SynthOrange posted:

So whats the possible outcomes of Abbott being investigated for leaking documents?

SynthOrange posted:

So whats the possible outcomes of Abbott being investigated for leaking documents?

open24hours posted:

The majority of people will probably be willing to admit that the government did terrible things to asylum seekers too, but there will be a group of people who won't and they won't be swayed by evidence. Look what people say about the Stolen Generation, an internet archive isn't going to change their minds.

A Good Username posted:

INNOVATION MUTHAFUCKAS!!!!

quote:

The company building the national broadband network has quietly trialled a new, low-cost fibre-to-the-premises technology that could achieve the speed and reliability of an all-fibre system to the home, as originally intended by Labor, but at a reduced construction price.
But despite the promising results, NBN Co has so far declined to release them, as the government defends its preferred model, which relies principally on copper phone connections for the final link from the neighbourhood cabinet - or node - to the premises.
The revelation has been described by Labor as an "extraordinary leak", which shows the government is deliberately overstating the costs of the full-fibre option, when it knows it can be done cheaper.

A leaked internal NBN Co document - the second this week - reveals the company has successfully trialled a new "type-3" system or "MT-LFN" or multi-technology local fibre network, which uses cutting-edge, thinner optical fibres combined with flexible joints and other improvements.
The technology advance, which allows the system to bypass the ageing Telstra copper wire network from the node to the home, was tested in two Victorian sites: Ballarat (July 7, 2014 to December 1, 2015) and the south-east Melbourne suburban site of Karingal (July 14, 2014 to December 1 2015).

The results of that double trial are set out in the commericial-in-confidence document, "CTO Briefing: Multi Technology - Local Fibre Network (MT-LFN)".

Its apparent success suggests that, at the same time as some construction costs of the federal government's cut-price fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) model have increased, according to a separate internal NBN Co assessment revealed exclusively by Fairfax Media on Monday, the costs of the alternative fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) option preferred by the previous Labor government, may be coming down.
Although the company expects that FTTN will always be cheaper and faster to roll out as well.
A well placed source in the company said that a reduction in cost-per-connection, as a result of improved technology, had always been expected as the giant project proceeded.

However, the trial suggests the savings could be significant, with a fall in the construction cost per-premises of the new approach from the current price of just over $1200 to around half that at just above $600.0

According to a source, the major savings derive from the vastly reduced "civil" construction works needed to provide the service.
These include no longer using "fibre distribution hubs" the above-ground cabinets servicing 200 to 300 homes each that convert the optical fibre signal from the network for its final connection on the copper phone lines - and radically lowered construction costs at the precinct level.

Under the section of the document marked "Opportunity: High cost of fibre in the local network" the dot-point document lists the problem of the current optical fibre connection as a function of the civil cost and time of current local fibre network comprised of pit and duct upgrading, the need for fibre distribution hubs, as well as issues of siting, installation, and reinstatement.

The opposition's shadow communications minister, Jason Clare, said the trials "showed that Malcolm Turnbull has been lying for months about how much it costs to connect to Labor's superior fibre NBN"
"It proves the only reason that Malcolm Turnbull is not connecting millions more Australians to the real NBN is politics," he said.

But the government rejected that outright. Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield said: "It's outrageous for Labor to suggest the NBN has been misrepresenting the cost of fibre to the premises.

"Any claims this is a secret plan are nonsense. NBN actually announced that it has been trialling a possible solution using fibre to the pit in the footpath at its half-year results presentation earlier this month. The Government has given NBN a mandate to find the fastest and most cost-effective way to complete the network."

A spokesman for NBN Co said time was also an important factor. "The primary objective of the NBN is to finish the build and connect 8 million homes to fast broadband by 2020," he said.

"FTTN is proven to be able to be scaled far faster than any other technology, this was already the case globally where other markets have proven it can see entire suburbs turned on in a month.
"It's a matter of public record that FTTP is part of our technology mix and is the most expensive and the hardest to build, so naturally we would always look at ways to reduce cost and time.
"The fact remains FTTP costs $4419 per premises to build, as reported at our half-year results on 5 February, and is far slower to roll out than FTTN (which costs $2300 per premises to build)."

hooman posted:

His slip when he said "You don't just jack up the GST" instead of "CGT" was very very telling.

Cartoon posted:

If you want to hear Scott "Baby Killer" Morrison sound like a drowning man clutching at straws here's the audio for his ABC faceplant. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/am-with-michael-brissenden/7216112

Halo14 posted:

NBN trials cheaper all-fibre option

Halo14 posted:

MT-LFN

Tokamak posted:

Whatever you do, don't call it FTTP.

