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March 28, 2024, 07:15:39 pm

Author Topic: General Australian Politics Discussion  (Read 84152 times)  Share 

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Mada438

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #75 on: May 10, 2018, 06:00:20 pm »
0
How quiet have things gone after the budget holy shit.
Someone want to fill me in on the highlights please?
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #76 on: May 10, 2018, 06:55:24 pm »
+3
Someone want to fill me in on the highlights please?

I think these winners and losers articles usually do a pretty good job: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-08/federal-budget-2018-winners-losers/9738982


Overall the major thing with this budget is that it's a big spending budget, which you'd expect because this is the last budget before the election. Despite the coalition's years of whining about the state of the economy and their enthusiasm for austerity as a means of reducing the "debt and deficit", they've decided the abandon that thinking and make this a big spending budget. Indeed, as a proportion of GDP, this will be the most a government has spent since Gillard's final year, and more than every other year Labor was in power. There are quite significant tax cuts, and they'll also write into legislation a requirement that we don't tax at a rate of any higher than 23.9% of GDP, which is pure insanity. A lot of the structural problems with the budget that led to all of the deficits were the consequence of decisions like these made by the Howard government, and in part coopted by the early Rudd government. Basically, Howard spent huge amounts on welfare and tax cuts, which Rudd partially adopted. We could afford those then, but then the economy tanked and we couldn't afford them but nobody was willing to say "lol let's raise taxes and cut welfare". This budget will achieve the same. They've been able to pass tax cuts because the economy has picked up and they now have a lot more money than they expected to have. We can afford them now, but if commodity prices tank again and unemployment rises (the opposite of what has produced this situation), we'll start chalking up deficits again :))) Meanwhile there's less money to spend on infrastructure, health and education.
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PhoenixxFire

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #77 on: August 09, 2018, 04:13:42 pm »
+4
Really hate how all-or-nothing some politicians are

Quote from: Emma Fealy (opposition) re: safe injecting rooms
If Daniel Andrews really believes drug injecting rooms work then he will surely announce he will open these facilities in the cities of Port Phillip, Melbourne and Brimbank
source

Like, the whole point of a trial is to trial something. I really hate that politicians are attacked for testing something before committing to it fully. What if it didn’t work? Surely it’s better to trial something before wasting more time and money on it.

/rant
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #78 on: August 09, 2018, 07:25:24 pm »
+1
Really hate how all-or-nothing some politicians are
source

Like, the whole point of a trial is to trial something. I really hate that politicians are attacked for testing something before committing to it fully. What if it didn’t work? Surely it’s better to trial something before wasting more time and money on it.

/rant

I fucking love this call. 10/10
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #80 on: August 27, 2018, 03:35:53 pm »
+1
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/julie-bishop-considering-all-options-after-failed-leadership-tilt/news-story/46cb855c25cc2e5a299f73bd027bf60a

Julie Bishop quits! Julie was backstabbed!

(Image removed from quote.)

Julie Bishop was never going to get up in that ballot. Though a lot of the Libs talked about electability publicly, this whole exercise was more or less about the conservatives trying to capture the party. Julie Bishop (as with Turnbull, Pyne, Payne and Birmingham) is one of the most moderate Liberals and could therefore never expect to have been elected in that ballot. She likely would have lost to Dutton too if Morrison hadn't got up, which is a sad indictment on the party.
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #81 on: November 27, 2018, 09:24:11 pm »
+7
Reviving this thread on what has been an extraordinary day in Canberra.

If you weren't aware, the government lost its majority in parliament when they lost the Wentworth byelection. This means that we currently have a hung parliament, although the crossbenchers have been clear in their support on matters of confidence and supply (confidence means that they won't vote against the government to force an early election, supply means that they will not allow the government to run out of money, as nearly happened in 1975).

The government's position got worse today, as one of the Liberal backbenchers, Julia Banks, indicated that she will now sit as an independent. She is actually the second member of the Coalition to do so, after Kevin Hogan did earlier in the year when Malcolm Turnbull was deposed (so it was actually at that point the government lost its majority, but most political commentators have largely ignored his defection for reasons I don't quite understand). Julia Banks sitting on the cross bench now means that the government will have 72 votes on the floor of the House, despite the fact that they started off with 75 (-1 due to the speaker in both cases). 76 votes is needed for a majority, but 75 is also sufficient if the speaker is a government member, as he is in this case.

