Roy Morgan pops up again with one of its federal polls accumulating nearly a month’s worth of its regular weekly polling, in this case encompassing a sample of 5001 surveyed from July 28 to August 24. It finds both major parties down on the primary vote from a month ago, Labor by two-and-a-half points to 34%, the Coalition by one to 30%. The Greens are steady on 12% and One Nation is up two to 9%. Labor’s lead on the two-party preferred measure based on 2025 election preference flows duly narrows from 57-43 to 55.5-44.5, though the change on respondent-allocated preferences is more modest, from 57-43 to 56.5-43.5. The accompanying report features breakdowns by state and gender.
DemosAU has a further result from a poll that last week that produced a finding on Palestinian statehood, this one finding 56% support for “the federal government’s proposal to ban access to YouTube for children under 16 as part of a broader social media restriction”, with 29% opposed. The poll was conducted July 31 from a sample of 1079.
Nine Newspapers had follow-up questions from the Resolve Strategic federal poll on Tuesday involving matters related to the economic roundtable, which 49% knew about and 51% didn’t. Pluralities favoured a business cashflow tax (40% for, 15% against) and reducing or abolishing negative gearing (37% and 19% against) and capital gains tax concessions (41% and 21%), but predictably opposed increasing the GST rate (20% for, 51% against) and broadening its base (26% and 44%). It also found 64% support for work-at-home guarantees along the lines being pursued by the Victorian government, with only 17% opposed.
In other news, the first vacancy of the new parliament has emerged with recently elected New South Wales One Nation Senator Warwick Stacey calling it a day less than two months after being sworn in, citing “personal health issues”. The only reporting I’ve seen on who might replace him, which will be a matter for the party’s state branch, is The Australian’s observation of “speculation Senator Hanson could replace Senator Stacey with her daughter Lee Hanson or long-term One Nation staffer James Ashby”. However, “a One Nation source rejected this, saying the replacement should rightfully be a NSW resident”.
“India alerted Pakistan on Monday about possible cross-border flooding due to the heavy monsoon rains, in what marked the first public official contact between the two nuclear-armed rivals in months.”
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-india-floods-punjab-seeks-army-help-7764601f6012c24c72f36d4088b56b39
B. S. Fairman @ #1000 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 8:04 pm
Oh cripes, you’re not kidding there. Opinion polls have the National Rally with a 14% lead over the New Popular Front, as opposed to 1% at the election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_French_legislative_election
Entropy @ #979 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 6:24 pm
I stand by my prediction that the first to be prosecuted in the Nuremberg Trials that will follow the fall of Il Douche will be Rat Fucker Kennedy Jr and his other expendable crazies who have screwed the biggest Golden Goose of US technology, the Biomed Research Industrial Complex, for several generations. RFKjr & the antivax MAGAts will be sued into stone age & do serious Federal Time, ’cause the finance bros hate losing hegemony. This will be the Rat Fuckers’ (note positioning of possessive apostrophy) preferred option over leaving the US to be prosecuted with crimes against humanity for directly causing the deaths of millions of children for the next decade. These guys are worse than the Nazis.
They really don’t like dissent:
“The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has reportedly suspended a number of staff who criticised the agency’s direction under US President Donald Trump.
The staff are said to have been among those who recently signed an open letter that castigated Trump officials over cuts and alleged interference, warning that another “national catastrophe” akin to Hurricane Katrina was possible.
More than 20 employees were told on Tuesday that they had been put on administrative leave, according to sources who spoke to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8denvzl0y8o
5 November 2024: the day America voted to commit national suicide.
Re the prospect of the French government falling. It’s unlikely. There’s more chance that a new prime minister will be found. Macron would be very unwilling to hold a new election. even if there were an election and the fascists won, they would be unable to govern with Macron as president and a likely lack of majority.
In addition, at the last election, the fascists easily won the first round. But before the second there was a concerted effort to unify the left and galvanise voters. In the end the fascists came third in the second round.
Once there candidates are exposed for what they are, they lose votes.
Of course I could be wrong, but I have a reasonable feel for what’s going on through my french friends here.
If insoumise ditched Mélenchon as their frontman, they would do much better. He is deeply divisive.
bcsays:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 6:22 pm
“The difference between liberals and leftists”: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qpEWZdaKXCA
Hmm, she makes some interesting points, although I don’t think the only way forward is through Marxist reasoning.
__________________________________________
Its a really strange video, as there are many self-styled “leftists” who refute the idea of “unversal values” as a western concept imposed on non-western cultures. She seems to dismiss this critique as a “liberal” thing, whereas I udnerstand it very much an anti-colonial left position (“Communism with chinese characteristics” comes to mind).
