One sort-of-poll, and three items of Liberal preselection news:
• The latest results of the JWS Research True Issues survey records growing concern about the environment and climate change, which is now rated among the top five most important issues by 38% of respondents, compared with 33% in June and 31% a year ago. There is diminishing concern about immigration and border security (26%, down from 30% in June and 34% last November and defence, security and terrorism (18%, down from 20% in June and 29% a year ago). A range of measures of general optimism and perceptions of government performance produced weaker results than the June survey, which appeared to record a post-election spike in positive sentiment.
• Jim Molan will shortly return to the Senate after winning a party vote last weekend to fill the New South Wales Senate vacancy caused by Arthur Sinodinos’s resignation. Molan scored 321 votes to 260 for former state party director Richard Shields, adding a second silver medal to his collection after being shaded by Dave Sharma in Wentworth last year. This was despite Molan’s attempt to retain his seat from number four on the ticket at the May election by beseeching supporters to vote for him below the line, to the displeasure of some in the party (and still more of the Nationals, who would have been the losers if Molan had succeeded). Molan was reportedly able to secure moderate faction support due to the apprehension that he will not seek another term beyond the next election.
• The Victorian Liberal Party is embroiled in a dispute over a plan for preselection proceedings for the next federal election to start as soon as January, which has been endorsed by the party’s administrative committee but is bitterly opposed by affected federal MPs. The committee is determined not to see a repeat of the previous term, when preselections were taken out of the hands of branch members to head off a number of challenges to sitting members. Those challenges might now come to fruition, most notably a threat to Howard government veteran Kevin Andrews, whose seat of Menzies is of interest to Keith Wolahan, a barrister and former army officer. Tim Wilson in Goldstein and Russell Broadbent in Monash (formerly McMillan) have also been mentioned as potential targets. According to Rob Harris of The Age, votes in Liberal-held seats could happen as soon as late February, with marginal seats to unfold from April to August and Labor-held seats to be taken care of in October.
• Matthew Denholm of The Australian ($) reports Eric Abetz and his conservative supporters believe they have seen off a threat to his position at the top of the Liberals’ Tasmanian Senate ticket, following elections for the state party’s preselection committee. Abetz’s opponents believed he should make way for rising star Jonathan Duniam to head the ticket, and for the secure second seat to go to Wendy Askew, one of the Tasmanian Liberals’ limited retinue of women MPs.
Bushfire Bill..
I feel like a kipper!
There is a rather large environmental choice facing the Australian Government and it is being pressed very hard by the usual suspects. Those who helped return Morrison by voting for Morrison, McCormack, Di Natale etc etc etc might feel a twinge of buyers remorse.
If my assumptions are correct, southern MDB irrigators are seeking a massive cut to environmental flows. They are busy telling everyone who will listen (which is mainly each other) that there is a lot of (environmental) water flowing out of the Murray Mouth. They all believe this as an article of faith. The reality is that the Mouth would close were it not for constant dredging. There is not enough flow to keep it open. The dredging is actually there to enable cooler and LESS salty water from the ocean mix into the Coorong, etc, etc, etc.
The revised Plan would be to take something like 500GL of environmental water and turn it into irrigation water. I base my estimate around the 500GL currently sitting in Lake Alexandrina.
One off, on the market, the value of 500GL annual allocation would be around $400 million dollars. Value added by way of commodity ag, it would be a lot more.
Since the Euston river water salinity threshold is something like 500eccs, sufficient shandying would still have to occur to ensure that BK et al get the water quality they deserve. But even this is raising grumbles. Let the Crow Eaters find their own bloody water.
There would also have to be enough water to shunt 2 million tonnes of salt a year into Lake Alexandrina, Lake Albert and the Coorong, there to stay. And where it will quickly turn thriving habitats into the ecological equivalent of the End of the Times, if not quite The Rapture.
The really comforting thought here is that, not spooked by Environment Ministers Hunt, Frydenberg, Price, voters still Kill Billed and got themselves Morrison and Ley. Yep. Ley.
Ley’s electorate is thick with half-busted irrigators who want a last-gasp grab on the environment.
