Budget eve miscellany (open thread)

Labor maintains a 52-48 lead in the only poll to have emerged in the pre-budget lull.

As noted in the previous post, budget week means a calm before the following week’s storm in federal opinion polling. However, there is the following:

• The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor leading 52-48 for the fourth week in a row, though the stability is down to variable respondent-allocated preference flows, as the latest result has Labor up two points on the primary vote to 32% with the Coalition steady on 37%, the Greens up half a point to 13.5% and One Nation down half a point to 5.5%. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1654.

• The latest SECNewgate Mood of the Nation issue salience survey records 21% of respondents mentioning crime when asked without prompting about “the main issues facing Australians that are most important to you right now”, compared with 10% in the February survey, with cost of living continuing to dominate with 69% followed by housing affordability on 36%. A forced response question on national direction finds wrong direction favoured over right direction by 63% to 37%, out from 44% to 56% in February. Thirty-one per cent rate the federal government’s performance excellent, very good or good, down from 34% in February, while fair, poor or very poor is up two to 66%.

Preselection news:

• High-profile former state MP Kate Jones is reportedly in contention to take second position on Labor’s Queensland Senate ticket, which represents a vacancy because the party failed to win a second seat in 2019. Jones served in cabinet in the Bligh and Palaszczuk governments and held the seat of Ashgrove and its successor Cooper from 2006 to 2020, outside of an interruption when she lost it to Campbell Newman in 2012 before recovering it in 2015. She stepped aside from a position at a lobbying firm in March amid an ongoing controversy over the state government’s relationship with lobbyists, and is now an Australian Rugby League commissioner and executive director at the Tech Council of Australia. The idea is being promoted by Gary Bullock, Left faction figurehead and state secretary of the United Workers Union, and would disturb an arrangement in which the top position has gone to a candidate of the Left, in this case incumbent Nita Green, and the second to the Right faction Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association. The Australian reports Jenny Hill, former mayor of Townsville and a member of the Right, will also nominate, and that she may be joined by factional colleague Corinne Mulholland, former candidate for Petrie and now in-house lobbyist for Star casinos.

InDaily reports there are two contenders in the mix for Liberal preselection in the South Australian seat of Mayo, which Rebekha Sharkie of the Centre Alliance has held since 2018. “Outspoken” Adelaide councillor Henry Davis has confirmed his interest, but a party source is quoted saying both moderate and conservative factions were looking for someone “more competitive”. That might mean Rowan Mumford, conservative-aligned state party president and unsuccessful candidate for Kavel at the March 2022 state election.

The Australian’s Feeding the Chooks column reports Labor’s candidate to recover the Brisbane seat of Griffith, which Terri Butler lost to Max Chandler-Mather of the Greens in 2022, is likely to be Renée Coffey, chief executive of Kookaburra Kids, a foundation that helps children whose parents have a mental illness. Coffey is reportedly aligned with the Old Guard faction, which was once counted as a subset of the Right but now lines up with a dominant Left.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,726 comments on “Budget eve miscellany (open thread)”

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  1. Stephen Bradbury stars not only on ice, but also on water:

    ‘Steven Bradbury … has been presented with a bravery award by the Queensland Governor Jeanette Young, after he rescued four teenagers from rough seas at Caloundra last year.’

    (Guardian blog)

  2. The teal who might run in my electorate is very interested in AI.

    C@t

    The part where you disagree with every other OECD country that is invested much more in AI than Australia. Often 100 times more per capita.

    AI will create jobs not lose them. It creates efficiencies so we can compete internationally. Without it, we just dig up stuff out of the dirt and sell it to other countries. We are basically a quarry.

  3. I haven’t seen a reference to this in the MSM. I have chanced upon this in a couple of places.

    https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4582454-former-top-military-officers-push-back-on-trump-immunity-claim/#:~:text=More%20than%20a%20dozen%20retired,immunity%20in%20his%20criminal%20cases.

    Trump has said if elected he will be a dictator on day 1. Firstly, I don’t think enough US voters, women in particular, will vote for him. But, even if elected, I can’t see the US military and the people who own their massive military industries letting Trump get away with his bullshit. I don’t think their democracy is all that stable. If the military on one hand and the mad preachers on the other, tell the population what to do, most will comply.

