Another night before Christmas

Doubts the election is quite as imminent as all that, and a slightly dated poll result showing business as usual pre-budget.

Or maybe seven nights. According to Anthony Galloway of the Herald Sun, “speculation intensified yesterday about whether Mr Morrison will call the election tomorrow for May 11, or wait until the end of next week for a May 18 poll”. The latter would suit me better, if he’s reading. Liberal sources say the Prime Minister might be considering holding off “in the hope of a poll bounce after this week’s Budget”, which would be optimistic of him.

Also in the paper today is a rather unusual bit of opinion polling from YouGov Galaxy, which was conducted pre-budget – last Monday to Thursday, to be precise – from a large sample of 2224. The interesting bit is that Labor leads 53-47 on two-party preferred, discouraging the notion that the New South Wales election might have changed anything. However, the larger purpose of the exercise is to burrow down into voters’ perceptions of the party leaders, taken to include Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer as well as the usual suspects. I don’t find this stuff particularly interesting myself, but there’s a lot of detail in the report linked to above, if you can access it.

UPDATE: The poll appeared not to provide the usual forced response follow-up for the initially undecided on voting intention, thus includes an undistributed 8% “don’t know”. The remainder went Labor 34%, Coalition 33%, Greens 9%, One Nation 8%, United Australia Party 3% and Australian Conservatives 2%. Excluding the don’t know component, this becomes Labor 37%, Coalition 36%, Greens 10% and One Nation 9%.

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.

1,277 comments on “Another night before Christmas”

Comments Page 1 of 26
1 2 … 26

  1. Morrison knowing he needs to call the election but holding off. Hoping against hope for better news. So much for the Strong Plan. If we see film of a comcar stopped outside Yarralumla, having run out of petrol after circling for too long, we will know why.

  2. Hartcher

    The Labor leader is driving home his advantage as the man representing the future. This is a good trick for a former trade union leader and party apparatchik; only the Coalition’s backwardness has made it possible for him to seem effortlessly forward-looking.

    Did the MSM take the same dismissive attitude to Bob Hawke, who rose from similar background?

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/morrison-has-had-one-miracle-and-now-he-needs-another-20190404-p51ayu.html?btis

  3. lizzie,
    David Littleproud can call for a boycott of the RSPCA all he likes because the people are on the side of the RSPCA. All the ladies at the RSPCA Op Shop I’m going to later this morning support Labor and if the people who come to the shop don’t overtly support Labor they sure as hell support the animals. We have people who hop on a train in Newcastle and come to Woy Woy just so they can donate their clothes and stuff to us(there is no other RSPCA Op Shop until you get to Sydney)!

    This is Class War! The Animal Lovers class against the Animal Exploiters class and I know who I’m going to put my money on winning this war!

  4. Morrison would be mad to hold off for another week. No Budget bounce. Nothing but campaigning. Chicken little message from Shorten. The punters know it’s only a matter of days . Stop pissing on us ScoMo and get it done. Now.
    I think he goes to see Cosgrove tomorrow morning. May 11.

  5. Murdoch has his people embedded in Scotty’s camp – saying 11 May is off the table, Scotty believes he can turn things around by going later, probably 25th May

  6. From the SmearStralian…

    “Coalition and Labor teams will move to a campaign footing this weekend, prompting speculation over when Mr Morrison will visit Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to call the election.

    The Weekend Australian ­understands two dates — May 18 and 25 — remain “live options” for the government.

    Mr Morrison kept voters guessing over election timing, telling radio 2GB he was going to church in Sydney on Sunday, but had no other commitments at this stage. Asked whether he might be in Canberra, he responded: “We’ll see.”

    Party machines are preparing for a seat-by-seat campaign, with Victoria and Queensland looming as the key states.

    Senior Victorian ALP sources said Labor would not defend any of its seats in the state, and would run “full field” campaigns in at least five Liberal seats: Dunkley, Corangamite, La Trobe, Chisholm and Deakin.

    In Queensland, Labor will ­defend Griffith, Herbert and Longman, but sees at least seven and up to nine seats as being in play. Labor will target Forde, ­Petrie, Dickson, Bonner, Capricornia, Flynn and Leichhardt with highly resourced grassroots campaigns. ALP sources said Dawson — where MP George Christensen has been largely absent due to ­regular overseas travels — and Brisbane could also be in play.

