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Purtting the intent aside, are those particular words racist? Just on the wording alone, I'd call them nationalistic as only the country was mentioned, not the person's race or religion. As an example, if an anglo saxon descent Australian person told a Pom of anglo saxon descent to piss off back to England, is that rascist even tough both parties are of the same race. Intent can differ, but the wording is the same in both cases. I always thought rascism was bias against someone because of their race, not nationality. If you are white and told two South Africans to piss off back to South Africa and one is black and one is white, is it racism in both cases, only in one case or in none?

Maybe not only an EV issue.....

People who worry that Covid Vaccine might change their genetic make-up, should welcome that possibility.

That's absolute rubbish. The ABC is far less biased than any other news service in Australia. It's widely recognised that Sky News or whatever they call themselves now are among the most biased. So surely Hanson refused entry to them too? The reason Hanson doesn't want the ABC around is because they ask difficult questions. Guess what? That's their job. They do it to all sides of politics. And as a politician, if you haven't got answers to difficult questions, then what are you doing there? As a reporter said this morning, it's dangerous for democracy when politicians exclude segments of the media from their announcements. Look how many criminal investigations leading to charges have been initiated by investigative journalism, especially by the ABC. Without proper media scrutiny, corruption flourishes.

I am humbled to be graced by the presence of so many Grande Masters! I bow to your superior grandiosity

OME, give Jerry his keyboard back.

Speak for yourself. The other senator is just as much an Australian as Hanson and has a right to her opinion. While her comment was a bit bolshie, that's because she's a Greens senator and probably nothing to do with her country of origin. And if you think about her words they are 100% correct, and also stand up for the original Australians. Pauline responded in your classical racist manner and deserves to lose. Maybe she should give up HER well paid position, her overseas holidays, clothes, plane and food all paid for by a billionaire buying influence, and piss off back to Ipswich.

So the Iran invasion achieved its purpose.

I don't think HE gets too Near HIS missus..Nev

He seems to come across a lot of them..

The walk from my house to the pub is 5 minutes. The walk back, however, is 30 minutes. The difference is staggering!

My favorite colour is purple. I like it better than red and blue combined.

Nothing wrong with that. Understood it perfectly. I am sure it was written by my brother

USA has the Best Politicians Money can BUY. They then turn into Dictators you can't get rid of. .Nev

If you are invited into someones home and start to mouth of about the traditional parts of their lifestyle and mouth of about a person who didn't actually have anything to do with the stuff that upsets them, I am sure that you are within your rights to tell them to leave. Pretty sure if we were in Pakistan and started to act like that it wouldn't go down to well. My definition of racism would be that the person was told to go back there just because of their heritage.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of a high court challenge. The judge in this case said it functioned as a test case for the claims of both parties. Marty, you judge Hanson's intent on her past history and you have every reason to, but a court can't take any previous statements on other past matters into account; they must only judge on the matter at hand. If an appeal to the high court happens, they'll have to judge on whether her words I quoted in a previous post constitute racism. The words alone don't in my opinion. Pakistan is a geographic area and a soverign state, so on words alone she's telling someone to go back there. It's her intent in using those words that the courts decide on. On words alone it's no different than if you came up here and I told you to piss off back to Tasmania. You know yourself how many times Tasmanians have said they wish mainlanders would piss off back to the mainland. That's not racist, and it could be argued not necessarily Stateist, just a desire to be left alone. But on words alone, it's no different to what Hanson said.

No I'm not saying that Marty. Read my post more carefully. What I'm saying is that the words alone don't refer to race, only former nationality. Get over the Hanson thing for a minute and think about the words alone, no matter who utters them. She told the person to piss off back to the country she migrated from, no mention of the person's race or religion. Forget about Hanson and look at the example of a white Australian telling a white Kiwi to piss off back to NZ. Would those words alone constitute racism of one white person toward another? I'd consider a case like that to be nationalistic based and not race based. If Hanson had told a white South African to piss off back to South Africa, is that racist? Would she be having a go at the person's race or nationality? The point I'm making is, that the words she used are not racist but nationalistic. That's looking solely at the wording and not taking perceived intent into account. The court obviously made the decision that they thought she had racist intent in what she said. The words alone (regardless of who spoke them) don't convey that. That's what a high court challenge will have to sort out.

