Having waited rather too long for a new blog post topic to fall into my lap, here’s one that falls back on the regularly updated tracking poll of Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings maintained by US pollster Morning Consult, which maintains the exercise for twenty leaders internationally. While these numbers have been basically steady since June, they suggest that Albanese ended the year on something of a high, with his approval registering at either 59% or 60% after easing to 55% in November, and his disapproval down since that time from 32% to 28%.
As for when the polling treadmill will crank back into action, I note that the Age/Herald had a Resolve Strategic poll in the third week of last year, although that may have reflected the imminence of a federal election. Newspoll and Essential Research took a fortnight longer to resume regular transmission.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2293 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 9:53 pm
No, I could never agree with your idea of political reality. That’s why I dropped my Labor membership. Labor has grand ambitions for things that give good headlines, but little ambition for the things that are actually important.
“Austin calls for allies to ‘dig deeper’ as US offers $2.5bn military package to Ukraine
US defence secretary has called for allies to “dig deeper” in their support for Ukraine as “history is watching us”, as he gave details of the $2.5bn military aid package the US announced on Thursday.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jan/20/russia-ukraine-war-live-zelenskiy-expecting-strong-decisions-as-kyivs-allies-meet-in-germany
Well done!…. Let’s bankrupt Putin!!
“Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:03 pm
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2293 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 9:53 pm
So, do you actually admit the political reality?
No, I could never agree with your idea of political reality. That’s why I dropped my Labor membership.”
Oh, dear, Liberal party Stormtrooping 101 (section 12b): Pretend that you are a former ALP voter who got totally disgusted with the party and now you will never ever again vote for them.
No worries Buzz.
Hopefully Aaron Newton posts soon with his daily updates.
“A group of 11 Nato countries had pledged a raft of new military aid for Ukraine, ahead of today’s meeting. The aid from countries including Britain, Estonia, Latvia and Poland will include tens of stinger air defence systems, S-60 anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and training, according to a statement.”
Excellent!…. Getting ready for the Spring offensive against Putin…. I only regret the senseless loss of innocent young Russians’ lives… But Putin will have to pay for this, and I hope that the great Russian People will be the ones to show him the bill.
Mexicanbeemer @ #2298 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:00 pm
There’s a famous aphorism about “history”.
But the main point here is not that – it is that you insist on calling it a “retelling”. But much of it has never been “told”. Not truthfully, and not by those of us who are not First Nations people.
Alpo @ #2303 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:09 pm
Want to see my membership card? I still have it.
Late Riser says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 6:07 pm
sprocket_ @ #2160 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 4:21 pm
Rupert being deposed in a U.S. defamation case. What is this all about?
https://youtu.be/dfYLtNJYmRY
Do we know who is bringing the suite?
____________
In case no one else has responded yet…
A company called Dominion makes voting machines used in many US states. They’re suing Fox for $US1.6bn (ish) alleging Fox repeatedly perpetrated the (baseless) falsehood that Dominion machines flipped Trump votes to Biden. Thus, Dominion argues they’ve been defamed and are seeking compensation.
Popcorn time.
PlayerOne
Its retelling history because we already have the Stolen Generation report and know about the frontier wars and disposition and Indigenous people are always open to sharing their dreaming stories and there are already books about indigenous people and their history like William Cooper from MUP.
Dr Doolittle @ #2279 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 9:38 pm
Thank you for the reference Dr Doolittle – particularly Gideon Haigh’s Intro. I read the book when I was far too young to realise the significance of 1956 being a critical inflection year – as well as the year I was born in the fallout of Maralinga.
On reflection, that other prescient Pom John Wyndham had gone some way to “Shute’s” conclusion in The Crysalids – albeit in Newfoundland ( then an independent colony – I used to climb with a Newfie).
Mexicanbeemer @ #2310 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:17 pm
“sharing their dreaming stories”. How cozy. Just got time for one before bedtime.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:20 pm
Mexicanbeemer @ #2310 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:17 pm
PlayerOne
Its retelling history because we already have the Stolen Generation report and know about the frontier wars and disposition and Indigenous people are always open to sharing their dreaming stories.
“sharing their dreaming stories”. How cozy. Just got time for one before bedtime
————————————–
Indigenous people refer to their history has the dream time.
FFS.
Even if accept P1’s stupid position that Labor is ‘centre right’ (especially if you do, actually) ‘the numbers’ for purely progressive (according to P1’s lights) outcomes on just about any issue that P1 professes to care about (climate change and now Blak-trot juju) is simply not there in this country.
Assuming one also accepts P1’s claim to be a ‘former Labor member’ one can feel no sympathy for P1’s ‘disappointment’ with labor (whether real, or as we all probably suspect, this is actually a confected ‘disappointment’): because labor has always been about finding a way democratically, via the political frameworks that exist in this country to achieve political reform that amounts to public progress. THAT means finding common ground in a society that is frankly NOT what P1 imagines it should be, or as ‘progressive’ as her ‘beliefs’. The idealism of Labor is not to be found in ideology. it is to be found in the belief that by bringing enough people together that the shibboleths of the establishment can be challenged, that society can be progressed, and yep the Overton Window can be shifted for the better. Labor stands for The Voice first not just because 9 of 10 First Nations leaders urge the government to adopt that approach (although that is a consideration in its own right) but because Labor can recognise the wisdom behind that approach: The Voice is actually the best – perhaps last chance for this generation – to break a 30 year impasse over arguments about historical truths and a treaty process. Of course the ilk of Dutton want to break that. of course Blak-trots want to break that. But why P1? Why does Integrity? (These are rhetorical questions, because I suspect we all know the answers to that).
Mexicanbeemer @ #2312 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:22 pm
Sadly, their more recent history hasn’t been a dream time for many. But “nightmare time” doesn’t have quite the same cuddly cozy ring to our ears, does it?
“The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in the Donbas region has announced that it has taken control of Klishchiivka, a small settlement south of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.”…
I have noticed that the good news for the Russians and their allies come from taking control of ever smaller and smaller pieces of Ukrainian land… Wait for a glorious announcement of the liberation of N.10 of Grushevskogo St!!
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2313 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:25 pm
Oh, you so clearly don’t.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:26 pm
Mexicanbeemer @ #2312 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:22 pm
Indigenous people refer to their history has the dream time.
Sadly, their more recent history hasn’t been a dream time for many. But “nightmare time” doesn’t have quite the same cuddly cozy ring to our ears, does it?
———————-
And we know a great deal about that and researchers and historians continue to research that history.
“Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Alpo @ #2303 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:09 pm
Oh, dear, Liberal party Stormtrooping 101 (section 12b): Pretend that you are a former ALP voter who got totally disgusted with the party and now you will never ever again vote for them.
Want to see my membership card? I still have it.”
Ha, ha, ha… Yes please, take a picture and post it here! But then we will also need an additional document (e.g. driving license) to make sure that the name in the card is indeed your name, plus William’s confirmation that the name matches your pseudonym…
Waiting….
Andrew_Earlwoodsays:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:25 pm
FFS.
Even if accept P1’s stupid position that Labor is ‘centre right’ (especially if you do, actually)
________
Actually, I doubt you could find a school of political science in any of this country’s universities that doesn’t teach its students that the Australian Labor Party is in fact a centre-right political party
“ Oh, you so clearly don’t.”
Shall we run a poll on that?
Fellow bludgers, who amongst you reckon I have P1 nailed to a post?
Who reckons that P1 is actually a transcendental being of truth and wisdom? the great white bwana of bludger, both morally and intellectually right to tell 9 out of 10 First Nations people that they are wrong about their own wheelhouse?
Alpo @ #2318 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:31 pm
Sure. Would you also like my passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, medicare number, tax file number and bank account details?
I can’t see any problems with posting any of that.
J J Hall @ #2319 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:36 pm
Shhh! Do you want the ALP to lose even more members?
Pi says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 8:43 pm
zoomster: “Using ‘England’ to mean ‘the United Kingdom’ was common place well into the 1900s. ”
The ‘English’ cricket team is actually England and Wales to this day.
____________
A vague memory from the 90s (when England couldn’t buy an Ashes series)…
The very Welsh Robert Croft bowled off spin for England. A new coach was appointed – one of the early tasks he set team members was to wrote a note on why they were passionate about playing for England.
Croft’s was the only note written in Welsh.
Out in the real world, not a single person has brought up the subject of “The Voice” with me in conversation, either ‘for’ or ‘against’.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2320 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:36 pm
First rule of polling – make sure your sample is representative of the wider community.
Sadly, that is not possible here on PB. There are too many people here like you.
“ Actually, I doubt you could find a school of political science in any of this country’s universities that doesn’t teach its students that the Australian Labor Party is in fact a centre-right political party”
Yeah because centre right parties naturally legislate for universal health care systems, family tax benefits, massively expand university placements, implement vocational training wage schemes to lift folk out of long term unemployment, advocate for increases in a minimum wage (and support the actual concept of a minimum wage and other basic work conditions), legislate for no fault divorce, supports DV programs and women’s refuges, legislates for paid maternity leave, has a quota system to improve the ethnic and gender composition of candidates that appears to actually work, and so on and so forth: completely typical of centre right parties across the world …
JJ hall … maybe just maybe you … and the academic boffins that haunt the halls of the pol. Science departments at our unis are … also high on the trot juju juice.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2326 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:46 pm
Way to go, AE. How to win friends and influence people.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:44 pm
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2320 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:36 pm
Shall we run a poll on that?
First rule of polling – make sure your sample is representative of the wider community.
Sadly, that is not possible here on PB. There are too many people here like you.
____________________
I thought the first rule of polling was to ensure the poll gets you answer you want to get.
And the second rule of polling is you do not talk about polling
“ First rule of polling – make sure your sample is representative of the wider community.
Sadly, that is not possible here on PB. There are too many people here like you.”
I wonder where we’d actually find a ‘wider community’ that would fit in with your views P1?
Maybe David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Maybe in the white lodge …Maybe your eco preper retreat is full of folk who would be right at home on the Spahn Ranch in ‘69.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:03 pm
Andrew_Earlwood @ #2293 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 9:53 pm
So, do you actually admit the political reality?
No, I could never agree with your idea of political reality. That’s why I dropped my Labor membership. Labor has grand ambitions for things that give good headlines, but little ambition for the things that are actually important.
中华人民共和国
Labor has always had “temporary travellers” who believe the Party doesn’t move quick enough. The genius of long term Labor Government and the incremental changes they make to our nation is to be in lock step with the majority of the electors – not ahead of them. Labor does nothing from Opposition.
The long Labor administration of Queensland from 1915-1957 (except for the Tory Moore Government 1929-32), made massive changes for a better Queensland – the successive administrations sought to lead not push.
The 40 hour work week, free public hospitals (first in Australia), the highest wages in the Commonwealth decided by arbitration boards, abolition of the Legislative Council, child endowment, unemployment insurance, a state electricity commission, amalgamation of local 21 shires into the Brisbane City Council, State development of Main Roads and irrigation, universal adult sufferage with compulsory voting for State and Local Government elections and abolition of multiple property right voting – to name a few.
The Queensland State Labor Government lead both campaigns against conscription during the Great War leading to losses on both occasions in Queensland, T.J. Ryan even used the Government Printing Office to help spread the NO campaign.
During that time some came and went from the Party because they claimed these great changes weren’t quick or radical enough. The Railways Union and their delegates for instance came and went and came again. The Communist Party even asked for admittance to the Queensland Branch of the ALP!
Tory Tom Aiken and the Hermit Park Branch of the Party were expelled, forming the North Queensland Labor Party, over their aid to Russia stance which continued well after the Russians proved (as they are doing again) to have no respect for human and territorial rights (Aiken served in the State house from 1944 until being defeated in 1977 with the aid of Tory preferences – he voted consistently with the Country Party/National Party Government until his defeat).
There will always be those who are unahppy with the pace of change or the way the Party is organised. We see them here on PB. But 131 years on, Labor is still the only Party committed and capable of making Australia a better place to live.
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid @ #2328 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:49 pm
No, that’s internal party polling. Which you only talk about if it is favorable to you, or unfavorable to someone you want to damage.
Which I guess is what AE wanted, so you are in fact quite correct.
““ Yes. We talk mostly about “Voice” and “Treaty”. But what really needs to come first is “Truth”.
Unfortunately, this is the hardest one for many Australians to come to terms with.””
Hmmmmm….there are observable facts in that which we laughably refer to as the objective Universe .
Water is wet.
The Earth is round.
P1 is a dick.
And Truth is going to be the most scary and confronting bit of all this for mainstream Australia.
So, given the difficulties we all know are involved is passing ANY referendum about ANYTHING in Australia, best to go constitutionally enshrined enduring Voice that cant be silenced first. Read a line up-thread that put it well that i can paraphrase.
Voice will be the motor that drives wherever we go with Treaty and Truth.
We may or may not end up where anybody involved in this expects we will now. But…..If we can get the Voice referendum up it will be a pretty significant milestone on the way to some kind of better place for all of us.
Upnorth @ #2330 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:54 pm
Gosh, what a shame we don’t have another 131 years on some issues.
On climate change (just to pick one completely at random) we have 5.
imacca @ #2332 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:56 pm
And you are a charmer.
Do I win?
“Want to see my membership card? I still have it.”
Yah….i’ll bet Mark Latham does as well. 🙂
imacca @ #2335 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:59 pm
Found mine – https://tinyurl.com/4ayrz386
“Do I win?”
On a considerable amount of observable history, only in your own mind is it even a competition P1. 🙂
Yeah of course those ‘academic boffins’ wouldn’t have a clue would they? Except of course that many of them are also card-carrying ALP members, former ALP staffers, and in some cases, former ministers in ALP governments. Boffins all of them!
the other barney @ #2192 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 8:29 pm
Bravo!
And let’s not pay any heed to the naysayers on this blog. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Plus, there’s no way any reasonable person will be able to change their mind. So why bother trying?
J J Hall @ #2270 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:36 pm
Prove it. 😐
C@tmomma @ #2340 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 11:08 pm
Hmmm … not exactly proof, perhaps – but compelling …
https://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2022
C@tmommasays:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 11:08 pm
Prove it.
________
And why would that be necessary C@t. Because it challenges your world view? It’s simply a statement based on experience. Personally, I worked for many years alongside a professor of politics from one of Melbourne’s largest universities. He was a life-long trade unionist and member of the ALP. Probably the most Labor person to teach politics at a university, and he wouldn’t for a second suggest that modern Labor isn’t a centre-right party.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 11:23 pm
C@tmomma @ #2340 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 11:08 pm
Prove it.
Hmmm … not exactly proof, perhaps – but compelling …
https://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2022
___________________
Hmmm I would argue sample bias and self selection, being the ABC viewers and all that, but that wouldn’t be constructive.
“ I worked for many years alongside a professor of politics from one of Melbourne’s largest universities”
Theo? Or someone else? I wonder which splitter faction of the socialist left he belongs to? Is he still bitter about the federal intervention in 69 and Gough generally?
I agree that the photograph posted by AE featuring Putin in the foreground looks rather sus. Not sure you can draw any conclusions about his longevity or existence from it.
I’m still backing Putin to outlive Zelensky although the odds for the latter will improve if he keeps away from helicopters
J J Hall @ #2293 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 11:33 pm
Well, bravo to him. Doesn’t prove your contention though.
Labor has in general never been a “left of centre” Party. The Australian Electorate is far too conservative. Opposition doesn’t make the rules.
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid @ #2294 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 11:33 pm
That was the proof offered? Lol.
Doesn’t prove the contention JJ Hall made either. But they’re not interested in being factual. 😐
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid @ #2343 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 11:33 pm
This is not the ABC vote compass. Although it looks like it might be the site the ABC used as inspiration. I think this one is a British site (judging by the fact that they ask for donations in British Pounds!).
What is particularly interesting is comparing Australia with other countries. For instance, compare UK Labour with Australian Labor. Australian Labor is not even in the same quarter of the compass as UK Labor, and in fact occupies about the same spot on the political compass as the UK’s Liberal Democrats.
As I said, not proof – but compelling.
Player One says:
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:58 pm
Upnorth @ #2330 Friday, January 20th, 2023 – 10:54 pm
There will always be those who are unahppy with the pace of change or the way the Party is organised. We see them here on PB. But 131 years on, Labor is still the only Party committed and capable of making Australia a better place to live.
Gosh, what a shame we don’t have another 131 years on some issues.
On climate change (just to pick one completely at random) we have 5.
中华人民共和国
Apostates like Latham, Hughes and Lyons would rather see Labor in Opposition and do nothing Tory Governments in power. Tory Governments that ignore issues like the environment and The Voice. Oppose a FICAC. Apostates hate Labor more than natural born Tories. Their shame at “ratting” will never leave and they use hate to cover the guilt.