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[bananabread]

This is basically Clive Palmer right now:

 

[reptilescorpio]

This is basically Clive Palmer right now:

lol the hero we need

 

[Yagharek]

This royal commission into the insulation scheme has a big whiff of nastiness about it.

I wonder why we never had an inquiry into mamdou habib's, david hicks', or cornelia rau's treatment in their various circumstances.

 

[Myansie]

Or Tony Abbott's spurious slush fund Australians for Honesty. He put it together in 1998 with illegally anonymous donations of over $100,000 to target One Nation with a legal battle.

 

[Yagharek]

Or Tony Abbott's spurious slush fund Australians for Honesty. He put it together in 1998 with illegally anonymous donations of over $100,000 to target One Nation with a legal battle.

I like the name. Optimistic.

 

[Mr. Tone]

Keeping Labor out: does the Liberal party stand for anything else?

What, then, is so odious about the Labor party? While the parties have converged on many issues, the ALP remains (however feebly) wedded to a mildly redistributive program, which cuts across the now universal neoliberal paradigm of government that is the new orthodoxy of the Liberal party. This – essentially an argument about the appropriate role and size of government in the economy, including in industrial relations – is the main area of contention today. The Labor party still sees government as a means of achieving social progress.

Capitalism’s greatest triumph has been to decouple the economy from the political contest, as though the economy exists separately and outside politics. In this transformative shift, the liberalism in liberal democracy has overtaken and minimised the democracy; the dominant constituency is no longer the people but the corporate world.

 

[Dryk]

On the plus side, odds of building Striker Eureka probably went up today.

BAHAHAHAHA

Nearly 40 of Australia's top military scientists and engineers are to be thrown on the scrapheap as the Defence Science and Technology Organisation cuts costs.

The jobs cull is expected to cut from six scientists to just two the DSTO's technical team for the $24 billion Joint Strike Fighter, the nation's largest ever defence purchase.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/fed...ties-of-deep-defence-cuts-20140512-zr9zw.html

 

[Arksy]

Sounds very adult. I give up.

 

[Jintor]

Sounds very adult. I give up.

We'll buy the planes, but fire the science team behind them! Brilliant!

Spoiler

I don't know shit about military science and research

 

[AdventureRacing]

I feel so much safer now that we now have these strike fighters that even their original makers don't even want. Combined with our stellar foreign relationships and decreased boat arrivals under Tony Abbott national safety seems to be at an all time high.

 

[Myansie]

Keeping Labor out: does the Liberal party stand for anything else?

Great article. This bit grabbed my eye...

Menzies was adamant that the new party had to learn from the ALP model: a continuous organisation between elections, a research capacity, a branch structure, a footprint in the community and most importantly, transparency in fund-raising that clearly separated responsibilities between the organisation and the elected members. He saw first-hand the public distaste at powerful business interests being seen to pull the strings, a lesson that Liberals in NSW seem to have forgotten, given the current imbroglio over secret donations.

 

[Yagharek]

http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/may/1398866400/rachel-nolan/men-certain-age

Here's another article I'm currently chewing through.

Opening paragraphs:

At an International Women’s Day event in March this year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in describing the progress women have made, noted, “It wasn’t so long ago as a Sydneysider that there was a female lord mayor, a female premier, a female prime minister, [and] a female head of state in our governor-general …”

It should hardly have been surprising that his remarks were ridiculed. No one had done more, after all, to see that three of the four had by that time been replaced by more traditional appointments – older, private school–educated, conservative white men.

The Abbott government is the first in Australian history not just to stifle but also to reverse the progress of Australian women.

It began within days of Abbott becoming prime minister at last September’s federal election, when he announced a 19-member cabinet with just one woman, the lowest level of female representation since 2001. It continued in January when a former chief of the Australian Defence Force, Peter Cosgrove, was chosen to replace Quentin Bryce, whose term as governor-general was about to expire.

In between times the tone was amplified with a slew of significant appointments weighted overwhelmingly towards older, business-oriented, climate change–denying, Sydney-based, conservative men.

 

[Shaneus]

So, do we want a thread dedicated to the budget abortion coming up tonight? I think it'd be a great opportunity to advertise to the rest of the world (via GAF) what a colossal balls-up this current government is.

And I have the perfect thread title:
2014 Australian Government Budget |OT| B.O.H.I.C.A.

I like the name. Optimistic.

