Jump to content

Aussie Politics: Please post your response (No stamp needed)


Yukle

Recommended Posts

47 minutes ago, Squab said:

The cause of his disappearance is unknown but the defection to china in a submarine is one of the more amusing parts of Australian political folklore. Usually gets ruined at dinner parties by the guy nobody remembers inviting.

That'd be me then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/5/2018 at 0:12 PM, Squab said:

Yeah sure, whatever you want to believe but while you're at it, tell the Canadians drop bears aren't real.

Actual genuine link to Museum Australia below:

https://australianmuseum.net.au/drop-bear

Sent this to a friend when he immigrated. He asked if it was serious. I never replied to that. ;) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/gittins-column-for-wednesday-20180129-h0qc7y.html

An outstanding assessment of the wage troubles affecting Australia at the moment following the Fair Work Commission's refusal to allow a strike during the only period when strikes are legally protected.

Wage growth is low. So low, it's zero, and has been for four years. This is probably why the federal opposition is starting to hammer class issues, a fight that they can probably win - whether or not it is enough to turn the tide in an election, though, is another matter.

The Labor Party is struggling to hold its unlikely coalition of voters together: the suburban poor, working class conservatives who shun immigration, refugees, marriage equality and the like, and the progressive affluent voters who favour progressive social issues. They're united only by their views on class: that the wealthy and businesses are too privileged at the expense of everyone else.

It's annoying when the Greens only target Labor seats and when the NXT only targets Liberal seats, as, in the end, nothing much changes. Other than parties, the actual balance of power on social issues remains the same. What would be really good is if parties began to play to capture voters outside of their usual spheres. I think this is the basis behind Labor's shift toward class-focused campaign issues: they're aware that "rusted-on" voters are rare, and it's not going to be too hard to convince traditional Liberal/National middle-class voters that their interests aren't actually being met.

The Coalition's scare campaign against unions has started to lose its bite now that it is occurring to most people that their conditions and wages are steadily declining... almost as though the unions were protecting their interests all along.

My prediction is that Labor will push to protect collective bargaining protections. It's a hard sell, especially since it was Hawke who began to dismantle it, but that was in exchange for allowing the passage of Medicare.

Tie-in the revelations that Abbott wanted to stop welfare for young people, make a permanent Medicare payment that all but kills bulk-billing and you have an interesting pitch for government coming from Labor.

Turnbull's response so far has been misguided - just the usual, "Tax cuts for all!" He'll need a bit more than that in his arsenal if Labor (and to a lesser extent the cross-benchers) paint this as a way of reducing spending and siphoning the savings off to the wealthy. He'll also need more than personal attacks on Shorten; I must admit Shorten's ability to survive near-constant character assassinations, court hearings and royal commissions have left him almost entirely unscathed. So many of the accusations were stupid and shrill that all of the genuine concerns fell by the wayside as just more noise meant to discredit any old political foe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it comes down to Shorten not being charismatic. No one is supporting Labor as a vote for Shorten for PM, they're supporting Labor either as anti-Coalition or support for Labor policies. It's what I'm hoping can drag us out of this abyss of presidential style politics that we've found ourselves in. Who cares if Shorten is boring if he's going to get the right job done?

Obviously people that don't support left wing policies won't support him, but they're never who Labor should have been pitching to anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

 It's what I'm hoping can drag us out of this abyss of presidential style politics that we've found ourselves in.

Obviously people that don't support left wing policies won't support him, but they're never who Labor should have been pitching to anyway.

On that first point, I definitely agree. Shorten seems to know that he's utterly lacking in charm, so is excellent at rolling out his shadow cabinet - especially the women - and having them crop up all over Australia at just the right time. It means that he can focus on countering Turnbull's ideas, as having an idea and sticking with it is definitely Turnbull's shortcoming.

On the second point, strangely enough I think that not all of Labor's voters do support their left-wing policies. They do when it comes to welfare, medicare and so on, but not when it comes to refugees or non-straight people. Nonetheless, things like school and hospital affect people day-to-day, whereas recognition of refugees' rights isn't something that crops up in any typical Australian's life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎1‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 8:52 AM, Yukle said:

The Labor Party is struggling to hold its unlikely coalition of voters together: the suburban poor, working class conservatives who shun immigration, refugees, marriage equality and the like, and the progressive affluent voters who favour progressive social issues. They're united only by their views on class: that the wealthy and businesses are too privileged at the expense of everyone else.

Who will win the Batman by-election? Ged or the Greens? I'm guessing Shorten would have to jump to the left to try to hold. Liberal preferences gave it to ALP last election but I understand there wont be a Liberal running this time. I'm guessing Susan Lamb in Qld will cause another by-election where Shorten would have to jump back to the right.

Might be the ALP need to give up the inner cities to the Greens as there is no other party the Greens will align with to hold power and spend their time/money on the working class suburbs and regions. Would mean Batman goes to the Greens giving a greater chance of ALP holding Longman. Might also mean a more formal ALP/Greens alliance like Gillard ran and Tassie did for a long time. Might stand them in better stead come Victorian election later in the year too.

I also see similar issues in the LNP/Coalition trying to pull together economic liberals, conservatives and country nationals. Difference being they don't compete in lower house seats. It tends to come out more in backstabbing and internal issues and every party seems to have that. Another reason to add to the long list of why disillusionment in major parties is climbing. In March there are the Tasmanian and South Australian elections (assuming they can keep the lights on). Might be that Jacqui Lambie and Nick Xenophon actually decide who runs each state.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Squab said:

Who will win the Batman by-election? Ged or the Greens? I'm guessing Shorten would have to jump to the left to try to hold. Liberal preferences gave it to ALP last election but I understand there wont be a Liberal running this time. I'm guessing Susan Lamb in Qld will cause another by-election where Shorten would have to jump back to the right.

The Greens won Northcote in Victoria by dishonestly campaigning on refugees. I absolutely commend the cause - except there is literally nothing that the state government can do about it.

It was especially dishonest since Andrews wrote an open letter to the federal government offering to resettle and provide start-up means for all currently incarcerated refugees at Victoria's own expense. It was rebuffed.

It pissed me off so much that the Greens successfully campaigned on this social issue that the state can't affect and then acted all superior over the current government. The Victorian and Federal Labor parties are so different (as the current friction unfolding proves) and this was a cynical power grab from the Greens that destabilised a government whose policies mostly match their own on a state level.

I'm all for them doing it federally - the Federal ALP is Liberal-lite in many ways - but their determination to be the ones in power more than support the causes already progressing could lead to Victoria switching back to a conservative idealist bunch of shitheads who make "National Pride" compulsory in schools, end the current support for LGTBI+ and so on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Victoria (of all states) put the LNP back in with the current leader openly spewing such vile policies AND openly in bed with organised crime it's really going to be another blow to my faith in the world. I know there has been some internal dysfunction from Labor again but ffs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/2/2018 at 1:16 PM, karaddin said:

If Victoria (of all states) put the LNP back in with the current leader openly spewing such vile policies AND openly in bed with organised crime it's really going to be another blow to my faith in the world. 

It's really hard when, every single day without fail, the Herald Sun publishes an anti-Labor article on its front page. They absolutely hate the Andrews government. Their next bumper sticker campaign can't be far away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And we have generations that will never adjust their mindset to view these supposed newspapers as the pure propaganda that they now are. We're stuck with that particular problem as long as the people that still trust them are alive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, karaddin said:

And we have generations that will never adjust their mindset to view these supposed newspapers as the pure propaganda that they now are. We're stuck with that particular problem as long as the people that still trust them are alive.

And to add to this: a generation who believes what appears in their Facebook feed. :( 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It was refreshing to see Barnaby Joyce getting mocked on Last Week Tonight.

After all of his garbage that marriage equality would ruin the sanctity of marriage...

Poor Joycey. He said he is having a hard time because his daughters aren't speaking to him. Good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Yukle said:

It was refreshing to see Barnaby Joyce getting mocked on Last Week Tonight.

After all of his garbage that marriage equality would ruin the sanctity of marriage...

Poor Joycey. He said he is having a hard time because his daughters aren't speaking to him. Good.

Joyce is just ignoring it. He's a massive hypocrite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apparently there is a procession of tractors heading down the New England highway, over the diesel engines you can just hear the chanting of "love is love" and something about mistresses rights. Rumour is they are on their way to greet Malcolm Turnbull when he gets back. I'm sure he'll sort it all out by giving the much respected and trustworthy Australian press nothing to publish but a factual, unbiased analysis of his meeting with the Donald.

In news from up here, another man with some expertise on the sanctity of marriage has announced a coal miner as the alp candidate for Capricornia declaring labor is not anti-coal. With the Batman by-election less than a month away, Ged must be pleased. I figure he is thinking anyone who leans to the right of about Pol Pot is going to preference alp over the greens, or it might be the alp has polling showing they aren't a hope without Liberals guiding preferences their way. Guess we'll find out the same day Nick Xenophon decides who runs South Australia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Stubby said:

Joyce is just ignoring it. He's a massive hypocrite.

Blergh, it's not like his is the first marriage breakup ever, it's just after all of his garbage about marriage being too pure for those horrible nasty gays to ruin.

Add this to his complete lack of responsibility: he said it was all the fault of politics because he got so little time at home. It's not his fault, of course not, it's the unfortunate side-effect of circumstance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just angry that the media refused to report on the affair while his hypocrisy was relevant, but now its actually come out most of them are ignoring the actual public interest of corruption/misuse of his position/unethical behaviour to focus on the sordid affair they claimed to be above reporting on when it was relevant. If you want to talk about the affair, talk about how he took Campion on a holiday to the vatican (when she wasn't working for him) and charged the public for it. I understand its been quietly paid back, but paying it back when you got caught doesn't make it OK.

 

And in the meantime we've got Dutton trying to stoke ever higher levels of nationalism, suggesting we implement an American style Pledge of Allegiance that flies in the face of how Australian patriotism has traditionally presented. Fuck that wannabe fascist, he scares me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, karaddin said:

I'm just angry that the media refused to report on the affair while his hypocrisy was relevant, but now its actually come out most of them are ignoring the actual public interest of corruption/misuse of his position/unethical behaviour to focus on the sordid affair they claimed to be above reporting on when it was relevant. If you want to talk about the affair, talk about how he took Campion on a holiday to the vatican (when she wasn't working for him) and charged the public for it. I understand its been quietly paid back, but paying it back when you got caught doesn't make it OK.

And in the meantime we've got Dutton trying to stoke ever higher levels of nationalism, suggesting we implement an American style Pledge of Allegiance that flies in the face of how Australian patriotism has traditionally presented. Fuck that wannabe fascist, he scares me.

Firstly, I always love reading your posts. :) That's nothing to do with anything else as such, I just love how you don't take any shit. :) 

On the first point you raise, I am also annoyed. Normally an affair isn't really a huge matter as such, it's that he specifically staked marriage as an issue of morality that being gay was explicitly excluded from. Therefore he took a moral position based on terms he clearly does not meet and therefore he doesn't deserve his position.

Similarly, he charged 50 trips to Canberra when Parliament wasn't in session, no doubt to impregnate his mistress. If he wasn't caught, he'd not have done a thing about that - in other words, he is willingly corrupt. He shouldn't be in Parliament at all based on that conduct, and it's not being reported enough. I've only seen that on the ABC, for instance, why aren't other media running that and splashing it around? Never mind the affair (although genuine sympathy for his poor wife and daughters) but this selfish corruption of privilege is gross.

As for Dutton, soon enough he'll introduce a law requiring all Australians to make an annual sacrifice of eating a pig, shaving their beards, letting their hair down and whatever else he can think of to get at Muslims.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, karaddin said:

And in the meantime we've got Dutton trying to stoke ever higher levels of nationalism, suggesting we implement an American style Pledge of Allegiance that flies in the face of how Australian patriotism has traditionally presented. Fuck that wannabe fascist, he scares me.

Not just you, k.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, karaddin said:

I guess it makes sense that a Lawyer would note and be alarmed by open contempt for the courts and due process.

That's only part of it though.  It's more the fact that his views seem to have popular support.

On the plus side, though, Barnaby has shuffled back to the back bench. So we have that little piece of schadenfreude to take into the weekend. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...