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| Red and blue numbers respectively indicate booths with two-party majorities for Liberal and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
The electorate of Grey has covered the bulk of South Australia’s land mass since the state was first divided into electorates in 1903, and it currently encompasses much the same territory as it did on its creation. The state’s eastern regions north of the Riverland were at times accommodated by Wakefield, but Grey has at all times accommodated the state’s west together with the “iron triangle” cities of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie. Labor-voting Whyalla is the electorate’s largest centre with a population of around 22,000, while increasingly marginal Port Augusta and Port Pirie together with strongly conservative Port Lincoln on the lower Eyre Peninsula each have populations of slightly over 13,000. About 60 per cent of the electorate’s population is scattered through the remainder, the strongest concentration being in the rural conservative Yorke Peninsula. The latter area was added to the electorate from Wakefield when South Australia’s representation was reduced from 12 seats to 11 in 2004.
Grey’s industrial centres once made it a reliable seat for Labor, but their decline over recent decades has effected a decisive shift to the Liberals. Labor held the seat for all but one term between 1943 and 1993, the exception being after the landslide defeat of 1966. Laurie Wallis recovered the seat for Labor in 1969 and retained it by margins of 563 votes in 1975 and 65 votes in 1977, surviving on the latter occasion in the face of an unfavourable redistribution, and bequeathed the seat to Lloyd O’Neil in 1983. The turning point arrived in 1993, when the addition of the Clare Valley (since transferred to Wakefield) and the retirement of O’Neil opened the way for Barry Wakelin to win the seat for the Liberals on the back of a 4.3% swing. The Liberals’ position has been strengthening ever since, helping Wakelin to achieve swings of 6.4% in 1996, 1.9% in 2001 and 3.2% in 2004, with a correction of only 0.5% to Labor in 1998. Wakelin’s retirement in 2007 combined with the overall swing to Labor cut the margin that year from 13.8% to 4.4%, but the Liberal ascendancy has since been firmly re-established by successive swings of 6.7% and 2.4% in 2010 and 2013. The member since 2007 has been Rowan Ramsey, who runs a farming property at Buckleboo on the Eyre Peninsula.
Tom the first and best
I think that you have the wrong terminology. Idolatry is the worship of idols.
This statement has more to do with the dignity of man and the application of charity.
He is also pointing out the capitalism by it very nature feeds on the greed of the rich and powerful to the determent of the poor and powerless.
It is up to us to remedy this.
@Laocoon/800
That means they can also control the federal funding to universities?
16/12 Nett_NEWS by Otiose94 – http://bit.ly/1aQcqOy
[800
Laocoon
I missed this plan in the election campaign…
The federal government is planning to end the historical role of state governments in operating universities.]
The Abbott Government are on a crazy power trip. They will not get far in WA. Why would Pyne – who doesn’t believe in public funding for public education – want to get hold of Universities? So he can flog them off?
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Our structural deficit comes home to roost.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/jobs-on-big-projects-forecast-to-collapse-20131215-2zfch.html
Mark Kenny with a less than flattering report on Abbott’s first 100 days.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/jobs-on-big-projects-forecast-to-collapse-20131215-2zfch.html
Morriscum strikes again. He is such a bighead that he doesn’t need expert advice.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-sacks-asylum-seeker-health-advisers-20131215-2zfg8.html
Read this and weep. It’s what Turnbull and Spivkowski are going to consign the country to.
“* NBN Co will be designing the new-look NBN to provide these speeds to NBN Co’s wholesale customers (internet service providers). End-user experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the NBN, will continue to depend on a number of factors outside our control including end-user equipment quality, software, broadband plans and how each service provider designs its network.”
