Morgan’s latest polling release covers 955 respondents from last weekend’s face-to-face surveys, and shows Labor’s two-party lead down from 61.5-38.5 to 60.5-39.5. Labor’s primary vote is down a point to 50.5 per cent, and the Coalition’s is up 1.5 per cent to 34.5 per cent. On top of which:
• Silly Steve Fielding joined with the Coalition on Wednesday to vote down government electoral reforms that would tie public funding for election candidates to their electoral expenditure, lower the threshold for disclosure of donations to $1000 from $10,000 (which the Howard government used its Senate majority to jack it up to), ban foreign donations and anonymous donations of over $50, and require parties to disclose donations every six months rather than annually. The sticking point is Fielding’s insistence that the government also arbitrarily cap public funding to political parties at $10 million. The bill was reintroduced to the House yesterday.
• Submissions have been published in response to the federal government’s green paper on donations, funding and expenditure.
• Responding to mounting speculation she will take on Don Randall in Canning at the next federal election, senior Gallop/Carpenter government minister Alannah MacTiernan tells The West Australian: “It’s something that I’d consider but it’s far too early. The election is a long way away and it’s not something a decision can be made on until early next year.”
• The South Australian Liberals have picked a new candidate for the state seat of Mawson to replace former Kingston MHR Kym Richardson, who was charged in December with attempting to pervert the course of justice by impersonating a police officer. Matthew Donovan, described by the local Southern Times Messenger newspaper as a “self-employed importer and property developer”, won preselection ahead of Heidi Harris, adviser to Shadow Transport Minister Duncan McFetridge and unsuccessful candidate for federal preselection in Mayo; Heidi Greaves, public servant, former Onkaparinga councillor and unsuccessful candidate for Elder; and Alana Sparrow, Housing Industry Association lawyer and former media adviser to Richardson.
• The Daily Telegraph reports that NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell “will hire a team of constitutional lawyers to explore recall provisions to end fixed four-year terms for incompetent governments”. This would involve provisions for the Governor to “sack a corrupt or useless government” if called on to do so by public petitions, presumably in a fashion similar to that which brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to power in California. UPDATE: More from a skeptical Imre Salusinszky at The Australian.
• Chris Back this week took his place in the Senate, filling the vacancy created by the departure of Western Australian Liberal Chris Ellison.
1,149 Comments
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And even if Rudd did win, the Liberals would keep blocking the government’s policies anyway. That’s all they know how to do at the moment – say NO to everything.
Thanks Glen – at least I try to understand where the other guy is coming from …..
Oh goody, it’s the sequel to the 2007 Election.
Obviously you agree with Gerard Henderson that everyone has forgotten how much they hate WC and that it had bugger all to do with the Nov 24 result.
So you’re conceeding that the ALP will win?
Juliem if it is anything to you i dont believe we will win the next election whenever it will be, our best case scenario is winning net 1 or 2 off Rudd or a status quo.
The last thing we want is losing more seats unless they are National Party seats because then we’ll win them off the ALP the next time around
.
Glen, What a strange little universe you inhabit. Losing Nat seats to Labor so that the Libs can win them 3 years later is an incredible proposition.
No it’s not, Glen hates the Nats.
Expecting a plethora of great Nats candidates coming up through the ranks??
Whoops – sorry I took “we” to mean the LNP.
954, don’t forget that IF we cross the bridge of a DD that the Labor party will make NO mistake about reminding one and all why we are having a DD election in the first place. With a smart campaign manager and ad strategy your hopes of best case scenario as listed there are a zillion to one (Libs will carry all of the blame for the early election)
Glen, On that note (959), I’m signing off to get a few things done and hang out until UnderBelly starts in Perth …….
960
Are things that desperate over in the west?
I dont hate the Nats i just think there only needs to be one Non-Labor party in Australia.
Yes Glen, let’s see those polling figures of 58%+ 2PP converted into electorate seats. Peter Costello could then be the leader, being the last man standing. It would guarantee a further ALP win in 2012 and highly probable win in 2015. If fact, it could put Labor in power for a generation.
