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[A More Normal Bird]

What that graph ignores is that a monopoly will just rort everyone up the ass and zero competition means as a rule they provide a shit service.

If only there was some way a monopoly could provide these services without being driven by the profit motive, then we'd have the best of both worlds!

 

[hidys]

If only there was some way a monopoly could provide these services without being driven by the profit motive, then we'd have the best of both worlds!

If only...

Spoiler

Fuck I hate Jeff Kennett

 

[Arksy]

I got a better idea, let's break all our utilities up into street providers and we can have little coal furnaces on every street corner.

I have an EVEN BETTER idea, let's completely abolish utilities and that way, without electricity or water or power I might actually become more productive.

/sigh.

 

[Dryk]

I have an EVEN BETTER idea, let's completely abolish utilities and that way, without electricity or water or power I might actually become more productive.

Every time you say that, even sarcastically, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe feels a strange tingling sensation in his pants.

 

[Arksy]

WA heading back to the polls.

I'm willing to bet my third testicle that 3 lib 2 lab 1 other will turn into 3 lab 2 lib and 1 other.

 

[bobnowhere]

WA heading back to the polls.

I'm willing to bet my third testicle that 3 lib 2 lab 1 other will turn into 3 lab 2 lib and 1 other.

I wouldn't go as far as 3 lab, more like 2 lib, 2 lab, 1 green and 1 other. Palmer will spend buckets to get that other.

 

[Arksy]

Alright, I'll amend, I'll bet my fourth tit that it this election will make things more difficult for the libs come the shuffle.

 

[Mondy]

Alright, I'll amend, I'll bet my fourth tit that it this election will make things more difficult for the libs come the shuffle.

Of course. They're polling in the negative across the board except for that one maverick Neilson poll. The spectre of the May Budget also hangs over this election. Abbott will be desperate to get this thing done before then, otherwise his slash and burn austerity budget will cause severe damage to the Libs chances.

 

[lexi]

Just donated $25 to the Greens for Scott Ludlam. Surely he must be a certainty, right?

 

[Omikron]

wasn't Ludlum pretty close to a quota all by himself last time? (well the greens, but yes)


one of the few politicians I respect too, hope he gets up.

 

[Dryk]

wasn't Ludlum pretty close to a quota all by himself last time? (well the greens, but yes)


one of the few politicians I respect too, hope he gets up.

His speech to the Senate about abolishing the CEFC was pretty good

 

[Dryk]

Malcolm Fraser speaks out against secrecy surrounding Manus and ignoring a global problem

 

[bobnowhere]

Whether you vote Green or someone else, the senate would be a poorer place without Ludlum in it.

 

[Mondy]

Australia will run out of money to pay for Medicare and its welfare and education systems unless the Abbott government takes a harder look at costs, says Treasurer Joe Hockey.

Mr Hockey said he was ''ringing an early warning bell'' about the sustainability of federal funding for vital programs, saying hard work will be needed in the future just to maintain the quality of life expected by most Australians.
Illustration: Ron Tandberg

Illustration: Ron Tandberg

''The starting point is if our health and welfare and education systems stay exactly the same, Australia is going to run out of money to pay for them,'' Mr Hockey told the Seven Network on Friday.
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''If nothing happens, we will never get back into surplus, we'll never pay off debt.

''We'll either have to have a massive increase in taxes, and that means fewer jobs at the end of the day, or we're going to have to look at ways we can restructure the system to make it sustainable.''

Mr Hockey said that Medicare was forecast to increase from $65 billion in this year's budget to $75 billion within just three years.

There's speculation the government could be paving the way for the introduction of a GP fee, although Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he wants to be the ''best friend'' Medicare's ever had.

Policy consultant Terry Barnes, a former adviser to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, suggested a $6 fee to see a GP or for GP-type treatment at a hospital emergency department, in a submission to the government's Commission of Audit.

Health Minister Peter Dutton has also signalled that Medicare could be means-tested with access to bulk-billing and medical tests such as X-rays, blood tests limited to those on lower incomes, in a News Corp report.

Mr Dutton questioned why those on higher incomes should be able to go to the doctor ''for free'' and said it was ''one of the discussions . . . we have to have''.

But doctors have warned that the fee would lead more patients to seek treatment in overcrowded emergency departments including those with conditions that had deteriorated because of deferred care.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten slammed the proposals on Friday, saying that people should be able to get ''the health care they need, not the health care they can afford'' and said Australians did not want to go down the path of the American model.

