Our new coalition government.

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#2235977 13-May-2019 13:37

networkn:

It's both as far as I can tell. I really like the principal of the school my kids attend and he does a great job, but some of the claims he has made in school assemblies about teachers working conditions and pay are silly and easily provably incorrect, which all it does is hurt their case/credibility.

I can tell you something though, if you guys knew how much the senior doctors were being paid, to cover the junior doctors to get paid, you'd have pitchforks out I am sure.

I recall when that happened down here a very senior doctor was paid I think $160/hour, it may well have been a lot more, it was huge. Pity I cant recall it exactly, but he earnt $16k in not a very long time at all.

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#2235979 13-May-2019 13:40

networkn:

I heard this morning that in 2018 (I think) there were 70+ deaths related to driving under the influence of drugs. That's 1/5th of the total! That seems shocking.

That is indeed shocking but I doubt that decriminalisation will make it worse. The problem here isn't the debilitator of choice, but the mentality of people who think it is in any way okay to warp their brains with any substance and then get behind the wheel of a death machine. I saw some of the testimony of the woman who survived the horrific crash that took her partner and children (not to mention four other completely innocent people) and I don't doubt that her anguish is completely genuine. But I really wish I could ask her how in the name of everything unholy could she possibly think it was okay to let her partner smoke all that synthetic crap and then get behind the wheel with her own kids in the car? How can anyone just be that stupid? Sure, she's sorry now. How could she possibly not have seen that coming?

I haven't researched this of course, but my firm personal belief is that synthetic cannabis is truly horrible stuff, right up there with meth, but it never would have become a problem if Peter Dunne and others had not been such bloody idiots about it and actual cannabis had been legalised a long time ago as the vastly preferable lesser of evils. Another way of viewing your horror statistic of 70 deaths is that this happened in spite of drugs being illegal, so obviously that isn't working.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#2235981 13-May-2019 13:42

tdgeek:

networkn:

It's both as far as I can tell. I really like the principal of the school my kids attend and he does a great job, but some of the claims he has made in school assemblies about teachers working conditions and pay are silly and easily provably incorrect, which all it does is hurt their case/credibility.

I can tell you something though, if you guys knew how much the senior doctors were being paid, to cover the junior doctors to get paid, you'd have pitchforks out I am sure.

I recall when that happened down here a very senior doctor was paid I think $160/hour, it may well have been a lot more, it was huge. Pity I cant recall it exactly, but he earnt $16k in not a very long time at all.

It's WAY more than that now.

tdgeek

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#2235984 13-May-2019 13:47

networkn:

tdgeek:

networkn:

It's both as far as I can tell. I really like the principal of the school my kids attend and he does a great job, but some of the claims he has made in school assemblies about teachers working conditions and pay are silly and easily provably incorrect, which all it does is hurt their case/credibility.

I can tell you something though, if you guys knew how much the senior doctors were being paid, to cover the junior doctors to get paid, you'd have pitchforks out I am sure.

I recall when that happened down here a very senior doctor was paid I think $160/hour, it may well have been a lot more, it was huge. Pity I cant recall it exactly, but he earnt $16k in not a very long time at all.

It's WAY more than that now.

Yep, I was thinking that as I typed it.

networkn

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#2235988 13-May-2019 13:51

Rikkitic:

That is indeed shocking but I doubt that decriminalisation will make it worse. The problem here isn't the debilitator of choice, but the mentality of people who think it is in any way okay to warp their brains with any substance and then get behind the wheel of a death machine. I saw some of the testimony of the woman who survived the horrific crash that took her partner and children (not to mention four other completely innocent people) and I don't doubt that her anguish is completely genuine. But I really wish I could ask her how in the name of everything unholy could she possibly think it was okay to let her partner smoke all that synthetic crap and then get behind the wheel with her own kids in the car? How can anyone just be that stupid? Sure, she's sorry now. How could she possibly not have seen that coming?

I haven't researched this of course, but my firm personal belief is that synthetic cannabis is truly horrible stuff, right up there with meth, but it never would have become a problem if Peter Dunne and others had not been such bloody idiots about it and actual cannabis had been legalised a long time ago as the vastly preferable lesser of evils. Another way of viewing your horror statistic of 70 deaths is that this happened in spite of drugs being illegal, so obviously that isn't working.

I don't believe for one second that if Weed was legal, synthethic wouldn't be a problem today. As long as humans have been alive, they have been fascinated by coming up with poison to stick in their bodies in the name of a good time.

As I understand it, it's considerably more powerful and enjoyable than weed itself, so legalizing it won't stop people from doing synthentic. As someone who has pretty substantial experience with addiction (not me directly), it's hard for people who haven't been involved personally understand how people make the choices they do in the name of addiction. The reality is, their cognitive decision making and functions are substantially impaired or missing entirely. For example, I know someone who in the attempt to get drugs from a pharmacy, fell through a old glass sky light onto no less than 3 shards of glass, crawled across the floor and was arrested trying to break open a cabinet. You can see the situation in hindsight without any of the complexities of being personally addicted or being in a relationship with someone who is (I presume) and so trust me when I tell you, these things are so much more complex than you might even imagine. I am of course, not condoning the choices, but can see a number of scenarios on how this played out.

The tragedy of that situation is uncomparable and horrifying in every respect.

GV27

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#2235990 13-May-2019 13:54

I'm not against the idea that teachers should be paid more but I do find a few of their claims (such as struggling to afford houses near where they teach) do start to sound like they're missing the part where everyone is struggling to find affordable housing, or with traffic, or with ridiculous hours. I suspect that this probably is why some people who would otherwise support them start to get tired or frustrated with hearing them complain about stuff that the rest of us just have to cop ourselves.

