Australia - you're standing in it
tbb is onto it
"50% of covid infected males carry virus in their testes."
A series of articles done way back in February by Yoichi, a Japanese journalist, Shimatsu being the last name. If you really want the crazy, crazy corona rabbit-hole. Much better not to be infected by it in the first place. Did not know it also takes out the women's fertility when in best childbearing years. Any reference?
I think I understand where Facto is coming from a bit more since seeing the anarchist (libertarian marxist) viewpoint on the Spanish Civil war. Maybe it even works. If the libertarian marxists are like the little black house spiders, the proper stalinist or maoist communists are like a big white tail spider that just chomps through a roomfull of the little guys overnight and is still hungry.
2020 "Guinea Pigs" = 1st Qld Prep > Grade 7 (High) then Covid Home School.
Feral Pigs shrugged off adversity to trash & shut down Noosa WSR & Nippers.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/schoolies-week-noosas-main-beach-shut-...
Just quietly...GC local ghost town Covid test centre awoke to queues this morning.
Even had Qld Govt fluro squad staring you down from a block away...just saying...
It won't make the News that Qld like all other states are riding the razor's edge.
Post Election ...We Qldurrz are ramping our luck...for how long does that hold out?
Govt's are banking on a silly season super spread of xmas cheer & whatever.
"Just cause the ABC plays woke don't ever asssume it’s on the side of the Australian people."
So when it comes to politics and the media, who again is on the side of the Australian people blowin? Got any names for us champ?
oh no! it's the fake liberal media! trump bot much?
So billionaire Gerry Harvey’s back to school business is doing well and he’s just called for people to volunteer at his stores during the busy back to school period. That’s right. No pay for retail workers.
FFS that’s utterly shameless. Hey blowin it’s cunts like Harvey and Palmer stiffing workers, but don’t worry about that mate, just keep blaming the immigrants.
velocityjohnno is also right to alert more to the fact.
Gold Coast IVF is up 30% up on last year.
Some suggest that a covid IVF baby boom might just flip experts Pop' decline.
But what we can say for sure, is that IVF is gonna be the biggest winner.
None are gonna risk everything for a devastating result...we all want surety.
These studies that we share here are only glimpses & all insist on major studies.
What's weird is that no WHO / Govt's are fast tracking joint major Fertility studies.
It's all 100% VIP private...there is no scale of humanity ...it's a closed shop!
We do know that Oz Fed Govt swabbed Vic multicultural Hot Spot for a reason.
We also know that reason was to stockpile DNA.
We also know that Oz Covid DNA Tests are joint funded by US Fertility Corps.
So Govt's are playing a lead role to assist VIP patients of Donor Fertility Corps.
As for yer local pop-in Family Planing centre....(Cough!) (Cough!)
Not seen a sign in the window about Post Covid Fishing Charters.
tbb agrees with crew...Men's # 1 problem doesn't even register as news.
Gonna be a Tonka Truck Load of conspiracies, once this news gets out...
Again it shows just how far behind society really is...the blind leading the blind.
Adding that because no Govt has stepped up, then they're stoking the conspiracy.
Unsure if crew are calling for fertility as a basic Health requirement...
Only know that we're human enough to respect our brother's need to plant seeds.
Age 20s peak female fertility, for blokes fertility begins to drop after 40
Safest time for healthy children: caveat might be hereditary stuff...
https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/best-age-to-get-pregnant
The New Daily is singing a very different song to that ABC reporter.
“They say our contract stipulates that you have to stay at the hostel. Even on Facebook, when they advertise they say it in the job advert – you have to stay at that backpackers,” Mr Muir told The New Daily.
I have extensive experience in hospitality and fruit and veg supply, but the minute I tell them I have my own accommodation it is the last I hear from any of them.”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/10/25/farm-jobs-shortage-a...
"Efforts to paint Australians as too lazy to take fruit-picking jobs have been blown apart by an experienced fruit-picker who has revealed he was lured to a Queensland farm on the promise of making more than $3,000-a-week only to be paid less than the minimum wage."
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/11/15/farm-work-australia-...
Never waste a crisis.
Sly-Mo's new worker grants if employers hire people under 35 will lock in a part-time and casual non unionised workforce for a generation.
How so? e.g. the rules will allow an employer to not rehire (post Covid) 2 full-time workers and replace them with 4-6+ part-timers or causals and bingo its free money in the form of government grants all round.
I heard they were crying bloody blue murder for blueberry pickers around here.
I filled out a job application, perfect health, experience, tons of work picking fruit, can drive anything etc etc.
Never heard a dicky bird from them.
I think its a crock of shitt; they want cheap labour.
