Comments on: Damage control

By: Jason Briggs

Jason Briggs — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:06:43 +0000

Anthony WellInLoo talks nothing but ALP shit. You would almost think he worked for centrebet.

By: Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:56:31 +0000

“You make a good point, why should someone work, when they can sit on their backside and get 20k a year?”

Welfare payments are just over $200 a week, that equates to a yearly income of just under 11K a year – that’s a long way from the playboy mansion and offers plenty of motivation to land work no matter how poorly paying.

Also I should mention the disincentives of high-marginal tax rates and the lack of support the government provides on retraining people that are unemployed – many people out of work need more than a swish resume writing course to land a job.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:48:35 +0000

Dovif, I couldn’t agree more that more training and incentives are needed. But WorkChoices doesn’t provide any of that. It’s an Act which merely allows lazy employers to move some of their employee outgoings to their profit margin. Now I’m not saying all employers are like that, but it is what the Act encourages. The government seems curiously unwilling to provide much analysis of the new system, but what we do know is that there has been no significant rise in productivity, and that certain groups, most significantly women, are losing out.
I’m all for a flexible labour market, but that felxibility should go both ways.

By: dovif

dovif — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:19:13 +0000

Hugo
How is minimum wage affected by Workchoice? Minimum wage had always been there with or without work choice. No doubt it is hard to survive on minimum wage. The question is if minimum wage is too high, what is stopping employer from taking their call centers to India, so they do not have to pay minimum wage? Is it better to have a job or be on Welfare?
The only way off minimum wage is to become more skilled labour, so your job does not go to China or India. What are needed is incentives to make people more skilled

By: Dave C

Dave C — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:24:29 +0000

dovif, its already hard to stay on welfare.
I’d love to work, but people don’t employ anyone who have no experience. How do you get experience? You get a job. When you work out a way to get out of this cycle please let me know.

I’ve even tried working without a wage for a month while they train me, (job network’s current way of getting things done) but after the month they kick me out.

So quit blaming the people on welfare, when it is emplorers who don’t give them a chance in the first place.

~~~You want to live on welfare and I’ll do your job, thats fine by me.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:22:49 +0000

Edward, Stewart, Dovif – none of you have engaged with my central point, which was that none of you have any idea of what it’s like to survive on the minimum wage.

By: dovif

dovif — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:51:40 +0000

Hugo

The minimum wage safetynet had not been remove, and labour supply is pretty liquid in todayâ€™s society, if Rupert Murdock wants to move his head quarter to the US, he can and did without workchoice.

Unless you want to go back to a white Australia policy, the Chinese, the Indians, just like the Italians and Greeks before them, will come to Australia and drives down the wages of unskilled labour, that is going to happen with or without workchoice

David C

You make a good point, why should someone work, when they can sit on their backside and get 20k a year? Only 2 option, decrease the safety net, or make it harder for people to stay on welfare. The second scenario is the preferred choice, but the cost is higher

By: Alex Turvey

Alex Turvey — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:38:45 +0000

With all the talk about gambling on the NSW election with Centrebet I assume that all the gamblers live outside NSW . As I understand it under the Electoral Act it is illegal to place a bet on the outcome of the election. Centrebet is not breaching the law because it is situated in Northern Territory and NSW laws don’t apply there. But it applies to anyone living in NSW or present in NSW at the time the bet is placed. Just mention this because I think a lot of people think it is Ok to bet on the NSW election. As I understand it it is OK- provided you live anywhere in the world except NSW.

By: David Walsh

David Walsh — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:33:49 +0000

There’s no Labor campaign to speak of in Epping. If Labor think they’re in with a chance, then it’s not backed up with any on-the-ground evidence.

More likely, they just want to keep the Libs pinned down in their safe seats.

By: Politics_Obsessed

Politics_Obsessed — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:26:36 +0000

On campaign posters… something completely irrelevant to current discussion… while I was in brooklyn recently I saw several Fred Nile posters vandalised… Fred has apparently grown a Hitler moustache as well as having the words fascist imprinted on his head. Interesting to what some people think of him.

But there’s been very little talk on this site on the upper house…. william are you going to post anymore upperhouse guides? What’s everyone guessing for the upperhouse? I saw one in an earlier thread suggesting Labor with 19 or 20 and the CDP voting with them almost everytime. Is this true or a fallacy?

I personally do not think Labor will get 19 or 20 and will be around 17-18 as they are really on the nose. I have even talked to some people who are just going to fold their voting paper in half and hand it in like that – that’s how much they’ve given up on this election. So there will be a high exhaust rate. Perhaps the CDP might scrape in and have a total of 3 seats, with the possibility or 1 or 2 AAFI and 1 or 2 fishing/horseriding/etc party effectively giving the minors and micros the balance more so than now. Could be very interesting to have a ‘hung’ upperhouse as the term would go.

It’s interesting that it was suggested earlier the Nationals have a chance of having more seats than the Liberals. But I so doubt this. The day that happens is the day the Greens win both Balmain and Marrickville. And I personally believe Ms Moore isn’t in trouble. After studying her last year, I think she’s quite safe in her seat for now.

As for ALP seats in the lowerhouse, I’m going from 47-51. A near status quo should be produced, but I agree Labor will loose a couple of seats in the Hunter and possibly one CC seat and possibly Camden. I think they’ll just manage to hold onto the latter.