BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

Dilbert_X wrote:

So whats your suggestion Ty?

Vote for fascist fuckwits who are at least trying to run the country?

Vote for corrupt faux-trotskyists who are out to line their own pockets and fuck the country?

Mate I'm out of suggestions.

Labor hasn't made improvements and their leader is a wooden peg. They're the lesser of two evils but right now it's a toss-up between the dangerously incompetent and the incompetently dangerous.

If that leaked e-mail from Peta Credlin's office scheduling election material photography sessions is anything to go by you'll be deciding between them soon enough. If Labor is still seen as being in disarray and if Tony's wrapping fear in the Australian flag pays dividends in the polls stay tuned for a double dissolution election. The good news is that with all seats in the Senate up for grabs it'll probably deliver an even more difficult Senate for Abbott if he wins.

Dilbert_X wrote:

A few years ago ABC would have put Mad Monis on.

You might be right. Thing is even if Man Monis got to be part of a Q+A audience and got a few minutes of airtime what harm would it have done? If anything it would have highlighted what a dangerous individual he was and informed the public about what sort of people they're dealing with. That's how people seem to be seeing Zaky Mallah and he didn't even say anything particularly controversial, certainly nothing that needed to be censored. If Mallah was so dangerous the News Limited media surely shouldn't have filled their papers with coverage on him. I mean that's the argument Abbott's running; it was irresponsible to give him coverage. Yet he calls for heads to roll, (nice choice of words,) at the ABC, not the Courier Mail.

As Mark Scott said the ABC is a public broadcaster acting in the interests of the public, not a state broadcaster acting in the interests of Abbott's Team Australia. A clear sign that the ABC is doing its job is exposing the public to as many points of view as possible and trusting them to reach their own conclusions. If Abbott wants controversial viewpoints censored and a broadcaster delivering the Government's agenda he can try running for office in China.

Also Abbott uses any excuse to attack the ABC, that shouldn't mean the ABC have to tread on eggshells and tailor their programming so as not to draw his wrath. Honestly with this over-reaction about Mallah I think the ABC has less delivered Abbott a pile of balls to kick goals and more given him a great big reel of rope to hang himself with. Even his supporters are getting concerned with his flag hoarding, death cult paranoia and schizophrenic attitude towards the national broadcaster, (given it was just last week he was expressing his love for the ABC over their airing of Labor's dirty laundry.)

I'm glad I didn't have to vote for anyone. I'd think if I had voted Liberal I'd be a little underwhelmed with what the situation is under their leadership though. The stagnating unemployment rate, increasing poverty, declining housing affordability, slowing economy, the largest ever trade deficit, and the fact that most of the 2014 Budget has yet to pass, much less the 2015 one. It's far from encouraging. And while no-one could say if things would be any better if Ruddbot got in I don't think it would have come with quite the same climate of jingoistic scaremongering.

It would be excusable if the Government looked like it was doing anything about it. Everyone has known the mining boom wasn't going to last, they know that the big coal markets of China and India are looking to decrease their reliance on coal. The Abbott Government is acting as if iron ore prices are at the high levels they were in past years, they're acting as if coal is going to be the preferential energy source forever. Meanwhile they're actively trying to curtail growth industries that might threaten coal interests. They ditched the notion of carbon pricing. They cut the Renewable Energy Target. They've announced a commissioner to investigate the health impacts of wind farm infrasound. They have an industry struggling and when another industry steps up to take up the burden they go for the kneecaps.

Fair enough to say a lot of their problems are caused by outside factors but they need to be trying to rectify the situation not exacerbate it for the sake of their traditional backers. Labor dealt with a Global Financial Crisis during their watch and while they had some benefits the LNP don't have now I can't see how the Government can make too many excuses about the situation they've been given.

Ty wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

So whats your suggestion Ty?

Vote for fascist fuckwits who are at least trying to run the country?

Vote for corrupt faux-trotskyists who are out to line their own pockets and fuck the country?

Mate I'm out of suggestions.

Can you imagine what its like being required to attend a polling station and vote for these nitwits?

Can you?

CAN YOU?

I could babble for a while about the damage done to the real economy by allowing mining companies to plunder once-off resources - its no longer a resource if its gone is it?- and destroy the rest of the economy in the process.

