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.
A great result, but it will fall by election time due to a backlash from media barons. I’ll accept a 52:48 result right now. I wonder if a bloke in Kooyong and another bloke in Dickson have the cojones to challenge Morrison during the budget session.
Rex Douglas @ #597 Sunday, March 13th, 2022 – 2:51 pm
I was hoping he may have had a chance.
But if you think so, he must be stuffed.
From Ian Mcauley’s Bear Weekly:
“A pandemic of mistrust
The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer makes for gloomy reading. For a worldwide view you can download its top 10 findings where it reports on people’s concerns with fake news, their growing mistrust of media and of governments, and a finding that 64 percent of respondents say that “people are incapable of having constructive and civil debates about issues they disagree on”.
Its full report is worth a glance. It reveals a trust gap between the poor and the well-off: if we’re poor we (reasonably) believe the system is not to be trusted, but the well-off know that the system works for them. One significant finding is that while we are more trusting of people in our local communities, we have become less trusting of people from other countries. (Politically the Morrison government is onto something when it stirs up feelings of nationalism and xenophobia.)
Their survey of trust in democracies compared with more authoritarian regimes tells us things we probably don’t want to know. Out of the 27 countries surveyed, China reports the highest trust index. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are not far behind, and are well in the high trust camp. But many democracies are down in the mistrust camp: the US is not far from the bottom. Australia is still mid-range, but we have slipped badly just in the last year, as have the Netherlands and Germany. The only finding that aligns with our general perception is that Russia once again occupies the bottom spot.
Another general finding that distinguishes democracies from other countries is that in most “western” countries surveyed, including Australia, only a minority of people believe that “my family and I will be better off in five years’ time”, while in other countries most people believe that they will be better off. A positive interpretation of this finding is that there are many poor countries in the optimistic camp, including Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.
Writing in Eureka Street Tim Dunlop comments specifically on Australia’s slide in the Edelman scale, noting that our government and media are seen by most as dividing rather than uniting forces.
His article Is parliament locked in a crisis of representation? considers the health or otherwise of our traditional parties, and the rise of the “Voices of” movement. Commenting on voters’ disillusionment with the main parties he writes:
The overwhelming feeling amongst these voters is not that they have fundamentally changed their values, or that they have left the party they have traditionally supported. The feeling is, rather, that the party has left them, that the Liberal-National Coalition has turned into something they neither recognise nor like and that they will no longer support it in its current form.
Labor is doing a little better at holding on to its supporters, but his general concern about all main parties is the small and unrepresentative composition of party membership.”
Barney in Tanjung Bunga:
Monday, March 14, 2022 at 3:10 pm
[‘Maybe they didn’t think so many would be willing to give evidence against him.’]
I think that’s the case. It would’ve been far easier for those who witnessed the alleged killings to have kept mum. The fact that they haven’t is a measure of their character, having nothing to gain other than perhaps to salve their conscience. And I’m almost sure the applicant did not anticipate the number of witnesses against him.
The BRS affair is a disgrace. The (alleged) crimes just keep getting worse as more comes out in this trial. Do not tell me that no-one knew, that all the officers were unaware of this. However this alleged behaviour allegedly came about, such a person should never have been deployed anywhere.
I am aware that ANZACs, the Aussie Digger, our troops in all theatres committed war crimes and crimes against civilians like rape and murder. Our military personnel are no different in that regard to anyone else’s
But there needs to be some level of responsibility amongst the ‘brass’ to prevent, investigate and punish offenders.
If the revelations of this case turn out to be facts, then this is an indictment of the higher ranks, as well.
I am truly horrified by these stories, and the number of them coming out at this trial.