A summary of yesterday’s events that didn’t get posted overnight due to internet trouble.
• The election debate will be held from 6.30pm and 7.30pm on Sunday, an hour earlier and half an hour shorter than normal. The reason on both counts is to avoid a conflict with the final of MasterChef on Channel Ten. David Speers of SkyNews will moderate, and the leaders will face a panel consisting of Malcolm Farr from the Daily Telegraph, Chris Uhlmann of ABC News 24 and Laura Tingle of the Australian Financial Review.
• Christian Kerr in The Australian reports the Liberal campaign headquarters that will belatedly commence operation today is believed to be at 90 Collins Street, Melbourne, but “sources said the location was even being hidden from campaign workers who are expected to begin work there today”.
• Julia Gillard spent yesterday in the western Sydney and hinterland seats of Macquarie and Greenway. Matthew Franklin and Sarah Elks of The Australian note this is of a piece with an apparent campaign strategy to favour set-piece photo opportunities over less easily manageable appearance in public places. Tony Abbott on the other hand remained in Melbourne – less than a target-rich environment as far as marginal seats are concerned – which included a public appearance in marginal Labor Deakin. David Crowe of the Australian Financial Review made the following observation yesterday:
In a pre-emptive strike against Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Coalition has begun a below-the-radar campaign in regional Queensland to woo voters in key areas that could decide the federal election … Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey launched the effort late last week – a move that focused on local media and local campaigns rather than participation in the blanket national media coverage of the election, when it was called on Saturday. The strategy ensured the Coalittion had senior figures campaigning in cities such as Townsville and the highly marginal seat of Herbert before Ms Gillard headed to the area yesterday (Monday) morning. Beginning last Wednesday, Mr Hockey travleled from Gladstone to Mackay, Townsville, Innisfail and Cairns over five days to campaign for Coalition candidates”.
For all your campaign movement needs (not just the leaders), note Crikey’s excellent Election Tracker feature.
• Adrian Schonfelder, Labor’s candidate for the Melbourne hinterland seat of Flinders (held for the Liberals by Greg Hunt), has apologised for suggesting Tony Abbott’s conservative social positions were “influencing people to take their own lives”.
• Simon Canning of The Australian notes Labor is “expected to keep its hands clean in the election marketing war by allowing the union movement to carry the can and send out ads attacking Liberal leader Tony Abbott and the threat of a Coalition government”. The Australian Workers Union’s Addams Family ad is cited as a case in point.
• Tony Koch and Sean Parnell of The Australian consider the impact of the government’s restitution of programs to engage indigenous people with the electoral process, which had been cut by the Rudd government. The main marginal seats with high indigenous populations are Leichhardt in far north Queensland and the Darwin-based seat of Solomon.
• The Liberal National Party has come up with an odd arrangement whereby its newly preselected candidate for Kevin Rudd’s seat of Griffith, Rebecca Docherty – herself a substitute for dumped former Liberal Democratic Party figure John Humphreys – will make way for an unspecified “high-profile” candidate should Rudd have a late change of heart about remaining in politics.
• Discussing Newspoll and Galaxy results in the Financial Review, Andrew Catsaras calculates the “market share of swinging voters” – 17 per cent of the total – at 29 per cent for Labor, 35 per cent for the Coalition and 31 per cent for the Greens. I presume he’s done this by comparing the totals to some measure of the parties’ bedrock levels of support. If we’re lucky he might enlighten us in comments.
• The Daily Telegraph has published details of a poll on climate change conducted for lobbyist firm Parker and Partners by “online polling company Pureprofile”, showing 82 per cent of respondents favouring “strong or moderate action immediately”.
Julia Gillard did go on “Are you smarter than a fifth grader (or some name like that)”, and did very well. She was very astute and very charming.
[am quietly confident that Allanah can win Canning.]
She’s a good candidate Mick but alot a ‘happy clappers’ down Canning way.
Sharyn should be looking for a new job after August 21 😀
Thanks for the explanation, William. Apologies for even thinking of doubting you, Psephos. 🙂
nite fulvio
*clutches teddy bear,real close*
Milliband is one of the WORST of the Blairites in the House of Commons..and one of Blair sycophants who went all the way with his failed policies ,especially his failed policies in Iraq.
