BludgerTrack: 52.9-47.1 to Labor

Movement to the Coalition on the BludgerTrack poll aggregate, after a better-than-usual result in the only new federal poll for the week.

With Newspoll holding its fire over the weekend of the New South Wales state election, the only new federal poll of the week came from Essential Research, which produced a relatively strong result for the Coalition. The BludgerTrack aggregate accordingly moves slightly in their favour, with Labor’s lead down from 53.3-46.7 to 52.9-47.1. This translates into a gain for the Coalition of two on the seat projection, with New South Wales and Victoria providing one apiece.

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.

1,589 comments on “BludgerTrack: 52.9-47.1 to Labor”

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  1. Carry over from the previous thread…

    Andy Murray, thanks. I’ve been following complex systems but haven’t jumped in. As you say, Goedel bites, but so does the world. We’re embedded. And that’s why it works. And only Goedel cares. 😉 (Smart arse way of saying that unless you allow the AI to manipulate the world it will not become aware.)

    EGT: I’ve changed my mind on counterfactual thinking, I think it extends the sub-processes within the layers as a means of choosing an action, which then feeds back to learning. Intelligence is a measure of the ability to remember and accurately hypothesise, but it occurs across levels. For instance counterfactuals apply to learning to swim (level 2) as they do to playing chess (level 5).

  2. LR,

    Hofstadter argued that somewhere within Goedel’s Theorem could be discovered the essence of AI with genuine creativity. Its an idea that has stuck with me ever since I read Goedel, Escher, Bach back in the 80s. Put another way, the essence of intelligence and awareness is having a system complex enough to be self-referential at some level – just as number theory can be self-referential.

  3. Hey LR,

    Intelligence is a measure of the ability to remember and accurately hypothesise

    This is where transfer learning kicks in. The biggest barrier to AI effectively transferring domain-specific knowledge to new domains is the ability to automatically generate abstract models of new situations that are congruent with existing abstractions that the AI already knows about.

    The process of abstraction itself tends towards over-fitting or over-training, but its hard to know in advance where the óver-fitting has occurred, or what features of the training set are the ones that will arise in new contexts. This is obvious from a philosophical point of view, but even in simple transfer learning tasks it’s proving to be quite a barrier.

    I’ll give you two examples. I did some work trying to do opponent modelling in repeated games, using reinforcement learning and game theory. Our approach was come up with ideal types, generate optimal equilibrium policies to counter those types, and then choose between policies at the execution phase by identifying how close the actual play of our opponents was to the ideals we’d generated offline. It was pretty effective in a simple type of game, and kick-ares against human players (computer science PhDs the lot of them). But, as soon as the game itself got too complicated, the use of ideal types went out the window and we came unstuck. People have tried the same thing in automated poker tournaments, but slight differences in the way the complex probabilities are reasoned over wrt bluffing makes it really really hard to be effective against a range of players- so the same story.

  4. https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-plunging-wind-solar-storage-costs-stun-fossil-fuel-industry-60383/

    This week the federal Coalition government decided to dump 90 per cent of the coal projects that had been submitted to its big underwriting program, and chose instead a shortlist dominated by renewables backed by battery storage and pumped hydro, and some gas and just one coal upgrade.

    The choice may have been driven more by politics than economics, given the project developers were asked for only a broad outline of their proposal and there is an election just a few weeks away.

    But when the final detailed tenders come in later this year – assuming the program survives the upcoming election campaign – the economic case for favouring renewables and storage projects should be crystal clear, if the latest numbers from global analysts BloombergNEF are anything to go by.

    The middle column is also interesting.

    These costs reflect the combined system, wind or solar plus the battery, and include capex, and operating and maintenance costs for the power generating asset (ie solar or wind) and the battery.

    The range in estimated costs for wind and solar plus storage reflects the number of hours of storage.

    Solar/wind with storage is now as cheap or cheaper than closed cycle gas turbine plants.

    cue mindless rant from P1.

  5. Cud Chewer @ #2 Friday, March 29th, 2019 – 11:48 pm

    LR,

    Hofstadter argued that somewhere within Goedel’s Theorem could be discovered the essence of AI with genuine creativity. Its an idea that has stuck with me ever since I read Goedel, Escher, Bach back in the 80s. Put another way, the essence of intelligence and awareness is having a system complex enough to be self-referential at some level – just as number theory can be self-referential.

    GEB was a seed for me too. Then I realized a dozen years ago that model building is how we interpret the world, and then that this must be never-ending and constantly truthed against the ‘real world’ so as not to stray. And the best way to truth is to manipulate the world and observe its responses. (As a philosophy you and up with Science.) But testing the world is as easy as moving your head, or touching a chair. The feedback confirms your world-model. Self-referencing is “merely” a powerful technique to add sophistication. It may be necessary, but I’m not convinced it is sufficient.

    Sorry, rambling now.

  6. Andy Murray, I’m going to call it a night, but the example of your AI failing at complex games makes me wonder if your AI needs additional layers of complexity above the complexity of the game itself. As humans do easily, your AI needs to understand human behaviour in order to play games that involve complex human behaviours, like poker. An idle thought. Thanks for the discussion. 🙂

  7. Brexit deal goes down for the third time.

    Now if there was ever an incompetent parliament, the current UK one is it.

  8. Lord Haw Haw of Arabia

    Ironic to see there has been a long discussion here about artificial intelligence (which I will have to catch up on), when the distinct lack of intelligence on show in the UK is putting the livelihoods of so many people at risk.

    Theresa May will surely resign before this April 12th deadline – I wonder whether she will call a general election before she does that?

    Not that an election will solve the problem anyway.

  9. Peter Hartcher often writes rot, but the End Game series has been a truly fascinating read: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-the-liberals-got-stuck-in-a-long-demented-cycle-of-vengeance-20190326-p517sz.html

    I’m reminded of that article in the Saturday Paper only a couple of weeks after the spill claiming Morrison orchestrated the entire thing. Nothing in the MSM at the time, but it’s nice to have a complete account of the details now. Can’t wait for The Killing Season Parts 4-6!

  10. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    In truth bomb number 5 Peter Hartcher writes about how the Liberals got stuck in a long, demented cycle of vengeance. He chronicles the end days of the Turnbull government. Another very good read.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-the-liberals-got-stuck-in-a-long-demented-cycle-of-vengeance-20190326-p517sz.html
    Nick Miller tells us that Theresa May’s Brexit plan has just been voted down again, in what could be the final blow to both her premiership and her strategy for taking the UK out of the European Union.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/uk-parliament-rejects-theresa-may-s-brexit-plan-for-the-third-time-20190330-p5194s.html
    Jonathan Freedland explains how this debacle is the work of hard Brexiters.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/29/brexit-betrayal-myth-hardcore-brexiters
    Peter Hartcher has penned a long essay on the political malaise of the last decade.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/weasels-win-from-cycle-of-vengeance-20190329-p5192b.html
    Ross Gittins explains how Australia’s rapid population growth – plus the ups and downs of the resources boom – is masking the economy’s problems.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/high-immigration-is-hiding-the-economy-s-long-running-weakness-20190329-p518vg.html
    Jack Waterford laments what has been happening to the public service as he suggests they are doomed to be handmaidens to dumber policy, more cronyism, less probity and more waste.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/can-thodey-or-shorten-stop-bleeding-in-the-public-service-20190329-p518sq.html
    Crispin Hull doesn’t see and end to factional warfare, leadership squabbles, appeasing donors, cobbling together a suite of policies that might gain the support of half the population, media stunts, name-calling, blame-gaming and attracting idealists, populists, pragmatists, the self-serving and the servers of the public. He looks at the reasons for voters fleeing the major parties.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voters-aren-t-coming-to-the-party-because-they-re-in-it-for-themselves-20190328-p518dm.html
    Shane Wright reports that multi-property owning landlords has been growing as negative gearing wanes.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/multi-property-owning-landlords-grow-as-negative-gearing-wanes-20190329-p518xx.html
    Katharine Murphy says that the PM’s too busy keeping his paper-thin party truce from shredding to worry about the budget.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/30/what-budget-pms-too-busy-keeping-his-paper-thin-party-truce-from-shredding
    Paul Bongiorno writes, “The budget will be Scott Morrison’s attempt to buy his way back to the Treasury benches. But many of his troops believe it is too late. One MP who is battling hard to hold his marginal seat says, “Nothing can save us now.” Not even massive tax cuts, which are sure to be the budget’s centrepiece, nor the promise to build roads, bridges and rail in every marginal seat in the country.”
    https://www.outline.com/PywRL3
    Paul Kelly goes down the track of equating One Nation with the Greens.
    https://www.outline.com/NZm95F
    Peter van Onselen declares that it’s time to sort out the Right.
    https://www.outline.com/6fspcp
    Laura Tingle says that the door is still open for the drunken dreams of One Nation.
    https://www.outline.com/WjZVay
    Max Kozlowski writes that as voters wait in the bush with baseball bats, the Nationals face a new kind of threat: competition.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/as-voters-wait-in-the-bush-with-baseball-bats-the-nationals-face-a-new-kind-of-threat-competition-20190328-p518oy.html
    In an ominous sign for Coalition discipline ahead of the election campaign Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says the Nats are ready to put affluent noses out of joint.
    https://www.outline.com/hPZTER
    The AFR is telling us that Malcolm Turnbull says Coalition MPs who voted to topple his government are trying to justify their actions.
    https://www.outline.com/CfyF8u
    The AFR says that Labor’s tax crackdown on real estate and franking credits for mum and dad investors and self-managed super will push billions of dollars into big industry and retail super funds.
    https://www.outline.com/bE5cKk
    Margot Kingston tells us why the cult of Pauline won’t be enough for One Nation this time.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/why-the-cult-of-pauline-won-t-be-enough-for-one-nation-this-time-20190329-p518vs.html
    The al-Jazeera journalist behind a secretly-filmed documentary exposing One Nation figures discussing tactics to weaken Australia’s firearms laws has defended the project, saying senior party official James Ashby wanted to meet with the National Rifle Association and wasn’t lured there unwillingly.
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/mar/29/one-nations-ashby-welcomed-nra-meeting-id-like-to-meet-them-theyre-powerful
    Karen Middleton goes into how authenticity will decide the election.
    https://www.outline.com/g8E5Lm
    According to Simon Benson Australia’s national security will be greatly upgraded through an unparalleled $570 million funding boost for counter-terrorism and anti-espionage operations, in a budget framed around keeping the economy and the country safe and strong.
    https://www.outline.com/JHYzNE
    Simon Cowan examines the importance of this year’s budget.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/does-the-budget-matter-it-depends-on-who-s-asking-20190328-p518jd.html
    And Dennis Shanahan warns us about a profligate budget.
    https://www.outline.com/NLcZqt
    Economists are expecting measures to shore up the Australian economy at next week’s budget but are divided on what to expect.
    https://www.outline.com/9JbN8r
    How high immigration is hiding the economy’s long-running weakness.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/high-immigration-is-hiding-the-economy-s-long-running-weakness-20190329-p518vg.html
    Eryk Bagshaw reports that a firm given the $14 million job of upgrading critical security at Parliament House in Canberra is in disarray with allegations of cocaine use, a sideline in an Uber-style app for escorts, debts to Russian friends and the intervention of a Morrison government minister. Oh dear!
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cocaine-escorts-and-unpaid-workers-parliament-s-security-embarrassment-20190325-p517h0.html
    Mark Diesendorf writes that the government’s electricity shortlist rightly features pumped hydro (and wrongly includes coal).
    https://theconversation.com/the-governments-electricity-shortlist-rightly-features-pumped-hydro-and-wrongly-includes-coal-114503
    One of the policemen who registered Nicola Gobbo as an informer may have had “intimate relations” with her, the public inquiry has been told.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/nicola-gobbo-may-have-had-intimate-relations-with-police-handler-20190329-p51922.html
    The SMH editorial says that it’s time to force social media to take responsibility.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/time-to-force-social-media-to-take-responsibility-20190329-p518zf.html
    The ACCC has renewed calls to scrap rooftop solar subsidies by 2021, putting it at odds with both sides of the federal government.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/accc-calls-for-an-end-to-rooftop-solar-subsidies-20190329-p518xt.html
    Mike Seccombe says that of all the many ways the federal government has tried to suppress criticism of its policies from charitable organisations, its latest may be the most audacious. Now it is trying to stifle them by using Australia’s constitution as a gag.
    https://www.outline.com/2jYfuh
    The NRA has been keeping people living in fear through the media in order to keep selling guns and promoting violence, writes Kerry Cue.
    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-nra-fear-hatred-and-how-to-sell-guns,12520
    Mark Latham’s success in the NSW election buoyed One Nation, but the exposé of its bid for donations from the US National Rifle Association may have shot the party in the foot in the run-up to the federal poll, says The Saturday Paper’s Damien Murphy.
    https://www.outline.com/bbU6vE
    Jim Bright argues that everyone has a responsibility to call out racism in the workplace.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/we-all-have-a-part-to-play-in-stamping-out-racism-at-work-20190326-p517n5.html
    Now Burston has threatened to sue Pauline Hanson for defamation reports Joanne McCarthy.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senator-brian-burston-threatens-to-sue-pauline-hanson-for-defamation-20190329-p5193a.html
    Elizabeth Farrelly explains why, after the biggest boom in Sydney’s history, everything new looks cheap, mean and prematurely aged.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/five-ways-sydney-is-determined-to-self-sabotage-20190328-p518hy.html
    In this contribution Barry Jones laments the demise of decent political debate and the skills underlying it.
    https://www.outline.com/ZKDqhJ
    The ACCC has laid into the practice of dodgy electricity retail discounting.
    https://www.outline.com/j3LLYe
    APRA has disclosed that Suncorp rejects more than 30 per cent of superannuation members’ total and disability insurance claims, while CommInsure accepts only one in four accidental death or injury claims.
    https://www.outline.com/y59JUH
    The ban on Huawei products is a result of the power war between China and the USA, while the rest of us are the direct losers, writes Paul Budde.
    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/looking-at-the-broader-huawei-issue,12519
    Elizabeth Knight says Aussie retailers are fighting the Amazon Armageddon – and winning.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/aussie-retailers-are-fighting-the-amazon-armageddon-and-winning-20190329-p518z3.html
    Clementine Ford writes that as the Me Too movement continues its march, an Australian Education Union survey reveals that teachers face extreme levels of sexual harassment in the workplace, often by students.
    https://www.outline.com/9x7CRC
    Paula Matthewson writes that it was One Nation’s turn this week to learn how political fortunes can change in the blink of an eye, leaving little chance to recover. And for the PM, Scott Morrison, to find a silver lining in the most unlikely of places.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/03/29/one-nations-live-fire-lunacy-wounds-the-coalition/
    A columnist for The Australian newspaper wrote a nasty article this week denigrating New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern after many days of global media praise Alan Austin reports.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/blunders-again-murdoch-media-gets-attack-on-new-zealand-pm-jacinta-ardern-wrong/
    The Parrot has thumbed its beak at ACMA and escapes penalty once again. ACMA’s role is now under scrutiny.
    https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/toothless-acma-s-powers-under-spotlight-after-alan-jones-decision-20190329-p518yk.html
    Pope Francis enacted new legislation to protect children from sexual abuse within the Vatican and other Holy See institutions in Rome as well as by its diplomatic corps worldwide.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2019/03/30/pope-francis-targets-sex-abuse-on-his-vatican-doorstep/
    Eddie McGuire gets a nomination here for “Arsehole of the Week”.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/afl/it-can-t-be-that-hard-can-it-eddie-mcguire-mocks-plane-crash-survivor-cynthia-banham-s-coin-toss-20190329-p5194g.html

    Cartoon Corner

    A couple from David Rowe.


    David Pope on the plight of Kurdish women.

    And he gives Hanson a serve over her Port Arthur comments.

    John Shakespeare and the Liberal killing filed.

    from Matt Golding.


    Alan Moir with Morrison’s own tick problem

    Mark David also involves a tick.

    And Peter Broelman also gets in on the act.

    Jon Kudelka outfits Pauline.

    Zanetti has Hanson up against the wall.

    Sean Leahy has located Pauline’s little blue book.

    Glen Le Lievre defends bats.

    Another good one from Le Lievre!

    Joe Benke on Frydenberg’s budget.

    From the US




  13. Sue Dunlevy
    ‏ @Sue_Dunlevy
    16h16 hours ago

    GPs join AMA in outrage over chemists denying patients a $240 a year saving on their medicine bills.
    :large

  15. Does this graph say that Renewable Energy sources aren’t quite cheap enough yet to fit into the cheap bulk despatchable category?

  19. ‘The significant thing, though, is the trend. Non-major party winners nearly always get re-elected…’

    Except Windsor and Oakeshott didn’t.

    Of course, they didn’t stand. But they didn’t stand because they knew they weren’t going to be re elected.

    The indies who supported Bracks – and reaped a massive amount of publicity and praise for doing so – were all (ultimately) defeated.

    And no indie has been followed by an indie, which suggests that the reason they were elected weren’t because of profound disillusionment with the majors but something more personal – either their own personal profile or the unpopularity of their opponent.

    ‘..But there will be no going back. It would not matter what the major parties did or how well-behaved they became, the days of a 90 per cent monopoly are over and they may as well start learning a more consensus approach with the minor parties. And vice-versa. Because minor parties and independents will have to get results for the growing number of “I want now” voters.’

    So what happens if the minors and indies don’t get results?

    Before the last election, minors and indies were important in Victorian politics. Now they’re not. So there’s no need to consult with them, so they have no negotiating power. Which means that, like the three Bracks indies before them, their ability to deliver will see a whittling away of their vote.

    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/voters-aren-t-coming-to-the-party-because-they-re-in-it-for-themselves-20190328-p518dm.html

    The article also ignores that indies are only being elected (federally, at least) at the cost of one side of politics. If this trend continues, it will be the Coalition which is unable to form government in the future without negotiating with indies. Which could lead, very naturally, to the formation of a new centrist party.

    If that happened (and if Hull is allowed to speculate so am I!) this would eat into possible indie victories in two ways – firstly, a new centrist party would make their existence less necessary and secondly, there would be more distrust of them (McGowan could only get elected by assuring voters she would not do deals to form government with either major, suggesting that going the Windsor/Oakeshott route was a deal breaker).

  20. Crispin Hull does say something that resonates with my experience though:

    It is summed up in the phrase: “I want this more than anything.”

    And the “this” is definitely not “a competent government that acts only in the overall interest of everyone”.

    Rather it is: “I want action on climate change”; “I want miners off my farm”; “I want my river to flow”; “I want a new tunnel so I can get to work quicker”; “I want a school or hospital”; “I want and end to Muslim immigration”; “I want to end racism” and so on.

    And they voted this way in NSW more than ever before. Not only for parties but for or against individuals in parties according to how voters related to that individual in the self-centered universe that no longer cares much about anyone else or the broader picture.

    As my mother used to say to me All. The. Time. ‘Do you want it or do you need it? If you just want it is that a good enough reason for getting it?’

    This could be the solution to the Minors. Do we, in general, and the people who vote for them in particular, really want their narrow cast view of the world in our politics, or do we need a party of government prepared to govern for the majority of needs? But co-operate with special interests when it is good for the nation to do so?

  21. Roman Quaedvlieg @quaedvliegs
    10h10 hours ago

    For the record, I’ve just read the ‘blue book’ because I like to comment in a qualified manner.

    It is one of the most unadulterated pieces of twaddle I’ve ever read. It is replete with pseudo-scientific claptrap, written by someone who has not had any operational experience.

  23. simon holmes à court @simonahac

    this mail-out from @JoshFrydenberg — at taxpayer expense! — is full of misleading statements, intentionally deceptive charts and outright lies.

    Remember, folks, this is your Treasurer speaking!!

  25. C@

    It’s actually a flaw in Hull’s argument, because very few indies win off the back of one issue, so I’m not sure that that holds true.

    Most indies seem to win because of dissatisfaction with the local member. This also seems to be why they don’t get followed by another indie, and the seat goes back to whoever held it originally – the person they’re dissatisfied with has gone, and so voters have no trouble going back to the major party they used to vote for.

    Interestingly, indies who do get elected on the back of one issue – Xenophon being the shining example – don’t even have to deliver on that issue to be re elected.

  27. Under our system, any new third force that aims to gain a significant presence in Parliament at the expense of the majors would need to establish a strong, geographically concentrated base. 15% or even 20% support across the nation won’t do it. The Country Party / Nationals established such a base at the outset and have managed to keep much of it. One Nation briefly pulled it off in Queensland.

  29. I just read the Frydenburg climate mailout, and literally spat my cornflakes across the room after the first sentence.
    Never had that reaction to anything in my life!

  30. When you borrow to buy a house there are two considerations the lender takes to account

    One is the deposit you have and therefore the amount of the loan (including covering purchase costs)

    This establishes the Loan to Valuation as acceptable to the lender

    The other is your ability to service the loan being applied for from your income and your future income prospects

    The fact you have saved a deposit lends confidence

    The fact that you are in secure employment lends confidence as to the future ability to service (including when interest rates increase so a contingent margin)

    Lending is over 25 to 30 years

    In the first instance, when approaching a lender the prospective borrower has to have the confidence in their ability to service over the term of the loan

    Which brings us to the reason house prices are stalling

    The economy and the delivery of the economy to wages, security of wages and wages growth

    The reason house prices are under pressure is the stalling economy, an economy which is under duress and has been for the last 5 years since austerity leads to confidence has been the agenda of government

    The feed into house prices is that they have been stalling for the period of time they have already been stalling over

    For every seller there is a willing buyer

    The economic malaise of the Nation, over the past 5 years is delivering the outcomes

    Pressure on retail sales

    Failure of media companies

    Falling house prices

    The carry on re any impact of restricting borrowing by property speculators is a side show and a deflection – pure and simple

    House prices are a factor of the economy and the delivery of the performance of the economy

    Strength begets strength

    Weakness begets weakness

  31. Greg Jericho
    ‏Verified account @GrogsGamut

    Of the 68 millionaires in 2016-17 who paid ZERO tax, 37 got franking credits worth an avge of $209,837

  32. Sara @_sara_jade_
    12h12 hours ago

    Scott Morrison “ This is a shocking terrorist event which will touch each of us differently. It impacts on me as a father but Jenny was talking to mothers today…“ What’s wrong with him smirking while making this statement at the memorial does he enjoy people’s pain ? #auspol

  33. Thanks BK, great work as usual and it leads me to wonder if we will ever rid ourselves of arseholes like Eddie McGuire.

  34. The Saturday Paper article (thanks for the link, BK) about (mostly female) teacher harassment in our schools is very worrying.
    Classic responses by employers, and their appointees (the Principal, DPs and others), such as victim blaming, are used to justify inaction.
    But schools have unique problems, too.
    Because they are children, and the law says they must attend school, it can be difficult, and time consuming, to suspend the students.

    Worse, fee-paying parents have far too much power, and are often used to getting their own way. A suspension for sexual harassment would be a serious blot on the child’s record, and parents will fight hard to prevent it.
    Legal battles, with more victim blaming, can occur. The school is just not equipped to handle it.

    Many female teachers who reported sexual harassment to their respective employers were told they needed to dress differently to temper male hormones and, in some cases, to even consider this attention a compliment. Others were told the behaviour wasn’t a problem, rather it was just the student’s personality – more than one respondent who reported abusive behaviour was dismissed with the excuse, “He doesn’t respect female teachers.”

    Even when administrative bodies did take teachers’ complaints seriously, it wasn’t always guaranteed the parents would agree. A male teacher once told me that a Year 10 student in the Catholic school in which he taught had, with the support of his parents, refused to apologise to a young teacher against whom he had made a rape threat. His parents had argued, “Boys will be boys, and there are bigger things to worry about.” In private schools in particular, paying high fees appears to give parents great sway over disciplinary actions.

    Reading the entire article makes it clear many of the worst problems exist in so-called ‘private’ schools. This is one of the best arguments for the state to cease funding non-Gov’t schools. The state could then offer to pick up each school and fully fund it as a state school, if parents are unable to do so.

    https://www.outline.com/9x7CRC

  37. Medical practitioners dominated the highest earning occupations, with surgeons posting the biggest average incomes with a national average taxable income of $394,866.

    Anaesthetists filled the second spot with an average income of $367,343, and internal medicine specialists came in third with an average income of $299,378.

    Financial dealers took fourth place with an average income of $261,008, while psychiatrists took fifth place with an average income of $216,075.

    …
    The lowest-earning professions were dominated by hospitality, with farm work and cleaning also featuring.

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2019/03/29/australias-richest-and-poorest-suburbs/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Saturday%20News%20-%2020190330

  38. Joshua Badge
    ‏ @joshuabadge
    3m3 minutes ago

    The ludicrous equivalence between One Nation and the Greens has reached fever pitch at the Oz. Can’t count all the non sequiturs and nested assumptions here

  40. CPSU
    ‏ @CPSUnion
    24h24 hours ago

    The Coalition govt are hand feeding public sector contracts worth millions of $$ to multinational tax dodging consultancy firms. We are paying someone else for something that is usually less reliable, less accountable, less transparent, but costs us more!
    https://www.afr.com/business/accounting/how-deloitte-ey-kpmg-and-pwc-partners-minimise-their-tax-bill-20190327-p51875

    Josh Butler
    ‏Verified account @JoshButler
    3m3 minutes ago

    I never thought a story about construction would be so fascinating

    “He also started pitching to business colleagues a local version of an Uber-style service “Boober”, which would market itself at drivers and sex workers, associates said.”
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cocaine-escorts-and-unpaid-workers-parliament-s-security-embarrassment-20190325-p517h0.html

  42. And in the UK:

    Channel 4 News
    ‏Verified account @Channel4News
    7h7 hours ago

    “If the chair of our party can’t follow Labour Party policy, where are we?”

    Jess Phillips says Labour frontbenchers who defied the whip over a second Brexit referendum should resign.

    We are live on YouTube with analysis from @krishgm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPlrTXEg1qM …

    #GroundhogMay

  43. “The ludicrous equivalence between One Nation and the Greens has reached fever pitch at the Oz. Can’t count all the non sequiturs and nested assumptions here”

    At least they’re preaching to the converted. I can’t imagine anyone else paying for the drivel the Australian puts out now. A propaganda sheet pretending to be a quality newspaper.

  44. Zoidlord @ #35 Saturday, March 30th, 2019 – 9:25 am

    Geoff Derrick
    ‏ @geoffderrick
    22m22 minutes ago

    Wages stagnating. Almost 500k fewer private sector workers covered by enterprise agreements in last 3 yrs
    No wonder Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison govt tried to bury this report at 4.00pm on a Friday. #AustraliaNeedsAPayRise #ChangeTheRules #ChangeTheGovernment

    https://docs.jobs.gov.au/documents/trends-federal-enterprise-bargaining-report-december-2018 …

    —

    I was looking for the Friday afternoon chuck out the rubbish file and you found it. Thank you.

  45. On another issue, still dealing with arseholes though, does anyone think that Trump will really overplay his hand now that the Meuller investigation apparently ‘cleared’ him? Although I must admit that the investigation may have a lot of ‘Devil in the Detail’.

  46. Many months ago, at a suggestion (from Boerwar?) I offered guessing on the Brexit outcome. There was (and still is) huge uncertainty so I invented these plausible scenarios.

    (a) Hard Brexit – No Deal
    (b) Soft Brexit – Deal
    (c) Brexit Extension – Negotiations Continue
    (d) Brexit Extension – New Referendum
    (e) Revoke article 50 (withdrawn Brexit)
    (f) Something else
    (g) Don’t care

    which Britain would go for, sometime on or before 2019 March 29 11:00pm (UK time).

    That time is in just under 30 minutes. As we all know it currently looks like the can has been kicked down the road by 2 weeks until April 12 and Britain has been unable to decide. So my scenarios score a big fat fail. But in the spirit of the game here are the three guesses that got ‘closest to the pin’.

    **********************
    (f) Something else
    **********************

    In third place: KayJay

    Café au lait for two – with lunch at 1:00 P.M. — Curried Prawns and Rice.

    In second place: Victoria

    May resigns

    In first place: Frednk
    Frednk

    no bexit because Britain will come foul of the requirement that they must withdraw according to the states constitution. Or won’t happen; poms can no longer organize a pissup in a brewery

  47. Steve777 @ #43 Saturday, March 30th, 2019 – 9:35 am

    “The ludicrous equivalence between One Nation and the Greens has reached fever pitch at the Oz. Can’t count all the non sequiturs and nested assumptions here”

    At least they’re preaching to the converted. I can’t imagine anyone else paying for the drivel the Australian puts out now. A propaganda sheet pretending to be a quality newspaper.

    —
    I’m sure the 20,000 subscribers will find some comfort in knowing the regressives haven’t given up the fight just yet. Headline politics at it’s worst as you have often observed steve

  48. Trump has overplayed his hand repeatedly since becoming president. And there are still about a dozen current investigations into various aspects of Trumplandia, so there is a ways to go yet.

  50. Dog’s Breakfast @ #45 Saturday, March 30th, 2019 – 9:36 am

    On another issue, still dealing with arseholes though, does anyone think that Trump will really overplay his hand now that the Meuller investigation apparently ‘cleared’ him? Although I must admit that the investigation may have a lot of ‘Devil in the Detail’.

    —
    A legal eagle from the USA on Planet America last night said this was the first time ever a prosecutor had handed over the responsibility of making the final call on such an inquiry to the AG. Previously the prosecutor/investigator would make those conclusions and put recommendations to the AG for approval. There is something fishy about this Meuller investigation conclusion if you ask me.

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