Yep . The blueberry workers at a joint here got flown from Korea despite the double figure unemployment here pre COVID.
That’d be those beaut free trade agreements our government signed in secret working their magic.
What thread was the crocs at warroorra in yesterday?
I think it was the greenmount shark attack thread ?
I’m only aware of a croc . Singular.
"tbb is onto it
"50% of covid infected males carry virus in their testes."
so one can assume this is only whilst infected?
any of you corona rabbit hole divers game to give your perspective on faucci's 'gain of function' research, and the likelihood of the research contributing to the virus?
I know it's been suggested by some before (and those suggsstions didn't go well...) so totally understand if my question is met with steely silence...
just wondering, almost a year into this virus, whether people's thoughts have changed?
for the record, mine haven't, it seems the more we know, the more likely it is. it's the peculiarities and stickyness of this virus that makes ne think this way. plus the fact the mainstream media have pretty much buried or totally ignored the 'gain of function' stuff.
faucci.... despite the above... I like the guy, anyone who can work so tirelessly with a fuckwit such as trump, under such hostile circumstances deserves respect. he is an amazing personality. day after day, abused, ignored, and bagged, but he's there, cool as a cucumber, professional all the way. and never drawn into the media's get trumpism, despite their finest efforts...
the 'gain of function' stuff is quite interesting though. given trump's loose canon style, you'd think he'd be all over this with faucci, slandering and blaming with outrageous statements. but it seems they are both complicit in the dastardlyness of this little research project gone wrong, and possibly have a pact of silence?
speaking of corona craziness...
check out the vids in this story
https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/footage-emerges-of-wild-scenes-at-sha...
china...
totally got the situatiion under control... nothing to worry about... numbers... virus... no problem... nothing to see here... totally under control...
chinese students? ...bring em on, bring em in...
back to business as usual, you're being paranoid...
yeh nah
and I notice, despite the sustained bleating that Australian blueberries are cheap as chips right now.
"Yep . The blueberry workers at a joint here got flown from Korea despite the double figure unemployment here pre COVID.
That’d be those beaut free trade agreements our government signed in secret working their magic."
Wow blowin, that's idiotic even by your standards.
You're basically accusing our government of favouring South Korean workers over Australian workers for fruit picking. Now, I won't ask for your evidence this is happening, because I know you won't be providing any.
Maybe you could explain why the Australian government would embark on a policy that kept Aussies on welfare rather than allow them to be taxpayers.
Do tell us why they'd do this blowin.
Oh, and do let us know which FTA you're talking about.
What's idiotic about it?
Australia and Korea have a free trade agreement (KAFTA) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union have expressed concern that both the major parties signed on to this deal which allows companies to bring in workers rather than have to hire local first.
And the president of the Korean Workers Union says that instead of Korean workers being paid the award wage, it's more like "slave labor".
The Australian government’s fair work ombudsman says it has uncovered “persistent” underpayment of Korean workers in Australia, and it's very difficult to imagine that the Australian government wouldn't have foreseen this.
AndyM,
Big difference between skilled manufacturing workers and fruit picking. And the poor treatment of South Korean workers has very little to do with a FTA. That's a matter of labour laws being breached at a local level.
If South Koreans are being given visas to pick fruit it's because sponsors have advertised jobs to Australians (LMT: Local Market Testing) and they can't find enough staff.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/employing-and-sponsoring-someone/s...
blowins "poor Aussie workers" routine, and then linking it to the KAFTA is just nonsense. Just more anti-immigration drivel from a bloke who plays fast and loose with the truth.
that's a LOT of people at that airport! Contact tracers are going to be busy...
Where did you get the idea that they were skilled manufacturing workers? Just because of the name of the union?
And I've already provided links showing that "poor Aussie workers" are indeed being overlooked for work because there is cheaper more easily exportable labour available, made possible by cynical free trade agreements.
Michael Bourne, wow, another self aggrandising public masturbation session, in a written format... again.
All I asked was for you to stop throwing around the false implications of racism that you use to solidify your earned position; Michael Bourne -Swellnet Paragon of Virtue Signalling.
Instead you took the chance to let us all know how truly impressive you are, again, and It probably wasn’t the last time either. But don’t do it again for me Mike. You have now made my shortlist of people whose posts are not worth the time it takes to read. Only three people on that list.
For such an obviously impressive guy, you surprise me Mike. Something I have gathered over the years is that one of the main characteristics most truly amazing people possess, is humility. You might be on the dean’s list for high achievements in the field of narcissism, but you failed the humility test in a rather humiliating fashion. Not so impressive Mike.
