This fortnight’s Newspoll shows Labor’s two-party lead unchanged on 56-44. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating is down three points to 62 per cent, while Brendan Nelson’s is up two to 16 per cent.
The weekly Essential Research survey has Labor retaining its 59-41 lead. Peter Costello is rated best person to lead the Liberals by 26 per cent against 13 per cent for Malcolm Turnbull, 8 per cent for Julie Bishop and 7 per cent for Brendan Nelson. However, Kevin Rudd is preferred to Peter Costello head-to-head 53 per cent to 27 per cent.
916 Comments
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The Finns,
just as well those particles missed.
#751 Must be those holes in the Swiss Cheese. They should have known better to build the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
ruawake # 706
I chat to a friend in Scotland and has a friend is coming for a visit.He’s friend is on a Pension and gets free public transport.
#752 Well the world is still here . wonder what the results will look like.
#754 - Boulevard of broken particles
Firstly, by population, Telstra means fixed addresses - so your normal mobile phone will be out of range in vast areas even of relatively compact Victoria.
Secondly, the fine print is very fine. Yes, your mobile phone will get coverage in some of these vast areas - if you have the right phone, an antenna, and something to plug the antenna into. (I don’t have the right phone - it’s not 3G. Even if I did, I would need an antenna, and I would need to fix the antenna onto the side of my house to get coverage - as I said, sort of contradicts the idea of ‘mobile’ - speaking from a position of knowledge here, I’ve done the tests).
Thirdly, my main point was that that is talking about mobile phones. Fibre to the node is for broadband. Broadband coverage is extremely poor outside the major centres.
Lastly, decent broadband coverage can only be provided by fixed cabling - either optical fibre or copper (and copper only for short distances). And that’s straight from the (present) Minister for Communications office and confirmed by Telstra and indeed all the communications experts (at least half a dozen, some with international expertise) I sought information on during the last election campaign.
There are three pensions that are basically the same, Old Age Pension, Disability Support Pension and Carer Payment. (There are also service related pensions).
So Brenda is saying that one of the three is too low. So if the OAP is too low and should be increased why not the DSP and CP?
This will haunt him (and Rudd) in the next weeks.
If it is “morally right” to increase single aged pensions, why not increase all 3?
Why should there be a single rate and a couples rate?
Why did OAP and Carers get a lump sum payment when DSPs got zilch?
How much did the Hammock dweller piss up against a wall making super tax free at 60?
Rudd & Co have handled the pensioner issue very badly in the political sense. It remains to be seen what they actually do in the practical sense.
A big issue for sorting pension policy is that we are just starting on the upwards slope of the baby boomer pensioner wave. It is going to be a biggie. A large proportion of the them have spent as they have gone along and will have high expectations of what the Government will do good things for them. Any foolish decisions now will, if required, be very difficult to undo later. If the terms of trade head back towards where they have been historically, if the China/India boom goes slow, and so on, and so on, the feds may run out of the ready to meet all of the rapidly growing the social welfare costs.
I sort of like the Dutch system. Everyone has to contribute to the pension fund during their working lives and everyone, but everyone, gets a pension at the other end.
Socrates @ 749 I agree on the super/pension double dipping issue, but would have thought that the ‘double dipping’ is really only available those who have not been particularly successful at using the super rules to the max, and who therefore fall into the pension thresholds?
madk @ 754 Have I missed something? Has Costello recently made another statement on the subject?
zoom @ 756
By way of curiousity, about how far do you live from the nearest regional town, eg say like Dubbo?
Jenny Maclin was good on 10 news she said words to the effect that the government intended to look after ALL pensioners not just single aged. She talked about married aged, disability, veterans, carers etc saying the govt was working on helping them all.
Paul Bonjorno took the piss out of Brenda saying he probably wouldn’t last long enough to see his policy through anyway. said 12 of the libs that had voted for him last time were now on Allbulls side.
About 40k as the crow flies BUT it has to be an athletic crow (big bumps in the way).
15K from nearest reasonably sized town (where they can’t get mobile coverage for about 25% of the town, even though many of these houses are in sight of a mobile tower…again, verified by Telstra who has indicated they have no intention of doing anything to rectify this - and that’s regardless of your phone type).
