This week’s Essential Research shows no real change in voting intention on last week, with the Coalition up a point on the primary vote to 49 per cent, Labor and the Greens steady on 31 per cent and 11 per cent, and two-party preferred steady at 56-44. The poll also measures Bob Brown’s approval rating at 42 per cent and disapproval at 34 per cent (including very favourable figures among Labor voters of 60 per cent and 15 per cent); has 31 per cent favouring Kevin Rudd as Labor leader over 16 per cent for Julia Gillard (Gillard leads 40 per cent to 33 per cent among Labor voters); and 30 per cent favouring Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader with 23 per cent for Tony Abbott (Abbott leads 39 per cent to 26 per cent among Coalition voters). Further questions on the mining boom have 66 per cent believing it has benefited them “not at all”, 51 per cent supporting the mining tax (down one on mid-March) and 29 per cent opposing it (down five).
Federal preselection happenings in New South Wales:
• The NSW Liberal Party state executive has voted to dump Garry Whitaker as its candidate for Craig Thomson’s seat of Dobell. He has been replaced by Karen McNamara, a WorkCover public servant who reportedly has backing from the party’s right, who was defeated by Whitaker in the original preselection vote in December. Whitaker has since been struggling with allegations he had lived for several years without council permission in an “ensuite shed” on his Wyong Creek property while awaiting approval to build a house there.
• More proactivity from the NSW Liberal state executive in neighbouring Robertson, a seat the party was disappointed not to have won in 2010. Local branches have had imposed upon them Lucy Wicks, who herself holds a position on the executive by virtue of her status as president of the party’s Women’s Council. Wicks was identified by the Sydney Morning Herald last year as a member of the “centre right” faction associated with federal Mitchell MP Alex Hawke, which in alliance with the moderates had secured control of the state executive. Like the Dobell intervention, the imposition of Wicks occurred at the insistence of Tony Abbott – local branches in both seats have called emergency meetings to express their displeasure.
• Michelle Hoctor of the Illawarra Mercury reports Ann Sudmalis, the candidate backed by retiring member Joanna Gash, won Liberal preselection on Saturday in Gilmore with 16 votes against 10 for her main rival Andrew Guile. Rounding out the field were Alby Schultz’s son Grant, who scored four votes, and Meroo Meadow marketing consultant Catherine Shields on one. For those wondering about the small number of votes, the NSW Liberals’ preselection procedure involves branches being allocated a number of selection committee delegates in proportion to their membership, rather than a massed rank-and-file ballot.
• Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports the Nationals are in the “‘initial stages’ of discussions with popular independent state MP Richard Torbay about endorsing him for a tilt at independent federal MP Tony Windsor in New England”. Torbay has been the independent member for Northern Tablelands since 1999, and served as Legislative Assembly Speaker during Labor’s last term in office.
[rummel
Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 11:01 am | Permalink
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/climate-change-alarmist-warnings-all-hot-air-says-british-scientist-james-lovelock/story-e6freuzi-1226337509756
The alarmism is being defeated. Where is the warming?.]
We come into the would an empty vessel and leave senile.
I wonder if Rummel works or is affiliated with DailyTelegraph?
seems to have posted a couple of links of late.
[This reminds me that we don’t hear much about the media inquiry happening here.]
Only when it is a subject of derision and deterring our right to free dumb speech.
Diogenes
The ADFA were serious criminal matters relating to several young people, and it was the military heirarchy who decided that Kafer should stand aside until these matters were dealt with. Surely you can see the difference?
[Danny Lewis
Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 12:10 pm | Permalink
Mick77: Where did I mention the positives of Nazi Germany? I was talking about the time BEFORE and the time SINCE in Germany – the country – and Austria and many other countries that were aligned with Germany in WW1. Nazism is a separate thing, confined to a particular place in history and should never be synonymous with Germany and its people.]
I think what your trying to say is: every country has it’s thugs, problems only arrise when they get into power. I would like to point out, australia is not thug free.