Australasian College of Emergency Medicine president Anthony Cross said any disincentive to see a GP would send patients elsewhere.

''EDs [emergency departments] do have a reputation of being able to see and treat anything - there is a sense of a one-stop shop - so if they have to pay $6 that might sway people to come to an ED,'' he said.

''People for whom the $6 is most likely to be a disincentive are people from poor backgrounds with chronic and psychiatric disease, the people who need care the most.''

Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association chief executive Alison Verhoeven said the chronically ill were likely to defer seeing a GP, leading them to become sicker and need more treatment.

''That will obviously cost more and that's not a good trade-off, it's not going to put more dollars into the system,'' she said.

He said funding agreements between the Commonwealth and states prevented hospitals charging patients for public hospital treatment, and would need to be changed if the government adopted his plan for a $6 co-payment.

Mr Dutton said on Wednesday one of his government's most important tasks was ''to grow the opportunity for those Australians who can afford [it] to contribute to their own healthcare costs''.

He questioned whether people on ''reasonable incomes'' should expect to pay nothing to see a doctor leaving other taxpayers to pick up the bill.

In the second half of last year, 81.7 per cent of GP visits were bulk-billed, meaning patients incurred no out-of-pocket costs.

But, Consumers Health Forum spokesman Mark Metherell said, many bulk-billed patients received concessions, for example pensioners with chronic conditions, and other patients already paid a fee to see a doctor.

Patients who are not bulk-billed pay an average of $28.60 to visit their GP, according to Medicare data.

Victorian Council of Social Service chief executive Emma King said the poor already faced significant costs for quality healthcare including for medications and tests.

The Treasurer flagged that other programs, including the aged pension for people over 65, were also overdue for review and would have to be examined.

The pension was introduced in the 1950s when life expectancy was 55, but Mr Hockey said costs had ballooned with the average lifespan stretching today to 85.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...-joe-hockey-20140221-335j0.html#ixzz2tux5qlPk

Hockey has begun his austerity maneuvering. He won't touch Medicare. He knows if he does, he and the rest of the Coalition are fucked. This is the typical carrot and the stick approach. Scare the public with potential cuts to Medicare so that the blowback from Privatization is minimized. Ultra Conservative politics 101 and completely unnecessary for Australia and the economic position we are in as opposed to the world.

I hope you're all happy with your choice of government, Australia. Your desire to punish Labor over the best interests of the nation will cost us dearly.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

''The starting point is if our health and welfare and education systems stay exactly the same, Australia is going to run out of money to pay for them,'' Mr Hockey told the Seven Network on Friday.

Joe getting all metaphysical on us. How do you run out of a concept?

Health Minister Peter Dutton has also signalled that Medicare could be means-tested with access to bulk-billing and medical tests such as X-rays, blood tests limited to those on lower incomes, in a News Corp report.

Mr Dutton questioned why those on higher incomes should be able to go to the doctor ''for free'' and said it was ''one of the discussions . . . we have to have''.

With talk like this one would imagine they'd have a great track record of supporting means testing.

Also, $30 is the average for a GP visit? I need to move.

 

[Mondy]

Joe getting all metaphysical on us. How do you run out of a concept?


With talk like this one would imagine they'd have a great track record of supporting means testing.

Also, $30 is the average for a GP visit? I need to move.

Yep, Australia's public health system is meticulously crafted, very good and popular with the public at large, which is exactly why the Coalition enjoy holding the knife to its neck.

 

[AdventureRacing]

People using the emergency department as a personal on call doctor is a pretty massive issue. We're always overcrowded and doing unnecessary work that should be handled by a GP. Any sort of surcharge is absolutely NOT the answer to fixing this and would just create more problems. Same with the GP. All that does is turn people off using medical services until they get more sick and end up costing far more money. It's just short term thinking really.

 

[Dryk]

It's just short term thinking really.

So the Coalition will go for it then?

 

[AdventureRacing]

So the Coalition will go for it then?

Well to be fair they seem to like things that are bad in the long and short term.

Edit: There are areas to save money in the health care industry. There are some areas that are run pretty poorly that could be improved. To me the most important area that needs to be improved is preventative medicine. Right now we spend a shitload of money on people with diabetes and the majority of that could be prevented. There is a similar problem with cancer. People put off going to the doctor until it's too late and they end up having much more expensive treatment than may otherwise have been necessary (and generally it's far less successful). Then there is the lack of staff in community areas. We end up with patients staying in hospital too long or for unnecessary reasons because the community resources are so poor.

