The first poll in the post-budget avalanche is a Galaxy survey of 1006 respondents showing the Coalition leading 54-46 on two-party preferred, from primary votes of 34% for Labor, 46% for the Coalition and 10% for the Greens. While it shows a highly negative reaction to the budget in terms of effect on personal finances (14% expect to be better off against 48% worse off), support for abolition of the baby bonus is remarkably high (64% in favour, 22% opposed). Full tables courtesy of GhostWhoVotes. Nielsen, Newspoll, Essential Research and Morgan should all be joining the party over the coming days.
Psephos entertains us with a breakdown of the highlights of his weekend!..: “Melbourne only 7 points down at half time. Better than expected. I will keep the radio on.”
Briefly – I don’t think what you’re suggesting is what they have in mind. In saying that, there is very little detail about what they want to do and how so I can’t be sure
Hey Hunt – wtf is Direct Action???
Abbott budget replay – how many of these 75 recommendations from the IPA did he mention
1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don’t replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.
2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change
3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund
4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act
5 Abandon Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council
6 Repeal the renewable energy target
7 Return income taxing powers to the states
8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission
9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol
11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities
12 Repeal the National Curriculum
13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums
14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be ‘balanced’
16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law
17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations
18 Eliminate family tax benefits
19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme
20 Means-test Medicare
21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
22 Introduce voluntary voting
23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations
4 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns
25 End public funding to political parties
26 Remove anti-dumping laws
27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions
28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board
29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency
30 Cease subsidising the car industry
31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction
32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games
33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books
34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws
35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP
36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit
37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database
38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food
39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities
40 Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools
41 Repeal the alcopops tax
42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including:
a) Lower personal income tax for residents
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers
c)Encourage the construction of dams
43 Repeal the mining tax
44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states
45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold
46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent
47 Cease funding the Australia Network
48 Privatise Australia Post
49 Privatise Medibank
50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual fnction
51 Privatise SBS
52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784
53 Repeal the Fair Work Act
54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them
55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors
56 Abolish the Baby Bonus
57 Abolish the First Home Owners’ Grant
58 Allow the Northern Territory to become a state
59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16
60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade
61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States
62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts
63Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport
64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering
65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification
66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship
67 Means test tertiary student loans
68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement
69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built
70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising
71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling
72 Privatise the CSIRO
73 Defund Harmony Day
74 Close the Office for Youth
75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme
Yes, joe, I am indeed tragic. I’m looking foward to a big Sepetmber – a 100-seat Labor victory and a Demons flag.
Lizzie
Okay how do i explain it.
In the 1980s the ALP opened up the economy and since the 1970s have supported policies that have seen a large increase in the educated middle class which has been a positive policy.
The ALP implemented policies such as Super to reduce people’s need for the pension.
But some ALP supporters see people that seek to benefit from the lifestyle opportunities that earlier ALP policies have created as greedy or use language that indicates contempt.
I think its important to note that not all ALP supporters are envy driven but some like to play postcode envy, like the other week when there was a discussion about the NDIS and why it is a good policy and someone brought Toorak into it.
Even the IPA dont want Abbott to be Abbott – they want him to be Gough Whitlam
“If Tony Abbott wants to leave a lasting impact – and secure his place in history – he needs to take his inspiration from Australia’s most left-wing prime minister.”
“No prime minister changed Australia more than Gough Whitlam.”
No liberal PM worth holding up as an example to follow!!! hahahaaha
KHTAGH @khtagh 10m
If you want to know how we are being controlled watch this, it will change your opinion of the media, forever. http://fb.me/307iqMgmu
guytaur
Now i get it, yes i am aware that Sydney needs greater investment into its rail network.
The issue about Labor and the unions is that in the first half of last century the members of Labor were also the members of the unions. They were hand in glove. That has completely changed over time.
Now virtually no members of the affiliated unions are also party members. Labor is not part of the lives of working unionists any more. That is why it is absurd that the old affiliated unions retain control of the party.
A conga-line of hacks are drafted into the unions at the top into fiefdoms without holding a tool, draft their own supporters into the union and the ALP, and step off into the top echelons of the party – representing no-one but themselves and each other.
The process doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It is a careerists’ gravy train. I reckon that’s why there is no vision or principle any more. Those concepts disappeared with the tools, as it were.
Psephos…I shoulda put an “insert smiley” there!
