I’m afraid I won’t be able to treat you to the normal weekly BludgerTrack poll aggregate update this week, but given the ongoing stability of the polling situation generally, you’re probably not missing much. We do, however, have the first fortnightly rolling average result for the year from Essential Research, last week’s result having been drawn from a single week’s sample. The Coalition’s two-party lead is up from 51-49 to 52-48, but the primary votes are unchanged at 44% for the Coalition, 35% for Labor and 10% for the Greens.
Other results from Essential Research show little change in perceptions of the state of the economy on two such results last year, with 28% rating it as good (up two from September) and 31% poor (down one), while 30% rate the economy as heading in the right direction (down four) versus 38% for wrong direction (down one). Scott Morrison is favoured better to handle the economy by 26% (down one), versus 19% for Chris Bowen (up one). Eighteen per cent favour increasing Australia’s military involvement in Syria and Iraq, with 34% wanting it decreased and 32% favouring no change. Respondents took a favourable view of Australia Day, which 56% rated “a day of national pride” against 22% who opted for two disapproving choices: “a day of reflection on the impact on indigenous people” (14%) and “irrelevant in the 21st century” (8%).
[The study found the Whitlam generation – those who were “socialised” in the decade up to 1975 – is the only cohort which shows “overt negative attitudes towards the monarchy” today.]
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/republic-push-study-into-monarchy-backs-tony-abbotts-view-that-australians-oppose-constitutional-change-20160128-gmfqls.html
[There are an awful lot of engineers who are climate change denialists. Not sure why that is.]
Zoomster, see the below. Its a light hearted article, but you are far from the first to notice.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Engineers_and_woo
[Engineers and woo
An engineer is a professional trained in engineering: the design and construction of devices or other works. They put science into practice, designing the stuff that makes civilization.
Most engineers are as sensible and reasonable as anyone, but engineers as a group have a noted tendency to pontificate on things well outside their area of expertise, to the point of actual fallacy. This phenomenon is so prevalent that users of talk.origins have come up with the Salem Hypothesis, which predicts that any creationist claiming scientific expertise or advanced degrees is likely to be an engineer. Of course, this does not mean that engineers are likely to be creationists.
The phenomenon also applies to some fields of computer science, such as software engineering, which are more applied mathematics than science.
Quantitative evidence of this is lacking, but it has been noted on the internet frequently.]
Good list of well known engineers who’ve gone off the deep end.
Rex,
So, who should they waste their time with?
lizzie,
This is because the current generation of republican leaders only talk about the Leader and not the what they would do nor the process for their investiture.
So we have, once again, a PR campaign and not a campaign to explain what would happen and how it would work.
GG
Yes, I would definitely like to see more detail.
[WeWantPaul
Posted Thursday, January 28, 2016 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
20.Say what you will against Bemused, but I’m pretty sure he’s not “notorious for drinking alcohol”.
I will say what I will! Thankyou William… There was a long list of things I wanted to say this morning … Where is it.]
how juvenile
No zoom@334
C.P. Snow noted in his essay “On two cultures ” (1950s?) that engineers are somewhat more likely to be politically conservative, while scientists are more likely to be somewhat left of centre. It is a generalization, but teaching both scientists and engineers I think the characterisation has some validity.
After sitting through many Open days, and talking to prospective students, I would say that those who chose a career in physics are less motivated by income and job security than those who chose engineering. And a bit more dreamy, and likely to be enthused by the great discoveries of science, and willing to give up some security to be part of it.
For the standards in universities, I think we have passed “peak cheating /lax standards “. The University I work for is pretty careful and rigorous about standards and plagiarism. Our reputation depends on it, but the commitment is genuine.
I also wondered when I saw the SMH article on ATARS yesterday if some of the people who gained entry to law and medicine with ATARs below the cutoff were from disadvantaged groups. I am particularly proud of our longstanding commitment to taking aboriginal and rural students into medicine. I talk to these students (they are always nervous about how they will cope with physics, and I am always impressed by their intelligence and passion.
Let’s face it , if an Aboriginal kid from Brewarrina can get an ATAR of 85, which is actually a damn good mark, and shows them as being more than capable of completing n MBBS , why would anyone prefer that place to be left vacant?
Strong UnionsStrongCountry@406
Maaaaate ….. It was a joke. Lighten up.
D&M
[I also wondered when I saw the SMH article on ATARS yesterday if some of the people who gained entry to law and medicine with ATARs below the cutoff were from disadvantaged groups..]
This also occured to me.
My son had an excellent ATAR score, but alas – he is a Maths/Physics student, and he crashed at English. This basically (and, to my mind, bizarrely) barred him from Engineering.
If the system was being rorted, then there would have been no reason for him not to get into the courses he applied for.
