Courtesy of The Australian, Newspoll offers a repeat of an exercise conducted two months ago in which a large national sample is polled to produce state-level results on the popularity of premiers as well as the Prime Minister, both generally and in their dealings with the coronavirus. While the results are positive all round, they find Daniel Andrews falling from a top tier that continues to include Peter Gutwein, Mark McGowan and Steven Marshall, bringing him about level with Gladys Berejiklian but still clear of Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Andrews was down eight on approval to 67% and up ten on disapproval to 27%, while Berejiklian was down one to 68% and up three to 26%. Allowing for small sample sizes in the smaller states, Peter Gutwein took the lead (up six on approval to 90% and down three on disapproval to 8%) from Mark McGowan (down one to 88% and up three on 9%). Despite continuing to trail the pack, Palaszczuk recorded the best improvement with a four point increase in approval to 59% and a four point drop on disapproval to 35%.
However, Palaszczuk remains the only Premier with a weaker net approval rating in their state than Scott Morrison, who according to the poll has strengthened in Queensland (by five on approval to 72%, and down four on disapproval to 24%) but weakened everywhere else (approval down six to 61% and disapproval up five to 35% in New South Wales; down seven to 65% and up four to 30% in Victoria; down three to 67% and up two to 29% in South Australia; down three to 70% and up three to 26% in Western Australia; down four to 60% and up six to 37% in Tasmania).
Andrews’ deterioration on approval is more than matched on the question of handling of coronavirus, on which he now trails out of the Premiers with 72% for well (down 13 points) and 25% for badly (up 14). This pushes him behind Berejiklian (up two to 79% and down two to 16%), Palaszczuk (up four to 76% and down one to 22%) and Marshall (up five to 87% and down two to 9%). Still clear of the field are McGowan and Gutwein, who are tied at 93% well (down one for McGowan, up four for Gutwein) and 5% badly (up one and down three). Scott Morrison’s ratings on this score are little changed, and remarkably consistent from state to state — Queensland and South Australia are his best with 84% well and 14% poorly apiece, but his weakest result, in New South Wales, is still 79% well and 18% badly.
The poll was conducted from a national sample of 2949, ranging from 526 in Victoria to 309 in Tasmania.
I see that Morrison has enabled BAE to run defence acquisition bids which EXCLUDE Australian companies from competing.
So much for Scotty from Marketing’s jobs, jobs, jobs mantra.
Effin incompetent.
Scientists Say New Strain of Swine Flu Virus Is Spreading to Humans in China
A new strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus is spreading silently in workers on pig farms in China and should be “urgently” controlled to avoid another pandemic, a team of scientists says in a new study.
H1N1 is highly transmissible and spread around the world in 2009, killing about 285,000 people and morphing into seasonal flu.
The newer strain, known as G4 EA H1N1, has been common on China’s pig farms since 2016 and replicates efficiently in human airways, according to the study published on Monday. So far, it has infected some people without causing disease, but health experts fear that could change without warning.
“G4 viruses have all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus,” the study said, adding that controlling the spread in pigs and closely monitoring human populations “should be urgently implemented.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/world/asia/h1n1-swine-flu-virus-china-pig.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
phoenixRED @ #702 Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 – 11:03 am
2020 was going so well, it was bound to hit a bump in the road eventually.
PeeBee
This would only be a thing if the Tungsten rods are manufactured in space. If they are made on Earth you have to do work to lift them into space. The amount of work you have to do is guaranteed (because nothing can be done with 100% efficiency) to be more than the potential energy of the rod once its in space.
Agreed…a lot of energy will be lost as heat due to friction with the atmosphere.
I’m not sure that the atmosphere is thick enough to slow an object moving at 28 km/s to it’s terminal velocity (in this case probably about 500 m/s) before it gets to the surface.
I think the technical problems are so great that we will probably get fusion working earlier.
Surely there must be better uses for tungsten rods?
Maybe the Greens should have a policy to make peace beads out of them?
(Note: ACT police are a division of the AFP)
WeWantPaulsays:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 12:49 pm
“To the extent this is true, then waving and highlighting all that money wasted on a defense that would be completely overwhelmed in about 10 minutes”
Boerwar has already commented on this statement.
