Way back between December 6 and 8, an online poll of 1016 respondents was conducted by Dynata for the Institute of Public Affairs covering myriad issues, results of which have been apportioned out piecemeal ever since. The latest serving seeks to counter the consistent finding of other pollsters that the nation’s most trusted news organisation is the ABC. The results have naturally been received with skepticism in some quarters, although asking respondents if they feel the ABC “does not represent the views of ordinary Australians” only seems dubious in that it’s framed in the negative for no clear reason. The poll found 30% in agreement with the proposition versus 32% who disagreed, leaving 38% on the fence.
The result has been elevated to a vote of no confidence in the organisation by Coalition Senator James McGrath (who I suspect might be surprised if he learned how many of its critics are on the left), while a News Corp report seizes on the result for the 18-24 age cohort to suggest the ABC has lost the esteem of the young. The latter overlooks a sub-sample size that would imply an error margin upwards of 10%. The survey period also predated the worst of the bushfires, which have presumably been good for the broadcaster’s public image. Previous results from the survey have covered the date for Australia Day, local councils making political statements and the powers of unelected bureaucrats and removing references to race from the Constitution.
Some news on state (and territory) affairs, including updates on two of the three by-election campaigns currently in progress, guides to which can be accessed on the sidebar:
• The Northern Territory by-election for the northern Darwin seat of Johnston will be held on February 29, an unwelcome development for Michael Gunner’s struggling Labor government ahead an election on August 22. Much attention was focused on the Greens’ decision to put Labor last on its how-to-vote cards, but it may also prove consequential that the Country Liberals have Labor ahead of the Territory Alliance, the new party formed by former CLP Chief Minister Terry Mills. The party’s candidate, Steven Klose, has been boosted by suggestions the party could emerge as the official opposition if it wins the seat, since it would have three seats to the Country Liberals’ two if Mills is joined by Klose and Jeff Collins, an ex-Labor independent who says he is a “50-50 chance” of joining the party. Tune in to the blog on Saturday for live results reporting with more bells and whistles than you might think the occasion properly demands.
• Labor’s candidate for Queensland’s Bundamba by-election will be Lance McCallum, a former Electrical Trades Union official and current executive director of the Just Transition Group, a government body to help energy workers whose jobs might be lost amid the transition to renewables. Michael McKenna of The Australian ($) reports McCallum was nominated unopposed after winning the endorsement of the Left, to which the seat is reserved under factional arrangements. A rival candidate for the Left faction’s ballot, Nick Thompson, had the backing of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, whose state secretary Michael Ravbar has disputed the legitimacy of the result. The only other known candidate is Sharon Bell of One Nation, who was the party’s federal candidate in Blair last year. No word on a Liberal National Party candidate, but The Australian reports the party is “expected to run”, despite the 21.6% Labor margin. Nominations close on Tuesday.
• A Tasmanian parliamentary committee report has recommended restoring the state’s House of Assembly to 35 seats, from which it was cut to 25 in 1998. Each of the state’s five electoral divisions have returned five members under the Hare-Clark proportional representation system, compared with seven seats previously. An all-party agreement was previously in place to do this in 2010 and 2011, before the then Liberal opposition under Will Hodgman withdrew support as a riposte to government budget cuts. No recommendations have been made in relation to the Legislative Council, which was cut from 19 to 15 in 1998, except insofar as the committee considered the possibility of it have dedicated indigenous seats.
Also, note below this one the latest guest post from Adrian Beaumont, covering recent developments involving the nationalist Sinn Finn party in Ireland and the far right Alternative fur Deutschland in Germany, along with yet another election in Israel.
Sprocket.
Keep and eye on the ABS this week.
https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/webpages/ABS+Release+Calendar
The 11:30 releases this week will be the high point. Keep and eye on the international trade figures which are monthly.
Oakeshott Country @ #919 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 9:13 pm
Forget it
JakeOC, it’sChinatownsinophobia.allan moyes:
[‘Morrison and Hunt’s advice to do little except wash our hands is crap in my view.]
At this, time there’s little better advice other than to go feral.
rhwombat says:
Forget it Jake OC, it’s Chinatown sinophobia.
————————————
I’m not anti-Chinese.
Bushfire Bill @ #1096 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 8:10 pm
You’ve certainly just cashed in more than your fair share of of those. 🙂
Your derogatory imputations and conjecture are incorrect. Enough said.
I am giving my talk on Smallpox and racism this week. My argument is that the panic associated with the Sydney smallpox epidemic of 1881 was the precipitator of the White Australia Policy
OC
Thought the first fleet brought smallpox with them.
Panic buy early, panic buy often.
Well you would be wrong (or perhaps right, who knows) but like all Australia’s smallpox epidemics that one extinguished within 18 months.
Due to cultural hygiene standards there are certain restaurants that should be avoided. This is why had the government stopped in-flights from China in January then by now the Australian Chinese community would be in the clear.
So which restaurants should we avoid and what has that got to do with the Chinese travel ban?
