BludgerTrack: 52.3-47.7 to Labor (still)

The addition of Newspoll’s state breakdowns to the BludgerTrack results in a net gain of two for the Coalition on the national seat projection.

There were no new federal polls this week, but we did get repackaged old ones in the form of quarterly state breakdowns from Newspoll and Ipsos. I only have full results from the former at this stage, but am hopeful of acquiring the latter next week. So all that’s happened in this week’s BludgerTrack update is that the new Newspoll data has been used to recalculate state breakdowns, with the national results exactly as they were last week.

As is often the case, the big hit of Newspoll state data has made little difference in the larger states, but quite a bit in the smaller ones, where samples are smaller and results less robust. This puts the Coalition solidly up in both Western Australia and South Australia, where they gain one seat apiece on the seat projections. While the changes in Victoria and Queensland are small, they have put the Coalition up a seat in Victoria and down one in Queensland. So the net effect of the changes is a two-seat gain to the Coalition, with Labor now projected to win 86 seats nationally to the Coalition’s 60.

Full results through the link below.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

574 comments on “BludgerTrack: 52.3-47.7 to Labor (still)”

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  1. Learning to make a so-called ghost gun — an untraceable, unregistered firearm without a serial number — could soon become much easier.

    The United States last month agreed to allow a Texas man to distribute online instruction manuals for a pistol that could be made by anyone with access to a 3-D printer. The man, Cody Wilson, had sued the government in 2015 after the State Department forced him to take down the instructions because they violated export laws.

    Mr. Wilson, who is well known in anarchist and gun-rights communities, complained that his right to free speech was being stifled and that he was sharing computer code, not actual guns.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/business/downloadable-gun-allowed-alarming-activists.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

