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[A More Normal Bird]

It's pretty obvious what they were going for, but it's also such a weird way to go about it. Why the noise filter over a poorly whitewashed brick wall? The metaphorical implications are so subtle I doubt they were even intentional. Why not a wire fence? Maintaining plausible deniability I guess?

 

[Mr. Tone]

I'm in Elder, and I'm getting election crap in the mail every day, as well as people coming by the house campaigning. I'm really looking forward to this being over. The "Habib" stuff leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Arksy]

I'm in Elder, and I'm getting election crap in the mail every day, as well as people coming by the house campaigning. I'm really looking forward to this being over. The "Habib" stuff leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

That may have been my fault. I did some letter-boxing in Elder and got a call twice when I had finished letter-boxing that basically went like this, "Stop, we've already done that area!"

To be fair, those were the areas I was told to do it. Oh well, mistakes happen.

My apologies.

 

[bobnowhere]

I'm in Elder, and I'm getting election crap in the mail every day, as well as people coming by the house campaigning. I'm really looking forward to this being over. The "Habib" stuff leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

I wish I got letterboxed relentlessly or had candidates endlessly knocking on my door. Living in a very very safe area of a very safe Labor seat in a safe Labor town the best I get is obscure Labor Legislative Assembly candidates turning up at the shops every four years hoping they can build some sort of profile for a run in 4-8 years.

That and endless letters from Andrew Leigh trying to get people to borrow his tent.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

I wish I got letterboxed relentlessly or had candidates endlessly knocking on my door. Living in a very very safe area of a very safe Labor seat in a safe Labor town the best I get is obscure Labor Legislative Assembly candidates turning up at the shops every four years hoping they can build some sort of profile for a run in 4-8 years.

That and endless letters from Andrew Leigh trying to get people to borrow his tent.

Please explain.

 

[Dryk]

We keep getting calls from the Marshall-o-matic and RandomLaborSpokesperson-o-matic despite being on the DNC register. Mum is not impressed.

In other news Andrew Bolt's article today is just sort of pathetic. Basically boils down to "I'm sad because they teased me for being a racist on Q&A. I'm not racist, I just said that a white girl is calling herself Aboriginal what's wrong with that?"

 

[roosters93]

Anyone see this today?

The government has paid nearly a million dollars to cover its sudden axing of Australia's peak drug and alcohol body, documents reveal.

...

Dr Washer, who has resigned because he says the lack of funding made his position untenable, said the decision was ''a bloody tragedy''. ''This wasn't subject to any review . . . it was dumb advising dumber, and dumb won,'' he said.

...

''ADCA was a high priority organisation, and they will have to reinvent it at some stage, but with at least a million dollars wasted along the way,'' he [Mike Daube] said. ''If they quite rightly think this [library] is important, why did they scrap ADCA before they had worked out how to keep it going?''

...

Senator Nash did not respond to questions about whether this was an efficient use of taxpayer funding. However, she told Senate Estimates that she made the decision because there was duplication between ADCA and other agencies, and proper funding arrangements had not been put in place under the previous Labor government.

On the last line, it amazes me just how many times and for how many things they can keep blaming the previous government for.

 

[Arksy]

The fact that political parties are exempt from the Privacy Act is a fucking farce.

 

[Dryk]

Anyone see this today?

So if I'm reading this correctly those costs were incurred due to speeding up the decommissioning of the agency? Was it about to explode?

 

[Mondy]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-...peration-from-her-australian-daughter/5318686

Scott Morrison is truly a scumbag.

 

[Dryk]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-...peration-from-her-australian-daughter/5318686

Scott Morrison is truly a scumbag.

Maybe a nice CEO can sneak her back in on one of those phantom 457 visas the Liberals seem so keen on reinstating

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

No one posted SA's Liberal leader's recent gaffe?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-...even-marshall-urges-vote-for-labor-in/5321360

 

[Arksy]

Pure gold. Although I doubt at this stage even the Liberal leader telling everyone to vote Labor would help them win tomorrow.

I'm at a booth! Come heckle me. Or you know, throw bricks or something.

