Albo to the rescue

[Jerry_Atrick]

Albo is back to the rescue - rescuing us from government transparency:

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

And this short one popped up to clarify a comment:

 

[nomadpete]

Jerry, maybe these vids are all Gripes.

 

Where is the light at the end of our dark dystopian tunnel?

[facthunter]

Reasonable you should PAY for it. No?  Bl@@dy Hell. Where would you rather live?   Nev

[nomadpete]

8 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Reasonable you should PAY for it. No?  Bl@@dy Hell. Where would you rather live?   Nev

Seriously, I think the charge is a minor issue. We haven't previously had voter backlash about having to pay for government information - for instance, copies of birth certificates, etc.

 

The big issue is about transparency, and the Labor party backflip on their last election promises to improve transparency, and to protect whistleblowers, and to give the ACC teeth.

 

That should have people marching in the streets!

[facthunter]

Did you read that in the Murdoch Media? There's too many applications that are just fishing expeditions and that keeps people tied up processing them. User Pays. I don't want to  pay for their indulgences.   Nev

[nomadpete]

2 minutes ago, facthunter said:

There's too many applications that are just fishing expeditions

Really?

Where did you read that?

List them please.

Have you looked at any examples of FOI's that have so much redacted that they are meaningless. Successive Governments seem to be afraid to let the voters know about their decision making processes. If honesty is so dangerous for them to reveal stuff, I lose faith in their integrity. 

Majority of FOI enquiries seem to be about stuff that is in the past.  If the processes have been fair, there is no reason to keep secrets.

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

Where would you rather live?   Nev

Are you OK with Australia sliding towards places you would rather not live?

 

Strange question to deflect these "minor changes" that incrementally rakes away rights. The payment is minor;  the grounds for rejection are bigger..

 

I thought democracy is fragile and worth fighting for. It doesn't end at the ballot box. Russia has elections (and I think China does too)

Edited Thursday at 02:52 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[Siso]

Although the Murdoch media leaves a bit to be desired, It needs to be listened to so you can try to counter the bias from the ABC and other news sources that also leave a bit to be desired. 

[old man emu]

I doubt if requiring the payment of a fee to process an FOI application is such an onerous thing. You have to pay to access a records like birth, mariage and death certificates. Even the act of registering a motor motor vehicle requires the payment of an administration fee. Are you happy to pay the wages of the public servant who does the work answering my  FOI request which has no relevance to you?

 

It is true that very many FOI requests are fishing expeditions which fail to land anything worthwhile. Those are the ones which tie up staff and delay the provision of worthwhile information to the public. The question is - who are teh people/organisation who are making all these FOI requests. How many are made in an attempt to gain political ammunition?

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Are you happy to pay the wages of the public servant who does the work answering my  FOI request which has no relevance to you?

Yes.. These re admin things, not holding the government to account, which should be ingrained as a basic component of democracy. If the government was transparent, except in the cases of genuine security or national interest, then we wouldn't have to have FOI.

 

Do we have to pay the police for public protection at the point of use when they are not protecting us individually?

 

Yes, a lot of FOI requests are probably frivolous.. we can automate things if we want. All records are electronic these days; if efficiency is the name of the game..

 

1 hour ago, Siso said:

Although the Murdoch media leaves a bit to be desired, It needs to be listened to so you can try to counter the bias from the ABC and other news sources that also leave a bit to be desired. 

So, balance one not so extreme view and one that even holds itself to account (ABC) against one that rarely uses facts to justify its ideological view? Makes perfect sense. And, even if the ABC were as biased as many claim (and no doubt there is bias), offsetting one bias with another doesn't cancel each other out.. And that is assuming the reader reads both.. It merely provides rtwo incomplete, incorrect, or missleading accounts.. Why not demand the standards be upheld by everyone?

[Siso]

Yep, but we have to do the best with what we have. How would you get the standards up?

[Jerry_Atrick]

We seem to forget that democracy doesn't stop at the ballot box..  enough people complain, they think voters getting pi55ed off, will do so.ething.. sadly too many people don't care.

 

Don't believe me? Look at how SFM unceremoniously took up support of EVs when it was clear he was losing public support thanks to lack of action on climate change

Edited Thursday at 05:33 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Lots of your observations don't tally with what I see Politically. There's NO FREE VOTE in Putins Russia and He gets about 98%. His Opponents DIE Mysteriously.  WHEN DID SFM support EV's? I Must have Missed THAT. Nev

Edited Thursday at 06:28 AM by facthunter
extra content

[Jerry_Atrick]

13 hours ago, facthunter said:

There's NO FREE VOTE in Putins Russia

There was when he first started and people decided to ignore the warnings as he started to erode their fragile democracy.. All democracies are fragile as the US has evidenced.. 

 

13 hours ago, facthunter said:

WHEN DID SFM support EV's? I Must have Missed THAT. Nev

Should have been paying attention. I haven't watched this vid as I am on a train not far from the car to drive home tonight, but the ABC headlines are usually not far from the story:

 

 

[facthunter]

So I should watch EVERY 7.30 show?  Surely You Jest. ALSO. He's a  notorious BIG fibber as most people here are aware. AND you JUST went on the Headlines at face value!!. Great.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

I don't watch the 7:30 show period. It was an example i just dug up. Now, if I knew he had flipped from these foreign shores, surely it was big news at the time. I think it even got a mention in the forums.

 

So no, not just headlines.. Do you think I just dreamt it up and went looking for something to back it up. My point was if there enough votes in it, pollies will listen

 

 

[Siso]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

He's a  notorious BIG fibber as most people here are aware

And Albo's not. Unfortunately they all are. $275 off your power bill, no carbon tax under a government I lead, $600B for  the LNP nuclear plan. Unfortunately politicians just say what will get them into power. There really needs to be some sort of consequence, but I have no idea how you do it. There is even some data to support coal being cheaper then intermittenets (renewables) although all we have heard is that renewables are the cheapest for of electricity. They probably are in Iceland, Norway and any other country's that have close to 100% traditional hydro. (not Australia)

 

 

[facthunter]

SCo Mo's the biggest Fibber by far. At least give him credit for it. IF you don't believe Carbon is a Problem I can't help you. Nev

[Siso]

Carbon is a problem. So is the continual lying to the public. Intermittents cost a lot though as we are finding out. Australia at 30-40% intermittent penetration and people are already having to choose to heat there homes or eat. Australia could go net 0 tomorrow and it will make no difference to the global warming so why not do a transition in a sustainable strucured way where people can afford to heat their homes and industry can adapt instead of going hell for leather.

[facthunter]

Yeah F the world and WE don't matter. Newcastle is the BIGGEST Coal Export Port in the entire World. Batteries and PumpHydro are Best for rapid changes. A MODERN COAL Plant is NOT Cheap. Ones at end of life (Fully Amortised ARE but they FAIL without warning and naturally being OLD tech there are NO Parts. Nev

[Siso]

I didn't say do nothing, I said do it in a controlled way. No one in the world has done what Australia is trying to do without large amounts of hydro, geothermal or nuclear. We have H2 plants falling over all over the country and it is costing us. The stupidly that is fueling this whole thing is ridiculous. The UK converted a coal plant to wood pellets(Drax) and ship the wood pellets in from America on bunker oil burning ships. Fossil fuel to cut and process it. I don't know what $/MWh it would be. https://axedrax.uk/about/drax/   France is exporting 11GW of power into countrys around it at the moment down from 15GW earlier in the week. If we were serious we would revisit the nuclear thing sensibly. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/FR/72h/hourly We don't know what the intermittents plan in Australia is going to cost and even if it will work. A lot of the coal plants are running on minimal maintenance regimes as you would expect from private company's with aging plant that is being demonised

 

[facthunter]

The REAL cost can be worked out if people are FAIR DINKUM. LNP's figures assumed fossil fuel would be  retained at a high level, Doing that would eventually Invite Tariffs and the cost of doing nothing is VERY Large. Extreme Climate induced Damage which we are already experiencing, making some Properties Uninsurable.  Sea temps are measurably elevated causing Major Rain events. and Cyclones further South. Nev