My call-up for National Service broke that cycle and opened a new world of opportunity for me. Recruit training was a major shock but I have nothing but fond memories of the experience – new mates, new skills, lots of sport, adventure, and a sense of pride and purpose – it was an exciting circuit breaker.

I then transferred to the Regular Army and served throughout the entire period of National Service from 1965 to 1972. It was a turbulent phase in our history with political debate over our involvement in the Vietnam war, ‘Save our Sons’ movements, moratorium marches and treacherous attacks on our returning diggers by left-wing radicals and misguided do-gooders.

In 1987 I was on the organising committee for the Vietnam Welcome Home Parade in Sydney and got to meet many former National Servicemen who now regarded their time in the army as the most important phase in their development as men. Many of them expressed a strong view that it was ‘just what their young bloke needed’!

Since entering politics I have worked with a number of youth organisations dedicated to helping troubled young people to get their lives back on track. I have also met many young people in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and in rural Australia who just need a break – an opportunity to do something meaningful with their lives.

I therefore believe we should explore the opportunities for developing a voluntary national civil service scheme that would act as a circuit breaker and offer them an opportunity to serve their community in a meaningful way – and develop into a better citizens as a result.

There is no doubt that such a scheme would be expensive – but the economic costs of implementing it should be balanced against the social costs of doing nothing.

I would appreciate any feedback you might have to add value to the idea.

But, as the recent case of Justice Marcus Einfeld demonstrates, they are also subject to the same human fallibilities as we all are. The fact that Marcus Einfeld, now a convicted criminal serving a prison sentence, will continue to receive a taxpayer funded pension in excess of $200,000 a year indexed for life, indicates that the judiciary have done very well for themselves in negotiating their pay and conditions.

‘Politically correct appointments’ such as controversial NSW magistrate Pat O’Shane also serve to undermine public confidence against the justice system. We expect our police to uphold the law and protect us from criminal activity but their public humiliation by Pat O’Shane in the courts undermines public confidence in the system. People feel disempowered because such people are appointed for life and there is nothing they can do about it.

When these fallibilities are exposed in the media it begs the question as to whether judges should continue to be appointed by politicians for life or elected by voters and therefore be accountable to them. There are obviously pros and cons of both arguments.

In America most States have an ‘uncontested retention election model’. This is a democratic system where lawyers interested in seeking an appointment to the judiciary apply to a non-partisan Judicial Commission for an appointment. The commission interviews all applicants and submits three names to the State Governor. When a vacancy occurs, the Governor appoints one of these three to the Court they applied for.

After serving one year on the Bench, these newly appointed judges must be confirmed in their position by voters using an ‘uncontested retention vote’. To assist voters in their decision, lawyers conduct and evaluation survey and rate the judges for their performance such as fairness, legal analysis skills, diligence and decisiveness. The results of the survey are made public. Once retained by the voters, judges have to go through the same process every six years thereafter.

Such a system would require change to our constitution and would be resisted by civil libertarians because of the threat it would present to unaccountable left-wing members of the judiciary who deem themselves to be superior to us ordinary beings.

Bring on the debate!

Over the past 12 months the term ‘working families’ was included in every utterance from Kevin 07. His promises to introduce ‘fuel-watch’ and ‘grocery watch’ were literal. All he did was watch them go up . . . and up . . . and up! Not only did Kevin 07 watch them go up – he set up two taxpayer funded organisations to watch them as well! We are slowly learning that the devil is always in the detail with Kevin 07. After all he never did say he would bring them down – all he promised to do was actually watch them. That box has now been ticked. Thank you Kev!

Perhaps we need to initiate ‘Kevin Watch’ to see if we can work out what he really means. ‘Working families’ has recently disappeared from his jargon. The new catchphrase is ‘GFC’ – for those who are not into acronyms this means ‘global financial crisis’. Neither Kev, nor his echo Julia, utters a phrase without mentioning the adversity we surely face from the looming ‘GFC’ !

Their clever subliminal message is that the recession we are about to have in ’09 is not going to be their fault – it’s going to be due to the ’GFC’! How could it be their fault? They have just showered pensioners and young families with billions of dollars in handouts for Christmas. They have committed to an ‘ETS’ (an Emission Trading Scheme) to appease the chattering classes and are about to restore union power back to the bad ol’ days.

The $20 billion dollars left in the bank courtesy of the Howard-Costello government is almost gone. It took eleven years to build and just eleven months to spend. The polls suggest it has worked beautifully for Kev.