Yeah, I agree – The Greens.
It’s Time more like a Costello/Tuckey leadership team lol if it really did turn out to be 60/40….
ShowsOn get serious the Greens will never be involved in any Government of Australia, thank god for the 2 party system and not a stupid Euro style 6 party government system
A 6 party system is preferable to a 1 party system.
Incidentally Glen, the Liberals today are a complete hopeless joke on the electoral finance bill. They accuse Labor of being partisans by wanting to put the disclosure minimum down to $1000, after Howard put it up to $10,000. The Liberals say that a $1000 limit supposedly favours Labor, but can’t explain how.
But anyway, I think there are lots of desirable electoral reforms: voluntary voting, and optional preferential voting being the two most pressing.
ShowsOn a 6 party system created a 1 party system (eg: Weimar Republic)…
Anyway we just dont have any money to fight an election, nobody will give us the dosh like the ALP can draw at the moment so that would make winning an election much harder.
I agree with voluntary voting and first past the post that is my desired system, or optional preferential if i couldnt have FPTP….
Definitely NO to the first and possibly maybe to the second
The right to a vote was won over many battles it should be never be presumed to be a “voluntary obligation”
Gusface you should have the right not to vote.
ShowsOn
I was once in your camp re voluntary voting but after seeing what’s happened in the USA I’m not any more.
1)Compulsory voting limits the damage that can be done by those that want to win by disfranchising various groups, Howard tried but lets be honest he didn’t get fare. In the US there are tricks a many.
2)No one can go around saying don’t blame me I didn’t vote, we all have to take responsibility for the outcome.
And anyway it isn’t compulsory, if you really are fussed just pay the fine.
Yeah, last year Labor raised over $40 million, the Liberals could only raise $15 million. The actual figures were in the Australian on Saturday, but I can’t find the article.
The Liberals would get more donations if they decided to support the stimulus package.
The Liberal party would be a lot closer if it didn’t spend all its time trying to snipe from the sidelines and distracting the electorate from major issues with their own problems.
Now with the GFC and Australia going into a recession these turkeys are going on about anything but the GFC. The government would be very happy to have arguments about Alcopop and Workchoices and electoral reform. And the Liberals have obliged with the biggest distraction of all, supporting the voted out Workchoices. This is in addition to leadership problems of their own making.
If they had played a straight bat from the beginning and been sensible they would be down to 54/46 by now and looking forward to a closer election.
They should have let Workchoices go through to the keeper, the same with the ETS the same with the Stimulus package. Let it all sail along and instead develop their own policies in readiness for the next election and then attack the govt on their being a recession. All they have managed to do is damaged their brand.
It is inevitable the polls will come back as the economy worsens. People want to blame somebody.
Sure, sure. It is compulsory attendance.
I still don’t like the idea of the State forcing people to go to a polling place when they’d rather not.
Maybe I would be happier if it was publicised that you don’t actually need to vote (you just have to attend, have your name crossed off the roll, and accept the ballot papers) because most people think you do.
Glen you live in a society, there are no rights you “should have”, there are rights that the society grants you, and they happen to be far more extensive than those you obtain living on your own in the wild.
Voting isn’t compulsory. Nobody holds a gun to your head at the polling booth. It is compulsory to get your name crossed off at a polling booth, nothing more.
Yes society grants us the ‘right’ to vote (yes i know we dont have a bill of rights in Oz but still) and so we should then be able to choose whether or not to exercise that ‘right’….
I don’t agree that people have rights because they are granted by society. People have rights because they are human, they are born with them, and they can not be legally or morally taken away.
ShowsON
It’s either
1) Get of you ass and show up at the booth to support our democracy.
2) Get off your ass and dream up a good excuse and write a letter.
or
3) Fork out some money for being so dam lazy.
It’s pretty fair really.
ShowsOn
I don’t believe in god either.
