AEC saying Labor has hit the magic 76, majority government.

— marquelawyers (@marquelawyers) May 23, 2022

Mixed reports on that in the media still; some as low as 72-and-counting, some as high as 76.

Either way, the ALP will have to negotiate with some combination of Greens / Lambie / (factions of) the Coalition to pass anything through the Senate.

Supafreak wrote:

Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t an independent ICAC choose what and who it investigates ? Isn’t that what the I stands for in ICAC ?

I'm going to do some more digging.Just to see how independent it can be..they still have to work within legislation and acts.

Pops wrote:

Mixed reports on that in the media still; some as low as 72-and-counting, some as high as 76.

Either way, the ALP will have to negotiate with some combination of Greens / Lambie / (factions of) the Coalition to pass anything through the Senate.

Yes pops they are only leading the count in 76 at the moment .

indo-dreaming wrote:

I focus wrote:

Indo

"We have seen the damage the influence of Greens can have under Rudd when he lost control of borders and we had 20K people arrive in one year, the effects of that stuff up has cost billions and been a complete ongoing mess."

Correction, Rudd took the border policy to his election Greens had nothing to do with it.

Obviously to keep the Greens happy behind the scene deals etc thats politics

Certainly during the Gillard Gov but Rudd had a landslide victory against Howard the Greens in the senate would have struggled to sway Rudd still the Greens had nothing to do with the boarder policy's of Rudd.

the system tends to protect its own... across the spectrum!!!

Hence the revolt, got nothing to do with retribution for me. They've had their fun and should be remembered for it.

Robwilliams wrote:

AndyM wrote:

And again -

The old federal government has:

Cut $14 million from the national audit office, after that office discovered substantial improprieties and wasteful spending (such as the sports rorts, and paying 10 times too much for land for the new Sydney airport). source

Voted against a binding code of conduct designed to ensure politicians act with integrity. source

Blocked a research-backed design change to increase the effectiveness of beverage warnings about drinking during pregnancy (recommended by an independent body) after meeting with lobbyists from alcohol companies who have donated over $300,000 to the Coalition. source

Gave $345,000 to News Corp to build a spelling bee website, discarding any pretense of propriety or fairness by skipping the usual parliamentary checks and tender process, instead just choosing to hand the excessive amount of cash to a company whose industry is neither website building nor education. source

Hid a record-breaking number of expenses from the public in an annual budget, including cash handed to a private rail project, maintaining an abandoned oil rig, and legal action relating to military bases which leaked toxic chemicals. source

Loosened political donation laws. source source

Committed a crime by ignoring a ruling of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. source source

Appointed a failed Liberal candidate to the SBS board instead of any of the ones recommended by the independent nominations panel. source

Prevented parliament from debating whether to set up a National Integrity Commission. source

Set up the COVID-19 National Coordination Committee with no terms of reference, no register of conflicts of interest, and then stacked it with gas company executives who unsurprisingly ended up recommending irrationally pro-gas policies. 690 documents about potential conflicts of interests were deliberately kept hidden. source source source

Blocked parliament from debating significant environmental protection repeals, rushing through the legislation without allowing anyone to discuss it first. source

Lied by claiming they appointed a Liberal party staffer to a job paying half a million dollars per year through an “open merit-driven, competitive process”. It was actually a limited tender not open to all, exempt from procurement rules which guarantee fairness and impartiality. source

Tried to get parliament to vote on new legislation without giving copies of the bill to the people voting on it, and used unprecedented methods to prevent any politician to speak against it. source source source

Paid tens of thousands of dollars to a company which was known to be corrupt, through a tender that was not opened up to all competitors. source

Illegally forged a document to publicly criticise a political opponent. source

Cancelled The Rule of Law and then preventing journalists from reporting on the case against a whistleblower who leaked truthful information in the public interest about senior politicians and law enforcement officials who flagrantly violated serious international laws. The court case is held in secret. The whistleblower’s name is illegal to publish. The witness and lawyers’ residences were raided, and the evidence against the government was confiscated. source source

Extended exemptions for political donation transparency, which are 25 years old and were only supposed to be temporary. source

Paid $39 million to a naval boat manufacturer when not required to because the company failed to fulfill the relevant contract clauses, and they coincidentally donated to the Liberal party. source

Illegally failed to respond to freedom of information (FOI) requests within the statutory 30 day deadline in 92.5% of cases. source

Bought water rights for 50 times more than many valuations, and double the price of the seller’s valuation. source

Lied by claiming that Kevin Rudd had travelled overseas and back during COVID while many Australians are still stranded overseas, when Mr Rudd had actually never left Queensland. source source

Refused to release a report into COVID policy communication strategies, which cost over $500,000. source