I did point out to one of the Uni Heads of Department that it is a bit pointless to talk about your commitment to students from disadvantaged schools if you don’t take into consideration the form that disadvantage might take (in my son’s case, an inexperienced English teacher, who didn’t prepare the class for the exam – he wasn’t the only bomb).
He got in to a UniLink course, which he aced (and top scored in English!) and has now been accepted into Honours Engineering (Civil), so it all worked out in the end, but his experience does cast doubt on the idea that anyone with a pulse can go to Uni.
(One of my nephews had a similar experience – he did well on his subjects, but as they were all in the health area, he was marked down, and didn’t get a Uni place. He’s now completed one degree, and is starting another in Medicine!)
Laura Tingle provides a good analysis of the state of play.
http://www.afr.com/opinion/tax-policy-answers-would-be-good-but-the-question-would-be-even-better-20160128-gmfsbq
You’d wonder why he bothered. The claim has been comprehensively refuted.
[Bill Shorten writes to US presidential hopeful Ted Cruz over ‘offensive and incorrect’ gun claims]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-28/ted-cruz's-gun-claims-are-'offensive'-bill-shorten-says/7122106
don,
Who’s Don?
Greensborough Growler@410
Including –
[ Turnbull sits atop a government alive with malevolence and bitterness from some splendidly mediocre people. ]
Strong UnionsStrongCountry@406
Hey, lighten up. I am capable of taking a joke at my expense and even enjoying it. 😆
dave,
“Tax policy: Can Turnbull and Morrison shape a new great political partnership?”
Er, no!
Tingle skillfully omits to mention Gillard/Swan. Labor and the GFC are still fairy tales out there in media land.
CTar1@411
Showing a bit of leadership on the issue? Contrast with our PM.
Mike – yep. Correct.
I noted that.
dave
And I think Tingle’s one of the better journos, hope she’s not going soft.
GG
Most (All) of the MSM are letting turnbull off pretty lightly.
Over 4 months in office – basically no policy outcomes of note. His lack of achievements are getting no mention.
No mention of his constant “Jetting Off” as Labor PM’s are constantly referred to. No detailing of travel expenses or Km’s travelled.
No visit to our Biggest Trading partner China despite all that “Jetting about” and being in the North Asia Area – and barely a mention in the MSM although China noticed it and AFR carried this –
http://www.afr.com/news/turnbulls-visit-favours-japan-chinas-newspapers-say-20151220-glrtvr
The constant internal disputation within the tories is being mentioned in the media then just dropped. Labor had fuel poured on such situations by the media.
No questioning of what turnbull *Actually* stands for – what his overarching narrative is etc.
Different now – such questions no longer need replies – ‘apparently’.
Tingle saying the Govt lacks a narrative?
[Until now, it appears the Prime Minister has largely left it to his Treasurer to develop a narrative and a plan on tax and the budget.
But given Turnbull’s need to stamp his authority on the government – and create some distance between himself and his predecessor – that starts to change from this week.]
Laura doesn’t need to tell people on this blog that Turnbull has been poncing around pretending to be PM and is just delivering other people’s lines.
bemused
[Showing a bit of leadership on the issue? Contrast with our PM.]
I don’t think anyone’s going to decide to vote for the ALP because Shorten wrote to Cruz.
D&M
Looking at those ATAR scores it seems as if Engineering has not dropped much, and it would be as you say quite OK to offer places to disadvantaged kids. The key issue is does the kid have the ability to catch up any missing knowledge over the course of the degree, and does the university have systems in place to help them in the early years.
However where there are courses at University accepting anyone with essentially a high school FAIL grade this is absurd and destroys the reputation of universities of Australia. It is insane and culturally destructive to accept in a TEACHING degree anyone who failed high school. If a teacher cannot read and write well how can they possibly teach. this is now a serious issue and must be addressed.
I know my youngest son had a teacher in primary school who could not spell. He corrected her, so that he got a nickname as a pedant. However a 10 year old should not be a better speller than his teacher.
Mike – agree with you on Tingle being one of the best.
At least she is raising some stuff – most of the others are asleep, work for murdoch etc.
dave,
Parliament resumes next week.
I reckon Turnbull has a dud for a Treasurer, a feral back bench and that strange face of a solution in search of a problem.
[… economic policy may be much more solid ground from which to define his prime ministership.]
Err, not with a GST it won’t be. The “soft left” won’t thank him for that.
Amid all the problems building for Malcolm, Meathead Sco-Mo is going to hand him a GST platform. Wow.
https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/richard-cooke/2016/28/2016/1453936531/cult-arsehole
The cult of the arsehole, it’s exactly what’s advertised in the title
D &M at 407, brilliant post! Thanks.
