The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

Yes, I do, hinge. Only it's meaner, more cynical & so much more entrenched now. So much for Howard's Ministerial Code of Conduct ... What a joke that was/is!

Yeah, I reckon Latham should just get transcripts of Howard's jibes about arrogance from 1994-1996 and read them out verbatim....

I guess I should know by now that evolution is not necessarily improvement. What a pack of sh*theads.

Yeah, Latham can do that, but as we've already seen in the past week with De-Anne (sp?): They have the numbers! And the good folks of Oz gave them the numbers. The next (almost) 3 years are going to be SO hard! After July it's going to be hideous.

... But you won't be in our national capital then, hinge. Good move!

And sadly I get the feeling many people just couldn't give a rats. In any other time we'd be out on the streets. Howard's dragged us back to all the bad bits of the 1950s but we lost the 'fair go' ethic.

When did we lose our soul?

Yes, I think we've lost our soul ... & our collective Oz heart. But I'm thinking/hoping we can find them again. You know, the political wheel.... ?This is an extremely shitty phase of the wheel. Not just here, but everywhere, it seems. We just have to wear it & keep pushing those boulders uphill ... things WILL change for the better, I know .. But in the meantime ... <sigh>

But if it is cyclical the when it gets better all we have to look forward to is it getting worse again. I guess I can hope that it's two step forwards one back...

I can't even remember the whiteboard affair. It rings a bell but I can't remember what it was about. I am a dumbkopf when it comes to Australian politics.

Depends how old you are Australia.

Roz Kelly was the ALP minister for sport in the early 90s. The libs accused the ALP of favouring swinging seats with funding for sporting facilities. Kelly's defence was that it was all above board but there were no records of how they'd divvied up the cash because all the planning had been done on a whiteboard that had later been erased....

She resigned as a direct result of the affair.

Ah yes, I remember that. But both parties lie and cheat. Remember Carmen Lawrence bullshitting her head off and then saying she couldn't remember. I can't stand any of them.

John Elliot said in court today that he has only $227 to his name, so we are doing better than him.

We've had this conversation before, it's OK to whinge but in our heart of hearts we've got to look at what we're doing to improve things. Throwing our hands up in the air is the soft option.

On Elliot, if I was the judge I'd say 'PIG'S ARSE!' but no, I really believe him - he wouldn't be much of a businessman if he had wealth linked to his name... he must have a wife, family and some very needy trust funds...

****, I just looked at your location and saw you were from canberra. Hope your not a poltician after I have been spending the last week saying what wankers they are. If so, no offence meant!

Trust me, noone understands politicians, or how government works, better than a Canberra public servant.

I just wish the rest of the country would understand why over 60% of us voted ALP and why were the only state/territory that voted for the republic. We know who the real a*holes are.

And I forgot to mention. Guess why Howard won't live in the Lodge when parliament is not sitting (breaking a tradition started by Menzies)? Because we wouldn't be shy letting him know how we feel about him - and he knows it.

Is it a nice city? I have been to about 30 capital cities around the world but never Australia's.

'City' is guilding the lily a bit - population is about 300,000.

Exceedingly comfortable place to live. Highly educated and racially diverse population. Great restaurants. Stacks of bike paths (we even get our own lane down the main drag into Civic). The inner suburbs are tree filled. No pubs (as I knew them when I lived in Sydney) but lots of bars.

Frigging cold in winter. Really nice in early autumn and late spring. High participation rates in sport. On average older than the rest of the country.

It's hard to by clothes and shoes unless you like chain stores. One independent theatre (Electric Shadows). Lots of good book stores.

Lots of tourist attractions that locals rarely go see. Walking around Lake Burley Griffin on a crystal clear day can make you think that planned cities are a good idea.

Cliquey, but friendly if you can get over its initial reserve. I'm told it's a great place to raise kids. 90 minutes from the coast 150 minutes from Sydney (by car).

A big country town. A very small place. The rule of living in Canberra is if you travel anywhre the world and meet someone else from Canberra you will know at least two people in common. Hasn't failed yet.

I read this article with interest. To me, it states the bleeding obvious! The supposed "best unemployment figures in 27 years" are a sham, produced by changed definitions of what constitutes employment & fiddling the statistics. In fact, there are huge numbers of unemployed & under-employed people in this country, yet the government & the media continue to peddle these very dubious figures as evidence of the government's wonderful economic management! I can understand why the government's propaganda unite would continue to push the minimal unemployment line, but am frankly perplexed at more "respectable" media outlets like the Age & the ABC so often endorsing Costello's rubbery figures without question. Is it a case of a lie being told so often that it becomes truth? Media collusion? Talk to the Salvation Army, the Brotherhood of St Laurence: unemployment & poverty are a huge problem in Australia. And the government is doing nothing about it.


Rubbery figures hide the real jobless tragedy
By Tony Nicholson
December 17, 2004/the AGE


The "official" jobless rate is 5.2 per cent. The real rate is 12 per cent.

..."It is this definition - that one hour's work a week equals employment - that produced our recent "best in 27 years" official unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent. But what would this figure be if we were a bit more realistic and counted one day a week as an indicator of "employment"? By my calculations, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the unemployment figure would rise to something close to 12 per cent."

.."We've now had more than a decade of welfare "reform" under both Labor and the Coalition since the Keating government introduced the concept of "mutual obligation". The rules for eligibility and retention of social security payments to the unemployed are now more stringent and punitive than most in the OECD. If there have been any supposed "slackers" abusing the welfare system, people with a welfare habit rather than a work habit, they have been dealt with. A simple, harsher version of welfare reform won't do the job. Nor will suppressing low-level wages. Their time has passed.

The rigour of mutual obligation for job seekers now needs to be properly matched by greater efforts by governments, businesses and community organisations to reduce the barriers to participation in the workforce." ...

<complete article>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Opinion/Rubbery-figures-hide-the-real-jobless-tragedy/2004/12/16/1102787209516.html?oneclick=true

Nice swap for the boys!

Fom ABC Online:
..Former communications minister Richard Alston says he is honoured to be appointed as Australia's next high commissioner to London.

Mr Alston will take over the position from Michael L'Estrange, who is returning to Australia to head the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade....

From L'Estrange to just plain strange.

I'm still getting over how we measure CPI without including fuel or housing costs.

Samual Langhorn Clemens said it best "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics"

hinge

Yes.

Some days living with this really gets to me. Today is one of those days.
Bloody depressing. Lies every where you look ... But the employment figures are such a blatant lie: all those people doing it tough & they don't even exist! I dunno .....