Worrals; You `wanna know sumthin?` Just right now I`m so bloody glad I`m not back in Australia, but here in Hokkaido enjoying myself.:ok: Struth, flying even if it is only Glider towing so what? I`m being paid for it and eating great food and drinking good stuff in the evenings without having to put up with all the crap going on back in Aussie.:*

This thread is the only access I have to what is going on back home and even what I read here depresses me.:sad:

The thought has crossed my mind more than once just recently; `Wonder how I could wrangle permanent residency?`:hmm:

Then you'll get upset about all their petty wrangling.
IMO politics is like family; everyone else's looks really easy compared to yours, until you buy into it and find out it's the same ol' crap. just with a different flavour. :rolleyes::}

Don't let the media drag you down, and glad you're enjoying yourself. :ok:
Organizing a family funeral at the moment (old bloke, but still :{) and very aware of the whole 'other people make it look simple' thing. I have the world's nicest family but there's still wrangling over music, readings et al. If I get asked again to 'include the one about the 1000 years of peace but no fire and brimstone stuff' I'm going to hand over a copy of the NRSV Bible and say 'rewrite it, claim yourself as a prophet and when the Pope approves that get back to me with what you want, and I'll read it.' :ugh:;):}

Family are family and politics is politics. Doesn't matter where you are, the arguments don't vary all that much and what most people care about most is the sandwiches, parking availability and that they Had Their Say. :bored:

I think this is a very sad day.

Rolf Harris found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls by London jury - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

War in Australia (any Oz Politics)
 

What I the world has Rolf Harris got to do with Australia (and even more so, Australian politics)? He may have started out here, but he has been based in the UK, and been a UK entertainment institution (much the same as Germaine Greer has, but in her case, drop the 'entertaining'), since the 1970s of not earlier.

It will be interesting to see his lawyers earning their keep with appeals to save him from doing any time.

A caller in to 2GB this morning said that, despite news reports of staff preparing accommodation for hundreds of arrivals and phone calls from 'Dooke" reporting oil leaks, sick babies and running out of water while experiencing heavy rain and thunderstorms, he has a relative working on Christmas Island who has told him they have seen and heard no sign of any asylum seeker boat or its passengers anywhere near the island.

Like others, I find Alana McTernan's presence on the island at this time more than a little co-incidental.

As for Sarah... what can you say? Could this whole exercise be explained simply by saying that she was suffering withdrawal pains and felt in need of a media fix?

7x7

Isn't that interesting.

Funny how the media get all worked up over nothing or false reports.

You might find the navy has already thought of this tactic and had resources in place. They might already be loaded on to a acceptable craft on be on route to Sri Lanka.

At the Friday media update it will be announced that there has been no significant incidents. The Sri Lanken illegal immigrants where off loaded there. And the Ones from Indo have been off loaded there in a newly opened processing center:E

Yes I'm only dreaming:p

• Tony Abbott's approval rating has dropped to 31 percent, lower than Julia Gillard's 34 percent approval rating before she was dumped last year

• Highest level of dissatisfaction with Abbott since he was elected PM

• If an election were held today Labor would win by a ten-point lead


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2675763/Tony-Abbott-popular-Julia-Gillard-was.html

Be interesting to see how long the LNP will put up with the slide before the knives start getting sharpened. Next election on or before Jan 14 2017..

Has everyone noticed that the media et al have gone very quiet re the AS boats ?

Eerily quiet.


I reckon if any SL AS, if caught have been taken straight back to SL.

We'll they sure don't appear to be anywhere, 500N. At least anywhere that anyone knows about.

That might be partially explained by the clever - and very effective - campaign being currently waged by the Opposition scaring the knickers off pensioners etc. about the government reducing their pensions.

Listening to 2GB today, I heard the stand in shock jock read out three emails, each of them so similar that I strongly suspect they were all penned at GetUp! HQ and probably by the same person. All went along the lines of "I've been a Liberal voter for 35 years, but I'll never vote for them again. Not after what they've done to the pensioners."

The fact that pensions have not been reduced - they actually went up today - is totally lost on 99% of people who hear these reports. It's a bit like the "bodies of 800 new born babies dumped in a septic tank at a Catholic convent in Ireland" story that was splashed across the front pages of newspapers a week or two ago.

