Synthbuttrange posted:

Abbott's Indigenous Advisory Council has been abolished. vOv

Solemn Sloth posted:

I'd never heard of the mx missile crisis


Uhhhh....

kirbysuperstar posted:

Uh...hm...

Recoome posted:

Channel 7 trying to capture the racist/bigoted idiot demographic, I see

blackcat12951 posted:

Whoever buys the avatars, please use different pics for each poster so we can tell who's posting.

quote:

Donald Trump slips up on Aussie ‘attack’ The Australian12:00AM February 8, 2017 MARK SCHLIEBS ReporterBrisbane

The White House erroneously branded a double murder in Queensland as terrorism yesterday to illustrate President ­Donald Trump’s claim there were dozens of Islamic State ­attacks in Western countries a “very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report”. The Trump administration, which has levelled claims of “fake news” at journalists and coined the phrase “alternate facts”, listed the deaths of two British backpackers in a stabbing at a hostel in a small town near Townsville last year as terrorism. Smail Ayad allegedly killed Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, and Tom Jackson, 30, in August while yelling “Allahu Akbar” and singing the French national anthem but police almost immediately ruled out terrorism. The White House gaffe, ­described as a “gross error” by a terrorism expert, came just days after senior Trump adviser ­Kellyanne Conway wrongly claimed while defending the Trump travel ban that there had been a terrorist massacre at Bowling Green in Kentucky in 2011.

“Two killed and one wounded in knife attack at a hostel frequented by Westerners” is how the White House described the non-existent Queensland ­terrorist attack yesterday. The “attacker” is listed as Smail Ayad, according to copies of the list published by US media outlets. These details were included in the White House’s list of 78 terrorist attacks worldwide that went “mostly” under-reported since September 2014, released to support the earlier criticism by Mr Trump. The list included four confirmed Australian attacks, including the Lindt cafe siege, Numan Haider’s knife attack on two ­Melbourne police officers and Curtis Cheng’s murder. Authorities have long ruled out terrorism as a motive for the August 23 killings at the hostel in Home Hill, 95km southeast of Townsville. Mr Ayad, then 29, was charged with murder, ­attempted murder and other ­offences, but not with any terror-related offences. “The Queensland Police ­Service conducted a thorough ­investigation into the murders of British nationals Mia Ayliffe-Chung and Thomas Jackson — examining all facets of the crime,” the service said yesterday. “We did not close our minds to any circumstances or motivation. We are confident (the ­accused) acted alone and had no known local connections. The crimes were not about race or ­religion, but individual criminal behaviour.”

Two months after the killings, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation head Duncan Lewis told a Senate estimates hearing that there had been only four ­terrorist attacks in Australia since 2014: Lindt, Haider, Cheng and the stabbing of a man at a park in Minto, in Sydney’s southwest, last September. (Bolded for the lolness of them being called terror attacks).

The list does not include the Townsville stabbings. ASIO confirmed yesterday there had not been a fifth attack.

News Corp, publisher of The Australian, said its publications “covered the Australian events listed by the President with both professionalism and courage, and indeed called them out for the terrorism events that they were proven to be”.

Terrorism expert Greg Barton from Deakin University said while the “Bowling Green massacre” could have been a legitimate mistake after Ms Conway said she had misspoken, classifying Home Hill as a terrorist attack seemed more purposeful.
“The fact that it comes from a White House statement and flies in the odds of — I’m pretty sure — American intelligence assessments, but also disregards Australian intelligence assessments, (means) it’s a pretty gross error,” Professor Barton said. “It raises the suggestion that it’s wilful.”

hooman posted:

Surely it's just so they can pull their benefits if their parents earn money.

quote:

Study reveals Australia no longer the 'lucky country' for millennials Anna Patty

Millennials in Australia no longer consider it the "lucky country" and are less optimistic about the future than their counterparts in developing economies including the Philippines, Indonesia and India. The international study also reveals Australians born after 1982 are more prepared to leave their jobs after two years than they have been in previous surveys. New research from the University of Sydney has found that some Generation Yers are reluctant to see themselves in terms of generational differences. The 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey is based on the views of 8000 people born after 1982 across 30 countries, including 300 in Australia. Only 8 per cent of millennials in Australia believe they will be better off than their parents and only 4 per cent believe they will be happier(loving EMOs). That compares with greater optimism in markets including Europe and the US where 36 per cent of respondents predicted they would be financially better off than their parents. The optimism is even greater in emerging markets in Asia where 71 per cent of young adults believe they will be financially better off than their elders.

