The Seven Network reports a ReachTEL automated phone poll conducted yesterday has Labor’s lead at 52-48, up from 51-49 a month ago. More details to follow (although it may take a while).
UPDATE (26/10): Here at last are the full results from the poll, which turns out to have a sample of 3594. On the primary vote, Labor is on 37.5%, the Coalition 40.1%, the Greens 11.5%, and Palmer United 5.1% (a fair bit better than they’ve been doing from other pollsters lately).
E
[You are very hard to please!]
I like arguing. All you have to do is disagree with me and I’m happy ;).
[Astrobleme
….It’s also stupid to suggest that solving the ’cause’ of the war, 3 years after it started, will stop the current conflict.]
Sorry, I should have said “the Greens think the Syrian conflict could have been avoided had we sent water bombers 5 years ago rather than bomb bombers now”.
The point is that I disagree with you. We can agree to disagree.
[DisplayName
…..I like arguing. All you have to do is disagree with me and I’m happy]
Those conditions lead to eternal ecstasy!
That doesn’t sound like disagreement.
*frowny face*
E
[Sorry, I should have said “the Greens think the Syrian conflict could have been avoided had we sent water bombers 5 years ago rather than bomb bombers now”.]
You’re a fool.
You’re still misrepresenting what I said, AND somehow making it about the ‘Greens’.
It’s wonderful that you have formed an opinion about something you have done no investigation into, and we really enjoy you telling us that we are wrong when you have no evidence/facts/justification for saying we’re wrong (in fact historically almost all revolutions have been caused by food shortages), BUT the least you could do is not deliberately misrepresent people so you can mock them.
[1352
Everything]
The point is that competition for economic resources – waterways, arable and grazing lands, trade routes, forests, fisheries, labour sources (think of slaves), minerals, energy supplies, strategic sites and so on – have frequently led to conflict. As well, episodes of famine and drought have also served as catalysts for civil unrest, including violent revolts. The French and Bolshevik Revolutions and the Arab Spring are good examples, as, it appears, is the Syrian civil war.
It would be foolish to dismiss this as a factor in the conflicts in the Middle East, though E is pleased to do so.
There is no doubt the waterfront reforms of the 90’s has benefited Australia substantially even if the methods used to break the union stranglehold were questionable. It’s a pretty good ethics debate around means justifying ends.
[ It’s a pretty good ethics debate around means justifying ends. ]
German Shepards always love a good debate
But they don’t last long and up nasty.
Depends if you send them in before the debate I guess
[ It’s a pretty good ethics debate around means justifying ends. ]
I loved the way that the most screwed over participants were the non-union wharf workers brought in by the Govt. Was such a very clear expression of Liberal party philosophy and priorities.
dtt…
It appears the outbreak in West Africa commenced on 26 December 2013
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/ebola-6-months/guinea/en/
[On 26 December 2013, a 2-year-old boy in the remote Guinean village of Meliandou fell ill with a mysterious illness characterized by fever, black stools, and vomiting. He died 2 days later. Retrospective case-finding by WHO would later identify that child as West Africa’s first case of Ebola virus disease….
Meliandou is located in what is today designated as the outbreak’s “hot zone”: a triangle-shaped forested area where the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone converge. All three countries were deeply impoverished, and their health infrastructures severely damaged, during years of civil unrest.
Poverty is pervasive. Large numbers of people do not have steady, salaried employment. Their quest to find work contributes to fluid population movements across extremely porous borders – a dream situation for a highly contagious virus.
Following the young boy’s death, the mysterious disease continued to smoulder undetected, causing several chains of deadly transmission.]
[1357
davidwh
There is no doubt the waterfront reforms of the 90′s has benefited Australia substantially]
My experience of the waterfront is that the two firms who control the wharves ruthlessly exploit importers and exporters.
I’ve got my Hobart City Council live count thread up now ready for action in about 12 hours. It will also include comments on other Tas councils and includes a link to my report on the Computer Count system.
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/hobart-city-council-count-includes-some.html
[ the two firms who control the wharves ruthlessly exploit importers and exporters. ]
No, no, no. Through astute business practice they leverage their position to maximize returns to their shareholders and support Australian international economic competitiveness. 🙂
If that involves extracting blood from a few small business people out there then so be it. Its all for the greater good dont you know?? How are these stevedoring firms supposed to be able to donate to the Liberal party if they can get the returns they want???
