Australia General Discussion 4.0: It ain’t easy under Albanese

[If my soul was made of stone]

There was predatory and widespread sexual harassment on Australia's Antarctic research bases.

I want so badly to love the polar regions of the world, but then every man who spends time there goes mad with sex pest-dom. #AlaskaNeedsMatriarchy

[Pulaski]

Albo appears to have quashed speculation that the government will make any movement on stage 3 tax cuts in the upcoming Budget.

If you were going to cancel/pare down those tax cuts (still not set to come in until 2024), breaking your election commitment, now would be the time to do it, when polls indicate there's relative support for doing so, you still have mounds of political capital, and plenty of time before the next election for people to forget about it.

If you try doing it in a later Budget, you run the risk of it being turned into an election issue.

Either this is bad politics, or it's bad policy.

[CumbrianLefty]

Albo appears to have quashed speculation that the government will make any movement on stage 3 tax cuts in the upcoming Budget.

If you were going to cancel/pare down those tax cuts (still not set to come in until 2024), breaking your election commitment, now would be the time to do it, when polls indicate there's relative support for doing so, you still have mounds of political capital, and plenty of time before the next election for people to forget about it.

If you try doing it in a later Budget, you run the risk of it being turned into an election issue.

Either this is bad politics, or it's bad policy.

Disappointing, and probably a mix of both. It shouldn't after all be that hard to fashion a "pragmatism not ideology" explanation of why changing tack now is desirable.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Haven't been following this, why on earth have the ALP persisted with said tax cuts anyway?

Still haunted by There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

But it's important to note that any price they'd pay in political capital looks like it'd be minimal - a poll from the Australia Institute[/url] (admittedly a left-leaning thinktank) found that of those who had an opinion (so a minority), a majority favoured scrapping the cuts.

When Gillard back flipped on the carbon tax internal polling wasn’t showing too much damage. While people might be okay with a backflip now how will they feel after three years of Liberals hammering home Labor Lies? Stuff like Albanese lied about Tax Cuts. How do we know he isn’t lying about the Death Tax?. It writes itself.

[morgieb]

Haven't been following this, why on earth have the ALP persisted with said tax cuts anyway?

Still haunted by There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

Or perhaps even more relevantly, the L.A.W. tax cuts are LAW.

[Pulaski]

Haven't been following this, why on earth have the ALP persisted with said tax cuts anyway?

Still haunted by There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

But it's important to note that any price they'd pay in political capital looks like it'd be minimal - a poll from the Australia Institute[/url] (admittedly a left-leaning thinktank) found that of those who had an opinion (so a minority), a majority favoured scrapping the cuts.

When Gillard back flipped on the carbon tax internal polling wasn’t showing too much damage. While people might be okay with a backflip now how will they feel after three years of Liberals hammering home Labor Lies? Stuff like Albanese lied about Tax Cuts. How do we know he isn’t lying about the Death Tax?. It writes itself.

Labor have already all but ditched their commitment to cut the average power bill by $275 (which was a ridiculous promise in the first place). The Opposition are banging on about that, including at every Question Time, but it's hardly moving the needle.

I'm sure you're aware, but polling on the carbon tax significantly improved over time after its introduction (though was always more unpopular than popular), while Labor itself remained underwater for 3 years. Similarly, the Gillard government's broad policy slate was much more popular than the government itself. People are more interested in personality than policy.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Peter Dutton on Syrian Refugees

Stranded ISIS families

https://youtu.be/NOgcCxCCcx0

8 mins 40 seconds.

Voldemort saying ISIS refugees doth butter no parsnips.

[Meclazine for Israel]

According to news.com.au (and prey to God its the last time I ever link to their filth):

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/racial-shifters-identifying-as-aboriginal-do-not-lose-their-selfentitlement/news-story/cce0453c77e4184e497625101f4ff83a

92,000 non-indigenous Australians identified as Aboriginal in the last census.

'Race shifting' appears to be a thing in Australia now.

[Pulaski]

According to news.com.au (and prey to go's its the last time I ever link to their filth):

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/racial-shifters-identifying-as-aboriginal-do-not-lose-their-selfentitlement/news-story/cce0453c77e4184e497625101f4ff83a

92,000 non-indigenous Australians identified as Aboriginal in the last census.

'Race shifting' appears to be a thing in Australia now.

It's an interesting, provocative piece written by someone with expertise and experience in the field. No issue with the article.

What's disappointing is the link to Chris Kenny's nonsense at the top claiming people are claiming to be Indigenous to reap "benefits" - a proven falsehood.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Article on migrants with qualifications and degrees from outside Australia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/higher-education-with-worse-job-outcomes-is-the-reality-for-many/101542354

I have had personal experience with geologists and engineers from outside Australia, and they are generally not up to scratch, particularly from Bangladesh, India, Iran and Pakistan.

