With another two weeks to go before the break in the festive season polling drought:
• The closest thing we’ve had to a new poll over the break has been a ReachTEL survey of Tony Abbott’s electorate of Warringah, conducted for the Australia Institute. The automated phone poll of 743 respondents was conducted on December 17, and found support for the Liberals at 62.1% (up from 60.9% at the September 2013 election), the Greens at 16.1% (up from 15.5%) and Labor at 14.6% (down from 19.3%). The poll also found 50.9% believed Tony Abbott should retire from politics, with no time frame specified, while 35.4% preferring that he remain. When asked if his departure would make them more likely to vote Liberal, 36.7% said it would, compared with 17.5% who opted for less likely. A hike in the goods and services tax from 10% and 15% recorded 39.4% support and 46.5% opposition, whereas support for “gradually transitioning to 100 per cent renewable energy by the year 2030” was at 77.2%, with 16.7% opposed.
• James Robertson at Fairfax reports that the factional warfare engulfing the New South Wales Liberal Party is posing a threat to Craig Kelly, Liberal member for the seat of Hughes in Sydney’s outer south. Kelly would appear to have been undermined by a redistribution proposal that excises the Liverpool end of the electorate, reportedly home to two branches loyal to him and the arch-conservative tendency he represents, and adds a moderate-controlled branch at the Sutherland end of the seat. The most likely challenger is said to be Kent Johns, an influential moderate who sits on Sutherland Shire Council, followed by Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun. Further complicating matters is a membership recruitment drive that conservatives have been conducting among the Macedonian community, which led the party’s moderate-dominated state executive to freeze membership at the Liverpool branch.
• Sarah Martin of The Australian reports on “heightened speculation” that dumped minister Jamie Briggs may be set to vacate his seat of Mayo at the election. The report says that Right faction MPs were meeting to discuss a possible successor, amid fears his ongoing presence could exacerbate the threat posed in the seat by the Nick Xenophon Team. The NXT has fortuitously preselected a disaffected former staffer to Briggs, Rebekha Sharkie.
• Daniel Wills of The Advertiser reports that six candidates will seek Liberal preselection for the seat of Adelaide, held for Labor by Kate Ellis, at a ballot of 500 party members to be held on February 6. Houssam Abiad, deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide, had been attracting the most attention, but the report says the “front-runners” are David Colovic, a partner with HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, and Beth Loveday, a dentist. The report identifies the other contenders as Shaun Osborn, a policeman, Kent Aughey, a commercial consultant, and Emma Flowerdew, a small businesswoman.
• Matthew Dixon of the Ballarat Courier reports two candidates have nominated for Liberal preselection in Ballarat, held for Labor by Catherine King: Nick Shady, a farmer and mental health advocate, and Sarah Wade, a lawyer. The report also says the Nationals are planning to field candidates in all Labor-held Victorian regional seats, which is to say Ballarat, Bendigo and McEwen.
UPDATE: Channel Seven in Adelaide has results of a ReachTEL poll from Jamie Briggs’ electorate of Mayo, with better results than he might have feared: a Liberal primary vote of 43.9%, compared with 53.8% at the 2013 election, with Labor on 17.2% and the Nick Xenophon Team on 15.4%. This probably includes an unallocated undecided result of around 8%, suggesting all concerned would in fact be a few points higher – with Briggs close enough to 50% to get him home, even if the NXT got ahead of Labor. A two-party Liberal-versus-Labor result shows Briggs leading 59-41, compared with 62.5-37.5 at the election.
Bushfire Bill @ 2197,
‘ I don’t know who’s building the apartments, but it’ll be someone connected to the government.’
Try the company that is building the private rail line, MTR. They offer ‘Integrated Packages’ where they develop the whole box and dice, rail line and ‘associated infrastructure’. They would probably engage a local builder because Labor prevented the Chinese from being able to bring in their own workforce to the country to work on massive infrastructure projects like that. Thank goodness someone in a Labor office in parliament somewhere, probably Albo’s, read the fine print of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and brought that little wrinkle outside into the light of day.
Still, MTR will likely be the Project Managers and set the parameters that everyone will have to work under.
