starkebn posted:

LNP are the best at economic management

quote:

Background Briefing: International students underpaid, exploited Friday 3 June 2016 7:54AM (view full episode)

Vulnerable workers are an important election issue, with 7-Eleven's exploitation of workers still making headlines. In response, the Minister for Employment, Michaelia Cash, made an election promise last month of an extra $20 million for the Fair Work Ombudsman. But the Ombudsman is struggling to keep up with the under-payment and exploitation of international student workers, among others. At stake is the reputation of our multi-billion dollar higher education industry, which faces reputational damage. Listen to the full report on Background Briefing, Sunday 5 June at 8am, repeated Tuesday 7 June at 9pm.

quote:

Wet and wild conditions are expected along the New South Wales coast this weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology [BoM] has warned.

The BoM issued a gale warning for the coast from Byron Bay in the north to the Illawarra and Batemans Bay on the state's south coast.

quote:

Election 2016: Vietnam Veterans Association slams Scott Morrison's 'war on business' comments By Alexandra Beech Updated about 10 hours ago

The national president of the Vietnam Veterans Association has slammed the Federal Coalition's political references to war as "tasteless in the extreme". Treasurer Scott Morrison has accused the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of using "tax as bullets" as part of a "war on business". Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull did not back away from the language used. "The reality is that Bill Shorten has declared a war on business and the first casualties are jobs," he said. "The first casualties of Shorten's war on business are Australian jobs."

The comments came as a repatriation ceremony was held in Sydney for Australian soldiers and dependants who were buried in military cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore during the Vietnam War. Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia president Ken Foster spent time with the soldiers' families at the ceremony in Richmond and said Mr Turnbull had not considered their suffering. "For them to go home tonight and see a comparison of the war that their family members were killed in and have just been brought home from around 50 years later for a political argument, I see that as tasteless in the extreme," he said. "I'd like them, when they're thinking about the sacrifice of veterans and the sacrifice of their families, to please not put it into comparison with some of the damage that's done on the stock exchange or in the business world."

Mr Foster said war and the challenges faced by businesses or politicians were completely different. "With a war situation you go in there literally to destroy the enemy," he said. "I don't believe our political parties should be using a comparison of the way a war is fought to a political argument."

gay picnic defence posted:

Also it turned out that thing the LNP said wouldn't happen is actually happening.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/workplace-relations/chafta-has-opened-door-to-unqualified-workers-20160602-gpajfz.html

RIP jobs

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Great Barrier Reef: scientists ‘exaggerated’ coral bleaching THE AUSTRALIAN12:00AM JUNE 4, 2016 Graham Lloyd Environment Editor Sydney

Activist scientists and lobby groups have distorted surveys, maps and data to misrepresent the extent and impact of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, ­according to the chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Russell Reichelt. A full survey of the reef ­released yesterday by the author­ity and the Australian Institute of Marine ­Science said 75 per cent of the reef would escape unscathed. Dr Reichelt said the vast bulk of bleaching damage was confined to the far northern section off Cape York, which had the best prospect of recovery due to the lack of ­onshore development and high water quality. The report emerged as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten traded political fire on the reef’s future this week at the halfway point of the election campaign.

As Labor announced $500 million towards protecting the reef, the Opposition Leader said: “We will invest in direct environmental management. We will invest in science and research. We will invest in proper reef management.’’ He said if Australia did not spend the money on the reef, “it is in serious danger of being irreparably damaged. If we do not act, our children will rightly ask us why didn’t we.’’ The Prime Minister said the reef and its health were “a great passion of mine and my government’’. He cited the chairman of the World Heritage Committee, Maria Bohmer, who said last year Australia’s management of the Great Barrier Reef was a world-class example of coral reef management. “So there is no question that we are doing a good job,’’ Mr Turnbull said.