    If Mr Morrison delays the election announcement, he will allow more time to mail out party postal voting materials and deprive Labor of publicly funded election travel entitlements.

    A senior ALP source said the Labor campaign would start ­tomorrow regardless.

    “Morrison can delay it all he wants; nothing changes for us,” the source said. “We are starting the campaign right now. Our party is ready, the policy is ready, and Bill is ready.”

  10. From previous thread.

    “This is how they are. This is what they do. Young Libs just egged on by sitting members to be really awful bullies and harassers to candidates and supporters.”
    ***
    Liberal sources argue the Canberra press gallery is more conservative than Sydney’s media and less inclined to run dirt. Hawker says that is little comfort for Labor, though, when you consider the coverage from the Murdoch press. A veteran of the 2013 campaign, when the Murdoch empire turned entirely against Rudd, Hawker says “you’ve got to ask yourself how effective the Liberal Party, either in NSW or Canberra, would be if it didn’t have the willing collaboration of a large sector of News Corporation, every time they go into an election campaign”.

    Still, Phelps believes the Coalition is headed for defeat in May. He is unsure whether there is any new information that could shift voters.

    “Everything hasn’t been thrown at Shorten,” the Liberal operative says. “There’s more than enough on him already to run a savage attack campaign. The real problem is, is it going to move a single vote? My view is, there’s nothing you can do now which will move a single vote. I don’t know what [the federal party] can do to win the election. Shorten can lose the election by doing something completely off script or stupid, but he’s a machine and it’s unlikely. People have made up their minds about Shorten.”

    The Liberal Party dirt will not be directed exclusively at Shorten, however. One source indicates that, just as Michael Daley’s record on Randwick council came up during the NSW election, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen’s record on Fairfield council as councillor from 1995 to 2004, while Joe Tripodi was state member, will be scoured.

    Labor will be in a position to retaliate, though: there is fertile ground in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s own CV, including his controversial stint at Tourism Australia, as this newspaper has reported.

    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/04/06/inside-the-liberal-partys-dirt-unit/15544692007948

  13. Craig Wallace
    ‏ @CraigWtweets
    23h23 hours ago

    Yes I wonder where that whole lack of respect for disabled people comes from #RoyalCommission #auspol
    :large

  17. Zoidlord@7:23am
    Why ALP is not talking about NBN failures? Why didn’t Shorten say anything about NBN in budget reply? Baffling.

  20. The 20,000 subscribers of the SmearStralian must be positively frothing at the mouth, with today’s edition winding them up – Rupert is in town, and the shills on $350k a year masquerading as journalists have been given the riding instructions.

    A taste of the stories…

    ALP’s ‘tin of tuna’ tax cut
    Labor’s economics worries experts
    Take aim at Labor’s flaws
    ALP policy misses target

    The rest is mostly the usual Murdoch culture wars dross

  21. ScoMo’s tears are spread all over the media. Can a couple of sniffles compensate for all the harm his policies have done?

  23. ALP’s ‘tin of tuna’ tax cut

    And the Coalition aren’t even offering poor wage earners enough for a tin of dog food!

  24. I don’t think PMs crying generally has much effect or works all that well.

    Morrison must be under great strain. The bell is tolling.

  25. It looks like Rupert has slipped a few of grubby shillings David Crowe’s way – though the meme of Scotty bribing the citizens to an election win by carpet bombing marginals with taxpayers money promises assumes they have goldfish memories

  26. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    In a very readable contribution Peter Hartcher says the Coalition government spent the past three years shut away in a room in a non-stop branch meeting with its right wing. Now, with an election imminent, it has emerged blinking into the daylight in a last-minute rush to find Australia’s political centre.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/morrison-has-had-one-miracle-and-now-he-needs-another-20190404-p51ayu.html
    David Crowe tells us that the Morrison government has armed itself with a $5 billion war chest to fight the federal election so it can woo voters in a seat-by-seat battle to hold on to power. Stand by for plenty of pork!
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/government-arms-itself-with-5-billion-election-war-chest-as-campaign-looms-20190405-p51b8d.html
    And the AFR says that a $430b war chest, a result of Labor’s proposed tax increases and its decision not to adopt most of the Coalition’s income tax cuts, will enable it to promise both bigger surpluses and fund large election promises.
    https://www.outline.com/xXYYcu
    Laura Tingle writes that making promises so far down the track is one of the reasons why voters don’t listen to politicians anymore. And that applies to everything from budget surpluses to tax cuts to infrastructure projects. Shorten is promising things for the year ahead and for the next term. He’s promising a government that will do stuff. His biggest challenge will be overcoming the cynicism of voters who have been told for too long to look into the never-never.
    https://www.outline.com/x6d6WB
    Michelle Grattan writes that Bill Shorten has shown that having the last parliamentary word in budget week can be used to grab the mic from your opponent.
    https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-bill-shortens-tactical-play-foils-budgets-tax-pitch-114920
    Michael West tells us that it seems nobody has picked up the “fake cash splash” angle on Tuesday’s Budget, that is, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s trick of including last year’s tax relief to fatten this year’s numbers.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/shorten-to-frydenberg-ill-see-you-raise-you-and-raise-the-tax-free-threshold/
    Tony Wright says that in the dying days of last year’s cheerless parliamentary sessions, on December 4, Morrison’s Coalition senators were instructed to vote against a proposal for a royal commission into the abuse and neglect of the disabled and in the first week of Parliament this year, on February 14, they got exactly the same direction. So what happened?
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/off-to-an-election-with-a-royal-commission-that-s-above-politics-20190405-p51b7q.html
    The AFR goes inside Morrison’s plan to out-campaign Shorten.
    https://www.outline.com/rz5h6W
    Ross Gittins explores the motives of Frydenberg’s budget.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/budget-makes-frydenberg-unwitting-keynesian-stimulator-20190404-p51az2.html
    Peter van Onselen says Bill Shorten is set to bludgeon the government to political death with its own budget, which attempted to delicately appease swing-seat voters and the so-called Liberal Party base via the short-term matching of Labor’s tax and transfer plans and the long-term announcement of huge tax cuts for high-income earners.
    https://www.outline.com/yaKSvS
    Paul Kelly trues to pooh pooh Labor’s budget reply but comes up short.
    https://www.outline.com/5NCuxc
    David Crowe says Australians are about to witness an election campaign with an enormous policy gulf between the two major parties and huge scope for surprises and scares.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/election-surprises-will-emerge-from-341b-divide-20190405-p51b8k.html
    Judith Ireland looks at the sli prospects of a budget bounce.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/about-as-common-as-the-yeti-can-a-budget-bounce-save-the-coalition-20190404-p51b08.html
    Ebony Bennett says we shouldn’t be sucked in by Frydenberg’s tax cuts econobabble. She makes the telling point that the tax cuts package will bake both inequality and budget deficits into our tax system for future generations.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/don-t-be-sucked-in-by-frydenberg-s-tax-cuts-econobabble-20190405-p51b82.html
    Tim Soutphommasane writes about a certain madness in our politics. It’s a very good read.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-certain-madness-in-our-politics-20190404-p51ayt.html
    In an interesting essay Jack Waterford looks at how successive governments have treated the public service.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tearing-up-the-political-rulebook-20190405-p51b4a.html
    The SMH editorial points out that the debate about how to run an effective health system is as important as the tax debate which dominated budget week but it must not just be about emotions. Policy must be rigorous, evidence-based and driven by sound economics.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/hard-choices-are-needed-to-defend-the-public-health-safety-net-20190405-p51b9h.html
    A concerned Katharine Murphy says that we cannot have another pointless, rudderless, parliament like the one that has just limped to an end
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/06/parliament-has-been-enslaved-by-its-fetishes-and-its-time-to-end-the-downward-spiral
    In looking at the budget Paul Bongiorno says the climate and energy divide will spook the Morrison campaign much like the ghosts of leaders past, particularly Malcolm Turnbull. The government’s third treasurer in six years, Frydenberg doesn’t want to know about it. He says he’s looking to the future not the past.
    https://www.outline.com/jNv4BD
    Labor has warned the government against making any major decisions on the Adani coalmine before the election, while Scott Morrison and his environment minister Melissa Price face internal pressure from some Queensland MPs to take action.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/05/labor-warns-government-not-to-make-adani-coalmine-decisions-before-election
