Support NeoGAF

[manipulate]

State labour is a vile pit

Bill Shorten is also simply a crook but he appears to be less of a lizardman than Abbott

 

[mjontrix]

So today I was made redundant, under reasonable (as in, I accept it) terms, entirely due to the Libs restructuring (read: total fucking) of social services. Long story short; amassed frozen accounts and funding for Job Services Providers. There will be waves of redundancies through them, and anybody related to that industry.

THANKS LIBS.

Sorry to hear that.

The solution ironically enough is to figure out which group they're giving the contracts to (I'm guessing it's gonna be privatized) and sign up there I'm guessing...

 

[Dryk]

Job creators!

 

[Jintor]

Adults are in charge now!

 

[bomma_man]

Adults are in charge now!

Maybe this was always code for "it's impossible to get a decent job if you're under 30"

 

[wonzo]

So today I was made redundant, under reasonable (as in, I accept it) terms, entirely due to the Libs restructuring (read: total fucking) of social services. Long story short; amassed frozen accounts and funding for Job Services Providers. There will be waves of redundancies through them, and anybody related to that industry.

THANKS LIBS.

congrats on the liberation

 

[roosters93]

Bill Shorten is also simply a crook

What makes you say that?

 

[bobnowhere]

 

[Shaneus]

Hah, that couldn't be a better three-panel story if it tried.

 

[Dryk]

 

[Shaneus]

What a pack of cunts:
Coalition MPs stage walkout after Bill Shorten raises budget in Closing the Gap speech

Bipartisan consensus on Indigenous policy ruptured on Wednesday when several Coalition MPs walked out on a speech by Labor leader Bill Shorten calling on the government to reverse $500 million in budget cuts.

The presentation of the annual Closing the Gap report to Parliament is usually a time when both sides of politics re-commit themselves to work together to end chronic disadvantage.

But Wednesday's proceedings exposed deep differences between the government and opposition, with Indigenous leaders clapping the speech by Mr Shorten after responding in polite silence to an address by Mr Abbott.

10 Coalition MPs. 10 of the fuckers.

Seeing this:

Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent was first to show his anger by leaving the chamber and later said he believed the partisan comments belittled an occasion that should have been above point-scoring.

"The people of Australia are calling out for leaders who can rise above the fray," he told Fairfax Media.

Reads like the Gamergaters calling out people for being SJWs.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

What a pack of cunts:
Coalition MPs stage walkout after Bill Shorten raises budget in Closing the Gap speech
10 Coalition MPs. 10 of the fuckers.

Seeing this:
Reads like the Gamergaters calling out people for being SJWs.

Good comparison. Much like their (the Coaltion's) attitude towards talking about climate change. "How dare the left politicise this issue when our blind acceptance of the status quo is perfectly apolitical and neutral."

 

[Mr. Tone]

Abbott today in question time:

What do they want now? They want an open tender. Now they don’t understand the difference between an open tender and an evaluation process, a competitive evaluation process.

Do you know about an open tender? Anyone can compete. What the leader of the opposition wants, he wants anyone to be able to compete to provide Australia’s next generation of submarines.

He might want the Russians to compete, Putin subs is what we will get from the leader of the opposition.

We might get North Korean subs. This is what Labor wants.

And later:

Madam Speaker, of course we are exploring the potential for defence cooperation with Japan. Of course we are exploring the potential for defence cooperation with Japan.

Is this another outbreak of xenophobia amongst members opposite? Is this the latest example of the kind of ranting we saw from the leader of the opposition at the ASC ship yard a few months ago?

 

[bobnowhere]

Abbott today in question time:

Oh lordy, that is stupid on a whole new level.

 

[Shaneus]

Abbott today in question time:

Taking some leaps of logic there that'd make anyone blush.

 

[Jintor]

Abbott today in question time:

I feel dumber just for reading that

 

[Jintor]

Like did anybody ever realise that Abbott was apparently spellbound by words to this extent? Did anyone ever know that he was actually in reality a robot that you had to set very strict parameters for otherwise he would somehow determine that "Minister for Defence" actually meant "Minister for Defence of ISIS" or "Minister for Defence of This Small Blue Ball"? Maybe we could have avoided this whole rort if they had just programmed him better.

 

[Shaneus]

This is the "new" government. The one that promised to pull its socks up since the near-miss spill.

I know, right?

