The latest weekly BludgerTrack update neatly reflects the results of the most recent Newspoll, ReachTEL and Nielsen polls in landing bang on 52-48 to Labor. The Labor primary vote has a four in front of it for the first time since BludgerTrack opened for business at the start of the year, albeit by the barest of margins, with a 1.4% gain this week coming off a drop for minor parties while the Coalition holds steady at 40.9%. The latest state-level data points have fuelled a blowout in the result for Queensland, and while there has certainly been some indication of softness for the Coalition there recently (notably the 11% swing which showed up in Nielsen), I’m pretty sure the present extent of it will prove to be aberration. The two weakest state swings for Labor happen to be where elections are due shortly, although you might argue that a Holden shutdown effect is yet to come through in South Australia.
This will probably be the last update for the year – certainly Essential Research will not be back until the middle of next month, and I imagine that’s it for Morgan as well. Newspoll has never been in the business of polling beyond early December, but hopefully The Australian will shortly offer state breakdowns from its accumulated post-election polling so a bit more ballast can be added to the BludgerTrack state dataset.
The Masters of the ships that have been in a holding pattern off CI for over a week while waiting to berth and unload have turned off their transponders.
Is this yet another act of deception from the inept Abbott and Morrison comedy act? Methinks it is.
Morning all.
It appears man flu really does exist!
[Men have a reputation for being sooks when it comes to winter colds and flu but researchers believe “man flu” really does exist and the culprit is testosterone.
US and French scientists have found evidence that testosterone plays a key role in making men’s immune responses more sluggish than women’s.]
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/20465577/testosterone-may-cause-man-flu/
[Blaming one’s predecessors is, of course, a tried and true tactic for any incoming government which finds, on assuming office, that its pre-election promises have been just a touch on the generous side; the belated discovery of the fiscal black hole had become almost a cliché. And this is the problem: it is no longer entirely believable. We already know the previous lot have, to a certain extent, stuffed up the economy; that’s why we voted them out. And we voted the new lot in not to whinge about it, but to fix things.
The idea that the cupboard is bare is no longer tenable excuse – especially when the new Treasurer settles into office by tossing a casual $8.8 billion to the Reserve Bank, junking $3 billion worth of Labor’s taxes and then demanding that the debt ceiling be raised by another $200 billion before settling for having it wiped out altogether. In the circumstances, complaining that the old guard had been a bit loose with the purse strings is unlikely to evoke much sympathy.]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-23/maccallum-tony-abbotts-blame-game-cant-last-forever/5163908
Bitten by the chameleon Coalition’s hidden agenda
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/bitten-by-the-chameleon-coalitions-hidden-agenda-20131223-2zuja.html …
Fess:
[It appears man flu really does exist!]
I’ve never had man flu but a year or two back I had undiagnosed whooping cough. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to dying.
When did go to the doctor (men don’t go to the doctor!) he laughed and said I had whooping cough, and I was over the worst of it. Unfeeling bastard.
I asked about a vaccine, and he said ‘You’ve just had it!’ and cackled some more.
Great doctor, but sometimes lacking in a good bedside manner…
The chinese don’t call it the 100 day cough for nothing, the effects didn’t completely disappear for months.
That article linked at # 2848 should have been written years ago as one of 100s of articles that detailed analysis of COALition policies – or, more accurately, lack of policies.
The media failed to do what it should have done then and some of the failed journos are giving us piss weak mea culpas when it is too late.
Media failure.
It sorta reminds me of a, probably apocryphal, story of Nikita Khrushchev and his speech denouncing the evils of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the USSR communist party.
He denounced Stalin for this, that and the other to a crowd of delegates and outlined all the nasties Stalin had committed.
Suddenly a voice came from the audience “And what were you doing while all this was going on?’
Nikita yelled at the audience “Who said that? Stand up. Who said that?”
Silence and stillness in the audience.
Nobody stood up.
“That,” said Nikita, “That is what I was doing”.
[The American food processing giant Archer Daniels Midland, which had its proposed takeover of GrainCorp rejected by Treasurer Joe Hockey, has been charged by the US corporate regulator for paying $US21 million ($23.5 million) in bribes to corrupt government officials in Ukraine.
A US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation found that ADM subsidiaries made the facilitation payments to speed up the payment of the delayed tax refunds.
AADM has agreed to pay fines totalling more than $US54 million to the SEC and US Department of Justice to settle the case.
