SynthOrange posted:

xPanda posted:

Am I forgetting something, or is Steve Ciobo's only action of note that he threatened an innocent australian to deportation on live TV?

open24hours posted:

If you buy into the media narrative he's part of the 'new breed' here to revitalise the Liberal party.

quote:

In mid-2013, Ciobo used the ABC's Lateline program in a desperate attempt for national recognition. During a televised debate with Labor backbencher Nick Champion, Ciobo implied that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's throat should be slit.[37]

Ciobo has also called for Captain Cook's landing place at Kurnell in Sydney to be upgraded and promoted as a tourism icon.[38]

Since his appointment Ciobo has abolished both the National Housing Supply Council, saying the Council's activities were "no longer needed";[41][42] and the Australian Valuation Office, saying "a compelling case for the Commonwealth providing its own valuation services no longer exists, particularly given there is a highly competitive market of private sector providers";[43][44] and announced plans to privatise the Royal Australian Mint.[45]

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Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has referred Stuart Robert's China trip to the Australian Federal Police, asking them to launch an investigation into whether the former minister intended to benefit from the visit.

quote:

Stuart Robert’s $1600 bill despite gold mine link THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 16, 2016 12:00AM Hedley Thomas National Chief Correspondent Brisbane

Sacked Turnbull government minister Stuart Robert spent more than $1600 of taxpayers’ money to fly to a north Queensland goldmine in which he had recently bought shares for himself and his family. Department of Finance documents show that Mr Robert made claims on the public purse for return flights from Brisbane to Townsville on April 10, 2013, the day of the visit to the $200 million Mt Carlton mine of gold producer Evolution Mining. His travel allowance claim of $376 is dated April 9, indicating he stayed in Brisbane for a night before flying to Townsville on a scheduled commercial service and then taking a chartered helicopter west to the mine the following morning. Mr Robert charged the public purse a total of $1091 for the flights from Brisbane to Townsville and return to Brisbane, The Australian’s searches revealed yesterday. He chalked up Comcar limousine charges of $205 and claimed a further $376 for a travel allowance in Brisbane prior to inspecting his private ­investment.

The April 10, 2013 visit to the Mt Carlton mine, operated by Evolution Mining in which Mr Robert had bought shares the previous year, took him about 1600km north of his Gold Coast electorate. At the time of the visit he was opposition spokesman for defence, science technology and personnel, with no official role for the opening of the mine. Mr Robert had close ties with one of Evolution Mining’s ­directors at the time, Paul Marks, who had more than six million shares in the company and funnelled large donations to the Liberal and Nationals parties.

Mr Robert was dumped in Malcolm Turnbull’s ministry ­reshuffle over a trip to China in 2014, following revelations of his financial interest in another company, Nimrod ­Resources, which he promoted for Mr Marks. Evolution Mining issued an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange stating that on April 10, 2013, then premier Campbell Newman officially opened the Mt Carlton gold-silver-copper mine and that “many special guests attended”. The statement did not mention Mr Robert, the federal member for Fadden, who did not promote the visit on his Facebook page. The Australian has obtained an official Queensland government itinerary of the visit which shows Mr Robert was on the VIP guest list along with former Queensland Liberal National president Bruce McIver. The running sheet for the event shows that Mr Robert did not have any official speaking part. A spokesman for Mr Robert did not return The Australian’s call yesterday.

The itinerary states: “Other ­attendees: (Queensland Mines) Minister Andrew Cripps MP, Mr Stuart Robert MP, shadow minister for defence, science technology and personnel, Mr Bruce McIver, LNP president.” In another section of the itinerary which lists all the invitees, Mr Robert is featured attending with Mr McIver. Two helicopters were chartered to fly Mr Newman, company executives, Mr Robert, Mr McIver, government advisers and others from Townsville Airport to Mt Carlton for the opening, then returned them to the airport after lunch and speeches. It is understood that Evolution Mining paid for the helicopter flights. Searches of federal parliament’s interests register show Mr Robert declared ownership of Evolution Mining shares on February 6, 2012, for himself and members of his family — “Stuart, Caleb, Isaac and Jacob”. His current register shows he still owns the shares, which closed yesterday at $1.93, compared with $1.30 at the time of his visit to the mine.

