Essential Research’s latest weekly survey features questions on refugees, climate change and the Olympics, along with the finding that federal Labor holds a 58-42 lead over the Coalition. Read all about it.
Essential Research: 58-42
Analysis and discussion of elections and opinion polls in Australia
Essential Research’s latest weekly survey features questions on refugees, climate change and the Olympics, along with the finding that federal Labor holds a 58-42 lead over the Coalition. Read all about it.
BTW: Brendan Nelson should promise to Cossie that he will serve a full term of the Opp Leader, lose the election and then some 12 months after hand the opp leadership to Cossie.
Gee, Labor just can’t get anything right, can they?
After “talking up” inflation, the threat of a recession now looms because the Reserve Bank (not Labor) has allegedly over-corrected.
I guess you have to be able to believe the Reserves were as “spooked” by Swan’s inflation tough-talk as your average Working Family punter in the burbs was.
It’s all very confusing, and a bit hazy at the moment, but the clue came a few days ago when Shanahan floated the idea that not only are interest rate rises getting the battlers angry and annoyed, but now it’s the interest rate falls that have them hopping mad. Apparently Brendan took up the cudgel and tried that argument on for size as well. Maybe yer Average Joe out there with a passel of screaming kids packed into the back of the Tarrago stuck in a petrol queue just needs certainty?
Well, Mr. and Mrs. Mob will get that in spades from the latest machinations of the Lib illuminati to shoe-horn Cozzie into Nelson’s gig, via the latest plan: a”friendly takeover”. There’ll be bucketloads of guarantees that Cozzie won’t have to work for the job. That’s an essential point: the ex-Greatest Treasurer In The World doesn’t get his hands dirty, ever.
I’m trying to imagine the scenario as laid out in today’s OO: Brendan, I guess, will just pick up the telephone and ask Peter whether he wants to come over for a Leadership barbie, hand him the keys to the Lib policy cabinet when he gets there and give him a few pointers on the mess they’re in…. before trotting off into the sunset, happy at a job well done.
Meanwhile, back at the Labor bunker, the Cabinet will be shuddering with terror at the thought that the game is up. They’ll have no defence against The Great One’s stinging barbs on he economy. Interest rates up, or down… doesn’t matter…Labor have stuffed the economy, and Pete will tell us how.
First there’ll be a few bon mots on the dangers of opening your mouth too long and too loud on inflation. In Liberal World(TM) there never was a problem with inflation. That would mean they’d done something wrong, and we can’t have that. No, it was all Rudd’s mean-spirited attempts to sully the legacy of King John and his faithful Deputy Dawg, Perfect Peter. No matter that inflation actually did rise. This was only because Swanee went off at the mouth and blabbed about the dangers. Our economy is in a wonderful state… except when it isn’t because Wayne’s an L-plate Teasurer. Confused? Just ask Malcolm. He’ll explain it all to you.
Then we’ll hear how the Reserves wet their pants at all this price talk and panicked in a way that never would have happened if the Coalition had still been in office. They raised rates too far, too fast, as a result. Without the steady hand of the economic Mechanic In Chief tweaking the Ferrari, what else could they do? Never mind about oil rising at one stage to $170 a barrel, or the sub-prime crisis from America, they should have remained cool, kept their powder dry and just let the plasma-addicted peons continue to buy, buy, buy their way out of the sure-to-come Recession, just around the corner.
Now the buggers are talking about reducing rates! I mean: how weak is that? An ordinary person reading about this prospect might think that it’s a good thing; that maybe our economy is settling back into a stable phase. No, no, no, no, NO! In the OO’s and the Opposition’s fevered imagination, this is bad, not good at all.
If Peter, the Rock of the economy, can get back in in time, he might be able to take some credit for steadying the tiller. But if he leaves his run too late, things might get better all by themselves and then what would he have to whinge about?
