Coronavirus/COVID-19

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LittleG

Brownlow Medallist
Nov 18, 2015
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House of Reps. 151 seats.
Independents: 3 seats. Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie & Zali Steggel.
Minor Parties: 4 seats. Bob Katter (Katter's Aus Party), Rebekah Sharkie (Centre Alliance), Adam Bandt (Greens), Craig Kelly (UAP).

Be careful what you wish for.

I have donated to 3 of them, handed out how to vote cards for a different 2, voted for 1 AND I get to vote for another in the Mad Catter soon. Better than sh1t party & sh1t party lite.

It’s a good list (except for Craig Kelly who can go get $&:mad:/&?!!!).

Hoping for more of them soon.
 

D Mitchell

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Jul 28, 2006
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The Honest Government vid that Scrag posted earlier provides a pretty good answer. The sh1t parties are captive to vested interests that do not represent the best interests of the country as a whole. As those vested interests provide a combination of carrot and stick incentives to toe the line the sh1t parties maintain the status quo while the best interests of the country are often placed further back in the queue. In particular they do NOT want the system changed or cleaned up. Hence their reluctance to tackle issues like a proper federal ICAC, abolish corporate and union funding of parties, resuscitate FOI provisions, break up the media oligarchy, etc.

However I didn't say "any" coalition or ALP MP. I said 90% of them (which was a rough guess). There are a few good ones in both parties. Not sure that I can say the same of the Nationals. However these good ones tend not to rise to the top of the pile for the reasons stated above.

I've posted before on why independents with courage, integrity, compassion and intelligence would make desirable MPs so I'm not going to re-hash it here. Suffice to say that those qualities become their main foundation for policy formulation, decision making and action.

Now compare that to what drives the sh1t parties and how they operate ...
One man's resuscitate FOI provisions is another's more important issues to consider. Parliament has to be able to govern.
 

D Mitchell

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Jul 28, 2006
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I have donated to 3 of them, handed out how to vote cards for a different 2, voted for 1 AND I get to vote for another in the Mad Catter soon. Better than sh1t party & sh1t party lite.

It’s a good list (except for Craig Kelly who can go get $&:mad:/&?!!!).

Hoping for more of them soon.
Parliamentarians have to be able to govern, to implement policies that they take responsibility for.
 

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One man's resuscitate FOI provisions is another's more important issues to consider. Parliament has to be able to govern.
We don't have enough RATs yet parliament have found time to implement the religious discrimination bill.
If they are triaging issues, they're terrible at it.
 

D Mitchell

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We don't have enough RATs yet parliament have found time to implement the religious discrimination bill.
If they are triaging issues, they're terrible at it.
The Religious Discrimination Bill was first tabled in December 2019. More important issues to consider including choice of Tests. The Govt chose RAT in October 2021.
 
The Religious Discrimination Bill was first tabled in December 2019. More important issues to consider including choice of Tests. The Govt chose RAT in October 2021.
There is a parliamentary committee discussing it today.
Governments should be able to do multiple things at once but taking aim at FOI provisions while we are in the midst of a crisis, while government debates a religious discrimination bill, isn't the best line of criticism.

Worth noting that the recent pandemic laws in Victoria require the disclosure of health advice from the CHO's office to government so there are some measures being taken to improve transparency, at least at state level.
 

Supposedly 90% Omicron, not sure if there’s any facts behind that or just an assumption though - with the way it’s spread compared to our Delta outbreaks you’d expect that to be the truth.

Funny how the Pfizer boss has admitted that the vaccine has limited if any affect against Omicron yet I’d guess majority of country has used Pfizer and seem to be getting very very mild Covid - yet the new Omicron specific Pfizer will be ready to go by March. Either we don’t need vaccines against Omicron at all or Pfizer is very effective…

I’m not an anti-vaxxer by any stretch of the imagination and can’t even comprehend the thought process of people who think the government is using vaccines to control us etc. but the world still revolves around money and the pharmaceuticals would happily jab us once a month for the rest of our lives if they had their way so it is hard to know who to believe - you’ve got the government on one side whose stupid and/or corrupt, and the pharmaceuticals on the other who are just straight up corrupt, the media again is probably both stupid and corrupt. You don’t know whose got our best interests at heart, let’s be honest probably no one… 💵💵💵
He only said limited effect against transmission. Still very effective against death and effective against hospitalisation, which aligns with your observation about most people getting mild cases.

Governments want us to be healthy as otherwise it effects the economy which they have a vested interest in. So while it might be self-interest I still believe they have acted in our best interests, or at least believed they were acting in our best interests at the time. Hindsight has of course proven that some decisions were incorrect, but on the whole mostly good decisions were made. Also despite some of the more crackpot claims around here, we still live in a democracy so if a government stuffs up enough they will get the boot, so again they have a vested interest in doing what's best for us.

