Courtesy of The Guardian, the final Essential Research poll for the year moves a point in favour of the Coalition, who now trail 53-47. We are also told the Coalition primary vote is at 37%, down one on a fortnight ago, and Labor is on 36%, down three. Which minor parties have taken up the slack will remain a mystery until the full report is published later today.
As it does in its last poll every year, Essential asked respondents to nominate if it had been a good or bad year for various political principals and politics in general, finding 65% rating it a bad year for Australian politics, compared with 54% last year, and 57% a bad year for the federal government.
There is also Essential’s occasional question on leaders’ personal qualities, which provide a more nuanced picture than the usual approval ratings of a decline in Scott Morrison’s popularity. Other findings: only 21% expect the Coalition will win the election, compared with “over half” for Labor; and 27% want an early election, with 52% preferring a full term.
The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1026.
UPDATE: Full results here. Greens up one to 11%, Labor up one to 7%.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-12-20/pets-allergies-asthma-dogs-cats-immune-system-microbes/10630174
Conservative columnist details why Trump’s ‘Axis of Adults’ failed to stop him from pulling out of Syria
Conservative Washington Post columnist explained why Donald Trump’s surprise Syrian pullout is a “Christmas gift to our enemies” — and why the supposed “adults in the room” failed to stop him from doing it.
“At one time, the world hoped that an Axis of Adults could constrain the juvenile in the Oval Office,” former Republican columnist Max Boot wrote Wednesday, “but such naive expectations have been dashed repeatedly.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/conservative-columnist-details-trumps-axis-adults-failed-stop-pulling-syria/
jenauthor @ #1433 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 10:25 am
The closest she ever got to understanding Christianity is that, like Jesus, she was crucified – by scholars.
The Bureau of Meteoroogy has published its outlook for January to March. It looks distinctly warm over most of the country, dry in the West, average to below average elsewhere: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/summary.
It’s warm, sunny and humid here with the cicadas in full throat. Storms are forecast for later.
a r @ #1441 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 9:31 am
Yes! Profit is about money, not service. When every decision, large and small, turns on the money, why are we surprised second rate service??
CNN reporter sounds the alarm on American security because Putin knew Trump was lying about Trump Tower Moscow for two years
On Wednesday, a CNN panel hosted by Wolf Blitzer ridiculed President Donald Trump for sighing a deal to have a Trump Tower built in Moscow.
Trump has consistently lied about his business relationship with Russia, however, the documents show that Trump signed a contract to have his real estate built in Moscow.
“I just think it’s extraordinary. When you consider that Donald Trump has spent now years saying he has no business with Russia, he didn’t have anything to do with Russia,” Blitzer said.
CNN’s Abby Phillip said that the news is “worrisome” because Vladimir Putin knew for two years that the president was lying.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/cnn-reporter-sounds-the-alarm-on-american-security-because-putin-knew-trump-was-lying-about-trump-tower-moscow-for-two-years/
@JohnCleese tweets
Der Spiegel has sacked one of its journalists for making up stories
I guess that must be an offence in Germany
ar:
“‘there are some industries that the for profit sector should not be allowed to operate in’
– Electricity
– Water
– Roads
– Fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure
– Public services (transport, law enforcement, prisons, etc.)”
The first four (and to some extent the last) involves networks: the state should hold all networks (in trust for the people) operate them not-for-profit, and the private sector should own (or at least operate) all the nodes (points in the network, e.g. houses and businesses in the road network). The cases above are pretty clear (and the rule if followed would have avoided most of the electricity privatisation problems, for example). There are some more difficulty cases regaled to health, education and defence.
a r says:
Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 10:31 am
Peter Stanton @ #1430 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 9:25 am
there are some industries that the for profit sector should not be allowed to operate in
– Electricity
– Water
– Roads
– Fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure
– Public services (transport, law enforcement, prisons, etc.)
I would include banking, child care, aged care and residential health care and I am sure there are others.
nath says:
Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 10:33 am
Peter Stanton. You believe that Bill Shorten will lead Australia to any kind of socialism? That is hilarious:
It may be hilarious but is also wrong. I do not and have never believed that Shorten is a socialist and have never suggested it. Shorten would probably call himself a social democrat. I would call him right wing. Try commenting on real things rather than just making things up.
