Weekend bulletin board

Two days out from Newspoll (presumably), an open thread and a summary of the site’s recent wares.

A new thread is needed, but I’m way too busy right now to produce content to hang it off like I normally would. So beyond pointing out that Newspoll should be along on Sunday evening if its recent form is any guide, I can only draw your attention to other recent posts on next week’s South Australian state election, the situation in Ukraine and related international matters (courtesy of Adrian Beaumount), and a Tasmanian state poll that suggests the Gutwein government’s dominance isn’t quite what it was. Beyond that, over to you.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

755 thoughts on “Weekend bulletin board”

Comments Page 11 of 16
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  1. https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/economics-and-national-security-the-pathway-to-a-khaki-election-20220310-p5a3gu
    “Victorian Labor Premier Dan Andrews’ announcement on Warne’s state memorial service being scheduled for the day after the budget is being viewed within the Morrison government as a deliberate act of sabotage… Andrews’ office rejected suggestions of skulduggery by the Premier, saying the date was chosen after consultations with Warne’s family. In fact, media personality and AFL icon Eddie McGuire, who liaised with the Warne family over the date, told AFR Weekend that Andrews did not want to impinge on the budget.”
    Ahhh Phil Coorey – a reminder that every Napoleon needs a Squealer.

  2. Mavis @ #499 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 12:59 pm

    ‘This is the moment Ukrainian troops took out Russian tanks in another ambush after using anti-tank missiles to lethal effect – after President Zelensky claimed that 500 of Vladimir Putin’s troops had surrendered in a single day on Thursday.

    Dramatic footage of the ambush – the second in three days – purports to show at least one Russian tank and one armoured personnel carrier hit by missiles fired from behind a copse of trees.

    Video posted online shows what appears to be Russian troops running across the road into a field and diving to take cover after one of the convoy was obliterated.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10606573/Ukrainian-troops-Russian-tanks-ambush-Anti-tank-missiles-used-lethal-effect.html

    Mavis, there’s a separate thread for war posts. I’ve been doing my best to adhere to the instructions of the moderator to put them there instead of here.

  3. “https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/economics-and-national-security-the-pathway-to-a-khaki-election-20220310-p5a3gu
    “Victorian Labor Premier Dan Andrews’ announcement on Warne’s state memorial service being scheduled for the day after the budget is being viewed within the Morrison government as a deliberate act of sabotage…”
    Ahhh Phil Coorey – a reminder that every Napoleon needs a Squealer.’

    You killed Warnie you bastards!

    Too soon?

  4. Ven @ 11.22
    You’re so right about my intemperate outbursts. My excuse is I had a night off the grog last night. Sobriety is grossly over-rated. Roll on Newspoll tonight. That can be my tonic.

  5. “You’re so right about my intemperate outbursts. My excuse is I had a night off the grog last night. Sobriety is grossly over-rated. Roll on Newspoll tonight. That can be my tonic.”

    Sober! Goddess save us all from such ends.

  6. WeWantPaul @ #497 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 12:56 pm

    “How many have you actually taken part in? They are gamed out by the factions just as much as any other form of candidate selection. There is maybe a bit more latitude with embers who don’t want to be signed up to one candidate or the other but generally by the time it comes to a vote everyone knows who’s going to win.”

    How many mandatory primaries have their being in a Australia? you do the long list and I’ll confirm I have not taken part in a single one.

    Exactly. So, how do you propose we get head office in any of our states and territories to enact them? We were lucky here to get the closest thing to a candidate out of the box with no history in the party but that is very rare indeed and only came about after 3 years of my bellyaching about having factional candidates imposed on us that were taking the party backwards at every election. And his nanna has been a long standing member of one of our local branches. 🙂

  8. “Exactly. So, how do you propose we get head office in any of our states and territories to enact them? We were lucky here to get the closest thing to a candidate out of the box with no history in the party but that is very rare indeed and only came about after 3 years of my bellyaching about having factional candidates imposed on us that were taking the party backwards at every election. And his nanna has been a long standing member of one of our local branches. ”

    I would propose that a Labor govt introduce them through that little voice of democracy, the parliament.