The other thing of course is that Catherine Liu is doing a little bit of imperialism herself – she is a Yale (ie American) professor, where the rest of the world has very, very different definitions of “liberal”.
To paraphrase her, she is “not going to like me saying this”, but her language of “rejecting the primative” and focusing on “modernisation, industrialisation, standardisation” as a marxist framework sounds very much like Stalinism. Again, it is not supprising coming from an American “marxist” professor – the USA has largely given up on organised labour as an organising force (let alone political) so it is not supprising she jumps straight to the cadre of intellectuals approach.
In the US, “Liberal” is code for the US Democracts. Her framework has little relevance to the Australian political landscape.
This must be what Pooper was on about:
“The chief executive of the retail operator of Kmart, Bunnings, Officeworks and Priceline says it is lobbying the Victorian state government to get a handle on organised crime targeting stores.”
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/kmart-and-bunnings-operator-the-latest-to-raise-retail-theft-alarm/ar-AA1LmXSg?
Good to see that’s he looking out for the battlers.
rhwombat,
A video I just watched has stated that next month RFK Jr is going to present research that ‘proves’ that vaccines cause Autism. And Trump is going to let him present this utter garbage to the world.
Things like that really make me despair.
Kirsdrake – The French bond market is crashing as a result. French 30 year bonds are at record high levels. This could then create a debt crisis that will make Greece look like a Sunday School pinic.
PARIS — Early signals suggest Prime Minister François Bayrou’s gamble to hold a confidence vote will bring down his fragile minority government next month, amplifying the crisis that President Emmanuel Macron faces in trying to run France.
Bayrou on Monday effectively dared his opponents to topple him on Sept. 8 over the need to slash France’s massive budget deficit. Most appear willing to call his bluff.
The far-left France Unbowed, which has long sought Bayrou’s head, quickly announced it would move to bring down the government. So too will the center-left Socialists, who have lost patience with the longtime centrist. Even Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which had appeared to be waiting until budget negotiations began to wield the threat of ousting Bayrou, looks set to stick the knife in.
If the Bayrou government falls, it’s up to Macron to make the next move.
Here are his options, with their potential likelihood:
https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-three-choice-francois-mayrou-government-fall/
Also, don’t count on the Front Nationale to get their act together. At the moment they’re having their own internal battle for supremacy between Jason Bardella and Marine Le Pen.
Surprise surprise, tonight on Sky After Dark we have a Plastic MAGA woman trying to argue that shutting down Alligator Auschwitz is a bad thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDstTP2zpUU
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-descent-of-dezi-freeman-is-warning-of-wider-perils-20250827-p5mqfc.html
Hmm. Not everyone. Plenty of other Victorians who lived through the worst of the COVID years didn’t resort (allegedly!) to shooting police or behaving like crazy people.
Kirsdarke @ #1013 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 8:48 pm
What idiots. Yes Alligator Alcatraz was ordered to close, but it was also shut down because of the enormous costs to Florida and US taxpayers because simple operations necessitated:
– trucking in drinking water
– trucking in water for things like bathing and ablutions
– trucking out sewerage
– trucking out other waste
– use of generators for electricity for things like air conditioning
Entropy:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 7:25 pm
[‘Ironically every news report in the country is covering the story and pointing out Katter’s grandfather was Lebanese. While it probably would have been just a local news story if he answered the reporter politely instead. A bit of a Streisand effect there for silly old Bob.’]
Yes, and he’s been around long enough to know better. My gut feeling is that during his formative years, life would’ve been rather difficult for him in Cloncurry, his paternal grandfather having been born in Lebanon and initially refused naturalisation under the White Australia policy. Counterintuitively, he’s touting for Saturday’s march by those opposing immigration. He probably thought, “What else do I need to do to prove I’m a true-blue Aussie”? Then a journo asks an innocuous question about his heritage. This was
too much for him & he cracked. As suggested previously, it’s time he moved on, his mad old uncle routine having run its course.
“Hmm. Not everyone. Plenty of other Victorians who lived through the worst of the COVID years didn’t resort (allegedly!) to shooting police or behaving like crazy people.”
———————————————————-
Except evidence shows Desi Freeman was a nutter well before Covid.
“He had changed his name to “Freeman” before 2003.
From ABC below:
“Business records from 2003 show a freelance photography business registered to Dezi Freeman.
It is the name he appears to have adopted after shedding the name Desmond Filby.
“Freeman” is a term used by some adherents of pseudo-legal theory who believe that the term allows them to circumvent laws, though it is not clear that is why Mr Freeman chose the name.”