Surpringly, Russian geologists and engineers are outstanding as are German and Italians.

The reason is that these degrees in the sub-continent are viewed more as status symbols in society, and you are 'above' certain tasks based on your status, so lesser workers are available for the mundane tasks and you are of a higher 'class' of person than others in those countries.

In Australian Universities, once you graduate and have a degree, you are still expected to work hard and do every job top to bottom and interact equally with everyone.

The other issue more likely than not is the actual quality of the Universities in these countries. We have had some severely uneducated staff from India and Bangladesh. Nice people, but not trained scientifically to a high standard.

Based on experience, I have found African and English geologists fare a lot better, although not all.

Hard work is what this is about, and that attribute can overcome 90% of the communication and language barriers.

I would have to rate South Sudanese geologists and field workers as the most impressive migrant workers I have seen in outback Australia.

They are jets.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

So the NSW coalition is seeing frontbenchers retiring left right and centre. We're now up to 8 current or former cabinet ministers retiring, and the Speaker too. There's also a few very nasty preselections brewing thanks to the redistribution transforming some branches. But Perrottet assures us that nothing is wrong, please disperse, nothing to see here.
Of course this being NSW everyone still half expects the Sussex Street brain trust to somehow blow the election. Chris Minns does hold his seat on a literal 0.1% margin after all.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

So the NSW coalition is seeing frontbenchers retiring left right and centre. We're now up to 8 current or former cabinet ministers retiring, and the Speaker too. There's also a few very nasty preselections brewing thanks to the redistribution transforming some branches. But Perrottet assures us that nothing is wrong, please disperse, nothing to see here.
Of course this being NSW everyone still half expects the Sussex Street brain trust to somehow blow the election. Chris Minns does hold his seat on a literal 0.1% margin after all.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-30/nsw-liberal-preselections-delayed-by-factional-battles-analysis/101588692

A decent ABC article going into the current state of play. The NSW Liberal tradition of bloody pre-selections continues.

[Meclazine for Israel]

China not amused that the US Air Force is going to place six nuclear capable B-52's just south of Darwin. And all comms bases including Pine Gap to be upgraded

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-31/china-slames-planned-deployments-of-b52-bombers-to-australia/101598442

It's great that the World is united against their aggressive tactics in SE Asia.

[GoTfan]

Well damn, Sky News just broke the irony metre.

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/1588500209453395970?t=MGlJ4IK2air60mdyPuL...

[CumbrianLefty]

And the right wing modus vivendi these days is holding the public to account, not power.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Not surprised if comes from Jack Houghton. He’s taken Andrew Bolt’s torch of trying to be the conservative response to scary big bad Paul Barry. His face is as punchable as you’d expect (with Potter glasses to boot!).

[AustralianSwingVoter]

With the passing of the father of psephology David Butler it’s a great time to look back on his 70s essays on Australian politics and government.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Surprised to see no discussion of the censure of Morrison in the House over the secret ministries scandal - ScoMo was pissed off in Parliament.

Personally I didn't really see the point of the censure.

It has no effect or result. Therefore all the left politicians made a week's work out of it.

[GoTfan]

Surprised to see no discussion of the censure of Morrison in the House over the secret ministries scandal - ScoMo was pissed off in Parliament.

Personally I didn't really see the point of the censure.

It is pretty much a slap on the wrist, but Morrison, like Slugg, seems incapable of recognising that Australia is moving past the right wing fossil era where religion permeated everything and First Nations Australians were treated like dirt.

[Cassius]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/16/i-went-cross-eyed-australias-former-deputy-pm-taken-to-hospital-after-drinking-entire-bowl-of-kava

The Lucky Country

[AustralianSwingVoter]

God I love South Pacific diplomacy.

[(no subject)]

He should have eaten at Pankot Palace.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/16/i-went-cross-eyed-australias-former-deputy-pm-taken-to-hospital-after-drinking-entire-bowl-of-kava

The Lucky Country

As least he seems to have taken it in stride.

[(no subject)]

"A man who beans up in the hat of Bear Strangler McGee, is either mighty brave or mighty stupid. Which are you, boy?" ((c) Red Dwarf)

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Nationals member for Calare Andrew Gee has resigned from the party to sit as an Independent over the opposition to the indigenous voice. Looks very unlikely he’d return to the party, he’s got a solid chance of locking down the seat as an Independent for a decade plus.

Nationals try to not self-destructively enable independents challenge (literally impossible)