EvilElmo posted:

Oh hey its "I lost a vote so now Ill cook my membership".

UrbanLabyrinth posted:

My memory of it was more "Hey, Young Labor turned out to be creepy and cultish, and also it turns out they don't stand for the same things I do."

Birdstrike posted:

friendlyjordies'

Birdstrike posted:

unfunny

UrbanLabyrinth posted:

Young Labor turned out to be creepy and cultish

MysticalMachineGun posted:

redundant

quote:

The challenge of terrorism
93. The growing presence of terrorism in the international arena and here within our borders pose serious and complex security challenges.

94. Labor will support an integrated, comprehensive regional strategy including cooperation with and capacity building for local security forces. To be effective, a strategy against terrorism must promote justice, the rule of law, genuine peace and inclusive development, and confront those factors that make it easier for terrorist organisations to recruit within the region. Australia’s military and security assistance should promote these objectives. Labor will support greater economic, employment and educational opportunities available to young people across the region.

95. Australia needs a properly integrated national security policy, continually reviewed and adapted as required to meet changing security threats. Labor will enhance our national security by:
x Appointing a National Security Adviser;
x Creating a strategic policy framework for national security;
x Operating a National Intelligence and Coordination Committee;
x Improving Australia’s national crisis management arrangements; and
x Preparing new Defence White Papers at intervals of no greater than five years.

96. Labor will ensure our defence forces, security agencies, police and emergency services are always appropriately resourced and given the necessary powers to respond to the security challenges we face as a nation. Labor will work closely with our neighbours, international allies and international institutions to meet the security challenges posed by terrorism.

97. Labor will always work responsibly and constructively to improve our national security laws and to ensure our security agencies and police have the powers they need to meet the changing national security threats we face as a nation. Labor will ensure the powers we confer on our security agencies and police to fight terrorism and other threats to our national security are consistent with the long-standing values and hard-won liberties that help to define Australia as a democratic nation that upholds the freedoms and the privacy of its citizens. Recognising the importance of transparency and accountability measures to safeguard freedoms and privacy, Labor will support the oversight role of entities including:
x The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor;
x The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security;
x The Commonwealth Ombudsman; and
x The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

98. Labor refuses to manipulate fear, sectarianism or racism for political gain or to compromise the democratic values we are fighting to defend. Australia needs national unity and cohesion to respond to the threat of terrorism. Australia’s counter-terrorism laws and other measures should not divide the Australian community or marginalise any part of it. Australia needs a national approach including engagement with local communities and partnership between Australian
governments to address domestic terrorism.

99. The global nature and reach of various terrorist organisations means Australia will increasingly rely on global intelligence exchange—as well as support—for an expanding range of UN and multilateral measures to combat terrorist financing and outlaw terrorist organisations.

100. Labor will ensure Australia’s cyber security arrangements are able to meet the challenges presented by the electronic environment, which is presenting additional opportunity and vulnerabilities for individuals, business and government, with sophisticated attacks coming from criminal groups and foreign governments.

101. Labor will work with industry to ensure there are sufficient measures in place to reduce the risk of chemicals of security concern.

Cartoon posted:

WE ARE SO VERY VERY hosed

Cartoon posted:

Cartoon posted:

WE ARE SO VERY VERY hosed

Jumpingmanjim posted:

I'm the T-34

Cartoon posted:

Anyway I interrupt our fascination with Counter Terrorism policy to bring you:





WE ARE SO VERY VERY hosed

Anidav posted:

lmao so the ALP, facing an election defeat shrugs its shoulders and figures it might as well go down with a fight then suddenly springs to life as they slap Turnbull with a policy and notice he is bleeding massive amounts of political capital and public face.

Amoeba102 posted:

What's current defense spending?

And it's only going to be used to deal with boat people.

quote:

'The police are bowing': Cunneen phone taps shed light on crime commission decision February 26, 2016 - 12:15AM Kate McClymont and Sean Nicholls

New details of secret phone taps involving Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, have shed fresh light on why the Australian Crime Commission sent them to the NSW corruption watchdog for investigation instead of the police.

