We are having one of the poll-free weeks that have occasionally bedevilled us since Essential Research moved from weekly to fortnightly, with Newspoll having one of its occasional three-week gaps so its next poll coincides with the resumption of parliament. So here’s some random bits of electoral news:
• A polling nugget I forgot to relate a fortnight ago: according to a report by Nick Butterly of The West Australian, a Labor internal poll recorded a neck-and-neck result in the Perth seat of Stirling, which Michael Keenan holds for the Liberals by a margin of 6.1%. After excluding the 10.8% undecided, the primary votes were Liberal 40.2% (49.5% in 2016), Labor 37.6% (32.2%), Greens 9.0% (11.7%) and One Nation 5.3%. The poll was conducted by Community Engagement from a large sample of 1735.
• Gareth Parker in the Sunday Times reports that Matt O’Sullivan, who ran unsuccessfully in the lower house seat of Burt at the 2016 election, has narrowly won preselection for the third position on the Liberals’ Western Australian Senate ticket, behind incumbents Linda Reynolds and Slade Brockman. O’Sullivan emerged with 56 votes to 54 for Trish Botha, co-founder with her husband of an evangelical church in Perth’s northern suburbs. The closeness of the result surprised party observers, especially given Christian conservative numbers man Nick Goiran backed O’Sullivan. As Gareth Parker noted in his weekly column, Botha appears to have attracted support from “non God-botherers” opposed to Goiran’s alliance with Mathias Cormann and Peter Collier, who may not have been aware of the messianic language employed by Botha’s church.
• Katy Gallagher has announced she will seek preselection to recover the Australian Capital Territory Senate seat from which she was disqualified last month over Section 44 complications, after speculation she might instead seek the territory’s newly created third lower house seat. However, it appears she will face opposition from the newly anointed successor to her Senate seat, David Smith, former local director of Professionals Australia.
• As for the lower house situation in the Australian Capital Territory, Andrew Leigh will remain in Fenner and Gai Brodtmann will go from Canberra to the nominally new seat of Bean, leaving a vacancy available in Canberra. Smith appears set to run if he loses the Senate preselection to Gallagher; Sally Whyte of Fairfax reports he will be opposed by Kel Watt, a lobbyist who has lately made a name for himself campaigning against the territory Labor government’s ban on greyhound racing. Other potential starters include John Falzon, chief executive of the St Vincent de Paul Society; Jacob Ingram, a staffer to Chief Minister Andrew Barr; and Jacob White, a staffer to Andrew Leigh.
• Occasional Poll Bludger contributor Adrian Beaumont has launched his own website of local and international election and polling news.
C@tmomma @ #144 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 11:54 am
It’s certainly not a problem here, the cops have little tolerance for antisocial behaviour and there are few beg your pardons when they deal with it.
BK,
Because if you ring 911 in America, you may end up dead yourself!?!
Thanks William
Buddhism has the concept of redemption.
You can buy birds or fish and release them back into the wild.
This giving back life somehow absolves one from being an arsehole.
It could be the difference between coming back as a worm and a king in your next life.
Another way is to build a stupa.
In Burmese Day’s the wife of a character regularly goes out to buy some fish which she releases on his behalf because she can see what an arsehole he is to others and she is terrified at what he might come back as.
briefly @ #122 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 2:07 pm
Point to what I said was untrue?
Barney and others were around and had a similar view of your bleats.
William Bowe @ #125 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 2:15 pm
I don’t mind briefly exposing himself for what he is.
rhwombat @ #104 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 12:57 pm
Think M L was more on about the buying of indulgences, and get out of Hell cards.
(Just back from the D C Memorial – a beautifully presented tribute to the great man.)
You’re a filthy liar bemused…a true fuckingwankerofaliar
adrian @ #128 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 2:24 pm
I regularly meet young IT graduates unable to get a job when I attend Australian Computer Society functions. I have also worked with companies bringing in IT workers from overseas to actually replace their existing Australian IT workforce. And this has received media coverage.
