Australian Federal Election
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Rancid Schnitzel" data-cid="590293" data-time="1466509292">
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<p>That's pretty gutter journalism don't you think?</p>
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<p>Umm no. Not if you're reporting who thought it and the circumstances why. Particularly if a number of people are saying the same thing.</p>
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<p>She's not asserting they were, just how strange the relationship was.</p> -
She strongly insinuated they were bonking right? If you're going to do something like that then you better be pretty certain about your sources. I'm not sure if people who hate their guts are particularly good sources. Btw, do you know who Savvas husband is?
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Rancid Schnitzel" data-cid="590306" data-time="1466516426"><p>She strongly insinuated they were bonking right?</p></blockquote><br>That's not my reading of it. She's trying to explain the weird relationship between them because his reliance on her brought him down. He was warned to get rid of her or he would lose the leadership of his party.<br><br>So when people say it was so dependent and demonstrated behaviours that only couples do, what else is she supposed to write?<br> <br><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote"><p>Btw, do you know who Savvas husband is?</p></blockquote><br>Yes. So?
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<p>This election is depressingly hilarious.</p>
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<p>Libs release an ad with a tradie on it. Unions and ALP supporters yell "faaaaake!' and take to social media, and a shitstorm develops. Turns out the bloke was actually a tradie, a metal worker from Sydney. Now it's turning around, with an ALP ad from 2007 being brought up where the "tradie" was actually in a Robbie Williams tribute act.</p>
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<p>This is the level of discussion we are having. Whether or not you used actors in your ads. Hint guys, normal people think everyone in an ad is an actor reading a script. Anyone "outraged" is pretending, or a retard. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="antipodean" data-cid="590461" data-time="1466567365">
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<p>That's not my reading of it. She's trying to explain the weird relationship between them because his reliance on her brought him down. He was warned to get rid of her or he would lose the leadership of his party.<br><br>
So when people say it was so dependent and demonstrated behaviours that only couples do, what else is she supposed to write?<br>
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Yes. So?</p>
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<p>So it wasn't insinuated in the book that they were rooting? I thought you said it was.</p>
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<p>At any rate, the point is that she is very close to Turnbull and her husband now even works for Turnbull (hence the significance). While I don't doubt there were some serious issues associated with the Abbott-Credlin regime, I don't believe you'd get an impartial or fair assessment of what occurred from someone like Savva.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="590476" data-time="1466569193"><p>This election is depressingly hilarious.<br><br>
Libs release an ad with a tradie on it. Unions and ALP supporters yell "faaaaake!' and take to social media, and a shitstorm develops. Turns out the bloke was actually a tradie, a metal worker from Sydney. Now it's turning around, with an ALP ad from 2007 being brought up where the "tradie" was actually in a Robbie Williams tribute act.<br><br>
This is the level of discussion we are having. Whether or not you used actors in your ads. Hint guys, normal people think everyone in an ad is an actor reading a script. Anyone "outraged" is pretending, or a retard.</p></blockquote>
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It's really a reflection of how little difference it makes, and how voters just aren't engaged.<br><br>
It's like State Of Orrrrrjn - have to drum up some interest through melodrama, because it's barely worth giving a shit -
<p>Agree, I've just got here and I watch the news (disparagingly) but I'm buggered if I know what the main policies are and sense a real sense of disengagement of the electorate. It's just one bloke calling the other a liar and vice versa, interspersed with bullshit baby kissing, hi viz vests and photo shoots</p>
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<p>So fellas, as a fun exercise:</p>
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<p>Who will be the PM of Australia when this thing is done and dusted?</p> -
LNP returned with reduced majority.<br><br>The problem with polls is they assume a uniform swing and that's not the case.<br><br>The policies are the same they always are; increased health and education spending, with the money coming from anyone else but me.
