The latest fortnightly result from Essential Research has Labor maintaining its 51-49 lead, with the Coalition up one on the primary vote to 41%, Labor steady on 36%, the Greens steady on 10% and One Nation steady on 6%. Also featured are questions on best Liberal and Labor leader: the former finds Malcolm Turnbull on 28%, up four since April, with Julie Bishop down one to 16% and Tony Abbott down one to 10%; the latter has Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese tied on 19%, which is one point down since August 2017 in Shorten’s case and six points up in Albanese’s, while Tanya Plibersek is down one to 12%.
The poll also has Essential’s occasional question on attributes of the main parties, which are chiefly interesting in having the Liberals up eight points since November 2017 for having “a good team of leaders”, to 45%, and down eight on the obverse question of being “divided”, to 56%. The biggest movements for Labor are a seven point decrease for being “extreme”, to 34%; a five point decrease for being too close to corporate interests, to 37%; and a five point increase for being divided, to 56%.
The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1022; full results can be found here.
adrian @ #350 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 6:02 pm
Alternative lifestyles?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-22/great-barrier-reef-funding-labor-accuse-due-diligence/9785782
Here is the May report ABC did about the reef funding.
Since then we now know Malcolm had a big hand in giving this grant without any public servants present, and now we know who the four founders of the GBRF, as they only just revealed it, which KK asked back in May.
adrian
Leigh Sales manages to conduct an entire interview with the NFF re the drought, without once mentioning climate change.
Worse than that Leigh finished up with discussion on farm subsidies & comparison with Europe , implying the answer is more handouts.
Never mind we are farming where we shouldn’t ( infact never should have ) & that the EU farm subsidy’s are in support of 1000 years of cultural identity & it’s ties to the land.
Poroti and Rocket:
As you are aware, there have been mass extinctions in the past history of the earth when conditions became inimical to many life forms.
We are heading there at a great rate of knots.
Thermophilic bacteria will be fine, many marine organisms of the deep ocean, and maybe cockroaches, but it will be curtains for most species on land until fish populate the land again.
Or southern great albatrosses, maybe. Dinosaurs may then repopulate the earth.
Apparently three government bodies, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, along with the CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, now have to submit proposals to the self-proclaimed GBR foundation for research funds.
One can imagine what sort of “research” will be funded.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/conservation/secretive-great-barrier-reef-foundation-reveals-four-founding-leaders-20180801-p4zuwb.html
Farm near my mum’s in Hunter Valley had a dead cow in it’s dam for days. Thought they needed the water rather than contaminate it. Some farmer are so lazy.
“Apparently three government bodies, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, along with the CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, now have to submit proposals to the self-proclaimed GBR foundation for research funds.”
The question that Turnbull has to answer, personally, since he was obviously instrumental in the decision to allocate the funding, is exactly why CSIRO was not offered the $. If they wanted research with industry links then CSIRO should be their first option. Straight marine research, then AIMS.
Govt has to account for this.
Nicko @ #353 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 6:11 pm
So the upshot of it is that this is now an even bigger story than it was back then? The PM’s direct intervention with no due process for approx $500m funding.
mikehilliard says:
Could be worse 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu5hzc2Mei4
mikehilliard says:
Wednesday, August 1, 2018 at 8:13 pm
Farm near my mum’s in Hunter Valley had a dead cow in it’s dam for days. Thought they needed the water rather than contaminate it. Some farmer are so lazy.
_________________________
That is why you sterilise your drinking water when in cattle and horse country down the gorges:
adrian @ #339 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 7:45 pm
You still watch 7.30!?!
For ‘research purposes’? 🙂
Fess,
Yes it looks bad for the PM, he need to answer questions no doubt it, will any journo have the guts to demand answers?
The guardian sent questions to the PM’s office but it was shuffled off to frydenbergs office to answer.
C@t
Or ‘Watching for a friend’ orrrr ‘Watching so you do not have to” 🙂
Re GBR…Back in May:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/29/greens-want-inquiry-into-awarding-of-444m-great-barrier-reef-grant
“The Australian Greens will push for a parliamentary inquiry into how $444m in reef funding was awarded to a small not-for-profit foundation with little scrutiny and without a competitive tender process.
