Aussie

[Pegasus]

My home team the Lions lose the grand final 2 years in a row . Bulldogs win despite injuries and a suspended capatain.

Libby Birch did a good defensive job on power forward Sabrina .

14. Sabrina Frederick-Traub
Age: 20, Hgt: 182cm
Forward
Brisbane’s second marquee. UK-born but Perth-raised, she’s a striking presence. Plays out of the goalsquare and is an accurate kick. Turned down an American college soccer scholarship to pursue footy.

 

[Pegasus]

Some chat on immigration rate by former high profile pollie.
Quote
Australians are worried about the pressure that immigration-fuelled population growth has put on public services and infrastructure. A small majority agree that "immigration has placed too much pressure on public services in your country", two points higher than the global average. Only one in five disagreed. Similar sentiments have fuelled the growing public anxiety over soaring house prices.
A relatively high proportion of Australians also fear immigration is making it harder to find jobs.
Former NSW premier Bob Carr is one of the few prominent politicians on the national stage who have directly challenged the unspoken consensus between the major parties that Australia should maintain such a high immigration rate.


Carr maintains that Australia's three largest cities cannot hope to absorb such high population growth without severely eroding the quality of life of their citizens and budgets of state governments.
"Political leadership wants to look the other way while their constituencies, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, are being overwhelmed by their rates of increase," he says.
Carr says that by the early 2000s the NSW government was spending about double what it had been in the 1990s on infrastructure and still struggling to keep up with increasing demands.
He dismissed the argument that the population growth could be accommodated with better planning. "Any idiot can say 'it's just a matter of infrastructure', as though nobody had thought of that before.
"Every suburb of Sydney, except those with political protection like Point Piper and Ku-ring-gai, is being transformed."

Carr also challenges the argument that high immigration benefited the nation by sustaining growth. "It is a pretty lazy growth model. It is as if we have given up any innovation for an economy based on throwing up apartment blocks and shopping malls."
He believes high immigration is being sustained politically due to the disconnect between those who benefit and those who pay – federal governments benefit from economic growth immigration spurs, while a handful of state governments foot the bill.
"It is effectively a Canberra conspiracy against the rest of the nation. Canberra doesn't even know what congestion is. The only congestion they see there is on a Thursday night during a [parliamentary] sitting week on the way to the airport when everyone is trying to get out. Canberra cheerfully asks Sydney and Melbourne to accept 90 per cent of the highest immigration of any developed nation on Earth."
Carr does not believe that new immigrants can be encouraged to spread across the nation either, in part because unlike the United States it does not have a vast inland river system. Population, he says, will continue to gravitate to the south-east, which will soon attain levels of density "you can't even imagine".
But Carr dismisses any suggestion that Australia's civil society had suffered due to high immigration. Australia, he says, remains a happy and successful multicultural society.

Carr is one of those who believe that successive Australian governments have talked tough on asylum seekers and citizenship tests in order to distract Australians from serious debate about the immigration rate.
He is particularly scathing of the debate this week about tougher English language standards in the citizenship test, which he describes as "populist nonsense".
"That is the most infuriating concept. Greeks, Italians, Balts and Maltese who came here postwar, very often without English, quickly became outstanding citizens, as did the Indo-Chinese."

 

[Pegasus]

Nine Indian nationals have been detained by Border Force officials at Brisbane Airport.
The ABC understands the detainees claimed they were here for the Commonwealth Games.
It is understood the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has launched an investigation into alleged people smuggling, and that all nine were detained overnight after arriving at Brisbane Airport.

 

[CUSP82]

Well at least they came via the airport. Ours just walk across the border.

 

[Pegasus]

The advantage of being an island Cusp.
Mind you the immigration debate should focus on legal arrivals in aussie that is where the numbers are.

 

[CUSP82]

I have always failed to understand why immigration should not be legal. Why does any country have to take people into their country simply because they don't like their own country? Oh it's the compassionate thing to do. Well why weren't my parents so compassionate and not buy me all the toys I wanted?

 

[Tamora]

 

[Pegasus]

I have always failed to understand why immigration should not be legal. Why does any country have to take people into their country simply because they don't like their own country? Oh it's the compassionate thing to do. Well why weren't my parents so compassionate and not buy me all the toys I wanted?

The aussie view is that we should take in some refugees on compassionate grounds . However the number should be set by us and they should be veted . Now there is some argument they veting was not ideal but the general concept has consensus .

 

[Pegasus]

The cricket ball tampering thing has had a lot of press . It has cost the players millions and the game hundreds of millions there is talk that it has damaged not only the brand aussie cricket but even aussie sport in general .

 

[burtybasset]

The cricket ball tampering thing has had a lot of press . It has cost the players millions and the game hundreds of millions there is talk that it has damaged not only the brand aussie cricket but even aussie sport in general .

How exactly did they cheat? I heard something on the radio about one of the players having sugar in his pocket.

 

[Pegasus]

By specific damage to the ball aimed at giving the bowler an advantage ,

Players from the sub continent have done it previously.

 

[Pegasus]

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyer has made an extraordinary request for the magistrate overseeing the hearing into allegations of historical sexual assault against the cardinal to disqualify herself from the matter, claiming she has a "biased view" of the evidence.
Robert Richter, QC, one of Australia's top defence barristers, accused magistrate Belinda Wallington of favouring the prosecution after interrupting his line of questioning, and he requested that she "disqualify herself" from the committal hearing.
The request was refused by Ms Wallington, who also asked Mr Richter to stop shouting during the heated exchange.
The request followed a debate between the two over evidence submitted by a cinema projectionist last week.

Unquote

Mr Richter QC(aka The Red Baron) is a very well known and very well paid legalist known for representing top organised crime figures . If anyone can get Pell off on a technicality it is him.

 

[Pegasus]

Red baron got Pell off some of the charges but he will still face trial .

My favourite red baron case was where he got a leading organised crime figure off what appeared to be a clear cut execution style murder . You know unarmed man shot at close range totally proven up and down the yin yang he actually shot the unarmed man at close range . Only surprising point was the boss did it personal type thing .

 

[Pegasus]

The french and aussie prime minsters seem to get on well. They have similar political views.

 

[Eben]

I apologize for being off topic, but I am such a tennis kook
whenever I meet an Aussie I gloat about the greats from
Austrailia. Saw Laver/Newcombe play live once in our
hometown. Rosewall, Fred Stolle,Emerson, and the great coach
Harry Hopman. Those were the days. Pat Cash in the 90's was't
too shabby either. Evonne Goolagong, couldn't be any more
graceful.

 

[Pegasus]

Rod Laver isn't as recognised in his hometown as one would imagine . One would think they would have his statue at the entry to town rather than a bloody great bull.

 

[CUSP82]

Laver was great!

 

[Pegasus]

I remember the gym where i first went the owner had known him and said what a great all round athlete Laver was .

Sadly we have had the biggest mass shooting for over 20 years recently 7 dead in a family murder /sucide.

 

[Eben]

^^^^^^^^
Yeah, heard about the shooting. Its just really
sad.

 

[Pegasus]

Yes Granpa shot his family on a rural property . Not typical mass murder well known and liked in the area finances were an issue apparently.