The Australian reports Labor has retained its 51-49 lead in the post-budget poll, from primary votes of Coalition 41% (unchanged), Labor 36% (down two), Greens 12% (up two) and One Nation 2% (down one). Scott Morrison is down a point on approval to 58% and up one on disapproval to 38%, while Anthony Albanese is respectively down one to 39% and up three to 46%, which equals his worst ever net rating from Newspoll. Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister is little changed at 55-30, compared with 56-30 last time.
Regarding the budget, the poll found 44% of respondents expecting it would be good for the economy compared with 15% for bad. On the question of the its personal impact, the better off and worse off responses both scored 19%, with a strikingly high 62% unable to say. There was presumably also a question on whether the opposition would have done a better job, as per Newspoll’s long-established practice — I’ll add that and any further detail as it becomes available.
UPDATE: The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1506. No result yet for the “would the opposition have done better” question, probably because The Australian is saving it for tomorrow. Out of 34 post-budget Newspolls going back to 1988, this is the eighth best result for impact on personal finances and the sixth best for impact on the economy.
The chart below plots the one series against the other, with the present result shown in red. This is near the trendline, suggesting no particular tendency for the budget’s economic impact to be seen as more positive (as tended to be the case in the Howard goverment’s early budgets) than the personal impact (which rated higher in the last three budgets), relative to the favourable reception for the budget overall.
The best received budgets mostly came during the golden age of government revenue from 2004 to 2008: the best of all, on both personal and economic impact, was the one that preceded the Howard government’s defeat in 2007.
test
Boerwar,
It means in practice that there is a significant reservoir of susceptible hosts until children are vaccinated. TGA has allowed for 16 years and over for Pfizer. I have read of 12 years and over internationally, but we aren’t there yet.
“mundo says:
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 7:44 pm
test”
Pass or fail?
Bushfire Bill @ #423 Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 6:44 pm
I pointed out within two days of it being announced that the bullshit ‘Covidsafe’ app was a technical impossibility, posting graphical illustrations showing the radical differences between the multiple versions, and specific instances, of Bluetooth capability installed on the thousands of phone models in use, plus direct quotes from the inventors of Bluetooth themselves, rubbishing the idea. It was a monumental con perpetrated by whatever software consultancy it was that concocted it. No systems analyst could have ever produced a specification and design for such a beast, any more than you or anybody else can produce a recipe for making a banana split out of a bunch of parsnips and a bag of cowdung.
A comprehensive set of travel rules for UK residents,,
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england
This list of 2-day Covid testing sites is impressive, mandatory for all incoming travellers – a number are at home self tests.. maybe Promo could check this out?
https://www.find-travel-test-provider.service.gov.uk/test-type/green
Yabba
Good point.
My personal introduction to zoonoses came from growing up in a dairy district with piggeries attached to some of the farms.
You could add close contact with domestic creatures as a western norm if you are looking for fertile ground for zoonoses.
Wildmeats in any context is a risk factor. We know this from several African zoonoses.
Amongst the global wild meat welter there are several known no-nos: bats and Civets, for example.
China had decided to close down the (alive and butchered) wild meat sections of the wet markets following some previous near-pandemic experiences. They knew it was dynamite. Part of the policy/regulatory grey area is that some of the ‘wild meat species’ are semi-domesticated. Assuming that China’s share of the illegal global wildlife trade, the wild meat sections in the wet market must have been worth a staggering amount of money.
Anyhoo, perhaps because of corruption, perhaps because of a failure of Xi to focus on this issue among all the sparrows in the air for which he bears personal accountability, China failed to do so.
Based on our best guess, had China done so, there would not now be a Covid pandemic.
There have been various announcements since about wild meat controls but these have been suitably modest in terms of decibels.
‘Griff says:
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 7:46 pm
Boerwar,
It means in practice that there is a significant reservoir of susceptible hosts until children are vaccinated. TGA has allowed for 16 years and over for Pfizer. I have read of 12 years and over internationally, but we aren’t there yet.’
——————————————————————
Thanks. It seems to me that, were I a virus, I would mutate a variant into the children to cook up lots of viral loads.
China’s wet markets are no different from European farmers’ markets.
So why the blame on China?
Simply because it is so called scapegoat, simply because the west are openly racist and bigotry, xenophobic.
