The latest fortnightly Sky News Pulse poll by YouGov records One Nation level with Labor in this series for the first time, with Labor dipping three points to 27% and One Nation matching them with a two-point gain. The Coalition is steady on 20% and the Greens up one to 14%. Labor holds two-party leads of 52-48 over the Coalition (in from 54-46) and 53-47 over One Nation (steady). Anthony Albanese is down one on approval to 38% and up two on disapproval to 57%, and holds leads on preferred prime minister of 44-39 over Angus Taylor and 50-39 over Pauline Hanson. Angus Taylor is steady at 38% approval and up four on disapproval to 43%. The poll was conducted April 14 to 21 from a sample of 1501.
Michelle Grattan of The Conversation reports on a uComms poll conducted for the campaign of independent Farrer by-election candidate Michelle Milthorpe, which has Milthorpe and One Nation candidate David Farley all but tied on the primary vote, at 30.0% and 30.9% respectively, with 7.9% reported as undecided. However, Farley would presumably get the better of preferences from the Liberals on 16.1% and the Nationals on 7.1%. The remainder includes 3.8% for the Greens and 1.2% for Family First. The poll was conducted April 9 and 10 from a sample of 1116.
Entropy
Ummm. You do know who the IEA is, right?
And that Australia is a signatory to their mandates, right?
And (this one for SL) that you can’t simply “legislate” those mandates away, right?
GoW
I think Paterson takes a BW view that the PRC is such a shithole that the Taiwanese will never reach an accord with the mainland
(Of course there is less urgency to an accord while the US and its sycophants give an unstated guarantee to Taiwan)
Meanwhile, in the real world, the KMT leader has met with Xi
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0krnz7mmmjo
Player Onesays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 9:28 pm
Entropy
So the fossil fuel lobby you and Angus both support.
Ummm. You do know who the IEA is, right?
And that Australia is a signatory to their mandates, right?
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Don’t you believe Australia is captured by the fossil fuel lobby?
You have posted it often enough. Don’t you believe most of the other countries in the IEA are too?
Pretty sure you have posted that too often.
Now you want us to use around $20 billion of taxpayers money buying up fossil fuels. When the true pathway to energy self-sufficiency is via renewables and EVs. It seems you might be captured by the fossil fuel lobby yourself.
Entropy
“what you believe” and “reality” do not even have a nodding acquaintance.
Player Onesays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 9:33 pm
Entropy
“what you believe” and “reality” do not even have a nodding acquaintance.
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I’m not the one running on an unity ticket with an Angus Taylor policy though.
Great move. Well done P1.
78 billion down the drain. Nothing compared to what is coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLItp5SiRGw
P1, nobody believes for a moment that you would have praised the government spending billions on a larger fossil fuel reserve before the Iran war happened. You would have castigated them, and in fact as Entropy said made copious references to the fossil fuel lobby.
We know this because you are very consistent about this.
Are there any instances of you arguing in advance that the government ought to be rapidly building a huge stockpile of fossil fuels with taxpayer money? I would be absolutely gobsmacked if there were.
One thing is for sure, now is not the time to try and build fossil fuel reserves.
frednksays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 9:52 pm
One thing is for sure, now is not the time to try and build fossil fuel reserves.
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Stranded assets are not something you want to have to much of when the music stops. Ask Timmy how his petrol hoard supposedly bought in early April when petrol was in the mid $2 a litre is looking now.
The LNP sold our gold at the rock bottom of the market, and now they want to waste billions buying fuel at the height of the market.
Ghost Of Whitlamsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 9:58 pm
The LNP sold our gold at the rock bottom of the market, and now they want to waste billions buying fuel at the height of the market.
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Great economic managers my foot. Even a coin toss is 50% better at it.
Question for SL on those liquid fuel reserves postings. How often is the average imports figure updated?
I note our petrol reserves have risen over the last 2 weeks from ~30 days to 44 days (the others have remained relatively static). Is that because the numerator (fuel stored) has increased, or because the denominator (average imports) has decreased because more recent figures are being used in the calculation?
