The Essential Research fortnight rolling average moves a point back to the Coalition for the second week in a row, reducing Labor’s lead to 52-48. Labor is down two points on the primary vote to 35%, with the Coalition steady on 36%, One Nation steady on 10% and the Greens up a point to 9%. The monthly leaders ratings find Bill Shorten taking a big hit, down seven points on approval to 30% and up three on disapproval to 47%, and Malcolm Turnbull a smaller one, down three on approval to 34% and up one on disapproval to 49%. Turnbull’s lead as preferred prime minister is out from 39-28 last month to 39-25.
The survey also asked respondents if they would be likely to vote for Cory Bernardi’s Conservative Party, to which 14% said yes – which, as is always the case when questions like this are asked, is well above the party’s plausible vote share. Sixty-two per cent say they would be unlikely to, which is on the high side as these things go. The poll also has 17% saying Bernardi’s defection is good for the Liberal Party, 26% bad, 29% neither, and 28% don’t know. As of next week, the Essential Research poll will be published in conjunction with The Guardian.
We’ve also had federal voting intention results from the weekend’s Queensland poll by Galaxy for the Courier-Mail, which has One Nation on 18% (up six since November), the Coalition on 35% (down four), Labor on 29% (down one) and the Greens on 8% (steady), with the Coalition down a point on two-party preferred to lead 51-49. The poll was conducted last Wednesday and Thursday from a sample of 867.
trog sorrenson @ #1576 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 9:25 am
Have you ever calculated how many you are going to need? We would need the entire world’s production of solar panels for a year or so just to satisfy our own local demand. And what do you think the rest of the world is going to use in the meantime? As for batteries? Forget it! Even Tesla’s “gigafactory” won’t even be able to produce that many batteries for another few years, and again we would need a yer or more of their total production capacity just to satisfy our local needs.
It’s that ‘scale’ thing again.
Trump Declares The Media The Enemy Of The People As 7 Committees Investigate Russia Scandal
At least seven different congressional committees are currently investigating Trump’s connections to Russia with varying speed. The House and Senate Intelligence committees, Judiciary committees, and the House Oversight Committees are among those who are examining the Russia scandal.
Trump’s contention is that anything negative about him is “fake news.” The idea of a man who has massive credibility issues with the American people thinking that he can delegitimize the media and therefore, undermine the facts, reeks of desperation.
The real enemy of the people isn’t the free press, who are trying to report facts and truth. The real enemy of the American people is a president who is doing everything he can to keep people in the dark about his activities as president.
Trump is getting desperate, and if the Russian scandal ends up destroying his presidency, he will blame the media for his failure.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/17/trump-declares-media-enemy-people-7-congressional-committees-investigate-russia-scandal.html
With so many non-political groups coming out this week against building more coal power plants, it is interesting to see who is still waging the war against renewable energy. One former critic is now noticeably silent, but still hasn’t brought himself to write any mea culpas on his former statements incorrectly blaming renewables for SA power blackouts. I refer of course to ABC opinion piece writer Chris Uhlman (former journalist?). Note the absence of energy articles since 2016.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/chris-uhlmann/166950
I wonder how long before Uhlman resigns from Aunty and seeks Liberal party pre-selection?
Socrates
It comes from those notorious alt-lefties, the International Monetary Fund.
Here’s the base paper:
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2015/wp15105.pdf
and here’s the analysis quoting $1712
http://reneweconomy.com.au/australia-still-subsidising-fossil-fuels-at-rate-of-1712-per-person-a-year-33164/
Btw did you see the yarn I posted for you yesterday about Julian Assange reportedly dating Pamela Anderson?
Just shows how desperate for a …. Assange has become. Have you seen Pamela Anderson up close without makeup and Photoshop!?!
C@t:
The story was in one of those trashy women’s mags so is of questionable validity.
Socrates,
Speaking of Alt Renewables Truthers. How has Nick Xenophon reconciled his outlandish statements after the SA Blackout with reality as it has been subsequently truthfully reported?
I imagine South Australians don’t give a fig because Nick is such a lovable little rogue.
*Sigh*
Thanks for the link Guytaur. You just made my Saturday morning.
Growing Up is one of my favourite Springsteen songs. Have seen him 3 times this tour and is a pity he does not play more songs from one of his best albums. Greetings from Asbury Park New Jersey.