Your description of the requirements of rigorous academic study, thank for talking me through it. I got a hold on it as a young bloke when I got my first degree in Design. By the time I graduated (hons) with a Science degree I had a pretty reasonable understanding of the requirements. Thanks though I appreciate the gesture.
And the lofty academic standards you mastered when you completed a Post Modern era Bachelor of Arts is kinda funny too if I’m honest. Cultural studies isn’t the most esteemed academic field. To paraphrase Michel Foucault the post modern philosopher - truth, knowledge and power are the same. Also, truth is apparently a human construct. That could be why you think that the words dialect and language mean the same thing.
Credit were it is due though Foucault did denounce Marxism, revered Nietzsche, and campaigned against the death penalty.
Regarding the rigorous academic standards applied to cultural studies, Check out this piss take of the level of scholarship required to pass peer review, get published in a modern social science journal, and be cited. Rape culture and queer performativity in urban dog parks, so funny.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
And Mike,
The reason that I haven’t called out racism on these forums is because I haven’t seen any, not saying that it hasn’t happened. I haven’t seen it. Criticism of the policies and actions of the CCP I have seen, but that hasn’t been racist, most of the time it deserved applause.
But If you want me to call out prejudice, I can, for you Mike.
Many people on here are overtly prejudiced against individuals who hold right wing or conservative values; not by disagreeing with their positions, but by overtly stating that right wing individuals are lesser, dumb, ignorant and worthy of contempt. I have already called this out many times though.
The one form of prejudice that I have seen explicitly on these forums, that I haven’t yet called out is homophobia, there are a few people here who seem to use accusations of gay male sex as their standard means of making a derogatory comment. Sometimes people accuse others of racism then insult them for being gay in the same post. Solid.
Anyway seeya Bourney maaaaytee, your all steaming up again ayyye mayyte, you look all shrouded in mists and stuff ayyye.
Sickaz, I'm impressed by the humility you've shown whilst denigrating others study, efforts and qualifications. To do it with such verbosity too!, Quite something my friend.
Beautifully written Sickaz
BTW. I too am surprised by the homophobic slurs.
Good read in today's Oz from Andrew Hastie, including in part the way our govts have stage managed the war in Afghanistan so bad things could happen away from an independent press.
This, Hastie says, is in contrast to the UK and US war experiences.
Hard not to read it in light of utterances such as Tony Abbott's "Team Australia" and that every action had to be for the immediate material benefit of Australia - as opposed to a free press holding power to account.
Just as a good government needs a strong opposition, so too do other bureaus of power.
Should also be noted the current scandal was first brought to light by the ABC. Could anyone imagine a commercial station - say Kerry Stokes' Channel 7, ho ho ho - touching it when at the time everyone from Brendan Nelson on down called it a traitorous act by the ABC.
Agree re strong opposition, but the labour party seems to sits back and cant lay a glove on Morrison and Co . Peter Van Oslen got stuck into Morrison big time on last Sundays Insiders over Robodebt . I try to get news from a variety of sources but not hearing much fire from our opposition who should be screaming about that particular iniquitous policy and outcome at least.
Ho ho ho indeed. Talk about a conflict of interest.
thankyou for that link Sickaz. Made my morning.
I'll never look at dogs in urban park settings in the same way again lol
Kudos to the perps
“ Maybe you could explain why the Australian government would embark on a policy that kept Aussies on welfare rather than allow them to be taxpayers”
Well bloke , it’s like this :
The government looks after its business mates first and foremost. Business wants cheap ( free ) labour so the government accommodates them by importing masses of exploitable slaves from countries with no work safety conditions or minimum wages . They then dangle permanent residency to sweeten the deal so these visa wage slaves will work in conditions not much superior to those in their home countries.
Australian workers must then either compete with these lowest wage denominator visa slaves or they can go on the dole. The dole is set at a rate far below the poverty line and with imposing obligations to remain consistently paid so that the dole is a very , very , very unattractive option for anyone with any kind of financial obligations and thus Australian workers must accept the lower wages normalised by the imported visa slaves.
Honestly bloke, that’s basic neoliberalism. I’m not sure where you’ve been for the last few decades to have missed out on such fundamental knowledge. Less shouting, more listening may be required on your behalf.
This was the company I applied through.
I wonder what access they have to cheap labour forces?
I think, these recruitment firms are the chief conduit between companies and cheap overseas labour.
They didn't even have the courtesy to send me a confirmation email or text to let me know what was happening.
Is it just me or is it too difficult to seperate the tripe from the, well, the tripe these days?
