Time to Deal With Pressing Problems

As common sense slowly emerges into the decision making of politicians, we need to think about addressing some of the problems created in the past 18 months.

There’s the national debt – forecast to peak at a staggering $1.2 trillion with no sign of a surplus on the political horizon.

We’ve got a staggering array of money hungry policies that don’t seem to do much good – from Indigenous affairs, green energy funds, universal university fee relief, welfare and social engineering.

You could halve the expenditure and still get better outcomes than what we are currently.

It’s the same in our education sector. There’s more rainbow pride than civic pride.

Our children learn all about gender fluidity and know next to nothing about how the political system in our nation works.

We’ve got supply issues that are holding back the construction industry and putting upward pressure on prices.

Actually, everything is going up – from foodstuffs to phones, rates to utilities – inflation is creeping back in.

The money printing has seen asset prices soar making those with them feel wealthier but it has only increased the divide between the haves and have nots.

Those that have, just feel wealthier though. It’s all good and well if your home doubles in price but so have all the comparable ones. So when it comes to moving, unless you downsize or relocate you aren’t really any better off.

That all said, there doesn’t seem to be much wages growth despite competition for workers.

And no-where is that need for workers felt more than in our regional and rural communities.

I’ve spent the past week in regional South Australia and businesses there are crying out for workers. From commercial fishers, builders, retail, hospitality and tourism, there are jobs aplenty but few willing to fill them.

When NSW opens up I expect it will be the same there. My friends in Queensland tell me they have the same problem

What it means is that some of our valuable agricultural exports are reduced. Supply of foodstuffs to our cities are diminished, while demand will likely increase. This is a recipe for higher prices, pushing up your cost of living even more.

Business owners I have spoken to tell me that the problem is not the lack of people but a lack of people willing to work.

One large regional employer told me that ‘if he was willing to employ potheads and stoners the jobs would be filled...but the tasks he paid them for would never get done!’

Another said that the queue of applicants all but disappeared when drug testing for employees was mentioned.

What does that say about the state of our nation?

We’ve got jobs, in great communities doing the work that feeds, entertains and generates wealth for the entire country but no one to fill them.

How have we created an entire tier of lazy pot heads who think it's ok to demand more handouts from government while the contemplate the meaning of life.

The question is what can the government do about it?

They could cut welfare payments for those not committed to meaningfully pursuing work. They should bring in mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients. If it’s good enough for sports teams and big business, why is it not good enough to protect taxpayers dollars?

The answer to that is with the Labor opposition and the kooky Greens Party. They love the welfare state and can’t create a mendicant population soon enough.

Well something has to change…and soon.

If we want to get Australia back to the food production powerhouse it can be. If we want our regional communities to thrive and grow we need to make some immediate changes.