42 days to go until the election and I think week 2 was a clear winner for the ALP.
Shorten clearly won the debate last Friday Night
And despite a few hiccups ( Feeny you idiot ) are clearly beating the libs on policy.
The polls though close are in labor’s favour
The coalition train seems to have come of the tracks.
They are running around putting out spot fires like changes to super,the medicare rebate freeze and Mr potato head Dutton.
So I an pretty optomistic and happy this Friday. I know there is still a long way to go but i,m going to enjoy it while I can.
Who wants to join me?
THE PUB 
Audience
stunned mulletis in stasis.Oohmann gets a question out of his Lib pocket. (he has no other)
Fight, fight!
I’ll give the rest a miss.
GASP Dr Tricky Dick praises a Labor policy !
Dick saying sensible things about Labor’s NBN, Bananaby says ‘at what cost?’
I took one look at di natale and changed the channel.
Barnaby is wearing A LOT of makeup. Johnny Depp’s tomato comment must have really stung.
So it was just my tv that made Barnyard look a little “powdery” . 🙂
It “wasn’t just my tv” grr.
Uhlmann is useless as a moderator, he just stands there and allows everyone to talk over one another.
Audience question on the NBN – ‘When am I going to get a terrabyte of data? Under your (government’s) policy, never.”
Uhlmann moves on to avoid embarrassment to Bananaby.
Barnaby Joyce is getting an absolute pasting on the ABC24 debate. And he’s making a fool of himself as is evidenced by the reactions from the audience.
Barnaby is wearing so much makeup to cover up his tomato complexion that he has taken on the pallor of a kibuki actor.
Toolman goes the full LNP with that bullshit about live exports. Hey failed seminarian ! You are the moderator not a “contestant” .
Fitz sneaks in a Gonski comment and gets a cheer from the audience.
Uhlmann goes for an audience question to change the subject, and of course, gives it to Bananaby.
The bias in this is even worse than I expected. No debate allowed on the NBN, or Gonski, or any decent Labor or Greens policies. First responses being given to Bananaby pretty much every time.
Arrrgh – Fitz going with the ‘We need to send coal to India to bring people out of poverty’ garbage. FFS!
Where’s a decent re-education camp when we need one?
Dick brings up Medicare and TAFE. Toolman goes to an audience question – why should I vote for your party.
A question to the Pub’s collective Brain. Back in the day when I was a Jack the Insider blog regular Jack always called him Joel “Snapper” Fitzgibbon. Any idea what the ‘Snapper’ moniker was about ?
No idea.
me neither
glad i askipped it.
toolman has his head so far inside turbull’s cheeks for so long that toolman’s eyes have developed night vision…
I hope Bill doesn’t allow Toolman to get away with his ‘changing the topic to avoid discussion of things embarrassing to the government’ tactic on Sunday night. Or with giving the response to Waffles first every time. All that was so blatant tonight.
Ulmann is a disgrace. he should be run out of the ABC on a rail.
I think that clown honalee should leave the good pastor alone. Skills developed in the harsh blogger world of PB et al should not be used on the unsuspecting.
you know, things like logic,
That clown has quite a strange thing about “quality” oh ,dear migrants anyone ask him?
KK. I presume you are referring to “Smacka” Fitzgibbon, a jazz musician and entertainer of note in the 60s and 70s. He is probably most famous as the writer and (?) singer of “The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie”. He had a sister who was an actress.
Kambah Mick
JACKPOT ! My unreliable memory was unreliable, Smacka it was not Snapper !!! You have solved the case Sherlock ! From a JTI post. I feature in the comments 🙂 check out the link in the comment to see what your “wrestling name” is.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/jacktheinsider/index.php/theaustralian/comments/smacka_fitzgibbon_taps_the_mat/desc/P275/V16
Guess who has been using photos of himself in his army gear in his election campaign?
Yep – Andrew Hastie. Perhaps he thought his former bosses wouldn’t notice, or perhaps he thought he was so special it didn’t matter.