Introduced a mandatory code of conduct to force companies like Google to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to large private news companies (but not ABC news nor independent news, nor the Chaser). Google currently drives over 3 billion clicks per year to Australian news companies. Therefore this is like a local plumber demanding that the Yellow Pages pay the plumber for the act of directing plumber-seeking customers to the plumber. This will also undermine the fundamental principles of the web itself, according to its inventor. The laws are written based on the incorrect assumption that news makes up 10% of Google searches when it’s only 1%. source source source source source source

Introduced red tape and distorted the free market by forcing Google to give special insider knowledge of proprietary search algorithm changes to large news companies but not small, independent journalists. It includes ambiguously written clauses about giving news companies access to Google users’ private data. source source

Introduced protections for company executives who trade while insolvent during the pandemic. This is only for cases where the debts are incurred “the ordinary course of business”. Those who try to adapt to the challenging circumstances will not be exempt. In this way the government is incentivising executives to not adapt to the unique circumstances. source

Refused to release the minutes from an important meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee giving COVID advice to the Prime Minister. source source

Created the ABCC ostensibly for reducing corruption, but the ABCC boss himself violated rules and endangered people by ignoring COVID flight restrictions, travelling across the country to interview workers about a rally that happened 8 months prior. source

Refused to release a multilateral trade agreement with China, which involves spending government money on infrastructure in other countries. The lack of transparency exacerbates existing concerns about burdening these other developing nations with unsustainable debt. source source

Deleted records of a $165,000 political donation from a political consultancy with stakeholders who stand to benefit from the government’s $1 billion visa privatization plan, and refused requests for further explanation. source

Kept secret a government-funded report that showed that less than 1 in 3 Australians trust our public service sector. The justification was that the government believed that the report which they wrote would mislead and confuse people. source

Lied by claiming that all grants issued under the controversial $100M sports grant program were eligible for funding, when only 57% were. source

Failed to declare a property worth $1M in a minister’s declaration of interests. source

Failed to declare 2 properties worth more than $1M in another minister’s declaration of interests. source

Approved a $36,000 grant to a shooting club without declaring that the approving minister was a member of that club. source

Allocated sports grant funding based on which candidate projects were in marginal seats, rather than which were the most worthy. Then refused to release legal advice about whether such pork barrelling is illegal, and destroyed evidence about the funding choices. source source source source source

Merged the Australian Federal Police into the Home Affairs department, allowing the minister to exert political influence on investigations. source

Ignored a Royal Commission report which found the government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan is illegal, whilst refusing to publish their own report which they claim provides a valid rebuttal. source

Abandoned standard tender processes when awarding a $423 million contract to a company with $50k in funds, little experience, no phone number, no mail address, housed in a shack. source source

Refused to publish a report used to justify a $53 million contract to outsource Centrelink call handling. source source

Declared that they will violate a new law, because they don’t like it. source source

Spent $87,000 fighting against a Freedom of Information request about back-room deals, and then lied about the cost. source

Drastically increased the amount of government money spent without a proper tender process, up to $34 billion per month. source

Handed out $17.1M to private TV stations for a grant they didn’t ask for, without offering the money to the public broadcaster. source

Refused a Senate Order to release details about expensive contracts for security, health and infrastructure in their detention camps in PNG. source

Excused the conflict of interest arising when the head of the My Health Record (appointed by the government) privately received money for consultations about the My Health Record. source

Spent 2 years trying to hide documents from Freedom of Information requests, about a serious breach of top secret documents, and mishandling of those documents by a minister. source

Hid a report by the Governor General showing that the government paid twice as much as necessary for new combat vehicles, because such publicity would be bad for the private manufacturer’s future profitability. The company is not even Australian. source source

Lied about the Immigration Minister having no personal connection to someone who benefited from the direct intervention by the Immigration Minister in a visa case. source source source

Spent an undisclosed amount of public money on legal defence for a minister who broken the law for political gain. source

Broke an election promise by cutting $84 million from the ABC (again). source

Exempted a facial recognition system storing data of innocent citizens from standard procurement policy disclosure rules. The excuse is a reliance on security through obscurity rather than actual security. Accuracy figures are also not published. source source source

Increased the jail time for journalists who report on whistleblower’s truthful allegations by a factor of 10. source source

Refused to publish the percentage of calls to the veterans’ suicide help line which go unanswered, because that want negatively impact the brand of the private call centre operator. source

Prohibited public servants from liking social media posts critical of the government, even if anonymous. source

Failed to declare multiple $1600 Foxtel subscriptions gifted to ministers by a lobby group. source

Gave $30 million to Foxtel to boost “under represented sports”, and was unable to explain why free-to-air channels didn’t get the money, because the decision was made without any emails, letter, or supporting documentation. source source

