The situation in general

An open thread.

It’s past time for a new open thread, despite the want of new polling to hang one off. Do observe there are thread below for the New South Wales and Queensland state elections, for those of you who like that sort of thing.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,776 comments on “The situation in general”

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  1. At this point I think both ABC News and Sky are essentially reporting based on Twitter anyway.

    Apparently the stabbing report has now been debunked, though.

    Twitter’s fun. Not really reliable though.

  2. TPOF

    They say you should be wary of taking leave when the young guns have their eye on your job.

    The Latika piece you linked to would appear to be filling the space normally occupied by Peter Hartcher.

    As bad as he is Hartcher need have no fears.

  3. Jake

    Still relying on twitter. And a quote from qantas that it’s business as usual

    Back in the day when I knew people who worked in newspapers there was always at at least one reporter and photographer on a midnight to dawn shift at weekends. TV and radio probably did the same. That was when a lot of things happened.

    Now they just recycle tweets

  4. Latika Bourke on Simkin:

    [Affable, respected and clear-eyed, the well-liked press gallery veteran (who’s that?) has the badly needed skills required to mend some of the PMO’s broken relationships with parts of the media.]

    Say what? Broken r’ship with parts of the media? Hey, wouldn’t that be the “broken r’ship with his constituents? What’s the fucking “media” got to do with it?

    [But his task is herculean and will only be surmountable if the Prime Minister is capable of fundamentally recasting himself by rediscovering the political instincts that served him well in opposition but ditching the tactical approach that is crippling him in government.]
    Tony Abbott’s task is Herculean? Nah. Simkin’s task is, apparently.

    And, oh, of tedious course, there’s a test for Tony – and Simkin – which they’ve already failed.

    For crying out loud, can it get any worse.

  5. Jake – no, it wasn’t. It also reported that someone got stabbed, that flights were grounded, that the international terminal was evacuated, and that the entire airport was evacuated.

    1 hit to 4 misses isn’t what I’d call “reliable”.

  6. “@9NewsMelb: UPDATE: Victoria Police and AFP crews on site at Melbourne Airport. T4 has been evacuated – no other terminals impacted. #9News”

  7. kezza2@1758

    Latika Bourke on Simkin:

    Affable, respected and clear-eyed, the well-liked press gallery veteran (who’s that?) has the badly needed skills required to mend some of the PMO’s broken relationships with parts of the media.


    Say what? Broken r’ship with parts of the media? Hey, wouldn’t that be the “broken r’ship with his constituents? What’s the fucking “media” got to do with it?

    But his task is herculean and will only be surmountable if the Prime Minister is capable of fundamentally recasting himself by rediscovering the political instincts that served him well in opposition but ditching the tactical approach that is crippling him in government.


    Tony Abbott’s task is Herculean? Nah. Simkin’s task is, apparently.

    And, oh, of tedious course, there’s a test for Tony – and Simkin – which they’ve already failed.

    For crying out loud, can it get any worse.

    Latika clearly has a hitherto unrecognised gift for comedy.

    That’s pure gold! 😆

  8. “@GhostWhoVotes: #Galaxy Poll NSW Preferred Premier: Baird 47 (-2) Foley 16 (-2 compared to Robertson) #nswpol #auspol”

    “@GhostWhoVotes: #Galaxy Poll NSW State Primary Votes: L/NP 44 (-2) ALP 36 (+2) GRN 11 (0) #nswpol #auspol”

  9. Swamprat @1703:

    The ABC is so piss-poor because Coalition governments consistently undermine any attempt at actual journalism, and ALP governments don’t do much to restore it.

    Basically, the Coalition tears it down every time they’re in office, and Labor fails to adequately rebuild. For instance, the $500m budget cuts the ABC/SBS are getting – don’t bet on Labor restoring all of the money! They’ll probably restore about half of it, and pocket the rest in perks for their own corporate donors.

  10. William @1769:

    So that amounts to, what, a 10-point swing to Labor since the last election? Not good enough to form Government, obviously – but a dramatic improvement on 2011’s results, that should help position them for the next election.

    Of course, that’s assuming the Lying Friar doesn’t come to NSW to “help” his buddy Mike Baird…as I recall reading that he’s going to visit Cairns during the Qld election?

  11. Bemused @1764:

    I think it’s rather entertaining for a journo to talk about the “broken relationship” between Abbott and them, given that they did everything in their power to ensure he became PM in the leadup to last election – he must have been the most under-scrutinised (by which I mean non-scrutinized) Opposition Leader in Australian history!

    And while it was the usual suspects in the Murdoch media who led the charge of ignorance, the rest of the mainstream media was almost as bad in 2013. Endless, frothing speculation about Labor leadership, blow-by-blow dissection of every moment of the previous six years….and you wouldn’t think that Abbott was the alternative PM, given how seldom his name was even mentioned, let alone his policies!

    And here the media are, stubbornly refusing to call a spade a spade and a liar a liar, despite spending the entirety of the last term of Parliament hounding Labor over one promise (the ETS)…instead, they’re acting like Abbott’s frickin’ relationship counselors!

    Talk about a bloody headwind for anyone not approved of by the IPA….

  12. Swamprat

    [The IPA are not anarchist. They are impatient communists. … They support the withering away of the State but BEFORE economic equality]

    Err no … Anarchists and communists are opposed to all forms of power of one human over another. That includes class power. Anarchists thought the state could be junked immediately and that when it was, class power would vanish. Communists thought classes would weaken and vanish with material abundance and that since the state was merely an instrument of class power, it would atrophy (‘wither’) and eventually vanish.

    The IPA are neither anarchist nor communist but rather advocates of the direct power of the boss class over working folk unconstrained by state power but underwritten by it whenever working folk resist.

  13. One gets the impression that Latika, Simkin and Tony are all cobbers. Members of some little quaint gang.

    swamprat @1761 & others discussing Simkin just there.
    Yep, a gang that got together to destroy a government & is now forced to confront an unforseen consequence- that in doing so they’ve fucked the country.
    As for Simkin’s new task, I just regard that as an interdivisional transfer. Plus a personal promotion for him.

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