gay picnic defence posted:

Pretty impressive by the Russians

Comstar posted:

If the FSB didn't have a tape, they will be sure to create such a tape shortly.

If the CIA dosn't have such a tape, they are telling Trump that they can create such a tape if needed. Don't touch their budget or power or there WILL be consequences.

adamantium|wang posted:

He's written a letter to the Queen instead.

G-Spot Run posted:

Not iinet/internode/any sub company of them as they're being tanked by TPG management. You'd actually get better service direct from TPG, which isn't saying much.
Aussiebroadband.com.au have done me well if they're in your area.

Sparticle posted:

If you are lucky enough to have FTTP

starkebn posted:

So with the expenses scandal still in full swing how long until some more Security theatre? Or will it be something else this time?

starkebn posted:

So with the expenses scandal still in full swing how long until some more Security theatre? Or will it be something else this time?

Mr Chips posted:

Or the expenses scandal is the diversion

Mr Chips posted:

what happened with that christmas eve thing in Melb?

norp posted:

There was an article already about a mega portfolio for counter terrorism but it didn't get traction with the expenses stuff starting to drag in other Libs.

norp posted:

There was an article already about a mega portfolio for counter terrorism but it didn't get traction with the expenses stuff starting to drag in other Libs.

Comstar posted:

If the FSB didn't have a tape, they will be sure to create such a tape shortly.

If the CIA dosn't have such a tape, they are telling Trump that they can create such a tape if needed. Don't touch their budget or power or there WILL be consequences.

gay picnic defence posted:

We're going to see a video of Trump pissing all over a bunch of Russian Ivanka lookalikes sometime in the next 4 years aren't we?

Krazyface posted:

I've had a decent experience with Exetel. The speed is nothing special, but it's enough for me and they don't dick you around. Their tech support line tells you where you are in the queue and how long it ought to take to get through, and is fairly accurate about it too. Can't overstate how nice that is.

gay picnic defence posted:

Who is the best internet provider these days? Looking for someone cheap but fast enough to watch youtube without hassles. No idea how much data I would go through

quote:

Police should collect and publish crime statistics based on race
(a bunch of garbage)

James Newbury is the Liberal candidate for Brighton.

quote:

Race/ethnicity/country of origin has less to do with crime than the environment and the disorganised communities of alleged criminals.

quote:

Migrants generally have lower levels of education and a very low rate of participation in higher education, which limits their life chances.
• Migrants generally concentrate around poorer and disadvantaged city neighbourhoods.
• Migrants’ unemployment rate is significantly higher than that of the native-born.
• There is evidence of some bias against minority groups in their contacts with the criminal justice system.

quote:

While well-liked within the party, Ms Ley is not factionally aligned to either of the Liberal Party's moderate or conservative wings, meaning she does not have a strong internal support base. She has described herself as something of a "free spirit" in the party.

Another Liberal MP said: "Her position is completely untenable.

"Most people [in the Coalition] agree she has gone way over the line on so many occasions – it's indefensible.

"She could conceivably do her penance for a year or two as a backbencher and then come back but I don't think she'd want to do that."

The lack of strong public support for Ms Ley from her ministerial colleagues – with the exception of Education Minister Simon Birmingham – has been noted by her colleagues.

The MP said there was no "great degree of goodwill" towards Ms Ley in the party.

"She's seen as a good minister but not a superstar so she's not integral to the government's agenda."

quote:

Two Greens parliamentarians have publicly defied their federal leader, Richard Di Natale, on the existence of factions and whether the Left Renewal faction, which aims to replace capitalism, has a place in the party.

In an opinion piece for Guardian Australia, the federal senator Lee Rhiannon and the New South Wales upper house politician David Shoebridge argue that the Greens’ founding principles “don’t endorse or condemn capitalism” and therefore differences of opinion must be tolerated within the party.

In a reference to Di Natale’s class and former occupation the pair say the party has room for a range of people from “forest defenders to middle-class doctors and student activists” because it is “a broad and accepting social movement that has always celebrated its diversity”.

The piece responds to growing tension after the emergence in December of the Left Renewal faction, whose manifesto states it will “fight to bring about the end of capitalism” which it describes as “a violent and antagonistic relation between workers and those who exploit them”.