Halo14 posted:

NBN trials cheaper all-fibre option

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/3765922/nbn-trials-cheaper-all-fibre-option/

quote:

Channel Nine has denied partnering with a notorious Swedish anti-immigration activist during an ill-fated trip outside Stockholm in which a 60 Minutes crew was allegedly attacked by "masked men".

Meanwhile, Swedish police have reportedly dropped an investigation into the incident.

In a report on Swedish website Avpixlat dated February 29, Jan Sjunnesson claimed he had "guided" 60 Minutes presenter Liz Hayes and three crew members into Rinkeby, a suburb in which nearly 90 per cent of residents are immigrants.

On the way into Rinkeby, the 60 Minutes crew, working on a story about the European refugee crisis, was reportedly hassled and then once they had arrived, a 60 Minutes producer and cameraman were allegedly assaulted by "masked men" who confronted them after police escorts left them unprotected. It is not known why the six officers with the crew decided to leave them alone in Rinkeby.

Sjunnesson's "report" was later picked up by other Swedish outlets. In addition to touting himself as 60 Minutes' guide in that article, Sjunnesson was also offering interviews to Swedish radio with "my 60 [Minutes] team" about what really went on in Rinkeby.

Nine has refuted any suggestion of a partnership with Sjunnesson or Avpixlat, despite yesterday saying they agreed with the website's version of events.

"We categorically deny any suggestion we were in cahoots with this organisation, we merely interviewed them in an effort to get all sides of the story," the spokesman said.

However the spokesman accepted Sjunnesson had used the 60 Minutes team to push his message: "I would have thought if you're a right wing group and you've got Australia's leading current affairs program with you, that you're going to exploit that opportunity no matter how warped your message is.

"They are going to do whatever they can to further their interest."

Fairfax has been contacted by several members of the Swedish press concerned over Sjunnesson's involvement in a story about asylum seekers and immigration.

One reporter for tabloid newspaper Expressen wrote that taking Sjunnesson's guidance "would be like a Swedish crew coming to Australia and using Pauline Hanson as a fixer to cover immigration related issues."

"Avpixlat is not being taking seriously by established media in Sweden, as it is regarded as too extreme," he wrote.

Another reporter for public service broadcast network SVT said Avpixlat "is a far right-wing extremist site which only produces racist articles about refugees with the goal to stop immigration to Sweden completely".

She added that 60 Minutes "will not likely get a neutral and objective side of the story with [Sjunnesson], because his journalism is far from that."

Avpixlat are widely regarded as propaganda website for the opposition Sweden's immigration policies. It has also been linked to the far-right Swedish Democrat party.

Sjunnesson's Twitter feed claims he was with the 60 Minutes crew over two days. He also claimed he and another well-known anti-immigration figure, Tino Sanandaji, would appear in the final 60 Minutes program, which is due to screen in Australia in coming weeks.

Sjunnesson also boasted the 60 Minutes story appeared in international media.

Now Yours Truly is in US media tooBjörn Norström Anders W. Edwardsson
Posted by Jan Sjunnesson on Tuesday, 1 March 2016

On Monday night (Stockholm time) Swedish police had dropped an investigation into the assaults as no complaints had been made.

A spokesman for Stockholm police is quoted in English-language news service The Local as saying: "If someone has been punched please tell them to go to a police station and make a report because we cannot do any investigation based on what is in a paper or on Twitter or Facebook."

Jan Sjunnesson has been approached for comment.

open24hours posted:

Australia's leading current affairs program

Jumpingmanjim posted:

MonoAus posted:

#9ACA #Asian #Tradies #Welfarerort #Scam #Pensioners #miracleweightloss

You Am I posted:

Michael Lawler has stepped down from the Fair Work Commission

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-03/michael-lawler-quits-fair-work-commission/7217860

Jumpingmanjim posted:

asio posted:

Also, Brisgoons who enjoy leaving the house on the weekend: The Tivoli is in danger of being knocked down. Thought I might mention it because there's too much good news in this post already

Lid posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHso1e6NY90

quote:

New MP warns on housing debt

Australians had locked up too much money in an “unproductive housing market” and made homes unaffordable for too many, WA Liberal Andrew Hastie has warned.

The new member for Canning, while attacking Labor’s plan to restrict negative gearing as a prelude to “trauma” in the property market, has used a speech to Parliament to also argue there were serious problems that would hurt future generations.

The Government and ALP are at blows over Labor’s policy which also includes halving the 50 per cent concession on capital gains tax.

Mr Hastie said it was troubling how much debt Australian households held which, at 113 per cent of GDP, was far higher than the US, China, Germany and Canada.

There were substantial economic ramifications by holding so much debt in housing that, at the same time, was pushing up prices to unaffordable levels.

“Australians have locked away far too much capital in an unproductive housing market,” he said.

“Housing prices are unaffordable for many Australians. We have a problem.”

Mr Hastie said there needed to be change.

“How do we unlock that capital so that we can see investment and growth in other areas of the economy?” he said.

“How do we deleverage the housing market without creating trauma like the Labor Party is suggesting with their negative gearing policies?

“Where can we make policy changes that allow for an incremental shift of capital from the housing market to other sectors of the economy?”

It follows concerns within parts of the Liberal Party about the Government’s approach to housing affordability and negative gearing.

Opponents of negative gearing changes have been pressing Mr Turnbull for several weeks to reject any reforms despite the Government’s tax reform process looking at the issue.

This week former leader Tony Abbott argued the Government should differentiate itself from the ALP - which has proposed restricting negative gearing to new homes and halving the 50 per cent of the capital gains tax discount - by opposing any change.

But The West Australian can reveal there are also Liberal MPs concerned about the Government’s seeming support for investors ahead of people trying to buy their own home.

The issue has been brought up on more than one occasion in various Liberal forums by MPs who have been approached by people concerned at the spiralling cost of homes and the impact of negatively geared investors on the property market.

An Essential Media poll this week found the issue of housing affordability was ranked among the top 5 that would affect a person’s vote at a Federal election.

Almost a quarter of people surveyed ranked affordability a key issue, its highest ranking in the poll since it was first conducted in 2010.

There has also been concern about the large number of MPs who have investment properties and who are opposed to negative gearing reform.

“There’s a bit of self-interest in some of those opposing any changes to negative gearing,” one Liberal said.

MC Eating Disorder posted:

Huh, any info why? Haven't heard anything about this at all

A Good Username posted:

INNOVATION MUTHAFUCKAS!!!!

Gorilla Salad posted:

So, can I get my old biochem lecturer arrested the next time she takes a class?

asio posted:

That's the point.

Could be redeveloped as part of its sales terms: https://www.change.org/p/annastacia-palaszczuk-the-queensland-labor-government-put-the-tivoli-theatre-on-the-heritage-list

You're welcome to do the digging on LNP/ALP donors/PDonline/ASIC for list of investors etc to find out what is actually going on, I would but I have enough poo poo to deal with on the good side of the river

MC Eating Disorder posted:

I meant proof that it's actually happening rather than rumours but yeah my Facebook has picked up on this and it's been listed on a commercial real estate website so gently caress

http://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/property/52-costin-street-fortitude-valley-qld-4006-2012618725

Madonna King posted:

For weeks now, I've been looking for a note. It was penned to me, years ago, when I presented the Mornings radio program on ABC. It was kept in my top drawer, then, and every now and again, I'd pull it out and read it.

The exact words escape me but it was short and direct; a complaint about an interview I had conducted.

The complainant believed I had been unfair. Discriminatory perhaps. That I had listened to one side, without reference to the other; that I should be more careful. Ashamed perhaps.

If you make your income presenting a radio show, or appearing on television, or writing a column, you can't afford to be precious.

The abuse is as predicable as my children's lunch boxes. And that's particularly the case when it comes to politics. Those, passionately committed to the Left, see you - almost automatically - as part of a clique supporting the Right. And those on the Right, with the same blinkered judgement, are quick to accuse you of being part of a Leftist lynch mob.

Once, when I admitted on radio that I did not vote or chose to vote informally as a working journalist, the complaints became more abusive. I should be charged with abrogating my responsibilities.

But this note, that I kept close by, didn't accuse me of a political agenda. It didn't sink to using profanities, or reference to my children - a below-the-belt game played too often by those who want to complain.

But it was just as perspicuous. And it didn't threaten legal action, but that's what hung over each word.

It was only a few sentences, which I won't try to reproduce, because I can't find the note, and I can't remember the exact words. But certainly it portrayed an interview I conducted as unfair. I was wrong. I should know better than to air such incorrect information. In fact now, years later, the specific words are not important. It was the tone I remember. I hated it.

It showed no understanding of what the subject of my 15-minute interview was trying to portray. It carried no compassion for the subject, or the person who had me openly crying, on radio. It did not carry a shred of empathy.

The note was all about my failings in conducting the interview.

