Essential Research: 53-47 to Labor

Another pollster finds an incremental movement to Labor, and gives Bill Shorten an improved set of personal ratings.

The latest fortnightly result from Essential Research follows Newspoll in recording a one-point move to Labor, who now lead 53-47 on two-party preferred. As reported by The Guardian, the primary votes have the Coalition down a point to 37%, Labor up a point to 38%, the Greens down a point to 8% (their weakest result in any poll since September 2016) and One Nation up a point to 7%. The pollster’s leadership ratings (which they normally do monthly, but this is the first set since January) have Scott Morrison steady on 43% approval and up two on disapproval to 41%, Bill Shorten up three to 38% and down three to 44%, and Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister at 44-31, compared with 42-30 last time.

Other findings relate to climate change and asylum seekers. On the former cont, 62% express belief in climate change caused by human activity, and 51% say Australia is not doing enough to address it. On the latter, 52% believed the government was acting out of genuine concern in reopening Christmas Island while 48% said it was a political ploy (suggesting there was no uncommitted option, which would be unusual for Essential). Also featured was an occasion suite of questions on best party to handle various issues, which seems to have produced typical results, with the Coalition stronger on broader protection and economic management and Labor stronger on the environment, wages, health and education, as well as housing affordability. The full report should be with us later today.

UPDATE: Full report here. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Monday from a sample of 1089.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,959 comments on “Essential Research: 53-47 to Labor”

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  1. sustainable future says:
    Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 11:56 pm

    IMO it is good for labor to be critiqued from the left – especially when they are in government, and it is preferable that the greens and not RWNJs have control of the upper house as well as some lower house reps to both keep the bastards honest and bring a voice of the left into the parliament.
    —
    I take a similar view SF. I support diversity in the Parliament including the presence of Greens, Independents and others we are yet to experience. Otherwise it becomes over dominated by partisan world views that are essentially only accountable at election time. The harm that can done in the intervening three years is sometimes harm that can not be undone.

    For example, funding cuts to community services that send them broke. People lose jobs, clients lose services and it takes years to rebuild a base from which to start again, if at all.

  4. Commonwealth Solicitor General back in the High Court. Again doing the Tories dirty work. Labor needs to replace him.

    “THE Palaszczuk Government over stepped its authority by making no attempt to apply its controversial developer donation ban only to state elections, the High Court heard on Wednesday.

    Commonwealth solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue QC, acting for the Federal Government, made the claim at the second day of the hearing into former LNP president Gary Spence’s attempt to overturn the ban.”

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/state-overstepped-on-developer-donation-ban/news-story/0c92329403aa0f2086872cdbcb0e9d71

  5. Upnorth,

    I disagree, he can only a act as directed.

    But I would question why the federal Government has got involved in the case.

    On face of it, it does appear the SG is being used in a political way.

  6. @ Barney

    Im sure your correct about Donaghue taking directions. I dare say from the AG

    Don’t forget he also took up the cudgels for the LNP when Labor MPs were referred to the High Court – whilst taking the opposite interpretation in the previous case involving Barnaby Joyce (my “bush lawyer” interpretation).

    Seems that the Coalition have used the Solicitor General as their own legal service. Donaghue’s predecessor, Gleeson SC, resigned rather than take directions from AG Brandis.

    I don’t think Labor can trust him but time will tell.

  7. EB says:
    Thursday, March 14, 2019 at 12:30 am
    sustainable future says:
    Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 11:56 pm

    IMO it is good for labor to be critiqued from the left

    The Gs purport to be from the Left. This is false. It’s not possible to be of the Left and at the same time seek to defeat the political organ of working people 24/7.

    ….fwiw, this is not an abusivevir offensive post. It is a comment about ‘campaign’….about political strategy

  8. It’s not possible to believe in the “efficacy of the market” and claim to be of the left.

    The market is concerned with one thing, and one thing alone – making money. It does this by either gouging customers, creating monopolies or reducing costs. The biggest cost in any organisation is always labour, and this is always the first port of call in any cost reduction scenario.

    All of these activities are anathema to a fair and just society and the ideals of “the left”.

