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After presenting the nation with a massively watered-down plan for the National Broadband Network (NBN) in April 2013, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has now had to bail out NBN Co to the tune of $19.5 billion to shore up the worst infrastructure disaster in the nation’s history.

At a time when the US telecommunications analyst Point Topic figures show that over 89 per cent of new global access network connections between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 are fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP), Mr Turnbull now appears stubbornly hell-bent on providing the nation with a second-rate lemon that will hold business and industry back from full participation in the global digital economy.

http://www.innovationaus.com/2016/11/NBN-bailout-a-political-mockery
 
Bicks said:
:eek:

You'll love some of this for sure Kristof ...not sure you'll like Pearson's reference to the ABC but??

Click to expand...

Noel is an interesting guy. It's hard to know whether he truly means everything he says, and how much of it is for effect.
 
While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.

Eventually the topic got around to Donald Trump and his role as the Republican Nominee for President.

The old farmer said, " Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.''

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post tortoise' was.

The old farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise."

The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain.

"You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb arse put him up there to begin with." :drunk:
 

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Avatarp said:
While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.

Eventually the topic got around to Donald Trump and his role as the Republican Nominee for President.

The old farmer said, " Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.''

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post tortoise' was.

The old farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise."

The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain.

"You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb arse put him up there to begin with." :drunk:
Click to expand...
You cut off the punchline
 
Bicks said:
And the "Elites" wonder how and why Trump won...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-Freedom-Springsteen-DeGeneres-Niro-more.html
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not sure who the "elites" are you're referring to, but there's no shortage of discussion about how and why Trump won.

Especially considering that Hillary had almost 2 million more votes than him, but that's part of the perversity of the electoral college, I guess.

But why did you quote this article? You think it's weird that Robert DeNiro won an award? If DeNiro was English he would have been knighted by now, so why shouldn't he win an award?

Or was it Bill Gates you though was weird? Considering his foundation has done more to wipe out disease in the third world than anyone in history, he probably deserves a thumbs up.

Anyway - the whole world is being run by the far right now, Bicks. You've won. Trump is going to come in and help the poor in the Midwest and make America great again. I'm not sure why you need to post anymore as you're the victor.
 
Only quoting because it's from a surprisingly reputable publication. Not sure I agree there's much in it.


Election results may have been hacked in 3 states where Trump won

BY LEONARD GREENE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Hillary Clinton has been urged to seek a recount after voting results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania raised suspicion.


Not so fast.

A prominent group of election lawyers and computer scientists said presidential election results in three swing states that Donald Trump won may have been manipulated or hacked, and are pressing Hillary Clinton to seek a recount, according to a report.

The group held a conference call last week with Clinton's top campaign lieutenants and lobbied for a challenge after finding something fishy in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, according to New York Magazine.

Members of the group told the Clinton camp that in Wisconsin, Clinton's vote count was down 7% in counties that relied on electronic voting machines when compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots, the magazine said.

A statistical analysis showed that under those circumstances, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes. Clinton lost the state — and its 10 Electoral College votes by 27,000 votes.

Wisconsin's metropolitan areas, where Clinton did well, use paper ballots. Rural Wisconsin, where she did not, relies on electronic machines.

The group apparently has no proof of hacking, but said the suspicious pattern is enough for an independent review.

Current tallies put Trump's Electoral College toll at 290 to Clinton's 232, a count that does not include Michigan's 16 vote because that contest was too close to call.

If the die-hards could successfully challenge Michigan and Wisconsin, that would bring Clinton's total to 258. Add the 20 electoral votes from Pennsylvania, if those results are successfully challenged, and Trump goes back to being a private citizen.

The deadlines to challenge in those states are all next week, but it was unclear if the campaign plans to call for recounts.

The magazine said the Obama administration is against a recount because it wants a smooth transition.
 
Vader said:
As Kristof says, how is this any different to the knighting of Sean Connery, Elton John, Roger Moore, Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, and others?
Click to expand...

Sir Mick Jagger. Sir Ian Mckellen. Sir Rod Stewart. Sir Michael Caine. Sir Patrick Stewart.

Anyway, I think this is actually quite moving. Probably made more so by one the greatest public speakers alive.

 

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Kristof
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...k=9234f7d707e877e5b65b99540a17b4ed-1480052038

Paul Keating: ABC stuck in 1970s, lets us down on news



Paul Keating has launched a new line of attack against the ABC, building on criticism made by Noel Pearson over what the academic and indigenous leader called its “racist” and misery laden coverage of indigenous affairs.

Speaking at an event in Melbourne today, Mr Keating also reignited his push for a Republic saying China and Indonesia would never respect a nation that has the Queen of Great Britain as its head of state.