Danny Lewis @ 2798
Well Danny, your sense of humour is certainly a redeeming feature 😀
Seriously though, I think you gravely underestimate the ability of the NAZIs to perpetuate their rule if they had won.
I would also say that their first victims were Germans and certainly Germans of today, except for a ratbag fringe, repudiate that era of their history.
If you get a chance, watch the movie “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days” to get some idea of how the NAZI regime treated even non-violent German resistance.
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
[I wonder if Rummel works or is affiliated with DailyTelegraph?]
…na, someone smart as him would have been sacked.
joe2
[What hope have we for a continuing “smart economy”]
Smart – No wonder Abbott is anti.
Is anyone else experiencing problems with Twitter today?
joe2
Pure gold!!
lizzie
Maybe Mr Slipper was too much for the twitterverse to handle.
Diogs,
Before you get to excited about the Smith smear. Myth busted!
“So far as the other matters are concerned which relate to civil matters, we have any number of examples in the past, including with current serving Liberal members of Parliament, where they have either been officeholders or ministers and they have been subject to a civilian or civil case or allegation or claim. And so the Government has made it clear that it fully supports the Speaker in his decision to step aside, and we should now allow those processes to take their place.
I’ve seen references by the Liberal Party to Commander Kafer. Frankly, I don’t see the link, but in Commander Kafer’s case, he was required not by me but required by his Commanding Officer, the then Vice-Chief of the Defence Force, the current Chief of the Defence Force, to take leave pending the conclusion – the instigation and conclusion of the Kirkham Inquiry”
http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2012/04/23/minister-for-defence-transcript-press-conference/
[But Australia’s tax system is hopelessly skewed against the young in favour of the old.]
Even for a Green, Pegasus, that’s a spiteful, nasty, selfish, bigotted and thoroughly undeserved statement, especially since it comes from the best-off, lowest-taxed and most highly taxpayer-subsidised generation since Federation- as well as one enjoying very low interest rates through the early 00s & again now!
The old should be favoured! They survived Depression and wars (at least 3, if you’re my age, 4 if you’re my MiL’s) –for which THEY paid through very high taxation until the loans matured, the first during the Hawke government. Gens X&Y pay the lowest income tax in my lifetime (& I’m 70)
Until the Whitlam Government’s grants to non-government schools (& fee-free university & student living subsidies) reforms were enacted, there was no such support; universities were full-fee upfront, and only Open & Commonwealth Scholarship winners received a living allowance. Others who needed fee & cost of living help had to accept bonded scholarships requiring as many years of bonded service as there were years in the degree (usually state & fed gov and Defence Force). My fees, books and Vac School attendance & trips to conduct research in UQ & other libraries as an external student, cost me half of my salary – and no, it wasn’t tax deductable! And no, I never even thought of blaming the Aged for it – nobody did.
As a teacher & PAYE taxpayer 1960-98, I was, for the most part, paying huge taxation, and more than 50c in the A$1 for any “second job” money – in my case, tutoring external students for UQ. Only once in my working life did I get a tax return of more than $20 – and that was a year I’d paid to go to China on a cultural exchange related to my job. Only in the mid-late 1980s did my taxation fall below 40%
My parents’ generation’s War Bonds & Savings Accounts should have paid for houses after building restrictions were lifted in the early 50s, but by that time, Menzies’ 1st term Gov inflation (22+%, highest in Oz history) and skyrocketing housing prices, more than halved their savings’ value. And I don’t recall any of them attacking Old Age Pensioners for it
After 1971-2, especially during Fraser government (& Howard’s disastrous term as Treasurer) interest rates skyrocketed to the highest in Australia’s history, doubling in less than a decade – ours went from 6% to 13.5% capped, with no compensating rise in salary (Fraser had binned the policy of adjusting Fed & State gov wages for inflation) Again, I don’t recall anyone attacking Old people for it.
