Essential Research’s final result for the year moves slightly back in line with the rest of the pack, with the Coalition lead up a point on the fortnightly rolling average to 52-48. On the primary vote, the Coalition is up one to 45%, Labor down one to 35%, and the Greens down one to 10%. Respondents were also asked to rate six leading politicians as good or poor, which found Malcolm Turnbull leading the field on 50% good and 17% poor, Julie Bishop performing strongly on 43% good and 21% poor, and Scott Morrison doing less well on 22% good and 25% poor. Richard Di Natale came in at 16% good and 28% poor, but the real stragglers were Bill Shorten at 14% good and 44% poor, and especially Clive Palmer, rated good by 8% and poor by 60%. The appointment of Joe Hockey as ambassador to the United States records 33% approval and 42% disapproval. The poll also finds no clear view as to whether the Coalition government has been higher or lower spending than Labor, with 22% for higher, 21% for lower and 23% for about the same.
Meanwhile at Roy Morgan, the already huge lead for the Coalition blows out still further, with the Coalition up 1.5% on the primary vote to 48%, Labor down by the same amount to 27% and the Greens up half a point to 14.5%. On the headline respondent-allocated measure of two-party preferred, the Coalition lead is out from 56-44 to 57.5-42.5, while previous election preferences have it out from 55-45 to 56-44.
Section 3 . . . with Cartoon Corner
Why assault rifle bans won’t work in the US. He’s got a point.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-assault-rifle-bans-wont-work-in-the-us-20151214-glnk2l.html
“View from the Street” reviews Morrison’s budget-lite, Abbott’s East West Link disgrace and Abbott’s constant sooking since his removal.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-scott-morrisons-budgetlite-or-whos-getting-it-in-the-neck-20151215-gloasa.html
Great work from David Pope on MYEFO.
Alan Moir eavesdrops on Turnbull talking to Santa.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/alan-moir-20150921-gjrcxr.html?selectedImage=1
And John Spooner has his view on our economic fortunes.
Mark Knight with a well aimed swipe at Morrison’s weak MYEFO homily.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/0896edb1605121fecab719623b13f6b8?width=1024&api_key=zw4msefggf9wdvqswdfuqnr5
Bill Leak tones it down to give us something on MYEFO.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/0c78640393a5ee6a0ed4b4736be471af
David Rowe seems to be on leave.
Madman murders coffee shop manager. Cops storm coffee shop, kill madman and, in the ensuing melee, an innocent bystander.
Can I be forgiven for thinking the resulting ceremonies, memorials, wreaths, light sculptures, Ascham School choirs, bishops, Premiers, Prime Ministers and endless speeches, each vying to outdo the last, have something to do with the fact that:
(a) the cops did most of the killing that night;
(b) the madman in question practically had begged law enforcement authorities, state and federal, to pay attention to him for years previously, but they all dismissed him as a harmless nutter, passing his file around to each other with a snigger, until he murdered his wife, then got bail, then took the hostages;
(c) the “ISIS” flag he used was not an ISIS flag, but one he could have bought in any Dollar Shop or flea market in Auburn or Lakemba,
(d) at the time Australia desperately needed a terrorist incident, and this was the best we could do, but now it has a life of its own that no-one dares deny, because of:
(i) the need to justify the Terror scare campaign,
(ii) the social prominence of one of the victims,
(iii) all Australia loves to wallow in TV-inspired spectacles?
BB
I tend to agree with your assertions.
102, Couldn’t agree more!! Wonder how the families feel about all this being dragged up again. Are we going to have memorials for all shootings? Hostage situations? Where do we draw the line?
Erasmus @ 95,
‘ As I told the UN Security Council this spring…’
I thought you were having a delusions of grandeur moment there! 😀
Thanks BK
BB
As I noted yesterday, a woman murders 8 kids in Cairns and there are no anniversary memorials for that event, even though family violence kills many more people than terrorism.
Lindt has been elevated by pollies like Baird and Abbott because it is in their political interest to raise the level of concern.
Insidious bastards are following the ISIS playbook to a tee.
[Lindt has been elevated by pollies like Baird and Abbott because it is in their political interest to raise the level of concern.]
And our moronic media, including the ABC of course, plays along with gusto. No dissenting voices allowed.