Perhaps you could elucidate on the CCP Force projection capability that they are currently going to use to do this to us through SE Asia and the sea-air gap otherwise known as the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia?
The good news for our democracy is that dictator Xi’s Plan A to force Australia’s democratically-elected government to STFU has, to date, failed.
What next?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-01/australia-statement-condemn-china-over-hong-kong-uyghur-abuses/12409268
Ben Pennings
@BenPennings
Rather than support citizens and protect our environment, #ScottyFromMarketing is gifting tens of billions to military contractors to somehow look macho in front of our most important trading partner
Thinking face
#auspol
boerwar
Australia is little state of America and it’s national security laws.
boerwarsays:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:03 pm
“I see that Morrison has enabled BAE to run defence acquisition bids which EXCLUDE Australian companies from competing.”
You weren’t trying to deceive the denizens of PB were you?
It only applies to the first three Hunter Class Frigates out of a total of nine.
Would you prefer the Project be delivered later and more over-budget?
Perhaps this bit helps:
“BAE Systems is contractually obligated to ensure 54 per cent of its contracts go to Australian companies, but says it believes it can lift that to more than 60 per cent. The company said it had instructed original equipment suppliers to maximise Australian industry involvement in design, manufacturing, testing and installation.”
Zerlo @ #710 Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 – 11:20 am
States have some standing we are just a disposable simp.
Buce
The Morrison Government cocked up big time in enabling foreign own defence providers to exclude Australian subbies.
Simple as that.
Worrying but a happy ending to cheer you up.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2020/jun/30/swim-happy-family-save-bear-found-swimming-with-a-plastic-jar-on-its-head-video
Bucephalus
says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:20 pm
boerwarsays:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:03 pm
You weren’t trying to deceive the denizens of PB were you?
____________
When it comes to numbers BW is more creative than Spielberg.
If you feel the need to vomit uncontrollably then look at the front page of the deadwood edition of W.A.s local rag. About a 1/4 of the page is a head and shoulder drawing of Scrott. He is wearing an army helmet and camouflage jacket, drawn lantern jawed and with a 5 o’clock shadow.
Jolyon Wagg says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:08 pm
500 m/s doesn’t seem very fast – a standard military rifle bullet travels at about 800 m/s and kinetic energy penetrators fired by tanks do about 1,700 m/s.
lizzie
“fan boy Phil Coorey say Morrison is channelling Churchill! Hell all we need!”
When the war was over, Churchill lost the election.
You’d think BW and Buce would bond over military equipment…….
While the Greens have never seen a defence spend that they didn’t oppose, and while their main defence strategy is to deploy peace studies (Dear Leader Xi, Peace, Bro!), and while the extent of their strategic thinking is something called a ‘Light Mobile Force’, they also demand that Australia has some sort of significant international standing.
Hello? This is muddled thinking muddied by the usual Red ideological clap trap.
The reality is that Australia is a significant middle power which has tremendous natural strengths when it comes to defence. Opponents have tremendous logistical problems, a sea-air gap and vast spaces to contend with. Australia is in a position to deploy significant military power to either the Pacific or the Indian Ocean.
This reality provides options and choices. Naturally, the Left hates the US with a passion. It is reluctant to acknowledge that the US alliance has been instrumental in protecting Australia’s national interests.
These peeps never have a bad word to say for the Chicom and are Xi appeasers. Peace studies and a Light Mobile Force is like waving a piece of paper with ‘Peace in Our Time!’ written on it.
Kakuru
Let’s hope that’s an omen.
boerwar says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:22 pm
“The Morrison Government cocked up big time in enabling foreign own defence providers to exclude Australian subbies.
Simple as that.”
Stop being silly. The decision is a significant risk mitigation. Australian subcontractors don’t have the capability to deliver:
“ASC Shipbuilding said there were currently no Australian suppliers for many of the ship’s key systems, including its gas turbines, gearboxes, diesel generators and steering equipment, forcing it to look offshore. “In these specific cases we have made the decision with the commonwealth to appoint suppliers to the first batch of ships that, while not Australian, can first and foremost deliver the capability that is required, and can do so without putting at risk the schedule,” ASC Shipbuilding managing director Craig Lockhart said.”
