The Age/Herald has published its latest monthly federal voting intention poll from Resolve Strategic, with better results for Labor than the last two: the Coalition is down two to 37%, Labor is up three to 34%, the Greens are up one to 11% and One Nation is down one to 3%. This comes out at roughly 51-49 in favour of Labor on 2019 election preferences. The breakdowns provided for the three largest states have it at about 50-50 in New South Wales and Queensland and 52-48 to Labor in Victoria. Scott Morrison’s personal ratings show a combined very good and good result of 47% (down two) and a combined poor and very poor result of 43% (down two), while Anthony Albanese is respectively on 30% (down one) and 41% (down five). Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister is little changed at 44-26, compared with 45-26 last time.
Also out yesterday was the regular fortnightly Essential Research poll, which includes approval ratings for the state Premiers, based on small sub-samples from the relevant states – although these have been juiced up in this survey for Western Australia and South Australia. This provides the first numbers first published for Dominic Perrottet, at 47% approval and 28% disapproval from a sample of 352. Daniel Andrews is at 52% approval and 40% disapproval from a sample of 275; Annastacia Palaszczuk is at 66% approval and 27% disapproval from a sample of 217; Mark McGowan is at 82% approval and 13% disapproval from a sample of 441; and Steven Marshall is at 61% approval and 27% disapproval from a sample of 443.
The regular question on the federal government’s handling of COVID-19 records one-point increases in both the good and poor ratings, to 46% and 31% respectively. The good ratings for the state governments are 57% for New South Wales (up two), 43% for Victoria (down three), 59% for Queensland (down nine), 78% for Western Australia (down two) and 66% for South Australia (down one), from the same sample sizes as noted in the previous paragraph. The poll also records what is no doubt a pandemic-induced slump in the view that immigration is too high, at 37% compared with 56% in January 2019, although too low is only up from 12% to 16%. There are further questions on immigration, as well as climate policy, in the full release. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1781.
Also out recently are two localised polls from Redbridge Group, one targeting the Perth seat of Swan, which the Liberals hold on a post-redistribution margin of 3.2%. Consistent with other polling showing a swing to Labor approaching 10% in the state, the poll has Labor on 43% (33.2% in 2019), Liberal on 32% (44.7%), the Greens on 10% (12.3%), the United Australia Party on 6% (1.8%) and “a local independent” on 9%, if responses to a forced-response follow-up for the undecided are included. A very great deal of further detail from the poll is available in the full release, including state voting intention results that suggests Mark McGowan’s government is at least as popular now as when it annihiliated the opposition in March. The poll was conducted by automoted phone polling from October 9 to 12 from a sample of 814.
The other Redbridge poll targeted the three Sydney electorates of Banks, Lindsay and Macquarie, and it has the striking finding that the United Australia Party is on 19%, with Liberal on 32%, Labor on 31% and the Greens on 9%. The pollster reports this as converting to 53-47 to Labor, though I am unclear as to how this was determined as there does not appear to be a full release of results as there is with the Swan poll. The combined result in these seats at the 2019 election was Liberal 47.3%, Labor 36.8%, Greens 6.6% and United Australia Party 3.1%, with the Liberals on 53.7% and Labor on 46.3% two-party preferred.
The other big electoral story of the hour was yesterday’s revelation that the federal government will shortly introduce a voter identification bill to parliament, which has naturally caused the spectre of Republican-style voter suppression to be invoked. However, the bill seems to follow the model followed by the Newman government in Queensland at the 2015 election, which was promptly repealed by the new Labor government, and I have always been of the heretical view that this did little harm and perhaps even a degree of good with respect to public confidence.
According to The Guardian, acceptable forms of identification will include “passports, drivers licences, proof of age cards, and student cards, as well as government-issued documents including Medicare and pensioners cards, and recent documents from financial institutions and utility companies”. Furthermore, those without identification will still be able to cast a declaration vote, to be admitted to the count once it is established that the voter’s name has not already been marked off. Nonetheless, Antony Green notes that the relative ease with which this was administered in Queensland was aided by its lack of an upper house, whereas it is likely to mean delays in counting when two ballot papers are involved.
