Zenithe posted:

Thanks unigoons.


I don't care about taking part in studies, I DO care about ethical research and abuses of power.

quote:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nat...010-gyyfuq.html
Private contractors will answer calls from Centrelink's welfare recipients after the Department of Human Services outsourced call centre work to multinational services company Serco.

In an unprecedented move for the welfare agency, 250 of the company's Australian subsidiary staff will take calls about payments in a three-year pilot program costing the government $51.7 million.

The main public sector union and Labor rounded on the Coalition solution to rising call wait times, saying it would not lift the agency's performance, and asking why a private company would be entrusted with critical services.

Human Services is turning to the private sector to supplement its own staffing for phone queries after a storm of controversy and client frustration, as more than 42 million calls to the agency received an engaged signal in just 10 months, a result officials blamed on smartphone apps.

Engaged signals met 29 million calls in the previous 12 months, a turn for the worse on 2014-15 when the number was 22 million.

The 250 extra call centre workers will be Melbourne-based, and are funded in the same 2017-18 budget that slashed nearly 1200 jobs from the Human Services department's ranks.

Serco, a UK-based behemoth that provides "catch-all" services for governments and private companies around the world, has run Australia's immigration detention centres.

Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge said the pilot, beginning in late October, would help reduce call wait times.

His office said using commercial suppliers was not a new approach, and that partnerships between the Australian Taxation Office and private companies had set the precedent.

"Under the partnership arrangement, Serco's staff will be fully trained and will comply with all Commonwealth government privacy and security requirements," it said.

"As an Australian-based supplier, Serco will ensure that no services or data will go offshore."

The Community and Public Sector Union said the contract added insult to the injury of recent job cuts in the department.

In condemning the move, national secretary Nadine Flood said the contract was a disaster for Centrelink that would put thousands of vulnerable people at risk.

"Trusting the highly sensitive needs and information handled by Centrelink staff to a private operator is scary in itself and this situation is even worse," she said.

"Providing Serco with even the most basic access to client records would be giving the company a frightening amount of personal information.

"Centrelink clients need real help, such as that they are given by our members who have permanent jobs in the department and therefore the proper training and experience to actually resolve peoples' problems.

"A private call centre that's designed merely to make the department's call waiting times look better isn't going to genuinely help anyone."

Opposition Human Services spokeswoman Linda Burney said Centrelink was under-resourced and understaffed.

"Mr Tudge must face up to the fact that he's failed to fix the massive blowout in Centrelink call wait times. Outsourcing Centrelink call centres just isn't good enough," she said.

Figures released by the department showed the average waiting time across Centrelink's "main business" phone lines was nearly 27 minutes in January, the height of its "robo-debt" controversy.

However real waiting times can be much longer than the average, as Human Services regards a call as answered if the caller is put back on hold and spends further prolonged periods waiting to speak to a person.

Mr Tudge's announcement came a day after the Turnbull government rejected findings of a Senate inquiry into its controversial "robo-debt" system for welfare payments, refusing to suspend data matching and defending procedural fairness in the recovery of payments.

quote:

Do Australian governments take this type of thinking seriously?

Yep.

In 2015 the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, also known as the nudge unit, was created by the Federal Government.

Zenithe posted:

I know there are some people who post that work at universities, and something odd just happened that I feel I should mention and see if anything should be done.

I did a prac placement and after every day we all filled out a feedback at the end. It's a pilot program so I thought it was just collecting data for that, but it now appears that we were taking part in a study about the effectiveness of the program. Jump to today, I am now expected to give consent to participate in the study, and that failure to do so will result in me failing the course.

Thoughts,
a) you done hosed up your research paper by asking for consent afterwards.
b) you cannot force people to participate in your research.
c) your consent form says that withdrawal does not incur any negative consequences which basically contradicts everything anyway.

open24hours posted:

MysticalMachineGun posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/oct/11/mps-dual-citizenship-case-high-court-sits-for-second-day-live

quote:

"It’s a strange position to be in – while everyone else before the court is making cases for why they should be found eligible to have been elected, the Greens are arguing they were ineligible – and therefore everyone else is as well."

quote:

If Barnaby Joyce is found to have been ineligibly elected, as a lower house MP, the court would most likely set aside the election result – which means a byelection. Given its one seat majority in the house, you would imagine the government would set the date for that as soon as possible – which would be 33 days from when it issued the writs.

