The flood of polling in the week after the budget is inevitably followed in the week after that. Here’s all I have:
• The tracking poll of Anthony Albanese’s personal ratings maintained by US pollster Morning Consult records no significant change, with Albanese starting November on 57% approval and 30% disapproval, down one and up two from the start of October.
• As reported by Anna Macdonald at The Mandarin, Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers told the Joint Standing Committe on Electoral Matters the commission was struggling to attract staff at election time due to low pay and “bizarre behaviour” at polling places. Specifically, Rogers said the May federal election was marked by “people coming into the polling place and recording interactions with our staff, shouting at our staff, and some fairly bizarre behaviour that we haven’t seen previously”.
• Independent ACT Senator David Pocock has made a submission to the inquiry calling for the two territories to have six Senators serving six-year terms on the same staggered cycle that applies to the rest of the Senate, as distinct from the current situation where they have two Senators each whose terms are tied to the House.
is briefly and borer the same person wonder what happend to briefly and lvt brieflys use of the apostasy to discribe the greens was bvery aniying
“ All in all, Mastodon is neither a replacement for Twitter nor a decentralised replica of it – the presence of individual servers makes it fundamentally different to any social media platform.
As an open-source, decentralised network, Mastodon appeals to young, tech-savvy users, and it will not come as a surprise if many of them find Mastodon to be a welcome upgrade to Twitter.”
A good, succinct and easy to understand explanation of Mastodon for those who might be interested.
https://theconversation.com/what-is-mastodon-the-twitter-alternative-people-are-flocking-to-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-194059
This is a fun question time.
Integrity Rexy was just deflecting from the observed fact that Lambie, Pocock, sundry Teals, and the Greens are delaying wage justice, delaying real wage growth and the continuation of women serfs as second class wage slaves.
Burke just announced that gender equity will form a core objective of the new IR legislation. Just another example of Labor leading on justice for working Australians. Gallagher has announced a $5 million program whereby women can gain grants to prepare themselves for, inter alia, running an election campaign. Just another example of Labor leading on justice for women. This program is not subject to legislation or regulation so Pocock, the Teals, the Greens and the other odds and sods can’t actually delay it.
Twenty nine reasons why Labor is not Same Old, Same Old as lied about by the Greens for a decade:
1. Gender equity to be a core objective of the new IR legislation.
2. Katy Gallagher has announced $5m over five years to boost the number of women in public office.
3. The women in public office grant is designed to encourage – and prepare – more women to run for elections at all levels.
4. Vic Labor supports the Diamonds, filling the ethical and financial hole left by a certain commercial interest.
5. The Government today announced the appointment of Adjunct Professor Debora Picone AO as Chair of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Review Reference Committee. Making good on rescuing Australian women and children from hell hole camps.
6. National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032
7. Extension of paid parental leave in the 2022 Budget.
8. Moves afoot to rescue 20 Australian women and around 40 children from a Turkish internment camp.
9. Jayne Jagot appointed to Australia’s High Court, creating first majority-female bench.
10. Ms Falkingham will be the first permanent female Chief Executive of the NDIA.
11. Federal Labor has appointed three eminently well qualified women to the Climate Council. This offsets the undue representation of businessmen on the Council.
12. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Burney supports the development of a separate National Strategy to Address Violence Against Indigenous Women. The latter will be heavily involved in the design of the Strategy.
13. The Victorian government on Sunday announced it would spend $270 million to recruit and train thousands of new nurses and midwives under the scheme.
14. Labor has more female MPs than male MPs. (The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments were not within a bull’s roar of this achievement.)
15. Labor is fully committed to implementing all the Jenkins Report recommendations. (The Morrison Government implemented a view recommendations but basically sat on the vast majority of the Report’s recommendations.)
16. High levels of women in the ministry. (Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments had far, far fewer women in the ministry).
17. Labor gave a direction to the Fair Work Commission to specifically take into account the gender pay gap along with power to make gender specific determinations to close the gap. (The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments had one universal ambitions: to damp down any real wage growth and showed zero interest in closing the gender pay gap.)
18. Labor intervened directly in the minimum wage decision which disproportionately benefits the lowest paid workers: women. (Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison did not do this.)
19. In recent departmental secretary appointments: Labor appointed three out of the four women. (Morrison’s last five secretarial appointments in 2019 involved a net loss of three women.)
