Three bits of opinion polling news:
• As you can see in the post below this one, there is a poll of Queensland state voting intention in today’s Sunday Mail newspaper. This presumably means a result on federal voting intention from the same poll can be expected this evening.
• An in-house survey from The Australia Institute examines “public attitudes to the federal government’s handling of the global financial crisis, ten years on”. The Labor government of the time is remembered as having done a good job, with 57-24 breaking in favour of the proposition that “Australians should be proud of how its government handled the GFC”. Other findings are a 62-22 split in favour of the proposition that a recession would have unfolded without “large fiscal stimulus”; 48-31 considering borrowing to fund the stimulus was the right thing to do; 45-37 lining up against the proposition that it would have been better to go without stimulus to avoid further debt; and, more narrowly, 42-37 opposed to the notion that the fiscal stimulus policies were “poorly designed and excessive”.
• A ReachTEL poll for GetUp! on same-sex marriage, targeting six seats in Queensland and Western Australia with Coalition MPs with undeclared positions on the subject, finds support for same-sex marriage at over 50% in Hasluck, Moncrieff, Ryan, Swan and Tangney, and at 48% in Stirling with 42% opposed. Similar proportions of respondents favour a free vote being held in parliament “as soon as possible”.
And a whole bunch on preselection, where balls are already starting to roll ahead of a federal election still nearly two years away:
• Western Australia’s Liberal Party has confirmed Slade Brockman, former chief-of-staff to Mathias Cormann, to fill the casual Senate vacancy created by the retirement of Chris Back. Brockman won 89 votes out of 131 at a vote of the party’s state council held on July 22, from a field that also included former state MPs Michael Sutherland and Mark Lewis.
• The New South Wales ALP’s Left faction has endorsed Tim Ayres, state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, to take a factionally reserved Senate position presently occupied by Doug Cameron, who will not contest the next election. The Australian reports the ballot was boycotted by the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and the Maritime Union of Australia, who were apparently angered by the AMWU’s lock on a seat that stands to be filled consecutively by three of the union’s leaders (George Campbell, Doug Cameron and now Tim Ayres).
• Samantha Hutchison of The Australian reports that Michael Danby, Labor’s member for Melbourne Ports since 1998, is “facing pressure to bow out” at the next election. Labor has held the seat since 1906, but Danby was given a two-pronged scare at the last election, only narrowly edging the Greens by 24,340 votes to 23,387 to survive to the final count, and then emerging with a 1.4% margin over the Liberals, down from 2.2% in 2013. According to the report, Ari Suss, a Linfox executive and former staffer to Steve Bracks who shares Danby’s Jewish background (together with Malcolm Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth, Melbourne is one of two seats in the country where over 10% of the population identifies as Jewish). The Greens have already preselected their candidate from 2016, Steph Hodgins-May, whom Danby placed last on his how-to-vote card after she pulled out of a debate organised by Zionism Victoria.
• Katie Burgess of the Canberra Times reports preselection reforms in Labor’s Australian Capital Territory branch have been “criticised by the party’s right as a way for the left to gain control of a possible third federal seat”, which the territory stands to gain with the latest population-related entitlement determination. The changes have dispensed with requirements that members be branch members for at least 12 months and attend a certain number of meetings in a year to be eligible to vote in preselection ballots, which will reportedly triple the voter base. Kirsten Lawson of the Canberra Times earlier reported that the most commonly mentioned name for a new position secured by the Left was Angie Drake, staffer to Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry and unsuccessful candidate for Brindabella at last year’s territory election.
• Sky News reports that John Ruddick, a prominent proponent of reforms to democratise the party’s preselection process, as endorsed a fortnight ago at a special party convention, will challenge Trent Zimmerman for preselection in his seat of North Sydney. Zimmerman is a moderate factional operative, and one of the Liberals’ four openly gay federal MPs.
• State upper house MP Mehreen Faruqi has announced she will seek preselection to lead the party’s Senate ticket at the next election, setting up a contest with Lee Rhiannon should she choose to nominate again, which is yet to be determined.
phoenixRED @ #187 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 12:26 pm
Player One @ #192 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 12:37 pm
I’m somewhat familiar with this project though involvement with renewable energy in another area (and so we’re clear I have no personal or professional relationship with anyone directly or indirectly involved).
