Miscellany: SEC Newgate and electoral law reform (open thread)

A fall in the federal government’s performance meeting, plus three recent arguments for electoral reform of one kind or another.

We’re now in week seven of the Newspoll drought, but that does not come as a surprise this week as the budget will be brought down tomorrow, and a poll will assuredly follow in its wake. We did have from The Australian on Friday results from an SEC Newgate Research on Friday which found the federal government’s overall performance rated as excellent by 3%, very good by 9%, good by 26%, fair by 35%, poor by 16% and very poor by 10%. This marked a nine-point drop in the combined excellent, very good and good result since the question was last asked in August. However, the party’s lead over the Coalition as best to manage cost-of-living was little changed over the same period, from 38-24 to 40-24. Ratings for state governments were down across the board, which likely reflects an unwinding of strong results for governments across the board during the pandemic. Some of the results from the poll, but not those above, can be found on the organisation’s website. It was conducted from October 5 to 10 from a sample of 1200.

Food for thought:

• Constitutional law expert George Williams calls for the voting age to be lowered to 16 in a column for The Australian.

• Joo-Cheong Tham of the University of Melbourne law school argues for the franchise to be extended to permanent residents and long-term visa holders.

• Digital Rights Watch calls for the removal of exemptions for political party voter databases from privacy laws in light of the recent Optus hack.

• The Centre for Public Integrity calls for campaign spending caps, after its submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the federal election analysed the increase in spending over the past decade.

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.

2,968 comments on “Miscellany: SEC Newgate and electoral law reform (open thread)”

Comments Page 1 of 60
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  1. Thanks William for the meagre polling news, such as it is.

    Dr Doolittle

    Thanks re comments on Johnson.

    I have been opposed to Brexit from the start. It was an inherently divisive and damaging idea regardless of how it was done. And that is before you consider the adverse impacts on places like Ireland and Scotland.

    My perception is that Brexit was motivated by a few sharp financiers who thought they would benefit from escaping Brussels’ financial regs. They then convinced the rest of the country with a pack of lies.

  2. From previous thread:
    “Patrick Flynn, another of the RW nutter Tory brigade, says Sunak will get over half of the parliamentary votes in the three horse race, i.e. at least 200.”

    If Sunak gets 200 of the 357 votes, then mathematically it can only be a two-horse (if not one-horse) race.

  3. PK on RN interviewing a UK commentator.

    It’s claimed there are scores of Conservative MPs who support BoJo but dare not speak his name.

    Those ‘shy Tories’, eh?

  5. Its now conceded that the corrupt lib/nats and their propaganda media units are not making inroads with the attacks on Labor , so there is no point for newsltd to have newspol , as other opinion polling have shown Labor comfortably ahead anywhere from 55-59% -Lib/nats 45-41% 2pp.

    What the corrupt lib/nats and their propaganda media units would be spewing the thought of Labor getting a mini budget bounce

  6. Jaeger @ #4 Monday, October 24th, 2022 – 6:33 am

    Russian fighter jet crashes in Siberia, killing two crew members

    Incident is second such fatal crash in Russian residential area in six days involving a Sukhoi jet

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/23/russian-fighter-jet-crashes-siberia-killing-two-crew-members

    They’re either trying to train up new pilots too quick; have sent the maintenance engineers to the war front in Crimea to try and keep the battle fleet flying; or they can’t get the parts they need to keep the planes in a serviceable condition. Or all of the above.

  7. If there is still no newspoll 2/3 weeks after the mini budget

    The way things are going who knows , change of leadership in the federal Liberal party may come before the next newspoll

  8. The latest from The Guardian:

    Mordaunt refuses Johnson request to drop out of contest – reports

    As reported at 3:38pm, PA Media is reporting a line briefed out that Boris Johnson asked Penny Mordaunt to drop out of the leadership race and to back him.

    “Sources close to the Leader of the House of Commons” told the news agency that Mordaunt refused, warning that most of her support would switch to Rishi Sunak if she did.

    Kevin Foster, the MP for Torbay, has become the latest Conservative MP to back Rishi Sunak.

    He told his local paper, the Torbay Weekly:

    ‘In the face of the global economic headwinds we now face, of the three likely candidates, Rishi appears best placed to ensure families and businesses across our bay and nation are protected, whilst ensuring financial markets have confidence in our plans to do so. I also know he will ensure our support for Ukraine remains resolute.’

