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”.
[Private health care rebate
Private school fees rebate.
Would any Coalition supporters like to explain how these policies are not simply socialism/welfare for the rich? Why the hell should people get rebates from taxpayer money for paying private fees?]
This has been my main bugbear from the Howard years.
The term Private means just that.
You choose, you pay.
I have private health insurance, my choice, and I can’t even opt out of getting the rebate.
Next they’ll want to supplement people’s car insurance to prop up the motor industry!
TSOP. Hey Hey is not on my viewing list, but I’m sure the news media will report his appearance. I will see it then.
[So is anybody going to have a comedy-free night tonight and watch Tone on Hey Hey to see if he makes a tit of himself?]
absolutley NO would not want to put up their ratings or my blood pressure the less i see of abbott the better it is for my health
[Cuppa. Count to five. That’s it. Calm down.]
I’m calm enough, but I sort of resent being asked what’s my POINT when I’d already MADE the point.
[The indignity of Milne writing for the drum (a site for various personalities from all sections of Australian society to write opinion pieces) is unfounded. To decry this makes as much sense as someone on the right who decries Marieke getting to post regular articles.
The wonderful thing about opinion pages is they are exactly that. No evidence, no balance. Just opinion. And as the reader, you are free to choose which articles you read and which one you don’t.]
TSOP,
I’m disturbed by what’s happening to the ABC. It’s losing its independence. In fact, the indications are that it HAS LOST its independence. There’s a quiet colonisation going on of the national broadcaster by a rapacious right wing commercial interest operating out of the United States. Talking about the Murdoch organisation, to be clear.
It goes beyond Milne writing for the Drum, as I said in my previous post, though that’s compromising enough in itself, in my view.
Anyway, I’m going to the back row of the discussion now. William doesn’t encourage prolonged debate about ABC bias on the blog, and I can live with that. 🙂
my say@103 Hear Hear!
[Big swing towards govt in SA and Vic.]
Agreed. But unfortunately those are the states where the ALP has the least to gain in terms of seats, bar McEwen. And I still think Sarah Henderson’s high profile will be enough to get her over the line in Corangamite. Still, at least Deakin, Hindmarsh, Kingston and Wakefield are probably safe now.
[TSOP. Hey Hey is not on my viewing list, but I’m sure the news media will report his appearance. I will see it then.]
I am hoping someone will. I would, myself, but I’d rather gouge my eyes out that watch that banal crap that passes itself off as comedy.
[Would any Coalition supporters like to explain how these policies are not simply socialism/welfare for the rich? Why the hell should people get rebates from taxpayer money for paying private fees]
here they are subsidised now which is not a big issue with me really we all pay taxes but no more please tone enoughs enough.
You have really got to wonder about them dont you I would say the rich private school parents already vote liberal i would think well most of them???
Cuppa I get your frustration. Piers, Bolt, milne, the list goes on. Why should our taxes pay for their pathetic opinions?
TSOP. “Rather gouge my eyes out”. You are funny!
Thanks Gusface.
i dont mind julia only having one debate.
I would love to see the health debate now that would be great.
then swan and joe and lyndsay and whats his name
now they would be good
Following on from a reading of this site earlier, I went and had a look at the contributors list for The Drum (through about 20 of 26) letters . I am not sure how often you need to contribute to be listed. The contributors cover a wide range of fields and would without studying every one, would seen to cross the politcal spectrum.
What was noticeable however, is that whilst there are a goodly number of Liberal MPs (8-9 maybe) as contributors and all Greens MPs except Scott Ludlam, there was only one ALP MP listed (Michael Danby). Ministers I can understand not being there , but I would have thought that there would be a greater number who would contribute. As far as former MPs go, there are probably more from the ALP than the Coalition. I don’t for a moment suspect bias, but the small numbers of ALP MPs is interesting as one would expect a few could string words together. Were they warned off by the powerbrokers? Not the type of thing that would worry Michael Danby as he says what he thinks.
Interesting nonetheless.
The Drum is there to provide editorial material and comment but really is that appropriate for a publicly funded broadcaster?
Tomorrow there will be no electionering from both sides because of the funeral of that soldier killed in Afghanistan. Both sides are attending.
