open24hours posted:

Is it is more important for our society to be accepting of Islam or to condemn homophobia? If we allow people to move here with the full knowledge that they are or are very likely to be homophobic it would seem that we are currently erring on the side of religious freedom. If we introduced some sort of 'homophobia test' that would presumably count as a form of religious persecution?

open24hours posted:

If they lied on the test and were subsequently found to be homophobic they would be deported.

rudatron posted:

That's an even dumber idea.

Soag posted:

just make them kiss a member of the same sex for a visa it will be hot we can put tv screens up all over the city and show the hottest kisses live

open24hours posted:

If they lied on the test and were subsequently found to be homophobic they would be deported.

Dubs posted:

Baumann?, another Newcastle MP at ICAC?


Watch us Newcastle retards re-elect LNP, because jobs.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Poor people don't generally drive very far in their cars because they live in the working class inner city suburbs such as brunswick, fitzrooh wait...

Murodese posted:

Murodese posted:

open24hours posted:

If they lied on the test and were subsequently found to be homophobic they would be deported.

Murodese posted:

Murodese posted:

quote:

The man who led a review of abuse allegations inside the defence force has raised doubts about the fitness to lead of every male who graduated as an officer between 1986 and 1998.

The force likely contains a significant number of middle or senior-ranked officers who raped fellow female cadets and could be bound for even more senior ranks, Gary Rumble has told a Senate inquiry.

That's because Defence failed to take effective action over allegations of abuse at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Dr Rumble, who led what's known as the DLA Piper review, said the only way to get to the bottom of the allegations is with a royal commission.

His review revealed myriad incidents of sexual and other abuse dating back decades.

Dr Rumble said there was a history of sexual assault and defence mismanagement from the time ADFA opened in Canberra in 1986, peaking in the 1990s and diminishing but not disappearing entirely following reforms in 1998.

There was a very high risk officers in middle and senior management positions with potential to rise further, who were cadets at ADFA, raped or committed other serious sexual assaults on other cadets or did not intervene, he told a hearing of the inquiry in Canberra on Wednesday.

Dr Rumble said it was likely there were many more perpetrators than the so-called ADFA 24.

That case relates to 15 cases of rape and nine of sexual assault allegedly committed by male ADFA cadets against female cadets between 1994 and 1998.

They were never properly investigated at the time.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse was a model of how the allegations could be investigated, Dr Rumble said.

Defence Minister David Johnston said the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce was now reviewing calls for a royal commission.

It also was seeking to provide restorative justice to victims on the basis that they had been treated badly.

Senator Johnston said there appeared to be an "understandable" reluctance by many victims to suffer the trauma of telling their story to a royal commission.

They likely would have to revisit events "blow by blow, event by event and all of the terrible things that have happened to them'.

"It's clear that they don't want that."

However, Senator Johnston left the door open for a royal commission if there were a number of complainants making that demand.

adamantium|wang posted:

quote:

Treasurer Joe Hockey is facing a fresh round of criticism for being out of touch and not understanding the impact of his budget on the less well off after suggesting “poorest people either don't have cars or actually don't drive very far in many cases”.

Mr Hockey made the comments on Wednesday as he argued the government's proposed rise in fuel excise was a progressive measure that would cost people on middle and higher incomes more.

The Treasurer said the Coalition was asking "everyone to contribute, including higher income people" by restarting indexation of fuel excise, a measure Labor has labelled a new fuel tax.

Contrary to Mr Hockey's claim, a 2001 research paper from the Parliamentary Library states that "petrol and diesel excises are regressive in that people on low incomes pay a higher proportion of their incomes in the form of excise than people on high incomes, given the same level of fuel use".

And in a June 2014 submission to the Senate Economics Committee inquiry into the proposed excise rise, the Australian Automobile Association stated that: "Research indicates that the people who use their cars most frequently are in the outer metropolitan areas and rural and regional areas where there are lower incomes, less jobs, and little or no access to public transport"

"The AAA is concerned that individuals in these areas will bear the highest cost increases of indexation changes."

Labor leader Bill Shorten, welfare groups and crossbench senator Ricky Muir have rounded on Mr Hockey, labelling the Treasurer's suggestion fallacious and based on incorrect assumptions.

“Are you serious, Joe Hockey? Are you really the cigar chomping, Foghorn Leghorn of Australian politics where you're saying that poor people don't drive cars?," Mr Shorten said.

“Joe Hockey says [poorer Australians] don't drive cars yet they don't give them another alternative. It is almost as if the Treasurer believes that poor people should be sleeping in their cars, not driving their cars.”

St Vincent de Paul Society chief executive John Falzon said the claim was “completely fallacious”.

“This is a massive assumption on the Treasurer's part. In fact many low income households are heavily dependent on quite old motor vehicles that are not terribly fuel efficient as their only means of transport," he said.

“Cheaper housing is often located in areas far from necessary infrastructure and jobs and so they find themselves having to travel long distances at times. And they are often very poorly served by public transport.”

Uniting Care National Director Lin Hatfield-Dodds said the rise in fuel excise would disproportionately affect poorer people.

“Proportional to their income, these sorts of measures end up costing people who are poor more than people who are wealthy," she said.

“That's just maths,' she said

“To put the fuel excise up as an example of fairness in the budget is a bit of a stretch, if we want to make the budget fairer we could look at less impact overall on vulnerable Australians and more impact on people who can afford to meet the costs.”

Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir said that in rural and regional areas, people needed to use their cars, "regardless of wealth".

"Coming from the country, I know firsthand, when you live a fair distance from work and there's no public transport, people from all backgrounds use their vehicles a lot."

Haters Objector posted:

There's some stiff competition, but I think that the Joe Hockey should be awarded the prize for most incompetent coalition minister thus far

SynthOrange posted:

Orkin Mang posted:

Are all the Coalition's policies formulated on the basis of gut-feelings and random anecdotes? Because it seems like they've done practically no research, not even preliminary research, in the areas in which they're trying to pass legislation. A moment's thought would tell you that poorer people will be hit harder than the richer on average by an increase in the fuel excise.

Orkin Mang posted:

Are all the Coalition's policies formulated on the basis of gut-feelings and random anecdotes? Because it seems like they've done practically no research, not even preliminary research, in the areas in which they're trying to pass legislation. A moment's thought would tell you that poorer people will be hit harder than the richer on average by an increase in the fuel excise.

BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

I would ask "What happened to the Liberals to make them this way? What forces of otherisation are preventing them from integrating?"

webmeister posted:

It's not that they don't know, it's that they don't care.

Haters Objector posted:

There's some stiff competition, but I think that the Joe Hockey should be awarded the prize for most incompetent coalition minister thus far

urseus posted:

I'm sure you guys saw that video floating around facebook of that US journalist on the panel giving a muslim student a serve about islam and moderates and comparing them to nazis, in that only a small amount of extremists were required to carry out horrendous acts. What are people's thoughts on that video? Why is it incorrect? Maybe not now but 50 years from now based on current growth of the religion in all countries?

Scylo posted:

quote:

“Protecting people from murder at the hands of ISIL terrorists is a humanitarian cause ...and Australia has a long and proud tradition of assisting people in need”