None other than the ABC's Media Watch has just reported that that story is total bollocks. But try undoing the damage that story has done. 75% or more of the people who read or heard the original story will go on believing it to be true, and even some who have seen the retraction will still believe "where there's smoke, there's fire" - and the people who release these LIES know this, which is exactly why they do it.

The damage for the government would not be quite so bad if the MSM, and in particular the ABC, did not so willingly give Labor so much air time to sprout their line on every issue and remain so muted on the government's response.

The ABC is supposed to offer an impartial viewpoint on the news. It is so not impartial in what it reports - and perhaps more importantly, what it does not report - it is beyond a joke, and if the government does not address this burgeoning problem of media bias in the publically-funded broadcaster, we'll soon see, (if we are not seeing it already), a repeat of the manipulation of the population's opinions that was achieved by Dr Goebbels and his propaganda department from 1933 to 1945.

7X7 ..... a long time ago I worked out that most punters only read headlines, which is why some headlines... in particular those of a political nature.... are somewhat different from the actual story.
E.g. Headline ..... "Liberals to raise income taxes".
Story ...... "A Labour party spokesperson said today that, the Liberal government is planning to raise taxes". And it works both ways, as in parties that is.
My favourite non story over the past few weeks has been one in our local rag which has the doctors/owners of a brand new 'Medical Centre' saying that fewer patients are presenting at their state of the art edifice because they can't afford the seven bucks increase that the Liberals have impinged onto the "Battlers".
Perhaps they aren't too sick then.
P.s. aren't any pension changes only due after the next election anyway ?

Thats exactly right, you know there's nothing wrong with it, their a commercial enterprise. What needs to happen is fight fire with fire, not dreaming of utopian media. Oh and screw the ABC there not supposed to be commercial.

Fixed. Impressive to do it twice but differently!

Assuming the knifes will be out soon.
Who is the best replacement for Sir Tony,
Morison is doing a stellar job as is Brandis who is having lots of stoushes with Pyne, Bishop is out of her depth and so would be Hockey, Andrews is as popular as Abbott which leaves if I was a betting man Turnbull.
Hard to pick the most competent clown.

Keep dreaming Ethel, I know you get direction from the party hierarchy to try to help and give the illusion of instability, but hey where conservatives, not going to happen.

Several reasons, the most practical being we saw what happened to the joke which is called the Labor party.

From comments made by a senior Sri Lankan military officer on the ALPBC's 'AM' programme this morning, the Sri Lankans are following the ADF's lead in saying nothing to the media while events at sea are still... err... fluid. It would seem that, on the balance of probabilities, there is an asylum seeker boat out there with 153 Tamils on board and it would seem they might now be all aboard an Australian vessel heading 180 degrees to the direction they want to he heading with their satellite phones confiscated.

My best guess would be that the ABC (and quite probably the commercial networks as well) are standing by to rush camera crews to Sri Lanka or southern India to conduct heart-wrenching interviews with the mothers of the sick children who will doubtlessly have suffered unimaginable trauma and psychological damage during their return journey on the Australian Customs 'hell ship' to Sri Lanka/India.

Julian Burnside will have sent a senior associate to start proceedings for the compensation payout each one of the 153 asylum seekers will require to get over what they have endured after the 'capture', and Sarah Twotoomanydads will be on hand to provide her best Marlon Brando imitation for the cameras ("Oh, the humanity!")

Actually I would be having a good look at the councilor on Christmas island, he's been very vocal about the whole matter. Would be a good ploy by the ALP to organize all this through a minor minion.

Ethel .... don't know about 'competent clowns, in the Liberal Party but there were a lot of incompetent clowns in the last "government" I'm surprised that you didn't notice.
P.s. Have you been over to that "shock jock" site lately? If not you should then you would gain an insight into how the last lot of clowns went about their business ....... and probably still are.

Well, unless he does something dramatic, the Labor Party will be rubbing their hands in glee at the gift of free election win after a one term government. If the Libs are happy to leave Abbott in place they'll have bi-partisan support!!