The monthly Resolve Strategic poll in the Age/Herald has the Coalition up four points on the primary vote to 34% without taking a bite out of Labor’s 35%, the balance coming from drops of one point for the Greens to 12%, two for One Nation to 5% and one for the United Australia Party to 1%. The pollster does not provide two-party preferred numbers but I get it to 54.6-45.4 to Labor – a seemingly solid result for Labor, but just shading the June poll as its weakest since the election, in line with the broader trend when Resolve’s skew to Labor relative to other pollsters is accounted for.
Anthony Albanese is down three on approval to 36% and up two on disapproval to 48%, while Peter Dutton is respectively down one to 34% and up two to 42%. Preferred prime minister is little changed at 42-28 in Albanese’s favour, compared with 40-27 last month. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1605, and will presumably be followed over the next few days by a bi-monthly read of Victorian voting intention combining results from this poll and last month’s.
Also out yesterday was the weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor’s lead back to 51-49 after moving three points in their favour to 52.5-45 last week. The primary votes are Labor 32.5% (up half a point), Coalition 37.5% (up two-and-a-half), Greens 12.5% (down one) and One Nation 5% (steady). The poll was conducted last Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1730.
Churchill fanboi Boris Johnson ‘asked security services to draw up “military options” to obtain “impounded” doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from a plant in Leiden’ …
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/04/dutch-media-report-claim-boris-johnson-planned-raid-on-vaccine-plant-in-2021
FUBAR (previous thread): ‘The Strayan – I won’t provide a link because none of you subscribe.’
After a lifetime of reading the morning paper cover to cover, I cancelled my subscription to The Australian in 2003.
The daily series of front pages cheerleading for invading Iraq was the last straw.
“If we are serious about climate change then we need to be serious about the solutions to ensure energy security in a low emission future. Logically, until alternatives are found, this surely includes nuclear.”
The Senator for Elwood is just one of nine Coalition parliamentarians heading for CopOut28 to push the party line.
McKenzie’s fellow travellers include Paul Fletcher, Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Dean Smith; Matt Kean and Kellie Sloane (NSW); and Sam O’Connor and Steve Minnikin (QLD).
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/05/coalition-to-have-sizeable-contingent-at-cop28-despite-peter-dutton-jibe-at-climate-change-ministers-attendance
Before FUBAR mounts his high horse, Bucephalus, for another day, let me just post this factual post from last thread which blew his, and the Liberal Party’s, pro nuclear position from here to kingdom come:
Now, FUBAR, go find something to debate with us about where you are on solid ground, because SMRs and Nuclear Power for Australia ain’t it.
Bludgertrack now for first time since ScoMo’s demise showing the 2PP as worse than the last election
51.9 – 48.1
Minority Government looms but is it with Albo?
The UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has been hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China, the Guardian can reveal.
The astonishing disclosure and its potential effects have been consistently covered up by senior staff at the vast nuclear waste and decommissioning site, the investigation has found.
The Guardian has discovered that the authorities do not know exactly when the IT systems were first compromised. But sources said breaches were first detected as far back as 2015, when experts realised sleeper malware – software that can lurk and be used to spy or attack systems – had been embedded in Sellafield’s computer networks.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/04/sellafield-nuclear-site-hacked-groups-russia-china
Lars Von Trier says:
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 6:28 am
Bludgertrack now for first time since ScoMo’s demise showing the 2PP as worse than the last election
51.9 – 48.1
Minority Government looms but is it with Albo?
——————-
Looks a Labor majority to me
Meanwhile, the UK is struggling to deal with the legacy of 70 years of nuclear industry:
‘The UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has been hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China … The astonishing disclosure and its potential effects have been consistently covered up by senior staff at the vast nuclear waste and decommissioning site …’
‘The site has the largest store of plutonium on the planet and is a sprawling rubbish dump for nuclear waste from weapons programmes and decades of atomic power generation.’
