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Anidav
Feb 25, 2010

ahhh fuck its the rats again

VodeAndreas posted:

I am greeted with this as an ABC story this morning in my Just In news feed:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/the-famous-faces-that-could-spice-up-reality-tv/9390576

What the gently caress is this, please just give me news. Is there any way to filter this crap out and just get actual new news?

You're too late! Mwahah

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Senor Tron
May 26, 2006


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/elon-musk-tesla-to-give-solar-panels-batteries-to-sa-homes/9394352

I honestly don't know enough to give an opinion on this. Election sweetener promise or genuinely good move?

Cartoon
Jun 20, 2008

poop
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/pm-says-the-cabinet-files-breach-a-shocking-failure/9394460

Remember the post where I pointed out that this incident was much less likely before the Tory outsourcing Labour Hire slash and burn? Malformed Turdball decides that it is time some public servants went under the bus. The bus is probably in need of some pretty serious pressure spray cleaning and minor panel work at this point. It's becoming like Ubu Roi and the debraining machine.

asio
Nov 29, 2008

"Also Sprach Arnold Jacobs: A Developmental Guide for Brass Wind Musicians" refers to the mullet as an important tool for professional cornet playing and box smashing black and blood

Senor Tron posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/elon-musk-tesla-to-give-solar-panels-batteries-to-sa-homes/9394352

I honestly don't know enough to give an opinion on this. Election sweetener promise or genuinely good move?

Just ignore the blood in the batteries, that's just from the worker who assembled it

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009


And this just happened to be information about other governments? Pull the other one Mal you festering shitpie. Some intern's life is about to be hosed up to protect the real culprits.

I cannot tell a lie, the staff did it

ewe2 fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Feb 4, 2018

Anidav
Feb 25, 2010

ahhh fuck its the rats again
LNP proposes mobile phone ban in schools to combat bullying, anti-social behaviour

I would blow Dane Cook
Dec 26, 2008
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!

Anidav posted:

LNP proposes mobile phone ban in schools to combat bullying, anti-social behaviour

Newspoll tonight Ratman?

JBP
Feb 16, 2017

You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

Anidav posted:

LNP proposes mobile phone ban in schools to combat bullying, anti-social behaviour

Line up another 70,000 PSOs to hang out at every public highschool in the state.

G-Spot Run
Jun 28, 2005
I'm pretty sure most teachers already have a mobile phone plan in place, whether it be a crate on the desk for every phone spotted in a hand or incorporating it in learning activities. So this ban means nothing and will presumably be expected to be enforced by the people who already have their own plan and it'll be harder to enforce and have worse outcomes in the classroom.

It's a perfect fit for Liberal education policy.

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'
AFAIK, most schools basically have a 'ban'. Although, of course, kids can bring them providing they don't use them in class. But in a lot of student handbooks I see it's phrased more like 'don't bring them to school at all' sometimes with a 'students may have them for emergencies'.

Whitlam
Aug 2, 2014

Some goons overreact. Go figure.

Anidav posted:

LNP proposes mobile phone ban in schools to combat bullying, anti-social behaviour

That'll make those schools safe.

Starshark
Dec 22, 2005
Doctor Rope
We didn't have any kind of mobile phones in our school and everyone bullied the poo poo out of each other. Especially if you were Greek. Funnily enough, not if you were Indigenous, although we told shitloads of 'Abo jokes'. Anyway, where the gently caress was I?, I think we might have to do more than ban phones but that's just me :shrug:

I would blow Dane Cook
Dec 26, 2008
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!
https://twitter.com/tylerthecreator/status/285670822264307712?lang=en

Smegmatron
Apr 23, 2003

I hate to advocate emptyquoting or shitposting to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

G-Spot Run posted:

I'm pretty sure most teachers already have a mobile phone plan in place, whether it be a crate on the desk for every phone spotted in a hand or incorporating it in learning activities. So this ban means nothing and will presumably be expected to be enforced by the people who already have their own plan and it'll be harder to enforce and have worse outcomes in the classroom.

It's a perfect fit for Liberal education policy.

My classes begin with phones going into a tub at the front of the room, which then goes into my desk drawer because gently caress phones in the classroom and gently caress expecting a teenager to not be distracted by a literal entertainment machine sitting in their pocket and constantly trying to get their attention.

I don't know why these idiots think cyberbullying happens during class though. That's when IRL bullying happens.

Real cyberbullying hours are 3pm-9am, which also happen to be real posting hours.

Ban posting.

