The Daily Lifeweb design and personal blog by Evan Skuthorpe

Man… you’d think the BBC would be able to write a decent news report. This little piece about a surf life saving rescue on the Gold Coast is just bad. I mean come on, BBC!

Firstly, the image… what is that an image of? It’s certainly not the Gold Coast. It looks more like someone has done a search for Queensland on Shutterstock and the tropical north is what came back as search result one. And secondly, the last paragraph “waters off Queensland were described as dangerous“. Waters off Queensland huh? What, all of it? They were all dangerous were they? Queensland’s coastline stretches for over 7400km and the Gold Coast’s coastline for roughly 80km… So I’m gonna make an informed guess that the waters off Northcliff were different to those near Currumbin and that those were different to the waters off Main Beach and they were all different to the waters off Noosa and that they were all different to the waters of Mackay and so on.

When it comes to reporting on Australia, the BBC knows about as much as a dog knows about Rum.

So last Friday night I read on the BBC that Kevin 07 has decided to open the recently completed but never used detention centre on Christmas Island. The one that he said he’d shut after coming to power. The one that was built by the previous Howard government for the purpose of housing illegal migrants attempting to reach Australia. The one that was part of the wider plan by said previous government to prevent and deter people smugglers from attempting to bring illegal migrants to the Australian mainland. The plan that worked. The one that the ALP said they would do away with if they came to power.

Well, the ALP came to power and honoured their pledge. Now it seems, that KRudd has realised that his parties pledge might have been a bit of a mistake…. At the time of writing, 7 boat loads of illegal migrants from Middle Eastern countries have since been intercepted by the Royal Australian Navy in the last 3 months. So since KRudd 007 and his ALP union mates got their hands back on the reins and implemented their crucial ellection winning policies, in the face of reality, they’re now reversing their election promises just over a year into their first term.

Can I ask again… why did the Australian electorate vote Howard out and Rudd in? A case of long term memory problems or the ignorance of a new voting generation perhaps.

In Nick Bryant’s follow up article to his previous ‘Australia’s rising role in the world’, my post has been deemed worthy of a mention by the journalist himself. How exciting.

An article on the BBC web site of interest to me and possibly to you caught my eye enough for me to respond to it. It’s all about Australia’s position in the world and whether it has the potential to be a rising ‘power’.

Below is my post to the article.

As an Aussie living in London, it’s nice to hear these things from a foreigners perspective, although most of Nick Bryant’s points I’m already aware of.

I’d like to add that Australia, in general, is a very underrated country and under the radar type country. In many ways it’s far in advance of the UK in respects to lifestyle, culture (by that I mean way of life and general atmosphere, rather than history and historical importance, as the UK beats all hands down), government policy and the countries continued growth (or at least under Howard). Not to mention our vast natural resources.

In the early years of the country’s existence, Australia thrived on wool and raw materials and these days raw materials and international business. In the future our natural resources will probably continue to be the biggest part and backbone of our future growth. Once oil runs out and if/when the world goes nuclear, Australia will literally be the world’s powerhouse with coal and uranium reserves/exports being in the number one and two positions.

Not to mention the biggest mining companies in the world are Australian, Rio Tinto and BHP.

If you know your history you’ll be aware of Australia’s prominent role in winning WW1 and highly successful role in WW2. It’s a fact that the Germans in WW1 and Japanese in WW2 and the Vietnamese in the Vietnam conflict all stated that the opponents they most feared to fight were Australians. It’s a fact that Australia accounted for 9% of the Entente powers during WW1 yet took over 23% of captures, a massive and disproportionate contribution to victory. It’s also a fact that the AIF soldiers and commanders were responsible for the allied victories of 1917-18 leading to the capture and breaking of the Hindenburg Line and it’s also a fact that Ludendorff and the German high command stated that the victories led and planned by Australian, General Sir John Monash (the first commander to be knighted in the field of battle in over 200 years) and won by the all volunteer AIF (no other country could boast this) on, after and before the 8th August broke the German army leading to their retreat and eventual surrender causing Ludendorff to call it the “Black Day of the German army in the history of the war”. And it’s also a fact the Australians were the first to defeat the Germans and Japanese on land in WW2. Not even Britain, the US or Russia can boast this.

Yes I’m going on a bit but my point is that Australia has always been and no doubt will continue to be an under-valued and under-rated ‘world power’. Or at least in popular culture and common knowledge – but not at least in the history books. As a nation, we’ve always been a huge player in world events but hadn’t necessarily been a major player in creating those world events, that credit goes to the big boys of world powers.

So in summing up, all I can say is Advance Australia Fair!!