    The Saturday Paper goes inside the Liberal Party’s dirt unit.
    https://www.outline.com/zXnAr3
    Abbott has been playing footsie with a shady Chinese communist. It’s going to be a 4 Corners story on Monday night.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/abbott-s-re-election-backed-by-communist-linked-chinese-businessmen-20190404-p51arb.html
    Here comes Eryk Bagshaw with some figures on the two income tax policies. His choice of using average wage to make his point is a bit of a worry.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/average-full-time-workers-to-be-1000-a-year-worse-off-under-labor-20190405-p51b8h.html
    Factors such as wage stagnation and the automation of the manufacturing sector have given need for a raise in the Newstart allowance, writes Jemma Nott.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/why-raising-newstart-is-more-important-than-you-think,12542
    More accusers have come forward to finger Ray Hadley over workplace bullying.
    https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/ps-harangued-by-hadley-more-accusers-come-forward-20190402-p51a04.html
    Adele Ferguson writes that when AP Eagers lobbed a bid for Automotive Holdings Group (AHG) to create the biggest car dealership network in the country it raised speculation it would trigger more mergers and give it the muscle to push down car prices.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/car-dealer-group-made-itself-a-sitting-duck-20190405-p51bct.html
    Richard Ackland passionately writes that not since Derryn “The Human Headline” Hinch was sent down for 50 days in 2014 for contempt of court has there been such heightened anticipation in the Australian media, as it waits to learn the fate of 36 journalists and media organisations who are to face multiple charges brought by the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, QC.
    https://www.outline.com/J9TZrJ
    Doug Dingwall reports that Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo is the target of a campaign led by public sector union members pushing for an overhaul of the department’s leadership.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/home-affairs-boss-mike-pezzullo-the-target-of-no-confidence-petition-20190404-p51at1.html
    Karen Middleton reveals that Morrison’s pre-election budget has gifted $22 million to a small arts organisation in the country’s most marginal seat – Gilmore – where the Liberals hope Warren Mundine can hang on. By Karen Middleton.
    https://www.outline.com/qSjBHs
    Paula Matthewson says that in this election it wall all come down to trust.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/04/05/election-2019-it-all-depends-how-you-define-trust/
    Modelling for the Morrison government’s climate policy assumes electric vehicles will make up between 25% and 50% of new car sales by 2030, a similar figure to the target set by the Labor party, which the Coalition criticised this week.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/05/coalition-modelling-not-far-off-labors-electric-vehicle-target-despite-criticising-it
    Despite growing corruption evident within our Government, we’ve still yet to reach an effective solution, writes John Haly and Dr Martha Knox-Haly.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/government-corruption-and-the-need-for-a-federal-icac,12543
    Attorney-General Christian Porter’s intervention in a defence contract audit has attracted calls from a parliamentary inquiry for greater scrutiny of powers used to restrict the national auditor from reporting his investigations.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/inquiry-calls-for-more-scrutiny-after-defence-audit-report-redacted-20190404-p51ayj.html
    The Home Affairs department has all but confirmed to Labor it will not move ahead with the government’s controversial planned visa processing privatisation plan, giving Labor a chance to kill it if it wins the next election.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/05/coalitions-visa-privatisation-plan-believed-dead-at-least-until-after-election
    Popular products including porridge and pet food have been disappearing from shelves at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets following a price dispute with key suppliers.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2019/04/05/food-vanishing-woolworths-coles/
    Gary Younge says that white supremacy feeds on mainstream encouragement and this must stop.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/05/white-supremacy
    The Washington Post reports that a new political rift has opened over Mueller’s Russia report.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/immediate-displeasure-new-political-rift-opens-over-the-russia-report-20190406-p51bfn.html
    As a royal commission investigates the use of informants by Victoria Police, questions are being raised again about corruption in the force.
    https://www.outline.com/v8FaYt
    Mike Seccombe examines Labor’s climate change and EV plan.
    https://www.outline.com/qx7Ud7
    Elizabeth Farrelly writes about people’s obsession with wellbeing.
    https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/too-much-wellbeing-is-making-us-sick-20190404-p51aqn.html
    Ouch! An online electronics retailer has been fined a record $3.15 million after it failed to deliver mobile phones, cameras and other electronic goods to customers across Australia.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2019/04/05/phone-retailer-record-fine/
    Nomination for “Arsehole of the Week” goes to this clown, the operator of the Campbellfield warehouse that erupted into an industrial blaze in Melbourne’s north who has been linked to four other warehouses stockpiled with toxic chemical waste.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/campbellfield-toxic-fire-warehouse-operator-linked-to-four-other-chemical-stockpiles-20190405-p51bdd.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe and a disconsolate Theresa May.

    A nice one from David Pope!

    Matt Davison’s take on the budget.

    Andrew Dyson makes a good point about the latest fire in Melbourne.

    Mark David and a desperate Morrison.

    Alan Moir and the high flyers. Look at the cap.

    Peter Broelman goes to Yarralumla.

    Jim Pavlidis thinks Morrison is off aim.

    From Matt Golding.




    Sean Leahy at the starting line.

    Zanetti’s got a cracker for us today.

    Jon Kudelka and the MRIs.
    https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/8bca2069867cfd9ae85c52d57ddaf6dc?width=1024

    From the US




  27. Has ‘The Ratbag’ modus operandi jumped the shark? From the AFR..

    In October last year, News Corp surprised almost everyone (himself included) by parachuting The Australian’s editor in chief Paul “Boris” ** Whittaker into the leadership of Sky News. From a paper that sets the national agenda (just ask it) to a channel watched by a few thousand political tragics during the day, and far fewer than an electorate’s worth of partisans at night, the move seemed highly unusual, even if Boris has always harboured commercial, not just editorial, ambitions.

    And how’s he gone so far? OzTAM’s subscription television ratings that just dropped off the back of a truck suggest early results have been … mixed.

    In the six months before previous CEO Angelos Frangopoulos moved to Abu Dhabi and Whittaker replaced him, Sky News’ viewing figures were up every month on the same month a year before except in June. Ratings in August, when Malcolm Turnbull was decapitated in slow motion, were nothing short of spectacular.

    Whittaker started halfway through October. And the next month, the figures turned red. November’s audience figures were 7.1 per cent lower year-on-year, December’s 14.6 per cent weaker, January’s 6.3 per cent down, February 2.4 per cent in the red, and the month just gone, total average audience was just 1 per cent lower.

    ** Whittaker furiously makes his minions use the nickname Boris, when he is universally known as The Ratbag

  28. If the PM was crying at the RC launch, imagine how many tears he must have shed in Cabinet when funding for the NDIS was cut by several billion to inflate the promised surplus. Yet he was unable to stop it. Poor man.

  29. lizzie & ven
    Thanks for the replies.
    I don’t think there’s much political mileage in attacking the RSPCA but I suppose it depends on which part of the constituency you’re after.

  30. Thanks BK. Laura Tingle is correct in pointing out that politicians do not get much credit for promising stuff years away. Most of Labor promises are immediate but one is not. Funding has been promised for South Rd in Adelaide when there is still no final decision on what they will build. Nor have I ever seen a BCR published. I remain unconvinced it is anything more than a donation to large road contractors. The city would benefit more from using the money on oher things.

  31. A company breaking the law is not a failure of regulation. A company having its operations closed down is not a failure of regulation.

    It’s like saying the law against murder has failed because we still have murders.

  32. We, the tax payer, continue to pay for Liberal Party advertising

    I am led to believe Burnside has traction – whilst not supportive of the Green political party per Se, the environment in leafy eastern Melbourne is an issue hence the traction which sees the incumbent Liberal in real strife

    They are well heeled and value the leafy environment

    There is also the expectation that there will be a Labor government and a decimated Coalition hence a Green MP will be token including sending a message to the Coalition

    Many are being randomly approached to see if garden signs can be deployed – and up they are going including in exclusive Courts

    Backlash from neighbors?

    Not an issue which is the danger to the incumbent

    Neighbors are supportive – they live in leafy inner Melbourne so are “greenish”

    And so it extends to conversation at the exclusive school gates and chosen morning coffee shops after school drop off – and among the morning walking groups thru the bush land environment of the Yarra River

  33. Mexican authorities are warning thousands of bottles of fake Tequila about to be auctioned in Australia at bargain prices “may cause injury if consumed”.

    Key points:
    Reeba Reeba Tequila is among almost 500 lots to be auctioned on behalf of administrators
    Authorities say the brand is fake, as it is not produced in Mexico
    Other items to be auctioned include beer, wine, spirits and cars
    More than 550 cases — or 3,400 bottles — of counterfeit Reeba Reeba Tequila are set to go under the hammer next month, as part of a $4 million fire sale sparked by an ABC investigation.

    Expressions of interest for the online auction, run by Sydney-based firm Pickles, are already open — leaving Mexican diplomats Down Under seething.

    The fake tequila is one of almost 500 lots being offered after disgraced Australian alcohol manufacturer and wholesaler Fernbrew Pty Ltd collapsed in January.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-06/fake-tequila-auctioned-could-pose-risk-to-consumers/10973870

  35. My bring-back-Tony Award for March goes to Scomo for his crocodile tear performance yesterday morning announcing the Disability Royal Commission only because he was forced into by Coalition members threatening to cross the floor- fish bowl memory again.

    If he thinks the electorate are going to forget his mr shouty face arrogant lecturing image splashed across our screen for the last six years he has another thing coming – an election !! Not even he even can cry and lie and lecture his way out of that reality. Pathetic.

    —

  36. Zoomster

    If you are referencing the company who has been flouting
    the law re chemical storage etc. I agree.
    Although I would suggest that perhaps it is time to review the regulations to ensure compliance can be enforced more stringently.

  37. Another lobby group and political donations:

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/06/pharmacy-guild-of-australia-defends-making-15000-donation-to-one-nation

    Lobby group the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which represents community pharmacists, has defended making a $15,000 donation to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

    Payments of $7,500 were made to the political party by the guild’s Queensland branch in June and July. In March, the branch made a $1,450 donation to Katter’s Australian party. While the guild has also made donations to Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals, no donations have been made to the Queensland Greens.
    :::
    Associate professor Ken Harvey, a campaigner for accurate medical labelling and public health physician, said “the guild wishes to back any horse that might serve its self-interested agenda”.

    “I presume their strategy of donating to One Nation, along with Labor and the Coalition, is to ensure their patch continues to be protected by all, that competition from supermarkets will not eventuate and plans to allow patients greater quantities of medication each time they visited a chemist can be torpedoed yet again,” he said.

  38. And it should be noted Bernie Sanders has yet to do it as well. Funny that.

    The Daily Beast
    @thedailybeast
    Trump has assembled his new legal team to fight House Democrats’ demand for six-years worth of the president’s elusive tax returns

    Trump Hires Legal Team to Block Congress From Seeing His Tax Returns
    His new law firm argues the president has a right to keep his tax returns private.
    thedailybeast.com
    8:20 AM · Apr 6, 2019 · SocialFlow

  40. Barr’s stunt has backfired. And the obvious question is if Trump is so convinced he has been exonerated, why isn’t he personally hand delivering copies of Mueller’s report to every news outlet in the country?

    Of course Mueller was not going to reach a decision to indict or not; Justice Department regulations specifically prohibit indictment. Mueller wasn’t inviting Barr to make the call as far as we know, for why would he think Barr had any grounds to opine on an indictment when the Justice Department had taken indictment off the table? Barr’s personal exoneration was partisan showmanship in the extreme, a move that endeared him to his boss and the right wing, which both declared victory.

    The victory was temporary, however. Most or all of the report will make its way to Congress. Barr and/or Mueller will testify, and Mueller will describe how he compiled the report, why he prepared the summaries and why he did not render a judgment on indictment. Barr has spun away his credibility and will be accused (rightly) of overstepping his bounds, adopting a partisan tone and hiding critical information about Trump from the public.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/05/barrs-stunt-has-backfired/?utm_term=.7b254cd4b344

  41. Ecuador says they have no plans to evict Assange. Who is telling the truth

    Pete EVANS
    @911CORLEBRA777
    ·
    1h
    At a 1st glance, yes John, it appears Wikileaks is crying wolf again. They have however put one of Assange’s lawyer’s in a bind, as Greg Barn made these specific statements to the ABC here in Australia. Making your lawyer look like a dickhead, not smart really

    @thespybrief
    Quote Tweet

    Pete EVANS
    @911CORLEBRA777
    · 3h
    Wikileaks & JAss if they have lied about expulsion from the Embassy, lied to one of their lawyers as well, informing Barn

  42. Thanks BK for today’s wrap. I enjoyed this read from PvO.

    Bill Shorten is set to bludgeon the government to political death with its own budget, which attempted to delicately appease swing-seat voters and the so-called Liberal Party base via the short-term matching of Labor’s tax and transfer plans and the long-term announcement of huge tax cuts for high-income earners.

    In response, the Opposition Leader will draw on the fairness mantra. He also will use the billions of extra dollars in revenue Labor’s alternative tax plan provides to pledge larger surpluses than those contained in Tuesday night’s budget forecasts. It may look like a magic pudding to boffins focused on balancing the books, but to marginal-seat voters the offering will taste good.

    https://outline.com/yaKSvS

    He also says Labor’s budget is infinitely more sellable than the govt’s tired story – we’ve all heard it before.

  44. Morrison being prepared to put his people through another week of estimates?

    It still makes sense that he calls it today or tomorrow. Which, with this lot, makes me immediately question whether they’ll do it.

  45. Lol

    Tea Pain
    @TeaPainUSA
    Congress: “We want to see your taxes.”
    Trump: “No! I’m a regular citizen!”

    Congress “You should be indicted.”
    Trump: “No! I’m the President!”

  46. Tim Soutphommasane:

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-certain-madness-in-our-politics-20190404-p51ayt.html

    There is a certain irony in this. Those on the Australian right are obsessed with attacking leftist identity politics. They castigate the left for supposedly succumbing to divisions based on identity, and for failing to provide a vision for the common good. There’s nothing that gets the conservative blood pumping like polemics directed at “cultural Marxism”, “virtue signalling” and the “victimhood” of minorities.

    Yet it’s little more than projection. It is conservatives who are the most egregious practitioners of identity politics.
    :::
    Ultimately, though, Australian democracy has some fundamental questions to ask itself. Is what we’re seeing a sign of the exhaustion of representative democracy as we’ve known it?

    It’s a problem that our major political parties are no longer representative of the community. Politics has become the pursuit of professional apparatchiks who know little except partisan combat. We need more citizen-politicians: those who enter politics for a public purpose rather than the spoils of public office, and who are armed with a worldview rather than a set of talking points. Sadly, in the major parties, such politicians are rare.

    All this will have to change if Australian democracy is to be a subject of pride, rather than of despair. Then again, perhaps we just get the governments and the democracy we deserve.

  47. J341983

    I guess it depends on whether they are prepared to benefit from taxpayer funded advertisements by copping another week of estimates

  48. Victoria;
    There is a background to his expulsion that is lost on many, and not covered by mainstream news, Julian and Ecuador government had good relations under the previous government, but the new President of Ecuador, Marino, was pressured over an IMF loan, the US veto’ed it unless Ecuador agreed to hand over Assange, and also drop a lawsuit over environmental damage by a US oil company.

    In the last month, there has been a leak (INA Papers) involving Marino, he says Julian or Wikileaks was involved somehow, and thats why its legal to expel him (Its difficult to expel Julian becuase of Ecuador’s constitution and international laws and conventions).
    Its very difficult to see how Julian could be involved considering he has very limited communications with the outside world, and its all monitored. Another report says someone physically broke in a stole some computers in Ecuador.

    The president of Ecuador is said to be close to losing power, and speculation he might seek asylum himself in Spain, it could be that this move to expel Assange was mostly about domestic Ecuadorian politics.

    It will be a very big deal if it happens, wars have been started over less.

  49. bug1

    What is Assange worried about. Considering the Swedes are not interested in him anymore. And Trump loves Assange and Wikileaks. He said so himself.

    All the UK can get him on is for skipping bail. He has been in voluntarily confinement for seven years. A prison cell would certainly be no less comfortable and it still won’t cost him anything. Of course, he would not have unlimited access to the internet. That could be his bugbear. Poor dear

  50. Good morning all

    Is anyone running a book on when the PM will call the election.

    I can’t see it this weekend but definitely later next week.

    Victorians are in school holidays so not on many people’s radar.

    The smell and detritus from yesterday’s fire in Campbellfield still lingers in Gisborne which is NORTH of the area.

    My washing had fine soot particles on them and smelt awful.

    Apparently CFA units were called to assist as far away as Kyneton which is 70km away.

Comments Page 1 of 26
1 2 … 26

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *