Three polling items on the Indigenous Voice have emerged in the past few days, none of which offer encouragement for the yes campaign:
• The Guardian reports the fortnightly Essential Research has no leading yes by 47% to 43%, with small-sample breakdowns showing yes trailing in all mainland states but Victoria, where it leads 47-46. No leads 47-41 in New South Wales, 51-40 in Queensland, 48-39 in Western Australia and 48-45 in South Australia. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1150 – its voting intention results should be along later today.
• The Australian yesterday had state breakdowns of Indigenous Voice voting intention aggregated from Newspoll from late May through to mid-July, which find yes leading by 45% to 42% in New South Wales and 48% to 42% in South Australia, tied at 44% apiece in Victoria, and trailing by 54% to 39% in Queensland, 52% to 39% in Western Australia and 48% to 43% in Tasmania. The overall national results across the period in question had no leading 46% to 43%, from a sample of 5417. Support was highest among high income earners, young people, those with university degrees, non-English speakers and women.
• A Redbridge Group poll, which has been published in very great detail has no leading 56-44, with leads of 56-44 in New South Wales, 55-45 in Victoria and 63-37 in Queensland. The poll was conducted July 21 to 27 from a sample of 1022.
UPDATE (Essential Research): The primary votes from the Essential Research poll have Labor up two to 33%, the Coalition down two to 30%, the Greens down two to 12% and One Nation up one to 8%, with Labor up two points on the 2PP+ measure to 52%, the Coalition down three to 42% and undecided steady on 6%. However, further findings from the poll find the government performing badly on a range of issues, doing best on international relations with 24% positive, 47% neutral and 29% negative, but floundering on the Indigenous Voice and climate change and doing particularly badly on cost of living (9% positive, 21% average, 70% negative) and housing affordability (8% positive, 25% neutral, 67% negative).
A regular question on the national mood finds a two point decrease for the proposition that Australia is on the “right track” to 32% with wrong track steady on 48%. Fifty per cent believed marijuana should be “regulated and taxed by the government in a similar way to tobacco or alcohol”, with 26% opposed, but results were far less favourable in relation to other illegal drugs.
From the previous thread:
Griff @ #828 Monday, August 7th, 2023 – 11:40 pm
It’s a rort they’ve glommed onto since the Baby Boomer Bulge started moving into Aged Care Facilities and you know it, Griff. You would also know that a not-very-well-paid Dispensary Assistant, an Intern, or a not-very-well-paid Pharmacist-In-Charge, would be doing and overseeing the Webster Pack work in each pharmacy with a contract to supply an Aged Care Facility. With the Owner of the Pharmacy pocketing the Dispensing Fee.
I also note that the campaign by the Pharmacy Guild doesn’t reveal how they massively increased their profits under the Coalition government by being one of the industries that benefited from the influx of overseas-qualified skilled workers (pharmacists), which enabled them to drive down the hourly rate that they paid Pharmacists who qualified in Australia, as they just sourced a Pharmacist from overseas who was prepared to work for less than the going rate. To the extent that Pharmacists who were employed by a Pharmacy Owner, were paid not much more per hour than the top shop girl or Dispensary Assistant. Thus exponentially increasing their profit margin.
They don’t plaster that bit of information all over the shop walls, do they?
From The Daily Mail:
(analysis of the Newspoll)
Who is voting Yes to the Voice
* High income earners
* Renters
* University-educated Australians
* Young people
Who is voting No to the Voice
* Voters who aren’t tertiary educated
* People who own their homes outright
* Retirees
* Mortgage-holders
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the polling reflected people’s wishes for more information about the voice.
‘There are a lot more Indigenous Australians out there who don’t feel like they’ve been represented through the Uluru Statement from the Heart,’ she said.
But former Nationals MP Andrew Gee, who quit the party due to its opposition to the voice, said large groups of voters were being alienated as a result of the coalition’s position.
‘I think the Voice will succeed, I think we will get it over the line, but if it does not there will be a real emptiness about what has happened,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a very short-sighted attitude (for the coalition) to take and I think longer term when the history books are written, history will judge them very poorly for it.’
Kudos to FECCA which has done a lot of work with multicultural communities to explain the Voice and garner support among its constituents.
‘fess,
Who’s doing the work among the Trades (non-university educated) community? Certainly not the people they listen to on the radio at work every day like Ben Fordham. They’re the ones actively discouraging the vote. 😐
Also, this is the titular head of the No campaign, Dodgy Dutton:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-bypassed-indigenous-crime-prevention-for-safety-grants-in-coalition-seats-20230806-p5du9d.html
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-wrecking-ball-of-the-lehrmann-higgins-case-keeps-swinging-20230807-p5dujx.html
If accurate reporting was the aim, why on earth release the report early prior to it being endorsed by the ACT government? And for god’s sake, it’s a bit rich to complain about selective reporting when one of the media outlets you’ve leaked to is The Australian.
It’s time for the Greens to show what their true motivation is for opposing Labor’s Affordable Housing policy is.
Is it about rational justice in providing affordable housing … or is about trying to wedge Labor & bolster their miserable existence.
A REAL solution to affordable housing …
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-plan-to-add-thousands-of-affordable-apartments-in-sydney-s-inner-west-20230804-p5dtyo.html
https://www.nightingalehousing.org/project/nightingale-marrickville
C@tmomma @ #4 Tuesday, August 8th, 2023 – 6:20 am
Thomas Mayo’s union are supporting him and his work in the Yes campaign at least, something that he has publicly acknowledged.
I said right at the beginning that those town hall style forums that some MPs are hosting would appeal to mostly the older demographic who are already voting Yes, and lo and behold, at every one of those forums I’ve been to (or seen pics of), who is the predominant audience member? Lots of grey haired people wearing Yes tees.
The only exception so far is the pub event Plibersek held with Noel Pearson. The photos from her event show a largely younger crowd. But even then I’d bet most of them were already decided Yes voters. Nobody but No seem to be reaching the working families or the politically disengaged, the hardest of all audiences to get to.
Exactly, ‘fess. Union Members, but not the Subbies, who aren’t members of a union anymore. Who are also the ‘mortgage holders’, and their wives who live on facebook. How is the Yes campaign getting to them? No have multiple facebook and Instagram campaign groups organised to feed disinformation to them. Plus an AI campaign with a computer-generated Indigenous No person!!! That’s way more sophisticated and prolific than anything I have seen from Yes.
RUSSIANS KILL CIVILIANS IN ONE MISSILE STRIKE, THEN KILL RESCUERS IN SECOND STRIKE
“Five civilians were killed and 18 injured as a result of a Russian missile strike on central Pokrovsk, in Donetsk Oblast, which damaged several high-rise buildings. Deputy head of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) in Donetsk Oblast was killed and several rescue workers sustained injuries.
Source: Ihor Klymenko, Head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, on Telegram; Serhii Kruk, Head of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, on Telegram
Quote from Klymenko: “Five people have been killed and 18 injured as a result of two missile strikes on residential buildings in Pokrovsk. As of 21:20, [we know that] four civilians were killed and three injured in the first strike.
The second strike killed the deputy head of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast. Four rescue workers, eight police officers, and three civilians sustained injuries. Our heroes were the first ones to arrive at the site of the attack to help people.
Rescue and search operations are still underway. We are clearing away the rubble and rescuing people from the Russian terror.”
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/08/7/7414608/
ANOTHER RUSSIAN ATTACK ON FIRST RESPONDERS TO FATAL FIRST STRIKE
“Russian forces dropped four guided aerial bombs on the village of Kruhliakivka in Kharkiv Oblast on the evening of Aug. 7, killing two civilians aged 45 and 60, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.
A total of seven people were injured in the attack, according to the oblast governor.
Two civilian men and two women were hospitalized, while another 62-year-old woman received medical assistance on the spot.
Russian troops hit the village again when first responders came to the scene, Syniehubov said. Two employees of the State Emergency Service were reportedly wounded.”
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-attacks-kharkiv-oblast-with-guided-aerial-bombs-killing-civilians/
Russia is clearly working to a plan of killing not only innocent civilians, but then killing the emergency services workers who respond to the first strike. This is cold blooded homicide.
RUSSIA USES CHEMICAL WEAPONS
“Russian forces continue using chemical weapons in Ukraine, violating international conventions, said Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander for the Tavria military sector.
According to Tarnavskyi, Russian troops fired two artillery barrages with munitions containing a chemical substance, presumably chloropicrin, on Aug. 6.
Exposure to chloropicrin’s vapors causes severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and, if inhaled, to internal organs. This substance, widely applied during World War I, is no longer authorized for military use.
Tarnavskyi said the chemical weapons were used in the area of Novodanylivka but didn’t specify the oblast. There are several settlements in Ukraine called Novodanylivka. Most likely, it was the one located near Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, as it lies the closest to the front line.”
https://kyivindependent.com/commander-russia-continues-to-use-chemical-weapons-in-ukraine/
How many red lines does Russia have to cross before the rest of the world says ‘enough already’. Time to start inflicting crippling damage to Russia’s military and industry.
Yes voters: University-educated
No voters: not university-educated
This article about the equivalent problem in the US with pro- and anti-trump elements of the population is somewhat relevant:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opinion/trump-meritocracy-educated.html
(NB: this is behind a firewall, but the article has been copied onto sites that aren’t firewalled)
There is a growing cultural divide in western countries between the more highly-educated and much of the rest of the population. We saw it with Brexit, we can see it in elections on continental Europe and, of course, it largely explains the Trump phenomenon.