It’s an interesting idea that will require the installation of the latest generation of smart meters (such as the SATEC EM-133, though SATEC needs to get their arse into gear on a single phase meter) in order to be workable. I think it’s an idea that has potential in the short term over embedded networks such as the retirement village it was tried in at Busselton.
Almost every residential customer on the SWIS (except ~11,000) are still on rotary or basic digital meters, and most commercial customers are on basic smart meters, so in the longer term, there is the potential for Western Power to upgrade everyone to a suitable smart meter for this type of trading. Personally, I think distributed generation and P2P trading is going to be an important revenue source for electricity grids in the long term.
Trog Sorrenson @ #250 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 4:51 pm
And you don’t appear to understand what makes blockchain technology different from any other transaction technologies, such as those the banks use to record and verify financial transactions.
In other words, blockchain technology is not integral to the scenario.
P1
It’s not integral – just a superior method. Like a car is better than a horse, if you want to travel between Melbourne and Adelaide.
poroti/ronzy
Didn’t we just have 7 bishops in Victoria advertise against ‘assisted death’ the other day?
Having a centralised intermediary is exactly what the blockchain avoids.
Trog Sorrenson @ #255 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 3:07 pm
The difficulty you are having here in communicating the benefit of this software is there is a fair bit on the metering and technical side of running an embedded network or micro grid that you’ve left out.
As I posted earlier I think this is an interesting idea and has significant potential in the long term, but until you have a reasonable understanding of advanced smart metering and management of embedded networks/micro grids you are not really going to understand how this technology is going to benefit electricity consumers.
PhoenixRed:
Yep. This para in that Guardian article sums all that up:
And I keep forgetting about those RICO investigations, hopefully they will bear some insight as well.
CTar1
Bronwyn,Julie , who were the other 5 ?
grimace
Cut it out.
I don’t need to be able to build a smart meter or design a network to be able to understand the advantages of direct trading in power. And I don’t need a technocrat to tell me it’s not possible. I also don’t need to produce a detailed physical model of the atmosphere to believe in AGW. There are plenty of technologists and scientists to cover the details and provide the salient points on which I base my opinions.
phoenixRED Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 3:56 pm Comment #227
FMD. I guess someone would ask this sooner or later.
Trog Sorrenson @ #255 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 5:07 pm
You mean like a network operator?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fox-news-suspends-host-after-new-allegation-of-sexually-inappropriate-behavior/2017/08/05/fc2c011c-7a1a-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_foxnewsbolling-615pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.26638c421aaa
What on earth is going on at Fox News? So many of their male staff have been outed for sexual harassment recently.
Essentially the argument is not about blockchain – it’s just a technology, which may or may not provide part of a technical solution. The essential thing is disintermediation of the incumbent monopolies.
Only then can we achieve lowest cost distributed power – a step towards greater democracy and reduction in inequality.
confessions
PhoenixRed:
Yep. This para in that Guardian article sums all that up:
Almost all the 16 lawyers now on Mueller’s team are specialists in money-laundering and other financial crimes,
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Confessions – what has shocked me more in the last few weeks – has been the “alleged ” stories of the Trump Model/Escort Agency being a front for possible under-age people sex trafficking – and if remotely true it is 10000 times worse than money laundering. A number of different sources say IT happened ….. the accusations are sickening to say the least …… For once I hope they are not true ….https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/6/1578544/-The-Untold-Story-of-Trump-Model-Management-A-Daily-Kos-Exclusive-Part-1
Trog Sorrenson @ #253 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 5:06 pm
Thank goodness we got that sorted. So the ‘blockchain’ bit is just there to make the technology (which is actually fairly trivial) look somehow more advanced than it really needs to be, and to attract the suckers.
I think it’s working.
I’m just a little cheesed off by the NBN advertisement running frequently now. Makes it all seem so simple and easy. No more than a quick phone call and all will drop neatly into place.
briefly @ #219 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 3:42 pm
Precisely my point. But those opportunities follow as a natural consequence of getting a few ‘moderates’ (sic) to cross the floor and start the inferno. Labor is doing all it can to not discourage a few Libs from finding their own courage and splitting, knowing full well that only chaos can ensue.
