starkebn posted:

I'm always surprised these days when I read of an Australian research team coming up with some great technology.

About Campbell Newman posted:

At his local kebab shop, he told everyone, he was appalled to hear how many regulations there were for the handling of the meat, including -- to his horror -- one about the temperature the meat needed to be at on the spit! He was going to abolish all this red tape. The studiously polite Katie Gallagher, the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, commented that that would all be fine until the first salmonella outbreak. Although she did not mean the remark unkindly, it produced guffaws all round, including from Liberal premiers.

quote:

The Canberra press gallery is an insular world and, given the foment of the media industry, a curiously unchanged one at the leadership level. Many of the key personalities who reported politics 20, 30, 40 years ago are still there, albeit more jaded, more cynical -- and more annoyed if their assumed mastery of political reporting is in any way challenged.

ewe2 posted:

Choice quote #1 from Gillard's new book:
<Campbell Newman is an idiot retard>

katlington posted:

Nothing new on the Australian Sailor who cried wolf in Sydney? Quietly letting it just drop off the radar seems like a dumb idea, people will cry conspiracy if there's no public closure. They'll cry it anyway ofc but it'll be a tougher sell to people who haven't already decided what they want to believe.

Cleretic posted:

Oh yeah, I didn't see you guys mention it, but apparently the LNP got talked down from the six-month starvation period for Newstart. It's now four weeks.

katlington posted:

Nothing new on the Australian Sailor who cried wolf in Sydney? Quietly letting it just drop off the radar seems like a dumb idea, people will cry conspiracy if there's no public closure. They'll cry it anyway ofc but it'll be a tougher sell to people who haven't already decided what they want to believe.

MysticalMachineGun posted:

I wish I knew. I have a couple of mates who are former military and while they posted it on FB and the like with a "heads up" they also shared the retraction. I wonder what prompted this in the first place?

ewe2 posted:

Choice quote #1 from Gillard's new book:


And my other favourite #2:

Brown Paper Bag posted:

Is there an article somewhere which has collated more quotes?

quote:

n Monday, the Reserve Our Gas campaign was launched to demand the federal government to pass laws to ensure a percentage of gas is kept for domestic use rather than being exported and linked to global prices.

Such laws could stop local gas prices from rocketing, with one projection showing prices could triple next year when LNG exports ramp up.

A BIS Shrapnel report found a rise could see one in five manufacturers shut down over the next half-decade. It also showed households gas bills could rise by 26 per cent over three years from 2015.

The Australian Workers Union, which is leading the campaign with the support of Australian Paper and resources giant Alcoa, said Australia was the only gas-exporting country in the world to not reserve gas for its own citizens and industries.

As a consequence, exporters were unfairly selling Australian gas back to consumers at global prices, it said.

While Australian gas has traditionally cost around $3-4 per gigajoule domestically, it could sell for up to $18 per gigajoule on Asian markets.

"We currently have a situation in which our abundant gas reserves are hurting Australian jobs and households instead of helping them," said AWU National Secretary Scott McDine said. "That's crazy and it's no wonder no other gas-exporting nation allows it."

katlington posted:

Nothing new on the Australian Sailor who cried wolf in Sydney? Quietly letting it just drop off the radar seems like a dumb idea, people will cry conspiracy if there's no public closure. They'll cry it anyway ofc but it'll be a tougher sell to people who haven't already decided what they want to believe.

Tony Jowns posted:

webmeister posted:

Cringe city...

http://www.vice.com/en_au/vice-australia-0/we-made-young-liberals-and-young-labor-date-each-other

T-1000 posted:

It's from crikey.

This story about the impending increase in gas prices and the campaign to legislate that some gas be reserved for domestic use is worth a read.

Adnar posted:

I had to stop halfway, it made me too uncomfortable.. but is that how young libs reconcile their affiliations these days? Labor = Nanny state / Liberal = Freeeeedom.

Has this always been the case?

Adnar posted:

I had to stop halfway, it made me too uncomfortable.. but is that how young libs reconcile their affiliations these days? Labor = Nanny state / Liberal = Freeeeedom.

Has this always been the case?

Adnar posted:

I had to stop halfway, it made me too uncomfortable.. but is that how young libs reconcile their affiliations these days? Labor = Nanny state / Liberal = Freeeeedom.

Has this always been the case?

Adnar posted:

I had to stop halfway, it made me too uncomfortable.. but is that how young libs reconcile their affiliations these days? Labor = Nanny state / Liberal = Freeeeedom.

Has this always been the case?

webmeister posted:

Cringe city...

http://www.vice.com/en_au/vice-australia-0/we-made-young-liberals-and-young-labor-date-each-other

Quantum Mechanic posted:

The trouble with gas reservation is it locks in gas consumption at a time when we should be decarbonising. John Kaye from the NSW Greens and Justin Field (now our #3 LC candidate) have had a bit of a back-and-forth over it for a while.

