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[Candescence]

Well, moving away from that topic for a bit...

Pope has done it again, on top of creating a tribute to the late Alan Rickman (RIP, God bless his soul):

 

[wonzo]

Immigration spends more than Defence on medals for its staff

The Department of Immigration is spending more than $1.3 million on medals for its staff, outspending the Department of Defence and prompting new concerns about the militarisation of the portfolio.

Government tender documents show the department has signed a contract worth $1,320,000 over three years with Melbourne-based company Cash's Awards and Promotion Solutions for medals.

The $440,000 a year contract was signed after an open tender process but appears more expensive than many of the comparable contracts available on the AusTender website.

For example, the department's previous six-month medal contract – with the Royal Australian Mint – cost just $48,000.

Immigration appears to be spending more than the Department of Defence, which spent about $300,000 on medals, spread over eight contracts, in 2015.

 

[wonzo]

Morrison backs company tax cut, GST hike

Treasurer Scott Morrison has lent his support to a plan to hike and broaden the GST, insisting it would grow the economy.

The plan presented to the prime minister's advisers by the Financial Services Council suggests slashing the company tax rate to 22 cents in the dollar while hiking the GST to 15 per cent, and extending it to fresh food, education and health care.

The $36.8 billion raised could then be returned through income tax cuts for workers and annual payments to the vulnerable, such as pensioners.

Mr Morrison says the plan demonstrates that 'you can change the tax mix and grow the economy'.

losing my election

 

[Fredescu]

Mr Morrison says the plan demonstrates that 'you can change the tax mix and grow the economy'.

This is interesting logic. The fact that I think my plan will work is proof that it will work.

 

[bobnowhere]

The race to the bottom for the corporate dollar continues happily alongside the continued socialisation of private cost. That went well for places like Ireland...

Immigration spends more than Defence on medals for its staff

• One weeks long service
• Two weeks long service
• Three weeks long service
• Didn't mention the shape of Dutton's Head in a meeting
• Kept Racial profiling at an acceptable minimum
• Bribed a People Smuggler
• Four Weeks long service
• Turned and walked away from (Insert gross violation of human decency here)
• ...

 

[Dryk]

this threads dead but lmao

It's just not the same when everyone agrees

 

[Shaneus]

So, first we had this:
Steve Price and Andrew Bolt a ratings disaster for 3AW's evenings audience.

But now, we get to bathe in the glory of this news as well:
Andrew Bolt's Channel Ten show The Bolt Report reportedly cancelled by network.

Joy!

 

[Elaugaufein]

Just as a reminder: I'll be reaching out to Crikey on Thursday so if you're interested I'd like to know by midnight Wednesday (AEST). Send me a PM with your email and details of any remaining crikey time you may have.

It's fine if you can't have the money up front, just let me know when you can get it.

At the current time I've got myself, +2 PMs, +2 interested in this thread who haven't PMed me yet. Which means the likely prices are still as I outlined earlier.

So, first we had this:
Steve Price and Andrew Bolt a ratings disaster for 3AW's evenings audience.

But now, we get to bathe in the glory of this news as well:
Andrew Bolt's Channel Ten show The Bolt Report reportedly cancelled by network.

Joy!

According to Crikey, the Bolt thing is more likely a format change / rebrand than a knifing. Bolt's talking about doing more TV (and twisting the knife he's had lodged in Turnbulll's spleen since the coup a little more).

 

[Elaugaufein]

It's just not the same when everyone agrees

I could try playing militant Green which I think should get me at least one person to argue with if I set the bar for how much Labor sucks relatively high (Saying something mean about Albanese or Plibersek or Wong maybe ?) .

 

[wonzo]

albo is bad

So, first we had this:
Steve Price and Andrew Bolt a ratings disaster for 3AW's evenings audience.

But now, we get to bathe in the glory of this news as well:
Andrew Bolt's Channel Ten show The Bolt Report reportedly cancelled by network.

Joy!

