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Reith was a Howard MP, Imogen Bailey is apparently an actress "widely known for her role as Nicola West in Australian soap Neighbours", Allan Asher was an ombudsman, Smith a former "shock jock" and Deveny is a columnist who was fired from The Age for belittling the Logies on twitter. She's pretty funny, but still.

I'm kinda torn actually. If celebs will make more people watch it, and make more people realise their opinions are fucking retarded, then that's good.
 
Deveny's awesome. Writes some cool articles. Spoke at the recent Atheist Convention in Melbourne as well.
 
Awesome Q&A tonight, one of the funniest I've ever seen with David Marr, Jacki Weaver, Barry Humphries andMiriam Margoyles. Oh and John Hewson, who didn't say anything remotely funny or interesting. It was like watching Rob Sitch do an impersonation.

However Humphries copped a lot of shit on Twitter, which I was very annoyed by. He made a couple of touchy jokes about anti-semitism, women, etc, which were all light-hearted, funny, typical Humphries shtick and not even close to serious and all of a sudden in the space of an hour he's gone from one of our most beloved entertainers to a racist, homophobic, sexist, senile old man.

You guys all know I'm pretty upstanding and won't excuse comments of such a nature, but surely, surely there comes a time when we can set aside our pc-ness for 60 minutes. :down:
 
Ax, can you explain to me what the fuck all this was about?

Abbott flees Thomson, Labor defends tax

I don't understand parliamentary sessions at all, why the fuck would he do something so childish? Can you explain the process of this "vote", what they were voting for, why Pyne and Abbott took off?

As your reward...

yZJs8.gif
 
cobl04 said:
Ax, can you explain to me what the fuck all this was about?

Abbott flees Thomson, Labor defends tax

I don't understand parliamentary sessions at all, why the fuck would he do something so childish? Can you explain the process of this "vote", what they were voting for, why Pyne and Abbott took off?

As your reward...

yZJs8.gif
Click to expand...



:lmao:

what a joke
 
Shit there's a guy called Vlad in the comments section saying the right things ... then there's a bunch of conservative whingers who know shit all about communism. :lol: He's doing my work for me.

Problem with these small communist parties is that they focus too much on the past, and not the future.
 
cobl04 said:
Ax, can you explain to me what the fuck all this was about?

Abbott flees Thomson, Labor defends tax

I don't understand parliamentary sessions at all, why the fuck would he do something so childish? Can you explain the process of this "vote", what they were voting for, why Pyne and Abbott took off?

As your reward...

yZJs8.gif
Click to expand...

:lol:

OK, basically, when there is going to be a division - or a vote - in parliament, all members in the chamber must vote on it. Members who are outside the chamber when the vote is taken cannot cast a vote. Traditionally, a bell is rung to signify a division - you may know it better as the title of a Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, and I'm not 100% sure if it is still used in the Aussie parliament. But that's a bit of beside-the-point trivia, and the upshot is that when a division is taken, the doors to the chamber are locked so that those who are there cannot leave and those who missed out are stuck outside.

Normally party whips will make sure all of their members are in the chamber when there is a division, as the length of parliamentary debate means many members will not be in the chamber for the entirety of a session. However, sometimes MPs will seek to absent themselves from a division. Generally this will be done to deny a quorum - i.e. a certain number of members need to be present or else a division is not valid. However, in this case, it was simply because Abbott and Pyne are children and don't want to vote for the same thing as Craig Thomson. Indescribably petty.

Does that answer things?
 
Is it sad that I'm currently thinking I'm glad I'm not living back in Australia?

As much as I dislike politics no matter where I am, it seems that it's a little more intense than usual than it is here.

Good thing about being an ex-pat and a non-citizen here is that I don't have to vote. Do they still have mandatory voting?
 
Axver said:
:lol:

OK, basically, when there is going to be a division - or a vote - in parliament, all members in the chamber must vote on it. Members who are outside the chamber when the vote is taken cannot cast a vote. Traditionally, a bell is rung to signify a division - you may know it better as the title of a Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, and I'm not 100% sure if it is still used in the Aussie parliament. But that's a bit of beside-the-point trivia, and the upshot is that when a division is taken, the doors to the chamber are locked so that those who are there cannot leave and those who missed out are stuck outside.

Normally party whips will make sure all of their members are in the chamber when there is a division, as the length of parliamentary debate means many members will not be in the chamber for the entirety of a session. However, sometimes MPs will seek to absent themselves from a division. Generally this will be done to deny a quorum - i.e. a certain number of members need to be present or else a division is not valid. However, in this case, it was simply because Abbott and Pyne are children and don't want to vote for the same thing as Craig Thomson. Indescribably petty.

