2022 Election
blackers wrote:Indo and his best buddy? Add your own caption.
I'm glad, it was said with affection.
solomon islands opposition leader just came out and said he warned australia a long time ago about chinese army base and cannot believe the government didn't act
our 'tough on security' side of politics are fucking useless, and the other side are more useless, vote anyone but liberal / labor and throw the cards in the air and just see what happens... there really is little difference... their equal uselessness is just motivated by different forces...
Constance B Gibson wrote:Constance B Gibson wrote:Constance B Gibson wrote:Constance B Gibson wrote:Constance B Gibson wrote:"Apart from fucking up, fucking off, lying, rorting, abjectly failing in his response to fires, floods & pandemics, receiving Spiritual Guidance from a Pentecostal pedophile-protecting sex pest & running a deeply corrupt government full of misogynistic, climate sceptic, sleazy, desk-wanking homophobic bullshit artists on the take from fossil fuel companies… can anyone list Morrison’s achievements?"
Um, he put Engadine on the map!
Makes Tony Abbott look slightly less inxompetent.
Welding?
Allocated sports grant funding based on which candidate projects were in marginal seats, rather than which were the most worthy. Then refused to release legal advice about whether such pork barrelling is illegal, and destroyed evidence about the funding choices.
I love this article BTW, so much crap with these offsets. This one is a classic:
'Farmers are now being paid from the Emissions Reduction Fund to plant trees where they won’t grow, to not clear land they were never going to clear, and for engaging in all sorts of soil carbon schemes that do nothing to offset emissions and are never properly monitored.'
I can totally see this happening.
And this one:
'Soil carbon mainly involves ploughing more organic material into the soil or keeping livestock off a paddock for a while to allow the grass to grow.'
Seriously? Keeping stock off a paddock to allow the grass to grow gets classified as a credit that farmers can cash in? Anyone with basic farming knowledge will know that paddock rotation is common practice and when not done, the soil gets too stressed, leading to all sorts of long-term issues. So, for obvious reasons, this is widely done already. What a Ponzi scheme to give cash for this! It's like winning a lottery.
and i must say... its a bit much kevin rudd lecturing anyone anything about china...
he's (now) all concerned about the 'game changer' solomon islands base, and china's intentions re. taiwan...
it's like china's intentions were not even remotely evident just a few years ago...
sorry kevvy, you are as much, if not more, complicit than anyone
you're an idiot
and all that pompous language disguises nothing
sypkan wrote:and i must say... its a bit much kevin rudd lecturing anyone anything about china...
he's (now) all concerned about the 'game changer' solomon islands base, and china's intentions re. taiwan...
it's like china's intentions were not even remotely evident just a few years ago...
sorry kevvy, you are as much, if not more, complicit than anyone
you're an idiot
and all that pompous language disguises nothing
We agree on something then, sypkan, KRudd is a total idiot. Always has been.
sypkan wrote:and i must say... its a bit much kevin rudd lecturing anyone anything about china...
he's (now) all concerned about the 'game changer' solomon islands base, and china's intentions re. taiwan...
it's like china's intentions were not even remotely evident just a few years ago...
sorry kevvy, you are as much, if not more, complicit than anyone
you're an idiot
and all that pompous language disguises nothing
It's really sad we may have to go back and repeat Guadalcanal. Didn't have to be this way.
sypkan wrote:solomon islands opposition leader just came out and said he warned australia a long time ago about chinese army base and cannot believe the government didn't act
our 'tough on security' side of politics are fucking useless, and the other side are more useless, vote anyone but liberal / labor and throw the cards in the air and just see what happens... there really is little difference... their equal uselessness is just motivated by different forces...
Actually the Coalition cutting foreign aid (master stroke) may not have helped before upping it again.
Défense wise Solomons and PNG bases it will tie up Australian defence assets (the whole point of the Chinese move) and threaten supply lines both sea and air to western northern nations, its a really big deal.
I wonder how much the Chinese paid the Solomon politicians for their souls. Plenty I would say to set up the military defence of their coconuts and taro.
Also when the Chinese start hacking channels in their reefs and take all their fish maybe the Solomon leaders will spend some of their ill gotten gain on Chinese tinned food for the people. The Australian fed govt always help Pacific Islanders but will not pay bribes to the greedy clowns that are running those countries including PNG.
