No Newspoll this week, owing to The Australian’s enthusiasm for unleashing them at the start of parliamentary sitting weeks, requiring a three week break rather than the usual two. However, we do have a extensive new poll on the bushfire crisis from the Australian National University’s Centre for Social Research and Methods and the Social Research Centre. It finds that fully 78.6% of the population reports being affected by the fires in one way or another, 14.4% severely or directly. Half the sample of 3000 respondents was asked how Scott Morrison had handled the bushfires, of whom 64.5% disapproved; for the other half the question was framed in terms of the government, with 59.4% disapproving.
Beyond that, there’s the two state/territory by-election campaigns currently in progress:
• I have posted a guide to next Saturday’s by-election in the Northern Territory seat of Johnston, which has suddenly became of more than marginal interest owing to the Greens decision to put Labor last on their how-to-vote cards (albeit that local electoral laws prevent these being distributed within close proximity of polling booths). This has been done to protest the decision by Michael Gunner’s Labor government to lift a moratorium on gas fracking exploration. The party has not taken such a step in any jurisdiction since the Queensland state election of July 1995, when it sought to punish Wayne Goss’s government in the seat of Springwood over a planned motorway through a koala habitat. This made a minor contribution to its loss of the seat, and hence to its eventual removal from office after a by-election defeat the following February. There’s acres of useful information on all this on Antony Green’s new blog, which he is publishing independently due to the ABC’s cavalier treatment of the invaluable blog he had there in happier times. There will also be a piece by me on the Greens’ decision in Crikey today, God willing.
• The other by-election in progress at the moment is for the Queensland seat of Currumbin on March 28, for which my guide can be found guide can be found here. With the closure of nominations last week, only two candidates emerged additional to Laura Gerber of the Liberal National Party and Kaylee Campradt of Labor: Sally Spain of the Greens, a perennial candidate for the party in federal and state Gold Coast seats; and Nicholas Bettany of One Nation, about whom the only thing I can tell you is that he recently deleted his Twitter account (what’s preserved of it on the Google cache reveals nothing particularly outrageous).
‘But whether the sound, audible or inaudible, actually impacts human health remains a deeply contested issue.’
Any journalist who follows a comment like this with a ream of scientific investigations showing it doesn’t shouldn’t have been allowed to write the article in the first place.
It isn’t a deeply contested issue.
It’s the old thing of confusing opinion with fact.
“Some people think their symptoms are caused by wind farms, but there is absolutely no scientific support for their beliefs” is the truthful statement.
The media’s quest for false balance and their treatment of opinion as if it was fact is just as much to blame for our current woes as any political party or parties.
Allowing seeds of doubt to flourish where there are none, instead of having the courage to say to people, “I’m sorry, but you’re wrong” and explain why, makes the task of those trying to get the facts across much, much harder.
Danama Papers @ #47 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 9:03 am
Funny how God only seems to speak to people like that who dropped too much acid in the 1960s. 😐
Cud Chewer @ #42 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 8:55 am
Sounds good.
Email it to Labor HQ and we’re off and running!
lizzie
‘Quite irrelevant comment from me, as I have no car-devotion, but I learned to drive in an FB Holden sedan with the gear change on the steering wheel.’
I learnt to drive in a range of cars.
I jumped into a friend’s Holden and put his gearbox out looking for fourth gear.
I’d never been in a car which didn’t have fourth, but he refused to believe that, because (at that stage) most cars on the road had three.
Danama Papers @ #47 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 9:03 am
This requires no comment from me. I couldn’t find the words anyway.
I reckon a bit of copying, rewriting the words and the swapping flags. Then place out the front of every Pentecostal business masquerading as a place of worship.
How good would that be?
I guess you would expect the fund to be in the name of the provider of funds…….
Rick Wilson
@TheRickWilson
·
27m
Jeff Bezos says he’s giving $10 billion — about 7.7% of his net worth — to fight climate change https://businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-giving-10-billion-to-fight-climate-change-2020-2?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter via
@businessinsider
Jeff Bezos says he’s giving $10 billion to fight climate change — about 7.7% of his net worth
The richest man in the world is giving about 7.7% of his $129.9 billion net worth to launch the Bezos Earth Fund, he announced on Instagram on Monday.
businessinsider
Morrison is on ABC Breakfast doing his usual Wall Of Sound, this time on COVID-19.
