A ReachTEL automated phone poll in the Sunday Fairfax papers is another 53-47 result, with primary votes of 40.2% for the Coalition, 38.3% for Labor and 12.8% for the Greens. These results are all but identical to a ReachTEL poll conducted for the Seven Network a week ago, with none of the primary vote changes amounting to more than 0.4%. An all-or-nothing choice of preferred prime minister, with no uncommitted option, records a 58.5-41.5 lead for Bill Shorten over Tony Abbott, up from 55.1-44.9 in the Seven Network poll. Both leaders are found to be in third place as best leader for their party, which for Labor runs 40.1% Anthony Albanese, 34.9% Tanya Plibersek and 25.0% for Bill Shorten, and for the Liberals goes 45.4% Malcolm Turnbull, 24.4% Julie Bishop, 18.9% Tony Abbott and 11.4% Scott Morrison. All we have to go on at this point is this photo of the hard copy, so it’s not yet clear when the poll was conducted or how big the sample size was.
UPDATE: The report in The Age establishes that the poll was conducted on Thursday night from a sample of 2534. I’m anticipating another four polls over the coming days UPDATE: Sorry, make that three.
[ Taunts in Parliament and text brought about General Motors Holden’s exit from Australia
While listening to the words of Mr Hockey and Mr Truss, the Holden boss was on the phone to Detroit, where it was after 10pm.
Mr Devereux informed GM headquarters of the events in Australia. The decision was swift. Detroit pulled the pin. Mr Devereux would take up his position as vice-president of sales, marketing and aftersales for GM’s consolidated international operations, based in Shanghai.
Mr Truss on Wednesday claimed he had been told by Holden that the government’s actions had little influence on GM’s decision.
But Mr Hockey appeared to concede the government was not willing to give money to Holden. ”Ultimately, what it comes down to is prosperity only comes from hard work and enterprise; it doesn’t come from the benevolence of taxpayers,” he said.
After his phone call to Detroit, Mr Devereux booked a flight to Adelaide. ”I wanted to tell my workers first,” he said on Wednesday.
The Holden team hit the phones to spread the news. South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill and Victorian Premier Denis Napthine were next to be briefed.
After their protestations in the Parliament, it seems Mr Truss and Mr Hockey just may have been the last to actually know. ]
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/taunts-in-parliament-and-text-brought-about-general-motors-holdens-exit-from-australia-20131211-2z6i6.html#ixzz2nD3veSsM
Turning from Abbott to the world of sanity and reality…
Geraldine Doogue had a couple of really interesting segments on Saturday Extra yesterday that I would highly recommend. She also had one on Syria that I missed so can’t comment on.
Testing times for US and Australia relations
[In the early 1970s Australia’s relations with the US were very fragile indeed. Australia held the position of number two on US President Nixon’s list of least favourable nations. It was when Gough Whitlam and the ALP seized power and even though Nixon and Whitlam knew the world was on the cusp of great change with the rise of China in particular, one was enthusiastic about that change and one was cautious. These different views of two leaders of an alliance that was supposed to bring these nations together almost diminished at that time.]
An Economy is Not a Society
[The last political memoir to hit bookshops is by historian and former ALP political advisor and speechwriter Dennis Glover.
‘An Economy is Not a Society: Winners and Losers in the New Australia’ is about growing up in Melbourne’s outer suburbs in the 1960s and 70s, in a family of factory workers and in a working class community that is now gone.]
Any time any of our mental midgets starts ranting about the need to sell off or shut down the ABC, I need only think of the incomparable Geraldine Doogue and her program to dispel such notions as the rubbish they are.
Im genuinely torn between my desire to see Tony knifed by his colleagues (in an even shorter time than Rudd or Gillard), and my desire to see him stay on as leader until 2016, in the interests of both the ALP, and the nation in general.
I honestly cant decide which way to swing on this one.
lefty e@303
One of life’s true dilemmas.
But I come down on him going as soon as possible as he is simply doing too much damage while he is there.
Comment from Reith at that time –
[@PeterKReith It’s about time the public had an injection of economic reality, & if the loss of a few thousand jobs is the price. so be it ]
Like an earlier blogger (33), can’t see Labor as an election winner unless it can do better in NSW.
[One of life’s true dilemmas.
But I come down on him going as soon as possible as he is simply doing too much damage while he is there.]