‘… Sellafield, which has more than 11,000 staff [!], was last year placed into a form of “special measures” for consistent failings on cybersecurity …’
‘Nuclear decommissioning … is one of the biggest drains on the UK government’s annual business department budget. The site costs about £2.5bn a year to operate. Decommissioning is such a huge, long-term bill that it was examined as a “fiscal risk” to the UK’s economic health by the spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility. It is estimated it could cost as much as £263bn to manage the legacy of the UK’s nuclear energy and weaponry industries.’
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/04/sellafield-nuclear-site-hacked-groups-russia-china
Interesting, if correct (the Daily Mail isn’t my usual go to source for anything other than salacious gossip).
Internal ABC report reveals the National broadcaster spent most of the time speaking to Yes campaigners ahead of Voice referendum – before majority of the country voted No
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12823175/ABC-Voice-referendum-bias.html
I watch and listen to the ABC a fair bit, and I certainly felt that there was a lot of sympathetic coverage for the Voice during the campaign, as well as a significant increase in stories about Indigenous matters not related to the Voice (arguably fair enough, as the Voice brought Indigenous issues “into the news”). And the ABC ran on high rotation its commercial for itself featuring Indigenous and non-Indigenous people hugging each other while singing “I Am Australia” somewhere in the MacDonnell Ranges (I think).
Of course there is a question of the difference between quality and quantity. I recall that Megan Davis was extremely upset about two pieces of ABC programming: Warren Mundine being interviewed on the Insiders, and Dan Bourchier’s Four Corners report that uncovered quite a lot of anti-Voice sentiment in a few parts of Australia, particularly western NSW.
Her objection to the Mundine interview was ridiculous, as he was one of the two national spokespeople for the No campaign. Her objection to the Bourchier story was more understandable, as that was pretty damaging for the Yes case. Although I’m sure Bourchier would argue that he just followed the story where it took him, and that’s probably fair enough too.
My view is that the ABC doesn’t have an easy job in being seen to maintain a balance in its reporting.
Since I joined PB, I must have read thousands of posts whinging about the ABC’s alleged pro-Liberal bias: “their ABC” & etc. Most of this is pretty laughable.
However, there has always been something in accusations of an anti-Labor bias on the part of the ABC. I recall Peter Costello once being asked in an interview if he felt that the ABC was biased towards Labor and against the Libs. And he said that this was wrong: if anything, he felt that the ABC was harder on Labor because quite a few ABC journalists favoured political positions to the left of those pursued by Labor, eg: on environmental and border protection issues.
I reckon there was something in that.
HH: Snap!
This does NOT look like ‘Energy Security’ to me, Bridgey:
meher baba:
‘I must have read thousands of posts whinging about the ABC’s alleged pro-Liberal bias: “their ABC” & etc. Most of this is pretty laughable.’
‘He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.’
— Bertolt Brecht
meher baba,
Gossip was the reason we, homo sapiens, developed the ability to speak beyond grunts, wasn’t it? And, just as well for us on Sunday. 😉
The ABC apparently tried to speak to No people, in particular Jacinta Price. She reportedly rejected 52 invitations to appear in ABC interviews.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/jacinta-price-rejected-52-abc-interview-requests-during-the-voice-campaign-20231204-p5eoub.html
meher baba:
‘[Costello] felt that the ABC was harder on Labor because quite a few ABC journalists favoured political positions to the left of those pursued by Labor’
Apart, that is, from the scores of ABC journalists who have smoothly transitioned to careers as Liberal politicians and staffers.
Not to mention those who have been found by a tribunal to have been biased against Labor:
‘The ABC’s management in Queensland has been found to have deliberately misled Premier Peter Beattie and listeners over the unjust sacking of prominent broadcaster Andrew Carroll. In a scathing judgement yesterday, the Industrial Relations Commission vindicated Carroll but found his managers at the ABC guilty of lying to the public.’
‘… the ABC’s State director in Queensland Chris Wordsworth put out a disingenuous press release …’
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/200502_s3.htm
Confessions @ #13 Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 – 6:44 am
However, she couldn’t avoid her NPC speech and subsequent questions being covered by the ABC, and it was where she made her biggest mistake of the campaign with her ‘colonisation was fantastic!’ comment. So, no wonder she gave the ABC a wide berth. Also, considering the clusterstuffup of Mundine’s Insiders interview.