Viclocal do you really believe that bullshit you shared yesterday about "skilled" workers? Fair dinkum Australia is now awash with cheap foreign workers under all sorts of dodgy visa categories it makes any serious discussion about wages growth and unemployment a total farce. EDIT: and Sly-mo is now using low wage growth, a policy he has deliberately pursued as an excuse to stop super contributions going to 12.5%. If Australia accepts that we truely are stupid.
Sickaz, homophonic slurs WTF. It was the gay community the world over that reclaimed the term Proud Boys from those knuckle dragging good ole boys trump supporters. Poking shit like that at the right wing imbeciles of the world has a long tradition of the arts and Hollywood from Mel Brooks, Monty Python, The Blues Brothers, Police Academy to name a few of the top off my head.
freeride a couple of screenshots from that website you posted a link to which I found rather hilarious. You have to wonder who makes this shit up.
GS,
I know there's so many OS workers (pre-covid) coming to Australia for a variety of reasons. Here are the big three.
1. They have unique skills
2. They are cheaper.
3. They do work Australians don't want to do due to low pay and poor conditions.
When it comes to fruit picking, it's definitely a case of number 3. blowin's idea that Australians were chucked on the economic scrapheap because South Koreans were given favouritism in the fruit picking industry due to the KAFTA is idiotic.
Covid 19 has seen the foreign fruit picking workforce shrink considerably, and Australians have simply not filled the roles. That's a reality.
freeride, out of interest, when did you apply?
I saw a 4 Corners program about Labor hire companies who found workforces for farmers. What a pack of scumbags. And I'm talking about some of the farmers too.
Does anyone seriously believe that if Australia got rid of international pickers, this industry would become clean? Don't expect the Federal Government to crack down on the rogues.
australians know just how bad an idea it is to head off to leeton in mid summer.
August.
Super war has nothing to do with policy, and everything to do with power
By Bernard Keane and Glenn Dwyer, Crikey.
"The debate about retirement incomes and super has once again revealed the Liberals' deep, ideological hatred of superannuation.
Don’t be fooled for a minute into thinking what is building into the biggest attack on superannuation for decades by the government has anything to do with policy.
If it did, Josh Frydenberg wouldn’t have leaked parts of the retirement incomes review, by a panel led by former senior Liberal staffer and Treasury official Mike Callaghan, to friendly journalists at the Financial Review and The Australian ahead of its release last week, or held a media event to discuss it 40 minutes before the release of the actual report on Friday.
Few people on any side come to the debate about superannuation with genuine disinterestedness. Some independent, highly regarded economists — Brendan Coates at the Grattan Institute, and now Saul Eslake — argue against further rises on the basis that they are unnecessary and will detract from wages growth.
Everyone else, pretty much, has a vested interest. And the interest doesn’t come bigger and uglier than that of the Liberal Party.
As Crikey has explained for a long time, the Liberals spent years trying to tilt the super system against industry super funds and in favour of retail funds that used to be owned by the big banks.
That was driven by the huge donations they received from the banks, and by a hatred of industry super funds.
But as their attempts to help retail super funds blew up in their faces, the Liberals’ hatred of industry super hardened into something even more toxic: a growing resentment of the entire superannuation system and the way that it reroutes power away from them and into the hands of large super funds — industry, retail, corporate and public sector.
The Liberals are terrified of the growing power of super funds and the way funds of all stripes have used it to pursue policies like net-zero emissions targets — contrary to its own business model of taking donations from large corporations in exchange for influencing policy.
The Liberal policy on retirement incomes is therefore pretty simple: kill super. It’s only a slightly more sophisticated version of the Nationals threatening to destabilise the entire financial system because banks are refusing to lend to their coal industry donor mates.
Not all super would be targeted, of course: every Liberal MP attacking super has a 15.4% super contribution rate. Don’t expect them to cut their super contributions back to 9.5% any time soon.
The Liberal plan to kill super has two parts:
first, stop increases in compulsory super payments, possibly including the increase to 10% scheduled for just seven months’ time.
Then, “open up” super so that members can draw down on their balances — which has proven highly successful in the context of the pandemic.
Both will be sold as being all about the interests of members. The removal of further increases in compulsory super will be all about wages growth and the good of the economy post-COVID. Opening up super will be sold as giving Australians greater freedom and allowing young Australians to get into the housing market.
In both cases, the arguments presented are missing key pieces of information. The wage stagnation that Australian workers have endured for years has nothing to do with super rises, but much to do with government policies.
It is this government that has demonised unions, refused to support minimum pay rises, supported penalty rate cuts, turned a blind eye to the epidemic of wage theft for years, and slashed its one direct, powerful tool for increasing wages — public service pay rises.
