Polls: JWS Research, SEC Newgate and more (open thread)

Generally positive perceptions of the federal government combine with mounting concerns about the economy in two new attitudinal polls.

Three slabs of minor polling news in lieu of what I’d consider a proper federal opinion poll:

• The quarterly JWS Research True Issues survey of issue salience finds concerns about the cost of living have shot up since March, with 38% choosing it as one of the three issues the federal government should be most focused on, up from 16%. This pushes hospitals, health care and ageing to second place, down from 37% to 34%. Twenty per cent think the national economy headed in the right direction, down eight points since March, compared with 33% for wrong direction, up three, maintaining a downward trend going back to early last year. The new federal government scores 54% on an index score for its general performance, meaning it scored very slightly above par overall on a measure where respondents were asked to rank it on a five-point scale, which compares with 47% for the previous government in March. The survey was conducted August 12 to 15 from a sample of 1000.

• SEC Newgate’s monthly Mood of the Nation attitudinal polling, conducted from a sample of 1800, finds 47% consider the federal government is doing a good to excellent job, up eight points since June. Fifty-seven per cent expressed support for an indigenous voice to parliament, down one on May, with opposition at 19%, up three. There was a ten-point increase in positivity towards “Australia transitioning its electricity generation to renewables” since June, now at 70%, with 12% negatively disposed, down seven.

• Roy Morgan’s weekly update video informs us that its polling conducted from August 22 to 28 had Labor’s lead at 52-48, in from 53-47 a week earlier and a good deal narrower than recent results from Newspoll and Resolve Strategic. Primary votes are Labor 36% (down one-and-a-half), Coalition 39.5% (up one), Greens 10.5% (down one) and One Nation 4% (up one-and-a-half).

The Age/Herald has also trickled out the further results from last week’s Resolve Strategic poll:

• The government’s legislated target of a 43% reduction in carbon emissions was supported by 62%, including 27% who strongly supported it, and opposed by 19%, including 10% who were strongly opposed.

• The 500 New South Wales respondents from the poll included 56% who reckoned John Barilaro’s trade commissioner appointment a case of “jobs for the boys”, compared with only 14% for the alternative option that he was a worthy candidate in a fair process, and 45% who felt Dominic Perrottet had handled the matter badly compared with 27% who thought he had handled it well.

• The 500 Victorian respondents included 42% who credited state Labor with greater integrity and honesty compared with 21% for the Coalition, and 53% who expected Labor to win the election compared with 18% for the Coalition.

• Only 7% expect COVID-19 numbers to increase in the coming months, down from 20% in March; 33% expect roughly the same numbers “perhaps for months/years”, down six from March; and 42% expect numbers to decrease, up from 28%, which includes 25% who thought they would later come back again, up from 18%.

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.

1,672 comments on “Polls: JWS Research, SEC Newgate and more (open thread)”

Comments Page 1 of 34
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  1. The scandals just keep coming.

    The NSW Liberal Party faces a damaging branch-stacking scandal involving more than 100 members who were signed up and given fake email addresses in a process that may have improperly influenced votes for key party roles, policies and state and federal preselection.

    Confidential Liberal Party documents leaked to the Herald detail the scores of party members given email addresses and/or phone numbers that do not belong to them but are designed to look legitimate and thwart party controls aimed at stopping branch stacking.

    The scheme appears designed to give one or more Liberal figures control over the party’s communications with the members, including some people who did not want to join the party.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-how-fake-emails-were-used-in-nsw-liberals-branch-stacking-scheme-20220830-p5bdzd.html

  2. Australia’s election watchdog was forced to ask TikTok to remove footage of staff inside counting centres and polling places during the recent federal election, amid efforts by fringe groups and politicians to promote “stolen election” narratives.

    Correspondence with the popular video platform, obtained by the ABC via a document request, shows the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) contacted TikTok to remove multiple versions of a video that allegedly captured AEC employees without their knowledge, and accused the AEC of “rigging the election”.

