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[mightymalaka]

The Guardian is reporting that Mark Latham to join One Nation.

Good lord.

“Mark Latham reportedly to join Pauline Hanson's One Nation
News Corp reports former Labor leader will announce he will lead NSW branch of the party but won’t be on the Senate ticket

Australian Association PressLast modified on Tue 6 Nov 2018 19.19 AEDT
Mark Latham led Labor to the 2004 federal election defeat but is now reportedly going to announce he is joining Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

News Corp reports Latham will reveal on Wednesday he will lead the New South Wales branch of the party but won’t be on the Senate ticket.

“You’ve only just got to watch this space,” Latham told 2GB radio on Tuesday when he was questioned about joining One Nation.

A number of minor political parties have been courting Latham, including the Liberal Democrats.

The former Tasmanian Labor premier David Bartlett called him a “sick, sad, sorry loser” after the news broke.

“This will end badly as (Mr Latham) is either unwell, a massive narcissist or dumb as a box of hammers (or all three),” Bartlett tweeted.

Latham led Labor to a solid defeat against John Howard in 2004, and he quit federal parliament in 2005.

He claims he was sacked as a columnist for the Australian Financial Review in 2015 for making offensive comments on Twitter about Rosie Batty, whose ex-husband murdered her son in a violent public attack, and other female journalists.

Latham was also sacked from Sky News after just four months co-hosting a show, due to offensive comments about fellow Sky presenters and the teenage daughter of the Reserve Bank governor.”

Me thinks the man has had an onset of premature dementia!
What a tool! Who will ever forget his infamous handshake that alerted us all as to what a hardcore narcissist looks like!

Understand him being fed up with what the left has become, but to shift over to a populist far right party smacks
of a man who is desperate to become relevant again at the cost of any principles he may have once had!

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Me thinks the man has had an onset of premature dementia!
What a tool! Who will ever forget his infamous handshake that alerted us all as to what a hardcore narcissist looks like!

Understand him being fed up with what the left has become, but to shift over to a populist far right party smacks
of a man who is desperate to become relevant again at the cost of any principles he may have once had!

Is that you David Bartlett.
Quoting the party line?

 

[mightymalaka]

Is that you David Bartlett.
Quoting the party line?

Hardly!
Don't be lumping me in with those hypocritical wafflers.
Just saying that it's a slight shift in ideology don't you think!

 

[Yawkey way]

Hardly!
Don't be lumping me in with those hypocritical wafflers.
Just saying that it's a slight shift in ideology don't you think!

i don’t know is it.

Latham seems a pretty unstable character but he’ll just bring his own ideas to the table there’s no way Hanson can control him. Just on Hanson she has said some stupid things and her delivery has made her a target but some of the things she champions are fair enough imo.

It’s not popular with some but immigration is an issue that needs to be discussed as is the crushing pressure being exerted by every fringe leftist under the sun trying to stifle free speech or promote some looney idea.

 

[Drake Huggins]

Me thinks the man has had an onset of premature dementia!
What a tool! Who will ever forget his infamous handshake that alerted us all as to what a hardcore narcissist looks like!

Understand him being fed up with what the left has become, but to shift over to a populist far right party smacks
of a man who is desperate to become relevant again at the cost of any principles he may have once had!

I've no doubt this is his first move in establishing his own party. He and Hanson won't last long. It has all the hallmarks of a potentially volatile marriage. A true clash of the mighty egos.

He needs to become politically relevant and his best chance is with the disgruntled voters who have abandoned the major parties. I doubt he'll have a huge impact. He lacks a key component that every politician needs. Appeal. And Mark Latham comes across as unappealing.

 

[gringo2011]

i don’t know is it.

Latham seems a pretty unstable character but he’ll just bring his own ideas to the table there’s no way Hanson can control him. Just on Hanson she has said some stupid things and her delivery has made her a target but some of the things she champions are fair enough imo.

It’s not popular with some but immigration is an issue that needs to be discussed as is the crushing pressure being exerted by every fringe leftist under the sun trying to stifle free speech or promote some looney idea.

