Matters related thereto
Roy Morgan has spared the government a new set of poll results this week, presumably holding over last weekend’s face-to-face results for a combined two weeks’ result to be published next week. So here’s some stuff that has accumulated during my recent period of indolence:
• The federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee of Electoral Matters brought down its report into the 2010 federal election a fortnight ago. One noteworthy innovation is a less pompous report title, “The 2010 Federal Election: Report on the conduct of the election and related matters” replacing the traditional formulation of “Report on the conduct of the (insert year) federal election and matters related thereto”. Antony Green summarises its recommendations here; now that my holidays are over I’ll shortly get around to reviewing it and will have more to say after I’ve fully absorbed it.
• One of the majority report’s recommendations was that the federal government follow the example of New South Wales and Victoria in allowing government records such as drivers licences, vehicle registration and Year 12 school enrolments to be used to automatically update the electoral roll. However, this is opposed in the dissenting JSCEM report from the committee’s Coalition members, for reasons I do not find persuasive. Antony Green has reviewed the impact of such measures in New South Wales since their introduction last year, observing that only 12 per cent of the 70,000 people whose enrolments have been added or updated have taken the trouble to enrol the old-fashioned way for the federal electoral roll. His conclusion: “On the evidence so far, by the time of the next commonwealth election in the second half of 2013, there could be as many as 200,000 voters enrolled for NSW elections and eligible to vote at commonwealth elections who will be missing from the commonwealth roll or be enrolled at the wrong address.”
• Draft electoral redistribution boundaries have recently been published for both our nation’s territory parliaments. Antony Green surveys the results for the Northern Territory here and the Australian Capital Territory here. An ACT redistribution would normally be of minor interest, as the territory is only divided into three electorates for purposes of a regionally based system of proportional representation, but Antony asserts that in this case the changes are radical enough to be of substantial interest, and in particular to put at risk the fourth seat the Greens won at the 2008 election. For the Northern Territory, Antony has calculated new margins for each of the 25 seats, with the caveat that the enormous sitting member factors which result from pocket-sized electorates of 4000 to 5000 voters make party-based margins less reliable than usual.
• There has been much talk lately about the possibility of an incoming Coalition government calling an early double dissolution election should it meet Senate resistance from its efforts to abolish a carbon tax. Tony Abbott’s argument to those concerned about the resulting uncertainty and expense is that opposing its repeal in the Senate would be politically suicidal for a defeated Labor Party, a case pursued by Queensland legal academic James Allan in The Australian.
There was a fair bit of material I had been compiling on Western Australian matters to coincide with a looming quarterly state Newspoll, but I was caught on the hop when it was published a month earlier than I’d anticipated.
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Categories: Federal Politics 2010-, Western Australian Politics
The US has had numerous spree killings.
In modern times, they have generally been associated with loners at schools, people who fancy they have been treated badly at work or dysfunctional families.
However, apart from 9/11, by far and away the biggest mass murders in the US have involved race-related killings and military massacres – often combining both.
But they have not necessarily been race-related, US soldiers in Normandy killed significant numbers of German POWs in cold blood.
As someone said in the context of the Vietnam War, I believe, that there is nothing quite as dangerous as an 18 year old American with a rifle.
Apart from Port Arthur most Australian massacres have involved Indigenous people, the last notable one being in 1927.
Despite the history of the US and Australia, the interesting thing is that we are constantly being fed a diet of how somehow people of islamic faith have an aptitude for, and a monopoly, on massacres.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Kersebletes
You cynic you……………….but join the club . It was the first thing I suspected.
by poroti on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Next thing Diog will tell me is that the secret illegal bombing of Cambodia that killed over 300,000 wasnt a mass killing which led to Pol Pot that killed 2.3 millions, wasnt a mass killing either.
by The Finnigans on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Wrong facebook page; it had nothing regarding his religious beliefs at all. The relevant facebook page had 7,000 friends. It only came to light today as far as I can tell. I was a bit late raising because I was up watching the TDF. So, I missed it.
Please pay attention if you are going to impersonate someone knowledgeable worthy of admonishing others, about claims they had long before acknowledged were erroneous suppositions. You guys seem to hate it when someone admits they are wrong.
by JohD on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Centre @ 2100;
He’s a typical neo-lib/con economics writer who cant, or wont, see the inherent theoretical insanity and illogical cant underpinning what he writes about most of the time.
He was one who predicted just prior to the GFC that a new economic dawn had approached and recessions were things of the past blah, blah, blah. Of course he has never admitted he was wrong.
However,when it comes to genuine competition in the media, especially the print media, all these wondrous convictions just seem to blow away. Just like a heap of damp tissues in the breeze really.