The results are similar when it comes to their happiness.

David Hill, Deloitte Australia's chief operating officer said for millennials "Australia no longer looks like the lucky country. I suspect booming house prices in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne are partly to blame for this pessimism, with many young Australians believing the dream of owning their own home is increasingly out of reach. It's another indicator for state and federal governments of the need to find answers to the question of housing affordability." The concerns of millennials around the globe have shifted from climate change and resource scarcity to crime, corruption, war and political tension. They are also concerned about unemployment, healthcare and income inequality. A relatively lower proportion (22 per cent) of Australians expected the overall social and political situation in their country to improve compared to 36 per cent internationally.

The majority of younger Australians also appeared to want to see greater passion and conviction from their politicians.

"Our survey shows business and political leaders need to find a way to bring millennials with them on key initiatives," Mr Hill said. "They are more comfortable with straight-talking language but will reject leaders who take divisive positions." In last year's survey, 46 per cent of Australian millennials planned to leave their job in the next two years. That proportion has grown to 58 per cent this year. But there was also a growing proportion, 24 per cent compared to 19 per cent last year, who wanted to stay with their employer for five years or more. Deloitte said this greater loyalty was linked to organisation's values and purpose.

The study said charities and local companies are thought to be exceeding their potential to help address social issues.

"Millennials are a little sceptical with respect to the motivations of large, multinational businesses that support charities or otherwise contribute to social initiatives," the study said. Many millennials felt unable to influence society's biggest challenges; but, in the workforce, they could feel greater sense of control. "Where workplace opportunities are offered, millennials are significantly more likely to say they can influence social equality, the environment, the behaviour of big businesses, and even the overall directions of their countries," the study found. "Regardless of whether millennials as individuals can make a tangible difference ... the key point is that employers can provide a sense of empowerment."

The study also suggested a majority of millennials said flexible working practices improved their productivity and engagement (So looks like millennials (over 50%) are easily led loving idiots). The study follows commentary on the best way to approach millennials suggesting they are widely misunderstood(?) as lazy, entitled narcissists.

Top Issues for Australian millennials 2017

Terrorism: 30% (So looks like millennials (30%) are easily led loving idiots)

Crime/personal safety: 27%

Climate Change/environment/natural disasters: 26%

Income inequality/distribution of wealth: 25%

Healthcare/disease prevention: 20%

Gorilla Salad posted:

I've always considered Hinch to be a pile of poo poo, but up until now I had also thought he was a principled piece of poo poo.

hiddenmovement posted:

I would be in that 50% and I interpreted it the way you did. Its a work life balance thing, not a cry for a boss to gently caress me over

Mad Katter posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YVydihI7XQ

The video of this is embarrassing and pathetic on several levels.

Shorten looks like a sad boy being chastised.

Cirofren posted:

Mr Chips posted:

https://www.facebook.com/7newssydney/videos/1549090041781790/

Starshark posted:

Why wouldn't you give him a cabinet position? He's an expert on everything from gays are icky to what toppings go best on a Domino's.

quote:

One Nation: Pauline Hanson and Steve Dickson asked to leave Sunshine Coast shopping centre Updated yesterday at 7:19pm

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and new Queensland recruit Steve Dickson have been asked to leave a Sunshine Coast shopping centre midway through a press conference. Senator Hanson and Mr Dickson, the Member for Buderim who last month defected to One Nation from the LNP, were asked to move on and told they were not given permission to be at the centre. The pair was there to introduce the One Nation candidate for Nicklin, Steven Ford, who is bidding to replace retiring independent MP Peter Wellington in the next Queensland election. Mr Dickson was interrupted mid-sentence by the property manager for the centre, telling them they were on "private property".

"We have tenants that won't appreciate that this is happening here, you were told that you didn't have permission to come," she said. Mr Dickson apologised and asked the manager to jump in front of the microphones, "sorry, please jump in front of the journalists". "We're appeasing the media," Mr Dickson said. It is understood the assembled media had chosen the spot for the press conference to take place,(Really? wtf? Anyone confirm this as EVER happenning in the history of EVER) not Senator Hanson or Mr Dickson. The woman told Mr Dickson and Senator Hanson there was a town square nearby where they could conduct the conference. The media conference continued on an adjoining footpath.

quote:

MACKSVILLE: There's now a lane in both directions to pass a truck & car crash on the Pacific Hwy. Expect some delays and exercise caution.