As well as touching on his traditional themes of integration with Asia, the rise of China and the need for the US to allow strategic space for the Middle Kingdom in the Pacific, Mr Keating also said that states will have an increasingly large role to play now that reform is off the table in the federal arena.

But it is likely to be his comments that the ABC was “letting Australia down” in terms of news presentation and failing as a hard news gathering organisation that capture attention.


He said its news coverage was crammed with tragic but inconsequential stories.

“And in the case of the ABC news, if you want to watch a good news service, watch SBS news, which tells you what’s happening in Iraq, what’s happening in the US election, what’s happening with Donald Trump,’’ he said.

“What you get on the ABC is: ‘A truck has just overturned on the Pacific Highway’. It’s like in the 1970s. The ABC is letting Australia down in terms of news presentation.

“I think the ABC, the 7:30 Report, is full of hard luck stories — it is laden with hard luck stories.

“In the case of the 7:30 Report it is a news magazine, instead of a hard news breaking operation.

Mr Keating’s comments on Mr Pearson’s attack on the broadcaster, in which he said it was a miserable and racist organisation that was willing Aboriginal people to fail, were much more nuanced and cautious.

“Noel has always taken the view that the ABC has always been hard on him,” Mr Keating said. “He’s taken the view that Aboriginal people are best when they are able to earn their own income and live their own independent lives and that welfare diminishes their standing and inner confidence.”

“It may be true to say — and I am not saying it — that the ABC promulgates the view that the shift away form the welfare basis was the wrong way to go.”

ABC boss Michelle Guthrie has defended the broadcaster’s record in Aboriginal affairs in response to Mr Pearson’s comments pointing to its record of engagement in indigenous communities and its recent move to hire Stan Grant as the first indigenous anchor of a prime-time current affairs program on the ABC.

Michelle Guthrie arriving at the ABC offices. Picture: Hollie Adams.

Mr Keating, appearing at the university in conversation with his biographer, The Australian’s Troy Bramston, held a big audience of political aficionados spellbound, many of whom stayed back afterwards to sign copies of Paul Keating — the Big Picture Leader.

On foreign affairs, Mr Keating was heavily critical of those who wrongly interpreted the ANZUS treaty as an alliance and said those who take it as an article of faith betray a lack of confidence in Australia’s ability craft a successful foreign policy.

“There is this massive shift of power from the west to the east — you want a dexterous, mobile, clever foreign policy,’’ he said.

“The Americans will always be important in the Pacific Ocean, particularly in the western Pacific, but they have to be the floating good guys.

“China will never be a strategic client of the US. The US trying to frame them and the US trying to remain the hegemon will not work.”

“The multilateral model that the US put in place is breaking down.

We are going back to the period of great power rivalries and alliances are weakening.

“When the game changes, you change.”

The intellectual father of Labor’s reforms of the 1990s, said digitalisation was the next new challenge and opportunity for governments to address.

“The great change in our time is we are all connected to one another across the world on these hand held devices and this is breaking down national barriers, the world is now becoming a factory, the factory is not any more in the suburbs,” he said.

Mr Keating said he understood the seductiveness of recently elected US president Donald Trump’s anti-globalisation rhetoric to voters and acknowledged the process had “decimated” Western economies in some sectors.

But cautioning against a return to protectionism, he said the globalisation was irreversible and the world was a better place for lifting 650 million Chinese and 150m Indians other people in the developing world out of poverty.
 
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...k=3ec568cacf5c1f248dfac29054db5b29-1480166691

Chris Kenny: The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is overdue, over budget, overblown and under a cloud
Chris Kenny, Sunday Mail (SA)
November 26, 2016 9:30pm
Subscriber only

IT is one of the world’s most expensive buildings and it sits there, shiny, new and empty, like a costly monument to government incompetence.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is overdue, over budget, overblown and under a cloud.

It is a national embarrassment, an insult to taxpayers and a tantalising frustration to doctors, nurses and their patients.

It looks set to help more lawyers than patients in the coming year; a project that so far has created work for bankers but not medicos.

The whole saga is worthy of a malpractice suit. The hospital has been highly controversial and political right from the outset.

Remember, the Liberals promised to upgrade the existing hospital on the current site – the orthodox, less risky and cheaper option – but former premier Mike Rann wanted a grand new project.

He promised and we got it. Now the unfolding legal, administrative, political, medical and financial shambles is for Health Minister Jack Snelling to sort out.

Whenever politicians make grand promises anywhere, we need to be very wary. It is our money they are planning to build their dreams on; and they often get it wrong.

But, in South Australia especially, we have a long history of “visionary plans” that have turned into thwarted dreams that have left only public debts.

Whether it was the satellite city of Monarto, the Multi-Function Polis or the grand financial empire of the State Bank and Beneficial Finance Corporation, taxpayers’ money often has been wagered on massive, losing gambles.

