This fortnight’s Newspoll shows Labor’s two-party lead unchanged on 56-44. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating is down three points to 62 per cent, while Brendan Nelson’s is up two to 16 per cent.
The weekly Essential Research survey has Labor retaining its 59-41 lead. Peter Costello is rated best person to lead the Liberals by 26 per cent against 13 per cent for Malcolm Turnbull, 8 per cent for Julie Bishop and 7 per cent for Brendan Nelson. However, Kevin Rudd is preferred to Peter Costello head-to-head 53 per cent to 27 per cent.
793 It appears they can introduce Bills in the senate HSO.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/pubs/briefs/brief08.htm
Boerwar @ 795. The Large Hadron Accelerator is one of the most exciting things going ATM. It may not answer religious questions, though I’m reminded of a very clever half page sci-fi story I read some time ago. All the AIs throughout the human occupied galaxies are hooked up to form one. First question put is “Is there a God?” Bolt of lightning follows which fuses shut the connection hooking up the AIs into one. Voice out of nowhere booms “Now there is.”
ruawake @ 796
Well, ESJ says that if you do it you are into ‘relativism’, which, by implication must be very bad or he wouldn’t say it.
Others have said that if Rudd does it, he is a hypocrite. He was going to end the blame game and if he blames someone now then he is not ending it at all.
In a general way, I suspect voters, in the absence of having some unified theory of the political universe (damn that accelerator), like to do comparison shopping. You could argue that the voters therefore encourage pollies to make comparisons.
As for what we deserve… well, hmmm, unfortunately, I suspect we generally do tend to get what we deserve.
Thanks, Steve. Yes, but was informed the G.G. had to make a formal request to the HoR for it to be considered. Quentin Bryce would do this? Gawd almighty, the LNP are desparate. Talk about mischief making.
803 Seems they want the House of Reps to knock back a Bill so the Liberal obstructionism in the senate doesn’t look so bad.
795 Boerwar
Religion can’t even articulate a decent question let alone find an answer.
I reckon the Hadron Accelerator will throw more questions than answers.
Is it possible that if we could create a big bang, maybe we were created?
HSO @ 801
Yep, I am very interested in what they come up with, and will be even more interested, at least for a nanosecond, if they manage to create a big enough black hole by mistake *grin*. I just don’t like the religious bits that some folk are putting on it.
I liked your short story. My favourite, apart from the Loaded Dog, is one set in the future where a magnificent government vehicle, equipped with every sort of sensor and electrical weapon, electrically-powered through a cable back to mission control, moves towards an old guy sitting on the verandah of his desert house. Turns out that he is agin the Government and hasn’t signed his social security form or something. Anyway, when the vehicle is close enough he picks up his Winchester and shoots the power cable. After a while the gubbies start roasting, vacate the vehicle, and scramble back to town.
I know, wishful thinking, but we can all dream.
“The real action, in search for some answers, is happening right now underground in Switzerland.”
That’s what the libs need, put Costello in one end, Nelson in the other, turn it on and see if they can find the mysterious missing element called backbone
Centre @ 805
Would not have a clue. Whenever I think about that stuff my head starts hurting, so I generally avoid it.
Rod @ 807
Good one. Some backbone and think also of the gravitas gain as they approach the speed of light.
Should make Brenda head of state. He seems to be always wanting to tell and order all governments around.Last week he ordered NSW to go to the people 30 months early. Now he is ordering the Federal Government to raise the SINGLE pension immediately.
“Is there a way we can say, OK this is where we are at, how do we take things forward.”
RU
I think Rudd is doing that with his reviews and inquiries.
It is a slow cautious approach but the better one as the risk in introducing rushed wholesale changes is that there would have to be amendments to fix unforeseen glitches.
The pension review is one that can’t be rushed as from what I’ve read some pensioners rents are linked to the pension so any increase in the pension just means a rent increase. Also the libs changes to super enables the uber rich to claim the pension which is not what the pension is for.
Better to present a well thought out bill covering all areas than have to return to again and again.
rod @ 812
On the pension issue, I agree that it looks like a good policy process, but do you think you have a good policy process coupled with a bad political handling?
It seems to me to be just plain silly for senior ministers and the PM to say that they don’t understand how single pensioners are coping with their income. It creates an unnecessary time pressure that runs counter to the timing required for a good policy process.
[It seems to me to be just plain silly for senior ministers and the PM to say that they don’t understand how single pensioners are coping with their income.]
It was clearly deliberate, possibly because they want to highlight the issue as they already have seen the preliminary findings of the review
Nelson is desperate, running around trying to be a populist but instead he is looking like someone who has no idea what he believes in, put simply he is looking like an unorganised lunatic searching for credibility.