20. Labor is setting the tone by promising to make boards, such as the Reserve Bank Board more representative.
21. Three Labor women ministers to lead aspects of the skills and jobs summit that relate to women’s participation, women upskilling and closing the wages gap.
22. Labor has avoided school holidays for sitting days.
23. Labor has instituted humane sitting hours on sitting days.
24. Morrison Government sat on the Report on the National Stakeholder Consultation for a Ten Year Domestic Violence Plan. Labor has released the Report with expedition.
25. Labor introduces paid domestic violence leave legislation
26. Ten days domestic violence leave for casual workers.
27. Submission to the Fair Work Commission on pay in the Aged Care industry. Four out of five workers in that industry are women.
28. Moves to legislate on coercive control.Not one of those eleven were in place in the past nine years.
29. Removes the ban on military and public service staff from engaging in certain “woke” charity, cultural and diversity events, imposed by former minister Peter Dutton last year.
Aaron newton at 2:57 pm
If he got the boot it would be in the ‘family tradition’…………
.
Judging Vasta
Back in 1989, Angelo Vasta became the first judge to be removed from office by an Australian parliament. Might his son, judge Salvatore Vasta of the Federal Circuit Court, become the second?
https://insidestory.org.au/judging-vasta/
Mike Scott
@IrkthePurists
·
Nov 6
Mastodon is basically your mum saying ‘We don’t need to spend good money on expensive Twitter – I’ll knit you one’.
Aaron newton says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 3:06 pm
is briefly and borer the same person wonder what happend to briefly and lvt brieflys use of the apostasy to discribe the greens was bvery aniying
The Greens have been called many things by me in my time as a bludger. I could recount them, one by one: put forward their names as if they were a bill of troubles. But I will refuse. I will sigh a lot instead and think the better of it. The best of the many -/nyms were banned by William. Good thing too, I believe. They do not deserve so many nouns. That’s a waste of perfectly good words. Too much. Like ice-cream wrappers. They are for single use only.
Briefly is sadly lost without a Coalition government to stimulate him and to blame the Greens for. We are left with ennui.
Cronus,
The apparent contradiction is because one is commenting on stock and the other flows.
Financial position is a static measure of a stock of wealth. Share prices are forward looking measures that take into account expected future flows.
The former looks good atm, because (as you pointed out) a lot of the recent temporary fiscal stimulus was saved (as predicted by Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis).
But what happened to catspeW’s share price on their annual report?
All this mastodon chat needs a soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6WGNd8QR-U
Shellbell @ #158 Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 – 3:21 pm
I want a tight purple vinyl pants alternative to Twitter! A good punk Twitter!
Dandy Murray
Thanks, it can be quite vexing, particularly attempting to make future devisions with often apparently contradictory or abstract information.
The US inflation rate of 8.2 per cent is the highest in more than 20 years, as are interest rates that are still climbing. The unemployment rate of 3.5 per cent is, however, the lowest in more than 50 years.
I guess a bad economy is in the eye of the beholder.
Treasury: The domestic outlook
We have been fortunate to be less affected than others by these global shocks but nevertheless, we have been significantly affected.
In response to the sharp recovery from the pandemic and inflation, monetary policy is rapidly tightening here in Australia. Reflecting this tightening, economic growth is forecast to slow from 3¼ per cent in 2022–23, to 1½ per cent in 2023–24. Growth in 2023–24 is forecast to be 1 percentage point less than at PEFO.
Strong consumption growth of 6½ per cent in 2022–23 is expected to be temporary, driven primarily by the ongoing rebound in services spending and international travel as the impacts of pandemic activity restrictions continue to wane.
By early 2023, the services driven recovery is expected to ease, with consumption growth slowing to 1¼ per cent in 2023–24. And as more mortgages roll off fixed-rate terms, an increasing number of households will see the impact of increasing interest rates on their budgets.
Declining household wealth arising from ongoing expected falls in housing prices will further contribute to the slowing of consumption growth. Workers at the lower end of the income distribution are expected to be impacted most sharply by the rising cost of essentials, as the cost of food, housing and energy make up a larger share of their spending.
The implications for welfare recipients and retirees are more complex due to indexation and higher interest rates, something I’ll return to shortly. We expect the current very tight labour market conditions to gradually ease as economic activity slows.
Employment growth is forecast to slow to ¾ per cent in 2023–24 and the unemployment rate is expected to increase to 4½ per cent.
Inflation is expected to peak at 7¾ per cent by December 2022, before easing gradually to 3½ per cent by June 2024. While this peak remains the same as the profile prepared for the July Ministerial statement, high inflation is expected to persist for longer than previously expected, largely due to the pass-through of higher energy prices to household bills.
Electricity and gas prices are expected to directly contribute ¾ percentage points to inflation in 2022–23 and 1 percentage point in 2023–24. This assumes consumer electricity prices will increase by an average of 20 per cent nationally in this financial year and 30 per cent next year.
https://treasury.gov.au/speech/opening-statement-economics-legislation-committee-4
China taking ‘aggressive’ steps to gut Canada’s democracy, warns Trudeau
The prime minister’s comments come after a news report that Beijing had funded a ‘clandestine network’ of candidates in 2019
Justin Trudeau has warned that China is “play[ing] aggressive games” to undermine democratic institutions amid reports Beijing actively interfered in Canada’s federal elections.
His comments on Monday came after a news report that Beijing had funded a “clandestine network” of candidates in Canada’s 2019 election and just days after the federal police force said it was actively investigating a secret network of illegal Chinese “police stations” in Toronto.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/07/china-weaken-canada-democracy-justin-trudeau
Dandy Murray @ #161 Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 – 2:47 pm
The most surprising thing is that someone linked to the band version before I did.
Outcry as Republican Nikki Haley says Raphael Warnock should be ‘deported’
The former US ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told Republicans at a rally for Herschel Walker the Democrat in the Georgia US Senate race, the Rev Raphael Warnock, should be “deported”.
“I am the daughter of Indian immigrants,” Haley said in Hiram, Georgia, on Sunday. “They came here legally, they put in the time, they put in the price, they are offended by what’s happening on [the southern US] border.
“Legal immigrants are more patriotic than the leftists these days. They knew they worked to come into America, and they love America. They want the laws followed in America, so the only person we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/07/republican-nikki-haley-raphael-warnock-deported
What a nice non threatening euphemism for more people will lose their jobs and have to survive on the dole’s pittance.
.
”
Cronussays:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 1:26 pm
“ Mr Guy’s reputation as a political conservative appears out of step in a state where Mr Andrews’ social progressivism appeals. As the loss of blue-ribbon seats to teal independents at the May federal election showed, Victoria is no longer the Liberal Party’s jewel in the crown. Hence, while the state Liberal Party might win back two or three of the seats lost to Labor in the 2018 “Dan-slide” election, it is also being challenged by Climate 200-funded teal candidates in two or three leafy Melbourne electorates.”
Begrudgingly even the AFR acknowledges the obvious in the Victorian election.
Paywalled https://www.afr.com/politics/love-him-or-loathe-him-dan-remains-dominant-in-victoria-20221106-p5bvy4
”
Cronus
The reason Dan Andrews drives the likes of Peta Credlin, Peter Costello, Michael Kroger and the Victorian Liberal establishment crazy and people like Rex Douglas to believe in his “Socialist utopia” is because “Victoria is no longer the Liberal Party’s jewel in the crown” and “Massachusetts of Australia as per John Howard “.
Victorian Liberal establishment used to feel so special about themselves because they produced all the Liberal PMs till John Howard became PM for the misfortune of Australia. People like Peter Costello used to declare openly without any hesitation that Australia is built “Judeo-Christian ethos” although Australia is a secular country. What I mean is that Victorian Liberal establishment used to set the intellectual and social agenda of this country and everyone else followed it as if it is the gospel.
Now all that is torn to shreds because of Dan Andrews progressivism (or atleast that is what Victorian Liberal establishment believe, I think). That is the reason their hate towards him is so visceral.
I don’t think Dan Andrews set out to do that when he became Premier. It happened over a course of time because he was firm, forthright and able to communicate progressivism in words which are understandable to general public. That led the Liberal party to take more and more risks and try to capture the RWNJ votes like never before, which resulted in sane people and people in centre to move away from Liberal party.
Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, data analyst on Early Voting from 15.00 minute mark:
https://youtu.be/1FIya0JPVoc
poroti @ #169 Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 – 3:09 pm
You can’t have have’s without a bunch of have-not’s at the bottom trying to scrape by on crumbs. How else do you expect crumbs to retain their value?
Christ, the midterms tomorrow are looking pretty grim now, aren’t they? In the aftermath of the Roe v Wade reversal, it really seemed like the Democrats might be able buck the historical trends and keep control of both houses, but I can’t say I’m feeling too optimistic anymore. Here’s hoping they can at least cling on to the Senate.
There are a few submarine conferences on at the moment. The US Navy internal one was on a few days ago. The Submarien Institute of Australia conference is on in Canberra for three days starting today.
At the US conference the US Navy sub maintenance was discussed in the context of the USN’s ability to back up AUKUS. They admitted they would be struggling to do it.
https://breakingdefense.com/2022/11/as-aukus-looms-us-navy-sub-leaders-sound-alarms-at-home/
In fact maintenance of US SSNs at Australian bases is probably what AUKUS was really all about for the USN. They have a big backlog – 2 to 3 years per sub to do maintenance.
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57083
We assume the USA would be annoyed if we switched from US to French SSNs. They might not be.
Jimmy Kimmel destroys Trump after claiming his show is ‘dead’: ‘What’s dead is the look in your wife’s eyes’
Jimmy Kimmel shot back at Donald Trump on Monday night after he heard that the former president attacked him at a rally over the weekend.
According to the 2020 election loser, Kimmel and the other late-night comedians are “dead” because they don’t have Trump to make fun of anymore.
That’s right, our show is dead,” Kimmel said with a smirk. “Our show is so dead he’s going to bury it on the golf course next to one of his ex-wives.” It is a reference to the bizarre decision of Trump to bury his ex-wife at one of his resorts despite being married to someone else.
“You know what’s dead? I’ll tell you what’s dead. All those endangered animals your chinless son shot. That’s what’s dead. You know what’s dead? The look in your wife’s eyes when you beg her for sex on your birthday,” Kimmel said.
“And I will say,” he continued. “In January our show will have been on for 20 years, you got kicked out after four, okay?”
Talking about have nots…
…on my grandfathers peasant farm the grain would be harvested using scythes and then horse power.\
Poor families were allowed into the field to glean after the harvest.
‘Glean’ meant to pick up grains for food.
A grain at a time.
Will Mastodon become the elephant in the chat room?
Bellwether
That is a hairy scenario.
phoenixRED @ #176 Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 – 4:23 pm
https://youtu.be/1u7P9ZZ4hpA
https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/11/08/miscellany-leadership-approval-and-jscem-open-thread/comment-page-3/#comment-4006125
Even JWH used to talk of having the numbers, of course trying to get WorkSlaveChoice through …
https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/11/08/miscellany-leadership-approval-and-jscem-open-thread/comment-page-4/#comment-4006215
Hmmm, and no better than RIFs, offering outplacement opportunities, work force rebalancing … generally because of an undiversified/ banana republic economy despite the years to 2013, to 1996 to 1975 …, offshoring, outsourcing, temporary visas …
I saw Twitter making redundant/ laying off/ firing half the workforce.
When PJK was around one of the impact[s] of his recession we had to have was one hotel chain calling staff into one of two rooms, all those in one room we’re told to go …
The former sole director of The Courtenay House companies has admitted to conducting a $180 million Ponzi scheme that extracted money from 585 investors over the course of more than six years before the businesses entered liquidation in May 2017.
Tony Iervasi, of Tweed Heads, has pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney to five criminal charges relating to the scheme while he was director of Courtenay House Pty Ltd and Courtenay House Capital Trading Group Pty Ltd. Both companies, in liquidation, are based out of Bondi Junction.
He pleaded guilty to four offences of engaging in dishonest conduct between 13 December 2010 and 21 April 2017, telling investors their funds would be traded in Forex and Futures markets when only around three per cent were traded. Instead, monthly amounts paid to investors were derived from capital deposited from new investors.
Iervasi ran several ‘investment specials’ to encourage trading. For example, in December 2016 he invited clients to invest in a ‘US Election Special Trade’ to take place in early 2017 to coincide with the inauguration of President Donald Trump, as a way to invest in what he claimed were ‘fast-money markets’.
He offered a 15 per cent return with a 20 per cent risk, and via weekly emails his clients were told they had made profits from the special trade. However, those funds were instead used to sustain the Ponzi scheme.
https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/former-courtenay-house-director-pleads-guilty-to–180m-ponzi-scheme.html
@socrates:
“We assume the USA would be annoyed if we switched from US to French SSNs. They might not be.”
____
This is a point that I have been making all along.
It is worth noting that the Americans were ‘all over’ the French bid during the CEP process because of the ability of a SSK of that size, with American combat and weapons systems, with the projected range to effectively complement the USN operations in the South Pacific.