If “expensive clothing is a poor man’s attempt to appear prosperous” – as South African wit Mokokoma Mokhonoana says – then South Australia has made many attempts to disguise its parlous economic situation with fancy projects that make us appear prosperous.

The most expensive shopping centre, most expensive submarines, most expensive stadium upgrade, most expensive electricity prices and, now, most expensive hospital.

Some of us with long memories might get a little angry about this sort of profligacy and mismanagement.

In the State Bank years, SA taxpayers dropped a billion dollars on the Myer-Remm shopping centre (complete with roller-coaster), $300 million on Melbourne’s fanciest office block at 333 Collins St, and up to $100 million on an experimental timber fabrication technology called Scrimber that delivered only the world’s most expensive warehouse at Mount Gambier.

Politicians, our money and grand plans provide a fateful mix.

And so we are left with a hospital that made the list of the world’s most expensive buildings – ever – and it will sit there, costing a bomb at $2.5 billion or more, for a year after it was due to open – without patients.

The original hospital, starved of an upgrade, will have to continue carrying the load.

And the government and the builders do battle through their lawyers. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

In fact, that brilliant old BBC series Yes, Minister did make this up 35 years ago and it all seemed so hilarious and far-fetched that it could never be true.

Minister Jim Hacker received an update from his private secretary Bernard Woolley, who had been checking out a tip-off about an empty hospital.

Wooley was pleased to report it was not empty after all. “Well, in fact, there are only 342 administrative staff at the new St Edwards hospital, the other 170 are porters, cleaners, laundry workers, cooks, gardeners and so on,” said the relieved secretary.

“How many medical staff?” asked Minister Hacker.

“Oh, none of them,” replied Woolley. “It’s brand new, was completed 15 months ago and is fully staffed but unfortunately at that time there were government cutbacks so, consequently, there was no money left for medical services.”

“A brand new hospital with over 500 non-medical staff and no patients?!” said the astonished Snelling, err, I mean Hacker.

“Oh, there is one patient,” Woolley replied sheepishly. “The deputy chief administrator fell over a piece of scaffolding and broke his leg.”

It is such an absurd joke, and SA is living it.

Taxpayers, already hard hit by high state taxes, high electricity prices, high water charges and high unemployment, are funding a state-of-the-art new hospital without patients.

You have to wonder when the public’s patience will run out.
 
This govt will just raise the ESL or create another tax/levy to cover legal costs and possible compensation payments to the builders. A costly monument to government incompetence indeed.
 
Bicks said:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...k=3ec568cacf5c1f248dfac29054db5b29-1480166691

Chris Kenny: The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is overdue, over budget, overblown and under a cloud
Chris Kenny, Sunday Mail (SA)
November 26, 2016 9:30pm
Subscriber only
IT is one of the world’s most expensive buildings and it sits there, shiny, new and empty, like a costly monument to government incompetence.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is overdue, over budget, overblown and under a cloud.

It is a national embarrassment, an insult to taxpayers and a tantalising frustration to doctors, nurses and their patients.

It looks set to help more lawyers than patients in the coming year; a project that so far has created work for bankers but not medicos.

The whole saga is worthy of a malpractice suit. The hospital has been highly controversial and political right from the outset.

Remember, the Liberals promised to upgrade the existing hospital on the current site – the orthodox, less risky and cheaper option – but former premier Mike Rann wanted a grand new project.

He promised and we got it. Now the unfolding legal, administrative, political, medical and financial shambles is for Health Minister Jack Snelling to sort out.

Whenever politicians make grand promises anywhere, we need to be very wary. It is our money they are planning to build their dreams on; and they often get it wrong.

But, in South Australia especially, we have a long history of “visionary plans” that have turned into thwarted dreams that have left only public debts.

Whether it was the satellite city of Monarto, the Multi-Function Polis or the grand financial empire of the State Bank and Beneficial Finance Corporation, taxpayers’ money often has been wagered on massive, losing gambles.

If “expensive clothing is a poor man’s attempt to appear prosperous” – as South African wit Mokokoma Mokhonoana says – then South Australia has made many attempts to disguise its parlous economic situation with fancy projects that make us appear prosperous.

The most expensive shopping centre, most expensive submarines, most expensive stadium upgrade, most expensive electricity prices and, now, most expensive hospital.

Some of us with long memories might get a little angry about this sort of profligacy and mismanagement.

In the State Bank years, SA taxpayers dropped a billion dollars on the Myer-Remm shopping centre (complete with roller-coaster), $300 million on Melbourne’s fanciest office block at 333 Collins St, and up to $100 million on an experimental timber fabrication technology called Scrimber that delivered only the world’s most expensive warehouse at Mount Gambier.

Politicians, our money and grand plans provide a fateful mix.