The ‘No’ campaign only wanted softball interviews, and that’s what they got. The ABC were sidelined as mere scribes.
The U.S. Navy will conduct its first submarine maintenance work in Australia next summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.
This will be an early step in establishing a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia in the next few years as part of the trilateral AUKUS arrangement.
U.S. Navy Undersecretary Erik Raven said the service has already taken a number of steps since the March announcement of the AUKUS “optimal pathway,” which lays out three phases: U.S. and U.K. submarines operating out of Stirling; Australia buying and operating new and used Virginia-class submarines from the U.S.; and Australia building and operating its own SSN-AUKUS submarine.
Raven said Australian officers, sailors and government civilians are already in the nuclear training pipeline with the U.S. Navy and are learning attack sub maintenance procedures in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and at Barrow-in-Furness, England.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2023/11/30/first-us-submarine-repairs-in-australia-scheduled-for-summer/
I think the Anti AUKUS brigade on PB are slowly but surely being knocked into a cocked hat. 😀
Pretty much. I’m sure they got plenty of airtime on Sky News where the No commentators heavily outnumbered those in favour of Yes.
Another honourable product of the Liberal Party preselction production line….
The former Liberal senator being courted by Labor for his crossbench vote used official email and Instagram accounts to flirt with women and pitch the services of his private PR business, leaked screenshots and emails show.
This masthead and A Current Affair, both owned by Nine, can reveal Senator David Van’s use of his official social media accounts to message women – using terms like “babe” and “hon” – raised alarm in then-prime minister Scott Morrison’s office in 2021, prompting senior government figures to counsel Van to behave appropriately.
……
In a message to a cooking influencer with 21,000 followers in 2021, Van wrote: “Hey darling here is my Senate page. Appreciate it if you can push it hard to your friends.. especially the shot of me in the shorts and give it the hashtag #senatorsixpack”.
Six days later, he messaged the same woman: “Hey doll can you put a comment on that post of mine with the hashtag #senatorsixpack.”
In a separate private conversation on Instagram in 2020, a woman wrote to Van: “You are a hot looking man … Hehe did you just have a stalk of my profile?”
Van responded: “Not a stalk was just trying to follow you back. Call me if you like and I will see if I can help.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senator-sixpack-david-van-used-official-instagram-to-chat-up-women-20230706-p5dm7i.html
And one for the forelock tuggers…
King Charles is planning his first trip to Australia as monarch late next year.
Queen Camilla is expected to accompany him for what would be the royal couple’s first visit since 2018.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/king-charles-and-queen-camilla-plan-spring-australian-tour-20231204-p5eovh.html
And one of the imponderables in US elections is turnout. What will motivate people? What demographics are involved?
This detailed study focussing on metropolitan areas compares 2016 and 2020 elections, and comes with a useful colour coded map.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cuiIx/3/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_metropolitan_areas_where_turnout_increased_the_most&utm_term=2023-12-04
https://election.lab.ufl.edu/dataset/voter-turnout-rates-among-metropolitan-statistical-areas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_metropolitan_areas_where_turnout_increased_the_most&utm_term=2023-12-04
Of course sprocket, Albo will be on hand (should he survive to the end of next year) to recite the loyal oath at the official reception.
“At the heart of modern physics is a gulf that scientists have spent more than a century trying to bridge. Quantum mechanics gives an apparently flawless description of the forces that dominate at the atomic scale. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has never been proven wrong in its predictions of how gravity shapes cosmic events. But the two theories are fundamentally incompatible.
Now, scientists have proposed a framework that they say could unify these two pillars of physics, through a radical rethink of the nature of spacetime. Instead of time ticking away predictably, under the “postquantum theory of classical gravity”, the rate at which time flows would wobble randomly, like the ebb and flow of a stream.
“Quantum theory and Einstein’s theory of general relativity are mathematically incompatible with each other, so it’s important to understand how this contradiction is resolved,” said Prof Jonathan Oppenheim, a physicist at University College London, who is behind the theory.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/04/wobbly-spacetime-may-resolve-contradictory-physics-theories
Carbon capture sustained the LNP for a long while. I’m no expert on this but from what I’ve heard it was never going to be an adequate solution to the problem and was capturing very little carbon. Now its nuclear which is exceedingly expensive, takes a long long time to construct and can be result in some terrible disasters on the odd occasion. The Libs have come up with this mini reactors scenario which does not even exist right now but might just be enough to con the unengaged just like carbon capture did. This is the LNP all over, create distractions and jive the general public so as to do the things you are really there for, namely ensure the tax , education and every other system favours the already well endowed. As they say -accuse your enemies of being what you are , the LNP/ Murdochracy/ ocker shock jocks always talk about the elites but actually are the real elites when you pull back the curtain.
LVT
The chances of Albo reciting an oath to Chuck and Cam are not high.
But much higher than any move to replace a first term Labor Prime Minister.
lazgot it rong over albanese atending the funeral of pell he wisely desided not to go given pellscontravercial reputation so there will be the dunkley bi election withpeta merphys deatn
On a perfect Melbourne night, The foo fighters concert last night was absolutely amazing.
Quite a surreal moment occurred which has been mentioned by the reviewer in article. I’ll never forget it either.
————————-
One of the most powerful and emotional moments came when Grohl paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins, mentioning how he always thinks of him, especially when he sees birds. As the opening notes to Hawkin’s favourite Foo track, “Aurora”, was played, a flock of birds rose over the northern end of AAMI Park, circling over the full length of the crowd toward the stage, then peeling away and disappearing before the vocals kicked in. It was either a hell of a coincidence or some sort of cosmic confluence, but oh boy, it packed a punch. There were muted cries from parts of the crowd who saw it, fingers pointing to the sky, and it’s one of those profound things that burn themselves into your consciousness. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
Lars Von Triersays:
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 6:28 am
Bludgertrack now for first time since ScoMo’s demise showing the 2PP as worse than the last election
51.9 – 48.1
Minority Government looms but is it with Albo?
Good onya Lars Von Dream Weaver!
And I suspect that the combined votes of Labor, the Greens, The Teals and some of the independents will make a majority of Australians happy that some climate policy is moving in a more favourable direction for a good outcome and the nuclear reactor “brain fart” from the “dinosaurs” brigade is correctly regarded as a nonsense.
Labor may need to form a minority federal government but the coalition vote will remain in the doldrums awaiting a “duttonesque” change of direction and a new leadership group, which may yet, not have had a taste of government.
The polling has yet to indicate much good news for the coalition.
Aaron newton @ #26 Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 – 7:38 am
Aaron newton,
Did you see the comment by Mostly Interested, and that by davo, who said that you could type your posts and then ask google to ‘correct for spelling and grammar’ before you put it here? It would help us here immensely to appreciate your comments more.
A new five-point plan to cut immigration has been announced by the UK government, which includes banning care workers from bringing over their families and raising the minimum salary for a skilled worker visa.
• Health and care visas: Overseas care workers will not be able to bring family dependants, to end the “abuse of the health and care visa”. Care firms that want to sponsor people for visa applications will need to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission. A dependant is defined by the government as a husband or wife, civil partner or unmarried partner, and children under 18.
• Skilled worker visa minimum salary change: The threshold for an application will rise by nearly 50% from £26,200 to £38,700 – although health and care workers will still be able to earn less before applying for the route.
• Shortage occupation list: The government wants to “scrap cut-price shortage labour from overseas” by reforming the way people working in short-staffed sectors can apply to come to the UK. This will include axing the 20% discount applied to the minimum salary for people looking for a visa for shortage occupations. The types of jobs on the list will also be reviewed and reduced.
• Family visas: The minimum threshold for a family visa will also be raised to £38,700 to “ensure people only bring dependants whom they can support financially”. Currently, it stands at the 2012 rate of £18,600.
• Student visas: Following the tightening of who can bring in family members on student visas earlier this year, the government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee to review the graduate route “to prevent abuse and protect the integrity and quality of UK higher education”.
