Australian Politics General...

[mullokintyre]

China to drop tarriffs on Australian barley.

About time.

China ditches Australian barley tariffs after long-running trade war

China has dropped its 80 per cent tariffs on Australian barley, after a long-running and high-profile trade war between the two nations.

www.abc.net.au

Must be because it was costing them lots to try and source barley from other places.
The following report suggests it would cost China in a big way, and it may have proved correct.

If one looks at the chart below, it os obvious that Australian exporters have pretty much replaced China as a market.
Mick

 

[macca]

Must be because it was costing them lots to try and source barley from other places.
The following report suggests it would cost China in a big way, and it may have proved correct.

View attachment 160549
If one looks at the chart below, it os obvious that Australian exporters have pretty much replaced China as a market.
Mick

View attachment 160547

I read in one of the Ag reports I get that San Miguel in Mexico were very quick to make contact after China applied the tariff

Might be a situation where China now has to match or beat what others have been happy to pay.

It has highlighted to Australia's growers that there are other markets out there

 

[sptrawler]

Another one bites the dust, this just gets better and better.

Someone could be sitting in Jail saying, WTF happen to me and my life? A public prosecutor could be smiling with a sense of pride and the World would have moved on.
WOW is spot on.
Meanwhile, as some people say, "crickets" HMMM. ?

ACT's top prosecutor resigns after Lehrmann inquiry accuses him of 'serious misconduct'

The ACT's attorney-general says Shane Drumgold's role as director of public prosecutions is "no longer tenable" and he has accepted his resignation after his handling last year of the investigation into Bruce Lehrmann.

www.abc.net.au

Key points:​

• Shane Drumgold acknowledges he made mistakes but disputes the inquiry's misconduct findings
• Mr Drumgold's allegations of political interference in the prosecution sparked the inquiry
• He said he was denied procedural fairness when the inquiry's report was given to the media in advance

Funny that Drumgold feels he was denied procedural fairness, Lehrmann says the same thing, karma maybe who knows.

 

[mullokintyre]

As usual, the politicians hanging on the coat tails of a sporting team.
They just can't help self promoting themselves.
mick

 

[wayneL]

As usual, the politicians hanging on the coat tails of a sporting team.
They just can't help self promoting themselves.
mick
View attachment 160879

I would love to see a Ricky Gervais routine on this. At least our collective dry wrenching could turn to laughter.

 

[mullokintyre]

As usual, the politicians hanging on the coat tails of a sporting team.
They just can't help self promoting themselves.
mick
View attachment 160879

Anyone know who the bloke beside Albo might be?
What sort of a bogan wears white runners with a suit and ill fitting tie?
Mick

 

[sptrawler]

As usual, the politicians hanging on the coat tails of a sporting team.
They just can't help self promoting themselves.
mick
View attachment 160879

Yes they certainly are a weird lot, they love to ingratiate themselves as sports lovers, while in the same breath decrying the Commonwealth games and politicians wonder why the public finds them nauseous. ?

IMO they really are appalling human beings, they just reek of self interest.
As if the public doesn't realise the driver behind the Feds and States trying to destroy the games, as with the voice they are playing the public as fools and as with the voice it will backfire yet again. ?
There is a lot of own goals happening in politics ATM, it wont end well IMO.
Time will tell.

‘Aren’t what they used to be’: other Australian states quick to rule out bids for 2026 Commonwealth Games after Victorian withdrawal

Perth’s lord mayor is keen but all other Australian states have ruled out stepping in to replace Victoria

www.theguardian.com

Perth’s lord mayor is keen but all other Australian states have ruled out stepping in to replace Victoria

 

[sptrawler]

Another one bites the dust, this just gets better and better.

ACT's top prosecutor resigns after Lehrmann inquiry accuses him of 'serious misconduct'

The ACT's attorney-general says Shane Drumgold's role as director of public prosecutions is "no longer tenable" and he has accepted his resignation after his handling last year of the investigation into Bruce Lehrmann.

www.abc.net.au

Key points:​

• Shane Drumgold acknowledges he made mistakes but disputes the inquiry's misconduct findings
• Mr Drumgold's allegations of political interference in the prosecution sparked the inquiry
• He said he was denied procedural fairness when the inquiry's report was given to the media in advance

Funny that Drumgold feels he was denied procedural fairness, Lehrmann says the same thing, karma maybe who knows.

So after Brittany Higgins payout, we now have the Bruce Lehrmann claim, lucky the taxpayer has deep pockets.

Bruce Lehrmann says he will seek 'millions' of dollars after inquiry finds prosecution was flawed

The former Liberal Party adviser says his life is "stuffed" and he may never work again after his high-profile rape trial was abandoned.

www.abc.net.au

Fro the article:
Former Liberal Party adviser Bruce Lehrmann says he is seeking millions of dollars in damages after his high-profile rape charge was dropped.

 

[SirRumpole]

Fro the article:
Former Liberal Party adviser Bruce Lehrmann says he is seeking millions of dollars in damages after his high-profile rape charge was dropped.

