Bucky Fullminster posted:

I don't really see much here (e - or his entire twitter output) that doesn't fit neatly into the right side of the spectrum. Aside from this bill we're talking about of course, which is the point.

Unless maybe it's just loving over the workers by making labour hire more of a Thing?

But watching him get all the way in bed with the cookers, and then having to say "well hold on a sec" when they started talking about hanging people and whatnot was quite funny.

Bucky Fullminster posted:

Ah. Hmmm. Seems pretty circuitous.

The Lord Bude posted:

He’s not exactly known for his intelligence.

freebooter posted:

Maybe he's 90% right-wing, idk, but One Nation/Nationals types can often be more supportive of workers than, say, your average Liberal.

I watch a lot of Senate estimates (for work, not fun) and what I find quite disturbing about MRS is that he's often perfectly cogent, well-informed, extremely across his brief, will ask sensible questions about the Murray-Darling etc - he is definitely not "stupid" in the sense that, say, Alex Antic is - but then he jogs off to another committee and jack-knifes into pure insanity about COVID vaccines or sov-cit nonsense. I would find it less concerning if he was just all insane, all the time. An intelligent person who is also evidently insane is much more alarming.

The Lord Bude posted:

He’s not exactly known for his intelligence.

One nation is mostly racist populist. Their voters aren’t traditional liberals; they’re working class folks with brain worms who are too racist/homophobic to fit into labor any more.

The Nats are country conservatives. They’re explicitly not free market throw money at big business types, they’re agrarian protectionist traditional values types.

The Lord Bude posted:

It’s two sides of the same coin. We want immigrants to get the same pay; Malcolm roberts wants white people to get the job instead; and thinks that forcing companies to pay immigrants working for labor hire companies the same means companies will just hire white people instead.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Country conservatives it's important to note at this point are usually way less salt of the earth and more small business megalomaniacs with even harder persecution complexes.

Yeah that's the thing, underpaid immigrant labour is specifically a wedge that tries to have it both ways, same as in the US- the business class want an underclass they can illegally underpay and easily dispose of, thus they want immigration to be illegal but poorly enforced.

EoinCannon posted:

The people working 2 jobs should think about 3 jobs

Megillah Gorilla posted:

I was actually thinking of getting a gig with the food delivery apps.

But reading up on people's experiences with it, your pay on a good day is still only around $25 an hour and per delivery rate can be as little as $2.

Electric Wrigglies posted:

it never occurred to me that is what is happening in the US but this is exactly right.

NPR Journalizard posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/06/too-late-now-to-save-arctic-summer-ice-climate-scientists-find

Bucky Fullminster posted:

Why do you keep saying MRS?

freebooter posted:

Oops lol I kept thinking his name was Malcolm Roberts-Smith

AFR posted:

Two US tech giants called ATO over PwC leaks probe
Two US tech giants attempted to curtail the PwC leaks investigation in 2021 by putting pressure on the Tax Office to call off the industry regulator.

The unnamed US firms’ tax advisers complained to the ATO in August 2021 after the Tax Practitioners Board ordered 14 tech companies that appear in internal PwC emails to produce documents that showed their exchanges with the big four firm. The TPB was investigating PwC’s use of confidential Treasury information to target new clients.

The complaint by the two tech giants led to a shouting exchange when Commissioner Chris Jordan and Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn attended a TPB board meeting in September 2021 and berated its members, telling them that the agency had overstepped its authority and must wind back its investigation. “All hell broke loose,” one of those present said of the exchange, which shocked members of the TPB board. At one point, the TPB was told its investigators were operating illegally in accessing ATO documents – though this was later withdrawn after the ATO’s legal counsel cleared the TPB’s actions. The ATO declined to comment.

It’s understood the Tax Office’s position is that the tech companies queried why they had received notices to produce documents from the TPB that related to confidential settlements. This alerted the ATO to what it saw as a jurisdictional issue, which raised concerns that the TPB’s actions could endanger ongoing ATO negotiations with the companies. The latest revelations show that the US tech companies PwC was targeting with its scheme to monetise confidential information obtained by its former head of international tax, Peter Collins, were not only aware of the TPB investigation but also had direct contact with it and in this case, took actions that could have influenced the outcome.

Concerns over revelations about the tech companies drove PwC Global’s decision last month to intervene in the scandal gripping the Australian arm of the firm, days after the Senate released redacted copies of internal PwC emails on May 2. The confrontation at the TPB board meeting in 2021 followed a decision by investigators to access, without the ATO’s knowledge, tax settlement deeds, which raised $1.25 billion, that the ATO signed with Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google, covering multiple years after lengthy audits.