‘Fess,
I dunno. They are both pretty desperate for publicity, any publicity, these days as their credibility crumbles. 🙂
c@tmomma @ #1605 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 10:08 am
Perhaps the attraction is the veggie burgers?
‘I wonder how long before Uhlman resigns from Aunty and seeks Liberal party pre-selection?’
Why would Chris give up a high paying job where he has zero accountability to the people who actually employ him?
P1
c@tmomma @ #1605 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 10:08 am
There is a god ❗
We are just so thankful that neither of the subjects wants to date or, even worse, cohabit, with us.
I am holding out, as an orphan and destitute beacon in the queue for glory (make what you will of that) to receive the millions available from Princesses fallen into the clutches of the wicked ones.
I may well have missed the outcome of your Newcastle trip.
Did the son have a good result ❓
MYOB answer is OK.
🙂
Fuck. Why doesn’t Crikey have a decent preview function.
P1
What? To stabilise our grid? Your statement is bizarre.
We already have sufficient base capacity in SA with the Pelican Point plant.
Front of the meter electricity demand is going down, not up.
A few decent solar pv plants -some already being built – at Port Augusta will further balance out the wind generated capacity and cover hot days, and a reasonable amount of additional battery storage and the grid will be much more stable.
The situation will further stabilise as domestic and industrial solar plus batteries roll out purely for economic reasons due to the gross over pricing of electricity.
It is really not a big deal – just a political beatup – Turnbull mimicking Abbott.
Unfortunately Shorten doesn’t seem to have the capability to get on top of this – he’s just going along with it.
So are Trump and Putin falling out of love now? Are we still safe from a “hot war” with Russia? Maybe we would have been safer with a President who understands diplomacy, who was in charge of diplomacy.
Ross Gittins writes an excellent article in renewable energy for today’s Fairfax press.
But there is a sting in the tail in the online version that highlights one of the problems of today’s media
He finishes with: ” Ross Gittins is the Herald’s economics editor. (SUBS: please substitute Twitter: @1RossGittins for the print version of The Age.)”
Obviously the sub-editor, if there is one left, didn’t read that far.
TaylorMade
🙂
The industrial revolution started in the UK because of cheap energy and relatively expensive labour. I have felt for some time that the new wave of automation coming means that labour costs will become increasing irrelevant in manufacturing. What will matter is the cost of energy. The marginal cost of producing a MW of power with renewables is virtually zero. The Government needs to get its act together (instead of trying to demonise renewables for short term political gain) and start planning for the future and not the next Newspoll.
http://www.watoday.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/australia-positioned-to-be-renewable-energy-superpower-20170216-guf55r.html
Zoomster
I’ve given them a rocket on other stuff from time to time – just dial the main ABC Switch number for your state capital and ask for the Newsroom and they will put you straight through. You won’t get much of a response – usually total disinterest, but you talk to someone quickly.
B.C.
Agreed.
What people don’t seem to understand is that solar pv is a technology, like the computer chip, not an engineered solution with major fixed costs such as fossil fuel generators, nuclear – and certain renewables such as wave power, geothermal, and wind turbines.
The computer power in a single smart phone would have cost tens of millions a few years ago, whereas engineered solutions generally tend to increase in cost.
Trog
Yes. We already know their are demonstrations of reduction in cost and increase in efficiency of the panels for solar as one example. Those transparent panels to be used on windows turning every building into a power plant and making them available even to poor people in public housing is a huge disruption.
That means every building will be power generator. Even without storage thats a power revolution.
trog sorrenson @ #1612 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 10:19 am
Actually, you are right about that. One more gas plant (or the one you have but actually turned on) is all SA needs to stabilize its grid. But I thought you actually wanted to reduce C02? – “100% renewable in 12 years” and all that stuff? Are you finally realizing that this is simply not possible because of the scale?
confessions @ #1569 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 9:19 am
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/peter-van-onselen/liberal-party-reactionaries-ignore-menzies-progressive-vision/news-story/2985dc52e769a89e0a7413ac07411e3b
Fess – Keating as usual had cut through with his description of the tories –
Don’t know whether anyone saw this on ABC breakfast this morning but there was some professor on talking ‘silicone storage’. Only caught the end of it but….????
I may well have missed the outcome of your Newcastle trip.
Did the son have a good result ❓
Kay Jay,
Thank you for asking. 🙂
I now have an employed son #2. He started at the CSR factory at Somersby yesterday.
:relievedmotheremoji:
And they asked him to come back again on Monday!
