Labor - The Bad, The Ugly and the occasional Good.

[Culprit]

The election is a long way off. Dutton and Co are banking on a Trump Presidency to give them some kind of momentum with their RW ideology. There's a lot to play out and the economy is the big one. 12 months is a long time in Politics.

[What'sinaname]

The States will fall first.

Parties become complacent and voters always seek a change. QLD, NSW and Vic will fall first. The ALP will get a second term federally and then fall.

[What'sinaname]

How good is Labor's youth crime policies going.

Record crime in QLD and now in Victoria.

[What'sinaname]

Labor's ABC have a mare.

Editing war footage to add gunshot sounds and now systemic racism.

Time to pull the funding.

[What'sinaname]

The first shift tom the right with QLD labor very likely to fall.

Labor's softness on youth crime will see QLD, NSW and Victoria all fall.

[SLORT]

The thing about Labor ~ all their members of parliament went to the same private schools as those in the Liberal Party. And then they went to the same universities, and studied the same courses (business and economics). So what would they know about "average Australia"? They haven't been true to their values for 50 years, just a gradual slip-slide over to where they really get their bread buttered...global corporate power. Every country is infected by the same plutocracy. Democracy is just the window dressing.

[What'sinaname]

QLD's labor has waited until 8 days out from an election to realise youth crime IS an issue. They have had since 2015 to do something to protect the residents, but only now are promising to do something. It's too late.

[SLORT]

Successive governments have made discipline a crime, so parents and teachers are scared of the kids. Don't worry though, it's by design. After all our prisons are privately owned. Gotta keep them full lest the share prices drop.

"privatisation of incarceration in Australia, something that is more prevalent here than in the US"

- https://www.vice.com/en/article/private ... n-problem/

[David]

The thing about Labor ~ all their members of parliament went to the same private schools as those in the Liberal Party. And then they went to the same universities, and studied the same courses (business and economics). So what would they know about "average Australia"? They haven't been true to their values for 50 years, just a gradual slip-slide over to where they really get their bread buttered...global corporate power. Every country is infected by the same plutocracy. Democracy is just the window dressing.

Albo's recent $4 million house purchase says it all, doesn't it? So much for representing the working class and being devoted to fighting Tories – he's looking at one every morning in the mirror.

I wonder what the person he was thirty years ago (before he got hollowed out by power and the party machine, if he ever was a person of substance) would think of who he has become.

That article about prison privatisation is pretty shocking, btw. I would never have guessed that it's more normalised here than in the US.

[SLORT]

Want another shock insight into a system of corrupt bureaucracy? Watch this video ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVefGihBg0

This is about the way retirement pensions are structured for government agencies.

"The total cost for approximately 164,000 retired bureaucrats...who worked in Canberra...is approximately $335 billion (annualy)".

"David Anderson from the ABC...final salary of 1.1 to 1.2 million...entitled to 37% of his final income every year in retirement...over $400,000 a year until he passes away (he's about 55 years old)"

[What'sinaname]

Want another shock insight into a system of corrupt bureaucracy? Watch this video ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVefGihBg0

This is about the way retirement pensions are structured for government agencies.

"The total cost for approximately 164,000 retired bureaucrats...who worked in Canberra...is approximately $335 billion (annualy)".

"David Anderson from the ABC...final salary of 1.1 to 1.2 million...entitled to 37% of his final income every year in retirement...over $400,000 a year until he passes away (he's about 55 years old)"

I call bullshit on this story.

$335 billion per year divided by 164,000 is over $2 million per person per year.

[stui magpie]

@SLORT do you have any more detail other than a speech by a stammering pollie?

I understood most of the old Public Sector pension schemes were closed back in the late 90's or at latest, very early 2000's because of the cost.

When i joined Telecom in 1985, I had to join the compulsory "super" scheme for the federal public service, the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme. You had to pay 5% of your salary into it.

At that time, when you retired, you had the choice of either 50% of your final salary for life PLUS a refund of your contributions as a lump sum or you could take 75% of final salary with no lump sum.

The Hawke/Keating government realised how much that could cost, so Keating first introduced compulsory super for all (also projected as a huge saving on the age pension) then set about introducing Defined Benefit schemes to the public service which were lump sum schemes based on years of service and final salary, but no pension. Once the super guarantee went from 3% to 9% the defined benefit formulas no longer worked so they started closing those funds and introducing accumulation funds where your and your employer contribution was invested by the fund and you got a lump sum on retirement. In a lot of cases, people had to agree to change fund type, some stayed in the closed funds but they were closed off to new entries.

So the reason for the history lesson is that I was under the impression that it was only Politicians and a minority of long serving federal public servants who still had access to the fixed pension funds based on final salary and years of service.