Gorilla Salad posted:

What it will be is endless handouts and bailouts for mates.


This is why I don't make any extra super contributions. I know it baffled some people last time I brought it up, but I honestly believe that superannuation as we know it will just not be there when I retire.

There will be taxes, fees, national budget emergencies where "we all have to do our part (but only if you were born after 1965)".

It will be like the Detroit bankruptcy, where public employees who had a lifetime of sacrifice in their pension funds suddenly found themselves with large holes where they thought their retirement savings were.


Superannuation, unless you're rich, means 'sacrifice now, so the government has something else to take from you later'.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Except that's not really the same at all, because to do this the government would have to literally do a cyprus style raid on private accounts.

Urcher posted:

Unisuper still has the "Defined Benefit Division". When my wife got her first university job we needed to decide if she should go with accumulation (basically standard super) or defined benefits (basically fixed amount pension). We went with accumulation. Our logic was that Unisuper's internal investments would approximately match the performance of the external ones. If their internal predictions were too optimistic they would use Clause 34 to reduce benefits and avoid running out of money, putting us at approximately where we would have been in accumulation. If their internal predictions were too pessimistic they would pocket the difference and we would get less than we would have got with accumulation.

There's a fairly prominent notice on the defined benefits division page that:


I now feel like a totally vindicated all knowing financial wizard.

That link posted:

...independent actuarial advice confirms that the defined-benefit fund is relying on the contributions of new younger members to help fund the larger benefits promised to older members.
...
All members contribute the same amount: 7 per cent of salary from the employee and 14 per cent of salary from the employer. After deducting the 15 per cent contributions tax, the total annual contribution amounts to 18.9 per cent of salary. But up to age 40, the lump-sum benefit accrues at 18 per cent of final average salary per year of service. After 40, the benefit accrual rate increases by 0.2 per cent of final average salary per year. At 45, the accrual rate is 19 per cent of final average salary, marginally above the contribution rate. At age 65, the benefit accrual rate peaks at 23 per cent of final average salary.

Given that older members have the option to access their larger benefits by retiring or taking redundancy, this benefit accrual structure increases the risks that the money remaining will be insufficient to pay all the benefits promised to remaining members when they exit the fund. Yet unless they opt to leave the defined benefit fund within the first 24 months, the universities force all employees to remain in the defined-benefit fund until they leave university employment.

This is not the case with other defined-benefit funds, which typically allocate benefits on an equitable basis over all age groups.

Splode posted:

The lockouts have achieved nothing, except for destroying what lovely nightlife sydney had, and worse, shifting the awful bogan brigade from wollongong, newcastle and the central coast from kings cross, where it was contained, out to Newtown and the actual good bars (which are now all poo poo). This will just move the problems to some other suburb.

Of course, what will actually happen is that they'll expand it to all of NSW and you'll never be able to go out for a drink after 10 anywhere.

Tommofork posted:

I don't like this on the grounds that Abbott wasn't born. He hatched.

clusterfuck posted:

John Birmingham in the SMH posted:

Scott Morrison is about to get a lesson in humility

The office of the Coroner is an ancient and noble one, pre-dating the arrival of the white man and his Law in Australia by many hundreds of years. Many, many hundreds. The role, already established in practise, was formalised by statute in 1194. Over the better part of the millennia that followed the responsibilities and prerogatives of the office have evolved, but always in one direction. Towards the truth.

The Coroner seeks the truth, and although he or she is an officer of the state, no power of the state or any of its interested officials will deny the Coroner's investigations. Be it bailiff or sheriff or high minister of the Crown, should the Coroner deem it necessary to summon an official to make explanation, they will be summoned and they will attend or face the dire consequence of their refusal.

It's nothing like dealing with snarky journalists, as Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is about to find out.

The Queensland Coroner has decided that the death of a fit and healthy young Iranian man, asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei, while detained at the behest of Mr Morrison, was no less than a death in custody. The Commonwealth had custody and care of Mr Kehazaei and he died from a simple cut to the foot while in that custody. He died in Queensland, having been transferred to hospital here.

Many Australians want to know how and why this appalling tragedy occurred, but only one can compel the man who administered the system in which the victim died to explain himself. The Queensland Coroner.

Perhaps the Coroner will not call Mr Morrison. Perhaps the Coroner will be content with the minister's assurance that a man dying of a cut to his foot is no biggie. It happens all the time, after all. But that is unlikely.

Scott Morrison is more likely about to find himself dragged, metaphorically if not bodily, into a court of law where he cannot lie or even reframe the truth, for that would be perjury and that way lies imprisonment. Scott Morrison is about to learn that his power, while seeming absolute when consigning poor bastards like Hamid Kehazaei to oblivion, is nothing like absolute when confronted by the power of the Coroner to seek the truth of that banishment and the death in which it seemingly resulted. Scott Morrison, who apparently fancies himself as an alternative prime minister, is about to get a lesson in the realities of power, and maybe, just maybe, a lesson in empathy, when he finds himself subject to the undeniable power of a state official who simply does not care for the unique and personal narrative which makes Morrison, the warm little centre of his own existence.

The Coroner seeks the truth in death and he or she will not be denied that truth.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Barry O'Farrell is guest starring on today's episode of ICAC.

The SMH posted:

Two weeks before the 2011 election, then opposition leader Barry O'Farrell announced a tax policy that benefited developer Brickworks while the company was allegedly bankrolling a researcher in his office and had secretly donated $125,000 to the Liberal campaign.

Gorilla Salad posted:

So if Morrison says, "Operational matters," or "PNG is outside your jurisdiction," what recourse has the coroner?


I really want to see him swing, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

AVeryLargeRadish posted:

One would hope that such non-answers would result in perjuring oneself. But is the coroners office as powerful as that article makes them out to be?

quote:

When one considers that a coroner can issue and execute search warrants, instruct police on what inquiries should be made, require witnesses to answer even incriminating questions, obtain reports from experts of their choosing, is not bound by the rules of evidence, there can be no doubt the role is very different from that discharged by a magistrate adjudicating in civil litigation or criminal charges. It is essential the different purposes this system is designed to achieve are vigorously pursued and the different role the coroner plays is recognised and acted upon.

Even though a coroner can no longer commit a person to trial, as was authorised by earlier Acts, it would be disingenuous to suggest the criminal justice system and the coronial system are completely separate and discrete. Indeed the Act makes specific provisions for coroners to refer information to prosecutors - see s. 48. Similarly, although the Act in s. 45(5) and s. 46(3) prohibits a coroner from purporting to determine questions of civil liability, it is common for litigants to seek evidence for use in such proceedings via the coronial process. Approaches coroners might utilise to reduce the likelihood of their proceedings becoming focussed on issues that should better be contested in other proceedings are discussed in chapters 7 and 9 which deal with investigations and inquests. However, in some cases complete separation or compartmentalisation of the coronial, civil and criminal aspects of a death investigation is not possible or desirable. Coroners are required to find ‘how' the person died; a question that is often central to civil or criminal proceedings. Evidence discovered by coroners will often be crucial to civil or criminal cases. This overlap should not discourage coroners from discharging their statutory duties.

open24hours posted:

The Greens have an actual policy platform available on their website even three years out from an election. Seems to work OK for them.

Les Affaires posted:

For those playing at home, Vasse is part of the Western Australian South West wine and tourism region. Populated by wineries and their owners, and seachange retirees. Minor hippie population but overall the likelihood of anybody who identifies with the working class getting anywhere near the seat is laughable.

Shakugan posted:

The reason that student politics don't swing to the left is that no one gives a gently caress about student politics except people who want to be career politians, and these people skew to the right. Students and young people in general are far more liberal than their older counterparts, they are just apathetic and so don't really bother voting in student politics.

gay picnic defence posted:

Any ideas on how these changes could be wound back?

gay picnic defence posted:

That and the only visible student political action on campus these days seems to be slightly deranged and unwashed looking trots shouting incoherently into their megaphone or interrupting lectures to advertise some 'emergency day of action', not something most young people these days particularly identify with or want to be a part of.

