The latest fortnightly Essential Research poll includes its monthly read on prime ministerial approval, but still nothing on voting intention or opinion of the Opposition Leader. Anthony Albanese maintains most but not all of his post-election bounce, his approval down three to 56% and disapproval up six to 24%.
The pollster’s now regular fortnighly question on national direction is effectively unchanged at 47% for right and 28% for wrong. Further questions relate to COVID-19, which find 55% believe we “need to get on with life and treat Covid like another form of flu”, but that 60% support the return of mask wearing in some settings 53% support the government rolling out of a fourth shot (which it began doing during the survey period).
About half the respondents felt Australia had handled the pandemic better than the United States, the United Kingdom and China, with between 16% and 22% opting for worse, while the result for New Zealand was broadly neutral. The poll was conducted Thursday to Monday from a sample of 1097.
Also out earlier this week was a brief release from the Australia Institute which reported that a poll it conducted on the night of the May 21 federal election found the Coalition had 37% support among men and 30% support among women, which became 28% to 38% when a further survey was conducted the following month. Given a list of 20 options to choose from as Coalition weaknesses, 67% tagged “the state of aged care” and 66% “the treatment of women in politics”.
UPDATE: The Australia Institute has now posted more detail from its polls. As well as a lot more detail on what respondents regarded as Coalition strengths and weaknesses going into the election, it has a set of voting intention numbers dating from June 14: Labor 34%, Coalition 31%, Greens 12%, One Nation 4%, United Australia Party 4%, independents and others 9% and not sure 7%. The first phase of the poll was conducted from May 21 to 25 from a sample of 1424, and the second was conducted “in June” from a sample of 1001.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-to-introduce-real-time-disclosures-and-slash-donation-thresholds-20220712-p5b12a.html
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Eryk Bagshaw and Farrah Tomazin report that the United States will launch its biggest Pacific push since World War II by returning the Peace Corps to the region, releasing a Pacific-wide strategy and spending $900 million on economic development.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/us-australia-launch-major-pacific-counter-bid-to-china-s-rising-influence-20220712-p5b12f.html
Former PM Scott Morrison couldn’t have been more wrong when he suggested during the election that Labor was soft on China, and then went on to sledge Richard Marles as a “Manchurian candidate”. In the seven weeks since the poll, the ALP has been just as hard-nosed in its approach to the relationship with Beijing as the Coalition ever was. And, more importantly, it has done so in a much more nuanced and effective manner, says the editorial in The Canberra Times.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7817043/albo-marles-and-wong-holding-the-line/?cs=27763
Anthony Albanese has blamed the Greens political party for a decade of inaction on climate change, and challenged them to back Labor’s target of a 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-blames-greens-for-a-decade-of-inaction-on-climate-policy-20220712-p5b10e.html
Shaun Carney says that the Greens need to stop and think before they throw a spanner in the works. He makes sense.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-need-to-stop-and-think-before-they-throw-a-spanner-in-the-works-20220711-p5b0tm.html
Hasty comments in the press about last week’s meeting between Penny Wong and Wang Yi reveal more about commentators’ biased line on China than about the substance of the meeting. Careful reading of official reports of the meeting is essential to understand how relations between Australia and China might be taken forward, writes Jocelyn Chey.