Because Defence made such a song and dance about Pat O’Neill using images of himself in camo gear on his billboards they had no way out, they had to tell Hastie to stop it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-25/canning-mp-andrew-hastie-asked-to-stop-wearing-defence-uniform/7446306
Leone,
I was delighted that Defence responded in that way to hastie’s hasty decision. At least someone has the sense to see that making a fuss about a Labor candidate and then giving a nod and a wink to a Lib is not a good look.
I also think the word “asked” in the headline and the words “request/ed” in the text were inappropriate: Former SAS officer Hastie and former Major O’Neill would have been TOLD in no uncertain terms that they were in breach of regulations.
Everyone, thanks for the great comments on the debate. Will be interesting to see msm response, if any, tomorrow. Sounds like toolman doing usual lnp cover up and interference. Sound like the audience response was positive for the progressive side of politics.
Toolman will have to behave better Sunday night, as it will be other so called journalist asking questions. I don’t know whether to look forward to it or not, but will watch, can always change channels if it gets too biased.
The main winner was di Natale. Just being on the panel was a win for starters. Plus he handled the situation far better than the others. He got in the most talk time that counted.
Barnaby was a joke. But we expected that. No harm done at all to him.
Fitz was the big disappointment. He didn’t capitalise on the NBN softball lobbed to him by the guy who complained about not getting his terrabyte. FFS it was left to Dick to remind the audience that Labor’s NBN was the real deal, and the other one the fraudband.
Fitz might not have been there.
He was up to number 4 when trotting out his 6 policies on something, and then he looked at Toolman and stopped. Toolman didn’t ask him to stop. Fitz just stopped.
Thank you, you fool.
Meanwhile Barnaby managed to get out for the 53rd time this year that the market for chick peas was soaring. Out of a mountain of verbiage came this little factoid.
So now in almost successive nights, both Albo and Fitz have been “talked under wet cement” by prime idiots like Pyne and Barnaby.
Shorten should put a media ban on these mild mannered polite petals. We need table thumpers who can speak, not squeak.
People like Doogie. Doogie would have put a laughing sock in that purple faced blitherer.
Jeez, it’s depressing.
Dr Dick talked up some Labor policies, unlike Fitz. I didn’t expect much from Fitz, so things in that regard went as expected. Di Natale was actually very good, once he warmed up.
I think we all know now why Julia never brought Fitzgibbon back to the front bench. He has always been unimpressive, at the 2014 state election here in Victoria he was the pollie brought to launch our campaign for the state seat of Morwell he basically just came, did his spiel and left.
Bear in mind that all the media talk will be about Barnyard claiming that Indonesia let asylum seeker boat numbers increase in retaliation for the live export ban.
“The main winner was di Natale”
Oh my god, is that who it was!
I think Mr Hastie is a bit of a fraud, or at least an embellisher of facts. The SAS is made up of Privates and NCOs who have to go through a rigorous selection process that everyone is aware of. The Officers don’t go through that, they are seconded on rotation for a couple of years and then moved on, usually much unloved and un admired by those who remain. Or at least that was the case. A mate of mine was a Major there back in the day.
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/poll-roundup-not-even-dead-cat-bounce.html
http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/protecting_animal_welfare_fact_sheet
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/25/children-working-in-indonesia-tobacco-fields-risk-poisoning-human-rights-watch-report
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/25/exxonmobil-climate-change-scientists-congress-george-w-bush
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/australian-deputy-pm-blames-boats-indonesian-govt-live-debate/
https://theconversation.com/austrian-election-a-country-turns-its-back-on-a-political-cartel-59647
The leader of the Greens gets to spend some time debating with a couple of third-string chronic underperformers? Geez, you’d hope he’d do well in that environment, or his party really is a washout. That was a gift for him.
There are people out there still whining about Albo not being ALP leader. I saw a couple of tweets on it just a few minutes ago. He’s a nice guy, but I just can’t see him as leader. Never goes hard enough.
Is there a reason Scott Morrison still has a job?
