The latest Morgan survey combines two weekends of face-to-face polling, and it confirms the message elsewhere that Labor has opened up a lead to rival its honeymoon period early last year. Labor’s primary vote is up 2.5 per cent on the last survey to 51.5 per cent, while the Coalition is down 3.5 per cent to 33 per cent: its worst result since May 2008, and 1.5 per cent below the previous worst result on Malcolm Turnbull’s watch. The two-party split of 61.5-38.5 compares with 59.5-40.5 last time. Furthermore:
• Talk of Attorney-General Robert McClelland abandoning parliament for a diplomatic post had escaped my notice, but the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader has reported on the implications for his seat of Barton should it come to pass:
The reports said he would make room for NSW Senator Mark Arbib who wants to be a minister in the Rudd cabinet and had set his sights on Mr McClelland’s seat. If Mr McClelland was “white-anted” he would take a diplomatic post and Rockdale councillor Shaoquett Moselmane would be called in as a potential powerbroker to help Senator Arbib take Barton in any preselection fightthat might arise for the next federal election.
The story is denied by all concerned.
• Paul Austin of The Age gets a bit over-excited about the Victorian Electoral Commission’s ruling on independent candidate Les Twentyman’s complaint of misleading electoral material during last year’s Kororoit by-election campaign. Twentyman argued that a Labor pamphlet stating that “a vote for Les Twentyman is a vote for the Liberals” constituted material “likely to mislead or deceive an elector in relation to the casting of the vote” under the meaning of section 84 of the Electoral Act, an offence potentially punishable by six months’ imprisonment. Those familiar with complaints of this kind will not be surprised to learn that it was rejected, on the grounds that the section is narrowly concerned with matters such as how-to-vote cards that deceive voters into backing the wrong candidate. The VEC’s report on the by-election states that “legal opinion is that the pamphlet is misleading in its suggestion of an affiliation or agreement between Mr Twentyman and the Liberal Party”, but since this is neither here nor there as far as the Electoral Act is concerned, I can’t help wondering if it’s the commission’s place to say so.
• The Derwent Valley Gazette reports that the Tasmanian Liberals have named six candidate for Lyons at next year’s state election: incumbent Rene Hidding, “Brighton councillor Leigh Gray, vascular surgeon Philip Lamont, transport operator Geoff Page, business consultant Jim Playsted and Meander Valley Mayor Mark Shelton”.
It is all smoke and mirrors Adam – a really smart operator who virtually bought his seat and will keep on buying to stay in his job. The Libs may have fallen for it but the punters haven’t been fooled as yet.
And if Labor had been more serious about their candidate in that electorate then Turnbull may not even be there now. As nice as George is he didn’t cut the mustard when the hard stuff came in the campaign.
fredn
If you think that Rudd’s attacked on NeoLiberalism/Bankers/Excessive Greed/Policies of the last 30 years were not an attack on the Liberal party and Campbell in particular, you are not very bright.
If you read Campbell’s article, he even twisted the facts, left out a lot of facts and blame things on the wrong people.
Campbell’s article was a much fairer piece of writing, it says that both sides of American politics was wrong in pushing home ownership. Which was the facts
Paul Nash,
Lies are lies. All I’ve asked is for you to produce one scrap of evidence to support your libellous assertion. The truth will set you free.
I haven’t made a libellous assertion I was just asking if anyone on this blog knew of any insider knowledge.
Regardless if she knew and regardless if Kevin Rudd had known the reality is she put forward a business plan as part of a tender process and was granted a contract, I note during the Howard Governments first term there was a review of all Job Network contracts and her contract was renewed
[I dislike Turnbull as much as anyone, but to deny that he is a smart political operator is just stupid blind partisanship.]
Oh, and he has shown us what a smart political operator he is since becoming leader? I don’t think so.
[I haven’t made a libellous assertion I was just asking if anyone on this blog knew of any insider knowledge.]
Well GG, there is your answer. Paul has no proof what so ever. Just a stirrer. Moving on …
Paul Nash,
It is like National victories in Qld. A figment of your imagination.
So 1983 and 1986 never happened GG and under the new look LNP 2009 probably won’t happen.
[I cannot see how Turnbull’s quote was bad.]
Beside the point Dovif. The perception it was bad is out there.
