The fortnightly Sky News Pulse poll by YouGov has Labor up three points to 30%, the Coalition up one to 21%, One Nation down three to 24% and the Greens steady on 14%. Labor’s two-party lead over the Coalition is unchanged at 54-46, but is much improved against One Nation at 57-43, out from 53-47. Anthony Albanese is up two on approval to 40% and down three on disapproval to 54%, while Angus Taylor is steady on 38% and down one to 42%. Albanese’s lead over Taylor on preferred prime minister is out from 44-39 to 45-36, and his lead over Pauline Hanson is out from 50-39 to 54-35. The poll was conducted last Tuesday to this Tuesday from a sample size unspecified in the report, which was likely around 1100 (UPDATE: It was actually 1500, as is typical for this series).
The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor steady at 29.5%, the Coalition up one-and-a-half to 24%, One Nation down one to 21.5% and the Greens down one to 13%. Labor’s lead on respondent-allocated preferences is unchanged at 54.5-45.5, while its lead on previous election preferences is in from 54-46 to 53-47. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1681.
Will Mills voters vote blue no matter who?
Collins is looking pretty shakey in her latest ad while Platner is pulling big crowds. I reckon he’ll win.
And I don’t think there’s much strategy behind Fetterman’s actions. He’s a hostage and his brain is cooked
How can a feasibility study cost $10mil, if that was compared with say something like ARC funding that’s like centre of excellence funding levels for what figuring out whether refineries are feasible?
And yet some people see funding science and research as throwing money away….
“This includes the double stabbing in Golders Green, which is being treated as an act of terrorism,”
That’s interesting as he has already been charged and from memory he was charged with 3 counts of attempted murder. I don’t remember him being done for terrorist related charges too. Does anyone know if he was charged with that too?
@Bonza
Pollsters for Maine say that yeah, they will. By voting for Platner they’d both get rid of Collins and flip off Schumer. A 2-for-1 deal that would appeal to most of them.
According to polling, yes.
The question however, is whether independent voters will vote for him over Collins.
The $10 million to support feasibility studies into new or expanded fuel refining capabilities, announced today, has two purposes that I can think of. It:
1. temporarily placates the culture warriors in the Qld govt who are itching for a fight.
2. will provide evidence why new refineries are a bad idea.
Although, it may be possible to expand slightly the two existing facilities or build new biodiesel refineries which are a lot simpler than those used for crude.
The following article assumes the govt is seriously considering building new refineries and gets some experts opinions:
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/the-numbers-on-getting-back-into-fuel-refining-don-t-add-up-experts-20260505-p5ztrw or https://archive.is/VXK18
https://yalelawjournal.org/article/the-dangerous-rise-of-dual-use-objects-in-war
With Gas at $4.53 a gallon, they’re going to vote for whoever is not with Trump.
Diesel in America is 13 cents of its all-time high of $5.81 a gallon.
NYT
WH insists Iran war is over, even while missiles fly
Rubio says Operation Epic Fury in Iran ‘is over’ although Trump says that US blockade will stay in place.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/us/politics/trump-iran-war-political-crisis-rhetoric.html
Right. So the war is over with Iran still having enriched uranium and without liberating the Iranian people. Supposedly the top two reasons for bombing Iran in the first place.
I predicted way back when this first started, above the shrieks and insistence that this was a freedom mission for Iranian women that it was in fact not. It was a vanity project of Trump, hot off the Venezuela venture only weeks earlier.
And here we are. Back where we started from, only so much further behind and Iran so many more steps in front because now they know how to bring the world to its economic knees.
Trump is going down in history as the head of state with the greatest brand damage to their country in the modern era.
Quite the debate in the US chattering classes – this NYtimes piece
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/opinion/platner-trump-democrats.html?searchResultPosition=1
There are some good projects listed in this speech:
https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/wilson/speeches/speech-6th-pacific-regional-energy-and-transport-ministers-meeting-port-moresby-papua-new-guinea
We also ratified a treaty:
https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/joint-media-release-australia-and-fiji-ratify-pacific-resilience-facility-treaty
Latest rumour on Trump war ending… the ‘US official’ is Jared Kushner..
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-iran-closing-one-page-memo-end-war-axios-reports-2026-05-06/
Trump and Israel has done the world a massive favour wiping Iran.
Sure nutty lefties who hate Israel hate it but who cares about them.
Notice more records on wall st last night and futures, up massive for tonight’s trade as its a pro growth economy the USA.
Australia being slammed with interest rates via high gov spending,renewables inflation and labors disastrous population Ponzi scheme.
Labor government loves illegals like Dems in the states ,78,000 in Aus and labor keeps them here.
Whilst Aussies suffer a homeless and rent and housing crisis.
One nation peaked ?,well the conditions that saw them rise are getting more pronounced,so it’s vote could just as easily soar past labors.
Ven says:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 7:10 pm
Replace Australian ‘Jewish people’ with ‘Australian Hindus’
Will Australian media contact Indian government ‘to seek views of a government which is governing only country where Hindus are in majority’?
_______________________________________
Didn’t this actually happen during the “Melbourne anti-Indian hate crime spree” of the late 2000’s/early 2010’s? Don’t take it as gospel, just a vague memory.
US crude oil price plunges by over 10% on reports of advanced talks between US and Iran.
United States and Iran are closing in on agreement on a ‘one-page memorandum to end the war in the Gulf’, according to Reuters report.
Perhaps 1-2 years ago I’d probably make constant pathetic posts like PP as a means of defiance against MAGA, stuff like “Suck it up you right wing wankers, we’re gonna come for you, increase inflation and interest rates because we love seeing you suffer and chop off your balls and crush them into vegan tofu substitute happily dined on by greenies and forcibly give your children pronouns, assuming your ex-wife still lets you be in contact with them” but I realize now that doing so would make me just as pathetic as him.
Instead for now I’ll just say “Go on, as you were.”
https://youtu.be/1QTyhrvKxCo?si=DGCq0D3xFqhjrZBD
New Sloan Zone video on the Sky News/YouGov poll.
“Didn’t this actually happen during the “Melbourne anti-Indian hate crime spree” of the late 2000’s/early 2010’s?”
Wasn’t that mainly just a dispute within the Indian diaspora. Basically Sikhs and Hindus having tit for tat vandalism against each other?
Based over the belief or suppression of Khalistan aspirations.
pied pipersays:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 8:27 pm
Trump and Israel has done the world a massive favour wiping Iran.
===================================================
So Iran is wiped out yet the SoH are still closed, please explain.
All this war in Iran will be for nothing. It will probably go back to the same agreement Obama had before this all started.
Entropy
He hasn’t got the capacity for an explanation. He just lives in a bunker spouting Trumpist/ ON talking points all day long.
If Iran is wiped out why is the IRGC still running the show and Project Freedom is dead on arrival?
The real problem with Hanson going for a House seat is that when she loses, she’ll simply get one of her toadies in the Senate to drop out so Hanson can parachute into the seat like Sean Bell was.
One of the only good things Mark Latham has ever done recently was try to block that in the NSW Parliament.
steve davissays:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 9:00 pm
Entropy
He hasn’t got the capacity for an explanation. He just lives in a bunker spouting Trumpist/ ON talking points all day long.
===========================================
I did find the proposition that Iran was wiped days ago but the SoH remained closed because brain dead Trump forgot that he also had orders blocking it too quite amusing. It is pretty much what we have come to expect from Trump’s clown show war.
Entropy
Trump talks out of his senile arse at the best of times.
IRGC says ‘stable passage’ via Hormuz to be ensured after US threats are ‘neutralized’
The navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has thanked captains and owners of vessels in the Gulf and Gulf of Oman for cooperating with new Iranian regulations for transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
“With agressor’s threats neutralized & new protocols in place, safe, stable passage through SOH
will be ensured,” the IRGC statement said on X.
The IRGC recently laid out guidelines for safe passage of “innocent” ships through the Strait and warned that it will block vessels carrying weapons and ammunition destined for US military forces in the region.
steve davissays:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 9:14 pm
IRGC says ‘stable passage’ via Hormuz to be ensured after US threats are ‘neutralized’
The navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has thanked captains and owners of vessels in the Gulf and Gulf of Oman for cooperating with new Iranian regulations for transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
“With agressor’s threats neutralized & new protocols in place, safe, stable passage through SOH
Strait of Hormuz
will be ensured,” the IRGC statement said on X.
The IRGC recently laid out guidelines for safe passage of “innocent” ships through the Strait and warned that it will block vessels carrying weapons and ammunition destined for US military forces in the region.
==========================================
Déjà vu
Nazis got a lot of their symbols from Hindus and put their own evil spin on it sadly.
pied pipersays:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 9:24 pm
Nazis got a lot of their symbols from Hindus and put their own evil spin on it sadly.
===================================
I’m glad to hear you believe Nazis to be evil. As I wasn’t completely sure you did up to now.
David at 4:21 pm
Hence IPA Wilson’s (the female not the what ever he/she is at federal level and also of the IPA)
—————
What a charming thing to say about a gay man. Always lovely to refer to a woman as “the female” too.
BBC: A woman in her late forties was arrested on suspicion of providing an immigration service contrary to section 91 of the Immigration and Asylum Act. A a man in his early twenties was arrested on suspicion of fraud
Immigration Minister Mike Tapp, who attended one of the raids, said: “If lawyers, or so-called lawyers, and legal advisers are out there providing this dodgy advice, we’re coming after that. And as you’ve seen today, we’ll make those arrests”.
The BBC found asylum seekers are being told to say they’re gay.
Surely it will be a lot lot worse than that.
I’ve paid more attention to Barney Ronay since his excellent sport journalism ridiculing the England Cricket team leadership group. He is top notch; searing, skewering cynicism mixed with a poetic search for deeper meaning and enough dollops of humorous turns of phrase to keep you from scrolling too fast.
He’s done a good job analysing the last throws of the EPL (soccer) season……
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/05/manchester-city-arsenal-premier-league-pep-guardiola-mikel-arteta?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
YouGov poll for the UK covering 4-5 May (compared with their last on 26-27 April)
https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/VotingIntention_MRP_Results_260505_w.pdf
Reform: 25% (-1)
Labour: 18% (=)
Conservative: 17% (-2)
Green: 15% (=)
Lib Dems: 14% (+1)
SNP: 3% (+1)
Restore Britain: 4% (+1)
Plaid Cymru: 1% (=)
Your Party: 0% (-1)
Others: 2% (=)
They still seem to be sitting on their full MRP model at the moment. Perhaps that’ll be released tomorrow or after the results of the Local elections are finalised?
Déjà vu
—————-
No. It is “Déjà vu all over again”.
https://yapms.com/app?m=sxfkm4vtg67s0ts
Notional 2PP leader in every seat in the House of Representatives in the 2025 Australian Federal Election.
PP’s living in a bunker with Timmy’s loser fuel hoard. Is it any wonder he’s hallucinating?
So, Reform and Conservative totalling 43% and Labour/Green/LD totalling 47%.
Yet under first past the post, it will probably be a Farage Reform government, in majority or minority. And there is nothing the Left can do about it!
I cannot wait for 2029 when both Farage and Hanson are Prime Minister of their respective countries.
Will King William V manage to keep his mouth shut as a purely constitutional monarch? We shall see.
newy boy at 7.28 pm
Thanks for your comments. Re 2), we largely agree regarding the important of international law in constraining, and potentially deterring, war criminals such as Putin. I endorse all that you say under point 2). The biggest problem with the Minsk Accords from my view was that they specifically included an amnesty for war crimes. There was a similar Russian ambit claim in the Istanbul draft, but it was not accepted by Ukraine and, in strict legal terms, no action by Ukraine could have withdrawn the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over all the internationally-recognised territory of Ukraine during all of Putin’s war up to April 2022.
The problem I raised is that, because of failures especially by Clinton and others since the early 1990s, there is no realistic prospect of a war criminal such as Putin being held to account, unless there is a revolution in Russia, which seems unfortunately distant. Netanyahu has mafia-like protection from the US, but Putin doesn’t need that because, in contrast to Netanyahu, he doesn’t face any current prospect of losing his dictatorial power. He remains indicted by the International Criminal Court (along with Russia’s Childrens’ Commissioner) and the case will probably never be closed, but it could succeed only if he is overthrown.
The failure of the Istanbul talks is a complex topic. The first thing to recognise is that there had been some dynamic of mutual compromise in the talks before they were scuttled. This was summarised in an interview by Sergey Radchenko:
“RADCHENKO: Meghna, what was happening in the early talks was the Russians basically pressed Ukraine to capitulate, they presented an ultimatum. This was still very early, the beginning, really, the beginning stage of the war, Russian forces were pushing towards Kyiv. And Russian conditions were basically uncompromising, very tough, entailing effectively, Ukraine’s surrender.
What happened, however, in the following weeks as the talks continued, they continued in Belarus for a bit, and then eventually, of course, were moved to Istanbul, was that the Russian blitzkrieg failed. And it seems that Vladimir Putin’s aims. And of course, we have to be tentative about these conclusions, but it seems that his aims may have been, may have changed a little bit in the sense that he could not, he could no longer overthrow the government in Kyiv.
So he became more open to, actually potentially became more open to having real negotiations. And the two sides … by the end of March 2022, the 2 sides seem to have come to a provisional agreement, the Istanbul communique, which is 1 of the documents we looked at. Which then was followed by more detailed exchanges of draft treaties, several drafts were changed as sides were making different conditions, that were proposing different amendments. And finally, in mid-April, the talks continued and that, of course, is after Bucha already, but the talks continued. But we have the final draft of April 15 which still, this draft still basically has the two sides pretty far apart on some key issues. But nevertheless, it does show that the two sides were talking and does show where they reached agreement on certain issues.”
https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/npr-news/2024-05-06/the-story-behind-2022s-secret-ukraine-russia-peace-negotiations
There was a process of negotiating that had been occurring, in which Putin had modified some belligerent positions in response to the failure of the Russian attack on Kyiv. The key claim was made by David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s party, who said that Russia was apparently “ready to end the war if we took neutrality… and made commitments that we would not join Nato”.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/lets-just-fight-how-britain-prefers-war-over-peace-in-ukraine/
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/official-johnson-forced-kyiv-to-refuse-russian-peace-deal/
There are three specific queries I raise regarding your first para:
A) Demilitarisation: this had not been even tentatively agreed. It was one of those points of continual dispute. The Russian figure was an ambit claim, and obviously unenforceable. If there had, hypothetically, been an agreement with a specific agreed figure for the Ukrainian military, Putin could not have kept Ukraine to such a figure except by resorting to a new war.
(see the sentence before n 231 at this article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21647259.2025.2585235#d1e1572 )
B) A Russian veto over any Western military deployment to Ukraine would have been formal, because there was no means for the Russians to object to that possibility short of another war.
Currently there is a Russian veto over any NATO presence on Ukrainian territory as part of a hypothetical peace-keeping force should Putin ever agree to end his war. So, unless Russia is compelled militarily to withdraw, an objective for which there seems to be no credible strategy now (and not since the summer of 2023 at the latest), that Russian veto is hard to eliminate, because it remains a Russian precondition for ending Putin’s war.
C) How to respond to the Russian massacres revealed at Bucha and elsewhere was a political choice, to be made not just on the sound basis of moral revulsion but also based on assessing the likely strategic scenarios. This is the main failure of Johnson, Biden et. al. They promised Zelenskyy they would help Ukraine win the war within 9 months, without considering what might happen to Ukraine if that objective proved impossible. The promise was misleading, and the assumption underlying it, that Putin would continue to be weakened by war, was mistaken.
The Istanbul talks constituted a process that was aborted, which might have led to an end to Putin’s war if the negotiations had continued, in the context of Putin recently having suffered an ignominious withdrawal from the outskirts of Kyiv. We will never know, but it is possible that Putin might have accepted Ukrainian neutrality (outside NATO) as a fig leaf of “victory”.
The reason that was possible is that there was dynamism in the talks, and Putin had recently taken defeats on the battlefield. Sadly, the current situation is different. There is no dynamism in the talks facilitated intermittently by the Trump administration, and, while Russian military losses are huge, that is not seen by Putin as any reason to end his illegal and barbaric war.
Team Katichsays:
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 10:21 pm
Déjà vu
—————-
No. It is “Déjà vu all over again”.
===============================
It is what the bowl of petunias said anyway. As I suspect they foresaw this.
David Farley has once again broken with One Nation party policy. He supports Australia having an active role in contributing foreign aid, which provides security to countries beyond Australia, which contradicts One Nation wanting to cut foreign aid as a part of cutting government waste.
Confessions at 8.06 pm
“Back where we started from, only so much further behind …” in Iran.
Yes, it’s not only the civilian victims in Iran who paid for Trump’s war; many Iranians are still paying because Trump has facilitated a more brutal Iranian regime than existed even before.
See this story from the BBC’s Fergal Keane:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyp6xxyvzyo
I saw a post some time ago about Tony Abbott becoming president of the Liberal Party.
That will lead to some interesting dynamics. I think Abbott was involved in getting Hanson put in the slammer;
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-08-25/abbott-defends-role-in-hanson-case/1469416
Won’t that make an interesting coalition.
@Ven
Probably, yeah.
Whenever we’ve had attacks on Indian students the Indian ambassador usually comments and gets quoted extensively in media. If there was a significant attack on a Hindu temple here I’m confident they would feature the ambassador in the media at the very least ; heck, I’m confident that Albo would make a point of speaking to Modi about it and assuring him Australia would catch and prosecute the guilty.
Bludgeoned Westie at 11.15 pm
Farley doesn’t have the network of support to be a real independent, so he is surfing the vibe.
Here is my last comment from the previous thread:
“Many have assumed that the Libs’ foot-in-mouth decision to recommend preferences to the Hanson cult will gift the seat to Farley. What has received less attention is the likely size of the drop in the Lib primary (the early April poll had it around 16%, compared to 43% for Ms Ley).
Logically, the bigger the drop in the Lib primary the less decisive the Lib preference move will be, because there will be fewer Lib votes. And the fact of recommending preferences to Hanson and the inability of the Lib candidate to convincingly explain that could significantly increase the size of the drop in the Lib vote, as many more hitherto Lib women voters go 1 to Milthorpe.”
The last point was hinted at in the report on the by-election on 7.30, which included some footage of the Lib candidate confirming her underwhelming attempt at a very difficult task.
The Nats will be the biggest losers, although their candidate was more coherent than the Lib lady at the Albury debate. All because they couldn’t keep Barnaby, the erstwhile Kiwi, onside.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/farrer-byelection-coalition-liberals-nationals-one-nation-margin/106639796
Will Graham meet his match?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0oO7OQshaA&t=69s
Did the Trump Admin Hide Full Damage from Iran Attacks? | Command Post
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8qzKLcNr5aY
I have seen some polling where strong support for Trump’s Ballroom indulgence is as low as 9%.
Harry Enten debunks this, and sensibly compares Ballroom support with what Americans ‘believe in’….
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-data-guru-harry-enten-reveals-more-americans-believe-in-ghosts-than-trump-ballroom-project/
Another boom night in US markets.
A few months back a new Solo petrol station opened in Perth I asked them why no electric car charges?
Err this is coming to Australia…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wkQf8-yXk
Glad me RAV4 petrol job 2000 model is not going to depreciate as others will massively.Paying off a car loan,petrol car on top of depreciation will bankrupt a lot of Aussies if they have to sell.
WA budget today and east coast state govs will go berserk.