Category: General

At the end of every second month, this site offers a humble reminder to its valued readers of its reliance on their patronage for its survival and prosperity. Donations are gratefully received at all times, though perhaps especially during the lean periods between elections (like this one), to say nothing of pandemics. They can be made by clicking on the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, which have been known to crop up from time to time, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

The High Court will bring down its judgement on George Pell’s appeal against his conviction on child sex abuse offences. Since this may generate vigorous discussion of at most tangential relevance to this blog’s core subject, I ask that those wishing to argue the toss do so here.

At the end of every second month, this site rattles the tin at its valued readers in a thus far successful effort to keep its head above water. Never has it done so in circumstances quite so unpromising as at present. So if you can find it in your hearts and/or wallets to do so now, it will be appreciated more than ever. While there are obviously a great many out there who are doing it a lot worse than I am, the general situation of the blog is analogous to the media as a whole, in that traffic is booming (comments activity has just about doubled) while revenue sags. This arrives on top of what was already a challenging period of election drought going back to the federal election last May, followed by no state elections until the one that will be held in Queensland in October.

If any of that tugs at your heart strings, please make use of the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. There are also some of you out there who are still in my system as donors but whose payments are not being processed due to expired credit cards — if that sounds like you, you can update your details by logging in at PressPatron and clicking on “edit payment” under “payment details” on the “My Contributions” page.

If you encounter technical problems, which have been known to crop up from time to time, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

At the end of every second month, this site rattles offers a gentle reminder to its valued readers that it relies on their patronage to survive and prosper. Donations are gratefully received at all times, though perhaps especially during the lean periods between elections, like this one (though minor relief is on the way in the form of Queensland and Northern Territory by-elections and the Brisbane council and lord mayoral elections). They can be made by clicking on the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, which have been known to crop up from time to time, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

At the end of every second month, this site rattles offers a gentle reminder to its valued readers that it relies on their patronage to survive and prosper. Donations are gratefully received at all times, though perhaps especially during the lean periods between elections, like the one we’re enduring at present (things start to perk up with Queensland and territory elections in the second half of next year). They can be made by clicking on the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, which have been known to crop up from time to time, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

At the end of every second month, this site rattles the tin to gently remind its valued readers of its reliance on their patronage. Donations are gratefully received via the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, which have been known to crop up from time to time, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

At the end of every second month, this site rattles the tin to gently remind its valued readers of its reliance on their patronage. If it tugs at your heart or (better yet) purse strings to know, ad revenue has fallen nearly 90% since the election – although the starting point was low enough that that’s probably not as big a deal as it sounds. In any case, donations are gratefully received via the PressPatron button at the top of the page, or the “become a supporter” buttons that appear at the foot of each post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com.

I hope you will forgive me for burying the lede on this of all days – if you’re after a shortcut to the real action, you can find my latest review of the campaign situation here, and a thread devoted to discussion of the life and legacy of Bob Hawke here.

To the matter at hand: it’s time for my bi-monthly rattling of the can for cash. I normally do this at the end of every second month, but I’ve been holding back for the last fortnight and a bit, for hopefully obvious reasons. As a quick look around the place should make clear, I have devoted fairly substantial energy to this place in recent times, assembling a federal election guide that must be running to about 100,000 words by now, along with 55 blog posts (give or take) over the 35 days of the campaign, and maintaining the BludgerTrack poll aggregate that hopefully won’t be looking too silly 48 hours from now.

In and of itself, this does not bring immediate financial reward – advertising, even at times like this, barely covers the coffee consumption required to keep the whole thing going. So, if you have found any of this stimulating and/or informative, and doing so is within your means, your donations will be gratefully received.

You can do this through the PressPatron “become a supporter” button that appears in the blue bar across the top of the page, and the buttons that appear at the foot of each blog post. If you are having technical problems with the donation facilities, please drop me a line at pollbludger-AT-bigpond-DOT-com and we can work something out. Whether you can or can’t, do or don’t, I thank you all very much for being part of the Poll Bludger experience, and hope you are able to enjoy tomorrow evening, win, lose or draw.