Haters Objector posted:

When you say conservative economics, do you mean neoliberalism? If so, I don't think neoliberal praxis is even remotely conservative, other than for the fact that self-described "conservatives" promote it. Neoliberalism is a policy of extremism, and gay rights, drug legalisation, and other civil liberties issues are entirely consistent with modern neoliberalism.

Laserface posted:

My issue with Foxtel is that you are paying for a few things you do want and about 5000 you dont.


How all these media companies have enough knowledge of piracy to know how it works and not once think 'hey, this is a great way to deliver content' is amazing. I would happily pay a monthly subscription fee multiple times the cost of my Usenet subscription if Foxtel or the like had a sickbeard type set up that just pulls my shows off a server when they are released.

Then again I am currently house sitting in Alexandria for a month where my mate gets a whopping 2mbps ADSL so I'd dare say a foxtel subsctription is a better option for a lot of people as it doesnt rely on having decent internet available (and gee, I wonder how we arrived at this situation?)

Laserface posted:

I dont give two fucks why they bundle packages - it doesnt serve the customer any value to have 8 channels of poo poo bundled with the one channel you want. If theres no value to the customer, then the business model is flawed. It also assumes that you're paying X dollars for Y channels and its distributed evenly amongst them - Its not. I'd rather pay $15 for just HBO than $20 for HBO + garbage network, and we all know that is how the pricing is divided anyway.

Ammonsa posted:

Well I've got waiting experience, but my boss isn't going to give me a reference now so haha. I'm in Canberra, just trying to apply for places but I don't have a car and public transport is shithouse here. So I'm limited to the southern area of Canberra realistically, honestly I'm just having a lot of trouble finding places that don't require qualifications I don't have in Canberra.

Ammonsa posted:

Thanks for some of the suggestions, guys. There's no local supermarkets near me, just the big ones, Woolworths, Coles. I don't understand how but I've never managed to even get an interview for them, even though I apply and send in expressions of interest (because they never have the actual vacant openings at the stores I can get to).

Anidav posted:

How do you measure skill in half an hour, can you even go through the role and responsibilities in half an hour?

I just want a job and all these fuckers keep scamming me for my time.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

E2: Baumann's not stepping aside.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

How sad, he's changed his mind for some reason.

Cartoon posted:

Twenty blokes that we know the names and locations of, who we aren't going to let back into the country in any case, might chuck a poo poo if we let them back into the country.

Gough Suppressant posted:

In summing up, it's the Muslims, it's ISIS, it's Bali, it's September 11, it's the vibe, and, uh ... No, that's it. It's the vibe ....

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Jesus Christ, Sinodinos at ICAC.

Mr Chips posted:

Apparently DSTO were able to hack the F/A-18A's computers to enable modes the yanks disabled before selling them to us.

Kim Beazley posted:

The radar of our Hornet could not identify most of the aircraft in this region as hostile—in other words, our front-line fighter could not shoot down people who would be the enemies in this region. Wasn’t that a wonderful opportunity for the Labor Party to finally lay to rest the ghost of Liberal Party claims to be the people who are best at managing the affairs of the defence of this nation? I shut up; I said nothing.

I went to the United States and, for five years, it was up hill, down dale and one knock-down drag-out after another with Cap Weinberger, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. I tried to get the codes of that blasted radar out of them. In the end, we spied on them and we extracted the codes ourselves—and we got another radar that can actually identify them, otherwise I would not be talking about it now. We got a radar that was capable of doing the shoot-down and the rest of what we wanted.

Pudding Space posted:

Like, apart from beheading innocent civilians, like? Disregarding the uncool white western victims - are you more comfortable when ISIS beheads / crucifies / murders brown people? Is this something you write off as a cultural misunderstanding? Like Rwanda?

Where does the radius of "I don't give a poo poo" start? Beyond Nauru?

Comstar posted:

I agreed somewhat with the initial invasion - I was completely wrong then. And this is a big reason for it.

If the government was really concerned about it, they'd be doing something for the millions of refugees or the Ebola disaster. They haven't, they won't and they'll just use the new invasion to look tough and be Big Men.

