Aussie Federal election 2025

[Jerry_Atrick]

When I broke my ankle on the motorcycle over here, I was amazed at the conditions under which dedicated staff worked. The doc asked if I minded having the thingy to attach the drip to inserted into my right hand. My response was I preferred not to know about it, as I am queasy (it took over a week for me to read the first chapter of Human Performances and Limitations for the PPL here - it wasn't a requirement in Aus when I got my license). His response was if he didnt tell people he was doing it, 99% of the time he could expect a right hook to his jaw.

 

A week alter, I was readmitted to casualty (ER is another American import) with suspected compression syndrome.. they didn't fart around, but for the short period of time I had to wait on a stretcher (it was later on a Friday or Saturday evening) in the tick of the action, all I can say is it was a real eye opener of the continual stress and security threat they work under. At sone stage, they had this huge bloke - over 6'6" and full of muscle, coked off his head, threatening abusing the staff because they were trying to treat his badly cut up knees from glass of broken bottles. He wasn't letting them get near him and he was a real challenge to the numerous security staff on shift. Eventually, they got his mother in to calm him down, and I had to laugh - she was 4' nothinh and petite and diminutive as they come, but jeez she packed a ferocious bark... He eventually settled down...

 

The doc came to see me and I remarked to him he is a better man that I and that if it we me, after his second intensive remonstration, I would have just let him get gangrene or have the issues of glass lodged in his body.

 

These people generally deserve our respect and a bloody lot more money than most of the get.

Edited March 30 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

I didn't mention the numerous long waits in casualty. I didn't mention that because those events were not due to incompetance of the staff. The delays I experienced were due to short staffing. None of those 3hr waits were for genuine serious conditions, and a triage nurse regularly did make frequent checks on patient condition.

 

[old man emu]

The Cost-of-Living issue will be big in this election. It is clear however that governments cannot control the root cause - the behaviour of the corporate world.

 

The ACCC recently carried out an enquiry into alleged price gouging by the supermarket chains. It reported that it could not find that this was happening, despite being told horror stories by suppliers and customers. Not being a Royal Commission, it could not compel witnesses to tell the truth, so the supermarket chains said what suited them. What was not reported on very much was that the ACCC found that the supermarket chains were just about the most profitable in the world.

 

In its simplest form profit can be calculated using the simple formula Profit = Income - Costs. The supermarket chains go on and on about Costs, but aren't the costs of generating income tax deductible? Admittedly, a lot of those costs flow into the economy through wages (plus PAYE tax) and supply costs. However what is the source of Income? from the very pockets of customers. It seems logical that increasing Income means draining the pockets of customers.

 

Governments can pass al sorts of laws aimed at controlling prices, but, as we have seen recently in the USA, everyone is now willing to challenge laws in the Courts, which either delays their introduction or results in their being rescinded. And if the laws hold up, where are the enforcers?

 

It calls to mind the old acronym, BOHICA. (Bend over. Here it comes again.)

[red750]

9 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

The doc asked if I minded having the thingy to attach the drip to inserted into my right hand.

When I was recently treated for a urinary infection, then my pacemaker, I was in hospital for 9 days. The thingy. called a cannula, (pronounced can-you-lar), can only remain in for 3 days, then it must be replaced. I had 3 cannulas, and they were running out of places to put them. One in the crook of each elbow, and one in the inner forearm. The guy on duty wanted to put one in the back of my right hand, but I said it was too likely to get knowed out. My arms were a pretty shade of purple.

[facthunter]

If you are like me, your veins are a bit hard to find.  Nev

[red750]

Yes, I joke with them that my name should be Stone. Always the way when I have to have a blood test.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

20 hours ago, onetrack said:

I'd like to see GON take up a job in the front line of the emergency entrance of a major hospital - preferably working in security. I'll wager he wouldn't last 5 mins.