Oh, and guess who Jamie Briggs was meeting with the day he got pinged for getting fresh with a Cnsular employee? The Chairman of the same group:
https://www.mtr.com.hk/en/corporate/main/index.html
So I think we can validly draw the conclusion now that Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘Cities and the Built Environment’ plans will involve bringing the Construction Union to heel so that they can be pressganged into working as navvies for their new overlords.
I can hear the drums coming from Malcolm’s office beating out a tune called ‘SerfChoices’.
I doubt the proposed changes to Medicare will have a negative political impact on anyone but the Coalition regardless of any necessity or benefit.
[“What has upset TBA is the introduction of the speed camera used in conjunction with the red light camera. These interfere with his right to accelerate when he sees an orange light and speed through an intersection to avoid having to stop for a red light. “]
A complete distortion of what I have said.
In the lefts world the law is absolute(unless they disagree with it for moral reasons and then they can flout it at will) and Government group-think means they support laws even if it might kill or injure someone.
I have already explained multiple times here now why the combination of red light cameras and speed cameras are death traps. My views have nothing to do with what I do, rather the real world implications of these poorly thought out death devices.
But it seems some here are happy to let the government do the thinking for them because they lack the brain power to think for themselves.
The Government wouldn’t do you harm simply for revenue raising would they?
[ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/choice-of-super-back-on-agenda-as-coalition-targets-union-deals/news-story/d811cc6cce3c4df289d96f733786748c ]
So, the mouth from the south is coming after your super. She really wants it in the hands of her spiv mates so they can rip you off for fees and lose big chunks of it.
The default fund issue is a big one. The retail funds tend to rip fees off of new “members” up front so they get a hit before that person realises how badly they are being ripped off and changes to an industry fund.
And the “independent” directors stuff is patently ideological bullshit. The Libs have to be pinned on their links with the Finance Industry and how they help it avoid scrutiny, and are trying to pass legislation in its interests to the detriment of punters.
FFS, if we can blow $80M on an ALP/Union links RC we can do a Libs / Finance Spivs collusion RC.
[“They also confirm that cameras are set up to infringe drivers when going through a yellow light. I’m not sure what the tolerance on yellow lights and cameras is though but you would think there would be some allowed.”]
I do not think the cameras will snap you unless you go through the red light.
However the problem with red light + speed cameras is they will so INSTILL a fear of a ticket in the masses, especially unintelligent people who can’t drive properly, that they will be putting on the anchors hard to go through any yellow light.
Knowing full well they can’t speed up to safely go through the yellow (due to the speed camera death trap component) and can’t go the same speed (due to the red light camera component), what we end up with is stupid people putting their brakes on heavy on a yellow light with absolutely no care in the world who or what is behind them.
And when that thing is a truck or a cement mixer or a school bus, people will die.
tba,
WE have you with an opinion which is more whinge than anything else.
We have the road authorities with years of research and empowered to make calls for the protection of the community.
Who do we believe?
imacca,
Surely not the time to be touting for the Private Finance Industry to be taking charge of people’s Super:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets-live/markets-live-bears-on-rampage-20160110-gm31o6.html
The Silver Bodgie,
Thank you for the Bernays link. 🙂
How about we drive within the speed limits and be prepared for lights to change as we approach traffic lights ? Radical but who knows it might just work. Heck I’m surprised someone hasn’t thought of it before.
TotalBlitheringArsehat
[ I have already explained multiple times here now why the combination of red light cameras and speed cameras are death traps. ]
The trouble is that no-one here accepts your conclusion. Perhaps because we understand the road rules, which you apparently don’t.
Still, I can’t help thinking that your insistence on running red lights to avoid an accident is a good example of Darwinian evolution in action.
TBA – Have you got any statistics/studies to show that people stopping when traffic lights tell them to stop causes death?
TBA The laws aren’t changing and the only drivers affected by the change are those who speed through intersections. These people already kill.
If you are not speeding or day dreaming you will never have to slam on your brakes at yellow lights. If you are following a car that needs to slam on the brakes to stop for an orange light you should have already been braking unless you also intended to run the light. Bad driving kills not speed & red light cameras.
[Knowing full well they can’t speed up to safely go through the yellow (due to the speed camera death trap component) and can’t go the same speed (due to the red light camera component)]
You never have to speed up to safely get through, that’s what the amber light and the delay in displaying green are for. It has already been explained to you that you don’t activate the red light camera unless you enter the intersection after it has gone. The only people who need to speed up are those who get an orange when the have plenty of time to stop but are intent on avoiding the red light. These people are already dangerous.
I keep pointing out in WA we have these combined speed redlight cameras without the killing fields is predicting.
It is in fact a lot safer because one approaches the lights at the posted design speed and makes the appropriate decision within the intersections design reaction and stop / go times.
Noticeable decrease in idiot hoons speeding into intersections because yes they might make ‘orange’ and technically not run a red light but they then get hit with a speeding fine.
It is beautiful and a real improvement.
I think the value of voluntary or idiot taxes is underrated and traffic authorities really milk the idiots.
TBA
Whatever happens, people will die, especially the kind of idiot driver you’re talking about. At present, they accelerate on the orange, which puts them in danger of being T boned by someone turning right from the middle of the intersection.
I like to leave these sorts of equations to the experts, who are experts not only in the causes of accidents but in the ways human beings react to certain traffic situations.
[“We have the road authorities with years of research and empowered to make calls for the protection of the community.”]
Queensland speed camera vans now take photos of cars from behind, rather than from in front as they have been for years
Now why do you think that is?
You guys really need to start using those brains you were given at birth.
tba,
So what?
If you are not speeding it doesn’t matter.
I do have to wonder if TBA would be getting quite so apopletic about this issue if it was the Napthine government that was introducing these new cameras instead of Daniel Andrews.
TBA:
[Queensland speed camera vans now take photos of cars from behind, rather than from in front as they have been for years
Now why do you think that is?
You guys really need to start using those brains you were given at birth.]
Clearly the brain I was given was highly defective, because I’m (genuinely) completely stumped on this one.
But I assume the answer has something to do with how awful the darstardly “Left” is.
Top of the page SMH now:
[ Markets live: Bears on rampage
The local market has dived to a fresh 2-1/2-year low, with the big miners leading the selloff that is now in its seventh day, after Wall Street sold off despite surprisingly strong jobs numbers.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets-live/markets-live-bears-on-rampage-20160110-gm31o6.html#ixzz3wtUPWyTk ]
One really does wonder when the Liberals will case blaming the previous Labor government for carnage such as is reported in the newspaper column above. Labor was last in office near 2.5 years ago. The deficit has increased. Unemployment has increased. Whole industries have closed down. We’ve had 2 Liberal PMs since then.
The Blame Game really does need to stop.
Apart from that, it’s never been a better time to be Australian.
GG only 354 more sleeps until we have EQUAL love!
I have my own defence against TBA’s driving habits.
If stopped at a red light, I do not drive off when I get the green light without first checking to the left and right for TBA running the red lights.
Driving the Bruce Hwy daily means you have to make common sense driving decisions at regular intervals. This is due to the amount of unsafe lane changing and tailgating that happens all the time on the Bruce. To be a safe driver you have to be constantly aware of what is happening in front, behind and around you constantly.
Dealing with lights at intersections if no different. Drive with common sense, provide safe following distances and be constantly aware.
In 47 years of driving I have been involved in two accidents and on both occasions I was stopped at a red light and someone ploughed into the back of me. On both occasions I saw it coming but could do nothing because if I had have driven through the lights I would have caused an accident. On other occasions I have gone through an amber light when it seemed clear the person behind me couldn’t stop and it was safe to go through the lights.
You have to make these decisions quickly and be prepared to accept responsibility for the decisions you make.
Comrade many years ago I was stopped at lights and when they turned green for some reason I looked right before heading off to see a semi speeding through the red light. If I had gone I wouldn’t be here today. I now just automatically look both ways quickly before taking off.
God was with me that day 🙂
‘Obnoxiousness Is the New Charisma’:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/obnoxiousness-is-the-new-charisma.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article
Worth reading for it’s political context as well as the social media context, and life in general.
[I do have to wonder if TBA would be getting quite so apopletic about this issue if it was the Napthine government that was introducing these new cameras instead of Daniel Andrews.]
In the alternative history you ponder, it would socialists who are the natural law breakers, running red lights. We would see rhetorical questions such as,
[“Why does the Left love breaking the law?” ]
and so on.
The simple thing is to observe your surroundings, including the road ahead. Not for 10 metres ahead, but as far ahead as possible.
When you see a green light and you are 50 or 60 metres away from the lights, expect it to turn yellow and make plans in your head accordingly for stopping.
If it turns yellow just as you are about to arrive at the lights, keep going. You won’t be booked by a red light camera.
If you are unaware of the rules, learn them. They allow drivers to pass through a yellow light.
If you accelerate to get through a yellow light, hope there’s not a Highway Patrol car behind you. They are likely to be less forgiving of running a yellow light than a dumb speed camera.
It’s all fairly simple. Plan you journey. Plan the next 200 metres. Plean the next 50 and 20 metres. Don’t tailgate. If someone is tailgaiting you, gradually slow down. Know what’s ahead of you, and behind, and to the side, and you won’t get booked or have (or cause) an accident.
My grandson is at the stage where he can steer pretty well, but it’s still requires more concentration than it does in an experienced driver. He gets taken by surprise a lot because he over-concentrates on keeping the car going in a straight line. I tell him to take in his surroundings. To always know what’s around him. This comes in time, but is the most important part of driving: knowing your environment from second to second.
davidwh@2274
Yes, if it was just TBA the odds would not be too bad, but unfortunately there are a lot of hoons and morons on the roads.
There is one motorcyclist I regularly hear at night who must be doing at least 100K in a 50K zone. I just hope the cops nail him before he kills himself or someone else.
[Comrade many years ago I was stopped at lights and when they turned green for some reason I looked right before heading off to see a semi speeding through the red light. If I had gone I wouldn’t be here today. I now just automatically look both ways quickly before taking off.]
A lesson we all learn, hopefully without the disaster that follows.
On TBA and ESJ possibly being the same person, I seriously doubt it, to be honest.
ESJ strikes me as a classical internet troll, one who actually doesn’t hold any particularly firm political beliefs but just enjoys riling people up, and therefore chooses an abrasive conservative persona because that’s the easiest way to provoke a reaction from the mostly Labor/Green leaning posters on Poll Bludger. He/she seems to be genuinely enjoying themselves and revelling in the negative attention, and probably spends much of his/her time on this blog laughing their arse off at the fact that people actually take him/her seriously.
TBA, however, is a true believer, one who genuinely loathes Labor and the Greens and anyone broadly identifying with the evil “left”. I wouldn’t actually class him as a troll at all, at least in the classical sense, just a deeply unpleasant person – while I’m sure he often descends into hyperbole and vitriol to provoke a reaction and get attention, his views come from a genuine place inside him and he seems to truly believe what he writes.
When TBA is logged into Poll Bludger, I imagine him alternatively oscillating between being apopletic with rage and frustration that all the dumb lefties are too dense to understand his well thought out arguments, smugly chuckling to himself about how clever and witty he is, and generally despairing of all the naive nonsense we silly lefties write here every day.
TBA @2253
Apparently the fact that the law states reacting to an emergency is a defence is beyond your understanding.
From facebook —
[Last year, 44 Americans were shot by Muslim terrorists. By comparison, 52 Americans were shot by toddlers. Which raises the question: Why isn’t the government doing more to protect us from toddlers? Think about it. They don’t share our values. They barely speak English. They steal our welfare. They have no marketable skills. They’re prone to angry outbursts. Worst of all? Most of them aren’t even Christians. How long until we say enough is enough and deport these free-loading parasites once and for all??? Jeremy McLellan]
davidwh
[looked right before heading off to see a semi speeding through the red light. If I had gone I wouldn’t be here today. I now just automatically look both ways quickly before taking off.]
Which is why I think running red lights should be made a far bigger offence than it is. I’d even be happy with a licence loss.
In a previous life I worked at an insurance company depot where our written off cars were taken to be sold. Hitting a car side on , as would happen during red light running, is a very good way of killing a passenger or driver. We had many many such ‘fatals’. It’s frikin Russian roulette.
zoomster
That’s the kind of satire I enjoy. 🙂
We’ve had combination speed and red light cameras in Victoria for years. I’ve seen many people snapped for speeding through them.
The best one was some dickhead who was behind me. The lights went orange, I decided I was too far back to accelerate through so I braked. The guy behind knew better though. He changed lanes, sped up and flew through the intersection. Of course, the speed camera flashed as he did. I laughed so hard. The best bit was when I caught up with him at the next set of lights. What a tool.
TBA is always in a bad mood driving as he has to drive on the “left” .
Sir Mad Cyril (may I call you Cyril?)
My husband long ago taught me to watch drivers like that – the kind who duck and weave from lane to lane, accelerate before the lights, etc. Sure enough, you invariably meet them at the next set of lights.
Even better, of course, is when you back off and start decelerating as soon as you see the light ahead has turned red, make a careful lane selection, go down through the gears until you’re just crawling — and sail past the idiot driver when the light turns green, because you haven’t had to stop the car and have been able to chose a vacant lane.
[“Clearly the brain I was given was highly defective, because I’m (genuinely) completely stumped on this one.”]
Because they were sick of people ploughing into the back of their Speed Camera Vans after being blinded by the flash.
Like this guy:
http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/police-officer-injured-when-motorist-drives-into-speed-camera-van-at-sheldon/story-fndo4ckr-1226481481311
Just what you need 4:45am in the morning.
[“Driving the Bruce Hwy daily means you have to make common sense driving decisions at regular intervals.”]
While driving from the Gold Coast back up to Redcliffe north of Brisbane on the highway in the afternoon, all of a sudden the traffic reduced speed down from 100km/h down to a crawling speed of 20km/h.
Now at first I thought the sudden speed reduction(extremely dangerous coming down from highway speeds) was due to a car accident. As the cars slowly crawled along, we finally discovered the problem up about 200 meters ahead. A speed camera van had caused an endless chain reaction in traffic(obviously somebody had slowed right down) and it was now sending endless ripples through this peak hour traffic.
Mythbusters actually did it on their show, can’t find that one but here is another example of the effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M
Of course the speed camera van would have made little money that day, but they did endanger lives on the highway. Well done.
IMACCA – Yes, for “independent directors” read “finance industry spivs”. These libs are shockers.
TBA
It must be very upsetting for you when you approach Roadworks signs and have to slow down to 40kph. Or don’t they have them in Qld?
zoomster
Feel free to call me Cyril.
I honestly don’t know how people who constantly change lanes can be bothered. It’s too much work! I just stick to the left lane (or whichever one is appropriate at the time) and only overtake if someone is going really slow. I just can’t be bothered changing lanes all the time.
58% OF REFUGEES ADMITTED INTO EUROPE ARE MEN, JUST 17% ARE WOMEN and the remainder children. Damn gender equality, women and children should be prioritised over men in war torn areas. Further proof that high levels of immigration, especially when handled as they are, are very bad for the receiving countries.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-11/european-migrant-crisis-triggers-gender-imbalance/7076924
The simple solution for TBI is to run the red lights and tailgate when he is not first in the queue.
See how long you last, Idiot.
It would be win-win… a win for TBI’s libertarian view of the world where only Leftists obey laws while free-spirits like himself flaunt them, and a win for us here (for obvious reasons).
The best scenario would be for TBI to be tailgating a typical Leftist big government worshipper who stops for a yellow light while TBI rams him up the arse yodelling “I drive and I vote!”.
[I honestly don’t know how people who constantly change lanes can be bothered. ]
It’s because they like to treat the road like a video game. They like the power of doing something different while the rest of us stick to the law and conservative rational conduct. I see it with motor bike riders more. Of course, their arrogant behaviour comes a cropper when they come up against another dickhead who also does not believe in conservative safe conduct on the road.
K17
You mean CONNECTED finance industry spivs don’t you.
TPOF@2293
I do change lanes, but only to overtake or to allow someone to overtake me or for a vehicle entering a freeway to merge with the traffic.
The sooner they roll these out throughout SEQ, the better:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/legacy-way-pointtopoint-speed-cameras-to-be-installed-by-christmas-20150724-gijnvf.html
TBA seems to have the same maintainability of that China road users…
Car is the boss on the road, everything else is secondary.
maintainability = mentality
bemused @ 2295
[I do change lanes, but only to overtake or to allow someone to overtake me or for a vehicle entering a freeway to merge with the traffic.]
I change lanes too. Sometimes I change back when the car in front of me in the new lane changes speed, slows down to turn, etc. My concern is the dickheads who come up close behind you, squeeze into the next lane and then squeeze back in front.
TBA you must be the unluckiest driver ever. I drive the Bruce daily and virtually every day have to contend with drivers slowing to 85/90k for speed cameras but I have been lucky enough to have never come across a driver slowing to 20k.