The first Roy Morgan face-to-face poll to catch the full force of the OzCar aftermath shows Labor’s two-party lead up from 55-45 to 58-42. Conducted over the past two weekends from a sample of 1190 (smaller than usual from a poll covering two weeks), it has Labor up 0.5 per cent on the primary vote to 46.5 per cent and the Coalition down a sharp four points to 35 per cent. The slack has been taken up by the Greens, up 3.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent.
Here’s an incomplete sampling of the past week’s action. This site’s normal energy levels will resume in about a week or so.
• Monday’s weekly Essential Research survey had Labor’s two-party lead up from 58-42 to 59-41. Supplementary questions showed a spike in confidence in the economy, but a somewhat paradoxical increase in concern about employment; Joe Hockey favoured over Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader by 17 per cent to 13 per cent; and the Labor Party viewed more favourably than the Liberals on 11 separate measures.
• The South Australian Liberals have a new leader in Heysen MP Isobel Redmond. Redmond succeeds Waite MP Martin Hamilton-Smith, who was mortally wounded after accusing the government of doing favours for an organisation linked to the Church of Scientology using what proved to be faked emails. Hamilton-Smith called an initial spill last Friday after Mackillop MP Mitch Williams quit the shadow ministry, which was universally interpreted as an attempt to undermine Hamilton-Smith ahead of a future pitch for his job. However, Williams declined to put his name forward at the ensuing spill, at which the sole rival nominee was deputy leader and Bragg MP Vickie Chapman. After inital expectations he would comfortably survive, Hamilton-Smith emerged from the vote without the support of a party room majority: while he won the vote 11 to 10, one member had abstained. Hamilton-Smith called another spill to clear the air, but when Redmond (who had been newly elected in place of Chapman as deputy) said she would put her name forward he announced he would stand aside. The result was a three-way tussle between Redmond, Chapman and Williams, in which Redmond defeated Chapman by 13 votes to nine after Williams was excluded in the first round. Goyder MP Steven Griffiths won the vote for deputy ahead of Williams by eight votes to six (since only lower house MPs get to vote for the deputy, whereas members from both houses have a vote for the leadership).
• Antony Green crunches some electoral numbers to conclude that, contrary to widespread belief, Labor’s position in the Senate would be better if the next election were for half the chamber in the normal fashion, rather than a double dissolution.
• Against his better judgement, Peter Brent at Mumble enters the world of blogdom. He’s also written a piece on Inside Story which delivers on what I emptily promised a few weeks back, namely to review the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters report into the 2007 election.
steve,
Peter Martin gets the response to McCrann about right.
http://petermartin.blogspot.com/2009/07/reading-terry-mccrann_10.html
OzPol @90
Thanks for this very interesting post. Can you point me to further reading on ‘far right environmental pæleoconservatism’ to which you refer. I am having difficulty in understanding this philosophy. TIA.
Thanks GG.
Peter Martin wrote “What next then? Setting up a government-owned home-buying service at the Post Office? ”
Hey, I remember such services, although one paid for the house by buying stamps at the PO & having them correctly marked; like War Bonds. Housing was then state, so it might not have existed in all states. That’s how most low-income working-class families bought their own little bit of Aussie heaven after WW II. Later, Commonwealth Bank deposits took their place; tho from memory, both co-existed for years. One could also pay most gov rates & charges the same way. The day after pay day (many paydays were deliberately moved to Mon-Thurs to discourage ‘blowing it’ on the weekend – during the war, I think) POs were crowded with housewives buying their stamps.
Can’t see how reintroduction would disadvantage people (although finding a PO might). Effectively, annual utilities & (state) insurance were reduced to more easily payable weekly sums. People tried to “get ahead, in case” using overtime, lottery/ other winnings, child endowerment … I remember that ‘2 or 3 years ahead’ was considered A Good Thing; thereafter one could save extra cash for holidays etc. Policies like these made Oz, on av, the world’s richest nation; and the family home a treasured asset.
On the other hand, few but tradies, savings banks/ BSs, insurance Cos, timber & hardware stores, and gardening supply shops made much money out of it. Not fertile ground for Capitalism Rampant!
