We’re about half-way between the weekly BludgerTrack and when I’m anticipating the next opinion poll, this being the period of pre-budget calm before the storm, and a new thread is wanted. So I’ve decided to hang this one off the latest ANUpoll survey, an exercise conducted by the Australian National University two or three times a year to gauge the public mood on a specific area of public policy, and track the salience of various issues over time. The subject of the latest instalment, which was conducted by phone from a sample of 1200 in February and March, is tax and equity in Australia. Among various findings on tax that would be familiar from those who follow Essential Research, the report also finds support for increased spending on social services at its highest level since the series began in 1987. The report also finds that, in spite of everything, 56% consider the existing system “moderately fair”, on top of another 4% for “very fair”, while 22% rate it “not too fair” and 18% “not at all fair”.
The survey also features regular questions in which respondents are asked to name the first and second most important political problems, out of a list that presently includes 27 options. To make this easier to interpret, I’ve condensed results into various categories, which are hopefully generally self-explanatory (particularly economy/budget, environment and better government – security/external covers wars, terrorism, defence and immigration, while services covers health and education and such). The progress of these results since 2008 is shown in the chart below.
From which a number of points are clearly worth noting. Concern about service provision mounted to giddy heights after the 2014 budget, but promptly returned to normal after Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister. The combined result for the various economic issues is at a low point in the latest survey, having peaked in the years immediately following the global financial crisis. Security/external and crime/society, which are largely conservative concerns, are on an upward trend. “Better government”, I’m guessing, was a popular response among Coalition supporters while Labor was in power, but is not a correspondingly popular choice for Labor voters now it’s the Coalition’s turn.
This is awesome. Mature men acting like real men by not being afraid to vote with their feet.
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http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/01/federal-anti-corruption-body-would-save-millions-says-dio-wang
The Greens Party supports a federal ICAC.
Neither Labor or the Coalition support the establishment of a federal ICAC.
The political duopoly protects the right to do business as usual with vested interests.
Re carp: I was relaxing today by a billabong at Richmond (Sydney’s NW outskirts) under the shade of a tree (not a Coolibah). A man set up nearby on a folding chair to do a bit of fishing and caught three large carp (about 50-55cm) in the space of a little over an hour. The body of water was a lake, about a kilometer long and 50m wide, not connected to any other body of water except during severe floods. There must be a lot more big carp in that relatively small pond, let alone the nearby Hawkesbury-Nepean River system.
It’s a real shame that the Coalition have been able to fund all their AS bastardy and whatnot with the unlimited credit card given to them by the Greens.
A few Parliamentary votes and a bit of media scrutiny at milestone debt levels might have woken people up to what the Coalition and Greens got up to together.
Are carp any good as food for humans? Or only for fertiliser?
Pegasus
Should have asked a while back and a bit late now but what is the mail from your rellies on the ground re Sanders ?
Yes it was mentioned at the time the Greens caved into the Liberals on debt ceiling what things the credit might be used for.
Do Murray Cod much depend on Carp fingerlings?
poroti:
Sanders’ campaign for the nomination is dying with each primary. It looks like Clinton will be the Dem candidate.
lizzie
Seems so.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/carp–if-you-cant-beat-em-eat-em-20140223-33b99.html
lizzie @ #805 Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 6:53 pm
I have a Chinese friend who just can’t understand the Australian attitude to carp which he regards as good to eat.
Re Carp
Always remember as kid in the sixties, on holiday at Murray Bridge, lost an oar overboard from a borrowed dinghy, and with a heavy metal rowlock it sank like a stone. Despite being in about twenty feet of water, it was easy to dive down and grab the oar.
You couldn’t do that now.
I live by the lake now, and although I am sure that a massive carp kill will cause some ecological disruption, it will be minor in the scheme of things. Murray cod feed on carp, but I am sure the carp reciprocate, so loss of the carp will certainly affect cod and other native fish numbers, but it should be in a positive way.
The big threat to the river system is not dead carp, but another drying episode. Storage levels are getting very low again, not helped by having the likes of Barnaby Joyce managing the Murray Darling Basin.