    “Content that impinges on the safety and/or privacy of our permanent or temporary staff is of course of significant concern,” AEC spokesperson Evan Ekin-Smyth said.

    “We take these matters very seriously.”

    While the source of the videos was redacted, the ABC reported during the 2022 campaign that “freedom parties” and groups linked to Australia’s anti-lockdown movement were encouraging supporters to sign up as scrutineers to challenge vote counting.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-31/aec-staff-tiktok-federal-election-disinformation/101382796

  3. ‘fess,
    You could easily pin down the parties the dodgy scrutineers were from, I reckon:

    IMOP
    PHON
    UAP
    Liberal Democrats (or whatever they have to call themselves now since the court case)

  4. This is some good lateral thinking from south last night:

    south
    Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 – 11:28 pm
    Comment #1507
    Honestly if Labor wanted an out on the S3 issue, they could just make the argument they want to change the tax cut into a (EV) vehicle credit that was universally accessible.

  5. ‘fess,
    Bludgers through the back channels are saying they hope you can come to the Upnorth Bludgers Lunch on May 21 next year. 🙂


  6. Confessions says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 5:22 am
    ….
    While the source of the videos was redacted, the ABC reported during the 2022 campaign that “freedom parties” and groups linked to Australia’s anti-lockdown movement were encouraging supporters to sign up as scrutineers to challenge vote counting.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-31/aec-staff-tiktok-federal-election-disinformation/101382796

    They and the ABC clearly have no idea how the system works.
    1) You have to produce a form signed by a candidate to be a scrutineer.
    2) No touching
    3) Challenging the pile a vote is put on is no big deal, no touching.

    The Australian system has big advantages.
    1) old tech, there are pieces of paper to check.
    2) Counting is distributed, checking the count is centralized, it would take a lot of corruption to change the vote much, centralized checking will find you out.
    3)A very well organized scrutinizing system.
    4)Very professional polling staff with very detailed procedures.

  7. Yes, I agree that costs of living are becoming the most immediate and urgent priority for the People and therefore for the ALP federal government and for the State/Territory governments as well.

    Still, let’s not forget the causes of this pathetic increase in the costs of living: the effects of Covid, and to some extent the current mess in Ukraine. Plus let’s not forget that we could have been buffered from market increases in the cost of fossil fuels had the stupid Coalition government taken renewables seriously. Instead, we wasted 9 long years. All those causes are going to lose strength over the next months (Covid seems to be on the way down, the war in Ukraine is likely going to take a final turn during winter, and the march towards renewables is being accelerated), and so the ALP federal government is correct in focusing on jobs, training, and providing some immediate relief for those most in need. We must be prepared by the time the international economy bounces back, and that’s what I think the ALP federal government have in mind, hence the jobs summit, etc.

  8. frednk,
    I was a scrutineer in May and you were allowed to bring your phones in to the room. It seems as though it was videos of AEC workers just doing their jobs that were misconstrued by the Freedumbers. It would have been very easy to take a video while the workers were distracted.

  9. C@tmomma @ #NaN Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 – 6:27 am

    ‘fess,
    Bludgers through the back channels are saying they hope you can come to the Upnorth Bludgers Lunch on May 21 next year. 🙂

    Yes I would love to come. The best days for me are weekends, but I realise that doesn’t work for everyone.

    Off to work to try to beat the traffic because of the train strikes. Have a great day everyone.

  10. Thanks William. Overall, it looks like that the so-called “honeymoon” is still ongoing for Albo and his ALP team….

    So far, so good……

    🙂

  11. From last night…..
    I have never seen so many Audis & BMWs on the road as in Norway.
    There were charging stations out in the sticks miles from nowhere all over Scandinavia.
    Mind you, in the Summer the roads are packed with short RVs, in the thousands. Great laws for nomads with a right to roam & camp wherever you like within reason of course enshrined in law.
    Another eye opener was the amount of young well dressed fathers pushing prams with newborns meeting up for coffee.