Shanahan, Milne, Maiden and the rest of Team Australian at Chateau Murdoch are shuffling those little square pieces of paper around their fiscal Ouji board so fast lately that it’s amazing they can keep track of the convolutions and permutations of each new layer of “narrative” about how awful the government really is. Once upon a time they used a trowel, making a relatively neat job of it. But now it’s just truckloads of political compost dumped rough on the garden, smoothed over with a shovel, and let the worms do their job. And the worms are turning, nay, writhing in anticipation.
You gotta believe it’s the last throw of the dice for them. Nelson (who has said he has no intention of giving in) hands over to Cozzie (who has said he has no desire to hang around) so that Rudd (who is the most popular PM in history) and his party (which holds a crushing poll lead) can implode over an economy (that seems to be about to recover) that only tanked in the first place because interest rates (which rose 10 times under Cozzie) and petrol prices (that have nothing to do with Australia) went ballistic for a few months, but now everything looks like it’ll be settling down soon. Somewhere in there, too (if you take the Nameless One’s opinion into consideration) will be the Opposition’s stunning announcement that Global Warming is bunk because snow fell on Thredbo (or something) and that we should pollute, pollute, pollute our way out of Recession.
But please, whatever you do, don’t talk the economy down. Don’t for instance write hundreds of articles about how Rudd is scared of the “R” word. Or don’t opine that a downturn is sure as eggs due to Rudd’s policies. Don’t write pieces in the Tele that say Swan “refuses to rule out” a Recession and that means we’re having one. Don’t criticise the Budget tax cuts as “too little, too late.” No, no, no… that would be far to negative. That would be wishing ruin upon ourselves. and wishing ruin on ourselves is entirely the responsibility of Rudd and his band of wreckers.
I mean, there are limits, you know.
“But no ticker to challenge Brendan Nelson?”
I think Costello is worried about negative sentiment associated with him challenging and possibly toppling such a popular leader.
BB, an incisive and brilliant expose.
Excellent piece BB. Spot on.
From a SMH article about an Aussie who’s on the UN panel that approves the Kyoto carbon trading industry:
He argues Australia is in a privileged position because the world is looking for alternatives to burning fossil fuels.
“And guess who has a lot of knowledge and intellectual capital to capitalise on this,” he asks.
“Australia. We do. We really are a clever country. We punch way above our weight when it comes to scientific knowledge, engineering knowledge, engineering renewable energy resources and ideas and technology.
“We haven’t done that well in putting that technology into practice but we have it – we have a lot of answers that we can provide, dare I say sell, to China and India and Indonesia and Malaysia and … all those countries that are wanting to grow and expand and develop. We can tell them how to do it perhaps more cleverly than we did it ourselves.”
And all some cretins want to do is argue about whether we should start doing something about GW in July 2010 or January 2011. Sigh.. But then they’re the same mob that seem to believe all we’re capable of is digging bloody great big holes and shipping the dirt overseas.
BB,
😆 🙄
I’m completely bored with Costello!
Will he, won’t he?
At least the Olympics will give the MSM something else to obsess about for the next 2 weeks.
But the real question Progressive is, are you bored with Swan yet?
ESJ 108
I have been busy at my day job lately and only just caught up with this thread. What on earth are you talking about? We have had several run-ins but I don’t believe I have ever made insinuations relating to your or any poster’s partner on this (or any other) blog.
Please specify the instance you are referring to before dragging my name into your defence.
Diogenes, negative income tax as raised on this thread by ESJ is indeed an idea that originated with Milton Friedman but it shouldn’t be automatically dismissed as right wing rubbish on that account. Here in Australia it hasn’t solely been pushed from the lunar right – Ron Henderson’s work had elements of it in particular. If we call it a guaranteed minimum income that sounds left enough? Have a look at this paper (sorry could only find it in PDF) for a catholic social justice endorsement of the sort of libertarian thinking behind Friedman’s proposal : http://catholicsocialservices.org.au/system/files/Mutual_Obligation_Oct_07_0.pdf
– including deploying Friedman to attack the income management components of the NT intervention.
