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Tag Archives: Malcolm Turnbull

Fact Check. ICT Students. Malcolm Turnbull

 

In an interview with Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister on ABC 7.30 (7th December, 2015), Leigh Sales posed the following question:

Your innovation package gives businesses more capacity to poach good people from overseas and it will also allow some foreign students to stay in Australia rather than take the skills they acquire back home. What do you say to Australians who might grizzle at that and say “Hang on, they are taking Australian Jobs.”

Mr. Turnbull responded:

“That’s not right actually. You know, in the….take in the ICT area in postgraduate tech, if you like – computing sciences and so forth in universities – over three quarters of the students studying here are foreigners. So…we don’t have enough Australian’s studying ICT. We don’t have enough Australians, particularly Australian girls and women studying STEM subjects and computing related subjects generally.

The first point I would like to make is Malcolm Turnbull completely ignored the question regarding businesses attracting more foreign workers. However, I thought I would check the percentage of foreign student’s studying ICT in Australia. According to the 2014 Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2014 Student Data (Australian Federal Government), the percentage of foreign students studying postgraduate ICT (as the level of study targeted by the Prime Minister) is 41.60%. This is less than half. Not over three quarters as the Prime Minister claimed.

The percentage of foreign undergraduate students studying ICT is 27.17%. This is less than a third. The total percentage of foreign students studying postgraduate and undergraduate ICT is 32.77%. This is approximately one third.

The percentage of foreign students studying in Australia overall across all Broad Fields of Education (BFOE) is 25%. That is one quarter of students overall for all levels of study across all BFOE’s are foreign students. So it certainly is true that more foreign students are attracted to our ICT programs, but that is not necessarily a bad thing at all. This could speak to the quality of our programs, the quality of our academics or the lack of programs in other countries.

Approximately one third of PhD students studying to write their ICT thesis are foreign students. The progression from undergraduate to PhD is not fluid, as in many postgraduate research students, will not have necessarily studied their undergraduate degree in Australia.

Many foreign Research Higher Degree (RHD) students review Universities from all over the world to select their University. This should be a reflection of the high quality of ICT research supervisors and programs in Australia, rather than this statistic being framed in a way that not enough domestic students are studying ICT at this level. We actually should be boasting that our ICT programs are attracting foreign students.

An increase in domestic scholarships including a living stipend for domestic Research Higher Degree students could very well see even more domestic students progressing into PhD level studies in this area.

More serious funding for universities to establish well developed university led women in science and technology programs, including properly funded recruitment and mentoring positions and more funding to employ more women ICT academics, could see the increase of more women engaged in this area of study. A serious investment in funding casual or better still, permanent teaching positions to free up existing women academics to do research would also assist.

I found it peculiar that Mr. Turnbull identified specifically postgraduate students in his interview, where he should be focusing on encouraging more students to take up ICT at vocational and undergraduate levels, if we are indeed talking about developing the innovators of the future.

I also found the focus on postgraduate students puzzling if his aim is to increase women in this area, when it is highly unlikely that women will enter through direct entry into a postgraduate program, based on the assumption that they are not working in the field and have not studied this area before. Women should be encouraged to take up ICT programs at undergraduate level and recruitment to engage women and all students should start from primary school.

All of these things take a commitment of serious funding. Will Mr. Turnbull and the Liberal Party actually act in good conscience on this, when they have not taken the Gonski reforms seriously? Gonski was a serious innovation in education reform and sadly it was not implemented by the Liberal party as the experts recommended. Its kind of like putting salt in a cake instead of sugar. It is still called a cake and you can say you have a cake, but it is a pretty useless cake.

I have posted the statistics below. I believe Malcolm Turnbull’s claim that over three quarters of students studying ICT in Australian Universities are foreign students is possibly incorrect. This is going by the 2014 figures. Perhaps 2015 has seen a stark increase in foreign students in this area. The 2015 data is not public on the ABS website or the Department of Education and Training website to determine this.

Mr. Turnbull could certainly be correct, if the scenario was for example a small increase in domestic postgraduate students in 2015 and a very high increase of postgraduate foreign students. Nothing is impossible. I certainly do not have the resources of the Prime Minister, but this certainly was not the case in 2014.

I think it would be great if journalists and ABC Fact Check would start checking more Turnbull facts. My personal opinion (and the reason I thought I would check this out) is that Mr. Turnbull does palaver on quite a bit with a decent smattering of verbosity. I feel this is to give voters the illusion that he is quite knowledgeable, but that may not necessarily be the case.

Stats ict

Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2014 data – ICT

Originally published on www.polyfeministix.wordpress.com

 

Day to Day Politics. It’s not a happy party.

Friday 4 December

1 How embarrassing for the Prime Minister. Former Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is set to defect from the Liberal Party to junior Coalition partners the Nationals. Like Rudd, Turnbull is intently disliked within his party.

The National Party gets roughly the same vote in the Lower House as the Greens yet has 8 members to the Green’s one. Hardly fair you would think, but that’s the way the system works.

Ask me to explain the difference between the Nationals and Liberals. Well I cannot. I can say that at times the Nationals are decidedly unrepresentative of its constituency.

What this does show is a deep-seated hatred of a leader who wants to take his party back to its roots being dragged into line by those who think the party’s future is further to the right. A neo-Conservative party concerned more with those who have rather than those who have not.

Macfarlane’s decision may mean that he will go back to Cabinet giving the Nationals more power than it deserves. After the next election it well may be that he is deputy leader to Barnaby Joyce who in turn will be deputy PM. God help us.

And we are told there might be more defections.

2 Yesterday’s mass shooting in California that killed at least 14 was not the only one. There was another in Georgia that killed four. America is certainly the world’s most technologically advanced country. In terms of social cohesion and life values they certainly are not. On the subject of gun laws their politicians are devoid of the sanctity of human life in so much as they know they could address the problem but they place power and position above it.

