Ian Winthorpe III posted:

It's ridiculous to think that uncontrolled mass migration to the West might ever pose difficult moral or technical challenges to our nations. Maybe he should focus on the actual responsibilities of a Defence Minister and like, I don't know, maybe actually ensure that our troops have the equipment to discern and discuss the climate-change implications of the helicopter rotor transporting them to the restorative justice based beachball dialogue for the manatees of Kiribati.

But who cares about compassionate and humane policies when there are scared bogans around right.

Nickopops posted:

Wearing a wu-tang shirt no less.

tithin posted:

toanoradian posted:

I guess "Uber vs. Taxis" is also a big, sprawling, sickening debate here on this side of SomethingAwful forums, Debate & Discussion: The Problem Attic subforum?

Laserface posted:

Uber got legalised in NSW. its cool and good.

Solemn Sloth posted:

Yes. See also: Bottled water, praxis vs theory, and christmas decorations on public transport

Solemn Sloth posted:

Yes. See also: Bottled water, praxis vs theory, and christmas decorations on public transport

Solemn Sloth posted:

Yes. See also: Bottled water, praxis vs theory, and christmas decorations on public transport


No it didn't.

The Guardian posted:

Nearly 1,500 companies will continue to be exempt from filing reports to the corporate regulator after the Senate voted down a last-minute attempt to remove the historic exemption.

Guardian Australia revealed the full list of 1,498 companies that were – as of 2011 – exempt from filing annual financial reports with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under a deal done by the Keating government in 1995.

Further analysis suggested one in six of the companies that remained registered were either political donors or government contractors.

Crossbench senators raised concern about the exemption, amid an intense political dispute over tax transparency policy and the government’s separate legislation to clamp down on multinational tax avoidance.

A last-ditch attempt by the Australian Motoring Enthusiast party senator, Ricky, Muir to remove the “grandfathering” arrangement failed on Thursday evening, when the Senate voted 36 against and 25 in favour of the amendment.

“The major parties, despite various commitments made over the years, have failed to resolve this issue,” Muir said. “Therefore, it is my intent to try to clear this up today.”

His proposal was blocked by the Coalition and the Greens, which had reached a deal on other transparency measures and argued the change would scuttle the multinational bill’s passage into law.

The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said his party wanted to remove the grandfathering arrangement “but it will destroy this bill tonight, which is delivering an outcome on multinational tax avoidance”.

“We support the principle and we congratulate Senator Muir for raising this issue, but we will not be supporting his amendment tonight,” he said. “We are building momentum towards getting that transparency that we want in place.”

Recoome posted:

why can't i hold a rally to commemorate the cronulla race riots

Tommofork posted:

It's from yesterday but Tom Elliot mansplains everything for the poor young lasses. The image is actually a huge as gently caress mobile phone pic so uh click for big.



Ladies, have you considered earning more to close the pay gap????? The best part was "I was at an International Ladies Week breakfast and instead of listening to experts talk about the challenges women face, I thought, gee, why don't you act like someone with a penis would?"

EXAKT Science posted:

Does Australia have a constitutionally protected right to free speech like we Yanks do?

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

Maybe the idea of 'closing the pay gap' is flawed in that it treats men and women as identical interchangeable economic units rather than two groups whose differing reproductive roles in creating the next generation of society mean that there was always be imbalances between the sexes in many metrics.

EXAKT Science posted:

Haha, do you have a source for this one?

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

An example would obviously be imprisonment rates. I can't imagine that there is any society on earth in which women would exceed men by those measurements and yet somehow that feels intuitively to make sense right? As if despite the variations of culture and economics amongst the world's peoples, this imbalance must originate in something to do with a fundamental difference between men and women that is rooted in our nature. Perhaps these imbalances (often complementary) manifest themselves in many areas of life, to the extent that earning equal wages through selling their labour to the market is a rather arbitrary and ahistorical way of measuring equality and respectful, productive relations between the sexes.

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

An example would obviously be imprisonment rates. I can't imagine that there is any society on earth in which women would exceed men by those measurements and yet somehow that feels intuitively to make sense right? As if despite the variations of culture and economics amongst the world's peoples, this imbalance must originate in something to do with a fundamental difference between men and women that is rooted in our nature. Perhaps these imbalances (often complementary) manifest themselves in many areas of life, to the extent that earning equal wages through selling their labour to the market is a rather arbitrary and ahistorical way of measuring equality and respectful, productive relations between the sexes.

quote:

The Turnbull government is in discussions with large telecommunications companies about selling large chunks of the government-owned National Broadband Network, including its huge hybrid fibre cable, copper and fixed wireless networks.

A combination of the government's dire fiscal position, and criticism of the progress at NBN is fuelling the decision to engage in what would in effect be the biggest privatisation since the Howard government offloaded Telstra.

The talks are at an early stage and the government is not committed yet to a sale. If the sale goes ahead it will not take place until after the next election, expected in October 2016.

Details of the proposal are sketchy, but industry figures believe the government is committed to hiving off large parts of the Labor-created NBN operation during 2017, assuming the Coalition wins the next federal election.

Well-placed trade sources say Telstra is the likely bidder for the bulk of the NBN assets.

Australia's largest telco is in a strong position to extract favourable terms from the government, particularly for the upgraded copper network, which Telstra was obliged to sell to NBN.

However, other, smaller players are also keen to become involved.

Various sale figures are floating around telecommunications circles and depend on how much of NBN is offloaded. Trade sources say there are "two separate conversations going on", one where a much larger part of the NBN network would be sold.

However, the final sale figure is likely to be as low as $20 billion, those same trade sources say, which would effectively mean a massive loss for the government, although longer term ministers expect that such a sale would help the government's fiscal position. In the event the government does not receive adequate bids, it might delay the sale or abandon it.

Meanwhile, NBN has replaced its last Labor-appointed board director, Alison Lansley, with former energy industry executive and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation director Shirley In't Veld.

Fairfax Media revealed in November NBN and the federal government were preparing to replace Ms Lansley, who was one of just two Labor-appointed NBN directors to survive the Coalition's election victory in 2013.

The other director, Dr Kerry Schott, was reappointed but it was understood Ms Lansley would not remain in the position.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann confirmed the move in a joint statement and announced that Ms In't Veld would replace her on the NBN board.

Ms In't Veld was on the board of Western Australia's biggest power generator Verge Energy for five years before leaving in April 2012. She then joined the board of the CSIRO in 2012 and was reappointed for another term in June 2015. She is also a non-executive director of ports provider Asciano.
Heroic effort needed

In November NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski warned it would take a "heroic" effort for the project to be made available to more than 11 million homes before a 2020 deadline, which the government earlier described as "achievable".

Dr Switkowski, who was chief executive of Telstra from 1999 to 2004, said he was pleased with the progress of the NBN rollout under chief executive Bill Morrow but added the acceleration in construction needed in the next five years to ensure all Australians are serviced by the country's largest and most expensive infrastructure project was not without risk.

As NBN enters a critical acceleration phase in its construction, management believes it can meet the 2020 deadline by increasing the size of the project's construction workforce rolling out the network through a mixture of technologies, including fixed-line, wireless and satellite.

However, the government's developing sale plans, which are likely to be hotly opposed by the opposition, have radically changed the outlook for NBN.

with David Ramli

The Arsetralian posted:

Malcolm Turnbull pulls out of $190-a-head Ian Macfarlane event DECEMBER 5, 2015 12:00AM

Recriminations over former industry minister Ian McFarlane’s decision to join the Nationals are deepening. Malcolm Turnbull has pulled out of a $190-a-head fundraiser for Liberal turncoat Ian Macfarlane as recriminations over the former industry minister’s decision to join the Nationals deepen. One senior Liberal yesterday declared there was “white-hot anger’’ towards Mr Macfarlane. The Prime Minister was to be a guest speaker at the dinner in Toowoomba, in Mr Macfarlane’s electorate, tomorrow night, but his office confirmed yesterday that he would not be attending. Mr Macfarlane, dumped as industry minister when Mr Turnbull took power from Tony Abbott, has made it clear that a key part of his switch to the Nationals is due to his desire to return to the frontbench.

North Queensland Liberal MP Ewen Jones confronted Mr ­Macfarlane, telling him the last person who “ratted’’ on the Liberal Party for a job was Peter Slipper, who left the party for the parliamentary speakership. After a stellar career Mr Macfarlane would be remembered for being a rat. “It is a dummy spit, pure and simple,’’ Mr Jones said. Rural Victorian Liberal Dan Tehan accused Mr Macfarlane of “naked ambition” and said it would be bitterly disappointing if he was rewarded with a ministry for trying to “game the system” for self-advancement.

As Liberal MPs denounced Mr Macfarlane and urged their leaders not to reward him with a frontbench job, conservative South Australian Liberal senator Cori Bernardi underlined tensions within the government in a messy end to the year. In a protest over the lack of consultation about changes to the government’s bill cracking down on multinational tax avoidance, Senator Bernardi crossed the floor on Thursday night to vote against amendments agreed to with the Greens. “Our party had a very clear decision, at my initiative, to abandon Labor’s policy of publishing private companies’ tax details,” he said. “With no reference to any of us or the partyroom, the decision was made to reinstate basically a decision that we agreed we didn’t support. It’s a principle issue.”

Bill Shorten seized on Mr Macfarlane’s defection to underline ­divisions in the government. “Watching what’s happened with Ian Macfarlane is the first visible crack in terms of a deeply divided and unhappy government,’’ the Opposition Leader said. Nationals deputy leader Barnaby Joyce pushed for a reshuffle in the ministry. He noted that when Nationals senator Julian McGauran defected to the Liberals in 2006, Nationals minister De-Anne Kelly was almost immediately demoted. “It is a game that is generally ruthlessly governed by the numbers and that also is a discussion between Warren and Malcolm,” Mr Joyce said.

Some Queensland Liberals want to have Mr Macfarlane hauled before the state executive where he could be given the option of recanting or facing the reopening of his preselection. Others believe this is futile. A senior Liberal said the numbers on state executive and in Mr Macfarlane’s electorate of Groom would favour the Nationals and he was expected to win endorsement for the change. One senior Liberal said Mr Macfarlane’s defection had the potential to start a “civil war’’ in the Queensland Liberal National Party. “The Nats are riding roughshod over the essence of the ­merger,” a Liberal source said. “It is an internal coup in which they took back Groom.’’ The Liberals seized Groom from the Nationals in 1988 in the aftermath of divisions over the Joh for PM campaign, which derailed John Howard’s 1987 election bid.

However, the Liberal source said they would probably have to accept Mr Macfarlane’s switch as continuing division in the party would only damage Mr Turnbull’s prime ministership. The organiser of the Groom fundraiser, Jim Curtis, said he had been asked to cancel the function because the Prime Minister could not attend and he would refund the money raised. Mr Turnbull is still expected to visit Toowoomba on Monday morning for a sod-turning on the second Toowoo­mba range crossing. Another Liberal, Scott Buchholz, who was dumped as chief government whip when Mr Turnbull deposed Mr Abbott and holds the rural southeast Queensland seat of Wright, is also weighing up a switch to the Nationals.

Mr Macfarlane’s switch has put Mr Turnbull under pressure to increase the Nationals’ representation in cabinet from three to four. A senior Nationals source said Nationals leader Warren Truss would demand an extra cabinet minister from Mr Turnbull. The Weekend Australian understands the Prime Minister is not of a mind to make an immediate change to cabinet unless there is a trigger. One such trigger could be replacing Special Minister of State Mal Brough, who is under pressure over a federal police investigation but yesterday brushed off any concerns about his future.

BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

Socialisation and profiling adequately explains differences in prison incarceration rates. HTH

In any cases, your hypothesis that women have fewer maladaptive traits leading to imprisonment directly contradicts your assertion that they are worth less in the workforce. Having more perfect socialisation should belie a better worker, not a worse one.

hooman posted:

Now apply your logic to indigenous incarceration rates and

EXAKT Science posted:

Does Australia have a constitutionally protected right to free speech like we Yanks do?

BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

Some clever bugger trolling Shorten this morning.

Recoome posted:

holy poo poo you are such a pseudo-intellectual, it's mind blowing.

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

I'm talking about disparities between the sexes which have an well-proven biological basis. As far as I know there is no similar fundamental disparity in the biological make up of men of various races, but if you would like to illustrate to me the clearly-documented differences in chemical, hormonal and anatomical characteristics between Whites and Aboriginal people then feel free.

freebooter posted:

Nothing in the Constitution but the High Court has ruled that we have an implied right to freedom of speech based on the norms of the countries our constitution is based on, which has always struck me as a hilarious Australian "she'll be right" attitude towards a fundamental human freedom.

http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/4529/do-we-have-the-right-to-freedom-of-speech-in-austr.aspx

Although you'll find most Australians and most people in this thread agree with how things are, in fact a quote I specifically recall from an argument way back is "freedom of speech isn't all it's cracked up to be."

EXAKT Science posted:

Literally loving

freebooter posted:

Nothing in the Constitution but the High Court has ruled that we have an implied right to freedom of speech based on the norms of the countries our constitution is based on, which has always struck me as a hilarious Australian "she'll be right" attitude towards a fundamental human freedom.

http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/4529/do-we-have-the-right-to-freedom-of-speech-in-austr.aspx

Although you'll find most Australians and most people in this thread agree with how things are, in fact a quote I specifically recall from an argument way back is "freedom of speech isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Recoome posted:

excuse me but i am a sex-haver and therefore can be considered a subject matter expert on sex