This week’s Essential Research result ticks back a point to the Coalition on two-party preferred, who now trail by 52-48, from primary votes of 39% for both the Coalition and Labor (respectively up one and down one), with the Greens and Palmer United steady on 9% and 6%. Other findings:
• Perceptions of the Senate balance of power have not changed since last year, with 32% thinking it best when the government has a majority (up one), 25% favouring independents and minor parties holding the balance of power (up one), 8% preferring the opposition holding the balance of power (down two), 7% saying it doesn’t matter, and 28% saying they don’t know.
• Perceptions of the present situation are likewise unchanged on immediately after the election, with 36% thinking the micro-parties good for democracy (steady), 28% bad (up two) and 15% opting for makes no difference (down two).
• Twenty-seven per cent would sooner the Greens hold the balance of power versus 22% for Palmer United, with 34% saying no difference.
Other inquiries relate to respondents’ retirement and superannuation arrangements. Another polling nugget to emerge yesterday was a ReachTEL result commissioned by the Electrical Trades Union showing Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls facing a 13% swing in his affluent Brisbane seat of Clayfield, but nonetheless leading 57-43 on two-party preferred.
UPDATE (ReachTEL): The Seven Network this evening brings us a ReachTEL automated phone poll of national voting intention, as it does one a month or so, conducted to gauge reaction to Tony Abbott’s handling of the MH17 disaster. The poll shows a slight tick to the Coalition, which now trails 52-48 from primary votes of 36% for the Liberals, apparently not including the Coalition (up one); 37% for Labor (down one); 10% for the Greens (steady); and 8% for Palmer United (up one). Abbott scores strong ratings for his handling of MH17, being rated very good or good by 51%, satisfactory by 26% and poor or very poor by 23%.
So what will Abbott say when he’s asked whether he was too strong on Putin? I mean he practically said he should be banned from coming to the G20!
Abbott on Jokowi – this Agence France Presse article notes the difference between Abbott’s rhetoric and the reality:
[
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday said he was looking forward to working closely with Joko “Jokowi” Widodo after the governor of Jakarta won the Indonesian presidential election.
Abbott said the relationship with neighbour Indonesia, with whom ties were strained last year due to a spying allegations, was “extraordinarily important to us”.
“The Australian government is looking forward to working closely with him,” Abbott stated of the reform-minded governor who won a tight race against ex-general Prabowo Subianto.
Ties between Canberra and Jakarta sunk to their lowest point for years in November after reports that Australian spies tried to tap the phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his inner circle.
Jakarta called the actions “mind-boggling”, and temporarily recalled its ambassador from Canberra while suspending cooperation in several areas.
This included people-smuggling — a sensitive issue between the nations, with Jakarta unhappy over Australia’s military-led operation to stem the flow of boatpeople, who mostly make the journey from Indonesia.
Abbott said Wednesday that the relationship was “highly productive”.
“We share a long history of cooperation on a wide range of common interests and challenges,” he said.
The Australian prime minister hailed Indonesia’s election as a significant milestone for the world’s third-largest democracy, as he praised outgoing leader Yudhoyono for his “vast contribution”.
“Indonesia is to be congratulated on its remarkable transition to democracy and on the conduct of the election,” Abbott said.]
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/07/23/australian-pm-congratulates-jokowi-indonesia-win.html
confessions
He will lie his way through it as he normally does.
poroti
Australia will have to take their cues from the US. Best thing for Abbott is to stfu
The Tory cheer squad will no doubt attribute the absolving of Putin to a leftist plot hatched within the ABC.
From Warwick smith in the guardian
Tony Abbott achieves the impossible: unity among economists
Economists are refuting the three big picture claims made by the government: 1) We have a budget emergency 2) We have a debt crisis and 3) The carbon tax was ruining the economy
MTBW:
And the Murdoch tabloids have some explaining to do after their front pages over the weekend.
I doubt Abbott will change his comments all that much. The US is still pointing the blame at Moscow for “creating the conditions” for the plane to be shot down.
[
US intelligence officials accused Moscow of “creating the conditions” that resulted in the death of 298 people aboard the Malaysian Airlines jet shot down last week over a part of Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
But in a partial declassification of US intelligence on Tuesday, officials stopped short of laying the blame for the disaster directly at the door of Russia. The assessment of the US intelligence community is that the separatists shot the plane down by accident.
The newly declassified information largely reaffirmed an account given last Friday by Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations, saying that a missile from an SA-11 anti-aircraft battery in separatist territory shot down the plane.
Officials said training given by Russia to its separatist proxies on air-defense weapons, which they have used in recent weeks to shoot down about a dozen aircraft, was a contributing factor. Ukrainian forces fighting the separatists have yet to fire a surface-to-air missile, intelligence officials said, as their conflict is on the ground.
]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/mh17-us-intelligence-russia-separatists-report
Sir Mad Cyril
[ pointing the blame at Moscow for “creating the conditions” for the plane to be shot down]
Funnily enough the same thing Putin said about Kiev a couple of days back.