Paid a minister $273 per night to stay in his own home. source

Prevented university newspapers from attending the release of multiple annual budgets like all other newspapers. These particular budgets contained multiple changes which negatively impact university students. source source

Refused to release the results for the trial of a national health register. source

Spent over $3,500 to send a minister to watch the AFL with his wife. source

Spent over $2,700 on a trip to watch polo. source

Spent $10,000 per day to send a single minister to the USA. source

Broke a promise to scrap free lifetime travel for former ministers. The excuse is that the government is to busy to pass legislation through parliament, despite that being the job of the government and of parliament. source

Falsely advertised the closure of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, despite Parliament rejecting the closure attempt. source

Refused to publish the cost benefit analysis on the agriculture minister’s decision to move a federal agency from Canberra to his own electorate. source

Personally appointed George Brandis’ son’s lawyer to a $370,000 job, without making a conflict of interest declaration. source source

Tried to privatise the database of ASIC (the corporate watchdog). Under private hands the cost journalists must pay to obtain information about potentially corrupt companies would increase. source

Spent over $140,000 for 5 ministers to travel to a country we have no trade or diplomatic ties with, visiting tourist sites and dining in 5 star restaurants. source

Refused to release 5 year old taxi receipts to assist in a fraud case, on the grounds that terrorists could use travel information from 5 years ago to help plan an attack against the minister in question. source

Spent $10,000 to fly the family of 2 ministers to a tropical island for a weekend holiday. source

Voted against a motion asking the Housing Affordability Inquiry to update the senate on how they are progressing with the recommendations the government supported. source

Rejected an inquiry which recommended that citizens accused of tax fraud be treated as innocent until proven guilty. source

Spent $30,000 on a private jet to fly one minister and their partner from Perth to Canberra (instead of catching a normal plane) because a non-business event ran overtime. This is despite the alleged budget emergency. source

Voted against increasing transparency about how much tax large corporations pay. source

Violated parliamentary anti-corruption rules by not declaring a substantial loan for almost 2 years. source

Broke an election promise to conduct and publish a cost benefit analysis for all infrastructure projects over $100 million. source

Spent over $20,000 in a legal fight in order to hide modelling for the impact of university fee deregulation. source source

Spent thousands of government dollars on taxi rides to the Opera in just 8 days. The government claims that the expenditure is reasonable because the minister didn’t pay for the tickets either. source

Spent thousands of government dollars on limousine rides, and fudged the declaration paperwork to say they were taxi rides. source

Spent $10,000 trying to chase down someone who leaked information to the media about how the Prime Minister deliberately and knowingly used false information to justify opposition to a defence force pay rise. source

Spent $27,000 on travel expenses for politicians to attend free sports events. source

Voted against a royal commission into corruption and misconduct in the financial service industry, following a series of scandals. source

Reaped $1000 per month of government money to pay for Joe Hockey to stay in his wife’s house. source

Proposed an exemption so that Australia’s richest companies no longer have to publish basic information about how much tax they are paying. source

Accidentally leaked the personal details of 31 world leaders, and chose not to notify them. They still claim your metadata will be safe though. source

Breached the criminal code of conduct by offering the independently appointed Human Rights Commissioner a new job if she resigned. source

Flew across the country on a taxpayer funded private jet to attend the private birthday party of a millionaire who has made large donations to the Liberal party. source

Refused to publish cost estimates for the data-retention policy which were provided by the industry. source

Voted to keep the text of the China Free Trade deal secret from the public. source

Abolished the $10,000 limit on political donations. source

Broke the law by missing the deadline for publishing the Intergenerational Report, as stipulated by the Charter of Budget Honesty Act. source

Spent $10,000 trying to identify a whistleblower who told the media that the Prime Minister knowingly mislead the public using information he knew was incorrect. source

Started an online petition to stop job losses at the ABC, just 36 hours after cutting ABC funding by 5% (which broke an election promise). source

Contracted out the managing of the Do Not Call Register to a marketing company. source

Secretly and retrospectively changed the official record of what was said in parliament. source

Broke an election promise by cutting ABC funding again ($120 million this time). source source

Spent $900,000 in just 2 months on private jet flights for ministers. source

Forced all community TV stations off the air, claiming that moving online will be better for stations and viewers. Meanwhile they continue to fervently defend foreign corporate stations like HBO, who stubbornly refuse to make content accessible online. source

Introduced new laws which mean Edward Snowden type leaks are punishable by up to 10 years of prison. No exemptions are made for anti-corruption leaks. If journalists report on anyone (including innocent bystanders) being killed accidentally or deliberately by security personnel, they will be jailed for up to 10 years. source source source source

Spent $50,000 on upgrades of curtains and upholstery for the Prime Minister’s office. source

Moved to abolish the role of freedom of information commissioner, abolish the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and charge $800 for reviews of Freedom of Information Request denials. source

