Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk resigns

[willedoo]

31 minutes ago, Litespeed said:

Imagine if Campbell Newman ran the place that long, Trump in Queensland, the new JOH.

Can-do was often referred to as a Trumped up little piss-ant; now we know why.

[willedoo]

The Murdoch press are on form. On the Google News feed, news.com.au had this clickbait header: "Annastacia Palaszczuk resigned after union pressure, according to report / news.com.au - Australia's leading news site". True to form the article has no credibility. The so called report is a claim made by Barnaby Joyce on Sunrise.

 

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/union-thugs-annastacia-palaszczuk-resigned-after-factional-pressure-according-to-report/news-story/cd35eda1c29ef7aa798b8d9612f140b6

[facthunter]

Apply the time honoured test. Is it TRUE or did you read it in the Murdoch Press. (News Corpse) Australia's LEADING NEWS site. Well they would say that wouldn't they?  And it there's anything Rupee HATES, it UNIONS.   Nev

[willedoo]

The deputy premier Steven Miles will be premier after the caucus meeting on Friday. The only other challenger couldn't raise the numbers so she's pulled out of the contest. So far it's a very smooth transition in contrast to the LNP and Murdoch media meltdown on the topic. Murdoch's clown editors have turned the rage farming dial to warp speed. Today's Courier Mail clickbait header: [ 'What happened to democracy?' Qld explodes over union 'sham']. The reality is, the only thing exploding in Qld is the brains of Rupert's simple minded editors. For some reason, they still think the public is stupid enough to believe a premier is popularly elected, and that a premier resigning and a replacement selected by the party is undemocratic.

 

The meek and mild opposition LNP leader is being a bit ungracious and mischievous about it as well. If they can't find muck to rake, they just bullshit. They know they can sprout any rubbish and the Murdoch press (the LNP's media wing) will have their back. The opposition leader also said Steven Miles and treasurer Cameron Dick will scratch each others eyes out trying to win the top job. Dream on, no such thing has happened.

 

It's a bit of a joke having the Courier Mail lecture on democracy. One of the hurdles to democracy is having a large section of the press owned by one company with a blatantly biased political agenda. The press should not work just for one side of politics, particularly when there's so many gullible people around. 'What happened to democracy?' they say. The question should be "What happened to a fair and balanced media?'. If the Courier Mail want to identify a threat to democracy, I suggest they go no further than the nearest mirror.

[willedoo]

There's two state by-elections on today in Queensland in Inala and Ipswich West. It will be the first time in 40 years that Inala has not been represented by a member of the Palaszczuk family.

[facthunter]

Just ordinary and not rich people. I believe she was very close to her father and they campaigned together by car. Rupey holds more away in Qld than any other State so the 40 years is more remarkable. Sco Mo bullied her too. (On the Phone of course.).  Nev

[willedoo]

With the two by-election seats, Labor looks like losing Ipswich West after copping a 15% swing against them. They've retained Annastacia Palaszczuk's old seat but suffered a large swing there as well. The new Labor candidate's primary vote was 30.9% lower than the former premier's vote at the last election. In Ipswich West the LNP is likely to win on One Nation preferences. ON polled around 10%, which should be enough to push the LNP over the line. The Legalise Cannabis candidate received 14.4%, most of which would flow to Labor, but Labor's primary vote was behind that of the LNP.

[willedoo]

The Queensland local government elections on the weekend saw a record number of female mayors elected. Approximately one third of all council mayors will be women for the next term of local government.

[willedoo]

It's almost two weeks since the local government elections and we still don't have a clear winner in the mayoral race. They must be still counting postal votes and allocating preferences. In Queensland, the state elections have compulsory preferential voting but in local government elections it's optional to mark preferences. When it's optional, not many preference votes result, so it's looking like our winner will get the job with less than 30% of the vote.

[willedoo]

The new state government unimproved property valuations arrived today. My place increased in unimproved value by 60% which will mean a rate rise of $1,000 or around an extra $20 per week. It will be interesting to see what comes of the big rises and whether council will be under pressure to reduce the dollar rate in calculating the general rate. If it stays as is and most people get a huge rise in rate bills, it couldn't come at a worse time for the state government with an election later in the year. The opposition LNP is running on cost of living and law and order, so another hit to people's pockets is to their advantage in an election year.

