Sounds like Ruddy's on his way to the GG to call an election for the 7th Sept
Election coverage or an AFL final?....tough telly decision for that night :D
He'd be hoping that Essendon doesn't get rubbed out of the finals. Part of the psychology of scheduling elections in the middle of finals is to capitalise on the euphoria of supporters, but there'll likely be a lot of angry Bombers fans looking to take their frustrations out on someone, anyone.
I wonder if Abbott or Rudd can recite the second verse of Advance Australia Fair, or if they would ever want to?
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
Tony Abbot today confesses he "Is not the suppository of wisdom"! :))
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/liberals-squirm-as-abbott-refers-to-the-suppository-of-wisdom-20130812-2rryy.html
Tony Abbot today confesses he "Is not the suppository of wisdom"! :))
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/liberals-squirm-as-abbott-refers-to-the-suppository-of-wisdom-20130812-2rryy.html
Cringeworthy. I kinda hope he gets in. Be like having our very own George W. Please keep up this level of humour, TA... we need the laughs... you little suppository of ...something..., you. :)
And don't you laugh, Rudd... you look like you've been given 10 suppositories which haven't worked... yet... stand back :o
Anyone care ?? :-\
Anyone care ?? :-\
Foregone conclusion. Abbott will be PM. Terrifying yet that's democracy. People get what they vote for.
I want to know what will happen to Labor and the Greens.
What a choice we had. Dumb or dumber. :o
There were some very strange dudes handing out how-to-vote papers when I voted early on - made me think what weirdos I might be voting for! :)) O:-)
Anyone care ?? :-\
Foregone conclusion. Abbott will be PM. Terrifying yet that's democracy. People get what they vote for.
I want to know what will happen to Labor and the Greens.
Dig a big hole, push em in there and back fill it fast.
There were some very strange dudes handing out how-to-vote papers when I voted early on - made me think what weirdos I might be voting for! :)) O:-)
I heard from someone the people working for the election today getting paid a health dollar for their day. I can't remember who I heard it from though.
I can confirm that the exercise costs a lot of money.
All to give people the illusion of choice.
Vote 1 - K.Rudd! ;D
Vote 1 - K.Rudd! ;D
You obviously went for Dumb.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/182311_10201266224590632_471782300_n.jpg)
Goodbye Mr Rudd !!
Vote 1 - K.Rudd! ;D
You obviously went for Dumb.
I went for myself.... :-D
Vote 1 - K.Rudd! ;D
You obviously went for Dumb.
I went for myself.... :-D
Ahhh now I see what you did there. Labor are going to lose many seats in this election though. Gillard will be wetting herself laughing about this election.
Anyone care ?? :-\
Foregone conclusion. Abbott will be PM. Terrifying yet that's democracy. People get what they vote for.
I want to know what will happen to Labor and the Greens.
Don't get that kinda comment...
You can run the country into the ground and that is OK... as long as the worker is protected.
If Rudd/Gillard and their muppets ran a company the same way they would be sent packing. ???
Libs will get three years to show if the can run this joint any better the previous Morons.
Rudd should retire from politics, he is a real wanker.
Go the Screaming Orgy Sex Party..... O0
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/182311_10201266224590632_471782300_n.jpg)
If only he ran in my electorate ;D ;D ;D
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/182311_10201266224590632_471782300_n.jpg)
That's gold right there!
77 seats and rising. Bye bye Rudd. Haul your sorry @rse out of office and don't let the door hit you on the way out. Didn't think tony would win this one so easily. Be 30 seats ahead.
Looks like we got our own Dubya! Comedians across this country will be rubbing their hands together. There's going to be so much material to work with. ;D
Does Kevin know he lost the election? :P
Kevin resigns from leadership, sounds like staying in parliament?
Not much mention of the party's achievements in his speech, very strange concession.
I can honestly say I don't think either party is worth voting for - just rubbish. Like Carlton - where are our real leaders?
One thing you can never deny in an election campaign is the unbelievable stupidity of the Australian public.
Clive Palmer wins a seat.
Pauline Hanson appears set to win one also.
And need I say Dubya. But that at least has comedic value.
One discontented voter on Radio National this morning was publicly declaring his intentions to vote Liberal due to cuts to TAFE. :o Unfortunately for this punter he is clearly unaware that these cuts were implemented by the Liberal state Government.
