Aussie Federal election 2025

[Jerry_Atrick]

It's a state of mind. I was a project analyst on a what was then the worlds largest corporate bond issue at £76bn, to observe potential conduct risk scenarios to put in system to prevent it.. I got to know our deal lead very well and I was talking to him and asking what sort of comission he woudl earn. It was a tidy sum, and I said I oonly need to do that once and I would be happy. His response was that is why I will never make it as a deal originator - not greedy enough.

[rgmwa]

It's a very strange state of mind for most of us to try and grasp. I'm sure no one here would qualify as a deal originator either. What is the point of having more money than you can spend in a lifetime? The sad thing is that many, and probably most, of the seriously wealthy amass their fortunes by manipulating rather than contributing. Unfortunately for them they end up dying like the rest of us, so ultimately what's the point?

Edited Monday at 01:15 PM by rgmwa

[nomadpete]

18 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

so ultimately what's the point?

Life is a game.

Whoever dies with the most toys, wins.

[rgmwa]

That's the conventional wisdom but if true, it's a very hollow victory for some insecure individual.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Youre both right.. To them, the number on their consolidated investments in whats important. Any primary concern of covering costs was long forgotten for them.

Edited Monday at 02:33 PM by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

Here are some things you shoudl think about when voting:

#

[Marty_d]

This is probably the best opinion I've seen yet on why people vote for idiots like Trump.  (Or Clive for that matter).

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/13/trump-populists-human-nature-economic-growth

 

Basically it boils down to the ever-growing gap between the rich and poor, referenced in posts above.  If you're disenfranchised and struggling to survive, and you see people around you doing a lot better, then you may just want to destroy the whole unfair system - and this is the feeling that right-wing populists latch onto.

They're not ACTUALLY going to make your life any better, in fact they will likely make it a lot worse, but they'll also make other people's lives worse too.

A type of self destructive desperation.

So maybe we should be taxing the rich a LOT more.  How can we do that?  Start by getting the money out of politics so there's no incentive for parties to do special favours for them.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

The most populist human nature thing we have is Social Handouts. Take those away and there'd be be a civil war against the Fed Parliament. Women are the worst for insisting on the Govt giving them more free money. Not a day goes by without them asking for more.

 

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury?

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Two years ago, and even before that, in another site, I said: "While ever the ALP and the Coalition win Govt from now on, things will only get worse in Australia. It was bad enough then, and it's even worse now, nearly everyone is bitching about the high cost of essentials, including rent and buying a house. Prices have gone through the roof.

 

We must lower our sights and be happy with less, of everything.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

What is the difference between democracy and good governance?

 

"Democracy refers to a system of government in which power is vested in the people, allowing them to participate in decision-making through elected representatives or direct voting. Good governance, on the other hand, encompasses the processes and practices that ensure effective, transparent, accountable, and equitable management of public resources and institutions, regardless of the political system in place. While democracy can facilitate good governance by promoting citizen engagement and accountability, good governance is essential for the effective functioning of any political system, including democracies."

 

Has our democracy got good governance? I would say NO. We have two ruling parties that have their own self interests at heart, and they are basically socialist interests, and to put them into effect, brainwashing is necessary. A current campaign policy of the ALP is "Free Medicare". Of course, nothing is free, and it's irresponsible for politicians to say Medicare is free. Everyone pays for it, and it costs many $billions.

[Marty_d]

ummm... where's your internal consistency?

 

You call the major parties "socialist" and complain about people wanting "free money" from the government - women, according to you, being the worst...

 

But then you want the "big beautiful consumer affairs department" and the "big beautiful medical intervention team", both of which would be the hugest waste of money in history.

[Jerry_Atrick]

8 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Basically it boils down to the ever-growing gap between the rich and poor, referenced in posts above.  If you're disenfranchised and struggling to survive, and you see people around you doing a lot better, then you may just want to destroy the whole unfair system

When people allege the Brits are bigoted racists for voting Brexit, I point to this. If you look at all the electorates that voted Brexit, they were downtrodden. I was in a pub shortly after the vote talking to a small business owner that imports car parts from Germany and how he apologised for Britain being racist. I challenged him on it, and his response was, as per the press, that they were more worried about voting to boot out EU immigrants than to vote for their economic prosperity..

 

I explained that if he looked at where those votes cam from, they are already not enjoying the benefits of economic prosperity. All they see are the South East fat cats and European bureaucrats taking the prosperity while sending Eastern Europeans in to take their jobs. So, when they were sending their protest vote, they couldnt care about the economic outcomes, because it would affect them.

 

Chumpism is the same thing. The red belt are poor states and poor people. Typically the least likely to be represented by the Republicans, but they see no hope from those that wold normally represent them. Yet, Biden presided over the best performing economy in relative terms - its just it wasn't shared. Reform (Farages party) are on track to becoming the main opposition ahead of the conservatives to the point the latter are starting to entertain talks with them merging. If Starmer and his team are not careful (and the article is framed in the savings his treasurer, Rachel Reeves has framed her Spring economic statement), Reform will probably assume power of the country one or two elections sooner than they planned.

 

 

I thought it was ironic, after formally exiting the EU, the Home Office awarded a French company the contract to print British Passports, taking it away from a British company and sending them broke and their employees out of work.

 

 

[spacesailor]

That is ' the British government's way '

 No thought at all for the ' blue collar ' workers .

Just like the French " let them eat cake " .

Please excuse language ( used at that time ) ,

I worked in a ' foundry ' . The government ordered tthe company to sack . !

white workers , so the ( untrained ) black Packistan labourers  would get better pay .

