The Australian today brings us a second round of figures from the weekend Newspoll survey. It shows that in spite of everything, the Prime Minister is rated the leader “more capable of handling Australia’s economy” by 48 per cent to Kevin Rudd’s 33 per cent, while Peter Costello leads Wayne Swan as “most capable of managing Australia’s economy as federal treasurer” by 53 per cent to 21 per cent. The Prime Minister is also rated the leader “most capable of keeping interest rates lower”, although his lead over Rudd has narrowed since last month.
Does anyone know where Margo Kingston writes these days? (She doesn’t seem to be on the SMH any more)
Thanks :):)
There is a big difference from the average Joe voicing his opinion to his mate and a person using a State and Nation wide newspaper to voice their partisan based opinion in order help one side win an election regardless of truth and facts. One is reasonable the other is corruption of duty, unless it be balanced in the same paper with a counter opinion. Especially if the opinion misrepresent facts and contexts or deliberate omits peritent facts.
Being in a widely published newspaper the opinion is given credibility regardless of its true credibility.
When Howard sacrificed his party to doom – the longest suicide note.
John Howard’s industrial revolution
November 20, 2005
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/article_1915.asp
Unless it is The Australian. Like their counterparts in crime, the current government, we are “onto” their tricks and can’t be fooled any more 😉
{Does anyone know where Margo Kingston writes these days?}
Julie, looks like she just runs a web site and writes books now.
“Not Happy John” is the latest effort and has its own website.
This is Margo’s.
http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/blog/13
There’s a comparison of 1996 vs 2007 using 10 months of polling data. So far 2007 bears a remarkable resemblance to 1996. If the similarities continue through to the election, then the ALP is on track to achieve a swing of over 9% and a hypothetical seat win of around 40 seats.
http://www.ozelection2007.info/forums/viewtopic.php?id=767
John Howards Industrial revolution will succeed as Kevin Rudd has by and large emulated most of his policies. He may have sacrificed his government for this revolution.
Michel de Nostredame everyone should hold their Governments accountable left, right, centre whatever!
For those who have their own web sites going & would like extra ‘tools’ like a Webb poll I have found one –
http://www.vizu.com/
Hope its of some use tome one.
#150 Julie, I think she still very very occasionally appears on http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au and http://www.webdiary.com.au She has a book out this month “Still Not Happy John”.
154,
Thanks Scorpio ;-). She was my lifeline when we lived in America and had news only via the various newspapers webpages.
Spotted an interesting footnote on Margo’s web. Haven’t seen it on any others.
{Contributors please note that this site is archived in the National Library of Australia in perpetuity.}
Looks like a good site too.
“At 77, and elsewhere” (130), one of course finds Glen, not Gary. My apologies. A pedant chastened.
John of Home-of-the-premiers-on-yarra: what Michel de Nostredame was trying to say was that the state Tory oppositions are not doing their job and running interference when others have a go.
He agrees with your sentiments.
To that net end, I heard a rumour on the news broadcast while in the car recently that Barry O’Farrel in NSW could be out in a leadership spill within 6 to 12 months if he doesn’t pick up his act. They don’t think he has done enough since the elections in March.
Aristotle #155
This is all very nice, but i see you’ve missed the crucial numbers concerning a comparison of the preferred treasurer. Clearly only limited use can be found for such statistics as primary votes or TPP.
Cheers Michel de Nostredame & Albert Ross 🙂
The Liberals have to pick up their act thus far Johnny has been talking about how good he has done in the past I am looking forward to what he has to say in regards to Housing affordability. His re-election platform should be economic and green times for all!
[They don’t think he has done enough since the elections in March.]
Since O’Farrel is a moderate, my guess is “they” refers to the hard right, e.g. Dave Clarke and his fellow wackos.
Which is worse the hard left of the ALP or the hard right of the Liberal Party?
Glen @167
Clearly the Hard right of the Libs. They are actually influential.
