Discussion Random Discussion

[VDS66]

I saw a photo of two Mexican guys wearing #MAGA tee shirts.

Underneath the hash tag were the words:

Mexicans Always Get Around

 

[VDS66]

Met my first dinky die MAGA nut yesterday. I went into a truck accessory store to buy some gear and this guy started a conversation by asking if I had heard of the idiot who lost $800,000 on a bet he laid that Labour would win the election.

I said no I hadn’t heard, but man that would hurt. Serves him right he says cause it was Turnbulls son.

‘Alex Turnbull?’ I asked. He nods. I say he went pretty hard campaigning against the Libs after his ‘Dad got knifed in the back’.

That was some kind of trigger for the guy. He hit the roof. Accused me of hating on Abbott because I am a sheep. Told me the iconic photo of Abbott in his budgie smugglers was taken 5 minutes after he pulled a drowning girl out of the surf. Also said that Abbott spends an extended amount of time out bush with ‘the abos’ and is the single greatest supporter of indigenous communities amongst all politicians. Also goes on to say he is not a misogynist and if you study his family he quite clearly is pro women and LGBTQ.

I said I don’t think he has been good for Australia and I think he is a divisive leader.

Guy starts shouting asks me to list his divisive policies. 6 seconds later I haven’t said anything he shouts ‘I didn’t think you could. Typical lefty.’

Then he shakes the product scanner in my direction and shouts for everyone in the shop to hear ‘I’ll bet you don’t like Trump either?’.

‘I can’t stand the man’ I say.

Boo Yah! He’s off on a tangent about how Trump has single handedly turned America into the economic powerhouse it currently is and has almost lifted the ‘latinos and blacks’ (his words not mine) out of generational poverty. Actually shouts ‘NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION’. Told me I needed to watch more FOX so I could get some balance in my life.

Then he calmly took my $30 bucks and gave me some change. Blew my mind. I said I respect the fact you have an opinion, but I don’t respect your opinion and left.

Always thought I’d have to go stateside to meet a MAGA Trumpian. But seems like we are sprouting our own.

Now my question to the board is has anybody else heard those stories about Abbott? Are they verifiable?

Wasn't a Saints fan by any chance was he?

Asking for a friend...

 

[Stewart66]

You pull money out of you hat for all this stuff VDS . Its clear that you think the government coffers are endless.

Just one example of what Australian law allows.

Australian Company sells product to overseas company.
Overseas company declares bankruptcy and therefore reneges on money owed to creditors.
Australian company goes into receivership due to unpaid debts.
Overseas company comes out of Bankruptcy, and without having to pay any written off debts purchases Australian company from Receivers.

This has happened.

We simply don't have a lot of big companies.

We have Miners, Banks and Retailers and local subsidiaries of corporations from overseas. (channelling as much home as they can ).

Why don't we have big corporations?
We have never motivated them to be here.

Ok I’ll bite

1996 Howard came to power Cathay Pacific / Swire Group were pretty worried about China takeover
approached the Australian Government were proposing to shift Cathay Pacific’s head office to
Brisbane and base their world operation from there instead of Hong Kong.
It was leaked to the Sydney shock jocks ....Alan Jones & usual suspects then broadcasted the Chinese
are going to take over our country and put our beloved QF out of business
Geoff Dixon was the head of Qantas ...Howard killed it
Years later Jones & several Murdoch & Related 3AW etc personalities were carpeted for getting hundreds of
Thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Qantas .

Over 100, 000 extremely rich Hong Kong residents ..Doctors , Lawyers , Financiers etc were trying
to get into Australia ...at this time.... Howard Killed it ....( indisputable fact ) they all went to Canada
2 cities Vancouver & Toronto over 300, 000 residents in the end.

Singapore Airlines wanted to buy out Ansett Airlines , make Australia hubs featuring Darwin as the main
Airport for Cargo , Export ...Geoff Dixon again lobbied .......Howard killed it dead in the water
few months later Ansett collapses leaving thousands upon thousands out of work.

Dixon smelling the Tea Leaves resigns and pays himself a $20 million bonus as he leaves the building
John Borghetti 2nd in command resigns shortly after paying himself $10 million dollars bonus
and after short period becomes the boss of Virgin.

Nothing political hate most politicians in this country because self interest always is valued more than
National interest

 

[VDS66]

Ok I’ll bite

1996 Howard came to power Cathay Pacific / Swire Group were pretty worried about China takeover
approached the Australian Government were proposing to shift Cathay Pacific’s head office to
Brisbane and base their world operation from there instead of Hong Kong.
It was leaked to the Sydney shock jocks ....Alan Jones & usual suspects then broadcasted the Chinese
are going to take over our country and put our beloved QF out of business
Geoff Dixon was the head of Qantas ...Howard killed it
Years later Jones & several Murdoch & Related 3AW etc personalities were carpeted for getting hundreds of
Thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Qantas .

Over 100, 000 extremely rich Hong Kong residents ..Doctors , Lawyers , Financiers etc were trying
to get into Australia ...at this time.... Howard Killed it ....( indisputable fact ) they all went to Canada
2 cities Vancouver & Toronto over 300, 000 residents in the end.

Singapore Airlines wanted to buy out Ansett Airlines , make Australia hubs featuring Darwin as the main
Airport for Cargo , Export ...Geoff Dixon again lobbied .......Howard killed it dead in the water
few months later Ansett collapses leaving thousands upon thousands out of work.

Dixon smelling the Tea Leaves resigns and pays himself a $20 million bonus as he leaves the building
John Borghetti 2nd in command resigns shortly after paying himself $10 million dollars bonus
and after short period becomes the boss of Virgin.

Nothing political hate most politicians in this country because self interest always is valued more than
National interest

Ah yes... Good old John Anderson, Minister for Qantas.

Similar deal was done with the Nats to give them the money the subsidies from the car industry. That also worked out well.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Here's a few ideas...

Firstly we as a society need to decide if we want to go down the USA model of user pays or a Scandinavian style of social democracy where you are happy to pay tax because you actually see the benefits of his it is spent.

Secondly, given our relatively small.population, we are over governed with 3 levels of government. What a waste of money and duplication.

Thirdly, reduce the size of state governments and create national policies.

Fourthly, Federal gov to look after health and education thereby ending the blame game.

Fifthly, set up a government essential service authority and take back control over power, water etc.

Government isn't a business and isn't there to make a profit.

that's just start...

USA and Scandinavia are two examples, that's no to say that the USA are the most extreme one way or the Scandinavian's the most extreme the other.
Both have their problems, and there is no reason why we as a society cannot choose a level somewhere in between them.

I agree on the levels of government.

I tend to agree on privatization except... and I've seen a lot of things first hand at the old SEC. Despite government not needing to make a profit as you say, they need to be efficient. What is it about public enterprises that means they need to be run so ineptly and inefficiently.
Footy clubs don't make a profit either, but we know that money is valuable and has to be used in the best way.
How would it be if StKilda football club employed 200 people, and couldn't afford to pay the players, or have decent facilities.

Government is not a business but they still have streams of income and expenditure. I gather you'd like them to spend more money and provide a lot more service. They need to get money for that. If you do the Robin Hood thing, there's not enough of them for it to add up. ( and if they don't get a decent deal they leave, with their businesses ).
Norway do well, they are quite wealthy , because like Australia they export their Hydrocarbons. Green at home and let someone else cop the blame for destroying the planet.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Ok I’ll bite

1996 Howard came to power Cathay Pacific / Swire Group were pretty worried about China takeover
approached the Australian Government were proposing to shift Cathay Pacific’s head office to
Brisbane and base their world operation from there instead of Hong Kong.
It was leaked to the Sydney shock jocks ....Alan Jones & usual suspects then broadcasted the Chinese
are going to take over our country and put our beloved QF out of business
Geoff Dixon was the head of Qantas ...Howard killed it
Years later Jones & several Murdoch & Related 3AW etc personalities were carpeted for getting hundreds of
Thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Qantas .

Over 100, 000 extremely rich Hong Kong residents ..Doctors , Lawyers , Financiers etc were trying
to get into Australia ...at this time.... Howard Killed it ....( indisputable fact ) they all went to Canada
2 cities Vancouver & Toronto over 300, 000 residents in the end.

Singapore Airlines wanted to buy out Ansett Airlines , make Australia hubs featuring Darwin as the main
Airport for Cargo , Export ...Geoff Dixon again lobbied .......Howard killed it dead in the water
few months later Ansett collapses leaving thousands upon thousands out of work.

Dixon smelling the Tea Leaves resigns and pays himself a $20 million bonus as he leaves the building
John Borghetti 2nd in command resigns shortly after paying himself $10 million dollars bonus
and after short period becomes the boss of Virgin.

Nothing political hate most politicians in this country because self interest always is valued more than
National interest

The way i read it , Singapore bid $500 million for Ansett, Air New Zealand bid $680 and acquired it.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

This is the absurdity of the situation...

Had Rudd not acted on the GFC we would have gone into a deep recession putting further stress on the budget.

However because we avoided recession the people have taken this action for granted and the libs effectively spun it as debt disaster, which to most looked real coming off a period of record surpluses.

And you don't feel the pain of a bullet you dodged. Much the same way you don't think about drink drivers until they kill some one close to you, then you go off on a crusade to change law and blame the government etc.

If we go into recession then the libs will get blamed.

Frankly it may turn out to be a good election to lose for The ALP, as a recession will create momentum for change.

Change of government occurs when there is a shot in primary vote, which there wasn't despite the polls. IMO.

You keep throwing that out there. He threw money into the economy in the roughest manner possible.
Yes it stopped us being in recession. ( the difference between being in recession and almost being in recession almost nothing in practical terms ).
He simply threw money that was already in the coffers to the public.
It could have been much better thought out though, if it had gone towards something that stimulated activity in Australia, rather than just retailers and the flow on effect. ( Mine went straight on the Mortgage so i didn't do my bit i'm afraid ).

 

[VDS66]

Disingenuous to imply the stimulation package was solely the cash payout of $900.

There were multiple programs rolled out like school halls (good) and pink batts (bad). There were also other housing programs rolled out to stimulate the building sector.

Does it really pain you so much to admit that alp actully got something right?

Again you pick and choose the points that suit your argument and avoid the inconvenient facts.

The bottom line is that governments stimulus combined with Chinese domestic infrastructure spending kept us out of deep recession. People kept their jobs and economic growth was maintained.

Those are the facts, as much as they annoy the neo-cons.

Just stop. Seriously just stop.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Disingenuous to imply the stimulation package was solely the cash payout of $900.

There were multiple programs rolled out like school halls (good) and pink batts (bad). There were also other housing programs rolled out to stimulate the building sector.

Does it really pain you so much to admit that alp actully got something right?

Again you pick and choose the points that suit your argument and avoid the inconvenient facts.

The bottom line is that governments stimulus combined with Chinese domestic infrastructure spending kept us out of deep recession. People kept their jobs and economic growth was maintained.

Those are the facts, as much as they annoy the neo-cons.

Just stop. Seriously just stop.

The Pink Batts scheme was a great idea. The thing that really gets my goat is that there is a government entity designed to stop the kind of unsafe practices that went on with shonky operators. But like a lot of the public service they get into their routine, going around to old factories and telling them to put a better machine guard on.
Think of the insulation scheme in context with Victoria now facing a gas shortage.
Shit its cold enough here in winter we should be using double glazing.

School halls ...something weird went on, the cost was more than the cost was on the open market and they are not always put to good use.
( as if it was the building industry that needed stimulus anyway ).

 

[Cornish]

Public health is still very good here. I hate paying for private healthcare. You literally get **** all out of it unless you are really sick and have top cover. I had a minor surgery a couple of years ago and it cost a fortune from seeing the specialist to hospital and follow ups. I reckon it would have been about $4000 out of pocket all up for nothing that couldn't have been done in a public hospital. I still had to wait about 2 months until the surgeon could book me in. He works public 3 days a week anyway. A friend had cover and had a baby, was meant to all be covered but the baby had some minor issues and needed an incubator light thing. It went from free to specialist emergency wok or some crap and cost nearly ten thousand out of pocket with a 2 week stay.

After that my wife has to go in for a minor surgery and she chose public, she's booked in next week and only saw the specialist a month ago. Zero out of pocket and the specialist asked her if she wanted to go public or private. Usually they only ask if you have cover.

I gave up Pvt a few years ago and haven't looked back since i got ill about 12 months ago, the public outpatients system has been very good to me.

Where i go for chemo there is a waiting room for pvt and another for public, the pvt is a little more plush, but hey your paying for it. Once they herd us in we are all in the same chemo ward, i dont know how out of pocket the pvt sector are but for me it is $0000, one of the drugs i get has a cost of $40,000 per hit, i pay zip.

The oncologist i see there are 3 different blokes who seem to rotate through, i never know which one i am getting but they all know their stuff.

A small break down of a prescribed drug i have to take, for a months supply.

Private: $500.00
PBS: $250.00
Health card: $5.50 i am on the Health card now because i will be incapacitated more than 2yrs, i had to fight like a rabid dog to get it and it took months. I have not been out of work since i started at 15 so i have paid a lot of taxes to finally see it working for me.

I do not have one complaint about the public health system in this country.

 

[Stewart66]

The way i read it , Singapore bid $500 million for Ansett, Air New Zealand bid $680 and acquired it.

If only that were true TNT , Newscorp. Usual suspects .
Air New Zealand were in trouble before it all went down , big trouble , someone got their money everyone else
got royally screwed.

Maybe someone who worked in a said Industry at a management level for 14 years might know something .

Just get angry in this country . No Vision

Waste a huge amount on self interest , is the greatest country in the world in spite of it.
Not Labor Vs Liberal crap .

 

[St Muir]

Met my first dinky die MAGA nut yesterday. I went into a truck accessory store to buy some gear and this guy started a conversation by asking if I had heard of the idiot who lost $800,000 on a bet he laid that Labour would win the election.

I said no I hadn’t heard, but man that would hurt. Serves him right he says cause it was Turnbulls son.

‘Alex Turnbull?’ I asked. He nods. I say he went pretty hard campaigning against the Libs after his ‘Dad got knifed in the back’.

That was some kind of trigger for the guy. He hit the roof. Accused me of hating on Abbott because I am a sheep. Told me the iconic photo of Abbott in his budgie smugglers was taken 5 minutes after he pulled a drowning girl out of the surf. Also said that Abbott spends an extended amount of time out bush with ‘the abos’ and is the single greatest supporter of indigenous communities amongst all politicians. Also goes on to say he is not a misogynist and if you study his family he quite clearly is pro women and LGBTQ.

I said I don’t think he has been good for Australia and I think he is a divisive leader.

Guy starts shouting asks me to list his divisive policies. 6 seconds later I haven’t said anything he shouts ‘I didn’t think you could. Typical lefty.’

Then he shakes the product scanner in my direction and shouts for everyone in the shop to hear ‘I’ll bet you don’t like Trump either?’.

‘I can’t stand the man’ I say.

Boo Yah! He’s off on a tangent about how Trump has single handedly turned America into the economic powerhouse it currently is and has almost lifted the ‘latinos and blacks’ (his words not mine) out of generational poverty. Actually shouts ‘NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION’. Told me I needed to watch more FOX so I could get some balance in my life.

Then he calmly took my $30 bucks and gave me some change. Blew my mind. I said I respect the fact you have an opinion, but I don’t respect your opinion and left.

