- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
It's a shame conservatism isn't as dead as punk.
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2017 23:35
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2024 23:21
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
The Greens seem kind of maxed out, they've been treading water for the past few federal elections and their polling is pretty stable. I don't know what they can do if they want to become a mainstream party, but they'd better get on it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 00:21
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I'm serious. If you nationalise something like mining with billions if not trillions of dollars in vested interests, how many people will have to die?
Do you think the mining companies would hire mercenaries or what? The government would buy out the companies, something they should be spending the royalty money on now.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 04:58
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
How will the government provide services for anyone if it spends an entire year of GDP buying out private companies?
How will it run all of those new concerns that have fallen under it's umbrella?
What if they don't want to comply with compulsory acquisition and their host countries engage in diplomacy and trade restrictions on their behalf?
With the money they make from mining and by employing the people who work in those industries now. I don't see why other countries would care if they're buying ore from a privately or publicly owned company.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 05:08
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
There's nothing wrong with going into debt to purchase a productive asset, and any company wanting to process the ore would have to buy it from the (government) miner at market rates. I'm not suggesting we subsidise the industry, just take ownership of it.
[EDIT: and it's not like they'd be buying out every company at once, it'd happen over a period of decades]
open24hours fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Apr 3, 2017
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 05:18
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
This is all a bit hyperbolic. I'm talking about a government purchasing shares in publicly traded companies, not forcibly taking ownership of them. Comparisons to Nigeria and Iran are ridiculous.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 05:50
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
As far as a publicly traded company goes that this is forcibly taking ownership from them and they will resist. Once the government has control of the company investors will abandon ship and buy BHP Billiton Jr. The government will find it impossible to raise capital because you have the industrial equivalent of a five year old now helming that company.
e: you'd be going into a market war with BHP Billiton and Hancock Prospecting is a privately owned company which means compulsory acquisition or enactment of Full Stalin.
Wouldn't investors be more concerned with how much money the company was making than whether it was owned by the government? People were more than happy to buy shares in Telstra when it was majority owned by the government.
Again, it doesn't have to happen all at once. Sooner or later Hancock Prospecting will want to raise some money and I'm sure they'd be more than happy to let the government give it to them.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 06:03
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
They're not getting free government money, they're exchanging it for shares in the company. The payoff is the same as any other time a company sells shares to raise capital.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 06:14
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I'd probably ask for more money before going to the media. Would be a lot easier and they might give it to you.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 07:09
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Wow, 1%. I feel richer already.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2017 07:07
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
In a shocking turn of events...
quote:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/07/malcolm-turnbull-hints-australia-may-be-joining-us-strike-on-assad-regime?CMP=soc_568
Malcolm Turnbull has hinted that Australia may be involved in an expanded US-led military strike on Syria, after outrage at Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Idlib.
The prime minister, speaking shortly before it emerged the US was launching missile strikes on a Syrian military airfield near Homs, said the attack “cries out” for a strong response and that Russia had to take some responsibility.
“I can’t go into any more detail than that, other than to say that I’ve spoken only a little while ago with the defence minister [Marise Payne] and the chief of the defence force [Mark Binskin]” he told 3AW radio on Friday.
“You know where we stand. We have condemned this attack utterly. It cries out for a strong response and we are in very … close and constant communication with our allies, in particular the United States.”
Payne also called on the UN security council to take action but cautioned that “we need to be very careful” about the complexity of the Syrian conflict.
“We have to be clear with Russia, with have to be clear with those who support the regime, that this is totally unacceptable,” she said.
“The UN security council, I understand, is considering the options that are available to it. We would call on them to take action in response to that.”
The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is due to visit Australia this month. Pence will fly in on 22 April, as part of a regional tour of Asia-Pacific countries including South Korea, Japan and Indonesia.
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, says Pence’s visit underlines the importance of the Australia-US alliance.
“Vice-President Pence’s visit provides an important opportunity to discuss the depth and breadth of Australia’s strategic, security and economic relationship with the United States, and to underline our commitment to work with the Trump administration to advance our shared interests in our region and globally,” she said.
At least 72 people were killed in northern Syria this week after being exposed to a toxic gas that survivors said had been dropped from warplanes at dawn on Tuesday.