  11. Maybe Dotard shutting down the US government over his shitty Wall was not such a smart move..

    “The Wall Street Journal reports that Boeing’s effort to fix a software problem on the 737 Max jets was hampered by the extended government shutdown.

    A software fix to the MCAS flight-control feature by the FAA and Boeing had been expected early in January, but discussions between regulators and the plane maker dragged on, partly over differences of opinion about technical and engineering issues, according to people familiar with the details. Officials from various parts of Boeing and the FAA had differing views about how extensive the fix should be.

    U.S. officials have said the federal government’s recent shutdown also halted work on the fix for five weeks.”

  12. Paul Manafort gets additional 43 months in prison in second sentencing for conspiracy charges

    President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to an additional 43 months in prison on Wednesday in a case related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Manafort to 73 months in prison, but said 30 of the months would run concurrently with a sentence in a separate case.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/paul-manafort-gets-additional-43-months-prison-second-sentencing-conspiracy-charges/

  13. guytaur

    A bit bleary eyed on phone. So nearly all Tories must have voted to keep no-deal on the table? I am surprised – thought this would also be a big loss even though it doesn’t really mean anything.

  14. Counterchekist‏ @counterchekist

    Just as Manafort was probably thinking his day couldn’t get any worse, suddenly it did just that.

    Paul Manafort hit with 16-count indictment from New York just moments after his sentencing

    Paul Manafort was indicted on state charges just minutes after he was sentenced in federal court.

    “Following an investigation commenced by our Office in March 2017,” he added, “a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market.”

    The 69-year-old Manafort, who was sentenced to a total of 90 months in federal prison on fraud and conspiracy charges, was charged March in a New York State Supreme Court with with residential mortgage fraud in the first degree, attempted residential mortgage fraud in the first degree, conspiracy in the fourth degree, falsifying business records in the first degree, and scheme to defraud in the first degree.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/paul-manafort-hit-16-count-indictment-new-york-just-moments-sentencing/

  15. Re the Brexit votes, the main vote has yet to come in the Commons.

    The votes so far are procedural, insofar as they are amendments to the main vote

  16. Rocket.

    I was surprised too.
    So close to the disaster option.

    Voting still continuing.

    Next hour we should know if delay indicative votes or revoke article 50 happens.

  17. If you were wondering what might be revealed by Libs under the cover of the Pell case…

    bruce hawker
    ‏@brucehawker2010
    12h12 hours ago

    Breaking news. Demolition of the Allianz stadium has commenced just 10 days before NSW election, on the orders of the @GladysB Berejiklian Government. An action taken in contempt of public opinion, the courts and under cover of darkness & on the day the media is focused on Pell.

  19. The PM could compromise to get a hypothetical softer Brexit through the Commons – but days later find out that she could no longer govern.

    In this febrile atmosphere when the chancellor makes a call, as he has just done, for a “consensus” across Parliament to find a way out of this hole, he is also hinting very publicly to the prime minister that it might be time now to think about making that sacrifice.

    It’s important to remember that Mr Hammond’s preferred option all along has been to back the prime minister’s deal, to try to get it through.

    But a mild-sounding call for compromise just now, is not necessarily politically mild at all.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47556568?ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter

  20. Given that the EU are sick of May presenting them with deals that then she can’t get though her own Parliament, surely the only political way out for her will be to have a plebiscite on her last deal. And (the hard bit?) get Parliament to say they will act on the result.

    Yes equals Brexit with that deal.
    No equals remain.

    I know the hard line Brexiteers would go apoplectic but I can’t see any other way out. And the EU have pretty much said they won’t grant an extension unless it is for a specific reason – this plebiscite would be such a reason.

  22. GetUp! campaigner Jake Wishart said that the group’s members had declared Mr Hunt the second-most-hated Liberal MP in the state – partly due to his support for the Adani coal mine – in Queensland.

    While the group has not yet directly endorsed Ms Banks, its involvement in the seat can only assist the former Liberal.

    “Greg Hunt’s repeated attempts to block urgent action on climate change puts him at complete odds with voters in Flinders, and it’s time he was turfed out,” Mr Wishart said.