I think she's an idiot who's only appeal is because she seems so un-political. People hate politicians so much and have such a level of distrust and cynicism toward them that anyone who seems like they aren't part of the clepto class seems like they are closer aligned with the general population. Trump exploited it well and now Scomo is trying it on with his Dinky-Di-Bonzer-Aussie-Cobber act.

Immigration is a hard one, we love it because it has financial benefits in pushing up house prices and creating economic growth immediately. Unfortunately we hate the congestion on roads, schools and health. The refugees cop the brunt of our annoyance but the mass immigration with out building infrastructure to support it is nothing to do with the minor amount of people who come from war zones or persecution.

People worry about negative gearing effecting house prices but China banning people investing their money overseas has started to bite the housing market here. So much of our economy is money spent from equity in peoples investment properties and houses. Losing immigration would send us backwards. It's one of those things that we are not going to be able to stop without feeling a bite from losing.

I used to know Tom Elliott years ago through friends, surprisingly old John Elliott was the biggest advocate for open door immigration I've ever met, he was about the least fringe left person I've met as well. Funny enough the left was the less open to immigration once when they wanted to protect local jobs, now the left have abandoned the union ideals and gone more socially progressive they put on a show of human solidarity but financial interests are the biggest fans even if the conservative right seem to advocate against immigration.

 

[Yawkey way]

I think she's an idiot who's only appeal is because she seems so un-political. People hate politicians so much and have such a level of distrust and cynicism toward them that anyone who seems like they aren't part of the clepto class seems like they are closer aligned with the general population. Trump exploited it well and now Scomo is trying it on with his Dinky-Di-Bonzer-Aussie-Cobber act.

Immigration is a hard one, we love it because it has financial benefits in pushing up house prices and creating economic growth immediately. Unfortunately we hate the congestion on roads, schools and health. The refugees cop the brunt of our annoyance but the mass immigration with out building infrastructure to support it is nothing to do with the minor amount of people who come from war zones or persecution.

People worry about negative gearing effecting house prices but China banning people investing their money overseas has started to bite the housing market here. So much of our economy is money spent from equity in peoples investment properties and houses. Losing immigration would send us backwards. It's one of those things that we are not going to be able to stop without feeling a bite from losing.

I used to know Tom Elliott years ago through friends, surprisingly old John Elliott was the biggest advocate for open door immigration I've ever met, he was about the least fringe left person I've met as well. Funny enough the left was the less open to immigration once when they wanted to protect local jobs, now the left have abandoned the union ideals and gone more socially progressive they put on a show of human solidarity but financial interests are the biggest fans even if the conservative right seem to advocate against immigration.

She’s as cunning as a shit house rat and yes she has some appeal to some people in the way she presents herself.

Immigration has been nothing more than an economic Ponzi scheme for both parties for some time now to the detriment of us all imo. This debate needs to be had and the sooner the better, if we cop it in the back pocket in the short term then so be it. I frankly couldn’t care less if people who are leveraged to the hilt come a cropper simply because the reverse side of the argument is that so many young people have missed the boat in terms of housing. I don’t think we have any obligation to prop up a housing market that has reached such ridiculous highs.

The debate may well find people in favour of a high immigration number and has little if anything to do with our refugee intake. I’m just speechless that the number has been so high for so long with so many scams running, meanwhile infrastructure spending and planning etc have just been an afterthought. It’s hard not to feel the place is out of control when you have a new PM every year and the Andrews government is cutting sorry I can’t tell you the details belt and road deals independently without consulting the federal government.

Maybe I have a simplistic even naive view in my belief that things are better out in the open with everybody being given the opportunity to be heard. I don’t know what the immigration rate should be, it’s never been a question of zero net and I doubt it ever will be but a growth rate that puts us in the top bracket of cities seems a recipe for disaster to me. It’s not a though we can turn back the clock if things go belly up.

You should have a look at what’s going on at fisherman’s bend, special deals, planning on the fly etc. Where is our version of Central Park, where’s the public transport the infrastructure etc. It just amazes me that billions can be found for toll roads etc but you can jam 70,000 people into an urban renewal project pretty much piggybacking on existing amenities and expect it to turn out well. Why can’t we ever demand worlds best practice, why are we always home to mr cockup. Docklands and Southbank are good examples no schools etc because they didn’t expect families with children to move in, fmd.

Haha I had the greens candidate for Brighton door knocking here yesterday, that’s an exercise in futility but good on her for stepping up and running.

 

[gringo2011]

She’s as cunning as a shit house rat and yes she has some appeal to some people in the way she presents herself.

Immigration has been nothing more than an economic Ponzi scheme for both parties for some time now to the detriment of us all imo. This debate needs to be had and the sooner the better, if we cop it in the back pocket in the short term then so be it. I frankly couldn’t care less if people who are leveraged to the hilt come a cropper simply because the reverse side of the argument is that so many young people have missed the boat in terms of housing. I don’t think we have any obligation to prop up a housing market that has reached such ridiculous highs.

The debate may well find people in favour of a high immigration number and has little if anything to do with our refugee intake. I’m just speechless that the number has been so high for so long with so many scams running, meanwhile infrastructure spending and planning etc have just been an afterthought. It’s hard not to feel the place is out of control when you have a new PM every year and the Andrews government is cutting sorry I can’t tell you the details belt and road deals independently without consulting the federal government.

Maybe I have a simplistic even naive view in my belief that things are better out in the open with everybody being given the opportunity to be heard. I don’t know what the immigration rate should be, it’s never been a question of zero net and I doubt it ever will be but a growth rate that puts us in the top bracket of cities seems a recipe for disaster to me. It’s not a though we can turn back the clock if things go belly up.

You should have a look at what’s going on at fisherman’s bend, special deals, planning on the fly etc. Where is our version of Central Park, where’s the public transport the infrastructure etc. It just amazes me that billions can be found for toll roads etc but you can jam 70,000 people into an urban renewal project pretty much piggybacking on existing amenities and expect it to turn out well. Why can’t we ever demand worlds best practice, why are we always home to mr cockup. Docklands and Southbank are good examples no schools etc because they didn’t expect families with children to move in, fmd.

Haha I had the greens candidate for Brighton door knocking here yesterday, that’s an exercise in futility but good on her for stepping up and running.

Matthew Guy stuffed up with Fishermans bend. He sold it with out putting aside areas for infrastructure and then had to buy it back from developers so just about gave them the land parcel. If it wasn't corrupt it was idiocy.


We have been put in overseas architecture text books of what not to do because we build without leaving open space between towers and heritage overlays are nearly non existent. If you can pay political donations you can do what ever you want as a developer.

Politicians have a 4 year window and we have created a myth about having balanced books being the ideal. Unfortunately infrastructure makes things work better and earns money through increased productive hours etc but the politicians created their own constraint.

I don't know what the answer is but somehow I think it will only get better when it gets worse. Yeah, Greens in Brighton are like being a fridge repair man in the North Pole.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

With the housing market hitting a downturn the bubble might be about to burst.

It IS a ponzi scheme, bring in more people and build stuff for them.
Tradies and builders are now amongst the wealthiest people , house painters ffs, and everything is geared up around the building industry and we've let everything else slide.

It can all come crashing down horribly.

 

[MUFKilda]

Perth, March 1907.

Collingwood supporters at 1.44

 

[MUFKilda]

Haha I had the greens candidate for Brighton door knocking here yesterday, that’s an exercise in futility but good on her for stepping up and running.

I'm a Green voter/party member over here, and would be in Australia. Your Labour Party has moved further right (if that's possible) as ours did under Tory Blair; total neoliberal sell outs. By the way, way do you use the American spelling 'Labor', you traitors?

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I'm a Green voter/party member over here, and would be in Australia. Your Labour Party has moved further right (if that's possible) as ours did under Tory Blair; total neoliberal sell outs. By the way, way do you use the American spelling 'Labor', you traitors?

Its a different green party. So its pretty silly to form a political opinion based on a common name.
Its like i could start a Republican party and half the Americans who moved here would vote for me.

The greens here would get tonnes of votes if they weren't so stupid.

 

[MUFKilda]

Its a different green party. So its pretty silly to form a political opinion based on a common name.
Its like i could start a Republican party and half the Americans who moved here would vote for me.

The greens here would get tonnes of votes if they weren't so stupid.

I did actually take a look at the Australian Greens platform before making that statement; you underestimate me. I like much of it; certainly far more progressive than Labor, same as our Greens. I particularly like their anti-militarism. There is much overlap with our Green Party. They don't come across as stupid at all; rather a much needed antidote to the failed neoliberalism of the past forty years. From what I read, there is much to work with in the Australian Greens: they should work to become an authentic democratic socialist voice and clean up all those disillusioned Labor voters.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I did actually take a look at the Australian Greens platform before making that statement; you underestimate me. I like much of it; certainly far more progressive than Labor, same as our Greens. I particularly like their anti-militarism. There is much overlap with our Green Party. They don't come across as stupid at all; rather a much needed antidote to the failed neoliberalism of the past forty years. From what I read, there is much to work with in the Australian Greens: they should work to become an authentic democratic socialist voice and clean up all those disillusioned Labor voters.

Australia have been demilitarised for years, we can't afford the stuff.

 

[MUFKilda]

Australia have been demilitarised for years, we can't afford the stuff.

You were in Iraq and Afghanistan like a rat up a drainpipe. Bush and Blair were so grateful. Your Green Party very wisely opposed both.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

You were in Iraq and Afghanistan like a rat up a drainpipe. Bush and Blair were so grateful. Your Green Party very wisely opposed both.

BECAUSE
We have no military stuffs.
Otherwise we could get invaded by Nauru and we'd need to surrender.

We are a relatively small and isolated country despite the land mass. We need politicians to look after AUSTRALIA , we need it more than what the current politicians do. We don't need some bullshit moral crusade.

I'm happy to use Nuclear power to help reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greens are happy to oppose ALL viable solutions.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

im a greens voter but i do most certainly see the thought process that as a political party they are seen as stupid ... the Greens do have an unfortunate issue that the stigma of tree hugging hippies who would legalise weed and sit in a circle platting eachothers hair ... but if you look deeper into their policies there is a lot to like about what the greens stand for .. the problem is the greens have senators like Sarah Hanson Young who gets more caught up in her spats with Pauline then anything else ... its almost as if the greens are painted as the ying to one nations yang and when you play that game you never end up being a viable option ... the hope is we get more candidates like Australia's youngest senator Jordan Steele-John who at 23 speaks more sence than anyother politician around ... he strong stance on disability services and providing a fair and fruitful future for the nations youth is what we need more of not pompus old farts who do deals for their billionaire mates at the expense of everyone else ...

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

BECAUSE
We have no military stuffs.
Otherwise we could get invaded by Nauru and we'd need to surrender.

We are a relatively small and isolated country despite the land mass. We need politicians to look after AUSTRALIA , we need it more than what the current politicians do. We don't need some bullshit moral crusade.

I'm happy to use Nuclear power to help reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greens are happy to oppose ALL viable solutions.

thats not technically correct the greens are against coal (as we should be) they are also against Nuclear power due to the waste produced from that source of power ... they do support renewables though hydro, wind, solar

 

[SaintsSeptember]

thats not technically correct the greens are against coal (as we should be) they are also against Nuclear power due to the waste produced from that source of power ... they do support renewables though hydro, wind, solar

Except for Hydro where it might affect a river. ( Franklin ring a bell ).

Given we don't have a lot of water, or we wouldn't be building desalination plants, most of its wind and solar.
The Solar stuff doesn't do much at night.
So what do we do on those wind free nights? Sorry Elron's enormous AA's are NOT viable.
Yes we can build dams and just use them as energy storage. Very expensive infrastructure.

Our electricity has already gone from some of the cheapest to some of the most expensive in the world.


Now stuff like desalination plants are good, we can purify water while the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.
But a lot of businesses really can't structure their operations that way.
And people like to have lights and tv's and shit in their house.

So this is what happens.

Acme builds a solar plant and due to carbon tax undercuts his opposition, and sells lots of power.
Dodgy build a coal plant , since no-one is buying it through the day , he jacks up the price when there is not enough wind or solar.
Build a dam and there's another set of infrastructure to pay for.

In the end the consumer pays for two sets of infrastructure, instead of one.

Meanwhile coal and gas is exported where they no doubt eat it , because surely no-one overseas would be nasty enough to burn that shit.

No viable solution endorsed by the Greens.

 

[MUFKilda]

Except for Hydro where it might affect a river. ( Franklin ring a bell ).

Given we don't have a lot of water, or we wouldn't be building desalination plants, most of its wind and solar.
The Solar stuff doesn't do much at night.
So what do we do on those wind free nights? Sorry Elron's enormous AA's are NOT viable.
Yes we can build dams and just use them as energy storage. Very expensive infrastructure.

Our electricity has already gone from some of the cheapest to some of the most expensive in the world.


Now stuff like desalination plants are good, we can purify water while the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.
But a lot of businesses really can't structure their operations that way.
And people like to have lights and tv's and shit in their house.

So this is what happens.

Acme builds a solar plant and due to carbon tax undercuts his opposition, and sells lots of power.
Dodgy build a coal plant , since no-one is buying it through the day , he jacks up the price when there is not enough wind or solar.
Build a dam and there's another set of infrastructure to pay for.

In the end the consumer pays for two sets of infrastructure, instead of one.

Meanwhile coal and gas is exported where they no doubt eat it , because surely no-one overseas would be nasty enough to burn that shit.

No viable solution endorsed by the Greens.

But you seem to be advocating tackling the climate change contribution of fossil fuels by using an energy source -nuclear- which is catastrophic in malfunction events and which creates radioactive waste. As a 'lesser of two evils' proposition, it isn't great at all.

 

[gringo2011]

I did actually take a look at the Australian Greens platform before making that statement; you underestimate me. I like much of it; certainly far more progressive than Labor, same as our Greens. I particularly like their anti-militarism. There is much overlap with our Green Party. They don't come across as stupid at all; rather a much needed antidote to the failed neoliberalism of the past forty years. From what I read, there is much to work with in the Australian Greens: they should work to become an authentic democratic socialist voice and clean up all those disillusioned Labor voters.

I support the idea of the Greens in Australia but the Aussie ones have done some idiotic acts of political sabotage that have made things worse.

We had Kevin Rudd trying to bring in a carbon tax and environment policy that would have had a set in stone policy that would have had a direction that business could understand, the renewables industry would have been established and we would now not have energy shortages. They sided with conservatives because they said they would rather nothing if they couldn't get an unrealistic energy target set in stone. Now 11 yeas later we are in the shit because they allowed Tony Abbott to feed off the turmoil. It's really fractured their credibility.

They also have abandoned pushing renewable energy here once the conservatives made it a cultural issue and blamed it for rising costs ( the opposite is true) because it lost popularity. They instead jump on social issues that don't tend to grab the imagination of anyone but their base. Also fight labor openly to steal votes including regular conservative backing.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Except for Hydro where it might affect a river. ( Franklin ring a bell ).

Given we don't have a lot of water, or we wouldn't be building desalination plants, most of its wind and solar.
The Solar stuff doesn't do much at night.
So what do we do on those wind free nights? Sorry Elron's enormous AA's are NOT viable.
Yes we can build dams and just use them as energy storage. Very expensive infrastructure.

Our electricity has already gone from some of the cheapest to some of the most expensive in the world.


Now stuff like desalination plants are good, we can purify water while the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.
But a lot of businesses really can't structure their operations that way.
And people like to have lights and tv's and shit in their house.

So this is what happens.

Acme builds a solar plant and due to carbon tax undercuts his opposition, and sells lots of power.
Dodgy build a coal plant , since no-one is buying it through the day , he jacks up the price when there is not enough wind or solar.
Build a dam and there's another set of infrastructure to pay for.

In the end the consumer pays for two sets of infrastructure, instead of one.

Meanwhile coal and gas is exported where they no doubt eat it , because surely no-one overseas would be nasty enough to burn that shit.