In 2018 and 2019 before Covid he was saying this:
“Further evidence of Mr Freeman’s attachment to pseudo-legal ideology is revealed by a podcast interview from mid-2019, during which Mr Freeman claims to have successfully “arrested” a magistrate.
During the interview, Mr Freeman also claimed he had been in court several times.
In the podcast, he referenced a dispute with his neighbours, who he claimed were harassing him. The dispute was detailed in a 2018 episode of A Current Affair.
“They picked the wrong person to mess with, and I think they’re finding that out now,” he said of his neighbours in the podcast interview.
Mr Freeman also revealed an aversion to police enforcement and paying fines, after the podcast host relayed a story about paying what he called an “unlawful” speeding ticket.
“The only reason that anyone pays a fine or goes along with these corrupt, unlawful acts perpetrated on us is when you take it to its logical conclusion, it’s all just about what’s enforced down the barrel of a policeman’s gun,” Mr Freeman argued.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-28/dezi-freeman-abc-verify-online-posts-porepunkah/105703096
Mavis @ #1016 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 8:59 pm
Then again the world has shifted paradigm on how politicians can treat journalists. I remember an incident in the USA where Greg Gianforte just went to town in punching up a journalist from The Guardian for asking pointed questions and he completely got away with it, both legally because they’re cowards against Republicans and by the media in bragging “That’s how we settle things in Montana”. And now he’s the Governor of that state today without having to suffer a single iota of the justice system.
Is Bob Katter ashamed of his ancestry? Maybe someone should ask him…
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/last-churches-in-gaza-say-they-will-not-evacuate …
Steve777 @ #1019 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 9:11 pm
Probably best done by a small woman backed up by a large man if Katter decides to respond with violence.
GFY2says:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 9:12 pm
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/last-churches-in-gaza-say-they-will-not-evacuate …
————————————————-
Don’t like their chances of surviving the genocide.
I’d put Mr Freeman down as a Prepper too.
Some quick commentary on Australian economic news before looking at the French.
A couple of curious data prints this week that is showing next week’s GDP to be hard to read:
– Construction activity was really hot hot hot at +3.0% June quarter (remembering, +0.6% quarterly GDP growth is “about average”. Residential growth was solid (+0.8%) but the real heat was in engineering construction (+6.1%, largely infrastructure both private and public).
Looking at the underlying data, a big jump in private infrastructure and public “buildings” – Public housing investment is up +2.5% just in the quarter and up by nearly +30% over the year.
– Private capital expenditure was a little softer at only +0.2%, but a huge non-mining vs mining split.
According to the ABS, quote:
“The 22.8 per cent rise in information media and telecommunications reflected a return to strength in data centre investment after lighter spending in the March quarter. Retail trade also rose by 18.9 per cent, following an increase in supply chain and fulfilment centre automation”
“The growth in non-mining buildings and structures was driven by spending on large projects in transport, postal and warehousing, information media and telecommunications, and manufacturing”
Long story short, some really big investment in data centres, business automation, and manufacturing. Mining sector investment seems to have fallen in June.
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/construction-work-done-australia-preliminary/jun-2025
https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/new-capital-expenditure-rises-02-cent
So he’s even more of a nutter.
The rehab campaign for Bob Katter has begun:
Robbie Katter defends his father Bob’s actions after question over Lebanese heritage
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-28/robbie-katter-on-bob-threats-after-journalist-question/105709582
There were Preppers before there was a mass Sovereign Citizens movement and COVID-19.
@upNorth,
Welfare check please on Bob Katter!?!?
What is the go with that man. I’m sure you’ve got the tea.
(In case anyone has missed it the march he is intending to attend is being supported if not organised by some very un savoury links to the people who turn up to Moira Deeming’s demos.)
Stoogey Lurker,
Great news for the Giant Cuttlefish!
‘Governments are investing nearly $700,000 to install a “bubble curtain” hoping to protect cuttlefish and their eggs in the Upper Spencer Gulf.
It aims to protect more than 50,000 cuttlefish eggs and hatchlings should the algal bloom move up the gulf.
The government says the technology will be installed early next week.’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-28/bubble-curtain-protect-upper-spencer-gulf-cuttlefish-algal-bloom/105708406
Confessionssays:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 9:19 pm
Except evidence shows Desi Freeman was a nutter well before Covid.
So he’s even more of a nutter.
—————————————–
Yes, Covid probably added to it. So did many other things too. The narrative that somehow the Covid lockdown turned him into a nutter is not one supported by the evidence though. The police were there due to an alleged sexual assault on a minor. I don’t think Covid lockdowns are responsible for making people pedophiles either. Though for all I know the sexual assault allegation could have pre-dated Covid too (the article on that didn’t specify when the sexual assault supposedly took place).
