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[alexandertnt]

So the obnoxious-and-annoying thing is punished more heavily then the outright dangerious and reckless thing. The hell, government?

On a related note: Do they really crush the cars of certain offenders? Seems like an awful waste of a car...

[sneakey pete]

Hasn't even been a law for 90 days yet so its not possible for someone to be upto that stage, but I think they sell the car unless it is completely un-roadworthy and has no great value in parts. I expect that there will be supreme court challenges when it gets to that though, be it before or after said car is actually crushed/sold however. Realistically its going to be hard for the government to prove that they should have the power to take peoples property to the judiciary though.

Also note that "driving an illegally modified vehicle" thing also refers to, as far as i'm aware, things like having a broken headlight or broken mirrors etc. (all defects are handled under a defect system here, be it that or having your car dropped on its guts 10mm off the ground, unless they have changed it. Luckily i've not had to deal with it myself at this stage). Theoretically if you get booked for that 4 times in 5 years you lose your car to, from what i can tell.

[Max White]

Now I'm interested in the wording of 'failing to supply a specimen of breath or blood'
That could be read two possible ways. Firstly either you can provide a breath test and if you honestly believe the test is inaccurate you can opt for a blood test, or, the more worrying implication, if an officer asks you for either one of these two samples and you fail to comply (Such as belief that needles are toxic or religious reasons) then you can get charged.
The fact that the wording is ambiguous is a problem in and of itself, but beyond that while I don't believe myself that there is anything wrong with blood tests, I also think it is important to show some reasonable degree of leniency in regard to these things, otherwise officers would be able to unfairly target people following certain beliefs.


Thinking blood tests are harmful is like people who still think fluoride in drinking water is harmful, it is pretty silly, but I wouldn't force people to drink that water if they chose not to.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think I liked you guys better when you were socialists.

[Max White]

Eh, we are still a dirty socialist welfare state, just now a lot more authoritarian and xenophobic!

Speaking of which, I wonder what ever became of that paid maternity thingy. Boy did that stop getting attention fast!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Actually, this brings me to a point I'm interested in. Do Labour Party members consider themselves socialists? As in, would they describe their ideological basis as socialism? I know the party itself is a member of Socialist International, so...

[Max White]

That is a very, very old debate for the party. They have actually had splits in the past over their choice of capitalist vs socialist.
The thing you need to know about the Labor party is that it draws its support, funding and membership from the unions, but each union is its own entity with its own ideals. Some believe they would do best in a capitalist economy, while others prefer socialism, so the Labor party itself is a house divided, and pretty much always has been (Despite this they hold more seats than any other single party).

Each faction knows it would just be a minor player in the face of the Coalition if they didn't tow the line and play nice with the others that have conflicting ideals, so while outwardly they depend on showing unity, and do poorly when they don't, internally they are ripe with conflict and debate, as a good party damn well should be!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

So are red unions or yellow unions more powerful overall?

[Max White]

That really depends on what MPs get elected for the term. Right now the fact that Shorten beat Albanese for leadership would tend to indicate pro capitalist views among the leadership, but Albanese received the popular vote with the rank and file possibly showing that the party in its entirety is more socialist.

Then again Albanese has a history of fighting for social reform, such as LGBT and native rights and what not, and to the average person they are a little more attractive than Shortens focus on economics and political tact, so hard to say.

Interestingly the Socialist alliance gave preference to the Greens, and then a few other small left leaning parties before Labor, so whether they are socialist or not, there seems to be a few significantly more socialist.

[Hanslanda]

PTW

[Max White]

Do you think he is doing it just to be controversial enough to get some attention on the world platform, like a global emo kid?

[Max White]

So yep, the UN is still saying we are in breech of international law... And Scott Morrison just sort of shrugging it off.

[Jimmy]

What? We still get boat people? I thought the Abbott government promised to turn them back. After all, there haven't been any media releases about the numbers arriving, so they must have stopped, right?

Glad that problem's solved. Saves more room in the newspaper for stories about Justin Bieber spraying a tennis court with graffiti.

[Yannanth]

.

[Max White]

Australian politics feels more like a stupid media war instead of decision-making at times.

Now your getting it!
Now in the national economic report: The proposed sale of Grain Corp has been blocked by treasurer Joe Hockey. The only people that cared were the Labor party with the hopes it would gain them more leverage and the reporters that were just waiting for the weekend. Hospitals have reported a huge influx of people with a serious case of not giving a fuck.


In other news, the political rhetoric against Pyne has reached levels that can only be described as hilarious. In wake of him dropping the Gonski school funding plan, state and territory education ministers are pissed the fuck off, and have made it their personal mission to destroy this man and leave nothing more than a husk. Fun fact: Many of these education ministers are from the same party as Pyne himself. Leader of the sex party, Fiona Patten, has described the act as "Hot libs on libs action!". I for one, approve of all suffering inflicted by virtue of he deserves it for being a prick.


Finally, Aung San Suu Kyi is touring Australia with her hot new single "Everybody wants to rule the world". Australians everywhere have in response actually looked up where Burma is on a map, there as further justifying the need for education reform.