- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:Tonight I wanted to address why the Australians are here. There are two reasons why we are here and I will go through them momentarily. But firstly I should say good friends visits their friends in tough times. It is easy to visit your friends when things are going well. Fair-weather friends who come and go when things are on the up and up are easy to come by. Friends who come when times are tough – they are the real friends.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was approached by a young man at the reception here at the King David Hotel on Friday, his name was Aaron, and he asked me who I was and where I was from and I said I was from Australia and he said ‘why are you here?’. And I very simply said, because Australians love freedom. And he said very simply, that freedom isn’t free, right?. And I said exactly right. The reason why the Australians are here today, the first reason, is because Australians value freedom. And we have been fighting for freedom for 114 years and usually alongside our UK friends, whether it has been in the Battle of Beersheva here in Israel, in the Second World War, or the First World War, or more recently in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Vietnam and Korea, wars that are now well and truly in the past.
Whenever there has been a congregation of freedom loving nations versus non freedom loving nations, Australia has always been prepared to be in the fight and always on the right side. And that’s how we view the State of Israel that we are on the right side. It is a story about the King of Denmark during the Second World War when the Nazis changed their attitude toward the deportation of the Danish Jews. There weren’t many Danish Jews, about 8,000 or so but the King of Denmark when the Nazis changed their attitude and said that they would start to deport the Jews, said that the Jews are Dames and the Dames are Jews.
In other words, the concerns of Jewish Dames were the concerns of all Dames. In the same way I believe, and I think most Australians believe, that the destruction or defeat of Israel is a concern for all of us around the world. Because Israel is the beacon of freedom and liberty in the Middle East and Australia likes to believe that it is in the world. We are two sister nations believing in the same thing – freedom of the press, freedom of democracy, freedom of association. It shows that Israel has existential threats that requires them to take firm action to protect those freedoms, firmer actions than Australia has had to take to protect our own existence. So that is the first reason, ladies and gentlemen, why the Australians are here. Because we regard Israel and Australia as sister countries with the same value systems and we want to show our support for that system here in the Middle East.
The second reason is more personal, ladies and gentlemen, and it goes to the question of remembering some of the crimes of the past. The great crime of the past against the Jewish people was the Holocaust. And just coming to Israel as an Australian, and landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, even in the last few days travelling El Al, just by the act of coming here, we reaffirm that we will not forget the crime of the Holocaust against the Jewish people, and we stand with the Jewish people. Simply by the act of making sure this dialogue was not cancelled when some people said it should have been cancelled because it was dangerous, the Australians and British came here, simply by that act reaffirmed that we will not forget the Holocaust.
This is my sixth visit to Israel. And it is important that we come again and again to Israel.
To say it to those in the Islamic Jihad, the terrorists – Hamas or ISIS or whoever they are – that by their actions they won’t frighten Australians into coming to Israel and supporting Israel. That is by me and my colleagues, whether they are Labor or Liberal, are here supporting this Dialogue because it proves, ladies and gentleman, it proves that freedom is winning and tyranny is losing.
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Aug 1, 2014 02:56
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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Lateline @Lateline 11m
The government reveals it took 157 missing asylum seekers to within a few kilometers of India. Watch @jason_om tonight at 10.25pm
quote:Federal Government says 157 Tamil asylum seekers could have been security threat if told of destination
Lateline
By Jason Om
Updated 30 minutes agoFri 1 Aug 2014, 8:37pm
The Federal Government says the 157 asylum seekers at the centre of a High Court fight could have posed a security threat if they were told where they were going.
Court documents have revealed the Government came very close to offloading the Tamils in India, but was halted by an urgent interim injunction last month.
According to the Government's defence, filed yesterday, the Customs ship carrying the group arrived near India and was resupplied while the High Court case played out.
The men, women and children spent a month on ACV Ocean Protector before finally being brought to the Australian mainland last week.
In the week Immigration Minister Scott Morrison was holding talks with the Indian government, the plan was abandoned and the Tamils were transported to Australia's Cocos Islands.
While secrecy prevails around Operation Sovereign Borders, the documents reveal concerns the Tamils would be a security threat if they were given information about their destination.
"If the passengers from the Indian vessel were informed significantly prior to their arrival that they were being taken to India, they would take steps to prevent their effort to reach Australia from being thwarted," the defence case states.
