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 
gravel
As far Sales goes I am not at all sold!
https://theconversation.com/australian-christian-lobby-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-right-60624
https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-lobby-groups the rest of the series of articles is worth a look
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/panama-papers-things-not-quite-kosher-at-malcolm-turnbulls-siberian-gold-mine-20160614-gpim15.html
Did anyone what that disgrace on ABC 7.30 toinght?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36534469
—————————————————-
I think Led Zeppelin might have a bit of a problem with this.
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven –
California Taurus: (Guitar starts about 40 seconds in) –
I wonder if the complainants are the original musicians or vulture copyright owner who bought the copyright in order to sue
No way is any plagiarism involved here. It’s even unlikely that LZ were referencing the opening, which is a simpe descending series of chords. The theme is not repeated or elaborated in Spirit’s piece.
Jacques Demy made a beautiful follow up to his classic film Lola. Set in LA, it was called Model Shop, and had music by Spirit. The band’s singer made an appearance in the film. I well remember the review at the time in Rolling Stone: “Lola in LA”. Starring with Anouk Aimee was Gary Lockwood, one of only 2 movies Lockwood would be remembered for before his untimely death. The other was 2001, a Space Odyssey.
The orchestral parts in “Taurus” sound awfully familiar… Wagner? etc.
The same thing happened with the court action against Men at Work, accused of stealing from an old kindergarten song, and successfully sued.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-04/men-at-work-plundered-kookaburra-riff-court/321624
I think we can rename 7.30 The Liberal Party Half-hour.
Our Jason Hand has achieved a wonderful milestone. 200 donations of his life saving blood. Jason I and many here are very proud of you.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Tony Wright says karma comes calling for Kelly O’Bigmouth. Even Andrew Bolt is against her. And she’s spending too much time in Indi with dear Sophie.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-kelly-odwyer-now-fighting-to-hold-higgins-on-all-fronts-20160614-gpiojq.html
Is Westfarmers overreaching with Bunnings? Time will tell perhaps? Is it their Masters moment?
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/wesfarmers-homebase-buy-as-compromising-as-woolworths-masters-foray-david-errington-20160614-gpig5w.html
Here’s a chilling account of the Orlando shooting from the perspective of a senior surgical resident in the A&E that received all the wounded.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/orlando-shooting-doctor-posts-photo-of-shoes-soaked-with-blood-of-pulse-victims-20160614-gpj17a.html
There is a distinct possibility that we will have Senator Hinch after July 2. And it would be Ricky Muir that loses out for this to happen.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-preferences-from-alp-and-coalition-could-ensure-senator-derryn-hinch-is-going-to-canberra-20160614-gpivzi.html
Turnbull’s treaty attack on Shorten is out of line says Michael Gordon.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/malcolm-turnbulls-treaty-attack-on-bill-shorten-out-of-line-and-out-of-touch-20160614-gpixbm.html
The Greens preference the Fred Nile candidate ahead of a gay aboriginal Liberal. Makes one wonder doesn’t it. (And look at the photo of the Nile Candidate. It brings back memories of Dwayne Doberman – that’s one for us oldies)
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/greens-preference-fred-nile-candidate-in-sydney-over-gay-indigenous-liberal-20160614-gpimpw.html
Labor has pledged to wrest back environmental controls given away by the Coalition.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-an-alp-government-would-grab-back-environmental-controls-20160614-gpiicn.html
There’s more to a company than just the figures the accountants come up with writes Adele Ferguson.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/insight/engagement-investors-discoverthe-value-accountants-ignore-20160614-gpiy78.html
ASIC has given the green light to the receivers for Dick Smith to publicly question former directors after the uncovering of some “serious issues”.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-receivers-to-examine-directors-20160614-gpivcg.html
It would seem that things weren’t quite above board at Turnbull’s Siberian mine.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/panama-papers-things-not-quite-kosher-at-malcolm-turnbulls-siberian-gold-mine-20160614-gpim15.html
Whilenther are exceptions , if a food needs to be advertised there is a fair chance it isn’t good for you. Think fast foods and highly processes items. Lei Sales has been doing lots of promos for 7.30 Report lately, I think there may be a parallel there. Discuss.