That’s too much of a requirement for me. You also have to accept the ballot paper and mark it properly (although that latter requirement is impossible to police given the secret ballot).
The right to vote is in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have that right because we are human, not because the State gives us taht right.
Kate Ellis is on QANDA with Tony Abbott this week. Must see viewing.
Why should the state determine what you do on election day?
Why should the state have the right to fine you for deciding what you want to do on election day?
Either do I.
I think turnout would fall to probably to between 60 and 70% eventually if we brought in non-complusory voting. Also our votes would count more (those of us who did vote)
More likely Abbott will start attacking that unorthodox Catholic priest, who has the temerity to accept women and homosexuals into his church without subjecting them to discrimination.
Abbott won’t be able to handle such common sense.
Why is 4 Corners wasting away our 45mins on a third rate Columbia drug story.
Sounds fine to me. That means elections will be decided more by people that really care about the issues, rather than people that rock up and just randomly choose on the day.
Cos if they do these repackaged shows every now and then they can claim it shows that the ABC needs a bigger budget.
So the Maldives are going to be first country to go really, truly, carbon neutral?
They will have to get a move on because they will be under water within a couple of centuries.
Considering that the right for all citizens over 18 is relatively new concept (think suffragettes,land qualification and indigene ) I am deeply disturbed that anyone would even consider it a “voluntary” obligation.
We might as well revert back to feudalism
Actually SO, I think it’s a bit more complicated than people having rights they are born with and there being no legal or moral ways in which they can be taken away. Take, for instance, the question of voluntary euthanasia. This has been something fiercely fought about in both the political arena, and decided on in the courts, in various ways.
I would argue from my own perspective that a person has a right to end their own life if they judge that to be the best decision for them and they are legally competent to do so. However, that is not ensured in Australia.
Turnout rates went as low as 49% in Australian history.
If it is an obligation, it isn’t a right. I’m obliged the pay a parking fine, but it should be my right to determine whether or not I want to go to a polling booth and vote.
I would encourage people to do so, but I think ultimately it should be left to the individual to decide what they want to do.
But bob1234 why should 50% of people be voting not based on any issues but just how they feel on the day and even when they do vote dont feel good about doing so is that a democracy.
If they dont want to have a say that is their choice and it would mean that if we did want Australians to get involved that their children ought to be taught civics and politics in high school to try and engage them at an early age. Most kids would have trouble naming one Minister other than Rudd.
SO, the point is that with rights goes responsibilities, as a citizen, that is
This is a common misconception. It is compulsory actually to vote. The Act says: “It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at easch election.” The AEC’s website says: “Under the Electoral Act, the actual duty of the elector is to attend a polling place, have their name marked off the certified list, receive a ballot paper and take it to an individual voting booth, mark it and place it in the ballot box.”
http://www.aec.gov.au/pdf/voting/compulsory_voting.pdf
If you go to a polling booth, have your name crossed off, take a ballot paper and then put it in the bin, or walk out with it, and the polling officials see you do this, you will be recorded as not having voted.
Crap 4 Corners, I’ve got to agree.
Gus, i think we are still there with Serfchoice that the Ruddster is having difficulty getting rid off.
I think you have mixed two things together here. Of course everyone has the right to end their own life by suicide. Euthanasia concerns OTHERS assisting in the death of another, where that other person has given consent. That is a much harder issue to resolve.
I do think that euthanasia occurs every day in hospitals around our country, we simply don’t have complete legal recognition and codification for how it should occur. I don’t know the answer, but i tend to think it is better left to individual patients, their families and doctors to decide on. I don’t know if parliaments making definitive laws about euthanasia would help things, and may actually cause more complications if the laws don’t ‘fit’ with a particular person’s circumstance.
The paradox, the paradox.
Unlike Howard and Rudd, Bob Brown understands the dynamics and implications of climate change but is not in a position to do anything sensible about it.
Howard and Rudd were both in a position of doing something sensible about climate change, but quite obviously did not understand it, and so did not do anything sensible about it.
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