Fruity Gordo posted:

I can always try to beef up my super later when I'm in my fifties, and I'm pretty frugal anyway.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

: 420:NSW moves closer to legalising medicinal cannabis

Nuclear Spy posted:

Speaking of goons struggling in the outside world, there is the Australian Young Greens National Conference over the October long weekend in Sydney. We could organise a Goon Congress on the Sunday night (5th of October) and share more work-related stories over a box of cheesy nugs.

quote:

Anger over Jennifer Anderson’s re-election as Mayor of Ku-ring-gai Council
PETER THEODOSIOU HORNSBY ADVOCATE SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 12:36PM

COUNCILLOR Jennifer Anderson was reinstated as Mayor of Ku-ring-gai Council on Tuesday night, but it was her pre-election self-endorsement that has caused a rift among the five Liberal councillors.

Just 24 hours before Tuesday night’s election, the Liberal councillors voted (3-2) to endorse 22-year-old David Ossip as the sole candidate for the mayorship, but an 11th hour U-turn saw Cr Anderson announce herself as the candidate following a caucus meeting — only attended and voted on by her supporter, Cr Chantelle Fornari-Orsmond.

Cr Ossip and his supporters arrived at the caucus meeting four minutes later than the 5.50pm scheduled start, to discover it had been adjourned with Cr Anderson voted in as the Liberal’s sole election candidate.

A visibly livid Cr Ossip and the three other Liberal councillors were forced to vote along party lines, meaning Cr Anderson was reinstated as mayor with six votes — ahead of independent Cr Elaine Malicki, who received four votes.

The general meeting concluded with Cr Fornari-Orsmond elected as deputy mayor.

The power of mayorship was too big a treat to pass up for Cr Anderson, who exercised the same process last year to oust endorsed Liberal councillor David Citer at the last minute­.

Cr Fornari-Orsmond defended the process, saying Cr Ossip and his supporters “had the opportunity and were given due notice” of the caucus meeting but they simply “weren’t there”.

On Monday, Cr Anderson contacted the Advocate to announce Cr Ossip as the sole candidate and Cheryl Szatow as deputy.

At the same time, independent councillor Duncan McDonald, whose vote tipped the balance in Cr Anderson’s favour, voiced his support for her.

In response Cr Anderson said; “We understand that our main focus must be on meeting the needs of Ku-ring-gai residents.

“Electing a mayor who achieves a 6-4 result is important to providing stability for the council.

“A late change to the selected nominee also occurred last year. We accept that this is part of the process and we place the best interests of Ku-ring-gai and the council above all else.”

Cr Malicki was “disgusted” with the election outcome.

“Jennifer Anderson’s underhanded manipulation of Liberal Party rules on Tuesday night, knowing that seven out of 10 of her colleagues did not want her as mayor, was desperate and unAustralian,” she said.

“We are a country of the fair go for all, and David Ossip, who got the majority Liberal vote, deserved his chance at the top job even if   it meant a draw from the hat.

“Ku-ring-gai is now stuck with a Mayor and deputy mayor who are the result of Liberal Party policy, not the support of their colleagues. What a farce.”

Cr Ossip didn’t address the night’s events but said he was humbled by the support he received from other Liberal councillors and that he would not contest next year’s election — choosing instead to pursue a career as a lawyer when he completes his studies.

This will be Cr Anderson’s third term in office, having taken the seat in 2011-12 and 2013-14.

Zenithe posted:

How do they not have a quorum requirement for things like that.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

In my LGA, Councillors are explicitly forbidden from binding themselves to caucus decisions against their wishes. I'm surprised it isn't the same for Kuringgai.

e: why couldn't they just hold another caucus meeting with blackjack and hookers

Tasmantor posted:

ABC keep saying "It looks like we know why they raised the terror level!". In my mind I pretend that when I was younger the ABC would have pointed out that they raise it then chuck some trumped up theatre to justify it.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

loving hell Fairfax, what is wrong with you?

Systematic posted:

"WE DON'T WANT WOMEN TO BE FORCED TO WEAR A BURQA, THEREFORE WILL FORCE WOMEN NOT TO WEAR A BURQA, EVER. WE'RE A FREE COUNTRY."

