JBP posted:

Yeah that is also the joke.

I went looking at apartments across the road from where I live and there were very few single units sold, but entire floors were blacked out. The answer as to why this was from the agent "Chinese investors bought these floors when the building was announced". They only bought in the cheaper bottom 10 floors.

So yeah, happily dumping $30m+ on apartments to jam oversead students into at highly inflated prices.

Tokamak posted:

That is a nice, strong and stable looking Cabinet.

Don Dongington posted:

Makes you wonder how all the universities are running out of money

Oh wait

quote:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/26/wayne-swan-says-labor-must-boost-workers-power-and-rein-in-corporate-excess
Labor must increase the bargaining power of Australian workers, make the tax system more progressive and erode the largesse and political clout of the wealthy elite, former treasurer Wayne Swan says.

Swan will use a major speech to the ACTU on Monday to float what he is characterising as the four pillars of Laborism: reducing the unemployment rate to 3% or less; rewriting industrial law to boost the power of workers; taming corporate excess – from tackling market concentration and the closed culture of corporate boards to inflated executive pay; and making the tax system more progressive.

Monday’s intervention follows a trip last week to the United States, where Swan met the Democratic presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders, the progressive caucus, the Centre for American Progress and members of the International Monetary Fund – and it follows a series of public appeals in recent months for Labor to adopt a more muscular economic platform in the lead-up to the next election.

The former treasurer will tell the ACTU on Monday the world stands on the brink of the fourth industrial revolution, with technological change driving increased automation, at a time of “record underemployment”.

Swan says as a consequence of these inexorable trends, governments will need to accept that the ideal size of the public sector in the 21st century is likely to be larger than it was in the 20th century.

He says Labor will also have to look at both workplace law and changes beyond the industrial framework to ensure that the voices of workers are dealt in to major public and private institutions.

“Restoring the bargaining power of workers isn’t just something we can declare in policy platforms,” Swan will say. “It should also be spelled out in the rules and institutions that govern us.

“It’s no coincidence that both union membership and workers’ share of income are at their lowest levels in at least 60 years.

“Now everyone from the Reserve Bank governor to Scott Morrison, to the head of the Business Council, are pleading for a wage rise to simply materialise – as if the only thing that historically marginalised and underemployed workers have been lacking is the gumption to ask their bosses for higher wages.

“Of course, what is needed is a fundamental rewriting of the rules that underpin this structural trend.”

The ACTU has been pushing federal Labor to campaign on workplace relations reform at the next election as an antidote to stagnant wages growth and, in May, the shadow workplace minister, Brendan O’Connor, signalled Labor would propose changes to the legislation that stopped employers terminating enterprise agreements as a tactic to reduce take-home pay.

Swan says Labor needs to look not only at the current bargaining framework but also at board culture.

He says the Reserve Bank should again have ACTU representation at the board level and private companies should also break up the closed culture of their boards with representation from workers.

Swan says corporate board nomination committees currently “shut out workers, they largely exclude women and elevate the old boys’ club”.

“Given the prominence and dominance on company boards of corporate and financial elites, we should have an active debate about a broader representation of workers and shareholders on these boards,” Swan will say. “Giving workers a voice on boards is a sensible proposition.”

As well as giving workers representation, Swan suggests opening up board culture could help restore damaged trust.

“Trust in big business is at an all-time low as reckless behaviour and misconduct is exposed, particularly in the financial sector,” he will say. “More broadly the culture of some Australian boardrooms seems to be dominated by a sick race to the bottom where each is competing to minimise tax, suppress wages and casualise their workforce.

“A distinct lack of competitiveness and stagnation has taken hold in some boardrooms around the country.”

He argues the reform should not stop with cultural change. Swan says the “grotesque enlargement of executive pay and packages over past decades has fuelled the rightful resentment of working people towards the business community”.

“Surging worker productivity has not only been captured by business owners, it’s also bankrolled soaring executive salaries”.

On executive pay, Swan says Labor needs to intervene to stop wealth concentration.

He says Labor could consider removing the tax deductibility of executive pay once it exceeds $1m a year, or changing regulations to force a binding vote on executive pay “where shareholders approve in advance a policy and total budget that the company can pay out in each year to the top five executives – no largesse beyond that approved could be awarded”.

And he will again defy Bill Shorten and the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, by calling for a “Buffett rule”, where high-income earners would be forced to pay a minimum effective rate of tax. Both Bowen and Shorten have said a “Buffett rule” won’t be Labor policy for the next election.

Swan will tell the ACTU that Labor is not anti-wealth creation – “we are anti-wealth concentration”.

He says sending that message strongly to workers will help Labor avoid the same fate as the US Democrats, who lost the White House to Donald Trump.

“We need a clear and bold message about how we strengthen growth and spread opportunity,” he will say. “If we cannot make the economic case that good wages and working conditions for low and middle-income earners will promote economic growth and match our argument with policy, we will suffer the same fate as the Democrats in America.

“We have to make the case that middle-income consumers, not just rich people, are job creators.

“A broad range of middle-income earners is a source of prosperity and wealth creation, not a consequence of it.”