Just as well you guys voted for Morrison, McCormack, Di Natale, Hanson, Katter and Palmer.
Hey?
Firefox @ #297 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 2:58 pm
I would have thought this covers the misuse of copyright by Peggy and others on PB.
“Factors that may be taken into account to determine whether a use is “fair” include whether the
person using the material is doing so for commercial purposes, and whether the copyright owner is
out of pocket from the use (for example, where a person copies the whole of a work that is
available for sale). The mere fact that the person using the material is not making a profit does not
make it fair.
In general, a person or organisation can rely on a fair dealing defence only for his, her or its own
use of copyright material. For example, it would not be regarded as a fair dealing for criticism or
review to reproduce a photograph and invite other people to critique it. Rather, the person making
the reproduction must themselves be making the criticism or review”
Owners of copyright are out of pocket because by posting an article in it’s entitety you discourage another reader from clicking on a link to the article where the owner may make an earner.
Publishing an entire article or swathes of an article without specific parsing or critiquing is not reviewing the piece, it’s stealing.
But, I’m sue some our lawyers will have a clear legal understanding.
@cud:
“ The tunnel from Sutherland to Kogarah would be about 10 km. So its a substantial project.“
Why stop at Kogarah: you could continue it all the way into town – or at least to the inner suburbs – Wolli Creek or Sydenham (where a station could connect to the metro and existing heavy commuter rail lines). I’m thinking you’d get a lot more than a 8 minute saving there. Adding it all up, I guess that a sub. 50 minute commute would be achievable. This would largely ‘take care’ of the Illawarra – but a line that goes to the HSR line somewhere south of Badgeys might also be useful.
Regarding Newcastle Airport. If a HSR line can ‘do’ Newcastle airport to the main interchange station just east of Parramatta, then it becomes a potential asset like some of the airports that sit just outside the A25 in London. For a megalopolis of 8 million people that could be a very useful asset indeed. Ditto Canberra Airport. I don’t agree with connecting KSA to the HSR network. It’s close enough to the CBD and well serviced enough to remain as Sydney’s second busiest airport even after Badgery’s is up and running – although a metro rail link could be useful as well (and IMO Badgery’s should have 3 rail links – A station on the HSR Spine, the airport metro to St Mary’s and a heavy commuter rail station linking in Leppington on the East Hills line as well – although that later proposal could be rolled into the metro project).
The High Speed Rail discussion in Australia is about the alternative to flying because it is always pitched as between the major capital cities. Sydney – Canberra, Brisbane – Sydney, Sydney – Melbourne are the main reasons for the proposals. The regional stuff is secondary – it doesn’t have the volume to justify and the more regional stops means that it becomes less efficient and therefore the less full journey users will be on it.
When I used it in Europe the decision was always rail versus flying – time versus cost. Getting to airports is as easy as getting to rail stations. I have boarded many planes faster than my boarding experience on the EuroStar at St Pancras. The French customs staff insouciance clearly part of the cultural experience.
Someone made the comment that rail food is better than plane food – not in my experience and I don’t have to pay extra for food and drink on a plane when it is in the ticket price.
Boerwar, re. the “Grass Budgies” of my earlier post, they are actually “Scaly Lorikeets”, about the same size as Rainbows, but green all over.
I call them “Grass Budgies” to annoy Her Indoors, who corrects me EVERY time.
She is SO literal. If you said there was “a dozen of ’em” in the bird bath, she’d correct you, pointing out there were only 11. When I remind her that I am more literary than literal, she agrees, saying the former is usually wrong and the latter is always right.
Boerwar
They are passengers fighting over deck chairs on the Titanic. I look forward to them going down with the ship. Shame about the ‘collateral damage’ but having effectively voted for it then most are not ‘innocent bystanders’ . So Bon Appétit to the MDB denizens.
Bucephalus:
[‘The French customs staff insouciance clearly part of the cultural experience.’]
Made all the worse post Brexit.
GG
Apart from the law there is the simple matter of personal morals.
Even a Greens might understand that some behaviours do not have to be illegal to be immoral.
Abrogating IP is a bit like the Greens policies which cost tens of thousands of jobs everywhere else but not where Greens live and work.
