The Fight To Save the Australian Digital Archive Trove (abc.net.au)

Slashdot reader sandbagger writes: A digital archive and research tool developed by the Australian National Archives may be the victim of upcoming budget cuts. Used by an estimated 70,000 users per day, the system may be eliminated thanks to a $20 Million (AUD) budget cut to the agency's budget. Since its 2009 launch, Trove has grown to house four million digitised items, including books, images, music, historic newspapers and maps. Critics of the cuts say that such systems should be considered national infrastructure because there's literally no replacement service.

Comments

National Library of Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

Trove is a National Library of Australia project, not the National Archives of Australia.

Anti intellectual government.

[sg_oneill]

This should be no surprise to anyone watching the current conservative governments attack on research and academia in australia.

The world renowned CSIRO has been gutted with climate research all but abandoned along with oceanographic research, which is a *big problem* when your an island nation entrusted to the care of the dying barrier reef. The government has stripped funding out of education and universities, removed scientific advisors from all levels of government, and often replaced them with spiral eyed religious idiots who see more value in quoting the bible than quoting peer reviewed research.

And now they are going after the history archives.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't the conservative Govt's fault that Labors past mismanagement has created a domino effect that will head Australia into an economic death spiral. You do realise how much money is being wasted on the "Start up and Innovation" movement? Just how many talentless hacks with absolutely no understanding of what they're doing are grabbing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Australian tax payers and feeding it into horrid startups which wont amount to anything?

Here is the future of the Australian economy unless a miracle doesn't stop it from taking place.

A) The AUD is being devalued and further devaluing is taking place with the next round of RBA interest rate cuts. Until they hit 0% or go negative. It is noteworthy that 1% or 0% makes next to little to no difference because when you factor in CPI its 0% anyway.
B) The mining boom is over, cuput, no more. Iron ore exports are being devalued and the GDP vs Wage increases are getting worse. I.E Aussie are working harder to keep their devalued money afloat and at the same time more and more jobs are being taken away from Australians at the same time. All hail TPP the next wave of further distress for the Australian worker.
C) With the stagnant Govt. because Australia is a country built on socialist wingers and left wing self entitled wack jobs (such as yourself) and since nobody will back a majority Govt. Eventually Australian banks will lose their AAA rating because the rating agency will finally accept the fact that there is too much bureaucracy in AU politics and not enough action when it comes to reducing the constantly increasing Govt deficit.

It does not matter if Tourism picks up or someone in AU invents the wizbang gadget and sells it to the US or Europe. Because the 3 very things which I'm talking about will bewilder capital investment which will in turn destroy the Australian way of life.

But keep talking the same bullshit narrative. Each time one of you wack jobs take center stage with your short sighted opinions, you're just one step closer to the inevitable.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Global warming debate has been settled, no need to continue wasting money on it right? The only institutions replicating basic Newtonian laws are school children, let them replicate the so called global warming results.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking moron. Like a right-wing shock jock, you want to look intelligent, but you know just enough to fool yourself while everyone else recognises that you're full of shit. It's not the 'left' that forms the rent-seeker class in Australia. It's conservatives who produce nothing, create nothing, and pat themselves on the back for delivering 'profits' after selling the farm. A class of bludgers with delicate, manicured, work-shy hands.

Re: Anti intellectual government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Capital Investment isn't selling the Farm. Capital investment is inviting foreign investment into Australia in order to build. Selling the Farm is just one part of it and in my view the wrong part of it. It's you who doesn't understand what's going on.

It's the over blown Socialism that is crippling Australia. And selling assets is the easy way to pay for it. It's like being a drug dealer, great way to make money but the practice itself is degrading. Further if Australia did something worthwhile it wouldn't have to sell itself down the road the way it has. You need to disband this left / right way of thinking and people need to recognise the mess AU is in.

The AUD rose vs the USD again in the last few hrs. Expect the RBA to keep cutting rates in desperation to keep Australia afloat. The real concern is that the USD and AUD are not raising incrementally, the USD is falling and the AUD is staying put. The RBA is going to kill Australian pention funds at the weakness of the world economy. The problem will be, the defict and 0% interest rates. The banks will be downgraded and everyone will pull out from future Capex.