JBP
Feb 16, 2017

You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.
Remember when the internet was good and you didn't use it to talk to people you already knew

I would blow Dane Cook
Dec 26, 2008
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!
meh

https://twitter.com/GhostWhoVotes/status/960099834588876800

Schlesische
Jul 4, 2012

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is now just Robert Doyle.

He's "decided he needs to be admitted to hospital to begin his recovery from this grueling ordeal". In real world reasoning he "ran the numbers on the vote of no confidence that was coming on Monday and realised he had Buckley's Chance and decided to jump before he was pushed".

Anidav
Feb 25, 2010

ahhh fuck its the rats again

Starshark
Dec 22, 2005
Doctor Rope

Schlesische posted:

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is now just Robert Doyle.

He's "decided he needs to be admitted to hospital to begin his recovery from this grueling ordeal". In real world reasoning he "ran the numbers on the vote of no confidence that was coming on Monday and realised he had Buckley's Chance and decided to jump before he was pushed".

Isn't he like 300 years old or am I thinking of someone else?

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Starshark posted:

Isn't he like 300 years old or am I thinking of someone else?

Someone else, he's in his mid 60s.

NTRabbit
Aug 15, 2012

i wear this armour to protect myself from the histrionics of hysterical women

bitches




quote:

It had been expected that Shelton would announce plans to stand in the next federal election but instead Bernardi announced Shelton would become the “spokesman for the party outside of the parliamentary ranks”.

lmao what a pack of giant loving cowards

Doctor Spaceman
Jul 6, 2010

"Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

26?

BlitzkriegOfColour
Aug 22, 2010

Starshark posted:

Isn't he like 300 years old or am I thinking of someone else?

You're thinking of his venerable lichness, Lord Mayor of Hornsby

bandaid.friend
Apr 25, 2017

:obama:My first car was a stick:obama:

Senor Tron posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/elon-musk-tesla-to-give-solar-panels-batteries-to-sa-homes/9394352

I honestly don't know enough to give an opinion on this. Election sweetener promise or genuinely good move?

The news is calling it free equipment, but it'll be owned by Tesla and an existing power company, who'll both be charging tenants for power they consume from the panels and selling excess. Tenants will probably get a thirty percent discount on power from the panels. I don't really trust Musk?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/how-tesla-sa-labor-free-battery-scheme-would-work/9394728

quote:

The retailer which runs the new system will have up to 250 megawatts of power that it can sell into the grid at times of peak demand, adding competition into the market.
Danny Price estimates that could drive down wholesale power prices by about $15/MWh, saving electricity consumers across the state about $180 million a year on their power bills.

Smegmatron
Apr 23, 2003

I hate to advocate emptyquoting or shitposting to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

JBP posted:

Remember when the internet was good

No.

BBJoey
Oct 31, 2012

bandaid.friend posted:

The news is calling it free equipment, but it'll be owned by Tesla and an existing power company, who'll both be charging tenants for power they consume from the panels and selling excess. Tenants will probably get a thirty percent discount on power from the panels. I don't really trust Musk?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/how-tesla-sa-labor-free-battery-scheme-would-work/9394728

it’s theoretically a win for all parties as the home owner will have lower power bills as the payments to tesla will be lower than regular electricity bills, tesla makes a bunch of money, and whoever operates the scheme will get a bunch of green energy for free.

it’s fairly gross that yet another private corporation are being made a core part of the electricity grid but i guess that’s late capitalism

MysticalMachineGun
Apr 5, 2005

bandaid.friend posted:

The news is calling it free equipment, but it'll be owned by Tesla and an existing power company, who'll both be charging tenants for power they consume from the panels and selling excess. Tenants will probably get a thirty percent discount on power from the panels. I don't really trust Musk?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/how-tesla-sa-labor-free-battery-scheme-would-work/9394728

That's a huge saving, and considering SA's power prices could be a big deal. I don't know what could be done about it, but by introducing subsidies and people actually being able to make a slight profit out of solar panels back when they were first introduced now people are just like "it doesn't make me any money, who cares". If I could save 30% quarterly on my power bills I'd be loving thrilled, who gives a poo poo if a wholesaler is reselling the sunlight.

Konomex
Oct 25, 2010

a whiteman who has some authority over others, who not only hasn't raped anyone, or stared at them creepily...