    The article linked above is an indication as to who is really in charge.


  4. EightESsays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 10:08 am
    I grew up in the 1970s and can clearly remember back then how computers/robots were going to take everyone’s jobs.

    I’ll start taking notice of the AI apocalypse when it actually happens.

    Are you kidding me?

    Look at the electoral politics across Western world.
    All the workers parties are struggling to be relevant
    Democrats are struggling in USA because workers felt betrayed by them and plumping for RWNJ like Trump and GOP.
    UK Labour is smashed for years for same reason and UK got Brexit for the same reason. Only after Tories completely trashed the UK economy people are turning to Labour.
    L-NP governments were in power for 20 out of the last 27 years and they have have completely rewritten the rules
    I can go on and on and on about Europe’s Social Democrats and Socialists. French Socialists, who were in power for a long period of time after WW2, are completely finished.

  5. CAT… I want you to imagine a scenario.

    Imagine, if you will… that there was a limit on the increase of rent (enough to cover expenses/repairs etc, and to provide a profit for the property owner).

    Difficult to impliment? Yes.
    No uniform price because of regional differences? Yes
    Will it have the “the rights of the individual suppercede the collective” crowd in a tizzy? Yes

    But why not? Why should there not be caps on essentials to protect the most vulnerable?

    Or the gov could take the easier option; go back to having a dedicated department in charge of the role out of housing. Hell, under Menzies the government was directly involved in the production of over 10 percent of new housing; not providing funding to private entities, but actually directly involved in housing construction. And that was Menzies trying to destroy public housing… why cant the government skip the middle man, and engage directly with dedicated blue collar workers, at a competitive APS wage, to engage in public housing generation?

    But let me guess; the private sector is always more effecient then the public sector…

  6. C@tmomma: What the heck are you talking about?

    Ironically, you’re (if you’re Victorian, I can’t remember) precisely in the cohort of people most impacted by Victorian Labor’s insistence on rebuilding existing public housing stock as social housing intermingled with private development across the board, regardless of what state it’s in, so that instead of getting additional public or social housing the housing budget is just constantly going to maintaining the levels we currently have, while also tying up what little stock becomes vacant in having to temporarily rehouse the people from the latest estate they’re rebuilding.

    yabba: Your daughter is lucky. It is not just the high end of the market in which rents are skyrocketing, and it’s the lower end of the market where people are most in danger of falling out of being able to stay in the rental market entirely.

    Griff: I understand what you’re saying, but there’s not a reasonable basis, in my view, for claiming that rents aren’t proportionally increasing just as much at the low end of the market as at the median.


  7. Diogenes says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 9:14 am
    There is a big difference between AI and quantum computing. Four of the biggest companies in the world are basically AI companies. It’s proven technology and we all use it all the time, even as I’m typing here.


    Diogenes

    What we have now is not AI, it is pattern recognition using neural networks. It is very good at interpreting speech, very good of predictor what will come next based on what has come before, and very energy intensive.

    It might look like magic but it isn’t intelligent.


    Quantum computers really haven’t done much. I’ve got a student who want to use quantum computing simulation for real time running a hospital. But they are a long way off.

    For all the hype, AI would not be able to run a hospital either.

    As for quantum computing being relevant, your student would be better dropping the jargon, “quantum computing simulation”, what in the hell does that mean?

    At the moment they are talking in number of Q bits and suppose basic algorithms coming and falling. My own view is it is bullshit, falling into the same category as banks create money, but who am I to judge.

  8. Apparently the MSM and other motley commentators are howling at the moon over the energy rebate not being means tested. Those dastardly rich people receiving the largeness of government !

    I recall just recently most of these same commentators and MSM outlets were complaining loudly about the price of petrol and were all for cutting the excise to help out all the poor motorists. I imagine they were expecting the cut would be means tested ? How can you justify giving relief to the owners of Mercedes and other “ luxury” vehicles along with the poor struggling owners of 20 year old Mazdas ! It should be means tested !