The problem is just that. The Sell the farm concept is just a perpetuated bubble that will eventually pop. That bubble keeps property values high and creates a debt spiral for the average Aussie. Overall it won't do what people thinks it will do. The problem is worse.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[Maritz]

which is a *big problem* when your an island nation entrusted to the care of the dying barrier reef.

Not to worry, it'll stop being a problem in another few years. Of course the fictional "climate change" Hippy Illuminati conspiracy won't be to blame, it'll be some other thing that doesn't offend Slashdotters.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[BradMajors]

Nice way to engage in a political diatribe, but it is the liberals who are cutting the funding and stopping more content coming online.

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[MercTech]

Trove looks similar to the U.S. repository at www.archive.org which is administered by the Smithsonian Institution.
    I wonder if Trove could get funding as Archive.org does with a mix of public monies from a few branches and private funds like the Prelinger Grant for their digitized film library?

Re:Anti intellectual government.

[Coren22]

If all of that is so important to you, donate money to the organization.

Otherwise, you are just bitching about how other people's money is being spent.

Re:You are stupid, potch

[Anonymous Coward]

saitama_OK.jpg

All Just Hype

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no quotes from anyone with authority to back this claim. No Government representatives, no links to authoritative sources, no media quotes - absolutely nothing.

Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[thesupraman]

Much more likely, this is a move by the bureaucrats controlling this area, who are having their budgets squeezed because central government (rightly or wrongly) feel they need to spend less, so are planning to cut the most newsworthy part of their service to get attention and protect their budgets.

That is how these things usually go. Publicly funded hospitals always cut patient services before anything else, Schools increase staff/child ratios, Transport cuts services at peak times, etc.

The only thing worse is unionised public servants, who really are on the double-take, since there is little downside to their bosses paying them more as it is 'free' money, and they get the double whammy of working for a votes government, AND having union muscle.

Welcome to another facet of the bleeding dry of the working middle class.

Re:Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[ShanghaiBill]

That is how these things usually go.

In America, it is called the Washington Monument Syndrome.

Schools increase staff/child ratios

In my school district, the first thing they cut was the school buses. The result was maximum inconvenience for parents, and congested roads for commuters even without school aged kids.

Re: Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[Anonymous Coward]

In my school district, the first thing they cut was the school buses. The result was maximum inconvenience for parents, and congested roads for commuters even without school aged kids.

OMG! Poor diddums, you actually had to pay for sending your own kids to school?

Oh, the humanity!

Maybe you should change you name, ShanghaiBill? Not even my beloved China has that kind of entitlement mentality.

Re:Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[Anonymous Coward]

Much more likely, this is a move by the bureaucrats controlling this area, who are having their budgets squeezed because central government (rightly or wrongly) feel they need to spend less, so are planning to cut the most newsworthy part of their service to get attention and protect their budgets.

Disclaimer - I work in the Australian Public Service

As I understand it the prototype and early work on TROVE were funded from the NLA's own budget not as an NPP (New Policy Proposal).

TROVE has become part of the NLA's strategy (https://www.nla.gov.au/corporate-documents/annual-report/2014-2015/strategic-direction-two-make-the-librarys-collections-and-services-accessible-to-all), however the government have never decided to directly funded it and it doesn't appear Government feels it's an explicit part of the NLA's core mandate (the latest NLA KPI's I could find are here https://www.nla.gov.au/corporate-documents/annual-report/2014-2015/cross-agency-key-performance-indicators).

I personally find TROVE to be a valuable tool and feel that disbanding the group who update it's data is a poor decision. However, rightly or wrongly if you are cutting services as part of your Efficiency Dividend the projects that have a large cost and are not directly connected to a core KPI would have to be your first option, even if it does interfere with your current strategic plan.

Re:Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[Anonymous Coward]

>> The only thing worse is unionised public servants, who really are on the double-take, since there is little downside to their bosses paying them more as it is 'free' money, and they get the double whammy of working for a votes government, AND having union muscle.