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/05/is-there-a-reason-scott-morrison-still-has-a-job/
https://delimiter.com.au/2016/05/24/labor-staffer-jailed-merely-receiving-nbn-docs/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-25/veda-advantage-provided-incorrect-credit-reports/7444392
Tomato hybrid doesn’t do it for me.
Beetroot hybrid perhaps.
Vile individual.
Tomato/beetroot hybrid, fluffles, mesma, and so many others would do well to remember this:
If I’m not here tomorrow . . .
It’s all in the language…
View from the Street: Barnaby Joyce announces plan to eat Johnny Depp
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-barnaby-joyce-announces-plan-to-eat-johnny-depp-20160525-gp3jze.html#ixzz49fsnaYIg
It might be a very good idea to gag Bananaby for the rest of the election campaign, after his remarks tonight. Jules must be on the phone to Indonesia right now, trying to smooth things over.
KM
10.4 on that.
The troopers do the grunt work and the senior NCO deal with the tactical bit.
Officers are only useful if you need to talk to the other side or if they can provide an additional bit like being able to use .50 rifle.
The white carpet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/49f2aa/a_list_of_17306_people_drowned_in_attempt_to/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_8p-wrcZ-4
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Ladies and gentlemen. Your Deputy Prime Minister.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/former-indonesian-minister-says-shocking-to-suggest-link-between-cattle-ban-and-asylum-seekers-20160525-gp3z2h.html
Yes, it’s an idiot
http://www.smh.com.au/world/former-indonesian-minister-says-shocking-to-suggest-link-between-cattle-ban-and-asylum-seekers-20160525-gp3z2h.html
Michelle Grattan has her say about t.
https://theconversation.com/barnaby-joyce-missteps-linking-live-cattle-suspension-and-boat-arrivals-60011
“View from the Street” wonders who will crack or explode first in this long campaign.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-barnaby-joyce-announces-plan-to-eat-johnny-depp-20160525-gp3jze.html
Another indicator of the Coalition’s attitude to refugees and immigrants.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/mental-torture-australians-who-want-to-be-with-their-family-must-pay-50000-or-wait-decades-20160517-gowwkt.html
Peter Martin tells us forget about the “black holes”.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/election-2016-forget-about-searching-for-budget-black-holes-theyre-not-there-20160524-gp312l.html
Meanwhile Turnbull dodges questions about Morrison’s black hole blunder.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-malcolm-turnbull-dodges-questions-about-the-35-billion-black-hole-in-scott-morrisons-black-hole-20160525-gp3ahh.html
Great timing to announce this I must say.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-telstra-wins-contract-to-manage-your-health-records-20160525-gp3go9.html
This is a worrying trend. But hey, surely it would be a “productivity” boost.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/temptation-grows-to-use-drugs-to-stay-awake-in-the-workplace-20160523-gp1ff9.html
The Coalition’s low emissions roadmap is a trip to nowhere unless there’s a lot more money for it.
https://theconversation.com/without-extra-money-the-coalitions-low-emissions-roadmap-is-a-trip-to-nowhere-59884
Section 2 . . .
Dave Donovan has a close look at the Free Enterprise Foundation and Arfur.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-free-enterprise-foundation-michael-yabsley-and-arthur-seenodonors,9025
Will Hinch, the Human Headline, end up landing in the Senate?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/05/25/derryn-hinch-from-tv-to-jail-to-the-senate/
Andrew Bolt has some sage advice for Turnbull . . . act like Abbott! Google.
/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/the-way-ahead-for-malcolm-turnbull-is-to-act-like-tony-abbott/news-story/8d6c5d71f4f354ea60f624a3d45aa1ba
Is the $A heading for $0.50US?
http://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/fading-triple-a-allure-could-send-a-towards-us50-cents-20160524-gp33lj.html
Feeney’s campaign is not going particularly well is it?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-labors-david-feeney-skewered-by-david-speers-in-car-crash-interview-20160525-gp3puw.html
How’s this for a laterally thinking public transport idea!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/24/straddling-bus-cars-china_n_10121112.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green
The SMH has some ideas on how to progress the now ugly mess of council mergers.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/there-is-a-simple-solution-to-the-council-merger-mess-20160525-gp3btl.html
A far right leader tries to hijack a milk farmers’ protest.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/05/25/watch-far-right-leaders-effort-to-hijack-dairy-farmer-protest-backfires/
Whatever you do don’t speak out about Trump and racism.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/i-spoke-out-against-donald-trump-and-racism-this-is-what-happened-next-20160525-gp3ipp.html
Why is Hilary Clinton so disliked?