Di Natale hit back at the group, telling them to consider finding a new political home. He said the Greens do not support the overthrow of capitalism, describing it as a ridiculous idea.

But Rhiannon, who is the federal democracy spokeswoman, and Shoebridge, who holds various portfolios including justice and industrial relations, suggest no such universality of opinion exists.

The pair said that, given the diversity of opinion in the Greens, “it is pretty hard to understand all the anger being expressed by some at the establishment of a small self-organising group within the Greens that calls itself Left Renewal”.

Shoebridge told Guardian Australia he didnt think this amounted to contradicting Di Natale because he was correct that “the overwhelming majority don’t support the overthrow of capitalism”, but added: “Our principles allow for members to have a different view”.

Rhiannon and Shoebridge say: “Left Renewal has every right to exist in the Greens along with less obvious, but no less real, rightwing groupings in the party.”

The statement is a further repudiation of Di Natale, who said he would never support a formal factional system and also said the Greens have “never had factions”.

The pair said it was “perfectly natural” for like-minded people in a party to coalesce into groups to achieve common goals and a “healthy political party” would combine these groupings with an ability to “build bridges internally”.

Shoebridge said groupings in the Greens “wouldn’t satisfy the definition of a faction in the Liberal or Labor party” but “being ignorant or wishing it wasn’t the case” that like-minded members coalesced around common goals “isn’t going to help build those bridges”.

He has publicly argued the “No Nastiness” grouping set up by a staff member of his fellow NSW Greens parliamentarian Jeremy Buckingham, who is considered more rightwing than the so-called “Eastern bloc” MPs in the state, could be considered a faction.

Candidates backed by Buckingham have met with success in contests for NSW upper house vacancies, with his pick Justin Field being chosen as the successor for John Kaye, and Dawn Walker defeating Kelly Marks, the pick of the more leftwing grouping, for another position.

Shoebridge addressed calls from the former party leader Christine Milne for him to repudiate an office-holder who suggested forming an anti-establishment left populist party. He said it was “not the role” of MPs to condemn members’ views but a person “can’t hold” an office-holder position and advocate competition.

n their piece, Rhiannon and Shoebridge reiterate that they are not members of Left Renewal because it “steps beyond what either of us believes both economically and politically”. “In their blanket opposition to capitalism and their denunciation of state power Left Renewal go much further than most Greens members are comfortable with.”

Rhiannon and Shoebridge adopt a more balanced view of capitalism, crediting it with “an extraordinary capacity to organise resources and innovate”. “Whether it is delivering the iPhone or Facebook, cornflakes or solar panels, there is an energy and creativity in capitalism that anyone can see and we support.

“However capitalism has also put our planet in danger, as the conditions for life are degraded by an economy in which fossil fuels, profit and the market reign supreme.”

They conclude by calling on the Greens to “challenge and change the status quo”, including by taxing the rich, retaining public ownership of the national broadband network and ending a range of subsidies to corporations.

“In short we need to come together as a society and say that people are more than customers and our natural world is more than a collection of exploitable resources. We need transformative change. Passing laws and changing government programs cannot alone deliver the level of change that is needed.”

quote:

Left Renewal: since when has taxing the rich and saving the planet been so controversial?

We are not members of the Greens faction but it’s hard to understand the anger expressed at people who believe capitalism is a problem

David Shoebridge and Lee Rhiannon

Thursday 12 January 2017 06.21 AEDT

If you believe that unrestrained capitalism is the solution to our planet’s environmental and social challenges, or that democracy is enhanced by two major parties bickering about personality and management style, then you are currently well served by the Liberal, National and Labor parties and might choose not to read on. If you think there might be better ways to make the planet more sustainable, just, peaceful and democratic, then there is certainly a place for you in the Greens.

The Greens party was founded on four broad principles of ecological sustainability, social justice, participatory democracy, and peace and nonviolence. Over the past 20 years those principles have guided the party in campaigns as diverse as ending the logging of native forests, defending and participating in local government, tackling climate change, opposing war and promoting more progressive policies on public education, industrial relations, taxation and welfare.