Activist groups last week seized on reports that a UN ­assessment of the impacts of climate change on iconic Australian World Heritage sites, including the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Tasmanian Wilderness was censored by Australia. It later emerged that the report the government was accused of censoring was complimentary of the Turnbull government’s actions to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The political debate and the ­release of the authority’s survey results highlights a growing conflict between the lead Barrier Reef agency and the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce headed by Terry Hughes. Dr Reichelt said the authority had withdrawn from a joint ­announcement on coral bleaching with Professor Hughes this week “because we didn’t think it told the whole story”. The taskforce said mass bleaching had killed 35 per cent of corals on the northern and central Great Barrier Reef. Dr Reichelt said maps accompanying the research had been misleading, exaggerating the ­impact. “I don’t know whether it was a deliberate sleight of hand or lack of geographic knowledge but it certainly suits the purpose of the people who sent it out,” he said. “This is a frightening enough story with the facts, you don’t need to dress them up. We don’t want to be seen as saying there is no ­problem out there but we do want people to understand there is a lot of the reef that is unscathed.”

Dr Reichelt said there had been widespread misinterpretation of how much of the reef had died.

“We’ve seen headlines stating that 93 per cent of the reef is prac­tic­ally dead,” he said. “We’ve also seen reports that 35 per cent, or even 50 per cent, of the entire reef is now gone. “However, based on our ­combined results so far, the overall mortality rate is 22 per cent — and about 85 per cent of that die-off has occurred in the far north ­between the tip of Cape York and just north of Lizard Island, 250km north of Cairns. Seventy-five per cent of the reef will come out in a few months time as recovered.” Former climate change commissioner Tim Flannery described diving on the Great Barrier Reef near Port Douglas recently as “one of the saddest days of my life”. “This great organism, the size of Germany and arguably the most diverse place on earth, is dying ­before our eyes,’’ Dr Flannery wrote for Fairfax Media. “Having watched my father dying two years ago, I know what the signs of slipping away are. This is death, which ever-rising temperatures will allow no recovery from. Unless we act now.”

Dr Reichelt said Dr Flannery’s language had been “dramatic” and “theatrical” and his prognosis, ­although of concern, was “specul­ative”. Dr Reichelt also rejected ­reports, based on leaked draft docu­ments, that improving water quality would cost $16 billion. He said the interim report had been rejected by a board of which he was member and “taken totally out of context” in media reports. The Australian Marine Conservation Society said the leaked information demonstrated the legacy of years of poor farming practices and government inaction, and highlighted the scale of ambition needed for political leaders to protect the reef. The society’s reef campaign ­director, Imogen Zethoven, said Australia’s plans to protect the reef’s water quality were “shockingly underfunded”. Meanwhile, tourism operators have stepped up a campaign to fight back against the onslaught of negative publicity. “It seems some marine scientists have decided to use the bleaching event to highlight their personal political beliefs and lobby for increased funding in an election year,” said Association of Marine Park Tour Operators executive director Col McKenzie.

Editor’s note: This emotive issue generated a high volume of reader comments. However, we regret this feature had to be disabled due to legal concerns.

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Greens call for NSW Police to examine pursuit policy after teen suffers serious injuries in chase Posted yesterday at 5:49pm

New South Wales Police is being urged to review its pursuit policy after a 15-year-old boy was left with serious head injuries, but the Police Minister denies there is a problem. A police patrol car began chasing the boy when he was spotted riding an unregistered trail bike at Seven Hills, in Sydney's west, on Thursday afternoon. The boy suffered serious head injuries when he crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided with an oncoming car. Greens MP David Shoebridge said the policy should be brought into line with other states including Queensland and Victoria. But Police Minister and Deputy Premier Troy Grant has rejected the need for a wide-ranging review. Mr Shoebridge said this was just the latest of many incidents where someone was either seriously injured or killed as a result of a police chase that had "escalated from a minor traffic infringement".

