Nothing to relate over the past week in the way of federal polling, but past time nonetheless for a new post. We do have, courtesy of the Macquarie University Housing and Urban Research Centre, a deep dive into attitudes towards housing policy from before the May election, drawn from the Australian Cooperative Election Survey conducted by Accent Research. It finds only 16% were satisfied with the Albanese government’s housing policies, with 34% dissatisfied and 32% neither, although the high level of consistency of these results by age group, housing tenure and property investment status suggests the dissatisfaction takes on a variety of forms. On the causes of the problem, the report offers the perhaps unsurprising finding that “older and right-leaning voters” blame immigration, while “younger and progressive voters identify high interest rates, high prices and low wages”.
DemosAU does have a state poll for Queensland, which comes too soon after last week’s Resolve Strategic and RedBridge Group polls to get its own post (on a semi-related point: still no date for the Hinchinbrook by-election). In contrast to those two, it finds David Crisafulli’s Liberal National Party government well on top, despite a surge to One Nation at the expense of both major parties. The LNP has a two-party lead of 54-46, essentially the same as the 54.2-45.8 election result last year, from primary votes of LNP 37% (down by 4.5%), Labor 29% (down by 3.6%), Greens 12% (up by 2.1%) and One Nation 14% (up by 6.0%). Crisafulli leads Steven Miles 44-23 on preferred premier. Further questions find the government highly rated for handling of the Olympics but rather a lot less so for housing and cost-of-living, which also register as the two most salient issues facing the state. Extensive demographic breakdowns are available in the full report. The poll was conducted October 13 to 20 from a sample of 1006.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Had I held back a few hours I would have had a new poll from Essential Research to lead with: it has Labor up a point to 36% and the Coalition down one to 26%, and the ongoing One Nation surge pushing them well clear of the Greens, respectively up two to 15% and down two to 9%, with a steady 6% undecided. Labor holds a 50-44 lead on the 2PP+ measure, in from 51-44. Anthony Albanese is up a point on approval to 45% and down two on disapproval to 44%, while Sussan Ley is steady on 32% and up two to 43%.
A question on who should lead the Liberal Party produces indecisive results, with 42% professing themselves unsure and 12% favouring “somebody else” over six designated options: 13% for Sussan Ley, 10% for Andrew Hastie, 10% for Jacinta Namatjira Price, 7% for Angus Taylor, 4% for Allegra Spender and 3% for Tim Wilson. Forty-eight per cent felt the party should adopt more progressive positions, 24% more conservative.
Albanese’s meeting with Donald Trump was rated good for Australia’s long-term interests by 37%, bad by 18% and indifferent by 26%. Support for net zero by 2050 is at 44% with 27% opposed, and a monthly national mood reading improves a bit after a sharp downturn last time, with right direction up a point to 35% and wrong track down four to 46%. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Monday from a sample of 1041.
Maybe the government does need to nationalise both the smelter and wind project to avoid backsliding in LNP shitfuckery? Thoughts?
————————————-
Targeted nuclear. Government owned.
Dutton wasnt completed wrong. He was just 90% wrong (100% if you consider it was a covert fossil fuel policy rather than a emissions reduction policy) and 10 years too late for it to be taken seriously coming from the energy debacle party.
Does anyone know what the Greens stand for these days? Other than opposing the supply of new housing and crying victim all the time?
Team Katichsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:40 pm
Maybe the government does need to nationalise both the smelter and wind project to avoid backsliding in LNP shitfuckery? Thoughts?
————————————-
Targeted nuclear.
中华人民共和国
Harsh but fair. Would you get like all the LNP into Maralinga and do it? Will the Pied Piper be there? Taylormade? There is a bit work to be done Jan but it could just work.
Mavis says Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 10:35 am
Macquarie Bank have a savings account with good interest, no minimums or transactions required and free ATM usage.
Arky:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:27 pm
@Mavis – “Incidentally, I’d like to know why so many judges live for so long. Mason, for example, is 100.”
I thought longevity was not conducive to a sedentary life. And Mason is not an exception. Brennan lived to 94,
as did Barwick. No more swetting it out in the paddocks for this little duck.
Good to see the Kangaroos keep the Ashes last night. I read that some of the abuse directed at Reece Walsh was terrible. Geez it’s always good to beat the Poms.
If Rio Tinto wants access to cheap renewables to keep Tomago Aluminium smelter running, why don’t they build them?
Mavissays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:46 pm
Arky:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:27 pm
@Mavis – “Incidentally, I’d like to know why so many judges live for so long. Mason, for example, is 100.”
I thought longevity was not conducive to a sedentary life. And Mason is not an exception. Brennan lived to 94,
as did Barwick. No more swetting it out in the paddocks for this little duck.
中华人民共和国
Lifetime Pension also helps. Gotta get the most out of it.
Mavis @ #1677 Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 – 3:11 pm
Maybe they don’t. Maybe it just takes years before anyone notices they’re dead.
And as we are 10 years behind building renewables because of the Liberal party, they really should just hang their heads in shame.
There is a bit work to be done Jan but it could just work.
—————————————–
That didnt cross my mind. But it has now.
Just do it elsewhere. Maralinga doesnt deserve it.
frednksays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:51 pm
If Rio Tinto wants access to cheap renewables to keep Tomago Aluminium smelter running, why don’t they build them?
_______________
They have had cheap subsidised electricity since it was built 40 years ago. They are trying to blackmail the governments so that can continue.
Local member Meryl Swanson summed it up pretty well:
“Rio, particularly has been able to return to shareholders over many decades off the back of the magnificent Hunter region. We need what they have reaped to be respected, and we need that to be repaid now in them coming to the negotiation in good faith.
If Rio Tinto wants access to cheap renewables to keep Tomago Aluminium smelter running, why don’t they build them?
—————————————
Nation building, frednk. Nation building.
Roads, Telecom trunk networks, energy grids, sewer networks. Then tax the companies that profit from all that. But… gone are the days…..
SLsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:33 pm
The Illawarra and Hunter Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) are zones where offshore windfarms could be built. They won’t be because no one is seriously proposing to do so because they are too expensive.
___________
The NIMBY’s don’t want their coastal balcony views invaded by far away offshore wind turbines. Earlwood can tell you all about it.
STOP THE WINDS !!!
Team Katichsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:54 pm
There is a bit work to be done Jan but it could just work.
—————————————–
That didnt cross my mind. But it has now.
Just do it elsewhere. Maralinga doesnt deserve it.
中华人民共和国
Well the Orange Shit Stain announced that the Yanks are restarting Nuclear Testing. No need to pollute Oz more than is needed – plus the Pied Piper quite likes the bloke so it could be a win win. Do it in Yankee Land.
‘S. Simpson says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:43 pm
Does anyone know what the Greens stand for these days? Other than opposing the supply of new housing and crying victim all the time?’
=======================
https://greens.org.au/about/four-pillars
IT was botched by the ATM governments. Now we in a race to catch up. Like the NBN LNP always f@ck it all up until Labor comes back to get it done.
Rio Tinto and the rest of the resources sector vampires will always get their way as long as they have their Lib and Lab stooges doing their bidding in Canberra.
Boerwarsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 4:03 pm
‘S. Simpson says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:43 pm
Does anyone know what the Greens stand for these days? Other than opposing the supply of new housing and crying victim all the time?’
=======================
https://greens.org.au/about/four-pillars
中华人民共和国
Geez BW – like “Littleproud and Pegging” you gotta be careful with some of your posts.
I clicked on that link and I think my daughter saw it before I had time to get out. I was going to have a decent fry up given my hangover but seeing that stuff has made me reach for Tofu and a Almond Milk Latte.