The stupidity and venality of the politicians is matched only by the stupidity and venality of the electorate. I read somewhere that the entire proceeds of the mining boom had been spent on plasma tvs and imported luxury cars. In the meantime goodbye Ford, Holden, Toyota and Mistubishi who actually made things here and employed people.

Jay wrote:

What is Australia gonna do? Export more lamb?

That's New Zealand you dolt.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Ty wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

So whats your suggestion Ty?

Vote for fascist fuckwits who are at least trying to run the country?

Vote for corrupt faux-trotskyists who are out to line their own pockets and fuck the country?

Mate I'm out of suggestions.

Can you imagine what its like being required to attend a polling station and vote for these nitwits?

Can you?

CAN YOU?

I could babble for a while about the damage done to the real economy by allowing mining companies to plunder once-off resources - its no longer a resource if its gone is it?- and destroy the rest of the economy in the process.

The stupidity and venality of the politicians is matched only by the stupidity and venality of the electorate. I read somewhere that the entire proceeds of the mining boom had been spent on plasma tvs and imported luxury cars. In the meantime goodbye Ford, Holden, Toyota and Mistubishi who actually made things here and employed people.

Jay wrote:

What is Australia gonna do? Export more lamb?

That's New Zealand you dolt.

All the lamb at my supermarket says product of Australia. Montana has a ton of sheep too but they tend to fuck them to death before they get to market.

I'm glad to LNP have proved to be as hopeless as I've always thought them to be /sarcasm

Seriously, there have been two Labor treasurers that have been awarded the award for world's treasurer of the year (Keating and Swann). That's from the IMF, a right leaning financially fiscal think tank.

How many LNP treasurers have been awarded the same, since 1860? Exactly zero.

Hockey, in better economic times than Swann (ie. the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression) has doubled "Labor's" deficit in twelve months - the same deficit took six years under Labor to rack up after the most proliferate PM in Australian history (again, word's from the IMF) when the price of coal was thirteen times above regular market levels. What a waste of opportunity.

I don't like Labor these days as they've lost direction and nerve (we need another Hawke and/or Whitlam) but this trash we have as a government is a fucking joke, yet no one is laughing.

Last edited by Jaekus (2015-06-27 10:56:47)

I'm sure one isolated case is how it really works for everyone. I worked in disability for 4.5 years and it was never going to work that way, according to my organisation, colleagues and the numerous people who accessed our service and several others (psychiatrists, respite, community access, in-home support, etc.)

Jaekus wrote:

Government actively tries to stop any form of wind farm investment (which has been reduced to be $8.9 billion over five years) whilst approving a coal mine on prime agricultural farm land with a plummeting price in coal. Renewables are now cheaper to produce than coal and the world is uptaking these technologies faster whilst reducing coal consumption.

Just because Abbott yearns for the past does not give him licence to take us backwards. It's gone beyond the joke now. He is ruining Australia.

I thought approving location of coal mines are a state government issue not federal.

Isn't the move to limit wind farms was to put more money into solar energy?

On that subject Jaekus, the news that annoyed me today was the Government's new directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The CEFC is essentially an investment body that puts money into worthy renewables projects and gives the return on this investment back to the Government. It has been functioning very well, more than reaching its investment and profitability targets which has boosted the renewables sector while being a net earner for the Government.

However now the Government is saying that:

- It is no longer allowed to invest in wind projects.
- It is no longer allowed to invest in small-scale rooftop solar projects.
- It has to minimise risk, (ie. it will have less to invest.)
- It has to get a bigger return, (i.e. its profitably targets have been lifted.)

Greg Hunt argues it's because the body was set up to invest in new and emerging technology and that wind and rooftop solar projects aren't new and emerging enough. Instead the CEFC is being directed towards wave and geothermal projects which:

- Are more expensive to invest in financially and technologically.
- Generate less energy than wind/solar when weighted against investment input.
- Are more risky, i.e. less likely to get a return.

Essentially this turns the CEFC from a functioning tool that supports a growth industry that is creating jobs while being a net earner for the Government into a broken mess that accomplishes nothing and costs the Government to do so.

The intent of course is to destroy the CEFC which the Government has tried I think twice with legislation but was blocked by the Senate. The question is why though. It's earning them money. It's helping an industry grow and therefore creating Australian jobs. It is also helping secure Australia's energy future. The problem being that it is securing Australia's energy future away from coal. But to cause such damage just because you like coal seems immensely stupid. It's economic vandalism for the sake of ideology. Not even ideology, it's vandalism for the sake of preference. It will cost the Government's budget, it will cost jobs, it will further hamstring a growth industry, and it won't actually benefit coal which is by many accounts dying a slow death. All it will do is keep coal interests comfortable. For a while at least.

Mathias Cormann argues that investment in wind and small-scale solar will be picked up by private investors, (the "If wind and solar are so great then..." was implied.) And he may have been right three years ago before the Government put its energy into creating as hostile an environment for renewables as possible. The "coal is good for humanity" and "coal is the future" rhetoric from Tony Abbott has certainly worked to keep investors in coal and away from renewables. Then there's the reduction of the RET with signs suggesting the Government has a strong desire to dick around with it further. Then there's both Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey prancing around commercial radio stations saying that wind farms are ugly, noisy, and smell like cabbage. Not to mention that stupid Wind Farm Commissioner giving credit to the pseudoscience linking health problems  to wind turbine infrasound.

Basically the Abbott Government is trying to fuck everything for its own interests in coal. It's absolutely fucking outrageous. The Government's chopping a leg off a racehorse and when it doesn't perform as well they're going to say "told you he wasn't that good" and shoot it in the head. Meanwhile it's going to do its darnedest to destroy a growth industry that it fucking needs because it is as useless at managing the economy as I am at performing underwater knee surgery.

Fuck any government that thinks like this. Fuck them so fucking much.

Ty wrote:

Essentially this turns the CEFC from a functioning tool that supports a growth industry that is creating jobs while being a net earner for the Government into a broken mess that accomplishes nothing and costs the Government to do so.

Just like their NBN model, which is more costly, takes longer to build, is less efficient and will need an upgrade sooner rather than later.

How people vote for these numpties is mind boggling.

Jaekus wrote:

Ty wrote:

Essentially this turns the CEFC from a functioning tool that supports a growth industry that is creating jobs while being a net earner for the Government into a broken mess that accomplishes nothing and costs the Government to do so.

Just like their NBN model, which is more costly, takes longer to build, is less efficient and will need an upgrade sooner rather than later.

How people vote for these numpties is mind boggling.

On the NBN I heard a report last week that with the ever-increasing popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Stan, (which I dare say weren't considered when the Coalition was putting together its NBN response,) even the places already kitted out with Malcolm's Fibre-to-the-Node National Broadband Patchwork are experiencing, (and causing,) significant performance drops. Would have been nice to have Malcolm on Q+A to respond to that but of course ever since the Abbott Coalition became accountable Q+A has been nothing but a lefty lynch mob.

I can't remember who it was but one of the arguments against Labor's "gold plated" NBN was that the kind of people who'd get the most benefit from the NBN would be people using it for entertainment purposes, i.e. not the important business-type people using it to make money. Thing is everyone's on the same fucking infrastructure aren't they. If a lot of people are using the Internet for Youtube it's going to impact the guy trying to make a business call to Europe via Skype. You need to build something that reflects how people are going to actually use it, not build it to reflect how you think they should use it.

This is why when you create policy you do it with a mind to deliver the best outcome for a nation and it's future not just a mind to undercut your competitor. This is why it's important to have vision. This is why it's important to have more of a plan then a shrug and a line about how accomplishing desired outcomes is in your DNA.

Ty wrote:

This is why when you create policy you do it with a mind to deliver the best outcome for a nation and it's future not just a mind to undercut your competitor. This is why it's important to have vision. This is why it's important to have more of a plan then a shrug and a line about how accomplishing desired outcomes is in your DNA.

A) We're talking about government here - remember that

B) However much bandwidth is created won't matter, people will just download more shit they don't need, share it with everyone else who doesn't need it, and back it up to multiple places in the cloud just to be sure.

Maybe there should be a business backbone and a consumer backbone, then they won't interfere with each other.
Or some prioritisation system - The billionth copy of Game of Thrones to be transmitted from A to B has to wait and takes hours, patient x-rays get through first.