As a superannuant, I watched my retirement savings go down the gurgler when the $A and Interest rates crashed early in the 00s. GenX, OTOH, benefited from the retired’s misfortune – and, aided by generous Howard handouts, pushed housing prices up so far that, for many, they are now out of reach. GenX was also the first generation to lash out with credit cards, making Australia (preGFC-related sanity set in) the nation with the world’s highest pc CC debt.THAT’s what pushed our Balance-of-trade and OS borrowing figures – and consequent interest rated – so high during Howard’s last term Again, I don’t recall anyone’s blaming Senior Citizens for the problems
Whether Gen Y will become as profligate and whining as Gen X I don’t know; but I suspect not. Financially bad times have a way of etching their way into one’s psyche.
Fearless investigator Rummel of Wapping has a certain ring about it.
🙂
I agree with Nicola Roxon about where the line should be drawn. When charges re brought that require you to ppear in Court. See Senator Mary Jo Fisher.
As for civil cases I would think a lower standard should be pplied just like the way things are investigated. Given the outcome sought by Mr Ashby it does not sound like Mr Ashby expected a resignation. If he did it would be put as part of the case. So should we expect a resignation?
I’m still trying to work out *how* Chris Uhlmann and Steve Lewis are going to go about collaborating on a book.
I have visions of a book full of gotcha questions and made up answers …
Bob Dylan. Masters of War. LIVE
[Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLNEUsdmf0
The Uhlmann/Steve Lewis book is worse than you thought. According to the Pure poison lads it is a fictional work centred on Parlt House Canberra called The Marmalade Files: A Sticky Scandal, A Political Jam.
God I can see it now; endless interviews with the same question “how true is this bit Steve? you know all the secrets Steve , is page 98 actually true?”
The National Library classifies it as satire.
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5787173
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2012/04/25/everyone-has-a-book-in-them/
The Uhlmann/Steve Lewis book is worse than you thought. According to the Pure poison lads it is a fictional work centred on Parlt House Canberra called The Marmalade Files: A Sticky Scandal, A Political Jam.
God I can see it now; endless interviews with the same question “how true is this bit Steve? you know all the secrets Steve , is page 98 actually true?”
The National Library classifies it as satire.
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5787173
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2012/04/25/everyone-has-a-book-in-them/
[2802
zoidlord
Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
I wonder if Rummel works or is affiliated with DailyTelegraph?
seems to have posted a couple of links of late.]
Frank had me pegged as a 2GB man. 🙂
Ctar1,
Rummel of the Old Bailey?
I bet he’s a Timson.
GG
Surprisingly, I do see the link. Kafer was stood down pending investigation into a non-criminal matter which exonerated him.
And only the most gullible would believe Smith didn’t instruct Defence on what to do.
[The Murdoch stink began in Australia.]
Only in Australia could a story written by Steve Lewis, after all he’s done purveying counterfeit documents, in the Daily Telegraph, Murdoch tabloids et al, be taken seriously, to the point where calls for the Resignation of the Speaker, the abandonment of coverage of the Budget, indeed the sabotage of the Budget session of parliament, demands for immediate elections are made – and taken seriously – within 24 hours of publication.
All this is without any testing of the evidence, any contact with the applicant (Ashby) or the respondent (Slipper), based on such flimsy complaints as “he hurt my feelings by saying I looked fat”, some scuttlebutt about CabCharge dockets, and a couple of bad taste references to homosexual practices (which were apologized for, and to which the applicant replied “All good”).
Front page after front page regurgitates old accusations dressed up as new ones, and once they have been dealt with, yet more are dragged into the light of day after being kept in reserve,in order to drag out the process even longer and to engender an atmosphere of continual crisis.
We have seen it all before, a hundred, a thousand times, here and overseas, over decades. Yet each new scandal seems to reset the credulity clock. Journalists all over the country ignore the past, the authors and the organization that publishes these scandals as if Utegate, Pauline Hanson and all the rest never happened. And that’s just the Australian versions.
Every Sunday, for example, Barrie Cassidy picks up the weekend newspapers and reads out mostly Murdoch tabloid stories as if they are Holy Writ, chiselled in stone, beyond reproach, without the slightest doubt, even a sense of irony, or skepticism about what thesame publications have gotten wrong time and time again in the past. I shouldn’t really single Cassidy out, because he’s just one of a thousand journos who do the same thing, in one way or another. I guess they don’t all have a national TV show as their platform, though.
We have reached the point where farce is preferred over reality, where stories of nation-shaking importance are ignited, burn fiercely and fizz out within days, only to make way for the next scandal, written and published by the same people.
Each time we are told, “This time we’ve got it right,” seemingly without the slightest scepticism or other than prurient curiosity by our ambulance-chasing media, too afraid of News Ltd to dare question their morals or their motivations. The collegiate courtesy, whereby journalists give each other the benefit of the largest doubt, is all based on fear.
As Paul Barry said on Q&A last year:
[I think they go over the top, they go too far, they run campaigns against people. They’re relentless in their opposition to particular people … If I write a piece about Chris Mitchell and I say what needs to be said about Chris Mitchell, I’m never going to get a job with News Ltd. newspapers in this country… I’m a freelancer.”]
Barry needs the money, so do most of the other journos in a country where Murdoch owns 70% – the critical mass – of its newspapers, and a large slice of its broadcast media as well, as well as having the ear of the Conservative side of politics.
It’s like Army food: the same shit, served up on the same plate, by the same cook, at the same table, in the same way. Only the name of the dish changes from day to day.
bbs@2770: “…Nicola Roxon…comes across as nasty, snide and bitchy…”
Not to me. I find her an admirable debater, fast with the facts, clear and pointed in her speech, and courageous in the face of male hostility.
OzPol T
I agree with your post. It is only in comparatively recent years that “blame the older generations” has been mentioned.
Talking to a man who frequently deals with teenagers, he mentioned that himself. An attitude of “why should we do anything, it’s all the your fault” (he’s late forties, I think, so considered by them to be old).
GG – A great uncle of the family? Sounds about right.
TLBD could help us here but I think Leveson last night puffed him out!
Phil Vee:
Sounds dreadful.
[bbs@2770: “…Nicola Roxon…comes across as nasty, snide and bitchy…”]
I disagree as well. Roxon is my favourite labor member after saint keven.
Diogs,
Only a conspiracist can doubt a plain statement made on the record without a shred of evidence to support their alternative assertion.
You and Rummel should get a room with tinfoil hats, comrade.
Gillard giving Dawn Speech. 24
guytaur
[I agree with Nicola Roxon about where the line should be drawn. When charges re brought that require you to ppear in Court. See Senator Mary Jo Fisher. ]
How does fit with “innocent until proven guilty”?
[bbs@2770: “…Nicola Roxon…comes across as nasty, snide and bitchy…”]
I would say that’s the opposite of Nicola Roxon’s personality. Perhaps bbs was thinking of The Puff Adder and mixed up his posts?
It seems to me that James Ashby is a bit conflicted about the sort of outcome he wants.
Money is certainly part of it, but what else?
Working for a pollie is not like other work. It is intense, up close and intimate work, often 1 on 1 with your boss. It also differs depending on who your pollie is, because they all have different styles. Some pollies are very hands on (and no, I’m not being suggestive!) working closely with their electorate/office staff and some spend all their time in parliament or elsewhere and hardly ever stick their noses into their offices.
It is a very small team in an electorate office and sometimes, again, depending on the pollie, it barely operates as a team at all. I worked in one office where everyone had specific roles and there was no overlap: each of us worked 1 on 1 with our member and we rarely worked together except at election time.
I get the impression that Slipper is this latter sort of boss. He seems to have interpersonal relationships with each individual employee, and it also seems to me that they were not amongst themselves a close team. Reading the material, it certainly sounds like there was a rivalry for attention going on between Ashby and the other guy.