Rex Douglassays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 4:03 pm
SLsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:33 pm
The Illawarra and Hunter Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) are zones where offshore windfarms could be built. They won’t be because no one is seriously proposing to do so because they are too expensive.
___________
The NIMBY’s don’t want their coastal balcony views invaded by far away offshore wind turbines. Earlwood can tell you all about it.
STOP THE WINDS !!!
________________
This, I think, was the last interview from Bowen on NSW offshore wind:
“…offshore wind is facing some global international investment headwinds right at the moment, partly driven by some uncertainty out of the United States. So, we are caught up in that. So, that’s very disappointing. But we are now moving to a research and development stage because I think the Hunter will continue to be very, very important, of course, for our renewable energy future, but also our offshore wind future. It’s going to be a bit slower and harder than we hoped.”
https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/interview-paul-culliver-abc-newcastle-0
> He’s being very optimistic that it has a future in NSW at all. AEMO has never thought that it does. Because of the deep water, floating turbines would need to be used, unlike in Victoria where the water in Bass Strait is shallow enough for conventional turbines to be used.
S. Simpson:
Does anyone know what the Greens stand for these days? Other than opposing the supply of new housing and crying victim all the time?
They have a lot to say about Palestine. Pro- I think.
I recall that during a heatwave in 2017, the Tomago smelter was forced to shut down some of its potlines to prevent a state-wide blackout. I also recall that a Snowy Hydro owned peaking gas plant (Colongra??) was idle at the time, but Tomago is a customer of Origin, who delivered their power from Eraring, which had problems. Snowy Hydro sat on their hands.
I suspect that there are other forces at play for Rio Tinto at Tomago. The future price of power – rather than its availability – may be a biggy. Maybe the smelter is reaching the end of its useful life without a long-term, low-cost power contract or a government refit bailout.
Anyway, I doubt that power is simply not available into the future. There are too many interested power players in that part of the country. And a lot of political interests, too.
I’m sure there’s a multitude of solutions. An LNP government could build them a nuclear power station in 20, 30 or 40 or so years (whenever they’re re-elected). That power would be free to industry, of course.
bc:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:46 pm
Mavis says Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 10:35 am
Thanks, D & M. I’m as mad as hell about forfeiting a month’s interest. I’m going to sort it out tomorrow. I’ll be making them an offer too good for them to refuse.
Thank you. I’m looking for a new bank, but not before I give my current one a hard time. In my view, it has behaved unconscionably, and I doubt I’m not the only one adversely affected. I’m off to re-familiarise myself with the rules of the court of Equity.
C@t at 1.43pm.
“She organised my christening and instead of it being performed at the local Catholic Church, it turns out it was the local Anglican Church!”
I had 6 brothers and sisters. First two were Anglican because paternal grandmother was very active in the church. She passed and the Methodists had a sexy young padre who rode around on a motorbike so the next two became a part of that flock. He moved on so the next three are heathens.
Holdenhillbilly says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 2:55 pm
The Nationals have scrapped their commitment to the net zero by 2050 climate target and will instead aim to bring down Australia’s carbon emissions in line with the rest of the world. Nationals leader David Littleproud said his MPs had come to a unanimous position as he announced the new policy following a party room meeting in Canberra on Sunday. “We continue to believe that we need to reduce emissions, but we’ve got to do it in a better, fairer, cheaper way for all Australians,” Littleproud said. “We believe that we can peg ourselves to the rest of the world. We’re not going to be a laggard, but we’re not going to streak ahead.” Littleproud said the Nationals’ decision was about “bringing common sense back to climate and energy policy”.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/we-re-not-going-to-streak-ahead-nationals-officially-dump-net-zero-climate-target-20251102-p5n736.html
Policy by talking points. Pity the planet isn’t listening.
Still, you’d think that the Liberals would be listening to the capitalist argument. China gets it. Chris Bowen and the government get it. The transition to a Renewable Energy economy is an economic winner. As well as the planet.