I absolutely agree. It’s never the good food that is heavily advertised, it’s the junk. Fast food, ice cream, cordials made from ‘real fruit’ (and a tonne of sugar) and all the rest. The ads never tell you how bad this stuff is for you, and they present false images as well.
Advertising doesn’t have any effect on me, it often has the reverse – it makes me stay away from products whose advertising annoys or offends me.
So Ms Sales can do all the promos she likes, nothing is ever going to make me watch her shoddy little Liberal Party love-in, nothing at all. If I want to listen to biased prattle I can just talk to the rusted-on National Party voters around here.
Section 2 . . .
This SMH editorial ponders US gun laws.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/gun-laws-reduce-risk-of-more-orlando-shootings-20160614-gpied1.html
The Liberal Member for North Sydney writes that the Orlando massacre was a crime born from homophobia.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/orlando-was-a-crime-born-from-homophobia-20160614-gpiqse.html
Meanwhile the FBI is investigating the possibility that the Orlando shooter was conflicted over his own sexuality.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/14/orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-motive-pulse-nightclub
If this is true, the shooter’s wife might be in a bit of trouble.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/omar-mateens-wife-noor-zahi-salman-knew-about-plan-to-attack-pulse-nightclub-and-had-driven-her-husband-there-and-places-like-disney-world-to-scout-out-locations/news-story/7d748b8c3780cf815de92b5528f44a12
In a typical US response shares in gun companies jump after the mass shooting.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/markets/orlando-shooting-us-gunmakers-shares-jump-in-wake-of-tragedy-20160614-gpj461.html
Parakeelia, the (almost) perfect Liberal Party scam.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/parakeelia-the-almost-perfect-liberal-party-scam,9106
How we taxpayers are likely to be left with the bill to clean up the environment after the mining boom.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/06/14/taxpayers-could-pay-billions-to-clean-up-old-mines-report-says/
“View from the Street” with Cormann pledging to “STOP THE JOURNOS!”. He also looks at the senatorial prospects of some rather “out there” candidates.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-mathias-cormann-pledges-to-stop-the-journalists-20160614-gpiq0f.html
The truth about our militarised borders.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/dutton-payne-and-pezullo-the-truth-about-australias-militarised-border,9107
Trump’s message to the world – stay the hell out!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/06/14/trump-has-a-message-for-the-world-stay-the-hell-out/
Section 3 . . .
Stephen Koukoulas on why negative gearing changes would make little difference to house prices.
http://thekouk.com/blog/why-negative-gearing-makes-little-difference-to-house-prices.html
An angry Kristina Keneally wishes George Pell a “happy” 75th birthday.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/14/george-pell-is-staying-on-at-the-vatican-whatever-he-is-now-irrelevant-to-australians
PwC advise its big multinational clients that the new tax laws in Australia are useless and gives tips on how to get around them. Charming!
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/tax-avoidance-tactics-laid-bare-pwc-tells-multinationals-read-the-play-20160613-gphzha.html
Women’s Aussie Rules football has arrived!
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/womens-league-a-gamechanger-for-afl-20160614-gpilu4.html
While there are…..
Section 4 . . . Cartoon Corner
Cathy Wilcox is less than impressed with the self-assessment land clearing rules.
MUST SEE! Alan Moir runs out Turnbull’s little ticking time bomb again.
Ron Tandberg with the messages of condolence for the Orlando shootings.
Andrew Dyson reflects on the shootings.
David Pope has got Turnbull’s NBN all worked out.
Beautiful work from Mark David on Turnbull’s use of language.
Have a look at David Rowe on Trump’s rainbow comb over!