Kirsdarke:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 9:07 pm
I don’t think we’ll ape America here. Examples of treating journos like the one today are exceptional, and may end with Katter’s eventual resignation in favour of one of his sons.
He should resign now, but he probably wants to see how the incident pans out. If I were him, I’d issue an unqualified apology to the journo he threatened & tender my resignation.
C@tmommasays:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 9:24 pm
Stoogey Lurker,
Great news for the Giant Cuttlefish!
‘Governments are investing nearly $700,000 to install a “bubble curtain” hoping to protect cuttlefish and their eggs in the Upper Spencer Gulf.
It aims to protect more than 50,000 cuttlefish eggs and hatchlings should the algal bloom move up the gulf.
The government says the technology will be installed early next week.’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-28/bubble-curtain-protect-upper-spencer-gulf-cuttlefish-algal-bloom/105708406
______________________________________________________
“There is not guaranteed success with this program but it gives us the best possible chance of being able to see to the preservation of cuttlefish eggs … in the event that the algal bloom does migrate towards the top of the Spencer Gulf,” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be a downer. It is good that they are having a crack.
Ok, on the French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s
French fiscal deficit of nearly 6% of GDP is pretty rough – for Australia the government forecasts a peak of 1.5% share of GDP of deficit ($42.2 billion in 2025-26, before shrinking to surplus over the decade).
If Australia had France’s deficit share, we’d be looking at a $170 billion deficit in a single year – larger than the peak deficit we had during the 2020 COVID pandemic year.
Considering that France has much lower population growth (+0.3% annual compared to our +2.0%), I can understand their desire to get spending in order because there is little chance of growing the debt away. While not “Greece”, clearly it is another country subsidized through the Euro exchange rate.
Interestingly, France seems to tax its economy about the same as Australia (tax share of GDP) – though we benefit from a “hidden tax” of compulsory superannuation – because it is not classified as a tax though kind of functions the same as northern hemisphere social security tax payments.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=FR-AU
A good but belated decision:
[‘The ABC has welcomed the decision not to convict ATO whistleblower, Richard Boyle and again called for strengthened whistleblower protections.
Boyle gave information to investigative journalist Adele Ferguson in 2018 on tactics used on taxpayers who owed money that resulted in a joint Nine and Four Corners investigation in 2018.
ABC director of news Justin Stevens said:
We acknowledge the seriousness of these offences. However, Boyle had principled intentions, and his actions were in the public’s interest. His allegations were vindicated. He received no personal gain and has paid a high personal price for his whistleblowing.
If it wasn’t for whistleblowers such as Richard Boyle coming forward to journalists, there are many important issues affecting people’s wellbeing and livelihoods that the public would never know about.’] – Guardian.
Wrt to the Mad Katters,
Robbie say Bob’s unlikely to apologise and:
“I’m not going to say it was an ordinary press conference, but you’ve got to understand I’ve been attending press conferences with my dad since I was a little kid.
“And I’ve seen plenty more aggressive confrontations than that interview.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-28/robbie-katter-on-bob-threats-after-journalist-question/105709582
This is just Bob’s schtick to get attention. Most of his constituents love it.
“organised crime targeting stores”
I think they should start by looking at the store managers who keep stealing wages from staff.
Many millions of people lived through Covid lockdowns without turning into nutters…
Bushfire Bill @ #999 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 7:54 pm
She posted a video of JFK Jr going on about good diet, saying you cant argue with this regardless of your politics. My response was, of course as long as you ignore that this is the framework he hangs his antivax views on (oh and the fascist regime he is part of).
I was pounced upon by her and a bevy of her wellness friends. All healthy enough people, well fed and exercised, and fit, also all middle class and able to access the best of what our society produces.
But all bloody antivaxxers
But all bloody antivaxxers
Their children and the children around them who herd immunity would protect will be the ones paying the price.
Country Victoria remember was not locked down as much as Melbourne.
This guy if he knew the cops were after him may have prepared /prepped supplies in bush locations.
That’s if he did not have a motorbike or a fellow Nutjob smuggle him out.
The fed gov has not yet announced the 24/25 final budget balance it was close to a surprise surplus.Due anyday.
Regarding below labor spooked by popular backlash in Britain and USA etc etc to illegals.
Labor accused of trying to ‘sneak through’ law change to strip non-citizens of fair process
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/28/labor-accused-of-trying-to-sneak-through-law-change-to-strip-non-citizens-of-fair-process
“Refugee and human rights groups will launch a campaign demanding the federal government scrap a controversial migration amendment to explicitly remove procedural fairness in deportation decisions for foreign-born criminals, a proposal which advocates say is causing alarm among migrants.