    Oh the unfairness of it all !

  9. I’m not surprised that there’s some backlash – particularly from more well-off centrist types – about the payment going to everyone.

    It’s still a better outcome than the regulatory mess of trying to means-test it, or the mess they got into last year where not even all Centrelink recipients were eligible.

  10. Another example of Labor cruelty. Adding to the Albanese government indifference to Australians living in poverty on Jobseeker and Youth Allowance, the 1 in 6 children in poverty, and the environment – stopping land clearing and no programs for feral animal removal.

    In rich Australia.

    And the Budget is ‘a step backward’ for suicide prevention

    The national peak body for the suicide prevention sector, Suicide Prevention Australia, says the budget has left the sector “stunned and concerned with the revelation that the newly formed National Suicide Prevention Office is set to be absorbed into the machinery of government”.

    In a statement, the organisation said this “signals a step backward for suicide prevention efforts in Australia at a time when we know Australians are doing it tough amidst a cost-of-living crisis”.

    From Suicide Prevention Australia CEO, Nieves Murray:

    A clear omission in the budget is direct investment into crisis support services to manage the distress already being felt in our local communities.’

    Labor cares nothing for veterans who suicide. These people can be abandoned after serving their country. Labor jails a Whistleblower, David McBride, who saw War Crimes conducted by Australian military in Afghanistan, but seniors in the military and the Albanese government want to pretend it didn’t happen.

    Those who saw it happen were not allowed to testify. This court proceedings seems like a trial in Russia or China.

    No wonder many Veterans return home with serious mental health problems and some suicide.

    The Albanese Labor government is very cruel to many Australians. No help offered if they are poor, are children, or don’t donate to Labor.
    Morals totally lacking.

  11. EightES @ #492 Wednesday, May 15th, 2024 – 10:08 am

    I grew up in the 1970s and can clearly remember back then how computers/robots were going to take everyone’s jobs.

    I’ll start taking notice of the AI apocalypse when it actually happens.

    Look, that’s a reasonable position to take purely based on what happened. As you start to compare the two eras a few fundamental differences standout as to why a different outcome is likely.

    In the 70s and 80s the personal computer unlocked a massive productivity boom, in my view one of the reasons the 80s and 90s was such a good time to be in your 20s and 30s. That productivity boom came out of a massive upskilling in unskilled labor in the western world, concurrently occurring at the same time unskilled work (ie factories) was being offshored.

    We saw a concerted move to raise education standards to produce workers who could fill those office jobs. That has kept on going, such that workers with a uni degree has gone up roughly from 10% of the population in to the 1970s to now nearly 40% of the population. This is what also allowed a shift towards service industry based economies, and that’s were we find a massive proportion of our highly educated workers today.

    What’s different this time is that generative AI can replace information based service industry workers. And what is also different this time is what do you upskill a workforce which is already as upskilled as it can be. You can not upskill a computer and information literate worker much more than they already are. They’ve done around 15 years of education to get to that point. They aren’t becoming doctors.

    That’s all covered pretty briefly but is one of the key issues that generative AI is about unleash on an unsuspecting society. The absolute best we can hope for is that somehow we move to less working hours, whilst maintaining our current wage and standard of living.

    The likely outcome is an unemployment rate of 7-10% and an underemployment rate of 20-30%. As history has shown time and time again, when you get to those levels of unemployment society ruptures.

  12. Labor gives money to everyone via a rebate, thats not fair.

    Labor gives less money to higher earners and more money to lower earners via a tax break, thats not fair.

    Give me a break.

  13. Fred

    You can get normal computers to simulate a quantum computer. I’m still trying to understand how.
    The term “AI” is a bad one. We are actually a machine learning institute which is a much better term. AI only simulates intelligence.

  14. Badthinkersays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 8:25 am
    Saturday’s Courier Mail says Reynolds and Higgins in Mediation talks Friday, no word since.
    Can Labor afford a mid/late July Trial and all the bad news that may emanate from that with only 10 months to an Election?
    I’m thinking a snap election for early July with a 4 week campaign as Labor’s best bet at this point.
    =====================================================

    What bad news for Labor from this?. A former LNP Minister is suing a former LNP staffer. What has this anything to do with Labor or the election. The social media posts she is suing over occurred in late 2022 about 6 months after last election. All the information people heard about Reynolds and Higgins before last election is not in dispute in this defamation case.

