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The Down Under Lounge

Well maybe if corporations paid tax instead of getting to pay little to no tax and those pesky loopholes were closed there'd be more income to government.

Oh and a royal comission into the whole financial sector. I'd vote for that but that would likely spell the end of large political donations to you know who..

Corporate tax is a live issue for sure. We now have the ATO publish annually the tax paid by any company with sales (sales-- not profit) of $100m plus. The idea of this reform was to pressure firm "aggressively" reducing their taxable income (note that this is legal and rational -- avoiding tax isn't). Unfortunately there's that grey area between minimizing and avoiding, where the usual suspects (Apple, a couple of media companies) you could argue are playing hard. But if anyone is burning their Iphones in protest, I'm yet to see it, which was the point of the disclosure legislation.

As for the Royal Commission...not sure what you mean about the donations.

With the dog thing -

Wasn't it that only 25% of the people that the dogs indicated were carry drugs where actually found to be so after they were searched? That is, 75% of the time the dogs were giving false positives? These are innocent people who are being publicly humiliated. Also the police have been targeting the poor, the young and Aboriginals by only using these dogs at stations in poorer neighbourhoods.

Do you think something with a 25% success rate in taking drugs of the trains is a bad thing?

Sure, we hate being searched. It happens all the time. Most would tolerate the inconvenience as the cops do an impossible, dangerous job and try to keep a few less people turning into ice zombies.

Views about drugs aside, the law is the law and currently they're illegal. Give the cops every effective tool to do their job please. The Greens MP should resign. This kind of loony fringe stuff would be giving moderate Greens like Di Natale a migraine.
 
It is not acceptable for innocent people to be searched without a warrant or it seems without even just cause. If these dogs are known to be wrong the vast majority of the time than it isn't just cause.

According to the link below only 2.44% of searches end up with a conviction. That percentage isn't worth the embarrassment to thousands of innocent people.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/drug-sear...entified-by-sniffer-dogs-20141128-11wlty.html
 
I always try to see the other side of the argument, but really struggling here. This MP seems to be advocating the right to use and deal drugs in public. She's pro ciminal? What the hell is she trying to do except consign the Greens to the lunatic fringe?

As for your stereotypical remarks about bankers, well, if they use drugs they go down too. At the races, a noted drug use venue, people from all walks of life get sniffed. Funnily enough the toilets arent all clogged up with people doing lines any more.

Ice users make a trip on public transport a terrifying prospect. Just yesterday a girl sitting on a bus had her hair cut off by a couple of Ice zombies with scissors.

There's no probable cause to screen me and randomly search me when I board a plane but people live with it to prevent loss of life.

When I go to work Sundays I dress in a tracksuit and when I go to Woolies for lunch there was this very conscientious, very pleasant Indian lady who would say hi every week, then proceed to search my bag after I used the self serve checkout...every damn week. It was annoying as hell but she's trying to presumably impress her boss by being diligent against shoplifting. I didn't demand her sacking for harassment. She was doing her job.

The dogs are helping police getting illegal, deadly, life destroying drugs off the streets and making public transport safer. Let them do their jobs.

Some breaking, and much more important, news : credit rating agency Moody's has put the government on notice that Australia's AAA credit rating is all but done for unless taxes rise. A big bomb for the Libs with the budget all but locked away at this point.

Terrible news for those with mortgages, credit cards, or any kind of debt. If we lose our AAA, borrowing costs for everyone will increase. Interest on our debt pile rises and taxes will rise...Government services will be cut.

Ten years of avoiding the problem are now going to bite us on the arse. Turnbull and Morrison will be the ones to get caught when the music stops. Had to happen eventually.
 
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The War on Drugs does much more harm than good. We need to decriminalise drug use and treat drug use as a mental health problem.

Alcohol causes more deaths and more social problems than drugs do and we haven't banned it.

Test drivers to see if they are on drugs. Charge people with anti-social behaviour if they misbehave on public transport. If you use sniffer dogs to find drugs don't just concentrate on certain class of people (most notably the poor). The people using Redfern Station are 6.5 times more likely to be approached by police with sniffer dogs than people at Central Station Drugs are used across the board, at all strata of society but it seems the police are profiling when it comes to the use of sniffer dogs.
 
The War on Drugs does much more harm than good. We need to decriminalise drug use and treat drug use as a mental health problem.

Alcohol causes more deaths and more social problems than drugs do and we haven't banned it.

Test drivers to see if they are on drugs. Charge people with anti-social behaviour if they misbehave on public transport. If you use sniffer dogs to find drugs don't just concentrate on certain class of people (most notably the poor). The people using Redfern Station are 6.5 times more likely to be approached by police with sniffer dogs than people at Central Station Drugs are used across the board, at all strata of society but it seems the police are profiling when it comes to the use of sniffer dogs.