Fortunately for me Dubya's looming bunglings won't impact my situation, so I'll be free to enjoy the laughs. Although I do feel for the learned Aussies out there who now face reality under "The fool on the hill". Here's some inspired wisdom from our new PM.
(http://thejoshholley.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/tonyabbottnaziabortion.jpg?w=585)
Feel free to post something similar from Julia Gillard.
Comedians around the nation are rejoicing. They will have so much material to work with during his tenure.
Now the Labor Party will have to face its demons... kick out the crape and get some bona fide leadership talent into the group.
All hail PM Murdoch. >:D
Love how the Laborites scream the sky is falling, the sky is falling from the roof tops when they get done.
Really bad losers. Your party is farcical, led by ego maniacs back stabbing, knife wielding, psychopaths.
In a two horse political ghost town there is no option, but the other bu11sh1ters who don a blue tie.
Laugh, Palmer might win a seat despite trying his very best to prevent it from actually happening late in the election.
There are some interesting sackings in recent days. Quite a few seem to be more related to silencing the supporters of any emissions trading scheme or carbon tax rather than changing the economic management.
I am not really that fussed, but I am concerned about a change in a major promise already. I was under the impression Abbott had said he would not stop or cut projects that were already sign off or funded. Yet it seems he rolled out the henchmen to axe several innovation and industry initiatives staff halting projects that had already begun, all this while the press were busy watching him get sworn in at government house.
These were not recent projects, not like the Bracks appointment, some of the projects employed hundreds of people and had been underway for 2 or 3 years with another 10 or 15 years to go! In some cases whole centres had been built to house the project staff.
Retrospectively it seems this was an Abbott weasel word promise, because they haven't cut or stopped the project or funding. They have just sacked the administration staff which effectively halts all the projects and spending indefinitely. Several industrial / commercial partners have already made staff redundant as a result.
This is a horrible way for a countries leaders to behave, irrespective of their political background. There is no excuse for deceptive behavior from any public office bearer.
... and Abbott gives Flannery gets the a5se ... finally .....
Party's over and time to clean out the pig trough.
Laugh, Palmer might win a seat despite trying his very best to prevent it from actually happening late in the election.
There are some interesting sackings in recent days. Quite a few seem to be more related to silencing the supporters of any emissions trading scheme or carbon tax rather than changing the economic management.
I am not really that fussed, but I am concerned about a change in a major promise already. I was under the impression Abbott had said he would not stop or cut projects that were already sign off or funded. Yet it seems he rolled out the henchmen to axe several innovation and industry initiatives staff halting projects that had already begun, all this while the press were busy watching him get sworn in at government house.
These were not recent projects, not like the Bracks appointment, some of the projects employed hundreds of people and had been underway for 2 or 3 years with another 10 or 15 years to go! In some cases whole centres had been built to house the project staff.
Retrospectively it seems this was an Abbott weasel word promise, because they haven't cut or stopped the project or funding. They have just sacked the administration staff which effectively halts all the projects and spending indefinitely. Several industrial / commercial partners have already made staff redundant as a result.
This is a horrible way for a countries leaders to behave, irrespective of their political background. There is no excuse for deceptive behavior from any public office bearer.
Yep. Exactly.
Not much point winning an election if you run a vendetta against public servants and settle some scores. That's pretty much step 1. Poor old Bracksy nearly had the keys to the apartment in New York. What a sweet gig that would be.
Step 2 is to "discover" something that can be blown up into a "blackhole". Then repeat the word "blackhole" for 12-18 months.
So here we are in the utopian haze of an Ablett led government.
No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.
Tony Abbott, SBS NEWS – September 6, 2013
Fail!!
"We are about reducing taxes, not increasing taxes. We are about getting rid of taxes, not imposing new taxes. This is my whole reason for being in politics, in the Parliament."
Tony Abbott, November 20, 2012.
Fail!!!
This is a fair budget, everyone is doing his or her bit, including, dare I say it, politicians.”
Tony Abbott, Channel Ten, May 14.
LOL!!
If Labor had brought in a "deficit levy" on the wealthy – yes, another tax – the Tories and their claque of media toadies would have shrieked blue murder about socialist class warfare. Instead, they portray Abbott as a strong leader taking tough decisions to end a budget "emergency" they themselves invented.
Actually, someone on $200,000 a year would pay around an extra $210 in tax, the cost of a business lunch. And the politicians' wage freeze is derisory. On $507,000 a year, Abbott is one of the world's best paid leaders, doing rather better than Barack Obama earning the equivalent of $425,000 or, say, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who scrapes by on $161,000.
[flash=400,400]http://www.youtube.com/v/FXC9oKSjDy4[/flash]
trouble is with governments is theirs no transparency on treasury. This gives opposition leaders an out when they come in.
Figures have been fudged for incumbents to try and get re elected, and more than always, promises aren't able to get funded. Treasury should be bi partisan, independent, and transparent in this over governed country
trouble is with governments is theirs no transparency on treasury. This gives opposition leaders an out when they come in.
Figures have been fudged for incumbents to try and get re elected, and more than always, promises aren't able to get funded. Treasury should be bi partisan, independent, and transparent in this over governed country
The Victorian Constitution contains a provision compelling the incumbent Governing party to abide by promises made pre election. whilst they're not compelled to deliver on those promises, there is an obligation to take reasonable steps to do so. This doesn't exist at federal level.
Let's see what's happened in 9 months.
NBN - which is essential to Australias international welfare, has been bastardized more severely than any whore from Game of Thrones. Tests coming from sites with the FTTN Liberal Solution are showing no better that half of the proposed speed. While both the US and UK governments pledging a gigbit broadband network.
We are already seen as backwater as far as IT / communication goes and by doing this we are making sure that there will be no IT investment in Australia. Even the Labour proposed FTTP at a top speed of 100/40 was slow by Asian standards but the infrastructure of fibre optics to buildings allows upgrades in the future.
By FTTP we would finally take away the monopoly away from Telstra who rides roughshot over the telecommunication industry with their copper infrastructure. Now the Libs have placed a former Telstra CEO to investigate and implement the "new" NBN and surprise surprise he's found that the copper is still needed and now Telstra is happily negotiating a rental of their lines, but there is no agreement as yet so how can the Libs have accurate costing.
Labour had the right idea just went about it poorly with the sub contracting. Now thanks to the Liberal way we have more people going bankrupt who were given assurances that the would have 5-10 years work and bought plant equipment to run the FTTP cabling which will become useless but they still have loans owing money equipment bought.
I've had many arguments with older people who complain that the NBN will only be useful for those wanting to download movies / TV / Music faster. This short sighted opinion is what is preventing an out roar.
Imagine when registering your car you get access to the "roads network" which can regulate traffic congestion by talking to the cars GPS/phone, alert you of any accidents either by LCD signage or again to your GPS/phone, plus track cars stolen much the same way you can track your phone. The technology is there but the amount of information coming into servers and sending back out would create a bottleneck and the communication would not be fast enough during peak traffic times. That's just one example. Education and health are two would would benefit greatly from a fast NBN reducing costs. Any doctor around the country could communicate in true high definition with specialists from all over the world, schools could have real time conversations with experts.
The possibilities are endless but because of the ignorance and pigheadedness of the government we are going to be pushed even further backwards.
We will go into a recession within the next 10 years, the only exports that are excelling is mining and once China stops its boom then where is the international money coming from? We import food from overseas that we are capable of growing here because Coles / Woolworths want to make 10c more an apple. We don't manufacture 10% of what we used to 30 years ago because of the unrealistic wages set by unions and the greedy CEOs of companies.
The economy is stalling and many of you in the big cities don't see it yet. I'll give you an example of the last 25 years in a town down here in Tassie call Scottsdale in the north east just 20kms away from Barnboogle golf course. This was a town of around 7,500 people that grew hops, veggies, livestock, milk products and processing and had 4 sawmills with a rich forest industry.
Hops were the first to go, big industry now import them so that the international companies that own Australian beer can make 5c extra a beer.
When international interests bought out our vegetable companies and supermarket chains they started to low ball the vegetable and milk producers making it now viable for some farmers to stay in business with many turning to tree farms for their land. So once a big chunk of farms stopped producing vegetable and milk they closed down the processing plants in the area as transporting vegetables to the area is costly as you have to go through a mountain range to get there.