  9. PTMD,
    The same request goes out to you. Mr Bowe has requested that all comments about the war in Ukraine, which necessarily involves Putin, be made on Adrian Beaumont’s thread.

  10. WeWantPaul @ #507 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 1:10 pm

    “Exactly. So, how do you propose we get head office in any of our states and territories to enact them? We were lucky here to get the closest thing to a candidate out of the box with no history in the party but that is very rare indeed and only came about after 3 years of my bellyaching about having factional candidates imposed on us that were taking the party backwards at every election. And his nanna has been a long standing member of one of our local branches. ”

    I would propose that a Labor govt introduce them through that little voice of democracy, the parliament.

    However, that isn’t necessarily the solution either. Primaries can be gamed by well-resourced locals just as much as any other method of choosing a candidate. We had a popularly elected Mayor a few years ago. He used to be the soccer coach of the local team, when they were successful, so everyone knew him and voted for him. He had done various local charitable works to burnish his credentials. Turned out to just be a front man for John Singleton and the Developer crowd.

    Be careful what you wish for.

  11. “However, that isn’t necessarily the solution either. Primaries can be gamed by well-resourced locals just as much as any other method of choosing a candidate. We had a popularly elected Mayor a few years ago. He used to be the soccer coach of the local team, when they were successful, so everyone knew him and voted for him. He had done various local charitable works to burnish his credentials. Turned out to just be a front man for John Singleton and the Developer crowd.

    Be careful what you wish for.’

    Currently we have in all parties all the corruption and all the problems of primaries but none of the benefits.

    Politics attracts a broad range of people but they are all necessarily egotists, and a whole bunch of them are in it for themselves and their back pockets.

    Definitely need a strong ICAC type body, and a world view that noone has a ‘right’ to a political career, the test should be really high, not ‘not yet a convicted criminal’ the current Morrison test.

    But any mechanism to improve the relationship between the electorate and their representative would improve our democracy. And the corrupt front coach guy you talk of was probably a lot cleaner than you average factional hack.

    So when your democracy is a rubbish as our is we need to be more concerned with the risks of just staying the course and less terrified of any possible change.

  12. jt1983 @ #480 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 8:49 am

    This isn’t a Lab v Green thing – but the only election prediction I’m near 100% certain of is the Green vote will drop, not a lot, but this is not an election cycle suiting them.

    But if Labor wins, it’ll go up in 2025.

    That really depends on how Labor performs if elected.

    If Labor enact their policies on climate and the Greens don’t support it, then there is the possibility of the Greens becoming irrelevant.

  13. Granny Anny says:
    Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    ‘…
    Why the intense focus on Putin as though he alone is conducting the Ukraine invasion.
    …’
    ————————————–
    FMD. You are quite right to be sceptical about war stories. You are highly selective in choosing solely anti-US disinformation stories. As if the US is the only state that has put out public disinformation.

    As for why focus on Putin… blindingly obvious, really. Except if you want to rant about the Gulf of Tonkin incident which happened before most people now alive in the world were born.

    Just so you don’t lose focus, it is Putin’s War. Putin started it. Putin is ordering the mass suffering of civilians. Putin is keeping this war going. Putin is flattening hospitals, schools and suburbs.

  15. C@tmomma:

    Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    Mavis @ #499 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 12:59 pm

    ‘Mavis, there’s a separate thread for war posts. I’ve been doing my best to adhere to the instructions of the moderator to put them there instead of here.’

    Thanks. My most recent post was in furtherance to my exchange with
    Venn on the value of pics, from whatever source, to highlight the invasion of Ukraine. It’s a bit difficult to respond to a poster on this thread on another dedicated thread.

  16. I also think we’ve lost all the benefits of an independent public service and an executive in the parliament but still have all the downsides of both, such that it could only be improved by moving the executive, other than our President/PM, out of the Parliament and giving the President / PM the power to install the top 2 or 3 layers of the public service as term limited political appointments.