Mr Robert has previously declared free flights in Clive Palmer’s aircraft, including a visit to Papua New Guinea, where the tycoon was trying to develop oil and gas interests. Mr McIver as LNP president was on Mr Palmer’s payroll at the same time with directorships of Singapore-registered companies, which were set up as a shipping arm for the failed nickel refinery in Townsville. There is no pecuniary interests register for LNP heads. The federal opposition yesterday called for a police investigation into Mr Robert’s “private” visit to China in 2014, following revelations last week of his financial interest in another company, Nimrod ­Resources, which he promoted for Mr Marks. The opposition is expected to escalate its calls and include the Queensland mine visit in a police probe. Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus wrote to AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin yesterday, stating: “It is clear that Mr Robert sought to benefit Mr Marks, a significant Liberal donor, but the revelation that Mr Robert himself stood to gain financially through his shareholdings in a company related to Nimrod is even more serious. “The Prime Minister has been careful to say only that this created an ‘impression’ that Mr Robert stood to gain personally from his trip. Whether he intended to do so now merits a proper police ­investigation.”

Mr McIver, who was appointed to the board of Australia Post by the Turnbull government three months ago, holds a stake in Nimrod Resources. His stake coincided with donations by Mr Marks of more than $2m to the Liberal and Nationals parties from his companies in 2013-14. Mr Newman refused to answer questions, saying he would check his official diary and travel records. Federal cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg said yesterday Mr Robert had already “paid a very high price” with his dumping as a minister over the China trip.

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Asked by host Tony Jones if there was an “end in sight” for detainees, new trade minister Steven Ciobo said the government “give people options to resettle in a third country”

After interjections by Labor MP Terri Butler, who said the government “had four people go to Cambodia” under that option and that 30 months for detainees was “a disgrace”, Ciobo shot back: “Terri, what’s your position? Do you support offshore detention or not?”

Butler was then asked by an audience member if the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, would “listen to our party” by taking on board a NSW Labor conference motion at the weekend calling for the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to let asylum seekers “in limbo” stay in Australia.

She reconfirmed federal Labor’s position that there were “good, strong arguments that offshore detention is necessary to avoid what is colloquially called a pull factor” drawing asylum seekers by boat to Australia.

Jones then put it to Ciobo and Butler that both Coalition and Labor policies were that “under no circumstances should those people come to Australia”.

Ciobo responded: “It’s the same policy. This is the madness of Labor’s position.”

Butler accused the government of thinking “you’ve got to have people living in poverty and pain when what you should have done is processed them and got them resettled as quickly as possible”.

Ciobo replied: “You’re being a complete hypocrite.”

quote:

Canadian author Mark Steyn, after saying he would “play the token rightwing madman”, upbraided the government for failing to “own the problem” of detention centres or honour its responsibility to deal “expeditiously” with refugee claims.

Steyn said he was “broadly unsympathetic” to what he described as “nonsense” attempts to paint “economic” migrants seeking access to first-world countries as refugees.

“That said, I have problems with what is going on in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, which seems to me, as basically an old-school imperialist, to be colonialism with all the defects and none of the benefits,” he said.

“If you are going to warehouse people in essentially former Australian colonies, I think you have an obligation to process them expeditiously.”

Steyn said the government had “a responsibility to own the problem, so you don’t contract it to a private contractor”.

“The government of Australia – if it’s going to do some deal with the government of Nauru or the government of Papua New Guinea to have some camps there – has a responsibility to run those camps and ensure, for example, there are first-class medical facilities there,” he said.

“There is absolutely no reason why people should be there two-and-a-half years and why they should be there in those conditions … two-and-a-half years under a camp run by private contractors is not an acceptable policy.”

quote:

Lawyers for Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen want members of a parliamentary inquiry and corruption chief Megan Latham to give written guarantees they did not leak controversial transcripts of Australian Crime Commission phone taps involving her to Fairfax Media and other news outlets.

In a letter to committee chairman Damien Tudehope after Fairfax Media revealed the transcript excerpts last week, Ms Cunneen's lawyers "ask that the chair seek written confirmation from Ms Latham and each of the members of the parliamentary committee as to whether either they or any of their staff" leaked the material to journalists.

The letter says Ms Cunneen has instructed them to refer the matter to the commissioners of the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police "for immediate investigation" as to whether the leak breached the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act or the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.

Mr Tudehope said: "The committee does not take directions from [Ms Cunneen's] lawyers."

The committee met on Monday as planned but the only formal decision made was to postpone its next meeting from this Friday to an as yet undecided date.

This was because it has yet to receive legal advice as to its powers to publicly release material gained under the the federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.Excerpts of the secret recording revealed by Fairfax Media capture Ms Cunneen telling a tow truck driver she had sent a message to her son's girlfriend, who had been drinking alcohol, "to start having chest pains" after a 2014 car accident to delay being given a breath test.

It also reveals Ms Cunneen expressed the hope that the delay would mean an ambulance would be called and the woman, Sophia Tilley, would record a blood alcohol reading of zero once tested.

The recording prompted the Independent Commission Against Corruption to launch an investigation into whether Ms Cunneen had tried to pervert the course of justice.

When she tendered the transcript and audio to the committee last Thursday, Ms Latham urged their public release because they serve to "undermine the basis for the adverse findings" in a damning report on ICAC's investigation of Ms Cunneen by its inspector, David Levine.

However, the February 12 letter from Ms Cunneen's lawyers argues this is not a valid reason for their release.

The inquiry is being held after Mr Levine's December report accused ICAC of "unreasonable, unjust, [and] oppressive maladministration" in its pursuit of Ms Cunneen.

It followed the ICAC being forced to abandon its investigation after a successful challenge by Ms Cunneen to the High Court, which found the watchdog had exceeded its jurisdiction.

The NSW Solicitor-General later said no prosecution should be pursued. Ms Cunneen has always denied the allegations.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cunneen-l...l#ixzz40Hr4PE00
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Vladimir Poutine posted:

Some crazy Canadian right-wing guy dropped the economic migrant line but then apparently criticized offshore detention:

open24hours posted:

open24hours posted:

What's more likely to be suppressed, the idea that genocide is good or that genocide is bad?

redweird posted:

Honestly the best way to get to zero road deaths is to imprison anyone who drives a car. We've got to make it so nobody wants to drive cars in order to save lives. Or, if you see someone driving a car, drag that car back to their house and cut the fuel line. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that any death by car is unnacceptable and we must send a strong message.

redweird posted:

Honestly the best way to get to zero road deaths is to imprison anyone who drives a car. We've got to make it so nobody wants to drive cars in order to save lives. Or, if you see someone driving a car, drag that car back to their house and cut the fuel line. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that any death by car is unnacceptable and we must send a strong message.

Solemn Sloth posted:

More people die on the road than they do in the ocean. Maybe we should mull over culling cars instead of sharks?

The Peccadillo posted:

That dude also interjected on the "we need a new stolen genetation" thing with "I don't know anything about indiginous history, but brave ideas like that are why freedom of speech is so important"

That's how blatantly lovely detention policy is

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Steyn’s class is wasted on this hive of scum.

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Steyn was probably not aware that those reffos are rorting the system and hanging out in camps for eternity by using the legal system to prevent us loving them off.

He can’t expected to know about everything here.

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Ciobo accidentally says “In a democracy you gotta limit the choices of the people”
He gets a mild laugh from the crowd, and late on dropped from the ministry for revealing a cabinet secret before the 30-year statute.

ewe2 posted:

Catallaxy Q&A Trip Report:

The catallaxy crowd have an "interruption bingo" to count how many times lefties interrupt rightys to Stop Them Saying Righty Things (the winner had 55). We have a new category of conservative too, there's Conservative and Malcolm Conservative. Ciobo is a Malcolm Conservative. They were very much for Steyn:


but if you think any of his comments gave them pause, think again.


This was a more interesting comment:


Oh there's more jargon: Ciobo is a LINO = Liberal In Name Only. They're really sorting out whats what over there.

I'll spare you all Sinclair Davidson's ridiculous graphs trying to prove that negative gearing is good for low and middle income earners and not "the rich". It's a laugh though. Remember, they're libertarian AND centre-right

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Re: helmet chat

ewe2 posted:

Catallaxy Q&A Trip Report:

The catallaxy crowd have an "interruption bingo" to count how many times lefties interrupt rightys to Stop Them Saying Righty Things (the winner had 55). We have a new category of conservative too, there's Conservative and Malcolm Conservative. Ciobo is a Malcolm Conservative.

MonoAus posted:

Also re: helmest chat, I have a question for cyclists. Once bicycle infrastructure has been built, why do so many cyclists still choose to ride on the street? (Maybe this is a Perth thing only).

quote:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nsw/bob-carr-calls-for-australian-immigration-to-be-cut-by-onethird-20160216-gmv37n.html
Former NSW Premier and Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has called for Australia to consider reducing its immigration intake by up to one-half before growing population density on the eastern coast changes the Australian style of living.

"I think the Australian people, if asked, would want immigration slowed," Mr Carr said at a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday. "We've got a third-world style population growth rate.

"If you bring 100,000 people into the Sydney basin every year, the price of housing goes up [...] people wonder why their youngsters can't get houses in the big cities... the answer is we are going for breakneck population growth."
Bob Carr has spoken in Sydney today.

Australia's population was officially declared to have hit 24 million people shortly after midnight on Tuesday, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

About 190,000 people will be admitted to the country under Australia's managed migration program this financial year, according to federal government statistics. About 70,000 were admitted in 1999-2000.

Mr Carr said Australia had the highest rate of population growth of any developed country and that the growth was undermining policies by governments to make housing more affordable and to improve infrastructure. "It's always never enough".

"By the middle years of this century we're going to have a huge concentration of the available land," he said. "We can go the way of other cities so that the basic unit of housing is a unit in a high-rise tower, but I would rather think a lot of Australians would believe we've lost something of ourselves.

"There comes a point … at 50, million, 60 million, 70 million before the end of the century where we have to start thinking again."

Mr Carr said new immigration would invariably be "crammed" on a "narrow coastal strip" in Australia's east, despite the fact the country is among the least densely populated on Earth.

"There's a case for pegging immigration back by easily one-third, perhaps even 50 per cent," Mr Carr said.

He said reducing overall immigration was compatible with federal Labor's plans to increase Australia's refugee intake.

Mr Carr said Australia's economy should focus on export-led growth and stop relying on an expansion in its domestic market.

Australia's "net migration", which subtracts the number of people leaving the country each year, has dropped from a 2008 peak of about 300,000 to about 200,000 in 2014. It remains at its highest level as a proportion of the country's total population since about 1965, according to statistics from the federal Treasury.

MonoAus posted:

Also re: helmest chat, I have a question for cyclists. Once bicycle infrastructure has been built, why do so many cyclists still choose to ride on the street? (Maybe this is a Perth thing only).

MonoAus posted:

Also re: helmest chat, I have a question for cyclists. Once bicycle infrastructure has been built, why do so many cyclists still choose to ride on the street? (Maybe this is a Perth thing only).

open24hours posted:

Because the bicycle infrastructure isn't very good? Canberra has an excellent network of bike paths for recreational cycling, but they're much too circuitous if you're riding for transport.

MonoAus posted:

I only ask because I often see cyclists on the road riding parallel to purpose built bike paths. Not really an attack, was just wondering why.

MonoAus posted:

I only ask because I often see cyclists on the road riding parallel to purpose built bike paths. Not really an attack, was just wondering why.

open24hours posted:

Because the bicycle infrastructure isn't very good? Canberra has an excellent network of bike paths for recreational cycling, but they're much too circuitous if you're riding for transport.