Urban Wronski has again agreed to be The Pub’s Guest Author with, once more, an incisive analysis of the week that was. Many thanks!
Wading around deep water in Launceston last Thursday were Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman and federal Liberal MPs Andrew Nikolic, Brett Whiteley and Eric Hutchinson, who turned up to ensure that the PM did not spoil his visit to the Onion Isle by getting out his depth on climate change and rashly linking global warming with the devastating floods.
Turnbull rebuffed Bill Shorten’s shrewd offer of a bipartisan visit. Launceston was thus blessed with two successive media circuses, although they visited different flood-struck areas. Yet, despite the mud and the wheel-churning, it was spared the impression that Shorten was Turnbull’s equal. Or an alternative Prime Minister.
The PM was resolute. Bugger the pre-election caretaker convention of equal access to information and consultation on important decisions. It was only day 34. There was an election dance marathon to be won. Policy to be got out.
As both major parties waltzed around the elephant in the room of the coalition’s bogus climate policy, the PM spoke up to stop anyone joining any dots between the disaster and climate change, before anyone brought up the clear global trend of increased Intensity of rainfall with climate change.
They were too late. In response to one journalist’s question that we would see more storms of this nature with climate change, Turnbull generalised and obscured the link. “Larger and more frequent storms are one of the consequences that the climate models and climate scientists predict from global warming.”
If only we could get rid of those models and those scientists, we’d be OK. (The Coalition’s working on it.)
“. . . you cannot attribute any particular storm to global warming,” the PM continued arrestingly, obscuring the point the reporter was making, “so let’s be quite clear about that. And the same scientists would agree with that.”
Encouraged by his PM’s form of words, but picking up on only some of them, embattled member for Bass, Andrew Nikolic, a highly vocal climate sceptic in parliament who enjoyed a key role in the slashing of our Renewable Energy Target (RET) went further. No-one would be “silly enough to try and link a single event to climate change.”
No-one is arguing for simple causation
Of course they are linked. No-one is arguing for simple causation. Climate Change Council scientists warn that global warming and rising sea levels are major contributing factors to the kinds of storms that recently caused so much damage to the East coast of Australia.
All extreme weather events have a climate component. A warming atmosphere has a greater capacity for carrying more moisture resulting in more intense rainfall and floods. Accelerating sea level rise also increases the impact of storms in coastal areas as witnessed recently at Collaroy.
Professor Lesley Hughes explains the heavier rainfall. “These east coast lows, while they’ve also been around for some time and often deliver intense rainfall, are occurring in an atmosphere that has about 7% more water vapour than it did fifty years ago. This increases the risk of more intense rainfall.”
What should be bipartisan is an understanding that our only choice is to stop burning coal and embrace renewable energy. This election is the last chance we have to get serious about our climate change policy. Yet there is nothing to see here from either major party in this Clayton’s election campaign, despite some urging from the sidelines.
Some ratbags will got to any lengths to spoil a disaster zone media opportunity even with our beefed up national security and metadata retention laws, including the Border Protection Act 2015 which makes it illegal for professionals to speak out about conditions in detention centres, a law which some doctors have chosen to defy.
And so it proved in Sydney later that day. A British television crew ambushed the PM as he left the American and Australian US Studies Centre tenth annual benefit dinner, a black-tie function in Sydney where Turnbull had been insulting the intelligence of his audience by repeating the lie that he had to call the election because of vital ABCC legislation blocked by the senate which his government needs to restore the rule of law.
“Australia’s actions were illegal..”
Jonathan Miller, Channel Four Foreign Correspondent, wanted to know if the PM was alarmed by the recent spate of self-immolations by asylum-seekers on Nauru and whether he agreed with observers that Australia’s actions were illegal under international law. The PM is reported to have stone-walled the BBC reporter.
He would have been just as forthcoming had he been asked about the government’s position on PNG, a failed state whose PM enjoys our loyal support despite evidence of considerable popular unrest and unconfirmed reports of police shooting protestors. The ugly spectacle of our support for a corrupt regime because our government needs desperately for Manus Island detention centre to at least remain open is one which with bipartisan agreement seems to be swept to one side. Just as with the gulag on Nauru.