[And I love how Hu is an Australian citizen when Hui in the Fitzgibbon stuff was a Chinese businesswoman. Funny how the terminology changes to suit the story. What poor journalism we have]
Sorry by my read of the The Age articles chasing Fitzgibbon over trivia was that Ms Liu was not just a CHINESE business women, but one that knew CHINESE officials somehow, in fact I got the impression from their articles that Ms Liu was an evil CHINESE spy, planted here decades ago to trap the electrician Fitzgibbon in the knowledge he would go into politics and that after Howard was gone he would be made Defence Minister then she could be triggered by secret whistles over the phone and, then she could in her new robot mode get state secrets from him to give to the CHINESE because Australia’s vast military complex was a threat to the balance of world power.
You had to read behind the lines…or did I misinterpret their dog whistles.
This chinese AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN man….could actually be the real spy but The Age has missed the scoop…..why are the not dog whistling on this one?
Who knows who Hu is anyway?
[Hey, I remember such services, although one paid for the house by buying stamps at the PO & having them correctly marked; like War Bonds. Housing was then state, so it might not have existed in all states.]
Starr-Bowkett in NSW ran such a scheme.tho more on the lines of a Co-operative housing society.
dunno if its still around
An article worth reading by George Meglomaniac. He’s one of the best IMHO.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25763585-601,00.html
I read the Megalogenis article.
It’s real reporting.
He’s gone to the source data and drawn conclusions from it. Not all of them I agree with. For example, that “voters felt the $950 payment announced in February was wasteful”. I’m pretty sure “the voters” is far too broad a term. But that’s a quibble.
George didn’t have to illegally tap anyone’s phone. He hasn’t peddled faked evidence. He hasn’t gone out of his way to find fault. He hasn’t called anyone names, or ridiculed their language, their presentation, their wife, their religion or their associations. He’s used facts to construct a story that hangs together logically.
Why can’t the rest of his colleagues at News do that?
And speaking of ridiculing language, why oh why did George even bother writing that stupid column on the Sauce Bottle Saga a few weeks ago? I hope he’s asking himself the same question today. Today’s effort is far, far superior and much more interesting because of it.
I’m off to read it again.
[“voters felt the $950 payment announced in February was wasteful”]
I don’t know that the people thought that at the time considering most would have taken a popular government at its word. I would think there would be even less thinking that now given the resilience of the economy.
It of course wasn’t wasteful as we can see now that the money has been flowing through the economy nicely.
[ OFF THE GRID
Jul 10, 09 | 9:33 AM
Could Murdoch’s Love of Gossip Doom His Family? ]
http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/192/could-murdochrsquo3bs-love-of-gossip-doom-his-family.html
What I think a lot of people thought was that they deserved it, but the other person didn’t.
I got this a lot at a place where I worked until recently. They were all snarky about “bloody Rudd” and “running the country into debt” and so on. The $950 one-off payment came in for particular scorn and derision. But when I asked my colleagues (now thankfully ex-colleagues) whether they’d received the grant, and if so whether they’d spent it it was “Yes” on both counts to a man and woman.
A few tried bravely to say they’d used it towards their mortgages (saved it, not spent it) but most admitted to just blowing it. In their opinions they’d worked hard, paid their taxes etc, so why shouldn’t they take the perk? They deserved it, unlke those dole-bludging, tracky-dack-wearing bludgers who’d go straight out and splurge their stimpac money on drugs, grog and The Pokies.
In short, quite a few (in my opinion) saw the $950 as a reward for being a good citizen and a conscientious worker. This allowed them to both take the money and simultaneously look down upon others who did the same (nirvana for your average Aussie Wowser), as well as claim the government was being extravagant… but only with the other guy’s stimpac payment.
That the stimpac was not reward based and was designed to just get as much money out there and spent as quickly as possible completely escaped them.
It’s the same thing with the schools package, as George Megalogenis points out: it was not based on politics (as everyone got the same, rich or poor) and was not based on merit, or a means test. The aim was to keep the tradies in work, their families with food on the table and to do more good than shovelling sand from one heap to another (and back again) would have in the meantime. I thought this was very creditable on Megalogenis’ behalf. He reports that the original intention of the government gave no thought to scoring political points really at all. For sure there would have been a few hard-heads out there who figured it in terms of votes, but I believe Megalogenis that this was not the main intention.
Megalogenis also deserves credit for going against his own paper, who started off their School Stimulus Bootstrap Campaign by trying to get a bit of good old-fashioned class envy going, witth their mention of the rich schools who received grants versus the poor schools. This article was almost as much a manifesto of what Megalogenis thought of that campaign as it’s possible too imagine. Only George going mad, penning a total anti-Murdoch rant and then commiting seppuku in the middle of the Harbour Bridge would have been more impressive.