    “As environment minister, he ignored advice from his own department and gave federal environmental approval for Adani, at the time Australia’s largest proposed coal mine.

    “More recently as health minister, he voted against giving sick children and refugees urgent medical care through the medevac bill.”

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/03/13/greg-hunt-getup-campaign/

  23. Dan Gulberry @ #1308 Thursday, March 14th, 2019 – 3:30 am

    It’s not possible to believe in the “efficacy of the market” and claim to be of the left.

    The market is concerned with one thing, and one thing alone – making money. It does this by either gouging customers, creating monopolies or reducing costs. The biggest cost in any organisation is always labour, and this is always the first port of call in any cost reduction scenario.

    All of these activities are anathema to a fair and just society and the ideals of “the left”.

    Isn’t that your occupation, DanG? making money in the market?

  24. New York Charges Paul Manafort With 16 Crimes. If He’s Convicted, Trump Can’t Pardon Him.

    Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, has been charged in New York with mortgage fraud and more than a dozen other state felonies, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said Wednesday, an effort to ensure he will still face prison time if Mr. Trump pardons him for his federal crimes.

    He could face up to 25 years in New York state prison if convicted of the most serious charges in the new indictment, which is expected to be announced later on Wednesday.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/nyregion/manafort-indictment.html

  26. Sean Kelly on Brexit, is brilliant. An outsiders’ view but that of someone who has lived there on and off for the past 2 years:

    Two weeks ago, in mildly happier times, May was asked about (what else?) Brexit. She said her questioner “should vote for a deal — simples”. That extra “s” is no typo. “Simples”, as you might know, is a TV advertising slogan, usually uttered by a cartoon meerkat promoting a website that compares insurance deals.

    Yes, this is another example of the rolling trivialisation of politics, the apparent desperation of our leaders to be heard above the thundering nonsense blah blah blah. But here’s the real kicker: soon after, it was reported that the only reason May used the phrase was because one Tory MP made a bet with another Tory MP that she could get the Prime Minister to say it. So May did her best meerkat, and the MP got tea at the Ritz.

    None of this matters, really, except that it is the purest representation of the Brexit debate I can imagine. People with genuine power stand in the hallowed halls of Parliament and shout words that, it turns out, have meaning only for each other.

    There are so many of these terms in the Brexit debate, and this is the point at which we could take the time to get into the detail of what each means: “backstop”, “Norway plus”, “Canada plus”, “hard Brexit”, “soft Brexit”. Theoretically, each one corresponds to something in the actual world.

    Really, though, their meanings are irrelevant, at least to the politicians who use them. They’re just ways of marking identity, like a mohawk, or a tote bag. How much you mutter about one or the other, how loudly, how aggressively, are just ways of telling the members of your tribe that you’re one of them. As one informed observer wrote in The Spectator this week, “I know Tories who will vote No tomorrow who hope the deal will eventually pass … [and] Labour MPs who hope the deal passes …”

    …Which is a way of saying that if you are reading this and laughing at the British, remember that it is all depressingly similar to Australia’s debate about climate policy. For a while there, the phrase “carbon tax” took on religious significance, especially for the Coalition. Then it was “energy intensity scheme”. Then “national energy guarantee”.

    Technically, those words represented actual policies, but I’d bet everything I have that most politicians arguing over them – and occasionally destroying prime ministers over them – had little or no comprehension of what those policies were. What they did understand was which side of the party they were on, and which particular magical incantations were expected of them.

    This retreat from substance and meaning is partly a product of our shallow, image-obsessed times. But the (related) decline of ideology in the face of populism is central, too.

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/brexit-meerkats-and-the-never-ending-meaningless-story-20190313-p513sd.html

  27. Paul Manafort’s judge strongly rebukes Manafort’s — and Trump’s — ‘no collusion’ refrain

    Judge Amy Berman Jackson made several strong statements before sentencing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Wednesday. But one, in particular, struck at the core of President Trump’s personal defense in the Russia investigation.

    She said the “no collusion” mantra is bunk.

    “The ‘no collusion’ refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand,” she said. “The ‘no collusion’ mantra is simply a non sequitur.”

