You think US politics is bad

[Nyoibo]

This is not a parody that, I'm sad to say, is our minister for EDUCATION

[Gravekeeper]

Impressive suit weasel you've got there. What do you feed it?

[HYHYBT]

Would it have helped if the clip mentioned anywhere what they were talking about, or does it even matter?

[fireheart17]

Impressive suit weasel you've got there. What do you feed it?

*snerk* suit weasel.

We feed it pie floaters.

[Panacea]

What just happened in that conversation?

[fireheart17]

To give a little bit of background around the minister for education, ever since his party came into power, he has been hellbent on "deregulating universities". In short, instead of having set fees for every course (which students take HECS loans out for and then pay them back when they're earning a set amount...unlike a typical loan setup however, the debt is interest free, it's just indexed to account for inflation every year or so) which are common across all universities, it would give unis the power to set their own fees. (The hecs contribution is set depending on which topics you take and its based on where there's a shortage or where there's an over abundance or who earns more...take your pick. Law and medicine are on the higher end, maths and science are on the lower end)

He's been trying various ways of doing this, one of the more notable examples was threatening to cut funding to the unis and turning around and giving said funding to a number of private colleges, most of which are diploma mills. He's been shot down time and time again by various parties in the lower and upper houses, to the point where the voters for the current party in power are whinging that micro parties should not be allowed to run in elections because it makes things harder. It hasn't stopped him from trying though and as a result, he is now seen as a joke by many.

Compare this to Abbott, who tried to get a Medicare co-payment introduced (which would basically charge $5 for every visit to the GP regardless of your circumstances) and when that was shot down more than once, he eventually gave up.

Needless to say, Pyne has now been referred to as the black knight of the Liberal party and has occasionally been referred to as "pyning for the votes."

[s_stabeler]

ah, so this is an example of the party dumbass not being sufficiently kept from the media?

[fireheart17]

ah, so this is an example of the party dumbass not being sufficiently kept from the media?

Yup the suit weasel has been kept out of his cage for too long .

And the OP and I have more reason to be upset as said suit weasel is from our home state.