Leadership polling, Eden-Monaro latest, yet more on COVID-19

Scott Morrison settles in at a lofty approval rating perch, as hordes of candidates descend upon Eden-Monaro.

Firstly, as per the above post, don’t forget to give generously to the Poll Bludger’s bi-monthly donation drive. Now to an assembly of recent events in the worlds of polling and Eden-Monaro:

• The Guardian reports the latest Essential Research poll includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings, which find Scott Morrison’s approval up a point to a new high of 65% and disapproval down a point to a new low of 26%, reflecting continuous improvement since a nadir of 39% and 52% in February. Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister is 53-23, compared with 50-25 last time. Albanese stands at 43% approval, up one, and 30% disapproval, up three. These numbers have been used to update the BludgerTrack trends, which can be see on the sidebar or in detail here, showing Morrison now at a plateau after his recent ascent.

• The Essential poll also finds 41% saying Jobkeeper reporting bungle reflected negatively on the federal government, compared with 43% saying it did not. “A third” wanted Jobkeeper broadened in response, along with another 20% who wanted the eligibility criteria broadened, while 45% preferred that it go to reducing the debt. The poll also featured a semi-regular suite of questions on the leaders’ attributes, which have become more favourable for both leaders across the board since January. This is especially so in the case of Morrison, and still more especially in the case of his ratings for good in a crisis (66%), leadership capability (70%) and trustworthiness (66%), which have yo-yoed between the bushfire and coronavirus crises. These ratings will be available to review in detail when the full report is published later day. UPDATE: Full report here.

• A poll by the Australia Institute finds 77% support across the country for state border closures. Labor and Greens supporters are somewhat more in favour, One Nation supporters somewhat less so. The poll was conducted online on May 27 and 28 from a sample of 1005. Small-sample state breakdowns suggested Western Australians were particularly supportive, at 88%, a finding consistent with …

• The West Australian ($) had a poll yesterday that recorded a remarkable 89% in favour of keeping the state’s borders closed, with which the state government is persisting in the face of criticism from the federal government and New South Wales government. Presumably the poll had more to it than that, but that’s all there is in the report. The poll was conducted online by Painted Dog Research on Thursday from a sample of 1000.

Eden-Monaro latest:

• With a week still to go before the closure of nominations, the ABC by-election guide records ten candidates and counting, including Cathy Griff for the Greens, Matthew Stadtmiller for Shooters Fishers and Farmers, sundry candidates for the Liberal Democrats, Science Party, Christian Democrats and Sustainable Australia, and two independents. The Nationals have also opened nominations, although they have not traditionally polled strongly in the seat. The deluge has prompted Antony Green to argue that all candidates should be required to produce 100 locally enrolled nominators. This burden is currently imposed only on independents, exemption being a perk of party registration.

• The Australian Electoral Commission has announced its service plan for the by-election, detailing special measures arising from COVID-19. A familiar set of social distancing rules will apply at polling booths, and mobile polling will not be conducted as normal at hospitals and aged care facilities, where “support teams” will instead assist with postal and telephone voting (the latter still only available to the visually impaired).

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.

2,003 comments on “Leadership polling, Eden-Monaro latest, yet more on COVID-19”

Comments Page 15 of 41
1 … 14 15 16 … 41

  2. “So what we should know as right and left is self-identified? I’m sorry, but these terms seem relative. It is challenging when the same terminology is used to express difference of political thought in relation to another when the reference alters between posters.”

    ***

    Mostly people are lazy (myself included) and lump conservatives in with the economic right and progressives in with the economic left.

  3. Thank you Firefox!

    That begs the question. Do those people that you believe right wing and centrist self-identify with your definition?

  4. “ I feel an overwhelming sense of vindication.”

    Thank you for proving my point. You give zero fucks about actually achieving progress, only about being seen to be supporting progress.

    Vindication? What a wank.

