Australia - you're standing in it
Australia is losing it's last major plastics manufacturer:
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2024/05/where-will-plastics-in-albos-fu...
"Qenos made ethylene and polyethylene – the key building blocks for a variety of plastic household, industrial and packaging products – and specialty polymers at plants in Altona and Botany, employing 545 workers.
However, high East Coast gas prices made the company unviable, sending it into administration last month.
Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox warned that high gas prices may force more manufacturers out of business.
Willox stated that Qenos’ collapse reflected the “erosion of key pillars of Australia’s industrial landscape” as well as the high costs caused by Queensland’s decade-long launch of eastern Australia’s liquefied natural gas export business.
“The long-term rise in natural gas prices eroded Qenos’ competitiveness and its prospects”, he said. “Prices rose over the past decade because of the take-off of LNG exports, the erosion of southern gas production, and the lack of adequate planning to manage these long-foreseen developments”.
Willox also warned that the consequences of shutting down such an important plastic source could cause far greater harm.
“Qenos is surely not the only industrial gas user to be unviable at these prices; and more businesses may shrink or collapse without the local product supply and demand for goods and services that Qenos provided”, he said."
and now that Tassie salmon farming mob have bought that NW WA (Cone Bay) Barramundi operation... It is claimed to be a safer bet environmentally (not in an enclosed harbour) but I dont know, they've got massive expansion plans, could be trouble.
I dont touch farmed salmon, but had been enjoying a bit of the farmed barramundi, not so sure now...
This looks really interesting, be great if it becomes a reality. https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2022/March/could-seaweed-repla... https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/life/environment/2024/05/25/the-seaw...
Supafreak wrote:This looks really interesting, be great if it becomes a reality. https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2022/March/could-seaweed-repla... https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/life/environment/2024/05/25/the-seaw...
Supafreak. Hi mate. I do hope that seaweed’plastic’ comes to fruition.
Oceanic birds, fishes and mammals are full of plastic ranging from visible pieces down to the nano scale, there’s even traces in our bodies. Disgusting when you think about it.
Hope that arm is healing well.
How’s your daughter faring after Dengue Fever ?
Take care. AW
they said e-karen will censor anything that appears remotely anti immigration...
I didn't believe them
e-karen in full effect...
What the fuck?
I'm in Australia and I can't view the video!— The opinionated Black woman ~ Aunty (@Theblackfemini3) May 27, 2024
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
safety first my precious little cherubs
I always thought she was the better of all the Labor leader since Hawk, good on her, just wish i could read the article.
@AW , my daughter is fine thanks, back to school, she only had a mild case. My arms healing well, stitches out in 3 more days . Swells huge this morning, going to pump for weeks .
^^^ @info, aren’t you in favour of no restrictions on what the social media platforms can publish or do you have a more nuanced position now on what can and can’t be published?
velocityjohnno wrote:Australia is losing it's last major plastics manufacturer:
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2024/05/where-will-plastics-in-albos-fu...
"Qenos made ethylene and polyethylene – the key building blocks for a variety of plastic household, industrial and packaging products – and specialty polymers at plants in Altona and Botany, employing 545 workers.
However, high East Coast gas prices made the company unviable, sending it into administration last month.
Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox warned that high gas prices may force more manufacturers out of business.
Willox stated that Qenos’ collapse reflected the “erosion of key pillars of Australia’s industrial landscape” as well as the high costs caused by Queensland’s decade-long launch of eastern Australia’s liquefied natural gas export business.
“The long-term rise in natural gas prices eroded Qenos’ competitiveness and its prospects”, he said. “Prices rose over the past decade because of the take-off of LNG exports, the erosion of southern gas production, and the lack of adequate planning to manage these long-foreseen developments”.
Willox also warned that the consequences of shutting down such an important plastic source could cause far greater harm.
“Qenos is surely not the only industrial gas user to be unviable at these prices; and more businesses may shrink or collapse without the local product supply and demand for goods and services that Qenos provided”, he said."
So double banged with a fist full of sand by the politicians who sold us out on the gas deals. Sweet. Go Australia ( not the lucky country…….the real dumb country)
GuySmiley wrote:^^^ @info, aren’t you in favour of no restrictions on what the social media platforms can publish or do you have a more nuanced position now on what can and can’t be published?