ESJ, it wasn’t Nixon who signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, it was George H. Bush. I think you meant the Rehabilitation Act 1973?
MayoFeral,
Couldn’t agree more: they’re fighting political trench warfare, lobbing grenades and making bayonet charges. Politics here seems to be in permanent election mode. Casualties are high. Gaffes are amplified into major blunders. Avoiding trick questions is “abrogating responsibility”.
Swan, Rudd and Tanner don’t want to talk about “Recession” so they suddenly have “refused to rule it out”. If they mention the word “Recession”, then they’re talking the economy down (but it seems OK for the journalists who are criticising them to talk the economy down, and for Abbott and Turnbull to do so as well).
And then there is Costello. The drama around him reminds me of the movie, El Cid: in the final scene, after Charlton Heston (El Cid) was killed by an arrow, they propped him up on his horse and trotted him out to gee up the troops. Dead, yet not dead: still inspiring the battlers, somehow.
I don’t think they’ve realised it but there’s a Political Uncertainty Principle: the act of observing and commentating on the leadership, destroys the leadership. I’m with Progressive: I’m exasperated with all this Peter The Great talk. OK, so I’ve written reams about it, but only to try to lance the abscess, to overdose on Costello so that I can get back to normal operations.
Interest rates go up… that’s going too far. They go down… the punters will be angry. At who? Well, you’d think the proper target would be the RBA, but in Shanahanland, it’s all down to the government, because they didn’t heavy the RBA enough to keep them low. Of course, Cozzie couldn’t do that either – they put them up 10 times in a row under his watch, including the first of a series of almost unprecedented bank-only rises – but this is conveniently forgotten in the insane fog of war that pervades the battlefield at the moment.
Promised tax cuts are too little. They’re too much. The government are either craven, populist cowards or they’re overly grim eco-bots, betraying their base. They should break a few election promises. Then we can open up a whole new front and have a go at them for hypocrisy.
The critics have to be able to work petrol into this, somehow. So they make up a story about how Rudd was going to reduce petrol prices. They urge Nelson to fabricate a 5c a litre fairy tale, and then go Rudd for breaking a promise he never made (and which, in the fine print, they admit he never made… but the “perception” was there, don’t y’know). Anyway, when international oil shoots up by almost double since the election (for a while at least), they can then attempt to pin it all on Rudd.
They just want people angry and feeling dispossesed of their right to profligate spending. And they also want inflation down. You have to contract the economy to do so, but that just gives them a chance to claim Rudd went too far.
Their political pets stop Fuel Watch in the Senate.. and then damn Rudd for not introducing it! The “accepted” narrative now runs: “Fuel Watch is a failure,” when it hasn’t even gotten out of Committee yet. At any rate, all the whingeing and carping on about Fuel Watch and petrol prices allows them, all the more forcefully, to bring oil into the mix as part of Rudd’s mishandling of the economy. Of course, it appears, if the Coalition was still in power there wouldn’t have been an oil price spike, and there wouldn’t have been a sub-prime crisis. Grocery prices would have stayed low and retailers would be prospering. Pig’s arse, but who cares about the truth any more?
There does appear to be a way out. Rudd should quit the trench warfare and get himself an airforce. Fly over the top of the enemy lines and bomb the bejesus out of them. Get some tanks and run the bastards over. In short, a little hope is needed, backed up by ferocity.
But as long as the Sussex St. cretins are more interested in digging themselves out of trouble with a spoon, they’ll never ask, “What’s that over there?”
It’s a bulldozer, you idiots. Use it.
A war of attrition is one thing. A war of grand manoeuvre is another.
No answer ESJ? Hmmm….