. . .
While ADM’s corporate behaviour was not mentioned by Mr Hockey as a reason for the decision, some National MPs and rural Liberals raised concerns about several run ins with regulators that ADM had had over the past decade.]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/graincorp-suitor-adm-charged-over-bribery-20131223-2zu3m.html#ixzz2oL9xZyD1
Picture of the person who increased health insurance 6.2%.
Perhaps print a copy for your dart board
This Christmas Abbott and his mob should learn about this guy called Jesus & imagine what he’d think of how they treat asylum seekers.
fredex@2855
Great yarn, whether it is true or not.
Sadly, it describes the sheep-like behaviour of far too many people in circumstances where the consequences are far less severe than with Stalin.
Off the work. May not be back on here for a couple of days.
Merry Christmas to all. Be safe.
May all your pressies be the right size and colour
[But the government is far more exercised by taking credit for killing the carbon tax. And it openly scoffs at the idea that any atmospheric events can ever be attributed to climate change – a curious way to express belief. How long will this approach be sustainable?]
Global Warming is truly a marvellous thing.
Everyone believes in it, yet it is caused by a colorless, odorless, weightless gas.
It has no effect on temperatures or weather events. Nothing physical – not bushfires, nor cyclones, nor droughts – can be attributed to it, even by the scientists who claim to study it.
There are no economic consequences of it presence, and none of its absence. And nothing, except nodding agreement that it exists, needs to be done to combat it.
It’s almost the perfect political issue.
It offers the opportunity for the venal to be pious, and the pious to be venal.
It allows scientists to express doubt about climate, and politicians to express doubt about scientists.
It provides a vehicle to spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money doing nothing.
It permits the same polemical wedges to be driven continuously between Left and Right, and young and old, year after year, government after government.
It can be true in one country, and false in another.
The educated express doubt about it, while the uneducated express absolute certainty.
It draws out medical, scientific and philosophical cranks from all corners.
It looms as a coming disaster, and can be used to cow whole populations into submission. We are simultaneously told it is a catastrophe, yet are also assured that it be ignored forever.
It can be used to justify jobs, schools and hospitals, and as an excuse for abandoning them.
It’s out there, but can’t be seen, heard or touched. Any politician – Right, Left or Centre – can make it do their bidding. They can use it as a bludgeon or an excuse, a prayer or a curse, a promise or a lie.
Logic can’t contain it, nor science, nor technology. It is all things to all men, and thus can be continuously deferred or cited as the greatest of moral issues.
And it’s only truly reliable measure is opinion polls.
It’s “man made” alright, but not always in the way that most people define that term.
There’s only one thing certain about Global Warming: if it didn’t exist, someone would have to invent it.
Or else we’d have nothing to argue about.
don:
I have asthma so feel the effects of chest infections more acutely than others. I’ve never had whooping cough, but know that it is nasty.
Today’s Mumble is about the four elections in various parts of the country in the first 3 months of 2014.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mumble/index.php/theaustralian/comments/four_contests_on_the_way/
Mumble also predicts Labor will win Redcliffe and retain Griffith in the by-elections in Qld.
confessions@2862
Get yourself vaccinated.
I am expecting a new grandchild in March and, after reading all about the risks, will either get myself vaccinated or not go close to the child until it has been vaccinated.
AA, not that I want to defend Dutton (especially on his timing), but the same thing happened under Labour. A year or two ago, my health premiums rose (can’t recall by how much, but above inflation) but the kicker was what we were covered for. They still covered things like pregnancy, but now did not cover thoracic and joint replacements. So we were now covered by things we would not use and not covered for things we would. We went up two bands to ‘gold’ cover so we wee covered again. This cost us an extra $1,000 a year. So my premium went up by 50% to get the same cover we had the year before!
PeeBee@2865
You probably should have changed funds.
It is probably worth your while doing some shopping around now.
don
[Great doctor, but sometimes lacking in a good bedside manner…]
Sounds like mine. More interested in talking about cars and motorbikes than examining me.
MediCare come on down!
BB, there is only one certainty that we have never f@cked a planet before, so a lot of people don’t think we can. But if you can point to any population explosion event that hasn’t destroys the environment that let it explode, I would be interested in hearing it.
Bemused, I always thought they were all the same. We are with medibank and health fund choice the responsibility of the other half. I will suggest she does check out the others.