Seismic data confirms ocean waves shake the earth as storms become more ferocious due to warming.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/4/2204406/-Seismic-data-confirms-ocean-waves-shake-the-earth-as-storms-become-more-ferocious-due-to-warming?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
This is the team Australia has chosen to join, not the Nuclear Dinosaurs team:
Late on Saturday, the Albanese government announced it had joined more than 100 countries at COP28 pledging to triple the global renewable energy generation capacity, and double the global average annual energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/why-twiggy-forrest-tried-to-sail-a-banned-75-metre-ship-into-dubai-20231202-p5eoji.html
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Michael Koziol tells us that homeowners in the inner-city suburb of Alexandria are protesting against a 10-storey affordable housing development by claiming it will reduce their property values, block out the sun and infringe upon the “tranquillity and wellbeing” of the neighbourhood. NIMBY writ large,
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-neighbours-who-want-to-block-affordable-housing-to-save-their-property-values-20231204-p5eosq.html
A proposal to develop 400 homes on a former golf course in Melbourne’s north-east has been sitting on the Victorian planning minister’s desk for two years, leading to growing frustration, writes Cara Waters. The former Yarra Valley Country Club, next to the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen, is waiting on a decision from the minister on a proposed development of 350 to 400 apartments and townhouses on a 25-hectare site.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/both-sides-in-planning-stoush-demand-decision-as-bid-for-400-homes-next-to-heide-stalls-20231204-p5eos6.html
A violent sex offender released from immigration detention following last month’s High Court ruling has faced court on two charges of indecent assault, as the government this week races to pass tough laws to place the most threatening offenders back behind bars. Taking the word “refugee” out of the situation and what laws to write makes it a far more serious issue. Legislate for indefinite detention for all “serious crime” offenders?
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/broad-detention-laws-could-cover-detainees-who-served-little-jail-time-20231204-p5eosa.html
Dutton’s border protection rhetoric is nothing like his border protection record, declares Abul Rizvi who says, “few Australians would be aware of Dutton’s appalling record on border protection. As Minister for Home Affairs, he allowed the unscrupulous to run riot with Australia’s visa system in a way that is completely unprecedented. The fact is real border protection is a lot more difficult than border protection rhetoric.”
https://johnmenadue.com/duttons-border-protection-rhetoric-is-nothing-like-his-border-protection-record/
Paul Bongiorno believes that the toxic immigration debate will dog the government into next year.
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2023/12/05/paul-bongiorno-immigration-detention-debate
Crispin Hull tells us why Albanese needs to go full Robin Hood to fix our healthcare system. He says that Medicare needs a massive infusion for money to make it universal and free, rather than some inadequate, begrudgingly given safety net. If Medicare is properly revived, the private system without props would be exposed for the inefficient, unnecessary ideological crusade it has been since 1973.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8446885/anthony-albanese-needs-to-turn-into-robin-hood-to-fix-healthcare/?cs=14258
In April, National Cabinet agreed to hold a dedicated meeting on health reform by the end of the year. Based on media coverage this week, it might be a battle about NDIS and GST funding instead. Who pays for what is important, but it will be a missed opportunity if a funding fight displaces discussion of health reform, writes Peter Breadon who says the National Cabinet should fire the starting gun on national health reform.
https://johnmenadue.com/national-cabinet-should-fire-the-starting-gun-on-national-health-reform/
The SMH’s editorial says the Albanese government is finishing 2023 on a low, with the latest opinion poll bringing more bad news for Laborites following the Voice referendum defeat, ongoing worries about surging cost of living pressures and the recent scramble to legislate after the High Court decision on immigration detention rules.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/winter-of-voters-discontent-a-real-cause-for-concern-for-labor-20231204-p5eotn.html
Saturday’s three-nation announcement of progress on the AUKUS pact to deliver nuclear-powered submarines and other high-tech capacities keeps the deal’s momentum going. And this will, no doubt, extend Australia’s intense debate about the controversial plan, writes Peter Hartcher who says the Chinese sub-plot is not a secret, but the implications are ‘profound’.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/chinese-sub-plot-is-not-a-secret-but-the-implications-are-profound-20231204-p5eor8.html
Historic reforms to strengthen Australia’s inadequate foreign bribery laws are set to be debated this week, but there are fears the proposed legislation could be delayed again – more than six years after a similar bill was first introduced to federal parliament. Sumeyya Ilanbey reports that the Senate is scheduled to debate, and pass, legislation this week, drawn up in response to warnings from the OECD for Australia to ramp up prosecutions of those paying bribes overseas by cracking down on local businesses that do not have adequate anti-foreign bribery safeguards.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/historic-foreign-bribery-crackdown-faces-further-senate-delay-20231130-p5enym.html
Laura Banks points to new data that shows nearly 2000 NSW Health workers lodged compensation claims for psychological injuries over the past two years. It also shows that more than employees have also claimed they are burnt out, while 21,000 workers say they have witnessed bullying in the workplace.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/burnt-out-bullied-and-threatened-why-our-health-workers-are-in-crisis-20231204-p5eopv.html
NineFax is going to limit article comments to subscribers only.