Nett_NEWS++™ by @Otiose94 http://bit.ly/1nAtjp1 #Asylum, #morriscum, Master Misdirect by David Rowe © http://bit.ly/1tcY72W
Morning all. Ian Verrender gives an excellent piece of analysis here that demonstrates Gough Whitlam was much better at economics than given credit for. In the 1973-74 global recession Australia did better than most, thanks in part to Gough’s spending. Meanwhile Treasury chief and chief critic John Stone has a history of criticising progressive change, even when economically successful. Whitlam’s real mistake was not sacking Stone.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-27/verrender-think-whitlam-ruined-our-economy-think-again/5842866
Otiose
Thank you.
Rowe kills Marles’ political judgement cred stone dead in one cartoon.
He also nails Grand Admiral Morrison of the High Seas Fleet nicely.
Brilliant.
It has taken a while but it looks like someone in the media has finally been able to get a bit of a look into the ASADA Show Cause Notice supporting evidence.
How comfortable does satisfaction have to be?
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/asada-case-against-essendon-players-rests-on-injection-regime-20141027-11cgku.html
Will justice finally be done to Oscar Pistorius in South Africa?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-28/south-african-prosecutors-to-appeal-against-pistorius-verdict/5845958
Meanwhile it is still one of the most violent countries on earth, as their football captain found out.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-27/south-africa-captain-killed-protecting-girlfriend/5845712
It isn’t going to get any less violent letting people off with a wrist slap for deliberately shooting to kill.
Have a good day all. I wonder what silly thing Abbott will say today. Joe seems to be in hiding.
How will the Gazelle influence the ‘comfortable’ in ‘comfortable satisfaction?’
Can the cheat drugs netherworld ever be a comfortably satisfying place?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/star-witness-in-essendon-doping-case-shane-charter-faces-drugrelated-charges/story-fni0fee2-1227104127790
Not wishing to break into a private bunfight on ebola, but if the outbreak started on December 23 last year, and isnow around the 10,200 number, that’s 309 days.
The simple growth equation for this shows a rate of 3.05% per day which matches fairly well at random points with the graphs from the WHO.
3.05% indicates that on the anniversary, December 23 2014, the number of infected will be around 54,300, which is also in line with what the WHO says… providing nothing intervenes to slow down the rate.
The nightmare scenario of course is that on the second anniversary, the number would be just under 3 billion.
Let us hope it doesn’t get to that. It’s probably impossible anyway, because 3 billion assumes, I guess, that there is someone left who is not already infected, anywhere to get infected. It would have killed off Africa by then and half of the world’s population.
So, somewhere in between December 2014 and December 2015 we would hope that “something is done”.
3.05% also indicates a doubling every 23 days. Nasty little virus, that.
I know this is simplistic, no need to tell me that. The figures above only apply when there is an inexhaustible source of fuel (i.e. healthy people) to get infected.
[Will we see an ALP Minister talking about Howard with tears in their eyes and a quivering voice in their condolence motion speeches?]
1. We probably won’t even see Liberal Ministers doing that.
2. The difference isn’t because ‘the left’ ‘hate’ more than ‘the right’ or are ‘less gracious’ but because of the nature of the person being eulogised.
3. With Thatcher, the hatred wasn’t from ‘the left’ because she was from ‘the right’ but (as far as I can tell) from ordinary people because of the impact she had on their lives.
Now, find a figure from the right who was as inspirational and nation changing as Gough (oh, I see the problem) and let’s speculate about their eulogies.
BB
Abbots responce to global issues is nothing if not consistent
No action except for greed & self interest
No action on global warming
No action on refugees
No action on Ebola
What planet has Rupes shifted to ? This from the man who was an uber backer of Thatcherism, Reaganism , Get Rid of Goughism, US Repugs and now days an Abbott booster.
[Equality at risk in West: Murdoch
RUPERT Murdoch has warned policies have caused a “massive shift” in societies to benefit the super-rich with a legacy of social polarisation. ]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/equality-at-risk-in-the-west-says-rupert-murdoch/story-fn59nm2j-1227104154805
[DARTMOUTH residents say they are suffering in a telecommunications blackhole that potentially puts lives at risk.
They have been putting up with no mobile phone coverage, public phones that don’t work and land lines that fail when it rains.]
The latter is a common problem. There’s well over 2 k of copper wire JUST for my house (as in, it doesn’t service anyone else’s on the way). Really heavy rain and we lose the connection, sometimes for days.
Not worth calling Telstra out, by the time they get around to it it’s dried out anyway and we get charged for wasting their time.
[Mr Scales said the internet was quite slow and went out altogether last week “just before a huge weekend for us here with a wedding on”.
“I imagine we miss out on quite a lot of bookings here at the motel and we just offer our motel and hotel phone as they come through, because the public phone’s not working,” he said.
Fellow disgruntled resident Matthew Hick said one of the main issues was the lack of broadband, which caused a whole host of problems.
One was students not being able to complete homework reliant on internet access.]
Of course, these problems are compounded by the fact that it’s pretty much assumed by everyone that decent internet’s available everywhere (one of the reasons I get testy when someone here tells me to watch a video link to find the answer to something).
[Mr Hick said he understood Telstra had acknowledged there was a problem because “the network in the ground is buggered”.
“They’ve had other people up here last Thursday and Friday looking at the assets and they’re not real happy with what they’re seeing,” he said.
“There’s asbestos pits, open pits and exposed copper loop wires, which just adds to the woes of the township.]
But I thought Malcolm said copper was terrific….
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2654912/cant-even-phone-for-help/?cs=11
Everything 1350
I discovered the same thing about the high cost of container shipping for small household items. There are many fees related to unloading onto the dock, customs processing and so on. If the items can be delivered by plane to Australia and by courier to your front door, you don’t get nasty cost surprises when you actually take possession of the goods. It’s more cost effective to use air cargo and door to door delivery if it is relatively small amounts of goods (a few hundred kilograms or less).
If it’s large and heavy items like furniture, then container shipping can be cost effective.
[ALBURY-Wodonga’s chance to cash in on a high speed rail link has risen with new estimates slashing the build cost.
A report released in Canberra yesterday has estimated the Brisbane to Melbourne line would cost $63 billion to build.
That is 45 per cent less than the $114 billion bill predicted in a previous federal government report.]
[…“Prices haven’t come down, instead this new $63 billion price tag is a reflection of international construction costs,” he said.
The study — The Potential Impacts of High Speed Passenger Rail to Eastern Australia — found that high speed rail along Australia’s East Coast could be built for $35 million a kilometre.
The government report estimated this at $63 million a kilometre
Mr Nye said a significant aspect of this study was how it looked into the impact of high speed rail on regional Australia — something the government’s study ignored.
“High speed rail dynamically changes the growth of regional Australia,” he said.
“We either let Melbourne grow to 8½ million or we put in high speed rail and Albury-Wodonga grows to two million.]
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2654933/commit-to-high-speed-rail-now/?cs=11
I can remember when either SARS or Bird Flu (not sure which one) was looming as a threat.
Abbott was Health minister.
He went into a confab with all the government Health gurus to work out a response if the disease really took off, and came out absolutely ashen faced. He had really been given a fright by whatever went on in that meeting.
Whatever the particular disease was, it petered out of course, and didn’t become the pandemic we’d feared it might become. But I’ll never forget the look on Abbott’s face.
What’s he’s saying about not want to put Australian medicos “in harm’s way” is sensible, up to a point.
But there *are* evacuation facilities available, and he *has* been asked to provide help. If you’re sick you don’t really care *where* you’re treated, as long as you’re treated properly.
Neither Labor nor Liberal governments have had any problem at all with our soldiers, who by definition have been “in harm’s way” (because they’re wounded by enemy fire), being treated in American hospitals in Germany. Australia would have been closer, but no they were taken to Germany, like all the rest of the wounded soldiers from that theater.
Apart from the jingoistic aspect (“Australia’s hospitals are better than anywhere else”), I can’t see any reason for any Australian medical personnel infected with ebola not to be taken to Europe for treatment.
What does seem to be certain is that if the number of infected people doubles every roughtly 3 weeks, then in three weeks’ time – say before the end of November – we’ll need *twice* as many medical facilities, and probably staff, to run them, as we have now. Putting it off is a foolish thing to do.
We have Australians ready to go and help. They’re professionals. They know how to handle infection control, and they’re ready to take the risk.
The only reason that comes to my tiny mind for Abbott not being prepared to let them go under the Australian governmental umbrella is his own personal fear of them bringing the disease back here and infecting *him*.
Yes, I know, far to simplistic a theory, but it’s all I can think of at the moment: Abbott is scared shitless.
I think when Turnbull was saying copper is terrific he was comparing it to the old steel lines that were used before the change to copper in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s
The waterfront before the dispute and re-organization is one area where if workers were exploited then the probably deserved it. As I said a great subject for a ethics debate.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
A rather gloomy outlook on Australia from Goldman-Sachs. But hey! It’ll be OK with Joe at the wheel.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/worst-is-yet-to-come-goldman-sachs-20141027-11chrc.html
Sydney’s delightful underbelly.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/contract-to-kill-the-story-of-an-alleged-200000-hit-20141027-11ck02.html
Adele Ferguson has had enough and tells us that financial planning is beyond a joke.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/financial-planning-has-gotten-beyond-a-joke-20141027-11chqu.html
Abbott calls for “mature” debate. Yes, you tell ’em Tone!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-calls-for-mature-debate-on-gst-20141027-11ch8h.html
And Mark Kenny calls him out on it.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/pardon-mr-abbott-your-hypocrisy-is-showing-20141027-11ckhv.html
Lenore Taylor also asks if Abbott is the right man for a mature debate.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/27/tony-abbott-right-we-need-bipartisan-solutions-but-is-he-genuine
Paul Bongiorno lines up Abbott’s double standards.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/10/27/tony-abbott-double-standards/
A great exposition on how Abbott cleaned out frank and fearless advisors and replaced them with sycophants and flatterers.
http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-court-of-prince-tonys-dangerous-groupthink,7036
Looks like the Seniors’ Supplement is safe.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/attempt-to-abolish-seniors-supplement-sparks-standoff-20141027-11cgi5.html
This time Barnaby DID have reason to be red-faced.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-has-hansard-changed-back-after-being-caught-out-over-correction-20141027-11cf02.html
Section 2 . . .
Terry Moran on the difficulties facing the states’ revenue needs.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/rebuilding-federation-needed-to-unshackle-states-from-commonwealth-reliance-20141027-11cg0u.html
The latest from Peter Wicks on the ongoing HSU saga.
http://wixxyleaks.com/whats-going-on-the-latest-on-the-ongoing-hsu-saga/
Greg Jericho on WA’s woes as a result of increased iron ore production at much lower prices and wonders who Hockey will blame for it when MYEFO comes out.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2014/oct/28/miners-iron-ore-prices-colin-barnett
Hugh White on Whitlam’s foreign policy leadership.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/gough-whitlams-daring-foreign-policy-an-exemplar-for-todays-leaders-20141027-11c8t3.html
A good preview of the Australian Skeptics convention coming up in Sydney. Several videos included.
http://www.independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/think-for-yourself-interview-australian-skeptics-convention-in-sydney,7038
The fickleness of friendships in the Middle East!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-commandos-may-join-with-iranian-quds-in-fight-against-islamic-state-20141027-11cl32.html
Is “disgraceful” an appropriate word to describe this deal?
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/political-gamble-victorian-government-power-sold-to-crown-casino-20141027-11c0tl.html
And about time too! Interesting to note the name of the NT Seafood Council – Rob Fish!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/food-labelling-inquiry-calls-for-clarity-on-australian-made-australian-grown-products-20141027-11cjy6.html
Rodney Hogg gives Michael Clarke a well deserved serve.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/2014/10/27/spare-us-arrogant-baloney-michael-clarke/
The scientific community issues a scathing criticism of the government’s plan to manage the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/scientific-academy-slams-governments-great-barrier-reef-plan-20141027-11cjwj.html
Section 3 . . .
Yesterday’s Cathy Wilcox contribution on RET policy.
Bruce Petty gets very dark at times.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/bruce-petty-20090907-fdvy.html
David Pope looks at Labor’s position on boat turn backs.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
Matthew Davidson looks at the privatisation of Medibank Private.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/illustrations-by-matthew-davidson-20090928-g8gc.html
On the beach with Ron Tandberg.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
David Rowe takes us on the good ship Morrison and its motley crew.
http://www.afr.com/p/national/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO
Speaking of worker exploitation, on Macca’s radio show on Sunday morning, someone from the NSW irrigation town of Hillston (on the Lachlan River) phoned in to have a whinge to Macca ahout a lack of workers to pick oranges.
One day recently, Immigration had descended upon Hillston and staged a raid. They arrested most of the 457 visa workers there and carted them off. 38 people disappeared out of the Hillston sweat shop overnight.