ORIGINAL: A CRITICAL investigation has been launched after a fatal crash in Macksville early this morning.

About 2am police attempted to stop a vehicle in Kempsey. The driver allegedly never stopped and a police pursuit was launched which continued on the Pacific Hwy to north Macksville. The vehicle then hit a B-double and the driver died at the scene. The driver of the truck was uninjured and taken to hospital for mandatory testing. A crime scene has been set up at the location of the crash which will be examined by forensic officers. The circumstances around the incident will be investigated by a critical incident team from the Northern Rivers. All information will be provided to the coroner. Traffic is affected in both directions on the Pacific Hwy near the new bypass site, north of the Macksville Bridge.

quote:

Perhaps an enlightening exercise, then, would be to mention another candidate who lobbied furiously for the role: Sasha Grebe! Grebe, a former toiler at the Australian Wheat Board, has been job hunting for months and will be smarting he was passed over for this plum gig. Thorburn must have met him in person.

quote:

"The move to a [7.5 hour] day brings the ATO in line with most other APS agencies and can be used as one of the biggest sources of genuine productivity to justify other improvements in the EA," the document said.

quote:

Josh Frydenberg flags changes to allow CEFC to invest in carbon capture and storage AM By Eliza Borrello Updated about 10 hours ago

Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has revealed the Government is considering lifting a ban on allowing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to invest in carbon capture and storage.

Key points:

CEFC currently prohibited from investing in carbon capture technology or low-emission coal-fired power plants
Frydenberg says Government interested in changing rules to ensure energy stability
Opposition would oppose changes, says market "not talking" about new coal-fired plants
The technology involves capturing carbon dioxide from a power plant and burying it underground in a bid to reduce emissions.

"Carbon capture and storage is an important technology," Mr Frydenberg said. At the moment the CEFC, the Government's green bank, is not allowed to invest in it. But amid the Coalition's renewed support for coal-fired power, Mr Frydenberg said that could change. "We're going to look at all our options because of the challenges that we face, namely to ensure energy security [and] energy affordability, as we transition to a low-emissions future," he said. Shadow Energy Minister Mark Butler said it would require the kind of legislation Labor would strongly oppose. "This would be an outrageous act of vandalism against a successful financing mechanism for renewable energy, for energy efficiency projects and for genuine low-carbon technology," he said. "It's no real surprise, I guess, because the Liberal Party has never really supported the CEFC. "It tried to abolish it for three years and now seems committed to making it a finance mechanism for the coal industry, which is unable to attract finance from the private sector."

Government interested in low-emission coal-fired plants

Mr Frydenberg said he was also interested in investment in high-efficiency, low-emission coal-fired plants. Currently they are not green enough for the CEFC to invest in, but Mr Frydenberg has flagged changing the rules.

How does CCS work?

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) traps up to 90 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels
The carbon dioxide is then transported by pipeline or ship for storage
It is usually stored in an underground geological rock formation
The aim is to prevent large quantities of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere
Source: The Carbon Capture and Storage Association

"The Government could issue a new mandate to the CEFC which would then inform its guidelines and would make possible an investment in a high-efficiency low-emission power plant," he said. "We're looking at all our options because we're intent on stabilising the system. "Right now we need more baseload power. Cleaner coal is one of those options together with gas fired power, as well as ensuring more storage capacity for intermittent sources of generation, namely wind and solar. "Our focus is on stabilising the system and not allowing a repeat of what happened in South Australia [with blackouts] to happen anywhere else in the country."(Repeating a lie that almost everyone knows is a lie but more importantly J Frydenberg knows is a lie)

But Mr Butler said the market was not interested in the kind of plants Mr Frydenberg was suggesting. "It doesn't reflect the reality in the electricity industry. No-one in the industry is talking about the reality of building new coal-fired power stations," he said.

ewe2 posted:

I very much doubt any public broadcaster would get away with such a drama now, they'd self-censor it to death.