Well in last 24 hours hav seen pension bashing , why doesn’t rudd use th 21 billion surplus , why does Rudd listen to MSN and just give them a rise now on th spot in th TV interview
Dealing with size of surplus first , yes th 21 billion fgure was just plucked out of thin air , could hav actualy made it 2 or even 5 billion less , no econamic consequenses at all , yea
Pension bashing , try to live on it , oh they should hav saved during ther lives & had no factors that impeded that Well thats just code word for having almost no pensions at all Having a Pension is non negotiable under Labor doktrine , so policaly all other Partys ar forced to go along with having Labor’s compassionate equity principals for disadvantaged , as with medicare now
Pension rises , Rudd promised to give a net inflation rise this year and has already delivered
Take action now per posters/MSN , well if people understood th linkages Howard built in & flow ons then Rudds approach to properly review is only sensible policy course & Rudd will not be able to untangle it even then in one go , so st.ff MSN complex policy requires due examination
Will pensions ever be what one would like , of course not th cake is only so big
Why did Rudd acknowledge there is a problem , Rudd told th plain truth what did you expect him to say everythings dandy , which is more than I can say for Nelson & Libs who had 12 years to deside Pensions were too low and only this week cynicaly discovers that…well he will shortly discover he has no leadership job also
for those wishing to dig deeper than the MSM coverage of the LHC i recommend the following article and associated links.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/10/lhc_day_is_not_today/
“Today, it is being strongly implied, is the moment of truth – today is the big day, when the LHC might unmask the elusive “god particle” – or alternatively destroy the world and indeed perhaps the entire universe.
There’s just one snag with all that – it’s cobblers. All the good, interesting stuff from the LHC – the Higgs deiton, the dark matter, the possibly planet-gobbling black hole dimensional portal threat and/or universe-buster runaway strangelet or monopole soup plagues, dessert topping apocalypses etc – none of that’s on offer today.”
Ron @ 816
The problem is this: If it is known that the pension is inadequate in 2008, why do pensioners have to wait until 2009 before something is done? This means that pensioners somehow have to eke out an unsatisfactory existence because the Government is too slow to act now. Maybe there is a good reason, but if there is, it is not obvious to me.
Perhaps Boerwar Therese Rein can feed the pensioners cake?
814
Dario Says:
[It seems to me to be just plain silly for senior ministers and the PM to say that they don’t understand how single pensioners are coping with their income.]
It was clearly deliberate, possibly because they want to highlight the issue as they already have seen the preliminary findings of the review.
Glad I am not the only one who thinks the government’s comments were deliberate.
As to the world ending tonight in a swarm of mini black holes, the LHC is not doing any actual beam collisions until next month.
marky marky @ 816
Chipping away at the Government where ever and whenever you can is a reasonable strategy for Nelson at this stage. My guess is that, helped by poor handling on the Government’s part, he has scored somewhat of a half hit with the pension initiative.
817
gusface
Beat me to it. 😉
ESJ @ 819
*wicked grin*. Damme, a palpable hit, but a bit below the belt, old chap.
I wouldn’t want to get too relativistic about PMs’ femmes, but give me Theresa over Hyacinth any day.
Apart from that, I must have missed your reply to my repeated queries about your position on something or other that seemed important at the time. I must be getting old.
Dario @ 814
It may have been deliberate but that does not mean it makes sense.
[If it is known that the pension is inadequate in 2008, why do pensioners have to wait until 2009 before something is done?]
Well, if climate change is known to be affecting us now, why do we have to wait for an ETS in 2010? Everything takes TIME
Gusface @ 817
Thank for that. I will sleep soundly tonight. I checked out your link, for which thanks. You just can’t beat humans. $7billion, two decades and the thingie that sets the whole thing in motion is the ‘Big Knob’. *smile happily*.
What I find astonishing is that on the 25/11/07 the pensioners started turning off the power at night cause they couldn’t afford the electricity bill?
12 years of their hero Rodent and Brenda in government and not a single word?
The Fibs are pathetic! I hope that weak half man, half mouse Costello does go so they can lose 100+ seats at next election.
[It may have been deliberate but that does not mean it makes sense.]
Perhaps. I’d say we will find out the reason why when the review is released.
By the way, do we know the title of Tip’s book yet?
Dario @ 825
I suspect you may have raised a false analogy.
An ETS is a big new complex bureaucratic process, so it will take time. It also requires some careful settings to take into account the national interest, the fate of sectors and industries and so on. Quite rightly, it will take time.
But it only takes a one minute decision to crank up pensions and Centrelink can get the payments out in the next fortnight. It is all automated.
Don’t get me wrong here. The OO and myself are of one mind. Rudd is our only hope. But that does not mean that he is going to get it right all the time.
Dario @ 829
Yours of 829 and mine of 830 crossed. I suspect that you are right and that we will find out the full reasons when the whole shebang gets put on the table.
Everyone is entitled to a minimum level of dignity in their old age. Except it seems those who interfere with the Federal ALP’s fiscal settings.
ESJ @ 832
If only governments had a magic pudding.
Good night all.
No
One
Buys
A
Liberal
Loss..
