UPDATE (Essential and Morgan): The fortnightly Morgan multi-mode poll, conducted over the past two weekends from a sample of 3019 by face-to-face and SMS, shows little change on the primary vote, with the Coalition up half a point to 39.5%, Labor down one to 37%, the Greens up one to 11.5% and the Palmer United Party down half a point to 3%. Labor’s lead is up half a point on the headline respondent-allocated two-party preferred measure, from 52.5-47.5 to 53-47, but the precise opposite happens on the previous election preferences measure. Today’s Essential Research moves a point in Labor’s favour on two-party preferred, which is now at 50-50. Both major parties are down a point on the primary vote, the Coalition to 42% and Labor to 36%, with the Greens and the Palmer United Party steady on 9% and 4%. See bottom of post for further details.
GhostWhoVotes relates that the latest monthly ReachTEL automated phone poll conducted for the Seven Network gives Labor its biggest post-election lead to date, up to 53-47 from 52-48 in the December 15 poll. Primary votes are Coalition 39.8%, down from 41.4%; Labor 40.6%, up from 40.4%; and Greens 9.1%, up from 8.7%. The poll also has 20.3% reporting being better off since a year ago compared with 39.3% for worse off and 40.4% for neither. Prospectively, 23.5% expect to be better off in a year, 39.4% worse off and 37.1% neither. On the economy as a whole, 34.9% think it headed in the right direction and 39.3% in the wrong direction, with 25.8% undecided. A very similar question from Essential Research last week had 38% rating the economy as heading in the right direction versus 33% for the wrong direction, which while better than the ReachTEL results was a substantial deterioration on post-election findings which had it at 44% and 27%. These figures here courtesy of Ryan Moore on Twitter.
The poll was conducted on Thursday from a sample of 3547. Full results will be available on the ReachTEL site tomorrow, which will apparently include personal ratings that have Tony Abbott up and Bill Shorten down. Stay tuned tomorrow for the weekly Essential Research and fortnightly Morgan.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Crikey reports Essential Research has moved a point in Labor’s favour on two-party preferred, which is now at 50-50. Both major parties are down a point on the primary vote, the Coalition to 42% and Labor to 36%, with the Greens and the Palmer United Party steady on 9% and 4%. Also featured: privatisation deemed a bad idea by 59%, including 69% for Australia Post and 64% for the ABC and SBS; 24% think we spend too much on welfare, 41% too little and 27% about right; 64% believe the age pension too low, but only 27% think the same about unemployment benefits; 78% believe alcohol-related violence is getting worse, and perhaps also everything they see in the news media; “87% support harsher mandatory sentences for alcohol-related assaults; over 60% support earlier closing times for bottle shops, pubs and clubs; 76% support lockouts and 59% support lifting the age at which you can buy alcohol”. UPDATE: Full report here.
We purchased thousands of Pratt’s cardboard boxes over several years and every single one of those boxes represented a direct theft from us.
Of course Pratt should have gone to jail.
I assume that his descendants still have our money.
On law and order, I heard them talking about the mandatory one-punch laws.
It seems the issue isn’t at all on party lines. From what I can guess the WA and NSW govs are for them as are Vic Labor, whereas SA, Vic and Qld govs are against.
k2
Happy birthday and many happy returns.
As for Pratt’s ‘philanthropy’, being ‘generous’ with stolen money does not, IMHO, count as philanthropy.
What happens if it is two punches?
kezza us 54 models is da best. 🙂
Did you get any more on Gleiwitz Diogenes ?
Diogenes
Qld is not too allergic to mandatory shite. Come on down their VLAD laws.
Mandatory stuff is best described by the smart chap H. L. Mencken.
[
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
]
Happy b’day Kezza.
Is your pony tail your best asset 😈
guytaur & Yesiree Bob, Sorry for the delay – feeding time at the zoo…
Yes I am offended by the defrauding of shareholders by corporate types. It effects ordinary people directly (as many shareholders are ordinary people) and indirectly to the consumer and more indirectly via the economy generally (GFC).
However, I still hold it is morally more repugnant to misuse union funds as they are meant to be used to protect peoples rights at work compared to, in the case of the shareholder, profits via shareholdings. And also in, my view, because of the affect on the union and progressive movements as a whole – I do think that the Thompson and Obeid cases had a greater role in the election than many think, and yes I do blame the MSM mostly for that, but also those involved.
