Labor has enjoyed an unlikely sounding spike in the latest Morgan poll, to 61-39 from 57-43 a fortnight ago, for which the most likely explanation is that the previous one was a rogue. Its primary vote is up 4.5 per cent to 53 per cent while the Coalition is down 5.5 per cent to 33.5 per cent. The Greens are up two points to 8 per cent. Furthermore:
• The Victorian Nationals have endorsed Bridget McKenzie, a university lecturer and former school teacher from Leongatha, for the safe number two position on the Coalition Senate ticket at the next election. McKenzie fills the position held at the 2004 election by Julian McGauran, who subsequently defected to the Liberals and will now be the number three candidate on the Coalition ticket, with Michael Ronaldson at number one.
• Andrew Landeryou at VexNews reports that industrial relations lawyer John Pesutto has emerged as another challenger to Josh Frydenberg’s bid to succeed Petro Georgiou as Liberal member for Kooyong.
• Imre Salusinszky of The Australian notes that beef stroganoff enthusiast John Murphy would almost certainly lose his seat of Lowe in the event that an early election required a “mini-redistribution” to reduce New South Wales to its required number of seats.
• The Australian Parliamentary Library has published a paper mapping poverty rates by federal electorate.
930 Comments
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Well well; a journalist with more than two brain cells to rub together.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/diabolical-dilemmas-in-pms-china-highwire-act-20090404-9si8.html
This of coarse should be a bipartition balancing act. Not a political gotcha act.
What I mean is. ‘Not a political gotcha act’ by the opposition.
That Milne article is a complete fabrication. As if Rudd’s office would tell the defense force caller on 3 occasions that there were no special meals required. Even if the office wasn’t sure they’d find out wouldn’t they? By the time the 3rd call came through they’d be making serious enquiries of anyone who knows the PM to see if they could help. Tom’s #446 shows me that Milne has clumsily stuffed up his own story and exposes it for what it is – complete bull butter as Glen is wont to say.
#442, TP, Google doesn’t need to. News service is also an old hat. Citizen journalism via blogs, video posting ala youtube, social networking sites, and the latest twitter type news sharing. News service will also heading the oblivion path that is the print and classified media are heading.
As someone who was there from the beginning, Mosiac Browser V0.1, Web Server v0,1 and HTML V0.1 on Windows NT for the main streamers. Yes, i know the Unix guys have been hacking away for years, but it did take Mosaic browser to take it to the masses on Windows.
We knew from the beginning that aggregation will be the king. We actually built the first web crawler in Australia that aggregate contents across websites. But we didn’t have the resources to build a proper search engine. So good on Google for making billions because they do build the best search engine there is.
We also knew the Web/Internet will smash the monopoly and democratise the content creation, publishing and distribution. Especially distribution, the print media was supreme because it controls its own distribution channel via the newsagency channel. Any business that has control and monopoly over the distribution network, it’s a very good and profitable business, just ask Telstra.
But now, the distribution networks or channels are commodity, especially with the arrival of the wireless. The mobiles will be king in the next few years. In Japan, Korea, USA and some European countries, 50% of the internet traffic now are coming through the mobiles. It’s still early days for the mobiles, that is why i suggested to William that he should talk to his master at Crickey about putting together a mobile version of PB.
Rupert said people should pay for the contents. I am not prepare to pay for data, information, knowledge anymore, they are commodity, they are available everywhere. I will pay for wisdom. Sorry Rupert, your publications do not have any wisdom and you have missed the bus many times and still missing. Adios Amigo.
btw: I notice Microsoft has stopped selling its encyclopedia Encarta, obviously it has been killed by Wiki, just as it killed Britannica.
A good Sunday to all.
You’ll never go broke!
How many millions do we spend on protecting us from the threats of global terrorism?
Got to love the priorities of our Protection Services.
A week ago, the AFP could not prevent a man being bashed to death in front of hundreds of people at one of our major airports. Yet they can bravely protect a has been politician from the imminent danger of children bursting balloons in or near his office.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/costellos-protection-a-bust-as-kids-deliver-balloons-20090404-9sjo.html
Does anyone definitely know how long Rudd has been on the no red meat diet? I ask because the much hyped incident occurred in January this year. Rudd has been PM since late 2007. If Rudd has always been on this diet, this has given the Air force over 12 months to get used to it. If they then served him red meat, heads should roll – and not that of the air hostess – senior heads.
Tom.
Meatgate!
