2023 Beginning of Summer Open Thread

Kirsdarke Political Observation

Other than the Mulgrave by-election in Victoria on 18 November, there is little occurring in the way of Australian elections over the Summer.

This is a good opportunity for a general open thread to cover these bare months of politics, and hope for the best that the summer won’t be as bad as meteorologists have predicted. But going from its early start, it’s been pretty dreadful so far.

477 thoughts on “2023 Beginning of Summer Open Thread”

  4. This will be the last Dawn Patrol for the year. I’m taking a rest for a week or so, starting again on Jan 2. So, I wish all the Dawn Patrollers and Bludgers (and William, of course) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Tear.

    Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    “It used to be enough that Albanese wasn’t Scott Morrison, but now?”, asks Nick Bryant.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/it-used-to-be-enough-that-albanese-wasn-t-scott-morrison-but-now-20231221-p5et2l.html
    Regaining control over the national political conversation will be Anthony Albanese’s one great challenge in 2024, writes Laura Tingle.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-23/anthony-albanese-challenge-regaining-control-political/103258044
    The Saturday Paper’s editorial begins with, “The problem with this country is that Peter Dutton could credibly become its prime minister. If the myth of American politics is that anyone can be president, the sad truth of Australia is that no one is truly unelectable. The degradation of our politics, the emptying out of talent and credibility, has left us with a poverty of choice. It is a contest between impotence and incompetence. The decision is made by the country’s worst impulses, which suits Dutton fine.”
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/editorial/2023/12/23/the-poverty-fear
    Paul Bongiorno reckons Albo needs to lift his game. He says that a largely hostile media and an unscrupulous opposition leader have more than likely convinced Albanese he would need more mojo than he has ever claimed to possess to risk crashing through or crashing on the cost of living crisis.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2023/12/23/albanese-needs-find-his-mojo
    In a simple declaration, John Hewson says the opposition is unelectable. He writes, “Negativity and denial are not election-winning policies or strategies. Nor is continuing to drag the Coalition further and further to the right of the political spectrum.” Hewson is really pissed off.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2023/12/23/this-coalition-unelectable
    “The fact that one of the least populated countries on Earth contains the world’s second most expensive housing is a national calamity, and a stunning failure of public policy,” writes Alan Kohler, in the latest Quarterly Essay.
    https://johnmenadue.com/australias-deeply-unfair-housing-system-is-in-crisis-and-our-politicians-are-failing-us/
    Millions of working Australians are in line for more cost-of-living relief after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted households were still doing it tough. Rachel Clun reports that, in his clearest message yet that the government will use the new year to deal with the financial pressures faced by many, Albanese said relief for low and middle-income earners was under active consideration.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cost-of-living-relief-could-be-coming-for-more-australians-in-2024-20231222-p5et82.html
    A year that started with Peter Dutton under pressure has ended with Anthony Albanese searching for a way to revive his government’s political fortunes, says Peter van Onselen.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/abandoning-the-ghost-of-big-reforms-past/news-story/f71f72aa92dfd7589a1eb2c3b3942995?amp=
    Ted O’Brien’s fact-free nuclear cheerleading is cover for the same old climate vandalism, writes Katharine Murphy who says that, in huffing and puffing over renewables while denying the measurable costs of nuclear generation, the Coalition is digging in with the politics of relentless opportunism. (The best one can say about O’Brien is that he provides comedy relief.)
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/23/ted-obrien-nuclear-cheerleading-renewables-climate-vandalism
    Whenever there is a sense of crisis in Australia, the xenophobe in our heart is ready to spring out into the open. We have deep and justified concerns about the cost of living and housing affordability. The origins are complex, and the solutions are difficult, involving sacrifice from one part of the community to provide equity for another. They are worth serious debate, writes Malcolm Knox.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/can-you-hear-australia-s-inner-xenophobe-my-friend-hears-it-loud-and-clear-20231221-p5et1r.html
    The year 2023 saw ominous forces remaking the world order, a global struggle by central banks to beat back inflation, and cultural eruptions in the West undermining the liberal principle of equality – it was branded everything from a polycrisis to an age of megatrends. Western democracies, divided within, battled to meet new and ancient challenges, writes Paul Kelly.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/west-under-strain-as-traumas-escalate-in-an-age-of-polycrisis/news-story/09f4ce40135b3264c509bd1f87eb8827?amp=