BBJoey posted:

it’s theoretically a win for all parties as the home owner will have lower power bills as the payments to tesla will be lower than regular electricity bills, tesla makes a bunch of money, and whoever operates the scheme will get a bunch of green energy for free.

it’s fairly gross that yet another private corporation are being made a core part of the electricity grid but i guess that’s late capitalism

They're not really going on 'home owners' homes, but rather onto state owned housing properties. Still a win for all parties, as the tenants will get cheaper power.

true leftist
Feb 1, 2018

by zen death robot
i am a teacher, and at the start of every lesson the children give me their phones and i insert them one by one into my pink anus until i've reached full capacity. i nurture the phones like a gastric-brooding frog, my guts occasionally ringing or vibrating subtly, until the end of the class where i poo poo all the phones back out and return them to their sobbing, traumatised owners. it's hard to be a teacher under the liberals, but the secret is, as always, imagination and discipline

MysticalMachineGun
Apr 5, 2005

true leftist posted:

i am a teacher, and at the start of every lesson the children give me their phones and i insert them one by one into my pink anus until i've reached full capacity. i nurture the phones like a gastric-brooding frog, my guts occasionally ringing or vibrating subtly, until the end of the class where i poo poo all the phones back out and return them to their sobbing, traumatised owners. it's hard to be a teacher under the liberals, but the secret is, as always, lots and lots of hand sanitiser

true leftist
Feb 1, 2018

by zen death robot
realtalk though my high school didn't bother enforcing any phone rules and every day at recess my friends and i would play our favourite game, where i rang the local kfc on speakerphone pretending to be an evangelist. i wouldn't trade these happy childhood memories for all the solar panels in the world

true leftist
Feb 1, 2018

by zen death robot
one day the kfc employee tried to say "oh you're hilarious" in a sarcastic manner but for some reason he left the final syllable off the word so what he actually said was "oh you're hillary", it has haunted me ever since

MysticalMachineGun
Apr 5, 2005

Being an old we had Nokia phones in like Year 12. Nobody was going to get themselves in trouble to play Snake

Schlesische
Jul 4, 2012

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Being an old we had Nokia phones in like Year 12. Nobody was going to get themselves in trouble to play Snake

We tried playing American football on an asphalt basketball court with a 3310 once. It worked well. Phone survived many downs.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005

And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

JBP posted:

Remember when the internet was good and you didn't use it to talk to people you already knew

I'm near 13 years on a website that's slogan is the internet makes you stupid.

Bucky Fullminster
Apr 13, 2007

NTRabbit posted:

lmao what a pack of giant loving cowards

It's a good move by Bernardi. Annoyingly good move.



BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

You're thinking of his venerable lichness, Lord Mayor of Hornsby

I was hanging with his immediate predecessor yesterday morning as it happens

Cartoon
Jun 20, 2008

poop
My Bottom of the Harbour Speculation was unnecessary. The skunk was disqualified for other reasons:

Daily Terrorgraph posted:

IAN KIERNAN’S FERRY NAMING SUNK BY DUI RECORD

ONE of the names put forward for a Sydney ferry could never have been used because it honoured a man with a drink-driving record.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005

And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

quote:


The minister the money and the mine. How a rotten deal was hatched

As waiters took orders for toasties and coffee at the Little Teapot Café in the sleepy coastal hamlet of Davistown, NSW, four men were discussing a deal as big as it was potentially rotten.

A businessman was seeking political backing from the NSW Liberal Party for a Chinese state-owned company to buy an Australian mine. They were not too fussy which one.

In return, the businessman was offering to funnel $2 million dollars to the party.

Last week, in a signed statement, the businessman outlined what happened at the café that day in 2012. He says he told the three Liberal insiders dining with him that he didn’t want the donations traced.

“Don’t worry,” one of the men told him, according to the businessman. “We have offshore accounts.”


Australia is in the midst of a fierce political debate about two interlinked issues confronting the Turnbull government.

The first is the need for a federal anti-corruption commission, which has been promised by Bill Shorten but is viewed warily by the Coalition. The second is the challenge posed by the intersection of local politics, donations, and foreign interests, including those linked to the Chinese government.

The Little Teapot Café allegation touches on both.

In March 2012, the businessman who later dined at the Little Teapot Cafe was approached by a wealthy Chinese broker who wrote that he was representing a “very large state-owned mining company in China”.

“They are interested in any metal mine (gold, iron, etc.) As long as the exploration is done,” the broker said in an email, obtained by Fairfax Media.

Fairfax Media has identified the Chinese company - which has subsidiaries in Australia - but is not naming it.

In 2012, this company had up to $700 million ready to spend in Australia, having purchased a $400 million mine a few years earlier.

In another email, the firm’s broker queried if Australian politicians could “release info” about mines that could be bought, “or introduce us to the mine owners?”

The Australian businessman says that, to answer this question, he spoke to a longstanding contact in the NSW branch of the Liberal Party. His contact, an active figure in the party who has worked on several campaigns, offered to connect the Chinese company with then energy minister Chris Hartcher.

But, the contact had said, this could not be done for free.

“What is in it for the party?” the businessman quotes his Liberal contact as saying.

After consulting with the Chinese broker, the businessman says he offered his Liberal contact up to $2 million in donations. He also says he cautioned that the donations should only be discussed face to face: “no phone calls, no emails”.

The Liberal figure had responded: “It will be fine. I will take care of it.”

In April 2012, the businessman emailed the Chinese broker to update him.

“My [Liberal] contact … has confirmed he has made arrangements with the government people,” the email says. “The Minister has already pencilled in a meeting.”

The email goes on to say: “The Minister is Christopher 'Chris' Hartcher, New South Wales Minister for Minerals & Resources. He's a heavy hitter in State politics.”


The businessman told Fairfax Media that his Liberal contact, who did not respond to calls from Fairfax Media, arranged a meeting at the Little Teapot Café, in Mr Hartcher's then electorate of Terrigal, with two other Liberal Party insiders to discuss the potential deal.

“I said, ‘Listen guys, I am not touching any of the money,’ ” the businessman says he told the trio.

He says he was assured the funds could be received without detection, including via offshore accounts. He also says he was told that “Chris Hartcher knows what is going on but there is plausible deniability”.

The emails confirm that after the Little Teapot meeting, the Liberal contact bypassed bureaucrats and staffers and arranged a meeting directly between the businessman, Mr Hartcher and a senior public servant at NSW Parliament House. Emails record the meeting being held in late May 2012, and detail a promise from Mr Hartcher to personally meet the Chinese officials behind the proposal.

“The minister has his finger on the pulse of the whole mining industry … His time is very precious, and [he] needs to know how serious your people really are. After an initial meeting, he would place your people directly in contact with the sellers,” one email says.


It is tempting to disregard the businessman’s account, given it happened years ago and ultimately fizzled out with neither a mine purchase nor a donation.

But the emails confirm the meeting with Mr Hartcher occurred and suggest the promise of donations, rather than the potential for a mine purchase, got the Liberal Party to open Mr Hartcher’s door.

Mr Hartcher also has form.

In 2016, an investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption - which was never privy to the Little Teapot proposal - found Hartcher had a “significant role” in operating a political slush fund to collect unlawful donations from property developers.

The final ICAC report recommended the Director of Public Prosecutions consider charging Hartcher, who left politics in 2015 with larceny. No charges have yet been laid. Contacted for a response, Mr Hartcher said: "Thanks very much for your call. I don't have anything to do with Fairfax. Goodbye."

The businessman says he decided to contact Fairfax Media and signed a statement in light of the intense debate in Federal Parliament about how to deal with donations made to gain improper access or influence over public officials.

The issue has come to the fore again in connection to donations from businessmen linked to Beijing and questions about whether they have been acting (like many businesses) to advance their own corporate interests, those of a foreign power or, as most donors insist, simply to participate in the democratic process.

Donations, though, are not the only way to get access to the political class.

In September 2015, ten months before billionaire Chinese businessman Ye Cheng placed Australia’s former trade minister Andrew Robb on a yearly retainer of $880,000, Mr Ye travelled to Adelaide for a meeting with local officials over a different deal.

It was a busy time for Mr Ye, who was finalising his purchase of a long-term lease of the Darwin port. The port deal placed Mr Ye, who is close to the Chinese government and is a member of a Beijing-endorsed political body, under fierce scrutiny.

It also caused a diplomatic spat between Australia and the US amid claims the deal could give Beijing control over an important asset. The remarkably generous retainer Mr Ye gave Mr Robb sparked a fresh round of headlines when it was revealed last year.

But it was not until January this year that Mr Ye’s dealings in South Australia became public, via a short state ombudsman’s report that generated no coverage outside the state.

In September 2015, Mr Ye had travelled to South Australia to meet a delegation of local and state government officials. During a meeting in Adelaide, Mr Ye asked a senior public servant responsible for attracting investment to South Australia if the pair could conduct some business on the side.

As state development agency official Jing Li later told the Ombudsman: “Mr Ye wanted me to do some deals for him. I declined because I am a public servant.”

But an elected official at the Adelaide meeting was more amenable.

Andrew Lee was a restaurateur before being elected mayor of the town of Mount Gambier in late 2014, when he vowed to use his position to increase Chinese investment in the region.

