Below this post is a live commentary thread on local and regional elections in the United Kingdom from regular guest contributor Adrian Beaumont; I myself am overdue for new posts on late counting in Tasmania and the looming Upper Hunter by-election on May 22, so stay tuned for those over the next few days. Other than that:
• A report by Max Maddison of The Australian suggests the pendulum may be swinging back to a federal election sooner rather than later, due to “the turmoil of the start of the year dissipating and the rate of vaccinations slowly increasing”. This is said to be reflected in the New South Wales Liberal Party’s commencement of preselection proceedings this week for 13 seats, for which nominations will close on May 21.
• The Age reports that Victoria’s Supreme Court will today consider a last-minute bid by ten unions to prevent the Labor national executive from choosing a candidate for the new federal seat of Hawke on Melbourne’s north-western fringe. The national executive had been expected to vote today to endorse former state secretary Sam Rae as part of a deal between elements of Rae’s Right faction, notably federal front-bencher Richard Marles, and the Socialist Left. This freezes out the rival Right forces associated with Bill Shorten and the Australian Workers Union, who favour the rival claim of state minister Natalie Hutchins, who is also invoking the cause of affirmative action. The legal action seeks to establish that the federal party organisation had acted improperly in taking over the state branch in response to the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal.
• The Australian National University’s Centre for Social Research and Methods has published results from a survey of 3459 respondents on “attitudes towards and experiences of retirement and social security income during the COVID-recession and initial recovery”. Among other things, it finds 55.0% support for an increase in compulsory superannuation from 9.5% to 12% as per current legislation, with 20.8% thinking it should be lifted even higher. Only 20.4% said it should remain at the current level, and only 3.8% believed it should be lowered or eliminated altogether.
Bucephalus @ #1446 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 2:13 pm
via GIFER
“zoomstersays:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 2:46 pm
Ven
Got to be said, though, Murdoch is sh*t at picking leaders.
You’d have to think it would be cheaper in the long run to prop up ones which were half decent.”
Some of those leaders , for example, were/ are Abbott, Trump, BoJo
what can one say other than interesting times.
Might even get to the stage where people realized government spending is someone else’s income, might leave behind the idea that governments spend our money, we use the governments money, you don’t see dad’s head printed on the dollar bill, mums on the 2 dollar.
http://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/how-does-the-federal-budget-work-and-how-is-it-different-to-yours-20200911-p55uo7.html
https://twitter.com/i/status/1391613178677657601
Bucephalus @ #1439 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 2:25 pm
A subsidy on fossil fuels, you say? All the more reason to repeal it.
Simon Katich @ #1451 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 2:19 pm
Bugger. Try this….
Awwww. Come on! works in preview! F it.
The deep profound moment of valuing elders, that concept of elders that the Prime Minister has spoken about. If we can produce not only the support but also respect and care and dignity than I think we will have achieved something.
So, obviously, if we follow Greg the Sick Lying Hunt’s reasoning, the elderly weren’t worth a pinch of snuff for the rest of the 8-9 years that the Coalition have been in power.
Sounds about right.
“Mexicanbeemersays:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 2:39 pm
Ven
There is a part of the population that doesn’t like big government spending going to people or things they don’t like. Morrison was careful to make sure his spending went where he thinks his base is and he reacted to that base when it started complaining about bludgers not going to work and now that same base is complaining about a lack of immigrants because of border closures”
I thought he is protecting us by “closing borders”. Hence, base has no reason to complain. In any event, a part of the base also complains that we are immigrating people in large numbers. Currently, a lot of Australian people are unemployed for whatever teason. Let that base hire them till the borders are get opened.
For the very dense.
Labor is not “trapped” by the LNP budget.
It frees them. No deficit “How do you pay for it?”
For years. We know those deficits are here for at least a decade.
It’s the time for bringing dentistry into Medicare.
It’s the time to advocate for research dollars into vaccination.
It’s the time to highlight what wasteful spenders the LNP are. Not because of the deficit but what they spend their money on.
The media cannot run the usual how do you pay for it mantra.
This is one thing that freed Biden’s campaign up. Watch the Pod Save America podcasts of the campaign to see it.
It’s why I suggested going back to rorts as a major focus of campaigning. You know it works. It’s worked for Labor before.
Now with added bonus that unlike the Fraser years how do you pay for it won’t bother voters.
Player One @ #1412 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 1:54 pm
We all know by now the goal of the Labor right is to recruit from the right by purging the left.
One of the things I discovered when in India a couple of years ago was that Kindle books there could be a fair bit cheaper than in Australia. So, when I’m interested in a book I often compare the Australian and Indian prices.
Today I checked the price on two books:
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
Windfall: Unlocking a fossil free future by Ketan Joshi
On Bullshit sells in Australia for $11.39, the US for USD8.93 (AUD11.37) and in India for ₹383.50 (AUD6.66)
Windfall sells in Australia for $9.91, the US for USD7.68 (AUD9.78) and in India for ₹802.00 (AUD13.92)
These prices are for the Kindle edition. So, I have no idea why Windfall is more expensive India but On Bullshit is cheaper.
Ven
Yes except the people Morrison’s backbench listens too will be screaming that they can’t get Australians to work because the unemployed are bludgers. Morrison should challenge them to hire locals but Morrison and the clowns on the frontbench buy the bludger myth.
Cows are sacred in India.
Oh dear! Cultural misunderstanding.
Jack Belin
Not guilty on the charge of anal rape
Jury now dismissed after failing to agree on other 5 charges
If a further trial is not ordered Belin, despite the presumption of innocence, has lost 2.5 years of a not very long career
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is set to scrap the $450 a month threshold to pay compulsory super in the 2021 federal budget, boosting the retirement incomes of thousands of part-time workers and mums.
News.com.au has confirmed the threshold will be scrapped in Tuesday’s budget, a modest change that will ensure more workers are paid super when they earn even small amounts with a single employer.
It’s the threshold that causes almost twice as many women as men to miss out on a super contribution when working in insecure, part-time jobs.
Abolishing the requirement that workers earn $450 a month with a single employer would also not cost employers much – adding only a couple of hundred dollars on average to their costs for each employee.
But over time it’s hoped it will help bridge the retirement incomes gap between women and men because women are more likely to miss out under the current rules.
In an interview with news.com.au, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg wouldn’t comment on the change but he did confirm women’s super nest eggs and economic security will be a major focus in Tuesday’s budget.
This looks like it is not going to age too well like my De Belin guilty prediction
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/politics/federal/india-travel-ban-is-unconstitutional-20210505-p57p73.html
For those interested there is a very well written summary here of what green hydrogen could economically be used for and what it will not be used for. Worth noting that hydrogen powered cars are demonstrably in the latter category.
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/23/latest-hydrogen-economy-round-is-hype-but-there-is-a-place-for-hydrogen/
BC
My compliments on your book choices. On Bullshit is one of my favorite little books, and I am reading Windfall now.
One of the LNP’s long-term goals is to abolish aged pensions and force people to rely on their super/investments.
This decision supports this goal, but has been cleverly sold as female-friendly. Clever Joshie.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget/more-australians-to-be-paid-compulsory-super-under-new-changes/news-story/42bcb6f67b70c75311d997f463b1dc41
Does it say in the Constitution that Australians can travel to the worst Covid hotspot in the world when they choose so to do, and then to fly straight back to Australia, possibly infecting flight crew on the way, because that is a citizen’s right?
Almost all of the federal budget’s $3.2bn for South Australian roads, rail and other infrastructure will be spent in the state’s only marginal seat, Boothby.
With a federal election looming, that’s hardly an extraordinary coincidence.
Perhaps the only surprise is that SA gets more for infrastructure than any other state, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s state-by-state breakdowns released today.
This is thanks to the $2.6bn allocation to the North-South Corridor’s Darlington to Anzac Hwy section.
This $2.6bn will pay for planning, design and construction of 6km of motorway, including 4km of tunnels.
Significant early construction works worth $350m are expected to start at the end of this year and continue into early next year, pumping money into civil contractors and other firms.
It’s debatable whether Boothby voters will be delighted by roadworks but they will see physical evidence of the massive project’s start.
Meanwhile it’s been how many decades now since the Gawler electrification project started? Of course, there are no marginals in the North.
While many will point to the absurdity of SA getting so much funding, I think the bigger problem here is that said money is being distributed this way. That’s what happens when you have so few marginals (in this case, just one) and cynical politics is the accepted norm.
It says in the Constitution that Govt is responsible for providing necessary quarantine infrastructure.
And yes, this kind of stuff has been done by Labor too, on both federal and state levels. Acknowledging that before anyone chimes in with a “Woddaboutlabor” remark.
During times of war it is regarded as perfectly normal and desirable for the Australian governments to restrict travel to and from some countries.
The same should go for when the national health interest is being threatened by individuals who could not give a toss whether they are vectors or not and whether or not they end up killing their fellow citizens.
The most corrupt Federal government since Federation has zero compunction about abusing other people’s money to maintain its unholy grasp on power for power’s sake.
Relax comrades. They meant to do it:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222935.shtml
RL
Yet when governments do spend in safe seats even ones they don’t hold and wouldn’t expect to they find those seats become winnable.
Thunberg is right, of course. China’s 28% of global emissions and China’s 53% of global coal-fired emissions are a disaster. Naturally Xi’s comrades are not taking this bit of global truth lying down!
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223004.shtml
Indeed. I think also governments forget that people who live in one electorate don’t necessarily exclusively travel in that electorate. Like sure, everyone likes the roads to be nice around the corner from their home but, to use the SA situation as an example, someone who lives in Boothby might work in Hindmarsh, regularly visit Spence, socialise in Adelaide, have family in Sturt etc. (or whatever the appropriate equivalents in other states is.) They will notice if infrastructure is neglected in those other places because they have to use it.
Not to give Turnbull much credit but when he cash-splashed in Adelaide, he made sure to at least give the impression it was broadly across the place, not just targeted at a few marginals. He was bad at politics almost everywhere else but on that note he got it right.
boerwar @ #60 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 3:31 pm
The Australian Constitution leans heavily upon “implied” freedoms. It doesn’t say there’s any sort of free speech, either. I’d happily support fixing that via a proper Bill of Rights. But…your question is silly because it ignores the current Constitutional architecture.
Anyways, it shouldn’t have to say those things. Australians have a right to enter and reside within Australia. If they don’t, being Australian is basically pointless.
You seem to be suggesting that all (or most) of the Australians currently trapped in India only went there after it became clear that India’s covid situation was spiraling out of control (call it April 1, approximately). What’s your basis for that assertion?
And where were the similar concerns about repatriations from the United States when they were at peak covid? Those were never criminalized, despite the peak US per-capita infection rate being well above anything India has encountered so far. Wouldn’t it be reasonable for an Australian traveling to India to conclude that they’d have no issue coming back home? That’s how it worked in the past, after all.
We zre seeing plenty in The Advertiser about the Liberal preselection contest for Boothby. Labor is stuck on the back foot.
Not a murmur from Labor which, if it was serious about reclaiming a one-time solid seat for the first time since 1949, would already have a candidate pounding the streets.
Labor lacks the hunger to win.
This is good. More please.
@AlboMP tweets
Budgets should be about people, not “announcements” that promise big and don’t actually deliver help for those who need it.
When I’m PM, we’ll judge the strength of our economy by whether it’s working for you. And when I make a promise, I’ll keep it – because promises matter.
ar
It is hard to take your view seriously when you leave out the implied responsibilities completely.
Toff
Yeah. Labor lacks the hunger to win like the LNP lack the hunger to win.
Good try of the right to sap progressive morale.
No cigar
The Coalition and its crony capitalist spivs certainly have the hunger for power and the entirely-related hunger for money.
Howard and Costello had the budget handout modus operandi down pat.
Tax cuts to workers, pension increases etc etc. Measures that put dollars straight into the hip pockets of voters. It worked year after year after year.
It will be interesting to see how voters react this week to announcement after announcement of billion dollar plus promises and very little in the way of direct support. Not much in the way of hip pocket bribery so far in the budget leaks.
Will voters be won over by the dollar amounts being thrown around for infrastructure, job training, aged care etc etc or underwhelmed by the lack of direct income support for them personally ?
Will the “ big picture “ outlook win or will the “ very little in it for me “ mindset win out ?
Rex Douglas @ #1476 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 1:39 pm
It says nothing about infrastructure.
In the case of India, it said that people who had been in India had to be out of India for 14 days before they attempted to enter Australia.
guytaur @3:01
Precisely. Labor has a huge opportunity to do what it should have done last election. Major reforms. Direct investment into new industry. Head spinning infrastructure (HSR). Make their constructive policies dominate the conversation.
boerwar @ #1487 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 3:59 pm
Why? In this particular case, there’s an explicit responsibility that’s relevant. The Federal government is responsible for handling quarantine-related matters. That’s something the Constitution does say.
If the government executed its Constitutional responsibilities properly, there’d be nothing to debate here.
People are starting to look at what a declining population means.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/09/world-needs-babies-better-rethink-what-we-need-from-mothers
Yeah, that’s troubling me too. Labor should already have a candidate out there but we’ve heard nothing.
guytaur @ #1484 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 4:00 pm
I do think there is a lack of hunger from the backbench – especially in the area of exposing the Libs’ schemes and rorts that sees their mates and donors trousering so much of taxpayers money.
Speaking of Australians returning via third country.
The Maldives has several times the rate of infections per day per person than India.
Ok, india’s numbers are dodgy. But we shouldn’t be so complacent about which intermediate cointry either.
ar
Your view that citizens have rights but no responsibilities is absurd.
Cud
Exactemundo.
boerwar @ #1482 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 3:55 pm
Getting a bit desperate, boerwar?