XMAS Edition
Update @ 11:38am 24/12 – Nett_NEWS http://bit.ly/1aQcqOy
Christmas is a time of carnage for many animals. The following comments by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry show what a great human being he is:
[You probably know I am a “rational economist” who spent 28 years as a senior policy adviser to a succession of Australian governments. You might also know that, some years ago, my wife, Naomi, and I spent a month as caretakers in the Epping Forest National Park (Scientific) in central Queensland, looking after the few remaining northern hairy-nosed wombats. But you might not know about more important stuff.
Naomi and I have lots of hands-on experience of Australia’s wildlife. In common with many other Australians, we provide sanctuary for injured an orphaned native animals, raising joeys found in their dead mothers’ pouches beside the road, or found dazed in a paddock, often covered in blood, after hunters have been through and slaughtered their mothers.
We have experienced close relationships with dozens of kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, wombats, possums and gliders, among many other species, before releasing them back into the wild. We know the things that make these animals happy and the things that make them sad. All are individuals, with their own personalities and emotions.
Over time, we have become concerned with animal welfare issues. And that means we are deeply concerned about the welfare of all animals, including those raised to provide food for humans.
When we accept it is appropriate to have laws that seek to prevent us from being cruel to our pets, but not to the same animals raised for food, we are demonstrating our extraordinary capacity to dissociate. This is the main way in which we seem to be able to insulate ourselves from external events that could overwhelm us.
For the most part, we are ale to tolerate the notion of thousands of innocent human victims of war, provided these deaths occur in distant places and without constant reminders on TV. Perhaps we have learned this psychological capacity as a means of coping with tragedy.
The emotional capacity we practice in respect of animals raised for food is simply stunning: we manage to kid ourselves into accepting that a cow is nothing more than several kilos of steak, sausages and Sunday roasts; and a pig is nothing more than several kilos of bacon and ham. Having reduced the animal o nothing more than the products produced from its carcass, we manage to avoid confronting the concept of its having a life; and thus, we need take no notice of its quality of life.
In general, we do not practise the same degree of emotional detachment from our pets’ lives; although the work of the RSPCA and other animal welfare organizations does demonstrate that, even when it comes to our pets, we can be dreadfully cold.
I am not a behavioural psychologist. But I do know something about behavioural economics. One of the important messages from that discipline is that there is a critical role to be played by governments in compensating for some of our psychological weaknesses. The laws pertaining to the treatment of animals for food are an obvious case for reform.
You would find it impossible to rationalize being prevented by law from subjecting your pet to pain, but at the same time, not being prevented from subjecting pain to a similarly sentient animal locked in a factory farm, simply because we all know that one day that animal is going to be slaughtered for food. You cannot rationalize the difference because the difference is not rational. The laws pertaining to the treatment of animals raised for food should be no less protective than those affecting the treatment of our domestic pets.
Most Australians who eat kangaroo meat should know that what they put on their plate is the product of the largest-scale slaughter of wild mammals anywhere on earth. They should know too that, as a by-product of this slaughter, hundreds of thousands of kangaroo joeys have their skulls smashed against a tow-ball or their heads decapitated by licensed kangaroo hunters.
Governments, and businesses that supply products to consumers, have an obligation to explain to consumers how those products have been obtained. We have made great strides in product labelling in Australia in recent decades, but when it comes to the treatment of animals used in food, we have barely begun to tell it as it is.
Helping to fill the information gap, or even to have people stop and think about the implications of the choices they are making as consumers and voters, has to be a mission for all who have a concern for animal welfare.]
This edited version of former Treasury secretary Ken Henry’s keynote address at the Voiceless Media Awards on December 5, 2013, appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald the following day on Page 19.
Toorak – Talking of animals:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italian-army-medical-officer-faces-jail-for-saving-life-of-pregnant-cat-9021944.html
Someone should tell Ken that kangaroos are marsupials.
Hi all,
Just thought I’d pop in to say Happy Xmas and Happy New Year as well, not sure how much time to spend the next couple of weeks on PB, because I’m preparing to also goto Japan in January for 3 weeks.
We all know liberals are nasty to Disabled, Low Income, and those on Welfare, make sure they pay for it!
PeeBee@2869
No, they are certainly not all the same, they try to differentiate policies to confuse the consumer and make them hard to compare.
HCF is well worth a look.
Also try iSelect which is not a health fund but will give you a recommendation as to what best suits your needs.