Always thought I’d have to go stateside to meet a MAGA Trumpian. But seems like we are sprouting our own.

Now my question to the board is has anybody else heard those stories about Abbott? Are they verifiable?

No, he didn't pull anyone out of the surf. Probably in there drowning some some stray boat person that drifted with the tide.

Yes, he took advantage of the hospitality of the indigenous people in a couple of remote areas. He then proceeded to slash funding when he got in power.

Yes, he's pro women when it comes to sexual preferences. As long as they know their place, all is good.

I really wish I'd struck this dude. Literally!

 

[gringo2011]

USA and Scandinavia are two examples, that's no to say that the USA are the most extreme one way or the Scandinavian's the most extreme the other.
Both have their problems, and there is no reason why we as a society cannot choose a level somewhere in between them.

I agree on the levels of government.

I tend to agree on privatization except... and I've seen a lot of things first hand at the old SEC. Despite government not needing to make a profit as you say, they need to be efficient. What is it about public enterprises that means they need to be run so ineptly and inefficiently.
Footy clubs don't make a profit either, but we know that money is valuable and has to be used in the best way.
How would it be if StKilda football club employed 200 people, and couldn't afford to pay the players, or have decent facilities.

Government is not a business but they still have streams of income and expenditure. I gather you'd like them to spend more money and provide a lot more service. They need to get money for that. If you do the Robin Hood thing, there's not enough of them for it to add up. ( and if they don't get a decent deal they leave, with their businesses ).
Norway do well, they are quite wealthy , because like Australia they export their Hydrocarbons. Green at home and let someone else cop the blame for destroying the planet.

Obviously haven't worked for big companies either. Efficiency is one of those ways we justify privatisation. Usually it just means sacking workers and moving three jobs into one. The bigger the enterprise the more waste and inefficient it gets. These days we keep inventing levels of management that over see getting rid of low paid workers. It's literally farcical how many large businesses operate.

 

[gringo2011]

I gave up Pvt a few years ago and haven't looked back since i got ill about 12 months ago, the public outpatients system has been very good to me.

Where i go for chemo there is a waiting room for pvt and another for public, the pvt is a little more plush, but hey your paying for it. Once they herd us in we are all in the same chemo ward, i dont know how out of pocket the pvt sector are but for me it is $0000, one of the drugs i get has a cost of $40,000 per hit, i pay zip.

The oncologist i see there are 3 different blokes who seem to rotate through, i never know which one i am getting but they all know their stuff.

A small break down of a prescribed drug i have to take, for a months supply.

Private: $500.00
PBS: $250.00
Health card: $5.50 i am on the Health card now because i will be incapacitated more than 2yrs, i had to fight like a rabid dog to get it and it took months. I have not been out of work since i started at 15 so i have paid a lot of taxes to finally see it working for me.

I do not have one complaint about the public health system in this country.

Yeah, in the US cancer bankrupts families. It's insane that anyone would want to move to that system. If you can't help someone out while going through the worst time in most peoples lives, then you might as well just wall up the outside of your property and go everyone for themselves.

 

[gringo2011]

The Pink Batts scheme was a great idea. The thing that really gets my goat is that there is a government entity designed to stop the kind of unsafe practices that went on with shonky operators. But like a lot of the public service they get into their routine, going around to old factories and telling them to put a better machine guard on.
Think of the insulation scheme in context with Victoria now facing a gas shortage.
**** its cold enough here in winter we should be using double glazing.

School halls ...something weird went on, the cost was more than the cost was on the open market and they are not always put to good use.
( as if it was the building industry that needed stimulus anyway ).

School halls was good too, my kids primary school use it all the time and is used by all kinds of groups from dance, yoga, martial arts to craft and all pay money to rent it outside school hours.

 

[VDS66]

School halls was good too, my kids primary school use it all the time and is used by all kinds of groups from dance, yoga, martial arts to craft and all pay money to rent it outside school hours.

Yes agree. Ask the schools what they think of them.

No way my kids primary would have afforded anything like it.


