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May 11, 2024 17:14
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- iajanus
- Aug 17, 2004
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NUMBER 1 QUEENSLAND SUPPORTER
MAROONS 2023 STATE OF ORIGIN CHAMPIONS FOR LIFE
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Socialism 'on the march' to blame for Sussan Ley standing down over expenses controversy: Bronwyn Bishop posted:
Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop has jumped to the defence of Sussan Ley, accusing socialists of tearing her down and arguing that double standards exist for women and men in politics.
Ms Bishop, who was herself forced to resign after claiming $5227 in taxpayer-funded expenses for a helicopter ride to a Liberal Party fundraiser, said Ms Ley's critics were ideologically motivated and fuelled by the "Twitterati" and 24-hour news.
Ms Ley stood aside as Health Minister on Monday morning pending the outcome of an investigation into her travel claims, following revelations she bought an $800,000 apartment on a taxpayer-funded trip to Gold Coast and has taken 27 flights in and out of the area in recent years, including two for New Year's Eve engagements.
Ms Bishop said that she didn't have specific knowledge of how Ms Ley's travel was arranged "but I do know that there are socialists out there who want to attack free enterprise and anyone who sticks up for it. And I know that socialists, like alcoholics, will blame anyone but themselves. And whereas alcoholics can damage their own families, socialists can destroy the whole country."
The former speaker said the two inquiries into Ms Ley's expenses - by the Department of Finance and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - should be allowed to run their course without the cabinet minister "being attacked by people behaving like a pack of dogs".
"But let's understand that there are people out there who wish to destroy free enterprise and those who stick up for it. Whereas socialism, which is always on the march, if you expose it, it can be defeated. And be under no illusions, whenever you see some of these arguments come to the fore, there will always be an ideological component," the former member for Mackellar told Sky News.
"But what's this got to do with socialism?" pressed host Laura Jayes.
"A lot, a lot. Socialists will always blame anyone but themselves."
Ms Bishop also criticised Labor for its response.
Acting opposition leader Penny Wong was quick to criticise Ms Ley's explanation - and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's decision not to sack the minister - at a press conference on Monday.
"I found it pretty, pretty disgusting to see the Labor sending out a woman to attack another woman this morning. I don't think that's a good look either," Ms Bishop said.
"And to be blunt, if you look at the socialist side of the Labor Party, you look at the people in there and the blokes who have...done many more things like that and, quite frankly, nothing happens. So I think there's one rule for some and a different rule for others."
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Jan 9, 2017 06:09
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- iajanus
- Aug 17, 2004
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NUMBER 1 QUEENSLAND SUPPORTER
MAROONS 2023 STATE OF ORIGIN CHAMPIONS FOR LIFE
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Hello, the debt collection is about to be expanded upon pensioners and the disabled, it is currently done with Newstart and Youth Allowance:
Pensioners and disabled next in line in Centrelink robo-debt campaign
The Coalition government is going to target more than 3 million of elderly and disabled Australians with its controversial Centrelink "robo-debt" campaign, Parliamentary documents show.
The mid-year economic forecast tables published last week shows the government has booked savings of $1.1 billion from data-matching the aged pension and another $400 million from the disability support pension.
The move will bring more than 3 million more Australians into the sights of the data-matching program, which uses an automated system to match information held by Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office and calculate overpayments.
But the policy has been beset by errors and has been hugely controversial with many of those targeted for debt recovery saying they are being hounded by commercial debt collectors for money that they do not owe.
The data matching effort so far has been concentrated overwhelmingly on mostly young people who have received the dole or Youth Allowance, although evidence is emerging that students have also been hit heavily.
But the supporting tables to the government's mid-year financial and fiscal outlook, published on Thursday by the Parliamentary Budget office, reveal that Coalition policy is to massively extend the data matching effort to the more than 2.5 million age pensioners and about 800,000 disability support pensioners.
"Relative to the 2016-2017 budget, policy decisions are expected to decrease expenses on the age pension by $1.1 billion to 2019-2020 primarily due to measures to enhance the integrity of social welfare payments including expanding and extending data-matching activities with the Australian taxation office," the document reads.
The papers also reveal that the government believes it will slash spending on the disability support pension using the same methods.
Both the Department of Human Services and the office of the Human Services Minister Alan Tudge have been contacted for comment on Tuesday.
More to come
Are they trying to alienate everyone in the country who might vote for them?
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Jan 17, 2017 04:21
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- iajanus
- Aug 17, 2004
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NUMBER 1 QUEENSLAND SUPPORTER
MAROONS 2023 STATE OF ORIGIN CHAMPIONS FOR LIFE
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quote:Last week, my provocative Facebook question explored teachers, their holidays and whether they really 'lesson-plan from home.' It was a social media bomb that ripped open the debate about school holidays for teachers that are the envy of many.
Since before chalk and slate was invented, debates around barbecues have probed teacher claims of 'working on holidays', a phenomenon hardly isolated to just one occupation.
So if teachers are performing inordinate and unpaid additional hours, why are we going backwards compared to most school systems worldwide? Is working hard always working smart?
Known as 'click-bait', my deliberately controversial post sought virality and got more than it bargained for. Education unions conducted an orchestra of wailing, petitions and form letters. Apart from the obvious question; as to why schools even need unions, let's answer the actual question. Like any occupation, most but not all teachers are diligent and devoted.
