Brown Paper Bag posted:

https://twitter.com/tommcilroy/status/908530047002189825

Now that's a fucken own

quote:

Frank Devine (Australian, 5/6/97) referred to an earlier article by Nicholas Rothwall, who stated that nearly everyone who spoke favourably of Hanson refused to divulge his or her name for fear of reprisal. Devine comments "Fear of Reprisal? For expressing a political opinion? In Australia? Good Grief". Devine noted that opponents of Hanson, not her supporters, were responsible for violence at meetings such as a meeting addressed by Hanson in Newcastle in June 1997 which led to the bizarre and comical paradox of 300 policemen, not to defend Asians and Aborigines against the savagery of Hansonites but to stop the rampant politically correct from scragging 1400 reputable citizens who paid to hear her speak. 

... those with tactics most reminiscent of the hooligan intimidation tactics of the Nazi brownshirts were to be found in the ranks of the anti-ON demonstrators. One demonstrator having knocked an elderly ON supporter to the ground at Echuca said ominously "we know where you live". The publication of the list on ON members including the suburb in which they lived was also intimidating. 

Michael Duffy (Daily Telegraph, 1/8/98) said that it's disturbing to see the sort of thing that worries us these days - and the sort of thing that doesn't. This selective outrage is a particular feature of the Hanson phenomenon. 

Duffy said that some of the anti-Hanson demos have prevented Hanson from speaking. This is an outrage to Australian tolerance, democracy and free speech. "Never before, to my knowledge, has the leader of a mainstream political party with over 300 branches and representatives in two Australian parliaments been prevented from speaking in public. This raises questions vital to the health of Australian democracy". 

...Duffy reported the violence directed against old people and young women by demonstrators at the Hawthorn Town Hall and said that "it was Australian democracy 1900s style, typical of what many people have had to put up with to hear Pauline Hanson speak during the past 18 months". He said that Jeff Kennett's police did a deal with the demonstrators, and the meeting was called off in return for the physical safety of the people who had come to hear a federal politician speak. "It was a black day for Australian democracy. It's difficult to know who deserves more of our contempt - the thugs who are now using physical force to repress free speech, the politicians and police who are letting them get away with it, or the moral posturers who, with their spurious outrage about ON racism are condoning increasing levels of violence and repression". 

The Free Speech Committee referred to the ugly face of censorship and said that it is the right of the people to assemble and express their opinion in meetings and demonstrations. It is a fundamental right of all people, regardless of their opinion, that they should be free to speak what is on their minds. Obstructing entry to a hall and shouting down speakers are forms of censorship which are not tolerable in this society. It is important that the principle of free speech and tolerance be safeguarded at all times, and never more so than when dealing with intolerance. The demonstrators in Hawthorn, obstructing entry to the ON meeting may have been well motivated, but their tactics were misjudged and indefensible.

 
Elderly citizen, attending a One Nation meeting, 
bashed by Multiculturalist thugs [1998]

Michael Barnard (Sunday Herald Sun2/8/98) said that it is the anti-Hanson, anti-ON demonstrations which enshrine a consistent new low, and that records illustrate that throughout the ON saga, the woeful incidents of violence - including intimidating women and bashing elderly men - come from a hooligan fringe into which students and school children are drawn; preventing people entering a lawful meeting to hear a duly elected member of Federal Parliament is the antithesis of democracy. 

...Barnard said that "Yet, in the main, a strange silence pervades. Imagine the outcry if angry farmers disrupted a meeting of the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Commission, or if some other group, screaming Nazism, sabotaged a convention of multicultural bureaucrats. 

...In despair, one looks at the printed record and finds a broad strand of hypocrisy - or is it blindness? - running through weeks of political utterance and media commentary. Yes, one discovers, the excesses of the demonstrators, have been lamented to a degree. But not, first, because the violence and intolerance are simply and plainly wrong in themselves, but because they will help increase sympathy and support for Mrs. Hanson. 