I suggest DEFAT issue a travel warning to those contemplating a visit to the US.

3 In case you hadn’t noticed, the Paris Climate talks are still in full swing. Australia is under fire amid concern we are taking advantage of overly flexible rules to claim greenhouse gas emissions are falling when they are actually on the increase.

Australia is relying on its negotiating teams securing a definition of emissions that allows the country to count a reduction in deforestation towards its target.

As I said earlier in the week, we are relying on dodgy accounting rules to include land use in order to massage the figures and do nothing.

4 After declaring Labor’s plan for the NBN disaster many times over it has to be said that Malcolm Turnbull has made a monumental stuff up of this vital technology.

We now find out that repairing and replacing parts of the copper network purchased from Telstra for the Coalition’s National Broadband Network could cost up to $640 million, a leaked NBN document shows.

Labor had declared the copper network redundant three years ago and knew it would have to be replaced. Turnbull has doubled the cost, the time of completion and it will not deliver sufficient speeds for the future.

5 Up to 300 of Australia’s wealthiest private companies will be forced to disclose their annual tax bill for the first time after the Greens cut a compromise deal with Treasurer Scott Morrison on contested tax transparency legislation.

But the deal, which has been branded a “sell out” by the Labor Party, will shield up to 600 more companies that would have been brought under new transparency requirements.

Until the Greens shook hands with Mr Morrison, the crossbench and Labor had the numbers to insist the government’s multinational tax avoidance bill could only pass with an amendment to force all companies with revenues of $100 million or more publishing their tax contribution.

That measure will now be doubled to $200 million – effectively shielding two-thirds of the companies that would have been brought into the light for the first time.

Shame on the Greens

Observations.

A Malcolm Turnbull should divest himself immediately of the impression that he is talking down to people.

B Brough might have been saved by the bell. For the time being at least. Tony Burke has asked the Speaker to refer Mal Brough to the privileges committee. Speaker Smith says he’ll consider it

MY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

‘We all have to make important decisions in our lives. None more important than the rejection of those things that tempt us into being somebody we are not’.

 

Day to Day Politics. The heat’s on in Paris.

image

2 December

1 Malcolm Turnbull in his address the Paris Climate Conference said:

‘We do not doubt the implication of the science, or the scale of the challenge’.

I found that a bit rich given that many of his Cabinet and back bench MPs are known deniers.

Added to that, the latest research shows that barely one in four Coalition voters accepts climate change is mostly caused by humans, with more than half of Liberal voters believing changes to global temperatures are natural, according to a CSIRO survey.

However, there are a number of initiatives taking place. Australia has committed to doubling the government’s $100-million-a-year commitment to clean technology research and development as part of a global innovation project spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whom Mr Turnbull met on the sidelines of the event.

Mr Turnbull also said Australia would commit $1 billion over five years to helping developing countries – especially those in the Pacific – to build resilience against climate change and to cut emissions.

And where is all this money coming from? Well the Foreign Aid budget of course. And not a whimper from Julie Bishop.

He said the country would “meet and beat” its 2020 emissions reduction goal – a reduction of 5 per cent compared with 2000 levels.

Now that shouldn’t be so difficult given that Australia was given at the first Kyoto meeting, the ok to raise its emissions by 8%, as an incentive to sign the agreement.

The fact is that our target is too low and at some point, Turnbull will have to convince his party that Australia must lift its climate ambitions if it’s to do its fair share to keep global warming to less than two degrees – a case that will be easier to make if Paris produces a credible pathway to such an outcome.

He also flagged increasing the target when a review is conducted in five years’ time.

But of course the task will be made tougher without a broad-based carbon price, an approach Turnbull himself once championed – and may yet to do so again.

He also flagged increasing the target when a review is conducted in five years’ time.

But Liberal MP Dennis Jensen said the Prime Minister should stick with the position of the party room.

The back bencher said discussion about increasing the target was “a joke”.

“I will certainly be very strong on the fact that we should not change those targets and that we stick with what we agreed [in] the party room and we don’t change,” he said.

“If there’s discussion about it a couple of years’ in the future, don’t change it again.”

It is difficult to believe that Hunt and Turnbull are actually getting away with the flattering, self-ingratiating bullshit they are delivering in Paris. And the compliancy of the mainstreammedia is equally dim-witted and lacks scrutiny. But I suppose it’s what Rupert wants.

They are both slaves to the hard right conservative wing of the Coalition. After all, delivering what he is now doing in Paris, was a condition of his employment.

Finally, Australia refused to sign with 43 other countries an agreement eliminate coal subsidies. In doing so they have now admitted that they do subsidise coal. Even if under another name. (Rebates).

2 Tuesday’s Essential Poll tightens with Labor on 49% and the Coalition on 51%. Bit of a surprise that one.

3 Special Minister of State Mal Brough has made a significant comment in relation to a key admission he made on Channel Nine over his dealings with James Ashby.

‘What was put to air was not the full question’.

Really. I suggest you watch the video.

4 I won’t beg or do an Abbott arse joke but could we please have a national ICAC.

One in six exempt companies exempted from reporting from reporting financial details to Asic are political donors or government contractors.

What was that you said?

5 Tony Abbott accusing Julie Bishop of telling lies. Well I never. Well I never.

MY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“If we do not take action on the environment and there is no disaster the outcome will be due to luck alone, like someone winning tattslotto” Average odds 58 million to one.

‘Day to Day Politics’ with John Lord

Monday November 30

1 The answer to Alan Austin’s quiz was . . . One. Of the last 17 state or federal MPs sin-binned, 15 are Liberal Party members, one is a National and one is Labor.

Read more here.