At least 100 others had to be treated in hospitals in Idlib province where the strike took place, and several dozen others were transferred to Turkey, some in critical condition.
There has been international condemnation of the attack, with the US, Britain, the EU and Australia blaming the Syrian government for the carnage.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 02:59
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I'm not bolding any of that, it's all stupid false equivalence bullshit. If you're so worried about people up there not getting money give them yours you piece of poo poo.
He usually argues people up there should be given less money. https://www.dalbyherald.com.au/news/dawson-mp-get-rid-of-the-dole/3066644/
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2017 07:33
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
quote:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/f6-planners-told-to-ignore-public-transport-build-roads-documents-show-20170407-gvgbon.html
The NSW government has been instructing transport officials to ignore public transport alternatives to motorway projects, according to explosive internal documents obtained by Fairfax Media.
The revelation emerges in a memo prepared within Transport for NSW into potential rail improvements between Sydney and Wollongong – a project that could compete for funds with the proposed F6 motorway from the WestConnex interchange at St Peters to Waterfall.
But the document also suggests that the government has excised the development of public transport alternatives to other major toll-road projects. These include the Western Harbour Tunnel project, which is to be an extension of WestConnex, and the Beaches Link tunnel that is to extend that road to the northern beaches.
The memo prepared within Transport for NSW says a new rail tunnel and freight line could cut the time taken for commuters to travel from Wollongong to Central from 90 minutes to about 60 minutes for as much as $10 billion less than the cost of the toll road.
Dated September 26, 2016 and headed "Failure in Critical Options Analysis", the memo released to the Herald under the Government Information (Public Access) Act says the decision not to benchmark the cost of the toll road against the cost of rail solutions "represents a serious and significant shortcoming of the F6 Extension Business Case".
"In the case of the F6 extension, a diverse range of design and location options were considered, but only in the context of a tolled and untolled road-based solution," the memo says.
"The existence of a cabinet direction not to consider other options must not preclude the consideration of public transport."
The document also cites similar directives for studies of the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link, saying they "also did not incorporate public transport-based options".
The WestConnex business case released in 2015 shows these roads are expected to increase traffic on the $16.8 billion WestConnex project.
The document obtained by the Herald says an earlier Transport for NSW business case for rail improvements on the Illawarra line found that the construction of a separate Maldon to Dombarton freight line would enable coal trains to be taken off the Illawarra line, greatly increasing capacity of the Illawarra line for passenger journeys. Combined with the construction of a tunnel at Thirroul and extra rolling stock, the extra line would reduce the Wollongong to Central passenger journey from 90 minutes to about one hour.
"An option along the lines highlighted would reduce road congestion," it says. "The reduction in travel times of the magnitude considered would also have considerable wider economic benefits for the residents of Wollongong and surrounding districts."
The cost estimates for each option are excised from the document released, but it says the difference between the two is of "a magnitude that cannot be ignored".
The difference is "sufficient to construct the equivalent of almost three Snowy Mountains Hydro Schemes".
Academics and transport economists contacted by Fairfax Media said it would be difficult to calculate the cost of constructing the Snowy Mountains Scheme in today's dollars.
However one consultant said an estimate circulating with the NSW government was around $5 billion. That would mean that the difference between the cost of the Maldon to Dombarton rail option and the proposed F6 toll road amounted to more than $10 billion. Given the relatively low cost of the rail option, it could mean the F6 extension cost multiples of the rail alternative.
$10 billion is seven times the annual Health Ministry's capital works budget. It is 16 times the Education Ministry's capital works budget for 2016-17.
The 2016 budget set aside $11.6 million for geotechnical and traffic studies of the F6 route.
The memo says the cabinet directive not to consider rail as an alternative is inconsistent with government principles and guidelines and "represents a fundamental shortfall in Transport for NSW meeting its responsibilities in achieving value for the state's taxpayers".
"It would be extraordinarily foolhardy to consider that academic transport economists, transport practitioners and a range of stakeholders will not raise these issues," it warns. "There is considerable political and reputational risks associated with not considering options to the F6 extension."
The Herald has also asked Transport for NSW for estimates of the number and value of properties that will be purchased to allow the construction of the F6 tollway, the Western Harbour Tunnel and Northern Beaches Link and details of the location of the proposed ventilation shafts for the extraction of fumes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 01:27
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I'm sure the Liberal party will be devastated to hear they have to cut the ABC's funding to secure Hanson's vote.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 01:20
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I don't see how it's any worse than the traditional application process, and advertising jobs anywhere isn't free.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 05:04
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
How are you going to get a maccas uniform to apply for the job?