Just on use fo the word “tradies”. I find it amusing that Shanahan claims the government uses this term “self-consciously”. If any political party can use “tradie” and “sparkie” and “chippie” surely it is the Labor Party? This is probably much, much more a measure of how confused Shanahan is over how things are going for his team (which is not well at all) as it is a guage of Labor embarrassment. He thought the “tradies” were in the Libs’ pocket, across the board. Megalogenis points out that Labor is hopeful of winning extra seats, of widening their majority in the “tradie” marginals. How the worm has turned, eh?
I googled Pæleoconservative and got 34 hits, clearly not a term in common use. What is a Pæleoconservative?
Pæleoconservative: As usual, there are conflicting meanings, differing between countries. My first encounter with the term was as a descriptor for hippies, “drop-outs”, and those late-50s to late 70s “Lefties, though they’re not really; y’know, Nimbin types”; although they were then popularly nicknamed “new neolithics”. Wicki defines Paleoconservatism almost exclusively within the USA context.
In broad terms, wanting to hold on to, or go back to, or recreate the past – socially, industrially, or however – is intrinsically Conservative; ie Right Wing,
Although, in England, this sort of Conservatism has its roots in Jacobite Toryism, historically its greater impetus is post1763 Romanticism (more Rousseau’s “Emile” than anything else), religious revivalism (new Puritanism/ End Times) and anti-industrialism. Emile’s opening line, Everything is perfect when it comes from the hands of the maker & degenerates when it gets into the hands of man, usually expressed in English, as Everyone/ thing is created perfect and corrupted by society, sums it up well. William Blake is credited with creating its anti-industrial imagery (“Tyger, tyger burning bright” and “Did those feet in ancient times”). Coleridge and friends who planned (sort of) the original “drop-out” New Utopian colony of farmer-philosophers on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania (never happened) added NeoUtopianism a similar ideology.
England’s (then, half a century later, Prussia’s and Rhineland’s) industrialisation was swift, terrifying, demeaning to the millennia-old agrarian & guild middle classes it destroyed, and a massive shift in core technologies (& village social structures) established in the early Neolithic age – a very much greater, more obvious shift than those of C20. It’s probably the anti-Industrial / “back to things as they were before C18” fervour that initiated Stone Age imagery in categorising those who wanted to bring down industrialism & everything to do with it.
“Leftist” categorisation belongs to Marxist/ Leninist ideology; industrialist, not pre-industrialist. While it set out to restore to pre-Industrial yeoman-guildsman classes the life-style, renumeration, enfranchisement & political power Industrialisation took from them (eg fully-qualified craftsmen pre c1800 earned a then good c2+ guineas ($4.20+) pw plus extras, enough to enfranchise them; by c1830, men doing the same job in a factory earned less than half that, and lost enfranchisement) and to extend to same rights to all workers, it did so within the Industrial system. It also adopted Romanticism’s sexual freedoms – women’s rights, free love … Byron & the Hellfire Club was about as wild as Romanticism got, and they were WILD …
Interestingly, Marxism/Communism did better in Catholic – Roman, English, Greek or Russian Orthodox – states/ societies than it did in Protestant/ Calvinist, possibly because, on the whole, they were historically less interested in Capitalism and “dirty” profit (ie based on trade), and more interested in Social Justice, than more protestant/ Calvinist ones. The USA’s predominant WASPism also explains why its conceptualisation of “paleoconservatism” is different from that of the UK (& OZ) and European.
OK, that’s enough historical background to grasp the gaps between what are essentially proto/neolithic New Utopian/ anti-industrial elements. A bigger sampling of Romanticism’s “freedom” elements applied to human relations, esp sexual, and agnosticism / atheism (late C19 to the present) will identify the heritage of “Leftist” human rights. If you add into those the Marxian v Democratic & Fabian socialists; Marxist v Frankfurt School & NeoMarxist splits, Stalinist v Trotskyite, spoon on surrealism, then drown them in PostModernism, you’ll either “get it” or be as confused as most people.