... The Age for instance did not publish even one feature article about the dangerous precedent set by the mobs which prevented Hanson, then the leader of the third largest political force in Australia, from addressing meetings in Hobart and Melbourne

quote:

The anti-democratic actions of the Multiculturalist thugs show themselves as the true successors to the tradition of the Nazi thugs of the 1930s Germany; whereas the victims of the Multiculturalist thugs belonged to the tradition of the democratic Australian patriotism of the early twentieth century. Facing the Nazi-style tactics of the hate-filled Multiculturalists, the Jewish members of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party must have felt a heavy irony.

quote:

Devine noted that opponents of Hanson, not her supporters, were responsible for violence at meetings such as a meeting addressed by Hanson in Newcastle in June 1997 which led to the bizarre and comical paradox of 300 policemen, not to defend Asians and Aborigines against the savagery of Hansonites but to stop the rampant politically correct from scragging 1400 reputable citizens who paid to hear her speak.

cheese-cube posted:

Is there any info on expected delivery dates for the postal vote? My mum lives in Freo and she got her form a couple of days ago however I'm in the Perth CBD and haven't received anything.

Anidav posted:

Lid posted:

Found that on a white nationalist website on the evil bigots of pro-multiculturalism and couldnt stop laughing. That was their argument.

quote:

The anti-democratic actions of the Multiculturalist thugs show themselves as the true successors to the tradition of the Nazi thugs of the 1930s Germany; whereas the victims of the Multiculturalist thugs belonged to the tradition of the democratic Australian patriotism of the early twentieth century. Facing the Nazi-style tactics of the hate-filled Multiculturalists, the Jewish members of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party must have felt a heavy irony.

Solemn Sloth posted:

When not even Rodney Rude buys into your PC Gone Mad bullshit

Zenithe posted:

Gays should be able to get married because I used to gently caress watermelons may not be the strongest argument.

Zenithe posted:

Gays should be able to get married because I used to gently caress watermelons may not be the strongest argument.

Konomex posted:

Sometimes I feel insane. But patriotism never used to be a thing in Australia, right? Sure, people would root for the Empire 70 years back, but no one was waving Aussie flags around madly proclaiming we were the best. I always remember as a kid people would look down on anyone who expressed patriotism.

Is it just me? Being patriotic is one of the least Australian things you can do. Someone tell me if I'm crazy on this.

Anidav posted:

Korgan posted:

quote:

Down among the pho joints, butcher shops and Asian supermarkets of Victoria Street in Richmond, there's a new hot topic of conversation: same-sex marriage.

Attitudes towards the debate on Melbourne's lively Vietnamese strip are said to be mixed. The schism is most typically found on religious and generational lines.

Generally, the older Catholic traders hold the traditional view, that marriage is between a man and a woman. For the second generation, it's different.

"The younger Vietnamese tend to support it, like I do," says Meca Ho, president of the Victoria Street Business Association.

"We are in Australia, everyone should be equal. But people do talk about the issue."

As same-sex marriage postal surveys are stuffed in mailboxes across the country, the battle for hearts and minds will be as hard fought in places such as Hurstville, St Albans and Blacktown as anywhere else.

These are suburbs that are home to large populations of Chinese-, Vietnamese- and Filipino-Australians, three of the nation's biggest Asian ethnic groups. Their views could help sway the vote on marriage equality.

The Chinese community has been a particular target during the campaign. A string of pamphlets and fliers have been issued making homophobic claims about same-sex marriage, including one that said it was a "grave to the family bloodline".

One reason they are being wooed is the community's size. Of the 16 million voters on the electoral roll ahead of the postal survey, more than half a million could be Chinese-Australians.

Last year's census counted more than 535,000 Australian adult citizens with Chinese ancestry. The two other major ethnic groups of East and South-East Asian descent were Vietnamese-Australians (175,000 adults) and Filipino-Australians (162,000).

They are also more open to voting "no". University of Melbourne research has found that people from non-English-speaking migrant backgrounds are less likely to support marriage equality than other groups.

Dr Ka Sing Chua, president of the Chinese Association of Victoria, believes that most Chinese-Australians are socially conservative and would vote "no" on the question of marriage equality.

His personal view is that the Marriage Act should not be changed to included same-sex couples.

"It's a very complicated question," he says. "I think at the end of the day, everyone should have an informed decision."

