Graic Gabtar posted:

bumpunisher69

quote:

Like many revellers, the Turnbull government starts the new year wobbly on its feet, with a 2015 hangover making it hard to focus on the bright lights of the 2016 election year.

Malcolm Turnbull has forced South Australian minister Jamie Briggs to resign in a silly and unfair move, inflaming internal friction and raising standards of ministerial accountability to ridiculous levels.

Photos of the night in question — which I have seen — show Briggs happily posing, and the young diplomat who sparked the inquiry in familiar and informal pose with Briggs’s chief of staff, Stuart Eaton. Yet Briggs has lost his ministerial position for similar informality.

This is not a matter of excusing sexual harassment; no such allegation has been made here. The episode is supposedly about inappropriate behaviour.

More: Minister, texts and Stormies night

Perhaps we should now expect any minister seen in a bar after midnight paying someone a compliment (even in the company of others) or offering a goodbye kiss on the cheek to hand in their commission.

The folly is exposed by what the Prime Minister had to do about Mal Brough. Brough’s role in the so-called Ashbygate affair should have precluded him from the ministry, but as a numbers man for the Turnbull leadership coup his baggage was overlooked.

Once details of the police investigation elevated the issue two months ago it was clear Brough should stand aside, but Brough and Turnbull resisted. So when Turnbull — with input from his deputy, Julie Bishop — decided Briggs had to go, it would have been unsustainable to keep defending Brough.

On the one hand Turnbull tested the limits of ministerial standards by allowing Brough to stay despite a police investigation. On the other, Turnbull has deemed one complaint from a public servant that (even at face value) amounted to no more than a social indiscretion could bring Briggs undone.

No one in the Coalition partyroom misses how Turnbull’s tolerance was extended to a key supporter while a Tony Abbott loyalist was told to walk the plank. Combined with pressure from the Nationals for more ministerial places, the convenience factors for Turnbull worked against Briggs.

Tension between Bishop and Briggs that goes back at least seven years was also a factor ensuring the unintended consequences are unpredictable. To this point Bishop (and others) are privy to details of the claim that Briggs is not.

The cabinet governance committee that ruled on the matter was deeply troubled by the implications of imposing such a hair-trigger standard of accountability and there was a sense the process dictated the outcome. Presented with an independent opinion that guidelines were breached it would be a brave committee that overturned it.

Yet Briggs was not accused or harassing, intimidating or “hitting on” the public servant — just that amorphous “inappropriate” claim.

In matters such as this the process often appears to lean towards guilt unless innocence can be proved. The standard set will be impossible for ministers to live up to. The internal tensions will simmer down or fester — more likely the latter.

It all comes after the disastrous attempted defection of dumped minister Ian Macfarlane. While “Macca” was the architect of his own humiliation, his secretive plot saw Nationals leader Warren Truss conspire against the interests of Turnbull and the Liberals. Truss is expected to retire at the election and so could be replaced soon by his deputy, Barnaby Joyce. If Turnbull and Truss were The Odd Couple, Turnbull and Joyce will be like Blackadder and Baldrick.

A further complication is the imminent release of a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption report bound to mention cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos. As a witness rather than a target, Sinodinos should survive, but given the evidence he’s unlikely to escape criticism, sparking attacks from Labor.

So Turnbull starts the year popular with voters; confronted by internal tension and issues of ministerial standards; challenged by flexing from the Nationals; considering tough policy decisions; requiring a ministerial reshuffle; and needing decisions on election timing and strategy.

If he has made a resolution or two, there is no doubt what they should be: commitments to unity, stability and economic reform. If governments are competent and make the right calls in the national interest — even unpalatable ones — the public generally will reward them. And because that sort of leadership can be unpopular and difficult in the short term, maintaining unity through tough times is paramount.

Turnbull exploited Abbott’s political mistakes and inattention on unity to seize the top job and now must create stability. He is yet to start repairing the budget and reforming the economy. Happily for him the solutions are complementary: the necessary reform tasks — cutting costs, tackling unions and minimising taxes — are the battles that will unify his team.

The big question for 2016 is whether Turnbull will adopt this approach or risk disharmony by taking his party to the Left to please journalists and massage polls. Still, surely while ever the alternative is Bill Shorten and an ALP promising to fix nothing, Turnbull can expect to see in 2017 from the Lodge (where, no doubt, the bar will close as the clock strikes midnight).

Recoome posted:

i cannot believe that Chris "dogfucker" Kenny, known fucker of dogs, has carnal knowledge of an animal of the canine variety

gay picnic defence posted:

How does the government plan to get student loans back from people living overseas? Can they force you to declare your income, do they have any means of verifying it, and can they do anything about it if you give them a fake number?

quote:

Chinese debt binge is fuelling a dangerous property bubble

Kevin Rudd may privately badmouth China, but his economic strategy is heavily dependent on continued strong Chinese growth. His earlier return to surplus depends on the new mining tax delivering massive new tax revenues. His new tax also obliges the Commonwealth to reimburse 40 per cent of unrecovered losses if a project fails. So were Chinese growth to slow, not only would mining tax revenues decline but, in a double whammy to the budget bottom line, if projects were to fail the Commonwealth would be called on to pick up its share of losses.

So how sound is the government's assumption that the China boom will continue for many years?

China's extraordinary growth and development is awe inspiring. But it is capable of making the same mistakes of excessive spending and borrowing as any other country.

As the historian Niall Ferguson recently observed, blow-outs in public debt are always and everywhere ''consequences of political weakness …Excessive expenditure and insufficient taxation, failures to make decisions about unsustainable fiscal policies are political, they are not the results of profound economic weakness."

Working out the true level of government debt in China is very difficult. Nobody believes the official figures of about 20 per cent of GDP. But how much higher is it?

Victor Shih, of Northwestern University in Illinois, is the leading analyst of government debt in China and he has pointed to the way in which local governments have established their own local investment companies largely for the purpose of borrowing funds from Chinese banks to develop and invest in real estate.

He has estimated that when you take into account the massive indebtedness of the local investment companies, government-related debt in China would, by next year, be close to RMB 40 trillion ($7 trillion) or 96 per cent of GDP and 4.6 times government revenue.

Shih's estimate would place China among the countries with the highest debt to GDP ratio, although it should be noted that China's debt (like that of Japan) is almost entirely funded from its own domestic sources.

And those domestic sources are the prudent households of China who have been depositing their savings in banks at deliberately depressed official interest rates. By lending at low, indeed negative real, interest rates the thrifty households of China have been subsidising what is all-too-often speculative and wasteful investment by government-owned companies.

Another China economist, Michael Pettis, points out that this effective financial subsidy by households to the banks and their customers amounts to at least 5 per cent of GDP a year and possibly up to twice that.

This raw deal for depositors is helping to fuel the property bubble. When Chinese banks are offering depositors a guaranteed loss after inflation of 1 to 2 per cent a year, is it any wonder that Chinese families are jumping into the property boom in the belief that residential property is a "hard asset" that holds value - unlike cash, which certainly does not. One property analyst was very candid when asked why there were so many apparently unoccupied flats in Beijing as there were no lights on at night: "The flats are occupied. Cash is living there."

HSBC recently calculated that the total value of China's residential property market was now 3.27 times GDP, which is nearly twice the peak reached before the subprime crisis in the US and approaching the levels in Japan during its 1980s property bubble.

Asset bubbles are like a Ponzi scheme - everything is fine until the cash dries up and asset prices stop rising. Like it or not we are exposed to the Chinese property bubble. The iron ore China buys from Australia is turned into steel, and most of that goes into building apartments and infrastructure. Our bauxite and alumina exports are turned into aluminium, of which about 40 per cent goes into construction in China.

So at the same time as we congratulate ourselves on escaping from the consequences of the property bust in the United States, the resources boom that underpinned our strong economic performance is itself based on another debt-fuelled property boom in China.

The Chinese government is acutely aware of the risks of the local government debt binge and consequent property bubble creating what the leading economist Fan Gang recently described as "an internal 'Greek crisis' ". And apart from the threat to bank balance sheets, rapid inflation in property values prices young families out of the housing market.

Already the Chinese government has announced it will reform real estate taxes, and most believe this will result in a new annual property tax.

Li Daokui, a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, has also called for an increase in the interest rates paid on bank deposits. This would better reward Chinese households for their thrift and reduce the flow of cheap money to property development. As part of this credit tightening policy, the China Banking Regulatory Commission has increased the capital and provisioning requirements for Chinese banks, with a director, Liao Min, saying: "We are ready to take the punch bowl away."

Hopefully a combination of fiscal discipline and solid, if somewhat slower, growth will resolve China's debt and property bubble without any damaging economic shocks - either there or here.

Malcolm Turnbull is the Liberal MP for Wentworth.

Birb Katter posted:

So Dutton went to send "mad loving witch" about Samantha Maidens Briggs bit to Briggs but sent it to Maiden instead. Dutton is getting _lightly smoked on the front page of the tele

Frogmanv2 posted:

Dog your research on tls before you buy anything. They sure as poo poo aren't going broke anytime soon, and pay good consistent dividends.

Anidav posted:

ACA supports reserving breeding for the rich and powerful and letting the poorer humans die out.

Laserface posted:

They should make Contraception compulsory for all negative gearers, just to see the shock and loving awe on the faces of the middle-upper class people getting tax breaks who dont understand why the cops are holding them down and forcing them to swallow a Plan B pill.

The Anustralian posted:

Dick Smith’s two-year life as a ­listed public company came to an ­abrupt end when the banks appointed a receiver to the company and the troubled ­retailer appointed a voluntary ­administrator.

The company’s lead bankers, NAB and HSBC, appointed James Stewart from Ferrier Hodgson as receiver and McGrathNicol will act as the company’s administrator.

Dick Smith is expected to ­confirm the appointments on Tuesday morning. The company will now be formally wound up in a process aimed at maximising returns for the banks.

Dick Smith investors were tonight bracing for more painful news after the embattled retailer voluntarily suspended its shares ahead of tomorrow’s announcements. Investors already had to contend with two earnings downgrades since August, including $60 million in inventory write-offs, pushing shares more than 80 per cent lower.

ewe2 posted:

quote:

Onions Australia investigates reports farmers are supplying imported onions to supermarkets, claiming they grew them locally
ABC Rural
By Danielle Grindlay

Updated Mon at 12:48pm
Onions from the United States arriving in Australia.
Photo: Onions Australia is investigating reports local farmers are repackaging imported onions, as depicted, as their own and supplying major supermarkets. (Supplied)
Map: Mount Gambier 5290

The peak industry body for Australian onion farmers is investigating reports some growers are supplying imported onions to supermarkets, claiming they grew them locally.

Onions Australia said it had received information about farmers buying imported onions, re-packaging them and selling them to Coles and Woolworths.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Audio: Onions Australia chair Kees Versteeg describes reports of farmers repackaging imported onions and supplying them to supermarkets, claiming they grew them locally. Coles manager Brad Gorman says there is no plan to investigate suppliers. (ABC Rural)

In 2012 the two major supermarkets made commitments to only stock Australian onions, which meant growers had to ensure year-round supply.

Historically the industry has struggled to meet demand, but Onions Australia chair Kees Versteeg said growers were now on top of it and any fraudulent activity was an opportunistic way of making extra money.

Mr Versteeg said it was almost impossible to prove growers, or other players in the onion supply chain, were cheating consumers.

"I think it's about making the industry and Australia aware that the potential is there these things can happen," he said.

"The fact is, you can get away with it because no one is policing it. I even find it difficult to prove."

The reports of alleged farmer fraud follow revelations some retailers also have been selling imported onions with false 'Australian grown' signage.
Passing imported onions off as local 'very easy'

Onion industry representatives have repeated Mr Verteeg's concerns to ABC Rural, including another grower who said he knew of two peers mixing imported onions with their own produce.

Mr Versteeg, who runs an onion farm and packing company, said the practice would be "very easy".

"There's no one dropping into our packing facility and investigating those things," he said.

In having the direct-supply relationships that we have with our growers, you absolutely have that trust in place.
Brad Gorman, Coles fresh produce manager

"And that's the problem — onions that are not being traced back to some certain extent as to where they come from, they could be coming from anywhere ... they could be from China."

So who is responsible for ensuring consumers are getting what they pay for, when a sign says 'Australian grown'?

Mr Versteeg said it was "a tough question" but placed responsibility on retailers.

"I've got to be 100 per cent sure as a retailer, being a major retailer or an independent retailer, that the product indeed is coming from the country I put on the shelf," he said.

"It's one thing to say, in the media and out there, 'Our products are grown in Australia and are coming from Australian growers'.

"How can you back that up?"
Coles trusts growers, has no plans to investigate reports

Coles was the first supermarket to announce it would only stock Australian onions on its shelves.

Fresh produce manager Brad Gorman said the commitment was of "significant value" to the onion industry.

"I would hate to put a dollar figure on it but we sell more than 30,000 tonnes of brown, white, red and pink onions across the country all year," he said.

When that happens we don't go and import them, we just give consumers another offer and work with our growers to get supply back online.
Brad Gorman, Coles fresh produce manager

"It gives our growers surety of supply. They know that there's a customer there for their product all year round."

Mr Gorman said the decision to stock Australian onions came down to consumer demand.

"Australian customers prefer local product," he said.

"We decided to listen to them, work with our growers, and ensure we were all Australian-grown."

Despite the onion industry's concerns such a promise could not be ensured, and that fraudulent activity was underway, Mr Gorman said Coles had no plans to investigate its suppliers.

"Absolutely not, we have great faith installed in our growers," he said.

"They grow with integrity, they support Australian jobs and there's absolutely no reason for us to investigate them."
Growers are not under too much pressure, Coles says

Mr Gorman said Coles' direct-supply relationships were the "best way" of regulating traceability, but conceded it was a system of trust.

"A lot of the industry's onions are sold through central markets," he said. "When that happens you tend to lose the traceability of it.

"In having the direct-supply relationships that we have with our growers, you absolutely have that trust in place."

Mr Gorman rejected suggestions growers were under too much pressure to meet demand, saying if there was a shortage of onions, that message would be conveyed to consumers.

"We've had challenges in white onion supply for a couple of weeks," he said.

"When that happens we don't go and import them, we just give consumers another offer and work with our growers to get supply back online."

Pickled Tink posted:

The first First Dog of the new year. The first of many.

Recoome posted:

Obviously the source is UPF supporter, or person with schizophrenia/delusions

Doctor Spaceman posted:

So the ABC was pressuring a journo into not writing about the NBN?

open24hours posted:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/01/15/razer-bowie-rape-culture-and-how-feminism-became-the-westboro-baptist-church/

Is this article any good?

ewe2 posted:

Unusually, catallaxy has been utterly silent a day into this! Never mind, one of their main Essendon supporters proves by awesome logic how unfair WADA's appeal is. Also, anti-vax phd's are totally ok otherwise it's censorship. I'm sure they'll get around to the ABC some day.

Recoome posted:

AusPost

Greyhound Racing Victoria

why do a lot of these need it?

open24hours posted:

So who's going to get knighted tomorrow?

open24hours posted:

More like Plibersuck.

Recoome posted:

https://www.facebook.com/NeilEriksonMedia/videos/992173744188201/

froglet posted:

My partner had never actually listened to the lyrics of Depreston until today, he could hardly believe something so depressing managed to get into the Hottest 100.

For reference to those who haven't heard it:

tithin posted:

Safety stasi

quote:

Public Transport Victoria 'fudging' train overcrowding statistics for Melbourne morning peak, Greens say

Half of Melbourne's morning peak train services are almost double their capacity and transport authorities are covering up the real statistics, according to the Greens.

Data obtained under Freedom of Information showed the capacity on six of the city's 11 rail lines exceeded the 800 passenger benchmark during the morning rush, the party said.

Greens Victorian leader Greg Barber said infrastructure had not kept up with the population boom in parts of the outer suburbs and the city's growth corridors, and accused Public Transport Victoria of "fudging" its statistics.

"The standard is 800 people per train, that's considered to be overloaded, but on most lines pretty close to half the trains are now exceeding that standard," Mr Barber said.

"I think they've broken a new record in this survey because they had 1,262 people on one train [on the Pakenham line]."

He said the survey, which is conducted twice a year, compared figures from May 2015 to the same month in 2014.

"We got the raw data from the survey, and it turns out they've been fudging the figures," Mr Barber said

"Anytime a train gets cancelled or delayed, that causes overcrowding, but they actually exclude that from their figures because they say that's not normal.

"But cancellations and delays are normal, they're happening all the time."

TG-Chrono posted:

Lay down with dogs, end up in England.