Murodese posted:

If you watch the Chasers' original series, he comes up pretty often.

Murodese posted:

If you watch the Chasers' original series, he comes up pretty often.

WebDog posted:

Oh I miss the days when we could openly approach our PM with a running chainsaw.

You Am I posted:

Loving the defeat in the Senate for the Liberals. I wonder what poo poo the Murdoch papers will come out with tomorrow?

"Evil Clive hurts poor widdle Abbott, how dare he!"

adamantium|wang posted:

quote:

Tony Abbott’s karma moment
Laura Tingle Political editor


It is not so much Palmer as karma. Tony Abbott’s biggest test now is not whether he can get the repeal of the carbon tax through Parliament but which road he chooses in dealing with a wild Senate over the next two years.

In opposition, the Prime Minister repeatedly said “there would not be deals done with independent and minor parties under any political movement I lead”. He helped generate a sense of chaos around the Gillard government because of its reliance on minor party and independent votes.

On Thursday in the Senate, Clive Palmer showed he is going to play Abbott just as hard as the Prime Minister once played Labor.

The immediate impact of that may be an onerous penalty regime being written into the carbon laws which will horrify business.

Palmer is not the first anarchist to cause a government Senate chaos.

But such chaos ultimately reflects on the government, not the anarchist.

Voters and business look to the government to deliver its mandate and, dare one say, grown-up government. So the question for the Prime Minister is about a lot more than rhetoric.

Not working

The all or nothing Abbott modus operandi is simply not going to work any more.

Whatever Palmer’s unpredictability, the Coalition team has been exposed as woefully unprepared to deal with what it faces in the upper house.

This is true in both a tactical and strategic sense. Tony Abbott has to reconsider whether his Senate team is up to the job of handling Palmer.

On Wednesday, the Coalition moved to gag debate on the carbon tax, only to be defeated because it had not properly canvassed the cross bench to ensure it would win the vote.

Then on Thursday, there was the extraordinary sight of government ministers filibustering during a second gag motion – after Palmer threw a firecracker into proceedings by claiming he had been double- crossed by the Coalition over amendments – as they scrambled desperately to sort the mess.

Just who said what to who in the negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday is hotly disputed but it almost does not matter.

It is not clear the government double-crossed Palmer.

For its part, the government suggests Palmer was offered a tweaked amendment that would have solved the dispute and chose not to take the solution.

The end result though is a likely Palmer amendment that places onerous reporting requirements on all businesses and stiff penalties for some in return for his party’s support for the repeal of the carbon price.

Those who said the Coalition got all it wanted from Palmer for little cost may have spoken too quickly.

Onerous penalty clauses and reporting requirements pose obvious problems for the Coalition.

And it highlights the strategic point wiser Coalition heads are making behind the scenes: that the Prime Minister has to start thinking about 80 per cent or 90 per cent outcomes, not 100 per cent wins.

Having invested so much in all or nothing outcomes, this will involve no small change in the way he runs his government.

Shadeoses posted:

It's weird, I can't really remember much of Abbott when Howard was PM. I guess he wasn't as prominent then, so nobody really knew how weird he was.

You Am I posted:

I remember the early days of Crikey always bringing him up as "The Mad Monk" with some of the poo poo Abbott used to pull as a junior minister. It is both sad and pathetic that he has become the leader of the Liberals, let alone Prime Minister. Thankfully he is starting to taste some of his own "attack dog" medicine, as it is hard to be too negative as a Prime Minister (although he has done his best so far)

freebooter posted:

My favourite part of this is how they decided to include the original Miley Cyrus wrecking ball image in the article, alongside their photoshopped Palmer wrecking ball, in case you didn't get their awesome topical reference.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...2-1226984936860

quote:

Detainee in self-harm bid sent back to Christmas Island against medical advice
Iranian woman, 24, had been receiving psychiatric care in Perth before jumping from a roof at the detention centre at the weekend

Oliver Laughland
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 July 2014 18.16 AEST



A 24-year-old detainee understood to have jumped from a height on Christmas Island had recently been transferred back to the island against medical advice, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The Iranian woman, who was in the family camp on the island, had been receiving psychiatric care in Perth before jumping at the weekend, in what may have been a suicide attempt.

A senior Christmas Island source with knowledge of the transfer told Guardian Australia the woman had been admitted to Graylands psychiatric hospital in Perth due to serious psychiatric illness. “She was considered seriously unwell,” the source said.

The source said the woman was there just a few days before being transferred to detention in Perth and then being sent back to Christmas Island. She was deemed "fit to fly", but the medical advice was that she not be sent to the island.

About two days later, the jumping incident is understood to have occurred.

The woman, who is not a mother but is part of a family group, apparently jumped from a roof in detention on Christmas Island on Sunday evening and has subsequently been discharged from hospital following minor injuries.

Victoria Martin-Iversen, a refugee advocate in Perth, said the woman had been transferred to Perth in early June and when discharged from psychiatric care had been detained at Yongah Hill detention centre.

Martin-Iversen said she had met the woman in late June when she told her she had been “seeing demons”. She was sent back to Christmas Island days later.

In a rare statement, the president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said he was "extremely concerned, but not surprised" to hear reports of women harming themselves on Christmas Island.

“The college is extremely concerned that people are finding themselves in such a desperate situation that they are considering such measures as attempting suicide.

“Some of our members have seen first-hand the condition they live in on Christmas Island and have observed anxiety, depression, self-harm and intention to commit suicide in detained children and adults.

“Any sustained period of detention has the potential to be harmful to their mental health.”

The revelations come as the Christmas Island shire president, Gordon Thomson, said the number of asylum seekers under observation on Christmas Island had risen to 14. On Tuesday nine women were understood to be on suicide watch.

Thomson told AAP that Serco, the security company managing the detention centre, had run out of female guards to monitor those on watch and were flying in 55 extra personnel.

"Serious conflict will arise and eruptions have started because a male guard is supervising a woman nursing a baby and breastfeeding," Thomson said on Thursday.

On Wednesday the Australian Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, said she was aware of seven women who had attempted suicide, threatened suicide or self harmed on Christmas Island over the past two days, prompting a meeting in the immigration department to deal with the issue.

Guardian Australia has also revealed a confidential report written by Serco in February that warned that self harm amongst asylum seekers – particularly those on Christmas Island – had surged as a result of government policy.

“There has been an increase in self harm, particularly on Christmas Island where the detainee cohort is most heavily impacted by new policies,” the report warned. It continued: “as time in detention continues to increase, it is likely that a corresponding increase will be experienced more broadly across the IDN [immigration detention network]”

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, described the episodes of self harm on Christmas Island as attempts to hold the government over a moral barrel”, comments that have drawn widespread criticism.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has been contacted for comment.

• If you are in distress and would like assistance, please call Lifeline 13 11 14; BeyondBlue 1300 224 636; or Mensline 1300 789 978 for support and information.

quote:

Detainee in self-harm bid sent back to Christmas Island against medical advice
Iranian woman, 24, had been receiving psychiatric care in Perth before jumping from a roof at the detention centre at the weekend

Oliver Laughland
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 July 2014 18.16 AEST

A 24-year-old detainee understood to have jumped from a height on Christmas Island had recently been transferred back to the island against medical advice, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Hypation posted:

The level of misogyny required to come to an alternative understanding should be too high for Australians to tolerate.

adamantium|wang posted:

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has been contacted for comment.

Bifauxnen posted:

Hahahahaha.

Wait, this is D&D, I need some actual content.

Hypation posted:

Well don't post in AusPol then.

Hypation posted:

I was going to post the requirements to get a 200 subclass and related visas from:
https://www.immi.gov.au but someone took the website down.

I was then going to copy bits of stuff from here: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Appendix-VI-Persecution-of-Womens-Rights-Activists.pdf
and make the conclusion that if you are from Iran and if you are also a women then you meet the eligibility requirements for a 200 subclass visa (or at least my what I consider reasonable interpretation of them). The level of misogyny required to come to an alternative understanding should be too high for Australians to tolerate.

And in doing so I would also have compared today's policies and the Scott Morrison die in this camp video to the old Cold War Era film of white people (does that make all the difference? likely not because many of those supporting refugee policies are not white) making it through the land mines, machine guns, attack dogs, spot lights, sentries and barbed wire to get to the Berlin Wall and cross it, and the speeches from Ronnie Regan and JFK from in front of the Wall hailing those actions as the definition of freedom (as well as all the evidence you need for demonstrating that Capitalism is better than Communism); to say if the cold war was running today the guns and mines and other poo poo would possibly be on the other side of the fence.

But someone took the Dept Immigration's website down so gently caress it. Too much


But wait: The new tagline for a more open border policy: "Christianity ... better than loving Islam because you don't see the xxxxxxxxxxxs trying to get into Iran. You actually didn't think I would called them that do you?

El Scotch posted:

Australia leads the World in Palmers. I wish Canada had a Palmer.

Cartoon posted:

Presented without comment:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/advocates-coaching-asylumseekers-to-selfharm-for-political-reasons/story-fn9hm1gu-1226985002855?utm posted:

A FORMER director of offshore processing in Australia’s immigration detention camps claims asylum-seekers are coached and encouraged to attempt self-harm by refugee advocates who then use the incidents as political capital.

Greg Lake made his strident ­attack on “certain refugee advocates” whose behaviour “is at odds with their mandate as advocates” as the Refugee Action Coalition backed down from claims in a press release on Monday that up to “10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island”.

TG-Chrono posted:

Ugh, I have a friend from a past job who was a cool dude but now he's posting 'JEWS NEWS' and 'SUPPORT ARE IDF' poo poo posts all over his facebook and I just wanna show him dead kids like if someone is throwing rocks at my house is burning their house to theground the right way to go and gently caress this planet basically.

SynthOrange posted:

"If you want to come into the kennel with the PUPs, be prepared to be chewed up and spat back out," Senator Lambie said.

SynthOrange posted:

"If you want to come into the kennel with the PUPs, be prepared to be chewed up and spat back out," Senator Lambie said.

Palmersaurus posted:

Wait, was this a facebook status or did she actually say that out loud?

Those On My Left posted:

While I am absolutely delighted to see Tony's legislative program severely disrupted, the real truth of this whole situation is that Clive was a loving idiot for trying to make this amendment in the Senate without speaking to the Clerk of the Senate. What Clive wanted to do in the Senate was unconstitutional, but by the time he tried to progress that plan the Bill was already out of the lower house (and, I think, introduced in the Senate). This was a blunder by Palmer United, no doubt about it.

The Libs should've found a different way to handle the whole situation - maybe they could've had it withdrawn with Palmer's support and amended in the lower house before being reintroduced in the Senate - but ultimately the Bill didn't sink yesterday because the Libs hosed Palmer around. The Bill sank because Palmer has no idea what the gently caress he's doing.

e: All of this makes the PUP "don't stuff us around, Abbott" bravado seem really loving stupid.

Those On My Left posted:

Truth