I have nothing much to offer in the way of new material for an open thread post, for reasons I hope you’ll understand. My standby on such occasions is the regularly updated tracking poll of Anthony Albanese’s personal ratings from US pollster Morning Consult, which currently has him at 56% approval and 31% disapproval. This leaves his approval about where it was mid-year, with his disapproval having climbed a few points.
The story is the long hegemony of the Lying Reactionaries is in obvious and deep decline. Excellent news for the country. Labor have the mojo.
Very good coverage of the Victorian election, despite the odd bug, William. Many thanks.
Wow, who knew that people appreciated a competent leader, instead of a goose who crash tackles young boys in election campaigns!?!
/sarc
Actually, the poll I would really love to see is one for Cook right now.
Albo at 56% approval, I am confident that after yesterday’s Ch7 program on Albo the approval will jump to 70% at least.
A surprisingly good and fair program, focusing on the man, his background and vision. I could see no devious intention to desperately get a gotcha moment, no manipulative push… just simple questions and giving Albo the time to answer, which he did in a way that came up as open, honest and, after what we have been used with devious-manipulative Scomo, truthful.
“C@tmomma says:
Monday, November 28, 2022 at 4:32 am
Actually, the poll I would really love to see is one for Cook right now.”
Unfortunately, Scomo is still sitting on a good margin (12.44%)… and he doesn’t look like he has any alternative job that pays an equivalent salary for working as a backbencher in an opposition party. But, who knows, “miracles” do happen….
Another night of big upsets: Costa Rica 1 Japan 0. Morocco 2 Belgium 0. Croatia 4 Canada 1.
Police used water cannon and tear gas after coming under attack from football supporters who brought havoc to the centre of Brussels following Morocco’s shock 2-0 World Cup win over Belgium in Qatar.
Alpo,
I think people, especially those in the media, are slowly getting over the Stockholm Syndrome that the Liberals, from the time of John Howard, instilled in them. They ruthlessly employed the drip and so, in order for them to survive and be able to get stories and interviews, they had to find a way to react favourably to the Coalition and put down Labor.
I actually think that David Pocock, as well as the PM, has been the breath of fresh air that the nation needed. No more horse trading for Senate votes to pass government Bills, but consultation and collaboration in order to get the best outcome. A collective sigh of relief and high approval rating for the PM has been the result.
Hopefully Peter Dutton will get the message and begin to engage constructively with, and against, the government, as we expect politics to be contested. Not by continuing his silly attempts to be Tony Abbott 2.0.
I won’t hold my breath about the Liberals though. This story about the Victorian Liberals continues to show that they just don’t get it:
He. Just. Lost. His. Second. Election. In. A. Row.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/for-guy-v-andrews-rematch-the-liberal-faithful-hope-for-a-bout-that-goes-the-distance-20221122-p5c0by.html
That’s not saying much about the state of the party in Victoria. Probably true though when you consider the sitting MPs – state and federal.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/multicultural-communities-younger-people-and-women-liberals-come-to-grips-with-change-needed-20221127-p5c1kn.html
The Liberals have been talking about broadening their appeal for at least a decade, and in particular appealing to women.
I’ll believe it’ll happen when I see it happening.
And then the men in the Liberal Party reassert themselves. 😐
Confessions @ #10 Monday, November 28th, 2022 – 6:17 am
Well found – on page 16 of the Sydney Morning Costello. Smallest possible headline. Next to a much larger article on “slow fashion”. The Spiv sandcastle is being swept away.
The Liberals seem to see quotas as something that’s just applied to preselections.
When Labor introduced quotas, that meant that all aspects of the party were subject to quotas – I recently got pinged because we only had one woman on our branch executive (we have a tiny branch so we’re not spoilt for choice!)
This means that, in every decision making body in the party, there are at least 40% women.
It didn’t alter just the make up of MPs, it altered the whole make up of the party.
This has some flow on effects – if you’re a power broker, you need to have a cohort of women (and there’s an incentive in the short term, because it’s easier to get them onto committees); women who put their hands up for preselection are known and tested – there’s no nasty surprises, or arguments about merit; there’s incentives for women to join the party, because there are clear paths for advancement – and, of course, 40% of those making the key decisions are women.
Reading from this article, you’d think lobster guy’s election campaign
saved the furniture 😆
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/we-insult-people-s-intelligence-the-liberal-party-recriminations-begin-20221127-p5c1mg.html
C@tmomma says:
Monday, November 28, 2022 at 6:09 am
I won’t hold my breath about the Liberals though. This story about the Victorian Liberals continues to show that they just don’t get it:
Some had even travelled to Mulgrave to hand out how-to-vote cards in the vain hope of unseating the premier in his own electorate. Those efforts proved very optimistic.
“We live in a state of idiots,” said one such volunteer, Chris.
.. “We still have to have a fighting spirit because the Liberals are on the right side of history,” she said. “We can join the dots, we can see where the dangers are. We just have to be there when people come to their senses.”
While Guy’s future is now under a cloud, Kronberg said she would encourage him to run again for a third shot at becoming premier.
“He’s absolutely brilliant and the far and away the best political mind we’ve got in this state,” she said.
He. Just. Lost. His. Second. Election. In. A. Row.
———————————————————————————————
For pure bloody mindedness and an inability to read the public however, you’d have to give the prize to QLD’s Lawrence Springborg who led the National-Liberal coalition to defeats at both the 2004 and 2006 Queensland elections. Springborg then played a leading role in the creation of the Liberal National Party (LNP), becoming the party’s first leader but resigning after he led it to defeat at the 2009 Queensland election. What’s that saying? If at first you don’t succeed, fail and fail again. I give you the Coalition in Qld.
Victoria’s voters ignored News Corp’s anti-Labor campaign but the controversy let Dan Andrews skate
To paraphrase Lady Bracknell from The Importance of Being Earnest, to lose one election, Mr Murdoch, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
The media outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch in Australia openly campaigned for the demise of the Victorian Labor government in the weekend’s election and for the return of the federal Coalition government in May.
In both cases, the electorate ignored or rejected the campaigns, ousting the government led by Scott Morrison in favour of the Anthony Albanese-led Labor party, and giving Daniel Andrews a third term as premier.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/victoria-s-voters-ignored-news-corp-s-anti-labor-campaign-but-the-controversy-let-dan-andrews-skate/ar-AA14BKqZ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d8d74528e2f64a52a391f28621d4b83e
Simon Tisdall has this sobering, but timely, reminder that the greatest threat to Ukraine comes from we in the West slowly turning our backs on them, out of fatigued indifference:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/27/russian-raids-western-apathy-kyiv-putin-ukrainians-us-europe
“A two-day-old baby is killed in an attack on a maternity ward in southern Ukraine. Officials say at least 437 children have died since Russia’s invasion began. More than 800 have been injured. How many kids are permanently traumatised is anybody’s guess.
Every day, Vladimir Putin gets away with murder.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is shelled again, despite repeated UN warnings of Europe-wide catastrophe. In liberated Kherson, more grisly evidence of war crimes is uncovered. Wherever the Russians go, it’s the same horror story. Every day the killers go unpunished.
Relentless waves of indiscriminate missile strikes darken Ukrainian skies, pulverising apartment blocks, clinics, shopping centres and schools. Moscow no longer even pretends to target the military. Its aim: to terrorise civilians.
Destroying electricity, heat and water supplies to the main cities, already suffering food and medicine shortages, is key to Putin’s winter war. He strives to break Ukraine’s will, imperilling millions besieged by snow and ice. Every day, he perpetrates crimes against humanity.
Russia’s red-handed army of homicidal generals, incompetent field commanders, out-of-control soldiers and hapless conscripts is attempting genocide – annihilation of a nation and a people – in plain sight.
The European parliament voted last week to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Good. Now order Putin’s arrest! Issue warrants for the president and all his gang. Expel his lying diplomats. Penalise his pals. Close the borders. Or is this feelgood Euro-posturing?
The question is rhetorical. You know the answer.”
Simon Tisdall continues in https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/27/russian-raids-western-apathy-kyiv-putin-ukrainians-us-europe:
“As blacked-out Moldova warned last week, another huge humanitarian and migrant crisis looms, akin to that of last spring. It will challenge every EU country. Yet as the strain of multiple Ukraine-related problems begins to tell, European support may be faltering at this critical juncture.