The recordings show that police attending a car accident involving Ms Cunneen's son's girlfriend, Sophia Tilley – that sparked a corruption investigation – were said to be "bowing" to the prosecutor when she arrived at the scene. On the night of the ill-fated car accident, the crime commission was monitoring the phone of tow truck driver Ben de Jonk, who had responded to a call about an accident near the Bridgeview Hotel in Willoughby. Mr de Jonk phoned his friend smash repairer George Kharadjian to excitedly inform him that the car of "the Commissioner" was involved in the accident. He was referring to Mr Kharadjian's drinking buddy Ms Cunneen. "The police are bowing," said Mr de Jonk. "Coppers are looking at me like 'How do you know this person?' " he told his friend.

Fairfax Media understands that the crime commission decided to bypass the NSW police because of Ms Cunneen's wide-ranging professional associations and friendships with many of the state's top brass due to her role prosecuting some of the state's most serious offenders. There was also the fact that she was close friends with gambling identity Steve Fletcher, who allegedly used a string of serving NSW police officers to hide his gambling activities. There is no suggestion Ms Cunneen knew anything of these activities. In November 2014, the Police Integrity Commission referred evidence to prosecutors to consider whether there was enough evidence to criminally charge Mr Fletcher for fraud over his use of the identities of a string of NSW police officers to open betting accounts. The accounts were used to hide Mr Fletcher's betting activities after he was banned by internet betting agencies. Criminal charges were also recommended against former homicide detective Tony "Soup" Williams, who is understood to have met Mr Fletcher through Ms Cunneen.

Fairfax Media has previously revealed that while a detective Mr Williams, Mr Fletcher and Ms Cunneen's son, Steve Wyllie, travelled to Las Vegas together to celebrate Mr Wyllie's 21st birthday. The crime commission will be asked to front a parliamentary inquiry on March 14 to explain why it sent the phone taps to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation instead of police.

ICAC began investigating allegations that Ms Cunneen advised Ms Tilley, who had consumed alcohol, to fake chest pains to delay a blood alcohol test. But it was forced to abandon its investigation after the High Court ruled it was beyond the agency's jurisdiction. The NSW Solicitor-General later advised no prosecution should be launched. The phone tap material was tabled in response to a report highly critical of ICAC's pursuit of Ms Cunneen by its inspector David Levine. Fairfax Media has previously revealed excerpts of two conversations caught on tape by the crime commission showing Ms Cunneen told Mr de Jonk she had sent a message to Ms Tilley to "start having chest pains" to avoid a breath test at the scene of the accident. Ms Tilley, a P-plate driver, was not allowed to drive with any alcohol in her system. In the second intercepted call, Ms Cunneen told Mr de Jonk that the "chest pains" had "bought her a few more hours". Ms Tilley returned a zero blood alcohol reading when eventually tested at the hospital.

quote:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-25/seasonal-farm-workers-receiving-as-little-as-$9-a-week/7196844
Seasonal farm workers receiving less than $10 a week after deductions, investigation reveals
A group of Pacific islanders are being paid less than $10 a week after deductions to pick fruit and vegetables on Australian farms by a company that sponsored their visas under a federally-run worker program.

The workers came to Australia in January as part of the Department of Employment's Seasonal Worker Program.

The group of 20 from Fiji, and others from Tonga, were taken to the caravan park in Merrigum, in the food bowl district of northern Victoria.

Most of the workers are taken by bus every morning to nearby tomato and apple farms.

They are here on 416 visas after signing contracts with AFS Contracting Pty Ltd, based in Shepparton.

Isikeli Fifita, one of the workers from Tonga, said after deductions — which included super, rent, health insurance, tax and transport — his total net pay was $9.96 for one week.

"I feel sad because there's no money to send to my family in Tonga," Mr Fifita said.

Petero Kanawabu said he expected long hours and hard work when he signed on to come to Australia under the program.

But said he, and many others in his group from Fiji, had been shocked by their payslips.

"I thought that we would come here and do a job, maybe save some money," Mr Kanawabu said.

"Even my mum cried when I told her my first payslip. I don't know what to do now."

Workers thought they would earn hundreds a week

The Fijian workers signed the agreements back home, through the Government-run National Employment Centre.

The contracts prominently mention workers can expect to earn an average of $657 per week paid on the hourly wage.

Alternatively, the contract states an average worker can expect to earn a minimum of $595 per week if they work on the so-called piece rate, paid by the number of bins they fill with pieces of produce.

"Back home in Fiji, most of the people, even the National Employment Centre themselves, they were not sure of what was in the contract," said Merewairita Sovasiga, a worker who has emerged as a group leader.

She said the Fijians were never allowed to choose which rate they wanted to work under.

After the first week of work on the piece rate, Ms Sovasiga was shocked at her low pay.