  2. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Am I having a nightmare? Pauline Hanson has opened the door to former Labor leader Mark Latham becoming a future leader of One Nation, should he decide to join her party and run for parliament again according to James Ashby.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hanson-leaves-door-open-to-latham-leading-one-nation-20180714-p4zril.html
    They’re at it again! Israeli aircraft have struck militant targets in the Gaza Strip and Palestinians have launched dozens of mortar bombs and rockets from the enclave into Israel, the Israeli military says.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2018/07/14/israel-unleashes-wave-of-strikes-on-gaza/
    Michael Koziol writes about two things that just won’t go away – John Howard and the culture war.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/back-on-the-front-line-of-the-culture-wars-john-howard-reasserts-his-immense-authority-20180712-p4zr60.html
    Matthew Knott tells us about Mueller’s stark choice for Trump: take on Putin or be branded a coward. He concludes by saying it is well past time for the Trump-Putin bromance to end.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/mueller-s-stark-choice-for-trump-take-on-putin-or-be-branded-a-coward-20180714-p4zrig.html
    The political operative Roger Stone has admitted he is “probably” the Donald Trump associate cited in a grand jury indictment as communicating with Russians who attacked the US presidential election in 2016.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/14/donald-trump-roger-stone-russia-indictments-robert-mueller-vladimir-putin
    Fairfax European correspondent Nick Miller describes Trump’s Europe tour as a ‘theatre of the grotesque’.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/trump-s-europe-tour-a-theatre-of-the-grotesque-20180714-p4zrg9.html
    Richard Wolffe writes that Trump is a walking contradiction – but his nativism is consistent. On his UK tour, he has threatened the safety of migrants worldwide. He is a racist, he says.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/13/donald-trump-immigration-racism-uk-visit
    Bill Shorten has asked Malcolm Turnbull to permanently put the government’s proposed GST carve-up in place, rather than merely seek a nod of approval from the state and territories.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/07/14/shorten-dares-turnbull-to-cut-the-gst-waffle/
    Peter van Onselen hits the spot here when he explains what is wrong with our education system.
    https://outline.com/v3vtHS
    Britain’s former trade commissioner in Brussels, Lord Mandelson, is making common cause with hardline, anti-EU Tories, saying Theresa May’s latest Brexit blueprint would lead to “national humiliation” and leave the country in a worse position than if it turned its back on the entire European economic system.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/14/mandelson-brexiters-may-eu-humiliation-opinium-poll
    Katharine Murphy schools the Nats over what was NOT in the ACCC report into energy.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/14/note-to-nationals-no-the-accc-didnt-say-build-more-coal-plants
    Developing new coalmines in the Galilee Basin would cost 12,500 jobs in existing coalmining regions and replace only two in three workers, modelling by the Australia Institute shows.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/15/developing-new-galilee-basin-coalmines-will-cost-12500-jobs-analysis-shows
    In his weekly column Peter FitzSimons aims a good swipe at The Australian.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/spoonfuls-of-sugar-should-be-on-every-label-20180713-p4zrf5.html
    These two business studies academics say the time has come for the government to deliver more than assertions that theoretically large fines and modest funding for the ombudsman will solve the wage theft crisis.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/four-ways-to-stop-restaurants-like-rockpool-ripping-off-workers-20180713-p4zrfe.html
    More than 60 women from far north Queensland have been forced to go interstate to have abortions, often to Sydney, in the first six months of 2018. Why?
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/14/young-and-terrified-the-queensland-women-forced-to-go-interstate-for-abortions
    Are our safety standards and enforcement failing us?
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/there-was-blood-everywhere-the-cots-and-prams-failing-safety-tests-20180713-p4zrdr.html
    Sydney’s auction clearance rate has fallen below 50 per cent, with less than half of all listed auctions for Saturday selling under the hammer.
    https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-auctions-enmore-terrace-sells-for-105m-as-agents-report-more-onebidder-auctions-20180714-h12npq-752369/?utm_campaign=featured-masthead&utm_source=smh&utm_medium=link
    Nick Cohen laments that Brexit Britain is out of options and the country’s humiliation is painful to watch.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/14/brexit-britain-out-of-options-humiliation-painful
    The McKinsey firm appears to develop academic theories for banks to use in clinical trials on their customers. Dr Evan Jones reports.
    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/mckinsey-and-the-cba–bankwest-takedown,11691
    Helen Pitt explains the perils of Facebook.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/with-friends-like-facebook-who-needs-enemies-20180712-p4zr36.html
    In a worrying contribution economist Stephen Anthony writes that Australia stands on the precipice of a major social crisis. Industry Super estimates a national affordable housing shortage (mostly sub-market rentals and emergency housing) in the order of 350,000 depending on typical family size. Two thirds or more of that shortage is in New South Wales and Victoria.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-low-cost-housing-crisis-is-brewing-but-there-is-a-solution-20180710-p4zqn9.html
    Attorney-General Christian Porter and his state-based counterparts are preparing to tackle gaps in how family courts and police approach potential violent offenders in a bid to prevent a repeat of last week’s shocking shooting murder of two teenagers by their gun-wielding father in Pennant Hills.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/attorney-general-poised-to-crack-down-on-gaps-in-gun-laws-in-wake-of-pennant-hills-murders-20180714-p4zrhp.html
    A federal judge who has had at least 61 judgments overturned on appeal since his appointment 3½ years ago by the Coalition has been found in recent cases to have repeatedly failed to fulfil the basic judicial task of properly trying cases and giving adequate reasons for his decisions. What an effort!
    https://outline.com/v2TUM4
    An amusing request from an art lover.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/hanging-offences-the-ngv-should-go-all-out-to-punish-crimes-against-art-20180712-p4zr15.html

    Cartoon Corner

    A good one from Zanetti.

    Alan Moir.

    Just a few in here – Matt Golding’s in particular.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/best-of-fairfax-cartoons-july-15-2018-20180714-h12ot6.html
    And Fiona Katauskas has endured a media storm over a children’s sex education book she illustrated three years ago.
    https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2018/july/1530367200/fiona-katauskas/amazing-true-story-sex-ed-outrage

  3. The Scots lead again:
    ?w=620&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3b59de37cec4c32e565b97e94c5b8f3c
    Ya Radge Orange Bampot is the new black.

