General Australian Politics Thread

They didn't care when it was the Bali Nine.

That doesn't refute my point about their justice system being compromised for her trial. In fact it reinforces it.

Bali Nine weren't as big as Schapelle.

They also weren't just smuggling pot. Bring in Sweet lady H is seen as more serious.

edited 10th Feb '14 3:56:55 PM by joeyjojo

I'd dispute that, given that in terms of media attention at the time it was almost equal (at least from my memory).

Fair point. Though in terms of diplomacy it was just as problematic, given that it brought the death penalty into the spotlight.

Was the Bali Nine's guilt ever really in question?

No. Was Schapelle's? Not really either. She is probably innocent only because the Indonesian court did not prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Good enough for me. I have no idea why people go to Bali anyway. An Australian dies there every nine days.

edited 10th Feb '14 8:31:18 PM by medicus

Still safer over there then in Australia then. Literally hundreds of australians dies right here in Australia every day.

edited 10th Feb '14 8:41:20 PM by JOEyJojO

Good point. How many Australians die every year in road accidents? We need a leader with the courage to implement a car cull!

edited 10th Feb '14 8:40:10 PM by medicus

8 of which were cause by people being stupid, drunk shits

edited 10th Feb '14 10:18:07 PM by PippingFool

Yup, hence the early lockdowns that is so going to work.

Also, apparently cowardly punches are so cowardly that they hardly show up on the crime statistics!

So I found a media clip as diverse as Home And Away. So what? It's not meant to be definitive.

The Bali Nine pleaded guilty iirc.

It's the same reason sharks are being culled: media whips public into a frenzy because "if it bleeds, it leads," public demands government "do something," government wildly oversteps the mark.

Except for QLD, of course. Our Dear Leader decided to go full retard on bikies. You can't really blame him though, he grew up under Sir Joh and his Attorney-General is a fucking conveyancing clerk.

edited 11th Feb '14 12:25:12 AM by medicus

Scott Ludlum's Question Without Notice to George Brandis.

Gotta feel sorry for Ludlum. He had to ask but knew he'd get nothing but regurgitated shit from Brandis.

Ah... The Schapelle Cory craziness is done with. I feel I can post here again... Aah, feels nice to have actual news to discuss.

And Ludlum's follow-up.

So we were talking about bogans:

Oh dear.

Edit: On another note, how freaking moronic is this?

edited 11th Feb '14 7:45:04 PM by IraTheSquire

I don't suppose anyone here can read... umm....squiggle?

News article here. Shocking, isn't it? May as well give the character a wife and son; when the Navy boards the boat they bayonet the kid, rape the wife then kill her, dump the bodies overboard, then take him to Nauru to slave in the phosphate mines.

Comic ends with "if you try to enter Australia by boat (just boats, planes are fine), you'll wish you were back with the Taliban!"

Edit: Some light-hearted relief. New episodes tonight!

edited 11th Feb '14 9:03:21 PM by medicus

I have been meaning to watch Mad as Hell (I am a big fan of The Daily Show and especially The Colbert Report), it seems right up my alley.

This is to distract me from that awful, awful comic.

That comic makes me so damn angry.

Most of my family were boat people. They were treated kindly, given support and a way to start a new life in Australia. It's truly depressing to see how badly the situation has deteriorated.

It is sick. It is moronic. It is as idiotic as a dictatorship making a comic about how a certain group of people will be tortured and brutally killed if they enter the country. It is something that I'd expect people like Gaddafi to do, not a civilised Western country.

It is sickening in its shamelessness.

<\rant>

The worst thing is this started under Rudd, not Abbott. :(

Howard started using refugees as a problem the government must solve with punitive measures.

Rudd dismantled the Pacific Solution and essentially ignored the issue until he was kicked out by Gillard.

Gillard then enthusiastically put in a lot of effort in repositioning asylum seekers as a vital issue, and defending anxiety about boatpeople.

Under her, the idea that high numbers of asylum seekers risked outbreaks of riots on the streets was supported.

Rudd later jumped on the bandwagon, obviously Abbott capitalised on the fact that this was what he'd been saying all along. But Gillard was the one who went full-throttle in positioning Labor as tough on refugees, and she essentially established bipartisanship with the Coalition on the issue.

edited 11th Feb '14 11:33:26 PM by editerguy