There are savings to be made in this field but i don't think the answer is simply adding a surcharge to ED and GP visits (or by just cutting staff).

 

[Mondy]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-give-premier-a-hard-time-20140222-33855.html

Premier Campbell Newman faced a hostile reception when he visited a polling booth on Saturday morning for the Redcliffe byelection.
Visiting the Humpybong State School booth with Liberal National Party candidate Kerri-Anne Dooley, Mr Newman was subjected to a barrage of abuse over his government’s policies and performance.
When Labor Party volunteers heckled the Premier about the government’s controversial anti-gang laws, Mr Newman hit back.
“You voted for these laws and you won’t repeal them,” he said.
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“The first casualty is truth in an election campaign.”
Mr Newman was confronted by men purporting to be firefighters, who claimed stations were closing.
When Mr Newman challenged them to name a station facing closure, however, no answer was given.
And for almost his entire visit, a woman yelling abuse shadowed the Premier and accusing him of, among many things, allowing paedophiles walk free.
While Mr Newman defended the right to protest outside the booth, he described the confrontations as “over the top and quite inappropriate”.
“That’s their right, that’s their democratic right,” he said.
“I don’t believe that’s how we should carry on and I don’t believe that’s the way civilised, decent human beings should treat each other, even if they don’t agree with their political views.
“But I would be most against any moves to try to stop people expressing their views at any polling booth on election day.”
Before Mr Newman’s arrival, Ms Dooley accompanied her parents, Eunice and Keith Powell, as they went to vote.
Ms Dooley herself was ineligible to vote in the byelection, being enrolled in the neighbouring Murrumba electorate.
Electoral Commission of Queensland officials would not allow Ms Dooley all the way in to the voting booths with her parents.
Afterwards, Ms Dooley said she had received some advice from her celebrity brother, Biggest Loser trainer Steve “The Commando” Willis.
“He said stay strong, be determined and just be calm and Kerri on, that’s what he said, no excuses” she said.
“It’s up to the people of Redcliffe today and I just plead with the people of Redcliffe to vote for the future, not for the past.”
It was a much more sedate affair at Clontarf Beach State School, where Labor candidate Yvette D’Ath cast her vote.
With the Premier’s wife, Lisa Newman, handing out how-to-vote cards at the gate, Ms D’Ath voted as Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk looked on from the sidelines.
As she has throughout the campaign, Ms Palaszczuk was keen to frame the byelection as a judgement on both disgraced former MP Scott Driscoll and the Newman government.
Mr Driscoll resigned from the LNP and Parliament before he could be expelled for contempt and misleading the House in November last year.
“Scott Driscoll was not good enough, he let this community down,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Redcliffe residents today have the opportunity to put in place a strong voice for this area and I believe that Yvette D’Ath will be that fresh voice.”
Ms D’Ath, the overwhelming favourite, rejected the suggestion she had the byelection “in the bag”.
“There’s no such thing,” she said.
“There are nine candidates and anything can happen.”

Haha check out that hat. Incognito Campbell doesn't wanna be recognized.

EDIT: LNP suffering a -14.3% swing. It's a bloodbath.

EDIT 2: Labor have won Redcliffe with a 2pp swing of 16.4%. If that were uniform across the state, the LNP would be swept from power.

 

[Myansie]

Wow, it's not over the top to expect that across the state either. The anger towards Newman here is palatable across the board. Even my parents generation are pissed with him.

Disappointing about the uninformed protesters. It's not like it's hard to Google some stupid shit Newman actually is doing.

The big question is if these numbers are also boosted by what Abbott's doing.

 

[Dryk]

So, releasing opposition cabinet documents to a royal commission. Bad idea or worst idea?

 

[Mondy]

So, releasing opposition cabinet documents to a royal commission. Bad idea or worst idea?

Certainly a precedent setter. Lets see how the Libs like it when Labor turn it around on them next time they're in power.

 

[markot]

Abbot seems to feel like the previous labour governments were personal insults to himself and little more.

Also, a royal commission? And one into the unions? Talk about blowing your wad early on political shit. I remember when royal commissions used to be used for things that mattered.

I cant describe how much I detest Abbot and his cronies.

 

[Dryk]

Certainly a precedent setter. Lets see how the Libs like it when Labor turn it around on them next time they're in power.

And nothing of value was ever done in politics again

 

[Arksy]

Met Marshall today. Good fun.

 

[Jintor]

Certainly a precedent setter. Lets see how the Libs like it when Labor turn it around on them next time they're in power.

I predict a wonderful future for Australian politics. Certainly no potential for tit-for-tat retaliation and resource-wasting grubbery.

 

[Mondy]

And nothing of value was ever done in politics again

I predict a wonderful future for Australian politics. Certainly no potential for tit-for-tat retaliation and resource-wasting grubbery.

As if it isn't that way already.

 

[wonzo]

the next ukraine

 

[markot]

Met Marshall today. Good fun.

Marshall Tito is dead so that was an imposter.

 

[bomma_man]

Good article about class in Australia

But class has always been more complex than this view would suggest. As the late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argued in his book Distinction, class – and the reproduction of class – has as much to do with your tastes, the way you speak and comport yourself as it has to do with income levels.

Taking this broader view, class is as prevalent as it ever was. It’s just that when we talk about class, we don’t use the “C word”. Instead, we use other less threatening terms – “bogan”, for instance.

One definition of a bogan is someone who fails to conform to middle-class standards of taste, dietary habits, leisure activities, styles of dress and ways of speaking. You don’t have to have read sociology or understand the political economy to notice such distinctions.

When, for example, Channel Ten launched the 2014 season of The Biggest Loser, which centres on the town of Ararat in Victoria’s south-west, a theme running through the audience reaction on Twitter centred on class. Some of the uglier tweets included:

That’s the entertaining thing about #biggestloserau We’re laughing at them cos they’re bogans.

FunFact My cousin used to own a $2 shop in Ararat he did a roaring trade, couldn’t keep up with track suit & thong orders.

Hahahaha no money for your poor town unless you lose weight. No pressure. #biggestloserau
The crime of the contestants — and by extension Ararat — is that the show features people who don’t conform to middle-class standards of health and well-being. Like the worst stereotypes of the working class that have been around since Karl Marx was a boy, they are assumed to be slovenly, poor and poorly educated, and lacking in taste and refinement.

Looking through the biographies of the contestants, you begin to notice that most are working class or lower-middle class. Along with a couple of students, the contestants are supermarket managers, a baker, nurses and what former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich refers to as “in-person service providers”. The few professionals who are on the show tend to be ones that, relative to other professions, are on the lower end of the income scale, such as nursing or teaching.

Of course, the class hatred expressed on Twitter at The Biggest Loser contestants is nothing new. But it’s now wrapped up in messages about health and exercise. Income, occupation, residence and eating and activity habits are all part of what defines people’s class.

<3 Bourdieu

 

[Mondy]

Labor need to keep up the pressure on Scott Morrison. I can see him resigning if the media storm keeps up.

 

[bomma_man]

We're really getting into evil territory here

 

[Dead Man]

We're really getting into evil territory here

If Sri Lankans committed war crimes, tamils may have to be let into the country as refugees, can't have that.

Edit: This was a great fucking idea:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...itary-officer-acting-manager-of-manus/5280412

Human rights and asylum seeker advocates are condemning a decision to employ a former Sri Lankan military officer as the acting manager of the Manus Island detention camp.

The ABC has confirmed that Dinesh Perera has been running the facility for the G4S security company.

The director of advocacy and research at the Human Rights Law centre, Emily Howie, says Mr Perera should be removed.

"It's completely inappropriate for anyone with links to the Sri Lankan military to be in charge of the welfare and well-being of vulnerable asylum seekers, including Tamils," Ms Howie said.

"There's a high likelihood that the Tamils being held there are fleeing persecution at the hands of the Sri Lankan military.

"This isn't about the activities of this one man. It's about way that Australia takes care of the asylum seekers who are in its custody.

"The placing of an ex-military commander from a source country for refugees like Sri Lanka highlights Australia's complete insensitivity to the very real risks and suffering that those asylum seekers are fleeing."

Activists say there are now about 30 ethnic Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seekers being detained at the camp, out of a total of about 1,300.

 

[Dryk]

If Sri Lankans committed war crimes, tamils may have to be let into the country as refugees, can't have that.

Edit: This was a great fucking idea:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...itary-officer-acting-manager-of-manus/5280412

This is literally putting the fox in charge of the hen house

 

[Tommy DJ]

You'd only do this if you really hated asylum seekers. I don't mean just using them as a boogyman but actually hate. Out of all the people that could have been chosen, you pick the one that hasn't got the best reputation for treating asylum seekers fairly.

