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Aussies LXV - what choices have we?!


sh_wulff

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3 hours ago, Paxter said:

With a couple of notable exceptions (the welfare reforms, the uni fee changes), this easily could have been an ALP budget in the end.

A minor victory (although I do feel sorry for the children affected):

 

I pretty much completely disagree. The welfare changes, the health account linking etc are the story of this budget and they are fucking awful. I don't care if they flip flop on their previous budget crisis bs when they're setting up mechanisms to destroy previously held notions of privacy in this country.

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7 minutes ago, karaddin said:

I pretty much completely disagree. The welfare changes, the health account linking etc are the story of this budget and they are fucking awful. I don't care if they flip flop on their previous budget crisis bs when they're setting up mechanisms to destroy previously held notions of privacy in this country.

I did say that the welfare changes were a notable exception (and wasn't intending to downplay them!) Other aspects like the bank tax, clamping down on foreign workers and investors, (minor) housing affordability changes and infrastructure spending are more Wayne Swan than Peter Costello. And I'd be surprised if the ALP didn't support a lot of those measures in the Senate.

ETA: It will be interesting to see if Labor gets on board with the increase in the Medicare levy. I personally loathe this decision.

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I'm just saying I think the awful that is in those welfare changes etc dwarfs any "well that's not too bad, or even ok" in the rest. And the bullshit "fixes" for housing affordability are a joke at beast, and detrimental more likely.

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8 minutes ago, karaddin said:

I'm just saying I think the awful that is in those welfare changes etc dwarfs any "well that's not too bad, or even ok" in the rest. And the bullshit "fixes" for housing affordability are a joke at beast, and detrimental more likely.

Yeah that's fair enough. I couldn't agree more on the housing affordability reforms (which Chris Bowen correctly referred to as a 'sick joke'). And the welfare reforms, while relatively narrow in initial scope, are an ominous signal for the future, reminiscent perhaps of the 2014 co-payment proposal.

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  • 1 month later...

The Commonwealth has settled a class action brought by asylum seekers detained on Manus Island for $70m.

ETA: There are some conflicting reports on this so maybe that's not the right figure. The Guardian says:

Quote

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed nor finally agreed upon by a judge. But Guardian Australia understands that the compensation will be more than $100m, which would mean each claimant would receive at least $52,000.

 

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Its about time that kind of thing happened although it would have been better had they not been opened in the first place.

I think the contempt of court (or whatever it is) could be interesting with the Victorian sentencing discussion. I see this weeks episode of footpath driving in Melbourne was out on bail as well. Luckily there are now safety crenellations to protect many of the others in Melbourne, who are assumedly out on bail for robbery.

 

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The ministers have withdrawn their comments or something equally as lame.

Rising power prices would be even funnier than idiot pollies, if they weren't related. We should really get rid of another base load power station and go to windmills. I look forward to the day we can only turn on a fan when the wind is blowing and instead of burning coal to keep warm we can go back to burning trees. I saw a plan to pay people to stop using power, luckily those able to afford a livable temperature while watching TV will survive while the rest may be able to get paid for freezing to death or sweltering. That would be a welcome change in summer.

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On 5/10/2017 at 1:00 PM, karaddin said:

I pretty much completely disagree. The welfare changes, the health account linking etc are the story of this budget and they are fucking awful. I don't care if they flip flop on their previous budget crisis bs when they're setting up mechanisms to destroy previously held notions of privacy in this country.

As bad as some of that is, getting Gonski in is huge. That is a significant shift of resources from the rich to the poor. 

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23 minutes ago, ants said:

As bad as some of that is, getting Gonski in is huge. That is a significant shift of resources from the rich to the poor. 

Had to stop for a second to remember what the conversation was about. I'm perfectly happy with Labor agreeing to pass it, and even willing to give the coalition some credit for some progress on that front. I was also very angry at Labor for trying to attack it from the Catholic Schools angle. What I'm not OK with is calling it a Labor budget, or in any way implying that the budget as a whole wasn't a large scale attack on many things I think are important.

