See, you're trying to assassinate my character but you can't actually answer any of the questions I've raised.

Not at all, I like your character.

The Minister for Inquisitions thing put me off answering whatever else you wrote.

Anyway, Labor had one of those. Conroy attempted to be Labor's Torquemada.

Edited by thupercoach: 16/9/2013 08:22:47 PM

I was going to go with 'minister for aboriginal relocation' but I didn't think it was archaic enough.

Given that Warren Mundine believes in Abbott's intentions towards the Aboriginese I think you can feel safe on that score.

The only character you're attempting to assassinate is Abbott's. With little to back it up

Science ministry has been rolled into Education (Pyne...) and Industry.

Read there is no aged care, youth, mental health, disability, energy, early childhood and there's probably stuff I'm missing.

So instead of two separate portfolios pooling resources into a third portfolio they're competing with each other instead. Makes sense.

How exactly are they competing? If anything, there should be synergies that allow for better use of resources.

They're competing for government funds, priorities and positive media coverage.

Don't you think that would be more likely to happen under separate ministries than under one?

They are under separate ministries, that's the point I'm making :lol:

If we had to rely on separate Education and Industry ministries, projects like the Synchrotron would would never have happened.

Does it really matter if it is residential or agricultural land???

i thought the relevance was foreign ownership ??

What a surprise that batfink has failed in reading comprehension once again :roll:

No, we're talking about my statement that the cost of housing is being driven up by lack of supply, not aided one iota by excessive foreign investment in the housing market. Agricultural land ownership has no baring on residential land prices.

"Two girls one cup has more women (and more cups) than Tony Abbott's cabinet." - quote of the week.

fair enough, clearly i came in on the conversation and didn't read the entire post, fair enough.....

i was wrong...no big deal...

In terms of turning back the boats, if they don't turn back towards Indonesia, why not just transfer them to Papua New Guinea? You wouldn't need Indonesia's cooperation to do that would you.

My bad, I assumed your 'makes sense' comment was sarcasm.

You don't need a minister for science when you've got God as a minister for miracles.

Because they'd be intercepted somewhere in the vicinity of Christmas Island, that would be 400-500 km odd. It's another 4,000km to PNG. Completely impractical.

It was.

Why not just transfer the boat people to the nearest refugee camp and take the same number of people in from that refugee camp?

That would make a lot of sense except for the fact that you're then letting the regularity of arrivals determine how long people are spending in the refugee camps. Normally that wouldn't be a problem except you're putting the power back in the hands of the people smugglers.

Fair point except being sent to a refugee camp would be enough of a deterrent for many and then Australia can worry about increasing its refugee quota from the camps without being dictated to by numbers of boat arrivals.

Tough call on 1200 jobs at Centrelink
Date
September 18, 2013

Up to a quarter of the nation's Centrelink call centre workers are set to lose their jobs before the end of the year.

Pensioners, the disabled and families will feel the pain of drastically reduced customer service as 1100 to 1200 customer service workers are shown the door by the Department of Human Services, according to the public service union.

Many of the temporary workers were hired just months ago in an effort to tackle an escalating crisis in waiting times.

More than 800 of the operators will leave on September 27, according to the Community and Public Sector Union, when their contracts with the department run out, and 400 more will leave at the end of December.

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The losses will be felt at government call centres nationwide, including in Victoria at Wendouree, Geelong, Bendigo and Moreland.

The department disagrees with the union's figures, saying 1100 casuals will go.

The job losses come on top of the 12,000 public service jobs facing the axe under the incoming Coalition government.

The temporary workers were hired using a $30 million lifeline thrown by the former Labor government to the department in May to cut waiting times due to increasing "phone rage" incidents and a staff morale crisis.

The cash-strapped department, the government's largest, is facing historically high demand for its services with 70,500 outstanding claims for family tax benefits and other family allowances – almost twice normal levels.

Centrelink usually has about 13,000 claims for disability allowances and pensions on its books but now has 21,000, with 8000 of them more than 42 days old.

The department is trying to deal with 411,000 outstanding debts to the Commonwealth, more than eight times the level considered normal.

It also faces a $66 million loss in the 2012-2013 financial year, blamed on a burgeoning workload, natural disasters and a delayed redundancy program, which was supposed to reduce its wages bill.

Community and Public Sector Union deputy national president Lisa Newman said the job losses would affect not only the discarded workers but the public.

"These jobs are important to every community that has a DHS call centre and the broader Australian community that want to effectively access these services," she said.

But a department spokeswoman said 1100 jobs were being cut, not 1200, and that they had been temporary positions.

"These people are engaged on short-term, non-ongoing contracts or as irregular and intermittent employees to assist with peak times of demand," she said.

"The additional funding provided in this year's budget was specifically to answer calls during the July to September seasonal peak period for customers receiving family payments.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/tough-call-on-1200-jobs-at-centrelink-20130917-2txdc.html#ixzz2f9RjXBHr

Edited by Joffa: 17/9/2013 10:16:24 PM

I think it'd mean fewer people making the trip. If instead of sending them to the nearest refugee camp we sent them to wait their turn in camps in Africa that would do the trick I think. Sounds awful but it beats having people drown at sea.

Yeah, because being in what is effectively a refugee camp now is working out as a great deterrent.

It's another 3,000km back to the Australian mainland, and they end up in PNG anyway. Would be cheaper, quicker and more practical to take them directly to PNG.

Have the boats stopped yet?

Yes

I read that 300 refugees have arrived since the election date.

Fantastic to know that 300 people now live a safer life =d>

I see the pain issue as being fuelling the boats for a trip direct from where they're intercepted to PNG. They're flown from Christmas Island when they're taken from the centres there.