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Can someone with a lot more knowledge than me please explain military spending and why it is necessary? Australia spent 26.6 Billion this year and judging by this article the budgets always seem to go way over and I often wonder what sort of return you get for that investment.
"Cost of 26 projects rises by $24bn compared with what was originally announced, auditor general finds" link
Why do we need to spend billions on submarines and fighter jets? Does China immediately invade if we don't have submarines or is there a complicated relationship with the US that dictates we have to have x spending to get their protection?
I see Australia is the 12th in the world in regards to military spending. We have the 55th biggest world population.
I can't help but think those billions would do so much more good for the population if used for health, education, firefighters etc.
I understand there has to be some spending but fuck me does it have to be so much.
I see NZ is not immune to this either with 20 billion being invested in defence including a satellite surveillance system.
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@chimoaus said in Aussie Politics:
Can someone with a lot more knowledge than me please explain military spending and why it is necessary? Australia spent 26.6 Billion this year and judging by this article the budgets always seem to go way over and I often wonder what sort of return you get for that investment.
"Cost of 26 projects rises by $24bn compared with what was originally announced, auditor general finds" link
Why do we need to spend billions on submarines and fighter jets? Does China immediately invade if we don't have submarines or is there a complicated relationship with the US that dictates we have to have x spending to get their protection?
I see Australia is the 12th in the world in regards to military spending. We have the 55th biggest world population.
I can't help but think those billions would do so much more good for the population if used for health, education, firefighters etc.
I understand there has to be some spending but fuck me does it have to be so much.
I see NZ is not immune to this either with 20 billion being invested in defence including a satellite surveillance system.
I've been working on a billion dollar defence programme for the last two years. It was a year behind schedule when I started.
Part of the problem is public service mentality - it's not their money they're wasting. There's no profit motive attached unless it's provided by industry working on a fixed price contract.Then you have to deal with the monolithic nature of the organisations involved. The turnover of military staff in decision making positions because they are posted through their career and most large projects last longer than your typical posting cycle.
That's after it gets delayed by Defence deciding that they're precious snow flakes and their equipment needs special modifications to every other capability available off the shelf which drastically increases cost, complexity and time.
For example: A billion dollars spent on 11 1950s Seasprite helicopter frames and modernising them, only to never use them because someone finally asked wtf are we doing this for?
Or the landing craft that cracked during trials. Their mother ships, HMAS Manoora and Kanimbla were by then in dry dock over concerns about their seaworthiness.
Etc.
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@antipodean I can only imagine the inefficiencies involved. I remember I had a mate that was on a golden ticket at a Navy Base which has a large airport. I have no idea how often planes land at this location but because it is active it needs a 24 hour fire fighting capability. He worked his day job then drove to the navy base, started at 6pm, he said they cooked up a massive feed, played xbox, watched movies then went to bed until their shift finished at 6am. Basically got 12 hours good pay every night for doing literally nothing. He had been there for years and I don't think he had many sleepless nights.
I do not begrudge military people getting the risk pay they get but boy do they get some benefits with medical, housing, loans etc. They also get massive bonuses for signing on for x more years. Someone I worked with husband got a massive bonus as part of their retention scheme, I'm sure it was like a years salary or similar.
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@barbarian said in British Politics:
I don't know anything about the NZ context, but in Australia the 'centre' is shifting slowly to the left, especially on social issues.
The gay marriage vote was a pretty decent example of this, and how traditionally conservative areas (like regional NSW) are actually moving to more progressive positions.
Now I agree with everything that's been said about courting the radical left voters, especially when it comes to inequality and environmental policy. But I also think 'traditional' views are slowly changing here.
Outside of Warringah which was a very special case I'm yet to see electoral evidence for this. The Coalition have lost one election in the last 26 years and were just returned with an increased majority. The Greens or ALP made no inroads in the senate despite the preference forms assisting them.
Seems like a classic metropolitan bubble where the pretty obvious hardening to the right of large swathes of Queensland/WA/Hunter Valley don't count as much as increased twitter volume out of Melbourne's inner suburbs.
Gay marriage FWIW was always a purely pragmatic/political capital issue (which is why you had the likes of Penny Wong against it while in government) and public opinion had been there for at least 20 years.
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@rotated said in British Politics:
Outside of Warringah which was a very special case I'm yet to see electoral evidence for this. The Coalition have lost one election in the last 26 years and were just returned with an increased majority. The Greens or ALP made no inroads in the senate despite the preference forms assisting them.
Seems like a classic metropolitan bubble where the pretty obvious hardening to the right of large swathes of Queensland/WA/Hunter Valley don't count as much as increased twitter volume out of Melbourne's inner suburbs.
