The latest fortnightly Essential Research poll finds both major parties unchanged on the primary vote, Labor at 31% and the Coalition at 32%, with the Greens down two to 13%, One Nation up one to 8% and 6% undecided. The pollster’s 2PP+ measure has Labor down two to 49% and the Coalition up two to 45% – the narrowest result this term – with undecided likewise at 6%. A result on the Indigenous Voice maintains the remorseless trend, with no up three to 51% (hard no up one to 42%, soft no up one to 8%) and and yes down one to 41% (hard yes down two to 28%, soft yes steady at 12%).
Regarding the government’s latest package of workplace laws, the poll finds 79% are in favour of criminalising wage theft, with only 6% opposed; 66% support “closing loopholes so that employers can’t use labour hire workers to undercut full time workers”, with 12% opposed; and 54% support “ensure that gig workers who work through digital platforms have minimum rights and entitlements”, with 15% opposed. Forty-nine per cent favoured “businesses maximising profits for shareholders” as the cause of rising living costs over 32% for the alternative cause of wage and salary increases for workers, and 42% felt workplace power tilted too much in favour of employers compared with 12% for workers. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1135.
Also doing the rounds is a Victorian state poll from RedBridge Group that shows primary vote shares much as they were at the November election, with Labor on 37%, the Coalition on 34% and the Greens on 13% (36.7%, 34.5% and 11.5% respectively at the election). However, Labor is credited with a wider two-party preferred lead of 56.5-43.5, compared with 55.0-45.0 at the election. The poll was conducted August 31 to September 14 from a substantial sample of 3001, allowing for credible breakdowns by gender, age, region, education, income and home ownership in the pollster’s report.
And New Newspoll on Sunday. It will be sub 52-48 to the ALP on Bludgertrack by October 15.
Rishi Sunak is set to DELAY the ban on petrol and diesel car sales from 2030 to 2035.
BREAKING: Tory MPs are considering writing letters of NO CONFIDENCE in Rishi Sunak if he goes ahead with weakening net zero.
The Voice is moving inexorably away from Albo. The endorsements, rallies, advertising and the ABC can only watch as attempts to divide us on a matter of race are simply not working for the Yes campaign.
Albo will pay the price, ultimately. He thought he was going to make a stand that would place him in our history books. He was too clever. Vote for the Voice and then I will tell you how it is going to work. No thanks Albo tell us now.
It’s a strong possibility that rumblings on leadership will appear before Christmas following a couple of Newspolls.
Jim Chalmers will remain fully supportive of course.
Watch this space.
House GOP leadership pulled a procedural vote on a proposed short-term funding stopgap that has bitterly divided the Republican conference and elicited opposition from hard-line conservatives.
The House was scheduled to vote at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on the rule to allow the GOP continuing resolution (CR) proposal to move forward, but an update sent out shortly before noon did not list the procedural vote.
The Democratic Whip’s office confirmed that “The House GOP Leadership” made changes to the floor schedule. The office’s updated schedule did not include the rule vote.
The House could hold the procedural vote later in the day, but the postponement marks a setback for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP leadership, who hoped that the conference would coalesce around the stopgap proposal in order to increase their leverage in future negotiations with the Senate and White House.
Asked about pulling the rule Tuesday, McCarthy told reporters, “I’m just recircling it; we have people talking together.” Pressed on when he would bring the rule to the floor, he responded, “It’s coming up.”
The turmoil around the partisan CR proposal is leaving House Republicans in a sticky situation that members widely agree has no clear way forward without further inflaming Republican tensions — and potentially threatening McCarthy’s leadership.
France and Germany are pushing plans to offer Britain and other European countries “associate membership” of the EU in a move that could rebuild the UK’s ties with the bloc.
The two countries have tabled a blueprint that would create four new tiers, with the most aligned states forming an “inner circle”.
In what will be seen as an olive branch, a new outer tier of “associate membership” would be open to the UK, laying the ground for a closer economic relationship.
Senior Tories welcomed the proposal with former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine telling The Independent that Britain must urgently explore the idea as the “overarching majority of people in Britain see Brexit as a mistake”.
OMG this is friggin insane. Did Essential fudge these numbers or what? Are they closet Lib supporters. F##K THEM P#SS OFF. Someone tell them to try harder. Vic Poll was good so long as it stands and we’re not now told it’s a typo and they won. Sorry, I’m a one eyed magpie supporter (3rd gen) hehe
Britain needs to elect Labour first, otherwise the Tories will just pull another Brexit 2.0 stunt down the road.
Al Pal,
The Voice referendum proposal is not about race, it’s about Indigeneity, ya bigot looking for an excuse for your ‘No’ vote.
My god, not only do No voters stand with ill-informed bigots like Pauline Hanson and Jacinta Price, but they’re also being mindf*cked by Putin backers!
https://www.smh.com.au/national/anti-voice-rallies-organised-by-pro-putin-conspiracy-theorist-20230919-p5e5zc.html
The yoyo Morgan poll
Labor 54-46% Lib/nats
Labor +1.5%
Lib/nats -1.5%
Lib/nats combined primary vote peak at 37%
The lib/nats combined primary vote is too low for Labor to be a minority government , plus teals/independents are a threat to lib/nats seats than Labor ,
Labor is heading for first term government to increase its majority , when was the last time a first term government increased its majority into its 2nd term
Secrecy laws that hampered the investigation of PwC’s tax leak scandal will be overhauled along with a huge increase in penalties for promoting avoidance schemes.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will unveil draft laws on Wednesday to tackle “blatant misconduct in our tax advice industry”, including increasing maximum penalties for advisers and firms that promote tax avoidance schemes from $7.8m to more than $780m.
Chalmers will release four sets of legislation for consultation with the aim of strengthening the integrity of the tax system and increasing the powers of regulators.
Signage at the PwC Australia office
The laws will expand tax promoter penalty laws so they’re easier for the ATO to apply to firms that promote tax avoidance, not just individual advisers. The treasurer also wants to give the ATO six years, up from four, to seek such penalties in the federal court.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/20/ato-powers-increase-tax-avoidance-labor-treasurer-jim-chalmers
Sydney Swans are the most widely supported AFL club ahead of Collingwood, Brisbane and West Coast
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/sydney-swans-are-the-most-widely-supported-afl-club-ahead-of-collingwood-brisbane-and-west-coast
“The Sydney Swans have again topped the annual Roy Morgan AFL supporter ladder as the only club with over 1 million supporters. The Swans now have 1,344,000 supporters, an increase of 209,000 supporters (+18.4%) on a year ago according to the 2023 annual Roy Morgan AFL club supporters survey – the largest increase of any AFL club over the last 12 months.
The most widely supported club in the Victorian heartland finished top of the ladder this year after the home and away season and is set for a blockbuster home Preliminary Final this weekend at the MCG. Collingwood now has 875,000 supporters, an impressive increase of 169,000 (+23.9%) on a year ago – the largest increase of any Victorian-based club.
The Pies are just ahead of the club hosting the other Preliminary Final, the Brisbane Lions, which now has 826,000 supporters, an increase of 105,000 (+14.6%) on a year ago – the third largest increase of any club in the AFL behind only the two clubs ahead on the supporter ladder.”
Scott – federally, not since WW2 (depends how you count Curtin’s re-election in 1943).
Leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has vowed to take on Canberra’s “elites”, has charged taxpayers $76,509.19 for 76 business-class flights since she was elected last May until June this year. The SMH reports she spent $19,062 on hotels too — and sure, she’s allowed, and sure, she’s from the NT so it’s a long way to go. For comparison, however, the paper notes her predecessor, former senator Sam McMahon, spent just $18,000 on flights in her last nine months. It seems McMahon preferred away to home, however — her taxpayer-funded hotel bill was $74,635 for 186 nights over nine months before she was rolled to make way for Price, The Age reported at the time.
Labor at 31% and the Coalition at 32%,
————————————–
Essential polling is even looking like Labor majority , the swing against the lib/nats over double of Labor
Labor (32.6% ,2022) , – 1.6%
Lib/nats (35.7%, 2022), – 3.7%
Australia has quietly cancelled plans to buy reconnaissance drones used by China and Russia under a $1 billion Navy project controversially approved just days before last year’s election by then defence minister Peter Dutton.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-20/labor-scraps-peter-dutton-approved-drone-deal/102875788
C@tmomma,
Good morning to you as well.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus were called “Chinese sympathizers” after they blocked a defense spending bill on Tuesday.
Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) made the remarks on the Capitol steps moments after Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Ken Buck (R-CO), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Dan Bishop (R-NC) voted with Democrats to oppose debate on the bill.
“Out of fear, they decided to vote against the rule to even allow this to come to the floor for debate,” Garcia explained. “This city, Washington DC, is riddled with Chinese sympathizers.” “There’s a reason why China is now a peer adversary instead of what they were relative to the United States 10 years ago, and it’s because politicians have given China a pass for the last ten years,” he added. “What we just saw with these five individuals was them adding effectively their name to that list that are enabling Chairman Xi right now, looking at this with a sigh of relief.”
”
Confessionssays:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 6:50 am
My god, not only do No voters stand with ill-informed bigots like Pauline Hanson and Jacinta Price, but they’re also being mindf*cked by Putin backers!
Rallies opposing the Indigenous Voice to parliament planned around Australia this weekend are being organised by a pro-Kremlin activist and anti-vaccination campaigner living in the Russian consulate in Sydney.
The official No campaign has distanced itself from the latest iteration of the “world freedom rallies”, which have long been organised by Simeon Boikov, who is also known online as “the Aussie Cossack”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/anti-voice-rallies-organised-by-pro-putin-conspiracy-theorist-20230919-p5e5zc.html
”
OMG indeed!
Come to think of it, I would say let ‘Aussie Cossack ‘ organise those rallies and make people aware and prove how insane/crazy/ nuts ‘No’campaign is.
#weatheronPB
The pale milky film,
will too soon be washed away,
by the glaring sun.
”
C@tmommasays:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 6:43 am
Al Pal,
The Voice referendum proposal is not about race, it’s about Indigeneity, ya bigot looking for an excuse for your ‘No’ vote.
”
C@tmomma
Al Pal was ALP supporter and voter till Voice referendum date is announced.
spo jacinta price does not mind non canbra aleets she has long been part of tom switsers center for independent studies and has links to melbernes ipa
”
Holdenhillbillysays:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 7:05 am
Leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has vowed to take on Canberra’s “elites”, has charged taxpayers $76,509.19 for 76 business-class flights since she was elected last May until June this year. The SMH reports she spent $19,062 on hotels too — and sure, she’s allowed, and sure, she’s from the NT so it’s a long way to go. For comparison, however, the paper notes her predecessor, former senator Sam McMahon, spent just $18,000 on flights in her last nine months. It seems McMahon preferred away to home, however — her taxpayer-funded hotel bill was $74,635 for 186 nights over nine months before she was rolled to make way for Price, The Age reported at the time.
”
There were always people like this in history. They either have ‘Stockholm syndrome’ or betray their people ( like saying colonisation benefitted the colonised)
Why are people surprised their is Russian backing of the divisive No side? I thought it would have been an obvious way of disrupting Australia after Kremlins efforts in the UK, US and elsewhere.
How Canada’s attempt to get allies, including US, to accuse India was rebuffed
While Canada has strained its ties with India over the claims of “potential link” to a Khalistani terrorist’s killing, what Ottawa originally intended was to get its closest allies to come together and condemn India
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/how-canada-attempt-to-get-its-allies-including-us-to-accuse-india-was-rebuffed-2437893-2023-09-20
“On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged India’s “potential link” in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. The aftermath of this allegation was a diplomatic war between India and Canada, which included the expulsion of diplomats and Ottawa issuing an advisory to its citizens in India.
While Canada has strained its ties with India over the claims, what Ottawa originally wanted was to get its closest allies, including the United States, to come together and condemn India. However, Canada’s attempts were rebuffed, as per a report by the Washington Post.
The shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in June this year was privately raised by several senior officials of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, a Western official was quoted as saying by the Washington Post.
“Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a gurdwara by two unidentified assailants in Surrey in June, was the chief of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
He was designated a ‘terrorist’ by India under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in July 2020. An Interpol Red Corner Notice was also issued against Nijjar in 2016. The local police of Surrey had also put Nijjar under house arrest temporarily in 2018 on suspicion of terror involvement, but he was released later.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Ross Gittins calls for the jailing of corporate crooks. He argues a compelling case.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/corporate-lawbreakers-should-be-jailed-imagine-what-their-spouses-would-say-20230919-p5e5rx.html
The Albanese government has released draft legislation to impose penalties of up to $780 million for tax promoter breaches as part of its response to the PwC tax leaks scandal. Neil Chenoweth explains that the four sets of legislation include the new promoter penalties, changes to Tax Office secrecy and wider powers for the Tax Practitioners Board, in the first stage of what the government has described as the biggest crackdown on tax advisers in Australian history.
https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/pwc-scandal-details-of-sector-crackdown-laid-out-20230919-p5e5yj
Defining full employment will be at the heart of the Albanese government’s white paper as a debate rages over whether job losses are good for the economy during near-record-low unemployment. Angus Thompson says that the federal government has committed to delivering full employment as one of five key objectives in the employment road map, to be released on Monday, which it will use to inform intersecting policies including migration and education to bolster the economy amid a global skills race.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/full-employment-definition-at-heart-of-white-paper-20230919-p5e5y9.html
NSW Labor’s budget was exactly on brand. Safe and risk-averse, writes Alexandra Smith.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-labor-s-budget-was-exactly-on-brand-safe-and-risk-averse-20230919-p5e5zj.html
The SMH editorial declares that the budget delivers on election promises but stops short of giving the NSW public a clearer picture of what the Minns government’s long-term agenda will look like.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/budget-delivers-on-election-promises-but-leaves-future-uncertain-20230919-p5e5wp.html
On the budget, Michael Koziol says that there’s particular irony in booking an extra $9.5 billion in stamp duty and $4.9 billion in land tax and directing so little of it back into building more houses.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-premier-called-this-a-housing-crisis-this-budget-hasn-t-delivered-a-solution-20230918-p5e5mm.html
Almost 120,000 dwellings are approved and ready to be built immediately, Victorian councils say as they hit back at claims that they are responsible for a NIMBY bottleneck behind a lack of housing supply. Analysis provided to The Age by the Municipal Association of Victoria suggests there are 119,536 houses, townhouses and units that have been approved under Victoria’s planning laws on which construction has not yet begun. When will the penny drop that there is a national capacity problem?
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-120-000-homes-that-are-ready-to-be-built-but-work-hasn-t-started-20230919-p5e5t7.html
Opponents of a Voice to parliament frequently label its backers as elitist, out of touch, Canberra bubble types. But, write Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell, we can think of few things more elitist and Canberra than Country Liberals senator and leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price billing taxpayers $76,509.19 for 76 business-class flights between her election last May and July 2023.
https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/jacinta-price-bills-taxpayers-76-000-for-business-class-flights-20230919-p5e60b.html
The Voice will help to improve wasteful and expensive Indigenous programs, according to Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney, who will highlight precise examples of how she would consult the Voice as she pitches the proposed advisory body as a solution to day-to-day problems, reports Paul Sakkal.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/burney-explains-how-she-will-consult-the-voice-20230919-p5e60n.html
Paul Bongiorno writes, “Perhaps because referendums are held so infrequently, we haven’t bothered to notice how flawed they are as a democratic process, which goes a long way to explain why only eight have succeeded of the 44 proposed since 1901. They are a vestige of the struggle to get the six colonies to agree to form a federated commonwealth based on the principle all states are equal, no matter how many people actually live in them. It is states’ rights versus people’s rights and as the years have gone by this construct has created two classes of Australian citizen – the very thing the No campaign urges us not to do on October 14.”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2023/09/19/paul-bongiorno-constitutional-process/
A Yes victory will transform nation’s political character, writes Paul Kelly in what appears to be a sit on the fence essay.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/a-yes-victory-will-transform-nations-political-character/news-story/7f0eedcfee8f6a2fc28b8b1b5f483e02?amp
Amending our archaic and racist Constitution won’t affect the lives of the non-Indigenous but will reward all Australians with a better future, writes Labor Member for Moreton Graham Perrett.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/rewards-for-voting-in-voice-to-parliament-will-benefit-all-australians,17914
In her recent address to the National Press Club, Jacinta Price resuscitated the seventy years old policy of assimilation constructed by Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck, writes Henry Reynolds.
https://johnmenadue.com/assimilation-re-emerges/
“I’m a first-generation migrant, and our Voice votes are there for the taking”, writes Seema Abdullah.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/i-m-a-first-generation-migrant-and-our-voice-votes-are-there-for-the-taking-20230913-p5e4ef.html
Let’s have an honest debate about the reality of modern work – not one that perpetuates the myth of the ‘bludger’, urges Peter Lewis.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/sep/19/australia-workforce-closing-loopholes-bill-essential-business
Qantas is fighting fires on so many fronts, that it takes little to fan the flames. It was always going to get hit by stray (and not so stray) bullets during the Senate inquiry into the government’s decision to block Qatar from getting additional flights into the country, writes Elizabeth Knight.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-hit-by-stray-bullets-in-senate-s-qatar-inquiry-20230919-p5e5yh.html
Sydney Airport has accused airlines operating out of the United Arab Emirates of wasting almost half of the capacity they have been awarded – some 84 flights every week, explains the AFR.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/qatar-blocked-despite-plenty-of-wasted-flight-capacity-sydney-airport-20230919-p5e5vi
While much of the focus of the recent surge in oil prices has been on the rising price of petrol, the price of the other big fuel that drives the global economy has been rising ever more steeply. Stephen Bartholomeusz tells us that diesel prices have been hitting decades-long seasonal highs in the US, Europe and Asia and refinery margins have been exploding as a global shortage of the product has developed.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/we-are-running-low-on-the-world-s-most-important-fuel-20230919-p5e5t8.html
The competition watchdog has calmed fears of a looming gas supply shortage, saying there will be enough gas to meet Australian domestic demand into next year as it forecasts a 9 per cent lift in liquid natural gas exports. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) quarterly report into the gas market, released on Wednesday, projects that even if all uncontracted gas produced in Australia is exported, there will still be an overall east coast surplus.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/gas-surplus-on-the-cards-as-accc-flags-higher-exports-in-2024-20230919-p5e5zg.html
Governments should accept that they may well be managing end-of-life coal-fired generators for decades and that each will be more critical than the last, writes energy expert Matthew Warren.
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/face-reality-about-transfer-of-power-from-coal-20230918-p5e5rb
With El Nino now declared, New South Wales fire agencies are racing to prepare their crews and complete hazard reduction burns ahead of what is forecast to be the most dangerous fire season since 2019-2020, with catastrophic fire conditions already recorded on the state’s south coast. The NSW Rural Fire Service still has to upgrade almost 1,900 fire trucks to comply with national standards, three years after an inquiry found the trucks lacked the necessary safety features to protect crews during a burn over.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/20/rfs-chief-says-still-a-lot-to-be-done-to-prepare-for-nsw-fire-season
Many rivers around the world are dying from overuse, pollution, the effects of dams, river barriers and global warming; governmental failures and political squabbles are often paramount. How then do we save the Murray, asks David Shearman who calls for revolution to fix the issue.
https://johnmenadue.com/revolution-is-needed-to-save-the-dying-river-murray/
Leaders from around the world are meeting in New York this week for the UN Climate Ambition Summit. The purpose is to check on progress towards a “more equitable renewable-energy based, climate-resilient global economy”. John Thwaites reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/un-summit-asia-pacific-greenhouse-emissions-rising-despite-lofty-ambitions/
More than 400 raids were carried out across the country involving police from all jurisdictions as part of the week-long Operation Vitreus, which targeted criminal drug syndicates. Police stormed properties, homes and businesses – even uncovering drugs buried in bushland in Western Australia – as part of the joint national operation, seizing drugs with a street value estimated at $475m. The raids netted 814kg of methamphetamine, 182kg of MDMA, thousands of plants from hydroponic crops and 185kg of cannabis. In total, 990 people were arrested on 2,052 drug-related charges. Nice work!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/19/police-drug-raid-arrests-1000-mdma-methamphetamine
Businesses will be able to bring in foreign skilled workers on potentially as little as $120,000 in a visa process that will take weeks instead of months, as part of a migration overhaul that will make it easier to hire in high-demand industries. The changes are part of the government’s soon-to-be released migration review, which will involve the biggest shake-up of a system – one the government admits is “broken” – since the 1990s.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/migration-overhaul-to-fast-track-skilled-workers-in-days-not-months-20230918-p5e5jh
“Starmer and Macron didn’t talk about Brexit or the booing – no point falling out on a first date”, writes John Crace in another sarcastic contribution.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/19/keir-starmer-emmanuel-macron-brexit-john-crace-sketch
Strikes aren’t bad for the US economy. They’re the best thing that could happen, argues Robert Reich.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/19/strikes-us-economy-uaw-writers-actors-starbucks
Nick Bryant says “all of us in the media probably need to try harder to kick the Trump habit. At the very least, we should aim to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2016 when, as an industry, we helped facilitate his rise.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/we-helped-create-a-pass-the-popcorn-president-time-for-a-healthier-diet-20230913-p5e48v.html
Cartoon Corner
David Pope
David Rowe
Andrew Dyson
John Shakespeare
Mark David
Simon Letch
Cathy Wilcox
Harry Bruce
Jon Kudelka
Glen Le Lievre
Mark Knight
Spooner’s fetish surfaces again
From the US
oh boy, The Voice is well and truly cooked isn’t it?
We are now well into the phase of celebrity endorsement for ‘YES’, with John Farnham, Cathy Freeman and others lending their help. And still the numbers are still trending towards 60/40 in favour of NO
The only shot left in the locker for the YES camp is the good ol’classic ‘Pleading child/Think of my future’ line.
The adds are coming out this week , according to The Guardian
Well we can guarantee the No camp wont have a celebrity phase….
The Voice seems almost dead. About as much life as a mummy (the Egyptian type). But when I saw the Morgan Poll just out and we bounce back I think I creamed myself. You F##KING RIPPA. Come in spinner. No more P#SS OFF FOR ME IF THIS KEEPS UP.
49 Labor, 45 Coalition, 6 Don’t know / don’t care.
That looks like 52 – 48 to me, no change from the election.
With a sample size of 1135, the margin of error is 3%, so the numbers are consistent with a range of results from a narrow Coalition victory (probably minority Government in the current context) to the biggest Labor landslide since the immediate post-war period.
As always, take it with a grain of salt.
Al Pal accusing his opponents of what his guys are doing…
In the last thread Dr Doolittle replied to B.S. Fairman
You should read Barry Jones at:
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2023/09/16/the-voice-our-brexit-moment#mtr
He notes: ‘The questions in Australian referendums are almost invariably very short, only about principle. There are never any details about how a “Yes” will be implemented.’
___________________________________________________________
This really caught my attention.
There seems to be a view in the YES camp that there was no need for any detail around the workings of the Voice, largely because the words that ultimately go into the constitution will be very high level and principles-based.
Its almost as if they assumed voters cannot tell the difference between operational details on the one hand and the high level principles than informs the detail on the other
What’s more, anyone who asks for the detail is painted as a mischievous wrecker
The YES camp are headed for the result they deserve.
Without comment
Biden warns Trump is an existential threat to democracy. The media whiffs it
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/19/2194208/-Biden-warns-Trump-is-an-existential-threat-to-democracy-The-media-whiffs-it
“In advance of his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, President Joe Biden traveled to New York on Sunday and spent time at a fundraiser in a Broadway theater Monday night. In front of supporters there, he hammered at the threat Donald Trump presents to the nation’s democracy.
“Let there be no question, Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy. And I will always defend, protect and fight for our democracy,” Biden said, according to the Associated Press.”
“CNN has more from the speech:
“I will not side with dictators like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. Maybe Trump and his MAGA friends can bow down and praise him, but I won’t,” Biden said.
“I don’t believe America is a dark, negative nation, a nation of carnage driven by anger, fear and revenge. Donald Trump does,” he added later.
Citing Trump’s vow if reelection to act as “retribution” for his supporters, Biden asked: “Did you ever think you’d hear a president of the United States speak like that? Well, I believe we are a hopeful, optimistic nation driven by the proposition that everyone deserves a shot.”
”
Biden: Let there be no question, Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy.
Hillary Clinton: in 2016 she Called Trump supporters as ‘basket of deplorables ‘
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket_of_deplorables
As I posted yesterday in previous thread, four out of five Presidents/ PMs of permanent members of UN Security Council are not going to this year’s UN meet.
Only Biden is attending.
UN Chief says response of the world to Climate change crisis is becoming”unhinged”.
Al Palsays:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 6:27 am
Albo will pay the price, ultimately. He thought he was going to make a stand that would place him in our history books.
_____________________
He will be in the history books all right
‘How not to run a referendum’
It will be studied for years.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Insisting that international cooperation is critical, the United Nations chief delivered a dire warning to leaders from across the world Tuesday, declaring that the planet is becoming unhinged with mounting global challenges and geopolitical tensions — and warning that “we seem incapable of coming .
But there isn’t any need for a detail. Are critics seriously saying that the question should be something like the following?
“There shall be an assembly of 24 members that will sit for a term of four years. Members of the assembly, to be called “…”, will be elected by members of First Nation communities (include definition). Candidates will be voted in single member electorates with boundaries set so that as far as practicable electorates are equal in indigenous population, as determined by …. the most recent census? etc etc etc…”
My prediction for the referendum: 60.89% No, 39.11% Yes. Just so everyone knows, I’ll be grabbing some popcorn and enjoying the comments in this thread as the live results come in.
Ven says:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 7:21 am
”
C@tmommasays:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 6:43 am
Al Pal,
The Voice referendum proposal is not about race, it’s about Indigeneity, ya bigot looking for an excuse for your ‘No’ vote.
”
C@tmomma
Al Pal was ALP supporter and voter till Voice referendum date is announced.
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Ven
Al Pal always encompassed the vilest characteristics of a Liberal supporter.
I think you are confusing him with Alpo, a dyed in the wool ALP supporter.
Donald Trump and his supporters are a basket of deplorables…
UK Cartoons:
“Oh, yes. A very productive meeting, Putin gifted me this lousy rifle and an old cosmonaut’s glove and in return he wants bombs, landmines, fighter jets, drones, ammunition and the name of my hairdresser”
Thanks for pix Alpha. I thought PB had blown up for a second.
Kevin Bonham reporting on the Morgan Poll released o/night that one of the parties is on a term high.
Awaiting Primary votes.
Mr Squiggle:
“There seems to be a view in the YES camp that there was no need for any detail around the workings of the Voice, largely because the words that ultimately go into the constitution will be very high level and principles-based.
Its almost as if they assumed voters cannot tell the difference between operational details on the one hand and the high level principles than informs the detail on the other
What’s more, anyone who asks for the detail is painted as a mischievous wrecker
The YES camp are headed for the result they deserve.”
There is definitely something wrong with the referendum question and the supporting arguments put forward in favour of it, but I don’t think the criticism that it lacks detail really captures the problem, because – as Dr Doolittle has pointed out – all referendum questions are necessarily pretty broad brush.
However, what referendum questions have done traditionally is to specify the part of the Constitution that needs to be changed in order to achieve the objective of those proposing those questions. Right from the outset – and particularly in the “draft” question announced by Albo at the 2022 Garma Festival – it was not clear what it was that needed to be changed in the Constitution to enable the Voice. And the reason for that is that, given that everything about the Voice – its composition, function, powers, procedures and funding – is going to be determined by Parliament. The only power that the Constitution gives to the Voice is that it can never be abolished, but (subject to the always unpredictable determinations of learned judges on the High Court) that probably isn’t a very significant power.
The question as now posed is much better than the 2022 draft version, in that it gives a clear reason for why the Voice needs to be enshrined in the constitution: that is as a means of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia. But, in order to have achieved the end of providing a reason for changing the Constitution at all, the question embodies a significant non-sequitur.
There would seem to me to be two obvious ways of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia in the Constitution. The first of these would be simply to do so in clear words, at the very start of the Constitution, not hidden away in section 129. The second would be for the Government to negotiate a lasting treaty with Indigenous peoples and then enshrine that in the Constitution.
I don’t think that it is at all obvious that an appropriate way of constitutionally recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia is the creation of a purely advisory body without any actual powers (other than those that the High Court might unexpectedly read into the wording of section 129 at some unknown future date).
Therefore, as it reads, the referendum question jumps rather jarringly from a very high level concept – “recognition” – straight to a pretty mundane concept: the umpteen thousandth toothless advisory body created by the Federal Government.
I think the understandable response by many people to this jarring non sequitur is to assume that something as important as a body that gives “recognition” to Indigenous peoples and will be enshrined in the Constitution must in reality be a powerful thing, and that the Government’s suggestion that it will simply be advisory and capable of being ignored must be a lie. And that’s the feeling among voters that they are sometimes expressing as a concern about “insufficient detail.”
It’s clearly a problem.
It’s the pleasure, the sheer delight, the sniggering and smirking, that the No pushers get from not only not helping someone less fortunate than themselves, but blocking others from helping, that really gives some insight into their own state of being.
Meanwhile, the Wentworth for Yes forum saw former chief Liberal Poobah Tony Nutt put his position:
(guardian live)
Saw this On twitter. It gave me a sort of chuckle. Despite it being really crap.
————
Antichrist Alphabet:
Mike Flynn is Q
Vladimir Putin is Z
Elon Musk is X
ItzaDream: I had a fair bit to do with Nutt in a past life, and I wouldn’t have expected him to back the Voice. That’s good to hear.
Ven says:
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 7:01 am
Sydney Swans are the most widely supported AFL club ahead of Collingwood, Brisbane and West Coast
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Most of those Sydney ‘supporters’ are disinterested Sydneysiders who don’t know what holding the ball is and clap at weird times during the game.
Oh no! Not the High Court! Whatever shall we do if a citizen peacefully exercises their rights and seeks an interpretation from the judicial arm of one of the world’s most stable representative democracies about a provision embedding an advisory body with no decision making power?
For crying out loud.
nath,
That may be so, but they also have all of their front teeth.