The latest weekly Essential Research survey shows Labor’s lead moderating slightly to 61-39 from 63-37 in the previous two surveys. In other findings, 54 per cent approve of the government’s national broadband network, while 62 per cent think Australia’s economy “better than most countries” in the current global financial crisis. For this, equal credit is given to “the actions of the Rudd government – including the stimulus packages” and a well-regulated finance and banking sector. “The Howard government’s handling of the economy” ranks somewhat lower. Also featured are questions on potential budget measures, the role of human rights in international trade, and China’s human rights record.
What’s more:
• George Megalogenis of The Australian charts the rise of the centre left with reference to long-term Newspoll trends.
• Glenn Milne of The Australian has written a skeptically received article which speaks of plotting against Julie Bishop partly motivated by Senator Mathias Cormann’s designs on her blue-ribbon seat of Curtin. Andrew Bolt has published Cormann’s denial.
• Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn advises the government to get hip by allowing voters to enrol online.
• Rick Wallace of The Australian notes the Victorian ALP is struggling to meet its affirmative action quota of 35 per cent female candidates in winnable seats, making it “almost imperative that a woman replaces a retiring woman, and that at least one in two of all retiring men are replaced by women”. While little action is expected ahead of the next federal election, speculation is said to surround the state seats of Craig Langdon (Ivanhoe), Peter Batchelor (Thomastown), Lynne Kosky (Altona) and John Pandazopoulos (Dandenong). More substantially, “former speaker Judy Maddigan has confirmed she will retire and she is expected to support former Labor staffer Natalie Sykes-Hutchins to replace her in the seat of Essendon”.
• Adelaide’s Independent Weekly reports on Malcolm Mackerras’s tip for next year’s state election: Labor to be comfortably returned, with the loss of only Norwood, Mawson and Light. The report notes something I had neglected to relate previously: SA Murray Irrigators Association chair Tim Whetstone was preselected in November as the Liberal candidate for Nationals MP Karlene Maywald’s seat of Chaffey, ahead of Citrus Growers of SA president Mark Chown and businessman Brian Barnett. Mackerras tips Whetstone to win.
• Ben Raue at The Tally Room has a post on whether the federal parliament should be enlarged, with reference to international practice.
• Possum notes the cubic polynomial distribution of two-party electorate results, and its implications for interpreting marginal seat exit polls.
Courtesy of the April edition of the invaluable Democratic Audit Update:
• The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters will hold a “roundtable public hearing” on submissions to the green paper on campaign finance at Parliament House on Thursday, from 9.30am to 1pm.
• The Greens’ “parliamentary contract” with Labor’s minority government in the Australian Capital Territory is reviewed by Jenny Stewart in the Canberra Times.
• Brian Costar examines Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn’s demolition of the spurious justifications for the Howard government’s 2005 electoral “reforms” at Inside Story.
• The Australian Parliamentary Library has published a research paper on the electoral demise of the Australian Democrats by Cathy Madden.
1248, no worries BH. 🙂 …. I’ve gotten in touch with my local library and will arrange to register with them and get this book in the next week or so. (They have it but not at my branch).
I guess the Liberal Party and Murdoch boys are just going through ticking all their favourite boxes.
Smear
Xenophobia / racism
Economy
Interest rates
Hyperbole
The only boxes they won’t tick are: responsible policy, responsible behaviour, put Australia first.
BH Thanks for the tip on Rudd at the Cancer Fund thigo, will check Apac tonight, they usually have replays of things like that 🙂
The OO started writing little pieces about the socalled ‘influx’ of boats just over a week ago. It has intensified as the week progressed and the big bang was yesterday and today.
Has anyone else noticed that they always find an issue to prop up during the week before a Newspoll. Isn’t there one due on Monday night?
So the OO will think it is a bit lucky to have this tragedy at the right time for its poll. Anything to help get its boys back in 2010 to get the advertising bucks rolling again.
Murdoch’s media outlets around the world all tend to be pretty sick puppies and go in search of the lowest common denominator if it can support some weird right wing nut job or party.
The USA lot seem to be fueled by hate and rage at the moment. Like one commentator noted…progressing toward a syphilitic death with madness and delerium.
Now if Murdoch had half a brain he would have media outlets on the opposite of the dived to pick that market up. That he doesn’t look to access that market says a lot.
We heard a little debate on Bill Maher’s program last week. One of the debaters was a very experienced journo type.