 

[wonzo]

I wonder how the ACL's gonna react to this…

 

[bomma_man]

If Sri Lankans committed war crimes, tamils may have to be let into the country as refugees, can't have that.

Edit: This was a great fucking idea:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...itary-officer-acting-manager-of-manus/5280412

Wow.

Labor treated asylum seekers like shit because they're weak an it was politically necessary.

The Liberals genuinely hate them.

 

[EatChildren]

It's not really surprising. The Liberal agenda on asylum seekers has been deeply laden in nationalism for as long as their current campaign (and then some) has been running. They don't even try to hide it.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

The story doesn't mention when he was employed, only that he is now the Acting Manager on Manus. It might be jumping the gun a bit to act like this was a deliberate decision by Morrison.

 

[Mondy]

LABOR’S support is the highest it has been since Kevin Rudd was removed as prime minister in 2010, as tough budget talk on Medicare co-payments and lifting the retirement age seems to have pushed the Coalition and Tony Abbott to their worst position since the election.

The ALP’s primary vote support of 39 per cent - up four percentage points - has put Labor ahead in two-party-preferred terms, 54-46, a reversal of the result at the September election.

Bill Shorten has also drawn virtually equal to Mr Abbott as preferred prime minister, on 37 per cent to Mr Abbott’s 38 per cent.

Voter satisfaction with both leaders is the worst it has been since the election, with Mr Abbott’s dissatisfaction jumping seven percentage points to a high of 52 per cent and dissatisfaction with Mr Shorten as Opposition Leader rising four points to a high of 39 per cent.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively on the weekend for The Australian, the government’s primary vote dropped from 41 per cent two weeks ago to a post-election low of 39 per cent while Labor’s rose to 39 per cent, the highest it has been since mid-2010.

Primary support for the Greens fell from 12 to 10 and remained unchanged on 12 per cent for independents and others.

Full details in tomorrow’s The Australian.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...bor-bill-shorten/story-fn59niix-1226836424811

It is quite extraordinary how much can change in 5 months.

 

[Jintor]

I've barely heard anything from Shorten at all for... what seems like months now

 

[Mondy]

I've barely heard anything from Shorten at all for... what seems like months now

Perhaps Shorten thinks that Abbott and Hockey will bury themselves come the budget. You can bet your arse Abbott will be pushing to have this WA Senate Election done and dusted before May.

 

[Arksy]

The first I'd heard from Shorten in ages was him calling his own previous party member a scumbag.

Perhaps Shorten thinks that Abbott and Hockey will bury themselves come the budget. You can bet your arse Abbott will be pushing to have this WA Senate Election done and dusted before May.

It will have to be done before may for constitutional reasons.

 

[AdventureRacing]

It's kind of weird to think of nursing as a low to low middle income earner. I guess it depends on what type of nurse they are talking about. As a registered nurse working full time (with quite good holiday pay) i feel like we make quite a good wage. Certainly my partner and i will end up very well off working as nurses.

On the above discussion it's so frustrating having people like Shorten as leader. It makes me wish we had someone like Keating at the helm to actually call the coalition out on its terrible policies. This Abbott government is fucking so much up but if you don't go out of your way to read up about it you wouldn't know.

 

[Mondy]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...moved-in-electoral-reform-20140224-33dbc.html

The government has been given the all clear to scrap donation and expenditure caps and up the disclosure threshold by a LNP-chaired parliamentary review committee.

But the government has been urged to rethink raising the electoral public funding threshold from 4 to 10 per cent, with concerns it could “be too high” which could hamper independent and minor party candidates.

The committee, chaired by Ipswich MP Ian Berry, instead recommended the threshold be raised to 6 per cent.

The voter identification proposition also received a lot of attention, with many people submitting to the committee that there was no real evidence of voter fraud in Queensland, leaving no reason for the proposal.
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Concerns were also raised that marginalised and vulnerable sectors of the community, such as the homeless and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would be left out of the voting process, because of the difficulties they suffered in obtaining formal identification.

The committee noted “the competing interests of the fundamental right to vote and regulating to ensure elections are fair and honest”, but concluded that those who wanted to vote, would.

But to help safeguard against the risk of “disenfranchisement” among certain groups, the committee recommended the government make clear that a wide range of identification, both photogenic and non-photogenic, be included in the Electoral Reform Regulation, to make it easy for voters to fulfil the proof of identity requirement.