    Then she added: “The ‘no collusion’ mantra is also not accurate, because the investigation is still ongoing.”

    https://www.pollbludger.net/2019/03/12/essential-research-53-47-labor-29/comment-page-27/#comment-3099054

  28. Morrison’s found $6 billion for tax cuts.

    We know it’s not the $6 billion he’s letting the Non-Welfare-Bludger Retirees keep because, well… just becsuse.

    We know it’s not the $6 billion that any number of multinationals haven’t paid in tax for as long as anyone can remember.

    We know it’s not the $6 billion they were going to recover from Robodebt and other anti-Entitlement Mentality aktions brought on by the Centrelink einsatzgruppen.

    So where’s the money coming from, and why is it worth front page in the SMH?

    Well, it’s from an unexpected surge in the international iron ore price. A one-off. Here today, gone tomorrow. Boom now, bust later.

    We know that hardworking retirees believe tax concessions, once given, can never be taken away. So I guess the ones coming in the Budget will be designed to be permanent too. Some droog in the PM’s department will be urging the cuts as an “Insta Payrise” or similar. Take that Bill Shorten with your “Living Wage” and your national productivity schemes. ScoMo’s trumped you with his Magic Tax Wand and a pinch of Woofle Powder. Abra-cadabra! We eat tonight!

    But what’s it really worth?

    Say, 15 million workers paying tax: divide $6 billion by 15 million and, just on a very crude across the board calculation, it works out to $400 apiece per year, or $8 a week. Apportion the cut progressively, with higher wage earners receiving greater cuts, and the lower end of the income earning scale might have enough for a bonus large fries every once in a while, but a sandwich and a milkshake? At today’s prices? Forget about it.

    So ScoMo scores a front page on pointless, valueless tax cuts, based on a once-in-a-blue-moon commodities blip, leaving all the other bigtime rorts in place, and will probably claim they’re gonna last forever.

    Somewhere in a quiet spider hole Bill Shorten must be quaking in his boots.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/federal-budget-to-get-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-surging-iron-ore-price-20190313-p513rj.html

  29. A summary of the Brexit position, and May’s position…

    “Govt working majority 0

    Cabinet collective responsibility collapsed

    Main govt business rejected on three figure losses on two occasions

    Minister resigning in lobby

    Extraordinary pressure on Theresa May”

  30. A bit more awake now.

    Manafort – 7.5 more years? How many people will willingly go to jail for trump?

    Brexit – May is stuffed – she voted against the “no to no-deal” motion

    After the prime minister’s deal was heavily voted down for a second time on Tuesday, she announced a government motion ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March – overturning her longstanding policy of refusing to rule it out.

    May promised MPs a free vote, but the motion was carefully worded, with the final sentence stating that, “leaving without a deal remains the default in UK and EU law unless this house and the EU ratify an agreement”.

    However, MPs voted by 312 to 308 to support a backbench amendment which struck out that last phrase so as to rule out a no-deal exit altogether.

    In chaotic scenes, the government then rescinded its promise of a free vote; and whipped its MPs to vote against the amended motion.

    Several cabinet ministers who have warned about the risks of a no-deal Brexit, including Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd, appeared to abstain, but the government still lost the vote, by 321 votes to 278 – a majority of 43.

  31. BB

    So ScoMo scores a front page on pointless, valueless tax cuts, based on a once-in-a-blue-moon commodities blip, leaving all the other bigtime rorts in place, and will probably claim they’re gonna last forever.

    This is how Howard and Costello wasted Australia’s mining construction boom!

  33. John Howard tried to buy his way to victory with Tax Cuts when he looked to be facing certain defeat and we all know how that ended up.

  34. I just had to try and explain the history of Brexit to my Millennial in 5 minutes because it kept coming into his news feed. 😯

  35. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Darren Gray reports that the Morrison government has gained new scope to deliver sweeping personal tax cuts in the April budget following a massive surge in the global iron ore price that could pour up to $6 billion into federal coffers. Not ANOTHER move to add to structural deficit!
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/federal-budget-to-get-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-surging-iron-ore-price-20190313-p513rj.html
    The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index, has fallen to its lowest level since September 2017 and its housing sentiment index has sunk to its lowest on record.
    https://www.outline.com/wgVtaW
    Michael Koziol reveals that sources close to Craig Laundy have said the MP had already made up his mind to quit but the announcement was kept secret.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-keeps-craig-laundy-decision-under-wraps-while-searching-for-star-candidate-20190313-p513t3.html
    Advance Australia has raised almost $400,000 it will use to shore up the positions of key Liberal Party conservatives ahead of the federal election – including that of former prime minister Tony Abbott.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/advance-australia-the-conservative-getup-comes-to-tony-abbott-s-rescue-20190312-p513ht.html
    Home Affairs has asked Ernst & Young to investigate how the little-known Paladin Group came to win $423 million in refugee service contracts on Manus Island.
    https://www.outline.com/wRfjmv
    Sarah Danckert tells us that one of Australia’s largest brokers, Halifax Investment Management, is set to head into liquidation after administrators discovered that some of the $210 million of client money was used to cover off losses on bad bets on investment products by other clients. $20m of clients’ funs is missing.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/20-million-missing-broker-s-client-money-used-to-cover-losses-20190313-p513tp.html
    Meanwhile Jess Irvine writes that the mortgage broker debate demonstrates everything that is wrong with our democracy.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/mortgage-broker-debate-is-everything-that-is-wrong-with-our-democracy-20190313-p513vt.html
    The AFR tells us how the Morrison government’s stunning backflip on mortgage broker pay was engineered by the Prime Minister’s celebrity friend Mark Bouris and aided by his former flatmate Stuart Robert.
    https://www.outline.com/UcrLse
    In a hard hitting contribution ex coal boss Ian Dunlop tells politicians to wake up to the climate threat.
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/as-an-ex-coal-boss-i-m-telling-politicians-wake-up-to-climate-threat-20190313-p513qj.html
    Stephen Bartholomeusz says that the global slowdown is becoming more intense – and no one knows why.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/global-slowdown-is-becoming-more-intense-and-no-one-knows-why-20190313-p513td.html
    Michael Daley has ruled out watering down the state’s gun laws if he is elected premier, despite having done preference deals with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in several key rural seats.
    https://www.smh.com.au/nsw-election-2019/no-relaxing-of-gun-laws-whatsover-daley-vows-20190313-p513w3.html
    The SMH sums up yesterday’s Pell sentencing.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/george-pell-might-die-in-jail-after-six-year-jail-sentencing-20190313-p513xv.html
    Lawyer Duncan Fine writes that Judge Kidd got it absolutely right with the sentence.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/pell-verdict-judge-kidd-got-it-absolutely-right-with-the-sentence-20190313-p513uf.html
    The SMH editorial celebrates that yesterday’s sentencing demonstrated that even a cardinal is not above the law.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/even-a-cardinal-is-not-above-the-law-20190313-p513yz.html
    In a typically well written contribution David Marr says George Pell’s jailing defies the might of Rome but his fall is too appalling for celebration.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/13/george-pells-jailing-defies-the-might-of-rome-but-his-fall-is-too-appalling-for-celebration
    Joanne McCarthy, the journalist who played a big part in bringing about the royal commission, examines the gravity of the outcome of the Pell case.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/pell-20190313-p513ya.html
    Conservatism is one thing; Australian conservatism is a whole other basket of brutality, writes John Tomlinson who looks at the Pell case.
    https://newmatilda.com/2019/03/13/pell-co-australian-conservatism-hypocrisys-bastard-cousin/
    Despite the mainstream media’s defence of Cardinal Pell’s shocking crimes, the victims and survivors of sexual abuse have finally been heard, writes Sophie Love.
    https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/pell-guilty-verdict-and-sentencing-msm-adds-to-trauma,12463
    The Australian’s Joh Ferguson says that while George Pell remained respectful of the Chief Judge, the same can’t be said of Peter Kidd’s attitude towards him.
    https://www.outline.com/akGKhN
    Peter Kidd: The judge who sentenced George Pell.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/03/13/pell-judge-peter-kidd/
    John Warhurst looks at the state of our democratic system. A good read.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/democracy-sausages-and-independent-voices-20190313-p513u3.html
    The ACCC’s Rod Sims writes that our product safety regime is out of step and we are lagging behind. It’s time for that to change. He says this with there being about two deaths and 145 injuries per day caused by unsafe consumer products in Australia.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-need-a-law-against-risky-goods-that-s-right-we-don-t-have-one-20190313-p513tj.html
    And APRA is finally talking tough as it puts poorly managed super funds on notice.
    https://www.outline.com/FHb9nS
    Labor’s pledge to introduce a “living wage” could make Australia’s minimum income the highest in world, an analysis of OECD data reveals.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-could-have-the-world-s-highest-minimum-wage-under-labor-plan-20190313-p513un.html
    The Guardian reveals that One Nation’s election campaign for the New South Wales election is being predominantly funded by loans from its Queensland branch, raising questions about the party’s compliance with the stricter NSW campaign finance laws.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/14/one-nation-nsw-election-campaign-funded-queensland-loans
    With the election looming, now is a good time to examine how the NDIS is being managed by the Government, writes Michael Thorn.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-national-disability-insurance-scheme-needs-a-closer-look,12461
    Dana McCauley tells us that employers are pushing for new laws to allow them to more easily sack perpetrators of workplace sexual harassment, arguing that the current system is hampering efforts to stamp out misconduct.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/workplace-sexual-harassment-aided-by-unfair-dismissal-laws-employers-say-20190313-p513re.html
    Nick Miller explains why Theresa May can’t get a Brexit deal.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/the-bollocks-parliament-why-theresa-may-can-t-get-a-brexit-deal-20190313-p513pk.html
    Adele Ferguson accuses the ATO of excessive spin.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/irony-lost-on-ato-staff-as-spin-goes-into-overdrive-20190313-p513wv.html
    Elizabeth Knight reports that Australia’s lesser-known retail bank, ING, has produced earnings growth that leaves its big four competitors in the dust.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/ing-profits-from-new-disrupter-on-the-market-hayne-royal-commission-20190313-p513vq.html
    Jennifer Hewett writes about the Coalition failing to find its way through the energy and environment maze.
    https://www.outline.com/W7ZU6J
    Meanwhile Barnaby Joyce has dropped his claim that he is the legitimate leader of the Nationals, but cabinet minister Matt Canavan has joined the push for federally funded coal-fired power in Queensland.
    https://www.outline.com/b6NvLK
    Doug Dingwall writes that the Coalition is targeting 76 Canberra jobs as another agency goes bush. This time it’s the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-targets-76-canberra-jobs-as-another-agency-goes-bush-20190313-p513vj.html
    Australia’s largest pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse, has been accused of short changing staff while creating a “toxic culture” of sexual harassment, bullying and job insecurity.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2019/03/13/chemist-warehouse-strike/
    Trump says the White House will be issuing an emergency order to ground all flights of the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9 Boeing jets after a fatal crash.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-relents-says-us-to-ground-boeing-737-max-8s-and-max-9s-20190314-p51417.html
    Richard Wolffe explains why Fox News is in a mess.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/13/fox-news-tucker-carlson-jeanine-pirro-comments
    More on the US college entry celebrity scandal.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/actress-felicity-huffman-awoke-to-fbi-agents-with-guns-drawn-at-her-la-home-20190314-p5140s.html
    Paul Manafort cops another three years on top of last week’s prison sentence.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/manafort-hit-with-new-charges-moments-after-7-5-year-prison-term-imposed-20190314-p5140x.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe and poor Theresa.