Unfortunately the inept NSW Labor Government has taken the form of the grim reaper. NSW is in crisis and will remain so until the next election in 2011. Until then business will continue to flee across the border to Queensland, commuters will sit in chronic traffic jams and stand in crowded trains and patients will be turned away from emergency wards. There is not a single sugar coated lolly left in Labor’s jar in NSW. Unfortunately for Kev the incompetence, mismanagement and corruptions surrounding the worst Labor government in the history of the State was around long before the term ‘GFC’ entered into their political lexicon.

Australian’s are a resilient bunch though. They will ignore the inevitable ‘whine from Kevin 09’ and get on with the job of conquering whatever adversity they have to confront. They have done it before and they will do it again.

In the meantime may I wish all readers of the Camden District Reporter a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – or as Kev would say, MX and HNY!

Western Sydney will be expected to absorb this expansion. With the current backlog of infrastructure development Western Sydney can expect more smog, more traffic chaos, more ‘crush’ on public transport, bigger class sizes in school and longer waiting time for public hospitals.

The decision will have a dramatic impact on our quality of life.

The rational behind the decision i.e. to prevent a wages breakout and help cap inflation has been criticised by Dr Birrell, the Director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University. Labor has a one track mind to immigration according to Dr Birrell.

They sure do. Past experience in Western Sydney indicates that more migrants means more Labor voters!

The Carr-Egan and Iemma-Costa governments have squandered the profits of the economic boom over the past decade. While the Howard-Costello partnership introduced economic reforms that broke the union stronghold on the waterfront and delivered a bonanza to the States through the introduction of a GST. Booming property prices resulted in a Land Tax windfall and the conversion of every pub in NSW into a mini-casino generated hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue.

Nobody seems to know where the money has gone. Trains only run on-time because they changed the timetables. Hospital waiting lists are not as long because they changed the definition of ‘waiting-times’. Crime statistics are down because they removed serious crimes from the list – Campbelltown is now safer than Vaucluse.
The list goes on. When one looks at the list of announcements, re-announcements and revised definitions it is clear that we are the victims of a clever smoke and mirrors campaign.

Michael Costa now has to put the State in debt to try and catch up with current planned growth. Kevin Rudd’s plan to dump an extra 350,000 immigrants in Western Sydney will blow the integrity of Costa’s budget and will have a devastating impact on the quality of life in Western Sydney.

Carr and Egan saw the sale as a $35 billion financial bonanza as they approached the end of their first term in government. But the dinosaurs in the union movement and the political parasites in the left wing of their party torpedoed the deal.

Fast forward to 2008. Carr and Egan have been consigned to the dustbin of political history and their 1995 A-team have jumped ship to make way for John Della Bosca, Michael Costa, Frank Sartor, Joe Tripodi and Reba Meagher. This mob plucked Maurice Iemma from obscurity and installed him as Premier.

The lure of Ministerial perks were too much for avowed lefties to resist and Ian McDonald quickly traded principle for the trappings of office.

Unfortunately the boom economic years of the Howard government have been squandered by the States. During the past 13 years the NSW Labor Government have enjoyed the fruits of the Olympics Games, a record property boom, windfall revenue from gambling taxes and a GST bonanza.

Despite this we have a derelict public transport system, daily gridlock on our roads, a hospital crisis and decaying infrastructure. We are the highest taxing State in the country and business is relocating interstate in record numbers due to draconian Occupational Health and Safety laws and excessive Workers Compensation extortion.

Looking after union mates and incompetent public servants has taken priority over strategic investment in essential services.

This NSW government has been in power for too long. They are bereft of talent, ideas and money. But power corrupts and principle is easily discarded in desperate circumstances. So much so that the most vocal opponents of the sale in 1997 – Costa, Della Bosca and McDonald – are now it’s most enthusiastic supporters.

This has been an expensive conversion for NSW taxpayers. In 1997 the industry was valued at $35 billion. Today it has worth $15 billion. The political expediency of NSW Labor has cost us $20 billion. But the heavies in NSW Labor will argue that this is a reasonable price to pay for another term in office. Others would argue that it will be shameful example of power without glory.

Our welfare system which was supposed to provide a social safety net for the disadvantaged was being widely rorted and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Low income workers who wanted to break the cycle of unemployment and poverty were unable to do so because they had to work to union rules or suffer the consequences. They had no choice.

The election of a coalition government allowed us to break the cycle of union domination, workplace intimidation and welfare dependency. Under John Howard’s leadership and Peter Costello’s stewardship business leaders and employees were offered choices that rewarded productive work.