To everyone else. I apologies for feeding the troll.
“Der Spiegel has sacked one of its journalists for making up stories”
There’ll be a job for him/her at Newcrap, especially in Australia in the leadup to the election.
a r @ #1441 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 7:31 am
Healthcare
Education
Employment Services (bring back the CES)
Oops, my leadership is in trouble. What to do?
Lean on a rock.
Mass fish deaths in the MDB are a normal part of the Australian boom and bust cycle, bearing in mind that many native species can tolerate extremely low oxygen levels and very high water temperatures.
There are five BIG differences c/w pre-Cook:
95% of the MDB fish fauna consists of European carp.
Various other ferals including gambusia, redfin, trout as well as translocated natives such as Bass.
The storages cut the top out of the floods.
The water coming out of the storages is too cold for the autecology of most native fish.
Human use as a proportion of all flows is far too high to maintain the pre-Cook environmental values.
Hamish MacDonald’s forensic interviewing style is a delight. Poor Angus Taylor didn’t know what hit him. I get the strong feeling that Aunty’s management has instructed staff to tone down their exchanges with pollies due to funding issues; Hamish won’t have a bar of it. When Labor comes to office, ABC funding should be fully restored, and Tories, such as Amanda Vanestone, Tom Switzer, Gerard Henderson should be directed to where they naturally belong: Sky New After Dark.
phoenixRED @ #1449 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 10:36 am
As David KilCullen says – The fighting doesn’t just stop when you just leave the battlefield.
To everyone else. I apologies for feeding the troll.
_______________________________
I apologise for feeding the Stanton troll. He’s just here to aggravate people.
McCormack’s a light weight, all too aware that his position as leader of the Country Party hangs by a thread. Broad was one his biggest supporters, getting his reward by being commissioned as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, not forgetting that he (Broad) was quickly off the blocks to denigrate Joyce – this in the knowledge that he too was/is a philanderer.
Mavis Smith “and Tories, such as Amanda Vanestone, Tom Switzer, Gerard Henderson should be directed to where they naturally belong: Sky New After Dark.”
so the ABC becomes exactly what the right accuse it of being – a left wing echo chamber?
Henderson et al shouldn’t be censored by the ABC – because thats what the right want. Instead they should be exposed, refuted and ridiculed
dave
The weeping and wailing over the US’s long overdue departure is coming from the Israel lobby. They lost big time.
Fair Dinkum! Why didn’t Dotard let ScoFauxMo about his tweet? Did he really want to humiliate his ally? Or did Scotty just want to photo op anyway.. this from the Daily ToiletPaper
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recommitted Australia’s troops to the Middle East on a secret pre-Christmas trip to Iraq just hours after the US announced it would withdraw all troops from Syria.
The Prime Minister has also vowed to keep fighting ISIS, while US President Donald Trump declared today US troops would withdraw from Syria now the terrorist organisation had been “defeated”.
“We will continue to work side by side with Iraqis, Afghans and our Coalition partners to destroy Da’esh and Al Qaeda,” Mr Morrison said in a statement today after visiting the troops.
He added that during the visit he had met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi to “reinforce our ongoing commitment to fighting Da’esh and its sympathisers”.
Hours earlier, the Trump administration announced it would pull all US troops out of Syria.
In a tweet, Mr Trump declared ISIS had been “defeated”.
sprocket_
Is this today’s f—up by Scottie?
I’ve been somewhat dissapointed by the lack of pressure by labor to insist on Broad vacating his seat immediately – rather than wait 5 months till the election. I would think his conduct warrants it. Dastiyari was forced out for far far less.
On the other hand, his continued presense in the parliament will provide plenty of ammunition for the opposition when it resumes.
nath says:
Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 11:01 am
To everyone else. I apologies for feeding the troll.
_______________________________
I apologise for feeding the Stanton troll. He’s just here to aggravate people.
I am quite selective on who I aggravate. You should feel honored.
Big A Adrian
The Murdoch’s and their Tory politician mates don’t want non profit views being giving credible airing.
They want a faux balance at the ABC by imposing right wing viewpoints in it that have no credibility.