Today’s revelations in the London inquiry into the Iraq War brought amazing statements from the former head-woman of MI5..who never believed Blair and she has shown that
military intelligence knew how lying and deceiving Blair and his toadies like Milliband were….and of course Mlliband is a hand-line Zionist..and committed like they they all are to the doctrine of endless wars in the Islamic world…because Israel has no other policies to offer…and so the UK and the USA will have perpetual war as their policy…and will bankrupt themselves,as the USA has already done in the service of Israel..
Until the Zionist apartheid state is dissolved somehow.. that is the state of the M.E..and Milliband is one of the worst of that
crew !!
Gusface/Fulvio I refer to 876?
[Pseph/shows on]
If someone logs on as “Sybil” i am out of here!
[The choices were not easy]
yes my mother in law told me all about some of the stories
they had radio hidden and she said every night there was dutch people who worked for the Germans with wire going up and down the street apparently they detected the radios that way, they also had young men including her brothers hiding in the attic
[Psephos: didn’t you write him off some weeks ago, and you suggested that his brother was a better bet?]
No.
So I guess Abbott’s appearance on HEY HEY was even worse than Sloppy appearing in a tutu on Channel 10? 😉
Glen@902
I wouldn’t rule out Sharryn just yet.
St Facial,
Shows On is in moderation.
Here is your first chance ever to win a nuclear debate against him LOL.
Talking about an albatros, see if you can pick Abbott in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/
That was me being an idiot. Apologies
Okay, so no conspiracies then??
Centre
I have never lost a debate
except to teddy
🙂
If someone like Stuart Henry can beat her Ken shouldnt have any trouble my dear Frank 😀
But at least you’ll still hold Brand and Perth and win on election night. You’ll be a happy camper as always.
It’s a shame Truthy is back here, yet Showson is in moderation – doesn’t seem fair to me.
Glen@917
Stuart Henry Had Mark Latham – Sharryn has tony Abbott 🙂
Victoria, it may not appear on your screen, but on mine and Gusface’s screen a serious post by Psephos was followed by the identical post by Showson.
A cynical mind like mine (and I suspect Gus’s) immediately thought of the possibility that Psephos/Showson were the same person taking the piss from us all for the last many years.
Very glad it was not so!!
my say
Psephos was asking the other day why the Dutch still had somewhat of a hate for the Germans. As you say, many, many stories like yours in every family. But I have been thinking about it and I think one reason why the Dutch reacted so strongly was because Germany had great soft power in Holland before WW2. The sense of betrayal was therefore much greater than it might have been.
The Dutch people I know are almost uniformly still deeply grateful to the Americans (and, to a lesser extent, the Canadians), for rescuing them.
Sharryn has a GBNTOE 😀
“”Party leaders make media decisions on the basis of where they think political advantage lies. “”
So Abbott sees no political advantage in appearing in 7.30 report land and should therfore not appear for the rest of the campaign according to that theory. Has the level of our debate thus descended to the level where political advantage is the sole deteriminant of media appearances. Perhaps we should apply this to parliament in future – where it is no longer to one’s political advantage to appear in parliament others can attend and face scrutiny. Abbott is gutless, spinless and pathetic for not appearing on the the 7.30 report to face serious questioning on his policies period.
Previously posted and dated as pre Gillard but to supplement Jenauthor and in teh spirit of Monty posted again below:
Leader: What have the Romans (Rudd) done for us, Nothing
Mob: Yeah nothing;
Iconoclast Follower: Well’s there’s tax cuts and tax reform:
(Tax: Tax cuts of close to $40 billion dollars last three budgets. Proposed rent resource tax on above normal profits which is likely to bring in 9 billion a year. Money earmarked to reduce company tax (which leads to more jobs), increase the superannuation guarantee to 12% (extra 107k for the average punter) and more money to spend on capital infrastructure . Also lower profit mines benefit from government covering 40% of the losses and removal of royalties which are a cost on production. Treasury analysis and modelling estimates investment in mining to go up 4% and employment to go up 7%. Resources are only dug up once and only fair that the mineral owners get their fair share when times are good and that the burden is shared with miners when times are bad. Minerals still have value when in situ and if there are actually skill and infrastructure shortages probably better to extract over a longer life for in such circumstances mining has the potential to actually draw employees from other industries at not much added value to the economy overall. Arising from a suggestion at the 20/20 summit, the government commissioned the Henry review of the entire tax system which is likely to be the blue print for tax reform and simplification over the next decade. Overall govt estimates average family about $4000 better off under labour.)
