Cleretic posted:

I remember having a Chiko Roll as a kid and really hating it, but I have no memory of what it actually tasted like.

On the other hand, I can vividly remember slightly light-bleached ads for Chiko Rolls hanging in multiple locally-owned fish and chip shops, all of which were basically just pinups. I'm okay with that being my memory of Chiko Rolls.

DancingShade posted:

Is anyone remotely surprised by this revelation? I think we all just assumed it was already the case.

I can't wait for Abbot to "Keven Rudd" Turnbull out of the office before losing the next election himself. It would be perfect.

Also after he regains PM but before the election is lost, if the lack of pairing could cause more significant public embarrassment that would be great. TIA Abbot.

quote:

After a relative lull last year, house prices across major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have experienced tearaway growth of some 30 to 40 per cent in 2016, despite already boasting the world's most expensive homes on a price-to-income basis.

In China, real estate prices are typically quoted on a per square-metre basis. Prices in central Beijing conservatively start at 80,000 yuan [about $16,000] per square metre, making even a nondescript, 100-square-metre, two-bedroom, previously owned apartment $1.6 million. New off-the-plan apartments within the city's fourth ring road sold in August for an average 15 million yuan, or close to $3 million, according to Chinese media reports. Across the country, prices rose in 64 of 70 major cities that month, according to official government data.

That heady growth has prompted warnings of a rapidly reinflating property price bubble from the central bank, senior Bank of China economists, and China's richest man, property tycoon Wang Jianlin.

Ora Tzo posted:

The free market shall replace him.

Lid posted:

Huess the author

TheMightyHandful posted:

https://twitter.com/benfordham/status/785435664988774400

e: FEMALES

Anidav posted:

NSW Govt reverses greyhound ban. ABC reporting Baird was threatened with leadership spill if he didnt.

aejix posted:

Like with that bullshit about Carmichael Mine being voted a state-critical piece of infrastructure, I wonder if that gives ministers or government planning authorities special powers to ram through approvals?

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

Like in Tasmania, where one Labor candidate went from fourth place to sixth because of some bullshit parachuting. The order was overturned through BTL voting.

Starshark posted:

How can she sue for that - don't we have a 'best defence against defamation is truth' thing in Australia?

Laserface posted:

You can tell that politicians have never been to a footy game or music festival or any other large gathering of people because they always loving suggest wireles is the answer to broadband issues.

not only that, if you dont have the loving WIRES IN THE GROUND FEEDING THE TOWERS, you are hosed from the get go.

Wistful of Dollars posted:

Guess I need to put together my Rainbow Bob Katter costume.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Ferremit posted:

Spewing I didnt catch the scum who dumped this in my letterbox to give it back to them with an absolute mouthful of abuse to help it down their throat.







Cos the Plebicite was never going to incite hatred against the gay community, was it. We've already had our town plastered with stickers saying "Its Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve"

G-Spot Run posted:

Halal glitter would be a pretty good euphemism for white powder but I don't want asio rocking up on my doorstep for incitement either.

quote:

The government's top legal adviser says he will ignore a "radical" directive from Attorney-General George Brandis that prevents him giving advice directly to ministers and government departments, in the latest front in an escalating war between the country's two most senior lawyers.

At a fiery Senate inquiry on Friday, Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson, SC, said a direction issued by Senator Brandis requiring ministers to obtain his written permission before seeking advice from Mr Gleeson was "unlawful".

These are four of the major points of conflict between the nation's first and second law officers.
He said if the Governor-General or Prime Minister came to him directly for advice he would consider it his legal duty to make a "conscientious decision" to flout the direction and provide them with advice.

"It is a radical change," Mr Gleeson said of the direction issued by Senator Brandis in May.

"Do I lie awake at night worrying about it? I have every night since 5 May, trying to determine how this could have come about and what is the correct way to try and respond to and remedy this situation."

Legal experts have expressed concern the direction could see Mr Gleeson, who holds a statutory office and gives independent advice, "frozen out" from advising the government.

Mr Gleeson revealed on Friday that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had sought his advice in confidence in January "on a matter which I won't mention". Senator Brandis was not privy to the request.

He said that, "read literally", the new direction would prevent him providing that advice "and yet I consider it's my duty to do that under the Law Officers Act".

The Senate's legal and constitutional affairs references committee is examining allegations Senator Brandis misled Parliament by claiming Mr Gleeson was consulted about the legally-binding direction.

Appearing after Mr Gleeson, Senator Brandis said the direction was nothing more than "administrative housekeeping" and was consistent with the law and historical practice. He stood by "every word of every statement" he had made.

He said it was an "insult" to suggest, as former Commonwealth solicitor-general Gavan Griffith, QC, has claimed, that the direction was akin to keeping "a dog on a lead" because all barristers had an obligation to give frank and fearless advice.

He said the dispute with Mr Gleeson boiled down to a difference of opinion about the meaning of the word "consultation". His understanding of the word was consistent with the Oxford English Dictionary definition but Mr Gleeson took a "narrower" view.

Senator Brandis conceded he did not raise the prospect of a binding legal direction with Mr Gleeson at a meeting on November 30 last year, saying he had not yet decided on that course of action.

