our own water bottles and home-squeezed carrot-juice on international flights.
Yuyutsu,
?? What's that got to do with PNG visitors to Torres Strait islands ??

ttbn,

" I admit to having finally accepted 'program' for 'programme' and 'gram' for 'gramme'. That's my limit."

Don't stop there, those are fine examples of the US using English and the English using French.

Luciferase,
Saying that it's class warfare to tax investment income at the same rate as employment income (which is a bigger change than Labor's prepared to make) is laughable - if you regard equality as class warfare, then by any reasonable standards, you're probably trying to wage class warfare on the rest of us! And nobody's suggesting abolishing negative gearing - but the government's plan of no new negative gearing for existing properties is a good idea, as it encourages more building, and will (slightly) slow the growth (trend) of house prices, making it easier for people to buy their own home, which is good for social cohesion.

As for rhetoric, Shorten has a point - the rich are getting a lot of tax breaks. But his rhetoric is pretty tame compared to the farcical claims the Libs are making about Labor's policies.

In Whitlam's day, university almost guaranteed high paying employment. Now with many more people going there, this is no longer the case. A high proportion of people going to uni is of great benefit to the national economy, but the current system is not so good for those who have to pay back their HECS fees at the time they can least afford to. The problem could be alleviated by raising the repayment threshold, but the government has failed to do this.

Similarly with childcare, governments have realised that the nation's more productive when parents don't have to spend so long out of the workforce, and overseas experience shows early childhood education to be quite valuable in boosting future productivity.

I'd rather our nation not be one where only the rich deserve a high standard of living. Everyone should thrive, not just survive. Likewise, people should not be forced by economic circumstances to move far away from their families. Many people will move far, of course, but they should have the opportunity to live in the same vicinity (not a house in the same suburb, but at least a flat in the same LGA).

Luciferase,
Yes the battery stops the blackouts.

To say it's nothing to do with the fleet of diesel generators is incorrect, as they do add capacity (each one having a similar output to the sustained output of the battery.
But usually in the case of supply driven blackouts, the problem isn' that we don't have the capacity; it's that it takes time for gas fired power stations to reach that capacity.

>The problem is emissions and what to do about them.
Exactly. We need to reduce them quickly, and ultimately get our net emissions below zero.

Completely decarbonising our electricity sector is neither the problem nor the solution. But electricity sector decarbonisation is among the low hanging fruit. Going to 50% is very easy - you don't even need batteries (though they do make it a bit easier and cheaper). Even going to 90% is unlikely to be very difficult. The last 10% is much harder (though not impossible) with current technology, but it is silly to assume that technology will stop improving, and utterly stupid to treat the final 10% as a way of avoiding action now.

>What qualifies as a solution is one that is proven, not one based on supposition, hope and fantasy.
What qualifies as a solution is one that solves the problem. Though you keep claiming nuclear power to be a cost effective solution, the cheap nuclear power plants that were promised are not even there yet, let alone cost effective. Meanwhile the cost of renewables (and of batteries) has come down enormously. Maybe small scale nuclear power will be cost competitive with them someday, but right now it isn't.

________________________________________________________________________________

individual,
What makes you think that "those who are vehemently bleating green power are the biggest users of coal & petroleum"?

Dear Individual,

«?? What's that got to do with PNG visitors to Torres Strait islands ??»

Practically nothing, but then how is the topic of PNG visitors to Torres Strait islands connected to this thread about the Australian elections? So I just took the liberty (in my post from Wednesday, 15 May 2019 3:57:56 PM) to continue this random train of associations and bring it back closer to the original discussion.

What makes you think
Aidan,
I see them & their behaviour on a daily basis !
Btw. Talking with an Aboriginal Elder yesterday about the politics in the North, he said he'll vote Katter Party because they are the only ones who openly support a crocodile cull !
Problem crocodiles have become a serious issue which the do-gooders simply don't understand ! How can one disagree with that. Same with Labor's grog restrictions on Cape York. By not getting grog in their community, many now gravitate towards Cairns & Townsville. Not because they can't get enough grog but because the moment they have an extra bottle in their possession they become criminals !
What Labor has in effect achieved is a conveyor belt-like creation of criminals to choke up northern prisons with criminals whose crime was to save a second trip to the bottle shop !
People going camping on weekends can only have one carton of beer per car. Talk about solving one problem by creating two more !