He says he may never work again. Ha ha

He certainly won't if he gets his millions in "compo".

 

[sptrawler]

He says he may never work again. Ha ha

He certainly won't if he gets his millions in "compo".

The whole saga is a joke IMO.

 

[mullokintyre]

In a somewhat less media attracted case in the ACT, another political staffer, this time a Labour staffer, has come out firing at the ACT legal system, and has been backed up by same QC who grilled the ACT DPP Drumgold.
The QC , Steven Whybrow, had written to the DPP suggesting the trial not go ahead, given the evidence against her claim that the defence had in its posession. he even offered to show the DPP the path the cross examination would be taking.
he had a further warning that the cross examination of the alleged victim would be excoriating for her, and would likely be mentally crushing.
The DPP ignored his pleas, and went ahead with the trial.
From Evil Murdoch pressProsecutors in the ACT went ahead with the rape trial of a university student despite being repeatedly warned it would only end up humiliating and further damaging the young woman who had made the allegation because there was clear evidence she had lied.Defence barrister Steven Whybrow SC wrote to the prosecutor before the man’s trial in April pointing out that the complainant’s story was so wildly contradictory and at odds with the evidence that “even the gentlest cross-examination of this complainant is going to be devastating and humiliating for her”.
“I am genuinely concerned about the effect running this case might have on this young woman,” he said. “Such a prosecution will not advance the position of persons genuinely subjected to sexual assault.”

In the event, the prosecution rejected Mr Whybrow’s plea for the prosecution against 21-year-old Alex Matters to be discontinued and the trial went ahead.

The jury found Mr Matters, an Australian National University student and former Labor staffer, not guilty of the charges.
He and the complainant had been in a “friends with benefits” relationship but on one occasion, the woman said, he would not stop sex when she asked him to.
She contacted police in 2021 after seeing media reports that Mr Matters had been charged with assaulting another woman. Those charges were later dropped, but Mr Matters was sacked from his job in the office of federal Labor MP David Smith.

Mr Matters strenuously denies the allegations made by both women.
During the April trial, messages sent by the woman to her friends were presented in court, including one that said: “I slept with him multiple times … I don’t know if I got raped.”
In recorded audio messages to Mr Matters the day after the alleged rape, the woman asked him for sex.
“F..k me Daddy,” she texted.
“I want you to f..k me so hard,” she wrote in another message.
The woman, who had given evidence remotely from a separate room, could be heard crying as the audio messages were played.
Months later, when the pair went for a walk, the woman asked Mr Matters to have no-strings-attached sex that night. Three days later, she reported him.
Revelations about the Matters case come in the wake of findings against ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC, who resigned after the Sofronoff inquiry accused him of “serious misconduct” during the investigation into and prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Police have expressed anger at continued claims by Mr Drumgold following the inquiry that police were undercharging in sexual assault cases.
Mr Drumgold did not act directly in the prosecution case against the university student but Mr Matters has demanded to know whether the then-DPP was involved behind the scenes.
In an email on May 19, 2023, just after Mr Drumgold had completed his five days in the witness box at the Sofronoff inquiry, Mr Whybrow told Mr Matters his case was “a pretty damning indictment (no pun intended) in my view as to the ‘run everything no matter what’ attitude that pervaded that office – both as at August 2021 but ongoing to now”.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has ruled out any investigation of cases conducted or authorised by Mr Drumgold during his term in office.
Mr Whybrow says the Office of the DPP caused unnecessary harm to the young woman in the Matters case, as well as his client.
After watching the evidence-in-chief-interview conducted by police with the woman, Mr Whybrow messaged the prosecutor before the trial requesting it be discontinued. “It’s going to be just humiliating for (the complainant) if this matter runs. Happy to take you through step by step 80% of what our xxm (cross-examination) will be - though it’s not rocket science,” he wrote.
After going through some of the evidence, Mr Whybrow said: “Can I urge, if only for the sake of protecting (the complainant) from what on her own EICI and the added calls to Alex (Matters) will be nothing short of a cruel humiliation, that the prosecution reconsiders this matter. Sorry to rant but I genuinely want to try and have (the complainant) avoid what is coming if at all possible.”

​

The Sofronoff inquiry has delved behind the scenes into the way… the AFP and DPP acted during the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann and some key findings have been revealed, says Sky News host Sharri Markson. “Sofronoff, the former solicitor general in Queensland, has excoriated Drumgold for his conduct during More