Audits done before ATO knew about PwC leaks

The deeds included agreements on the amounts that the four companies would pay under the 2016 Multinational Anti Avoidance Law (MAAL) – on which PwC had been providing advice. The Microsoft, Facebook and Apple settlements were concluded between May and October 2017, before the ATO became aware, from documents obtained from PwC, that the big four firm had used confidential information in devising structures to minimise MAAL payments. In August 2017, Microsoft corporate vice-president of worldwide taxes, Daniel Goff, told the Senate tax avoidance inquiry that the company had signed a settlement deed with the ATO that morning. This week a Microsoft spokeswoman said, “We are unable to provide any comment,” in regard to the TPB inquiries. Google did not respond to questions from The Australian Financial Review.

In a statement, Apple said: “The MAAL does not apply to our business. We did not engage with PwC or any other Australian regulatory body regarding it.” Facebook/Meta confirmed that neither the company nor its advisers contacted the ATO after receiving a TPB notice. “Facebook co-operated with the TPB investigation and our external legal advisers responded directly, as we would for any regulatory inquiry,” a Facebook/Meta spokeswoman told the Financial Review on Tuesday. “We had no contact with either the ATO or PwC on this investigation.” “Facebook had no knowledge that any of the advice provided by PwC in regard to the MAAL was based upon improperly obtained information.

Damon Richardson, director of international tax for Google, at the Senate tax avoidance inquiry in August 2017. In December 2019, Google signed a $481.5 million confidential settlement with the ATO. “Facebook did not seek advice from PwC on how to comply with the MAAL until after Treasury issued the draft legislation, which is why we were surprised to learn of PwC’s alleged conduct. “Facebook engaged with the ATO to ensure that our new structure was consistent with the intention of the law.” Facebook Australia’s 2017 accounts show that the group signed a settlement deed with the ATO on October 13, 2017, which covered 2009 to 2015, together with an agreement about its tax treatment in 2016, after the MAAL came into force.

PwC investigation sought pattern of conduct

Mr Hirschhorn told Senate estimates last week that the Tax Office first had “hints” in emails it obtained in late 2017 that Mr Collins had shared confidential information. The Tax Office referred Mr Collins to the TPB in July 2020, nearly three years later, and after seeking advice in March 2018 from the federal police. The TPB opened an investigation into Mr Collins in January 2021, but relations with the Tax Office soured after the agency opened a second investigation into PwC itself two months later.

The Tax Office opposed widening the investigation, and TPB chief executive Michael O’Neill told estimates last week that in June 2021, the ATO stopped sharing information with the TPB investigators, citing secrecy provisions. A sticking point was the TPB’s desire to examine the extent to which PwC partners used the confidential information in what they told clients, trying to find a pattern of conduct that could show clients changing their tax arrangements based on Mr Collins’ information. “The ATO just said to us that they didn’t have any information that they could give to us because it would identify taxpayers, and it was protected, and they said it was not relevant to the TPB’s investigation,” Mr O’Neill told Labor senator Deborah O’Neill.

Rift between the ATO and TPB

What makes this unusual is that the TPB’s 150 staff are all tax officers, who access case management files in the ATO systems on a daily basis as a part of their work. Rather than use ATO powers, the TPB then issued notices under Section 66-100 of the Tax Agent Services Act to the 14 tech companies that PwC had signed up as clients for the new tax avoidance laws in January 2016. Tax advisers for the tech companies complained to the Tax Office that the TPB had accessed their settlement deeds held in the ATO systems and raised concerns at the ATO that re-examining the confidential documents might disrupt the agreements.

An infuriated Mr Jordan and Mr Hirschhorn attended a TPB board meeting to argue forcefully that its investigators had broken the law in accessing these files. When it became clear that this was, in fact, legal under the law, they complained that the TPB should have notified the ATO about what it was doing; that the investigators did not need the confidential settlements; and that the notices to produce might disrupt ongoing audits. “All TPB investigations comply with the law and can be supported by referrals, data sharing and by formal evidence gathering powers,” Mr O’Neill said. “We reject any suggestion we have acted unlawfully, including in relation to our investigations of Mr Peter-John Collins and PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

TPB members were shaken by the meeting, which triggered a rift within the board, some of those present said. The Tax Office argued that the TPB should confine itself to small accounting firms and sole practitioners rather than big four firms, a position supported by some board members. Ultimately, the board agreed that it should have communicated better with the ATO. It decided to proceed with the investigation, which concluded with sanctions levied against Mr Collins and PwC last November.

