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AusPoliGAF |OT| Boats? What Boats?

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W

wonzo

Banned
CNyE002UcAAZ4Eo.jpg:large
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
Interest rate decision coming up.

You just know Joe has three speeches on his desk:
  • Rates Go Up: I'm a genius treasurer and rates going up show this, also labor bad.
  • Rates Stay the Same: I'm a genius treasurer and rates staying steady show this, also labor bad.
  • Rates Go Down: I'm a genius treasurer and rates going down show this, also labor bad.
 
D

danm999

Member
You know it's hard up when the announcement of the axing of a tax that doesn't exist yet is overshadowed by your Immigration MP picking a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
 
J

Jintor

Member
Which is more likely, ignorance of own hypocrisy, recognition but resolution to yell about bias anyway, or just being so dumb bile spills out of their mouth of its own accord?
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
danm999 said:
You know it's hard up when the announcement of the axing of a tax that doesn't exist yet is overshadowed by your Immigration MP picking a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
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Yeah that was pretty pathetic. A tax that was, if I remember right, proposed by the IMF and was only really opposed by the big four because profit and was used to provide a safety net just in case. Desperate attempt to divert attention.

Surprised they didn't come up with a National Security announcable. 50 Million for a crackdown on "People Who Look Funny at Other People" in the street? Could have been a 12-flagger.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Arksy said:
You're getting no argument from me on the first point. That also needs a royal fucking commission like right now.
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Oh, I wasn't arguing with anyone (least of all you)... just pointing out the flaw in their doggedness to attack unions yet let other things slip by. It's frustrating that they have no idea how to prioritise in terms of importance, just public visibility (and attacking/attempting to demean the opposition).
 
Y

Yagharek

Member
Who could possibly have guessed that an opposition that threw a tantrum from 2010's hung parliament until the 2013 election would make for a lousy government.
 
A

Arksy

Member
Shaneus said:
Oh, I wasn't arguing with anyone (least of all you)... just pointing out the flaw in their doggedness to attack unions yet let other things slip by. It's frustrating that they have no idea how to prioritise in terms of importance, just public visibility (and attacking/attempting to demean the opposition).
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It's definitely a worthy criticism. Fucking do these idiots not understand anything? A Burkean conservative is meant to understand that all power corrupts, so we've built the system with as many checks and balances as possible in order to prevent abuses of power. One of those checks is a little thing called transparency and it's so fucking fundamental that it belies belief that they try to cover everything up. Power corrupts even the best people, which is the point of the system. To reduce the excesses of corruption by being able to hold people to account.
 
D

Dead Man

Member
Arksy said:
It's definitely a worthy criticism. Fucking do these idiots not understand anything? A Burkean conservative is meant to understand that all power corrupts, so we've built the system with as many checks and balances as possible in order to prevent abuses of power. One of those checks is a little thing called transparency and it's so fucking fundamental that it belies belief that they try to cover everything up. Power corrupts even the best people, which is the point of the system. To reduce the excesses of corruption by being able to hold people to account.
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Here's a tip, and I mean this with all sincerity. No politician alive who is conservative also believes in transparency. I'm not trying to be funny, I just believe they do not exist. Not these days, anyway.

They use the language of small government to rope in people like yourself who are genuinely motivated by concern for their fellow citizens, and just use it to run power grabs.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
So just read another Rundle piece. I really don't know what to make of him. His writing flows well and seems very conversational and is funny but I don't think I've ever gotten to the end of one of his articles without thinking it should have ended at least 4 paragraphs ago. And yet I can't pinpoint where it becomes bad.
 
D

danm999

Member
Piracy notification scheme was scheduled to start today. It's delayed indefinitely because ISPs and rights holders can't agree on costs. ISPs reckon it'll cost $27 for them to process a claim, while rights holders are saying they'll only subsidise that $3.

http://m.smh.com.au/digital-life/di...cy-notice-scheme-delayed-20150901-gjcajf.html

For all the shit Dutton is getting its not like Turnbull's portfolio seems much better off at the moment between this and the NBN cost explosion. I guess it helps he can stand in front of a camera without imploding like a dying sun.
 
