The Coalition’s mildly improving polling trend over the past few weeks has taken a knock after the latest bad result from Newspoll, contributing to a 0.5% two-party shift in Labor’s favour on the BludgerTrack poll aggregate. On the state-level seat projection, the big move this week is a three-seat shift to Labor in Queensland, where the Labor swing had probably been a bit undercooked on recent readings, along with one-seat gains in New South Wales and Western Australia. However, Labor is down a seat in Victoria after a blowout in their favour last week and also down one in Tasmania, resulting in a net gain of three. Newspoll also provided a new set of leadership ratings this week, which have pushed Tony Abbott out to his worst net personal approval rating since the election. Other figures on voting intention were provided this week by Essential Research, ReachTEL and Morgan. Full results as always on the sidebar.
The decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal
http://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/action/PJUDG?jgmtid=172509
Seven errors claimed by the Crown to have been committed in the original sentencing. Court of Criminal Appeal agreed there were six errors.
Latest comment on that article about that Nandos store in Leicester running out of chicken:
[Bob Geldof has announced he will organise Live aid three for the victims of this tragedy]
[Joel Fitzgibbon @fitzhunter 5m
3 months on, T Abbott refuses to release Japan FTA details. Many Ag concerns ]
So it seems we don’t really have an agreement with Japan, it was another Abbott stunt starring the Depressing Robb.
[Aboriginal Labor Senator Nova Peris claims bi-partisan efforts to recognise Indigenous people in the Australian Constitution have been set back by the Prime Minister’s comments on British settlement.
In comments after an economic speech in Melbourne last night Tony Abbott said Australia had been “unsettled” before the arrival of the First Fleet.
In a statement, Senator Peris hit out at Mr Abbott’s comments, saying they had offended Aboriginal Australians and many other people around the country.
“The comments were highly offensive, dismissive of Indigenous peoples and simply incorrect,” Senator Peris said.]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-04/pms-british-settlement-comments-highly-offensive-peris/5572718
citizen
Abbott is such a disgrace! All his bike rides and interest in Aboriginal issues were aimed at getting publicity for himself not for the interests of the Aboriginal community.
With that traitor Mundine and others on his side he is a charlatan.
[There is growing evidence arising from increased detection rates, improved data collection and other factors (such as the greater willingness of rape victims to come forward) that an identifiable group of young-to-middle aged men (large in absolute terms, but relatively small in demographic terms) is responsible for a large proportion of violent crimes.
]
With all due respect to your growing evidence my learned friend I would enquire what statistics there were that showed previously anything other than that the vast majority of crime is committed by young male youths of the poor kind against young male youths of the poor kind.
If my memory serves me correctly not only has that more or less a fairly stable statistic but perhaps not surprisingly the greatest predictor of whether or not such a young male person from very average economic circumstances continues to offend or not is the jail of matrimony.
I can just see the sentencing judge suspending a sentence for six months on the proviso the offer marries in that time and remains married.
@bemused/690
Yes, and that’s called being biased.
Raaraa
[Bob Geldof has announced he will organise Live aid three for the victims of this tragedy]
😆
Abbott reckons that Australia was ‘unsettled’ before the invasion? It is certainly unettled since his bastard budget.
Raaraa
[store in Leicester running out of chicken]
Laurie Fisher, current Brumbies Forward Coach, ex-Munster coach, ex-ANU coach, and many more has announced this week that he accepted the job of Coach at Leicester RU next year.
He likes a feed and will likely sort the Nando’s problem while he’s there.
😀
Patrick
The populist view of imprisonment is at best as a kind of ex post -facto cost for some act against the public — you do the crime you do the time. It’s essentially retributive rather than an attempt to foreclose criminal wrongs or even protect the legitimate interests of the public.
There’s virtually zero interest in practice amongst those shouting at the top of their lungs about the rights of victims for rehabilitation of victims of crime. Justice, as far as I can tell is about the perception that the punishment reflects some sort of political declaration about our solidarity with the victim, with politicians taking a brokerage fee based on how many years some criminal gets for some crime. Laura Norder wins every state election, which is great if you’re in the prison business.