It's better than nothing, but we should really be implementing some sort of managed transition policy, at least for domestic gas.

webmeister posted:

Cringe city...

http://www.vice.com/en_au/vice-australia-0/we-made-young-liberals-and-young-labor-date-each-other

Adnar posted:

I used to know a few big hitters in NSW young libs about 10 years ago and they were definitely more socially conservative / traditional and all that jazz rather than the more libertarian that old mate seemed to be in that clip. I couldn't imagine any of them being for gay marriage. It kind of informs my view though in that I've never understood how someone under 25 could be a social conservative but now they're going to gubment control(tm) angle it makes slightly more sense.

gay picnic defence posted:

Is this the beginning of a thousand year breeding program which will ultimately lead to the birth of a messiah who can lead humanity down the path of the Third Way?

SKY COQ posted:

Yeah, all of the young lib types I've known have been arch libertarians. It's the hip new trend!

quote:

Supermarket chain Coles has been banned for three years from advertising that its bread was made or baked on the day it was sold.


Coles was also ordered to display a Federal Court notice in its stores and on its website telling shoppers that it had broken Australian consumer law by falsely advertising bread products as "freshly baked" and "baked today".

Federal Court judge James Allsop made the ruling on Monday after Coles was found guilty in June for making false, misleading and deceptive representations in relation to the freshness of its bread.

Coles has been banned from promoting its bread as baked on the day it is being sold or made from fresh dough for three years.

It must tell consumers of the ban and that it had been found to have made the false, misleading and deceptive representations by advertising bread as fresh when it had been made and partially baked and then frozen, sometimes months earlier overseas.

The court is yet to make a decision on whether to fine Coles, which faces penalties of more than $3 million.

The case was brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett complained when he discovered a loaf of Coles bread that was advertised as freshly baked in-store had been made in Ireland.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Better stick them all with a Gom Jabbar to check.

drunkill posted:

Get owned.

quote:

UPDATE: Athol Park robbery believed to be racially motivated 

Police are continuing to investigate a reported robbery and assault at Athol Park last week. 

While there are a number of sensitivities still surrounding this ongoing investigation which appears to have racial overtones, SA Police are now able to release further information and make another appeal for public assistance. 

Around 8.50pm on 25 September, the victim was driving on Millicent Street Athol Park when he was forced to pull over by another vehicle containing three men posing as Australian Federal Police.

The vehicle is believed to be a late model black Holden Commodore.

Two of the men forced the victim out of his car and stole a laptop computer and mobile phone.

They also damaged his car and wrote offensive words on the bonnet.

The victim was not injured but was subject to abuse because of his ethnicity and religious beliefs. He left the scene in his car and contacted police. 

Police are in direct communication with the victim and are working in partnership with him and the local community to provide support and advice.

The first suspect is described as a man of Caucasian appearance, aged 25 to 30 years, with a heavy build, a 10cm long ginger beard with no moustache and he was wearing a black baseball cap. A computer generated image of this suspect has been released.

The second suspect is of Caucasian appearance, aged 25 to 30 years, with a slim build, clean shaven and also wearing a black baseball cap. 

There is no description of the third man.

Anyone who recognises the man pictured or who may have seen suspicious activity in the area is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

quote:

The best way to bludgeon your ideological and commercial adversaries in the corporate world is to get your peak body to do it for you.

This way, you can abuse people with gay abandon, shrug away any responsibility for your actions and leave your marque intact, your brand untarnished, even while financing the entire caper.

Our favourite peak body, and we confess to an especial fondness for this organisation, is the union which represents the interests of large foreign-controlled mining companies: the Minerals Council of Australia.

For this peak body, no depth is too low to plumb, no truth too sacred to be stretched. Were you to ask one of its main backers, say BHP Billiton, how much their shareholders are paying to bankroll its activities, or even whether the board and executive stand behind its latest ad hominem spray, you will hear the sounds of silence.

Conflating royalties with tax is one of the specialties of the Minerals Council for big foreign miners in Australia. Pretending, with the paid collaboration of selected independent experts, that foreign mining companies are entitled to extract minerals from the soils of this country scot-free, without paying a royalty, and ship them overseas, is a ruse for which they display considerable flair.

The belittling of its critics reached fever point in recent weeks. In June, the NSW Minerals Council – the NSW branch of the big foreign mining companies' union – responded with extraordinary spite to a piece written by left-leaning think tank the Australia Institute (TAI).

Stopping a smidgen short of Queensland MP George Christiansen – who dubbed green activists "terrorists" this week – they circulated caricatures of TAI economists Richard Denniss and Ben Oquist as puppets of the Greens political party.

Never mind that there are no formal ties, financial or otherwise, between TAI and any political party. The lobbyists played the man as usual, not the ball.

TAI had the cheek to ruffle through thousands of pages of state budget papers and tote up the subsidies to the mining industry in Australia. The figure came to $17.6 billion over six years. The mining lobby didn't respond with its own figure; it simply issued abusive press releases claiming "gross deception" and propaganda on behalf of TAI, saying that this think tank was hell bent on destroying the mining industry and ruining the lives of hard-working Australians.

The $17.6 billion put on subsidies was not so much a matter of interpretation – as the Minerals Council's independent expert framed it – but more one of addition.

The subsidies are not fabricated. They are real. They can be added up. And there is no doubt that many of the projects subsidised by taxpayers have delivered a worthwhile economic benefit. Some subsidies have been worth it, others not.

The key points in the report commissioned to respond to TAI were:

infrastructure spending for miners by state governments is not "assistance" as it is usually on a commercial basis;
the mining sector enjoys no preferential access to infrastructure; and,
spending on mining does not come at the expense of social infrastructure.
These key points, however, are contradicted by state submissions to the Commonwealth Grants Commission. This is the body the states go to – cap in one hand, violin in the other – to complain about how poor they are and therefore demand as much in GST revenues as they possibly can.

The submission from the Queensland Treasury is particularly revealing. Bear in mind that Queensland shells out the bulk of mining subsidies.

Let's compare the Minerals Council claims with Queensland Treasury submissions.

Minerals Council:

The bulk of the expenditure claimed by the Institute as a subsidy is associated with the provision of services through rail, port, water and electricity infrastructure investments by government-owned business or Public Trading Enterprises (PTEs). Consistent with national competition policy and the state-based legal and policy arrangements that govern these entities, these services are provided on a commercial, cost recovery basis through user charges levied equally on all users, including the mining and resources sector. (pi)

Queensland Treasury:

One view expressed during the GST Distribution Review submission process was that infrastructure costs borne by government in support of the mining industry should not be recognised in the HFE process because the majority of these expenditures are cost recovered from industry. However, little evidence has been presented to support this assertion, and Queensland has substantial costs that are not recovered from industry, particularly in the area of roads construction. It seems likely that other mining states have similar expenditures. (p16)

Minerals Council:

Finally, while all state and territory governments have finite limits on their ability to borrow, investment in infrastructure recovered by user charges does not impact on a government's ability to borrow for social infrastructure. This is because any such borrowings are supported by that user charge income – that is, the higher the potential income, the higher the borrowing capacity of the government.

In this respect, the Institute is just plain wrong in its assertion that mining and resources sector related capital investment comes at the expense of investment in social infrastructure. In fact, the opposite is true; a sizeable portion of the profits of government businesses that provide such services as rail, ports and electricity flow back to Treasury coffers as dividends, and are used to fund the provision of additional social infrastructure and services. (pi-ii)

Queensland Treasury:

Some costs may also be recovered by the government over time if they are directly industry related. However, there is a real opportunity cost for governments in undertaking the initial capital expenditure. Governments face budget constraints and spending on mining-related infrastructure means less infrastructure spending in other areas, including social infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. For many projects directly related to assisting mining industry development, such as land acquisitions for state development areas, the expected timeframes for cost recovery are extremely long (sometimes decades). The opportunity cost of this use of limited funds is a real cost to government and the community. (p15)

People should be able to have the real debate in this country about industry contributions without being bullied by lobby groups and their ideological allies in the blogosphere. "The lowest form of human filth" was the line in one recent post about TAI.

Never mind that that is a ludicrous thing to say about a bloke in Canberra with a spreadsheet; this sort of thing is probably on the rise. As mining profits subside, the debate over industry entitlements and contributions to society is likely to get more strident. Then there's the environment.

Mad Katter posted:

Oh gee I wonder which religion it was.

The Age posted:

A woman has been left traumatised after her head was smashed into the side of train carriage during an apparent racial attack in Melbourne's north.
The 26-year-old victim was on an Upfield line train outbound on Thursday night when she was approached by another woman, who began hurling abusive and racist remarks.
The woman grabbed the victim by the neck and hair, and forced her head into the wall of the carriage several times.
She then pushed the victim off the train as it rolled into Batman Station in Coburg North.
Senior Constable Michael Potter said the incident occurred as the train approached the station about 6.55pm on Thursday night.
He would not confirm the race of the victim, despite Chief Commissioner Ken Lay urging members of the Muslim community to come forward to report racial abuse in the wake of heightened terror alerts and the stabbing of two police in Endeavour Hills last week.
Senior Constable Potter said releasing details about the woman's race could identify her or potentially lead to further attacks.
Two men, who police believe may have witnessed the assault, approached the victim and offered help.
Senior Constable said police were still in the process of reviewing and obtaining CCTV footage of the attack.
He said there were no Protective Services Officers rostered at the station when the woman was attacked.
The victim had boarded the train at Flinders Street, but it is unclear when her attacker boarded and alighted the train.
The offender is described as fair-skinned, about 177 centimetres tall, of solid build with short, brown hair and light eyebrows.
She was wearing baggy jeans, a puffy black hoodie and runners.
Anyone with information - in particular the two men who helped the victim - is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or visit crimestoppersvic.com.au.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/womans-head-bashed-in-racial-attack-on-train-20140929-10nh5a.html#ixzz3EhLxFVBE

Gough Suppressant posted:

Better stick them all with a Gom Jabbar to check.

drunkill posted:

Get owned.