  12. Wow!

    To protect their privacy, the Herald is referring to victims of the scheme only by their first names. Rhianne, who has a “bigpondnet.com” email address on the database, said she did not join the party.

    “I did not know I was a member.”

    Hussein said he was recruited but he understood someone else would pay his fees: “I remember being told if I paid for it, I would be reimbursed.

    “I’m assuming they just wanted their numbers up so they were trying to get in as many people as they could,” he said.

    Asked specifically if he was a branch-stacked member, he answered “pretty much”. He also said he had never heard of the “msnoutlook.net” email address assigned to him on Liberal membership records.

    Five days after Hussein made the comments, the Herald was emailed from the address Hussein said did not belong to him. The email contained extensive denials of what Hussein had told this masthead, as well as including a formal complaint that the Herald’s reporter had been given access to leaked Liberal party records and had made “unfounded and absurd accusations”.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-how-fake-emails-were-used-in-nsw-liberals-branch-stacking-scheme-20220830-p5bdzd.html

  13. I reckon this part of the poll has whiskers on it:

    The Age/Herald has also trickled out the further results from last week’s Resolve Strategic poll:

    • The government’s legislated target of a 43% reduction in carbon emissions was supported by 62%, including 27% who strongly supported it, and opposed by 19%, including 10% who were strongly opposed.

    Were the 10% who were strongly opposed to the government’s 43% target, opposed because they wanted a higher or lower target?

  14. Oh dear.

    It’s been pointed out that the Victorian Liberals pledge to divert money from building the rail loop to hospitals is fundamentally flawed, as a large amount of the funding is from federal infrastructure funds and can thus only be allocated to the approved project…


  15. C@tmomma says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 6:33 am

    frednk,
    I was a scrutineer in May and you were allowed to bring your phones in to the room. It seems as though it was videos of AEC workers just doing their jobs that were misconstrued by the Freedumbers. It would have been very easy to take a video while the workers were distracted.

    If they were videoing they couldn’t have been doing their job.
    Polls close, seals checked, votes on the table, counting starts.

  16. Morning all. On the NSW Liberals branch stacking scandal, isn’t that fraud? Asking for a friend.

    Despite comments by Perrottet, the big difference between this and the Vic Labor case is that the investigation of the Labor example was external, and made public, not internal and secret.

    Unlike the Labor example, the organisers haven’t been outed. Why not?

  17. Frednk says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 6:14 am
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-how-fake-emails-were-used-in-nsw-liberals-branch-stacking-scheme-20220830-p5bdzd.html

    Dan brings in IBEC to sort out the Victorian problems, what is the NSW premier doing about the obvious NSW problems?
    —————
    If the NSW Liberal branch stacking shenanigans involved misuse of public resources (as the ALP’s Somyurek and red shirts sagas did) then it would potentially be a matter for ICAC. If not, the comparison between Andrews and Perrotet isn’t relevant.

  18. Zoom

    “ It’s been pointed out that the Victorian Liberals pledge to divert money from building the rail loop to hospitals is fundamentally flawed, as a large amount of the funding is from federal infrastructure funds and can thus only be allocated to the approved project…”

    Yes this would be illegal. The infrastructure money will come from the transport department. Some of it is from sources eg fuel levies that are earmarked for use on roads. By law it has to be spent on transport projects. You cannot switch it to health, funding for which is governed by a separate department operating under a separate Act.

    Remember how much trouble was caused when a Tasmanian hospital was funded directly by the Federal Liberals?

  19. frednk @ #18 Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 – 6:48 am


    C@tmomma says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 6:33 am

    frednk,
    I was a scrutineer in May and you were allowed to bring your phones in to the room. It seems as though it was videos of AEC workers just doing their jobs that were misconstrued by the Freedumbers. It would have been very easy to take a video while the workers were distracted.

    If they were videoing they couldn’t have been doing their job.
    Polls closed seals checked, votes on the table, counting starts.

    They didn’t get many votes. They were around to see what was going on though. They are conspiracy theorists. It was probably their main motivation to be there. I heard they were tasked by their leadership to ‘find’ examples of maladministration of the vote counting. They are nut jobs. I think that covers it. 🙂

  20. Socrates at 7.01 am

    ABC reporting Gorbachev has died. Sad for him to have seen so much avoidable bloodshed in his last 6 months. Unlikely his death will cause Putin to stop.

  21. About JWS, “The environment and climate change (25%) is the next most important individual issue to Australians …” after cost of living, health, and before the economy …

  22. Morning all!

    In Victoria scrutineers and AEC workers were told not bring their phones into the counting room. Translated as don’t use your phone in counting room

  23. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    Vale Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who ended cold war, and who has just died aged 91.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/30/mikhail-gorbachev-dies-soviet-leader-92
    Nick McKenzie and Lucy Cormack tell us that the NSW Liberal Party faces a damaging branch-stacking scandal involving more than 100 members who were signed up and given fake email addresses in a process that may have improperly influenced votes for key party roles, policies and state and federal preselection. Me oh my!
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-how-fake-emails-were-used-in-nsw-liberals-branch-stacking-scheme-20220830-p5bdzd.html
    Katina Curtis reports that the departing NSW Liberal Party president Mary-Lou Jarvis has said that Liberal Party branches around the country could learn from NSW’s experience to encourage more women into politics. She said that their candidates are not sufficiently reflecting the community.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/show-more-female-faces-liberal-vp-warns-of-lessons-from-federal-poll-20220830-p5bdsq.html
    Dominic Perrottet’s pledge to hold early preselections and to put the NSW party on a war footing for a March 2023 election has been delayed by factional challenges, echoing the infighting and delays which derailed the party’s federal election efforts, writes Samantha Hutchinson.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/nsw-libs-fret-about-second-election-wipeout-as-factional-feuds-erupt-20220830-p5bdx6
    Shane Wright and Rachel Clun reckon the full list of attendees to the government’s jobs and skills summit that starts on Thursday shows a balancing act between different interests and political ideologies that would challenge any bride and groom.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/who-got-a-golden-ticket-to-the-jobs-and-skills-summit-20220830-p5be1e.html
    For Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers the summit is another step in creating a new post-Morrison culture. It will be a mix of optics, reality and public relations. The aim is to secure greater employer-union agreement, tangible policy gains and cultural change in decision-making. The more Albanese achieves this, the longer his political honeymoon, opines Paul Kelly.
    https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/delivering-real-outcomes-the-test-for-pms-summit/news-story/0016882fe6b43c3447a42fe04d147b54
    David Marin-Guzman says that major employers have put on a united front before the jobs summit to counter the ACTU’s attempt to pick them off with side deals, instead pushing for contentious workplace issues to be dealt with after the summit.
    https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/employers-band-together-amid-union-side-deals-20220830-p5bdun
    Trade unions will be punching well above their weight at this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit, with their officials constituting one-quarter of the 143 invitees, says Phil Coorey.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/unions-to-punch-above-their-weight-at-jobs-summit-20220830-p5bdt0
    The union movement is attending the Jobs and Skills Summit with optimism and clear objectives. Workers want to be part of a shared project of more productive workplaces that benefit everyone, assures Sally McManus who says she’s not making big demands – just things that have to be done.
    https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/unions-are-not-making-big-demands-just-things-that-have-to-be-done-20220829-p5bdof
    Thursday’s summit needs to start reframing the entire workplace narrative for the modern world, not just fiddle with a broken system from a century ago, urges the AFR’s editorial that says Labor’s job summit lacks genuine productivity purpose.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/is-this-summit-a-productivity-kick-starter-or-just-more-lip-service-20220829-p5bdod
    Angus Thompson and James Massola write that landmark proposals to simplify workplace deals could win bipartisan support in parliament after opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the Coalition would consider any proposal to make the complex better off overall test more workable. But Greens leader Adam Bandt has warned that his party won’t back anything that leaves young or lower-paid workers worse off.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/opposition-open-to-backing-workable-boot-wage-deal-reforms-cash-20220830-p5bdwr.html
    The remote work trend that emerged during the pandemic has been solidified by months of disruptions to the Sydney’s mass transit system, explains Matt Wade.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/home-truths-sydney-s-train-dispute-reinforcing-covid-work-habits-20220830-p5be08.html
    Angus Thompson provides us with a five-minute guide to the jobs and skills summit.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/five-minute-guide-to-the-jobs-and-skills-summit-20220830-p5bdzb.html
    Anyone hoping to get down to Canberra for the summit better be ready to pay through the nose says the SMH. Some of the prices quotes are usurious!