Not sure why you would think im in favour of NO restriction's on social media?
Of course you have to have restrictions on social media for example on pornography etc
Where i have disagreed is on one individual country having a say in what a social media company can allow or not allow, i think the best they can do is put geo blocks as was done by X for that bishop stabbing thing.
Im also not in favour of restricting or banning views of people i dont agree with no matter how untrue or ignorant of history etc they may be.
It is a really hard issue though and its frustrating and sad to see it happen especially when it has a negative effect on people or politics or even as country, and i dont have the answer on how to tackle misinformation on social media other than the fact check thing, but even the fact check thing has lots of issues.
reading the comments on here...
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/abc-s-laura-tingle-under-...
laura tingle just single handedly turned the immigration 'debate' into another deplorables moment...
where self righteous indignation is released at such a huge capacity and velocity... no 'debate' at all will be entered into...
it all reeks of a bit of a 'the voice' debacle
where much needed discussion and debate is reduced to bombs and bunkers
again...
probably will pan out the same way...
and, just as a footnote
it doesn't really matter how right one believes oneself to be...
the zietghiest is reality
we need to discuss the reality
no matter how painful that may be...
indo-dreaming wrote:I always thought she was the better of all the Labor leader since Hawk, good on her, just wish i could read the article.
Not limited to young Australians. plenty of seemingly intelligent older people are also ill informed...mostly by choice and an unwillingness to try to see the bigger picture.
Sounds a bit paradoxical to me.
soggydog wrote:So double banged with a fist full of sand by the politicians who sold us out on the gas deals. Sweet. Go Australia ( not the lucky country…….the real dumb country)
Yep, basically. I try to understand it because selling out the country cheap seems to be an ongong theme. Why does Australia do it? Lack of confidence? If we sell it cheap, no one will invade? An extension of cultural cringe? Fascinating behaviour, viewing it from an immigrant's perspective.
sypkan wrote:and, just as a footnote
it doesn't really matter how right one believes oneself to be...
the zietghiest is reality
we need to discuss the reality
no matter how painful that may be...
so that's the basket of deplorables moment, just like the referrendum had one.
Let them eat cake.
As you know, just got back to Japan (a more racist country you'd be hard to find) after visiting my mum. Growing up in our area as kids the vast majority were made up of immigrants from Great Britain. At school, you could count the non-whiteys on one hand in addition to a few Murri kids. Back then they were treated well and almost had minor celebrity status for being 'different'.
Fast forward to now and our area has completely transformed and basically every second person is Asian or Indian or Islander or from somewhere other than England.
You know what I noticed? Nothing. Everyone getting on well, living amongst one another, minding their own business and just living life as they should and as it should be.
Australia is not racist. Idiots like Tingle are just shit stirrers because they think it makes them relevant.
Price gouging, never....
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-28/australian-beef-cheaper-tokyo-sup...
Agree Zen, everyone gets along, if anything it's nice to hear the Aussie accent on young crew from all sorts of backgrounds. People won't appreciate being beaten over the head and labelled something they are not.
Supafreak wrote:@AW , my daughter is fine thanks, back to school, she only had a mild case. My arms healing well, stitches out in 3 more days . Swells huge this morning, going to pump for weeks .
@Supafreak. Good stuff mate, I hope you get amongst it. AW
Totally disagree. Even the Sunny Coast has it amongst work colleagues. It’s Asians and Indians?
Up North it’s Aborigines in Townsville with my family and friends.
It’s not fixed it’s fucked.
zenagain wrote:As you know, just got back to Japan (a more racist country you'd be hard to find) after visiting my mum. Growing up in our area as kids the vast majority were made up of immigrants from Great Britain. At school, you could count the non-whiteys on one hand in addition to a few Murri kids. Back then they were treated well and almost had minor celebrity status for being 'different'.
Fast forward to now and our area has completely transformed and basically every second person is Asian or Indian or Islander or from somewhere other than England.