So the farmers planted trees with promised returns from companies like Gunns, who were no where near as evil as the media made out to sell newspapers, ironically printed on what Gunns were trying to produce. Then the Greens held the balance of power in Tassie and they blocked anything Gunns wanted to do, Gunns went bankrupt and all these farmers now have paddocks of trees that are worthless, sawmills have closed down as well and Scottsdale, this small town in the North East of Tasmania that once was a thriving community is like a ghost town.
This is the story of many small towns in Tassie and I'm sure around the country, the flow on effect has hit Launceston where I'm from which is the closest city to Scottsdale and the two other major centres up the North West in Devonport and Burnie have been even harder hit which again effects Launceston which in turn will start to effect Hobart more and more.
What Abbott has done with this budget is easy slash and burn everything that does not effect the Liberal party supporters way of life. Don't worry about planes, paid maternity leave, education cuts. Worry about government departmental spending, worry about wages (which is governed by the public sector) and worry about manufacturing and ingenuity, that's how we save the country because at the moment my kids are going to inherit a total basket case.
I don't mind the Government providing the infrastructure for the NBN.
I do think that if people want to hook in they should pay for it to be hooked directly to their home.
@Raydan
My concern is primarily with the changes to education. One of the unique Australian traits is 'a fair go for all'- regardless of socio-economic background. The ability to change ones circumstances, through which education is a primary mechanism, has until now been limited only by an individual's own personal will. We went from the lucky country to the country of opportunity. The changes to education will alter Australia forever, Its a stupid and short sighted solution to economic reform. Even Hokey has admitted that, as the son of migrant, he was fortunate to have been able to go to university and gain an education. To restrict it to those that can afford it will only emphasize class divide. This is not the Australian way.
@Raydan
My concern is primarily with the changes to education. One of the unique Australian traits is 'a fair go for all'- regardless of socio-economic background. The ability to change ones circumstances, through which education is a primary mechanism, has until now been limited only by an individual's own personal will. We went from the lucky country to the country of opportunity. The changes to education will alter Australia forever, Its a stupid and short sighted solution to economic reform. Even Hokey has admitted that, as the son of migrant, he was fortunate to have been able to go to university and gain an education. To restrict it to those that can afford it will only emphasize class divide. This is not the Australian way.
People can still go to uni?
@Raydan
My concern is primarily with the changes to education. One of the unique Australian traits is 'a fair go for all'- regardless of socio-economic background. The ability to change ones circumstances, through which education is a primary mechanism, has until now been limited only by an individual's own personal will. We went from the lucky country to the country of opportunity. The changes to education will alter Australia forever, Its a stupid and short sighted solution to economic reform. Even Hokey has admitted that, as the son of migrant, he was fortunate to have been able to go to university and gain an education. To restrict it to those that can afford it will only emphasize class divide. This is not the Australian way.
Not only that but this is making us a more stupid country. Going to uni costs a left testie at the moment now with this they want the set.
The people without the financial means have to look for work but due to the lack of qualifications will have to settle for lesser jobs which are becoming few and far between. They are changing the dole requirements, so who knows what happens to kids coming out of year 12 for their future?
Pollies in general and Liberals specifically, always look after the top 1% and basically offer false promises to the rest of us around election time. Unfortunately we will never be able to fix it as it will only get worse.
@Raydan
My concern is primarily with the changes to education. One of the unique Australian traits is 'a fair go for all'- regardless of socio-economic background. The ability to change ones circumstances, through which education is a primary mechanism, has until now been limited only by an individual's own personal will. We went from the lucky country to the country of opportunity. The changes to education will alter Australia forever, Its a stupid and short sighted solution to economic reform. Even Hokey has admitted that, as the son of migrant, he was fortunate to have been able to go to university and gain an education. To restrict it to those that can afford it will only emphasize class divide. This is not the Australian way.
Not only that but this is making us a more stupid country. Going to uni costs a left testie at the moment now with this they want the set.
The people without the financial means have to look for work but due to the lack of qualifications will have to settle for lesser jobs which are becoming few and far between. They are changing the dole requirements, so who knows what happens to kids coming out of year 12 for their future?
Pollies in general and Liberals specifically, always look after the top 1% and basically offer false promises to the rest of us around election time. Unfortunately we will never be able to fix it as it will only get worse.
