Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Negligent posted:

Clive palmer wanted to be a lawyer when he was a kid but the world forced him to go into real estate and then mining.

There's also the bit in there where he ran Joh's election campaigns.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 08:07

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:28

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Negligent posted:

What bit is that? In the quarterly essay on him it claims the media director title he had was largely just that.

I think he was more heavily involved in the 83 campaign than the 86 one, but I've not read that essay.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 08:29

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Starshark posted:

Post your favorite Abbott quotes ITT. I can't find mine, but it's the one where he refers to carbon dioxide as a "invisible, odourless, weightless, tasteless substance".

quote:

"I know politicians are going to be judged on everything they say, but sometimes in the heat of discussion you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark.

"Which is one of the reasons why the statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth are those carefully prepared, scripted remarks."

Also his time during the Republic debate in the 90s where his main argument was that politicians shouldn't be trusted.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 04:48

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Cartoon posted:

He's used it several times since, most recently to delay same sex marriage.

It's definitely a recurring theme with him (hence the other comment I posted).

When the first thing you hear someone say is "don't trust people like me" it gives an impression that is very hard to shake.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 05:06

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Cleretic posted:

I'm kind of curious what Abbott will do with himself if/when he leaves parliament. He's immensely unpopular, incompetent and inarticulate, so he's unlikely to get stuff like consultancy gigs, opinion columns and speaking tours. Guy Rundle suggested that he'd start doing a lot of charity fitness stuff, and that I can believe, but he's not the type to resign himself ONLY to those.

I can certainly see him writing an autobiography, but I feel like that would be far less appealing to people than an unofficial tell-all since he's known to be a pretty intellectually dim and dishonest man.

Consultancy stuff isn't so much about leveraging his expertise as his contacts and access, and he's still got that.

Plus he's written opinion columns and books before, so I don't see why they should stop now. He's inarticulate as a speaker but his writing isn't worse than anything else you'd read on op-ed pages.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 06:12

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

To tie together a few things, have a read of an article Abbott wrote about his time in the seminary, and why he left (it was because the Church kept trying to help people)

Tony Abbott posted:

l felt �had �by a seminary that so stressed �empathy� with sinners and �dialogue� with the Church�s enemies that the priesthood seemed to have lost its point.

quote:

A little earlier, I had been appointed college infirmarian. This post was a legacy from quasi-monastic days and involved supervising the medicine cabinet and ensuring that the ill were not forgotten in their rooms. My view was that I knew nothing about medicine and that those too sick to eat in the dining room ought to be in hospital.

Anyway, I thought, most were malingering. So I encouraged �self-service� of medicines and suggested that meals would be better fetched by the friends of the sick. Many deeply resented this disdain for college�s caring and communitarian ethos.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 06:51

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

freebooter posted:

This happens quite a lot under the Westminster system in the UK. Not sure why it doesn't in Australia - possibly because we're a far more homogeneous country and "local representation" isn't as big a part of being an MP.

It happened a lot more here ~50 years ago too.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 07:20

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Brown Paper Bag posted:

Tony didn't want to be of any help or comfort to others, so he pursued a career in politics.

I know you meant it as a joke, but yeah, that's basically it. He didn't get into politics to help people, he got into politics to fight his ideological opponents.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 09:40

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

freebooter posted:

We can laugh at Shorten all we want but the only people who actually parse political messaging to this degree are people like us. The vast, vast majority of Australians (and swing voters) hear this and think "hmmm yeah."

The ALP cops so much flak for their focus groups and poll-driven policy, but in a country with compulsory voting I'm not sure a Corbyn-like figure would actually work.

It's not exactly working for popular every-man Bill Shorten though.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 05:41

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

E: Oops

Les Affaires posted:

The devil is in the details obviously, but if it's crafted in a way that there's no short or long term net loss to the workers involved then shifting the social aspect of wages and compensation from business to "society" (as in the tax system) could in effect mean we are all subsidising weekend workers rather than just the organisations who operate at those times.

The first issue is making sure it isn't received as a once-a-year thing at tax-time, since that doesn't really help the people who need it.

Doctor Spaceman fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Oct 7, 2015

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 03:52

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I also have trouble seeing the government take a big hit to the deficit so they can give money directly to low income earners.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 04:41

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Laserface posted:

labors infrastructure is just more roads. even with tony gone they still agree with his policies

quote:

Rail line to Sydney's Badgerys Creek airport, connecting the Western and Inner West and South lines
Melbourne's Metro Rail
Brisbane's Cross River Rail project
Gold Coast Light Rail stage two
Ipswich Motorway
Pacific Highway
Queensland's Bruce Highway
Tasmania's Midland Highway
Electrification of the Gawler rail line in Adelaide
Pledge to support public transport in Perth, possibly the State Opposition's Metronet plan

Six of the ten are rail or public transport projects, but sure.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 06:31

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Furnaceface posted:

I have come here to be really mad at Australia for giving the world Lynton Crosby and ruining both the UK and (probably) Canada.