    By President / PM I only mean that our PM has huge amounts of powers, many more than many presidents, and that the norms and checks an balances have been largely destroyed, at least for an LNP govt, the lazy morons at the ABC and the partisan goons at CostelloTV and Murdoch’s sewer still try to apply the highest standards to ALP PM’s and Govts. Pink batts is the very best example, they applied an absolutely ridiculous standard that frankly ignored almost all of reality to get the outcome it did and that was solely to discredit a great ALP govt initiative.

  18. Bystandersays:
    Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 11:45 am
    Bludging
    You did not address the point I was making. Despite your optimism to the contrary I’m pretty sure the Greens are not going to disappear any time soon. So in the meantime Labor is going to be favoured by their preferences.

    My view is that any diminishing of the Green vote will see a diminishing of the second preferences Labor currently gets from them, unless you assume that every Green vote lost will automatically become a Labor vote. A very unlikely scenario IMO.”

    Um 20% of green votes preference LNP (go figure) so there’s no guarantee either way. any reduction is likely to be an 80/20 ALP/LNP split anyway

  19. Fuel excise cut is clearly going to happen. Albo ought to get out there with the SA Labor leader this week and claim it as his own.

  21. C@t
    Nath didn’t especially single out females. He gave as good as he got from everyone who attacked him, male or female. I didn’t particularly mind him. At his best he was quite a good contributor with a good sense of humour, but unfortunately he had a habit of overstepping the mark and in the end that’s what got him.

  23. Bennelong Lurker @ #468 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 11:26 am

    Itza @ 10.50 am:

    Didn’t get to see Arrau during his first tour of Australia, but drove from Cowra in 1968 so as to hear/see him in the Town Hall one Saturday night during his final tour here. So glad I did.

    ’68! Wish I had. I love those sort of memories, when you make a big effort and it’s totally rewarded. I was starting to go by then, but not yet really appreciating true uniqueness and its pursuit. They say his ‘sound’ was like no other. (I’ve watched that video three times … so far!)

  24. John Lord opines that we have a prime minister devoid of principle, accountability and transparency.
    https://theaimn.com/a-prime-minister-devoid-of-principle-accountability-and-transparency/

    Not to mention competence, courage, and basic human decency.

    –––––

    Snappy Tom @ #38 Saturday, March 12th, 2022 – 8:09 am

    The Peter van Onselen headline (I refuse to pay Merdedoch) – ‘Labor must be bold’ – confirms my rant.

    Firstly, I agree with the view that if Labor were PERCEIVED to be bold (by PVO and his mates) they’d be criticised FOR THAT.

    Secondly, compared with the repeatedly re-announced announceables of the Coalition, Labor are offering a BOLD agenda.

    Labor being ‘bold’ simply by delivering competent and not completely inhumane government is a serious threat to the spivs and thugs party by highlighting their incapacity for and indeed open hostility to such governance.

  25. ‘Win or lose, the defamation proceedings brought against Mark McGowan by Queensland businessman Clive Palmer have been costly for the WA Premier.

    And that’s regardless of any financial damages that might come.

    Several matters were raised during his evidence in the Federal Court this week the Premier would have rather were kept private.

    But just how damaging the potential embarrassments are — and how long it might plague his government — remains to be seen.

    Most came from text message exchanges on Mark McGowan’s private mobile phone, which the State Solicitor’s office unsuccessfully tried to block Mr Palmer’s lawyers from accessing.

    There were the disparaging nicknames the Premier and his attorney general John Quigley used for Clive Palmer.

    The congratulatory text messages and sharing of information between Mr McGowan and the owner of Seven West Media, Kerry Stokes.
    And jokes made by Mr Quigley with reference to his own sex life.’

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-13/clive-palmer-defamation-proceedings-evidence-hurts-mark-mcgowan/100901946

    Given the applicant in the defamation suit is Palmer, I can’t envisage any long-term political damage ensuing for the McGowan Government.