I sense O’Farrell does not like Abbott.
[Mr O’Farrell revealed on Sunday Mr Abbott had visited him when the NSW Cabinet was meeting to decide whether to sign up to the schools deal.
“He made clear his view that the system wasn’t broken, that the agreement shouldn’t be entered into,” he told Sky News.
But Mr O’Farrell believed the current system was broken and unfair and needed fixing.]
Vote Abbott and give your kids a lower standard of education, he is writing the election ads for the ALP. 🙂
mexican
Yes, I think I understand what you’re saying.
From where I’m standing, it was the Hawke/Keating governments which moved Labor away from the lefty unions and farther to the right. Then Howard turned everyone into “aspirational” conservatives.
J.V
Both political parties when in Government like to surround themselves with people from a certain background so even if the ALP did formally break from the Unions you will see the same sorts of people being appointed.
Today senior levels of Government are dominated by people with degrees.
[In the 1980s the ALP opened up the economy and since the 1970s have supported policies that have seen a large increase in the educated middle class which has been a positive policy.
The ALP implemented policies such as Super to reduce people’s need for the pension.
But some ALP supporters see people that seek to benefit from the lifestyle opportunities that earlier ALP policies have created as greedy or use language that indicates contempt.
I think its important to note that not all ALP supporters are envy driven but some like to play postcode envy, like the other week when there was a discussion about the NDIS and why it is a good policy and someone brought Toorak into it.]
The other way of putting this is that 30 years of rising prosperity, much of it due to the reforms of the Hawke-Keating government, is effectively abolishing the working class as traditionally understood. That’s one reason why Labor’s once-impregnable base in western Sydney is evaporating. (There are others, such as corruption in the NSW ALP and Labor’s pandering to the middle-class left on illegal immigration.)
It is a hoot that ex Democrat voters are lecturing the ALP on how to keep a party alive. 😆
Lizzie
I am not sure if it was Howard that made aspirational more conservative or if it was the ALP that lost its way.
Interesting photographs
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/kevin-rudd-and-wayne-swans-awkward-moment-at-brisbane-press-conference/story-e6freuy9-1226645617489
Psephos
Which is the central point that Latham keeps making.
Wasn’t Christine Milne a political staffer before she was pre-selected for a seat?
Jack Hammer ? I prefer sledge hammer 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g93mz_eZ5N4
Joe Carli –
Of course unions have been vital to the decent working conditions we have today.
The issue is what the future is for unions and for a “Labor party”.
Union membership is in long term decline. There is no reason to believe that unions will have any effective power in the medium to long term – unless employers and/or government goes nuts returning us to industrial-revolution era practices just because they can. It might happen, but I think there actually is a slightly more enlightened view of the relationship between employers and employees now – successful employers know full well that they need a good relationship with a happy and productive workforce to make the most profits, whereas once upon a time employers hadn’t quite had that epiphany.
Of course some employers will always be abusive and exploitative, but provided the general working culture is such that this is the exception rather than the rule then it won’t pose a systemic threat to most employees.
So unions face serious existential problems.
So does the ALP by association. The last few years has shown how much damage the ALP takes in reputation from union ties. The HSU disgrace should never have impacted on the ALP’s standing – it was internal dysfunction within the union, it had nothing to do with the ALP’s governing or policies or anything, and yet it had a major negative effect on perceptions of the government. Then we have Maitland and his mates in the NSW ALP doing alleged favours for union buddies. The AWU dodginess from the past caught up with the government not because of anything that Julia Gillard did or didn’t do, but because of the shady union associations and internal politics/fundraising.
The ALP can’t afford the reputational damage of being tarred with every union official’s misdemeanour and every dirty internal union political fight.
And yes, Paul Howes putting his mug on Lateline to crow about deposing a PM doesn’t help.
I do think for long term survival the ALP needs to sever its union ties, but that’s an existential question for the ALP, and a choice I don’t think they will take.
To a certain extent I think severing ALP/union ties would help both the ALP and the unions’ immediate survival. The unions have long had a hard time with ALP governments because they haven’t been free to pressure the ALP as they might pressure the LNP. An LNP government might allow unions to wage an active campaign (and perhaps the LNP may strike some legislative blows against the unions), but under an ALP government the union movement has to pull its punches and gets tarred by the unpopularity of the government of the day. Just look at the fact that Ged Kearney was apparently just expected to speak for the ALP on Q&A, and Lateline – for goodness’ sake, she’s the head of the ACTU not the ALP.