[Which is worse the hard left of the ALP or the hard right of the Liberal Party?]
Hard right of the Liberal party. The hard Labor left are never in positions of power anyway. If someone wants to be Labor leader, they move from the left to the right (e.g. Hawke and Keating).
The hard left of Labor have a separate party called “The Greens”.
Last time i checked Gillard was deputy leader of the ALP Yo ho ho?
Glen
Deputy leader of the ALP has about as much power as Deputy leader of liberal party….i.e. none.
Sorry, that should be deputy leader of coalition…
Here we go with the Gillard slurs again… of course in the times of Howard it is easy to overestimate the size of the ‘hard left’. When you get people telling Malcolm Fraser to join the Greens you know you’re in trouble.
Greetings, all. I can tell you why we will vote for Labor this election.
My wife worked all this years starting in 2000 in small sewing/alteration business.
Back then she had paid public holidays and 3! days of sick leave per year.
Then things “progressedâ€. No pay rises for last 3 years! Not more paid public holidays, leave or sick leave! Enormous pressure, stress and shouting at work. “If you don’t like it – just leave†attitude from the owners. Limited time for breaks and even for toilet! Well, my friends, as for us – it is time to put the creeping balance back for working families, and this is why we will say, bye-bye, Johnny.
Kina #151,
Well said.
I was eating my lunch and didn’t want to interrupt it to type. Thanks for a point well made.
Glen #167 There are extremes on both sides of politics so I think the answer to your question is that they are as ‘worse’ as each other. They have more in common with each other than either would be prepared to admit. Both sides are ideologically driven, unprepared to compromise, see politics as a moral crusade and their utterances are replete with name calling and pointless categorisation (for example, the Right refers to ‘socialists’ and ‘bleeding hearts’ while the Left refers to fascism and religious fundamentalism).
To the Chinster – you should have a look at the wakefield polls in the Advertiser – Wakefield has been consistently polling higher than seats such as Kingston, from memory 61% and 58% TPP.
[Glen #167 There are extremes on both sides of politics so I think the answer to your question is that they are as ‘worse’ as each other. They have more in common with each other than either would be prepared to admit. ]
I don’t think so. Religious conservatives are opposed to the idea that people should form governments that actively solve problems, instead they suggest moral authority derives from mythical beings. The only problem with the looney left is putting too much faith in the power of government to solve everything.
But ShowsOn the looney left thinks only the government should regulate things and only the government should decide whats best for people…religious conservatives might be a problem but big government looney leftwingers are equally disasterous…
[But ShowsOn the looney left thinks only the government should regulate things and only the government should decide whats best for people]
A flawed position, but one that can be argued for logically, see John Rawls.
It is patently illogical to refer to God to argue positions on issues such as, the use of embryonic stem cells, whether or not teenage girls should receive the cervical cancer vacine, and whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry.
One side of extremism still favours a form of logical debate, even if the conclusions are flawed. The other frequently reverts to illogical reasoning, usually based around arguments from authority “God says so so it must be true…”.
Many would argue the left’s reasoning is just as illogical and ill-conceived as those of the religious right.
[Many would argue the left’s reasoning is just as illogical and ill-conceived as those of the religious right.]
Explain to me the flaws in Rawls’ Theory of Justice?
Glen, nobody outside your overheated imagination believes literally that _only_ the government should decide what’s best for people. Possibly what you mean is that people on the left believe in more government regulation than you do. So what? Is believing in more government regulation always necessarily wrong? Do you believe in no government regulation of any kind whatsoever? Do you understand that that equates to believing in no government of any kind whatsoever?
180
Glen Says:
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Many would argue the left’s reasoning is just as illogical and ill-conceived as those of the religious right.Yes, Glen, many would indeed argue that, you’re absolutely right. *Differences of political opinion exist! Hold the front page for this breaking story!*
181#
Rawls does not include healthcare as a primary good.