They also said he has to start at 4am every second Friday!
:NotHappyJanemoji: 😉
Jen
Probably referring to this. I did not catch that either.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4194517.htm
Jen sorry wrong link here is correct one
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-17/stretchy-batteries-and-solar-cells-power-wearable-technology/7418496
Jem
It will be interesting if we do get personal climate clothes meaning no need to heat or cool whole rooms and that you can take that climate control mobile.
Dave:
Brilliant sum up from Keating!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/18/deep-pocketed-miners-dont-like-it-when-those-with-different-views-wield-clout
Good on ya Lenore
‘…Bastiaan said the future of the party founded by Menzies lay in reconnecting with a base “let down by our party’s failure to represent them”.
Bastiaan fashions himself as the Liberals’ new great hope, one of the few in party ranks capable of re-energising disenchanted members by thrusting the party further to the right..’
Correct diagnosis, wrong cure.
‘Like her partner, Ross believes that too many state MPs are unskilled and out of date..’
Not being ageist, but she’s (a) 25 and (b) believes abortion should be denied to rape victims and ‘she has rallied against the Safe Schools program “that is teaching radical gender theory and warped graphic sex education centred around promiscuity”.
She has warned Gippsland locals that Australia was “seeing the destruction of religious freedom, free speech, a push towards gay marriage (which won’t stop there!) and euthanasia”.’
For a 25 year old to be seeking preselection on a platform which claims ‘the Liberals had been overrun by “lobbyists, political staffers or people who have worked in government the entirety of their careers” is a mite contradictory – she’s apparently happy to work in government (if elected) for the entirety of her career.
‘Bastiaan’s allies point to the fact that Labor has been in state government for all but four years since 1999, and the Baillieu-Napthine government lasted just one term.’
Yeah. The problem wasn’t lack of skill, and – if being up to date means lurching further to the right – it wasn’t that, either.
The problem with the Victorian Liberals under Ballieu was that they recognised that Labor policies are popular, pretended they were going to implement them but do it better, and then, once elected, went back to the same old ‘we can’t deliver on these promises because we have to pay back Labor’s debt, which also means we have to cut jobs and services’ line which lost them government under Kennett.
The problem with the Liberals is that they understand on one level that Labor-style policies are popular but on the other think, having paid lip service to these policies, they can not only not deliver them but substitute the policies they want but know the public would reject. Then they are apparently stunned when the public reject them and think the solution is a further shift to the right.
I can’t even begin to comprehend this kind of thinking.
‘Bastiaan’s use of social conservatives to build his base have many scared about the damage to the Liberal brand in progressively minded Victoria, with concerns the Bastiaan group’s insurgency is imperilling Guy’s hopes of becoming the next premier.
“Their plan is for Guy to lose the next election and then take over. Guy is furious,” says one senior Liberal.’
Yes, Guy can lose it all by himself, just let him get on with it.
Bastiaan’s real life experience (so superior to sitting Liberal MPs) is this —
‘A three-time university dropout, Bastiaan got into business with the aid of his father, dabbling in an antiques dealership while at university, before moving into a software design business.’
‘The risk for Matthew Guy and the party in the long term is that while conservative views may energise some of the Liberal base and a new generation of members, they won’t win an election in Victoria.’
No shit, Sherlock.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-liberals-factional-fight-exposes-deep-divisions-20170217-gufg6b.html
c@tmomma @ #1625 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 10:51 am
What ❓
I am having a Telstra day again and am mentally defongerated.
What the eff are they playing at.
What does it all mean ❓ Upside down question mark to indicate my confusion. ¿
:cluelessKenemoji:
phoenixRed
Yep. Some heavy duty shit is in the pipeline. Trump can blame the media all he likes, but treason is what he did, not the media
Absolutely not.
Solar pv will continue to roll out with exponential growth for purely economic reasons, however the rate is strongly influenced by policy, so if we want to protect the planet we need to be proactive:
e.g. in no particular order
– fix AEMO
– decent solar feed in tariff so people don’t go completely off-grid
– allow direct energy trading – requires fixing the market and expanding blockchain trading, smart metering etc etc
– continue and expand the RET to get even more solar pv and subsidise the nascent battery storage technology
– reduce fossil fuel subsidies as fast as politically possible
– spend money on training more solar engineers and installers
– look after coal miners and provide regional development
– incentives for electric vehicles
etc
“silicone storage”
The energy Pamela Anderson stores in her tits.
