Happy new year: week two

In the continuing absence of new polling, enjoy the following news snippets:

• Amid lingering rumours of a late February state election in Queensland, Lawrence Springborg has floated the possibility of Mal Brough entering state politics by contesting a Labor-held seat. Such would be the only option available to him given the Liberal National Party merger arrangement which guaranteed all sitting members uncontested preselections. Party sources quoted by Mark Bahnisch in Crikey “rule out any possibility that the Borg has seriously approached Brough. It would appear instead that the LNP’s polling suggests continued weakness and scepticism among urban and outer suburban Liberal voters – whose support the opposition desperately needs to be within even a mile of toppling Bligh.”

• The new Electoral Commissioner, Ed Killesteyn, began his five-year term on Monday. Killesteyn has almost swapped roles with his predecessor Ian Campbell, who is now secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs – of which Killesteyn was previously a deputy secretary.

• UMR Research has published one of its occasional surveys on attitudes to republicanism, which shows both support and opposition losing ground to “don’t know” over the past six months. Other findings are that “men and younger Australians (are) more in favour of a republic”, and that support for an elected president remains overwhelming.

• Only one week to go until South Australia’s Frome by-election, which you can read about and comment on here. Despite a preference swap between independent Port Pirie mayor Geoff Brock and Nationals candidate Neville Watson, there seems little reason not to think Terry Boylan will easily retain the seat for the Liberals.

• Dig Wikipedia’s animation showing the evolution of Australia’s state and territory borders (hat tip to VexNews).

NOTE: No further discussion on the situation in the Middle East, please. There are plenty of more appropriate places for it elsewhere.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

204 comments on “Happy new year: week two”

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  1. Fulvio @ 144

    Educated bigotry works. Think of the voters of asian descent who received all that educated bigotry during the Howard Government and who turfed the little blighter out of his seat.

    This is the true lunacy of David Johnston. Bigotry of any sort does not live in a vacuum. It creates reactions on the part of those who are discriminated against.

  2. [Bigotry of any sort does not live in a vacuum. It creates reactions on the part of those who are discriminated against.]

    Boerwar, under the current political climate, this is sailing very close to the wind.

    Damn that beauty sleep again.

  4. Fulvio, it’s a pity your post at 144 couldn’t be published somewhere where it could be read by a wider audience so that these frauds could beb exposed for what they really are.

    IMHO, “SNAP”. Great post.

  9. Bob thanks for that link.
    It confirms dolly as not just an airhead,but a bitter twisted and definitely sour little cross dresser.

    Perhaps the Cyprus thingy is getting up his nose,I mean no-one to polish his ego or take out his inferiority complex on

    diddums smackedbum

  11. bob, I couldn’t resist. I posted a comment to his article which most cirtainly won’t be published. I said “Alexander is a racist nincompoop. But only slightly.”.

  12. Sen Johnstone is basically a buffoon, but not only that, he supposes the rest of the world is equally dim….typical of WA Liberals in general.

  13. No, it won’t get published. I can present the most reasoned argument, making sure I don’t insult anyone, it won’t get published. The Advertiser are pro-Liberal and will continue to post pro-Liberal comments, and allow the occasional pro-Labor comment through, but only as long as it’s basic and isn’t too piercing, or has it’s facts wrong.

  15. Bob, i make a point of never reading Downers rubbish but i just broke that for the first and last time, i also left a reply, i said i needed to go and have a hot shower to wash off the slime the article left all over me, of course that wont be published neither, i guess the only plus with that rag is that Kenny wont be writing any more rubbish for them–that is until he becomes one of the turnovers from Turnbull’s office, hmmm i wonder how ACA took it when Kenny resigned after just signing on to their shiny new program.

  17. What I love most is this shifty comment:

    And what about Iraq? Up until November 2007, many of you chanted, “Troops out of Iraq”. You went on marches down King William St and held up banners outside my office. We still have troops in Iraq but now you say nothing; no demonstrations, no letters to the editor, no claims that Kevin Rudd and his foreign minister are war criminals. So it’s as simple as this: It’s okay for Labor to have troops in Iraq but not the Liberals.

    —

    He fails to make any mention that it was the Liberals, not Labor, who got our personnel stuck between a rock and a hard place, and further fails to make mention of the fact that it was Rudd Labor who HAS REMOVED ALL COMBAT TROOPS from Iraq, not the Liberals. He’s fudging facts just to write a sensationalist opinion piece. I’m so glad sleazy trash like him is out of our parliament, it just makes us all look bad.

  18. [Anyway, in Hal’s view, Wilson’s expose was “squalid and nasty in a Smeagol like way” (whoever Smeagol was, but you get the drift, obscure references make you more superior to your reader)]

    Fulvio, I’m not sure a Lord of the Rings reference counts as hi-falutin’ intellectual snobbery.