D

Dryk

Member
Dead Man said:
Here's a tip, and I mean this with all sincerity. No politician alive who is conservative also believes in transparency. I'm not trying to be funny, I just believe they do not exist. Not these days, anyway.
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That is not to say that that doesn't also happen on the left. Just that there's at least one or two people over there that do actually care
 
Y

Yagharek

Member
Dryk said:
That is not to say that that doesn't also happen on the left. Just that there's at least one or two people over there that do actually care
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Although I admit to skirting close to a "no true Scottsman", I'm not all that convinced there are actually all that many actual left wing politicians in state or federal elected office in this country.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
Yagharek said:
Although I admit to skirting close to a "no true Scottsman", I'm not all that convinced there are actually all that many actual left wing politicians in state or federal elected office in this country.
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Kind of depends how you define left-wing. I mean by the current standards of the US a chunk of the Liberal Party are left-wing. Whereas by European standards , the Australian Greens are ~Centre-Left.
 
A

Arksy

Member
Yagharek said:
Although I admit to skirting close to a "no true Scottsman", I'm not all that convinced there are actually all that many actual left wing politicians in state or federal elected office in this country.
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Well that's if you define anyone who doesn't believe what you do to be something else entirely, which is something that we all do....I'm definitely guilty of it myself.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
Everyone's second favourite priest is at it again.

CM1IQylUwAAg-4V.jpg:large
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The boss of Transfield who are taking over from Save the Children is freaking out over someone actually exposing them and the government so conveniently in their pocket and wants a meeting.

Also apparently, lol, the ALP, lol, is now being accused of running dead, lol, in the Canning bi-election to keep Abbott in power, lol, and the coalition is so confused in how to spin it they are complaining, double lol. So the ALP don't want to win, the majority of the federal coalition don't want to win so they have a nice excuse to dump Abbott, it looks like only Abbott/Hockey and the SAS officer actually want it.

Edit: 0.2% GDP in April-June quarter, can't help but think the drop in the dollar and stagnant wage growth saved them. I'm sure Hockey will pop up at some point claiming to be a genius.
 
F

Fredescu

Member
Tales of Australian political leadership:

#1 Lowest nominal GDP figures since the 60s, and Hockey says "Our economic plan is working"

#2 Bill Shorten roundly condemned Subway in a statement intended to be about 7Eleven.
 
F

Fredescu

Member
Since we were talking about Rundle, he wrote a pretty good "worst government ever" article that is worth a read: http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/09/02/rundle-worst-australian-government-ever-proven-by-science/

It's probably paywalled, and I initially pasted the whole thing, but I felt bad about it. Here's what he says about McMahon who is probably generally considered worst:

The McMahon government 1970-72: the Golden Turd of bad Australian governments for decades. Billy McMahon, a bald hobbit-like creature, became PM after months of infighting, deposing the rather dashing but erratic John Gorton. Every PM in the above list has their defenders; McMahon has none. He was a terrible speaker who fancied himself a sage (“The world has suddenly grown small as it spins furiously down the ringing grooves of change” ), he was flayed alive by Whitlam at the dispatch box, hung out to dry by the Country Party’s insistence on maintaining vastly inefficient protection, and blindsided by the Nixon administration’s recognition of Red China, which McMahon had denounced — as a Labor policy — a week before Nixon popped up on the Great Wall.

But here’s the rub. Much of McMahon’s terrible reputation turns on his comical appearance and the disappointment felt by a rising class of boomers that Whitlam had been defeated in the 1969 election. McMahon would lose in part, in 1972, because many otherwise right-wing people couldn’t bear to see him on the world stage. But looking back over the record, well — he wasn’t terrible. He had to keep together a modernising Liberal party, an archaic Country Party, and appease the lunatic DLP. Four decisions stand out as key: against the wishes of the Country Party, he re-established Aboriginal affairs as a department and process (Holt had established it; Gorton, famed to history as liberal, but remembered by many contemporaries as a racist, had shut it down); he cancelled Gorton’s development of an Australian nuclear industry (including fast-breeder plutonium reactors), as contrary to anti-proliferation treaties; against the DLP, he permitted Don Chipp to continue loosening onerous censorship laws; and he withdrew all Australian troops from combat roles in Vietnam. And he held Labor to a 12-seat victory in 1972, hardly a landslide. Behind the scenes, much was chaotic and conspiratorial, the budget process was flawed (because of rife contradiction within the right, not cackhandedness), and he was a pompous and foolish man. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve the bronze or silver, but, well, when you look back at the month-by-month of the McMahon government compared to this mob, you really wonder what all the calumny was about.
Click to expand...
 