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-is-hillary-clinton-so-disliked-20160524-gp348l.html
Section 3 . . . Cartoon Corner
Ron Tandberg nicely sums up the outsourcing medical records management to Telstra.
Alan Moir and the two Spend-O-meters.
MUST SEE! David Pope has Morrison resetting the Cormannator robot.
Mark David outlines our internet requirements.
David Rowe takes up on Barnaby being Depp’s Hannibal Lecter.
I agree Aguirre. I was at the contenders’ debate between Albo and Shorten, and cast my vote for Shorten afterwards. I did so on one criteria only: his microphone communication skills.
Being able to get a message out in front of a microphone and camera is the most important skill a politician can have. Policy is completely secondary as far as winning over an audience is concerned.
Barnaby Joyce is a complete numbskull, but, in his own way, to his own constituency, he is a brilliant politician. Put simply, the cockies love him.
Ditto di Natale. In Marrickville, Balmain, and in the coffee shops of inner Melbourne, the upwardly mobile millenials lurve Dick. He appeals to their sense of moral and intellectual superiority.
Sense of, that is, because to swallow what di Natale is selling they would have to be, in fact, as thick as the froth which covers their $4 lattes – not to mention as full of air holes.
Can the greens win Albo’s seat? I wouldn’t count on it not happening.
Kelly ‘Neil’ O’Dwyer is another graduate from the HoJo school of Eleventy mathematics
In light of Barnyard’s commentary on Indonesia..:
I’ll just post this here again, encouraging extrapolation and commentary from the general public.
Rome Must Fall…
So Europe can Arise.
You have to read this first ..:
“The Visigoths, severed from their brethren but saved from the brunt of the Mongol assault by the mere fact that they lived further west than the Ostrogoths, desperately sought protection by appealing to Rome for asylum. There, they ran up against an impermeable shield of customs stations at the Roman border, a veritable wall of imperial disdain which was by then standard policy when barbarians began wailing and waving their hands. Thus squeezed between scorn and the spear, the Visigoths panicked and not a few tried to push their way into Roman territory. Facing a surge of frantic immigrants, the Roman Emperor Valens had little choice but to relent and let them in.
Once inside the boundaries of Rome, the Visigoths found safety but at the same time a new and in many ways more dangerous foe. As new-comers to Roman civilization, they were ill-equipped to live in a state run on taxes and mired in the complex language of legalities, and thus made easy prey for unscrupulous, greedy imperial bureaucrats who cheated and abused them. Very quickly, the Visigoths found themselves bound in something heavier and more constricting than chains—the gruesome coils of red tape—and they responded as any reasonable barbarian would: they demanded fair treatment and, when their pleas went unheard, they embarked upon a rampage.
Valens called out his army, a threat meant to intimate the Visigoths into returning to their designated territory and tithe. But like the truant step-children they were, the barbarians remained disobedient. Left with no other recourse but corporal punishment, Valens met the Visigoths in combat at the Battle of Adrianople (378 CE) in northeastern Greece, and what happened was not only unexpected but unthinkable to any Roman living then, or dead. Primed by the insults to their pride—or because they were simply scared out of their minds—the Visigoths defeated and massacred the Roman legions sent to keep them in their room. Worse yet, Valens himself was killed in the course of the conflict.” http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320hist&civ/chapters/08romfal.htm
The desperation of the Goths is reflected in this day and age by the mass of refugees fleeing several conflicts and disasters and trying to come to Australia. The blunt refusal to take any “boat people” may not be the best solution for the Australian govt’. Also risky is any uncontrolled “open border” policy that creates an expectation of a surge of refugees to Australia’s shores.
