The all-too-brief New Year polling respite has come to an end with the first Morgan face-to-face poll of the year, covering a sample of 934 from the regular weekend survey. It records only minor shifts on the last poll of last year, which combined the results of the weekends of December 10/11 and 17/18: Labor up half a point to 37 per cent, the Coalition up two to 45 per cent and the Greens down 2.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent. Where Labor achieved parity on the previous-election preference method in the last poll, this time the Coalition leads 51.5-48.5. When respondents were asked how they would direct their preferences, the Coalition’s lead was 54-46, up from 53.5-46.5. As always with Morgan over the past year, this result is strangely favourable to the Coalition. One should further query the utility of any poll conducted at this time of year – my intuition is that the absence of holiday-makers from their homes would bias such a poll towards Labor, although I don’t have any actual data to back that up.
vic
joking aside
the youngest was born there a decade or so ago
my biggest gripe was both the tribalism and the stagnation
as i said once the gold went so did the city
melbourne has never recovered from that
gusface
Melbourne as a city has progressed spectactularly even in the past five years. If your last trip was before then, you have no idea.
No….(very funny) Im looking for them on twitter.
vic:
Your friend’s cousin has good sense.
vic
a slap of paint, some glitz and glam
same old same old
gusface
You really have no idea. Stagnation is definitely not what has occurred in Melbourne in the past 10 to 15 years.
gusface
Sorry to say but you are talking crap
vic
with respect
melbournes decline started with federation
then when the fed parl went
whooska
irrelevance
thy name is mebourne
Robert McClelland is Minister for Emergency Management.
Thanks Falvio Sammut
Whereas it most certainly has in Sydney. There’s not one aspect of life in Sydmey that has gotten better over the last two decades. Just about everything has moved backwards, if it’s moved at all.
Sorry Gus, it’s true. That’s why i gave up on it.
dan
who said i was “defending” sydney
geopol there is 3 cities
syd can bris
dar s best descibed as a forward base
mel per adl hob are, well, meh
I love both cities (but wouldn’t want to live there).
gusface
Yeah that is why Melbourne always gets voted world’s most liveable city!
Dont take my word for it. We are the major events capital of Australia for both sport and cultural events. Aust open commences tomorrow.
On that note, night all.
The Sydney beaches are much cleaner than 20 years ago for starters
Most of the problem with Sydney is the people there who ignore the decline in their once great city, and continue to tell themselves (no-one else listens) about how great Sydney is while it continues to die around them. Sort of like Nero on steroids.
The “brilliance” that is Sydney can be summed up by the M4 Freeway. Great idea to build a freeway from the western suburbs to the city. Pity it only goes half way to the city though. That’s Sydney for ya.
Sydney doesn’t lead Australia in anything. Fact.
It may have once, but those days have long since gone.
… and Sydney has a casino thereby following in the footsteps of, among others, Hobart and Monaco
did i mention how melburnians were world beaters in rigging polls
👿
The two-speed economy is a misnomer, in my opinion. The overall economy is adapting to debt-constraints – we live in a post-bubble economy where consumption growth has tapered off, where savings are climbing, where balance-sheet repair is underway. This is a reversion to mean after decades of excess. It is unavoidable and necessary for future financial stability.
At the same time, luckily for everyone aboard this economy, our external income has been soaring and fixed capital investment has been motoring along, meaning the externally-facing sectors have been helping the adjustment that has been occurring in the rest of the economy.
It is not a two-speed economy so much as a two-layer economy. Underlying the export meringue, we have a debt-sodden domestically-based deflating souffle. Thank goodness for the meringue is all I can say.
One outcome in all this has been a high AUD, reflecting intractable weakness in other currencies/economies and our own economic strengths. I think the days of a cheap AUD are well and truly over. We will soon be producing permanent net external income surpluses, thanks to mineral and especially future gas exports. (Think WA, think Norway of the East Indian Ocean).
This will change the dynamics of the non-resources sector. Since we can no longer borrow hugely, speculate in housing and burn our cash on consumption goods, we will have to develop other ways to make a quid. I think the path lies in levering off our geographic, natural (mineral, energy, agricultural, marine, botanical) resources and demographic advantages – developing science-based products and enterprises that link into the markets in our region.
And where we do not have these advantages in sufficient quality, intensity, scale or volume, we need to actively generate them, for they are the way to a prosperous future. To do this, we need to reform the tax system, the education and immigration systems and the foreign investment regime.
The dual economy is real, but the problem is what to do about it. We cannot borrow-and-splurge. We cannot depreciate. We have to re-boot. Pity about our totally sclerotic, risk-opposed and monopolized finance sector. Pity about our Treasury. Pity about the destruction of the education system. Pity about the housing market. It is not going to be easy, but it is not out of the question.
Parochial little beggars, aren’t we?
One of the most disappointing parts of Sydney is the beaches. None of them are a patch on the ones in the west.
My first reaction on seeing that “great cultural icon”, Bondi Beach, was “That’s it?!?!?!?”.
Tres disappointment.
Melbourne is a great city – truly world class. Plus it has the AFL – best game in the world.
