Chicken Parmigiana posted:

who you should fight: Australian Prime Ministers edition

• Barton: You could fight Barton. He was pissed all the time anyway. Plus he was first so people will know who you’re talking about, but none of them will know enough to get angry at you for it.
  
  
• Deakin: He’ll come back like three times. You will get to walk past everything named after him like “Ha, kicked the poo poo out of him” though.
  
  
• Watson: He was PM for four months, why would you bother
  
  
• Reid: You could just roll him over, but be warned: he’ll have a Cutting Remark about it.
  
  
• Cook: I don’t know poo poo about Cook and neither do you.
  
  
• Fisher: See Deakin, but without the name recognition.
  
  
• Hughes: DO IT. FIGHT HUGHES. He’s evil, tiny, and the whole ALP will help you.
  
  
• Bruce: Just look at that smug little union-busting prick. You can take him.
  
  
• Scullin: Dude had two splits in his party at once in two different directions. Why would you make his life worse?
  
  
• Lyons: Don’t fight Lyons. He might die, and then Sir Earle Page and Dame Enid would kick your rear end.
  
  
• Page: Yeah, fight Page, I don’t think he’ll mind, just leave Lyons alone and it’ll be cool.
  
  
• Curtin: Beloved national hero who led this nation through World War Two while struggling with alcoholism before dying in office. Do you want the whole country to hate you?
  
  
• Forde: 8 days. Why?
  
  
• Chifley: Dude made a referendum in Australia pass. Don’t mess with him.
  
  
• Menzies: The entire Liberal party will come after you. Don’t.
  
  
• Holt: Have fun fighting underwater.
  
  
• McEwen: DO NOT FIGHT MCEWEN. Don’t be fooled by his being interim PM for like a month. He single-handedly stopped Holt’s obvious successor succeeding him. He created the protectionist policies for rural Australia for decades through sheer force of personality. DON’T FIGHT MCEWEN.
  
  
• Gorton: He survived crashing his jet, having his face torn to shreds and being left for dead in the middle of the Pacific. He’s a tenacious bugger. But just put Fraser in the room and he’ll be too consumed with rage to even notice you.
  
  
• McMahon: You could take McMahon. Anyone could take McMahon. You won’t be proving anything.
  
  
• Whitlam: Too bloody tall, also the entire Australian left will come after you in revenge.
  
  
• Fraser: He might not look tough and have that snooty voice, but dude was like 6′4″ and destroyed two Prime Ministers. Don’t take the risk.
  
  
• Hawke: You could fight Hawke. I mean you’d lose, but he’d definitely buy you a beer afterward. You’d also lose the subsequent drinking contest though.
  
  
• Keating: DON’T FIGHT KEATING. DO NOT FIGHT KEATING. I don’t care how skinny he is, he will play dirty, destroy you will psychological warfare, ‘do you slowly’ and probably come up with some insult people will still be quoting three decades later.
  
  
• Howard: Do it. Fight Howard. Tiny, evil, whole left will help (also Peter Costello).
  
  
• Rudd: Seems like an easy win until he devotes the rest of his life to destroying yours. Don’t fight Rudd.
  
  
• Gillard: Woman is tough. Best avoided.
  
  
• Abbott: Like, I wanna see Abbott get punched as much as anyone, but he was a prize-winning boxer. Let the Liberal caucus do it instead.
  
  
• Turnbull: Give it a go. Fucker’s gotta be bad at something, right?
  

quote:

Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop spent more than $50,000 on a country-hopping South American trip earlier this year.

Mrs Bishop resigned as speaker in August following weeks of pressure over her taxpayer-funded expenditure.

Documents reveal she travelled to Ecuador, Peru and Argentina between January 10-25 this year.

Four other MPs and senators were part of a delegation that travelled to Ecuador and Peru for the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum.

Mrs Bishop travelled to Argentina without other members of the group.

The other four charged taxpayers less than $24,000 each.