Yeah if you put a gun to my head Id probably go for ASAP too. He’s just so good for the ALPs chances in election 2016 though.
its a real conundrum.
Is an Australian car industry gone for ever, or is there a possibility of a new start?
BK and Socrates can probably best comment on this but my thoughts are:
1. The Australian car industry has been too fragmented.
2. High wage countries such as Germany can support a viable car industry, so it is not a simple issue of wages.
3. Modern manufacturing is highly automated which also points to wages being less of a factor.
4. Australia can almost certainly never compete directly on price, so we need to find niche markets and elsewhere compete on other factors such as quality.
5. Part of the cost advantage of some other nations is due to lax safety regulation and non-existent environmental regulation. We should be prepared to level the playing field in relation to such factors by import charges.
6. Other nations subsidise vehicle manufacturing and we should also be fully prepared to level the playing field by either subsidising ourselves or matching their subsidies with a corresponding import charge.
7. Vehicle manufacturing is the core of a modern manufacturing industry and all the skills it requires. We need it!
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tafe-cuts-the-students-are-gone-and-its-like-being-in-a-morgue-20150807-giu3o5.html
WeWantPaul – private companies can spend their money however they want. If their shareholders are dumb enough to let that sort of spending go unchecked, it’s their own potential profits they’re wasting.
First class is for people who have more money than brains. It shouldn’t be used to pamper public servants, no matter how senior, around the world.
Anyone who is only interested in senior public service because they can get their hands on complimentary first class flights isn’t the sort of person who should be allowed anywhere near public money.
I’m calling “HOAX!” on that Vegemite story.
You need live yeast to make alcohol. Vegemite is about as dead as dead can be. You can leave the stuff in a jar for 5 years and still nothing grows on it.
I would support ministers travelling business class overseas if they are required to arrive alert for meetings. The foreign minister, for instance, packs in many flights in a short time.
How does Julie B travel?
“How do you use Vegemite for home brew???
I know it is a yeast extract. Is there some live yeast in it that can start fermentation? If so, you would hardly need to stock up. It certainly hasn’t got much in the way of sugar to be fermented.”
Yes, there’s live yeast in it. Add sugar and water and bingo, alcohol. Not something I’d want to drink, admittedly.
And I agree with your post that business class should be more than enough even for a senior public servant. I have no issue with that.
BB – test it yourself next time you’ve nearly finished a jar of vegemite. You want about a 1/5 ratio of vegemite to sugar, half fill with water, leave for a week in room temperatures.
“Beer”.
We’re happy little Vegemites,as bright as bright can be..
[Vegemite could be ending up in more than sandwiches, following reports of the yeast extract being used to make homemade alcohol in dry communities across Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The problem has been described as prolific in some areas in the Northern Territory, with reported instances of people buying up to twenty jars of Australia’s favourite spread at a time, for the brewing of homemade alcohol.]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/vegemite-being-used-to-make-homemade-alcohol-in-dry-communities-reports-20150808-giutpp.html#ixzz3iIJtHFql
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook
[ I honestly cant decide which way to swing on this one. ]
Thats easy lefty e. 🙂 He stays till the election.
Then you get to watch his concession speech. 🙂
‘Vegemite’ is trending on Facebook, so people must be talking about it.
[ bemused
Posted Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 3:21 pm | Permalink
….In the early 1970s Australia’s relations with the US were very fragile indeed. Australia held the position of number two on US President Nixon’s list of least favourable nations. ]
Not a bad position to be in really — considering how Nixon’s Presidency ended up ?
Christopher Hitchens, formerly Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine said –
[ the US under Nixon was in essence a rogue state, it had a ruthless paranoid and unstable leader who did not hesitate to break the laws of his own country in order to violate the neutrality, menace the territorial integrity or destabilise the internal affairs of other nations.
At the close of this mans reign it was more typical of a banana republic.
His own Secretary of Defense, James Schlesinger had to instruct the joint Chiefs of Staff to disregard any order for military action emanating from the White House. ]
@sprocket_/315
No detail, sounds like attack on Welfare again? dry communities? (i.e. is that an attack on Aboriginals?)
I should probably correct myself earlier – there is apparently no live yeast in Vegemite unless they mess up the autolyzation process.
