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.
Paul Karp
@Paul_Karp
#breaking Federal court REJECTS the first argument against the India travel ban challenge. Justice Thawley Greg Hunt did consider everything he had to, was satisfied ban was “least restrictive” measure.
#auspol #auslaw
We’re now on to the second argument: whether the parliament has failed to explicitly override the common law right for Australian citizens to re-enter Australia.
#auspol #auslaw
boerwar @ #1536 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 4:49 pm
Oh, FFS boerwar! “publicly abused”???
This is what she said …
I doubt anyone would disagree with that. It is simply fact. Oh, and by the way- since you seem not to be across recent events – China are already in the process of drastically changing course.
If I said the following about Australia …
Would that constitute “public abuse” of Australia? Or is it also just a simple statement of fact? Of course, unlike China, Australia has absolutely no intention of drastically changing course and intends instead to remain the largest exporter of C02 emissions in the world.
FWIW I would never consider posting to PB as political campaigning
It’s more like a shit posting board for the politically fixated or partisan but not exactly due to WB’s efforts.
I really don’t understand why there is such a cabal that seems to equate the number and their dominance of posts here as somehow representative of the political mood of the country or anyone else aside from the mostly very partisan and politically obsessed who come here and the even fewer who can be bothered dealing with the regulars.
No doubt many lurkers just drop in to read WB’s analysis, check it out and walk on by. I only ever started posting because of the blindingly partisan lies regularly thrown about and have no aspiration to waste more time arguing with those who are fixated and not genuinely interested in any other viewpoint.
I guess everyone needs somewhere to express themselves, no matter how poorly that may be
Quoll
You started the verbal with me so don’t sulk.
Rex Douglas says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 4:55 pm
Greta is a champion of the environment who has embarrassed and shamed many world leaders who seem insanely determined to turn our planet Earth paradise into a dustbowl.
I believe that would be a dustball. A sphere is convex where a bowl is concave. It makes a difference. We might become a disc. I think a bowl is out of the cosmic question.
We will be stuck on a bare, round rock with not enough oxygen. It will be hot. Too hot.
William: “Unless you either can’t afford it or an evil fascist creep, donate generously to Shane Bazzi’s defence fund.”
https://chuffed.org/project/the-people-v-peter-dutton-legal-fund
Done. Thanks for pointing it out, William.
I have never found the Labor-Greens posts and ripostes in the slightest bit amusing. They have certainly never raised a smile. They are boringly pedestrian.
I honestly don’t understand why someone who is so offended by the concept of a political discussion board still posts here every day to express that offence. Nobody is forcing anybody to post here. Just go on your merry way if the idea triggers your anger so much, there’s plenty of other spaces on the internet that might be more accommodating to your specific views and demands.
I don’t go to AFL forums and start whining about all the boring people talking about football all the time and how they’re useless because they’re only talking about the game, rather than going out there and playing it. I don’t punch my wall in white hot anger and wholesale abuse everyone else on the forums because they support a different team than me.
I hope Labor have a cracker of campaign up their sleeve, ready to go.
It’s not like Scrotty & Co haven’t handed them a large pile of high-calibre ammo to use for hard-hitting ads.
One issue that might play well for Labor is the LNP’s clear intention to hand over the superior performing industry super funds to their spiv mates to bleed dry.
Also the imminent full privatisation of Australia Post might have legs.
————–
boerwar @ #1482 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 3:25 pm
‘Boerwar backs Thunberg’ is a headline I never thought I’d see.
Welcome to the cult, comrade. You will receive your free Thunberg Worship Starter Kit in the mail (eventually).
😉
Good to see PVO isn’t hiding his bias.
10 news. The coalition’s trillion dollar debt that Labor is responsible for a fair chunk of.
How much compared to how much PVO?
When was Labor last in government PVO?
Sorry. Can’t hear you PVO.
Socrates @3:21
Good article (on hydrogen).
Didn’t mention batteries on trains, even though it did mention battery powered short haul shipping.
Cud Chewer
🙂
I really don’t understand why there is such a cabal that seems to equate the number and their dominance of posts here as somehow representative of the political mood of the country
Just to exemplify the complete irrational idiocy of Quoll’s latest shitpost, may I humbly point out that, until yesterday, Firefox aka Theo Andelini, was one of THE most prolific posters on this political forum. Not to mention another Greens supporter, guytaur.
NB: I don’t for a minute mind how many times guytaur posts in a day. I find his posts at least polite and respectful of others.
The federal deficit is a good thing, all said. It represents a way in which we can spend on ourselves. While we can dispute individual items and find things on which we might spend more or spend less, there’s no doubt that the spending has improved the standard of living for most people. Public spending is something the private sector cannot undertake. Without it, the private sector would be trying to increase its savings rate and we would be stuck in a liquidity trap – a recession from which we could not escape. The LNP have borrowed some fiscal latitude. Good idea. They listened to Labor. It could go further.
I’d like to see more social spending and more investment in the environment. I’d like to see much more spending on education – on the production, distribution and exchange of knowledge. Knowledge almost uniquely has increasing rates of return. The more of it there is the more valuable it all becomes. I’d like the State sector to lead this and, in particular, to democratise education. Education is the ultimate public good. It can be very readily socialised and has been colonised by or for women, children and immigrants.
I’d also really like it if the demonisation of the jobless were eliminated. This is just cruelty in the name of fiscal prudence. It’s a way of punishing the powerless.
N
Going by the planets in our solar system (and planets from other systems) the universe prefers bare round balls of dust, rock or gas. We’re just returning things to their natural state.
JM @ #1560 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 5:16 pm
LOL! She certainly “triggers” them, doesn’t she?
If she never achieves anything else, that alone is worth the price of admission! 🙂
‘Quoll says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 5:06 pm
FWIW I would never consider posting to PB as political campaigning’
That explains but does not excuse the routine abuse.
The extraordinary increase in per capita incomes of the last 400-500 years has been enabled by the expansion of education. Think how much greater our welfare could be if education were expanded even more….and by welfare, I mean that in the widest sense to include material as well as non-material benefits.
We have so much still to learn.
Thunberg spent ages attacking the West.
She was, naturally, the darling of the self-loathers.
Now that she’s an adult she has finally realized that China is cranking out 28% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
And climbing.
She’s finally joined the dots.
Never too late, IMO.
A lot Constitutional Experts have egg on their faces after the Federal Court has rejected challenges to the pause of travel from India.
DisplayName says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 5:34 pm
N
Going by the planets in our solar system (and planets from other systems) the universe prefers bare round balls of dust, rock or gas. We’re just returning things to their natural state.
Seems so, DN. We have had a brief innings. Will not last.
‘Shellbell says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 4:55 pm
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/johnsons-lesson-for-labour-politics-is-not-a-consumer-product/ar-BB1gyrWE?ocid=msedgntp‘
Thanks. Excellent analysis, IMO. It helps explain why Labor is getting creamed in the regions.
N, DN.
Pollyanna to the rescue?
Bucephalus says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 5:42 pm
A lot Constitutional Experts have egg on their faces after the Federal Court has rejected challenges to the pause of travel from India.
Yes. They upheld the right of States to restrict movement across their borders on the same basis. As long as there is no discrimination involved and the measures are considered to be minimal, temporary and proportionate to the problem, governments will be allowed to implement them. Really, it would be absolutely unbelievable if a court were to decide otherwise.
Having said that, the Commonwealth should fix the quarantine system. We really do need it. They have failed.
Thunberg gets it.
China is cooking the planet.
There are all sorts of spurious justifications for why this has to be so, for ethical reasons.
As if Drs Physics and Chemistry do ethics!
boerwar
No she hasn’t. Why do you make crap up?
boerwar says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 5:48 pm
N, DN.
Pollyanna to the rescue?
Yet again. She has been on vacation in the Bahamas for some time. Perhaps she found a companion there. Maybe they learned the samba. Maybe they drank rum and slept in a lot. Perhaps.
DisplayName @ #1578 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 5:52 pm
It’s all he has left 🙁
Thunberg is a puppet of Western politicians according to the disciples of Xi:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222988.shtml
Naturally enough, she found herself in ‘hot water’.
You can’t accuse the comrades of lacking a sense of humour.
China loves peace.
Xinjiang is a wonderful place.
Hong Kong democracy is better than ever.
Taiwan must be invaded if it does not come to some sort of sense that Xi is an all-powerful despot.
The nanosecond Thunberg moved from criticizing the West into criticizing China, she is hot water.