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/blogs/gadgets-on-the-go/hfc-suburbs-nbn-no-mans-land-20131213-2zb99.html
Some more disturbing details on the Essendon doping saga.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-supplement-hopes-ran-to-2013-20131215-2zfd1.html
This is an interesting stand-off.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-government-blocks-senate-order-for-details-of-eastwest-tunnel-20131215-2zfbr.html
MAGNIFICENT!! Alan Moir on Pyneocchio the Interpreter.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/alan-moir-20090907-fdxk.html
Pat Campbell takes us to post-apocalyptic car industry times.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/pat-campbell-20120213-1t21q.html
Ron Tandberg sees Abbott getting some good advice.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
David Rowe shows Abbott lining up Qantas’s Alan Joyce for an uncomfortable end.
http://www.afr.com/p/national/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO
And from the Land of the Free –
Some cartoons on North Korea’s “Killer Kim”.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/12/14/bonus-cartoons-of-the-day-north-koreas-killer-kim/
Some pushback on FoxNews’s Megan Kelly re her “Santa is white” comment.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/12/14/rare-black-santa-our-children-can-relate-to-oh-and-megyn-kelly-would-not-have-been-considered-white/
FoxNews just loves Ann Coulter!
http://crooksandliars.com/2013/12/ann-coulter-birth-control-single-women
And FoxNews gives air time to a gun nut in the guise of “balance”.
http://crooksandliars.com/2013/12/fox-news-marks-newtown-anniversary
The anti-science Abbott and his cohorts should look at his. It is one of Carl Sagan’s last interviews before he died.
http://www.upworthy.com/a-science-icon-died-17-years-ago-in-his-last-interview-he-made-a-warning-that-gives-me-goosebumps-5?c=fea
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/12/abbott-abandons-surplus/#comment-307717
[briefly
December 16, 2013 at 6:42 am
The budget is deteriorating at the rate of $1 billion per week, so, in the absence of changed policies, a $50 billion deficit this year will become $100 billion next year and at least as much the following year – or in the order of 6-7-8-9% of GDP. Fiscal disorder on this scale will certainly be enough to imperil our AAA rating.
We are all very familiar with the reasons the budget is performing so badly. The economy is scarcely growing at all in real per capita terms. The terms of trade retreat is sapping growth in real incomes. The tax cuts given away in the period from 2001-2008 left the budget in structural deficit and have never been restored. Demographic factors are driving up outlays faster than either the economy or revenue can grow.
Unless the LNP are willing to completely gut the social spending components of the budget, the deficit can only be repaired by fixing the revenue – by abolishing the tax shelters in property and super and by increasing tax rates – and by raising productivity and/or growth in the economy.
Nothing proposed so far by the LNP goes near to solving the fiscal problems. Do they have the wherewithal to do so? It is impossible to be optimistic about that.]
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/tony-abbotts-report-card-the-first-100-days-20131215-2zf6p.html even Mark Kenny is marking down Tony Abbott first 100 days
This is what a calm, methodical, adult government does:
1. Sign up to 6-point plan with Indonesia to re-normalise relations.
2. One week later, say it’s ‘high time’ for Indonesia to resume co-operation.
I’m impressed. Who knew the PM could work through all 6 points of our international agreement in just a single week?
And he achieved all that between bicycle rides and standing around with fire hoses.
Our PM is a fucking legend!
[808…..mari]
This 100-day report will cost the LNP a few more votes. Everyone knows they are off to a terrible start, yet they’re trying to tell us the opposite. This just makes Abbott appear to be out of touch and full of spin. It will cost him more support.
As if this fantasy were not enough to amaze voters, Abbott revisited his errors in relation to Indonesia. Voters have seen again that the problem is Abbott. He does not know what to do or say, and as a result creates problems for the Government and the country.
People are a little down on Abbott, but they should take an all round and balanced view.
Basically, Abbott is sure-footed.
He sure has his feet in his mouth. This would normally be a fixable problem if it were not for the fact that he also has his head up his arse.
Mark Kenny’s article is OK except for this paragraph
“Abbott to his credit, has since turned the failed deceit on schools into a kind of personal catharsis by reframing it as a prime ministerial lesson on the value of keeping your word – both in letter and in spirit.”
So in spite of hammering Labor every day for three years over the “carbon tax broken promise” it seems he didn’t really think that breaking promises was bad until now. Hands up all those who think he’ll be keeping his word from now on – both in letter and spirit.
Tony Abbott doesn’t do negotiation does he. He appears to think he can get the Senate to pass his program if he bellows loud enough. He appears to think that Indonesia will be persuaded to cooperate on people-smuggling the same way.