There was also a problem with backpackers, or lack of same to be precise.
As a result, Hillston’s economy was tanking, with fruit picking only about 25% of what it had been just a month before.
The way this caller described it, it was no paradise. 457 visa workers were paid $10-$15 per hour towork in the boiling sun. He didn’t think this was much of a problem because “They’re from Asia and they’re used to the heat, and $15 goes a long way when they go back to Asia.”
The problem was that “dole bludging Australians were too lazy to work,” so they had to “get foreigners in”. I sat up at this. Did he really say that anyone who didn’t want to work for him was a “dole bludging Australian”? And then he said it again! In all he repeated the phrase “dole bludging Australians” six times. This would be inopposition to “underpaid exploited Asians” I suppose, or maybe “sex crazy German backpackers” on the other hand.
With enticements like this on national radio it is not difficult to figure out why there aren’t traffic jams full of Germans, dole bludgers and other riff raff heading for the Tower Of Babel that Hillston ight well become… if only they got over being lazy, foreign and underpaid.
Macca, in his inimitable style, grunted occasionally, said “Yeah” lots, and generally sounded like he was doing something else – perhaps a crossword? – far more interesting than listening to this berk.
At the end he said, “There you go, lots of work in… where was it?… Hillston.”
I’ll be packing my bags any day soon. That’s if the backpackers don’t beat me to it. I hope they have working visas, or else Scoot’s Troops will be down on them like a ton of bricks.
Abbott wants a mature debate on A GREAT BIT TAX ON EVERYTHING…A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING…
BB
Thanks for your sensible comment on Ebola. Your figures are accurate and the usual way to calculate the rate of spread is the formula I = NR(power t). Using this data I calculate a DAILY spread rate which of 1.05 which give EXACTLY the same answer as yours ie 54000 infection by 9 December and the unbelievably high figure of 3 Billion by 9 Dec 2015.
Now there is a also mathematical methods of calculating when the exponential phase starts to fall (ie it does not reach 3 billion because everyone is dead or recovered. (This is However for all practical purposes infections (any infections operate exponentially in the first phase – ie the calclations are pretty right. T think the reason that epidemiologist talk about needing at least 70%
vaccination rates for diseases such as measles is that it is at about 70% that the simple exponential growth phase starts to fade and the infection rate levels out.
The equation of this is P(t)=KPo*ePower rt/(K+Po*ePower rt−1) – Sorry cannot do superscript. As you will see with populations in excess of 1 million it takes a long time for the limitations to show themselves.
Jon faine talking to Tim Costello re Murdoch’s latest musings
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/player/beta/#live/local_melbourne
David Rowe doesn’t seem to have caught up with the new mature, statesmanlike Abbott.
Boerwar
[Abbott wants a mature debate on A GREAT BIT TAX ON EVERYTHING…A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING… A GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING…]
Bingo!
[Melun (France) (AFP) – A 14-year-old dressed as a clown was arrested Monday near Paris for attempting to attack a woman as a strange phenomenon of fake, evil clowns terrorising passers-by spreads in France.
Another teenager in the southern city of Montpellier was sentenced to four months in prison for hitting a passer-by 30 times with an iron bar overnight Saturday. The teen was also kitted out as a clown.
Complaints have poured in recently over “armed clowns” wreaking havoc in various parts of the country — some carrying pistols, knives or baseball bats — and police have detained several people over the violent trend.]
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/25364417/teen-arrested-another-jailed-as-clown-terror-spreads-in-france/
In Australia however, it’s the clowns in govt which are wreaking terror and havoc!
PM not capable of mature debate: Palmer
Clive Palmer isn’t optimistic there will be a mature debate on federation.
…. “Certainly Tony Abbott isn’t capable of mature debate,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
“I don’t know any politicians that are capable of mature debate.
“When I got to parliament I looked down one side and said these blokes know nothing, I looked down the other side and thought these blokes know nothing.
“I looked at the public service and thought they know absolutely nothing.”
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/10/28/04/59/pm-to-be-quizzed-further-on-gst#U3s6048mDBYhT2V5.99
dtt
[and the unbelievably high figure of 3 Billion by 9 Dec 2015.]
Yesterday it was 22 billion.
You have a very special way with figures.
DTT, thanks for that. I was sure I was going to upset someone, and put in copious caveats.
My method was to use X = ((1+(R/100))^n, the old compound interest formula. I set the initial population as “1” and the final (X) population as 10,200 (roughly today’s figure). I figured out the number of days since December 23, 2013 (309 days) and made this equal n. I set R (the percentage increase per day) arbitrarily to “0” (i.e. a zero rate).
This is where I cheated a little (although the answer is correct, and validly derived). I use Excel’s fabulous Goal Seek function (in the TOOLS menu) and forced it to change R until X equalled 10,200. It came up with 3.03% per day (I incorrectly wrote 3.05% above, just a typo).
Once I had that value for R, I could set the number of days to be any value I liked. I set it to 365 to get the 1st anniversary value of X and to 730 to get the 2nd anniversary value of X.
Incidentally, when I was in 6th Form (now “Year 12”) I had been sick for 2 weeks with something or other, and missed the maths classes where e was derived. When I returned to school I couldn’t see the point of inventing an artificial-looking number that was its own derivative (or whatever).
I ploughed through the work, trying to catch up, but had to ask the excellent teacher (the Great Brother Killian) for some personal tutoring.
When he showed me that e could be used to predict populations in the same way that the Compound Interest formula could be used, I sat up and took notice. I know it sounds weird, but e inspired me. If an artificial number could do that, then maths was pretty interesting stuff. I ended up doing quite well in Maths at the HSC, very well actually. Little e started the ball rolling.
Sadly, I remembered my natural exponential mathematics only long enough to pass the exam, and have since (to my shame) performed all growth calculations using the more conventional formula. But in my books e stands supreme.
BB
years ago, my sister in law – a very fit, healthy young girl at the time – decided to try apple picking instead of the dole.
After a week of backbreaking work, she cleared less than the dole.
z,
No one bought her drivel yesterday so she has had to discount heavily.
BB
It is actually fairly difficult for Australians who want to get work in seasonal rural labour jobs to actually get jobs.
Not that there are many of them. The reasons are multifarious:
(1) the pay is crap
(2) the working conditions are crap
(3) the accommodation is crap
(4) the work is stop-start causing all sorts of difficulty with social security
(5) there is usually no public transport
(6) the work shifts from place to place
(7) communications are crap so no facebook, tweeting or posting on Bludger
(8) the work actually hurts… sore hands, sore fingers, sore backs are normal
(9) the work is mind-numbingly boring.
All this when most Australians would rather join the finance industry, make millions for a bit of spivery or for being famous by way of instant virtual celebglam stuff.
In any case, most such work is organised by labour hire contractors. These middlemen have the connections that organise gangs of cheap foreign labour on the one hand and supply these to the major growers on the other. Native Australians need not apply to join such work gangs.
Naturally the middlemen take a healthy cut.
In terms of your fruit and vegetables the people doing best are shareholders in Coles and Woolies and, of course, their customers. They screw things such that farmers find it difficult to stay in the game by paying a fair wage.
Globalisation in terms of dirt-cheap imports does most of the rest in terms of depressing unskilled rural labour wages.
Backpackers fill some of the casual spaces left by the large labour hire gangs. The rest is being filled by a new variant of the blackbirding of Islanders.
Immigration raids are a constant irritation to all concerned, with workers running into the bush to hide instead of getting on with harvesting crops and production being interrupted but never stopped for long.
The absurdity is that Australia’s net immigration is running at over 200,000 per annum. These pretty well all gravitate to the major cities, adding to massive infrastructure problems and to our housing shortage.
Given that they can bomb remote villages in Iraq and incarcerate thousands of wannabe Australians in remote pacific hellholes, it should not be beyond the wit of Morrison to marry the desire for foreign workers to work in the fruit and vegetable industries with the quid pro quo of an immigration ticket.
When I was a young migrant I picked spuds along with the reffos du jour who were mostly recent escapees from the time when Hungary got it badly wrong vis-a-vis the Soviet Union.
Some of them had impressive scars.
We were all glad to get the work.
Boer
in a world where the market rules, surely if an industry cannot afford to pay workers a rate which attracts them, the industry isn’t viable.
This Government just hates Australian workers.
http://www.afr.com/p/national/blow_builder_local_jobs_as_government_Sf6r98wHZPDJrrIDV340eK
Maurice Newman in the Australian this morning referring to the UN as a socialist “one world government”. But who else will be able to coordinate urgent global action to prevent global cooling?
Seriously though he has gone the full Bernardi.