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Sydney siege: Lindt Cafe inquest considers whether to call Catherine Burn THE ARSETRALIAN4:16PM JUNE 3, 2016 Ean Higgins

NSW State Coroner Michael Barnes is considering whether to call Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn to give evidence before the inquest into the Lindt Cafe siege.

The move follows calls from the families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, the two hostages who died along with gunman Man Haron Monis in the crisis in Sydney’s Martin Place in 2014. It comes following exposure in The Australian of Ms Burn’s involvement in the police response to the siege, which was treated as a counter-terrorism operation, a portfolio within the police force for which Ms Burn has responsibility. In a statement, a Coroners Court spokesman told media: “The inquest is seeking further documents to ascertain whether there is a forensic purpose in calling Deputy Commissioner Burn or any other senior police officers.”

Monis, who says he took 18 hostages captive on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group, killed café manager Johnson in the early hours of December 16, 2014. The police operation to storm the building was ordered at that point, during which police shot Monis dead and, in the crossfire, Dawson was killed by fragments of a police bullet. Senior police officers including Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins have been grilled by lawyers at the inquest in the past fortnight about why the storming of the café was not ordered earlier, with the first shot fired 10 minutes before Johnson was killed. There have also been revelations of deficiencies in communications, resources and training in the police response.
It has emerged the lead police negotiator had no experience of a counter-terrorist or hostage situation, Mr Jenkins was not apprised of key developments in the final minutes of the siege including that a second shot was fired and that Johnson had been ordered to his knees, and the built-for-purpose police vehicle designed for such siege events had broken down years before and not been replaced.

Ms Burn, along with Commissioner Andrew Scipione, were the officers in the media limelight during and in the aftermath of the siege. Questions have been asked about why they have not been called to provide their insight into what happened on the night of the siege and on the broader issues. A few weeks after the siege Premier Mike Baird told journalists: “I will say I worked alongside Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn throughout the entire siege. I have nothing but admiration, respect and gratitude for the incredible work she did.” But Ms Burn refused to answer questions from The Australian this week as to what her role and responsibilities had been during the siege, or whether she had provided a written statement to the inquest as many more junior officers had done. In Dubbo at a pre-arranged road safety promotion today, Ms Burn refused to comment on the families’ request. “Because it is a coroner’s inquest I’m not really in a position to take answers about that,” she said. “What we are going to talk about is the traffic road show.”

gay picnic defence posted:

Why don't we just seal the stuff in concrete and steel and dump it in a deep part of the ocean? If you design the container right it should bury itself pretty deep in the sediment.

fliptophead posted:

A friend of mine yesterday was busy telling me the greens are the main driver behind pubs playing live music bring shut down in the suburbs because they're against noise pollution.

Not just being told to stop playing music but also to be shut down.

gay picnic defence posted:

Whats the current price (including construction costs) per MW over say 20 years of nuclear power compared to something like wind or solar power?

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Jobs, growth and other bedtime stories OPINION By Mungo MacCallum Posted about an hour ago

Malcolm Turnbull's message about jobs and growth is becoming increasingly unconvincing as the election campaign wears on, writes Mungo MacCallum.

Malcolm Turnbull's supporters have been praising him for keeping on message, which at least has the virtue of simplicity: my Government has a national economic plan for jobs and growth. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and this is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know, as John Keats more elegantly put it. And certainly our Prime Minister and his dutiful choristers have been hammering the line. But the problem is that it is not only repetitious, it risks becoming boring to the point of irrelevance to many of his potential listeners. And more ominously, as the message is progressively deciphered, it is becoming increasingly unconvincing. Apart from the various glosses about innovation, trade agreements, youth internships and the rest, the superannuation changes have become seriously divisive within Turnbull's own troops. His own cabinet secretary, Arthur Sinodinos, apparently promised a review after the election and Turnbull himself had to insist that he was staying firm.