Oakeshott Country @ #928 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 9:22 pm
Sounds interesting and apposite OC. Where & when?
OC
I’m not going to play that game because a virus wont simply spread within the one cultural group and it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are cultural differences towards hygiene. The best way to deal with a pandemic is to prevent it from becoming one by containment at least until its clear how to treat it.
Grafton Hospital grand rounds 1pm Wednesday
Sandwiches provided by University of Wollongong
Please wash your hands before taking sandwiches off the tray
a r:
[‘You’ve certainly just cashed in more than your fair share of of those. ‘]
Really, dear, on what evidence do you make such an assumption?
So which restaurants should I avoid or should I avoid all
And what has this got to do with the Chinese travel ban
OC
When the first fleet arrived the local indigenous population were reportedly impacted by diseases from those on board.
OC
I am talking about the staff and hygiene standards. It doesn’t belong to one cultural group.
OC
Anti Chinese racism started in 1854
https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/eureka-rush-gold/minority-miners
Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #1048 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 7:29 pm
You say this, yet you still want to fund a project specifically intended to extend the lifetime of brown coal.
Go figure! 🙁
Mavis @ #1114 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 8:32 pm
The typo of “cranking credits” prefacing an extremely cranky rant. Thought it was self-evident. What else would a cranking credit be for? 🙂
And then 1861…
“One of the worst anti-Chinese riots occurred at Lambing Flat (now Young) in New South Wales.
In the winter of 1861 a brass band playing Rule Britannia urged on a few thousand white miners carrying anti-chinese banners who descended upon the Chinese camp. The Chinese miners were attacked, assaulted and their camp set on fire. A small police presence was ineffective in preventing the violence. Almost five hundred were injured in the attack and over one thousand Chinese miners fled from the Lambing Flat goldfield.
The pressure of anti-chinese feelings in Australian society encouraged the NSW government to introduce the Immigration Restriction Act and Regulations in 1861, reducing numbers of Chinese immigration and preparing the way for the first piece of Federal government legislation in 1901: the Immigration Restriction Act.”
EGT
The RAH problem is definitely cultural. The same administrators have run the QEH for lots of the RAHs life and the QE has much lower rates of bullying etc, a fact confirmed in that report.
The RAH treats much higher stress patients; neurosurg, Burns, trauma, cardiothoracic (who are generally the biggest wankers in any hospital), transplants etc. it’s also the highest prestige hospital in the state in the general community and overseas. It tends to attract a certain type of specialist. Obviously not all though. But if you are a rampant dickhead, chances are you will end up working at the RAH.
a r:
[‘The typo of “cranking credits” prefacing an extremely cranky rant. Thought it was self-evident. What else would a cranking credit be for? ‘]
Hardly probative evidence, where metaphor often reigns.
Chinatown in Adelaide is like a ghost town. The governor, who has Chinese heritage, went there to fly the flag but it didn’t work. The penchant for wearing face masks by many Chinese Australians doesn’t help IMO. People say “if there’s nothing to worry about, why has everyone in Chinatown wearing a face mask?”
Dio
And this is the point, travel bans since the middle of January would have put it beyond doubt that there isn’t an issue as most Chinese people have not been near Wuhan and most people who have are still there. I know a Chinese girl that has been wearing a mask but hasn’t been anywhere near China for a good 5 years.
Yes Sprocket but that legislation was repealed in 1865. The NSW legislation of 1881 was more draconian and formed the basis of the Federal legislation (I did a PhD on this)
Oakeshott Country @ #934 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 9:31 pm
Hmm…as long as Judy Wilyman (UoW PhD in Faculty of Law, Humanities & the Arts, and failed Involuntary Medication Objectors (Vaccination/Fluoride) Party candidate for the Senate (in the annus horribilis 2019) had nothing to do with the sandwiches…
” What else would a cranking credit be for? ”
starting a recalcitrant engine??
I understand the “Don’t Panic!” advice, and under normal circumstances would be inclined to consider it.
However, seeing how governments, their medical “authorities” and ideologues (who imagine they are in a low threat demographic and seem prepared to act as if this virus is just like a bad cold – so they’re not intending to alter their social behaviour) are behaving, I am not full of confidence.
Going out into crowds and doing business as usual is burying your head in the sand. No amount of irresponsible behaviour, social energy or childish name-calling will stop the virus.
Isolation is all that will even slow it down, much less stop it.
People coming here and casually stating that because statistics say their chances of dying are low (with no regard to their capacity as carriers of the disease) are just beyond the pale.
Governments recommending “business as usual” are just making it up as they go along.
One of the great history battles of the Culture Wars is the origin of the 1789 epidemic.
The Black Armband school argue it came with the first fleet – this defies the nature of the disease to be dormant for 18 months and there is no evidence that any of the white population was infected. However the first fleet pharmacopoeia included a vial of dried scabs which were to be used for inoculation. These were most likely inactive by 1789. Marcia Langford claims, with no evidence at all, that there was a deliberate policy of infection.