E. G. Theodore:
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 3:54 pm
[‘Surely all these red carpets are a photoshopped joke, or some sort of prank.’]
It’s no joke, Ted. According to Aunty, Morrison’s office has confirmed the pic as genuine. It looks like a classic case of grandiose delusions, the principal manifestations of which:
‘Those of power, wealth, importance, relationships to famous people, a special relationship to God or even being a deity’.
Apparently, it’s not an easy condition to treat, especially the belief of having a special relationship with God, though it’s reported ‘that a combination of talk therapy and medication can be helpful.’
It’s also been referred to as “The Napoleon Complex”, where the sufferer suffers an inferiority complex. To compensate, a person crowns himself,
wears royal purple garments, and engages in inveterate lying – eg, “I was robbed in 1815”.
The red carpet, the colour guard, the presentation of arms, the flags can all be seen as a contemporary example of The Napoleon Complex – oh, I nearly forgot to add Morrison’s pseudologia fantastica, one of the worst examples seen in a politician.
boerwar says:
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 8:03 pm
“Anyhoo, perhaps because of corruption, perhaps because of a failure of Xi to focus on this issue among all the sparrows in the air for which he bears personal accountability, China failed to do so.
Based on our best guess, had China done so, there would not now be a Covid pandemic.‘
———
No evidence and baselsss claim on anti-China hatred.
Attacking the leader then decide on you’re faceless facts that China is to blame.
You are actually worse than Donald Trump And Qannon
Didn’t someone on PB predict this?…
https://www.smh.com.au/education/sikhs-defend-students-right-to-carry-ceremonial-daggers-at-school-20210517-p57snp.html
Sikhs defend students’ right to carry ceremonial daggers at school
Members of Sydney’s Sikh community have defended their children’s right to bring ceremonial daggers to school, saying a ban would compromise their ability to observe their faith.
There is zero need for ANY religious view to circumvent a civil societies laws or standard, in fact there is no place for religion in public life
Sceptic
There is work arounds that should keep everyone happy. Daggers welded to scabbards, tiny daggers with a blunt blade and a blunt point.
Watching “Australian Story” featuring “The Seekers”. Gawd, they were corny but sounded pretty good & the fashions of the ’60s were awful.
Judith had a lovely voice and i still reckon i know all the words to Morning Town Ride.
The overwhelming statistical probability is wet markets because that is where the maximum number of human/wild animal human/wild meat interactions took place. The two most frequently named species in relation to the structure of covid: bats and pangolins are, or were, staples of the wet markets.
It is a pity that the comrades are keeping 2019 samples from scientists because it is very likely that they would be a key to unlocking the enigma.
In the interim, China’s wild meat sections of the wet market is the best guess for where Covid arose. A less likely possibility is that Covid arose from some sort of chance interaction of bat stuff, pangolin stuff and human stuff in some lab or other. This could have been a natural process and an accident. A bit like mould growing in a petri dish.
A possibility is that some weapons lab cocked things up.
There is another possibility. Some villager somewhere enjoyed a wild caught bat, perhaps with some pangolin steaks bought at a wet market, and the virus seizes the opportunity.
We don’t know because we don’t have access to the raw data.
Train whistle blowing…..
Taylormade:
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 8:35 pm
[‘Judith had a lovely voice and i still reckon i know all the words to Morning Town Ride.’]
That she did.
My parents took me to see The Seekers at the Myer Music Bowl.
Mrs Shellbell and I went to the Seekers farewell concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in January 1994.
Not many 20 somethings there.
Talking about wet markets and animal treatment and disease……..what could be a better incubator for some ghastly super bug than the appalling conditions of our live -sheep and live -cattle trade ? Animals knee deep in excrement and dead animals floating in the tropics, on boats with a crew?
Torchbearer
Good point.
Another county plunges into chaos over covid19:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/nobody-rushed-to-get-vaccinated-in-covid-free-taiwan-now-it-s-in-lockdown-20210517-p57slp.html
In March, Taiwan’s karaoke bars were pumping, its baseball stadiums were at 80 per cent capacity and its markets thriving. On Monday, its supermarket shelves had been stripped bare of toilet paper, cinemas shut down and masks made compulsory outdoors. The stock exchange slumped almost 4 per cent, its biggest rout in a year.
For more than 12 months, Taiwan and its world-class tracing and quarantine measures had shut out the virus, limited its impact to 1000 cases in total, fewer than a dozen deaths and no lockdown.
Then on April 20, an Indonesian cargo pilot took a flight from Taiwan to Australia and tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived. Two of his close contacts also tested positive. They had visited busy venues in Taipei and Taoyuan City, including two mosques and a supermarket before becoming symptomatic.
By mid-May, the virus had seeded. Seven cases on May 11 grew to 185 by May 15 and 333 on Monday. The Taiwan Centres for Disease Control has traced the origins of the disease back to the cargo flight. No cases in Australia have been publicly linked to the pilot who, like all other aircrew, was quarantined from the rest of the population.
The seesawing nature of coronavirus containment is familiar elsewhere in Asia, from Japan and Thailand to South Korea. Hard-won freedoms have been snuffed out within days in other nations with strong records of suppressing COVID-19. Many of them, like Australia, have two major factors in common: successful suppression of the virus has been followed by sluggish vaccination strategies.
—————————————–
We are playing with fire in a chaotic planet and blaming a country of 1.4 billion people of a succesful campaign against covid19.
Barrels of pork promised for railway station carparks in Melbourne blue seats won’t arrive.
Another announceable which was never practical!
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/morrison-government-pulls-100m-promised-for-station-car-parks-20210513-p57rrj.html
I vaguely remember this:
That Time an Oregon Free Love Cult Launched the Largest Bioterror Attack in US History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScKyTmHVU8
The Australian angle:
Australian Cults: The Grim, The Bad And The Ugly Pt. Four, The Rajneesh Movement — Rolling Stone
https://au.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/australian-cults-the-rajneesh-movement-14899/
I can understand why Hare Krishnas would be put out – I suspect most, if not all, “Orange People” I saw growing up weren’t Rajneeshees.
Hare Krishnas Vs. Orange People (Rajneesh) Mike Willesee Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpiEoCGr9g
FWIW it is pretty clear that the bastardry of Australia concerning Timor Leste and the oil, gas and helium of the Timor sea was fairly bipartisan, for some of the Lib and Labor biggest donors and post political sinecure providers. As much as Collaery can say himself currently.
As is evidenced by the role of players not just Downer, but also former ALP national secretary and former resources minister, and former Woodside executive Gary Gray. and also Martin Ferguson who opened the helium plant for processing the helium that was hidden from the Timorese and given away apparently entirely royalty free to Woodside and ConocoPhillips by the Australian government.
The laws currently being used to secretly charge and silence Collaery and Witness K are Lib/Lab bipartisan.
I think ACT Labor MPs saying something today is the first time any ALP MP has said anything over the whole time and situation. Collaery himself is contemptuous of Labor being any better in any of this I believe.
Instead, Collaery sees Canberra as:
“a vast seething Chicago of self-interests, and the only way they’re keeping a lid on it is by issuing prosecution orders against individuals.”
This is how the Carbon Club has bought both the LNP and ALP over decades.
Since when is it a crime to report a crime? Bernard Collaery exposes the Timor Sea betrayal
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/since-when-did-it-become-a-crime-to-report-a-crime-bernard-collaery-exposes-the-timor-sea-betrayal/
Collaery is the subject of legal action taken by the Australian Government under the auspices of an anti-terrorism act. Collaery believes the prosecution is an effort to gag him and his client, a former ASIO agent known only as Witness K, who allege that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) bugged Timor-Leste during 2003-4 petroleum and maritime border negotiations.
“Rest assured,” Collaery says in an interview with Michael West Media, “I could tell a lot more if I wasn’t silenced under that terrorist law. I could give names, places and dates.” Approximately 33,000 words have been excised from the present volume of his work due to a gag order.
More details revealed over allegations of Australia spying on East Timor
https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3904632.htm
And very much at the centre of that isn’t just the interests of the Australian Government, but the company that was set to, and still is, set to exploit that field exclusively – Woodside Petroleum. At the time these bugging devices were in these offices, Don Voelte was then the head of Woodside.
The Labor backbencher from WA, Gary Gray, was working for Woodside as senior communications strategist. They were attending meetings in that room, along with Australian government officials – the minister Alexander Downer and the Australian negotiating team. They all held meetings in and out of those offices that the Timorese now say had been bugged by Mr Downer.
Is it unsurprising the first thing Albo did when he could get into to WA once the borders were open appears to have been to visit Woodside’s operations and boost the whole gas and CCS boondoggle.
https://www.energynewsbulletin.net/policy/news/1408158/albo-pays-visit-to-north-west-shelf
The federal Labor opposition has been touring Western Australia after the party’s historic landslide state election victory last month.
Visiting the Karratha Gas Plant with shadow resources and trade minister Madeleine King, Albanese noted Woodside was creating thousands of jobs, despite Woodside cutting some 300 jobs at least in the wake of the oil price crash last year.
but
Albanese’s Facebook was met with sharp rebuke by some members of the public, saying they would gladly sacrifice the 1% GDP that the NWS generates in exchange for Woodside’s considerable contribution to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Also of some interest is now as Australia complains about Chinese unilateralism in the South China sea that remarkably no-one wants to raise the utter hypocrisy of Australia’s unilateral efforts to undermine international treaties based on international rules based order when it came to getting as much as we could for corporate interests from the Timor sea ourselves.
As even former Labor premier Steve Bracks pointed out, somewhat presciently mentioning China, in 2015. Labor governments have been just as hypocritical on the Timor negotiations as the LNP.
Steve Bracks – Timor Sea policy a challenge for Labor
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/topic/politics/2015/07/11/timor-sea-policy-challenge-labor/14365368002112
Yet in 2002, Australia unilaterally withdrew from the maritime jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. This decision was made by then foreign minister Alexander Downer just after Australia negotiated an agreement with the United Nations that had the effect of impeding the new nation of Timor-Leste from claiming rights to billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, on the Timor side of the median line with Australia.
Leaving aside the merits of Australia’s maritime boundary claim in the Timor Sea – and our subsequent belligerent conduct towards one of our poorest and most vulnerable neighbours – by stepping away from the international umpire we have undermined our ability to contribute positively to efforts to embed the rule of international law and reduce the risk of conflict in our region.
Australia’s decision to walk away from the international umpire has reduced our credibility.
Take the South China Sea dispute, for example. As Poling notes, who controls what bit of dry sand or coral is not a vital interest for Australia, but “seeing an Asia Pacific in which an emergent China plays by the same rules and norms as everyone else, not one in which might makes right, certainly is”.
—
Yet during Labor’s last term in office the government continued to refuse to allow Timor-Leste the opportunity to have the maritime boundary dispute with Australia heard in the international courts.
The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Tanya Plibersek, has recently noted in relation to the South China Sea dispute that a “multilateral rules-based system in which all countries observe international law gives us the best hope of reducing conflict”.
This puts both sides of politics on the record arguing that a multilateral rules-based international system is in Australia’s national interest. In which case, both major parties should be acting to ensure Australia agrees to play by the rules and lets the international umpire have the final say on our maritime boundary disputes.
I was actually living in Perth when the Rajneeshi Movement was in its full orange bloom. I even knew some of them. 🙂
I’ve always been a person who didn’t like being dictated to so to be told I had to wear orange clothes never appealed to me and so I never became a part of the movement. Sliding doors.
Btw, it was my impression that it was the Transcendental Meditation people that were the most peed off with the Orange people. They both had titular heads who were Indian gurus and they preyed on gullible, rich white people in the main. I guess the Hare Krishnas did also to a certain extent but they were never the main competition for followers. I believe it was because you really had to go the full monty if you wanted to become a Hare Krishna, whereas TM and the Rajneeshis allowed you to maintain your Western lifestyle to a greater extent, overlayed with their teachings and edicts about the clothes you wore and the food you ate.
C@t,
“Beware of toxic, orange people” still seems like good advice today. 😉
Jaeger,
Cults are bad, m’ok? 😀
I really don’t know why the farmers beset by the mice plague aren’t thinking outside the box. I’m sure if they euthanised them with CO, collected them all and then put them on a plane to some country that likes a crunchy mouse or two to chow down on, they’d end up making a fortune! These mice are obviously well fed on Australian grain and would be a tasty morsel. If that was your thing. The Ancient Romans used to love themselves some Doormouse.
Phylactella
“ Barrels of pork promised for railway station carparks in Melbourne blue seats won’t arrive.
Another announceable which was never practical!”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/morrison-government-pulls-100m-promised-for-station-car-parks-20210513-p57rrj.html
I find it hard to feel sorry for anyone who votes for the PM’s lies after he has been caught out on so many past lies. His word is worth as much as an Adani job promise.