  20. Billbo

    not all of us would know that gollums real name was smeagol.

    except of course if one was an hi-falutin’ intellectual who liked reading kids books

  22. Wilsons aleged hoax on quadrant was a feather duster , for 95% of th community quadrant probably means how many slices to cut up a choclate cake

    Only hoax i can see is some bloger got air play hoaxing th converted anti quadrant set into hoxedly feeling a ‘blow’ has been struck for liberty & fratternity , and now no one will ever read quadrant Suggest it will still get published and continue to receive deserved credibility by all ‘informed’ …informed ie with a quadrant tink slant

    Remeber editor here JG made a big blue on obama puppy name contest , trig & MD etc …errors do happen under pressure of publicaton Now Bolts site apparently per JG went into meltdown with delights …but over what , an error I did query th later apology should hav been only on those ofended rather than worrying about th bolt-ites but still thought errors can be made & do Perhaps thats what happened at quadrant an error in verifying some sourses seeing aloyt of data WAS valid , perhaps an error there ala JG (not htat quadrant like jg will apologise) but certainly also sloppy editorial sourse auditing

    So what , if it had of been 100% legit then Quatrant would HAVE published also , as you’d expect…ditto th communist rag (tribune or whatever they publish only there slanted stuff) Now whilst Fulvio (with total justication by way) is annoyed at what they writ and its slant , it is quadrant , like that slant then thats quadrant so fr min it was a hoax of non hoax , simply indication poor editorial governance but not demolishing there slant

    Now if one wanted to reely hoax quadrant , i’d do “a chasers”…i’d pick out one of there say cloning ing articles , then get all this irafutable science based data undermining ‘..scuttles’ clone slants , then roll up one day TV camera’s behind , in a say Roman Chariot and a cloned 1/2 cow/1/2 human roman gladiator with alleged ‘dead sea scrolls” on cloning ..demolishing quadrant view …seeif they publish damning contary views …even if they do , next week , turn up in a cloned future man outfit , with luke Skywalkers dark forse’ secret on cloning of th perfect man (combination of Adam possum william and …) Problam is that way everyone wuld know quadrant ar selective publishers AND better just th few ‘informed’ on ‘left’ know it , but then they already knew that already didnot they so who is th hoaxer

    Serously anyone can pull off such an alleged hoax , of what they’d normaly print anyway…thats gices Fulvio a few days of satisfacton and am not begrudging him that ….but to hav satisfacton that just just keeps on giving then catch thems out oin what they do NOT want to publish , ie contry views , and show they do not want to publish that contary view & better on tv satircals…there’s one tink people like more than being angry at a w.anker & thats forever laughing at th w.anker-ee (Downer-ee)…so lord of th rings was appropriate words after all reely

  23. Gus & Mao, William has banned the current debate over ME. If i am not wrong Lord of the Rings is about ME.

    [The title of the book refers to the story’s main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who had in an earlier age created the One Ring that rules the other Rings of Power, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-East. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin). The lands of Middle-earth are populated by Men (humans) and other humanoid races (Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs), as well as many other creatures, both real and fantastic (Ents, Wargs, Balrogs, Trolls, etc.).]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

  24. Frank 145
    //And Hal of course once stood for the Libs in Federal Seat of Perth against Ric Charlesworth in the 80’s, and lost //

    …and Hal of course is a direct descendent of former WA Premier Colebatch who is the only Australian politician to ever order the army to kill striking unionists. Many believe him to be directly responsible for the deaths of several workers.

    …and Hal of course is a prolific contributor to the fascist Institute of Public Affairs.

    I wonder why the OO never discloses these little snippets about their tribe of reichtwing dribblers?

  25. [The drought-stricken farmers of Tasmania’s Clyde River valley have attracted a champion to their water rights cause in federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.]

    http://news.smh.com.au/national/turnbull-pleads-for-droughthit-farmers-20090112-7f4o.html

    No, Malcolm isn’t going to make it rain for them, despite his “championing” a $10 million grant to a lib party donor for a rain making scheme. Malcolm is going to

    [petition the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to intervene]

    What a champion.

  27. [Essential Report has primaries 49/35 to the ALP washing into a TPP of 59/41 ]

    Pah!. Xmas. New Year, people still plissed after Ruddy’s handouts.

  28. Essential Report also has a question on Paul John Gascoigne.

    This could be a way around Williams ban on the subject, discuss the polling attitudes to it!

  29. I wonder how Mr Downer’s boss in the UN system feels about his Special Adviser on Cyprus asserting in public that African-Americans who voted for the incoming US President because the latter is black are practitioners of racism? Usually diplomats trying to broker peace processes which will, presumably, benefit from the support of the Permanent Members of the Security Council think it wise not to tweak the noses of the P-5’s leaders.