Robodog posted:

Turkey isn't really in the same boat as us or France or whoever. The Turkish stuff stems from Ataturk demolishing the Ottoman Sultanate and setting up a new state in the rubble fixated on modernisation/Westernisation. Taking down the previous ruling elites meant taking the social system with it, a big part of which was certain type of religious clothing to denote rank and status. New social system, new state, get rid of the old traditions. And Ataturk really wanted to undermine Islam and make people more reliant of the state than on their religion, to keep the state stable until he established it properly.

Plus Erdoğan has been reforming stuff relating to religious items and clothing anyway.

Cartoon posted:

Have you a source for this?

SynthOrange posted:

Are you implying that Australia is in any way even a semi-serious country?

Halo14 posted:

Uh wtf...

New laws will give ASIO licence to kill

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/09/21/08/47/new-anti-terror-laws-will-give-asio-power-to-kill#HLiBrc9KIekpAtmA.99

AVeryLargeRadish posted:

ter-ror-ism

[ter-uh-riz-uh m]

noun

1. The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

2. The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3. A terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.


Hmmmmmmm...

freebooter posted:

Going back to the ASIO kill powers thing for a second - have they now also been licensed to carry weapons? Because they couldn't before, which makes me wonder exactly how they are supposed to kill a terrorist in a ticking time bomb scenario. Run them down with a car? Krav Maga? King-hit them?

You can be absolutely guaranteed that anyone who formulated this policy, in the back of their head, no matter how senior an analyst they are or how many actual policy papers they've read, is thinking about Jack Bauer.

Mr Chips posted:

^^^ Wasn't that just the regular metropolitan police armed unit that did it, not MI5? ASIO shouldn't be first on the scene in that sort of situation.

The SMH posted:

Three fans 'humiliated' by police treatment at Roosters-Cowboys match

Three football fans said they were "furious and humiliated" after being detained at a rugby league match for using their mobile telephones in a manner an onlooker deemed suspicious.
Dozens of people who claim they were unfairly swept up by authorities in the past few weeks are pursuing legal action, as the terrorism climate heats up in Australia.
Three men of Middle Eastern appearance were pointed out by a spectator at the Roosters-Cowboys game on Friday night because they were using their mobile phones in a way that did not match what was happening on the field, Fairfax Media understands.

They were removed by police in the 60th minute and questioned for about half an hour. The three men were so incensed they contacted lawyer Adam Houda, who will demand an apology or take civil action on the men's behalf.
"It was a humiliating experience," Mr Houda said. "They are angry; they're furious."
A police spokesman disputed the men's accounts, saying they were not arrested or detained. "No issues arose from discussions with police and they were allowed to return to their seats," he said.
Mr Houda said he was considering launching a class action on behalf of about two dozen people who had been detained at airports in the past month and questioned about links to terrorism. Some were removed from aircrafts as they were about to depart. Most had booked their travel months in advance and had lost their money, he said.
He has also been approached by seven people who were caught up in large-scale counterterrorism raids last week who want to pursue legal action against the police.
Mr Houda's claims followed a warning by the Australian National Imams Council that they were exploring options for legal action after the "extremely unprofessional" detention of a senior member of the council at Sydney airport on Thursday.
The imam was detained for two-and-a-half hours for a routine baggage search, causing him to miss his flight to Saudi Arabia for the Haj, a religious pilgrimage undertaken by about 2000 Australians each year. He was unable to book another flight.
The grand mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammad said it was "totally unacceptable for any Australian citizen ... to be subjected to this seemingly random, yet profiled, manner causing severe stress and unwanted inconvenience".
Mr Houda said: "It's getting ridiculous. The last time the Muslim community were confronted with such a wave of bigotry and racism was under John Howard but this time it is way overboard."

Joe Hockeys Scrote posted:

Controversial but putting it out there anyway:

Anyone who runs around with beards like that is not a moderate Muslim and probably warrants some questioning if parked next to a nuclear reactor


Not saying that beard = terrorist, but I am saying that beard equals at the very least believing in a very conservative strain of Islam


And I don't trust anyone that takes any religion too seriously