A thread on politics- have some balls and post

Skoob

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How unlikable is he! Absolute knob.

And Jane Prentice literally repeated the same two comments all night and nothing else.... "Tim and Deb ran a great campaign" and "there are no federal implications here".

Canavan and Prentice were basically that "this is fine" dog on fire meme all night.
His performance last night was very reminiscent of Peter Dutton. 10-15 years ago, I went through a short phase of listening to 4BC (it made me feel smarter) and there used to be a segment (I think Friday afternoons) where the'd have Mal Brough and Con Sciacca on, sharing the Liberals and Labor takes on the week. These 2 got on well and it wasn't overly political. It was simply 2 opinions from different angles, but it the main it was easy going, friendly banter. When Brough couldn't make it, Dutton would stand in and it was suddenly a petty, point scoring, bitchfest. Every opinion was a diatribe of what a s**t mob Labor were and an childish exaggeration of how things would be.
They could have been discussing the closure of an iconic retail business and the usual take would be what a shame a local business had lost support and how some policy might have helped, but with Dutton, you would get a nasty rant about unions and Labor's failure to prop small business up. On top of this, there was a weird, unnecessary hero worship of John Howard.
Canavan is the same. He can't discuss anything without flinging s**t and waving the blue flag. Dude, just try being a person instead of turning every comment into a political street fight.
 
I get that some seats would be too close to call without postal votes etc coming in - but what is the deal with the whole 'closing counting at 10pm' thing.

I am guessing they must do it differently to the AEC - in Mt Ommaney (my electorate) there were four candidates and, of course, no upper house paper. In order to finalise a polling booth I would need to
1) Open the boxes and get out the bit of paper
2) Sort the bits of paper so they are all facing up the right way
3) Sort them into four piles (one for each candidate)
4) Count each of the piles (this then gets phoned in and forms the first screen you see on TV with 'how many votes x got')
5) Put aside the two main ones (predetermined by the commission for that electorate)
6) Take each of the other piles individually and separate them into two piles based on which of the two chosen ones were higher
7) Call through those numbers (so now they have the raw numbers for everybody, and who got the 'second' vote from the other ones - this gets called through and provides the 'two party preferred' count.

That is the AEC version in any case and how the hell that takes you more than four hours I have no idea ... but am hoping someone on here does! :)
 

Skoob

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The other one I found really petty was Scott Emerson. Facing the loss of his seat, he puts it down to Labor forcing through compulsory preference voting. Like it's unfair that voters must declare where their preferences go.:drunk::huh:
He actually believes that it was an unfair, dirty tactic that cost him his job. This ignores the LNP won seats through preferences that would otherwise would have gone to Labor or Greens. It's truly the most democratic form of voting.
 
I can't remember who said it but one of the LNP guys said something about how they had only ever had power in Qld on four occasions (then listed the years) and on each occasion for only one term. I was thinking 'say what???' when I realised he was not counting the history of the Qld National Party in his statement. Guessing he is a member of the LnP ... wonder how much of the merger ended up being the mere takeover some of the old Nationals feared would happen.
 
Canavan is the same. He can't discuss anything without flinging s**t and waving the blue flag. Dude, just try being a person instead of turning every comment into a political street fight.

Definitely made us realise how good we've had it with Gladys, Foley and the various guys they've gotten on for the NSW elections. The guy next to Canavan was a bit less painful, but the other side of the table was a combination of "fellow warrior" and a guy that probably shouldn't be on television yet.
 
I get that some seats would be too close to call without postal votes etc coming in - but what is the deal with the whole 'closing counting at 10pm' thing.

I am guessing they must do it differently to the AEC - in Mt Ommaney (my electorate) there were four candidates and, of course, no upper house paper. In order to finalise a polling booth I would need to
1) Open the boxes and get out the bit of paper
2) Sort the bits of paper so they are all facing up the right way
3) Sort them into four piles (one for each candidate)
4) Count each of the piles (this then gets phoned in and forms the first screen you see on TV with 'how many votes x got')
5) Put aside the two main ones (predetermined by the commission for that electorate)
6) Take each of the other piles individually and separate them into two piles based on which of the two chosen ones were higher
7) Call through those numbers (so now they have the raw numbers for everybody, and who got the 'second' vote from the other ones - this gets called through and provides the 'two party preferred' count.