2 Why did we need a Wind Farm Commissioner? The answer is because Senate cross bench senators Jacqui Lambie, Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm and John Madigan don’t like them. And of course that old wind bag himself, Alan Jones isn’t too fond of them either. So it’s about appeasement. Nothing to do with science and the numerous reports over the years that can’t identify any problems.

The Wind Farm Commissioner Andrew Dyer whose job, according to Mr Hunt’s letter, will be to receive complaints and pass them along to the relevant state authorities? Not a bad part-time job at $200,000 PA.

For Greg Hunt though, I suppose it is an inexpensive measure which creates the impression that he has made a concession, while simultaneously relieving him of the personal hardship of listening to any more whining from cross bench senators and Alan about wind farms.

When will the bullshit ever end? Still I suppose he will have fun reading all the conspiracy theories at our expense.

3 President Obama has yet again said, ‘enough is enough’ after another gun shooting in Colorado killed three people. The problem is that the American people simply cannot comprehend life without guns, in the way we cannot comprehend life with them.

4 So the Government is saying that it will achieve its emission target at very little cost but that the opposition’s policy will send the country broke.

At the risk of repeating myself ‘’We pay a high price for the upkeep of our personal health but at the same time think the cost of the upkeep of the planet should be next to nothing’’

Turnbull may be a very popular Prime Minister but at the same time he must also be the most hypocritical. He simply doesn’t have the guts of his own conviction.

5 Talking about hypocrisy. It’s only a few short weeks ago that any change to the immoral superannuation tax concessions to the rich and privileged was being described as trouser snatching. Meaning the opposition was wanting to steal your wallet from your back pocket. Now current indications seem to signify that the privileged will lose at least part of the concession.

6 Josh Frydenberg has broken ranks with his leader and accused Muslim Dr Ibrahim of trying to “cover up” his first statement after the Paris attacks and not doing enough to counter extremist Islam. Whether he has a case or not he is just another lose cannon Turnbull has to keep under control.

7 The BludgerTrack poll aggregate this week records a correction after what was probably an Ipsos-driven overshoot last week, with a milder result from Newspoll drawing the Coalition two-party lead back 0.7%, and moving the seat projection two points in favor of Labor, with gains in New South Wales and Victoria. However, Newspoll’s leadership ratings have added further distance between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten on both net approval and preferred prime minister, although Shorten’s own net approval rating comes in slightly higher than last week’s.

53.7-46.3 to the Coalition

8 The Standing Orders for Question Time normally prevent the Opposition from asking questions about actions MPs took prior to becoming a Minister..

Malcolm Turnbull gave Mal Brough the precise portfolio of Special Minister of State, which puts him in charge of the policy area that forms the basis of the allegations made against him. This puts Minister Brough in a special position of accountability.

He is the Minister in charge of parliamentary standards and integrity. A search warrant and an investigation by the AFP and a clear confession on 60 minutes suggest his guilt. However neither he nor Malcolm Turnbull can see why anyone would think there’s a problem. Christopher Pyne even shut down his own speech rather than offer a defence. Enough said.

MY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

‘There is nothing like the certainty of a closed mind’.

 

‘Day to Day Politics’ with John Lord

Thursday 26 November

1 I have reached the conclusion that we have a Government of talkers, not doers. One might easily call them wafflers. They must be setting an Australian record for papers, enquiries, reports, and meetings both domestically and internationally. However I don’t foresee much doing prior to the next election. Which of course will mean that the Coalition has wasted three years of government.

2 One of the best wafflers of course is Environment \minister Greg Hunt who at yesterday’s National Press Club gave himself a glowing report prior to the Paris talks.

He said we have already reached our 5% target reduction for 2020 levels. He is correct but we have only done so because of drought, the slowdown in the economy, the decline in manufacturing and to a small extent the impact of the renewable energy target and other climate policies such as the emissions reduction fund. And of course some very dodgy, smoke and mirrors accountancy measures. Fact is the 5% was always too low and we were given an 8% increase in emissions at the first Kyoto meeting.

3 I got into a discussion with a conservative friend who insisted that Julia Gillard told the biggest political lie ever. I countered with this and I thought my friend was going to have a stroke.

One of most important moments in the life of Menzies must have been when, on 28 April 1965, he lied to the Australian Parliament and people over an alleged call for assistance from the Saigon Regime of General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu as official head of state and Air Marshall Nguyễn Cao Kỳ as prime minister. The first battalion arrived in Vietnam the following month. After March 1966 National Servicemen were sent to Vietnam to fight in units of the Australian Regular Army. Some 19,000 conscripts were sent in the following four years. 521 lost their life. The number of Australian invalid and otherwise victims of the war is still uncertain.

The document carrying the alleged call was never found.

4 International tensions are very high with the shooting down of a Russian fighter. I know it’s difficult to overcome thousands of years of fighting based on nationalism but wouldn’t it be nice if the leaders of the world opened their minds to internationalism.

To quote a friend:

‘We have entered a very dangerous moment in human history.

These developments put us on the precipice of a conflagration that could have grave consequences for the world.

We must all hope that the fullest exercise of international diplomacy and a show of good faith is made before this worsens’ (Stuart J Whitman).

5 Did you know that 58,000 people die each day from hunger and preventable diseases?

6 The Australian, the official newsletter of the Liberal Party, reports that resentment among ousted conservatives and retribution against Abbott supporters is creating a dangerous political atmosphere.

7 So have the isms of left and right gone past their used by dates? What do you think? Do they suffer from the tiredness of longevity? Is there any possibility that a new politic could emerge from a society deeply entrenched in political negativity and malaise, yet still retain the essential ingredients of a vigorous democracy? One where a wide-ranging common good test would be applied to all policy.