Nothing to see here. As in the days of the Tampa crisis, when John Howard refused point blank at a press conference to reveal the source of his categorical assurances to the Australian people that SIEV-X sank in Indonesian waters and that the drowning of 353 people was somehow someone else’s responsibility.
Turnbull had just come from praising John Howard as the gold standard in his own cabinet government and singled out Arthur (Amnesiac) Sinodinos for his architectural virtues in two governments. A pillar of the Howard government, Sinodinos, he said is “a flying buttress in mine.”
Perhaps this curiously phrased praise will cause a restorative flow of blood to Arthur’s head and enable him to recall the answers he was unable to provide the ICAC concerning his role in setting up The Free Enterprise Foundation which was established to permit property developers to make illegal donations to NSW Liberal Party funds.
The NSW Electoral Commission continues to withhold $4.4 million in public funding from the NSW Liberals until it formally discloses who donated $693,000 to the party via the Free Enterprise Foundation before the 2011 election. If Sinodinis is Turnbull’s flying buttress, however, in foreign policy the US is Australia’s anchor, the caretaker PM declared dipping into maritime analogies on Thursday, despite Malcolm Fraser’s view that it was a ball and chain.
…a strategic captive of the US…
John Howard, set up the US Studies Centre, according to Turnbull on Thursday because he ‘…understood that the United States is the irreplaceable anchor to the global rules-based order, an order built upon shared political values and common economic and security interests.’ Yet for Malcolm Fraser in his book Dangerous Allies, ours is more of Stockholm syndrome relationship. Australia is “a compliant partner, a strategic captive of the US,” in Fraser’s view.
To those perverse few who still see Malcolm Turnbull as a type of enlightened and progressive rationalist, a “small l” Liberal, his sycophantic embrace of Howard and the US Alliance in Sydney this week may be a rude shock. On the other hand, the latest Reach-Tel suggests a 2 point increase in Turnbull’s popularity which will, no doubt, be taken as a vindication for his release last Sunday of a brief Facebook video which asks us to accept him, perhaps even to let him lead us, because of his poor, deprived childhood.
“How poor was my childhood” could be the start of some competitive bidding from other political hopefuls and millionaires although it could be argued that Gina Rinehart, a major backer of the IPA which is enjoys an extraordinary influence over Liberal politicians both in and out of parliament, has already set the gold standard.
Her ABC Australian Story documentary appearance in 2015 reinvents her father, Lang Hancock, as a noble and heroic Aussie battler and devoted father. His stoic and selfless determination to fly out on endless self-punishing mineral prospecting odysseys over the Pilbara enabled him to reap obscenely large profits from the sale of minerals extracted from lands far below which did not belong to him, as if this were somehow his just reward. It was an astonishing piece of hagiography even from a loving daughter.
Similarly, the Turnbull video is ostensibly a tribute to Bruce, a father to whom he owes everything. Yet below and even on top (- a part of the surface gloss) is a calculated bid for our sympathy from a politician whose ruthless ambition is well documented.
… see the mythic reinvention as a quest…
The spin is defended by Karen Middleton and others who see the mythic reinvention as a quest to present a more authentic Malcolm to his adoring fans. Besides, her argument goes, Bill is doing the same type of thing.
True, there are images of Shorten’s mother, a former teacher, in some publicity material canvassing us to vote Labor because education matters but it is a long way from the PM’s recent desperate pitch in which he reinvents himself as some sort of ordinary battler. It’s an ill-judged bid for sympathy and the women’s vote which Turnbull’s been advised he will need.
Some offer a blunter appraisal; if you have to make a video like that, you are admitting you are in serious trouble. The feminist bid just smacks of desperation and will backfire when it is measured against the poverty of the PM’s achievement on behalf of women.
Coming out as a feminist is not a new thing in recent Liberal prime ministers, but it still has some novelty value. Turnbull the feminist was unleased on an unwary electorate this week, raising some very awkward questions about a Liberal Party leadership which as Annabel Crabb notes, only the men are feminists, because the women don’t want any label which might get some of the unreconstructed males still left on front and back bench offside.
