The latest fortnightly Roy Morgan survey has Labor’s two-party lead increasing from 59-41 to 60-40. Labor’s primary vote is steady on 50 per cent, while the Coalition’s is down 1.5 per cent to 34 per cent. The balance is evenly distributed among the Greens, Family First and others.
Other news:
• Antony Green tells you everything you need to know about all this double dissolution talk.
• Phillip Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald reports the Liberal contest to replace Brendan Nelson in Bradfield could develop into a contest between two big conservative guns: The Australian’s opinion page editor Tom Switzer, and John Howard’s legendary former chief-of-staff Arthur Sinodinos.
• The Federation Press will publish a self-explanatory volume entitled Australia: The State of Democracy, edited by Marian Sawer, Norman Abjorensen and Phil Larkin of the Democratic Audit of Australia, on June 15.
• Brian Costar of Swinburne University of Technology reviews the implications of the Victorian Ombudsman’s recent report into Brimbank City Council and the related internal matters of the Victorian ALP.
• The Victorian Parliament’s Electoral Matters Committee has published the final report of its Inquiry Into Political Donations and Disclosure, which I won’t claim to have read at this stage.
• Two electoral events in Western Australian tomorrow: the daylight saving referendum, which you can discuss here, and the Fremantle by-election, which you can discuss and read about in very great detail here.
886 Comments
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Malcolm getting his excuses ready for his upcoming backflip on Alchopops
QT will be fun again!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/17/2572732.htm?section=justin
BH are you wearing your Swanny scarf
Meant ‘but’ and ‘where they print some gossip’ – it’s Sunday so I must be still asleep or my fingers are.
Jovial Monk in Boothby. Haven’t hardly posted since the election so forgive you for overlooking me in the count of ‘Bludgers
Vera – the scarf is always wrapped around the telly on Swannie match days, but would you believe it, I haven’t seen the match yet. Daughter rang at 10.30 to say we had won so I had a cheer then. Don’t care how we won, just that we did.
2009 and we still can’t get free to air in our little spot of heaven. Fox aren’t allowed to play Swannie matches when they play home. Will have to wait until Tuesday/Wed. to see it on Fox.
Watched Sky Business this am and it was pretty favourable towards the Govt. Bloke from Optus was happy with the way his talks are going re broadband.
Then Insiders was actually interesting and not just a gotcha session by journos.
Toohey, Crabb and Mega were all good contributors. What a difference they are to the rightwing ravers.
It wasn’t definitive – just a count of those who posted in the last big thread, which I thought would give a pretty good snapshot. I know a few have not been around for a while. And of course previous regular poster Adam in Canberra was deposed in a bloody, schizophrenic purge by Psephos.
Grog – everyday reader but not always able to stay posting for long. I find that lots of links from Bludgers saves me trawling the news sites so that saves heaps of time in a day.
Wish I could get into the small wee hours with you lot but I can’t seem to keep the eyes open. Think I should be 20 years younger – or more.
Dario – I’ll play you ‘my buffoon is bigger than your buffoon’ if you like. Paterson is the electorate. 2010 will change back to Labor I hope.
You were on the list BH!
A page or so ago I posted about the dumb “travel costs of ministers” story.
Props to Bolt for not taking the easy line:
Missed it first time Grog – taa. This site helped save my sanity from just before Rudd was elected Leader in 2006.
I actually saw it mentioned in the SMH, I think, along with LP or it may have been Mark B from LP who commented on William so I thought I’d have a look and was wonderfully surprised. Much better infor than some of the MSM.
You really are an educated lot and Dio’s comments are great as well as those who work in ‘green’ areas or political ones. I truly appreciate them all and pass them on to the old fella who has been hanging off my arm for donkey’s years. He now thinks he is more knowledgeable than the neighbours. One up to Bludgers there.
BTW – I used to live in Berowra (Ruddock’s seat). He was a young member then. Bloke I worked for was Ruddock’s father’s best mate so I heard a lot of insider Lib gossip then.
Turned me right off them, I must say.
I’m told Adam is doing well in rehab and can now go several hours at a time without checking his emails.
On insiders this morning, GM mentioned that the Howard and Costello had the surplus in deficit in 06/07. I didn’t quite believe I heard right and was waiting for anyone else to mention this at PB.
I’m reading GM’s newest article in the OO and his first two sentences verify what I thought I heard this morning.
In other words the Howard/Costello government left a deficit for the Labor government. This rhetoric about them being good economic managers is a fairy tale.
One thing I don’t understand is why the Labor government didn’t pronounce it loud to everyone, maybe keeping business confidence, because they knew what was coming.
had the surplus – had the budget
Ah well. I tried.
As such, I’ve come up with a blank…
The Andrew in question is a PB regular.
I’m sure he’ll let you all know who he is if he wants to decloak.
Tomorrow should be a big polling day – Newspoll has been known upon occasion to bring forward certain polls early (not saying they will, but if I was them I would), Essential Report will undoubtedly have budget reaction stuff and there’s the whiff of a Nielsen in the air.
Poss
What what what
Who is andrew and what has he done (esp. to who and when)
Gus, the Andrew Catsaras that Glinn above was talking about , and whom was mentioned earlier by Oz and others from #646 onwards.
Oh
fair enough then
here’s link to above story I posted at 2.51pm (the post numbers don’t come up help!)
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/budget_honesty_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder
Is anyone else reading it ….unbelieveable
I’m guessing he lives in Eden-Monaro.
Of course, this could just be a cunning plan by Gus to feign ignorance in order to deflect suspicion away from him onto others.
