Federal Election

[nomadpete]

I'm suffering from Electile Disfunction.

 

The inability to be aroused by any of the candidates.

 

 

[old man emu]

These elections are like the competition in the supermarket sector.

 

You have Coles, Woolies, Aldi, and the smaller IGA and Jewel, plus a few independents. They all want your vote, ie money, so they make a hullabaloo about their weekly "Specials", but rip you off on the daily essentials. They spend a lot of the profit they make from you (read "tax") on trying to draw you to them, but spend nothing of their "before tax income" on assisting you to lower your costs. They also rip off food product manufacturers by demanding rent for shelf space, absolute minimum wholesale price, and loyalty. If you are a supplier of a unique product, they won't deal with you if you also sell to their competition.

 

Make you want to go bush and raise what you can to be self-sufficient.

 

 

[Yenn]

No policys given and all we are getting is a negative campaign. Both major parties are only saying what doom and gloom will occur if the other party gets in.

 

Clive Palmer? You would have to be a complete moron to vote for his lot. One Nation wants to build lots of coal fored power stations and keep increasing the coal output. The independents we have standing don't look anything special, they couldn't put together any real info about where they stand. One of them says he is a member of RAAus, but I have never heard of him in flying circles and I doubt that many people have any idea what that is. What a sad state it is.

 

 

[spacesailor]

WELL,

 

It is compulsory, So they don't have to do much at all & YOU still have to vote for one of the crappy parties.

 

Remove that Compulsory law, and watch the droves of voters abstain.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

Yeah, it only encourages them.

 

 

[Litespeed]

I prefer the compulsory vote over voluntary systems. They have a inherent trap for actual democracy. They are easy to manipulate by making sections of the community disenfranchised from the right of a vote to the privilege of a vote. Millions in the US have no ability to vote because of a previous conviction or no fixed address or lots of other manipulations to remove voters that don't vote for a Dominant party.

 

Then you get a media baron helping push a particular view that alienates the majorities faith in politics. So they are less likely to vote.

 

That's how we get silly elections where only a small proportion of adult citizens actually vote. And that cohort have a disproportionate number if people venting on the propaganda of conservative Murdoch press or their equivalent. Just look to the US and be glad we have to vote so are forced to actually think about the government we want rather than let the loudest barking dog whistle win.

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Then you get a media baron helping push a particular view that alienates the majorities faith in politics. So they are less likely to vote"

 

Just like a "Clive Palmer" Makes me want to opt out of voting.

 

. "glad we have to vote so are forced to actually think about the government we want " with all the drivel & outright lies, whats to think about,!. Only to say stuff the lot of them, & put the vote-paper in the garbage bin.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

Check them all out and vote for the one you hate the least. If you don't vote you can't complain about the result.It will be interesting to see the percentage of voters who turn out in the US mid-terms next year.

 

 

[spacesailor]

When I do vote, I still can't complain !.

 

The Pollies have cloth ears.

 

Unless your super rich.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

I didn't say they'd listen, but you can't get on social media or letters to the editor and complain if you had no input. Your vote might have tipped the scale.

 

 

[Marty_d]

If you don't know who to vote for, go to ABC's VoteCompass and answer a few questions about where you stand on the main issues. At the end it'll tell you where you're aligned with 4 of the parties (LNP, Labor, Greens, One Nation).

 

 

[old man emu]

Just did the VoyeCompass thing. Frightening result! I'm a Left of Centre, sort of Conservative.

 

 

[nomadpete]

As usual with survey type questionnaires, I found myself arguing with the damn thing.

 

Some questions had two ways to answer, depending on how the proposal might be implemented.

 

The classic one is 'Do you want the monarchy or a republic?'

 

Answer:- 'It all depends on how you do it!'

 

NOT:- 'Yes or No'

 

Maybe:- 'Only if.........'

 

 

[old man emu]

I agree that the questions can manipulate the data. I support a republic, but, out of respect, not before the Queen dies. And it all depends on how you do it. Not like the Yanks, and not like the Prime Minister is currently picked.

 

 

[Methusala]

While talking about the current federal election campaign I would like to raise the matter of our "watergate" scandal.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-hell-broke-loose-the-strange-story-behind-joyce-taylor-and-watergate-20190426-p51hjm.html

 

This link illustrates the strange and somewhat opaque circumstances surrounding the affair. It also links to a Guardian article that appeared a few days ago. This story is red hot as it involves taxpayer's money, allocated to improving water flows to the lower Darling, ending up in corporate bank accounts, with no improvement to river flows.It implicates the federal member for Hume and current water resources minister in an intrigue valued at $80m of taxpayers money that has very dubious value to the health of the Murray-Darling river system.

 

Why has the ABC published the below article which argues that there is nothing in the deal which wouldn't pass the "pub test". The simple fact is that the purchase was made without public tender, the price paid was over twice that of previous water buybacks and, most alarmingly, was for water which will flow over the property at times of flooding. The properties in question had no water storage structures in place so that they could not store the water for later release as complement to normal flows. How does anyone rationalise the purchase of water which only occurs as a transient flow and will end up in Cubbie station's irrigation reservoir? Below is the link to the ABC's Rural dept report.

 

The 'watergate scandal' is still as clear as mud in a drought

 

Is it possible that the Rural dept of the ABC is stacked with persons who are too close to the agricultural industry as represented by coalition and even the National Party? There is definitely food for thought here. What hope is there for our democracy when the journalists are not being frank with we, the voters? Don

 

 

[Litespeed]

Yes, I read that article and thought it must have been a guest from the IPA or LNP doing a comment piece.

