What causes cancer: do you really know?

What is the difference between lung cancer and breast cancer? Or between anal cancer and prostate cancer? Or leukemia or lymphoma? Or melanoma and pancreas? What do you know? Do you try and stop a person from having sex? Why? Do you stop a person from drinking a Coca Cola? Why? Do you stop someone breast feeding their baby? Why? Do you stop people from smoking? Why?

If a person has a cancer, why do you try and stop others you don’t even know from doing just what your mum /dad /sister /brother /gran /grandad /aunt /uncle had been doing which you believe ‘caused’ their cancer? Do you really know the percentage of those who will die from the same sort of cancer your family member died from? Do you really know the population of the whole world, and how many people die from cancer? And how many die from genocide? And how many die from car accidents?

If you know exactly what causes cancer, then how will you treat it?

It’s about time that every person who fights against cancer – of any type – understands the cancer they are fighting against, because I do not believe that they would fight against all cancer because they don’t know all of them.

The Cancer Council has a webpage which lists 32 types of cancer. Have a look at their page, and check out each cancer – did you already know about it?

https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/

They say that in 2015 18,878 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer. What caused it? Did you already know that? It’s on their website. Have a look.

https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/prostate-cancer/

They say that in 2015 16,852 women and men were diagnosed with breast cancer, which is the most common cancer in women. What caused it – did you already know that? Have a look.

https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/breast-cancer/#jump_1

They say that in 2015 11,788 people were diagnosed with lung cancer, which is only 9% of all cancer diagnosed. 1 in 13 men before age 85, and 1 in 21 women before age 85 allegedly get lung cancer. What age do they get this, and are they all smokers? Do you already know all of this? Have a look.

https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/lung-cancer.html

The very large difference is that there were a lot less lung cancer diagnoses in 2015 than the men’s prostate cancer and the women/men’s breast cancer, and lung cancer is not just from smoking. So why is this government still taxing tobacco? Why haven’t they added tax onto other stuff that can cause diabetes or cancer? According to the government, excess alcohol can cause cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, and colon. Why isn’t alcohol taxed as high as tobacco? Sugary soft drinks can cause weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and gout. Why aren’t sugary soft drinks taxed as high as tobacco?

Why still tax tobacco?

Tax on tobacco is a fight, not a right. Tobacco is legal. It should not be taxed, and it doesn’t need to be taxed because it “causes” heart disease (after one year, so they say), mouth and throat cancer (after five years, so they say) and lung cancer (after ten years, so they say). How does this work? I have smoked for 45 years. I do NOT suffer from any of those! How many smokers have lung cancer, or die from lung cancer, Mr Prime Minister? How old are they when they actually die?

Why still tax tobacco? It is not as dangerous as you make it out to be, when breast cancer and prostate cancer are more diagnosed than lung cancer.

I was born in the 1950s. As a woman I am expected to live to age 72.1, which is less than a person born in the year 1995 (age 78.9) or born in 2005 (79.9). I have already smoked for 45 years. If I want to smoke, I should still be able to. Unfortunately, with this shockingly high tax I can no longer afford it. I hope you are happy, Mr Prime Minister.  Why tax my tobacco?

Maybe I’ll just get to 100, like this lovely old woman – she was a smoker all her life too! Except she never had to pay so much for her tobacco.

Australia Day

Tomorrow is the Australian Day, 26^th January 2020. I disagree with this day – and I know that I’m not the only one who disagrees with it. I won’t be out ‘celebrating’ the Australian Day – I will remember the shame that white Australians should have for what happened to the Aboriginals many years ago. The Australian Day date was only settled on last century, the 20^th century. In 1935 each state or territory except NSW said it was 26^th January. NSW didn’t agree until 1946, but it was 1995 before that date became a public holiday.

Why that date?

I don’t know why so many people agree with it – maybe that’s only because they don’t know what day to choose. I know why it’s not agreed on, but I think there are too many people who just don’t care.

I love Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton's song, I am Australian. It’s well written and it sounds lovely. Maybe everyone should sing this tomorrow, rather than the Aus anthem which actually doesn’t even fit.