"Blow it out your arse Bill." - If you worked in government you'd know how full of shit that statement is. Site a budget increase that was specifically for a public servant pay rise. The last few LNP Governments have cut the number of federal public servants. Even in places where the agency generates revenue... ie ATO / ASIC / ABS. Conveniently under resourcing efforts to curtail white collar crime.

Re: Standard bureaucrat protection technique.

[Anonymous Coward]

the buses aren't free. We pay for them with our tax dollars. Where I live, we pay a school tax which pays for the busses and schools.

Nobody is acting entitled. If you pay your govt in taxes to provide a service, they need to hold up their end of the bargain.

Completely untrue

[Anonymous Coward]

Completely untrue.

It is not even known who will form government, but all parties have pledged to NOT cut this funding.

FUCK EDITOR DAVID. WHAT COMPLETE SHIT FOR BRAINS.

This 'story' is from March

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck me, this so called 'story' is from March.

Just a few things have changed since then, like the double dissolution and re-election of the entire house of representatives and Senate.

Maybe EditorDavid should lookup what SandBagger means before posting her shit as news?

Another one from the Slashdot rumor mill

[Anonymous Coward]

And from the looks of things, it appears they botched this one too. May as well call this place Trumpdot

$20M for 22 employees?

[Anonymous Coward]

$20 million saved by cutting just 22 employees who just archive stuff?

Can some one post me a link to the Australian government job site!

Re:$20M for 22 employees?

[Calydor]

Wages, electricity, power, perhaps rent for the office area, server maintenance, pensions, health insurance ...

Re:$20M for 22 employees?

[Bonobo_Unknown]

>health insurance ...
not in Australia...

Re:$20M for 22 employees?

[Calydor]

Got public health insurance in Australia, or does no employer want to get the bill for the insurance?

The point of my list wasn't accuracy anyway, but pointing out that each employee wasn't getting nearly a million AUD per year.

Re:$20M for 22 employees?

[Anonymous Coward]

Got public health insurance in Australia, or does no employer want to get the bill for the insurance?

The point of my list wasn't accuracy anyway, but pointing out that each employee wasn't getting nearly a million AUD per year.

Insurance has nothing to do with the employer, idiot.

Your 'point' was only at yourself.

Um, what else do you cut?

[rsilvergun]

Man am I sick of the myth of bureaucratic waste. Did it ever cross your mind that the reason cuts start in those places is that there were most of the cost is? There's this belief (instilled by right wing think tanks looking to gut the commons for their own profit) that there's this magic "waste" that can be cut without impacting the quality of service and life.

The worst words I've ever heard are "I'm from the gov't and I'm hear to help". It wasn't a man from the gov't saying those (one of those paid my friends insulin to treat his type 1 diabetes), it was a right wing politician looking to cut some billionare's taxes and pushing more bullshit austerity for everyone but themselves.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[bloodhawk]

There is a massive amount of government waste, I see it everyday while working within various government departments. The problem is the cuts are usually generic and don't target the real waste and simply usually say, here take a 2%, 5%, 10% cut across the board while wasteful practices aren't targeted or touched. e.g. spending surplus budget before EOFY as they know if they don't they might get less the next FY, I see this every year, sometimes the waste is in the millions where they will buy services, hardware and software that never get used or touched just to ensure they don't have surplus. You have government employees with "safe" comfortable positions that don't mandate performance and have no consequences for lack of performance as they are heavily union protected, Their is massive Machinery of Government spending purely to reward ministers with bigger portfolios to match ego's (some of this spending is absolutely insane and how the fuck it is ever justified to spend X million just to make a ministers portfolio bigger is beyond me).

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[ultranova]

There is a massive amount of government waste, I see it everyday while working within various government departments.

And there's a massive amount of waste on the private sector too. I see it every day in all jobs but my own. The reason is that I only see the surface of those other jobs from the outside. Every single time I've tried to do one, I've found out that there simply isn't any better way to do it - any possible speedup requires taking risks or shortcuts which will come back to bite you.

The problem is the cuts are usually generic and don't target the real waste and simply usually say, here take a 2%, 5%, 10% cut across the board while wasteful practices aren't targeted or touched. e.g. spending surplus budget before EOFY as they know if they don't they might get less the next FY, I see this every year, sometimes the waste is in the millions where they will buy services, hardware and software that never get used or touched just to ensure they don't have surplus.

