Labor picks up a point in this week’s reading of Essential Research’s fortnight rolling average, which did not allow the Easter long weekend to interrupt its schedule. The major parties exchange a point on the primary vote, with Labor up to 37% and the Coalition down to 36%, while the Greens and One Nation hold steady at 10% and 8% respectively.
Also included are approving ratings for cross-benchers Senators, which I like to think they asked because I suggested it to them a few weeks ago, and it’s turned up the finding I was fishing for when I did: namely, that Jacqui Lambie, at 32% approval and 30% disapproval, is more popular than the overrated Pauline Hanson, at 32% and 48%. Still less popular are David Leyonhjelm, with 9% approval, 28% disapproval and a forbiddingly high “don’t know about them”, and Cory Bernardi, whose respective numbers are 10%, 34% and 41% (“not sure” accounts for the balance). At the top of the charts is Nick Xenophon, at 35% approval and 25% disapproval, followed by Derryn Hinch at 35% and 27%.
The poll also records 38% support for allowing superannuation to be accessible when buying a home, with 50% opposed, and has a suite of questions on the American intervention in Syria: 41% approve of last week’s bombing with 36% opposed; 37% say they would support US ground troops being sent, with 39% opposed; and 31% saying they would approve of an Australian contribution, with 50% opposed.
No surprise …
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/21/png-police-reject-peter-dutton-account-manus-shooting
Chevron has lost Australia’s biggest tax case:
http://www.afr.com/news/chevron-loses-australias-biggest-tax-case-20170420-gvp8e1
Most important detail of this is a precedence has now been set and the ATO can go after ALL corps who engage in transfer pricing including Google, Apple, BHP and many others.
I wouldn’t be surprised however if Morrison announces that the ability to continue doing this will be in the Budget, because, you know, jobs and growth, sovereign risk, Labor’s fault, etc., etc..
Re the rejection of the ridiculous DUTTON claims. ABC News (on 24) just giving about 5 minutes to it with a cross to the Port Moresby correspondent.
The kid was at the gates asking the guards and the AS for food. Some of the AS took the kid just to the inside of the gates with the permission of the guards and gave him some fruit.
NG Police flatly reject Potato Heads account ….
Nek minnutt he will be sayin that they threw the kid overboard
In a sane world Dutton would have been given the boot a long time ago.
Only in this government would incompetence be considered a virtue.
Forgot to add Newscorp to the list of corps engaging in transfer pricing.
Hmm. The gerbils have gone back to their practice of kicking you back one page when posting comments.
For anyone who wants a nice dose of Shaudenfreude (requires Google for paywall minimisation as always)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/john-lyons/alan-jones-unleashes-on-turnbull-and-his-team-of-bedwetters/news-story/f8b69f5f5601c3bd4fe5c47435e02762
Dutton is an idiot who is full of his own ego smart arse.
This was reported at the time about how the incident started. It was reported on ABC radio that day . Dutton is a disgrace and should be sacked, won’t of course. To think HE considers himself as someone suitable to decide what “our values” should be re immigrants.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/21/png-police-reject-peter-dutton-account-manus-shooting
A sample from VE’s delicious link
Alan Jones…Tony Abbott…Malcolm Turnbull…Sydney Lib bullies turn against each other. Voters in the rest of the country are totally underwhelmed by these displays of malice and petty revenge-seeking. Clearly neither Abbott nor Turnbull should be running the place. Soon, neither will be.
Disappointing ABC headline.
From reading the article I would say the police commander is refuting Dutton’s claim, as he explained the incident and how it had no relationship with the shootings.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-21/no-link-between-manus-detention-centre-attack-and-sex-crime/8460948
The Australian seems to have decided to destroy Turnbull. Could they imagine an Abbott re-run is possible? Maybe. Hubris? Revenge? Contumely? Folly? Frivolity?
@ Briefly – I suspect they know that Abbott is too far gone for that. If they have someone specific in mind, it is probably Dutton. Equally likely, they are more focused on pulling Turnbull down than raising anyone specific up.
briefly @ #663 Friday, April 21, 2017 at 2:17 pm
Abbott is being used as a stalking horse against Turnbull by others in the party. It is working so brilliantly because Abbott is stupid enough to think he is still a contender. But given how incompetent the plotters are, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did end up with Abbott back in his high chair!
I am sure Chevron will appeal to the High Court. The legal costs are all tax deductible. They can then appeal/donate to a higher authority (their Liberal toadies). Pretty sure that is deductible too.
I am going to put my head above the trench – Abbott is still a contender.
Regarding Chevron, I was going to say what Simon said. When the ATO wins a case like this, I expect tax “reform” soon follows.
socrates @ #668 Friday, April 21, 2017 at 2:31 pm
a.k.a. “Paying the Piper”.
Bonjour les Bludgers 🙂
(This is my shout out to the French this weekend in the hope their brains don’t get fried by the stoopid gun attack such that it affects their vote this weekend).