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, the party’s spokesman for healthy oceans, will move for a Senate inquiry into why the Great Barrier Reef Foundation was announced as the recipient of the record government grant without the funds being offered to existing government reef agencies.
The inquiry, if supported by Labor and the crossbench, would also investigate the capacity of the foundation to meet the objectives of the government’s Reef 2050 plan, the proficiency of other organisations that could carry out similar work, and the foundation’s governance – including the management of commercial and potential conflicts of interest.
:::::
Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, said the opposition would talk to the Greens about the proposed inquiry.”
Nicko @ #361 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 8:26 pm
Which came back with boilerplate evasion and self-congratulation about how great the Turnbull government was putting all this money into ‘Saving the Reef’.
Nicko:
#AlboGaveASpeech in June that sent the press gallery off in a tizzy over leadershit. No wonder this wasn’t followed up back then!
A forensic psychiatrist analyses Trump and provides talismans for the distressed:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/27/inside-the-mind-of-donald-trump-219074
Peta Credlin is onto it
Sky News Australia
Sky News Australia
@SkyNewsAust
A senate inquiry is looking at how the Reef Foundation was awarded $443.8 million in the May budget
@aclennell: Malcolm Turnbull has to explain why he made the captain’s call on this issue and why this organisation got such a generous grant
MORE (link: https://bit.ly/2BuFqi1) bit.ly/2BuFqi1 #Credlin
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Kristina Keneally
Kristina Keneally
@KKeneally
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2h
In fact, I was told in Senate hearings by a current GBRF Board member that the story on their website about “4 businessmen founders in an airport lounge” was an “urban myth.”
Kristina Keneally
@KKeneally
After keeping their founders a secret for 20 years, Great Barrier Reef Foundation finally releases their names today in a statement on their website.
2 days after I asked at the Senate Inquiry, 2 months after I asked at Estimates.
From @p_hannam (link: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/secretive-great-barrier-reef-foundation-reveals-four-founding-leaders-20180801-p4zuwb.html) smh.com.au/environment/co…
Vic
Credlin will of course see it as another nail in MT’s coffin so she can then exhume Tony Abbott so he can take over!
Fess,
Yes much of the media are a bloody disgrace.
One of the founders: Sir Sydney Shubert, father of John and right hand man to Jo Bjelke Petersen. How could the GBR Foundation be anything but as pure as the driven snow?
I think the momento de la verdad with the reef foundation will come in Question Time. That will give Labor a chance to put it to MT direct and the TV stations to report his reaction. I wouldn’t be surprised either if a lot of pus is now leaking out of the Public Service on this issue.
The coral research might be worth a punt.
Coral species vary widely in their ability to withstand heat. There are coral species in some parts of the world that easily withstand the recent bleaching/death regime on the Reef.
We have a particular problem. Right now.
Staghorn corals, quick growers, are major reef builders.
They are also more susceptible than other corals to heat stress.
If staghorns are bred up to withstand an extra degree or couple of degrees then one of the main elements of the Reef – its physical structure might stand a chance.
It would not be the same Reef as before because all sorts of corals and fish and coelentrates and annelids, etc, etc, etc, will become extinct.
The heat exchange pump idea might work to keep species in small patches of the Reef going as a genetic resource.
Reef ‘management’ is following the same tragic trajectory as land biodiversity management: erratic effort, effort disproportional to the need, and badly-focused effort being overwhelmed by a swelling tide of extinction drivers.
Rocket rocket
No doubt Credlin sees this as a way to help Turnbull’s demise.
But this stinks to high heaven and he needs to explain on what planet he thought it was a good idea to hand over half a billion dollars without due process.
I’m not sure why people are surprised about the GBR foundation. This government loves outsourcing. So now they have outsourced allocation and management of research grants for the Great Barrier Reef.
This is just another example of the the triumph of neoliberalism and crony capitalism over sound policy.
don @ #354 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 8:11 pm
They already have. On this continent they are known as the LNP and the IPA.
Vic:
What did you make of the first day of Manafort’s trial?
bc @ #377 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 6:44 pm
For me it’s that there was no governance or transparency around the allocation of funds.
Boerwar
Shame about the acidification meaning those thermo loving coral algae can’t build a home.