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/fare-cop-as-airlines-cash-in-on-demand-for-jobs-summit-20220830-p5be1j.html
    There will be an elephant in the room at the Jobs Summit that has shaped the current state of the Australian economy and lies behind many of the problems that the Federal Government’s forum will consider. That elephant is the massive shift in power to corporate Australia that started with the election of the Howard Government in 1996 and continued under subsequent Labor governments, writes Senator Barbara Pocock.
    https://johnmenadue.com/senator-barbara-pocock-the-unwelcome-delegate-at-the-jobs-skills-summit-corporate-power/
    The debate over the stage three tax cuts has, sadly, again highlighted the dearth of true tax reform that has gripped Australia for almost two decades, declares Shane Wright.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-cut-debate-sells-the-country-the-economy-and-the-future-short-20220830-p5bdw9.html
    The success or failure of the Jobs and Skills Summit will not be defined by what the main stakeholders gain, but what they concede, says Ross Gittins.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/more-visas-better-skills-training-fairer-bargaining-let-s-have-it-all-20220830-p5bdsx.html
    Dominic Perrottet writes about what he and Dan Andrews have done in an effort to overcome the bind in emergency care.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/making-the-emergency-call-to-relieve-pressure-on-our-health-system-20220830-p5bdyi.html
    In this contribution, Irene Blackberry says, “At present – aged care, disability services, family services, social housing, mental health services and rural and remote care – are all accessed, and largely funded, separately. When, in fact, dealing them as a single service devoted to the spectrum of life from birth to death would not only save money and efficiency but operate in a synergistically beneficial way, reducing and even eradicating fragmentation, overlaps and duplications such as younger people with disability who often go to residential aged care as there is no fit for purpose place for them.”
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7881215/the-jobs-summit-can-transform-the-entire-care-space/?cs=14258
    Tim Wilson and Jason Falinski (remember them?) say that the “super wars are all about power – and far from over”.
    https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/super-wars-are-all-about-power-and-far-from-over-20220829-p5bdp3
    Paul Karp and Josh Gordon have trawled through the latest register of politicians’ interests.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/31/home-advantage-federal-politicians-hefty-property-portfolios-revealed-in-register-of-interests
    Mike Foley writes that the risk of blackouts is rising as coal plant closures accelerate and more renewables come online, prompting the energy market operator to warn that new investment in the power grid is needed to deliver a smooth transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Daniel Westerman said the current list of fully funded energy projects did not have enough generation capacity to replace the forecast loss of coal power over the next decade.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/energy-grid-chief-warns-of-looming-electricity-supply-shortfall-20220830-p5bdt6.html
    Lisa Visentin tells us that Helen Haines is pushing for Labor’s federal integrity commission to have initial investigatory powers to probe allegations of pork barrelling and other conduct that is not a clear case of serious or systemic corruption.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/one-in-a-generation-reform-haines-pushes-for-integrity-body-to-have-broader-powers-20220830-p5bdtg.html
    Independent MPs are pushing the government to ensure its new integrity commission cannot be politicised, with calls for parliament to have a say in who is appointed the commissioner and to determine the body’s funding needs.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/31/federal-icac-independents-want-safeguards-to-ensure-body-cannot-be-politicised
    Matt Collins QC provides his thoughts on the Murdoch/Crikey defamation case.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/by-crikey-murdoch-and-a-minnow-flirting-with-the-streisand-effect-20220829-p5bdh2.html
    In the wake of Scott Morrison and Marise Payne’s disastrous foreign affairs stewardship, Penny Wong jets to Timor-Leste today in what may be another rescue mission to save a Pacific neighbour from China’s expansion in the region. Rex Patrick has long warned the young nation might spurn Australia in favour of Chinese investment.
    https://michaelwest.com.au/rex-patrick-will-timor-leste-become-chinas-latest-aircraft-carrier/
    With the next variant just around the corner, the rush to reduce the isolation period for COVID sufferers may see us slam headlong into it, warns Professor Kerryn Phelps.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/kerryn-phelps-dropping-covid-safeguards-is-just-a-bad-idea,16713
    Harriett Alexander unpicks the long judgement that found Chris Dawson guilty of murdering his wife.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/the-infatuation-with-a-schoolgirl-that-led-a-sports-teacher-to-murder-his-wife-20220830-p5be1b.html
    Jenny Noyes reports that more than 50 accused criminals ensnared by the AN0M encrypted messaging app secretly run by the FBI are preparing to challenge its admissibility, lawyers for an alleged co-conspirator in a massive drug import have flagged in a Sydney court.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/buddle-co-accused-one-of-50-alleged-criminals-preparing-challenge-to-police-sting-20220830-p5bdxw.html
    Trump seized classified documents – but for Republicans the story is Hunter Biden’s laptop, writes Lawrence Douglas.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/30/trump-seized-classified-documents-but-for-republicans-the-story-is-hunter-bidens-laptop
    Americans are starting to get it: they can’t let Trump – or Trumpism – back in office.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/30/trump-republicans-voters-midterms-democrats