  30. Rundle writing on somebody or other in today’s Crikey…

    ‘The man … was advocating the revolutionary potential of LSD in the 60s, media studies as “radical pedagogy” in the early 70s, was enthusiastic for Pol Pot peasant-style revolts in the late 70s (“the oil is almost gone — soon the Aborigines and poor whites will rise up” he wrote in Nation Review in the late 70s) and re-emerged in the 90s, after the global collapse of the left, as a man who thought there was no Tasmanian genocide, that the White Australia policy was a left-wing plot, that John Steinbeck made up the Great Depression and that the British Empire could not have been cruel because its officers were Christians.

    Like a mendicant Pope, he’s spent his life wandering from one state of certainty to the next, in the search for godknowswhat.’

  31. “Pah!. Xmas. New Year, people still plissed after Ruddy’s handouts.”

    Yeah, we’ll just ignore the exact same polling that’s existed since Rudd became Labor leader in December 2006 shall we, and put this current one down to “handouts”.

    2006-2009 polls, all wrong, the people were tricked in 2007, and will come flooding back to the coalition in droves in 2010.

    What I can’t believe is that there are people out there that actually BELIEVE this dribble. How amusing!

    On other news, 5-15% carbon reduction too much? Not enough? Do we need to do more ourselves?

    “While millions of people tap into Google without a thought for the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2. Boiling a kettle generates about 15g.”

    http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24900147-5014239,00.html

  32. Report today from multiple US intell & FA oficials now believe Iran has 4-5k centrifugres enough for 1 nuke producton every 8 months by uranium need , and were so close to weapons capacity they were unlikely to be stoped Further that Israel had asked US for spec bunjker buster bombs in 2007 for there then planned 2007 surpise attack on Iran , and part of that attack needed US ok to fly over Iraq

    Reports Bush refused both israeli requests , must hav been his only correct decision Nothing wuld hav united th sunni and shia m/e world more than such an unprovoked attack on th sovereign land of another 1500 knm away and especialy from Israel , just look at US alone popularity sitting in Iraq as a deeemed Western outsider , or don’t UN borders count anymore , at all

    Obama’s alternative approach , to engage th Iranians & bring them inside th tent , rather than a war mongering attack mentality of some , seems option ala Lybia & Gadafi , and yet some peoples never learn or , perhaps not in there intersts to never want to learn

  33. ‘Reports Bush refused both israeli requests , must hav been his only correct decision’

    Ron I heard the BBC report this and they quoted some General as saying they didnt want to start a third front (Iraq and Afgahnistan being the others). I think GWB would have loved a stoush but was held back only by logistics as opposed to commonsense

  34. The 24% of people who think they will be better off in 2009 (according to EMC), must send shivers down Malcolm’s spine.

    Ah well, I suppose “Interest Rates will always be lower under the Libs” has been well and truely shafted. 🙂

  35. India’s IT is showing sign of sailing into troubled water.

    The Satyam saga has been described as India’s Enron. In fact, in money term, it is bigger than Enron. In addition, the World Bank was banning Satyam as its IT service provider before the fraud was beautifully annouced by its founder Mr. Raju. One of the newspapers in India has said the Satyam scandal is the economic terrorism committed against India not unlike the recent terrorism committed against India at Mumbai.

    Now the World Bank has announced two more Indian IT companies to be banned as its IT service provider, they are Wipro and Megasoft. Wipro is one of the big 4 of Indian IT (Satyam, Wipro, Infosys and Tata).

    [New Delhi (PTI): World Bank on Monday said it has decided to debar Indian software vendors Wipro as also Megasoft from directly doing business with the bank group under its corporate procurement programme, taking the number of large vendors debarred by it to three. ]

    http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200901121222.htm

    This has global implication on the IT outsourcing industry. It is interesting that these brands are badly damaged at the moment:

    1. Financial products – Made in USA
    2. Consumer products – Made in China
    3. IT products – Made in India

  36. “I think GWB would have loved a stoush but was held back only by logistics as opposed to commonsense”

    Gusface that makes more sense what you said re not allowing an attack on Iran You’ve put me back at ease , was feeling quite uncomfortable that Busgh potentialy had made a corect decision (his only) , but military command non suport due to logistics restraints (as you quoted a General) means Bush had no reel decision to make anyway

    Frightening how detached some Leaders ar from inflicting massive deaths on innocent civilians , just ordinary folks & familys like us

  37. I don’t think I am the only one to have this problem. Is there a tool that can decipher Ron’s posts? I try to read everyone’s posts in a sitting to be fair but I can’t get past the first line with Ron.
    I suspect he thinks the hoax issue last week was dirty pool. But who can tell? I don’t think it was – it was just the right wing (this time – it could easily have been the left) being caught out publishing what they want to believe. QED.