Have left and right so fused into each other that they no longer form a demarcation of ideas? Could the ideologies of the two somehow come together to form this commongoodism? Who would decide the common good? How could one define it? Could capitalism embrace the common good or would it need further regulation? Could conservatism which empathises individual responsibility and opportunity embrace it? What would common good values be?

That’s all a bit like political scrambled eggs I know, but they are the sort of philosophical questions I ask myself on my daily walks. You see that although I still value my leftish views I do really believe that modern political thought and practice needs a makeover. And not just nationally but internationally. But particularly in Australia where politics no longer meets the needs or aspirations of the people and is held in such low esteem that politicians are barely relevant. I have long felt that the political establishment has taken ownership of a system that should serve the people but instead serves itself. It is self-indulgent, shows no respect for the people it serves and lacks transparency.

MY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

‘Leadership is a combination of traits that etch the outlines of a life and grow over time. They govern moral choices and demonstrate empathy toward others. It is far better for those with these qualities to lead rather than follow. In fact it is incumbent on them’.

 

Disruptive Technologies and the Laissez Faire Dream

By Shane Crocker

The Australian Competition Policy Review (also known as the Harper Review) was released on 31 March 2015.

The “Review of Competition Policy” was announced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Minister for Small Business Bruce Billson on 4 December 2013.

The review was produced by a hand-picked panel of four conservative/ pro-business members headed by Professor Ian Harper. The basic aim of the Harper Review is to liberalise the Australian economy and workplace along laissez faire lines. Amongst its recommendations are:

  • Scrapping overtime/ weekend/ public holiday penalty rates.
  • Scrapping all public holidays except three days, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. (Anzac Day can still be observed but the day will be just a normal working day).
  • Reintroduction of individual work contracts.
  • Deregulating the sale of alcohol. Alcohol to be sold openly by anyone, without need of a liquor licence.
  • Deregulating the sale of pharmaceuticals. No requirement for a trained and accredited pharmacist to dispense medicine.
  • Deregulation of shipping and transport.
  • Introduction of school vouchers.
  • Raising the GST to 15%.
  • Encouragement of “Disruptive technologies, especially digital technologies”.
  • And many other fancies of the Right-wing /big business wish list.

On the day he assumed office as Australian Prime Minister on September 15 2015, Malcolm Turnbull said “Disruption is our friend” and urged Australians to “embrace disruption”.

Among these disruptive technologies Mr Turnbull praised Uber: “Australia’s retail trading hours could be radically overhauled, and ride-share services such as Uber more readily welcomed into the country, after the Turnbull government said it will launch an “enthusiastic response” to the Harper review of Australia’s competition laws”.

From December 2014 through to June 2015 the Queensland Transport had devoted 6000 hours on “enforcement activities” targeting Uber drivers with $1.7 million in fines all paid by Uber. Queensland Transport has not enforced the law regarding illegal taxi services or issued any new fines since June 2015. There now appears to be a “see no evil, hear no evil” policy in place with regards to illegal ride sharing in Queensland.

This year saw the world launch of a new app based service: “Ohlala, An Uber For Escorts, Launches In Berlin, Plans Global Rollout” (techcrunch.com Aug 10, 2015). Unlike Tinder and Grindr, which are dating apps, Ohlala is a “paid dating app”. In other words Ohlala could be an app for prostitution.

Despite their plans for “Global Rollout”, Ohlala would be in breach of the Queensland Prostitution Act 1999, which states:

There are two forms of legal sex work in Queensland:
Private work (sole operators) – where a single sex worker works alone – is legal in Queensland, but it is an offence to publicly solicit for the purposes of prostitution.
Sex work conducted in a licensed brothel is legal in Queensland.
Any other form of sex work is illegal in Queensland. This includes unlicensed brothels or parlours, street workers, two sex workers sharing one premises (even if the workers both work alone in split shifts), and out-calls provided by a licensed brothel.
A licensed brothel is a brothel that is licenced and regulated by The Queensland Prostitution Licensing Authority.

The Prostitution Act 1999 and the Prostitution Licensing Authority were a result of recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in Queensland.
Prostitution is regulated in Queensland to prevent corruption and pimping. It is a criminal offense in Queensland (and every other Australian state and territory) to run a pimping operation. Pimping is an arrangement where a third party (i.e. a pimp) arranges and provides introductions for prostitutes and the proceeds are split between the prostitute and the pimp at an agreed rate.

By this definition Ohlala could be seen by many as a pimping operation.

It would be legally impossible for Ohlala to operate in Queensland without a significant roll-back of some of Fitzgerald’s key reforms, something that neither major political party in Queensland is likely to allow. However, these so-called “disruptive technologies” that the federal government is encouraging and state governments are turning a blind eye to are being emboldened to set up their business here with impunity. While Uber feel they can get away with what they are doing, Ohlala will also, and it won’t be long before Ohlala is also operating in every Australian capital city.

Implementing all the recommendations of the Harper Review to establish the laissez faire dream in Australia would require a revolution in all of Australia’s federal, state and territory laws on everything from taxis, transport, liquor licensing, real estate, and shipping to prostitution.

What I predict will actually happen is that federal and state governments will cherry pick what they like out of the Harper Review and quietly disregard what they think is politically unpalatable. In the mean time we will see more horror stories about houses being wrecked with Airbnb, whole local industries destroyed, passengers being assaulted with Uber and sex workers put at extreme risk with pimping apps like Ohlala, while governments at every level pander to the multinational corporations that run these apps, and justify it all to the public with exciting, glossy language such as “Disruptive technologies”.

 

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Just in time for Christmas . . .

By Richard O’Brien

With Christmas just around the corner, Commonwealth Toys ® has announced a new range of action figurines – the Political Leaders series.