Mark Knight with a rather unsubtle contribution on the Orlando shooting.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/fa2c8bbf3b58e6dd29e2bf7a5bc2ca9b?width=1024&api_key=zw4msefggf9wdvqswdfuqnr5
I have a question –
Why is the Labor Party preferencing The Human Headline for the senate, but ignoring Ricky Muir? Muir has a union background and has been supportive of Labor in the senate while Hinch is – well – err –
Was there some near-death Hinch conversion to Labor?
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/10/30/1162056893675.html
A Road to Damascus experience on the operating table during his liver transplant?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/hinch-gets-liver-transplant/story-e6frg6nf-1226088630246
Did he have a mystical experience during the fifty days he spent in prison, something he seems to like to boast about?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/derryn-hinch-freed-from-jail-after-serving-50-days-for-breaching-jill-meagher-court-order/story-fni0fee2-1226847710105
I do know this – Hinch wrote for the Labor Herald a year ago. Maybe the top dogs liked his work.
https://www.laborherald.com.au/health/ice-ice-baby/
Or is this just some sort of tactical move to give the Pauline Hanson supporters someone else to vote for, someone Labor would prefer to have in the senate instead of a couple of One Nation idiots.
Hinch is a flaky motor-mouth who lies more often than he tells the truth. All he has ever wanted is attention, lots of it. I can;t see him being a useful senator, not at all. And anyway, with his lifetime of drinking and a brush with liver cancer behind him, is his health up to it? Will he collapse in an exhausted heap and have to quit after six months? He’s no spring chicken. At 72 he’s too old to be taking on a six-year senate term.
I think Hinch got preferenced because he is in column A.
Ricky Muir is in column AN and has disappeared from the media space – which is a real shame!
Blair seems a bit nervous in the lead up to the release of the report:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/06/tony-blair-rubbing-salt-iraq-wounds-160609122236321.html
Waffles gets a question on the Lib laundromat.
wtte “Labor has one too.”
No follow-up by the supine press.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/15/australian-election-2016-bill-shorten-accused-of-endangering-constitutional-recognition-politics-live#comments
The results from the final presidential primary in the U.S. (District of Columbia Democratic Primary) are coming in. with 56% reporting Hillary Clinton is beating Bernie Sanders by almost 58 points (78.8% to 21%).
Leone,
Likewise. As for store “loyalty” cards . . . a few years ago one of the ‘help’ at the pharmacy we patronise tried to high-pressure me into signing up for a card. I said “No” firmly twice, only to be ignored. I then told her that if she didn’t stop I would never shop there again.
Worked like a charm.
Click to access Essential-Report_160614-1.pdf
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/06/15/essential-labor-back-in-the-lead-as-shorten-strengthens/ paywalled
Essential: Labor back in the lead, as Shorten strengthens
Labor is back with a narrow lead in this week’s Essential poll, while evidence mounts that Labor is having an effective campaign in the eyes of voters.
Jun 15, 2016
Bernard Keane Politics Editor
Labor has regained a narrow two-party preferred lead in this week’s Essential Research poll, as Malcolm Turnbull’s personal polling numbers resume their downward slide.
Labor’s primary vote is up a point to 37% while the Coalition remains on 41% and the Greens on 10%, for a two-party preferred outcome of 51%-49%. The Nick Xenophon Team is polling at 4%, and others are at 9%. Labor figures believe that they can’t win without a vote of at least 38-39%.
Recent shifts are all within the margin of error of the poll. However, there’s more evidence Labor is having a better campaign than the Coalition. After a small recovery in his polling numbers a fortnight ago, the Prime Minister is again in negative territory: 38% of voters approve of his performance and 40% disapprove, compared to 41%/39% at the end of May. Bill Shorten, however, has his best set of numbers in more than a year, with 34% approving of his performance and 40% disapproving (just before winning in September 2013, Tony Abbott’s numbers were 40% approval and 49% disapproval). At the end of May, Shorten’s disapproval rating was 44%. Turnbull retains a strong lead as preferred prime minister, but that is now down to 11 points, from 13 points a fortnight ago. In November, Turnbull led Shorten by 41 points.
