quote:

The man who painted offensive graffiti beside a memorial to comedian Eurydice Dixon in Melbourne's Princes Park is appealing against his conviction and sentence, despite pleading guilty.
Andrew Nolch, 29, has apologised publicly for the first time for painting a lewd symbol on a soccer field at the park, just hours before 10,000 people gathered for a vigil in Ms Dixon's honour.
After launching his appeal in the Victorian County Court, Nolch made a qualified apology to Ms Dixon's family for causing them distress.
"I made a political statement and I am very political but yeah I'm definitely sorry for the harm I caused the family, the offence," he said outside court.

hambeet posted:

I liked the part in Pacific rim where it was implied part of Sydney was nuked.

quote:

Chin Leong Tan, Australia's new race discrimination commissioner, sees his role very differently to predecessor Tim Soutphommasane. For one thing, he is not inclined to commentary or advocacy. Instead, he approaches issues with a clinical dispassion befitting his background as a commercial and property lawyer. One of his favourite words is "balance".

Take the most controversial debate in race politics last year: the bid to repeal or dilute section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person on the basis of race.

"It’s not for me to comment on legislation that’s been there for 40-odd years," says Mr Tan, who takes up his new position on Monday.

"Law is a living creature. If there’s the community sense that it’s time to perhaps look at some changes … my role is really to then arbitrate, and not to push for a view."
Incoming Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan.

When pushed, he praises section 18C as "a reflection of Australian values and views that we have". But it is not clear if he believes those values should endure regardless of the prevailing sentiments in Canberra.

"I defend the existing section 18C for what it is ... it’s there as a law and I comply with the law," Mr Tan says.

It's a similar story when it comes to African gang violence in Victoria. The debate has elicited claims of race-baiting and dog-whistling ahead of a state election - particularly directed at Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who claimed Melburnians were afraid to go out to restaurants at night.

"He has a view and he expressed it. People had opposing views. That’s largely the debate that’s going on out there," Mr Tan says.

"It’s not my role to canvass an opinion about what politicians say from time to time, unless it becomes a public issue of a dimension that requires my involvement within the confines the Act."

The clash with Dr Soutphommasane's approach, particularly during his final months, could hardly be more stark. In his final speech, the former commissioner warned "race politics is back", and singled out Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Dutton, Tony Abbott, Andrew Bolt and others for criticism.

Dr Soutphommasane is a former Labor staffer and was appointed to the role by Labor in the dying days of the second Rudd government. Mr Tan unsuccessfully sought Liberal Party preselection in an on-again, off-again relationship with the party - he said he resigned his membership about a month ago after resuming it last year.

Attorney-General Christian Porter praised Mr Tan as "a well-known and recognised leader in the multicultural community" who would "represent all Australians".

In a clear departure from his predecessor, Mr Tan said there were limits to the power of "calling out" racism - even for the race discrimination commissioner.

"Calling out racism is very important, but I want to be very careful that we put things in context - because I do share a view that that can be overplayed sometimes," he said.

"It's important to remember the race discrimination [commissioner] role is not meant to divide, it’s meant to enhance communities and strengthen them."

Mr Tan was born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, and migrated to Melbourne in the 1980s. After leaving commercial law in 2011, he headed the Victorian Multicultural Commission, and since 2015 he has been director of multicultural engagement at Swinburne University of Technology.

His new $350,000-a-year job sits within the Australian Human Rights Commission, which has been the focus of political argy-bargy since the Coalition's spectacular falling out with former president Gillian Triggs over asylum seekers. Some conservatives argued for the race discrimination role to be scrapped or renamed, but the government opted to do neither.

quote:

Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price has argued some of the world's leading climate scientists are "drawing a long bow" in calling for an end to coal power in a bid to limit global warming.

...

The Minister, who used to work in the mining sector, suggested the 91 scientists behind the IPCC report had got it wrong.
"I just don't know how you could say by 2050 that you're not going to have technology that's going to enable good, clean technology when it comes to coal," she said.
"That would be irresponsible of us to be able to commit to that."

quote:

New South Wales racing and media powerbrokers lobbied furiously to get exemptions from laws that were supposed to stop problem gamblers being lured to bet, documents have revealed.

...

The laws strengthened bans on betting inducements, like bonus bets and sign-up offers.
The letter sent to Liquor and Gaming NSW described wagering as racing's primary source of income and its "raison d'etre".
It was signed by the Racing NSW's chief executive Peter Vlandys, Seven West Media boss Tim Worner and Andrew Catterall, the chief executive of Racing.com.
It said new inducement laws would have a "significant detrimental effect" on racing advertising nationally, and in NSW.
It called for exemptions for specialised racing websites, print publications, national broadcast channels such as Sky 1, and racing programs on free-to-air television including Channel 7.
The letter argued the changes should not apply to those platforms because audiences of thoroughbred racing were "essentially a niche audience of adults who are already 'active' wagering customers".
"For this reason, any special offer advertised within dedicated racing content does not have the effect of 'inducing' wagering by anyone that had not already made an active decision that they are interested in placing a bet," the letter read.

asio posted:

Look at what the uranium is under.

