A few days short of the half-way mark, both parties will today conduct what are quaintly known as campaign launches, which in effect are set pieces for Anthony Albanese to announce an expanded home deposit guarantee and Peter Dutton to promise a one-off income tax offset. Hopefully there will be a poll or two along shortly – consecutive Newspolls over the previous two weeks suggest one of those might be along late afternoon, but beyond that I can offer no further insight.
The latest:
• Labor’s member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, has announced his how-to-vote card will not direct preferences, so as not to put the Greens ahead of the Liberals as normal. Mohammad Alfares of The Australian reports “some Labor members” have related “internal rumblings about replicating Mr Burns’ move nationwide”. Macnamara aside, the seats where it could realistically make a difference are limited to the three held by the Greens in Brisbane.
• With suggestions former Victorian state Liberal leader John Pesutto may be driven to bankruptcy and from parliament over his defamation payout to party colleague Moira Deeming, John Ferguson of The Australian reports “powerbrokers” are considering Amelia Hamer as a potential candidate for a Hawthorn by-election if she is unsuccessful in recovering Kooyong from Monique Ryan.
• Alexi Demetriadi of The Australian reports Labor is more concerned about the south-western Sydney seat of Werriwa, held by Anne Stanley on a margin of 5.2%, than Parramatta, held by Andrew Charlton on 3.6%.
No elon is leaving western Sydney behind. Did you manage to secure tickets?!?
perhaps Dutton will get the minister for western sydney to sign Messi or Ronaldo for the NSL team in parramatta.
OC re Crazy People. I thought it was because they were short rather than by short sighted. Maybe I’m wrong but I do remember the Sony ad line.
Sony, because Caucasians are too damned tall.
Speaking of Elon:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/13/battle-of-the-election-sugar-hits-labor-and-coalition-announce-tax-plans-at-duelling-campaign-launches
“Battle of the election ‘sugar hits’: Labor and Coalition announce tax plans at duelling campaign launches
Both major parties held their campaign launches on Sunday – with Labor’s beginning minutes after the Coalition’s ended – and both using the event to unveil centrepiece housing promises. Labor and the Coalition are locked in an election spend-a-thon, with billions of new promises on cost-of-living measures and tax sweeteners – with each accusing the other of offering “sugar hit” policies to win votes.”
C@tmomma at 6:17 pm
Speaking of Elon:
—————-
He’s a painfully unfunny person. I’d put it down to being a typically unfunny South African, but I think it’s even beyond that – he just doesn’t seem to understand humour at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/apr/13/australia-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-housing-tax-campaign-launches-cost-of-living-labor-coalition-ntwnfb
“Housing group calls for more ambitious policies from both parties
Everybody’s Home, a national campaign to fix Australia’s housing crisis, has called on both major parties to present more ambitious housing policies ahead of the election.
Spokesperson Maiy Azize said the promises made by Labor and the Coalition “fall well short of what’s needed” to address the housing crisis and warned some elements could make it worse. Azize said:
The Coalition’s proposal to allow mortgage payments to be tax deductible for first home buyers is a form of negative gearing for non-investors, a move that will give more help to people on high incomes and could push home prices even higher.
To make housing more affordable, we need to get rid of tax breaks when it comes to property, not create more.
Labor’s home deposit support for first-home buyers will also add to demand. Building 100,000 homes is a good step, but they aren’t guaranteed to be affordable. Australia doesn’t just need new homes, we need homes that people can actually afford.”
Nath as bad as many parts of SW, NW and western Sydney are they have nothing on some of the more vibrant areas of the Melbourne north west sprawls and places like Werribee, point cook etc
And The Greens have their delusional policy platform, according to a corflute of theirs I saw outside a house today:
‘Dental Into Medicare’
If Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke couldn’t get the Dentists to agree to put Dental into Medicare, I don’t see The Greens being able to swing it.
Is Maiy Azize a member of The Greens I wonder?
Full disclosure please, Pegasus.
Dental in Medicare was something Labor discussed in the event of a hung parliament and one where they’d need to greens even to form a shaky minority.
Oh come on Pegasus, it’s an election, can you recall one where a party hasn’t promised to spend money on the electorate? Go look at your own party’s election promises history.