It is ironic that the push for efficiency can lead to the opposite result. But the solution is not to push harder, but lighter. Let the department carry over their unused budget to the next fiscal year, and now they have an actual motive to save money because it's now "their" money - and it also means they can build up savings to use for emergencies and larger projects.

Re: Um, what else do you cut?

[chentiangemalc]

Yep this waste exists in private sector, but multiply by a factor of 1000 to get government style waste

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[sumdumass]

Budget burning as it is called is still wasteful if they keep the funds rather than send it back. For instance if your department has a 1 million surplus, that million can be used more effective either doing something else government should be doing or staying in the hands of taxpayers who will increase economic activity and thereby increase future revenue. But if it sits in an account because you didn't need it, neither will happen and your department will simply be over funded yet again the next year making it a hoarding situation.

What needs to happen is accurate budgeting and the ability to justify going over budget. If your budget more than needed, justify the difference as a one time thing and not have a cut on the next year's budget. But if the surplus is permanent like say technology allows two process to be combined into one or the demographics of the area changed and not as many people are using your department, there is no need to maintain the surplus amounts and there should be a cut.

Re: Um, what else do you cut?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah no. Bullshit. You ever see a school cut administrators before teachers? I mean, like ever? The us military is half the size it was 50 years ago, but can you say that about any other federal agency? No. They do this to punish the voters for not paying them more.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[JoeMerchant]

Government waste is only exceeded by waste in successful corporations. Sure, little scrappy companies are fast, lean and efficient, but when a corporation reaches 10K employees and years of consecutive growth, take a look on the inside and see how many "Wally"s the place has, how much structural BS exists for no particular reason other than "that's how it's done here."

Government waste is continually scrutinized by the taxpayers, but when a corporation has been "exceeding shareholder expectations" for a decade or more - you'd be amazed at the colossal waste that goes on inside.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[Kjella]

The problem is the cuts are usually generic and don't target the real waste and simply usually say, here take a 2%, 5%, 10% cut across the board while wasteful practices aren't targeted or touched. e.g. spending surplus budget before EOFY as they know if they don't they might get less the next FY, I see this every year, sometimes the waste is in the millions where they will buy services, hardware and software that never get used or touched just to ensure they don't have surplus.

A lot of it is dysfunction to combat dysfunction because if any process is delayed you can't say the $100k we budgeted for servers this year we'll need in February next year. Those money will go away and because you overbudgeted last year, we'll actually not just cut the $100k but we'll give you $150k less and you'll be stuck with extra old out of support servers because there was a delay in procurement. Sure, every company has to replan their portfolio and cancel projects sometimes. But they don't go nuclear every year and make every project and every department start over the allocation process.

The theory is of course that all the money will go back in a big pool and be spent where they're most needed. The reality is that when you've finally got approval to do something in one budget process, then no matter what you'd rather spend it than taking that fight all over again. I actually think you'd see much less waste in practice if you could get a spillover-account where you could have at most 10% of the budget but it's still "yours", sure more money would be stuck down in the system but it wouldn't accumulate and you could flex schedules more. It's the "use it or lose it" process that is the real problem.

Re: Um, what else do you cut?

[Anonymous Coward]

Govt waste affects everybody though. Corporate waste effects the share holders. There is a huge difference. If a corporation wants to squander money then so be it. The govt doesn't have that luxury. Because they are spending the money WE give them to do things to benefit us.

Re: Um, what else do you cut?

[Anonymous Coward]

Govt waste affects everybody though. Corporate waste effects the share holders.

Corporate waste affects everyone because the costs are passed on to customers and so on down the food chain. And that's not counting the fact that the biggest, most wasteful, corporations engage in buying candidates and sundry crony-capitalism-based costs.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[bloodhawk]

Government waste is only exceeded by waste in successful corporations. Sure, little scrappy companies are fast, lean and efficient, but when a corporation reaches 10K employees and years of consecutive growth, take a look on the inside and see how many "Wally"s the place has, how much structural BS exists for no particular reason other than "that's how it's done here."