BTW on the pledge issue - I’ve signed a few of them in my time. They clearly say that you must support ALP policy IF you’re elected and IF you’ve taken part in a caucus vote on the issue.
So a ‘cleanskin’ newly elected to parliament would be perfectly fine arguing against a policy made prior to their election.
This is why there are media reports of ‘deep divisions’ within the party leading up to a caucus vote and then everyone falls in line - most famously, in recent memory, Garrett with the uranium vote (and I believe he is still a party member)
And no, nothing on my (Victorian) membership card except HO’s contact details.
No 740
Boerwar, the personal attacks on Palin are obscene and unwarranted. Obama should start thinking about some substantive policy which can supplant the empty rhetoric.
No 756
Wireless broadband via HSPA networks like NextG is providing pretty decent speeds to rural and regional areas at competitive rates.
It is simply economic insanity to provide FTTN to these areas, especially given the pace at which wireless broadband speeds are improving.
Well the world is still here
Nah, the world ended an hour ago and we’ve all been blown to hell. Can’t you tell the difference?
GP
I live on the Sunshine Coast Qld, I cannot get G3, in fact I cannot get mobile coverage unless I stand on one leg in the correct spot and hope the wind is in the correct direction.
This applies to Telstra and Optus equally. Although for some reason it works well when the PGA golf is on at Coolum.
Thank goodness Obama never had to suffer any personal attacks. Oh wait…
GP, there was a huge argument (you might have missed it) during the election campaign last year where this was pretty exhaustively covered.
Wireless is deficient on several fronts. It is too easily interfered with - not just from other sharers of the wavelength, such as remote TV controls, but by hills, trees and buildings.
It is not seen by communications experts (see above) as anything but a shortstop. It is much slower than hard wired systems and it is anticipated that future technology will be even more reliant on these.
Wireless also is limited in its traffic - the more people accessing it, the slower it is. (Try using a wireless system in a school sometime - great at lunchtime, when the students are off line, slow as during classtime when there’s a hundred people trying to access the service).
Both sides of politics looked at the question of providing broadband to rural areas. Both determined that it was worth doing - it has huge economic benefits.
The Libs went with wireless. They did not even suggest using the present wireless systems, but were proposing an entirely new system of substations. It had huge problems - grossly exaggerated coverage, which was exacerbated by the failure to factor in limitations such as topography. They had to withdraw their maps from circulation because they were so poor. The coverage was so limited they had to commit extra funds to provide satellite to the bits that would be missed - and, in this area, it was calculated that this was 10% of the electorate, at $2000 a pop.
Labor went with fibre to the node. Doesn’t have any of the problems I’ve outlined above, is more secure, and the experts backed it as a better long term solution.
Both cost about the same amount.
Neither side of politics suggested that these areas should not get broadband or that NextG or its equivalents were capable of providing the service needed.
No 765
Where on the Sunshine Coast?
The coverage maps I’ve seen demonstrate dense coverage from Noosa to Caloundra.
GP
Coolum
No 767
I don’t know whether you’ve been following the discussions on Whirlpool.net.au, but I have.
Yes, wireless does not have the same capacity as FTTN, but it is far cheaper and quicker to install (not the same, as you inaccurately stated) and can reach a far greater proportion of the population.
Also, your analogy to simple wi-fi falls down. HSPA networks can handle substantially more capacity and reasonable speeds. Optus and Virgin have experience congestion issues which are coming from two things: underinvestment in wireless capacity and fire-sale prices leading to overloading on the network.
Telstra’s network is second to none nationally.
Also, all the experts that I’ve read both here and internationally advocate a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) network, not FTTN. Why? It is far more advanced and provides almost infinite capacity for future upgrades
No 769
Hmm, interesting. Have you contacted Telstra/Optus to investigate? Seems strange that you would not have any coverage.
No 767
Also zoom, if you do some additional reading, you’d also find that Conroy’s broadband policy was a carbon copy of a Telstra slide show. Right down to the $4.7 billion figure. Since the policy has been introduced, the estimated cost has risen to as high as $25 billion. Why? To cover each extra percentage point over 90%, the cost rises exponentially.
No 2
whats your take on the costello thingy!
GP
My problem is a NIMBY one, the local residents on the “hill” do not want the transmitter, if you want to be their neigbour you need a lazy $2+ million.
I have contacted Alex Somlyay, he has never replied.
Certainly agree that FTTP is preferable but that’s where you get into the ‘not economically justifiable’ zone.
Copper performs adequately for short distances (a couple of hundred metres) and indeed is exceeding all expectations. There is some exciting (I’m told it is, I don’t have the right kind of mind to get my thrills this way) research which suggests that copper has been undersold.
Don’t claim to be an expert in this field, so have talked to experts exhaustively. All I can do is reiterate that their view is that wireless is old technology, inadequate to the purpose and fibre is the way of the future.
Not arguing about Telstra’s network, just stating some facts about where it does and does not work. As I said earlier, their claims had to be verified independently before the old system could be switched off BUT even they stress you must have particular kinds of phones and accessories.
(Got a chuckle during the election campaign when Fran Bailey said that she had no trouble getting mobile phone coverage anywhere in her electorate, and then revealed that she carried at least two phones at all times in order to ensure reception).
Oh, and BTW, my mobile phone was purchased in October - it does not work out here, let alone get broadband. It would not work even if I got an antenna. Not that anyone at Telstra told me that when I purchased it.
No 774
Unfortunate. I guess having a mountain in the middle of town doesn’t help.
Does anyone know if Brendon’s latest brilliant idea to up the OAP by bringing in a bill, is possible? I saw some suggestion at Blogocracy that he would attempt to do so via the Senate??? What the…?
No 775
1. Wireless is not “old technology”. Wireless is improving rapidly. Yes it has its limitations, but it is much more cost effective for large topographical network spans.
2. FTTP is perfectly cost effective for the cities and large regional centres. Thereafter it is prohibitive, and thus is better served by wireless. The FIOS network being built by Verizon in the US has shown that costs are lower than previously estimated.
3. Rural/regional dwellers have to accept that the rest of society cannot subsidise their choice to live in a remote area. As such, I completely support subsidised wireless installations, but Fibre is just prohibitive in remote areas.
GP, done the extra reading. Can’t find the figure you refer to. (In fact, one of the websites I read simply said “Nobody knows”). Links are jolly things.
Conroy’s guarantee was always a $4.7 billion contribution, and it still is. There still seems to be industry interest.
When push comes to shove, the government doesn’t care if private enterprise spends extra, as long as it provides the service promised.
GP
Sure, but this points to the problems of wireless technologies. You need lots of transmitters - which vocal lobby groups can scare elected officials with.
Oh dear my kid is going to grow 3 heads.
Mount Coolum is not the problem, its just I live in the dip between two ridges.
1. Just quoting the experts, GP.
2. Yes, if you shift to FTTP, which we both agree is ideal but too expensive. FTTN is perfectly acceptable.
3. I’m not in a remote area. Neither is ruawake. Both sides of Parliament made it clear they thought providing broadband to 98% of Australians was economically justifiable.
There’s Brenda, on the news, with a straight face and a melodramatic tone in his voice, pleading for pensioners and for the PM to adopt his policy.
What an opportunistic useless incompetent PHONY waste of space and waste of time.
The Howard government STRIPPED funding from pensioners for 12 years. The pensioners never complained because it was their hero Howard in office.
Now that Mr Rudd is PM, they start complaining for more funding.
It’s an effing disgrace, and an insult to my intelligence that old MSM are holding the current government to blame.
“There’s Brenda, on the news, with a straight face and a melodramatic tone in his voice, pleading for pensioners.”
To be fair Nelson did say he wouldn’t be making those statements if he was PM.
Zoom
Thank you. Frustrating.
GP ‘personal attacks on Palin are ‘obscene and unwarranted’.
Not sure about how you think the personal attacks are ‘obscene’? Is there some sort of code here about her sexual behaviour that I don’t understand?
‘unwarranted’. My criticisms of Palin are:
1. She is a warmonger. She was crowing about the fact that her son is going to Iraq. She supports the Iraq war. Ergo: not an unwarranted attack.