JBP posted:

Coopers are anti-union arseholes.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

https://twitter.com/SquigglyRick/status/1047726819422564352

fiery_valkyrie posted:

Ignoring for the minute all the already identified problems with expelling gay kids, have any of these idiots even thought about how you would police it?

I assume there would have to be some sort of guideline of what is gay enough to expel? Could you claim unlawful discrimination if you said you weren’t gay. Maybe you were just trying it out one time and decided same sex relationships aren’t for you. Maybe you were platonically holding hands with someone of the same sex. Is there a difference between that and romantically holding hands?

I think all these questions are ridiculously stupid, but so are the churches demands.

Additionally their justification for wanting to expel the gay kids is because of the lifestyle values they hold, but I don’t see any defrocked and excommunicated priests walking around, so what should I be assuming about their values from that?

They’re all a bunch of hypocrites who need to be told ‘no’ and ‘gently caress off’

Knorth posted:

God this feels like satire

Lid posted:

Voting undermines the will of the people – it's time to replace it with sortition

Our representative form of government divides us but installing ordinary people at the heart of power would be transformative

Tim Dunlop

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/14/voting-undermines-the-will-of-the-people-its-time-to-replace-it-with-sortition

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

quote:

The lessons we learn from these experiences with deliberative democracy is that extending them into a more formal and permanent part of our governing process is worth thinking about seriously, and any claims that such a concept could never work because ordinary people are disengaged or apathetic should be treated with the contempt that these examples suggest they deserve.

If we are really serious about bottom-up reform of our democratic institutions, then reforming the seat of government itself in this way, a way that installs ordinary people at the heart of power, is essential. Our neoliberal economy and the representative form of government that dominates our societies do everything they can to divide us from and pit us against each other. A People’s House transcends these divisions and brings us together. The basic concept of sortition is pretty straight-forward, and introducing it as a replacement for voting in, say, the Australian Senate, while leaving that body’s other powers intact, represents, at least administratively, fairly minimalist change. But on every other level, the potential effect is explosive. In one fell swoop, you diminish the power of the parties and that of many of the lobbyists who exist to influence their decisions. You transform the way in which the media covers politics. You hand control of at least part of the legislative process to a genuinely representative sample of the population as whole, rather than vesting it in a bunch of elites and their representatives. You empower people in a way that the current system could never hope to do, and you reconnect our chief democratic institution with the life in common.

Nothing is going to change until the main source of power in our society, our seat of government, is populated by people who are genuinely representative of the society at large. We have been taught forever that the way to do that is by voting, but that is simply wrong, and the quicker we unlearn it the better, no matter how counterintuitive it might seem at first. If you want a truly representative government of, by and for the people, then you need to choose it not by voting, but by sortition.

Now, that is power.

The Peccadillo posted:

Reclines Obesily posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-16/liberal-mps-ask-scott-morrison-to-evacuate-children-from-nauru/10379604?section=politics


I know the polling on support for offshore has been getting lower every year but I guess it’s under 50% now?

Anidav posted:

Renowned American feminist Camille Paglia recently tore into her own side on the issue of abortion. Writing in Salon.com she said the issue had become “an ideological tool ruthlessly exploited by my own party, the Democrats, to inflame passions, raise money and drive voting’’.

“Abortion has become a feminist sacrament, promoted with the same religiosity that (feminist) Gloria Steinem and her colleagues condemn in their devoutly Christian opponents,’’ she wrote.

quote:

Young men who feel pressured to be self-sufficient, tough, heterosexual, homophobic and controlling are more likely to consider suicide and more likely to experience and perform acts of violence and bullying, researchers say.
The Australian research involved 1,000 men aged 18 to 30 and was conducted by the Jesuit Social Services’ The Men’s Project with the help of Queensland University of Technology associate professor Michael Flood.
The central analytical tool used for the study is called the “Man Box”, defined as the set of beliefs within and across society that place pressure on men to act in a certain way. These seven beliefs are centred around: self-sufficiency, acting tough, physical attractiveness, rigid gender roles, heterosexuality and homophobia, hypersexuality, and aggression and control.

Lid posted:

TAFE training facilities and Service NSW kiosks could be located inside registered clubs across the state, under a deal struck between the NSW government and the powerful clubs lobby that also maintains the special tax treatment for the pokies industry for another four years.

The agreement between the Coalition and Clubs NSW, signed at the conclusion of Responsible Gambling Awareness Week at the weekend, has reignited criticism from anti-gambling advocates over the government's relationship with the clubs lobby.

bell jar posted:

e: looking further into the article, it looks like Greens -> Liberal voters were steadily decreasing until Bill Shorten became opposition leader, where the trend reversed

bell jar posted:

The point is there's 1/5 Greens voters that could be persuaded to vote ALP over the Liberals, and more from other minor parties, too.

quote:

NSW Labor MLC Shaoquett Moselmane says his decision to link Twitter followers to a story on the website of a former Ku Klux Klan leader was "a bad mistake".
The tweet, which he posted about 10:00pm last night and subsequently deleted, directed people to the homepage of American white supremacist David Duke.
Mr Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and state politician in Louisiana.
The story was titled: Israel Lobby Controls Australian Foreign Policy — Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

quote:

More government agencies are accessing people's phone and internet records than originally envisaged, in what critics are describing as "authority creep".
Controversial laws which came into force last year compel telecommunications companies to retain metadata on their customers, including information on who you call or text, where you make calls from, and who you send emails to.
To allay privacy concerns, access to the metadata was limited to 22 specific police and intelligence agencies, such as the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and state police forces.
But a parliamentary hearing has been told that number has blown out.
"There are many more than 22 agencies," John Stanton from Communications Alliance, the industry peak body, said.
"Many state-based agencies have come forward and started using their own state-based powers to request metadata.
"Authority creep, I guess you might call it."
The Communications Alliance told the parliamentary hearing telcos are getting around 1,000 requests for metadata each day.
It is not clear exactly how many agencies are now able to request access to stored metadata.
Because they are accessing the metadata and not the content of communications, the agencies are not required to get a warrant.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus expressed concern, noting access to stored metadata was supposed to be tightly restricted.
"It's a specified group of 22, reduced at the time of the mandatory data retention legislation going through from the previous very wide group of around 80."

quote:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a lawsuit in Ecuador against new terms of asylum in the Andean country's London embassy that require him to pay for medical bills and phone calls and clean up after his pet cat, his lawyer says.

...

"He has been held in inhuman conditions for more than six years," Mr Garzon said.
"Even people who are imprisoned have phone calls paid for by the state," he added, describing the obligations regarding the cat as "denigrating."

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN posted:

These people are weird

tithin posted:

quote:

A gun industry lobby group backed by five of the largest Australian firearms wholesalers has declared its intention to intervene in state and federal elections to hold governments "accountable for the decisions they make".
The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA)'s corporate members have bankrolled its activities with more than $1.2 million since late 2014.
Its members are directors of local firms Nioa — which calls itself Australia's largest privately-owned supplier of small arms and ammunition — Raytrade, Outdoor Sporting Agencies and the Australian offshoots of international gun manufacturers Winchester and Beretta.
SIFA is leading a fresh bid to lobby governments over gun laws, 22 years after the Port Arthur massacre which saw the states and territories sign up to the National Firearms Agreement.
It has sponsored "shooting days" for federal politicians and donated tens of thousands of dollars to firearms-friendly political parties.
SIFA spokeswoman Laura Patterson told the ABC's Four Corners program that the organisation would consider getting involved in future elections, after doing so in Queensland last year.
"If the circumstances came up in any jurisdiction in this country where we felt that a communications campaign in parallel with a political election cycle was appropriate, then we would make that decision on any given day, given the circumstances," she said.
"We're looking to enter a new era of engagement. We want it to be open. We want people to understand who we are and why we're doing what we're doing.
"We want governments to be held accountable for the decisions they make."

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN posted:

(Idk how climate scientists are rent seeking but I saw a lot of liberal fans throwing it around in relation to Wentworth so I presume it's just a new term for them)

quote:

Clive Palmer's brother-in-law claims he has had contact with the businessman's nephew Clive Mensink, and is "perfectly capable" of arranging communication between the pair.

...

Mr Sokolov testified he was requested by Mr Palmer to get Mr Mensink to sign documents during a holiday to Bulgaria in April 2017.
"From at least the 4th of April 2017, Mr Clive Palmer has had the ability, if he chose to use it, to locate and pass messages to Mr Mensink?" Robert Newlinds SC, barrister for the special purpose liquidators asked.
"Yes," Mr Sokolov replied.
Mr Sokolov testified Mr Palmer also asked him in June this year to contact Mr Mensink again.
"It had been all over the press that Mr Mensink was in Bulgaria somewhere, no-one knew where he was, there was a warrant for his arrest issued and for all intents and purposes was a missing person," Mr Newlinds said.
"Both you and Mr Palmer and Mr Palmer's lawyer had been perfectly capable of contacting him and having correspondence with him at that very time?"
"Yes," Mr Sokolov replied.

quote:

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed the investigation into the media being tipped off about the police raids on the Australian Workers' Union's (AWU) offices has been completed, and no-one has been charged.

...

The AFP referred its investigation into the "unauthorised disclosure of government information", which carries a maximum two-year jail term, to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) on August 20.
Deputy commissioner Leanne Close told Senate Estimates on Monday that from that date on, the AFP considered its investigation completed, pending any requests from the CDPP for further inquiries to take place. Close said she didn't know whether the CDPP had requested more information.
Labor senator Doug Cameron asked in estimates why no charges had been laid, given someone had admitted to the leak.
AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said: "Public commentary by someone that in people's minds may look like an admission to a crime is a long way from the rules of evidence in terms of what is required from us to launch a prosecution."
Colvin would not answer whether he had sought advice over whether to charge anyone over the leak. He also refused to rule out whether Cash or Keenan had been investigated, interviewed or given witness statements.

quote:

A senior Queensland Government minister was targeted with rape and death threats after complaining about a billboard in her electorate that suggested a handgun would make a good Christmas present.

bowmore posted:

lol if you think they've run out of ways to be cruel