It is an absolute disgrace and those who would defend it like briefly and you are betraying fellow Australians. Oh, and those fellow Australians include some who actually migrated from the country that is the main source of the overseas cheap workforce.
You are compradores.
briefly @ #107 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 1:10 pm
Yes, that is what I was saying, except, except, except. you don’t have to throw the deity concept out with the bathwater. A deity by definition can’t be offended but that doesn’t exclude the existence of one.
William Bowe @ #136 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 2:45 pm
Yes, in the most recent case, a female bystander who questioned the way the cops were arresting someone got a dose of pepper spray for her trouble.
briefly @ #158 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 3:39 pm
Go for it briefly.
You do are doing a better job of exposing yourself than what I could.
Seriously, Briefly – cut it out.
The Parrot’s barrister says there are somethings that can’t be defended, and now it’s a question of damages. !!
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/14/alan-joness-comments-about-wagner-family-unable-to-be-defended-his-lawyer-says
bemused says: Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 3:46 pm
Yes, in the most recent case, a female bystander who questioned the way the cops were arresting someone got a dose of pepper spray for her trouble.
*******************************************************
Very sadly the recent Victoria Police ‘fake’ breath tests saga has just added to those pillars in our community – Politicians, Church Officials, Bankers etc etc that -who have ruined the thoughts on people we hold up as models to having a society with decency, honesty , integrity …..
Victoria Police officers fake more than 250,000 roadside breath tests, investigation finds
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-30/victoria-police-record-fake-roadside-breath-tests/9817846
Mind you, is there anything about Jones that can be defended?
from the previous thread…
Clem Attlee @ #1803 Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 – 11:56 pm
Yes, there’s quite a bit of that around…
I certainly hope the person concerned didn’t bring the flag from Australia.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/jun/14/nazi-flag-flown-on-australian-army-vehicle-video
Barney in Go Dau @ #169 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 3:58 pm
Where else would it have come from?
That was certainly the suggestion on ABC radio.
bemused @ #170 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 1:00 pm
Nazi symbols are not uncommon in Muslim Countries.
Hitler is admired by some because of his attitude towards Jews. 🙁
R.I.P Eurydice
bemused @ #159 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 3:43 pm
Nothing ‘cheap’ about it.
Why do you think that honest employers would bother with the time, cost and compliance of bringing in overseas workers if they could source them from the local labor market?
Or do you think that the vast majority are engaging in illegal activities? If so, not only are you wrong, but you are an idiot.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/science/baobabs-climate-change-drought.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Barney in Go Dau @ #171 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:03 pm
Isn’t the Swastika used in Indian decorations and artwork? Isn’t that the original source?
The Nazis were not the originators, they just made it notorious.
Jones is easy pickings for a defamation suit.
I would if Brian Schmidt will sue Jones for Jones calling him a liar re ANU/Ramsay
It’s the flag of the Nazi Party. The swastika is only a part of it. And I’m pretty confident they aren’t made or sold in Australia.
adrian @ #173 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:10 pm
I watched it happening.
A lot of it is Indian companies who just bring out employees from India without making any effort to employ Australians.
At one place I worked, they were brought here and paid a tax free living allowance while here and their salary was paid back in India. Hence no tax paid in Australia.
Such arrangements were still going on last I heard and had spread to companies like IBM and the ‘Big 4’ consultancies who brought in employees from their Indian subsidiaries. A big client was the Federal Govt.
It is an absolute scandal.
William Bowe @ #177 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:13 pm
If so, there would be no problem importing one from some ratbag group in the US or elsewhere.
bemused @ #178 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:16 pm
Considering the fact that the ATO and DHA share information, I find that extremely unlikely.
bemused @ #175 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 1:11 pm
It’s a common Buddhist symbol that is found on many houses and pagodas.
There are a few not far from where I live.
The Buddhist version is rotated 1/8 of a turn so it sits flat rather than on the point.
But it is also found in other cultures and religions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
The swastika, or hooked cross, has been used all over Asia and Europe for centuries, including in European heraldry.