"I would like to perhaps bring a delegation to visit China in the coming months, to showcase what we have for them to invest," Cr Lee said.

Cr Lee first met Mr Ye while on a government delegation to China in April 2015. When Mr Ye headed to Adelaide in September 2015, the pair met again. This time the forum was a meeting hosted by public servant Jing Li.

A few days later, Jing Li and Cr Lee accompanied Mr Ye on a regional tour to scope potential investments near Mount Gambier.

The Rymill winery in the Coonawarra caught the billionaire’s eye.

A 'gentleman's agreement'

Several weeks after this, Cr Lee claims he struck a “gentleman’s agreement” with Mr Ye that would see the mayor receive a benefit worth more than half a million dollars if he helped Mr Ye buy the Rymill Winery.

This handshake agreement appears striking on several fronts, including Cr Lee’s ability to morph seamlessly from mayor to winery broker. Cr Lee has no obvious experience selling agribusinesses. For this deal, he wouldn’t need it. The winery had been on the market for months and the Rymill family was eager to sell.

Also eyebrow-raising is what Cr Lee was given for his help.

A commercial property broker told Fairfax Media that brokers usually take a cut of under 1 per cent for a mid-size deal. “If we get 2 per cent for a $13 million property, we are jumping up and down,” he says.

When the Rymill Winery was sold to Mr Ye for $13,275,000, Cr Lee was given a 5 per cent stake worth more than $660,000.

One local government official who spoke to Cr Lee about the deal says not only does his role in it stink, but that the Ombudsman’s inquiry released this year lacked rigour.

The Ombudsman never interviewed Mr Ye, which the local government official describes as “a staggering omission.” (Mr Ye did not respond to messages from Fairfax Media about this story).

The question of whether the Chinese billionaire hired Cr Lee because he was a mayor with connections to state public servants and others of influence, or, whether a benefit of $660,000 was fair consideration for buying an asset its owners wanted to offload, barely get a mention.

Mayors in China can have considerable local standing and power and are often cultivated by businessmen. This, too, is ignored.

More scrutiny

The Ombudsman’s report finds C Lee did not receive the $660,000 stake because he was mayor, although it acknowledges that “one reading of the facts” might lead to a different conclusion. The report ultimately clears Cr Lee, who declined to answer questions on Friday.

“I laughed when I read that report,” says the local government official.

In mid-2016, as Cr Lee was preparing to receive his stake in the winery, former federal trade minister Andrew Robb was preparing to receive his first consultancy payment from Mr Ye.

Like Cr Lee, Mr Robb has previously insisted the generous fee he is paid- $880,000 a year for an ambiguous consulting service- has nothing to do with any influence he still wields in Australian politics.

But where Cr Lee has at least faced some scrutiny from a state ombudsman, there is no federal integrity commission to test Mr Robb’s assurances.

Mr Robb’s consulting arrangement is under added scrutiny because of Mr Ye’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, which has a strategy of securing influence among overseas former and serving politicians. Mr Robb has angrily dismissed any suggestion he could be bought.


If Bill Shorten becomes the next prime minister, he’s promised the introduction of a federal ICAC that could scrutinise this claim.

Malcolm Turnbull says he is still considering whether to support an ICAC-type body, but insists that new laws to prevent foreign governments or their proxies from exercising undue influence in Australian politics, including via donations, will lead to much needed transparency.

The Little Teapot Cafe offer, and Mr Ye’s Australian dealings, suggest far more scrutiny, in whatever form, is needed when corporate interests, foreign money and politics collide.

We are perfect in every way.

bandaid.friend
Apr 25, 2017

:obama:My first car was a stick:obama:

Cartoon posted:

My Bottom of the Harbour Speculation was unnecessary. The skunk was disqualified for other reasons:

I can't access the article, but the shortlist was selected by a panel before being put to the vote. There was ample opportunity to disqualify Kiernan before the vote, and he says he'd been told he was in top six before the results were made public

Now, a week after we learn the result was rigged, there's a story that Kiernan has been disqualified. Skunk or no, this sounds like a fairy tale. Even if noone caught a drink driving record earlier in the process, which is a weird oversight, you'd expect the name to be replaced with the first runner-up of the vote. But it was replaced by the minister's pet name, which came last? What won seventh place in the vote?

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You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-05/police-officers-to-be-placed-in-high-risk-vic-schools-opposition/9395874

OH

MY

loving

GOD

Now Matthew Guy wants to put police on school grounds of the 10 highest risk secondary schools in Victoria.

WHAT

THE

gently caress

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