Australia provided $174 million of Official Development Assistance in 2019-20 to Solomon Islands (https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/solomon-islands/solomon-islands-country-brief). It doesn't sound like much but when you consider the whole GDP of Solomon Islands is ~$2B (AUD) it is quite substantial - nearly 10% of GDP. But if China really wants to step in they can buy the whole thing, these are peanuts for them.
flollo wrote:Australia provided $174 million of Official Development Assistance in 2019-20 to Solomon Islands (https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/solomon-islands/solomon-islands-country-brief). It doesn't sound like much but when you consider the whole GDP of Solomon Islands is ~$2B (AUD) it is quite substantial - nearly 10% of GDP. But if China really wants to step in they can buy the whole thing, these are peanuts for them.
Yep plus like Optimist point's out you can bet there would be a lot of bribes/corruption involved.
.
This is brilliant, especially the ending. https://twitter.com/mortphil/status/1508200659962589185?s=21&t=GCqWpn2-UqK8AnoqaBE1nw
Loooong set up but killer punchline. Good find Supa.
indo-dreaming wrote:flollo wrote:Australia provided $174 million of Official Development Assistance in 2019-20 to Solomon Islands (https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/solomon-islands/solomon-islands-country-brief). It doesn't sound like much but when you consider the whole GDP of Solomon Islands is ~$2B (AUD) it is quite substantial - nearly 10% of GDP. But if China really wants to step in they can buy the whole thing, these are peanuts for them.
Yep plus like Optimist point's out you can bet there would be a lot of bribes/corruption involved.
it really is the dumbest and most short sighted ridiculousness ever from the solomon island leaders
have they not seen what has happened to sri lanka and other countries that have jumped onboard the china belt and road debt trap?
I bet if they had a referendum there wouldn't be that much support amongst the general.public. it really is shameful how leaders of these places can be so easily bought
Unemployment down to 3.7% the lowest in 50 years so it’s looks like beside all the whinging Australia is going very well under the current government and will be in a position to pump cash into more projects to address the challenges of the future….so why risk changing things?…if it aint broke or woke don’t change it.
Optimist wrote:Unemployment down to 3.7% the lowest in 50 years so it’s looks like beside all the whinging Australia is going very well under the current government
The RBA classifies an 'employed person' as someone who is "in a paid job for one hour or more in a week."
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/unemployment-its-m...
One hour of paid work per week?
Seems to me to be a pretty poor way of representing the current status of the work force, and thus the economy.
Here's a good article from 2017: https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-find-new-ways-to-measure-the-aust...
Point taken Ben, but downward is still down isn’t it?…and I heard Jim Chalmers speak the other day on the radio in detail….him vs Frydenburg ? with our economy? …..it was frightening to listen to.
thermalben wrote:Optimist wrote:Unemployment down to 3.7% the lowest in 50 years so it’s looks like beside all the whinging Australia is going very well under the current government
The RBA classifies an 'employed person' as someone who is "in a paid job for one hour or more in a week."
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/unemployment-its-m...
One hour of paid work per week?
Seems to me to be a pretty poor way of representing the current status of the work force, and thus the economy.
Here's a good article from 2017: https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-find-new-ways-to-measure-the-aust...
True, this can be measured in a better way. However, it's a good enough metric to benchmark against historical times due to the consistency of the method.
Roy Morgan has a slightly different methodology that's worth noticing (when following this method it is important to use the same method for historical comparison rather than cherry-picking between this and RBA to fit certain narratives) :
http://www.roymorgan.com/morganpoll/unemployment/unemployment-methodology
Here's the one from Feb - https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8924-australian-unemployment-estimate...
On a personal note, I've never seen the labor market being so busy. Everyone I know is flat out and screaming for resources, both on a corporate and small business level. Also, many people I know changed jobs with incredible ease.
Another good metric I like to look at is job vacancies from ABS, below is an example:
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/jobs/job-vacancies-australia/la...
Optimist wrote:Point taken Ben, but downward is still down isn’t it?…and I heard Jim Chalmers speak the other day on the radio in detail….him vs Frydenburg ? with our economy? …..it was frightening to listen to.
Will the rate stay low once the border is opened for international students and special visas?
I think not.
Josh is out of his league who as claimed Thatcher as a hero.
Let's have Chalmers and Joshy have a debate in neutral environment and Jim would make Josh look stupid.
