Auspol August: The Greens Echo Chamber

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gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Lid posted:

Kevin Rudd is going to bring down two PMs.

Is that a record?

# ¿ Aug 2, 2016 14:04

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:02

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

thatfatkid posted:

One Nation are pro penalty rates, medicare, public ownership of state assets etc. They won't vote lockstep with the coalition.

Also this. They're a group of liberals that split from the Liberals in SA.

One Nation seem like the sort of people who would vote for anything if it gets them legislation to put CCTV cameras in mosques or something.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 09:00

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

CROWS EVERYWHERE posted:

there are New Zealanders in this thread

He better post a few more then

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 09:24

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

starkebn posted:

It's there an article someone can point me too that discusses why each state has 12 senators and what the pro and con arguments are? It's not an intuitive way for the system to be set up.

My understanding is that it was set up that way so that states with a lower population (e.g Tasmania) have equal representation and (hopefully) don't get ignored because they don't have enough MPs in the reps to influence a vote.

So in effect you have two filters for policy, the first is to satisfy the majority of the peoples' representatives and the second is to satisfy the majority of the states' senators. It is probably obsolete in the era of two party politics and senators being more loyal to their party than their state, but I guess the original intention was pretty good.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2016 01:12

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Zenithe posted:

Normally I don't really care what or how people commemorate events like this, but I agree that

Seems pretty insensitive.

The Turks let us get away with it :shrug:

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 10:45

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Good response. I'm not really attacking free trade here as I am trying to attack broader neoliberal economics, so I guess the question is would our GDP still have increased to the same degree if we were relying on more traditional Keynesian economics and not loving the poor quite so hard?

I know this is all hypothetical theory crafting but I've also never understood how otherwise rational, intelligent people could fall over themselves to defend Liberal economic policies that specifically gently caress them over with nothing to back themselves up, and I feel like I'm missing something.

I blame immigrants and the echo chamber, in that order.

(also sorry for my slow posting i'm in a different timezone)

There was an article published a while back (around the time Thatcher died I think) that pointed out that if you compared the increases in GDP of the UK and a bunch of scandinavian countries from the time Thatcher introduced neoliberalism to the UK you ended up with fairly similar numbers. The UK GDP increased faster but fell a lot more in the crashes while the scandinavian countries were steadier.

I haven't seen the actual figures myself though so I can't confirm if that is actually true

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 21:06

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Y'all should read this: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/thefeed/feature/first-her-kind-afghan-refugee-australian-soldier

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Yeah, from what I've seen any beneficial side effects to GDP seem to be more coincidental than causal.

Surely there's an argument in favour though with some sort of empirical substantiation?

Doubt it. If anything the opposite is the case because there are now a few studies including a very influential one from the IMF showing that inequality slows economic growth. The main reason the neoliberal poo poo gets pushed is because it's easier to make money by lobbying governments for less tax and regulation than it is to innovate and invest.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2016 21:00

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Digiwizzard posted:

The extremely benevolent Holodomor.

The Ukrainians were getting fat, this was just to stop them all getting diabetes

# ¿ Aug 18, 2016 21:01

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

I discovered not all manufacturing is dead in this country; I spent a few days helping out in a factory that makes razor wire and security fencing for prisons and they've got more orders than they know what to do with.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 05:47

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

So that's why we have the torture prisons. It was all a corporate welfare scheme all along!

The same company actually got the contract when the Christmas Island concentration camp was being expanded. Some of the people I was working with seemed proud of that for some reason

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 07:14

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crqR4pjfSb0

# ¿ Aug 22, 2016 07:24

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

iajanus posted:

Hey, it's just the afl that's bad. Nothing like that in the proud history of the NRL.

nrl.txt

Gower has been involved in a number of alcohol-related off-field incidents. In 1999, Gower exposed himself to a female Irish tourist in a Coogee bar, blaming his behaviour on alcohol intoxication. He was dumped from the Kangaroos squad and fined A$2,500 by the NRL and a further A$500 in court after pleading guilty to indecent exposure.[21]

In December 2005, Gower was fired as Panthers captain[22] after incidents at a charity golf event where he argued with several guests, groped the teenage daughter of former league player Wayne Pearce, chased Mitchell Pearce with a bottle before vomiting on him, streaked nude around the resort, stole and crashed a golf cart, held a butter knife[23] to the throat of a Sydney radio personality before throwing it at resort guests, and engaged in a brawl with resort security before being ejected from the official function and detained by police.[24] He was handed a "final warning" by the National Rugby League and fined A$100,000, with A$90,000 to be paid to an NRL programme encouraging the responsible use of alcohol by league players and $10,000 to replace the destroyed golf cart.[25] Gower was "deeply unhappy" that the Penrith Panthers club did not defend his reputation, and at one stage threatened to "walk" from the club.[26]

Allegedly inebriated with alcohol in a bar at Kings Cross on 11 February 2007, Gower allegedly tried to kiss one man before biting him on the neck and sparking a brawl, and is accused of assaulting another man.[27][28] The Panthers club controversially reappointed Gower as captain in 2007, claiming the Peppermint Lounge incident was just a media "beat-up".[29] Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser said Gower was unfit to be captain, due to his alleged lewd behaviour at the charity golf event which she attended,[30] and Sarah Maddison, spokesperson for the Women's Electoral Lobby, said "reappointing Craig Gower would send all the wrong messages."[31]

# ¿ Aug 22, 2016 09:16

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Cleretic posted:

By 2020, almost all forms of scientific, technological and cultural research in Australia has come to a complete halt.

On the upside our brewing capabilities are second to none, we lead the world in the field of footy tipping, and we're exporting new, top-quality Australian swear words at a rate we can all be proud of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyVNlvzzSFA&t=183s

# ¿ Aug 22, 2016 22:37

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Amoeba102 posted:

The SMH is just a vector for real estate ads.

and CCP soft power

# ¿ Aug 23, 2016 23:20

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

hooman posted:

Black lung Australia policy now.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2016 13:34

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Makes sense. If the LNP can distance themselves from the racism the right is typically associated with there's a goldmine of socially regressive voters in some of those migrant communities. I've never been too sure why anyone on the left thought large numbers of them would ever be allies in a left wing cause

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 10:53

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

What? This is just not true, Asian Australians lean Labor (ok I anticipate a comment about how labor are right wing anyway) and pretty much always have.

There's a bit of a divide between attitudes within Asian communities in Australia. The earlier arrivals prefer the social democratic-ish policies of the ALP because they by and large came here as desperately poor migrants who depended on welfare to get by, while the more recent arrivals are FYGM business owners looking for a place to make money and hide it from the CCP

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 13:23

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

quote:

Chinese businessmen with links to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have donated half a million dollars to the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party during the past two years, political disclosures reveal.

All the donors have links to the Chinese government, and the vast bulk of the money was given by companies with no apparent business interests in WA. Ms Bishop, the leading federal member of the party in that state, has singled out each of the three key donors for praise.

Several of the donations have been obscured by the channelling of funds via executives or related companies, or by the donors' failure to disclose them to the Australian Electoral Commission, in apparent breach of Commonwealth law.

A spokesman for the AEC acknowledged a loophole in Australia's disclosure laws, saying: "While the commission can seek compliance, overseas donors cannot be compelled to comply with Australian law when they are not in Australia".

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 23:15

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Recoome posted:

flying over your head higher than an F-35 m8

that isn't saying much

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 23:26

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Jumpingmanjim posted:

https://twitter.com/billshortenmp/status/768974263646720000

Cold as ice.

He should have done as a press release like Albanese's

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 06:24

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

I feel like this article hits at a lot of the problems facing the growth of left wing politics these days

quote:

London: Donald Trump introduced Nigel Farage at a rally in sweaty Mississippi and two worlds converged. Both men want immigration control, both speak for an alienated working-class. Farage called Brexit voters "little people, real people, ordinary people".

And yet Farage and Trump are none of these. A retired City trader and a Manhattan plutocrat, Nigel and Donald are products of the very establishment they condemn. The revolution is led by capitalists. How on earth did this happen?

An answer is found in the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by JD Vance. Vance's folks herald from the hills of Appalachia - a land of exhausted mines and shuttered mills. Little people, real people - difficult people.

His grandmammy punished her husband for adultery by dousing him in petrol while he slept and dropping a lit match on him. Her daughter, Vance's mama, has five ex-husbands and a heroin problem. They live in a small, violent world where sex and addiction fill long, boring lives left empty by unemployment. Oh, and they're probably all voting for Trump. What Trump offers, says Vance, is political opium - "an easy escape from the pain. To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution."