 

Surely some way of compensating the rises would be in order, otherwise the local council will be scoring an obscene windfall. The rise is no doubt a correction for the last couple of real estate boom years. It wouldn't be expected to rise by that amount every valuation.

[old man emu]

13 hours ago, willedoo said:

The new state government unimproved property valuations arrived today. My place increased in unimproved value by 60%

A unintended consequence of the housing shortage.

 

 

 Australia's population was 26,821,557 people at 30 September 2023. The quarterly growth was 172,700 people (0.6%). The annual growth was 659,800 people (2.5%). I wonder when the Federal Government, no matter whether Left or Right, will wake up to the fact that you can't increase the population at that sort of rate without making the place look like a Gazan refugee camp.

 

At the same time nothing is done to create worthwhile employment. The unemployment rate increased to 4.1% in January 2024, the first time since January 2022 that the unemployment rate has been above 4.0%. To me being employed means an income-producing job that engages you for the greater part of, say, 40 hours per week. To me, one or two hours' employment per week doesn't count as being "employed".

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, old man emu said:

A unintended consequence of the housing shortage.

In my area the reason for the increase is mainly due to cashed up Victorians (and a few from from NSW) flooding into the place and driving the prices. At least the boom has slowed down now so valuations probably won't jump as much for a while. In the boom, houses were on the market for a day or two and selling much higher than the asking price due to buyers competing with offers. Now it's back to the normal three months average to sell a property. The covid lockdowns resulted in a lot of city people making a lifestyle choice to move here. That plus the comparative good value for money of real estate here. It's always been undervalued; the boom just brought it up to par with some other areas.

[facthunter]

 Yeah I Know. Beautiful One day. Perfect the next, We tried our best to make those who left here stay there but It didn't work.  Despite OUR best efforts. Some survived the crocs and cyclones and missed the good weather they'd become used to  here and before you could say Jack Robinson they had come back claiming some sort of refugee status and Prior entitlement. . geez I don't know. To Me you PLACE you bet and stick with it. No having a bet both ways OR changing ships midstream and even voting for Pauleen Hanson. and that Spud fella that "NO"es everything. Nev

[willedoo]

During the boom quite a few interstate buyers got caught out buying properties sight unseen. At the time it was like a shark feeding frenzy and buyers were just snapping up whatever they could get. I have next door neighbours who moved from NSW and they bought sight unseen. At the time they paid a lot more than what it was worth and didn't realise it was on a floodplain. In a big flood, it goes several feet underwater. As it's a flat block, they've had to spend a fortune on drainage and imported fill for a pad for their horses to survive in the floods. It used to be cane land and before that it was paperbark swampland.

 

This is what they have to live with:

 

Edited March 29 by willedoo

[willedoo]

Bearing in mind, the biggest flood we've had here came up to the bottom of those steel gates in the foreground, so quite a bit higher than the flood in the photo.

[onetrack]

The home buyers are flocking to the Left Coast and driving our prices up to Sydney levels. I believe the median house price for Sydney is $1.6M and it's still rocketing. Too much Chinese black money.

There's reports from real estate agents here of East Coast buyers rocking up to Home Opens lugging suitcases full of cash to prove to sellers they are cash buyers. That stinks to high heaven of black money, drug money. laundered crime proceeds.

And to top it all, apparently you no longer get your "asking price". The asking price is just a floor indicator and it's expected that buyers will automatically offer 5%, 10% or even 20% more than the asking price to secure the property.

And apparently, recent pricing has no bearing on the sale price, it's all about the size of the property value increase in 12 mths time.

We're well down the same road as the Chinese property collapse, I hope I don't live to see a massive property price crash here, but I'm convinced it's bound to happen.

[nomadpete]

'Experts' have been predicting a real estate crash for decades.

 

I reckon Jerry is holdin off his trip home until it happens....

 

 

The young man waiting for housing to get cheap....

