Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > rm_mazandbren > The Complaisant Husband |
Going North.
|
Going North. Sydney Harbour is such an icon in this country that it now serves as a unit of measure- one Sydharb is equivalent to 500 gigalitres of water. of course the problem with creating these sorts of icons is that the people who cluster around them get delusions of grandeur; though in the case of New South Wales politicians this may just be delusions of adequacy. on our trip to Europe, when we said we were from Perth, a lot of people thought we were from Scotland. People have heard of Melborn and everyone has heard of Sydaney; much beyond that and they get confused; unfortunately this also includes a lot of people who live in Melbourne and Sydney- and from the recent comments of the Treasurer of New South Wales, anything beyond the Murray is another country. according to that venerable personage i live in the 'Axis of Evil'. what a wanker. i have written before that the BoP for this state subsidize the rest of the country; now it turns out that our GST return, currently at 65%, is to be further reduced to 55%; and guess where most of it goes. the NSW treasurer reckons that $15 billion leaves that state- well it has to in order for him to get it back with the share they scythe off from the two states actually paying the bills. as long as idiots like the treasurer of NSW are in the Labor Party, i will forever vote the other way. you see Labor does not believe in the states; it wants to abolish them eventually. the day that happens we should all move to Sydney and Melbourne and put our feet up- because there will be no money spent beyond those two cities. even the regional centres of Victoria and New South Wales may as well pack up. this is a more important debate than many people realise, because at its heart will be what Australia will look like in 2099- and in this debate the denizens of Perth are as guilty as anybody in being short sighted as to the future shape of their city. to put it more starkly, Perth is already over-populated and it is long past time that we positively encouraged people to leave for northern climes. better to do it now with a plan in place than 50 years time in a mad rush. Michael Roderick and Wee Lo Lim of the Australian National University have taken the top 39 climate change models in the world and crunched the numbers and published a book on what the models had to say about rainfall in 2099; including the median result of all models (why can't a journalist tell the difference between median and medium in statistics). for all those locked in doom and gloom about the Earth running out of water the consensus indicates that we will, in fact, have more rainfall, about 50mm more worldwide. According to a Japanese model Australia will have 150mm more; though a German model suggests that we will have 130mm less. the median estimate is 50mm more; but the southern areas will receive up to 50mm less whilst the northern parts will receive up to 100mm more. so it may be time to move north anyway. this isn't just about moving a few jobs out of Perth either. while the state capitol can and should remain Perth, there is no reason why some of those big government departments can't be moved into Geraldton, Broome, Carnarvon and points nearby. and the minister can go with them to lead the way. with video conferencing and internal computer networks (Australia's two leading retailers have their own networks that effectively span the country, much greater than any one state) make being centred on Perth no longer necessary. this state is huge- by itself it would be the 10th largest country in the world- it is twice the size of Victoria and three times the size of the United Kingdom. and nobody lives outside of Perth. the population density of the state with Perth's population is .8 people per square kilometre; without it is .2 per square kilometre. and lets be honest- there is no more room in inner Perth to put the jobs that people of outer Perth are living here for. there is no more room for their cars; no more room for train lines or bus services. already it takes over an hour to travel from Perth to Mandurah at peak hour ON A GOOD DAY. i can take an hour to go from Melville to Gosnells. it is part of the reason we are looking at moving out of Perth. the one thing that the WA government needs to concentrate on for the future of this state is the Ord River Irrigation Scheme (Stage 2). this is not just about moving people north- this is about making the state the largest agricultural exporter the world has ever known. If the 20th Century was the American Century then the 21st and beyond belongs to Asia (and India will be as much a part of that as China so it most definitely will not be a Chinese century). and all those people have to be fed; and the vast bulk of its imports should be coming from the 440km2 that is Ord River stage two. Located in the Kimberley Region of WA, the statistics of this area are unbelievable. every year the outflow from the Ord River is the equivalent of 7 Sydney Harbours; the water stored in the various dams of the project amount to 10 760 gigalitres- or some 21.5 Sydney Harbours. and 25 000 people live there, 15 000 in Broome. take out the four largest towns and it is 3 people and a dog. whilst we are running around down here trying to build water desalination plants and the power stations to run them the 30MW hydroelectric Plant pumps potable water around for irrigation and not much else. whilst our scientists are being urged to find better ways to harness solar energy (how hard is this? every house has two solar panels on the roof and half the problem is solved- fuck unsightly- the Germans are doing it and they get fuck all sun) they might be better directed at developing an automatic harvester that does not bruise mangoes or stonefruit. we get so caught up on imagining this country, state and city being much the same in 90 years as it is now when even 5 years from now the city of Perth is just going to collapse from within as we try to find room, jobs and parking for another half a million people. but it is going to take a little more than suggesting people move north- already it costs more to buy a house in Broome than it does in Perth. and whilst a Perth house for $400k gives you 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms that Broome house for $685k is two bedrooms and 1 bathroom. (which is why we aren't moving to Broome, even Carnarvon is nearly $300k to buy a house) the country needs to break out of its southern fantasy; and one way to do that is to change the welfare system. it seems nonsensical to me to be paying people to live on welfare in southern cities for years at a time when there is such a shortage of workers in the north. another way is to make income tax less in the north than the southern climes; given how little is collected in these regions it might even be worthwhile to abolish it completely. the one thing i have never understood is why we allow all of our immigrants to set up in Sydney and Melbourne. surely an argument can be made that if you want to live in this country you should have to live some time in the country? i don't see how it is a violation of a person's rights to add a<b> rider </font></b>to the immigration conditions that you can't settle in a state capitol until you have spent 5 years in a regional centre. the big problem with changing the southern fantasy, however, is as much cultural as it is political or economic. the Australian fantasy is communicated via television, film and radio- most of which are centred in Melbourne and Sydney. we have such wonderful stories in Australia; many would enjoy a worldwide appreciation, but we have allowed the local industry to become corrupted with the imported Hollywood blockbusters being made in our cities. of course it does not help that we strangle our own films with political correctness. we will never make another film in this country about Gallipoli because it featured neither women nor Aboriginals in active roles. but the television and radio obsession with political correctness makes a break even more unlikely; until you can report that a gang of Aboriginals or Muslims beat somebody up without inviting claims of racism this country is going to be locked into a cycle that values the views of the Vaucluse soccer mums over the future of this country. but even the people living in the bush will have to change; running a city of 100 000 will require a lot more freedom, especially in terms of social activity, than a township of 3000. most WA country towns effectively shut down at 1pm on a Saturday and don't reopen until 8am Monday morning- although this is not necessarily a bad thing either. all i am saying is that the country people need to be willing to change for the incomers as the incomers need to change themselves. but every idea has problems and the ones noted seem to be a lot better than a projected Perth population of some 5-7 million people by the end of the century. we can barely cope now. the Australian dream does not necessarily have to be dropped, but it can't continue in the same shape indefinitely. In truth is there no beauty? I am not in love; but i am open to persuasion. |
Become a member to create a blog