  39. [“I think GWB would have loved a stoush but was held back only by logistics as opposed to commonsense”]

    Around the middle of August 2007 I did a couple of posts with links about Bush trying to sneak 2 Carrier Battle Groups across to the Persian Gulf. there was only one reason to have 3 Battle Groups there.

    A couple of navy insiders leaked that Bush had been planning an assualt on Iran between the 3rd and the 10th of September. It never happened of course, but I have always wondered why?

    I think cooler heads prevailed at that time and have been able to keep him restrained since. If the “surge” had of been more successful then I feel he would have gone ahead. He was certainly dumb enough to.

  40. “Is there a tool that can decipher Ron’s posts? ”

    copious amounts of your favourite drop -preferably on a drip

    Warning: may cause damge to your grammatical cortex but the challenge is worth it.

  43. Roy

    No, i don’t think th hoax issue was dirty pool as a main issue , although journos knowingly knowing something is a hoax after its accepted for publicaton but before publishing , should not claim journalistic ethics either Principal issue I hav is I feel there is a hoax that there was a hoax

    Quadrant were not hoaxed onto publiishing something they hav not previously published or something thats inconsistent with there slant Quadrant were simply tricked (with SOME valid names , institutions and “research” data from a bogus professor claiming bogus th CSIORO were involved) into publishing what Quadrant would hav been HAPPY to print had th CSIRO had been involved

    So content of Quadrant article was not ususual at all to be seen in print gibven Quadrants biased slant , all thats been shown is th Editor etc were biased and sloppy checking there origin sourse & th alleged user , not th research or other institutions doing this stuff

    Well sloppy biased editors ar not just at Quadrant , how about th australian , Herald sun , Daily Tele etc for sloppy biased editors So now we can add Quadrant , but surely “informed” people ALREADY knew that , so how did this hoax add to there already informed knowledge ?

    What would hav been a hox was getting to publish something they did NOT want to publish , or failing which making it obvious Quadrant did NOT want to publish something contary to there cloning slanted biased views

    A hoax is chaser standard and objective to get them to do reverse of what they want , not what they’d naturaly do anyway but in any event Roy if people ar happy that quadrant look foolish then I’m happy to also drink along as to me there’re just a rag from timber

  44. I agree with Ron on this one. The “hoax” just showed that Quadrant has poor resources, is lazy and publishes without checking facts if something looks reasonable. We knew that already. 😉

    The most famous publishing hoax recently was the Sokal hoax, which showed postmodernism to be a vacuous load of crap with almost no intellectual merit but a lot of meaningless intellectual BS, ie fashionable nonsense.

    Sokal is a physicist who sent a an article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” which was total load of wank.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

  45. Joe the Plummer a war correspondent, eh. Our postmodern world gets stranger and stranger!

    Actually, I suspect he’s fulfilling some kind of deal he signed up to at the height of his fame. Originally, his commitment might have involved writing a book or some kind of serialised account of his emergence during the campaign.

    But with a bit of pressure* he baulked (despite his straight-shootin’ pick-up-drivin’ persona), explaining to his agent that “I can’t write a book. I fix taps.”

    * Due mostly to the fact that he’ll be forgotten in a year or two.

  46. “Joe the Plumber has a new job” (as a reporter)

    Well that wuld be for ‘name recognition’ , like better than John smith , Reporter

    but this Reporter has Michael Willessie invetigative skills :

    “The people of …. “can’t do normal things day to day” like get soap in their eyes in the shower , …”

    Why would you put soap in your eyes for having a shower , how can you tell where to clean your dirty toes if you cann’t see them

  48. Amigo FINNS

    Another story today about Satyam in Age paper , and ‘authorativly this time saying there were 1700 existing australian jobs , but no attribution to you as oz news breaker on Satyam having oz employees and right here as a news exclusive

    Intersting they hav 53, 000 worldwide staff in this outsoursing bit with 2/3 in India but what caught my eye is 1/3 of Fortune top 500 companies use them , so lots of local jobs in local Countrys got out soursed to India , retenched by multi nats as a number And if its later cheaper to outsouse it in Greenland then retranchments then in India , but will that going to happen now anyway without a takover

  49. The Curious Snail is getting twitchy.

    [THE prospect of an early state election has arisen again after Labor began letterbox dropping households in battleground seats at the weekend.

    Residents in several marginal seats received flyers from Premier Anna Bligh introducing them to the ALP candidates in their electorates.

    The seats included the non-Labor seats of Clayfield, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Mirani and Burdekin, and the newly created seat of Coomera.

    ALP state secretary Anthony Chisholm yesterday denied suggestions the manoeuvring was a sign of an early poll.]

    http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24903409-3102,00.html

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