No Newspoll this week it seems – which is unfortunate, because a report in New York Times ($) suggests coronavirus lockdowns are doing wonders for opinion poll response rates:
Even in online surveys, pollsters have also seen an increase in participation over the past few weeks. At the Pew Research Center, which does most of its polling through the online American Trends Panel, many respondents filled in a voluntary-comments box in a recent survey with expressions of gratitude.
It is inferred that “a wider variety of people are willing to tell pollsters what they think, so it’s more likely that a poll’s respondents will come closer to reflecting the makeup of the general population.”
Coronavirus is rather less conducive to the staging of actual elections, the latest casualty being the May 30 date that was set for Tasmania’s Legislative Council seats of Huon Rosevears, which was itself a postponement from the traditional first Saturday of the month. The government has now invoked a recently legislated power to set the date for a yet-to-be-determined Saturday in June, July and August. The Tasmanian Electoral Commission has expressed the view that a fully postal election, as some were advocating, did not count as an election under the state’s existing Electoral Act.
Tasmania and other jurisdictions with elections looming on their calendars might perhaps look to South Korea, which proceeded with its legislative elections on Wednesday. As reported in The Economist ($):
All voters will have their temperature taken before entering their polling station (those found to have fever or other symptoms will be directed to a separate polling booth). They will also have to wear a face mask, sanitise their hands and put on vinyl gloves before picking up a ballot paper and entering the booth. Election stewards will ensure people keep away from each other while queueing and voting. Door knobs, pencils and ballot boxes will be sterilised often.
Other than that, I can offer the following in the way of recommended reading: Antony Green’s post calling for pre-poll votes to be counted under wraps on election day starting from 2pm. This would address issues arising from the huge imbalance between election day booths, only one of which processed more than 4000 votes at the May 2019 federal election, and the three weeks’ accumulation of votes cast at pre-poll booths, of which 901 cleared 4000 votes, including 208 that went above 10,000 and ten with more than 20,000 (UPDATE: Make that 370 of more than 4000 and 208 of more than 10,000 – turns out the numbers in the table are cumulative). The result is that the largest pre-poll booths are not reporting until very late at night, many hours after the last trickles of election booths runs dry.
This has sometimes caused election counts to take on different complexions at the end of the evening — to some extent at the Victorian state election in November 2018, which ended a little less catastrophic for the Liberals than the election day results suggested, and certainly at the Wentworth by-election the previous month, when Liberal candidate Dave Sharma briefly rose from the dead in his struggle with the ultimately victorious Kerryn Phelps. It is noted that pre-poll votes in New Zealand are counted throughout election day itself, which is made practical by a ban on any election campaigning on the day itself, freeing up party volunteers for scrutineering who in Australia would be staffing polling booths.
Antony also argues against reducing the pre-poll period from three weeks to two, for which there has been quite a broad push since last year’s election, as it will lead to greater demand for the less secure option of postal voting, stimulated by the efforts of the political parties.
Also note my extensive post below on recent events in Wisconsin – you are encouraged to use that thread if you have something to offer specifically on American politics.
yabba
I truly, seriously want to see Trump just completely lose his sanity, live on air, and get carted away.
Poroti
But what If it is the lecturer’s fault the student is failing then they shouldn’t escape from their responsibilities. In some cases students can be their own worst enemy but some lecturers do not engage with students and worst still offer little in the way of meaningful feedback to help remedy the problem.
That’s actually a pretty revealing comment, in several aspects. It reveals what a pitiless bigot you are.
Only you’re probably too thick to realise it.
Cud Chewer @ #151 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 8:41 am
The “carted away” is the only new element here! 🙂
I think we can guess where the loudest whining and screaming and bitching has come from to push Friedeggburger to come with such a brilliant scheme.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/19/facebook-and-google-to-be-forced-to-share-advertising-revenue-with-australian-media-companies
Cud
“HSR might be an economic game changer, but not the version of HSR that was proposed in 2013. Labor needs to update its policy.”
No absolutely not. That study was run by accountants not engineers. The concept of preserving a HSR corridor was valid, but there was not enough detail on what the technical solution would be, or the importance of links from capitals to nearby regional cities more than capital to capital.
If you look at the first very successful TGV line from Paris to Lyon, it was the equivalent of Sydney – Canberra, not Sydney – Melbourne. Also the technical specification really matters. We need to be clear what sorts of track networks we should be building towards in all projects.