It also recommended that electoral officers with the Electoral Commission of Queensland be trained in proof of identity requirements and how to help voters with the declaration process.

But the donation and expenditure changes were supported.

The government has proposed lifting the disclosure rate from $1000 to $12,400 in line with federal legislation.

It also wants to scrap the restrictions which capped donations to political parties at $5000, and candidates at $2000, per donor, and limited expenditure to $80,000 per party per electorate and $50,000 per candidate. The rules governing third party donations are different.

Professor Graeme Orr of the University of Queensland described the removal of the limits as “retrograde” and “a backward step for the key goals of political integrity and equality”.

“Unlimited donations risk political integrity,” Professor Orr said.

“They allow wealth to buy an unequal share of political influence and voice.

"Democracy and the universal franchise are meant to make all citizens equal in political worth.

"Unlimited donations skew money to the governing party of the day(or, occasionally, to an opposition on the brink of power), because private donations follow power.

"Power in Queensland has few enough checks/balances, given the lack of upper house or bill of rights.”

But the Family Voice Australia group supported the changes on the grounds there was “no justification for banning donations from particular sources such as corporations or industrial organisations”.

But the committee formed the view that the restrictions had not been in place for very long, having been enacted by the previous government in 2011.

“In the Committee's view, the pre-Amendment Act requirements functioned effectively, relying on the transparency and accountability afforded through appropriate financial disclosure obligations,” it concluded.

But the government's plan to have financial disclosures made monthly “to increase transparency” were abandoned, after Crown Law advice found that “more likely than not be held to be inconsistent with the Commonwealth Act and to that extent invalid”.

“Consequently, the existing requirements in the Queensland act relating to the disclosure of donations have been retained and amended to increase the donation threshold and to align with Commonwealth requirements of the time frames for the disclosure of donations”.

Increasing the disclosure limit means fundraisers can be held, where attendance costs $10,000 a ticket, but the individual donors would not have to declare their donation, as it falls under the $12,400 limit.

The legislation also proposes policy development payments be made in instalments to registered political parties with an elected member.

The payments, which exclude independent MPs, would be “based on relative electoral strength” – based on the “total number of formal first preference votes received by each of its endorsed candidates who polled at least 10 per cent...for their electoral district in the last election” - to “ensure parties can continue to engage fully in developing and shaping policy while continuing to effectively represent the community”.

Essentially, taxpayer funds could be used for political party policy development.

Professor Orr argued that the legislation did not require the funds given in this way to be used on policy development or administration, noting “they could be used on future electioneering”.

“There is not even a safeguard against using public funding for private benefit or expenses”.

But the committee found that “a party shall be accountable to itself for the best use of the payment” and did not consider it necessary “to legislate further in this regard”.

Legal Affairs committee members, Peter Wellington, the independent Nicklin MP and Opposition MP Bill Byrne, both submitted to the committee their objections to the Bill.

Mr Wellington said he could not support aspects of the legislation, including the proposed policy development payment while Mr Byrne said it represented a “substantial attack on the foundations of our democracy”.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie is reviewing the committee's report. But the government is under no obligation to heed its recommendations. Given the government's majority, the legislation will pass.

The door is steadily opening more and more for Australian politics to resemble America, where the content and quality of an actual policy isn't what decides if it gets ratified or not, it's the weight of the wallets of lobbyists.

 

[Arksy]

I've never understood Queensland.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I've never understood Queensland.

We were run by a fascist in all but name for decades and there is a significant section of the populace who remember his rule with some fondness. If you are an authoritarian with a hard-on for violent action against threats (perceived or real) and a tendency to conflate wealth with virtue, you might just be a Bjelke Petersen voter. It also helps if you're have strong ideas about where different groups of people belong or believe that moral behaviour is impossible without the guiding hand of religious faith.

We're basically Australia's version of Louisiana, for better or worse.

 

[Dryk]

I've barely heard anything from Shorten at all for... what seems like months now

Things would've been a lot more interesting with Albanese in charge that's for sure.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...bor-bill-shorten/story-fn59niix-1226836424811

It is quite extraordinary how much can change in 5 months.

I hope that it's not the retirement age talk that's causing this, because that's actually a problem that we can't ignore forever.

 

[DrSlek]

Shorten is a snake with a lot of Labor MPs in his pocket. Albanese would have been a much better leader, but it was never going to happen unfortunately.