Sir Mad Cyril
I dont see Australia pursuing any sanctions against Russia under these circumstances. As I said, Abbott should stfu
citizen
In the South East Asian sphere, I think Indonesia’s got the most fair and democratic election despite their history of 2 dictators. I would say this above my country of origin, Singapore, which while elections are fair (and compulsory), the opposition is never given a fair chance of a voice.
So all of the grandstanding over the weekend and beyond adds up to nought.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke!
vic
Michael Gordon in The Age says Abbott is now offering a “more measured and nuanced approach.” to the incident. I’m sure some here may disagree with that. lol
[
Having been firmer and sterner than all other leaders in his initial response to the MH17 catastrophe, Tony Abbott is now cautioning against ”facile optimism” in the difficult days ahead.
The man whose blunt language articulated the world’s initial shock, anger and outrage and set the tone for subsequent responses, now appears to be opting for a more measured and nuanced approach.
He was right then and he is right now. Armed with more information than those who spoke before him, Abbott called the disaster for what it was – a crime – and pointed to Russia’s culpability, direct or indirect.
Now, the challenge is to ensure that the resolution moved by Julie Bishop and carried unanimously by the Security Council is implemented in full and that the Russian leader is true to the commitments he has given.
That will require patience, diplomacy and ingenuity.
]
Patience, diplomacy and ingenuity. Hmm, not words I’d immediately associate with the Abbott Government.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/tony-abbotts-next-diplomatic-challenge-over-mh17-20140722-3cdq9.html#ixzz38FPbAkU9
The ASX is up 59 points!
[Sir Mad Cyril
Patience, diplomacy and ingenuity. Hmm, not words I’d immediately associate with the Abbott Government.]
From now on, tremendous patience will be needed as the forensic pathologists and the crash investigators undertake their painstaking tasks.
This is certainly not conducive to a Abbott’s ‘headline a day’ approach.
[He was right then and he is right now.]
Oh please!
What he really means is that the Oz media was right to give him a pass on his unwise muscular rhetoric over the weekend, just as they’re right to about face now and start spruiking Abbott as measured and nuanced when everyone knows he’s the very antithesis of measured and nuanced!
Raaraa @411: East Timor’s elections are probably even better than Indonesia’s: the Timorese have hardly put a foot wrong in that regard since 2001.
Just on the Lambie business I agree with Zoomster’s even handed approach. Both genders have their own earthy way of talking about the sexual attributes of the opposite sex and most people if they are honest will admit they indulge in it.
What seems to surprise some people though is that women are just as much involved in objectifying the male body as men are in objectifying the female body. For every bloke who talks about a “nice bit of arse” or a “great pair of tits” for example there’s a woman talking about a nice pair of “buns” or a great “package”. (I well remember a couple of years ago at a West Coast game a couple of attractive young women holding up a sign saying “We love big Cox” – referring of course to the West Coast ruckman Dean Cox. It was very amusing).
Maybe it’s time we all just grew up and realised that the whole concept of objectification being a bad or unnatural thing has had its day. Certainly a lot of what we are now hearing from today’s young generation of women would suggest so.
@MTBW/414
Wow, a whole 59 points.
417
I’m still having my doubts on the calibre of the candidates in East Timor.
I just think Indonesia’s gone a long way, considering a population of a quarter of a billion and a number of registered voters close to 200 million. They’ve done really well in the past 2 elections.
This is in contrast to the places I’m aware of in Malaysia and Singapore where it’s pretty much a one party tyranny and the Philippines which is pretty much money politics and religion unlike the US.
Also, Thailand is a deadlock between the Red and Yellow shirts and Brunei which is a tyranny by the monarchy after the legislative assembly has been dissolved in a state of emergency running for decades now.
Zoid
Now 81 points!
The market is obviously responding to the revelations in the hockey biography that he wanted a much tougher budget and that Tory kingmaker Credlin has endorsed him as the heir apparent to Abbott.
You know it makes sense
Raara
Indonesia is right now entering an EXTREME danger phase. If the military guy Prabono does NOT stage a coup and in three years from now Widoki is still ruling well and the economy is good then I think we can assume democracy is firmly established in Indonesia. I certainly hope so.
rossmcg
Abbott must have spoken again the market is back to 70 points.
I linked conversation hour audio above. It was interesting to hear fran Bailey and madonna king speak highly of Hockey. It was funny to get Faine’s response that hockey has damaged himself witn this budget etc. fran Bailey and madonna king did not appreciate it very much.
Darn
Just think of the Elizabethan age when guys went around with their tackle in very full display (probably with a bit of padding in many cases.
I think women discussed guys tackle pretty much and i suggest it was probably ALSO used as a marriage bargaining point.
Looks like we had some inflation, I think we can thank Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey for thieving the debt market and claiming the budget crises.
Along with the amount of jobs lost between the election and now.
Just to destroy Labor’s economic credentials.