Rural rail construction can be done economically. I now think Melbourne – Sydney could be done as a project in about 6-7 years, if we could achieve French construction unit costs. That would need a commitment to a long term program of work that would justify the local industry developing the delivery capability. It could also mean local production of pre-cast components for track and power. We could build the train bodies locally too, though might need to import the bogies and traction motors until we can rebuild local manufacturing.
My Ken always said that it was when Universities and Colleges were dominated by people with Business degrees that they lost their souls. That was when many old school lecturers took early retirement, too.
Socrates
I’m possibly one of the few people who have gone over the 2013 Study line by line – and spoken to some of the people involved. There’s things in it that are not only wrong, but dodgy – in the Utopia sense.
We need to start again. First of all by asking the obvious question – why? What problem are we trying to solve?
Bushfire Bill @ #153 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 10:52 am
Just relentlessly vindictive and spiteful. And so up themselves they can’t see how relentlessly vindictive and spiteful they are.
Kronomex @ #155 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 10:54 am
The Coalition need help from Mordor at every new election and he is a ravenous beast with a bottomless pit of a stomach.
From The GG right wing bot:
“To be fair to Norman Swan, he wasn’t the only one to caution that unless we sat motionless in a corner and wrapped ourselves in Glad Wrap we’d be heading down the Italian route before we knew it.”
____________________________________
The right wing school of rhetoric is to attack a view they don’t agree with by a ridiculous and extreme, but clever and engaging, misrepresentation of what the view actually is.
Then they attack what they misrepresented, rather than what was really said.
Of course, this skill is not just a right-wing thing. Look at many of the posts on this site! But right-wing droogs, especially those with a crooked agenda, have it down to a fine art and produce the shit in industrial quantities.
Newcastle early morning overcast.
Turned a little finer with sun and white clouds suitable for spraying Oxalis and mowing.
Just now overcast and cool currently 22℃
Damn the United Nations and the BOM. Never mind I’ll just devote my time to getting ready for Anzac Day. ☔ Prolly not.
CC
Naughty 😉 just image the response.
On higher education i think a big part of the problem is cultural between those that say university should help train the workforce and those who say its focus should solely be on learning and research.
But i think it has always been all of those things and whilst i am supportive of people going to uni but far too many students are there thinking of what job they can get and how much they will earn instead of being their to learn. This leads to students studying degrees that they are not that interested in and i hate the focus on exams that are alien to how the real world works.
Well, duh. What a genius bit of observation from Truffles.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/turnbull-says-morrison-likely-played-leadership-double-game/12157500?section=politics
Woohoo!
lizzie
Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 11:10 am
Comment #165
Brilliant. Our now extreme left wing socialist Gummint will be bound to follow suit any day now. 😲
C@tmomma @ #159 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 10:59 am
The irony.
Lizzie
“The Danish Government has just become the 1st to announce that companies that are registered in tax havens won’t be eligible for bailout. ”
That would be a great policy for Labor to adopt too. That way Labor would not be seen to be opposed to assisting businesses, but would not be suckers either.
The pressure would then be on government to force the businesses to restructure or get a “buy out” not a “bail out”. So the government should get equity in return.
Would Virgin qualify for assistance under this rule? I suspect not.
A reminder from 2017
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up
Socrates @ #168 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 9:16 am
I think Virgin might be ok, they’re owned by entities based in Singapore, Taiwan(?) and the UK
but Angus Taylor might struggle to get assistance. 🙂
TPOF
A right drog with extras (crooked agenda) led recovery!
I hope they open up the IVF clinics pronto.
It would be especially good for peeps with reproductive clocks ticking close to midnight.
But then, if elective treatments were to be wound back in stages, how should we rank them in order of urgency and importance?
lizzie @ #165 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 11:10 am
Perhaps assistance to a company could be limited to a small multiple of the company tax which that company has been paid in Australia over the last couple of years.
Now that’s a good idea It’s Time.
Labor is already calling for the government to support Virgin not by simply handing over 1.4 billion dollars but by taking a equity share in the company which at some point in the future can be sold down.
The investment should be a no brainer. It would secure the jobs of 16000 Australian workers either directly or indirectly and would ensure a two airline domestic system is ready to operate once lockdowns are relaxed.
Everything one of those 16000 workers is a taxpayer and I cannot see how securing the future of Virgin by taking a equity share in the company would not be a solid economic and social investment going forward.
Put perfectly by our very own C@tzilla.
The Green Strelnikovs are never happy unless they’re part of an impromptu, trackside firing squad, executing deviationists and those they deem impure.
You know when you’ve pricked them. It’s when they tell you they feel sorry for you.
I thought there was a ‘move on’ order with respect to a certain pointless tit-for-tat ‘discussion’.
I see BB is doing the Greens on this site are all evil bastards.
etc etc.
As TPOF said some posters do follow the Newscorp model of attack.
From the previous thread:
Add another to the list.
When I was about 7 or 8, my mum wrote to the office at Elland Rd and said I was a big fan, and asked if they could get copies of autographs of the team.
They sent back a letter on official LU stationery with the autographs of everyone who was in the squad at the time. Bremner, Charlton (J), Lorrimer, Cooper, Madely, Hunter, et al including Don Revie himself.
I still have it in a picture frame, and despite it probably being worth a shiny penny or three nowadays, it is NOT for sale. I’ll sell my arse on the streets before I sell that.
Nil cases in Qld. Looking good following the NSW and Vic numbers. I wonder if it’s just to do with reduced activity on a Sunday. Hopefully not
Chuckle – sigh.
On some substance congratulations to Queenslanders. I hope the good news does continue and is not just a one day wonder.
Would that be like calling anyone who disagreed with you on energy policy a “Coal Hugger”?
Take your head out of your arse, Guytaur. It’s a beautiful world out here.
Jackol says:
Monday, April 20, 2020 at 11:32 am
I thought there was a ‘move on’ order with respect to a certain pointless tit-for-tat ‘discussion’.
________________
Hang on. For someone this ‘discussion’ has become their whole reason for existence. We should let him pursue it.
Doyley, regarding Virgin. The fact that investment is needed but not being provided by the current owners tells you everything you need to know about how sound an investment it is.
It is simply pissing the money away (probably into the coffers of the foreign owned airlines who own it now)
BB
When you are promoting digging up more coal that inevitably will be burned adding to the carbon in the atmosphere and come up with all kinds of excuses to deny that reality, coal hugger is indeed the correct term.
Its just as stupid as saying lets open the economy your grandmother’s death will help the economy.
doyley @ #175 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 9:27 am
That’s really dependent on the company being viable before the crisis.
Virgin had already been questioned as to its viability.
Zwaktyld says: Monday, April 20, 2020 at 11:39 am
Doyley, regarding Virgin. The fact that investment is needed but not being provided by the current owners tells you everything you need to know about how sound an investment it is.
It is simply pissing the money away (probably into the coffers of the foreign owned airlines who own it now)
*************************************************************************
The ‘Virgin’ brand is associated with British billionaire Richard Branson, but Mr Branson’s empire only holds a 10 per cent stake in Virgin Australia – through Corvina Holdings, a holding company registered in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands.
Actually the Singapore government is a bigger shareholder – with its state-owned airline Singapore Airlines holding a 20 per cent stake in the company.
United Arab Emirates airline Eithad also owns 20 per cent, while Chinese conglomerates HNA and Nanshan own about 20 per cent each.
In other words, far from being an Australian airline, Virgin Australia is 40 per cent Chinese, 20 per cent Singaporean, 20 per cent Emirati, and 10 per cent British Virgin Islands-owned.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2018/06/13/virgin-australia-haemorrhage-cash/
Barney
The great thing about Labor taking equity in Virgin is having a say on management.
It would not just be pay for workers that Labor would pursue.
Having that say also means a company that does not promote lets lower wages to reduce costs. This could be used to expose how bad Qantas is under Joyce.
Meanwhile in Victoria a new front in the First World Problems ‘war’ has been opened. 🙂
.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/20/australia-coronavirus-live-news-nsw-victoria-qld-contact-tracing-app-schools-exit-strategy-latest-updates
Tim Smith MP
(@TimSmithMP)
This was never just about golf. This is about an un-elected official having huge control over our lives and making decisions that are inconsistent with the rest of .
Victorians have a right to ask questions, and not be shouted down, given huge sacrifices people are making.
April 18, 2020
lizzie @ #181 Monday, April 20th, 2020 – 11:36 am
A great line. Pity these things never seem to occur to anyone from the ALP.
This was when Trump could read a message board. And he still looked slightly human. video 2.17
https://twitter.com/i/status/1252037589294411776
Not only has Denmark said it won’t bail out companies registered in tax haven, also won’t pay companies that buy back shares and pay out dividends.
Should only bail out companies upto amount of tax paid
Plibersek is right. The government is doing stuff-all to assist Australia’s 3rd largest export industry, education. The Higher Education package is a fraud perpetrated on the public.
In fact, they’re making it all far worse with the reputational damage by not helping out stranded fee-paying international students more. Unlike our competitors.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/government-s-university-rescue-package-a-fraud-says-labor-20200418-p54l0e.html
Barney in Tanjung Bunga
“I think Virgin might be ok, they’re owned by entities based in Singapore, Taiwan(?) and the UK”
Not Taiwan. China and the UAE as well as Singapore. The UK component (Richard Branson) is domiciled in the British Virgin Islands so it is a tax haven.
*Sigh*
@ubi_stories tweets
I would rather have my taxes spent on funding people than fossil fuel companies.
The more people that are able to flourish and maximize their potential, the better chance we have of dealing with climate change.
I gave my reasons for endorsing the tracking app. I said I’d install it when it became available.
That’s probably a minority viewpoint, especially around here.
But don’t confuse the clear utility of a piece of software that may enable you (and those you live with) to survive a life-threatening infection, or get medical attention before the virus ravages your entire body, with any kind of noble stand against State Encroachment.
It’s not. It’s designed to save lives. YOUR life, actually.
We’ve kept the enemy from the gate, so far. But we are only at the “end of the beginning” stage, until a treatment and/or a vaccine arrives. The virus can take off again just as easily as it originally did.
If we are to relax quarantine rules – after a properand expert evaluation as to which ones worked, and which ones didn’t – our next line of defence is rapid detection.
Cud Chewer wants to test all 25 million Australians. But that’s only a snapshot, telling us who’s infect and who’s not on that particular day (or perhaps week). We won’t catch everyone in the net. Some will forget to submit for testing. Some will actively avoid it. Then we have to do it all again.
To my mind this compulsory testing is closer to fascism than an app that keeps no records of where you are, just that you were near to an anonymous infected person within the last few days. If I received such a message I’d be pleased, not outraged that my privacy had been invaded and full of dark thoughts that ScoMo was selling my information off to his mates in marketing. I’d be glad to be given a chance of surviving the infection through early intervention.
In other words, we shouldn’t be overly dramatic about this. It’s Australia, not Nazi Germany. If we do we may be as silly as the Trumpists and anti-vaxxers, who give pretty much exactly the same “privacy”/”conspiracy theory” reasons for avoiding their own responsibilities.
But to provide an extra safeguard, the anotated source code should be made available to trusted invigilators, indeed anyone who wants it, and it should be verified that the compiled firmware available via download is indeed 100.00% based on the same source code as has been provided for examination. A simple parallel recompile by those trusted invigilators, with a tick (or a cross) to signify compliance should verify that.
I would nominate Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian as one such “trusted invigilator”. There must be plenty more like him around.
Once it’s approved, independently, then why wouldn’t you want to help yourself and those you care for survive this bloody pestilence?
With all this talk of getting back to work to save the economy and the Covid deaths of old people are just collateral damage, I make 2 observations
1. Govt has promised additional funding for aged care homes to provide additional staff
A cynic might say that if Covid went thru nursing homes the govt would save $500 per day per patient
2. There was damage done locking down the economy 3 weeks ago, companies that didn’t have enough cash reserves to pay wages for 6 weeks will have let their employees go
3. Businesses that rely on discretionary spending may not be able to reopen because customers have disappeared
4. How much damage to business confidence would be inflicted by opening up the economy too early then having
A. Covid rip through the community
B. Having to lock down again – that would break many small businesses
I imagine many bludgers will continue to practice physical distancing measures long after the all clear
Westminster Voting Intention:
CON: 52% (+3)
LAB: 31% (+2)
LDM: 8% (=)
GRN: 3% (-1)
Via Redfield & Wilton Strategies, 17 Apr.
Changes w/ 2 Apr.