https://johnmenadue.com/when-words-matter-reviewing-the-wong-wang-meeting/
There is a real risk that the wrong lessons will be learnt by the Liberal Party about the reasons for the federal election loss, and the path back to government, writes an obviously bitter Amanda Stoker in an op-ed.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/here-s-the-real-reason-the-liberals-lost-the-election-20220711-p5b0sa
Global energy security is under increasing threat by China’s overwhelming dominance of the renewable supply chain for solar cells, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol have warned the Sydney Energy Forum, writes Nick O’Malley.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/china-s-dominance-of-supply-chains-threatens-global-renewables-20220712-p5b0xq.html
Here we go! The NSW upper house has sent a transcript of its inquiry into how former deputy premier John Barilaro secured a plum $500,000-a-year trade role to the corruption watchdog.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/inquiry-into-barilaro-trade-role-sends-transcript-to-icac-20220712-p5b11y.html
“Truth in politics – now that would be something”, writes Paul Bongiorno who says the Albanese government is determined to prevent oligarchs like billionaire miner and developer Clive Palmer from distorting future federal elections – and it’s not before time.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2022/07/12/paul-bongiorno-truth-in-politics/
When it comes to Covid, Australia must confront reality – not choose between extremes, argues Peter Lewis.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/12/when-it-comes-to-covid-australia-must-confront-reality-not-choose-between-extremes
The editorial in the SMH has had enough and says that there is not enough scrutiny of mistakes in regional hospitals.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/not-enough-scrutiny-of-mistakes-in-regional-hospitals-20220712-p5b147.html
The upward march of official interest rates might succeed in curbing inflation, but it could also result in collateral damage to young borrowers who purchased property at the peak, explains Joel Gibson.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/what-to-do-if-you-are-about-to-become-a-mortgage-prisoner-20220711-p5b0tc.html
An unhappy Richard Denniss points out the problems with forestry management and emissions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/13/australias-farcical-climate-policy-market-forces-to-cut-emissions-and-subsidies-to-destroy-carbon-sinks
If Australia tumbles into recession, Philip Lowe’s hands are dirty, argues Adam Schwab.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7815649/if-australia-tumbles-into-recession-philip-lowes-hands-are-dirty/?cs=14329
Ronald Mizen tells us that growing inflation and the Reserve Bank’s push to normalise interest rates has sparked a slump in business and consumer confidence despite strong spending and forward orders.
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/business-consumer-confidence-slump-on-inflation-and-rate-rises-20220712-p5b0yf
The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, has claimed some projects pledged by the former Coalition government will be impossible to deliver, saying her predecessor, Barnaby Joyce, left behind a “substantial mess” after showering Nationals seats in taxpayer-funded “largesse”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/13/new-infrastructure-minister-says-some-coalition-projects-will-be-scrapped
The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that the global energy crisis will worsen as the northern hemisphere winter approached, while voicing confidence that clean energy will help resolve the crunch, writes Angela Macdonald-Smith.
https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/worst-still-to-come-on-energy-crunch-iea-s-birol-20220711-p5b0md
Tom Burton reports that banks are being pressured to ensure money transferred online arrives in the correct account by confirming the name of the intended recipient, a move the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says will reduce the $420 million worth of frauds that occur each year.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/accc-calls-for-banks-to-name-check-transfers-to-cut-fraud-20220711-p5b13r
Victoria’s workplace safety regulator has charged an aged care nurse with two breaches of occupational safety laws after she allegedly went to work at a nursing home in Melbourne’s south after testing positive for coronavirus.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/nurse-charged-after-allegedly-attending-work-at-aged-care-home-while-covid-positive-20220712-p5b11r.html
Had Collaery’s case proceeded to trial, the ramifications of the case for freedom of expression, journalism and governmental accountability would have resonated through Australian law and society for years, argues law professor, Spence Zifcak who says Mark Dreyfus should be highly commended for drawing this scandalous legal proceeding to a close.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/prosecution-of-bernard-collaery-was-an-assault-on-values-australia-holds-dear-20220712-p5b10s.html
The buy now, pay later bubble is bursting before our very eyes, says Elizabeth Knight.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-buy-now-pay-later-bubble-is-bursting-before-our-very-eyes-20220712-p5b122.html
With asylum applications on the rise and an increasing backlog, the Government must develop policies to maintain control, writes Abul Rizvi.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/albanese-government-inundated-with-growing-asylum-applications,16551
Josh Taylor reports that Australia’s privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into retail giants Bunnings and Kmart over their use of facial recognition technology in some stores. This should be fun.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/12/privacy-watchdog-to-investigate-bunnings-and-kmart-over-use-of-facial-recognition-technology
The demise of Boris Johnson is a study in the tragedy of political leadership but, at this point in history, Johnson exemplifies the follies that have befallen conservatism in Western democracies and the problem of governing in a debased culture, posits Paul Kelly.
