Australian Politics

This bit resonated.

It makes me so terribly sad that in a society such as ours the wealthy keep creating new means to harm the less lucky.

That aside, Alan Kholer has also opined in the past that our economics policy is based on disdain.

I know many will read my financial experiences and see failure. I haven't failed; I succeeded when the odds were totally stacked against me. I made good what life threw at me. I survived … with my values intact.

I can only agree.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he is not rushing back into politics and supports the candidate his party has chosen to contest his former Melbourne seat, after controversy swirled around the Liberal Party and its treatment of female candidates.

Last week, the ABC reported that Frydenberg was mulling a return to politics after draft redistribution changes shifted the margins of his old electorate, making Kooyong more winnable for the Liberals.

But the Liberal Party had already picked a candidate to contest the seat: 31-year-old Amelia Hamer was pre-selected for the Melbourne seat in late March.

Um... $300,000 a year. Do sparkles explode from the page as you read her writing?

Pocock and The Greens come out in supoort of the ICC against after the Israeli shenanigans in trying to undermine it for the last decade.

Australia's largest insurer, IAG, is calling for property buy-backs and an end to new housing in high-risk zones.

We live in interesting times when the voice of sanity comes fron an insurance company.

Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.

Welfare recipients who work 30 hours or more per fortnight will also be protected from having their payments suspended for failing to attend an appointment at an employment services provider – a change intended to prevent them from effectively being punished for having paid work.

That's not a lot of money compared to what we spend on car-oriented infrastructure, but it's a good start.

These two potential candidates want to try become the first job-sharing parliamentarians. I can see the benefits of opening up possibilities for people with kids/dependents. I think a broader range of perspectives in parliament would be great. And these people would be there to do the job, rather than career politic-ing. The linked article mentions how they'd both have to be sworn in as MP's, essentially giving their electorate 2 votes, but I don't think that'd necessarily be the case. However, you would have the power of two people's voices when lobbying.

But I'm also wary of how much easier it would be shirk responsibility to "the other person". Assuming it would work as a shared office rather than a representative person, would a line be drawn between 2 people and a group of people?

Delving into the speculative fantasy, suddenly the 2 mums with kids at home who couldn't commit to full-time parliamenting were pioneers for rotational council representatives, getting rid of politicians altogether.

Government increases mental health funding after mass murder by schizophrenic… I’m sorry, I read that wrong.

I fucking hate DST. It's like dog diarrhoea splashed over a fat girls tiddies.

I know a lot of people hate it, surely it's time for this moronic practice to end.

So who do I email about this? Is it my MP?

Hi people and bots,

Two simple questions:

1. which party do you vote for federally? If you vote for people, which party do they align with best?

2. why?

I've been voting in this country for 30 years, and for the last 20, it doesn't seem to make a difference beyond undoing the last governments work.. Maybe you see something I don't.

Dean is part of Labor's right faction. Might mean he's more likely to work with the Liberals. Our native forests may not survive this.

At the March 23 Tasmanian state election, the Liberals won 14 of the 35 lower house seats, Labor ten, the Greens five, the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) three and independents three. This leaves the Liberals four short of the 18 needed for a majority.

The independents are the re-elected left-wing Kristie Johnston, former Labor MP David O'Byrne and anti-salmon farm campaigner Craig Garland.

Before the distribution of preferences began after the postal receipt deadline passed last Tuesday, the Liberals had been expected to win 15 seats, but lost a seat to Garland in Braddon.

This means the JLN alone is not sufficient to get the 18 votes needed for a majority. The Liberals will need JLN and at least one independent, but all three independents have some left-wing views. Labor has already conceded the election.