Urcher posted:

Word cloud for October:

TheMightyHandful posted:

Kommando posted:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australians-should-prepare-for-more-antiterror-raids-afp-chief-20141103-11ge3x.html

Please give generously for the AFP doorknock appeal.




*Knock knock.*
Whos there?
Team 'Straya.

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Mithranderp posted:

The problem is, they are an unelected ceremonial Head of State, and running around doing things "for the greater good" would be all well and good, but it's not democracy.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

So the alternative is to hand power over to the unelected representative of a person who came out of the correct vagina?

I mean, yeah, in this situation it might turn out to accomplish something we're happy about. Maybe. Assuming the GG even wants to step in with a Royal Commission. And in return, all we have to do is go back to effective monarchy.

CrazyTolradi posted:

Should we go back to having a Governor with complete powers, appointed by the Queen? Maybe we could set up our own monarchy, like that group out at Hutt River? We could even try having a military despot ruler, maybe that will be better? Or we could all go an-cap/liberatarian and abolish the state, clearly the free market would decide that treating refugees would be our best course of action, surely?

EDIT: Maybe theocracy might be better, I'm sure that has never turned out horribly bad at all in history.

Gough Suppressant posted:

The solution is purging the electorate, hth.

Murodese posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-08/woman-injured-man-shot-dead-in-police-siege-in-perth/5876860

Drove past this earlier today and my friend was like "wow, I wonder why there are so many cops around?", to whit I replied "dunno, probably shooting some innocents".

Turns out that's exactly what they were doing


Guessing the first three hit her and the other 4 were for him. Pretty nice Russian-style hostage extraction there, WAPOL.

Sparticle posted:

Amethyst posted:

Some good news

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-12/immigration-department-loses-appeal-over-afghans-refugee-status/5885148


The "get another job" line is completely laughable, how do these people sleep at night?

SadisTech posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey

The Americans are patrolling them up and down the Brisbane River. Incessantly. There are also motorcycle cops patrolling outside my work in numbers I've never seen. gently caress this Gestapo BS. I'm literally afraid to catch public transport. NOT due to the possibility of terrorist activity but because of the probability of thugs with a scrap of authority getting over-excited.

gay picnic defence posted:

I'm at LaTrobe. People are blowing up over it on facebook, and it does seem to be hurting the reputation of international students. Some of it is justified because there are some deadset no-hopers out there but I really feel for the ones who are actually doing the hard yards and earning their degree.

Splode posted:

Universities man.

The concept of "Accept any international student for those big dollars, regardless of their ability to communicate" is combined with "Make everything group work so it's easier to mark" is a loving catastrophe.

I was receiving desperate emails sent by international students to everyone in the subject asking to join a group, and I've had lecturers actually say "international students don't all form a group together because none of you will have any contacts in Australia that you'll need to do the assignment*"

Thing is, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY will actually respond to these emails. You'd have to be insane. Picking group members you don't know personally is a crapshoot already. Add in a high chance that the candidate barely speaks English and won't be able to write anything that doesn't take hours to edit, and you've got yourself a terrible choice. You could argue that its racist, but group projects are all about communication. Generally, the groups made of exclusively international kids will do pretty well in practical tasks, if they're all from the same place, because they all speak the same first language.

*It was an assignment where you had to go and interview someone at a related company.

Tony Abbott posted:

'I'm focusing not on what might happen in 16 years' time.'

Palmersaurus posted:

Auspol December: Anidav. Leave Queensland.

Sanguine posted:

loving

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/25507479/cold-snap-the-reason-behind-russias-warships/

Russia's claimed the warships are here for climate change research.

"The official response is that Russia is testing its pacific fleet's range capability, believe it or not, in case it has to do climate change research in the Antarctic."

Adnar posted:

such charisma

Palmersaurus posted:

Just in time for summer!

Victorian fire authority cuts jobs as union warns of 'catastrophic' fire season

Victoria’s rural firefighting service, the Country Fire Authority, is cutting 164 jobs on the brink of what the firefighting union warns could be a “catastrophic” fire season.

A leaked CFA management document shows that around 10% of the organisation’s workforce is in the process of being made redundant, resulting in savings of $16m a year.