  15. MI

    Lots of jobs have become pretty crappy, like being a GP (now only 10% of doctors become GPs).
    A lot of the problem is so many forms and regulations and documentation which is a waste of time and very unfulfilling. AIs can now do some of that crap more quickly which frees up time to actually talk to the patient.

  16. Electricity rebates have been a feature of WA Labor budgets for a couple of years.
    Don’t recall too much angst about them not being means tested.
    I guess slagging McGowan wasn’t much point at the time and even though Cook is not nearly as well regarded the rebate announced in the budget the other week just passed by.
    Albo’s rebate must be different.

  17. RE: Max CM’s typical comment that “something” is still not good enough. I’d love for the Greens to put up and entire budget and see where that lands and how it is received. Maybe then they’ll learn the concept of ‘opportunity cost’ and that you don’t always get what you want.

  18. Dio
    In answer to last night, as far as I know NSW Health does not have a project but I am not involved with the people who may know. All the IT effort seems to be in consolidating the various systems and converting from CERNER to ERIC. Whether ERIC has capacity to include an AI scribe I don’t know. Getting an IA scribe that can optimise coding strikes me as something that the local health districts, if not NSW Health, would be very interested in.


  19. Diogenes says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 10:54 am

    Fred

    You can get normal computers to simulate a quantum computer. I’m still trying to understand how.
    The term “AI” is a bad one. We are actually a machine learning institute which is a much better term. AI only simulates intelligence.

    I developed applications using NN two decades ago. The big problem, you have no idea what the margins are when the decision is made. Is it certain, or is it a rough guess. No data to improve the calculation.

    Far better to think of NN creating boundaries in a multi dimensional space ( once you understand the maths you see this). Think of the training as creating planes in the space that surround the yes/no decision, one NN one plane. If you do that you can use statistics to decide how robust your training is, and calculate the distance from the planes to work out how certain you are of future decision. Get that data and you can start to look at what input to your NN to create a more robust decision.

    As to where we are today, I am very impressed with text to speech. Speech to text ok not great. Trying to understand what is being said. Marginal at best, with bullshit being common.

  20. Oakeshott Country says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:07 am
    Dio
    In answer to last night, as far as I know NSW Health does not have a project but I am not involved with the people who may know. All the IT effort seems to be in consolidating the various systems and converting from CERNA to ERIC. Whether ERIC has capacity to include an AI scribe I don’t know. Getting an IA scribe that can optimise coding strikes me as something that the local health districts, if not NSW Health, would be very interested in.

    _____________

    Companies in the US have been integrating AI scribing into EPIC e.g. Nuance and DeepScribe. Demos are pretty impressive. I am not in the know as to whether NSW eHealth are putting that functionality into the test build. Odds are for a generic variant.

  21. Griff
    Just looking at NSW eHealth’s project page for the single digital patient record there is no mention of AI scribing.
    But eHealth has a new CEO and a new DMS and I am sure it is going to be the best in the world.

  22. Mundosays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:04 am
    Coalition surplus good
    Labor surplus bad
    ===========================================

    The Coalitions claimed surplus turned out to be mythical too.

  23. Diogenes @ #515 Wednesday, May 15th, 2024 – 11:02 am

    MI

    Lots of jobs have become pretty crappy, like being a GP (now only 10% of doctors become GPs).
    A lot of the problem is so many forms and regulations and documentation which is a waste of time and very unfulfilling. AIs can now do some of that crap more quickly which frees up time to actually talk to the patient.

    Not disagreeing with you. But that isnt really AI, that’s just having efficient data inputs.

    Getting down into the weeds of business theory, within the theory of Service Dominate Logic is this little nugget, customers co-create value. What that means is something you are no doubt familiar with every single day. You want to interact with a service, you input data into a customer facing user interface. That data then goes into their system for use on whatever process or regulation you want. The value you have created is in fact that the business doesn’t need to employ a person to do that work for you, i.e. they have outsourced data entry to their customer.

