The latest Ipsos poll for the Fairfax papers is the Coalition’s least bad result of the Scott Morrison prime ministership so far, recording the Labor two-party lead at 53-47, an improvement on the 55-45 blowout the pollster recorded as Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership entered its final week (which was the one poll suggesting a significant weakening in Coalition voting intention in the period up to the spill). Ipsos’ primary vote numbers are still idiosyncratic, with an already over-inflated Greens gaining two points to 15%, while Labor slumps four to 31% and the Coalition gains one to 34%. No conventional leadership ratings that I can see yet, but ratings of the two leaders across a range of eleven attributes finds Morrison scoring better than Bill Shorten on every question other than “has the confidence of his/her party” and “has a firm grasp of social policy”. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1200; more detail presumably to follow.
UPDATE: As related by the Financial Review, the poll has Scott Morrison debuting with 46% approval and 36% disapproval, while Bill Shorten is up three on approval to 44% and down four on disapproval to 48%. Morrison holds a 47-37 lead as preferred prime minister, little different from Turnbull’s 48-36 lead in the last poll.
Confessions:
I could be wrong, but the text on the boat seems like it could be photoshopped to me. Perhaps a real photo from Morrison’s desk, but with the text added.
Howard Zinn:
“We don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an endless succession of presents, and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Catholics don’t say you have to believe in God to go to heaven.
Jackie, I agree with you. There are two basic types of ‘agnostic’:
1) Believing that it is impossible for human minds to ever have sufficient reasons/evidence to justify either thinking God exists, or that God doesn’t exist;
2) Thinking it might be possible, but also thinking that none of the reasons/evidence you’ve encountered so far has been sufficient to justify your belief one way or the other.
Neither of these is “thinking it equiprobable”. Calculation of ‘probability’ doesn’t even arise. What is at issue for the agnostic is whether or not the reasons being given for theism/atheism are sufficient to justify accepting either proposition.
Asha:
Apparently it is real!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opinion/columnists/trump-finally-makes-a-friend.html
Confessions
Unless the NYT is bulldusting us it is true
.
“When the New York Times interviewed Australia’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison, the article contained a previously unknown detail: “His office features a model migrant boat bearing the proud declaration ‘I Stopped These’.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/19/i-stopped-these-scott-morrison-keeps-migrant-boat-trophy-in-office
Asha Leu
says:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Confessions:
I could be wrong, but the text on the boat seems like it could be photoshopped to me. Perhaps a real photo from Morrison’s desk, but with the text added.
_______________________________
According to latest reports its real and callous. I have a feeling someone sent him the trophy in admiration. If he had it commissioned then we are dealing with a more dangerous mind than briefly, c@tmomma and BB rolled into 1.
Amy:
Pegasus
says:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 4:59 pm
Howard Zinn:
“We don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an endless succession of presents, and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
______________________________
I knew they were wrong about you Pegasus. Anyone who quotes Howard Zinn has gotta be cool.
What a shame the boat’s size meant the the ‘Fxxk We’re Full’ number plate had to be moved off the desk.
Did someone say, ‘Operation Strawberry Borders’?
🙂
Confessions@4:47pm
“Cash handouts to mates left, right and centre”
——————-
No, it should be right, religious right and corporate right 🙂
nath,
You just want to believe, don’t you?
nath,
I have been lurking and posting here for about ten years. If I had a dollar for every post in which I am the topic of ‘discussion’, I would be a rich person lol.
I read yesterday’s offerings and am still laughing.
Fcs, quoting Howard Zinn now is all the character assessment one needs to get the big tick from the self-appointed arbiter of all things PB. What next, if you quote Noam Chomsky or Deepak Chopra you achieve godhead status!?! 🙄
Pegasus
says:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 5:11 pm
nath,
I have been lurking and posting here for about ten years. If I had a dollar for every post in which I am the topic of ‘discussion’, I would be a rich person lol.
I read yesterday’s offerings and am still laughing.
____________________________
Pegasus is one step ahead of all of us! 🙂
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/sep/19/coalition-labor-morrison-shorten-super-aged-care?page=with:block-5ba1f563e4b0b5565ec2fdc3#block-5ba1f563e4b0b5565ec2fdc3
Ven:
LOL point taken 😀
This ABC article says that the government has “only” ripped one billion dollars out of aged care and not two.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-17/aged-care-funding-how-much-has-been-cut/10254736
That is a very generous assessment on several grounds. First the government funding put back was in regional areas only (pork barreling for the rural grey vote?) so cities are as badly off as Labor said.
Secondly the proper test of any funding comparison is to compare it in real terms (allowing for inflation) and per capita (recognising the growing number of aged people needing care). I am sure that, in real terms, the aged care funding available per person, except in rural (coalition) seats has gone down a great deal more. ScumMo was a mean spirited treasurer, and is only wanting to be seen as more generous now that there is an election approaching and he is the one held responsible.
Cat
I wish you all the best in your efforts to “monitor my posts and behaviour”.
“Murdoch does not mind the ALP government next time around because he is sure they will not last for more than 3 years.”
Murdoch has less chance of lasting 3 years than Labor, a lot less
There was an article linked to here (from the NY Times, I think) which described those items as being on Morrison’s desk.
Pegasus,
Your pathetic attempts at humiliation of other posters here are the sort of tawdry contribution we have come to expect from you. Enjoy your new bestie, nath. You deserve each other. Shallow and predictable as a puddle after a rainshower.
And I fail to see how the fact you have been on the blog for 10 years is worth a hill of beans. So have I, and it hasn’t earned me any more respect than anyone else. So you lurked yesterday and laughed at us. What’s that supposed to say about you? That you are floating above the swamp on your high horse? That you think you are better than us? What a plonker.
Asha Leu, I find it hard to see how the character ‘God’, as narrated in the bible (say), is all that different to a gang boss running a protection racket. “Bow to me, and you won’t get hurt! Die defying me, and I can’t promise anything!”
Pegasus,
Boy am I glad I don’t live with you. You are a real piece of work. Comments dripping with sarcasm. Yeuch!
Oh, OK. I see it now.
Murpharoo and Richard Glover are discussing “our new Prime Minister”.
They agree that upping the sentence for food tampering from 10 to 15 years won’t deter anyone. But, they say, although it’s just a bit of a stunt, “it sends a message” that “this is serious, this is serious, it’s a serious matter, yes, this is serious”, “our new Prime Minister” is dynamic, “has his political ear tuned in”, and “is ahead of the game”.
Another message this week has been the Royal Commission into Age Care.
“What Royal Commission?” I hear you say. There is no charter. There is no commissioner. There is no date, either for the start or for the end of the Commission. Katharine and Richard do not see fit to labour this lack of structure, purpose and just about everything else.
But Murpharoo sets the listeners right. It is “a powerful message” that the “new Prime Minister” is “not letting the grass grow under his feet” in being proactive and, yes, “ahead of the game”.
Being “ahead of the game” here means being in an unseemly hurry to announce the RC before 4 Corners forced him to announce one anyway, they both agree.
So, Morrison has been sending a lot of messages lately. Well, actually only two, but youse know what Kath and Richard mean, don’t you? In case you didn’t get it the first time, it means Morrison is distinguishing himself from Turnbull, who may have been sort-of, you know, a teensy bit indecisive. Morrison is “ahead of the game” though, and is sending messages that by golly he’s going to do something even though no-one really knows what he’s doing.
Then we move on to an actual concrete piece of policy. Something that means something to the people involved. But it doesn’t come from “our new Prime Minister”. It’s Labor’s new superannuation policy.
Oh, ho-ho-ho, they snigger. What a fantastic coincidence that it comes in the middle of a week where “our new Prime Minister” is “a little bit off balance on women”. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink,
“You might say it’s just a cynical piece of theatre by Bill Shorten to put the heat on the government over women, but I couldn’t possibly comment…” chortles Murphy after 15 minutes of telling us why cynical pieces of theatre from, on the other hand, ScoMo, are so vital to the public’s welfare and the feelings of safety and that “something’s being done” (even though nobody really knows what).
This is the standard of political analysis on the ABC, ladies and gentlemen.
What the actual fuck, C@t?
When did Pegagus do anything of the sort?
Asha Leu says:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 4:51 pm
Loathe as I may be to agree with DTT on anything, I am forced to admit is actually completely correct on both the history of the groupers/DLP
The past is done and dusted. Some would happily dwell there forever.