  4. I believe the Queen is an excellent mimic. No doubt Trump will be mocked and ridiculed on many family occasions in future.

  5. And, wouldn’t you know it, Trump blames President Obama for the Russian election hacking which swung the election to him!?!

    President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for the actions of 12 Russian military officials indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign.

    “The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”

    In another tweet, Trump asked, “Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t the FBI take possession of it?” Deep State?”

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/14/trump-obama-russia-election-meddling-mueller-indictments-722197

    The guy is pure evil.

  6. C@t

    When Trump abruptly stopped in front of the Queen (presumably to take in his moment of glory ) and she had to walk around him, he betrayed his complete lack of manners toward a little old lady in her nineties, as well as disrespect for a head of state. How often does this man have to prove he’s an oaf?

  7. ‘Written expression receives inadequate attention in classrooms, within both the school system and the university sector. Grammar and spelling are taught only until Year 6. They need to be taught much further down the line to ensure school graduates and university entrants are armed with the skills they need for life and future studies.’

    Written expression and spelling and grammar are not the same things. And computers do pretty nifty checks on both (they can’t on written expression).

    And that ‘spelling and grammar’ will arm university entrants with the skills they need suggest they’re doing pretty well at the moment.

    And an emphasis on spelling and grammar can be counter productive – it can make students who are struggling in these areas focus on their lack of success rather than building on their strengths.

    At the moment, for example, I am tutoring students who are poor spellers. They’re getting As for science projects and maths work and yet I spend an hour each week basically demonstrating to them that they’re rubbish.

    I’m not saying don’t teach spelling and grammar. I’m saying that these are not ‘written expression’. One of the best pieces of written expression I ever received as a teacher was written by an exchange student, and is chock a block with spelling and grammar errors. I gave a copy of it to one of Australia’s leading writers and he was blown away by it. It’s a brilliant piece of writing.

    ‘However, those doing the teaching of subjects such as science and maths in years 7 to 10 aren’t even required to have completed a single year of such studies at the tertiary level. I find that absolutely extraordinary.’

    Well, technically they are. You can’t qualify as a Maths teacher without filling these requirements, and technically schools are supposed to use Maths teachers to take Maths classes.

    The problem is that Maths teachers don’t exist.

    Probably because all the sh*t they put up with because of their spelling and grammar has put them off schools.

    (Oh, and you now have to pass a literacy unit to get a teaching degree, which I’m sure isn’t helping).

    van O follows up with some unsubstantiated stuff about ‘lack of discipline these days’ and ‘teachers are out of touch’ which I put in the same basket as ‘when I was young…”

    ‘It’s little different at the university level. Lecturing doesn’t carry the gravitas it once did. The attacks on expertise and the dumbing down of public debates have left the academy isolated in a way it previously hadn’t been in our egalitarian society.’

    I’ll take his word for it on the first part, but how does being more critical of academia isolate them? Academia, in my experience, isolates itself, by not engaging in debate. If anything, academia is less isolated. They may be less respected, but that’s a different thing.

    Maybe van O is right to be concerned about written expression…

    ‘Almost ironically, this has occurred as more people are able to access higher education courtesy of lower entry standards (another issue), uncapping places and HECS.’

    Er, logically, no. The more people exposed to academia, the more likely it is that academia will be criticised.

    I’m not sure of the lower entry standards stuff. I knew people in the 70s who got into courses with bare passes for HSC, on the same basis they do now.

    ‘Fixing the above should be simple, but not if politicians don’t understand the nature of the problems. During the past two decades not a single education minister has spent so much as a week in front of a classroom, at school or university level. They haven’t marked a pile of high school or undergraduate essays to see first-hand the deficiencies in written expression.’

    I’m tempted to say ‘good on them’. The idea that doing a week’s work in any area gives you the insight needed to fix the system is ludicrous. If an MP was going to spend a week in a school, I’d have them floating in and out of classrooms, talking to staff at lunchtime, chatting with students. They still wouldn’t learn much, but they’d learn a lot more than attempting to do a job they’re not qualified for.