  5. Yep, vindication. I didn’t support a war criminal. That’s real progress, not supporting some disgrace that enabled the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

  6. So, given that the Australian voters have had the opportunity to vote for the Australian Greens since at least 1996, why are they doing so in such small numbers, if all that is needed is a bold left-wing agenda to convince people to stop voting for the Coalition?

    I take this as a sign that the majority of Australian public do not want the Greens policies, much as that pains me.

    I missed this earlier.

    I don’t know the answer.

    There is an element that must be put down to money and ability to mount a full scale campaign. Then the media / ALP and LNP all have a vested interested in just keeping them out of the spotlight. Then there is their habit of concentrating on protest and what they can stop rather than what they can make happen and how they can help people. Then they are a very considered and policy deep party, in it turns out an age that couldn’t careless about policy.

  9. Yep, vindication. I didn’t support a war criminal.

    You would think coming out of WWII not supporting war criminals and not being keen on detaining and torturing and killing people in concentration camps would be like just baseline tests, rather than tests 90% of the population of the allies in WWII have failed in the last 20 years.

  11. The right wingers I’m talking about are the people who support the rampant capitalist economy that is destroying the world. This includes the so called “centrists” who support the status quo. The people who put their own profits ahead of people and the planet.

    In essence those who, when push came to shove, supported capital rather than labor, the 1% rather than the 99%.

  12. “ I take this as a sign that the majority of Australian public do not want the Greens policies, much as that pains me.
    I missed this earlier.

    I don’t know the answer.”

    Labor needs the Greens 10%. The Greens need Labor’s 33%. But even together, they need at least another 7% to get any actual progress done.

    Labor realises this. In their more sober moments walking down the hall of mirrors some of the Greens realise this as well, but it still doesn’t stop them from wedging Labor as it goes after that 7+%. Only when a sense of detente emerges and everybody realises that the greens need Labor and that they both need the middle (as low imformTion, low interest and as feckless as they may be) AND fashion policies that make common cause for all three can we actually get somewhere. Being ‘right’, or ‘pure’ will play no part in this. Labelling good men as war criminals for example, is a complete disconnect from what needs to done. Give yourself an upper cut firefly.

  13. Ha, ha, even Keating has moved away from the economic model AE champions. How is that centre right ideology working for ya AE, you know the one where you called the last state NSW election for Labor…wait… no… wait… oh fuck! Winning.

  14. I define the right as a group who see politics purely in terms of power. They have no reforming agenda and have no interest in transforming society. This is because they have no imagination. They are cowed, timid and beaten. Had they been running Labor between 49 and 72, it would most definitely have folded up it’s tent and gone home This group always judge others by their own low standards and always think the worst of others. As a group, it is difficult to distinguish them from the elite, apart from the fact that they went to the wrong school, live in the wrong suburb and drive the wrong car. If things were just a little bit different, if you could squint hard enough, you could see them voting Tory. In fact many of them probably have. Most have petit bourgeois backgrounds and no connectivenesss to anything remotely working class. There are decided Grouper and patronizing elitist strains in their views as well.

  15. In my sopoforic state I shall take the liberty to conjecture. Pardon me please. Politics appears to be a game of tactics, raiding resources i.e. voters, within the Overton window. Not negating the use of strategy i.e. moving the Overton window itself. The latter is subject to external forces; predictable e.g. Murdoch media, education, immigration and wild e.g. pandemic, war, GFC.

    Hawke and Keating did rather well in raiding beyond the political base, as did Howard, and now Morrison.

    Time to sleep!

  17. Fuckwit Clem. I don’t champion what you say I champion. If you weren’t such a vindictive drunk, you’d have realised that.

    It is also clear that you don’t comprehend what Keating did, let alone what he presently thinks.

    You are a textbook example of the malaise I was talking about. Too busy labelling folk you don’t like, or understand, and placing them in some convenient box to actually contribute in any constructive fashion.

