Australia

[AndyinPA]

[Dave from down under]

A fantastic development IMO

A Teal Independent almost won the “safe” National Party seat where we live…

Pity that she didn’t

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-21/ ... /101085766

Election night is shaping as a resounding victory for a group of independents who have challenged both parties to do more on climate change and accountability.

Key points:

Liberal MPs Tim Wilson, Trent Zimmerman and Jason Falinski are likely to lose to independents
A handful of new independents could become the power brokers in the next parliament
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's seat of Kooyong has not been called
The so-called "teal independents" are candidates contesting in typically safe Liberal seats on a platform of greater climate action and implementing a federal integrity commission.

These candidates were backed by a well-funded campaigning machine called Climate 200, which raised about $12 million from more than 11,000 donors.

And while most of these independents are challenging established Liberal politicians, Labor is also taking note of the rise of so many independents.

[Dave from down under]

Yes…

These successful candidates would have been Liberal candidates if…

The Liberal party hadn’t lurched so far to the right and into the gutter
And
If they weren’t women

(All three major parties (Liberal/National Party & Labor) have a tendency not to run women candidates in safe seats or sufficiently support them in contested seats. Compared to male candidates).

[keith]

A fantastic development IMO

A Teal Independent almost won the “safe” National Party seat where we live…

Not only but also, Labor won in my seat for, I think the first time ever.

I'll check that and get back.

Eta: Higgins has been held by the Liberals since it was creared in 1949, and has produced 2 Prime Ministers, Gorton and Holt.

The new member is a woman of color, Dr. Michelle Ananda-Rajah, an infectious diseases expert. She defeated the incumbent, Dr. Katie Allen, a paediatrician.

[keith]

Sometimes you get the best government when a minority government has to work with another party or lose power. We have a liberal/NDP alliance in Canada right now.

Good luck with the new government

The previous 'hung' parliament, under Julia Gillard, is widely considered one of the most productive in history.

[Dave from down under]

Labor needs 4 more seats to Govern without needing the support of the cross benches..

can they get them?
(I'm hoping not.. I'm hoping for a hung parliament with Greens/Teals being the balance)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-23/ ... /101090802

[Suranis]

Congratulations on the election of a new President of the United States.

[keith]

I was going to post this on a "social media behaving badly" kind of thread but I couldn't find an appropriate one, so I'll park it here:

Google to pay former NSW deputy premier $715,000 for defamation

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has been awarded $715,000 in defamation damages from Google for a “vindictive” social media campaign that left him traumatised.
...
On Monday in the Federal Court, Justice Steven Rares said Google did not apply its own policies against hate speech, cyberbullying and harassment as Mr Barilaro was subjected to a relentless, racist and abusive campaign on YouTube for over a year.
...
The judge found Mr Barilaro “was traumatised by Google’s and Mr Shanks’ campaign and that it caused him to leave public office prematurely”.

Mr Shanks repeatedly and vindictively used descriptions of him like “wog”, “greasy”, “greasy little scrotum”, “meatball” and innuendos linking him to the Italian mafia.

Mr Shanks also engaged in cyberbullying trying to intimidate Mr Barilaro from bringing proceedings to court and to intimidate his lawyers from acting for him.

[keith]

The outgoing Government left behind an unprecedented mess for the new Government.

Nine years is a long time. The surprises that can build up while a party is in opposition during that period are extraordinary.

As Labor ministers settle into their portfolios about three weeks since Anthony Albanese became prime minister, they are now being briefed on the true state of affairs in their departments. Intentionally or otherwise, old governments have a habit of leaving behind problems and half-baked fixes.

“Partly it’s the nature of the beast,” a new Labor minister says. “And then you have times like this when the breadth and scale of what has been left in the bottom drawer is negligent in the extreme.”

Unfortunately, the article is for subscribers only. I could put a 'share it to friends' link here, but only the first person to open it would get to use it. This is an open link to the article, but you won't be able to read it without logging on: ‘Negligent in the extreme’: Labor inherits crises across portfolios

So a few highlights:

• Take the obvious: the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s. Although a long time in the making, and exacerbated by Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, former Coalition minister Angus Taylor magicked away the news of an energy shock until after the election.
• Budget black holes in the arts sector and in the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s safety regulator, and economic shocks deeper than those rosily predicted in the Coalition’s last budget are all features of this new normal.
• An account common to many new ministers is that the former government left a backlog of work ranging from the incidental to the significant – from unsigned briefs to a $67 million funding shortfall for the National Gallery of Australia, to stalled program start dates, to delayed pricing decisions under the NDIS – some of which came as a complete shock to the new stewards.
• Key pricing decisions for the disability support scheme itself had also not been made, adding to a logjam of work associated with the cost of providing services that are crucial to disabled people and providers alike.
• “I just don’t think they cared,” a minister says. This is, perhaps not surprisingly, a view shared by many in the new government. Numerous are the ministers who have described an almost catatonic public service, long ignored by Coalition politics.
  ...
  “I think my department worked very hard to handle the things that they could handle without ministerial intervention, but they can only do so much,” another Labor minister says. “Put it this way, there is a very long list of things that I must do before June 30.”
• In the Social Services portfolio, new minister Amanda Rishworth is rushing to complete the next National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children with just weeks to go before the current one expires. Work had been happening on that, she says, but it all seemed last minute and rushed.
• Tony Burke, Labor’s Arts minister, has inherited an industry on its knees. National institutions are in chaos. The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, which holds a $6 billion collection, is almost falling down. The Coalition offered less than one-quarter of the required $87 million to replace crumbling infrastructure at the gallery.
• In early May, Scott Morrison announced an expansion of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card that would make it available to a further 50,000 Australians from July 1. It was an election offering and Labor matched it. In government, however, the ALP discovered that the legislation to enact the change was non-existent.
• In March, the then Environment minister, Sussan Ley, effectively abolished legislated recovery plans for 176 threatened plants, animals and habitats in a move that was not made public until after the election. When Guardian Australia revealed the decision, incoming minister Tanya Plibersek asked her department for an “urgent briefing” and said she found the news “alarming”.

A Labor minister told The Saturday Paper there are more surprises that have not yet been revealed.

“The depth of the rot over nine years is something we’ve known but it will take time to quantify,” they said. “I’m not convinced the true state of things has yet come to light even through the departments. I’m not suggesting things have been kept from us by the public servants, but that the way of operating under previous governments became so entrenched and so tricky that it will be necessary to slowly and deliberately unpick that.”

On Wednesday, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus revealed the long-awaited plans for a national integrity and corruption watchdog. The body, a reluctant promise that failed to eventuate under Scott Morrison, will be retrospective and fully operational by the middle of next year.

“It’s going to deal with serious and systemic corruption,” Dreyfus told ABC Radio. “It’s going to be able to receive allegations from a whole range of sources.”

[Lani]

Similar to cleaning up after Trump, but without an attempted overthrow.

My Aussie relatives yelled at me for 4 years. I guess I can yell back?

[Dave from down under]

Go for it!

It will help you and remind us not be complacent

[Dave from down under]

Here is an expensive divorce settlement thanks to Scotty from marketing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-12/ ... /101145898

French company Naval Group says its $830 million compensation deal for the scrapped future submarine program is "fair and equitable", as debate continues over whether Australia has paid too much.

Key points:

Anthony Albanese announced a settlement of $830 million on Saturday
The figure has been questioned by opposition, which caused the payment by scrapping the deal while in government
A former defence official and now military analyst says the figure looks 'reasonable'
On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the large financial settlement, nine months after his predecessor Scott Morrison dumped the $90 billion project in favour of the AUKUS nuclear powered partnership.

"It brings the total cost of the former government's failed policy to $3.4 billion," Mr Albanese told reporters, referencing the approximately $2.5 billion already spent on the dumped program.

[RTH10260]

Reading abovd I wonder what the Tory government will have cost the UK public once they get removed from governing.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[Dave from down under]

Energy issues
De-regulation of essential services rarely works....

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-16/ ... /101156712

The Federal Energy Minister insists the unprecedented market intervention to avoid blackouts across the east coast will continue for as long as necessary, throwing his full support behind the nation's energy regulators.

Key points:
The energy market operator yesterday took an unprecedented step to take control of the market
The federal government says it backs the decision and the AEMO should take as long as it needs
The Prime Minister says the energy market rules may need to be rewritten after the crisis
Yesterday the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) took the extraordinary step of effectively seizing control of the energy market, suspending the spot price for wholesale electricity across the country.

It was the first time such a decision had been made, with the AEMO arguing it was impossible to ensure reliable power supplies without the intervention.

The AEMO had already been forced to put a cap on wholesale power prices, and had been ordering generators to continue producing power to ensure forecast shortages in supply in states such as New South Wales and Queensland were avoided.

Households and businesses have been urged to try to conserve power, switching off unnecessary appliances and lights in a bid to ease some of the pressure on the system.

[keith]

OH MY doG!!!!!!

We are doomed! DOOMED I TELLS YA!

So long world, it was nice to know ya

https: //www.tiktok.com/@icacplz/video/710605362 ... PWVDG&_r=1

Link broken on purpose so you could read it because it wasn't working. Just copy it into your browsers address bar. And have valium nearby.

[much ado]

Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant.

[Ben-Prime]

I was so waiting for the

► Show Spoiler

Ghostbusters

bit to be in there, because obviously it would have fit perfectly, and it did not disappoint.

[Foggy]

I have to confess I allowed a splendid opportunity to pass me by, probably for the best.

Ol' Wifehorn and I were talking about Oz, she found stories about two shark attacks there (shark attacks are topical; we're at the beach), and we agreed that everything in Oz is trying to kill you right this minute, and she said "The size of the spiders and snakes ..." and I had to add "... drop bears ..."

'Cause that's who I am, and I knew she wouldn't know.

Her: What the hell are drop bears?

Can you sense the opportunity here?

But I had a few seconds to think, and this is ol' Wifehorn, who is a skeptical soul, and if I tried to tell her about drop bears, she'd start asking ... y'know ... questions. And then she'd goog it, and I'd be in real trouble mister.


So I told her the truth.

Sorry, guys.

[pipistrelle]

Shoulda segued to jackalopes.

[Foggy]

Went with snipe hunting instead.

She says, "But snipe hunting was kind of a romantic thing."

[keith]

Went with snipe hunting instead.

She says, "But snipe hunting was kind of a romantic thing."

So's drop bears according to a Bundaberg Rum ad.

[Dave from down under]

[rossgw]

Her: What the hell are drop bears?

Show her this

[Dave from down under]