JBP posted:

Anyway what I'm saying is gently caress boomers they can suck a dick.

quote:

Ray Williams donations scandal: Cash from developer funnelled through Hawkesbury Club SHARRI MARKSON, The Daily Telegraph 31 minutes ago

NSW MINISTER TOOK CASH FROM DEVELOPERS: READ THE FULL DOSSIER

ILLEGAL donations from property developers were funnelled through NSW Multicultural Minister Ray Williams’ Hawkesbury Club, where the annual fee of $990 was just below the $1000 disclosure threshold. Documents leaked to The Daily Telegraph can reveal Mr Williams — only recently promoted to the ministry by new Premier Gladys Berejiklian — took donations from some of Sydney’s most prominent property developers. The Hawkesbury Club had formal invitations detailing the date and venue of the meeting, where a speaker would address the group. A cheque for $990 written by developer Jack Iori to pay for membership to Ray Williams’ Hawkesbury Club. Several property developers told The Daily Telegraph they were asked to be members of the club, where they would pay an annual fee of $990 and in return could attend events with a wide range of prominent political speakers.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has this morning asked the NSW Liberal Party to investigate Mr Williams. “I expect all MPs to maintain the highest standards of integrity and to comply with all relevant donations requirements,” she said. “Political donations are managed by the NSW Liberal Party and I have asked the Party to investigate these claims. If any allegations of wrongdoing emerge, they will be referred to the NSW Electoral Commission.” Ms Berejiklian, however, refused to say what action she will take if the Liberal Party identifies issues relating to Mr Williams, saying she does not want to discuss “any potential outcome”. “I’m not going to speculate on what might transpire today,” she said. “I want to say straight up that as Premier of NSW I will not tolerate any wrongdoing by anyone,” she said. Ms Berejiklian said she would be receiving an update “later in the day” and would share that update publicly.

She said she had spoken to Mr Williams “briefly” last night.

“He strongly refuted the matters that were being raised,” she said. "If there are any irregularities whatsoever, the Liberal Party will refer those matters to the relevant bodies,” she said. Ms Berejiklian also noted that the allegations were not trivial in nature. “These allegations raised today are serious, no doubt about it,” she said. Mr Williams issued a statement this morning denying having ever accepted an illegal donation “Allegations made today regarding myself are completely false and I refute them entirely,” he said in the statement. “I state for the record, I have never received an illegal donation. All donations made on behalf of a conference I have represented have been made directly to the Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division as is required by law.

Property developer and owner of Rouse Hill Village Shopping Centre, John “Jack” Iori, who donated $990 on April 29 in 2013 confirmed to The Daily Telegraph he had many developments. This included a 10-block gated estate he developed at 32 Withers Rd in Kellyville. He said he made a yearly donation of $990. “I get on very well with Ray. I love him. I give him $990 every year,” he said. Bruce Lyon, from Lyon Group, was asked to join the club "It was the Hawkesbury Club. I get invited to go and if you belong to the club, anybody will tell ya, you get ­invited to a few nights out and it’s very interesting. Knowledgeable, in other words.” Prominent property developer Bruce Lyon, who is the founder of Lyon Group Australia, which develops commercial and residential estates, said he was invited to attend an association Mr Williams set up, but to the best of his recollection he said he declined. He donated a smaller sum of $134 on July 2 in 2012, which were tickets for a fundraiser.

Mr Lyon said he had only had one meeting in recent years with Mr Williams, at Parliament House, regarding a development in Dural. “He formed a Hawkesbury Club and someone said to me, ‘Would you like to come in?’. “And I do support the conservative party, (but) I didn’t have very much to do with it. I’ve been in the property ­development business 60-odd years and I get annoyed with this stigma that has been put on people in the industry. We are all crooks all of a sudden,” he said.

JBP posted:

"Get hosed" works fine since it's not in the government's interest to actually prosecute non voters since there are millions of anti compulsory voting dudes waiting to emerge from the woodwork.

quote:

Terrifying truth about rape convictions: ‘It shatters your belief that the world is a safe place’ FEBRUARY 23, 20178:28AM

Nina Funnell’s attacker left behind DNA evidence, and yet no one has ever been charged over her violent sexual assault.

THESE are the numbers that should terrify us all.

A report just released from the Crime Statistics Agency found that in 2009 and 2010, over 3,500 rapes were reported to Victoria Police. Of those, a tiny 3% ended in a court conviction. Even more startling, 41 police reports were made against alleged perpetrators who already had at least six prior sexual offences recorded. Nearly half (18) of those reports went nowhere. No charges, no court appearance, no conviction, nothing. And these are the rapes that have been reported. Hundreds of thousands of women in Australia have been raped or sexually assaulted and never go to police. Why are charges and convictions so difficult to achieve for sexual violence? That’s something Nina Funnell knows all too well.