Boerwar @ #374 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 8:43 pm
Un. Fucking. Believable.
Re reefgate: How did they arrive at 443.8m? Seems to be a fairly precise figure. Based on what I wonder.
P1
Yeah, you sort of have to wonder at that logic. Maybe BW has had a few.
It’s probably an even amount in Cayman Islands currency!
Fess
I have been out of loop most of today, so I don’t know how much has transpired. I am mainly checking in to see if any further developments on the GBR grant.
Need to go and look at Mars now that their is only patchy cloud in Melbourne. Closest approach since 2003 (which if I remember was just about as close as it can get with the relative orbital dynamics).
Hope exposure of #reefgate at least results in that money being better spent, say on the CSIRO which has endured lots of funding cuts under this anti-science Government (no actual Minister for Science any more since 20/12/2017 – just Zed Seselja as an Assistant Minister – he of course part of the “Monkey Pod” Liberals whose hot air itself adds to Earth’s warming atmosphere).
Gecko @ #382 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 8:50 pm
it’ll be an interesting question.
$400Mill plus 10% finders fee plus $3.8 for unaccounted for out of pocket expenses.
The inquiry into the 2018-19 Budget measure, the Great Barrier Reef 2050 Partnership Program, was established because Greens senator Whish-Wilson put up a motion. The motion was supported by Labor and crossbench senators.
https://thirdsector.com.au/senate-to-probe-444m-great-barrier-reef-grant/
“Under Freedom of Information laws, Labor requested all communications between the authority and the minister’s office but received no documentation. This came after the Greens called for an inquiry into the grant at the end of May.
:::::
Whish-Wilson said this was a case study in how the government has outsourced its core environmental obligations to the private sector.
“In this case we have seen them outsource the control of the purse strings for reef science and repair, and in other cases we have seen the government seek funds from the private sector to save endangered species or help manage its own national parks.
“There can’t be any more important task for the Australian government than being steward of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the true natural wonders of the world, and with this Senate inquiry we will get to the bottom of what it means to have had this funding redirected away from the existing public agencies.”
Kudos to the Greens Party for setting the inquiry in motion.
Vic:
The focus of prosecutors on his ‘extravagant lifestyle’ gives further credence to reports Mueller’s approaching this as if it’s a Mafia corruption syndicate case.
My view anyways.
For those who may have missed Alan Jones this morning (LoL), you may like to hold your nose and listen to this 6 minute interview he did this morning with Kristina Kennealy of ReefGate..
https://www.2gb.com/turnbull-asked-to-explain-half-a-billion-dollar-handout-to-great-barrier-reef-foundation/
Malcolm Turnbull has not tweeted since last Saturday, when he was in Braddon with Brett Whitely.
Come out, Malcolm. Your subjects want to hear from you
Gecko @ #381 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 8:50 pm
Not wanting to seem too obviously a number they pulled out of their behinds.
richo channelling me!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1024609329708597249
Fess
Yes what little I did read included the ostrich vest costing $15,000
When this issue re surfaced a week or so ago, the story was that Turnbull’s wife was presenting the cheque, and His Wonderfulness was merely present.
I vaguely remembered it having been referred to some months ago, but it was presented then as small potatoes, I assumed involving donated monies of small proportion.
Now Lucy isn’t even mentioned, and His Wonderfulness and Frydenberg were there with the recipients.
Somebody is having us on.
Mountebanks the lot of them.
The forces are being marshalled to bone Malcolm Turnbull. And in an exquisite irony, the 2 things which will bring him down is his hubris on his own popularity, and his reckless disregard for the environment.
Fulvio Sammut,
Mountebanks the lot of them.
Or Kleptocrats. Or Robber Barons. Or Reverse Robin Hoods. Take your pick.
sprocket_ @ #395 Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 – 9:06 pm
I’d put that all under, ‘selling his soul to the devil’.
When things look to be going OK he seems to be everywhere taking selfies with unsuspecting members of the public.
When the going gets tough, he gets going to places unknown.
Reputable Government agencies having to beg to bunch of self selected unqualified nobodies for access to taxpayers funds to expend for Government purposes?
Is this appalling Government outsourcing itself?