The White Blindfold school argues the infection spread through the inland from Macassan fishermen who interacted with Northern Territory aborigines.
A further school argues, with no evidence, that it was chicken pox or cow pox in an immunologically naive population
Diogenes:
[‘People say “if there’s nothing to worry about, why has everyone in Chinatown wearing a face mask?”]
Based on the Cth’s CHO’s comment that there’s no need for them. This will be Morrison’s big test (he doesn’t do evidence all that well). I’m hearing prayers at Horizon, other God botherers at the moment.
Because Chinese people are racists, obviously.
The real reason is that people are dying by the bushel in their homeland, hundreds of thousands are infected, and millions are in lockdown… and local Chinese people don’t want to risk suffering the same fate. They know how to minimise the risk, however small that risk is, unlike the Pollyannas here who think that somehow Australia and Australians have a special immunity.
We have a chance to slow down the virus here, but only if people are proactive in treating the possibility of an epidemic here seriously, not as if it’s some kind of debating point where the best virtue signaller wins.
It’s not going to help matters that there’s a common flu and a stomach virus doing the rounds now.
Diogenes @ #1087 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 6:44 pm
Because they were most likely wearing them before this blew up.
It’s not the Chinese you’ve got to worry about, it’s the Iranians. They look like the majority of Australians to the untrained eye:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/man-returning-from-iran-confirmed-as-fifth-case-of-coronavirus-in-nsw-20200301-p545pu.html
Player One @ #1082 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 6:37 pm
As I said I’m happy to fund the storage tests, as this could be used for other applications.
That is what the article is about and all I have commented on.
BB
“….childish name-calling…”
lol something you are a master of.
This afternoon we attended a free concert at Box Hill Town Hall. It was a full house. Sandwiches and scones were on offer for afternoon tea. Everyone had a great time singing, clapping and jiving to the music of famous female singers of the 1960s.
Just thought I would share this with you so you can have some more fodder to froth and rant, and generally just make stuff about what I do and say.
And not a face mask to be seen.
Barney
Yes they definitely were but it’s even more common now.
The C19 virus isn’t nearly as dangerous as Spanish flu because it’s lethality is a lot lower. The high risk group are same as for common flu, ie extremes age, heart or lung problems etc. The Spanish flu was highly lethal in very healthy people in their twenties and thirties.
Both diseases seem to have a higher mortality in people from China but it’s too early to be sure.
Face masks are often worn in countries with high levels of air pollution.
Peg
Surprised no one was wearing a mask because everyday I am seeing Chinese people wearing them. Many people were wearing masks before this virus but the numbers wearing masks has increased dramatically.
Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #1135 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 10:35 pm
Fine. Use your own money. Not mine.
Horsey, if you don’t start taking this virus seriously, then you are doing yourself a disservice… about which I normally couldn’t care less.
It’s when socially irresponsible people like you infect others, simply because you wanted to prove some debating point about how saintly you are, that I get peeved.
It might not have happened today (although can you be sure you weren’t sitting with in two metres of some who was sitting within two metres of someone else on flight QR-908, or who’s perhaps already inectious because they were in the Gold Coast the other day getting a manicure, or know someone who was?), but eventually people who hang around in crowds WILL contract the disease.
When your temperature’s 39c and the virus has moved to your lungs and maybe your kidneys, and you’re drowning in your own mucous, you’ll find out what “frothing and ranting” is all about.
BB
So you would like the government to institute some sort of lock down?
What sort?
Our surgery put up a little coronavirus awareness station at our entrance. It listed risk factors and had a box of face masks and alcohol gel hand wash. We had to keep replacing the boxes of face masks until we gave up. Those things go like hot cakes.
BB
You never disappoint with the facile assumptions and stereotypes. Well played.
Rant and rave and mock all you like, Horsey. When you get the virus from a stranger at a concert, I hope your holiness gives you strength.
BB
Love your projection. Rant, rave and mock is what *you* do whenever you grace us with your presence here on PB.
Nothing has changed for me. I live every day as if it is my last. Try it some time. Perhaps if you do you will find some peace and quiet in your mind and soul.
Bushfire Bill @ #1146 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 9:56 pm
I think you’re doing enough ranting and raving for all of us. Just wear your face mask and wash your hands.
Being a thrillseeker is entirely your own business Horsey.
It’s doing so and then infecting others that’s the stupid, selfish bit (because if you feel healthy, how could you infect anyone else, right?). I don’t expect you to understand the concept that others may have a less suicidal, daredevil bent than you do, but for formality’s sake I point it out anyway.
Your attitude is the same as the hoon who drives his car at 200kph down the wrong side of the road. Great fun, cheating death, living every day as if it’s his last etc. etc, until people who don’t share his values become collateral damage.
re Ovid 19 Corona Virus.
Forget Boomers and Chinese restaurants, the nail-biters are going down first. Let’s not even discuss nose-pickers, they are just dead humans walking.