This week’s better-late-than-never BludgerTrack poll aggregate reading finds the MH17 effect boosting the Coalition by 1.1% on two-party preferred, and putting it two points clear of Labor on the primary vote. On the seat projection, the Coalition this week gains two in Queensland and one in every other mainland state, a net gain of six that nonetheless leaves Labor with an overall majority of 79 seats out of 150. The bigger effect is on the personal ratings, for which Newspoll contributes to a lift of nearly six points on the reading for Tony Abbott’s net approval, albeit from a dismally low base. Newspoll also causes the previously downward trend for Bill Shorten’s net approval rating to level off this week, although his lead as preferred prime minister continues to narrow.
Also on the better-late-than-never front, this week’s Essential Research, which I neglected to cover on Tuesday, had the Coalition gaining a point for the second week in a row to now trail 51-49, from primary votes of 41% for the Coalition (up two on a week ago), 38% for Labor (down one), 9% for the Greens (steady) and 5% for Palmer United (down one). Other questions found a very healthy 67% approving of Tony Abbott’s handling of the Malaysia Airlines disaster with only 13% disapproving; Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian government and the United Nations also credited with handling the matter well, but the Russian government not so much; 49% believing Vladimir Putin should not be allowed to attend the G20 versus 29% for should be allowed; and 62% supporting trade sanctions against Russia, 46% supporting the withdrawal of diplomatic relations and 28% supporting support for the Ukrainian government against the rebels, with only 8% preferring that no action be taken.
The poll also finds 59% of respondents not expecting their electricity bill to decrease as a result of the carbon tax repeal, which includes 16% who actually expect it to go up, versus only 33% who expect it to fall. A question on actions on climate change policy has only 5% nominating the government’s direct action policy of the available options and only 19% going for an emissions trading scheme, with 43% insteading opting for “incentives for renewable energy”. Another question finds 51% favouring an increase in the childcare rebate over the government’s paid parental leave scheme, which is preferred by only 25%.
vic
I find it laughable that News Ltd is worried about information that may have been gained illegally. Have they no shame.
[979
guytaur
Isn’t Mr Yunupingu a guest on QandA this week? ]
According to my TV guide the guests are Noel Pearson, Nova Peris, Ken Wyatt, Djawa Yunupingu, Joe Morrison, Dhanggal Gurruwiwi.
Could be a very interesting show. At least half the guests are not likely to let Mr Pearson and Mr Wyatt get away with their usual platitudes. Plus, it will be the first time we will see Peris in live political action.
Bit cute of The Australian to be pointing a finger over use of information that may or may not have been illegally obtained.
News of the World ring a bell?
mari
You’ll need a holiday to recover from your holiday.
[ @JackHigh4 Jul 30
10 yr girl detainee with kidney stones and failed other kidney sent to Nauru with no appropriate medical treatment @ASRC1 @auspol ]
If true, that is an immediate sacking offence.
Over to you, Scott Morrison.
[The Shire President was also quoted as saying there were many locals upset with the rules and hinted that such a confrontation was inevitable.]
Inevitable?!?
Yet the rest of us have to just deal with our problems with the local council/authorities without resorting to murder.
Why is rural suffering more morally right than those who suffer in our cities?
I have never understood this — but Australia, like countries like France, have this mythical attachment to the country and farming such that their lifestyles are seen as “purer”, more authentic and of the majority, despite both countries being heavily urbanised. It results in governments socialising rural life to the point of inefficiency and corruption.
[If true,]
Exactly. A lot of serious allegations are being levelled at the moment by the usual suspects. I think it is appropriate to have them tested before accusing anyone of such serious mistreatment.
Whatever you might think of Minister Morrission and his policies, I don’t think he wants 10 year old children to die of kidney failure on his watch.
So let’s wait and see until these serious claims are actually tested. Please let us avoid relying on twitter anecdotes.
Poroti
At home I can assure you for a while, just waiting to get home this month
May go to Sherwood Forest today perhaps Robin Hood will appear?
[
bemused
Posted Saturday, August 2, 2014 at 3:37 pm | Permalink
…
Thank you for that correction. Of course what I meant was no living relative who had actually known them.
]
Even that isn’t true.
DL
As it happens, this tweet was from a doctor who gives his real name, so I tend towards belief.
Mari – Edinburgh Festival?
Lizzie
How are you today… another day, another step up the big hill.
Yes, as an ex-local I am aware of the so far published details. But the fact is, few murders actually happen in the manner we conjure up based on the media hype and our own fantasies.
In our system, there are various “types” of murder, and sentences if guilt is found by the jury match the “type” of murder. Like some suicides are accidents, ditto for murders.
This is not to excuse the murderer or to say the event is not murder.
But it is reasonable to expect those who are not close to the murder in terms of a personal emotional impact (which legitimately clouds and distorts the perspective of family members and close friends etc) view the situation with some level of equanimity.
I am reminded here of the very subjective views of some PBers after the Baden-Clay verdict. One, Mick 77 was arguing that the jury got it wrong, because the lawyers didn’t ask key questions. How in God’s name he could know that particular questions were not asked, unless he was there in the court, beats me. I asked him, but no answer and he hasn’t been seen here since.
I wonder what he would have made of the autopsy details that the jury were not told, ie that Mrs Baden-Clay had suffered blunt force trauma to the back of her head, a broken tooth, and bruising to her abdomen.
Unless one knows the facts, then speculation is just a highly personal and uninformed opinion …. hyperbowl.
psyclaw
Ah, speculation and gossip. So much more interesting than the truth!
.
[I am reminded here of the very subjective views of some PBers after the Baden-Clay verdict. One, Mick 77 was arguing that the jury got it wrong, because the lawyers didn’t ask key questions. How in God’s name he could know that particular questions were not asked, unless he was there in the court, beats me. I asked him, but no answer and he hasn’t been seen here since.
I wonder what he would have made of the autopsy details that the jury were not told, ie that Mrs Baden-Clay had suffered blunt force trauma to the back of her head, a broken tooth, and bruising to her abdomen.
Unless one knows the facts, then speculation is just a highly personal and uninformed opinion …. hyperbowl.]
True – it is surprising how many people “follow” criminal cases via the media and then claim to be in a position to second guess the jury — who had to sit through everything and listen to the judge’s (often very specific) directions.
The Baden-Clay case I have no idea about. Still not sure why it even captivated people’s attention. Surely it’s not the first violent murder in this country?
I have no interest in such faits divers, which should be in “news in brief” and not on our front pages.
Other criminal cases like the Rolfe Harris affair, at least warranted some media interest given the societal implications of his conduct (why was he allowed to get away with it for so long? are other victims at large? etc)
Nonetheless, I don’t propose second guessing that verdict either. I was not in the jury.
Speaking of rellies of WWI vets
[The Keid family lost four son in less than 2½ years
The Keid family during World War One sent away six boys to war, and only two returned.
Peg Pearson, 91, is the daughter of surviving brother Harry Keid, and lives in Atherton in far north Queensland along with brother Walter, 78, and close to sister, Jane, 94, of Mareeba – Harry’s three surviving children.]
http://www.couriermail.com.au/anzac-centenary/world-war-i-centenary-the-keid-family-lost-four-son-in-less-than-2-years/story-fnmeodw6-1227010419446
A personal query.
If a hall holds 100 seated persons, how many might it hold if only half are seated?
Andrew Fraser goes the biff with Joe Tripodi.
Sigh.
What could have been.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQ9ChNif7Y
I’m going to the Anzac day celebration in Anzac Cove with my mother-in-law who is 84. Her father landed at Gallipoli in 1915. She has two special tickets. So she and my partner will be getting off the cruise ship to attend the ceremony. I, on the other hand, will probably have an early night. At least I won’t have to listen to Tone’s grand oration.
1001
ruawake
Posted Saturday, August 2, 2014 at 4:48 pm | PERMALINK
vic
[I find it laughable that News Ltd is worried about information that may have been gained illegally. Have they no shame.]
Nup no shame whatsoever!
[Just heard Abbott on 12pm news saying that none of those who have been sent to Nauru will ever get to come to Australia.
How did he get here?]
I’m curious as to whether they are legally able to do this, or how they would go about it. Admittedly Australian migration law and international agreements on the matter aren’t something I keep track of. However, I rather doubt there are exceptions under international law relating to mode of transport or place of processing.
😆
[@NadineFloodCPSU Jul 31
Eric Abetz is the CPSU’s star recruiter this week. 501 new members by insulting working mums on the front line at Centrelink & Medicare.]
If you are working for the dole or in the Green Army are you eligible for Abbott’s gold plated PPL??
[get to come to Australia]
what does this mean?
He could mean anything from “step foot in” to “remain permanently”.
Although I feel very sorry for the 10 year old asylum seeker with kidney stones in her remaining kidney it has always been a condition of migration to this country that the migrant be in rude health so we have always screened out people with TB, Downs Syndrome etc.