…where there is a war on women…
The nation now awaits Turnbull to respond to the promptings of his feminist sensibility and release all those women imprisoned on Nauru where there is a war on women. If he really wants to be a leader, he will bring home all the asylum seekers and refugees immediately. At home, he will pushing for equality in workplaces. The gender pay gap of $277 per week between women and men’s average weekly earnings will vanish at one stroke.
What is increasingly apparent, however, at least to some in the Labor camp, is that the caretaker PM is content to “run down the clock” to the election. He is just playing a dead bat, happy to sacrifice ten marginal seats if it brings him the office of elected Prime Minister that he covets. Or that Bruce would have wanted for him. Certainly his failure to turn up at a Sky News Peoples’ Forum debate on Wednesday, a “long-standing invitation” made him look flaky. Or scared. Or both. Or perhaps, he just couldn’t be bothered.
Sky News showed its displeasure sending presenters Paul Murray and Andrew Bolt out to condemn Turnbull for his snub. Sky is, however, getting great value out of the Liberals and ought not to be so churlish, especially when recent recruit, Tony Abbott’s former boss Peta Credlin’s stellar performance is taken into account.
Voters don’t like Bill Shorten and don’t trust Malcolm Turnbull according to Credlin’s piece in The Herald Sun on Saturday. Abbott’s former chief of staff has let the nation know that Turnbull is not doing enough to win over uncommitted voters and that the result could be chaos in the senate.
Credlin has a way with words and her freely dispensed advice is doubtless as powerfully motivating to the PM as any desire to prove worthy of the memory of his father’s sacrifice. She has homed in on an arrogance which is perhaps a key part of the caretaker PM’s campaign strategy so far. In her view, Turnbull’s “superannuation changes still tell the Liberal base you don’t really matter because you have nowhere else to go.”
In the campaign so far, the PM has avoided anything of substance while challenges that clamour for real leadership, such as climate change, closing the gulags that are our offshore detention centres, or providing a fair and just society for all Australians, issues which might truly define a worthy political leader lie well beyond his grasp.
His opponent, for all his affinity with the workers and all his rhetoric appears just as imprisoned by the corporate state – a compliant partner, as Fraser would have it, in an abusive and mutually demeaning relationship.
THE PUB 
kaffee
I remember Rotorua very well and the heating and hot pools. Nobody warned me of the smell which was very pervasive, but I survived. I loved the the couple of weeks we spent there covering both south and north. Also the helicopter ride to the top of Franz Joseph glazier and standing out on top of it. The copter pilot was from Alice Springs.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers. Sorry for today’s tardiness.
Yes! Jon Birmingham on the useless calls for prayers from hypocrites.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/blunt-instrument/orlando-shooting-thoughts-and-prayers-from-hypocrites-do-nothing-to-help-20160613-gpi6rp.html
Clinton and Trump clash over the Orlando shootings.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/orlando-shooting-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-clash-over-massacre-20160613-gpi9pv.html
For Republicans it’s easier to ban Mulims than to ban guns.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/orlando-shooting-for-republicans-its-easier-to-ban-muslims-than-guns-20160613-gphrpr.html
Once again a nation tragedy drives Americans further apart.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/once-again-a-national-tragedy-drives-americans-further-apart-20160612-gphklm.html
“View from the Street” asks when is a hate crime not a hate crime. Street was unimpressed with Turnbull’s utterings on Orlando.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/once-again-a-national-tragedy-drives-americans-further-apart-20160612-gphklm.html
Access to assault-style weapons is an attack on the suburbs of America.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/brad-emery/who-is-americas-gun-control-laws-really-defending/
Helen Dalziel writes that Turnbull is attempting to turn homophobia into islamophobia.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/06/13/malcolm-turnbull-is-trying-to-turn-queerphobia-into-islamophobia/
Bill Shorten has slammed Trump’s remarks.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/orlando-shooting-bill-shorten-warns-against-donald-trumps-demonising-of-all-muslims-through-immigration-ban-20160613-gphrf7.html
It looks like Bill Shorten nailed it on QandA last night according to social media input.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/2016/06/13/bill-shorten-qa/
Australia’s gun culture is alive and well.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/united-states-breaks-another-gun-record-as-australia-ranks-sixth-in-the-world-for-small-arms-imports-20160613-gpi1p8.html
Shorten floors the QandA audience with a one word answer,
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/bill-shorten-says-labor-would-allow-journalists-back-into-asylum-seeker-detention-camps-20160613-gpi97v.html
Are some cracks appearing in Sydney’s rental market?