Money should be taken out of politics entirely. Yes there still should be free and fair elections, but I think the application of a few public service rules would do wonders for the political class. No ability to accept any gift, donation or service of any value, for a start. And integrity checks. The ability of interest groups to lobby politicians erodes democracy. Everyone knows gambling advertising should be banned completely. It's a no-brainer. So why isn't it happening?

There already exists a National childrens day and an international childrens day. Whats the issue? Aboriginal children have the lowest health, educational and social outcomes in the country as a group. They obviously need extra attention and the day just expresses that need.

The TOPIC is ME conflict and the debates in the Parliament are recorded. Public Service is Not elected. The most Important things for a Functioning Democracy (a) A free and fair Election Process. Checks and rules applying to any Money donated or spent, A GOOD honest Press which is Not a fully incorporated arm of the Liberal Part and NOW PHON Otherwise why not Cut out the Middlemen/women) and let Gina and Merdey run the Country directly, Nats have been all about Fracking and mining Not Farms etc as they once were. Follow the Money trail That will find out who calls the shots. Nev

Become an *Islamic* republic perhaps? Gotta watch these muslims, they'll do anything to further their cause for Allah. Mehreen Faruqi didn't think things through before she opened her gob. If she got all the things she wanted, expressed in her "school kid" statement, she'd still be living on "stolen" land ... so, would she go live somewhere else and leave the Aboriginals in peace? ... not likely, she'd probably pretend to be their saviour and advise them of the virtues of Islam. God willing.

"Go back to where you came from?" Yeah, very much racism

You're missing the point. If Hanson was offended by those comments, she could have responded strongly in many ways without the racism. That she chose tell another Australian to "piss off back to Pakistan" just shows (if anyone needed more proof) that she's just a dog-whistling racist.

And no other indigenous population wherever on the planet has no cultural reference to the Moon? Australia is creating a culture of lunar tics.

Changing the conditions for negative gearing in a small economy like Australia's would not endanger the global economic system in the way unprovoked attacks on the economy of another country have done.

I was speaking to my local Member the other day. (I vote for another Party.) We spoke of Pauline and ON. He said that ON had no practical policies, which is something that many people are coming to consider to be correct. He said that he doubted if ON's results in the next election would mirror the current polling figures. The unfortunte thing is that I don't beleive his Party nor mine have a decent set of policies that would benefit all Australians. It seems to me that we have become terribly divided in our wants. Perhaps it's because we have been infected with the 'me first, last and every otehr time' virus.

So that everyone understands the context of Pauline Hanson’s loss on appeal: On 9 September 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi posted the following statement online: “Condolences to those who knew the Queen. I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples. We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies & becoming a republic.” Senator Pauline Hanson responded: “Your attitude appals and disgusts me. When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.” I am 100% with Pauline on this, it is one of the reasons Australians want ON.

There's a bit of aggro going on between a couple of members. Hardly the sort of thing that makes for a pleasant place to come and interact with others. The aggro does not carry any of the discussion to a suitable resolve. In fact, it diminishes respect for those creating th aggro, and respecting others should be a foundational rule for we members. Let's make it the custom here to play the ball, not the man.

I’m basically saying don’t defend yourself by attacking the other person. Stick to defending your opinion and keep personal criticism out of it. That applies to both sides. Just stating the obvious really.

And almost no coverage of the Epstein files outrage

Yeah but then has to pay them $130k to keep it quiet. Guess they don't call it the "money shot" for nothing.

I think MSN needs some humans working for it (who have passed primary school English). Check out this title. "Passenger plane nearly misses helicopter carrying Donald Trump in chlling near-miss" So it nearly missed, but fortunately it didn't?