The crossbench is now largely populated by small l-liberal women. These are people who are economically conservative but socially progressive, who might otherwise belong to the moderate faction of the Liberal party. It could be argued that these are liberals in the Menzies tradition, appealing to the centre and largely comfortable with the social zeitgeist. Not only has the government lost Julia Banks today, but there have been a number of MPs who have spoken out strongly about the trajectory of the liberal party. Kellie O'Dwyer is chief among these, as she got out today and lambasted the party for its creep towards the Right and the way it treats women. She even went so far as to call for the resignation of the Victoria president of the Liberal party (who is a prominent conservative). The President of the Senate also had some harsh words for his party, criticising the party for the creep to the Right and signalling that voters, whilst they might be conservative themselves, do not want to see their own views rammed down others' throats. Jane Hume, a Liberal senator from Victoria, was also very critical of her party on election night, following the same themes. She was particularly strident about the lack of representation of women in the party, which is now embarrassingly low in Victoria in particular (only 3/24 MPs in Victoria will be women...there will be just as many females on the crossbench and nearly quadruple this number in Labor's cabinet alone).

All of this amounts to the Moderates in the Liberal party finally starting to flex their muscles. This was the case during the Howard years too, where the conservatives controlled the leadership (in Howard and Costello), leaving the moderates emboldened to cause a little bit of trouble from time to time. Now that the conservatives have captured the leadership of the party once again (with Scott Morrison pursuing some breathtakingly stupid policy to show his conservative credentials), the moderates are finally starting to cause some trouble again. Will be interesting developments over time. The reality of the situation is that the moderates have the right of this situation. It is an absolutely horrid lie that the conservatives operate by in saying that the liberal party needs to sure up its base. The moderates have finally started to push back against this lie. Let's see who wins. 
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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #82 on: November 30, 2018, 05:59:47 pm »
+4
The latest entertainment from our federal politicians
Quote
Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the only thing children would be learn from the protest was how to collect government benefits.

"Walking off school and protesting, you don't learn anything from that," he told Sydney radio station 2GB.

"The best thing you learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole queue. That's what your future life will look like, up in a line asking for a handout, not actually taking charge of your life and getting a real job."

Mr Canavan said he instead supported children learning science.

"I want kids to be at school to learn about how you build a mine, how you do geology, how you drill for oil and gas, which is one of the most remarkable scientific exploits of anywhere in the world that we do," he said.

"These are the type of things excite young children."
Apparently climate science is not science, and learning how to build a mine is science ???

source
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appleandbee

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #83 on: November 30, 2018, 08:54:21 pm »
+1

source
[/quote]

Regardless of people views on protesting, telling people that doing so is the path to the dole queue is hugely untactful and irresponsible. Canavan's comments about drilling precisely highlighted why climate activism was neccessary.
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jazcstuart

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #84 on: November 30, 2018, 10:12:20 pm »
+2
The latest entertainment from our federal politicians

Apparently climate science is not science, and learning how to build a mine is science ???

source

Wow, because only listening to the science you agree with is definitely what science education is about, right?

It's so incredibly frustrating as someone who was involved in this protest, to hear our concerns dismissed just because we are young. I think the point of the protest waa to make our voices heard, because as young people we don't have many other options available to demand action from our politicians (eg. Many people can't vote yet), so to be belittled like this is quite upsetting.

The idea of school is to prepare us for the future and gain greater understanding of the world, but what use is that going to be if our future is riddled with climate disasters and global warming we no longer have control over? Sorry Canavan, but without urgent climate action young people are calling for, our "future life" will not be asking for a handout, it will be standing up for what we believe in and creating real change in the world. By the time we become politicians it will be too late to act on climate change, which will have huge impacts which are unpredictable and potentially catastrophic, and out of our control. This is us "taking charge of our life" now, and demanding change from the ones who have the ability to create it. 