Thanks to Trump and Vance there's now a debate in the US about what to do about the marginalisation of poor whites. But those seeking a quick solution will struggle. As Vance acknowledges, the underclass has been around for a long time.

Hillbilly Elegy puts me in mind of Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, a 1932 novel about Georgia sharecroppers who fecklessly feed off false religion, booze and sex. Think Deliverance with laughs. I once set the book as a text for an undergraduate American Studies class in England and was fascinated by the different reactions. The younger students, all good liberals, found the characters repulsive and the authors of their own misfortune. One mature student, with the wisdom of a bit of living, felt sorry for them. Anyone with experience of poverty understands the temptation to deaden the humiliation with drink.

Caldwell was often accused of being a communist. If he was, he has my sympathy - for the study of US history lends itself well to Marxist analysis. This was a country that wasn't discovered so much as plundered and exploited. Control over both natives and the European migrants was exerted through violence. The absence of a serious socialist movement can be explained by the state's willingness to beat up, arrest and deport union organisers, while passing labour laws openly designed to stop organisation.

The easy movement of people and capital has a lot to answer for, too. People live in Appalachia because there was once well-paid manual employment. But industries rise and fall. Many jobs have gone to Mexico since the end of the Cold War. Many Mexicans have come to America to do the jobs that American citizens supposedly won't do themselves - or rather won't do for tiny wages that no one could reasonably raise kids, pay taxes and meet the rent on.

For Appalachia, you could read swathes of the north of England or south Wales. Or of my own home of Kent, where manufacturing and mining were once common. These places used to vote solidly Labour, as Appalachia once loved the Democrats. No more. The Left broke their electoral covenant in the '90s when they embraced globalisation.

But the bigger betrayal that people feel more deeply is cultural. The Left no longer looks or sounds like the folks they claim to represent, adopting policies that stand like a wall between themselves and the working-class. For Hillary Clinton's Democrats it is the refusal to acknowledge that immigration affects wages and employment. For Britain's Labour Party it is the same, with a bit of Euroscepticism thrown in. Owen Smith's pledge to hold a second referendum is surely catnip for UKIP. If Farage were to reclaim his party's leadership, he could be in parliament by 2020.

Vance's family suffers from a cultural decline that the Left doesn't have the language to comment on - the collapse of religious authority, broken homes - and the Left's insistence that all ills are cured by an injection of state cash is tired. To make matters worse, many politicians on the Left label the folks who don't vote for them racist and ill-educated.

The poor's rejection of a censorious Left that won't act in their sectional interest is perfectly rational. But Nigel and Donald also look like fun to get drunk with (although, yet another paradox, Trump doesn't even drink) and there's no hint that they'll judge your inebriated melancholy. They blame foreigners, not you, for your problems. They ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you. The Left denounces their pitch as bigoted, selfish - but the voters who have been left behind while the liberals got rich are listening. When you have nothing, the kind words of a man who can afford a private jet with gold taps sound like something.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/left-has-no-cultural-appeal-to-voters-left-behind-20160825-gr1j1i.html

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 06:29

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

quote:

The federal government will have to plow another $20 billion into the national broadband network as it battles higher than expected costs next year.

And NBN Co has been forced to change plans for 1.5 million households to avoid a potential cost blowout.

Originally designed as 93 per cent fibre network, NBN was changed by the Coalition government to incorporate existing infrastructure to save time and money. However, it now appears fewer people are signing up to the NBN than expected and that the Coalition under-estimated the costs of connecting old cables.

While there should be 8.1 million active customers each providing about $52 of monthly revenues by 2020, the government-owned business won't be profitable until 2022.

The Finance and Communications Ministers have released a new Statement of Expectations on Friday removing a requirement NBN Co build the network "within the constraints of a public equity capital limit of $29.5 billion".

This limit will be reached next year and the government will have to provide a further $20 billion for total contribution of $48.6 billion by 2020 as NBN Co is unlikely to be able to borrow money on its own.

However, the government is committed to funding the project.

"The government has not yet determined what form this support would take if it were required and continues to assess a number of options to ensure the best possible value for taxpayers is achieved," Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said on Friday.

A new corporate plan on Friday revealed 55 per cent of premises would now get fibre to the node, 27 per cent cable, and 21 per cent fibre (of which nearly half are yet-to-be-built new housing).

The company is meeting rollout forecasts it set itself last year.

"The NBN rollout is on track and on budget, having now built more than a quarter of the network," a Communications Minister Mitch Fifield spokeswoman said on Friday.