Reminds me of this:

 

[mjontrix]

So, do we want a thread dedicated to the budget abortion coming up tonight? I think it'd be a great opportunity to advertise to the rest of the world (via GAF) what a colossal balls-up this current government is.

And I have the perfect thread title:
2014 Australian Government Budget |OT| B.O.H.I.C.A.


Reminds me of this:

Yep - should be a separate thread. The world deserves to know that we know how the americans felt when Bush was in control.

 

[Shaneus]

Am I creating it? I honestly know jack (relatively speaking) about politics so it would really only be a placeholder OP. I'd love it if someone else here could do so.

I don't even give a shit about the title, I just want some focus on this in OT.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

I don't think it really needs a thread, but here are some title ideas anyway:

That's not austerity, this is austerity!

Throw some debt on the barbie

I said "do you feel-a my anguish?" He just smiled and gave me a shit sandwich

If a thread is made, it should just run through the story of how the government was elected promising to cut the deficit even though during the election they promised not not really cut or tax anything (and produced costings showing the same thing). Plus the whole Australia's economy being the envy of the Western world thing yada yada...

 

[Yagharek]

 

[Dryk]

So do we want to take bets on how many times Hockey blames Labor during his speech?

 

[wonzo]

So do we want to take bets on how many times Hockey blames Labor during his speech?

all of them

 

[Shaneus]

I don't think it really needs a thread, but here are some title ideas anyway:

That's not austerity, this is austerity!

Throw some debt on the barbie

I said "do you feel-a my anguish?" He just smiled and gave me a shit sandwich

If a thread is made, it should just run through the story of how the government was elected promising to cut the deficit even though during the election they promised not not really cut or tax anything (and produced costings showing the same thing). Plus the whole Australia's economy being the envy of the Western world thing yada yada...

Needs a thread. Isn't this thread in Community?

In the very least, the world needs to know that our OFLC is getting merged with the immigrant people. Papers (and games) Please.

 

[Shaneus]

That's once.

 

[mjontrix]

Budget thread here - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=111740779

Need some help with the first post!

 

[Yagharek]

This is like E3 giant crabs and rabi drums combined

 

[Dastardly Jerks]

Where's the group huddle and crying at?

 

[Yagharek]

Where's the group huddle and crying at?

International departure terminals

 

[mjontrix]

This is like E3 giant crabs and rabi drums combined

More like the Occulus Rift buyout.

Where's the group huddle and crying at?

International departure terminals

Yep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCLoNOYcVQU

 

[Quasar]

Well. That budget, esp education and the unemployed are worse than I expected.

 

[Arksy]

Doubt it'll pass parliament.

 

[Quasar]

Doubt it'll pass parliament.

I expect it will. Labor would be too gutless to block supply. The shadow of 75 still looms large.

 

[Dryk]

Doubt it'll pass parliament.

If it helps you sleep at night man, I don't blame you

 

[bomma_man]

I did neglect to mention during Question Time that speaker Bishop clocked up a milestone. She's ejected 100 Labor MPs from the chamber since taking the chair.

The manager of opposition business Tony Burke noted that Bishop's scorecard now read Labor: 100, Coalition: Zip.

Bishop noted rather tartly she not in fact ejected 100 separate MPs because Labor didn't have 100 MPs in the chamber. If it had 100 MPs, it would be in government, not in opposition.

Totally impartial.

 

[Box of Bunnies]

Totally impartial.

That's a pretty sick burn, though.

 

[roosters93]

was just reading old articles on middle-class welfare (We've pretty much always had the lowest in the OECD) and this gem popped out to me

Kevin Rudd developed courage in 2008 and denied it [the baby bonus] to families earning more than $150,000 a year. For his trouble he was accused of being anti-children.

''Every mother loves her baby,'' declared opposition leader Brendan Nelson. ''Every baby is valued and Mr Rudd should value all babies equally. We should not live in an Australia where Mr Rudd thinks that some babies are more valuable than others.''

Ah Brendan, I miss you.


edit: As much of a dick move as it is, a small part of me is forced to admire the comm govt for forcing the states with the budget to make the first move in raising GST.

 

[Dryk]

edit: As much of a dick move as it is, a small part of me is forced to admire the comm govt for forcing the states with the budget to make the first move in raising GST.

The state Premiers called them on it straight away though so it wasn't exactly a masterstroke

 

[Jintor]

That's a pretty sick burn, though.

got to admit it

 

[bananabread]

Tony Abbott flags early election if Senate changes key Budget measures

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has raised the prospect of an early election if key Budget measures are blocked in the Senate and has warned minor-party senators they are likely to lose their seats at an early poll.

