The latest of Essential Research’s fortnightly polls, which continue to limit themselves to issue questions in the wake of the great pollster failure, focuses mostly on the Israel Folau controversy. Respondents registered high levels of recognition of the matter, with 22% saying they had been following it closely, 46% that they had “read or seen some news”, and another 17% saying they were at least “aware”.
Probing further, the poll records very strong support for what seem at first blush to be some rather illiberal propositions, including 64% agreement with the notion that people “should not be allowed to argue religious freedom to abuse others”. However, question wording would seem to be very important here, as other questions find an even split on whether Folau “has the right to voice his religious views, regardless of the hurt it could cause others” (34% agree, 36% disagree), and whether there should be “stronger laws to protect people who express their religious views in public” (38% agree, 38% disagree). Furthermore, 58% agreed that “employers should not have the right to dictate what their employees say outside work”, which would seem to encompass the Folau situation.
Respondents were also asked who would benefit and suffer from the federal government’s policies over the next three years, which, typically for a Coalition government, found large companies and corporations expected to do best (54% good, 11% bad). Other results were fairly evenly balanced, the most negative findings relating to the environment (26% good, 33% bad) and, funnily enough, “older Australians” (26% good, 38% bad). The economy came in at 33% good and 29% bad, and “Australia in general” at 36% good and 27% bad. The poll was conducted last Tuesday to Saturday from a sample of 1099.
Also of note:
• A referendum on indigenous recognition may be held before the next election, after Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt’s announcement on Wednesday that he would pursue a consensus option for a proposal to go before voters “during the current parliamentary term”. It is clear the government would not be willing to countenance anything that went further than recognition, contrary to the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s call for a “First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution” – a notion derided as a “third chamber of parliament” by critics, including Scott Morrison.
• A paper in the University of Western Australia Law Review keeps the Section 44 pot astir by suggesting 26 current members of federal parliament may fall foul by maintaining a “right of abode” in the United Kingdom – a status allowing “practically the same rights” as citizenship even where citizenship has been formally renounced. The status has only been available to British citizens since 1983, but is maintained by citizens of Commonwealth countries who held it before that time, which they could do through marriage or descent. This could potentially be interpreted as among “the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power”, as per the disqualifying clause in Section 44. Anyone concerned by this has until the end of the month to challenge an election result within the 40 day period that began with the return of the writs on June 21. Action beyond that point would require referral by the House of Representatives or the Senate, as appropriate.
Zoomster
Shapiro is what the New York Times described as the intellect of the right. I thought the two tweets spoke for themselves.
Oh and if you missed it in a BBC interview he called Andrew O Neill a leftist. O Neill the chairman of Spectator Magazine that employs Rowan Dean.
…and when I look into who Ben Shapiro is, I’m absolutely astounded. Why are you promoting someone who has described homosexuality as a sin?
zoomster says:
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 8:16 am
I know – I’ll tell her that I’ll only act as a member of the ALP in my own time, when I will be free to use twitter and facebook to criticise the National Party. She won’t have any problem with that, she’s into freedom of speech.
____________________
I am sure she will treat you better than Albo did!
C@t:
I read that earlier and wondered what possible reason Robert could have for maintaining two offices in two separate states.
No, guytaur, all I see is you running an ad for a right wing columnist.
zoomster
I’m so sorry to hear about your Shepherd. I thought she was only a puppy – or is that a second one?
‘fess,
The AGW Denialists are just a venal subset of the Religious Right. The same ones who are bellyaching incessantly about having their ‘Free Speech’ to be a bigot, curtailed. You know, if ‘God’ decides to do something about Climate Change he will provide another Ark. Until then, carry on regardless with business as usual. 😐
guytaur @ #531 Saturday, July 13th, 2019 – 7:37 am
I’d say it’s more a case of will be obsolete by 2030.
zoomster @ #552 Saturday, July 13th, 2019 – 6:39 am
And transgender people as being mentally ill.
Zoomster
That means you did not see the first tweet. Look at the title of his book after reading the first tweet.
Lars
Bridget doesn’t like interacting with normal people, so I doubt she’d have much to do with a mere electorate officer.
C@t:
Most of them are also bought and paid for by vested interests.
lizzie
I have a 9 year old – technically my son’s – and the other’s 18 months.
Confessions says: Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 8:42 am
zoomster @ #552 Saturday, July 13th, 2019 – 6:39 am
…and when I look into who Ben Shapiro is, I’m absolutely astounded. Why are you promoting someone who has described homosexuality as a sin?
And transgender people as being mentally ill.
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Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro on Thursday said he stands by his remarks asserting that U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe is receiving more endorsement deals because she is a “very outspoken lesbian”
zoomster says:
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 8:43 am
Lars
Bridget doesn’t like interacting with normal people, so I doubt she’d have much to do with a mere electorate officer.
___________________
I don’t think you should allow Albo’s snub of you to affect how you view other Federal politicians. There’s good and bad in every organisation.
zoomster
None of my (three) shepherds have ever lasted past 10 years, sadly.
Zoomster
I could have put in “What hypocrisy”. I just didn’t think I needed to.
Interesting reading back through these pages from last night re Falou.
The new political correctness. ……..i have right to say what i want.
Similar scenario with Falou and those believing their right to abuse Adam Goodes is more important than the impact. Falou and his supporters want the right to hate speech and do not want to be called out about its impact.
The current commentary is toxic……..watch the factions within the Coalition bring down the debate Aboriginal representation in the Constitution etc oh the irony
So in addition to being intolerant, he’s also an idiot.
This is the BBC interview Shapiro did if you really want to laugh at a so called intellect of the right and have a spare 17 minutes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6VixqvOcK8E
Much thanks BK for today’s dawn patrol.
Meanwhile Alex Acosta resigning is not good for Trump. Whether Trump really gets this is another matter. He is generally operating on a delusional level.
The chess pieces of this shit show are falling into place.
I maintain that even if a small part of this scandal makes it to the public, it will be a shock and awe, and will still surprise people
Trump’s new replacement Secretary of Labor just had his Russian ties exposed
President Trump has appointed a new Acting Secretary of Labor, Patrick Pizzella, to replace disgraced former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. But it turns out that Acting Secretary Pizzella could be the one man in the Labor Department with even more skeletons in his closet than Alex Acosta.
Pat Pizzella used to be a lobbyist with Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff for a Russian oil company whose million-dollar bribe to former House GOP Majority leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was exposed when his felony fraud conviction led to multiple Congressmen going to jail.
It seems like it would be difficult to find someone with a more sordid past than Alex Acosta, but somehow President Trump managed to find a way.
So much for hiring “the best people.”
https://washingtonpress.com/2019/07/12/trumps-new-replacement-secretary-of-labor-just-had-his-russian-ties-exposed/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/epstein-paid-suspected-co-conspirators-which-prosecutors-suggest-may-have-been-to-influence-them/2019/07/12/eebd5148-a4ed-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html?utm_term=.0d787d620bfa
Lars
There are actually very few politicians I’ve met who I don’t like, and very few who don’t understand basic protocols around campaigning. That’s exactly why Albo’s behaviour was so remarkable.
Yep, he didn’t drain the swamp. He swamped the drain!
guytaur
You obviously did, because I’ve read back, and I still don’t get your point.
All I see is you promoting a right wing commentator’s book.
…I shouldn’t buy into other posters’ terminology. I didn’t dislike Albo. I just thought he was rude.
Confessions says: Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:06 am
So much for hiring “the best people.”
Yep, he didn’t drain the swamp. He swamped the drain!
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zoomser, your claim that ‘I’m not obsessed with Albo’ is looking a bit shaky right now. Forgive him his rudeness. Would it help if the Opposition Leader dropped everything right now, made his way to Indi and sorted this out immediately? I have a feeling that fracture needs to be repaired before the ALP can really challenge again.
Zoomster
Sorry if you cannot see the opposite statements then I can’t help you.
nath
I’m merely responding to other posters. They’re obsessed with my critique of Albo, which is not my fault but theirs. If people don’t want me to talk about my issues with Albo, they should stop referring to them.
As I’ve said before, if the handful of posts I’ve made about Albo – always within the context of the discussion – classify me as obsessive, then your attacks on Shorten, often popping up for no discernible reason, mean you need urgent help.
The zoomster/Albo peace talks should be at the center of the ALP Truth and Reconciliation hearings held in the wake of the dissolution of the ALP. Albo needs to clearly explain why he was rude to zoomster that day, and why he did not allow a selfie with one of zoomsters’ functionaries.
guytaur
If I can’t, other posters can’t, and the message you’re getting across isn’t the one you intended, which I would have thought would have been worth knowing.
Nath……why don’t you comment on the faction within the Coalition that contains Kelly, Dutton, Porter, Joyce etc.
Expect you will predictably say ‘balance’, reckon your posts have as much ‘balance’ as a Murdoch tabloid.
phoenixRed:
Exactly. By the way what do you think of this Never Trump Republican columnist’s opinion that Michael Bennet is the Democrats’ best hope of beating Trump?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-bennet-might-be-the-democrats-best-chance-to-beat-trump/2019/07/11/f6e411f4-a3fd-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html?utm_term=.730e53331d09
This is risky. I don’t want to wreck the Saturday thread. But. I just want to say one thing about last night’s stoush on Falou and speech and hell and gays and wowsers.
And I direct this mainly to clem attlee, whose major point seemed to me to be that because there’s is no hell, then accusing someone of going to hell is patently insignificant and unworthy of any engagement. Correct me if I’m wrong.