 

[Shaneus]

Year 9 kids rip through Tony Abbott.

lols

 

[Dryk]

Year 9 kids rip through Tony Abbott.

lols

You hear that cheering sound? That's you being on the wrong side of history.

 

[Arksy]

I might be (read: definitely) bias, but that seemed like a fair performance.

 

[Rubixcuba]

Year 9 kids rip through Tony Abbott.

lols

That cheering gave chills for the gay marriage question. Newtown High is amazing.

 

[Dead Man]

Off to vote

 

[bomma_man]

Didn't bother numbering anyone but labor, the greens and the socialist alliance. It would be a waste of thirty seconds.

(Our minimum of five numbers system should be used in the senate though)

 

[Arksy]

Well I just spent a few hours handing out how to vote cards. I didn't get heckled and no bricks were thrown at me. I'm disappointed.

 

[Dead Man]

Well I just spent a few hours handing out how to vote cards. I didn't get heckled and no bricks were thrown at me. I'm disappointed.

You have won. Apathy rules. Implement whatever you want, there will be no meaningful opposition.

 

[bomma_man]

Well I just spent a few hours handing out how to vote cards. I didn't get heckled and no bricks were thrown at me. I'm disappointed.

lol it's illegal to do that on Election Day down here. Thank god. I remember the poor lib bastards getting a decidedly hostile response at my Denison polling booth last year.

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

Well I just spent a few hours handing out how to vote cards. I didn't get heckled and no bricks were thrown at me. I'm disappointed.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Arksy]

You have won. Apathy rules. Implement whatever you want, there will be no meaningful opposition.

Don't be so defeatist! It was only 6 years ago that we had a Mayor somewhere being the highest ranked elected liberal.

I'm excited to see what kind of reforms the labor party will implement. (If they lose).

 

[roosters93]

Arts groups refusing tobacco funding may be penalised, says George Brandis

"this is free country, I’m a member of a government that’s trying to make it a freer country" [sic]

Uhuh. Keep telling yourself that buddy.

 

[Arksy]

Arts groups refusing tobacco funding may be penalised, says George Brandis

"this is free country, I’m a member of a government that’s trying to make it a freer country" [sic]

Uhuh. Keep telling yourself that buddy.

Considering that they rejected corporate sponsorship on the grounds that the company is involved in the Manus Island Detention Centre, how on earth could they consciously accept funding from the government? It's the body that designed it, created it, funds it and oversees it?

Seems like a bit of a double standard.

 

[bobnowhere]

Don't be so defeatist! It was only 6 years ago that we had a Mayor somewhere being the highest ranked elected liberal.

I'm excited to see what kind of reforms the labor party will implement. (If they lose).

Yeah it will be quite the turn around, back then Campbell Newman as Mayor of Brisbane was the highest ranking Lib. Come tomorrow it will be Katie in the ACT as the highest ranking Labor leader.

The LNP and their media machine have been very successful at persuading people to vote against their own self-interest based and what are, quite frankly, lies, mistruths and down right deception. Swings and roundabouts I suppose but the Libs are going to be laughed out of office in Victoria later in the year and Campbell, public servants have nothing to fear from me, Newman looks to be crashing the LNP in Queensland. Inside 6 years it will probably red everywhere.

Please explain.

Andrew Leigh owns a couple of tents, marquees?, with his name on them he lends out to community groups, free advertising I suppose. It really is the most interesting thing going on in the Northern Half of Canberra.

 

[roosters93]

Considering that they rejected corporate sponsorship on the grounds that the company is involved in the Manus Island Detention Centre, how on earth could they consciously accept funding from the government? It's the body that designed it, created it, funds it and oversees it?

Seems like a bit of a double standard.

Well one of them profits substantially from the detention while the other doesn't.

 

[Arksy]

Well one of them profits substantially from the detention while the other doesn't.

So the fact that this company profits from Manus Island is the objectionable part? Seems like a rather bizarre point of view to me at least. I mean, I don't know whether I agree with Brandis' policy, obviously people shouldn't give or accept money from causes they don't agree with, but I just don't understand why they'd want the government's money instead.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Considering that they rejected corporate sponsorship on the grounds that the company is involved in the Manus Island Detention Centre, how on earth could they consciously accept funding from the government? It's the body that designed it, created it, funds it and oversees it?