However, he said his legal obligation to consult did not require it to be done "in some specific fashion" and there was consultation on the general "subject matter".

Senator Brandis took aim at Mr Gleeson for having a conversation with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus in June in which he denied he was consulted about the direction and said he did not agree with it.

He said Mr Gleeson "ought to have" told him about the conversation with one of the government's "principal political enemies" during the election campaign and he was "shocked" he did not.

But Mr Gleeson said he considered it his duty to answer Mr Dreyfus' questions and he was "also the shadow attorney-general, with responsibilities for these matters in the caretaker period".

Mr Dreyfus said on Friday Senator Brandis had not put forward "the slightest justification" for the new direction.

"He was putting himself between the Governor-General and the Solicitor-General, he was putting himself between the Prime Minister and the Solicitor-General, he was putting himself between every secretary of a Commonwealth Department, every head of a Commonwealth agency," he said.

Mr Dreyfus repeated his call for Senator Brandis to resign over the affair.

quote:

Edward, who lives near Mt Macedon about an hour northwest of Melbourne, said he feels 'very connected' to Britain and that's where he sees himself ending up.

quote:

Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart has started new litigation against her children's trust fund to prevent it from receiving millions of dollars in royalties from a Rio Tinto joint venture.

Mrs Rinehart, whose wealth was recently estimated at $6 billion, filed the fresh salvo against the trust that manages the inheritance of her four children – John Hancock, Bianca Rinehart, Hope Welker and Ginia Rinehart – late last month in the Federal Court.

The legal action comes as Mrs Rinehart hit the headlines again this week with a bid for Australia's largest cattle station from Kidman & Co for $365 million.

It also comes as Hancock Prospecting ramps up production at the Roy Hill iron ore mine in the Pilbara.

Under the new claim Mrs Rinehart is seeking to stop her children's trust receiving distributions from the royalties Hancock Prospecting receives in two key mining areas through their special cumulative shares in Hancock Prospecting.

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

Holy poo poo! My mum probably taught the gobshite in primary school. I'm going to have to see if she recognises him.

quote:

Local council elections have traditionally revolved around the three Rs: rates, roads and rubbish.

But for Casey Council, a rapidly expanding and multicultural municipality in Melbourne's south-east, a new R appears to be taking centre stage: religion.

It came to a head in April.

With police officers stationed at the door, a ban on public questions and photographs, the air rippled with tension at Narre Warren's council chamber the night the mosque was rejected.

What was supposed to be a straightforward planning matter had become so much bigger.

More than 1000 objections to the mosque had been received. The council chamber was so full that dozens of residents and anti-racism protesters had to waitoutside.

Inside the chamber, the mosque's proponents, the Saarban Islamic Trust, were not given time to speak. But the mayor, Sam Aziz, used his address to slam the group.

Cr Aziz told the group that their response to a planning report on the mosque was unacceptable and the group had not endeared themselves to anyone.

"For you to claim that you are now shocked by the content of the planning report, is either at best mischievous or at worst malicious – either way it is unacceptable," Cr Aziz said.

The mayor said the council would fight any appeal to its decision to reject the mosque with "every resource required".

quote:

Although he said he voted based on planning issues alone, Cr Aziz has aligned himself with the "Stop the Mosque in Narre Warren" group, which rallies against the "Islamisation" of Australia.

He has posted on its Facebook page thanking his "friends" for their support, following a story in Fairfax Media where he accused local doctor Belal Haniffa, who joined the "Casey Against Racism" Facebook page, of dressing up "to look like a terrorist in his spare time". Dr Haniffa's profile picture was taken on a hunting trip.

quote:

Queensland paramedics fear a mysterious new drug that causes severe hallucinations may be handed around at the annual schoolies celebrations.

Paramedics were called to treat seven patients in Surfers Paradise and one in Labrador on Saturday night, in what became the second round of cases.

A Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesman said the patients were all suffering the same symptoms, including hallucinations, and paramedics were "very concerned" about the unknown product.

At least one of the patients had to be sedated before being taken to hospital.

Solemn Sloth posted:

Or


Less $20 brunches

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

But all of this is mere ephemera. It gets worse. I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more. I can afford to eat this for lunch because I am middle-aged and have raised my family. But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn't they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house.

Capt.Whorebags posted:

Agreed, this is only notable because the owner is a Senator. Countless other builders strip the assets, declare bankruptcy, gently caress the subbies and phoenix ABC Pty Ltd into DEF Pty Ltd.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

I read that he had provided personal guarantees for his business loans, so probably yeah.

Anidav posted:

Is it possible that the Coalition is increasing debt on purpose to make it a timebomb that'll blow up under Labor giving future LNP leaders 10 thousand years of Tory Rule?

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

your posts

Vindicator posted:

Did politicians bang on about mandates to this extent before? It feels new. Well, new in the sense that I don't remember it prior to the 2013 Libs. I'm pretty much over it already. If they had a mandate, they'd have a majority in both houses. It just seems to be their stock response while they do absolutely nothing, instead of actually engaging in negotiation.

Spudd posted:

I love reading that underemployment is becoming more and more of a thing. Because I'm one of them and I have no idea if I'll ever get more than 3 days a week of work.