I guess we’ll know more later on, but I would be very interested to hear what Slipper’s other staff members have to say about all of this.
Susan Winstanley
You might have an interest in this link
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24960
GG
What about the evidence that Smith is the Minister for Defence?
Or Smith’s comments
[Smith described Kafer’s decision as “stupid”, “inappropriate, insensitive and wrong”. He added that “it’s almost certainly faulty at law”.]
Dio
Fisher was on criminal charges. Same standard can be applied.
It’s really generous& magnanimous of Turkey to allow the ANZAC memorial. Afterall, they were invaded.
Phil: oh, shit. That sounds beyond dreadful.
By the way, I also find it rather hilarious that two journalists – writers by trade – seem to think themselves incapable of penning a book on their own. Maybe one will do all the verbs and the other will do all the nouns 😉
Go George!
[George Megalogenis @GMegalogenis
Today’s analysis: carbon tax better placed than GST at same point in cycle. Shocking, I know, but policy is on track.]
[bbs@2770: “…Nicola Roxon…comes across as nasty, snide and bitchy…”]
Bushfire Bill @ 2832
[I would say that’s the opposite of Nicola Roxon’s personality. Perhaps bbs was thinking of The Puff Adder and mixed up his posts?]
Agree with you BB, and if Julia Gillard had Nicola Roxon’s personality, communication skills, sound judgement and honesty, then I might also become a Gillard groupie like so many on PB … but then again I suppose I’d then actually be a Roxon groupie.
Joe2
Maybe George is off the leash while masters are busy in London.
Diogs,
Nice red herring!
It’s well known that Ministers do not interfere in the day to day operaton of their Departments. They appoint Secretaries, managers etc and due process sorts out the rest. Kafur was dealt with as an internal matter.
It does not mean he can’t have an opinion about certain matters.
guytaur
Another problem is what is “stood down”. Does it mean you don’t sit in parlt, don’t vote, don’t sit on committees?
My post about roxon was missing the paste from another post disagreeing that roxon is a bitch. I don’t think roxon is anything other then one of the best labor members left in labor.
Dio
Again look at example. Sentor Fisher.
[By the way, I also find it rather hilarious that two journalists – writers by trade – seem to think themselves incapable of penning a book on their own. Maybe one will do all the verbs and the other will do all the nouns ;-)]
It’ll be a complete stitch-up. Thinly disguised half-truths mixed in with total fiction. Names changed. Some dates. Enough to pass the defamation laws. But we’ll all know who it’s supposed to me about. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
BW – I’ve been meaning to mention these to you for a weeks or so –
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/browse/C12269323
These are the records deemed worthy of keeeing and returned to the UK as colonies were let go.
Its only the first part of the release.
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nsw/content/2003/s841214.htm
[Transcript
The one day of the year.
Broadcast: 25/4/2003
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: ‘The One Day of the Year’ is the title of Alan Seymour’s searing play about the worth of Anzac Day.
It was written in 1959.
The Sydney Theatre Company is currently presenting it at The Wharf Theatre.
Next month, ‘The One Day of the Year’ will be on tour to Parramatta, Newcastle, North Gosford and Wollongong.
The play was written at a time when Anzac Day was far from what it has become, especially in the minds of younger Australians.
Sharon O’Neill reports on how the times have changed.]
I can just see the Annabel Crabb review of it now.
[Everyone in Canberra is talking about just who’s who in Chris Uhlmann and Steve Lewis’ crackerjack political farce. Normally sane and sensible journalists, politicians and beltway insiders jostled for recognition as character in the book.
At times it got unseemly as violent arguments, almost to the point of fisticuffs, erupted in the middle of Manuka restaurants, Deakin supermarkets and even in the bedrooms of certain Red Hill mansions….&etc.]
Mick77 @ 2840
Well that would make 2 of us. 😀