steve101 "Teenagers needing 100 hours of supervised learner driving to obtain a motor vehicle driver's license, does not indicate teenagers as competent quick learners."

This has nothing to do with teen competence and everything to do with the namby-pamby totalitarianism engulfing our society like The Blob.
And everyone just bends over and takes it.
Pathetic.

"Unemployment reaches 13 year highs."

I'm sure homelessness has too.

And I'm sure it has nothing to do with artificially adding 2.2 million extra people through immigration.

Keep 'em coming, Tweedles! No matter what!

steve101,
You are 100% right.
I watched Bill Shorten this morning and found myself
agreeing with everything he had to say except 50% climate target.
As a solid liberal voter and a party worker I am proud to now believe that a person can change and it looks that way with me.
Two things stand out
First unemployment will reach double figures
Second Labor will win the next election on default'

There are many embarrassing political stories; many newsprint cartoon character embarrassing images of prime ministers; Abbott; Gilard; Rudd; Howard; Keating; going back to Australia's earliest Prime ministers.
Embarrassing cartoon images go back to Briton's King George the second.

Why do we not believe leaders may have been chosen for their looks in order to be characterised in humorous circumstances?

Teachers told at teacher colleges to make stern statements to selective children to embarrass children in order to maintain control over many other children within the classroom. Embarrassing, humiliating scenes are believed and judged to be real by classroom students, because they are real.
Media are aware of classroom conditioned judgemental behaviour.

Media stories containing embarrassing stories: politicians allowance abuse; Abbott standing under reject shop sign showing “reject”; newsprint embarrassing cartoon images based on weekly rolled over political topics; financial stories on company plans that include embarrassing stories, allows stories to be felt, knee-jerk-reacted as truthful, realistic events.

Catholic church's embarrassing priests molesting children are believed, yet never have I heard that religion tricks many educated to be gullible people out of their money, using praying to god and ceremonial performances based on no more than congregations' faith in words. The church are selling words.

If media are embarrassing important people than the media must be separate from important people. I say, when important people are constantly being embarrassed, propaganda reasons are people educated to believe what they're told, are fooled by a belief that by embarrassing important people, the media are separate from important people, plus embarrassing stories are entertaining.

I'm stating that embarrassing people media stories are designed to fool listeners into believing what media tells listeners to be true. In doing so, most people tell me I'm wrong, that they believe what media tells them, is absolutely true.

I confidence trick is to discredit other people for having poor moral and ethical behaviours. By criticising other people, unaware listeners form opinions of the confidence trickster as having high moral and ethical standards. That's what the media are doing.

The media are embarrassing politicians and known people to show media as having separation between: politicians; one or two corrupt officials; several known actors; and unknown priests molesting children. Other than a few radio shock jockeys and several television program critics who are focusing their attention on politicians, the media are not drawing attention to issues like why teenagers are leaving school, becoming: suddenly violent, bipolar; drunken alcoholics; drug addicted; are slow, difficult to teach work skills; parents complain about their children not learning anything; why children, particularly teenagers are mentally stressed at school? Mental depression, increased illegal drug use and suicide are no more than media mentioned concerns? Media: having no mentioned solutions to why such concerns are there? Whether concerns are being investigated, are open for public debate? Whether school's mental stress have any associated causes? Whether aged 5 years children are ready to attend school due to parents poor social skills and in parents calming children rather than allowing parents to let their children have pre-school ADHD? Why teachers (from what I have heard) are spending increased amounts of time (compared to previous generations) stopping young children from misbehaving in classrooms?

Very few to no independent organisations separate from political systems are heard expressing opinions through the media. I believe if there were organisations forming opinions on how selective government policies are carried out, such organisations would be suppressed by the establishment.

The media are all about selectively controlling what people hear, in order to control what people believe. Rolling over the same concerns like the media care to bring concerns to people's attentions, as to increase people's perception as the media's roll as societies guardian. In bringing concerns to people's attentions, few to no changing or introducing laws and or ideas on how to solve concerns to reduce further concerns.

Television's SBS Insight program, brings ideas to people's attention, using a forum setting, having a limited number to guests describing their problems. Several expert guests describing behaviours, while few solutions at the very end of Insight programs are recommended, Insight program having run out if time.

August 11, 2015. Tony Abbott wants to take a vote on gay marriage. Immediately the event turns into a media interviewing various politicians over procedure, what Tony Abbott wanted, to what several other politicians wanted. Correct procedure becomes much of the discussion. Media reports of dramas over division between Liberal politicians aids anecdotally of democracy procedure.

Gay marriage becomes a distraction from other concerning public topic debates.
2008 – 2009 Labor government insulation employment scheme where four young males died. The much publicised royal commission into government incompetence of the insulation scheme, allows government to be seen as wanting to look the other way in regards to employment schemes. My opinion, government wants to do as little as possible, dramatising politicians embarrassing mistakes.

The insulation royal commission should have enquired into why schools allowed poor thinking ability traumatised school leavers to be stupid enough to allow themselves to be electrocuted.
The Rudd government took responsibility for inadequate training. My opinion is that electrical wiring had to be placed on top of foils rather than under foils. If electrical wiring were seen as being faulty, electricians were to be called. If young adults had any skilful thinking abilities and weren't hurried under time restraints to get each job done quickly, training wouldn't have prevented any deaths. Training would have told installation installers to place electrical wiring on top of foils, that's if foils were to be used.
With respect to the families, Installers stupid enough to staple into electrical wiring would have been stupid enough to ignore detailed training.
Insulation enquiry should have been about education's increased high school traumatising of school students into not being capable enough to install insulation bats inside ceilings.

Gay marriage is one more rolled over distraction from real problems, exampled: number one cause of Australian deaths between aged 14 to 44 is suicide; increasing mental health problems, which I believe comes from schooling traumas; illegal drug addiction is no more than media topic; employment security; ever expanding cities; 2008 GFC lost investment money.
Government' media stories are little more than contrived distractions from real issues.

A common conversation among colleagues at my school is the notion that "Student X is a great person and very capable, but just doesn't want to be at school." Another, possibly more controversial, is that "Student Y just doesn't belong at school - but where is there for (usually) him to go?"

Fundamentally, some kids would just be better off pursuing pathways in which they are interested, and specialising sooner, rather than having a general education with little-to-no direction for after-school life.

One of the better things the Howard administration did in its dying days was the establishment of the Australian Technical Colleges for senior high school students. Students were able to complete the basic literacy and numeracy components that are so fundamental to secondary education while pursuing pathways in vocational fields. In that way, they graduated from high school with considerable progress in their chosen apprenticeships. The original vision suggested that they could do this while still completing academic courses so that they could pursue university entry if they were taken by that whim - and, depending on the field, their hands-on experience would probably have given them better understanding of some of the lofty theoretical components of, say, engineering courses.

Because education is a political plaything, the Rudd government decided that these colleges were a bad idea. They shifted trade training centres back to schools. Some, like the one here in Townsville, have continued on as independent organisations. I think this is a vision that was never given enough time to realise its full potential.