Briefly 810
Yes I agree with you, even the trolls appear to have given up the last couple of days both here on pb and Twitter, after a concerted attach on both sites early last week
boerwar81
Love the description, the mental picture is mind boggling
Also the compliments and retweets on your ‘Surprises’ on twitter does you proud
Morning all and thanks BK. the stuff about Abbott blaming Labor for the deficit really is a joke. They throw out all the new revenue measures, increase middle (upper) class welfare, then wonder why we owe more?? Swan was bad at explaining economic policy, but it is pretty clear Abbott is bad at doing it.
At this point the next royal commission should be on how people like Tony Abbott ever get made Rhodes scholars in the first place. Clearly, intellectual capability was not a criterion. (He is not the first one I have encountered that I have had doubts about; David Hammill also comes to mind.)
When people ask me, “what could replace car manufacturing?”, work like this comes to mind. We already do bioresearch pretty well. We should focus more on producing the resulting drugs here too.
[Queensland scientists have grown a kidney from stem cells, heralding a potential blockbuster weapon in the fight against renal disease.
The University of Queensland breakthrough is an exciting step forward on the path of bioengineering – that is, growing new organs.]
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/uq-kidney-breakthrough-a-step-forward-in-bioengineering-20131215-2zf8l.html#ixzz2nZy3qygB
Socrates
Academic ability is only 1 of 4 criteria for selection . From the Rhodes site itself in the blurb there is this “While it was once the case that most Rhodes
Scholars were athletes,”
Endorsement from the “right” people are also a help. The selection criteria.
[1. Literary and scholastic attainments;
2. Energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports;
3. Truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
4. Moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.]
Final comment n a State issue, the Vic government will not even inform its own upper house on the details of the EW tunnel project. This thing really smells. What have they got to hide? Who stands to benefit?
Have a good day all.
Poroti
Thanks. A lot of that is awfully subjective, meaning it can degenerate into who you know.
Writing off Abbott was the lefties first mistake.
Their second mistake is to think leftism is actually popular… this is a conservative country.
And their third and final mistake will be complacency… we saw it when Howard was PM, Labor was always “Gunna” win the elections. It took a Howard Lite 4 elections in to dethrone him.
Sean
Your first mistake is to think that everyone who sees Abbott is a moron is a leftie. How is that boat policy coming along?
Socrates
Having read the very sensible Gittins, I am prepared to agree with you on Holden, although I still think the manner it was handled was risible.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/its-not-the-end-of-the-world-20131213-2zcvi.html
However, I would like to see what plan the Coalition have for a further transformation of the workforce after car manufacturing and digging out coal have failed. No sign of any plans so far.
The lord knows what brainwave Abbott will come back with after his family Christmas in France.
Good Morning
@JulianBurnside: Abbott and Morrison, posing as Christians, sack the group who advise about #refugee help http://t.co/wV3bUsKJBG At Christmas time!
Socrates 815
on Royal Commission into Rhodes Scholarships awardings
a tweet from a daughter I think of a Rhodes Scholar, replying to my question on awarding
sherry stumm @shahhaha6 8m
@randlight Good idea. Abbott Rhode scholar must be sport only. My dad was a Rhode scholar. He had brains,sport,good ideas but died in war.
“@MRowlandMP: Abbott Govt spends “a few thousands dollars” on 1st 100 Days pamphlets while they cut small grants to multicultural groups #auspol”
“@Blueirons: You’re an absolute magician @Bowenchris Apparently you were able to deteriorate the budget by forking out $8.8b to the RBA from Opposition.”
Sean Tisme, have you got that link for the surcharge on companies to fund DA?
Might explain the polls.
“@ariannahuff: “A man of calm is like a shady tree.
People who need shelter come to it.” –Toba Beta”
guytaur
Posted Monday, December 16, 2013 at 8:18 am | Permalink
“@MRowlandMP: Abbott Govt spends “a few thousands dollars” on 1st 100 Days pamphlets while they cut small grants to multicultural groups #auspol”
========================================
$350,000 of tax payer money for the Liberal advertising
[Global coal prices, though, are likely to come under pressure as Australia’s expansion will account for between about 20 to 40 per cent of global growth by the decade’s end. Other exporters, such as Indonesia, are also increasing coal exports.