You know what I noticed? Nothing. Everyone getting on well, living amongst one another, minding their own business and just living life as they should and as it should be.
Australia is not racist. Idiots like Tingle are just shit stirrers because they think it makes them relevant.
I fully agree
Ditto !
Tingle's remark was selectively quoted from a panel discussion without context. The right wing MSM, led by The Australian and Murdoch outlets, have fed the outrage and a few here have taken the bait.
I have heard the whole context and tend to agree with the point Tingle was trying to make, but it's a stupid circular debate being fed into the news cycle to trigger and outrage and misdirect.
Is Australia racist?
We are and we aren't. There are examples of both, expressions of both. Every country has racism and is racist in degrees, every person has a differing perspective. That's the point of the attack on Tingle. She's perceived as left leaning, she (selectively quoted) says we are racist, so trigger outrage headline "Tingle accuses Australia of being a racist country", que outrage, aimed at the woke left. We are not racist! How dare she! I see all these ways we are not racist, she must be wrong.
Same newspaper, The Australian, in conjunction with Murdoch's Sky News..."Antisemitism on dangerous rise in Australia, Jews don't feel safe... watch Josh tonight..."
So from the same propaganda news outfit, same day, we are and we aren't racist and depending on which left leaning person or protest we are attacking, it appears we can be both.
Don't drink the kool aid boys.
It's a pointless manufactured debate, like most of our political discourse. It's not the who or what you need to look at when reading this shit or hearing or watching it, it's the why.
This is just another bit of meat being pumped out by the outrage Karens employed by Murdoch and fed through to the rest of our ridiculous media. It's to trigger the jingoism in all of us. It worked on a few here.
And Gillard thinks the distortion problems lie with "social" media.
(Laura Tingle by the way is a top of the class journalist, first rate, something sorely lacking in our media landscape)
Anyway, that shit is boring, time for a thread cleanse, a twitter favorite I've been wanting to post for ages.
This is how you deal with cops who pull you over I reckon, sound on
https://x.com/Alphafox78/status/1794453491865247820
"Australia is not racist. Idiots like Tingle are just shit stirrers because they think it makes them relevant."
I really like tingle...
I usually find her to be much more measured and cautious, ...in her passive agressive condescendation...
my point was the comments in reaction to the age article, the 'big australia', condescending, cultural cringing, cultists, couldn't wait to pile on...
it was quite the release
and yes, social media went nuts
it's all just so counter-productive
I follow a few of australia's elite 'left' journalists and political players on twitter, and they have all become so defensive, easily triggered trigger happy... and bluntly, so fucking far off the mark on the last few issues that have sparked an immigration 'debate'
...every time... they reduce it to thinly veiled claims that australia is a terribly racist place, full of uncouth bogans, whose opinions do not matter...
it started with the voice, then moved onto cost of living, housing crisis, the torrorist attack, and a few more minor incidents in between
I'm sorry, but stating the bleeding obvious about the cost of living and house prices does not make someone racist...
however, denying the bleedig obvious - as labor and a certain cohort continuously do - does make you look like a fucking idiot...
the big australia melbourne morons I follow, are so fucking triggered into the most defensive of positions regarding immigration, they are infuriating...
and they are also, so obtuse to any form of rational discussion, they are literally trashing the multicultural model that austalia is, and that many of us love...
blame murdoch all you want...
blame dutton...
blame the deplorables...
blame whatever policy, people, or practice you want...
whatever eases your pain...
but this conversation will be had...
it is being had
shutting it down is pointless
it takes two to tango...
and, I generally agree with zen, everywhere I go, people are just getting on with 'getting along', people from all backgrounds...
yes we have a racist past, yes the white australia policy is only 50 odd years ago, and yes, open racism was par for the course in the 1970's...
but I see liitle remnant of this history
australia is now a profoundly different place to this recent past
but, to be fair to the woke mob... the voice did unleash some pretty ugly racism, the current immigration debate does get ugly on occasion, and I concede there are pockets of australia where the racism is off the charts...
however, I have travelled to many rural places in recent times, where the uncouth racist bogans once reigned supreme...
and by and large, even in these places, the evidence of a successful, wonderful, multicultural modern australia is obvious
unless you're looking for a nit to pick...
