There haven’t been any new polls this week, so the headline to this post isn’t news as such – the point is that a new thread is needed, and this is it. Developments worth noting:
• We do have one new poll, but it was privately conducted and so doesn’t count as canonical so far as BludgerTrack is concerned. The poll in question was conducted by uComms/ReachTEL for Greenpeace last Wednesday from a sample of 2134, and has primary votes of Coalition 38.8%, Labor 36.7%, Greens 9.7% and One Nation 6.1%. A 53-47 two-party split is reported based on respondent-allocated preferences, but it would actually have been around 51.5-48.5 based on preferences from 2016. The poll also features attitudinal questions on carbon emissions and government priorities, which you can read all about here.
• The Greens have landed a high-profile candidate in Julian Burnside, human rights lawyer and refugee advocate, to run against Josh Frydenberg in the normally blue-ribbon Melbourne seat of Kooyong. This further complicates a contest that already featured independent hopeful Oliver Yates, former Liberal Party member and chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
• The Liberal preselection to choose a successor to Julie Bishop in Curtin will be determined by a vote of 60 delegates on Sunday. Initial reports suggested the front-runners were Celia Hammond, former vice-chancellor of Notre Dame University, and Erin Watson-Lynn, director of Asialink Diplomacy at the University of Melbourne, which some interpreted as a proxy battle between bitter rivals Mathias Cormann and Julie Bishop. However, both have hit heavy weather over the past week, with concerns raised over Hammond’s social conservatism and Watson-Lynn’s past tweets critical of the Liberal Party. Andrew Tillett of the Financial Review reports that some within the party believe a third nominee, Aurizon manager Anna Dartnell, could skate through the middle.
• Tom Richardson of InDaily reports moderate faction efforts to install a male candidate – James Stevens, chief-of-staff to Premier Steve Marshall – in Christopher Pyne’s seat of Sturt are prompting a slew of conservative-aligned women to nominate against him. These include Deepa Mathew, a manager at the Commonwealth Bank and state candidate for Enfield last year; Joanna Andrew, a partner with law firm Mellor Olsson; and Jocelyn Sutcliffe, a lawyer with Tindall Gask Bentley. However, Stevens remains the “overwhelming favourite”.
Reynolds did even worse when it came to ‘Will the government invest in new coal fired generators?”
She started off with ‘That’s not my field” — which is what she should have said to the previous question- and then basically went into meltdown.
SCOUT @ #1998 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 10:03 am
Are we still talking about Burnside? Why? Has he changed his policy positions again today?
Scout,
why are you so obsessed with boerwar’s obsession with Burnside?
🙂
Scout
I’d bet Shorten would be regretting Labors vote FOR medivac in the senate before Christmas.
The flip-flopping after Christmas looking for an escape from the debate was unedifying.
psyclaw
I’m happy for the media to play the Burnside clip on high rotation and let the voters make up their minds!
Guess the mutual admiration society is really over now.
Poroti
The original setting of the Australian minimum wage was a wage level sufficient to support a working man and his wife and children. In other words the minimum wage was above the poverty level, i.e. conceived of as a “living” wage.
I think it is dangerous to establish a second “living wage” which is at or above the pverty level and accept a lower minimum wage below the pverty level.
The minimum wage should be madeto equal a wage a significantly above “poverty”. No need for any other basic wage.
Psyclaw
I was surprised at Burnside’s snappy superior “Don’t interrupt” (I don’t think she was a journo). He’s more practised at doing the barrister thing than the humble candidate, obviously.
Boerwar @ #1982 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 9:51 am
By WW1 tetanus vaccine (pre-exposure prophylaxis)) and toxoid (post-exposure prophylaxis) were well developed and widely used – also, high explosive tends to kill C. tetani spores too.
The whole history of battle-related deaths (and opioid addiction) is interesting. Mortality declined steeply from the introduction of triage from the Napoleonic wars in Europe, and the American Civil War (in the US)- mainly due to effective surgical intervention and pain relief (look up “soldier’s disease”) . The introduction of antimicrobials during WW2 made little difference to survival , other than to control rampant STDs. Viral genome studies of hepatitis C virus have demonstrated fairly conclusively that the US Army’s opioid addicts were the largest single vector of the world wide HCV epidemic of the second part of last century.
Discussion is invariably whatever is being discussed.
You are welcome to lead by example if you want to talk about wage stagnation etc.
BW
I am no fan of a UBI.
I am not sure what you are asking. A living wage isnt like the Planck constant. It is a concept. In a functioning democratic political/economic system a government would act to correct any market failure on wages. Wages that mean working people are at or near the poverty line is not just unfair but corrupts the system further.
P1
‘Insiders’ played the Burnside clip this morning, which is why there’s new discussion – it was the first time I saw it, and I didn’t realise how bad it looked.