Refused to publish any submissions it received for or against the proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, even though the government says the changes are to protect free speech. They refused to state what proportion of submissions supported the changes. The government defended this secrecy by claiming that all submissions were made with the expectation of confidentiality. This is false. The Senate Inquiry Submission Guidelines state that to make a Senate Inquiry Submission confidential, you must explicitly justify a request for confidentiality, and that such requests are generally denied. source source

Lied about the Australian Federal Police advising Tony Abbott not to visit Deakin University for safety reasons. source

Gave the Minister for Infrastructure the power to silence Infrastructure Australia (an independent body) without justification. (See section 5A.2 of the link.) source

Deliberately hid the cost of the $4.45 million renovations on The Lodge. source

Spent $50,000 on one dinner for 60 G20 guests, including food specially flown to Washington from all over Australia. source

Voted against the creation of a federal anti-corruption watchdog. source

Cut $38 million from Australian television and film funding. source

Broke an election promise by cutting $40 million from the SBS and ABC. source source source

Broke an election promise to not cut ABC funding, by cutting all funding to the Australia Network (part of the ABC). source source source

Claimed a 2.5% reduction in funding every year for the ABC is not a funding cut. source

Increased the fee for lodging Freedom of Information requests. source

Paid a public relations company $97,000 for 3 weeks of work to help improve the Education Department’s image, then refused to release the report that came of it. source

Proposed the scrapping of regulation which prevents media monopolies and duopolies. source

Spent over $15,000 on a custom made bookcase to replace a $7,000 custom bookcase which holds $13,000 worth of taxpayer funded books and magazines in senator Brandis’ office. source

Spent $22,000 taxpayer dollars buying new cutlery and crockery for the ministerial wing of parliament. source

Chose not to mention a $882 million payout to News Corp. when outlining a $16.8 billion budget black hole. The payout was the single biggest item in the black hole. source source

Denied any wrongdoing after a government aid married to the head of a junk food lobby pulled down a government website providing simplified nutritional information within hours of its launch. source

Violated Youtube’s policies regarding deceptive content, resulting in the suspension of Abbott’s whole channel. source

Criticised the ABC because they aren’t biased towards the Government. source

Spent over $120,000 on Kirribilli House, including $13,000 on an imported luxury rug, paid for by the taxpayer. source

Tried to silence the media to stop them criticising the upcoming private jet deal for politicians. source

Changed the ministerial code of conduct so ministers no longer have to sell shares which create a conflict of interest. source

Made Orwellian threats about cutting ABC funding because the government didn’t like one of their stories, and because their quality of journalism is too high, thereby creating competition which threatens the corporate newspaper duopoly (who are now floundering because they didn’t see the internet coming).

https://chaser.com.au/national/an-exhaustive-list-of-the-liberal-partys…

Re Clive the caarnt, "100 million spent for a 1% swing and absolutely no seats. Imagine if this bloated, odious windbag spent the combined expenditure, this and last election, 170 million, on worthwhile projects, or even paying his employees properly." - ML

Ahh Loopholes for benefit. Here's to a better political term, it had to happen. Wether I agree or not.

stunet wrote:

Would like to see a strong ICAC put in place but I'm in two minds about making it retrospective simply in order to pin past LNP ministers. I don't know, just seems petty and a distraction from real business, of which there is a lot to be taken care of.

Everyone knows the last LNP cabinet were a bunch of incompetent, and possibly corrupt, kooks but I can't see what benefit looking backwards does.

If the federal ICAC isn’t able to look backwards would it not be breaking one of the fundamental principles of criminal and civil law ie police/the courts/prosecutors can go back in time if evidence exists showing a crime has been committed.

For the new federal ICAC to be limited to future indiscretions would seriously undermine its legitimacy right from the start IMO.

Spot on guy. They will weasel out of what they can. One set of rules for us and one set for them. Should be interesting to see how serious they take it and who is protected. Will further independents gain more sway if they go light on? Will the rule of law be upheld? Can the beast be tamed? Not if you go lightly. They dug a big hole and it's time to fill it in. Otherwise moderate voters will continue to shun the major parties as they loose faith. Talk about fracturing from the inside out.

Bastards are getting a serve.
Bouncers and Yorker's all the way.

Robwilliams wrote:

Spot on guy. They will weasel out of what they can. One set of rules for us and one set for them. Should be interesting to see how serious they take it and who is protected. Will further independents gain more sway if they go light on? Will the rule of law be upheld?

Labor has some karma to extract, if they want, on the LNP remembering the bullshit royal commissions into shorten and gillard but I don’t think they will go down that route.

IMO I think Labor are in fact committed to a proper ICAC having campaigned on it for years. If they aren’t sections of the media and all those fantastic teals and greens (you fucking beauty) will slap them into line quick smart.