An, Englishman,  A Welshman, A Hungarian,  A Polishman And A white Pakistani . 

Definitely  " colour predujice " by the English government. 

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

I was told in Oxford today that London is not really a part of England, it is full of foreigners. People just ignore it and get on with their lives.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I have to admit, there are parts of London that do seem like a foreign country.. Especially in the South East. Muy niece's grandfather (from my sis lin law's side) is an English diplomat that has a hankering for foreign women.. seems apropo, I guess. So my sis in law's mum was, I think Lebanese, from the time he was based there. His second wife is African and up until recently, they lived in a suburb of SE London. I gave my niece a lift and when we got there, it was like crossing a border and driving into a different country. It really was an eye opened, and I know Melbourne had its enclaves, but this was something else.

 

Having said that, like our cities, it is localised. Like many large cities in progressive countries, there is immigration. When I'm on the train from SW London to Walterloo, and on the tube, there sppears to be a decent mix of locals and immigrants. Same in the office. My team is a little heavier on immigrants, but two of those are Aussies...

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

If we take the "Obvious Conclusion" path, Western nations will end up with smaller ethnic states, within the larger State. Each with their own "border", and a system of visas or permits to enter said smaller states. Driving through them might require an E-tag for a small tax to maintain road upkeep etc.

[onetrack]

God Forbid anything like that happening here. That is Europe, pre-Schengen Agreement, and it was the biggest PIA out when travelling - and it lead to massive criminality, bribery and corruption, as passes and visas were so easily forged.

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:08 AM by onetrack

[onetrack]

Quote

The most populist human nature thing we have is Social Handouts. Take those away and there'd be be a civil war against the Fed Parliament. Women are the worst for insisting on the Govt giving them more free money. Not a day goes by without them asking for more.

I would detest living in a country where destitute women were forced to prostitute themselves to feed their children. You obviously follow the MAGA line - if you're poor, you must be lazy. People become poor for hundreds of reasons and many of them not their own fault. I like living in a society which looks after its poor, jobless and destitute.

 

The wealth our nation currently has, and has produced, is incredible - the only problem being, a vast amount of it ends up in millionaires and billionaires pockets, when in reality, they have no need of more money. It's simply untrammelled greed, and Clive Palmer is the face of continuing untrammelled personal greed.

 

My best mates son was working for Roy Hill (mining company), as an IT manager. He got the "termite" treatment from another senior manager who came from BHP, and who then brought all his mates in from BHP to Roy Hill. When my mates son protested about the managers shonky moves, he was undermined, then sacked for "failing to meet performance levels".

 

He was sacked one day before a large bonus was due, and it wasn't paid to him - so he's engaged a lawyer to fight for what is rightfully his.

 

But I said to my mate - "But Gina Rinehart (owner of Roy Hill) is the type of person who will spend $10M on lawyers against your sons claim, just to ensure he doesn't get his $10,000 bonus!"

 

You only have to see what Gina Rinehart spent on lawyers to stop any of her children from dismantling the Hancock Trust, and thereby getting huge money that is due to them, from that Trust.

She is reported to have spent hundreds of millions on lawyers, fighting her childrens claims - and she always won. But she's only got $37B, she doesn't have enough to live on.

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:24 AM by onetrack

[facthunter]

Look at the current STATE of the USA, Totally divided and therefore doomed.  Temporarily RUN by weirdo's Their actions are harming themselves. Nev (back on line after massive Hack.) New computer (Need to use go fund ME..... Good morning Vietnam). 

[onetrack]

There's been an interesting development in the W.A. Election final results. The lower House results were determined within a few days of the March 8th election, with Labor retaining their massive majority, and the Conservatives struggling to have any major impact, despite a general swing against the Govt of a few percent.

 

However, the Upper House (Legislative Council) results have only just been finalised (it must have been a torturous count and recount/s) - and the end result is a big surprise, with Labor losing its former total majority in the LC, and the balance of power handed to the Greens.

 

What is even more surprising, out of 37 LC seats (there were 36 seats in the last election, but a re-jigging of boundaries saw an extra seat added), 16 are Labor, 10 are Liberal, 2 are Nationals , 4 are Greens, 2 are One Nation, and one seat each for Australian Christians, Legalise Cannabis, and Animal Justice parties.

 

This loss of control of the Upper House is going to make life very difficult for Labor this time around when it comes to passing their legislation, and the Greens are gloating over their potential to install many of their main policies, such as climate crisis legislation, aiming for a strict "net zero" emissions basis by 2030 for W.A.

 

The coming 4 years in W.A. politics, and political decision-making will be interesting. The makeup of the LC probably is a fairer representation of the States voters alignment, than the Lower House results.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-16/wa-upper-house-final-election-results-revealed/105185376

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/wa/2025/guide/lc-results

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:09 AM by onetrack

[old man emu]

How's this for an alignment of the members of the LC?

 

Greens 4 + Legalise Cannabis 1 + Animal Justice 1 = 6

Liberal 10 + Nationals 2 + One Nation 2 + Australian Christians 1 = 15

Labor 16

 

It will be a great time on the Cross Benches doing deals with the other two groups.

[onetrack]

It looks like the Animals and Cannabis are on a winner in this Legislative Council!

[rgmwa]

In tonight’s debate Dutton said he would be able to do a deal with Trump to get the tariff lifted. But then he also said he had never met Trump and didn’t know him. That doesn’t sound very hopeful.

[onetrack]

It's O.K., Trump won't even know who Dutton is, even if he is elected as PM.

[rgmwa]

That’s right. That’s why I don’t think that bragging that he can get Trump to drop the tariffs when Albanese apparently can’t is very believable.