Gone Fission posted:

what do all of these words mean?

quote:

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has escalated a diplomatic row with South Africa by suggesting its Foreign Minister may have deliberately misrepresented Australia's stance on white farmers in the nation.

Last month, Mr Dutton stirred anger in Pretoria when he said white farmers were being targeted in South Africa, and indicated the Federal Government might offer refugee visas to those facing the threat of violence and persecution.

Yesterday, the South African Government issued a statement declaring Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had written to her counterpart Lindiwe Sisulu to withdraw Mr Dutton's comments.

But Ms Bishop said the letter simply reiterated Australia's humanitarian visa program was non-discriminatory, and Mr Dutton insisted Ms Bishop had not contradicted any of his statements.

"It restates our position … I'm not sure how it can be interpreted the way that the South African Minister has interpreted it," Mr Dutton told Sky News.

He also suggested Lindiwe Sisulu might have made the statement to placate a domestic political audience.

"I'm not sure what domestic issues are at play in terms of the politics in South Africa that would bring this comment out, but it's not based on any factual statement by anyone in the Australian Government," Mr Dutton said.

Dutton 'not speaking on behalf of Government'

South Africa Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya maintained Australia had sent clear signals Mr Dutton was not speaking on behalf of the Australian Government.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs has written to us to say [Australia's] immigration policy is based on [Australia's] immigration policy — not on what a member of Cabinet has said," Mr Mabaya told ABC News.

"The letter says our relationship is very strong, and that South Africa knows our immigration policy, and that anything else that is not our immigration policy must not be taken into consideration.

"And we are very happy with that."

Mr Mabaya said Australia's High Commissioner to South Africa, Adam McCarthy, had also indicated Mr Dutton's comments did not represent Australia's position on immigration, and "therefore we should not take them [seriously]".

The debate over violence against farmers in South Africa is racially charged and hugely sensitive. White farmers own the bulk of privately held-farms, and the South African Government has declared that it plans to seize land and redistribute it.
Dutton 'wants to help people in need'

Mr Dutton said his department was now examining some "pretty explicit" cases of farmers who had borne the brunt of violent crime.

"You look at the detail of some of the cases that have already been sent in, it's unquestionably the case that there are some very difficult circumstances," he said.

"People have been murdered, people have been assaulted on their own properties. That's been well documented.

"I want to make sure we can help those people who are in need."

"I believe we can look at some of those cases, and determine whether or not those cases meet our criteria, and if so, we'd offer places to people in that circumstance."

Mr Mabaya conceded some white farmers had faced violent crime. But he denied they were targeted by criminals because of their race, or that they were facing political persecution.

ewe2 posted:

Twitter politics is getting seriously bad, tl;dr Twitter's reporting mechanism has been weaponized by trolls and political operators. This one is a pathological ALP supporter with a mission to wipe Greens off Twitter apparently.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-03/matthew-guy-opposition-leader-unapologetic-good-friday-vote/9614300?smid=Page:%20ABC%20Melbourne-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic&sf186085718=1 posted:

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is unrepentant about his party's shock Good Friday tactic to defeat the Government's fire services review, saying the tactic was "absolutely justified" and he would do the same thing again tomorrow.

In a sensational break from parliamentary convention, two Liberal MPs asked to be excused from Victoria's Upper House for religious reasons on Good Friday, only to re-emerge for the vote.

Under pair arrangements, two Government MPs left so that the Coalition would not be disadvantaged by numbers in the Upper House.

But when Liberal MPs Bernie Finn and Craig Ondarchie unexpectedly reappeared, it was the Government that came up short, and its controversial fire services bill was defeated.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was his call for all MPs to return to the chamber.

"It was my decision that all members should be back, pairing or no pairing. I had made it clear that I expected all of them to be back," Mr Guy said.

"I believe the means were justified given the way the Government was treating the Parliament and taking advantage of a member not there.

"The means we were absolutely justified and I stand by it and would do the same tomorrow."

Australian Conservatives MP Rachel Carling-Jenkins was off sick and not in Parliament on Thursday and Friday of last week, giving the Government the advantage of numbers to pass its controversial bill to restructure the Country Fire Authority (CFA).