I hate the phrases 'woke' and 'virtue signalling' ...literally make me cringe...
but virtue signal seems to be all a certain cohort do
they are living in the past, and seem to possess a perverse need to pump themselves up, ...by dragging others down...
the whole world is racist
it's human nature in a word...
but by the true definition of racism, the old one... the stoic real one...
virtually no one in australia is racist
don't mistake lack of education and vocabulary for the ugly scourge that true racism is
to do so... is terribly aloof...
and a little bourgeois...
a lot actually
don't be that...
@sypkan this idea that Australia is a racist country is ridiculous. And to your point, the only racists I ever knew have either died or about to die very soon. So very old, a long gone generation.
Regarding the media; same generational thing I reckon. I never had a discussion with anyone about Tingle, sky news etc. 9 out 10 people I know would probably have no idea about any of these journalists or their work. I certainly don’t have a clue, the only place I hear about any of this are these forums. Basically, I don’t know anyone that watches news or follows the so called mainstream media.
Good post Syp, bit more balanced and nuanced than mine regrettebly going a bit far- should think a bit more before impulse posting.
Of course I only saw a bit of SE Qld over the course of my two weeks back but I was stoked on how nice everyone was (bar two wankers) and how beautifully looked after the place is. Stu was correct- government is getting some things right.
I agree flollo, the sad thing is, some people have literally based their whole careers, and personalities, on cringing about all things australian...
confession: I used to be a cultural cringer... (probably listened to these self loathing boomers a little too much) then I travelled, and saw every place and people has its good and bads...
yes all thing bogan can be embarassingly nauseating, ...but all things bogan can be endearing as well... our rough, person of the land, mother of invention, resourcefulness, are amazingly genuinie and useful traits to have...
and people from overseas appreciate, respect, and even adore this, even if the inner city moronic chattering classes do not...
and speaking of the chattering classes... I found it ironic off the charts when a blackfella presenting a work presentation i was at, made the point, that so called 'bogan' culture, is undoubtably also blackfella culture...
(shhhh! ...don't tell the fetishising chatterers... who at the same time indulge in the cringing...)
tingle is a bit of a stalwart, abc royalty... and she just inadvertantly made herself the centre of a massive deplorables moment... I don't think it will bode well..
you cannot educate the chattering classes, they are uneproachable... in their eyes...
I find it sad that so many people no longer watch 'mainstream media', as flawed as it is... it's better than a social media news feed...
and, as the anti murdoch bridgade like to relentlessly, incessantly point out... it does frame the debates that make it into the public discourse...
which also goes the same for the abc as much as it does murdoch...
and look what tingle just went and did...
Racism, travelling down the east coast last year listening to truck drivers on UHF, if you want an education on racism and yes they sound like they don't have teeth but its alive and well.
Same over here in WA uhf channel 3 men telling it as it is or so they think.
Yes it appears to be age related the young crew I talk to just dont go there which is nice.
Have read and listen to Tingle for almost her entire career and think easely one of the top political journalists Australia has seen, has done some very difficult interviews with both sides of politics over the years and is always very central in her views... but then of course Tingle is a female.
adam12 wrote:Tingle's remark was selectively quoted from a panel discussion without context. The right wing MSM, led by The Australian and Murdoch outlets, have fed the outrage and a few here have taken the bait.
I have heard the whole context and tend to agree with the point Tingle was trying to make, but it's a stupid circular debate being fed into the news cycle to trigger and outrage and misdirect.
Is Australia racist?
We are and we aren't. There are examples of both, expressions of both. Every country has racism and is racist in degrees, every person has a differing perspective. That's the point of the attack on Tingle. She's perceived as left leaning, she (selectively quoted) says we are racist, so trigger outrage headline "Tingle accuses Australia of being a racist country", que outrage, aimed at the woke left. We are not racist! How dare she! I see all these ways we are not racist, she must be wrong.
Same newspaper, The Australian, in conjunction with Murdoch's Sky News..."Antisemitism on dangerous rise in Australia, Jews don't feel safe... watch Josh tonight..."