Her payslip shows total pay of $295.80 for the week. That is before deductions for super, accommodation, daily transport to the farm and back, health insurance, and tax.

After those deductions, her net pay for that week was $58.80.
Three workers paying $120 a week each for a caravan

The Fijians were particularly upset by how much they were being charged for rent: $120 each per week.

Some, like Sia Davis, were wedged three to a basic caravan.

"There's actually like three people here, and we're paying $120," she said.

"It's small, and it's not comfortable."

Most of the seasonal workers came to Australia with the intention of sending money home to their families.

But for Vasiti Savunicava, from Fiji, things are so bad her husband has had to send her money to buy food, and pay back an advance of $150 she received to buy basics when she arrived.

"My hope, when I came here, was to earn much to send money back to my family," she said.

"Instead of that, they sending money for me. So they're looking after me again."
Ombudsman investigating complaints

Fed up with the pay and conditions, the Fijians contacted both the Seasonal Workers Program in the Department of Employment, and the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman's office told 7.30 it was investigating the workers' complaint.

The owner of their employer, AFS Contracting, is Shepparton businessman Tony Yamankol.

After inspections by the Department of Employment and Fair Work Ombudsman the week of February 8, Mr Yamonkol visited workers at the Merrigum caravan park.

The workers said he singled out five so-called ringleaders. They recorded him telling them that they should leave on their own accord, or they would never work in Australia again.

"You want to go back on your own will, or you want to get terminated?" he is heard saying.

"If I terminate you will not come back into Australia with any other employer with this program."

Mr Yamankol declined 7.30's request for an interview to address the workers' complaints and also declined to respond to a series of questions submitted to him by email.

Ms Sovasiga has now left the caravan park.

She is staying over an hour away with Fijian-Australian Sakiuasa Lesuma, the founder of a Facebook forum which has become a key source of information for Pacific Islanders looking to pick produce in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Lesuma is warning the forum's 45,000 members about potential pitfalls in the Seasonal Worker Program, starting with the fact that under their visas, seasonal workers are bound to the contractor that sponsors them.

"If you tell them to and go work for somebody else, in order to get some money they can send home, the contracts say they can't do it," he said.

"When I think about it, it's pure exploitation. It's not right. Not right."
Government will not tolerate 'exploitation' of seasonal workers

About 4,000 Pacific Islanders a year come to do seasonal work on Australians farms, and the Government is expanding the program.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash told 7.30 the "Government would not tolerate the exploitation of vulnerable foreign workers".

The National Farmers Federation (NFF) said it was very aware of the damage these stories can do to the Seasonal Worker Program's reputation.

"It's very hard to find workers in the first place," said NFF general manager Sarah McKinnon.

"When you have concerns about how people are being treated on Australian farms circulating in the media and social media, that makes it even harder for all the good hardworking farmers to find the workers they need."

The Fijians said last week Mr Yamankol asked them to sign a separate piece work agreement — something the Australian Workers Union said he should have done in the first place.

Of the 20 Fijians who arrived on Seasonal Workers visas in January, 13 refused to sign and have now left the caravan park and quit working for AFS.

Some are staying with Fijian-Australians; others have relocated to another less expensive accommodation.

They have three months left on their seasonal worker visas.

For most, that seems like long time.

"For me, I wish I was back home," Sia Davis said.

"I wouldn't have come. I didn't think it would be like this."

Cartoon posted:

open24hours posted:

Talk about unpredictable.

Amethyst posted:

It's pretty crazy how easy it seems to get away with insane worker abuse.

Firetrick posted:

A lot of it comes down to those deductions. My flatmate was investigating fruit picking last year as part of extending her working holiday visa, which is the kind of person they often target. Everything was massively overpriced because people would do 3 months work to satisfy the extension requirement, even if it meant zero savings. They massively overestimate your ability to pick baskets of fruit too so the earnings estimate is usually way too high.

$120/week for a third of a caravan is insane, the daily bus ride 5 mins to the farm with be something like $20 a day too. This is how the agency makes its cut. You basically have no option to live anywhere else nearby and would need your own car to get to/from the farm.

Doing it to people who willing sacrifice their time for a visa extension is bad enough, but to trick a bunch of foreign workers specifically for the program just plain cruel.

quote:

Job snobs: Aussie dole bludgers too lazy to pick up $250 a day picking fruit January 14, 2015 8:39am EXCLUSIVE Andrew Carswell and Peter Michael The Daily Telegraph

Across the state’s Riverina, the food bowl of NSW, the need for unskilled workers continues undiminished.