1007 Paul Nash – wrong thread Paul.
So why did Turnbull mention Therese Reid at all, if it wasn’t an attack on her (as it plainly isn’t) and if it wasn’t intended as a secret message to Bolt and Ackerman (as I think is very improbable)? The reason seems fairly plain. Ingeus was Rein’s business, not Rudd’s. Rudd’s only private sector employment was with KPMG in 1996-98. To attack Rudd as a hypocrite, Turnbull had to link Rudd and Rein – note the cunning phrase “family business”, as if they ran it jointly, which I don’t think was the case. So he needed to mention Rein in order to line up a shot at Rudd. If this is the case, he would not have been at all pleased that Bolt and Ackerman then upped the ante by making more direct attacks on Rein (if that’s what they did: I haven’t actually seen what they said). Attacks on Rein have served only to divert attention from Turnbull’s attack on Rudd. That’s why, as I said in my earlier post, mentioning Rein at all was a tactical mistake, into which he was led by his loathing of Rudd. That seems to me a much more convincing explanation than any put forward so far. Other theories seem to be driven by extreme partisanship: the belief that Turnbull is both evil and stupid. I don’t believe he is either.
(back after lunch)
[Other theories seem to be driven by extreme partisanship: the belief that Turnbull is both evil and stupid.]
‘evil and stupid’ are not the only choices Adam. Try politically naive. That to me seems a little closer to the mark which I think you acknowledge in your post on second reading.
Gotta give it to MT. He gets people talking. Keeps his name out there, for better or worse.
Also add, egotistical and thin skinned.
mexicanbeemer@999
[First if you run a publicity list company or a football club or are a sitting MP you are a public person therefore you are open to public comment, there are laws governing slander to ensure the comment remains responsible.
If you are a family member of that person and as long as your behavior is not criminal then you actions are no more open to comment than another person.]
As far as I know there is nothing in Australian law which makes people who run publicly listed companies or football clubs any more legally open to comment than anybody else (it’s different for MPs because of the High Court’s decision in the Theophanous case).
Damn!
I should have used
right?
Correct – just the brackets, no need for any “blockquote”. I’ve fixed it for you.
[I haven’t made a libellous assertion I was just asking if anyone on this blog knew of any insider knowledge.]
Paul, your comment clearly stated that insider knowledge had been used. It was as straightforward a case of defamation as you’re ever likely to see, and has been deleted accordingly.
dovif
When it came to the liberals I counted three paragraphs in a very long article, and those three paragraphs where attacks on policy positions, attacks that in my view where misdirected. The latter years of Howard’s administration had no underlying philosophical direction, Rudd gave them more credit than they deserve. Perhaps that was the reason for Turnbull’s reply, Rudd gave them credit for actually having a philosophical position, the noise is to make it stick.
On the other hand, Rudds article is giving the Labor party a philosophical position ( the reason why reading it worthwhile) something that was badly needed. To be quite frank I have no problem with Rudds position. I can’t say I agree or oppose the Liberal parties position, I don’t know what it is, and Turnbull’s article didn’t help me find out.
[Turnbull attack on PM’s wife fair enough: Hockey]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/07/2510234.htm?section=justin
So even though the chief attack dog calls it an attack,some here still refuse to see it as an attack.
a tad precious, perchance
🙂
I think the most likely explanation of MT’s misjudgment is that the GFC and the dire state of the LP finances has meant that Crosby-Textor’s focus groups are now having to be sourced (for tea and biscuits) from the Young Liberal puppy farm.
Clearly, outsourcing your moral compass and political judgment has risks…
And now we have “Sweargate”
[But this morning Melbourne’s Liberal Mayor Robert Doyle and Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton both accused Mr Rudd of scripting the moment.
Mr Doyle told Sky News Mr Rudd did so to “sound human”.
“He usually gives a pretty robotic performance so I’m sure that that was a clever little snare in there to make him sound like one of the lads,” he said.
Mr Dutton said Mr Rudd’s slip up showed he was a “phony”.
“We’ve said all along, and I think people are starting to see it now, that Kevin Rudd is certainly manufactured,” he said.
“He wants to talk and appeal to workers in the audience and it was a scripted moment.”
But Labor frontbencher Mark Arbib said the moment was definitely a mistake.