Both Labor and the Greens immediately announced their opposition to the bill. One Nation, however, will presumably be on board, having earlier introduced voter identification legislation of their own in response to delusions endemic on their end of the ideological spectrum. That means the government will need to win over one or more of Jacqui Lambie, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff.
Yep. Nothing to see here say the Liberal fan club rooting for Gladys:
“I’ll throw money at Wagga, lots of it, don’t you worry about that,” Ms Berejiklian replied. She said Mr Maguire had already told her the “top three things” he wanted for the electorate. Mr Maguire suggested one project was being blocked by bureaucrats and Ms Berejiklian said: “I can overrule them”.
OMG talk about a snake oil salesman!
C@t:
Tomorrow is shaping up to be a fascinating day!
SK
So often when someone objects to their actions or legislation the LNP ministers shrug and say “if voters don’t like it, they can vote us out at the next election.”
By which time it’s been baked in, of course.
Golden Girl Gladys vainly attempted to pave the streets of Wagga with gold….
‘After he quit politics in 2018, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian in a July 30 call to “throw money at Wagga”. “I’ll throw money at Wagga, lots of it, don’t you worry about that,” Ms Berejiklian replied. She said Mr Maguire had already told her the “top three things” he wanted for the electorate. Mr Maguire suggested one project was being blocked by bureaucrats and Ms Berejiklian said: “I can overrule them”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/berejiklian-inquiry-live-updates-daryl-maguire-to-front-icac-as-investigation-into-former-nsw-premier-continues-20211027-p593pm.html
We have a jock on local 6PR, name Ollie Peterson. Seems like a nice bloke, but insight is not his strong suit. After Gladys folded her tent and left office, said Peterson hooted that she was ‘so popular’ that she should stand for a Federal seat and….wait for it……………become PM……Peterson is originally from NSW so perhaps he knows something the rest of us don’t? Anyway, nothing from him currently about “Gladys for Canberra” ….some several eggs spattered across his face I guess…How do these turkeys get access to a megaphone on commercial radio?
“ Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian: “Wagga is the centre of the universe, I’ve always said it. Keep listening to me and it’ll be like the blazing star of the southern universe, I tell ya. That’s why we need a stadium. That’s why we need a conservatorium. That’s why we need the things that Sydney’s got.””
Opening night at the Wagga Opera House will be epic. Strictly collared shirts only, and footwear must be worn.
Apologies for posting again Gladys’s transparent corrupt words, which I’m sure the good burghers of Warringah will overlook in the seat some say she will be parachuted into.
After all, they put up with Tony Abbott rorting his travel expenses to swim, cycle and fun run his way around the country.
Soc
Might be hard to find a place for a Harbour Bridge.
On 3.5 margin. Would appear safe given the white hot rage felt at the Gladys Ghetto policy to scapegoat Western Sydney..
Been to Wagga Wagga a number of times.
A road, a bridge, a town & then onwards west.
Been a few years though, maybe I missed something.
Gympie is the Centre of the Universe…thankyou
Gympie is the border town of Nth Qld
I can feel a punch up coming on
mikehilliard
And right there, that’s the reason why they need a harbour.
You haven’t lived till you have been to Gudooga.
Wagga Wagga has produced many famous people
– Billy Field
– Lex Marinos
– Helen Coonan
– Sir Thomas Blamey
And a bevvy of sport stars..