So, currently, many Green policies on carbon pollution are C21 anti-industrialism that has now found some theories to fit its claims, and Greens are currently chucking tans to stop/ close out equally effecitve alternatives that aren’t anti-industrial; ie, they definitely want carbon-reduction to close down mining & carbon-fired power stations ASAP not natural and other scientific methods which might achieve the same reduction using other methods. Increasingly, as the Green Movement (internationally) is colonised by groups with different agendas – anti-globalisation, vegetarian/veganism (& the huge multi-national ag companies which support it) “alternative medicine” (ditto)- anti-industrial policies are proliferating.
PS: I’ve had a few interruptions & OAP brain-fade’s setting in, so I hope the above makes sense.
Good old ABC, Top Story on their news site is
[Rudd denies hiding climate talks scepticism]
They can’t mention Rudd without having a negative after his name 😛
Also links from that article to this
[Caught on tape: Rudd’s climate pessimism]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/
I saw that, Vera. It’s their ABC. And their News Corp. And increasingly their Fairfax.
Steve@98:
Christ, that is a confused and difficult article to read. And almost content free, once you remove all the sneering.
Vera: I don’t think this is an example of purported ABC bias.
If Rudd is saying one thing in public and one thing in private, and this has been indeed caught on tape, then the media is legitimate to bring this to attention.
It’s a news story. Pure and simple.
Tom (72),
You say that you “did not say that the HAT has single member seats”, “HAT” meaning the Tasmanian House of Assembly. But you implied that it was because after I said,
“I remember the occasions on which the Democrats would claim that they were going to win lower house single-member seats, to no avail apart from in SA where I think Robin Millhouse held one after he moved across from the Liberal Movement.” (2231 on previous thread),
you replied with,
“2233 of the previous thread
House of Assembly of Tasmania.”
As 2233 was about teaching, not Tasmania, your comment made absolutely no sense inrealtion to it. It is reasonable to think that you were intending to reply to 2231. After I had made a comment about single-member seats, you chose an example of a multi-member seat house to suggest that I was wrong. I then pointed out that I had not been referring to the Tasmanian House lf Assembly as I had specifically restricted my remarks to single-seat Houses and the Democrats.
The full sequence from both threads is below:
Reuters Thread:
2160. Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 1:42 pm | Permalink
Greensborough (2142),
I feel I can call you by your first name as you live in the same general area as I do.
I am not connected with the DLP at all these days. I have met Peter Kavanagh once, at the launch of Noel Tennison’s My Spin in PR, and I catch up with friends from the old days (none of whom are members of the new DLP as far as I know). However, my membership ended when the party disbanded in 1978.
I doubt that the new DLP has the resources to run a serious campaign. Had I been advising it, I would have said that it should have run candidates in the federal seats in Peter Kavanaghs’ region in 2007 in order to help his vote in 2010, but it did not do so, suggesting that it could not.
2168. Tom the first and best
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
2160
The DLP vote in Northern Metropolitan was so high largely because they had the first spot on the ballot paper and many people who wanted to vote ALP were confused and voted DLP. Without the DLP getting a position ahead of the ALP, the ALP might have got the extra 2% they needed to get the first three of their candidates elected without preferences from other parties.
2202. Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 4:11 pm | Permalink
Tom (2160),
The seat I was referring to was Western, not Northern Metropolitan.
2212. Greensborough Growler
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 4:18 pm | Permalink
Chris,
I’ve been chuckling about that little factual error all afternoon.
But, no matter. For our earnest Greens ’space cadets” it makes no difference. There is no pollling statistic that does not imply the Greens will win lower house seats at the next election wherever it is held.
2231. Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 5:27 pm | Permalink
Greensborough (2212),
I remember the occasions on which the Democrats would claim that they were going to win lower house single-member seats, to no avail apart from in SA where I think Robin Millhouse held one after he moved across from the Liberal Movement.
Tom (2205),
I do mean “Western Victoria”, but I did not write “Western Metropolitan”, though I understand why you thought I did. I said, “The seat I was referring to was Western, not Northern Metropolitan.” If I had meant “Western Metropolitan”, I would have written, “The seat I was referring to was Western, not Northern, Metropolitan.” As an English pedant, I understand the importance of commas. I am anti-communist, not anti-commaist.
To be clear, I should have written, “The seat I was referring to was Western Victoria, not Northern Metropolitan.”
Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 5:33 pm | Permalink
Tom (2212),
The “HAT”?! You’ll love today’s on-line story;?“An initial batch of 100 of the so-called Highly Accomplished Teacher positions will be advertised in NSW in October before the plan is rolled out across the rest of Australia.”?(NSW plan puts ‘super teachers’ in worst schools?http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25760627-12377,00.html)?I guess these HATs will be doing “The CAT in the HAT”. (Victorians may remember the Common Assessment Tasks of the VCE.)