 

I agree that seemed extremely biased and dissmissive of any concerns.

 

How can they say nothing dodgy about someone creating a water company then resigning and get elected to a position of power that makes a decision that benefits the same company?

 

And Barnyard screaming he is not responsible as minister for a decision he had direct control over. And actually approved?

 

If it was labour that did this we would not hear anything but wall to wall press screaming from the right wing press. Alas the LNP seem Teflon coated.

 

Barnaby could burn down your house and would blame labour or the greens.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

hahaha no way the ABC is so left biased now it is ridiculous.

 

Its all a beatup for the election typical throw enough mud and it might stick...when was the last time you asked the company you bought stuff off where they put their money?...the land had to be in the right place to be able to buy it for a start...the murray darling is now so stuffed that buy back didnt make much difference....another argument was "it was flood water anyway" ALL the water is rain water so essentially its all flood water...water is water it depends how much falls. It was a buy of land/water to try to alleviate and unsolvable problem with the current stunted thinking by the idiots in power and not just the current ones all of them

 

The issue wont be fixed until the stupid pollies and major parties finally get off their arse and dig a massive trench or two from NQ and send the water into that murray system...oh but the greenies wont allow dams...boo hoo friggin nut jobs as well. In the USA if you go anywhere near Hoover dam and Las Vegas and any of the desert places you see massive water canals done out of concrete walls going hundred and hundreds of km..you look at them flying or driving over the USA they are everywhere..how do you think these desert places all look green and have millions of visitors and locals living there in some of the worst places.

 

Our pollies are too self absorbed in staying in power by giving all of the countries taxes to the bludgers not to the pensioners and the people that actually need it let alone the farmers. Water is life and they treat the issue like it is folly

 

I am passionate about this one subject and I stick it to my local pollies every single time I see them...they run the other way now I am sure when they see me coming

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Litespeed so a company you worked for and left more than 10 years ago makes you responsible now for decisions made now?????? how do you work that out. Glad I am not held responsible for decisions I made when I was working for Energex. Do you honestly think he would have had any input in that way in the decision...Oh by the way labour bought from the exact same company when they were in power...the price is only reflective of the market..supply and demand

 

 

[Litespeed]

I think it was a lot closer than 10 years and he went from the board to a MP.

 

The deal was not for land just the flood water allocation. Labour suggested a buy of all water allocation and the actual farm. That is a huge difference.

 

The tax haven use is a separate but relevant matter.

 

The price has no reflection on the market as no tender was issued at all. So that is a red flag to start with.

 

Even if the decision was a good one, we can have no confidence in it as the prescribed process was not followed and no transparentcy in the deal.

 

When you were in energex, did you have a CEO job? Did you start the company? Did you leave and join parliament? Did you become involved in dealings with big government money deals to Energex? Was a fully transparent process followed and was a open tender done?

 

That is all revelant Information. It would not matter who was involved the principles are the same.

 

 

[Litespeed]

The example of the irrigation in the USA is not relevant as they have far more available water. However they too have suffered water shortages and it is all not a rosy picture.

 

Any scheme to divert water west has been studied at length and found to be a fail on economic and environmental grounds. The costs and eventual flows available to use can not justify the expense.

 

Anyone arguing for such a scheme is diverting attention elsewhere.

 

A case of look that way.

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Any scheme to divert water west has been studied at length"

 

Lets get that important commodity from The EAST,!.

 

BUT the greenies wont let us put dams in the Kimberley's.

 

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spacesailor

 

[Litespeed]

What is the big need in the Kimberly's for dams?

 

The Ord river scheme has not been a huge success.

 

What are the dams for?

 

 

[Methusala]

The only engineering works in Australia that turned eastern rivers to the west involved the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Notice the word electric. The waters of the Snowy river and some minor tributaries are PUMPED out of Jindabyne Dam using electricity to the Tumut and Murray rivers. There have been no serious projects of this type either planned or realised in the following 70 years. Why is this? Simply because no others would be practical. Everyone is entitled to their opinion; I have a friend who appears rational and intelligent - he believes that the Earth is some 6000yrs old and that there was a biblical flood. I believe that if it was practical to turn northern rivers to the west some serious attempts would have been made in the past 70 years. The conservationists could not stop a practical attempt.

 

As for the water in question, did you not read the part that said that the water paid for was transitory flood water that could not be accumulated. It will simply slide over the properties and be collected in downstream reservoirs such as Cubbie station. You cannot sell water that is sliding over your property headed downstream. That is unless a crook like Barnaby is doling out the cheques to his mates.

 

 

[red750]

Lite, labour is what you do with a pick and shovel. The political party is Labor. There may be plenty of labour in you, but no U in Labor.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

The Bradfield scheme was proposed back in 1938..things are way different now and the technical details and what can be done is very different. The current govt back in 2015 allocated money for 100 dams but the qld govt will not allow it on "enviromental grounds" ..the greens influence as its a labor govt here. They piped water from Perth to Kalgoorlie a hundred or so years ago

 

Here is a interesting article even done by the left biased ABC Giant new dams proposed for northern Australia

 

I think there has not been any real investigation done on this. Surely there must be engineers out there that can come up with maybe different ideas