“It looked like a slip up to me,” he said. “The Prime Minister is very emotional about the issue of job losses. He feels it.”]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/09/2511063.htm
Musrum,
“Clearly, outsourcing your moral compass and political judgment has risks…”
The Libs sold the originals to a consortium of neoliberal merchant bankers. They got a good price too. They’d never been used!
J-D!! I was not referring to Law I was referring to common community standards that have developed over time.
Adam
I don’t think we were saying Turnbull was stupid or evil. He just stuffed up his politics, yet again. I can’t agree that he is a particularly smart political operator. He looks pretty inept from here.
So the Libs have realised that this slip will go down well with the average person and instead of criticising him for swearing as such and saying that that is the real Kevin Rudd (remember the stories of Rudd swearing at everyone behind closed doors – a real foul mouth?) they take the tack that he concocted the episode and that he is a fake.
Nice one Crosby/Textor. They obviously thought long and hard on that strategy.
GG: They might believe they got a good price, but if they care to have a closer look in their accounts they may find that they are MT.
Frank,
Here is the News link with the actual video. People can make up their own mind. The only other interesting thing is that the question in the poll has altered since earlier today and the responses from the earlier poll seem to have been swapped around.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25158244-10229,00.html
Musrum,
Now that’s a toxic debt they’ll never repay.
GB 2 1026, how many different ways can Turnbull find to put his foot into his mouth up to the hip? 😀 …….
I rushed home this morning and forgot that QT this week doesn’t start until Tuesday 🙁
Re 1030, of course that should read ‘@’ and not ‘2’, sorry
mexicanbeemer!!!!!@1024!!
But you did refer to the laws governing slander in your earlier post. And anybody who falls foul of those laws may find that they do not necessarily align with ‘common community standards’.
Today is a public holiday in the nation’s capital, marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the city by those great Labor visionaries, Andrew Fisher and King O’Malley.
[Today is a public holiday in the nation’s capital, marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the city by those great Labor visionaries, Andrew Fisher and King O’Malley.]
Except in WA where Labour Day was celebrated last week.
[Today is a public holiday in the nation’s capital, marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the city by those great Labor visionaries, Andrew Fisher and King O’Malley.]
One of the worst decisions ever in Australia. Everyone knows that Adelaide should be Australia’s capital city. 😀
J-D!! Yes I did make mention of slander.
Let me put it this way the point I was making is a person can be an MP or run a public company and as a result their behavior is open to discussion, the slander laws come into play for example here on Poll Bludger William will from time remove or block a comment that could be sued over.
The community standards apply for we recongise while criticizing the performance of an MP or a company director within reason is considered normal but at the same time the community standards consider it in bad taste to target family members of that person.
That has nothing to do with law except the person could sue for slander
I think you will find Adelaide is already the Australian capital (for serial Killing!!)
Diogenes, it was precisely to transcend such petty parochial attitudes that the authors of the Constitution provided for a national capital independent of the states, and that the Fisher government acted in 1913 to carry out the provisions of s125. Unfortunately, due to the First World War and the dilatoryness of postwar governments, it wasn’t until 1928 that the capital was actually moved from Melbourne to Canberra.
Quiz question: Who was the first person to fly an aeroplane in Australia? (clue: they weren’t Australia, and they were already famous for other things).
Wilbur and Orville.
😉
AiC: Houdini
Musrum, correct. At Diggers Rest in 1909.
SNIP: Commenter really should be familiar with Article 2 by now – The Management.
Dio: besides which: “Adam in Adelaide”? Does that sound right?
Actually it was 1910. Houdini was also one of the world’s greatest sceptics and debunkers of spiritualism. He was a truly great man.
AiC: Little known fact: it was just a dry run for the Main Event: How to Escape from Adelaide. Houdini was last seen at Mt Gambia, heading west.
[Actually it was 1910. Houdini was also one of the world’s greatest sceptics and debunkers of spiritualism. He was a truly great man.]
Like Derren Brown!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XMNsDYlBeM
Make Perth the capital city of Australia because it is closest to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Sweargate? Another distraction from the heavy issues of the day. Just shows the Liberals have nothing to say on the economy. So now they have created a distractions where people can ponder Rudd, Reine and Turnbull. Don’t see how that helps their cause. The message here is that the Liberals are mostly interested in trivial personal things, whilst Rudd is out there doing his darndest.
Mt Gambia! Love it. Just down from Limpopo Bridge.