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe

    David Pope

    Simon Letch

    Cathy Wilcox

    Matt Golding



    Peter Broelman

    Glen Le Lievre


    Andrew Dyson

    Mark David

    John Shakespeare


    Mark Knight

    Spooner – what a flog!

    From the US















  24. Dr Doolittle

    Thanks for that and sorry to hear about Gorbachev. I rate him highly as a leader and a human being. I had dinner once with a BBC journalist who had interviewed him as a Moscow correspondent several times post cold war. He said Gorbachev was intelligent, honest and principled.

    He gets blamed by Russians for the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. But that fails to recognise the Afghanistan quagmire and corrupt hulk of an administration Gorby inherited from Brezhnev, and the opposition he faced from KGB hardliners. The. Cold war couldn’t have ended peacefully without him. Vale Mikhail Gorbachev.

  25. Morning all.

    Where is Taylormerde? Surely he will be harrumphing in outrage over the terrible awful no good branch stacking that is besmirching the good name of his beloved Liberal Party in NSW?

    Where is Bree and Wayne?

  26. The ASPI report on local build costs is linked below.it is a hit piece that complains about outcomes but fails to distinguish causes. I’ll have more to say on it when I return. Must be off.
    https://ad-aspi.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/2022-08/Budgets%2C%20the%20economy%20and%20the%20DSR.pdf?VersionId=13GCaJDmjh1.Xiyl47KxhbOeMIES2tbb

    Thanks BK for the roundup, I’ll read it in an hour.

    “ Where is Bree and Wayne?”

    Redundancies at Menzies House? 🙂 Taylormade hasn’t clocked on at work yet.

  27. Trade unions will be punching well above their weight at this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit, with their officials constituting one-quarter of the 143 invitees, says Phil Coorey.