Morgan Thread:
10. Tom the first and best
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
2233 of the previous thread
House of Assembly of Tasmania.
24. Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 7:38 pm | Permalink
Tom,?2233 was about Highly Accomplished Teachers.
If you meant 2231, I will quote what I said:?“I remember the occasions on which the Democrats would claim that they were going to win lower house single-member seats, to no avail apart from in SA where I think Robin Millhouse held one after he moved across from the Liberal Movement.”?The Tasmanian House of Assembly does not have single-member seats.
Chris Curtis
Posted Friday, July 10, 2009 at 7:38 pm | Permalink
Tom,?2233 was about Highly Accomplished Teachers.
If you meant 2231, I will quote what I said:?“I remember the occasions on which the Democrats would claim that they were going to win lower house single-member seats, to no avail apart from in SA where I think Robin Millhouse held one after he moved across from the Liberal Movement.”?The Tasmanian House of Assembly does not have single-member seats.
[…voters felt the $950 payment announced in February was wasteful..]
This is the Liberal’s “last card” – The Govts. waste and mismanagement is their only response to the stimulus packages.
They can’t say where the would have spent less – so all they are left with is that the money was mismanaged and thus wasteful.
News Ltd is trying to help establish this theme.
OzPol Tragic (90),
I do not know enough about the Code Napoleon to comment on it in relation to the DLP, except to say that I never heard it mentioned within the DLP. Nor did I ever hear Vatican social dogma mentioned in the DLP either. I do not mean that no one ever put forward a view that was the same as that held by the Vatican, but that no one ever argued that because the Vatican had a view, so should the DLP.
The DLP was far from right wing. Its senators would have voted against so-called WorkChoices. The DLP supported refugees. It supported Aboriginal land rights. It was opposed to Melbourne’s freeway construction.
Its labelling as right wing comes from the fact that it was anti-communist. If you think back to the Split, the Victorians who formed the DLP were the same type of people who stayed in the ALP in NSW, suggesting very little difference between them on most policies.
Below is a summary of DLP philosophy. It is pre-internet, so I have had to retype it from the original document, and I won’t be retyping the whole thing. If anyone wants to read all the policies, they will have to make a visit to the Victorian State Library (which I understand is not so easy for anyone from interstate).
The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ have their origins in the French National Assembly of more than two centuries ago: supporters of the king sat on the right; opponents on the left. The terms keep changing in meaning. The members of the Communist Club at uni almost 40 years ago regarded me as of the extreme right-wing right. Over at Andrew Bolt, I am regarded as a left-leaning left-wing leftist lefty member of the Left. But I am not the one who has changed.
SOCAL PHILOSOPHY
1. Democatic labor’s Social Philosophy
The broad goal of the Democratic Labor Party is to develop and modify the existing structure of Australian society to in order to bring it closer to being a free and just democratic society. The basic principles which form the foundation of Democratic Labor’s political objectives are summarised below.
2. The Primacy of the Human Person
Democratic Labor maintains that every human being has an inherent dignity and essential worth which is absolutely independent of all value or usefulness to society.
On tis principle rests the prime political goal of the Democratic Labor Party –
TO DEVELOP AN AUSTRALIAN NATION OF FREE MEN AND WOMEN BASED ON THE RECOGNITION THAT THESTATE EXISTS FOR THE GOOD OF THE INDIVIDUAL PERSON.
Freedom – Humanity’s Rightful Inheritance
Democratic Labor maintains that the dignity and essential worth of the human person can be best respected and preserved if each individual has the ready opportunity to participate in the making of decisions which affect him.
On this principle rests the second political goal of the Democratic Labor Party –
TO DEVELOP AUSTRAL AS A FREE SOCIETY IN WHICH EACH CITIZEN HAS THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICPATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAKING OF ALL DECISIONS (ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL) WHICH AFFECT HIM.
Responsibility – The Corollary to Freedom – imposes on the individual correlative responsibilities to the common good.
On this principle rests the third political objective of the Democratic Labor Party –
TO DEVELOP AUSTRALIA AS A JUST DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY IN WHCH POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INFLUENCE OR POWER IS DISTRIBUTED ON THE WIDEST POSSIBLE BASIS THROUGHOUT SOCIETY.