NINA’S STORY

Nina was sexually assaulted nearly 10 years ago, by a man who held a blade to her throat in Sydney’s Hunters Hill. Despite police eventually finding DNA evidence from the crime scene, no one has ever been charged with her assault. “When you don’t get an outcome” she says, “you feel so powerless, and so much of the trauma of sexual violence is being powerless. It shatters your belief that the world is a safe place and that justice is something you can rely on.” Nina’s experience, traumatic as it was, became worse in her dealings with NSW police. After she escaped her attacker and was desperately running for home, she called 000. She told them what had happened to her. She was still out on the street and had no idea where the man who attacked her was. The phone operator took her details and disconnected the call. Terrified, and assuming the disconnection was an accident, she called them back. Again, still alone on a dark street, with a man who had held a blade to her throat still somewhere in the vicinity, they took her details and hung up. Luckily, she got home safely and waited for police to arrive. She says she doesn’t know how long that took, a common reaction for victims of trauma, when shock and adrenaline distorts their perception of time. The police took her back to the scene of the attack, where they found one of her shoes and her broken necklace.

Later that week Nina went back to the police station to review her statement and look through photos of known offenders in her area. “It was so shocking” she says, “there were hundreds of them. And as I was looking through them all, the officer who was showing me this huge book said to me ‘you poor girls, you just don’t understand the risks that you take and the dangers out there’. I was still bruised and shaking from the attack, and he thought I didn’t understand the dangers? It was Hunters Hill on Sydney’s lower North Shore and all I did was walk home.” Nina couldn’t identify her attacker from the photos, and she was told it could take up to six months to process the DNA evidence. Four months after the attack, frustrated, angry, and still recovering from the horror of the it, Nina couldn’t wait any longer, so she went to the media. After her story aired on Channel 7 the DNA results for her test came back within days. She knows, however, that most people don’t have that option. “It worked for me, but only because I had contacts in the media. What it meant, of course, was someone else got pushed from the top of the list.” The results found male DNA, but no match in the NSW database. Nina doesn’t know if the DNA was ever sent to other states for matching. “I know enough about sex offenders to know it’s very unlikely a man who attacked me the way he did only did it once. But the police couldn’t tell me anything about the investigation. It was incredibly frustrating, and just made me feel powerless all over again.”

Police have to be extremely careful about the information they give to victims. If they tell them anything that might taint their evidence in court, it could mean the offender goes free. But they can explain the process to victims, and treat them with respect and dignity. “Victims might be traumatised, but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. The communication process in my case was terrible. I just felt like they weren’t doing anything and didn’t care about what happened to me.” Worse was to come. Five years later NSW policeman Marc Osbourne was found guilty of three counts of filming a person engaged in a private act without consent after he videoed himself having sex with various women and showing the films to other officers at Gladesville police station. The same station Nina was taken to look at photos of sex offenders, and told she should be “more aware of dangers”. “I just felt violated all over again. I felt like that was the culture there, that the people who were meant to be taking my case seriously, the ones I was so vulnerable to, and put so much trust in, were laughing at sexual exploitation of women.”

THE PROBLEM WITH POLICE

Police, as Nina experienced, are the gatekeepers of criminal proceedings against sexually violent offenders. They decide whether to investigate a reported crime, and how thoroughly they are going to do so. They also make the decision about whether to take the results of the investigation to the next stage — laying charges and bringing the perpetrator to court. Most police take sexual offences very seriously. The problem, according to a wide body of research is not that they don’t care, it’s more commonly that they don’t understand the difference between the reality of sexual violence and the misconception of “real rape”. Police are less likely to press forward with cases where the perpetrator was the victim’s husband or boyfriend, where the victim and her assailant were on a date, where the victim was intoxicated, where she has no visible injuries, or where they believe she was not a “good” woman. It’s also not unusual for police to believe the myth that women commonly lie about rape.

The truth is that this is how most rapes happen. Most victims know their rapist. Not all victims can or do fight back. There is no such thing as “good” women and “bad” women. Not all rapists leave bruises. Rapists can be “nice guys” who have friends, families and communities. Victims can present as very calm and methodical. And women almost never lie about rape. In fact, women are forty-five times more likely to not report a rape than to lie about rape. This mismatch between belief and reality goes some way to explaining why so few rapes go beyond the initial report. There is, however, more to the story.

RAPE ON TRIAL

Misconceptions about rape persist beyond police, they carry through the entire justice system. Juries have been shown to “pay more attention to evidence of character and conduct than they do to substantive evidence of rape”. Defence lawyers know this, and therefore their most effective and regularly used tactic is to discredit the victim’s character rather than their evidence. Mitchell Peggie is a case in point. He was charged with sexually assaulting a 17 year old girl in Queensland in 2014, and was acquitted in 2015. A week after his acquittal, he raped a 21 year old woman, and was convicted. During the trial his victim was subjected to a gruelling cross examination by the defence barrister. He asked if she had been “moaning and gasping with pleasure” during the rape, grilled her about why she was wearing “sexy lingerie”, showed photos of her bra and underpants to the jury, insisted she was lying about the rape as revenge because she didn’t like the way Peggie treated her, and asked “What did you think was going to happen?” when she testified about agreeing to go for a walk with Peggie. After his conviction, yet another woman told the Courier Mail that Peggie had sexually assaulted her, but she did not report it to police at the time. Obviously, only in one of those cases was Peggie proved to have committed rape, but the brutal questioning of his victim in that trial demonstrates why so many victims are hesitant about taking their cases to court. Police and prosecutors, when they make decisions about whether to take a case further must take all these things into account. Where they think a case doesn’t have a reasonable chance of reaching a guilty verdict, they may decide, as much for the victim’s sake as anything else, to not take it any further. In many cases, victims will start to understand the process they will have to go through to obtain a conviction and simply decide it’s not worth it. Horrifically low reporting and conviction rates for sexually violent crimes has been the subject of several law reform commissions and numerous research project, but very little has changed over the last 40 years. Debunking misconceptions about rape in the public perception, and more importantly in all levels of the criminal justice system, is one essential step. But much more needs to be done to ensure that victims are given the belief, support and respect they so desperately need.

BREAKING DOWN THE STATISTICS

Australia - Less than 15% of rapes are reported to police.

Victoria: 2009 — 2010
7,066 rape, indecent assault and incest were reported to Victoria Police (of these, 3513 were reports of rape).
2,381 reports resulted in further investigation.
1,643 went to court.
631 recorded a conviction in Magistrates or Children’s court.
583 were transferred to a higher court (rape cases cannot be tried in the Victorian Magistrates court).
Approximately 90 rape convictions were recorded in higher courts.
Approximately 40 indecent assault convictions were recorded in higher courts.
Approximately 50 incest convictions were recorded in higher courts.

New South Wales: 2015
10,944 reports of sex offences made to NSW police.
1,734 reports resulted in criminal proceedings.
1,603 reports went to court.
932 reports found guilty.
523 offenders received a custodial sentence.

Periphery posted:

At that point does it become a self perpetuating phenomenon as people freak out about being in a recession and stop spending or become more defensive with their money?

Solemn Sloth posted:

Any recession would clearly be the fault of the labor waste we inherited (half a loving decade ago)

tithin posted:

Does the Cartoon poo poo in the woods?

quote:

<snip>"I rely on Sunday penalty rates. I am rostered on every single Sunday. "I will now lose $109 a week, that is insane. I rely on the penalty rates to make ends meet and to pay for my fuel, my rent and to pay for my food." Supermarket giant Coles contacted the ABC on Thursday afternoon to say Mr Hunter was one of their employees. "Store team members at Coles are employed under an enterprise agreement and therefore are unaffected by today's decision."<snip>

quote:

<snip>The RBA has never been this explicit: people have taken on mountains of debt to ride the property boom and it's now a risk to the economy. Many others have made the observation, but for the RBA to say it, is a big deal. The RBA knows the economy is still fragile. It needs more stimulation; to drive growth, get wages up and push unemployment down. But the RBA doesn't want to cut interest rates further because it will just throw more fuel on property prices which are already growing at eye-watering levels in the pacific rim cities — at a time when wages growth is at record lows.<snip>

quote:

<snip>"Every government proposal of the last 10 years to reform the tax system has failed." The constant political brawl meant considered, long-term recommendations on fiscal, economic growth and environmental challenges were ignored. "The reform narrative of an earlier period has been buried by the language of fear and anger. It doesn't seek to explain; rather, it seeks to confuse and frighten."<snip>

Anidav posted:

https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/02/24/abbott-turnbull-its-on-but-theres-a-third-player/

Anyone?

Lid posted:

Lol

adamantium|wang posted:

More at the link.

quote:

No Australian military personnel were killed in action during Operation Falconer or Operation Catalyst, although three died in accidents or during service with British forces; many more have been wounded. Additionally as many as six Australians have been killed whilst working as private security contractors.

quote:

The cost of the Iraq war to Australian taxpayers is estimated to have exceeded A$5 billion.

quote:

Australian Council of Social Service calls for slashing tax breaks for property investors By senior business correspondent Peter Ryan Updated about an hour ago

Tax breaks for property investors should be slashed and the Medicare levy lifted to pump more funding into welfare spending, according to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). In its pre-budget submission, the peak welfare group says there is "no more fat to chew" from lower-paid workers or disadvantaged Australians as the Government seeks to carve out further savings. ACOSS is urging the Federal Government to consider a range of measures that would save $9.4 billion by 2018-19, such as reducing the current 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax (CGT) and winding back generous tax breaks on negative gearing. ACOSS chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie told the ABC the future welfare of less-well-off Australians overrides generous tax concessions for property investors. "We can no longer afford the 50 per cent discount on taxes for capital gains from property assets and deductions for such investment using negative gearing," Dr Goldie said. The ACOSS submission calls for the CGT discount to be at least halved and negative gearing concessions reduced to cool property speculation and the current housing affordability crisis.

On Friday, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe suggested altering the mix of tax breaks for property investors, such as capital gains tax and negative gearing, could tax some heat out of the currently hot real estate market. Dr Goldie has urged the Government to recast its budget strategy and to move on from a "one-sided focus on spending cuts", especially in the area of welfare spending. "It is clear that governments will not be able to fund the cost of essential services such as health, aged care and NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme] from present tax revenues," Dr Goldie said. "It is not fair or reasonable to expect people who need to see a doctor, attend hospital or move into aged care to pay more for these essential services."

ACOSS calls for tax on sugary drinks

Apart from scaling back concessions for property investments, ACOSS wants the Private Health Insurance Rebate scrapped so the Government can invest in preventative health services. The submission says $4 billion could be raised by removing an exemption from a higher levy in the Medicare surcharge for people who hold private health insurance. ACOSS is also calling for a tax on sugary drinks which could add $500 million to Treasury coffers in 2017-18. Not surprisingly, Dr Goldie is opposed to a cut in the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over 10 years. "Our nation cannot afford unfunded company tax cuts at this time for large or small businesses. Any tax cut should be funded through business tax reform," Dr Goldie said. "There is simply little left to cut without harming people on the lowest incomes and driving more families and children into poverty."

The ACOSS submission also wants the Medicare Safety Net abolished and further reforms to private trusts and superannuation contributions to ensure Treasurer Scott Morrison finds savings without hurting the poor.

quote:

Adani director appointed to body overseeing mining giant's coal port despite conflict of interest warning Exclusive by the National Reporting Team's Mark Willacy and Alexandra Blucher Updated about an hour ago

The Queensland Government appointed an Adani company director to chair the authority overseeing the Abbot Point coal port, despite being warned of "potential conflicts of interest".

Key points:

"It's undoubtedly a conflict of interest," said law professor on Mr Fish's appointment
Treasurer's office confirms it knew of Mr Fish's directorship and that he "disclosed potential conflicts of interest prior to his appointment"
But Mr Fish's link to Adani was not disclosed publicly by the Treasurer when he was appointed
Brad Fish was a director of Adani's Abbot Point Operations Pty Ltd when he was made the chair of the state-owned North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation (NQBP).

NQBP oversees the ports at Weipa, Mackay, Hay Point and Abbot Point. Adani runs the only operating coal terminal at Abbot Point, north of Bowen. Mr Fish's appointment as NQBP chair was made in September 2015 by Treasurer Curtis Pitt. He did not resign the directorship of Abbot Point Operations until November 11, 2015. "It's undoubtedly a conflict of interest, and the real question then becomes how do you manage the conflict," said University of Queensland Professor of Commercial Law, Ross Grantham.

Nik Casule from Greenpeace Australia Pacific said the appointment raised serious questions.

"Mr Fish was chairman of North Queensland Bulk Ports that was responsible for regulating the port of Abbot Point at the same time as he was director of a company that was profiting from the operations of that port," Mr Casule said. The Treasurer's office has confirmed to the ABC that it knew of Mr Fish's directorship and that he "disclosed potential conflicts of interest prior to his appointment". But Mr Fish's directorship with Abbot Point Operations was not disclosed publicly by Mr Pitt's office or North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation at the time of his appointment.

The ABC approached Mr Fish through NQBP.

In a statement, NQBP said: "Mr Fish continues to be precluded from considering, being involved in discussions or receiving documents relating to commercial decisions regarding Adani." "The requirement for Mr Fish to be precluded from relevant sections of Board or Committee meetings has been an infrequent occurrence," an NQBP spokesman said. "However the requirements under the protocol are strictly enforced where applicable." "If the person concerned is not able to be involved in discussions between the port authority and the client then you wonder whether the person is really able to fully discharge their duties," said Professor Grantham.

