The SA Politics Thread

[rev]

If the SDA opposes gay marriage and has control over our state government (as claimed) how is it Jay Weathaerill was able to announce Labor would legislate for same-sex marriage at state level?

It is not a matter of "IF" the SDA opposes same sex marriage, it is apparently on public record that it does! Regardless of anyones opinion of this matter, I think we should all be alarmed these issues are even being discussed in the union forum. Unions need to stick to wages, conditions safety issues etc. for it's memebers, not social policies.

On the public record you say? Then you should have no trouble providing us with this public record...
I don't doubt you(in fact I'm not that interested in the topic), but I think this thread is in need of more substance and facts.

You know, if you disagree with what some union is discussing, you are always able to get into one of the professions they represent and become a member of said union and then lobby your union rep to have those sorts of discussions stopped.

[claybro]

Just type in the name de Bruyn and there are any number of articles and interviews which very publicly state HIS views on these issues. OK so may not be union policy (as social policy is outside union duresdiction), but if prime minister Julia Gillard was to get up and in Parliament announce her views on any given issue, the voters at large would accept that this is the position of the Government in general.If her views were greatly at odds with party policy, she would be removed as leader. Being a union offical should not allow anyone to try to influence socal policy.

[Goya's Line]

I've said my piece on De Bruyn and we are in agreeance - the man is a tool. On the other side of the coin why should Clive Palmer be allowed so much airtime just because of his riches and LNP membership? As Dean Jaensch stated in Metro's 7:30SA link, the Liberal Party is also comprised of factions.

[rhino]

duresdiction

Good one. Apart from this new word, I agree with your post, however.

[rev]

Slightly off topic from all the baseless bashing, here's something which annoys me. Local councilors or state politicians, who call for roads to be upgraded when someone dies, as if it's the roads fault.

Earlier today on Torrens Rd, Woodville, there was a major accident where two people lost their lives.
The second major accident with fatalities in the past three years on that section of road.

Parts of that section of Torrens road are pretty ordinary, bumpy etc. So, calling for that bit of road to be fixed is natural. But not because someone died in a car crash. But because it is below par, with or without fatalities. In fact I think part of it was re-done not long ago.

The bit that pisses me off is this.

The first crash that happened a few years back, was because two cars were drag racing late at night headed east, and a third car not involved in the drag race, turned into their path to get down a side street.

Todays crash happened because one car was speeding, and for some reason crossed over onto the other side of the road and smashed into three other cars.

In both cases, it is the fault of drivers. Drivers who were speeding.
The condition of the road would not have made a difference to either crash and lives would have been lost in both crashes no matter what.
You only have to look at the wrecks of the cars involved to know that excessive speed was the major contributing factor.

Yet a local councilor is calling for this bit of road to be upgraded because of increased traffic volume. Somehow the councilor has attributed the increase in traffic volume to a few people being dick heads on the roads.

It is unfortunate that two major accidents have happened on the same stretch of road with fatalities as a result.
According to local residents, speeding motorists are a common thing on that stretch.
So when you have people continuously doing the wrong thing, it is only a matter of time that something will go horribly wrong.

[rhino]

Sounds like a temporary (say, 2 years) fixed speed camera would have a greater impact on speeding motorists than fixing the road to make it safer for speeding motorists.

I'm not suggesting that the road doesn't need fixing, but I fail to see how that will solve the problem, which is caused by speeding motorists.

[claybro]

This part of Torrens Road is neither poor in design or overly conjested. Just political point scoring by the councillor. Like the old joke says....What part of a car causes the most accidents?....The nut that holds the steering wheel!

[Aidan]

Todays crash happened because one car was speeding, and for some reason crossed over onto the other side of the road and smashed into three other cars.

In both cases, it is the fault of drivers. Drivers who were speeding.

That doesn't mean there aren't improvements that could be implemented to make the road safer. Making roads safer would be much easier if everyone stuck to the rules, but there's a lot that traffic engineers can do to minimize the chance of drivers doing the wrong thing resulting in tradgedy. Could anything have been done to prevent the speeding car crossing onto the other side of the road? I don't know (as I don't even know where on Torrens Road it happened) but it's a distinct possibility. And if a capacity upgrade is needed, it makes sense to combine the safety upgrade with that.

[claybro]

Of the 3 fatal accidents that are being discussed on this small stretch of Torrens Road, none would have been prevented by even substantial upgrade to this road. It is simply not feasable to drive, drag race, weave in and out of traffic at over 100km/hour on suburban roads when other traffic is doing 50-60. Our traffic engineers and resources should not be employed dealing with outlaws. This is the roll of police.