He’s just another Murdoch shill who knows who butters his bread.
by grantplant on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:13 pm
I remember how enjoyable it was to see he demolition job Rambo Conroy did on Stutchbury one day. It was a massacre
by Centre on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:14 pm
JohD
His religious beliefs ? Well here is a little from the man himself
by poroti on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:14 pm
WHAT! You seem to be implying that the S11 terrorist attacks were morally justifiable! That is sick.
The S11 terrorists CLEARLY were acting based on a religiously inspired ideologically that is based on the principle that ALL people in ALL countries should all convert to a form of the Islamic faith.
And if you bothered to read what this nutter has written, it is clear that he thinks Christians and Jews are superior beings to Muslims. And yet you don’t think his religion has anything to do with that! This is idiocy at its worst.
WHAT? You’ve lost it, or maybe you never had it.
I see what you’ve done here. You start by writing that atheists “hate religion”, but then in the second sentence you shift the goal posts and say that sympathies have hatred for “Muslims”.
There is a clear difference between hating religions as beliefs systems and institutions, and something else about hating a person because of their religion, which is discrimination.
This is completely inaccurate. Dawkins and Hitchens spend just as much time attacking the idiocy of Christianity as they do for Islam.
We can say that each post you make makes less sense that the one before, because you made an initial post based on being completely ill-informed about an issue seemingly because you couldn’t simply do a Google search.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Probably the biggest number of US spree killings involved more victims than 9/11.
These were the lynching of thousands Afro Americans by probably tens of thousands of perps over a period of decades. Done by christians, I suppose.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:15 pm
In historical times the Europeans specialised in mass killing of jews. Christians, I suppose.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:16 pm
1934c @ 2111
Murdoch also hates the NBN because it has the ability to undermine his plan to own 100% of Pay TV in Australia – a point referred to, albeit obliquely, by the ACCC just a few days ago.
by grantplant on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:16 pm
I agree 1934pc
And newspapers are bad for the environment. The pollution created from transporting newspapers from one place to another must be enormous.
by Centre on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:17 pm
That attitude would not have made him friends amongst a largely Lutheran congregation…
by Kersebleptes on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Boerwar
It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same
by victoria on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:17 pm
What about the Unabomber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unabomber
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:18 pm
AMANDA SHALALALLALALALLALALALLALALAL
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Yes a protestant christian organisation known as the KKK.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Of course there were whole centuries in which european christians specialised in mass murdering each other because they were the wrong sort of christians.
One should not, of course, forget the mass murders associated with portuguese, british, french, spanish and dutch colonisers. Not to forget the belgians who managed a bit of a stand-out reputation for brutality.
All christians.
The thing that is truly revolting hypocrisy is how christians construct a world in which they are massive serial perps but reckon that really, they are the victims.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:21 pm
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/another-iranian-nuclear-scientist-murdered-in-tehran-1.374898
by Gaffhook on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Yes, and the Labor Party should inform the electorate of the reasons for Murdoch’s opposition to the NBN.
by Centre on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:22 pm
These guys will refuse to accept that this was politically motivated mass murder, a textbook example of ‘Terrorism’. The victims were chosen for their ideology.
The perpetrator wrote a 300,000 word treatise on his ideology, not his religion; his political ideology. He made hundreds, if not thousands of posts on an ideological forum specialising in Hatred for Muslims, Leftist, anti-Zionist, unionist, multiculturalism, Racist, Homophones and anti-Zionist.
But, they want us to believe he was a loner under the domination of his mother. A exception, unlikely to manifest again. Without ideological fellow travelers.
Why? because he does not fit the stereotypical terrorist – he is White, blond haired and blue-eyed. Blond blue-eyed extremist are supposed to be Nazis, not anti-Racist.
A bit of a conundrum for Pbers it would seem. But this could be the likely profile of a political mass murderer in Australia too.
by JohD on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:22 pm
ominous?
by victoria on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:23 pm
I posted this the other day, but worth posting again. Abbott as a toddler
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/multimedia/images/large/1335496.jpg
by victoria on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:24 pm
I see that, apart from SkyNews and Mr Bolt trying to finger islamists for the christian mass murder, we have a christian disinformation officer active on PB.
The fool tried to persuade us that the mass murderer had ‘liberal’ tendencies.
Nice one.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Not sure if this has been posted – Murdoch’s UK media threatened to attack Lib-Dems if they did not support BSkyB takeover;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/23/news-international-liberal-democrats-bskyb
And Hartigan says they wouldn’t do such a thing in Australia, that they are different countries and companies etc. Bollocks! A fish rots from the head on down, just like News Corpse/Int’l/Ltd.
by grantplant on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:25 pm
The Unabomber was an anarcho-terrorist. He has a thing about technology. He was initially a very good mathematician.
