Why you guys don't rule the world anymore

[Ardesco]

I take it you are an Ossie then Lucy

[Lucy]

Born in HK actually.

I have spent a bit of time in Australia though.

[Ardesco]

In that case you are now Comedy Lucy

[Lucy]

???

[Hart-floot]

Australia has an enormous focus locally, it has to.

Umm, well, there is incredible poverty in the UK too. What are you doing about that ?

You might have lived there but you obviously didn't read a newspaper.

Yeah .. right apart from the Age & SMH etc. Australia, for good reasons maybe, keeps its "distance" from its neighbours. Occassionally fly's in the troops to keep the natives in order.

My argument is that GB works more with its immediate neighbours than Aussie does. PNG is only 50 miles away from cape York/Torres but the economic gulf is massive. One day this will catch up with Australia

As for poverty, yes all countrys have it. But what exactly is the life expectancy of an Aboriginal Male in Australia? Somewhere around 45yo i believe. The absolute poverty i've seen in australia over the years, especially in outback NT & WA has no equivalent in the UK.

[Lucy]

Yeah .. right apart from the Age & SMH etc. Australia, for good reasons maybe, keeps its "distance" from its neighbours. Occassionally fly's in the troops to keep the natives in order.

My argument is that GB works more with its immediate neighbours than Aussie does. PNG is only 50 miles away from cape York/Torres but the economic gulf is massive. One day this will catch up with Australia

As for poverty, yes all countrys have it. But what exactly is the life expectancy of an Aboriginal Male in Australia? Somewhere around 45yo i believe. The absolute poverty i've seen in australia over the years, especially in outback NT & WA has no equivalent in the UK.

Took you a while to google that one !

How does GB 'work' with it's immediate neighbours exactly ?

In what way will it 'catch up with Australia' ?

If the poverty in Australia bothers you so much what did you do about it ?

[GeorgeGregan]

Took you a while to google that one !

How does GB 'work' with it's immediate neighbours exactly ?

In what way will it 'catch up with Australia' ?

If the poverty in Australia bothers you so much what did you do about it ?

Think there are two seperate points here.

Australia does engage with it's neighbors, e.g. Solomons, Fiji, PNG, in the form of aid and peacekeeping troops regularly. Australia gave a few billion dollars in aid to Indonesia after the tsunami.

Sadly there is extreme 3rd world style poverty in Aboriginal australia. Nobody really seems to know what the solution is so it's quietly ignored by most of the population.

[Lucy]

I don't agree that it is 'quietly ignored', but it is a hugely complex problem and if it bothers you then you do something about it.

[Mailman]

Took you a while to google that one !

How does GB 'work' with it's immediate neighbours exactly ?

Well GB sents a lot of my tax dollars to prop up those minor principalities in Wales and Scotland!

Mailman

[Hart-floot]

I don't agree that it is 'quietly ignored', but it is a hugely complex problem and if it bothers you then you do something about it.

Seems to have touched a raw nerve here then

Who says 'Sledging' doesn't work