The Nazis believed the Aryan race originated in central Asia and migrated to Europe in antiquity. The swastika is (or was) a popular symbol at all points along the supposed route of migration, through India, the Middle East, eastern Europe, and into central and northern Europe. So the Nazis believed the symbol must have originated with the super-race and been brought with them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/science/crispr-cancer-gene-editing.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
William Bowe @ #174 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:13 pm
William
I have seen them on sale – a few years ago now but it was in a coastal town in NSW – real trucky stop – red neck central.
Tanya Plibersek on ABC24.
Cambell Newman while head of the Brisbane city council outsourcesd all the IT to some ndian company or other. All the locals were sacked. The former IT worker was my pool cleaner.
Great!!!!!!
adrian @ #180 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:21 pm
Considering the fact that the ATO and DHA share information, I find that extremely unlikely.
It is done with a class of Visa which allows companies to bring in ‘senior’ executives for a relatively short period – a few weeks- in this manner.
So they just go back home for a short while and then return.
When consultancies bill them out at $3,000 a day, a return airfare is nothing.
Bemused
I agree. I have seen this where I work.
“I have seen them on sale – a few years ago now but it was in a coastal town in NSW – real trucky stop – red neck central”
Well there you go. Are you sure it wasn’t a Liberal Party fundraiser shop?
Jolyon Wagg @ #188 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:37 pm
I hope Adrian takes off his blindfold long enough to read this.
Worth considering if domestic labour wastage has been cut to negligible levels. But there is currently a vast amount of waste of the Australian’s people’s abilities and desires to work. How about targeting full employment with price stability and sustainable resource use? Oh right, ideological objections. Need to mindlessly pursue the nonsensical target of “shrinking the fiscal deficit” and “moving to surplus” instead of focusing on real resource availability and quality of society and quality of natural environment.
“A lot of it is Indian companies who just bring out employees from India without making any effort to employ Australians”
This was happening under Rudd and Gillard. They just turned a blind eye. I imagine Shorten or Di Natale would do the same.
There’s plenty of Australians that can do the job.
But Government and Employers too fucking lazy since John Howard days and the days of Work Placements, Contracts, and other bullshit.
Sohar @ #192 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:40 pm
Yes, to their absolute shame it did go on.
It is an outrage.
The argument is used that they had specialist skills not available here. That may be true in a very limited number of cases, but most are just relatively new graduates.
Also, Australian companies in the IT Industry used to send a couple of people overseas to learn new skills, bring it back to Australia and run training here to spread the skill.
You know A good example is one of my friends who went for a job interview and got rejected because of his disability.
Sohar @ #192 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 1:40 pm
Considering Shorten made reference to, temporary workers not being here a day longer than it takes to train a replacement, on Monday night, probably not.
It seems he wants to do something positive to deal with the issue. 🙂
He didn’t do that because he isn’t particularly good at thinking on his feet. He also lacks practice at making forceful, evidence-based arguments for businesses needing to adapt to wages that reflect the material standard of living that our society can sustain because of its aggregate productivity level. “Employer’s capacity to pay” is not the basis for deciding wages. Our Commonwealth Parliament, subject to democratic control, should be deciding what wages are acceptable, and it is the role of businesses to adapt to that. Business who can’t afford to pay decent wages have a bad business model and need to either improve their processes or be replaced by a better business owner. Simple as that.
I see that Nicholas is proposing the Greens’ approach which would have been to tell the business owner that he should be broke and just to bugger off.
Zoidlord @ #195 Thursday, June 14th, 2018 – 4:44 pm
Your friend should complain to HREOC.
Good afternoon blogers. I logged in just now. So I did not read any discussions.
How are the bloggers feeling about flying the Nazi flag on Australian army vehicle even allegedly for a short time? How is BW feeling about it? How is Kayjay feeling about it?
This is not one off incident.
1. There is this allegation of wide spread corruption in Navy. According to ABC investigative team report a lot of US officers have been stood down
One of the Australian officers targetted in that investigation has resigned as Navy officer and is now working as defence contractor
2. ABC very recently revealed that some years ago Australian narmy officers have allegedly killed unarmed civilians in Afgan.