This guy just doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up. He spins everything, absolutely everything.
He is declaring an end to the emergency. The spin is not just that we have adequate, or professional medical infrastructure, but the best, the most brilliant, most superb in the world.
It’s all “feel good” marketing stuff. Mention words with positive connotations – “the best”, “brilliant”, “magnificent” etc. -to put the listener into a good mood, and hope some of the optimism rubs off on you.
Now he’s off again with the Wall Of Sound, this time on Climate Change. Can’t fuckin’ shut up. Gish Galloping, breathing through his ears so he doesn’t have to stop yabbering, we’re the best, jobs-yay, electricity-boo, Surplus-good, taxes-bad.
I can switch him off at least. Imagine having to pretend you’re interested in what he’s saying.
thanks, KayJay, standard markup code. good, i can work it out now. “the conversation” uses some new fangled markup system (with a guide) & the guardian is a kind of hybrid-idiosyncratic system (its the gruniad after all). -cheers, a.v.
Alpha zero
I am looking forward to the day that these cultists truly see how far from perfect Trump is. The day will come. And it will be a shit show all round.
Islamic groups plan legal fight over ALP powerbroker’s ‘racist’ claim
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/islamic-groups-plan-legal-fight-over-alp-powerbroker-s-racist-claim-20200217-p541jt.html
zoomster
My strongest memory of learning to drive was being reduced to tears after every lesson because (of course) it was my husband as teacher (in those days professional driving instructors were, if not uncommon, out of financial reach). The other memory is putting the car into reverse in a park by the beach and then circumcising a tree about three times at speed!
C@tmomma @ #52 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 6:15 am
Or not enough acid. 😉
Victoria @ #59 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 6:23 am
That day will never come because if it does Trump will be the victim in their eyes. Remember it’s all a conspiracy against him and that’s what they’ll keep believing.
It’s like AGW denialists, anti-vaxxers, Sept 11 truthers and moon landing hoaxers. They keep the faith forever.
‘We can save Earth’: Jeff Bezos says he’s committing $US10 billion to fight climate change
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/we-can-save-earth-jeff-bezos-says-he-s-committing-us10-billion-to-fight-climate-change-20200218-p541qd.html
West Gate Tunnel saga shows risk of ‘lock-in’ on mega-projects pitched by business
https://theconversation.com/west-gate-tunnel-saga-shows-risk-of-lock-in-on-mega-projects-pitched-by-business-131210
Fed govt pledges $2 to help develop vaccine.
Isn’t it wonderful that Morrison can always find money for the latest bright new idea, but not for genuine welfare aid.
It’s been long established that the levels of infrasound produced by wind farms are not high enough to affect human health. Just look at the dodgy studies done and the astroturf groups pushing the meme, and follow the money – Landscsape Guardians (assuming they’re still around), the IPA etc
Fess
The hardcore cultists cant be helped, but many will wake up
Who would have thought, I was on the same wavelength as the Mooch
Anthony Scaramucci
@Scaramucci
·
5h
You are absolutely right. I predicted the lawlessness and criminal activity of
@realDonaldTrump
but I was wrong about the
@SenateGOP
. I thought they would honor the Constitution like
@MittRomney
“lizzie says:
The other memory is putting the car into reverse in a park by the beach and then circumcising a tree about three times at speed!”
Poor tree!
I am reminded of the exam answer stating that Bass and Flinders circumcised Tasmania with a 12 foot cutter 🙂
This is one item that Bandt will be taking to Australian farmers:
‘The Australian Greens want:
A moratorium on the further release of GMOs into the environment until there is an adequate scientific understanding of their long term impact on the environment, human and animal health. This includes the removal as far as possible of GMOs from Australian agriculture while the moratorium is in place.’
https://greens.org.au/policies/genetically-modified-organisms
Parsing that is fairly straightforward because the outcome sought is informed by the Greens Left ideology that hates Monsanto and Bayer and the likes.