http://www.domain.com.au/news/cracks-emerging-in-sydneys-apartment-rental-markets-report-20160609-gpfdyu/
What a charmer this Senate hopeful is!
https://newmatilda.com/2016/06/13/anti-gay-senate-candidate-uses-orlando-killing-to-push-anti-muslim-agenda/
The case for a four day week.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-case-for-a-fourday-week-every-week-20160609-gpfl7t.html
Peter Hartcher on what’s in front of the world after the South China Sea court decision.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-malcolm-turnbull-says-china-wont-get-what-it-wants-20160613-gphuro.html
How many more Coalition ministers, MPs and candidates are going to disgrace themselves?
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2016/06/13/tasmanian-mining-minister-resigns-cabinet/
Who and what is the Australian Christian Lobby?
https://theconversation.com/australian-christian-lobby-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-right-60624
Labor is upfront in saying it will clean out the board and management of the NBN. Bring it on!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-nbn-board-management-face-uncertain-future-under-labor-20160613-gpi3ns.html
Peter Martin on the Council of the Aging’s finding that health matters most.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-council-on-the-aging-survey-finds-health-matters-most-20160612-gphfix.html
Greg Jericho points to the evidence that Abbott and Turnbull are the worst economic managers since Menzies.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2016/jun/14/new-research-abbott-and-turnbull-the-worst-economic-managers-since-menzies
Section 3 . . .
Will Kelly O’Bigmouth “do a Sophie” this election?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-shock-poll-result-for-kelly-odwyer-higgins-looms-as-indi-of-2016-20160613-gphv3z.html
The financial planning industry hits a new low with this crowd using Scientology techniques to sell life insurance.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/scientologist-ethos-used-to-train-nsg-financial-planners-to-sell-life-insurance-20160609-gpfb3p.html
Laura Tingle unpacks what happened over the long weekend of electioneering. Google.
/news/politics/election/election-2016-a-long-weekend-of-politics-now-vote-early-and-often-20160613-gpi1to
How a loss of trust hurts the economy.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/how-a-loss-of-trust-hurts-the-economy-20160612-gphkui.html
How can there be fairness in an unfair economy asks The Independent Australia.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/how-can-there-be-fairness-in-an-unfair-economy,9104
The Greens will preference Labor in every Queensland seat.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-greens-to-preference-labor-in-every-queensland-seat-20160613-gpia1b.html
Joyce is on shaky ground with respect to his demand to shift 170 Canberran employees to Armidale. The cost/benefit study has not surfaced yet.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/costbenefit-report-on-moving-canberra-public-servants-to-armidale-still-not-out-20160613-gphncr.html
Susie O’Brien writes that we deserve to die with our dignity intact. We shuld not listen to the Catholic Church, she says. Google.
/news/opinion/susie-obrien/we-deserve-the-right-to-die-with-our-dignity-intact/news-story/db427121c2d94f72ad996db625329947
You would think that the Business Council of Australia (BCA) would be prepared to Bill Shorten on the strength of their claims that there is a war on business. Wouldn’t hold me breath though.
Cathy Wilcox takes us into the struggling A and E department.
Alan Moir is suggesting that the reality of climate change has rather spectacularly caught up with the Coalition.
Andrew Dyson and Labor’s “courageous” economic policy.
MUST SEE! David Pope absolutely nails Trump and his acolytes.
Mark Knight with a realistic reflection on the Orlando massacre.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/9f15a6065e675a87cb771bfbdf4b6731?width=1024&api_key=zw4msefggf9wdvqswdfuqnr5
Jon Kudelka sums up the response to the shooting.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/4e5922f598819920f32b76f8d7178fd7
David Rowe and the opposing NBN policies.