Who is this bloke on Meet The Press from the ACC (I think). He should cut the deceit, scrap the jargon and get off the propaganda. Here they are, the Liberals, talking about future debt and pressures on the budget from the bonus payments, yet propose permanent tax cuts. Playing cheap political points is one thing, but in the middle of this GFC, he should PULL his head in (or off, whatever suits him).
Also, Joe Hockey, the shadow treasurer of this country, thinks that a trillion dollars is a million million dollars. It’s not. A trillion is a thousand million dollars. Following on from Julie Bishop, another one who can’t count LOL.
Eeerr
1 billion = 1,000 x million
1 trillion = 1,000 x billion
1 trillion = 1,000 x 1,000 million
1 trillion = 1 million x 1 million
That doesn’t mean that anything else Hockey said was correct.
A great move by Swan and co on bank mortgages for anyone who might become unemployed here
http://www.theage.com.au/national/mortgage-relief-for-jobless-20090404-9sjg.html
I think this is terrific both economically and politically on several levels:
- it will give people greater security, which will encourage them to spend normaly
- in the long term good mortgages make banks money so they are fools not to keep them
- it reduces the risk of home deflation and consequent insolvencies
- politically it gives a dividend to average punters for all that bank assistance; the lack of such moves in the USA has been very unpopular there.
The free market fanatics will be frothign at the mouth but this is very sensible in current circumstances. Like the bank guarantees, it can be dropped when things blow over.
OK, I can’t count either.
Ahhh, good old News Ltd.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25289977-5006301,00.html
I’m sure the government realised that some taxpayers would be eligable for more than one tax bonus. “Under the hastily drawn up economic rescue package”… News Ltd at their finest.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25286978-2702,00.html
hmmm, some of the msm hacks could have done with this, especially the regulars on the Insiders.
Centre
Seeing your earlier question about three year forecasts, I presume you know it doesn’t work that way, and that this is NOT the timing of a solar maximum. However if you want detailed info I’d recommend the folowing blogs:
Brave New Climate (Barry Brooke at Adelaide Uni with excellent info on Ausie impacts)
Real Climate
Articles at UK Hadley Centre, British Met Office
My recollection is that, in terms of solar cycles, 2012/2013 is the next maxima; the fact that the poles are melting so fast now in advance of that point is quite concerning to scientists. Most warmign energy goes into heating sea water (90%) and melting ice (7%). By comparison our recent heatwaves are more random processes.
Glen Milne was on Insiders again today, running his favourite political theory: “It’s not the original act. It’s the coverup that gets ‘em in the end.”
So, an innocuous incident late at night on a RAAF VIP plane… er… sorry… “taxpayer funded VIP executive jet”, as Julie Bishop called it…. has been turned into a national catastrophe. “If they lie about something as admittedly trivial as this, how can we trust them on anything?”
It seems the more trivial the “offence” the graver the consequences. Not only is Rudd a boor and a bully, making women cry as his plots his future career in the Beijing politburo, a “senior member of the Chinese Communist Party” (Bishop again), but he lies about everything, from his botched meal up to… well… the fact that he’s a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, I guess. He told a porky about the chicken. This proves he’s a Commie rat, selling out Australia.
The brave pilot, grim-faced, flying through tropical storms on his way down from New Guinea, determined to do the chivalrous thing, wrote up the incident on his flight report. According to Julie Bishop, RAAF pilots now have the final say on whether Kevin Rudd should be sacked for being rude. I mean, these people are defending our country. Rudd is only a blow-in, a toxic, two-faced bore who’s bamboozled the Australian public into believing he’s doing a good job, and has been bamboozling them for 30 months straight.
If only we had Tony Abbott in charge. He’s set those Chinese right. When the Chinese Premier came to call, he’d tell him to wait in the ante-room saying, “Hu, we’ll take your money but don’t think this means we’re pals, because we’re not. You head up Communist state and the only thing we want from you is dollars. As for the rest, you can eat out in the kitchen with the staff.” You have to stand up to these slanty-eyed totalitarians, after all. Right?
The Insiders unanimously declared that Hostie-gate would go big. They ought to know. They write the stories. Don’t worry about the people in the vox pop interview earlier on in the show who said they understood exactly where Rudd was coming from. They’re only tulip fanciers. Probably poufter, lesbo uni graduates. Glen Milne and his cohorts are tapped into the real psyche of Australia: our PM should get rid of the taxpayer funded executive jet and travel cattle class like the rest of us. As for bikies with bollards at the luggage carousel… Well, he’ll have to take his chances with the common herd.