Yes guytaur, it is likely worse wrt charities.
pseph
the law can’t solve every problem and neither can government regulation.
A union – or indeed, any organisation – can, quite legally, make any expense legitimate.
I’m not arguing morals – indeed, I’ve made it clear that I’m very carefully NOT arguing a moral case, partly because if we start doing that things get really clouded.
kezza
[I look at my great big grey pony tail, pretty prolific thank you very much, quite a head of hair I’ve had and still have, and marvel that I was able to resist the constant pressure to continue the dye.]
Stay natural and age gracefully.
Far more beauty and class in that than in any dye, make-up or perfume.
Kezza
On the day you were born this was Australia’s number one selling song.
[Nat King Cole – Pretend ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhHIfgjFVk
[I’m not arguing morals – indeed, I’ve made it clear that I’m very carefully NOT arguing a moral case.]
Well you should be.
[Of course Pratt should have gone to jail.
I assume that his descendants still have our money.]
There was/is a class action
ruawake
[
kezza us 54 models is da best. :)]
Nah, it took another 5 years to perfect the design. 😆
ESJ
I’ve even read Naujocks’ testimony at Nuremberg and he doesn’t clarify who the personnel were at Gleiwitz.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/12-20-45.asp
[ruawake
kezza us 54 models is da best. 🙂
Nah, it took another 5 years to perfect the design. :lol:]
IMHO it all went downhill in the second half of the 20th Century. They should have stopped while they were ahead.
@davidwh/1692
That’s an excuse if I ever saw one.
You should read up on TED Speaker – Michael Sandel:
http://new.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_the_lost_art_of_democratic_debate
Now now, don’t dis us more junior posters.
It’s all the same, whether union officials or corporate executives misuse their entitlements by defrauding members or shareholders.
It’s also the same if politicians defraud taxpayers by claiming non-work related expenses, such as promoting your book for your own financial gain or attending a relative or friends wedding.
If Thomson gets hung, so should Abbott, Joyce and Bishop.
Love your work Diogenes.
pseph
I’ve just been saying we shouldn’t be telling other posters how they should comment.
mikehilliard
Youse young’uns are good. Far more likely to accept what the enlightened “boomers” believe is right. Not to mention far more edumacated and travelled than previous generations.
ESJ
Two books referred to in this wiki article say the SS and SD officers carried it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Himmler
It seems to me that Psephos is right when he argues that misuse of private corporate funds is a lesser ethical breach than misuse of Union funds. I’d add that misuse of funds given to a bona fide NGO attempting humanitarian work or worthy public purpose would be equally dreadful.
As a leftist, I’m always especially keen to see probity in ostensible organisations of the labour movement. Those fighting in one way or another for the empowerment of working people really ought to set the benchmark here. We need to have, IMO, an exemplary standard precisely because we oppose unwarranted privilege. That’s why I’m always scandalised by what seems, at the very least, to have been a reckless disregard for good governance in the HSU. Bureaucratic parasitism is utterly corrosive of the confidence people have in their unions.
That all noted, there is the rankest hypocrisy in the boss class, which sits stop a system of grossly unwarranted privilege, making a song and dance about the ethical failings of union leaders. There can be no question that tax deductible business expenses can be anything at all. Companies can remunerate their executives any way they please, including giving them credit all over town. If they want to entertain clients in ways likely to compromise them, they can. We had some examples of that in NSW just recently.
This system is an artefact of privilege. It is corrupt to its core and corrosive of all that promises equity. In practice, it’s probably not possible to have an entirely clean labour movement amidst stable and politically unchallenged capitalism. So while outrage at the perfidy of spivs like Thomson, Jackson and Williamson is entirely justified, what we need even more is a labour movement that really is focused on inclusive governance, which by definition, could not abide capitalism in anything like its current configuration.
What if Thomson goes to the casino, wins and cashes it on his union credit card, then spends those winnings on a prostitute?
Is that legit 😈
Herald sun now behind the paywall saying charges against Thomson may be defective according to the magistrate whose decision will come down the fullness of time.
That is what Thomson would want – a summary dismissal on the basis the charges were defective such that no findings of fact are made.