Sorry for the rant. This us just something I am incredibly passionate about and it is so frustrating when people, particularly politicians, continue to deny the science and ignore the voices of young people.
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #85 on: December 01, 2018, 10:26:49 am »
+4
The latest entertainment from our federal politiciansApparently climate science is not science, and learning how to build a mine is science ???

source

Honestly, I was thrilled that Canavan made these comments and likewise ScoMo stood up in parliament and chucked a tanty about kids being out of school. Really showed the juxtaposition well: engaged, intelligent young people trying to do something about their future juxtaposed against a dying ideology directed, seemingly, at base stupidity. Fantastic.
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PhoenixxFire

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #86 on: December 17, 2018, 10:45:04 pm »
+1
Fuck you (federal) labor /rant (or not lol)

inb4 arguments against criminalisation etc.
- It already is underground
- If they really think criminalisation just makes things go underground then where's their drug legislation lol

(I actually don't want to turn this into a debate, which is why I'm posting this here) but also:

Quote from: Buzzfeed
Labor senator Louise Pratt, a spokesperson for Rainbow Labor told BuzzFeed News the decision was made based on recommendations from a La Trobe study on conversion therapy, which was released earlier this year, and the party was more strongly committed against conversion therapy than ever.
Quote from: La Trobe
The report recommends adding to existing protections such as the Health Complaints Act 2016 (Vic) by introducing specific legislation to clearly prohibit conversion practices against adults when carried out by health or other professionals, and conversion practices against children undertaken by anyone regardless of their qualification.
(source)

I'm not at all convinced that labor's position is based on the report ::)

Edit: Also, while I'm here
Quote
Assistant minister Andrew Broad has quit the frontbench in the wake of a sex scandal that could rock the Morrison government, amid claims he met a "sugar baby" in an overseas hotel.

Mr Broad has been named in a New Idea magazine feature that says he spent time in Hong Kong with a "blonde beauty" who used the online alias "Sweet Sophia Rose" on a website to connect young women with wealthier older men.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/andrew-broad-resigns-from-morrison-ministry-over-bombshell-sex-scandal-allegations-20181217-p50mon.html
This also serves as a reminder that nothing online is ever really private
« Last Edit: December 17, 2018, 11:13:52 pm by PhoenixxFire »
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #87 on: December 18, 2018, 12:03:18 am »
+2
Fuck you (federal) labor /rant (or not lol)

inb4 arguments against criminalisation etc.
- It already is underground
- If they really think criminalisation just makes things go underground then where's their drug legislation lol

(I actually don't want to turn this into a debate, which is why I'm posting this here) but also:
(source)

I'm not at all convinced that labor's position is based on the report ::)

Edit: Also, while I'm herehttps://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/andrew-broad-resigns-from-morrison-ministry-over-bombshell-sex-scandal-allegations-20181217-p50mon.html
This also serves as a reminder that nothing online is ever really private

I agree that it should be criminalised personally and think that Labor's response is a fairly craven submission to the Right wing of the party (there's a large faction in the Labor party that is very socially conservative; hence why they've been slow to adopt progressive social reforms around gay marriage, for example).


I'll make a point about the report, though. The report doesn't suggest a criminal penalty for conversion therapy, it suggests a civil penalty (i.e. not criminalisation). Moreover, the recommendation to establish this penalty is one for the state government, not the federal government. The Labor national conference concerns federal policy, not state policy. Criminalisation from a federal perspective would be foolish because of the way the relationship between the states and the Commonwealth are arranged (i.e. states make criminal law for the most part).
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PhoenixxFire

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #88 on: January 10, 2019, 05:27:17 pm »
+1
Oh dear.....
Quote
Liberal MP Ben Morton has spent his summer break rushing to confirm he is not a dual citizen, after he found out his grandfather was born in Ireland.

The discovery, made while going through old family records over Christmas, contradicts his declaration from 2017 that both maternal grandparents were born in the United Kingdom.

A letter from the Irish embassy received this week confirmed that Mr Morton is not an Irish citizen, and Mr Morton has said he has "never been an Irish or British citizen, only ever Australian".

However the new development highlights the uncertainty that still surrounds the Parliament and section 44 of the constitution, which disqualifies dual nationals from being MPs.
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vox nihili

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Re: General Australian Politics Discussion
« Reply #89 on: January 20, 2019, 05:14:51 pm »
0
Oh dear.....

Notwithstanding the fact that Peter Dutton is probably ineligible, and in a way that is more problematic than being a dual citizen.




But honestly though, this article just makes me question whether I'm a dual citizen.
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