The person I was interviewing, whose heart had been shredded time and time again, barely rated a mention.

You've read about that person many times: Chrissie Foster, whose two daughters were raped by a priest while in primary school and whose husband Anthony confronted Cardinal George Pell this week outside the hearing at the Hotel Quirinale.

The note will turn up some time. It doesn't matter really if it doesn't, because I'll never forget the signature. George Pell.

quote:

NSW Government claim cannabis stays in system for up to 12 hours questioned by magistrate
By the National Reporting Team's Lorna Knowles

A magistrate has launched a blistering attack on the New South Wales Government's roadside drug testing regime, challenging the accuracy of its claims that cannabis can only be detected in a person's saliva for up to 12 hours.

In a judgement on Monday, Lismore magistrate David Heilpern said he had heard hundreds of cases over the past few months in which drivers said they had waited days, sometimes weeks, after smoking cannabis before driving.

Yet they had still tested positive to cannabis and been charged with the offence of driving with an illicit drug in their blood.

"In the vast majority of cases the time frame has been over 12 hours," Mr Heilpern said.

"On not one occasion has the prosecution cavilled with this contention."

Mr Heilpern said the prosecution had also remained silent when people claimed they had tested positive to cannabis after consuming the drug by passive smoking, eating hemp seeds, rubbing hemp balm or taking medicinal tincture.

"The prosecution have remained silent when people claim that they consumed cannabis weeks prior," he said.

"Not once has any scientific evidence been produced to this court that supports the contention that the final or any other test only works for 12 hours.

"It could be that every single one of those defendants are lying to the police. However, on balance, I find that this is unlikely."

Laws intended to stop drug-affected drivers

Mr Heilpern said when the Road Transport Legislation Bill was introduced in 2006, "Parliament did not intend to stop people from driving or take away their licences three days or six days after they had consumed cannabis".

"It is clear ... ministers had in mind that it would be drugs that were 'active' and 'affect the skills' that were the mischief."

Mr Heilpern made the comments while sentencing two men who had pleaded guilty to two counts each of driving with an illicit drug in their blood.

Riley Vincent Garlick-Kelly, 22, was pulled over twice for random drug testing late last year.

He told the court he smoked cannabis three to four days before testing positive in October 2015 and six days before testing positive in November 2015.

Mr Heilpern found that the offences "were not within the mischief sought to be cured by Parliament" and placed Mr Garlick-Kelly on a two-year good behaviour bond.

Darrell James Squires, a 38-year-old single father, told the court he smoked cannabis every night because he suffered from insomnia and anxiety.

When he was pulled over in May 2015, he returned a negative test result and was allowed to drive away.

He was pulled over again in July 2015 and this time tested positive.

Mr Heilpern accepted that Mr Squires believed his practice of smoking cannabis before bed had led to a negative test.

Both men were given two-year good behaviour bonds, with no convictions recorded.

Man who tested positive nine days after smoking acquitted

It is the second time Mr Heilpern has criticised the mobile drug testing program.

Last month he acquitted a man who tested positive for cannabis he had smoked nine days before he was pulled over.

Joseph Ross Carrall was found not guilty of driving with an illicit drug in his blood because he mistakenly believed he would no longer test positive for the drug.

In his judgement this week, Mr Heilpern noted that since media coverage of his decision in Mr Carroll's case, Transport NSW had added the word "typically" to its advice that "cannabis can be detected in saliva for up to 12 hours after use".

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the judgement was further proof of the Government's "evidence-free" approach to drug policing.

"If they have any evidence to support their claim that cannabis leaves the system after 12 hours, it needs to be presented to the court. They need to put up or shut up," he said.

But the Centre for Road Safety stood by its current advice.

Its executive director Bernard Carlon told the ABC cannabis could be detected at the roadside in oral fluid for up to 12 hours after use "depending on the quantity and the potency consumed".

In a statement, NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay told the ABC: "It is illegal to drive with the presence of illegal drugs in your system — it is that simple — if you are caught drink or drug-driving the law is clear".

He said in 2014, 16 per cent of fatalities involved drink-driving — the same proportion as those that involved drivers with illegal drugs in their system — which is why the Government was tripling drug testing.

"My advice is don't take illegal drugs and if you do, be responsible and conservative with your decision of when it is safe to drive to avoid the consequences of drug-driving charges or worse, harming innocent road users because you are impaired," Minister Gay said.

"Much like there is research and guidelines around how long it takes alcohol to leave your system, if you choose to take drugs, guidelines and advice is available [developed by medical experts and drug detecting manufacturers] for when drugs should be out of your system."