It wont work Andre^..^..^ Gus!
Poss, I spotted your name last night or I should say this morning in TPD article. Now if TPD reads your article’s, we know they of the right might have a clue, which is such a pity because it’s fun to watch them stumble around.:D
George M speaks the truth:
Poss
the day I write for rupe is the day I get a voluntary lobotomy
Cut out all the BS. It’s all to do with what money can be made out Hillary stuffs. Why dont they just split the royalty 50-50.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/hillary-children-in-museum-bequest-furore-20090516-b6rv.html
I’m fairly certain that’s a requirement now, yes?
Has anyone been watching The Amazing Mrs Pritchard on Showcase, on Foxtel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Mrs_Pritchard
It’s pretty quirky for a political series. Makes me wonder whether someone should make a “what if” mini-series in Australia based around a scenario where Pauline Hanson became Prime Minister in 1998!
Will there be Zeppelins?
dogma, I share your puzzlement as to why labor has not pointed out the structural deficit they were left with. given how much mileage got out of the “black hole” budgetary position, I dont why Labor isn’t working harder to dispel the myth of the libs as great economic managment
Whaddya mean
pauline was PM in ‘98, or at least had her proxy in place
Actually, there is a third explanation. Increasing the pension represents long-overdue justice for people who have no option but to rely on the pension. The age pension should provide a tolerable standard of living. The dole is meant as a stopgap for people who will soon re-enter the workforce. It is not meant to provide a comfortable alternative to being in the labour market. We have seen before how easy it is to encourage welfare-dependence, and we don’t want to go back there. Obviously if large numbers of people are pushed into long-term unemployment that may need to be reconsidered, but that’s not where we are at the moment.
Fair enough.
No doubt the greenies will still find fault with this
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/17/2572847.htm?section=justin
vera
The Greens will complain that the proposed solar plant has steel in it. The steel used contains coal. All solar power stations should be constructed of recycled tofu.
It should be built in South Australia.
ruawake I’d beleive that! no winks needed
There are nations that have higher unemployment payments for people unemployed for less that a certain period of time. On Lateline recently Senator X suggested higher unemployment payments for the first 3-6 months of unemployment.
I think that the there should be a higher unemployment for the first few months of unemployment for people who have been in the workforce for two or more years. This would enable people to not have to contract their spending quite so fast and would be good for those who find jobs quickly and would be an incentive to look hard so your income did not drop so quickly.
Rent assistance should also be expanded to pay the interest on mortgages but not the principal so less people lose their home because of unemployment and so there is yet another incentive to find work (getting back to paying down the principal and not being given up upon by the lender as someone who will not repay the principal).
The diference between Gen Blue and the rest? Formative and teenage years ex that new fangled thing TV, commencing 1956.
Interesting blog post that summarises key features of the proposed U.S. carbon trading scheme:
http://cleantechlawandbusiness.com/cleanbeta/index.php/3697/house-democrats-finalizing-climate-bill/
So the more informed people are about the world when young the more likely the will vote labor, green?
Zoomster
Thanks for that information. I was also wondering about domestic grey- water recycling as an alternative to the much promoted rain-water tank. Seems a much better option because it generates a lot more water, especially in Adelaide where it doesn’t rain, but doesn’t get rebates or publicity. I’ll get your email from William.
PS That was from Mrs Diogenes
It occurs to me an even worse “what if” alternative history series would be if Jo Bjelke Petersen had actually made it to The Lodge.
Shows On, Why would you want to build the biggest solar power station in S.A.? I understand there’s an awful lot of sunlight beating down on the place, however, I’d have thought locating them near big population or industrial centres would be the way to go.
The liquid asset test for “newstart” should be increased to what it was in 1991. $5,000 for singles $10,000 for a couple and the time period should also revert to the original 4 weeks.
Howard reduced this to bugger all and up to 13 weeks before payment. (more blame the victim).
The Greens negotiated half this to pass stimpac 2. But it should be returned to the original Hawke-Keating amount.
SA also has good geothermal resources.
The problem with putting solar plants in near large cities is that the land around them is of a higher value than the vast deserts in Central Australia.
Australia should have a steel industry in the North West converting the iron ore into steel before we export it. This industry should be being converted to solar at the moment.
Australia a a very logical place for a large steel industry because we have all the components and cheap energy and vast potential for some of the cheapest renewable energy because of the vast deserts as well. This is also why the Aluminium industry should stay here because it is easier to convert to renewables.
I agree with 744. This is an example of the good policy benefits of the Greens having some power.
Examples of Great journalism #142:
Storm?? There’s been one headline on a Sunday tabloid. There’s no sugestion any of the trips were undeclared, done on the sly or even done for poor reasons.
But yes, now it’s a “storm”.
Gotta love Sundays. The day of hairdryers, hostesses and “Travel storms”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/17/2572863.htm
Because in summer S.A. only produces 2/3 of the power it uses. If it could breach that 1/3 gap it wouldn’t have to import expensive power from coal fired power stations from Victoria.
ruawake, I thought they’d knocked off the waiting period for Newstart altogether. Unless I was dreaming, I recall Julia G. announcing this on the context of another company going belly up, and a couple of hundred people losing their jobs.
Ooops looks like the Govt. already did it. Sorry Greenies.
“From 1 April 2009, if you are a single person without dependent children you will have to serve a Liquid Assets Waiting Period if your liquid assets equal or exceed $5,500, increased from $3,000.
For couples and customers with dependent children, you will have to serve a Liquid Assets Waiting Period if your liquid assets equal or exceed $11,000, increased from $6,000.”
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