Back to dodgy right-wing economics, the US Treasury has appointed Morgan Stanley to advise ono teh solvency of Fannei Mae and Freddie Mac:
http://news.smh.com.au/business/morgan-stanley-to-aid-us-mortgage-crisis-20080806-3qq1.html
ROTFL! Talk about getting the Fox to advise on Hen care. Morgan Stanley has already declared losses of $9.4Bn US this year on sub-prime deals gone bad. Why them? The only one of teh big five trading firms that avoided heavy losses was Goldman Sachs, yet they aren’t invited? Note that this contract runs out 3 days before the new POTUS takes over in January 2009.
MM @ 211 thank you for the interesting link.
Maybe all of the hoopla in the MSN about Williwonteshouldegiveme has achieved its purpose of deflecting the media away from the incompetence of the LNP over CC. I believe his Super matures about now and he has had a brief glimpse at what is happening in LaborLand and will decide that the pace is too hot even if he is in a breezeway in his hammock.
There are after all quite a few things happening that the MSM could follow up on with a report but unfortunately they would take all of the sting out of their vitriolic attacks on PM and Swanee.
These are but a few of the things that are happening out there at the moment and are probably causing the headless chook look alike that is the current LNP.
Federal Labor’s Plan For Older Australians, People With Disabilities And Carers
Federal Labor’s Volunteer Grants Program – Helping Volunteers With Petrol Costs
Labor Welcomes Regulation of Consumer Credit Industry
Rudd Labor To Tackle Cost Of Living – More Powers To ACCC To Monitor Prices In The Supermarket
Fresh Ideas For The Future Economy: Cost Of Living Pressures Faced By Australian Families
Federal Labor Calls For Senate Inquiry Into Cost Of Living Pressures On Older Australians
Rudd Labor Government To Appoint Petrol Commissioner
Skilling Australia – Federal Labor’s Plan To Fight Inflation By Closing The Skills Gap
Better Access, A Fairer System: Labor’s Full Fee Degree Phase Out
Federal Labor’s Commitment To Lift School Standards
Keeping Our Best And Brightest In Australia – Labor’s Future Fellowships
Federal Labor’s Plan For Improved And Expanded Commonwealth Scholarships
Federal Labor’s $42 Billion Minimum Schools Funding Commitment: Giving Schools Financial Certainty
Skills Australia – To Fix Nation’s Skills Crisis
Rudd Labor Government To Lift School Retention Rates
Federal Labor’s University Compacts: Investing In Our Universities’ Strengths And Promoting National Interest Priorities
Federal Labor To Help Parents Prepare Their Children For School
Federal Labor’s Job Ready Certificate
Federal Labor’s $284 Million For West
Federal Labor’s $2.5 Billion Trades Training Centres In Schools Plan
Federal Labor’s National Asian Language And Studies In Schools Program – Preparing Australia For The Future
Investing In Our Future: An Education Revolution
Federal Labor’s Plan For A National Curriculum For Australian Schools
Encouraging Young Australians To Study And Teach Maths And Science – Labor’s Education Revolution
An Education Revolution For Australia’s Economic Future
Federal Labor’s Low Tax First Home Saver Accounts – Larger Deposits And Higher National Savings
A Place To Call Home – Federal Labor’s Plan To Build More Homes For Homeless Australians
Federal Labor’s National Rental Affordability Scheme
Federal Labor To Invest $500 Million In Housing Plan Saving Homebuyers Up To $20,000 On New Homes
Rudd Labor To Establish National Housing Supply Research Council – Looking Forward: Next 20 Years
Rudd Labor Government To Reduce Red Tape And Increase Housing Affordability For Home Owners
Rudd To Consider Tax Credits To Create Affordable Rental Properties
Innovation Future for Australian Industry
Labor’s Enterprise Connect: connecting businesses with new ideas and new technologies
$14 million for a Mining Technology Innovation Centre in Mackay
$20 million Innovative Regions Centre in Geelong: Turning ideas into jobs
$1.5 Million To Build Innovation Connections In Northern Adelaide
Federal Labor’s $20 Million Manufacturing Centre In Northern Adelaide
Federal Labor’s $12 million Manufacturing Centre in North West Tasmania
