Before we proceed, please note posts below on British and French elections, and a bumper post on Tasmania that encompasses newly published federal and state electorate boundaries, today’s three elections for seats in the state’s upper house, and a state poll result that provides good news for the new Labor leader, Rebecca White.
The only new addition to the BludgerTrack aggregate this week is the usual weekly Essential Research result, an all too common state of affairs in Newspoll’s off weeks that should finally be rectified with YouGov’s imminent entry to the Australian polling caper. The trendline is now doing something it hasn’t done since the election – bending back slightly in favour of the Coalition. The Coalition have also picked up two this week on the seat projection, one apiece in Victoria and South Australia. The other trend worth noting is that One Nation are down for the seventh week in a row. Nothing new this week on leadership ratings.
I’ve had two paywalled articles this week in Crikey, which is well worth your subscriber dollars if the state of the Australian news media is of concern to you, as it should be. One of these tackled Peta Credlin’s revisionism concerning the electoral gender gap:
In defiance of the conventional wisdom, Credlin sought not just to dispel the “myth” of the Tony Abbott “woman problem”, but also to argue that the charge could more properly be levelled at his successor. The implications of Credlin’s claim run well beyond the small matter of the Turnbull-Abbott rivalry, as gender has been the most volatile demographic element in the federal electoral equation since the knives came out for Kevin Rudd on June 23, 2010.
The other considered One Nation’s recent fadeout and its implications for the looming Queensland state election:
The One Nation renaissance is once again inviting comparisons to Groundhog Day, as the party faces the possibility of deregistration in Queensland over irregularities in its legal structure. The latest development adds to an accumulation of bad news not just for One Nation, but also for Queensland’s Liberal National Party opposition, which has been hoping that One Nation will provide the key to a quick return to office after its shock defeat in January 2015.
trog sorrenson @ #128 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 11:58 am
Thanks Trog, you could fit what I know about CST on a small post it note.
One of the advantages that CST has over PV is that it generates enormously more electricity for the land area that it takes up, and it stores energy.
I’m involved in a proposal for a utility scale ground mounted PV plant in a third world country where competing land uses are a major stumbling block for the rollout of utility-scale PV. The country has an exceptional solar resource and a generally poor wind resource, so solving or reducing the problem of competing land uses is important to them.
Our suggestion was to design the system so that the local farmers could continue to raise livestock under the panels, which we got a lot of technical input on from the wife of one of the partners who is a botanist. It got our proposal out of the “meh” pile and scored us a meeting with the relevant minister.
Full Real Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxb3TMw1EPs
bemused @ #91 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 10:20 am
Thanks. Looks like there are a whole lot of great ideas that have fallen by the wayside because one technology (PV) has become super efficient.
A couple of years ago we met a German hydrogen powered convoy on the Nullarbor Plain, a proof of concept world tour. Not gonna happen.
I suspect wave power will go the same way, though it does have super reliability of energy going for it.
steve777 @ #102 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 10:35 am
fwiw my understanding is that both temperature increase and CO2 absorption is at unprecedented levels in the oceans of the world.
Some say the seas are turning into warm coca cola, which may be stretching things a bit, but tells you in which direction things are going.
I have read reports that shellfish are finding the going increasingly tough (for laying down shell) as pH levels decrease in the world’s oceans.
Swamprat
Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 12:09 pm
As you allude, we may soon see the virtual annulment of class based politic representation in the UK. Scotland will be represented by the SNP and England by the Tories. Labour has ceased to exist in Scotland, the domain where it first came into existence. In England, Labour also appears to be evaporating as a serious force.
The collapse of Labour in Scotland has certainly had repercussions in England. Without their Scottish ranks, Labour cannot present themselves as an alternative government. Indeed, they have really ceased to make this claim. They have become diluted Tories on the most important question of the time – whether to remain in the EU or not.
The thing is, of course, self-determination is not – or, not yet – open to Scotland. The SNP “rule” in name only. The Tories remain in control in Westminster and therefore in control of the constitution and the future of Scotland.
But go ahead. Gloat over the demise of Labour. You are celebrating the triumph of the Tories and the dissolution of modernity in Britain.
This is a critique of Morrison the Tresurer from many sources and worth reading if you don’t mind feeling a bit depressed at the end.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/06/scott-morrison-new-budget-test-for-nowhere-man?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=224735&subid=22688624&CMP=ema_632
I suppose Truffles can count himself lucky that the contempt people are showing him over his Uriah Creep attitude to Trump will only last a couple more days, then we’ll all be distracted by the Budget.
Brilliant New Rules taking aim at the numerous morons who refused to vote for Clinton as the lesser of two evils and instead claimed she was either worse than Trump, or just the same. Love his parting shot to the purists: ‘go f*ck yourself with a locally grown, organic cucumber.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkyBS8uwPQ
Holy shit! Adelaide Crows being well and truly pizzled by North Melbourne.
That’s my first two footy tips of the weekend being shot down in flames.
Swamprat
Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 12:09 pm
4. “They are being encouraged by Europe’s outcast, Putin.”
You are the first writer ever to imply that Scottish self determination is run/influenced/linked with Putin. Grubby right wing laborite that you are.
Putin will get no satisfaction from an independent Scotland in Europe. I think UIKP is your best bet there (now incorporated into the English National Party – otherwise known as the Tories).
I did not make the claim you suggest. But nonetheless, since you mention it, Putin will of course welcome anything that undermines the EU. He is actively working towards that end. It’s worth asking why that might be so. European – and especially German – resistance to Russian policy in Crimea and Ukraine is unquestionably a factor.
Consider that. Russia has infringed on the sovereignty of its neighbour. The EU has opposed this and introduced economic sanctions as a response, sanctions that have hindered the Russian economy and which therefore threaten to undermine Putin’s political hold. So will Putin delight in Brexit? Has he favoured Le Pen? Did he attempt to seduce the Greeks? Does he menace Poland and the Baltic states? Has he sought to meddle in the US with the intention of undermining NATO and, thereby, Europe’s security structure?
On the long view, we are still seeing the aftershocks of the unification of Germany in the 19th century. This represented a substantial economic and strategic challenge to Russia at the time and it still does. There is competition between Russia and the territories to its west. The EU, steered by German leadership, represents a neo-Imperialist bloc from the Russian viewpoint, one they cannot match in military, diplomatic or economic terms.
Putin is a gangster. He will be gratified by political instability in Europe wherever it arises. He will take particular pleasure in seeing the British tear themselves to pieces in the coming years and will be hoping the same disruption will arise elsewhere.
Lizzie:
I saw that facebooked by Murphy. Given the incompetence of Turnbull he has some cheek in thinking he’d be a better treasurer than Morrison!
Fess
Thanks for the heads up. I watched the overtime segment of Maher Show. I will now get into watching rest of it. I continue to follow Mensch, Taylor, Schindler, and Wilson and ors on Twitter, who are confident that the shitstorm for Trump and co is on its way
Dan G
My tips so far are down the gurgler too! Lol……
This guy doesn’t want anyone to have access to health care because it means people wont seek Jesus when they get really sick.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trump-army-secretary-pick-universal-health-care-robs-churches-of-opportunities-to-bring-people-to-jesus/
We share this planet with some really weird humans.
Hmm for some reason New Rules has fallen foul of the filter. Here’s the clip – a take down of the purists who thought Clinton was the same as Trump if not worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkyBS8uwPQ
Vic:
No worries, I think you’ll enjoy this panel much more than last week’s! At least they’re all sensible and measured and don’t talk over the top of one another.
Booleanbach
They seem to have a very commercial attitude to religion (perhaps commercial isn’t the right word but I can’t think of another one).
…but, but the media SAID Morrison had to be Treasurer….
Fess
Thanks for posting it. Will watch now
I thought I saw this earlier, but couldn’t quite believe it.
Regarding the Macron documents – disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. I’ve given Assange all the benefit of the doubt to which he is entitled – he is, in my mind, an unofficial arm of the FSB.
Trog + Grimace I’m not sure about the land use comparison between PV and CST. On the one hand PV has a conversion efficiency of ~20% and on the other CST has a thermodynamic efficiency of ~30-40%. But then CST also has a loss at the absorber and other thermal losses.
Then there is the issue that you can get away with the mirrors for CST being denser than for PV since shafowing doesn’t bother them as much but this only works to a point.
So I wouldn’t have thought there was much in it.
Incidentally does anyone remember the vacuum tube collectors and paraboluc trough collectors. They’ve also been obsoleted.
Oh and btw not that I approve of animal agriculture but it should be noted that cows can put enormous loads on anything that is good as an itching post…
Matt,
I’ve been given to wondering whether Ecuador is a Client State of Russia as well.
antonbruckner11 @ #115 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 11:01 am
I don’t think it will make much difference.
Private health insurance allows the wealthy to avoid mixing with the great unwashed.
Lizzie
The Martin Ferguson school of union thought. They don’t give an FF about other things if they think a few jobs will be generated.
Hello Bludgers!
Reporting from the SA Chapter knees-up at the North Kapunda Hotel.
Food was excellent, red wine “bloody awful” according to BK.
The discussion has been varied: Australian politics, US politics and UK politics. There might also have been a bit of sneaky internet surfing vis a vis a certain football match.
No-one has been murdered yet, but we haven’t left yet …
Matt
Errm, Wikileaks was not the ones that put them online.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-06/french-presidential-candidate-emmanuel-macrons-emails-hacked/8502516
Gonsky 2.0 is an analog of Labor adopting mandatory offshore detention (picking up the phone and calling the president of Nauru as Abbott suggested).
They will get a short term bounce but if the opposition are on the ball, won’t do well if the focus remains on education, especially given the higher ed changes.
So far Shorten as shown he can manage adversity.
Also given it is only a couple of days before the budget they may be waiting to see the big picture.
Chinda63
Speaking of which.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4479098/Snowtown-serial-murders-killer-applies-parole.html
Chinda:
Sounds like you guys are having a great time. Thanks for sharing!
Errm, Wikileaks was not the ones that put them online.
About nine gigabytes of data was posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting.
So the Russians were smart enough to not make it bleedin’ obvious that Julian is their bought and paid for boy this time. Pfft! It’s still the Russians.
Martinet Le Pen goes to Russia before the French Presidential election for a happy snap with Putrid. Putrid, as has been widely acknowledged, doesn’t give his time freely to meet with just anyone.
No digital data from the Le Pen campaign is hacked and released.
You do the math.
C@tmomma
You would have made a fantastic Witch Finder General. No evidence ? Aha ! proof they are guilty.
Chinda63
Cheers from me to all the SA bludgers!!
Fess
Yes this week’s Bill Maher show was good. New Rules was on the money
Boerwar may be interested in watching Bill Maher’s new rules as it encapsulates what he has been saying re the left.
Poroti,
You would have made a fantastic Witch Finder General. No evidence ? Aha ! proof they are guilty.
Okay, as you seem to know who it isn’t, tell me who it is that supplied the hacked material EMHACK to Pastebin? I bet you don’t know who did the hacking, you just seem to magically know somehow who it isn’t.
You seem to be wiser than thousands of people whose daily job it is to chase these people down their rabbit holes and bring them back kicking and screaming into the light. What an amazing talent you are possessed of!
Cud Chewer
I wouldn’t have thought there would be a huge difference between land use for CST vs PV with batteries. The main measure would be the relative costs of the electricity generated and the storage capacities.
CST really seems to be up against it now that battery costs have dropped so much.
Vic:
Not just Boerwar, but all of us. I have been well and truly over the unrealistic, naive idealism of the holier-than-thou purists since 2009 when the Greens sat with Fielding, SenX and the Libs and Nats in the Senate to defeat Australia’s first carbon pollution pricing legislation.
Since then they’ve simply gotten more pure and ever more unrealistic.
Keep on having fun Chinda63 et al.
briefly
“But go ahead. Gloat over the demise of Labour. You are celebrating the triumph of the Tories and the dissolution of modernity in Britain.”
lol…. are you a serious absurdist ?
This guy should head straight to the US.
He’d be a natural to head up Child Care and Support Services in the Trump administration.
confessions
That Maher clip should be rammed down the throats of Melanchon, Di Natale, Nader and Sanders until they choke on it.
trog sorrenson @ #191 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 3:45 pm
I would have thought he would be perfect to start up a NDIS for them considering who his victims were. 🙁
BIGD
I understand they are keeping in the Cooler until the Kapunda kneesup is done and dusted.
Just in case.
fess/boerwar
I am over it too, and agree re ramming it down their throats!!
yay Carlton defeated Collingwood<<
Just the sort of attributes Australia needs in a Trump like PM:
Around the government, you will hear consistent critiques about Morrison. He’s got a bit of a short fuse. He can rub people the wrong way. He can be brittle. He lacks the capacity to tell a compelling economic story – he can’t stitch big themes together – and he lacks finesse managing expectations, which is an essential art form for treasurers, and half the battle in landing a budget successfully.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/06/scott-morrison-new-budget-test-for-nowhere-man#comment-97985671
Neither Carlton or Collingwood will be anywhere near the Grand Final this year. It’s all academic unfortunately.
B
But look on the bright side. He can kick his fellow human beings in the guts when they are down and out.
victoria @ #196 Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 4:42 pm
Isn’t it great to rain on their parade!