[471
confessions
briefly:
We’ve also seen significant federal capital investment during The Emperor’s tenure..]
confessions, I think this might politely be called using a degree of political licence 🙂
As we know, the Commonwealth has had too little to spend on anything much at all, following the dismantling of public finance during the Howard years.
There is a lot of catch up spending going on, especially on Perth highways. The truth is WA taxpayers have poured a lot of cash into infrastructure in the mining and gas areas. It’s going to take a while to get it back again.
But, at the same time, the rate of population growth in WA has been running at about 3% pa since 1960. It was slightly higher than that last year. This means we need to double our infrastructure every 25 years. Actually, its worse than that, because for about 20 years we seriously under-invested.
My regret about the infrastructure spending is that some will be wasted on the football stadium and Elizabeth Quay. There are better things to spend the money on, especially public transport, which creates enormous long-term economic benefits.
State debt will run up to about $850 per capita…really not too much considering the income flows that will accrue here over the next 50 years or so. We could spend a lot more if we wanted to without threatening our finances.
I would like to see the State spend a whole lot more on developing educational resources, research capacity, technological innovation and commercialisation; on the adoption of advanced manufacturing and communications; innovation in botanical resources and technologies; and on cultural, educational and commercial exchange with our neighbours.
We should become the Indian Ocean hub in mining and gas finance, management and technical innovation…among other things 🙂
[Interesting photographs]
Yep Swannie, Kev and Albo having a smile at the LNP trying to get money out of Tony for urban rail.
The Courier Mail ran a more thorough story than the Tele yesterday. It does not surprise me the Terror used the crap photos.
PeeBee 494
Good post. You sum up Murdoch’s motivations well.
The NBN is something that can win a lot of votes for the govt. I’ve did a web site going into all the pros and cons(savethenbn.com)
Once the NBN is given a real push in advertising/promotion terms, enormous numbers of swinging voters will vote for it. And why wouldn’t they:
It’s magnitudes faster, it’s free and it’s being rolled out all around the country right NOW. How can you beat that?
The coalition’s broadband plan is a proposal only, it needs to be designed, engineered and agreed to by Telstra. Then, and only then, can it start to be built.
But here’s the clincher as far as swinging voters will be concerned: Malcolm’s system will cost them a lot more. There’s the small item of an install cost (about $500 for a compatible VDSL2 modem and certified installing – it’s NOT a DIY job). And to upgrade to the FREE specs of the ALP’s NBN, count on a minimum of $5000.
The piece this morning on Ch 7 Sunrise is an example of what consumers will be seeing in the months leading up to the election. It’s powerfully persuasive and, as I say, will move mega votes towards Labor.
[Wasn’t Christine Milne a political staffer before she was pre-selected for a seat?]
She was an adviser to Bob Brown 2000-04, between her time as a state MP and her election as a Senator. Before she became a state MP she was a high-school teacher.
[502
womble
Briefly – I don’t think what you’re suggesting is what they have in mind. In saying that, there is very little detail about what they want to do and how so I can’t be sure
Hey Hunt – wtf is Direct Action???]
They have no idea what they are going to do about anything much.
[“He made clear his view that the system wasn’t broken, that the agreement shouldn’t be entered into,” he told Sky News.]
Was there ever any likelihood that BoF would be swayed by Tony Abbott?
Wonder if the LOTO also tried to stop states signing up to Disability Care?
Australia is currently ranked 28th out of the 34 OECD nations for connectivity speed, but that will all change when the NBN is rolled out.
With Abbotts NBN we will progress higher in number not ranking…we will end up 35th out of 34
[Before she became a state MP she was a high-school teacher.]
Oh, that just explains everything!
😆
mexicanbeemer
[“J.V
Both political parties when in Government like to surround themselves with people from a certain background so even if the ALP did formally break from the Unions you will see the same sorts of people being appointed.
Today senior levels of Government are dominated by people with degrees.”]
I’m not suggesting the party should recruit directly from non-member workers. The current syndrome – which I say has broken the party – will only be broken if the union power is removed, and the party adopts a bottom-up structure instead of central control, run by the hacks from unions which have no connection to Labor at all via their ordinary members.