For irrigators on the lower Murray to vote for the Coalition is like turkeys voting for Christmas.
One of Obama’s lines from his correspondents dinner speech
“Next year someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it’s anyone’s guess who she will be”
confessions
I know t but I was wondering what the “natives” thought. What we see here in the meeja would be unreliable to say the least , they can’t even report the local circus.
Whoops! The parliament of our noble ally in John Howard’s never-ending ME war has been occupied by the citizenry.
poroti
I once had carp in China, and it tasted fantastic.
But I think it would be much better to get rid of them, than to utilise them.
If we can’t get rid of them, by all means utilise them.
poroti:
From what I’ve seen of the US talk shows there is real concern in the Clinton camp that the Sanders supporters are going to sit out the election rather than vote for Clinton. This group mostly seem to be millennials. I hope it doesn’t eventuate.
Peter Martin on the debt ceiling:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/get-rid-of-the-debt-ceiling-and-end-the-silly-pointscoring-20131113-2xhze
Just cut the Carp’s tail off and wrap it in wet hessian overnight. Kill the poor thing at your leisure the next day and yummo tasty carp
Carp make fine fishcakes. Tend to have a muddy flavour as fillets. If in enclosed waters they tend to be prone to various diseases. The main problem with them is that they feed by stirring up the mud at the bottom of the stream/lake which muddies the whole of the water, which stops light penetration and therefore slows down or prevents growth of algae of the type on which many other species feed. Net result is drastic reduction in population of native fish/crustaceans and overwhelming excess of bloody carp.
I took part in a killing exercise in a lake at the Sydney Bicentennial Park, using trailed electrodes to stun carp, which then floated to the surface. The lake is about 2 hectares in size, and we recovered over a tonne of carp, the largest of which was over 10 kg. A Thai member of our party took several smallish ones and presented us with perfectly edible, nay delicious Thai fishcakes a couple of days later.
Re Carp as food: I am pretty sure the man who caught the fish (who looked to be of Vietnamese heritage) was planning to supplement his family’s diet. He put the fish he caught in a net which he placed in the water, attached to the bank by a peg. I’m not a fisherman, but it seems that he intended to preserve them, probably to take them home.
Carp are a popular food in many parts of the world (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carp#As_food), although I don’t recall seeing them on the menu here. Maybe the best way to control them is for us to eat them.
Jesus how on earth did we get onto carp of all things?!
Oh look. Just as the Labor Greens shitstorm dies down, here comes paaptsef to start it up again.
Coz carp is all we do around here ;).
Bluey Bulletin 41 Day 41 of 103
SHOP STRIKE
Joyce reckons that Australia is still open for business. Bluey reckons except when it is not. Bluey wonders whether these immoral creeps will ever stop lying. Bluey also reckons that the Kidman ban is a sham. They will just break it into separate properties and sell it to same buyers a bit at a time. Each property will fall below the national interest threshold test. Bluey reckons so does the Coalition.
BULLYBOYS
Bluey notes that the Coalition, which has previously stated it wants the states to make their own decisions about education, has simultaneously chopped Gonski (without admitting it) and offered some tightly-tied state bait. Bluey reckons that these spivs will bully anyone except bankers, finance industry spivs, miners, farmers, the self-employed and the US. But the Coalition will bully Indigenous people, teachers, doctors, the unemployed, the sick, the jobless, and small nations like Nauru and PNG. Bully reckons that they are instinctive thugs.
CORMAN
Bluey no longer listens to this chap but when Corman was being introduced for this morning’s interview with Kelly and PvO he was smiling broadly. These two then gave him the nice little tummy rub he expected.
PARENTS UBER ALLES
Bluey notes that the Coalition continues the ideological warfare by which parents will run schools. Bluey notes that in practice this tends to mean better-resourced, richer, time rich and more reactionary parents. Smart reactionary politics = dumb and dumber education outcomes.
BUREAUCRACY GONE MAD
Parent engagement will cost more. Bluey notes that the Coalition normally hates bureaucrats. So, why is extra bureaucracy suddenly in the national interest? Bluey reckons that these unethical creeps are consistent in only one respect: hypocrisy.
