DWELLING ON THE DULL ESSENTIALS

Queensland rivers

To communicate ... experience through print means that it must first be broken down into parts and then mediated, eye-drop fashion, one-thing-at-a-time, in an abstract, linear, fragmented, sequential way. That is the essential structure of print. That once a culture has such a medium for a few centuries, it begins to perceive the world in a one-thing-at-a-time, abstract, linear, fragmented, sequential way. And it shapes its organisation and schools according to the same premises. The form of print has become the form of thought .... The electronic media have broken the monopoly of print, they have altered our sensory profile by heightening our awareness of visual, tactile, and kinetic values ... Print is obviously here to stay. Post-literate does not mean illiterate, it rather describes the social environment within which print will interact with a great variety of communication media.
Battle, I. A. and Shannon, R. L. (1974). The New Idea in Education, Harper & Row, 1974. Chapter: Education in a Post-Literate World, John Aulkein.

This was a government run on announceables, many of which never reached fruition. 
Just like the flourish announcement of the billion dollar Innovation Nation, with which Malcolm Turnbull began his prime ministership and rapidly became a corker, another massive waste of public monies.
There had been so many. 
In the end it created a community wide disconnect. 
A brewing discontent. 
"They all screw you. There's no use paying any attention to any of them." 
The occasional wisdom of his evening's Table of Knowledge. 
Here's a typical piece of bullshit from a litany of failed projects: 

A $5 billion infrastructure fund heralded by the Turnbull government as a jewel of the 2015 budget has so far spent more on salaries for board members than on actual projects.
Tony Abbott's dream of turning the north into an "economic powerhouse" through the multibillion-dollar Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is yet to be realised, hampered by a lack of interest, complex investment barriers and a dearth of infrastructure projects that would generate ongoing financial returns.
The concessional loan nature of the fund kept it off the budget books, with the government only having to account for monies it lends. So far, nothing has yet been lent. Remeikis, Amy. The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 March, 2017. 

QUEENSLAND Labor Senator Murray Watt was in Depot Hill yesterday visiting flood affected South Rockhampton residents and this time, he brought along some props.Flanked by Rockhampton MP Bill Byrne, Mr Watt showed off a booklet he'd assembled of all infrastructure projects constructed by the federal government's much touted $5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund over the past two years, flipping over page after empty page. Mr Watt claimed no jobs had been created and no major projects underway."The only money that has been spent on the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund is the high salaries being paid to the directors of that board but what are they doing?” Mr Watt said. Senator heckles Turnbull's No Actual Infrastructure Fund, Morning Bulletin, Leighton Smith, 20 May, 2017.

Typical lawyers, they mistook words for actions. 
As random, perhaps obscure, inconsequential as such things seemed to be, these blizzards of bullshit announcements permeated the whole government, which mistook style for substance, had no substance. 
Once something was said that was enough to make it real.
No it didn't.
It left survivors in a wasteland, ruled by predators, the new oligarchy, the flash, ostentatious rich.
The country had been ruled by some of the worst lawyers in the country for years. 
There was a good case to be made for barring lawyers from running for parliament, altogether. For they only acted to protect their own caste.
They mistook words for courage. 
"It's our little secret. Alright?"
"Sure."
"A gentleman's agreement."
"Sure."
The lines of communication were struck and restruck and obliterated, for there was no true secrecy. 
The machines could read everything. 
The chilling effect crept through everything. 
There was a way to keep these things out of the eyes of the bosses, off the record, for there had been so many hangers on, there were no secrets in the clandestine world which he had once attracted. They drove him crazy and they didn't care. They all got paid. This scum that had queued to torment. 
But there was always a way around. 
Beyond the horizon, a strange peace, myriad threats. 
"The world is so beautiful," the Buddha is reported to have said on his deathbed. 
And perhaps, for an instance, so it was. 
Storms faroff. Fractal geometry everywhere, in the planet's plant life. His own many extinguished lives waiting for an opportune moment. The die cast. History in the making. 
At the same time as they stood on the precipice, they were surrounded by intense beauty. 
So it was they were lifted up. By what humans perceived as the divine. 
He could feel his skeleton hard wired into the surface. 
Above, below, from so far away. 
Laugh if you want, you won't be laughing for much longer.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Slow wage growth and big hikes in the costs of some essential services are putting families under ever more financial strain.

Throw into the mix a new baby and reversion to a single wage and the finances are stretched even more.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last week suggest overall price rises were low during 2017, 1.9 per cent, but there were sharp rises in the prices of essentials such as electricity (which rose by 12.4 per cent over the year), hospital services (5.4 per cent) and secondary education (4.1 per cent).Wage growth over the year was 2 per cent. And from April 1, health insurance costs rise by an average of 3.95 per cent.
According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, as reported by CommSec, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol has risen 10 per cent over the final three months of 2017.
"In fact, ME's latest report shows many households' financial situation is getting worse and again the culprit is living expenses, with 40 per cent reporting this as a key reason their situation is worsening.
"Around 46 per cent of households surveyed also cited the cost of necessities such as fuel, utilities and groceries as their biggest worry," Oughton says.
ME's report finds a high level of stress in paying the mortgage or the rent.
More than 32,000 Australians went bankrupt in 2017 – a 6.1 per cent year-on-year increase, according to an analysis of bankruptcy figure by Illion, the recently renamed Dun & Bradstreet credit reporting agency.
The rise follows a 4.7 per cent year-on-year hike recorded in 2016.
"Consumer debt levels are rising steadily in Australia as a result of record mortgages and a surge in everyday essentials such as utilities, petrol and healthcare," says Illion's chief executive Simon Bligh.
"These factors, combined with weak wage growth, are putting pressure on the wallets of Australians."