Refuse to take any refugees until those backward medieval arab fuckers pull their fingers out of their proverbial arses.

They facilitate all that shit and then they just sit there doing fuck all.

Happy for Australia to take refugees but if we're "all in this together" then the love has to be shared around. (Is that clear McJules? I'm happy for refugees to come here.)

Heard on the radio today there was a near riot because some of the refugees were stopped in Denmark but they wanted to go on to Sweden which suits them better ? ! FFS.

I'm a bit over it all.

I disagree that we have nothing in place but we probably need more. Anyone sensible wouldn't advocate us taking 30,000+ overnight but we easily could with adequate planning. Providing funding and services to the camps "at the front line" is important too so I'm pleased we're doing something in that space.

Also disagree that it would be a political play for the LNP to talk up our involvement. It would contradict the "national security/islamophobia" narrative.

Never thought you weren't against refugees coming here (I didn't even think rusty was).

Of course there should be pressure on those countries. There should be pressure on the US as well. I don't see our us not taking the relatively small amount we're capable of is going to do anything change the situation with those nations but instead ensure that the ones we can continue to suffer.

I'd absolutely go balls deep in Leigh Sales.

I do have a few caveats with her line of questioning to the PM though. Firstly under Labor's own projections things were expected to worsen. Unemployment was to go up and the economy to slow down on the back off end of the mining boom and fall in commodity prices. Secondly it's common acknowledged by economists that macroeconomic policy changes take a number of years to significantly influence the economy. The current dire situation could simply be due to the fiscal drag created by the spendthrift former government and their lack of action responding to the of the mining boom. Perhaps were it not for the actions of the current government, the outlook might be even worse.

Finally many of the government's reforms have been blocked by Labor, Greens and the crossbenchers. I know it excites some people to see the government's agenda stonewalled by the morons on the cross bench, but I for one am not delighted to see our economic future decided by the likes of Muir, Lazarus and Lambie.

This government has not had a proper go at running the country unimpeded by politics, self interest and intellectual vacuums on the senate , therefore to the lay blame squarely at their feet for the current set of economic values is disingenuous.

That was probably unfair. Unlike 90% of the posters here you seem to have an ability to drill down to the arguments.

Fuck the middle east though. Vast swathes of the joint haven't progressed in the last 900 years.

Such a shame after being the cradle of civilisation and the centre of higher learning in ancient times.

The sooner the oil runs out there (or alternate fuels come online) the better.




Edited by munrubenmuz: 10/9/2015 11:12:26 AM

Ha ha. Gillard governed in a minority government and got a lot more done than this clown.

Besides I thought Tony came in on the back of "no excuses", "the adults are in charge" etc...

"We stopped the boats"

"Mr Abbot, I'm talking about the economy"

"We stopped the boats"

That's because she was able to pass her legislation through the senate, with the support of the Greens. The government doesn't have the numbers in the senate to pass their legislation, and doesn't have the support of cross benchers such as Muir, Lambie and Lazarus. Lets see Gillard would have done were those retards deciding the economic future of the country.

The legislation the Gillard government provided was much easier to pass in the Senate because it wasn't fucking ridiculous

=d>
And they compromised to find middle ground. It's like rusty thinks we'd be better off with a one party model like China.

Edited by mcjules: 10/9/2015 11:24:12 AM

Like the carbon tax and the mining tax that raised no revenue? Even the anti Abbott cross benches voted those things down. Just because something passes the senate doesn't mean it's a fantastic idea.

No I never thought that, I just pointed out that having the cross bench senators of the intellectual capacity of Lambie, Lazarus and Muir blocking everything the government proposes isn't a fair reflection of the capabilities of the government. If they were able to freely pass their legislation and the current economic report had just been run you could argue a much greater case that the current government policies were failing, but in many cases the senate outright refuses to negotiate. I'm not arguing the current government is doing a wonderful job, I'm just pointing out that just because it's trendy and cool to sink the boot into the Abbott government, doesn't objectively mean it's all his fault.

I think Muir, who I thought would be the worst of the lot has actually been pretty decent. The fact is most people did not support the policies that the government were trying to push through, they were so unpopular it made it easy for the cross benchers to block them. Even then some very unsavoury policies still made it through.

The key thing around all of this is that most of these policies were surprises to the general public from what was supposedly a "no surprises" government. The Libs should go to the polls with all their crackpot policies on the table this time and let the people decide.

We do? Do we have training programmes targeted at these people coming into our country? Germany advertises theirs and so does Sweden. I guess the reason I don't know is because the government doesn't want to be seen as 'taking in the enemy' so to speak.

Yes I have been surprised & thought likewise.
The most embarrassing senator is David Leyonhjelm (even outdoes Jacquie Lambie).
I don't think he realises what a 'Liberal Democrat' is - 'Australian National Front' would be a more apt party name for his ideology.