Obvious as.
Can we start ignoring Geoffrey Robertson now? How many times does the pompous windbag have to be wrong?
boerwar
No, that’s just a sign that there are people in China who are/were not counting themselves as a country she was referring to.
Thunberg herself did not differentiate between The West and Not The West. As far as I’m aware. If she did, provide a quote.
Ooooh, someone must have hit a very sensitive spot.
China’s dutiful netizens, well informed through having their information totally controlled, are in an uproar!
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223003.shtml
boerwar @ #1582 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 5:56 pm
Thunburg attacked world leaders at the UN. India, China and Russia are also members of the UN.
Are you somehow of the belief that she was attacking only the western leaders?
The ALP should win the next election on the Coalitions trillion dollar deficit on that alone, not taking anything else into account…
Cud
“Didn’t mention batteries on trains, even though it did mention battery powered short haul shipping.”
As a matter of fact I was looking at battery trains (BEMUs) as an option for a work project just the other day. Very promising for low volume lines with no overhead. The batteries are only around another 10% cost on the rolling stock capital and you will recoup the saving in no more diesel fuel, less maintenance and no catenary to build or maintain. Perhaps one recharging point every 10km for reliability. Looks really promising on economics alone. Throw in the better performance of the electric and it is excellent.
Bombardier is offering battery EMUs/BEMUs now in Australia. EU examples I have been researching are operating on lengths anywhere from 20km to 100km, depending on number of stops and gradient.
Elsewhere they put up the pantograph and perform under catenary as a standard EMU.
DN
You’ll have to do your own research.
It says in the Global Times that she skipped school.
Can hardly say worse than that:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222988.shtml
The exciting prospect is that Thunberg stands to be the darling of both the Left, for sticking it to the West, and to the Right for sticking it to Xi’s China.
Thunberg is a ‘double-standard selective environmentalist.’
Xi’s minions could hardly be wrong, surely?
The next thing we will be hearing is that she is a running dog capitalist roader.
boerwar @ #1589 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 6:02 pm
Somehow, I don’t think Greta will ever be a darling of the Right. In fact, they hate her as much as you do … now, hang on a minute … something just occurred to me … 🙂
Greta Thunberg has already criticised China, over the arrest there of Climate Strike protesters. This was in the South China Morning Post.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3103548/greta-thunberg-criticises-china-after-climate-striker-ou-hongyi
I might ask why are the right so obsessed with a Swedish schoolgirl? Answer, because like the child in the Hans Christian Anderson tale, she cuts through and points out when the Emperors have no clothes.
Meanwhile, back in the real world:
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4198862
I am not absolutely hating it. The orifice could have been more subtle.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/world/asia/japan-squid-statue.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
The application to overturn the ban had four grounds.
Only the first two were heard and decided today.
The remaining two grounds are the more complex and involve constitutional issues. Whether they will be heard this week is unknown or even if the application will proceed given the ban finishes on Saturday.
So, part win only for Hunt and the government and time may be on their side.
Not really a chest beating told you so outcome today I would ponder. I am sure others will think differently.
Just the observations of a complete amateur.
Thunberg is not a school girl.
She’s an adult.
boerwar
You’ll note one of the quotes from Xi’s mouthpiece was “the right to emit”. That’s a right-wing framing of the issue if I ever heard one. It appears that
a) It’s not the Left who are upset at what she’s said.
b) She’s not a darling of the Right.
It’s just now we’re hearing from boerwar’s comrades on the Right in China :P.
Bucephalus says:
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 5:42 pm
A lot Constitutional Experts have egg on their faces after the Federal Court has rejected challenges to the pause of travel from India.
Correct the court has found there was no malice in the decision, it was warranted because the Government is so friging incompetent there was no other choice.
Sad really.
Maybe Hunt & Scottie can roll out the Red Carpets when they claim vindication for their incompetence.
Socrates
The Hunter line would be a great place to test. Could also get better performance.
I’ve also advocated taking a couple of Waratahs and adding batteries and running them on the Bomaderry line. Cheaper than electrification and a good way to get experience.
Socrates @ #1592 Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 6:05 pm
Now, why would the Right hate an attractive, popular, educated, informed, outspoken, politically active and aware young girl?
Let me think … no, it’s just a conundrum!