In fact, I think this election result is the best possible out for the country.

Be a good bloke Albo
Pardon Darko Desic

There needs to be ICAC with retrospective powers. This should be non negotiable. Anything less is a farce.

There needs to be ICAC with retrospective powers. This should be non negotiable. Anything less is a farce.

Supafreak wrote:

We can expect plenty more rants like this for the next decade or more . https://twitter.com/mrkrudd/status/1528294370700455936?s=21&t=wpk8XGYAA…

Had a good chuckle watching this fuckwit, then someone started talking doppelgangers and our old mate Burleigh came to mind.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

For sure an ICAC should be retrospective. It should be empowered to prosecute any historical criminality to the extent of the statute of limitations. Got to burn the whole thing down. Ministers need to go to gaol.

The ICAC is the only legitimate broadscale point of difference between the ALP and the LNP. If the ALP are in power they may as well be empowered to improve the country.

@DSDS
Could not agree with this any more than I do. Where else in society is there clemency from criminality apart from said statute of limitations? Each referral should be thoroughly investigated on their merits regardless of time passed.

@roadkill

“The ALP won't go after any LNP ministers because if they do when the LNP gets back in they will spitfully set ICAC onto ALP ministers.”

That's not how “Independent” Commission Against Corruption agencies work…Any attempt by the ALP or LNP, or any other vexatious litigant, to weaponise the agency is recognised very early on before anything goes to trial or even becomes public knowledge. State run ICAC’s have effective measures in place that I am sure the Federal model will/should adopt.

Far out , Josh’s concession speech is so moving, background music nearly had me shedding a tear .

Supafreak wrote:

Far out , Josh’s concession speech is so moving, background music nearly had me shedding a tear .

Yeah me too until I remembered he was a dud energy and environment minister “Mr NEG” and a dud treasurer “$18 billion rortkeeper”

GuySmiley wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

Far out , Josh’s concession speech is so moving, background music nearly had me shedding a tear .

Yeah me too until I remembered he was a dud energy and environment minister “Mr NEG” and a dud treasurer “$18 billion rortkeeper”

Yeah but he did save the country 60 billion…..didn’t he ? https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101092120. The music is such a nice touch

Supafreak wrote:

GuySmiley wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

Far out , Josh’s concession speech is so moving, background music nearly had me shedding a tear .

Yeah me too until I remembered he was a dud energy and environment minister “Mr NEG” and a dud treasurer “$18 billion rortkeeper”

Yeah but he did save the country 60 billion…..didn’t he ? https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101092120. The music is such a nice touch

Calling it as it was #getrealjosh #allsmirknosubstance

History is written by the victors- https://amp.smh.com.au/politics/federal/mcgowan-launches-post-election-…

flollo wrote:

On a side note, watching Bloomberg to get the feel for the markets following the elections. Predictions are showing strong growth for mining stocks due to anticipated climate change action. Conversely, AGL stock seems to be in the toilet due to the expectation to close coal plants as soon as possible.

Yeah it was a pretty flat session to mark a milestone (which I believe it is). My take is that the Lucky Country will blunder into another incredibly wealthy mining phase, maybe much bigger than the last one, as it supplies the West all these miracle rocks.

So flick the switch from 'safe as houses' (which might get a hiccup) to 'sell them dirt'. I jest, but have been following this area for years.

Now - how these rocks are supplied will be contentious and we must apply the same desire to protect the environment as the teals being elected has shown - don't touch the Tarkine!

Nice try Clive https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/24/zero-evidence-to…. UAP supporters seem friendly

velocityjohnno wrote:

flollo wrote:

On a side note, watching Bloomberg to get the feel for the markets following the elections. Predictions are showing strong growth for mining stocks due to anticipated climate change action. Conversely, AGL stock seems to be in the toilet due to the expectation to close coal plants as soon as possible.

Yeah it was a pretty flat session to mark a milestone (which I believe it is). My take is that the Lucky Country will blunder into another incredibly wealthy mining phase, maybe much bigger than the last one, as it supplies the West all these miracle rocks.

So flick the switch from 'safe as houses' (which might get a hiccup) to 'sell them dirt'. I jest, but have been following this area for years.

Now - how these rocks are supplied will be contentious and we must apply the same desire to protect the environment as the teals being elected has shown - don't touch the Tarkine!

Wouldn't the majority of minerals mined for renewables be from demand from other countries?

Not to mention per capita Australia is already number one in the world for solar capacity and roof top solar and fourth for wind generated energy, with one of the fastest renewable uptake rates in the world.

LNP were so silly not to educate people on these aspects and use them in their election campaign, the reality of the situation is not the problem itself its the public perception thats the problem, the uptake rate will increase under Labor further but it would have under LNP too its completely driven naturally by economics its like a snow ball rolling down the hill.

