The latest Essential Research survey has Labor’s lead down from 58-42 to 57-43, remembering that this is a two-week rolling average which was half conducted before Malcolm Turnbull replaced Brendan Nelson. Also included (just from the last week’s sample) are various questions on leadership and one on industrial relations (45 per cent think the government moving “too slowly”).
And are the MSM getting stuck into the Libs over blocking the Medicare tax relief bill?
I bet not!
Frivolous censure motion – just grandstanding for the cameras and papers. An abuse. Sohould be gagged
Has an opposition in previous parliaments ever disrupted proceedings with so many irrelevant points of order?
What a rude, offensive bunch this mob are, particularly when Gillard or Roxon are at the dispatch box!
QT seems to be getting pointless.
Stupid questions.
Stupid answers.
Too many Dorothy Dixers.
FAR too many idiotic points of order.
It’s only there for the theatrical value, and it’s pi$$ poor theatre at that. A panto at the local Westfields would be more entertaining.
553: The last opposition was pretty bad. I recall Albanese was a big fan of points of order.
BB, I beg to differ, QT is front line entertainment. I didn’t happen to be at home today at 2pm but I plugged in the headphones into my mobile and tuned up ABC radio and listened to the lot 😉 …… I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And since the questions alternate sides, you can’t say that there are too many dorthy dixers as everyother one will automatically be such. I agree with you on idiotic points of order and I attribute that to the fact that the Libs don’t know how to handle opposition, they haven’t been there in so very long 😉
So James because the last opposition was bad in your view, it exonerates the oppostion from this woeful performance? I don’t think so.
It hasn’t been the same since Keating left politics, QT used to be required viewing/listening when he was in full flight!
Of course it doesnt. Don’t make straw men. Let’s not pretend that it’s only the current opposition that have behaved this way. Question Time is a shambles and both sides are responsible.
My recollection is that when Labor were in opposition most of the points of order were raised by the leader of opposition business.
What we now have is a free for all, opposition members who asked the question always make frivolous points of order, trying to debate the Minister at the table. Ironbar and Bronny have not changed they always jumped up even when in Govt.
Avuncular is not doing his job.
Now you may understand why Keating put Ministers,including himself as PM, on a QT roster. Which of coarse was continually ridiculed by the then opposition leader Howard.
James, only one side is asking the questions, interrupting the answers and pulling on frivolous no confidence motions. You must be watching a different QT or is it you are watching it through blue eyes? But you are right to admit it is a shambles.
Bushfire Bill @ 521 –
Yeah, it does smell fishy… the ENTIRE economy?
Might be an exaggeration, but perhaps not by much. I understand that for some time over last weekend it was impossible to hedge U.S. dollars at any price. The system just ground to a halt until a number of central banks entered the market to sell U.S. dollars to anyone that wanted them.
Such hedging contracts are vital insurance for buying or selling good or services in that currency so this had the potential of closing down a very large slice of international trade, and even affect exchange rates for other currencies.
So governments need to tread very carefully or the whole shebang could spiral out of control very quickly. However, I’m a long way from being convinced that throwing money at the idiots/crooks/charlatans/all of the above who caused the crisis is the best way to go. I suspect a lot of that the money will end up disappearing into unintended pockets.
Don’t know enough about the nitty gritty to come up with an alternative, but has anyone considered helping the mortgagees who took out the bad loans to continue paying them off. In many cases they have been, to varying degrees, the innocent big losers in this debacle. I’d much rather see them get a roof over their heads at a cut rate than the shysters become even richer. By resuscitating the housing market it’d help other Americans too.
PS: And why the %$#@ have I just seen an ad for low-doc mortgages from a certain home loan company? Don’t these cretins read the papers? IMveryunHO they deserve to loose every cent they lend on such loans, plus do time at Her Majesty’s pleasure!
The Libs have turned QT into a farce lately
It has been a farce for a long time. It was a fare under the last government. It is still a farce. Not much has changed. This is not something that just suddenly emerged on November 25 of last year.
It’s no more farcical than it has been for the last 30 years. You need to remember it’s not really a question time, it’s a test of strength, and today Gillard and Albo won hands down.
[It’s no more farcical than it has been for the last 30 years]
yeah, true
Adam,
@ 566 – [ You need to remember it’s not really a question time, it’s a test of strength, and today Gillard and Albo won hands down. ]
This is why it is so much fun to watch 😉 ….. I wouldn’t watch QT under the Howard government UNTIL Rudd got into the opposition leaders seat and the Labor fortunes turned the corner. Once that happened, QT was fun to watch because our guys were on the rise 😉 ……
It has degenerated into a complete shambles with the Liberal party in Opposition. I think the Speaker ought to make the ruling that points of order when given should immediately state the type of point to be made – ie ‘relevance’ before saying anything further.
I thought it was rude trying to censure the government while Rudd was overseas.
Turnbull is relying on the usual bluster and confected outrage, which he believes is shared by most of the rest of the community. Every newspaper and media outlet, it seems, is now into anger. Anger at errant footy players, abducted children (which must be one of the greatest beat-ups of the century), Rudd’s trip overseas, scandal and trivia about c-list “celebrities” no-one has ever heard of.
This all plays to the Great Australian Wowser mentality. As long as we can pooh-pooh something, or be livid about some else’s tribulations, we’re happy. as long as they’re looking down morally on someone else. Ecery day it’s Christmas for wowsers here in Oz.
Not the slightest effort is made to examine issues or dig into them in any depth at all. For instance, Rudd’s trip is depicted solely as tourism, nothing more, nothing less. Rudd is supposed to give up a trip planned well in advance, and very arguably (if serendipitously) vital to the nations welfare, in order to come back and answer pointless rhetorical questions in the Bush Capital for an Opposition that can’t accept it has been defeated, and doesn’t realise the people have more on their minds than whether the Libs can win the next election.
And if that doesn’t work, they put the antics of a pig on the front page of every newspaper and headline of every TV news for almost a week.
In the rest of the World, huge issues are being decided, particularly in america. Our PM is in the the thick of it. Yet all we get is carping and whingeing about “free holidays” at taxpayers’ expense.
And don’t get me started on alcopops and the “salt of the Earth” Bundy drinkers who, it appears, can’t live without a swig at 3.30 after work. Is this crap really IMPORTANT to the national discourse when the world is melting down, the Budget is under pressure from a destructive opposition and a pig is on the loose in Uki, NSW?
Last days of Rome Bill, last days of Rome.
Rudd roams, while Turnbull fiddles.
The reason QT is a farce is that the opposition (any opposition) wants to catch the government out rather than get genuine answers to questions and the government (any government) wants to show off what they are doing as well as degrading the opposition. If they were serious the opposition would would provide the government questions to the government before hand and the government would be required to answer the questions in as much detail as required without waffle. But neither side is serious about it, let’s face it.
I agree we are seeing the tantrums of Howard’s media sychophants – the murdoch papers, ABC and some in the Sydney Morning Herald. Everything else is failing, now it is just blatant false trivial attacks on the government bereft of relevance and truth. That they try and trivialise the PMs visit to the US at this time is beyond belief and irresponsible – they it seems are willing to trash Australia to help their Liberal friends.
Turnbull even though gagged achieved his aim and the papers dutifully report it as the government avoiding discussion on pensioners etc.
Nothing to be done except to continually ridicule those papers and reporters who are disgracing themselves – it remains a long term internet record. And it tells them that people out there can see right through them.
Gary
I think there’s two problems.
1 yes – neither side is serious about the intent of Question time. Do we really need questions without notice in this day and age. Is it not possible for all the questions to be posted on the web at 9am and replies posted within certain time limits?
Is public speaking really a measure of ability to govern?
2 We all refer to those in the parliament as THEM. They’re not. They’re US. They don’t believe they’re US either, which just sends it all around the circle again.
Parliamentarians are OUR elected representatives.
It’s a two way street that the majority of us just aren’t interested in paticipating in, and I suspect in most circumstances we’re getting what WE deserve.
Well the joys of Parliament are over for two weeks. Looking back over the past two weeks we have a new leader of the rabble but not much else from that side.
The Govt has got its Car Tax and Condensate Levy bills through, despite the rabble’s opposition. Alco-Pops likely to get through and the Medicare Surcharge looking like a great DD trigger eventually.
The rabble kicked a couple of own goals at the beginning of the week, losing much needed momentum. Julia took them apart in Rudd’s absence and the rabble looked like they were looking forward to getting back to their electorates. (In fact the member for Kalgoorlie did his usual and got sin binned on the last sitting day).
But I bet the media pundits say that Talcum’s week was a triumph. 🙂
Good to see some bludgers have finally worked out that QT is not fulfilling its original purpose.
Thomas Paine @ 569 – I remember when Howard was PM and the speaker would resort to requiring the point of order be stated first up. He would then immediately declare there was no point of order and turn off their mike. Remember that relevance is the only point of order for questions officially (although sometimes it is necessary to direct a minister to address their answers through the speaker.)
The only thing worse about the dorothy dixers in this parliament is that the ministers’ answers consist of reading a prepared speech, not exactly questions without notice. I remember an occasion in the last parliament when a Liberal backbencher, asking a question, was asking, word for word, the previous question asked on their side. He noticed his mistake, turned the page on the document he was reading from, and started reading ‘his’ question. I can’t help but think the only difference now is that the answer would be written on the same piece of paper.
Bill @ 570
I’m sure Rudd cares so much about when the opposition decides to attempt a censure:-)
Has Tony Abbott gone on leave or is he locked in a cupboard somewhere?
Apparently Fielding blundered again today, voting to end debate on the Medicare bill, rather than continue on and put his own amendments.
The Greens are complaining that he says he has all these ideas and suggestions to offer, but just as everyone’s about to hear them, he votes to gag himself! This has happened several times now.
If it’s not a blunder, then Fielding sure is sticking tickets onto his pin-striped lapels. Could it be that he sees himself as this tough negotiator, in some private, smoke-filled room, ensconced in toe-to-toe with the Labor crew, thrashing points out one by one? What ever happened to debate in the chamber, where it’s supposed to be?
