abhibeckert
No - our government is generally able to get things done. There might be vocal disagreement by the opposition party, but they can rarely block things. Also on this particular issue everyone agrees something needs to be done… it’s just not clear what can be done.
Social housing for low income people is an entirely different issue. This article is talking about high income families who still can’t afford a home.
If you want to buy a typical family home in a major city, the loan repayments are higher than the entire income of even the highest paid jobs a young person can get (lawyer, etc). Even if a husband and wife both work full time, the amount of money is not even close to within reach.
No bank will let you take out a loan for that much money unless you’re covering a large portion of the purchase by selling another home that you bought 20 years ago. How is someone who graduated from law school in 2023 supposed to have bought a home 20 years ago?
I’m young and was able to buy a home recently… but I was only able to do that by choosing to live in an unusually small home on the outskirts of a regional city (the nearest “proper” city is a thousand miles away…). And also I got in before the pandemic - property values have gone up by 1.5x in the last two years in my suburb. I don’t think we could afford it now. We also have a kid now, so we can’t work full time… even at the price we paid two years ago, the bank wouldn’t give us a loan anymore now that we’re not able to both work full time.
If it were a major interstate route, it would have a name
It’s effectively part of Highway 1 - which goes around the coast through every coastal city on mainland Australia.
It’s not officially part of it, but west of Cairns a bridge has been closed to a lot of traffic for three years. Most people don’t expect the bridge to be repaired, more likely they’ll move the highway… but preliminary investigations have been suppressed (not a good sign) and nearly $10m is being spent just on planning to decide what to do - the results of that planning effort are scheduled to be released by the end of next year - who knows when construction will start. In the mean time, Atherton-Malanda Rd is one of the detour options, depending where you’re going along Highway 1.
It’s also a major tourist road - about half a million tourists per year drive along it.
You’re right, it’s not a major highway. But it is and always has been used for heavy freight and more than ever since the bridge is a mess. It was originally built well over a hundred years ago to haul massive old growth rainforest tree trunks to be shipped off to Europe - I’m talking trees where a single log would need an oversize truck to move it by modern standards. These days the road is depended on by local farmers and it’s almost a blessing that it’s not a federal highway, because being a local road means it’s actually considered a priority by the government that maintains it.
They just want things to change now, and that’s not happening.
Yeah see that’s exactly what gets everyone worked up. On one hand Youth detention centres are so overcrowded and understaffed the kids have to be locked in their cells 23 hours a day - a horrific breach of human rights if it was done to an adult, let alone kids. And on the other hand some of the crimes the kids are committing are even more horrific than that (seriously, I don’t even want to write about some of the stories I’ve been close to).
The people in those towns want the state premier (not just a single politician from a minor party) to drop whatever they’re doing and deal with this. Now. Right now. It’s hard for us to imagine anything else more important that could possibly be on the premier’s desk than this issue. But instead we get told “the problem is complex”. We know it’s complex. We’re living it.
Gods that data is appalling. Is it really likely that that rate speeding is really going on? Especially after the first few days once the locals are familiar with the placement of the camera and won’t be caught unawares.
Despite the example you gave - almost none of those fines would have been locals.
It’s a major interstate route and people travelling through the town are the ones that get fined - in other parts of the state the speed limit for that road would be far higher (probably 110kph with a bypass for the town) and wouldn’t be enforced as heavily either.
As someone who grew up in Malanda… not much crime there as far as I know. Everyone in the town is on a first name basis and friendly.
But other towns only slightly larger in the same area are out of control. I’m talking nuisance crimes - such as a kid smashing in the windscreen of your car with a baseball bat or spray painting a penis on your shop sign or straight up burning a business building to the ground for no reason other than they think it’s funny.
If it was once in a blue moon… ok. That’s what insurance is for. But when you’re personally a victim of stuff like that several times a year and so is everyone else you know… it’s borderline unliveable. The police force are so under-funded most of these crimes don’t even get reported. They show up four days later and take a few notes, and that’s it.
As for what Knuth is doing about it… not much he can do other than complain. Police are run from Brisbane and it’s clear they don’t think it’s a priority. Shit’s been getting worse every year for as long as I’ve lived here. Supposedly they need 150 additional officers for the district and recently hired four. They don’t report how many retired or quit in frustration (I suspect more than four).
Last time I had a chat with a local Malanda officer, he said he’s in hot water because an independent audit reported people speeding regularly on a stretch of highway but where he’d never issued any speeding fines. It was a down hill where you need to be riding the brakes to stay within the speed limit and was recently reduced from 100km/h to 60km/h for no reason — the road is safer than it ever has been, due to upgrades, and there was never a crash even before the safety improvements. I’m talking a nice wide straight highway with nothing but cow paddocks on either side of the highway. Even if you “crashed”, you’d harmlessly get stuck in the mud and the next car to drive past would help you get out of the mud. I wonder if he’s been replaced by someone who’s happy to issue tickets instead of helping with real problems (I don’t live there anymore).
IIRC the test for being an employee, is having the employer at least controlling the employee’s schedule
No that’s “a” test, it’s not “the” test. And you don’t have to pass all of the tests.
A perfect example is the CEO of a company. They control their own schedule. They are still employees… and in most of the world you need a reason to fire them.