423
Prabowo has no control over the military. He’s no longer in the military. If he has somehow managed to convince a handful of generals to hold a coup, the other political parties too have a handful of ex military and they themselves have influence over their generals.
With Jusuf Kalla being Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) running mate, he would hold sway over Golkar to form a stable voting bloc in the People’s Assembly. Golkar always wants to have a hand in government.
Jokowi won’t be able to push off all the changes, but it will be relatively stable despite the old guard losing out. We’ve seen governments form with less support.
Prabowo also ran as Megawati Sukarnoputri’s running mate in the last election.
They lost to SBY.
Try this link to see Black Adders views on wedding tackle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5A55eWbiBI
[Have to admit it, the conservatives do hypocrisy just that much better than anyone else.]
Certainly do it more blatantly and shamelessly.
PM wrong to scrap carbon tax says scientists
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/pm-wrong-to-scrap-carbon-tax-scientists-20140723-3cep2.html
Re Lambie:
A woman who sexually objectifies men is non-conforming to a stereotyped image of a woman. The non-conformity is in this way liberating, freeing women from the bounds of the stereotype. It does not contribute to any violence by women against men I am aware of. If there are groups of rich men with big dicks who are huddled away in fear of marauding women I do not know why I have not heard of it. Dominic Strauss-Kahn would be a counterfactual.
A man who sexually objectifies women is conforming to the male-dominating stereotyping of women that dehumanises women and contributes to a prevailing culture of violence against women.
The above explains why there is an important difference between the outrage that might accompany a male politician making the same sort of remarks as Lambie.
Inevitably some of the outrage in respect of Lambie’s remarks is a wowser response to sexual innuendo. To an extent I have some sympathy with the wowsers because Lambie’s stated criteria for a bloke (being rich and well-hung), although clearly said in jest, are obviously shallow and insubstantial bases for a healthy personal relationship. It does give a hint as to why Lambie has, according to her, not found such happiness in 11 years.
Finally, from an entirely personal perspective, I could not care less whether my politicians want blokes who are rich and well-hung or compare female genitalia to a bottle of mussels. Since I don’t care I would prefer that the political space was not filled with such irrelevance. Others take a different view (presumably many of those who listen to talk-back radio) and think that “knowing the person” behind the politician is valuable. They are entitled to their view and, on this basis, Lambie is entitled to tell us in an appropriately informal environment of her personal preferences and the extent of her body hair difficulties.
[Treasurer Joe Hockey says tough budget was actually too soft http://www.afr.com/p/national/joe_hockey_says_tough_budget_was_6IJt6OYCQfwD0gLN43W3OL … #auspol #ausecon #ausbiz
10:46 AM – 23 Jul 2014
Joe Hockey says tough budget was actually too soft
Treasurer Joe Hockey believes the May federal budget, which triggered a backlash against the government, was not tough enough and he held Prime Minister Tony Abbott responsible.
Financial Review @FinancialReview]
Darn @418
It still is amusing at my local, Darn, particularly with Jack Darling also playing.
Just a pity that Big Cox is retiring before young Matthew Dick gets a run around with my Swannies. The Finbar Saunders Fnar-Fnar-ometor would have gone into meltdown.
[I could not care less whether my politicians want blokes who are rich and well-hung or compare female genitalia to a bottle of mussels. Since I don’t care I would prefer that the political space was not filled with such irrelevance. ]
Yep, that’s my view too. A Senator wants a f*ck buddy over a meaningful, emotionally invested relationship, or some bloke who is well hung or whatever, I do not want to know about it, and don’t expect to hear about it either.
[So what will Abbott say when he’s asked whether he was too strong on Putin? I mean he practically said he should be banned from coming to the G20!]
You mean this
[“For an outside nation to have supplied these Ukrainian rebels with this weaponry of war and murder is a very, very reckless and stupid act,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.
“It is in the interests of resolving what has happened that all of the great powers, including the Russian Federation, support what was said at the United Nations Security Council last night.”
“If the Russian Federation will not co-operate to help resolve and get to the heart of what has happened here, I don’t think Australians would welcome them coming to the G20,” he said.]
@Dio/437
Did he not forget that he is in bed with Sir Lanka?
National Press Club President of AMA
24 interrupts for Bill Clinton
Mr Clinton interrupted by protestors
Mr Clinton shows class
So how’s Operation Jean Valjean going?
“@ABCNews24: Bill Clinton: The loss of our colleagues on #MH17 is a stark reflection of the negative forces of our interdependence #AIDS2014”
“@ABCNews24: Bill Clinton: I was proud to be in this country when the Australian Foreign Minister spoke at the UN #MH17 #AIDS2014”
“@ABCNews24: Bill Clinton: It is important that we honour the service and the lives of those who were lost on #MH17 #AIDS2014”
What were they protesting about?
MH
Taxing banks to pay for medicine
WINDOVER – I just stood up and saluted you!
guytaur
Good idea.