The trouble is that this paradigm results in nearly everyone being worse off. People are no more protected from crime, but the cost of the courts and imprisonment is a huge burden on the public. People are messed up by prison. And people who have no business shedding tears for victims sell them to win elections.
Disgusting really.
Custodial sentences should be imposed for as long as someone is an unmanageable hazard outside of custody and the aim should be to reduce the hazard the prisoner presents as quickly as possible so that a lower cost system of protection can work. In some cases, people really will present too great a hazard for a very long time, but mostly, they don’t.
The other arm of policy should be victim services — providing the victims of crime with the resources they need to move on with their lives. In short we redirect funds that would have been wasted showing everyone how much we detest the criminal, into programs that assist victims. It makes sense to me.
Possum Comitatus @Pollytics 1m
The Australian Electoral Commission needs to stop being a d!ckhead http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/aec-threatens-to-have-foi-applicant-declared-vexatious-after-two-requests?CMP=soc_568 …
Some forgotten words of wisdom from H.R. Nicholls Society fellow-traveller Rolf Harris:
[When the company had that secret ballot
There was 80% voted to end the go-slow strike
Well, I thought that was valid
But the shop steward was really emphatic
That that sort of voting was undemocratic
A show of hands revealed
Me against the rest – what a pest!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuQWoRkFBRU
RE murder /killing and penalties
______________________
I don’t know much about the Loveridge case,but I take the view that when some person bashes and kills another…just like other murders…in the absence of the death penalties…the sentance should always be “life: with no chance of any parole
One of the more amusing stories I have come across on Twitter from the Land of the Free is this one:
http://bugg.gr/1vg
[Phoenix, AZ — In an ironic twist of a fate, a mascot for a Christian anti-masturbation organization was arrested Sunday for masturbating in public. The group recently finished a federally funded 31-city nationwide school tour which it says focused on educating both children and parents about the dangerous consequences of masturbation.]
“Fappy” the Dolphin aka Paul Horner (I kid you not) ended up knocking on Satan’s Door or banging at Hell’s Gate himself — in public.
You can’t make up stuff funnier than this.
Patrick Bateman… CORKER of a post… #748.
deblonay
[I don’t know much about the Loveridge case,but I take the view that when some person bashes and kills another…just like other murders…in the absence of the death penalties…the sentance should always be “life: with no chance of any parole]
That’s simply unwarranted. No public benefit commensurate with the cost could possibly attend such a policy. In the absence of a presenting hazard, there’s no basis for custody. Your policy seeks a more brutally authoritarian culture.
fran
[“Fappy” the Dolphin aka Paul Horner (I kid you not) ]
😆
American right wing religious nuts have provided so much entertainment over the years it doesn’t matter.
The Coalition has created this mess by refusing to countenance anything suggested by Labor.
This is the most damning piece by Lenore Taylor that I have read. Bless the Guardian.
[The turnbacks, the hardline rhetoric and the determined use of offshore processing have largely achieved the government’s myopic aim.
And Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison remain jubilantly confident voters will reward a promise kept through unwavering resolve and will disregard the mounting costs and side-effects. They just aren’t confident enough to openly explain those costs, apparently believing the electorate won’t care, or won’t notice.]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/yes-tony-abbott-has-stopped-the-boats-but-the-cost-is-catastrophic
Tories following Coalition Party, by telling their own broadcaster what to do:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10944629/BBC-staff-told-to-stop-inviting-cranks-onto-science-programmes.html
“The BBC Trust on Thursday published a progress report into the corporation’s science coverage which was criticised in 2012 for giving too much air-time to critics who oppose non-contentious issues.”
CTar1@768
No doubt “Fapping the Dolphin” will become a synonym for “Spanking the Monkey”.
People use the word “Murder” very loosely, it has a specific meaning. It revolves around intent.
I could be fecking around, drunk, with a chainsaw and cut someone in half. Does not mean I murdered them.
Courts know the difference, shock jocks and TV crap Current Affairs do as well. Its just the latter know “dud judge” rates its tits off.
zoidlord
I think the ABC could take note of the recommendations. Same problem here.