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/here-s-how-our-reader-comments-are-changing-20231127-p5en6z.html
It’s time for the superannuation industry to recognise the ageing of Australia with a reworking of the super system so older investors can get guidance on every aspect of retirement, says a new report from the Actuaries Institute. The report, which coincides with a new discussion paper on retirement from the government, calls longevity risk – the fear of running out of money – “the mother of all retirement risks”, writes James Kirby.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wealth/time-for-super-sector-to-confront-the-mother-of-all-retirement-risks/news-story/01f15c7bba6d0d53c1108bd33c00ab79?amp=
Re-routing some buses through the Rozelle interchange to reduce traffic snarls on Victoria Road in Sydney’s inner west is under serious consideration as emergency work begins to create extra lane space on the City West Link in the run-up to the Anzac Bridge. Now they are scrambling!
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/buses-set-to-be-re-routed-through-rozelle-interchange-to-reduce-traffic-jam-20231204-p5eor1.html
Michael Bachelard and Nick McKenzie dive deeper into the damning report into the AFP, management of undercover operations.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/undercover-cops-did-a-hollywood-style-job-under-management-more-like-utopia-20231204-p5eoul.html
Qantas has doubled down on its “bundle of rights” defence and says the customers cited by the competition regulator were not substantially inconvenienced when it chose to keep selling cancelled flights. Lawyers for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission told the Federal Court in November that it could not try to mediate a settlement with Qantas until the airline responded to its complaint.
https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-risks-regulator-looking-for-second-bite-of-cherry-20231204-p5eouh
The ABC has cited its futile pursuit of the senator to appear on its national programs as an example of its efforts to cover the divisive Voice referendum fairly.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/jacinta-price-rejected-52-abc-interview-requests-during-the-voice-campaign-20231204-p5eoub.html
Instead of trying to rehabilitate and guide troubled youths, Queensland has decided to build more prisons to incarcerate those in need of help, writes Gerry Georgatos who says Queensland’s answer of more prisons for troubled children is wrong.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/queenslands-answer-of-more-prisons-for-troubled-children-is-wrong,18144
Trouble is brewing on two of the world’s major shipping routes and the ramifications are already being felt around the globe, writes Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/why-this-photo-is-bad-news-for-the-global-economy-20231204-p5eoqb.html
Canada Bay councillors are set to debate a motion urging long-time Mayor Angelo Tsirekas to resign as a councillor after an independent watchdog found he engaged in serious corrupt conduct.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/councillors-want-mayor-to-walk-away-after-icac-finding-20231204-p5eosb.html
King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to visit Australia in late 2024 for their first royal tour in six years and his first as monarch. Oh WOW!
