Dennis Shanahan posted:

THE renewed attempt to panic Tony Abbott into a false step or force Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop into an early leadership challenge is driven, in part, by the fear the Prime Minister’s position may recover.

Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

Leonard Nimoy passed away today. I read both his autobiographies last year and they were great, short and sweet and funny. "I am not spock" (1975) and then "I am spock" (1995), definitely worth a read if you ever watched/liked TOS. I remember in it him talking a lot about how much he would smoke and how much he regretted it

Gough Suppressant posted:

There's no good outcome from Turnbull being the leader come next election.

Gough Suppressant posted:

...(... a sack of rotten smelly potatoes)

Lid posted:

A reminder that Luke Foley's big first announcement as Labor leader after Robertson resigned , his first policy announcement following a few years of Liberal party member after member being turfed for ICAC finding rampant corruption, was to...

Announce that if elected he would lower taxes on horse racing so we could be the new home of horse racing instead of Victoria. An issue that had literally never been suggested before in the current governments or oppositions as a thing to consider, now one anyone in the public gave a gently caress about.

Holy loving poo poo.

It wasn't helped since with the dog racing scandal which, even though horse != dogs, has made gambling sort of a no go zone thus defeating everything else to do with the policy.

Liberal are winning in NSW so don't be shocked in a months time.

Also


Ah Dennis and Bolt, the last two true believers. Hell I haven't even seen Greg Sheridan pop up to claim Abbott's rising like the reincarnated F35.

Cartoon posted:

There are standard to be maintained in journalism you kno..

With all the varied and important issues requiring public examination you can count on one brave paper to really have it's hand on the..

Trapezium Dave posted:

Hopefully we'll have less poo poo government for a year at least.

Also I don't want Shorten to win the next election by default just because he's not Abbott. Labor needs at least some pressure in order to get their act together. At least Turnbull might make some overtures to the political centre which might make Labor re-think their current position as the Liberal-lites.

tomkash posted:

there is also the part about them saying they won't build the off ramps for Westconnex in the electorate of Newtown because it's looking like the Greens will win the seat..

MythLisp posted:

Yeah, the only big policy the Libs introduced I can think of that has negatively affected New South Welshman was the lockouts in the cbd that has forced many small businesses to go under and close up shop, or bar staff having hours cut/becoming unemployed .

....and Labor was calling for that before the Libs were.

Honestly on the state level to me, NSW Labor and Liberal are as conservative and corrupt as each other.

Oh and the train timetable change that screwed a small number of people over. I'm not even sure if that's been fixed up yet.

xPanda posted:

I'd say that the removal of one's right to silence was a "big policy" which the NSW Libs introduced, but no one seems to care.

MythLisp posted:

I had completely forgotten about that.
The influx of completely poo poo policies from both State and Federal Libs is hard to keep track of.

quote:

Six private tertiary colleges in Queensland are among 23 across Australia being investigated after widespread allegations of students being tricked into signing up for courses.

It comes as the federal government this week introduced new laws designed to clamp down on the dodgy private colleges that have proliferated throughout the country.

The legislation will allow the government to create quality standards at short notice, force unethical marketers to identify which registered training organisation [RTO] is providing the course and extend the registration period for compliant colleges from five to seven years to better target audits to "high risk" providers.

Assistant minister for education and training Simon Birmingham announced that the Australian Skills Quality Authority [ASQA] would also investigate 23 vocational educational institutions.

"Any training providers found to be engaged in practices that are contrary to the required national standards could face regulatory sanctions, including the cancellation or suspension of their registration," Senator Birmingham said.

The names of the training organisations under investigation have not been released. Aside from the six from Queensland, others include seven from NSW and six from Victoria.

Those businesses that breach fair-trading laws face penalties up to $1.1 million.

State Minister for Training and Skills Yvette D'Ath said while ASQA was heading up the investigation, she was concerned to see six organisations were from Queensland.

"Labor wants to ensure quality in training and that is why prior to the election Labor announced it would establish an independent Training Ombudsman, to ensure the training sector receives proper scrutiny and is delivering quality courses and outcomes for students and employers in this state," she said.

"This is a matter I'll be taking seriously and I'll be working with federal government to ensure the sector receives effective and robust oversight in Queensland."

Last week, The Australian Council for Private Education and Training head said that the group wanted problem operators to be "eradicated".

"Whatever measures can be taken to protect the interest of students and the reputations of quality providers must be acted on, now," the organisation's chief executive Rod Camm said.

"We fully accept that there are problems that must be stamped out, but this behaviour is only in a small number of providers and they do not represent the entire industry."