But the centrepiece of the whole construction - the plan for short, medium and long term company tax cuts - is proving less and less like a plan for jobs and growth and more and more like a handout to the Liberal faithful. The revelation that the potential - and it is only that - improvement on GNP is a mere 1 per cent over 10 years at the expense of some $50 billion suggests that the result is simply not cost effective. Turnbull himself has started to hose it down; after all, he says, the initial impact will only be on small businesses in the first three-year term of government, and for the rest - well, that is three elections away. Who knows what might or might not happen then? In the meantime, we hope that the immediate winners will invest and spend, creating the jobs and growth - well, perhaps just one third of one percentage point of GDP. But even this could be wildly optimistic. Small companies are notoriously conservative: it is only the big end of town that jobs and growth might eventuate, and that is at least a decade away. The smaller players are reluctant even to replace old equipment, let alone to recruit new staff. They are more likely to sit on what they can get, especially in a time when net profits are falling.

Case for a company tax cut is solid

Labor may have reversed its position on company tax cuts because we're nearing an election, but that doesn't change the fact that a cut would be good for the Australian economy, writes Chris Berg. So Turnbull has had to admit that the surge he had confidently predicted in budget week will, if it happens at all, be more of a trickle; not much for the first few years and not even a great deal after a decade. And the same applies to Bill Shorten's recipe for more expenditure on education: there will be an economic dividend, and when it eventually comes it will perhaps be larger and more permanent than Turnbull's prescription, but by definition it will take a whole new intake of pupils to emerge as the success stories. However, all is not lost: Shorten's proposal to fully fund the Gonski model does provide relief for the schools, parents and children currently disadvantaged. There can be no serious argument that more and better targeted teaching staff will not improve the immediate needs, even if it does not immediately translate into cold, hard economic bottom lines.

Turnbull's rebuttal, that the Government has a plan and that simply more cash is not the answer, is hardly likely to convince those who can see for themselves that in some cases the situation is dire, and that Shorten's idea, no matter how expensive it might seem to the hard-line rationalists, is more worthwhile than a company tax cut. It is, as Shorten keeps reminding them, about priorities. Which is why, presumably, Turnbull has decided to take out some insurance. Last week he suddenly changed tack: it was not all about the Labor Party, it was also about the Greens, Nick Xenophon, the independents - about just about everyone else, apparently. Only a vote for the Coalition would ensure stability, prevent the alleged chaos of minority government - you know, the system in which Tony Abbott failed to convince the Greens and independents to co-operate in his version of it. It has finally dawned on Turnbull that in spite of the advice of his machine men that the marginals in the Reps will hold firm, the Senate is still certain to be a melange. The strategy of reforming the voting system has not been the panacea intended; far from weeding out the unwanted recalcitrant, not only will at least a couple of them probably survive, but they are likely to be joined by a few more, and the prospect of the Senate securing a mandate for Turnbull's economic plan is at best problematical.

But it gets worse; if Turnbull loses 10 seats, even calling a joint sitting of both houses to pass the Building and Construction Commission bill may not be an option. His combined majority could easily fall short. And if that happens, the entire exercise - voting reform, bringing forward the budget, the double dissolution, the election itself - will not only collapse, but become a fiasco; many Liberals, not to mention the electorate at large, will ask what the point was. Why did we have to go through so much pain and suffering only to go back to a hamstrung government with a lot of his backbench followers now thrown into the scrapheap? The horror, the horror. And of course Scott Morrison is also taking an each-way bet. When the national accounts figures provided an unexpected boost, Turnbull said, "so far, so good" - although he had very little to do with them and his economic plan had not even been formulated during the relevant period. But Morrison warned that things were fragile: the voters should not assume that things were really improving - certainly not rosy enough to risk a return to Labor.

But the implication was that the last two-and-a-half years of the Coalition had still not done anything substantial to repair the economy - F for fail. No wonder the punters are less than convinced about the current prescription.