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/king-charles-and-queen-camilla-plan-spring-australian-tour-20231204-p5eovh.html
Indonesia’s biggest-ever civil engineering project deep in Borneo’s equatorial jungle is under threat. So is outgoing President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo’s can-do reputation and national pride. Duncan Graham reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/revenge-of-the-jungle-indonesias-new-capital-unloved-and-unfunded/
Progressives must take away the allure of Trump and other populists by offering prosperity to all, writes Dr Alex Vickery-Howe.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/washington-burning-trumps-bitter-path-to-the-white-house,18143
A second Trump term will be far more autocratic than the first. He’s telling us, writes Jan-Werner Müller who says Trump is broadcasting his plans in advance – and, if elected, he’ll claim he has a mandate to accrue power and exact retribution.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/04/a-second-trump-term-will-be-far-more-autocratic-than-the-first-hes-telling-us
Cartoon Corner
David Rowe
Matt Golding
John Shakespeare
Cathy Wilcox
Peter Broelman
Alan Moir
Mark David
Dionne Gain
Spooner
From the US
Another good reason Australia doesn’t need or want to go Nuclear. Our beaches:
https://oceanbites.org/going-nuclear-radioisotopes-from-fukushimi-power-plant-stay-in-sand-for-years/
Aren’t we going nuclear with subs? Or isn’t that the same ?
”
Oliver Suttonsays:
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 6:47 am
meher baba:
‘[Costello] felt that the ABC was harder on Labor because quite a few ABC journalists favoured political positions to the left of those pursued by Labor’
Apart, that is, from the scores of ABC journalists who have smoothly transitioned to careers as Liberal politicians and staffers.
Not to mention those who have been found by a tribunal to have been biased against Labor:
‘The ABC’s management in Queensland has been found to have deliberately misled Premier Peter Beattie and listeners over the unjust sacking of prominent broadcaster Andrew Carroll. In a scathing judgement yesterday, the Industrial Relations Commission vindicated Carroll but found his managers at the ABC guilty of lying to the public.’
‘… the ABC’s State director in Queensland Chris Wordsworth put out a disingenuous press release …’
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/200502_s3.htm
”
To quote someone
It is dead to me.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth II and ascension of King Charles III, his wife, Camilla, received a new title: queen consort.4 May 2023
https://www.today.com › popculture
Queen concert went out of the window and now she is Queen, that too Queen of Australia, whether we like it or not
“sprocket_says:
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 7:02 am
And one for the forelock tuggers…
King Charles is planning his first trip to Australia as monarch late next year.
Queen Camilla is expected to accompany him for what would be the royal couple’s first visit since 2018.
“
Oliver Sutton: “Apart, that is, from the scores of ABC journalists who have smoothly transitioned to careers as Liberal politicians and staffers.”
“Scores” is definitely an overstatement. And plenty of journos have worked for both the ABC and ALP politicians: Kerry O’Brien and Barrie Cassidy being two high-profile instances.
#weatheronPB
A bright painful glare,
follows a dim broken night.
Damn bloody covid.
Welcomed with feeling,
the jab tells you it’s working.
Damn bloody covid.
sprocket_ “This masthead and A Current Affair, both owned by Nine, can reveal Senator David Van’s use of his official social media accounts to message women – using terms like “babe” and “hon” – raised alarm in then-prime minister Scott Morrison’s office in 2021, prompting senior government figures to counsel Van to behave appropriately.”
Perhaps he was messaging women who were members of the Executive Council, in which case “hon” would have been appropriate. 🙂
Late Riser @ #39 Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 – 8:17 am
Late Riser,
My son was rejoicing at the Covid booster vaccination he received a couple of weeks ago. Two of his closest friends, one of whom he went to a concert with last week, have come down with Covid in the last couple of days. He had a day of generalised aches and pains, once from the vaccine, and yesterday from contact with carriers. Today he is fine and thanking the vaccine. 🙂
It’s obvious that the Liberal Party are leaking against David Van because he is co-operating on passing legislation with the Albanese government.
”
C@tmommasays:
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 8:28 am
Late Riser @ #39 Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 – 8:17 am
#weatheronPB
A bright painful glare,
follows a dim broken night.
Damn bloody covid.
Welcomed with feeling,
the jab tells you it’s working.
Damn bloody covid.
Late Riser,
My son was rejoicing at the Covid booster vaccination he received a couple of weeks ago. Two of his closest friends, one of whom he went to a concert with last week, have come down with Covid in the last couple of days. He had a day of generalised aches and pains, once from the vaccine, and yesterday from contact with carriers. Today he is fine and thanking the vaccine.