And Ben's point of what actually classed as employed. 5 hours a week in a cafe is not paying off a mortgage.
flollo wrote:Another good metric I like to look at is job vacancies from ABS, below is an example:
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/jobs/job-vacancies-australia/la...
That's a pretty interesting link, the job vaccines are generally in NSW & VIC and not just in one sector as expected, but fairly evenly spread through all industries.
I know friends that have business are still finding it really hard to get workers, and they pay award or above and very fair bosses with good work environments
I expect the reason is we still dont have the flow of international workers returning that we had before Covid???
Although there was already a clear long term pattern.
Optimist wrote:…if it aint broke or woke don’t change it.
Quote of the week :D
Optimist wrote:Point taken Ben, but downward is still down isn’t it?…and I heard Jim Chalmers speak the other day on the radio in detail….him vs Frydenburg ? with our economy? …..it was frightening to listen to.
I agree it would be frightening to listen to a treasurer that believes he saved the country 70 billion $ .
Supafreak wrote:Optimist wrote:Point taken Ben, but downward is still down isn’t it?…and I heard Jim Chalmers speak the other day on the radio in detail….him vs Frydenburg ? with our economy? …..it was frightening to listen to.
I agree it would be frightening to listen to a treasurer that believes he saved the country 70 billion $ .
$40 billion to profitable companies, but ok to drive people to suicide chasing false robodebt debts ..
Yeah better economic managers...
it’s worth looking at the comments on dans post , yes its the US but same thing happening herewe recently received 800 applications for a customer service position.
— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) March 28, 2022
people want to work, but our country is experiencing a massive shortage of employers who pay workers properly.
Supafreak wrote:https://twitter.com/danpriceseattle/status/1508549446702800896?s=21&t=Qg... it’s worth looking at the comments on dans post
Haha, I've been following Dan Price for a long time. Awesome person. US is terrible, many full-time jobs pay below the poverty line. Walmart even has employee training on 'How to apply for foodstamps'. Basically, the taxpayer is subsidising the ridiculously low minimum wage large corporates are allowed to pay people. I learned a lot from examples that Dan Price regularly shares.
Supafreak wrote:https://twitter.com/danpriceseattle/status/1508549446702800896?s=21&t=Qg... it’s worth looking at the comments on dans post , yes its the US but same thing happening here
Not a very good comparassion Australia has the highest minimum wage in the world almost $1USD higher than the second highest rate.
The USA min wage sits at number 17 and almost half our min wage, with a much less generous social welfare safety net.
How much higher do you want the min wage???
And are you ready for the implications of things like more jobs going offshore and wage push inflation?? (on top of general inflation)
Pandemic has lowered the annual Employment base thus reducing the Unemployment Rate
Employment Population Base Growth ( 1st Feb 2020 = 338.5k > 1st Jan 2022 =112k.
+ Employment Growth ( 1st Feb 2018 = 420.5k > 1st Jan 2022 = 260.5k ).
2022 Budget = 226,000 less annual Employment base + 160,000 less Employment Growth.
Josh : "This is a remarkable Achievement!"
So what's the Good news
Well...Record Employment Crisis creates a dodgy record Low Employment Rate...(That's good right?)
Due to record shortfalls the Unemployment Rate lowers > ( 1st Feb 2018 = 703k > 1st Jan 580k )
3.7% Less Soggy Breaky TV cereal >
Crossing live to a Hustings Punter in the street : "I'll buy that!")
"There you have it...It's a fact!" Back to the Eye in the Sky Flood Watch!
Josh's Lite Unemployment Budget Breaky Cereal Pack : [ Side Panel > List of dodgy ingredients ]
(1) Recent Migration (2x 300,000/year) unemployment runs at 12.5% ( 2 year Pandemic suspension )
Pandemic stalls 2x unemployment start up high rates of unemployable new migrants.
Artificially tallies only the Job skilled / language ready stages of more & highly employable migrants.
Meaning : When migration restarts the New higher Migrant Unemployment rate will skyrocket data.
(2) Temp / Bridging Visas currently 1m ( 360,000 Backpackers / Students) Banned from leaving & Dole
{ Fortress Oz } Usual Backpacker Rate is 4.8% but 2 year imprisonment forced more to feed themselves!
Only Australia locked up the B visas to exploit Re Election Budget figures!
Only recently after figures were exploited > 1m Visa Prisoners could return to their "Open Countries"
These unemployment rates should also rise after Covid or election.
(3) Unvaxed Palmy Army intake were hurriedly increased to 75,000 > recently Open numbers.
These unvaxed Islander crews can be imported at will by any Magnate or Mogul
These numbers were only slowly ramped as if to tip over a new Unemployment Rate record...5/4/3/2/1.
(4) Local Youth Pool
Govt exploited Youth Unemployment Rate by (Exempting) prioritising Fast Food / Super Markets.
These industries were Covid Exempt > No Vax / Mask (card only in some cases was strictest)
All youth were drafted ($50 interviews / Free ipods) to step up to the Maccas frontline war effort...
Apparently even after record walk outs...they increased Maccas staff 2.3%
Again! Once equal Adult / Family Dinning returns then Youth are cut outta the Licensed Restaurants.
tbb knows there are likely buckets more examples but these here have a set working order.
Record low Employment + Record Low employment rate > Post Pandemic Election it begins to rise.
It doesn't matter which Govt is in Power pre / post Election...Un-Employment follows the Pandemic.
A fool can see history has already scripted Pandemic past & future Job levels. (Nothing to see here!)
There is sadly only lower wages & no concerted long term employment plans...all know this!
Credit > timely (20th Feb 2022) ABC report...explains Josh's Magic Formula.
tbb simply resourced & added (Main Data ingredients) Migrants / Students / Palmy Army / Youth
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-20/this-is-how-to-drive-the-unemploy...
indo-dreaming wrote:Supafreak wrote:https://twitter.com/danpriceseattle/status/1508549446702800896?s=21&t=Qg... it’s worth looking at the comments on dans post , yes its the US but same thing happening here
Not a very good comparassion Australia has the highest minimum wage in the world almost $1USD higher than the second highest rate.
The USA min wage sits at number 17 and almost half our min wage, with a much less generous social welfare safety net.
How much higher do you want the min wage???
And are you ready for the implications of things like more jobs going offshore and wage push inflation?? (on top of general inflation)
Australia also has one of the highest cost of living , take rentals fro example . What did the enquiry into islanders working on farms in Australia show you ?
You Unbroke & Unwoke types really get done by the smoke and mirrors stuff don't you. Josh Frydenburg strutting around puffing his chest out claiming low unemployment a LNP victory is more arse than class if you really think about it. What would the unemployment rate be if the past two years had been normal?? And yes if Labour had been in government over this same period splashing cash about at the same rate, and with interest rates as low as they have been then they would be making the same claims too.
Our unemployment rate at the moment is not as a result of any decent employment or economic policies. Just dumb luck being able to send a large part of our workforce back to their country of origin as well as most of us having to stay put and spend our dollars locally.
Supafreak wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Supafreak wrote:https://twitter.com/danpriceseattle/status/1508549446702800896?s=21&t=Qg... it’s worth looking at the comments on dans post , yes its the US but same thing happening here
Not a very good comparassion Australia has the highest minimum wage in the world almost $1USD higher than the second highest rate.
The USA min wage sits at number 17 and almost half our min wage, with a much less generous social welfare safety net.
How much higher do you want the min wage???
And are you ready for the implications of things like more jobs going offshore and wage push inflation?? (on top of general inflation)
Australia also has one of the highest cost of living , take rentals fro example . What did the enquiry into islanders working on farms in Australia show you ?
Off course we do because we have a high min wage that see's us have high living cost, just like the cost of living in Indo is dirt cheap because of very low wages. (obviously not at all suggesting we want that extreme though)
Other than fuel, no other real imports cause great increase's in general living cost, everything imported is generally dirt cheap, many things like, bikes, cars, electronics, clothing are cheaper than ever compared to wages.
On the flip side, the more wages go up especially min wage the more the cost of things in Australia go up, because business/companies big and small need to pass on the cost increase, be it food production, construction, hospitality etc (and even a sole trader like myself needs to pass on the cost to the customer because of increases in materials)
Pushing up the min wage too much only hurts us in the long run, the bigger the gap between our average wage and the rest of the world, the less competitive we become for exports and also hurts us in regard to things like International tourism.
The only real bonus is its cheaper for us to buy imported crap most of which we really don't need and we get more bang for a buck when we go to Indo.
garyg1412 wrote:You Unbroke & Unwoke types really get done by the smoke and mirrors stuff don't you. Josh Frydenburg strutting around puffing his chest out claiming low unemployment a LNP victory is more arse than class if you really think about it. What would the unemployment rate be if the past two years had been normal?? And yes if Labour had been in government over this same period splashing cash about at the same rate, and with interest rates as low as they have been then they would be making the same claims too.
Our unemployment rate at the moment is not as a result of any decent employment or economic policies. Just dumb luck being able to send a large part of our workforce back to their country of origin as well as most of us having to stay put and spend our dollars locally.
Theres no doubt the very high job vacancy rate is a result of Covid and less positions being filled by non Australians or something similar.
But there was also a clear pattern before Covid so yes even if no covid things were likely to look pretty good, just not as good, you can also see from the graph there is quite a clear long running pattern that favours LNP in this area.
@indo & optimist , if the LNP are doing such a fantastic job why isn’t this relecting in the polls ? Why is slomo popularity sinking ? Surely a government that is performing as well as you say it is , would be miles in front of any opposition . They also have the media onside , so what gives ?
Sorry to do a Facto and quote myself but i already pointed out the reasons.
And the idea the media are on LNP side is garbage, even Murdoch smash them on trivial little things, I'm not saying Murdoch is pro Labor, just that the media will do anything to sell papers or get clicks.
I highly doubt there is any government around the world at this point where people are going, yeah our government did good during Covid, maybe its just human nature to look at things from a negative aspect rather than positive one?
indo-dreaming wrote:Sadly I agree they will lose but they aren't the reasons.
These are the reasons:
1. Time and cycles: The longer a government is in power the harder it is to keep government by the time the election comes around it will be approaching almost 9 years since the LNP have been in power.
Personally i think LNP should have played it safe and called an election in the middle of Covid when they were way in front in the polls, it would have been criticised but changing government in the middle of a pandemic would have been less risky.
2. Covid and unrealistic expectations from the the public: name a decent sized country around the world that has done good during Covid??? even ask Kiwis and they will complain about the government approach and if there was an election there now we could see a very different result than their last election, people are just pessimistic and focus on small negatives instead of the overall positive picture. (and media fuel this, cause bad news sells and good news doesn't)
If LNP cant keep government after all their success during Covid, then they were never going too.
3. Media: Media have beat anything and everything up, im not saying it wont happen when Labor get in, i think it will, we have seen it during this recent "Mean girls" thing, the media landscape has changed a lot in the last few years and become more toxic than ever, the games getting harder.
4. Labor last election played a terrible hand, overconfident with radical policy and a very unlikable leader, this election its the opposite despite having an extremely vanilla leader with no charisma Albo also isn't instantly dislikable like Shorten, and policy wise they have toned everything way down, they also havent been over negative or political and just let the media do their thing, even losing weight i think is a clever move psychologically, naturally people look at that as a positive and think hmmm he looks younger and healthier.
The good news is Labor are woke as fuck and in bed with the Greens, sooner or latter they will destroy themselves and put people off, most likely a few years time when get too comfortable.
If im wrong well at least they will some how have contained their wokeness.
So Australians are going to get rid off a government that is performing so well for those reasons ? Really ?
Sadly hard facts and things that can be measured
-Low jobless rate
-Economy performed much better than anyone dreamed.
-Very low Covid death rate compared to the majority of the world
-Very high Covid tax rate compared to the majority of the world.
Aren't really important when perception is tainted by the media focussing on smaller negative events.
Funny how people think a country can go through a pandemic and everything is going to run like clockwork, its just not realistic off course there will be setbacks and things won't always be perfect all the time, look at Singapore it leads the world in most areas of governance and even they had some quite big set backs during Covid.
If you're a leftie and think Scandinavian countries are the ones to look up too, same deal many of those did terrible during Covid especially compared to Australia.
I focus wrote:sypkan wrote:solomon islands opposition leader just came out and said he warned australia a long time ago about chinese army base and cannot believe the government didn't act
our 'tough on security' side of politics are fucking useless, and the other side are more useless, vote anyone but liberal / labor and throw the cards in the air and just see what happens... there really is little difference... their equal uselessness is just motivated by different forces...
Actually the Coalition cutting foreign aid (master stroke) may not have helped before upping it again.
Défense wise Solomons and PNG bases it will tie up Australian defence assets (the whole point of the Chinese move) and threaten supply lines both sea and air to western northern nations, its a really big deal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eastern_Solomons
So things like robo debt , sports rorts , car park rorts , water rorts , carbon tax rorts , the handling of refugees in detention, the housing problems, the rising homeless problems, the response to fires and floods, the 40 billion $ give away to profitable businesses, the treatment of aged care , the Christian Porter farce, the sub deals . I could go on and on , do you see any of this as reflecting on how Australians view the current government ? For a government that is apparently performing so well they seem to have a few issues that need tweaking………..,,, Edit: slomo’s constant lying might also have something to do with his popularity.
We handled the pandemic exceptionally well but partially because we excluded 2 major segments of our society. And it's these 2 that I keep thinking about every day. Let me clarify.
1) Keeping our own citizens locked out of their own country. To me, this is a deadly sin. I see citizenship as a 'sacred' document and I cannot endorse a government that made it so hard for their own citizens to come home. But more than the government, I got shocked by the majority of the Australian population who endorsed this or as a minimum, stayed quiet on the issue. The lowest point I lived through in Australian history.
2) Basically, putting business as usual health system 'on hold' while dealing with the pandemic. Collateral damage here is massive. Hundreds of people had surgeries canceled indefinitely. Some of the procedures on the 'elective' list should never be there. There are many old people who have to live as invalids due to these delays. I just cannot forgive the government for at least not highlighting this as a major issue that needs to be resolved. All governments, states (from all sides), and feds are happy to keep this issue under the rug.
Some aspects of these 2 problems are clearly touching on different levels of government but the way I see it, feds need to take the lead and drive the change. And that hasn't happened. Yes, some economic indicators are really strong but for me personally, these 2 issues are too much to support this government.
flollo wrote:We handled the pandemic exceptionally well but partially because we excluded 2 major segments of our society. And it's these 2 that I keep thinking about every day. Let me clarify.
1) Keeping our own citizens locked out of their own country. To me, this is a deadly sin. I see citizenship as a 'sacred' document and I cannot endorse a government that made it so hard for their own citizens to come home. But more than the government, I got shocked by the majority of the Australian population who endorsed this or as a minimum, stayed quiet on the issue. The lowest point I lived through in Australian history.
2) Basically, putting business as usual health system 'on hold' while dealing with the pandemic. Collateral damage here is massive. Hundreds of people had surgeries canceled indefinitely. Some of the procedures on the 'elective' list should never be there. There are many old people who have to live as invalids due to these delays. I just cannot forgive the government for at least not highlighting this as a major issue that needs to be resolved. All governments, states (from all sides), and feds are happy to keep this issue under the rug.
Some aspects of these 2 problems are clearly touching on different levels of government but the way I see it, feds need to take the lead and drive the change. And that hasn't happened. Yes, some economic indicators are really strong but for me personally, these 2 issues are too much to support this government.
Very good points flollo , slomo will say that he told Australians to come home now, when the pandemic first started, which he did . Unfortunately airlines canceled flights all over the world and people were stuck with little support. Often on social media sites , everyday Australian’s were commenting that those stuck should have come home when Scotty told them too …,,,unbelievable. Then unless you had mega bucks to pay first class +++ prices you were left up shit creek and still people were saying serves them right……a very low point in our history.
Have a read in the comments about how some people feel about change of government and why .
Dumbest Tweet of the Week
— Peter Murphy (@PeterWMurphy1) March 28, 2022
(and it's only Tuesday).
Yes, we need a change of Govt.#auspol #ausvotes #AlboForPM pic.twitter.com/WrDy44jPUN
Supafreak wrote:flollo wrote:We handled the pandemic exceptionally well but partially because we excluded 2 major segments of our society. And it's these 2 that I keep thinking about every day. Let me clarify.
1) Keeping our own citizens locked out of their own country. To me, this is a deadly sin. I see citizenship as a 'sacred' document and I cannot endorse a government that made it so hard for their own citizens to come home. But more than the government, I got shocked by the majority of the Australian population who endorsed this or as a minimum, stayed quiet on the issue. The lowest point I lived through in Australian history.
2) Basically, putting business as usual health system 'on hold' while dealing with the pandemic. Collateral damage here is massive. Hundreds of people had surgeries canceled indefinitely. Some of the procedures on the 'elective' list should never be there. There are many old people who have to live as invalids due to these delays. I just cannot forgive the government for at least not highlighting this as a major issue that needs to be resolved. All governments, states (from all sides), and feds are happy to keep this issue under the rug.
Some aspects of these 2 problems are clearly touching on different levels of government but the way I see it, feds need to take the lead and drive the change. And that hasn't happened. Yes, some economic indicators are really strong but for me personally, these 2 issues are too much to support this government.
Very good points flollo , slomo will say that he told Australians to come home now, when the pandemic first started, which he did . Unfortunately airlines canceled flights all over the world and people were stuck with little support. Often on social media sites , everyday Australian’s were commenting that those stuck should have come home when Scotty told them too …,,,unbelievable. Then unless you had mega bucks to pay first class +++ prices you were left up shit creek and still people were saying serves them right……a very low point in our history.
I agree with you here Supafreak, it wasn't really the governments fault Aussies had trouble returning home it was more the logistics and economics.
It not like you can send a jet out around the world picking people up either and even if you somehow magically could a month latter there would be a whole heap of new people deciding they now want to go home.
Number 2 is just another reality of a pandemic, and not one where there is magic solutions.
It doesn't matter who was in power these things would have happened because no hospitals or medical system or society anywhere in the world is designed/set up to deal with a pandemic like Covid.
Supafreak wrote:Have a read in the comments about how some people feel about change of government and why . https://twitter.com/peterwmurphy1/status/1508561870810230784?s=21&t=oBvF...
I have no idea who Peter Murphy is and i dont do twitter but this tells me enough to know that his comment section will be an echo chamber of hate.
The government could have done repatriation flights if they chose to , they didn’t. They could have used xmas island as the quarantine station for such flights . Indo d in that Twitter link there are some good comments on national security, I understand why you don’t want to look though .
Supafreak wrote:The government could have done repatriation flights if they chose to , they didn’t. They could have used xmas island as the quarantine station for such flights . Indo d in that Twitter link there are some good comments on national security, I understand why you don’t want to look though .
Exactly, a pointless exercise arguing about helping people to come home. Imagine, 10 of us can get together and hire a boat to go surfing in another country but the government cannot hire a plane to bring people home in a time of crisis. And at a time when there is an abundance of available planes due to travel restrictions. I mean, we paid Jobkeeper to Qantas, why didn't we demand them to keep bloody flying rather than send staff home? Ridiculous...
The worlds a huge place with Aussies scattered all over the globe no matter where you sent flight's people would have whinged saying they missed out why didnt a flight come to where i am.
And peoples desires to come home would have changed all the time based on work, relationships, Covid situation where they were etc, send a flight today and a month latter you would have people whinging that they need another.
If people really wanted to get home they could and many did, it's really a first world problem and in the scheme of things much better to spend the money where it was supporting business big and small and even individuals including increase in dole etc
BTW. Xmas Island would have been super costly and a logistic nightmare, shipping in food etc and only holds limited sized planes, so need to swap planes possibly in Aus, never realistic and god westerners would have whinged like nothing else cause its not a five star hotel, the headaches just from the aspect wouldn't be worth it, it would be just another thing the media and labor voters hang onto trying to use against the government.
"BTW. Xmas Island would have been super costly and a logistic nightmare, shipping in food etc..."
But happy enough to send a family with small kids there just to prove a point?
Settle down @info, defending the indefensible isn’t a sprint more ultra marathon given your Scotty’s track record
blackers wrote:"BTW. Xmas Island would have been super costly and a logistic nightmare, shipping in food etc..."
But happy enough to send a family with small kids there just to prove a point?
Firstly nothing is to prove a point, it's the system, Australia is very generous in providing TEMPORARY protection on TEMPORARY protection visas to many people like this family with the clear agreement when its deemed safe to return home they will. (as has been deemed by immigration and courts numerous times)
And the abuse of the system like this could be very damaging to the system in place and risk seeing it ended or at the least tightened, because if one group gets away with abusing the system , then what's to stop others from doing the same???
The cost in this case is a total waste of money they should have been back in Sri Lanka long ago, and all accommodation cost and legal cost should be paid for by the family and all others involved in pushing the case, i doubt the family has the money but the refugee advocates and those lawyers should pay or be bankrupted.
BTW. I wonder how that case is going, surely all appeals have been exhausted and they should be home in Sri Lanka, but im betting if Albo gets in he will be looking for misguided browny points and let them stay.
.