[The report found that there was still an ‘over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality’ which sought to give the ‘other side’ of the argument, even if that viewpoint was widely dismissed.
Some 200 staff have already attended seminars and workshops and more will be invited on courses in the coming months to stop them giving ‘undue attention to marginal opinion.’
“The Trust wishes to emphasise the importance of attempting to establish where the weight of scientific agreement may be found and make that clear to audiences,” wrote the report authors.]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10944629/BBC-staff-told-to-stop-inviting-cranks-onto-science-programmes.html
@Lizzie/773
I agree.
Sarah Dingle @sarix1 9h
Where does your charity $ go?1000s of lost charities and billions in tax concessions Sun on @RNBBing @choiceaustralia http://goo.gl/x3MNCG
Fran
Your system means there would be no meaningful deterrence.
It should not be the state which compensates victims but the frozen assets of accuseds upon their conviction.
This is my take on the recent appointments of certain people in relation to the ABC
1. Essentially the ‘Right’ are lazy and are unable to formulate any coherent policy of their own unless it involves cuts and closures because it is easier to do rather than growth and renew
2. The ‘Right’ need a platform to expouse their views and as there is already infrastructure in place aka the ABC there will be people such as Janet Albrechtsen and others to be appointed to ‘work’ the board
3. Basically these people such as Janet A and others are intellectual ‘lightweights’ in so far as all they need to do is carp, criticize and condemn because it is so much easier to be negative rather than be positive and offer real alternatives
4. These people would never be employed elsewhere because they are bullies and naysayers. Only inward looking, pay for promotion, cash for comment organisations like News and IPA would take them on.
5. In real life these people are shallow,
Gee, Abbott really *gets* indigenous Australia doesnt he?
Honestly, sometimes the man reveals hmself as being disturbingly unintelligent individual.
http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-comments-on-australia-being-unsettled-before-the-british-silly-says-warren-mundine-20140704-3bcjs.html
to continue
vacuous and have nothing to add to the intellectual debate.
6. The ‘Right’ generally are lazy because they don’t want to do any work… intellectual policy framework etc and so forth.
7. These are usually from ‘monied’ backgrounds… never understand the broader social issues because they don’t need to. Mummy and Daddy and trusts will look after them.
8. Janet A was a lightweight intellectually and from her output on the former ABC board lazy and virtually did not put forward any intellectual content for debate and discussion.
9. Her only merits (limited as they are) are connected with odius characters such as Kroger… one of the most nasty pieces of human offal going around these days
These individuals will be shown up and soon…
lefty e@777
Don’t be too hard on him. His advisor on indigenous Australia is Warren Mundine.
Wonder how Ken Wyatt is feeling about Abbott’s unsettled remarks?
confessions
Abbott appeared to realize, in mid-sentence, that ‘unsettled’ was not kosher. So, on the run, he amended it to ‘scarcely settled’.
Fixed.
[Andy Coulson sentenced to 18 months jail]
Bet Rolf gets more. 🙁
Abbott probably meant that Australia was ‘univaded’ but, somewhere between what passes for his brain and his lips, it came out wRONg.
Isn’t Tony Abbott meant to have an affinity with indigenous people?
Or is it just a sham?
Retweeted by Tony Windsor
Aboriginal Health @NACCHOAustralia 1h
@PatsKarvelas “Australia unsettled before British arrived: says Abbott #Culturalsolutions http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/australia-unsettled-before-british-arrived-tony-abbott/story-fn9hm1pm-1226977438408 …
Boerwar:
Yes, scarcely settled is much, much better.
sprocket:
He’s the self described PM for indigenous affairs.
The audio of Abbott’s insulting comments is telling. He sound worn out, yet ad libs his way along in his jokey blokes let’s tell a clever joke a minute style.
He pauses after the “unsettled” comment, but his persona is such that he can’t say, “Opps, Sorry, I didn’t mean that” but rather he goes down his obfuscating “scarcely settled” path.