As for the pink batts....

Policy on the run is shit policy regardless of who is in charge.

It was rushed and sufficient regulation was not put into place. Absolute disaster costing lives.

These things need to be thought out.

I'm surprised they didn't go down the Solar panel road at the time. We would have been better off for it.

Anyway, the problem with these schemes is that every time one is rolled out, there's a thousand shonks lining up to exploit the situation and suck as much money from the government as they can.

 

[gringo2011]

Yes agree. Ask the schools what they think of them.

No way my kids primary would have afforded anything like it.


As for the pink batts....

Policy on the run is **** policy regardless of who is in charge.

It was rushed and sufficient regulation was not put into place. Absolute disaster costing lives.

These things need to be thought out.

I'm surprised they didn't go down the Solar panel road at the time. We would have been better off for it.

Anyway, the problem with these schemes is that every time one is rolled out, there's a thousand shonks lining up to exploit the situation and suck as much money from the government as they can.

Pink batts was private enterprise being corrupt more than poor policy. It was a great idea, greedy campaigners made people do work without safety equipment or training. The same people who bitched about it would have ben outraged that the government made regulation too tight.

 

[Cornish]

It’s crazy stuff and has made some areas around here places to avoid especially later in the day.

There’s a bit of a honey pot of services around Carlisle street near the town hall. The problem is that it’s a busy shopping strip and the tram that runs up to Chappell street is there. I never used to worry walking around St Kilda, maybe I’ve got old but I’m conscious of who’s around now in a way I never was.

People on ice seem to have no inhibitions at all they carry on off their faces fighting with each other as if there’s no one else around them at all.

I have no idea how councils approve some permits it makes no sense at all, this area is right on top of a primary school and kinda.

I have no problems walking around St Kilda, i grew up there, and its mellowed since i was a kid. You still get the hookers on the hill near the Sacred Heart but most of it is a lot more subdued.

Maybe 20 years ago i was walking with my wife in Fitzroy street near the chemist when a bloke with a syringe demanded i pay for a hit for his girlfriend who was strung out, he picked the wrong bloke, i disarmed him and dropped him like a feather, i always knew my army training would kick in one day, i dont think he asked for too many more donations that day.

 

[Yawkey way]

I have no problems walking around St Kilda, i grew up there, and its mellowed since i was a kid. You still get the hookers on the hill near the Sacred Heart but most of it is a lot more subdued.

Maybe 20 years ago i was walking with my wife in Fitzroy street near the chemist when a bloke with a syringe demanded i pay for a hit for his girlfriend who was strung out, he picked the wrong bloke, i disarmed him and dropped him like a feather, i always knew my army training would kick in one day, i dont think he asked for too many more donations that day.

That’s a classic, the chemist Bain’s was there for years I think it just closed.

It never worried me when I was younger, I guess it’s a combination of ice users and age. Their absolutely out of their gourds and I’ve slowed down I’ll be sixty this year.

 

[Cornish]

That’s a classic, the chemist Bain’s was there for years I think it just closed.

It never worried me when I was younger, I guess it’s a combination of ice users and age. Their absolutely out of their gourds and I’ve slowed down I’ll be sixty this year.

I have hit the 60's myself, yes it does slow you down a bit, makes you more aware.

 

[StFly]

Yes agree. Ask the schools what they think of them.

No way my kids primary would have afforded anything like it.


As for the pink batts....

Policy on the run is **** policy regardless of who is in charge.

It was rushed and sufficient regulation was not put into place. Absolute disaster costing lives.

These things need to be thought out.

I'm surprised they didn't go down the Solar panel road at the time. We would have been better off for it.

Anyway, the problem with these schemes is that every time one is rolled out, there's a thousand shonks lining up to exploit the situation and suck as much money from the government as they can.

If they went solar panel at the time, they would basically shrink the reliance on electricity fed from fossils like coal and thus expected economic windfalls, we'd hear about how jobs had to go to maintain them and then literally be forced in the end to either ramp up and remove sustainable enviro instances, or commit fully. And no one wants that until absolutely necessary as evidenced by the stripping of updating copper to fibre.