[Jerry_Atrick]

There are very real economically structural issues that will mean the worst that will happen in the big citites will be a correction rather than a crash. The durty money is only part of it. Negative gearing is another component, too, because it allows you to offset your PAYG payable against the losses on your property to increase your cash flow. Despite the size of Australia, the concentration of work and population actually make it very densely populated in the cities (https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/parts-of-melbourne-are-more-crowded-than-manhattan-and-london-find-out-how-dense-your-suburb-is-20240327-p5ffqz.html)..

 

And the areas that are desirable for people to live. Rental crisis? Pfft! If you'e willing to move. Cost of a property too expensive.. Pfft.. If you're willing to move, or look elsewhere, and somewhere not so popular, but could yield a very decent standard of living: https://www.homely.com.au/narrandera-narrandera-murrumbidgee-new-south-wales I just happened to be lookign there this eve (on realestate.com.au) as when I drove through there, it was a town that had immediate appeal to me.

 

In terms of the cost of properties for me, even in Melbourne, until recently, I was not too fazed by the price increases as the equity I have in property here sold, and cash sent to Aus would be enough to buy somethign decent in a realtively inner suburb. But, lately, even with the weak AUD$, I am having to cast my net wider or downsize expectation. As we are bringing doggo with us, downsizing expectation is not the easiest thing to do in an already densley populated city. So, we may cast our net to the Bellarine Peninsula as I hear that the maximum cost of a v/line ticket is something like $11 each way..

 

I am going to start dropping hints with management next week that I would like to move to our Sydney office. It only has a small sales presence for our firm, as most of everythign else is done in Singapore, but as they want my to work with my global counterparts putting in global systems, I am putting the argumen that it doesn't matter where I sit. The Sydney will be my paymaster, and I can base myself anywhee in Aus that I want.

 

[facthunter]

Quite a few places around the world call it Sidney but it's been Sinney since Rum was the currency. People are leaving in droves. It's UNFIT for HUMAN habitation. After Xmas every year there's a mass exodus of RICH  people doing a very risky  trip in boats to  escape to a formal Penal Colony. with a MOAT around it.  What better evidence do you need? Nev 

[nomadpete]

Oh.

I thought the Gold Coast was the Sinney centre of OarStaya

[nomadpete]

And that former penal colony is building a big extension cord that will hook into the hip pocet of every mainlander. We can suck money out of all youse mugs through your power bills.

[facthunter]

It has already happened. I'm with Momentum and my Power rates are probably better than yours are. Make sure your Ball and chain hasn't rusted  and is still a nice fit   Nev

[Marty_d]

10 hours ago, nomadpete said:

And that former penal colony is building a big extension cord that will hook into the hip pocet of every mainlander. We can suck money out of all youse mugs through your power bills.

Yeah, but they'll hook into our hip pocket too.  Better off without the damn thing say I.

[onetrack]

The Bellarine Peninsula is nice, but it's too cold and wet for me to live in permanently. I guess if you want a repeat of Pommy weather, it'll do you just fine.

The last time I rode a Melbourne train was Melbourne-Warragul in 2005, but it was definitely cheap back then. Things might have changed since, however.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Unlike ovre here, where rail fares are atronomical, Vic Rail is wanting passengers to use their services: https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/fares/regional-fares/.  $10.60 max fare is not too expensive.

 

The weather in the Bellarine Peninsula is getting better with global warming - according to my brother who has purchased a house in Port Arlignton - not to close to the shoreline.

 

13 hours ago, facthunter said:

Quite a few places around the world call it Sidney but it's been Sinney since Rum was the currency. People are leaving in droves. It's UNFIT for HUMAN habitation. After Xmas every year there's a mass exodus of RICH  people doing a very risky  trip in boats to  escape to a formal Penal Colony. with a MOAT around it.  What better evidence do you need? Nev 

Indeed.. Sidders,, Sid-a-ney, and the like are not where I want to live to start with... Not because  I am Melbourne born and bred, but because I don't really know too much about it, apart from trying to stay away from the western suburbs. I also think that for what we want, Melbourne fits better; we don't want to have a car; the tram network is fantastic, and last time I looked, the bike paths and other options looked very reasonable. Of course, Sidders has Bankstown, buit there is something about Moorabbin and Essendon that seem to make things easily accessible.