Should we all lodge an foi request for information relating to senate elections – I am stunned is secret – I would have assumed (obviously incredibly incorrectly) that one could get all the information if not the actual code to run simulations.
It costs about $100,000 to keep someone locked up for a year; the guy who just got another 5 years just cost the state another ½ million.
The retribution that society can afford is limited by the amount that can be taken from the education budgets.
There are now places in the USA that spend more on jails than schools. Not a treble smart outcome but as the jails are privatised it is difficult to undo. The profitable jails can afford more lobbying and more emotive stories than parents with kids that aren’t being educated.
[Andy Coulson sentenced to 18 months jail]
Good start.
Should help concentrate Coulson’s mind on the benefits of bargaining with the authorities about possible testimony against Murdoch.
[@TheMurdochTimes: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to discover first hand if prison really is like “a holiday camp” as NoW once claimed.]
What a wonderful world if more RupertRooters follow Coulsen, and the Dirty Digger spends his dying days fighting ever increasing court battles.
Victim statements are being read out as we speak re Rolf Harris.
He is expected to be sentenced to 20 years +
Last comments for now re the criminal justice system.
Shellbell: I agree that there should be a focus on the (ir)responsible serving of alcohol around King’s X. But, before going to the X that night, Loveridge predicted to his mates that he was likely to punch somebody. There’s no defending the bloke: he always deserved to have the book thrown at him (but didn’t initially because the judge made six – !! – errors in law).
Fran – you and I seem to be in violent agreement. I have no interest in the idea of sentencing bring about revenge, or victims’ rights, or paying a debt to society or any such nonsense. To my way of thinking, protecting the public is the only rational cause for locking anyone up.
Patrick Bateman – yes, let’s invest lots more in rehabilitation. But only in responses that can be proven to work. Let’s not send prisoners to a few touchy freely courses and then, when their sentence is complete, just pretend to ourselves that they are rehabilitated when they almost certainly aren’t. Let’s put the time and money into intensive rehab and only release people when we are confident that it’s worked. And we need to come to terms with the idea that some people (Adrian Bayly for example) probably aren’t capable of being rehabilitated and shouldn’t be released. They don’t “deserve”‘a second chance any more than innocent victims like Jill Meagher deserve to be raped and murdered.
ruawake: I must confess that the differentiation between murder and manslaughter has never done much for me. As I understand it, it means that Loveridge – to take an example – would deserve to go to gaol for a lot longer if he had known Thomas Kelly and wanted to kill him for some person
reason as opposed to simply feeling like lashing out at the next stranger who happened to come along and – oops! – he’s dead. In the words of the great Bob Dylan re one William
Zanzinger who killed an African-Americsn stranger because he “happened to be feeling that way without warning ” (and got a six month sentence).
Personally, I feel far more concerned about sharing the public streets with random attackers like Kieran Loveridge and his ilk than the guy who kills a specific person for a motive. But our criminal justice system judges the latter far more harshly than the former!
The judge has described Rolf Harris as a ‘pedophile of the worst kind’
He has also said rather ominously that ‘others will follow’
EFA @efa_oz 1m
The AEC doesn’t want to release the code used to perform Senate counts. Think they should? Then support this: http://www.pozible.com/project/183015/96681 …
Fran Barlow @ 765: That story about the anti-masturbation dolphin being arrested for same is as funny as a circus, but don’t you think the whole page is just a parody, in the spirit of the Sophie Mirabella Facebook page from last year (not to mention the wonderful late lamented “Eternal Earthbound Pets”)?
Payment reform must reduce poverty, complexity, and exclusion from employment:
http://disabilityemployment.org.au/news/item/1987/
““Real welfare reform is not about shifting people, including people with disabilities, sole parents or carers, from one payment to another. We need to change the system: from a labyrinth of higher and lower payments based on degrees of ‘deservingness’ towards a simpler one based on financial need. Once it meets people’s basic financial needs, income support should connect them with employment opportunities and supports.””
[@TheMurdochTimes: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to discover first hand if prison really is like “a holiday camp” as NoW once claimed.]
I feel no pain.
🙂
Sounds like Rolfie boy is going down big time.