The Manchurian Candidate PM (Bishop: “I’m not saying that. Others are saying that. I’m only just repeating it a dozen times so maybe the mud will stick.”) would dwell to mollify these bastions of democracy, alias The Insiders. Their quick wits, their awesome influence out there in the wider community could give him the flick if they moved just their little fingers.
I mean, look at the polls: Q.E.D.
It looks like the Libs and their MSM supporters have finally found a new packet of straws to clutch at, I believe they’re loopy straws as well.
BB, a brilliant analysis as always
Thanks BB; there is a reason I don’t watch that show. Here’s hoping that News Ltd has to start sellign assets and cutting staff about the same time the new ABC board members take charge.
I have seen a few posts on other blogs about the “end of wingnut welfare” in the USA, where the coincident timing of the Republicans loss of office and the economic downturn means a shortage of corporate sinecures for right wing spruikers to hide in after being turfed. I hope it happens here too.
BB
I take it there was no discussion of the agreement reached at teh G20, or the bank loan assistance announced this morning? Too trivial I suppose.
There was Socrates, along the lines of “Rudd couldn’t get any of his ideas up” “Rudd mentioned China too much” “Its good they all got together for a chat but nothing much was really achieved.”
Didn’t hear about the bank assistance stuff, but did notice that Cassidy referred to Julie B as the Shadow Treasurer.
What annoys me the most about Insiders is that they each have their particular barrow that they try to push hard and continually talk over the top of each other resulting in confusion for the listener about what it is that they are trying to push.
Until they drop the likes of Bolt, Milne and Pies, then the program is going to become more and more irrelevant to the stage that only far right wing wacko’s will bother watching it to get their weekly hit.
The other thing that bothers me is that these “commentators” genuinely believe that they influence public opinion and go out so hard pushing the particular line that they think will resonate the most that all semblance of objectivity and informative discussion is totally missing or lost in the fog contradicting or talking over the top of each other.
Their analysis of the weekly feature interview is also shallow and a waste of time. They rarely, if ever call BS or partisan politicisation for what it is even when it is so evident as to be glaringly so. For some strange reason, this seems to allow Coalition interviewees to get away with absolute murder.
I enjoyed the George Howard comment by Milne and the John Hockey slip by Lenore Taylor was good.
Letting Julie Bishop get away with denying calling Kevin Russ the “Manchurian Candidate” was pretty poor though.
It was only two days ago which makes it a bit difficult to brush it aside as easily as that. It was highlighted in most of the media at the time, after all.
Agree. That was totally pissweak by Cassidy, but not exactly unexpected.
Joe Hockey: Coalition willing to block the budget:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25292231-29277,00.html
Well that sums up how opportunistic the opposition is.
Wow, it’s 1975 all over again!
Except the current Labor government is free of scandal rather than drowning in it, and continues to be the most popular government in the history of Newspoll.
Bring the blocking of supply on I say, so we can clean out the Senate and let Labor pass legislation with only Green support!
Bring it on! BRING IT ON!
Juliem & Finns
here’s a Sunday singalong by our Peter Garrett
he sang the national anthem before the local Kinglake footy match, pity it’s only sound and not video but the cheers from the crowd show they loved it!!
http://media.theage.com.au/national/breaking-news/peter-garrett-sings-for-kinglake-456781.html
Also on same page listen to, Pete talks and works the BBQ for the 2000+ crowd
http://media.theage.com.au/national/breaking-news/peter-garrett-sings-for-kinglake-456781.html
Hockey is a clown. Who on earth does that rubbish appeal to?
I have it on good authority that the alternate nickname was to be “georgy peorgy”
But unfortunately W had that monniker first.
A million dollars is a million dollars anywhere.
A billion in the US is not what a billion in GB. The deception continues into the trillions
US
million 1000,000
billion 1000,000,000
trillion 1000,000,000,000
GB
million 1000,000
billion 1000,000,000,000
trillion 1000,000,000,000,000,000
In short a US trillion is nothing more than a good GB billion.
I leave you to guess which set the media use.
Did anyone else get a chuckle from Glenn Milne on the Insiders today? How he pontificated about the ‘air rage’! Obviously forgot about his own ‘incident’ at the Press Club dinner. At least Rudd apologised for his mistake. Still waiting for Milne’s mea culpa.
And let’s not forget that Turnbull has a bit of the aggro about him as well.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/mal-tries-to-put-on-a-happy-face/2007/03/01/1172338793116.html
“I don’t suffer fools gladly,” Malcolm said. “I’m very impatient, very aggressive.”
And it’s just not true, according to another Malcolm interview, that in his merchant banking days he was known around the office as “Ayatollah”.
I reckon you all need a good wash after rubbing up against Insiders earlier, but a feel good story will have to suffice
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25290269-661,00.html
This sort of thing is why Labor are so popular in the polls, they get out and mix with the people, they don’t sit in TV studios with their vile cheer squads, sneering and threatening to stop whatever Rudd wants to do to help people.
Pete also put his harmonica (signed by all the Oils) up for auction to go towards helping the animal fire vicims.
Glenn Milne with his own public, physical rage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IamdZlffbYU
Unfortunately the old British billion is dead. Even the UK now uses the American version. I guess that this is because the Americans have more media power, a larger population meaning a larger economy and budget (so they have been using sums of 1,000,000,000+ for longer), a currency that is worth less than the Pound and more people with 1,000,000,000+.
I was still on high from my beloved Swannies winning last night so I looked at Insiders in a happy mood.
Wasn’t let down – Milne’s comment that the journos will cop anything from Rudd & Co. They’ll copy aggro, being pushed around but ….. they will not COP LYING!!
Can you believe it – when I picked myself up off the floor laughing I thought maybe we all should send him emails pointing a few of LIES lies. Of course, he would say his “sources” were wrong.
I think Crikey had an article about Turnbull a few months ago – his aggro and his loss of huge numbers of staff since being in Opposition. Can anyone find it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/mal-tries-to-put-on-a-happy-face/2007/03/01/1172338793116.html
LOL!
oops – should be ‘pointing out a few of HIS lies.
Same article:
*giggle*
I did like the sign off comment from whoever the older gentleman was (sorry, wasn’t really paying much attention) – that Howard should be investigated because his portrait was to be painted by a Chinese Australian and he had been pictured with Helen Liu…
It’s been suggested there are stories of Malcolm’s tantrums (Tantrumbull?) waiting to see the light of day. What’s the bet the Liberals will quickly drop references to Kevin’s air-rage incident while hoping like hell their MSM running dogs will do the same?
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090218-Is-the-Turnbull-led-Opposition-heading-towards-implosion.html
“Which leads to Turnbull’s other problem — his management style, which is more suited to the boardroom than politics, where it is all about relationships and egos. There has been substantial turnover of staff in Turnbull’s office even in the time since he has been leader, and the current line-up, led by ex-journo and Downer COS Chris Kenny, doesn’t look too flash. The mystery is why, given money is no object for Turnbull, he can’t recruit a top team of experienced advisers who would need plenty of money to make the switch from the private sector.”
I’ll never get sick and tired of that footage Cuppa.
As for the Coalition threatening to block the budget, they should start embracing being in opposition instead of foaming at the mouths. Once they get some ideas and stop resorting to bull butter (as Glen likes to call it), they might be a chance in 2013.
Is Peculiar Knob anywhere near Useless Loop?
“Is Peculiar Knob anywhere near Useless Loop?”
I’m sure the Liberal Policy HQ is there.
But Steve B, the timing is great. The opposition won’t get in after a term, not only because history shows it (took a great depression and the Labor Party splitting in to three seperate parties for it to occur), but the dynamics of an immensely popular Labor Party and the shocker of an opposition that is the LibNat coalition. Also not to mention that both espouse neo-liberal politics (Rudd/Labor might be against the excesses of it but they still espouse more or less the same economic policies) unlike the Labor days of old.
So with 2010 to Labor, comes 2013. The recession will be over by then. Governments are rarely voted out when the economy is on the up, the only modern exception coming to mind is 2007 but we all knew that was due to Howard policies like WorkChoices.
I can’t see the coalition regaining government for a long time.
Thanks Vortex. That must have been article I was thinking of.
Yep, that footage of Milne makes up for heaps of his ridiculous articles altho I gave up reading them awhile ago.
Yes, thanks for the links Vortex, to the ‘Happy Face’ article in the SMH (a beauty!), and to Crikey about his high staff turn-over.
Just about any criticism they make of Rudd can also be turned back onto to Turnbull (except for one vital point: Tantrumbull isn’t the PM, and won’t be!).
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