BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

I wonder if Murdoch and Hywood ever wonder why people are so keen to embrace things like Guardian Australia and PolitiFact Australia. From my standpoint it seems people want a news source that's not clouded by self-interest and clearly don't trust what the Fairfax and News Ltd. press is selling. The ABC's good and reliable but political neutrality means it lacks teeth and has to be overly concerned about sticking to its charter. I hope Murdoch and Hywood aren't so oblivious that they actually see what's happening and start feeling at least a little concerned.

Ty wrote:

I wonder if Murdoch and Hywood ever wonder why people are so keen to embrace things like Guardian Australia and PolitiFact Australia. From my standpoint it seems people want a news source that's not clouded by self-interest and clearly don't trust what the Fairfax and News Ltd. press is selling. The ABC's good and reliable but political neutrality means it lacks teeth and has to be overly concerned about sticking to its charter. I hope Murdoch and Hywood aren't so oblivious that they actually see what's happening and start feeling at least a little concerned.

They've hired some excellent staff - Lenore Taylor, Katharine Murphy, Greg Jericho etc etc. They're also looking towards the cream of the policy wonk blogs too.

Dilbert_X wrote:

The Grauniad

Go home dilbert, you're drunk.

Ty wrote:

Tony Abbott said a couple of days ago that he had already drafted his victory speech.

Pity they haven't drafted any worthwhile policies.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Fun fact.

'Private Eye' magazine has historically referred to the Guardian as 'The Grauniad' due to the high number of typos and other errors when it was fisrt launched.

Anyone who is anyone reads Private Eye.

who doesn't know this fact? every guardian reader frequently refers to it (amicably) as 'the graun'.

also the guardian is a long ways away from its manchester roots now.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Fuck My Life

This is what I'm staring down the barrel of.

PYNE, Christopher    Liberal    48.05%
SARRE, Rick    Australian Labor Party    36.23%
FIEBIG, Peter    The Greens    10.01%
CLEGG, Dale    Family First    3.79%
CLARK, Jess    Liberal Democrats (LDP)    0.79%
ANDREWS, Darren    Australian Democrats    0.63%
KING, Jack    One Nation    0.5%

I will be voting drunk, again.

At least you have some variety with the LibDems and the Aus Democrats. This is what I face... on 2pp, LNP has almost 2x the amount of votes over Labor.

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Fun fact.

'Private Eye' magazine has historically referred to the Guardian as 'The Grauniad' due to the high number of typos and other errors when it was fisrt launched.

Anyone who is anyone reads Private Eye.

who doesn't know this fact? every guardian reader frequently refers to it (amicably) as 'the graun'.

also the guardian is a long ways away from its manchester roots now.

Reaper, derp.

AussieReaper wrote:

I've never read, nor heard of 'Private Eye' magazine.

reddit has robbed you of your youth.

What pissed me off today:

The Coalition blaming Labor over Telstra workers apparently stirring up asbestos at NBN work sites. Similar to what happened with the home insulation scheme, the Coalition is trying to paint the NBN as a bad scheme by blaming Labor for the poor practices of contractors. It's not the Government's fault Telstra is hiring dumbass contractors. Anyway, the Government is acting on it. Nothing to be gained here.

Labor blaming the Coalition over the electoral funding bill back-down. Look, it was a bad bill for everyone, it made both major parties look like greedy bastards. However Labor is trying to paint Abbott as disingenuous for backing down on a written agreement, trying to get some political points out of a bad situation. Is Abbott disingenuous? Sure. But was he right to back down on the laws? Absolutely. Doubly so for him given his endless complaints about the "budget emergency", (Christ I'm tired of hearing that.) Thing is while Labor may want to call into question Abbott's trustworthiness or tendency to be a political weathervane, it was still an unpopular policy that Abbott's actions shut down. Abbott may lose a few points for trust issues but Labor stands to lose way more points if they are seen to still be arguing for a policy that would have put more tax payer money into political electioneering. It's a dumb move.

Federal Nationals candidate for Hunter Michael Johnson saying he bought tickets to a Labor Party lunch to meet with Kevin Rudd and his opponent Joel Fitzgibbon to discuss their mutual desire to replace Julia Gillard. Johnson says as he also wants to get rid of Gillard he felt they should meet to discuss their shared goal. The words "smarmy shit-stirring fuck-wit" come to mind.

Edit: Also an anti-vaccine group decided to get around NSW's new vaccination laws by setting up a new religion. Not kidding. The law allows for a religious exemption, meaning parents who don't want their kids vaccinated on religious grounds can still get into childcare centres and pre-schools. So the Australian Vaccination Network set up the "Church of Concious Living" in a a possibly ironic display of unintentional self-parody and are trying to sit smug in the belief that they've managed to exploit a loophole. We'll see how it works. I just hope one of their new rituals in consuming large quantities of aluminium phosphide, I know where they can find some.

I'm pretty much the sole New Zealander on here, (BVC being the only other,) so discussing New Zealand matters would be fairly one-sided.

That aside as I work for an Australian company dealing with Australian media and politics, becoming an opinionated know-it-all on all things Australian is pretty much a by-product. I don't have the same level of insight about NZ politics and even if I did there's really not much to say about it. Thing is being a New Zealander in New Zealand with a detailed knowledge of Australian affairs doesn't make me the most interesting person in a conversation. So I come here and at least get to feel relevant. And vent of course.

Though if you need to know what's happening here Dilbert I'm happy to pass it on. Did you know the Marlborough Times ran a really racist cartoon today? I did. Fascinating stuff.

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

ty how come you do take such a rabid interest in aussie politics, though? i get that it's a nearby country and all, but you write more in volume than all the other aussies combined. that's like me holding forth some hardcore hollande analysis every 3-4 days.

it's just occupational? not some personal reason, at all?

Combination of things I guess but I'd say its mostly occupational. I certainly didn't write as much on the subject before I worked where I currently do. I think the main reason is that my job's tremendously boring; it involves the mass consumption of media about things that really have no impact on my life whatsoever. So I sort of convince myself that it does matter in order to stay interested so I can do my job. And stay sane. As for writing here... well I like writing. Plus it's nice to think that the sort of crap I learn on a daily basis is at least relevant somewhere.

I know it's a little weird. Still, I know I'm not the only one to have to convince themselves that their nine-to-five office job is worth a damn in order to be functional.

There should really be a Tumblr for Tony Abbott's "Interview Faces".