[ It seems to me that Psephos is right when he argues that misuse of private corporate funds is a lesser ethical breach than misuse of Union funds. ]
Why do you all seem to be assuming that union members can’t also be shareholders?
Most are, in fact – by virtue of their superannuation funds.
So both ethical breaches are the same in my book.
poroti
Cheers to all PB’s, I learn a bit everyday from the elders. 🙂
Centre
Fine so long as he was not betting with card.
BTW – happy birthday, kezza!
This article by Malcolm Farr has probably been posted earlier but is worth repeating:
[LABOR is calling it an Amanda Vanstone moment – when a Liberal MP is too frank about Coalition policy.
This time the Liberal is federal MP for the NSW seat of Gilmore Ann Sudmalis, who doesn’t think a proposed $5-a-visit extra payment for GP services would be too much for patients.
It was just the cost of a cup of coffee.
“Well I think some people will say that’s just too hard,” Ms Sudmalis told WIN News yesterday.
“But basically pretty much that’s a cup of coffee if you go out these days, a little bit more. That’s not a lot of money to make sure you’re covered off with health.”
Labor sources today were calling it an Amanda Vanstone moment after the 2003 outburst by the former Liberal minister following a $5 tax cut.]
http://www.news.com.au/national/liberal-mp-says-5-extra-payment-to-gps-merely-the-price-of-a-cup-of-coffee-and-not-too-hard-on-families/story-fncynjr2-1226812863137
shellbell
*groans*
There are just now the costs of around 25 legal people plus the cost of court infrastructure plus the cost of court staff doing the umpteenth rerun of Eastman:
all on the taxpayer and with little or no recourse for what just has to be serial incompetence in the legal industry.
Does anyone believe the Poms are just about to arrest someone for the Maddie McCann murders?
From today’s GG
[TONY Abbott says he is concerned the ABC takes an anti-Australian stance in its reporting and wants the broadcaster to stick to straight news-gathering.
The Prime Minister said the broadcaster was, like all media organisations, entitled to report “credible evidence”.
But “you shouldn’t leap to be critical of your own country”, he said, referring to reports of alleged mistreatment of asylum-seekers by naval personnel.
“It dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everyone’s side but our own and I think it is a problem,” Mr Abbott told radio station 2GB
“You would like the national broadcaster to have a rigorous commitment to truth and at least some basic affection for the home team, so to speak.”
He said the broadcaster should have given the navy and its personnel “the benefit of the doubt” in its reporting of the matter,
“I want the ABC to be a straight news-gathering and news-reporting organisation, and a lot of people feel at the moment that the ABC instinctively takes everybody’s side but Australia’s,” Mr Abbott said.]
Only 31 months of this Togo.
P1
[So both ethical breaches are the same in my book.]
I’m with you.
Diogenes organised by SS , camp inmates used as the “evidence” of the gleiwitz attack.
BW
That is just the fucked up ACT legal system where everyone including Eastman gets a prize.
Cool, just saw Bilbo give his sage advice on tonites ABC news bulletin
Good grief!!!
I just saw William on the ABC news commenting on the WA Senate case at the Court of Disputed returns.
😀
Oh, by the way, I reckon you need a haircut, William 😛
So what was Bilbo’s sage opinion ?
Shellbell
It may also be fine if his winnings which were then deposited into his union related credit card exceeded the amount he initially withdrew to buy chips from his union related credit card 😉
poroti@1743
Something to do with the possible recount of the WA senate election
A general comment about corporates and entitlements.
Pretty much every major business and government department/agency has policies and penalties for breaking entitlement use.
Fraud is taken very seriously in many corporations and whilst it may not hit the headlines but every year there are many fraud convictions.
Oh dear, the week ahead in Adelaide;
37, 40, 42, 43, 37, 40, 42
In the end the Thomson & Saatchi affairs will have the same outcome for the same reason.
Huge waste of money, the only good to come out of it will be a wake up to the HSU ( & others) to have a responsible employment policy & no “perks” , same goes for the private sector.
The Tax office will have fun recovering lost tax on undeclared income.
ESJ
There is a nice lady called Carolyn Yeager who is explaining to me that Gleiwitz really was attacked by the Poles. She’s also saying “Let me remind you that when U.S. President Roosevelt carefully created his pretext for war—the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese—he played it up for all it was worth to Congress the next day.”
Hmmm
Good evening BludgerMikeyRoonies