What clem attlee is ignorant of, or refusing to acknowledge, is that while he is a big grown up who has come to this conclusion, others have drawn different conclusion. Folau is clearly one of them. He is a big grown up too.
My focus is on immature minds and bodies, not big grown ups, and especially those whose sexual orientation isn’t evolving the way of the majority. They may or may not have made their decision about the existence of a hell. Believing in something that isn’t doesn’t remove the effects of that belief.
At a time of self doubt, often devolving into self hate, to be told by a famous male role model that you are so deformed as to be cast into hell for eternity is incredibly damaging, whether that hell exists is completely irrelevant. It is a judgement of worthlessness, in young people desperately seeking worth. It is also a dangerous influence on those whose ‘normative’ sexual development is still immature enough that they see others with difference as worthy of attack.
nath says:
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:15 am
The zoomster/Albo peace talks should be at the center of the ALP Truth and Reconciliation hearings held in the wake of the dissolution of the ALP. Albo needs to clearly explain why he was rude to zoomster that day, and why he did not allow a selfie with one of zoomsters’ functionaries.
__________________
Let the healing begin!
Climate deniers pose as political conservatives, but are in fact wildly dangerous radicals, recklessly leading us to unknown risks and frightening change. Whereas those in favour of climate action seek to preserve the physical world we know. They are the conservatives in this scenario: cautious about the known and unknown consequences of rapid ecological change. Broadly speaking, the climate movement has done a pretty poor job of pointing this out to the mainstream.
nath
Albo was rude for the same reason he refused our candidate the selfie – because he didn’t think we were worth his consideration. A very arrogant attitude.
On the selfies, for example, another candidate visited Parliament House during a campaign and got selfies with the PM and six Labor Ministers, merely by asking. Because professional MPs understand the importance of promotional material for candidates, and it takes 30 seconds of their time.
So not allowing one is exceptional behaviour.
Zoomster
I Don’t know how more obvious it could be. Especially as I already told you I could have put what hypocrisy . Maybe I should add what an idiot these tweets speak for themselves would have helped. Of course that would mean they don’t speak for themselves
…and, having explained this, that’s it.
Scout says:
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:16 am
Nath……why don’t you comment on the faction within the Coalition that contains Kelly, Dutton, Porter, Joyce etc.
Expect you will predictably say ‘balance’, reckon your posts have as much ‘balance’ as a Murdoch tabloid.
__________________________
Very well. What a deplorable faction that is. When, in the middle of the Liberal leadership fiasco last year, Dutton said something along the lines of ‘this is an opportunity for me to smile’ I think I shit myself a little bit. I don’t really get into calling people fascists etc, but he does genuinely scare me a little.
And while I’m rehashing old ground, here’s one for Boerwar, whose dismissal of teenage and youth pill takers as getting what they deserved was the most appalling comment on an adult blog I’ve ever read.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/13/never-meant-to-happen-the-fear-and-failure-behind-nsws-drug-deaths
Scout
Remember, nath’s original stated reason for posting here was that he thought too many people were picking on Scotty.
zoomster,
How much do you think people should submit their personal interests to the party’s interests, ie if your asked to do X by the campaign team should you?
zoomster says:
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:24 am
Scout
Remember, nath’s original stated reason for posting here was that he thought too many people were picking on Scotty.
_______________
Not true at all and I demand an apology. In fact, when confronted with a very hostile reaction from people for my anti-Shorten views I said that all kinds of anti-Morrison views were tolerated and encouraged. I have no positive feelings for Morrison at all.
Confessions says: Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:17 am
phoenixRed:
Exactly. By the way what do you think of this Never Trump Republican columnist’s opinion that Michael Bennet is the Democrats’ best hope of beating Trump?
********************************************************************
In boxing there was an expression – ‘The Great White Hope’ – This expression dates from the early 1900s, when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, who was black, seemed invincible and the term was used for any white opponent who might defeat him.
For me, Confessions – I have not heard of Michael Bennet – I just have my fingers crossed they find a Democrat as *The Great Hope* to convincingly trounce Trump out of office …… but my faith in Americans is not strong and its quite on the cards that Trump survives despite all the words in a dictionary that describe him – Lies, Dysfunction, Incompetence, Cruelty, Racism, Misogyny, Corruption, Lawlessness, Ignorance, Stupidity, Obstruction, Abuse, Contempt …………
Itza:
Last night’s ‘debate’ seemed to me to be nothing more than an extreme exercise in provocation and trolling by some.
phoenixRed:
I hadn’t heard of him either, before this morning. But I’m getting very nervous that the top-ranking Dem candidates simply aren’t up to beating Trump. They are not appealing enough to swing voters, and I can imagine all those stumbles and gaffes are going to be played on high rotation by Team Trump. They’re giving him so much ammunition to work with.