Worlds richest woman makes case for 2 dollar a day pay.

[jasonwill2]

Sorry, yeah. I'm off topic.

Do you think she shaves her armpits ? Or wears a thong ?

Thanks for that image. :sarcastic

Seems to me she is butt hurt after failing to take control over what is left in Australian media (after Murdoch, that is). The mining company didn't want to take over Fairfax... they just wanted 2 seats on the board of directors while Rinehart desired the ability to hire and fire editors in the midst of her lobbying campaigns to fight taxes from the Australian government...

Dustin's back!

 

[dust1n]

Welcome back !

Yes, she not only wants the right to hire workers for slave wages, and reduce her tax burden, she wants to control editorial comment about those issues.

And she's fat.

Thanks. Good to see ya.

Apparently Australia isn't too far off from America in terms of... donations:

WOULD you like an upgrade? Please come into the Chairman's Lounge for free food and soothing muzak. And let us know if we can give you a free iPad - to keep. For most weary travellers such offers are a distant fantasy. Not so for our grand final-loving, globetrotting, free-trip grabbing federal politicians, who appear to be entirely happy to fly almost anywhere and attend almost anything on almost anyone's ticket.

And as they criss-cross the globe, there is usually an upgrade provided by Australia's single largest giver of gifts to politicians, Qantas.

A database painstakingly put together by a team of Fairfax journalists and University of Technology Sydney students has now revealed the gift-givers, the free trips and the upgrades. For the first time, the searchable database provides an easily readable financial profile of all 226 federal politicians, including their homes, savings accounts, shareholdings and grab-bags of gifts and trips.

The sifting of two years' of disclosures reveals some remarkable facts - not just politicians' liking for upgrades (almost 300), overseas trips (more than 100) and free tickets to sporting and cultural events (more than 450). The database also suggests substantial avoidance or straight out breaches of disclosure requirements, with more than 70 politicians failing to disclose subscription gifts from Foxtel and Austar.
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An ANU academic who has written extensively on accountability, Professor Richard Mulgan, says such transparency is vital. ''There is a very strong court of public opinion when it comes to parliamentarians,'' he says. ''This is where transparency seems to me to be key. Politicians do live in a glass house and it's harder for them to get away with things.''

But the current regime of disclosures presents many hurdles to accountability - not least because the forms are scratched in handwriting on unsearchable pages that must be examined individually. Some entries, including ones by Victorian MPs Greg Hunt and Bruce Billson, were virtually illegible.

In the words of John Uhr, a professor of politics at the Australian National University, the current system of disclosures ''has still got a kind of 'club rule' about it, where the information is registered with the club official for club purposes''.

The database reveals some grade-A schmoozing going on. Those glad-handing Communications Minister Stephen Conroy at high-profile sports events include Channel Seven (the Australian Open), Channel Nine (Test cricket), Channel 10 (formula one) and SBS (FIFA World Cup). Senator Conroy also declared 10 tickets to AFL football matches in the past two years, including eight tickets to grand finals.

In fact, AFL grand finals resemble a Who's Who of federal politics, with more than a dozen politicians attending each of the last two grand finals, enjoying tickets that are often accompanied by nosebleed prices of more than $2000.

Through the mandatory disclosures, one learns federal minister Bill Shorten took a fully funded trip to Rome financed by an Italian political party, Partitodemocratico.

And former Tasmanian senator Nick Sherry, a one-time superannuation minister, was flown to London in April by financial services company Baker Tilly.

Considering a return business class trip to Europe costs in the order of $8500 - before any accommodation - such trips are not small change.

The patterns show the heavy influence from certain regions and companies. Israel and Taiwan - both facing challenges - are the biggest national supporters of trips by Australia's politicians, recording 44 and 16 partly or fully funded trips respectively.

For the largest number of trips sponsored by an individual company, look no further than the seven sponsored by the Hancock interests owned by Gina Rinehart, followed by controversial Chinese telecommunications company Huawei (six) and gas giant Santos (six).

One freebie was a 2010 chartered flight for Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to look at Hancock Coal's operations in Queensland's Galilee Basin.

Another freebie involved Hancock sponsoring three politicians - Julie Bishop, Teresa Gambaro and Barnaby Joyce - to travel to Hyderabad in India and attend the marriage of the granddaughter of the head of Indian industrial conglomerate GVK Group.

Emphasis Added.


I can't imagine why she would be trying so hard to hire and fire editors at Fairfax...

 

[apophenia]

I can't imagine why she would be trying so hard to hire and fire editors at Fairfax...

