5 - # of Straya threads or # of times Melbourne has been crowned world's best city

[cobl04]

He might be a worm but Turnbull is fucking bulldozing QT. Shorten needs to be fired from a cannon into the sun. He asked the same question twice in a row.

I don't even understand the point of QT. Is it just an hour to sit around and laugh and yell and heckle? Does it ever actually achieve or do anything? What's its purpose?

 

[Vlad n U 2]

It's usually the same sloganeering, insults etc. I've watched several editions and they're all just about identical. Abbott would essentially read from the same script he uses for his pressers, except in QT he'd just be yelling.

 

[Axver]

Question Time really has lost its value. It used to be a legitimate way of clarifying policy and actions, in particular to hold ministers accountable (as questions must be answered), but now it's a political showpiece/slanging match.

Turnbull's having a good first QT in charge. Hockey's appearances, not so much. Wonder if this will be his last QT as treasurer?

Shorten must go. He used to be very good during QT but sounds soulless today.

 

[Axver]

OK, Pyne deserves points for this. He was just asked on Sky News about Bernardi's characterisation of the leadership change as "treachery". His response was that Bernardi is a "boutique senator".

 

[Kieran McConville]

Billy McMahon stayed in parliament for a decade after his defeat. Of course those were different days.

 

[Axver]

I like Abbott going on about how he never leaked or backgrounded anyone.

No, of course you didn't. That's Peta Credlin's job.

I don't doubt he'll white-ant the shit out of Turnbull if he stays in parliament, and if he doesn't then there are the Bernardis of this world to do it for him.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Pyne got a witty jab in for once when he referred to Bernadi as a 'boutique senator'. Though I'd add that Bernadi's entire career was one object example of just how weak Abbott's authority over the party was. I'm not sure Turnbull will fare much better. Neither of them have the kind of long, long presence that allowed Howard to rule the roost in Menzian fashion.

 

[cobl04]

Masturbation in print form - Greg Sheridan on Tone.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Question Time was mainly established so that Paul Keating would have a stage for his eviscerating wit throughout the eighties and nineties. Probably time to retire it (I jest, it's a farce, but should absolutely be maintained in principle).

 

[Axver]

White-anting of Turnbull. IT BEGIIIINS.

Leaked document tars Malcolm Turnbull as worst minister on appointing women

 

[cobl04]

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I forgot all about these videos. So good.

 

[cobl04]

Even better:

Young Liberal meeting boils over as verbal clashes turn physical on night of leadership spill

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Young Liberal bickering is one of my favourite things to read about.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Laugh until you remember that's the well from which ministerial talent is drawn.

 

[Axver]

Who the hell is actuallty a young lib

like why ruin your life

i suppose if daddy has all the cashhh

 

[cobl04]

 

[Axver]

This is fascinating, in the sense it's pretty much exactly what you expect: How it happened: Inside the Malcolm Turnbull leadership coup

(Except for the claim Bishop was on Abbott's side until he announced the spill for both leadership positions. I can't imagine Turnbull thought he had the numbers without her faction being on his side.)

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Young Liberal Jakov 'Jay' Miljak facing expulsion after post-spill tussle

If you search his name there's another article of him heaping praise on the monarchy.

 

[Axver]

Happy New Cabinet Day, folks! And the knives are out already.

Kevin Andrews is gone from cabinet, but has confirmed he will stay on in politics - he's been preselected for the next election already. You might say he's unhappy with Malcolm, especially after humiliating himself by publicly pleading for his job during the week:

Frankly, my remaining in this job was not about me, it was all about the stability of our Defence Force in Australia and its leadership. Mr Turnbull’s decision now means there have been more defence ministers in Australia than prime ministers in the last three years. More defence ministers than prime ministers in the last three years.

 

[Axver]

Hockey's quit! Turnbull announces that Hockey informed him this morning that he would not seek a position in the new cabinet and will resign from parliament "in due course"!

What a week, Abbott and Hockey both gone.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Decorating my kitchen cabinets with blueberries to mark the occasion.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

https://twitter.com/Adam_Creighton/status/645487457853542400

Ah yes, very professional. (I still don't know how to properly embed tweets, sorry)

 

[cobl04]

It's very simple, you just copy the long-ass number, not the whole url

 

[Vlad n U 2]

[tweet]645487457853542400[/tweet]

One of the editors of The Australian, former adviser to Tone, everybody.

 

[Axver]

Malcolm Turnbull: Sunday penalty rates up for consideration by new government

I actually don't entirely disagree.

There isn't a meaningful distinction between Saturday and Sunday in our society any more, so in principle I oppose such artificial distinctions being maintained - having different timetables for Saturday and Sunday on public transport is my pet peeve, but to be consistent I would have to say that extends to penalty rates too.

However! There is a "however". This is not, and should not be used as, an argument to reduce Sunday rates to Saturday levels. If there is to be a consistent weekend rate, I would suggest meeting in the middle. Any reform should not take money out of employees' pockets.

Discussion of whether or not Australian workers are overpaid (be that in general or at specific times) should be separate from the principle of implementing consistent policies across the whole weekend.

 

[Kieran McConville]

That's all very well and good, but this isn't being driven by any auterish concern for consistency and matching the drapes with the carpet. It's just another attack on workers who are hardly living on Scrooge McDuck street to begin with. That the current penalty rates regime might owe its existences to a vanishing cultural framework where Sunday meant something different is, well, it is what it is. We don't live in a vacuum.

And if we do have to have a discussion about whether workers in Australian are paid too much, who do you think will win that?

 

[Axver]

Well exactly, I don't agree with the motivation. But if the government does try to push it hard - and I'm not sure they will, since it screams "out of touch!" and brings back images of Joe Hockey trying to talk about poor people - then I wonder if there is the potential to negotiate rather than be flat-out opposed. Sometimes flat-out opposition works very well (WorkChoices), but other times it spectacularly backfires (Kennett really punished public transport in the wake of the epic tram strikes of the early nineties). A platform to establish a consistent weekend penalty rate could be amenable, since business gets its big ticket item of lowering Sunday rates while unions get to keep on balance existing conditions.

And I'm not convinced business would win a discussion on whether workers are paid too much. Some quarters have been spoiling for that fight for a while and they can't get any traction. In a way I almost want to dare them to bring it up, because - to cite WorkChoices again - there's nothing like an attack on workers' conditions to really unleash the rage against the Libs.

 

[Axver]

And to make this less the Aussie politics thread-in-disguise, I really didn't expect to like The Preatures. Cheers Spotify.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I really don't like the Preatures, but I don't need to thank Spotify, I can thank the J's.