B.S. Fairman at 9.25 pm
“And they might get lucky and the Iranian regime might fall apart.”
Not a chance. The clearest political effect of Trump’s war has been to strengthen the military character of the Iranian regime.
Here is one assessment a month ago. It is a consensus view among experts on Iran:
‘In majority-Shi’ite Iran, the Revolutionary Guards were both the crucible of the revolutionary ideology on which the Islamic Republic was founded, and the most powerful force. Analysts say it now controls the country, having installed Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as a Supreme Leader who may be more of a figurehead.
“It is now, for all intents and purposes, a military regime,” a journalist in Iran tells TIME, speaking anonymously for security reasons. “What exists now, in these wartime conditions, is only a façade of the old regime, and Mojtaba Khamenei is the window dressing. In today’s Iran, the Sepah rules alone at the top,” he says, using a Persian nickname for the IRGC. …
“They have been ready for this kind of war,” Golkar {an expert on the IGRC} says, referring to the regime. “But the loser of this conflict will be the Iranian people, without any doubt. We will see a much different animal from now on. After Trump is out of the picture, and Netanyahu is out of office, you will see a much more radical and aggressive Islamic Republic outside, and more repressive inside.”’
https://time.com/article/2026/03/30/iran-war-strait-hormuz/
Trump is never out of cards, because he doesn’t play by the usual rules in which what other states think of the US and its diplomacy matters to the US. For Trump, Putin’s approval matters more than German support for his blundering war, which has ended.
German Chancellor Merz initially supported Trump’s war on Iran more than Albo did.
Now he has apparently had time to think through the consequences of Trump’s war.
‘The United States, Merz said yesterday, is presently being “humiliated” by the Iranian regime. The Iranians “are obviously stronger than previously thought” and the Americans don’t have a convincing strategy for negotiations, in his view.
Merz isn’t wrong. The Trump administration’s entire Iran strategy is based on coercing Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and terminate all enrichment activities. But US actions to date have merely consolidated Iran’s leadership and compelled it to resist even more strongly.’
https://unherd.com/newsroom/friedrich-merzs-iran-intervention-wont-discourage-trump/
Entropysays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 10:02 pm
Ghost Of Whitlamsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 9:58 pm
The LNP sold our gold at the rock bottom of the market, and now they want to waste billions buying fuel at the height of the market.
===========================================
Great economic managers my foot. Even a coin toss is 50% better at it.
________________________
It’s probably likely that the sale of the gold was a better economic decision than keeping it.
Well this has been an entertaining read tonight. We need more fossil fuel!
Perhaps an Islay malt nightcap is in order 🙂
The rails have gone,
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EoDqWSOztHQ
Alright. Deep breath. First public draft.
I made this.
Elections Australia
https://electionsaustralia.org/
For a single, rigorous, transparent and innovative Australian election management body.
Given the fact Labor has driven electricity prices up 37% due to renewables more renewables means more inflation means more interest rate hikes and more One nation.
Irony is with the crazy labor population increase our average emissions have not done much.
Unless the price of renewables greatly reduces then it is unaffordable to reach the targets Labor has set.
15 interest rate rises, massive deficits, productivity terrible, and high taxing and spending the fed labor governments economic performance is a disaster.
Then their is the poor subsidising the wealthy via novated leasing rorts,paying no road user EV charge ,and stuff all electricity user charge via solar.
Entropysays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 2:19 pm
Scepticsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 1:54 pm
Tax on beer in Australia is 1700% higher than in Germany. AI
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Germany also has a 19% VAT on most goods except essential which are at 7%.
Australia’s GST is 10% and no tax on essentials.
Would you rather have cheaper beer but higher GST/VAT?
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Or maybe we could start taxing the gas giants! Just sayin’
UAE has just pulled out of OPEC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/28/uae-opec-oil-iran.html
The UAE has apparently withdrawn from OPEC.