    Cathy Wilcox on Brexit.

    John Shakespeare and a realisation.

    Matt Golding’s in good form today.





    Matt Davison and Josh’s sideshow.

    Andrew Dyson with the living wage issue.

    Peter Broelman on the extremes of One Nation.

    Paul Zanetti with another good one.

    Sean Leahy takes Pell to prison.

    And he gives us one on Palmer being sprung buying campaign material from China.

    Jon Kudelka and the Brexit negotiation path.
    https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/5825728c6b20f6234fabf71370029e1e

    From the US





  37. In news that is a surprise to no one:

    One member of the NSW Liberal Party’s state executive said on Wednesday that Mr Morrison had turned out to be “one of the most interventionist” Prime Ministers the party had seen when it came to internal matters.

    Tin pot dictator ScoMo.

  38. Isn’t this a case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted?

    Home Affairs has asked Ernst & Young to investigate how the little-known Paladin Group came to win $423 million in refugee service contracts on Manus Island.
    https://www.outline.com/wRfjmv

    Though it may make useful reading for an incoming Immigration and Border Protection Minister.

  39. Thank you BK for another sterling effort.

    Three years in and the sum total impact of the Brexit Referendum is zero real difference plus 600,000,000 pissed off people.

    Not a bad effort, when you come to think about.

  40. C@tmomma says:

    Thursday, March 14, 2019 at 7:20 am
    John Howard tried to buy his way to victory with Tax Cuts when he looked to be facing certain defeat and we all know how that ended up.

    Not very well for Australia and as it turned out Labor. Just what Howard + Costello wanted. As Mega George pointed out at the time Costello and Howard were clearing out the piggy banks and making sure the cupboard was bare for Labor. Howard’s cut promises were made knowing they were likely to lose the election but knowing politically Rudd would have to match such imprudent promises and so wipe out predicted surpluses and more. Leaving an incoming Labor government financially hamstrung. Remember tax cuts at the time being THE sign of ‘good governance back then. Or rather Howard and the press had set that as the benchmark.

    The jungle drums were beating about the economic meltdown (aka GFC) coming down the pipeline well before it hit and so such actions were bloody ‘criminal’.

    Here’s the moment Rudd unfortunately makes the commitment. Not that politically he had much choice.

    Rudd unveils tax plan
    October 20, 2007 — 2.53am
    …….Costello accused the ALP of spending “four days copying 91.5 per cent of our tax plan”.

    Labor’s six-year, $31 billion plan matches the coalition’s promise to cut the top marginal tax rate to 40 cents in the dollar by 2012-13

    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/rudd-unveils-tax-plan-20071020-ge63dq.html

  42. From Lawyerly

    [Competing class actions literally drive group members to the edge, ALRC head says
    Competing class actions that drag out proceedings can have devastating effects on group members, and whether funded class actions provide genuine access to justice, not just ‘access to the court’s processes’, was a legitimate question, the head of the Australian Law Reform Commission said Wednesday.]

    Indeed. The warm embrace given by, particularly, academics to class actions may end. Never come across a content class member.

    I would never advise someone to be part of a class action when the starting point is that a 1/3 or more of the value of the claim will go to overseas corporate litigation funder.

  43. Exactly, poroti. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Howard listened to Scott Morrison, as former NSW Liberal Director of Howard’s infamous winning Tampa election, again in 2007.

    Let’s hope it turns out the same way again for the PM now, as it did in 2007. 😀

  44. C@t

    He’ll try and ’empty the treasury’ but there are not many options to force Labor into matching unaffordable promises. The old magic does not work any more and mining booms are a bit thin on the ground.

  45. Given the current situation with Brexit it is clear to me that the referendum some years ago was not a sufficiently informed one.

  46. Scott Morrison, a PM of little brain, can think of nothing better to spend a lazy $6B on than a tax cut.

    The collective brains of Australians could surely come up with better uses, had he asked us.

    I can think of a few…..
    1. Increase the Medicare rebates for all services so that the gap payment vanishes and we are back to bulk billing again.

    2. Increase the NewStart allowance so Australians who are out of work can live with some measure of self respect

    3. Take CentreLink staff employment back in-house (not outsourced), train the staff to treat desperate people with respect, and to provide genuine assistance in a timely manner.

    I’m sure other Australians can think of more. He just needs to ask.

  48. BK,
    yes, I know that the $6B is ephemeral, but my proposals are to counter the idiotic tax cut proposal.
    I am just trying to highlight its narrow thinking.

    I was leaving countering idiocy with a rational argument to others.

  49. From an industry guilty of massive exploitation of workers:

    Call to freeze wages for low-paid

    EWIN HANNAN, BEN PACKHAM
    Restaurant and cafe owners want a minimum wage freeze, saying that the Fair Work Commission should ­impose a real wage cut. (Oz headline)

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