Leader: Yeah tax cuts, but what else?
Followers: Well they saved us from recession;
(Global financial crisis: The near bankruptcy and collapse of the global financial system saw a contraction of credit and a fall in share markets and asset values. Treasury advised the government to go early, go hard and go households which they did with payments to those sections of the community who needed it and would spend it, followed up with massive infrastructure spends including school infrastructure and social housing which targeted keeping skilled tradesmen employed nationally and regionally together with a rebate for insulation which provided work for unskilled workers. Payments, together with tax cuts kept demand buoyant saving many thousands of retail sector jobs initially and more skilled and unskilled jobs later on. The government’s financial management including a key role in promulgating the G20 as the key vehicle for addressing the issue globally together with its stimulus and bank deposits guarantee to ease depositor concerns saw Australia avoid recession and be arguably the best performed economy in the western world saving hundreds of thousands of jobs. Other economies that also went big in their stimulus packages like China and South Korea also outperformed economies that didn’t. A smaller stimulus would have meant more unemployed, less tax collected, more unemployment benefits paid out and in all likelihood a greater deficit problem downstream as the revenue base would have shrunk and expenditure increased)
Leader: OK, Tax cuts and they saved us from the global financial crisis…..
Follower: And there’s health;
(Health: After inheriting a system in which money was being stripped from the public system and people were incentivised (positively and negatively) into the private system with a concomitant increase in health insurance fees, co-payments for GPs, increase in specialists costs constituing an erosion of Medicare and the concept of universal health cover, the government substantially increased health funding and conducted a review of the system which led to health reform package agreed by all the states except for the Peoples Liberation front of WA. The reform proposes national and higher standards for treatment and waiting times, significant increase in funding (more hospital beds, more aged care beds, more training of GPs, more GP services) , a new network in which the government becomes the dominant funder (sole funder for some services) and in which hospitals are run locally.)
Leader: OK tax cuts, tax reform, saving us from recession, preserving the concept of universal health cover and a massive health reform initiative…
Follower: And education. Oh yeah education (all murmur in agreement)
(Education: Providing a rebate of up to $750 per secondary school student to most households ($375 for primary), rolling out computers nationwide for secondary school students, introducing a national curriculum, increased funding at 2008 COAG including $550 million to improve teacher quality, $1.1 billion to counter educational disadvantage, and $540 million to improve literacy and numeracy, establishing the My school website which provides information to parents on all schools, massive infrastructure spend of $16.2 billion as part of the stimulus including $14.1 billion funding to 7 961 primary schools for 10 665 projects including new libraries, multipurpose halls, classrooms and the refurbishment of existing facilities; and $821.8 million to 537 secondary schools for the construction of new or refurbishment of existing science laboratories or language learning centres, more money for technical education and integration into secondary schools, abolishing full fee university places which means that students now get in on merit rather than money, providing funding for another 11,000 tertiary places in priority areas. Reforming HECS so that kids studying science and maths get their fees halved and halved again if they become teachers or scientists. Increased equity and access to tertiary as more government school kids are attending than previous years as a proportion of total students.)
Leader: Hang on, hang on, lets see tax cuts, tax reform, saving us from recession, preserving the concept of universal health cover and a massive health reform initiative and a massive increase in funding, equity and transparency in the education system but…
Follower: What about Pensioners and carers?
(Pensioners and carers: increased pension by $30 a week in 2009 after no substantive increase for the previous 12 years – generous increase for carers.)