That is the AEC version in any case and how the hell that takes you more than four hours I have no idea ... but am hoping someone on here does! :)

It takes longer than that if they are missing too many votes.
 
It takes longer than that if they are missing too many votes.

What do you mean by 'missing'? The ones in the booth are all accounted for (or should be within a small margin of error) and easily counted. The ones that were sent out to people and they haven't mailed them back yet don't count. If there were boxes of ballot papers that were stored at the facility overnight and were gone the next morning on election day that is a crime and would, if close, spawn a re-run of the election in that seat.

What I mean is what is it that they are stopping counting at 10pm and who is it that are doing the counting? If it is no longer done at the booth and all is taken to a central location and everything counted there that would work but I didn't think they had made a change like that (and wouldn't approve of it if they did fwiw).
 

briztoon

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What do you mean by 'missing'? The ones in the booth are all accounted for (or should be within a small margin of error) and easily counted. The ones that were sent out to people and they haven't mailed them back yet don't count. If there were boxes of ballot papers that were stored at the facility overnight and were gone the next morning on election day that is a crime and would, if close, spawn a re-run of the election in that seat.

What I mean is what is it that they are stopping counting at 10pm and who is it that are doing the counting? If it is no longer done at the booth and all is taken to a central location and everything counted there that would work but I didn't think they had made a change like that (and wouldn't approve of it if they did fwiw).
Are you asking why they stop counting at 10pm, if they haven't finished counting ballots at a booth.
 
Are you asking why they stop counting at 10pm, if they haven't finished counting ballots at a booth.

I am wondering what kind of system they run that means that they could possibly still be counting at a booth at 10 pm - we get both the HOR and the Senate done by then in federal elections. The odd booth where they are stuffing around with issues is one thing but these guys seem to have no results at all from some booths and to be under even 90% counted in four hours seems to me to be so out of place that I thought I must have been missing something about the system that makes it so much harder for ECQ than it is for AEC.

I get they they stop counting if they haven't finished - I am trying to get my head around why they haven't finished ... and that it is expected and accepted that they will not have finished...
 
I've been involved in some slow counts where they have had to continually recount because their tallies weren't adding up correctly, like the council elections last year especially. And if there are ballots that walked out the door without going in the box it can take a long time to get approval from the district's RO.

Plus, It has usually been a long day and it's understandable that some of the ECQ's employees aren't performing at their peak. There are some massive booths that take a while too
 
I am wondering what kind of system they run that means that they could possibly still be counting at a booth at 10 pm - we get both the HOR and the Senate done by then in federal elections. The odd booth where they are stuffing around with issues is one thing but these guys seem to have no results at all from some booths and to be under even 90% counted in four hours seems to me to be so out of place that I thought I must have been missing something about the system that makes it so much harder for ECQ than it is for AEC.

I get they they stop counting if they haven't finished - I am trying to get my head around why they haven't finished ... and that it is expected and accepted that they will not have finished...
I'm not sure you really understand how the vote counting works in elections on a macro level. While regular booth voting is normally completed on the night (both in state and federal elections), there is about 15-25% of absentee, pre-pools, declarations etc that need to be checked and counted. Usually they get around to counting some of the own district's pre-polls before the night closes (which did happen in this election, for instance).

Also worth noting that the "no results" from booths can be misleading when you consider that a large number of listed booths for a district are pre-poll centres from around the state and some won't have any votes counted at all as no one from that particular district voted there and the votes haven't been fully collated to count at that stage. And the figure "percentage of roll counted" is also misleading as this refers to the number of votes counted as a percentage of the entire eligible voting population for that electorate and the final figures are usually somewhere between 85-92%. In most elections that I've followed the final counts of percentage of roll counted at the end of election night is usually somewhere between 65-77% depending on how regional the district/electorate is (more regional means less regular votes).

If there has been a slowdown in counts, if any, it may be related to the large minor party vote in this election where there's been 21 districts where ECQ's initial provisional suggestion of who the two main candidates would be turned out to be incorrect. They will need to re-calculate and re-count the two-party preferred in these cases. A particularly difficult case is Burdekin where LNP, ONP and ALP have all polled within about three percent of each other so it'll take a while to nail down the top two candidates. And I imagine the ONP scrutineers are slowing the process down too as well.
 
I'm not sure you really understand how the vote counting works in elections on a macro level. While regular booth voting is normally completed on the night (both in state and federal elections), there is about 15-25% of absentee, pre-pools, declarations etc that need to be checked and counted. Usually they get around to counting some of the own district's pre-polls before the night closes (which did happen in this election, for instance).

Also worth noting that the "no results" from booths can be misleading when you consider that a large number of listed booths for a district are pre-poll centres from around the state and some won't have any votes counted at all as no one from that particular district voted there and the votes haven't been fully collated to count at that stage. And the figure "percentage of roll counted" is also misleading as this refers to the number of votes counted as a percentage of the entire eligible voting population for that electorate and the final figures are usually somewhere between 85-92%. In most elections that I've followed the final counts of percentage of roll counted at the end of election night is usually somewhere between 65-77% depending on how regional the district/electorate is (more regional means less regular votes).

If there has been a slowdown in counts, if any, it may be related to the large minor party vote in this election where there's been 21 districts where ECQ's initial provisional suggestion of who the two main candidates would be turned out to be incorrect. They will need to re-calculate and re-count the two-party preferred in these cases. A particularly difficult case is Burdekin where LNP, ONP and ALP have all polled within about three percent of each other so it'll take a while to nail down the top two candidates. And I imagine the ONP scrutineers are slowing the process down too as well.

Thanks Zo!

Maybe it was the coverage I was listening to but they seemed to be presenting it as local booth counting just not getting done in time without the context (although they did talk about pre poll (as a counting area) and postal (as a possible help to one side or the other).

Didn't realise there were 21 different electorates with incorrect prophecies attached (always slightly annoyed me getting the pre-planned 2PP envelope but would be a bit hard to do on the fly across the whole electorate!)
 

briztoon

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I'm not sure you really understand how the vote counting works in elections on a macro level. While regular booth voting is normally completed on the night (both in state and federal elections), there is about 15-25% of absentee, pre-pools, declarations etc that need to be checked and counted. Usually they get around to counting some of the own district's pre-polls before the night closes (which did happen in this election, for instance).

Also worth noting that the "no results" from booths can be misleading when you consider that a large number of listed booths for a district are pre-poll centres from around the state and some won't have any votes counted at all as no one from that particular district voted there and the votes haven't been fully collated to count at that stage. And the figure "percentage of roll counted" is also misleading as this refers to the number of votes counted as a percentage of the entire eligible voting population for that electorate and the final figures are usually somewhere between 85-92%. In most elections that I've followed the final counts of percentage of roll counted at the end of election night is usually somewhere between 65-77% depending on how regional the district/electorate is (more regional means less regular votes).

If there has been a slowdown in counts, if any, it may be related to the large minor party vote in this election where there's been 21 districts where ECQ's initial provisional suggestion of who the two main candidates would be turned out to be incorrect. They will need to re-calculate and re-count the two-party preferred in these cases. A particularly difficult case is Burdekin where LNP, ONP and ALP have all polled within about three percent of each other so it'll take a while to nail down the top two candidates. And I imagine the ONP scrutineers are slowing the process down too as well.
If you ever worked a booth in the Mansfield electorate where my father was always a Labor party scrutineer, I pity you. Thank god the Labor party "retired" him after the last election.

My sister was a scrutineer at a small booth this year. She was the only scrutineer from any party there. She was also the only person who had worked an election before and knew what to do when they had to do the count. That's not the first time that's happened to her either.
 
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now that this debacle is over, it's time our politicians start to actually fix this country before it turns into a slow roast steaming pile of s**t. Start off by regulating this nations welfare which is at breaking point and crippling our economy. We can't even upkeep or upgrade much needed infrastructure or afford to start phasing out coal fired power stations through investments or subsidies. We have the disgrace of the Howard government to thank for our current predicament. Ever since our nation started to mass privatise public assets and services it was the start of the end. I recall reading somewhere that one of our saviours is the education services........either educating our youth into a job market that is mostly non existent or educating foreign students that bring the skills they learn here back to their home countries and use it in direct competition to Australian businesses. Selling our nations future to foreign governments. We are a joke.
 

Billy Puller

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now that this debacle is over, it's time our politicians start to actually fix this country before it turns into a slow roast steaming pile of s**t. Start off by regulating this nations welfare which is at breaking point and crippling our economy. We can't even upkeep or upgrade much needed infrastructure or afford to start phasing out coal fired power stations through investments or subsidies. We have the disgrace of the Howard government to thank for our current predicament. Ever since our nation started to mass privatise public assets and services it was the start of the end. I recall reading somewhere that one of our saviours is the education services........either educating our youth into a job market that is mostly non existent or educating foreign students that bring the skills they learn here back to their home countries and use it in direct competition to Australian businesses. Selling our nations future to foreign governments. We are a joke.
Our education system is a joke! I've said it before but I've worked in pretty much every public & most private schools in QLD. Of that there would be maybe half a dozen schools that I would be happy to send my child there!

Needs to start with our teachers. The vast majority are crap! They don't care about educating sooo many kids getting left behind especially when they don't fit with their teachers.

The amount of s**t I'd hear in staff rooms made me ill. Schools divided, teachers divided, kids divided. I worry
 

jackess

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Needs more emphasis on computer programming. No point continually having students getting pointless uni degrees. Need more coding.
 

Billy Puller

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Needs more emphasis on computer programming. No point continually having students getting pointless uni degrees. Need more coding.
Some schools actually have 3D printers now. But students being able to access it was a joke. Never saw of or heard of any kids actually getting to use it. Was the department heads little toy and every day he'd be talkin about the s**t he'd been making off of it.

Whenever a kid asked about it they 'weren't trained' 'red tape' blah blah blah. Was a joke
 
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Our education system is a joke! I've said it before but I've worked in pretty much every public & most private schools in QLD. Of that there would be maybe half a dozen schools that I would be happy to send my child there!

Needs to start with our teachers. The vast majority are crap! They don't care about educating sooo many kids getting left behind especially when they don't fit with their teachers.

The amount of s**t I'd hear in staff rooms made me ill. Schools divided, teachers divided, kids divided. I worry
I agree the quality of teachers have been on a continual decline. Some teachers love to brainwash their own personal opinions (religion, homosexual beliefs, multi genders etc) into the curriculum and if found guilty should lose their job. However I reckon it would be a tough job though with all the shitty kids and their parents they have to deal with while having no power at all to discipline brats who disrupt the classroom and the sad thing is the students know this. Also having to follow an outdated and lacklustre curriculum that lacks innovation or adaptability to the changing global demographics. Oh and Safe school programs which is probably one of the worst programs that has ever been developed for schooling ever.

The best high school teachers inspire us and a bloke by the name of Bill Koina (RIP) is the reason why I'm still alive today and I will forever remember the impact he had not only on myself but all my peers. He alone drove me towards my love of the sciences and is probably the single biggest influence I had in my life. That is the power a great teacher can have on someone. I've met my younger sisters teachers and they are so inexperienced with real world problems and they just can't cope with teaching. Emotional train wrecks. A uni degree doesn't make you a teacher IMO and I've heard they are pretty much taking in anyone they can get...
 

carnthemlions

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I agree the quality of teachers have been on a continual decline. Some teachers love to brainwash their own personal opinions (religion, homosexual beliefs, multi genders etc) into the curriculum and if found guilty should lose their job.