Mr Fish has a long history with North Queensland Bulk Ports.

Before becoming a director of Abbot Point Operations he was the CEO of NQBP for 14 years. The ABC asked the Treasurer's office why the Government did not publicly disclose the "potential conflict of interest" involving Mr Fish. It failed to respond. "[As] the shareholding minister, the Treasurer has a responsibility as the effective owner of the authority to be accountable to the public," said Professor Grantham.

DancingShade posted:

My guess it was as SES equivalent acting through their EA because SES people consider themselves above the rules and EAs usually don't know what the rules are.

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Australian corporate profits soared last quarter, but employees saw their pay go backward DAVID SCUTT FEB 27, 2017, 1:45 PM

The profitability of Australian companies soared last quarter, mainly due to enormous price increases in the nation’s key commodity exports. According to the ABS, gross company profits jumped by 20.1% in the final three months of 2016 in seasonally adjusted terms, the largest percentage rise since early 2001. At $A77.8 billion, the quarterly total was the largest on record, and left gross profits up 26.2% on the same quarter a year earlier. Massive, and while booming commodity price contributed to the stellar increase, the improvement was not just limited to mining companies, says ANZ. “Much of this increase was due to the mining sector, where profits rose 50% on the back of rising export volumes and prices across iron ore, coal and LNG,” said Daniel Gradwell and David Plank, economists at the bank. “Encouragingly, non-mining profits also posted a strong increase — up 8.7% for the quarter — with a number of sectors posting double digit gains.” Outside of mining, the construction sector also put in a strong performance seeing gross operating profits rise by a more than nifty 32%. Non-farm business inventories grew by 0.3% during the quarter, less that the 0.5% increase expected, which may subtract 0.2 percentage points from real quarterly GDP, according to ANZ.

However, while corporate profits soared, the news was more sobering when it came to total employee salaries and wages paid during the quarter. They fell by 0.5% in seasonally adjusted terms, the largest contraction since the GFC, leaving the annual increase at a paltry 1%. “This is well below the moderate growth implied by the wage price index (WPI) and labour market data,” says Gradwell and Plank, noting that it is likely to weigh on Q4 GDP given its ties to household consumption, the largest component in the national accounts. Along with tepid hourly wages growth, the switch from full to part-time employment growth in Australia likely contributed to the weak quarterly and annual result. Gradwell and Plank described the December quarter business indicators report as “on the positive side overall”, noting that the “sharp jump in company profits is likely to provide some welcome support for Q4 GDP after last week’s construction and investment data disappointed.” However, the pair cautioned that the soft wage result will “temper some of the resultant enthusiasm”. “(This) provides further evidence that a soft inflationary environment is going to persist for an extended period,” they said, suggesting that the “will continue to be a key issue going forward”.

On Tuesday, the last of Australia’s GDP inputs will arrive with government spending and balance of payments figures, including net export contribution to GDP, set to be released by the ABS. That will be followed a day later by Australia’s Q4 GDP report on Wednesday, March 1.

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<snip>More than 800,000 Australians face home phone disconnections this year as NBN deadlines loom Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, National technology editor, News Corp Australia Network February 20, 2017 10:00pm

MORE THAN 800,000 households and businesses will have their home phones disconnected this year as part of a forced migration to the National Broadband Network and its boss has admitted he is worried Australians “will fall victim” to being cut off unexpectedly. NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow said it was “inevitable” some consumers would miss warnings about the looming disconnection deadlines, planned 18 months after their homes were ready to use the network.
His comments came as a survey showed most people did not understand the mandatory transition to the NBN, and Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive Teresa Corbin warned NBN advertisements needed to change to prevent particularly older Australians being caught out.<snip>

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<snip>Joint Strike Fighter: Multi-billion-dollar F-35 lands in Australia for first time Exclusive by defence reporter Andrew Greene Updated about 7 hours ago

After years of delays and cost blow-outs, the controversial Joint Strike Fighter has arrived on Australian soil for the first time. Just before 5:00pm on Monday, the Royal Australian Air Force landed two F-35s at Amberley Air Force Base outside Brisbane, after flying the fifth generation fighters from their current home in the United States. The two jets have been based at Luke Air Force Base, where four Royal Australian Air Force pilots are training to fly the cutting-edge aircraft.<snip>