Three things:
• The Victorian parliament has passed contentious legislation to change the process by which boundaries are drawn for local government elections, the effect of which will be an end to proportional representation in many councils and a return to single-member wards. This was passed through the upper house with the support of both major parties, and fairly obviously targets the Greens, whose local government footprint expanded considerably in 2016. The legislation is covered in greater detail by Ben Raue at The Tally Room. Relatedly, The Age reports Labor plans to endorse candidates across metropolitan councils at the elections in October, after doing so in only three councils in 2016. The Liberals in Victoria have never endorsed candidates.
• The closure of nominations for Queensland’s March 28 by-election for Bundamba on Tuesday revealed a field of four candidates representing the Labor, the LNP, the Greens in One Nation, just as there will be in Currumbin on the same day. You can read all about it in my election guides for the two seats, which are linked to on the sidebar.
• For those who have forgotten what a Labor election win looks like, Malcolm Farnsworth has posted four hours of ABC election night coverage from 1983 in two parts, here and here. The broadcast predates results at polling booth level and indicative two-party preference counts, which would have to wait until the 1990s, and without which it was difficult for analysts to read the breeze from partial counts in any but the most homogenous seats.
Player One @ #1610 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 11:27 am
Nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. 🙂
I don’t think there’s a single program that’s contributed more to the general publics misunderstanding of the complexities of the planning system and construction in general than the Block. Oh, and watered down the quality.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Scott Cam.
The virus is obviously quite readily transmitted. In the absence of measures to identify/contain/isolate infected persons, or, thought of more broadly, to improve anti-viral hygiene, the case numbers will grow exponentially. As the density/distribution of the virus population also grows it will likely become better adapted to surviving in the human population, which would mean higher/faster rates of spread.
The human population has no immunity to the virus, which means that in principle every human is potentially a locus/vector for viral spread. We are fertile ground for a virus and it’s now successfully colonising the human population.
This apparently won’t have notable health consequences for about 80% of the population. But it will have significant impacts on the rest of the population should they become infected. So from a human point of view this episode is about protecting the most vulnerable members of the herd. It really is about the stronger taking measures to safeguard the less strong. In these circumstances our usual human reflex of putting ourselves first will fail. That will make things worse. We have to do that which we usually find most difficult – to collaborate socially – to put the common interest ahead of personal convenience.
meher baba @ #1598 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:27 pm
You did see the bit where he was on his way to an “experts meeting” at the WHO?
I think he probably knows a little more than either you or I do.
Whilst Italy has forced all sporting events to be played behind closed doors, we’ve just let in to Melbourne around 250 F1 people from the Lombardy hotspot.
Doesn’t seem to be any sort of clear processes going on.
Ballantyne: “Are all the Covid-19 cases reported so far in Australia located in the state capitals (with perhaps a few on the Gold Coast)? I haven’t seen any reports yet of any cases in regional areas.”
There’s one in Launceston (someone who recently returned from Iran). Down in Hobart, where I live, we see Launceston as being about as “regional” as they come. (The people who live in that godforsaken town see things quite differently.)
Catmomma
Do you have a document showing the breakdown of funding for the Caulfield Grammar Aquatic Centre. I couldn’t find one publicly available. Perhaps you have better search skills than I.
Where the Pink Batts scheme went wrong was it was being administrated by the wrong department. The Environment department (I think it was Environment and Water Resources at the time but they change names so often it get confusing) was not set up to run a scheme involving millions of claims. The most payments of an scheme run by them before was in the low thousands. So they had no fraud prevention system in place, that was where a lot of issues were (nobody was checking if the jobs were actually being done).
“Player Onesays:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 11:57 am
I agree that Labor doesn’t seem to want to win as much as their opponents do, and needs to learn to go harder, but I disagree that winning entitles you to rig the system against your opponents **”
In the Victorian case, the ALP seemed to have done a pretty good job in winning.
My point wasn’t that it makes their actions right; my point was winning gives them the ability to carry out their actions.
It’s beats being pure in opposition.
Vogon Poet: “Whilst Italy has forced all sporting events to be played behind closed doors, we’ve just let in to Melbourne around 250 F1 people from the Lombardy hotspot.”
Indeed. Why is that ok, as opposed to people from South Korea (which seems to be rapidly getting their outbreak under control)?
Perhaps there’s a good explanation, but we haven’t heard it.
meher baba @ #1610 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:39 pm
Of cour$e there’$ a perfectly $imple and $ound rea$on behind this deci$ion!
Bucephalus @ #1607 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:36 pm
I’ll have a look but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Commercial In Confidence.
Of course, because the virus can only survive if it spreads from one person to another – the virus can not survive for long in any single individual – preventing spread is the easiest way to eradicate the virus. If the spread can be stopped, the virus will die out. In this sense, it’s helpful to think if the virus as a single organism. If the colonising process can be disrupted the organism can cease to exist in the human population.
From this point of view, every effort should be put into testing for and locating the virus and then into isolating it. So far we could say there’s been almost no effort put into testing. This really means the virus will successfully colonise us and become endemic.
I have a little project going using photos documenting a small patch of post bushfire bush life.
I was up in the Brindabella Range at around 7.30 this am. It was so still and serene. Millions of dew drops speckled the new-grown grass tips. Epicormic shoots appear to be struggling.
Dominant forest colours are still black, grey and brown, with small dabs of colour from the epicormic shoots. The ground layer is mostly green, gray and black.
There were very, very few birds about – some reptiles, a couple of Red-necked Wallabies, and half a dozen Eastern Greys. There is some evidence of feral pig damage. The main calls were distant Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Grey Currawong and Eastern Shrike-thrush.
In this patch the fire was followed by a large dump of rain. I tried for an estimate of the quantity of soil eroded. I took 1 cubic metre shifted by 1 metre as my standard of measure. In the hectare that I traversed and surveyed this morning. I would be reasonably confident that well more than a 100 tonnes of soil has been eroded since the fires. It was a relatively steep patch.
That said, I am confident that one of the consequences of the fires is that Australia is on average shorter than it was before the fires.
S.Cam defends SCam …
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-10/scott-cam-defends-345000-taxpayer-funded-pay-packet/12041754
Thinking further on the AMA fluff piece, it’s a private clinic, why is the government responsible for supplying the N50 mask, and why is the government responsible for setting down their procedures if they have a visit from someone with communicable disease. It’s not like the corona virus is the first to show up.
The AMA is a great union but doctors taking no responsibility , the government having to supply the resources to private clinics, tell them how to manage their business, what to do? Come on guys you get six years of training for a reason.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/this-is-a-mess-put-on-your-mask-diary-from-the-frontline-of-the-coronavirus-health-crisis
meher baba @ #1610 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:39 pm
This was canvassed yesterday. The upshot is that the people coming for the F1 would have likely booked and paid for their flights and accommodation already and many would be unwilling to cancel it all, with no refund possible, at this late stage. So they will come anyway and if they don’t go to the GP then they will circulate among the general population and Melburnians will get infected anyway. So, you may as well let them come.
Nice work if you can get it. From Grauniad lonk earlier.<
Macroeconomics geeks:
Is toilet paper hoarding an example of Gresham’s Law? What does this say about AUD expectations?
Just back from Woy Woy. Life appears to be going on as usual, except for the absence of TP, Paper Towels and pasta. No one was wearing a mask. Hand sanitiser was around in a few places. I must admit, we are not very ‘ethnically diverse’ up here, just Bogans and Beachies. So maybe that has something to do with it.
meher baba:
That’s what Messrs Hawke and Peacock did in relation to the 1980s AIDS crisis.
Fortunately today we are blessed with “strong” leaders like Mr Morrison instead of those wusses!
Catmomma,
So you have no evidence that government funding went into the Aquatic Centre?
C@tmomma says:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 12:43 pm
Bucephalus @ #1607 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:36 pm
Catmomma
Do you have a document showing the breakdown of funding for the Caulfield Grammar Aquatic Centre. I couldn’t find one publicly available. Perhaps you have better search skills than I.
I’ll have a look but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Commercial In Confidence.
______________
Incitatus’s question is an irrelevant diversion.
First, if the school receives any public funding at all, then that funding, even if applied to essential teaching purposes, frees up the fees paid by parents to be used for other purposes, including the running of the pool. These funds themselves would probably would not have been used to build the pool because…..
Secondly, the pool almost certainly would have been built with the proceeds of donations to a tax deductible school building fund. That means that people (typically parents) who donate to the fund will be able to claim the donation as a tax deduction. As a result, the ATO (i.e., us) will have effectively kicked in up to 47% of the total donation by way of unlevied tax and medicare. To illustrate, if a parent makes a $10k donation, they get a $10k tax deduction. if the parent is on the highest marginal rate then in real terms they have only donated $5.3k because the other $4.7k would be tax they otherwise would have to pay.
frednk @ #1616 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 9:48 am
Aren’t all GP clinics private ones?
Incitatus says:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 1:00 pm
Catmomma,
So you have no evidence that government funding went into the Aquatic Centre?
_____________________________________
See what I mean C@t? I bet Incitatus won’t argue with me because it knows he can’t argue with my point – which goes to the fact that a school that can afford to build a facility like that when so many Australian kids can’t get near a swimming pool without paying for entry (and even then can’t) should not get a public penny in either direct funding or in generous tax deductions.
C@tmomma @ #1617 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 9:49 am
I think you will find these are F1 team members.
Bucephalus @ #1622 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 1:00 pm
Don’t jump to that conclusion, Buce. It’s convenient for you to say it but disingenuous to make that statement.
Facebook imposes new transparency rules on political ads in Australia
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/facebook-imposes-new-transparency-rules-on-political-ads-in-australia-20200309-p54861.html
C@tmomma
Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 12:19 pm
Comment #1589
Pure genius. ✔Marketing at its best. ✔
Dandy Murray,
I just read up on Gresham’s law, and I’m struggling to understand how hoarding toilet paper is an example, or what implications it has for the AUD.
C@tmomma @ #1627 Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 – 10:10 am
If they received money from the Government then that contributed to the pool.
Without Government money the funds for the pool would have to be used for an alternate purpose.
Water activists demand an end to corporate water theft
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/water-activists-demand-end-corporate-water-theft
Cam needs the $345,000 to provide for his family (cue the violins in the background):
“”We work for a living, that’s the Australian way, and we get paid for what we do,” he said.
“I suppose my brand of 21 years as a national presenter on television is bringing some awareness to it.
“I need to provide for my family. I get paid for what I do.”
Here it is:
Would be interesting to find out whether they claimed R&D Tax Concession on the “innovative advances in aquatic sports technology” as well as income tax deductions on the inputs
Pell better find a place to disappear to if he walks free on a technicality. People gonna go nuts !
Public of ownership of water has been replaced by private monopolisation. The purposes of competition policy have been defeated by cronyism.
Citizen
Cam needs the $345,000 to provide for his family (cue the violins in the background):
“”We work for a living, that’s the Australian way, and we get paid for what we do,” he said.
“I suppose my brand of 21 years as a national presenter on television is bringing some awareness to it.
“I need to provide for my family. I get paid for what I do.”
______________________________________
It’s not about Cam. It’s about the government pissing our money away on sinecures for mates. The focus needs to be on government waste, not on the self-serving statement of some rich guy.
‘Pegasus says:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 1:18 pm
Water activists demand…’
If they get what they demand, and they won’t because they are doing the usual far left extremist look-at-moi grandstanding, thousands of farmers, tens of thousands of rural workers, and dozens of towns would be shut down. No ifs. No buts. Export income would fall between $5 and $10 billion.
Oh, and the price of food would skyrocket because what keeps food cheap, reliable, plentiful, and of high quality in Australia is irrigation – not Left extremists who would not have a clue what they are braying about.
On the other hand, this bit stinks:
Pressed further about whether his salary was the government’s initial offer, Cam said: “My management and the government discussed the fee, that’s none of your business … How that came about is between my management, myself and the government.”
He later backtracked, conceding taxpayers had an interest in the figure but not in how the role came to be.
Catmomma
“Just back from Woy Woy. Life appears to be going on as usual, except for the absence of TP…”
Which underscores the requirement to only have a Wee Wee in Woy Woy.
TPOF
Clearly one of the more egregious bits of Coalition hack ‘luck’.
He attended just a single public event between October and March.
Realizing that Labor were onto him, the Government has now organized a familiarization tour of the VET industry.
TPOF
Why are you opposed to parents spending their money how they wish and if that is on the education of their own children how is that bad? Are you opposed to private tutoring after school?
Why are you opposed to not-for-profit organisations being able to receive tax-deductible donations? Do you think tax deductibility of donations to Unions, the ALP and Greens should be cancelled?
Since when has it been a human right to have access to a pool for free? Are you ignoring the school fees that get paid to allow students to access the pool? Note that they are rarely used for unstructured/leisure swimming time.
Scott Cam = Fake Tradie Mk II.
Boerwar – do you expect Mr Cam to attend TAFES even when they are closed?
One of the challenges for communities in remote desert locations where there is no air con and where there is no swimming pool, is keeping kids from swimming in the town water tanks and/or the town sewage ponds.
Thank goodness that the Buces of the world are on hand to explain that it is the parents’ fault if they don’t build indoor 50 m state of the art swimming pools in every Indigenous community.
‘Bucephalus says:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 1:32 pm
Boerwar – do you expect Mr Cam to attend TAFES even when they are closed?’
Surely you are not buying that whacker’s crap?
He started in October. It is March. That is nearly half the year. TAFES are NOT closed for five months a year.
If you are going to run bullshit lines for a bullshit operation, I suggest you contact the Salesman. He will give you your lines.
The really corrupt evil at the heart of this is that the Coalition hates VET. This crock was cobbled together to make it LOOK LIKE they love VET. Same old, same old. It is why they gave Abbott the job of Envoy for Indigenous People! They HATE Indigenous people. They cut hundreds of millions out of Indigenous programs. But they wanted to SHOW they cared. So the Envoy pap.
Morrison is the most corrupt prime minister of the most corrupt government since Federation. If you use that as your starting point in ANY and ALL Fed Government moves, all becomes clear.
The Australian Society of Anaesthetists has cancelled all (educational) meetings/events for the next month – a total of five events, one of which was a 2 day-er.
Incitatus has come back to misrepresent what I said. Typical.
Perhaps I should ask him in the same vein why he wants poor children to not learn how to swim? Perhaps I can also ask him why he hates the disadvantaged so much. And why he thinks they should all pay their own way and not get an education.
I find the Scott Cam pile on frankly odd. Labor used him to communicate their vocational training message. He’s signed a contract to do the same for the current outfit. How is it his fault if the Government of the day’s message is crap or they decide to under utilise his services? How is he to blame if his asking price is $X and the contracting party agrees to pay him $X?
I really can’t stand the bloke, but no one is under any illusion that he is a media presenter and in the marketplace to provide those services. Unlike the Fake Tradie.
BW
Surely you are not buying that whacker’s crap?
________________________________
No, he is not buying it. Incitatus knows it’s a load of self-serving bullshit but it’s still useful as a mechanism to avoid dealing with the gross waste of public money that his government has indulged in.