Does that answer things?
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks. But what sort of things do they vote on? Legislation? And just by being in the room, even if you're hanging up the back, texting, not paying attention, counts as a vote?

Why did Thomson side with the Libs in this instance?
 
cobl04 said:
Yeah, thanks. But what sort of things do they vote on? Legislation? And just by being in the room, even if you're hanging up the back, texting, not paying attention, counts as a vote?

Why did Thomson side with the Libs in this instance?
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In a division, you have to get up and move to one side of the chamber or the other (whether you vote aye or no). A party whip would never allow a member to just dither around and not participate in a division - though a member who wishes to abstain from a division would resist them and stay in their seat. Divisions can be called on all sorts of things, from legislative motions to procedural ones, if 1. a previous voice vote is disputed or 2. the Speaker believes a voice vote will be inconclusive. In this case, it was procedural; Hockey wanted more time to scrutinise an issue, the ALP wanted it resolved then and there and sought a motion to gag Hockey, and Craig Thomson moved towards the no side of the division (i.e. to vote against gagging Hockey). When Abbott and Pyne realised, they bolted, hoping to get out before the doors were locked.

Why did Thomson do it? Depends whether you think he's telling the truth when he says he won't support any gag motion because it infringes on free speech (regardless of which party moves the motion), or if you think he was quite intentionally trying to embarrass the Coalition to see whether they would accept his so-called "tainted vote". He placed Abbott in a fantastic bind, because either Abbott had to stand by and vote with a man whose vote he's urged the government to reject, or he had to make this amazing childish scene to avoid voting with Thomson ... and in the end, since he didn't get out in time, both happened!
 
Axver said:
Why did Thomson do it? Depends whether you think he's telling the truth when he says he won't support any gag motion because it infringes on free speech (regardless of which party moves the motion), or if you think he was quite intentionally trying to embarrass the Coalition to see whether they would accept his so-called "tainted vote". He placed Abbott in a fantastic bind, because either Abbott had to stand by and vote with a man whose vote he's urged the government to reject, or he had to make this amazing childish scene to avoid voting with Thomson ... and in the end, since he didn't get out in time, both happened!
Click to expand...

I read that cross-benchers traditionally never vote in support of a gag motion - that might be all it was, but I bet Thompson enjoyed the show. *L*

Didn't Pyne make it out for that first vote? And couldn't Abbott or one of them have simply stayed in their seat and abstained? (Or voted on the other side?)
 
Alisaura said:
I read that cross-benchers traditionally never vote in support of a gag motion - that might be all it was, but I bet Thompson enjoyed the show. *L*

Didn't Pyne make it out for that first vote? And couldn't Abbott or one of them have simply stayed in their seat and abstained? (Or voted on the other side?)
Click to expand...

Keep in mind Thomson's not exactly your traditional crossbencher though. And yeah, Pyne made it out. No such luck for Abbott, and once the doors are locked, you're stuck on the side you're on, so no crossing the floor or abstention.
 
Fair point... Does that mean if the door is on the "No" side, and you run to it but can't get out, you're voting "No" whether you like it or not? Or can you dash over to the "Yes" side? ... Or are there two doors?
 
I'm not sure precisely how it works, alas. Been too long since I read about the details of how a division is conducted.
 
cobl04 said:
Less than 10 of 400 survived :(
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About a week or two ago I was next to one of them sheep trucks at a stoplight. Got to have a good luck at them and my heart broke. They were stuffed in so they could barely move their heads, let alone anything else. Just awful. Then one of them looked at me with the saddest eyes I think a sheep is capable of and I swore I'd go vegetarian again. Of course it didn't work out because I'm eating KFC right now, but you know, I'm still thinking about it.
 
The Sad Punk said:
About a week or two ago I was next to one of them sheep trucks at a stoplight. Got to have a good luck at them and my heart broke. They were stuffed in so they could barely move their heads, let alone anything else. Just awful. Then one of them looked at me with the saddest eyes I think a sheep is capable of and I swore I'd go vegetarian again. Of course it didn't work out because I'm eating KFC right now, but you know, I'm still thinking about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah when I was working at a servo and I used to have to go out and read the petrol levels, there was often a truck out there with sheep or cattle or something, and it broke my heart as well.

It will never, ever stop though. I'll never go vegetarian, but geez it does break your heart.
 
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