The discussion was about Fox and other rightwing nut stations. Experienced journo said that he has personal knowledge that a couple of Fox hosts would be glad to change their political positions if the right money was available from the liberal/left stations.
Murdoch, while he is making money from Fox, is happy for them to stay the way they are. And as we all know that way is fair and balanced. lol.
So Murdoch + rightwing nut commentators = your ‘madness and delerium’ TP
Vera – try to catch the program. Kev’s smile and words put those silly Libs miles away from my mind for a while.
BTW – what has happened to Judith. Is she away or sick?
Well This morning on 6PR Beaumont said re the boat,Barnett was telling the truth,Barnett has no reason to not tell the truth, sounds like George Washington has nothing on LIBERAL Premier Colin Barnett according to him.
I am awaiting the usual outpouring of fear and loathing from the good people of WA I tend to think that Barnett the boat blast, Abetz and co over the $900 and boatpeople are just doing a bit of kicking of the Labour Federal Govt .
BH and TP -To be fair to the OO, I recall that they did break the story of Reith making up the Children Overboard allegations -only three days before the 2001 election.
The most annoying section of that paper, in my opinion, is the “Cut & Paste” column on the letters page. It’s basically about bashing the ALP, Fairfax, Obama, the ABC and anyone who questions Israel in any way, pushing climate change scepticism and showing what genii their own journalists and columnists are by contrast. Not once have I seen anything in Cut & Paste that points up hypocrisy or just plain error by members of their own stable. They should call the column “Cherry Pick”.
BH @ 1257,
I’ve got Judith’s email, I’ve dashed off a message to her. I’m sure she will either answer me back and/or post something soon …..
Lead story on ABC radio: Rudd REFUSES to speculate on the cause of the explosion. WOW. So the media prefer the Howard Overboard tactic of smearing and then trying to find the facts??
but online its Turnbull denies politicising boat blast
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/17/2545435.htm
Thomas Paine (1252). I like your insights and find them very informative. However, when rubbishing the ‘Murdoch Boys’, please remember the fine contributions of such writers as, in particular, Jack the Insider, George Megalogenis and Mike Steketee.
[but online its Turnbull denies politicising boat blast]
Yeah, he got Colin Barnett to do that for him.
No 1263
TP’s insights are never informative. All they ever do is complain about supposed ABC bias, whilst labelling the Australian as the Opposition Organ.
This is from The Herald Sun, Tim Costello’s view on the refugee boat situation, imagine if his lazy brother was Opposition Leader. I bet there wouldn’t be the usual sort of headlines they love writing about Labor, there’d be no “Embarrassment for Costello as brother slams his policies” 😉
[World Vision chief executive Tim Costello urged Australians not to rush to judgment over the status of the refugees.
Mr Costello said the global financial crisis was pushing people further into poverty and into desperate situations.
“We must withhold judgment in saying they have deliberately sabotaged this boat until we know the facts,” he said.
“If ‘children overboard’ taught us anything, you do not trust politicians when they are trying to make political capital out of tragedy.
“The one thing we know from the Howard years is people who are demonised as illegal and aliens were proven to be legitimate refugees.”]
BH I think Judith was here a few days ago.
No 1231
There you go again TP. As sure as night becomes day, TP will be feigning outrage that the entire media is against the Government.
Vera,
Aussie society needs more Tim Costello’s …….
No 1266
Tim Costello should join the Labor party, perhaps the Greens.
No 1256
BH, seems you’re against free speech. Fox has every right to exist, however idiotic its commentary may be.
No 1252
TP, I ask yet again to provide proof of racism. The criticism of the government has been about soft immigration policy, not race hate.
We will decide who comes into this country and the circumstances under which they come!
GP 1269
Is that the best you got re Tim Costello? There needs to actual substance to make an argument.
Exactly which part of his statement do you disagree with?
1270,
Another dose of reality in the Liberal world …
[
Fox …….., however idiotic its commentary may be.
]
No 1273
All of it.
Bernard Keane at Crikey provides some plain talking:
“How, exactly, has the Government softened border protection when we retain the world’s strictest process for asylum seekers?”
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090417-Boat-people-What-about-the-plane-people.html
Bree 1272
And We do decide, don’t we?
We do it by whichever policy or standards we set.
It is up to all of us to decide. And whatever standards we set, says a lot about who we are as a people.
So GP disagrees with this statement of common sense and justice??
“We must withhold judgment in saying they have deliberately sabotaged this boat until we know the facts,” he said.