None of the journos seemed very impressed, either.
lizzie:
It was Senator Jane Hume.
“I think it’s clear to all by now that Boerwar and other Labor partisans prefer Liberals ahead of Greens.”
This is silly nonesense. All of us “Labor partisans” love the Greens actually targeting a vulnerable liberal. I for one do not doubt the sincerity and enthusiasm of the Burnside candidacy, but the incompetence of the Greens on this one is staggering. It is a shame, because it didn’t have to be this way. I can only speculate why it is that the Greens have been so slapdash, but as a party outsider I suspect that the internal party wars have left the Victorian party machine in tatters. I like Julian, but he has come across as an old white fogie and completely inept. Worse, the way he has reacted to these early campaign blunders. It is a shame, as I said.
rhwombat
Yes, it’s a fascinating field.
I read a study that concluded deaths amongst wounded soldiers in Vietnam were higher than deaths in the Falklands BECAUSE intervention was more timely in Vietnam.
The theory goes that a wounded soldier in Vietnam was picked up and pumped full of plasma within a very short time – the soldiers in the Falklands were often left for hours in near freezing conditions.
Being pumped full of plasma meant that blood didn’t have time to clot, which actually prevented the proper healing of wounds. *
*Just reporting – I have no idea whether it was tosh or not!
I liked Murphy’s expression ‘purification before* victory’. Purification has an appropriate tinge of religious zealotry in it.
(* preferred to, not followed by)
He sounds like a Greens.
It’s good to see Labor partisans now so supportive of the above narrative, a narrative the Greens have been pointing out for years.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #1996 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 10:12 am
It’s not often you get a prominent conservative ‘old white fogie’ running as a Green.
It shows perhaps a willingness on his behalf to TRY and move away from the past and into the future.
Maybe it might inspire other ‘old white fogies’ to think of the future…. ?
A fair minimum wage today would be $25 per hour, not the current $18.90 per hour. $25 per hour is where the minimum wage would be today had it been indexed to national labour productivity growth since 1970. Perhaps phasing in this increase in two stages over a few years would be wise, but however it’s done, it needs to be done.
We also need to guarantee a public sector minimum wage job to any citizen or permanent resident aged 15 years or over who wants one, with the job designed around the interests and abilities of the person, and focused on enhancing the wellbeing of the person’s community.
Pegasus
He also sounds just like a union leader.
zoomster,
You don’t get many places with near freezing temperatures up here. 😆
Peg
It’s good to see Labor partisans now so supportive of the above narrative, a narrative the Greens have been pointing out for years.
_____________________________________
The Greens can point out all the narratives they like. But they can’t make anything happen.
zoomster @ #2012 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 10:12 am
Ah! I just watched it, and I see what you mean. He clearly forgot he wasn’t in the Savage Club, where such behaviour is probably perfectly acceptable.
Rex Douglas @ #1953 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 9:36 am
Only a Liberal would criticise ‘Big Unions’.
AE
Unlike Labor who have an army of paid advisers and staff, the Greens are not so blessed.
The Greens predominantly rely on an army of unpaid volunteers with a few paid staff who are stretched to the limit.
Jim Chalmers sounds to me more persuasive/easy to understand than Bowen.
BK. Thanks for the links again this morning. The Peter FitzSimons one regarding his meeting up with Abbott was interesting.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-can-t-we-be-friendly-agreeing-to-disagree-with-tony-abbott-20190308-p512qz.html
Peter FitzSimons has a public image, with a dark shirt and red bandana. It is his uniform you might say. How often would you go out in public for a quiet coffee with your wife, wearing a uniform designed to get yourself recognised, and just happen to bump into a former PM for a chat and selfie? I suspect the meeting was not unplanned.
I posted a link to the video the night he actually said those things. Watching it two days later I still cannot believe how cringeworthy it was.
jic this has not been noted yet:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-09/scullion-replacement-mcmahon-not-taking-senate-seat-for-granted/10886882
Pegasus says:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10:22 am
Which is even more reason to be careful and not rush into things.
wombat, another interesting time was the advent of Pentothal into clinical practice, around the time of Pearl Harbour. The concept of ‘blood concentration’ was poorly understood, in that in low blood volume states, the clinically significant dose was considerably reduced, to get the desired effect, and to avoid often lethal side effects, myocardial depression mainly. They were all just given the mg/Kg dose on the box.
It’s anaesthetic folk lore that Pentothal killed more at Pearl Harbour than the Japs.
(edit – grammar)
What has happened to the poor little word “me”? Is it now to be confined only to #meToo?
The incorrect use of “I” in almost all media is becoming ridiculous. See above.
TA saw my wife and me. This writer surely wouldn’t say “He saw I in the cafe”?
TPOF @ #2022 Sunday, March 10th, 2019 – 10:20 am
To be consistent, I think we have to start calling them the Greens partisans. 🙂
Completely agree. He is an asset to Labor and needs to be rolled out more often.
SCOUT says:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10:03 am
Boerwar why are you obsessed with Burnside? Along with a couple on here the obsession with the Greens re their relevance is out of whack.
i get frustrated with Greens and their voting in parliament ie Malaysia Solution and the ETS but to me the focus should be on marginal seats and how to get rid of the Coalition.
No one will answer did Shorten spend to long on medivac?
Discussion should be on low wages and lack of job security etc
This ongoing pissing contest with the greens, trying to personalise the discussion is boring
__-
— Well said Scout
When Labor adopts the rhetoric of the Greens such as the “big end of town” it is praised by the Labor partisans. Even iIn the very recent past when Greens ran with the same rhetoric it was derided.
Go figure.
Good Morning
Still on about Burnside.
No comment on the hit job Newscorp did on Daley and Shorten today?
Joe Hildebrand wrote the piece on News.com.au really must be desperate about Bill Shorten and Daley.
He wrote as if he sat in Caucus
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/masterstroke-behind-labors-secret-plan-to-topple-alan-jones/news-story/b632cb10a8d8f6290aa8b962dbb1eef9
Given the lines being run here, I speculate if Frydenberg is re-elected, faux outrage by the same Laborite detractors will be expressed as “it is all the fault of the Greens”.
Looking on the bright side, for the Greens, when Burnside gave that sassy young woman the finger, at least he did not give her the middle finger.
As an adjunct to Socrates @9.47 am and the right’s “culture war”, in Australia, some PBers might find interesting this interview on ABC’s RN this morning about the growing international power of the so called “stealth right”. It includes references to the IPA.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/7.30/10876034
BL
Beat me to it. I heard the program and was just about to link to it.
Pegasus says:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10:38 am
Given the lines being run here, I speculate if Frydenberg is re-elected, it will be all the fault of the Greens.
–
Don’t be so humble Peg; it will all be your fault [apparently]. 😀
That’s because Morrison is always acting whatever part he thinks will give him an edge on any particular issue and while it is certainly possible for an actor to be a successful political leader — as proved by Ronald Reagan — Mr Morrison is less eight years of Reagan and more Weekend at Bernie’s
There, fixed it for Joe. 🙂
“Looking on the bright side, for the Greens, when Burnside gave that sassy young woman the finger, at least he did not give her the middle finger.”
But metaphorically …
‘Pegasus says:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10:38 am
Given the lines being run here, I speculate if Frydenberg is re-elected, it will be all the fault of the Greens.’
Excellent point.
Whatever happens in Kooyong, at least we can say that Labor did not pre-select a 70 year old Liberal-voting uber wealthy male, who has opined that $300,000 is a bit tight wage wise, and who belongs to a men only private club and, furthermore, who rabbits on about Shorten instead of Frydenberg, and who comes up with the classic Greens dribble about Lib Lab same same.
I wish you guys the best of luck in Kooyong. You have ensured that you are going to need it.
Insiders much more balanced (from my ALP bias’s point-of-view) 😆
I am glad Murphy is so fed up with he Lib’s game-playing on climate and asylum seekers.
Both these topics have been Libs auto-wedge on Labor for 10 or more years and I agree with her (and PvO) that they are not going to bite the way they did previously.
People ARE more concerned about their wages and the sky never fell in on asylum seekers as the chicken littles have been squawking since 2007 … and all the focus on power instead of climate has not garnered any real reduction in power prices …. just worse weather events/obvious climate change repercussions that even naysayers are having to take notice.
So all the ‘can kicking’ by the libs, for political purposes, is coming back to bite them.
Meanwhile – real wage stagnation versus ‘wasted time and money’ from the Libs is also becoming more noticeable. Shorten’s line “what a waste of money” resonates. And now we have Cormann’s roundabout admission that keeping wages low WAS coalition policy.
All in all, we need to be rid of this mob tout de suite!!
Don’t know if this has ever been posted here before. A friend sent it to me this morning. It’s about the damage that Trump and his henchmen are doing, not only to ordinary Americans but to the whole world. If you are concerned about these matters it is well worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQvig0KvUaE
EB
lol I am but one Greens party member who, apparently, according to my many detractors here, speak for the entire party. That’s one of the favourite memes bandied about.
Cat
Mr Hildebrand sounds quite put out that the Murdoch 2GB influence is coming to an end. As I said the whole hit piece of character assassination reeks of desperation. Interesting that Hildebrand identifies the society he seems to regard he is part of.
‘Pegasus says:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10:35 am
When Labor adopts the rhetoric of the Greens such as the “big end of town”’
As long as Labor does not adopt the Greens 3 decades-long habit of doing nothing, I will be truly happy.