Though I agree there's a metro bubble, at least in NSW I find it tends to assume Regional NSW is more right wing than it really is.
While there hasn't been explicit electoral evidence (though the Christian Democrats vote in regional areas has dropped significantly), there has been policy evidence. The recent case being the abortion law decriminalisation debate in NSW, where the vast majority of regional MPs (of all parties) voted in favour and have received broad support within their electorates for taking that position.
So I don't necessarily think it's a Libs/Nats vs Labor thing, rather a slow shift which is reflected by candidates on both sides and the electorate more broadly.
And I realise this is now a long way from British Politics so maybe worth shifting this debate elsewhere.
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@barbarian @rotated I'm in Warringah. Would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if the Libs ran a more "in-touch" candidate. This electorate is very Liberal, it was an extraordinary protest vote against a man rather than the party.
Zali is actually really unimpressive as a politician, she is really cold in person, not much charisma at all. -
@voodoo said in Aussie Politics:
@barbarian @rotated I'm in Warringah. Would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if the Libs ran a more "in-touch" candidate. This electorate is very Liberal, it was an extraordinary protest vote against a man rather than the party.
Zali is actually really unimpressive as a politician, she is really cold in person, not much charisma at all.I am not at all surprised to see this speculation/questioning taking place - I saw it coming. When Steggall was put forward it was a repeat of Labor running Maxine McWho? in Bennelong to unseat John Howard in 2007, nothing more. Labor needed to put the experienced and capable Howard out of the picture, to destabilise Coalition rebuilding after the election.
They needed to do the same with Tony Abbott in 2019. Labor's man in the Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull, couldn't have agreed more.
I say Labor was doubtful that Bennelong and later Warringah would revert to them mid term so they went for the much more important short term objective.
McKew thought she knew plenty about politics and discovered she didn't, even more so in an electorate fast changing to an Asian base. Being married to Labor organisation heavy Bob Hogg didn't help either - I venture that is because he had become yesterday's man (and had no idea how to deal with Asians). She sat on her clacker for the next three years and did nothing. John Alexander won the seat back for the Liberals at the next election, after walking the streets for a year or more.
Steggall hasn't done a hard day's work in her life - she flew about the world "following her dream" as a taxpayer subsidised skier then Daddy (a suburban solicitor) put her through a third rate university for her BA and gave her a job. She had a lot of help from Labor and Getup running a dirty campaign against the Liberals, and against Abbott personally, and plenty of locals were put off by that, especially when they discovered "she is really cold in person, not much charisma at all".
Steggall is a straight off the shelf climate/warming/cooling/we're going to die of thirst/drown disciple who has rehearsed all the green clichés but doesn't understand what they mean.
I have a son and daughter and their wife / husband living on the "insular peninsula" and I listen to what they and their mates have to say - as their profession/trade began to cut in some years ago, and they started making real money, their scepticism at the fables Miss told them at school, about cuddly whales falling off the polar ice caps, increased markedly. They typify the demographics of Warringah and they will give Missy Zali the shove at the next election.
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@Mick-Gold-Coast-QLD said in Aussie Politics:
@voodoo said in Aussie Politics:
@barbarian @rotated I'm in Warringah. Would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if the Libs ran a more "in-touch" candidate. This electorate is very Liberal, it was an extraordinary protest vote against a man rather than the party.
Zali is actually really unimpressive as a politician, she is really cold in person, not much charisma at all.I thoroughly enjoyed your post except for the mention of a third-rate university which made me check to see if I went to the same one (I didn't, different state and it is proudly second rate by any metric).
The scoop/theory I've always heard on the McKew run was that it was never intended result in them winning Bennelong and her sitting as an MP. The idea was to give Howard a run and immobilize him by forcing him back to Bennelong once or twice a week. Leading into that campaign people had every reason to expect Howard to come from behind for a third time, and Rudd to implode like Latham.
GetUp pretty much played themselves this election. Poured all their resources into Warringah (Abbot), Dickson (Dutton), Kooyong (Frydenburg) and Cowper (pro-Oakshott) because they wanted big scalps but flamed out winning 1/4 and absolutely losing the war.
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Please share your rant.... I mean thoughts on this .
Btw you’re welcome to her.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12298839
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@antipodean said in Aussie Politics:
@jegga A story based on the Daily Mail's trawling of social media? Is that premium content?
They usually hide premium content behind the paywall. But hey if three people tweeted it it must be a thing
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Its amazing, makes one short speech and wears a hijab ....
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@jegga said in Aussie Politics:
Its amazing, makes one short speech and wears a hijab ....