The one thing that really annoyed me last night, besides the rude interruptions, was the way jones repeated the questions with a particular slant, regardless of what the question was asked. I understood the original question, I’m sure Bill understood the question, but jones wanted his particular gotcha slant emphasized.
Correct Dawn Patrol link for “View from the Street”
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-when-is-a-hate-crime-not-a-hate-crime-20160613-gphsvz.html
America reacts.
Concerned NRA Official Rushes Out To Purchase Congressman Following Mass Shooting
http://www.theonion.com/article/concerned-nra-official-rushes-out-purchase-congres-53084
There is no getting away from this startling correlation.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ck3ZJDJWUAE8gIA.jpg:large
I’m so sick of gotcha questions about The Deficit. So what if Howard managed a surplus. He didn’t do it by being an economic genius, he did it by flogging off everything he could and by cutting government spending.
Since the MSM (and too many Coalition politicians) seem to think the economy of a great nation is just like a household budget, here’s something they might understand.
Howard and Costello were like home owners who decide they need a big bank balance, so they don’t maintain their property, instead they just stick all that money in the bank. The bank balance isn’t big enough, they want more, so they flog off most of the furniture, keeping only the most minimum essentials. They flog off their cars, too, and all the family heirlooms and jewellery. The kids’ toys go, so does the dog kennel and the garden tools. Dad can’t enjoy his favourite hobby, working on improving the family home because his tools have been sold, so he just sits around watching his savings grow. Mum can’t do any mending, or make new curtains, or make the kids’ clothes any more, because her sewing machine was sold, so the kids are dressed from the bargain bin at Vinnies. But they want more, so they cut the food bills, eat toast for breakfast, allowing jam only on Sundays, have peanut butter sandwiches (no butter, to save money) for lunch and eat only the cheapest food for dinner. No more desserts, no more cakes. Mum gives up one of her favourite things, baking, to save money. The couple don’t entertain any more, all the good china and glassware has been sold, along with the BBQ. No more parties, no more family dinners, but that bank account looks really healthy now. Their friends desert them, fed up with the disgusting food, the dirty, dishevelled house, the boring conversations about money and the ragged clothing of the family.
After twelve years the family resemble beggars, dirty, dressed in rags, with unkempt hair (haircuts cost money, you know). Their neglected home is falling apart around them and the grounds, once immaculate, are so overgrown council demands a clean-up. Sadly they have nothing to help them fix the place, so they have to dig into that now very healthy bank account to buy new tools and hire tradies. It takes all their savings, and still the work isn’t completed, so they have to borrow. They borrow a lot.
Understand now? This is how Howard achieved that bleeping surplus. He ran the place down, flogged off our assets and did nothing about new infrastructure. Labor had to fix that neglect, and now all we hear is ‘But why won’t you promise a surplus in the next budget?’ A pox on the lot of them. They are like parrots, the MSM, one of them says something and them the whole flock starts to squawk the same garbage, mindlessly repeating it over and over again, because they lack the intelligence and the will to come up with any decent comment.
That’s a really great post, Leone. Powerful analogy.
Leone,
That comment should be published on large billboards and distributed all over Australia.
The jam on Sundays bit is true. My maternal grandfather came from a well-off family who were extremely tight with their money. Bread and butter was the standard accompaniment to meals, on Sundays jam was allowed as a treat. But – there was a catch. If you chose jam you couldn’t have butter as well. My grandmother confirmed this.
Sadly my grandfather and his siblings did not inherit the family money. When his mother died his father remarried, a young floozy who managed to persuade him to leave her all the money and assets.
I’m watching Q&A now.
The third questioner seemed to be a Liberal stooge because of his derogatory remarks about the Gillard government and his inability to understand why the things he thought were an unnecessary expense are so vital to this country. So I did a bit of searching. He’s a Mr Nobody as far as the internet is concerned, except for one thing – he has an amazing resemblance to a bloke by the same name who teaches maths at The Kings School.