So from the same propaganda news outfit, same day, we are and we aren't racist and depending on which left leaning person or protest we are attacking, it appears we can be both.
Don't drink the kool aid boys.
It's a pointless manufactured debate, like most of our political discourse. It's not the who or what you need to look at when reading this shit or hearing or watching it, it's the why.
This is just another bit of meat being pumped out by the outrage Karens employed by Murdoch and fed through to the rest of our ridiculous media. It's to trigger the jingoism in all of us. It worked on a few here.
And Gillard thinks the distortion problems lie with "social" media.
(Laura Tingle by the way is a top of the class journalist, first rate, something sorely lacking in our media landscape)
Yes well put.
I missed the whole thing really, but think Tingle is probably one of the last real journos left at the ABC, so not surprising the Murdoch sock puppets would go after her.
Hypocrisy of The Australian, we are not racist, but we are anti semite, but only against Semites that identify as Jewish, not Palestinian.
andy-mac wrote:adam12 wrote:Tingle's remark was selectively quoted from a panel discussion without context. The right wing MSM, led by The Australian and Murdoch outlets, have fed the outrage and a few here have taken the bait.
I have heard the whole context and tend to agree with the point Tingle was trying to make, but it's a stupid circular debate being fed into the news cycle to trigger and outrage and misdirect.
Is Australia racist?
We are and we aren't. There are examples of both, expressions of both. Every country has racism and is racist in degrees, every person has a differing perspective. That's the point of the attack on Tingle. She's perceived as left leaning, she (selectively quoted) says we are racist, so trigger outrage headline "Tingle accuses Australia of being a racist country", que outrage, aimed at the woke left. We are not racist! How dare she! I see all these ways we are not racist, she must be wrong.
Same newspaper, The Australian, in conjunction with Murdoch's Sky News..."Antisemitism on dangerous rise in Australia, Jews don't feel safe... watch Josh tonight..."
So from the same propaganda news outfit, same day, we are and we aren't racist and depending on which left leaning person or protest we are attacking, it appears we can be both.
Don't drink the kool aid boys.
It's a pointless manufactured debate, like most of our political discourse. It's not the who or what you need to look at when reading this shit or hearing or watching it, it's the why.
This is just another bit of meat being pumped out by the outrage Karens employed by Murdoch and fed through to the rest of our ridiculous media. It's to trigger the jingoism in all of us. It worked on a few here.
And Gillard thinks the distortion problems lie with "social" media.
(Laura Tingle by the way is a top of the class journalist, first rate, something sorely lacking in our media landscape)Yes well put.
I missed the whole thing really, but think Tingle is probably one of the last real journos left at the ABC, so not surprising the Murdoch sock puppets would go after her.
Hypocrisy of The Australian, we are not racist, but we are anti semite, but only against Semites that identify as Jewish, not Palestinian.
You know what anti semite mean's it has historical context it's what you are a Jew hater even on 8th October before any retaliation from Israel you were looking for reasons to justify your hate
You hate Jews because they are perceived as being white/European which is incorrect (see below), you also hate Jews and Israel because its the foundation of what Christianity is and you view Christianity as also being this evil white thing.
Just be honest and own it.
"Of Israeli Jews alive today, 80% were born in Israel. A majority of Israel’s Jews are not descended from Europe but rather from Arab nations, including from the parcel of land known today as modern Israel. Known as Mizrachim in Hebrew, they hail from Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Algeria, as well as from the Asian ccaucasus region of the former Soviet Union. Those Israelis who are Ashkenazi, the Israeli term for Jews of European descent, are increasingly the minority inside Israel.
There are, additionally, a small percentage of Jewish people from Ethiopia, and even a nominal number from India. And, while small in number, there are Jews in Israel who are descended from families that lived in the region under Ottoman rule, and centuries before that."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/15/israelis-g...
BTW. I do agree to a point with Adams post, but you also need to acknowledge that all media do it including left leaning media, basically race baiting , even ABC are guilty of it remember when concerned residents in Alice Springs of violence on streets were labeled by ABC as white supremacist
"The ABC was found to have failed in accuracy and impartiality after suggesting hundreds of Alice Springs residents were “white supremacists”."
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/abc-showed-bias-in-alice-...
Sadly its just the media landscape, anything for clicks.
I hate Jews?
Yeah good one you gaslighting ignoramus.
indo-dreaming wrote:You know what anti semite mean's it has historical context it's what you are a Jew hater even on 8th October before any retaliation from Israel you were looking for reasons to justify your hate
You hate Jews because they are perceived as being white/European which is incorrect (see below), you also hate Jews and Israel because its the foundation of what Christianity is and you view Christianity as also being this evil white thing.
Just be honest and own it.
.
Farken hell. What the actual fk??
Get back in your room and play with your toy soldiers imbercile.
Cant believe your mummy let you on the internet again.
.
Yep... noinfo, the farkn bs oracle of 'honesty'
- continuing to disown his hate whilst falsely calling others out ;)
& justifying the small percentages with hypocrisy and misinterpretation
- an immortal dickhead ;);)
https://m.
hear hear Jelly!
adam12 wrote:Anyway, that shit is boring, time for a thread cleanse, a twitter favorite I've been wanting to post for ages.
This is how you deal with cops who pull you over I reckon, sound on
https://x.com/Alphafox78/status/1794453491865247820
lovely fella. I see and I raise
sypkan wrote:I agree flollo, the sad thing is, some people have literally based their whole careers, and personalities, on cringing about all things australian...
confession: I used to be a cultural cringer... (probably listened to these self loathing boomers a little too much) then I travelled, and saw every place and people has its good and bads...
yes all thing bogan can be embarassingly nauseating, ...but all things bogan can be endearing as well... our rough, person of the land, mother of invention, resourcefulness, are amazingly genuinie and useful traits to have...
and people from overseas appreciate, respect, and even adore this, even if the inner city moronic chattering classes do not...
and speaking of the chattering classes... I found it ironic off the charts when a blackfella presenting a work presentation i was at, made the point, that so called 'bogan' culture, is undoubtably also blackfella culture...
(shhhh! ...don't tell the fetishising chatterers... who at the same time indulge in the cringing...)
tingle is a bit of a stalwart, abc royalty... and she just inadvertantly made herself the centre of a massive deplorables moment... I don't think it will bode well..
you cannot educate the chattering classes, they are uneproachable... in their eyes...
I find it sad that so many people no longer watch 'mainstream media', as flawed as it is... it's better than a social media news feed...
and, as the anti murdoch bridgade like to relentlessly, incessantly point out... it does frame the debates that make it into the public discourse...
which also goes the same for the abc as much as it does murdoch...
and look what tingle just went and did...
Spot on, you have got the resourcefulness in one. A niece (university educated) once noted that it's better to be a bogan in Australia than a cultural cringer because you get to spend your life enjoying what this place is and the things you can do without constantly being plagued with guilt. She later has had a 1000hp ute, and now is a farm wife after getting the graduate employment thing going and walking away from that; now raising kids in the open air. Taught her to surf at 9, and surfed double to triple head waves with her at 25. We get rellies coming over and just frothing over the bogan car culture, they can't believe P plate cars can be 5 litre manuals having been raised on hatches in Europe. The freedom, the space, they get right into it. The Ms taught me to shoot and ride motorbikes, is absolutely no-nonsense and practical as. There's a sentimental pride too, at some of the sillier exploits, it can be endearing as you say and is probably a hand-me-down from the Irish larrikin behaviour; as the Irish made up so many of our early immigrants.
velocityjohnno wrote:adam12 wrote:Anyway, that shit is boring, time for a thread cleanse, a twitter favorite I've been wanting to post for ages.
This is how you deal with cops who pull you over I reckon, sound on
https://x.com/Alphafox78/status/1794453491865247820lovely fella. I see and I raise
Haha, good stuff VJ, young Clinton has got some balls, maybe he was saved by the camera crew being there, but as a young man if I had spoken to a cop like that I would have expected a hiding. Pissed, no licence, doing burnouts and writing off the car then mouthing off at the copper. He got three years cancelled licence, I bet he was out driving, pissed, probably doing more burnouts, the next week.
This fella reminds of Brandon Smith. I can also imagine the Cheese responding in a similar manner.
The fines and punishments they give out to people on that show are a joke.
Agreed @ashsam. That guy could have killed someone.
Could be someone close to any of us. Definitely no laughing matter.
ashsam wrote:The fines and punishments they give out to people on that show are a joke.
Had a mate years ago that was a highway patrol cop , scraped that many dead bodies off the ground he ended up a full blown alcoholic, community service should be assisting cops with a shovel to clean human dead carcasses off our roads, definitely no laughing matter .
@Southern @Supa,
Yep, my bad, definitely no laughing matter. I should not have said "Haha, good one".
Apologies.
Ol mate has another clip on how Australia is being shafted....
https://m.
Bill Shorten has hired a speech writer for 2 years on a $620,000 contract.
She’s normally hired by people like prime ministers to deliver daggy predictable speeches. He has found thinking for himself difficult.
Even though he only runs Centrelink, Bill thought it helpful to spend a bucketful of taxpayers money on improving his zingers.
Optimist wrote:Bill Shorten has hired a speech writer for 2 years on a $620,000 contract.
She’s normally hired by people like prime ministers to deliver daggy predictable speeches. He has found thinking for himself difficult.
Even though he only runs Centrelink, Bill thought it helpful to spend a bucketful of taxpayers money on improving his zingers.
I watched an interview with Shorten last night where this story was put to him. His response was that he did not hire the speechwriter, Services Australia hired her, and negotiated her contract, he was not involved in that, and Shorten is not the only Minister, or public servant, that uses her services.
When also questioned this morning about this Chris Bowen said..""Departments and agencies have a range of communications officials who contribute to ministerial speeches. They would be doing much more than that, they wouldn't just be contributing to ministerial speeches," Mr Bowen said.
"Governments of all persuasions of course have communications officials who contribute — they don't work for ministers, to be clear … this is the process the market delivered."
More than 180 people are employed in Services Australia's communications team, including at least two speechwriters.
Mr Bowen said the department communicates with millions of people on a daily basis and its communications team was "pretty damn important"."
So like most of these mud slinging beat ups, the headline doesn't match the detail.
That won't stop the outrage Karens at News Corp, Sky After Dark, the Nine Group, in the LNP and here from continuing to repeat the fake and inaccurate headline that "Shorten hired $600K speechwriter".
To wit, the gormless Simon Birmingham on the ridiculous Sky News, regarding Shorten's upcoming trip to Ukraine "Bill Shorten will no doubt have a great speech when he gets there, from his $600,000 speechwriter,"
The story originated from a line of questioning put to the Deputy CEO of Services Australia by Liberal Senators in Senate Estimates, including Sen. Sarah Henderson, a woman who lost her lower house seat in an election but was parachuted, not elected, into a Senate seat that was vacated because she backed off the "female revolt" of LNP women when Dutton tried to bully his way into the PM's seat in his disastrous challenge to Turnbull, and the charming Linda Reynolds, who ordered the steam cleaning of a crime scene in her office and is now involved in vexatious litigation against the former staffer who was raped in that office.
If you bothered to look into the detail of what was actually said in that Estimates inquiry you would have seen this "Ms Smith said the department had not been able to find a suitable speechwriter. As a result, the department looked to hire someone at market rate, which is higher than what is offered to public servants at around $140,000. Ms Smith described the decision to hire Ms Smith as a "direct source contract" but wouldn't say who made that final decision.
"Speechwriting, as you will appreciate, is a specialised skill set, and accomplished and available speechwriters remain difficult to source," she said.
Ms Smith clarified her earlier evidence that while the department now has speechwriters as part of their communication team, there were none at the time of hiring of Ms Stewart, who is also tasked with training staff within the department on speechwriting."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-04/shorten-denies-any-involvement-in...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-03/speechwriter-paid-300k-annually-t...
You may get up early in the mornings Opti, but you aren't "catching the worm", you are just drinking the Kool Aid.
lol how could you defend that muppet after that car crash of a interview on ACA last night?
2 years and he has done jack re those ripping off NDIS.
Was even trying to blame the last gov after 2 years haha
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.