If Collins resigns or is deposed by Key then this would seriously undermine Nationals election narrative. Everyone seems to think Key can't let her go for this reason
Haha oh dear. So as you might have guessed I am reading NZ political news and posting. Now I've come across a new story about Winston Peters that could be amazing.
So Peters heads a small party that is in parliament now and will likely be in again post election, with 5 to 8 MPs it seems. All of which are elected by Party or List Vote and chosen by ranking on the party's official list. That list was published this week and several sitting MPs are so low on list that they will not get in unless he doubles OE triples his vote, which is as likely as a white Christmas. One has now initiated proceedings against the party on the basis that the decision was made in contravention of the constitution of the party and therefore invalid. Quite what happens next is less clear as the court would have to decide on a remedy.
Amusingly a law lecturer has said that Peter's own similar law suit against his former party pre MMP in the early 1990s created precedent for this action.
If Peters goes to court he could lose support enough to drop under 5% and Craig's Conservatives are the natural beneficiaries. This would be a huge upset and wed end up with an Abbot style loon in parliament and also as kingmaker.
Indigenous leaders have reacted angrily to Tony Abbott’s assertion that white settlement was the defining moment in Australian history.
The prime minister made the comment in Canberra on Friday at the launch of a project on the 100 defining moments in Australian history at the National Museum of Australia.
“The arrival of the first fleet was the defining moment in the history of this continent. Let me repeat that, it was the defining moment in the history of this continent,” he said. “It was the moment this continent became part of the modern world.”
His remarks drew a prompt reaction from Warren Mundine, the chairman of Abbott’s Indigenous advisory panel.
“Well it was a defining moment, there’s no argument about that. It was also a disastrous defining moment for Indigenous people,” Mundine told the ABC.
This is from the self-professed "Prime Minister for Indigenous People". Sure, it's defining, but not in the great way that Abbott is painting it.
Tony Abbott has nominated the arrival of the first fleet, along with the launch of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper and the publication of The Lucky Country, as defining moments in the nation’s history.
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
I guess he figures if he sucks Rupert's cock hard enough, there might be a well-paid executive position waiting for him somewhere in Newscorp once he's been kicked out of office.
@Kalkino I'm sure you're aware but Judith Collins has resigned
Actually this passed me by! I have had a busy couple of days and only found out a couple of hours ago when I was very tired and drunk. I'm just going to read about it properly now
I guess he figures if he sucks Rupert's cock hard enough, there might be a well-paid executive position waiting for him somewhere in Newscorp once he's been kicked out of office.
Rupert already gave him a well paid job as Prime Minister.
In foreign affairs news, looks like Australia will be transporting humanitarian aid and munitions to Iraq to help fight ISIS. While delivery of humanitarian aid is nothing but good, throwing more arms into the region gives me deeply mixed feelings. All for helping the Kurds, but it doesn't really add confidence in the idea that ISIS are in large part using arms and supplies originally from the US left by the Iraqi army and some Syrian rebel groups.
This action also appears to have been taken unilaterally by the Liberal Party without consultation with the parliament, with Wilkie and the Greens demanding an immediate debate and clarification of Australia's strategy.
Why would you want to use food stamps outside of thinking that a large portion of the poor are basically a bunch of druggie fuckups who don't deserve to manage their money? If they wanted to see what difference it would make, the US actually experimented with cash benefits instead of food stamps in several areas.
"Many families have said that income management has taken the stress out of managing household budgets, helped them keep utilities connected and assisted in clearing debts," she said.
Totalitarianism is totally OK if it is for the poor!
Couscous on
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Why would you want to use food stamps outside of thinking that a large portion of the poor are basically a bunch of druggie fuckups who don't deserve to manage their money? If they wanted to see what difference it would make, the US actually experimented with cash benefits instead of food stamps in several areas.
Why would you want to use food stamps outside of thinking that a large portion of the poor are basically a bunch of druggie fuckups who don't deserve to manage their money? If they wanted to see what difference it would make, the US actually experimented with cash benefits instead of food stamps in several areas.
You would think that other countries would learn from America's fuck ups. The drug tests in America have done little other than show that poor people are generally clean and that creating barriers to entry harm them.
I dream of restrictions on money given to the middle and upper classes that are as restrictive as those given to the lower classes. Don't they know that they need to pay down their debt?