His face is so fucking lolworthy, was like a deer in the headlights.

Almost like you could picture the staffers behind the cam pointing to the A3 boards "just keep talking about the boats!"

Inept twat :lol:

-PB

And they're just projections lol, nothing more than figures plucked out of thin air.

Can't all sit round and have a pat on the back because they supposedly faired better than some shoddy ALP calculations made 2+ years ago :lol:

-PB

Actually, from my understanding & considering you reference macroeconomic policy effect, the current economic situation is a result of Howard/Costello. It is widely agreed amongst economists that if Australia had have taken the path that Turnbull was suggesting during the economic crisis of 2008/09 (when he was opposition leader), Australia would have gone into recession. It was recognised that Rudd's actions at the time were regarded as one of, if not the best, amongst OECD countries particularly as he acted promptly & appropriately (other countries suffered by delaying action).

The Upper House (Senate) is a House of 'review' of legislation passed in the Lower House, which the Government occupies.
Obtaining Government does not give the party the right to have legislation pass, hence the Senate is a 'check & balance'.
As for the Gillard Government, they were a minority Government & had to negotiate with 'cross bench' independents to formulate policy for approval in the Lower House in the first place.
Hence it is fallacious reasoning to imply that they had The Greens in the Senate to be complicit in approving legislation - they had to negotiate in the House of Representatives initially, which the current government doesn't have the 'roadblock' of.
Its also worth noting that Abbott could have formed Government with the independents' support in 2010 - it is telling that they sided with Labor & subsequently no surprise that legislation is getting blocked now.

Plus Tone could have pulled the trigger on a DD election but never went through with it.

Now he probably can't either because they would get raked over the coals.

-PB

Mike Baird needs to throw his hat in the ring.

I can see abott having a dubya moment . Whats that saying fool me once.. shame shame on you
Fool me twice you cant get fooled again :lol:
Abott needs to stop the attack dog as he is in government now and probably actually lead without looking like a angry angry man

He showed his & his party's true colours when he said to Leigh Sales
"...I hope the national broadcaster might join me in looking for the good and boosting our country..."
Its disappointing the lengths they go to try & muzzle free speech & keep their actions secret (e.g.: boat arrivals & interceptions).
Rather Cold War-esque & to be expected from the right, rather than the left, side of politics.

The west should put pressure on Iraq to set up an autonimous region for the Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains, and the Yazidis in Shingal. These can act as safe havens for these minorities.

Steve Stone = Leigh Sales
Ball = Leigh Sales' question
Tony Popovic = Tony Abbott

[youtube]oP3jbpcCo2E[/youtube]

Not necessarily a bad idea, but it can never happen.

All parties are terrified of Iraq breaking up into multiple countries, so won't do anything that gives credibility to a potential break up of the country, and creating "autonomous zones" does that.

The Kurdish 'autonomous' area in the north-east occurred thru them having the no-fly zone protecting them for a long time, along with having a base of oil reserves, and their ability to stay stable while the rest of the country collapsed post the 2003 invasion. It exists de facto, but not de jure.

It has been of short-term benefit to the USA to have them as a bulwark and base to operate against IS. But Turkey will prevent anything close to a break-away region once (if) the region settles down.

I think you underestimate a few things:

- the govt has not laid out many considered, thought out, debated policies. They have essentially announced things in the media and introduced them to parliament, and expected the crossbenchers to comply.

- Whilst Gillard and the ALP are obviously a more natural ally of the greens, she also convinced country NSW MPs (Windsor etc) to back her as well.

My thoughts are that Abbott is a terrible negotiator, and the Libs have tried to push through a lot of legislation that they DID NOT float before the election.

Without that "mandate" of promising a policy and getting voted in, it is very hard to get policies through. The proof of this is that they did campaign on the carbon tax repeal, mining tax repeal, changes to boat people policy, and were able to bring these changes in.

Everything that has come since (education changes, massive funding cuts etc), were all things they never campaigned on. So the crossbenchers were never under real pressure to change position.

Criticise Gillard all you want, but she is an effective political operator within the parliament. Her problem was the ability to sell policies to the public, and maintaining party unity.

Edited by AzzaMarch: 10/9/2015 03:39:01 PM

Something needs to happen the assyrians numbers have dropped drastically, particularly since the 2003 invasion. Prior to that they were targetted by Sadam, Arabs , Kurds and Turks. Now theyre targetted by Kurdish nationalists and islamists and eventually uprooted by IS In their last stronghold. clearly the KRG and Iraqi govt are unable to protect them.

Wasnt a Nineveh Plain province supposed to have been created last year?



Edited by iridium1010: 10/9/2015 04:14:42 PM

It' funny how much shit we cop for being intolerant and yet we don't go and try and kill people for being different.

I couldn't imagine being a minority in the middle east.

Yep we should be judged by the lowest standards in the world not the standard we believe we should be at.