So oyu can still go to uni, but you have to pay more back?
I don't mind the Government providing the infrastructure for the NBN.
But it's the wrong infrastructure. FTTN means a box on a street that the fibre optic cable is connected to then copper from the box to your home. If the box is outside your house you will get a better service that someone 100m away. If you have poor or old copper then your speed will be no better than now and bottlenecks will be created all over the country.
I do think that if people want to hook in they should pay for it to be hooked directly to their home.
I'd be happy for that to happen too, do know how easy it would be for most houses? Have a connection for the cable to fibre, disconnect from the house and pull the cable through it would be a half hour job per premiss.
Unfortunately with the Liberals implementation that is not an option as the cable running along the roads will not have the connection points.
An associate in HK was complaining about his slow fibre broadband speeds, he only gets 400Mbps, he thinks something is wrong because his neighbour gets 1000Mbps. Apparently HK stripped out 25Mbps FTTN hardware years ago as obsolete technology.
FTTH (Fibre to the Home) = 400Mbps up to 1000Mbps
At least 16X faster than the best Australian ADSL2+ connections!
FTTN (Fibre to the Node)(Copper to Home) = 5Mbps up to 25Mbps.
Just equal to or slower than the best Australian ADSL2+ connections!
Rumors are that Brandis and Abbott barely even know how to use a PCs for basic email but are making IT policy!
My colleagues in the UK get 300Mbps 4G cheaper than we get 25Mbps ADSL2+ connections here, some UK areas already get 3000Mbps fibre connections to home at about the same price as Australia's ADSL2+!
Many 3rd world countries have started rolling out fibre, because not only is it superior, it is cheaper than copper and has no value on the black market unlike copper which gets stolen all the time!
Over the life of a copper conductor, the energy need to send the signal, compared to the same for fibre, means the copper network uses more than 20X the power to operate! Conspiracy theorists claim the retention of copper is being driven politically by the energy providers, but I think that is extremists as both are low but one is much lower than the other! However 4G uses far less energy than copper phone lines, so maybe there is something in it!
I don't mind the Government providing the infrastructure for the NBN.
But it's the wrong infrastructure. FTTN means a box on a street that the fibre optic cable is connected to then copper from the box to your home. If the box is outside your house you will get a better service that someone 100m away. If you have poor or old copper then your speed will be no better than now and bottlenecks will be created all over the country.
I do think that if people want to hook in they should pay for it to be hooked directly to their home.
I'd be happy for that to happen too, do know how easy it would be for most houses? Have a connection for the cable to fibre, disconnect from the house and pull the cable through it would be a half hour job per premiss.
Unfortunately with the Liberals implementation that is not an option as the cable running along the roads will not have the connection points.
I had the old copper wire replaced about a year ago as my internet connection kept dropping out.
Works perfectly now.
They guy told me it was NBN ready too.
It did cost 400 bucks though (but that included installing a new plug.
No regrets here though.
So there is the rub.
Put fibre down the street, then connect them with copper. If you want fibre you can have it, but it will come at a premium, you pay tax to fund the building of the network, and then you pay through the nose to get a modern connection!
An associate in HK was complaining about his slow fibre broadband speeds, he only gets 400Mbps, he thinks something is wrong because his neighbour gets 1000Mbps. Apparently HK stripped out 25Mbps FTTN hardware years ago as obsolete technology.
FTTH (Fibre to the Home) = 400Mbps up to 1000Mbps
At least 16X faster than the best Australian ADSL2+ connections!
FTTN (Fibre to the Node)(Copper to Home) = 5Mbps up to 25Mbps.
Just equal to or slower than the best Australian ADSL2+ connections!
Rumors are that Brandis and Abbott barely even know how to use a PCs for basic email but are making IT policy!
My colleagues in the UK get 300Mbps 4G cheaper than we get 25Mbps ADSL2+ connections here, some UK areas already get 3000Mbps fibre connections to home at about the same price as Australia's ADSL2+!
Many 3rd world countries have started rolling out fibre, because not only is it superior, it is cheaper than copper and has no value on the black market unlike copper which gets stolen all the time!