One outfit hoping to influence that decision is the Australian Chinese for Families Association. The group is led by Dr Pansy Lai, who rose to prominence when she collected 17,500 signatures from the Australian Chinese community opposing the Safe Schools program in NSW.

Much of the ACFC's website is devoted to stopping Safe Schools. There are also translations of anti-gay marriage columns by people such as Tony Abbott and Andrew Bolt.

While Dr Lai is a Christian, she has said that the Australian Chinese for Families Association is not religious. However, religion may play a major part in guiding how certain communities vote.

Eighty-nine per cent of Filipino-Australian adults, for example, identify as Christian. Seventy-three per cent say they are Catholic. The Vietnamese also have a strong Catholic community. Archdiocese around the country have been urging their followers to vote "no".

"I'm a practising Catholic, it's still ingrained in me that only a man and woman should be able to get married," says Serna Ladia, president of the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales.

"But my children will have a different opinion to mine."

One group adding their weight to the "yes" campaign is the Asian Australian Alliance, which wants to counter the inflammatory messages being spread about same-sex marriage.

Erin Chew, the group's founder and convenor, says Chinese-Australians were clearly being targeted by the "no" side of the campaign, which was painting the community in a negative light.

"It says they are against equality, which is not true," she says. "As Asians we all know what being discriminated or vilified feels like, why would we want to perpetrate that on others?"

While she agrees that views on same-sex marriage are often split in Asian communities between the young and old, Ms Chew says that many elders have actually shown support for marriage equality.

One such story doing the rounds on social media is of William and his Ba (Vietnamese grandmother), who supports her gay grandson having the right to marry his partner.

Francis Voon, director of multicultural engagement for the Equality Campaign (which made the video), says it's important that same-sex marriage supporters from different ethnic groups are given the resources to "engage their own communities".

With more than a month until the postal surveys have to be returned, both sides of the debate will continue to court votes where they can.

Viv Nguyen, president of Vietnamese Community in Australia's Victoria chapter, says it is important that people exercise their democratic right to take part in the vote.

"It's what the Vietnamese people are very strong about. It's why a lot of us are here," she says.

Ms Chew agrees.

"This is one of the best times for us to ensure our voice is heard and show that we are willing to get more involved in the political process."

Implants posted:

The thing about Asian-Australian migrants is that they're outnumbered by their children, who are overwhelmingly progressive.

Quote stolen from here posted:

John McGrath, executive director of McGrath Estate Agents, was another who recently warned that Sydney and Melbourne’s housing markets were due for a period of consolidation following years of strong price growth.

“We say internally what a good thing it is the market is settling down in Sydney, and we think that over the next few years there will be a short, small correction in small single digits — 3, 4, 5% — but we see nothing worse than that,” he said at a conference held on the Gold Coast in late August.

Complementing those views, recent auction clearance rates and housing finance data continue to point to a moderation in housing market activity in the months ahead.

Only last week auction clearance rates fell to 66.4% across Australia’s capitals, the lowest level seen in over a year. Mirroring the slowdown in price growth, the decline was driven by weaker outcomes in Sydney and Melbourne compared to levels seen earlier in the year.

The moderation in clearance rates followed the introduction of tougher macroprudential measures from Australia’s banking regulator, APRA, earlier this year, limiting interest-only lending to 30% of total new mortgage debt. That came on top of a 10% limit in annual investor credit growth implemented by APRA in late 2014.

Recent housing finance data suggests those attempts to restrict interest-only lending — predominantly favoured by investors — are working.

According to data released by the ABS, the value of investor housing finance slumped 3.9% to $12.063 billion in July, leaving it at the lowest level since August 2016. From a year earlier that represented a fall of 0.1%, the first decline since August 2016. Only eight months earlier it had been growing at 26.5% year-on-year.

That result followed the release of quarterly lending data from APRA earlier this month which revealed that interest-only lending slowed to 30% of total new loans in the June quarter, down sharply from from 36% in Q1.

As a result of APRA’s tighter restrictions, conditions in Australia’s hottest housing markets appear to be cooling down.

Lid posted:

The final bidder, the Canberra teenager...

...The hammer eventually fell at $1.43 million...

...waterfront property, in a great location