    In theory 😉

    What we see in practice, again what you no doubt experience every single day, is that businesses have a woeful uptake on this kind of simple data input systems. Some have a receptionist paid to do it for you, typing into their system directly. Some use paper forms, again needing to pay someone to data input that.

    Generative AI replaces the person doing that data input. But it does more. It can respond to your verbal questions, giving you complex answers, making decisions on what service you need. A simple example at a doctors, is booking a 5 minute appointment so you can get a sick leave certificate, or booking a 20 minute appointment as you have nasty rash that needs looking at.

    This is the job loss that I focus on. It’s way beyond simple efficiency gains, its about complete job replacements.

  24. OC and Griff

    This probably isn’t the place to discuss it but a big recent study showed AI couldn’t code a hospital stay without human help. I think it’s because we don’t document well. I’m hoping that an AI Scribe will help with that, which will also allow discharge summaries (we are just working on EDs).

    EPIC is working with someone, maybe Nuance or Nabla, to bolt on an AI Scribe to their EMR. Lyrebird in Australia is doing it with ?Best Practice for GPs.

  25. Lordbainsays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 10:28 am
    ==============================================

    Yet you agree with Kohler that the spending the Government has does will facilitate two rate hikes. So are you like Kohler a pusher for austerity and believe the surplus should be higher?.

    As all the posts of yours i’ve seen seem to suggest you believe in more spending not less. So how is it you agree with Kohler on this now?.

    You wouldn’t just be a hypocritical opportunist would you?.

  26. Mundo says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:04 am
    Coalition surplus good
    Labor surplus bad

    ————————-
    Ex PM Menzies (1949 – 1966 ), the father of the Liberal Party, believed in deficits.
    To grow the economy and the country. You can be sure the Liberals were tricking Labor, who so ardently desire to be the Alternate Liberal Party, took the bait.

    Menzies a failure by todays rules ran a budget to build the nation.
    https://theconversation.com/menzies-a-failure-by-todays-rules-ran-a-budget-to-build-the-nation-30823

    Without Menzies, Albanese and his mother may have been sleeping rough, in a tent, in a car.

    Shows the failures of the Albanese government in their copying of most Liberal support business and wealthy people policies.

    Except a deficit to ‘not leave anyone behind’.

    The $9.3billion surplus could help poor Australians, the 1 in 6 children living in poverty, important environmental work – stopping land clearing, feral pest reductions.

    The Albanese government cares very little about supporting needs in Australia.

  27. Mundosays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:04 am
    “Coalition surplus good
    Labor surplus bad”

    +1 The criticisms are a pretty good indicator for commentators ideologically opposed the the Labor Party.

    There are some things I would criticise in this budget, but the surplus and assistance to households on energy and rental costs are not among them. Both are necessary.

  28. Entropy, my view is between the K and Kohler, not overall economist. Not to mention, as noted to CAT… theres a fun little way you can increase spending directed towards supporting social programs, while counteracting inflation via taxation.

    Also not sure what your on about Entropy; Kohler has long been of the view that a surplus for surplus sake is a stupid. And once again, thats between K and Kohler… if you wanna know who I would vastly prefer over both of them, ill give you a hint… initials are Y V

  29. Taylormadesays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 7:26 am
    Alan Kohler reckons this budget, through its increased spending, will lead to two more interest rate rises.
    _____________________
    I’ll take Kohler over The Kouk any day of the week.

    Lordbainsays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 7:31 am
    Yeh honestly same Taylor – and it’s totally not because in a Kohler fan boy
    ========================================================

    Irenesays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:39 am
    Mundo says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:04 am
    Coalition surplus good
    Labor surplus bad

    ————————-
    Ex PM Menzies (1949 – 1966 ), the father of the Liberal Party, believed in deficits.
    To grow the economy and the country. You can be sure the Liberals were tricking Labor, who so ardently desire to be the Alternate Liberal Party, took the bait.
    =============================================

    “Lordbain” is one you should be posting to about that. It appears he is now on the austerity and even bigger surplus required bandwagon.