There are valid comparisons to make between the Splitters of the past – there have been three great Splits in Labor – and those who would split Labor in the current context. The Groupers were a sect that set out to divide Labor. They succeeded for a while and helped keep Labor from office. There are others who behave in a sectarian way now. Their terms of reference differ, but their practice is similar. Like the splitters of the past, they have to be challenged and defeated; and they have to be defeated for the same reason – if they succeed, they will hand power to the Tories.
The country very badly needs a strong, effective, reformist and modernising Labor government. The splitters will try to prevent first the election of such a government and then the implementation of Labor’s program.
This is all very plain. I speak against it. Sue me.
Boy am I glad I have a life and friends outside of this blog. If I didn’t I might take the sort of concerted attacks directed towards me seriously. TTFN. Places to go. Friends to see. 🙂
The publisher is Simon & Schuster, not an obscure outfit by any stretch.
briefly
The country very badly needs a strong, effective, reformist and modernising Labor government. The splitters will try to prevent first the election of such a government and then the implementation of Labor’s program.
This is all very plain. I speak against it. Sue me.
_______________________________
Maybe these ‘splitters’ (those who criticise the ALP from the left) hope to change ALP policies from the outside. Seeing that factions have taken complete control of the ALP internally it seems a fairly sane strategy.
It looks like we have had a breakout of Dawkins’ “brights” on the Poll Bludger today regaling us with their pseudo-philosophy….
alias @ #2465 Wednesday, September 19th, 2018 – 4:16 pm
Christ almighty, this must surely win the “stupidest comment of the day” on PB.
Mind you, the day is not over yet so perhaps I am being a little premature. After all, you might post something else.
It’s actually started with the govt seeking input to the Terms of Reference. You can read more about it, including subscribing for email updates here:
https://agedcare.health.gov.au/announcement-of-royal-commission-into-aged-care-quality-and-safety
And here:
https://consultations.health.gov.au/aged-care-policy-and-regulation/terms-of-reference/
Asha Leu,
It isn’t directly abusive, just a persistent, sly series of comments, dripping with sarcasm, directed my way. I find it tawdry.
Anyway, I’m sorry but I do have to go now.
‘fess,
All announcement, no substance. Like I said about the ‘Drought Summit’, very Ruddian and the ‘2020 Summit’.
I’m sorry if I Have upset you in any way C@t.
Confessions @ #2531 Wednesday, September 19th, 2018 – 5:26 pm
Never heard of ’em. 🙂
“I’d be much more interested in his tedious dronings if he were, for example, a cosmologist or a particle physicist or at the cutting edge of string theory. ”
String theory isn’t science. It’s entirely faith-based with no evidence to support it. I’d prefer to read what an evolutionary biologist has to say.
The Rovelli book was quite good, although he gave up trying to be scientific about half way through.
string theory is completely theoretical
the theory of gravity I think can now be considered as real.
Dare To Tread, can I add a metric to your ‘left/right’ list? Under ‘Social equity’:
Tax on estates.
That’s a big ‘5’ for me on that one.
Also, I think that in 50 years it will come to be seen as a disgrace that housing was ever treated like just another privately owned tradeable piece of property. ‘Public housing more’ is a vast understatement of how I think we should treat housing.
On ‘Russia is not the enemy’, I think we need not, and should not, regard any countries as enemies, but there is a fair case for saying ‘Putin is an enemy’. Not sure how you think I should score myself on that one.
nath
‘the theory of gravity I think can now be considered as real.’
Which one?
Gravity, as a perceived event, is real.
Confessions / nath:
Oh, it’s real?
Good lord.
The report into Dutton has landed.
The report: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/AuPairs/Report/c02
Michael @ #2543 Wednesday, September 19th, 2018 – 5:38 pm
Well, except when they start invading other countries and assassinating people. Whether those assassinations are done with Po-210, or nerve agent, or old-fashioned fists, feet, and blunt objects.
Putin may have ordered these things, but it took a lot of willing Russian citizens between Putin and his targets to actually make them happen. To the extent that Russia, as a nation, is willing to acceded to Putin’s whims on these matters, Russia is an enemy too.
C@t:
You are massively overreacting.
In no way were Pegasus’ mild rebukes remotely on the level on what you’ve directed her way recently.
Anything that has mass also has gravity. Objects with more mass have more gravity. Gravity also gets weaker with distance. So, the closer objects are to each other, the stronger their gravitational pull is.