- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
I've never had any problem with Perth's SmartRider system bugging out.
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2014 07:32
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2024 13:48
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
That Australian article reminds me of some bad race war novel poo poo.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2014 01:47
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
NEWSCORP LINK > http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wes...3-1227019087686
quote:The WA division of the Liberal Party has rebuffed Prime Minister Tony Abbott for back tracking on contentious changes to racial discrimination laws.
At state conference today, Liberals voted to pass the motion “that the Liberal Party of Australia WA Division express disappointment at the federal government’s decision not to pursue, as promised, the repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act”.
Leading the charge was former Liberal leader Bill Hassell, who gave Mr Abbott a vicious spray.
“The only thing wrong with this motion as far as I am concerned is that it is too gentle,’ he said.
“In all honesty, when I heard the news that the government had walked away from this clear and unequivocal electoral commitment, I couldn’t believe it.
“When I heard the Prime Minister say that he had done it because the Muslim community was unhappy about it I found it even more incredible.
“The plain fact of the matter is that the government’s decision is an unconditional surrender to narrow interest groups against the interests of the Australian people.
“Linking it to the increase laws on an terrorism is utterly false.
“The security situation has not changed since Mr Abbott and his colleagues were elected.
“It is the same as it was then: dangerous.
“And these additional security measures are undoubtedly necessary.
“But the Prime Minister seemed to think that if he walked away from this electoral commitment to restore our undoubted right of free speech he would somehow win over the Muslim community and others.
“Well, you know, when Mr Chamberlain went to met Mr Hitler in Europe in 1938 Mr Hitler said to him ‘just give me Czechoslovakia and that’s the end of my ambitions’.
“Mr Chamberlain fed him and came home and said ‘there will be peace in our time’.
You don’t turn crocodiles into pets by feeding them.”
The Abbott Government had proposed taking the words insult, offend and humiliate from section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Under proposed changes, announced by Attorney-General George Brandis, the stipulations in 18C would be replaced with provisions outlawing racial vilification and intimidation.
In defending the changes, Senator Brandis told parliament that people have “a right to be bigots”.
Mr Abbott said he was dumping the draft laws because they had become a complication in the government’s relationship with the Muslim community.
Former state Liberal leader comparing Muslims with Nazis and crocodiles 
Brown Paper Bag fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Aug 9, 2014
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2014 10:03
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24675397/couple-accused-of-457-visa-scam/
You'd think running a successful food chain would bring in enough money for yourself without having to scam people.
quote:The couple who established one of Perth's best-known Indian restaurant chains have been accused of running a visa scam where fellow Indians have allegedly been charged up to $50,000 each to jump the migration queue.
The Immigration Department has confirmed it is investigating Maya Masala founders Bhupinder Singh Grewal and his wife Parveen Kaur Grewal over claims they have been selling access to 457 visas and jobs in their restaurants.
Mr and Mrs Grewal, who are going through a divorce, have denied the allegations.
Mr Grewal called them "total rubbish" yesterday.
_The Weekend West _has spoken to a licensed migration agent who claims he worked for the Grewals on about 10 visa applications between 2012 and last year before turning whistle- blower when he discovered what he called "significant irregularities".
Three Indian nationals who claim they agreed to pay the Grewals after answering advertisements for chefs have also spoken out, alleging that they were left broke and facing deportation after their visa applications fell through.
In one case, a 30-year-old man attempted to take his own life after discovering he had lost what was his elderly parents' retirement savings.
Sukhmeet Singh claims he first met the Grewals in late 2011 when he applied for a job as curry chef at Maya Masala in Northbridge.
In a statement he made to police, he claims he was told by the Grewals that they could sponsor him on a 457 work visa if he agreed to pay them $50,000 up-front. Mr Singh claims that he waited several months to receive his visa but was told repeatedly by Parveen Grewal that it was still being processed.
When he finally contacted the Immigration Department for an update, he was told the application had been rejected and he was an illegal immigrant.
The department says it is an offence under the Migration Act to charge an employee any costs associated with their employment.
But it refused to discuss the investigation into the Grewals, saying only that it was an "active matter".
Mr Grewal, who is in Vietnam on business, has accused those making the allegations against him of lying.
"We have not committed any offence, nor have we ever asked anyone to pay us $50,000," he said.
Mrs Grewal also denied having ever accepted payments for visas.
Through her lawyer, she provided documents to _The Weekend West _showing the department had given her company - Nirmal Nominees - a clean bill of health in December.