I am Australian

Songwriters: Bruce Woodley / Dobe Newton

I Am Australian lyrics © BMG Rights Management

I came from the dream-time
From the dusty red-soil plains
I am the ancient heart
The keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shores
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I've been
The first Australian

I came upon the prison ship
Bowed down by iron chains
I bought the land, endured the lash
And waited for the rains
I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife
On a dry and barren run
A convict, then a free man
I became Australian

I'm the daughter of a digger
Who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman
On the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the Depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushie, I'm a battler
I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice
"I am, you are, we are Australian"

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
And I paint the ghostly gums
I'm Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice
"I am, you are, we are Australian"

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice
"I am, you are, we are Australian"

"I am, you are, we are Australian"

Book Review: Archiflop

Archiflop

Written by Alessandro Biamonti

Published by Niggli in 2017

Sub-titled “A guide to the most spectacular failures in the history of modern and contemporary architecture”, it was published three years ago. I only read it this month (January 2020) – and it amazed me! Tales in this book show money spent on buildings – and leading to bankruptcy of the designers. Some of those were build for a population, but very few people ever moved into any of them. Some other tales tell of non-inhabitant buildings, such as a railway station, an entertainment park, a community built out at sea. Nothing of them used today.

Biamonti is an architect and a professor at the Department of Design in Milan, Italy. He has been specialising in the “anthropological dimension design” for years. He now gives public lectures and conferences where interested people might be happy to find out about these kind of buildings and properties, but this book may intrigue a lot more people – perhaps not too many interested in the “anthropological dimension design” but in the money wasted on these properties. On the first page, titled “Failure”, Biamonti said “We are living in a moment in history when the concept of failure is being reinterpreted, especially through the search for and proposal of new reasons to conceive it as an opportunity rather than a problem.” I see the reasons to conceive certainly as a problem, not an opportunity.

Kangbashi New Area is in Ordos, China. It cost the country “160 billion dollars of public money” in 2004, yet there are only around 30,000 people living there when it is a huge area and was originally intended for a million people. Cranes are left on the roofs of the tall apartment buildings: the builders didn’t intend to finish them if there were no more than the 30,000 who have moved in.

Nova Cicade de Kilamba in Angola, Africa, was planned in 2008 for half a million population. Now there are only 220 apartments sold, out of 2,800. Angola is one of the wealthiest countries in Africa, yet the majority of the population can afford to buy one in Nova Cicade, let alone rent one.

In the 1980s and 1990s, thirty years ago, the Charleroi Metro was built, but has never been opened to the public since the population dwindled after the steel industry crisis. The Cinderella City Mall, built in Englewood in Colorado, USA, was opened in 1968 but was abandoned in 1995: such a huge three level mall building built in a town with only 30,000 population. The Torre Abraham Lincoln in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was started in 1969, but it has never been finished and only 250 of the 454 apartments have been sold. Building the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea had commenced in 1987, but it still hasn’t been finished.

Kowloon Walled City was in Hong Kong, and was so densely populated that sunshine couldn’t get in within the interconnected skyscrapers: they looked like a ghetto. Britain and China decided to demolish the city, and that happened between 1991-1993. Residents received some compensation – the Hong Kong government “was forced to pay out 2.7 billion Hong Kong dollars”.

There are other tales in this book, along with so many excellent – and sad – photos. I wonder how on earth can “rich” people spend their money for buildings, parks and entertainment which are not used? Where is their money for the people who really need it?

In the end of the book Biamonti gave a “half-serious glossary” which listed the meanings of the demolition, deterioration, economic crisis, futuristic, landmark, ruin, skeleton and unfinished construction, and others. For me, that wasn’t “half-serious”. It was very, very sad.

Terry Pratchett – “Discworld”

I have never read a Terry Pratchett book.

Say what?? Well, my favourites in fantasy fiction were Stephen Donaldson, David Eddings, Michael Moorcock, Ursula Le Guin, Tolkein, Tanith Lee, Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley et al. I read so much in the fantasy, and Donaldson ran my life without knowing it. Thomas Covenant was my hero: he felt so much like I did way back then!

But I have never read a Terry Pratchett book. Not even one of my old friend Keith’s books on his shelf, so many Terry Pratchett.

This month I read a post from the Discworld Convention – I don’t even know how I found that – and read about Pratchett on Wikipedia – he wrote 41 books for the Discworld, two books a year from 1983. How on earth could he have written so much?? He was knighted by the UK in 2009, but he died in 2015. He was only 66.

My reading was fantasy in the 1970s up to the beginning of 2000, when I think I had run out of anything fantasy to look after my own world. I began reading more non-fiction and I started again with many feminist books. When I moved over to Brisbane in 2005 I left all my fantasy books at mum’s home. (She died in 2007 and I’ve never got the boxes of my books back.) My collection looks pretty small… it’s now only about 500 books.