Halo14 posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/oct/11/mps-dual-citizenship-case-high-court-sits-for-second-day-live

open24hours posted:

Turnbull was way into that before he decided he'd rather be a puppet. It appeals to conservatives because they interpret 'nudging' to mean things like putting people on income management.

The West posted:

Labor’s controversial $392 million gold royalty hike has been killed off, with Liberal MPs voting to block the controversial measure in the Upper House of Parliament.
The move, which comes after hundreds of gold miners rallied at State Parliament this morning, will mean the State Government will be required to plug an almost $400 million hole in their Budget.

Intoluene posted:

Pretty sure Joyce's seat is pretty firmly in Coalition hands. Although, next in line from the previous result is an independent.

Zenithe posted:

Just drink goon.

Anidav posted:

quote:

Security reports reveal protesters have threatened, “I’ll attack you with a crowbar”, and “I’ll f***ing rape your kids c***”.

Senator Cash said: “Bill Shorten can say what he likes but until he cuts all political and financial ties with the CFMEU his words will remain hollow.

“If the Labor Party is ever elected to office, Bill Shorten will ensure these law-breakers will become the lawmakers.”

Anidav posted:

Wouldn't it be easier for Malcolm to call an election?

quote:

Breaking News: The Turnbull Government will allow multinational company Serco to operate a Centrelink call centre. This move will put thousands of vulnerable Australians at risk.

Sign the petition against outsourcing and cuts at DHS here: https://www.proudtobepublic.org.au/dhscuts

Anidav posted:

Wouldn't it be easier for Malcolm to call an election?

Anidav posted:

quote:

There are renewed calls for an overhaul of farm worker visas, with a trial aimed at getting unemployed people into agriculture attracting lacklustre support.

Just 14 people have so far signed up to a new Federal Government program that allows unemployed people to earn an income and still receive their full welfare payment.

The federal Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) was the architect of the trial, which the Government adopted in return for the crossbenchers supporting last year's backpacker tax changes.

Lobby group the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) has raised doubts the program will solve worker shortfalls, which it said would again be highlighted during the summer fruit harvest.

"To say you just need to pay people more to induce them to come into the industry is, in our view, simplistic," NFF workplace relations general manager Ben Rogers said.

Mr Rogers said a radical solution was needed, and the NFF wanted an entirely new visa designed specifically for overseas visitors who worked on farms.

He said the current visas farmers used only offered a short-term solution, and a more reliable, long-term workforce was needed.

"Seasonal work would be a focus, the sort of stuff that is being covered off by the backpacker visa program, the working holiday visa program, those sorts of things," Mr Rogers said.

"But it would be a broad approach to comprehensively address that very significant labour need within the sector."

Australians 'unwilling to pick crops'
Southern Queensland stone fruit grower and Summerfruit Australia president Andrew Findlay said workers were farmers' biggest cost.

"There will be many farms that employ 50, 100 people," he said.

"So you go from having maybe 10 permanent [staff] on a larger operation to very, very suddenly having to increase staff numbers rapidly."

Mr Findlay said the biggest issues farmers faced was an unwillingness among many Australians to pick crops.

"We employ Australians wherever we can get them, but for us it has been very hard to get Australians to come and do this work outside," he said.

"But we have a job that we've got to do, and so if there's a labour force that we can get and return every year, where we don't have the major cost involved with retraining, then that would be very welcome across not just stone fruit and summer fruit industries, but across all of horticulture."

Farmers have access to a range of seasonal worker programs, including 417 and 462 visas for people on temporary working holidays.

Department of Immigration and Border Protection statistics show the number of issued 417 and 462 visas in Australia remains steady, with more than 211,000 of the two visa types approved in 2016-17.

That was down on the 214,583 issued in the previous year.

As harvest begins along the summerfruit trail, growers come to terms with fallout from the backpacker tax debate.

The program is capped at 3,800 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients each year.

The 14 people on the program represent a participation rate of 0.37 per cent of available placements within the scheme.

Trial participants can receive up to $300 in living away and travel allowances if the work is more than 120 kilometres from home.

The trial also includes cash incentives for employment service providers to get unemployed people to work on farms.

South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie, from the Nick Xenophon Team, lobbied the Federal Government to run the two-year trial.

"I'm going to be asking questions of the Minister, when we go back to Canberra, what they're doing to promote the seasonal workers trial," she said.