The above quote is part of a broader study in why the Roman Empire in the West had to fall so Europe could arise. The Roman Empire was a colonizing state that controlled with arms , ruled with fear and milked with impunity via a capitalist system of the wealthy controlling production and distribution. The 1-3% that held the greatest wealth also held the greatest influence over political policy and ruled the masses with disdain that eventually destroyed itself in the most dramatic way.
Divide and rule was perfected in the Roman strategy…populations would be shunted from one side of the empire to the other so there would be little sympathy to local customs and mores, thereby polarizing those groups of peoples to compete against each other. Likewise, soldiers from western provinces of Gaul were sent to hold the eastern provinces of Palestine..and vise versa. Rule and profit by division worked well while these 3% held absolute control of the military . Once those trained , foreign generals like Alaric became isolated , they gathered their loyal soldiers about themselves and using their trained skills, turned them against the empire itself.
Australia is itself a colony, with all the states separate colonial developments before federation. The nation still shows signs of that early colonial independence and attitude, with some states threatening succession even now! The colonial mentality and it’s governance by an elite is in evidence still. The divide and rule program very much in practice still..The use and abuse of cheap immigration labour a desire if not also a common practice. The playing of ethnic groups against each other for political purpose still in operation.
We are continuing the practice that failed the Roman Empire so spectacularly and only insanity could desire a success where they failed so miserably! Australia has to develop a new way, a better way to confront this twenty-first century phenomenon of the surge of asylum seekers that have swept across the globe from east to west and west to east. If we continue to believe and practice a “raise the drawbridge” policy, we will be open to the legitimate criticism of demanding an unrealistic isolationist existence in a region of realistic inclusion. The added reality of climate change with rising sea levels and drying cropping areas in the delta regions of Sth. East Asia could bring a avalanche of climate refugees who have little sympathy with a resource rich, land rich, population poor nation just over that stretch of water.
Australia needs to engage much, much more cooperatively with our northern neighbours to create a regional safety net for any temporary shifts of population as required after any disasters , natural or sociological, to allow a safety-valve result rather than an uncontrolled explosive conflagration. To consolidate our “authority” over the land of this continent, we also need to very quickly complete a treaty with the indigenous peoples and to bring those peoples completely into the political process and policy making of this nation. For THEY are the measure of integrity of antiquity of ownership of the nation and for us who migrated here from everywhere else, to claim a right of rule over the land, we have to allow equal partnership with an agreed treaty with the original inhabitants of this land…it only stands to reason.
Rome had to fall so that a Democratic Europe could arise..We here in Australia must learn from the hard experience of Europe and begin to implement attitude and social change to create a more homogeneous governance with this multicultural population, or risk the result foreseen in history of the demise of our ideal of social order and civil governance.
I’d like it to be noted that I have chosen my words very carefully here, for while I agree that a prognosis of the future cannot be had by simply turning the pages of a similar recorded history..There are patterns of behaviour singular to the human condition and habit that give good clue to where a particular prejudice of governance will go to from A to B.
It would be a grave mistake, equal to that Roman era of gross presumption if we continue to presume that we will remain an isolated knoll of Anglo-Euro’ prescribed policy-makers in a veritable ocean of Asiatic culture. All the while continuing to denial the existence and rightful claims of the original inhabitants of the land.
To believe that this nation of multicultural realities can continue to govern like it is a fiefdom of the fortunate and the privileged is to maintain a fantasy of Roman Empiric delusion…
Sounds like god botherer Baird is the latest ‘best friend eva’ of those honest as the day is long Sydney property developers.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/sydney-will-be-unrecognisable-now-that-the-planners-have-gone-20160525-gp3cwb.html
Well done “bystanders” !!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3608620/Heart-stopping-moment-father-prays-survive-family-jump-flaming-fifth-floor-apartment-caught-bystanders-Russia.html
That’s incredible!!!