From the filter?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 05:14
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
quote:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...9d9fd742fbe8631
Companies applying to bring in foreign workers will be forced to pay into a national fund to train Australian workers to fill skills shortages, following Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to abolish the controversial 457 visa scheme.
The Australian understands a foreign worker tax will be announced in the budget and will be a mandatory requirement of the new temporary migration system, which will greatly reduce the skill categories allowed, impose a stricter English language test and prevent work visas becoming a path to residency.
The training fund, based on recommendations from the 2014 Azarias report into the 457 program, would mandate a fee paid by companies scaled on their size to provide skills to Australian workers to fill shortages, with a focus on sectors such as IT, aged care and nursing.
Mr Turnbull said the change to an “Australian first” policy was needed to restore integrity to the temporary visa program, which would now be “manifestly, rigorously, resolutely conducted in the national interest to put Australians and Australian jobs first”.
“That’s our commitment: Australian jobs, Australian values,” he said.
The moves come as President Donald Trump prepares to sign an executive order today to tighten a visa program that brings high-skilled workers into the US.
The technology start-up community was last night up in arms over the decision, warning of an acute staffing shortage across the sector in Australia.
Atlassian co-founder and co-chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes, whose tech company is worth more than Qantas, told The Australian 457 visas were essential for Australia, and any move to make bridging the talent gap more difficult would be bad for the country.
The cost of the new scheme will be revealed in the budget and will include apprenticeships and mandatory mentoring programs.
The Prime Minister said employers using the scheme would be required to contribute to the fund, to “support skills development and take-up of apprenticeships and traineeships”.
The move to boost the skills of Australians comes after Mr Turnbull announced that the 457 program would be replaced by two new temporary worker visa categories that carry tougher conditions and aimed at “higher skills”.
The government’s new scheme will require potential workers to pass tougher English language tests and criminal history checks, and mandate labour market testing for all occupations.
In an unprecedented move, the Turnbull government has removed the eligibility of 216 occupations to bring in foreign workers, including professions added under the previous Labor government. Removed occupations include zookeepers, goat farmers, turf growers, flight attendants and actors.
The 95,000 foreigners already in the country working on 457 visas will not be affected by the changes, with the existing program to be grandfathered.
A fee of $1150 will apply for a short-term visa of two years, while medium-term applicants for a four-year visa will pay $2400.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the abolition of the 457 program was an attempt to clean up “Labor’s mess”.
“Labor presided over a policy which got out-of-control by their own admission,” Mr Dutton said.
“The existing 457 visa program is conducted for a period of four years, but essentially it is open-ended, and it results, in many cases, in a migration outcome, somebody going into permanent residency and becoming a citizen, which is a significant part of the attraction to using the 457 visa.”
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce welcomed the revamped scheme, but stressed the need for regional industries with skills shortages to be able to access foreign workers.
“We understand there are certain areas where we just can’t get Australians to work,” he said. “To be frank, there are jobs that people prefer not to do.”
He pointed to work such as “offal packing” and “boning out skulls” in abattoirs, as examples.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the restructure as a way to restoring public confidence in the migration program.
“It is a chance to hit the reset button on temporary skilled migration,” said ACCI’s acting head Jenny Lambert.
The Australian Mines and Metals Association questioned why the government wanted to overhaul “a responsible skilled immigration policy that has proven highly responsive to labour demand and supported nation-building projects”.
Bill Shorten said the government had made the changes in response to Labor’s “grassroots campaign” on the overseas worker program. “Malcolm Turnbull is finally waking up to the importance of protecting Australian jobs,” the Opposition Leader said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also took credit for the decision. “The government will deny their tough talk on immigration & plan to ban 457 visas is because of One Nation but we all know the truth!” she said on Twitter.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney said the announcement was “a cynical attempt to rebrand a wildly unpopular policy”.
“It is unlikely Malcolm Turnbull’s proposal will do anything to remedy the chronic exploitation of our work visa system,” Ms Kearney said.
