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Some ways to help make Australia a great nation – Jobs

Here are some of my thoughts on how to make Australia a great nation, starting with some job roles. Show how much we really appreciate some of society’s more important professions:

  1. Nurses. Nurses cop it every which way and are the front-line for an ailing health system. They’re over-worked, under-appreciated (in every way) and are often left  to support sick & grieving patients and relatives. A lot of what they do is not in their job description. It’s about time we recognise just how much ‘extra’ nurses provide. Here’s an example of  Nurses on the brink. It’s not just the pay – fix the working conditions, make the career attractive, support the nurses by ensuring they’re not the dumping point for everything that’s wrong with the health system, hire more of them, stop nurses leaving the profession (or, find out why they are leaving and what can be done to help stop or reverse the trend).
  2. Teachers. Teachers are another profession where they’re in the front line and often don’t get the respect they deserve as the educators of our future generations (case in point, recent article on school teachers being bullied). Sure, there are some bad teachers who should be weeded out, but the majority are there to make a difference and provide a fertile learning environment for the future generations. Unfortunately many are doing it tough with antiquated materials, resources or curriculum. I applaud the Rudd Government’s proposal to modernise Primary schools as a step in the right direction, but we need more.
  3. Politicians. I urge you to have a long, hard look at your situation – Check out your salaries + all your perks and prove your worth to the people of Australia. Do you really need an extra $5000 a year to print useless guff on pieces of paper that will mostly end up as junk mail? And if you don’t happen to spend it all, it can become part of your income. Wow, what a back-door way to give yourselves a pay rise! The rest of the world is getting by with the mantra “getting more for less”, and so should you. How about we take back $5000 each and say ‘do more with less’. If you want more money, I’ll ask 2 questions of you:
    1. What would you sacrifice to fund the change (Health? Education? The Arts? There is an opportunity cost associated with you getting more money – what will that cost be?
    2. What extra value (to the people of Australia) will this provide?

This is just a simple view on how we should be tackling some of the important things in our society and not just giving handouts…

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