  26. a r @ #465 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 11:20 am

    ‘There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him.’

    Nah. Crimea was more than 5 years ago. The situation we have now is a reasonable projection of where things would end up after Putin was allowed to get away with doing basically the same thing on a smaller scale. Answering invasions with appeasements never works.

    As that “The Putin Files: Julia Ioffe” interview, already posted a couple of times, makes pretty clear.

  27. Mavis @ #520 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 1:47 pm

    Hmm. Just went over to Adrian’s site, finding the last post was at 1:39 pm this morning.

    Putin’s Ukraine invasion plus 2 weeks, posted March 11? I don’t think so.

    10 posts since 9.50pm last night.

    But if you want an excuse to keep posting here against the Moderator’s wishes I guess you’ll find one.

  30. Bystander @ #519 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 1:46 pm

    C@t
    Nath didn’t especially single out females. He gave as good as he got from everyone who attacked him, male or female. I didn’t particularly mind him. At his best he was quite a good contributor with a good sense of humour, but unfortunately he had a habit of overstepping the mark and in the end that’s what got him.

    Plus the number of sock puppets he created to get around detection. Also an unhealthy and unfunny obsession with Bill and Chloe Shorten. I don’t know about you but I still, to this day, find the suggestion by nath that Chloe Shorten was pimped by Bill Shorten, utterly offensive and disqualifying. Yet still he survived. Why? Because some people think he’s funny. I mean really?

  31. Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #527 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:05 pm

    It seems we have a new moderator. 😆

    No. I don’t arrogate that function to myself. I don’t even find it funny to suggest it. Our actual Moderator made an intervention to request it and I have attempted, simply, to respect his direction. As you’ll see if you bother to go there. Which I have just observed most people can’t be arsed to do.

    Now, if our esteemed Moderator changes his mind, then I will to.

  33. It’s been a busy couple of days, but I thought I’d check in, with a comment on Mr Morrison.

    I expect most will have caught up with Peter Fitzsimmon’s interview of Shaun Micaliff.
    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/i-am-a-snivelling-coward-why-shaun-micallef-won-t-be-doing-a-zelensky-20220310-p5a3p0.html

    In with the quotes that follow:

    “I absolutely understand the frustration, I understand the anger, I understand the disappointment.” – Scott Morrison in Lismore.

    I only saw a snip of that performance on the tellie. But even so I could hear the unsaid words, “And I just don’t care.” (BTW Mr Morrison’s empathy consultant is showing. That quote is a classic bit of “There there now.”

  34. C@tmomma @ #527 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:02 pm

    Itza,
    I guess the same direction applies to you too. 🙂

    Mr Bowe wants Adrian Beaumont to run the war thread.

    Yes, good reminder. I posted the video here of the Odessa Opera singing for Feedom and Homeland in the public square this morning. Bit overcome I was. What time’s the spanking?

    My other post for the day, aside the usual Insiders chit chat, was on the installation of the new left Chilean President (with France24 link), which segued into the great Chilean pianist, the advent of television to Oz, the ABC covering major arts events with considerable aplomb, and a stunning performance of a piano concerto with BB (et al) in mind. Just to recap. You’re lucky I don’t watch cricket ;).

  36. C@tmomma @ #532 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 11:11 am

    Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #527 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:05 pm

    It seems we have a new moderator. 😆

    No. I don’t arrogate that function to myself. I don’t even find it funny to suggest it. Our actual Moderator made an intervention to request it and I have attempted, simply, to respect his direction. As you’ll see if you bother to go there. Which I have just observed most people can’t be arsed to do.

    Now, if our esteemed Moderator changes his mind, then I will to.

    You made the point with your first post. Everything after that was just nagging.