  30. Jacqui Lambie sides with networks over anti-siphoning stance
    “Is the government really suggesting that you have to be cashed up to watch Aussie sport?” Jacqui Lambie asked the Senate.
    Published by David Knox Tv tonight.
    on May 15, 2024

    Free to Air networks won an unexpected ally in Senator Jacqui Lambie in their fight over anti-siphoning.

    Lambie told the Senate on Tuesday the government’s proposed changes posed a “big problem” and that all Australians had a right to “see what’s free”.

    “We’re already seeing this with Amazon buying exclusive rights to the ICC Cricket tournaments including the next Cricket World Cup,” she said.

    “You should not have to have a subscription to watch Aussie sport! Is the government really suggesting that you have to be cashed up to watch Aussie sport?”

    CEOs from Seven, Nine and 10 this week again urged the government to address digital streaming rights.

    Lambie said that broadcasters who air sport for free should be given first refusal before being offered to the likes of Netflix and Amazon.

    “The bill stops subscription services like Amazon, Apple and Disney from buying exclusive broadcast rights, but it doesn’t guarantee the availability of free coverage for the increasing number of Australians who rely on the internet for free TV,” she said.

    According to Free TV Australia viewers who watch through an aerial represents a declining proportion currently at 61% of Australians.

  31. Terrorist supporter nut jobs up to their usual antics .

    Fake blood hits ABC, Seven offices.
    Two people were arrested this morning after ABC and Seven offices in Melbourne were sprayed with fake blood.
    Published by David Knox-tv tonight.
    on May 15, 2024

    Two people were arrested this morning after ABC and Seven offices in Melbourne were sprayed with fake blood.

    The Age reports the front window and steps of the ABC’s offices were covered in red paint by the vandals.

    A poster accused the ABC of enabling genocide in the Middle East.

    “There is so much loss of life, there is so much grief, as a result of the conflict in the Middle East,” Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said today at a press conference.

    “Let’s not bring that grief to the streets of Melbourne. Let’s not add to the grief of so many in our community here.”
    The electoral office of Deputy Premier Ben Carroll in Niddrie was also hit.

  32. Taylormade says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 7:26 am

    Alan Kohler reckons this budget, through its increased spending, will lead to two more interest rate rises.
    _____________________
    I’ll take Kohler over The Kouk any day of the week.
    ====================
    You didn’t when Kohler was on about the Coalition’s approach to global warming.

  33. The most cynical comment by far over the past couple of days came from Adam Bandt.

    This one is a pearler.

    He reckons that the best job for a coal miner is another mining job.
    The Greens have never, ever, ever supported a mine or the mining industry ever.
    They oppose every new mine.
    They hate them.

  34. Ok BW, this is why iv gorwn to enjoy Kohlers writing
    https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/04/15/alan-kohler-climate-change-lie

    Because atm he is one of the loudest voices saying what needs to be said; anyone saying that the transition to fight climate change will make everyone winners is rubbish, its always been rubbish, and its a high risk policy move thats likely to piss of alot of voters.

    As opposed to saying… hey, this quality of life alot of us enjoy? Its been great, but we need to cut back on in it we want a chance to mitigate climate change…

    But hey, I love people claiming I support austerity 🙂

  35. More Albanese government failures, no funding, for the terrorism that is domestic violence.
    But for Albanese, women and children in these situations, are not important enough to be helped. We can see women and children are 2nd class citizens in Australia.

    Budget has ‘failed’ on domestic violence

    Full Stop Australia CEO Karen Bevan is also scathing of the budget’s offerings to help people escaping family and domestic violence saying the “scale of the national emergency has not been matched by the scale of the federal government’s investment in this budget”.

    Two weeks ago we were talking about a national emergency and the need for a comprehensive investment in women’s safety. From that we saw and acknowledged some important first steps. But that is where progress stopped.

    This budget has failed to continue driving important and necessary change.

    There is no new funding for frontline services, particularly for specialist sexual violence services. There are huge funding gaps across response and recovery programs, which is where the critical work is done providing support to victim-survivors.

