the troubadour

He 's a polly. Like a businessman, once got your business/vote you can fluff off as your usefulness has been completed .

Beoz

Wow. What a woeful tale of self pity.

the troubadour

Wow . Some of us have managed to get over ourselves and take in a whole bigger picture to what is happening out there.


I only hope you are able to over come your take that everything commented on is a personal tale of woe but in reality that of community and that many things in life seen through a different focus than your own is neither self centred nor self pity.


Well we can live in hope. Perhaps worth a try though.

BadgeIsBack

Shorten and his chronies seem to have upped their game. Was it here I read they've taken advice or got coaching? Nicer shirts, nicer ties. Shorten seems to be enjoying himself.

Beoz

the troubadour

I noticed the same. Style gurus definitely at work. Lucrative work, no doubt, for those that do it.

BadgeIsBack

Commonsense. Never ceases to amaze me that the average bloke can't pick a decent tie to go with a shirt. You see so much busy colours and too much contrast and that's on individuals who are in front of cameras every day of their working lives.

the troubadour

Well the tie is the only item where individuality may be expressed on the corporate uniform. I expect any number over the enforced conformity and feel their tie says "I am really somebody else', rather than a clone too often expected.

GarryP

For those saying the liberals were not the party of racists :

Peter Dutton says 'illiterate and innumerate' refugees would take Australian jobs

The worst thing is, he hasn't been sacked and disowned, but protected :

Election 2016: Malcolm Turnbull brushes off Peter Dutton's refugee comments - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hell, Enoch Powell and his 'rivers of blood' are looking pretty good in comparison about now; at least he didn't have any power, and WAS sacked.

Beoz

Fair comments. There is a high cost to re-settlement and that should be carefully considered.

Oh sorry I forgot, the hypocritical left strikes again.

bcworld

Seems like another election campaign will be spent engaged in a race to the bottom when it comes to sensible debate. Have to admit to being pretty surprised to see MT fully engaged in the three world sloganry yesterday though. His appearances are becoming less and less polished and reverting back to something more Abbottesque. I suspect he must be getting quite alarmed at the polls and continuing narrowing of the popularity gap between him and Shorten.

Beoz

Sportsbet has the Coalition at $1.32 and the ALP at $3.35.

Might be worth putting a sneaky $50 on the ALP.

Meanwhile on asylum seekers and penalty rates ............ No Cookies | Herald Sun

Croker

Dutton's ridiculous comments put me in mind of two things; one was a quote from the comedian, Louis CK, who said words to the effect of "...of course foreigners steal your job! But maybe, if someone without contacts, money or speaking the language steals your job, you're s**t". The other is a great definition that seems to describe what Peter Dutton believes refugees will do in Australia (sadly I don't know who coined it first, but I saw it used against Nigel Farage and UKIP) - "Schrodinger's Immigrant: existing in a state of lazing around on benefits, whilst simultaneously stealing your job".

I do feel connected to this in a minor way - I worked almost exclusively in immigration throughout my career in the UK, and now I'm looking for work in Australia. Try as I might, I can't see how illiterate and innumerate refugees would take Australian jobs, certainly based on my time in the job market in Melbourne. Unless they happen to be high quality chefs, digital media account managers, lawyers, or project managers, they're going to find bugger all to apply for anyway.

I'm literate, numerate, and have broad working experience, but I'm really struggling to get anything. A huge swathe of jobs are cut off from me as I'm not a permanent resident or Australian citizen (despite me having full working rights and me being willing to undergo as many VEVO checks as an employer might fancy) - but even so, I don't feel my chances are worsened by refugees. No, my chances have, after all, already taken a massive blow from the short-sightedness of many Australian employers.

Beoz

Price ....... Refugees are prepared to work for less or better put, Australians want more. If you read the many posts by troubadour he is constantly moaning about the gulf between rich and poor. You see the hipocrital views of the left - on one hand they want increased immigration but on the other hand they wish to close the gap between the rich and the poor. Doesn't quite work if you increase a group of workers who are prepared to work for less.

Interestingly, speaking with someone who lives in the Jordanian capital, they are having major issues with refugees from Syria coming into the city and selling goods and services which are majorly undercutting the price of locals.

Why is that? What do you do?

Croker

You've missed out the rather important qualifier I put after the sentence you quoted: "Unless they happen to be high quality chefs, digital media account managers, lawyers, or project managers, [illiterate and innumerate refugees] are going to find bugger all to apply for [in Melbourne] anyway."

That said, I'm not convinced that the 'refugees will work for less so that's why illiterate and innumerate people will take your jobs' holds water as an argument. That's what a minimum wage is supposed to do; prevent undercutting by establishing a floor for wages. If refugees are working for less than the minimum wage, then they are being used in a criminal fashion, and the employers should be sought out and vigorously prosecuted. That's not job theft by foreigners, it's organised immigration crime and it should be punished with jail terms for dodgy employers, not fines.

If the job pays minimum wage, and Australians aren't willing to do the job for that money, then how are refugees "stealing" it? It's a job that apparently only refugees are willing to do, so where is the loss there? Australians have every right to choose not to take a particular job, if they don't want to do it for the wage on offer. They can hardly say that job has been "stolen" from them if someone else takes it, though.

If your argument is that the minimum wage is not actually adequate for Australians to live on (which is why they "want more"), then surely it needs to be raised? Interestingly, that would rather give credence to the need to close the gap between rich and poor, wouldn't it?

I'm not sure I see the hypocrisy of the left you're referring to, either, if I'm honest. I wonder if you aren't misrepresenting the left when you say that they want "increased immigration". Are you sure what they want isn't actually "immigration that doesn't see people locked up in appalling conditions on Manus Island"? You can want both a manageable level of immigration coupled with a more humane system to deal with refugees, you know. For example, you could have onshore detention, where the treatment of refugees could be more closely and effectively monitored. It's still detention - they won't be letting them out during the day to take your job.

I worked in immigration in the UK, in a senior role that involved managing a team of people, as well as dealing with sensitive information, and things of that nature. The short-sightedness I refer to is that of Australian employers insisting on vacancies being for permanent residents or Australian citizens only; given the waiting times for applications at the moment, that's a very large swathe of jobs for which I am completely qualified that will not be available for me to pursue for a minimum of 3 and possibly as much as 6 years.

This despite the fact that I moved to Australia to marry an Australian citizen, so I'm clearly not likely to leave any time soon! The average Australian marriage lasts 12.1 years, far longer than it will take for me to get citizenship, so you can hardly say that "oh, I'd take a risk on employing you, but if you get divorced you won't be able to stay in Australia so you'd have to leave the job" applies as a counter-argument, either.

This short-sightedness stems further, though, even into posts where it's not a pre-requisite that I have PR or that I be a citizen; it's hard to dismiss as coincidental a selection of supposedly innocent queries about my immigration status, followed later by an email/phone call saying "sorry, you just weren't successful on this occasion for vague reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with your immigration status"!