Actually 3.38 isn't obscure.  Some companies do that to make it a literal 8 hr day . Say you start at 730 . Your lunch break say is half and hour.  So to make it a literal 8 hr day they take 6 or 8 mins from lunch to add to the end of the day to get 8 hrs. 

When it comes to Q&A, do they legit bring in an 'anger bait' guest to wind the audience up?

It's as if working for Newscorp automatically makes you more evil than Trump :laugh:

I guess that's what happens with an audience stacked with Murdoch's Rags ilk :laugh:

Until I found out about Caltex I had no idea companies would literally make you work 8 hours to the minute.

Also on Q&A, $22,000 for a disabled lady with 3 kids. How the f*ck is she meant to live on that?

So our government has pollies flying around the globe business class and we have people receiving $22,000 a year?

I am legit rethinking my opinion of the Greens and what they stand for at the moment.

It's disgraceful. Brandis looked like a fool as usual.

Julian Burnside speaks so much sense.

Yeah watching the replay now, fark Brandis got slaughtered.

-PB

It's not hard to be critical of these people when they're forcing people into poverty whilst at the same time their government is constantly defending the extravagant entitlements they receive. It's awkward to watch politicians sit there making comments about things they're so insulated from. Even I can't talk, I have had it pretty easy up to this point. I really hate the whole 'statistics tell us' line. Whenever a politician is getting wrecked for a unreasonable plan targeting vulnerable people, they always try and trot out this nonsense.  

I've never been super involved in politics but the more I watch and read, the more I despise the current system and how cruel the major parties are towards vulnerable people.

The only way governments force people into poverty is through excessive taxation. The government has to take a matter-of-fact approach to social security policies because the media and the public will latch on to the first sob story they can and irrationally demand the government step in and fix it.
 The facts regarding Centrelink are this:
1. The system used to recover debts in the past was awful and allowed people to rort he system for years before being caught. It would take months to get the right information for Centrelink to even determine that a debt was owed.
2. The vast majority of the population have absolutely no idea a) how their entitlements are calculated b) how long their entitlements last for and c) when to inform Centrelink that their circumstances have changed.
3. 80% of the infringement notices are accepted uncontested. The other 20% (I agree with everyone that this figure is too high) which is contested will likely receive judgements favouring Centrelink (see point 2).

It would be nice if the pollies were a little ore compassionate around the subject of social security but what difference would it genuinely make to other peoples lives?

1) The system was screwed and still is. They probably spend more money recovering debt than the debt is worth.
2) Informing centrelink of anything is time consuming and frustrating.

I think our welfare net is probably a bit too large. A lady at work gets centrelink for childcare when her and her partner both work full time. I appreciate childcare costs are astronomical, part of some government policy to improve early learning by increasing the amount of staff per child and increasing qualification requirements but hell, $160 a week I think they get. So a middle income family gets that a week and yet people with no ability to work get $22k? How are they meant to live on that. The system is not even close to efficient.

Excessive taxation :laugh:

If we're going to call the childcare rebate welfare then we can call all the subsidies and tax breaks businesses get welfare as well. Some payments (like the CCR) are intended to get both parents back into the workforce and stimulating the economy. 

Yes, I do not believe we are excessively taxed.

The CCR is given to couples earing up to like $120k a year isn't it? Middle class welfare.

That's the CCB, CCR is not means tested. The alternative is you have the parents stay home and not contribute to the productive capacity of the economy, pay taxes and spend money in the economy. You may or may not see this as a good thing.

I disagree with middle class welfare but this one has some merit IMO. I just think the way it's funded is overcomplicated.

CCB/CCR, confusing enough for me I don't even know the difference.

I worked  for two companies who did it. It starts off pretty good then it gets super annoying as if you have a 2nd shift they work from 330 and you stand around for 6/8 long minutes 😀

Not sure if relevant thread:



Sucks for a lot of students/young people in those industries working to support their studies. 

Yeah I posted in the Aus news thread but its basically political anyways lol.

I know FWC is meant to be independent and all, but there would have surely had to have been lobbying or political pressure to make this decision.

-PB

Let's see all these businesses stay open on Sundays and hire more people *crickets*

Daresay the main pressure would have come from small businesses. I know it benefits some major retailers too, but the FWC wouldn't / shouldn't have cared much about them. It would have been to help the smaller players, those who want to compete with the big chains but "can't" because of penalty rates.

Or will we see the "surcharge" applies on Sundays for cafes / pubs etc. removed from their pricing??

Ha good one :laugh:

People really should stop paying fees to the SDA, they do nothing for workers and push a socially conservative political agendas within the Labor party that goes directly against a large portion of their members.

These are my thoughts.

Isn't youth unemployment something like 27% in this country?  When you have one of the highest business tax rates in the world, combined with the highest minimum wage in the world, and the most generous weekend penalty rates in the world, its no wonder businesses are refusing to hire and our youth unemployment is where it is.

Only 12.3% at the moment.

Also a global issue (youth unemployment) and Australia is one of the better performing nations. Might be interesting to see what countries like Japan, South Korea and Germany are doing so well to have low youth unemployment.

Also should be noted that unemployment of the youth is generally higher in regional areas of Australia too (where I imagine penalty rates would have minimal effect).

If you want a bit of a read on a study of the subject from 2015 (one of the recommendations was for reducing / removing the penalty rates):

https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2015/11/rr7.pdf

Even with the modest cuts our penalty rates are still among the highest in the world.  The mere word 'cut' sends people into fits of rage, whether it be 1% or 50%.  There is a difference between a cut that is harsh and draconian with a cut that is slightly less generous than it was before, but still really fucking generous.

The thing is with regional areas the wage laws are nationwide, so business has little or no incentive to set up operations in those areas where sales are slower and margins are slimmer or backwards compared to the cities.

They had the guy representing the fast food industry in the hearing on FiveAA here. His argument was basically that it's just kids that work sSundays and they live at home so why should they get any extra. Awesome argument to get people onside :laugh:

Its a good point.  Not sure why people are getting anything extra at all for working Sunday, as if business is expected to compensate staff for "forcing" them to work on weekends. 

Some businesses do "force" workers to work on weekends. It definitely was the case when I was working retail. A bit of extra pay was the compensation for missing out on spending time with family.

Better cut taxes at the big end of town too, that'll surely jerk the economy in the right direction. (kek)

-PB