Most of the ABC visible operative and Management are Ex Murdoch employees. Even the CEO and Speers, PK etc They frequently give Libs/Nats a very easy Interview while Talking Over and Interrupting the Labor Ministers to provoke a Headllne. I can hardly bring Myself to watch "Insiders", these days. The others are sacking staff Hand over foot. SKY has Changed it's name to News 24. Strangely Similar to ABC News 24.. Nev

Just ask AI how biased is the ABC. It's always been acknowledged to be the Most reliable although I believe it could improve. Its the Best we have. Hanson wants it closed as part of her DEAL with Murdoch.. That's why news 24 promotes her feverishly. She's their Puppet.. Nev

Why don't you actually examine how WE AUSTRALIA are going wille, compared to most other Countries The others are self destructing. The NATS finished off the Libs by blackmailing them and then Taylor made it worse by undermining Ley. There's hardly any Women Left in their show. They were going to Move on Bridget Archer for crossing the floor and now she's gone to the state in Tassie.. WE got Fuel when it looked impossible. Storage alone is not a real great Idea It imposes cost and risks. I think we should have considered going a bit back to Autogas which we have Plenty of and therefore eases Our balance of Payments situation and supply security. Converted diesel Generators can run on it for remote areas and standby. We are in rapidly changing unpredictable times. Nev

The forum algorithm has just promoted me to Grand Master for some reason. That means the only way forward now is downhill.

Very grunge rat like. Subaru engined.

Read up on the Tesla electric conversion kit - when fitted to old series Landrovers. No problem with getting enough torque to climb serious 4wd stuff.

Bugger! Now "Yankee Go Home" is not PC.

The future of A.I.

Can you name these, with reference to their documented policies? My gripe is that the major parties seldom quote their official policy in their election advertising. Therefore the electorate are seldom aware of their official goals, beyond some vague slogans. All parties are guilty of this.

The FACT that Trump swore not to start such overseas Wars/Adventures will Probably be the Most significant ACT in bringing his inevitable demise ON. Nev.

Two different, but possible scenarios. However we don't need AI to put the financial or military structures at risk. We' got the orange A-hole creating the risk.

I can live with losing respect as you have just taken pot shots at my character and not addressed the issue or the facts. What one thing have I hung my hat on? You said removal of the level crossings was necessary for road safety. The reality is, on the statistics. In terms of the pissing contest, you were saying, and I quote: as if that somehow means you know more about it than me... Nothing to do in your post was based on fact. The very definition of a pissing contest? As I said, I don't disagree that pulling them out; it is a great convenience to road users. That does not translate to road safety. But it cost a shed load of money and if the objective was road safety, the data does not stack up.. and if we are priortising lives, then it was a lie. The most deaths at level crossings in a year in Victoria was in financial year 2006/7 in which one accident in Kerang claimed 11 train passengers lives. Last time I looked, Kerang was not in Melbourne. Most railway crossing accidents in Victoria happen outside of Melbourne. According to Chat, by 30 June this year, $17.6 billion has been spent removing level crossings in Melbourne. I am hanging on what you said in terms of road safety and minimising deaths on the road was a bad waste of money. Traffic flow, yes, but road safety, no way. I would also argue improving road design, even with the level crossings in place could improve traffic flow. But that is just conjecture now.

I can't believe the people whinging about it and wanting to know if they can opt out. Hopefully just a minority. On a similar subject, whilst on my recent NZ trip, my phone sounded an unusual alarm at around 4AM. It was an earthquake warning. I assumed it was from a government service but it was not. It was actually from Google, which uses its millions of Android phones to detect P or Primary waves. For some people, the alert sounded before the quake could be felt. Why phones woke thousands before 5.9 magnitude Taumarunui earthquake "The Android Earthquake Alerts system uses the accelerometers built into millions of smartphones to detect the first seismic waves generated by an earthquake. Known as primary, or P-waves, these travel faster than the stronger secondary (S) waves that typically cause the most noticeable shaking and damage. This data is automatically anonymised and reported in the background to Google, and once there are enough matching reports, an alert gets pinged out to all Android users who might be affected. Depending on the estimated strength of the earthquake, users receive one of two alerts. A 'Be Aware' notification is sent for earthquakes below magnitude 4.5, while larger events trigger a louder 'Take Action' alert designed to grab people's attention, even if their phone is on silent. The system is not an earthquake predictor, but rather rapidly detects an earthquake after it begins and uses the difference in speed between the initial P-waves and the slower, more destructive shaking to provide advance warning to people further from the epicentre. The technology is now available in more than 90 countries, although its effectiveness depends on how many Android devices are nearby."

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic??????

Rejoice rejoice. Step 1 of saving our state. Most corrupt government in our history.

Canola time was always a pretty time to fly.