The Lounge 2

[Richie]

@Richie
I saw on our news your Opera House lit up, didn't quite catch why though but it looked stunning.

Vivid Sydney Jessica. This annual event in May/June was called off past two years due to Covid. Hoping my son buys me a Vivid Sydney harbor cruise ticket for my birthday.
Here is a link to a past VS. enjoy.

 

[Renegadesfan]

You know when your local paper says it's going to snow today that they could be just right.

It hasn't been above 6 degrees all day.

 

[Jessica 🤗]

Vivid Sydney Jessica. This annual event in May/June was called off past two years due to Covid. Hoping my son buys me a Vivid Sydney harbor cruise ticket for my birthday.
Here is a link to a past VS. enjoy.

Fantastic Richie
I wish my country did something like that!

We have the platinum jubilee here, uninteresting though for someone like me who wishes to abolish the royals

 

[Jessica 🤗]

I have something hilarious to share with you guys

One of my friends works in a factory, this day in particular she was able to do a bit of overtime, she did her duties and before she finished she decided to have a quick coffee so headed over to the tea room, when she opened the door she saw her male colleague sat with his feet up reading a newspaper in his undies!

 

[Richie]

I have something hilarious to share with you guys

One of my friends works in a factory, this day in particular she was able to do a bit of overtime, she did her duties and before she finished she decided to have a quick coffee so headed over to the tea room, when she opened the door she saw her male colleague sat with his feet up reading a newspaper in his undies!

Waiting with bated breath for what happened next Jess.

 

[Richie]

Hoping my son buys me a Vivid Sydney harbor cruise

Guess what Jessica. My boy had already planned to ask me if I wanted to see Vivid Sydney so now all I have to do is convince him that it'd be far better watching it from the harbor in a luxury cruise boat than leg it over several kilometres on land..🛥

 

[Richie]

uninteresting though for someone like me who wishes to abolish the royals

Me too. I admire Liz.. an amazing woman and queen. But it is way past time for Australia to have its own home grown head of state. Our new govt is saying a referendum on a Republic may be held during its three year term.

 

[Kram81]

Seriously how expensive are groceries atm, feel sorry for anyone with a big family.

 

[Ljp86]

Bash the man all you like.. this is a democatic country but there is no denying Sco Mo also did plenty while PM in the interests of all Australians. He 'manned up" when he admitted he had made mistakes. Perhaps a touch late to change votes. Sco Mo did a good job diplomatically on the world stage too. He was well respected by our allies and probably underneath the surface, by our enemies too. Will Albo not make mistakes. He already showed us what a political muppet he is during the campaign. He will need to improve otherwise as our leader otherwise he'll fall head first off that global stage.

He did a rubbish job globally. Refused to do anything about climate change until he was dragged kicking and screaming to eventually agree to a 2050 target which also left a lot of Australia's Pacific allies out to dry. Australia is supposed to be a leader in the Pacific but the party wouldn't do anything until they absolutely had to.

The deal to move forward with the AUKUS agreement left France out in the cold which caused serious tension between the two leaders. That now has to be repaired and will take time.

There was also the constant dog whistling towards China which has hurt numerous industries within the country in not being able to ship a lot of exports there including barley, wine and other products. A bit more diplomacy was needed her.

Some achievements by the Morrison Govt.

*2018: National Apology to victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

2018: Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety.

*2018: National Drought Summit:
Bringing together representatives from farming, agribusiness, governmental, banking and finance and community organisations. plus a $5 billion fund for drought relief.

*2018: ‘Pivot to the Pacific’
An initiative to increase emphasis on Pacific nations in Australia’s international relations, including increased defence cooperation and a $2 billion infrastructure development fund.

*2019: Banking Royal Commission.

*2019: Medical transfer of refugees.

*2019: Announces income tax cuts.

*2020: Moved quickly to close borders against the Coronavirus pandemic. Introduced Job Keeper and Job Seeker to keep Australians employed during the pandemic. Gave Australians jobs by making PPE products for medical staff and ICU respirators when overseas supply chains stopped. This also included putting Aust CSL scientists to work making the Covid vaccine locally.

* 2020: Instigated an inquiry into the origins of the Pandemic.

* 2020: Announces huge investment in local manufacturing to get dormant factories out of mothballs.

* 2021: Makes the hard decision to cancel overpriced conventional sub contract with France and join with US, UK to form the security alliance AUKUS to produce better nuke powered subs instead.

*2021:
Australia signs a major multi billion dollar trade deal with India.
This will be a huge boost for Australian farmers and miners to sell their produce in a large, new market outside of China.

*2022: Announces $multi billion defense spending to counter China which is infiltrating our part of the Pacific.. our own backyard.