BB
[There’s only one thing certain about Global Warming: if it didn’t exist, someone would have to invent it.]
This is actually one of the standard gambits on denialist blogs. It belongs under the ‘Foment Cynicism and Reinforce Doubt category of denialist strategies.’
Any article or post or tweet that talks about AGW in terms of anything other than climate science is a ‘win’ for the denialists – because, on the climate science itself, their shit is crap.
I trust that the rest of us have duly noted the real science is saying that the world is gaining heat, and that the globe has just had its hottest November on record, and that Australia has had its hottest year on record.
BW
For goodness sake what a smart arse you are.
No Christmas cheer from you I note!
Ken Henry writes a piece on protection of animals and you have to criticise him.
Scrooge comes to mind!
When is William shutting down for the break?
Cattle raised for beef have (IMHO) a better life than those used for dairying.
Eat more kangaroo.
MTBW
[BW
For goodness sake what a smart arse you are.
No Christmas cheer from you I note!
Ken Henry writes a piece on protection of animals and you have to criticise him.
Scrooge comes to mind!]
Oh, all right… please everybody, don’t tell Ken that kangaroos are marsupials.
Is the Royal Commission into the Pink Batts disaster on today?
@Sean/2882
How much money will the goverment waste?
zoidlord,
I see you are off to the monocultural paradise of Japan. Have fun mate and make sure you get out of the hussle and bussle of Tokyo and head to the rural areas and up to the mountains for a bit of skiing(i would).
@Sean,
Are we going to see a Royal Inquiry into death of a baby and the treatment of Asylum Seekers?
@Sean/2884
I have been to Tokyo before on my last trip, it was a blast compared to boring Australia, where all we do is complain about $400 billion debt and apparently DSP’s are cheats.
[Is the Royal Commission into the Pink Batts disaster on today?]
Pink batts great success you mean. What kind of evil idiot would waste money on a political witchhunt to capitalise on tragic deaths. Disgusting. Shame Shame Shame.
I imagine that certain legal persons will be supoening contractors, state officials, state politicians, state-based OH&S officials, and statisticians.
Sean Tisme
“”Is the Royal Commission into the Pink Batts disaster on today?””
You mean the vindictive WHICH HUNT by Abbott, what about the previous FOUR inquiries?.
Boerwar
I wonder if the CSIRO will be subpoened
WITCH + Oops
[
Sean Tisme
Posted Tuesday, December 24, 2013 at 12:52 pm | Permalink
Is the Royal Commission into the Pink Batts disaster on today?
]
Abbott using parent’s misery for political gamesmanship is pretty poor form, but if you want to highlight Abbott’s complete lack of political judgement I suppose there is no-one to stop you.
I reckon WHICH HUNT has un certain mmh je ne sais pas.
BK
[Boerwar
I wonder if the CSIRO will be subpoened]
I notice that the TOR did their very best to exclude previous reports – for obvious reasons, IMHO. They opened a Pandora’s Box which was, on the whole, forcefully shut by the MSM at the time. But Pandora still lurkcs within.
I imagine that, once various reports have been tabled by legal people to make some abstruse point or other, the various reports will then be subject to the RC remit. That is, having been tabled and raised in one context, their other subject matter becomes available for consideration.
[Abbott using parent’s misery for political gamesmanship is pretty poor form, but if you want to highlight Abbott’s complete lack of political judgement I suppose there is no-one to stop you.]
The parents of the dead victims support the RC
Hello all. I just wanted to wish all bludgers a very merry christmas, and I hope you all get the presents, and more importantly the good company you are hoping for over the break, plus some nice weather. (And a dictionary for Sean 🙂 ).
As for matters political, Abbott is still ahead of Hockey by a head in the race to the bottom, with his sacked workers “liberated” remark beating Hockey’s “debt crisis” for the country with the third lowest debt in the OECD. Maybe Santa will bring me a new government in two more years.
One more suggestion – PeeBee if you are a teacher or academic, look at Teacher’s Health Fund, which is very good.
Best wishes all.
@Sean/2895
That was the last RC, not the new one.
Boerwar said:
Er… Marsupials are mammals.
Boerwar@2874
They are marsupials, but they are also mammals, just as the monotremes (echidna and platypus) are.
They are just not placental mammals.
Something not on the front page where it should be
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/press-council-adjudication/story-fni0cx4q-1226789404737