However, NBN Co underestimated the cost of using existing hybrid-fibre coaxial [HFC] cables laid by Telstra and Optus in the 1990s. Last year it calculated an average cost of $1800 per house. But detailed field work discovered the cost was actually $2300.

"In April we signed a delivery agreement with Telstra utilising their vast knowledge and experience in hybrid fibre coaxial [HFC]. We have learned more about the complexity and costs of the HFC rollout," a spokeswoman said on Friday.

NBN also discovered it was completely uneconomical to connect 1.5 million of the 4 million premises within the HFC footprint. Those premises will now be connected using fibre-to-the-node technology [FTTN], which may have slower download speeds.

In 2013 the Coalition estimated FTTN connections would cost about $900 per premise and this was raised to $1997 in a 2014 strategic review, being being raised again in 2015 to about $2300.

The Coalition also estimated $29.5 billion of public money would last until NBN could borrow on its own, but the faster FTTN roll out means NBN Co is running out of money quicker than expected.

Earlier this week Australian Federal Police raided offices of Labor Senator Stephen Conroy looking for the source of leaks from NBN Co.

A spokeswoman for Senator Fifield said: "The Australian Federal Police operates independently from government".

Meanwhile Labor's Communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said the Coalition had "grossly underestimated the cost of having different technologies".

She expects the operating costs for a network with FTTN and HFC to have much higher operating costs than the majority-fibre network planned by Labor.

She also claims a Labor-run NBN Co would have been able to borrow money already, saying the "internal rate of return would have been sufficient for us to be able to finance any shortfall".

In 2010 Labor predicted NBN Co would start borrowing money in 2015. In fact, Labor expected NBN Co to get 33 per cent of its funding from debt markets by 2021 with an internal return of return of up to 8.8 per cent. On Friday NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow revealed the current rate of return was 3.7 per cent.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 11:18

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Solemn Sloth posted:

It's not just dumb. It's actively harmful. This isn't a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water when you didn't get exactly what you wanted, or of trying to strong arm Turnbull into a parliamentary vote because you block the plebiscite. The plebiscite will actively hurt a lot of people in this country and it should be opposed even if it means there isn't action on equal marriage in this term of parliament.

Yeah but did they ask what straight white christian males thought before making the decision to block it??

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 13:13

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

I thought this was amusing

quote:

According to an online audit of the prime minister's official Twitter account almost half his followers are considered fake.

While the tech-savvy leader has more followers than any other serving Australian politician � just over 654,000 � TwitterAudit has found 298,000 of them aren't real.

That leaves him with an authenticity score of just 54 per cent � the lowest of any senior federal politician.

...

It also means his one-time leadership rival Tony Abbott � who once dismissively described social media as "electronic graffiti" � actually has more real followers: 400,000 of his 615,000 followers are considered authentic.

In the lead-up to the 2013 election the Liberal Party was forced to deny it had paid to increase Mr Abbott's numbers after his followers suddenly spiked.

This was pretty funny too

quote:

The plain fact is that, albeit by a nose, the Coalition won government. They thus get to put the main shape on savings and should be supported. Not just by Labor but by all the independents who presumably realise they are there not for themselves but for a better Australia, for all of us.

why won't they let them govern?? :qq:

The libs are starting to sound a bit pissed off that Bill is sounding more prime ministerial than the actual PM I guess

# ¿ Aug 28, 2016 23:18

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Solemn Sloth posted:

So now that Xenophon is opposing, all we need is for Labor to maintain a principled stance

*checks notes*

# ¿ Aug 29, 2016 07:59

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

talk about a dead cat bounce

This is what I was expecting when I googled it, something about his polling or whatever.

How hard would it be to set up a twitter bot like the Trump/NAMBLA one that tweets about Turnbull killing cats?

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 23:45

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

BBJoey posted:

Danish officials who were to inspect Nauru denied Nauru visas. what a ringing endorsement of he system

Not all of them though, just a muslim MP and a couple of MPs who have been outspoken critics of Australia's policy in the past :thumbsup:

(sounds like the rest of the delegation cancelled after learning those MPs' visas were refused)

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 23:58

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

oh look, van badham is back

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 23:19

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:02

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Could they have used last night to vote on legislation like SSM or something like that or is there a process that needs to be followed before laws can be voted on?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 23:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol August: The Greens Echo Chamber