Over the life of a copper conductor, the energy need to send the signal, compared to the same for fibre, means the copper network uses more than 20X the power to operate! Conspiracy theorists claim the retention of copper is being driven politically by the energy providers, but I think that is extremists as both are low but one is much lower than the other! However 4G uses far less energy than copper phone lines, so maybe there is something in it!
While I agree with most of what you are saying Australia is 32x bigger than the UK and 6962x bigger than Hong Kong making it a lot harder to upgrade the infrastructure.
So there is the rub.
Put fibre down the street, then connect them with copper. If you want fibre you can have it, but it will come at a premium, you pay tax to fund the building of the network, and then you pay through the nose to get a modern connection!
I think the government should ensure that everyone can access the internet in a stable, reliable, and functional manner.
I don't think the government need to ensure that everyone gets access to premium speed for free.
While I agree with most of what you are saying Australia is 32x bigger than the UK and 6962x bigger than Hong Kong making it a lot harder to upgrade the infrastructure.
That is actually a supporting argument for fibre, because the transmission / re-transmission requirements are much lower. A set of Ytterbium fibre telecommunications lasers costing about $70K(Not including the fibre network) in total can span the continent via fibre providing 5GB/s of multiplexed channels, is super reliable, easy to repair, secure(hacker safe) and lower cost to build than a copper or microwave network.
The problem is that with the Liberals NBN you do not get a choice and will never get a choice of FTTP. If they gave the choice and said user pays then fine, but they are so short sighted that that will not be an option.
The problem is that with the Liberals NBN you do not get a choice and will never get a choice of FTTP. If they gave the choice and said user pays then fine, but they are so short sighted that that will not be an option.
They are going to give you the option, provided you pay for it, it will be a tax on a tax!
Like a tax payer funded tunnel, that requires tolls to use!
If you are a home owner, watch your rates go up next year, and if you rent watch your rent rise!
The problem is that with the Liberals NBN you do not get a choice and will never get a choice of FTTP. If they gave the choice and said user pays then fine, but they are so short sighted that that will not be an option.
They are going to give you the option, provided you pay for it, it will be a tax on a tax!
Like a tax payer funded tunnel, that requires tolls to use!
If you are a home owner, watch your rates go up next year, and if you rent watch your rent rise!
Sorry got mixed up, the cable they are laying now is being terminated so that it can easily be fed to your home. The Liberals will require that the cable goes into the node then from there run back to your home, so if you live 100m away from the node the cost will be huge, and in effect you won't be able to afford it.
They can keep what was done before and give termination points for each house while feeding it to the node. Then if you choose FTTP or FTTH it can be done at a realistic cost not what some country homes are being quoted of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
@Raydan
My concern is primarily with the changes to education. One of the unique Australian traits is 'a fair go for all'- regardless of socio-economic background. The ability to change ones circumstances, through which education is a primary mechanism, has until now been limited only by an individual's own personal will. We went from the lucky country to the country of opportunity. The changes to education will alter Australia forever, Its a stupid and short sighted solution to economic reform. Even Hokey has admitted that, as the son of migrant, he was fortunate to have been able to go to university and gain an education. To restrict it to those that can afford it will only emphasize class divide. This is not the Australian way.
People can still go to uni?
They can, provided that they can afford to pay fees, those that cant will have their prospects for education determined by their ability to obtain a relevant loan, and later repay it. So the current barrier of self will is no longer the only majorly relevant barrier. Which raises another issue, its been suggested the loans will come at a cost, interest, and the individual will bear the entire burden of that cost. While that may seem fair on its face, it should be noted that not all University courses result in the same economic prospects for the individual (on completion), an example of this is Arts related courses. However its undeniable that the nation benefits as whole, by way of national intellectual capital. Its seems fair to me that if we all benefit on a national level, then we should all partly contribute to the costs of obtaining that benefit. A nation built predominately on pragmatic disciplines, which is what I think will happen if this Bill goes through, will IMO end up a dry one. Without intending to appear racist, that's my observation of some nations like China, who place major emphasis in pragmatic disciplines. Efficient, committed to a community cause, but lacking the intellectual capital to shape that community cause. This Bill is a narrow minded Bill .
But they don't pay their fees back until after they earn enough yeah?
But they don't pay their fees back until after they earn enough yeah?