Counsel for the Government, Stephen Donaghue, argues the Tamils would have threatened or engaged in self-harm and would have jeopardised the safety of the crew.
There were 35 maritime officers and 21 crew on board.
The court documents make no mention of the orange boats used to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia. Earlier this week, Mr Morrison refused to be drawn on operational details.
Under an agreement with India, the 157 asylum seekers will be assessed by Indian consular officials at the Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia and could be sent back to that country.
However, the asylum seekers must first agree to speak to the officials.
The Immigration Minister has said the Tamils would be processed offshore if they did not cooperate with the Indians.
The Ocean Protector's role in future missions is in doubt with the Government's lease on the ship not being renewed at the end of the year.
Watch the full report on Lateline tonight at 10:15pm on ABC.
Jesus loving Christ
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Aug 1, 2014 12:09
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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The 157 Tamil asylum seekers have declined to meet with Indian officials and are being shipped to Nauru.
quote:157 Tamil asylum seekers sent from Curtin detention centre to Nauru
Updated 5 minutes agoSat 2 Aug 2014, 9:51am
The 157 asylum seekers at the centre of a High Court battle have been sent to Nauru after they declined to return to India.
The Sri Lankan Tamils set sail from the Indian state of Pondicherry in mid June in a bid to seek Australia's protection.
The group, which includes families and children, were intercepted by Customs officials and held at sea for nearly a month.
Refugee advocates launched a High Court challenge before they were eventually taken to the Curtin Detention Centre in remote Western Australia.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison had planned to have Indian officials assess them in the hope they would choose to return to live in India.
But all have refused to meet Indian officials and they have now been taken to Nauru to have their claims for asylum processed.
Under the Government's policy, they will not be re-settled in Australia.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says the Government has mismanaged the case from the start.
"First they pretended they didn't even exist. Then they refused to be upfront with the Australian people with what was going on," she said.
"Now they've secretly smuggled them out to Nauru to keep them away from lawyers and advocates and this Government is making policy up on the run."
Lawyer accuses Government of 'trafficking'
Lawyer George Newhouse challenged the group's detainment at sea in the High Court and the group was eventually brought to the mainland.
Mr Newhouse says the asylum seekers were given the chance to talk to their lawyers about their options before they were moved to Nauru.
"These people were trafficked under the cover of darkness. This is the second time they've been disappeared," he said.
"They've been taken on the high seas, held prisoner for a month then shipped around to Cocos Islands, then the Curtin detention centre, and now in the middle of the night taken to another place."
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Aug 2, 2014 00:55
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:Treasurer Joe Hockey, Prime Minister Tony Abbott set to swing the Budget axe against 111 programs
Samantha Maiden National Political Editor
The Sunday Telegraph
August 03, 2014 12:00AM
AUSTRALIA’S immunisation program delivering lifesaving vaccines is among the targets of a secret hit list of $165 million in federal Budget cuts.
Divorced parents, the aged, depression sufferers and programs to help Aboriginal teenagers secure a place at university are among the targets of the “nip and tuck’’ approach to spending.
For the first time, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has confirmed the programs that face an “indexation pause’’ to Parliament in a secret hit list of 111 programs across multiple portfolios.
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott are still pushing hard to get Budget measures through.
In the May Budget Treasurer Joe Hockey confirmed a $165 million freeze on the indexation of funding for multiple programs but did not specify which would be cut.
But the full list of programs that face a nip and tuck to spending has been released to Parliament.
It reveals cuts across 10 portfolios including health, education, agriculture, communications and the Department of Social Services.
Senate Opposition leader Penny Wong had demanded the government release the documents.
The cuts to more than 100 programs include healthcare, education, workforce training for aged care, family crisis support and even counter terrorism measures.
They include a $26 million cut over four years to Family Relationship Services, a $1.6 million cut to the National Disability Advocacy Program and a $13 million cut to Aged Care Service Improvement.
“They have only now been revealed by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, in response to my questions in the Senate,’’ Ms Wong said.
It just keeps going. Its the Terror so no link.