The Senate on Thursday rejected a Greens push for an inquiry into the legislation, which the senator David Shoebridge slammed as “one of the nastiest, meanest attacks” on multicultural Australia.
:::
The government says the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No 1) bill 2025 seeks to close a loophole associated with the NZYQ verdict, the landmark 2023 high court decision which ruled indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.
:::
Shoebridge on Thursday attempted to send the bill for a Senate inquiry, in a move supported by the Greens and David Pocock, but Labor and Coalition senators voted against the referral.”
You know, I really do wonder if in the past the Coalition had to put up with people like Pegasus that automatically hated absolutely everything that they did so that they encouraged people to vote against them at every opportunity?
Explainer: The Anti-Fairness Bill: entrenching deportation powers
https://www.hrlc.org.au/explainers/explainer-the-anti-fairness-bill/
“The Bill seeks to absolve the government of its errors and remove people’s rights retrospectively. It excludes migrants and refugees from the basic protection of law without any justification.
Why does this matter?
Through this legislation, the government seeks unchecked power to make life-changing decisions that could see people permanently exiled to third countries, unencumbered by the usual requirements of fairness.
It also seeks to undermine the impact of the High Court’s seminal decision about indefinite immigration detention, by refusing to acknowledge that previous decisions about people’s visas were wrong.
The Bill is yet another step in the creation of a parallel legal system that subjects migrants and refugees to harsher treatment, purely on the basis of visa status. “
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/aug/28/ukraine-kyiv-strike-russia-europe-zelenskyy-putin-updates-live-news-latest?filterKeyEvents=false#liveblog-navigation
Has anyone heard anything from China, India or the US?
Update:
“ ‘Moscow’s true answer to peace efforts’ — Russian mass attack on Kyiv kills 18, including children”
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-drones-target-kyiv-ukrainian-cities-in-large-scale-attack/
This is what comes from Trump giving Putin a foot rub in Alaska when he should have given him a bloody nose.
What about the employer, ANZ Banking Group Limited, instructing their Senior Managers to give back their laptops because they are about to be sacked
First the Senior Managers knew of it
Employers, hey?
Another story says:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 10:47 pm
“What about the employer, ANZ Banking Group Limited, instructing their Senior Managers to give back their laptops because they are about to be sacked
First the Senior Managers knew of it
Employers, hey?”
I know a case (a few years back) where someone returning from leave was asked to meet off-site before he went to his office because they had a “special project” for him.
It was Westpac. It was redundancy.
What a wunch of bankers.
New thread.
”
Confessionssays:
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 8:58 pm
Kirsdarke @ #1013 Thursday, August 28th, 2025 – 8:48 pm
Surprise surprise, tonight on Sky After Dark we have a Plastic MAGA woman trying to argue that shutting down Alligator Auschwitz is a bad thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDstTP2zpUU
What idiots. Yes Alligator Alcatraz was ordered to close, but it was also shut down because of the enormous costs to Florida and US taxpayers because simple operations necessitated:
– trucking in drinking water
– trucking in water for things like bathing and ablutions
– trucking out sewerage
– trucking out other waste
– use of generators for electricity for things like air conditioning
”
Make no mistake, as Rick Wilson said, everything that Trump touches dies. But Trump goes unscathed.
If any other politician anywhere in the world, not just in US, indulged in just one thing that Trump said or did, their political career would be destroyed.
In Hindu mythology, there were a lot of demon kings, who possessed intense powers of destruction, did lot of destruction. They were protected by some armour or some other blessings, which prevented normal beings to defeat or kill them.
MAGA is Trump’s armour.
But those Demon kings had one chink in that armour. They were killed after piercing through that armour. But that needed a lot of thinking and effort.
In Hindu mythology, there was a demon king called Bhasmasura. Every thing Bhasmasura touches burns down to ashes.
So gods did not know what to do because he is causing lot of destruction with that ability. They went to Lord Vishnu asked for destruction of Bhasmasura. Bhasmasura liked dancing.
Lord Vishnu transforms into a beautiful female avatar called Mohini and goes near Bhasmasura. Bhasmasura is bewitched by Mohini and wants to marry her. Mohini asks for one dance before marriage. Bhasmasura agrees and then Mohini dances and Bhasmasura repeats those steps. In the end Mohini puts palm on her head
Bhasmasura did the same and got burnt.
Ditching Melenchon would be rolling out the carpet for the Nazis. His base are the same as the national assembly, disaffected working class folks that are mad at the system and desparate for any kind of reform.