I agree he absolutely did do the right thing on gun control.

I guess that’s why I really dislike him. I don’t want Australia to be so unequal. A good leader would have attempted to bring people together. Instead he drove as many wedges through society as he could, both economically and socially.

No question people who already owned real estate did very well under Howard.

IMO Howard changed our society from being one of mate-ship and egalitarian values to the current “fuck you, got mine” society we have. Ironically whilst giving speeches to the media about “Australian values” including mate ship. Agree it’s hard to say if he caused it, or just reflected society at large.

I wonder why they focused on income distribution rather than wealth distribution?

I would have thought that inequality in accumulated wealth is the bigger issue. How many times the median income would one need to earn to “catch up” to some one on median income who inherited their parents property?

IMO our society is stratifying in to those who own vs those who will never own their own home.

I think Norway’s has legislation around the percent that can be used now vs what has to be reserved for future generations. Although I agree with the sentiment that the calibre of politicians we elect couldn’t be trusted to think beyond one election cycle.

For me it was Howard. He was really effective at furthering many neo liberal economic policies to fuck over anyone not born in to wealth. Sure some of the more recent PMS have been more embarrassing and stupid (scummo, abbot) but Howard was an absolute arsehole.

He brought in the capital gains tax discount for real estate which when combined with the existing negative gearing policy was/is a major contributor driving investors to real estate thus making property become unaffordable. Not to mention it’s just so unfair inequitable. Why the fuck should a person who buys existing houses pay less tax on money gained from that than someone who actually produces something of value does on their income?

He was the political equivalent of the FIFO miner spending all his cash on a Malloo, jet ski and glass BBQ party. Howard pissed the early - mid 2000s mining boom proceeds up the wall on middle class welfare. Instead we could have had a future fund like Norway. To be fair every politician we have had since has either been too corrupt or scared to attempt anything like that.

Howard also realised he could fuck over unions by bringing in masses of extra workers via record immigration in order to lower wages. (Added Bonus this increased demand on real estate too) He won’t be remembered for that on immigration, instead he will be remembered for his “boat people” rhetoric. It was like a magicians distraction, look at these bad immigrants, meanwhile opening the floodgate for “good” immigrants.

He sold telecom setting our internet tech back at least a decade.

He dragged us in to the middle east wars like a good little lapdog for George dubbya.

He started the erosion of Medicare to please his private health fund donors.

As a millennial, not born in to 1% wealth, Howard and the liberal parties message to me has always been “go fuck yourself”. I will never put liberal anywhere but the bottom of the ballot. Potato head might be fantasising about winning the votes of the working class by paying lip service to some issues we face and then campaigning against social issues we don’t care about. I don’t think that many of us are so foolish to think that the liberals will ever be anything but the party for the elite. Even then they are only the party for the honest elite, that wear their arseholery as a badge of honour. The other elites have the teals.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2024/mar/26/blaming-john-howard-is-easy-but-his-government-helped-shape-the-world-we-live-in-now-and-for-future-generations

Anyone know why this bullshit is being allowed by govt?

How did voice over LTE end up needing carrier software approval on top of having the right hardware?

Is this telcos writing legislation for yet another ignorant communications minister?

All I see is limited consumer choice, generation of completely unnecessary e-waste and a giant “fuck off” sign to international tourists.

Australians expect to be able to punish their vehicles over harsh terrain and have it come back in one piece.

Oh please. The most off road the majority of dual cabs get is mounting kerbs in a drive through.

No users.

A bunch of those lemmit online communities.

A few other communities that tend to mostly just be identity politics arguments.

This might be the first time I’ve ever agreed with something the business council has lobbied for.

IIRC a land tax instead instead of stamp duty per transaction was a recommendation from they Henry tax review.

When I ran dual boot I kept windows on a separate disk to my mint install. I unplugged the mint disk when ever I wanted to boot windows.

Still had the clock issue of course.

I would rather spend more time sitting on a train than I would navigating air ports with their security theatre.

Even 2h on a train vs 1h of air port and plane bullshit would be preferred.

Other half had a Peugeot 206. Thing was an economic write off at 10 years old with barely 100,000 kms on the odometer. Endless problems every service, high chance of stranding you. Interior falling apart, paint peeling off etc. Quality control must have been non existent.

Worst car I’ve ever driven would be a 2021 Mitsubishi outlander hire car. The way it handled corners felt downright dangerous, weak engine with awful CVT. Average park bench has more comfort than the seats. Sometimes in my career I get a feeling of imposter syndrome, but I can look at a car like the outlander and say thank fuck I’m not at daft as the arseholes responsible for that abomination.

Pipepipe share just gives YouTube.com links. Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUUy3mnAhCE

Is there tracking in that URL?

I don’t think limiting is necessary.

Instead we could start by getting rid of John Howard’s capital gains tax discounts on properties. That alone massively distorts where investment dollars go in this country. Of all the fucked things about real estate that has to be the one that is most unfair. Why the hell should you pay less tax on speculating existing property than you do when you work on something that actually produces value?

If that didn’t correct things enough there are more things that could be done: banning ownership by non citizens, replacing stamp duty with annual land tax, incentives to discourage land banking, realistic population targets, and dare I say it; limiting negative gearing to new builds only.

I reckon it would change when renters start to outnumber owners.

Which is part of the reason for first home buyers grants, stamp duty discounts etc, to funnel more people in to owning. The other being it is a great way to hand tax dollars to established real estate owners.

Howard was very calculating in what he did.

He made a big fuss in the media about a tiny handful of asylum seekers arriving by boat. All the while ramping up legal immigration avenues.

He knew this was good for his business owner lobbyist mates and good for increasing demand on real estate. Bad for anyone who works for a living and did not already own a house.

my guess would be old.reddit disappearing.

Google consistently routes people to make a right turn across an unsignalised dual carriageway near me. (Australia, we drive on the left).

This right turn is so prone to crashes that every single weekday morning and afternoon there will be multiple tow trucks just waiting for a crash.

To avoid this intersection and turn right on to the dual carriageway at a location with traffic lights is only a matter of driving less than 1km in either direction on a parallel side street. Yet Google tells people to go past the traffic lights to make this turn. Idiocy.

Be very surprised if labor changes direction before the election.

As much as I would like to see negative gearing limited to new builds only and capital gains tax discounts removed entirely.

Played UT4 at a few LAN parties circa 2015 - 2018.

Frustrating that they never went back to finish UT4 off after Fortnite BR turned in to a money printer. It felt so close to being ready.