Seems like a bit of a double standard.

Because public funding for arts projects generally doesn't come out of the DIMIA/DIPB/whatever it's called now budget. People generally distinguish between the neutral public departments and the elected Government. If the Government wasn't segmented into departments and a condition of the funding was giving Scott Morrison the opening speech and including art that glorified the defence of our borders then I imagine they might have raised the same concerns that they did about Transfield.
EDIT:

So the fact that this company profits from Manus Island is the objectionable part? Seems like a rather bizarre point of view to me at least. I mean, I don't know whether I agree with Brandis' policy, obviously people shouldn't give or accept money from causes they don't agree with, but I just don't understand why they'd want the government's money instead.

TBH it doesn't seem you like consider the implications of the profit motive as opposed to more "neutral" public funding in many of your views, seeing as you refer to public funding of many things as distortion or interference.

Andrew Leigh owns a couple of tents, marquees?, with his name on them he lends out to community groups, free advertising I suppose. It really is the most interesting thing going on in the Northern Half of Canberra.

I much preferred my vision of him writing about the top quality family sized tent he'd bought from Barbecues Galore but hardly ever got the chance to use, letting every constituent know that they were free to borrow it as long as they promised to take good care of it and returned it within a reasonable time-frame. But yeah, good to hear that entertaining Mr. Leigh's shenanigans has supplanted trees and responding to the statement "let's go out!" with "why?" as the number one thing to do in the Capital.

 

[bomma_man]

Liberal majority. Fml.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Again, speaking as somebody in the US, where many of these wonderful "free market" policies have been passed, for profit prisons are a horrible horrible idea.

 

[Arksy]

Again, speaking as somebody in the US, where many of these wonderful "free market" policies have been passed, for profit prisons are a horrible horrible idea.

There is no doctrine in the world, political or philosophical, that I've heard, that says that privately run prisons are desirable.

 

[Mondy]

Liberal majority. Fml.

Tasmania or South Australia? SA still seems pretty close.

 

[Arksy]

SA is way too close to call at the moment. Both parties could legitimately form (a minority) government.

 

[Tommy DJ]

There is no doctrine in the world, political or philosophical, that I've heard, that says that privately run prisons are desirable.

Uh, as far as I know most neoliberals still don't really mind the idea of private prisons. I vaguely remember Michael Stutchbury being a huge proponent of them because "they're not government so they're better at everything".

 

[Elaugaufein]

Again, speaking as somebody in the US, where many of these wonderful "free market" policies have been passed, for profit prisons are a horrible horrible idea.

I concur with this point.

But these detention/refugee processing centres aren't actually prisons which does change the reasoning a bit. Citizens are never held in these compounds, so there's no danger of them lobbying for harsher laws in order or doing shoddy jobs at rehabilitation , in order to increase their profits. The objectionable thing here is that they still cut costs by providing sub-standard services, which results in terrible conditions. In fairness though , these centers have to be run at arm's length for political reasons though, they are based in technically sovereign foreign countries (who just happen to be extremely reliant on Australia) for the same reason. The whole process is kind of shady as a necessary result.

 

[Elaugaufein]

SA is way too close to call at the moment. Both parties could legitimately form (a minority) government.

The tap-dancing that both sides have to do in order to justify this should be hilarious. Though it's also hilarious that the Liberals / Nationals gets a free pass on basically always doing this, because they've been doing it for so long.

 

[Dryk]

I'd love another hung parliament. Much closer to the way the system is intended to work and I hope that one day more people will warm up to it. I understand that parties forming and enforcing their party line is an inevitability but I don't have to like it.

 

[Arksy]

Uh, as far as I know most neoliberals still don't really mind the idea of private prisons. I vaguely remember Michael Stutchbury being a huge proponent of them because "they're not government so they're better at everything".

Neoliberalism is the worst.