Key crossbench senators yesterday said they would oppose contentious measures announced in the Budget, including the introduction of new medical fees and changes to pensions.

Labor plans to vote against “broken promises’’, including the debt levy and fuel excise increase.

Mr Abbott said a certain amount of horsetrading was inevitable in politics but warned independents and minor parties against frustrating the Government’s agenda.

“I don’t believe that they will try and completely frustrate the business of government because if there was an election again, hardly any of them would win their seats,’’ the Prime Minister told Sydney radio 2GB.

Mr Abbott was optimistic the Government could persuade minor party senators to support its reforms.

“I think in the end they will sit down with the Government and work out a way of getting this legislation through,’’ he said.

 

[DrSlek]

Let's go double dissolution!

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Crosspost from the budget thread:

Man, this really is the budget that just keeps on giving:

Schools will lose the option of appointing secular social workers under the national school chaplaincy program, for which the Abbott government has found an extra $245m in budget funding.

 

[bomma_man]

Crosspost from the budget thread:

Man, this really is the budget that just keeps on giving:

My psychologist girlfriend is in a massive huff over this.

Good thing it's about to get struck down in the high court then!

 

[Jintor]

Group of Rich White Men Quietly Confident That Nation's Most Vulnerable Can Tighten Their Belts

 

[senahorse]

There is no way TA will call an election, he knows it won't end well.

 

[Rlan]

Cunt.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I never felt the class divide so keenly as when I found myself on the "management" side of the construction industry. The way the upper level guys talk about the actual workers is really eye opening.

For instance, there's the way there are different rules governing "staff" and "wage employees", then there are the terms used by upper management. Of the ones I've heard so far, "sets of hands", "bodies", "arms and legs" and "blue collars" are the most dehumanising.

I feel like the only person within a hundred kilometres who would ever contemplate deliberately voting Greens.

 

[Tommy DJ]

I never felt the class divide so keenly as when I found myself on the "management" side of the construction industry. The way the upper level guys talk about the actual workers is really eye opening.

For instance, there's the way there are different rules governing "staff" and "wage employees", then there are the terms used by upper management. Of the ones I've heard so far, "sets of hands", "bodies", "arms and legs" and "blue collars" are the most dehumanising.

I feel like the only person within a hundred kilometres who would ever contemplate deliberately voting Greens.

Management in any industry - particularly engineering and construction - generally have reprehensible opinion. Who knew that industries that are basically old boys' clubs generally have a got mine, fuck you attitude to everything.

Some of the posts made by some dude in the Australian Budget thread made me feel like typing out FUCK OFF YOU CUNT in response to his awful "Liberals have ECONOMIC POLICIES, Labor only has SOCIALIST POLICIES so I will pick the better option" response to why he supports the budget. Its no surprise he works at an engineering contracting firm.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

What is new, management in any industry - particularly engineering and construction - generally have reprehensible opinions and have a GOT MINE, FUCK YOU attitude to most things.

Some of the posts made by some dude in the Australian Budget thread made me feel like typing out FUCK OFF YOU CUNT in response to his awful "Liberals have ECONOMIC POLICIES, Labor only has SOCIALIST POLICIES so I will pick the better option" response to why he supports the budget. Its no surprise that works at an engineering contracting firm.

Spoiler

I'm an engineer

 

[Jintor]

you're a squirrel

 

[Tommy DJ]

Spoiler

I'm an engineer

Spoiler

I'm an engineer too. Sorry if I've offended you but some disciplines attract some really, really reprehensible people.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Spoiler

I'm an engineer too. Sorry if I've offended you but some disciplines attract some really, really reprehensible people.

I agree. I just thought it'd be funny to feign offence.

I think it's more that a certain type of person seems to assume all their achievements are entirely their own doing. It leads to some dark places, politically.

 

[Yagharek]

Crosspost from the budget thread:

Man, this really is the budget that just keeps on giving:

Didnt they already learn a lesson from the current royal commission that religion in schools cannot be trusted? Unqualified, untrained people whose entire philosophy is built on authoritarian principles and unquestioning brainlessness do not belong in schools.

 

[Jintor]

Budget reply on now. http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/

Shorten definitely underlying the 'you are a fucking liar and your pants are on fire' angle.