Another fortnight (or so), another 53-47 to Labor result from Newspoll. This time out the primary votes are Coalition 36% (up one), Labor 37% (up one), Greens 9% (down one) and One Nation 9% (down two). Malcolm Turnbull’s personal ratings are slightly improved, with approval up two to 34% and disapproval down two to 54%, and his lead as preferred prime minister out from 41-33 to 43-32, while Bill Shorten is unchanged at 33% approval and 53% disapproval.
UPDATE: Paywalled Australian report here. Kevin Bonham: “Same 2PP five #Newspolls in a row, a new all-time record. #auspol”.
Mark me down as another member of the Julia Baird fan club.
She stood up to the criticism over her reporting on domestic violence by men who irregularly attend church with intelligence and coolness.
But separately I’d be most fascinated to hear Julia Baird discussing her own faith. By all accounts she’s a committed Christian – a really quite rare phenomenon in what might loosely be described as the progressive commentariat. I wonder if Rachael Kohn could get her on her RN programme as she did Greg Sheriden recently who spoke about his Catholic faith (not that I’m suggesting for a moment that GS is part of the progressive commentariat of course).
Fess
Just having a day off. 😉
Fess:
1) Im pleasantly surprised you’re interested!
2) Excellent reminder
3) Link – http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2017/03/16/trumps-budget-hits-transit-hard/
alias @ #601 Monday, July 24, 2017 at 6:57 pm
Kristina Keneally is another well known Progressive Catholic who has been critical of the church.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/24/warren-entsch-shoots-down-duttons-postal-plebiscite-on-marriage-equality
Warren Entsch shoots down Dutton’s postal plebiscite on marriage equality
Queensland LNP MP and same-sex marriage campaigner says a voluntary postal plebiscite would not be binding and would create ‘a legal black hole’
Longtime marriage equality campaigner Warren Entsch has poured cold water on Peter Dutton’s call for a voluntary postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
While he welcomed the immigration minister’s engagement, the Queensland LNP MP said a postal plebiscite would not be binding and would create a legal black hole that could be challenged from all sides.
“The fact that a plebiscite of any form, whether it be postal or otherwise, is not binding I think really puts the final nail in the coffin in relation to any concept of a plebiscite and that’s not going to change with a … postal plebiscite,” Enstch said.
He said he had considered postal plebiscites in the past as a cheaper method that would not require parliamentary approval, but “the reality is it is a legal black hole”.
—
The RW, the phobics, the clerics, the zealots and the game-players in the LNP are up to their usual mischief. They will seek to divide pro-ME opinion and to stage their self-gratifying protests. They could not care less about the harm this will do to members of the LGBTQI community or their families or the values of forbearance and acceptance. They won’t mind the goading, the sneering, the hypocrisy or the sanctimony. They will set out to parade themselves as the “victims” of reform.
There is one very simple, dignified and effective way to settle this debate. Let the Parliament decide on a Bill. This is good enough for every other issue, large and small. It is well and truly good enough for the enactment of equal rights with respect to the civil registration of voluntary, exclusive and committed unions between couples.
GG: Christians are really good at hate & bigotry, so getting a little back of what they dish out may do them some good; at least it should give them pause when next they reach into the same bag
Lizzie:
Nevertheless I think some of us can do more to have your back when you’re being bullied. I’ll have a mind to that in the future, and I’m sure others will be of the same mind.
booleanbach @ #607 Monday, July 24, 2017 at 7:07 pm
True of some.
But others are much better, like Fr Rod Bower and the Hampton Park Uniting Church hosting this event https://www.facebook.com/events/1382444821825422/
booleanbach @ #607 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 7:07 pm
Seems you are more than happy to indulge. says more about you than me.
zoomster @ #594 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 6:52 pm
Blessing Bemused is a an over reach!
Thanks Ides. I do remember Socrates posting about this some time ago. Nevertheless I’ve bookmarked your link to read at a time I can give it my full attention. 🙂
confessions @ #608 Monday, July 24, 2017 at 7:09 pm
Lizzie was not bullied today or any other time I can recall.
Barney in Go Dau @ #587 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 6:47 pm
Don’t really care, comrade.
bemused
But you’ve shown today that you’re crap at remembering things — even ones which happened quite recently.
zoomster @ #615 Monday, July 24, 2017 at 7:14 pm
On I see, so you have perfect recall of every post ever made on this site and expect others to be the same?
You are, as usual, seeking to stir up trouble.
Please cite the offending posts. Did I, shock horror, happen to disagree with Lizzie on something? I was unaware of when PB became a mutual admiration society and disagreements were banned.
Ides of March @ #600 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 6:56 pm
No worries!
“GG: Christians are really good at hate & bigotry”
booleahbach
I ‘m a Christian booleahbach, do you think I’m full of hate & bigotry? I hope I don’t appear that way.
———————————–
By the by – Hi All.
The Newspoll is surprising. The Turnbull Party have thrown everything at pleasing various sectors/groups no matter Green, Labor, Liberal, One Nation persuasion. I really thought it would come through for M. Turnbull this time, the pockets of support would add up to a 50/50 Newspoll. Puzzling.
I noticed Peter Hartcher and Mark Kenny etc can’t bear to comment on the latest Newspolls. I do believe they are emotionally upset at their mate Malcolm Turnbull going through this rough trot. SMH can’t even publish the Newspoll results anymore. It’s painful for them, after their huge support for MT, and the Abbott cabinet leaking to Peter Hartcher to destabilise Tony Abbott, and very successfully done.
SMH journos truly went through a big effort to get Mr Turnbull up there.
Prettyone
Not puzzling at all. People know the government is cr*p at delivery, so there’s no point listening to what the government says, because it is highly unlikely to happen.
GG
For being christians or for their views ?
Prettyone
Read my post at 7:10pm.
Do you identify with those Christians or with the hate filled ranters?
prettyone @ #618 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 7:18 pm
Yes, it’s quite an exercise in cognitive dissonance for the usual suspects to criticise Christians for bigotry and hatred while exemplfying it in their anti-Christian rants.
poroti @ #620 Monday, July 24th, 2017 – 7:24 pm
Absolutely!
Goodness me.
Bludger reminds of that scene scene under Ppppontius Ppppilate’s ppppalace…. everyone seems to be wasting a lot of bile.
I take this opportunity to remind youse all primly that behaving biliously is bad for the health and that I would advise you to do as I say, and not as I do.
That said, I was interested in the discussions about rice farming.
My two bob’s worth is that water is now priced and that it is just one of the cost inputs into growing rice. Capital costs, energy costs (transmuted into transport, chemicals and the use of farm machinery) are all important. Farmers must try to compare and contrast all the possible crops and then make a best guess about commodity crops.
The beauty of priced water is that it enables irrigation farmers to make informed decisions about all their cropping inputs.
So, that is the market. In theory. In practice it is bastardized in all sorts of ways including by tariffs and speculation and investment or lack of it in infrastructure.
If you want top down water management and you used environmental values as the highest values, then you would probably ban rice growing in Australia. And beef cattle. Which you would also do because the generate a huge amount of methane.
The following link has some interesting observations and a comparative table which tends to demonstrate, IMO, that Zoomster’s calcs on the comparative thirstiness of peaches and rice may be based on a rocky substrate:
http://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Hoekstra-2008-WaterfootprintFood.pdf
fwiw, I rarely comment on Pollbludger these days, as it’s become just awful in terms of people insulting other posters.
I find it hard to credit that with Labor on 53.4 on Bludgertrack and the appalling performance of the Coalition, e.g., today Morrison saying inequality is getting better despite all evidence to the contrary, that some folk here just want to pick fights with each other.
ML
Hear ye, hear ye.
A pity. But there it is.
Monica L:
Last week was nothing like the usual PB You surely have to admit that.
“Not puzzling at all. People know the government is cr*p at delivery, so there’s no point listening to what the government says, because it is highly unlikely to happen.”
Maybe. But they are sure trying to please everyone, with this that and the other policy. Really putting a big effort into it.
Not that Bill Shorten is not a good opposition leader, he knows what ordinary people/ workers worry about etc, and can articulate it easily.
Something is holding the government back. Not that I care, I’m no fan of MT, just pondering.
ML:
‘fwiw, I rarely comment on Pollbludger these days, as it’s become just awful in terms of people insulting other posters.’
It was fine last week.
Great to catch up with PB tonight. The clash of ideas and stimulating discourse. Reminds me of down behind the back of the oval at recess time.
What’s your view on WA farmers demanding WA govt support so they can participate in the fed govt’s carbon sequestration scheme?
How is this viable in WA? Is there an equivalency for WA with eastern states farmers, who are reportedly raking in $200k pa in income as a result of their participation in the scheme?
PO
Well, they first robbed and then insulted the Catholics.
Then they stole a whole lot of penalty rates money from 700,000 workers.
We should remember that Labor kindly gave them an opportunity to vote against this assault on our lowest paid. But they did not do so.
Then they cost the SMSF crowd some wealth, some administrative money to restructure their affairs, and a whole lot of insecurity about WHAT NEXT?
Then they looked the other way while the spivs robbed hordes of VET students.
Then they looked the other way while the spivs robbed hordes of retirement village dwellers.
They liked THAT so much that they made up their own form of youth serfdom: $4 an hour internships and be grateful for what you get.
They knocked off some bits and pieces of support from hundreds of thousands of parents with the parenting allowance ‘reforms’.
On 1 January it whacked 300,000 pensioners.
Dutton went out of his way several times to publicly and loudly make all Australian migrants feel uneasy about something or other. They don’t have to be sure about what is exactly happening. All they need to know is that he will get them in some unnamed way if he can get away with it.
Oh… and not to forget that, except for the plutocrat and spiv boss class, real wages are falling.
Oh, and they are bastarding tens of thousands of mothers and fathers sons and daughters by way of Robocop… and the mothers and the fathers while they are at it.
Abbott might be fixating the Coalition beltway dwellers with his chronic political ADHD antics but out in the real world people are hurting. And it is the Coalition that is intent on hurting them. Except if they are rich and/or spivs and/or bosses and/or foreign owners of the corporates that are paying 0% tax.
prettyone
….
The Newspoll is surprising. The Turnbull Party have thrown everything at pleasing various sectors/groups no matter Green, Labor, Liberal, One Nation persuasion. I really thought it would come through for M. Turnbull this time, the pockets of support would add up to a 50/50 Newspoll. Puzzling.
Terrorist and hate the other is so last year. So what are the Liberals to do now?
Boer
I wasn’t on so much about relative thirstiness, but neediness. You can choose not to grow rice in a year when water is scarce; you still have to water your peach trees.
It’s a significant difference, btw, between NSW and Victoria, especially along the Murray – Victoria does not grow rice, even in places where rice is grown just across the border; NSW does not have irrigated orchards. It’s something to do with the different ways water is allocated.
Confessions
Carbon sequestration schemes for farmers. Now there is a rort in the “clean coal” class.
prettyone
If no one is listening, it doesn’t matter who it is they’re trying to appeal to.
PrettyOne,
I have been expecting the polls to move away from the L-NP for ages. I am very surprised this poll didn’t go to at least ALP 54.
Dutton is awful.
My wife has just received her tax assessment for 16/17 FY. It has a debit of $394 which she did not understand, and as she was under the Tax Free $18200 this year she was expecting all her tax back.
Credit offset for integrated client account – that is the explanation, and after a call to her tax agent she is told that it is the group tax she owes which is due on August 11th, a month away !
So they have kept her PERSONAL tax refund to pay her BUSINESS tax liability which is not due yet, and which is preset to pay on Aug 11th.
Bloody thieves.
Is this legal
Poroti:
Indeed. But I want Trog to respond as it would at least be in recognition that there is only a minority of one PBer who has turned conversation to his own idiotic, self absorbed issues whereas the rest of us have continued to engage with reality.
Zoomster
I take you point to this extent. If water is ‘scarce’ the price goes up… in which cases rice offers a certain flexibility that peaches do not.
But the flexibility of rice is to some extent more apparent than real. If you have invested in levelling your rice padis, have invested a huge amount of money in rice-specific machinery and on-farm infrastructure then you cannot just decide not to grow rice because water is expensive.
What all this means is that farmers have to take a long term view of getting a particular cropping mode, whether it be rice or peaches or cream.
W.E.P
If said wife had done the same she would no doubt be being dragged to the courts as we speak.
My advice would be for said wife to become inordinantly wealthy.
The reason is that the inordinantly wealthy negotiate their personal tax outcomes with the ATO.
monica lynagh @ #625 Monday, July 24, 2017 at 7:37 pm
Last week the place was fine. This week … not so much.
For purely research purposes, I have created a second twitter account, and followed all the RWNJ who have blocked my ‘real sprocket’ account. The second account has a stream of pug uglies; Chris Kenny, Rita Panahi, Rowan Dean, Miranda Devine, Joe Hildebrand – on reflection, Rupert Rooters all.
So they live in the sewer of Briedbart, Infowars, MichaelSmithNews and a cesspit of RWNJ crackpot ideas. And themes of vilification of female, nearly always female, progressives and anyone with dark skin and a Muslim pervade. Yasmin hit the jackpot with all four, though Gillian Triggs shows that only 2 shortcomings is enough to get the Murdoch hang ’em high lynch mob foaming at the mouth.
Boer
Never like using an industry factsheet, but…
‘Australian rice growers use 50% less water to grow one kilo of rice than the world average ..’
On water allocation:
‘ Each year State governments assess the water resource available in the dams and determine allocations for different users based on a hierarchy. Most rice is grown by general security irrigators who receive their water last in this hierarchy of allocations. They are also the first to have allocations reduced in times of water shortages’
https://www.sunrice.com.au/media/6666/rice_and_water.pdf
I liked last week as well.
Sprocket:
Yikes! That seems pretty definitive.
Joe Hildebrand has to be the biggest goose of them all. No wonder Channel 10 is going down the gurgler featuring his bad jokes and juvenile stunts on Studio 10. Hope he blocks me again soon.
Z
The high security allocations (which are the ones that matter) are not allocated by industry, I believe but according to the size of water rights held by individual owner.
The largest individual private owner is, I believe, a family that lives in the United States.
What happens is that everyone who holds high security water rights gets the same percentage as everyone else.
If there is plenty of water, every high security holder gets 100% of their water – whether they own 30 megs or 3000 megs.
If there is not enough water in storage to meet all high security allocations, then everyone will get less.
Some years we get 100% of our meg rights. So does everyone else. Some years, we get say, 80% and so does everyone else get 80% of their rights.
During the drought we got less than 10%.
Zoomster
Just read your link which did not sound right to me at all. It is dated ‘2004’ so it is OBE.
Walter,
That sounds incredibly suss. People are expected to keep their personal, business and super seperate and I very much doubt the tax office would mix them.