However the principles don’t answer every political issue by themselves. They don’t tell us the best way to reduce carbon emissions, they don’t endorse or condemn capitalism, they don’t say if we should have an inheritance tax and they don’t tell us how to end animal cruelty. These are all issues where there is room for debate within the Greens. From forest defenders to middle-class doctors and student activists, the Greens party is a broad and accepting social movement that has always celebrated its diversity.

This is why it is pretty hard to understand all the anger being expressed at the establishment of a small, self-organising group within the Greens that calls itself Left Renewal.

Left Renewal members believe that capitalism is a major problem and express a belief in socialism and collective enterprise. They don’t much like the state and want grassroots collective decision-making and reduced police powers. In its blanket opposition to capitalism and denunciation of state power, Left Renewal goes much further than most Greens members are comfortable with.

Just to be clear, neither of us are members of Left Renewal. Having read the group’s opposition to top-down decision-making, it probably wouldn’t have us if we tried. The group certainly steps beyond what either of us believes both economically and politically. However, what it is putting forward is one of many views that is consistent with the Greens’ four principles and is a legitimate contribution to political debate in the party.

Left Renewal has every right to exist in the Greens along with less obvious, but no less real, rightwing groupings in the party. It is perfectly natural for like-minded people in a party to coalesce and seek to achieve common goals. It’s equally natural for people to seek to build bridges internally and adopt more moderate or conciliatory positions. A healthy political party will have all these elements and be able to contribute to broader debates about how society should work.

Before the mid 1980s and the political ascendancy of neoliberalism in Australia’s state and federal parliaments, this country had a much more moderate economic position. It was common political ground that Australia should have a mixed economy with distinct roles for the private market as well as for public ownership and public enterprise. We had publicly owned banks which delivered profits back to government, public ports and railways that stitched our cities, towns and regions together, and a public health and education system that delivered for everyone to world-class standards.

We still have elements of this but they survive on borrowed time in the face of unrelenting political attacks from both the Coalition and Labor. As members of the Greens, we are happy to place a stake in the ground and say we will always support public before private education and public health over private hospitals. However if we are going to make the place fairer and more sustainable we need to support public and social enterprise more broadly.

Of course capitalism has an extraordinary capacity to organise resources and innovate. Whether it is delivering the iPhone or Facebook, cornflakes or solar panels, there is an energy and creativity in capitalism that anyone can see and we support. But capitalism has also put our planet in danger, as the conditions for life are degraded by an economy in which fossil fuels, profit and the market reign supreme.

Markets can’t price a species and they don’t know the value of compassion. They don’t respect the fact that we have a finite planet with finite resources. Markets only respect customers with money, not citizens with rights or a planet in need.

That’s why it is well and truly time to openly reject neoliberalism and the major parties’ uncritical acceptance of market-based solutions to literally every challenge we face.

Let’s remember how in the 1950s Australia led the world with the publicly owned Snowy Hydro scheme for renewable energy. We are a lot richer now than we were then so there is no question that we can build the 21st century public solar and windfarms we need to end our reliance on coal.

t’s time the public stopped subsidising corporations to destroy our native forests and that we redirected the billions of tax dollars from private educators to public schools and Tafe. We can discuss how to future-proof fair internet access by retaining the NBN in public hands. Perhaps we can remember how to tax the rich while we are about it?

In short, we need to come together as a society and say that people are more than customers and our natural world is more than a collection of exploitable resources. We need transformative change. Parliamentarians and elites passing laws and changing government programs cannot alone deliver the level of change that is needed. As always positive change will come about only when grassroots movements have sufficient momentum to drive that change.

If this makes our current leaders uncomfortable then that’s hardly a surprise. It’s about challenging and changing the status quo and that, surely, is what the Greens are here for.

adamantium|wang posted:

Rod's team has written to the ABC, too:

Konomex posted:

Rod's going to keep claiming he's totally a senator years from now, wondering the streets of Canberra demanding people listen to him.

Synthbuttrange posted:

Anidav posted:

So is RDN the good guy or the bad guy here?

Anidav posted:

So is RDN the good guy or the bad guy here?

Gorilla Salad posted:

If the Left Renewal are so determined to wipe out capitalism they should join up with the far right wing of the LNP.

Totalitarian autocracy all the way.

Gorilla Salad posted:

If the Left Renewal are so determined to wipe out capitalism they should join up with the far right wing of the LNP.

Totalitarian autocracy all the way.