But the main factor undermining the viability of the big new Australian mines may well come from China itself, the report said.
”China’s demand for coal is changing as a result of environment-related factors, including environmental regulation, developments in cleaner technologies, air pollution, improving energy efficiency, developments in gas markets and political activism,” Ben Caldecott, co-author of the report and director of the Stranded Assets Program, said.
“These developments are not factored into the positions that most coal owners and operators are currently taking.
Policy makers need to wake up to these risks as well.”]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/palmer-and-rineharts-coal-mine-expansion-queried-by-oxford-report-20131215-2zfc7.html#ixzz2na7Gzls9
As I thought, Pyne has “found” his balance for the non-Gonski states by stealing from trades schools (sorry, can’t find the link).
@smh: The woman at the centre of the ADFA’s Skype sex scandal is @DailyLifeAu’s Woman of the Year: http://t.co/HWDlIvJUiQ #WOTY
The 100 days of wonder is really getting to the RW hacks
@bazarazzi: Wow. @samanthamaiden tells @SummersAnne to “piss off” because she doesn’t read the Tele. http://t.co/QloLneC9dP
Zoid #795
@psyclaw/794
Don’t get too cocky psyclaw.
You must’ve had a late night weary moment Zoidland.
Saying that Abbott is a shot duck and won’t recover is not a particularly cocky statement, given that for 100 days he’s taken every opportunity to shoot himself in the foot.
Not that it would matter anyway if I was being “too cocky”, since i doubt that anything I write here will greatly influence his future ….. that’s in his own shakey hands.
It sounds like you’re suggesting a recovery for him . I doubt that, but of course the coalition itself might become a stronger electoral force during this term if it boots him.
Even that is not a high probability unless there is also an unlikely ministry purge …. fact is, Abbott is by no means the only incompetent in this “meritorious” senior team.
Did you hear him on ABC RN half an hour ago.
Everything’s going well, he proclaimed, except for their miscalculation of the extent of damage contained in Labor’s legacy to him. And of course the bad ABC is ramping up much anti-Abbott sentiment, says he.
IMHO the most worrying part of the interview was the very end when he was asked WTTE “you’ve slagged off the ABC so often in this interview,don’t you like the ABC?”
Under stress at the need for an immediate answer which Credlin had failed to prepare him for, he replied that some like it, others don’t, and then broke into an almost maniacal cackle of quite a psychopathological nature.
I think mere lack of PM level competence is by no means the most worrying characteristic of Abbott. A deep personality disorder comes to mind. In fact much as I dislike Credlin’s control of him, it might just be all that stands between him and some hugely, really dangerous poor decisions he might be capable of.
morning all
As per BK’s link re the east west tunnel. I would like to know what Napthine means by this. It is a. Very odd statement to make
[The Napthine government has blocked a Senate order to produce documents on the multibillion-dollar east-west tunnel project, saying it would damage federal-state relations.]
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-government-blocks-senate-order-for-details-of-eastwest-tunnel-20131215-2zfbr.html#ixzz2na9UZafD
Believing that Abbott was elected because he was popular was the righties first mistake.
Their second mistake is to think rightism is actually popular… this is a moderate country.
And their third and final mistake will be complacency…
psyclaw
[IMHO the most worrying part of the interview was the very end when he was asked WTTE “you’ve slagged off the ABC so often in this interview,don’t you like the ABC?”
Under stress at the need for an immediate answer which Credlin had failed to prepare him for, he replied that some like it, others don’t, and then broke into an almost maniacal cackle of quite a psychopathological nature.
I think mere lack of PM level competence is by no means the most worrying characteristic of Abbott. A deep personality disorder comes to mind. In fact much as I dislike Credlin’s control of him, it might just be all that stands between him and some hugely, really dangerous poor decisions he might be capable of.]
One reason why i feel that if he cannot be controlled intro the future, he will resign citing ill health.