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/johnson-symbolises-conservative-crisis/news-story/e917400a987c621e4d28d577b8ee899f
China’s financial stresses are bubbling to the surface, with a heavy-handed response by the authorities to protests at the weekend by bank depositors whose funds have been frozen since April, writes Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/china-s-response-to-bank-protests-hints-at-a-wider-problem-20220712-p5b0wa.html
The increasing turmoil in the Chinese banking sector suggests that Beijing is struggling to find a solution for the increasing number of soured property loans sitting on the books of smaller, regional lenders, writes Karen Maley.
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/what-s-behind-the-chinese-bank-runs-20220711-p5b0mj
For the first time in parliamentary history, a prime minister has been brought down simply for lying – once too often, writes Geoffrey Robertson who reckons Johnson will now start to construct the legacy he never left.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/can-t-keep-a-bad-man-down-what-next-for-boris-johnson-20220711-p5b0lm.html
More fun from the entertaining John Crace who was excluded from attending Rishi Sunak’s PM bid launch.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2022/jul/12/i-was-ready-for-rishi-but-he-wasnt-ready-for-me
Cartoon Cornet
David Pope
John Shakespeare
Matt Golding
Cathy Wilcox
Andrew Dyson
Fiona Katauskas
Glen Le Lievre
Simon Letch
Alan Moir
Mark Knight
Spooner
From the US
There is life after the Senate….
Liberal Party
Here’s the real reason the Liberals lost the election
The lesson of the Morrison government’s election defeat is that caving to leftist positions might have changed the subject, but it didn’t win votes, writes this former senator and new The Australian Financial Review columnist.
Amanda Stoker
Columnist
So, The Australian Financial Review is challenging The Government Gazette (The Australian) and trying to become The Wall Street Journal Down Under? And Amanda Stoker shape shifts again. 🙄
The upward march of official interest rates might succeed in curbing inflation, but it could also result in collateral damage to young borrowers who purchased property at the peak, explains Joel Gibson.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/what-to-do-if-you-are-about-to-become-a-mortgage-prisoner-20220711-p5b0tc.html
I’m sorry but I have very little sympathy for them. Sure it was great to get a home loan at virtually zero interest rates, but I have to make two observations.
Firstly, it was only the lucky few ‘young borrowers’, mainly with the help of the bank of mum and dad, who could afford to buy a house recently, with the vast majority of young people being singularly unable to become ‘young borrowers’, instead being stuck in the rental market or, at home with mum and dad.
Secondly, didn’t these ‘young borrowers’ do their due diligence? Rates were at historically low levels and there was only one way they would eventually start going. Up.
And, for goodness sakes, the rates are still only around 1% with the likelihood of ending up at about 2.5%. Still really, really low by historical standards.
Hmm, maybe they should have set their sights lower to start out on the property ladder? Not gone straight for the Trophy Home they could ponce about in and put up on social media?
UK PM odds:
Mordaunt 2.90
Sunak 3.00
Truss 4.70
Badenoch 15.00
Tugenhat 26.00
Hunt 27.00
Braverman 55.00
Zahawi 65.00
‘Centaurus’: virologists express concern at new Covid subvariant
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/12/centaurus-virologists-express-concern-at-new-covid-subvariant-omicron
Dont know what leftist positions stoaker thinks the liberal party turned to maybi to much spending and to many hand outs the cathryn deaves anti trans gender wedge and pandering to the right and anti vacksers did not help morrison like the churches on exbanding religis discrimination
The Age 13/07
Cases are climbing. COVID is now the leading cause of death in the country. Hospitals are staggering. Elective surgery is to be reduced. And it is quicker to get to hospital by Uber than ambulance.
But still Victoria is governed through a fog of spin, evasion and social media manipulation designed to dodge the need for detail or questioning.