We introduced a 3 strikes law about 3 years ago, despite everyone knowing for years all the problems the US had experienced. It isn't the wrist three strikes law sure, but it struck me as almost cargo cultish. If the US right likes such laws or more recently Charter Schools we should have them too. Despite anything
Freedom for the Northern Isles!
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
This Dirty Politics scandal is mental. It isn't going to go away at all it seems, given Collins resignation. This blows the election wide open. It may also show the start of factional warfare within National, which if Key loses will blow wide open
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Yeah, I was going to say. That's very clearly what the government actually thinks, and hell, pretty much outright says.
Not just the government, but much of their talk back radio listening/talking base (despite the fact that those who aren't pensioners are likely the beneficiaries of the welfare against which they rail).
National have also pushed adverts onto television with John Key in them. Before they were running with the team national campaign.
Looks like they're trying to bank on Keys popularity now that this scandal is rocking them
Interesting. It isn't a bad strategy though, as I think it'll take a lot more to damage his power to the point of it being a problem.
I'm slightly worried that this will let the Conservative Party sneak through the gaps. One possible advantage of a strong National Party is that it helps suck out the wind from smaller extremist right wing parties. Destroying the socially liberal consensus of NZ would be a great loss.
National have also pushed adverts onto television with John Key in them. Before they were running with the team national campaign.
Looks like they're trying to bank on Keys popularity now that this scandal is rocking them
Interesting. It isn't a bad strategy though, as I think it'll take a lot more to damage his power to the point of it being a problem.
I'm slightly worried that this will let the Conservative Party sneak through the gaps. One possible advantage of a strong National Party is that it helps suck out the wind from smaller extremist right wing parties. Destroying the socially liberal consensus of NZ would be a great loss.
I don't know if you're reading dirty politics. But it is what I can only describe as damning. A good number of media agencies are down playing how bad it is.
The National aligned media are all in full deny deny deny mode refusing to give much air time to the massive corruption and really dirty politics that Judith Collins used skirting around it instead obfuscating it behind an a tangentially related story.
I have read it yes. I didn't see any clear illegality but lots of incidents that might lead to that conclusion if more information cones to light and an ocean of awful behaviour.
Quite horrifying really.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
The Australian has been running a week long campaign against the Bereau of Meteorology. Their claim? That the BoM is fabricating temperature data to make climate change seem real.
This last year a group of concerned citizens formed a trust and sued our BOM, NIWA over something similar. There wasn't really a case to answer for and they had no proper evidence of wrong doing, so the case didn't GI far but it did cost a fair amount of money. Iirc the court demanded they pay costs and then the trust folded instead of paying. Which supported the courts other finding that they were not acting in good faith or with public interest
So.. mining tax! Yesterday the government introduced the bill to repeal the mining tax and "associated spending" (because just repealing the tax is going to be worse the budgets bottom line no matter how insanely up the mining industries buttocks you are) - which was of course repealed before because PUP, Labor and the Greens refuse to see the School Kids Bonus, Low income Bonus and low Income Superannuation Contribution.
Well, the new version introduced still has all that, just without "start dates" for them to be removed (which you can assume they've done so that they can then get just remove them ASAP). It was also introduced immediately and went directly to a vote - no reading time.
And it included this gem:
Labor’s treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, said the bill would also allow the treasurer to alter the superannuation guarantee charge percentage by “fiat”.
The amount employers are currently required to pay in superannuation is currently legislated to rise from 9.25% in 2013-14 to 9.5% in 2014-15 and then to 10% in 2015-16. The government had sought to freeze the payment at 9.25% until 2016-17. Explanatory memoranda for the new bill says the government is now considering allowing the first increase – to 9.5%, but then freezing employer contributions at this rate for four years, to avoid any extra cost to the budget.
“The government is trying to remove the ability of the parliament to vote on the rate of the superannuation guarantee … this is outrageous … the government is looking for any excuse to delay the increase from 9 to 12% … this proposes to delay the increase to 12% until 2024,” Bowen said.
The government suspended standing orders to allow the bill to be presented and proceed “immediately through all stages this sitting”.
The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, said it was farcical and humiliating that Ciobo had presented the new bill to parliament without even making a speech about the measures contained in it and the reasons for supporting them.
Burke said MPs were initially being asked to vote on a bill, the contents of which were unknown.
He said the government’s actions were “arrogant” and defied claims that the adults were in charge.
• Delaying increases to the superannuation rate until 2021
• Retaining the low income superannuation contribution until June 31, 2017
• Retaining the income support bonus until December 31, 2016
• Retaining the schoolkids bonus until December 31 2016, and means-testing it to give it to families on an annual household income of $100,000
If the liberals win the next election all of this will be dropped, of course. And they'll find a way to blame Labor, because they'll still be doing it even then. They've got nothing else.
National is being hit in the most recent polls, although not enough to push it out of leading position. Labour still isn't getting a sufficient boost to bring them close enough for a solid red/green coalition, 9.7% behind National. The Greens could get 16 MPs at this point, 2 up from now.
So on this result, which is from RNZ, would let National govern with Act, Maori and UF. It doesn't take into account traditional overstating of National poll support though.
In electorate news, the MP looks more likely to retain one and possible a second seat. If so this will let them retain influence. The state Maori TV channel is doing a good job of focusing on those races, to a degree that it is almost possible to say an informed voter would know more about them than general electorates.
Finally, the next main party leaders debate is tonight.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I just want to let anyone know who is in Sydney that there is a demonstration being held on Saturday the 6th of September at Sydney Square (next to town hall) in the CBD that is decidedly against the new double vote idiocy. Starts from 11 am.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
The government is proposing amendments to the Fair Work Act, including to the operation of “individual flexibility arrangements” (IFAs). The amendments are attracting a lot of attention, including from unions, some of whom claim they will make IFAs like the Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) that were prominent in the WorkChoices period and that famously cut overtime pay, penalty rates and other “protected” award conditions.
The Government claims it is just implementing recommendations of the Review of the Fair Work Act that was commissioned by the previous Labor government, as per its election commitment.
So will IFAs be the new AWAs? Or is this just the benign fulfilment of an election commitment?
.......
IFAs cannot be too like AWAs because that would be politically too risky for a Government keen to avoid any mention of WorkChoices. But nor do the changes simply implement an election promise or Labor’s Fair Work Review. The government is keenly committed to industrial relations reform and seeks another mechanism for individual contracting.
So if you hear someone saying that the government is reintroducing the WorkChoices AWAs, it’s not really. Instead it is are doing something quite different, something that focuses much more on vulnerable workers’ lack of knowledge of their rights and entitlements under industrial law, and the difficulty that enforcement agencies, unions and others have in reaching, advising or protecting them.
It is something that will make exploitation of vulnerable workers through underpayment easier to undertake than at present, while being much harder to research and detect than it was with AWAs.
Getting paid in pizza probably isn't as awesome as it sounds.
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So Peters heads a small party that is in parliament now and will likely be in again post election, with 5 to 8 MPs it seems. All of which are elected by Party or List Vote and chosen by ranking on the party's official list. That list was published this week and several sitting MPs are so low on list that they will not get in unless he doubles OE triples his vote, which is as likely as a white Christmas. One has now initiated proceedings against the party on the basis that the decision was made in contravention of the constitution of the party and therefore invalid. Quite what happens next is less clear as the court would have to decide on a remedy.
Amusingly a law lecturer has said that Peter's own similar law suit against his former party pre MMP in the early 1990s created precedent for this action.
If Peters goes to court he could lose support enough to drop under 5% and Craig's Conservatives are the natural beneficiaries. This would be a huge upset and wed end up with an Abbot style loon in parliament and also as kingmaker.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/30/tony-abbotts-white-settlement-remarks-offend-indigenous-leaders This is from the self-professed "Prime Minister for Indigenous People". Sure, it's defining, but not in the great way that Abbott is painting it.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/29/tony-abbott-says-first-fleet-arrival-is-the-defining-moment-in-australian-history Fucking what.
Oh, and The Australian is targeting the Beurau of Meteorology, trying to paint them as making up climate change data.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/climate-records-contradict-bureau-of-meteorology/story-e6frg6xf-1227037936046
They're trying to muddy the waters on climate change. Fuckers.
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Actually this passed me by! I have had a busy couple of days and only found out a couple of hours ago when I was very tired and drunk. I'm just going to read about it properly now
In foreign affairs news, looks like Australia will be transporting humanitarian aid and munitions to Iraq to help fight ISIS. While delivery of humanitarian aid is nothing but good, throwing more arms into the region gives me deeply mixed feelings. All for helping the Kurds, but it doesn't really add confidence in the idea that ISIS are in large part using arms and supplies originally from the US left by the Iraqi army and some Syrian rebel groups.
This action also appears to have been taken unilaterally by the Liberal Party without consultation with the parliament, with Wilkie and the Greens demanding an immediate debate and clarification of Australia's strategy.
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http://wps.aw.com/aw_perloff_microecon_5/85/21981/5627351.cw/content/index.html
http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/bitstream/88435/dsp01z603qx42c/1/468.pdf
Totalitarianism is totally OK if it is for the poor!
Yes.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
You would think that other countries would learn from America's fuck ups. The drug tests in America have done little other than show that poor people are generally clean and that creating barriers to entry harm them.
What I wouldn't fucking give for this to become law in every civilised country.
Emergency powers is one thing etc etc but jesus christ there should be a rule against making laws just because you think its a good fucking idea.
It's an attractive idea on the face of it, but 'evidence' can be a slippery term.
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and Liberal Party commissioned reports.
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Not just the government, but much of their talk back radio listening/talking base (despite the fact that those who aren't pensioners are likely the beneficiaries of the welfare against which they rail).
http://www.thepaepae.com/matthew-hootons-assertions-re-the-prime-ministers-office/35076/
Looks like they're trying to bank on Keys popularity now that this scandal is rocking them
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Interesting. It isn't a bad strategy though, as I think it'll take a lot more to damage his power to the point of it being a problem.
I'm slightly worried that this will let the Conservative Party sneak through the gaps. One possible advantage of a strong National Party is that it helps suck out the wind from smaller extremist right wing parties. Destroying the socially liberal consensus of NZ would be a great loss.
Interesting. It isn't a bad strategy though, as I think it'll take a lot more to damage his power to the point of it being a problem.
I'm slightly worried that this will let the Conservative Party sneak through the gaps. One possible advantage of a strong National Party is that it helps suck out the wind from smaller extremist right wing parties. Destroying the socially liberal consensus of NZ would be a great loss.
The National aligned media are all in full deny deny deny mode refusing to give much air time to the massive corruption and really dirty politics that Judith Collins used skirting around it instead obfuscating it behind an a tangentially related story.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Quite horrifying really.
As opposed to the complete lack of accountability required currently?
No I think I'll still be taking "option A, better than now".
At least then their "evidence" will be up for scrutiny. Which should be a requirement. None of this redacted bullshit.
Here's a good summary:
http://www.readfearn.com/2014/08/climate-change-conspiracy-theories-and-the-abc-interview-with-john-cook-that-never-was/
I don't know what else there is to say.
Well, the new version introduced still has all that, just without "start dates" for them to be removed (which you can assume they've done so that they can then get just remove them ASAP). It was also introduced immediately and went directly to a vote - no reading time.
And it included this gem: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/mining-tax-repeal-coalition-tries-again-despite-likely-defeat-in-senate
What a joke.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-02/government-strikes-mining-tax-deal-with-palmer-united-party/5713116
If the liberals win the next election all of this will be dropped, of course. And they'll find a way to blame Labor, because they'll still be doing it even then. They've got nothing else.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/great-barrier-reef-dredging-plan-scrapped-in-win-for-national-icon/story-e6frflp0-1227044906047
And fucking hilarious to see a Murdoch news source suddenly start talking about how this was an environmental threat.
So on this result, which is from RNZ, would let National govern with Act, Maori and UF. It doesn't take into account traditional overstating of National poll support though.
In electorate news, the MP looks more likely to retain one and possible a second seat. If so this will let them retain influence. The state Maori TV channel is doing a good job of focusing on those races, to a degree that it is almost possible to say an informed voter would know more about them than general electorates.
Finally, the next main party leaders debate is tonight.
Sure.....
http://theconversation.com/individual-contracts-come-back-but-dont-mention-the-workchoices-31097
Getting paid in pizza probably isn't as awesome as it sounds.
And there goes a huge chunk of tassie forest.