It’s also worth pointing out the only one accusing anyone of any sort of recrimination is actually the alleged perpetrator.
I’ll miss putting Rise Up (“God burnt down Victoria because of abortions”) last.
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I’m sure the same people will still be there, just under different party names because people have worked out who they are now. They’ll be trying to pull off some sort of bullshit preference-harvesting game to score a senate seat or two. I know that the ‘Sustainable Australia’ party is an anti-immigration front trying to harvest preferences off Green voters who don’t do their research, for instance.
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happy to hear both sides of the story
You read her statement yet?
Yep, well written, she should consider journalism as a career.
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How about we reduce cost of living pressure by increasing wages
Kaye Lee
The majority of Australians cite cost of living as one of the priorities that they want the government to address.
In typical one-dimensional ideological thinking, the Coalition’s only answer to this is to appoint a minister for getting power prices down who will take a big stick to the power companies.
The main reason that cost of living is an issue is because wages have stagnated for so long as housing, power, transport and other costs have risen.
Rather than recognising the danger of stalled wage growth, the Coalition have set about deligitimising the collective voice of unions, cutting penalty rates to our lowest paid workers, fighting increases to the minimum wage, and freezing the planned growth of the superannuation guarantee.
Rather than showing concern for the homeless and those who struggle to pay rent or buy their first home, the government is fighting tooth and nail to protect the tax concessions of those who own two or more homes.
Lifting the freeze on government fuel excise has added to the cost of petrol at a time when Iranian sanctions, Saudi tightness because of a war in Yemen, Venezuelan production going through the floor and disruptions in Libya have seen oil prices increase.
According to Professor John Buchanan from the University of Sydney’s Business School, the gap between wages and the cost of living is growing in many developed countries, despite rising productivity.
“Australian workers are more productive now than they’ve ever been, but they have not shared in the gains in the way that they used to,” he said.
This has obvious implications. When people have less disposable income, either demand dries up or private debt grows, neither of which are good for the economy.
While many other developed countries have seen a decline or “levelling out” of personal debt since the 2008 global financial crisis, Australia’s debt levels have continued to increase. The ratio of household debt to income has more than doubled between 1995 and 2015, going from 104% to 212%, according to the OECD Data released in 2015.
Poverty in Australia 2018 found that there are just over 3 million people (13.2%) living below the poverty line of 50% of median income – including 739,000 children (17.3%). In dollar figures, this poverty line works out to $433 a week for a single adult living alone; or $909 a week for a couple with 2 children. Many of those affected are living in deep poverty – on average, this is a staggering $135 per week below the poverty line.
The group of people experiencing poverty the most are, unsurprisingly, those relying on Government allowance payments such as Youth Allowance and Newstart. Yet the government’s reaction is to try to claw back welfare overpayments using a flawed system, and to steadfastly refuse to increase Newstart payments. They have tried various attempts to make it harder to even get any payment and introduced penalties for non-compliance.
Instead of positive action, we get trite phrases like if you have a go, you’ll get a go, or the best welfare is a job. They ignore the advice from the Business Council of Australia that the low payment is an impediment to actually getting a job.
Instead of increasing the tax free threshold to give low income earners some relief, as Julia Gillard did to offset cost of living pressures from introducing carbon pricing, the government wants to lower taxes for big business even though they are already making record profits and investors are lining up.
Any pretence that this government cares about cost of living completely evaporates on even a cursory examination of their performance since coming into office.
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I’ve had 3 robo-calls from Jill Hennessey since last night, one while I was umpiring today.
I mean, I’m glad she has my number and is happy to ring up and have a chat. I assume shewanted to know how the Woodford-Koroit game was panning out.
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■■■, I can totally see you as a cricket umpire.
How many LBW AN give?
I worked on a job in Koroit once, and the local bloke helping played cricket for Koroit. He was all excited on Friday about Country Cricket week as he got to go to the big city to play. Yep, Ballarat !
He was probably in his late twenties and had never been further than Warrnambool in his life. The next week, I asked him about his travel experience and he thought Ballarat was too big and had too many people, but he did like his ride on the team. Very worldly those Koroitians.
Who won ?
One each side today. Neither complained. Few good shouts too.
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Woodford…but half the adult members of Woodford play footy for Koroit, not North Warrnambool, whose ground they use…Bushfield, on the Hopkins Highway…about 12km north of Warrnambool.
And they are all Catholic and all related
My grandparents lived in Port Fairy for years. Used to love visiting that area. Went back earlier this year for the nostalgia. Reckon I’d retire there too one day. I actually lived in Warnambool for a year and did year 11 at Warnambool high.
There are only 2 people who don’t seem to believe her, the perp and you. And even the perp knows it’s real.
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I ran into a long-time Blitzer in Warrnambool who’s retired down here (to Killarney). Will be meeting up with him for a cup of coffee in Port Fairy this week. Not that I’d recognise all Blitzers, but he recognised me from the Grog Squad years around 2006.
You’d better hurry though. PF is getting more expensive.
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Don’t doubt that at all. My grandparents bought a house on South Beach in the 80s it’s the only single story place left on that stretch. Very different to the little beach shacks that dotted the road in the 80s.
I do not believe or disbelieve any of them.
You don’t know the truth, but the woman is always the honest one. Foley denies it, and he has still lost his career. She will probably pop up on SkyNews with a new job.
I just hate anyone being deemed guilty without due process. And if her story is truth, then her colleague needs to grow a set, as he should have smacked Foley to the ground and kicked him.
When, if ever, have the victims of such incidents profited from them?
Much more likely Foley ends up in a cushy job like every other example ever.
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■■■■ “I was too drunk and don’t remember” Foley. Utter creep.
He’ll end up on a board in the private sector within a month.
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You are being utterly horrible and pathetic right now. Both sides of politics thinks his guilty, your own party thinks he is guilty. Not for expedience but because they know it is true.
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