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#2235998 13-May-2019 14:05

GV27:

I'm not against the idea that teachers should be paid more but I do find a few of their claims (such as struggling to afford houses near where they teach) do start to sound like they're missing the part where everyone is struggling to find affordable housing, or with traffic, or with ridiculous hours. I suspect that this probably is why some people who would otherwise support them start to get tired or frustrated with hearing them complain about stuff that the rest of us just have to cop ourselves.

I agree. Teachers will move to the top 20% of income earners, Principals to the top 10%. There is no denying them, and the nurses and doctors claims. The best we can do is a jump now, and above average increases over the next 3 years or so. The "rest of us" in many cases may be in not dissimilar situations, in roles that are not as public as teachers, many of those have much less hope of this type of adjustment. Small businesses can be the same, they cannot top up prices each year at will either

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GV27

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#2236068 13-May-2019 15:46

tdgeek:

I agree. Teachers will move to the top 20% of income earners, Principals to the top 10%. There is no denying them, and the nurses and doctors claims. The best we can do is a jump now, and above average increases over the next 3 years or so. The "rest of us" in many cases may be in not dissimilar situations, in roles that are not as public as teachers, many of those have much less hope of this type of adjustment. Small businesses can be the same, they cannot top up prices each year at will either

I've never worked in a private company that has had tenure-based or annual CPI-adjustments by right. I suspect the teachers have a lot of support when it comes to workload issues and their wages as things stand, but there are few people out there in a position to turn down a nine percent pay-rise over three years in the realistic hope they could hold out for even more.

Bluntj

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#2236278 13-May-2019 20:36

Rikkitic:

networkn:

I heard this morning that in 2018 (I think) there were 70+ deaths related to driving under the influence of drugs. That's 1/5th of the total! That seems shocking.

That is indeed shocking but I doubt that decriminalisation will make it worse. The problem here isn't the debilitator of choice, but the mentality of people who think it is in any way okay to warp their brains with any substance and then get behind the wheel of a death machine. I saw some of the testimony of the woman who survived the horrific crash that took her partner and children (not to mention four other completely innocent people) and I don't doubt that her anguish is completely genuine. But I really wish I could ask her how in the name of everything unholy could she possibly think it was okay to let her partner smoke all that synthetic crap and then get behind the wheel with her own kids in the car? How can anyone just be that stupid? Sure, she's sorry now. How could she possibly not have seen that coming?

I haven't researched this of course, but my firm personal belief is that synthetic cannabis is truly horrible stuff, right up there with meth, but it never would have become a problem if Peter Dunne and others had not been such bloody idiots about it and actual cannabis had been legalised a long time ago as the vastly preferable lesser of evils. Another way of viewing your horror statistic of 70 deaths is that this happened in spite of drugs being illegal, so obviously that isn't working.

I agree. People have been driving under the influence of drugs for 40 years that I am aware of. What has changed is the number of vehicles that use the road and the roads (main roads) not being upgraded accordingly. Of course its easier to test now for drugs.

My opinion is that drugs/alcohol/distraction should all be treated equally when they cause injury. I cannot see how decriminalising drugs will make any difference as non drug users arent suddenly all going to start using. As usual it is generally the irresponsible people that ruin it for everybody.

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#2238239 15-May-2019 10:54

I see the Government has indicated significantly less people took up their brib... I mean free year of tertiary education than expected, and now it's being "re-assessed".

I'd be interested to see pass rates comparatively and how many people go on to fill jobs in sectors that were targeted. I am going to predict it will be far far less than was indicated would be the case.

GV27

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#2238252 15-May-2019 11:00

networkn:

I see the Government has indicated significantly less people took up their brib... I mean free year of tertiary education than expected, and now it's being "re-assessed".

I'd be interested to see pass rates comparatively and how many people go on to fill jobs in sectors that were targeted. I am going to predict it will be far far less than was indicated would be the case.

They still have 'heavily discount/write off existing debt' in the back pocket. I can't see a the uptake failure on a policy like this damaging them too much if they still have levers to pull in the same area.

tdgeek

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#2238255 15-May-2019 11:10

As I predicted all along, the prospect of free tertiary isnt going to be of interest unless kids want it. It would appear that those that don't want it, stayed at work or looking for a job, and those that do want it, and can now afford it, have. Not much to see really

Rikkitic

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#2238265 15-May-2019 11:20

Moving past the cheap shots again, I see it as a positive that the government is making a course adjustment by reallocating unused funds and not just bulling on through. What is wrong with that? We expected one thing, we got something different, we are making an adjustment on that basis. Seems like good governance to me.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#2238271 15-May-2019 11:27

Agree. The Govt estimated 80,000 would take it up. So what if less than estimated took it up, its an estimate thats not based on a previous attempt as there wasnt one. What if 95,000 took it up, that's also due a cheap shot. Maybe if between 79998 and 80002 took it up, it wouldn't have made the "news"?

So we allocate the unspent to education still, that's the main thing. I'm sure there are kids out there who have benefitted from our free education going a little further for them. Some feel that maybe

Bluntj

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#2238289 15-May-2019 11:50

Rikkitic:

Moving past the cheap shots again, I see it as a positive that the government is making a course adjustment by reallocating unused funds and not just bulling on through. What is wrong with that? We expected one thing, we got something different, we are making an adjustment on that basis. Seems like good governance to me.

They need to spend more time getting their policies correct in the first place. This policy was extremely rushed just after the election. This isnt the only policy that needed more development time.

I am not disagreeing with the intent of their policies(here), just the implementation.

So much money is being wasted from them not doing it more carefully. I also do not agree with you on your "cheap shots" comments. It seems anything that disagrees with your perspective is labelled a cheap shot.

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