Sydney is also beautiful and I am fortunate to live on the river and really enjoy its gifts.
Celebrate both!
I say this as a neutral – not from either!
briefly
i reckon the gvt should apply means testing to everything
ie bus subsidies as well as welfare
Mind yew perth beaches are the best in the world!!
About that coming war…
for the doubters
______________Not me but Alex Coburn the editor of US “Counterpunch” magazine says that the question about a major war in the Persian Gulf is not” if” but simply when’
….
He says that the last time the Big Three…The USA/Israel/Big Oil…all had a similar objective was in 2003 over Iraq,and that led to war
..and let’s ponder how that would effect Australia and our economy,as China is a major user of Iran Oil and will be massively hit by any disruption…which might please some in Washington…but would be very bad for us.indeed….
.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/13/war-on-iran-it%E2%80%99s-not-a-matter-of-%E2%80%9Cif%E2%80%9D/
Gus @ 1962
Do you only ever write in ‘Gus-speak’?
Don’t Perth beaches have problems with sharks? Sydney has 70 beaches all relatively shark free
bemused
does it matter?
Pity about the Liberal Party too. They are really stuck in the past, a usual. What I wouldn’t give for a half-sensible Opposition at the same time as an at-least half-competent Government.
Also following in the footsteps of Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and even the Gold Coast.
Actually, cancel everything I said above. Sydney does lead Australia, and indeed the rest of the world in one area:
Pokies.
20% of the world’s pokies are located in NSW. That’s something for every NSWelshperson to be proud.
Hi Bludgers,
I have just returned from seeing Warhorse. Mind-blowing cinematography made up for a story which is just loosely threaded vignettes at best. The stars were really the horses (and their handlers) whilst the humans were mere background which was a bit of a different perspective.
Where ever it was filmed is just magic and I am itching to visit.
Gus @ 1978
An affectation that renders it barely intelligible at times.
I too made the mistake of seeing War Horse last night.
bemusedd
i was using abbreviations of cities
sorry to offend thine eyes
🙁
Gus @ 1984
That was one of the easier ones to decipher. 😀
Shellbell -Perth averages a shark attack about once every 5 years. Not an issue.
More chance of being in a fatal car crash.
(That said was at Cotttesloe beach last year and had to be evacuated due to a great white alarm. No biggie, stuff happens).
william
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I am taking the kids to see it
Well, for the most part, it is not necessary. The price system is a self-iterating means-testing machine. For goods and services offered by Government, some things are better provided universally – no questions asked – because it becomes inefficient to try to calibrate everything. Think of Primary Schooling. Why would you want it to be anything but free, universal and compulsory? For some other things – like adult dental care – I think means testing is smart. It helps ration dollars so they can be applied for optimal effect. And after all, dentists do not need public support to fix the molars of millionaires.
William,
I think Spielberg has gotten too arty and forgotten that even the best filmed movie is just a series of nice pictures without a meaningful storyline.
Of the Spielberg films – and i have seen both.
Tin tin shits it in.
Goodnight all.
briefly
by means testing for welfare
i aint talking the PAYE group as such
more the SBO and family trust rorters
as for the business side
means testing is a lay down misere
deblonay, I think you are mistaking doubt for resignation.
If Israel and some of the Arab states are so determined to destroy each other that they refuse to talk or reason, so be it.
If the US is hell bent on asserting its perceived entitlement to the World’s oil as A latter day Master State, despite it’s inability to subjugate a rag bag of Somalian brigands, let alone any properly armed opponent, so be it.
I’ll concentrate my efforts in changing what I can change, influencing what I can influence, not raging against the light.
The Europeans just postponed the embargo for 6 months – can’t afford that kind of thing at this juncture.
The Chinese probably do not like the Persians a whole lot, but they would like the disruption to their economy a whole lot less, and they do not have a pro-Israeli lobby to worry about, so they have no pressing political need to impose sanctions of any kind, least of all simply to accommodate those hyper-active Americans. Come to think of it, considering the US is engaged in a strategic encirclement of China (not least with our help), it make sense for the Chinese to maintain good relations with neighbours to its north and west.
So when’s the next republican debate? Need a comedy fix.
Esperance beaches are better. And less crowded in my experience.
fair point confessions, Esperance beaches are good, beautiful swells. Went there once as an 18 year old back in the day. Idyllic.
Briefly 1994…… Re China and Iran
_______
Actually the Chinese have big some deals going with Iran in construction and such,
The Tehran Metro is being enlarged on a massive scale with Chine assistance.
They are also helping in growing the infrastructure in the gas industry,and Iran is now linked to the Central Asian Rail system which now flows into China by several routes
As well they now conducted all business(about 30million dollars P.A) in their two currencies thus cutting out the US Dollar
This is a new Chinese ploy…they recently persuaded Japan and Argentine to trade in local curriencies rather than the US $ How long before they ask us to do that
Argentina has a huge trade with China in Meat ,Wheat and Soya products…
So the Chinese are saving on costs and shutting out the falling US Dollar at the same time
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15667993,00.html
more in the article
Yet, I’ve been to the beach like once this summer.