Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

We already have the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool. For those overseas readers, Harold Holt was a Prime Minister who disappeared off a beach in Victoria (presumed drowned) in 1967.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

As I said, the status quo prevails.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Original report was incorrect as to numbers. It was Gillard 71, Rudd 31.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

So, why did the Labor Party engineer this fiasco?

What are they trying to draw our attention away from?

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

You are giving them far too much credit. If it is a choice between a conspiracy and stupidity, you rarely go wrong picking stupidity.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Well, as everyone now knows it was 71-31 to Gillard.

Our Prime Minister played a top hand, left Rudd for dead. She leaked word that she was about to fire him from the ministry, so Rudd was spooked into jumping before the push came.

It's really unbelievable - bizarre - that Rudd would choose to resign when and where and how he did. Meanwhile, back at the ranch Gillard had all her ducks lined up in a row and they duly quacked and quacked until the one-time rooster (remember that?) was little more than a feather duster.

As I said at the outset, Gillard will not only survive, she'll thrive. One down, one to go.

Clive

Here is my prediction. Gillard will not lead the Labor Party to the next election.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Today it's group hugs all around (publicly). But I suspect you are right Peter. It's far from over. As much as this sounds silly, I think that Gillard may have picked up a point or two with the Public after this debacle.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Have you heard the term Dead CAT Bounce, Norm?

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

I had to laugh when the Gillard Government said this week that they would be reducing staff in the Dept. of Climate Change by as much as one third

So who is left to handle the environmental applications of the Carbon Tax windfall

Wait.........it's coming to me..............oh yes, the Federal Treasury.

And where does all the Carbon Tax money go ..........wait for it................why Consolidated Revenue of course.

In reality they don't really give a st*ff about the environment, the Carbon Tax is just a touchy feely way of gouging more money to gain that earth shatteringly important political promise of a budget surplus.

And the Greens support all this (well they were always into touchy feely things I suppose, so why not)

And further to my above post it's good to see a green outcome from the increased power costs that the Carbon Tax will bring. This from the Herald Sun newspaper:

"Energy-intensive recycling companies, which melt waste plastic for re-use, say they will go out of business unless they match the price of cheap imports.

Mark Yates, director of Repeat Plastics Australia, said his company was at risk of collapsing under the increased costs.

"I have 75 staff, I'm looking at cutting 30 per cent of that. It's ironic that the tax that is meant to help save the environment may be the last nail in the coffin for plastics recycling in Australia," he said.

"A lot of power goes into the recycling of plastic, but our process uses about 20 per cent of the energy required to make virgin plastic."

He said 3000 tonnes of waste would go into landfill if his company folded".

So much for the Carbon Tax being good for the environment

S.N.A.F.U.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Hah, just wait and see the massive financial losses due to low uptake for the multi-billion dollar National Broadband Network (NBN). It's going to make the Building Education Revolution, Insulation projects, set-top boxes for the elderly and all the other st*ff up's look tiny in comparison.

The NBN will be one great mother of an enormously money wasting:

SNAFU

And the best part of it is, we'll all be paying for it.........

The NBN will be compulsory, if you want fixed line anything. The only way the model makes even the remotest sense is for it to be a monopoly. The big hole in the business model is mobile broadband.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

By the time the Rollout is completed, if ever - Geelong is now on the list, and everybody in the region is gushing all over it, technology will have gone three steps forward, and it will go by the way of Blacksmiths.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

I have a recent article somewhere, from Verizon in the US. Their prediction is that the demand for capacity for tablets only (iPads and the like) in 2015 will exceed all the mobile bandwidth utilised in 2010. The 2010 figures included everything, tablets, smartphones and normal cell traffic. Verizon provides capacity, so they are building now (and chasing spectrum) to meet that growth.

I suspect that many people will decide that the NBN is just too expensive and limiting and will move to mobile broadband. If too many people do that, then we are spending $50B plus on the whitest of white elephants.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Absolutely right

Technology changes so rapidly that it's mindless to spend so much money on a system that will take a long while to complete, be very expensive for the users and will be outdated when it's finished.

I recently got an iPad and it's definitely the way things will go in the future. I have an ADSL2+ wireless N modem setup that provides high speed internet access throughout the house. My wife and son can both be on the internet and I can sneak out to the back balcony and have a quite beer or three while continually working on the iPad.

You don't even have to use mobile broadband when you leave the house as long as you are near a free wifi hotspot. I did just that at the Hellenic Club in Canberra during the recent stampshow. If you do want 100% uptime wherever you go then get a SIM card for the iPad and it's a mobile internet machine.

That complete freedom and ease of use is precisely why the NBN will go the way of the dodo before it's completed.