Dr Carling-Jenkins has been an opponent of the bill, and Mr Guy said the Government used her illness to try to ram through the CFA changes.

Dr Carling-Jenkins told Fairfax Media she would have loved a pair, but accepted that single crossbenchers were not paired.

She said she could not help the timing of her illness.

The bill had been listed for debate weeks in advance.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the Opposition Leader for ordering his MPs to renege on the agreement.

"He has fessed up to the fact, bragged about it in fact, that he directed people to behave in this way," Mr Andrews said.

"I'll leave him to explain how it is that he thinks it's OK to lie about praying, to lie about going to church, to lie about the fact that you're gripped by your faith and belief only, to then turn up and vote.

"You cannot trust these people."
The pair arrangement is not written in the rules of Parliament, but is a long-standing arrangement to prevent political parties being disadvantaged by illness or an absence for another reason.

Mr Guy said pairs were arranged in writing in the Lower House and the Upper House should do the same.

But he would not say if he would have respected Friday's arrangement if the pairs agreement had been written down and signed.
Rachel Carling-Jenkins speaks in State Parliament
Photo: The Opposition said the Government took advantage of Dr Carling-Jenkins' illness. (ABC News)

Labor frontbencher Jacinta Allan said there would have to be conversations about how pairing would work in future.

"What may or may not happen in the Legislative Assembly largely depends on whether we can trust Matthew Guy with his word, and he admitted that you can't take Matthew Guy at his word," she said.

Upper House Greens MP Sue Pennicuik said the new precedent set by the Liberals on Good Friday would have ramifications for everyone in Parliament.

"Once that breach of trust has occurred it's very difficult for people not to be wary that it may happen again," she said.

"The desirable thing is to get back to a situation where people can trust each other, but that's going to be difficult after this very deceitful breach of faith."

"Clearly the parties don't always agree on the bills or the matters before them but we do agree on a certain way of operating which, when you say I undertake to do this, people take you at your word. And that's what's been lost here."

Amethyst posted:

The dumbass above SPECIFICALLY talked about the cost of medicine. UBI is not an adequate solution to this, UHC is.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

This might stop us replying to Amethyst
https://twitter.com/AndrewJaffrey/status/981764639603109893

bell jar posted:

is it dutt on

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Booo

Can we still use it as an excuse to ignore Amethyst?

Gridlocked posted:

What I for one cannot stand is these Scottish people coming to our country and taking our jobs.

bell jar posted:

amethyst is the kid that somehow never understood that other people don't automatically understand where you're coming from instead of just explaining things properly

bell jar posted:

you do, you self loathing irish

tithin posted:

https://twitter.com/samuelsays11/status/981769800824250368?s=19

bell jar posted:

again, why would parliament need to be sitting for a party to change leaders. does the government just not function/operate outside of sitting weeks? honestly the dumbest rebuttal in this page and amethyst has been kind enough to post here too

Gridlocked posted:

God love you Tash. One day I promise I will find you a munchy box in this country. Also in your honour I actually tried Buckfast s few weeks ago cause of all the times you'd talk about it. It was nasty.

CrazyTolradi posted:

When I worked at Telstra in Brisbane, there was one in one of the arcades I'd go through each day to go grab lunch. It was situated right across from a hairdressing academy place and I'm fairly certain they put it there so the r/incel types could stare across at the women.

Graic Gabtar posted:

I read (pretty much) all of auspol's poo poo posts.

Birdstrike posted:

LIVE AMMO ROLEPLAY posted:

lol "Australasians"

JBP posted:

Can't wait for expensive Monsanto terminator gene weed

Mr Chips posted:

shame they didn't do bow out like Denholm Reynholm

bandaid.friend posted:

The first four google results for "wage rate australia" are Fair Work dot gov dot au

Zenithe posted:

You can also play Magic: The Gathering.

e. in the Witcher I mean.

Malcolm Turnbeug posted:

Under Australian consumer law I think you’ll find banning me for saying ‘gas the jews’ is a gross violation of my rights