The latest expenditure report for MPs and senators showed $32,046.28 was spent on airfares and $12,625.35 on accommodation and meals, while the total cost was $52,700.62.

Mrs Bishop's office has been contacted for comment.

Earlier this year it was revealed she spent more than $5,000 chartering a helicopter from Melbourne to Geelong in November to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser.

The expenditure report, released today, showed Mrs Bishop continued to charter aircraft after the notorious November helicopter trip.

On March 6 this year, $4,100 was spent on a return trip to Port Macquarie, where she attended the Hastings Heroine Awards — an event recognising local women leaders.

No direct flights are available between Canberra and Port Macquarie, but the journey can take less than three hours flying via Sydney.

A six-day trip by Ms Bishop to Vietnam in March and April cost taxpayers $19,218.99, including nearly $13,000 on flights.

quote:

The latest report, covering the first six months of 2015, also shows:

MPs and senators claimed a total of $47,655,093.32 (including undeclared expenses from previous years, along with expenses from some former parliamentarians).
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce had the highest total for all MPs and senators, registering $1,073,991.45 in expenses during the period, followed by two West Australian-based MPs, Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
The most expensive category was office facilities, costing $15,710,044.19.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan spent the most on family travel at $23,350, while fellow West Australian MPs Christian Porter and Luke Simpkins were also among the highest spending in the category.

quote:

Same-sex couples' civil partnerships to again be recognised in Queensland

Same-sex couples in Queensland will again be allowed to hold a state-sanctioned ceremony to celebrate a civil partnership.

Queensland Parliament has restored laws that were unpicked by the former LNP government, which only allowed the registering of partnerships.

About half of the LNP's members voted with Labor to pass the laws after they were allowed to cast a conscience vote on the issue.

Former attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie, who drafted the Newman government changes, was among those who supported the bill.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath told Parliament it was the third time the issue had been voted on in recent years.

"Let's hope this is the last time we have to have this debate in Queensland Parliament," she said.

"Let's also hope these laws are here to stay. Whether this is about changes in the laws or whether members are responding to shifts in public attitudes, perhaps today can be the line in the sand that demonstrates that Queensland has finally moved forward."

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Parliament the changes would have a positive effective on younger lesbian, gay and bisexual people who had been struggling with their sexuality.

"By reinstating these ceremonies we reinforce the message that these are healthy and loving relationships," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We reinforce acceptance and tolerance."

<sub>Katter's Australian Party MPs did not support the move, arguing marriage is between a man and a woman.

"We see civil unions as a stepping stone to marriage. Many people would see it as the next step," Mt Isa MP Robbie Katter said.</sub>

Chicken Parmigiana posted:

who you should fight: Australian Prime Ministers edition
[*]Gorton: He survived crashing his jet, having his face torn to shreds and being left for dead in the middle of the Pacific. He’s a tenacious bugger. But just put Fraser in the room and he’ll be too consumed with rage to even notice you.

Kommando posted:

some more good news today

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/same-sex-couples-civil-partnership-recognition-restored-qld/6999708


Rolling back the Newman years.

Birb Katter posted:

Siege in Liverpool this morning, dude holed up with a gun since midnight

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/30269896/sydney-streets-in-lockdown-as-police-surround-liverpool-home-during-siege-situation/

EXAKT Science posted:

Wait, y'all don't have gay marriage yet?

EXAKT Science posted:

Wait, y'all don't have gay marriage yet?

Birb Katter posted:

Siege in Liverpool this morning, dude holed up with a gun since midnight

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/30269896/sydney-streets-in-lockdown-as-police-surround-liverpool-home-during-siege-situation/

quote:

A MUSLIM family from the Upper Hunter has been the subject of threats and online abuse after a far-right anti-Islamic social media page posted clandestine photos of them outside of their home.