It really will be on for young and old if they do split (which is why I still reckon they’ll fold). The loons have made this a non-negotiable. If they don’t tear Trumble down over it then they prove they have no power at all. They aren’t going to allow that. Better to have Shorten in the Lodge than Trumble off the chain.
And as for the SDA? Shorten neutered them at the last Nat Conf. Talk of a few Shoppies going rogue is up there with sightings of Albo challenges. Bullock saw the writing on the wall and did the honourable thing. Ellis isn’t talking about making a dash back from maternity leave to embarrass Shorten. The rest understand their responsibility. If it was a free vote on both sides they could vote no if they wished, but with the Coalition binding they’ll know that the official binding post the next election is functionally active. From a pure political perspective they know that it’s going to happen (and they’ll be voting for it) as soon as there is a Labor government. They want to be part of that government. The fastest way to be part of that government is to bring down the current one…
It doesn’t need to be spelt out further. Solidarity will overcome any personal qualms. Labor knows painfully how damaging disunity is. They won’t join the Libs in that game again for a loooooong time.
P1
Ha, ha!
Like the suckers that sold their horses and bought cars?
‘fess
Bearing in mind the standard of what they broadcast are you expecting the people employed are going to be well adjusted individuals?
PhoenixRed:
I’ve seen some of those allegations on twitter and the human trafficking was alluded to in that Dutch documentary. Yes if true it’s much worse than money laundering, but I still believe that the key to unraveling the whole Russian thing lies with Trump’s finances. Presumably anything dodgy or illegal allegedly operating under cover of a model agency would also be unraveled by picking apart the seams of Trump’s financial operations.
Good Afternoon Bludgers!
1. Uniting Church is already on board with being prepared to conduct Church SSM services.
2. As for the Labor Senators unlikely to vote for SSM, I believe that there may be some of their number who, as Dean Smith hypothesised, may vote for his Bill which gives ‘Religious Conscientious Objectors’ the ability to opt out of providing a service to gay couples.
Now, it’s not ideal, to be sure, but it is one way to get over the biggest hurdle asap. Thus enabling the possibility that these matters may be dealt with by a Labor majority government further down the track. Possibly with an Anti Discrimination case being the dam buster that paves the way.
CTar1 @ #269 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 5:33 pm
Quite.
Trog Sorrenson @ #259 Sunday, August 6th, 2017 – 3:21 pm
Take it easy Trog, I’m on your side on this one.
“What on earth is going on at Fox News? So many of their male staff have been outed for sexual harassment recently.”
I think it is pretty obvious that there was an entrenched misogynist culture there from the former CEO down for a long time. Anybody who complained was gone, in an industry that routinely sacks women the moment they are no longer young and pert. Now the Harrasser In Chief is gone, the dirt is coming out on all his equally creepy bros. No surprise at all. Frankly, the behaviour fits perfectly the mindset of the entitled white middle aged male that described both the Fox management and their prime viewing demographic.
CTar:
Well seeing as so many of them are so quick to jump piously on any inappropriate behaviour exhibited by their political opponents (ie Democrats), I’d have thought they’d at least have the self awareness to practice what they preach.
Oh, but I forgot. Standards are things reactionary conservatives demand of others, never themselves. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ etc.
*slaps forehead*
ratsak
Yep. It didn’t get a lot of coverage but it certainly consolidated Shorten’s grip on leadership.
(I was surprised that Bullock went with a bit of grace.)
confessions
“Fox News Channel suspended longtime host Eric Bolling
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Eric Bolling is said to have sent *dick* pics to female Fox colleagues – the internet response is that ANY picture of Eric Bolling is automatically a dick pic …..
Yes, quite so Soc.
I agree with Xenephon on this one. Fining CBA only hamrs the shareholders. The guilty should be jailed, since money laundering is a crime, not just a financial offence.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-06/nick-xenophon-crackdown-on-bank-executives-money-laundering/8779284
The real question that should be asked of AG Brandis is why have there been no criminal prosecutions under existing laws, given the multiple crimes now reported? Are CBA executives too big donors to jail, in Liberal party eyes?
Ph RD
LoL
confessions
“Frankly, the behaviour fits perfectly the mindset of the entitled white middle aged male that described both the Fox management and their prime viewing demographic.”