Of course Labor will start playing on these stats and playing on that natural snow ball effect, which will make them.look good, same deal with closing down coal fired power stations, many of the predicted decommission dates have naturally been moving forward due to economics, but Labor will claim this too.

On the flipside though if Labor really want to satisfy the Greens and Teals, they will have to some how greatly reduce fossil fuel exports, three of our four biggest exports are coal, gas, petroleum.products.

Imagine the damage done if in theory those things were reduced faster than natural market/demand dictates

sypkan wrote:

"As good as it would be for ICAC to look back, how far back would be far enough? Will it actually achieve anything by going back in time?"

far enough to get rudd and co. selling us out too!

probably no, but it'll feel good watching people squirm

1 January 1901, federation.

Supafreak wrote:

Nice try Clive https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/24/zero-evidence-to…. UAP supporters seem friendly

How was the UAP supporter!

In need of heavy sedation.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

Nice try Clive https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/24/zero-evidence-to…. UAP supporters seem friendly

How was the UAP supporter!

In need of heavy sedation.

Was that Burleigh?

indo-dreaming wrote:

velocityjohnno wrote:

flollo wrote:

On a side note, watching Bloomberg to get the feel for the markets following the elections. Predictions are showing strong growth for mining stocks due to anticipated climate change action. Conversely, AGL stock seems to be in the toilet due to the expectation to close coal plants as soon as possible.

Yeah it was a pretty flat session to mark a milestone (which I believe it is). My take is that the Lucky Country will blunder into another incredibly wealthy mining phase, maybe much bigger than the last one, as it supplies the West all these miracle rocks.

So flick the switch from 'safe as houses' (which might get a hiccup) to 'sell them dirt'. I jest, but have been following this area for years.

Now - how these rocks are supplied will be contentious and we must apply the same desire to protect the environment as the teals being elected has shown - don't touch the Tarkine!

Wouldn't the majority of minerals mined for renewables be from demand from other countries?

Not to mention per capita Australia is already number one in the world for solar capacity and roof top solar and fourth for wind generated energy, with one of the fastest renewable uptake rates in the world.

LNP were so silly not to educate people on these aspects and use them in their election campaign, the reality of the situation is not the problem itself its the public perception thats the problem, the uptake rate will increase under Labor further but it would have under LNP too its completely driven naturally by economics its like a snow ball rolling down the hill.

Of course Labor will start playing on these stats and playing on that natural snow ball effect, which will make them.look good, same deal with closing down coal fired power stations, many of the predicted decommission dates have naturally been moving forward due to economics, but Labor will claim this too.

On the flipside though if Labor really want to satisfy the Greens and Teals, they will have to some how greatly reduce fossil fuel exports, three of our four biggest exports are coal, gas, petroleum.products.

Imagine the damage done if in theory those things were reduced faster than natural market/demand dictates

We are not where we need to be domestically. Go to the electricity market website and play with the dashboard. Still, too much reliance on coal and LNP scaring people even further with 'gas led recovery'.

https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-…

Maybe there is a risk of pushing Labor to put further control on exports however, I don't anticipate that as we have so much work at home. At the end of the day, international access to capital is largely in favor of clean energy projects, anyone trying to raise finance for 'dirty' projects in the future will have to overcome some serious hurdles. I don't see the need for Greens or anyone to come up with a political decision on this, global funds and governments are moving faster than us and we have no choice.

In Australia, many people still have a very parochial way of thinking. It's not good. We think we can act independently but on many things, we will have to follow global trends whatever they are. And in this area, LNP is trying to run its own thing instead of being truly liberal and capitalising on world markets throwing money trying to fix the climate change problem.

From the awe inspiring Macrobusiness site:

+
Albo must immediately smash the gas cartel
By Houses and Holes
There are lots of things for Albo to do and the last thing on his mind is picking a fight with resources firms. But that’s what he must do:

Surging gas prices have claimed another victim with a major NSW wholesaler forced to shut its doors, saying thousands of jobs were being put at risk due to an “unprecedented rapid rise” in gas and coal costs.

Weston Energy, which provides gas to more than 400 companies and government agencies, has ceased trading with immediate effect meaning 7 per cent of the east coast’s commercial and industrial market will be forced to find a new supplier.

The company said it could no longer finance cash flow requirements of its trading portfolio “on a timely basis” with prices rising over 180 per cent since April, and almost three times higher than at the start of the year.

“Rapidly rising energy prices have put hundreds of Australian businesses, and thousands of jobs at risk,” Weston managing director Garbis Simonian said.

“The fact that Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and gas and yet our domestic prices are at unprecedented high levels, highlights real policy failure.”

“The circumstances now buffeting Australian energy markets have been foreseen for some time, but little has been done to prepare Australia’s energy producers and users for this impact.”