GG
[ I reckon Turnbull has a dud for a Treasurer, a feral back bench and that strange face of a solution in search of a problem. ]
No argument on that from me.
CTar1@423
It just feeds into the overall ‘vibe’.
[The constant internal disputation within the tories is being mentioned in the media then just dropped. Labor had fuel poured on such situations by the media.]
All day yesterday their ABC was running with a faux conflict between Nick Champion, whose previous claim to fame was the number of times Bronnhilde tossed him, and Jay Weatherill about the GST. Their idea of balance is now to run a puff piece on Turncoat, balanced by a get stuffed piece on some back corner of Labor.
Airlines
[The cult of the arsehole]
😆
Douglas and Milko
Engineers are “trained” for conformity/conservatism. Doing things as they have always been done, because it works, is highly desirable. Makes for fewer bridge or building collapses etc. New methods are a scary concept.
poroti@435
You are an engineer?
[ ABC on….Jay Weatherill about the GST ]
I’ve yet to see or hear the ABC actually accurately state Jay Weatherill’s proposals on a single occasion. Viz –
– His so called ‘support’ for a GST increase is on the basis the money goes to the states for health & education – not tax cuts to companies and the wealthy.
– Alternatively give the states 17% of Commonwealth Tax income so that that can go into health & education.
Now why can’t an organisation seeming obsessed with balance and accuracy get that right and tell people what the facts are ?
On the other hand no mention is made that the tories have insisted for 15 years that any GST increase *MUST* be agreed to by ALL States.
Nada on that.
Airlines,
That’s as good a bullocking as could be ever imagined.
Interesting that Tringle describes Malcolm as “mute” on domestic issues. Two reasons for that:
1. He hasn’t been handed his lines yet; and
2. If he does, his party will tear him apart.
He’s a part-time Prime Minister.
[ He hasn’t been handed his lines yet ]
Will abbott be handed his lines when meeting with murdoch in the US ?
Shut up and retire and we’ll find you something ?
dave @ 437
Time and again I have seen the same thing from ABC journos: “South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill supports a GST, but Bill Shorten has refused. Can you say something really offensive so that we can report how Labor is now tearing itself apart over the GST?”
DAVE – Interesting. But Tones needs enemies and anger in his life. Can Rupe offer him that?
TPOF – People from PB have tried complaining to the ABC over the years on various matters – but have ALL been told to join the Far-Queue.
People have posted their detailed complaints and ABC replies here.
ABC flick them all.
KEVIN-ONE-SEVEN@442
No problem. With Bells on.
NewsCorpse ALWAYS has enemies.
Makes new ones all the time.
abbott would be like a pig in *you know what*.
Mark Latham loses another gig.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/01/28/age-newsroom-revolt-ends-latham-column-before-it-begins/
Not my usual thing but Ai Weiwei is using instagram to show pictures of refugees arriving on Lesbos or Lesvos.
He closed his exhibition in Denmark in protest about their law, one wonders why he hasn’t closed the Melbourne exhibition.
Abbott as a new RWNJ joining the Fox Nutters for the 2016 Presidential Campaign to tell them how to deal with their *Enemies* ?
FMD – why would he need Can-Berra ?
bemused
Nope. Just came across a few through work. Perhaps it was the industry but resistance to getting stuff tested with new and better methods was always an uphill struggle. Largely futile. Chap who taught stats made a comment when we were taking about chemometrics that he hated teaching engineers as they were so resistant to techniques that differed from what they had been taught or were new. So on that “vast” sample I formed an opinion ,accurate or not.
Whatever the case I am very impressed with the stuff engineers do, especially after getting up close to heavy duty oil + gas facilities. Shame so many pop up as “The Engineer” in terrorist groups. 🙂
[
Leroy Lynch
Posted Thursday, January 28, 2016 at 6:52 pm | Permalink
There are an awful lot of engineers who are climate change denialists. Not sure why that is.
Zoomster, see the below. Its a light hearted article, but you are far from the first to notice.
]
To be fair; to accept climate change is to accept that historic records are of little value. Thousand year floods; the type of flood you generally ignore; may come next year and for that matter the year after. What do you do?
Wind loadings; what do you use?
Utilities; not much value if your area becomes a cyclone area and the cyclones happen each year.
Right now the problem is generally being ignored; what data do we use when don’t; how is the weather going to settle; is it going to settle?
poroti@448
Even though I qualified many years ago and did not work as an engineer for very long, I still get picked as one by some people. I guess there is a bit of a mind set to it, an approach to solving problems perhaps?
I am also a lateral thinker and good at spotting patterns and solutions others have failed to identify.
Maybe I am not a typical engineer.
I have noted as you have the propensity for engineers to feature in terrorist groups.
They are also prominent in the Chinese leadership.