_____________________
Neil Mitchell not holding back, now that the Andrews govt is ignoring health advice with an eye to the upcoming election.
Taylormade
Hahaha. Neil Mitchell. Too funny. What a joke.
He truly is beyond his use by date. He should give someone else a go. Sheesh!
The same Neil Mitchell who encouraged his listeners at every turn to ignore health advice when we didnt have a vaccinated population.
You cant make this shit up.
C@tmomma at 7:17 am
Back in the late Rodent Era much the same bitching about ‘young people these days’ and house prices/loans was going on . MegaGeorge pointed out a very important point back then. One likely to apply now. YES, interest rates were higher back in the day BUT the price of housing had gone up so much that it meant that even with the then ‘very low’ interest rates people were paying a greater proportion of their income to home loans than they were in those ‘awful’ high interest rate years. In other words it was harder despite the lower interest rates.
Not that it stopped the ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ routine from the established home owners, they were of course doing very nicely out of the house price boom of the time.
poroti @ #13 Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 – 8:05 am
And if you hadn’t misrepresented my comment you might have understood where I was actually coming from!
I was sympathising with the young people who couldn’t even access a home loan, fcs, and don’t have the luxury now to complain about it.
Fyi, I am most certainly NOT a Baby Boomer home owner.
Jeez, poroti, you really have a bur under your saddle lately.
Taylormade @ #10 Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 – 7:50 am
Have the Freedumbers become Dictator Staters now? 😀
From personal experience of young people who have purchased first home in past year.
These interest rate rises were factored in when providing such loans.
C@t
Neil mitchell is suddenly concerned that too many people are dying from covid.
The whole country is experiencing this, coupled with the flu and other viruses inundating the population. The health system everywhere is struggling.
Who would have thought that health workers are getting sick in large numbers, and there arent enough staff to manage the current wave.
Can we also remember that the media beats up these things, and portrays groups of people as bitching about things when (by and large) they aren’t?
My son bought a house this year. He and his partner’s financial position has improved greatly since then, and they won’t have any trouble if interest rates rise.
They do live from pay check to pay check, but that’s because they’re making improvements to the house and want to do these as soon as they can.
Lol Taylormade
The corrupt lib/nats propaganda media units such as costello controlled , murdoch and stokes
will be worrying about the truth in political advertising laws
Morning all. Thanks for reposting the dawn patrol BK. There are some significant pieces.
First I was delighted to see Labor will advance the truth in political advertising laws. Long overdue!
Second, I am heartened to see Catherine King is casting an eye over the former governments infrastructure program and separating the wheat from the chaff. Good! A lot of those projects were a waste of money. Sorry to hear she is keeping inland rail though – its a rort too, just on a bigger scale.
This is the same Neil mitchell that demanded workers return to working in the office.
He is a joke. Well past his use by date
Struggling health systems brace for 5,000 Covid-linked daily hospital admissions amid early flu peak
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/13/struggling-health-systems-brace-for-5000-covid-linked-daily-hospital-admissions-amid-early-flu-peak
Sprocket
“ Here’s the real reason the Liberals lost the election
The lesson of the Morrison government’s election defeat is that caving to leftist positions might have changed the subject, but it didn’t win votes, writes this former senator and new The Australian Financial Review columnist.
Amanda Stoker
Columnist”
Thanks for quoting Stoker – so good for a laugh on a cold morning! She thinks the LNP were too woke 😀 I hope they keep that view in 2025.
Jaeger
Yep. But neil mitchell reckons, labor, labor, labor……….
C@t
Really ? Note what I was pointing out and then look at what you said. Perhaps you need to re read my comment , did I say you own your own home ?
Bunnings lifts sausage sizzle prices for first time in 15 years
https://www.9news.com.au/national/bunnings-sausage-sizzle-price-increase-after-community-feedback/8193c469-63b0-4b1a-8b99-73fdf6bec92e
Oh how funny!
This tweet from the odious Tim Smith MP.