Make up your own mind on this.
http://www.kings.edu.au/leadership/community-outreach.php
I suppose you would have to be a devout, card-carrying conservative to work there, or to even want to work there, seeing as they cater especially for the loutish offspring of the landed gentry, staunch supporters of the National Party. Can’t have the young chaps being contaminated by the radical views of lefty teachers, can we.
Mr Strutt also gained a mention in The Oz’s run-down on Q&A.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/qa-bill-shorten-calls-coalitions-cuts-fake-and-bogus/news-story/35e0bffd69dc37efeadeba1ccf46fc2e
Nice bit of digging, Leone.
Nice work!
I taught there for a year or two in the 80’s, cured me of Private schools for life. Loutish offspring is quite right.
This is what I’d call a dysfunctional party.
The first in today’s ‘It’s not such a great day for the Liberal Party’ list
Early starters.
Lenore damning with faint praise
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/13/qa-bill-shorten-raises-prospect-of-indigenous-treaty-and-university-fee-cap
Sorry but I think I’ll pass on that one.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/14/australian-election-2016-turnbull-shorten-coalition-greens-labor-politics-live
Yep.
I’ll give that a miss.
I hope Fizza’s ‘exciting, innovative’ idea for a Facebook debate falls flat, mainly because it was his idea.
The choice of time is odd.. 6pm is when most families are organising dinner and getting the kids sorted. It’s a busy time in every home. I don’t think many people are going to be interested in being bored to tears by political discussions at that time. An hour or two later would have ensured a bigger audience.
It’ll be the great unwatched.
I hope the Facebook debate has such high traffic flow that the platform falls over highlighting the paucity of Turnbull’s NBN and Australia’s increased reliance on reliable fast speed internet
Really, Waffles?
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/14/australian-election-2016-turnbull-shorten-coalition-greens-labor-politics-live?page=with:block-575f6488e4b0625eba511390#block-575f6488e4b0625eba511390
Blatant lie.
Here we go – Mark Kenny’s new improved take on why Labor will lose:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016-opinion/election-2016-why-both-camps-suspect-bill-shortens-labor-has-already-peaked-20160613-gpi1e0.html
He’s got a new theory nearly every day. In case anyone’s in doubt who he’s barracking for we have this:
And this:
That sounds a little defensive to me. I think Kenny’s been copping it a bit in the comments of late.
He’s got a John Stirton quote in there saying the latest crunched numbers give a lead to the Coalition of 50.8 to 49.2 Just for the record, there isn’t a pollster right now who has the ALP worse than 50-50, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that.
It seems to me that the ALP are making all the running right now, and the Coalition are hiding behind the ramparts throwing the odd rock in the general direction of the action. If, instead of gripping his pillow and muttering “Turnbull’s still gonna win, just you watch”, Kenny maybe did something useful and looked into this Parakeelia business, then he’d be doing something useful. But I suspect we’re just going get tealeaf reading from him for the rest of the campaign.
Exactly what I thought, Aguirre. A pathetic case of wishful thinking.
He starts with wishful thinking and works backwards from there
Quality journalism on The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/14/australian-election-2016-turnbull-shorten-coalition-greens-labor-politics-live#comments
I reckon Mark Kenny has gone around telling everyone that Turnbull was a monty to win, or he’s got money on it or something. And every time the polls look like going the ALP’s way he rushes to a laptop and cobbles together something to put his mind at ease. And he’s started going “la la la la can’t hear you la la la” with everyone who picks his articles apart. I think so far he’s done:
– don’t be silly, it’s all over
– the marginals, the marginals!
– momentum is slowing!
Each of them concedes something to the ALP. From the first to the second he shifts from it being a foregone conclusion to it being a contest but not a close contest. And from the second to the third it’s gone from not a close contest to ok it’s a close contest but Turnbull will still win. In fact it’s gone further, to “Whoa, this is way too close but I detect movement back to Turnbull, I think, who’s with me?”
Who’s with him? That’s a good question. From the article, it’s some shadowy figures in ‘both parties’ that he’s only game to mention in passing. Plus one pollster and the odds market.
