What will presumably be the last Newspoll of the year records no change on a fortnight ago, with Labor’s two-party lead at 54-46. Labor grabs the lead on the primary vote, moving up two points to 39% with the Coalition up one to 38% and the Greens down one to 12%. For the first time in a while, Tony Abbott’s personal ratings are not appreciably worse than last time, his approval steady at 33% and disapproval up one to 58%. Bill Shorten is respectively down two to 37% and steady at 43%, and the size of his lead as preferred prime minister is unchanged, being 43-36 last time and 44-37 this time.
[Bernard Keane @BernardKeane 49s49 seconds ago
So Sydney airspace may or may not be closed. SOH may or may not be evacuated. “National Art Gallery” whatever that is, is evacuated. #facts]
I had a call from my daughter 40 minutes ago. She works at Olinta in Martin Pl. Understandably we are both nervous and hope for a safe and expedient outcome.
The Government is not likely to get any political benefits from the raid on the cafe. If anything, it will accentuate the anxieties already being felt with respect to economic factors. This is a Government that cannot control events; far from offering protection to the community, the Government seems more likely to make things worse.
Reports the terrorists have said there are cells all over Sydney and they want to talk to Abbott.
Olinta = Alinta
confessions
Thanks for that – apparently the Law buildings in Sydney along with other offices are being evacuated and Sydney traffic at a standstill.
“@lyndalcurtis: Dep PM Truss says there are choppers in the air and the air traffic is being rerouted. At this stage no impact on air traffic network.”
Dio
I heard that too on Sydney radio – I wonder what Abbott would do?
@153 briefly
A really dumb post.
take a long hard look at yourself.
fairfax is quoting Air Services Australia as saying “no sydney airspace has been shut down”
ABCnews24 has stopped calling it an Isis flag after they corrected themselves, explaining it was not an ISIS flag but a black piece of cloth with “There is no god but allah and muhummad is the messenger of allah’.
It is not an ISIS flag and it is totally irresponsible for anyone to be reporting that it is. If there is one thing we need in these situations, it is accurate non-beat up reporting.
At this rate, the police will be dealing with race riots as well as a siege.
Re Socrates @139 – re the E-W Link business case: if the experience of Sydney is anything to go by, those estimates of fee income are almost certainly greatly overestimated. Most of Sydney’s big road and rail projects in the last 20 years, financed by public-private partnerships, have failed in the financial sense, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab.
Mind you, they have left good pieces of infrastructure, like the Lane Cove tunnel. However, strategic road closures and other traffic measures, ostensibly to improve local amenity but in fact to force drivers onto toll roads, means that the benefits aren’t as great as they should have been.
SMH reports National Security Committee has been convened to discuss Sydney incident and has warned that such an attack could occur for months.
This talking ‘expert’ on ABC24 seems to be implying this was an accidental siege of sorts.
The Lindt siege is an example of the width of the spectrum of the psychological disorder that religiosity is.
Puff
[It is not an ISIS flag and it is totally irresponsible for anyone to be reporting that it is. If there is one thing we need in these situations, it is accurate non-beat up reporting]
Agree!
Says this is a botched effort, and that the hostage taker/s were on their way to some bigger job.
BK:
Was thinking the exact same thing myself!
Spokesman on ABC TV (didn’t catch his name) suggesting that the raids this morning are indeed linked to this event, and also that what we are seeing now was is actually a “botched” raid that was intended to target something else.
However, while I think the former is likely, I’m not sure I agree with the latter – it seems to me that if you wanted a high profile target to maximize publicity, being directly opposite a TV studio would be a pretty good choice.
briefly@153: I find myself disagreeing with you a lot lately. You are completely wrong on this. Assuming it is handled as well as possible, this event (which is looking bigger and bigger by the moment) will give a significant boost to incumbent governments both Federal and State. This sort of boost wears off over time, but it’s real.
Anyway, who cares: the situation is absolutely terrifying and horrifying. I have family and many friends in Sydney and have personally had coffee at the Lindt cafe on a number of occasions.
The one certainty about this incident is it will turn popular sentiment even more strongly against the Islamic religion and Islamic community. Which is sad, but largely deserved. Islam was once a highly culture and sensitive religion, but in the 20th and 21st century it has evolved in most parts of the globe into a brutal and medieval load of nonsense.
“@LeenaVanD: .@ABCNews24 “Deductive logic” is not factual news. I think this is dangerous and potentially harmful. He’s inflaming, not informing.”
A lot of sensible people are doing tweets like this.
BK
[The Lindt siege is an example of the width of the spectrum of the psychological disorder that religiosity is.]
Agree and it isn’t helped by whacko Australians who still have “if you don’t love it leave it” stickers on their cars.
Bushfire Bill@143
Did Hadley ask Kenny the obvious question?
“OK, Chris, were you part of the plot or were you tipped off to leave?”
They want to talk to Abbott? Not Peta?
Sorry – sarcasm.
Sorry twitter feed moved to fast.
The tweet I meant to post was about not tweeting police movements not making silly jokes etc.
PO:
You have to hope it’s not a botched effort. If the hostage takers get twitchy and freak out they could start killing people.
MTBW@156
Sounds like a completely disproportionate reaction.
National Security Committee has met according to statement from PMO.
Actually, the Expert on ABCnews24 made a lot of sense. I don’t think he will get a run on the commercial media. He made too much sense.