Oh! The Greens had not even noticed that!
Fair dealing for criticism or review
People can use copyright material for the purpose of criticism or review without infringing
copyright, provided they acknowledge the author and title of the work, and provided the dealing is
“fair”. The criticism or review may relate to the work being used or to other material. For example,
television film reviewers may show clips from other films as well as the one they are reviewing, in
making their criticism or review.
The Federal Court has stated that “criticism and review” involves making a judgment of the
material concerned, or of the underlying ideas. Criticism and review may be strongly expressed,
and may be expressed humorously, and need not be balanced. The defence can apply where the
criticism or review takes place in a commercial context, such as in published books or newspapers
or on commercial television.
However, the court emphasised that the purpose of criticism or review must be genuine. If the
person has other motives – especially if these motives involve using the material to make a profit,
or using a competitor’s material to divert customers from the competitor – the fact that they have
also engaged in a form of criticism or review is not enough to prevent the use from infringing
copyright.
https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/Fair_Dealing__What_Can_I_Use_Without_Permission.aspx
poroti
I feel dismay and anger at what is happening in the MDB.
I am sure it is all somebody’s fault.
But still, lots of broken lives already. Marriage break ups. Domestic violence up. Mental illness rife. Quite a few suicides. Alcohol use through the roof.
Firefox
So, copying whole slabs and dropping them like dead cats but with no value add in Bludger is actionable.
Good pick up.
“but with no value add”
***
That’s your subjective opinion.
Boerwar
says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:30 pm
Firefox
So, copying whole slabs and dropping them like dead cats but with no value add in Bludger is actionable.
Good pick up.
____________________
Not if other posts are involved in criticism and review. A person might drop a slab of words in and then provide criticism and review in the next post. Simple.
‘Bushfire Bill says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:19 pm
Boerwar, re. the “Grass Budgies” of my earlier post, they are actually “Scaly Lorikeets”, about the same size as Rainbows, but green all over.
I call them “Grass Budgies” to annoy Her Indoors, who corrects me EVERY time.
She is SO literal. If you said there was “a dozen of ’em” in the bird bath, she’d correct you, pointing out there were only 11. When I remind her that I am more literary than literal, she agrees, saying the former is usually wrong and the latter is always right.’
Just tell HI that scientific taxonomy is maintained through complex international agreements based on strict laws of priority with appropriate dispute resolution mechanisms in place. She probably knows all that already.
OTOH, you can call your Grass Budgie a ‘Firecracker’ if you want. With common name choices you can be annoying. But you can never be wrong.
nath
But Peg does not do that.
She moves right on to the next cut and paste.
Anyhoo, there is one excellent thing about Peg.
She is not Morrison.
Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins speaks a lot of sense:
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/records-show-the-worst-bushfires-in-nsw-could-be-yet-to-come/news-story/b4e417bde0f6f593118ed1be2d4ade2b
I can hear actuaries on their abaci from here.
Firefox @ #310 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 3:26 pm
I don’t think review and criticism legitimately involves the republication of a piece in it’s entirety without any reasonable review.
Let’s see how the Moderator views the situation.
About half of a typical news report is okay. For a particularly long news report, or an analysis or comment piece, don’t go over a third. I’m somewhat less sensitive about corporate than independent outlets, but there are limits. Nothing Pegasus has done today is of concern to me.
‘Firefox says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:33 pm
“but with no value add”
***
That’s your subjective opinion.’
Peg routinely cuts, pastes and runs. From time to time she adds an anti-Labor snark or a Di Natale hagriographical point. But NOT always. That is not a subjective opinion. That is a verifiable fact. Next you will be trying to tell me that the Greens decision to deliver Zero/2030 won’t smash rural and regional Australia good and proper.
Mavissays:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:25 pm
“Made all the worse post Brexit.”
I’m not sure how it could be any worse than it already is.
Shanna Whan’s story in Australian Story last night is well worth a watch, IMO.
It was rich in insights into rural and regional Australia.
Shanna and Tim were each in their own way inspiring individuals.
Boerwarsays:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:28 pm
You are absolutely correct – the economic and hence social damage that has been inflicted on the MDB communities by the environmentalists has been catastrophic.
[‘Police chose not to charge two teenagers who were believed to have accidentally started a fire from a cigarette which gutted Binna Burra Lodge in the Gold Coast Hinterland in September.’]
Locals who were adversely affected (11 dwellings were destroyed) most likely take a different view:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-19/queensland-bushfires-ten-children-allegedly-start-fires/11717444
Mavis
That link to Mullins has an odd stat in it. Last week peeps were reporting over 700 houses gone. That has now been reduced to less than 600. Not sure what happened.
I notice the usual public wrath directed at arsonists.
IMO, at least some of the time, public anger just encourages arson, IMO.
Many of them are mentally ill.
Some at least are already ‘known to the police’.
Perhaps, if not actually cured, the latter should be in preventive detention for the fire season?
“anti-Labor snark or a Di Natale hagriographical point”
***
I think we may have stumbled upon the root of your anger towards said postings.
Bucephalus:
[‘I’m not sure how it could be any worse than it already is.’]
The leaked “Operation Yellowhammer” may assist you.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/revealed-what-boris-johnsons-secret-16905126
‘Bucephalus says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:43 pm
Boerwarsays:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:28 pm
You are absolutely correct – the economic and hence social damage that has been inflicted on the MDB communities by the environmentalists has been catastrophic.’
You are verballing me.
But just to take your point.
Three decades ago environmentalist warned the world that global warming was going to have catastrophic consequences for, inter alia, farmers.
The people who visited the catastrophic consequences on farmers, including farmers themselves, were the people who said that the environmentalists were wrong.
I take it from your low brow take on the MDB that you are content to wipe out all biodiversity in the MDB. Many in the Coalition have exactly that view. If so, just shit it out old chap. It will relieve your moral constipation.
Mr Bowe,
Your clear guidelines on the matter are appreciated.
‘Firefox says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:49 pm
“anti-Labor snark or a Di Natale hagriographical point”
***
I think we may have stumbled upon the root of your anger towards said postings.’
Goodness gracious me: a Greens quack psychologist.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-19/queensland-bushfires-ten-children-allegedly-start-fires/11717444
“More than half of the 18 people who have been dealt with by police over recent Queensland bushfires are children, police have revealed.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison once likened it to the Big Banana, now the Federal Government is pitching in to increase Tesla’s giant battery output and storage by 50 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-19/sa-big-battery-set-to-get-even-bigger/11716784
What a two-faced hypocrite!
For Australia to have a quality, fast railway system, then truly enormous sums of money would need to be spent building new tracks, upgrading existing tracks and electrification of lines. The backbone of such a national railway system would be dedicated high-speed railway lines, running on standard 4’8″ gauge, with at least a maximum speed of 350 kph or even Maglev lines which would travel even faster. The length of such a railway network would be around 12,000 kilometers connecting every urban area exceeding 150,000 people in the country. The other urban areas not connected to this network would be covered by electrified ‘feeder lines’ which would have tilt trains running on them with maximum speeds of about 200 kph.
This high-speed railway system would be supplemented by ‘feeder’ lines which have electric tilt trains which would travel at a maximum speed of around 200 kph. These would connect the other regional cities of the Australian mainland to the high-speed railway system. Whole Tasmania would have an electrified electric tilt-train line running from at least Burnie to Hobart, being connected by high-speed ferries traveling from at least Devonport, maybe along with Burnie and Launceston as well.
Also, the construction of such a railway network would need to require the re-establishment of the old Commonwealth Railways which would build, maintain and run the high-speed railway network, cooperating state railway companies that would run the networks connected to it.
Boerwar:
[‘That has now been reduced to less than 600.’]
Yes, I read only yesterday that the total was 596 since August, even that number surprised me.
[‘IMO. Many of them are mentally ill.’]
Some of them would be mentally ill; others, pyromaniacs; still others, some firies themselves get a kick out of setting a fire, then turning up to put it out – maybe a subset of Munchausen syndrome?