But if he is abandoning pork barrelling to these seats, Melbourne Liberal polling must not be that great.
Re mouse plagues, on the North Shore we have rats. Maybe we can export some of them. They scurry across the car park, bin alcove and gardens, especially at night. We’ve engaged pest controllers but so far it’s hard to tell who’s winning the War on Rats.
The other day when I took out the rubbish, I stepped on a dead rat. I was therefore duty-bound to dispose of it (plastic bag, bin). The rest of the day was much better.
Socrates @ #NaN Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 10:14 pm
He promised our seat of Robertson a commuter car park too. Three years later, it hasn’t been delivered, or even started. No doubt he’ll come up here and throw the woofle dust around again and people will continue to believe he will deliver and vote accordingly.
This story is interesting – Adani’s main contractor on their mine project may be unable to get insurance for the project.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/adani-coal-contractor-asks-australian-government-insurance-help-2021-05-13/
It would be interesting to see if this is legal. Most state laws require major civil works contractors to have insurance for both public risk and worker safety. They have duties of care for both udner several Acts. This is not negotiable – you can’t build a garage without it. It is to ensure injured workers or members of the public have recourse to damages if injured.
Was Transcendental Meditation what the Beatles were into?
Cat
It hasn’t made the news much but infrastructure spending in this year’s budget was actually a decline (cut) over that promised in previous “$110 billion in 10 years” announcements. Also, spending on roadworks this year dropped below fuel excise collections. So much for “investing for growth”.
”No doubt he’ll come up here and throw the woofle dust around again and people will continue to believe he will deliver…
The Labor campaign should make a point of jogging voters’ memories on this issue and many similar instances. Suggest that voters consider whether they can believe any promises made by the lot in power.
Jaeger @ #NaN Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 10:27 pm
Yep. 🙂
Boy, did the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi take them for a ride!
C@t,
Steve777 @ #NaN Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 10:32 pm
Gawd I hope so.
Jaeger @ #NaN Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 10:32 pm
I once did a project for my Latin class about what the Romans ate at their banquets. It put Heston Blumenthal to shame!
Probably, but it made for some interesting music.
I think most things the Romans did would put our “celebrities” to shame.
Clickbait media are running with the story “111-year old Australian recommends eating chicken brains”. All yours!
Morrison’s red carpet stunt labelled on par with
Abbott’s conferral of a knighthood on Sir Prince Philip. All hail Caesar Morrison:
He flew on his private RAAF jet to Williamtown. A photo of Mr Morrison walking off the plane was posted to his Instagram, showing the PM – wearing a suit, blue tie and face mask – walking along a red carpet, as up to 10 men and women in RAAF uniforms stood to attention.
One was holding an Australian flag, another the Royal Australian Air Force Ensign.
The photo – with the caption “always good to be back in the Hunter” – was posted to Mr Morrison’s Instagram Story, a popular feature where photos automatically expire after 24 hours. It was not shared on the PM’s other social media channels, but was soon shared across Twitter by Australians curious about the ceremonial welcome.
Labor MP Brian Mitchell tweeted on May 9 that it was “right up there with knights and dames”, referring to an unpopular decision from former PM Tony Abbott to revive that system of honours.’]
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/05/17/scott-morrison-red-carpet-raaf-welcome/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PM%20Extra%20-%2020210517
I bet he won’t pull this caper again.
Jaeger @ #NaN Monday, May 17th, 2021 – 10:38 pm
True. ‘The Concert for Bangladesh’ is an album that has stood the test of time for mine. Eclectic but also extremely entertaining.
Morrison is just trying to introduce every Presidential American trope to Australian politics that he can get away with.
[‘Former outback grazier Dexter Kruger becomes Australia’s oldest man, at 111 years and 124 days.’]
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/05/17/dexter-kruger-australias-oldest-man/
Reading between the lines, that means the previous record holder has died. Or left Australia. Or had his citizenship arbitrarily revoked by Dutton.
In response to Senate Committee questioning by Rand Paul (!), Fauci vehemently denies “Gain-of-Function” SARS-CoV-2 research funded by the USA and/or the NIH or NIAID anywhere in China.
Sounds like he means business.
From David Pakman…
https://youtu.be/6pYOEjQq9QU