I suppose we need to bear in mind the possibility, albeit a remote possibility, that the hostage taker(s) are Bludgers who are reading these posts.
Abbott has issued a press release, apparently.
US Embassy in Sydney has also issued a warning to ‘its citizens’ as well.
Confessions @ 176 – very good point. If they are ‘hot heads’ then sane and rational decision making may not be in the mix sadly.
Steve
I only partly agree with that. The recent string of toll road tunnel projects since 2007 in Sydney (Cross City, Lane Cove) and Brisbane (Clem 7, Airport Link) have all been financial diasters. Prior to the the projects were much more successful (M7, M5 East, Eastern Distributor, Gateway Upgrade). The problem is the tunnels – they are just too expensive, and the revenue rarely covers the cost.
confessions@176
Indeed. Let’s hope all they want is the publicity they have already achieved.
Boerwar
Posted Monday, December 15, 2014 at 11:35 am
I suppose we need to bear in mind the possibility, albeit a remote possibility, that the hostage taker(s) are Bludgers who are reading these posts.
You are a wanker.
Player One’
The Expert on 24 said that this would not have been a target. Terrorists get one chance and they would not go out in the morning to target a chocolate shop. He reckons they were on their way to something else.
If they’d been a few minutes quicker Chris Kenny would have been one of the hostages, as he reported to Hadley on the talkback line. The Sky News studios are just up the road a little bit, and Channel 7 is immediately opposite. The cafe is a frequent haunt of Sky News and Channel 7 staffers.
It is not too inappropriate, I hope, to speculate that if Kenny HAD been taken hostage, we never would have heard the end of it from The Australian – “EXCLUSIVE: From Australia’s front line against terrorism.”
Hadley’s talkback is going crazy with caller after caller demanding the revocation of passports, deportations, banning of the Muslim religion etc.
There was also an earlier report on Hadley of two Middle Eastern-looking men on the Bell’s Line Of Road (NW of Sydney) yesterday in a restaurant there making a big fuss about an EFTPOS cash withdrawl (which was declined). Customers at the restaurant were apparently quite scared, as it looked like it might get violent. Their car was later found in a Richmond service station, abandoned.
Also a terrorism (re)arrest in my own suburb of Beecroft is speculatively being connected with the incident in Martin Plaza.
What with Joe’s MYEFO and the Thomson’s appeal being at least partially successful, it’s shaping up as a big news day.
boomy1@185
😆 😆 😆
Puff, the Magic Dragon.@186
Then what were they doing in a chocolate shop?
This is clearly an action carried out by the “cocoa liberation front”.
Well the meeja are making hay while the sun shines.
Joe O’Brien on ABC is repeatedly describing the event as “unbelievable” and “surreal”.
He says there is no info that the hostage event is related to overnight arrest, “but it may be”.
Expert Joe Syracusa (with n American accent) says it’s a definitely a botched event because no terrorist would want to kill only a dozen or so ….. not enough publicity ….. the baddie was on the way to another much bigger job. Tell that to the Lee Rigby family.
Joe’s probably happy MYEFO will not lead any news today. Tinny!
[Count De Money @Gordicans 2 mins2 minutes ago
Ray Hadlee should be arrested and locked up until the siege is over #auspol]
How long before Abbott comes out and blames Labor?
Puff, the Magic Dragon.@186
Yes, I agree that makes sense. Seems to make it more likely this is a rushed effort triggered by the AFP raids this morning.
MB:
[The one certainty about this incident is it will turn popular sentiment even more strongly against the Islamic religion and Islamic community. Which is sad, but largely deserved. Islam was once a highly culture and sensitive religion, but in the 20th and 21st century it has evolved in most parts of the globe into a brutal and medieval load of nonsense.]
Your best argument against you is you. It seems you are happy to flow with the “popular sentiment”. Like any major religion Islam has a past of which it can be proud (highly cultural etc) and a past of which it can be ashamed. Like any major religion Islam has a “present” of which it can be proud (charitable service is demanded of adherents) and which it can be ashamed.
To suppose of a religion with over a billion adherents that there will not be any really kooky members – noting that all religions are emotional faith-based constructs rather than rational evidence-based constructs – is really silly. To accuse Islam of having “evolved in most parts of the globe into a brutal and medieval load of nonsense” is as offensive as it is misconceived.
[Joe’s MYEFO]
Joe’s My Yuletide Extraordinary Fork Oops
#190
Last line should be Sloppy Joe, not Joe O’Brien.
We are getting fashion reports now
@abcnewsSydney: ABC reporter Rachel Pupazzoni reports a cameraman has spotted a man with a bandanna on in the cafe #sydneysiege live: http://t.co/AG0jQb072Q
Hi
Turning on the TV news 20 minutes, and shocked into looking for more information, I dropped by here.
“The Lindt siege is an example of the width of the spectrum of the psychological disorder that religiosity is.”
Lot of truth in that – and in that some comments here show that disorder isn’t just in religiosity; some people’s loathing of Abbott is merely a mirror image of what Alan Jones directed towards Gillard.
F
[How long before Abbott comes out and blames Labor?]
Labor is on rock-solid ground here. Abbott even thanked Shorten in Parliament for his full co-operation on terrorist matters.
The media and pollbludger commenters not letting us down with the usual ridiculous commentary.