I don’t believe there will be any voting intention polling this week, apart from the usual Roy Morgan – and if you’re really desperate, Kevin Bonham has discovered a trove of its federal polling in a dark corner of its website. Other than that, there’s the following:
• The regular mid-term calculation of population-based state and territory seat entitlements for the House of Representatives was conducted last week, and it confirmed what anyone with a calculator could have worked out in advance, namely that New South Wales and Victoria will each lose a seat, Western Australia will gain one, and the size of the chamber will go from 151 to 150 (assuming the government doesn’t go the nuclear option of seeking to increase the size of parliament, which is under active consideration by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters). Antony Green has detailed blog posts on the looming redistributions for New South Wales, suggesting Sydney’s North Shore as the area most likely to have a seat abolished), Victoria, which is harder to call. Western Australia’s existing fifteen seats all have similar current enrolments, making it difficult to identify exactly where the sixteenth will be created, except that it is likely to be in an outer suburban growth area.
• Michael McKenna of The Australian reports that Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick, who is appealing his recent Liberal National Party preselection defeat, has offered legal advice that Peter Dutton was wrongly told by party headquarters that he could not vote unless he attended the ballot, where other party notables were allowed to cast votes in absentia. Rennick lost the final round of the ballot to party treasurer Stuart Fraser by 131 votes to 128. The party’s disputes committee is likely to make a recommendation this week as to whether the preselection should be held again, which a party source is quoted describing as a “real possibility”.
• Phillip Coorey of the Financial Review reports that a comprehensive internal poll conducted by Labor earlier this month from a sample of 14,300 found 48% in favour of an Indigenous Voice and 47% opposed, with yes leading in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Further, yes voters were more likely to be firmly resolved in their choice, with 40% saying they would definitely vote yes compared with 30% for a definite no.
• A survey encompassing 24 countries by the Pew Research Centre found Australia tying with Japan for having the least favourable attitudes towards China, with 87% expressing an unfavourable view.
• Labor has formally decided against fielding a candidate in Victoria’s Warrandyte by-election on August 26. The three official nominees thus far are Liberal candidate Nicole Werner, Greg Cheesman of the Freedom Party and Cary De Wit of the Democratic Labour Party. Endorsed Greens candidate Tomas Lightbody’s paperwork is evidently still on its way.
• In other by-election news, I can offer the following contribution to the debate as to how Labor in Western Australia should feel about the result in Rockingham on Saturday: they scored 67.6% of the two-party preferred vote in ordinary election day booths, which was hardly different from their 68.8% in the corresponding booths at last year’s federal election. This means Labor almost matched a result it achieved in the context of an election where the statewide two-party result was 55-45 in its favour.
I see the Greens are preparing to vote with the LNP on every important issue.. in the forlorn hope it will make them relevant to the body politic.
Ven, WWP & AG, that action by the Israelis in cementing up water wells in Palestinian territory is truly sickening. What more do Palestinians have to suffer before the US and NATO pull the plug on their military support for that brutal regime? I for one can think of an alternative, and obviously much more worthy, recipient for such military support in place of Tel Aviv…
I see the greens have finally abandoned the pretence that they are NOT against aboriginal people. After wishy-washy yes/no will they or won’t they for the past nine months, now they’re outright rejecting the Uluru statement. Just like the liberals, they’re using the referendum to attack Labor.
Speaking of Russian war crimes which Ukrainian civilians deserve protection against:
“On Sunday evening, Russians fired cluster shells at Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, injuring three local residents, including a 13-year-old boy.
[Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office]: “On 30 July 2023, at 19:23, Russian invaders once again shelled the city of Kostiantynivka. This time, the Russian army hit the private sector, probably with cluster shells from Smerch MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems].
During the attack, a 13-year-old boy who was grazing cattle in a pasture with his grandfather sustained multiple shrapnel wounds.
A 44-year-old man was wounded by shell pieces near the cemetery, and a 68-year-old local resident received blast injuries in her own yard.
In addition, private residential buildings were damaged.””
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/07/30/7413504/
Ukraine will be using cluster munitions with very low failure rates exclusively against frontline Russian military dispositions, and then work tirelessly to remove those munitions afterwards (along with the much more numerous Russian-laid mines and Russian-deployed cluster munitions). They will do this later work because it is their own land occupied by their own population.
Russia, on the other hand, callously and criminally deploys cluster munitions with much higher failure rates on Ukrainian soil against Ukrainian civilians, and won’t lift a finger to remove any of them afterwards. Shame on Russia! 😡
NASA: The Effects of Climate Change
https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since pre-Industrial times (starting in 1750).1 The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.
There is list of effects of Climate change, which are scary and are already happening.
‘subgeometer says:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 10:17 am
`Pocock is a member of the Australian parliament, not India’s or China’s. Ranting into the void is a waste of his time – and ours.’
—————————-
Self-awareness?
The random left rants into the so-called ‘international void’ with monotonous regularity.
Think Palestine.
China’s and India’s actions on emitting ever-increasing CO2 emissions will affect the GBR, our drought, our fires, our floods, our rising sea levels and the rising acidity in the world’s oceans. But do not to worry yourself about that. It is both obvious and simple. Israel bad. China and India good. End of story.
Elements of the Greens have been very active in relation to matters such as boycotts against Israel. So much for your ‘international void’ deflection.
Here is another clue for you. Australian coal is absolutely and irredeemably evil until the nanosecond it leaves port. It then assumes magical properties when shipped and burned in China. It is then good coal. So magically good that it is racist to even mention it.
Cronus / Dandy Murray
“ This action is bordering on culpability.”
Agreed. Do Qld’s workplace manslaughter laws apply in this context?”
Pretty sure the Commonwealth is exempt from most such state laws. I do think though there is Commonwealth law defining a duty of care for all employees including ADF.
I can see from ADF soldiers’ viewpoint that, in response to Ven’s question, anyone who joins the military has acknowledged there may be risks in defending their nation.
Where former ADF personnel I knew got annoyed was when the risk arose from being sent on a foreign military adventure that had nothing to do with defending Australia, or as in this case, internal management negligence.
This is why I get annoyed by the fiasco of delays to replace the Collins Class submarines, which started under the Gillard government and has included every government since. The Collins LOTE upgrade that Labor’s AUKUS delivery strategy assumes is high risk. Even with upgrades, 40 year old subs can have fatal defects. Neither UK nor USN keeps their subs that long. If one sinks before it is replaced there will probably be sixty dead submariners.
Hairy Butler says:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 10:42 am
I’ve only just start commenting on PB after lurking for years, and I intend to continue, so maybe I should make something clear.
I prefer to debate policies. Personal attacks roll off me, so if you attack me personally, that only makes you smaller.
So, Griff:
Yes, I’m White but to some people I look Indigenous. I know what it’s like to be assaulted – on more than one occasion – on suspicion of “being cheeky to police while Black”.
_________________
I am not attacking you. I was asking you to listen. If we do not listen, we are at risk of being paternalistic. Have a read of the article on what is a white saviour. It comes from good intent, after all.
I am glad you have been able to listen hard enough to recognise that there IS a sequence in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Even if you blame them for not making it explicit enough.
It is early days but when you have a government that favours EVs over governments that pander to ICE utes, it does have an effect. I am sure that DuttonBandt will find something wrong with this.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/31/australian-electric-vehicles-ev-sales-rise-increase
It isn’t only Australia that has been having trouble with China. Italy says it joined the Belt and Road initiative thinking there would be more Italian exports to China. There were not, only the opposite. Now Italy is trying to get out of the deal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-31/italy-china-belt-and-road-initiative/102667408
yabba
Spent long periods of my life on such payments. Declared every cent.
Didn’t realise that made me soft in the head.
We lived reasonably well – to the point where there’s very little real difference to my lifestyle now that I’m earning respectable sums of money (a little less likely to stock up big time on half price specials).
I note you avoided my point on student loans.
Yet another day on which DuttonBandt are blocking the construction of houses for the homeless.
”
Enough Alreadysays:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:07 am
Speaking of Russian war crimes which Ukrainian civilians deserve protection against:
“On Sunday evening, Russians fired cluster shells at Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, injuring three local residents, including a 13-year-old boy.
[Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office]: “On 30 July 2023, at 19:23, Russian invaders once again shelled the city of Kostiantynivka. This time, the Russian army hit the private sector, probably with cluster shells from Smerch MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems].
During the attack, a 13-year-old boy who was grazing cattle in a pasture with his grandfather sustained multiple shrapnel wounds.
A 44-year-old man was wounded by shell pieces near the cemetery, and a 68-year-old local resident received blast injuries in her own yard.
In addition, private residential buildings were damaged.””
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/07/30/7413504/
Ukraine will be using cluster munitions with very low failure rates exclusively against frontline Russian military dispositions, and then work tirelessly to remove those munitions afterwards (along with the much more numerous Russian-laid mines and Russian-deployed cluster munitions). They will do this later work because it is their own land occupied by their own population.
Russia, on the other hand, callously and criminally deploys cluster munitions with much higher failure rates on Ukrainian soil against Ukrainian civilians, and won’t lift a finger to remove any of them afterwards. Shame on Russia!
”
Yes Shame on Russia!
Boy, PB seems to have achieved peak stupidity today.
BW, when we Australians stop burning coal, and when we total up the damage that we’ve done to the environment with the carbon we’ve placed there because of the coal we’ve burned, then we can criticise the people that have damaged the environment more than we have. Right now, in yearly emissions per capita, that list is Qatar, Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?most_recent_value_desc=true
For total historical emissions, that’s Canada, the US, and Estonia.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/
“Perhaps the most notable impact of accounting for population is the absence, in the table above, of several of the top 10 for cumulative emissions overall, namely China, India, Brazil and Indonesia.
While these countries have made large contributions to global cumulative emissions, they also have big populations, making their impact per person much smaller. Indeed, those four countries account for 42% of the world’s population, but just 23% of cumulative emissions 1850-2021.”
You’re like a fat slob that has polished off 90% of the buffet, telling the starving poors that come later that they need to go on a diet.
‘Socrates says:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:12 am
It isn’t only Australia that has been having trouble with China. Italy says it joined the Belt and Road initiative thinking there would be more Italian exports to China. There were not, only the opposite. Now Italy is trying to get out of the deal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-31/italy-china-belt-and-road-initiative/102667408‘
————————————————-
There is a universal rule with mercantilism. It goes like this:
‘Screw you!’
Pi @ #102 Monday, July 31st, 2023 – 11:03 am
The perplexing embrace of right-wing property rights and individual liberties by the, on paper, left-leaning Greens party becomes even more confounding when considering the implications of NIMBYism.
While advocating for progressive social and environmental causes, their alignment with unfettered inner city property rights are fueling NIMBY sentiments within their voter base. By supporting strong property rights without addressing NIMBY concerns, the party has started to prioritise short-term individual interests over broader social and environmental objectives, i.e. becoming Liberal Lite.
This contradictory stance raises doubts about their commitment to genuine social and environmental progress, as it seems they prioritise individual property rights over the collective well-being and long-term sustainability of society.
Boerwar
Yes Mercantilism seems to be a pretty accurate description of China’s trade policy. Ironic given Marx’s view of mercantilism.
Obvious question: if China wound up with effective naval superiority and control over Pacific Ocean trade routes, imagine what pressure they might apply?
Russia giving stolen Ukrainian grain to African states to buy their support is not much better.
” A survey encompassing 24 countries by the Pew Research Centre found Australia tying with Japan for having the least favourable attitudes towards China, with 87% expressing an unfavourable view.”
====================
I am most emphatically in this 87%, for three reasons:
1. Violent repression of political dissent;
2. Genocide against Tibetans and Uighurs;
3. Diplomatic and material support for Russia’s genocide against Ukrainians.
I see from the linked article that Indians have a two-thirds majority unfavourable view towards China too. Good to see, and very understandable.
Beijing needs to face a proper reckoning from its own people for Tiananmen before it can hope to move forward with genuine trust from the rest of the world, IMO. I wonder when and in what circumstances the Chinese will achieve their own Maidan against a repressive regime? I had hoped Hong Kong would light the way, but no luck so far.
Thanks Soc. The legal considerations are all a long way from my ivory tower.
The application of state workplace laws to Cth agencies reminds me of the time the RSPCA tried to prosecute a vet charged with certifying live export conditions were appropriate under Cth law.
MI
The Greens have always done this. A couple of decades ago, I was told that they weren’t able to come up with a policy supporting wind farms because too many of their members were NIMBYs on the issue.
Socrates @ Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:22 am:
“… Russia giving stolen Ukrainian grain to African states to buy their support is not much better.”
==============
I noticed that many of those African leaders who did show up at St Petersburg last week expressed varying shades of disapproval for that particularly egregious and insulting ‘offer’ by Putin, notably South African President Ramaphosa. I think this pushback from African leaders would have been noticed and appreciated by Kyiv.
@ ven, responding to M-I:
“ As A-E pointed Biden got Australia for free.
Some people think that it is okay because Biden is POTUS. But Biden will not be POTUS for long and what if some megalomaniac becomes. POTUS?
As per latest polls it is 50:50 in polls when it is Trump vs Biden.”
_____
Two points.
1. Firstly, on the vexed question of whether Australia is genuinely a ‘middle power’, a’ sub imperial power’, or simply a vassal state of America.
By which I define “middle power” as being a fully independent state actor with a considerable amount of heft on the world state, but one step removed from being a major power – like members of the G7, or emerging countries with large populations and an increasing economic footprint (such as China and one expects over the next 20-30 years countries like Indonesia) and several steps removed from the global super powers (America, but increasing also China);
A “sub imperial power” is a term coined by Clinton Fernandez, meaning a country which also has heft, but subsumes its own foreign policy to a large degree to the strategic goals and objectives of a superpower.
A vassal state is one that is effectively owned by a superpower because of the extend of its economic dependence, and the fibril nature of its political and judicial institutions. It could be argued that a country like Mongolia is example of a 21st century vassal state with respect to China. Belorussia is clearly a vassal state to the Kremlin.
In my view – consistent with the Labor traditions of Whitlam and Hawke-Keating (especially Keating) we should aspire to being a genuine ‘middle power’, one which is still firmly in the overarching western alliance, but one that is fearless in occasionally saying no to the one super-power within that alliance – America. So, a bit like France, and some of the other Western European countries.
However, the melancholy truth is that the Canberra establishment have decided that Australia is going to be a ‘sub imperial power’ of America. Specifically the junior partner, along with Britain, in America’s counter and contain China doctrine.
Regardless of the merits – or otherwise – of the strategic decision we have made, the point remains however: even as a ‘sub imperial power’ we have heft and agency that we are not exercising in our national interest.
Geographically, Australian is very very important to America & has been ever since the end of WW2. THAT importance is not going away, but successive Australian governments have failed to lever that importance in return for a better deal. The whole global comms network of America is largely dependent on Pine Gap and the spy facility at the North West cape. Has any Australian government had the wit to lever that into getting the Americans to agree to a mutual defence agreement? Preferably one independent of NATO, but also one that other countries in the Pacific could join? No.
Australia is also ideally placed for the USAF to undertake long range strike missions into southern china and beyond. The Americans are very interested in that. S nthey are in basing submarines here. Has any Australian government thought to use that strength to insist upon Australia becoming a first order priority for a missile defence shield? Nope. Has any Australian government had the gumption to tell the Americans that protecting the comms bases and airforce and submarine FOBs mark the extent of our likely commitment if and when America decides to get Kinetic with China? Or, consistent with what both Chifley and Menzies told successive Whitehouse Administrations – that the defence of Taiwan was not our responsibility? Nope. Nope. Nope.
It is with these considerations in mind that I made the comment that ‘America has picked us up for free’. We are acting like a vassal state; when in truth we are anything but a mere vassal: our economic strength comes entirely from trade with China and other Asian countries. We are geographically closest to the fastest growing region in the world. economically, we are in trade deficit – continual trade deficits – with our traditional European and western partners.
As a matter of direct national security we are only truly at risk from China to the extent we are enmeshed with America’s ‘counter china’ policy (that is not to say we wouldn’t be targeted for cyber attacks and other sorts of intelligence hacks, or that we should not response to the rise of China, as per the 2009 Defence White Paper).
The bottom line is – even as a ‘Sub imperial power’ we have enough heft and agency to get better deals from America, to say no to the excesses of US policy – or at least aspects of it which do not align with our national interest – like assuming a partnership type role for the defence of Taiwan. We really must stop acting like a vassal and doing stupid things like Freedumbs of navigation exercises, beating the war drums over Taiwan, signing onto trillion dollar submarine deals, open ended intelligence arrangements, and a whole bunch of other supine decisions and comments – the exemplar of which is that flog Richard Marles.
2. It is not just the spectre of Trump winning in 2024 that should give us pause as to whether we really should settle for being a ‘sub imperial power’; let alone persisting with our idiotic ‘vassal state’ type behaviours.
As you note Ven – whether it be in 18 months or 5.5 years the Biden Administration will end (if not before if Joe is called to Jesus). We really should be asking ourselves what happens then? Moreover, indulging in some crystal ball gazing as to what the likely range of outcomes are regarding US foreign policy over the next decade, or thirty years.
In my view, I cannot see the post WW2 settlement orthodoxy – that America gets to superintend the affairs of all countries outside the Warsaw pact – and since the end of the Cold War – globally as part of a and US authored ‘rules based order’ will survive.
Not just Trump, but the entire Republican party has shed itself of the ideals and traditions of post WW2 Republics like Eisenhower and even -on matters of foreign policy at least – folk like Reagan and the Bush dynasty. I really don’t see a pathway back for the GOP to the post ww2 bipartisan consensus. By itself that makes Canberra’s decision to settle for being a ‘sub imperial power’ unviable over the medium term. With or without another Trump ‘interrex’ period of shit-fuckery.
But it gets worse. As a generation, the once rampant and energised baby boomer generation have failed politically. To the extent that they have turned back to a bunch of Septuagenarians and Octogenarians for guidance. Gen X has simply failed to launch. Yet now, for the first time in more than a generation Americans under 40 constitute the biggest voting block, and their demographic advantage will only grow over time.
What is clear is that the post WW2 consensus, shaped in large part by the ghost of FDR, and given effect by Truman and accepted by Ike, holds no sway or attraction for millennials and zoomers. There is zero interest in America superintending the rest of the world.
Progressives in this younger generation may be attracted to America becoming a genuine ‘balancing force’ and continuing to play a global role commensurate with its heft, but no more. Non progressives are more likely to become isolationist in nature, caring only for good terms of trade with the rest of the world (if that).
None of the foreseeable political trends in America are compatible with Australia’s adoption of the ‘sub imperial power’ stance. Let alone our asinine ‘vassal state’ tendencies. We truly are choosing very poorly at the strategic level. Which is exactly the point that Keating was making when he ripped into Marles and Wong.
An interesting potential Dem candidate in the upcoming primaries. Gold Star son. Ex CEO of various businesses. Not from NY or California.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/29/us/politics/dean-phillips-biden-2024.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Phillips
The WA Aboriginal cultural heritage act has achieved two goals, one killed of WA voting yes to the Voice,and two starts the WA liberal comeback. What is it with the ALP? Do they think that the Sandgropers don’t know where their wealth comes from?
‘Pi says:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:14 am
BW, when we Australians stop burning coal, and when we total up the damage that we’ve done to the environment with the carbon we’ve placed there because of the coal we’ve burned, then we can criticise the people that have damaged the environment more than we have. Right now, in yearly emissions per capita, that list is Qatar, Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.
….’
———————————–
I see that you are agreeing with me that coal achieves magical new properties once it leaves an Australian port in a Chinese bulk carrier to be burned in Chinese coal-fired power stations.
BTW, physics and chemistry does not buy into your magical thinking. It just chews up the CO2 and turns it into heat, fires, floods, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets, acidification etc, etc, etc.
Has it occurred to you that what falsifies your ridiculous argument is that China is building new coal fired power stations that will impact lots of countries that are much, much poorer than China and which have emitted vastly less CO2 than China and that India is on a parallel course with its coal burning ambitions… again at a cost to countries that are vastly poorer than India?
“The WA Aboriginal cultural heritage act has achieved two goals, one killed of WA voting yes to the Voice,and two starts the WA liberal comeback. What is it with the ALP? Do they think that the Sandgropers don’t know where their wealth comes from?”
Notwithstanding the strong evidence in your post the actual evidence WA is as racist as you say comes from one poll that looks dodgy after Rockingham.
But you could be right we could be the combination of stupid and racist you endorse in that post.
“ The WA Aboriginal cultural heritage act has achieved two goals, one killed of WA voting yes to the Voice,and two starts the WA liberal comeback. What is it with the ALP? Do they think that the Sandgropers don’t know where their wealth comes from?”
Steely – you are saying the quiet part out loud: namely that sandgroupers know in their black little hearts that their wealth is stolen on the back of genocide.
This does not reflect well on you, as you are clearly revelling in the potential racist backlash as being central to some conservative fight back.
I’d suggest there is a lot of historical truth in what you imply; but it’s over to the people of WA in 2023 to determine whether they are better than their racist forebears. Clearly you are not; but that’s another issue entirely.
Balancing two hegemons was never on.
There was always going to be a time when China was going to transmute economic power into military power and the application of both to its ends. Part of that was always going to be various attempts to hive off SEA, the Pacific, South Asia, Australia and NZ from whatever formal and informal links they had/have with the US. This is going quite well for China, ATM. For example, they have stitched up the Solomons and now sit across our most important strategic military ocean route and a swag of undersea cables to go with it.
Australia needs urgently to pursue a policy course of strongly armed independent neutrality with a view to strictly avoiding a kinetic war for the next couple of centuries.
BW, while you demonstrate your lack of grade school math skills, the rest of the world knows what ‘per capita’ means. No one cares what the intellectually challenged munters ‘think’. I use that term in quotes deliberately. You don’t think; you’re pointed. Your arguments are the arguments of the fossil fuel giants as a justification for doing nothing.
Steelydan @ #126 Monday, July 31st, 2023 – 11:14 am
Many indigenous groups are happy to see development and mining. All are very capable of understanding the big and local picture and working with owners and authorities to achieve good results. Failing to be collaborative, on the other hand, can lead to very poor results.
These projects are more than capable of making their owners and the state plenty of money while being done in a more sympathetic and collaborative way. Development should never be ‘all the miners/developers way or the highway’.
zoomster @ #121 Monday, July 31st, 2023 – 11:28 am
I’ve been trying to work it through in my mind from a political theory perspective.
NIMBYism, though not inherently political, can take on political implications when used to oppose environmental policies like wind power turbines and social housing in affluent inner-city areas. It seems to be intersecting with political ideologies as residents may use NIMBY arguments to protect property values and quality of life, aligning with right-wing ideologies emphasising individual property rights.
From a left-leaning perspective, NIMBYism can be criticised for perpetuating social inequality by hindering progressive policies. While NIMBYism itself may not have a fixed place on the political spectrum, its application in specific contexts can mirror existing political ideologies and highlight ideological divisions concerning environmental and social issues.
So NIMBYism seems to be morphing into a political position on the Overton Scale, and is being used by the Greens. So where does that place them on the same scale. As NIMBYism is often associated with opposing changes and development in favor of preserving existing conditions, it can be argued that is now aligns with right-wing ideologies that prioritise individual rights, limited government intervention, and preservation of the status quo.
Just spit balling political theory for fun.
Pi
Well, I have received a lot of personal abuse from various Bludgers who apparently think it is quite normal and acceptable to dole out pathetic personal abuse as if it made their case. But ‘intellectually challenged munters’ is at least creative. So there is that.
I know what per capita means. But here is the rub. Physics and chemistry do not. They operate on a strict principle of gross CO2 in, heat out. It is the gross amount of CO2 that is cooking the planet.
BTW, why are you ignoring the last point in my previous post? To busy working out some personal abuse?
Because it completely undercuts your whole argument.
Yes. I’d add they need to continue to depend ties in the region – including trying to do so with China. Independence helps this cause.
@Boer: You are obsessed with Howard’s ‘balancing two hegemonies’ philosophy.
From conception it was horse-shitfuckery ‘jazz fingers’ thinking.
Put it to one side. It does not assist with analysis of the choices facing australia.
We can certainly no longer rely on China not to abuse trade rules and the US to protect Australia in case of war.
‘Team Katich says:
Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:56 am
Australia needs urgently to pursue a policy course of strongly armed independent neutrality with a view to strictly avoiding a kinetic war for the next couple of centuries.
Yes. I’d add they need to continue to depend ties in the region – including trying to do so with China. Independence helps this cause.’
————————–
Indonesia no 1. China no 2. India no 3.
BW: I know what per capita means. But here is the rub. Physics and chemistry do not.
Politics is the process of getting people to agree on things to enact policy. The policy of eating all of the food and then telling the poors to go on a diet is not a winning policy. That is your policy. Everyone who knows how math works, which is almost everyone, knows this.
You want the world to change? Change yourself first. Start by learning math.
I am especially impressed with A-E’s intellectual capacity when he goes to “horse-shitfuckery ‘jazz fingers’” . Any jury would find it just so convincing.
The US alliance is a dead end which will not survive, as a representative democracy, the gutting of its middle class and its accelerating slide to autocratic extremism.
“ Australia needs urgently to pursue a policy course of strongly armed independent neutrality with a view to strictly avoiding a kinetic war for the next couple of centuries.”
I disagree.
We need alliances. Whether that be as a ‘middle power’ or as a ‘sub imperial power’; but given the matters i set out above those alliances need to be both broad and deep.
We have chosen to be a sub-imperial power, but are acting like a vassal. Which means we end up with the worst possible outcome: shallow and narrow alliances; and without the flexibility and agility to manoeuvre in response to the likely internal shifts in our chosen imperial power.
Pi
Why are you ignoring my last point? (You just posted a post validating it, BTW.)
The idea that Australia is a middle power is a fallacy that we use to allow us to sleep well at night. We are an upper level small power with big friends.
I confidently await China’s and India’s thousands of billionaires and millionaires coming to their climate sense and working to re-stratify wealth distribution in their respective countries.
BW, I have answered your question. You just lack the math skills to be able to synthesise the answer.
Katich: “Many indigenous groups are happy to see development and mining.”
Indeed.
https://www.reuters.com/article/acen-corp-yindjibarndi-australia-idAFL4N3940IB
“July 18 (Reuters) – Philippine energy company ACEN Corp said on Tuesday it had partnered with Australia’s Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) to develop a renewable energy project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.”
Renewable energy for mining. It is a meme of the people who steal land, that if they don’t steal the land it won’t be put to productive use, as a justification for stealing the land.
“ Indonesia no 1. China no 2. India no 3.”
_____
Hmmm.
I’d say (in terms of alliance relationships):
1. Indonesia.
2. Singapore.
3. Other ASEAN nations.
4. France: the sole resident south pacific nuclear-major power.
5. The ‘Pacifica belt’ (NZ, the island states of Melanesia and Polynesia)
6. the sub continent states.
7. North Asian tigers.
With America always having the welcome mat to be an ally in any position of its choosing (from no.1 to 8), but ON OUR TERMS.
In terms of trade relationships, one cannot go past China as being of central importance.
WWP, good point re. the Uluru Statement being a consensus document. They can be pretty lowest common denominator things. At least this one is lyrical.
I’m thinking of every UN IPCC scientific consensus report. “Hey folks, this climate change thing could end quite badly. We should do something about it maybe?” All the catastrophic possiblities were downplayed for decades, so now people are shocked to find they themselves might be inconvenienced by the Great Barrier Reef dying while they’re snorkelling, or drowned in a flood, or fried in a heatwave, or burned out by a fire. “Why didn’t you warn us?”
“If you look at the footnotes in volume three, we DID say these were possibilities.”
Found the snake btw. 3m scrub python, no big deal. I poked him with a broom until he made a break for the door, then swept him out. I’m sure he’ll be back, just give me a day to tidy the shed.
I note that Dutton has announced the Opposition will agree to a $40/fortnight increase in unemployment benefits while also proposing to double the income ceiling. Doubling the ceiling is a very good idea. The more that can be done to increase incomes among the least well off the better. Labor should go with this idea as well as increasing the benefit by its intended $56/fortnight.
At the margin, increasing social income support will also help lift wage rates at the lowest tiers. This will help lift wages right through the economy…something that should be an objective for all. The wages share of the economy has been sliding for many years. One of the factors in this has been the very low income floor for the marginally-employed. This should be reversed as a part of a concerted effort to lift real wages across the whole economy.
High wages help drive higher capital intensity and increased technological innovation, in turn leading to higher productivity, higher national income and sustained higher levels of employment.
@ Steelydan
Your firstpoint is debatable as to whether WAs Heritage Law will / or has an impact on that States vote on the Voice. That remains to be quantified.
As for your second point, seriously?
The Reactionaries came third with only 17% of the vote. The swing you intimate didn’t go to your mate but to the ex- Labor Independent. How you can front- up here on PB and seriously suggest that result , pathetic as it was, heralds the beginning of the Liberal Revival in WA? Your two MP friends will be ecstatic at having some company in the House sometime in the 2030s.
Also in LaLa land is the West Australian claiming ” a swing like this” will see Labor in minority government- if it happened. I will add- a swing across the whole state, the whole state?
LOL stuff. I think William would be ROFL at that possibility.
“ The idea that Australia is a middle power is a fallacy that we use to allow us to sleep well at night. We are an upper level small power with big friends.”
Were we just a state of 26 million stuck in Western Europe, or North America, id agree.
however we have a continent of our own – situated to the immediate south of the fastest growing region in the world, and a maritime EEC that spans three great oceans. That gives us heft above that when measured by reference to population and mere GNP (which is still comfortably within the top 20 anyways, so there is that as well).