Big pharma are no angels, but it's more a product of the economic system they exist in. Overall I'm glad for these companies which have the knowledge and capacity to design, manufacture and distribute life saving medicine in such a small amount of time. Sure they're getting rich along the way but not many of us work for free. As an aside I think I saw that Pfizer are creating a omicron specific vaccine at risk without funding/backing, which may not ever be used. Shows that they're not all bad I guess.
 

D Mitchell

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There is a parliamentary committee discussing it today.
Governments should be able to do multiple things at once but taking aim at FOI provisions while we are in the midst of a crisis, while government debates a religious discrimination bill, isn't the best line of criticism.

Worth noting that the recent pandemic laws in Victoria require the disclosure of health advice from the CHO's office to government so there are some measures being taken to improve transparency, at least at state level.
Today is the 2nd of 3 days fixed for public hearings into the Bill conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The first day was 21 December, the Report to be tabled on 4 Feb of a bill that's been around for over 2 years. If the FOI Provisions are the amendments to FOI Legislation by the COAG Legislation Amendment Bill 2021,its first draft was September 2021, to be referred to Committee in October 2021. It's at the beginning of its journey.
 
Today is the 2nd of 3 days fixed for public hearings into the Bill conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The first day was 21 December, the Report to be tabled on 4 Feb of a bill that's been around for over 2 years. If the FOI Provisions are the amendments to FOI Legislation by the COAG Legislation Amendment Bill 2021,its first draft was September 2021, to be referred to Committee in October 2021. It's at the beginning of its journey.
Factually correct. No actual point, but factually correct.
 

D Mitchell

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Parliamentarians need to do things for the good of the nation not for the sh1t parties vested interests.
Hard to define a Parliamentarian's role in a sentence, isn't it. I'll try. It's to represent his/her constituents in the governing of the Commonwealth. Parliament is considerably more wordy than either of us.

 

D Mitchell

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Factually correct. No actual point, but factually correct.
The Facts speak for themselves. They don't support an allegation that Parliament prefers less important legislation over management of the Country. They do support the conclusion that Parliament treats legislation according to a system, perhaps interrupted by urgent considerations like pandemics and tennis players.
 

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The Facts speak for themselves. They don't support an allegation that Parliament prefers less important legislation over management of the Country.
I think you're arguing against a point nobody has asserted.
 

footscray1973

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Quebec working towards taxing the deliberately unvaccinated for the impost on the health system:


Edit: a slippery slope. Do they then start taxing smokers, people presenting with head injuries for deliberately foregoing bike helmets? Obviously these 2 examples do not directly have the potential to impact the lives of others, but will be interesting to see how this progresses, and the degree of acceptance amongst the general populace.
 
Quebec working towards taxing the deliberately unvaccinated for the impost on the health system:


Edit: a slippery slope. Do they then start taxing smokers, people presenting with head injuries for deliberately foregoing bike helmets? Obviously these 2 examples do not directly have the potential to impact the lives of others, but will be interesting to see how this progresses, and the degree of acceptance amongst the general populace.
We already do have strong disincentive taxes in Australia. Tobacco and alcohol are two obvious candidates, while the GST exempts certain (nominally, fresh) foods but applies to others.

I agree with your sentiment though. You can't legislate effectively against human behaviour and the vaccine hold-outs in Australia are unlikely to be swayed by this sort of measure anyway.

There is the risk of unintended consequences too - seriously ill unvaxxinated people will delay treatment which means when they do present to ER they will require more invasive treatment. The net result will be extra bureaucracy and perhaps no benefit to hospitals or medical costs anyway.
 

Virgin Dog

Cancelled
Oct 29, 2017
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Quebec working towards taxing the deliberately unvaccinated for the impost on the health system:


Edit: a slippery slope. Do they then start taxing smokers, people presenting with head injuries for deliberately foregoing bike helmets? Obviously these 2 examples do not directly have the potential to impact the lives of others, but will be interesting to see how this progresses, and the degree of acceptance amongst the general populace.
I'd be less concerned about the costs, and more concerned about overwhelming hospitals. Would rather see an adjustment to the triage system that places the unvaxxed further down the queue if admitted for COVID related illness. Of course, this does little to address the issue of people occupying hospital beds for longer periods of time, but then neither does taxing them
 
What happens when a whole club gets covid this year?
No doubt the AFL has done forward planning and will have “protocols” in place… :rolleyes:. As we’ve seen with the BBL the players (and officials and staff) don’t all get it conveniently at once. There’ll be a couple or a handful, randomly, for months, I would think. I suppose they will continue the daily testing? It’s gonna be another fun season… 🥴
 

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