Australia bestows an Honorary Order of Australia on a Japanese general. Is this honour justified?
General Iwasaki was born in 1953. I think we can safely say that he was not involved in any way with the events of WW2. So holding a grudge against the modern Japanese state for the sins of their fathers doesn't help anyone. Australian honours for foreign leaders and dignitaries happen all the time. It is a nice gesture for one of the few democracies in the far east. It certainly doesn't hurt us. If it helps cement good relations between our two countries then it is justified.
Why is Tony Abbott so hated in Australian politics?
He was our nation's worst ever Prime Minister. And he was also kind of a bully. David Burke has already done an excellent job of running down just some of the failings of his administration. It's possible that someone could refute a lot of those by claiming they were just the whinings of the political left but the key thing is that unlike John Howard, they right can't really balance that out with a list of Abbott's achievements. The left hate Abbott, and so they should, but the right can't champion him because he didn't achieve anything. He abolished the Carbon tax and stood in opposition to gay marriage but it's pretty clear that five years from now gay marriage will be legal and some sort of carbon tax will be in place. All Abbott did was stand in the way of progress. The tide is turning on the whole "stop the boats" rhetoric as well. His paid parental leave scheme was supposed to be part of his legacy but that was dropped like a stone. He has no other achievements that anyone can boast about the positive side of the ledger is sparse even if you agree with his political standpoint.So the left hate him and the right can't really justify his achievements because there aren't any. Those in the middle just saw someone bullying other people and failing to lead the nation in any way and standing up for Bronwyn Bishop long after it was clear she should have been removed from the house entirely.And then there was the weirdness. The eating a raw onion, the muted silence and nodding when asked direct questions by reporters, the knighting of Prince Phillip etc etc. He was a strange man who managed to fluke his way into the Prime Ministership because the other party imploded when he was in the right place at the right time. His own party, and the nation as a whole, quickly realised he was a total disaster and he was ditched within two years. History will portray him as a total dud and people are quite right to really hate the guy, there's very little to like.
Do you think the Australian Labor Party is better than the Liberal Party of Australia and if so, why?
Yes. I think the ALP is better than the Liberal party. I don’t think there’s a huge ideological gulf between them but there’s no doubt the ALP attracts a better standard of politician than the Liberal party.I have a lot of respect for Shorten, Wong, Albo, Plibersek and several other politicians from the Labor benches. There are some genuinely good people there. I’m still annoyed that Gillard was so anti gay marriage as PM and turned 180 degrees the second she left office, but I think she was a good PM and I like her as a person. With the exception of Mark Latham, I can’t think of too many in the Labor party who were really loathsome individuals.Meanwhile the Liberal party is just dripping with scum. Dutton is horrible and so is Kevin Andrews while Pyne is just revolting. The Liberals gave us Corey Bernardi, Bronwyn Bishop, Sophie Mirabella and other bottom feeders. And don’t forget they’re the party that looked at Tony Abbott and said “Yeah… lets make that guy leader.”
How do I invade and conquer Australia?
First question to be answered would be "What do you want?" Unless you want the territory or to compel obedience out of the population there isn't much reason to make war on the Australians.The Australians occupy a position in the human society as being about offensive as the Canadians but a lot more playful, and about as insane as the Americans were considered around the turn of the century. The Diggers are not as well funded as the US military but are playfully mean and stubbornly tenacious. tougher to dig out than armoured ticks with machine guns and bombs. The continent itself has vast mineral resources but it would be cheaper to buy anything you need from the Australians than to take it. I figure the only thing the Aussies need to worry about would be a global empire or some grand jihad deciding that the Aussies have been Aussies for long enough. I figure if the US were to send everyone we could take australia in a few months. whether we kept it or not would be the tougher question. Though we could use some more stars on the flag. I'm looking at you New South Wales, Care to send us some senators and congressmen?
Why was the Australian gay marriage plebiscite not supported in 2016?
