Essential Research has released its fortnightly poll, once again without voting intention results. It includes a series of questions on Scott Morrison’s visit to the United States, with results generally more favourable than I personally would have expected. For example, the most negative finding is that 32% agreed that Donald Trump’s presidency has been good for Australia, compared with 49% who disagreed. By way of comparison, a Lowy Institute survey in March found 66% believed Trump had weakened the alliance, and only 25% had either a lot of or some confidence in him.
Only 38% agreed that a good relationship between Scott Morrison and Donald Trump reflected badly on Australia, compared with 48% who disagreed. Other results were probably too influenced by question wording to be of much value. Fifty-seven percent felt Morrison had shown “good diplomacy skills” during the visit, a quality that might be attributed to anyone who maintains a straight face in the President’s presence. The statement that Morrison “should have attended the UN Climate Summit, alongside other world leaders” is compromised by the words in italics (which are my own), but for what it’s worth, 70% agreed and 20% disagreed.
A question on the state of the economy likewise produces a result less bad than the government might have feared, with 32% rating it good and 33% poor. Fifty-one per cent supported Australian military involvement in the Middle East, after it was put to them that Australia had “agreed to provide military support to their allies in the Middle East to protect shipping and trade in the region”, with 35% opposed.
Essential has not yet published the full report on its website, so the precise sample size cannot be identified, but it will assuredly have been between 1000 and 1100. The poll was conducted online from Thursday to Sunday.
Problem with italicized words is that they imply SloMo is a world leader. Not a leader’s bootlace.
Rick Wilson unleashes holy hell on GOP for standing by Trump: ‘You strapped yourself to a suicide bomber’
Anti-Trump conservative Rick Wilson uncorked a vicious tweet storm against his former Republican allies on Wednesday after watching President Donald Trump’s latest psychotic rant at the White House.
Shortly after the president finished a rambling, falsehood-filled press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Wilson shredded the GOP for continuing to stand by a president who is clearly unfit for office — and he said they were getting exactly what they deserved.
“The Trump Meltdown is your new normal,” Wilson said. “This is why you live in fear every minute of your waking hours. You know because you strapped yourself to this suicide bomber that when the vest goes off you die with him.”
“You think that you are political geniuses for abandoning everything you ever claimed to believe in (except judicial fetishism) and smeared yourselves in Trump’s excrement while calling it honey,” he wrote.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/rick-wilson-unleashes-holy-hell-on-gop-for-standing-by-trump-you-strapped-yourself-to-a-suicide-bomber/
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
An extra half a million Australians will have to get a job or more working hours under the Reserve Bank’s aggressive plan to take the country to “full employment” in a move that has renewed pressure on the Morrison government to boost the economy explain Shane Wright and Eryk Bagshaw.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rba-sets-tough-task-with-plan-to-take-the-country-to-full-employment-20191002-p52wxw.html
A sobering article here from Bagshaw as he details the tough road ahead for employment and wages growth.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-re-a-long-way-from-it-putting-the-rba-s-full-employment-goal-in-perspective-20191002-p52wxq.html
Greg Jericho opines that the move by the reserve bank to cut the cash rate to its record low of 0.75% is a clear indicator that the economy is struggling mightily and that the bank feels the government has completely abandoned its responsibility for triggering economic growth, leaving the RBA alone to try to get things going.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/03/rba-is-cutting-rates-because-the-government-has-abandoned-responsibility-for-economic-growth
David Crowe tells us how Morrison is “cool” over the “very unusual” idea of releasing Australian diplomatic cables to a US probe into the investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/got-nothing-to-hide-scott-morrison-doesn-t-rule-out-giving-secret-documents-to-the-us-20191002-p52x1f.html
And Sam Maiden explains how Morrison deflected the call to reveal Alexander Downer’s diplomatic memo.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/10/02/pm-scott-morrison-alexander-downer-diplomatic-memo/
Young Australians have been thrown under the bus over housing affordability yet again says Jess Irvine.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/young-australians-have-been-thrown-under-the-bus-yet-again-20191002-p52wzo.html
The AFR editorial says that quantitative easing is no way to start up the economic motor.
https://outline.com/S9Pchx
Euan Black writes that pressure is mounting on the big four banks to explain why they haven’t shared the full benefits of Tuesday’s rate cut – after research found interest rate moves had earned them more than $4.7 billion since 2016.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2019/10/02/pressure-banks-interest-rates/
An angry John Falzon writes that the neo-liberal model of capitalism is eating itself to death.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6415504/making-an-art-form-out-of-cruelty-to-people-who-are-unemployed/?cs=14329
The AFR explains how Labor is working overtime to mend relations with business, while also shifting its policy emphasis away from tax and spend.
https://outline.com/mRBhNk
Michaela Whitbourn reports that the NSW corruption watchdog has flagged that its current inquiry into Labor Party donations “does not include” an investigation into whether state Labor MP Chris Minns was involved in an alleged scheme to disguise the source of donations to his 2015 election campaign.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/icac-inquiry-not-targeting-labor-mp-chris-minns-watchdog-says-20191002-p52x2u.html
Jennifer Hewett says that it still seems the lens in financial services is aimed more at dealing with the regulatory and financial aftermath of the Hayne royal commission than on the economic challenges evident over the next few years.
https://outline.com/Lks4Pn
Sarah Martin writes that Barnaby Joyce has said the Coalition risks “political annihilation” in the bush if the drought worsens and it does not start building dams, as Labor lashes the government for failing to produce a national drought strategy.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/03/barnaby-joyce-says-coalition-risks-political-annihilation-in-the-bush-over-drought
The Department of Home Affairs has poured cold water on a United Nations request to release from detention a Tamil family fighting deportation to Sri Lanka.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/un-asks-australia-to-release-tamil-family-20191002-p52wwy.html
According to Shane Wright Labor is vowing to stop any effort to overturn the legislated increase in the superannuation guarantee, signalling a political brawl with the Morrison government over any contentious findings from its retirement income review.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/retirement-income-review-a-stalking-horse-labor-vows-to-hold-on-to-12-percent-super-20191002-p52wzp.html
Australia’s reign by older white men is an offence on us all writes Richard Denniss.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/02/attack-of-the-clones-australias-reign-by-older-white-men-is-an-offence-on-us-all
Between Comcare and Dutton what hope have people like this got?
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/border-force-officer-told-compo-cancelled-after-seen-walking-therapy-dog-20191001-p52wjr.html
John Collett explains how a climate action group backed by some of the biggest super funds and fund managers in the world has said big carbon-emitting companies and the industry associations representing them must have policies that better support the Paris climate agreement.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/climate-change-group-tells-big-emitters-they-must-do-more-20191002-p52wxp.html
The chase for water in the North is not just about cotton, but cotton is emerging as a central play. Headlines such as “The Next Cubbie Station, China’s $400 million investment in northern Australia” reflect the excitement over the emerging northern cotton industry. It will send shivers down the spines of others.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/big-cotton-eyes-off-the-wild-rivers-of-northern-australia/
Pru Goward wants governments to double down o domestic violence and to treat it as a the crime that it is.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/domestic-violence-time-to-treat-it-as-a-crime-20191002-p52wut.html
Family law inquiry is no sop to Hanson. It’s a deliberate move to bury previous reviews complains Jess Hill.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/oct/03/family-law-inquiry-is-no-sop-to-hanson-its-a-deliberate-move-to-bury-previous-reviews
The Morrison government’s welfare drug-testing trial is so “fatally flawed” it could not be used to “scientifically inform” a future national rollout, a Senate inquiry has been told.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/02/coalitions-welfare-drug-testing-trial-fatally-flawed-inquiry-told
The cost of misconduct for the major banks and AMP just keeps ticking up. It’s not over yet but at this stage of peak remediation provisioning, the number appears to be approaching the magic $10 billion mark on a pre-tax basis writes Elizabeth Knight.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/the-10-billion-cost-of-banks-behaving-badly-20191002-p52wzj.html
Australia’s policy on political donations is keeping us out of the top ten nations on the Transparency Index, writes Dr Martha Knox-Haly.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/political-donations-are-keeping-australian-government-corruption-alive,13161
According to Greg Barton Australia isn’t taking the national security threat from far-right extremism seriously enough.
https://theconversation.com/australia-isnt-taking-the-national-security-threat-from-far-right-extremism-seriously-enough-122717
Judith Ireland reports that Australia’s Muslim community is urging the Morrison government to redraft its religious discrimination laws to include an anti-vilification provision, saying incitement of hatred and violence is a “fundamental threat to Australian Muslims”.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/fundamental-threat-australian-muslims-call-for-extra-protections-in-religious-discrimination-bill-20191002-p52wuy.html
Paul Karp explains how Gladys Liu and Josh Frydenberg have admitted that controversial Chinese-language signs instructed voters that the “correct” or “right” way to vote was to put a 1 next to the Liberal party candidate on ballot papers in the Victorian seats of Chisholm and Kooyong.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/02/gladys-liu-and-josh-frydenberg-admit-chinese-election-signs-instructed-right-way-to-vote
When big companies fund academic research, the truth often comes last says Professor Lisa Bero.
https://theconversation.com/when-big-companies-fund-academic-research-the-truth-often-comes-last-119164
The ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel seem to be sticking together in protecting the vile former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/middle-east/accused-child-sex-abuser-malka-leifer-granted-bail-in-israel-20191002-p52x3h.html
Fears switching the painkiller codeine to a prescription only medicine would lead to more people misusing stronger painkillers are unfounded, according to research just published by these two pharmacology academics.
https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happened-when-codeine-was-made-prescription-only-no-the-sky-didnt-fall-in-124169
Boris Johnson has unveiled a Brexit plan for an alternative to the backstop.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/02/boris-johnson-unveils-brexit-plan-for-alternative-to-backstop
The president’s efforts to govern in his own self-interest will undermine the world’s faith in America’s commitments.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/02/trump-foreign-policy-impeachment
Cartoon Corner
David Rowe posted a prescient cartoon from way back when Trump won the election.
And he takes us to the UK for the Conservatives’ conference.
Dionne Gain and Matt Davidson have views on housing affordability.
From Matt Golding.
Andrew Dyson on Trump’s request for help.
Two beauties from Mark David on the drought.
Zanetti and interest rates.
Glen Le Lievre finishes his outline from yesterday.
Jon Kudelka takes us into a bank’s head office.
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/00c0395d1424ae116eac7510f8a6a5f8?width=1024
From the US
‘He’s in a tailspin’: Source tells CNN Trump is off the rails and ‘it’s chaos inside the White House’
CNN political Analyst Gloria Borger observed on Wednesday that President Donald Trump seems to be “in a tailspin.”
Borger’s remarks followed a wild Oval Office press conference, in which Trump suggested that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) should be investigated for treason.
“He’s in a tailspin,” Borger explained. “I was communicating yesterday with somebody very close to the White House who said, ‘Look, it’s chaos inside the White House. There is nobody there who can say no to him. There’s nobody blocking the door to his office.’”
“‘And he’s just spinning and spinning and spinning and there’s nothing you can do about it,’” she continued. “What he’s tweeting is the real Donald Trump and that’s what he said in this press conference where I think he was just out of control even for Donald Trump, calling the press corrupt.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/hes-in-a-tailspin-source-tells-cnn-trump-is-off-the-rails-and-its-chaos-inside-the-white-house/
Bernie Sanders candidacy may be finished..
‘Bernie Sanders experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event Tuesday evening and had two stents inserted to address a blockage in an artery, his campaign announced.
“Sen. Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days,” senior adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement Wednesday. “We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/02/sanders-has-heart-stent-surgery-after-chest-discomfort-000164
This is the Finnish President with Trump today:
😆
BK
Thanks as always for the roundup. I have this suspicion that Australia is sleepwalking into a recession – the global headwinds are increasing, and domestic policy makers are inadequate.
Bernie Sanders candidacy may be finished..
_______
sprocket_
Probably a good thing.
What is the bloody point of building more dams when there is no bloody water to go in them!?!
C@t
I think WTF? might be in his mind.
BK,
That guy used to have control of Water policy!
Anyway, it’s patently obvious Barnaby Joyce wants more dams so more agribusiness mates can steal more environmental water. I mean, they ‘have to’ grow their crops to feed and clothe the people! 🙄
😆
I (occasionally) wonder what is in Frydenberg’s mind. Does he really believe his own bulldust? Is his department so hopeless that they are persuading him that we are not heading for a recession unless he pulls his finger out? Or, I suppose more important, do any of our ‘government’ believe what they are telling us about anything, unless it’s moralising about the poor?
Thanks BK. I remember that Rowe cartoon as if it were yesterday. How time flies.
lizzie,
Read this from an expert on Tyranny. It’s about Trump, of course, but it applies equally to his ardent pupil, Morrison, and Morrison’s sidekick, Frydenburg:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/the-truth-doesnt-matter-tyranny-expert-explains-how-the-ukraine-scandal-signals-a-new-phase-of-trumps-authoritarianism/
Cat
“What is the bloody point of building more dams when there is no bloody water to go in them!?!”
Obviously you don’t own shares in a construction company. The useless projects are just as profitable as the needed ones, often more so.
Ah Qld, perfect one day, a gift to the Liberal Party the next. For someone who says she is from the left, DPM Jackie Trad certainly knows an investment opportunity when she sees one. Michaela Cash would salute her.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-02/trad-sells-gabba-investment-property-for-undisclosed-sum/11569088
Socrates @ #15 Thursday, October 3rd, 2019 – 7:18 am
You’re right, Soc, I don’t think like a greedy grasper. 😆
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/02/australian-leader-defends-trump-call-fairly-uneventful-opponents-demand-transcript/
I’m not persuaded by Albanese either. This is like the blind man looking for a key in Falzon’s story. The problem is not the lack of dams, it’s the lack of rain and the mismanagement of the rivers.
As this article shows, lower interest rates were a gift to the banks, not the economy. All it will do is increase their profits to recover their losses from all those compensation obligations. The only thing for sure is that our economy will keep sinking, and our bankers will keep stealing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/02/banks-lobbied-against-responsible-lending-laws-before-frydenberg-softened-stance
If Albanese wants hints on where to attack the government over infrastructure, he should watch the ABC show Utopia. The stories are so close to the truth it is at times painful for me to watch.
Yep, I can’t figure out the motivation for Albanese agreeing with Joyce???
The cattle industry will complain, but this is the future of food for anyone who cares about climate change, including a whole generation of young people. I am a vegetarian and when I go shopping the vegetarian protein items are the first shelves sold out at our local supermarket.
https://www.watoday.com.au/business/small-business/cowin-says-cow-out-as-hungry-jack-s-offers-meat-free-option-20191001-p52wgt.html
Yes it’s uncanny how real the Utopia stories are. I love the show, it’s brilliant.
Thanks for the roundup BK – there’s enough lunacy hidden there to satisfy even the most jaded of us.
I am afeared that nothing matters because we are – in the words of the prophet —
Because –
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-03/cannibal-andromeda-galaxy-on-path-to-collide-with-milky-way/11565238
Douglas and Milko why did you not give us advance warning ❓ Is it now too late to reconstitute those old dugouts (Atom Bomb Shelters) and rebuild the baked bean stockpile ❓
What use those imaginary damned dams now Mr. Whatsisname – plenipotentiary to the as yet unborn con artists, shills, artful dodger pick pockets and wedding attendees ❓ Eh ❓ Eh ❓
Sorry – good morning everybody – I attribute the above to the vitamin B12 shot from yesterday. All complaints should be directed to Mr. W. Bowe Esq.🌟 😇🌟
No wonder the Finnish leader was shooting ‘Help Me!!’ glances at the journalists during their press conference.
Maybe Albanese, by agreeing with Joyce, is encouraging Morrison to disagree with Joyce because Morrison reflexively disagrees with anything Labor suggests? That way you end up with no dams!
(I’m just trying to figure it out 😀 )
I enjoy Utopia, but for me it doesn’t ring true because our Federal Govt doesn’t even pretend to be nation building. As if they would even consider the outlandish proposals on the show. Look what they did to the NBN for example.
Reminds me of The Games about the bungling preparations of the Sydney Olympics. The actual Games were the greatest in history and virtually flawless.
C@t
When I read Albanese, I felt that he was still in his Infrastructure period, where he feels safer.
Here’s another conservative bulldust artist, who has no idea of reality.
Not Free Britain. Little Britain. 😀
Or, maybe, the ‘freedom’ of insignificance. 🙂
This makes very disturbing reading.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/oct/03/family-law-inquiry-is-no-sop-to-hanson-its-a-deliberate-move-to-bury-previous-reviews?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Torchbearer
As a % of GDP, Australia has the highest spending on transport infrastructure in the OECD. We may not be attempting to do what is needed, but we are spending a colossal amount of money. Most is going on urban freeways with benefit-cost ratios well below one. A lot of the rest of the federal $ are going on an inland rail line that will provide a short term employment boost to a few rural NSW electorates, then prove about as useful as the Darwin – Alice Springs line.
Lizzie
I heard Albo speak when he was Shadow Minister on Infrastructure. He knew his brief well and spoke very well. McCormack spoke at the same conference and was hopeless by comparison.
