Gough Suppressant posted:

I've been on the mobile app exclusively for a while and just noticed I have a new custom title.

Noted Labor supporter, Gough Suppressant.

edit: it was probably an intern, loving scabs.

webmeister posted:

In my daytime career (as opposed to my shitposting career), I partly do work with one of Australia's biggest loyalty card programs, though not one of the supermarket ones. The amount of data that loyalty card programs generate per customer is absolutely phenomenal. The supermarkets have been doing this sort of stuff for ages, and have brought in people from the UK to beef up their programs - remember that Tesco in the UK is also a bank.

They're already crunching huge amounts of data about you; whether it will be useful to political parties I don't know. You'd certainly be able to predict political leanings based on a very small sample size though!

IronicBeetCriminal posted:

I asked you about it a few pages ago too!

Gough Suppressant posted:

I just assumed you'd been on the piss.

IronicBeetCriminal posted:

That would usually be fair, but I think it was like 9am.

webmeister posted:

They're already crunching huge amounts of data about you; whether it will be useful to political parties I don't know. You'd certainly be able to predict political leanings based on a very small sample size though!

webmeister posted:

In my daytime career (as opposed to my shitposting career), I partly do work with one of Australia's biggest loyalty card programs, though not one of the supermarket ones. The amount of data that loyalty card programs generate per customer is absolutely phenomenal. The supermarkets have been doing this sort of stuff for ages, and have brought in people from the UK to beef up their programs - remember that Tesco in the UK is also a bank.

They're already crunching huge amounts of data about you; whether it will be useful to political parties I don't know. You'd certainly be able to predict political leanings based on a very small sample size though!

ewe2 posted:

Are my sausages lefty or is it the coffee?

quote:

Treasurer Joe Hockey has been urged to reboot his budget and scrap the unpopular $7 GP co-payment, with former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello saying governments have to cut their losses.

Mr Costello said the Coalition should "reboot the whole argument" by bringing forward the next intergenerational report, which highlights long-term pressures on government spending.

It should also dump measures unlikely to pass the Senate, he said.

"Sooner or later you have to cut losses," he told the Ten Network on Sunday.

"The $7 co-payment ... it's just not going to happen, so let's move on."

Mr Costello also rebuked his former colleague for complaining that business had not adequately backed his budget.

"There is no point blaming business ... he's got to get it through, it's his responsibility," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/dump-gp-copayment-peter-costello-tells-joe-hockey-20140810-102i5z.html#ixzz39yqIojby

Tirade posted:

The Greens ran a really solid campaign for the second senate seat in the ACT. Although much of their success was due to Simon Sheik's name recognition and ACT liberal voter distaste for Zed Seselja and how he rolled Humphries, a lot of it was due to the serious IT support the campaign had. As an example, door-knocking volunteers recorded the reception they got at each individual house from 1 to 5 which influenced whether they'd get a follow-up, and tried to tease out what issues they were most concerned about, which fed into what type of mailouts they'd receive later in the campaign. A lot of it was due to the Greens taking notes of Obama's ground game in 2012 which had a similar level of IT-enabled electioneering.

ewe2 posted:

Are my sausages lefty or is it the coffee?

Gough Suppressant posted:

Anyone( edit: in a developed nation) who claims to be a leftist and eats quinoa should be shot

quote:

Whitehouse Awarded Aboriginal Scholarship To Course That Never Ran
By Chris Graham


The saga around the Whitehouse Institute of Design's secret $60,000 scholarship has taken another twist. Chris Graham reports.

The Whitehouse Institute of Design – the private Sydney college at the centre of a growing storm around a secret $60,000 scholarship awarded to the daughter of the Australian Prime Minister – gave away a small Indigenous scholarship for a course that never ran.

The scholarship, worth less than one-tenth of the value of the secret scholarship provided to Frances Abbott, was presented at a gala ceremony held in December last year, to celebrate Whitehouse’s 25th birthday.

Worth $4,400, it was awarded to a young Aboriginal designer from the Northern Territory, for a Certificate III in Design Fundamentals. The award was profiled by industry bible Vogue Australia.

But the scholarship – scheduled to start in January this year – never commenced because the Design Fundamentals course failed to attract sufficient student enrolments.

A Whitehouse insider told New Matilda it was the fifth straight unsuccessful attempt to launch the Vocational Education and Training (VET) course.

The two-day gala event - sponsored by major international brands including Emirates - was attended by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his family, and also hosted some of the heavy weights of the fashion industry.