    ‘What education departments should focus on is the extent to which core subject matter is prioritised and the standards that are regarded as acceptable when future teachers turn in their own assignments.’

    If they’ve got to University level, it’s too late, basically.

    And shouldn’t it be horses for courses? I don’t care if my son’s Maths teacher can’t write an essay on the manifestation of class in ‘Jane Eyre’ (and, because of op-ed approaches to fixing education like this one, they are now required to undertake tasks like this as part of Dip Ed). I want to know he can teach Maths.

    ‘At any rate, standards certainly have worsened because these basic skills aren’t being taught in a formal setting beyond Year 6 ..’

    Van O has always had problems understanding that what happens in one State system doesn’t happen in another. I’m assuming that he’s referring to WA here and that he’s right. He certainly isn’t right if he’s talking about Victoria or NSW, where I have taught both right up to Year 12 level – class wide at the lower levels, and after that according to the needs of particular individuals.

    ‘It’s a conservative notion to want to hark back to a time when the teaching of disciplines focused on the basics. But it’s necessary.’

    No, it’s not. Schools have been pressured to concentrate more on the basics since the early 1990s. The kids PvO is now teaching having had the basics rammed down their throat. Primary school teachers continually complain that there are whole skill areas they can’t teach any more because of the amount of time they are required to spend on the basics every day.

    This period has seen a decline in educational performance, not an improvement.

    So, what would I do?

    1. Place far more emphasis on the early years. Instead of encouraging parents of young children to re enter the workforce, I’d encourage them not to. I’d encourage breast feeding. I’d target families at risk and provide them with the resources they need to prepare children for formal schooling – a malnourished child has a malnourished brain, and no amount of back to the basics is going to improve that. A parent who has limited reading skills is not going to read to their child.

    2. I’d trust teachers a bit more, rather than trying to make their work fit the requirements of parents and op ed writers. Treat them as professionals who know what they’re doing and let them do it.

    3. I’d look at ways of encouraging society to value education more. (It’s sort of a testimony to where we are that we don’t – that people can afford to be a bit complacent is a sign of security and comfort. Societies which don’t have either are nuts about the importance of education).

    4. I’d look at the research (which basically says 1 through to 3).

    When it comes to looking overseas, things get muddled – we tend to look at countries which are underperforming us, and adopt programs they implemented in an effort to get to where we already are. Sure, the programs were outrageously successful for them, but they can actually be a step backwards for us.

    And we also need to be careful looking at ‘successful’ countries. The ones ‘above’ us in terms of academic performance have wildly different approaches. They include highly regimented, intensive systems like the Asian ones and lasse faire, let the teachers do what they want to and don’t ask questions ones like Finland.

    The only constant there is that the societies themselves value education and have respect for teachers.

  8. “The guy is pure evil.”

    Fortunately pure evil is a lot lot smarter than this guy. Unfortunately Mitch McConnell is pure evil and Paul Ryan is even worse he isn’t pure evil but he does pure evil.

    Trump is the worst of every bad in Western culture. Lazy, stupid, greedy, sexist, racist, amoral. But just not smart enough to be evil.

  9. WeWantPaul @ #261 Sunday, July 15th, 2018 – 8:26 am

    “The guy is pure evil.”

    Fortunately pure evil is a lot lot smarter than this guy. Unfortunately Mitch McConnell is pure evil and Paul Ryan is even worse he isn’t pure evil but he does pure evil.

    Trump is the worst of every bad in Western culture. Lazy, stupid, greedy, sexist, racist, amoral. But just not smart enough to be evil.

    Okay, so how about, cunning as a s**thouse rat? 🙂

  10. lizzie @ #258 Sunday, July 15th, 2018 – 8:16 am

    C@t

    When Trump abruptly stopped in front of the Queen (presumably to take in his moment of glory ) and she had to walk around him, he betrayed his complete lack of manners toward a little old lady in her nineties, as well as disrespect for a head of state. How often does this man have to prove he’s an oaf?