And so we are left with a hospital that made the list of the world’s most expensive buildings – ever – and it will sit there, costing a bomb at $2.5 billion or more, for a year after it was due to open – without patients.

The original hospital, starved of an upgrade, will have to continue carrying the load.

And the government and the builders do battle through their lawyers. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

In fact, that brilliant old BBC series Yes, Minister did make this up 35 years ago and it all seemed so hilarious and far-fetched that it could never be true.

Minister Jim Hacker received an update from his private secretary Bernard Woolley, who had been checking out a tip-off about an empty hospital.

Wooley was pleased to report it was not empty after all. “Well, in fact, there are only 342 administrative staff at the new St Edwards hospital, the other 170 are porters, cleaners, laundry workers, cooks, gardeners and so on,” said the relieved secretary.

“How many medical staff?” asked Minister Hacker.

“Oh, none of them,” replied Woolley. “It’s brand new, was completed 15 months ago and is fully staffed but unfortunately at that time there were government cutbacks so, consequently, there was no money left for medical services.”

“A brand new hospital with over 500 non-medical staff and no patients?!” said the astonished Snelling, err, I mean Hacker.

“Oh, there is one patient,” Woolley replied sheepishly. “The deputy chief administrator fell over a piece of scaffolding and broke his leg.”

It is such an absurd joke, and SA is living it.

Taxpayers, already hard hit by high state taxes, high electricity prices, high water charges and high unemployment, are funding a state-of-the-art new hospital without patients.

You have to wonder when the public’s patience will run out.
Click to expand...
Chris Kenny misses a major point that it is not feasible to upgrade the RAH on the current site. Archaic infrastructure, including asbestos & out of date design. You can't do a complete rebuild on an existing site as causes too much disruption.

So let's get to the real issues...

Why are the Government guaranteeing way, way higher ROI for the consortium to fund the NRAH than they should, when the Government is a no risk borrower? This deal is criminally incompetent as it will cost SA taxpayers billions over the life of the agreement.

The other key issue is the design - the inside not the outside. The key player driving the design lives in utopia & has designed the whole NRAH to.completely change the way services are delivered to patients... without proper consultation of clinical management. There will be no other hospital in Australia operating this way, so it's a huge risk without getting the buy-in at design stage.

Then there is the kicker. The NRAH assumes the use of an EPAS... which would have been great if those selecting the software actually picked a product that worked in an existing major hospital. EPAS is still not successfully working without significant issues in a major hospital years after the implementation started. It was meant to be implemented in the current RAH so clinical staff were used to it prior to the move. The issue for the NRAH is there is no decent plan B, as the facility can't support the weight of paper medical records. Can't believe the taxpayer has paid the equivalent of the Adelaide Oval redevelopment for software which still doesn't work properly!

It's no coincidence the previous CEO got a new job a few months ago before the full truth comes out as he has been lying to the media for years... & the state is about to pay in a huge way.
 
diligaf473 said:
This govt will just raise the ESL or create another tax/levy to cover legal costs and possible compensation payments to the builders. A costly monument to government incompetence indeed.
Click to expand...

But if the builder has failed to deliver the project on time so badly, then technically they should be paying the compensation money right?
 
Kane McGoodwin said:
Chris Kenny misses a major point that it is not feasible to upgrade the RAH on the current site. Archaic infrastructure, including asbestos & out of date design. You can't do a complete rebuild on an existing site as causes too much disruption.

So let's get to the real issues...

Why are the Government guaranteeing way, way higher ROI for the consortium to fund the NRAH than they should, when the Government is a no risk borrower? This deal is criminally incompetent as it will cost SA taxpayers billions over the life of the agreement.

The other key issue is the design - the inside not the outside. The key player driving the design lives in utopia & has designed the whole NRAH to.completely change the way services are delivered to patients... without proper consultation of clinical management. There will be no other hospital in Australia operating this way, so it's a huge risk without getting the buy-in at design stage.

Then there is the kicker. The NRAH assumes the use of an EPAS... which would have been great if those selecting the software actually picked a product that worked in an existing major hospital. EPAS is still not successfully working without significant issues in a major hospital years after the implementation started. It was meant to be implemented in the current RAH so clinical staff were used to it prior to the move. The issue for the NRAH is there is no decent plan B, as the facility can't support the weight of paper medical records. Can't believe the taxpayer has paid the equivalent of the Adelaide Oval redevelopment for software which still doesn't work properly!

It's no coincidence the previous CEO got a new job a few months ago before the full truth comes out as he has been lying to the media for years... & the state is about to pay in a huge way.
Click to expand...
******* Hell!!!!

How can they create a new design without proper consultation? At some stage of its design surely someone raised this?

As for the EPAS, ******* HELL!!!!!
 
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