Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

I heerd tell the swing was 7% in qld. Thanks Campbell.

The "honeymoon period" usually lasts a year or so

AT LEAST 80,000 NSW public sector workers are set to lose salary benefits and conditions under sweeping cuts to their awards.

The O'Farrell government yesterday confirmed it had applied to the NSW Industrial Commission this week to change 98 awards for public sector workers, including 1000 nurses who assist people with disabilities and those in aged-care facilities.

Clerical staff, librarians, parks and gardens staff, school administration assistants, regulatory inspectors and legal officers are also among those set to lose their entitlement to long-held conditions, including an annual leave loading of 17.5 per cent.

The government also plans to cut penalties for all shift workers and allowances for staff stationed in remote areas.

Some sick leave entitlements, flexible work arrangements and parental leave would also be affected by the changes. ... <cont>

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart should try living on the minimum wage before calling for it to be cut, federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says.

Ms Rinehart, Australia's richest person, says those who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising.

In her regular column in Australian Resources and Investment magazine she writes it is billionaires like herself who are doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs.

She also suggests the government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 a week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.

But Ms Plibersek says Ms Rinehart is out of line attacking those on the lowest wages.

"I think it's pretty easy for Gina Rinehart to say that people on the minimum wage should get paid less," she told the Seven network on Thursday.

those who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising

....Ms Rinehart, Australia's richest person, says those who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising. ....

In her regular column in Australian Resources and Investment magazine she writes it is billionaires like herself who are doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs.

She also suggests the government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 a week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.

Narrow value system

GINA Rinehart, I believe you when you advise Australians that you owe your fortune to hard work, a lack of socialising, a lack of smoking and a lack of drinking (''Rinehart's welfare comments an 'insult to millions' '', theage.com.au, 30/8). In fact, this appears to confirm my suspicion that you are a joyless prude who is bent on forcing the rest of us to conform to your narrow value system.

However, you've forgotten the two most important factors that contributed to your wealth: an inheritance the size of a small country's annual budget, and the biggest mining boom this country has ever seen.

Please, next time remember to include these two suggestions in your advice to a class of people with whom you've had no personal experience.

Simon Vincenzi, Bulleen

....that Julia Gillard should be “put in a chaff bag” and dumped at sea ...

Jones’ “chaff bag” comments in June and July 2011, also directed at Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore and then-Greens leader Bob Brown, did not incite violence or hatred based on age, gender, race or other characteristics.

“It was clear that the comments were not genuine invitations to violent behaviour but were figures of speech intended to cursorily dismiss the political policies of the Prime Minister … Whilst disparaging and disrespectful, they were not strong, intense or inflammatory enough to be capable of being construed as urging violence or brutality.”

ACMA also found that the Prime Minister’s gender (or that of other figures attacked by Jones, such as Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young) had not formed the basis for Jones’ abuse, merely their policies. ACMA did, however, find that 2GB had (by its own admission) failed to satisfy complaints-handling requirements with its cursory treatment of complaints about Jones’ comments.

ALAN JONES: Women are 'destroying the joint'

Hockey stands by gay “waste” comments

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has refused to clarify comments that spending public funds on elderly LGBTI people is a “waste of money”.

Last week, Hockey told the Sunday Telegraph that programs to train aged care staff in how to deal with increasing numbers of LGBTI seniors who may face discrimination should be paid for by private operators, not taxpayers.

A spokesman for Hockey told the Star Observer that the shadow treasurer stood by the comment and claimed the objection was not because the funding was for the LGBTI community, but because of the program itself.

“Mr Hockey was asked to respond to a specific question regarding the use of taxpayer funds,” the spokesman said.

“He was not singling out any particular group in the community nor was he denigrating any particular group.”

But when asked if Hockey also thought funding for other groups such as Aboriginal seniors or a new program for seniors from non-English speaking backgrounds was wasteful spending, the spokesman refused to clarify....

LGBTI:

The National LGBTI Health Alliance uses “LGBTI” as a recognisable acronym to collectively refer to a group of identities that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender and intersex people and other sexuality, sex and gender diverse people, regardless of their term of self-identification. ...