Follower: And Social housing and assisting the homelessness;
(Social housing and assisting the homelessness: As part of the stimulus package 5.6 billion dollars allocated to social housing projects which eases pressure on low income families and single people squeezed out by housing affordability issues (the average price of a home increasing from 3 times the average wage to 7 times the average wage under the Howard government). Committing an extra $1.2 billion to attack the present homeless rate of 105,000 people;)
Follower: And getting rid of Workchoices;
(Fair Work Act: Individual AWAs abolished, 10 national employment standards enacted with minimum pay rates including maximum weekly hours of work –Requests for flexible working arrangements , Parental leave and related entitlements –Annual leave –Personal / carer’s leave and compassionate leave –. Community service leave, Long service leave –and – Notice of termination and redundancy pay , awards simplified, content of what can be in an enterprise agreement widened, enterprise agreements cannot be less than what is covered in an award, rights to challenge unfair dismissals reinstated. Workers conditions and workers security of employment has been markedly protected and improved.)
Follower: Then there’s foreign and international policy, we’ve reduced our involvement in Iraq, been a prime mover behind the G20, lobbied for a Security Council seat improved relations with Asia and Europe and continued strong relations with US and Britain, increased our overseas aid allocation.
Follower: And he apologised to the indigenous population for wrongs committed to them by the federal government.
Follower: The National Broadband network?
Follower: They’re committed to limiting real spending growth to 2% and their last budget says we’ll return to surplus in 3 years. Our unemployment rate is 5.2 % abut half of what OECD countries are around, Inflation is 2.9%, Cash rate is 4.5% and during the term got down to 3% in 2009 the lowest levels for nearly 50 years lower than at any time under the Howard or Fraser governments. We had a balance of trade surplus in April and with a lower dollar that might continue.
Cynical follower: What about global warming?
Contemplative followers: Well they ratified Kyoto, commissioned a report by Professor Garnaut and then crafted an ETS scheme which was rejected three times even after they negotiated with the opposition and got agreement which the liberals later reneged on, then went to Copenhagen and nearly busted a nut trying to get a meaningful global agreement until they were ‘ratf***ed’ by the Chinese and by American timidity. They also introduced an insulation scheme which enabled 1.1 million houses to be insulated which will save more than 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions over 10 years, the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road. Household energy bills will also be reduced, by up to 25 per cent in centrally heated insulated homes and by up to 18 per cent in space-heated homes. The scheme also introduced standards and mandated training for installers which not surprisingly reduced the incidences of house fires per installation numbers.
Leader: Shut up, just shut up..OK…OK…..Look, look…. I’ll give you tax cuts, tax reform, astute economic management in a global financial crisis and saving us from recession and saving thousands upon thousands of jobs, preserving the concept of universal health cover , introducing a massive health reform initiative and a massive increase in funding, equity and transparency in the education system, increasing payments for pensioners and carers, massively increasing social housing infrastructure and increasing aid to the homelessness, abolishing Work Choices and protecting the conditions and security of workers and jobs, putting forward a more rational and outward looking foreign policy, increasing our reputation as a global citizen, apologising to the aborigines, building a national broadband network, economic disciplines and their attempts to get a global agreement on climate change and their domestic actions in support… BUT……BUT……what have they done for us lately??
Murmur. Murmur murmur….,, shuffling of feet……
Follower at back in quiet voice: Well they have introduced paid parental leave and Fair Work Australia established by the government just granted low paid workers $26 pay increases….and they’ve stopped processing asylum claims from Sri Lanka …
Leader: Ah ah…BOATS…BOATS..all those boats!!! Boats, Boats, boats
Inquisitive follower: Didn’t Howard let in 11,000 boat people between 1999 and 2001 and didn’t nearly all of those on the Tampa end up settling in Australia??
Leader: SHHHHH??????BOATS, BOATS, BOATS…Why cant they stop the boats……..F***ing no good all talk, do nothing government!!
Fulvio
Ha
It seems I am robinson crusoe
Phew – for a second there I thought ShowsOn (if that is his real name) was exposed as Psephos’s crude alter-ego!
PB never ceases to both confuse and dazzle us!
[ Further to SKy’s new show — the woman assessing things is: you guessed it, a journo from the AUSTRALIAN!
Caroline Overton? I think.]