    There is a conclave of seagulls that are missing you. Off you go.

  18. Before I sleep, thank you Clem Attlee. Again I have the question, is your characterisation how those that you have put in this group self-identify?

  20. My wife and I have recently moved to the Northern Territory. For some reason, she seems to get polled quite a bit, and tonight she was polled for the first time ahead of the upcoming Northern Territory election. We are in the seat of Port Darwin, currently held by Labor, but usually a CLP seat. The poll asked her to choose her most important issue for the upcoming election, from a list that included the economy/jobs, crime, the environment/climate change, plus a couple of others. It then asked about voting intentions. The only candidate actually named was the CLP candidate Toby George; all other choices were a candidate for the Labor Party, a candidate for the Greens etc. When she dialed the number for Labor, the question was repeated. This went on several times until she gave up and hung up. I am guessing this will have been a glitch, but interesting that the only candidate named was the CLP candidate.

  21. “ How is that centre right ideology working for ya AE, you know the one where you called the last state NSW election for Labor”

    Fool of a took!

    You are conflating ideology (which you have me labelled incorrectly anyways) with mere punditry, In which my confidence of the weeks before the State poll were admittedly misplaced. Alas.

    On election punditry, It’s a curious thing, that State election. My confidence that there would be a swing away from the government was correct. In fact – in an election where each of the four major parties all lost ground in their primary votes, the swing away from the Libs and Nat’s was the greatest. However, where my hopes were misplaced was my hope that the swing would end up (on preferences at least) with Labor. Unfortunately, the protest vote mainly exhausted. I think the party has wasted 8 years. Both factions and both wings. This is very frustrating, but your frankly parochial ‘victorian’ obsessions with ‘groupers’ and other such gollums are simply, like all of your various ruminations, an irrelevancy.

  22. I think it’s unfortunate that AE feels the need to swear at people and tell them to uppercut themselves when he gets angry.

  25. Shellbell

    That’s five minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. He obviously wants to go back to Tibet in the future. Everything is racism unless it is in the precise words approved by Dr Roche – everything else is a Dog Whistle if he defines it as such.

  26. The problem with left and right is that the meaning various. In Europe the term is straightforward because you are either of noble birth or you are not and Australia has mostly followed the European understanding of class but Americans idea of left and right is more about economics.

    The ideas of centralised government or smaller government are not new ideas and have been argued about throughout Australian political history but what does seem to have changed has been a shift away from European ideas of conservative vs labour to the American idea of markets vs government but funnily enough America is more over governed than other western countries.

  27. clem attlee:

    This group always judge others by their own low standards and always think the worst of others.

    Andrew_Earlwood:

    Fuckwit Clem. If you weren’t such a vindictive drunk

    Your point was illustrated perfectly there, clem.

  28. Someone want to explain how Biden and Pelosi are going to be less divisive after November this year than they are before?

  29. Are they still arresting hair dressers in the US for opening their businesses? Because that is clearly a major threat to civil society.

  30. “Black lives matter and their human rights should be guaranteed,” said #China’s FM spokesperson on Monday, urging U.S. to eliminate racial discrimination, protect minorities bit.ly/2BinRas

    Who knew that they had a sense of humour?

  31. PJK used to be my hero too. However, that was mostly because of his style and wit.

    I actually worked in his two departments. In important respects he wasn’t a very good PM. Disengaged from 93 to 96. Good big picture themes but no longer so effective as a politician or government leader. Things didn’t get done.

    As to his time of Treasurer, heady, but a lot of the underlying work came from Hawke and Walsh and other ministers.

    He was badly wrong on the recession we had to have and, in hindsight, in privatizing the CBA.

    But still so brilliant and a true fighter of Tories.