Can they ship more oil if they increase production?
https://share.google/FZkgvjgjTOIqJbVu6
Aqualungsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 11:35 pm
The UAE has apparently withdrawn from OPEC.
Can they ship more oil if they increase production?
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Not currently through the SoH. As far as I know that is their only outlet.
pied pipersays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 11:20 pm
Given the fact Labor has driven electricity prices up 37% due to renewables more renewables means more inflation means more interest rate hikes and more One nation.
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Crazy Angus and Pauline with nuclear and coal would be much more expensive.
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/we-dont-need-nuclear-power-the-path-to-cheaper-electricity-is-renewables/
That’s what I was thinking Entropy.
Do they know something the rest of us don’t?
Anyway, looks like it’ll be every oil producing nation for itself when the strait opens.
Aqualungsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 11:51 pm
That’s what I was thinking Entropy.
Do they know something the rest of us don’t?
Anyway, looks like it’ll be every oil producing nation for itself when the strait opens.
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While it is closed they have lost a lot of revenue. I guess when it opens they’ll be doing what you suggest in a desperate attempt to recoup loses.
The UAE never had much oil. Most of what they have is drawn from platforms in the gulf. So… ummm…
I used to work in the Gulf. Amazing place. The thing i wasn’t prepared for was the amount of sea-life. Frigging everywhere. The conditions are that the gulf itself is pretty shallow, and right on the equator, so a big bulge in the shape of the earth. So every tide, that ol Straight of Hormuz has a rushing tide of 5 or so knots. It can get even higher. Because of that, every little sea critter sets itself up to feed itself on the permanent current running back and forth. Not what I expected at all. So many little bright snakes. And whales.
Gsays:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 10:59 pm
Alright. Deep breath. First public draft.
I made this.
Elections Australia
https://electionsaustralia.org/
For a single, rigorous, transparent and innovative Australian election management body.
_____________________
Had a read. Some good ideas and some need more work.
A fun livestream of the results is a bit out there.
Merge state & council voting into the same day. Introduce online voting for state/council. 15 days early voting for Federal Elections.
Banning TCP and “swings” makes it a dead idea. Australia wants the result on the night. Not two weeks later.
New thread.
I would never refer to China as a ‘shithole’.
I do believe China is run by a murderous, genocidal regime which actively works against liberal and democratic values at home and abroad, including most recently jailing someone for demonstrating for democracy… in Australia.
Other than that I am profoundly grateful for the magnificent technical and industrial advances China is making with respect to battery technology. These will change the world for the better.
The Taiwanese have Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and Bhutan to observe as a brutalist case studies of Chinese domestic and international brutalism. Doubtless the majority of Taiwanese would prefer to remain a real democracy. They know that if they poke the dragon in the eye with a burnt stick they will be punished. So they will probably try to continue to try to make it too hard for China easily to conquer them while at the same time trying not to motivate China so to do.
It is also in their interests to maintain good trading relations with China.
IMO the best hope for Taiwan is to struggle along with some sort of BAU.
One straw in that wind is that China is set to lose 60 million people over the next decade. How this will affect China is difficult to predict. But it may demotivate China from military adventurism.
That said, it is in the process of the largest peace time naval build in world history. It is adding the equivalent of the RAAF to its airforce every year. It has the largest army in the world. And its missile concentrations off the Taiwan Strait are increasing year by year.
All of which seems to motivate OC to rush to the ramparts to defend someone who criticizes the worst elements of Chinese governance.
Go figure.
It is ironic that the result of the war with Iran has shown that Iran can strike America militarily, exercise control over the strait of hormuz, and affect regime change in America.
If the US tries to break Iran’s blockade then Iran is going to be forced to resort to kinetic measures… or lose the war big time.
Raining ATM… this has been a rare event hereabouts for the past month or so.
Repeat post from last thread. It was no more true then than now.
One of the problems for Trump in the negotiations is that the Iranians can’t trust Netanyahu to stick to any deal at all.
How do they glue Netanyahu down?