Government waste is continually scrutinized by the taxpayers, but when a corporation has been "exceeding shareholder expectations" for a decade or more - you'd be amazed at the colossal waste that goes on inside.

BS, I work for one of those massive corporations and I am usually contracted into various government agencies. I am very familiar with the waste and inefficiencies in BOTH sectors. corporate waste doesn't come even close to what is wasted in government and most companies have regular Targeted crackdowns on waste and inefficiencies, though they will always have some, highly successful fast growing companies tend to have a lot more waste as they can get away with it while on that trajectory but as soon as growth isn't high double digit then they tend to quickly focus on cleaning it up (at least those that want to survive). I would say the waste is orders of magnitude higher in government and given the source of government money I think government has a much higher responsibility to be prudent in its spending.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[bloodhawk]

The problem is the cuts are usually generic and don't target the real waste and simply usually say, here take a 2%, 5%, 10% cut across the board while wasteful practices aren't targeted or touched. e.g. spending surplus budget before EOFY as they know if they don't they might get less the next FY, I see this every year, sometimes the waste is in the millions where they will buy services, hardware and software that never get used or touched just to ensure they don't have surplus.

A lot of it is dysfunction to combat dysfunction because if any process is delayed you can't say the $100k we budgeted for servers this year we'll need in February next year. Those money will go away and because you overbudgeted last year, we'll actually not just cut the $100k but we'll give you $150k less and you'll be stuck with extra old out of support servers because there was a delay in procurement. Sure, every company has to replan their portfolio and cancel projects sometimes. But they don't go nuclear every year and make every project and every department start over the allocation process.

The theory is of course that all the money will go back in a big pool and be spent where they're most needed. The reality is that when you've finally got approval to do something in one budget process, then no matter what you'd rather spend it than taking that fight all over again. I actually think you'd see much less waste in practice if you could get a spillover-account where you could have at most 10% of the budget but it's still "yours", sure more money would be stuck down in the system but it wouldn't accumulate and you could flex schedules more. It's the "use it or lose it" process that is the real problem.

well aware of why it happens and the mentality behind it. It doesn't make it less appalling watching a department deliberately flush millions down the toilet just to ensure it doesn't affect how much they get the following year. I have even been the beneficiary of this broken system in past years where they prepaid my contract for a year in advance just to help empty their budget and I am still completely against it as they are just gaming a broken system which is especially bad when the country is in debt with every department complaining they are underfunded.

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[JoeMerchant]

The major difference for me between government and corporate inefficiency is that we _usually_ have to option to not deal with an inefficient corporation. Of course, government has told me several times "if you can't get a job here, move", so I suppose we also have the option of changing countries if we can find one with a government we like better? /sarc

Re:Um, what else do you cut?

[ultranova]

Budget burning as it is called is still wasteful if they keep the funds rather than send it back. For instance if your department has a 1 million surplus, that million can be used more effective either doing something else government should be doing or staying in the hands of taxpayers who will increase economic activity and thereby increase future revenue.

No, because money is not a limited resource. Having 1 million dollars sitting in your account means you have authorization to spend actual, limited resources if needed; it doesn't mean you're sitting on those resources themselves. Nothing whatsoever is stopping anyone from using those resources in whatever way they see fit. On the other hand, micromanaging a department's budget does use resources for pointless bureaucracy.

The limit to government spending is inflation, which is caused by inelastic demand exceeding the supply and ending up making ever higher bids for the same resources. Money sitting in accounts can not affect it.

70000 but

[Anonymous Coward]

How many of them actually want to? Mostly children doing school work, parents and teachers don't really care, might as well just replace with Harry Potter.

Re: 70000 but

[Anonymous Coward]

How many of them actually want to? Mostly children doing school work, parents and teachers don't really care, might as well just replace with Harry Potter.

Judging by my Google analytics, 69,999 are Google search engine scrapes.

I feel bad for that one user who uses this service. Or, given that it costs twenty million, maybe I don't fell that bad.