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In the dawn of the nuclear era, cost was expected to be one of the technology's advantages, not one of its drawbacks. The first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Lewis Strauss, predicted in a 1954 speech that nuclear power would someday make electricity “too cheap to meter.”

A half century later, we have learned that nuclear power is, instead, too expensive to finance.

The first generation of nuclear power plants proved so costly to build that half of them were abandoned during construction. Those that were completed saw huge cost overruns, which were passed on to utility customers in the form of rate increases. By 1985, Forbes had labeled U.S. nuclear power "the largest managerial disaster in business history.” The industry has failed to prove that things will be different this time around: soaring, uncertain costs continue to plague nuclear power in the 21st century. Between 2002 and 2008, for example, cost estimates for new nuclear plant construction rose from between $2 billion and $4 billion per unit to $9 billion per unit, according to a 2009 UCS report, while experience with new construction in Europe has seen costs continue to soar.

Financing and public risk

With this track record, it’s not surprising that nuclear power has failed to attract private-sector financing—so the industry has looked to government for subsidies, including loan guarantees, tax credits, and other forms of public support. And these subsidies have not been small: according to a 2011 UCS report, by some estimates they have cost taxpayers more than the market value of the power they helped generate.

wombat74 posted:

Scylo posted:

I guess I got a pony as well, even though I rarely post and never post more than a sentence.

Mithranderp posted:

Does that mean the rest of us are full-time shitposters?

ewe2 posted:

Dun dun dunnnn




And just to underline that, Labor is preferencing Libs over Nats which is a quid pro quo for the Greens preferencing. So much for the Coalition when Libs are threatened, hey.

Trump posted:

Almost overnight, national security and terrorism leapt to the fore as the major battlegrounds. Republican nominee Donald Trump used the events to reinforce his stance on immigration, saying he would 'suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism'(Mate it's hard to not allow birth canal migration especially if you are anti-choice). The presidential candidate also emphatically defended US gun laws, called Hillary Clinton's immigration policy 'radical', and accused American Muslims of knowing about radicals in their midst and failing to turn them in. The speech highlights the sharp divisions between Mr Trump and the more measured Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton over Islamic State inspired terrorism, Muslims and gun laws.

quote:

Orlando shooting: Family First candidate apologises for tweet about massacre that criticised gay marriage Posted about an hour ago

A Tasmanian Family First Senate candidate who caused a social media storm when he referred to the Orlando shootings in an anti-gay tweet has apologised. Peter Madden is running for the Senate on an anti-gay marriage platform. In a tweet about the massacre on an LGBT nightclub yesterday, he said while the shooting was abhorrent, the gay marriage agenda posed a "real and present danger" to Australian children. The tweet prompted a barrage of criticism on social media.

Peter Madden @petermadden2u
Though Orlando is abhorrent, it doesn't change the real & present dangers of the gay marriage agenda to Aus children.
2:28 PM - 13 Jun 2016 · Longley, Tasmania, Australia
58 58 Retweets 41 41 likes

Mr Madden told 936 ABC Hobart he was responding to someone who had criticised his campaign and said he would attend a vigil in Hobart later this week to remember the Orlando victims. "I absolutely condemn the massacre in the gay club, this is absolutely wrong and I'm praying for the victims," he said. "I had no idea that it would offend so many people. "I don't want to offend people, this is a sensitive time." He said he had apologised about the offence he caused on a national news network. Mr Madden had previously been criticised for his use of a trailer with a billboard reading "homosexual marriage = gay sex-ed for children". "That message is based on a lot of research," he said. "I wrote a paper on it a number of years ago which I have been distributing." He said both sides of the gay marriage argument needed to be heard. "If one side is shut down by saying 'hate speech, hate speech, hate speech' then both sides cannot be heard," Mr Madden said.

quote:

Mr Dutton said he was first made aware of the case on Monday.

"We need to consider all of the facts before we make a decision, but the Government's position remains very clear," he said.

"We won't tolerate people who are preaching hate in our country, we won't tolerate the presence of people who fail the character test under Section 501 of the Migration Act."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the sheikh was not welcome in Australia if he held those views.

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Bendigo mosque appeal request thrown out by High Court Updated 28 minutes ago

The High Court has thrown out a request to hear an appeal by opponents of Bendigo's first mosque. Two Bendigo residents have been fighting the planned mosque, arguing the Bendigo City Council failed in their legal obligations to fully consider the social effect of the mosque. The pair took the matter to the High Court after their challenge was dismissed first by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and then the State Court of Appeal.

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Terror charges: NSW Police charge 17-year-old after social media tip-off Updated about an hour ago

A 17-year-old has been charged by counter-terrorism police with preparing for or planning a terrorist act after being arrested at home in The Oaks, south-west of Sydney. Police said they were led to the teen's home by social media posts, and he was charged at midnight. The boy is accused of preparing for or planning a terrorist act, and using a telecommunications network with an intention to commit a serious offence. A police spokesman told the ABC the teenager does not appear to have been motivated by religious extremism or Islamic State ideology. The spokesman said it is believed an attack was imminent. The boy remains in custody and is due to appear in a Sydney children's court today. "Police advise there is no threat to the community," a NSW Police statement said. "The matter is unrelated to any previous investigation carried out by the NSW JCTT [Joint Counter Terrorism Team]."

Pickled Tink posted:

First Dog:



You don't deserve kittens today. You are all horrible.

quote:

Election 2016: Liberal Party will 'fully assist' any probe into taxpayer-funded party-owned firm Parakeelia By political reporters Caitlyn Gribbin and Dan Conifer Updated 43 minutes ago

The federal director of the Liberal Party says the party will "fully assist" any regulatory body wanting to investigate payments made to software company Parakeelia. Federal Labor has called for an urgent investigation into the Liberal Party-owned company, which receives taxpayer funds while also paying large sums to the party. The Liberal Party has been questioned for days about the flow of money from Parakeelia to the party's coffers. Liberal politicians have used electorate allowances to pay the firm, Parakeelia, for software that keeps information about constituents. Parakeelia has pumped more than $1 million back into the federal Liberal Party, including $500,000 last financial year, which the party reportedly said were "payments for services purchased through the party". In a statement, the Liberal Party's federal director Tony Nutt said Parakeelia was run on a professional basis and that the party would assist any relevant bodies who inquired about the company.

quote:

Election 2016 live: Parakeelia a 'desperate witch hunt' says Morrison

Treasurer Scott Morrison says the debate over payments made to and from software company Parakeelia is a "desperate witch hunt" from Labor. The Liberal Party owns the software firm, which has transferred more than $1 million into Liberal accounts in recent years.

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Australian Dairy Farmers calls for action, not political rhetoric as the industry battles a milk price crisis SA Country Hour By Cassandra Steeth Updated yesterday at 11:33am

Lorraine Robertson always wanted to grow up to be a dairy farmer just like her father. She's a New Zealander and moved to Australia when land prices became too expensive for her. Fast-forward to today and her future in the industry is at a crossroads, with Fonterra, the company she supplies milk to, seeking to claw back $150,000 from her farm thanks to retrospective milk price cuts announced last month. Ms Robertson said she'd been in a state of stress for the past month as she grapples with how to feed her 300 cows. It's cases like this that have prompted the lobby group Australian Dairy Farmers to call on all levels of government to stop playing politics with dairy farmers' livelihoods. Last month the Federal Government announced a $555 million support package, which includes concessional loans for Murray Goulburn and Fonterra farmers. "It's now been over two weeks since formal announcements were made regarding assistance for farmers," ADF acting president David Basham said. "In order for these measures to be meaningful they must be delivered now.

Solemn Sloth posted:

Malcolm Turnbull Stands By Pedophile Donors

Starshark posted:

Before I put my foot in my mouth, I'd like to run something past you guys. Does the graph here show that mining companies paid ten billion in tax in 2008? The argument is whether the arts pay more taxes than the mines.

quote:

My 7 year old daughter is being excluded from lunchtime activities because we have asked that no religion be forced onto her. She is not able to participate in games and awards for being kind at assembly, as well as many other activities because they are run by the school chaplain. This is a Public Independent School. Not a Private or Religious school.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

Mining royalties aren't taxes, exactly. They're payment for access to economic inputs - essentially a fee charged for extraction of raw material. It's like how when you tap your Opal card for a train trip, you're not being taxed per se - you're paying for use of a publicly-owned service. Mining royalties are the same thing. In terms of comparing to arts funding, it's more equivalent to the cost of paint, supplies and software.

You Am I posted:

LOL, seriously? I expect News Corpse to go nuts tomorrow, and probably start tracking down everyone who was in the audience, even those who were going to vote Liberal

Anidav posted:

In times of budget emergency...

gay picnic defence posted:

Previous whistleblowers, such as the former International Health & Medical Services director of mental health Dr Peter Young, have also faced serious ramifications for advocating for better care of those held in immigration detention. Police accessed Young’s phone records because he had been critical of the detention regime.

Mr Chips posted:

A bellwether is a castrated male sheep.

quote:

Greens insist on political donation reform in the event of a hung parliament Thursday 23 June 2016 7:35AM (view full episode)

With the election just over a week away, the Greens will today issue their demands in the event of a hung parliament. Addressing the National Press Club, Greens Leader Richard Di Natale will announce that as part of any power sharing arrangement, the Greens will insist on a national anti-corruption body, plus the reform of political donation rules. He says its time to break the 'business as usual' model of politics, and return power back to 'ordinary people'.

quote:

Rob Oakeshott and his kitchen cabinet running a DIY campaign THE AUSTRALIAN12:00AM JUNE 23, 2016 Sharri Markson Senior writer Sydney (I really hope that helps win your defamation case Sharri)

Rob Oakeshott, independent candidate for Cowper, in the kitchen at his home in Port Macquarie where he has situated his campaign office and is being helped by local university students. Cash-strapped Rob Oakeshott, who stands to receive at least $47,000 in government funds from an election campaign he is running from his kitchen, has a new career lined up as a ­doctor. The independent candidate for the NSW seat of Cowper, who has not had a full-time job in three years, says he is struggling financially on his $70,000-a-year lifetime parliamentary pension. He has barely spent a cent on his campaign, which volunteer students clad in recycled campaign T-shirts are helping to run. Mr Oakeshott said he decided 18 months ago to run for the federal election but in January he started a four-year medical ­degree at the University of Wollongong, hoping to become a GP. The man, who with Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie, del­ivered Julia Gillard her prime ministership (never forget!), is so financially strapped he has failed to live up to his promise to donate $20,000 a year of his NSW parliamentary superannuation from an earlier stint as a state MP to a charity trust for children (The utter bastard).

MORE: Windsor’s betrayal a rabid act (No use of hyperbole here!)

He admits he can no longer ­afford to be so generous. “Financial circumstances have changed and we do the best we can as a family,” he said. “I don’t like talking about my private circumstances but if we could, we would, but we can’t. The want was there if the means were there. And as someone of average means, the means haven’t been there.” Mr Oakeshott stands to pocket (*snicker*) about $47,000 if he attaints a ­primary vote of 15 per cent, with each vote earning him $2.62 under electoral laws. Internal ­Nationals polling predicts Mr Oakeshott will receive a primary vote of higher than 20 per cent, and with preferences from Labor and the Greens, he is neck and neck with Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker.

Across the Cowper electorate of 117,000 voters based around Port Macquarie there are no corflutes, posters, billboards or glossy how-to-vote cards. Mr Oakeshott is not paying a campaign manager or staff members. Instead of leasing temporary ­office space, four student volunteers have set up a campaign base at his kitchen table. “It may not be a winning strategy, and I know there are suits in headquarters who will be shocked by me saying it, but I really want to see whether it (an election campaign) can be done on the smell of an oily rag and whether a ­community will still support someone if they’re not jamming $20,000 of brochures in the letterbox and blanket TV and radio ads,” he said. Mr Oakeshott categorically says he has not re-entered the political fray to make money. He made the decision to contest the federal election 18 months ago when he saw there were ­“issues of urgent national significance” that needed addressing, such as “the amount of punching down on disadvantaged communities”. “There is a bit of a passion to get back in and expose the rich talking to the rich about the rich,” he said. “I don’t think government understands poorness and poverty and disadvantage. “I do think, and this is part of what’s drawn me back into the game … there’s a lack of understanding in the corridors in Canberra as to what really does help for those that are of average means. That’s not just my personal story, that’s a community story.”

It’s an area Mr Oakeshott feels he has come closer to than his former political colleagues. Apart from not having had a full-time job since he resigned from politics three years ago, he was “knee-deep in debt” after losing a “large six-­figure sum” on an injury management business in about 2008. He was also forced to sell his family home. “Part of being of average means is sometimes you bounce along the bottom and sometimes you’re doing OK — that’s our journey, but I don’t want sympathy, I am not crying poor,” he said. “We pay the bills. We meet all our expenses and we’re proud of that.” The former MP had promised in 2003 to donate $20,000 a year of his NSW parliamentary pension to a children’s trust he set up in 1997, but only $5000 was ­donated to the Mid North Coast Youth Trust, and Mr Oakeshott wound it down (Didn't read it the first time? Lets hammer the point home). He said he would like to be as generous as he had ­intended to be but, with four children, he could not afford to make the donations he had pledged.

Mr Oakeshott passed the exam to get into medical school two years ago, and enrolled in a four-year postgraduate medical degree at Wollongong University, which he began in January with the aim of becoming a GP. “This has been a two-year process to basically get into medical school, so it is serious,’’ he said. “That’s been the major focus this year, driving back and forth to Wollongong. It’s in my family. I come from a family of doctors; my grand­parents were doctors, that’s how I grew up. So I’m very comfortable in that space.” If he wins the seat of Cowper, he will consider whether he has the time to continue his studies. Over the past three years, he wrote and published his memoirs and has undertaken contract work for the UN in Fiji, Myanmar, the Marshall Islands and Samoa. “They (Fiji) previously had a coup culture there and they are trying to keep parliamentary democracy working and so they contract some people in to help with stabilising various parts of the parliamentary process,” he said, arguing, when pressed, that he was well-suited for that role. Mr Oakeshott still defends the carbon tax (never forget!), which he prefers to call an ETS. And according to a Facebook Q&A he held on Monday night, he wants to change Australia’s border protection policies.

Orkin Mang posted:

sup cunts

Recoome posted:

So these people are basically personae non gratae as of this moment as they can't really prove citizenship? I can't even believe that this is possible.

Birdstrike posted:

this does absolutely not represent my experience doorknocking this election

ZealousQ posted:

So is everyone putting their money where our collective mouths are and signed up to give out HTVs for our respective organisations on Saturday?

Birdstrike posted:

I'm not sure if this is serious doorknocking advice or .

Interestingly in the hundreds(?) of conversations I've had with people, nobody has ever raised "the economy" or "jobs" as an issue. The closest was in my very last conversation yesterday when a lady asked what impact Brexit would have on Australia.

gay picnic defence posted:

To be honest I don't mind the idea of churches being able to decline to hold same sex wedding ceremonies. Their views shouldn't be imposed on society at large but if they want to be fuckwits within their own religious circle that should be up to members of said religion.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OUS_XUJG-Q

sick burnz bro

LibertyCat posted:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Tommofork posted:

Yeah I've never found out why Nats are ok.