The sector has boomed since the government opened up public funding to the private sector.

Courses can cost from $10,000 for a diploma of school age education and care, to $19,000 for a diploma of electronics and communications engineering. While students rack up thousands of dollars in debt, taxpayers are also being hit, with loans being taken out through the federal government's VET FEE-HELP program.

Since 2011, ASQA has refused 15.6 per cent of applications nationwide to set up a new private college, while 6.1 per cent of applications to re-register an existing RTO have been denied.

ASQA chief commissioner Christopher Robinson said that while the majority of training organisations provided useful skills, those that did not meet the required standards would have the book thrown at the them.

"Registered training organisations are required to provide students with information including any VET FEE-HELP, government funded subsidy or other financial support arrangements and any obligations to repay any debt incurred," Mr Robinson said.

Lid posted:

I just check my phone and realised I had a voice mail from wednesday that I'd missed. It was an automatic voice message phone call from the Liberal Party, specifically naming Baird and my local member, explaining that that the elictricity privatisation was not an electricity privatisation as they would be selling off only 49% of the poles and wires and to not be taken in by Labor's lies. So that's a thing.

Anidav posted:

THE FREE MARKET

open24hours posted:

Not really, the reason these things are so profitable is because the government pays for them and people who would never ordinarily be able to spend $10k+ are suddenly able to.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Westconnex is the massive loving road project going through the Inner West of Sydney. Extending the M4 east to join up with Anzac Bridge / Victoria Road and extending it south to link up with the M5.

Anidav posted:

THE FREE MARKET

quote:

College claims $50 million in loans

Australasian College Broadway has received more than $50 million from new Federal Government HECS-style training loans since 2009.

The college's Salon Management diploma course costs $27,880 and many students pay using student loans known as VET-FEE-HELP.

The loans are billed in instalments and students must withdraw from a course before specified census dates to avoid continuing to be billed a government debt.

One former tutor, who did not wanted to be identified, said she helped an illiterate student write a letter to withdraw from the college and later saw it torn up in a bin.

"That student had language and literacy problems. I helped her write that letter. It was just on a piece of paper and there was no form because there wasn't a form," she said.

"That letter was ripped and put into the bin. Obviously I saw it because I helped her write it."

She said the college hampered students' attempts to withdraw from courses, and avoid the ensuing debt.

If they were telephoned she said they were put on a loop.

"They would get the run-around. Many times [staff] were saying [relevant staff] weren't there when they were there," she said.

"And the students were absolutely fed up. They couldn't sign out."

Another former staff member said she dealt with up to six people a week wanting to withdraw from the course.

She said they were "stonewalled".

"I believe they were deliberately ignored because they wanted to cancel out of the program," she said.

"It would take them six months, at least, of continually calling before any work was done for them in releasing them from VET-FEE-HELP."

Her concerns were backed by Ms Saxton who said she tried to leave the college early on after becoming dissatisfied with the quality of its courses.

"I asked for a piece of paper to get out of there - 'they said that's fine and we'll go get the paper work'. They didn't," she said.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Audio: Sydney college accused of claiming federal loans without training students to standard (AM)

"Then I asked again and they said they'd post it."

Another single mother, who also wanted to remain anonymous, told the ABC she made numerous attempts to withdraw from a diploma at the college.

"None of my phone calls were returned," she said.

The college said all requests to withdraw from the college were dealt with immediately, with the college ceasing to charge students from the first date they phoned the college.

"The college believes that there was one occasion when two withdrawals were placed on the ... desk by the mail clerk but were buried with other paperwork,'' the statement said.

"When the withdrawals were identified they were acted upon immediately and without financial penalty to the students.''

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I obviously do not want this to be considered an endorsement of the NSW Liberals, but they don't share the same hatred of roads that the Federal branch does and have actually got some pretty significant rail infrastructure projects planned / in progress. They're loving them up a bit (lol single deck cars) but they will actually talk about things like a second harbour crossing.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I obviously do not want this to be considered an endorsement of the NSW Liberals, but they don't share the same hatred of roads that the Federal branch does and have actually got some pretty significant rail infrastructure projects planned / in progress. They're loving them up a bit (lol single deck cars) but they will actually talk about things like a second harbour crossing.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

On the other hand, privatising VET and selling the electricity grid.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

On the other hand, privatising VET and selling the electricity grid.

Nuclear Spy posted:

Lid posted:

Ah Dennis and Bolt, the last two true believers. Hell I haven't even seen Greg Sheridan pop up to claim Abbott's rising like the reincarnated F35.

thatbastardken posted:

it wouldn't be that difficult to put shorten in place of turnbull either.