Fresh Ideas: Manufacturing Roundtable And Background Paper
New Directions In Innovation – Lifting Australia’s Productivity
Federal Labor’s Plan For Primary Industries
Labor’s Plan For Fair Prices For Farmers
Labor Supports The Central West Queensland Growth Corridor
Labor To Support The Pine Rivers Growth Corridor
Federal Labor To Invest In The Northern Adelaide Growth Corridor
Federal Labor To Invest $10 Million In The Ipswich Growth Corridor
Federal Labor To Invest In The Northern Rivers Growth Corridor
Federal Labor To Invest In The Sunshine Coast Growth Corridor
Labor Moves To Strenghten The Trade Practices Act
Fresh Ideas For Small Business On Government Procurement
Small Business Measure: Labor To Fix Exclusion From Commonwealth Tenders
Action To Cut Business Red Tape
Labor To Reduce Business Regulation
A Tax Plan For Australia’s Future
Securing Australia’s Place As A Financial Hub – Fresh Thinking To Boost Financial Exports
Labor’s $3 Billion Savings Plan
Hope KR and Swanee do not get too carried away and start to do something
in the near future.
The LNP if they were anyway competent should have the Labor party back to 55/45 or lower by now.
They have no consistent story or line of fire on Labor and are simply scatter brain. Turnbull is as bad as Nelson on this score. If it wasn’t for enormous help from the media (which now seems to include channel 9 morning show with Stefa… and Bolt) they would be in an even worse position. The strategy seems to be no strategy, simply snipe from the side-lines at whatever comes along and have the murdoch boys make it seem legitimate.
Rudd has four big guns in the draw now whenever he wants to cause angst within the LNP – CC, Republic, Workchoices and Costello/Howard inflation-rates.
And as much as Turnbull and co want to muddy the waters with their talk on Swan, at the end of the day (next year) if rates and petrol prices go down people will only remember that there once was a problem and, that it seems to be getting better. Hence all the insesant talk by Rudd and Swan on inflation and rates in the first 6 months, to put that image deeply in peopes minds – making them seem the cause of the solution and, all the while people willing to cut slack because they see the Global problem.
It will be much harder for the LNP to pin economic troubles on Rudd/Swan and easier for Rudd to pin inflation and rates on the LNP.
I would imagine the Govt wanting to continue raising the awareness and alarm over CC the next year which will wedge the LNP even further when Labor take further action.
If the story in the Oz is true (it may not be, but they do get good drum from the Libs), it’s the worst possible scenario for the Libs.
If Costello won’t challenge Nelson, but will challenge anyone who does challenge Nelson (ie Turnbull), it will stop Turnbull challenging, and keep Nelson in the job. Yet Nelson’s leadership won’t be secure, because Costello has not ruled himself out as a potential leader.
The only other option, under this scenario, would be for Turbull supporters to present evidence that Nelson no longer has the numbers. But Turnbull will not get the numbers until Costello states categorically that he won’t be seeking the leadership.
Costello, I believe, is a personal friend of Nelson. It’s almost as though he’s playing a game to keep Nelson in the leadership, and stop Turnbull, without contributing anything of use to the Opposition in the way of effort or policy. It’s a complete spoiler’s role.
So it seems the way for Costello supporters to get their man into the top job is to court Turbull to challenge Nelson!
They’re not only unfit for government at the moment…they’re not even fit for Opposition.
ESJ, MM et al
Last week in Israel, Knesset introduced a Negative Income Tax which will commence in two months. It certainly is being reported as a progressive measure there, rather than a right-wing policy.
Negative income tax to be paid in October
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000366450&fid=942
Damn Bushfire!
I need a cigarette and a nap after that 🙂
ESJ et al,
The negative income tax, also known as Guaranteed Annual Income, was DLP policy in the 1970s- it didn’t win many votes!