No viable solution endorsed by the Greens.

i think you have been buying the coal industrys propaganda to much .... no power at night .... please ...
the fact is full renewable energy is very much attainable but bigindustrys such as coal stand to lose billions from it ... look at the rest of the world :
Costa Rica ran a full year on 100% renewable energy (hydro, wind, Geothermal, solar and Biomass)
Iceland runs almost 100% on Geothermal and hydro
Norway uses 98% renewable power sources from hydro and wind
Portugal 100% of its power comes from renwable sources with 42% of that from wind
Germany- in Jan 2018 went 100% renewable in a test the rest of the year they operate 36% of their power from renewable sources half of that from the solar (a country with less sun the us).


even the giants of coal power are making the change:
Qinghai Province in China in one week generated 1.1 billion kilowatt hours of energy for over 5.6 million residents from solar ..
India's largest coal mining company has closed dozens of mines and stopped sourcing new mines for coal because the cost of solar power was significantly undercutting fossil fuel. with their government announcing it will not build any more coal plants after 2022 and predicts renewables will generate 57 per cent of its power by 2027.....

so yes it is doable ... but the issue is the billionaires who own the australian politicians will try as they will to slow Australias progression to renewables ... fear mongering about power prices , power loss , excessive costs to build and maintain keep it chugging along at a slowenough pace for the coal industry to still make profit

 

[gringo2011]

BECAUSE
We have no military stuffs.
Otherwise we could get invaded by Nauru and we'd need to surrender.

We are a relatively small and isolated country despite the land mass. We need politicians to look after AUSTRALIA , we need it more than what the current politicians do. We don't need some bullshit moral crusade.

I'm happy to use Nuclear power to help reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greens are happy to oppose ALL viable solutions.

Nuclear is actually one of the most expensive to set up, store and handle energy sources. It's also an infinite resource. Solar and wind are coming down so low now that it's cheaper to bring in than coal fired power if you are starting from scratch. At some point they will just have to store power on the premises in batteries to get around having to generate a base load.

 

[MUFKilda]

I support the idea of the Greens in Australia but the Aussie ones have done some idiotic acts of political sabotage that have made things worse.

We had Kevin Rudd trying to bring in a carbon tax and environment policy that would have had a set in stone policy that would have had a direction that business could understand, the renewables industry would have been established and we would now not have energy shortages. They sided with conservatives because they said they would rather nothing if they couldn't get an unrealistic energy target set in stone. Now 11 yeas later we are in the shit because they allowed Tony Abbott to feed off the turmoil. It's really fractured their credibility.

They also have abandoned pushing renewable energy here once the conservatives made it a cultural issue and blamed it for rising costs ( the opposite is true) because it lost popularity. They instead jump on social issues that don't tend to grab the imagination of anyone but their base. Also fight labor openly to steal votes including regular conservative backing.

That certainly seems like a political miscalculation of the 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' variety. Poor political judgement, however, can co-exist with good ideas. Your Labor Party, like ours pre-Corbyn, in moving to the right, seems to have lost sight of its core aims, and in so doing has left its core vote stranded. I live in Manchester, a Labour heartland with a key place in the British socialist tradition, but Labour's move to the right left many here despondent and feeling they had nowhere to go. I myself should be a dyed-in-the wool Labour supporter, but I joined the Green Party because I felt Labour had abandoned everything that made it worth voting for. Corbyn has restored some hope here for now, but I suspect the reactionaries in the party will at some point return Labour to Blairite policies; as you say, 'vanilla'.

 

[VDS66]

Firstly neg gearing reforms will not collapse the property market.

Secondly, as Saul Eslake asks, who should we feel.more sorry for? The investors who own two or more properties of the millions who have been squeezed out if home ownership?

Thirdly the current downturn us about a credit squeeze from banks who have really clamped down.

Fourthly, it will get worse because banks have funded borrowings from overseas and as USA and Euro rates gi up, so will ours - already happening.

Fifthly, as rates rise, people spend less and it dampens demand... Economic downturn.

Hold on to your hats.