—-
Old pork chop @3AWNeilMitchell is still wetting the bed this morning about covid. Turning off now, can’t listen to this garbage any longer.
Good morning all.
Thank you, BK.
Cloud from horizon to horizon
Still
4
Daughter and partner factored in rate rises from 12 months ago.
Their strategy was to put as much extra money into loan.
It has served them well, now that interest rates have increased.
8deg here on Eyre Pen. Everything is so green and a little onight rain. Gonna be a lovely day.
Well-written essay on the impact of climate change on species distributions.
Somewhere in it someone states that climate change might cause the extinction of 10% of the world’s species.
IMO, 10% is an interesting guess.
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-vagrants/?fbclid=IwAR2ayL6Klt1xWPI2KndSKBo3Qi_82ehCYED241Cynpgl6-xtIutPj9OJyFE
Everyone should have been factoring in rate rises. But I suspect lots of people bought a house in desperation and in hope rates would stay low.
The problem is; what is the purpose of RBA? Is it to normalise rates? If so, rate rises should have started earlier and been more gradual. Is it to deal with inflation? If so, they want people to hurt. Which is f ing disgraceful economic policy considering the people who will hurt most are;
least able to cope with that hurt,
have had no role in inflation and
have already been hurt with low wages for a decade.
F the rba.
Four ways of storing hydrogen:
https://spectra.mhi.com/4-ways-of-storing-hydrogen-from-renewable-energy?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=layer1&utm_content=hydrogen&fbclid=IwAR11pk3UBZx6n8apNOJ4J9iDD44Fe9ZIARmASY7Z2rzF-z1ybwsl2GSjpp8
”
Former PM Scott Morrison couldn’t have been more wrong when he suggested during the election that Labor was soft on China, and then went on to sledge Richard Marles as a “Manchurian candidate”. In the seven weeks since the poll, the ALP has been just as hard-nosed in its approach to the relationship with Beijing as the Coalition ever was. And, more importantly, it has done so in a much more nuanced and effective manner, says the editorial in The Canberra Times.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7817043/albo-marles-and-wong-holding-the-line/?cs=27763
”
#same old same old. 🙂
”
Anthony Albanese has blamed the Greens political party for a decade of inaction on climate change, and challenged them to back Labor’s target of a 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-blames-greens-for-a-decade-of-inaction-on-climate-policy-20220712-p5b10e.html
”
Surprise Surprise. Albanese channelled PB ALP vocal critics of Greens in criticising Greens. 🙂
”
Shaun Carney says that the Greens
need to stop and think before they throw a spanner in the works. He makes sense.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-need-to-stop-and-think-before-they-throw-a-spanner-in-the-works-20220711-p5b0tm.html
”
As one PB blogger posted Greens will not stop and think before they throw a spanner in the works because they think will not lose any votes by being belligerent against ALP and openly making demands.
Amanda Stoker would come from the Liberal view that saw wage subsidies, sick payments, free tests and vaccines, lockdowns etc as socialist policies and so they were. These policies are what got us through the early stages of the pandemic and they were more or less forced on the Federal government’s by the states, mostly Labor. Stoker’s supporters despise Morrison for caving to the”socialists”.
Stoker and Co would have preferred an extreme version of “let it rip”. The really bizarre thing is she believes that would have been more politically popular – an extreme case of projecting your own preferences on to the public at large.
I actually know some people who think this way, so I’m not inventing the stereotype. We can only hope they greatly increase their influence in the LNP!
I agree that the perfect is the enemy of the good. So I am fine with Labor sticking to its promise of a 43% reduction in emissions, since it is a minimum and a better grid might allow this to be exceeded.
However the bad is also the enemy of the good. Labor will lose a lot of votes in both the Senate and the 2025 election if it approves any new coal mines or gas extraction. That would be political insanity, and a recipe for progressive civil war.
Labor got elected by Teal and Green preferences, cast by educated voters, mainly women, not tradies.