Sport Edit
George P. Anderson (Australian rules footballer)
David Barnhill (Rugby League footballer)[7]
Alex Blackwell (cricketer)
Kate Blackwell (cricketer)
Scobie Breasley (jockey)[8]
Greg Brentnall (Rugby League footballer)[8]
Wayne Carey (Australian rules footballer)[8]
Wayne Carroll (Australian rules footballer)
Ben Cross (Rugby League footballer; played for Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle)
Neale Daniher (Australian rules footballer)
Terry Daniher (Australian rules footballer)[8]
Patrick Dwyer (Olympic athlete)
Steve Elkington (golfer)[8]
Marc Glanville (Rugby League footballer)
Paul Hawke (Australian rules footballer)
Elliott Himmelberg (Australian rules footballer)
Harrison Himmelberg (Australian rules footballer)
Nathan Hines (Rugby Union footballer)
Brad Kahlefeldt (2006 Commonwealth Games Triathlon gold medallist)[8]
Paul Kelly (Australian rules footballer)[8]
Geoff Lawson (cricketer)[8]
Jim Lenehan (Rugby Union footballer)
Jack Littlejohn (Rugby League footballer)
Steve Martin (Australian Rugby League Team)
Bill Mohr (Australian rules footballer)
Cameron Mooney (Australian rules footballer)
Chris Mortimer (Rugby League footballer)[8]
Peter Mortimer (Rugby League footballer)
Steve Mortimer (Rugby League footballer)[8]
Nigel Plum (Rugby League footballer)
Alicia Quirk (Australian Women’s Rugby sevens player and 2016 Summer Olympics gold medal winner)
Tony Roche (tennis player)[8]
Adam Schneider (Australian rules footballer)
Nathan Sharpe (Rugby Union footballer)
Michael Slater (cricketer)[8]
Jamie Soward (Rugby League footballer)
Peter Sterling (Rugby League footballer and TV presenter/sports commentator)[8]
Mark Taylor (cricketer)[8]
Can’t see many clay pigeon shooters amongst them…
sprocket
Could be a sign that people are keen to get out…
But does Wagga have a Prime Minister?
” Opening night at the Wagga Opera House will be epic. Strictly collared shirts only, and footwear must be worn.”
Not to mention the 500+ metre long 130+ metre high steel arch bridge over the Murrumbidgee.
Wagga is at the centre of gravity between Sydney and Melbourne.
I thought that was Canberra?
With Gladys in charge of NSW it became the centre of a gravy train.
So Owens will be 64 years of age at the next election – and 67 when the term concludes
We all move on
Says someone whose 50th birthday present to self was to retire from the rat race and enjoy parenting my (then very young) children as a full time occupation
Priceless
And now there is a tribe of grandchildren, all under 10 years of age
So, been there, done that
Except now we can give them back to their parents then doze off in front of the box!!
Find that one hard to beat
”
DisplayNamesays:
Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 6:04 pm
Boerwar
I sincerely hope that Australians prove you right at the next election, but this government didn’t just become like this after one, or even two, elections.
They behave as they do, as openly as they do, because they believe their behaviour has been approved. It’s “what people expect”.
”
Unfortunately, I concur with you.
The 4 stages of throwing money at Wagga.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1453620113001775108
An outcome as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow morning:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/first-time-buyers-facing-higher-prices-due-to-government-scheme-20211028-p5943r.html
The Federal Government no more wants to tackle home affordability than it wants to tackle greenhouse emissions. It will throw taxpayer money at “solutions” that they must know won’t work, but no effective action. There are just too many powerful and well-funded interests invested in the status quo.
The NSW blog posts on PB are good fun when everything is going to the shitter.
Favourite introductory paragraph
“Antonio says:
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Well, where do I start? Let me first come clean and confess that I am a direct descendent of the paymaster of the NSW Rum Corps. I was also born and bred in Wollongong, and went to school with one of the leading figures in the council corruption scandal (however, I didn’t know him well and he wasn’t a friend of mine, honestly Your Honour). I also spent quite a few years as a journalist covering NSW politics.”
It’s the meh reaction to the blatantly revealed corruption that is mind boggling.
In what world does a premier who promises to throw a shitload of money at an electorate against advice of public servants ever get to be held up as having integrity?
C@t, I sympathise about about the pain you have. There is nothing worse than being in pain for 24 hours of every day, especially when they know what the problem is but don’t have a solution (my situation). Hope for your sake they get to the bottom of the problem and come up with a fix. In the mean time, hang tough oldish girl and all the best.
A thought about the proposed ID to Vote laws – think of the extra stress it would put on AEC employees, who have a tough enough job normally. They’d become virtual police inspectors or ID inspectors, plus the queues at polling booths on election day would be even longer than usual. And how would this apply to postal voting – would you need some sort of verifiable ID to lodge a postal vote?
I hope Labor continues to fight this, it is little more than a brazen attempt by Morrison and his minion Ben Morton to suppress the vote of the poor, unemployed, homeless, pensioners and indigenous people.
Disturbing that Sterling Griff in the Senate seems inclined to support this garbage!
Bypass Wagga by going though Junee to Narrandera. Much nicer.
I haven’t found a good way to bypass the Hay plain.
Steve777 @ #921 Thursday, October 28th, 2021 – 7:22 pm
Wagga Wagga appears to have been at the centre of the gravy train.
Some of Australia’s least liked cricketers are from Wagga.
SK,
I thought Douglas Jardine was a POM.
Thanks, Bert. Much appreciated. I couldn’t even make a batch of Apple Muffins the other day without dropping my head onto the kitchen counter in a flood of tears due to overwhelming pain.
It’s okay. I don’t want to play the victim, I just want people to understand I haven’t run away, or been banned. I just can’t do much of anything for long periods! And I don’t want to get hooked on painkillers. 😀
But that’s more than enough about me.
Earlier – Socrates, replying to Sceptic: I’ll try to respond to certain points in CAPS as we go:
“Sceptic
“Final final word on subs… if indeed nuclear submarines are required (which they aren’t) why not shift to building the French nuclear version of what is already contracted, that way you don’t waste the $300m already spent.. 2 years of work already done & don’t get involved in weapons grade fuel & all the issues that creates… I repeat the French reactors are designed to be serviced & refuelled non weapons grade fuel ( only required once in life of the boat).. without cutting the sub in half which is the case with both UK & US alternatives.”
Fair questions, which I will try to answer from what I have learnt/read so far:
1. Rightly or wrongly all the defense sources I have read think we do now need nuclear powered subs.
QUITE A NUMBER OF DEFENCE SOURCES AND DEFENCE STRATEGISTS I’VE READ DISAGREE. MOST AT LEAST REALISE THE MASSIVE CAPABILITY GAP THAT OPENED UP – ONE THAT CANT BE ADEQUATELY CLOSED BY EXTENDING THE LIFE AND UPGRADING THE COLLINS CLASS (SOME THEORECTICAL BUMPF IS FLYING AROUND, BUT I CANT SEE ANYTHING LESS THAN A DECADE GAP, AND LIKLEY THREE DECADES. IN SHORT WE URGENTLY NEED A NEW SSK – ONE THAT IS VERY SPECIFIC TO AUSTRALIA’S NEEDS – AND RIGHT NOW THERE IS ONLY ONE VIABLE OPTION. AS PER ABOVE WE NEED TO COMMIT TO BUILDING THE FIRST BLOCK OF 3-4 ATTACK CLASS SUBS NOW. AFTER MENDING FENCES WITH FRANCE, NAVAL GROUP, ASC WORKFORCE, LOCKHEED MARTIN, AN ALBANESE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE ABLE TO START BUILDING THEM FROM 2025 (A FURTHER DELAY OCCASIONED BY MORRISON FROM THE 2024 START DATE).
The French contract went wrong partly because we were trying to get nuclear sub performance out of conventionally powered subs. It didn’t work. THE RISK IN THE ATTACK CLASS WAS ALWAYS CONCERNING WHETHER DEISEL GENERATORS – LEAD BATTERIES WOULD BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN THE ELECTRICAL ‘HOTEL LOAD’ FOR SUSTAINED HIGH INTENSITY OPERATIONS SUCH AS TO MAKE THE SHIFT TO A PUMP JET VIABLE. I THINK THE ANSWER TO THAT IS ACTUALLY YES. ALTHOUGH NOT SPECIFIED IN THE 2016 COMPETITIVE EVALUATION PROCESS, NAVAL GROUP NOW HAVE A REVOLUTIONARY AIP SYSTEM IN PRODUCTION. IF SATELLITES BECOME CAPABLE OF PICKING UP EVEN MOMENTARY INDISCRETIONS – IE. SNORKELLING – THEN AN AIP SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS FOR THREE WEEKS CONTINUOUS SUBMERGED RUNNING BETWEEN SNORTS IS A GOOD IDEA. THE FIRST BLOCK ATTACK CLASS DESIGN EITHER HAD THE NAVAL GROUP AIP SYSTEM OR THE SUB WAS BUILD FOR BUT NOT WITH THE AIP [JUST LIKE THE COLLINS] MEANING IT COULD BE INSERTED AT ANY ONE OF THE DECADE OVERHAULS. ALSO BATTERY TECHNOLOGY IS EVOLVING AT SUCH A RAPID RATE THAT IT IS LIKLEY THAT AT THE TIME OF COMMISSIONING THE ATTACK CLASS WOULD HAVE HAD TWICE AS MANY BATTERIES AS THE COLLINS CLASS, BUT ONLY LI-SULPHUR – THEREFORE 10 TIMES MORE ENERGY DENSE THAN THE LEAD BATTERIES CURRENTLY IN OPERATION. THAT WOULD GIVE THE SSK THE ABILITY TO GO AT MAXIMUM SPEED FOR DAYS ON END WITHOUT HAVING TO REPLENISH VIA THE DESEL GENERATOR. SO YES. THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE ATTACK CLASS WOULD WORK. VERY WELL. WE ARE READY TO GO. WE SHOULD GO. ASAP.