It is no more or less complex than that. We have massive quantities of surplus gas coming out of the ground at $1Gj but it’s all being sold to China by an export cartel for $31Gj.

That has left the local economy short and the cartel is now charging us even more than the Chinese at $35Gj.

The answer is already in place. The Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) can be triggered to force the cartel to sell more gas here until the price falls to a reasonable level around $7Gj.

The upsides for this are immense:

Enormous pressure removed from all east coast utility bills both gas and power.
Enormous pressure removed from supply-side inflation
Enormous boost to domestic manufacturing confidence to aid Labor’s industrial revival platform which the cartel will destroy at these prices.
Guaranteed low emissions baseload power supply as renewables roll out.
Massive kick to the crotch of a prone Coalition.
Labor underlining for all and sundry its national interest credentials.
Zero impact on the budget given the cartel pays no tax and growth will lift.
The ADGSM is a Colaition policy. There is ZERO political risk in triggering it.

In fact, if you don’t do it, Albo, we can only assume that, too, are on the cartel payroll:

Everyone wondered whether there was some connection between the government’s direction and its financial indebtedness to the fossil fuel industry. But no one could prove it. Why? Because the Commonwealth doesn’t have real time disclosure of political donations.

Only now, long after the public’s attention has moved on, have those suspicions been confirmed. Thanks to the donations data recently made public on the Australian Electoral Commission site, we know that fossil fuel companies — and the gas industry in particular — were giving generously to both major parties at the time, a whopping $1,329,754 to be precise, with just over half of this from the gas industry.

The Coalition got the lion’s share ($731,534), although Labor collected the not-insignificant sum of $598,220.

If you add to the Coalition’s total for that year the just over $1 million the LNP harvested from fossil fuel via its fundraising entity Cormack, the Coalition’s indebtedness to gas, coal and mining in the 2020-21 period swells to $1,735,048.

Is this proof of corruption? No, but it certainly gives reason for voters to consider whether corruption has taken place. To wit, whether the gas-led recovery policy was designed and intended by the Morrison government to serve the public interest or private ones.

Are you on the payroll, Albo?“

I really think Indo needs to read the above to discover the reality of his “pro business “ LNP lovies.

I wonder if MSM will reconsider all the work Friendly Jordies did on Dutton now that he's the front runner as opposition leader?

The hard work's been done, investigation is over, the legals check out, they've just gotta swallow their pride is all.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

I really think Indo needs to read the above to discover the reality of his “pro business “ LNP lovies.

The saddest thing about this is that the amounts mentioned are actually peanuts. I reckon they could crowdfund those numbers with a real plan that people believe in. It's certainly not worth selling your soul to cartels for such small amounts.

flollo wrote:

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

I really think Indo needs to read the above to discover the reality of his “pro business “ LNP lovies.

The saddest thing about this is that the amounts mentioned are actually peanuts. I reckon they could crowdfund those numbers with a real plan that people believe in. It's certainly not worth selling your soul to cartels for such small amounts.

That’s cause the stuff given in brown paper bags to individuals doesn’t get declared and the post-political career position on the board don’t require declaration at all.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

flollo wrote:

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

I really think Indo needs to read the above to discover the reality of his “pro business “ LNP lovies.

The saddest thing about this is that the amounts mentioned are actually peanuts. I reckon they could crowdfund those numbers with a real plan that people believe in. It's certainly not worth selling your soul to cartels for such small amounts.

That’s cause the stuff given in brown paper bags to individuals doesn’t get declared and the post-political career position on the board don’t require declaration at all.

Haha, true.

stunet wrote:

I wonder if MSM will reconsider all the work Friendly Jordies did on Dutton now that he's the front runner as opposition leader?

The hard work's been done, investigation is over, the legals check out, they've just gotta swallow their pride is all.

Was thinking the same, surely FJ will be digging deeper.

stunet wrote:

I wonder if MSM will reconsider all the work Friendly Jordies did on Dutton now that he's the front runner as opposition leader?

The hard work's been done, investigation is over, the legals check out, they've just gotta swallow their pride is all.

"Swallow" is probably a word that would have been better used when referring to the Prayer Room article.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

I really think Indo needs to read the above to discover the reality of his “pro business “ LNP lovies.

Honestly I'm not sure what part am i suppose to be in uproar about??

I would have expected Gas prices to rise due to the fact Russia is the worlds number one exporter, so obviously global prices will rise (that said the article linked below from March didn't expect price rises in Aust)

I actually thought we paid a pretty expensive price for gas in Australia because we do sell cheaper to Asia which makes sense seeing we sell in such huge volume(historically we sell 99% of our gas to Asia)

But just reading this the price we pay for gas compared to the rest of the world is actually cheap...go figure

"Australia’s domestic gas prices are about 70% lower than overseas, due to government measures to quarantine Australian customers from international prices and guarantee secure and affordable gas to the country’s east coast market."

https://theconversation.com/how-disrupted-russian-gas-supplies-will-hit…

Or am i suppose to be in uproar because both LNP and Labor get funding from these companies?