Poor sales figures earlier in the year lead to the manufacturer issuing a recall of the Tony Abbott action figurine – which most children found disappointing no matter what outfit it was dressed it in.

Its replacement, the Malcolm Turnbull figurine, has resulted in much better sales. The Turnbull model’s primary feature is a 300 watt torch located in its posterior. While tests by No Choice Magazine found there was a significant risk of the torch dazzling children and temporarily blinding them to everything else that was going on, they also indicated that this effect was likely to fade with time.

Despite costing 15% more than other figurines in the range, all Turnbull models with principles have sold out. Instead all purchases of the Turnbull model now come with a free Warren Truss figurine – which doesn’t really do anything but helps complete the set.

Redesigned after the manufacturer discovered it was a choking hazard, the Bill Shorten figurine has proved less popular with children this year, despite now being made up of parts that are almost impossible for most children to swallow. The new design also incorporates greater joint articulation, allowing the figurine to fold more easily – making it compatible with the offshore detention series of accessories. Spine sold separately.

Made from recycled plastic, the Richard Di Natale figurine comes mounted on its own moral high ground. Popular with younger children the figurine has had considerably more success competing with the Shorten model than the Turnbull model – despite offering little in the way of new features and accessories.

Sales of the Clive Palmer figurine have continued to decline steadily – despite coming with a range of accessories including a model of the Titanic, a dinosaur park and the now defunct Gold Coast United Football Club – it is expected to be discontinued sometime next year.

More from Richard O’Brien:

Virus Alert

World Revision – Sponsor a Millionaire

 

Can’t afford a house? Well maybe you could settle for a power station!

As I’ve pointed out before, the business section of the paper is more reliable when it comes to getting information. I’m not suggesting that the opinions in the business section are any better, just that, when it comes to money, people are more upset when the media gets its facts wrong.

Anyway, as I doubt that any of you unemployed, left-wing tree-huggers would have found time to read “The Australian Financial Review” in between cycling from your lattes to the latest protest, I thought I better point out this article to you:

NSW government sells Vales Point power station for $1m

OK, if you don’t have the time to read it because you’re worried that your latte will get cold, the two important bits are these:

  1. The article begins by telling us how cheap the power station was. In spite of it being one of the largest coal fired power stations in NSW, I could have probably crowd-sourced enough money to put down a deposit, if I’d promised that we’d shut it down. “Two investors have bought one of NSW’s largest coal-fired power stations for the price of a nice suburban house.Brisbane-based energy consultant Trevor St Baker and coal baron Brian Flannery paid the princely sum of $1 million to the NSW government for the Vales Point Power Station.”
  2. The article also had the following little titbit of information: “Though cleaner than Victoria’s brown coal plants, in the absence of a carbon price black coal plants are being squeezed out of the National Electricity Market by brown coal and renewable energy because its marginal operating costs are higher.” (emphasis added”)

The fact that a large coal-fired power station only brings a million bucks when sold suggests that they’re aren’t a lot of people out there who think that this a great investment opportunity. However, I think the second point is the more interesting after Malcolm Turnbull’s comments about our coal being the “cleanest in the world” (What – we wash it and then we put it in the spin?). So, in this country the absence of a carbon price is squeezing “clean” black coal out of the market.

Well, it’s good that someone saved the company then and aims to keep the power station alive. There may be a future for black coal yet. As one of the buyers said they’ve got lots of experience in the industry and they’re confident they can turn the losses around, saving oodles of jobs. Well, for now anyway, because he also made this rather interesting little comment:

“We are aiming for at least seven years [of operation] if coal-fired power generation continues to be required in NSW,”

If? I thought coal was meant to be the major party of the energy mix for the next fifty years.

 

Turnbull? Well, Nobody Faustus … (Ah, with puns like that I could work for Murdoch)

For anyone taking a step back, the question is: Has Turnbull sold his soul, or only rented it in the hope of buying it back when the right wing of his party don’t have any capital to use in the auction after the next election?

However, for most people, we’re in the real world and there’s a fair bit of cognitive dissonance going on. Yep, it’s really good that Abbott is no longer PM and his pronouncements just make it seem more and more like we must have all been on drugs and there’s no possibility that a man who’d knight Prince Phil, and declare that coal was good for humanity could ever have been our Prime Minister and that it’s good to have someone who actually can actually use three word slogans which have more than one syllable in the words. IN-O-VAY-SHONE! On the other hand, there’s concern that Malcolm Turnbull is still pursuing some of the worst of Abbott’s policies. But on yet the other hand, there’s concern amongst the very strange – those like Eric Abetz who seem to have three hands – that Turnbull has captured the One True Party and will soon be doing the work of the devil unless we can organise a coup after the next election and restore Abbott, the Anointed One. I think I was about to move on to my fourth hand, but then I grew worried that once I had four hands, I’d be like one of those infinite monkeys typing the works of Shakespeare.

Anyway, I happened to notice today that the Coalition are pushing ahead with their legislation to make “lawfare” illegal.

You remember? Lawfare? You know these “vigilantes” taking the law into their own hands by using the courts when we all know that the courts are meant to belong to the rich and powerful and if poor people start to use them to uphold existing laws then there’s obviously something wrong with the law. Better change it. We don’t want these green groups mounting challenges unless they’re directly affected. And they’re not directly affected unless they own shares in the company trying to do whatever it is that makes money.

Because when mining companies make money it helps us all because they have to pay taxes. Not the mining tax, of course, but other ones, like company tax -in the unlikely event that they ever make a profit. The subsidies that we give them barely cover the cost of the money they give us in political donations.