As with so many things that affect the bush that the Greens ‘want’ in their policy documents, ‘adequate’ is not explained. The particular kicker here is how long do GMOs need to be tested before the scientific understanding is ‘adequate’.
‘The removal as far as possible of GMOs from Australian agriculture…’ The consequence of this for rural and regional electorates is quite direct and quite large. The entire Australian cotton crop is GMO.
No doubt the Bush Bandit will be able to mansplain his way through this one with his friendly farmers.
Conclusion from the bushfire poll (p.38):
“For the Coalition Government, the results suggest that changes in attitudes are not restricted to those who would not have voted for the Coalition in the first place. The change in voting intention is as substantial as other reporting would suggest. There is good news though, in that those who had more direct forms of exposure to the bushfire were no more likely to have changed their vote away from the Coalition than those who weren’t exposed. They weren’t less likely to have though.
There are also implications for the two main opposition parties. Swings away from the Coalition between October 2019 and January 2020 did not result in large swings towards Labor or the Greens. These two parties need to engage with those who currently don’t know who they would vote for or who would vote for an ‘Other’ party if they want to capitalise on the ill feeling towards the Coalition and Prime Minister Scott Morrison. A disproportionate amount of the swing did occur outside of the capital cities, likely to be key battlegrounds between now and the next election.”
Good find, Lizzie.
But I suspect it is the common law duty of care referred to in this case. The lawyers are arguing that there is no specific clause in the Act relating to duty of care.
Nonetheless, it is important that our wonderfully caring government has stated that they could not care less about the welfare of their vulnerable citizens.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/18/coalition-says-it-has-no-duty-of-care-for-welfare-recipients-over-robodebt
Times are changing re coverage of the Greens party with a very positive article published in two rural papers:
1. https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6629243/bandts-family-invented-the-ute-and-he-wants-to-match-its-impact/
2. https://www.theland.com.au/story/6629243/bandts-family-invented-the-ute-and-he-wants-to-match-its-impact/?cs=4951
Peg
There is plenty of interest in that Report.
It seems to me that, reading between the lines, the electoral response in rural and regional electorates away from the Coalition might be a shift further to the right – PHON, Shooters and Fishers, Katter and Australia United.
In other words, electoral shifts in rural and regional electorates may be propelled more by an ‘us v them’ frame, ‘rural v inner urbs’ frame than another ways of framing policy.
Peg,
That conclusion endorses the Albo and Labor strategy of engaging workers and families in regional locations that depend on mining. That appears to be where the votes Labor needs to form Government live.
Victoria @ #59 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 6:23 am
Why would you expect that to happen?
Denial of reality is one of their core qualities.
BW
Yep, that’s how I read it.
Peg
Lewis Bandt’s claim to have invented the ute in Australia in the 1930’s (complete with the oh so-amusing wife/pig story*) is a bit of Ford Motor Co fake news. It is not true.
Utes were already being constructed in the US during the 1920’s.
The Bush Bandit should be a bit careful when it comes to propagating hokey pokey fake news being sold by international motor corporations. Was the Bush Bandit born in a log cabin, perhaps?
*The Bush Bandit should know that when the real bush blokes get together for a piss up, the wife and the pig are transposed.
On my 17th birthday I thought, I’m going to get a drivers licence. 45 birthdays later and I’m still thinking I should get a driving licence then procrastinitis sets in and it’s, “Do it next year.”
Boerwar,
these ragtag, ratbag minor parties (PHON, Shooters and Fishers, Katter and Australia United) are vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy.
They say they will hold the gov’t to account,
But
When there is an important vote threatening the viability of the LNP gov’t they protect them every time.
Hanson could not even vote to try and force Cormann to produce Gaetjens’ document.
‘Greensborough Growler says:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 10:06 am
Peg,
That conclusion endorses the Albo and Labor strategy of engaging workers and families in regional locations that depend on mining. That appears to be where the votes Labor needs to form Government live.
Exactemundo. Rural and regional electorates, many of them once Labor strongholds, are now a Labor wasteland.
From the Oz
Scott Morrison is expected to adopt a technology investment target to avoid Australia signing up to an internationally imposed requirement for net zero emissions by 2050, with the new climate change plan to be presented at this year’s UN summit in Glasgow.