Much of the online anger stemmed from a politician simply exploring the issue. Others felt it was picking on one of the many devoted occupations that performs a vital role for limited remuneration.
Australian schools perform limited formative student assessment, and offer limited teacher support. More concerning, unions oppose professional development for teachers in working hours without government putting more money on the table.
This month, I assiduously compared 165 Queensland high schools and their student gains between years nine and 12. The results were astonishing. From the same baseline at year nine, some public high schools triple the number of top score senior students in three years; others tragically diminish that cohort by a third. Despite hardworking teachers everywhere, there appears to be a six-fold variation in public high school performance that has nothing to do with community wealth. In fact, many of the best performing schools are in the poorest suburbs.
None of this information has ever been made public, because school systems prefer to bury indigestible data deep in the myschool website. Teachers remain isolated in 3500 school locations nationwide, trapped in systems that force them to take work home. Data showing some schools smashing ceilings is suppressed, to avoid embarrassing the rest. Fessing up that teacher performance actually varies is deemed heretical.
Compare that with nursing. Facing oblivion against higher paid and trained doctors and allied health professionals, nurses fought back and professionalised their degree. They introduced higher salaries for specialisations and a clinical hierarchy that rewarded talent and ambition. Today, nurses and doctors clinically 'self-develop' at home for financial reward. Teachers on the other hand lesson plan at home, for free. Top teacher salaries are only now touching triple figures; something around a quarter of nurses have enjoyed for years.
That is partly due to teachers being confined to salary increments which top-out at a mid-level bureaucrat wage. Unlike nurses and doctors, where the high earners remain on the beat, teachers must abandon the classroom in exchange for further pay rises.
Unions exert significant influence on Labor state education ministers; typically by opposing everything except pay increments. The list is long; opposition to Naplan, external testing, publicising detailed school outcomes and as a topper, opposing any rewards for higher performance. Apparently teachers do it for love not money and there is absolutely no way to fairly measure teacher performance.
In contrast to Australia's world-class health system, our schools are slipping not just against the best, but in some cases against our own results just a decade ago. Surely we can be honest, and admit that like every profession, some teachers work hard; some not so much. With the tireless paid the same as the soft-paddler, it is remarkable how the system survives.
As many of us take for granted, extra pay for excellence could activate a dynamic where the best teachers took on the largest challenges in the hardest locations, made the biggest differences and were paid accordingly. We pay specialist doctors more than High Court judges to cure the most complex patients, but deny specialist teachers an additional cent for working with the highest-need students.
Teaching should be an art. Instead we insist that every work fetch the same price. It should be a science, efforts to capture data are actively discredited. Teaching should be a profession, but trade unions are doing their best to reduce it to just that: a trade.
It's a weaker nation that curbs this discussion using derision and personal attack. My call is not for an overhaul, but for baby steps towards a system where excellence is formally recognised with more than just a certificate.
If that generates such outrage, it is clear now is the time these entrenched union views be tested, to benefit of all teachers and our children.
Andrew Laming is the Federal Member for Bowman.
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Jan 18, 2017 04:20
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May 11, 2024 17:14
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- iajanus
- Aug 17, 2004
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NUMBER 1 QUEENSLAND SUPPORTER
MAROONS 2023 STATE OF ORIGIN CHAMPIONS FOR LIFE
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http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/halal-snack-pack-named-peoples-choice-word-of-2016-by-macquarie-dictionary-20170201-gu2ui2.html posted:
It's meaty, cheesy, and incredibly saucy, and it was the word on everyone's lips in 2016.
Last year was a momentous one for the Halal Snack Pack.
There were queues at kebab stands as its popularity skyrocketed, a HSP appreciation society was formed, and the greasy treat made its mark on Australian politics on election night when Labor senator Sam Dastyari offered to take Pauline Hanson out for a halal bite.
Finally the people have spoken. Halal snack pack (HSP), "a fast food comprising layers of hot chips, grated cheese, halal doner kebab meat, garlic sauce, barbecue sauce and chilli sauce", has been named People's Choice Word of the Year 2016 by Macquarie Dictionary.
"The significance of halal snack pack is that it tells us about something once confined largely to the Muslim community that is now surfacing throughout the broader Australian community," the Macquarie committee said.
Macquarie Dictionary editor Susan Butler said she had devoured her first HSP in honour of the occasion.
"I think it is the duty of lexicographers to, as much as is humanly possible, eat the food items that they put in the dictionary," she said.
"How can you write the definition of HSP with enthusiasm if you have never sampled it? So today I ate my first HSP.
"I can understand why this dish has become the fast food item of the day. It is carbo‐loaded, calorific sinfulness. Once started on it, you cannot stop."
At the height of its popularity, in July last year, Melbourne's Viva Kebab shop had lines around the corner of people hankering for the dish.
Owner Cihan Parti's said more than 400 HSPs were being sold there every day.
The runners up were the terms alt-right and fake news, which was announced last week as the Committee's Choice Word of the Year 2016.
"Politics was big in the year that was, and so it is not unexpected that alt‐right would be in second place," Ms Butler said.
"The success of extreme right‐wing political groups in the UK, the US, France, the Netherlands and Australia is unprecedented,"
"The popular vote went for food first of all, and then politics."
2016 salvaged.
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Feb 1, 2017 06:24
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Jan 4, 2017 04:07