Establishing a Just Society
Democratic Labor pledges itself –
TO DECENTRALISE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT POSSIBLE THE OWENRSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE.
Recognising the undue political power stems from a societal structure in which decision-making is remote from the individual, Democratic Labor pledges itself –
TO THJE BROADENING OF THE POWER BASE OF SOCIRTY BY DECENTRALISATION TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT EFFECTIVELY POSSIBLE OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY WITHIN SOCIETY.
DEMOCRATIC DECENTRALSM
THE IDEOLOGY OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE
1. Defining Decentralism
The guiding political philosophy, or ideology, of Democratic Labor is DECENTRALISM, which may be broadly defined as the spreading through constitutional means of wealth, power and property on the widest possible basis throughout the community.
As a general principle, in a DECENTRALIST SOCIETY, the State should do only what individuals or intermediate autonomous bodies are not able to do. Further these autonomous bodies (regional councils, trade unions, residents’ associations, cultural societies, professional institutes and so forth) should only do what individuals or family groups cannot do well.
2. Political Decentralism
In the field of Government, this means that there are certain duties (for example, immigration, defence or international treaties) which are most appropriately performed by a central political authority – the Australian Government).
Outside this range of duties, the central government’s function must be to help co-ordinate, towards the common good, the efforts of those levels of government or the many autonomous organizations which are more directly controlled by their constituents or members.
3. Economic Decentralism
Economic decentralism means that the personal ownership of the nation’s wealth is equitably distributed on the widest possible basis.
Political decentralism without economic decentralism means that they employee is relegated to the position of a ‘wage slave’, and has little or no opportunity to achieve his destiny though the exercise of responsibility.
In order to bring about this free and just democratic society, the DLP is pledged to the following political principles –
The creation of a nation economically strong, nationally secure, fully employed, in which poverty shall have no part, with the greatest possible educational opportunities and the highest possible moral and cultural values, and dedicated to the principles of liberty and peace.
1) The establishment of the economic, social and political foundations of personal freedom by decentralisation to the maximum extent possible of the ownership and control of the means of production, distribution and exchange; by the devolution of power to the smallest units for effective decision-making; and by the decentralisation of population. The implementation of economic democracy by support for profit-sharing, co-operatives, worker ownership, small scale enterprise and employee and consumer participation in the control of industry.
2) Te maintenance of Parliamentary Democracy, the assertion of the individual and community duty to observe the rule of law, the assertion of independence in judgement and action of duly democratically elected political representatives.
3) The preservation and support of the family as the basic unity of society.
4) Te acknowledgment of the roles of Individual Initiative, Private Enterprise and the State in social and economic affairs.
5) The maintenance of the Australian Federal system wit a due distribution of power and economic resources between the Commonwealth, the States and Local Government.
6) The restoration and maintenance of effective legal authority of the Arbitration system as a means of determining wages and salaries and as the instrument for resolving industrial disputes.
7) The acknowledgement of the necessary and proper role of the trade union movement in society and the democratic control of trade unions by their membership.
8) The strengthening and extension of the concept of Australian Nationalism with due regard for Australia’s membership in the community of nations, and recognition of Australia’s duty to contribute to the welfare of the underprivileged peoples of the world.
9) The development and maintenance of an adequate Defence Force.
10) The closets possible economic, cultural and mutual defence alliances with friendly nations.
11) The adoption of electoral systems under both Federal and State laws to enable appropriate Parliamentary representation for significant minority groups within the community.
12) The establishment of the concept of pluralism in education, and that the principle of general per capita payments be adhered to in the distribution of Government assistance to non-Government schools.
13) The protection and conservation of our natural environment and the planned use of natural resources in recognition of the close relationship between man and nature and the finite nature of the earth’s resources.
Democratic Labor calls upon all citizens to join with us in achieving these goals, so that Australians may enjoy a better life.
(The DLP Looks Ahead, 1/5/1977, 1.1(1…3))
This is a very good, background article about the Hu affair.
[He said Rio’s decision to abandon the $US19.5 billion ($A24.9 billion) tie-up with state-owned Chinalco and immediately announce a separate iron ore deal with BHP was “almost like a slap in the face to the Chinese”.
With Rio’s reputation in China under the spotlight, the global miner will take comfort from its jilted lover, Chinalco, rejecting comments in the China Securities News that quoted its vice-president Lu Youqing as saying Rio had “no business credibility as a company”.