Tony Abbott used to read Churchill in his office, I think Malcolm Turnbull and Bambi Baird have been reading P.T.Barnum’s collected works if yesterday’s mawkish and treacly spectacle at the Lindt Cafe siege site is any indication:
“Without promotion, something terrible happens… nothing!”
“Whatever you do, do it ardently.”
“The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.”
(humbug synonyms: deceive, trick, delude, mislead, fool, hoodwink, dupe, hoax, take in, beguile, bamboozle, gull, cheat);
“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.”
“Every crowd has a silver lining.”
Finally, and of course:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time.”
All the above which has been put here by me because I am in the last category. 🙂
18 tip offs in the days before – and they did nothing.
No excuses.
Listening to the coverage of the Martin Place memorial this morning, I heard the comment that “this was the day all Australia will remember” from the ABC radio guy (Robbie Buck, I think his name is).
There we have a classic sign that the TV mentality has taken over.
During ad breaks, aficianados of commercial TV stations often hear how the latest episode of whatever-soap-opera-they’re-talking-about will be “The episode that all Australia is waiting for”, or “The episode that will break Australia’s heart”, or more directly “All Australia is==will be watching”.
Whenever you hear “all Australia” used, it usually means someone is over-hyping something. It’s a simple test and it’s usually spot-on.
The aim is to get you thinking that unless you ARE watching, or unless you ARE grieving, then there’s something wrong with you. You are not part of the herd, and therefore un-Australian.
The basic situation with the Lindt Cafe siege was that it only happened because the authorities had written Man Monis off as a noisy, but harmless pest. He was someone who styled himself as an imam, dressed up in funny clothes and carried out some of his more public demonstrations virtually outside the 7 Network studios in Sydney’s CBD, before he did the Big One in the same location. He was an easy 30 seconds of footage for the nightly news, a nutter we could all have a giggle at… those funny Muslims.
The shot gun he had had a two-shot capacity. He was a dead man once both chambers had been emptied. The police fired hundreds of rounds, in the dark, into a crowded cafe full of people, all of them – except one – innocent victims of the situation. It’s no wonder that someone got killed who shouldn’t have been killed.
The cover-up began almost at once. When it came to light that that Brandis’ department had fobbed off Monis with a form letter, even after he asked for their legal opinion of him contacting the leader of ISIS, the back pedalling was in full swing.
At the inquest , authorities attempted to withhold evidence on national security grounds. It was evidence that they had royally f*cked-up. I’m not sure whether this evidence was ever produced in open-court, but whether it was or it wasn’t, the overwhelming coverage of the inquest’s report was that we finally had our very own terrorist incident to hang our Death Cult hats on.
You can’t blame the journalists, I suppose. They’re told to go after sensation. And this was sensation. This was a sensation that happened right outside the HQ of a television network. The location may well have been chosen for just that reason. Man Monis was nothing if not media savvy. And the TV crews – right from his pamphleteering days, through to his final breakdown – came-in-spinner every time.
Everyone came to the well to drink: Tony Abbott, George Brandis, Mike Baird, Andrew Scipione, bishops, lawyers, lesser politicians, bystanders… even the victims went on 60 Minutes to talk about their horrible experience. Man Monis had finally, in death, got the attention he craved.
Turnbull used a voice last night that I’ve never heard him use. Gone was the affable hesitancy, the insouciance of a brilliant mind struggling to find one of a thousand possible ways to impress us with his wit and charm, to put in simple terms the complex thoughts that course through his mind, so that even ordinary people could understand the ideas he was trying to get across.
Last night, Turnbull was in full baritone. Seen as weak on Terrorism, morally ambivalent, his Bent St. shirt front not quite made of Tony Abbott material, Turnbull went into full stentorian mode. No more waffling, no more appeasement. Here was his chance to take a firm stand on National Security.
2GB last night went into live-cross mode, occasionally interrupting their ads for pain creams, patent medicines, car tyre warehouses and home renovation companies to bring us snippets of speeches from “Ground Zero” (as they called it at one stage).Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione had been on only the day before publicly thanking 2GB for their sterling efforts in fighting crime on Sydney’s streets.
The TV stations were very similar. The story – and the man – that gave, had kept on giving. Every last ounce of pathos was milked out of last night. Man Monis had his reward which, if not 72 virgins, was even better: national coverage, unfortunately posthumous. Worth the trade for a nutter like him, I’d say.