Former Ethnic Communities Council head Suresh Rajan said he believed visa scams were rife in WA.
He said he had been warning the Government for years that a crackdown was needed but little appeared to have been done.
He said he had heard of cases where workers had been granted 457 visas but had never worked a day for the employer who sponsored them.
The workers themselves had to cover the cost of their own income tax and superannuation payments to keep up the appearance that they had legitimate jobs.
"I have been raising concerns about this issue for seven years now and the department has not seemed to have acted," Mr Rajan said.
Internal Immigration Department papers leaked to the media this week revealed efforts to stamp out visa fraud were minimal, particularly in WA.
_The Weekend West _is also aware of two unrelated investigations being held by WA Police into similar visa-related scams.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2014 04:34
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
So yesterday News Corp pissed off a whole bunch of people by showing a graphic photo on the front page of the New York Post, it's just moments prior to James Foley's beheading - they've now done essentially the exact same thing with the Terrorgraph, Hun & the Courier Mail.
They've obviously decided the only way Abbott's going to turn the polls around is through fear of dem terrists.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2014 01:57
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
So biff snorten was the senior labor figure investigated about a 1980s rape
Wait, what?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2014 06:24
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
Unless the LNP government has drafted changes to move to voluntary voting and holding all elections during business hours this cannot possibly end well for them. It just seems like recent announcements, and especially backing down on GP payment exemptions for pensioners and children, will wipe them off the board with all but the most rusted on good-old-boys LNP voters.
I would be shocked if they hadn't considered both of those changes to voting.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2014 09:53
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-p...824-107sov.html
Resettled refugees say they are desperate and living 'like animals in the jungle' on Nauru
August 25, 2014
quote:More than 50 refugees resettled by Australia on Nauru say they have been "abandoned to live like animals in the jungle".
In an interview from the tiny Pacific island, the refugees told Fairfax Media they don't have enough clean water, food, or work to sustain themselves and that they can't afford phone calls to their families back home.
"In our country, the Taliban will come and they will slash our throats and finish our lives. It will take 10 minutes to die. But here, they are killing us by pain, taking our soul and our life slowly. In our countries there is physical torture, but here we are being tortured mentally," one refugee told Fairfax Media.
Already, one refugee has died. He accidentally drowned in June when he was swept into the sea while bathing.
Fifty-one men – 44 Pakistanis, six Afghans and one Iranian – are living at the isolated "Fly Camp" on Nauru. The men are Shi'ite Muslims, most of whom fled Taliban violence or religious persecution in their homelands. Most speak Pashto as a first language, but the majority are university educated and also speak English.
While they are classified as "single men" for their refugee status, almost all have wives and children in their homelands.
Fairfax Media spoke to several men from Fly Camp who said they had told representatives of the Nauru and Australian governments they were planning a peaceful protest outside Nauru's parliament house.
Several of the men said if their pleas for assistance weren't heeded, they would kill themselves by immolation in protest to highlight the desperation of their colleagues.
"I am ready for suicide. Other men too. We prepare ourselves for suicide. That is the permanent solution to our problem," one man said.
Refugee families have been settled within Nauruan communities, but the single men say they have been forced to live, three-men-to-a-container, at the isolated makeshift camp removed from all other people.
Only five of the men have jobs, mainly as labourers, and the $360-a-month allowance refugees are given – about $12 a day – does not cover basic living expenses.
Almost all food is imported, and costly, in Nauru.
"We cannot buy clean water. We have shortage of food. We cannot afford any clothes. We don't have enough money for soap or toothpaste, our basic needs for life."
There is no rubbish collection or septic system at the camp, the refugees said. Mosquitoes and flies are constant.
"Australia sends good water for the government workers here but tells us to boil the bad water. This water makes us sick. We have gastro and we have skin problems."
The men say they are depressed at their treatment. Said one, "I have committed no crime, but I am treated like a criminal. All of us, we are abandoned to live like animals in the jungle."
Phone calls home were prohibitively expensive, they said, with most only able to speak to their wives and children for a few minutes once or twice a month.
"One man's mother had a heart attack. He needed some money to call his family. Tears were in our eyes at his terrible state, but we could not give him money to call his family. We gave what we had but it was not enough for him to call to see how his mother was."
Beyond living conditions, the men's most fundamental complaint was the lack of opportunities to work to remit money home and the absence of any prospect of being reunited with their families.
"I fled my country for my life so I could have a future. But now I have no future.," one said.
Refugee advocates have previously raised concerns about impoverished Nauru's suitability as a resettlement country for refugees under Australia's care.
Former chief justice Geoffrey Eames said the rule of law was in "a very parlous state" in Nauru after the President unilaterally dismissed him and the chief magistrate. External media attention is limited. The country charges $8000 for a single media visa.
There is little indigenous economy – the unemployment rate is about 90 per cent – and the country is almost wholly dependent on Australian aid for its survival.
Representatives from the Nauru government were not available to comment on Sunday. The Australian government did not respond to questions.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 25, 2014 06:13
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/24823764/bullock-backs-racial-discrimination-changes/
quote:Rookie WA Labor Senator Joe Bullock has indicated he would support lifting the ban on offending, insulting or humiliating people on racial grounds – if given the opportunity.
I sure am glad that this guy replaced Louise Pratt in the Senate.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2014 03:21
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24842599/labor-back-in-business-in-wa/
Labor back in business in WA
EXCLUSIVE Andrew Probyn Federal Political Editor The West Australian August 29, 2014, 3:35 am
quote:Secret ALP polling has found the Abbott Government has gone into freefall in WA since the May Budget, with Labor beginning to seriously entertain an unlikely return to government within two years.
The West Australian understands Opposition MPs were this week briefed on a "Target 21" strategy that focuses on coalition-held seats that would be needed for Labor to regain power.
Three of Labor's 21 target seats are in WA - Hasluck, Swan and Cowan.
Labor's pollster UMR surveyed about 600 people in Hasluck on August 16-17 and found a 9 per cent swing against the Government.
On primary vote, Labor was sitting on 40 per cent, with the coalition on 37 per cent. This translated to a two-party split of 54-46 in favour of the ALP, a near reversal of last year's election result when Liberal Ken Wyatt held the seat.
An aggregation of all public polling in WA for the three months to July, that takes in the post-Budget period, found there had been a 12-point rise in primary support for the ALP in the State.
This translated to a 7.7 per cent swing to the ALP on two-party preferred status.
The turnaround in Labor's fortunes in WA is all the more remarkable considering its dreadful performance in April's repeat Senate election.
Labor recorded just 21.5 per cent in the April 5 vote, snaring just one of the six Senate spots up for grabs, compared with 34 per cent for the Liberals, 15.6 per cent for the Greens and 12.3 per cent for Palmer United Party.
Labor MPs, many of whom expected to spend at least two terms in Opposition, said the party's officials appeared intent on avoiding a repeat of the 1998 election when Labor fell just six seats short of throwing John Howard's government out of office after just one term.
Under Kim Beazley, Labor won almost 51 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in the 1998 poll but fell six seats short of forming government.
Labor’s Target 21 strategy, devised by the ALP assistant national secretaries Sebastian Zwalf and Paul Erickson, would see the party establish campaign structures and volunteer networks in up to 30 coalition-held seats.
Voter information in these seats will be collated and analysed ahead of the 2016 election to guide identification of swinging or undecided voters who will be subject of a telephone campaign.
During last year’s federal election campaign, ALP volunteers made one million calls to voters, up from 70,000 in 2010.
One Labor MP said that the May Budget and the Government’s botched sales job had dramatically changed the electoral landscape.
“But I’m not getting too excited because face it, we are still 18 months to two years away from the next election,” he said.
I'm sure a group of people as competent as WA Labor can sustain this.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2014 01:26
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2024 13:48
|
|
- Brown Paper Bag
- Nov 3, 2012
-
|
quote:'G'day': Refugee boat welcomed to Australia by tinnie
Amid chaos and as thousands of Vietnamese tried to flee the communists, Hieu Van Le, aged 22, and his sweetheart Lan decided to make the perilous trip in a small boat bound with hopes of reaching Australia.
"It was very dangerous and very risky, like many other refugees out there, I guess," he said.
He said they endured weeks of monsoonal downpours and storms and feared ending up in the bottom of the sea.
But finally the tiny boat made it to Australian waters and a remarkable welcome.
"Out of this curtain of mist we saw the little tinnie coming toward us, quite fast, and there were two blokes standing in it, shorts and singlets, sunhats on, white zinc cream on their noses, the fishing rod sticking up into the sky," he recalled.
"They waved at us and they come very close, very close and very fast to our boat and one of them raises the stubbie up as if proposing a toast.
"'G'day, mate!' he shouted. "Welcome to Australia."
Times sure have changed.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2014 06:03
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2014 07:32