The educated classes of Western countries are not only the most privileged, but also consider themselves to be the most morally-enlightened: particularly in regard to the needs of those who are less well off than them. And, increasingly, their “enlightenment” is drawn from some sort of an “innate understanding” of those needs rather than through talking to people lower down the social scale than themselves.
Up to now, Albo’s strategy about selling the Voice has been largely about looking for the approval of the Indigenous leadership and the chardonnay-drinking classes of the inner cities. His message for the rest of the population has more or less been “it’s all ok, leave it to us politicians, it’s all in hand, just vote Yes and there’ll be nothing for you to worry yourselves about.”
Not what Hawke would have done. Not what Doc Evatt did when he campaigned himself into the ground to persuade Australians to vote against the banning of the Communist Party: surely a much harder sell in that era than the Voice should be in ours.
The people in the suburbs aren’t as racist or xenophobic as many inner city people believe. But they don’t like smug tall poppies, and they know that embracing racist or xenophobic attitudes really gets up the nose of university-educated people. As several US commentators observe, the thing that the MAGA people love the most about Trump is the effect he has on the people who hate him.
The whole approach to selling the Voice has been politically tone deaf. The only hope is that the polls are wrong: but, when they have ever been wrong in the past, it’s usually in terms of underestimating the conservative vote. So not much hope there.
Time for a rethink.
A very disappointing post, meher baba. Amplifying negative stereotypes of people whose heart is in the right place is not the way to convince Yes voters that you’re on their side and simply offering good advice to the Yes campaign. You almost sound gleeful that it’s not doing well because you are able to amplify those negative stereotypes.
And as for the Prime Minister not campaigning as hard as Hawke or HV Evatt, are you conveniently overlooking the fact this isn’t a government-led campaign? Also that the date for the referendum hasn’t even been announced yet? There’s still a long way to go, but it’s not helped by doom-laden boundary riders such as you appear to be.
Also, I will just note for the record, that there are more and more ‘Vote Yes’ corflutes popping up around my suburb every day. Of course there isn’t a ‘Vote No’ corflute to be seen for love or money. Those people are simply too ashamed to admit it openly.
“And as for the Prime Minister not campaigning as hard as Hawke or HV Evatt, are you conveniently overlooking the fact this isn’t a government-led campaign? ”
It should be. Do these clowns running the country believe in nothing?
On an hilarious side note the ALP has a questionaire out for (former) members. Quite the surprise.
Maybe the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign could take a leaf out of the FIFA World Cup’s community engagement book?
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/where-did-all-these-fans-come-from-inside-the-world-cup-s-multicultural-strategy-20230806-p5duai.html
Not just former members, current members also.
It may seem strange that a Republican governor of a US state acknowledging Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that Donald Trump lost would be major headline news. But such is the US political climate that Trump has helped create. Overnight Ron DeSantis earned prominent mentions on the websites of The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, the Associated Press and others for his admission that Trump “of course” lost the election.
He made the comments in an interview with NBC News, and only after DeSantis, a top Republican challenger for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, was pressed on it. At first, when asked if Trump had lost, the Florida governor answered: “Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan 20 every four years is the winner.” Asked if he wouldn’t give a yes or no answer, DeSantis said: ”No, of course he lost … Joe Biden’s the president.”
c@t: “A very disappointing post, meher baba. Amplifying negative stereotypes of people whose heart is in the right place is not the way to convince Yes voters that you’re on their side and simply offering good advice to the Yes campaign. You almost sound gleeful that it’s not doing well because you are able to amplify those negative stereotypes.”
I’m not negatively stereotyping anybody. I belong to the privileged university-educated class, as do almost all of my family and friends. We are all good people. But we come from a group that comprises something below 25 per cent of the electorate. In order to win referendums or elections we need to engage with the people who don’t have university degrees.
I’m sorry to say that the Labor Party, especially its left faction, seems to be becoming increasingly disconnected from Australians who don’t have university degrees and don’t live in the inner cities and the leafy suburbs. And, of course, the Greens are even worse: and don’t talk to me about the Teals.
As Hawke used to say, you have to take the Australian people with you.
Right from the outset, the Albo Government hasn’t done that with the Voice. Last year at Garma, there was a big fuss about how Albo was going to reveal what the referendum question was going to be. Some people, including myself, thought that this was going to enlighten us about the nature of the constitutional changes that would be required. And what was the question he unveiled? “Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?”
What a letdown: almost thumbing his nose at anyone looking for an understanding what the Voice would involve. And, subsequent to this, the Government has been as quiet as possible about how the Voice would actually operate in practice and has stuck to making big sweeping statements that have lots of appeal to university-educated people, but turn off the rest of the population.