Arkysays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 2:52 pm
I just saw that earlier people were trying to argue Scott Morrison kept his faith to himself, so apparently I imagined him the Brian Houston stuff, attendance at Hillsong conferences, the religious discrimination bill, opposing marriage equality yada yada yada.
______________________________
Stoogery condemns Morrison’s religiosity but has nothing to say about the Labor Catholic Right, their opposition to marriage equality, euthanasia, yada yada yada
“I recall that during a heatwave in 2017, the Tomago smelter was forced to shut down some of its potlines to prevent a state-wide blackout. I also recall that a Snowy Hydro owned peaking gas plant (Colongra??) was idle at the time, but Tomago is a customer of Origin, who delivered their power from Eraring, which had problems. Snowy Hydro sat on their hands.”
____________________________________________
Tomago is part of a demand response scheme (WDRM). Once every year or two, on average, it gets paid to dial back its electricity use for a couple of hours. This generally happens on really hot evenings when demand is at its highest and supply is struggling.
> At all times, they use enough electricity to keep the aluminium liquid.
> It isn’t forced. It is a voluntary scheme, and they are paid handsomely.
> A statewide blackout would not have occurred, rolling blackouts maybe.
Granny Anny @ 4.24pm,
ROFL. 😆
I imagine if things were happening today, with the way they dress their pastors up, there would have been a few Evangelicals. 🙂
Barnaby Joyce says the Nationals’ dumping of net zero is not enough to bring him back to the partyroom, declaring there needed to be stronger guarantees against the rollout of large-scale renewables projects. The Nationals MP, who is expected to defect to One Nation before the next election, told The Australian dumping net zero was a step in the right direction to the party “reclaiming the economic potential of the nation”. But he said he was not ready to rejoin the partyroom, arguing his issues with personnel had escalated after he was accused of yelling at a staffer last week when he requested leave to attend a funeral. “The incident last week makes discussions like (rejoining the partyroom) even more difficult,” Mr Joyce said.
Could we please stop paying attention to the attention hound, Barnaby Joyce!?! He’s one individual MP on a jihad on behalf of his sponsors to sabotage the Renewable Energy transformation this country and the planet so desperately needs.
Geez I just saw this
“London: A mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train has been declared a “major incident”, with nine of the 10 people taken to hospital suffering life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Witnesses described chaotic scenes when the train was brought to an emergency halt at a station near Cambridge, where police arrested two suspects while the wounded were ferried to hospital.
British Transport Police said counter-terrorism police were supporting the investigation, but added that a motive was unclear.
ambridgeshire police said they were called at 7.39pm on Saturday (6.39am Sunday AEDT) after reports that “multiple people” had been stabbed as the Doncaster to London King’s Cross train headed south towards Huntingdon.
“Armed officers attended and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, where two men were arrested,” the police said in a statement.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/multiple-people-stabbed-on-uk-train-in-appalling-incident-20251102-p5n733.html
Another failing progressive left Ponzi population scheme fan the state labor government of Victoria does not have enough health staff to cover its population.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-02/vic-ambulance-victoria-high-demand-in-melbourne-and-geelong/105962168
Nutjobs in government wrongly and deliberately blame warm weather!
Yesterday Chris Bowen did a presser and said:
“There was an election this May. Peter Dutton said it was a referendum on climate and energy. We agreed. The Australian people gave a pretty clear choice.
If the National Party and their Liberal friends just choose not to get the memo from the Australian people, I find that disappointing in the national interest, but it’s a matter for them. Meanwhile, we’ll get on with the job of delivery.”
https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/press-conference-kingsford-nsw
Also, October was the second month in a row where renewables generated more than coal in the NEM (49.9%):
https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/nem/?range=1y&interval=1M&view=discrete-time&group=Coal%2FGas%2FRenewables
SLsays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 4:09 pm
He’s being very optimistic that it has a future in NSW at all. AEMO has never thought that it does. Because of the deep water, floating turbines would need to be used, unlike in Victoria where the water in Bass Strait is shallow enough for conventional turbines to be used.