Why do think I'm advocating for a troubleshooting team? Highly paid and highly trained to deal with ugly situations in hospitals.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Ha Ha Ha Labor falls in it's own immigration trap. They brought them in, now they must suffer.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/28/tony-burke-cancels-lakemba-mosque-speech-safety-concerns-western-sydney-ntwnfb

[rgmwa]

16 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Why do think I'm advocating for a troubleshooting team? Highly paid and highly trained to deal with ugly situations in hospitals.

This team you’re talking about will have to be capable of being everywhere, all the time, in every hospital ward in the country. The hospitals will need to be much bigger just to accommodate the team. I don’t think you’ve thought this through very well. 

[Marty_d]

If you judge a person by the company they keep, then check out who Dutton's best bud and paymaster is hanging out with.

 

Just to join the dots:

 

- Dutton wants to be PM

- Dutton's party gets a huge amount of funding from Gina

- Dutton and Gina are friends 

- Gina has previously made statements like working people should be paid $2 a day 

- Gina hangs out with Trump mega supporters 

- Trump has laid off thousands of public servants 

- Dutton wants to lay off thousands of public servants 

 

Blind Freddy can see that if you vote for Dutton, you're voting for the same craziness that's killing democracy in the US right now.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/31/a-female-donald-trump-how-gina-rinehart-is-pushing-trumps-message-australia-ntwnfb

 

[onetrack]

There's more plastic in those two photos of Gina Rinehart and friends, than there is in the average cordial bottle factory!  😄

[old man emu]

It's only a couple of days into the campaign and already I'm sick of being treated like a mug. So far no Party has announced anything that personally affects me, except perhaps for the temporary reduction in fuel excise, but what annoys me are the promised handouts for projects. It's not that I disagree with projects receiving support, it's just that the grant of support is vote bait. Let me give an example I heard of this morning.

 

Albo announced support to build a major education facility in Adelaide to train nurses, paramedics and other types of health care people. Great idea to expand our capacity to train these much needed workers. However, is it realistic to think that the idea for this has suddenly popped up? Planning for such a facility would have been going on for a few years. We have a Federal Minister for Health, which means that there is a Federal Department of Health. Surely any requests for support would have been made to that department. I would rather Albo, or Dutton if he had been PM, say, "Over the previous couple of years "My Government" has been supporting the development of this facility by providing financial assistance and advice to the planners. That financial assistance has amounted to X million dollars. It is My government's intention to continue this support if re-elected and have budgeted for that amount to amount to Y billion dollars by the completion of the project."

 

A statement like that shows that the government has actually been doing something. It removes the 'gunna' from the story and I would say would be a better indication of the Party's ability to govern than the sort of pork barreling promises we have become used to during election campaigns. Do you remember the "That wasn't a key policy promise" dismissal of an unfulfilled election promise following an election win?

 

Don't try to buy my vote with promises of pie in the sky. Tell me what you have done as a government since you were elected so I can judge your performance. If it's not up to scratch, be prepared to sit on the opposite side of the chamber and put up with smaller offices.

[facthunter]

The average person wouldn't KNOW what either party has done . You only hear the bad side and the Gotcha moments.  Dutton wasn't welcome at a Mosque recently. THEY reminded HIM of things he had said publicly in the  recent Past. Knocking the Gov't is a popular sport here. I suggest that compared to most others. WE are not too badly off.  OUR Expectations are very high but we whinge about paying taxes. No Gov't can be ALL things to ALL people.  Get a Life. Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

we whinge about paying taxes

That's been a human trait since some warlord thought up the idea in antiquity. 

 

I don't think that we would whinge so much if tax money was spent on what the people really wanted. Just take a look at the Scandinavian countries. They get taxed pretty heavily, but it seems that the money is poured back into things that actually benefit the citizens.

 

There's a lot of talk about government waste. Perhaps GON is correct and we need a DOGE to go through government expenditure with a fine toothed comb. As I said earlier, I've no qualms about a government spending a couple of billion on an educational facility aimed at producing people with skills the rest of the community needs. What I object to are these "fact finding" group trips overseas. In an age of instantaneous international communication, and access to information via the internet, why do highly paid individuals really need to go on these junkets? We have embassies and other representatives in most countries. Let them do the ground work and then the Ministers whose departments are involved can conference call. We've seen that some countries can discuss and plan military campaigns using a texting service. 