A good campaign would have started by focusing on the problem, not the proposed solution. Noel Pearson pointed the way the other day: the problem that the Voice can solve is the total alienation from our society of large numbers of the people living in our Indigenous communities: especially in outback and rural Australia and on the suburban fringes of our cities. How will the Voice help with this? By giving these people an opportunity to have a stake in the politics of modern Australia. Works for me, and – quite extraordinarily – it might even have some appeal to the non-Indigenous people who live in close proximity to Indigenous communities and experience some of the consequences of the disjointed lives of the people who live in them.
Instead, we got some vague idea that the Voice would sprinkle magic pixie dust and solve all the intractable problems of the Indigenous people of our country. And, of course, give us an opportunity to be “polite” by consulting them (as if we don’t already have a plethora of Indigenous consultation processes: arguably too many).
So far, it’s been bad politics all the way. Time to go back to the drawing board. Start talking to the Australian people rather alternating between lecturing them and giving them the soft sell. It’s got to be worth a try.
Trump says he will hand out the biggest tax cuts in US history if elected President in 2024.
“Not just former members, current members also.”
Well as member I didn’t feel there was any interest in my view on anything. It was just about free labor to exploit at election time.
It is great to seem them polling members views.
As for former members well I was quite stunned.
Holdenhillbilly @ #21 Tuesday, August 8th, 2023 – 7:47 am
Otherwise known as a bribe. 😐
#weatheronPB
Lumpy sheets hang loose,
mottled, grey, and blue, and cream,
boring, damp, and cool.
meher baba,
ALP National Secretary, Paul Ericksen, has a motto: ‘Go where the people are’. As it’s only recently that Labor has gotten on board the Yes campaign I think you’ll start to see more of it. It will take a while to turn the boat around but I’m already seeing it.
Also, you may or may not have noticed my comment to Confessions earlier this morning where I acknowledged that the ‘Yes campaign’ needed to reach out to the Subbies and their wives and social networks, to put more effort into facebook and Instagram and to adopt their own AI campaign. To that I would add that they need to reach out to the Influencer community and Small Business, 2 areas that I haven’t seen much engagement with. And cut the ‘have a conversation with’, strategy. People are just too busy with their lives to want to indulge in a 15 minute or so conversation with someone they’ve just met on their doostep. Well, at least that’s how it rolls out here in the Regions, Um, where we have an Indigenous MP. Soooo … people out here obviously are not resistant to the idea of voting for them, or their causes, as you appear to have implied.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers. Late start today – blame the Matildas!
Paul Karp takes us through the latest Essential poll that has the No leading in every state except Victoria.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/08/no-vote-overtakes-yes-in-all-states-except-victoria-guardian-essential-poll-shows
The wrecking ball of the Lehrmann-Higgins case keeps swinging, writes Jacqui Maley who says impolite people might call this entire matter a s–t-show, and they would be right.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-wrecking-ball-of-the-lehrmann-higgins-case-keeps-swinging-20230807-p5dujx.html
The Sofronoff inquiry was meant to restore faith in the justice system. It has done anything but, says Christopher Knaus.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/08/sofronoff-inquiry-report-justice-system-act-andrew-barr
The Higgins-Lehrmann case may now spawn an investigation into the investigation into the investigation, says the SMH editorial.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/the-higgins-lehrmann-case-may-now-spawn-an-investigation-into-the-investigation-into-the-investigation-20230807-p5dugt.html
Jazper Lindell describes how Andrew Barr “fizzed” with frustration over Sofromoff giving the report to two journalists and The Australian doing the dirty.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8299264/what-a-coincidence-barr-fizzes-with-frustration-at-media-over-inquiry-leaks/?cs=14329
“ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr – the most radical left-wing leader in the country who blames everyone else for his mistakes – should have no authority over a criminal justice system”, trumpets The Australian’s Geoff Chambers.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/its-barr-humbug-ina-territory-of-bull-and-bluster/news-story/1bf50cd3af2e50be5e6bf649c95e0922?amp
The former supreme court judge who oversaw the inquiry into the rape trial of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann may be referred to the ACT Integrity Commission and could face criminal charges over his dealings with the media, posits Ronald Mizen.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/sofronoff-could-face-integrity-commission-probe-and-charges-20230807-p5dugc
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia will push for an additional $3.3 billion in its funding negotiations with the federal government when talks are expedited over the powerful lobby group’s uproar about Labor’s 60-day prescription policy, writes Natassia Chrysanthos.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pharmacies-to-push-for-billions-more-to-compensate-for-missing-script-fees-20230807-p5dug9.html
Peter Dutton blocked high-priority crime prevention grants for Indigenous communities as Home Affairs Minister in favour of less-worthy projects found to have favoured Coalition seats and which included protecting “expensive bowling greens”. Labor has seized on this, writes Paul Sakkal about a process that has a familiar ring to it.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-bypassed-indigenous-crime-prevention-for-safety-grants-in-coalition-seats-20230806-p5du9d.html
In a rather frightening contribution, former chief scientist Alan Finkel warns that the AI horse has bolted and it’s time for the nuclear option.
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-ai-horse-has-bolted-it-s-time-for-the-nuclear-option-20230807-p5duel.html
“With the ground shifting beneath them, the big four consultancy firms are now all very happy with the increased regulatory oversight and turbocharged penalties that are coming down the pike. But then what else could they say?”, writes Elizabeth Knight about how the PwC virus infected the whole industry.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/how-the-pwc-s-virus-infected-the-industry-20230807-p5duj6.html
The AFR tells us that the Tax Office first raised its concerns related to the conduct of PwC’s tax division with Luke Sayers on August 29, 2019, when second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn urged the firm’s then-CEO to “personally review the internal emails”.
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/tax-office-warned-pwc-chief-sayers-to-read-the-emails-20230807-p5dumo
“Eye-watering”, “fines jump 10,000% in huge crackdown”! The Big 4 crackdown has arrived in the most cracking down fashion. But what is it really? Michael West reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/crackdown-better-watch-out-you-big-4-well-wave-a-stern-finger-at-yers/
A pilot project in Marrickville by award-winning architects will provide dozens of homes at well below market rates, explains Julie Power. She tells us an inner Sydney council hopes to encourage more religious groups to use their surplus land for desperately needed affordable housing rather than selling it to developers for profit.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-plan-to-add-thousands-of-affordable-apartments-in-sydney-s-inner-west-20230804-p5dtyo.html
The environment agency alleges the landfill in Melbourne’s south-east has not complied with its laws after residents complained of putrid smells coming from the site. The Environment Protection Authority has taken SBI Landfill – a construction and demolition waste tip on Ballarto Road in Cranbourne – and its directors to the Supreme Court, alleging serious non-compliance with environment protection laws.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/permeates-entire-community-epa-takes-landfill-to-court-over-offensive-odours-20230807-p5dufh.html
Perry Duffin tells us that two FBI agents were killed investigating a child abuse ring. A year later Australian police arrested 19 men allegedly linked to the dark web paedophile network.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/murder-of-fbi-agents-leads-to-alleged-australian-paedophile-ring-bust-20230807-p5dui7.html
The massive wealth transfer that occurred during the pandemic is poised to cause problems. And Australia will not be immune, writes Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/why-this-billionaire-investing-legend-is-worried-about-the-future-20230807-p5duf0.html
Professor Michael Woods opines that aged-care funding reforms must ensure users pay their fair share.
https://theconversation.com/aged-care-funding-reforms-must-ensure-users-pay-their-fair-share-210962
The affordability of insurance and the impact of planning rules on flood-prone areas will be the focus of a parliamentary inquiry into the sector, amid warnings that Australians are being priced out of coverage in parts of the country most at risk from natural disasters, reports Shane Wright.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/inquiry-to-examine-insurance-costs-as-study-shows-australians-being-priced-out-20230807-p5dukp.html
When it comes to encroaching on neighbours’ territory, Vladimir Putin is simply a boofhead. Xi Jinping, on the other hand, is simply brilliant, opines Peter Hartcher.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/why-putin-is-losing-his-war-and-xi-is-winning-his-20230807-p5dueu.html
Donald Trump remains an existential threat to the survival of US democracy, declares Troy Bramston, saying Trump remains a disgusting, disgraceful, dangerous individual..
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/donald-trump-remains-an-existential-threat-to-the-survival-of-us-democracy/news-story/428da2df8ee481076c6e0913a9b423af?amp
“Will Donald Trump be jailed before his trial?”, asks Robert Reich after the former president continues to threaten witnesses despite warnings not to violate conditions of release.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/07/will-donald-trump-be-jailed-before-trial
A federal judge tossed out former US president Donald Trump’s countersuit against the writer who won a sex abuse lawsuit against him, ruling on Monday that Trump can’t claim she defamed him by continuing to say she was not only sexually abused but raped. He’s not having a good time, is he?
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/judge-tosses-trump-s-defamation-suit-against-writer-e-jean-carroll-20230808-p5duo4.html
Republican politicians have been accused of exploiting the tragedy of America’s fentanyl crisis by blaming Joe Biden for the rising death toll, and linking it to his immigration policies and populist anger over the US’s troubled southern border.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/07/republicans-fentanyl-biden-asylum-seekers-cynicism
Cartoon Corner
Cathy Wilcox
David Rowe
Glen Le Lievre
Peter Broelman
Matt Golding
Dionne Gain
John Shakespeare
Mark Knight
Spooner
From the US
c@t: what you are talking about is good, but – unless the polls are way off – I reckon it’s too little too late for a successful referendum result in 2023.
Tasmania has the best race relations in the country, and a sizeable element of the Liberal Party down here is onboard with the Yes campaign. And yet Newspoll suggests Yes is well behind down here. If that’s true, I’m sorry but I reckon there’s no chance.
”
C@tmommasays:
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 6:11 am
From The Daily Mail:
(analysis of the Newspoll)
Who is voting Yes to the Voice
* High income earners
* Renters
* University-educated Australians
* Young people
Who is voting No to the Voice
* Voters who aren’t tertiary educated
* People who own their homes outright
* Retirees
* Mortgage-holders
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the polling reflected people’s wishes for more information about the voice.
‘There are a lot more Indigenous Australians out there who don’t feel like they’ve been represented through the Uluru Statement from the Heart,’ she said.
But former Nationals MP Andrew Gee, who quit the party due to its opposition to the voice, said large groups of voters were being alienated as a result of the coalition’s position.
‘I think the Voice will succeed, I think we will get it over the line, but if it does not there will be a real emptiness about what has happened,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a very short-sighted attitude (for the coalition) to take and I think longer term when the history books are written, history will judge them very poorly for it.’
”
We already know how history is already written in last 20 out of 27 years by electing Howard and ATM governments. Even 6 of the 7 years of Labor governments were not flash with significant infighting in ALP caucus. Yes 440 legislative bills were passed during Gillard years but how many of them still survive. Even the most significant bills that survived like NBN and NDIS are either gutted (NBN) or rorted (NDIS) by ATM Governments. A significant Climate change bill was repealed.
I don’t understand why Australian people are so afraid of their shadows
and getting spooked by even small scare campaigns even though they are a rich country.
All this resulted in not taking any Climate change action by the respective governments and First Nations people left behind when compared to others.
C@tmomma says:
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 6:06 am
From the previous thread:
Griff @ #828 Monday, August 7th, 2023 – 11:40 pm
Asha says:
Monday, August 7, 2023 at 11:13 pm
The attacks on the government’s changes to prescriptions by the pharmacy guild is just disgraceful. Every pharmacy I’ve been to recently has just been plastered with scare campaigns about it. It is so transparently obvious that this has nothing to do with the costs potentially going up and everything to do with wanting to ensure more impulse buying from customers coming in your essential medications.
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It is primarily the reduction in dispensing fees. See: https://www.pbs.gov.au/info/healthpro/explanatory-notes/front/fee
Pharmacy owners receive a dispensing fee each time they or their pharmacist employee dispenses a PBS medication to put into a dose administration aid (blister pack) for aged care residents. It would add up to a non-insignificant sum if a pharmacy is servicing a facility. More if servicing multiple. There will be some owners that have bought in the last 10 years with an associated loan that would be hurting.
It’s a rort they’ve glommed onto since the Baby Boomer Bulge started moving into Aged Care Facilities and you know it, Griff. You would also know that a not-very-well-paid Dispensary Assistant, an Intern, or a not-very-well-paid Pharmacist-In-Charge, would be doing and overseeing the Webster Pack work in each pharmacy with a contract to supply an Aged Care Facility. With the Owner of the Pharmacy pocketing the Dispensing Fee.
I also note that the campaign by the Pharmacy Guild doesn’t reveal how they massively increased their profits under the Coalition government by being one of the industries that benefited from the influx of overseas-qualified skilled workers (pharmacists), which enabled them to drive down the hourly rate that they paid Pharmacists who qualified in Australia, as they just sourced a Pharmacist from overseas who was prepared to work for less than the going rate. To the extent that Pharmacists who were employed by a Pharmacy Owner, were paid not much more per hour than the top shop girl or Dispensary Assistant. Thus exponentially increasing their profit margin.
They don’t plaster that bit of information all over the shop walls, do they?
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I took care to explain that they owner gets the fees 😉 But as pharmacy valuations are based on their profit, those that have taken out a loan to purchase (as most new owners need to) would be hurting as profits decrease. Still the safest small business over the past 30-40 years with respect to default rates however. That may change slightly but to a much lesser that what is being said in public. And the silver lining is that pharmacists that are not owners have a lower bar to entry.
The award wage in Pharmacy is awful. Due to a range of factors, the strength of the Guild i.e. the owners, the least unionised workforce in healthcare, and the prevalence of small business v corporate ownership due to the protected nature of pharmacy ownership among others. That said, Locum rates have climbed since the start of COVID. Double the award wage on average in rural/regional areas and almost double in urban areas. While pharmacy has change in public perception – they were the front line in staying open and contributing to the vaccination drive, it has also changed in the proportion of pharmacists decreasing work or leaving the profession altogether due to burnout. More than nursing, let alone medicine. This decrease in supply is combined with an increase in workforce demand with the move of pharmacists into other areas such as GP practices and Aged Care facilities, and the evolving nature of community pharmacy itself as it is forced, kicking and screaming, from an almost entirely supply model to hybrid supply/professional services model.
Thanks BK!
I am surprised at myself that I am patriotic to Australia after what I went through in this country and what I have seen in this country. Why I call myself patriotic? It is because I want the welfare of this country and well being of this country after what I went through. If I want otherwise I would have would have voted continuously for L-NP governments and I didn’t vote for them even once unlike meher baba
2024 Republican Presidential Nomination poll (Reuters/Ipsos)
Trump: 47%
DeSantis: 13%
Pence: 8%
Ramaswamy: 7%
Haley: 5%
Scott: 2%
Christie: 0%
UK: Tory Deputy Chair Lee Anderson has told asylum seekers to “fuck off back to France”
Misfeasance in public office is in a dust gathering section of the law books.
I think it will probably remain there once everyone has calmed down a bit and a cool head emerges.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/drumgold-and-sofronoff-face-investigation-in-lehrmann-inquiry-fallout-20230807-p5duf7.html
Griff,
Thanks for your reply. The Pharmacy Guild wouldn’t be exaggerating would they? 😉
Honestly, I think if the government offered a slightly-increased Dispensing Fee, they might get the pharmacists back on board. However, the point needs to be made by the government that the move to supply 2 months of something at a time only applies to certain medicines, not all. So the pharmacists will still be getting their unique dispensing fees for everything else.
Also, I predict that the wages for pharmacists will be screwed down again over time, now that the borders are open again post pandemic. Or, they won’t go up as much as inflation. 😉
Bravo, Ven! 🙂
Morning all. Thanks for the roundup BK. I thought the Matildas were great last night. The crowd was huge and I’d wager the ratings were too.
I think we are seeing a big shift in the sporting landscape. Serious money will flow into women’s football with this sort of public interest.
And the WWCF cost less than 1/10th the cost to host the Commonwealth Games.
The other big winner last night was KPMG. Because fewer people watched Four Corners.
Ven: I think I voted for the LNP three times in about 45 years of voting: twice at Federal level (1998 and 2019) and once for Kate Carnell as Shire President of the ACT.
My two Federal votes were about tax policy: ie, I supported a GST and I supported franking credits and opposed taxing the bejeesus out of the superannuation system. In short, my views on tax policy are much the same as Keating’s genuine views (ie, as opposed to his anti-GST nonsense in the 1993 elections).
I care about policies not parties. Which is why, even though I like his economic policies, I have no time for Modi and his vile communalism.
[‘….Back in Australia, the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold, SC, and Walter Sofronoff, KC, the former judge who led the high-profile inquiry into authorities’ handling of the Lehrmann trial, face investigations that could lead to them both having charges brought against them.
In their interim response to the inquiry’s 839-page report on the “case like no other”, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury foreshadowed further investigations into Drumgold, who was heavily criticised in the findings, and Sofronoff, who leaked them to select journalists.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury formally released the report on Monday.
“This should have drawn a line under this matter,” Barr said of the report at a press conference on Monday.
While Sofronoff found the prosecution was properly brought, he said Drumgold had lied to the ACT Supreme Court in the lead-up to the trial, improperly questioned former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds on the stand, and made “scandalous” claims about police conduct.
Rattenbury said the ACT Bar Association would consider Drumgold’s future as a barrister and noted the findings had met the statutory threshold for dismissal for misbehaviour in office.] – SMH
Thanks BK!
”
Enough Alreadysays:
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 6:34 am
RUSSIANS KILL CIVILIANS IN ONE MISSILE STRIKE, THEN KILL RESCUERS IN SECOND STRIKE
“Five civilians were killed and 18 injured as a result of a Russian missile strike on central Pokrovsk, in Donetsk Oblast, which damaged several high-rise buildings. Deputy head of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) in Donetsk Oblast was killed and several rescue workers sustained injuries.
”
EA
Do you know about Bosnia and Herzegovina war in mid 90s?
Civilians were mercilessly killed, raped, pillaged and cities destroyed by Serbian army till Clinton administration intervened late in that war to stop it. Bosnian people lives were completely destroyed. Did Europe do much about by supplying Arms and ammunition to Bosnians fighting Serbia. I don’t think so.
Remember Serbia and Bosnia are part of Europe albeit Eastern Europe.
I was falling asleep. But a sudden jolt and bang made me jump up in fright. my OH who was asleep, was awoken by my antics. Of course, he thought I was being melodramatic about nothing.
Lo and behold. We hear about this on the radio first thing this morning.
https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/victorians-wake-up-at-midnight-to-loud-boom-and-possible-meteor-passing-through-the-sky-c-11519703
Save to say my OH owed me an apology. Lol!
Without trying to be dismissive of the seriousness of the matter.
The location of this case. The type of people involved. It truly Reminds me of an episode of midsummer murders. An old English series.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-08/victoria-mushroom-poison-meal-deaths-korumburra-leongatha/102699622
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“ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr – the most radical left-wing leader in the country who blames everyone else for his mistakes – should have no authority over a criminal justice system”, trumpets The Australian’s Geoff Chambers.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/its-barr-humbug-ina-territory-of-bull-and-bluster/news-story/1bf50cd3af2e50be5e6bf649c95e0922?amp
”
Geoff Chambers
You are an idiot and/or a Moron or both.
Didn’t You thing Morrison holding secret ministries is wonderful and a great innovation.
c@t: “Honestly, I think if the government offered a slightly-increased Dispensing Fee, they might get the pharmacists back on board. ”
Yep. It’s more crash through or crash from this government: it’s becoming a bit of a thing: they need to watch it.
The end result of all this brouhaha is that some people (and the government) will get a better deal from receiving two months’ of medicine at a time, but that the mostly older people receiving Webster packs will be forced to pay more for exactly the same service. Just this morning, my mother received a missive from the pharmacy that supplies the residents in her nursing home that she will be paying an additional $8.25 per week for her Webster packs, allegedly to pass on the impact of the new policy on them.
Apart from the very few pharmacies that still prepare medications, the pharmacy business is more or less a racket nowadays: basically a bunch of glorified corner shops kept alive by massive government subsidies. Ideally, general practices and pharmacies (and pathologists and radiologists and possibly a few other services) would be rolled together into an integrated service-delivery system. Difficult to achieve, but these services are starting to gather together of their own accord in large medical centres, which is a promising start, and can be built upon with a “softly, softly, catchee monkey” approach.
I understand why the Government wanted to go with the two month script measure. I just hope it hasn’t set back the longer-term grand plan.
Latest Essential Report here, more details on the topic questions mentioned by the Guardian, plus some that were not mentioned.
https://essentialreport.com.au/reports/08-august-2023
Voting figures, approval ratings etc here
https://essentialreport.com.au/reports/federal-political-insights
TTP+: is ALP 52 L/NP 42
Primary: ALP 33 L/NP 30 GRN 12 ON 8 IND 8 UAP 2 Undecided 6
The TPP+ and the Primary figures do NOT exclude undecideds, so they will seem lower & can’t be face value compared to other polls like Newspoll, Morgan etc.
”
The massive wealth transfer that occurred during the pandemic is poised to cause problems. And Australia will not be immune, writes Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/why-this-billionaire-investing-legend-is-worried-about-the-future-20230807-p5duf0.html
”
“Over the past year or so, central banks steadily raised rates and reversed their quantitative easing, while governments adopted less stimulative fiscal policies.
The settings, however, aren’t as harsh as the still-elevated inflation rates might have dictated in the past.
That’s particularly the case with fiscal policy in the US, where the government deficit is expected to be around 6.6 per cent of GDP next year, before rising further in 2025.
The US debt to GDP ratio of 112.9 per cent this year is significantly lower than its peak of 122.3 per cent in 2020, during the pandemic, but well above the 100 per cent level in 2019. It is projected to continue to rise, topping 118 per cent in 2025.
It was that deteriorating fiscal position, and a Congressional Budget Office forecast that the government’s interest costs would double to 3.6 per cent of GDP over the next decade – they are already approaching $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) a year – and the improbability of a bitterly divided and dysfunctional US Congress from doing anything about it, that led to Fitch Ratings’ downgrading of the credit rating of the US government’s debt last week.
Dalio asked himself a rhetorical question. Does it matter that governments and central banks have such bad balance sheets and income statements if the real economy is in pretty good shape? His answer was, “of course it does”.
“As with people and economies, governments that borrow have debt-service payments and eventually have to pay back principal, which is painful. The only difference in their finances are that governments can confiscate wealth through taxes and print money via their central banks, so that’s what we should expect to happen.”
Good article in my opinion.
The economy, the debt and climate change are the settings that will result in disaster for world especially for West by the middle of 21st century.
“c@t: “Honestly, I think if the government offered a slightly-increased Dispensing Fee, they might get the pharmacists back on board. ”
Yep. It’s more crash through or crash from this government: it’s becoming a bit of a thing: they need to watch it.”
The Govt didn’t start with a lot of authority, if they cave to every single group of greedy rent seekers they will lose even that.
”
When it comes to encroaching on neighbours’ territory, Vladimir Putin is simply a boofhead. Xi Jinping, on the other hand, is simply brilliant, opines Peter Hartcher.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/why-putin-is-losing-his-war-and-xi-is-winning-his-20230807-p5dueu.html
”
I agree with that assessment of Peter Hartcher. 🙂
”TTP+: is ALP 52 L/NP 42
Primary: ALP 33 L/NP 30 GRN 12 ON 8 IND 8 UAP 2 Undecided 6”
My calculation of 2PP:
ALP 2PP = 33 + 0 + 10 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 3 = 54.
Or we could take 52 and split the undecided 50-50 —> ALP 2PP = 55.
Not too bad. The ALP 2PP is holding up.