    Not enough spivs, banksters and fat cats for you Phil ?

  28. Re Socrates 7.31 am Gorbachev

    BBC report says Gorbachev “helped end the Cold War”. That’s a gross understatement, another sign of the decline of a formerly reliable news source. Gorbachev and Shevardnadze and a few colleagues did all the heavy lifting themselves, with bugger all help from the West.

    Reagan was a bystander to the end of the Cold War, just went along with Gorbachev for the ride, as did G.H.W. Bush, with no input from them toward creating a new security system.

    In March 1985 the Politburo could have chosen a hardliner from Leningrad called Grigory Romanov, who would have changed little. It was old Mr Nyet, Gromyko, who gave Gorbachev the nod. He knew the international mess the world was in then, as it is again now.

  29. One of the reasons negative gearing was/is never going to be given the chop.
    .
    Home advantage: federal politicians’ hefty property portfolios revealed in register of interests
    In addition to residences and investments, dozens of MPs own homes in Canberra for which they can claim a $299 a night travel allowance.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/31/home-advantage-federal-politicians-hefty-property-portfolios-revealed-in-register-of-interests

  30. The socialist in me wants the government to bulk buy and import tens of thousands of EVs, then subsidise them and sell here. No doubt there would be inefficiencies in that gov process but you’d expect the price to come out less than the market which would hopefully encourage the market price down.

    I agree with Soc on subsidies – adding that subsidise in the free market often end up as additional profit to sales.

  31. Simon Katich says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 8:20 am

    The socialist in me wants the government to bulk buy and import tens of thousands of EVs, then subsidise them and sell here.
    _______
    We could do that with furniture too, and cheese. The Department of EV’s, Furniture and Cheese.

  32. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-cut-debate-sells-the-country-the-economy-and-the-future-short-20220830-p5bdw9.html

    The debate over the stage three tax cuts has, sadly, again highlighted the dearth of true tax reform that has gripped Australia for almost two decades.

    Actually, I would say it is the poor quality of the debate over the stage 3 tax cuts that is the problem.

    For example, how is it possible that it is a Labor government that is planning on implementing what is perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible and regressive tax reform Australia has ever seen?

    Labor finally had a chance of putting to rest the cries that it is economically irresponsible.

    Sadly, it has decided to opt for political expediency instead.

  33. Boerwar says:
    Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 8:32 am

    SK
    Agree on creating a free, open and competitive EV market.
    ______
    A pointless statement. I agree on creating a free, open and competitive cheese market.

  34. Of course if the Department of EV’s brings in too many model 3’s and people want model Y’s then the taxpayer will have to eat that cost. Same if the Department brings in too much Brie for the quarter.

    I have an idea, let companies specialising in importing cars and cheese handle that shit.

  35. @ A-E
    Hang on mate. I’m sure the aforementioned is diligently researching something, anything, that even remotely could be regurgitated in order to dissemble or distract the latest bad news coming out of his beloved Libs. Maybe Nath could help him out with another revelation about Bill’s likely strike on Albanese.
    Still, the silence is deafening. The calm before the storm?

  36. If Stage 3 is the answer, it must have been a bloody stupid question.

    But were stuck with them for now. In any case don’t have to do anything about them for a year.

  37. I heard Victorian Liberal advertising on radio today (they are going pretty early with election campaign ad spending!), the most notable feature was the attempted rebranding of the leader as “Matt Guy” instead of Matthew. Because that was what people didn’t like about Guy, the two syllable name.

    They have seriously no idea. Bailieu led the state Libs to a one term and done government because even Liberal rusted ons were grumbling about his government being “do nothing”. Andrews had mega success by promising and delivering major infrastructure. Now the Libs want to campaign around cancelling the suburban rail link…

  38. Arky

    Yes the same suburban rail link which is mainly funded by the feds. Which feds now say will merely withdraw the funding if project cancelled.

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