The roles include those in “fire and emergency management”, business services and the training of volunteers. A total of 41 of the positions have already been axed.

Details of the job cuts have emerged as Victoria prepares for its fire season, with fire restrictions placed across multiple areas of the state on Monday.

The United Firefighters Union said the job cuts were part of a Victorian government move to strip $66m in funding from the CFA.

“There is less being spent on firefighting compared to 2009, despite Victoria’s population increasing,” Peter Marshall, Victorian secretary of the union, told Guardian Australia. “These job cuts are ill-conceived and stupid. I’ve never seen a government downsize critical emergency services on the brink of a potentially catastrophic fire season.

“We know fires are becoming more intensive and more frequent and here we are cutting 10% of the CFA’s workforce. It just doesn’t add up.

“The whole state will potentially be placed at risk by this policy. We already have fire stations unattended because of a lack of firefighters. It doesn’t matter what the political party is, they have a duty of care to communities. This government hasn’t fulfilled that duty of care.”

Victoria’s Coalition government, which is facing an election on November 29, has insisted that the CFA restructure will only affect backroom staff.

Kim Wells, Victoria’s minister of police and emergency services, said the claim that the move would damage firefighting capability was “absolutely rubbish.”

“This is another example of the UFU and their Labor mates attempting to mislead the Victorian people on the eve of an election,” he said. “Under the Napthine government Victoria’s emergency services have been strengthened by more than 200 extra CFA career firefighters, with more to graduate by the end of the year.

“These 206 extra recruits are providing crucial frontline support to the more than 55,000 CFA volunteers who work across more than 1,200 brigades protecting their fellow Victorians.

“Over the past four years the number of extra volunteer firefighters has also increased considerably, with more than 800 additional firefighters working at stations across the state.”

Wells added that the Coalition had provided the CFA with more than $2.29bn in funding since it took power in 2010.

Wade Noonan, Labor’s emergency services spokesman, said the job cuts would put Victoria’s population at risk. “We have to support firefighters, because they protect our families,” he said. “Only a Liberal would cut funds to firefighting at the start of bushfire season. Locals aren’t going to forget this.”

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/17/victorian-fire-authority-cuts-jobs-as-union-warns-of-catastrophic-fire-season

Those On My Left posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/18/video-shows-disabled-brisbane-man-punched-queensland-police

footage of brave queensland cops repeatedly punching a restrained double amputee in the head

Amethyst posted:

I shouldn't be shocked by this, but I am. What the gently caress. Jesus christ how can they possibly justify this poo poo

hooman posted:

I get my milky white skin from my milky white beverages. Or because my ancestors had a thing for literally stealing the food from the mouths of babes. Hell, my white contemporaries are figuratively still doing it with the defunding of the poor and orphans.

Australians: We're loving terrible.

Mithranderp posted:

I (relatively) recently learned about the history behind all the "Boundary Road"s in Brisbane, i.e. that they represented the boundary which indigenous people were not allowed to cross after a certain time. I'm assuming that similar poo poo happened in other towns/cities. While that definitely doesn't represent the WORST of our appalling treatment of our first people, it's certainly shameful to think about. Part of me would like to see a name change (idk what to, but something that maybe wasn't used to exclude people from their own loving ancestral land) but then again the only reason I even know about the curfew thing is because I was like "boundary? boundary of what?" and googled that poo poo, so in a way, changing the names of those roads could be a form of whitewashing the past and pretending that we didn't do poo poo like that.

Gough Suppressant posted:

https://www.facebook.com/ross.a.lloyd.5?fref=ts / https://twitter.com/f22ross

quote:

Guardian Australia contacted the office of the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, to obtain an outline of what constitutes good character, but did not receive a response.

Splode posted:

Nothing makes me feel more powerless than being completely unable to stop the government that purports to represent me from doing this.

Gough Suppressant posted:

Antony Green has given 45 seats to Labor and 1 to the greens as confirmed and a further 3 to Labor and 1 to Greens as likely seats.

lightinwater posted:

Solution to the drug war; low level dealing is now legal, everything else stays as before