The Australian has produced two tranches of Newspoll quarterly breakdowns over the past two days, the first being the all-important (from BludgerTrack’s perspective) state breakdowns, followed by breakdowns by age and gender, all of which is derived from the entirety of Newspoll’s surveying from October to December. Together with last week’s Essential Research result, this constitutes the final piece in the BludgerTrack puzzle for the year. The result finds further evidence of momentum for One Nation, who have ended the year only two points shy of the Greens. The Newspoll breakdowns have contributed to an improvement for the Coalition in Victoria, where they gain a seat on the projection, relative to Western Australia and South Australia, where they lose one apiece.
Also from Essential Research this week has been state voting intention results for the mainland states, which, like the Newspoll breakdowns, are compiled from polling conducted through the last three months of the year. I’ll have more to say about these as Newspoll unrolls its own state polling over the coming weeks (I hope).
I too think that regions that genuinely want to break away from whichever nation state they’ve been historically plonked into should, in general, be allowed to – of their own accord – break away/realign themselves (and keeping in mind that, if you hold to this in principle, that should mean that the people of, say, Arnhem land should have the right to break away from Australia and form their own state should they freely choose to do so).
BUT, clearly, it has to be a genuine expression of the people, conducted fairly, impartially, etc, with the whole process observable by whoever wants to make sure it’s being conducted properly etc. Proper advance notification of the process, the chance for various cases to be made to the people, proper maintenance and checking of voting rolls, etc etc etc.
The Crimean vote had many more hallmarks of the West Papuan ‘vote’ than anything remotely resembling a free, open, transparent process.
And, of course, the Russians (as they did in the other areas of Eastern Ukraine) were maintaining a fiction that they weren’t on the ground despite a lot of evidence that, in fact, they were directly involved. Lies upon lies hardly build confidence in the integrity of the process, or the motivations and intentions of the Russians.
And if Crimea is demonstrating some sort of principle that a region of people should be allowed to determine its own future in or out, then let’s talk about Chechnya, and hypocrisy much.
Sussan Ley MP
28 mins ·
I have spent the past 48 hours examining my travel records.
I travelled to Brisbane on 9 May 2015 to make a major announcement about the availability of new medicines at a specialist breast cancer clinic and to meet with patients in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. As I had to be in Canberra on Sunday 10 May I decided to stay the night of 9 May on the Gold Coast rather than incur considerable extra expense by flying back to Albury and then to Canberra the following day. This travel is within the rules provided.
However, I have always sought to apply higher standards for myself in using valuable taxpayers’ funds.
While attending an auction was not the reason for my visit to Queensland or the Gold Coast, I completely understand this changed the context of the travel undertaken. The distinction between public and private business should be as clear as possible when dealing with taxpayers’ money.
I have spoken to the Prime Minister and he agrees that this claim does not meet the high standards he expects of Ministers. I apologise for the error of judgement.
Tomorrow I will ask the Department of Finance to invoice me for the costs for the car and travel allowance claimed on Saturday 9 May 2015, including the relevant penalty applied to erroneous claims.
My examination of my travel records has also brought to my attention two other claims for accommodation on the Gold Coast in 2014 and 2015 where I should have stayed and claimed in Brisbane, as well as a single one-way flight from Coolangatta to Canberra in June 2015.
I will also ask the Department of Finance to invoice me the costs of these claims, as well as the relevant penalty.
In the interests of total transparency, I will ask the department to review all my ministerial travel to the Gold Coast.
Four trips???
The link to Ley’s facebook post as per above:
https://www.facebook.com/SussanLeyMP/posts/1218517774882259
Lizzie
Four trips indeed?
Jackol
East Ukraine and Crimea for centuries were part of Russia until very recent times. No shock horror at all that the Russian people there would like to be part of Russia rather than the Ukraine.
jack a randa @ #4649 Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 4:43 pm
My crew were adamant and the leader of the push told the best catholic jokes ever. So for me it was and remains “Arna”. I thught the whole thing was insane, but so what, it fits in right well with the rest of the world.
I see it all now, Glenferrie Oval, Hawthorn. All my boozie mates were Richmond suporters . I knew SFA then and SFA now.
This is the scumbag we can thank for the blatant rorting. Effing Minchin and his thieving scum protocol.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/minchin-protocol-expenses-tony-abbott
I’m particularly interested to see what will happen with Putin and the Baltics, given that I am still waiting on my Lithuanian dual citizenship.
Surely today is Poll Bludgers comedy special. Many thanks to Maestro Mr. William for providing stand up (?) entertainment.
Poroti –
Way to completely fail to address any of the points I was making.
Russia concocted a sham process to hold a vote and lied about their actions militarily and otherwise. This claim that Crimea naturally wanted to be part of Mother Russia (which may be true, but they certainly failed to follow any legitimate process to demonstrate this), and please talk then about how that principle might apply to Chechnya where Russia engaged in multiple wars with the Chechens (who strangely didn’t seem to be showing the enthusiasm to be part of Russia that the Crimeans did) and brutally crushed, killing thousands.
What Russia has demonstrated, repeatedly of late, is that (unsurprisingly, and yes I’m sure it applies to basically every empire and nation state that has ever existed) they do (a) what they have the power to do and (b) what they can get away with.
It’s not an attitude that is conducive to future peace.
”I will also ask the Department of Finance to invoice me the costs of these claims, as well as the relevant penalty.””
When you are on $300.000 plus this is PEANUTS!.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/health-minister-sussan-ley-apologises-for-gold-coast-trip-agrees-to-repay-expenses-20170108-gtnrnn.html
To do it once maybe allowed as a mistake but four times is ridiculous.
It is no surprise that the public are sick and tired of most politicians.
The Sydney Morning Herald
3 mins ·
Embattled Health Minister Sussan Ley has admitted she made an “error of judgment” by charging taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast in which she bought a $795,000 apartment, a purchase which she originally said was “not planned nor anticipated”, and will repay the cost of the trip.
She should be paying with her job.
Does Turnbull have no standards!?!
Catherine King MP
11m11 minutes ago
Catherine King MP @CatherineKingMP
Let’s be clear – Ley has admitted to breaching ministerial standards.They are NOT optional guidelines #auspol 1/2
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/embattled-health-minister-sussan-ley-apologises-for-apartment-splurge/news-story/2f8e51855174151cd95588a97cbcb060 …
Catherine King MP
9m9 minutes ago
Catherine King MP @CatherineKingMP
2/2 It’s now up to Turnbull to remove Ley immediately. His standards are either there to be enforced or they are a complete joke. #auspol
Abbott eventually demoted BBishop. Will Turnbull do the same?
PeeBee
The on line form he filled out requested proof that he had quit his job as part of the application process (when they weren’t going to pay him for the next six weeks regardless).
If they weren’t going to pay him for six weeks, there should have been no requirement that he provide proof that he’d finished work.
As it turned out, it was all hooey; he should have been receiving at least a part payment WHILE he was working.
And Turnbull even whilst overseas made sure he fronted up to demand Shorten sack Dastyari, who was not a front bench minister of anything
Jackol
“Russia concocted a sham process”
And we know it was a sham because our msm told us it was ? It may well have been but given the ethnic composition not bloody likely.
Good afternoon all,
Looks like Susan Ley is using the BBishop play book on damage control.
Worked well for Bishop.
Cheers.
Yep, she really should be sacked.
Catherine King MP
Catherine King MP – Verified account @CatherineKingMP
Question for Turnbull – do you let your ministers pick and choose which standards to follow? Is it a lucky dip?
#leybuy #auspol
10:04 PM – 7 Jan 2017
3 RETWEETS9 LIKES
Victoria,
Spot on re Sam Daystari.
The MSM went very very hard on him so it will now be very interesting to see how those guardians of the political moral compass in the media respond to this.
Cheers.
fess
The problem isn’t so much McGowan as her staffers.
This is one of the difficulties independents face- if you belong to a party, people will work for you because they want to further their political careers, and they will even take a pay cut (electorate work doesn’t pay that well) to do that. The party also provides them with mentors, contacts and training.
An independent doesn’t attract these people, so their staff may be brilliant but they have little idea about what they should do or how to do it, and have limited ways of finding out.
I have letters from her office where she has included copies of her letters to the Ministers and their replies – which have been redirected, because her staff didn’t know which Minister was responsible for that area. They also seem to work in silos, so once I had to wait a fortnight for the staffer who dealt with a particular area came back from leave (by which time I’d solved the problem myself). And I sometimes get the feeling that the staffer I’m talking to simply isn’t very interested.
So I doubt there is a system whereby staffers alert McGowan when an issue is raised by a constituent which a good MP would take on personally.
PeeBee
I should add that he wasn’t getting welfare, he was applying for it.
Sure …
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/health-minister-sussan-ley-apologises-for-gold-coast-trip-agrees-to-repay-expenses-20170108-gtnrnn.html
Ms Ley should undergo the same process as the Centrelink victims; guilty until you prove yourself innocent with the heavies at your door wearing knuckle-dusters engraved ‘c/o Malcolm’.
Zoo stet
I wad speaking to someone recently who is closely connected to the McGowan family. Apparently she was a reluctant candidate when initially taking on SMirabella for the seat
Bonza
I’m a Samatauskas.
Oops my last post was directed to zoomster
CTar1
The question is what are the rules?
Victoria
After The Rodent in his first year lost so many ministers due to breaching the proper ministerial conduct standards he made changes that lowered the bar so low that even an amoeba could not shuffle under it.
Would anyone notice this these days ?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-17/yes-minister-no-minister-sacked-minister/334722
Victoria
McGowan repeatedly makes that claim. However, the day I was informed that there was a new organisation forming in Indi called ‘Voice for Indi”, I looked at the people listed as its founders – and immediately contacted the local ALP people to tell them it was not, as it claimed, a non partisan organisation, but one which was acting as a front to run McGowan as an independent.
And so it was.
There’s a lot of spin involved in the McGowan myth.
Thx Zoomster, you explanation just reinforces in me that the system sounds too complicated. Obviously, the people your son didn’t provide the correct response.
Having said that when my aged M&FIL were heading into care, the local Centrelink were fantastic. They stepped us through all the options and suggested which was the best way to go. OH and I were impressed.
Poroti –
We know it was a sham because:
* it happened in a matter of days – any legitimate process would be set up over a long period of time making sure everyone understood what was going on, how to be involved, etc.
* where was the opportunity to have independent observers scrutinize the process
* where was the public debate (where was even the opportunity for public debate) about what it meant? Did the ‘stay part of Ukraine’ side and/or Ukrainian government get any reasonable way to make their case, because I don’t think they did, and surely there should be evidence in the form of posters, TV broadcasts, speeches etc.
You make a logical fallacy here – X is likely, and because X happened then it must have happened ‘properly’. X happening (Crimea voting to leave the Ukraine and join Russia) doesn’t tell you anything at all about the legitimacy/robustness of the process, no matter how you rationalize all the reasons why X was a forgone conclusion.
Well fingers crossed my problem may be solved
it hit serious scare stage
Got a voice over claiming to be Microsoft and that they would be closing my computer down if I did not contact them. assumed it was that pay up now scam but could not contact the number anyway.
Decided to close the PC. Deleted/uninstalled things recently installed and fingers are crossed.
LeyBuy doesn’t seem to have got the idea that Saturday afternoon flights Brisbane to Canberra are possible –
Zoomster
Sure seems like it
So Ley and other pollies who get sprung, just refund money if caught out and/or the heat gets too much?
Others ?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-calls-for-centrelink-automated-debt-recovery-system-to-be-scrapped-20161228-gtj42m.html
MTBW
Don’t get caught.
Sussan Leybuy is still in the shit:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/embattled-health-minister-sussan-ley-apologises-for-apartment-splurge/news-story/2f8e51855174151cd95588a97cbcb060
Something for all of us to contemplate. They did things for Cruz before being hired by Trump. Could these peeps have made the difference ? Some scary implications.
Ley lost me irrevocably when the tories were elected in 2013 and in one of her first actions demanded low paid child care workers ‘surrender and refund’ a very modest wage supplement provided by Labor.
A powerful message as to where her ‘values’ lay.
Different rules for her….
lizzie @ #4650 Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 4:43 pm
Her real problem is that she lied about it to cover up her actions. She has to go.
Poroti
Did Trump pay them?
Leybuy needed flights from Brisbane to Albury from memory the flights are early morning and evening and perhaps better connections via melbourne
CTar1
I’m sure he assured them the cheque was in the mail
Jockol
I think you are right re Chechnya – they had the right to secede.
However if you are going to argue for this sort of thing you must also ensure that secession movements are in fact NOT supported by external forces. One problem is that the USA decided it would be whoopdedoo to fund the “colour revolutions” on the border of Russia. You can sort of imagine the US response if Russia was providing funding for a “red” movement in Mexico or Canada. Or indeed an “independence movement in Texas.
The Chechens were heavily funded by Saudi.
The other thing is that you really need to have a genuinely independent group overseeing any elections which is pretty impossible. I cannot see Russia tolerating a UN supervised election for independence of Chechnya or Crimea any more than I could see the USA tolerating a UN supervised election for independence of Texas or Alaska or Hawaii or Vermont. Should the UK have had the UN oversee the Scottish Independence referendum?
Of course I guess this discussion is a bit flying pigs because at the end of the day it is all about strategic choke points.
The USA would not allow a hostile rebellion in the Gulf of Mexico and the Russians will not allow a hostile force in Crimea and to the extent possible in the Black Sea. The UK will always be nervous about foreign powers with access to the Channel and the North Sea. For Australia it is the Torres Strait and Coral Sea. I guess if NZ were hostile then the Tasman sea would be of concern.
Oh dear. This could get even worse!