It seems there is little to offer this week in the way of federal polling, my suggestion in the previous post that we might see a Resolve Strategic poll and Newspoll’s quarterly breakdowns probably being a week premature. We did get quarterly breakdowns, courtesy of the Age/Herald on Sunday, but from Resolve Strategic rather than Newspoll – which don’t tell us much we did not already know, as breakdowns by gender and for the three biggest states are included with the monthly results. They do, however, include fresh state results for Western Australia and South Australia and age cohort breakdowns.
Labor has been polling exceptionally well in Resolve Strategic over the period in question, which is reflected in the WA and SA results. In the former case, the primary votes are Labor 46%, Coalition 29%, Greens 12% and One Nation 3%, compared with election results of Labor 36.8%, Coalition 34.8%, Greens 12.5% and One Nation 4.0%, which was sufficient to gain Labor four seats in the state. In the latter, the primary votes from the poll are Labor 46%, Coalition 22%, Greens 14% and One Nation 6%, compared with Labor 34.5%, Coalition 35.5%, Greens 12.8% and One Nation 4.8% at the election.
The age breakdowns suggest the Coalition’s deterioration since the election has been concentrated among the young and old, with the middle-age cohort remaining relatively steady. Among those aged 18 to 34, Labor is up from 31% in the pre-election poll to 44% and the Coalition are down from 27% to 19%, with the Greens up one to 23%. Among those 55 and over, Labor is up from 33% to 42%, the Coalition is down from 46% to 37%, and the Greens are down from 5% to 4%. In between, Labor is up from 34% to 39%, the Coalition is down from 32% to 29%, and the Greens are down from 12% to 11%. The polls were conducted April 12 to 16, May 10 to 14 and June 6 to 11, with a combined national sample of 4587.
[‘Labor has been polling exceptionally well in Resolve Strategic over the period in question, which is reflected in the WA and SA results. In the former case, the primary votes are Labor 46%, Coalition 29%…’]
It appears that Dutton’s recent visit to WA & his purchase of new glasses, ostensibly to make him look less frightening, haven’t exactly convinced sandgropers to flock to his camp.
Morning all. Mavis is correct about Dutton and the polls. Dutton has changed his image. Only the substance of his policies and attitudes is still repulsive to voters.
If we are serious about conflicts of interest, this is a good idea. Coupled with Labor’s policy on greater public funding for politics it might help to start cleaning up Canberra.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/04/lobbyists-allegation-about-stuart-robert-referred-to-prime-ministers-department
In fact I would go further than the big four firms being banned from political donations. All firms in line to receive large government contracts should be similarly banned. That should include defence and construction companies especially.
In an era when ex politicians super is no longer a meal ticket for life, money is a real issue, but it has to stop coming from tainted sources.
It’s intriguing that after almost a dozen rate rises and significant inflation that Labor’s polling appears so solid and that Dutton’s continues to be so weak. Dutton is making no headway at all, anywhere, despite the best possible conditions for a Liberal Opposition leader.
You can’t put it better than Sean Kelly, when it comes to Peter Dutton:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-s-disturbing-defence-of-berejiklian-20230630-p5dkrp.html
The Liberals have always tried to create personas for their leaders. But you can’t, on one day, put out a feel-good video about yourself, but then the next, come into parliament and direct your troops to commit verbal violence against a vulnerable woman via her proxies in the government who stood up for her! We see you, Peter Dutton. Better than you can see yourself with your new glasses.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Joko Widodo has joined Anthony Albanese to strongly deplore Russia’s war against Ukraine and, in a message aimed at China, declared support for a region “free from coercion” Andrew Tillett writes that ni an unusually strongly worded communiqué from Jakarta’s perspective, the two leaders stressed respect for international rules and the “importance of diplomacy to avoid the risks of miscalculation”, amid growing anxiety over Beijing’s behaviour and the threat of conflict with the US.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/widodo-albanese-denounce-russia-warn-china-20230704-p5dljk
Indonesia’s president will leave Australia today after a three-day visit talking up a new economic partnership. But, as Zacharias Szumer writes, the media seems to have missed the backstory – labour exploitation.
https://michaelwest.com.au/did-someone-say-labour-exploitation-key-question-missed-in-jokowis-ev-battery-deal/
Mike Foley reports that Australia has been called out for underreporting its annual greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 28 million tonnes by failing to record more than 80 per cent of emissions that leak during coal and gas production, exacerbating the challenge of achieving the government’s upgraded climate targets.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-vastly-underreporting-methane-pollution-report-finds-20230704-p5dll7.html
Relief from interest rate rises may be short-lived after the Reserve Bank warned further increases could be on the cards amid growing pressure on the federal government to do more to fight inflation, says Rachel Clun.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/reprieve-for-mortgage-holders-as-rba-holds-rates-steady-20230703-p5dley.html
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says she will task the Voice with generating fresh ideas in health, education, jobs and housing from day one, in her strongest comments to date aimed at defining its purpose and agenda. Lisa Visentin tells us that Burney will use a speech to the National Press Club today to outline her vision of the body as being “active and engaged” on key policy challenges facing Indigenous communities if the public backs it in the upcoming referendum, pitching the Voice’s relationship with government as collaborative rather than combative.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/health-education-jobs-and-housing-burney-to-give-voice-priorities-on-day-one-20230704-p5dlit.html
Linda Burney is now seeking to ameliorate the damage she and the government helped inflict on the Yes campaign for the voice in the final week of parliament before the winter break, says Simon Benson.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-linda-burney-in-damage-control-over-yes-campaign/news-story/126c42d766d646bec089f0cda204e45f?amp
Jenny Hocking explains why a double dissolution over housing could spell trouble for the Greens who she says should be careful what they wish for.
https://johnmenadue.com/careful-what-you-wish-for-why-a-double-dissolution-over-housing-could-spell-trouble-for-the-greens/
A claim that the lobbying firm Synergy 360 proposed a structure to allow the former Coalition minister Stuart Robert to benefit from government contracts has been referred to the prime minister’s department, which administers the ministerial code of conduct. Guardian Australia reveals the referral by Services Australia is one of several avenues of further investigation being pursued after the release by parliament’s audit committee of a signed statement from Anthony Daly, the former personal and business partner of Synergy 360’s former executive director Kham Xaysavanh.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/04/lobbyists-allegation-about-stuart-robert-referred-to-prime-ministers-department
‘The culmination of years of suffering’: Daren O’Sullivan tells us what we can expect from the robodebt royal commission’s final report which is due to be dropped by this coming Friday.
https://theconversation.com/the-culmination-of-years-of-suffering-what-can-we-expect-from-the-robodebt-royal-commissions-final-report-202337
Australian political parties should stop accepting donations from embattled consultancy PwC and similar firms to avoid potential conflicts of interest and restore public confidence, transparency advocates have urged. Henry Belot reports that analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity found the big four consultancy firms – PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG – have donated $4.3m to Labor and the Coalition over the past decade. During that time, the value of their government contracts increased by 400%.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/04/corrosive-impact-calls-to-ban-political-donations-from-australias-big-four-consultancies-after-pwc-scandal
Paul Sakkal tells us that two of Australia’s top lawyers, senior counsels Bret Walker and Sue Chrysanthou, will argue a law banning offence on a racial basis is unconstitutional as they defend One Nation senator Pauline Hanson in a case that shapes as a landmark test for the hotly debated law.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/hanson-s-legal-dream-team-to-fight-faruqi-racism-case-20230704-p5dll3.html
Health workers across NSW are threatening to strike unless the state government agrees to increase its pay offer to public servants, in a significant escalation of the feud between Labor Premier Chris Minns and firebrand Health Services Union boss Gerard Hayes, writes Michael McGowan.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/honeymoon-over-for-minns-as-health-workers-threaten-to-strike-over-pay-20230704-p5dlob.html
The long-delayed findings against former New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian that she was “seriously corrupt” have ironically proven a timely touchstone for the new National Anti-Corruption Commission. The reaction of senior politicians in NSW and more particularly in Canberra to the Berejiklian outcome has prompted the NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton to set the record straight on the role of his integrity watchdog, writes Paul Bongiorno who says the NACC hasn’t got a moment to lose after years of disgraceful delay in establishing it.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2023/07/04/paul-bongiorno-gladys-berejiklian-nacc/
Costs to hire short-term workers in construction, aged care, hospitality and schools are tipped to rise in response to a WorkCover hit on labour-hire firms that has drawn sharp criticism.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/labour-hire-firms-warn-workcover-hike-risks-compounding-staffing-crisis-20230704-p5dlmy.html
A hard-hitting Jenna Price explains what Berejiklian and Maguire tell us about the state of modern love.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/what-berejiklian-and-maguire-tell-us-about-the-state-of-modern-love-20230703-p5dlgd.html
Just when you thought the Liberals might be running out of new ways to demean women, along comes Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with his “defence” of disgraced former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, writes Jennifer Wilson.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/duttons-defence-of-berejiklian-oozes-liberal-contempt-for-women,17680
NSW councils have always been the mendicant beggars of the three Australian tiers of government, but their continued failure to rein in vaulting rates means the well of sympathy has run dry says the editorial in the SMH.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sympathy-runs-dry-as-80-per-cent-of-nsw-councils-cry-poor-20230704-p5dlkt.html
Anyone looking at downsizing into a retirement village will know how complicated the financial arrangements can be, writes Rachel Lane who explains how much it costs to move to a retirement village. It’s a bloody expensive minefield!
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/how-much-does-it-cost-to-move-to-a-retirement-village-20230704-p5dlm3.html
Three men are facing potential life sentences after police allegedly busted a crime syndicate as it tried to recover hundreds of kilograms of drugs hidden in machinery in a Sydney workshop. Three men along with a 17-year-old boy were arrested by Australian Federal Police at a Wetherill Park workshop as they allegedly took power tools to an industrial pulley filled with 233 kilograms of fake drugs worth about $140m on the street. Must have been an investment casting.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/boy-charged-as-police-swoop-on-alleged-kngpn-drug-syndicate-20230704-p5dlmh.html
Australian batsman Travis Head claims Jonny Bairstow told him during the previous Ashes Test he would not hesitate to attempt a dismissal similar to the one that prompted accusations the Australians had not behaved in the spirit of the game on the explosive final day at Lord’s. So, there you go!
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/bloody-oath-i-would-travis-head-claims-jonny-bairstow-told-him-he-d-attempt-carey-style-dismissal-20230701-p5dkyz.html
China dominates the production of many critical raw materials for advanced technologies, and is willing to weaponise that, says Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/china-is-threatening-to-use-its-major-trade-weapon-20230704-p5dlk1.html
On the Fourth of July, there are a few reasons to feel encouraged about US democracy, writes Margaret Sullivan who says that amid the supreme-court rulings and the gun violence, there have been some heartening developments – and a call to action.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/03/independence-day-fourth-of-july-american-democracy
A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest has opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia, killing four people and wounding two boys in the latest outbreak of gun violence in the United States, police said. The victims were apparently random, with no connection immediately known between them and the shooter. America is f****d!
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/gunman-wearing-bulletproof-opens-fire-at-random-killing-four-in-philadelphia-20230704-p5dlp4.html
Cartoon Corner
Cathy Wilcox
Simon Letch
Andrew Dyson
Glen Le Lievre
David Pope
Spooner
From the US
Cronus @ #3 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 6:40 am
Yes, the honeymoon continues for the government.
Thanks BK
This makes for uncomfortable reading.
“Australian Fossil Fuels Giants Severely Underestimate Methane Leaks
Fugitive — or hidden — methane emissions in the country are likely underestimated by 80% for coal and 90% for oil and gas, a new report from IEEFA says.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-04/australian-fossil-fuels-giants-severely-underestimate-methane-leaks?srnd=premium-asia#xj4y7vzkg
“Among those 55 and over, Labor is up from 33% to 42%, the Coalition is down from 46% to 37% …”
Now that’s a turnip for the books, as they say in the classics. 😉
I think they’re more a David Hunt (“Girt”, “True Girt”, “Girt Nation”) crowd.
Pueo @ #10 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 6:58 am
But they keep referring back to the Rum Corp when they talk politics! 😆
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is going to lose next year’s state election, if you believe the polls, that is. It would mean the mainland’s Labor-held state government wall would crack, not to mention spell the end of Palaszczuk’s eight-year reign. The AFR reports voters aren’t happy with her handling of the cost-of-living crisis, crime and health — the party’s primary vote dropped to 34%, compared with the Liberal-National vote of 40%. Support for the Greens was up two points to 11%, though. Amazingly, half of those polled said last month’s state budget — which delivered a record $12 billion surplus — would make no difference to their cost of living. Palaszczuk also made the news after Sir Bob Geldof said she was hypocritical for boasting about her green Olympics amid the state’s mining boom, the Daily Mail adds.
Oliver Sutton @ #9 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 6:58 am
Can I just observe that is the generation that now encompasses the former Punks, New Romantics and Nirvana generation. We were always Anti Authoritarian and embraced the broad diversity of society’s ‘misfits’. We’re still here and we, for the most part, haven’t become more conservative as we have aged.
And ‘Sir’ Bob Geldof is hypocritical for accepting a knighthood, the ultimate symbol of the elite hierarchy.
Thanks BK. Rowe must be on holidays again.
“Linda Burney is now seeking to ameliorate the damage she and the government helped inflict on the Yes campaign … says Simon Benson.”
Simon says … Burney and Labor damaged their own campaign?
Interesting slant from Bridget McKenzie’s squeeze.
Jenny Hocking explains why a double dissolution over housing could spell trouble for the Greens who she says should be careful what they wish for.
https://johnmenadue.com/careful-what-you-wish-for-why-a-double-dissolution-over-housing-could-spell-trouble-for-the-greens/
Uh huh. 😐
C@t: “Can I just observe that is the generation that now encompasses the former Punks, New Romantics and Nirvana generation.”
I still have my ticket for The Ramones at the Roundhouse, 1977.
Supported by Talking Heads and The Saints.
Holdenhillbilly: “Annastacia Palaszczuk is going to lose next year’s state election, if you believe the polls”
Yeah, yeah: we’ve been hearing that from the Courier-Mail year after year.
The AFR this time, but the song remains the same.
Thanks BK.
The Australian press really are a depressing lot.
Wow! In that Resolve breakdown, among 18-34yo’s, the Coalition is now third behind Labor and the Greens:
Labor 44
Greens 23
Coalition 19
Who’d have thought that the generation who’s future on the planet the Coalition has done so much for so long to sacrifice for the enrichment of the old would reject them so comprehensively? What must frustrate that Coalition is how little reward they seem to be getting from that older generation in return. Transactional politics ain’t what it used to be, it seems. 🙂
C@t: “We’re still here and we, for the most part, haven’t become more conservative as we have aged.”
Here we are now, ascertain us …
Enough Already says:
Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 7:26 am
Wow! In that Resolve breakdown, among 18-34yo’s, the Coalition is now third behind Labor and the Greens:
Labor 44
Greens 23
Coalition 19
The Green are willing to take up policy positions similar to the Coalition to fight Labor, would they ever be willing to form Government with them. Looks like a question they will face more often.
The Green are willing to take up policy positions similar to the Coalition to fight Labor, would they ever be willing to form Government with them. Looks like a question they will face more often.
______
Only if the Libs were to substantially lift their game.
Enough Already: “What must frustrate that Coalition is how little reward they seem to be getting from that older generation in return.”
Indeed, Resolve has the Coalition now down 9 points with the over-55s.
Labor up by the same amount, and overtaking the Coalition in that demographic.
BK, thanks again for the roundup. I didn’t have to read down far to get an actual feel-good:
“Joko Widodo has joined Anthony Albanese to strongly deplore Russia’s war against Ukraine and, in a message aimed at China, declared support for a region “free from coercion” Andrew Tillett writes that in an unusually strongly worded communiqué from Jakarta’s perspective, the two leaders stressed respect for international rules and the “importance of diplomacy to avoid the risks of miscalculation”, amid growing anxiety over Beijing’s behaviour and the threat of conflict with the US.”
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/widodo-albanese-denounce-russia-warn-china-20230704-p5dljk
This is what we need to be seeing geopolitically from where we sit in the world. The balance between opportunity and threat from China may swing from regime to regime (or from 5-year plan to 5-year plan, or from POTUS to POTUS), but the Indonesian Archipelago is where it is. I am extremely heartened to see clear evidence of a close alignment between us on Russia and China. More kudos to our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese! 🙂
BK says:
Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 7:34 am
The Green are willing to take up policy positions similar to the Coalition to fight Labor, would they ever be willing to form Government with them. Looks like a question they will face more often.
______
Only if the Libs were to substantially lift their game.
The Libs as the minor party, on the way to Labor and the Greens being the two major parties. All the Greens have to do is start acting as a serious contender, instead of a rabble.
What does the future look like with the Liberal reduced to a minor religions rabble? Perhaps the greens should start asking the question, the Liberals are well on the way to setting up their new role.
Unless I’m mistaken, the federal electorate which had a 2022 election result closest to the Labor/Coalition/Greens split among 18-34 yo’s across the country in this Resolve age breakdown was Canberra (ACT):
Labor 44.88
Greens 24.69
Liberal 21.77
Coalition, welcome to your future – better embrace what plays well in Canberra! 🙂
EDIT: to clarify, these results aren’t for 18-34 yo’s in Canberra in 2022, but the AEC result for all voters.
On RN Breakfast, Katy Gallagher and Jane Hume sing from the same songbook on the question of donations from the Big Four consultancies: “Nothing to see here! Politicians don’t award contracts: public servants do.”
Still tone deaf to the integrity message.
So, ABC Just In runs a story this morning ‘Bhutan has long been called the happiest nation on earth. Here’s what life is really like in the tiny kingdom.’ It reports that a large number of educated young Bhutanese have come to Australia because of unemployment. It makes no mention of the thousands of Nepali-speaking Bhutani refugees who came to Australia for resettlement following the ‘One Nation, One People’ assimilation policy that sought to destroy their language and culture. Over a hundred thousand people were expelled from the country and most ended up in UN refugee camps in Nepal for decades before UN resettlement to third countries. ‘Happiest nation on earth’ my arse.
“Israel’s motives for launching an attack in the West Bank on a scale not seen since the height of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, of the 2000s, are widely believed on both sides of the Green Line to be political as much as tactical. There has been growing pressure on the IDF from Israel’s right wing to launch a big operation as a response to the bloodiest year in Israel and the West Bank since 2005: 140 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed so far in 2023.
Israelis living in West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law, have begun taking matters into their own hands, carrying out rampages in Palestinian villages in revenge for Palestinian shooting and stabbing attacks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/04/israels-jenin-assault-displaces-thousands-as-violence-spirals-on
Let me get this straight: Israelis have been killing Palestinians this year in a ratio of nearly 6:1 and they think this requires them to kill and displace more Palestinians in response? WTF? Are they homicidal maniacs? 😡
Let me get this straight: Israelis have been killing Palestinians this year in a ratio of nearly 6:1 and they think this requires them to kill and displace more Palestinians in response? WTF? Are they homicidal maniacs?
Bibi’s back. 😐
Enough Already
I am sure you would have been less than impressed with Spooner’s cartoon this morning.
Oliver Sutton @ #22 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 7:30 am
I felt REALLY old the other day when I saw a grown-up Francis Bean Cobain on TV. 🙁 😆
C@tmomma @ Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 8:00 am:
“Let me get this straight: Israelis have been killing Palestinians this year in a ratio of nearly 6:1 and they think this requires them to kill and displace more Palestinians in response? WTF? Are they homicidal maniacs?
Bibi’s back. ”
===============
C@tmomma, I still find it hard to believe he’s still around. Israelis must like what they see in him. 🙁
BK @ Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 8:02 am:
“Enough Already
I am sure you would have been less than impressed with Spooner’s cartoon this morning.”
==============
BK, indeed! An exercise in completely oblivious irony if ever there was.
C@t: “I felt REALLY old the other day when I saw a grown-up Francis Bean Cobain on TV. ”
A similar experience when I recently visited an aged care centre. The sound system was playing Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
C@
Certainly had Manning’s at one stage (first edition!) due to a local library clean out, so I got them for free! I assume they’re still somewhere in the wilderness of books….
—–
A book was written (by a friend of a friend) about an issue I was tangently involved with, so I knew some of the inner workings.
The friend was given a copy, so of course I read it, focussing on the bits I knew about, to find that these bits had been given a curious slant. In particular, the accounts given by another friend of mine didn’t exactly chime with reality, but the writer (at that time, a senior political writer for ‘The Age’) had obviously accepted his account.
A few days later, I was at a function with this friend, and the group conversation turned to the book.
One of his mates referred to the fact that sections of the book didn’t go the way he remembered.
“Mate,” was the response. “You’re wrong. What happened is what the book says. That’s history, now.”
He was right, of course. Any future history of those events will go to that book and treat it as gospel.
(Which has always made me wonder why journalists seem to think that once a politician has left politics they have suddenly switched from someone portraying events to their best advantage to totally reliable source…)
I feel really old when I see someone who looks incredibly decrepit on TV and then find they’re a few years younger than I am.
Enough Already @ #35 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 8:03 am
No, not particularly. However, he has crafted a Coalition government with the Settler Movement MPs and the Russian Jews who emigrated to Israel after a serious issue with Anti Semitism there (tell me where the ‘Nazis’ are again, Putin? 🙄 ).
He only barely squeaked back into power after he promised the Ultra Orthodox that they wouldn’t have to be conscripted into the Army to do National Service, like every other Israeli. It was enough.
zoomster,
History is written by those who turn up … to have coffee with journalists?
C@tmomma @ Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 8:14 am:
[me] C@tmomma, I still find it hard to believe he’s still around. Israelis must like what they see in him.
——-
No, not particularly. However, he has crafted a Coalition government with the Settler Movement MPs and the Russian Jews who emigrated to Israel after a serious issue with Anti Semitism there (tell me where the ‘Nazis’ are again, Putin? ).
He only barely squeaked back into power after he promised the Ultra Orthodox that they wouldn’t have to be conscripted into the Army to do National Service, like every other Israeli. It was enough.
===========
C@t, thanks for that context: Bibi dividing and conquering a fragmented electorate to eke out one more turn in the Big Chair. I’m trying to recall Naftali Bennett’s approach from last year, to see which way Israel might develop once they decide for a third time Netanyahu is not suitable PM material. Palestinian lives, homes and livelihoods clearly depend on it a great deal.
C@tmomma, I am personally aghast Israel is still having any sort of truck with Putin, considering Putin’s treatment of Jews in Russia … and his treatment of the Jewish President of Ukraine and his country. I hope they think bending to Moscow’s Iran-arming blackmail is worth the Ukrainian blood being spilled. 😡
“ C@tmomma @ Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 8:00 am:
“Let me get this straight: Israelis have been killing Palestinians this year in a ratio of nearly 6:1 and they think this requires them to kill and displace more Palestinians in response? WTF? Are they homicidal maniacs?
Bibi’s back. ”
===============
Can’t blame all of this on Bibi or his government. It has been an Israeli bi-partisan modus operandi for the last two decades. The previous – non Likud – Pm was actually worse than Bibi, if that was possible.
I was always prepared to give Dutton some benefit of the doubt – that he wasn’t the evil psychopath portrayed by many on the left, but someone with an unfortunate physiognomy given a series of nasty jobs and that being leader would allow him more latitude.
Whilst I still don’t regard him as an evil psychopath, I haven’t seen anything about him that makes me think he’s an attractive human being.
As a friend once said, you can fake anything for short periods of time, and there’s a legion of people who are always surprised to find that X isn’t the nice person they thought they knew.
C@tmomma @ #4 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 6:43 am
This not-the-person-I-know bullshit is bullshit. They don’t know he walked out on the apology, for which he has expressed regret, except he’s at it again with smashing the Yes vote any which way he can. That’s how he’s hard wired. This person they know – oh he’s nice to some people some of the time, when it’s of benefit, to him. Sorry. Selective empathy ain’t empathy, and it’s not for your gain, which is what this lip-sticking on pig crap is all about.
Why a Sydney private girls’ school had to hastily redesign its garden
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-a-sydney-private-girls-school-had-to-hastily-redesign-its-garden-20230704-p5dlmb.html
Andrew_Earlwood @ #44 Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 – 8:34 am
It looks like Bibi is saying, ‘Hold my beer!’
The Jenin Brigades are just a bunch of disaffected youth. They grew up in the Jenin Refugee Camp and can see the Settlers getting things they can never hope to get.
The thing about the Dutton video and trying to present him as more affable in person, like all stories of this type will always remind me of the Mia Freedman piece about meeting Tony Abbott in person.
Leading politicians almost invariably get where they are by being able to charm people in person. That’s how they get preselected, how they get donations and support, how they get the support of their colleagues to take on leadership roles. This is as true of the Abbotts and Duttons as of politicians you might think of as charmers. The latter are just more able or willing to translate that persona to broadcast media.
The important thing to remember is that the “private” amiable persona is as much an invention as the public persona.
July 3 (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-launch-twitter-like-app-threads-2023-07-04/
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says she will task the Voice with generating fresh ideas in health, education, jobs and housing from day one
_____________________
Sounds like Rudd’s 20/20 summit. Which went down like a lead balloon.
Generating fresh ideas ? – you would think a party that was in opposition for 9 years would have had policies all set and ready to go.