Hear Hear
“LOL! 500. What’d you do, think up a number and divide it by pi?”
That’s the sort of thing I’d expect Lisa Simpson to say.
But what ESJ said about 500 members is straight out of the Conservative playbook, ie, start with a number, or word, or rumour and then keep on repeating it until it becomes fact.
And this Costello thing is getting really boring. I assume he thinks being imperious is impressing people.
A form of Friedman’s Negative Income Tax proposal was implemented in the US by Gerald Ford its called the Earned Income Tax Credit.
As an egalitarian I prefer the Universal Basic Income approach. A comparison had been done by Davide, Tondani (2008): Universal Basic Income and Negative Income Tax: Two Different Ways of Thinking Redistribution.
It can be found at:-
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7016/
I think Antonio and Gafhook have no-balls game sorted out.
I suggested some time ago that his super would be a key component in his decision. The deflection away from Nelson was always going to be a mammoth task, but he’s done his best to spoil Allbull’s run.
For all the talk of impending trouble I just don’t think most people are feeling it – the birth rate is a good indicator of that – and I reckon the neo-cons are banking on a shift to conservatism as things do get a bit tougher.
Nelson to hold on, and on, and on, seems more likely to me.
BB – I really think someone should be seeking you for wider exposure. Regardless of the political content the writing has an ‘Australian-ness’ that’s gone walkabout.
(unless of course you already have that covered…).
On your air warfare strategy, I agree in principle.
I think the government is working on defining differentiation at present through a considered, more intellectual detachment from the celebrity news cycle that the Fibs seem so fixated on. I’d love to see ‘less is more’ be successful, and I think there is some appetite for it, but I’m not sure they’re not going to get stuck in the middle. Our population has been so absolutely conditioned to propaganda since 1975 (and earlier) that it’s a tough habit to change. It’s no wonder Chateau Murdoch is throwing everything at them.
Thank you for your brilliant satire BB. Shanahan et al should read it. It just might make them embarrassed. But then I suppose those so hell-bent on distorting the truth for their own purposes would be beyond embarrassment. In politics truth is irrelevant; perception is all that counts.
Coming from youse, I take that as a compliment. Ta.
I cant see how Costello could criticise Howard in his book and remain in parliament. The question he will always have to face is why he did nothing about it.
So if he is remaining in Parliament it is a safe bet his book will be totally uninteresting except to see how Peter see his world.
What an informative list Gaffhook. This is what is needed to counter the “all spin no substance” mantra. I had started a list myself, but haven’t had time to complete it; I’m only to early June. For what it’s worth, it’s reproduced below. There is some overlap with yours.
We should all add to the list and explode the ‘do-nothing Government’ myth once and for all.
Kyoto Protocol signed 3 December 2007, came into effect March, 2008.
PM and several ministers attended UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali December 2007.
Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples 13 February 2008
Current level of military commitment to Afghanistan continued, but increased focus on training and mentoring of the Afghanistan national army 19 February 2008
Binge drinking initiatives introduced:
$14.4 million towards a grants based program focused on reducing binge drinking
$19.1 million to support innovative early intervention and diversion programs to get young people under the age of 18 back on track before more serious alcohol related problems emerge.
$20 million in a targeted television, radio and internet based campaign to confront young people with the costs and consequences of binge drinking.
