How much on non-existent carparks, offshore immigrant processing and non-existent reef protection?
Edit: kudos for the sheer chutzpah of the Liberal Party campaigning on government waste.
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Youāre one of the most prolific posters in this thread, and you donāt know BFs opinions about Hawke and the Accord etc? He hasnāt exactly been shy about it.
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The discontent seems mainly confined to the Army personnel. Many not happy at the restructuring by the current government and subsequent relocation which was hastily pushed through. They went from having state of the art facilities and great training at their doorstep aswell as quality family housing to being shunted to bases that are poorly resourced with no room to move and infrastructure that will take years to build.
Some even believe that they might end up having to reverse some of those decisions and that the Libs might even make it happen
Defence budget is huge, and a lot of its expenditure is wasteful ( its procurement practices are bad are bad, many decisions have not delivered benefits).
After PM and C, the Secretary of Defence is the highest salaried public servant.
The public servants in the Defence Department have the culture of a military garrison. In policy planning at the PS level and in policy advice to Ministers, other Departments constantly get rolled by Defence.
Paul Barratt, appointed by Howard as Defence Secretary, was sacked by him because he tried to reform the Defence PS warmongering culture into a decent Public Service.
Itās reflected in Penny Wongās public stance on foreign policy issues.
Yes the biggest budgetary expenditure is on health and social welfare. Currently thereās a bump of Boomers , Pensioners without Super, having longer life expectancy ( in part due to a good public health system). NDIS, a policy introduced under the Gillard minority government is also a big spend.
So if cuts were to be based on the relative value of policies and programs to the voter, which ones would you propose?
Never have I ever heard anyone base their vote on what the defence budget is.
Iām sure itās important to Whyalla.
lol. Ever been there?
I have.
How so?
They would have very little interest in defence spending and would be much more concerned with the steelworks
Oh.
Wrong industry.
I know they pretty much only exist because of something.
If voters were asked their opinion on a decision to shut down some local health or aged care services so we can afford AUKUS or some new war toyā¦.
But that wouldnāt happen in Lib or Labor election campaigns as thereās no daylight between them.
Maybe in seats favouring Independents or Greens.
Not sure what your point is hereā¦
For my part Iāve always preferenced Greens first or second to an even minored party, but for mine theyāve completely shat the bed the last four years and will be one place above LNP this time.
Was a fan.
Now am not.
They need to sort their ā ā ā ā out.
Edit: not that anyone agrees with me, looking at recent polls.
Yeah, not much going for them. Absolute toilet of a place
I suspect some defence force members and tragic military nerds do, but yeah, in general I donāt think it moves the needle much for most people.
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Port Augusta, not so far from Whyalla, has an ADF presence.
In fairness, everyone does.
Steel, not military.
Look, it is or was an okay town for what it is. No-ones going there for the ambience and scenery and culture.
Iāve seen worse towns.
Doubtful 
Only a tiny contingent based there permanently and dare you to tell them they work in Port Augusta even though they live in town
Iām up there about 3-4 times per month normally
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The worst town Iāve seen, by a long way, is Roebourne.
Port Hedland is not great, but itās a port town, soā¦
I still feel like other port towns would look at Port Hedland and go woah, hold tf onā¦
(Iād heard of tiled pubs to wash down vomit ā ā ā ā and blood, but Iād never actually seen one, bonus points for bolted down barstools).
Warracknabeal got destroyed by low property prices, FHOGās and ice addicts from Sunshine who knew a good thing when they saw it.
And then Noosa.
For mine.
Whyallaās not even top five.
Rough but not dangerous (but also absolutely f-all reason to be there).
Ooooh.
St Arnaud.
How does that still exist?
Should be a poll.
Top five worst towns.
sydney (cbd and eastern suburbs)
sydney (inner west)
sydney (sutherland shire)
sydney (northern beaches)
sydney (greater western) sydney (hills district)
no particular order
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Manlyās comparatively okay???
Totally with you on the cbd, though.
Itās likeā¦all of Brisbaneā¦