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<p>Leigh Sales eviscerated Bill Shorten tonight on the 7:30 report.</p>
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The Medicare, penalty rates, $100K Uni fees scare campaigns are being exposed for what they really are.<br><br>
The rubbish from Shorten tonight about "tens of thousands of people" he's spoken to that tell him "protect Medicare" is hilarious it's so bad. <br><br>
Medicare - The funny thing is that the payment system is so archaic that the current mob said they'll consider looking at putting out to tender is exactly what Bowen said a few years back when the ALP were last in. <br><br>
Penalty rates - the Government had been saying for ages that they'll leave it to the Fair Work Commission. Same policy as Shorten. <br><br>
$100K Uni fees - that died when Pyne lost the portfolio and their legislation was rejected. <br><br><br>
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ACT Crusader" data-cid="590876" data-time="1466688183">
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<p>Medicare - The funny thing is that the payment system is so archaic that the current mob said they'll consider looking at putting out to tender is exactly what Bowen said a few years back when the ALP were last in.</p>
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<p>How many times have we seen that in this election? One side hammering into the other for policies they originally supported!</p>
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<p>This is why people are so disconnected; the elected officials have limited understanding or bearing on the outcomes, to the man on the street.</p>
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<p>Bill Shorten - as a leader - has definitely grown in this last few weeks in my estimation (which wasn't hard). But neither side is doing anything but spinning its wheels. And both leaders are proving they're a bit shit at thinking on their feet.</p>
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<p>Next week they'll probably turn on the minors as well I suppose? Fair bit of "wasting your vote!" whenever the subject of Xenophon comes up.</p> -
<p>Blast from the past - on the topic of company tax cuts:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/paul-keating-hits-back-on-company-tax-cuts/news-story/62ae25fd15fbba17e463eeed474464b9'>http://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/paul-keating-hits-back-on-company-tax-cuts/news-story/62ae25fd15fbba17e463eeed474464b9</a></p>
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<p></p><p></p><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote"><strong>PAUL Keating is not happy about his economic record being used to justify the Turnbull Government’s company tax cuts and he has delivered a stinging slapdown of the policy.</strong>
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<p>“Yes, I did cut the company tax rate from 49 per cent to 33 per cent but paid for those vast reductions by a massive broadening to the base of the tax system,†he wrote in a letter published on Friday.</p>
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<p>This included introducing capital gains taxation at full marginal rates, a comprehensive fringe benefits tax, the abolition of entertainment as a deduction and tax on company cars.</p>
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<p>“Tax reductions are desirable provided they are affordable,†he noted.</p>
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<p>“But I would never have countenanced a $50 billion impost on the budget balance with a discretionary unfunded tax cut.â€</p>
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<p>He said the AFR must be among national financial newspapers in urging so massive an impost on the national fiscal balance.</p>
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<p>“The AFR has embarked upon this campaign in collusion with the Business Council of Australia, in the council’s camouflaged attempt to reduce the rate of company tax on foreign shareholdings,†he said.</p>
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<p>Paul Keating's just the man you want on your side in a close election. It's ironic that he won an election purely based on anti-GST hysteria, but he actually wanted to introduce a GST himself.</p>
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<p>Transcript available from 7:30 Report last night: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2016/s4488065.htm'>http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2016/s4488065.htm</a><br>
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Sample:</p>
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<p>LEIGH SALES: Alright. Another issue of trust. I've put this to you before, but let me raise it again. You've said repeatedly in regards to union misconduct that you have zero tolerance for criminality and illegality and I've previously read you numerous judgements from courts all around the country labelling the CFMEU an organisation with total disregard for the law. And yet you continue to accept money from the CFMEU, the Labor Party does, and to allow them a say in the formulation of Labor Party policy. That's not zero tolerance, is it? It's a joint venture.<br>
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BILL SHORTEN: Oh, no, that's not fair at all, Leigh. That's not fair at all. I don't think you can assert that the Labor Party's done any of those things, so using it is a joint venture ...<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: But you do take money from the CFMEU. You do let them have a say in policy.<br>
