What happens next??

I was born in 1956. The entire world only had a population of 2.8 billion. I had a wonderful childhood and lots of friends. It increased in 1961 to 3 billion, but it didn't bother me. I could work, both before I left school and when I left school. By that stage it had increased to more than 3.7 billion. By the time I got married it had increased to 4.5 billion, and by the time my marriage ended in 1991 it had gone up to 5.3 billion. Did I pay any attention? Nope.

My second husband and I moved to Australia in 2005, and the world population had increased to more than 6.5 billion. Within my 10 years here it had increased to 7.4 billion. Did I pay any attention? Yes, I did now.

Back in 1804 the global world population hit the first billion people. Maybe that would have been a great celebration! It didn't even increase to 2 billion until 1927, 123 years later... perhaps another celebration instead of the war that had finished very recently. The third billion, which I mentioned in my first paragraph, was 1961: 34 years. Recently it has run through its next billion every 12 years. If you don't know how quickly it increases, have a look at the UN Worldometers – that goes around far too fast but it shows how many people just pop into this world and are counted. (I personally think there's a whole heap of people who aren't even counted...) By 2020 the global population will be either just under or just over 8 billion.

To look at country populations, go to the UN page called “Population by country”. The first three in the world are China (1.382 billion), India (1.326 billion) and the USA (324 million). Where is Aus? Well, this country is number 53. We've only got 24 million – so why does Aus think they can take on world global FTAs? I'll get to that soon.

Donald Trump won an election in the USA in November this year. That has been protested against by many, many people from US who understand how badly Trump works/talks/appears/acts/cares. He's very little different from Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's PM who worries more about his own money than how people within the Australian workforce cope.

Very recently, within the last 3.5 years since LNP won the 2013 election, Australia has lost jobs, lost apprenticeships, buried too many construction workers, bombed in the deficit budget, cut funds from domestic violence, homelessness, medical issues and too many more. They've cut off the manufacture of Holden, stuck their middle finger up at the rest of the world against the climate change which so many sensible people think is essential, cut the tax paid by rich people so they can get richer, approved too much taxpayer funding within the coal area (look at the global smog caused by burning coal!) and walked away from the Reef destruction. They condemn unions but don't prosecute builders, they've increased politicians superannuation and 6-year service lifetime flights, funded private schools but not public schools, spent far, far too much on refurbishing offices in Canberra.

And this government just doesn't care about ordinary Australians.

Why has this government signed FTAs? In September 2015 the ninth round of negotiations with India took place; whilst there's no report on the final meeting, the trade with India has happened for a number of years, so why is an FTA needed? We've already traded with them – from $6.8 billion in FY2003-04 to $15.2 billion in 2013. What would we do with an FTA?

ChFTA with China was signed on 20 December 2015. The FTA refers to trading between Aus and China, yet any Aus company which only trades within Australia isn't included. Unfortunately, the FTA doesn't actually benefit the workforces since the government has spoken about cutting wages – and some people simply think of $2 a day (Gina Rinehart)! Maybe that won't (shouldn't) happen, but in some of the countries where Aus has FTAs, that sort of extremely low pay is already seen. More people being pushed into poverty?? Too many billions on this planet.

The US-Aus FTA is, according to DFAT, “a key pillar of the strong and multifaceted partnership between Australia and the United States.” That agreement came into being in 2015, again after the LNP was elected. This particular FTA refers mostly to investment rather than trade - “The United States is the most significant investor in Australia, accounting for 28.4 per cent (or $860.3 billion) of Australia’s total foreign investment stock as of December 2015.” That's also on the DFAT page. Why does this agreement get rid of tariff? Why do any country in this globe even charge tariffs? Or taxes or customs?

The use of tax, tariff, duty, VAT, GST, customs and whatever they're called elsewhere, seems to appear in almost every country. Have a look through the Wikipaedia pages for information, including a bit of history. There's too much for me to include it in here, but there's one thing which frustrates me: the use of a Border team – for instance, the Customs and Border Protection in the USA (started 1 March 2003, original Border Patrol dated back to 1924), Border Services Agency in Canada (started 12 December 2003 to replace 3 Canadian “legacy agencies”), and, in Australia, a very bad name – Border Force (started on 1 July 2015, previously the Customs and Border Protection Service started in 2009). It seems that wherever they're set up, they do similar to what the Australia Border Force does: seizure of goods, working out if the people weren't complying, and civil and criminal penalties against involved parties.

These sort of teams seem to have really started since the FTAs did. And do you agree with these “thug” teams? How about you build a wall, as identified by Quebec University expert Elisabeth Valle and reported in the UK Daily Mail back on 22 August 2015. There's apparently 65 in the process of being build now...

 

What do you think the population will be in 2020? Do you think it'll hit 8 billion? Do you think that governments which have set up FTAs, border teams and low pay will keep doing it? What would happen to the job seekers which governments call “dole bludgers”? What will happen to anything in any government budget which supports rich people and ignores absolutely needed people? Would anything in the politics of any country end up in a world war? Do you believe in what this government does, or what any government anywhere in the world will do? Why? Or why not?

What happens next??