As for the National Farmers’ Federation being concerned about the “lawfare” legislation taking away their rights, well, we love farmers. The National Party used to be called the Country Party, you know, so Country People will always have a say. After all, didn’t Mr Abbott invite the Nats in to make sure that whole gay marriage thing didn’t get up? Mm, probably just as well they changed their name after re-reading that previous sentence…

Anyway, back to Turnbull…

Yep, that’s what the Liberals said. It’s got so bad we’re prepared to take on board someone who used Godwin Grech’s fake emails, because we’re hoping that he didn’t do that because he was too stupid to have them checked out, we’re hoping that he was unethical enough not to care what the truth was.

I guess time will tell.

 

Why do we have a Coalition government?

The obvious answer as to why we have a Coalition government at the moment is that the majority of people voted that way at the last election. But why?

Many people were sick of the white-anting and disunity from a party which removed two sitting Prime Ministers. I am wondering how they feel now that the Liberals have done exactly the same thing. Should this government be labelled ‘illegitimate’ with calls for an immediate election? Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews, Andrew Nikolic, Cory Bernardi, Tony Abbott and others are unlikely to accept a smooth transition any time soon.

Others were convinced that the warnings about climate change were ‘alarmist’ and that scientists were only doing it to get funding. Or that they were part of some UN new world order with Zionist banks ready to send us all into subsistence slavery under Agenda 21. I am wondering how they feel as every year more heat records tumble and extreme weather events cost us billions.

Many voted Coalition so they would fix the ‘debt and deficit disaster’. Labor was spending like drunken sailors! How are they feeling as government spending continues to rise, the debt continues to grow by about $50 billion a year, and we experience the biggest deficits on record?

There were those who felt we were being invaded by a horde of potential terrorists coming by boat. We have stopped the boats arriving and in so doing, been condemned by a world coping with an enormous tide of displaced people due, in part, to our aggression in the Middle East and likely to continue as we withdraw foreign aid and replace it with military expenditure. Are they happy that to stop the boats we are prepared to torture children?

Those that were angry that “Bob Brown’s bitch” was making deals with the Greens must have been somewhat disappointed when one of Joe Hockey’s first actions was to make a deal with the Greens to eliminate the debt ceiling. I am wondering how they feel as Victorian Liberals look set to preference Greens ahead of ALP.

Some people were concerned that the Labor government was spending tens of billions on a national broadband network that would just be used to play video games and download movies. Malcolm could get us a system that would cover all our needs for much cheaper and get it finished by 2016. Or not. All this talk of digital disruption and innovation must be making them wonder what’s going on, not to mention cost blowouts of $15 billion due to Malcolm’s multi technology mix which, it turns out, will take a lot longer than anticipated to provide a system that will be outdated before it is finished.

Others were cynical about Kevin Rudd’s ‘dishonest negative scare campaign’ regarding cuts to health, education, the ABC, family tax benefits and the schoolkids bonus not to mention the raising of the GST. But we know that was all lies, right? Or maybe not.

Many were very concerned that Labor’s changes to the fringe benefits tax which required people to only claim business usage for their cars when they actually used them for business would destroy the car industry and lead to job losses. Thankfully the Coalition got rid of that quick smart and saved all those jobs . . . oh, wait.

One thing that we can always be certain of is that the Coalition will be better economic managers. It’s in their DNA. Except every single economic measure has gone backwards under their stewardship.

They promised to expose the corruption of the evil unions and the rorting of politicians’ entitlements through the revelations by their heroic whistleblowers, Kathy Jackson and James Ashby. Just don’t mention the 10 NSW Liberal MPs who have been exposed by ICAC or the fraudulent misappropriation of millions by their Victorian state director or Bronnie’s helicopter rides.

The Liberal Party promised to be a transparent accountable government, unless it is an operational or onwater matter, or commercial in confidence, or anything to do with our offshore gulags and the sexual, physical and psychological abuse suffered by the people who came to us seeking help. And don’t dare ask about how much tax big corporations and rich people pay. That’s none of your business.

Thank goodness we now have a very popular Prime Minister, but what use is that when the urbane, sophisticated Malcolm Turnbull leads the same party that thought Tony Abbott would be a good idea?

The policies haven’t changed and the personnel who brought you those lies still occupy the government benches.

Despite Malcolm’s ‘new paradigm’, I am still left wondering why exactly we chose a Coalition government.

 

Turnbull v Abbott: PM in an age of terror

Image from the abc.net.au

Image from the abc.net.au

Insofar as personality is a signifier of leadership ability (and like it or not, it is probably the most important characteristic as far as the voting public is concerned) Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was visited by the good fairy in his cradle while ex PM Tony Abbott was imbued with a Dickensian gloom by the bad one, who apparently took a set against him and threw in more than a dash of dark pugility as well.

Turnbull is a happy man who will likely smother us into an uneasy, baffled silence with his unrelenting affability and charm. Abbott is one of the more miserable public figures I can recall, who seems to feel it’s his duty to hector, lecture and create division amongst us, till we are choked by a miasma of exhausted despair.

However, Turnbull’s intelligence, good nature and charm works well for him internationally: sophisticated, urbane, accomplished, personable and wealthy, people take to him (if they don’t have to put up with him all the time, as do we) and likely open to him in ways it is impossible to open to Abbott, who never quite seems to get past the influences of the seminary, and his belief that he’s been chosen to bring us Truth.

If there is one thing we don’t need as we gird ourselves to deal with terrorist attacks at home and abroad, it’s a leader who believes he is the bearer of existential truths, and who sees the world in black and white with no inclination at all to investigate the grey zone.

Abbott has all the characteristics of the religious zealot, and since the Paris attacks has found various platforms from which to peddle his hatred of other religious zealots because their zealotry threatens his. This will get us nowhere, or rather, it will see us in a whole lot of serious domestic turmoil as tribe turns against tribe, ignorant prejudices fuelled by Abbott and his nemesis Pauline Hanson, whom he landed in jail because she threatened his claim to the title of Australia’s Leading Incitor of Fear.