2. I have criticised her for being clueless. Several bits of evidence: she has stated that she thinks that drilling for oil on the northern slopes of Alaska will address US dependence on foreign energy.*lol*, sorry, it won’t and it won’t by a country mile. She hasn’t got a clue on that one. Criticism warranted. Second exhibit: She is a creationist. Doesn’t get evolution. She has to be thick. (and if Obama is a creationist, ditto). Criticism on her being clueless warranted.
3. I have criticized her for being vicious. Her behaviour in relation to troopergrate is vicious. Criticism warranted.
4. I have not voiced other criticisms that are warranted. She is a liar. I know, par for the course, but the bridge lie is (a) stupid, because it is testable and (b) just a lie, after all. Criticism warranted.
5. I have not criticized her for being corrupt. Clearly, the way in which her mob are trying to subvert due process in relation to the trooper is thoroughly corrupt. I acknowledge that the Americans are so far down this path that they can hardly even recognize it as corruption.
I understand that personal criticism of Palin actually feeds her support amongst the know nothings, and that therefore setting her up as an ‘unfair victim’ of smart arse Washington liberal elites is a very useful straw woman. But I suppose you are disinterested and innocent bystander when it comes to the tackier side of US political life?
Rod @ 783
Nelson feels the pain.
Nelson IS the pain.
MayoFeral, (764) I thought the world ended when the Beatles let their hair grow over their collars!!
I wonder if there is a way to draw a line and to stop talking about who did what in the past.
I really don’t care what Hawke Keating did over a decade ago and there is no point saying the Rat Man did nothing and the mess we have is all Hammock’s fault.
Is there a way we can say, OK this is where we are at, how do we take things forward.
Or do we put up with pollies from both sides wanking on about ancient history?
rod, Brenda will be more informed of his future on Sixty Minutes on Sunday night LOL.
Speaking of peoples intelligence! How many religious loonies are there in the world? Originally, the loonies believed the world was flat. They were wrong!
HELLO, the bible, the krahnn (or however the hell you spell it. You know, the one with Allah in it) or whatever else they worship, it’s all a load of crap!
The real action, in search for some answers, is happening right now underground in Switzerland.
It’s already been put into the mix as part of the overhaul of the tax system inquiry ruawake. The Tories here just want to shout about an immediate increase rather than let the process run its course.
Centre
“The real action, in search for some answers, is happening right now underground in Switzerland.”
what truffle snuffling
ruawake, it was announced at budget time that it would be part of the tax review.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/19/2249525.htm
ruawake @ 787
I hope not. History matters. How well you manage to make your story about it stick matters even more.
Arguably Labor’s desertion of Keating and its abject capitulation to the Howard/Costello lies about the Keating era helped cost it Government for many years.
In terms of when people should stop talking about a particular bit of history, I thought Nelson’s reference to Keating was just another example of his bad judgment. The reason is that no-one but political apparatchiks cares about that bit of history now.
But, but, but, does anyone actually know, whether or not, Emo Man’s stated intention to introduce a bill to up the OAP is constitutionally possible? I would have thought not. Money Bills, i.e., Bills committing the gov’t. to spending $ originate in the HoR, if initiated in the Senate, require the recommendation of the G.G. ??????
Edward StJohn
The Liberals brilliant policy at the moment is to block all tax increases and ask for a pension increase. Obviously such a policy is nonsense.
Zero cred.
Centre @ 788
The accelerator cannot answer religious questions, even for $7 billion.
Boerwar
I tend to agree, but it has become the get out of jail free card, if a polly of either side gets a curly question the answer is - “Yeah but look what the other guys did”
Do we deserve better?
HSO @ 793
I am curious as well.
I suspect that the folk who know about this sort of thing are focusing on the WA count thread’ and William does not want that thread contaminated, fair enough.
We may have to wait and see.
Boerwar
We can dispense with the Obama creationist line. Ron said Obama’s pastor said it but it is not true.
McCain also believes in evolution. In fact Huckabee and some other ignoramus were the only two Repugs in the primary race who were creationists.
I should clarify 798. I’m not saying Ron was wrong. I’m saying the pastor was wrong.
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