With any luck his next article will be “Shorten In Front But Voters Starting To Note Flaws”. And then “Shorten In Box Seat, Turnbull To Be Returned With Late Swing”. And finally, “Shorten’s Flawless Campaign Leads To Widely Predicted Victory” – with all the reasons why he knew all along that the ALP would win.
They can get away with this non-analysis because there have been less opinion polls done compared to other campaigns (there have only been two done in the last week and a half), thus less chance that they’ll be contradicted.
If there’s one thing positive to say about Kenny is that it appears that he has given up on the delusion that a reelected Turnbull will be more progressive.
The more I see of Lucy the more I am reminded of Dame Edna.
Yep. I’ve thought that for a long time.
Except Dame Edna has better dress sense. Which says a lot about Lucy’s dress sense. or lack of it..
Someone drew a comparison with Kath and Kim.
Kath and Kim also have better dress sense.
And right here is why I’m putting Greens below lnp.
Well, that’s it. The Greens get the last spot from me, just below Pruneface.
The Hobart Mercury, last Friday, having a bot of trouble keeping up with recent knifings and coups –
‘Prime Minister Tony Abbott…..’
Someone should tell them …….
Gippy Laborite
How can I find out Labor preferences for the Senate, I’m trying to work out my own, but have got myself into a bit of a muddle. Our tiny polling booth doesn’t have HTV stuff, and I want to try and pre-poll, but that doesn’t open until Thursday 24th.
ALP senate preferences (which I do NOT like and will not be following are)
1: ALP
2: Sex Party
3: Hinch (why why WHY???)
4: Renewable energy party
5: Greens
6: Science Party
House of Reps is
1: Shashi Bhatti (ALP)
2 Cherie Smith (Centre left anti-CSG independent)
3 Phil Gardiner (Renewable energy party)
4: Ian Onley (Greens)
5: Brian Heath (Family First)
6: Darren Chester (Nationals)
7 Ashleigh Belsar (Christians)
8. Ben Buckley (Liberal Democrats)
9. Peter Dorian (Rise up Australia)
10. Christine Sindt (far right independent, a homophobe and a racist)
correction, it’s peter gardiner not phil.
Barnaby was here today, he flew in to pork barrel, then flew off again. I suppose he chartered a plane for this junket and photo op.
He promised $1.25 million for an upgrade to the airport terminal. The NSW government has already kicked in $5 million. If you can bear it, take a look at the gumbies who represent this area for the Nationals. I won’t contaminate The Pub by posting the photo, I have standards, you know.
http://www.portnews.com.au/story/3967763/airport-funding-vow/?cs=257
It’s pretty puny pork barrelling, the Gillard government provided $15 million for upgraded runways in 2013. (Thank you Mr Oakeshott.)
http://www.portmacquarieairport.com.au/About-the-Airport/Airport-Upgrade
This is the first money the Abbott/Turnbull government has offered Port Macquarie, apart from funding for new works at the private schools and the private hospital. It’s also the first time Barnaby has been here as deputy leader, so pardon me for being cynical, but this has everything to do with Rob Oakeshott announcing his run for Cowper. Without that, there would have been no promise of funding.
Until today this town has been an election campaign backwater, you would not even know there was an election in three weeks. There has been no campaigning, we don’t even know who the candidates are, unless we go online and search, because the local paper can’t be bothered informing us. There has been no junk mail, no personalised letters from the Nats candidate, nothing. I expect that to change drastically this week. Barnaby’s visit was just the opening shot of a deluge.
I’m guessing Rise Up Australia are pretty cashed up. I saw a massive billboard for their party in Carnegie on Dandenong Road today,
Gippy Laborite
Wow, that Senate is crazy. I’m going my own way, Ricky Muir gets my second pref. then I’ll have to work out my other four.
I just came back from the shops, I think Bill Shorten was there but I can’t be sure because he was completely surrounded by media, camera’s, microphones and all the other accouterments of the media pack.
Gippy Laborite
I forgot, thanks heaps for doing that for me. 🙂
CK
Or it could have been the top hat, he’s over there too. 🙂 You may have had a lucky escape.
Albo is in Nowra tomorrow afternoon for a politics in the pub. Think I will pop in for a drink.