The prosecutor advised: “I will speak to the complainant in general terms about the court process, including cross-examination.”
Mr Whybrow wrote back noting the woman’s “very unusual understanding as to the nature of consent … might explain why she has claimed to have been sexually assaulted by at least four others we have identified so far”.
“Even within the EICI itself there are a number of statements that suggest a belief by the complainant that if she has sex that she subsequently regrets or was less than 100% enthusiastic about (notwithstanding she objectively agreed to engage in that activity), it nonetheless becomes non-consensual at her election or discretion after the event,” he wrote.
“The jury and wider world does not need to hear that (the complainant) asked Mr Matters if she could call him ‘Daddy’ while having sex … something she confirms the very next day when she sends him a voicemail saying ‘F..k me Daddy’.”
The woman was highly active in the #MeToo movement and her friends had been aware she was in a casual sexual relationship with Mr Matters “which extended to propositioning him for sex only a few days before accusing him of raping her 4 months previously”.
“Suggestions she has either made this complaint to (literally) #metoo herself on the bandwagon, or to try and address as what she sees as a massive risk to her image as an outspoken ‘victim survivor’ by regularly sleeping with someone now publicly named as an accused rapist – or both – will be difficult for the prosecution to refute.
“The legitimate challenges that will necessarily have to be made to her credibility if this prosecution is maintained are going to be multiple and significant.
“A simple Google search will show some of the multitude of prior claims of having been sexually assaulted with descriptions by her at times that are simply inconsistent with such allegations or any sensible understanding of what is consent – or personal responsibility and accountability for her own behaviour and choices.

“I suggest there is neither reasonable prospects of obtaining a conviction nor any public interest in requiring (her) to be subjected to cross-examination on what are objectively inconsistent complaints which at their worst could be said to be fabricated.
“We have identified four persons we are hoping to obtain statements from to the effect that they had consensual sex with (the complainant) and she subsequently accused them of sexual assault.”
The prosecutor wrote back stating that “close regard has been had to the concerns raised by you … At the time of writing, there is no evidence that I am aware of that any prior allegation of sexual assault made by the complainant was demonstrably false.”
The case would go ahead, the prosecutor said.
Mr Whybrow told The Australian: “For good or bad, our criminal justice system is an adversarial one and if an accused person is not permitted (within appropriate bounds) to challenge the accuracy or veracity of a witness, even if the collateral effect may be humiliating or embarrassing, it’s hard to see how there can be a fair trial.”
Mr Matters told Sky last week that while he would never regain the two years of life he had lost, he would be speaking to lawyers about potentially suing the ACT government.


Looks like a bit more revenue for the defamation lawyers, all paid for by the long suffering taxpayers of corse.
Mick

 

[wayneL]

So Labour's housing policy seems to be heading for an impasse with the Greens. Would I be right in thinking that labour really does seem to be going for a double dissolution trigger here?

If so, would Labor actually risk losing, given the current shemozzle surrounding the voice?

<Edit to add> I really don't think the liberals are ready for, or in any way deserve government at this point, but on the other hand I really think labor does deserve to have their @ss handed to them.

 

[Sean K]

Watching Albo's speech at the Labor national conference and half of it was about The Voice, half about growing up in a mental asylum and half about how bad the previous government was. I think I got those proportions right. It's like they're still in opposition...

 

[sptrawler]

I wonder if those outraged by robodebt are just as outraged by robo robbers, the general public ripping of the taxpayer through robo gst claims, oh the irony

 

[SirRumpole]

I wonder if those outraged by robodebt are just as outraged by robo robbers, the general public ripping of the taxpayer through robo gst claims, oh the irony

Haven't heard of that, can you give a link ?

 

[IFocus]

I wonder if those outraged by robodebt are just as outraged by robo robbers, the general public ripping of the taxpayer through robo gst claims, oh the irony

Is it aimed at the weakest in our society by the government?

 

[sptrawler]

Is it aimed at the weakest in our society by the government?

It is still being used, so is it the fact that the Government uses data matching to catch people rorting the system, or is it your inherent dislike of one side of politics that drives your anger? The ATO is still using and improving it, so is this Government any better than the last, I think not, I think it as usual is you tribal bias. ?
There are just as many people rorting the tax department, as the tax department chasing people incorrectly, IMO people need to become more objective about their analytical reasoning.
Political point scoring at any cost, IMO is just toxic, counter productive and corrosive to sensible debate, and undermines progress.
Fortunately the Governments just roll on developing the same systems, while the pitchfork crew run around in ever decreasing circles. ?
Still aimed at the weakest in society, still being improved, it's called technological evolution, yes there will be speed bumps but it will keep rolling on.

 

[SirRumpole]

So the fraudsters are being tracked down and prosecuted ?

Good, I have no sympathy for them, but it has nothing to do with people who did not rip off the system but were unfairly harrassed or intimidated.

 

[sptrawler]

So the fraudsters are being tracked down and prosecuted ?

Good, I have no sympathy for them, but it has nothing to do with people who did not rip off the system but were unfairly harrassed or intimidated.

Absolutely, but you have no sympathy for these people, what if it is shown many of them that are caught up in it, are actually innocent? And the AI matching had faults.

 

[IFocus]

ROBO was illegal and morally bankrupt nothing to do with anger or picking sides it did how ever totally reflected Morrisons BS along with various cabinet ministers.

Morrisons behavior around secretly making himself minister for every thing is very much the same.

All of it indefensible