Ah, Rua – you just made me fall off my chair laughing at the thought of CO monitoring a program on Sky about media balance. Let me at their comments page!!
Frank – I saw Sharyn (Hasluck) on Sky this arvo – she seemed quite upbeat for someone who is supposed to be losing her seat. Perhaps the feel on the ground is better for her now. It’s one of the few times I’ve heard her speak and she was good.
So when does Abbott appear on “Here’s Humphrey” for his next grilling?
the spectator
It is not rocket science. Why would fools rush in where angels fear to tread?
It is obviously not working for Abbott.
Gough1 – no spam please!
Glen@922
GBNT no longer an issue – and the boats – one camev today – virtually no response.
Sorry Glen.
rw
lol.
Followed by the Wiggles.
Re my post 924 subsitute ‘Troothy” for “Leader” and it reads better.
Don’t be too concerned Spectator. By the end of Hockey’s poor performance Abbott’s minders had arranged for him to be on the 7:30 report in the near future.August 22 is shaping up as a bit day for the waring factions of the LNP.
[I guess this will be the final election that the ALP can use workchoices like this against the anti-Labor forces]
That’s debatable. But it will be the last time the Libs will be able to use the AS issue.
coconaut @ 857:
[Basically, the Greens have a good chance of picking up 2 senate seats in Tasmania]
If the Newspoll swing holds up and if the swing is the same in Tasmania, sure. But it’s very unlikely both of these things will be true. The projected vote you give for them there, 23.43%, would require them to beat the vote they obtained at State level, which was a record high vote obtained against a 12-year old state Labor government, the last term of which had been a series of trainwrecks.
It’s also worth noting that in 2007, Andrew Wilkie at #2 for the Greens polled an unprecedented 0.7% of the whole state Senate vote in his own right, all of these being below-the-line votes. Whether these were Greens voters being strategic or a personal vote for Wilkie I don’t know, but if the latter his loss will hurt them – Wilkie has quit the party on bad terms and is now running as an Independent for Denison.
I guess given their state result there has to be some chance the Greens will get c. 20 which gives them some kind of hope of getting two if the Labor primary is low enough that they can get over Labor, but if the combined Labor/Greens vote is high enough.
I reckon that Newspoll are overcooking the Greens vote (as they did in their final State Election poll here by about 4 points) and the swing to the Greens nationwide will not be anything like 5 points. It might be more like 3 or it might be not that much at all.
[Sorry Glen.]
Dont apologise to me Frank but to Sharryn for all the false hope you’re giving her.
redwombat@928
Like his Hero Howie did ? 🙂
[Has the level of our debate thus descended to the level where political advantage is the sole determinant of media appearances.]
It’s always been the case.
[Perhaps we should apply this to parliament in future – where it is no longer to one’s political advantage to appear in parliament others can attend and face scrutiny.]
A silly analogy.
[Abbott is gutless, spineless and pathetic for not appearing on the the 7.30 report to face serious questioning on his policies period.]
He decided that being grilled and filleted for the amusement of an ABC audience carries no advantage for him. I think he was quite right.
And after a session with the Wiggles Abbott could go on to Play School.
[Talking about an albatros, see if you can pick Abbott in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.]
is the wedding guest
No, you’re Robinson, I’m Crusoe.
Where’s Friday?
Glen@937
See BH’s post – Soomehow Barnett’s rise in utilities prices and pensioners not able to afford heating may be a factor – oh and that small thing called Workchoices 🙂
Did any one really see haha because we are not hearing the whole story
Fulvio
Out getting more tinfoil
[I think he was quite right.]
But he is going on the 7.30 report – just not tonight.
*goes to listen to Pride and Prejudice on the nano*
Yeah Adam and he went on a show where he didnt need to defend his policies or get a grilling.
Hence the Lib staffers will view this as a win.
Fulvio#920. Yes, it appeared on my screen also. I obviously have not been on the site for long, but I sensed that perhaps something duplicitous was happening. It has been explained now, all good.
Actually, I doubt the LNP will wait for the election to be over before the blood letting begins. Watch the Queensland conservatives go postal after the next unfavorable poll.
It’s a Joh for PM derail the whole campaign moment waiting to happen.