Suckers
Red
classic comment that 🙂
818
Boerwar
#818
“Ron @ 816
The problem is this: If it is known that the pension is inadequate in 2008, why “do pensioners have to wait until 2009 before something is done?”
suggest you reread my 816 , th answer is there, briefly an immediate shortfall net of inflation of Pensions has ALREADY been delivered as promised in th electon However as alread said , changing pension base & inreacting factors like Supa etc reqiores alot of consideration because of flowons , hence Inquiry Why flag it now , its th truth , an Inquiry looking at consequensials as its another reform which is being highlighted now in advance sp people can start thinking of submissions What announse a February Inquiry in January secondly it sends a clear message Labor cares & will tackle problem structurally Just don’t read MSN
Centre
Even if we reproduced the Big Bang conditions exactly (which we can’t) and created a new universe, it still doesn’t mean that we could have been created as the cyclical and string theories of the Big Bang could still be true and there have just been endless Bang/Crunch cycles.
One of the main reasons for building the LHC was to look for where all the “dark matter” in the universe is hiding. You can’t see it, no-one notices it’s effect, you can’t measure it and it doesn’t do anything but we know it’s there. We could have saved them $10B and told them the dark matter is the Liberal Party of Australia. 😀
or with oiliness
[Everyone is entitled to a minimum level of dignity in their old age. Except it seems those who interfere with the Federal ALP’s fiscal settings.]
Yeah, because it is obvious that “human dignity”, along with human rights, can only be measured in dollars.
In fact, each human is about $137.54 worth of chemicals, that’s it.
[But it only takes a one minute decision to crank up pensions and Centrelink can get the payments out in the next fortnight. It is all automated.]
As ron said, there are many things intertwined with the base rate of the pension, not to mention working out how much it is all going to cost and where to get the money from. It’s not as complicated as the ETS I’ll grant you (which is going to take several years to set up) but it is NOT a simple matter of bumping up the numbers.
People like you cause wars ShowsOn
So Diogenes are you saying that there could be multiple big bangs with the creation of other universes in existence?
Will all forms of energy in the universe ultimately burn itself out and then there will be nothing?
Definitely some dark matter in the liberal party 🙂
ShowsOn
A human body is worth about $100,000 if you can sell all the organs off for transplants.
Why the polls looked different and strange..
Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz is highly skeptical of the new Gallup, USA Today and CBS polls. About the latter, which showed a statistically insignificant two point lead for McCain, Abramowitz said: “One reason for the dramatic difference between the two recent CBS polls is that the two samples differed fairly dramatically in terms of partisan composition. The first sample was 35.2% Democratic, 26.2 percent Republicans, and 38.6 percent independent. The second sample was 34.9% Democratic, 31.1% Republican, and 34.0% independent. That’s a change from a 9 point Democratic advantage to a 3.8 point Democratic advantage. That alone would probably explain about half of the difference in candidate preferences between the two [CBS] polls.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/poll-madness-mccain-takes_n_125158.html
[People like you cause wars ShowsOn]
Of course, my bombs of sarcasm have a habit of destroying illogical propositions such as: dignity = money.
Hello ESJ
putting away th naughtiness for second , 2 brief questns 2 subjects , seeing both ‘th liberal left’ Media and ‘right’ Media disagree with me becaue for few days i’ve alternatively reckoned maverick’s ‘bounce’ is delusionary its convention and new person on block th Lady generrated interst and polls therefore will narrow n 1 to 2 weeks so why cann’t those supposed psephological experts agree with Ronaldo Secondley your argument on pensions I think is timing , well leaving aside Ruddy’s net of inflaton rise this year is higher net % than any of cossie’s 12 years can you tell me do you support existing trust & Supa “diversions” and other “arrangements by affluient Australians “engineered so that they can get th Pension when on th existing fair dinkum income teat they fail it
TP , give away that Huff women red rag if you want objective reporting , there ar a few responsible papers over there although not alot as most ar either biased ‘left’ or biased ‘right’
No ShowsOn you seem to be one of these people who like argument for the sake of it.
Besides your argument is trite.
The water is wide and i cant get over. Do the right thing.
[Fed and NSW buy Toorale station
10th September 2008, 19:43 WST
The federal government has helped NSW buy a massive irrigation station on the Darling River in a bid to boost environmental flows. Federal Water Minister Penny Wong said the Rudd government had given the NSW government substantial assistance to buy Toorale Station for $23.75 million.
Under the landmark deal, an average of 20 gigalitres of water will be returned to the Darling River each year, peaking at up to 80 gigalitres in flood years.
Senator Wong said the deal would also provide a boost for the NSW reserve system.
“This is a great example of cooperative federalism – working together to deliver important progress for Australia’s long term future,” she said.]
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=513763
So Diogenes are you saying that there could be multiple big bangs with the creation of other universes in existence?
Absolutely. It’s not the most popular theory (inflation is which involves a single Bog Bang) but it’s very possible.
There is also the multiple universes theory in which the probability wave in quantum DOESN’T collapse (you know the Schrodinger cat thought experiment where the cat is neither dead or alive until you open the box). The two possible quantum events BOTH happen but each in a different universe, one where the cat is dead and the other where it is alive.
Will all forms of energy in the universe ultimately burn itself out and then there will be nothing?
Depends what you mean by nothing. There could be time but no matter, just potential energy.