"I think [after] talking with a number of people who are looking for work, they would be keen to take on work on farm.

"It is hard work but it is something fresh to put on your resume.

"I think this is a great opportunity. We just need to make sure everyone knows about it."

A Department of Employment spokeswoman said more than 100 positions were currently available, with the majority of work in regional NSW.

"As different regions hit their harvest season, we would anticipate that vacancies will increase in those regions," she said.

The department held information sessions in all states and territories prior to the trial commencing.

It will hold additional sessions to boost awareness across the country during the next two months.

Ms Sharkie said she was yet to be convinced of the need for a new visa, and hoped more Australians would seek farm work.

She said she wanted the unemployed worker trial completed before the Government considered visa changes.

But Mr Rogers said farmers could not afford to wait two more years.

"The fact is that produce is being grown now. The harvest time has come and they [can't] wait for the changes of government policy or for programs to be properly tested," he said.

"We need labour out there right now, available to pick the fruit and satisfy the need, which is real and serious and quite large."

Reliable workforce needed to be competitive globally
Mr Findlay backed the NFF's push for a new agriculture visa.

He said it would help farmers compete in global markets, particularly throughout Asia.

"It can lower our cost of production because you don't have that training [and] you don't have that productivity lag with [your] workforce," he said.

"You'd have people coming back [each year] who are knowing what their roles and jobs are.

"It then helps us when we're competing on an international stage against the likes of Chile."

A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesperson said the Government was in the "early stages of creating a system that will have the flexibility to better respond to economic and labour force needs".

gay picnic defence posted:

No surprises there. Has anyone ever bothered to ask unemployed people why they don't want to work on farms?

hooman posted:

Farmers: We want to import slave labor not pay people a reasonable wage to do the work we require!

Guardian AU posted:

The government’s plan to return the budget to surplus is heavily reliant on personal tax increases across every income bracket but hitting middle-income earners hardest, the Parliamentary Budget Office has revealed.

Middle income earners (with an average taxable income of $46,000) will experience the highest average tax increases of any income quintile, jumping 3.2 percentage points, from 14.9% to 18.2% over the next five years.

The PBO’s paper, released on Wednesday, reveals for the first time how the Turnbull government’s projected budget surplus in 2020-21 is relying on specific increases in average personal income tax rates.

The tax hikes reflect a seismic shift in the taxation burden from businesses to individuals. The personal tax increases are necessary to compensate for the government’s controversial $65.4bn company tax cut.

Same Article posted:

The PBO says the government’s projected budget surplus is relying heavily on more than 1 million Australians shifting into higher tax brackets over the next five years, where their average tax rates will increase.

Projections show over 900,000 taxpayers will move from a marginal tax rate of 32.5% to 37% between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

Similarly, 700,00 people are projected to move from a marginal tax rate of 19% to 32.5% over the same period.

Starshark posted:

I thought there was someone who tried to get work on a farm and the farmer wanted foreign workers because he could pay them less.

hooman posted:

Ha ahahahaha of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/11/middle-income-earners-tax-hit-to-pay-for-coalition-company-cuts


You cannot write this comedy.

hiddenmovement posted:

I think it was Cartoon who asked around about farm work

gay picnic defence posted:

To be fair if I had a farm I wouldn't be hiring the weird old goon who shits in his backyard either

gay picnic defence posted:

To be fair if I had a farm I wouldn't be hiring the weird old goon who shits in his backyard either

NPR Journalizard posted:

Do you think that topic of conversation comes up in the job interview?

quote:

Lawyers for senator Nick Xenophon have urged the High Court to adopt the approach of UK authorities in not viewing him as a fully fledged British citizen.

Don Dongington posted:

https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/labors-400m-budget-black-hole-as-libs-kill-gold-hike-ng-b88624735z


Conservatives:
"No you can't charge super-profitable mining companies a reasonable rate of tax because they are petulant shitheads and might take it out on their workforce, mostly because we've spent 20+ years eroding their industrial rights"

Also Conservatives:
"BUDGET BLACK HOLEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

hooman posted:

Ha ahahahaha of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/11/middle-income-earners-tax-hit-to-pay-for-coalition-company-cuts


You cannot write this comedy.

hooman posted:

Jesus loving christ.

Tokamak posted:

I wouldn't have got it, if it weren't for those labels covering half the cartoon.