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Dumb Nation has only ever been a problem in that backwater red neck state of Queensland. The areas where they aren't exposed to many migrants...
Unsurprisingly seems to be a lot of dog whistling going on, but then Malcolm has to; if only to shut the raving hypocrite Abbott up.
Then again, it can't be easy to govern when Shorten is busy reneging on everything just to make life difficult for a Prime Minister that has to negotiate with obstructionist protectionists (Xenophon), Watermelons (Greens) and retards (Dumb Nation). How the fuck do you get anything good through that Senate?
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@antipodean and we get Katter too. You're welcome Australia... oh, and that other fat fuck Palmer who has now finally sunk.
You can't get anything through the senate. By the time you keep everyone happy, it's been so watered down it barely resembles what was mooted, and then the opposition just pile in with "weak! can't even get legislation passed!". And that's not a shot at the ALP, the other mob would/did do the same thing.
It has become my belief that this country is ungovernable.
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The country is not ungovernable - its that politics no longer resembles representative democracy.
This has been the case for a long time in the US, and now its a growing blight in all Western democracies. The parties serve themselves before they serve anyone else, and they live in a bubble.
The government says something. The opposition disagrees. The media report it how they like. The polls come out. The government changes their mind.
Its very similar to corporate life now. Nobody gets into a management position, looks around and says "Pretty sweet setup. Don't need to change anything here. I'll just keep things going using the successful methods employed by the previous team".
Its all burn down, change a bunch of shit, grab your KPIs by the nads and climb onward.
Think we don't appreciate how good we've got it, in general. So crises are manufactured.
Easiest way to win the next election for Mal: "We're going to invest in widespread renewables and redress the issues with the NBN. This will provide thousands of actual jobs, not the made-up stuff like Adani with their bullshit coal subsidy rubbish".
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@NTA said in Aussie Politics:
Easiest way to win the next election for Mal: "We're going to invest in widespread renewables and redress the issues with the NBN. This will provide thousands of actual jobs, not the made-up stuff like Adani with their bullshit coal subsidy rubbish".
Mal has no credibility on the NBN and I'm not sure there are enough votes to sway in renewables. Those people are already invested elsewhere. At some point, people need to realise that all you do is spend political capital as a conservative party when you prosecute hard on centre left issues. Look how thankful they were when afforded the opportunity to have a plebiscite on gay marriage.
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M4L: Like to all of that. Barely follow Aus politics anymore. Mal and Bill make me sick, as do most of the rest of them. Say what you like about Howard, but he at least had the balls to govern.
Nick: Would you stop projecting with your ridiculous hippy renewables equals landslide nonsense. That might be the most important issue to you, but incredibly enough most people have other much more pressing issues in their lives.
As for Qld, it's a bloody big state and if Canberra did a better job then idiots like Hanson et al wouldn't be able to gain so much traction.
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@NTA i agree with some of that. However...
I don't see too much "burn it down", i see more "the opposition have already taken the heat for that, so it costs us nothing to leave it there". That's why i was astounded the carbon tax was actually repealed. Unless it costs them nothing, and they can make some ideological capital on it, incoming governments won't change shit. Change is asking for poll trouble, and bad polling gets leaders killed.
Your election winning issues seem very specific to your own personal desires. That's very Australian. You need another 8 million people to think like you for that to be a successful strategy. And that's if (and it's a big if) you can even get the people in your factional party to support you on the issues.
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
That's why i was astounded the carbon tax was actually repealed. Unless it costs them nothing, and they can make some ideological capital on it, incoming governments won't change shit. Change is asking for poll trouble, and bad polling gets leaders killed.
But that carbon tax repeal was ALL ideological bullshit - "Those blokes did it, and by definition - as the opposition - we're opposed to it".
No matter that its proven to work, brought in billions for governments, and actually lowered carbon emissions.
@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
Your election winning issues seem very specific to your own personal desires. That's very Australian. You need another 8 million people to think like you for that to be a successful strategy. And that's if (and it's a big if) you can even get the people in your factional party to support you on the issues.
Yeah - would like a job in renewables once I get this pesky Long Service Leave Achievement unlocked Actually had something on the table at work but it was contract so no-go
But, in the spirit of fairness, maybe you and @Rancid-Schnitzel could drop some truth bombs about what the bigger issues are?
(Please say "jobs and growth" )
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in all fairness, it's growth. and jobs.