The post was made late in November on a page dedicated to anti-Islamic abuse. It shows a number of photos of men of Muslim appearance exiting an identifiable home in the Upper Hunter.

It was accompanied with the caption “Taken Just now in Singleton NSW. Not wanted and not welcome. Put your daughters inside.”

A number of the comments include threats and abuse, one suggesting people should “burn there (sic) house down” and “throw bacon all over there (sic) front yard”.

It is not clear whether the family is aware of the abuse, and the Newcastle Herald has chosen not to identify the social media page containing the posts.

The Herald spoke to one of the site administrators online but, despite posting the identities of other people, they refused to disclose the names of the four people that supposedly run the page.

They claimed to know the identities of the people in the pictures, and said the intention was to “expose” them “to make people aware of what is going on around them” and to circumvent the “left-wing government a left-wing media that continue to lie and subvert the truth”. The page administrator likened Islamic people to Nazis and paedophiles.

Hunter Valley Local Area Command Chief Inspector Guy Guiana said the posts were “just rubbish”. He said any online posts that incited violence against others meant “the people putting the posts on and the page administrator can be held to account.”

He said the people who ran the page were “not helpful”, “very ill-informed” and “not that brave”.
See your ad here

“They won’t identify themselves because they’re not that brave and they know by putting this sort of stuff up they’re leaving themselves liable if someone over steps the line and makes threats,” he said.

Starshark posted:

Can we just skip the 'genocide' phase and go straight to 'being occupied by a foreign power until we learn to stop being dipshits'?

Doctor Spaceman posted:

This whole mess started because Australia was occupied by a foreign power.

Recoome posted:

Recently I found a video of one of the Reclaim Australia people giving a speech at the Brisbane rally (which was the one on the 22nd of Nov). I find it pretty interesting because I couldn't hear anything beyond what we were chanting in the counter-protest but it's some real things, in my opinion. I was also unaware that they'd been denied the use of halls or whatever to actually congregate in the past (what a surprise).

A really interesting insight into what is becoming a pretty pervasive political opinion within Australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZEhzwZJSE

quote:

One of Mr Macfarlane's new Queensland Nationals colleagues Michelle Landry would like to see him return to cabinet. 'He's got a lot of experience to bring to the party and I think that it's a wonderful move,' she told ABC TV. But she admitted any promotion would have to be based on merit, saying the partyroom had a 'very frank' discussion about Mr Macfarlane coming in. Ms Landry said she wouldn't be surprised if Scott Buchholz also joins the Nationals fold. Also a Queensland MP, Mr Buchholz lost his position as chief whip under Mr Turnbull.

The community needs to be aware that their human rights may be impacted upon, posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-04/police-warn-dandenong-locals-of-random-weapons-searches/7001074

Residents of Dandenong, in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, are being warned Victoria Police will search members of the public at random today for illegal weapons.

Normally, police need to have reasonable grounds to believe someone has a weapon before they stop and search them.

But under today's special operation, focussing around Dandenong's train station, police can stop anyone for a random search.

Victoria Police Inspector Graham Higginbotham said a number of weapons had already been seized in the area this year by protective service officers, who patrol around train stations.

"The community needs to be aware that their human rights may be impacted upon," Inspector Higginbotham said.

"[Today] we have the power to intercept people, stop them, at random," he told 774 ABC Melbourne.

"We're not targeting anyone in particular - it must be random - and [we'll] actually require them to submit to either scanner searches, in other words walking through like you do at the airport, or the hand-held scanners.

"In certain circumstances we can request and require people to undergo pat down and other types of searches if we have reasonable grounds in that area to believe they are in possession of illegal weapons."

Inspector Higginbotham said by law police were required to give the public advanced notification of the use of their special powers.

"[That is] so that the community is aware that we are going to be utilising additional search powers that aren't usually available to us in normal operational circumstances," he said.

He said police would have a "large visible police presence there" to provide a "safety reassurance message to the community" that they are doing everything they can to capture people who are breaking the law.

