Australia Day?

26 January. What does that mean to you? For me, that date in 2016 is the date I became a citizen in Australia. I have a certificate hanging on my wall, but often I don't know how I feel about that. I don't usually celebrate Australia Day because this country is nothing more than where I live.

Twelve years ago, in 2005, was the year I moved here with my ex. Being in love, unfortunately, blinds you to everything else in your new city. I didn't wake up to the politics until PM Julia Gillard was disgustingly abused by LNP. When Tony Abbott was elected, my dislike of these politics and politicians grew, and has continued to grow since then - throughout the Turnbull years, including the PM and MPs like Morrison, Dutton, Pyne, Brandis, Bishop, Ley, Hunt, Joyce, Rowan and on and on... and on. And recently Pauline Hanson was elected, but as far as I am concerned the mistake of people voting for her is far to close to the evil mistakes which happened in Australia - and in USA.

Women marched after Trump's inauguration, and their protest drew more supporters than the inauguration did. After Trump, women have become - again - second to men. So far we have tried so hard to reach where we should be - with men! Do you remember Nightingale, Pankhurst, Woolf, Parkes, Friedan, Steinem, Greer, Brownmiller, Dworkin? They and so many others fought for us. Feminist was a lifetime, but too many women walked away from it recently. That was dangerous for us - too many turned the feminist around from liberating to chaining. Yet what the early suffragettes and the later feminists won for women are ignored by women today. And by men.

Trump has signed a bill which reinstates an abortion-gag against women. THAT is OURS! What right did he have to do that?

Trump has signed a bill to build a wall between USA and Mexico. THAT should be paid for by the President from the USA who made that stupid decision - not by Mexico.

It's Our Future in New Zealand wrote that "... the countries that have signed up to the TPPA have agreed to either change or freeze national laws to suit the interests of overseas investors from the other TPPA countries (the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan etc).  This means locking in light-handed regulation, limiting restrictions on overseas investment, and making it harder for governments to respond to both the future needs of their citizens and the natural environment." Trump has stopped USA involvement with the TPPA. I actually agree with that, but how does the LNP government here in Australia get along with that?

How would Turnbull regard Trump? How does China regard Trump? How does China regard Hanson? How does Turnbull regard Hanson? Far too many questions, far too many people who I think are evil.

The LNP government last year got Centrelink to send debt notices to 169,000 Centrelink beneficiaries - and so many of these have attempted to contact Centrelink and have been pretty much ignored. Most of them aren't in the wrong, yet Centrelink ignored their own records and these people. It seems it's up to the person who is attacked incorrectly to prove that they are in the wrong through Centrelink - but they have to start paying even before they have provided evidence!

We're losing much of our Medicare. We're losing funds to public schools. We're losing adult and child dental funds, setting up in a National Partnership Agreement (NPA).

What is an NPA needed for? In Australia there are NPAs for legal assistance services, early childhood education, homelessness, health, disability, coal seam gas and large coal mining, road and rail programmes, Indigenous economic and housing requirements, mental health, energy, skills reform et al. So many NPAs! The Council of Federal Funding said: "National Agreements define the objectives, outcomes, outputs and performance indicators, and clarify the roles and responsibilities that guide the Commonwealth and the States in the delivery of services in key sectors." Yet this doesn't explain to me what a National Partnership Agreement means. Another page said there are differences between National Partnerships, Implementation Plans and Project Agreements, and yet another said there are "... currently six National Agreements in the health, education, skills and workforce development, disability services, affordable housing and Indigenous reform sectors, and a National Health Reform Agreement."  That seems very different than any page which showed up in Google with an NPA as I mentioned. Have a look through the links at the start of this paragraph. So many NPAs.

Is any NPA for every person in Australia? Do they include refugees, émigrés, unemployed, youth, old people, people with illnesses, people who live in poverty with no choice themselves? Do you, PM Turnbull, know everyone in this country who ended up where they now are from policies and laws which you and your government has passed? Do you know too many of the Kiwis who have lived here, in Australia, for most of their life, committed a stupid crime and are now being sent back to NZ - where they don't know anyone? Who do you blame for refugees who came here and ended up in Nauru? Why have you signed a contract with Adani coal mine when the Indian government says they will never use that coal?

What is Australia on 26 January? To me, it seems far too different, much worse, than only a few years ago. What would you do, PM Turnbull? Do you really know? Please tell me, because I can't follow your government or the USA government or TPPAs or NPAs or One Nation or arguments or debt notices or any of the stuff which Australia seems to live in.

What would you do?