous belt tightening years and the current raft of ever increasing tax and charges burden. We have had a brief period of fast food type financial feed bonanza of a very short duration, but we have now been left with a "malaise" that will need extraordinary will power to overcome and to eventually eradicate these new set of economic circumstances and global condition effects.

   Will we be so lucky to have the vision to realize that ‘progress for all’ is a dream that can only come true and be maintained if everyone involved realizes that in our economy as in Life, one must give to Caesar and to God what is duly, rightfully theirs! Can our Politicians in Parliament, our Big Business Brothers, our Not For Profit and Charitable Organization realize that we are all in this together.  So, Be fair. Act not in your own self-interest and preservation, but behave as if you really care! Listen to the needy, don’t be fooled by the greedy! Proceed with caution… our true Capital lies within our best interest as a humanitarian community under our Brilliant Sun and Southern Cross!

Tom Padula – September 2011

In search of Multiculturalism

In search of Multiculturalism

What is ‘Multiculturalism’: the way in which we practise it here in Melbourne? As against the term ‘Cosmopolitan’… meaning that nations allow people to come into their country, but who can remain on the edge of that society because not a part of the original inhabitants…  snobbery born out of the right side of the bed, so to speak. In both cases there is a mix of people who live together, but whose behaviour will calm the waters or incense them when conflict arises. In peaceful times there is no problem which model is adopted… tourists come and go in short to medium blocks of time. As long as they enjoy themselves, the definition of this mix of people is not that important. However the way in which a particular society approaches its governance is very important indeed!

Multiculturalism is not always practised in modern society… where there is non-acceptance, intolerance, inverse snobbery by groups that want to impose their particular views at all cost or by rejecting general cultural ideas of inclusion … so I can wear what I want as long as you don’t think that what I wear is wrong, I can eat what I want provided that you don’t say that eating particular foods is wrong, or is eaten at the wrong time! Multiculturalism ought to be part of all Governments regardless of their particular leaning: it has to be accepted by Labour, Liberal, Green, Democrat and also by marginal Parties.

Multiculturalism is when Governments of all persuasions are able to implement policies that allow all groups to participate in the day-to-day politics of the Municipality, the State and the Nation. The Multicultural dollar goes a long way when it is spent in such inclusive policies as the availability of translators and interpreters, the well stocked libraries with books and materials that inform and enlighten the individual, the presence of the right carers who understand all backgrounds. If these carers don’t, they ought to be able to call on the right professionals who can then administer caring policies for particular individuals or small groups from the same background i.e. whether it’s food, faith, language, fashion and cultural make-up.

European societies are cosmopolitan, they are not multicultural societies… there people are well defined in their categories for generations… a Turk in Germany remains a Turk, he cannot and does not become German, an Italian or Pakistani or Indian in England is still Italian, Pakistani or Indian even after many generations. A Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek remains identified with that identity over many generations. Here in Australia as in Europe we are all proud of our family’s ethnic identity and our backgrounds. So when does a Nation become multicultural? A nation becomes multicultural when all its governments and institutions make real provision to include everyone in its policies and laws… within the national geographic boundaries, in the wider community, in schools, churches, hospitals and everywhere else, even prisons.

The main aim of multiculturalism is the ability of people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, different faiths, mode of processing life, respect for equality of both sexes coming together and accepting their differences, to then work with each other to make their community or society work in harmony by remaining ‘open’ and welcoming to others within their own communities… ie there cannot be a suburb or special place where people are excluded because they are different …

The test of a multicultural nation is when members of each group with different or very different cultural practices protect others and themselves by denouncing ‘extreme behaviour’ within their own group. In such cases members of this particular group want to exclude or endanger others because they think of them as inferior.  These people can sometimes be treated as lesser beings because they are different. Preachers, teachers, politicians, and whoever is involved in the projection of ideas, like poets, songwriters, writers, journalists have a responsibility to develop as mediums of peace, harmony and tolerance, with touches of healthy philosophies and appreciation of diversities. Members of faiths that preach exclusion or have special laws by which they would rather be judged have real problems… they need to tone down their own belief systems to embrace a more open and democratic system in which the ideals of egalite’, liberte’, fraternite’ are embraced and practised.

Therefore if you feel special and believe that you are better than others, if you want to be treated better than your neighbour, if you have innate arrogance, or are on the right of might, if you believe that you deserve special advantages and privileges, if you want to deal only with your own kind, then multiculturalism for you is only an ideal that yet remains to be embraced or from which you want to be excluded. On the other hand, if you happen to live, work, entertain yourself and socialize with all types in peace and harmony, then you have embraced multiculturalism and all that it offers… you can still remain a part of your group of friends of the same culture, language and identity… but you must also defend your right to feel equal, free and fraternal towards all others who belong to different groups or ethnic background in your wider community or society! Let’s have a Multicultural Day of National Celebration, maybe combining it with the Australia Day Celebration Week, each year! 

Tom Padula - 1st September 2011