Currently there is an elitist pathway to the control of Labor. Not via branches, not via membership election, but by appointment to the top of a union from supporting a sub-factional fiefdom followed by unwavering loyalty to the sponsor. Alternatively by appointment to the party as an office bearer directly
Think P Howes; B Shorten; S Conroy, W Swan, D Farrell, Ludwigs and many others running the show. It reeks.
Can anyone give one logical reason why I should vote Liberal? Just one. 😉
What’s funny about Abbott and Hockey (with Reith behind the scenes) is that they truly believe thousands of waitresses, waiters, chefs, police, ambos, nurses, retail employees etc. are going to be marching down George St DEMANDING that their penalty rates be cut!
It’s too funny for words.
briefly:
If all the infrastructure investment has been in the mining areas, that would explain why I’ve never seen anything in the realm of infrastructure development save for the new Albany hospital and a few million for the precinct development ahead of ANZAC centenary.
BB
Could, I wonder, any journo ask Abbott whether any waitresses, waiters, chefs, police, ambos, nurses, retail employees etc. are going to get at least the same money fpr the same hours and times that they work today?
jv
Do you have to get elected to get a union gig? Or are you against elected positions?
ruawake
Cos under Abbott’s rule it was always be summertime, when the livin’ is easy?
was = will
[Before she became a state MP she was a high-school teacher.]
Bingo and jackpot ! Just what I thought she came across as 🙂
[Schoolmarmish
A female schoolteacher, especially of the old-time country school type, popularly held to be strict and priggish.]
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/schoolmarmish
ruawake
How do you mean?
[Cos under Abbott’s rule it will always be summertime, when the livin’ is easy?]
:).
I am looking for a reason to vote Tory, using data observable facts and statements by Opposition Shadows.
I honestly cannot find one.
[How do you mean?]
All these nasty union leaders got elected by ballots overseen by the AEC.
J.V
In most Ministerial Offices not everyone is a party member,
A MO gets it staff from several sources, the party, the department, recruitment agencies or position adverts.
If you look at the senior levels of Government that including the senior policy officers, advisers an other senior public servants the first requirement is a degree.
We notice that JV only objects to Labor Right politicians entering Parliament via unions. Where does he think C Evans, P Wong, M Ferguson, L Ferguson, D Cameron, L Tanner, K Carr, M Butler came from? All from Left unions. The only Left members of the current government I can think of who do NOT have union backgrounds are Albanese (party official), Macklin (economist) and Plibersek (public servant).
ruawake
Like via the “Williamson ticket” in the HSU?
A quick perusal of the new Tony shows just how good these new 3D printers are.
Psephos
I thought we had dropped the old concept of ‘left’ and right’ in favour of ‘convenient temporary power platform for advancement’ or something like it?
The members you mention are some of those who decry the hollowing out of the party by the current controlling cabal.
There are good and bad people in every industry.
As a long term member of a Union I get frustrated by the myths and legends that people pass off as fact about Unions. The membership elects their governing body in my Union its called the State Council, there is also an Amin Committee that has 5 people and 3 are elected by the membership.
The other two are “professionals” who work full time for the Union as paid officials – all other positions are unpaid. The two full time Officials are interviewed by the State Council and then recommended to the membership, they can reject the SC choice and select another candidate. Many full time Officials are lawyers in Industrial Relations or experienced Union Officials and they all have ties to political parties.
Parachuting people into positions is done by both Parties, John Fitzpatrick was one for the Libs and Nova one for the Labor Party.
jv
If you wish to abolish politics you will have trouble. The local bowls club has all the intrigue of a political branch.
You seem to be in denial of human nature.
Mb 505
[But some ALP supporters see people that seek to benefit from the lifestyle opportunities that earlier ALP policies have created as greedy or use language that indicates contempt.
I think its important to note that not all ALP supporters are envy driven but some like to play postcode envy, like the other week when there was a discussion about the NDIS and why it is a good policy and someone brought Toorak into it.]
Depending on the particular behaviour you are referring to, I would count myself as one of the critics, but it is not envy driven. It is resentment driven. I do not want to do the same thing myself; I want others to stop anti-social behaviours.
People who take too much advantage are gaining benefits that cannot be given to all. The money for those benefits comes from somewhere. That is, someone else loses, or is denied the same chance later. To me, that is unjust. Distributive justice is when the rewards we receive are a fair recognition of the effortt we have contributed to the society.
Those who prefer to have a “magic pudding” view of economics deny this reality, but you only have to ask the citizens of Greece or Cyprus to know that it is painfully true.