Tell me – do you expect it to be a 100% Australian Design and Construct? Or, do you think that there might be some international involvement?
lizzie
Channeling Churchill , yep , when he tried to sail the pom fleet through the Dardanelles.
poroti
Did you see the link I provided about Pomara and the first photo of a ‘maori’?
Do you happen to know if he is Moriori?
If so, the final insult?
https://theconversation.com/portrait-of-hemi-pomara-as-a-young-man-how-we-uncovered-the-oldest-surviving-photograph-of-a-maori-141599
Kakuru @ #719 Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 – 11:26 am
Phil is bad don’t be Phil.
Buce
Stop making excuses for the inexcusable.
It is about time that the Australian Government started getting major defence contracts right.
nath
They’ll be doing a tandem parachute drop in to Beijing to sort out Xi by lunch time. We’ll crowd fund their packs and rifles.
I’m pretty sure the Australian Army has always been a ‘light mobile force’. Unless he have tank divisions secreted away somewhere.
It’s Morrison’s fantasy of being a leader in a crisis that encourages him to adopt Churchill-speak. I think he’d be totally unreliable. He’d bring back a paper boasting of peace in our time, while he had his escape route to the enemy’s country already booked.
Michael Shellenberger is an associate of Prof Barry Brook who was (when at UofA) principally responsible both for providing the impetus for the 2015 commision into the the establishment of the nuclear industry, and for causing the commision to unravel completely (with the result that there will not be any serious attempts in the area for another twenty years).
The commission look at four things (amongst others):
– nuclear waste handling
– enrichment (powered by geothermal and/or wind/solar)
– desalination
– electricity
These are in order of decreasing viability within Australia (waste handling is most viable); the chief factor in the viability of electricity generation is the sparse population.
Nuclear waste handling is clearly viable, and there is a moral argument that having dug up the stuff and sold it at a profit we should take it back. Had the commision focused only on this (which was also the focus of the late Mr Hawke’s advocacy in the area) it is likely that SA would now be well along the path of establishing that aspect of the industry. Even if one believes (optimistically) that the viability problems of other aspects can be solved, one has to start somewhere and waste handling is the obvious place to start. Now we have a half-baked (and possibly abandoned) attempt to do it by stealth, which will probably unravel completely as it comes under scrutiny.
Prof Brook–who is smart (now a Laureate fellow) and quite compelling–managed to persuade the commission to focus on electricity. Then when this unraveled on the engineering and economics (as it was going to do) the whole thing collapsed. This also diverted SA government away from batteries for a year or more, with unfortunate results.
The problem with “lifelong environmentalists” who have “seen the light” is that the errors of calibration that led them to become “lifelong environmentalists” persist into their new existence. It is similar to the situation with Keith Windschuttle – originally a left wing Marxist who has “seen the right” and become now a sort of right wing Marxist: he retains his original erroneous method, buit simply applies it to a completely different end. Rather than “same shit, different arseholes” it is “same arseholes, different shit” – but shit is still shit!
boerwar
It would appear from his age and the timing that he was one of the Moriori people, he was born pretty much right when they were first invaded by mainland Maori. I would expect the Taika Waititi movie/doco will have a definitive answer to that.
poroti says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:32 pm
“Channeling Churchill , yep , when he tried to sail the pom fleet through the Dardanelles.”
While historically the failure of the Dardanelles Campaign has been slated back to Churchill the fact is that it was the extremely poor tactical execution (which Churchill had little to do with apart from not sacking incompetent Naval Commanders before they could do damage) that was the cause of the failure, not the strategy.
On Morrison letting BAE write their own contracts:
“It only applies to the first three Hunter Class Frigates out of a total of nine.
Would you prefer the Project be delivered later and more over-budget?”
Three ships is the same size as the air-warfare destroyer contract. Presumably BAE could simply give that work to their UK shipyard on grounds it was cheaper than here.