The Pacific stuff should have happened a lot earlier, the previous government has neglected the area for a long time both diplomatically and on other policy matters, it is little surprise they have gone looking elsewhere for support. The stuff they've put into the area wasn't enough and they should have made significant progress in the region. The new government went there immediately to try to repair the damage done from the previous government's nine years of neglect.

The initial COVID-19 response was poor. Advocating nothing was wrong in the first part of the pandemic only to backflip when things got out of hand and they realised they had made a huge mistake. They were so incompetent that the states and territories took over quarantine even though it is a federal responsibility. They backed the wrong horse with regards to the vaccines with the CSL produced AstraZeneca vaccine and there were delays with the Pfizer vaccine which was the superior one, other countries had their first and even on occasions second injections before some citizens in Australia had had one.

Tax cuts are well and good but they've benefited Australia's wealthiest people the most. Hardly helpful for those who need the money the most but received a modest cut.

 

[Ljp86]

A touch hypocritical that. Your mob are notorious for putting our country into massive debt then when you are turfed out the Libs have to pay it.. making our cost of living skyrocket.

That's a myth. The Libs have spent a lot of money in their time in government, debt has skyrocketed in recent times to the point where the country now owes a substantial amount of money. While not all debt is bad, there could have been a better effort to keep debt at a more moderate level mostly before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The previous Liberal government in Western Australia overspent in their time in government and were turfed out five years ago. The current Labor government then had to slash spending in order to balance the books and pay down the exorbitant debt that was accrued in that time.

You and I both know why our national debt has almost doubled. The pandemic and our security. At least we are not in as bad shape as some of our developed nation allies. US & UK specially are in a economic pickle.. not surprised if twice as bad as us.
Yes the Libs failed to deliver a surplus during the worst global heath crisis in a century. How surprising.
We had to spend more on our defense with China posing a massive threat to the world and specially in our own back yard.

The pandemic is only responsible for part of the total rise in debt during the time the Liberal Party was in government. There's a significant amount of debt accumulation before the pandemic began which remains unexplained.

While defence spending is necessary, the continued rhetoric towards China by the previous government did not help the situation and should have been handled a lot better. Less dog whistling and sabre rattling would have been a much better approach.

What! Govt had the vaxine situation under control due to our own global bio tech company CSL manufacturing 5m doses of A/Z in its Melbourne lab, one of the first of few nations to do so. There was a hold up at one early stage when a locally-produced vax by QLD Uni was cancelled just as it was about to come onto the market. A situation beyond the govt's control.

No, they didn't. The government bottled the delivery of Pfizer vaccines to the point where we were well behind other countries in receiving our doses. The government chose to go with the AstraZeneca vaccine which proved to be the wrong one as the Pfizer vaccine was the better vaccine overall. Australia needs to be able to produce such a vaccine (Pfizer) onshore rather than relying on importing them from overseas.

That I do agree with and was probably the main reason the Libs were turfed out. But it must be remembered that Morrison always said the Libs would lower carbon emissions by seeking cleaner renewable energy yet keep some fossil fuels and phase them out over time as our economy will continue to need the massive export revenue. This cleaner energy is largely still in the ground or in early production stage so the Lib's stance was not only correct but sensible. If your mates the Greens had their way they will cease fossil fuel usage next year. Bloody madness. Then we will have twice the cost of living than at present. What is Labor's stance on fossil fuels exactly.

The policy the Liberals have regarding reduction of carbon emissions is reliant on offsets and technology that is yet to be determined or fully developed (carbon capture, etc.). It's a hastily put together policy that doesn't really offer a real solution and was likely structured to appease the much more conservative MP's within the coalition, some of whom deny that climate change even exists. Realistically, this policy proved very costly given their election defeat.

Labor's plan is to continue with the use of fossil fuels for the medium term and develop cleaner energy sources through the use of renewable energy through solar, wind and hydro in an effort to greatly reduce carbon emissions from the country. This will see a lot of residential and commercial places use renewable energy in order for Australia to reach its carbon reduction targets. It's a sensible approach that allows the current industry to continue while other methods are developed, refined and then once ready, slowly replace the other energy methods that the country is using.

Agree that the Greens policy is not sustainable, the country will need more time than that to meet its designated targets.

 

[Ljp86]

Seriously how expensive are groceries atm, feel sorry for anyone with a big family.

Pretty expensive, inflation is greater here recently than anywhere else in the country. Seems as if it will get worse in the short-term before it gets better in the short.

How much is fuel there where you are?

 

[Kram81]

Pretty expensive, inflation is greater here recently than anywhere else in the country. Seems as if it will get worse in the short-term before it gets better in the short.

How much is fuel there where you are?

Can't remember but petrol is usually pretty similar to Perth surprisingly.

Food is the real killer, we get ripped off normally (stuff not on special maybe even up to 10% extra) let alone now, it's a low socio economic area with a lot of people on welfare as well. Dunno how they manage.