Agree entirely with your first paragraph. But for now, the law says drugs are illegal.

Redfern is not a poor area these days, its teeming with young professionals. Unless you're in a housing commission, nobody is living within 20ks of the CBD unless they are on serious money these days.
 
As for the Royal Commission...not sure what you mean about the donations.


What I meant is that every time you mention a royal commission into the banking industry people on one side of politics start getting nervous because the 4 major banks in this country probably donate a lot to the party in government. Hence why they are nervous about a royal commission.

As for the police why are they targeting the less well off areas mostly?

Don't people in well to do suburbs do drugs or hide drugs, or use them on public transport?

Reminds me of that stupid statement Joe Hockey said that poor people don't drive cars.
 
I ride public transport exclusively (no car) and have seen many people who have all the tell tale signs of being meth users. On particular tram lines I have seen people who are clearly meth users just about every trip. Other than a few occasions of aggressive muttering and "the fucking blah blah" rants at apparently no one I've seen no trouble from these people. I've never felt apprehensive or endangered. I've always know if someone did lose the plot and start screaming or shoving people i could get off the train or tram next stop, and would.

I would rather sit next to these people ANY DAY than have dogs and armed police sniffing and searching me, THAT is true aggression. Wtf kind of country do we live in where this is normal?
 
I haven't watched 60 Minutes for about 20 years, it seems that their professionalism has sunken end even lower than I thought it could.
 
What I meant is that every time you mention a royal commission into the banking industry people on one side of politics start getting nervous because the 4 major banks in this country probably donate a lot to the party in government. Hence why they are nervous about a royal commission.

As for the police why are they targeting the less well off areas mostly?

Don't people in well to do suburbs do drugs or hide drugs, or use them on public transport?

Reminds me of that stupid statement Joe Hockey said that poor people don't drive cars.

The banks' political donations are chickenfeed, and roughly equal across the parties. The only mega-donors are some private individuals, including Clive Palmer who is the king of donations, tipping millions from his companies into Palmer United. How comforting for the sacked Nickel refinery workers owed seventy odd million in entitlements from his mismanagement, and for taxpayers who look like they'll be picking up the tab. Clive is one goose that looks cooked.

I'm done with the dog thing, but just to reiterate : Redfern is not a poor area. Trains are not just for 'poor people' in Sydney. Everyone uses them. Sniffer dogs are a fact of life in NSW. They are at airports, music festivals, footy matches (no 'poor' people at any of these places), and since last year on trains to stop drug dealers spreading ice around the state.

I wish you guys would stop seeing this as some kind of war on the disadvantaged. It's not. It's about arresting lawbreakers. And it's working beautifully.

The NSW Greens are on firmer footing opposing the $1.2 billion our state government is about to spend on refurbishing two rectangular footy stadiums. An extravagance we cannot afford, particularly when the grounds in question most weeks are completely empty. The nurses doing 14 hour days in state hospitals, and parents who have to drop kids off at schools three suburbs away because the local has a from birth waiting list will be thrilled they can have two empty rows of seats to themselves at the NRL instead of one. The Greens got this one right.

Good news. Unemployment down to 5.7%. Disappointing the vast bulk were part time, and 9000 odd full time jobs were lost.
 
Are you being flippant or serious when you state there are no poor people at airports, musical festivals or the footy?
 
Nope. Footy matches, concerts, etc are out of reach of the battlers in this city. Certainly a rare treat at our place. The cost of living here is out of control.
 
You do realise that poor people can save up? I am on a pension and I visit my sister in Adelaide. It is a cheap holiday as I do not have to pay for accomodation.

Besides saving up, poor people can receive plane tickets, concert and,footy tickets as gifts.

I can afford such' luxuries' because I do not smoke, drink or run a car and live in state housing. I know many poor people who are in the same situation as me.
 
I say good on them for patrolling the trains and stuff.... But the dealers are the small fish, they never get the big fish causing the problem
 
You do realise that poor people can save up? I am on a pension and I visit my sister in Adelaide. It is a cheap holiday as I do not have to pay for accomodation.

Besides saving up, poor people can receive plane tickets, concert and,footy tickets as gifts.

I can afford such' luxuries' because I do not smoke, drink or run a car and live in state housing. I know many poor people who are in the same situation as me.

Absolutely correct Miss Chicken.
 
You sound like you're doing it tough. Sorry to hear that. I can't imagine how someone on a pension could cope in Sydney now.

Just an example...a day at the SCG watching the Swans with two kids cost me the best part of $300 last weekend. Tickets, ticket booking fee, parking, pie and a coke. Unfortunately footy is a 2-3 times a season event at our place.
 
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