On Brexit, I no longer think the No-Deal Brexit camp are “stupid” or niaive. They want Britain to crash out because it suits the interests of their financial backers. So they have opposed every deal. There have been some interesting articles in the UK Independent on their motives. Some City of London financiers have plenty to gain by being freed of ECB financial regulations. I agree Brexit will do nothing for the poor and unemployed. Any of those who voted for Brexit are the real fools.
Morning all
Rick Wilson once again tells it like it is with respect to the Trump shit show.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson’s plan to leave the EU is laughable. He is taking the piss.
Socrates
Based on what Johnson has put on the table, I would say that was the plan all along.
Socrates
Albanese has had an infrastructure portfolio for a long time. McCormack would be hopeless on any subject, as far as I can see.
As I’ve said previously, I’ve coped with having the fibs in power federally due to our Victorian State govt being very proactive on infrastructure.
Good Morning
Labor moving away from tax and spend betrays its values. No more universal health care. No more social security and the list goes on. Thats what tax and spend is and why the right will always attack Labor on this.
Moving away from this is to in fact throw Labor voters under the bus.
The Labor party has truly become neo liberal chasing the right wing narrative that will always attack Labor for being socialist. Thats what Tax and Spend is. Raising revenue for services. The collective vision.
Labor needs to change leader. So back to Shortenrat least he got that whole inequality thing is Labor’s long term future. I am appalled that Labor is moving so far away from its values that it truly is becoming a party of the right. The true lesser evil. Moving to the same same position the Greens have called it.
I never thought I would see this happen. I still hope I won’t see this happen and someone in Labor will wake up and realise Labor just cannot win by being a pale imitation of the LNP.
Watch the link Sprocket provided from Michael Moore. Labor is making the same mistake as the Democrats with Biden. Go back to before Beazley. Remember when Labor had mongrel in it. Also remember that right wing warrior Paul Keating helped craft those Bill Shorten policies that got its tax and spend moniker.
For Labor its the Economy Stupid! means tax and spend is inevitable or its no longer the Labor party.
Albanese is showing Joyce up as all talk and no action. I reckon there is a jobs theme being developed too.
But it’s rhetoric. I don’t think he is actually going to fund any new dams.
You are falling into the trap of assuming Labor MPs won’t misrepresent the truth like an LNO member would (3 times before breakfast).
@Triplejay58 tweets
Heard Rachel Maddow last pm, talking about new book about oil & gas industry.
Inadvertently, Maddow was describing Australia since at least 2 March 1996, if you look at oil, gas & coal.
The industry is “ranging like a ravenous predator on the field of democracy.” 1/ https://twitter.com/Triplejay58/status/1179518921885589505/photo/1
Maddow explained the “resource curse”: a well-established idea that finding eg oil often harms countries, rather than helping them.
Used Equatorial Guinea as a case study—to show how profits from a nation’s oil went not to citizens, but to kleptocrats.
Sound familiar? /2
The book also looks at the harm gas and oil have done closer to home. A particularly striking example is the pressure put on a University of Oklahoma researcher by energy companies and his own uni to suppress findings fracking is causing earthquakes (lots of earthquakes). /3
In a nutshell, Maddow nailed the resource curse that has landed on Australia: a country is rich in a resource, which is dug up/sold.
The money doesn’t go to the people. The money goes to the top 1%, the elites, & the government. /4
And then that government spends all its time & money trying to stay in power & dig up more of those resources for elites/themselves.
The country becomes poor. No gov services. Poverty increases. Education, Health, Social Security—all cut.
Australia today. /5 #auspol #Blowout
Spot on.
Hence why laser like focus is required by Nancy Pelosi and co
chris zappone
@chrizap
At this point Trump’s strategy the same has it always been: when in a pinch, just blather confusing statements in every direction and rely on the media to chase them down until no one can follow what has happened anymore, imo.
Sorry when I referred to Paul Keating as that Right Wing Warrior I was only meaning in the Labor party context not the political spectrum as a whole.
Are we not surprised?
I hope you infarct Greentaur when, at the next election, you ponder putting a number on your ballot paper next to the Labor candidate – whether to rank them higher than your liberal candidate or not.
Albo will be Leader.
The party will be offering bigger tax cuts for working and middle class.
Labor will be pledging a better infrastructure program and policies to tackle stagnant household incomes and stagnant employment growth.
Thee nvironment may get a mention, but not as to detract from the laser like focus of winning back voters that the Greens would prefer to simply die.
Australia will still be exporting thermal coal.
The acid test for you: who to give your preference to. Labor or the filth …