    He pays tribute to Boris Johnson’s stance over Ukraine, Brexit, coronavirus and support for measures in his Torbay constituency. But adds

    ‘Yet I believe we now need a fresh leadership to deliver the promise of a better Britain our 2019 manifesto set out, rather than a return to the arguments of the first half of this year which brought Boris’ administration down in July.’

    Rishi Sunak has surged ahead in the race to be Conservative leader while Boris Johnson is was mounting a last-ditch scramble to shore up support among MPs, amid warnings his return as prime minister would lead to a political crisis within a week.

    As more senior party figures cautioned that a Johnson comeback would lead to chaos and an early election, Sunak won the support of 150 MPs – just shy of the number needed to keep all but one other rival candidate getting on the slate.

  9. RN: EY economist(SMurphy) says the government should cut spending but spending of the previous government was “not such a problem”(wtte).

  10. Time to watch out for Russia committing a whole new level of atrocity in Ukraine:

    In his daily video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Moscow’s claims that Ukraine was preparing provocations with the use of a “dirty bomb”, as suggested by Russia’s defense minister during telephone calls with NATO counterparts.

    “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this. I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible,” Zelenskyy said.

    The Ukrainian president also said that only Russia was capable of using nuclear weapons in Europe.

    “If anyone can use nuclear weapons in this part of Europe — it can be only one source — and that source is the one that has ordered comrade Shoigu to telephone here or there,” Zelenskyy said.

    https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine-updates-zelenskyy-slams-russias-dirty-bomb-claims/a-63529792

  14. If Russia lose the war and Putin is vanquished or taken out by other means, this man will likely be Alexei Navalny’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Kara-Murza:

    The news of my indictment spread quickly throughout our prison. One inmate, a prominent banker, came up to me in the corridor to shake my hand. “Aren’t you afraid?” I asked. “I am proud,” he responded. Others — especially older prisoners who remember the Soviet era, when the charge of treason carried the death penalty — looked at me with sympathy, as one views a condemned man. Under the Russian Criminal Code, each count of treason carries up to 20 years of imprisonment — this in addition to 14 years on my two previous charges.

    I won’t lie: It’s not a pleasant feeling to see such apocalyptic numbers in the indictment with my name at the top of the page. Worst of all was the thought of how my wife and our three children would take this news. I had no way of knowing: For many months now, I have not been allowed to even hear their voices on the phone. Adding significant insult to a very real injury was the accusation of “betraying” the country I love — coming from the people who really are destroying its future, its reputation and its standing in the world.

    But what really helps — apart from the knowledge that I am right and they are wrong — is my background as a historian. Why? Because all of this has happened before, and we know how it will end. Aggressive wars launched by Russian and Soviet rulers for domestic political purposes — from the Crimean War of the mid-19th century to the misnamed “small victorious” Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 to the invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s — ended up backfiring badly on their masterminds, who managed to turn both their own people and the world against them. This war will be no different — and it is remarkable how diligently Putin is stepping into the same traps that caught his predecessors.

    The great Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky once said that “history doesn’t teach anyone anything — it only punishes for lessons not learnt.” It won’t be long before Putin finds out just how true these words really are.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/vladimir-kara-murza-putin-treason-indictment/

  15. Boris Johnson confirms his nomination won’t go forward

    Boris Johnson said that due to the failure to reach a deal with Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, “I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds”.

    “I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time,” the former prime minister said.

    Too bad. So sad. 😐

  16. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    Sean Kelly says that Chalmers’ challenge is to speak softly and carry a big shock. Quite a good read.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/chalmers-challenge-speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-shock-20221021-p5brtb.html
    In The Australian, of all places, Cameron Milner begins this contribution with, “With the Albanese government’s first budget on Tuesday it’s about to be “Lights, camera … taxation”. They say politics is “show business for ugly people”, but as Jim Chalmers grips the Despatch Box Australians will be pleasantly surprised to see a pretty good-looking rooster laying out the budget groundwork for the conversation we have to have.”
    https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/trust-is-pms-key-to-tax-reform-and-unlocking-wealth/news-story/2b39e2b83d3b62511c7f00483aa30fef
    According to Katherine Murphy, the Albanese government will bank $10bn in savings from phase 1 of its much-telegraphed “rorts and waste” audit in tomorrow night’s budget, and shuffle another $11bn to better reflect its own policy priorities.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/24/labors-rorts-and-waste-audit-to-deliver-10bn-in-savings-to-federal-budget
    Alan Kohler reckons deficits and debt are about politics, not economics. An interesting proposition.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/10/24/deficit-debt-economics-kohler/
    The dire state of Australia’s domestic electricity market, and our lack of investment in renewables, has been a mess of our own making, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said.
    https://johnmenadue.com/gas-export-tax-would-help-to-fix-australias-energy-crisis-says-dr-ken-henry/
    Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has released the “Roadmap” document accepting Australia’s water trading markets are “a market-design car-crash” and backed the findings of the long-awaited ACCC report. Authors of Sold Down the River, Stuart Kells and Scott Hamilton, report. They say that decades from now, when scholars look back on Australia’s water experiment as an example of what not to do in market-based public policy, the market design will be a rich subject for study, and so will the parts played, long after the fact, by the people who said, with unearned confidence, that there was nothing to see.
    https://michaelwest.com.au/takes-the-plunge-plibersek-releases-roadmap-to-fix-australias-water-trading-wreck/
    A good essay here from George Brandis here about the Menzian roots of the Liberal party and the dangers of it being overrun by right wing ideologues.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/taking-liberties-with-menzies-politics-betrays-his-life-and-legacy-20221023-p5bs2u.html
    Shane Wright and David Crowe predict that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reveal a full percentage point downgrade in Australia’s economic outlook in tomorrow’s federal budget with warnings he needs to cut spending much more aggressively to make the nation’s finances sustainable. (Er, don’t forget revenue, fellas!)
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/economic-growth-to-slow-as-warnings-mount-over-size-of-budget-deficit-20221023-p5bs5p.html
    Medicare doesn’t need a check-up, it needs a full-body examination, urges the HSU’s Gerard Hayes.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/medicare-doesn-t-need-a-check-up-it-needs-a-full-body-examination-20221021-p5brtz.html
    Property prices could fall as much as 20 per cent by the end of 2024, hitting consumers and wiping hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of wealth from households, internal research by the Reserve Bank has found. In one document, an RBA economist says the fall in inflation-adjusted terms could be the largest to hit the Australian property market since the early 1980s.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/property-prices-to-fall-up-to-20-per-cent-rba-20221023-p5bs2d.html
    Chris Bonnor laments the crisis that education is in.
    https://johnmenadue.com/schools-in-crisis-solutions-in-disarray/
    The private prisons operator now in charge of Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru will be paid more than three-quarters of a million dollars every day to provide “garrison and welfare services” for a little over 100 people. The US-based Management and Training Corporation (MTC) – a company previously accused in US courts of “gross negligence’’ and “egregious” security failures – has been awarded a contract for $47.3m covering just 62 days of work on the Pacific island.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/24/us-prisons-operator-mtc-begins-nauru-contract-australia-offshore-immigration-processing-detention
    Stephen Alomes writes about the AFL, racism and neoliberal corporatist sporting cultures.
    https://johnmenadue.com/the-afl-racism-and-neoliberal-corporatist-sporting-cultures/
    Seven people charged with masterminding and committing a murder in Sydney’s west in 2019 spent a total of 5661 days – or 15 and a half years – in prison before being found not guilty last month. Sally Rawsthorne looks at what happens to people such as this.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defendants-spend-years-in-jail-waiting-trial-what-happens-when-they-re-not-guilty-20221013-p5bpk0.html
    Transparency Australia’s Clancy Moore says that the National Anti-Corruption Commission bill, introduced by the Labor government at the end of September, is good. Very good. It ticks most of the boxes, including corruption prevention and education. It’s 90 per cent there, he says, but there are some critical gaps we need to fix to ensure our future anti-corruption commission can effectively do its job.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7951322/labors-anti-corruption-bill-is-close-to-perfect-heres-how-to-get-it-there/?cs=14329
    Christopher Knaus distils the new information that came out over the course of the Lehrmann trial.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/23/who-knew-what-and-when-trial-hears-new-details-of-timeline-after-brittany-higgins-alleged
    Jewel Topsfield reports that Daniel Andrews has said voters would decide if they wanted a publicly owned power company to generate electricity after former premier Jeff Kennett lambasted him for “quickly sending Victoria broke” and said his energy plan was “heartbreaking”.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/privatisation-has-failed-andrews-hits-back-after-kennett-attack-on-energy-plan-20221023-p5bs4f.html
    Victoria deserves praise for promising a rapid shift from coal to renewables. Now comes the hard par, writes Adam Morton.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/24/victoria-deserves-praise-for-promising-a-rapid-shift-from-coal-to-renewables-now-comes-the-hard-part
    A fuel efficiency standard would be a critical measure in fixing the climate crisis and it’s up to the public to make their voices heard, writes David Ritter.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australia-lacks-a-fuel-efficiency-standard–you-could-make-it-happen,16892
    If Murdoch’s argument succeeds at trial he may win this battle against Crikey, but his stable of publications could lose many major wars in the future, opines Sam White.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-excruciating-irony-of-lachlan-murdoch-s-crikey-lawsuit-20221023-p5bs5g.html
    A Coalition minister was “disappointed” after being briefed on a controversial welfare policy six months before the last election. In December 2021, the Department of Social Services told then Minister Anne Ruston there was not enough data to assess the efficacy of the controversial cashless debit card program.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7951234/disappointed-no-evidence-for-controversial-welfare-policy-department-told-coalition/?cs=14329
    “Would you pay to hear Scott Morrison speak?”, asks Ian Warden in quite a piss take.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7946089/whod-pay-to-hear-scomo-speak/?cs=14329
    The world’s oldest and most successful party is on the verge of collapse because Boris Johnson abandoned sound monetary policies during Britain’s lockdowns, writes Alexander Downer.
    https://www.afr.com/world/europe/boris-is-the-tories-fiscal-problem-not-the-leadership-answer-20221020-p5brf7
    BREAKING: Boris Johnson will not stand in the Conservative leadership race, leaving Rishi Sunak very likely to enter No 10.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/23/boris-johnson-says-he-will-not-stand-in-tory-leadership-contest
    “The current social contract in America is not an expression of our deepest values, greatest hopes and highest ideals. Quite the contrary, it is the result of a centuries-long series of compromises with white supremacists”, argues Steve Phillips.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/america-racist-social-contract-start-anew-steve-phillips
    The Trump Organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges today in New York in a trial that could start to tease out the many allegations against the company and by extension its patriarch, Donald J Trump.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/23/trump-org-tax-fraud-charges-cfo-new-york

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe

    Jim Pavlidis

    Badiucao

    Mark Knight

    Peter Broelman

    Leak

    From the US


  17. Thanks as always BK.

    So Boris had the numbers but won’t run? Actually, I’m confident Boris never had the numbers otherwise his ego and shortage of personal values could never have prevented him from running.

  18. Socrates at 5.59 am

    The motivation for Brexit was purely political, based on infighting within the Tories, with Johnson the principal culprit. It was the biggest ego-ride in UK history.

    What is astounding is the extent of denial among the Tories about Johnson’s utterly disastrous role in making Covid 19 worse in Britain. One assessment is this:

    “The Management of COVID-19 in the UK has been a disaster. It would be wrong
    to temper that overall judgment with weasel words and the mitigation that these
    are ‘unprecedented’ times.”

    The same author makes a broader assessment of how this interacts with Brexit:

    “Paradoxically, the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic looks likely to have
    a potentially profound effect on the future course of devolution and federalized arrangements in the UK. It has overlain and reinforced divisions created by Brexit,
    fueling support for Scottish independence and encouraging independence debate in
    Wales, whilst proposed Brexit arrangements nudge Northern Ireland toward reunification. Brexit itself threatens to weaken the current devolution settlement, but the combination of COVID-19 and Brexit may even drive the devolved parts of the UK further apart.”

    Clive Grace, ‘Perfect Storm: The pandemic, Brexit and devolved government in the UK’, p 230 in Federalism and the response to COVID 19:

    https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/51423/9781000516258.pdf?sequence=1#page=254

    Brexit won’t benefit finance capital as a section of British capital, with its reduced EU role. See:

    “It seems likely, therefore, that London will remain Europe’s largest financial marketplace, by a considerable distance. It will remain plugged into a global network: transactions with European clients are perhaps a quarter of its business. But it will no longer be the continent’s de facto financial centre.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/18/has-brexit-fatally-dented-the-city-of-londons-future

  19. Cronus @ #17 Monday, October 24th, 2022 – 7:38 am

    Thanks as always BK.

    So Boris had the numbers but won’t run? Actually, I’m confident Boris never had the numbers otherwise his ego and shortage of personal values could never have prevented him from running.

    Boris didn’t have the numbers and he couldn’t persuade Penny Mordaunt to drop out and give her numbers to him. This was posted on The Guardian website an hour ago:

    There was scepticism from rival camps over the claim from Boris Johnson’s supporters that they had reached the threshold of 100 MPs needed to make it on to the ballot paper, PA reports.

    Earlier a leaked WhatsApp message purporting to be from Johnson supporter Chris Heaton-Harris said: “I can confirm we have completed all the paperwork (verified all nominations, with proposer and seconder) to be on the ballot tomorrow.”

    Backbencher Richard Holden, a supporter of Sunak, tweeted: “Very odd to brief this out again … It’s what they briefed yesterday.

    “It’s almost as if they still need people and are desperate to show momentum, which they can’t because no one will publicly come out.”

  20. Cat at 7.28 am

    All Johnson has said, in effect, is that his regurgitation should not be done too soon.

    Rowe cartoon remains accurate, fortunately without the smell of all that utter bullshit.

  21. When Kohli soared, and 90,293 people roared – oh, there’s never been anything like it at MCG

    https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/t20-world-cup-2022-india-vs-pakistan-when-virat-kohli-soared-and-90293-people-raised-the-roof-at-mcg-1341359

    The MCG is a magical place. The roars here are special. But of all the great sporting events this grand stadium has hosted, of all the roars this grand stadium has produced, Sunday evening’s might have been the most extraordinary.

    When R Ashwin struck the winning run, the noise that the 90,293 people inside the MCG made was heard in the suburbs more than two kilometres away.

    The late Shane Warne, who now has the great southern stand named after him at the MCG, had said he had never heard a roar louder than when he took his 700th Test wicket in front of 89,155 adoring fans on Boxing Day in 2006. This was louder.

    It was louder than when Mitchell Starc rattled Brendon McCullum’s stumps in the opening over of the 2015 ODI World Cup final.

    It was louder than any of the recent AFL grand finals that were played in front of more than 100,000 people.

  22. ”
    “The current social contract in America is not an expression of our deepest values, greatest hopes and highest ideals. Quite the contrary, it is the result of a centuries-long series of compromises with white supremacists”, argues Steve Phillips.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/america-racist-social-contract-start-anew-steve-phillips
    ”

    Exactly. USA professed/ professes to have great values and ideals. That narrative was based on what they did during WW2 but on actual history of USA. Anybody can say that. The white supremacists were always hiding in plain sight. What America told the world was that they were ‘few bad apples’. With that successful marketing they were able to attract some of the greatest minds and very hard workers to their shores, who worked very hard and diligently to produce great results for US.
    I want to post so much on this topic but I will desist for the time being.

  24. “ The CSIRO is being accused of failing to disclose that fracking information sheets for Indigenous communities were written by one of its research divisions partially funded by gas companies.”
    “ But a search of data embedded in the online versions of the information sheets showed they were drafted by a section of the CSIRO, called the Gas Industry Social and Environment Alliance (GISERA). GISERA receives one third of its funding from gas companies, including Santos and Origin Energy, with the remainder sourced from governments and the CSIRO itself.”

    Disappointing but hardly surprising given the defunding and scientific emasculation that occurred under the Coalition.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/csiro-accused-of-sending-misinformation/101556858

  26. ”
    Socratessays:
    Monday, October 24, 2022 at 5:59 am
    Thanks William for the meagre polling news, such as it is.

    Dr Doolittle

    Thanks re comments on Johnson.

    I have been opposed to Brexit from the start. It was an inherently divisive and damaging idea regardless of how it was done. And that is before you consider the adverse impacts on places like Ireland and Scotland.

    My perception is that Brexit was motivated by a few sharp financiers who thought they would benefit from escaping Brussels’ financial regs. They then convinced the rest of the country with a pack of lies.
    ”

    The ‘ sharp financiers ‘ roped in rightwing media especially Murdoch rags to destroy UK.
    After Brexit got done
    BREXIT got UK Done.

  27. The US msm have decided to go with the narrative that the Republicans will win the midterms, and that the abortion issue is no longer top of mind.

    I disagree with this assessment. Voters will come out like ants and vote for the dems.

  28. https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/10/24/miscellany-sec-newgate-and-electoral-law-reform-open-thread/#comment-3998405

    It sounded like a two seater or more than one plane.
    Air frame losses, especially with service life extensions (and it has been said them storage areas under the mountains still have kit going back to Napoleon), vary, be it weather, training hours, exercises, conflict. [So much for drills being bloodless battles …]
    Same for crew.
    Let’s see what the loss exchange ratios look like so far.
    And the citizens of mother Russia – aka Haute Volta with nukes – will be up for replacing it.

  29. ”
    Victoriasays:
    Monday, October 24, 2022 at 8:00 am
    Is Nigel Farage still being a smug chaos merchant?
    ”

    He was one of the chief enablers in the destruction of UK.

  32. UK Cartoons:
    Morten Morland on the Tories’ electoral prospects #ToryLeadershipContest #borisjohnson #RishiSunakPM #penny_mordaunt

    Nicola Jennings on the Tories’ electoral prospects #ToryLeadershipContest

    Guy Venables on #BorisJohnson #PennyMordaunt #RishiSunak

    Mac on #LizTruss #ToryChaos

    Morten Morland on #BorisJohnson #PennyMordaunt #RishiSunak

  33. ”
    Victoriasays:
    Monday, October 24, 2022 at 7:59 am
    Ven

    I watched the game on tv. It was a privilege to observe it.
    ”

    Nail biting to put it mildly.
    One of the events of the match is when Indian National anthem was sung at the beginning of the match. It reverberated through out the stadium because overwhelming people in the stands sang along with the singer.
    I am not saying because it is Indian National anthem. Just imagine if all the people in the stadium sing Australian National anthem when it is sung. Goosebumps.

  34. The cricket last night was awesome. It seems so crazy that the two teams can’t play against each other in their own countries…

    I went to my councils Spring Festival yesterday, the ALP is fortunate that Shopping Bags can’t vote and the demographics of those handing out shopping bags were clearly not representative of the Liberal Party. The difference with the photo op in The Age today with Asher Judah couldn’t be more stark:

  37. Socrates at 5.59 am

    Here’s a June essay on North-South divisions in the UK. Sunak may make them worse:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/06/britain-brexit-economic-impact-boris-johnson/661332/

    “Britain today cannot even commit to completing the first new train line outside the south since Queen Victoria died. Instead it has cancelled one leg of the project, known as HS2, that was meant to go to the northeast, Britain’s poorest region, and another spur in the northwest. No one now even talks of extending it to Scotland. In London, meanwhile, a giant new £18.9 billion underground line has just opened, connecting the east and west of the capital, cutting journey times to Heathrow. Outside London, only one other city has any real metro system of note, while Leeds remains the biggest city in Europe without an underground or a tram network. If you want to travel from Leeds to Manchester—the two richest cities in northern England—you must board a train that still runs on diesel.”

  38. C@tmomma says:
    Monday, October 24, 2022 at 7:42 am
    Cronus @ #17 Monday, October 24th, 2022 – 7:38 am

    Thanks as always BK.

    So Boris had the numbers but won’t run? Actually, I’m confident Boris never had the numbers otherwise his ego and shortage of personal values could never have prevented him from running.
    Boris didn’t have the numbers and he couldn’t persuade Penny Mordaunt to drop out and give her numbers to him. This was posted on The Guardian website an hour ago:

    There was scepticism from rival camps over the claim from Boris Johnson’s supporters that they had reached the threshold of 100 MPs needed to make it on to the ballot paper, PA reports.

    Earlier a leaked WhatsApp message purporting to be from Johnson supporter Chris Heaton-Harris said: “I can confirm we have completed all the paperwork (verified all nominations, with proposer and seconder) to be on the ballot tomorrow.”

    Backbencher Richard Holden, a supporter of Sunak, tweeted: “Very odd to brief this out again … It’s what they briefed yesterday.

    “It’s almost as if they still need people and are desperate to show momentum, which they can’t because no one will publicly come out.”
    —————————————————————————-|—————

    Agreed C@T, that all makes sense to me.

  39. Lots of talk over the past couple of years regarding UAP. Formerly UFO.

    It does feel that the powers that be, are softening us up for some revelations.

    We live in interesting times…..