  32. In a powerful moment, The Tennessee National Guard lays down their shields at a protest that has made its way up the steps of the Tennessee Capitol.

    https://twitter.com/RebeccaWSMV/status/1267618739727499264/photo/1

    “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”

    According to a Military Times survey conducted last fall, 50 percent of active-service military hold an unfavorable view of the president, compared to only 37 percent when he was elected. Officers especially disfavor him, with only a third indicating approval.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/opinion/trump-military.html

  35. New Zealand got it right. Now you’d better hope Australia gets lucky.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/02/ardern-says-new-zealand-on-track-to-eliminate-coronavirus-ahead-of-schedule

    New Zealand’s government will consider a move to lift all Covid-19 restrictions except border controls after Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said an early lockdown of the country was on track to eliminate the virus “ahead of schedule.”

    “Our strategy of going hard and early has paid off, in some cases beyond expectations and what modelling and data had predicted,” Ardern told reporters in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday. Her comments came as health officials announced an 11th straight day of no new Covid-19 cases recorded in New Zealand.

  36. Bushfires.
    “For some reason the impending risk does not seem to have permeated into the executive or to cabinet.”
    This seems to be a feature of this government. Do ministers even bother to read reports? or are the bureaucrats too protective?

    Most notable was the commonwealth’s ad hoc response on aerial firefighting, which was well documented during the fires.

    A funding agreement between the states and the commonwealth for the National Aerial Firefighting Agency was reached in 2003 after a particularly fierce bushfire season. The Howard government agreed the commonwealth would provide 50% of the funds each year.

    But by 2017, the federal share of funding had fallen to 23%.

    Despite a formal request in 2017 from the national agency to permanently increase its budget, the federal Coalition chose to offer an $11m “one-off” top-up to the centre’s $14.8m funding in 2018. That was renewed on 12 December 2019. But by then the east coast was already ablaze.

    …
    In the federal sphere, the main responsibility for assessing the outlook for the bushfire season fell to Emergency Management Australia (EMA) – once a separate agency, now a branch within the sprawling home affairs portfolio.

    The branch told the Guardian it hosted 11 disaster preparedness briefings across all states, beginning in August 2019 when the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre released its seasonal outlook.

    The outlook warned, quite accurately though in somewhat muted language, where the risk lay.

    …
    EMA said it held a further nine briefings with defence department and other agencies that needed to be involved in the co-ordination between August and November.

    But for some reason the impending risk does not seem to have permeated into the executive or to cabinet.

    EMA’s first briefings with ministers on preparedness for the bushfire season took place in November, and by then bushfires had already raged through parts of Queensland and northern NSW.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/03/australian-bushfires-fois-shed-new-light-on-why-morrison-government-was-ill-prepared

  37. Quasar @ #734 Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020 – 2:22 am

    White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1221456?__twitter_impression=true

    And middle class white kids who support the Animal Liberation Front, fcs!

    But in some cities, local officials have noted that black protesters have struggled to maintain peaceful protests in the face of young white men joining the fray, seemingly determined to commit mayhem.

    In footage that spread widely online, a man identified as Bartels, who faces charges of vandalism and rioting, wore a bandanna emblazoned with the symbol of the Animal Liberation Front, a leaderless international resistance movement that pushes for animal rights. In the footage, he raised his middle fingers to black protesters who begged him to stop. At Bartels’s home in a Pittsburgh suburb, officers found spray paint and firearms, according to an arrest warrant reviewed by The Washington Post.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/protests-white-instigators/2020/06/01/b916bd98-a426-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

  39. I don’t think “racial hostility” is the only thing driving Trump’s base. A lot of it is anger at things these people cannot understand that are primarily economic. They don’t understand that they’ve been voting against their own best interest. Lots of small towns with depressed economies and wage slavery. Lots of incomprehending anger.

  40. Bucephalus @ #728 Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020 – 11:44 pm

    Someone want to explain how Biden and Pelosi are going to be less divisive after November this year than they are before?

    1. Because they are not. Unless you set a very low bar for them and a very high bar for Donald Trump.
    2. Speaking of which, no one on god’s earth can out divisive that guy.