Chinalco said Mr Lu’s comments were misquoted and they “do not reflect the company’s view”.
While Rio may have been portrayed as a “dishonourable woman” by some in the Chinese press, Chinalco moved to clear the air, saying it did not wish Rio Tinto any harm.
“Chinalco has been in contact with Rio Tinto expressing our mutual concern for the current situation with their staff,” it said. “We have also reasserted that the situation is in no way related to any commercial dealings between Rio and Chinalco.”
The statement is the corporate equivalent of the celebrity divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” but while still retaining mutual respect for one another.]
http://business.theage.com.au/business/seeing-red-over-rio-20090710-dg4k.html?page=-1
I have no doubt the Hu affair is related to the Rio-Chinalco deal, but not in the way that hick like Barnaby Joyce has portrayed. It is not related directly the fact that the Chinese did not win the deal with Rio.
Doing business in Asia is not only related to WHAT has to be done, but also HOW it is done. In particular, the needs to preserve the relationship and to save face, especially for the “losing” side. This is true all over Asia, not just the Chinese and the Javanese and Japanese are particularly sensitive about face saving.
The Javanese has a way of describing the “Halus” (silky) or “Kasar” (coarse) way of doing business. Unfortunately, the way Rio ditched Chinalco and then shacked up with BHP falls into the “Kasar” way. And Barnaby’s is beyond the “kasar” way, it is no way. Ditto with Turnbull’s way of distant megaphone diplomacy and China bashing started with the Fitzy affair.
Poor Hu is a pawn got caught up by the stupidity of his Rio masters.
BTW: strictly speaking, Rio is not an Australian company:
[The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London, England and Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the Spanish government. ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_Group
Greetings trots.
I’ve just returned from an ALSF conference in the lovely state of Tasmania. Must say, I quite enjoyed the scenery.
GP
Welcome back – hope you did not freeze your trunk off. Tassie in Winter no way. 🙂
No 122
After being to Europe many times in Winter, Tassie is certainly tolerable. I can somewhat understand why the Tassie people are so protective of the beautiful environment down there.
On a side note, it’s great that my fellow Liberal students did not have themselves kicked out of the accommodation like last year (an incident which landed us on page 3 of the Canberra Times). 😀
GP
Did the ALSF come up with some spiffy policy alternatives? Malcolm et al seem a bit bereft of ideas lately.
[If Rudd is saying one thing in public and one thing in private, and this has been indeed caught on tape, then the media is legitimate to bring this to attention.
It’s a news story. Pure and simple.]
Conversely, if he didn’t it’s not a news story. Pure and simple.
Are their any quotes from Rudd’s past suggesting otherwise?
No 124
I am not at liberty to discuss ALSF policy, but suffice to say, there was much debate and several alternatives.
GP how many in the ALSF still back Mr T?
BTW is Martin Ferguson going to run again, he seemed like a good chap sad to lose him in 2007.
Fair enough GP – secret squirrel stuff.
Surely there was discussion about empty vessels and garbage bins? 😉
No 128
No, but there were some fantastic speeches from George Brandis, Eric Abetz and Sophie Mirabella.
117
My comment on elections to the HAT was directed at 2212 not your post. That post mentions only lower houses and not single member seats. It also, by means of (probably accidental) double negative, says that all polling statistics imply that the Greens will win lower house seats at the next election wherever it is held.
I mistook your post on Highly Accomplished Teachers as a misinterpretation of my acronym HAT. This was a mistake. Sorry.
Lets call of this I posted, you posted war.
GP
I thought Barry O’Farrell was condemned for his “league table” ban. That’s an empty vessel who’s idea was consigned to the garbage bin? 🙂
[I thought Barry O’Farrell was condemned for his “league table” ban.]
Yes, Fatty O’Barrel received no praise at all for outflanking Labor from the left.
[Motion condemning Barry O’Farrell’s decision to ban school league tables was passed unanimously yesterday. ]
No left thinking or outflankin’ allowed. 🙂
I should note that whilst the ALSF is closely aligned with Liberal Party values, it is not affiliated and our policies often greatly differ from those of the parliamentary party and young liberal organisations.
No 133
Exactly. 🙂
GP
Welcome back.
While there have been some good runs of posts, there was the occasional sound of many one hands clapping while you were gone.
Where is the oldest opera house in the Southern Hemisphere?