 

[Fredescu]

It's just not the same when everyone agrees

Everyone agreed that Abbott was a tool too. It was really having a very unpopular slogan wielding conservative in power that got our blood pumping. Now we have a popular wordy moderate in power more effort is required on our part to stoke the outrage. Basically Abbott is a headline and Turnbull is the full article. Heated debates tend to happen around the headline, and once the "read the full article" killjoys get in, the passion dies down and people get boring and academic. I think you need a bit of drama and inaccuracy for people to care. Abbott was probably good for the left in that regard, but if he stayed we might have Prime Minister Shorten which would probably be good for the right in the same way.

 

[wonzo]

hot take: turnbull appeals to the "socially progressive" types that love gay marriage and don't give a shit about the poor, a soft white liberalism aka scorned wet liberals turned new labor/yuppie greenie

 

[Elaugaufein]

hot take: turnbull appeals to the "socially progressive" types that love gay marriage and don't give a shit about the poor, a soft white liberalism aka scorned wet liberals turned new labor/yuppie greenie

Don't think anyone has ever contested this , apart from some minor bickering about what groups fall into the socially progressive category. Turnbull seems far more popular with feminists as well for example. He's also better on the environment than Abbott (though still a long way from stellar). Admittedly it'd be hard to be worse than Abbott on either of those two things.

Hell Turnbull's support was often stronger outside his party than in it while Abbott was PM he didn't manage to knife Abbott because he was liked but because Abbott's poll numbers were in a ditch and there was a persistent rumor that he was dumb enough to go to an election soon on those numbers.

 

[Fredescu]

Hell Turnbull's support was often stronger outside his party than in it while Abbott was PM.

Is it cliche/stupid to say it's kind of Rudd like that he's popular with the people but his support within the party is shaky? Wonder if that reflects worse on the parties or on the people.

 

[Elaugaufein]

Is it cliche/stupid to say it's kind of Rudd like that he's popular with the people but his support within the party is shaky? Wonder if that reflects worse on the parties or on the people.

I don't think so exactly. Rudd was shaky despite the fact he was from the dominant faction of his party. Turnbull was shaky because his faction was weak and they seem to be using him being a rather popular PM to marshal their strength, it'll be interesting to se how those primaries go down, if they manage a good show, Turnbull's support will increase whereas there wasn't much Rudd could do to increase his internal support.

 

[Fredescu]

I could be wrong, I thought I'd read that Rudd didn't have particularly strong ties with any faction, which is why it was so quick to shift under him. Turnbull is probably a little different in that regard.

 

[Elaugaufein]

I could be wrong, I thought I'd read that Rudd didn't have particularly strong ties with any faction, which is why it was so quick to shift under him. Turnbull is probably a little different in that regard.

This wouldn't surprise me at all. Gillard had fairly weak tiers to her faction as well. And I doubt either group would have accepted a situation where one of the (deputy)-leader was strongly aligned and the other wasn't.

 

[wonzo]

good read in todays the monthly email thing

 

[Arksy]

This whole saga is part of the main reasons I'm against public broadcasters to begin with. No broadcaster should be scared of revealing that kind of information and this ridiculous gag is a pretty gross stain on the network. It's difficult to imagine the same thing occuring on other networks..who'd usually jump at the chance to piss someone off to make a good story.

What I'd do is create a psychic nexus that glows red whenever the ABC directly annoys or hampers someone in political office and tie legislation to it so that the brighter the shade of red the more money the ABC gets.

 

[Elaugaufein]

This whole saga is part of the main reasons I'm against public broadcasters to begin with. No broadcaster should be scared of revealing that kind of information and this ridiculous gag is a pretty gross stain on the network. It's difficult to imagine the same thing occuring on other networks..who'd usually jump at the chance to piss someone off to make a good story.

What I'd do is create a psychic nexus that glows red whenever the ABC directly annoys or hampers someone in political office and tie legislation to it so that the brighter the shade of red the more money the ABC gets.

