Nuclear Spy posted:

Probably hiding some big news like Hockey 'stepping down' as Treasurer, a bit like this front page the day after Rudd announced the federal election.

Kommando posted:

Fruity Gordo posted:

Josh Thomas and Tom Ballard were the most irritating couple to be around ever.

Fruity Gordo posted:

This was back when I was doing comedy at uni, everyone would do preview shows with other writers and performers to test their material and find out what heckling they might get, then the inevitable pub crawls. The scene is pretty small so you end up meeting everyone. The best thing was that Andrew o'keefe and the chaser people would still hang out in the Uni pubs with undergraduates like sad old men grasping at their distant youth.

quote:

Five months after failing to secure government at the South Australian election, the state's Liberal Party is still crying foul.

Labor won 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in March's election, but failed to win key marginal seats.

State Liberal Party president Robert Lawson used its annual general meeting (AGM) in Adelaide to lash out at the result and called Premier Jay Weatherill's minority government "undemocratic and illegitimate".

He said the so-called "fairness provision" in the Electoral Act was a spectacular failure and the Liberals might seek to have it changed.

"There is an argument that section 83 is flawed and that it should be either replaced or supplemented by a top-up system, under which a party which receives 50 per cent plus one is allocated sufficient additional members to enable it to form government," Mr Lawson said.

"Such a change would require legislation to be passed by both houses of Parliament.

"The parliamentary party is developing a policy on this topic."

Mr Lawson said electoral boundaries favoured Labor and disadvantaged the Liberal Party.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott also spoke at the meeting and said the Liberals should have won the state election.

"That's why I'm here, above all else, to remedy that wrong," he said.

He lambasted the state's Labor Party for its ongoing criticism of the federal budget, but he also took the chance to applaud police for their actions at a student protest at the University of Adelaide on Thursday night.

"There were about 400 of my friends inside the lecture theatre and about 500 of my friends outside the lecture theatre," Mr Abbott joked.

"And thanks to the wonderful white horses of the South Australian police, none of my different groups of friends met on that particular night."

Several students were injured after breaching a security fence that had been erected around the lecture theatre, but no arrests were made.

Also at the AGM, Opposition Leader Steven Marshall told of his intent to turn the old Royal Adelaide Hospital into a health tourism precinct when it became vacant in 2016.

Mr Marshall said the old hospital was an asset that should not be wasted.

He said Adelaide's burns unit was world class, along with its craniofacial unit and its work in ophthalmology.

"We've got a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to create a world-class precinct here in South Australia," he said.

Mr Marshall said the site could become the southern hemisphere's equivalent of London's Harley Street, which is noted for its large number of private medical providers and specialists.

The State Government has already announced plans to build a second CBD high school on part of the site in Adelaide's East End, but it has not yet decided how to utilise the rest of the land.

quote:

"There is an argument that section 83 is flawed and that it should be either replaced or supplemented by a top-up system, under which a party which receives 50 per cent plus one is allocated sufficient additional members to enable it to form government," Mr Lawson said.

quote:

The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968.[1] It consisted of rural districts enjoying a 2-to-1 advantage in the state parliament, even though they contained less than half of the population, as well as a change from multiple member to single member electorates, and the number of MPs in the lower house was reduced from 46 to 39.

More equitable boundaries were subsequently put in place: in 1968, 1975, and 1989. More seats were introduced, and seats are required to be proportionate, as well as having a unique fairness clause which directs the Electoral Commission of South Australia to strategically re-draw boundaries in attempts to ensure as much as possible that the party which wins the majority of the two-party preferred vote wins government.

The word Playmander is a portmanteau derived from the name of Premier Sir Thomas Playford and the political term gerrymander, though the system did not originate with Playford (it was introduced under his predecessor Richard Layton Butler) and was not technically a gerrymander (the latter does not imply malapportionment). Playford was its primary beneficiary, however, as his Liberal and Country League (LCL) party was able to stay in power for three decades even while losing several elections in terms of vote numbers

Gough Suppressant posted:

I actually don't understand that article at all.

Labor won 53% of the vote.

Labor formed government.

Liberals want system changed so they are allowed to form government despite not getting enough seats and getting a minority of the 2pp vote

Gough Suppressant posted:

I actually don't understand that article at all.

Labor won 53% of the vote.

Labor formed government.

Liberals want system changed so they are allowed to form government despite not getting enough seats and getting a minority of the 2pp vote

HookShot posted:

I'm glad I'm not the only one that was completely confused by this...

Vladimir Poutine posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-23/sa-liberals-to-seek-reform-of-electoral-act-fairness-provision/5691620
Apparently it's "unfair" that SA Labor won with 53% of the TPP vote.

Vladimir Poutine posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-23/sa-liberals-to-seek-reform-of-electoral-act-fairness-provision/5691620
Apparently it's "unfair" that SA Labor won with 53% of the TPP vote.

Contra Duck posted:

That's a typo, the libs won 53% TPP and that's why they are complaining.

Contra Duck posted:

That's a typo, the libs won 53% TPP and that's why they are complaining.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Okay, that makes a lot more sense. ABC Fact Checker.

They're still a bunch of whining babies who want to benefit from a gerrymandered single electorate system but then complain when things don't go their way.

Anidav posted:

I'm glad I won the most attractive award.

Whoever I gave my email address to for a job proposition, thank you and please don't forget :P

quote:

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has warned that if the government's proposed budget spending cuts are not passed, "the only alternative to balance the books is to increase taxes".

And ahead of Parliament resuming on Tuesday, Education Minister Christopher Pyne has suggested universities could face a "worst case" scenario of funding cuts without sector reforms if the Senate does not pass his proposed higher education reforms.

The comments from both cabinet ministers are designed to step up pressure on Labor, the Greens and the crossbench to back the government's contentious budget savings and come ahead of Monday's cabinet meeting, which will focus on budget strategy.

Senator Cormann told the ABC's Insiders program there was "no rush to deal with specific structural reforms", such as the university funding changes, because many of these changes did not begin until July 2015 or later.

"We have laid out our plan to reduce the unsustainable spending growth trajectory Labor left behind," he said.

"Essentially, if we stay on a spending growth trajectory that takes us to 26.5 per cent of the share of GDP when tax revenue on average over the last 20 years was 22.4 per cent of the GDP and [if] you don't want to balance the books by reducing spending, the only alternative to balance the books is to increase taxes."

In a challenge to the Opposition Leader, Senator Cormann said: "What is Bill Shorten's plan? Is he planning to increase taxes in order to make up for Labor's unsustainable spending growth trajectory?

"Our plan is in the budget. We delivered a budget in May which presents our plan to put the budget back on a believable path back to surplus and we are now working in an orderly and methodical fashion to implement that plan through the Parliament."

In an interview on the Ten Network's Bolt Report, Mr Pyne said months of talks with the Senate crossbench had led him to believe the "momentum is with the reforms" and that "I'm making great progress".

"I know it sounds probably like hype over reality, but I believe the momentum is with the reforms in government with the higher education. I believe most of them will pass."

Mr Pyne said that without reform, Australian universities would "slide into mediocrity" and that "rather than presiding over the slow decline of the manufacturing sector, I'll be presiding over the slow decline of the higher education sector.

"I don't want that to happen."

Mr Pyne said a Fairfax Media report that the federal government will examine slashing billions of dollars worth of research funding from universities if Parliament blocks its changes was "highly speculative" – but then effectively confirmed such a step could be taken as he declined three opportunities to rule it out.

"I don't know where it came from but I think the piece was suggesting that if the Commonwealth grant scheme doesn't cut, doesn't go ahead, the only area the government can reduce spending is in areas like research," he said.

"Well, that's not our plan. Our plan is to see our budget pass."

"The worst-case scenario is cuts without reform. And I think the university sector gets that."

The Education Minister criticised university student protesters – some of whom repeatedly tried and failed to burn an effigy of him last week – arguing the government simply wanted them to pay 50 per cent of their education costs. Students currently pay for 40 per cent of the cost of their course.

"We're hardly asking for the world," Mr Pyne said.

"They really don't have the kinds of problems that they are protesting about that deserve the burning of effigies. We're asking to pay 50 per cent of the cost of their education. We're not asking for their left kidney to be donated," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...l#ixzz3BH2uvDjc

Murodese posted:

Increased taxes? Sounds good.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Captain Pissweak posted:

Holy poo poo that house is on my friend's street.

Captain Pissweak posted:

I have very little choice in the matter.

Anidav posted:

It's only a matter of time before QLD Labor wins the next election with an influx of right wing MPs and goes back to being exactly like NSW