 

[D.Lo]

Abbott today in question time:


And later:

Parliament, where you can accuse someone of being in cahoots with North Korea (even if just in a hyperbolic sense) based on nothing and with impunity.

Maybe he should just say 'Labor are Nazis' as an answer to every questions?

Also, Russa =/ North Korea WTF. A slightly recalcitrant superpower vs rogue state.

 

[Jintor]

ADULTS ARE IN CHARGE, NOTHING TO SEE HERE

 

[Jintor]

Also apparently you can't say "Cuts to social services mean that the gap for indigenous australians is widening" without being partisan but it's a great fucking idea to spruik the carbon tax when commemorating d-day, remember that?

 

[Dryk]

Parliament, where you can accuse someone of being in cahoots with North Korea (even if just in a hyperbolic sense) based on nothing and with impunity

I think the fact that he goes on to accuse them of xenophobia just seals the deal

 

[Jintor]

I can't get over how fucking stupid Abbott's comments are. Like, a fucking open tender doesn't mean you have to take the lowest bidder or something, right, he knows this, right? Like, since it's a fucking open tender, maybe I'LL bid for the rights to make subs, and get this, it will cost ELEVENTY BILLION NEGADOLLARS and i'll throw in some free breath mints cos we're all mates here. Now since that's the best deal you're going to get you have to take it. Boom. Also I was secretly North Korea the entire time.

That's the fucking level of barely comprehensible nonsense the fucking prime minister of our fucking country was just spewing. Strewth.

 

[Quasar]

Some good news it seems.

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...fugee-from-pakistan-unlawful-high-court-finds

The high court has ordered the immigration minister to grant a Pakistani asylum seeker a permanent protection visa after three years in immigration detention and sustained government efforts to refuse him.

The high court unanimously ruled that former immigration minister Scott Morrison’s decision to refuse the man a visa was unlawful.

The minister denied the visa simply because the man arrived by boat. The immigration department had found he had a genuine fear of persecution and Australia was legally obliged to protect him.

 

[Myansie]

What a pack of cunts:
Coalition MPs stage walkout after Bill Shorten raises budget in Closing the Gap speech

10 Coalition MPs. 10 of the fuckers.

Seeing this:

Reads like the Gamergaters calling out people for being SJWs.

They really don't seem to understand how the media works. By walking out they have generated headlines highlighting the half a billion in cuts to indigenous support alongside Abbott saying the lack of progress is "profoundly disturbing". The whole bipartisan thing is for their benefit. No one out here in the real world cares.

 

[wonzo]

 

[bobnowhere]

It does show Tony's DLP roots, Reds under the Beds!

 

[Elaugaufein]

It does show Tony's DLP roots, Reds under the Beds!

You might be interested in today's Crikey then, one of the letters is from someone claiming the DLP as the party of the poor and disenfranchised. While also saying how Christian they are (but not in a way that could clash with freedom of religion or anything). Maybe they really are 1950's time travellers pleading for relevance.

 

[Myansie]

A great article from the Guardian showing the near perfect negative correlation between public and private debt. The graph is particularly on point and completely destroys the kitchen table analogy.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/11/a-sustainable-budget-surplus-is-beyond-the-governments-control-as-joe-hockey-has-come-to-realise

 

[wonzo]

LOL

 

[Elaugaufein]

Its almost like they think the Senate is elected for lulz as opposed to serve some purpose.

 

[Quasar]

I guess this is what they mean by good government.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-...cut-2466-billion-from-higher-educatio/5952452

As Education Minister Christopher Pyne urges cross-bench senators to support the Government's proposed shake up of higher education, he says change is needed because of the actions of the former Labor government.

At his first media conference of 2015, Mr Pyne said: "The reason we have to do this reform of universities is because Labor cut $6.6 billion from universities over the course of their government".

This is not the first time he has used this figure. In December, announcing a new version of the legislation, Mr Pyne also said the former government had cut $6.6 billion from the sector.

The verdict

The budget papers and the Parliamentary Library's budget review show an increase in higher education spending over the life of the previous Labor government. Savings measures announced by Labor did not reduce overall funding to the sector.

Of the $6.6 billion in Mr Pyne's table, $2.3 billion relates to measures that have not been implemented and Labor is now opposing those savings in the Senate.

More than half relates to funding for students, not for universities, as Mr Pyne stated.

What's more, the $6.6 billion takes into account forward estimates for the years to 2016-17, which does not fall into "the course of [Labor's] government", as Mr Pyne said.

He is incorrect.

 

[hidys]

I suspect he will be gone in the coming weeks.

 

[roosters93]

Abbott today in question time:


And later:

Happened to tune into QT just before this moment, was wtf'ing at it
BILL WANTS PUTIN SUBS! HE WANTS THE KIM JONG IL SUB!

jesus christ

A great article from the Guardian showing the near perfect negative correlation between public and private debt. The graph is particularly on point and completely destroys the kitchen table analogy.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/11/a-sustainable-budget-surplus-is-beyond-the-governments-control-as-joe-hockey-has-come-to-realise

That guy has written some good articles

It reminds me of someone saying back in the day, that the successive Howard Gov't surpluses could have caused a little economic fuckup in just Aus so the timing of the GFC was somewhat fortuitous.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

A great article from the Guardian showing the near perfect negative correlation between public and private debt. The graph is particularly on point and completely destroys the kitchen table analogy.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/11/a-sustainable-budget-surplus-is-beyond-the-governments-control-as-joe-hockey-has-come-to-realise

Understanding the graph requires a level of financial literacy the average citizen simply doesn't possess. It gets into monetary policy and delves into abstract issues that are hard to put into concrete terms.

For instance, why would there being less money around make people take out loans? The answer is hard to phrase in a ten second sound bite.

 

[Yagharek]

Stop the bites! Axe the loans! No no no no no. Adults in charge adults in charge adults in charge adults in charge sell my arse

 

[munchie64]

It's good to have Mad as Hell back.

 

[bananabread]

https://www.efa.org.au/2015/02/10/ludlam-data-retention-bill/

Watching Ludlam calmly and coldly destroy these people by asking logical/direct questions is beautiful.

 

[legend166]

nvm

 

[Shaneus]

Abbott Torpedoes Himself

Gold:

On Sunday, May 25, last year Queensland backbencher Wyatt Roy was part of a group of about 30 marginal seat-holders invited to dine privately with the Prime Minister in the cabinet anteroom. Abbott’s practice at these dinners is to go around the room, asking each member to say their piece.

Roy, trying to be helpful, stood at the table to tell the Prime Minister that broken promises were the fundamental cause of the government’s problems. It might be a good idea, Roy suggested, to apologise to people a la Peter Beattie and move on.

Abbott was furious. He rounded on Roy, yelled at him, then directed his remarks to all of them that there were no effing broken promises and no one should concede there had been. The incident stuck in the mind of MPs, first because of Roy’s bravery in broaching it, then because of the Prime Minister’s use of the F-bomb.

Many months later Abbott was forced to concede the bleeding obvious, but only after accusations of lying about lying trashed his credibility. If he had taken the advice of his youngest MP last May, he would have spared himself considerable pain.

And let's not forget this: US think tank asks 'Is Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?'

A leading United States think tank has published a piece posing the question, "Is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?" and answering, quite comprehensively, in the affirmative.

Published on the Council on Foreign Relations website before Mr Abbott survived a spill motion on Monday, the piece argues that he has proven so "shockingly incompetent" that he deserved to lose his job.

"Abbott has proven so incapable of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so poor at communicating that he has to go," wrote the CFR senior fellow Joshua Kurlantzick, a US specialist in south-east Asian politics.

 

[Jintor]

Apparently the children in detention report is "blatantly political"

I mean who knew that something involving the arbitrary detention of minors by a government would be in some way deemed political? How strange. I could never have seen that outcome coming

 

[Shaneus]

Apparently the children in detention report is "blatantly political"

Ahahahahahahaha

 

[Fredescu]

And let's not forget this: US think tank asks 'Is Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?'

Scathing. I thought it would be funny, but honestly it makes me feel a little sad.

 

[Shaneus]

Are you going on that article, or the actual piece by said think tank? Because I haven't read that yet. But of course, the comments were amazing for the article. Leftist propaganda etc.

 

[Fredescu]

Are you going on that article, or the actual piece by said think tank? Because I haven't read that yet. But of course, the comments were amazing for the article. Leftist propaganda etc.

Mostly the actual piece I guess. Here it is in full:

Is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialized democracy? Of course, a leader’s popularity, to some, depends on that leader’s political orientation. Many conservative Republicans think Barack Obama is one of the worst presidents in modern history, while many liberal Spaniards think conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is one of the worst leaders in Spain’s modern history.

But competence and popularity are not necessarily the same things. Even conservative Republicans would admit that Obama has achieved major accomplishments in office – they just do not like those accomplishments at all. And Obama, Rajoy, and other rich world leaders, whatever their problems, usually seem to be making their policy decisions based on advice from a retinue of advisors and after careful consideration of policy options. Even leaders criticized for acting too slowly, and offering uninspired policy ideas, like French President Francois Hollande, appear to be capable of running their countries’ day-to-day policymaking. There are world leaders who appear dangerously unhinged, making policy based on whims, advice from a tiny handful of advisers, or some other highly unscientific formula. Argentina’s president, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, comes to mind, as does Ecuador President Rafael Correa, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, or Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But none of these leaders run a rich and powerful democracy.

Tony Abbott, however, is in charge of a regional power, a country that is the twelfth largest economy in the world and the only rich world nation to have survived the 2008-9 financial crisis unscathed. Yet in less than two years as prime minister, Abbott has proven shockingly incompetent, which is why other leaders within his ruling coalition, following a set of defeats in state elections, may now scheme to unseat him. They should: Abbott has proven so incapable of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so poor at communicating that he has to go.

Abbott’s policies have been all over the map, and the lack of coherence has often made the prime minister seem ill-informed and incapable of understanding complex policy issues. In press conferences, Abbott has offered mixed public messages about some of the health care reforms that were at the center of his agenda, and sometimes has seemed unsure himself of what health legislation has actually been passed on his watch. He also has seemed unsure of what he promised in the past regarding Australia’s major public broadcaster – he promised not to touch it – before he went ahead and made cuts to it. He also looked completely baffled on climate change issues at the G20 summit in Australia last year.

Abbott also does not seem to think it necessary to even discuss policy proposals with his top ministers and other leading members of his conservative coalition. His lack of consultation has made it harder for him to pass some critical legislation. In addition, he appears to have one of the worst senses of public relations of any prime minister in recent Australian history. At major economic summits, he has embarrassed Australia with his coarse rhetoric. He recently decided to give an Australian knighthood to Prince Philip, husband of British Queen Elizabeth II, even though nearly half of Australians would prefer the country to be a republic, and even those who support the monarchy disdain actions that look like Canberra sucking up to the British royals. Australia had not given out its own knighthoods for nearly decades, and even to many monarchists the very idea of Australian knighthoods seemed archaic. And if Abbott was going to give out archaic knighthoods, Prince Philip was a bizarre choice. Even among the conservative supporters of Abbot’s coalition, giving a knighthood to the notoriously gaffe-prone and fusty Prince Philip went down badly. Abbott did not appear to have consulted with most of his top ministers before deciding to give Prince Philip the accolade.

I take no position on whether a left or right coalition can govern Australia better – whether Australia needs a revolt from within the ruling coalition or a national election victory by the left. But a country that for decades has punched above its weight on nearly every international issue surely can do much better for a prime minister than Tony Abbott.

http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2015/02/05/tony-abbott-has-to-go/

 

[wonzo]

Apparently the children in detention report is "blatantly political"

I mean who knew that something involving the arbitrary detention of minors by a government would be in some way deemed political? How strange. I could never have seen that outcome coming

those goddamn leftist babies refusing to learn to walk due to a lack of crawling space

 

[Shaneus]

Mostly the actual piece I guess. Here it is in full:



http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2015/02/05/tony-abbott-has-to-go/

Yeah, I just read it then. The first few startlingly ignorant comments are hilarious, but thankfully knowledgeable and literate commenters have set them straight. And the typical Age/SMH/Australian peanut gallery are thankfully absent.

 

[Myansie]

Straight from Wikipedia on the above think tank...

The CFR promotes globalization, free trade, reducing financial regulations on transnational corporations, and economic consolidation into regional blocs such as NAFTA or the European Union, and develops policy recommendations that reflect these goals.

They're a right wing think tank!


Of all the media that's been produced about the asylum seeker situation, it's the kids drawings that hit home. You can't fake those. The Guardian has been posting a few. It makes it more real than the photos of the kids. The power of the drawings is that raw emotion that only kids can portray.

"I want go out"

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/11/children-in-detention-scathing-criticism-in-human-rights-commission-report

 

[Fredescu]

I don't suppose this could be the moment that turns the public against hardline treatment of asylum seekers? Silver lining to having a terrible leader?

 

[bobnowhere]

Unemployment has taken a big jump as well.

I suppose Good Government™ starts tomorrow now.