Esp postal workers (reputedly) hence the term, “going postal”.
by Diogenes on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Finns
Have patented ‘christian mass murder’ and ‘christian disinformation officer’.
Good cash flows coming up.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Err, have you read it, how do you know it doesn’t mention religion? And how do you know his religious beliefs and political ideology aren’t intertwined, as seems to be the case?
I ask because you have a habit of making big claims while going out of your way to avoid reading evidence to the contrary.
And he is a conservative Christian!
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Dio
My Jack Russell goes postal; at any rate, he goes the postal service.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Well, the unabomer lived in a log cabin in the middle of Montana.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:29 pm
JohD,
No conundrum. The MSM piss me off everyday and I rant that I would like to wipe them off the face of the planet. Rant over, the sane part kicks in and I say to myself ‘good on ya dickhead’ and forget about it.
These people don’t do that. They justify their need to act, but really it is not that it is political, religious or any other reason, because any reason will do. It is simply that they are not rational, have a screw loose or whatever. They simply beat to their own drum.
by Space Kidette on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Diod,
Spree, Mass or Serial killers – what’s the difference? Here’s an interesting analysis;
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/streiber/273/inf_servsmas.htm
I like this bit;
That was pretty much where I was coming from really.
by grantplant on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Sorry, Diog!
by grantplant on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:31 pm
There should be laws that politician pressure of this sort disqualifies a company from having their request for merger considered let alone accepted.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:31 pm
One urban myth: Years ago, Neville Wran’s vocal cords were sabotaged by a surgeon with Liberal Party affiliation.
by evan14 on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Thefinnigans The Finnigans
If #Norway massacre happened last week, who would watch me and James telling the truth and on page 57 of every newspaper bugger #NewsCorp
now
by The Finnigans on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:32 pm
FFS, you are just talking Sh*t.
yes, Richard Dawkins also believes that Christians and Jews are superior to Muslims. Do you think that this has something to do with his religion?
I am not picking and choosing your points, they are all equally ridiculous. Obviously you have not been paying attention. These Atheists hate Islam, Muslims and everything to do with Islam. It IS discrimination, but who gives a damn about that? Not you obviously. because
- they just don’t. It is a fact noticed by many Atheist too. Just not you – you are incapable of noticing the nuances in that debate.
Search what? His religion has nothing to do with it. Google it.
by JohD on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:34 pm
BW
It’s all coming together now. David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) was a postie who said the neighbour’s dog was possessed by a demon and told him to do it.
As Newman said on Seinfeld, when he took over Berkowitz’s postal rounds there were an awful lot of dogs.
by Diogenes on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Dio
*laughs*
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Hmmm. The north about route iced up along a length of around 150km overnight.
I do hope it does not affect the planning for the Liberal Party’s 400ppm victory celebration dinner.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:38 pm
by victoria on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Bolt et al did rush to judgement, but that is nothing new for him. Somebody said today that Rupert Murdoch is in the business of producing vegetables.
by JohD on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:39 pm
HOLY CRAP! Now you are just spreading lies.
Find me ONE example of Richard Dawkins saying that “Christians and Jews are superior to Muslims”. He hates all religions equally, because they are ultimately all base don faith instead of reason.
FAR OUT! Again, you simply propose what someone’s position is, and then say that is wrong without ever bothering to READ what their arguments are!
Assertion that the guy wasn’t a Christian Conservative wasn’t a once off screw up, it seems to be what you do about ANYTHING! Just arguing against what your IMPRESSION of something is rather than finding out the facts!
I don’t think you’ve read any of their books, you base all your arguments on things you’ve heard.
I did, and you’re wrong! The link is here: http://tinyurl.com/5b545y
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:40 pm
who is stachbury
by my say on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Boerwar
And praise be to christian mass murder.It meant my rellies ended up in the Antipodes via Scotland+Ireland after my ancestors decided to flee rather than play another round in Europe’s Catholic v Protestant Kill Em All game.
by poroti on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:41 pm
SO
The FBI now owns the cabin.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XRyDF3c2S-s/Sq-rUjeEtiI/AAAAAAAADIY/yoO7VFlpets/s400/una_cabin9.jpg
by Diogenes on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:41 pm
I reckon that my Jack Russell is possessed of the spirit of Jack Russellism.
by Boerwar on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Yes, he rushed to judgement by implying – without any evidence – that the person was a Muslim, but it turns out he is a conservative Christian.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:43 pm
WOW! DId the confiscate it for evidence reasons?
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:45 pm
An economic dunce who writes for The Australian.
by ShowsOn on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:45 pm