You realize they could just run footage from gay marriages from across the world 24/7 and Abetz alone would get them infinie funding right?

 

[Fredescu]

Public broadcasters obviously have their faults, but it's almost a fault inherent to democracy. Legislation is needed to shield them from political pressure, but who is going to vote to tie their own noose?

It's difficult to imagine the same thing occuring on other networks..who'd usually jump at the chance to piss someone off to make a good story.

The notion that the privately owned networks are on the cutting edge of political journalism is bizarre. Even more bizarre if you're referring to the NBN which is essentially a competitor to the assets of media empires.

 

[Elaugaufein]

Public broadcasters obviously have their faults, but it's almost a fault inherent to democracy. Legislation is needed to shield them from political pressure, but who is going to vote to tie their own noose?



The notion that the privately owned networks are on the cutting edge of political journalism is bizarre. Even more bizarre if you're referring to the NBN which is essentially a competitor to the assets of media empires.

To wit: NewsCorp journos went to bat for the ABC over this. Which is generally not a statement you expect to hear.

 

[Dryk]

This whole saga is part of the main reasons I'm against public broadcasters to begin with. No broadcaster should be scared of revealing that kind of information and this ridiculous gag is a pretty gross stain on the network. It's difficult to imagine the same thing occuring on other networks..who'd usually jump at the chance to piss someone off to make a good story.

Let's be far, none of the public broadcasters gave enough of a shit about the coalition's NBN plans to talk about them in the first place. The ABC has failed horribly here but as a whole the organisation did try to do the right thing for a little while before massively walking it back.

 

[Jintor]

This whole saga is part of the main reasons I'm against public broadcasters to begin with. No broadcaster should be scared of revealing that kind of information and this ridiculous gag is a pretty gross stain on the network. It's difficult to imagine the same thing occuring on other networks..who'd usually jump at the chance to piss someone off to make a good story.

What I'd do is create a psychic nexus that glows red whenever the ABC directly annoys or hampers someone in political office and tie legislation to it so that the brighter the shade of red the more money the ABC gets.

I don't mind the psychic nexus idea, we'll throw some CSIRO funding at... oh

Surely this should make you want a stronger public broadcaster rather than saying "well let's let the corporations all report the news instead"...

 

[Arksy]

I don't mind the psychic nexus idea, we'll throw some CSIRO funding at... oh

Surely this should make you want a stronger public broadcaster rather than saying "well let's let the corporations all report the news instead"...

How? The only way I can see that happening is making it independent...and I can't think of a way to do that aside from privatising it.

 

[Fredescu]

Privatising it doesn't necessarily make it independent, it just makes it beholden to a different group of people. We already have media beholden to that group of people, we don't need more.

 

[Jintor]

How? The only way I can see that happening is making it independent...and I can't think of a way to do that aside from privatising it.

When you privatise you just concentrate the reins into stockholders (profit) or an individual (murdoch et al).

Obviously nobody wants a china-esque state media arm but I sure as fuck don't trust the markets as an alternative lest we all be buried in clickbait alarmism for the rest of time.

also it's pretty funny arksy posts one thing and gets immediately dogpiled

 

[Fredescu]

As dogpiles go, this is a pretty mild one. More like a puppypile. Which sounds kinda cool.

 

[Candescence]

The main problem is the government of the day having the power to strip funding from a public broadcaster who doesn't report "objectively" (aka slanted towards the government). This is more of a problem involving the Coalition, of course, because they hate the ABC ideologically and also because they think the ABC has a leftist slant even though that's really not true. The ABC was especially sensitive about the NBN because the MTM nonsense is Turnbull's thing (especially since he ended up as Communications Minister, and now he's the PM) and he goes on the attack against anyone who dares criticise it.

 

[Dryk]

As dogpiles go, this is a pretty mild one. More like a puppypile. Which sounds kinda cool.