Yes, quite so Soc.
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A brief history of Fox News harassment scandals
Below, Newsweek takes a look at the scandals that have rocked the station in recent years.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/a-brief-history-of-fox-news-harassment-scandals/
Lenore Taylor (or was it Malcolm Farr?) said on Insiders that the Comm Bank revelations on money laundering only reinforced the need for a banking RC. Hopefully Labor will keep pushing on this.
CTar1
Then there are those for whom “Would you even care if he was innocent?” could be asked. I’m with Seymour Hersch when it comes to the “Russiagate” malarky being crud but with Trump being a 1980’s ‘entrepreneur’ kinda guy then I am pretty sure there would be some financial dirt. But then a look at the nitty gritty of all mogul’s rise to fortune would some pretty dirty laundry.
Grimace
I apologise for being snakey.
If someone want to send me lots of money I will promise to launder it very carefully.
Phoenix
Thanks, for the history. Like I said, the whole ugly mess has started unravelling with Ailes no longer there to protect them. I expect more to come.
Soc
The C’wlth Banks situation is so bad that yelling ‘Royal Commission, Royal Commission” is redundant at the moment.
Labor should make their point strongly on this but then let the Govt do what they’re going to do. It won’t be enough.
Good one.
And then there’s Tucker Carlson whose facial expression NEVER change!
https://egbertowillies.com/2017/05/13/bill-maher-makes-fun-tucker-carlsons-facial-expressions-video/
Speaking of unethical organisations, Paulist real estate, aka the catholic church , is back to its old tricks now that the RC cameras ar gone. For an organisation that claims to be spiritual, they sure care a lot about hanging onto the money.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-06/catholic-church-ballarat-diocese-abuse-compensation-claim/8766482
CTar
Yes exactly. We should be yelling “trials, trials, where are the trials, Mr Brandis?”
Porotiar1
. I’m with Seymour Hersch when it comes to the “Russiagate” malarky being crud but with Trump being a 1980’s ‘entrepreneur’ kinda guy then I am pretty sure there would be some financial dirt. But then a look at the nitty gritty of all mogul’s rise to fortune would some pretty dirty laundry.
******************
Poroti – my record on here is that Trump will go down for what he did BEFORE he became President – and if the ‘modelling agency’ stuff is true then may God have mercy on him, cause I won’t ……
‘fess
The vid is a classic!
ratsak,
With all due respect to your political perceptiveness, I just don’t think you understand the mindset of the Labor holdouts on SSM. Especially Senator Deb O’Neill, whom I know personally (she named her only son, Noah, and that should tell you something about her deep Catholic faith). So, no, I don’t expect her, and probably Helen Polley, at the very least, probably Don Farrell too, to vote for a vanilla SSM Bill, and only maybe for the Dean Smith Bill.
Yes, it may wound Bill Shorten as a result, but to them there is a power greater than the leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party, and that is their God.
After the next election is when their survival instincts would likely kick in. I have the strong sense that before they have to abide by Labor policy they may make a last stand. Because I was there at the National Conference when the policy was changed and I heard the impassioned speeches that they made and saw the lobbying for numbers that went on. It was brutal. I just don’t think they’ll go that quietly into the night.
Socrates
Phoenix
Thanks, for the history. Like I said, the whole ugly mess has started unravelling with Ailes no longer there to protect them. I expect more to come.
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I would be less than honest if I denied I would love to see the end of that Trump Fluffer and smug bastard, Sean Hannity
CTar:
Recently a Tucker Carlson video appeared in my Facebook timeline, and with that video in mind I decided to watch it. And he had the *exact* same facial expression throughout the interview.
phoenixRED
He like the rest of the crew there are “presstitutes” . Before Trump fluffery there was Dubya fluffery. The Fox crew are fluffers for hire at the Murdoch Bordello.
LOL I found it!
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5529583930001/?playlist_id=5198073478001#sp=show-clips
Sputnik, RT, Fox News. Same same.
Any telecom experts here
Can you explain why my internet works fine but my phone line does not. They are shared!!!!!! ADSL
Is it that the spooks forgot to turn the listening device off.
Phoenix
As President of the Pence fan club will you get to meet him when he visits Aus? Seems fair.