As a next step, a collaborative activity with the heads of sporting codes across Australia
Skills Australia Bill 2008 to establish Skills Australia, a statutory body to provide independent advice to assist us in targeting government investment in training. 11 March 2006
Creation of Regional Development Australia (RDA) – area consultative committees transition to become local Regional Development Australia committees. 20 March 2008
Budget 2008/09 13 May 2008
Alterations to the Excise Tariff Act 1921 and Customs Tariff Act 1995 (‘alcopops’ legislation) 13 May 2008
Social Security and Veterans’ Entitlements Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008, 14 May 2008
Green paper on homelessness entitled Which way home? A new approach to homelessness. $2.2 billion new investment in affordable housing for working families and individuals. 26 May 2008
Tax Laws Amendment (Luxury Car Tax) Bill 2008 29 May 2008
Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008. Affordable Child Care Plan — a $1.6 billion investment in the future of Australian families, part of a $2.4 billion investment over the next five years in integrated early childhood initiatives. 29 May 2007
Higher Education Support Amendment (2008 Budget Measures) Bill 2008 to implement the Rudd government’s education revolution 2008-2009 budget package in higher education. 29 May 2008
Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2008 Budget Measures) Bill 2008 that appropriated funding for the first election commitments to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes—an initiative to provide an additional 200 teachers in the Northern Territory.
Additional funding of $8.353 million in the 2008 calendar year to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students. 29 May 2008
National Fuelwatch (Empowering Consumers) Bill 2008. 29 May 2008
Australian combat troops lowered the flag at the conclusion of their mission in southern Iraq. 2 June 2008
Appropriation Bills 1-6 that committed $50 million to introduce the national seniors transport concession scheme for seniors card holders by 1 January 2009, reintroduction of the Commonwealth dental scheme and $150 million to help 25,000 patients get the elective surgery they need.. 2 June 2008
First Home Saver Accounts Bill 2008; Income Tax (First Home Saver Accounts Misuse Tax) Bill 2008; First Home Saver Accounts (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008 to provide $1.2 billion over four years to help first home buyers save for their first home. 2 June 2008
There’s more at http://www.openaustralia.org/search/?s=Government+initiatives
and talcum raises the white flag
http://news.smh.com.au/national/costello-entitled-to-stay-on-turnbull-20080806-3qmh.html
jellybacks one and all
229
It’s still all about no-spine’s ‘rights’ and ‘entitlements’…grrr
(has no-spine been secretly taping their swingers parties or something?!)
Diogenes – thanks for info on the Israeli NIT initiative, will try to follow up the debate on that
BB 212
A great read Bill, and some very good points. It is indeed absurd for the opposition to complain about a downturn now when their Senate goons blocked the new revenue measures in the budget just a few weeks ago. Pure mindless obstruction and hypocracy. As if reducing the number of imported luxury cars coming into Australia will cause a recession! They blocked the very measures most likely to help avoid recession.
ESJ: I’d happily replace Swan with Tanner, Swan doesn’t inspire much confidence in me!
I think we all know how he sees his world. Through the cracks between his fingers!
228
Ad astra
I must admit that i pinched my list from somewhere else.
I would never have had the time to research that list.
One suspects that our PM knows that whatever he says to the muckrakers will always have a negative spin of their bent put on it so he does not waste time talking to them about it. That is why they are reporting as per Bushfire Bill’s description (great stuff Bill). They are jumping at and wrongly reporting anything to get a reaction but they are not getting any traction.
One day all these muck rakers will wake up and realise that Kev and Swanee have been quietly chipping away, getting things done with minimal disruption, and all of those items plus others will be firmly entrenched in the public domain and they will not believe how happy people are.
They will expect the public to be full of doom and gloom because that’s how they have been opinionating everything in their columns and reams of a$#ewipe. They must surely be realising how irrelevent they are since November 2007.
That is when the people said we have had enough.
Grace @ 223 Thank you for the link, I think.
I didn’t realize this site was inhabited by, amongst others, egalitarians and libertarians and now my head hurts.
Boerwar
A lot of political philosophies as espoused by their originators are much more nuanced than people might assume from the way the terms are used in practice. I suspect many people interested in politics do not know the theoretical difference between libertarians and liberals. Many self-proclaimed libertarians would be embarrassed to read Nozick’s original views on government interventions to favour business (eg fuel subsidies etc). Nozick did care about justice, but had a particular view on what it was and how to achieve it. I think he would turn in his grave if he saw what some Neo-cons claiming to be libertarians have done with public funds for business welfare.