This screening has also applied to Australians Born Abroad and their Australian Birth Certificate records the name of the Immigration Officer who sighted that they were white and sound.
I think it is evil to remove spectacles, hearing aids, prosthesis and medicines from asylum seekers when boarding them onto Australian Customs or Navy vessels
Darren Laver
You know the old saying …… fiction can never outdo real life fact when it comes to the nuances of human behaviour in an given circumstances.
It’s common for public “outcries” about decisions judges make, especially in sentencing. But the fact is that in many crimes, murder is not what we fantasise murder to be, rape is often not an event played out in the same way our fertile minds imagine ……. ditto especially for child abuse.
All those crimes are crimes and bad and wrong and illegal. But there are many many varieties of events which fall under each of those categories.
But unless and until he hears or reads all the details, a large proportion of what Joe Public thinks what happened really comes from his own fertile imagination.
I’ve sat in court cases where a spontaneous murder of passion has occurred, and also where a planned, cold blooded “hit” has been done.
The mere sight of the accused in the latter chills you to the spine ……. but sometimes in cases of the former, one can only feel sorry for the circumstances the murderer has fallen into.
While both are “murder” they are as different as chalk and cheese.
DL,
Perhaps it means nothing, or they intend to do nothing, and just want that comment in the media and people processed in Nauru or Manus Island end up being settled in Australia anyway. As I understand it they’re under Australian care being processed by Australia, so the onus would be on Australia to find somewhere for them to be settled. If they are unable to then that would accrue costs for just keeping the centres open, paying the Governments whose territory they’re located as well as the bribes to the Governments of countries which have agreed to settle them, such as communist Cambodia and PNG, whose capital is the city rated with the worst quality of life in the world
“Least livable among those surveyed” would be more accurate, I guess.
Carrs Park? That’s where Abbott lunched his Green Army? Seriously? I know that place very, vry well. The park is a narrow strip of manicured ‘bush’ squeezed on a slope between the foreshore picnic area and houses at the back. It’s about as bush-like as my backyard. I bet Abbott walked three steps from the carpark to do his tree planting stunt.
His ‘Army’ might get a lot of experince picking up beer cans and rubbish, but there’s not going to be much else for them to do in that place.
Good Dog. Check out the aerial shot of the jungle Abbott and the rest of his intrepid wallies ventured in to.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Carss+Park+NSW/@-33.9889573,151.1151783,425m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x6b12b83542eb6e9d:0x5017d681632b000
If that’s Abbott’s idea of greening the countryside, they really are a hopeless lot. Couldn’t Peta have found a bare patch that needed planting?
lizzie
[If a hall holds 100 seated persons, how many might it hold if only half are seated?]
Don’t hold me to this but when we design entertainment venues we allow 1 sq.m for seated & 0.5 sq.m for standing so I think the answer is around 150.
mikehilliard
Thank you. That was my guess. I’m having panics that there will be so many people we won’t be able to fit them in. By the time they RSVP, we won’t be able to change the venue.
Further further to leonetwo. Check out the photo gallery of the park at the bottom of this page.
[ These include the Carss Park Café and Grill, the Kogarah War Memorial Olympic Swimming Pool, sports fields, bushland, playground areas, picnic and BBQ facilities, an intertidal swimming area, a Life Savers building, internal car parks, a stage area and other amenities and infrastructure]
http://www.kogarah.nsw.gov.au/recreation/parks/parks-reserves-and-gardens/carss-bush-park
Ashkenazi Jews are more European than Middle Eastern in terms of their genetics.
[ @GeorgeBludger 2m
Cringing as I watch footage of AFP walk about with buckets and cameras and the press following them around. What a fiasco]
SMH has a big expose on Macquarie Bank today (go figure!). What I find quite extraordinary is that people actually think that Mac Bank (and the rest of the banks/retail funds) are actually there to look after them. Are they insane? Yet people seem to keep giving them their money. I really do find that quite bizaree. What is it? Are they so arrogant that they think that their “customer manager” wouldn’t think of ripping them off?
Evidence of collusion between the Qld Govt and News Corp.
[Mr Fitzgerald, a former Federal Court and Supreme Court judge, says the government and News Corporation have launched a “sustained attack” on the independence of the judiciary and have “combined forces” to defend Justice Carmody’s appointment.