If truth be known, an incident like the Lindt Cafe happens a dozen times a day in America. Cops, sieges, shootouts, murders… if only three people are killed it doesn’t even rate as “mass murder”. Back home the carnage on the roads continues, wives and their kids are being beaten and killed by their men, bikies shoot each other, meth freaks stab innocent people at bus stops. Mothers continue to refuse vaccination to their children and some of those children die. Most of it doesn’t even rate more than a mention on the next hourly news bulletin, unless the cameras make it to the scene… except if there’s a Muslim involved, and then All Australia is watching.
@ billie (42) – going to need a big [citation needed] on that.
Transmission losses are generally 0.5-1.1% per 160 km. I could believe that transmission losses in transformers take that up to 1-1.5%.
Where does the other 32% come from?
I always understood that the big bikkies were made by going after tax cheats, not welfare fraud.
Oh, hang on – that would raise revenue, not cut expenditure. And we don’t have a problem with revenue…
Was Morrison as big a train wreck on 7.30 last night as he was at his “are we there yet” press conference? He’s starting to make Eleventy look like John Maynard Keynes.
C@tmomma, the vagaries of the ipad
BB@745
Spot on! Makes you sick at heart that Australians are so bloody gullible, and our leaders are so bloody despicable.
I think there are some Bludgers who would like to send a care package to this sickly fellow.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-was-worried-about-upcoming-royal-commission-testimony-20151215-glnvbc.html#ixzz3uQWHsmmI
Thanks so much, BB. I’ve tried to avoid the coverage because it makes me nauseous. The exploitation of innocent people for political ends is revolting. I expected it from Abbott, but how anyone can retain any respect for Baird or Turnbull, I don’t know.
And C@tmomma, I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. either. Is the public even listening to ScoMo? Can you hear what he says and believe a word of it? The family holiday comparison highlights his contempt for our intellect.
bemused@61
Not according to a number of sources, there are, I believe at least five of the 500kV lines in operation from the Latrobe Valley to Melbourne.
The following is from a pdf, and getting the URL is difficult, but if you copy and paste the first sentence into google, it is first on the list when I searched.
The title is ‘CHAPTER 5 – ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION
DEVELOPMENT 5.1 Summary’ and the footer says ‘© AEMO 2011 Electricity transmission development’
A similar pdf makes reference to:
[An additional (sixth) 500 kV power line from the Latrobe. Valley to Melbourne in the Northern easement terminating at Templestowe (via Coldstream) at a cost….]
So it looks like there are five of them at the moment, with a sixth coming up. There are still a number of 220kV lines in operation, according to one map I looked at.
[The upgrade of the 4th Latrobe Valley-Melbourne line to 500 kV operation (from 220 kV operation) in 2004/05 enabled increased power transfers from new generation in the Latrobe Valley and from Tasmania.
In the metropolitan area, three 1,000 MVA 500/220 kV transformers, along with a number of small transmission network augmentations removed critical 220 kV transmission network limitations, and allowed the additional generation and imports to meet the growing load. ]
the last quote in my post above should be immediately below the text:
[The following is from a pdf, and getting the URL is difficult, but if you copy and paste the first sentence into google, it is first on the list when I searched.
The title is ‘CHAPTER 5 – ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION
DEVELOPMENT 5.1 Summary’ and the footer says ‘© AEMO 2011 Electricity transmission development’]
It refers to four 500 kV lines (2011) , but there are now obviously at least five, with a sixth in the works from the other quote.
Here is video of morrison interview with Leigh Sales last night.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/
Much more publicity should be given to this as the same ‘type’ of disaster has played out numerous times and will continue to do so. And no-one takes any responsibility.
[Ms Williams said Price, who had refused to take any anti-psychotic medication for the past three to four years and was not willing to take part in sex offender treatment programs, remained a danger to the community and had to be jailed for life.
She said psychology professor James Ogloff had warned that Price would commit further sexual and violence offences if he was not managed properly when released into the community, and that was exactly what had happened.
The Adult Parole Board allowed Price to move into a residential unit at Albion five months before he attacked and killed Ms Vukotic.
Price had been on bail at the time after being charged with threatening to kill prison guards during a stint in Port Phillip prison.