And none of them are Terry Pratchett!

I follow Aus’s National Secular Society on Facebook, and until I read about Terry in Wikipedia I didn’t know until today that he was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society in the UK. NSS is a member of the Humanists International (which was known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union until 2019). That has nothing to do with Terry’s books, but he thought of himself as a humanist. Wikipedia says it is

“an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism, 

human rights and equality, motivated by humanist values. Founded in 

Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and 

Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries…”

It works for me. I should have joined the NSS when I saw them on FB. I haven’t, but I read their posts every day. Right now they have submitted their response to the religious discrimination bill which will hurt too many people. I recently saw that posts call this the “Gilead” bill, after Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. I wonder if others think of this as Google says that “Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines.” Heard of them? I prefer the Gilead we use is from Atwood’s book, but that may be just my own thought.

Anyway, back to Terry Pratchett again! I don’t think I’ll end up at the Discworld Convention in Sydney in 2021, but I should really start with some Pratchett books. Maybe the Discworld would be a life for me.

You think?

Believe in yourself

What do you do when the proverbial rug keeps getting pulled out from under you, no matter how hard you try to stay standing?

My breakdown at the end of 2012 spurred me to a greater awareness and action for many other areas where I saw injustice.  That year I applied to attend the first TEDxSouthBankWomen. My application was accepted, and I was on a high. The event and evening was a catalyst for me, something I had desperately needed to get myself back on track.

If I thought fate had finished with me then I was very much mistaken. In January 2013 my husband of 9 years told me our marriage was over and he was moving back to NZ. By mid-January I was in counselling for both my PTSD (another story, maybe, one day) and my marriage break up, but my forward movement had started and wasn’t going to be stopped by something like that! I am living proof that mature age, no money and constant stress don’t have to stop your life.

I organized a flash mob for Eve Ensler’s V-Day event One Billion Rising and taught them the dance. On 14 February 2013 thirty of us danced 3 times in Queen Street Mall to raise awareness for the V-Day campaign against violence against women. Through my involvement with that I joined forces with a wonderful group putting on the Vagina Monologues for the same benefit. The organisation we were supporting was DV Connect, which supports women, children and animals caught up in domestic violence situations. We raised $5,000.

In June I participated in the Ipswich CASV Walk a Mile in her Shoes. I entered into fun runs for International Women’s Day, Mother’s Day Classic, Rotary Run for Autism, the Ipswich Hospital 2013 fundraiser and Zonta Says No, the latter which was also supporting DV Connect. I attended a memorial service at Logan CASV for Joan Ryther, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in Logan.

I participated in the United Nations Say No – Unite: Orange the World in 16 Days Activism Against Gender Violence, commencing on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November, and ending on International Human Rights Day, 10 December.

I joined a flash mob doing Thriller for the 2013 Zombie Walk, raising funds for the Brain Foundation.  I had a personal reason to be involved in that – on 2 July 2013 I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, yet another thing to add to my stress and turmoil.

I became a vocal and active social justice campaigner. I marched for the Reef, marched for Climate Change, and Marched in March for everything I believe is wrong with the state of our nation. I tweeted, I blogged and I Facebooked.  I volunteered at La Boite theatre and Eyeline Arts magazine and at Brisbane Festival 2013, and I joined the Brisbane Feminist Collective.

For the past 6 years since my stroke I did a bit more volunteering – a Red Kite Festival at Clontarf, a librarian and art gallery assistant - nothing at all like I used to do before the stroke, but I loved the library.

I have no idea why I am now believing that finishing this BA degree from Griffiths University will get me fully recovered. I know quite a lot about the history and future of aphasia, I have booklets from many different organisations, including some that do research, so perhaps I should be counting more on them than myself.

Perhaps the stroke was the proverbial rug, pulled out from under me no matter how hard I tried to stay standing. I will recover, soon…. Just right now I need to go have another avo nap. See you later.

Where to now?

I started writing this blog about how I have felt many times when I was treated with contempt, dealing with my pain. I stopped writing and thought about it. I recently wrote a poem about a woman surviving from wrong words often dished out to her. It happens to men, too. People judge you too often. This is why so many people pull back into themselves, don’t associate with others except those very close to them. This might seem funny to extroverts, but if you can understand it then perhaps you should talk to people.

In the end, I just posted this poem.

Where to now?

© Louisa Reid, Jan20

Words cutting her like a knife, wounding, her soul bleeding

She doesn’t know who she is or who she wants to be

She can’t endure his contempt – has he walked where she is walking?