The move comes as the peak business lobby says at least $22bn of investment in new technology every year and a doubling of current renewable energy generation capacity within the next 20 years are needed to meet a net zero emissions target by 2050.
‘Maude Lynne says:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 10:10 am
Boerwar,
these ragtag, ratbag minor parties (PHON, Shooters and Fishers, Katter and Australia United) are vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy.
They say they will hold the gov’t to account,
But
When there is an important vote threatening the viability of the LNP gov’t they protect them every time.
Hanson could not even vote to try and force Cormann to produce Gaetjens’ document.’
Yep. But.
My view, FWIW, is that it is a cultural thing rather than a rational policy and program thing. Any party that demonstrates a strong commitment to ‘us v the inner urbs’ will do well. (Ms Lambie was, under the guise of a general discussion on political trust, parading this very ‘me and you against them’ on Q&A last night.
Nobody on the panel seemed to know what to do about this, intellectually.
steve davis @ #86 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 7:13 am
It is going to take a Labor government to deploy effective action to reduce our GHGEs.
‘steve davis says:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 10:13 am
From the Oz
Scott Morrison is expected to adopt a technology investment target to avoid Australia signing up to an internationally imposed requirement for net zero emissions by 2050, with the new climate change plan to be presented at this year’s UN summit in Glasgow.’
There used to be a conservative aphorism about governments not picking winners. Morrison has come up with a holey paddle for a barbed wire canoe to try and paddle the conservatives out of shit creek.
lizzie @ #87 Tuesday, February 18th, 2020 – 7:13 am
I suppose it’s a chance for the Australian to finally make a positive contribution to society.
For some reason none of them wanted to point out that she is every bit the snout in the trough politician as the next one. It wasn’t until that question as to why she refused to justify her vote to repeal Medivac that she stopped going on about it.
Boerwar
This technology solution reminds me of the Abbott/Hunt Direct Action, which enables money to be thrown around to favourites without necessarily doing any good.
Really excellent article by Antony Green, that explores the decision by the Greens in the NT to “put Labor last” because of their policy on fracking …
https://antonygreen.com.au/greens-preference-against-labor-in-johnston-by-election/
It concludes …
Now that there is a real opportunity for left-leaning voters to send the ALP a message without too many other consequences … will they do so?
I for one certainly hope so!
Morrison’s response to the Death of the Holden was Morrison SOP: attack GM with vigor, sleazy accusations, and a mass of half truths. Ignore your own role in it completely.
BW
Agree. The audience strongly applauded her utterances to that effect.
Labor will continue to be accused of talking out of both sides of its mouth, aka mixed messages directed to inner suburbs and coal-mining communities. Until it resolves what the party stands for and who it represents, its ability to gain traction in both constituencies will be difficult.
‘lizzie says:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 10:18 am
Boerwar
This technology solution reminds me of the Abbott/Hunt Direct Action, which enables money to be thrown around to favourites without necessarily doing any good.’
Indeed. A lot of big corporations harvested a lot of money making decisions they were already going to make for market reasons. Hey maaaaaaaaaate! Money for jam.
P1
Yes, AG’s article was linked to the other day by GG iirc. It’s an accurate and balanced account devoid of hysteria and hyperbole, as you would expect.
Pegasus
“Victoria’s government finds itself in a big hole with its West Gate Tunnel project. As diggers lie idle in a dispute over what to do with contaminated soil, it’s facing long delays and billions in extra costs. But the government appears locked into a contentious project that was put to it as a market-led proposal, an arrangement that bedevils transport projects across Australia.”
Agreed, West Gate Tunnel is a terrible project, and Victoria should not have agreed to it. The question is why did they? There was plenty of expert advice warning it was a dud. The next series of Utopia should poke fun at another cause of our bad planning – corruption and conflicts of interest. Incompetence alone does not explain why we do this stuff.
On the general point of privately suggested infrastructure project, can anyone name one built in Australia that turned out well for builder and taxpayer in the past decade? They generally only seek government support because the project cannot pay for itself.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-20/holden-chased-out-of-the-country-by-coalition-in-2013/9069468