Howard Appreciation Thread

[Bosun]

Surely though, if someone takes on a job with specific requirements and then is asked to do something outside those requirements, they have every right to refuse. That's asking someone to do something they're not being paid to do.

That refusal surely doesn't give the employer the right to just tell them to get lost if they're still performing the task for which they were actually employed.

Small businesses cannot afford to take people with such little flexibility on, Ive worked as a contractor for quite a few small businesses and they need all their staff to be able to do whats asked of them even if its outside of their normal duties. They simply dont have the resources to hire dozens of different people for dozens of types of jobs.

 

[medusala]

what a load of cods wallop. Without the industrial revolution coupled with the intake of migrants back in the 40s and 50s to drive it, Australia would have had jack shit.

Australia had the 2nd highest gdp per capita in the world in the early 50s.

You are clearly way off base once again.

 

[Clay Davis]

Australia had the 2nd highest gdp per capita in the world in the early 50s.

You are clearly way off base once again.

Curtin and Chifley must have done some great things then, because after 23 years of the Libs, that was no longer the case, was it?

 

[medusala]

Curtin and Chifley must have done some great things then, because after 23 years of the Libs, that was no longer the case, was it?

I think it owed more to the Korean War and wool prices than a couple of socialists who wanted to nationalise the banks

As for dropping it did a bit, however it plummeted under Whitlam.

 

[Clay Davis]

I think it owed more to the Korean War and wool prices than a couple of socialists who wanted to nationalise the banks

As for dropping it did a bit, however it plummeted under Whitlam.

And that couldn't at all be related to the global stagflation effects caused by the oil crisis in 74, could it? Before monetarism was the favoured economic policy?

The US and UK both had well-known recession problems in the 70s and the early 80s, under both conservative and progressive governments.

 

[Dry Rot]

These questions are never black and white (always throwing up numerous shades of gray) so Im qualified, willing and ready to discuss any of it with you.

Funny how no-one here has taken up your kind highly qualified offer?

 

[Dry Rot]

He botched Singapore and then kept troops in Australia where they did nothing.

How did Curtin botch Singapore?

IMHO the fall of Singapore was a combo of the brilliance of Admiral Yammoto's planning, and British incompetence.

 

[Clay Davis]

Some Brit imperialist arseclown historian reckons Australians were weak in the Pacific theatre of war.

 

[Dry Rot]

Some Brit imperialist arseclown historian reckons Australians were weak in the Pacific theatre of war.

Who and where?

You'd surely agree that the brilliance of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto > Aussies' efforts in the Pacific?

 

[Clay Davis]

Who and where?

You'd surely agree that the brilliance of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto > Aussies' efforts in the Pacific?

Max Hastings. I was unfortunate enough to read some standard "digger outrage" story in one of the Sunday tabloids.

The Japanese were stronger than everyone except the Yanks in WW2. However, Curtin was still right to withdraw troops from West.

 

[medusala]

How did Curtin botch Singapore?

IMHO the fall of Singapore was a combo of the brilliance of Admiral Yammoto's planning, and British incompetence.

Stuff up by numerous parties. Plenty of Australians were poorly trained and armed. Would have to dig up the book I read on the fall of Singapore (its in Melb). The Japs were outnumbered and shouldnt have got across the causeway without a huge struggle.

http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/japadvance/singapore.html

The men were battle-weary and the Australians had lost nearly 700 men fighting in Malaya since 14 January, with hundreds of others sick or wounded. Only one trained reinforcement unit, the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, arrived from Australia. Other last-minute reinforcements sent were untrained and ill-equipped for battle.

Questions were also asked re sending often poorly trained CMF troops to PNG instead of battled hardened ones.

 

[medusala]

Some Brit imperialist arseclown historian reckons Australians were weak in the Pacific theatre of war.

Read much by Hastings? He (and there are quite a few) isnt an Australian denigrater. In the book he specifically contrasts the outstanding reputation Australians gained in the Western Desert and Crete compared to later in the war.

 

[Oh When the Saints]

Disregard politicisation of PS (they all do that) and it doesnt leave you much.

Although Rudd seems to have retained and promoted all the perceived "Coalition favouring" bureaucrats and put them in charge of important departments.

The public service under Rudd will be very interesting, as it's the first time we've had a senior political figure who has experienced life from the "other side of the fence" so to speak.

I suspect he might handle it a little differently.