Zombie Mao at 1242.
As much as I would like to see the Barnett Government consigned to the dustbin of history, I think it is a little unfair to assign any malicious or conspiratorial intention to Barnett’s shooting off his mouth about the supposed cause of the blast.
Despite my prejudices I believe he is too decent a fellow to promote racism and xenophobia and that his only sin was to repeat initial speculative theories relayed to him to the media before thinking through the consequences.
Barnett is no Howard.
[We will decide who comes into this country and the circumstances under which they come!]
Do you say that over and over as you clutch your security blanket, curled up in a foetal position in the corner of a room?
This is 2009, not 2001. Rudd Labor is in power. Catch up.
No 1278
You have nothing to stand on given how quickly your lot have been throwing around the “racism” tag.
GP I’m certainly not against free speech but with that comes some sense of responsibility and some of the rubbish on Fox is appallingly irresponsible and does not make for decent democracy.
GP 1281
Please point to the offending remark? Can’t recall it myself ever making one.
Barnett had nothing to gain politically for making that statement based on sources in the defence department so i doubt he did it for political reasoning he already has consigned the ALP to 2 terms at least in opposition in WA.
No 1282
BH, what you’ve just said is anti-free speech.
1284
Glen ever heard of the term dog whistling? That’s what Barnett did for his own agenda and political calculations whatever they may be.
No 1283
See 1094
No 1286
Rubbish. It’s convenient to say it’s dogwhistling so you can then label Barnett/Howard or whatever Liberal politician of the day, a racist.
1288
You said racist it not me.
Glen,
You have no evidence any way to support this statement @ 1284. Basically, you are supporting him because he’s a Lib.
Barnett broke the cardinal rule, “If you don’t wan’t people to think you are a fool, keep your mouth shut”. Even the Federal Libs and MSM have moved to circumspection.
I suspect there is much more to come and Barnett could end up looking rather shabby.
No 1290
Barnett relayed the advice he had been given at the time, just like Howard.
GP,
Your epitaph will probably read, “I’m not a racist but…….”
GP 1287
Nothing wrong with sending Aborigines back to where they came from. They are already there and have been all the time. That’s the point.
They are the original owners of this land and the rest of us are all migrants/boatpeople/new arrivals/new australians etc..
Where do I call you racist in this?
[Barnett relayed the advice he had been given at the time, just like Howard.]
Howard was wrong – but could not admit it later. 😛
[Barnett relayed the advice he had been given at the time, just like Howard.]
And yet he didn’t learn from Howard and Children Overboard. But then again, Libs never learn.
I agree that Rudd and Debus’s handling of this has been very good so far. I do think however that many of you are being just a tad naive about what is going on here. These people were being brought to Australia by people-smugglers, whom they paid for a place on the boat. If they are Afghans as seems to be the case, they had already paid to be brought from Pakistan to Indonesia (not a cheap trip). They may well be “genuine refugees” in the sense that they left Afghanistan to escape persecution or violence etc, but Australia is not their “country of first asylum” under the Refugee Convention to which Australia is signatory. You can’t get from Afghanistan to Australia by boat. They were coming to Australia because they want to live here and not in their country of first asylum, Pakistan. They knew perfectly well that entering Australia by boat in this way is both dangerous and illegal. I agree that we ought not to leap to conclusions about the cause of the fire on the boat, but it is a fact that sinking your boat and forcing the intended host country to rescue you is an established tactic of people trying to gate-crash national immigration systems, not just in Australia but elsewhere. It is quite believable, though not yet established as fact, that either the asylum seekers or the people-smugglers did set fire to the boat in a bid to force the RAN to rescue them and bring them to Australia, as has in fact now happened. It is not racist or xenophobic to suggest this. People-smuggling is an organised industry and Australia is one of its main targets, which is why the *Labor government* introduced mandatory detention in the first place.
On PerthNow yesterday, it was saying Barnett’s source was the WA Emergency Services and the Navy.
No 1292
I’ve never said those words. In fact, you (and others herewith) are the one using the “racist” tag without evidence. Everytime I’ve asked for evidence, I get the same circumlocution and obfuscation.
GP the “I am not a racist” rant is getting a bit tiresome.
How about you try “I am not an animal” sort of matches your avatar 😀
GP,
Rather disingenuous.
Leaders receive much information and advice. (Some of which they ask for). The function of a Leader is to be able to sift the data and show judgement. They should not be overly hasty in rushing to the nearest microphone.