Newspoll has the Coalition gaining a point on last fortnight to narrow the gap to 51-49, maintaining a pattern over the past six polls of movement back and forth between 51-49 and 52-48. The Coalition is up a point on the primary vote to 39%, only the second time it has reached that level since early November 2016 (the previous such occasion being three polls ago), while Labor and the Greens are both down a point, to 37% and 9% respectively, and One Nation is steady on 6%. However, a straightforward application of 2016 election preferences, rather than the more Coalition-friendly split of One Nation preferences that Newspoll has adopted reflecting recent state election results, would still leave Labor’s lead at 52-48.
Perhaps the best news for the government is a two point increase in Malcolm Turnbull’s approval rating to 42%, which is his best result from Newspoll since March 2016, while his disapproval is down two to 48%, its lowest since the poll on the eve of the July 2016 election. Conversely, Bill Shorten is down one on approval 32% and up two on disapproval to 57%, although Turnbull’s lead on preferred prime minister is unchanged at 46-31. The poll was conducted THursday to Sunday from a sample of 1609.
You worry me sprocket. The Personal is the Political for you isn’t it?
A-E
‘Given that list, can it be truly argued that Australia ever embraced “neo liberalism” – whatever that means, especially under labor governments? Or is “neoliberalism” just a convenient label for Greens and Trots to chant “lib-lab: same-same”?’
I think you have just spelled out what was sort of floating around the back of my mind as a bit of an unformed question.
One pointer to your assessement is the dogmatic way in which the mantra is trotted (sic) out at any and all opportunities.
So what? I call bullshit on your reasoning. Inflation alone would guarantee that outcome over time.
We have two million people living in poverty, a third of all low-income earners are in rental stress, and 100,000 people are homeless.
Job insecurity has ballooned, and wage growth has stalled for at least the last ten years. Australia has had one of the fastest rates of growth in inequality over the last 30 years.
That’s neoliberalism for you. And yes I believe that both sides are to blame, but at least Labor has acknowledged that neoliberalism has been a failure. And as a real party of government, only Labor has the ability to address those failings.
Apropos of nothing in particular and intended as no reflection on other posters, their contributions or for that matter mine, I like the following quote I found on a Google search to see if ’embuggerance’ was a real word:
“I am sorry. It is hard to convey five-dimensional ideas in a language evolved to scream defiance at the monkeys in the next tree” (Dick Pratchett).
Replacing dumb with dumber is a transformation of sorts.
DN
You call a person ‘a coward’ and then beg on your knees for respect.
If you want to join the conversation, just join it and stop faffing around in the hole you have dug for yourself.
S777
LOL
Boerwar @ #450 Monday, July 2nd, 2018 – 7:48 pm
In an economy that’s underpinned by a fiat currency? It isn’t. Wealth is a by-product of everyone playing a giant game of make-pretend, one that works only because (and only for so long as) everyone (mostly) plays it by the same rules. Those rules being roughly:
1. Someone, generally a government, prints however much currency they think there should be.
2. They give it to their preferred partners in
crimeeconomic management.3. They and their partners convince a critical mass of peons that their fancy paper is actually worth something.
4. Their partners dole out wads of fancy paper to the peons according to whatever arbitrary criteria they choose.
5. The peons imitate the behavior of the preferred partners, because they’ve been convinced that that’s the way to get ahead.
So…printing-presses plus gullible people generate wealth? Or with a view towards modern technology, databases do it because everything is just a number in a computer system anyways. That, or wealth is just generated whenever people, generally, so deem.
In any case, it’s basically arbitrary.
Not a very interesting-looking Qanda panel tonight.
Boerwar
What is going on in your fevered imagination? I am asking you respect the people you are discussing neoliberalism/socialism with by actually talking to them instead of addressing “The Greens”.
Respect for me is neither here nor there.
sprocket_
Ah yes. A reminder of JTI’s great comment after Truffles put out the ‘log cabin’ upbringing baloney. Truffles the only man to go from rags to riches without changing postcodes 🙂
Neoliberalism is the continuation of the evolutionary struggle, red in tooth and claw. However, we’ve evolved to the point where we can do much better, no matter how much neoliberalism suits the boss monkeys.
Steve: the quote is from one of the volumes of The Science of Discworld, co-authored by the late, great Terry Pratchett.
“An embuggerance” was how he described the rare form of Alzheimer’s that robbed us of his continued brilliance.
The Australian dollar is valuable because many millions of people need it to pay their tax liabilities to the government that issued the currency. The government’s capacity to enforce tax payments in its own currency is what drives demand for the currency. There is no magic involved.
‘JimmyD says:
Monday, July 2, 2018 at 8:31 pm
BW
Never has the pie been bigger than it is now and never has more wealth been redistributed in Australia than is currently the case, I believe.
So what? I call bullshit on your reasoning. Inflation alone would guarantee that outcome over time.
We have two million people living in poverty, a third of all low-income earners are in rental stress, and 100,000 people are homeless.
Job insecurity has ballooned, and wage growth has stalled for at least the last ten years. Australia has had one of the fastest rates of growth in inequality over the last 30 years.
That’s neoliberalism for you. And yes I believe that both sides are to blame, but at least Labor has acknowledged that neoliberalism has been a failure. And as a real party of government, only Labor has the ability to address those failings.’
I am not arguing that justice exists. It does not. I would argue that it is not new and that there have been times of greater general poverty than there are now. Have a look at the mass poverty in Australia the 1880’s and the 1930’s. There was no job security at all in those decades. None. Zip. Real wages did not stall. They fell like stone. ‘Rental stress’ was not invented. Huge numbers of people either took to the road or lived in tents and caves around our capital cities. In relative population terms, more people were more poor.
So, the per capital pie is bigger in nominal terms and far bigger in terms of consumer goods, the housing stock, the infrastructure stock, the social capital stock. (I am guessing that never has more relative and absolute wealth been transferred to the poorest 20% of the population.)
If you were poor in the 1880’s and in the 1930’s you were much, much poorer than you are now.
As I suggested above what is happening is that the flows are heading both north and south of the middle class: it is being gutted both ways. This, in varying degrees, is a global phenomenum in the West.
‘Steve777 says:
Monday, July 2, 2018 at 8:41 pm
Neoliberalism is the continuation of the evolutionary struggle, red in tooth and claw. However, we’ve evolved to the point where we can do much better, no matter how much neoliberalism suits the boss monkeys.’
So, how did you enjoy the ‘Planet of the Apes’?
DN
Be advised: when you call someone ‘a coward’ you get fight or flight.
See S777 for any further insights you might need to get yourself out of your rude hole.
C
Henderson is utterly incapable of leaving ‘Labor bad’ out of any sentence about anything, anytime, anyplace. I believe she is Corangamite and that the recent redistribution made a marginal seat even more marginal. I sincerely hope that she gets the heave ho at the next Fed election.
ar
Sure. Wealth generation is dissociated from any sort of physical, social, economic, political or resources reality. It is arbitrary. The difference between the Australian economy and the US economy is arbitrary.
If Mr HIH had any sense he would make Ms “Please Explain” the Deputy PM in his Coalition Government
You know it makes sense
The ’embuggerance’: https://discworld.com/the-embuggerance/
I caught a couple of ‘Discworld’ movies and heard an interview with Dick Pratchett on ABC Radio National on a long drive. I’ll have to check out one of his books at least.
Re Planet of the Apes, I saw a couple of the old movies ages ago. I think I preferred the apes to Charlton Heston. Haven’t caught up with the remakes.
Terry Pratchett
What puerile bullshit. Try telling that to a waiter or a childcare worker and see how far that gets you.
You are stuck inside your own nonsense.
Here’s a big test coming up for Turnbull. Will he tell the Nauruan government what they can do with their ban on the ABC attending the Pacific Islands Forum?
Oh dear PB has become like the Trots, as Labor’s prospects darken under Shorten we descend into rival Labor fractions fighting here.
Display Name “Terry Pratchett”. Yes. Apologies for posting fake stuff.
I bags the 3/4 fraction.
ESJ: “Oh dear PB has become like the Trots, as Labor’s prospects darken under Shorten we descend into rival Labor fractions fighting here.”
I’m not in a faction, I’m not actually in a party. Nor am I in a fraction.
What faction of the “Liberals” are you in, the Right or the Far Right.
Bernardi really has big tickets on himself. He will need to take a very long shower, dowse himself in cologne and throw away his clothes after appearing on QandA tonight.
‘JimmyD says:
Monday, July 2, 2018 at 8:57 pm
BW
I am guessing that never has more relative and absolute wealth been transferred to the poorest 20% of the population.
What puerile bullshit. Try telling that to a waiter or a childcare worker and see how far that gets you.
You are stuck inside your own nonsense.’
To be clear, the point I am making about ‘relative’ is relative to the middle class.
I did not say that there is not a lot of poverty. There is. Nor did I say that wealth is evenly distributed. It is not. Nor do I defend either. Relative to the 1880’s and the 1930’s and even relative to much of pre-Whitlam Australia, the absolute poverty now is not as bad as the absolute poverty then.
‘The Guardian’ has a series of articles written by individuals who are doing it hard. Presumably these are the people you would have in mind. I invite you to read the latest article. The person is unemployed and lives in a house with three teenagers. After paying the rent she has $260 per week to make ends meet. She lies awake at night wondering how to make ends meet. She has two (or more horses), a car (which costs around the same as a horse to keep per annum) and waters her lawn twice a day. Pre-Whitlam this single mother would not have been able to keep looking after her children financially. At all. They would have been institutionalized, as many hundreds of thousands were. She would not have been living in a house. She would have been living in a room in a boarding house. She would not have been able to keep two horses and a car (even if the car is broken at the moment).
To be perfectly clear: Am I satisfied with the current wealth gap between rich and poor? No? Am I happy with any of the trends in wealth distribution? No? Am I happy with the growth in precarious employment? No. Am I happy with the extent of wage theft? No. Am I happy with the extent of Super contributions theft? No. Am I happy with the huge free kicks that the Big End of Town get because they make the rules? No.
What do Pratchett, Lyonhjelm and Kinky Friedman have in common?
A love of cats.
‘citizen says:
Monday, July 2, 2018 at 8:57 pm
Here’s a big test coming up for Turnbull. Will he tell the Nauruan government what they can do with their ban on the ABC attending the Pacific Islands Forum?’
Good point.
The ghostwhovotes just twitted;
#Essential Poll Federal 2 Party Preferred: L/NP 48 (0) ALP 52 (0) #auspol
#Essential Poll Federal Primary Votes: L/NP 40 (+2) ALP 37 (+2) GRN 11 (0) ON 6 (-1) #auspol
SK
Does Pratchett still have a love of cats?
“as Labor’s prospects darken under Shorten”…. 51% ALP latest Newspoll: 35 consecutive negative Newspoll for Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition…. a new record.
Whose prospects are darkening again?…. 🙂
Oh. I see. Well, it depends on your view on death and afterlife… and the metaphysics of love.
Boerwar
You are ‘Not happy Jan’ with those points and now you are emperor for a day, what would you decree ?
What do Pratchett, Lyonhjelm and Kinky Friedman have in common?
A love of cats. Also Cardinal Richelieu. And I quite like cats myself.
P.S. I found a picture of David Leyonhejlm with his favourite cat:
https://andyround.wordpress.com/features/james-bond-at-50/yolt-donald-pleasance/
LOL except it is closer to the truth 🙁
Boer – that lady’s story is about as reflective of the average Australian’s experience as the SMH piece on the couple earning $300,000 who claimed that the childcare changes would be a hit to their budget.
For a start, I don’t think your average worker owns two horses.
JimmyD
Or even a chicken these days. Unlike days of yore.
Gee, Essential is confirming the nothingburger over Bill Shorten’s alleged disaster over tax.
The CPG have less credibility than ESJ!
Boerwar @ #425 Monday, July 2nd, 2018 – 5:22 pm
Rich Australians have never been wealthier, whereas the poor and middle classes are moving backwards
Really? A growing number of Australians ARE going to bed hungry.
“Nearly” isn’t good enough.
Which is being outsourced by the neo-liberal government, just as they’re doing with Medicare and Centrelink. In the end it’ll become the same sort of shambles that Centrelink has become.
Our population is the highest ever. In addition, even business organisations have stated that the level of payments for welfare are completely inadequate.
“Totally” free, eh? Except for textbooks, stationery and other supplies. Plus school outings, sports equipment and so many other items that make this “totally free” system very expensive.
Subsidised by imposing high levels of debt on those aspiring to a degree.
Really? You obviously don’t have any contact with other people do you? Try discussing philosophy with Nationals or One Nation supporters, Daily Telegraph readers, 2GB listeners, etc., etc.. The more you come into contact with these types of people, the more you’ll be convinced that Australians, on a population level, have never been stupider.
An utterly irrelevant point, unless you mean that now everyone can easily access the complete works of Bob Dylan.
Like your music claim, utterly irrelevant to neo-liberalism AND socialism.
Nearly, once again, is not good enough when the cost of energy keeps going up, and up, and up, due to the privatisation (thanks neo-liberalism) of the energy industry.
And the highest level of household debt to pay for it.
There are still suburbs in Perth (probably other cities as well) that are not connected to the sewerage system, and still rely on septic tanks.
Unless you live in Perth, or Sydney, or Adelaide, or….
Yep, neo-liberalism has had a profound effect on Australia.
Lets’ have a look at some of the socialist policies that have been “imposed” on Australians shall we?
Medicare? (fought against every step of the way by the forces of neo-liberalism)
Superannuation? (fought against every step of the way by the forces of neo-liberalism)
Minimum wage?(fought against every step of the way by the forces of neo-liberalism).
Yep, all of these things have been an unmitigated disaster for Australians. What a pity that neo-liberalism hasn’t managed (despite mighty efforts) to eradicate these aberrations.
Your post is so filled with so many inaccuracies, untruths and utter bullshit, I’m starting to think you’re really Scott Morrison, or at the least, his press secretary.
JD
I agree that the articles are not very instructive except perhaps to reinforce the views of those who believe that poor people make poor decisions because they are poor.
But the points about being able to keep your children now even if you are poor is a crucial difference. Kids in those days and in those circumstances were forced to leave school early to keep the family budget afloat.
P
At last! Emperor!
Get rid of middle class welfare in all its forms. Get rid of all forms of rules that favour the already-wealthy: negative gearing, capital gains tax exemption of the family home. Get rid of Upper Class welfare in all its forms. Deem the incomes of international corporations. If the don’t like that they can f*** off. Land tax. Death tax.
Get rid of private schools altogether.
And give the Greens an UBI if they promise to move to New Zealand so that we can start taking the environment seriously.
Simon² Katich® @ #536 Monday, July 2nd, 2018 – 9:10 pm
PRATCHET’S DEATH WAS FOND OF CATS. Susan Sto Hellit less so.
It is amazing there are people out there defending Senator David Leyonhjelm especially after the comments he made. Mainly because they detest Senator Sarah Hanson Young so much, they consider her the dumbest member of the Senate.
Boerwar
I was with you until the last point at which point some GAGF kicked in 😀
Oh noes
#Essential Poll Federal 2 Party Preferred: L/NP 48 (0) ALP 52 (0) #auspol— GhostWhoVotes (@GhostWhoVotes) July 2, 2018
The Coalition have a 4 in front of their primary on the essential poll. Its game on.
No one in the ALP cares about the sexual abuse of children in Roebourne.
Disgraceful.