    Oh, and the hairdresser, she got put in jail for breaking the law when everyone else around her was observing it, after multiple warnings to do the right thing. You believe in being a law abiding citizen, don’t you?

  43. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    The most powerful nation on Earth is being brought undone from within by its pent-up governance and moral failures writes Paul Kelly. He says America will get through this crisis. But how it changes will be vital for the American people and the world.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/a-perfect-storm-is-exposing-donald-trump-and-us-frailties/news-story/d1eb78b725b33ef4846466ee103bc2c3
    Trump has reached the ‘mad emperor’ stage, and it’s terrifying to behold says Richard Wolffe.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/weve-reached-the-mad-emperor-stage-and-its-terrifying-to-behold
    And Richo declares that Trump is unable to take charge and unite America.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/trump-unable-to-take-charge-and-unite-america/news-story/df735e979ebd24446dbca815ffb25cb3
    Adam Cooper reports that in the Federal Court yesterday fresh witnesses implicated Ben Roberts-Smith in being involved in seven unlawful killings as an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, including the ‘‘blooding’’ of a junior soldier by ordering him to kill an unarmed man.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/ben-roberts-smith-involved-in-seven-unlawful-killings-new-witness-statements-allege-20200519-p54u7s.html
    Rob Harris says warring parties in the nation’s long-standing industrial relations battles are being urged to find a consensus within months in order to modernise workforces and create new jobs across Australia’s businesses. Today sees the first meeting of the group pulled together to review our IR laws.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/industrial-relations-foes-urged-to-lay-down-their-arms-as-reform-meetings-start-20200602-p54yv0.html
    According to Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg Australia’s $2.8 trillion superannuation system should be opened up to cut fees, help people use their savings towards their own homes and increase contributions to women as part of a wider goal of ensuring at least 50 per cent of retirees can be self-funded over time. He has released a new book.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/drastic-surgery-liberal-senator-andrew-bragg-s-plan-for-superannuation-overhaul-20200527-p54wsp.html
    Former indigenous AFL footballer Des Hedland writes Australia is no different to America when it comes to people of colour.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/afl/australia-is-no-different-to-america-when-it-comes-to-people-of-colour-20200602-p54yuc.html
    And the SMH editorial says that Australia not immune from US-style racial tension.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-not-immune-from-us-style-racial-tension-20200602-p54yru.html
    The Australian says that Dan Tehan will stare down universities pleading for urgent government support­, as vice-chancellors warn that Australia’s research capacity will be devastated if they don’t ­secure additional funding.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/universities-on-the-brink-of-ground-zero/news-story/b40264f77c81b436591a352555ca9330
    Liam Mannix tells us that the federal government is funding more research into a controversial COVID-19 drug hydroxychloroquine, even though the World Health Organisation has paused its own trial due to safety concerns.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/hunt-gives-170k-for-controversial-drug-as-other-countries-halt-trials-20200602-p54ysh.html
    The Australian reveals that Jacqui Lambie sent an insulting late-night email to a former staffer suing her for ­alleged unlawful dismissal, sparking a dramatic escalation of a bitter feud with those who once constituted her trusted inner sanctum.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/jacqui-lambies-latenight-email-fuels-brawl-with-sacked-staffers/news-story/940575b2b4d62eba5a5ee14e4e27994c
    Peter Mitchel reports that Trump has invited Scott Morrison to attend an expanded/truncated G7 summit at Camp David in September.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/donald-trump-invites-scott-morrison-to-attend-g7-summit-at-camp-david-20200603-p54ywv.html
    And Phil Coorey tells us Morrison has accepted the invitation.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/pm-accepts-trump-s-g7-invitation-amid-russia-controversy-20200602-p54ys0
    In the thick of the economic frenzy gripping the nation, the big banks pieced together a string of momentous initiatives designed to cope with the unprecedented pandemic situation, writes Pamela Williams for the AFR.
    https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-the-banks-weathered-the-virus-storm-20200602-p54ytr
    Central bankers in the UK and New Zealand are scaring banks by threatening them with negative interest rates. So why has RBA boss Phil Lowe adopted a different stance explores Karen Maley.
    https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/why-rba-boss-phil-lowe-isn-t-rattling-the-negative-rate-saber-20200602-p54yth
    The Financial Services Council’s Sally Loane put the case for the superannuation sector being given greater incentives to invest in nation-building infrastructure projects.
    https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/how-to-supercharge-the-recovery-20200602-p54ymx
    Alexandra Smith reports that conservative crossbenchers have joined Labor and the Greens to defeat the Berejiklian government’s wages policy in the upper house. Now what?
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/conservative-crossbenchers-join-labor-to-defeat-wage-freeze-regulation-20200602-p54yue.html
    On this subject Ross Gittins has given NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet some sage advice about the circular flow of income.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/if-dominic-perrottet-cared-about-jobs-as-much-as-he-claims-here-s-what-he-would-do-20200602-p54yp7.html
    Australia has done better than most nations in stopping the spread of the coronavirus. But Australians left everyone behind when it came to panic buying writes Shane Wright.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/panic-index-shows-australians-were-the-world-s-best-panic-buyers-20200602-p54ync.html
    Kirsten Lawson reports that in the past month, another 300,000 people joined the dole queues, pushing the total close to the number that had been expected by September.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6778980/dole-queue-numbers-have-doubled-since-beginning-of-lockdown/?cs=14225
    Sally Whyte says that there are calls for a royal commission into the Robodebt fiasco.