Guardian posted:

“The Coalition’s actions here are unethical and potentially corrupt. If the government wants the public’s trust, it must, as a matter of urgency, strengthen the integrity of our grants system.”

The Australian National Audit Office’s review of the $2bn CHHP program, set up before the 2019 election by the Morrison government, found the health department “fell short of ethical requirements” and deliberately breached commonwealth grant guidelines.

Many projects were chosen despite not applying through the formal expression of interest process. The review also found the department did not develop grant guidelines for seven grants, with the ANAO saying at least three of those were a “deliberate decision by senior management to not comply with finance law”.

Spookydonut posted:

Bucky how would your cycle network help support 15 minute cities?

Would you deploy spike strips if people tried to cycle outside their assigned radius?

hooman posted:

Bucky Fullminster posted:

no one give me poo poo about a word count ever again

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Malcolm Roberts seen finishing peoples empties at New Year’s Eve party.

lih posted:

just because malcolm-ieuan: roberts., the living soul (and one nation more broadly) occasionally says something that's pro-worker or pro-union (although one nation are incredibly inconsistent and incoherent there even more than usual) doesn't mean he's not a pretty typical far right politician who does in fact fit very neatly into the left/right paradigm

idk that alex antic is stupid either - he very much knows what he's doing and has been making gigantic power grabs to try to seize control of the south australian liberals.

Bucky Fullminster posted:

Probably >50% of people live within 10 km of the bridge (Airport to Chatswood, Manly to Homebush, Maroubra to Marrickville)

webmeister posted:

just FYI this is ludicrously inaccurate. it's actually closer to 20%
the LGAs of bayside, canada bay, hunters hill, inner west, lane cove, mosman, north sydney, randwick, sydney, waverley, willoughby and wollahra combined are about 1.1 million people. out of approx 5.3 million in the metro area.

23 Skidoo posted:

a Global Civil Corps for emergency response/natural disasters looks *mighty* nice in comparison to piecemeal co-operation between nations.

Recoome posted:

Honestly i'd rather we actually get affordable housing before we indulge Sydney, notable for having actual infrastructure, with another vanity project championed by people who think that everyone lives 10km of the bridge.

SecretOfSteel posted:

Just say it ABC: ACAB

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-09/crossing-the-line/102065454

Bucky Fullminster posted:

You're aware they're currently digging massive tunnels to lay track and and tearing down huge buildings in the CBD to build stations for like, tens of billions of dollars, right?

So you'd support doing something that's less than 1% of that cost, would never breakdown or need track work, and which would benefit literally everyone, instead of just people who live near the new metro line as well, right?

Interesting that you'd consider something which played such an important part in women's suffrage a "vanity" project.

Better make sure those pesky poors don't seize a means of transport on your watch, Recoome. And of course we wouldn't want to risk doing anything that might cut into the hard-earned profits of your mates in the oil companies. Let's definitely keep depending on that whole thing to move around.

Bucky Fullminster posted:

You're aware they're currently digging massive tunnels to lay track and and tearing down huge buildings in the CBD to build stations for like, tens of billions of dollars, right?

So you'd support doing something that's less than 1% of that cost, would never breakdown or need track work, and which would benefit literally everyone, instead of just people who live near the new metro line as well, right?

Interesting that you'd consider something which played such an important part in women's suffrage a "vanity" project.

Better make sure those pesky poors don't seize a means of transport on your watch, Recoome. And of course we wouldn't want to risk doing anything that might cut into the hard-earned profits of your mates in the oil companies. Let's definitely keep depending on that whole thing to move around.

trunkh posted:

He's quite aware and is simply stating that housing nationally is more important than your vanity project. While also making the point that NSW isn't exactly the most needy for transport (not only cycling) infrastructure.

sick of Applebees posted:

lol what

Mysticblade posted:

being in the pocket of big oil

BrigadierSensible posted:

Bucky will your bike paths, (P.S. What a magnificent idea. I shower you with praise forbeing the only one tohave yhid idea. Font listen tothe haters, they havent even taken the time to scribblre lined on a map), be able to accomodate either tricicles or penny farthings. The superiorform ofpedalbased transport?