Then the whole point of a continuous program of naval construction, to ensure a steadier flow of work to Australian shipyards so they can build up skills and keep them, has been lost.
So now is the point of the Aussie defence budget to be a slush fund to bail out the UK and Boris’ sinking economy?
A radical shake-up of South Australia’s electoral system – that would see preferential voting sidelined – is being considered among a raft of changes, with a bill expected to be introduced to parliament within weeks, InDaily understands.
Attorney-General Vickie Chapman has been preparing an Electoral Amendment Bill, addressing a raft of changes recommended in the state Electoral Commission’s review of the 2018 state election, at which the Marshall Government was elected.
But it’s understood the Bill will contain a number of further changes, including a push to remove or scale back the proliferation of candidate posters – known as corflutes – that are prominently displayed during campaigns, and a plan to crack down on party activists handing out How To Vote cards and other propaganda at polling stations.
Party sources confirm Chapman has also canvassed support for a bid to introduce ‘Optional Preferential Voting’ [OPV] in the Lower House – a move that would completely overhaul SA’s electoral system.
Currently, MPs are elected based on the distribution of preferences from losing candidates. Under OPV, however, numbering candidates from first to last would be optional, meaning seats could be effectively decided by a ‘first past the post’-style contest, where the candidate with the most primary votes wins the seat.
https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/07/01/preference-voting-in-govts-sights-as-electoral-shake-up-looms/
Bucephalus @ #722 Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 – 1:32 pm
What good are defensive assets if they’re not? If we’re incompetent at designing and constructing weapons, nothing prevents the third-party supplier from supplying them with an integrated kill switch. Or worse.
https://youtu.be/pEzK0Dy-1jE?t=219
Socrates says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:42 pm
They are being built in South Australia for some reason. Not the UK.
Rakali
One for you. Can you guess the missing word ? 😆
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2247462-scotland-could-eliminate-the-coronavirus-if-it-werent-for-england/#ixzz6QuaOmE94
a rsays:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:49 pm
“What good are defensive assets if they’re not? If we’re incompetent at designing and constructing weapons, nothing prevents the third-party supplier from supplying them with an integrated kill switch. Or worse.”
Really? You idiot.
I recommend that you get William to delete that post.
Not a Fifth Element fan?
Van Onselen trying to spin EM as a should win for the LNP. He’s doing it to try and make Morrison look bad and so he can do his “I tipped them so they lost” shtick. Pretty average behaviour for a Professor of Politics.
Holdenhillbilly @ #736 Wednesday, July 1st, 2020 – 11:46 am
We need primaries and a move to multi member constituencies, not a watering down of democracy towards first past the post. Surely the USA is all the evidence you need first past the post is insane.
I have been a critic of the West newspaper for some time, rating it among the worst (if not THE worst) metro daily in Oz. I have to say, today I have to have a rethink.
On the front page there is a huge artist’s impression of a porcine, ugly, unshaven, dirty looking man, wearing glasses and US pattern helmet.
It thought, who is this freak, this sad, mean-mouthed left-over from WW? In any event, a disgrace to any army.
According to the headline underneath it is none other than the ‘PM’!
Then I realised, as has been underlined by the delight of some of the militarists, it is all the money which is going to be spent on toys for the military boys for years to come.
What was that old Sam Jonson said in 1775? – “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”….
What a total phoney Morrison is and what a waste of space the West newspaper is as well….
a r
says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:56 pm
Not a Fifth Element fan?
_____________
🙂
a r says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:56 pm
“Not a Fifth Element fan?”
I don’t know about that but apart from the Bushmaster Armoured Winnebago (which is a very successful vehicle) there isn’t a major piece of defence equipment bigger than a 6×4 trailer that doesn’t have significant international design and construction input.
Van Olsen, the burr under the saddle of many Liberal supporters.
WeWantPaul says:
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 1:58 pm
“We need primaries”
Primaries gave the US President Trump.
We do not need Primaries.
Tricot
If only the appeasers and the peace lovers had had some love for ‘toys for the boys’ during the 1930’s!
Then Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo might have been stopped from even starting a war.