The war and its atrocities are being normalised and, increasingly, discounted. Where is the outrage now? Where the visceral fury? Nine months in, western public opinion is dulled, deadened and desensitised by a daily diet of remote, unceasing, almost routine carnage.
People are no longer shocked, nor even greatly surprised. They feel powerless. The majority still wants Ukraine to prevail. But victory is not expected soon. In the absence of peace talks or any relief, war fatigue teeters towards apathy.
In Italy and Germany, far-right voices complain they are “fed up” with the war’s costly knock-on effects. Protests against the stand-off with Moscow pockmark central Europe. Conflicted fellow travellers give Putin leave to carry on killing.”
“We need young people, we need change. We had people representing us … who are all of the past. I’m of the past. Get rid of us!”
Former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu
But the Liar’s Nasty Party is the party of angry old white people, it’s f@#ked 😆
Continuing on https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/27/russian-raids-western-apathy-kyiv-putin-ukrainians-us-europe:
“It’s only November. For everyone, the worst of winter is yet to come. And there are limits to how often Kyiv can repair damaged pylons, cables and power plants. As soon as they are fixed, missiles blow them apart. “Invincibility shelters” can only do so much.
“Today is just one day, but we have received 70 missiles. That’s the Russian formula of terror,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last Wednesday. “Hospitals, schools, transport, residential districts all suffered.” As usual, the “firm reaction” he demanded from the UN security council never came.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says it’s obvious what Putin wants: “Ukraine without Ukrainians.”
Simon Tisdall concludes https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/27/russian-raids-western-apathy-kyiv-putin-ukrainians-us-europe:
“The Ukrainian people are a formidable force. They have shown they can beat their enemies. But should they fear their friends? A weakening of US and European support, leaving Ukraine out in the cold, is perhaps the most dismaying hazard they face. Putin is counting on it. Might the peoples of the west, for the sake of a quiet life, really get “fed up” with the war to the point where they are ready to ignore or even tolerate mass murder, war crimes and the evisceration of a sovereign nation as the new normal? It’s democracy’s biggest test.”
phoenixRED
“ The declining ability to influence elections looks unlikely to prompt much reflection at News Corp Australia’s Sydney headquarters – but it should.
Some of their coverage appears to fly in the face of the Australian Press Council’s standards and principles, the first of which states: “Ensure that factual material in news reports and elsewhere is accurate and not misleading, and is distinguishable from other material such as opinion”. News Corp Australia is a member of the council, the print and online news media’s primary self-regulatory body.”
If this is indeed the case, why then is the Murdochracy permitted to remain as a member of the Australian Press Council if it clearly disregards the standards and principles?
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/victoria-s-voters-ignored-news-corp-s-anti-labor-campaign-but-the-controversy-let-dan-andrews-skate/ar-AA14BKqZ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d8d74528e2f64a52a391f28621d4b83e
We in the West, if we are serious about believing in democracy and human rights, need to loudly support Ukraine, denounce Russia and help Ukrainian resistance however we can. We need to keep this up until every last Russian under arms is expelled from Ukraine’s internationally recognised sovereign territory and until every last Russian war criminal is brought to justice. We need to firmly reject any voice which urges otherwise.
It is clear that only catastrophic military defeat will prompt Russians to reject Putin, Putin’s regime and Putinism. I think they need to suffer at least some defeats on their own territory. I think they need to have NATO impose DMZ in a strip of Russian territory extending at least 100km from its border with Ukraine. I think they need to lose their Black Sea and Baltic Fleets. And, I think they have shown they cannot be trusted with a nuclear arsenal and should have theirs removed.
“I am confident that after yesterday’s Ch7 program on Albo”
What fresh hell* was that televisual program?
*channel stokes *shudder*
“Now order Putin’s arrest! Issue warrants for the president and all his gang. Expel his lying diplomats. Penalise his pals. Close the borders. Or is this feelgood Euro-posturing?”
Yes. That is all feelgood Euro-posturing. Arrest warrants for Putin mean nothing while he has a working army.
I would rather say “Keep sending 155mm, and 152mm. Continue to cycle modern artillery through Ukraine, using Lithuania and Poland as maintenance bases. Provide more anti-missile systems, especially those we can resupply with ammunition. Provide more trucks, more tank transports and more bridging. Warm blankets, generators and winter gear generally. Provide Ukraine with the support, and they can win the war”.
