Social cohesion has lost its feelgood vibe. What will it take to offer a fair go for all?

After Chris Minns sending in the police to assault peaceful protestors on behalf of a genoc-dal head of state, the term social cohesion that they have been using as a euphemism for “authoritarian censorship for Israel” or “any excuse to erode democracy”, the term “social cohesion” is pretty much a meme.

Anyone using it seriously is probably wanting to take away some vital part of democracy.

A ‘fair go’ can only be achieved when the country acts in its people’s own interest, like the majority of the people, not <1%.

It’s like waking up and being forced to endure the same game of Monopoly every day..

the one where you have nothing, one of the other players has hotels on everything, and it’s completely hopeless, pointless and not at all fun.

It’s time to throw the board over and start again. But this time with a cooperative game that lifts everyone’s boats.

Government at all levels refocusing on international law. Criticize and actively oppose using diplomatic means, the illegal wars conducted by Israel and the US. Abolish the special envoys. Abolish laws related to restricting protest. Real-time disclosure of donations and the slow sunsetting of corporate donations. Sunsetting fossil fuel export and mining. Reconstitute the NACC with public hearings. Disengage from AUKUS. Remove CGT and -ve gearing discounts. Commit government to public housing. Expand Medicare to dental. Increase welfare. Reduce private and independent school funding and increase public school funding. Nationalise preschool education. Electrify heavy road transport.

If you are in disagreement with my position, you are:

1. Unaustralian
2. A threat to social cohesion

Sometimes I wish the pollies would stop hiding behind such vague concepts and just admit that their true positions.

The recent events in NSW are just a drop in the bucket for social cohesion. Like almost every other issue facing Australia, the main source is the housing crisis.

Lee Quan Yew had an ideology for Singapore toften called “National Stakeholders”; where he understood that for him to be able to ask people to undergo national service and participate in the broader Singapore experiment, they needed to be stakeholders, i.e. homeowners.

Under John Howard Australia went through a cultural shift that left us more greedy and selfish. The reforms of Hawke and Keating greatly expanded the middle class, social mobility from working to middle was at an all time high. Howard then convinced this new middle class they could be the rich one day and implemented the conditions to allow greater speculation and wealth hoarding.

A nation can survive with low middle>rich class mobility, but when the working>middle movement becomes difficult such as whats going on right now? that’s what leads to people losing faith in the Australian experiment. Parts of regional Australia is already like this, young people have little hope, no visible path to escaping a shit life, so they just stop caring and “delinquent” behaviour rapidly increases.

We’ve become addicted to housing and its genuinely killing our country, its an unproductive industry, speculation on existing properties doesn’t add any value. Investors move from productive assets such as businesses to just holding more property, so not only cant you afford a house, but now with less businesses its harder to earn the money in the first place. A common argument for mass immigration is that Aussies wont work shit jobs because they dont pay enough, the main reason Aussies need the high income is to afford a home.

Until the voter base is willing to vote for houses to decrease in value, and really commit, we wont see a change. In 2019 we were given the choice of moderate reform and we as a nation chose Scomo instead. Right now the government is tabling options for CGT and NG reform, which has people outraged that they would dare slow down the housing market and take their “hard earned money”.

People have nothing to give . In fact most people are going further into debt just to maintain a normal lifestyle. Decades of erosion to the middle class does that. High housing costs and low competition in many areas leading to high prices.

Then successive governments selling off assets making sure future ones pay higher prices indefinitely e.g. water and electrical assets.

An end to corporations, capitalism or massive redistribution of wealth.

The government does things like making childcare free so parents can work.

But how about creating a system where, as it used to be, both parents didn’t *need* to work just to survive?

I’m not that old, but I’ve been through 4 “once in a lifetime” global financial crises in my working life.

I’m in the top 10% of wage earners and I can comfortably afford to buy a house on my own.

That’s insane.

Of course it has, because we’ve seen what politicians and so-called leaders consider to be “social cohesion.” Don’t rock the boat, don’t speak up about this or protest about that. Just look at what Minns or Crisafulli have done in the name of social cohesion.

Social cohesion to me has always been the antithesis of a “fair go” and comradery that Australians used to be proud of.

The fair go was rooted in socialist principles and evolved from there into more capitialist/social democratic ideals in the modern era.

“Social Cohesion” stinks of right wing conservative classism. You will accept your lot in life and the policies the political class decides is best for you and you will maintain social cohesion. Do not resist. Very 1984.

I find it very disappointing that labour has started using it.

Gid rid of the pokies. Make pubs fun again.