Over the next 10 years we paid off our $80 billion dollar overseas debt, ended the monopolistic reign of militant waterfront unions, brought inflation back under control, reduced unemployment to a generation low and ended many of the rorts in our welfare system.

One of the major contributing factors to this economic success was the reform of out taxation system. These reforms were bitterly opposed by Labor and the unions at the time but their predictions of impending doom and gloom never transpired.

An untintended consequence of successful economic management by the Howard government is complacency. We now have a generation who has never experienced recession or economic hardship. Some are ‘relaxed and comfortable’and take our economic prosperity for granted. Others realize we live in a highly competitive global economy and must continually strive to improve. Ray Croc, the Founder of McDonalds, once said ‘you are either green and growing or you stop and you rot’.

The future belongs to those who want to embrace change and the power of choice is a right that should not be denied to those who wish to do so. Neither government nor unions have a right to deny people the opportunity for success in whatever field they choose. Federal governments have a responsibility to ensure that the vulnerable in our society are protected through the establishment of a workplace authority and the introduction of regulations to ensure employees are treated fairly.

The threat of the Labor government to wind back the clock on these vital industrial reforms and re-empower militant unions will send a shiver down the spine of those who can remember the bad old days of rampant inflation, high employment and economic vandalism.

NSW voters will soon realise they were conned because workchoices is a Federal Government responsibility.

It was a convenient issue for the NSW Labor Government to mask their failures in economic management, service delivery and public safety. These failures have resulted in the NSW economy teetering on the edge of recession, a rail system assessed as ‘world’s worst practice’, a health system that cannot cope, and an education system that is failing our students.

It is little wonder they used the Federal workchoices legislation as a distraction.

The workchoices campaign was waged by big unions who used the NSW election campaign as a trial run for the Federal election campaign later in the year.

Allowing people to choose their working conditions is anathema to big union powerbrokers because it erodes their power base. They will therefore do whatever it takes to scare voters about its impact.

The facts of this progressive industrial relations reform tell a different story.

Since the legislation was introduced 12 months ago employment rose by 2.6 per cent – almost double the amount for the previous year. Working days lost to industrial disputes have been halved. The minimum wages safety net for unskilled workers rose by 4 percent in contrast to the past decade when the average was 3.7 per cent. This put an extra $27.36 per week in their pockets.

According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics real wages have gone up 1.5 per cent since the introduction of workchoices. This is in contrast to the 13 years of the Hawke/Keating Labor Governments where real wages actually decreased by 1.8 per cent.

Since John Howard and Peter Costello assumed control of the Australian economy in 1996 there have been 2 million new jobs, real wages have increased by 20 per cent, and strikes have fallen to their lowest level since records were kept. Australia’s real wealth per person has doubled during this period.

These results will be imperiled if Labor get into power in Canberra and allow the big unions to wind back the clock.

We can’t allow their spin doctors to dupe us a second time on this issue.

Betrayal is something soldiers learn about early in their training. Betrayal of a mate on the field of battle is cowardice. The penalty is excommunication. Betrayal of your country in war is treason. The penalty was death with dishonour.

The sacrifices made by our soldiers on the fields of battle over generations are well known and commemorated on Anzac Day each year.

Sadly these sacrifices have not always been shared by those on our home-front. Unions have refused to load ships for our troops; city folk have refused to give up leisure activities to support our war effort; and protestors threw red paint at our returning Vietnam Veterans.

9/11 changed the nature of warfare with Islamic extremists declaring a Jihad against everything we value – our freedom, our democracy and our way of life. The events of that fateful day will reverberate for generations to come. The Jihad being waged against Western civilization has no respect for human life. Our men, women and children, are infidels in the eyes of the Jihadists and can be beaten up, blown up, raped, exploited and executed at will.

Defending us in this insidious war against terrorism is a band of highly trained Australian soldiers risking their lives on a daily basis in two of the most dangerous places on earth – Iraq and Afghanistan. They leave their families without fanfare and return home from their tour of duty unnoticed and unsung.

It must gall them to read of the transformation of David Hicks, or Abu Muslim al Austraili as he was known to Osama Bin Laden, from alleged terrorist to celebrity prisoner.

The cries for justice from the chattering classes ring hollow with our soldiers who have witnessed the fanatical savagery of the Jihadists. Many trained in the same hate filled terror camps as Hicks.

Highly paid spin doctors have cleverly morphed the image of David Hicks from traitor to victim. The chattering classes, desperate to vent their spleens against John Howard and give some sort of relevance to their own lives, have embraced the cause celebre of Hicks in the name of ‘justice’.

They should be grateful that our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting for their right to do just that.