And while I'm at that, fuck Labor for backing the drug testing of welfare recipients. Its morally wrong, its fiscally irresponsible as it doesn't work, and the systems they're going to use to do it (drug testing our sewerage systems? we're really good with that?) is fucking terrifying. Not to mention I oppose the war on drugs style drug policy whole heartedly, welfare recipient angle aside. I'm not simply being partisan on this, I am scared of a lot of what was in the budget, so I really don't like to see it framed in a way that gives them a complete pass on doing it all.

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On Invalid Date at 3:52 PM, Squab said:

The ministers have withdrawn their comments or something equally as lame.

Lame and potentially foolhardy. The Supreme Court did not seem to appreciate the expression of 'regret' and the lack of an apology.

An interesting week on environment/energy and education ahead, with both the party room and Labor posing problems for the PM. Turnbull is trying to lay to rest his climate policy demons, but I think he will be foiled by the lack of cooperation both inside and outside his party.

Meanwhile it looks like the Greens will get on board Gonski 2.0. It's odd that Labor is so unwilling to hand the Coalition a (perceived) victory that Birmingham is having to court Di Natale and co, who you'd think would be even less happy with a compromise than the ALP.

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Well, the Greens vote probably won't matter now, as the Libs have managed to get the cross-benchers on board. So we finally have a needs-based federal funding model for education (albeit less generous than what Gillard had in mind).

ETA: It's weird how this all played out, with Labor refusing to compromise after Turnbull moved the Coalition towards the centre, but the Greens being prepared to negotiate. All for nothing as Lambie, Pauline and co. sided with Birmingham in the end.

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1 hour ago, Paxter said:

ETA: It's weird how this all played out, with Labor refusing to compromise after Turnbull moved the Coalition towards the centre, but the Greens being prepared to negotiate. All for nothing as Lambie, Pauline and co. sided with Birmingham in the end.

The Greens under Di Natale seem far more willing to compromise to get an okay deal across the line, rather than hold out for a perfect piece of legislation, or try to just get ideological point scoring in. I much prefer them to the Greens who refused to back an increase in the petrol excise under Milne.

As an aside, that the Government (well, their backbench) is comfortable cutting a deal with One Nation, but shies from even the possibility of a deal with the Greens does not bode well. When did those corrupt, incompetent, xenophobic nutbags become normalized?
 

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1 hour ago, Impmk2 said:

As an aside, that the Government (well, their backbench) is comfortable cutting a deal with One Nation, but shies from even the possibility of a deal with the Greens does not bode well. When did those corrupt, incompetent, xenophobic nutbags become normalized?

I think they prefer One Nation as the Greens often demand (lefty) concessions in return for supporting Coalition legislation. Those concessions are usually too much for the Coalition backbenchers to stomach. Pauline's price is often lower as she likes to be seen as advancing, rather than blocking, the Government's agenda.

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7 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Eid Mubarak infidels.

How fucking good is coffee in the morning, hey?

I'm not down for the fasting, but I'd so be down for the feasting at the end.

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Confirmation from the (apparently still credible) census that 'no religion' has overtaken all of the main religious denominations for the first time. Catholicism is now in second place with about one quarter of the population identifying. And the trend line for the RCs is not great - they recorded their biggest percentage drop in the last 50 years.

The Christian denominations when viewed as a whole still come in at about 50% of the population.

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25 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Where did you get 'apparently still credible' from? Has there been third party statisticians saying that or just the ABS?

An independent panel has confirmed that the census is "fit for purpose", so it's not just the ABS. Clearly there are concerns about reliability given privacy issues and the website disaster, but personally I'm not inclined to completely discount the findings.

The (revised) response rate was 95.1%, which exceeds the "minimum required response rate" of 93.3%.

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1 hour ago, Paxter said:

An independent panel has confirmed that the census is "fit for purpose", so it's not just the ABS. Clearly there are concerns about reliability given privacy issues and the website disaster, but personally I'm not inclined to completely discount the findings.

The (revised) response rate was 95.1%, which exceeds the "minimum required response rate" of 93.3%.

Hmm interesting. I'd not gone looking for anything yet so wasn't sure. Did they address concerns of false reporting due to lack of trust in the census, or just the screw ups in the actual taking of the census?

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