We aren't even far from Perth either, can only imagine how much people in remote areas always get hit.

 

[Richie]

Australia needs to be able to produce such a vaccine (Pfizer) onshore rather than relying on importing them from overseas.

I read they did plan that, or was that Moderna. One of the two. Is it necessary as we are now living with Covid. The pandemic has already cost our economy $multi billions. No more debt.

Your mob got off to a good start with Albo making a favorable impression at the QUAD meeting and Wong ruffling the Commies feathers by convincing the Pacific nations to back away from another Belt/Road initiative plus a massive con job over their security..

 

[Kram81]

That's a myth. The Libs have spent a lot of money in their time in government, debt has skyrocketed in recent times to the point where the country now owes a substantial amount of money. While not all debt is bad, there could have been a better effort to keep debt at a more moderate level mostly before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Probably should check but I thought that governments post Howard era have all spend rather wildly since and that has of course has mostly been Liberals. Although iirc the incoming Labor is spending over $7 billion more than what the Liberals were planning to so that's hardly going to help..

Really these days in Australia both opposing 'teams' are pretty homogeneous and will just do whatever it takes to get in. I voted Labor because I was irritated by the corruption but at the end of the day didn't really care much who won, whoever it is will imo actually make **** difference to my life..

 

[Kram81]

I heard a good quote recently in an article that I think was that people want western Europe type social services but nobody wants to pay high taxes.

 

[Ljp86]

I read they did plan that, or was that Moderna. One of the two. Is it necessary as we are now living with Covid. The pandemic has already cost our economy $multi billions. No more debt.

Your mob got off to a good start with Albo making a favorable impression at the QUAD meeting and Wong ruffling the Commies feathers by convincing the Pacific nations to back away from another Belt/Road initiative plus a massive con job over their security..

I thought it was Pfizer, there was a desire to make an mRNA vaccine here as Australia does not have the capability to do that here which was why the AstraZeneca vaccine was made here locally by CSL.

They needed to. The previous government neglected the area to the point where they were meeting with the Chinese government regarding policy and deals. Seems a few countries reached small deals individually but backed away from a region wide deal, this would have been influenced by Penny Wong's visit to the region. Australia is a leader in the Pacific region and needs to start acting like one again as there are a lot of countries that look to Australia for support. The recent actions are a good start but more will be needed going forward.

 

[Ljp86]

Probably should check but I thought that governments post Howard era have all spend rather wildly since and that has of course has mostly been Liberals. Although iirc the incoming Labor is spending over $7 billion more than what the Liberals were planning to so that's hardly going to help..

Really these days in Australia both opposing 'teams' are pretty homogeneous and will just do whatever it takes to get in. I voted Labor because I was irritated by the corruption but at the end of the day didn't really care much who won, whoever it is will imo actually make **** difference to my life..

There's been a lot of spending by both sides, the Liberal Party have done a lot of that since they've had more time in charge but both sides will be guilty of that. No all debt is bad but wasting money is. I won't blame either government for the spending recently nor the spending when the GFC hit but there's been a lot of other debt accrued in that time.

I heard a good quote recently in an article that I think was that people want western Europe type social services but nobody wants to pay high taxes.

Tax would need to be higher for that sort of stuff but with governments consistently lowering income tax that makes it harder to achieve. Company tax is another thing that is lowered but helps provide a lot of revenue to pay for such services.

This is why the personal tax cuts in a couple of years' time have a lot of question marks over them. Whilst I will be happy that I'll be receiving more money in my pocket each fortnight, will it be something that the country needs by then? If inflation is still high then the voices against it will get louder as it will only make the problem worse with the extra cash to be pumped into the economy via consumer spending.

 

[Ljp86]

Can't remember but petrol is usually pretty similar to Perth surprisingly.

Food is the real killer, we get ripped off normally (stuff not on special maybe even up to 10% extra) let alone now, it's a low socio economic area with a lot of people on welfare as well. Dunno how they manage.

We aren't even far from Perth either, can only imagine how much people in remote areas always get hit.

Interesting, I did think petrol would be a bit more expensive out your way.

I imagine your main supermarket there is IGA? Things are certainly more expensive there than your typical Coles or Woolworths. I do find that produce is of a higher quality there but that prices are higher, no doubt shipping/freight would be the main excuse for that.

Inflation in WA is the highest in the country at over 7% at the moment, that's a significant spike in such a short timeframe.

 

[Jessica 🤗]

Seriously how expensive are groceries atm, feel sorry for anyone with a big family.

Very expensive here in the UK too. I used to buy a tinned family pie for £1.20, now they cost £1.80. everything has gone up.

 

[Kram81]

Inflation data out of the US last night worse than expected as well.