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BILL SHORTEN: Leigh - Leigh, it was that proposition about a joint venture - that's a bridge too far and that doesn't stack up. In terms of the CFMEU, I have got zero tolerance for when their officials break the law. They're absolutely not welcome in the Labor Party. I don't tar every building worker or every trade union with the actions of some officials. I don't expect Mr Turnbull ...<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: But there have been numerous - sorry, ...<br><br>
BILL SHORTEN: But let's just be clear ...<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: I don't want to go to Mr Turnbull because what I want to go to is this. There have been numerous ...<br><br>
BILL SHORTEN: Well no, you are because you're setting up a double standard here.<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: No, no. No, no, I'm not. No, I'm not at all. There have been numerous cases that I've read you in the past where judges around the country have said that the CFMEU as an organisation - not individuals, as an organisation has a record of flouting the law and I'm pointing out that despite you saying you have zero tolerance for that, the Labor Party still has a very tight relationship with them.<br><br>
BILL SHORTEN: No, I don't confuse every person in that union with the actions of some officials. But we do have zero tolerance. We're the ones who've increased the penalties. We're the ones who've proposed new oversight in terms of the regulation of workplace relations. What I won't do though is engage in a general attack on the trade union movement and label everyone with the actions of some people. But where there is criminal activity, the way you hunt it down is through the use of a joint taskforce of police. This government has called the whole election on the basis of their regulator, but they're proposing a system of bureaucracy which is not needed when you've already got the tools there. What we've got to do is give the compliance authorities the resources to do the job they've got to do. And just while we talk about flouting the law, how many bank scandals do there need to be before we get a royal commission into the banks?<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: Sticking with the trust theme, Labor's record in office. The Treasurer Wayne Swan promised four surpluses. He didn't deliver one. You promised an effective mining tax. It raised next to nothing. You promised no carbon tax. You introduced one. You dismantled the Coalition's border protection regime claiming that would save $60 million. It cost more than $10 billion. You axed two sitting prime ministers. Isn't that reasonable for voters to baulk at trusting Labor again with the reins of government?<br><br>
BILL SHORTEN: Well the Labor Party, when it woke up after the Sunday after the last election, realised that the good things it had done in office - the Apology, the handling of the Global Financial Crisis, a whole range of measures - have been overshadowed by infighting. Everyone collectively in the Labor Party learned a very valuable lesson that hardest way it can be done, administered by the Australian people. People do want to see a strong Labor Party and they want to see a strong Liberal Party. What they want to see are united parties and I've got to just put on record my gratitude to my party for the sense of unity and purpose that we've had since then. When you talk about some of the programs and some of the measures of government, under this government, they've never recorded a surplus. Under this ...<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: No, we're talking about your record.<br><br>
BILL SHORTEN: No, they are, but just, let's be clear. Under this government, and this is the government seeking to offer themselves - how do they say they've learned their lesson?<br><br>
LEIGH SALES: We're talking about your record. I'm asking how voters - if people think, "OK, well past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour," they look at some of those things I've outlined and they feel nervous about going back to Labor.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="591149" data-time="1466749165">
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<p>Yep. I'm reaching the age where I think the politicians in my youth (Hawke through to Howard) would eat the present lot for entree and wonder where the meat and potatoes were.</p>
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<p>And there were people of some substance back then. Not all of them but a hell of a lot more than there are now. </p>
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<p>A conversation I was having yesterday about the ALP and lack of quality reminded me of Kim Beazley Snr when he was lamenting what Labor had become in the late 60s. The party was pushing a host of "trendy left agendas" as he said it. Beazley got up in front of his comrades at an ALP conference in 1970 and gave them a serve. "When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now all I see are the dregs of the middle class. And what I want to know is when you middle class perverts are going to stop using the Labor Party as a spiritual spitoon."</p>
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<p>Far too many ALP parliamentarians today are products of the machine - student politics, work for a union or as a political staffer, run on an ALP ticket for the council, run for preselection. </p> -
I wonder how those guys would go in today's society though? People are different, the media are different, and the way they communicate is different