My understanding is that hasn't really been determined as yet. That's certainly the case under the current system, ie the Fed Gov is the body funding the Education upfront by way of the Higher education Contribution Scheme, and shares part of the cost with the student. But that's the scheme being put a risk under the current proposal. The other point is an equitable one ie if an individual has to pay back the full cost of his education, with interest, and his chosen field is not one which provides prospects for economic return to the extent of that another course may, then the prospect of being lumbered with a three figure loan may result in more students choosing fields with higher economic related prospects. We end up a poorer nation by way of intellectual versatility.
New figure is 50k to pay your HECS back ...was around 53K......I'd expect that change to make it through the senate as will the debt tax.
The GP co payment and rise in pension age wont make it through IMO and you can look forward to a GST of 12.5% so the states can fund the State's budget hole now the Libs have cut back on the health and education monies.
Look forward to the Uni's raising fees and looking to grab more fee paying overseas students thats where the goldmine in education is......they will be building student housing complexes on mass to accomodate the overseas market...thats after they have sacked half their non academic workers in response to research money being cut which is whats happening now.
That new medical research centre wont get off the ground if that co payment policy doesnt get through the senate........
@Elwood
I read somewhere last week that fees for some course , such as science related courses were anticipated to go down and various other non science related course fees were anticipated to increase. The ones going down appeared to be the courses with more limited places. But then given course fees themselves don't come under the scope of federal gov, how can they index entry fees to any strategy?. The fees will be set by each of the institutions in each of the states. They could all agree to somehow index them, but that wouldn't be in the control of Fed gov unless they somehow buy in with some sort of funding program, which they're wanting to privatize. So how can such a claim of decrease be assured?
@Elwood
I read somewhere last week that fees for some course , such as science related courses were anticipated to go down and various other non science related course fees were anticipated to increase. The ones going down appeared to be the courses with more limited places. But then given course fees themselves don't come under the scope of federal gov, how can they index entry fees to any strategy?. The fees will be set by each of the institutions in each of the states. They could all agree to somehow index them, but that wouldn't be in the control of Fed gov unless they somehow buy in with some sort of funding program, which they're wanting to privatize. So how can such a claim of decrease be assured?
I like the idea of the Government providing a higher level of for funding courses that industry are looking for at any point in time.
If it was an inducement then there would be some merit, provided it acts as an additional inducement rather than an additional penalty at the expense of those that aren't. It's no coincidence that the fields being penalized are those in the fields of arts, yet one of the great and unique things about Australia is our spread of intellectual capital. Take China for example they appear to have focussed on the more pragmatic fields, they're as efficient as can practically be, but??????. The other issue is that it's not really an inducement at all because the limited places, by way of entry scores prevents competition and therefore a decrease in fees in those selected fields. It's nothing but a guess, unless the Fed Gov plough money into more university resources to be able to lift competition. But then they are saying they want to cut funding. It's all crapola
If it was an inducement then there would be some merit, provided it acts as an additional inducement rather than an additional penalty at the expense of those that aren't. It's no coincidence that the fields being penalized are those in the fields of arts, yet one of the great and unique things about Australia is our spread of intellectual capital. Take China for example they appear to have focussed on the more pragmatic fields, they're as efficient as can practically be, but??????. The other issue is that it's not really an inducement at all because the limited places, by way of entry scores prevents competition and therefore raised fees in those selected fields. It's nothing but a guess, unless the Fed Gov plough money into more university resources to be able to lift competition. But then they are saying they want to cut funding. It's all crapola
I also think there should be more focus on TAFE training rather than University.
Absolutely agree with you
The more training and direction we provide to our youth, the better our society becomes, and I'd be happy to pay $7 or even $15 medial cost per visit, or even some additional education levy to do so. In the end we benefit and so does our legacy
I understand the need for responsible spending, but this is scary stuff. Surely part of responsibility of government goes beyond provision of dollars for physical infrastructure projects. By the looks of it they are wanting to totally opt out of higher education contribution period.......
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/christopher-pyne-suggests-collecting-hecs-debts-from-dead-students-as-way-to-help-budget-20140528-394rx.html
Yet when current treasurer, was embarking on his own education, he objected against the introduction of a $250 admin fee for university students.
http://www.news.com.au/national/believe-it-or-not-this-version-of-joe-hockey-actually-protested-against-an-attack-on-free-university-education-for-all/story-fncynjr2-1226935016965