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Aug 3, 2014 10:49
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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People seem to be incapable of understanding marginal tax rates.
e: plus the last time the marginal tax rate for the top bracket was 50% or over was 1986-87.
adamantium|wang fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Aug 4, 2014
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Aug 4, 2014 01:24
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote: Government told Tamil asylum seekers they would be forced onto lifeboats and dropped in the ocean
3 August 2014
Media Release – for immediate release
Lawyers for the 157 Tamil asylum seekers today revealed that Australian Government officers told the group they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats dropped into the ocean somewhere off the coast of India.
Nine adults were instructed in English how to use the lifeboats and told they had to obey Australian Government orders to go on the boats.
The move happened on around 14 July while the High Court proceeding was on foot and after the group had already been detained on the Oceanic Protector for almost two weeks.
“The Government’s willingness to consider forcing 157 men, women and children as young as one onto lifeboats and dump them out at sea makes a complete mockery of the its claims to care for their wellbeing and for safety at sea,” said Hugh de Kretser, Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Centre.
“The clients we spoke to were terrified at the prospect of being dumped in the ocean on lifeboats but were told they had to obey.
“What ever your personal views are on politics and refugee policy, this move was an affront to human decency.
“We have been told that on around Monday 14 July, 9 adults and 2 children were removed from the rest of the 157 in the group. The 9 adults were taken to a number of orange lifeboats and told that they would be put in them and would need to navigate them to India.
“They were instructed in English how to use the lifeboats. All of them speak Tamil and only 1 or 2 spoke a little English. They were told that each boat would have 50-60 people on it.
“When they refused, saying they had no experience in operating or navigating a boat and couldn’t take responsibility for ensuring the safety of the people on board, the officers told them it was an Australian Government decision and they had to obey.
“The 9 adults and 2 children were then separately detained from rest of the 157 for four or five days. Each day they were extremely fearful of what was going to happen to them. Then they were taken back into the three main rooms and reunited with the rest of the group. The entire group was then terrified that at any moment they would be dumped in the ocean.
“It’s not clear why the Government eventually decided not to proceed with the lifeboat plan but the whole episode reveals the desperate measures they are prepared to use regardless of the human cost.
“Secret detention on the high seas, trying to dump families in lifeboats in the ocean, secret overnight transfers, misleading the public, frustrating access to lawyers and to the courts – such behaviour from the Government is trashing the foundations of Australia’s democracy. Respect for the rule of law, open and transparent democracy and fundamental human rights are some of the things that have made Australia the great country it is, but this Government is seemingly willing to trash them all for a few cheap political points in the opinion polls.
“I was struck that despite everything they had been through, our clients thanked the Australian Government for bringing them to the Australian mainland. Now they’ve been secretly transferred to Nauru and given the reports of the state they arrived in, I’m deeply concerned about their wellbeing.
“These 157 men, women and children have been subjected to a level of cruelty and callousness that has no place in modern Australia,” said Mr de Kretser.
The Human Rights Law Centre has been told that:
* The majority of the group are Christians.
* They raised the Virgin Mary flag on the boat to seek her protection for the voyage.
* They are Sri Lankan Tamils.
* They are fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka.
* Some of the asylum seekers arrived in India less than 6 months ago. (We were only able to speak to 15 of the 107 adults on board.)
* The asylum seekers revealed a precarious existence in India where they were denied basic legal rights including being unable to lawfully work, send their children to school or have freedom of movement. (India is not a party to the Refugee Convention.) Some revealed safety fears in India also. (We were unable to explore these issues properly with the 15 clients we spoke to and were urgently seeking proper legal access to all 157 asylum seekers in order to advise them on the option of speaking to Indian officials in Australia.)
* While detained on the Oceanic Protector between around 29 June and 25 July, the asylum seekers were locked in three separate windowless rooms (the 9 adults and 2 children who were separated for four or five days during the lifeboat incident were held in a fourth room).
* They were only allowed out of the rooms for meals and spent around 22 hours day inside the rooms.
* On a number of days they were locked in the windowless rooms for the entire day because the weather was rough.
* They did not know where they were.
* Families were separated – fathers were placed in separate rooms from women and children. Fathers were only able to see their family 3 or 4 times during the on-water detention.
Further points
* The asylum seekers were not permitted to have a change of clothing until we intervened on their behalf after speaking to them for the first time on 11 and 12 July, when they had already been detained for around 11 days.
* Despite Minister Morrison conducting a press conference early on Friday afternoon 25 July confirming they would be brought to Australia, the 157 asylum seekers were not informed of that news until we spoke to them late that afternoon..
* In Curtin Detention Centre, the asylum seekers asked for phone and internet access in particular to let relatives know they were safe. They were told they would have phone access on Saturday 2 August. They were transferred out of the detention centre on the night of 1 August
The Human Rights Law Centre has been working with Shine Lawyers and a team of barristers led by Ron Merkel QC to assist the asylum seekers. We obtained client approval to release this information on Friday 1 August.
The Press Conference Scheduled for 11am on Monday 4 August will proceed: HRLC office Level 17, 461 Bourke St, Melbourne.
More information: Hugh de Kretser 0403 965 340 or Tom Clarke on 0422 545 763 or tom.clarke@hrlc.org.au
This loving government
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Aug 4, 2014 03:15
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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Tory shitlord can't solve social problem with private money, melts down
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Aug 6, 2014 06:25
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:
Daily Telegraph sorry for using Boston bombing image to mock Mike Carlton
Editor of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, a News Corp paper, says he was unaware image of bombing victim was being used in spread about resignation of Fairfax Media columnist
Amanda Meade
theguardian.com, Friday 8 August 2014 12.25 AEST
Boston victium photoshop The original photo of the Boston bombing victim and the Photoshopped version, featuring the head of Mike Carlton. Photograph: AP/Daily Telegraph photo by Kenshin Okubo
The Sydney Daily Telegraph has apologised for manipulating an image of Boston bombing victim James Costello by adding an Arab headdress to portray journalist Mike Carlton staggering away from a Gaza-like disaster in a two-page spread headlined “Imploding. Always” and “Mad Mike Goes to War”.
The Telegraph’s editor, Paul Whittaker, apologised for using the Boston bombing victim’s image and admitted he was unaware of its origin.
“The Photoshopped image was an amalgam of different images put together during the art production process,” he told Guardian Australia.
“I was unaware that that particular image had been partially used. It is an inadvertent but regrettable mistake for which the Daily Telegraph apologises unreservedly.”
Carlton, who resigned as a Sydney Morning Herald columnist this week in the aftermath of a piece he wrote about Gaza, said: “It’s a new low in sewer journalism. To exploit that picture like that is just disgusting but not surprising for the Daily Telegraph.”
Carlton quit the Herald on Wednesday after being threatened with suspension for the language he used when replying to readers who objected to the article. The editor-in-chief of the SMH and Sun-Herald, Darren Goodsir, said Carlton had used “inappropriate and offensive language”.
The “Imploding. Always” reference was a play on the Herald’s tagline “Independent. Always”.
News Corp papers have openly celebrated the departure of Carlton, who does not hide that he is no fan of Rupert Murdoch.
The Telegraph ran two pages which included a lengthy news report, graphics and three opinion pieces on the “grumpy grandpa”.
The Australian newspaper also carried extensive coverage.
The photograph of Costello was flashed around the world in 2013. It showed the Boston resident dazed but alive and walking away from the bomb blast with his clothes hanging in shreds and his legs severely wounded.
It was taken by photographer Kenshin Okubo of Boston’s the Daily Free Press at the Boston marathon finish area on 15 April 2013.
In the Telegraph’s picture, Carlton is wearing a chequered Arab headdress and appears to be staggering away from the site of an Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
Costello made news by marrying the nurse Krista D’Agostino who looked after him when he was in rehabilitation for severe burns to his legs.
He later wrote he was involved in the tragedy to “meet my best friend, and the love of my life”.
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Aug 8, 2014 04:05
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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As there wasn't any scholarship to begin with, it makes it even more dodgy when you add that it was the College that contacted her for said "interview".
'Please come talk to us, we'd love for you to have $60,000 if you'd be so kind as to accept and this has absolutely nothing at all to do with your father in persuading him to deregulate university funding in Australia...'
From memory the scholarship had been awarded once before. To a family member of one of the executives. Scratch that, it was the founder's daughter.
quote:Though both the Prime Minister's office and the Institute themselves have been adamant that Ms Abbott's scholarship was awarded on merit through a non-advertised and discretionary scholarship known as the Chairman's or Managing Director's scholarship, questions have been raised about the nature of that so-called "merit" due to the fact that the scholarship was kept secret from students and most high-level staff at the school, and was not advertised before its awarding, nor announced afterwards. In fact, it seems that in the entire history of the school, the scholarship had only ever been awarded once before. Despite questioning, the school refused to disclose who that other recipient was.
And, as it turns out, there seems to be a very good reason that they're preferring to be tight-lipped on that one. Speaking with Studio 10, New Matilda's editor Chris Graham revealed that the only other recipient of the scholarship was Billie Whitehouse. That surname is not a coincidence, as she is the daughter of the Leanne Whitehouse, the founder and owner of the Whitehouse Institute.
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Leanne Whitehouse has issued a statement responding to assertions that Billie Whitehouse received the Chairman's Scholarship thusly: "The Chairman’s Scholarship (formerly the Managing Director’s Scholarship) has been awarded from time to time, at my discretion. My daughter, Billie, studied at Whitehouse. She was not awarded a scholarship but studied here free of charge. Many private tertiary providers have similar arrangements for their children and the children of their senior staff and teachers. The school is wholly owned by myself and it is not unusual nor surprising that, when my daughter showed a strong interest in a career in design, she pursued this interest at Whitehouse."
Apparently studying at mummy's design school free of charge doesn't count as receiving anything.
adamantium|wang fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Aug 8, 2014
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Aug 8, 2014 23:52
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:Whitehouse Awarded Aboriginal Scholarship To Course That Never Ran
By Chris Graham
The saga around the Whitehouse Institute of Design's secret $60,000 scholarship has taken another twist. Chris Graham reports.
The Whitehouse Institute of Design – the private Sydney college at the centre of a growing storm around a secret $60,000 scholarship awarded to the daughter of the Australian Prime Minister – gave away a small Indigenous scholarship for a course that never ran.
The scholarship, worth less than one-tenth of the value of the secret scholarship provided to Frances Abbott, was presented at a gala ceremony held in December last year, to celebrate Whitehouse’s 25th birthday.
Worth $4,400, it was awarded to a young Aboriginal designer from the Northern Territory, for a Certificate III in Design Fundamentals. The award was profiled by industry bible Vogue Australia.
But the scholarship – scheduled to start in January this year – never commenced because the Design Fundamentals course failed to attract sufficient student enrolments.
A Whitehouse insider told New Matilda it was the fifth straight unsuccessful attempt to launch the Vocational Education and Training (VET) course.
The two-day gala event - sponsored by major international brands including Emirates - was attended by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his family, and also hosted some of the heavy weights of the fashion industry.
The scholarship was presented by prominent Aboriginal model, Samantha Harris. There is no assertion from New Matilda that Ms Harris had any knowledge the course was unlikely to run.
In response, Whitehouse has insisted the scholarship was genuine, and claimed the student has recently commenced study at Whitehouse, enrolling in alternative courses to the same value.
However, Whitehouse has ignored repeated questions about why the student only commenced her studies six months after the scholarship should have begun, and why it occurred only after New Matilda began making inquiries about the issue.
Whitehouse officials refused to be interviewed for this story, and declined repeated requests to provide details on when Whitehouse first offered alternative studies to the scholarship winner. Instead a written statement was issued last week through public relations firm Res Republica.
The statement read: “Whitehouse was a sponsor of Australian Indigenous Fashion Week in April 2014.
“The Institute provided its Sydney Campus to many Indigenous fashion designers to use as a studio and their HQ in preparation for Australian Indigenous Fashion Week, and as part of our involvement in this event one scholarship for a new Whitehouse Institute course was awarded to a talented young designer.
“Enrolment for that course was lower than expected so it has yet to commence, however Whitehouse was committed to providing the student concerned with the scholarship support offered to her and she has taken up an equivalent alternative. Her studies are already underway.
“Any suggestion that the scholarship offer was not legitimate or that the young designer concerned has not had the opportunity to avail herself of a scholarship at Whitehouse is unfounded and untrue.”
On further questioning, Whitehouse conceded the student commenced her studies in June, which was after the story about Frances Abbott broke and New Matilda began making inquiries.
But a further statement from Res Publica described as “simply ludicrous” any suggestion the start date of the student’s enrolment was related to any “inquiry from New Matilda”.
A Whitehouse insider told New Matilda that the scholarship was offered in order to help attract “a big name” - such as Samantha Harris - to Whitehouse’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
The insider said the Design Fundamentals course was the second cheapest course offered by Whitehouse, although the college knew there was a strong chance the course would not run, because four previous attempts to start it had failed.
New Matilda unsuccessfully sought comment from the scholarship winner shortly after the details of Frances Abbott’s secret scholarship were publicly revealed in May.
Whitehouse’s 25th anniversary gala celebrations has already been the subject of several New Matilda stories.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott his wife attended the event, and were wined and dined in an exclusive ‘VIP function’ separate from hundreds of attendees.
Two cases of Dom Perignon champagne were provided for the private function, which was limited to around two dozen people.
Whitehouse has strongly denied ever lobbying the Prime Minister about higher education reform, although hundreds of people at the gala event witnessed college owner Leanne Whitehouse complain from the stage to Prime Minister Abbott about the red tape and costs associated with running private colleges.
Ms Whitehouse described her comments to the Prime Minister as “teasing”, and strongly rejected any suggestion Mr Abbott was lobbied at the private function later in the evening.
Ms Whitehouse’s assertions were backed by a statement issued to New Matilda in May by a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, who said he “could not recall” any lobbying efforts by Whitehouse.
The Prime Minister has also strongly refuted any suggestion the scholarship awarded to his daughter was not on the basis of merit, and has refused to update his parliamentary interests’ register on that basis.
Documents and testimony obtained by New Matilda in May revealed the scholarship for a Bachelor of Design was not advertised, was kept secret from other students and even senior staff at the college, and was awarded after Ms Abbott attended a single meeting with the college.
Whitehouse’s website today still reports that scholarships are not available for the Bachelor of Design course.
The Whitehouse story broke after the Abbott Government handed down a federal budget which it described as signaling “the end of the age of entitlement”.
That budget also proposes to increase the fees paid on student loans, and de-regulate the higher education sector, which will see fees for tertiary education courses sky-rocket.
The budget also, for the first time, proposes to provide access for privately owned colleges to $800 million in public funding.
The reforms have yet to be passed through parliament.
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Aug 10, 2014 11:23
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Owen and Cornwell have resigned from Parliament.
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Aug 12, 2014 05:25
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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About that wage breakout:
quote:Bernard Keane @BernardKeane 5m
So wages rose 2.6% in 2013-14, while CPI rose 3%. In the period Mar 13-Mar 14, company profits rose 10.9%. But let's slash penalty rates!
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Aug 13, 2014 02:50
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned Australians he may be forced to take "emergency action" and deliver Queensland-style austerity if structural budget reforms are not made.
And Mr Hockey has also suggested the proposed increase in fuel excise will not affect the less well off as much as high and middle income earners because "the poorest people either don't have cars or actually don't drive very far in many cases”.
And despite criticism over the government’s proposed changes over the pension, the Treasurer has also suggested "in net terms out of the budget, it is strongly arguable that pensioners are going to be better off" because the inflation rate is higher than average male weekly earnings at present.
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Aug 13, 2014 06:24
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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Yeah - we know now from the latest FOI request that when Hockey/Shepherd/Dutton were all talking about on average Australians see a GP 11 times a year they were lying. They were quoting the average number of times an aged pensioner sees a GP a year.
They are dishonest and stupid as it left anyone who studies this area scratching out heads going 
Speaking of which:
quote:Audit chief Tony Shepherd pushed traffic forecasts on Lane Cove Tunnel
August 12, 2014 - 8:25PM
Jacob Saulwick
Transport Reporter
Tony Shepherd, one of the key business advisers to the Abbott and Baird governments, was one of a group of ''big wigs'' trying to drive up traffic forecasts on the ill-fated Lane Cove Tunnel project, the Supreme Court has heard.
Mr Shepherd now chairs the WestConnex Delivery Authority, the organisation in charge of building the biggest motorway project in the country's history, and was the head of the Prime Minister's National Commission of Audit.
But in a former role as an executive at Transfield Holdings, Mr Shepherd ran the consortium that won the right in 2003 to build the Lane Cove Tunnel – a project now the subject of a $144 million legal battle between one of its investors and traffic forecasters.
According to documents read into court by counsel for AMP, the manager of two funds that lost money on the project, Mr Shepherd was one of several executives on the project in late 2002 trying to make the traffic figures more optimistic.
''I feel another loss coming on,'' Mr Shepherd was quoted as writing to a colleague in late 2002, just months after Transfield had lost a separate bid to win the rights to build the M7 motorway through western Sydney.
According to AMP, which is suing forecasters Parsons Brinckerhoff and Booz Allen Hamilton for $144 million, one of the ways Mr Shepherd's consortium avoided ''another loss'' was by inflating the number of motorists they said would drive through the tunnel.
In notes of a meeting she took with ''big wigs'' working on the consortium, one of the forecasters for Parsons Brinckerhoff, Gillian Akers, recorded the pressure they were applying to ''pump up the base'' forecasts for the tunnel.
Ms Akers recorded Ray Wilson, working for construction company Thiess, as saying they needed to ''get the traffic high then get the banks to build it''.
Mr Shepherd, meanwhile, was ''very upset by lack of growth 2006-2011'' and wanted to ''get to the bottom of it'', according to Ms Akers' notes.
''What else can we do to the network to get more traffic on the network into the tunnel?'' AMP's counsel Tony Bannon quoted the meeting notes as saying.
The consortium had an incentive to push up traffic forecasts for the Lane Cove Tunnel to lure investors, and also to be able to promise a large payment to the state government.
The promise of this payment would help the consortium win the bid to build the tunnel, which opened in 2007 with traffic figures drastically below forecast.
In another email quoted in front of Supreme Court Judge Michael Pembroke on Tuesday, Mr Shepherd wrote to consortium members that ''at a minimum'' they should try to sell investors on the basis of the upside, or more optimistic, forecasts.
Ms Akers and Parsons Brinckerhoff did manage to increase the traffic forecasts, despite several warnings by another employee, Raymond Golzar.
One of the ways they did so was by discarding modelling they had earlier performed for periods out of peak hour.
Instead, Parsons Brinckerhoff used only modelling results for the morning and afternoon peak hours, and applied an ''expansion factor'' to project how many cars would use the road in off-peak periods.
But according to a file note of a conversation read by Mr Bannon, when an AMP executive asked Ms Akers about modelling off-peak times, he was told the ''middle of the day not modelled''.
Parsons Brinckerhoff received a $333,000 success fee for working on the project.
ABN Amro, the investment bank working on the project, and Transfield sold their investments in the Lane Cove Tunnel before it opened. The tunnel entered receivership in 2010 and was bought out by Transurban.
The trial continues.
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Aug 13, 2014 10:42
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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gas thread
ban everyone
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Aug 13, 2014 22:27
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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Aug 14, 2014 10:47
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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In the poor house you must wait until you roll a 5 or 8.
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Aug 14, 2014 11:47
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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IT engineers.
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Aug 15, 2014 04:27
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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While parked in a disabled space.
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Aug 15, 2014 09:45
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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quote:independence would be a victory for the enemies of freedom and justice
quote:independence would be a victory for the enemies of freedom and justice
quote:independence would be a victory for the enemies of freedom and justice
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Aug 16, 2014 00:11
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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Your prime minister is loving retarded. He just gave us in the UK a lecture on how Scotland's independence is against freedom and justice, as if the Scottish were a bunch of a terrorists or something. He literally said those who voted for independence 'were not the friends of freedom and justice'. Christ.
How do you think we feel? We've had Murdoch backing him to the hilt for four years in opposition and have to put up with him as PM for at least another two, most likely another five.
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Aug 16, 2014 22:11
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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May 12, 2024 01:58
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- adamantium|wang
- Sep 14, 2003
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Missing you
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So, who wants to guess at the next Liberal leader? Turnbull doesn't have support, Bernardi is too crazy but might plausibly take the position (although, Senator). Newscorp have been writing Bishop puff pieces about her mangling her lizard features into approximations of sadness re: MH17 dead kids, so that might be a hint.
It'll be Morrison.
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Aug 17, 2014 23:18
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Aug 1, 2014 02:56
