I'd really like us to.

Discuss.

Why so?

We get no bang for our multi million dollar UN buck. The real question is, why stay?

I just don't see what we're gaining from our membership.

Aren't we on that council for the next couple of years or whatever so we get to feel all special about ourselves?

This contention seems like a poor attempt at trolling.

OP makes potentially controversial post, has no contention to back it up.

Carbon Tax $$ going to some UN fund, Gillard is linked to all this UN crap. We paid millions for the Secretary Council seat.

Edited by wamackie: 15/6/2013 01:51:24 PM

Hey, we're in illustrious company - Luxembourg, Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Guatemala....

Precisely. A complete waste of time and money. Not trolling in the least, I really don't see why we have to be part of this wasteful self-serving monolith of an organisation that has turned about as toothless as the original League of Nations.

Pollies will never vote on it because the UN gives them the opportunity of a massive junket every so often.

But we definitely get nothing for our massive annual subscription fees.

No but we can ignore all their shitty conventions etc and not sign onto retarded conventions in the first place. Also we can fucking ignore the UN and international law in general in court decisions here; unfortunately it's becoming increasingly common to look to international rulings when making verdicts in assorted areas. what a joke

Agreed.

But what's stopping us from actually leaving if we wanted to leave?

OK, let's do this differently: What are the benefits to us in being member of the UN? And what do we stand to lose if we were to exit?

Anyone?

Agenda 21

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21

[youtube]uv7r1AVtDk0[/youtube]

Well that's another great reason to quit. Agenda 21 scares the crap out of me.

:lol:

I know right.

This is were the line gets crossed and they start calling you a conspiracy theorist.

I've lately been moving a bit towards libertarian ideas and just feel we don't need some massive political body determining our domestic and international policy. The UN is nothing but other people's agendas that we have to follow.

I say we get out.

Oh yeah I cringed when I heard we were joining.

I think we are living extremely interesting times no matter what... :lol:

International relations and politics has, throughout history, always been conducted in the context of international anarchy; where the world is comprised of individual,self interested states primarily focused on their own survival with no world governing body to police each state. When states interests have clashed or when certain states became more powerful than others the common course of action was warfare. States would of course often form alliances to ensure their own security and to counterbalance an increasingly powerful state, We saw the problems with this clearly in world war 1, where the complex web of alliances built up in Europe to counterbalance other alliances and the growing power and aggression of Germany inevitably ended in a really terrible war.

Whilst the United Nations does not change the anarchic nature of global politics,it facilitates a global 'collective security' by converging the security interests of states, so that any aggressor is resisted by a unified collection of nations, through sanctions or no-fly zones thus allowing states to solve their security problems cooperatively and not necessarily through warfare. Additionally it provides a forum to resolve disputes (trade disputes ect), promotes human rights and social development and engages in peacekeeping operations.

All of this contributes to increasing interconnectedness and cooperation. Thus we have seen a huge decline in the intensity and frequency of conflict; with conflict between states now basically extinct and a huge drop in the global poverty rate and improvements to developing states mainly due to the UN Development program and suboordinate bodies.

There really is no logical reason to leave the UN. It cant prevent all conflicts though it provides an indispensable framework for cooperation through which Australia's interests are increasingly served.

I really cant understand what we get out of leaving

nothing is stopping us, but if we left that'd be retarded, and we'd look like retards. the UN actually does some good stuff believe it or not, and can be a useful organisation on the odd occasion. also we played an important role in setting parts of it up (Stanley Bruce was the godfather of the Food and Agriculture Organization, and was also set to be the very first UN Secretary General but at 62 he felt himself too old for it)

No doubt we'd look, in your words, "retarded", to the rest of the world if we left unilaterally. The question is, what would we lose if we did and what would we gain if we did? Yes the UN does some good things too but nothing is stopping us from donating to what we consider worthwhile causes - in the same way that I don't need to join a church organisation to do good things or donate to good causes.

I just don't see the benefit to us of being part of it.

I think people automatically assume that we have to be part of the UN because we have been for 60 years. But there is no reason we have to be.

Edited by thupercoach: 8/7/2013 09:37:18 AM

I like you. Well said.

Removing the country from the UN would simply lead to more power being given to the corporations that control our media and major industries, and the people who own/control them.