To be fair to Lawrence Springborg, Cronus, his shotgun marriage of the Nationals and Liberals did help to deliver the coalition’s solitary election win in Queensland since the end of the Joh era in the 1980s.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Old, elite, out of touch, poorly organised, unpopular and devoid of fresh ideas. The criticisms of the Liberal Party after its election loss have just begun, and the harshest come from within the party itself, write Chip Le Grand and Paul Sakkal. Reading this, it is apparent the knives are out – but will they be used?
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/we-insult-people-s-intelligence-the-liberal-party-recriminations-begin-20221127-p5c1mg.html
And now the Victorian Nationals are celebrating the gain of three additional lower house seats, but an internal fight has broken out over their Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party, which suffered an overwhelming defeat in Saturday’s election, explains Benjamin Preiss.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/nationals-win-big-but-squabble-over-coalition-deal-20221127-p5c1nl.html
The electorate’s repudiation of the Liberal Party, the anti-Dan protest movement and the Murdoch media could not have been more thorough, declares The Age’s editorial.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/daniel-andrews-the-dominant-political-figure-of-his-generation-20221127-p5c1m9.html
In this summing up of the events of the last week by Sean Kelly is, “The Liberal Party, stranded between what Sky and the Murdoch tabloids try to argue is its “base” and the concerns of most voters, has looked, mostly, a little beside the point.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/get-it-done-andrews-lesson-for-albanese-20221124-p5c14s.html
Shaun Carney tells us how Dan Andrews pulled off one of the most remarkable victories in modern politics.
https://theconversation.com/how-dan-andrews-pulled-off-one-of-the-most-remarkable-victories-in-modern-politics-194710
Dennis Muller says that the media went for drama on the Victorian election – and missed the story.
https://theconversation.com/media-go-for-drama-on-victorian-election-and-miss-the-story-195421
Murdoch’s tabloids and Sky News opened seemingly never-ending culture wars about which the average Australian knows little and cares less, says Matthew Ricketson. And Victorians ignored it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/28/victorias-voters-ignored-news-corps-anti-labor-campaign-but-the-controversy-let-dan-andrews-skate
In an entertaining contribution, Alan Kohler explains why the Liberal Party lost – and could keep losing into oblivion.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/11/28/liberal-party-losing-alan-kohler/
The Coalition must improve its offering to female voters and oppose electoral laws that entrench incumbent Labor governments, federal Liberals have suggested following their disappointing Victorian election defeat. But Anthony Albanese argued on Sunday the election also has lessons for the media, citing adverse commentary about Victorian premier Daniel Andrews as part of a “scare campaign” that had fallen flat, writes Paul Karp.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/28/federal-liberals-say-coalition-must-lure-back-women-after-victoria-state-election-rout
Victoria’s Liberals need to define who they are before deciding who can lead them back from oblivion, posits Benita Kolovos.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/27/victorias-liberals-need-to-define-who-they-are-before-deciding-who-can-lead-them-back-from-oblivion
Labor’s fresh triumphs reflect a party surging towards the end of the year. The Liberals are wandering in circles, consumed by their own failures, writes Jennifer Hewett.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/a-great-day-for-brand-labor-in-victoria-and-canberra-20221127-p5c1lp
Former Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane and senator Jane Hume will deliver a verbal interim report on Monday to the party’s executive in Canberra on their review into the Coalition’s May election defeat. It won’t be pretty. While Scott Morrison, the implications of Covid and the policy settings of the former government will be central, the review is expected to deliver a scathing assessment of the dysfunction of the party’s state divisions. Victoria will be a case in point, says Simon Benson.
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/liberals-soulsearching-after-serious-losses-in-victorian-election/news-story/ddbba06b8aa6a46b27e8c3048ff32dc5
The worry now is that Anthony Albanese, encouraged by this fresh ALP momentum, will seek to revive the old Labor faith in government intervention, whines the AFR’s editorial.
https://www.afr.com/politics/will-andrews-thumping-win-embolden-federal-labor-20221123-p5c0rx
Former Victorian Liberal leader Michael O’Brien has told colleagues that he will not run for leader of the battered party, paving the way for the progressive John Pesutto to seize the reins, should he close out victory in Hawthorn over his teal opponent. Pesutto should make a difference IMHO.
https://www.afr.com/politics/pesutto-to-run-for-liberal-leadership-as-new-mps-key-to-renewal-20221127-p5c1li
How does Peter Dutton fix the structural collapse of the party in Victoria when he is yet to work out how to show his face in the state, asks Lidija Ivanovski who points out that if winning Kew is a highlight for the Liberals, something is seriously wrong.
https://www.afr.com/politics/when-libs-celebrate-holding-the-heartland-something-s-seriously-wrong-20221123-p5c0rz
Scott Morrison is likely to be the first MP to be censured by parliament since 2018 as government backbenchers press for the former prime minister to be formally sanctioned for being secretly sworn in to administer additional portfolios, writes James Massola.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-facing-censure-push-as-labor-backbenchers-speak-out-20221127-p5c1kp.html
The AFR says that the most union-friendly workplace laws in decades, which extend controversial multi-employer bargaining laws to much of the economy, are set to pass the Senate this week after the Albanese government brokered a late-night deal with independent senator David Pocock.
https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/albanese-wins-union-friendly-workplace-deal-20221127-p5c1kh
Anthony Albanese is about to end the year with his industrial relations legislation through and parliament formally lambasting Scott Morrison, writes Michelle Grattan who says welfare recipients are potential winners from Pocock twisting Albanese’s arm.
https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-welfare-recipients-are-potential-winners-from-pocock-twisting-albaneses-arm-195422
As the Government begins the difficult task of repairing the Australian Public Service pay and classification system, it also needs to change the membership of the Remuneration Tribunal then ask it to review secretaries’ pay having greater regard for their public sector roles and responsibilities. For too long the Tribunal has relied upon private sector comparisons and practices, argues Andrew Podger.
https://johnmenadue.com/matching-pay-and-responsibilities-are-secretaries-paid-too-much/
Greg Mullins argues that we’re nowhere near prepared for the next climate disasters.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/we-re-nowhere-near-prepared-for-next-climate-disasters-20221127-p5c1k2.html
The COP27 climate change conference has been and gone. The ambitions were modest and the outcomes even more so. The large number of fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance did little to buoy the mood of impending doom.
https://michaelwest.com.au/cop27-nearly-foundered-as-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-greenwashing/
The EU did wonders for the economy: that was why we joined. The UK’s departure from it is now all too obviously costing it that prosperity, writes William Keegan who says that Brexit has made Britain the sick man of Europe again.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/27/brexit-has-made-britain-the-sick-man-of-europe-again
Crowds have chanted “down with the Communist Party” and “Xi Jinping, step down” in an extraordinary wave of protests across China sparked by anger at draconian Covid restrictions. Anti-government protests on a scale not seen since 1989’s Tiananmen massacre broke out on Saturday in cities including Xi’an, Nanjing and Shanghai, three of China’s most politically influential cities.
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/world/chinese-cry-for-freedom-in-biggest-antigovernment-protests-since-tiananmen/news-story/f5f3739211148eb903fc1276e9da185d
China is stuck in the lockdown mentality because it initially worked. It’s now strangling the economy and beginning to trigger serious unrest, writes Richard McGregor who says Covid-sero represents China’s greatest threat.
https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/why-covid-zero-is-now-the-biggest-china-threat-20221127-p5c1ks
Cartoon Corner
Matt Golding
Glen Le Lievre
Mark Knight
Peter Broelman
Megan Herbert
Joe Benke
Dionne Gain
Leak
From the US
The Liberal Party of Victoria is absolutely and in every way unfit to take power and hold office.
This seems to me to be the obvious and key point to have emerged from this campaign, and one which precedes any other judgment. Yet it has been barely stated explicitly, despite the fact that it is clearly widely held.
The Liberal opposition is not simply a party in poor shape, less than match fit, needing a bit of luck, etc, etc. In fact it is a destroyed organisation, midway through an internal party struggle, under investigation for numerous electoral breaches, studded with numerous unvetted candidates, honeycombed with weirdos, and preferencing neo-Nazis.
Furthermore, it has nothing resembling a consistent program for the state, merely a mixed grab-bag of immediate spending promises, no clear alternative longer-term strategy for the state, and no approach consistent either internally or with liberal principles.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/11/22/victorian-liberals-in-ruins/
theunaustralian.net @TheUnOz
Sky News’ Vic Election Coverage Tipped To Win Best Comedy At The Logies.
Time for an astroturfed campaign to give Jackie the Royal Order of the Boot at the next Federal Election.
She is far from the people’s champion / battler from Bernie that she makes out to be. An erratic populist who at the end of the day is a boss’s lickspittle. Unsurprising really, given her Palmer United origins.
From 9/Faix:
“ Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie says she will vote against Labor’s industrial relations reforms in their current form due to concerns businesses will still be unfairly disadvantaged, despite fellow senator David Pocock forcing the government to amend the legislation.
Lambie, whose vote is not required after Pocock struck a deal with the government, told Channel Nine’s Today show she still had concerns the bill would unfairly disadvantage businesses.
Here is what some of Lambie had to say:
“I’m not keen on it. I have been on the phone all the day yesterday with employer groups and with other people out there as well. It was a long day for me yesterday, once I could get my head around the deal that had been done. They still don’t seem happy. Obviously I will be waiting to hear back from them today. They’re moving as fast as what they possibly can. I notice some of the business groups are out on the air today expressing their opinions. Certainly I’ll be behind closed doors discussing it with them and see if we can do anything, see if there’s anything we can do to even the playing field up a bit and see if we can put through amendments that the Labor Party will accept.
Lambie also cast doubt on the effectiveness of key concessions Pocock secured, including an annual independent review of JobSeeker.
When they say we will look at the rates of JobSeeker it will come down to the recommendations and whether or not the government wants to pick up the recommendations. I think we’ve already had I don’t know how many inquiries to tell us JobSeeker is way too low. We will go through another way to hear the same thing again. I’m not sure Labor has done this in good faith because [people on] JobSeeker as we know need a pay rise.
Lambie also said unions had been given “unheralded power” which she claimed would become “a massive problem over the next few years”
Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk
I note, yet again, the best way to deliver real wages growth is to get inflation back to the target of 2-3% and keep unemployment low so that nominal wages can rise by 3.5-4.5%.
The Liberal Party’s fundamental problem is that they see themselves – and the electorate – through the Murdoch Media prism. Until they abandon that narrowly-focussed, delusional stupidity, they have no prospects of renewing themselves.
And that’s Australia’s misfortune. As good as Labor may be travelling at the moment, we cannot rely on a single unopposed party, or – heaven forbid – the Greens as the only effective opposition voice.
This book was written in 1919, my hasn’t journalism changed over the past 100 years 🙂
Re the title The Brass Check.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B017APD5SG?ref_=k4w_oembed_0rtS4BpRVrwy2F&tag=kpembed-20&linkCode=kpd
#weatheronPB
As I softly watch,
gathered clouds glide slowly past,
I struggle for scale.
poroti
Hmm. OK, but who would own that brothel?
Sean Kelly, per BK: “The Liberal Party, stranded between what Sky and the Murdoch tabloids try to argue is its “base” and the concerns of most voters, has looked, mostly, a little beside the point.”
Relax, the Liberals have a review under way that will resolve all their problems.
A review conducted by Peta Credlin’s husband …
Late Riser at 8:20 am
An excellent question. Perhaps one we are not meant to to ask lest it ruin the metaphor 🙂
Thanks muchly BK.
“Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk
I note, yet again, the best way to deliver real wages growth is to get inflation back to the target of 2-3% and keep unemployment low so that nominal wages can rise by 3.5-4.5%.”
That is as insightful as Ian Chappell’s monotonous cricket commentary: “We just need to score more runs and take enough wickets.” As in, not insightful.
Is amazing the revelations that come to journalists after 6pm on election night.
Le Grand and Sakkal report (linked by BK above) that the Victorian liberals are an unelectable rabble.
That’s not what they were writing previously.
And they think they can get us to believe they didn’t know.
We are not that stupid.
From the Guardian:
“Jacqui Lambie had a few things to say about David Pocock agreeing to support the government’s IR legislation. She told the Nine network:
I’m not real keen on it mate. I have obviously been on the phone all day yesterday with employer groups, with other people out there as well. It was a pretty long day for me yesterday, once I could get my head around the deal that had been done. They still don’t seem happy.”
Pocock looked at the legislation and did his own thinking. Lambie seems to be channeling what the employer groups are telling her. There’s the difference between the two.
An existential question to the Liberal party from Alan Kohler:
“Can the Australian Liberal Party actually pull itself out of this dive while remaining a centre-right party that is relevant to urban conservatives, in coalition with the rural National Party?
Maybe not.”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/11/28/liberal-party-losing-alan-kohler/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20News%20-%2020221128
Yep, I am also skeptical, simply because as the Liberals are still fooling around deluding themselves and covering their ideological crap with excuses, the political space that they should be occupying is being taken over by the Teals, with the ALP also attracting quite a few voters from the swinging centre (if not fully on primary votes, certainly on preferences), besides their traditional centre-left and Social Democratic base.
Q: The Liberal Party’s fundamental problem is that they see themselves – and the electorate – through the Murdoch Media prism
I have suspected for a while the Murdoch media is actually no help to the Liberals….the extremist hate spewed out is not the Australia most people relate to, or want or vote for.
Murdoch operates to get views on websites, TV and in print…..not to help the Liberals get elected (though it maybe a by product/ or not).
Luigi Smith,
Valid assessment. To which I would add that the best way forward is for the Teals to morph into Labor’s Opposition. They would provide the sort of rational discourse around ideas to move the country forward from what is on offer at the moment. The Greens live in La La Land, even though their hearts may be in the right place, sometimes, but they are also proving to be somewhat self-interested when it comes to having to accept policies which upset their comfortable inner city existence. Like accepting Social Housing in their electorates.
The Liberals? They appear to be stuck in church and the doors have closed and they can’t get out. Until a brave soul finds a battering ram and the courage to break the door down and break out then they have no chance of gaining ground among the mainstream of voters. 😐
Jackie is entitled to her own beliefs.
However, politically she shouldn’t be entitled to pretend and present herself as one thing, but in truth be something quite the opposite.
You can’t be a battler fighting for the underdog if the soundings you are taking are from employer organisations. Ensuring that there is a level playing field for basic wage movements will help – not hinder employers truing to do the right thing by their workers, because it reduces the risk of being undercut by competitors on staffing costs. For employers in retail, services like transport etc, this is actually the primary risk. In hospitality, perhaps everyone paying MORE for staff will mean that employers can actually recruit staff (which is a dire situation now, as anyone who has been to any cafe or Resturant over the past 12 months will know) and hence attract more customers. … and so on.
The battlers of Bernie (and Tasmania more generally) have been conned. They deserve better.
Ouch!
In return, on current counting, it has handed back only one seat, Nepean, to celebrity Liberal candidate Sam Groth.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/daniel-andrews-the-dominant-political-figure-of-his-generation-20221127-p5c1m9.html
From BK’s post:
“China is stuck in the lockdown mentality because it initially worked. It’s now strangling the economy and beginning to trigger serious unrest, writes Richard McGregor who says Covid-sero represents China’s greatest threat.”
The problem with Xi Jinping is that he may be linking Covid spreading unchecked with a potential surge of unrest in China, leading to a serious de-stabilisation of the government and therefore the country. He may believe that he can handle unrest with Covid under control, but fears that he may not be able to control unrest if Covid runs amok.
What’s difficult to understand is why doesn’t he have more faith on his own vaccines or those that can be imported from the West? Vaccination is the key, but Xi doesn’t seem to see it, which is bizarre.
“Andrew_Earlwoodsays:
Monday, November 28, 2022 at 8:57 am
Jackie is entitled to her own beliefs.
However, politically she shouldn’t be entitled to pretend and present herself as one thing, but in truth be something quite the opposite.
You can’t be a battler fighting for the underdog if the soundings you are taking are from employer organisations.”
Will her voters in Tasmania ever understand that simple concept? More than an “underdog”, Jacquie looks like the lapdog of the Big-end-of-Town.
I think the employer groups have realised who they can con and who they can’t on the Senate X Bench.
Anyway, who is Jacqui Lambie to say that employer groups deserve a greater say than their employees? Also, that her 2 votes are more important than David Pocock’s 1 vote? That’s all the government needed and they got it.
Jacqui Lambie has been caught out being too smart by half. She thought the Liberal Zed would be back and she would have the swing votes in the Senate but it turned out to be the complete opposite of that and the ACT elected a Progressive David Pocock instead. So, suck eggs, Jacqui.