_______________________
So Bowen is talking shit.
Thats not like him.
Maybe he could blame the LNP for the deep water off NSW.
frednk says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3:51 pm
If Rio Tinto wants access to cheap renewables to keep Tomago Aluminium smelter running, why don’t they build them?
Rio Tinto’s solar power and battery purchase for Gladstone aluminium operations praised as ‘right direction’
This article is more than 7 months old
Company says new solar agreements will now mean 80% of Boyne smelter’s energy needs are covered by renewable sources
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/13/rio-tintos-solar-power-and-battery-purchase-for-gladstone-aluminium-operations-praised-as-right-direction
All this “talk” about Rio & renewable is very confusing.. a black ops ?
On Rio and Tomago, their behaviour there makes a striking contrast to Gladstone, where they have a more modern facility with longer remaining life.
At Tomago they have spent very little on their power supply. The plant is 43 years old.
At Gladstone, Rio have two smelters and a refinery, total capacity larger than Tomago. Plus one of the smelter lines is under 20 years old.
Hence at Gladstone Rio have already funded a salt storage renewable energy storage scheme. Any government funding of power supply to Tomago needs to include a requirement for Rio to invest in a large renewable power supply.
Snap Sceptic!
Stoogery condemns Morrison’s religiosity but has nothing to say about the Labor Catholic Right, their opposition to marriage equality, euthanasia, yada yada yada
But who all follow the agreed Labor line decided at conference. So, your uninformed point is? Other than your ritual loathing of the SDA.
Over the past few months Ezra Klein has been synthesizing his thoughts on where did the Democrat party go wrong, and how does it come back from where it finds itself. This next exert I think gets to the nub of the issue, they have been captured by special interest groups which brook no disagreement, and will label you a traitor if hold a differing view. But they have also developed a class of political operative which is too plugged in to politics, and not plugged into community.
This isn’t just an issue with the left in the US, it happened here on the right here in Australia. The LNP has been captured by the mining industry, specifically coal, that has shifted them away from main stream voters. You could say the Greens are possibly facing the same issue, special interests which push out all other views.
The real thing we’re talking about here is what might be called the professional political classes. The groups that we’re talking about are downstream from the progressive professional political class. The people in them are the same people who staff or drive the other parts of progressive politics: One year you’re with a nonprofit, then you’re on a campaign, then you’re in the White House, then you’re back at a group. You’re followed on X or Bluesky by left-leaning journalists like me, by producers at MSNBC or breaking news reporters at Politico. It’s not a bunch of groups. It’s a professional community that exists largely online.
And so that professional community’s culture and attention are governed not by its values or its goals but by the decisions of the corporations and oligarchs who own the social media platforms and design them to further their profits or their politics. The conversations pulsing across these platforms are shaped not by civic values but by whatever proves to keep people scrolling: Nuanced opinions are compressed into viral slogans; attention collects around the loudest and most controversial voices; algorithms love conflict, inspiration, outrage and anger. Everything is always turned up to 11.
Social media has thrown everyone involved at every level of politics in every place into the same algorithmic Thunderdome. It has collapsed distance and profession and time because no matter where we are, we can always be online together. We always know what our most online peers are thinking. They come to set the culture of their respective political classes. And there is nothing that most of us fear as much as being out of step with our peers.
This has affected the Democratic and Republican Parties in different ways. Let me start with the Democrats.
From 2012 to 2024, Democrats moved sharply left on virtually every issue. They often did so arguing that they were finally representing communities that had long suffered from too little representation. This was what they were told to do by the online voices and professional groups that claimed to represent these communities.
