Steve Irons's blog

A recent address by the first Aboriginal minister for Aboriginal Australians to the National Press Club on possibly finding "common ground" for constutional reform was momentus. It got a lot of people thinking about new ideas, for the first time.

The following notes of "possible constitutional change" attempt to raise ideas & assist in the possibilities of broader debate, not to influence the outcome.

It is prepared in response to:

This is the greatest look at the boundaries of the Great Artesian Basin we've seen in common public availability to date thanks to NT government & @abcnews

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-07/great-artesian-map/6833130

Time magazine

https://time.com/5622632/thwaites-glacier-antarctica-melting/?xid=tcoshare

Climate Action Hobart https://www.facebook.com/ClimateActionHobart/

Climate Action Launceston https://www.facebook.com/groups/331326137531075/

Climate Action Hobart http://www.climateactionhobart.org/

ICAN https://www.facebook.com/ICANAusPol/

ICAN https://i-c-a-n.com.au/

This blog will continue to grow, at least until after the next election:

(Independents & meaningful cross-benchers)

ACT Senate https://www.anthonypesec.com.au/ @AnthonyPesec

Synopsis

• The crisis Australia is suffering did not start with the dropping by China. We have been suffering this for decades. But the China crisis brings it to a head.
• This crisis in dealing with waste calls for new initiatives and for a new era in which real bi-(multi-)partisan cooperation is a real possibility.
• The COAG get together of ministers for the environment is a real opportunity to take a completely new approach.

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is based on a lie. It's been happening since the mid 70s when US economist Milton Friedman & Austrian/British economist Friedrich Hayek finally threw out the long standing economic traditions of British economist John Maynard Keynes, (who had focussed on government policy to avoid the problems of unplanned market forces made clear in the 1929 crash), and replaced it with a return to *unrestrained competition*. Neoliberalism took up this argument with a passion.

#Bixit

The lie of Neoliberalism goes something like this:

Constitutional crisis?

That was a week, that was. Question, Mr Speaker: If the lying, cheating, rorting, corrupt, secretive, racist, child-molesting, rapist, murderous, incompetent, hypocritical (and I use these words advisedly) buffoons in Canberra offer you a "referendum or a plebiscite?", do you reply "please sir, I want some more?" or is it a Constitutional crisis?

Change of State Boundaries - Really?

Again we have talk of new States in Australia, as key people in the Northern Territory raise arguments for statehood.