The plebiscite was specifically designed to not be supported. It was never about “giving the people a voice”. It was always about being the absolutely most unacceptable way to gain marriage equality in order to a) get it off the agenda at the time, and b) delay marriage equality as long as possible.Every single time the gay community came back with concerns, the Coalition party room specifically choose to include the parts gay people had concerns over. For example:That the vote would be non-binding: they decided that their MPs would not be bound to the vote.That the sides should not get public funding: they decided the sides would get public funding.That the advertising would be hateful: they decided to allow hateful advertising.That the plebiscite would be on it’s own instead of at the last election, meaning people would have to be motivated enough to actually vote even more so than at an election itself: they decided to hold it separately from the election.And of course that people should be able to vote on whether their neighbours should be able to get married at all: they persisted with the plan even when they knew it was doomed.The country was never going to have the plebiscite. If the Coalition had control of the Senate post-election, you can be almost certain that it would never have gotten that far. They would have simply dropped it entirely. But they had a wedge on Labor, and you can be damn sure they were going to use it.The worst part is the hyperbole around it. The plebiscite was purely a political move, yet the Coalition continually accused others of “playing politics” over the issue. They told us to “get out of the way” and that we “hate democracy”, even though we never individually vote on any other issue. It’s a disgusting tactic.I don’t use the term “hate” lightly, but I think Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and the ultra-conservatives of the Coalition are the vilest pieces of shit because of this. And to think there were gay people applauding when Turnbull knifed Abbott in the back. It was always apparent to me that the change in “leadership” was just polishing the turd, just as here in Queensland how Campbell Newman was a progessive figurehead on the same old hateful LNP.
What is the political system like in Australia in 2014, and what are the most pressing issues?
Currently the Government is a Right leaning coalition of two parties (one of whom is confusingly called the Liberal party despite not being liberal at all). The leader of the Liberals, and therefore Prime Minister, is Tony Abbott. Australia has two houses of Parliament and in order for a bill to become law it has to be passed by both houses. Abbott has a majority in the lower house (so his bills pass easily) but not in the upper house. The incoming Senate looks like thisWhich means that in order for Abbott to get his policies through the upper house he has not negotiate with other parties. If his legislation gets the support of the Australian Labor Party (possible) or the Greens (possible but less likely) then the bill will pass easily. But if the ALP and the Greens gang up on him he has to try and persuade several of the minor parties to join him. This is going to make the future of Australian politics very interesting. Especially since Abbott is not a natural negotiator and the largest independant block (The Palmer United Party) is run by a guy who changes his mind often and has his own definite agenda. The big issue at the moment is this budget that Abbot has just handed down. It contains a number of contentious issues which most of the minor parties have declared they will block. It's possible the budget will be effectively torn apart and what finally passes through the house will be a shadow of what the government intended. This may well have a lasting impact on Tony Abbott's popularity. He was never viewed as an especially likeable personality and has never enjoyed high popularity but he was always seen as strong in the eyes of the voting public. A budget that is full of compromises, back-peddles and omissions might well make him look weak.
Who is Australia's head of state?
The Head of State of Australia is Elizabeth II. She’s Queen of Australia in the same way as she’s Queen of Canada, New Zealand and the other Commonwealth Realms.Obviously Her Majesty hasn’t perfected the art of being in two or more places at once, and with her advanced age I’m not sure it would be a good idea to try. Thus, she’s represented here by the Governor-General, who is currently (Sir) Peter Cosgrove [the knighthood is in brackets not as a reflection on the man, but just because it was a title re-created briefly by a deranged former Prime Minister, which was just as rapidly de-created]. He covers what you might call the day-to-day jobs that the Queen or any other royals would do if they were here - giving assent to acts of parliament, opening buildings, shaking hands with people, making speeches and so on.In practice, we’re as much a constitutional monarchy as the UK is, which means that Sir Peter’s only ever going to rubber-stamp what the government has already arranged (the events of the 1970s having been a once-off). This means that the person who’s really “in charge” is the Prime Minister, a role currently held by Malcolm Turnbull…and “assisted” by a colourful cast of backbenchers who are all doing their best not to snipe at him.
Traditional Costing System and Job Order Costing system. Urgent question!?
ABC is an improved method of determining Manufacturing Overhead rates over the old but Traditional method, which simply developed one plant wide rate. But ABC and Traditional costing methods are not a cost system. Cost systems include Job Order, Process Cost, and Standard Cost. A Job Order system might use ABC or Traditional, as may the Process or Standard cost system. LIFO, FIFO, Moving Avg are different methods used to value Ending Inventory, and as a result the Cost of Goods Sold for the company. Typically, they are only applied on a company wide basis, while the various cost systems use current or standard cost to value Work in Process and Finished Goods.
Which prime minister is the most conservative: Australia's Tony Abbott, Canada's Stephen Harper, or the UK's David Cameron?
To my knowledge they've never filled out a survey so it's hard to know. On some issues Cameron looks like he's to the right of Tony but then Cameron has done a lot to legalize same sex marriage while Abbott has done everything he can to prevent it every happening in Australia.EDIT: Corrected name thanks to Rupert Baines comment below. I have no idea why I keep doing that.