Typo in the first tweet, deleted & redid it.
What was that about peak Shorten eh Mark Kenny?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-nbn-boss-ziggy-switkowski-breached-caretaker-conventions-investigation-finds-20160614-gpj809.html
Ziggy, apart from being a Liberal henchman, is a very naughty boy.
labor has the nose in front again.
ABC is disgusting. On the car radio yesterday I heard a segment where they interviewed people from the most left and right seats according to Vote Compass.
Left seat was Balmain, all people interviewed were voting Green because the ALP is Teh Evil party.
i don’t remember name of the Right seat, some huge one in Qld, All the people interviewed were voting Liberal or National because ALP is Teh Evil One, full of greenies who will destroy our rural industry or profligates who will spend all the money. (or like one bloke, he has voted liberal for fifty years and will again.)
Where was the ALP seat interviews? #crickets#
I was at Wendys the other day, a young bloke looking a bit rough couldn’t get his card to work to pay for his hotdog meal so I paid for it for him. I got a hotdog for my client and the young woman serving gave one of those cards they stamp to get a freebie. She gave me a lot of stamps so I can get a freebie next time I go there. (you do not have to sign up or give your name)
Well done you, Puff.
Yes.
And well done to the young woman who put all the stamps on the card.
A big thank you to Jason for his long running acts of generosity in bringing up 200 gifts of blood. Great work mate, I am proud of you.
Totally. He should get a gold echidna with bars. I nominate Jason Hand.
Seconded
Fizza brushes off a question about Parakeelia by saying ‘Labor does it too (No, they don’t.) Their ABC pushes the Greens. Ziggy, Fizza’s hand-picked NBN nobbler, is caught breaching the caretaker conventions. Fizza accuses Shorten of ruining the recognition process when all that happened was Shorten agreed a treaty, which indigenous people really, really want, would be an excellent idea, and still Labor is ahead.
Friday night’s faux ‘debate’ should really help then, the Facebook fans will be sure to prefer Mr Harbourside Mansion because he has a smart watch, and Bill doesn’t.
It’s all going so well for the Coalition, isn’t it, just hunky-dory, absolutely spiffing.
Is there a Newspoll tonight?
Wow, Bill gets several questions about the Liberal Laundry and the NBN!
Good!
My postal vote paperwork arrived.
The NSW senate ballot paper is 1 metre and 2 centimetres long!
Most of the candidates are rubbish, nutters, one-interest groups and whingers. I’m going to be hard pressed to find 12 to number below the line. All I can say is thank goodness I don’t have to number every box this time, because I’d have a hard time working out who gets to be last.
I don’t know who Labor is preferencing, and I don’t care. I’m expecting their choices for NSW to be as ridiculous as the ones for Victoria. I’ll do my own thing.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/06/15/auditor-asked-look-lib-scam
Ziggy also famous for his advice when Fukushima went pfft.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-15/green-spinning-fukushima/3832080
Dodgy Dick tries to defend his party’s decision to preference Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats ahead of the Liberal Party’s gay, indigenous candidate for Sydney.
They say rapid blinking is a sign the blinker is telling lies. Just taker a look at the video!
Election 2016: Richard Di Natale stands by decision to preference Fred Nile candidate above Liberal
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-richard-di-natale-stands-by-decision-to-preference-fred-nile-candidate-above-liberal-20160615-gpjejw.html#ixzz4BcBJafLP
Caption from a photo attached to the Rogerson story at Fairfax:
Many years ago a mate of mine from Melbourne came up to visit. He brought a forbidden copy of Blue Murder (then banned in NSW) with him.
We watched it. I was both appalled with the content, and impressed with the production. It was magnificent television and a rivetting story.