Amethyst posted:

AG-GAG has opposition support and will pass. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/ag-gag-bill-surveillance-devices-sa-parliament/6994516

loving load of rear end. I don't really have anything interesting to say about it i'm just pissed off

Birb Katter posted:

"The community needs to be aware that their human rights may be impacted upon"

hooman posted:

gently caress me.

ewe2 posted:

They're really searching for Nintendo weenies to stop them beating Undertale, the guns are just a cover.

iajanus posted:

starkebn posted:

how does this compare to the narrative of Greens folding to LNP's desires regards to corporate financial accountability? Or when Labor does it it's just par for the course?

Birb Katter posted:

e: fixed tags

Recoome posted:

Recently I found a video of one of the Reclaim Australia people giving a speech at the Brisbane rally (which was the one on the 22nd of Nov). I find it pretty interesting because I couldn't hear anything beyond what we were chanting in the counter-protest but it's some real things, in my opinion. I was also unaware that they'd been denied the use of halls or whatever to actually congregate in the past (what a surprise).

A really interesting insight into what is becoming a pretty pervasive political opinion within Australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZEhzwZJSE

Milky Moor posted:

it's insanely cool how she's just regurgitating a weird combination of right-wing memes and speech points cribbed from action films and war dramas

also, i like how there's a dude wearing an actual propeller cap that the camera keeps focusing on

Milky Moor posted:

also, i like how there's a dude wearing an actual propeller cap that the camera keeps focusing on

quote:

UberX effectively outlawed in Victoria after driver found guilty in test case

Nathan Brenner found guilty of driving a hire car without a licence or registration, setting a precedent that may make the service illegal
Uber app
The Uber taxi app being used in Brisbane, Australia. The result of a test case in Melbourne on Friday has effectively made Uber illegal. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Staff and agencies

Friday 4 December 2015 14.23 AEDT
Last modified on Friday 4 December 2015 16.05 AEDT

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UberX is effectively illegal in Victoria after a test case found one of its Melbourne drivers guilty of driving without a commercial licence.

Magistrate Julian Ayres found Uber driver Nathan Brenner guilty on Friday of two counts of operating a commercial passenger vehicle without a licence.

He was fined without conviction.

Brenner was one of 13 Uber drivers charged by the Taxi Services Commission last year during an undercover operation.
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The court decision means the UberX service is illegal in Victoria.

Uber said it was disappointed but would continue to operate across the state and would support Brenner’s appeal.

“We will continue to support Mr Brenner as he appeals [against] the decision,” Uber said in a statement on Friday.

“It is widely acknowledged that the current legislation could not have contemplated technology such as Uber – the legislation clearly needs to be updated.”

Public transport minister Jacinta Allan says Uber has to abide by the laws.

“I’d encourage Uber to think about the position they’re putting those drivers in if they continue down this path while this matter continues to remain unresolved,” she told reporters on Friday.
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Allan said Victoria was “well advanced” in working through policy issues surrounding how to regulate the so-called ridesharing business and ensure it does not have an unfair advantage over the taxi and hire car industry.

State opposition leader Matthew Guy said the government was taking too long.

“Other states are coming to the fore and making decisions around Uber,” Guy said.

“Canberra got off its backside and has made a decision, New South Wales is clearly looking at it, South Australia’s gone further than Victoria.

“We’ve got to find a structure where … Uber can operate in tandem with the taxi industry.”

Guy said the “obvious” answer would be to look at an annual fee mechanism which would incorporate taxis and ride-sharing companies.

The UberX platform allows drivers to offer rides for payment from their personal cars, and has been the subject of legal challenges across the world. The Australian Capital Territory legalised the service in September, the first jurisdiction in Australia to do so.

Pickled Tink posted:

Time for yet another edition of First Dog on the Moon!

katlington posted:

Holy poo poo this guy was our defence minister. This is insane.