Australia

monotony wrote:

- The policy director of a heavily right-wing think tank has been appointed the Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission. This same right-wing think tank had previously argued for the abolition of the Human Rights Commission.

Got me nostalgic for when we Yanks sent John Bolton to the UN.

Monotony, that also basically doubles as the list of all the crazy shit GWB was pulling during his two terms that was totally under the radar because of how equally catastrophic his main policy agenda was (Medicare Part D, Social Security privatization, No Child Left Behind, Iraq/Afghanistan, etc.).

since we've been living in Obama-bashing America for five years its easy to forget that George Bush did something twice as objectionable as Obama has ever done pretty much every week.

by far the worst Obama policies have been the continuation or expansion of policies that Bush started w/r/t the surveillance state.

Woooo we're now making people pay $7 to go to the doctor, government benefits for youth have drastically dropped, 16.5k people have been made redundant in the public service and university fees are now deregulated. But on the bright side, we're bumping up funding for a national chaplains in schools program, and we've just spent $12b on some fighter jets!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-13/budget-winners-and-losers/5433178

monotony wrote:we're now making people pay $7 to go to the doctor

I assumed it was going to be a list of good news when it started with this. Seven is way closer to zero than the amount you pay in a bunch of other places.

I don't think there's a single European country where it would cost you anything.

yancy wrote:

monotony wrote:we're now making people pay $7 to go to the doctor

I assumed it was going to be a list of good news when it started with this. Seven is way closer to zero than the amount you pay in a bunch of other places.

Well, naturally to an American this would seem an unusual thing to complain about, but after decades of Medicare, this is deeply unsettling policy.

The various opposition parties have said they're going to block a lot of these changes as they are run through the Senate, which could be quite politically juicy. I've still got to read up a bit on how the changes are going to affect my student loan debts - it sounds like new students might be on a course to spending a lifetime paying theirs off under the proposed system.

What's the relationship between church and state like historically over there? #americanquestionsforaustralianpeople

The chaplaincy thing should get knocked over by the High Court - the last version of that policy did, at least.

The separation of church and state is constitutionally mandated under s 116 but the last chaplaincy law was struck down under s 61's provision for executive power. No law has actually ever been struck out under s 116.

Even though our last PM was openly atheist, there's still very much the sense that silent Christianity is the "normal" thing to be and Christian traditions continue to pervade Australian society.

http://moneysaverhq.heraldsun.com.au/news/government-grabs-360-million-from-idle-household-bank-accounts/story-fnkrnsiy-1226950657835

the purpose of the laws is actually to reunite people with lost accounts before funds are eroded by fees and other charges

I've never heard of such a thing before.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/crash-claims-top-aids-researchers-heading-to-melbourne-20140718-zuaw3.html#ixzz37mkAFtTn

smh indeed

smdh

I found this surprisingly relaxing to watch.

New Prime Minister again! 5th change since 2010.

I saw a meme from an australian friend of mine involving an older asian woman brandishing a hand gun. Is this in fact your prime minister or a joke flying over an american head?

Is this the end of Joe Hockey?

Duff... wrote:I saw a meme from an australian friend of mine involving an older asian woman brandishing a hand gun. Is this in fact your prime minister or a joke flying over an american head?

I would have to see the meme to confirm, but it is potentially an image of Lee Lin Chin. She is a newsreader on a government funded channel, and for a long time was mostly known for her unconventional fashion sense. In recent years she's developed her personal brand through Twitter and a sketch comedy show called "The Feed", in which she has appeared as a beer-drinking, no-fucks-given megalomaniac. It's hard to know though how much of it all is real and how much is the invention of comedy writers.

Anyway, on the day of the leadership change there was a hashtag going around to make Lee Lin the #primechinister which may have been what you saw.

undo wrote:Is this the end of Joe Hockey?

No more Hockeynomics! we've got scott morrison in there now though who oversaw Nauru

http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-man-faces-stiff-opposition-to-penis-signature-20160106-gm0sx6.html

This is the single ugliest newspaper I've ever seen.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/sep/12/rightwing-australian-politicians-criticise-girl-9-in-row-over-anthem