Do they know her pain? Would they care?

Feel with her, share her hurt or go from here

She doesn’t need your judgment: she judges herself already

She wants no past, she has no future, she is only of the present

Intrinsic, being, she is her own fundamental reality

She is substance and essence, a woman

Carrying her own world, her own support

Words cutting her like a knife - they don’t understand, how could they?

Empathy doesn’t hurt yet it is rare, uncommon

The world enclosed in its own little shell, the inhabitants singular, secluded, detached

She thought she was out of tears yet still they come, unbidden, unwanted, unstoppable

She doesn’t know who she is, who she wants to be

Don’t turn away! Where does she go from here?

How does it make you feel? I am OK. I want to stay OK a lot longer. I hope you will too.

A few links might be of assistance to you. If you need help, then choose what relates the most to you.

https://www.ruok.org.au/

https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/

https://mensline.org.au/mens-mental-health/self-care-toolkit/

https://www.sane.org/about-sane/what-sane-does

https://headtohealth.gov.au/mental-health-difficulties/what-should-you-know-about-mental-health-conditions-and-disorders

https://au.reachout.com/collections/self-care

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/what-is-mental-health

Temperature’s up, temperature’s down

Yesterday I went to a baby shower for my daughter and her partner. It wasn’t extremely hot in the pub, but I was hot. This morning I went into the Rocklea market, and the temperature was only 28 degrees – but I thought it had to be high 30s. I sweated, yesterday and today. I took a wee towel and wiped sweat off myself but dripped more than I had thought I would have. And yet it wasn’t as hot yesterday or today as it had been last week, or the week before.

Most of the time in those last weeks I stayed locked inside my unit, with my aircon on, feeling reasonable cool. I hate… I hate… feeling hot. I avoided the heat, I hated the heat, I hated being on my own, but I was cool.

I looked up for how the weather’s going to be in the next week, and according to the Weatherzone synoptic charts it looks dry today, but there will be heavy rain tomorrow and light rain Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I wonder if that will tell the same false weather predictions that BOM told me last week. They had said it would have rained all week, but the rain missed here until Friday.

I looked at the BOM and found charts showing the difference between 9am, which is higher humidity, and 3pm, which showed a lower humidity. No kidding – that is due to the temperatures, and 3pm is far too hot in summer. Inside needs to be cool or humidity could cause colonies of bacteria… mould. I’ve read about rental tenants suffering too much with something like this. Their landlord should ensure that the property is dry and healthy. Do you have air con? Perhaps you can read this article from Renew which looks at how condensation can cause a lot of problems in your home. They said:

“Moisture problems can impact on aesthetics, but, much more importantly, they can adversely affect the health of a building’s inhabitants. With high internal humidity and moisture accumulating in the building’s structure, cases of ‘sick homes’ with microbial infestations of mould and fungi are on the rise.”

I’m think I no longer have to look forward to that, but I’m sure my power bills are higher!

Unfortunately it seems that too many landlords get bad housing developments for tenants built. Conversation in July last year reported of a so-called ‘finished’ development which was closed off because it caused health issues for the tenants. It says that’s not one small issue, but it “is a greater systemic problem: the fact that hundreds of thousands of Australians are forced into inadequate or unhealthy housing by high housing costs.” If you, personally, are suffering this, then you know that this is wrong. I hope you don’t let mould grow in your rental home, or even in the home you own for yourself.

I’m coming round in my full circle, and back to rain and temperatures. At Rocklea market this morning the sky looked dark and threatening. It didn’t rain when I left, but it rained on the way home. I felt like I’d been out in that rain, I was so wet! When I got home I turned my aircon on and lay on my bed – on top of a towel to catch my sweat – and stayed there for an hour until I had dried out and could have a shower. I know one thing – in future I don’t think I will go out anywhere during the hot days in summer! I said it earlier and I will say it again: I hate… I hate… feeling hot.

Roll on winter!!

I love a rainy night!

In 1975 Eddie Rabbitt sang this song which reminded me of what I felt like:

Well I love a rainy night; I love a rainy night.
I love to hear the thunder;
watch the lightning when it lights up the sky.
You know it makes me feel good.

Google the lyrics, and click on his name for the YouTube link. If you’ve heard it before, you’ll love it. If you’ve never heard it before, you’ll love it!!

Last night and this morning it has rained. This area had rain predicted for more than a week, but this night was the first night it rained in… months! Yes, I know it wasn’t a drought, not a real one, but I had to water my pot plants every second day just to give them a little bit of water, and I hated the overly-hot temperature. I felt very sad about the drought in Stanthorpe, and so many other areas throughout the country.

Not long after I first moved over here, 2005, it got very hot. Parts of Brisbane area got to 41 degrees – hotter than I had ever had in New Zealand! But back then the hot period wasn’t anywhere near as hot as it’s been this summer. In fact, summer felt like it had started before it even did! We didn’t have a spring last year… just winter – summer.

I spent too many nights not sleeping. Now I’m still not sleeping and it’s raining outside! I think I just want to listen to it. Actually, my cat was kept inside until the rain sounded like it was stopping. She went outside a short while ago and it has gotten heavy again. I don’t think she wants to come inside yet!

In the climate change environment it seems that the droughts are increasing and rain is certainly slowing. I found a website called Carbon Brief, based in UK, which seemed to have, a year ago, similar to what we had, and it’s gotten worse. They say “With higher temperatures comes greater evaporation and surface drying, potentially contributing to the intensity and duration of drought.” Which is saying what I just said – more drought, less rain.

And even though Scott Morrison had been a denier, until very recently, the government Department of Environment and Energy website said “Our climate has already changed, and further changes are likely as concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase. Decision-makers rely on model-based scenarios of future climate to inform planning decisions.” No date of when they revised the page, but maybe ScuMo hadn’t read it. Maybe he now has. Anyway, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) work for the government and have been predicting the change to droughts and rain for years.

In the end, it’s up to our own government to help save this country. If they still deny climate change then they have to go.

(c) Ben Jennings

What’s wrong?

There can’t be anything wrong with this world… is there? There’s no climate change deniers, get that right! The “religious discrimination bill” just isn’t that, it’s simply keeping religious people happy, just like the rest of us. There’s no drought – well, some company bought water and we had enough to give them, didn’t we? Warming is only because of the bushfires, it’s not too hot. And why couldn’t Aus drop backwards behind NZ in the economic Democracy Index? Far out, we’re still in the democrats: so what if we’re #9 and NZ is #4?

Too many complainers!

Well, sorry to burst your own bubble… I am a complainer! I am so tired of reading negative comments on any post on Facebook about any of that stuff – and a lot more stuff. Why are USA and China shaking hands on trade deals when Trump was anti-them just a few weeks ago? Why is Iran making excuses for shooting down a civilian plane and killing 176 people? Why is Andrew Forrest an LNP supporter? Why hasn’t it rained in this location for days when the weather report says it should have? I just don’t know whether or not to mow my lawn!

You know what, I think I’m so sorry for all university students. To be one of those – which I am – could make you think so differently than you used to. You just have to work out which of the written article, books, research papers, videos et al are real. Which ones are truthful and what is false? What is negative or what is positive; what is too long, what is white, what is red… do you like Merlot or Chardonnay?

I have four books from the library on my desk. None of them are fiction, and yet some of those writers make me think that they’re telling a lie, but they don’t seem to think my way. Even some non-fiction books mention ‘god’, when they shouldn’t because yes, he is a fiction. That’s my thought… is it different for you? Am I telling fiction?

Sixty years ago this world had a population of 2.8 billion, with 19 people per square kilometre. Now the population is 7.8 billion and the density has grown to 52 per square kilometre. That’s the growth in 60 years. I shudder when I look up the growth before 1950s, or even before 1804 when it just reached 1 billion. Nearly 220 years to grow another 6.8 billion, when the population was so small 2000 years ago!

I wish that the world was back to my childhood – friendly, happy, loving, a perfect population… and no negative comments every day. Every. Single. Day.

Maybe this population is defining the end of this world. 

Writewritewritewritewrite

I found a quote: “Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” - Larry L. King, WD. Ever heard this one? What does it mean to you? To me, it means I should’ve started writing my blog yesterday morning. I didn’t, and I forgot about it until this morning. My New Year promise I made to myself was that I would write a blog every day to try and catch up on those I missed last year. Every day? I missed 24 hours. Am I upset at myself? No, I’m not. Sorry Larry, this is an actual journey, not a shortcut.

Writing is my yesterday, today and tomorrow. I write poems, some of which I really like. I write short stories, some of which make me cry. I write blogs like this one or the one about quotes or the one about brain aneurysms or the one about rape. They still exist, but for most of them I don’t write every day. One I haven’t added to since, oh, 2017 I think. I keep thinking, add to one! So I have.