“(The government’s) strategy, in conjunction with its News Corporation ally, is to distract attention from Carmody’s unsuitability and its inability to justify his appointment by attacking the other judges and other critics,” Mr Fitzgerald said in a statement on Saturday.
“As one of the critics … I knew that the personal attacks would occur and know that they will continue, not only from past personal experience but because I was threatened with precisely what is occurring from within the government earlier in the week.”
Mr Fitzgerald has recently been highly critical of the Newman government’s laws targeting sex offenders and bikies, as well as changes to the state’s anti-corruption body.
On Saturday, News Corporation columnist Des Houghton labelled Mr Fitzgerald “irritant of the week” and The Courier-Mail’s front page last week said Mr Fitzgerald had gone from corruption buster to political commentator.]
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-government-made-threats-fitzgerald-20140802-zztfy.html#ixzz39DjBCMVg
frednk@1009
Name one.
Such a person would have to be over 100 years old.
poroti
Hopeless, it looks like the parks near me & I’m in inner Sydney.
[But the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said the group refused to speak with Indian officials, in a move he described as disappointing. He said the group was flown to Nauru overnight Friday.
One of the planes arrived at around noon on Saturday. Eyewitness sources told Guardian Australia that many of the Tamil men had rips in their shirts after they were forcibly put on the plane.”
“They were traumatised,” said a Nauru source.
Contractors are understood to have expressed concerns that there is not enough space to house them all on Nauru.]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/02/abbott-government-faces-barrage-of-criticism-over-secret-nauru-transfer
Carss Park was where the mighty St George teams of the 60’s did there preseason training
billie@1024
She may well have not had kidney stones before arrival in Australia. They can become a problem very suddenly, like within a matter of hours or even minutes.
BTW, I understand we are all producing kidney stones all the time, but usually they are small and pass through unnoticed. It is only occasionally one develops to a size where it will not pass. And then… OUCH!!!
leonie
Carrs Park????
What a pack of morons they are!
At least they wouldn’t have got their hands dirty or their clothes.
Abbott’s green army gets launched.
[The Abbott government’s Green Army initiative, launched in Sydney on Saturday, will see 1500 projects rolled out over the next three years.
The scheme will involve 17- to 24-year-olds working on 20- to 26-week-long projects, including koala habitat restoration, revegetation, and restoring culturally significant sites.]
How this will do much of anything to abate our GHGEs, much less be a responsible, national response to AGW (as Abbott repeatedly inferred pre election) is anyone’s guess.
Abbott pre election on green armies and climate change:
[ The Green Army complements our ‘Direct Action’ approach to climate change.
Direct Action provides Australians with the opportunity for individuals, communities, organisations and companies to help address our environmental challenges.
Our Direct Action policy will ensure reductions in carbon emissions take place within Australia without slugging families, businesses and the economy with a great big carbon tax.
Our policies will make a real difference to improving the environment in our own backyard and addressing climate change. ]
http://www.liberal.org.au/creating-green-army
That’s a heckuva lotta weeds to pull up and empty coke cans to dredge from waterways.
On twitter
[Victoria’s $1 billion per kilometre road -Makes NBN look impoverished.]
MTBW
Abbott only went because he thought Peta said “Carpark”.
[@MikeCarlton01 1m
Today’s best from the Likudniks: “you radicall left wing Troktyzite nazi piece of Whitlam ABC scum.” Gonna be tough to beat that… ]
Carss Park is a suburban park with playing fields and a small area of bushland about 21km South of the Sydney CBD, on the foreshores of the Georges River. Sydney is fortunate to have lots of parks like this one. It is a nice place for the locals to relax, jog and walk their dogs. It is also a great place for family picnics.
The only thing a ‘Green Army’ would be able to do there would be to pick up rubbish, tend the lawns and maybe do a bit of ‘bush-care’ type work. The type of work that is and should be being done by local council workers and contractors who are paid full award wages.
[On Saturday, News Corporation columnist Des Houghton labelled Mr Fitzgerald “irritant of the week” and The Courier-Mail’s front page last week said Mr Fitzgerald had gone from corruption buster to political commentator.]
LOL coming from a News ltd columnist!
That’s frickin hilarious.
[Just watching 24 & it seems that there is no family reunion for anyone who has arrived on a boat even if they have been accepted as a genuine refugee.]
As was the case under the ALP at the 2013 fed election.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Election 2013 Report Card: http://www.asrc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/election-scorecard.pdf
The policy position of both major parties was to oppose family reunion for boat arrivals found to be refugees.
Has this ALP policy changed since the 2013 fed election?