It’s been a quiet week on the poll front, and indeed it’s worth noting that polling generally is thinner on the ground than it used to be – the once weekly Essential Research series went fortnightly at the start of the year, neither Sky News nor Seven has been treating us to federal ReachTEL polls like they used to, and even the Fairfax-Ipsos poll has pared back its sample sizes in recent times from 1400 to 1200. I suspect we won’t be getting the normally-fortnightly Newspoll on Sunday night either, as these are usually timed to coincide with the resumption of parliament, for which we will have to wait another week. I can at least relate the following:
• The Guardian has results from a ReachTEL poll of Wentworth conducted for independent candidate Licia Heath, conducted last Thursday from a sample of 727. After exclusion of the 5.6% undecided the results are Dave Sharma (Liberal) 43.0%; Tim Murray (Labor) 20.7%; Kerryn Phelps (independent) 17.9%; Licia Heath (independent) 10.0% and Dominic Wy Kanak (Greens) 6.6%. The poll also comes with a 51-49 Liberal-versus-Labor two-party result, but this a) assumes Tim Murray would not be overtaken by Kerryn Phelps after allocation of preferences, and b) credits Labor with over three-quarters of independent and minor party preferences, which seems highly implausible. The poll also reportedly finds “as many as 52% of people said high-profile independent candidate Kerryn Phelps’ decision to preference the Liberals made it less likely they would give her their vote”, but this would seem to be a complex issue given Phelps’s flip-flop on the subject.
• The Guardian also has results of polling by ReachTEL for the Australian Education Union on the federal goverment’s funding deal for Catholic and independent schools, conducted last Thursday from a sample of 1261 respondents in Corangamite, Dunkley, Forde, Capricornia, Flynn, Gilmore, Robertson and Banks. The report dwells too much on what the small sub-sample of undecided voters thought, but it does at least relate that 38.6% of all respondents said the deal made them less likely to vote Liberal.
• Back to Wentworth, I had a paywalled article on the subject in Crikey, and took part in a mostly Wentworth-related podcast yesterday with Ben Raue of The Tally Room, along with Georgia Tkachuk of Collins Gartrell, which you can access below.
Alan Jones has had a chequered career, but he is no stranger to camping it up…
Douglas and Milko @ #493 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:55 pm
Alan Jones may back her until the election but everyone else will recoil in horror at her capitulation.
Good evening all,
This is, in simple terms, a drive by hit on Stuart Robert.
Liberal internals still running wild.
Cheers.
Rex is permanently ignored, already.
“Must be wonderful for a pollie. Get caught ripping off your employer (stealing ?) a ‘whoops’, pay back the money and keep your job.”
Isn’t this guys some kind of serial offender on this stuff??
Douglas and Milko @ #499 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:59 pm
There are 2 important elections coming up so we better keep our head down. Not that it’s the correct decision for them to have made but the timing of this brouhaha is atrocious!
A R @ #500 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 7:00 pm
So not “indefinite” as much as “undefined”?
And on what planet do such partners exist?
No Nobel Peace Prize for Trumpy. As if.
Sprocket_ @ #497 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:57 pm
Matthias Cormann backed ‘Dutts’ and Stuart Robert backed ScumMo. Cormann is the holder of the Claims data, so…
Player One @ #477 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:28 pm
I’ll drink to that! 😀
C@tmomma @ #502 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 7:00 pm
I see also Albo and Foley have backed Jones. I hereby apologise for voting for Albo for leader and if I lived in NSW I would seriously be considering breaking the habit of a life time and voting 1 Greens 2 Labor.
FFS the only way to get rid of Jones is just to oppose, oppose, oppose till he crumbles.
[‘Alan Jones has had a chequered career, but he is no stranger to camping it up…’]
So, your point is?
imacca
Not sure but some comments sure as hell make it sound like he is not a ‘first time offender’.
So First Dog is not taken in by Sco Mo’s self-marketing: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/05/we-find-out-who-the-sucker-in-the-banking-royal-commission-is?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=First+Dog+on+the+Moon+-+Collection&utm_term=287106&subid=15284682&CMP=firstdog_collection
When this guy defaced the Eurydice Dixon memorial, it seems he was drawing a self portrait:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/05/man-who-pleaded-guilty-to-defacing-eurydice-dixon-memorial-appeals
Typical narcissist wantabe.
Seems we have a federal Pentecostal triumvirate…Morrison, Roberts and Hawke.
You can now be arrested for a sit-in in the USA?
Aunt Mavis
I have a veritable drawer of my virtual filing cabinet devoted to Alan Jones misdemeanours – usually saved for when Liberal politicians bend over and give in to his predilections.
I can drag out more if you want, like his sojourn at Kings School or selection policy for the Wallabies…
Robert is full of shit, but has so much in common with Dear Leader Pastor Morrison.
Good evening all,
Re Stuart Robert.
I may be a bit slow but why would Stuart Robert, as a back bencher at the time, be claiming home internet costs ?
Would he not have a electorate office equiped with internet at which offical electorate related day today business is undertaken?
Cheers.
Robert will pay it back
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-wants-answers-on-stuart-robert-s-internet-bills-20181005-p507yh.html
hopefully questions will still be asked.
they should not be allowed to get away with it.
Sprocket_:
I think you’re being homophobic.
Even though he’s apparently gay, his outrageous views should not be judged by virtue of his sexuality.
poroti says:
Friday, October 5, 2018 at 6:57 pm
Sprocket_
Must be wonderful for a pollie. Get caught ripping off your employer (stealing ?) a ‘whoops’, pay back the money and keep your job.
_______________________
And I’ll bet he finds a cheaper way to access the internet toot sweet!
Maybe Labor could book the Opera House Roof for the month of the next Federal election.
I mean, the precedent has been set, by no less a luminary than Alan Jones.
Stuart Robert is such a non entity that Sandra Silly on Ten news in Sydney called him Robert Stuart.
As for Alan Jones, don’t you worry about him, he was a tough coach. One wrong move and he would pull you off at half time.
Sprocket_ says:
Friday, October 5, 2018 at 6:57 pm
Stuart Robert has not only been fleecing the taxpayer on internet expenses…
Liberal politician Stuart Robert spent almost $17,000 of taxpayers’ money on “personalised letterhead stationery” during the final weeks of the financial year, more than five times the typical spend for an MP.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-05/mps-expense-claims-stuart-robert-spent-most-on-stationery/10328066
Why does letterhead need to be printed?
You just change your word processor to include the letterhead, and every letter you send includes that letterhead.
Quills and inkpots have been superseded.
Fulvio Sammut @ #526 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 7:59 pm
Alan Jones – the man who gives preening Tory attention-whores a bad name.
Aunt Mavis @ #524 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 7:24 pm
I don’t care how he rows his boat, It is his flying the flag of hypocrisy and steering by a hard right compass that I detest.
don @ #528 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:01 pm
Stationery expenses are a common end of financial year cash splash of surplus funds before they are lost to the new financial year. As are newsletters, fridge magnets, calendars that are tied to the financial year rather than the calendar year etc.
Maybe Robert uses the same printer as One Nation ….
‘doyley says:
Friday, October 5, 2018 at 7:50 pm
Good evening all,
Re Stuart Robert.
I may be a bit slow but why would Stuart Robert, as a back bencher at the time, be claiming home internet costs ?’
Ministers do 24/7. Home internet costs would be a standard work cost.
But is extremely difficult to imagine any minister using that much data, even for ministerial work purposes.
My bet is that he was billing the taxpayer for non-ministerial personal profit -related expenses.
Which is an overlap of why he got into ministerial hot water last time.
Not the brightest tool in the shed, is our Robert.
Given the shit the Liberals are already in for backing the Robber Banks etc, etc, etc, I thought it was astonishing that Smirko whisked Robert into the ministry AND into Treasury.
Simon
I think maybe we are arguing at cross purposes.
I was trying to get at places where there are large ehtnic differences very much tied to regions.
Late Riser @ #492 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 6:54 pm
Nothing around Seattle is as the Crow flies – too many sounds. 160 km is the western border of the Olympic National Park – where the HQ is. The rocky ridges and slopes are quite close to the sea. I’m surprised that the animals could find the urine in the constant rain.
Puffytmd:
I detest Jones. I think he’s a fraud. But his commentary should be viewed neutrally, not by his ostensible sexual preference, which I think sprocket implied.