Summary of the article linked by Guytaur above (2:14PM):
– it’s the Greens’ fault (Barnaby)
– it’s the fault of “inner city lunatics” (Michael McCormack)
– the BOM are fudging records (some imbecile on the Coalition backbench)
– “We got this”, “there are no deniers in the Coalition”, “we’re meeting our obligations” – varous Coalition figures whose noses have grown several inches and whose pants caught fire
– “If we kepts the carbon tax would that have stopped the fires?” Alexander Downer.
Why do we elect these idiots?
There is one more:
– “If it weren’t for the Green party’s political opportunism in 2009-10, we would now be 10 years into an emissions trading scheme… ” Kevin Rudd. That one might actually be true, but it’s unhelpful.
@Steve777
Why these idiots are in power? I argue it is because of the control, that News Corporation has over our media market. Indeed, News Corporation has been notable for promoting idiotic politicians and ideologies such as climate change denial. Also, it was notable that it was Tony Abbott not the Greens which sank the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, backed by the News Corporation media outlets.
Indeed, I argue we would have had much saner politicians and political discourse like New Zealand has. If News Corporation had not existed. So I reckon it is time to breakup News Corporation and Nine Fairfax as well.
Boerwar
says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 3:35 pm
nath
But Peg does not do that.
She moves right on to the next cut and paste.
_____________________________
It would be argued that excerpts she posts when combined with her commentary posts provide a theme of criticism and review that would meet the definition.
Bucephalus @ #323 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 3:43 pm
Right on, Buce! Damn environmentalists!
🙄
I dont care about their age…. I wanna know what political party they voted for.
BK @ #332 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 3:57 pm
As is just about every opportunistic politician at some time or another.
Morrison has seen the figures, no doubt supplied to him by Steven Marshall, and has thus covertly admitted defeat by agreeing to increase the size of the Big Battery.
Mavis
There are those who have a view that publicity around some kinds of crimes and proceedings relating thereto, should be zero.
Terrorist activity should not be reported at all or minimally reported.
Terrorists should never be named in the MSM.
Their trials should not be publicised.
They should serve their sentences in silent institutions that allow no messaging outwards by the terrorists.
In other words, there is no way for the terrorists to turn disaster into public success or punishment into rewards.
I would be inclined to apply this framework to arsonists.
Simon Katich @ #339 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 4:09 pm
PHON? 😀
Pegasus:
[“More than half of the 18 people who have been dealt with by police over recent Queensland bushfires are children, police have revealed.”]
The question is, what do you do with them? A child under 10 is below the age of criminal responsibility;
over 10 but under 14, it’s difficult to secure a conviction.
Sooner or later the reality of what is happening has to be faced. Once a upon a time the problem was coal fired power station could not be turned off and you had to pump at night and heat water to consume the power. the reality now is you pump when the sun shines .
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/highest-power-prices-at-night-mooted-to-ease-peak-time-demand-20191118-p53bps.html
here’s a killer stat from the Mississippi Election the other day:
“The president’s Nov. 1 visit boosted Republican voter turnout in Northeast Mississippi by 5%, but gave Democrats in the region a 12% boost, the firm’s Brad Chism wrote in an “Open Letter to Mississippi Democrats” late last week”.
https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/nov/18/trumps-tupelo-visit-helped-dems-more-gop-mississip/
Cud Chewer @ #300 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 3:04 pm
Have you included a spur to Woy Woy now, Cud? 🙂
Tristo @ #336 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 4:06 pm
Good idea. The malign influence of the Murdoch media is hard to over estimate.
Mavis
says:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 4:11 pm
Pegasus:
[“More than half of the 18 people who have been dealt with by police over recent Queensland bushfires are children, police have revealed.”]
The question is, what do you do with them. A child under 10 is below the age of criminal responsibility;
over 10 but under 14, it’s difficult to secure a conviction.
________________________________
Children light fires. It’s unfortunately common.
Greensborough Growler @ #296 Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 – 2:57 pm
They can well afford to have it scrubbed off their houses. It’s Turramurra.
Pats Karvelas is getting stuck into Bill and he’s fighting back. AND he said he supports Albanese. She’s quoting the Courier Mail.