Oz Politics

[GaryK]

Originally Posted by purri

Idea!!
If India is a signatory to the appropriate UN charter then ship 'em back to Tamil Nadu where they came from originally (well 100 years ago and less).

Otherwise the status quo remains and economic refugees aren't!

Carefull what you wish for purri.
Same can be said of 95% of Australians.

[WX]

Apparently it was 41c in town today...I know I felt it when I did my walk today.
Had to drive up to Coolangatta airport tonight to pick up a friend after her holiday in Tassie. The Moon was big and orange, just a couple of degrees above the horizon...looked amazing.

[skuthorp]

Cool southerly here, 30 odd by monday. But we'll get the heat soon enough. Had a good month (Oct.) for rain but Nov dry as has been usual. Plenty of clouds and verger but not much at ground level, especially in the city proper. Current Melb water storages at 38%, and the government seems set to relax restrictions! Madness! Southern regional storages mostly 100% but north of the divide there's still a long way to go.

[PeterSibley]

Originally Posted by WX

Apparently it was 41c in town today...I know I felt it when I did my walk today.
Had to drive up to Coolangatta airport tonight to pick up a friend after her holiday in Tassie. The Moon was big and orange, just a couple of degrees above the horizon...looked amazing.

41 !! Bloody hell ,I'm glad I stayed home .Only about 34 or a little more up here .

Cool and looking like showers today .About 26 right now .

I reckon that rain last month woud have been very welcome Jeff .

[The Bigfella]

You guys up north are a day behind us. That's what we had the day before, and yesterday was cool with showers.

Good chance I'll buy another car today.... a Series 4 Golf for the youngest. A neighbour finally talked him out of buying a ute (as did him trying to fold his long legs into the neighbour's ute)

[WX]

Good chance I'll buy another car today.... a Series 4 Golf for the youngest.

Nature abhors a vacuum Ian

[PeterSibley]

Originally Posted by WX

Nature abhors a vacuum Ian

[The Bigfella]

Originally Posted by WX

Nature abhors a vacuum Ian

Gazza, mate.... that is so hurtful.

I need to get an automatic for the young bloke to learn on. He isn't into cars... although he's been keen to ascribe degrees of gayness to anything I've suggested.

.... and it needs to be able to take the big Marshall amps without them sticking out the boot.

[PeterSibley]

The Golf is just the go .My daughter bought one with a huge set of amps taking up most of the luggage space .

Wait ...wrong , hers is Polo .

It's had a few ignition problems , gremlins and hard to find.

[The Bigfella]

Nah, these amps are the 240 volt kind.... not the car stereo ones..

I hate gremlins.... pity the diesels are so XXXy

[seanz]

I too despise gremlins......especially when they have a choice of six individual coils to inhabit.

Bloody cars......they're a conspiracy to keep the proles enslaved I tells ya.

[rufustr]

"Good chance I'll buy another car today.... a Series 4 Golf for the youngest."

The young bloke is just an excuse Ian.

[seanz]

Time for some History on Oz Politics?

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/contri...1104-hvkc.html

Similarly today, a commonly held view is that Australia will not become a republic until the Queen abdicates, or there is a new monarch in England

So, is that a commonly held view.......or is it just twaddle of the first order?

[purri]

Originally Posted by GaryK

Carefull what you wish for purri.
Same can be said of 95% of Australians.

pot+ stir.

Don't worry; some of ours go WAY back.

[WX]

Get rid of the Monarchy? But but that means change! Shock horror!

What I don't get is if we do go solo why we have to have a President as head of state. Why not just have what we have now but no GG or monarch. What is wrong with the PM being head of state?
It would certainly solve the dilemma of who picks the Pres bullshit.

[skuthorp]

Originally Posted by WX

Get rid of the Monarchy? But but that means change! Shock horror!

What I don't get is if we do go solo why we have to have a President as head of state. Why not just have what we have now but no GG or monarch. What is wrong with the PM being head of state?
It would certainly solve the dilemma of who picks the Pres bullshit.

The PM is hardly democratically elected, constitutionally he is just that, the First Minister, titular head of the majority in the lower house. Neither parties or the PM as a position are recognised by the constitution and indeed the 'majority' can change the 'PM' at will and without regard to the people at all.
I do not think that a republic will fly without a direct electoral input to the president or equivalent, which gives that person more electoral authority than an 'unelected' PM could have. Of course recently the PM has more or less assumed the powers of a president without any of the checks and balances. A situation that needs to be remidied, though I cannot imagine any PM wanting to give the powers assumed up.

[Larks]

Paul Keating went to the Queen with the proposal of getting rid of her and the GG and suggested that Australia become a Monarchy in its own right.

The Queen said: "But that would make you a Monarch! And that just doesn't sound correct!"

Paul responded: "But I can see Australia as being a great Empire"

The Queen was becoming agitated: "What and have you be called an Emperor? Certainly not!"

Paul: "Well then if not an Empire, at least a Kingdom?"

Queen: "No Paul, then you would be called King and I simply can't see you being called a King"

Paul: "Well perhaps just a Principality then?"

Queen: "Prince Paul? No I don't think so my good man, I think we'll just continue to call you a Country"

[rufustr]

.

Heads down you boys round the tweed.

Storms starting to show on the radar.

[WX]

Yep the excrement is about to hit the rotary oscillator.

[Larks]

Taking a long time to do it though! Which makes me think it might be quite ugly by the time it gets here.

[WX]

Gazza, mate.... that is so hurtful.

Well you have to be cruel to be kind...exits stage left, singing.

[PeterSibley]

Still coming , lots of red and black over Ipswich down to Beaudesert .I think it might be very healthy when it gets here !

[The Bigfella]

Originally Posted by WX

Well you have to be cruel to be kind...exits stage left, singing.

Car's bought ... but not home yet. They have to replace a rear seatbelt.

'Orrible little gutless slushboxed thing it is.

But, that is what was needed, apparently.

Guess I better hire a car trailer and move the Mercs out to the shed.... and a couple more VWs. Hey, just realised... that's 4 VWs here now, down to 2 Mercs, 2 Bimmers and a couple of odd ones... Mazda and Jensen. Damn... that adds up to 10. I thought I only had 9 now. Oops. Bimmers are definitely the best of the lot.

Gotta fit the Brembo brakes to my car this weekend too. Wanna come for a ride when I get the big brakes on Gary?

[Larks]

Looks like we are about ten minutes from being clobbered here, so 'night all, power is likely to go soon.

[The Bigfella]

Looks good on the radar. Good luck

[rufustr]

Looks like you lot are getting the lot.

After hours of build up it seems to be skirting round to the south of us here and heading for the south coast.

[PeterSibley]

It's just gone North of me and out to the coast .A few mil is all ,maybe a bit of rain later ?

[PeterSibley]

9mm !

All noise and thunder ,the rain went North .Cool right now , 22 .

[Larks]

14mm, all fart and flash

[WX]

Wanna come for a ride when I get the big brakes on Gary?

Have you seen the movie Contact? The bit where the blokes says...do you want to go for a ride...next EBS you can scare the crap out of me

[WX]

Weatherwise we got bugger all last night but it looks like there is more on the way.

[The Bigfella]

Originally Posted by Larks

14mm, all fart and flash

Kevin Rudd?

[WX]

Anyone watch the show on money on the ABC last night? It detailed how the whole sub prime mortgage thing came about. Unbelievable stuff.. the way credit was handed out to people with no real way to pay it back.

[The Bigfella]

Originally Posted by WX

Anyone watch the show on money on the ABC last night? It detailed how the whole sub prime mortgage thing came about. Unbelievable stuff.. the way credit was handed out to people with no real way to pay it back.

Aren't you glad that Peter Costello put the appropriate regulatory regime into place in Oz?

Bovverboy has recognised how good he was - and he couldn't find any old Labor warriors he'd trust with the Future Fund.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Originally Posted by The Bigfella

Aren't you glad that Peter Costello put the appropriate regulatory regime into place in Oz?

Bovverboy has recognised how good he was - and he couldn't find any old Labor warriors he'd trust with the Future Fund.

Actually Australia has a higher credit card debt per capita than the US. Not sure we've seen the end of the cheap credit saga in Oz.

David Marr was spot on with his assessment of Costello's appointment: Incredible that Rudd offered and even more incredible that Costello accepted. He will now be "an employee" of Rudd!

[PeterSibley]

Nose in the trough .

[WX]

Aren't you glad that Peter Costello put the appropriate regulatory regime into place in Oz?

A lot of little people, councils etc still got burnt. I'm not sure I would credit Costello for the low impact the whole collapse had on Australia. I don't know very much when it comes to stock markets and how world finances operate but I did know enough to know that a credit based system was looking for trouble, particularly when you start trading in credit defaults.

[The Bigfella]

I said it on this forum years ago, after I sat in on a finance journo of mine doing an intro session on financial instruments... I could never see why the councils and the like were buying what were clearly high risk products.

[Larks]

Originally Posted by PeterSibley

Nose in the trough .

Employed

[BrianW]

What time of the year is it semi-safe to swim, minus the killer jelly fish?

Trying to plan a visit in the future.

[The Bigfella]

Hmmm.... I'm about to lodge a press council complaint by the look of things. Have to follow process first though. I've just drafted a letter of complaint to the editor of a regional paper... and copied the chairman of one of Oz's major media firms that owns the paper - demanding a retraction, etc...

Bastards breached the Privacy Act too - they tracked down (via the team sheet) and rang a 17 year old kid and conducted a phone interview - without adult permission. Then they've written the most amazing article about the state championship game the young bloke won. Real sour grapes stuff, full of absolute bulldust and totally inconsistent (the claims in the article contradict themselves). If what they said had been about my bloke, I'd have been talking to Senior Counsel right now.

I'd name the miserable bastards, but I'm not giving them a single inch of wriggle room on this.

[The Bigfella]

Originally Posted by BrianW

What time of the year is it semi-safe to swim, minus the killer jelly fish?

Trying to plan a visit in the future.

Well, the killer jellyfish are around in summer. Its too cold to swim in winter, so don't worry about bringing your togs (bathers).

Jeez mate..... why would you let a tiny little jellyfish worry you anyhow? The crocs and sharks get in far quicker than them. They only get the left overs.

[PeterSibley]

Anytime Brian ,but bearing in mind your Alaskanness I don't think you'd survive Summer .So anytime but Summer !!
Winter in the North , it's hotter than your Summer .Down South , Spring or Autumn .

[Larks]

Originally Posted by BrianW

What time of the year is it semi-safe to swim, minus the killer jelly fish?

Trying to plan a visit in the future.

Brian, there are a few dangerous marine stingers that you are probably referring to and they tend to occur in the northern regions of Australia, (pretty much north of the Tropic of Capricorn if you look on a map). There have been reported incidents any time from September/October through to May. As far as I am aware Southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian, Tasmanian, South Australian and South Western Australian beaches are pretty right as far as fatal marine stingers.

[shamus]

Crikey, Ian, Ruddy's been hammering us climate change sceptics today. We're a very poor class of person.

[PeterSibley]

Some things are self evident

[shamus]

Like USA October 4 degrees below average

[PeterSibley]

I think that's called weather .

[shamus]

How convenient Didn't seem that way when it was "Highest sea surface temperature ever" and "Hottest September". But not to get diverted onto all that crap, and getting back to the programme on money last night, Robert Gottliebsen wrote a column this week saying that all the bright young people on good money see no future in superannuation, and are all planning on real estate "investment". Do any of you folk think this is (a) likely (b) a good idea?

[Larks]

Originally Posted by shamus

How convenient Didn't seem that way when it was "Highest sea surface temperature ever" and "Hottest September". But not to get diverted onto all that crap, and getting back to the programme on money last night, Robert Gottliebsen wrote a column this week saying that all the bright young people on good money see no future in superannuation, and are all planning on real estate "investment". Do any of you folk think this is (a) likely (b) a good idea?

I hope it is, I've been doing it by default for the last three years