A number of Rawls’s arguments concerning liberty depend on contentious assumptions about the status of our values. Specifically, Rawls tends to see them as the products of human choices. But not everyone sees things this way. Especially not those who are religious.
Rawls says that the parties in the original position would insist on the special conception once their society had reached a particular level of wealth. That level is reached when individuals’ “basic wants†have been fulfilled and social conditions allow for “the effective establishment of these rightsâ€.So the bar is set pretty low.
178
Glen Says:
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
But ShowsOn the looney left thinks only the government should regulate things…
……
Glen, um, regulation is something that governments do: it is a legislative function. Do you think this function should not exist? (Anarchy) Or be delegated to business ? (Cronyism) Or be the preserve of the monarch ? (autocracy)
I think you will find, since the Glorious Revolution, Parliaments have been responsible for lawmaking and I think you will find that even the greatest Tories, from Edmund Burke down, have thought this was basically a very good idea.
Glen,
are you going to do the right thing and cite the source of what you just put up?
Anarcho-capitalism while possible is not plausible you need some level of regulation but obviously the more the market is in control the better.
I would not dispte that Tories support lawmaking so do i but i do not support socialist big government as a common good it is not….
Maybe the Libs can have a scare campaign on the ALP raising capital gains tax or that they’ll introduce a wealth or death tax that ought to keep Swan on his toes.
Glen,
are you going to cite the source material or not?
Yes Glen
What is the Coalitions Tax Policy?
I wonder if this move has been instigated in preperation of a Change of Govt ?
[Veteran ABC political journalist Jim Middleton will leave the Canberra press gallery after almost 20 years to host a current affairs program on the ABC’s Australia Network.
Middleton is ABC television’s chief political correspondent and editor in Canberra, where he has been since 1988, but will leave after the federal election to take up his new post]
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=423666
Or the Democrats. Were there a viable Democrat in my electorate (unknown at this point) my preferences would go there first. Don’t know about others, but from where I sit, the Democrats are the first port of call if you are looking “left” from the Labor party. The Greens would be “left” of the Democrats.
The die is cast, the longer Howard waits the greater the Liberals will be humiliated on election day, they are now only prolonging the inevitable, and making matters much worse for themselves, Howard has a weakness he cant stop lying.
As far as the Nationals are concerned, will they even have enough seats to be considered a political party after the election? truly they are now paying the price for giving up there own identity, and cow tailing to the Liberals every whim.
Australians are looking to the future and Labour has a vision for the future, the Liberals are obsessed with the past and are living in the past, and this has been one of their greatest downfalls, besides their lies.
People are looking to the future, not the past and they want the political balance restored, especially in the senate.
There is nothing Howard can now do, other than do more damage to the Liberals, it is to little to late, his reign is over.
Howards legacy what will it be? A liar, a war monger, even starting a war with workers and the unions that protect them, robbing the weak and poor and giving to the rich, the most divisive man in Australian history, the first elected dictator in Australian history, sure there will be more about his legacy to come out after he is defeated at the election
Optimist, how dare you! Glen knows Rawls like Alexander Downer knows the income tax thresholds, and would never copy verbatim from, say, http://pages.pomona.edu/~mjg14747/033-2006/RawlsLiberty.shtml and make it look like his own opinion.
Betcha Eddie is spitting bricks 😉 … Judd just came down on the Carlton bandwagon. That also means we probably will see Fev in an Eagles team next year.
Links Julie? Sources? Confirmation? Please?
Wow Judd is going to play for the Tankers!
Gees he must be in it for the $$$$$ because Carlton have just as pathetic training facilities as Melbourne (his excuse why he didnt pick us) and not Collingwood who have uber facilities…
Heheheh enjoy playing for losers for the rest of your career mate!
Rudd’s record approval ratings, put into an historical context.
http://www.ozelection2007.info/forums/viewtopic.php?id=768
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/02/2049029.htm
Judd to play for the Tankers next season….