A good example is how Kansas has proved cutting taxes reduces economic growth. Its why the GOP lost the state in the recent election period. People were hurt badly by the cutting taxes mantra of the neo liberal their is no society thus no role for government thinking.
For the ABC to be balanced and uphold its charter of being accurate in its reporting it has to stop just giving right wing viewpoints a platform as if they are credible views when all the accuracy is otherwise.
Edit: We saw this in action with the attacks on Emma Alberici for her accurate economic analysis on taxes.
Big A Adrian
Dastyari hops onto Twitter after every one of these episodes. I thought at the time he was badly treated by Labor, but he doesn’t complain, just tends to say “Glad I’m not there anymore.”
Big A Adrian:
[‘so the ABC becomes exactly what the right accuse it of being – a left wing echo chamber?’]
In the MSM, the box, radio, the Right is prominent. Aunty will always be accused as being a ‘left wing echo chamber’, thus it should live up to its reputation – it has nothing to lose.
Joyce won’t need a excuse to knife McCormack but he’ll use the circumstances anyway.
Let them continue fighting each other I say and hopefully Regional Australia will see them for what they are.
Faint hope I know.
Sheep.
autocrat @ #1074 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 10:29 am
I’d lay off the novels of Barbara Thiering as well.
Would you like to stick to the central lies of the holey bibull; to whit, that the gospels were written by their ascribed authors? False, and known to be false by the publishers, whoever and whenever they may have been.
The only reason Dastyari quit was because their was a concerted media campaign against him, which the ABC joined in with, a whole week was dedicated on it, day after day it was breathlessly reported as if it was some big deal, even when you can point to many other mp’s doing similar things.
By a glance not much has changed on these sites
From that glance, once upon a time banks actually owned significant of the Offices and branches they operated from
Then there was the realisation of the Capital deployed to Real Estate – Capital which could be deployed to the function of a bank being lenders at margin, so generating profit (in lieu of Revaluation Reserves on the Balance Sheet)
So real estate was divested of – correctly
The same test of purpose applies to the State and the function of the State
In State hands those assets still need to generate profit to fund maintenance, replacements and, more importantly, growth
And retained profit (after dividend distribution because Investors correctly expect a dividend, even the State) will not fund replacement and growth
The absence of such recognition is indicative of the uneducated ideaolgy of some on this site
And why the political party they promote is both irrelevant and dangerous
They simply do not live in the real world – as evidenced by the posting times living on sites such as this
Enjoy knocking yourselves out
We all know that Michael Sukkar won’t have the numbers to win his seat at the next election, but it will be extra sweet to see a member of one of the groups his staff have denigrated take the reins in Deakin.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/liberal-powerbrokers-in-racist-and-homophobic-text-furore-20181218-p50n2b.html
Observer
You must be upset that Wayne Swan has adopted Nicholas’ Job Guarantee.
I dosagee with this policy I think a UBI is more realistic. However there you have it. World’s Best Treasuer and Federal Labor President backing a Universal Job Guarantee.
@JohnCleese tweets
Aussie ex-Premier Kevin Rudd describes Murdoch media as ‘a political party’
Very well put…
Eric Idle describes Mr and Mrs Rupert Murdoch as ‘Jerry and the Pacemaker’
The Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun describe him as a ‘visionary’
Dastyiari quit because no MP should ever, ever take a $30,000 personal gift to pay for anything personal.
Sam quit.
Good on Sam.
guytuar,
my take is that right wing viewpoints have a platform anyway – on the commercial channels. They are so loud that they become a story in and of itself. Like climate denialism is not just a viewpoint, its an entire political topic. It would be silly for the ABC to simply ignore these and pretend they don’t exist. Instead they should be confronted in a way that generates a proper and accurate debate that the commercials will never present. Now I realise the ABC is sometimes guilty of presenting discreditable views as credible (eg putting an ignorant climate deniar up against a real scientist – as if both debators are as credible as each other) – but more often than not, the silly right winger gets made a fool of – like literally every time Gerard Henderson rocks up on to insiders and everyone on the panel ridicules him. The last time I remember that bafoon Piers Ackerman was on the show, he made an outrageous and baseless slur against Julia Gillard, got quite a severe on-air dressing down from Barry Cassidy, and I don’t think he’s ever been back. Now obviously, the likes of Henderson and Ackerman would never get the same treatment on most of the commercials, and so thats why the ABC is needed. To expose the emperor’s clothes for the fraud that it is.
Observer
Glad to see you drop by, even if it is to give us a swipe 🙂 The banks are in a world of hurt at the moment, tanking shareprice, reputational damage, regulatory oversight increasing – and the RC just touched the tip,of the iceberg of aggrieved customers.
I actually think the coming change of government will be good for the banks, as if they are smart, they can reset without the baggage of ‘the party of business’ to weigh them down.
“In the MSM, the box, radio, the Right is prominent. Aunty will always be accused as being a ‘left wing echo chamber’, thus it should live up to its reputation – it has nothing to lose.”
The Right isn’t just ‘prominent’, it’s dominant. The ABC is the only major media outlet not controlled by the Right’s friends. That, plus it’s a competitor they would like to see gone.
That being said, of course the likes of Vanstone, Henderson and Switzer should appear on the ABC. Especially the latter often have interesting things to say. They, and Coalition Government members need to be challenged to defend their position, especially when, as they often do, they simply act as shills and, especially in the case of MPs and Ministers, parrot Coalition talking points and fail to answer questions.
On the other hand, there is no need for the likes of people like Rowan Dean and Piers Akermann to appear on the ABC.
Big A Adrian and Steve
The ABC is still the most trusted media organisation in Australia.
People know the commercial outlets have a set agenda and don’t trust those as much precisely because of that set agenda.
My raising of credibility is thus the crux of the issue.
We don’t expect the ABC to give anti vaxxers a regular platform. We rightly expect them to explain why its idiocy.
I am just arguing they should use the same approach to all such arguments.
Alpha Zero, love the photos in that article, members of St Privileged Institute for the Criminally Homophobic Debating(Mass) Team. These young libs must be getting anxious that the world of their fathers and grandfathers’s is changing fast and the opportunities to rip off the oiks with impunity are fading fast. They may even have to get real jobs.
Cue Scotty wrapping himself in cammo
And Scotty in a military plane? C130? I don’t think a chopper?
I missed this opinion piece by Ross Gittins two days ago.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/how-to-keep-the-news-coming-20181218-p50mw2.html
Gittins reasonably points out that the issue for news companies is the loss of advertising revenue to Google and Facebook, and makes the argument that news could be treated as any other public good, which allows him to say this.
He then rejects that.
I guess he would rather they submit their independence to a for-profit group. And by that point in his piece he has already obliquely complained about news competition from the ABC and SBS.
And he ends with an idea.
Hmm. But Canada has nothing equivalent to the ABC/SBS. Isn’t it just as arguable that the ABC and SBS should simply pick up the slack as Google and Facebook cannibalize the commercial news factories? And of course we then tax those outfits to pay for our ABC and SBS. Does that seem fair?
Morrison’s trying to add a bit more authority-magic-dust to his persona. It won’t work. He’s an idiot. The idea that he should be in charge of the military is frightening in itself.
sprocket_
I’m hoping for the official Shire ‘patriot’ attire , flag cape.
Boerwar @ #1460 Thursday, December 20th, 2018 – 10:53 am
Some fish deaths are natural, yes. But the massive blue green algal blooms we are now seeing are exacerbated by agricultural runoff caused by over-fertilizing and bad land management, and also abnormally low water flows because we use what should be environmental water flows to grow silly crops like cotton.
The river system is suffering through mismanagement and fraud, not natural events …
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/apr/05/murray-darling-when-the-river-runs-dry
By all means grow cotton in years when we have an abundance of water. But to do so when we are in a drought is environmental vandalism.
Whoops! A Caribou. The flood of Field Marshal Scotty photos are flooding out of the PMO
Lawd he is a dummy. The more voters see of him the more they will want to sack him.
This is a bit like Dotard throwing paper towels to the Peurto Ricans..
The big four banks and Labor held off the GFC here and did it exceptionally well.
I would hate to see major confidence lost in the banks. Things could go very badly for Australia. Despite all their rip-offs of their lower level customers and their massive CEO salaries, they have held the banking industry together fantastically over the years. It’s a great pity ASIC did not do its job. Those people should have been sacked and a new lot put in to do their jobs properly and protect consumers etc.