  37. Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #534 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:19 pm

    C@tmomma @ #532 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 11:11 am

    Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #527 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:05 pm

    It seems we have a new moderator. 😆

    No. I don’t arrogate that function to myself. I don’t even find it funny to suggest it. Our actual Moderator made an intervention to request it and I have attempted, simply, to respect his direction. As you’ll see if you bother to go there. Which I have just observed most people can’t be arsed to do.

    Now, if our esteemed Moderator changes his mind, then I will to.

    You made the point with your first post. Everything after that was just nagging.

    So you’ve become the moderator now? 🙄

    Oh, and I love the sexist verb, Barney. Way to go!

  40. C@tmomma @ #538 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 11:21 am

    …

    So you’ve become the moderator now? 🙄

    Oh, and I love the sexist verb, Barney. Way to go!

    Really, I thought I was pointing out potentially harassing behaviour.

    And I’ve met men who have been quite accomplished naggers, but you do like to jump at perceived offence.

  41. New Zealand women’s cricket team is so pathetic that they show all their cricketing abilities, especially Amelia Kerr, against weaker teams. When it comes to Australia or England, they just fold. Pathetic.

  42. Ven @ #540 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 1:31 pm

    New Zealand women’s cricket team is so pathetic that they show all their cricketing abilities, especially Amelia Kerr, against weaker teams. When it comes to Australia or England, they just fold. Pathetic.

    Are you able to watch it? All we’ve found is the Guardian blog.

  43. You don’t seem very happy today, cat, looking for an argument where
    one really doesn’t exist. If the moderator’s around, maybe he could issue a new edict.

  45. @JM
    Not to mention competence, courage, and basic human decency.

    “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
    ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

  46. ‘It seems everywhere you look you see governments failing to lead, failing to take charge, failing to be prepared for problems they should have seen coming.

    Last week it was the flooding, before that, the distribution of rapid COVID testing kits and vaccines, before that, the Black Summer bushfires, and before that, soaring prices in the National Electricity Market along with the federal Coalition’s inability to agree on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    The items on this seemingly disparate list have a few things in common. Most arise from the effects of climate change. All of them involve shared responsibility by the federal and state governments, with the all too familiar squabbling, duck-shoving and cost-shifting.

    We’re learning a hard lesson about what’s needed to get a better-functioning federation. One is that when ordinary Australians are facing dire emergencies of flood or fire or cyclone, they demand that both levels of government be on-the-job doing what needs doing.

    Another lesson is that when you’ve got one federal, two territory and six state governments, one of them has to take the lead, and the one that should do so is obvious: the feds.

    On climate change, it’s not just that the Morrison government has failed to do anything much to “mitigate” (reduce) our greenhouse gas emissions beyond belatedly accepting the target of somehow achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

    Insurance giants back planning debate as flood costs mount
    It’s also that it has failed to lead the states in adapting to the climate change we already have and, even if we do make it to net zero on time, will get more of: worse and more frequent extreme weather events.

    Why does Scott Morrison seem so bad at working on problems we can see coming, until they’ve actually arrived, and we’re in crisis? Then, when we are in crisis, he makes the excuse that it’s a “state responsibility”, which so infuriates the people left stranded by fire or flood.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/blaming-the-states-for-national-policy-failures-won-t-wash-20220312-p5a41e.html

  47. Fulvio Sammut:

    Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 2:46 pm

    ‘Barney in Tanjung Bunga: “It seems we have a new moderator.”

    Has Mavis quit?’

    Yep. When you’ve got the moderator claiming I’m the board monitor,
    I thought it expedient to hand the baton to others.

  48. ”
    Late Risersays:
    Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 2:39 pm
    Ven @ #540 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 1:31 pm

    New Zealand women’s cricket team is so pathetic that they show all their cricketing abilities, especially Amelia Kerr, against weaker teams. When it comes to Australia or England, they just fold. Pathetic.

    Are you able to watch it? All we’ve found is the Guardian blog.
    ”

    Late Riser
    I am watching on Fox Sports courtesy of LNP government. 🙂

    And Elise Perry delivers when required unlike Amelia Kerr, who racks up runs against lesser opponents.

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