2gravel
I think our particular suburb would not be on the list of must visit places that top hat, malcayman, or whatever the latest epithet is currently in use for it. I think we would be considered too working class for the likes of that mob.
I just received 2 letters in the mail. One was from MT asking for my vote the other was an invitation for the national bowel cancer screening programme inviting me to send in a sample for analysis.
Guess which one I’m looking forward to the most?
Let me guess. You’re sending your sample into the Liberal Party.
Sending the sample to MT? 🙂
Sometimes you read an article from the news and it just brightens your day.
–Remote community transformed after swapping diesel generator for solar panels–
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-14/remote-community-swaps-diesel-for-solar-panels/7508300
And this is in spite of a trogluddite government trying it’s damnedest to thwart progress.
http://www.thelocal.de/20160613/germany-mulls-stricter-child-marriage-laws-child-bride
http://www.roymorgan.com.au/findings/6846-voters-and-electorates-interested-in-political-analysis-march-2016-201606141120
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding
https://newmatilda.com/2016/06/14/turnbull-attacks-shorten-on-treaty-contradicts-governments-own-recognise-campaign/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-14/tasmanian-farmers-ask-for-climate-action-after-floods/7506710
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/06/14/sexting-scandal-leaves-clp-exposed/
I thought there’d be an Essential today? Maybe I’m imagining things, but when they shifted their release dates from Monday to Tuesday, I assumed it was to take care of public holiday situations, so there’d be the same release day no matter what.
Just saw a ad with Bob Hawke on medicare. I must say i am a bit dissapointed about labor and the unions attack. It seems to be softly softly. Hit them hard like they did with workchoices. That is what worked, not this we are nearly the same crap.
Aguirre – Peter from EMC confirmed on twitter that it would be out tomorrow, Wednesday. The shift from Monday to Tuesday was because they were sometimes missing the Crikey deadline for Monday even on a normal weekend. I think people reply over the whole weekend, then Essential were scrambling to collate the data on a Monday morning. Essential basically gave up trying to do same day service.
Thanks Leroy.
” In Australia your wealth shouldn’t detrimine your health”
From the Medical profession not labor.
More ads like this need to be aired
Here in Blair there is very little evidence that there is an election campaign in progress. There are a few corflutes around for Shayne Neumann (labor) but so far I have seen nothing for any other candidate or Senate Team. It’s weird.
Big mistake by Fizza there. Shows his total lack of understanding of the whole issue. He’a coming across as just another arrogant, paternalistic white man trying to tell indigenous people what they want.
I’m adding that to the list of Liberal stuff-ups. Despite that, by Friday the MSM will be telling us Fizza won the week, again.
When I think of the hard work and dedication of BK and Leroy in their efforts to keep us lesser mortals informed, I am overwhelmed by the urge so say a very heartfelt thank you to you both.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
I’ll second that motion !
I’ll third it.
Fourth it.
Aw shucks, CK!
Glad I don’t watch 7.30 anymore, sounds like Scumbag blew himself up going by my twitter feed.
BK
I see you were peeking between your fingers, can you do a little summary for us, please?
Laugh of the day –
Murpharoo trying to find a similarity between Parakeelia and Magenta Linus, the privately owned company Labor uses as a data mining supplier. She obviously desperately wanted to say ‘they are both the same, they have party machines to do this work’, but she could not find any truth in that thought.
Trying and failing, reduced to begging her readers to get in touch if they know of any shady goings-on. No-one did, because there is nothing shady going on with Labor’s arrangements. As Ms Murphy grudgingly pointed out, Magenta Linus is not owned by the Labor Party, unlike Parakeelia, which is most definitely owned by the Liberal Party.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/14/australian-election-2016-turnbull-shorten-coalition-greens-labor-politics-live
More on Parakeelia, from IA, which kills off Julie Bishop’s wafflings about Parakeelia not making a profit.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/parakeelia-the-almost-perfect-liberal-party-scam,9106
I posted my comment nearly an hour ago, and it has only just appeared. Bloody wordpress. I have to go to be now after my late night last night watching Bill on q&a.