I reckon from the American perspective, AUKUS is pure geopolitics: it binds Australia to America ‘free of charge’ (ie. without a substantial treaty like NATO underpinning it). I don’t think it is fundamentally about US naval bases in Australia – as useful to the Americans as that may also be. It certainly isn’t about the (self) defence of Australia.
I also think that it is likely that between them, ScoMo and BoJo convinced Biden that the Americans could effectively subcontract the project to Britain, and hence there was no need to worry about whether the AUKUS submarine project may adversely impact of the USN’s own demands. In fact, it may still be the case that – with the usual blind optimism that Fort Fumble always seems to project when signing onto massive defence projects – that still will be the outcome: some wishful thinking in next March’s report at the end of the 18 month feasibility study is likely to recommend an “evolved Astute class” sub (ie. with a new reactor, American combat and weapons systems) and a totally unrealistic timeframe and budget. This will be an exercise in magical thinking worthy of Harry Potter.
However, if the Australian Government are smart enough to piece the industrial strength bullshit being pumped out of Defence, and astute enough (see what I did there) to recruit Biden directly to an understanding about the realities, then it is possible that there could be a pivot back to the French. With the full backing and public approval of the American Administration.
Unfortunately I am not holding my breath. I think that bad thinking is so embedded in defence and the new government is already captured by that establishment. Not that I directly blame them, but I think Cronus is right: it will take 2-3 terms to completely clean house of all the bad apples there.
My take on this is that we will be stuck with the Brits, but this will all unravel within 2-3 years when it becomes obvious that once again, we have been solid a complete pup. I very much hope I am wrong about this though.
Post by Adrian Beaumont on the mid-terms:
https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/11/08/us-midterm-elections-live/
Bloody idiot. All the good work being done through the $5 million program to help women prepare for elective positions and through having gender equity as an objective of the Fair Act is buried under a throwaway line. Puerile stuff.
OTOH, expecting balance from the Guardian is about the same as expecting balance from the Hun. They just don’t do balance.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2022/nov/08/like-a-naughty-little-girl-labor-senator-snaps-at-bridget-mckenzie-during-hearing-video
‘Aaron newton says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 3:06 pm
is briefly and borer the same person wonder what happend to briefly and lvt brieflys use of the apostasy to discribe the greens was bvery aniying…’
———————————–
This is An deflecting from being called out on his totally unbalanced SDA fetish. Nine years of the Coalition using legislation, regulation and policing to gut union strength and real wages growth? Silence from An.
SDA? Obsessive posting by An.
As a glass half full person, I am confident that the Democrats will hold on in the US.
Except for a greater penetration of religious indocrination, I don’t think most Americans are all that different to most Australians. We rejected the right wing loons in May and I reckon they will do the same in November.
Boerwar says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 3:13 pm
Integrity Rexy was just deflecting from the observed fact that Lambie, Pocock, sundry Teals, and the Greens are delaying wage justice, delaying real wage growth and the continuation of women serfs as second class wage slaves.
_____________________________________________________________
I concur with your comments regarding Lambie and Pocock. I have a high regard for these senators, as on most issues they apply a progressive and common sense approach.
I think the problem with such people when it comes to organised labour, is that they have had little, if any, personal experience or knowledge of industrial disputes. It’s easy to get alarmed by talk of “union thugs” and “disruptive strikes”, when you think that wage rises and improvements in working conditions just happen, or when you are not in a powerless situation as an employee.
I’m hoping they modify their position. The union movement, especially with people such as Sally McManus, should be talking to Pocock and Lambie now.
Just one point of contention with you Boerwar. I understand the Greens are 100% with the government’s industrial legislation. I don’t think you can hang any delays on them.
I am very much a believer in Labor picking its battles, often putting me at odds with our Greens supporting posters. But I am very strongly of the view that these industrial relations changes are a battle Labor needs to fight and fight ruthlessly. That does not necessarily mean giving absolutely nothing, but the key parts of these changes, including multi employer bargaining, must be fought for. If that means calling out members of the cross bench, as well as the Coalition, so be it. If it means linging this bill up as a potential double dissolusion trigger, so be it. For too long, our industrial relations system has been designed to restrain the bargaining power of workers. Finally a genuine effort is being made to correct this, and it cannot be retreated from.
Robodebt logic:
If we send you a debt letter and you don’t respond within 21 days, then you obviously accept the debt is correct and will repay it proptly.
Sir Henry Prakes
You are correct. On this occasion, the Greens are not standing in the way. I even heard Adam Bandt in the media last night saying that there was no call for delay on this legislation.
Morgan federal 53.5-46.5 to ALP (-2) but primary votes not released.
Barney
And there’s no phone number on the Robodebt letter so if you are not computer literate or otherwise unwilling or unable to engage online you in trouble.
And in the pilot program 58 percent of people did not respond.
No wonder there was so much enthusiasm for this program. The designers thought they’d be rolling in money.
‘Holdenhillbilly says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:37 pm
Morgan federal 53.5-46.5 to ALP (-2) but primary votes not released.’
——————————–
The Budget Hit?
‘Matt31 says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:27 pm
I am very much a believer in Labor picking its battles, often putting me at odds with our Greens supporting posters. But I am very strongly of the view that these industrial relations changes are a battle Labor needs to fight and fight ruthlessly. That does not necessarily mean giving absolutely nothing, but the key parts of these changes, including multi employer bargaining, must be fought for. If that means calling out members of the cross bench, as well as the Coalition, so be it. If it means linging this bill up as a potential double dissolusion trigger, so be it. For too long, our industrial relations system has been designed to restrain the bargaining power of workers. Finally a genuine effort is being made to correct this, and it cannot be retreated from.’
========================================
+1
Core business. IR reform or bust. Let the renowned Xbenchers frot their egos. Nine years of bastards eroding real wages is trench warfare stuff.
‘Sir Henry Parkes says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:27 pm
Boerwar says:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 3:13 pm
Integrity Rexy was just deflecting from the observed fact that Lambie, Pocock, sundry Teals, and the Greens are delaying wage justice, delaying real wage growth and the continuation of women serfs as second class wage slaves.
_____________________________________________________________
I concur with your comments regarding Lambie and Pocock. I have a high regard for these senators, as on most issues they apply a progressive and common sense approach.
I think the problem with such people when it comes to organised labour, is that they have had little, if any, personal experience or knowledge of industrial disputes. It’s easy to get alarmed by talk of “union thugs” and “disruptive strikes”, when you think that wage rises and improvements in working conditions just happen, or when you are not in a powerless situation as an employee.
I’m hoping they modify their position. The union movement, especially with people such as Sally McManus, should be talking to Pocock and Lambie now.
Just one point of contention with you Boerwar. I understand the Greens are 100% with the government’s industrial legislation. I don’t think you can hang any delays on them.’
———————————–
Sir HP
Good post, IMO. What might broadly be called the knowledge economy cohort have zero practical idea of how real wages grow for the workers who are up against the Big End of Town.
If the Greens have already resiled from their usual ridiculous ambit claims, good on them. (They may have done so, Albanese paid Bandt a compliment on Greens’ participation in the IR legislation process. Talk about spew.) The trouble with an extended Xbench is that any one or two can badly distort and delay outcomes.
Robodebt today:
Department was under pressure to make savings of $500 million/year. (The Government’s got to pay for those rorts somehow!)
Department also under significant pressure to develop the proposal so it could be incorporated into the 2015 Budget.
The first witness, national compliance manager, Scott Britton, was very aware of the failings of the proposed system.
The second, Jason Ryman, head of the team to develop the policy, came across as quite limited in his understanding of these potential failings. (He could be a Liberal Party member as he seems to have risen well above his abilities.)
Rossmcg @ #193 Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 – 2:39 pm
That’s not surprising, as another aim of Robodebt was to remove the Department’s human involvement in the process as much as possible.
The Guardian’s report from this morning at the Royal Commission:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/08/robodebt-royal-commission-rrc-inquiry-hears-officials-were-under-pressure-to-come-up-with-budget-savings
_________________________________
Jason Ryman, this afternoon’s witness (and the guy whose thought bubble gave rise to Robodebt) looked completely at sea at times. His greatest hits was to have real trouble processing the idea that if over 50% don’t reply to the initial letter, you can’t just speculate that’s because they agreed they owed a debt.
People like him are useful in an organisation, but need to be managed by someone with common sense. So far, it looks like the line upwards to the Minister were pleased to hear the dollar figures his program could generate and were not interested in testing the assumptions that lay behind it. Certainly, nobody said “wait, let’s test these assumptions”.
Catherine Holmes has been excellent in her questions. She has gotten to the heart of many issues in a most courteous and non-threatening way.
TPOF
One outcome will be some horrible insights into the sad decay of the once-proud APS under nine years of Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.