There is no way the coalition will do what Labor did with Rudd, Everyone saw how that worked out. Abbott would need to be convinced to resign.
“@latikambourke: PM Abbott on MYEFO tomorrow – Labor’s last budget statement and labor’s only truthful budget.”
“@latikambourke: PM Abbott – there’s been no substantial new spending from this Government. (Coalition – $1.2b on Gonski, RBA injection).”
24 showing Abbott presser now
Abbott is happy he gets to hold a pamphlet again as he spruces his reality
Another backflip? Or is it always the same one? Blame Labor.
@geeksrulz 12m
Adult Govt says 100 Days of Labor’s Fault. #auspol pic.twitter.com/PREq5IFWeE
victoria
I don’t know – the Libs are fond of doing things and then justifying them by saying that Labor did the same thing first, so I can’t see that stopping them.
The huge advantage for them would be that Abbott isn’t a Rudd – there’d be no point in him white anting because there would be absolutely no way that, having got rid of him, the Libs would ever take him back.
At least Rudd had intelligence and personal popularity in his favour.
Lizzie
I was less than impressed with Gittings article and found the following to by typical of the cargo cult mentality of so many economists
[Employment in manufacturing has been falling since the early 1970s, during which time the workforce has doubled. Manufacturing now accounts for only about 8 per cent of total employment.
Do you really believe the remaining 92 per cent of us have phoney, inconsequential jobs? The big jobs growth has been in education, health, community and business services. Where will the jobs come from? That’s where. The same thing is happening in all the rich countries.]
The answer to Gittings rhetorical is YES. The jobs he listed are all SERVICE industry jobs ie selling each other insurance. While the individuals in each area may be fabulous and their roles important, service industries by their nature do not add wealth to a nation, they simply distribute wealth more efficiently.
Only if a service is SOLD overseas is it in any sense wealth creating. Tourism is wealth creating but only if the income from foreigners visiting Australia is greater than the income spent by Aussies in Bali and Phuket.
Education is only wealth creating when we import foreign students and then send them home again – if they stay and take Australian high pay jobs it is possibly a net wealth loss.
The health sector is clearly a SERVICE industry unless we were a destination for overseas health care – OK from PNG yes but few other places and many many Australians fly to India and Thailand for health care.
Frankly Gittings was very disappointing
Socrates – you noted the UQ liver research. Yes this is very gratifying and good for Australia BUT it is not a long term job/wealth creating investment. These are the sort of industries which as I said yesterday employ three people and a dog. Indeed in this field the chances are that we will not even employ an Australian – more likely a brilliant scientist from Sweden, the US or China.
Socrates ONLY if we can turn that brilliant research into a saleable commodity is it wealth generating. Now while the small amounts of revenue generated from selling patents and intellectual property are welcome and gratifying, the hard cold reality is that UNLESS you turn such research into a high volume/ median value or medium volume/very high value manufacturing system it will only ever be the sprinkles on the cake (not even the icing).
OF COURSE you need a wider definition of manufacturing and producing renewable livers or body parts is still manufacturing, even if not at all like welding a car frame.
Ross Gittings will probably not admit it but he is in a useless service industry – you know like the telephone sanitisers sent off the planet in “Hitch hikers Guide” – essentially unproductive and only relevant in an economy which is so highly productive in other areas ie producing food and saleable commodities that we can afford to employ pontificating economic journalists, to enhance our quality of life.
zoomster
My real hope of course is for a one term tory govt. Three years is long enough to wreck the joint, but another three years after, will be tragic.
I Am Malcontent @geeksrulz 4m
Retro-fitting analysis into election slogans masqueraded as policies, is dissembling by press gallery.
http://bit.ly/1ffzU2l #auspol
guytaur
Startedto watch (thanks for headsup) but he’s on script. Turned off. This pamphlet nonsense is pathetic.
Another broken promise. Promised to protect the Reef
dtt
you do realise how much body parts sell for overseas, don’t you?
And that owning the ‘intellectual property’ for something is often as or more profitable than manufacturing it?
Only 995 days of destruction to go…
Is anyone going to ask Abbott who paid for the glossy pamphlet, and if it was the taxpayer, how bloody much