Bogan King posted:

I think former politicians should be banned from talking about anything that they didn't do while in office. gently caress you for going 'this is what we should do' when you didn't do anything like that while you were in a position to do exactly that.

Don Dongington posted:

In Wayne Swan's defense, he singularly did more for the country than any politician I can think of since Keating.

racing identity posted:

The things Keating did were Bad though

BBJoey posted:

also swan is a backbencher so get out of here with this 'former' poo poo

BBJoey posted:

isn't swan labor right tho

NTRabbit posted:

Yes, which is very confusing

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

They're trying to get the last dregs out of it that they can, so prices are either about to skyrocket or they already have and we're about to crash. The, 'it's alright, it'll naturally decline/plateau line" is used so that small property investors don't get scared and pull out before the large ones can pump it up enough to profit from bursting it.

Don Dongington posted:

I don't think Labor really understand what "left" and "right" mean anymore tbh.

Bogan King posted:

I think former politicians should be banned from talking about anything that they didn't do while in office. gently caress you for going 'this is what we should do' when you didn't do anything like that while you were in a position to do exactly that.

You Am I posted:

Isn't Swan still a backbencher?

Bogan King posted:

He's basically former though. Just punching the clock to get a paycheque.

Lid posted:

Close


Now if you're going to argue it wasn't her decision, that you bound her and Lee is a poor puppet being bound by her party because of the NSW rules (written in because the NSW Greens always wanted to be a special snowflake compared to literally oevery other state, this constitution isn't normalised) then maybe she should've said at some point "hey guys the state bound me" but she didn't, nor did you tell the party you had bound her. This was all done behind closed doors and to cause as much silent problems as possible. Stop trying to play the moral idealistic high ground here, you're bullshitting your rear end off because you feel righteousness in your union, but to argue your hands are clean and "everything we did we were allowed to but we did it in such a way to follow the Greens line of not showing outward disunity" is such bollocks and university socialist alternative dogma that its dumb as balls. Not to mention everytime you keep saying "they need us more than we need them" just reinforces good, leave, nothing is stopping you.

Haught posted:

I love how apparently the Vic Greens can be considered as one homogeneous bloc by you QM and can be blamed as a whole for a local branch's preselection choices(for a preselection that hasn't even been run yet). Also that Barber "rumour" is based entirely on him winding up the press so congrats someone read The Age.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

Actually yes, the national rules are specifically different for NSW MPs, who exercise no conscience vote but are bound by their state.

"but she didn't, nor did you tell the party you had bound her"

Except we totally did.

I also didn't argue my hands were clean - I said, if you're going to blame someone, blame GNSW, not Lee.


As much as NSW is considered one all the time, yeh. It was a glib throwaway line but I am sorry to have sullied the good name of AGV. And no, I've heard scuttlebutt about Barber from more than just the Age. It wouldn't actually be the silliest move.

TF2 HAT MINING RIG posted:

I don't see how house prices "plateauing" is supposed to fix things, without endless growth where will the endless profit come from?

TF2 HAT MINING RIG posted:

I don't see how house prices "plateauing" is supposed to fix things, without endless growth where will the endless profit come from?

Yahoo posted:

WA police arrest woman with swastika bong made from baby's bottle

WA police have arrested a woman for possessing a marijuana bong made out of a baby's bottle and emblazoned with a swastika.

The discovery was made when police arrived at a Banksia Grove home on Sunday evening to investigate an "unrelated matter".

A woman in her mid-30s has been arrested.


_{The Swastika-emblazoned baby bottle bong. Source: Wanneroo Police.}

Wanneroo Police senior sergeant Simon Hazel admitted the "Nazi" bottle bong was "certainly not something we see every day."

"With anyone who has substance abuse issues, they do anything to satisfy their addiction," Mr Hazell said.

"They turn everything into a smoking implement. It doesn't surprise us."

Facebook users have since posted some facetious comments online.

"Hi guys, will this be available at the next police auction?", one person wrote.

Another asked if the baby had also been arrested.

Lid posted:

If you're going to argue that you'd best spill. You can't claim that when everything in the public domain says the opposite.

As for blame GNSW not Lee its nonsense, you can't argue shes solely the neutral voice of the people through NSW Greens mechanics but also represents its members.

It's easily to blame both - playing political games of binding formalities to keep her at arms reach of criticism is uni level politics games that anyone can see through.

Bogan King posted:

Bogan King posted:

He's basically former though. Just punching the clock to get a paycheque.

NPR Journalizard posted:

keep on moving those goalposts.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

http://www.tamarasmith.com.au/gonski_2_0 - GNSW position on Gonski, May 3rd.

GNSW binds Lee against, June 21st.

quote:

Senator Rhiannon is accused of breaching party rules by deciding about six weeks ago she would campaign and vote against the legislation, without telling her colleagues.

Bogan King posted:

Or you know, he's not in government now and not able to actually put anything through. Despite sitting there he isn't really in a position to do much of what he waffles on about.

Aesculus posted:

lid i have some quick questions for you, don't worry just answer straight-forwardly

how many legs does a camel have?

could you push a car with a rope?

can you quote the first post i made in this thread?

Aesculus posted:

Disband the NSW greens.

Aesculus posted:

Disband NSW .