Oh come on she cuddled people too.
Whereas Scomo's attempts to show some empathy have been labelled cis-gendered violence.
I'd say "have her", but that means I get her ...
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@jegga said in Aussie Politics:
Please share your rant.... I mean thoughts on this .
Btw you’re welcome to her.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12298839
I have plenty to say about the Duchess of Arden, "Neighhhhh", oh yes I have, doan, doan-choo, no, no doan-choo worry about that!¹ Just today I read this about the strumpet:
"Arguably, Mzzzzz Ardern has put New Zealand on the global map, ensuring a better profile for the country, better networking and better status to build trade, security and relationships. These are all part of the work, and key metrics (the hip, modern term for "characteristics or "tasks") for a country’s leader."
That was some furriner sheila writing in thenational.ae, burbling about non existent new trade relationships delicately crafted by your universally loved national Goddess. Western wymminses spend a hell of a lot of time talking themselves up, eh? ... probably because blokes are better at what they are good at and they are not permitted to admit that.
Anyway, to answer your question Jegga - Fins Restaurant is in the Salt development south of Kingscliff, a stock standard collection of square sterilised white apartment blocks priced for retiring middle income dills who have no idea that the thing was put together by an under-capitalised developer who routinely dudded the subbies. The subbies dealt with that in the time honoured fashion here - get in, get it done as quickly and as cheaply as possible using low cost unskilled labourers and get out and on to the next job. Liberal applications of plaster and render can hide most sins and recommending the client to your competition kills two birds with one stone.
The thing faces east, just a few degrees south of east, which means when the southerly is blowing a little bit it's not a good idea to sit outside. You must sit inside and hope the air conditioning is how you like it. I've eaten at Kingscliffe Hotel just to the north and the front verandah suffers the same from the wind approaching across miles of open beach to the south.
Eating at the pub at least offers local scenery, passers by and bikinis to ogle at.
Have a go at Fins menu (https://www.fins.com.au). It has won a few State wide awards and the pricing reflects that, you'd unload $400 to $500 a couple easily ... oysters $55 dozen, scallops or king prawns $27; mains, sirloin steak or fish of the day $45++; SA white wines $80 to $120, NZ chardonnay $55 to $105. The servings are gobble, gobble, gob....! and its gone, not the amount of tucker favored by a proper sized bloke but then you are talking about Beta Boy Gaylord.
My thoughts? In summary it has cost you a fortune for these chancers to sit in isolation in a gaunt, sterile space, in the wind to scoff down a tiny feed, delicious until (I fervently hope) they discovered that the oysters had gone off³ and that the unpaid plumbing contractor had not properly fitted the gaskets on the dunny outlet in their grand suite!
¹ borrowed from New Zealander Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen of Dannevirke
² "arguably" is most often seen as an attempt to legitimise some dopey sports blogger's over-inflated ranking of his favorite under-performer eg. "Bono is arguably on paper the world's best 7 - no, No 8 - err - don't get me wrong." When confronted with this do remember it would be cruel to mention Dusautoir, Schalk Burger or the several other obviously better contenders - bigger, stronger, more threatening, bruising and so on.
³ you never ever want to experience this. Oysters were about as much my favorite as Tooheys New and Turkish Delight. I copped a dud, halfway back in my allotted time to date, and it took me probably two whole years before I could try them again. The pain in the gut was excruciating, the disturbance to the waste product works was bloody awful and the sentence was days not hours. -
@Mick-Gold-Coast-QLD It seems wrong to keep her here when you guys are begging I repeat begging for her to stay.
I worked on an apartment block at Milsons point in sydney, the floors were so out of level we shot the skirting to height with a laser level and labourers poured barrow after barrow of flc to bring the floor up to height under our skirting. Shame the windows still looked terribly out of plumb.'
Anyway I was still there at the end of the job and usually had a chat at smoko with the owner of the cafe next door who was Chinese. He said he could tell by the colours they'd chosen for the place they were targeting Chinese buyers. Then he gave me a run down on how feng shui worked and said no Chinese person would ever buy there because it it was at the end of the t intersection because it meant bad fortune for anyone living there. .... -
@Mick-Gold-Coast-QLD I had dud oysters while camping 3 years ago.
Hottest weekend of the summer - a long drop - lying in pain with cramps in a sweatbox of a tent getting up to go for a shit every 20 minutes - no thanks.
24 hours later I had to pack up the tent still weak as a kitten. Finally got the car loaded. Drove 5 metres outside the campground and got a flattie.
I lovz me oysters but I haven't touched one from that harbour since.
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