Puppy is probably more accurate since we're swarming around him looking for pets like a puppy whose master has just come home from a work trip.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Enshrine a minimum funding floor for the public broadcasters based on a multiple of the average MP's salary. See who's willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.

 

[Elaugaufein]

Enshrine a minimum funding floor for the public broadcasters based on a multiple of the average MP's salary. See who's willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.

But they can revoke such a thing with a 50% vote unless you enshrine it in the Constitution. And good luck with that.

 

[wonzo]

https://vimeo.com/152158702

 

[Fredescu]

Puppy is probably more accurate since we're swarming around him looking for pets like a puppy whose master has just come home from a work trip.

So true.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

GOAT

Spoiler

ee

Bowen on 7:30. He's come from a parallel universe where Labor are competent politicians.

But they can revoke such a thing with a 50% vote unless you enshrine it in the Constitution. And good luck with that.

Who needs luck when you've got the public trust that the ABC has and the public hate that politicians pay rises have? They wouldn't dare revoke it because a referendum would be a shoe-in.

 

[wonzo]

imagen a world without bill

 

[bobnowhere]

I think people were imagining a world without Bill, he did go missing for a month. Now he's back more concerned with Lettuces than important stuff.

I want to like Bowen more, he clearly wants to be Keating but he lacks the wit and social conscience. So he's a model member of the NSW right.

 

[Elaugaufein]

imagen a world without bill

I'm trying to work out why Australians would prefer Trump to Sanders by that margin.

Clinton is an easy one since she could basically belong to the centre side of either of our parties, as well as being well known . And Cruz is a slightly different (less compassionate, more extreme) variant on a well known archtype.

 

[Jintor]

I'm trying to work out why Australians would prefer Trump to Sanders by that margin.

entertainment value

 

[danm999]

I'm gonna chock that up to most people not having heard of Sanders.

Otherwise;

To be honest the 2PP is closer than I expected. I really thought no one was paying attention to the bad Christmas break the Coalition had.

 

[wonzo]

 

[Elaugaufein]

I did a poll of Bill Shorten and found 1000% support for this plan.

 

[wonzo]

I did a poll of Bill Shorten and found 1000% support for this plan.

"lettuce, onion stocks up on rumour of bill shortens election chances skyrocketing"

 

[Yagharek]

Serves queenslanders right for voting for Clive palmer. Now they have to pay to clean up the dumbfucks mine.

 

[wonzo]

lmao

 

[bobnowhere]

lmao

Full One World Order nutter.

But there totally aren't any factions in the Liberal Party, aye Malcom?

I'm gonna chock that up to most people not having heard of Sanders.

Pretty much, people know Clinton and Trump but I doubt anyone outside of hardcore political followers would have heard of Sanders. Bit surprised Trump is so low, people still love Abbott, I imagine Trump is right up their alley.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

lmao

"Fiona Scott was only elected due to the hard work and support of Tony Abbott," he writes.

"His many campaign visits to Lindsay along with his 'sex appeal comment' got Fiona just over the line, only to have her stab him in the back for his hard work and party loyalty."

Ahahahahahahaha. Gross.

 

[bobnowhere]

Telstra says Govt policy forcing it to deploy brand new copper instead of fibre

Beep, beep, the 1950's, here we come!

Government Funding back on the Table for the SA Holden Plant - Chris Pyne

Wow, the private polling vs. Xenophon's candidate must still be pretty bad in Pyne's seat even with Malcolm as PM.

 

[Rubixcuba]

I cannot believe how badly the NBN has been managed and carried out. I remember being so excited back in school when Rudd announced fiber internet stuffs, sounded like space age future. 9 years later and it's still the same sluggish speed.

 

[danm999]

"Fiona Scott was only elected due to the hard work and support of Tony Abbott," he writes.

"His many campaign visits to Lindsay along with his 'sex appeal comment' got Fiona just over the line, only to have her stab him in the back for his hard work and party loyalty."

Ahahahahahahaha. Gross.

Oh god.