[shaun]

Could anything have been done to prevent the speeding car crossing onto the other side of the road?

Yes keeping idiots off our roads. There is so much engineering you can do to prevent accidents, when the main problem is clueless or idiot drivers who don't give a damn that they are putting their life at risk or someone elses. A couple of weeks on the Sturt Highway near Truro, I witnessed a car overtake a truck on a bendy hilly section that had two white lines. But what makes this situation worse is that there was a car coming from the opposite direction, amazingly they didn't hit. The other day I saw a car wheeve around traffic on the South Eastern Freeway without using his indicator. It's stupid things like this (aswell as speeding) as why we see so many accidents and sometimes fatal crashes on our roads.

Yesterday's news was quite sad and a lil scary. That poor woman.

[cruel_world00]

Looks like the SDA wants political donation reform... wonder why?

http://radioadelaidebreakfast.wordpress ... donations/

[stumpjumper]

SDA kicks Wong off top spot on Senate ticket

Don Farell, who as I have said before plays a long game, continues his climb to the top of the political dung heap - not through democratic election but through the careful seizing of unloseable positions when the opportunity arises. Now he has, against ALP tradition (but absolutely in line with SDA tradition), unceremoniously kicked down the ticket a far more popular performer (South Australian senator Penny Wong).

As usual, the voters of SA, whose political apathy has earned them years of government by some of the worst politicians in Australian history, will not give a damn. More fool they, as democratic government suffers yet another blow in our run-down, broke little back alley of a state.

Wong has accepted her demotion without comment. When one of leaders of one of the most powerful gangs in Australia demotes and humiliates you, you thank him, unless you yourself have principles or backbone.

From today's Australian:

Finance Minister Penny Wong will be locked out of the top spot on Labor's SA Senate ticket by one of the "faceless men" who helped topple Kevin Rudd.

With the State ALP to decide its Senate line-up for the 2013 election later this month, the dominant Right faction is expected to easily win the prime spot for its candidate, the relatively low-profile former union boss Don Farrell.

The Right in SA controls between 55 per cent and 60 per cent of the 200 voting delegates on the floor of the State Convention.

While Senator Wong is unlikely to lose her Senate spot because of the move, it will surprise many voters that one of Australia's most powerful and successful female politicians will be forced into second spot by a low-key factional heavyweight.

Senator Farrell as a convenor of the national Right played a central role in the coup against Kevin Rudd in June 2010.

He was seen to have been rewarded by Mr Rudd's successor as prime minister, Julia Gillard, who appointed Senator Farrell Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water.

[claybro]

If only they used their power for the good of this state instead of manipulating "jobs of the boys", we might be in a more prominant situation here in SA.

[stumpjumper]

Thanks bro!

SDA hack and recently-appointed SA minister Tom Kenyon wasted no time using his influence to hoist his brother James from relative poverty and obscurity to a place in the sun as a highly paid political adviser to our beloved Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Gillard's Werribee office was chosen as the host body for James partly because it's a prestigious appointment and partly bercause it's not in South Australia, where people might complain of nepotism. After all, there was a bit of a fuss when SDA SA boss Rob Malinauskas took his brother from his $40K pa job as a junior journalist at the Advertiser to a $120K job as a senior media adviser to an SA minister, his sister from her low-paying job to a fat government salary and his fiancee from a job in a suburban office to membership of several well paying government boards. Malinauskas claimed that his relatives just happened to be the best people for the jobs .

Anyway, James Kenyon, who is also an SDA drone, will be a valuable pair of eyes and ears in Gillard's office, helping Joe de Bruyn and Don Farrell decide who runs the country and how they run it.

The SDA organisation has its operatives and informants entrenched in most state and federal government departments. These appointments were in former days filled by permanent public servants whose names, positions and salaries were once publicly available, on the basis that the public paid for them, but no more.

[rev]

*yawn*

Same shit different day. Seriously, have you no shame with the propaganda, bullshit and slander you routinely post?

If I give you vip entry to the palace & pay the bar, will you STFU for the rest of the year with this boring nonsense?

Christ all mighty. Do you have a life? Do you have anything else to do with your time? Your contribution to a forum which exists to discuss primarily developments and construction in Adelaide, is to bitch about politicians.

We get it, politicians & the "faceless men" behind them are a bunch of crooked bastards.

Have a beer, relax, and stfu already..