He asserts for every person given tax relief from theMedicare bill, three or four will cop it in higher premiums. I haven’t seen one iota of proof of this bald statement yet, and I haven’t head of one independent expert agreeing with it. And we’re certainly not going to get any, y’know, argument from Fielding. It’s spit the dummey, take his bat and ball home with him until the government agrees in full.
This Assemblies Of God drone is turning from mildly amusing turkey into the full-catastrophe laughing stock. He doesn’t seem to understand Senate procedure. He’s wasting so much time with his gaffes and ill-thought-out tactics, even the bloody Greens look like sober citizens by comparison!
God forbid he should fall under a bus and go to heaven. The ones coming up behind him as potential casual replacements look ever kookier.
They seem to be hiding him from Gillard. She has a long history of embarrassingly emasculating victories over him.
[Apparently Fielding blundered again today, voting to end debate on the Medicare bill, rather than continue on and put his own amendments.]
I think it’s deliberate. He has to get himself in the headlines otherwise he will have no chance at the next election. Headlines probably won’t lift that chance by much… but it’s all he’s got.
Yep predictable
ABC online “Govt ‘out of touch, out of its depth’ ”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/25/2374533.htm?section=justin
The ABC has now dropped the opposition says from its headlines. 🙁
Bob Brown has started calling Fielding “Family Last”
Tanner ridiculing Allbull in QT said that Brenda used to sit on the fence but at least he knew where the fence was. They crossed to Brenda smiling and nodding.lol
Julia Gillard has handled QT with ease and good effect all week. She’s no Sarah Palin!
[The ABC has now dropped the opposition says from its headlines]
Pathetic… as usual
I bet Brissenden (spelling?) on ABC 7pm news will show the clip of Allbull full of bluster as his parliament report as well. Won’t see Tanner Julia etc making him squirm of course. He’ll probably repeat again how the Govt is under pressure over pensions and talk up what a great job Allbull is doing.
Well I guess if anyone knows where Albrechtsen lives they can go ask her whats going on with the ABC.
Crikey have put it in some perspective:
Fielding got 56,376 votes in the 2004 election, or 1.77% of Victorian votes. That’s just under one-sixth of the 330,000 Australians who will miss out on a tax cut because of him. In proportion, about 83,000 Victorians will miss out.
[Bob Brown has started calling Fielding “Family Last”]
I noted this afternoon that the SMH had the headline:
[Family last: Medicare bonus sunk]
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/family-last-medicare-bonus-sunk/2008/09/24/1222217331213.html
… now “disappeared” off their front page on-line edition, but there for all of one hour.
Abbott is overseas at a conference in Hawaii last I heard.
[Abbott is overseas at a conference in Hawaii last I heard.]
Ah yes… the endless quest for the Old Coconut.
Rudd-namied, I’m afraid, Tone.
Has Abbott got a time share on Smirks hammock?
The Summing-Up…
A terrible week for the Opposition. Turnbull is no threat. Red Julia was ascendent (and iridescent). Rudd Away From Home, no problem. All we need now is Anthony albanese to be let completely loose and the triumph is complete.
Australia is in good hands.
WOODSIDE Petroleum has posted a 67 per cent jump in first half profit, driven by high oil prices and a stronger production performance. Australia’s second largest oil and gas producer posted a first half net profit of $1.016 billion.
So lets round things out a bit, Woodside makes $2 billion a year after tax profit. Yet they want to keep a 31 year old subsidy? Poor buggers will only make $1.4 billion a year now. Or to put it in really simple terms $3 million a day.
Yet this is described thus “This is an absolute smash and grab raid and I want to style it right now as the drive-by shooting of the century,” says David Johnston.
Bull Butter. 🙂
An interesting article written after the 2004 election. Explains, among other things, how Howard granted self-funded retirees a $200 “utilities allowance” (read: election bribe), while, for appearances sake, the less well-off pensioners only got a token $100. Gittins makes the point that Howard gifted the over-55s, strategically, as they were his most consistent support demographic.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/12/1097406574037.html?from=storylhs
I note the absence of the usual commentators from the Right.
I’d say they’re still in shock. A truly awful 7 days for them.
The Mouth From The East has fallen on deaf ears.
Can someone please tell me who one senator who represents buggar all of the population can hold a govt, who won a clear majority in the last election to ransom.. I am not the smartest cookie i am a truck driver and as such blue collar worker but this is indefensable. If it was libs 50/50 blocking well you would go okay politics will work it out . but one jesus preacher flexing his little muscles for his 15mins of fame is a disgrace. I hope this triggers a dd if only to get rid of this parasite.
The Peeps,
Ask The Labor Party, they preferanced him.
TO william .
I quite liked the live blogging of QT . as where i work i ave neither acess to tv. or radio and the blogging was at least a good commentary as what was going on and not a 20 sec media grab.
Your site of course but no harm done i thought unless this is now a eletist blog and no other views will be entered into.
I like your live blogging for elections as well.
It’s O.K., The Peeps. There’s all sorts who post here or read others’ posts. Don’t let the turkeys get you down. As to why Fielding has so much sway, it comes down to the numbers in the Senate. The Libs plus Fielding have the numbers to defeat the government.