Apparently the point of the Vegemite in a sailor or prison brew is to encourage good yeast growth and ward off competition from bacteria (live yeast are supposed to like the composition of yeast extract nutritionally). I suspect if it’s being used 20 jars at a time in remote communities, it’s because they don’t really know how to brew properly. Or they’re brewing an awful lot of it.
[Every time she comes here she includes a swipe at all PBers, collectively]
As a child she poked ants nests with sticks then ran away. Threw stones at beehives….
As the saying goes, sticks and stones….
Bushfire Bill@311
Agreed!
Although I have heard of some unorthodox uses for Vegemite, I doubt that is one.
Actually, when Kraft foods was owned by a filthy foreign tobacco company, my household switched to an alternative brand made in Australia by an Australian company, Mightymite.
[Mightymite was formulated and launched to give Australians the chance to buy an Australian Made Yeast Spread. Mightymite has a smooth taste, is less salty then other products on the market and is easy to spread and suitable for vegetarians.]
Thoroughly recommend it.
Yeast – Beer.
You dont have to look far to find yeast for your home brew….
http://www.rogue.com/rogue_beer/beard-beer/
bemused
Re the car industry.
I’m afraid it’s gone. Gone for ever. There is so much excess capacity world wide and the owners of these factories will always look after number one first.
To rebuild the capability and skills not to mention continuity of skills) in today’s circumstances would be nigh on impossible.
We have lost an industry of high technological and management capability that is hurting us badly. Much of the productivity improvement seen in Australia could be attributed to the diaspora of the auto industry going out there ad doing it. But where are they now?
Anyone not got Ambulance cover?
Got a bill on Friday for a 7.4kM Ambulance trip – a mere $1,1150!
Fortunately I am covered.
It seems an anomaly to me that it is not covered by Medicare.
BK@ 324
Yes, but the Government made it absolutely clear that it did not support rent seeker investors targeting our economy (unless they were miners of course).
BK@324
No hope at all? 😮
Look how Australia mobilised industrially during WWII. Could we no do something like that again, albeit on a different scale under different circumstances?
Are there no niche markets to use as a launch pad?
And you are right about companies looking after number one and that is part of the problem, we had no Australian companies in the game.
no do – not do … I am not a Scot. 😀
325
Was that 7.4kn trip by helicopter? Or is a road ambulance trip really that expensive?
I agree that ambulances should be covered by medicare. They are, along with dentistry, the big gaps in medicare.
The thing about mobilisation in wars is that they cost a lot of money and cause a lot of societal disruption. It’s pretty hard to convince the public to stand for it in the absence of a specific security threat.
I don’t get the romanticism around automobile technology anyway, frankly. It’s a deadend industry.
[bemused
Posted Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 4:35 pm | PERMALINK
Anyone not got Ambulance cover?
Got a bill on Friday for a 7.4kM Ambulance trip – a mere $1,1150!
]
Now why didn’t Bronnie claim that she needed the air ambulance or rescue helicopter to take her to Geelong? She could have got her private health insurer to pay and avoided all the ensuing fuss!
BB at 161
“Everyone’s pissed off with him, from the voters to his own party. Typical Abbott scenario. He’s pissed-off everyone who’s ever come across him for more than a casual encounter. Can’t help himself, really.”
That quite sums the situation up nicely.
bemused
You may be interested in this<
A modest house in Picnic Point was sold for $2.1 million last week.
I don’t think this Vegemite story passes the pub test – it certainly doesn’t pass the science test. Vegemite contains no sugar and very few, if any, viable yeast cells. How is anyone using it to make alcohol?
I just set up a little experiment. Two bowls of warm water with sugar in them. I added a packet of yeast to one and some Vegemite to the other. The yeast was active in about 10 minutes; the Vegemite was a bowl of blackish water.
If someone wants to make some (really basic) alcohol, just buy the sugar and yeast at the supermarket.
Bemused, you raise some interesting issues
[1. The Australian car industry has been too fragmented.]
Yes, and a lot of the issues comes down to economies of scale. The magic number of manufacturers that we seemed to be able to support was three – whenever we had more than three – Leyland, Nissan, Mitsubishi – one would fall out. Both the market and the manufacturers were too small to achieve the required economies of scale. Unless, we were prepared to live behind a giant tariff wall we could never get the size up. The car makers could not provide the range, they would be expensive and the market would be much smaller.