C@
4AM start … I guess someones got to fire up the autoclave.
CarbonBubble: “Energy companies face a crude reality: better to leave it in the ground”, says… Wall Street Journal. wsj.com/articles/energ… pic.twitter.com/Ntco2uuVzA
https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-companies-face-crude-reality-better-to-leave-it-in-the-ground-1487327406
For a moment this headline made me think Christensen had finally delivered on his threat to leave .
https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2017/feb/17/welcome-home-lonesome-george-giant-tortoise-returns-to-galapagos
I don’t remember the article but I think it was one by Hatcher recently on energy, more evidence that Labor are in government federally, but are not doing a very good job.
The article was sub titled:
‘Neither government can solve the energy problem’
Really Labor should pull its finger out and fix it.
Zoomster
I find the idea that the Victorian branch of the Liberal party is about to be hijacked by a 20-something idealogue more than amusing. Old style Victorian Tories would rotating in their graves.
but then again this is the bunch that thought 20-something IPA acolyte James Paterson was the best person to fill a senate casual vacancy.
They have already been hijacked.
The Liberal party base used to be small business owner-types. It now seems to have shifted to be the middle aged and older, white unemployed male demographic (which has actually always been the base of fringe parties such as Australia First, Australians Against Further Immigration and PHON).
Another point.
Its in its infancy but wireless charging is becoming a reality. So far you have to have your charger and your device close together. Mobile phones and the Apple Watch use this QI standard.
Apple has filed patents for across the room charging. This raises the question. Will we have power delivered wirelessly one day. Does that mean we will have power transmitters like we currently have mobile towers?
The technological future is disruption. This is very blue sky stuff. However its closer than some think. What the time line is I don’t know but there are assumptions about power that could change fast and radically with technological innovation.
Its blue sky stuff but its not in an entirely different galaxy.
victoria Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 11:05 am
phoenixRed
Yep. Some heavy duty shit is in the pipeline. Trump can blame the media all he likes, but treason is what he did, not the media
*****************************************
One of his reported fave TV shows “Morning Joe” has unloaded on him
Joe Scarborough Annihilates Trump By Calling Him A Fake President Who Has Lost His Sh*t
After Trump declared the press the enemy of the people, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough unloaded on Trump by claiming that the president has “lost his sh*t,” and he suggested that Donald Trump is a fake president.
What America is witnessing is a president is the midst of a public tantrum.
Scarborough was also correct that it has been disgraceful that so many Republicans who claim to love the Constitution have kept their mouths shut and sat on their hands while Trump has trampled a document that they claim to cherish and defend. The left has been shining a light on Trump’s treatment of the Constitution from day one. It’s time for conservatives to step up and join the fight.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/17/joe-scarborough-annihilates-trump-calling-fake-president-lost-sht.html
‘It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Tweet’: David Axelrod nails Trump’s split personality
David Axelrod, former campaign manager for Barack Obama, put the blame at the feet of President Donald Trump for the reason that no positive news stories can gain traction about the White House.
He must know. He’s savvy in the ways of the media, he must know when he puts a tweet like that out, it’s going to eclipse everything out. I’m sure it’s a source of great frustration to people trying to keep him on message, trying to craft a message on the thing that works for him, which is jobs and the economy.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/its-dr-jekyll-and-mr-tweet-david-axelrod-nails-trumps-split-personality/
trog sorrenson @ #1634 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 11:05 am
And in no particular timeframe.
http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/2015/11/australian-company-develops-energy-storage-system-based-on-silicon-from-sand.html
toorak toff @ #1592 Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 9:45 am
The West Australian is not a Murdoch rag, but I take your point about conservative influence from the state daily newspaper. The West is roughly comparible in quality to The Hun.
In the scheme of things this poll is an outlier and its results differ significantly from other published polls, and the feedback those of us who are on the campaign trail are receiving. Every other published poll and indicator is pointing towards a safe Labor win.
P1
Battery storage is not blue sky stuff. I just posted an example of blue sky stuff.
There is a huge difference between something being used practically today and that just need software management to make a smart grid with technology we have now and that blue sky stuff.
We have one today. The other is a maybe in the future.
PhoenixRed/fess
The writing is on the wall. Trump is having a tantrum cos he can’t stop the shit that is about To hit the fan.
P1
$4.1 Billion can make a big difference between practical to install batteries for the home and not so.
Thats with technology today and costs today.