  41. Chalmers is scrapping funding for rort and pork projects including some dubious road upgrades. Wonderful.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/carparks-scrapped-road-upgrades-delayed-budget/101567982

    What we need in the short term is a thorough review of transport policy and programmed works. Covid and a change to logisitcs has greatly changed transport demand in the past three years. Some previous urgent projects are probably no longer needed. Others unfunded before now are needed. Then there is the impact of EVs, EScooters, EBikes and more people walking and cycling. Transport needs a rethink, and some serious study.

  42. Dr Doolittle

    “ Britain today cannot even commit to completing the first new train line outside the south since Queen Victoria died. Instead it has cancelled one leg of the project, known as HS2, that was meant to go to the northeast, Britain’s poorest region, and another spur in the northwest.”

    Thanks I know some people who have worked on HS2 and am not surprised. It is poorly scoped, and yet so expensive that it will not go far enough to serve the areas of real need.

    It is unfortunate that so much of Australian rail engineering practice descends from UK practice because UK rail practice has not been the industry leader since before WWIi. On HSR technology French track and German trains are greatly superior and cheaper as well! Also rail is something the private sector consistently does not do as well as the public sector.

    The UK is of a size where HSR should be ideal for intercity travel, yet the UK still languishes by 20-30 years.

  43. Thanks for the roundup BK. Quite looking forward to Chalmers’ budget tomorrow night. It will really underline the difference in values between Labor and the far right LNP.

    At the gym this morning I saw Sunrise refer to cutting $1 billion of “key” Melbourne infrastructure projects. What BS! Some unplanned pork never signed off by IA are suddenly vital? Gimme a break.

    Labor should respond by pointing out that none of the cuts were to projects assessed as “high priority” by Infrastructure Australia, even while the Morrison government was in office. Some were never assessed, planned or funded at all.

  44. Vic Labor supporters regularly sparring with state political reporters from The Age on social media. Not a good look for the paper at all. What is Costello’s plan? Make The Age unreadable to its core audience, drive down subscriptions and then quietly close it? I also heard that the editor of The Age is on leave (correct me if I’m wrong) at the same time pro-Liberal state political reporters are off the leash attacking Andrews with any smear they can find.

  46. Five Months from NSW Election.
    It must be time for the much anticipated (re) announcement of the Very Fast Train linking Newcastle to Sydney.
    Despite the fact that both the economics, as well as the geography of the proposed rail corridor, are totally impractical and unviable successive LNP Governments have a habit of re-visiting this chestnut at each electoral cycle.
    This proposal was last seen in April 2022, when being announced by the unlamented former Member for Robertson with the equally unlamented former Prime Minister.
    This is on a par with a previous LNP Transport Minister announcing that journey times, between the Central Coast and Sydney would be reduced by a programme to straighten the curves in the section between Woy Woy and Cowan.
    You would need to know the area or consult a topographic map to comprehend the dire, stupidity of such a proposition.
    I’ll let you know when it appears.

  47. I am bothered by proposals to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16. It is busywork. I mean, I won’t stand in their way – let them vote – they’ll get it at the next election away so what if a few of them start a bit sooner? But the real ignored voters who matter are from the precariat – people who are invited to build this country and subjected to its law but have no say on it because conservatives cleverly introduced temporary workers visas and special category visas and made it too hard to transition from PR to citizenship.

    If I had my druthers, we’d have only tourist-class and permanent residency visas, and anyone who has PR but not a travel facility (which expires after five years) should be allowed/required to vote. Unfortunately, democracy is dead. Democracy is about making sure the law has the confidence of the people who are subjected to it, and permanent residents without a travel facility are certainly subjected to it. But just about no-one would dream of making this argument even though Australia did not go to pieces when most immigrants – every British subject – could vote.

    I’d bet you that within an election, the working conditions and pay of Australian citizens would dramatically improve if we did this.

  48. Felix

    +1 on the visa and citizenship overhaul. The Liberals created an underclass that damages us all.

    But I’d like to see the age voting rule too. They are not mutually exclusive.

  49. news pole needs to be looked at if news corp are with holding pole as it does not show there favered result there e creadability is called in to question

  50. will the government have to change the law to get news pole to do poleing even when labor is ahead the pole lacks credability if it goes on a6 week break due to labor being popular but published evry fortnight when its not i still remember crows columattacking the public for seeing through the mean girls tacdick as rubishicant not remember muchh sen kitching did acsept leak to liberals attacking marles and wong on china and leading the questioning which lead morrison to get wholegate sacked from australia poast

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