They thus go pink batt because it's cheap and isn't really a dedicated cash grab industry behind it.

Same concept with the banking sector, we knew by and large there was something dodgy, didn't know quite what, but there was enough smoke that there should have been fire, but; since it was deemed strong in the GFC, a bastion, profit amongst profit it was deemed safe until the RC showed most of the extent of debauchery to "cleanse" them as the entity they always were.

In the end, all about money in.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Yes agree. Ask the schools what they think of them.

No way my kids primary would have afforded anything like it.


As for the pink batts....

Policy on the run is **** policy regardless of who is in charge.

It was rushed and sufficient regulation was not put into place. Absolute disaster costing lives.

These things need to be thought out.

I'm surprised they didn't go down the Solar panel road at the time. We would have been better off for it.

Anyway, the problem with these schemes is that every time one is rolled out, there's a thousand shonks lining up to exploit the situation and suck as much money from the government as they can.

We had/have policy for workplace safety.
Why wasn't it enforced along with every other work place in the country.
Do you think we have special policy for installing TV antenna's, digging ditches etc?
How on earth did people ever put insulation in roofs before?

Someone at the appropriate authority needed to keep an eye on it.


I agree with Gringo, that public organizations are privatized to try to get them more efficient.
I don't quite understand why the government can't make these organizations efficient in their own right. The culture at the old SECV was just totally putrid, inefficient , lazy , corrupt.

Even when the government puts things out for tender, ( ie desalination plant ) it seems that the vultures see dollar signs and turn it into a junket.
How does that happen?

 

[gringo2011]

We had/have policy for workplace safety.
Why wasn't it enforced along with every other work place in the country.
Do you think we have special policy for installing TV antenna's, digging ditches etc?
How on earth did people ever put insulation in roofs before?

Someone at the appropriate authority needed to keep an eye on it.


I agree with Gringo, that public organizations are privatized to try to get them more efficient.
I don't quite understand why the government can't make these organizations efficient in their own right. The culture at the old SECV was just totally putrid, inefficient , lazy , corrupt.

Even when the government puts things out for tender, ( ie desalination plant ) it seems that the vultures see dollar signs and turn it into a junket.
How does that happen?

It happens with private too on big projects. I remember a concreter telling me that Docklands stadium paid for enough concrete to fill the thing half full because trucks were going out driving around the front handing over an invoice and getting paid 4 times for every load. People are just campaigners no matter who's in control of a project. Lots of contractors put a fair margin on government projects though but even when you get private contractors in they blow budgets out. Transurban never meet budget. The train companies always manage to have trains off line and late and are much worse than when it was public etc. Trams and buses the same. My kids get the bus home from school and sometimes they are one and a half hours late because they don't maintain buses. I called the ombudsman and they said they have no power to do anything and poor performance doesn't even count against the companies at re-contracting or tender for the service time.

 

[DGontheQT]

I saw a photo of two Mexican guys wearing #MAGA tee shirts.

Underneath the hash tag were the words:

Mexicans Always Get Around

What did the Mexican firefighter call his two sons ? (Hose A and Hose B.)

 

[Yawkey way]

Yeah, in the US cancer bankrupts families. It's insane that anyone would want to move to that system. If you can't help someone out while going through the worst time in most peoples lives, then you might as well just wall up the outside of your property and go everyone for themselves.

It can still be insanely expensive even with private health insurance.

If the drug isn’t on the pbs then it’s literally get lucky with a trail or sign for big money per dose always before the patient gets the dose . Then if it’s not working some petty administrative person having got his orders from bupa or similar will come and without any preamble tell you bad luck you’re taking up space trying to stay alive it’s palliative care for you.

Ron walker would have been a dead man without his determination, contacts and a big dose of luck years before he eventually passed away. Any push to make our system more like the US should be met with an axe to the head of whoever is pushing it.