Liberalism would traditionally say, everyone has liberty, and the only way that can be legitimately taken from you is if you engage in criminal conduct. If you do lose your liberty, the state as the only legitimate repository of power, acts as a custodian of that liberty while you serve your sentence.

When you outsource that job to a private third party, there is not a lot of difference between that and slavery in my mind. Your liberty is owned by another member of society.

I'd make a better argument along these lines but I've had a few (read: many) drinks at our campaign function.

Either way this will be interesting.

 

[Elaugaufein]

I'd love another hung parliament. Much closer to the way the system is intended to work and I hope that one day more people will warm up to it. I understand that parties forming and enforcing their party line is an inevitability but I don't have to like it.

Agreed. If parties do form its absolutely better they are publicly known than hidden as "Gentleman's Agreements" because of an attempt to ban parties though. That would make for a terrible system.

 

[Arksy]

Open primaries are the best way to break up the power 'political parties' and have more 'independent' members of parliament.

It also allows for safe seats to have a choice. Instead of party HQ parachuting someone into a safe seat, and then going on to vote with impunity. Voters in a safe left metropolitan seat could instead vote out their SDA backed Labor candidate who's against gay marriage and install someone who is, for example.

That way, we'd also get real plurality and diversity. Diversity not only in terms of race, gender and skin colour, but of experience, upbringing and opinion.

We'd be able to have proper debates about things as well instead of speaker for X towing the party line for Policy Y and speaker A towing the party line against Policy Y.

 

[hidys]

I'm genuinely shocked by the result so far in SA. I expected there would be a wipe out in both SA and Tas.

 

[Elaugaufein]

I'm genuinely shocked by the result so far in SA. I expected there would be a wipe out in both SA and Tas.

The lower house system (federally and in most states) is actually more or less designed to cause wipe outs. A 55/45 result is usually devastating, leaving a party with far less than 45% of the seats , the idea is that it's better to have a lower house that can function as an executive body with minimal tie-ups while the upper house serves as a proportional check / balance. One of the side effects is that even small variations in the swing can make a huge difference to the result.

The polls actually predicted this outcome though, interestingly enough , that the swing would be enough to cost Labor a majority, but might not be enough to give the Liberal's one (Labor only needed to lose 3 to lose majority, but the Liberals needed to gain 6).

 

[Mondy]

Would you SA'ers argue that this possible hung parliament result is a reflection on a national level of how divided the public are about our governance at the moment? How often does your state government usually change power with dramatic swings?

 

[Shaneus]

SA is way too close to call at the moment. Both parties could legitimately form (a minority) government.

And as we all know, Tony Abbott hates minorities.

 

[markot]

Open primaries are the best way to break up the power 'political parties' and have more 'independent' members of parliament.

It also allows for safe seats to have a choice. Instead of party HQ parachuting someone into a safe seat, and then going on to vote with impunity. Voters in a safe left metropolitan seat could instead vote out their SDA backed Labor candidate who's against gay marriage and install someone who is, for example.

That way, we'd also get real plurality and diversity. Diversity not only in terms of race, gender and skin colour, but of experience, upbringing and opinion.

We'd be able to have proper debates about things as well instead of speaker for X towing the party line for Policy Y and speaker A towing the party line against Policy Y.

Kinda like in the US. It works so well for them.

 

[Arksy]

Kinda like in the US. It works so well for them.

When taken non-sarcastically, I agree.

 

[Dryk]

We'd be able to have proper debates about things as well instead of speaker for X towing the party line for Policy Y and speaker A towing the party line against Policy Y.

Another thing that irks me about the current system is the nature of the party room means that you can get bills passed with a little over 25% of the parliament's support and there's very little transparency into that process. I think open primaries might actually help solve that a bit too because while you wouldn't necessarily get more insight into the closed-door machinations you'd have a better idea of what each MP actually thinks instead of publicly towing the line.

 

[Rubixcuba]

Anyone else here participate in the 'March in March' that happened around the country? Had around 3-4,000 people here in Newcastle, was immense. Was a real mix of crowd too, were flags from the Greens, Labor, Communist, Pirate and Hemp parties !