Not a creature was stirring

Chisholm and Kooyong court ruling imminent; comparison of American and Australian political attitudes; and a merry Christmas to all.

At what’s normally a dull time for electoral news, the Federal Court has decided to beat Santa to the punch by announcing its judgement in the challenges to the Chisholm and Kooyong results at 2:15pm today. I’ll add a dedicated post when that happens, but for the time being, here’s the latest thread for general political discussion, it being long past time for a new one.

Two other items of news I can think to mention: the United States Studies Centre has published a report that compares survey results on political attitudes in Australia and the United States, which reaches the intuitive conclusions that Australians are both less conservative and less polarised by partisanship; and GhostWhoVotes offers a neat presentation of the states’ House of Representatives seat entitlements based on current population numbers, six months out from the final determination.

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.

782 comments on “Not a creature was stirring”

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  1. Will that image cause us world-record emitting consumers to reduce our housing footprint, to get rid of our personal vehicle, to stop eating or drinking or wearing anything that comes from bovines and ovines,to stop eating refrigerated food, to stop using coal-emissions embedded products and to only go on holidays that are within walking distance of Australian public transport?

    Or is the whole point of that image to vent outrage and to blame shift?

    Blame sharing is fine. We’re all in this together.

    Blame shifting is a barrier to progress.

    Shame shifting is a barrier to progress.

  2. Firefox @ #43 Tuesday, December 24th, 2019 – 8:06 am

    Credlin is vile. She’s actually smart enough to know that The Greens aren’t to blame at all, which makes what she’s doing even worse. It’s people like her who are the real evil in this world. She’s intelligent, articulate, calculated, and knows how to sell a lie to her target audience. It’s the old NRA defence of double down and go on the attack when faced with a crisis of your own making. This is of course the same Peta Credlin who was responsible for much of the lies and misinformation that came from the Abbott camp in relation to the ETS/Carbon Price. She has done far more damage to the environment than most. If anyone is to blame for the worsening situation we find ourselves in it’s people like her.

    Agree 100%

  3. I see the rwnjs are trying to smear albo by claiming he ate food meant for the firies but didn’t pay while firies went without the other day. I’ll see if I can copy and paste it here when I get another break later.
    I’m aware he bought stuff to take.

  4. @TyrieLinda
    ·
    17h
    What we’re up against. Me ordering flowers that won’t get there till after Xmas: “I’ve been put off Xmas by the bushfires.” She: “You shouldn’t let that bother you.” Me: “But our PM went to Hawaii on holiday.” She: “Well, he deserves a holiday. He didn’t know it would happen.”

  5. LOL ‘Nobody knows windmills better than I do!’ cries President Crazy Pants.

    President Trump lashed out at a familiar foe during a speech on Saturday, calling windmills “monsters” that “kill many bald eagles,” ruin the visual appeal of “magnificent” farms and fields, and “look like hell” after 10 years.

    “I never understood wind,” Trump said at the start of the lengthy tangent, days after he became the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. “You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody I know. It’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly — very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere.”

    He continued: “You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything — right?”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/23/president-trump-lashes-out-an-old-enemy-windmills/

  6. Mark Vaile is accompanying Morrison to India in January.
    (I always remember him as the one who sold us out in export negotiations with America, in Howard’s time.)

  7. Trump came by his hostility to wind energy through the back door. Many conservatives oppose it because they see it as antagonistic to fossil-fuel energy and a sop to climate change activists. Trump hates wind energy — has “studied it better than anybody” — because about a decade ago he bought a golf course in Scotland only to learn that an offshore wind farm was planned nearby. He worried this would hurt views from his course, so he launched a scorched-earth campaign to block the installation.

    It earned him enormous enmity in the area. One prominent local opponent was identified as Scotsman of the year by Glenfiddich Scotch. Trump subsequently banned Glenfiddich from his properties.