    Yes, and interesting that there were no photos released of Trump bowing before the Queen of England. Rampant Republicans, ie Trump’s base, would lose their minds over that, and Trump would have his persona of ‘I bow to no one!’ shattered.

  11. Hey Zoom can you expand on your WA comment.

    Too late for my kids as they are towards the end of the WA school system.

    Couple of points I would like to pick up perhaps a bit on both sides, I guess I used to look at what Chris Curtis would post here, but my overriding memory / impression is that we have just continually devalued the teaching profession both in terms of money and social standing over 40 or 50 years.

    So in many respects I shouldn’t expect the kid on $60 k teaching my kids maths to understand the maths, and with some shining exceptions of wonder they don’t, they can barely teach to the curriculum and narrow confines of the way of the curriculum and a sometimes a text book outlines the methods.

    My problem is now linked to the way I learn, I learned a lot of maths but forgotten many of the names that processes or tricks are given. Still annoys the crap out of me when in 15 minutes I can google then watch (often an American) do what my daughter can’t do on youtube and have her executing the method beautifully (the mechanics not the maths) in about another 15. When a teacher who has had weeks hasn’t managed it.

    Final whinge they must also have de-incentivised or defunded textbook writing, or there is something going on with specially designed state curriculum that means there is just no suitable text book. I guess there is a chance also this is me seeing a school / school admin failure but across the range of subjects both of my kids will ask me a question and I’ll say ‘ok lets start with your text what does it say’ and it is just totally silent on the problem / area.

    Personally I’d start fixing the problem with the wage / status of teachers.

    There is also an issue with respecting education. I know first hand that having a degree doesn’t necessarily make you an expert in any part of that subject. But for almost all of my career it would have been ‘odd’ to have any reference to or acknowledgement of any academic qualification. In essence this is because in almost all circumstances those in charge, earning the big dollars, demanding the respect, yes even reviewing the written documents have a commerce or business degree as their only academic qualification. At least until they get up high enough to have the firm that are at buy them a MBA or similar.

    There were five of us in first year maths at uni. I mean real maths towards a maths degree maths not a bit of stats with our commerce degrees. Now we were all quite good of maths and I’m willing to bet none of us are natural teachers, although we all did a bit of tutoring with good success 1 on 1. It is not a joke but literally and explicitly teaching maths was our fallback if everything else went wrong. Out of the five of us we got zero maths PhD’s and zero maths teachers. One of us lectured Computer Science at a tertiary level, so I guess that is teaching.

    As for spelling and grammar I’m really torn. I’m terrible at them both I could look to a whole range of excuses but let’s just stick to I’m terrible with them both.
    I would love to be better at both, I’d die without a spell checker I like both an automated grammar checker and a formal text or grammar guide nearby. But beyond typo edits throwing of readers in early drafts most of the problem with ‘grammar’ is with the reader not being able to read something more complex than a Mr Happy book.

    rant over

  12. “Okay, so how about, cunning as a s**thouse rat? ”

    I think even that is over generous but we are getting towards a low level primal instinct survival. I think if he hadn’t been born into an incredibly wealthy family and a society that worshiped wealth as the only god he’d have been the idiot in a crime gang or a complete failure or perhaps at best the annoying amway salesman.

  13. The one thing in this novichok search business that I have not seen any discussion of – even to dismiss it – is whether the couple most recently poisoned may have been the actual Russian agents.

  14. WWP

    I don’t know much about the WA system, but I assume that that’s what PvO is basing his assumptions about spelling and grammar teaching on – it certainly doesn’t apply to Victoria or NSW. (For example, a quick check in with my son – he has vivid memories of formal spelling and grammar lessons up until Year 8, but doesn’t recall any in primary school, the opposite of PvO’s contention).

    I do know that PvO often makes incorrect assumptions about the Labor party’s internal processes. Often what he claims is true of the WA branch of the Labor party (regarded by the other state branches as a bit of a dinosaur, although I understand there’s been work done to address this) doesn’t apply to the Labor party as a whole, but he assumes it does – I’m thus assuming he is doing much the same for education.

    (Which had me reflecting on the experience of a mate of mine. He was working at the Victorian head office and decided to formalise his expertise by undertaking a politics course at Uni part time. He would often be told in lectures how Labor’s internal processes worked. When he said wtte of “I am personally in charge of this particular internal process at the moment and that’s not the way it works at all’ , more than one lecturer told him he didn’t know what he was talking about….)

  15. I have also found when talking to colleagues the teachers biggest PR problem is their working hours / weeks.

    No doubt a good teacher works long days and stays up to date with serious significant work over the many many months off.

    But most people claim to know a lazy idiot who barely works 9 – 2 and either works a second job or holidays for months every year.

    I see a whole lot of ‘yeah well they should be paid better but you have to multiply their salary by 2 to compare because they barely do a 0.5 FTE.

    Not saying it is fair or true, and clearly there is an issue in Australia where we traded having a life outside of work for a small pay rise somewhere in the last 40 years, but still that is a real PR issue in any campaign to get teachers higher fairer pay and to attract better candidates into teaching.

  16. WWP

    Yep, my sons are the same – “If I can’t get a job in Engineering, I can always teach maths’, the youngest says.. Since he’s obviously going to get a job in Engineering, he’s not going to teach Maths.

    If I wanted to work out a program to get more Maths teachers into schools, I’d talk to people who did Maths subjects at Uni and ask them why they didn’t go into teaching.

  17. WWP

    ‘I see a whole lot of ‘yeah well they should be paid better but you have to multiply their salary by 2 to compare because they barely do a 0.5 FTE.’

    What amuses me (well…amuse might not be the word…) are radio shock jocks who say this. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate being told they only work an hour a day!

  18. Agree with your points Zoom.

    Having marked uni assignments I also agree that a focus on all three areas, written expression, grammar and punctuation, and spelling should be throughout schooling but not as THE focus.

    I USED to say to people make children read lots and they will pick up the spelling and the grammar and the punctuation etc. BUT with so many self-published books these days that aren’t properly edited for these things, even that admonition is iffy now.

  19. Thanks zoom. I’m not holding out much hope for significant improvements in education, either real of PR, but I can hope.

    I also make the PvO mistake of assuming Labor works a lot like it does in WA, in other states. Unlike you I am not at all sure things are improving, but unlike a decade or so again I don’t actually have people at or near the core to give me the ‘what is really happening’ take, I just watch from the branch and it doesn’t look like it is functioning any better under the surface than a group of power brokers (with most of them the kind of person you’d count your fingers after shaking hands) without apparent responsibility. A whole lot of captains picks where the premier is the only visible captain and the other captains are factional hacks.

  20. I am watching “Insiders”. I cannot believe that Gerard Henderson is defending Trump on NATO saying that he had a successful meeting. He kept silent on Trump’s UK visit.
    I stopped seeing now because Canavan is on the show.

  21. “What amuses me (well…amuse might not be the word…) are radio shock jocks who say this. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate being told they only work an hour a day!”

    Shock jocks may well say it, but the guys I talk to have grown up in legal and accounting firms where you try and kick goals in early years by doing 60 hour weeks and recording you’ve done 70 in the billing system. It gets better over time down to from 7 or 8 am to 5 or 6 pm as you get more senior.

  22. zoomster @ #269 Sunday, July 15th, 2018 – 9:08 am

    I don’t know much about the WA system, but I assume that that’s what PvO is basing his assumptions about spelling and grammar teaching on – it certainly doesn’t apply to Victoria or NSW. (For example, a quick check in with my son – he has vivid memories of formal spelling and grammar lessons up until Year 8, but doesn’t recall any in primary school, the opposite of PvO’s contention).

    zoomster, not nit picking, but afaik, PvO was Sydney educated, and his girls to go school in Sydney. Mrs PvO is Perth.

  23. Bushfire Bill

    Can’t see the Russians trusting registered heroin addicts for this sort of thing. They must still be into the drugs as from the start it was speculated they may have picked up a syringe or phial.

  24. That was a classic from insiders on Latham getting into senate for One Nation

    Sheridan “Latham wants to go somewhere where he can say what he wants without being subject to laws of libel and defamation”

    Cassidy: “that’s SKY news isn’t it?”

  25. Morning all. I believe this welcome message in Helsinki is aimed at Putin, although it works just as well for Trump.

    :large

  26. “A glorious future beckons.”

    Me: I think Abbott was our Trump

    Hanson: Hold my beer.

    On the serious side even with the blind sheep and structure of a major party Latham wasn’t a likeable charismatic figure. Perhaps the polling was already poor, perhaps he’d already had the long dark teatime of the soul that led to his later trouble, but when he did the WA launch of the election campaign that was supposed to make him PM he was almost unlikable to the party faithful. Every word he said seemed to drag life from the room. Ironically Beazley did all the Ra’ra stuff for him.

    I assume he’d pull votes away from idiots like Leyonhjelm and the right of the NSW libs and put them in a even more clearly labelled box for racist idiots.

  27. ‘Fess,
    I doubt Trump would bat an eyelid if Jim Acosta from CNN was murdered by one of Trump’s crazy supporters. It’s an even more devious way to silence your critics than Putin’s.

  28. C@t:

    Jake Tapper was set to interview John Bolton on his Sunday morning Insiders equivalent but after that press conference in the UK the WH has cancelled his appearance.

    Talk about precious!

  29. Confessions @ #290 Sunday, July 15th, 2018 – 9:49 am

    C@t:

    Jake Tapper was set to interview John Bolton on his Sunday morning Insiders equivalent but after that press conference in the UK the WH has cancelled his appearance.

    Talk about precious!

    Or maybe smart. Bolton is a blowhard who often puts his foot in his mouth. 🙂

  30. I have a question / reflection point.

    Having dipped my foot into the swirling maelstrom that is twitter I have run into (and sometimes deservedly) ‘oh you are just a partisan hack’. I think to be fair I’m a partisan troll more than a partisan hack at the time but tomato tomato.

    And this is probably the wrong audience but do we have an issue in Australia where actually participating in politics or engaging in political issues, more broadly than agreeing with the latest Current Affair welfare bludger scandal, or supporting the local community is a nimby stop progress way, is seen as a bad thing a thing that should be avoided.

    Almost an ongoing manifestation of never talk about sex or politics.

    I ran into a former partner of a big four accounting firm I’d worked for in the day. I was good mates with one of his team and got on quite well with him. He shook my hand and ‘asked are you still with the party’, and I did my whole ‘well I took a long sabbatical after [x] but I’m a member of a branch again’. And he was ‘oh me too me too’.

    At which point I was genuinely confused and had to double check. “Um which party are we talking about, just so I’m sure.”

    “Labor I was always Labor.” He said.

    “Really?” I said “I thought Liberal Party membership came as a compulsory part of the partnership deal.”

    “No no.” He said “You just can’t talk about anything else.”

    I don’t know long story short but there seems to an extent to which people through choice and social pressure don’t think they can have / share labor values. Like another aspect of the class / political war that goes on but only one side is allowed to fight.

  31. Denise Shrivell

    @deniseshrivell
    Denise Shrivell Retweeted Sky News Australia
    The boats have never stopped – just the reporting – till now. That Dutton releases this as a racially charged scare campaign to coincide with #Longman & other by elections shows how desperate & ruthless they are – & is both predictable & shameful @David_Speers #auspol #insiders

  32. C@t:

    Sanders tweeted that they pulled Bolton because Acosta disrepected the president and instead of rewarding bad behaviour they “decided to reprioritise” appearances for officials.

  33. Every question gets chucked to Gerard where he gets to be a government apologist.
    Why the fuck do they keep this guy on? Its boring.

  34. And why didn’t Barry also tell Canavan that coal fired power is a fantasy. Yeah, I know he tried gently but he should have perservered.

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