Punch on: Open thread 15/10/2010

T.Chong says:

08:46am | 15/10/10

The American dude? Looks a bit like John Malkovich ( bad spelling, granted) in his” Empire Of The Sun”  days.

Adam Diver says:

07:23am | 15/10/10

I agree, suddenly the haters have became awfully silent. I was naively expecting a post today on the punch.

Above Par says:

07:51am | 15/10/10

CWG does this stand for Coalition War on Golf, where do sign up.

T.Chong says:

08:34am | 15/10/10

From a medal tally, no doubt, we are the champs. Then again we should, as our AIS is more well funded than some of the essential services in other commonwealth countries.
How many sports labs, training facilities does PNG have, or many of the African nations.?
We won big time, but with the tax payer investment, so we should have.

Macca says:

08:35am | 15/10/10

Still waiting on Tory Maguire’s Mea culpa

Nicole says:

08:38am | 15/10/10

I can only comment on the swimming, because that’s all I saw. The highlight for me was Geoff Huegill. I thought he was just brilliant.

Macca says:

10:19am | 15/10/10

I’m not really concerned about the lack of competition, you get used to that when we compete against the English so much.

Despite all this, I’d like to think that the Billions of Dollars the Indian Government spent on sporting infrastructure could have been far better spent providing some of the Indian population with housing, or clean drinking water.

Brad Coward says:

02:41pm | 15/10/10

Tory, yes do look at the medal count to see how competitive the CWG’s were.  Most of the medals handed out, regardless of the colour of the metal, went to athletes who weren’t from Australia.  I apologise profusely for Australia ending up on top of the ladder.  But I guess you can’t always have it your own way.

Now get back to your Journalists for an Australian Republic meeting and continue your anti-commonwealth sentiments in private or say something new, convincing or constructive !  Many thanks.

Jim says:

08:43am | 15/10/10

No mate…it was a design error and the erection method that were found to be the root causes. The girder that was out of alignment was weighed down with 80t of concrete blocks then bolted up. It buckled, the bolts were being removed and it fell. I don’t believe there were any engineers involved in loading the concrete on the girder or removing the bolts, though they were certainly involved in the design (which was done in London). By the way, it was 35 killed - doesn’t diminish the tragedy in any way though.
Legislation and the threat of gaol time for company executives have done more for safety in this country in the last 15 years than 100 years of union involvement has. The unions are the true ‘grubs’ who only take an interest in safety when they can use it as leverage.

T.Chong says:

10:05am | 15/10/10

A very sad anniversary for so many.
The crib room was directly underneath the construction zone ? WTF?
Hopefully a more enlightened attitude, by NOT viewing OH+S as a union ploy , or as bureacratic interference etc, will help prevent any such similar disaster.

Macca says:

10:23am | 15/10/10

@Jim, here here, we don’t need any more CFMEU rubbish coming from acotrel. In all my years of employment, I have never seen a single good suggestion regarding safety come from a Union Organiser. I’ve seen plenty of great suggestions come from employees and union delegates, but having outside Union Organisers flex their muscles on site does nothing for the safety of their members and is simply obstructive to the production of work

T.Chong says:

11:27am | 15/10/10

Jim, Macca, self employed? then this doesnt apply, but if you are paid-
Do you have 38hr wk ?,
employer contributed super,?
sick leave, annual leave, education, FACs leave ?
a recognised award system for your numerous qualifications and experience?
How about a safe working enviroment that trys to protect you from those execs who face(d) gaol time (thnx Jim) ?
A right to appeal any workplace situation you may find unjust?
Then, you can thank unions and Labor.. Not employers. And definitely not the LNP.

Jim says:

01:12pm | 15/10/10

Have to disagree in part there T.Chong. My working career started in retail - a brief part of my life I’ll never get back; but to work there I had to sign up with the SDU. I never saw any evidence of them helping anyone while I was there.
Since getting into mining I’ve been staff the whole time, so I’ve never known a 38-hour week. I’ve pushed over 100 hours more than once, but that’s the job I signed up for. All bar 2 companies I have worked for provided super, A/L and wages well above award. Plus unlimited sick leave. One company who didn’t was a 2-bit mob who couldn’t find their arse with both hands…the other is a huge multinational but it’s heavily unionised and thus tied to awards and collective agreements.

Jim says:

11:07am | 15/10/10

...cause praying that a Day on The Punch can hit 8am before a die-hard Labor person starts name-calling or making personal attacks on someone while staying blind to their own beloved Julia’s shortcomings is out of the question, right?

Brad Coward says:

02:46pm | 15/10/10

Once again…..Polly waffles !

I’ll say a prayer on your behalf, Pol.  Who knows, come Monday morning you might actually seek reasons to hate rather than just hating for the sake of hating.

Should that happen, I’ll advise the local parish priest that Mary McKillop has been responsible for another miracle.  Double sainthood !

Amy says:

05:06pm | 15/10/10

High heals… apparently.

Jim says:

12:49pm | 15/10/10

A fair days wages for a fair days work - it’s become a bit of a mantra for the unions acotrel. I’ve worked in the mining industry for 20 years, both on union and non-union sites. Believe me, on the union sites the pay is not fairly in balance with the work they do. They have extremely high rates of pay with a very low skill set. If they decide to leave this industry I suppose they could work at Bunnings…if they work 5 times as hard as what they do they might just get half of what they are on now.
Granted, I’ve only worked half as long as you, and you were around when unions were fair dinkum and all about improving things. I’ve come into it after the rot started.

Eric says:

02:23pm | 15/10/10

A strong union in any workplace usually *is* something slimy. Unions simply exploit the workers for their own benefit.

Shane From Melbourne says:

08:15pm | 15/10/10

Unions have no place in the public sector but they provide a useful stick for the State to use in the private sector…...