    But this was the genesis of his “turbines are noisy, dangerous and kill birds” argumentation, now streamlined and repurposed to young conservatives whose opposition to wind energy is more theoretical.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/23/what-trump-was-talking-about-his-baffling-rant-about-wind-energy/

  8. A leading environmental science expert has urged cricket authorities to revisit the measure used to assess air quality when they develop new protocols as Cricket Australia braces for the prospect of play being suspended during the Sydney Test because of bushfire smoke.

    “It might mean a shorter time period of time for acceptable levels exposure, especially where the levels of very fine particles less then 2.5 microns are elevated. If exposure period is averaged over 24 hours then it might be not adequately protective especially if there’s a big spike of fine particulate pollution that occurs during play when risk assessment is most relevant.

    “Even if there’s nothing to see it would be prudent for cricket authorities to revisit that and make sure they are comfortable with making those recommendations.

    “Although the current issue relates to Australian cricketers, more regard should be given to this issue for when our players compete in parts of the world such as the subcontinent, which are known to have very high spikes of hazardous air quality.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-told-to-consider-change-as-bushfire-smoke-threatens-scg-test-20191223-p53mkq.html

  9. From Mark Vaile’s Wikipedia page. All hail Chairman Vaile the Great Helmsman of 123 🙂

    Chairman of 123 Childcare, an education provider in the People’s Republic of China.

  10. Boerwar
    Tuesday, December 24th, 2019 – 8:41 am
    Comment #59

    confessions:

    🎐🎐🎐 Wind chimes – not quite windmills – refer the “Madness of King Trump” a long running reality show.

  11. Perhaps Scott Cam could be asked to give to firefighters the $345000 of taxpayers money he was gifted for a couple of media appearances.

  12. Paul Barratt @phbarratt
    ·
    I was in Treasury when McMahon was PM. Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison all make him look like a practitioner of orderly government and public administration. Way ahead of all three.

  13. He really should change his name to Mark Vile. Imho he was the beginning of the end for The Nationals when he became their leader and started the switch towards supporting mining over farming.

  14. We live in an era of simplistic messaging … cf Trump, Morrison and Johnson.

    Thunberg fights that fire with a similar fire … but she is uncorrupted by greed.

    It is showing to be effective

  15. A True Blue Aussie leader (not one of those smarmy faux leaders, Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian):

    If he can do it, why can’t the government?

  16. Wasn’t Vaile the guy on the Coalition side who was doing the (that which shall not be named) negotiations during the time of RGR which were subsequently sunk by (those who shall not be named).

  17. RE: What difference has Ms Thunberg made to action on global warming?
    Every group that tries to change society cops abuse, hatred, violence…whether it is environmentalists, woman suffragettes, womens rights, gay rights, anti-apartheid, indigenous rights groups etc. the leaders are called hysterical, trouble makers, anti-society, anarchists, terrorists etc…

    Ultimately they have all been right.

    Whether people like it or not, this is the only way for minorities to initiate change. Wearing a suit and quietly chatting to people in power (with existing privilege) gets us minorities (I am gay and aboriginal) nowhere.

    Blaming Greta for increasing hate is a shameful ‘blame the victim’attack.

  18. https://dogtrainingdevice.com/d-air-get/?1=newscorpau-aud-dailytelegraph&2=490007&3=590532430&4=1035

    I knew it was going to be a long flight as soon as she walked on with her two Chihuahuas…

    “Great,” I thought… “It was already a 3 ½ hour flight…. Now I have to listen to barking dogs the whole way.”

    Or so I thought… this is typically the case when people get on to flights with dogs, let alone Chihuahuas!
    But I noticed she was carrying something interesting. It was like a remote of some kind. I wasn’t sure, until a few minutes later when she used it.
    One of her dogs started yapping. “Here we go,” I thought. But as soon as it started yapping, she pulled out this device, quietly clicked it at the dog, and the dog INSTANTLY stopped barking, looked at her, then layed back down in her lap.

    This will be an excellent DIY project for the determined Poll Bludger intent on peace in out time.

    Attaching the magic device to the 84 inch (count em – 213 cm) flat screen TV (paid for with the soon to arrive tax cut from soon to be last year).

    First arrange with your friendly NBN provider to have your WIFI actually work

    then –

    For the gentlemen – grow a beard – take up whittling

    For the ladies – rearrange the socks drawer. Peruse you long held desire for portraiture.

    Grow old gracefully —–

    P.S. I believe the device will not function correctly without the presence of at least one Chihuahua.

  19. Boerwar @ #76 Tuesday, December 24th, 2019 – 9:04 am

    Wasn’t Vaile the guy on the Coalition side who was doing the (that which shall not be named) negotiations during the time of RGR which were subsequently sunk by (those who shall not be named).

    No, the chief negotiator with Penny Wong, from the Coalition side, was Ian Macfarlane. Who now heads the Minerals Council of Queensland.

  20. GG’s post in full.

    @RonniSalt
    ·
    Dec 23
    Over 4,400 comments posted to your facebook page and only just over 1,500 of them are visible.

    You’ve censored more than two thirds of the Australians who tried to tell you what they thought of you. The world is laughing at you.

    You can’t hide forever.

  21. @Snarkathon
    “The president of the body representing volunteer firefighters is demanding income support and masks for firefighters, warning the situation is now “out of control”.

    No doubt Morrison will blame him for panicking. Saying “Out of control”is verboten.

  22. T

    ALL the abuse in relation to Ms Thunberg on Bludger has been vented on Ms Thunberg’s behalf. Some of the abuse has been vicious. I am certain that you deplore this viciousness.

    The arguments for Ms Thunberg essentially comes down to these:

    1. She has mobilized lots of people who were not previously engaged. In particular Ms Thunberg has mobilized young people.
    2. Some time in the future these mobilized people will make a difference. When, where and how is not stipulated.
    3. Ms Thunberg has changed the quality of the climate policy debate by sticking to simplistic messages.

    The arguments against Mr Thunberg’s interventions essentially come down to these:

    1. Ms Thunberg has become the issue so she essentially acts as a useful lightning rod for the fossilites.
    2. She has dumbed down the debates about policies and politics of global warming.
    3. She has not made a practical difference in terms of the amount CO2 actually emitted.
    4. In fact, COP25 represents a significant retreat from global action. If we use COP25 as the global metric, then arguably, if Ms Thunberg HAS had an impact, it is the reverse of that needed.

  23. jenauthor @ #71 Tuesday, December 24th, 2019 – 8:57 am

    We live in an era of simplistic messaging … cf Trump, Morrison and Johnson.

    Thunberg fights that fire with a similar fire … but she is uncorrupted by greed.

    It is showing to be effective

    She also gives a voice – and hope – to those who are going to be most affected by climate change. Who are of course, the young. The younger you are, the tougher (and possibly shorter) your life is going to be – unless we act.

    But perhaps her biggest contribution is that she makes it 100% clear who is on board with action for climate change, and who is just pretending.

  24. Matthew Doran @MattDoran91 (ABC political reporter)
    ·
    17h
    Fires started burning in November. Are we still at “knee-jerk” stage?

  25. Chuckle.

    Q: Why won’t the Republicans convict and remove Trump now he is impeached?

    A: Because they always insist on carrying a baby to full term.

  26. “If we use COP25 as the global metric, then arguably, if Ms Thunberg HAS had an impact, it is the reverse of that needed.”

    Why would you blame her, and not Australia? There are SO MANY sensible alternatives to what you are claiming.

    But, yet again, you pick a weird series of points to argue, that are not only poorly defined but take a real stretch to defend. and then you’re going to make us argue against those points… Which is really boring, especially when you have a history of not acknowledging when you are wrong and shifting goalposts.

    It’s damn boring…

  27. Astrobleme

    As I have stated previously, Modi, Putin, Xi, Trump, Salman, Morrison et al wrecked COP25.

    Collectively they represent something like half of the world’s emissions.

    In a way this emphasizes my point about Ms Thunberg’s practical impact to date: nothing, or perhaps even less than nothing. My assumption here is that ‘practical’ is a change in CO2 emissions.

  28. C@tmomma

    A True Blue Aussie leader (not one of those smarmy faux leaders, Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian):

    Oi ! Russ le Roq is a Kiwi 🙂 Check out some of the photos !

    Russ le Roq Profile
    aka Russell Crowe
    https://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/russ-le-roq

    Sir Robert and Lady Muldoon with the cast of The Rocky Horror Show. Mark Rimmington (Rocky) is on the left, Russ le Roq (Eddie) is on the right. Taken by The Evening Post, May 1986.

  29. He’s also a stubborn man who won’t take advice.

    Any person who has ignored the warnings of impending bushfire threats, refusing to increase funding and preparedness then, in the face of the disaster, chooses to underwrite new fossil fuel powerstations and threaten to turn National Parks into a barren wasteland in an open and obvious FU to people who didnt vote for him and who he doesnt like – is not fit to be PM of a sand pit let alone a nation.

    Morrison is an ultra competitive political animal, where power is to be seized, a game to be won at any cost – bugger the national/global interest – against an imagined enemy (an impression he cultivates) that happens to be about half the population…. at a time we need open minded inspirational leaders.

    Why do these thugs rise to the top in the Liberal/National parties? Why do populations keep voting for egomaniac mercenaries and their snake oil? Was Plato right about the descent into tyranny?

  30. Asking what impact Ms Thunberg has had on global emissions to date is like Andrew Bolt’s question regarding how many degrees climate action by Australia will reduce the global average temperature.

  31. I note that Ms D’Arc has been raised in the context of Ms Thunberg.

    There IS one intriguing possible analogy between Ms Thunberg and Ms D’Arc.

    Ms D’Arc was burned for heresy by the Roman Catholic Church AND canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

  32. Trump demands ‘no more time should be wasted’ on impeachment — while on vacation in Florida

    Trump claimed that time was being wasted, after spending another day on the golf course instead of working. He’s spent a total of 231 days golfing out of 1,797 days in office. It has cost taxpayers $115,000,000 according to a GAO report cited by TrumpGolfCount.

    ….What right does Crazy Nancy have to hold up this Senate trial. None! She has a bad case and would rather not have a negative decision. This Witch Hunt must end NOW with a trial in the Senate, or let her default & lose. No more time should be wasted on this Impeachment Scam!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2019

    https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trump-demands-no-more-time-should-be-wasted-on-impeachment-while-on-vacation-in-florida/

  33. ….What right does Crazy Nancy have to hold up this Senate trial. None! She has a bad case and would rather not have a negative decision. This Witch Hunt must end NOW with a trial in the Senate, or let her default & lose. No more time should be wasted on this Impeachment Scam!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2019

    He sure does have a talent for cramming more lies than anyone else into one sentence.

  34. As I have stated previously, Modi, Putin, Xi, Trump, Salman, Morrison et al wrecked COP25.

    That may be, yet it shouldnt be viewed as tho half the world isnt doing anything. India is one of better countries wrt climate action and half of the US economy has stated they will continue to met their Paris agreement and work toward stronger action.

    Putin is a lost cause. Disruption is his game. Climate change is in his interests.

    Xi is the interesting one. Minimising climate change is in his interests yet their responses are mixed.

    And Morrison is a knob.

  35. White evangelicals blasted for backing Trump: ‘Where in the Bible does it say anything goes?’

    White evangelicals were blasted in The Washington Post on Monday.

    Less than one week before Christmas, Christianity Today magazine started a public debate over the morality of evangelicals supporting President Donald Trump.

    The magazine — founded by Billy Graham — called for Trump’s removal from office in an editorial.

    The debate continued on Monday with a Washington Post column by Eugene Robinson.

    “Evangelicals cannot have it both ways. They can’t claim to be a clarion voice of Christian values in the public square while at the same time behaving in politics like amoral secularists,” he explained. “Why should anyone take them seriously if they talk the talk but won’t walk the walk?”

    “Can a Christian movement completely ignore morality? Can it pretend not to know the difference between a leader who strives to be good and one who doesn’t? Tell me: Where in the Bible does it say anything goes?” Robinson asked.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/evangelicals-cant-have-it-both-ways/2019/12/23/70d2523c-25ae-11ea-9c21-2c2a4d2c2166_story.html

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