For the largest number of trips sponsored by an individual company, look no further than the seven sponsored by the Hancock interests owned by Gina Rinehart, followed by controversial Chinese telecommunications company Huawei (six) and gas giant Santos (six).

Here's a peculiar thing - Huawei have been banned from having anything to do with our National Broadband Network after being classed as a security risk by ASIO (Australia's spook agency).

Our politicians don't discriminate. Every freebie is a good freebie. We don't hear much about it though. Easy to see why not, eh ?

I keep hearing that one of the great things about western democracies is the free press.

 

[Willamena]

Sorry, yeah. I'm off topic.

Do you think she shaves her armpits ? Or wears a thong ?

She'd still be fat.

 

[Willamena]

I'm not talking about her physical appearance. I'm just saying she hasn't the necessary perspective to make the judgement she's making.

Dustin's back!

Yay!

 

[Shuddhasattva]

In the article she was saying that cost of living in Aus is too high. What she seems to be pushing for is lowering costs in general. If costs are lower, employers can afford to pay less as well.

If costs are lower, and wages are lower, it means either nothing or economic meltdown.

 

[InfidelRiot]

Just a sobering thought: when thinking just how many people would give anything for a two dollar a day income, it makes you think just how much most of us really need to survive when others are surely barely scarping by.

 

[Madhuri]

If costs are lower, and wages are lower, it means either nothing or economic meltdown.

Not necessarily. I think a lot of costs in Aus are unnecessarily high. Housing for example, is just ridiculous.

 

[InfidelRiot]

Not necessarily. I think a lot of costs in Aus are unnecessarily high. Housing for example, is just ridiculous.

Especially when one can move to another country and get a house for far less. I watch a lot of HGTV and the prices of many of the houses outside the U.S. makes me want to move, because I can get the same kind of house there for less than 300k that I would have to pay a million or more here in the U.S.

 

[MD]

Especially when one can move to another country and get a house for far less. I watch a lot of HGTV and the prices of many of the houses outside the U.S. makes me want to move, because I can get the same kind of house there for less than 300k that I would have to pay a million or more here in the U.S.

Depends where in the US, Florida is super expensive...Detroit not so much.

 

[Madhuri]

Especially when one can move to another country and get a house for far less. I watch a lot of HGTV and the prices of many of the houses outside the U.S. makes me want to move, because I can get the same kind of house there for less than 300k that I would have to pay a million or more here in the U.S.

I heard recently that housing prices in Aus are the highest in the world. It wouldn't surprise me. When I lived in LA, the place I stayed in was apparently really expensive but compared to an average place here, it wasn't so bad. Paying $400 per week for a small shack in Aus in any decent town or city is common or expected. Actually, most places would be more expensive than that. Most people have to share accommodation to get by, even with full time jobs.

 

[savagewind]

It is true that if a company can reduce it's cost to do business enough to be able to sell it's product significantly less than it's competition can, it can put it's competition out of business. It is what Walmart does.

Isn't that what the lady means by her comments? It's the truth. Y'll are judging her by what the situation seems to be from your pov. Without enough facts and proper insight it might be called propaganda what you are doing. I'm not taking sides. I'm telling you the truth. You don't know, do you? I know I don't know. I am not able to draw the same conclusions as some have. I have not seen enough evidence.

 

[Revoltingest]

I heard recently that housing prices in Aus are the highest in the world. It wouldn't surprise me. When I lived in LA, the place I stayed in was apparently really expensive but compared to an average place here, it wasn't so bad. Paying $400 per week for a small shack in Aus in any decent town or city is common or expected. Actually, most places would be more expensive than that. Most people have to share accommodation to get by, even with full time jobs.

With housing so expensive, why isn't your construction industry building more of these profit engines & driving down the price?
Here, we're seeing a residential housing building boom (the only thing booming) because of a slight increase in demand.
Are there tough building restrictions to limit supply?

 

[apophenia]

With housing so expensive, why isn't your construction industry building more of these profit engines & driving down the price?
Here, we're seeing a residential housing building boom (the only thing booming) because of a slight increase in demand.
Are there tough building restrictions to limit supply?

True, the principles are so straightforward...

Then, stuff like sub-prime mortgages seemed so straightforward. Just businessmen adapting to the modern marketplace.

It's all so simple really. Any educated businessperson understands it.

In hindsight.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

As a business owner who pays her instructors some of the highest hourly wages in the region (they're worth it), who offers profit-sharing incentives, and who has been reaching out to other studio owners to form a local alliance for the purpose of creating opportunities for local artists to earn a living wage, this woman disgusts me.

I dream of artists who don't have to go uninsured, who can have a retirement account, and who can have regular paychecks with a comma in the amount and not just in their name. And this woman dreams of paying workers less just so her company can "remain competitive?"

When people have money like this, and the only thing they want to invest in for the future isn't their business, their employees, their communities, in schools, in the local infrastructure, in scholarships for the needy, or even in their families, but just in their own name, I get incredibly depressed.

 

[Falvlun]

She also worked in her father's company before inheriting. Let's not assume that she isn't actually driving the success of her holdings.

You realize that she inherited hardly the only mining company in Australia.

No one's saying that she hasn't worked at all. She probably has worked hard. But that still doesn't negate that she inherited the company, and millions. She had a major leg up in the world, and it is obtuse on her part to act as if other people have an equal-- and as easy-- a chance as she did to make their own millions, let alone billions.

 

[savagewind]

And this woman dreams of paying workers less just so her company can "remain competitive?"

Does anyone here have a quote that she said, that would prove this is what she meant? I'm playing the devil's advocate, OK?
Is it possible she was speaking about politics? She might be saying that COUNTRIES cannot compete against such folly going on in Africa. And that is true, isn't it?

 

[Revoltingest]

Men don't talk about body shape unless they might be talking about pole dancing. The posts were two women being ridiculous. We saw a very very very rich woman and said to ourselves "I want to be so rich.... I'd be gorgeous". Maybe, maybe not.
Back to topic. I agree with poster who said she is not saying that is how it should be. She is saying she can no longer compete with other companies that treat their workers so. And it is true. But to me it is a ridiculous argument FOR HER. How much money does a person need?

The article & its reception illustrate an interesting relationship between facts, a writer's agenda, audience impressions & reactions. Her financial status & history are known.
We have her quotes. Then we have the Prime Minister's quotes. The author presents it thru the lens of his agenda.....she is a foe of the worker, uncaring, elitist & out of touch.
Now that she's demonized, we're primed to hate her, & we're more likely to suspend skepticism about the dubious inferences of others. Other interpretations of her words are
ignored. Then it gets really fun. We wouldn't normally mock anyone about being fat & ugly. But now that she's demonized, we easily believe the worst, & the bigotry of abusing
for her appearance becomes acceptable.

How many posters here are similarly appearance impaired? How do we think this venom affects them?

 

[dust1n]

You are right. I feel my comments have insulted lobbying billionaires across the world who attempt to take over prominent media companies so that they can control content and help ensure that materials will be their-company-friendly and ultimately not pay taxes, not raise wages for Australians to work in remote parts of the countries but rather hire immigrants to do the work, and cover up family problems as her kids continue their pursuit of their grandfather's trust.

I apologize so hardheartedly...

Senior journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age released the letter at press conferences in Sydney and Melbourne today.


The letter notes media reports that Ms Rinehart, who is the world's richest woman courtesy of her mining interests and holds 18.67 per cent of Fairfax, had been refused a board position because she would not sign Fairfax's Charter of Editorial Independence.


"The reports suggesting you might not support the Charter of Editorial Independence have caused considerable disquiet among staff," reads the June 7 letter, which was signed by the house committees of the SMH, Age and the Canberra Times.

"We would like you to give us an assurance you do support the principles set out in the Charter of Editorial Independence and, in the event you join the Fairfax board, you will agree to uphold them.


"Such an assurance would go a long way to reassuring the staff who produce the publications in which you have such a substantial investment."


The journalists have not received a reply, prompting their publication of the letter...

 

[savagewind]

The article & its reception illustrate an interesting relationship between facts, a writer's agenda, audience impressions & reactions. Her financial status & history are known.
We have her quotes. Then we have the Prime Minister's quotes. The author presents it thru the lens of his agenda.....she is a foe of the worker, uncaring, elitist & out of touch.
Now that she's demonized, we're primed to hate her, & we're more likely to suspend skepticism about the dubious inferences of others. Other interpretations of her words are
ignored. Then it gets really fun. We wouldn't normally mock anyone about being fat & ugly. But now that she's demonized, we easily believe the worst, & the bigotry of abusing
for her appearance becomes acceptable.

How many posters here are similarly appearance impaired? How do we think this venom affects them?

Bravo!
I am appearance impaired but anyone might not notice it were so if I had a billion dollars. Heck, maybe a million would do it.