[2. High wage countries such as Germany can support a viable car industry, so it is not a simple issue of wages.]
They have massive economies of scale but the German car makers have shifted a lot of their production to lower cost countries. VW to Eastern Europe, BMW to South Africa are two examples.
[3. Modern manufacturing is highly automated which also points to wages being less of a factor.]
Again, economies of scale. The other issue that you haven’t raised is that the high Australian dollar was the ultimate killer of the car industry. They could not compete in export markets and imports became very cheap.
[4. Australia can almost certainly never compete directly on price, so we need to find niche markets and elsewhere compete on other factors such as quality.]
Possible, but we have never the niche high end manufacturers that helped keep British car manufacturing alive through very lean times.
[5. Part of the cost advantage of some other nations is due to lax safety regulation and non-existent environmental regulation. We should be prepared to level the playing field in relation to such factors by import charges.]
How important has this been in a globalised car industry? Do you have examples?
[6. Other nations subsidise vehicle manufacturing and we should also be fully prepared to level the playing field by either subsidising ourselves or matching their subsidies with a corresponding import charge.]
The subsidies are very hard to identify. Not sure if it is the case now but The Japanese and Koreans in the past had very high tariff walls.
[7. Vehicle manufacturing is the core of a modern manufacturing industry and all the skills it requires. We need it!]
Definitely provides skills but in the past and the development of the car industry in countries like Thailand is that it is essentially fairly low skill except in a few areas.
Tom the first and best@329
It was road.
Pretty high tech ambulance with 2 paramedics on board.
One of the issues adding to the cost is the amount of time such expensive equipment and staff stand idle, either waiting for a call, ‘ramped’ at a hospital or on return journeys.
Odd you mention dentistry. One of the paramedics had been a dental therapist performing dental procedures on school kids (and paid a fraction what a dentist gets) before she tossed it in to become a paramedic.
PP – I don’t think they’re brewing from *just* Vegemite which is obviously nonsense. Even people who claim it works say you need to add sugar.
teh_drewski@330
I think Tesla and others are about to cause enormous disruption. Already starting.
If you are starting unencumbered by legacy equipment etc, you may have an advantage.
Tom @ 329
That bill of Bemused is not unusual. A few years back, one of our kids had to be taken by ambulance to the Royals Children Hospital in Parkville. The bill was over $900 – fortunately covered by our health fund.
HOWEVER, and this is the catch – out health fund had a limit on how many ambo trips our family was entitled to in a year. Not many!! especially when sporting injuries are a weekly possibility. We have now ambo cover as well.
MTBW@333
I think my parents home would have been headed in that direction if not sold back about 2008.
Where I live, old houses are selling for around $1M and being demolished and replaced with a McMansion.
I used to be a professional winemaker, so I can see the possibility of Vegemite being a source of nutrients for yeast – it is not uncommon to add yeast hulls, as they are known, as a yeast nutrient. But the story is obviously designed to generate some confected outrage.
bemused – I think Tesla is the last kick for the concept of private automobile ownership. It just doesn’t make sense in a fully connected digital society to travel places constantly and what travel does need to be done will be done with shared vehicles in the future.
It’s a while off, but it’s coming. No point tying up national resources in an industry that’s already got the last chapter written out – even if it’s going to take a while to get there.
PP – absolutely agree on the confected outrage part! Banning Vegemite would be absolute nonsense.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-06/india-opens-gateway-to-central-asian-gas-riches-after-iran-deal
India really does not need expensive coal from Queensland.
blackburnpseph@339
That is an excellent point about the limits.
I really would prefer to deal direct with the Ambulance Service or better still have it covered by Medicare.
[India really does not need expensive coal from Queensland.]
Presumably to be shipped by sea rather than relying on a pipeline across Pakistan.
teh_drewski@343
I am all for such a ban! Foreign rubbish. Support local manufacturers and use Mightymite! 😉
On the subject of brewing alcohol from everyday foods – one time we were asked by a ‘prisoners aid’ charity to bake biscuits that were distributed to prisoners. One rule was that the biscuits could not contain dried fruit as it could be removed and used to brew alcohol.
blackburnpseph@346
It is possible to skirt around Pakistan.
Ambulances are free in Queensland for Queensland residents and the government will pick up the bill for Queenslanders transported by ambulances while interstate.