But this one is still alive, it writhes around or cuddles up, it laughs or cries, it makes me thinkthinkthink. I’ve written all my life, and I intend to until I die.

Thank you for reading this, even if it doesn’t affect you, or if it does bring a tear to your eye, or if it makes you ROFL. I wrote a poem about this. I hope you will get a warm glow under your skin.

Keep writing

© Louisa Reid 150120

I sit in my house, feeling quite cold

My memory so clear but nothing resolved

I think of my life, my precious childhood

Remember what happened when I was involved

I learned how to swim, ride a bike and run

Write poems and stories and read so much

Rode horses, loved sheep, kept lots of mice

Loved cats and dogs which I just wanted to touch

It’s far far away, I’ve lost some memory

But writing is now, it’s me in recovery

I can think of my future and write all my thoughts

Ride a bike, love cats and dogs, climb up a tree

Just go for a drive, keep loving the country

Walk by a stream or climb up a hill

I’m at the top, I’m feeling I’m good

This feeling is mine, my perfect free will

So to keep me warm I must keep on writing

Poems, short stories, a novel or two

Writing is my future, my every day

To all those who read, thank you, thank you!

Morrison: PM, not PM?

Scott Morrison became Australia’s Prime Minister when Malcolm Turnbull was kicked out. It had been Dutton who thought he would be there, but Morrison managed to get enough votes from his LNP party. Why was he elected? Well, he shouldn’t have been.

He was the managing director of Tourism Australia in 2006 when he was fired. Why? We weren’t told, but that has come out now. In August 2006 the Australian Leisure Management wrote about Morrison being sacked that year, titled “Federal government sacks Tourism Australia managing director”. It didn’t raise any reasons about why the minister, Fran Bailey, had acted that way. Fiona Carruthers wrote an article about this same matter for AFR in September 2018, titled “Bloody hell! When ScoMo lost a political knife fight”; Sean Kelly wrote for The Monthly in November 2018, titled “Looking for Scott Morrison”; Karen Middleton wrote an article in The Saturday Paper in November 2018, titled “Auditor-general found Morrison breaches”; Michael Sainsbury wrote for Crikey in February 2019, titled “A close look at Scott Morrison’s CV”; Karen Middleton wrote again for The Saturday Paper in June 2019, titled “Fresh documents in Morrison’s sacking”; Amy Remeikis wrote for The Guardian in January 2020, titled “, covering mostly the bushfires but also mentioned his firing in 2006. There are many other more journalists that we would read. All of them wrote about Morrison fired from his job in 2006, yet they were not given the essential details, even after asking the government for them.

So why was Morrison fired in 2006? Why did he stand again for the LNP and got elected? Why aren’t the public allowed to know all the details of this? Why was he elected to be PM over Turnbull? He certainly shouldn’t be the PM until this is all sorted out, and if it’s not ever sorted out then he SHOULD NOT be the PM.

Morrison’s latest behaviour is extremely poor. He went to Hawaii before Christmas, with his family, and didn’t even tell the country he was going on holiday… perhaps he was Nero, playing his music instrument as the country burned… and burned…. and burned.

When he came back to Australia (yes, Australia people called him back!) he argued about paying volunteer firefighters, claiming that was “not a priority”.

Before he gave up helping the bushfires, he had planned on introducing a religious bill – allegedly against discrimination for religion, yet he absolutely ignores the fact that that bill will reintroduce discrimination against atheists, LGBTI, A&TSI and so many other people, including Muslim and every other non-Christian religion. This country is secular and does not include religion.

Morrison and the LNP have shocking policies about refugees. It’s been months – years ­- since Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s PM, offered places for refugees still held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, but they’re still there.

All people have human rights: refugees, it seems, do not. All people own this country: the government only manages it. All people are allowed their own faith, whether that is religion or not. Climate change does exist.

This country considers the politics as democratic / republic / conservative / leftist / central / National / Liberal / Labor / One Nation / Greens / independents, and much more added into them. How Australia is ‘managed’ needs to be sorted out. Politics do not run the lives of everyone here, people run politics. We are not specifically democratic, nor are we specifically republic: Australian is a “representative democracy” (look that up if you need to). That means that the government works for us.

Scott Morrison is not a good prime minister at all. A new person should NOT be a person who is a minister (either politics or religion) but a person who can manage the businesses of electees in the government who will manage our public lives. Morrison should walk away, now, and let us get on with our own lives.