Since we’re unlikely to see any polling of any significance for at least another month or so, this would seem an opportune moment to relaunch BludgerTrack, which just has enough data to work off to produce trend measures of voting intention and leaders’ ratings since the May federal election. Naturally it currently shows Labor well on top, with a two-party preferred lead of fully 57.0-43.0, with Anthony Albanese in a similarly commanding position on net approval and preferred prime minister. As before, it also comes with tabular displays of all published voting intention data both nationally and for such breakdowns as have been provided, which at this stage isn’t much. The latter issue means we’re a long way off from being able to produce state-level breakdowns, which to this stage have really only been produced by Resolve Strategic, and then only for the three biggest states. The Australian usually provides aggregated breakdowns of Newspoll in the days following Christmas, but Newspoll results have been thin enough on the ground lately that there seems no guarantee of that.
sprocket_ @ #97 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 11:49 am
So, the major parties have a major problem with the fringe extremists of society.
Libs are being strong-armed by far right religious extremists.
Labs are being strong-armed by out-dated fossil fuel aligned unions.
sprocket_ says:
“The SmearStralian still getting drops from Liberal HQ …
“The paper’s political editor Simon Benson and chief political correspondent Geoff Chambers report:”
Benson’s getting it from the Nationals’ Senate leader, isn’t he?
The drops, I mean: getting the drops …
The deferred Vic election now has a date….
Good day all
It seems Nath has been up to the usual tactics again. I don’t read the poster but from other comments posted , the twisting of detail and consistent negativity doesn’t let up even for the Season of Goodwill.
Sad, really. Seems desperate for attention.
As for fellow poster, Taylormade, well, more of the same dissembling rubbish.
I did read his post this morning using the same right-wing comment about ” most people” …..
“Most people”, or the other standbys, ” Quiet Australians ” or ” the silent majority”, trotted out by them to claim they know how the majority of Australians think.
Ridiculous, really. Pathetic, actually.
Give it a break, dissembler team. Have a drink of your favourite, sit back, and have a quiet stew over Williams latest Bludgertrack.( Keep some antacid close, ’cause it will cause heartburn for you.)
The rest of us are certainly looking forward to a great break and enjoying the relief from negativity, divisiveness and stress the former government imposed on our nation. May their Santa Sacks be full of the black stuff they worship so much.
Dandy Murray @ #100 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 11:22 am
Careful, there is some nightshade in with that mouthful.
Oliver Sutton, Cronus
Thanks for the support. After more than $5 billion of failed defense contracts under the Liberals their greatest contribution to Australian defense in future would be to find Linda Reynolds or Chris Pyne a job in Chinese naval procurement.
Reversing incompetent Liberal decisions will not be enough for Labor to fix defense though. Some structural reform is needed. We keep seeing the same problems leading to inquiries making the same findings and nothing changes.
There is a cultural problem. There is a lack of technical skills and a lack of project management skills. Defense procurement should not be where officers too old to go into the field settle comfortably until promoted to Admiral or General before retirement.
‘Torchbearer says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 11:29 am
Q: The symbolism of placing the centre there is strong
Putting the indigenous centre on the site of the first Permanent European building is SOOOOOOOO wrong.’
————————————
You could always ask Bandt. He knows what is good for Indigenous people.
But really, where is the Voice when we need it?
Socrates, if Labor doesnt make choices in defence to your liking – will you go whistleblower? Deep down you know your right and if they won’t listen to you what option do you have?
“The east coast gas producers can choose to be the problem or the solution. It only looks worse for them if mandatory triggers have to be enforced by the government and at the same time, the broad perception is likely to be that it strengthens the government’s position.”
Gas producers are on a hiding to nuthin over this. Either they do their best to make the new provisions work, or the Govt goes simple on them. Gas Reservation Policy and Gas Profits Tax.
Politically the Govt has far more to lose, domestically…….. you know, among the people who actually decide if they stay the Govt………..from high gas prices feeding into Cost of Living and Jobs. Domestic business closing down because of high gas prices while the Gas suppliers are making huge windfall profits?? That is shall we say….not a good look. 🙁
I actually like the QLD coal royalties model. When the price goes up and down the royalties go up or down which seems to me to create an “effective” super profits tax?? Maybe that combined with Price Capped Domestic Reservation??
Problem the Gas producers run into is not only the immediate optics, but the Govt’s general policy direction of trying to promote more manufacturing in Australia. Its popular, and good basic policy for a lot of reasons. If the Gas companies that are making super profits out of a War try and stand against that their lobbying clout evaporates……and they may find renewals of export permits with clear conditions they dont like a happening thing.
“Labs are being strong-armed by out-dated fossil fuel aligned unions.”
?w=1200
yeah look at all those fossil fuel union hacks…
“Careful, there is some nightshade in with that mouthful.”
After the year I’ve had, a bit of hallucinogenic spinach might be in order.
”
The AFR’s editorial says, “The hopes that business may have held in May are now receding as Labor’s true spots emerge in the critical areas of workplace regulation and Australia’s net zero carbon transition.”
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-in-office-proves-not-so-business-friendly-20221216-p5c70r
”
Stutchbury is showing his “true spots”.
So the Libs think they need to have federal control over the state divisions.
Good luck with that in WA.
Not even disaster at two state elections and then the federal poll has done much to diminish the power of the dominant faction, aka The Clan.
Long may they reign.
”
The Australian’s Chris Mitchell goes off on what he describes as reporting bias over the government’s action on energy. The very gall of the man!
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/reporting-flaws-and-bias-exposed-by-the-politics-of-power/news-story/f9f0e2e06f8fb67a551fd9efbaedcc16
”
It appears that Albanese may not be hosting Christmas party for Mitchells and the Stutchburys of media landscape. 🙂
Ven @ #112 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 12:14 pm
He’s just throwing red meat to his audience.
Editorial business model 101.
”
“Sorry, but Reserve Bank governor Dr Philip Lowe’s call for ordinary Australians to make further sacrifice next year in his unfinished fight against “the scourge of inflation” doesn’t hold water. His crusade to save us all from a wage-price spiral is like Don Quixote tilting at windmills only he can see”, says Ross Gittins who alludes to the RBA being stuck in the 70s.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/hey-rba-boomer-things-have-changed-a-lot-since-the-1970s-20221218-p5c78m.html
”
Lowe has to go as soon as possible.
“davo says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 12:12 pm
“Labs are being strong-armed by out-dated fossil fuel aligned unions.”
yeah look at all those fossil fuel union hacks…”
Ha, ha, ha…. Great photo…. great sarcasm… great team!
… and we are just getting started… 🙂
“Lars Von Trier says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Socrates, if Labor doesnt make choices in defence to your liking – will you go whistleblower? Deep down you know your right and if they won’t listen to you what option do you have?”
Lars, is that all what whistleblowers are, according to you: poor people with a wounded ego?
Albanese needs to lead on this now while the community is engaged.
”
In the wake of the Coalition’s humiliating Victorian state election defeat, newly elected Opposition Leader John Pesutto has opted for youth over experience as he tries to rebuild the shattered Liberal Party over the next four years, writes Annika Smethurst.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victorian-opposition-unveils-new-frontbench-after-election-loss-20221218-p5c782.html
”
Look who is talking?
Annika ‘hung parliament’ Smethurst. 🙂
“Gettysburg1863 says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 12:00 pm
I did read his post this morning using the same right-wing comment about ” most people” …..
“Most people”, or the other standbys, ” Quiet Australians ” or ” the silent majority”, trotted out by them to claim they know how the majority of Australians think.”
Right-wing stormtroopers always claim to know how the “majority of Australians think”, their problem is that they never know how the majority of Australians VOTE!
Ven
Stutchbury is showing his “true spots”.
Stutchbury projecting, and avoiding reality.
”
The mask is being lifted from the face of Israel’s apartheid state, exposing a grinning death’s head that portends the obliteration of the few restraints against killing Palestinians, writes Chris Hedges about Israel and the rise of Jewish fascism.
https://johnmenadue.com/israel-and-the-rise-of-jewish-fascism/
”
‘Jewish fascism’?
And this for Nath.
”
“
All the people who are critical of Elon Musk are silent whenever WB banishes someone from PB.
”
Cronussays:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 7:35 am
Thanks so much BK
“The AUKUS nuclear submarine project will bleed the Australian Defence Force white”, topping the billions in Defence spending waste each year. And there’s no one watching anymore, reports former serviceman and senator Rex Patrick.
https://michaelwest.com.au/dumb-ways-to-buy-defence-spending-shambles-former-submariner-and-senator-rex-patrick/
—————————————————————————————-
This article really is an extraordinary indictment of Defence and Government planning and spending over the past decade. Years and tens of billions of dollars wasted with so little to show for it. As a veteran it’s terribly disheartening and worrying for the nation’s security, as a father with a child serving in the ADF I deeply question the Coalition’s competency to provide Defence Personnel with the equipment to properly undertake its tasks. Restoring capability and competence in Defence Procurement will be a massive challenge for the new government.
”
Cronus
”
sprocket_says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 6:57 am
The AFR has a poll…..probably not of any significance?
With po-faced commentary from the Liberal mouthpiece…
Phillip Coorey
Phillip Coorey
Political editor
Dec 19, 2022 – 5.00am
The Freshwater Strategy Poll, conducted exclusively for The Australian Financial Review, also finds the Albanese government starting to consolidate power in its own right after falling across the line at the May 21 election.
It is finishing the year leading the Coalition by 54 per cent to 46 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, two percentage points higher than its election result, and is preferred by voters to manage all 14 major policy areas of concern, except defence and national security.
”
Cronus
Voters prefer LNP over ALP for Defence policy. What? How? Why?
This doesn’t sound like a denial of providing assistance to Russia to commit genocide against Ukraine:
“Iran’s foreign ministry has said it will not “seek permission from anyone” to expand relations with Russia, dismissing US concerns over a growing military partnership between Tehran and Moscow. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia, allegedly used to attack Ukraine. CIA chief William Burns said the military cooperation between Iran and Russia “poses real threats” to US allies in the Middle East. Nasser Kanani, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the comments “baseless” adding that Tehran “acts independently in regulating its foreign relations and does not seek permission from anyone”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/19/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-glance-what-we-know-on-day-299-of-the-invasion
==========================
I for one will enthusiastically support any military strike whatsoever upon any of Iran’s military assets – including their munitions industry – while they continue to enthusiastically join in with Russia’s genocide of Ukraine.
“Москва повинна бути зруйнована.”
“Тегеран має бути знищений.
Henry Kissinger seems to have at least conceded that any Russian insistence on Ukraine’s “neutrality” (read: “exclusion from NATO”) now must be rejected:
“Veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger believes the time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. “The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine. “A peace process should link Ukraine to NATO, however expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful,” he added.”
==========================
I disagree with him regarding the desirability for a concocted ceasefire right now, before Russia has been brought fully to the conclusion that it has lost the war. Nevertheless, this is a good step forward in Kissisinger’s thinking. Now, he just needs to be brought across to sanity on the matter of upholding international law regarding security of territorial sovereignty from violent invasion. That is, he now needs to concede that it throws out the rules-based international order to concede any territorial gains whatsoever to Russia’s aggression.
nath @ #126 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 12:41 pm
I’m critical of Musk for giving voice to proven scammers.
”
Looking at News Corp, Terrence Mills goes to the classics and says the Augean stables are in need of a flush.
https://theaimn.com/the-augean-stables-in-need-of-a-flush/
”
The stables should be burnt instead of flushed.
nathsays:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 12:41 pm
All the people who are critical of Elon Musk are silent whenever WB banishes someone from PB.
And all those media outlets jumping on the bandwagon are silent about their own “moderating” practices for reader feedback!
“Russia will reportedly deploy musicians to Ukraine’s frontlines in a bid to boost morale, according to its defence ministry. The “frontline creative brigade” will be tasked with maintaining “a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,” Russian outlet RBC news cited the ministry as saying. UK defence officials said the new unit is in keeping with the historic use of “military music and organised entertainment” to boost morale as low morale continues to be a “significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force”.”
========================
No disrespect intended towards the brave morale-boosting performances of the musicians on board the Titanic while it sank…
Q: No disrespect intended towards the brave morale-boosting performances of the musicians on board the Titanic while it sank…
I have a friend that did his Singapore Military service in the ballet corp…not sure how much he helped morale, but it gave him killer legs!
In response to online vote Elon Musk is stepping down from Twitter CEO.
nath says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 12:41 pm
All the people who are critical of Elon Musk are silent whenever WB banishes someone from PB.
———-
Maybe their silence is because WB has preemptively banned them too? The difference is that WB hasn’t claimed to be an advocate of more or less unrestricted free speech. Musk is apparently passionately in favour of it and opposed to banning offenders, except when he perceives it’s adverse to his personal interests. I have no issue with WB banning participants, which he does rarely and with good reason in my view.
If I cared about Twitter – I don’t really- I would have an issue with Musk exercising his powers hypocritically, and treating what I believe he’s characterised as the world’s town square as his own backyard.
Who’s critical of elon musk, twitter is his website, he can ban who he wants to; But considering
he says he is a libertarian* it is mighty hypocritical of him to ban only certain people
and not others. To compare this to WB banning anyone who’s a a-hole on PB is a straw man
argument as it’s his website and he can ban anyone he likes and he’s never mentioned his
life’s philosophy, but I’m sure he’s left leaning. Again irrelevant as he’s only banned abusive
lefties anyway. Just another pathetic concern troll topic de jour 😡
* the lowest of low pond-slime
nath @ #126 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 11:41 am
And if WB paraded himself around as a self-styled “free speech absolutist”, constantly grandstanding about how he’s saving humanity by protecting free speech, you migh have a point there. Problem is that of the two, only Elon is that arrogant.
Elon can ban anyone he likes for any reason he likes. That’s how owning a private platform works. Problem for him is that he spent a lot of time and energy complaining about how pre-acquisition Twitter banned people (which they were equally entitled to do to anyone, for any reason) and pledging that he wouldn’t ban people if he were running the show. Now he’s running the show, and banning people all over the place. The issue isn’t the bans, it’s the rank hypocrisy.
Belgorod is being routinely shelled by Ukraine. Last I looked, Belgorod is well within Russian territory. What happened to “Russia will fire nuclear weapons in response to attacks on its own soil”?
Answer: Russia knows full well if it ever deploys a nuke in anger anywhere, it will be goodnight to that country and its government. Putin probably also does NOT know for sure that any order of his to fire a nuke will then reliably result in a nuke being fired, Russia’s technology and personnel being what they are. So, Russia is, and has been for all this invasion, bluffing over nuclear escalation. Their complete inaction (nuclear-wise) over clear attacks on its territory prove that.
It is high time we in the West removed nuclear bogeymen entirely from our thinking on how to most quickly and decisively defeat Russia.
I’ve been watching in SBS On Demand a spin-off series from the great series. “The A-Word”. It is “Ralph and Katie”, about a Downs Syndrome couple who got married at the end of the aforementioned series.
I have been fascinated by it and enjoy the characters SO much. It’s funny, sad, confronting and lovely.
“Kyiv commemorates beginning of Hannukah with giant menorah
Ukraine marked the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Hannukah on Sunday by lighting the first candle of the menorah in Maidan Independence Square in the capital which local Jewish leaders said was the biggest in Europe.
Ambassadors from Israel, the US, Poland, France and other countries joined mayor Vitali Klitschko as the crowd sang blessings to mark the first night of the eight-night celebration.
Rabbi Mayer Stambler, one of the leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish community, compared the frequent blackouts — caused by Russia’s bombing of key infrastructure — with the story of Hanukkah when Jews in the Temple in Jerusalem only had enough oil to burn candles for one day and one night, but the candles kept burning for eight days and nights.
“We are actually now living through the same situation,” Stambler said, “This is a war between darkness and light.””
===========================
Some country needs de-Nazification and it isn’t Ukraine.
Violins and voila, morale boosted.
Taylormade @ #84 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 11:03 am
Bullshit.
Simon Henny Penny Katich @ #143 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 2:08 pm
They want food and a dry place to sleep.
a r @ #139 Monday, December 19th, 2022 – 1:09 pm
And Elon Musk’s thin skin, on display for the world to see.
This is a message for Douglas and Milko.
I was just talking to the people who have moved in to the Air B’n’B next door to me. They are from France and will be here for 3 weeks. 🙂
They would get my pun.
Let them eat when they’re hungry
Let them drink when they’re dry
Give ’em violins when they are hard up
Religion when they die
Simon Henny Penny Katich says:
Monday, December 19, 2022 at 2:31 pm
They would get my pun.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What about offAir BB?
@Ven, considering that these lovely fellows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Zionist_Party and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otzma_Yehudit are now part of the Israeli government, I’d say “Jewish fascism” is a reasonable descriptor, though “Kahanism” is perhaps more accurate.