In an address to ACCI today, Mr Turnbull will argue the case for migration has “disintegrated in countries where people feel their borders are no longer secure and that their governments have lost control”. “Migration out of control has threatened, rather than reinforced, the social fabric of these nations,” his speech says.
This is going to be just like the JSA / private college rort.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 00:44
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Looks like the ALP are going challenge the SA Family First senators citizenship after all. While we can't rule out it's the fact that she's a lady that is causing this there are strong signs that it is because she's brown (those signs being Australians are loving racist).
I see it more as political opportunism. I'm sure they'd be doing the same thing if she was a white foreigner.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 02:47
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Serious question, what does Tony actually do? What is he being paid for?
He's an MP?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 02:47
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
How long would it take a pipeline like that to pay for itself compared to shipping?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 09:36
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Why can't the cronies work in public transport instead of gas and roads?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 09:44
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Turnbull looks like such a clown at this presser. Almost feels like watching Hockey again with the fake exasperation.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2017 00:30
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Why is 'under god' even in there. Freedom of religion is literally our only constitutionally defined right.
Doesn't seem to be a very secure right. See Easter trading restrictions.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2017 02:14
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
I don't hate all old people. It's just staggering to see this article come out totally uncritically in a country whose national passtime seems to be transferring wealth and opportunity from the young to the old and then blaming the victims for the outcomes. I guess I'm just a special snowflake who never tries and expects the world to fall into his lap.
The whole generation thing is just a distraction to get people to fight against each other instead of capital (just replace the nationalities with generations in the the Mr Block cartoon). It's about rich and poor not old and young.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2017 07:26
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Should they be able to arrest you for it though?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2017 04:41
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
This will be purely so they can point at the welfare budget and say we need to slash it hard.
Caleb's already on the case.
quote:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/welfare-is-like-heroin-time-to-cut-the-supply/news-story/c6758e9989eec428e086f6fb97cf547c
PEOPLE want cuts in next month’s federal Budget — 70 per cent of people, in fact, according to this week’s Newspoll.
After years of treasurers paying lip service to budget repair, people are finally saying it: Get a move on.
Wayne Swan, then Joe Hockey, now Scott Morrison. So many promises, so little delivery. Federal deficits are expected to total up to $400 billion over 12 years to 2020.
Hockey, under the leadership of Tony Abbott, at least tried taking steps towards surplus, but many involved taking more money from people.
Indeed, after promising “tax cuts without new taxes” and “the only party that is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party”, Abbott introduced a deficit levy that pushed the top tax bracket up to 49 cents in the dollar.
Not great conservative policy. And, according to Newspoll, unpopular — only 20 per cent of voters support raising taxes.
But that’s where we hit a snag. See, people overwhelming want budget cuts — and they don’t want to pay extra to pay down the debt — but nor do they want the cuts to affect them.
A significant 61 per cent of voters don’t want cuts to extend to welfare, presumably because they’re profiting from it. Yet about 60 per cent of Australians pay no net tax.
But no pain, no gain. Welfare spending spiralled to $158.61 billion in last year’s budget — almost $6 billion more than the year before. It is more than a third of the federal Budget each year and is the single biggest expense.
It’s time the nation had a discussion about our over-reliance on government money. The rot started with John Howard’s middle-class welfare. Family tax benefits and assistance were extended far up the pay scale, introducing a whole new group of people to the poison of government money. The baby bonus put $5000 in the hands of new mothers, simply because they’d had a baby.
Kevin Rudd handed out the $900 stimulus bonus, showering money on eight million Australians without them even asking.
No wonder it’s so difficult to wind back welfare payments. Big government, you see, is like a drug. It reaches out its hand, filled with a dirty wad of money and what are you going to do? You’ll take it. Who wouldn’t?
But soon, you’re hooked. One payment isn’t enough. You develop a reliance and you’re begging for more.
Big government is poisonous. People clearly know that, because they don’t want to hand over any more taxes. But like a heroin addict who keeps saying he’ll go to rehab, we keep sticking the needle in our arm.
Australians are addicted to welfare. Though it would be politically unpopular, someone has to show the fortitude to wean us off.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2017 00:33
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2024 23:21
|
|
- open24hours
- Jan 7, 2001
-
|
Seems fair, after all it was students who damaged the budget in the first place.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2017 03:34
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2017 23:35