    Luke Henriques-Gomes also writes about the calls for a royal commission.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/02/calls-for-royal-commission-into-robodebt-and-apology-from-morrison-government
    Paul Bongiorno writes that this government’s skewed thinking doesn’t stop at Robodebt.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/06/02/paul-bongiorno-skewed-thinking-doesnt-stop-at-robodebt/
    Matt Canavan says Australia doesn’t subsidise the fossil fuel industry but Professor Jeremy Moss says it does.
    https://theconversation.com/matt-canavan-says-australia-doesnt-subsidise-the-fossil-fuel-industry-an-expert-says-it-does-131200
    Who’s running the country and where are they taking us? Martin Hirst thinks the Canberra bubble is filling with gas.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/transparency-called-for-in-fossil-fuel-stacked-covid-19-commission,13954
    Public messaging during the height of Canberra’s summer fire emergency “overstated the situation” and helped to create “more panic than there should have been”, according to volunteer firefighters in their submissions to the bushfire inquiry.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6776896/public-messaging-overstated-during-height-of-summer-emergency/?cs=14225
    The historian Jenny Hocking says she is “extremely disappointed” that the National Archives of Australia has asserted it has 90 business days to declassify the palace letters prior to release, saying it may misunderstand the orders of the high court.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/03/national-archives-90-day-delay-to-declassify-palace-letters-extremely-disappointing
    John Hawkins explains why our needlessly precise definition of a recession is causing us needless trouble.
    https://theconversation.com/our-needlessly-precise-definition-of-a-recession-is-causing-us-needless-trouble-133694
    Voters are falling in love with a transformed Scott Morrison, and there’s no point carping about it says Peter Lewis after the latest Essential poll.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/australians-are-warming-to-scott-morrisons-new-look-as-a-more-unifying-figure
    Nick Toscano reports that one of Rio Tinto’s largest shareholders says the miner’s destruction of an ancient site in WA calls into question its commitment to doing what is right, not just what is legal.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/rio-tinto-feels-more-heat-on-cave-blast-as-investor-pressure-rises-20200602-p54yqm.html
    A couple with almost $4 million in financial assets could still be eligible for a health card and all the benefits that go with it explains Noel Whittaker who agitates for changes to the asset side of the qualification.
    https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/new-deeming-rates-open-more-access-to-cshc-20200602-p54yqa.html
    Borrowing money has never been cheaper but there is a glaring exception to the almost universal plunge in interest rates. It’s credit cards, says Clancy Yeates.
    https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/ultra-cheap-money-but-not-on-your-credit-card-20200529-p54xty.html
    Anne Davies writes that documents released under freedom of information show that despite warnings of dire fire risks, federal follow-up was sluggish.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/03/australian-bushfires-fois-shed-new-light-on-why-morrison-government-was-ill-prepared
    The battle for Virgin has come down to a clash of two titans: the Bostonians from Bain versus the late contender from Wall Street, Cyrus. Both have Richard Branson in common writes Elizabeth Knight who says we can forget Team Australia.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/forget-team-australia-virgin-will-ultimately-be-owned-by-americans-20200602-p54yuk.html
    The Canberra Times examines the fraught arena of housing stimulus that the government seems ready to enter again.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6777100/the-fraught-arena-of-housing-stimulus/?cs=14258
    The government ought to be cautious about extending even targeted demand-side stimulus for specific industries – especially when The Block renovation subsidies risk entering Labor’s wacky pink batts stimulus territory warns the editorial in the AFR.
    https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/hold-the-line-on-stimulus-bailouts-20200602-p54ynw
    Home-buyer grants help developers, but money for social housing is real construction stimulus writes the Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/02/home-buyer-grants-developers-social-housing-coronavirus-construction-stimulus