In differentiating themselves the greens have made it hard to then support ALP policies. It will be quality acrobatics to watch as they let the ALP agenda thru while screaming blue murder.
#weatheronPB
Dew lingers on cool grass.
Painfully bright shadows angle across the slats.
The turkey is right at home.
”
The demise of Boris Johnson is a study in the tragedy of political leadership but, at this point in history, Johnson exemplifies the follies that have befallen conservatism in Western democracies and the problem of governing in a debased culture, posits Paul Kelly.
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/johnson-symbolises-conservative-crisis/news-story/e917400a987c621e4d28d577b8ee899f
”
I have no respect for people like ponderous, pompous pontificating Paul Kelly because they behaved like Rip Van Winkle in the last 26 years of Tory governments across AUKUS now telling us that “The demise of Boris Johnson is a study in the tragedy of political leadership but, at this point in history, Johnson exemplifies the follies that have befallen conservatism in Western democracies and the problem of governing in a debased culture”
The debased culture of Tories and to an significant extent of the Left (liberals) and their follies were visible every day they were in power and yet he mentions it after the Genie can no longer be put in the bottle anymore.
And Murdoch rags hand is writ large on these debasement and follies because Tories behaved with impunity under the cover and protection of those rags.
(From previous thread…) Thanks BK.
Amanda Stoker’s Fin Review article is behind a paywall – can someone tell me her take on why the Coalition lost?
How dare Neil Mitchel criticize the Labor government. He should be their biggest supporter. Isn’t that what the media is supposed to do?
Coal will go when demand goes, supply will always be there if there is demand.
Is there a market for new coal mines?
nath
‘Isn’t that what the media is supposed to do?’
No.
Jan 6 at 8.57
Everyone should have been factoring in rate rises. But I suspect lots of people bought a house in desperation and in hope rates would stay low.
The problem is; what is the purpose of RBA? Is it to normalise rates? If so, rate rises should have started earlier and been more gradual. Is it to deal with inflation? If so, they want people to hurt. Which is f ing disgraceful economic policy considering the people who will hurt most are;
least able to cope with that hurt,
have had no role in inflation and
have already been hurt with low wages for a decade.
F the rba.
____________
+1
Also, I think the RBA’s delay in increasing rates earlier this year – when basically the entire financial expected rises and factored them in – stinks of politicisation. The economic situation then forced them to act in May with a too-small increase (.25) and, now that we have a Labor govt, there’ll be several bigger increases.
Roll on the review of the RBA!
Ven @ #34 Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 – 9:12 am
It’s surreal, isn’t it? …
The reality is that it didn’t matter a jot whether the Greens voted for it or against it, the COALition government was always going to dismantle it. Those of us with memories will recall that Labor at the time was utterly dysfunctional because of Rudd (and Gillard was also very conflicted about things like carbon taxes) and they simply couldn’t hold onto government.
So the “blame” – if there is any to be laid elsewhere than on the COALition – has to be shared between the Greens AND Labor.
And Labor is still just as conflicted on fossil fuels as they ever were, so let’s hope Labor learns the lesson this time around.
frednk @ #43 Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 – 9:39 am
Methamphetamine will go when demand goes, supply will always be there if there is demand.
Is there a market for new meth labs?
Caught up with the latest jan6 hearings.
My main questions remains.
What were the intelligence agencies doing at the time?
Surely the FBI and homeland security would have been aware and had a heads up?
And surely they should have been able to quell the Qanon element of this crapola by now.
Which begs the question…
Are they merely incompetent?
compromised?
or working on a much bigger conspiracy unknown to others at this time?
But P1 there is nothing happening in the market reducing the number of meth users.
frednk @ #43 Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 – 9:39 am
“Coal will go when demand goes, supply will always be there if there is demand.
Is there a market for new coal mines?”
Those who don’t care about a problem will always find excuses not to fix it.
Fixing this problem or not is a deal breaker for progressive government in Australia. If Labor learnt nothing from 2010 and 2013 it should have learnt that.