Robert strikes me as one of those blokes you keep close. A dangerous one to be out of favour with.
He hung on as a Minister last time until his position became really, really untenable.
His trudge to the despatch box to declare he “had nothing to add to my previous answer” while Dreyfus was filleting him was great to watch.
He has been described in other places as a great fundraiser. The Tories need all the help they can get on that count.
You don’t need to print in colour if you have letterheads. That actually saves money.
Also if you are doing form letters, like mailouts, there are printing options which cost significantly less than laser or ink jet per sheet if you are doing a few thousand letters.
Also the ink can go to the edge of the page on letterhead.
Boerwar,
Thanks for your reply.
The reason I was querying the internet expense is because at the time the cost was incurred Robert was a back bencher. He was only reinstated as assistant treasurer in August.
Anyway, with all the ongoing internals happening at the moment within the Libs I am sure more is on the way.
Cheers and a great night to you.
From today’s Crikey, looks like another series to follow.
What a pervasive influence Murdoch has been on our democracy, as well as that of the UK and the US.
rossmcg @ #537 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 8:14 pm
“Great fundraiser” = stays bribed. The Liberal Party is over next May.
rhwombat @ #537 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 8:13 pm
100 miles by car? That’s a reasonable explanation for the distance.
We lived in Seattle for 18 years but never visited the park. (I know. Sad.) I am told the goats will butt you off the path, which is a problem on steep hills.
And yes on the rain. I kid you not, I saw cars with moss growing on them. (Regular, driving about at the mall cars)
Confessions
As I said years ago. Murdoch’s influence is a cancer on the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ world’s democracy. Although there is the depressing thought that if not him there would be another. 🙁
poroti @ #543 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 8:21 pm
No, there will always and only ever be Rupert. He is immortal 🙁
LR and RHW
You may both be right, which might not be a coincidence…
rhwombat:
Nothing around Seattle is as the Crow flies – too many sounds. 160 km is the western border of the Olympic National Park – where the HQ is. The rocky ridges and slopes are quite close to the sea. I’m surprised that the animals could find the urine in the constant rain.
_________________________________
Reminds me of that old joke:
This bloke from Florida dies and waits in line for judgment. He notices that some souls go right into heaven, while Satan throws others into a burning pit. But every so often, instead of hurling a poor soul into the fire, the devil tosses him aside. Curious, the bloke from Florida asks Satan, “Excuse me, but why are you tossing them aside instead of flinging them into hell with the others?”
“They’re from Seattle,” Satan replies. “They’re too wet to burn.”
doyley
I like your theory that this is yet another example of Liberals who are out to gut each other…
Late Riser @ #542 Friday, October 5th, 2018 – 8:20 pm
I hiked and climbed in Olympic NP while I was doing a post-doc in Seattle several decades ago – it’s where I learned to that climbing in snow is drier and a lot more pleasant than climbing in rain.
B.S. Fairman says:
Friday, October 5, 2018 at 8:14 pm
You don’t need to print in colour if you have letterheads. That actually saves money.
Also if you are doing form letters, like mailouts, there are printing options which cost significantly less than laser or ink jet per sheet if you are doing a few thousand letters.
Also the ink can go to the edge of the page on letterhead.
________________________
You mean… people actually write paper letters?
Whoooeee!
I haven’t printed a paper letter for years. Anyhow, I don’t know where the stamps are kept! Nor do I know what the correct postage for a letter is, so knowing where the stamps are kept is not much use to me anyhow.
“supposedly Julius Ceasar from one of the Roman provinces it is believed”
Ummm. No.
Old Patrician stock who came to Rome after their Kingdom of Alba Longa was incorporated into the Roman State. Reputedly traced his linage back to Aneaus, Troy and the Godess Venus. His grandmother was a Marsi – ancient Plebian nobility reputedly descended from Mars. His mother was an Aurelia Cotta – another ancient plebian noble family. He was born and raised in the Subura – a slum – however his mother had a large Insular apartment building as her dowry and the family occupied the entire lower floor of the Insular.
Now Caesar’s uncle by marriage – Gaius Marius – the Third Founder of Rome – he was a provincial nobody from Apurium – a village in modern day Lazio about 100km away from Rome.