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@gibbon-rib said in Aussie Politics:
Underfunded is a very generous way to describe what they did to the CSIRO. Gutted it would be closer to the mark.
And at the time (2014ish?) Australia was well positioned to become a world leader in developmentof new tech, so it was an absurd decision. But of course LNP mentality on climate change at the time was still stuck in "it's not real, and even if it is it's not man-made, and even if it is it's not as bad as the fear-mongers say, and even if it is there's nothing we can do about it".
Yes I totally agree regards the CSIRO, it is a crying shame.
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@barbarian said in Aussie Politics:
@gibbon-rib said in Aussie Politics:
@barbarian said in Aussie Politics:
@gibbon-rib I'd call it a scoreless draw.
I was surprised Jordies accepted the offer of a settlement. Yes you could call it a victory of sorts given he doesn't have to pay any cash, but he'd raised plenty of money so I'm not sure it would have ever been an issue for him.
The real win for him, I would have thought, would be the publicity that would come with the case. And an open microphone in the witness box to tee off on Barilaro and the LNP, with the nation's media eating from his hand. Given he had arguably nothing to lose, I'm not sure why he chose not to continue the case.
So you could argue only having to apologise is a win for him, but I don't think it is. There was a far greater prize in the offing which he now can't win.
There's the other, bigger court case coming up next year involving the NSW "fixated persons" unit and Jordies' producer. I wonder if Jordies' team just saw this as a distraction, and wanted to get it out of the way so they could focus on that one.
Yes that might be the strategy. A much more serious issue in the grand scheme of things, too.
Sounds like that's the plan
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@gibbon-rib God he's just so unlikeable.
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@barbarian He is, I forced myself to sit through it because I'm interested, but it's hard going
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First couple of minutes were interesting - at least in terms of not being to able to go to court over the truth because parliamentary privilege restricts the ability to present documents that exist, but not for all of us
Hardly democractic.
His smugness is... well I guess it is his thing and he's happy to do it. Not my cup of tea.
Barilaro is a fucking peasant tho and deserves derision and scorn.
I'm conflicted.
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@gibbon-rib said in Aussie Politics:
@nta I don't know if you stuck with it, but later on he confirms that they wanted to save their funds for the "fixated persons" case next year
Yep makes sense. The cost of asking a court NOT to do something is prohibitive, but there are plenty of backers out there no doubt.
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The full court press on Morrison from the Labor front bench was seriously strange this week even for them. Why would you spend two days dragging up Sam Dastayari and reminding everyone he exists?
Who remembers? Who cares? It reminds everyone that Morrison once had a sense of humour and of the corrupt side of Labor
At this point it wouldn't surprise me if they earnestly go after Morrison for once calling Arbib and Batar faceless men when indeed they clearly have faces, thinking that will win middle Australia.
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This pandemic has cemented my opinion that the current government bears no resemblance to the values and policies I care about. At the next election I will be doing what I have never done and preferencing Labor. It's purely a punishment vote that hopefully decimates them and a decent conservative party can arise from the ashes.
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@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Australia:
This pandemic has cemented my opinion that the current government bears no resemblance to the values and policies I care about. At the next election I will be doing what I have never done and preferencing Labor. It's purely a punishment vote that hopefully decimates them and a decent conservative party can arise from the ashes.
Just like it did for National in NZ eh?
Oh hang on...
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The alternative is to reward this bumbling incompetent fuck.
No, the one on the left.
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Political parties don't learn lessons
Labor thought they lost the last one because their policies were too complicated, and they had too many. Yeah, that's it Bill you fucking idiot.
Neither party stands for anything except being in power, and trying to appear to be the opposite of the other side (even thought they are not). So there are no lessons to learn. More of the same and you'll get a chance.
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@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Can you actually imagine Albo as PM though?
No, the prospect of a far left PM aligned with lunatic Greens is terrifying. But at what point do we no longer accept terrible mediocrity (that's being kind) simply because it might be worse than what we imagine. We've had a decade of stunning incompetence already.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Politics:
@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Can you actually imagine Albo as PM though?
No, the prospect of a far left PM aligned with lunatic Greens is terrifying. But at what point do we no longer accept terrible mediocrity (that's being kind) simply because it might be worse than what we imagine. We've had a decade of stunning incompetence already.
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@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Can you actually imagine Albo as PM though? Btw, Labor is $1.40 fav right now, Coalition at $2.85
I actually think that's pretty good odds for Scomo
If he makes it don't blink or you will miss him!
Albosleazy (Left faction), who has a squeaky voice very like leading trainer Gai Waterhouse' famous father Tommy Smith, is shot, wherever he ends up. The convicted drug dealer's missus, Plibersek (Left, but with a smaller gang ) - once his deputy leader - wants his job, she's been overtly stalking him for years and has more recently built a stronger base on the back of Albosleazy's mediocrity.
She hasn't got much to offer intellectually of course - she spent most of her six years as a government minister bagging the tripe out of Tony Abbott, to the extent the Labor powerbrokers had to tell her to pull her head in.
She would first have to qualify for a tilt at the title.
Keneally (Right faction), "Nobody's Gurrrlll", threatened Deborah OβNeill (Right)' Senate NSW No 1 status and had to be moved because Deborah has powerful backers. Nobody's Gurrrlll's benefactor, her Eddie Obeid, is in the slammer until 2028, with his son, for corrupt granting of coal mining leases, but he still has influence. He used run Labor NSW. There are some in Labor who also believe she is marketable to the electorate, and she has long been set on a path to the top job. My instinct says they are wrong.
Keneally was dropped into the Cabramatta area electorate by head office, without consultation with the retiring member, rolling a young bright light who is part of the dominant Vietnamese community. 30 year old lawyer Tu Le found out she had been shunted from a media broadcast! Keneally is at risk of becoming a Centrelink "client".
If she succeeds Keneally will immediately start pursuing her main objective - the top job.
Incidentally, her move also set aside a future assassination job for that Wong chap, the powerful elder statesman from the Left who controls the Senate and demands it that way. Even though she is already a winner Wong would enjoy bringing her numbers behind Plibersek, to knife Nobody's Gurrrlll just for fun.
We have a Federal election coming up and Labor's fate nationally is immersed in NSW factional warfare!
I grew up in Inner Western Sydney Irish Catholic Labor heartland, I know it backwards, and the Right was the most disciplined, powerful and successful political crew I have seen. Their last twenty years has seen Labor lurch about like drunks, ignoring the success that discipline brought them, putting forward utter fools in Rudd, Gillard, Shorten and Albosleazy.
As for the Liberal Branch of the Labor Party - the best they could offer was Lord Wentworth of Goldman Sachs, who spent a decade as a rich man sitting on his clacker in Parliament doing nothing, then three years as an appalling prime minister, wiping out the fine majority won by Tony Abbott in 2013. In the three and a half years since being booted to the kerb he has dedicated his time to destroying what remains of the Party.
It is now populated by drongos indistinguishable from their Labor brothers. Just yesterday their former Attorney General was belted with a $430,000 judgement for costs in the dodgiest action involving stuff which was supposed to have occurred 30 years ago. Their judgement in selecting candidates that cannot be got at is no better than the other mob's.
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@voodoo said in Aussie Politics:
Can you actually imagine Albo as PM though? Btw, Labor is $1.40 fav right now, Coalition at $2.85
I actually think that's pretty good odds for Scomo
It is always hard to until you see it, but Albanese isn't that far away from where John Howard was prior to 1996 in personal standing - seen as somewhat politically impotent, harbouring more extreme right/left wing views than he was letting on and being a bit of yesterday's man. Howard probably had a stronger profile, but also more intrenched given he was a once failed leader and treasurer during a time of high inflation. Not a perfect analogy but Albo isn't and never was Mr 18%. So you never know.
My prediction (and preference) is that it is a hung parliament - and the "independents" are finally forced to show the colour of their money. Given that and the massive role WA will play (and they usually are hard to predict even in normal times) I don't know if I'd be backing the coalition in here.
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
Political parties don't learn lessons
Labor thought they lost the last one because their policies were too complicated, and they had too many. Yeah, that's it Bill you fucking idiot.
Neither party stands for anything except being in power, and trying to appear to be the opposite of the other side (even thought they are not). So there are no lessons to learn. More of the same and you'll get a chance.
You say that but then Labor look and say at history and say "each of the last ten Prime Ministers going back to Whitlam won their first election taking the leadership of their party within a year of the election - let's pass a resolution that makes it virtually impossible for us to replace a leader mid-term". Insanity. Even if you think Albo has been pedestrian he would look less pedestrian if he were only six months into the job.
Aussie Politics