But it went wrong. Democrats became more uncompromising on immigration and lost support among Hispanic voters. They moved left on guns and student loans and climate, and lost ground with young voters. They moved left on race and lost ground with Black voters. They moved left on education and lost ground with Asian American voters. They moved left on economics and lost ground with working-class voters. The only major group in which Democrats saw improvement across that whole 12-year period was college-educated white voters.
If you judged Democratic politics expressively — by what the people in it were saying — it stood in solidarity with the struggling and the marginalized as never before. If you judged it consequentially — based on what happened, who it attracted, the power it won or lost — it was breaking faith with those it had vowed to represent and protect.
Online, politics is expressive, and most political speech is aimed at those who already agree with the speaker. Offline, power is won and lost in elections. Winning elections means winning over voters who have no voice in the professional political world. Passing policy into law means building coalitions that include views and members who are held in very low esteem in the more ideologically pure world of online politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/opinion/democrats-liberalism-elections-crick.html
Socrates says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 5:00 pm
On Rio and Tomago, their behaviour there makes a striking contrast to Gladstone, where they have a more modern facility with longer remaining life.
At Tomago they have spent very little on their power supply. The plant is 43 years old.
At Gladstone, Rio have two smelters and a refinery, total capacity larger than Tomago. Plus one of the smelter lines is under 20 years old.
Hence at Gladstone Rio have already funded a salt storage renewable energy storage scheme. Any government funding of power supply to Tomago needs to include a requirement for Rio to invest in a large renewable power supply.
Exactly. So I think that the subtext to the plotline is the Minns government inability to get a wriggle on with facilitating the change in the Hunter.
Geez BW – like “Littleproud and Pegging” you gotta be careful with some of your posts. Has anyone sort the opinion of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley?
Mar a Lago guests at Trump’s Halloween party advertising their continuing support for the cosmetic surgery and Botox industries.
Fastwheels
This guy in the foreground of the Mar-a-Lago Halloween party photo you posted says it all about the Trump hangers-on!
Over the past few months Ezra Klein has been synthesizing his thoughts on where did the Democrat party go wrong, and how does it come back from where it finds itself. This next excerpt I think gets to the nub of the issue, they have been captured by special interest groups which brook no disagreement, and will label you a traitor if hold a differing view. But they have also developed a class of political operative which is too plugged in to politics, and not plugged into community.
Bingo! Same thing applies to The Greens here.
I actually saw a Democratic Adviser, post election last November say exactly that. He coined the term ‘The Groups’. He observed that they’re always pushing the Democrats to accede to their wishlists 100% or they will go around their community and condemn them. Which, as he observed is counterproductive and just plain dumb because they end up with 100% of nothing when the Republicans win. So he said that he was going to try and counsel the Dems to move away from being captured by ‘The Groups’ and to get themselves in line with broad community expectations instead. If they want to win elections.
Or, as Paul Ericksen of Labor campaign fame puts it, ‘meet the people where they are’.
BK,
When I saw him I thought, Alfred Hitchcock has been brought back from the dead!
And, Fastwheels, just what species of animal is THIS?
Trump job approval:
Approve 43.1%
Disapprove 53.9%
Don’t know 3.0%
Trump net approval on the issues:
Immigration -3.0
Trade -16.2
Economy -16.4
Inflation -27.6
(source: Silver Bulletin)
I’m skeptical about every instance of someone referring to them as the “Democrat Party” because it’s one of MAGA’s cute little dogwhistling wordplays that’s like “Haha, the Democrats are filthy vermin rats that need to be exterminated one way or another. Because they are rats. Democ-Rats, get it?!”. Just like how they embraced the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” as a cute little code for “Fuck Joe Biden”.
Also Ezra Klein and the NY Times in general are weak pathetic failures that bend the knee to fascism.
I don’t think Ezra Klein actually talks to real people.
Arky @ #1650 Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 – 2:03 pm
I apologise but I’m going to nitpick a little here. Henry VIII wasn’t trying to get a divorce, he wanted his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled.