We’re probably due a Resolve Strategic poll in the coming week, and Newspoll’s quarterly aggregates with state-level results and other breakdowns will likely be upon us shortly. For now, there’s the following poll-wise:
• A JWS Research poll finds 46% intending to vote yes in the Indigenous Voice referendum against 43% for no, with 11% uncommitted. Even allowing for small samples, the state breakdowns have unintuitive results, showing clear leads for yes in Western Australia and no in New South Wales, and statistical ties in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. The poll was conducted from June 2 to 6 from a sample of 1122. This comes attached to the pollster’s quarterly True Issues survey on issue salience, which as you might expect finds housing and interest rates continuing to track upwards while hospitals, health care and ageing continues to decline from its pandemic-era highs. Thirty-seven per cent rate the government’s performance as very good or good compared with 23% for poor or very poor, both results unchanged on last time.
• The weekly federal voting intention numbers from Roy Morgan have Labor’s two-party lead steady at 57-43, which is presumably influenced by a change in preference flows, because the primary votes have Labor up one to 37.5%, the Coalition down two to 32% and the Greens steady on 13%.
Other news:
• A paper by Matthew Taylor for conservative think tank the Centre for Independent Studies reached the headline-grabbing conclusion that the Coalition stands to lose the next six federal elections if present generational trends continue to play out uninterrupted. While the paper finds evidence that Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) is following the previously established trend towards conservatism as it ages, its analysis of Australian Election Study survey data paints a distinctly unpromising picture for the Coalition among Millennials (born 1981 to 1995) and especially Generation Z (after 1995). The former started from a lower base of Coalition support than previous generations and is showing only tentative movement to conservatism with the onset of middle age (more discernible is movement from the Greens to Labor). The starting point for Gen Z was lower still and has, from an admittedly shallow pool of data, since collapsed altogether, to the extent that Coalition support is now 25% lower than for the population as a whole — although the movement has been to the none-of-the-above category rather than Labor.
• Matthew Killoran of the Courier-Mail reports that right-wing Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick faces four preselection challengers for his third position on the Senate ticket at the Liberal National Party’s state conference next weekend. In addition to those already reported — Nelson Savanh of strategic communications firm Michelson Alexander and private investment fund director Stuart Fraser — are Mitchell Dickens, a former staffer to Rennick and party operative based on the Sunshine Coast, and Sophia Li, a former political adviser who has made a few guest appearances on Amanda Stoker’s program on Sky News. Incumbent Paul Scarr is also under challenge for his top position from Li and Fiona Ward, who was recently overlooked for the Fadden by-election, but is not reckoned to be in any trouble.
• Following earlier reports of a challenge from Mary Aldred, the Sentinel Times reports South Gippsland mayor Nathan Hersey will also run for preselection against Russell Broadbent, the 72-year-old Liberal member for the Victorian seat of Monash.
WeWantPaul says:
…
I understand the Institute of Chartered Accountants lets aspirants use AI.
…
In my view it is the only way to go, you have to learn to use the new tools.
Itza
An interesting question
As the constitution specifically gives the government the power to discriminate on the basis of race (s51 xxvi) and, indeed, it can be argued that the fundamental driver for federation was racial discrimination, can a law outlawing discrimination be constitutional? Or maybe the government can discriminate but the people can’t.
Nath, those are impressively obscure!
I think I might have to show those posts to my housemates next time they comment on how dry my own political books look.
And that would be fine Asha. I see you in a room covered in books, yourself peeping out over a biography of Askin. (Not that there is one I think).
There was this …
Nath:
Ha, that isn’t an especially inaccurate image. Although the vast majority of my books are actually genre fiction.
Asha says:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 6:10 pm
Nath, those are impressively obscure!
I think I might have to show those posts to my housemates next time they comment on how dry my own political books look.
___________
Oh. Let me tell you. The book on the country party in NSW will re-establish your virginity.
Nath:
They should put that quote on the cover if it ever gets reprinted!
William Bowe says:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 6:11 pm
There was this …
_______
Ah. I’ve heard of it but never read it..
@shellbell:
“ Justice of the High Court Mary Gaudron to her then associate, Nicholas Owens of South Australia (now Nicholas Owens SC slayer of Ben Roberts-Smith), wtte:
“Growing up (in SA), did you wake up every morning just glad not to have suffered a grisly demise during the night?”
_____
I reckon there is a superb Reality TV Show to be made on this particular trope, called “Snowtown”: sort of a cross between Survivor and Big Brother.
Start off with 12 contestants, place them inside an abandoned warehouse with CCTV monitors providing a live feed. Provide them with eleven 44 gallon barrels, ten cash payments equivalent to the weekly social security in seperate envelopes slipped under the front door every week (and access to a ‘canteen’ on the side to spend said money).
Bonus payments could be made – as voted by the live TV audience – for the most inventive excuse given by surviving contestants every Sunday evening as to why various fellow contestants have ‘disappeared’ in the previous week.
Found a copy of this not long ago. Made me very happy. An impressive volume.
“ There was this …”
Not a bad read, but I preferred the fictionalised “Les Norton” series.
Mavis:
For what its worth, I found it a lot more readable than Gillard’s autobiography, which is sunk by its weird, convoluted structure.
Instead of being in chronological order, all the juicy leadership stuff is frontloaded into the early sections, while the latter two thirds go into the nuts-and-bolts of her time in government with a different chapter dedicated to specific policy area. It means it’s just constantly jumping back and forth in time through 2007-2013, with what feels like endless instances of “When I was a minister in 2008, we did X, by 2010 we had progressed to Y, but then in 2012…”
Asha
Do you have Clyde Cameron’s large tome? I found it really interesting many years ago.
‘It’s cruel’: rates pain leaves kids going hungry (The Oz)
School principals have been calling charities to help feed students so hungry they are stealing food from classmates’ lunch boxes
Since when has the Oz been bothered about kids. It all “Pull the ladder up and sod the rest” is their constant right wing mantra. Its amazing how capitalism is the greatest for people until it stops working for them.
frednk @ #901 Tuesday, July 4th, 2023 – 6:06 pm
The PM for landlords likes his negative gearing and likes his profits.
Renters living in poverty can GAGF.
Pride of place in my library is the Annotated Minutes of the Federal Labor Caucus 1901-1949 (3 vols.) They are next to the far duller Annotated Minutes of NSW Labor State Conferences 1892 -1932 (3vols.)
Andrew Earlwood
Good mate of mine was in the bus that took the Snowtown mob off to jail. My geophysics tutor did the ground penetrating radar survey of the back yard.
So much more satisfying in finding a book for $2 in an op shop than just buying one for $40 online.
Asha, you’ve inspired me to hit some op shops this week.
BK:
No, not yet, though with how often other books that cover the period seem to reference it, I intend to pick it up at some point.
William Bowe –
There was this …
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And Bob Askins barrister at one stage was actually one Bill Waterhouse..!
Galea inter alia got into illegal casinos followed by Waterhouse’s in later years.
WeWantPaul:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 6:04
[‘I understand the Institute of Chartered Accountants lets aspirants use AI. They assure me it is excellent for proof reading and turning a fairly rough draft of say 700 words, into a nice tight 500 words professionally proofed response’]
We’ve got to change with the times lest we’ll all be redundant, the biggest rip-off is veterinary invoices, one recent overnight stay in a so-called emergency centre costing $1462.59. It’s said that vets are disgruntled quacks.
My lasting memory of Robin (sic) Askin premiership was his benefactor Perce Galea sitting in an umpire’s tennis chair overlooking the Crown and Anchors game at the Forbes Club in Darlinghurst.
The urgers came round to us dumb punters and said ‘Time to leave, the Darlo cops are coming down’ – so we left and waited across the street as the wailing, flashing lights arrived to ‘bust’ the illegal gambling joint. Perce had vacated along with us.
A good read… and what we can thank the NSW Liberal Party in gifting us.
Prince and the Premier, The: The Story of Perce Galea, Bob Askin and the Others who Gave Organised Crime Its Start in Australia
The Prince of Punters in Australian horse racing during the 50’s and 60’s was undoubtedly Perce Galea.
Perce Galea was known to have obliged fellow Aussie punters with a flood of banknotes when his own colt, Eskimo Prince won the Golden Slipper Stakes in 1964, almost causing a riot.
Perce Galea expertise at picking lucky horses made him $422,952 richer by the time he called it a day after having bought and sold many horses. Although known to be warm-hearted and friendly, the ‘Prince’ was feared by bookmakers for his uncanny knack of picking the right horses.
Percival Galea, known as Perce, was the son of a railway fettler born on 26 th October 1910 in Malta. After immigrating to Australia around 1912, the family settled at Woolloomooloo in Sydney.
Perce took on odd jobs as a teenager as a newsboy and later as a milkman, after which he found employment as a driver with the New South Wales Fresh Food & Ice Co. Ltd.
The urge to back horses began during his early years with a customer and horse owner Rodney Dangar urging Perce to bet Peter Pan in the 1934 Melbourne Cup.
Richer by £150, Galea’s foot was firmly planted on the racetracks.
After his marriage, Perce Galea continued to work as a wharf labourer, and operated as a registered bookmaker at the Wentworth Park greyhound races.
His connections with a notorious criminal Sid Kelly and Samuel Lee made him invest £2500 in Lee Enterprise Pty Ltd, soon becoming a director of the firm’s baccarat schools around 1949. Perce also worked as a host and staff supervisor at Sammy Lee’s restaurant.
Soon, Perce Galea went on to become co-proprietor and manager of the Roslyn Social Club, Elizabeth Bay, catering to a well-heeled at the club that claimed to only conduct legal card games. However, a police raid on 22 March 1953 saw the arrest of 46 gamblers from the club while Galea was fined £75.
Later, with co-operation from the police he was able to set up expensive gaming machines like roulette wheels. No further trouble came his way except for being penalized for being a tax defaulter and concealing his income.
From the mid-1950s Perce Galea ran the Victoria Club, Kings Cross, a casino with blackjack, roulette, craps, and baccarat, with plenty of free food and alcohol. The casino was later renamed the Forbes Club in 1967. Being an astute businessman, Galea’s clients included a list of celebrities including politicians and sportsmen who were entertained by hostesses who also doubled as escorts.
Among the clients were hundreds of American servicemen on leave from the Vietnam War, which prompted Galea and his team, Eric O’Farrell, Ronald Lee, and Reginald Andrews to open many more casinos including the Bridge Club at Double Bay.
A £12,000 lottery in 1957 brought Perce Galea out of financial difficulties which made him seriously turn to the racetrack. His first racehorse as an owner was Sugarfoot which he bought and sold in 1961. Despite doctors’ orders after a heart attack in 1962, he continued to wager large sums.
One of Perce Galea most successful horses was Eskimo Prince, which won the Sydney Turf Club 1964 Golden Slipper Stakes, a race after which an ecstatic Galea threw money to his fellow punters. Eskimo Prince brought the Prince of Punters much luck with wins in the Rosehill Guineas and Sires Produce Stakes.
A well groomed Perce Galea always stood out at the racecourse, notorious for betting as much as £25,000 on a race. Other racehorses to add to his fortune were Count Rajan, Indian Prince, and Sir Serene.
Being a staunch Catholic, Galea offered much to his Church in Sydney. He was also known to be a philanthropist, hosting annual parties for crippled children. As a sportsman, Galea was a handball champion. Luck seemed to shine on him in many ways, where he even shared a $200,000 Sydney Opera House lottery prize with his family.
As a businessman, horse owner, and punter, Perce Galea was richer by $422,952 by the time he died of coronary heart disease at St. Vincent ‘s Hospital, Darlinghurst, on 14 August 1997.
Underworld figure Bruce Galea, once reputed to be the biggest illegal gambler in the country with corrupt connections to the highest echelons of the police force, has died.
The colourful gambling identity cooled his heels in Sydney’s Long Bay jail for two years after refusing to give evidence at the 1995 Wood royal commission into police corruption.
Corrupt police told the royal commission that for years Galea had been paying them $400 a week to turn a blind eye to his illegal casinos operating at Dixon Street, Haymarket, and Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross.
One police officer was allowed to give evidence using a codename after telling commission investigators that Galea would kill him if he gave adverse evidence about him. He said he was paid to leak information to Galea about police interest in Galea’s illegal casinos.
Galea refused to give evidence and was jailed for contempt in July 1995. He was only released when the royal commission officially finished.
In 1993 he had also been a star turn when the Independent Commission Against Corruption examined links between organised crime and corrupt police. The corruption watchdog heard that he was “the biggest illegal gaming operator in the state”.
Galea steadfastly denied that he was paying off police or that there was any illegal gambling in his premises.
When asked how he could pay $1600-a-week rent when his weekly profit was only $1400, he replied: “There’s plenty of ways to skin a cat, there’s plenty of ways to make a profit.”
He then detailed his exorbitant price list: $5 for coffee, $7 a sandwich and a 25 per cent surcharge on food brought into the club.
Galea was also named in Parliament as a close associate of crime boss George Freeman who bought Galea’s Yowie Bay mansion “Dallas” in 1978 for $350,000 – in cash.
Galea was the son of the equally notorious illegal gambling tsar, Perce Galea. In his book The Prince and the Premier,” author David Hickie outlined the corrupt relationship between then Liberal premier Sir Robert Askin and the prince of the punt – Perce Galea.
Following Askin’s death in 1981, Hickie made the sensational claim that Galea had been paying Askin $100,000 a year as well as substantial bribes to senior police officers which had allowed illegal casinos to channel enormous profits into organised crime.
Like his father, Bruce Galea also paid substantial bribes to police.
In 1982 the Police Tribunal investigated allegations of corruption involving the deputy commissioner of police, Bill Allen, whose lifestyle far exceeded his income.
There had already been raised eyebrows when Allen was appointed to the deputy’s job by then premier Neville Wran, leapfrogging a cast of more senior officers. Allen once gave an interview in which he dismissed the suggestion that organised crime was running SP betting and Sydney’s illegal casinos.
“What is organised crime?” scoffed Allen. “If you have three fellows who plan an armed robbery, then isn’t that organised and a crime?”
Apart from Allen’s association with crime boss Abe Saffron, and his acceptance of free overseas trips to Macau and Las Vegas courtesy of illegal gaming interests, Allen was also forced to explain his gambling winnings, including a winning bet with Bruce Galea.
In 1981, Galea was working as a bookmaker when Allen won $4200 betting on a 20-1 longshot named How Apparent.
Galea’s betting ledger showed the deputy commissioner’s winning bet was the last he had taken on the race in question. This was a common technique used by bookmakers to help criminals “explain” large amounts of cash.
Allen claimed that he had never heard of this practice. He was allowed to resign from the force but was later jailed for trying to bribe a licensing officer.
Galea’s family had mastered other techniques of miraculously winning lots of money. Sources told the Herald that the Galeas would launder dirty money by buying winning lottery tickets after paying the actual winner a 10 per cent bonus for their lottery ticket.
“I guess we were just born lucky,” said Perce’s wife Beryl on winning the $200,000 Opera House lottery in 1975.
The Galea family had not been so lucky the previous year when Bruce’s then-wife Patricia, 25, a former model, had her throat slashed and was then shot in a West Hollywood apartment in Los Angeles. Another flatmate also died in the robbery gone wrong. It has previously been reported that it was known that Mrs Galea was wealthy. The killers escaped with diamond rings, $400 in cash and two mink coats. They missed $6000 Mrs Galea had hidden in the freezer.
In 1966, Bruce Galea’s late brother Clive, a solicitor, was jailed for eight years for misappropriating thousands of dollars from his firm’s trust account.
On Twitter, racing identity Robbie Waterhouse recalled Perce Galea throwing bundles of cash into the crowd when his horse won and that “Bruce himself was noted for his kindness, both in loans (‘slips’) and favours.”
Mavis @ #923 Tuesday, July 4th, 2023 – 6:35 pm
Vets do unsocialised medicine – like the US does on (some) humans.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/04/brittany-higgins-accuses-linda-reynolds-of-harassing-her-and-says-it-is-time-to-stop?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
This was being mentioned last night
nath:
For sure. It’s amazing how many virtually as-new hardcovers you can find for just a few bucks.
The first volume of the Menzies bio was probably my best find. Used copies go for $40-$50 online (not including postage), I got it from the op-shop down the road for less than $5.
Unfortunately, I naturally then had to get the sequel, which is even more expensive! Thankfully I was eventually able to find it online for the relatively low price of $35 – thank god for Ebay sellers who don’t do their research.
Now this was a great find. What a terrific read. Barry at his absolute best.
For the extremely ignorant or of limited intelligence, the fact is that increase profits are taxable and the benefits of negative gearing less or the landlord actually pays tax on rental income.
Now there is extreme hating on investment property owners because (a) they are increasing rents and profits and (b) getting every more benefit from negative gearing. Even though rental income reduces property holding losses.
I have written before why negative gearing is not fit for the purpose of encouraging investment in accommodation (as opposed to land) and huge increases on existing tenants that they can ill-afford is unethical and should be subject to caps, but it is incredible how utterly (and illogically) prejudiced – Pauline Hanson standard – some here hold the any person who dares invest in rental property.
Apologies for the long post on the Galea family.
Their influence with the Waterhouse ‘lucky investments’ made it into the ICAC report into GladysB.
Who knew that the cheap farmland at Badgery’s Creek was next to a future airport?
Oakeshott Country @ #902 Tuesday, July 4th, 2023 – 6:09 pm
Someone with deep pockets behind this.
Let’s just leave it here for NACC to consider…
Three federal infrastructure department officials and federal MP Angus Taylor separately met with Louise Waterhouse while she lobbied for potentially lucrative changes to her vast landholdings near the Western Sydney airport.
The meetings, which anti-corruption experts say are a “rarity for the average citizen”, have prompted calls for further investigations of the “source and method” through which access was gained to top departmental officials.
Waterhouse’s efforts to secure better road access for her land near Badgerys Creek, a critical change needed to sell or develop the holding, have been widely canvassed before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) in the past two weeks.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/17/louise-waterhouse-met-with-top-officials-and-angus-taylor-over-land-near-western-sydney-airport
The PM for landlords will give further assistance with an S3 tax cut.
Asha:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 6:24 pm
[‘For what its worth, I found it a lot more readable than Gillard’s autobiography, which is sunk by its weird, convoluted structure.’]
Alright, you’ve almost convinced me. May I ask you a personal question: are you an academic; if so, do you tutor/lecture in politics?
” the number of landlords making a profit was at an all-time high in 2020-21″
DODGY PANDEMIC STATS ALERT.
Feels like a suss argument to me. Even if it wasn’t the pandemic time it would be arguing by comparison to a time of super low interest rates. But using pandemic era stats in 2023 is an instant red alert for a dishonest use of stats.
“The data comes from recent Australia Tax Office statistics, which were first reported by Guardian Australia and revealed a small minority of wealthy landlords own a significant chunk of Australia’s rental market”
This part is of course true, and not a new reveal, but what it militates towards is that a universal rent freeze will damage the large majority of little landlords in the attempt of the Greens to kick that small minority of wealthy landlords in the pants. As I’ve said all along.
TPOF:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 6:46 pm
[‘For the extremely ignorant or of limited intelligence…’]
You lost me there!
This was another great find many years ago.
Mavis:
No. Well, maybe in my mind.
Only on this website.
I do have a Masters degree in Creative Writing, which I was able to leverage into a decade stacking supermarket shelves.
I’m now self-employed and make a relatively meagre living through DMing Dungeons & Dragons games (yes, really) and doing the occasional freelance writing. I suspect the only classes I would be qualified to teach would be on how best to avoid my many poor life decisions.
Mavis @ #937 Tuesday, July 4th, 2023 – 6:59 pm
It’s ok Mavis. I know I’m winning when the abuse kicks in.
Asha says:
I’m now self-employed and make a relatively meagre living through DMing Dungeons & Dragons games
____
I think I’m in love.
sprocket_
I have never forgotten a conversation with a (now deceased) very high level ‘colourful’ and ‘well world travelled’ family associate from Sydney stating to me at a Melbourne restaurant one evening that ”the NSW police were the most corrupt in the world”.
He’d know as he sat at the boardroom table with George Freeman and was often big internationally and laughingly had his photo taken with Queen Elizabeth in the royal enclosure at Ascot on one occasion.
so the lawer that wanted to represent cristian porter well known conservative Sue crisanthew who famously represented john barilarow in his defermation case against friendly jordies and google now that he has been largly corect about baarilarow being doogy maybi Stephin rares desided he would retire
Victorian corruption?
NSW says ‘Hold my beer!’
Not long ago a minutes book from the 1930s turned up in the records of one of the ALP branches in my part of town, a highlight of which was a 1933 resolution calling on the Australian government to follow the lead of the US government’s policies (aka the ‘New Deal’) to address the current economic situation. (This did also make me wonder whether this was the last time that a resolution supportive of a current US government had been passed by an ALP branch meeting in the inner north of Melbourne…).
Sprocket
Thanks for the history of Galea and Askin. It reminded me a lot of growing up in Brisbane in the Joh era. I had a part time job at a Brisbane racetrack when Russ Hinze was racing minister among other titles. I still remember the day of the Fine Cotton affair. I still laugh when I see the Waterhouse family trying to pass themselves off as the trusted elders of the racing industry.
Joh and Russ used different means to hide unusual sources of income. Several valuable pieces of plant found on Joh’s farm were simply “on loan” from Thiess Construction, one of the states largest builders. Russ while development and local government minister had cash that was explained as (personal) “loans”. He bought commercial property off major businesses all over the Gold Coast at giveaway prices while holding ultimate power over development approvals during the first great boom there.
Noting the grim ending for Patricia Galea, such colourful accounts of organised crime figures tend to gloss over the violence. Several figures named in the Fitzgerald inquiry were also associated with multiple unsolved murders, often of prostitutes, not that there was any of that in Brisbane. The good old days.
On that note I wish the NACC and Mr Brereton good luck. As always, follow the money. And I bid you good night.
BT
Interesting that a Victorian branch passed that motion. It might be seen as supporting the inflationary Lang Plan over the deflationary Premiers’ Plan.
Very much not the policy of the Victorian Labor Party
sprocket_ says:
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 7:08 pm
Victorian corruption?
NSW says ‘Hold my beer!’
___________
I don’t know why Sydney crooks stick to what they do best, pimping for whores or selling drugs to kids. Every time you see a Sydney crook on television, he is either lying in the street after being killed by an imported Melbourne hitman, or giving Crown evidence against some poor bastard. The biggest and most feared underworld killer Sydney ever saw was Christopher Dale Flannery, and he was from Melbourne, and an idiot at that.
Chopper Reid.
Waterhouses on the PM’s plane was one of the more surprising events of the last 12 months
“As the constitution specifically gives the government the power to discriminate on the basis of race (s51 xxvi) and, indeed, it can be argued that the fundamental driver for federation was racial discrimination, can a law outlawing discrimination be constitutional? ”
Yes. It would be a strange thing indeed if the government couldn’t outlaw things it has the powers to make laws about – outlawing things is one of the main reasons for government to have the power (from murder to water pollution, from corruption to sexual harassment, from importing produce without going through quarantine to voting). The Racial Discrimination Act has withstood nearly 40 years of challenges, it’s fine.
My son was also good at Creative Writing and when he was 20 he wrote and coded a Word-based, Turn-Based internet game and taught himself web design so that he could bring it to life. It proved very successful with people from all over the world.
He stopped hosting the game when he heard that the borders were going to be shut for the pandemic and he went travelling around the world instead to countries that weren’t so strict about their border closures. He got to go to some amazing places that weren’t overrun with tourists for a change.
Final comment. The Fitzgerald Inquiry is still a worthwhile read.
It should be compulsory reading for anyone planning to join the Qld LNP.
https://www.ccc.qld.gov.au/publications/fitzgerald-inquiry-report
Qld may not match NSW for corruption but we were level pegging at one time.