Re:Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Mostly a lurker]

I cannot help wondering if your post is a clever troll. Universal suffrage (in my view a condition for true democracy) in the US dates back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If you take a more narrow view of a "democracy" as allowing all males meeting certain property requirements to vote, then the US was not the first.

Whether the US is celebrating another well-run year is open to debate. It is possible to argue for or against that proposition.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Anonymous Coward]

I cannot help wondering if your post is a clever troll. Universal suffrage (in my view a condition for true democracy) in the US dates back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Well trolled, troll.

Given that, on average, less than 50% of the US population even bother to vote, the US is the least democratic nation of 'the west'.

This article is about Australia, where 99.9% of voters cast a ballot, even if it is just a big phallis.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Mostly a lurker]

How democratic the US may be in practice is a complex question. The biggest problem (greater than voter apathy) is the way the electorate is misinformed and manipulated.

When people face a hefty fine for not voting, as in Australia, it is not surprising that voter turnout is high,

#fundTrove

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out #fundTrove on Twitter and the FB page https://www.facebook.com/fundtrove/ for more information about the campaign to save Trove.

Re:#fundTrove

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out #fundTrove on Twitter and the FB page https://www.facebook.com/fundtrove/ for more information about the campaign to save Trove.

And help save CSIRO: Save CSIRO Facebook

Re:#fundTrove

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck twitter. fuck facebook.

use the internet archive to back it all up.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

How democratic the US may be in practice is a complex question. The biggest problem (greater than voter apathy) is the way the electorate is misinformed and manipulated.
When people face a hefty fine for not voting, as in Australia, it is not surprising that voter turnout is high

Typical Republican... Fuck those stupid idiots voting Democrat, how they must be being manipulated...

Fuck how Slashdot has crashed and burned. Heil Whipslash!

400,000,000

[Anonymous Coward]

Not 4 million objects, 500 million objects - "Find and get over 499,794,678 Australian and online resources:
books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more"

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but then they put in votes for House Party, Techno Party, Dress-up Party, and After Party

Forcing people to 'vote' is pointless. If they're that disenfranchised that they wouldn't be arsed to turn up to the polling booth without threat of a fine, then they're going to express their frustration on the ballot.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but then they put in votes for House Party, Techno Party, Dress-up Party, and After Party

Forcing people to 'vote' is pointless. If they're that disenfranchised that they wouldn't be arsed to turn up to the polling booth without threat of a fine, then they're going to express their frustration on the ballot.

100% agree. I cannot comprehend this idiocy. If you don't want to vote, then you are voting Republication.

Re:You are stupid, potch

[davester666]

I like the cow guy better. The moo'ing makes me feel more optimistic about how the day will go.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Anonymous Coward]

$20 is not exactly hefty but is annoying:

http://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/voting_australia.htm

Look for "What happens if I do not vote?" - if you choose not to pay it can cost a lot more once you're taken to court.

Re:You are stupid, potch

[Barny]

And now I want a milkshake...

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Anonymous Coward]

... they wouldn't be arsed to turn up to the polling booth without threat of a fine ...

That's sensible if they ignore this "Je suis Charlie" feel-good meme and isolate themselves from other people's problems. For all the people expressing solidarity and unity when someone else is suffering, true solidarity and unity means getting off your arse and suffering along-side your fellow citizens (at the polling booth), because everyone has to live with the consequences of your action/apathy (to vote).

One word: Clitoral College

[Anonymous Coward]

Gore v Bush. Gore had millions more votes.

Re:One word: Clitoral College

[HiThere]

It's not so much that Gore had more votes, as that he apparently actually won the election, if you discount fraudulent results. One can't tell, of course. The Florida results have been legally sealed, e.g., and in most cases there wasn't even a challenge.

This is not to assert that the Democrats don't also rig elections. While the Republicans have been more blatant about it (can you say "Dibold"?), the Democrats also do it. Neither side has been willing to fix the electronic voting machines. (Well, you could plausibly claim that California did, as the current model maintains a paper trail, but I've never heard of a manual count being done. And it's possible that other states have done similar things, and I just haven't heard about it.)

Re:One word: Clitoral College

[Coren22]

Except that he didn't win the election, and research and recounting after the Supreme Court made the final determination found that Bush had a lead.