I’m happy to report that the ABC is maintaining it’s stance of reporting what ‘the Opposition says…’ before what the government does. Long may it continue. Well, at least until the next federal election. 😉
Now, whilst I was out and about this morning I heard Trump’s latest attempt to play both sides against the middle of the Democrats and Republicans, so as to forge his new Blue Collar-White Employer base. In the speech that he made to accompany his latest ‘Executive Order’/Dictatorial Decree signing, to ‘Make America’s Steel Industry Great Again’, he extolled the virtues of the Steel Manufacturers AND the Unions who look after the interests of the Steelworkers. !!!
So it set me to wondering, with the Coalition’s ‘Me Too Donald!’ positioning in full stride and voice, what are they going to do about Trump’s full-throated support of teh Unions, when they, the Coalition, have spent decades demonising them!?!
I await their moves with interest. Though I imagine it will be along the lines of…’some Unions, especially the ones that have nothing to do with Bill Shorten, good; the CFMEU and AWU, bad! 🙂
A quote from the Oz article about Allan Jones:
Abbott, he said, was “decent, truthful, honourable, loyal, with a high level of scholarship, a splendid thinker and with a political capacity to present things simply and forcefully and unapologetically.”
“You know where he stands,” Jones said.
“A magnificent campaigner who would not only would have his seat at the last election, he would have won the election”.
FFS!!! what are they smoking/injecting/ingesting???
and some of the comments that follow, words fail me.
BTW Happy Birthday BK
CatMomma
Maybe the Coalition will go for a policy of supporting both financial planners and the finance companies they work for? Mixing with the little folk who only make $200K/yr.
BK
Yes, either that, or preparing for their post politics careers. Back to work for me, have a good weekend all.
Happy birthday BK! I was going to get you a competent Federal budget, so let me just wish you a wonderful celebration instead 🙂
simon dagg katich @ #667 Friday, April 21, 2017 at 2:30 pm
Agree, only because there is a complete lack of other “legitimate” challengers. 🙂
SDK,
I am going to put my head above the trench – Abbott is still a contender.
I’m going to go over the top and say, he isn’t. However, if he decides that he still is, then there will be civil war in the Liberal Party, starting in NSW and extending across the country.
Just reading the comments to that John Lyons article in The Lolstralian, there are definitely 2 camps. The, ‘let me remind you how crap Tony Abbott was last time he was PM’ camp and the ‘let me tell you how crap Malcolm Turnbull is now’ camp. And the twain don’t seem to be meeting in the middle of the bridge between them to shake hands any time soon.
The Abbottistas are dirty at Christopher Pyne, Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop. I imagine they are none too happy about Dutton propping Turnbull up either. Alan Jones has got dirt he’s just itching to throw at the ‘Moderate’ wing of the Liberal Party, and you can be sure there’s a Dirt File on Abbott if the ‘Moderates’ want to go thermonuclear.
I think it’ll blow sky high in the long Winter break after the Budget. Especially if the Budget is a dud.
I have talked to BH ,she and her husband are bearing up fairly well. She will look on PB when she can and said to thank you all for your kind thoughts
Socrates,
Maybe the Coalition will go for a policy of supporting both financial planners and the finance companies they work for? Mixing with the little folk who only make $200K/yr.
Yes. Extending to supporting the Financial Planners Association but nothing so much as a grubby Union. 😉
SDK,
“I am going to put my head above the trench – Abbott is still a contender.”
I’m going to agree with you for a number of reasons. It’s a poisoned chalice and Abbott doesn’t realise. There’s a dearth of other contenders. Finally never underestimate the stupidity of the current Liberal Party MPs. They’re petrified of losing their seats.
@ Socrates
It was my experience in litigation with one of the state revenue offices that a win in court was followed by a change in the relevant legislation to ensure that the revenue position of the state was protected.
Catmomma
I think that is about as close as they will get. There is always the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
C@t, if you go over the top it gives me the option of shooting you in the butt.
If there were an obvious other option I would agree with you. But I dont see Morrison, Dutton or even Bishop as serious options. And the new boys on the block have been ordinary.
I don’t follow property prices much and was stunned to see discussion on PB of the Sydney metropolitan property price being $1.15m. That valuation seems to be so out of whack with reality that I question whether it’s true or not (I live in Perth).
A median price of $1.15m puts property out of reach for almost everyone except very high earning couples, and I can’t see that even investors could justify that sort of price even taking into account rent, benefit of negative gearing and future capital gains.
It is grossly negligent of our federal government that they are not taking urgent measures to get the gross overvaluation of property prices under control.
Sadly we are set for one hell of a fall when, not if, this bubble bursts.
What gets me is that the newspaper & the govt stories are in lock step with each other.
One would think that they are the 2 heads of a multi headed monster.
They don’t even try to hide it any more.
IPA policy head
Fauxnews propaganda head(s)
LNP parliamentry head
@ Grimace – that valuation is reflective of reality. In fact, some measurements put the median price much higher.
When looking at what you can get for roughly that price, $960k will get you a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment 8 km out from the city in an old flour mill (although trendily renovated). http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-summer+hill-123721706
If you’re looking for a house, and want to keep it below a million, you are going to accept a long commute.
Who, with any sense, would ‘protect’ Dutton, now that he has been proven a liar and the media have published it, not just on Twitter.
If Truffles can’t see what a moral vacuum he is, that proves the Truffle is no better.
And these two dare to preach values.
And investors can justify any price, when interest rates are 4% and (past year) capital gains are 19%. The price and rents don’t matter at all, as long as you anticipate prices continuing to rise.
Abbott obviously thinks he’s still a contender. Why would he not? He tore Turnbull down in 2009. He has won an election. He will be making the pitch inside Lib-dom to be given a chance to fight on a RW aganda. He has already articulated it. He will see himself running as if from Opposition, as the outsider.
There are plenty of crazy Libs. They might just buy it.
I coulda bin da champeeeon!
Ton.
SDK,
C@t, if you go over the top it gives me the option of shooting you in the butt.
I must admit, it’s a big target. 🙂
However, you might be right about Abbott accepting the poisoned chalice. He’s THAT delusional about his powers of making the electorate forget just how bad he was.
Though I will add that, just as the Coalition did to Labor, Labor will do to the Coalition and drag out all the quotable quotes from disgruntled front benchers from the Abbott era and all the ‘nice’ things they had to say about him after he was gone. 😀
Just to prove that the nation needs him like a hole in the head.
The outlook for the Libs led by Turnbull is hopeless. They must all know he’s a goner. If they allow him to remain until the election then the LNP will lose 15-20 seats….most of them Libs.
So they will be asking themselves whether they can stick with Turnbull and lose for sure or replace Turnbull and maybe hang on…or not lose quite so badly…or lose while fighting for a RW agenda but lose with pride…
The Libs might just be tempted by their own fantasy….dump Turnbull, draft Abbott….go for an early election…grab a win….
The final instalment in my long running correspondence with NBN and Christian Porter’s office (my local MP) occurred on Wednesday afternoon.
I bought into a greenfields housing estate in 2011, and the telecommunications infrastructure was finalised very shortly before FTTP NBN became compulsory, so unfortunately I ended up with ASDL 2, while stage two of the housing development which started three houses from me got FTTP. A few years ago NBN released their three year rollout plan which stated that I’d be getting HFC, a situation that I was most unhappy with, particularly given the fibre optic cable which connects stage 2 of my housing development runs through my front yard.
This development started some long running correspondence between increasingly senior NBN people and myself, cumulating in me being told that no matter how many times I called NBN or who I spoke to that I would not be getting FTTP and that I could not pay to upgrade to FTTP (there is currently no upgrade path from HFC to FTTP), and that it was irrelevant that there was a fibre optic cable in the telecommunications pit in my front yard. I then started on Christian Porters office and entered into a volumous amount of correspondence with them. On Tuesday that was closed out when the person I’ve been dealing with rang me to confirm that I’d be getting FTTP in the first half of 2019.
The recently released rollout plan upgrade on the NBN site did reflect when it changed a couple of months ago that I’d be getting FTTP. I tell myself and my wife that it was my efforts being a tremendous pain in the arse which resulted in us getting FTTP rather than HFC. I do realise that it’s almost certainly not true.
When I was talking to Porters’ representative on Wednesday afternoon I asked straight out was me getting a call a direct result of the scare that Mr Porter got from the state election and he pointed out that our correspondence had been long running and that Porter did endeavour to be a good representative to his electorate. While we had a good discussion about broadband generally and I’m happy with how the conversation went, he did decline to get involved in a discussion about the NBN being wrecked by the L/NP or about how they had promised everyone minimum download speeds of 25mpbs by the end of 2016 and he didn’t engage in my needling about how they had knowingly over promised and under delivered on the NBN.
Turnbull’s demeanour tells me that he is a troubled, conflicted, confused and struggling man who is overcompensating in response.
@ Briefly
You asked me about Labor’s prospects in several Liberal held seats in WA, what are your thoughts?
If the Liberals see themselves heading for a ”Hindenburg’ election crash then an Abbott return would not be out of the question. There might be enough who although not Abbott supporters will be angry enough at what the Truffles has led them to to give TA a go…………….especially if they see their seat going bye bye.Abbott would be up for it , seeing it as vindication and a chance for glorious martyrdom.
The price and rents don’t matter at all, as long as you anticipate prices continuing to rise.
Exponential is not sustainable. Today the Sydney median house price is about 12 times the median household income. It can’t last much longer.
So home prices increase at 12% p.a, incomes about 2%. In 5 years, house prices are about 20 times median household income, after 10 years 35-40 times. Ain’t going to happen. It will stop long before only multi multi millionaires can afford to live here. Living in Sydney’s not that good.
Steve777
I wonder if we will get to the stage Tokyo got to before the Japanese economy faded somewhat. 100 year multi generation mortgages !!
Abbott should be called the great pretender….. But so is Turnbull!
BK – Are you calling Turnbull a dickhead?
It’s pretty amazing watching a man who is such a thug and bully that he can’t restrain that impulse when a million people are watching on TV.
@ Steve – my point wasn’t “Sydney properties are totally guaranteed to go up in price” it was that investors will continue to momentum trade in Sydney housing, unaffected by considerations around how much the fundamentals, such as price to wage ratios or rental returns, say the house should be worth. People will continue to buy, hoping to sell to a bigger fool