TAXPAYERS DUDDED
Bluey notes that the Coalition is taking full advantage of spending lots of taxpayers money to dud taxpayers on a range of issues – mainly selling them what they do not want. Bluey reckons that the less the Coalition does the more it yaps about what it is doing.
ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
Bluey reckons that when the Coalition is cutting the social spend, it says, ‘It is not all about the money.’ But when the money is going to spivs, bankers, farmers, chronies hiding in the Caymans, multi-national companies then it IS all about the money. Bluey must admit to being rather sick of this tawdry bit of Coalition cynicism.
SHOVELLING MONEY
The Coalition is shovelling out small attention seeking amounts ($10 million for Reef tourism to fix bleaching, $15 million for carp mass murder, etc, etc.) Bluey reckons that all this gives the impression that they care and that they are active. The Coalition is finally reaping the rewards of incumbency.
AGENDA
Today dominantly on topics the Coalition wants to talk about.
GREENS ATTACK DOGS SAVAGE LABOR
Bluey reckons that the Manus Island issues are energising the Greens Monotonists who will concentrate their attacks where Labor is vulnerable. Bluey reckons that this is excellent news for the Coalition. Bluey notes that, apart from trying to help give government to the evil ones, the activities of the Greens will make no difference to refugees. None. Bluey draws readers’ attention to the Greens’ cumulative score. See below.
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
Bluey understands that we are supposed to get fixated by $8 million of taxpayer-funded FUD on checking the bags of our fellow travelling terrorists, oh yeah, but here is the real thing. The parliament of our noble ally in Iraq has just been occupied by followers of non other than al-Sadr. Those of us with longish memories might recall that one of the most ferocious and deadly battles in the Iraq War was between the goodies (us) and the baddies (followers of al-Sadr). Bluey is confident that Turnbull will ignore this blip on our war landscape, just as he is ignoring the ferocious bombing of our allies in Aleppo by Assad’s air force.
TOAST
Bluey asks where is Lomborg when you need him? 300 million Indians are suffering the consequences of an El Nino that is based on a higher global warming base. Bluey notes that BOM has belled the cat on Australia’s water security going forward, global warming-wise.
SCORE FOR THE DAY
Bluey gives today to the Coalition.
Cumulative score. Labor 26.5 Coalition 14.5 Greens 0
confessions @ #822 Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 7:22 pm
This from lizzie.
Boerwar:
Please thank Bluey for his contribution. Love he’s added a score for the Greens as well 🙂
Pegasus
Is this what you’re referring to? …
A future Coalition Opposition would have used the debt ceiling to discomfit and destabilise a future Labor Government. They would have done this at the first opportunity (LNP ahead in the polls and Labor needs to increase the ceiling). They would have happily precipitated a crisis, regardless of the damage caused, just like their Republican co-ideologues in the USA.
Thank you Greens for getting rid of the debt ceiling, allowing Labor could sit back and say they opposed the move. Oh and thank you for getting Senate reform up while Labor could pretend to oppose. Too bad you had to force Labor to support the return of fuel excise indexation.
Here are the other things that are destroying the fish biodiversity of the MDB: upside down flows (high in summer irrigation season, low in spring), cold water as a result of water coming from the bottom of impoundments, reduced overall flow rates consequent to irrigation and town water use, barrages which restrict mass breeding migration, increased loss to evaporation as a consequence of impoundments and irrigation, salinization consequent to clearing and irrigation, shallowization consequent to destruction of peak flow rates combined with erosion, blue-green algae, introduced pests (including Red Fin, Trutta, Gambusia, Kuhli Loach), destruction of riparian vegetation (including the recently permitted timber cutting of River Red Gums (Hunt, who else?), access to banks (and consequent erosion and nutrient pulses) by horses, cattle and sheep, bank erosion consequent to water sports including boat races and skiing and last, but by no means least, pulses of agricultural chemicals.
Carp are important but the Coalition bastards today were ignoring the real problems here: the systemic environmental rape of the MDB by the National’s clients.
