Politics

[Scotty]

So if I read this right, Labour wants to means test the 30% rebate on private health insurance. Singles earning the massive sum of 75k or couples with 150k would not be eligible anymore.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/rudd-set-to-get-second-double-dissolution-election-trigger/story-e6frgczf-1225833871865

At the same time they want to raise the penalties for those that don’t have private health insurance, for ‘high income’ persons.

So if you earn in the order of 100k a year or more, you will either have to pay a significant amount more for private health insurance, or if you don’t have private health insurance you will have to pay a significant amount more to not have it.

Something seems very wrong! Rudd thinks he is Robin Hood.

 

[mark_s]

I have philosophical objections to mean testing in addition to a prgessive tax system. Its one or the other not both.
Then there is the extra frictional costs of means testing re additional bureaucrats to administer the system and the general public trying to fiddle their books, invest in dodgy tax schemes etc. to come in under the mean testing limit. I would love to see a study as to whether means testing costs society more money than it saves cause I strongly suspect the answer is yes.

 

[Scotty]

It doesn't actually save anything, because it ends up just being shifted from the higher earners (earning massive sums of 75k per year) towards the low earners.

Actually, this government is shifting it from the higher earners to pay for their own incompetence and policy wastages. It is like they are pinching pennies from the public so they can turn around and throw wads of cash down the toilet.

This government will increase my cost of living significantly. I can say that for a fact.

 

[Pfitzy]

Incidentally, I reckon the German system of healthcare has a lot of merit - if you earn over a certain figure you get no state assistance in hospital. You either buy insurance (like you would a car or house) or pay out of pocket for everything. None of this "pay medicare but get it back if you have private health which you must if you're over 30" blah blah fucking blah. The problem with our tax system is it weighs a ton - there is always a scam. It should be simple: pay tax on what you buy and what you earn. No discounts, no defraying of costs. It just hides the figures.


Back on politicians for a sec: Theo Theophanous (Victorian Labor MP (Moana Pasifika)) got booked for rape and had the case thrown out is quitting. And gets a taxpayer-funded pension benefit of about $115K per annum thankyou very much. For doing what?

 

[Scotty]

As relations between the government and the Senate hit new lows yesterday, with five federal ministers calling a joint press conference to label the upper house the most obstructionist in three decades, Greens leader Bob Brown and independent senator Nick Xenophon accused the Prime Minister of failing to personally engage in negotiations with key senators on contentious legislation

I think the government might have slipped up on this one. Playing a dangerous game getting both the greens and independants offside and trying to blame the liberal party for it. Rolling out five attack dogs at one press conference looks like a desperate measure to me.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/rudd-faces-senate-strife-on-maternity-leave/story-e6frg6nf-1225839328429

Lindsay Tanner on the 7:30 report last night saying ‘we cannot get anything through the senate without the support of the liberal party’. Um, maybe he should go back and count the senate numbers again. You aren’t fooling anyone, Lindsay.

 

[Moses]

Perhaps something they should have considered before sending so many preference votes to Fielding, who was elected with 2,519 first preference votes, 0.08% as it happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fielding

 

[the gambler]

Half of which came from his immediate family by the sounds of it.

 

[Scotty]

Massive wastages in the BER program keep coming out. Private and Catholic schools have freedom in their projects, which are driven by the school principals, while the State governments drive the state school projects with consultants not even allowed to talk to the principals. The difference in value is astounding, and we will end up with smaller, poorer designs in state schools compared to private schools, further widening the gap between them. Difficult to believe that consultants are being paid double for mostly pre-designed state school builders when compared to bespoke architect designed private school buildings.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/schools-watch/public-schools-paying-double/story-fn56ulhe-1225847698774

A breakdown of costs provided by the Catholic Education Office for the Parramatta diocese shows the non-construction costs at Holy Family school total about $170,000 and include fees to the architect, who acts as project manager, consultants, such as structural and electrical engineers, surveyors, the council and certifiers.

The equivalent costs in the public sector total about $350,000 and include an incentive fee for the managing contractor to finish on time and on budget, on top of its project management fee, the state government's project management cost and "design documentation, field data and site management" worth about $240,000.

 

[Pfitzy]

Can I point out consultants are generally a waste of time?

 

[Scarfman]

Studies have shown that a lot of studies are crap.

 

[Scotty]

Can I point out consultants are generally a waste of time?

When you say 'consultants' are you referring to management consultants? They are the newest of all consultants, and for some reason have decided to refer to themselves as only 'consultants', which really annoys me. And I agree, generally they are a waste of time.

Of course in the building sense they are talking about architects, various engineers, surveyors, town planners etc, and I fail to see how any of them could be a 'waste of time'. (I am a structural engineer, so of course biased, but if you took us out of the project there would be a lot more buildings falling over and people dying in this world!)

 

[stoff]

Can I point out consultants are generally a waste of time?

When you say 'consultants' are you referring to management consultants? They are the newest of all consultants, and for some reason have decided to refer to themselves as only 'consultants', which really annoys me. And I agree, generally they are a waste of time.

Of course in the building sense they are talking about architects, various engineers, surveyors, town planners etc, and I fail to see how any of them could be a 'waste of time'. (I am a structural engineer, so of course biased, but if you took us out of the project there would be a lot more buildings falling over and people dying in this world!)

Come on Scotty, I'm in Construction Management and I am sure you would agree with me that most architects are a waste of time.

 

[Pfitzy]

Of course in the building sense they are talking about architects, various engineers, surveyors, town planners etc, and I fail to see how any of them could be a 'waste of time'. (I am a structural engineer, so of course biased, but if you took us out of the project there would be a lot more buildings falling over and people dying in this world!)

Yes. Though once you consider most cathedrals were built with a minimum of mathematics and the most basic of tools, everything does come into perspective a little...

Generally, those posing as "consultants" who try to tell you what you should be doing, when you bloody well know yourself, and then charge you for it. They usually get hired by the fuckwits in your company who would douse their elbows if their arse was on fire.

 

[cyclopath]

Of course in the building sense they are talking about architects, various engineers, surveyors, town planners etc, and I fail to see how any of them could be a 'waste of time'. (I am a structural engineer, so of course biased, but if you took us out of the project there would be a lot more buildings falling over and people dying in this world!)

Yes. Though once you consider most cathedrals were built with a minimum of mathematics and the most basic of tools, everything does come into perspective a little...

Generally, those posing as "consultants" who try to tell you what you should be doing, when you bloody well know yourself, and then charge you for it. They usually get hired by the fuckwits in your company who would douse their elbows if their arse was on fire.

But a slightly different set of OH&S standards, not to mention time frames to nowadays. Back then, you probably dreamed to lose a family member in a tragic gargoyle-related incident so the whole family avoided purgatory and all that. Not to mention they took centuries to build sometimes, so good for multi-generational employment.

 

[Pfitzy]

Yep. Shit happens cyclo. You're just angry because back then you would have been considered a quack

Now back to politicians and what an appalling shower of useless bastards they are - Senator Conroy of the Coalition of Deadshits comes up with some new brainless shite:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...tions-minister-20100401-rg7h.html?autostart=1

 

[cyclopath]

Yep. Shit happens cyclo. You're just angry because back then you would have been considered a quack

Now back to politicians and what an appalling shower of useless bastards they are - Senator Conroy of the Coalition of Deadshits comes up with some new brainless shite:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...tions-minister-20100401-rg7h.html?autostart=1

1. I am not angry.
2. No, back then I would have been considered a Barber, as surgeons were originally part of the Guild of Barbers (hence the red and white poles), whereas physicians were edjyookated types from yooniversitties, and indeed quacks. We're just tradies, really mate. Only I don't drive a ute.
3. Would you have been the guy who put the beads on the abacus?

 

[Pfitzy]

Meh. You had to be a doctor first. Therefore a quack.

In all likelihood, I would have ended up a farmer as that is what my father's people have done for about a thousand years.

 

[cyclopath]

Meh. You had to be a doctor first. Therefore a quack.

In all likelihood, I would have ended up a farmer as that is what my father's people have done for about a thousand years.

Back then, no you didn't, hence my point. You just started cutting people up.
And go back more than 100 yrs or so, so were mine - farmers that is.

 

[Thomond78]

Yep. Shit happens cyclo. You're just angry because back then you would have been considered a quack

Now back to politicians and what an appalling shower of useless bastards they are - Senator Conroy of the Coalition of Deadshits comes up with some new brainless shite:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...tions-minister-20100401-rg7h.html?autostart=1

1. I am not angry.
2. No, back then I would have been considered a Barber, as surgeons were originally part of the Guild of Barbers (hence the red and white poles), whereas physicians were edjyookated types from yooniversitties, and indeed quacks. We're just tradies, really mate. Only I don't drive a ute.
3. Would you have been the guy who put the beads on the abacus?

Only stopped being the Guild of Barber Surgeons in the 1750s. The "Mr" that some snotty surgeons insist on was actually an elegantly calculated snub.

That said, orthopods are still a set of brickies, at best. It's a wonder they don't head into theatre with a mug of milky tea in their hand and a copy of the Sun wobbling in the back pocked to one side of the builder's cleavage in the scrubs...

Of course, as a barrister, I'm Esq., doncherknow...

 

[cyclopath]

Yep. Shit happens cyclo. You're just angry because back then you would have been considered a quack

Now back to politicians and what an appalling shower of useless bastards they are - Senator Conroy of the Coalition of Deadshits comes up with some new brainless shite:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...tions-minister-20100401-rg7h.html?autostart=1

1. I am not angry.
2. No, back then I would have been considered a Barber, as surgeons were originally part of the Guild of Barbers (hence the red and white poles), whereas physicians were edjyookated types from yooniversitties, and indeed quacks. We're just tradies, really mate. Only I don't drive a ute.
3. Would you have been the guy who put the beads on the abacus?

Only stopped being the Guild of Barber Surgeons in the 1750s. The "Mr" that some snotty surgeons insist on was actually an elegantly calculated snub.

That said, orthopods are still a set of brickies, at best. It's a wonder they don't head into theatre with a mug of milky tea in their hand and a copy of the Sun wobbling in the back pocked to one side of the builder's cleavage in the scrubs...

Of course, as a barrister, I'm Esq., doncherknow...

Yes. I know!! Have a good rest of your trip, Thomos!! I'll pass your orthopod assessment onto some mates - scarily accurate stuff!!