The country that gave the world Thatcher has very loving thin ice to stand on.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 12:44

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

hooman posted:

But... our judicial system is like one of the best things in this country...

It keeps trying to put Hinch in gaol, so it's doing something right.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 02:45

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Broadbent's got a history of this; he crossed the floor against some of Howard's immigration stuff too.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 04:29

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Anidav posted:

For starters, wouldn't the communities need 4G for that sort of consistent GPS tracking and toast notifications?

Is Malcolm indirectly promising 4G for remote indigenous communities?

Apparently the thought bubble was about letting teachers contact the parents easily.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 07:24

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Negligent posted:

3. How often do members of the public read the reports of mid sized privately owned businesses? Almost never. You know who does? Their rivals and competitors.

Also kidnappers, who use annual reports to choose their targets.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 06:33

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Tommofork posted:

What happened to Brandis, I lost track of him after Turnbull came from behind with the knives.

He lost the Arts Ministry because he needed to concentrate on being a bad Attorney General

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 01:39

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

open24hours posted:

I don't know of any papers, but Australia in past decades had full employment and low inflation. Singapore currently has almost full employment low inflation.

Full employment essentially means "unemployment is at NAIRU". We've never had 100% employment.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 03:20

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

open24hours posted:

That's what it means now, it used to mean actual full employment, or very close to it.

When we had "full employment" we had ~2% unemployment, because that's what the NAIRU was at the time, regardless of whether the concept was known or not.

You can't invalidate something that changes over time by saying that things were different in the past.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 03:34

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

open24hours posted:

Well you can't just say that the NAIRU was coincident with whatever the unemployment rate was either. Presumably it would be possible to calculate past NAIRUs to see if they match the actual unemployment rates.

Yeah, it is, although data beyond about 30 years ago becomes harder to find.

I'm also going through this

Jumpingmanjim posted:

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/1/13/interest-rates/kill-nairu

In case other people are having issues with the paywall

quote:

With any luck 2015 will finally see the death of the NAIRU, the acronym that has produced more misery in the past 50 years than any other.

It stands for the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment and refers to the idea that there is a level of unemployment below which wages and prices will start to rise, so that interest rates have to be hiked to get unemployment back up. Ever since Kiwi economist Bill Phillips plotted British unemployment against inflation in 1958 and invented the Phillips Curve, the relationship between price stability and a whole lot of people being out of work has been a pillar of economic theory and central banking practice.

The so-called dual mandate of most central banks � full employment and price stability � is actually regarded as a theoretical impossibility; or rather �full employment� is another way of saying �NAIRU�.

In other words, for 50 years or so our economic betters have decreed that inflation can only be kept under control, and the value of money preserved, if a lot of people don�t have a job. And they have gone about ensuring that that is the case.

The other theory about inflation, the one put forward by Milton Friedman, is that it is �always and everywhere� about money: the more money there is, the more inflation.

Well, both of those theories are now falling apart. Friday�s employment data in the US saw unemployment fall from 5.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent but hourly wages actually fell. And of course the Federal Reserve has materialised more than $US3 trillion of fresh money since 2008, yet inflation is still falling. When the US CPI is released on Friday it is expected to show that consumer prices fell in December. Most of that comes from the 50 per cent collapse in the oil price, of course, but wages growth is not inflationary either, even though unemployment is falling. Despite all this, economists are still churning out reports that link the next increase in interest rates to the level of unemployment (they�ve given up equating it to money supply � that�s a dead duck).

So what IS the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment? Well, according to the US Congressional Budget Office, which calculates it regularly, it�s � well, it�s 5.7 per cent � above the current US unemployment rate. But actually it�s a moving target, fluctuating between 5 per cent and 6 per cent since 1950. That is, at least 5 per cent of the workforce always needs to be unemployed for prices to be stable. What rubbish. I read a report yesterday from the economists at Societe Generale that the NAIRU is "generally thought to be between 5.25 � 5.5 per cent, which will be reached by late winter/early spring. By that time, we should see at least budding evidence of wage pressures".

Or not. Human jobs are being replaced by machines and software algorithms at an accelerating rate, so pay rises are very hard to come by these days, and will be for a while. On top of that cloud computing and other technologies are reducing non-labour costs and making labour more productive. At the same time, tough competition is forcing firms to pass on their cost reductions in lower prices to maintain market share. By the way, that�s what�s going on in the oil market: OPEC is attempting to hold market share against competition from the American shale producers, and the price has collapsed as a result of a price war.

That�s not to say inflation is dead. But it�s definitely in a coma, on monetary life support, with most central banks printing money and holding interest rates at near zero to try to get average prices to go up instead of down. Their concern is deflation, not inflation. So maybe someone should take the NAIRU out the back and strangle it, and start thinking about actual full employment instead of 5 per cent. They might not achieve it, but you never know unless you try.

I don't think it's one of Kohler's best.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 03:50

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

gay picnic defence posted:

I've seen ads in the toilets at uni offering to do assignments for people. The sooner exams become worth 70% of the final grade the better.

They are in plenty of science subjects already, but unfortunately exams are also pretty limited in what they can test.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 07:04

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Les Affaires posted:

I think just about every exam we had in the masters program was open book. Memory be damned, if you can't remember the model, look it up. The book won't help beyond that.

You run into problems in some science subjects where there are a really finite number of problems that can be answered in the time an exam takes, so letting people bring notes / textbooks in is tantamount to just letting them bring in all the answers.

E: Alternatively, they can end up ball-breakingly hard.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 09:51

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

~~Barnaby Joyce~~ Bill "Mad Bomber" Heffernen is at it again.

ABC posted:

Liberal senator Bill Heffernan has used parliamentary privilege to accuse an unnamed former prime minister of being an alleged paedophile, while also pointing the finger at the judiciary.

Senator Heffernan has been campaigning for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to expand its investigation to include the court system.

He told Senate estimates today that he had given the commission "very disturbing" police documents that named at least 28 alleged paedophiles, some of whom are prominent Australians.

But he said the commission had told him it could not investigate the cases because they were outside its terms of reference.

"We have in Australia, sadly, a compromise at the highest of levels. There is a former prime minister on this list and it is a police document, " he told senators.

"It's not so much the secret that's the problem, it's when a group of people, such as the 28 people on this page, keep each other's secrets that the institution is compromised."

Senator Heffernan did not expand on the allegations or provide any further details, instead focusing on what he believed were the failings of the "the institution of the law".

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 07:56

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

katlington posted:

Its Howard.

E: John howard is a pedophile.

Remember when Howard appointed a priest as Governor General, and it turned out he'd covered up kiddy fiddling?

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 08:25

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Seagull posted:

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who has his own long-term leadership ambitions

I never tire of this:

The Austrlian, 2009 posted:

Anyone serious about rebuilding the party knows Dutton cannot be left to become a noble lost cause.

That's because he's one of the toughest young operators on the opposition's front bench. Despite being only 39, a recommendation in itself for a party now likely to be out of office for at least two terms, he has been hardened by government office, serving as minister for workforce participation and as assistant treasurer.

As the years of government roll away from the Coalition it is going to need to conserve the corporate memory of office. Dutton, now in the shadow health portfolio, will be crucial to this process. He's aggressive and he's economically literate.

If Turnbull falls on his sword or is pushed on to it before the next election, Dutton will be a candidate for the deputy leadership, which will accompany that scenario. He'd probably win.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 01:49

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Mr Chips posted:

What does Abbott need board positions for? He'll be on 300k + whatever he makes from speaking fees at loon pond functions.

He is really bad with money.

Remember that he asked Labor to give him more money when he lost his ministerial salary.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:07

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

BBJoey posted:

Didn't he have to remortgage his house because of LNP being kicked to opposition?

Yup.

He asked Albo and Faulkner if Shadow Ministers could get a raise, they said no, and so he took out a new mortgage.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:18

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

They bought their house for ~400k about 20 years ago, so it's not simply about paying that off.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:24

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

They aren't going to have a reps only or DD election.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 12:08

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

What happened in Tasmania after the 2010 election? I know the Greens had some ministries but I don't know the details.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 11:23

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Quasimango posted:

Eric Abetz isn't actually that old, he only looks it. He's four years younger than Turnbull, and just three years older than Barack Obama. He's just a crank.

He's also been around longer than almost everyone else in the Senate, except Kim Carr and Glen Core.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 14:03

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

open24hours posted:

Labor doesn't have anyone Turnbullesque they can replace Shorten with anyway. They'll charisma-free hacks.

Labor doesn't need that to beat the Coalition anyway.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 04:32

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

freebooter posted:

Is Swan still in Parliament? I thought all the key players who backed Gillard resigned? Or did they just go to the backbenches?

It was a bit of a mix. Plenty of them (eg Burke, Conroy, Plibersek, Leigh, Macklin) are still around.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 08:27

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

A close associate of Kevin Rudd doesn't like Wayne Swan?!?

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 13:22

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

BBJoey posted:

I believe the argument is property rights = good, other rights = bad, because gently caress you.

Other rights are simply expressions of property rights.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 10:34

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Birdstrike posted:

I think Albo would still win Grayndler in a canter.

The redistributed boundaries include 14,000 extras from the solidly Liberal parts of Drummoyne which might cause problems if they preference the Greens, but there doesn't seem to be a strong Green presence in the area.

There are dozens of us. Dozens!

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 02:12

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

freebooter posted:

It's really quite fascinating how conventional wisdom says ordinary Australians distrust and dislike politicians, yet if something is bipartisan there will not be a peep of protest or even discussion about it amongst 90% of the electorate

There's really a huge range of views on the matter, including a sizeable chunk that think the current policy is far too lenient.

The current position isn't something everyone wants, it's something enough people will tolerate.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 08:52

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:28

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

katlington posted:

chriss kenny used to be malcolm turnbulls chief of staff? lollĺllllll

Yup, Credlin was demoted to deputy when the Dogfucker was brought in.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 02:07

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