Trial abandoned after juror misconduct - information accessed on-line brought into the jury room.
What happens now?
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The DPP has to decide on whether to mount another trial.
New trial listed for 20 Feb 2023. Bruce Lehrmannâs bail has been granted on condition he doesnât contact Brittany Higgins
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Budget was pointless it showed Labor canât deliver on two of their promises
- Cut electricity bill by $275
- Help with cost of living expenses
Also 140,000 jobs to be done with predictions of our employment rate to rise to 4.5%
Thanks Albo!
So you want inflation to get even higher, nice one indeed. People need to live within their means while the RBA progressively work to untangle the mess created by COVID and that free money train.
I am actually quite comfortable with what came out on Tuesday in reigning in expenditure, although I still think there is massive room to reign in ongoing expenditure.
Hopefully that NDIS taskforce does its job properly because NDIS is going to sink this country the way the numbers are growing each year. It needs to be brought back under control and significant work needs to be done tightening the âreasonableâ definition as it is clearly not clear enough with the claims people are putting on it.
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This comment shows a lack of understanding of macro and micro economic policy. We seriously have education issues in the country when all we hear from people is Sky and News Corp talking points. Talk about misinformation.
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A lot of regional programs and funding opportunities have either been merged, renamed or cut entirely. Funding opportunities for quite a few major infrastructure projects out in the Central West have been withdrawn. The most cutbacks I have seen, but understandable given todayâs climate.
I havenât paid much attention to metropolitan areas, but is this the case too?
There was without a doubt more money spent in the outback under the Coalition due to the power of their partner, the Nationals. It is natural now that they are gone, Labor will see easy pickings from regional areas as they do not have the same political pressure as the Libs did.
With so much whinging from the Coalition about this budget, do they even have a vision about what to do if they were in power (shudder)? Didnât they just throw mud on the wall in the last 9 years and see if it stuck on the wall (which it didnât) with the budget?
Even if they had a plan for their âworriesâ about power bills their solution would probably be to dismantle the climate change bill and push for more coal mines and fossil fuels (I mean, theyâre called the Coal-ition for a reason).
Also, Bruce Lehrmannâs barrister has referred some of the comments made by Brittany Higgins (after the mistrial) to the court and Australian Federal Police.
We have brought these comments to the attention of the court and the Australian Federal Police and it is a matter for the court and the Australian Federal Police to consider and determine whether the complainantâs comments might amount to a contempt of court offences against the ACT Criminal Code.
Very frustrating for the alleged victims. However, it was likely going to be a hung jury anyway. Not that we are privy the jury room but itâs obvious 1 juror was stubborn on guilty or not guilty (and from the alleged material that was found I would say that would be not guilty).
ABC reported the court was told the item found was:
The court heard the academic paper related to the âunhelpfulness of trying to quantifyâ how often false rape accusations were made.
Interesting I misheard on the news. From what I can see the research paper could be used to support both a guilty or a not guilty verdict. Itâs a shame a juror did this.
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Could be better, could be worse - I think some of their projections are a bit questionable, but weâre in semi-uncharted territory. Their âprogramâ to build new homes was particularly poor and very light on detail - Iâm not convinced that Labor are that different in their position on home ownership then what the Libs were.
Other than fuel, I find it really hard to fathom why weâd be suffering shortages given we either have self-generated sources or mine it ourselves - it feels more like an excuse to raise prices than being an actual thing.
Weâre rapidly facing a cost-of-living crisis and two of the key policies in that space that Labor went to the last election with have had little to no mention in their first budget - it canât be that surprising that people are asking what the hell is going on.
Similar in the North West - Not surprising given the audit office findings - but digging deeper into the budget seems to reveal that theyâll be effectively rebadged and given a bit of a haircut.
This should really highlight that in the ACT, there is no alternate pathway (Judge only hearing) for the case
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When the economic circumstances have changed they had to change the settings given the mess the previous government left them as well as the international forces weighing on the economy since the election.
They have responsibly changed tack to suit the times and have taken a political hit. Thatâs actually the right thing to do. Suffer the consequence of the electorate being pissed off about their measly $275 for long term stability to be added to the economy that can steer the country through the current climate.
Theyâre damned if they do damned if they donât. Shoveling money to the populous theyâd have even greater dire economic problems.
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Then explain to the electorate that itâs no longer feasible, donât treat it like a tinder match you donât want to have anything to do with after the first date.
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The whole case has been atrociously handled all around especially with the media circus surrounding it, there was no hope in the world of getting a jury that didnât have any preconceived views on the case given that both parties in the case have had their identities plastered all over the media (certainly not helped by loudmouths like Lisa Wilkinson chiming in with their 2 cents worth) and the minutiae of the events of that night already published for the world to see in great detail. Itâs the textbook case of where a judge (or even better, panel of judges) only trial is the best chance of getting to the bottom of the facts without prejudice and delivering a fair decision.
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Going to play the devilâs advocate here but did Labor promise that the cuts to power prices were going to happen by their first budget?
If not, then it really opens the rhetoric up to be potentially understood as âsometime in the futureâ rather than the right here right now that the Coalition is banging on about. If that was the case then the government canât be blamed if the people didnât pay proper attention to it or have chosen to believe whatever they want to believe in.
And the Coalition really have nothing reasonable to rant about. Does anyone actually think theyâll have a better policy approach towards fixing this issue? The last nine years suggests otherwise. I mean the fact that the Liberals are so useless that they need the Nationals in a Coalition to be even able to form an opposition side says it all. They would be nothing if they didnât have the Nationals on side.
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Of course they would have had a better policy, power companies would have received a big tax concession and trickle down economics (which has proven itself to work time and time again over the past 40 years) would guarantee that was then reflected in lower bills for the end consumer. /s
On a serious note, the budget was very sensible and even handed for the most part for mine. No gimmicky vote-buying incentives, and takes a generally fair and pragmatic approach to the difficult economic times weâve drifted into by ensuring no cuts to the social safety net (in stark contrast to the infamous 2014 budget).
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Their pledge to lower electricity bills by $275 was by 2025. However there are caveats to that and Labor have been naive in pushing that headline figure.
This is an excellent summary:
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