202
Bushfire Bill
Turnbull must be having a bit of Attention Deficit Disorder, as in not getting enough, to trundle out that preposterous line! LOL
Firstly, Stevens does NOT do the Treasurer’s bidding, and Swan did not ASK that rates go higher.
If all Malcontent can do is distort the plain facts for some media coverage he might think he’s being an oh so clever politician, but really, how many people are going to pay attention to nonsense of that order?
Or, if that’s the best attack he can come up with, he’s seriously in the wrong game.
I am bemused by the latest stories doing the round on the messiah.
I seem to recall that about the time the CHOGM was on and Howard’s continued tenure was in question, a journo used a brilliant metaphor likening John Howard to a poisonous snake and his colleagues, perhaps likened to a transfixed bunch of schoolgirls (?) standing around, too paralysed or hypnotised to do anything. They couldn’t act until Howard acted, and Howard told them that he wouldn’t act unless they acted.
Subtract a few electoral casualties and despairees, and much the same mob are now standing around paralysed by the mere prospect of the messiah saying something like: ‘Oh, alright, I’ll save youse all, if my mate hands it to me on a platter or if somebody else challenges my mate’. Again, all sorts of rules that paralyse.
Some severe psychological damage evident all round here. Is the continuing baneful Howard legacy at work?
Do nothings.
Just had a look at GroceryChoice.
Aldi themselves couldn’t have published a better ad: they’re consistently about 25% cheaper than the rest on the basic basket.
http://grocerychoice.gov.au/Default.aspx
BB, 202 & 212, well said, some of your best so far. I too think your thoughts should be getting wider exposure.
Some are calling GroceryChoice a gimmick. Tell me what I’m missing here. If it helps consumers to identify the cheapest supermarket in their suburb, that is the store the consumers can be expected to favour. Their competitors will then be under pressure to lower their prices to woo the customers back.
I see it as a relatively simple instrument which might deliver benefits of more intense competition.
(Better GroceryChoices than WorkChoices)
Rx, it doesn’t get down to suburb level. It’s more regional area… NW Sydney, Eastern suburbs, Inner West etc.
The standout is Aldi. I knew they were cheaper, but I didn’t know it was by 25%. That’s a substantial saving on a $200 grocery shop.
Long queues, though…
Thanks JM.
BB I’m sure it would be more effective if the information was detailed right down to the individual store/suburb. Then consumers would know just which shop to go to, rather than a broad guide to the most competitive chain in their general locality.
Lot more finnicky to upkeep though.
Have a look at Tax Review Paper
Rx, You’re not missing anything the opposition is. For a party that says it’s mantra is choice for the individual, I find it hard to reconcile why they want to oppose a web site that allows individuals the choice of where to shop for the best bargains.
Sondeo, pardon my cynicism. I think some in the Opposition want to see the scheme fail, they’d like to see petrol go up, not down, rates continue to rise, a recession come sweeping in.
They want to see Aussies suffer for voting them out!
You see this in malignant blog postings: “Aussies I hope you ENJOY your Labor recession. When you lose your house, remember we TOLD you not to vote for Labor.”
If the only way they think they can get back into government is on the back of people’s hurt, and not on their own merit, then a morally-bankrupt, naked government that would prove to be. Short-lived, too, I’d bet.
If the LNP keep talking about recession and nothing happens it is gonna make Labor look even better. The problem they have is the disconnect between their rehtoric and reality people experience which, may be falling rates and easing petrol prices.
If pressure comes on the employment (which is at a fairly high level anyway) people only need reminding of what Workchoices I & II would have done to their incomes.
Rx, Unfortunately I share your cynicism. But anything that gives more information to the consumer has to be beneficial in the long term.
http://aeo8.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/merits-of-grocery-watch-fuel-watch-choice/
PK’s take on Opium–The slow working dope
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24137001-601,00.html