By way of repaying my mate, the next day I took him on a Roger Rogerson grand tour of Sydney. We went to the lane where Lanfranchi was shot, the Connaught apartments where Chris Flannery was last seen alive, Centennial Park where Sally Anne Huckstepp was murdered, and several pubs along the way where Rogerson, Neddy Smith and Abo Henry et al used to drink.
Next day my mate came with me as I visited some customers in the Hunter Valley. As we drove up Pennant Hills Rd, heading for the F3 Freeway a big V8 Holden Statesman pulled alongside us in the next lane. The driver was Roger Rogerson. When I pointed this out to my mate he couldn’t believe it. I assured him I had not arranged for Roger Rogerson to be driving along the same road as we were. Rogerson had a serene smile on his face every time we saw him.
Over the next hour or so either we passed Rogerson going up hills (the hill after the Hawkesbury River bridge was one I remember clearly for some reason) or he passed us going along the flat. I read later that he had something to do with security at the Woy Woy (or perhaps Tuggerah) RSL… maybe that was why he was driving up that way.
Behind the Statesman was a trailer. Covering something in the trailer was a blue tarpaulin. My mate and I joked at the time that there might have been a body under it.
Maybe there was.
The whole Rogerson story was told to me years before, in the 1970s, by an off-duty detective whose wife worked with me in North Sydney. We were having a drink at the old Grape Escape for one of the other employees’ birthday. I heard that story exactly as it was presented 15 years hence in Blue Murder – names, dates, everything – and exactly as presented many, many other times later in news reports and magazines. The Rogerson Story was obviously common knowledge in the Police Force. But the off-cuty detective told me that Rogerson was “protected”, and that nothing could be done about him and his crimes until certain people protecting him retired, died, or were murdered.
The names “Christopher Dale Flannery”, “Neddy Smith”, “Sally Ann Huckstepp”, “Warren Lanfranchi”, “Michael Drury”, “Abo Henry” and of course, “Roger Rogerson” have been ingrained in the minds of any Sydney resident over the age of 55 for decades now. It’s wonderful to see him get his comeuppance at last, after he caused so much misery and sadness. The fawnings of the Alan Joneses of this world – extolling Rogerson’s “Law & Order” virtues, “rough justice” and the like – are as pathetic today as they were when uttered. Rogerson was a very bad man who did incalculable harm to police integrity, the families of his victims and of course the victims themselves.
Good riddance to him.
Having said that, I wouldn’t swap the couple of hours we found outselves playing tag with Rogerson on the F3 for anything in the world. It was surreal.
And I’ve never forgotten that blue tarpaulin.
Puffy
Well done to you and the young woman that gave you heaps of stamps on your card.
BB
My first thought on reading that was maybe he saw you taking your mate around the traps the day before and was stalking you. Glad I was wrong.
Oh, he was stalking me, as it turned out.
When he pulled the gun I told him he’d never get away with it. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Guess you’re right.” We shook hands and I never saw him again.
(Note: the preceding two paragraphs of this post were completely made up.)
In a day of continuing good news for our side, Urban has another first-class post up.
https://urbanwronski.com/2016/06/15/turnbull-sides-with-trump-and-co-over-orlando-shootings/comment-page-1/#comment-436
Hard to tell whether all the dead cats the Libs are tossing about are real or imagined
Somebody mentioned that Essential probably had a dodgy batch a couple of weeks ago. Looks like that was right and it’s now washed through. 51-49 for the ALP is their default position. Given that, I don’t expect any of the other polls to go anywhere for the moment.
But the trend as far as leaders is concerned is away from Turnbull and toward Shorten. Turnbull still has that PPM, but it’s all he has left as his personal approval ratings are now in negative territory. What’s holding his party up then? They should be heading toward where they were when Abbott got ousted.
Mark Kenny’s theory about Shorten having peaked is now busted. He’ll have to come up with a new one by the weekend. I don’t know what it’ll be, but I’m betting it’ll contain the words, “of course Turnbull will still very likely win the election, but…”
We’re missing the point.
Being favourite, bragging about future victories, having your media mates tell their readers it’s all-over-red-rover is electoral poison.
It might all be true, or partly true, or just more likely than not… but it’s also guaranteed to get any waverers with a protest vote against you in mind ready to do exactly that.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid… but I’m glad it is.
I have had the very dubious pleasure of meeting all of Roger Rogerson, Warren Lanfranchi, Neddy Smith, Sallie-Anne Huckestep and her most likely killer and former boyfriend Dave Kellaher. He would have killed her for two reasons, 1. he wanted to and 2. Rogerson wanted him to.
Geez, BB, mention of the old Grape Escape brought memories flooding back!
Going really well for Waffles and his captain’s picks
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/15/australian-election-2016-bill-shorten-accused-of-endangering-constitutional-recognition-politics-live#comments
The Grape Escape – now there’s a blast from the past.
Ms Sex Appeal is not popular with the voters in Lindsay.
Fiona ‘sex appeal’ Scott gets little love in Linsday
Sex appeal might not be enough for Fiona Scott to hold onto Lindsay this time around.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/06/15/fiona-scott-debates-emma-husar-in-linsday/
What a woman – sexy and gracious . . .
And booed.
In all the reporting on the election campaign there is no mention of the LNP picking up any extra seats except for the Palmer held Fairfax. It seems to be a given that Labor will pick up seats but there is uncertainty that they will win enough to form government. It appears that the whole strategy of the LNP is to limit the losses. All hands to the barricades seems to be the call with the MSM constructing the defences.
Lindsay is the seat that apparently was polled recently as 54-46 in favour of Fiona Scott. One of the ones Mark Kenn quoted as proof that Shorten is failing in the key marginals. Sounds like it might be a bit closer than that if the article above is any indication.
That’s Mark Kenny, not Kenn. The man’s articles always do beg the question “y” to be honest.
I forgave him a little today for breaking that Ziggy story. Still wouldn’t trust him on any predictions, mind.
Yes, Lindsay may be shaping up to be very interesting after that earlier poll showed Libs up 54-46. Mind you, it’s hard to imagine any situation where the Liberals could be improving their vote there, as that poll had implied. It was probably kosher at the time, but with a disengaged public and a prolonged campaign, there’s nothing to suggest it will remain that way.
The Crikey story seemed to suggest a solid winter of discontent. Although people can differentiate between state and federal elections, the mood from one can affect the other. Baird, with CSG and forced council closures and mergers, is starting to look tarnished. That may lead to another look at the federal scene, where in 2013 the ALP still carried a heavy corruption stench. The Liberals have offset that with their own corruption fallout since then. So there’s a very good chance that there’ll be a swing to Labor, possibly stronger in some areas than others.
My rough rule of thumb with this election is that Labor needs to win about 16 seats in the State of Origin states. They’re doing well enough in the southern states and WA, but probably can’t count on picking up more than about 6 seats, albeit Solomon NT must be a good chance.
I’m giving them a pretty good chance if they can keep this momentum.
More about Labor’s demand for an investigation into Parakeelia.
Why did it take the MSM so long to pick this up? Did they hope it would go away if they ignored it?
Bill Shorten attacks Liberal-Parakeelia ‘scam’; Malcolm Turnbull, Mathias Cormann dodge questions
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/bill-shorten-attacks-liberalparakeelia-scam-malcolm-turnbull-mathias-cormann-dodge-questions-20160615-gpjdug.html#ixzz4BczWL1lT
off to alp hq to do some phone work for Hindmarsh. cyal8ter
Warren Mundine says something sensible, and Fizza won’t like it.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2016/06/15/mundine-denies-treaty-would-harm-recognition.html?
Turnbull has handled all this in a most inept way. He seems to be telling indigenous people they can have only the option he prefers, or nothing. Not the way to go.
Turnbull is not a negotiator. ‘It’s my way or nothing’ is more his style.