[Would any Coalition supporters like to explain how these policies are not simply socialism/welfare for the rich? Why the hell should people get rebates from taxpayer money for paying private fees?]
It’s conservatism 101. And it’s that way across the globe.
Ron 100,
McArthur, maybe the libs will keep. Western Sydney is ALP machine heartland, they have the highest focus-group data to population ratio in the world.
In the NSW state election v Debnam the ALp won every western sydney seat (barring a couple of hills seats). A mass sea of Red on the electoral map. The lib machine was essentially Jackie Kelly and her mates.
The campaign the ALP ran against Debanam is almost word for word the same campaign they are running against Tony.
Lindsay is safe. Macquarie is safe. Greenway will fall to Labor as will Hughes. MacArthur is the odd one out where simmering tensions over mosques etc still rein supreme. But having Pat Farmer go gives the ALP a shot.
Remember Barry’s tweet about not being able to get candidates because of internal polling.
Queensland we will know better as the Green vote shifts back to major parties.
yet Bluey greeny the odds at sports bet Lat trobe 1.90ALP 1.70Coa, Aston 3.00ALP- 1.22CO
People should think of Qld as two places. Brisbane and then the rest.
The ALP are doing fine in Brisbane, not so well outside. But in net seat terms Qld is a yawn, nothing will change from the way it is now. (using notional seats).
if they were independent conservative commentators i could handle it. like Hendo for example. but don’t fill ABC airtime with journo’s/opinion writers from other news agency’s.
where are the abc’s commentators and analysts? they are the ones i want to see and hear, and i dont mind who they are talking up as long as it is considered and logical.
anyway, i’m not saying anymore cos i dont really like getting into these types of discussions. i think the output of news agency’s speak for themselves.
ruawake
What do you think about about Dixon, Bowman and Ryan?
Does anyone else reckon the leaders shoul dhave stopped campaigning to go to the Fromelle service. It seemed like a pretty signifcant event to me.
re Hey Hey – Funny how a show might seem funny to you as a 15 year old, but is abhorrent and banal when you reach 42?!
[ruawake
What do you think about about Dixon, Bowman and Ryan?]
Labor should win Dickson and Bowman, maybe Ryan (depends if Johnson does enough damage on pref flow).
ruawake.
Are the ALP still playing up the fact that Peter Dutton wanted to jump seats?
Victoria @ 96
Well said. It will encourage schools to raise fees, not only private schools but state schools will no doubt raise their charges also. Same thing for the school uniforms rebate. It is just a race to the bottom. Surely these things would be better targetted through fiddling with FTB A and B (whichever is which) and / or though welfare payments.
Brissy rod. Hence, my reason for not watching it.
Ruawake – I understand the ALP in Qld is bracing for a loss of 3-4 seats outside Brisbane.
blackburnseph. Yes, some other type of payment would be better.
Brissy Rod,
If that the worst damage they are going to get in QLD then the election is over. This blog can now move back to ETS debates between ALP and Greens and who should be the next leader of the libs.
[Are the ALP still playing up the fact that Peter Dutton wanted to jump seats?]
Er yes. 🙂
[To Speak of Pebbles
Posted Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 12:03 pm | Permalink
…
Go beat that drum elsewhere. The “Rudd woulda done better” meme is dull and not worth this site’s bandwidth. Let’s wait for the election result before we criticise Gillard’s leadership (although I suspect that no matter how well Julia does, Kev “would’ve done better”)]
I actually think Gillard will get a better result and deliver the Liberals a much needed lesson. I just think Rudd did a good job, he would have won, and did not deserve what he got. He definitely doesn’t deserve to be denigrated by lightweights in the labor party.
[Private school fee relief for parents under Coalition education rebate plan
Not a good headline for the swinging westies.]
Yes it is. “Swinging westies” either do send their kids of non-government schools, or would like to if they could afford it. Hostility to non-government schools is largely confined to the inner city leftist elite. The Liberals know from years of experience that making using public money to make private schools more affordable is a better political spend than improving the quality of government schools.
blue-green. Confidence is good, but it aint over yet.
Victoria – Understand.
I unfortunately did watch it for 20 minutes a few weeks ago, just to see if it had any appeal – you know for nostalgic reasons.
My assessment? It was 20 minutes of my life I will never get back.