Dictator Baird has put off NSW council elections by 12 months, until September next year, to give himself time to ram his development plans through whatever is left of NSW’s planning system. Now he has his own trained monkeys acting as administrators in his new Sydney amalgamated councils that should be done in record time.
He’s forgetting one little thing though – the people of Sydney. There is already strong protest against WestConnex, his light rail pipedream and the planned destruction of Moore Park. Everyone has, for the time being, forgotten about his grand plans to destroy Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, announced before last year’s election, but they will remember soon. Now we know just how much worse his plans are.
There was rioting at the first meting of the new Inner West Council on Tuesday night.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/baird-government-under-pressure-to-bring-forward-election-after-chaotic-inner-west-council-meeting-20160525-gp3c1e.html
Some of the behaviour was appalling, but I can’t blame those attending for being passionate about protecting their local area and their right to elect their council. There is no reason for delaying council elections for a year except Baird’s manic desire to hand Sydney over to his developer mates and donors. Elections should go ahead, as normal, on 17 September.
Baird is dreaming if he thinks he can get his grand plans up and running without any protest. He’s in for a rude awakening.
As bad as Abbott/Turnbull.
Worse, much worse.
More in the Newman category, shielded by veneer of “niceness”.
Another Feeney stuff-up.
Election 2016: David Feeney accidentally ‘leaks’ sensitive Labor briefing notes
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-david-feeney-accidentally-leaks-sensitive-labor-briefing-notes-20160525-gp40lr.html#ixzz49iCMYSe6
Speers said Sky did not pass on the notes to anyone – but Fairfax knows what was in them.
When I was handing out state election How-To-Votes for Labor with Vote1Julia, my line was “Vote Labor and stop Baird wrecking Concord West”.
If anyone was interested in this stunning line (well, maybe not so stunning) I told them succinctly about how they’ve clobbered my own local area with tunneling monstrosities for the Sydney North-West metro.
I predicted how they’d spread the workload among all the law firms, surveyors, structural engineering firms etc. so that if you tried to engage them for a bit of citizen’s research they’d claim “conflict of interest”.
I told them about how they have different companies bore the tunnels, dig the pits, build the surface structures and then run the operations. That way you could never get a picture of the project as a whole. You always had to ask someone else further up the chain.
I prophesized that there would be lots of brilliantly detailed “Community Information” nights, meet and greets and so on, all of which seem to be conducted by a travelling caravan of professional shysters who roam from city to city setting up their snake-oil shingles, doing the “artist’s impressions” and then leaving town (usually for Dubai). No-one would get anything useful out of these meetings, or any meaningful responses to their submissions. “Community feedback” is a cost of business, not a something designed to actually give feedback or (the horror!) accept it.
I got this down to just a minute or so by the end of the day. I’m proud to say our booth did the best for Labor of all the booths in the electorate. Probably nothing to do with my little spiel, but it made me feel like the effort wasn’t wasted.
“Dimples”Baird, we were told, was an unbackable favourite to win. He would see the state right. But what have we got?
The same tunneling companies doing make-work. The same developers building “apartments” everywhere. Bulldozers and cranes blighting the horizon. Traffic jams. Tolls. The very fabric of Sydney is being demolished so that, in the end, a few more commercial vehicles can get to the City a little faster, and so add to the existing traffic gridlock all the quicker.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with developers, tunnelers and road builders being the biggest donors to the Coalition.
That is an unworthy thought.
The basic question has to be: just what IS the fascination with Sydney’s CBD? It’s a disaster now, and will be even more of a disaster when all this is built.
We should be DE-centralizing, not centralizing. We might have had a chance, if the NBN had been built properly…. all those extra people out in the burbs work in their offices, or even from their homes some of the time, with their kids alongside them.
When you see what they’re doing to our city you really do want to weep. And for what?
Some quick profits and the erection of overcrowded, sub-standard slums as the end result.
Not.Worth.It.
I really could weep, and the full extent of Baird’s plans is horrendous.