Turnbull, on the other hand, will appear as a voice of reason, though he lost it somewhat when he first heard about the Paris attacks, stating that though the killers claimed to have acted in the name of God, they were actually perpetrating the work of the devil. Such rhetoric is entirely unnecessary. There’s nothing in the least supernatural about terrorism: it’s perpetrated by humans upon humans. The ability to terrorise is one of our more undesirable characteristics.

The PM’s relentless charm and good will is likely just what we need at this time to keep us steady: he is unlikely to threaten anyone with a damn good shirt fronting, and while he’ll be criticised mercilessly as a pussy by those who would see us engage in world war three, at least he won’t be whipping up ill will and fear. For this relief, much thanks.

I am of the opinion that it is the intention of Daesh to turn us against one another, and have those of us they don’t slaughter permanently weakened by fear, mistrust and hatred. Abbott’s trajectory, and that of those who support him, will lead us to precisely the same place: severely weakened by fear, mistrust and hatred, bitterly divided against one another. Daesh could not find more suitable allies than Abbott, Hanson, the usual shock jocks, religious fundamentalists and those who in some way, material and egotistical, profit from war.

Turnbull’s biggest challenge will be to control those within his own party who thrive on fear and repression. They are supported by many media voices, and their platforms are assured.

There is little that can be done to control Daesh at the moment. The only certainty is that for communities to turn against one another will be to give Daesh what they desire. I am not in the least enamoured of Turnbull or his style, but I can’t help thinking he is a marginally better leader in these times, in terms of the terrorist threat, than his ousted predecessor.

As far as domestic issues are concerned, the image below says everything. Polish it up all you want, it’s still what it is.

This article was originally published on No Place For Sheep.

abbott-v-turnbull

 

 

 

 

 

A little less Lucy in our lives

When Malcolm Turnbull joined Angela Merkel addressing the media in Berlin last week, he praised the work of the Australia-Germany Advisory Group and presented a report written by them with the focus of forging closer economic, security and social ties with Europe’s largest economy.

He thanked a few specific people, praising their work and ending with, “and not least, mein liebe frau Lucy.”

Lucy was front and almost centre on stage, despite there being no other spouses present. She smiled humbly as her husband heaped praise on his dear wife.

A quick look at the Turnbulls’ registrable interests shows, under conflict of interest, that Lucy is a member of the Australia-Germany Advisory Group and Honorary President of the Australian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It is interesting to remember that, when Dr Merkel visited Australia for the G20 summit, Turnbull embarrassed Abbott by accompanying her on a visit to Australia’s national information technology research flagship, NICTA, who had had its funding stripped by Tony Abbott. Turnbull is reinstating the funding in his Innovation Statement.

Lucy is also listed as Chairman of Prima BioMed Limited.

According to its website, Prima BioMed is a globally active biotechnology company that is striving to become a leader in the development of immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer. Prima BioMed is dedicated to leveraging its technology and expertise to bring innovative treatment options to market for patients and to maximize value to shareholders.

In December 2014, Lucy Turnbull was interviewed about Prima Biomed on The Business. She speaks about the future of biotechnology, the company’s expansion into, and reliance on, France and Germany, and the importance of giving better tax treatment to employee stock options. As Tiki Fullerton pointed out, Lucy has 20 million shares in the company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_TtH–2sw#t=14

Coincidentally, Prima BioMed are giving a presentation at a meeting of experts from a variety of established and emerging pharma companies to be held at Bad Homburg in Germany from 16 to 18 November.

Reading through the Turnbull’s eye-watering list of investments is beyond my attention span but even a cursory glance shows that any discussion of changing tax concessions for capital gains or negative gearing would significantly affect the Turnbulls as would changes to the way their self-managed superannuation fund and family trusts are treated. Land tax would also hit them hard as they own many properties.

They have numerous private companies and shareholdings in both listed and unlisted companies, so decreases in company tax would no doubt be welcome.

Malcolm has assured us that he pays tax on any income he receives from his various investments in offshore funds. What he wants you to ignore is that the companies are avoiding paying company tax which has to help profit and hence the dividends they pay.

Considering their vast holdings and various positions as company directors, it is hard to find many areas where the Turnbulls would not have a conflict of interest in discussions about trade or taxation or concessions or grants.

Lucy Turnbull has a great deal of experience in the areas of business and politics. She has fingers in many pies and it is understandable that Malcolm consults with her and respects her opinion.

But perhaps she would do better to take a lower public profile when the real politicians are doing their stuff. I fear we may all be wishing for a little less Lucy in our lives before this ride is over.

 

Set the girls free, Mr Turnbull

A letter from the heart, by Bob Rafto

Dear PM Turnbull

During Abbott’s tenure as PM the population was on high alert, not because of any terrorist threat but because of what crazy thing Abbott might do next. The country breathed a big sigh of relief when the Flickman arrived to give him the flick, and then you went about like Mr Sheen trying to give a gleam to the LNP, which according to the opinion polls, now has a wonderful shine.

So far it is working for you, Mr Turnbull, and with that in mind I’m writing to you to open up your heart on behalf of the Australian people to process the refugees on Nauru, Manus and Christmas Island to have them settle on the mainland, a place ‘we call home’ by Christmas. And that would certainly be a Christian thing to do, and an Aussie one as well.

I want to draw your attention, in particular, to the two girls in the above photo. The girl in the left of the picture is ill and has been for a long time. She was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied “Anything, to be free”. You can grant that wish, Mr Turnbull.

The girls have seen the horrors of war in their homeland and have fled their country with their parents only to be incarcerated in an inhumane hell hole of Nauru. When is enough persecution on innocent refugees and children enough?