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and now Australia First
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
in all fairness, it's growth. and jobs.
Out of curiosity - what's your opinion on Adani Carmichael?
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Yes jobs and growth.
And coal. Lots of lovely black coal.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Aussie Politics:
Yes jobs and growth.
And coal. Lots of lovely black coal.
I like your sass, ScoMo
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Look, I'm as uninformed as most punters who have a strong opinion on it, i just lack the strong opinion.
I'm not against mining. I'm fucking certain regional Qld needs something to kick it along. I'm also not against a Government loaning some money for some infrastructure. And I'm certainly not against people in India buying a few resources if it can help their standard of living.
However, i have a few misgivings about the whole thing. Is there going to be the demand out of India for this coal by the time it's commissioned? Your average mining company don't mind just shutting something down if it seems unviable (ask anyone in Perth), so who carries the can for that? The Indians don't give a fuck about the state of Queensland.
After the whole Aquis fiasco up here, i am very dubious of delicious looking foreign investment projects being sold as a solution to all life's ills. And i can't see a whole lot of writing on this project that isn't "this is great for the economy, and totally safe!" or the polar opposite "it's destroy the Reef, and India are getting away from coal anyway, so what's the point. renewables are the future!".
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@NTA said in Aussie Politics:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Aussie Politics:
Yes jobs and growth.
And coal. Lots of lovely black coal.
I like your sass, ScoMo
Actually Id love to mimic South Australia. Awesome energy situation there.
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
Look, I'm as uninformed as most punters who have a strong opinion on it, i just lack the strong opinion.
I'm not against mining. I'm fucking certain regional Qld needs something to kick it along. I'm also not against a Government loaning some money for some infrastructure. And I'm certainly not against people in India buying a few resources if it can help their standard of living.
However, i have a few misgivings about the whole thing. Is there going to be the demand out of India for this coal by the time it's commissioned? Your average mining company don't mind just shutting something down if it seems unviable (ask anyone in Perth), so who carries the can for that? The Indians don't give a fuck about the state of Queensland.
After the whole Aquis fiasco up here, i am very dubious of delicious looking foreign investment projects being sold as a solution to all life's ills. And i can't see a whole lot of writing on this project that isn't "this is great for the economy, and totally safe!" or the polar opposite "it's destroy the Reef, and India are getting away from coal anyway, so what's the point. renewables are the future!".
The developing world needs cheap, reliable power and shit loads of it. They will not get that from wind farms and unicorn farts.
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
I'm also not against a Government loaning some money for some infrastructure
Me either - and what is this infrastructure going to do besides ship coal to the profit of a foreign entity? Which is key to the next question:
@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
Is there going to be the demand out of India for this coal by the time it's commissioned?
According to reports, India isn't greatly enamoured of more coal - and particularly not foreign coal for thermal energy (they'll still want coking coal for steel production etc).
Now, whether they get there is another question - they've got a shitload of renewables planned (more than 4 times our total national capacity). Has advantages over coal in that you can decentralise renewables from the get-go. The argument for hooking up some random village in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, without running
thousandsmillions of rupees in power lines and vulnerable infrastructure, is good.But its poilitics so the landscape could change pretty quickly. They're not big on imports because its way expensive, and they could build an industry out of renewables to rival that of China.
My question to the government is: in pure risk/reward terms, how does 1400 heavily subsidised mining jobs, that may disappear without notice, stack up against the risk of damaging the tourism industry by spilling coal everywhere?
Let's hope we never find out, one way or another.
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to my own personal detriment, i just read their (okay, part of their) energy plan going forward. They're going big on renewables to cover the increases in demand, but the report goes to great lengths to show they won't be reducing their reliance on their current coal production, and they aren't against upping their coal power to cover any shortfalls created by inefficient renewable sources.
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Politics:
to my own personal detriment, i just read their (okay, part of their) energy plan going forward. They're going big on renewables to cover the increases in demand, but the report goes to great lengths to show they won't be reducing their reliance on their current coal production, and they aren't against upping their coal power to cover any shortfalls created by inefficient renewable sources.
Yep - they've got a lot of energy need at the moment, and a lot of plans moving forward. Reducing coal capacity would be a bit stupid because those things have a life of 50ish years.
They'll probably be in the second wave of storage tech to cover the renewables blips. They've got the tech base to develop an integrated smart grid and probably do it faster than we can.
Aussie Politics