Justice Lex Lasry asked why authorities had decided to release Price into the community in October 2014 knowing he was suffering from schizophrenia and psychosis and was not taking his medication.
“It’s a matter of significant public interest how it happened,” Justice Lasry said.
Ms Williams said she could not answer the judge’s question.
Price’s Corrections Victoria case worker noted on February 26, just 19 days before the murder, that Price had become “increasingly agitated over the last few weeks”.
Price also volunteered to return to the sex offenders facility Corella Place in Ararat but the offer was ignored.
On the day before the murder, the same case worker revealed Price stormed out of their meeting after becoming unusually aggressive and hostile.]
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/my-intentions-were-evil-masa-vukotics-killer-sean-price-told-police-20151215-glnpb2.html
Helen Sykes @ 117,
‘ I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. either.’
It’s like some kind of Alternative Reality is created by the media to support the Chosen One and malign their opponent and we get an industrial strength overdrive vehicle created by them to support that person and grind into the dust the opponent, like some sort of weird political version of a ham wrestling match.
Until they don’t.
Then it’s on to Leader 2.0, well at least as far as the Liberals go, who is afforded an almost Electro Glide in Blue ride along the political beltway. So many thousands of words and images crafted lovingly on a daily and perpetual basis to keep the new master of the ship of state afloat. Aided and abetted by a few malcontents ( 😉 ) who stand on the side of the road taking pot shots with little verbal limpet mines so as to make us think it’s not too obvious what is actually going on.
Until, eventually, the barnacles just can’t be removed quickly enough. And the SS Ship of State starts to stink. And it sinks.
Which is ‘Not a problem!’ because reality is moving at such a pace these days that we are lucky to remember what happened, or what was said, yesterday, let alone last week. All involved then just pick themselves up, dust themselves off and scamper along the ropes to a new ship.
We definitely can’t remember back to what happened in August.
However, ‘lucky’ for us we have the plucky media Oompah Loompahs there to remind us what Bill did. Just in case we were starting to forget what a klutz he was and how could we even begin to think, horror of horrors, that he might make a good Prime Minister!?! He’s the guy that Malcolm the Magnificent needs to be able to put the headlock on until he pleads to be allowed to tap out.
Better for us to be able to support the monkey in silk, who replaced the monkey on a bike.
Because, at the end of the day the media will decide who we find Prime Ministerial, and the manner in which we do.
VICTORIA – You’ve got to laugh. What a total buffoon.
k17
Yep. Morrison is a joke. Actually the whole govt is…
More good work from Alan Moir
[Tony Abbott has allegedly set up a sleeper cell of Liberal insurgents aiming to undermine new PM Malcolm Turnbull. Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence reports.]
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/exclusive-abbotts-sleeper-cell-monkey-pod-plot-against-turnbull,8497
Here’s the good stuff from Moir.
Morning all. BB is right about Martin Place. Feel the emotion, but please ignore the embarrassing facts.
Meanwhile Scott Morrison says we can’t handle the truth about our debt. I suspect its probably more of a problem for him than us.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/myefo-budget-update-scott-morrison-believes-we-cant-handle-the-whole-truth-just-yet-20151215-glo3lr.html
We have been hit by a debt tsunami so big, it is as though Joe Hockey did a belly flop into our economy.
Also curious that our fearless leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has no opinion on our debt situation? What is your view Mr PM?
The new Star Wars is good, which is a relief for Morrison. People will have something else to talk about besides the coalitions abysmal failure to return the budget to the promised surplus. Have a good day all.
[Tony Abbott has allegedly set up a sleeper cell of Liberal insurgents aiming to undermine new PM]
Wasn’t that sleeper cell called his outer cabinet?
groups that the removal of bulk-billing incentives for pathology services is a Medicare co-payment by stealth.
‘To immediately … politicise it in those terms is not a helpful way to have a mature debate about the issue,’ Mr Morrison told ABC radio on Wednesday.
The Australian Medical Association says the cost will be passed on to patients who may forego medical tests as a result.
– See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/12/16/morrison-rejects–co-payment-by-stealth-.html#sthash.OwefFe8j.dpuf
BK
Are you listening to the Commission? Getting very interesting and Pell being mentioned.
Hopefully this MYEO is the start of the end of the long complacency that has gripped Australian politics since about 1996. Prosperity has made us politically apathetic and self-indulgent. We didn’t make a horse a consul, but we did make Tony Abbott PM. Not much difference. If it does, that can only be good for Labor.
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/poll-roundup-2015-year-in-review.html
Poll Roundup: 2015 Year In Review
2PP Aggregate 53.5 to Coalition (+0.1)
C@tmomma
[It’s like some kind of Alternative Reality ]
Alternative reality is a Liberal Party speciality. Take Howard. His government was seen, despite reality, as low taxing , low spending and economically responsible.
MTBW
I am listening indeed. And I get the impression His Honour is listening VERY carefully.
It’s starting to get interesting.
MTBW
I am listening to it. And I get the impression that His Honour is listening (and inquiring) with MUCH interest.
It might be heading to a very interesting outcome.
I had to post his twice as the posts disappeared.
BK
Both His Honor and the legal eagles are doing a great job and have you noticed that that creep Francis Sullivan is absent today.
I can’t be bothered to quote this whole piece. Just an example of how the Coal cuts a good program to fund two others, then the next year cuts the replacement. They run around in circles to achieve nothing.
[The Greens’ environment spokeswoman, Larissa Waters, said: “In 2014, the Liberal government cut $484m from the exceptionally successful Landcare program to fund the green army, but now they’re cutting out $317m of that money.”
Landcare, a community network, will lose $2.8m from its budget, while the establishment of the wind commissioner, whose task is to assess the health impacts of turbines, will cost the government $2.5m over four years.]
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/15/tony-abbotts-green-army-under-attack-as-coalition-cuts-budget-by-nearly-half
[Well, I kind of do (see my first point & just imagine if Bill Shorten was lauded by the media instead of laughed at).]
Of course, it’s all the fault of the media or the Greens or whatever or whoever but never ever anything to do with Labor policies.
But somehow even Richard Di Natale manages to cut through more than Shorten despite far less exposure in the media.
[Richard Di Natale came in at 16% good and 28% poor, but the real stragglers were Bill Shorten at 14% good and 44% poor….]
Even worse for Shorten is how he is viewed by Labor voters when compared to Turnbull.
[Malcolm Turnbull had a net rating of +72 with Liberal National voters and +11 with Labor voters. Bill Shorten had a net rating of +7 with Labor voters and -53 with Liberal National voters.]
In contrast Di Natale has the support of Greens voters.
[Richard Di Natale had a net rating of +43 with Greens voters.]
Even worse for Shorten the ‘Don’t knows’ is relatively low, viz 6% for Shorten versus 19% for Di Natale. Voters have essentially made up their mind about Shorten.
More media exposure of Di Natale and Greens policies would further increase his approval rating and increase the number of Greens votes.
If Labor had a leader like Di Natale would its voter share increase? 😉
KEVIN-ONE-SEVEN@132
Shame on you. A horse would be smarter. 😡
victoria @ 126
Thanks for the monkey pod report. Abbott the Wrecker still alive, it seems, and right out in the open now.
SOCRATES – Yes, it’s amazing (though predictable) that Boss Hog hasn’t said anything about our debt. They’re keeping him virginal white.
And a horse would be far more sensitive to people’s feelings.
Liberal insiders are leaking to IA? The Libs are in deep trouble.
MTBW
I think that performance by Walshe (and Pell’s lawyers) may have repercussions at some later stage.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-16/former-gunns-boss-john-gay-to-pay-24500k-after-insider-trading/7032502
[The former head of the Tasmanian timber company Gunns, John Gay, has agreed to pay $500,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Gay sold over $3 million of Gunns shares in December 2009, when he had price sensitive information.
He was convicted of insider trading in 2013 and was fined $50,000.
He was one of the highest profile executives prosecuted by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.]
I dare say the Medicare cuts will take some gloss of the LNP lead in the New year.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/big-polluter-to-plead-for-taxpayer-cash-20151215-glnxzd.html
Re: Alcoa – give the region a big wind/ solar installation from which they can get discount supply – and otherwise tell him to go to buggery.
Any other complex public policy issues to solve, just send em my way.
That Richard Di Natale, he’s such a nice guy…….I still won’t vote for him or the party he leads.
Essential: ‘Labor down one to 35%, and the Greens down one to 10%’