    A huge number of Australians will be plunged into poverty overnight as others get to renovate their homes — courtesy of the Morrison Government writes Tarric Brooker.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison-funds-new-kitchens–slashes-unemployment-benefits,13952
    Euan Black refers to new research that suggests the federal government could save almost 20,000 jobs a year if it builds more social housing.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2020/06/03/home-buyer-social-housing-jobs/
    Retail property values could fall by as much as 30 per cent, more than double the expected hit revealed by shopping malls owner Vicinity this week.
    https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/mall-values-set-to-fall-further-20200602-p54yqf
    Savings rates are drying up as banks race to the bottom on mortgages explains Matt Johnson.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/your-budget/2020/06/02/banks-rates-home-loan-savers/
    Former One Nation Queensland president Jim Savage has resigned from the party, but not without taking some parting shots at leader Pauline Hanson and political adviser James Ashby.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6772564/former-one-nation-stalwart-fires-parting-shots-in-resignation-letter/?cs=14350
    Australians could be flying to New Zealand as early as September, and even relaxing on tropical beaches by the end of the year – as long as we overcome one major hurdle writes Zona Black.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/travel/2020/06/02/international-travel-fiji/
    The NRL has blocked Telstra from acquiring its digital rights as it plans for an extension with Nine.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-blocks-telstra-from-streaming-in-bid-to-secure-extension-with-nine-20200602-p54ysm.html
    The Washington Post explains how, in a new development, corporate America is adding its voice to the protests sweeping the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, promising to make their companies anti-racist, announcing contributions to civil rights organisations and using words like “abhorrent” and “senseless” to speak out more strongly against police violence and racism.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/silence-is-not-an-option-for-corporate-america-during-riots-20200602-p54yki.html
    Joe Biden has slashed out at President Donald Trump a day after police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose with a Bible before a damaged church. Biden said Trump’s “narcissism has become more important than the nation that he leads”.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/biden-lashes-trump-for-fanning-the-flames-of-hate-during-protests-20200603-p54ywt.html
    Paul Krugman says that with yesterday’s terrifying performance, Donald Trump is close to inciting civil war. He has well-founded concern.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-terrifying-performance-donald-trump-is-close-to-inciting-civil-war-20200602-p54ynk.html
    Jewish lobbyist Jamie Hyams reckons Trump can bring peace to the West Bank. How unsurprising.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/trump-can-bring-peace-to-the-west-bank-20200601-p54yho.html
    The Australian government should welcome the brave, young and smart Hong Kong residents who can no longer live in the husk of their city urges the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Nathan Ruser.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/on-anniversary-of-tiananmen-time-for-australia-to-open-its-heart-again-20200602-p54ys3.html
    As armed soldiers patrol the streets, the unease of a 70-day pandemic lockdown in Los Angeles has given way to fear of what comes next writes Nine Media’s Michael Idato who talks of centuries of racial scars which have never healed.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/sleepless-in-los-angeles-as-cries-for-injustice-turn-into-a-terrifying-chorus-20200601-p54ygo.html
    America isn’t breaking. It was already broken, and these are just the symptoms opines Andrew Gawthorpe.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/america-isnt-breaking-it-was-already-broken-and-these-are-just-the-symptoms
    The Washington Post’s Mark Bray explains what is ANTIFA is and why Trump wants to blame it for the violence in the US. He says Trump’s reckless accusations lack evidence, like many of his claims.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/what-is-antifa-and-why-does-donald-trump-want-to-blame-it-for-the-violence-in-the-us-20200602-p54ym0.html
    Arwa Mahdawi wonders if Trump declared war on the US to save his own skin.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/has-trump-declared-war-on-the-us-to-save-his-own-skin
    The AIMN’s Tim Jones says that the US has gone “full fascist”.
    https://theaimn.com/us-goes-full-fascist-trump-and-the-floyd-protests/