YOUNG, jobless Aussies are lazy and unwilling to break their welfare dependence, ­according to leading wine producers and citrus growers who are becoming ever more reliant on backpackers to stay in operation. Despite an urgent need for unskilled workers, regional Australia is struggling to ­attract young people from the city despite youth unemployment in Western Sydney peaking at 17 per cent, forcing growers in the nation’s food bowls to look overseas. Wine growers in the Hunter Valley who still rely heavily on fruit pickers, claim there has been no interest from ­unemployed youth in Sydney to earn easy cash — up to $250 a day — picking grapes, as the region prepares for today’s official start of the 2015 harvest.

So it is backpackers or bust, with several operators claiming without the injection of foreign workers, many wine producers in the Hunter Valley would cease to exist. The Hunter Valley vineyards are a great place to make some money.
‘‘We would probably be stuffed without them. The problem is, our unemployed don’t have to work, it’s too easy for them, plus a lot of them come with baggage; real problems,’’ winemaker and former chairman of the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association’s viticulture committee Ken Bray said. ‘‘They are too reliant on welfare and don’t want to go where the jobs are.’’ While most of Drayton Wines grapes are picked by a mechanical harvester, manager John Drayton said the winery still uses backpackers to pick from older vines. He, like Andrew Pengilly from Tyrrells Wines, rarely gets ­interest from locals or those struggling to find work two hours away in Sydney.

Wine growers in the Hunter Valley who still rely heavily on fruit pickers, claim there has been no interest from ­unemployed youth in Sydney ‘‘Should unemployed youth be coming up here to pick? Well, I’m a bit old school. Yes of course. A lot of people are saying that up here,’’ Mr Drayton said. ‘‘But that is the feeling about the whole society. People are ­unwilling to work.” Across the state’s Riverina, the food bowl of NSW, the need for unskilled workers continues undiminished, despite it qualifying for the Howard government initiative to give foreigners an ­extension to their working visa if they work three months in rural Australia. While the need for workers grows, the appeal for ­unemployed city residents appears non-existent. ‘‘There are definitely a lot of opportunities in rural Australia, but it seems people think the change would be too stressful. We don’t have fast food joints open 24 hours a day, or big shopping centres,’’ Griffith orange grower Vito Mancini said.

Redbelly Citrus director Vito Mancini urges people to try frutipicking out and see what it’s like. ‘‘Just come out for a month, try it out. Don’t say there is no work about, because there is plenty.’’ Fellow Griffith farmer David Dissegna said: ‘‘The unemployed don’t want to do this kind of work. We would be in dire straits without foreign workers.’’ Fruit growers are not the only business owners lobbying the government to relax 417 visa restrictions, ahead of the tabling of the Northern Australia Development whitepaper next month. In regional Queensland backpackers are keeping towns afloat. ‘‘We’ll give a job to anyone who’ll pull on a pair of work boots and have a go,’’ McKinley roadhouse owner Aidan Day, 65, said. The number of working holiday visas has grown by a third since 2008 and visas for 18-to-30-year-olds are being fast-tracked to 48 hours.

BACKPACKERS UP FOR HARD WORK IN OZ Ben McClellan

IN Germany Denny Spaeth sits ­behind a desk working in a car manufacturing plant, but in ­Australia he is a man of the land, driving a forklift and heaving ­pumpkins out of the ground. Mr Spaeth and girlfriend Jennifer Herde, a kindergarten teacher, are among the flood of European backpackers who earn travelling money working as fruitpickers. They are not afraid of a hard day’s work. The couple arrived in Australia in August and worked for two months in Ayr, near Townsville, picking pumpkins, watermelons and squash. Mr Spaeth was able to earn $23 an hour driving a forklift. The couple will spend the next month pricking grapes in the ­Hunter Valley. Mr Spaeth said they had loved their time Down Under and working on farms was hard but satisfying work. “It’s life experience. You learn a lot about yourself and it would not be bad for young people,” he said.

Cartoon posted:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/job-snobs-aussie-dole-bludgers-too-lazy-to-pick-up-250-a-day-picking-fruit/news-story/


Job Slavery snobs

PaletteSwappedNinja posted:

Forgive my tardiness on this topic but where does this thread stand RE: chaining Paul Sheehan to a railway sleeper and dropping him into a dam