R

r1chard

Member
Buried in this Canning article:

Labor strategists concede the government's unpopularity, and that of the Prime Minister in particular, provide the opposition's best hopes for victory in 2016.
Click to expand...
Seriously? That's your best hope?? At which point do these "strategists" perhaps start thinking of a more reliable approach to winning, like perhaps having a viable fucking candidate?
 
R

Rubixcuba

Banned
Fredescu said:
This is me cheering on a conservative. That's how bad politics is.
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Isn't Windsor fairly progressive or am I getting my independents mixed up? Would be amazing if Joyce lost though.

The Bill Shorten zinger is equal hilarious and depressing.

Whats AusGaf's thoughts on Corbyn anyway?
 
F

Fredescu

Member
Rubixcuba said:
Isn't Windsor fairly progressive or am I getting my independents mixed up? Would be amazing if Joyce lost though.
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He's a self described conservative and pretty much a Nat in terms of farming protectionism, just without the party baggage, and the actual political ability to get elected on his own steam. He's just an example of how bad said party baggage makes people.


Rubixcuba said:
Whats AusGaf's thoughts on Corbyn anyway?
Click to expand...

To The Tune Of Eleanor Rigby:
Jeremy Corbyn
'Wants To Move Britain Entirely Under The Sea',
Warns An MP


I'm not smart enough to have an opinion on Corbyn's ability to lead a party to victory. Some say his views are indicative of growing resentment against the financial elite, and some say that said growing resentment is just the same left wing that's actually shrinking because look at shrinking union membership. If the former were right, you'd have to wonder how the Tory's just got elected then.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
r1chard said:
Buried in this Canning article:


Seriously? That's your best hope?? At which point do these "strategists" perhaps start thinking of a more reliable approach to winning, like perhaps having a viable fucking candidate?
Click to expand...
Jesus fuck. That's why I want Shorten out and *anyone* else in. He's going to get voted out of Parliament as quick as Abbott will be.

Apparently he's been groomed for a PM role, but honestly, I don't fucking see it.
 
R

Rubixcuba

Banned
Arksy said:
Great for the conservatives.
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I admit, I chuckled.

Obviously from a Leftie point of view I'm in agreement with majority of his policies but from what I understand he's been considered as an old school radical leftie in the UK? I do hope he gets the UK Labour party leadership if only for how the Blair section of the party will respond.
 
R

Rubixcuba

Banned
Fredescu said:
I'm not smart enough to have an opinion on Corbyn's ability to lead a party to victory. Some say his views are indicative of growing resentment against the financial elite, and some say that said growing resentment is just the same left wing that's actually shrinking because look at shrinking union membership. If the former were right, you'd have to wonder how the Tory's just got elected then.
Click to expand...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/31/the-jeremy-corbyn-victory-scenario-confrontation-or-cooperation

Was a handy read just now. UK politics, despite my very rough understanding, is always fascinating. Really does seem that the Labour party there could tear apart. Must be difficult to always try and combat that silent Tory thing they have.
 
F

Fredescu

Member
Shaneus said:
So he's maybe a three or four-termer? Remember: this is the Liberal party we're talking here.
Click to expand...

There are a decent handful that can be clear communicators when they need to be. Abbott definitely was in opposition. He's still a clear communicator now, it's just that he's so clueless that what he communicates is completely meaningless. All you have to communicate in opposition is how bad that other mob are. I think Shorten has the political ability to arrive at a good compromise position within the party, something Abbott doesn't have, but Shorten's ability to communicate that position to the public is pretty woeful. He's also bad at thinking on his feet, ie making captains calls, but Abbott is also bad at that, so eh.
 
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