No 136
It’s always both amusing and flattering that you guys can’t get enough of me. 😀
Alan Kohler in his weekly wrap up:
‘The only rational explanation for the arrest of Mr Hu on charges that are shifting from “espionage” to bribery to “finding out more than he should have about Chinese negotiating tactics”, is that the China Government wants to remind everyone that it is still in charge. It represents an assertion of control over Chinalco, the Chinese steel mills and the business world in general by the apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party.’
Kohler acknowledges that it is an inexpert view.
If it is correct then then the Party hierarchy must have a view that the command and control structures of the Party are getting fairly frayed. In terms of stability, frightening stuff.
Tom (130),
I wish you had clarified which post you were responding to in the first place. Think of all the typing, cutting and pasting it would have saved me.
Sorry my HAT joke was not so funny.
War – off!
119
The DLP may have opposed freeway construction but it directed preferences to the Liberals who built the freeways.
Chris Curtis wrote:
1. Surely you jest.
(a) Check the reason for the Qld Split. So much for “caring for the worker & his (sic) family.” Gair split his party over refusing to give QLD workers’ rights – the Nats got in partly on the promise to give them; which they did (from memory, almost immediately, because I’m sure we went on a 4 wk family holiday in 58.
(b) The DLP were to remain in control of one union throughout my working life; I know because some of those with whom I worked were members – the one most people called “Australia’s worst union as far as members were concerned” – the Federated Clerks’ Union. So notorious was it that, if we wanted mature people in jobs, they’d ask about union coverage. Before the end of compulsory union coverage, most people (mainly women) who found themselves stuck in it, and their colleagues, tried every which way to move them into one that would ensure they received the same wages & conditions as colleagues who performed the same work, but were members of different unions. If possible minor changes that allowed job reclassification / respecification to allow different award coverage were made: I was a whiz at rewriting job conditions so the unfortunates could apply for & get the rewritten job, and resign from the FCU (let’s face it, an unfortunate but apposite acronym). In some cases (especially in rural & remote areas) jobs themselves were transferred between authorities.
No one who has practical knowledge of the above would believe “DLP … senators would have voted against so-called WorkChoices” under any circumstances.
2. If you don’t understand the effect of the Code Napoleon: Civil, what’s wrong with using your on-line computer to check out? That’s what search engines are for! You need the sections on estate (esp land) division. Fancy believing in things when you don’t know their origin!
3. If you believe the DLP was “far from right wing” then there’s no such political group or person that was ever “right wing”, including Ghengis Khan. BTW: Psssst, I’ve got these shares in the Harbour bridge, going cheap because I need the cash … GFC & all that, you know.
4. As far as I’m concerned, (based on personal experience) I have more chance of reasoning with a JW or CoGoLDS than with a DLP. Besides which, as has been kicking around political blogs since it appeared in TheOz 18 January 2006 (a friend provided me with the text as I can’t make the link work on my new system), the DLP has some far RW allies.
As the DLP, during its on, off, & on again existence, has been the political wing of the NCC, and according to an embittered and very vocal (ex-NCC/DLP) classmate I’ll see at a reunion next month, legal action has not yet been resolved, I assume the extract below still applies:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,17857166-2702,00.html
As most of the “extremist organisations” named seem to want to align themselves with Australia First, I suppose the DLP will too.
Believe me, I will never be one of the under 2% who vote for the DLP, nor would I preference it above last. IMO, even Fielding is a preferable option.
[No 136
It’s always both amusing and flattering that you guys can’t get enough of me. ]
This computer wall paper is for my friends G.P. and Glen:
Alan Kohler admitted he did not have a clue what was happening in relation to the GFC.
Does he have a spiffy graph to show how he does not have a clue about Hu?
140
Good. Now we can get back to discussing the effects the DLP had and how much better Australia and Victoria in particular would be much better off if Calwell had won in `61 causing the earlier demise of the DLP.
Tomtfab
A little bit of IF for you. 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGTENfxd8M4
Aa mentioned, Today is Gough’s Birthday and here is hid finest political moment (oh and it’s a landmark in Political Advertising as well).
All together Now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jykIqQxEOw
[Greetings trots]
GP, snuggies did its job then, 😀
No 147
Yes, all together: “Turn on the Lights” 🙂
[No 147
Yes, all together: “Turn on the Lights” 🙂 ]
And what was Renee Geyer thinking when she accepted that gig ?
Oh and speaking of old ads – found this ad promoting the benefits of Decimal Currency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVEEs-RJpw