Primary vote numbers will have to wait until the full report is published later today, but The Guardian reports that the latest fortnight rolling average from Essential Research has Labor maintaining the 54-46 two-party lead it opened after a one-point gain last week.
Among the other findings:
• Seventy-one per cent agreed both sides of politics should meet in some place called “the middle” more often; 45% said they would consider voting for a party that sat in it; and another 45% (or perhaps the same one) agreed that Australian parties were “too ideological”, compared with 37% who perceived no substantial difference between them (I assume these two were separate options to the same question, although this is unclear).
• Yet another question on same-sex marriage finds 61% supportive and 26% opposed, and 50% supporting a binding plebiscite compared with 23% for a vote by parliament and 9% for a non-binding plebiscite followed by a parliamentary conscience vote.
• Questions on foreign leaders found 51% had a favourable view of Justin Trudeau, which would be an impressive result for a Canadian Prime Minister on name recognition, never mind approval. Angela Merkel on 43% and Emmanuel Macron on 41% both rated higher than Theresa May on 33%. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin both rated 16%, and 6% had somehow formed a favourable view of Kim Jong-un. All of these numbers will become more meaningful when we see the full report, which will hopefully also include results for unfavourable.
Player One
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:07 pm
frednk @ #844 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:00 pm
I also thinkit is wrong that you can be a citizen of a country and not have the right to sit in the countries parliament. It is a case of two classes of citizens; which is not right.
You can. All you have to do is renounce any foreign citizenships.
1) So everyone else but those that sit in federal parliament can have duel citizenship.
2) When the constitution was written both those that have just resigned would have been British subjects; and eligable.
It’s an unholy mess created by the shifting sands of citizenship laws.
Also:
That’s why a Shorten Labor Government will:
Introduce a domestic emissions trading scheme that will have two distinct phases. The first phase is designed to get Australia’s pollution levels back under control and to establish the architecture for an enduring ETS. The second phase will then drive the long-term transition in our economy;
Phase one of the ETS will operate for two years, from 1 July 2018 until 30 June 2020 to align with the second (and final) commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol;
Phase two of the ETS will operate from 1 July 2020. Pollution levels will be capped and reduced over the course of the decade in line with Australia’s international commitments under the Paris agreement;
The broader ETS does not apply to the electricity sector (see separate fact sheet on Cleaner Power Generation); and
The scheme will allow business to work out the cheapest and most effective way to operate and will not involve taxpayers handing over billions of dollars to Australia’s large polluters.
http://www.laborsclimatechangeactionplan.org.au/#policy-point-4
I hope that’s clear enough for everyone on Labor’s intentions.
LABOR’S CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN
Australia needs an ambitious, common sense pathway to a low pollution economy.
Labor’s plan gets us there with six key elements:
1. Leading Renewable Energy Economy
2. Cleaner Power Generation
3. Build Jobs & Industry
4. Cut Pollution
5. Capture Carbon on the Land
6. Increased Energy Efficiency
http://www.laborsclimatechangeactionplan.org.au/
I believe Pegasus is in Victoria.
Confessions
Thanks.
Rachel Maddow Delivers The Ultimate Slam On Trump And Republican Incompetence
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called out Republicans for the unbelievable fact that Trump has been in office for six months on Thursday, and even though Republicans control Congress, they have not passed and enacted a single piece of major legislation.
Adding Donald Trump and his Russia scandal to the mix took a dysfunctional party and turned into a raging dumpster fire of incompetence. Maddow was right. It is mind-boggling that Republicans have accomplished nothing, but their incompetence was not unexpected.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/07/18/rachel-maddow-delivers-ultimate-slam-trump-republican-incompetence.html
grimace @ #849 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:12 pm
Sure is …
Andrew Leigh …
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/02/labor-to-drop-renewable-energy-target-in-favour-of-eis
Bill Shorten …
http://www.ecogeneration.com.au/labors-emissions-intensity-scheme-will-hit-50-renewable-energy-target-by-2030-shorten/
frednk @ #851 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:14 pm
No it isn’t. The constitution is very clear and simple, both in wording and intent. Only a fool could be caught unawares by it.
zoomster @ #820 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 12:45 pm
Zoom,
in some countries that don’t allow duel citizenship if you are born there to non-citizen parents you have until a certain age to decide whether you wish to become a citizen or remain a citizen of your parents’ country.
In Germany for example that age is 23, after which any claim to citizenship by birth is no longer valid.
But Trump has been heavy on the executive orders. And despite the Republicans at the time criticising Obama’s use of executive power, there’s been not a peep from them at Trump’s use of same.
Player One
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:26 pm
frednk @ #851 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:14 pm
It’s an unholy mess created by the shifting sands of citizenship laws.
No it isn’t. The constitution is very clear and simple, both in wording and intent. Only a fool could be caught unawares by it.
***********************************************
Completely agree, its been very clear for a long time and others have been caught up by it. There are no excuses for any political organisation. The Greens need to stop whinging, take their medicine like adults and implement what should have been a standard process long ago.
Bandt is well and truly in the mix for leader. Being in the house is a benefit not a hindrance. Black Wiggle himself says that they aspire to being a party of government. You don’t do that if your leader is in the other place. Di Natale isn’t secure. If he falls AB will be the replacement.
No, he isn’t. At least until there’s significantly more Greens in the lower house.
Bandt can’t be attending to hashing out stuff in the Senate and doing his job in the Lower House at the same time. Its totally non-viable in the case of last minute negotiation and amendments.
Besides if Bandt had had ambitions and the potential to fulfill them he never would have let the Deputy title go. Though the reasons for doing so at the time were fairly obvious (giving more exposure to Ludlam , who was an impressive performer and trying to secure Larissa’s seat) so I’m glad he did.
phoenixRED @ #856 Wednesday, July 19th, 2017 – 2:22 pm
A dubious line of attack, at best. There are two possible outcomes of criticizing GOP legislative inaction. The first is that nothing happens. The second is that you’re successful in goading them into actually legislating all of those things that the U.S. is better off not having. In which case shitty things happen, and congratulations, you helped make them happen.
If you’re going to try to goad the Republicans into doing something, impeaching Trump is a better target. Then either nothing happens, or Trump is impeached. That’s a true win-win. Or at least, neutral-win instead of neutral-lose. So how about:
“Despite the unbelievable fact that Trump has been in office for six months on Thursday, and despite heroic efforts made by House and Senate Democrats, the Republicans in control of Congress have still taken zero action to remove the stain of Trump’s corrupt, conflicted influence from American politics.”
Yep, Ratsak. Give me Bandt over Di Natale any day. I’d like to be able to have the option of voting Green again.
“MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called out Republicans for the unbelievable fact that Trump has been in office for six months on Thursday, and even though Republicans control Congress, they have not passed and enacted a single piece of major legislation. ”
That’s a pretty weak argument. JFK was in for almost three years with Democrats controlling Congress and didn’t pass a single major piece of legislation.
I should add that JFK had many foreign affairs achievements and LBJ ended up passing quite a lot of legislation JFK started up.
diogenes @ #866 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:47 pm
Yeah, but he got to shag Marilyn Monroe.
I am expecting to hear paroxysms of joy from the Coalition at the fading fortunes of the Greens.
Gt
[I think having voting laws that do not allow foreign citizens to vote would be a no brainer]
It’s a little strange but I could vote in a UK GE. I think it’s because I’m a Resident and citizen of a countries considered ‘inner’ British C’wlth.
I don’t, but do vote in the City of London local elections.
Dan Gulberry
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 3:01 pm
diogenes @ #866 Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:47 pm
“That’s a pretty weak argument. JFK was in for almost three years with Democrats controlling Congress and didn’t pass a single major piece of legislation.”
Yeah, but he got to shag Marilyn Monroe.
******************************************
…… and she was but one of many !!!!
As a still-single Massachusetts Congressman in the 1940s and early 1950s, he indulged himself with what his friend, New Jersey Congressman Frank Thompson, Jr., called a “smorgasbord of women.” According to biographers Meagher and Gragg, Kennedy’s lovers were prominent, accomplished women, as well as strippers, airline stewardesses, and secretaries. As a lover, Kennedy reportedly was more interested in quantity than anything else. According to Dallek, one woman described him as “nice—considerate in his own way, witty and fun. But he gave off light instead of heat. Sex was something to have done, not to be doing. He wasn’t in it for the cuddling.”
But even after Kennedy married the strikingly beautiful, elegant Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953, the same year he was elected to the U.S. Senate, he continued to pursue extramarital relationships—despite the risk of scandal that might have crippled his Presidency.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/killing-kennedy/articles/the-sex-life-of-jfk/
Bandt does have a rather safe seat now that the ALP are in 3rd place (after preferences) in Melbourne. If there were to be a leadership change, which I don`t think is about to happen, he would thus be a realistic contender (should he decide to run).
“‘That’s a pretty weak argument. JFK was in for almost three years with Democrats controlling Congress and didn’t pass a single major piece of legislation.’
Yeah, but he got to shag Marilyn Monroe.”
Don’t forget the Bay of Pigs and the build up of the Vietnam war. And I’m sure JFK had other achievements, too.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/going-postal?utm_term=.fdDE47Gb6k#.gfO1GAgy0K
A parliamentary vote would be cheaper and quicker for heaven’s sake.
Trump Is Showing The World What A Weak American Presidency Looks Like
More than just the health care collapse, Donald Trump has so far failed to bring the “Art of the Deal” to the White House.
Six months into a tumultuous term, President Donald Trump has failed to put his hands on the levers of American power, showing that occupying even the highest office doesn’t automatically wield influence.
The White House has lost control of its foreign policy to the military and to allies who can’t work with a globally loathed American leader even if they wanted to. He has lost control of his domestic policy to Congress, which has been unable to give him a signature win despite Republicans controlling both chambers. He has lost control of his own aides to leaks and investigations, of his old television cronies to spiteful personal feuds, and most of all of the narrative of an “America First” presidency with a coherent vision or promise.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tariniparti/trump-is-showing-the-world-what-a-weak-american-presidency?utm_term=.ogjoBN32V#.kojX0eL32
Bandt’s problem re leadership is only indirectly the safety of Melbourne, though the party certainly would not look favorably on potentially losing it, sacrificing it for political ambition could end those ambitions. So it being fairly safe is necessary but not sufficient.
Its that he has to get into the Senate to lead effectively. Short of Ludlam’s replacement stepping aside for him, I can’t see anywhere he could slot in before 2022. The only 2019 opportunity would be a shot at Queensland’s 6th seat , which is far to unsafe to lead from unless PHON and Bernadi both explode into Rainbows and Kittens. Everything else is taken by people who are well dug in (and some are still dicey anyway).
I wonder what impact Get Up’s campaign against the Potato had on this decision?
Is this also about raising the Potato’s profile in his seat as well as placating a potential threat to the PM?
The police shooting death of an unarmed Australian woman in Minnesota has been linked to the hearing of exploding fireworks. Really? The death toll on Fourth of July must be horrific.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-19/justine-damond-shooting-mayor-wants-officer-to-tell-his-story/8723054
Socrates
And the next worst thing about that shooting is that the officer who fired the shots that killed her cannot be forced to give a statement.
In Sydney they plan to use Sydney Harbour bridge tolls to fund the tunnel to Manly for 35 years. In days of old tolls from bridges and roads that had paid for themselves long ago were used to help fund more government services, rather than handed to a PPP consortia to prop up a plainly uneconomic road project, but I digress.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/revealed-8-tolls-each-way-planned-for-new-roadway-tunnels-to-sydneys-north-20170718-gxdawm.html
BTW Beaches Link, or AbbotLink as I think it should be called, will cost $14 billion. Assuming it is a four lane freeway with a capacity of 60,000 vehicles per day, that equates to $230,000 per regular user. Or put another way, this tunnel will cost the equivalent of $80,000 for every person living in Manly and Warringah Councils.
Also I note that the truck toll will be 3 times the car toll. They will not pay that, so this just means the good burghers of Warringah will have no trucks driving through their enclave, while AbbottLink is paid for by the rest of Sydney. This is not an investment in transport. Somewhere in Sydney a tunneling contractor needs a new Bentley.
Puffy
I know they say that, but I find it had to believe. If the death is suspicious, surely they can question any suspect? I wonder if this claim is a legal product of the way they have classified the death and who they have asked to investigate it? I think it is more telling that the alleged shooter had hired a lawyer within 48 hours of the shooting.
Also I wondered about the death from being shot in the abdomen? If somebody was treated for blood loss and rushed to hospital with such a wound they might have survived. I am not suggesting the shooting was not accidental. But dead people never get to tell their side of the story.
Socrates, what this state government is doing to Sydney should be a major scandal.
Unfortunately the proliferation of uneconomic, useless and destructive motorways is but one example.
As usual when it comes to the Libs, follow the money.
This will surely help get Gina Palszczuk re-elected. Just kidding. And its not really very funny. I also note they persist with the fiction that guards in a brake van are needed on trains with automatic braking. Protecting a union or workers’ rights is one thing. Protecting a cosy monopoly while denying well paid job opportunities to the unemployed is something entirely different.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-rail-trains-28-out-of-required-200-new-train-drivers-20170719-gxe42z.html
Adrian
Indeed so. It is just the area of NSW government corruption I know about. If only private citizens could hire Tony Fitzgerald to go through that lot. good afternoon all.
I am not a greens supporter but I doubt that they will be damaged electorally very much by this, if at all. The kind of people who vote for them do so pretty much for a cause and the cause will still be there even if they make a few mistakes or have a change of personnel.
Some commentators have suggested they may go the way of the Democrats, however I think it is a false analogy. The Democrats were terminally wounded after Meg Lees decided it would be a good idea to support Howard’s GST, which was about as popular as rat poison at the time. After that it was only a matter of time.
Darn
When Meg Lees caved into the blandishments of Howard and Costello, you’re right. Many of us lost faith in the Democrats. It was hard to believe that she could be so naive.
Socrates
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 4:11 pm
Puffy
I know they say that, but I find it had to believe. If the death is suspicious, surely they can question any suspect? I wonder if this claim is a legal product of the way they have classified the death and who they have asked to investigate it? I think it is more telling that the alleged shooter had hired a lawyer within 48 hours of the shooting.
****************************************
In the US the retention and use of attorney’s is a product of how their society functions.
I own a business which has recently started doing business in the US. In the six or so months of doing that I’ve had a multiple of times more contact with attorney’s than I have in the rest of my 15-year career as an accountant combined. Over there, attorney’s do a lot of things that in Australia you’d do yourself as a small business person, or would get an accountant to do for you.
Separately, I would advise anyone who had contact with the criminal law system as a potential suspect to put their mouth in the shut position and let their lawyer do any talking that needed to be done.
“When Meg Lees caved into the blandishments of Howard and Costello, you’re right. Many of us lost faith in the Democrats. It was hard to believe that she could be so naive.”
It was worse than niaive. Part of the deal was that Howard would next inquire into and remove business tax loopholes. It never happened, and Lees never mentioned it in parliament. Lees was too close to Howard, just as Kernot got too close to Labor, philosophically speaking.
People on PB will pronounce any action as certain to lead to the destruction of the Greens.
The Greens lost a point in Newspoll, proof that they’re 2 seconds from destruction.
The Greens gained a point in Newspoll, further proof that they are 2 seconds from destruction.
Not matter how much some people on here want it to happen, there is no reason to believe it will.
They lost two good senators. They will be backfilled shortly. We are about 12 months from the next election. Ludlam and Waters may be back at the next election, or even before it if a casual vacancy is created. Even if those two don’t return, others will step up to be deputy leader. No-one is irreplaceable.
Nobody is going to think “man those guys are terrible at filling out paperwork, I suddenly disagree with their policies as a result and will vote for someone else”.
Bring back Natasha 🙂
Actually some unkind people might say that Kernot got a bit too close to Labor in the biblical sense as well where Gareth Evans was concerned.
Kenny (the Murdoch one) tells Shorten not to oppose the super-duper terrorism ministry, otherwise bad things will happen to him. I doubt that Bill is too worried.
I dunno about that. If the disappointment being expressed by some of my Green-voting friends on facebook is any indication, there must be a few people out there in voter-land seriously ticked off at how the party has handled the Gonski bills, Lee Rhiannon, and now a derelict failure at something so simple as appropriately vetting candidates.
But Di Natale can safely be blamed for all of those. He’s the wrong person to have as leader of a party that’s supposed to be to the left of Labor. Too willing to cut a deal with the Coalition, by far.
The decline of the Australian Democrats since the early 90s seemed to happen in parallel with the rise of the Greens, so I suspect that many, possibly most, former Democrat voters went to the Greens, with others drifting back to the main parties. The Democrats positioned themselves between the major parties, but I always though they had a strong “soft left” wing that was further left than Labor and similar to the space now occupied by the Greens..
Between 1993 and 2013, the sum of Green + Democrat votes was in the range 10.6% +/- 2% (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Democrats#Electoral_results, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Greens#Federal_parliament)
However, today, Green voters really don’t have anywhere else to go (although some might go to Labor). I would think they would remain loyal unless the party became a complete rabble. I think that in spite of their current problems, the Greens will be with us for a while.
It’s been a while since I’ve travelled on Perth freeways other than short taxi rides from airport to city, but I’m pretty sure we’ve managed to avoid tolls on our freeways here.
Why is Sydney and Melbourne so different?
@ Confessions
Definitely no tolls on the Perth freeways or highways.
I don’t think Shorten will have Labor vote against it. But he will have a bit of fun asking Turnbull embarrassing questions about it – like how is it supposed to strengthen protection for the Australian people when the present system has such an outstanding record.
Indeed he can. Plus he has a ‘my way or the highway’ attitude that you can’t afford to have when your partyroom is so small and every member has portfolio responsibilities. I never really warmed to Christine Milne or Bob Brown, but they had much more authenticity and genuineness than Di Natale has.
Grimace:
I didn’t think so. How are we able to avoid tolls when other cities can’t?