WOTD - great colour too!

#abc730 Leigh Sales: "Will u b looking at starting to repay some of the debt?"

Jim Chalmers: "It'll take a generation to pay down these debts. All of the rorts & all of the waste - we will look at it all.. You can't just flick a switch & make $1 trillion disappear"

— ShiannonCorcoran💉x4 @shiannonc.bsky.social (@ShiannonC) May 24, 2022

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

This is probably true but I’m still staggered about people posting on twitter 30-40 times a day like this person. And all about how fantastic Labor is and how shit everyone else is. Ok politics is important but to consume that much of individual’s time? I find it really strange. Aren’t there better things to do in life?

'Dead Eyes' the opposition leader?
"I'm sure people will say, 'He's a man who looks like the other bloke, only worse,'" the MP said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-24/peter-dutton-only-candidate-libe…

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

it's as if people think the ALP will just start to repay debt. Watch them fund various things with debt. And the ALP is part of the rorts and the waste.

san Guine wrote:

'Dead Eyes' the opposition leader?

"I'm sure people will say, 'He's a man who looks like the other bloke, only worse,'" the MP said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-24/peter-dutton-only-candidate-libe…

He won't last. Will never be a PM. If they keep him as leader they will forever be in the wilderness.

Roadkill wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

it's as if people think the ALP will just start to repay debt. Watch them fund various things with debt. And the ALP is part of the rorts and the waste.

Given WA's state Labor Government is the only one racking up surplus's ATM (yep that's a Labor Government ) then there is the small detail that Federal Labor racked up $187 bil of debt verses Coalition the rest of $ one trillion ( a lazy $813 bil).

Labor will certainly have their work cut out matching that ...eh.

Roadkill wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

it's as if people think the ALP will just start to repay debt. Watch them fund various things with debt. And the ALP is part of the rorts and the waste.

100% its kinda scary because LNP usually clean up Labor's debt but this time it's Labor debt with added LNP debt on top and then there will be more Labor debt added now.

But the said the debt to ratio level is still low compared to GDP on a global scale and the debt to GDP level has been higher in our past (word wide 2 i think)

And debt is viewed and managed differently to in the past, but still you wouldn't want to keep adding more outside of a pandemic or similar scenario which is bound to happen under Labor.

I focus wrote:

Roadkill wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

it's as if people think the ALP will just start to repay debt. Watch them fund various things with debt. And the ALP is part of the rorts and the waste.

Given WA's state Labor Government is the only one racking up surplus's ATM (yep that's a Labor Government ) then there is the small detail that Federal Labor racked up $187 bil of debt verses Coalition the rest of $ one trillion ( a lazy $813 bil).

Labor will certainly have their work cut out matching that ...eh.

Doesn't Labor's government in Victoria amount to more than all the other states debt combined???

I wonder if Dutton’s daily intravenous formaldehyde drip is paid for with taxpayer’s coin?

I guess it’s a small price to pay to avoid our shadow leader emptying out parliament with the stench of putrefaction.

On debt - government was critised for not borrowing more and stimulating growth during the pre pandemic era. I remember listening to Alan Kohler’s podcast in 2019 saying that he doesn’t understand why the government doesn’t borrow more considering favourable lending conditions. Our debt is not big, better inflation pay it than us. But what we got for the debt and how to get more value in the future is debatable.

Roadkill wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

https://twitter.com/shiannonc/status/1529037592955875329?s=21&t=Rl7vkYw…

it's as if people think the ALP will just start to repay debt. Watch them fund various things with debt. And the ALP is part of the rorts and the waste.

Is this any different to the thousands of us private citizens funding things with debt - like our flashy new M Series BMW's and AirBnB's. We all have the same mentality including the government of the day in that we can't resist spending easy money we don't have on crap.

This false argument that @info loves to trot out about “Australia being (insert whitewashing phrase to suit his current argument) than the rest of the world” fails to consider the lost opportunity, the natural competitive advantage; innovation and IP; our history and the hard work of those that came before us.

It’s lazy beyond belief; it ignores the neo-con’s decades long political mantra to attack the left; it’s a pathetic condescending nod to honouring the lowest common denominator and devoid of aspiration for greatest for our country and it’s communities.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

I wonder if Dutton’s daily intravenous formaldehyde drip is paid for with taxpayer’s coin?

I guess it’s a small price to pay to avoid our shadow leader emptying out parliament with the stench of putrefaction.

Best comment ever.