    According to Paul Sakkal, Tim Wilson will set up a rematch with teal MP Zoe Daniel in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, the only one of the six Liberals who lost to independents to confirm he will contest the next election.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/defeat-was-a-gift-tim-wilson-to-recontest-goldstein-against-independent-mp-zoe-daniel-20231222-p5et86.html
    The Australian Federal Police have revealed they’re targeting sovereign citizen groups who pose a risk of violence, while experts on anti-government extremists warn the threat must be balanced with the sensitive handling of mental health. Claire Sibthorpe explains that sovereign citizens generally believe every human is born “free”, the government is illegitimate or corrupt, and they do not have to follow laws unless they sign a contract. There are fears some have become increasingly radicalised due to spending more time online since the COVID-19 pandemic.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/moving-towards-violence-authorities-alert-to-radicalised-sovereign-citizens-20231116-p5ekh0.html
    Labor risks losing its grip on the mainland with the next Queensland election, as Annastacia Palaszczuk’s successor faces pressing social justice issues and disastrous floods, writes Elspeth Muir.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2023/12/23/palaszczuks-legacy-queensland
    Deborah Snow provides us with an extensive analysis of the Lehrmann defamation trial.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/wait-of-evidence-ultimate-ruling-in-lehrmann-case-may-not-be-cut-and-dried-20231222-p5et8w.html
    Jack Waterford has written a long essay about the Lehrmann defo trial, looking particularly at the concepts of openness and contempt. A very good read.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8468914/courts-are-increasingly-held-in-contempt-thats-bad-for-justice/?cs=14329
    A key Sydney hospital, St Vincent’s, is on the precipice of insolvency, according to leaked internal memos, and will soon be unable to pay its staff, reveals Rick Morton.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/2023/12/23/exclusive-st-vincents-hospital-be-insolvent-april
    Having had enough of police stonewalling, the SMH editorial says, “Their sons and brothers and fathers died lonely, terrifying violent deaths, yet their families’ grief was cruelly prolonged by a stonewalling NSW Police Force that resisted acknowledging the hostility experienced by LGBTQI people as they investigated a four-decade swathe of unsolved murders across Sydney.”
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-police-must-no-longer-stonewall-on-gay-hate-investigations-20231222-p5et97.html
    Two ALP-controlled councils have accused the Minns government of flouting planning rules to meet national housing targets, with one local authority threatening legal action, report Michael McGowan and Max Maddison.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/parramatta-council-threatens-legal-action-against-minns-government-over-housing-20231221-p5et0f.html
    Melbourne’s largest waste-to-energy plant – able to burn through almost 400,000 tonnes of rubbish a year and convert it into electricity – is being proposed for the city’s northern fringe to provide power for an estimated 70,000 homes. Adam Carey reports that the waste management company, Cleanaway, has submitted detailed plans for the plant, which it hopes to build at a cost of about $700 million.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/huge-waste-to-energy-plant-proposed-for-melbourne-s-northern-suburbs-20231221-p5esyz.html
    Darren Kane goes into considerable legal detail in declaring that Cricket Australia is acting like a law unto itself with its Boxing Day banner ban.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/why-ca-is-acting-like-a-law-unto-itself-with-boxing-day-banner-ban-20231221-p5esz7.html
    Survivors have renewed calls for the former Australian governor general Peter Hollingworth’s lucrative pension to be stripped and redirected to survivors of abuse after two complaints of “serious neglect” related to his failure to act on knowledge of abuse were substantiated against him.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/peter-hollingworth-calls-for-former-governor-generals-pension-to-be-removed-after-new-findings
    The ABC is at rock bottom because of negligence higher up, argue Stuart Littlemore and David Salter who suggest a course of action to restore the once-great public broadcaster.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-abc-is-at-rock-bottom-because-of-negligence-higher-up-20231221-p5et32.html
    The overhaul that’s intended to rescue the ABC from demographic disaster is looking shaky as more senior staff leave, among them some of the stewards of its transformation, says Scott Mitchell.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/media/2023/12/23/inside-the-overhaul-the-abc
    Calum Jaspan tells us that the sacked ABC host Antoinette Lattouf has claimed the broadcaster’s managing director, David Anderson, ordered an abrupt end to her short-term radio contract, in legal proceedings filed with the Fair Work Commission.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/unlawful-termination-antoinette-lattouf-claims-abc-chief-made-call-to-sack-her-20231221-p5esyw.html
    The downfall of property giant Evergrande tells the story of an epic crash that’s affected everyone in China. And there could be more pain to come, explains Bloomberg’s Rebecca Choong Wilkins.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-chinese-dream-has-turned-into-a-nightmare-20231221-p5esvs.html

    Cartoon Corner (very slim pickings from Australia today!)

    David Pope

    Jon Kudelka

    Mark David

    Leak

    From the US















  6. Huge waste-to-energy plant proposed for Melbourne’s northern suburbs

    Melbourne’s largest waste-to-energy plant – able to burn through almost 400,000 tonnes of rubbish a year and convert it into electricity

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/huge-waste-to-energy-plant-proposed-for-melbourne-s-northern-suburbs-20231221-p5esyz.html#:~:text=Cleanaway's%20proposed%20Melbourne%20Energy%20Resource,be%20fed%20into%20the%20grid.

    Hurrah ! …………………………………or maybe not

    18 MAR 2020
    ZWE STAFF
    Understanding the carbon impacts of Waste to Energy incineration

    ………………..The carbon intensity of European incinerators is a significant (540gr CO2/kWh)[4], around twice the concentration of CO2 emissions derived from the average EU electricity grid (296gr CO2/kWh) [5] and significantly greater than the energy produced through conventional fossil fuel sources such as gas…Each tonne of MSW incinerated typically releases between 0.7 and 1.7 tonnes of CO2 [3]…………. continued use of incineration is simply delaying a much needed, and urgent, transition to less carbon-intensive power generation infrastructures such as wind and solar renewable energy whilst also undermining the move to lower-carbon options for waste management, including the re-design of products to increase recyclability and longevity.

    https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2020/03/understanding-the-carbon-impacts-of-waste-to-energy/#:~:text=Each%20tonne%20of%20MSW%20incinerated,tonnes%20of%20CO2%20%5B3%5D.

  8. Something funny to watch over Christmas, Philomena Cunk’s fake documentaries are simply hilarious.

  10. This would strike a chord with anyone who has moved houses. Having just done the deed the chord struck was very loud 🙂

    In the midst of moving home, I understood minimalism

    I don’t know who put all these items in my house. It certainly wasn’t me. Or, if it was, it was a different me who didn’t understand that one day these items would need to be packed into boxes and moved into an entirely different house. I had always hoped to die in this house. Not out of a particular fondness for the house, which is a run-down rental, but because I would find dying suddenly a lot more pleasurable than the slow pain of having to move.

    https://www.smh.com.au/culture/comedy/in-the-midst-of-moving-home-i-suddenly-understood-minimalism-20231218-p5esa2.html

  11. Ten years ago my landlord (NSW Housing) decided my home needed new paint inside and out and new carpet as well. This meant EVERYTHING had to be packed up.

    It was not a move but it might have been worse. It made me realise how many books I had – I bought a Kindle and have gone back to buying books.

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