“Oh look. Just as the Labor Greens shitstorm dies down, here comes paaptsef to start it up again.”
the ‘Greens’ have an 11 minute attention span which probably explains why they gave the Abbott an unlimited credit card to use on AS bastardy and whatnot
Nine News Australia
3h3 hours ago
Nine News Australia @9NewsAUS
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says voters won’t be bought off by a few dollars in tax cuts in budget: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/05/01/09/08/budget-to-tackle-bracket-creep-cormann …. #9News
confessions
I passed along your kind words to Bluey and he modestly agreed that he tries to be fair and balanced.
Kieran Gilbert @Kieran_Gilbert 18m18 minutes ago
I’ve had it independently confirmed – election will be called this Friday or Saturday
Re: Carp
Was down at the pump site we use at my workplace to irrigate some land. I had a young lad with me who was a bit of a problem at school and was spending time working with me. He disappeared for a few minutes while I was priming the pump only to return with a decent sized carp in hs hands. He has caught it with his bare hands! From then on I called him Gollum.
PO:
So the Greens were doing stunts? How unsurprisement.
lizzie – if you add carp to wood chips you get fish&chips, a really good garden fertilizer; i do not think they are very good eating but if you were really hungry, who knows.
confessions
Because Carp is an anagram of a word to describe the Coalition policies and budget we were discussing.
WTF?!?!?!
Bluey rants about how bad the Libs are then gives the day to them.
I reckon he’s not a blue ringed octopus, he’s a blue tied octopus.
More evidence of how biased the media (including cephalopods) is towards the Tories.
Dan
😀
and Poroti
😀
Charity shag?
BoerWar:
Forgive my ignorance, but is Bluey actually a separate entity to your self?
AB
I asked Bluey and he told me yes.
Confessions,
Re Sanders supporters threat to not vote for Clinton in November.
Most estimates I have seen predict that about 10% will not vote in the general election.
The highest estimate I have seen is 30%.
The sad thing for these Bernie or Busters is that although they think they are part of some huge movement the reality is that they are a fairly small group who circle jerk in their echo chamber thus giving them the impression that they are part of a revolution.
Most of Sanders supporters will vote for Clinton (particularly against a Tump or Cruz) and those who are currently acting like petulant children who stamp their feet when they do not get their way were either those on the far left who would rather have nothing as opposed to something if it is not their 100% pure ideal policy (sounds familiar) or as I suspect most are sneaky republicans who have taken advantage of the silly open contests in the US to pump up the candidate
they think that they have a better chance of defeating (Sanders) against the person they fear in a presidential election (Clinton).
The electoral college is heavily in favour of the Dems and barring an Islamic terrorist attack on US soil in the next few months I see no possible scenario for either Trump or Cruz to defeat Clinton no matter what the facebook and twitter Bernie boosters do in November.
The US will have its first women President and not before time.
😆 !!
[From what I’ve seen of the US talk shows there is real concern in the Clinton camp that the Sanders supporters are going to sit out the election rather than vote for Clinton. This group mostly seem to be millennials. I hope it doesn’t eventuate.]
There is a lot of similarity between Trump and Sanders supporters, they may even support Trump instead of Hillary. On the whole I don’t think about the same think of Trump and Sanders supporters, not all that much.
Colton
I have never given much credence to people who announce they won’t vote X or Y when they are natural voters of X and Y. So I voted Labor in 2013. Despite my intensely antagonistic view of Rudd and I can bet that tens of thousands of Turnbull bashers on the right will eventually preference the Liberal Party if not vote Liberal directly.
I think that Sanders supporters faced with the sheer horror of a Cruz or Trump presidency will turn out to vote for Hillary. They may be holding their collective noses when they vote, but vote they will. Unless all the polls are declaring a landslide for Clinton.
Colton
Sounds a lot like a certain unripe political party we have here on Oz.
Colton:
Unfortunately there are some high profile celebrity Bernie or Busters who are advocating exactly that: Bernie or Bust.
I’m in the camp of whoever the GOP candidate is this is not a lay down misere outcome with Clinton. All Democrats need to come out to vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that is. Otherwise you run the risk of a Trump POTUS, something even worse than an Abbott PMship.