[Marty_d]

Is there a lot of talk about government waste, or is it just public service-bashing from Dutton's team?

 

I'll tell you what waste is.  It's conservative governments getting rid of public service jobs, then paying far more money to labour hire companies to provide temporary staff (who don't get paid as well) to do the work of the public servants they replace.

[facthunter]

They use people like PWC at great expense . [under Dog knows what arrangements)  Nev

[old man emu]

Instead of concentrating on clearing up the dung heap, it would be better to begin with picking up the bits of dung. The use of outside consultants to the degree that has been done in the past is something that has denigrated the qualifications and experience of members of the Public Service. Qualified people chose to enter the Public Service for a lot of reasons that do not have wealth creation at the top of the list. 

[onetrack]

The Main Roads Dept of W.A. had their road-making division closed down many years ago under a State Liberal Govt, and all the road construction work contracted out - on the basis of it being, "more cost effective". 

 

However, after numerous poor performances by contractors involved in road construction, MRWA has now set about restoring its in-house road construction teams.

 

What wasn't widely understood by the pollies involved in the dismantling of the MRWA road construction teams, was that the MRWA always used to sub-contract truck owners and other equipment owners, when it came to road construction, especially in rural and more remote regions.

 

MRWA kept control and oversight of the actual road works, the sub-contractors were just employed on an hourly rate. It was well known amongst truck and equipment owners that the MRWA paid a relatively modest hourly rate, but it was consistent and steady work, and it employed locals in the area, and ot relieved MRWA of the major cost of deploying a lot more assets and employees to remote and rural regions, at high cost.

[spacesailor]

A good example of council workers being trained ! . Then dismissed .

My ' son-in-law was trained to lay tiles/papers in a council ream .

Seemingly good workmanship.  ( Wellington caves was their effort ) .

Dismissed & thrown onto the " unemployed scrapheap " & only payed the rate for ' unemployment " then told he & the members of the council team " had to take employment with the replacement company that put the out of work. 

Then they would get $ 10  a fortnight on the unemployment pension  " .

or not get unemployment  money. 

True story , as we  (  we put three up for a couple of weeks here in Sydney )  found work in Sydney for them .

spacesailor

 

 

 

 

 

[ClintonB]

We have created a vicious cycle when everyone wants to be paid more, which then drives up prices from Coffee at a cafe right through to house prices. This in turn means we need more to live so we want even more money, then the cycle continues.

At the previous elections teachers and nurses wanted us to vote for Labour because they would fix up their pay and conditions. We now have had Labour at state and federal levels in NSW for a few years and still they are fighting for the same thing. I don’t know if their is any magic bullet to solve all of our issues for everyone.

a party that just got stuff (projects and such) done on its merit and the benefit it would give the community would be far better than people that hang out with Billionaires and the top end of town. Both parties are guilty of taking their own interests ahead of the greater good of the country and all Australians

for the first time I am struggling with what to do at an election. 
 

[red750]

16 minutes ago, ClintonB said:

which then drives up prices from Coffee at a cafe

Don't drink a coffee at a cafe or coffee shop. If I want a coffee, I get the Nescafe jar out of the pantry and boil the kettle. At the Men's Shed we have a large tin of Nescafe.

[Litespeed]

Just think who would Gina or Donald vote for?

 

Now vote the opposite 

[spacesailor]

Not our poor.

Clive Palmer .

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

Gina and Clive are the Tubby Trump Twins.

 

Dogey Dutton sings from the same songbook.

 

My vote will go to people diametrically opposite to all of them.

[facthunter]

Just vote for what Murdoch doesn't want and you can't go wrong. Gina is already too well off. Too much is never enough and they can bribe people.. Nev