    If we want to end gender-based violence, we need to see more than tweaks to existing programs. This national emergency will persist unless the federal government invests in front line services and responses.

    ‘Shameful’ lack of budget support on Indigenous family violence

    The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (Vals) has also responded to the budget saying that in the family violence reforms announced last night, “the rights to safety and culturally safe legal support from Aboriginal women and children were invisible”

    “It is utterly shameful. This is a continuance of colonial violence against Aboriginal women, children and families,” the organisation said in a statement.

    Much important funding has been omitted by Treasurer Chalmers. To get to a surplus of $9.3billion. Shameful.

  36. Diogenes @ #540 Wednesday, May 15th, 2024 – 12:08 pm

    MI

    There is a company in US making nurse chatbots that it claims answers phone enquiries better than nurses.

    Yep, pretty much what I mean.

    And the outcome I foresee is that a profit orientated system like the American health system will make this calculation. Nurses do two things (simplistically), they provide physical support for patients, and they provide medical support for patients. If we can transfer the medical support to generative AI, then we only need to provide physical support. We can provide the physical support much cheaper through our hospital orderly model, lets get rid of most of our nurses.

  37. Based on observations of Ghosts of Budgets Past, I would guess two weeks from now, this budget, like many of its predecessors, will quickly become accepted history.
    As far as this budget being a precursor to an “early election” – whatever that may be, I would also suggest this is wishful thinking among those who are talking July as a possibility.
    Apart from the fact that all/most politicians prefer government to opposition (and Labor folk being no different) I would suggest, despite the hue and cry from the usual throng, Labor is actually doing no worse/no better than any two-year-old Federal government in the past.
    There is no sense of panic/urgency/discord/lack of unity in Labor. And, if the adage that oppositions do not win elections, rather governments lose them, then I would suggest Dutton and the LNP are not well placed at all to get into office as things currently stand.

  38. Irene says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 12:06 pm

    More Albanese government failures, no funding, for the terrorism that is domestic violence.
    …’
    ————————————————————-
    Irene along with another Big Lie and along for another slag based on yet another Irene lie.

    The Government is investing $925.2 million over five years from 2023–24 to provide support for victim‑survivors leaving a violent intimate partner relationship including support for migrants, regardless of their visa status.

    Under the new program, victim‑survivors can access up to $5,000 in financial support, which will be indexed annually to ensure the payment meets the rising cost of living.

    Additional support services will be available through the program including safety planning, risk assessment and referrals to other services for up to 12 weeks.

    These commitments, alongside additional efforts to prevent and respond to gender‑based violence, form part of the Government’s $3.4 billion total investment for women’s safety and support the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032. This is complemented by the actions on gender‑based violence agreed by governments at the National Cabinet on 1 May 2024.

  39. rdbainsays:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 12:02 pm
    Ok BW, this is why iv gorwn to enjoy Kohlers writing
    https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/04/15/alan-kohler-climate-change-lie

    Because atm he is one of the loudest voices saying what needs to be said; anyone saying that the transition to fight climate change will make everyone winners is rubbish, its always been rubbish, and its a high risk policy move thats likely to piss of alot of voters.

    As opposed to saying… hey, this quality of life alot of us enjoy? Its been great, but we need to cut back on in it we want a chance to mitigate climate change…

    But hey, I love people claiming I support austerity
    ==============================================

    Today’s Kohler article, which you seem to be fully in agreement with. Certainly seemed to be extolling the virtuous of Government austerity. In order to stop rates going any higher.

  40. I think maybe politicians are just out of touch.We've got three million Australians living in poverty in this country, and you're going to give me and other politicians on six figure salaries $300.It doesn’t make sense to me.— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) May 15, 2024

    Me either.

  41. Just on AI three quarters of Australian lawyers are already using Chat Gtp a recent survey revealed.

    Err five years to smash call Centre jobs me thinks 2-3 tops.

    A fast food company in the US has replaced one of its stores with a drive through Ai .No human taking your order.
    Biggest change since the internet at least whilst others are saying since the steam engine.

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