Note that the Lutheran school where Abbott appeared this morning was in Bowman, not in a Labor seat. So even in Brisbane they feel they’re on the defensive.
“send their kids of non-government schools” = “send their kids to non-government schools”
blue_green – happy to start that debate. 🙂
[He definitely doesn’t deserve to be denigrated by lightweights in the labor party.]
Who is denigrating him? Give us a quote please.
Re the link to the Courier Mail @ 11 – I see the Young Libs have been right on the ball. I know these on-line polls are crap but I just had to add my vote to Labor. Of 14,341 “votes” cast, Liberal will get first preference on 63.66% (I assume in Courier Mail-land), with Labor on 16.31%. Well that lines up with national polling – NOT! I suppose the newspapers think that we are just suckers who love to tick boxes – which I must admit I did. 🙂
Deakin could be interesting as the ETU pumped (reportedly from Vexnews) $500,000 into Mike Symons campaign in 2007 – and in some quarters it had been said to have been the most expensive single seat campaign ever (not sure about that). The ETU have now disaffilliated from the ALP (and according again to Andrew Landeryou) no money would be forthcoming. As of today, no ALP campaign literature has yet to hit our mailbox (except the postal vote stuff) but the Libs have now had a mail out since the announcement and one in the about two weeks before (in the phoney period) as well as their postal vote stuff.
In the last campaign, we kept everything that arrived in the post and by the end we had a very full supermarket plastic bag that weighed close to 2kg. The vast majority of which came from the ALP and YROW etc. If there is a drying up of ALP funding in the seat it will be interesting to watch what effect it has.
Psephos,
Agreed on the private school front.
There are swathes of little lowish-cost religious school opening up all across the growth centres in the nw and sw of sydney.
Cuppa @ 70
[Do you think that the cross-pollination that’s going on (and increasing) between the Murdoch organsiation and the ABC indicates or bodes well for the ABC’s independence?]
Unfortunately for our national broadcaster, the process is not one of cross-pollination, but of outright invasion. The Murdoch media influence on the ABC is like a harmful virus that has infected all parts of the news and current affairs apparatus with the same lazy, ill informed and self-obsessed trivia focus that News Ltd are so expert at. Complex policy issues are reduced to 10 second sound grabs, attempts at any rebuttal, or nuanced explanation by Government spokespeople are shouted down by rude and aggressive ABC journos bellowing their preconceived ‘gotcha’ questions, and the constant refrain of ‘the Opposition says …’ taken straight from the media handouts provided to lazy and ill trained hacks by Coalition apparatchiks substitutes for any informed analysis, or evaluation of the propaganda provided, underpinned by knowledge of the relevant facts.
This is the essence of the Murdoch way of handling news and current affairs – dumb down the debate on any set of issues into an ‘us’ and ‘them’ presentation, simplify outrageously any policy discussion, pander to the fears and prejudices of the least informed in the community, and deliver this pre-digested pap to your chosen lowest common denominator audience demographic with a side order of contempt courtesy of the smart arsed journos who pretend to know better than John Q Public.
In the race for ratings, this is the low road that the ABC has chosen to take, or to put it more correctly, was chosen for them by the Liberal stooges who pack the ABC Board and the upper levels of ABC Management. These are the real ‘faceless men’ who have used the News Ltd template, and have bypassed ABC staff to facilitate the infection with ‘new blood’ in the form of the tainted Bolt, Akerman, Milne, et al.
Dawkins save our democracy from this plague ….
Blackburnpseph,
No one has cash. My gut feel in NSW is that the fundraising for the Libs is being saved for the state election.
Also, what is this meme with candidates being photographed holding fruit? Has it taken over from kissing babies?
Those idiots at Sky News…. They keep following Kevin around and saying he is a distraction. But they just had Kevin on for 7 minutes talking to school kids about how awesome the new school hall is.
[I just think Rudd did a good job, he would have won, and did not deserve what he got.]
He might have won, but, in the opinion of the caucus, that was less likely than Gillard winning. Why take the chance? Also, the more you win by, the better the position you are in, both for governing and for your chances at the following election. You don’t willingly sacrifice seats.
mmmmm fruit…. it does it for me….
Very happy smiling Kev spruiking the benefits of the BER this arvo. 🙂
The Big Ship. Once again well expressed.