OT (kinda): Australian science goes back to 1930 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 16, 2013, 10:51:00 am
content: Told you Australia would be rooted under Tony Abbott, right back to 1930 it seems:http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tony-abbott-has-not-included-a-science-minister-in-new-cabinet/story-fn5fsgyc-1226720375674Oh, and no Youth minster any more, and only one token woman in his entire ministry.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2013, 11:08:29 am
content: Apparently he renamed positions and combined others, still I'm not too fond of the fact that that card can be played for every dispute,"Tony why didn't your financial adviser warn you about buying fishing boats?""his position was merged with maritime and saw it as a cheap source of a shipping fleet""so the government is planning on leasing fishing boats that dont meet safety standards?""please talk to tourism for more information as they are currently writing up an exception"etc...

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2013, 03:13:40 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 16, 2013, 10:51:00 amI think Tony was too scared of Julie Bishop to leave her out!

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2013, 05:58:15 pm
content: It is not that I know anything about Australian politics, but I was born in a country which is working for more than a thousand years without those ministers. And having almost as many Nobel price than Australia.

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2013, 07:11:46 pm
content: I've got my hands full trying to keep track of my own pain in the ass govt and their crazy bullshit, as such I don't have much time left to dwell too much on the politics of other nations. I have heard at least that he has a fairly libertarian view with respect to governance, but some of his plans seem starkly in contrast to libertarian thinking so idk how it all squares up.Having said that, I'm going to play devil's advocate and suggest that maybe his view is that there are too many layers of bureaucracy, and if the brunt of the work is being done by universities and the private sector they can strip out multiple layers of waste fraud and abuse. I think most of us can agree that any time you get the govt involved in anything, no matter how good the intentions, you'll wind up with a screwed up mess in relatively short order.So yea, just my two cents from somebody that admittedly doesn't have a good handle on Australian(not Austrian) politics.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2013, 04:28:01 am
content: Old style Conservatives like the Liberal Party of Australia traditionally took a pragmatic view of politics as it worked in real life.Since the 1980s,however,there has been a game of " More Free Enterprise than thou" carried on between the Conservative parties & the traditionally Social Democrat Australian Labor Party.Large State owned authorities which were quite efficient were sold off to the Private Sector in a series of "fire sales" to satisfy the current ideology.Before the sales,the organisations were crippled by large scale reductions in staff.Of course,it wasn't the bureaucrats who were made redundant!Such Authorities as Telecom Australia,The Department of Aviation (& its predecessor DCA) OTC,the various State Railways,& others, through their training schemes, made a major contribution to technical training in this country.This was reduced,& ultimately ceased.The CSIRO was starved for funds,cutting back on fundamental research,& aiming for a "business focus".The idea was that the Private Sector would take up the slack,but the reaction of this sector was "EEK! If the Government is cutting back,we better do the same!"Ultimately,the Management in this sector was stripped of Engineering people & filled with non technical folk,who did not always understand what their Company did now,let alone how it would take on new areas vacated by the Government.The Official line from the non-technical Pollies & their advisors as to Technical Education was something along the lines of:"All these trades are obsolete,anyway,it's all done with computers!"The darlings of these advisors were Computer Science,& even more so,MBAs.as we were flung headlong into the brave new world of "Economic Rationalism".Latterly,the results of these policies have come back to bite us on the bum,with a lack of skilled workers throughout industry.The various State TAFEs who were pretty much starting to die on the vine by the 1990s anyway,have been completely overwhelmed by the job,dumbing down their courses to try to "meet industry expectations".The result of all this is a situation where nobody is happy---The Employers,their Employees,the Unions ,(who decided to lay down & play dead back in the 1980s because their members were being screwed over by a Labor Government),the Farmers (who are never happy anyway).& the people who want to be trained.IF I sound bitter & twisted,it's because I am!

author: AlfBaz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2013, 02:19:07 pm
content: The liberal minister inline for the job has a physics phd, he's not happy and already causing dissention on the so called unified government saying he might not support the billion dollar parental leave scheme...

author: lowimpedance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2013, 11:44:22 pm
content: You could not have hit the nail more centrally on the head than that, (I have been exposed to this philosophy. And indeed its ongoing still that I can see the black hole not too far now!!).And yes I share this same sentiment.Quote from: vk6zgo on September 17, 2013, 04:28:01 am

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2013, 05:59:28 pm
content: Shoot, try this side of the little pond, where the minister of health was firmly a believer in beetroot, garlic and potato as a cure.