This nonsense really has to be stopped and I think it will be straight after the next Federal election

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Tony

Absolutely 100% correct.

I also have wireless broadband at home and use wifi on my phone when I am on the road.

I am not interested in the NBN, if it ever gets to Mt Gambier.

Bill

The Carbon Tax will not do 1 iota for the environment, the govts real agenda is to collect as much $$ from us to give to third world despot nations, just look at how much that recycled Carr has given away to third world countries since he has been reycled by Gillard! Australia's in a bad way and needs help.

Donald, on that we will have to disagree. Compared to most, Australia is very well off and can afford to provide aid (especially to nations close to us).

I do agree that the carbon Tax will not do anything for the environment. One of the problems is that it makes Australia even less competitive, since none of our major trading partners has a carbon tax. Even worse, it won't raise much revenue (at least initially). Most of teh tax raised is going back as compensation. So, the idiots are making us less competitive, but shielding most taxpayers from the costs (at least initially).

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

[quote="PeterS"]Donald, on that we will have to disagree. Compared to most, Australia is very well off and can afford to provide aid (especially to nations close to us).

Have to disagree with you PeterS, I believe in looking after our own first, then, if there is anything left over, donate. Many Ozzies are now living in poverty, homelessness and so on while Oz throws money left, right and centre at these countries, but then again, when it's not your own money, why not!

The Australian Government is currently borrowing th equivalent of $100,000,000 a day and by the time they finish the interest bill will be $6,000,000,000 a year before thay even start to pay a single dollar back.

Swanny is going to need a bloody big surplus to pay off that debt, which is rumoured will be $135 to 250 billion by the next election. It depends on how drunk they get on our money and how much they want to throw at the voters to fool them into voting for them again.

http://www.international.to/index.php?o ... Itemid=119

The NBN is peanuts in comparison.

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We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

Donald, think of it as self interest, if nothing else. Do you really want failed states close by that end up being havens for criminal gangs and terrorists?

In any event, the poorest person in Australia is wealthy in comparison to most we assist. with foreign aid. The amount we contribute is a drop in the bucket, as far as the budget is concerned. There would be far more savings to be made in trimming government waste.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

One of the sleazier acts of the Gillard government is coming back to haunt them. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper, has stood aside whilst he is investigated for alleged misuse of taxi vouchers. He is also being sued for alleged sexual harassment, by a former staffer.

This guy is sleaze personified (he was in the process of losing party endorsement when he became speaker, primarily because of his sleaze), yet Gillard claimed back in November that he was more suitable than any member of her own party to be speaker.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

We live in interesting times.

Any vote right now needs Andrew Wilkie's support to pass I think?

Gillard's recent weaseling out of the agreement re pokie tax with him may bite her on the bum.

Glen, assuming Slipper is not cleared in time (assuming he is) for the next session of parliament then it would be 75-75 (if Wilkie votes with the Coalition). The Deputy Speaker (Anna Bourke, Labor, in the chair) would have the casting vote.

However, the next session is 2 weeks away. I imagine there will be no 2 year inquiry (unlike the FWA farce that was the Thompson inquiry) in this instance.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Though Tony Abbott isn't my pick for leader of the Coalition, he did say something pretty accurate today in a radio interview.

When asked about the "Slipper affair" he stated that the Coalition had been trying to get him out of a Parliament for a while when he was on their side yet the Labor Party had given him the position of Speaker of the House, one of the highest positions in the Parliament.

You have to wonder about a government that would do that just to retain power

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Tony

NBN is a joke.

The workers installing it in this are are a lazy bunch, who stand around this area for 7.5 hours smoking & chatting and then spend the other 30 minutes digging a hole. All are flown in from Victoria. All Government funded.

Wonder how much they get paid per hour, considering they only do about 3hrs of work a week, they are getting a great wage I'm sure.

The NBN will probably take even longer than anticipated to fully roll out, and all for technology that will be instantly superseeded.

My internet is fast enough anyway.

I feel this should be "Will the United States and Australia self-destruct?" since we here have the same brain dead politicians as you guys down under. At least your health care system doesn't hurt others like this OBAMACARE mess.

The more disfunctional the US gets Australia is looking good to me and I might move there.

How does the USA trying to introduce a Universal Healthcare system, with huge opposition from the Republicans, such as happens in Australia, Great Britain, Canada and most other first world civilised nations become a mess?



Yep, come to Australia - you will never go bankrupt here simply because you get ill. And we have a left wing (as much as anybody is these days) atheist female Prime Minister who "lives in sin", so for USA expats, it is obviously the ideal location.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

You are correct. I greatly enjoyed my 4 year stay in Australia.

Kind people, great food, beautiful sights. Vegemite and Toohey's beer. What more is there?