”
C@tmomma
Is it the same concert that happened at Opera House, which was abandoned 40 minutes into the show because of impending severe storm?
In the context of some bludgers saying that I post a lot of stuff on US and UK, yesterday I posted about how the whole of Chennai, India, was flooded due to torrential rains caused by Cyclone stationed on East coast of India near Chennai including Chennai airport.
It is not just Chennai. Major districts on East coast of Tamilnadu were flooded due to torrential rains.
Is there any reaction? Zilch.
I know we should not expect replies to post. But this is another climate disaster happening.
Now another State called Andhra Pradesh is severely affected by that cyclone because it is landed/ landing on the shores of that State.
Got my covid jab recently also.Feds have needed over the past year to of been more proactive in advertising vaccination via the media lots of people have sadly passed via covid since feds dropped the ball.
You know Fed labor is in serious trouble by the way when a Morgan poll is more believable than the resolve -strategic poll.Aussies also tend to dislike both state and fed being same party.
Jacinta Price allegedly knocked back 52 invitations to be interviewed by the ABC. Someone at the ABC must have had a full time job checking up on her. Cripes.
Morning all. Thanks for the roundup BK. Looking at William’s poll lead-in and the roundup, there are a few bad stories for Labor floating around these days, notably on housing, cost of living, immigration and climate change. That doesn’t mean Labor has done nothing, just not enough. In other areas Labor has made a lot of progress, notably fixing the budget and foreign policy. Last night’s announcement of resumption of Australia – France military cooperation proves the latter.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-04/france-australia-defence-cooperation-defence-military-pacific/103186294
The budget repair obviously sets up Labor to deliver a more generous third budget to woo back support before an election. Inflation pressures should also level off.
I still expect Labor will retain office in 2025 with worst case a minority government negotiating with Teals and Greens. I think there is a real chance the number of Teals could increase rather than decrease.
The Liberals show no signs of making the changes that would be needed to appeal to people to recover the Teal seats. In some cases we hear talk of the same failed candidates being recycled. I didn’t know losing safe seats earned a reward!
So talk of ditching Albo/caving in to Liberal policy demands is idiotic.
Victoria, C@tmomma and others interested in Hunter Biden stuff
Rep. James Comer’s newest ‘smoking gun’ debunked in record time
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/4/2209660/-Rep-James-Comer-s-newest-smoking-gun-debunked-in-record-time?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web
“Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.”
Sounds devastating. Right-wing media outlets excitedly pushed out the details, specifically that Hunter Biden set up “recurring payments” of $1,380 in late 2018. Besides being an extraordinarily small amount of money in the grand scheme of corruption, the thinnest digging revealed that Joe Biden was not president in 2018. In fact, deeper investigation reveals that Biden wasn’t even in any political office at the time!
Receipts were then posted that revealed Hunter Biden was paying his father back for helping to cover car payments while he was in between jobs. The three monthly payments totaled $4,140.”
meher baba: ‘“Scores” is definitely an overstatement.’
This article from 16 years ago reports Stephen Mayne’s list of ‘journalists who become politicians or political advisers’:
“His lists are not exhaustive but they do not support the ABC-as-recruiting-pool-for-Labor line. He has found 10 former ABC journalists who became Labor parliamentarians and seven for the Liberal and National parties. … The conservative MPs are: Peter Collins, Ian Cover, Eoin Cameron, Rob Messenger, Cameron Thompson, Bruce Webster and Grant Woodhams.
“His list of 44 journalists who have worked as press secretaries and political advisers contains 25 who worked for Labor and 19 who worked for the conservative parties.”
That’s 26 — more than a score — for the Coalition from waaay back before Kevin07 was a thing. There have been many more over the intervening 16 years.
Just a couple off the top of my head:
• Senator Sarah Henderson (Liberal), reporter and presenter for ABC-TV 1989 – 1997.
• Mark Simkin, the ABC’s *chief political correspondent*, seamlessly snapped up by incoming PM Tony Abbott as his chief of communications.
I’m sure other PBers can add many more to this list.
Edit:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/journo-turning-politician-its-an-old-story-20070302-ge4c0m.html