The wage price index for the year to September was just 1.4%, a new record low. The Reserve Bank doesn’t expect wages growth to reach 2% again until at least 2023.
Halting further compulsory super rises won’t do a thing to restore even the tepid wages growth of recent years. Instead, it will effectively transfer income from workers’ retirement accounts to businesses, because there’ll be no magical compensating wage rise if super is kept at 9.5%.
If the government really cared about wages growth, it would dump its new (and mostly ignored by the media) linking of public sector wages to private sector growth, which guarantees overall wages growth will be significantly lower in coming years (the average difference between private and public wages growth since 2016 has been 0.3 points a year).
And it would support minimum wage rises.
And helping Australians raid their super will just pump more money into the housing market, driving up prices accordingly — and leaving young people with no retirement incomes to show for it. But that would be good for News Corp, which owns 61% of realestate.com.au, and Nine Entertainment, which owns 58% of Domain.
If the government really wanted to improve affordability, it could axe negative gearing. But that assumes the Liberals are interested in policy outcomes. The only outcome the Liberals want is to destroy super.
The review also laments the cost of super tax concessions, which are “projected to grow as a proportion of GDP and exceed that of age pension expenditure by around 2050. This is due to earnings tax concessions. The increase in the SG rate to 12% will increase the fiscal cost of the system over the long term”.
The costliest ever change to super tax treatment was by Peter Costello in 2007, when he removed tax on super earnings for people over 60 and the superannuation surcharge. Mike Callaghan was Costello’s chief of staff when those changes commenced in 2007. Too bad Mike didn’t say something then."
So you’ve got cheaper labour as one of your three reasons for importing foreign workers yet you’ll shout down anyone who claims that foreign workers are imported because they’ll work cheaper ?
OK. Glad we sorted that out.
There’s also now a push from the LNP to allow permanent access to super to buy houses ......what a surprise !
As lacking in premeditation as :
Lord give me strength to deal with blowin today.
FFS blowin. foreign pickers aren't the problem here. It's the farmers and the labor hire companies who treat all their workers like shit. If you had half a brain, you'd realise the solution is to clean up the industry.
That of course would require you to acknowledge that foreign pickers are often victims, and some good old Aussie farmers exploit people. Can you do that blowin? I doubt it. Too much Hanson ideology rotting your grey matter.
fck me....so the lnp are willing to condemn millions of australians to poverty and homelessness in retirement just because their is no gravy train for the lnp and their mates running poorly performing super funds.
I think the alp (through union funds) do much better out of the whole super scam than the libs. its a crock (thanks Paul Keating) . it hasn't worked. no increase in people not dependent on the age pension, just billions siphoned off by private and union funds. anyone on the borderline of being independent will just splurge to get the pension. and in the meantime the government siphoning off your money
LoungeLizard has a point.
https://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/p/scrap-superannuation.html
I believe our super funds have the largest fees in the world comparatively? Plus historically there has been a bit of a gravy train boys club from the unions to management of superfunds.
I'm neither here nor there on it but it has to be agreed if the super rise occurs - the superfunds will gain handsomely. we are paying to much on fees.
good article from crikey btw. any proposed reform of super would not support Murray's recommendations but a lib agenda of payback
Without endorsing the manner in which some of it is spent , I can say that support for unions in Australia through management of the pool of worker’s funds is not a bad deal at all.
Unions need money . The political party which ( is supposed to ) represent Aussie workers needs money. You only have to look at the state of the ALP to see what happens when the party for Labour starts suckling from the corporate teat .
super was a good idea in concept, but has largely failed huge swathes of the population, and failed in its main intention as loungelizard points out
...mainly due to keating / hawkes veering towards neoliberalism at the time...
the money should have been kept under some form of government control, with the government skimming the profits rather than banks, big funds, and stock brokers
a side issue is it entrenched everyone in the murkeyness of the stock market, further eliminating any objectivity 'mum and dad investor' types may have about the whole neoliberal / stock market / global markets shenanigans
and what a fail it was giving the private investment industry free reign to rort the little man through fees and skimming
superanuation - done properly - could have been one hell of a government 'future fund'...
but agree with blowin, it wasn't totally bad from a union funds perspective...
Id choose that union fund over those other cunts every time
even if 'the returns' (returns that dont always eventuate.. ) are smaller...
So a question for you VL.
Would you pay $20-30 for an Australian grown mango or avocado (just as an example) at the shops?
Really Fitz? Where did you get the figure of $20-30 for a mango or avocado. This has less credibility than Barnaby Joyce's $100 leg of lamb.
So avoiding the question? You can't correlate the circle of wage increase in this circumstance?
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.