China now has naval bases on the Indian Ocean, so it isn’t just the South Chain Sea. Patrol distances for our subs across the Indian and Pacific Oceans are vast. India is also building nuclear subs.
A VERY GOOD ARGUMEMNT TO PIVOT TO SSNS. HOWEVER, CAPABILITY = TIME PLUS MONEY. IN THE MEANTIME … WE NEED A NEW SSK.
2. Going from conventional to nuclear power changes everything – hull & engine design, construction and maintenance/sustainment. No matter which sub you pick now (French, US or UK), if nuclear, the previous work is wasted. The only thing that can be carried forward is the weapons / combat system development, which was done by Lockheed/Rockwell, and I expect that could be put in the Astutes. The Virginias already have a very similar system.
THAT IS TRUE TO A CERTAIN EXTENT. HOWEVER, OTHER THAN MAKING THEM SLIGHTLY SMALLER [IE. ONLY HAVING TWO VERTICAL LAUNCH MODULES INSTEAD OF SIX ON THE BLOCK FIVES] NO REDESIGN WORK WOULD BE NEEDED IF WE ACQUIRED VIRGINIA CLASS SUBS, BECAUSE WE ALREADY USE THE VIRGINIA CLASS COMBAT SYSTEM AND THE CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ON THE VIRGINIA ARE EXACTLY THE SAME WEAPONS WE WANT.
FURTHER, IF WE GO WITH THE FRENCH, THEN THE TWO AREAS OF SYSTEMS CONVERSION – THE COMBAT AND WEAPONS SYSTEMS – HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO THE DESIGN PROCESS BY NAVAL GROUP FOR THE ATTACK CLASS (WHOICH USES THE SUFFREN AS ITS DESIGN REFERENCE POINT): THAT DESIGN WORK WOULD NOT BE LOST IF WE WERE TO ACQUIRE SUFFREN CLASS BOATS. OTHER THAN THOSE TWO SYSTEMS, WE COULD SIMPLY ACQUIRE THE SUFFERN DESIGN ‘OFF THE SHELF’.
3. The French reactors are LEU (low enriched Uranium) but we can’t provide that fuel. So they would still have to go back to France to get refueled (every 10 years). This step is not required at all with the US/UK boats, which have a rector that lasts the 30 year life of the sub. It is a sealed unit, so there is never any uranium refueling done in Australia. We won’t be making or loading fuel rods here.
DONT BE FOOLED BY THE ‘SEALED UNIT’ PROPAGANDA. BOTH THE AMERICANS AND BRITS REGULARLY ‘UNSEAL’ THEIR REACTOR UNITS, AND WE SHOULD EXPECT TO HAVER TO DO THE SAME. IN FACT THAT ASPECT IS A MIRAGE. REGARDLESS OF WHO WE GO WITH WE NEED THOUSANDS OF NEW WORKERS IN SPECIALISED FIELDS THAT WE DONT HAVE ANY IN RIGHT NOW AND THE PRIME FOCUS OF ANY CONTRACT HAS TO BE – WHO CAN BEST TRAIN UP THE HUMAN RESOURCES WE DON’T CURRENT HAVE NOW TO MAKE THIS CAPABILITY WORK?
Interestingly since AUKUS was announced India, Japan and Korea have all also raised the possibility of nuclear submarines. They have not criticised the Australian decision.
My comments are my conclusion what is best for Australia now. I would still readily agree that the sub contract has been badly botched by the Liberal government, dating back to Abbott. The project was always compromised by party politics. And I do think we owe the French an apology.”
I DON’T ACCEPT SENATOR PARTICK’S CONCLUSIONS IN THEIR ENTIRETY. FORMER SUBMARINER OR NOT.
I THINK THE BUNGLING OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUBMARINES IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE AND FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS (I’m switching now to lower case):
-1. Wayne Swan, Julia Gillard and Stephen Smith. The original Rudd Labor Government plans following the 2009 white paper was to contract to the then merged ThyssenKrupp and Kockrums joint venture to cost up three options:
– An evolved Collins class (based on Collins’ upscaled Gottland design)
– An enlarged Type A26 (Kockums next generation design)
– An enlarged Type 212 (ThyssenKrupp’s boat).
Rear Admiral Sean Costello – the then head of submarine operations wrote a book: ‘how to but a submarine’ in 2009 where he priced up a 12 boat buy using the type 212 as a design reference point, but adding in American combat and weapons systems and designed in the 4,000 tonne class size for $36 billion (2009 dollar terms).
Unfortunately, following the coup, the incoming Gillard government kicked the program into the long grass as Wayne swan chased his mythical budget surplus for 2012. The unfortunate aspect of this was it lead to a falling out between ThyssenKrupp and Kockums – who felt that in the absence of new Australian work ThyssenKrupp only was interested in the Swedes as a means to suppress competition (ie. building more and more type 212 based boats for customers, sinking the A26 project altogether). Things got so heated that the Swedish government forcibly de amalgamated Kockums from ThyssenKrupp- sending commandos into the merged entity’s Stockholm offices to secure all of Kockums’ submarine IP in 2014.
Because of all of this, a clear and easy pathway to the next generation of SSK subs was sunk (see what I did there, lol).
2. Tony Abbott. Despite his first defence minister having Sean Costello as his chief of staff, for the first 18 months of his Prime Ministership Abbott never ‘got’ that acquiring submarines was a distinctly different proposition to turning over the commonwealth com car fleet. It’s not the subs one is purchasing, but the capability to build, rebuild and intensely maintain them through their operational life. His Japanese obsession with the Soryu never factored that in. The Japanese would not share the IP for key components of their program, meaning that we were never going to be able to operate them independent of Japanese control: the worst aspects of the original Oberon class program, only magnified by an order of magnitude.
3. The Japanese and Germans. They never took the competitive evaluation process seriously. The Germans insisted on building the subs in Germany. Only vague commitments were given to establishing requisite parts and maintenance supply chains in Australia. The Japanese were worse: they believed that because of Abe’s ‘special relationship’ with Abbott that the contract was theirs. They made no more than token efforts to address the fundamental flaws with their proposal for australia. They didnt even bother turning up to the two competitive evaluation conferences that the RAN held in 2015 so that the bidders would be in no doubts as to what australia rally wanted.
As an aside, someone – maybe Abbott himself – but probably some RAN Wallah – ruled Kockums out of the competitive evaluation process early on the basis that the Swedes hadn’t built a sub themselves for two decades. However, remember that ‘evolved Collins’ option I referred to above? By 2015 the ASC had finally gotten on top of sustaining the Collins capability. THAT includes being capable of gutting each boat into pieces every 7 years and completely rebuilding them. In my view – and that of many others in the know – given that maturity, to NOT include in the CEP a straight up partnership with Kockums for the Swedes to design a successor to Collins, with the ASC itself the prime contractor to build them – was probably a grievous mistake.
4. Malcolm Turnbull, Chrissy Pyne and Marise Paine.
Straight off the bat – as independent reviews and audits demonstrate the CEP process reached the right decision to go neither the short fin barracuda design – given the options on the table (which didn’t include an evolved Collins, alas).
Unfortunately the announcement was made in the shadow of an election that Turnbull wanted to win – in part by running the line that the Liberals were better managers of money than Labor. So Turnbull always ‘fudged it’ in terms of how much the new submarines were going to cost. He keep using Sean Costello’s $36 billion figure from 2009, even though it was then 2016, the project was substantially evolved from what was originally envisages and that $36 billion only ever represented the ‘sail away’ cost of production per 12 boats (in 2009 dollars). It did not include the costs of the detailed designed phase, the cost of new plant and equipment, re-training and hiring new personnel OR the actually sustainment costs ‘ cradle to grave’ of the program. In truth it was always a $100+ billion program – amortised over 60 years (2015 CEP to last bait being scrapped in 2075). By not being upfront, when new costs emerged, these were portrayed as blowouts, and the program as a whole as being out of control. The Liberal Government seriously undermined public and ADF confidence in its own program, as a consequence. In truth from what I ahve been able to gather in the past month, the program was actually proceeding according to plan, but with extra attention being paid to all the areas that undermined the Oberon and Collins class programs for the first half of each’ s service life: THIS time around, we were ‘measuring twice, to cut once’.
That is not to say that dodgy cost things with the Attack Class program did not happen. This brings me to:
5. Scott Morrison. When Morrison replaced Turnbull there were rumours in the corridors of power that the RAN were not happy with the progress with the Attack class program. Morrison, ever helpful sent in two teams of consultants to fix this up. One headed by Peter Costello, the other by Morrison’s old maaates from the NSW Liberal machine. Unfortunately, they weren’t contracting their consultancy service with the RAN. No, instead they went to work FOR naval Group – the French. There seems little doubt that as a consequence they had their vampire squid blood funnels out and were gorging themselves at the Aussie taxpayer expense. This actually shapes up to be a potential scandal of the highest order. No wonder Morrison does what he always does when dodgy things start blowing up in his face: cut n’ run.
That being said, we have an excellent and finalised design and frankly unless we want to live in lala land believing, variously that teh Collins can be extened and upgraded past 2050, that Los Angeles Class subs can be given a lick of paint and leased to us, the Brits would be able to do everything required to get us Aussie Astutes by 2040 or even that HII could magic up Aussie Virginia’s over the same timeframe, we are mad not to immediately commit to build the first flight of 4 Attack Class subs now. that will buy us some time to fix up all the other Morrison clusterfucks associated with this whole saga.
I am sorry to hear that you are in pain C@t. Best wishes.
Nah, Tarcutta is half way between Sydney and Melbourne but folk from Bookham will dispute that .
C@t
I’ve missed a post or two.. what’s up?
Jaeger @ #846 Thursday, October 28th, 2021 – 5:15 pm
Nice. He’s a classic. I knew bugger all about him until I had the good fortune to be at Newcastle Waters cattle station in 1988 for a big NT bicentennial bash before the start of the ‘last great’ cattle drive to Longreach, 2000 Km, like days of yore, well decades. Anyway, under that black and diamond sky, he did the carton routine with The Drover’s Boy, as many an eye watered up.
https://youtu.be/UJ9a0qr7ORY
When it comes to Paradise On Earth, look no further than Tuncurry, the Paris of the Mid-North Coast.
It’s got a Woolies all to itself, a racecourse and combination golf driving range, hungry sharks lurking just off the breakwater (in fact a “shark-proof” kiddies swimming area that has a sign up saying “WARNING: Sharks may swim in this pool”) , a chicken shop, two Chinese takeaways, Centrelink and Service NSW branches, an off-lead dog park, traditional red brick home units everywhere (as opposed to Gladys’s new-fangled “apartments”), Tuncurry Tip (a day out in itself!), a carnival that never operates, a world record bowlo, and the biggest traffic jam south of Port Macquarie.
Eat shit, Sydneysiders. Tuncurry has it all.
Hmm.. lets ask Google Maps..
It plots a path from Sydney to Melbourne straight down the Hume (through Gundagai, bypassing Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga). All up 878 km.
The half way point (439 km) is 16 km south of Tarcutta. Bookham is nowhere near.
It s a well know fact that Gumlu is the center of the universe. It says so on the stubby holder, and who am I to doubt the wisdom of a stubby holder.
BB
I’m seriously considering walking up there, via the beach.
Cud, not if you come from Bookham
Windhover @ #930 Thursday, October 28th, 2021 – 7:46 pm
Because she, and her media minions, have run two lines to excuse it. Firstly, that ‘everyone does it and pork barreling is just the way that you win elections, and anyway, people end up getting something out of it.’
Secondly, that it was excusable as the Liberals had lost a by-election out there and throwing money at it was the only way they could hope to get back the seat.
BB
‘ Tuncurry has it all’.
And the little Butcher on the corner of the Arcade before the Newsagent makes the best chicken sausages in Oz. OH misses them.