Afternoon all. Malcolm Turnbull has put audio recordings of his security summit on a podcast called “Defending Democracy”. It can be played on Overcast or LISTNR.
https://overcast.fm/+AA_qVGciAYs
The final summary (download six) by James Curran is quite good. (20 mins).
Pegasus at 6:20pm
“Housing group calls for more ambitious policies from both parties”
——————-
For better or (and) worse, each party has announced something today that is going to make it easier for first home buyers to enter the market. But of course it’s not enough.
It’s emblematic of all pressure groups these days – business lobby groups, unions, social services organisations, etc etc. Not one of them has the slightest concern for any other group beyond their own nose.
Poor fellow, my country. Any idea of collective benefit is gone, at the expense of which rent-seeking group should get the best leg up.
I do wonder whether the Pegasus that posted at 6:20pm read the article that Pegasus posted at 6:17pm 🙂
My distant relative and Whitlam’s transport and air minister was Charlie Jones.
There are a few versions of this story but the one I like is that he was negotiating with Michael Somare for the transfer of some TAA planes to form Air Nugini. During a break Somare said “What do you do for recreation, Charlie?”
CJ:“Fish”
MS: That’s interesting, what do you fish for?”
CJ: “Ni**ers!” (Being the name used for many years in Newcastle for Black Bream)
The other, but less likely, version is that negotiations were difficult and Charlie said; “Look Michael, you can argue until you are black in the face, but Reg Ansett is the Ni**er in the woodpile”
Despite his Wikipedia entry the family does not believe that Charlie went to high school and was the last Australian minister with a primary education.
Put dental care into Medicare!
Nath
I think you are right about Sony
‘Bludgeoned Westie says:
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 5:31 pm
@Boerwarsays: Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 4:48 pm
I haven’t been following “Bluey” all that much but Bluey please elaborate on why One Nation and the Nationals both have a higher cumulative score than the Liberals or the Greens?
Bluey, Ginger, Green Onions, connect the dots.
https://i.imgur.com/eGlkXH3.jpeg‘
============================
Bluey reckons that the Nats will hold their heartland seats because they play well to their voters. Not hard. Not complicated. They just do this vast pub crawl in their Hiluxes on the Wombat Trail. Easy Peasey.
PHON has done exceptionally well because they are hoovering up the UAP vote. Have a look at Bludgertrack.
Bluey reckons the true beauty of PHON is that it bleeds primary votes off Dutton while delivering only somefraction back. It means that Dutton has to waltz around with DOGE Price and snark about DOCTOR Chalmers. Dutton’s problem is that every single time he postures for the PHON prefs he damages himself on his other flank. One lot think ‘Noice’. The other lot think ‘Nasty’.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/apr/13/australia-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-housing-tax-campaign-launches-cost-of-living-labor-coalition-ntwnfb?page=with%3Ablock-67fb41008f0893c437a034b1#block-67fb41008f0893c437a034b1
Albanese:
“That’s why I’m asking Australians to vote Labor on 3 May, so we can keep building a future that is true to our values and worthy of our people, where no one is denied the chance to be their best, no one left to face uncertainty alone, no one cut off from the opportunities that lie ahead, no one held back, and no one left behind. Everyone of us, building Australia’s future together.”
————–
Such empty rhetoric, completely delulu.
Incrementalism and tinkering around the edges of the status quo doesn’t cut it any more.
As for Dutton, dog help us.
A strong democracy needs a strong opposition in parliament to keep the government of the day accountable.
This will only happen if the crossbench grows bigger in order to break up the entrenched duopoly.
Imagine if the Minister for Western Sydney will be someone from The Hills, that’d be incredibly ironic.
Also a part of me feels like this “Minister for Western Sydney” position might be offered to Dai Le in order to secure her support for a Minority Dutton Government.