What do you mean by this? What are 'homosexual beliefs'? You been uncritically accepting bullshit rumours again? Honestly, based on some of the s**t you read from morons on the internet you'd think kids were being forced to read Judith Butler in primary school. Just for the record though, biological sex and gender aren't the same thing, and yeah gender is socially constructed.

Besides, I'm not sure you get how the public education system in particular works here. There's very little room for deviation from the curriculum, and it's only getting stricter with the increased focus on standardised testing (NAPLAN).

However I reckon it would be a tough job though with all the shitty kids and their parents they have to deal with while having no power at all to discipline brats who disrupt the classroom and the sad thing is the students know this. Also having to follow an outdated and lacklustre curriculum that lacks innovation or adaptability to the changing global demographics. Oh and Safe school programs which is probably one of the worst programs that has ever been developed for schooling ever.

The best high school teachers inspire us and a bloke by the name of Bill Koina (RIP) is the reason why I'm still alive today and I will forever remember the impact he had not only on myself but all my peers. He alone drove me towards my love of the sciences and is probably the single biggest influence I had in my life. That is the power a great teacher can have on someone. I've met my younger sisters teachers and they are so inexperienced with real world problems and they just can't cope with teaching. Emotional train wrecks. A uni degree doesn't make you a teacher IMO and I've heard they are pretty much taking in anyone they can get...
Teaching isn't exactly prioritised here. Little financial reward, highly stressful, little support especially for young teachers. They're taking kids who didn't do well at school, maybe barely passed and did childcare at TAFE first and throwing them into classrooms with little in the way of mentoring or teacher aide support, often in rural/remote schools, overcrowded classrooms, difficult children etc. Not to mention the demands from above. It's not a desirable profession.

In some countries you need a master's to teach. It's not easy and, to be frank, is far more important in the scheme of things than any number of 'prestigious' degrees and professions. Unfortunately we've gone with the american approach of bashing teachers and assuming they're lazy because they get more 'holidays' than others.
 
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What do you mean by this? What are 'homosexual beliefs'? You been uncritically accepting bullshit rumours again? Honestly, based on some of the s**t you read from morons on the internet you'd think kids were being forced to read Judith Butler in primary school. Just for the record though, biological sex and gender aren't the same thing, and yeah gender is socially constructed.

Besides, I'm not sure you get how the public education system in particular works here. There's very little room for deviation from the curriculum, and it's only getting stricter with the increased focus on standardised testing (NAPLAN).


Teaching isn't exactly prioritised here. Little financial reward, highly stressful, little support especially for young teachers. They're taking kids who didn't do well at school, maybe barely passed and did childcare at TAFE first and throwing them into classrooms with little in the way of mentoring or teacher aide support, often in rural/remote schools, overcrowded classrooms, difficult children etc. Not to mention the demands from above. It's not a desirable profession.

In some countries you need a master's to teach. It's not easy and, to be frank, is far more important in the scheme of things than any number of 'prestigious' degrees and professions. Unfortunately we've gone with the american approach of bashing teachers and assuming they're lazy because they get more 'holidays' than others.
Homosexual beliefs are exactly that. Not sure how else to word it.... man with man or female with female. I wasn't typing in Latin there bud. Yeah I don't really care much for the socially engineered gender stuff most of it is highly subjective anyways. Shouldn't be used for anything meaningful that's why I believe it should be scrapped. I only focus on biological as the power of hormones will always overcome anything the lefties throw at our youth. I fear the upcoming generation will be taken away too young due to mental demons of 'gender' that has been shoved down their throat from career academics who have little to no real world experience. A testicle is a testicle no matter how much you try to change it and it has evolved over millions of years to be a powerful biological tool that changes ones whole body and mind.

Thanks for pointing out that the current curriculum is rigid... exactly the point I was making. It's s**t. No room for innovation it only stifles the smart and driven and helps those who don't want to be at school. NAPLAN is another stain on the Australian education system. Teachers are becoming drones only interested in getting a high score. Driven kids aren't fostered instead they focus on the marginal fails.

Can't say I've seen many bashing teachers, but more so the system.
 
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