If the claim to have stopped the boats is valid then there is no reason to have these refugees held any longer as ‘examples’ to the world of the ‘torture treatment’ we Aussies dish out to asylum seekers who attempt to arrive here by boat.

Mr Turnbull, you have the power to reset the nation’s heart by bringing the refugees to the mainland and close the offshore detention centres. With your ‘electorate loving’ charm you can persuade the nation that by bringing the refugees to the mainland there won’t be a need for the offshore centres, as you’ve stopped the boats and are saving us billions of dollars a year. And further, it will end the UN condemnation of our ill-treatment to refugees … a reputation that we don’t deserve (or do we?) and one for you, as only you have the power, to set right.

Set the girls free Mr. Turnbull!

With Great Expectations

Bob Rafto

 

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Why Tony Abbott Isn’t Darth Vader … Although Christopher Pyne May Be R2-D2!

Another Star Wars movie.

Little did I know when I saw that first one way back in the seventies that I was watching something that would have such staying power.

Of course, it’s obvious in retrospect because it has all the ingredients of a modern myth. Good versus evil. The Force. The Dark Side. The young apprentice learning from the wise Yoda. (I realise that some of the younger readers won’t actually realise this but we used to have apprentices in Australia once.)

And, of course, it’s all about sex. You have that final climax where Luke and the others fly down a long tunnel and shoot their tiny little objects in the hope of hitting that small target. If that’s not a metaphor for sperm hitting the egg, I don’t know what is… I’m not going to make any comment on “Hands Solo” and his big hairy wooky. Or did I spell that wrong? Impossible, phonics means that nobody would ever be illiterate ever again.

Anyway, I was just reflecting on the Liberals and the strange disconnect between gladly welcoming refugees from a camp overseas, while demonising those who came by sea “our boundless plains to share”.

But it’s this capacity to divide things into good and evil that has me thinking. Once someone is defined as evil – in the eyes of many of the Liberal frontbencher – then all rights are forfeit. It’s not a case of I just made a simple mistake. No, you don’t deserve a trial. You deserve incarceration or deportation.

Good people, on the other hand, should always be given the benefit of the doubt. Even after there’s no doubt. That’s why Arthur Sinidinos is back in the ministry and Craig Thom(P)son was a tainted vote.

Of course, the ascension of Turnbull has left all sides of politics a little confused. Parts of the left are breathing a sigh of relief that Abbott’s gone, while pointing out that Turnbull hasn’t actually changed very much. Well… He hasn’t actually changed anything of significance, but one has to impressed with that Cheshire cat grin and the fact that he actually he actually attempts to argue some sort of case rather than working on the assumption that we can all assume that anyone who disagrees with him has already gone over to the Dark Side and can just be ignored.

The Liberals, on the other hand, fall into two camps. Those who are just pleased that Abbott’s gone and Malcolm might actually win the next election and be PM for a long, long time, and those who are pleased that Malcolm might actually win the next election and then they can put Abbott back after they’ve got control of the Senate and they can pass laws which say that any votes against the government can be ignored under the sedition laws which say that it’s a criminal offence to try and bring down the government.

Of course, that sounds far-fetched to a lot of people.

And it is …

Then again, any suggestion that Abbott would reintroduce knights and dames and, not only that, suggest that Prince Phil should go down on one knee to get a tap from Lizzie would have been dismissed as the ramblings of someone with little grip on reality just a llttle over two years ago.

And it’s always interesting what people deny. If you saw this video clip last week, you’ll notice that it was reported Greg Sheridan denied telling people that Abbott is going around saying that second Abbott government will be better that the first!

However, you’ll notice that he’s denying what he allegedly said, not the part about Abbott going around saying that!

If this was Star Wars, what would they call it?

Abbott The Second Coming. (Nah, too religious.)

Abbott Strikes Back!

Return of The Shit!

Whoops, typo there.

Should be “Return of the Sith”.

 

Confusion in the Turnbull Government

Much about the Turnbull Government confuses me. Either I don’t know what they’re talking about, or they themselves have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’m convinced it’s the latter.

They say one thing while clearly meaning something else. I could write a book about the subject, but for the sake of a talking point I’ll limit it to the few examples below:

Shortly after being installed as our new you-beaut Treasurer, Scott Morrison says “we had a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and that he wanted to cut taxes further”. Yet his boss Malcolm Turnbull wants to raise the GST by five percentage points (effectively raising it 50 per cent). Malcolm Turnbull also wants to raise the revenue the government needed to provide services but it in a manner that “backs Australians rather than holds them back”.

One of them has no idea what they’re talking about. One of them is lying.

But of course we have an unfair tax system. That’s why Malcolm Turnbull has money invested in the Cayman Islands, where companies and individuals pay no direct tax.

If only our tax system was fair. No wonder he wants a tax reform that “backs Australians rather than holds them back”. Don’t hold back, Malcolm.

Speaking of Malcolm, and speaking of investments, it was he who was the most vocal critic of Labor’s fibre to the home NBN yet “it was revealed … that Mr Turnbull owns shares in France Telecom, which plans to connect 60 per cent of French households to fibre by 2020”. Yet he still tells us that Labor got it wrong. So he destroyed it. Fortunately the French have a good NBN.

We are told ad-nausem by the proud and boastful government that they have stopped the boats. So why has Transfield – who operate the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres – had their contract renewed for another five years? One would expect that if the boats had stopped then all of the detainees would shortly be either settled in Australia (unlikely) or sent to some miserable hell-hole elsewhere in the world. (Oh, I know, if Labor wins the next election then all the boats will start again. Good forward-thinking by the government).
And of course there’s the obvious: if the boats have stopped then why have detention centres!

Confusion reigns supreme in the Turnbull Government, and the Turnbull Government confuses me.