Idk, maybe it’s Dutton’s attempt at flipping Werriwa, I don’t see any more seats in Western Sydney that the Liberals could pick up. If I was really stretching it, Macquarie? I doubt it’d be Parramatta because Dutton’s attacks on the APS via threatening to cut 41K jobs and his now dumped WFH policy would push away a huge chunk of APS workers who live in the electorate. Barton’s currently boundaries doesn’t seem Liberal friendly afaik. Greenway, Reid, McArthur and Chifley have well liked or popular Labor MPs whilst Independents are more likely to pick up Blaxland, Watson and McMahon than the Liberals.
Set up mental health in Medicare.
Take it out of the NDIS.
We want to look out for each other.
Hard times.
I suspect people are thinking of luderick.
If you were in a small group with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, any of them might be the great comedian. Or they might not. It would depend on your sense of humour.
I understand it is also called luderick
Various states all public dental. It’s a place to start with dental medicare. It is silly that there is no dental medicare. Imagine if public hospitals all refused to fix a broken foot, or there was no public option for fixing a broken left wrist, only the right.
Pegasus says:
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 6:33 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/apr/13/australia-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-housing-tax-campaign-launches-cost-of-living-labor-coalition-ntwnfb?page=with%3Ablock-67fb41008f0893c437a034b1#block-67fb41008f0893c437a034b1
Albanese:
“That’s why I’m asking Australians to vote Labor on 3 May, so we can keep building a future that is true to our values and worthy of our people, where no one is denied the chance to be their best, no one left to face uncertainty alone, no one cut off from the opportunities that lie ahead, no one held back, and no one left behind. Everyone of us, building Australia’s future together.”
————–
Such empty rhetoric, completely delulu.
Incrementalism and tinkering around the edges of the status quo doesn’t cut it any more.
As for Dutton, dog help us.
A strong democracy needs a strong opposition in parliament to keep the government of the day accountable.
This will only happen if the crossbench grows bigger in order to break up the entrenched duopoly.
________
I didn’t take you for a Hanson-fan. Horseshoes come to mind again.
Mental health is certainly part of Medicare but how well it is served is the question.
I rather like the Greens Mobile Light Force to defend Australia.
Utterly delusional.
And the UBI.
Utterly delusional.
And the free everything with nothing to pay.
Utterly delusional.
sustainable snail at 6:34 pm
Set up mental health in Medicare.
Take it out of the NDIS.
We want to look out for each other.
Hard times.
—————-
Mental health is set up in Medicare. Mental health is not the NDIS’ responsibility. But the entire system is so convoluted that you’d never know it.
In NSW public dental is strictly means tested.
The working poor are the people who miss out.
‘Oakeshott Country says:
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 6:35 pm
I understand it is also called luderick’
=================
I grew up with n***** for luderick.
When I was a kid black bream and silver bream were different fish from luderick and were never call n********.
I imagine that there were local usages.
Housing reform that pays for Itself – and helps future generations
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/housing-reform-that-pays-for-itself-and-helps-future-generations/
“All we’ve seen so far in this election campaign is that both major parties are comfortable addressing our housing crisis with the same old, tired policies. Preferring to tinker around the edges rather than drive structural change, the common policy thread is that housing commodification is here to stay.
The last five years have seen the most drastic land price inflation on record. National land values have jumped from $6 trillion to almost $10 trillion, yet the policy response is more of the same – let’s give developers even more market power.
Instead of addressing damaging tax incentives, the federal government has thrown $6.3 billion towards Help to Buy. The key problem with this concept is that it only lasts for one owner. The policy is like Groundhog Day, where more money has to be found each time a resident sells to fund the next first home buyer.”
https://www.pollbludger.net/2025/04/13/campaign-launch-day-miscellany-open-thread/comment-page-12/#comment-4498922, plenty of no farmed salmon (Greens) signs around Hobart
More uni-party signs outside
Crazy People is a cult classic. I watched it for the first time as a teenager, possibly the first time I got stoned. The guy who pretended to be a doctor cracked me up, especially when he spontaneously assisted garbage collectors on the street out of a commitment to cleanliness.
“Price needs more airtime! ”
Wot …… i agree with the PP bot?? Amazing. 🙂
A quick google suggests Mobile Light Force was a computer game from 20 years ago.
Labor’s additional housing funding is on top of the other funding including the biggest single funding package ever for remote Indigenous housing.