Keep railing at poor Gore's loss to Bush though, I am sure it will help your party out.

Announce the death of animals at a zoo

[Bruce66423]

In the early days of the Thatcher cuts of the 1980s, London Zoo announced that due to government cuts they would have to cull many of their animals.

They got the money....

The name for this in the bureaucratic game is 'bleeding stumps'; you announce cuts that will upset people to force the government to spend more. Just occasionally it can go wrong, when the government toughs it out and you have to go ahead, though this is unlikely as an alternative plan can usually be found.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

Be fair. $20 is an enormous amount to an American. Even though such sums are trivial amounts in the advanced nations, just remember that Americans face hardships that are almost unbeleivable.

For instance, did you know that over half of them never visit the dentist ? No, not in a year....ever ! They simply cannot afford to go !

I know ! Believe me, I was as shocked as you probably are now when I found out .

Civil service pensions aligned with inflation

[Bruce66423]

The decision of the UK parliament on a quiet day in the late 60s to index civil service pensions to inflation is believed to be the most expensive decision ever made by the government. It also removed the incentive for civil servants to encourage policies that limited inflation.

I'll host it for free

[h33t l4x0r]

If I can put up banner ads. Seriously I don't see how that thing is worth $20M. And yes I realize we're talking about AUD.

Re:I'll host it for free

[Anonymous Coward]

Why have a dodgy single host that obviously could not cope. Torrent it all, let society around the planet take care of the archive.

Re:I'll host it for free

[AthanasiusKircher]

If I can put up banner ads. Seriously I don't see how that thing is worth $20M.

Obviously you didn't read TFA. And I'm not sure the submitter who wrote the "summary" understood what it said either. A couple clarifications:

(1) The $20 million refers to budget cuts to a number of cultural institutions, which include the library. The library cuts are only one portion of this $20 million, and I'm assuming that this Trove thing is only a small portion of the total library cuts. The real problem, as explained in TFA, is that the library is cutting 22 staff positions.

(2) Now, you might say, "but why do they need 22 staff positions to maintain an online archive?" They don't. And that's the second misleading thing here: No one appears to be talking about eliminating the online archive completely. TFA explicitly explains that all they will do is cease to add new materials. Basically, the library has to eliminate staff due to budget cuts, so they can't afford to keep the people that ADD new stuff to this archive and update it:

Although Trove, which was launched in late 2009, is funded by the library's budget, without government funding the library will not be able to update the material in the database.

So there's no need (at least at this point) for people to go around offering to host or creating torrents or whatever.

TL;DR -- TFS is BS. NOBODY is talking about elimination of material already in the archive. Budget cuts may just prevent adding future materials.

Re:I'll host it for free

[Anonymous Coward]

Hosting is one thing. Archiving is another. Preservation another. Discovery as well. Persistent Identification comes in handy.

It's easy to trivialise a problem, but anything more than a cursory glance will expose the complexity of something like Trove.

perfectly in line

[Mr_Nitro]

with the Australian fascist government/nanny state... burn/vanish culture... good job mates.... :/

Re:perfectly in line

[Anonymous Coward]

Hit the nail on the head.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[ultranova]

How democratic the US may be in practice is a complex question. The biggest problem (greater than voter apathy) is the way the electorate is misinformed and manipulated.

This is the Age of the Internet. If the electorate is misinformed, it's because they choose to be. They aren't helpless victims but active participants in and consumers of deception. Voting based on fantasies or party identity is probably not going to end well, but the cause is lack of sanity, not lack of democracy.

internet archive or torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

upload all the items to the internet archive.

or at the very least, make torrents of them.

>whoops, it's australia. they don't have the internet yet.

Re:internet archive or torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Yesterdays internet ...tomorrow.... is the attitude of the current gov. No one could possibly need more than 25 Mbit....ever.......unless there doing something dishonest maybe.

Washington Monument Closed

[Anonymous Coward]

For Americans trying to puzzle out Australian Politics, this is the equivalent of the national parks service closing the Washington monument every time there's a cut to the NPS budget.
(Which isn't to say there isn't a real honest-to-fsm funding crisis in Australian libraries - But this is almost certainly a part of the negotiating process)

Re: Washington Monument Closed

[Anonymous Coward]

For Americans trying to puzzle out Australian Politics, this is the equivalent of the national parks service closing the Washington monument every time there's a cut to the NPS budget.
(Which isn't to say there isn't a real honest-to-fsm funding crisis in Australian libraries - But this is almost certainly a part of the negotiating process)

Us Americans are more than capable of understanding government waste.

We party a fuckton more federal taxes than Australians could ever imagine.

Guess who pays for the marines stationed in Darwin?

Re: Washington Monument Closed

[Anonymous Coward]

For Americans trying to puzzle out Australian Politics, this is the equivalent of the national parks service closing the Washington monument every time there's a cut to the NPS budget.

The Washington monument is privately funded by donations (primarily Target corporation)... And even then has been closed since the 2011 earthquake.

What point were you trying to make?

Re: Washington Monument Closed

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess who pays for the marines stationed in Darwin?

Not sure, but as they provide zero benefit to Australia it bloody better be the US.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of Ameri

[Anonymous Coward]

For instance, did you know that over half of them never visit the dentist ? No, not in a year....ever ! They simply cannot afford to go !

Apparently you don't know that dental coverage isn't part of the universal health care in Australia. Or the UK. Or France. Or Canada. Or anywhere...

Who gives a shit if your teeth are white? Only in America.

Re: Anti intellectual government. - Get new busine

[Anonymous Coward]

Standard slashdot response to any business or service that fails: get a new business model.

If it requires that much money to run then they can charge for it on subscription or per use basis, they can host ads, they can get a corporate sponsor (who will then pass rhe cost back to tax payers anyway), they can find volunteers to run/host it, etc.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[bloodhawk]

and which news website can you honestly say provides true and unbiased reporting of political information? many of the news sites are WHY voters are misinformed. I am pretty damn good with the interweb thingy and be buggered if I know of a good site that I would recommend someone use for truly informed voting. The reality is you have to filter through 100 tons of shit to find 10 grams of gold and much of this is a result of how websites are funded today through clickbait journalism, the majority of people aren't motivated or capable of sifting through that.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of Ameri

[Anonymous Coward]

You miss the point.

In advanced nations people have enough disposable income to spare to do things like visit dentists every 6 months.

In less fortunate nations they have to choose between medical care and eating that week.

Guess which one you're in ?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/americas-dental-care-crisis/

LOL...... you don't even have teeth to whiten.

Re:You are stupid, potch

[Maritz]

I was going to ask if you're including yourself, but of course you must be. I feel better about it now. At least we can be stupid together.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[HiThere]

If you don't want to vote, you may be saying there's no decent candidate who has a chance. Or you may not care. Those are very different statements, with the same exterior symptoms.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[HiThere]

Well, that may be an explanation for Trump, I haven't checked, but have you investigated how Hillary became the Democratic candidate? When Sanders started his campaign Hillary already had a large lead in committed delegates, and not a single primary had been held. It's my opinion he was selected by the party as the "designated loser" to provide the illusion of a popular contest, and he was willing because he wanted to promote his position, and for the outside chance that he might win anyway.

National Treasures

[andrewa]

Save these treasures like "I Want to Hump my Bluey" before it's too late!

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Coren22]

As a person from the US, I use BBC, as I know their bias will have nothing to do with the GOP or Democratic Party.

Re: Happy Birthday to The United States of America

[Coren22]

The Democratic party has something called Super Delegates which are decided by the party elite as to how they want them to vote. Bernie actually did amazingly well considering he had to fight for every delegate, unlike Hillary who was given all those votes off the bat.

The GOP is actually far more "Democratic" than the DNC in how they choose their candidate, and so it is much more influenced by popularity. Unfortunately, the popular vote doesn't mean the best candidate, as neither party has a particularly good candidate this election.

I will be voting for Johnson, not because I agree with his policies, but because every vote for a third party increases the chances of a third party actually being viable next election. This happens because the government funds that go towards the campaigns are allocated by percentage of the vote, so the higher percentage, the more funds the third party has to buy commercials and campaign.