quote:

She said the former prime minister was undone by his own performance as leader.

Mr Abbott rejected this too: "If that's true, why has the government not changed any of its key policies?"

quote:

The federal government should help set a minimum standard for halal certification to avoid “unscrupulous” exploitation, a Senate inquiry has recommended.

The inquiry into third-party food certification found “lacklustre” regulation of the domestic market failed to give consumers confidence and helped spread misinformation about what halal means.

Some certifiers were “nothing more than scammers”, the former committee chairman, Sam Dastyari, said, though he stressed the report dismissed any suggestion of a link between halal and terrorism funding, as some submissions had argued.

In a report tabled in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, the committee recommended that the federal government work with the halal certification industry on setting minimum standards which certifiers would be forced to comply with. The standards would be monitored by the Department of Agriculture.

The Senate inquiry recommended that the government become the sole signatory on a halal certification, effectively making it responsible for the standards of meat exports.

It also recommended the federal government promote “whole of country”, government-led halal certification for all foods. The committee concluded that certification for halal food for the Australian domestic market should be subject to the same standards as export food.

SadisTech posted:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/bank...127-gl9q2i.html

hooman posted:

RIP me, I am undone.


loving kill me.

quote:

Folkes said the shirts were just a “bit of Aussie larrikinism” to draw attention to the group’s purpose of marking the anniversary.

quote:

The captain of an asylum-seeker boat allegedly intercepted by the Australian navy has told a court how he negotiated a hefty payment to take the migrants back to Indonesia to avoid going home “empty-handed”.

The money was given to us to take the migrants back to Indonesia, and to be honest I need the money – that’s the very reason I took this job.

“I can’t go home empty-handed.”

Humiang said he and one senior crew member got US$6,000 each, and US$20,000 was divided between the four other crew members.

He took the money and agreed to take the migrants back to Indonesia, as he had not yet been paid by the people-smuggler who had arranged the trip to New Zealand.

QUACKTASTIC posted:

Macfarlane's mum

Pred1ct posted:

Kevin Andrews, our not long gone defence minister has belched out some garbage on The Spectator.

In particular he makes praise of the novel Le Camp des Saints, a story of immigrants coming to Europe and destroying western civilization. And what sort of tone does this book have?


http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/the-camp-of-the-saints-part-ii/

quote:

e birthrate in much of Europe has fallen to dangerously low levels. Without immigration, countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal will see their population halve each generation.

These low levels are almost impossible to recover. They have a significantly adverse impact on economic growth. And they create a demographic vacuum that others will seek to fill.

deathofmusic posted:

http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/turnbull-in-talks-to-sell-nbn-to-large-telcos-20151204-glfy5d


So there it is, the final stage of the Liberal plan coming to fruition already. NBN destroyed, tax dollars wasted, we all lose. Telstra wins, again.

Cartoon posted:

If they are below the high-tide mark they are outside the migration zone and can not be reported on because it is an on water matter.

redweird posted:

That dude was our PM

Laserface posted:

Im not following the US election stuff at all. is it actually looking like Trump is going to be elected? surely they arent that stupid?

adamantium|wang posted:

quote:

A house in north Queensland has been graffitied with anti-Islamic slurs and set alight by vandals apparently angered by an innocuous Arabic welcome sign.

Slogans including "f*** Allah" and "is this where you hide the terrorists?" were scrawled throughout a Townsville home, with sections of the carpet set alight in an attempt to burn the house down.

Rougey posted:

Has Scott Morrison committed any serious crimes against humanity or done anything to offend god in the last 24 hours?

Birb Katter posted:

ScreamingLlama posted:

Latest MYEFO shows a backslide to Hockeynomics



If you're going to vote LNP next election, you may as well walk up to me in person and spit in my face.

quote:

Private pathology companies are competitive enough to absorb the costs of reduced bulk-billing incentives, but some patients will still be hit with increased charges, the federal health minister, Sussan Ley, has conceded.

Ley argued that the pathology industry was big enough not to have to pass on costs associated with the changes, saying it was “highly corporatised and highly competitive”.

But she said there may be a cost for some customers.

“It’s a matter of managing the business, managing the patients, charging those who can afford some, something,” she told Sky News.

quote:

Some Coalition MPs have questioned the appropriateness of Australia’s domestic spy chief phoning politicians with a request they use moderation in their language about Islam.

The director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Duncan Lewis, contacted a number of Coalition politicians to warn that robust comments risked becoming a danger to national security, the Australian newspaper reported.

Guardian Australia understands Lewis has been speaking about Asio’s heavy reliance on assistance from Muslim communities and the importance of language. He is believed to have provided a similar message in a briefing to premiers and chief ministers at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Sydney last week.

The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, moved to head off the criticism of Lewis and suggested he was simply doing his job.

“If the director general of Asio has formed the view that a public debate in Australia has the potential to hamper the work that his organisation is undertaking in relation to counter-terrorism then of course it’s appropriate for him to speak out,” Bishop said.

But Queensland Liberal National party backbencher George Christensen, who has made forthright remarks about the “war against radical Islam”, said while he had not personally received a call he would be concerned if legitimate debate was being curtailed.

“Where do we draw the line with that? If we can’t say there’s a problem within Islam and it needs to be sorted out by the moderate Islamic leadership and that is somehow anathema and will cause national security issues, well goodness me, where do we stop next,” Christensen told Guardian Australia.

Western Australian Liberal backbencher Dennis Jensen also raised free speech concerns. “To say something is off limits and should not be discussed is extremely anti-democratic,” he told the Australian. “It’s really a slippery slope.”

Tasmanian Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic told the same newspaper he understood why Lewis and security agencies wanted to ensure their ability to do their job. “But the comments of myself and others that I have seen have not criticised Islam but those who seek to hijack and misrepresent Islam,” he said.

Malcolm Turnbull has sought to recast the national security debate by emphasising mutual respect and describing Muslims as “our best allies in the battle against terrorism”. The prime minister has said that all of his public comments about Islam were “carefully calculated” to reflect advice from Asio and the Australian federal police.

Turnbull’s predecessor, Tony Abbott, last week called for reform within Islam, saying the religion had never undergone its version of a reformation and not all cultures were equal. Other Coalition MPs have made forthright comments about Islam, prompting the assistant minister for multicultural affairs, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, to caution against “simplistic” calls and “megaphone politics”.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said Lewis was “a distinguished public servant” and the Liberal party should be ashamed of itself for dragging him “into their own internal spat”.

Lewis had not done anything wrong by reinforcing long-standing warnings from police and security agencies that divisive rhetoric about Islam was counterproductive, Dreyfus said.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said Turnbull should show leadership and “rein into line the far-right wing of his political party and not leave it to our security agencies”.

“Our security agencies’ time is better spent catching terrorists and preventing crime than having to ring up recalcitrant Liberal backbenchers to explain to them the basics,” Shorten said.

The Greens senator Nick McKim said Lewis was “quite right to point out that fuelling a backlash against Muslims makes it harder for Asio to do its job”.

Asio declined to comment on the phone calls on Thursday, but Lewis went public with his concerns about language in an interview with News Corp tabloids published last Sunday. Asio depended on a “very good” level of cooperation and information from Muslim communities in order to protect national security, Lewis said. A backlash within the communities would be “very, very dangerous”.

“We need to be very temperate and we need to be smart as a community,” Lewis told News Corp. “This problem is solvable. But we need to be smart.”

Lewis is not regarded as partisan. He had a 33-year career in the military, including commanding the SAS and overseeing forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, before serving in senior public service positions under both sides of politics.

He was appointed to a national security role in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under John Howard in 2005, was named as national security adviser under Kevin Rudd in 2008, and became secretary of the Department of Defence under Julia Gillard in 2011. The Abbott government named him as the director general of security with responsibility for Asio last year.

The former Asio chief, David Irvine, also warned against blaming all Muslims “for the sins of a tiny minority”. In a speech last year, Irvine said the strongest defence against violent extremism was within the Australian Muslim communities.

Birb Katter posted:

Looks like Abetz isn't happy with the QANDA review

Lid posted:

helmet bike chat


let the games begin

Solemn Sloth posted:

Good, if the department had approved the request everyone would go and get cancer just so their family could visit Australia.

adamantium|wang posted:

Abetz jumped on the radio this morning to say that Turnbull's new ministry should include Abbott.