Dutton has promised to cut something like $19 billion from Labor’s housing funding. The latter includes substantial provision for housing for those escaping DV. The latter is paired with the substantial direct funding Labor has initiated to enable DV victims to overcome the immediate barrier of not having the money to leave abusive relationships.
But you will only hear about that for progressives when they somehow or other imagine that THEY forced Labor to initiate those programs.
Sordid, squalid stuff from the Happy Crappers.
These initiatives are happening because they reflect core Labor values.
Are we waiting for a Newspoll, or are we all mesmerized by Pegasus’s gibberish?
The Greens were so embarrassed by the Mobile Light Force that they have gone quiet on it. They are now pretending that Australia only needs a spend of $1 billion to defend itself.
Stupid stuff.
OakeshottCountry
The Chinese are not naturally myopic. They have a much higher rate of myopia because their kids study all day and all night instead of playing sport.
Your little comment was racist in the extreme.
Interesting article I came across today, claiming that Canadian PM Mark Carney was the main reason why Trump dropped his tariffs.
https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/carneys-checkmate-how-canadas-quiet
(I’m assuming he was advising Trudeau to do this before Carney became PM in March).
Kooyong: The Monique Ryan campaign appears to be falling further off the rails.
Not content with having her opponent’s signs ripped down, and demanding her staff refer to her as “Dr” Ryan, she’s now reported as being in trouble with Parliamentary expense rules.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ryan-seeking-advice-on-electorate-office-being-linked-to-campaign-body-20250413-p5lrcu
Looking like a Liberal pickup that seat. Go Amelia.
Trainwreck of a campaign from that teal.
Going by the trend of the last few weeks, Newspoll should be released by now?
Exactly 20 days until we go to the polls. The very latest on the betting markets read as follows:
Socialist Red 74%
Capitalist Blue 26%
Ghastly Teals 0% where they should be
Grotesque Greens 0% where they will always be
The Socialists are in a position as you would normally be to be reelected from a first term.
Two serious points must be made,
a) there has been extreme volatility in this election, much more than you’d expect, and
b) the volumes bet are very small, much more than you’d expect.
A case can be argued that the scenario to play out may prove both the betting and the polls could be wrong on election day.
The Coalition and Dutton must not give in – the quiet Australian’s vote. Wouldn’t another miracle be beautiful.
Australia’s fading democracy calls for radical rethinking / Joseph Camilleri:
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/australias-fading-democracy-calls-for-radical-rethinking/
“At the midpoint of the national election, neither side of politics has yet said anything of substance on the future of international trade, let alone Australia’s future relationship with the US.
One can only assume they are waiting for further instructions on what to say and do from powerful interests and strategically placed advisers within and outside the country. They may also think it unwise to take the electorate into their confidence and safer to postpone any announcements until after the voting ritual has reached its finale.
:::
Insipid electioneering is but a symptom of a deeper ailment. Parliamentary representation can no longer be said to reflect the will of the electorate.
:::
The failings of Australia’s representative democracy run deep. Institutions that are said to uphold the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability in government are ineffective, at times bordering on the useless.
The current regulatory regime does not deliver the proper functioning, let alone public oversight of parliaments, political parties, or media and public broadcasting.
Law reform commissions, ombudsman offices and the Human Rights Commission are invariably deprived of the powers needed to make their presence felt. And the more consequential recommendations of royal commissions are routinely left languishing at the bottom of the political agenda.”
Just saw my first Coalition ad with faux tradie not-great actors having a moan over a beer about cost of living under Labor. Cringeworthy. I know the Right is campaigning well when they actually get under my skin. This was just embarrassing.
K
What would Carney know about banking?
But… heh heh… look at the bond yield curve. It gets to a certain stage and the US effectively becomes bankrupt. That said, China holds far more US paper than Carney controls and THEIR tariffs have gone up and up and up…
Peg
Australian democracy is getting it pretty right. The Greens are stuck on 12%. 88% of Australians will not have a bar of them.
Whinging about it is neither here not there.
Scromoll
Have you ever thought of getting a life?
The reference was to the movie “Crazy People” but Nath upped the racism antecby suggesting the Chinese are short.