The scholarship was presented by prominent Aboriginal model, Samantha Harris. There is no assertion from New Matilda that Ms Harris had any knowledge the course was unlikely to run.

In response, Whitehouse has insisted the scholarship was genuine, and claimed the student has recently commenced study at Whitehouse, enrolling in alternative courses to the same value.

However, Whitehouse has ignored repeated questions about why the student only commenced her studies six months after the scholarship should have begun, and why it occurred only after New Matilda began making inquiries about the issue.

Whitehouse officials refused to be interviewed for this story, and declined repeated requests to provide details on when Whitehouse first offered alternative studies to the scholarship winner. Instead a written statement was issued last week through public relations firm Res Republica.

The statement read: “Whitehouse was a sponsor of Australian Indigenous Fashion Week in April 2014.

“The Institute provided its Sydney Campus to many Indigenous fashion designers to use as a studio and their HQ in preparation for Australian Indigenous Fashion Week, and as part of our involvement in this event one scholarship for a new Whitehouse Institute course was awarded to a talented young designer.

“Enrolment for that course was lower than expected so it has yet to commence, however Whitehouse was committed to providing the student concerned with the scholarship support offered to her and she has taken up an equivalent alternative. Her studies are already underway.

“Any suggestion that the scholarship offer was not legitimate or that the young designer concerned has not had the opportunity to avail herself of a scholarship at Whitehouse is unfounded and untrue.”

On further questioning, Whitehouse conceded the student commenced her studies in June, which was after the story about Frances Abbott broke and New Matilda began making inquiries.

But a further statement from Res Publica described as “simply ludicrous” any suggestion the start date of the student’s enrolment was related to any “inquiry from New Matilda”.

A Whitehouse insider told New Matilda that the scholarship was offered in order to help attract “a big name” - such as Samantha Harris - to Whitehouse’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

The insider said the Design Fundamentals course was the second cheapest course offered by Whitehouse, although the college knew there was a strong chance the course would not run, because four previous attempts to start it had failed.

New Matilda unsuccessfully sought comment from the scholarship winner shortly after the details of Frances Abbott’s secret scholarship were publicly revealed in May.

Whitehouse’s 25th anniversary gala celebrations has already been the subject of several New Matilda stories.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott his wife attended the event, and were wined and dined in an exclusive ‘VIP function’ separate from hundreds of attendees.

Two cases of Dom Perignon champagne were provided for the private function, which was limited to around two dozen people.

Whitehouse has strongly denied ever lobbying the Prime Minister about higher education reform, although hundreds of people at the gala event witnessed college owner Leanne Whitehouse complain from the stage to Prime Minister Abbott about the red tape and costs associated with running private colleges.

Ms Whitehouse described her comments to the Prime Minister as “teasing”, and strongly rejected any suggestion Mr Abbott was lobbied at the private function later in the evening.

Ms Whitehouse’s assertions were backed by a statement issued to New Matilda in May by a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, who said he “could not recall” any lobbying efforts by Whitehouse.

The Prime Minister has also strongly refuted any suggestion the scholarship awarded to his daughter was not on the basis of merit, and has refused to update his parliamentary interests’ register on that basis.

Documents and testimony obtained by New Matilda in May revealed the scholarship for a Bachelor of Design was not advertised, was kept secret from other students and even senior staff at the college, and was awarded after Ms Abbott attended a single meeting with the college.

Whitehouse’s website today still reports that scholarships are not available for the Bachelor of Design course.

The Whitehouse story broke after the Abbott Government handed down a federal budget which it described as signaling “the end of the age of entitlement”.

That budget also proposes to increase the fees paid on student loans, and de-regulate the higher education sector, which will see fees for tertiary education courses sky-rocket.

The budget also, for the first time, proposes to provide access for privately owned colleges to $800 million in public funding.

The reforms have yet to be passed through parliament.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Anyone( edit: in a developed nation) who claims to be a leftist and participates in the economy in any way should be shot

Haters Objector posted:

Anyone( edit: in a developed nation) who claims to be a leftist and participates in the economy in any way should be shot

Haters Objector posted:

Splode posted:

Yeah Gough, when are you going to drop the "YOU'RE ALL AS BAD AS THE RULING CLASS" gimmick? It's getting pretty tired.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Anyone( edit: in a developed nation) who claims to be a leftist and eats quinoa should be shot

Tirade posted:

"Atlas Scrubbed" body wash

Tirade posted:

It'd be fascinating to see whether likely political leaning could be teased out from shopping habits. Door-knocking is a really good tool but it's a limited resource and any way to be smarter about where it's employed would be really valuable. So say for example there was an incredibly strong link established such that someone buying a line of organic products is 90% likely to vote Green. Those people no longer get a visit from door-knockers, because their vote is pretty much locked in already. Or alternatively, people who buy "Atlas Scrubbed" body wash who have only a 1% likelihood to vote Green, who can now also be crossed off the list.

Splode posted:

pretty sure using invasive data collection for your own ends is bad, and a better policy would be "We'll push for legislation to ban woolies and coles collecting all this data because it's bad for society to have huge corporations manipulating their customers into doing things they otherwise wouldn't!"

Splode posted:

pretty sure using invasive data collection for your own ends is bad, and a better policy would be "We'll push for legislation to ban woolies and coles collecting all this data because it's bad for society to have huge corporations manipulating their customers into doing things they otherwise wouldn't!"

Endman posted:

Then we'll have to abolish advertising.

Which I am all in support of.

Tirade posted:

The Greens ran a really solid campaign for the second senate seat in the ACT. Although much of their success was due to Simon Sheik's name recognition and ACT liberal voter distaste for Zed Seselja and how he rolled Humphries, a lot of it was due to the serious IT support the campaign had. As an example, door-knocking volunteers recorded the reception they got at each individual house from 1 to 5 which influenced whether they'd get a follow-up, and tried to tease out what issues they were most concerned about, which fed into what type of mailouts they'd receive later in the campaign. A lot of it was due to the Greens taking notes of Obama's ground game in 2012 which had a similar level of IT-enabled electioneering.

It'd be fascinating to see whether likely political leaning could be teased out from shopping habits. Door-knocking is a really good tool but it's a limited resource and any way to be smarter about where it's employed would be really valuable. So say for example there was an incredibly strong link established such that someone buying a line of organic products is 90% likely to vote Green. Those people no longer get a visit from door-knockers, because their vote is pretty much locked in already. Or alternatively, people who buy "Atlas Scrubbed" body wash who have only a 1% likelihood to vote Green, who can now also be crossed off the list.

One of the key things is that with enough feedback loops you can try a bunch of different ideas and get a good feel very quickly whether it's working or not. The libs (and to only a slightly lesser extent the ALP) are going to be at a disadvantage at this, at least for the next few years, because the student politics wallys that increasingly make up their youth wings are good at internal politics and not much else. So they're lacking some of the dynamism that can come from passionate volunteers that have a good sense of what tech can do and a willingness to try a bunch of different poo poo and see what sticks. Instead they're buying it from advertising agencies, who will get there eventually but are lagging because their expertise is mostly tied up in traditional media.

Splode posted:

This would just boost the PR industry and sponsored blogs/newspaper articles. So we'll have to ban the media too I guess!

Splode posted:

pretty sure using invasive data collection for your own ends is bad, and a better policy would be "We'll push for legislation to ban woolies and coles collecting all this data because it's bad for society to have huge corporations manipulating their customers into doing things they otherwise wouldn't!"

Splode posted:

pretty sure using invasive data collection for your own ends is bad, and a better policy would be "We'll push for legislation to ban woolies and coles collecting all this data because it's bad for society to have huge corporations manipulating their customers into doing things they otherwise wouldn't!"

Small Keating posted:

Good poast. I believe (TOML, plz correct if I am wrong) the Greens also make use of Nation Builder (http://nationbuilder.com/), which was a big US Democrats staple.

Serrath posted:

I'll bite; what's wrong with quinoa?

Tokamak posted:

Without going deep into their data collection policies, I always wondered how far supermarket data collection goes. I know that loyalty stuff gets taken, but I always wondered if there was anything stopping them from collecting every transaction. There's plenty of value in (pseudo-)anonymous transaction records. Knowing how people can be easily psychologically manipulated, its odd that the government maintains a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards data collection. If the government collected and used everything they could about a person in the way a retailer does, we'd be up in arms about it.

Splode posted:

pretty sure using invasive data collection for your own ends is bad, and a better policy would be "We'll push for legislation to ban woolies and coles collecting all this data because it's bad for society to have huge corporations manipulating their customers into doing things they otherwise wouldn't!"

Murodese posted:

My PhD is in data mining and I absolutely agree with this statement, even though it'd mean I'd have to find a new job. The amount of poo poo that can be found out about you from what you eat, the TV shows you watch and your browsing history is hilariously terrifying.