    Cartoon Corner

    David Pope

    Cathy Wilcox

    David Rowe

    Alan Moir

    Matt Golding




    John Shakespeare

    Mark David

    Fiona Katauskas.

    Glen Le Lievre


    Johannes Leak
    https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/84d7e5181518c795fbb98af47c9ba113?width=1024

    From the US









  44. Rick Wilson’s latest podcast:

    You might look at the way some of these cops are going after nonviolent protesters, and think it’s a one-of-a-kind horror. Princeton Prof. Eddie Glaude has a different perspective. “I was looking at the aggression, I was looking at the contempt and the insult, and the first thing I thought was, ‘this is the way in which black communities are often policed.’” It’s part of an episode of THE NEW ABNORMAL filled with hard truths. Rick Wilson dishes on the “GOP cop cult,” and confronts some of the ugly bargains he cut in his past life as a Republican consultant. Molly Jong-Fast talks about Antifa as the Trumpists’ new caravan. Then she asks Prof. Glaude if he’s got a message for white liberals in this moment. “It’s not about white liberals giving black folks something,” he answers. “It’s not about a kind of charitable gesture, right? Justice is not white folks’ possession to give to anyone.”

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/justice-is-not-white-folks-possession-to-give/id1508202790?i=1000476510768

  47. Joe Biden slams Trump for teargassing Americans at DC church: He held up a Bible – I just wish he’d open one

    Former Vice President Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump for teargassing Americans protesting the police killing of George Floyd, while peacefully standing in D.C.’s Lafayette Park and at the famous St. John’s church. After clearing the area, Trump walked to the church for a photo-op, and held up a Bible.

    Biden slammed Trump for “brandishing” the Bible and said: “I just wish he’d open it every once in awhile.”

    “If he opened it he could have learned something.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/joe-biden-slams-trump-for-teargassing-americans-at-dc-church-he-held-up-a-bible-i-just-wish-hed-open-one/

  48. Good Morning

    Cud and Cat

    Well spotted. As I have said before. Those voters bought the con of Trump. This was aided and abetted particularly by Fox but not them alone.

    It will take time for them to wake up but I think they might be as we speak. Christians attacking Trump might have been the catalyst to do it. Using force to disperse peaceful protestors is not very christian even for evangelicals.

Comments Page 15 of 41
1 … 14 15 16 … 41

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *