An off week in the fortnightly cycles for both Newspoll and Essential Research, but we do have three fairly detailed sets of attitudinal polling doing the rounds:
• Ipsos has results from its monthly Issues Monitor series, which records a dramatic escalation in concern about the environment. Asked to pick the three most salient out of 19 listed issues, 41% chose the environment, more than any other. This was up ten on last month’s survey, and compares with single digit results that were not uncommonly recorded as recently as 2015. Cost of living and health care tied for second on 31%, respectively down three and up six on last month. The economy was up one to 25%, and crime down one to 21%. On “party most capable to manage environmental issues across the generations”, generations up to and including X gave the highest rating to the Greens, towards whom the “boomer” and “builder” generations showed their usual hostility. The poll was conducted online from a sample of 1000.
• A poll by YouGov for the Australian Institute finds 79% expressing concern about climate change, up five since a similar poll in July. This includes 47% who were very concerned, up ten. Among those aged 18 to 34, only around 10% expressed a lack of concern. Fifty-seven per cent said Australia was experiencing “a lot” of climate change impact, up 14%; 67% said climate change was making bushfires worse, with 26% disagreeing; and only 33% felt the Coalition had done a good job “managing the climate crisis” (a potentially problematic turn of phrase for those who did not allow that there was one), compared with 53% who took the contrary view. The poll was conducted January 8 to 12 from a sample of 1200; considerable further detail is available through the full report.
• The Institute of Public Affairs has a poll on Australia Day and political correctness from Dynata, which has also done polling on the other side of the ideological aisle for the aforesaid Australia Institute. This finds 71% agreeing that “Australia Day should be celebrated on January 26” (55% strongly, 16% somewhat), and 68% agreeing Australia had become too politically correct (42% strongly, 26% somewhat). Disagreement with both propositions was at just 11%. A very substantial age effect was evident here, but not for the two further questions relating to pride in Australia, which received enthusiastic responses across the board. I have my doubts about opening the batting on this particular set of questions by asking if respondents were “proud to be an Australian”, which brings Yes Minister to mind. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the poll is the demographic detail on the respondents, who were presumably drawn from an online panel. This shows women were greatly over-represented in the younger cohorts, while the opposite was true among the old; and that the sample included rather too many middle-aged people on low incomes. The results would have been weighted to correct for this, but some of these weightings were doing some fairly heavy lifting (so to speak).
Elsewhere, if you’re a Crikey subscriber you can enjoy my searing expose on the electoral impact of Bridget McKenzie’s sports sports. I particularly hope you appreciate the following line, as it was the fruit of about two days’ work:
When polling booth and sport grants data are aggregated into 2288 local regions designated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there turns out to be no correlation whatsoever between the amount of funding they received and how much they swung to or against the Coalition.
I worked this out by identifying the approximate target locations of 518 grants, building a dataset recording grant funding and booth-level election swings for each of the ABS’s Statistical Local Area 2 regions, and using linear regression to calculate how much impact the grants had on the Coalition vote. The verdict: absolutely none whatsoever.
Meanwhile over the FTTP Tasman Sea a NZ internet provider will next week switch on it’s first ‘hypernet’ customers. How fast ? Home/Business/Education user plans are 2,000 –> 4,000 Mbps. Meanwhile the Truffles-Abbott NBN trundles along at 10-100 Mbps. no wonder 5G looks so good here.
https://hyperfibre.chorus.co.nz/
https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/01/22/poll-respondents-attitudes/comment-page-12/#comment-3327721
… across the street has nbn/ NBN, as does much of the surrounding area. Apparently we’ll be ready to connect and ready for services this quarter.
So the street still has SingTel Optus HFC, Telstra HFC (up to 100/ 5 Mbps) or DSL and wireless.
Depending on [Regional Broadband Dollars Grab from 1 Jul and] how bad the Telstra HFC becomes when there is Nbnco HFC (up to 100/ 40 Mbps), Telstra HFC and FoxTel on the coax wiring back to the exchange, we’ll probably stay on Telstra HFC for as long as possible, and then check out 5G (which isn’t here yet) or 4G home wireless broadband …
Thank you, BK.
What a nice old mess the Dawn Patrol has dragged us in to!
AFP ‘political ads” ? Merely public service ads informing the public of how Peter Dutton is keeping them safe.
lizzie @ #549 Thursday, January 23rd, 2020 – 6:36 am
‘Who do you trust to be corrupt? The National Party!’
Obviously this is a jerk-off attempt by Scott Morrison’s office to do damage control. The National Party are incapable of thinking this deviously.
WhatsApp indeed…
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have been used to hack into the cellphone of Jeff Bezos in an effort to “influence, if not silence” reporting on the kingdom by The Washington Post, two United Nations human rights experts said on Wednesday.
Mr. Bezos, the billionaire chief executive officer of Amazon, who also owns The Post, received an encrypted video from the crown prince loaded with digital spyware that enabled surveillance of his cellphone starting in May 2018, the United Nations experts said in a statement.
The new allegations against Crown Prince Mohammed, whose rise to power in Saudi Arabia has been punctuated by a wide-ranging crackdown on dissidents at home and abroad, suggest that the kingdom’s hacking and social media attacks have hit a wider range of targets than was previously known.
In recent years, technology researchers and human rights groups have documented cases of operators who appear to be working for Saudi Arabia infiltrating the devices of well-known Saudi dissidents and manipulating social media in the kingdom to amplify voices praising Crown Prince Mohammed and drown out his critics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/bezos-phone-hacked.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
I baked a birthday cake for the National’s centenary. Here’s the recipe
https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cake/100-year-old-pork-cake.html
The reporting of Mohammad bin Sultan hacking Jeff Bezos’s phone via Whatsapp is bombshell material..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/bezos-phone-hacked.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
bakunin,
I knew that Bakunin was against ‘Authoritarian Socialism’ and a communist elite ruling the proletariat. Also, as I put it last night, many members of the Communist Party in the West, such as in Australia, became disillusioned with the purges of Stalin and the brutal authoritarian rule of the Baltic nations and Eastern Europe by the USSR and their proxies. Though I would add that Putin is just a friendlier face attempting to restore hegemony and power and influence that once resided in Russia, and even extend it.
Still, it doesn’t make your reference to Gough’s Pure Impotence speech right. Not everyone to the right of you on the political spectrum is conservative. 🙂
Thanks very much BK for the Dawn Patrol.
From the BK Files ⏬⏬⏬⏬
The time it takes for older Australians to enter a nursing home after being assessed as needing residential care has blown out almost 50 per cent in two years, while waiting times for the highest level of home care package are 34 months. Richard Colbeck is right on top of his brief by the look of it!
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/older-australians-increasing-wait-before-nursing-home-care-report-20200122-p53tn5.html
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/aged-care/residential-aged-care-in-australia-2010-11-a-stat/contents/summary
Zo, mein friendz, prospective residents of Aged Care are waiting 50% longer than (who knows what). This in two years. Therefore one may be excused for thinking that in another two years a further 50% may occur. Licks indelible pencil, mutter – mutter – mumble – 50% of 168 – cf subtract a from b, take 50% from result carry the one – result bupkis.*
This is of course may be part of an un/intended consequence of whatever plan the Gummint has for Aged Care. The mathetatics implies that within the memory span of an average Orstrayan voter the waiting time will exceed the life expectancy.
Conclusion – existing Aged Care Facilities will be well able to handle prospective residents assessed by a new, improved, for profit model ACAT system brilliantly organised and abandoned by the Gummint. This will be known as “An Experiment in Ever Decreasing Self Centred Anal Adventurism” – whereby the Gummint has no further part or interest in Aged Care. The whole procedure has had the title pencilled in as the “Oozlum Project”.**
*bupkis
Nothing, zero, zilch
I put a lot of hard work into this project, and all I got was bupkis.
**
P.S. A side effect of the above will be the social benefits whereby current existing volunteers visiting Aged Care Residentials will be able to meet each other rather than the used to be oldies (now non existent ).
We have another Gummint zugzess story.
Question – What is a Richard Colbeck ❓
Coffee for two – ☕☕
sprocket_
Re Bezos. Why would he go through/to ‘UN experts” re the hack ? Seems strange. If he really wanted to know the US has all the aces and a thousand times less likely to leak considering the multinational aspect of the UN.
Edit : Ah, he first used KTI . But the “proof’ seems a bit underwhelming
” the forensic report “does not claim to have conclusive evidence,” and “could not ascertain what alleged spyware was used.”
Kochie lays into Bridget on Sunrise this morning, watch to the end…
https://mobile.twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1220066780149714944/video/1
There are only five questions left in relation to McKenzie:
1. When she goeth.
2. The manner of her going.
3. How much damage she has inflicted on the Liberals and the Nationals.
4. How much damage she has inflicted on Sleazy from Marketing on the way through. She is delivering plenty of bias confirmation that you can’t trust Scotty from marketing at a particularly bad time for Scotty from marketing.
5. Whether the Nationals can contain themselves in the inevitable political shitfight to fill the vacant Deputy Nationals position.
Poroti
The UN link is the Rapporteurs for free speech and summary executions have both been hot on Saudi violations in that space – and using hacking via MP4 files sent from ‘trusted’ accounts to take over their phones, and use the information to target associates.
In the case of Bezos, he got a top tier IT security firm to investigate and document the circumstances, and then share the results with the UN. Why Jeff Bezos? His Washington Post employed Khashoggi, and also they are super critical of the Trump omertà. Picked the wrong guy to blackmail…
From NYTimes
“Their statement cited a 2019 forensic analysis of Mr. Bezos’s phone that assessed with “medium to high confidence” that his phone had been infiltrated on May 1, 2018, via an MP4 video file sent from a WhatsApp account utilized personally by the Saudi crown prince. The report, which was reviewed by The New York Times, indicated that Mr. Bezos continued to receive messages from the crown prince’s WhatsApp account after Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
The report was carried out at Mr. Bezos’s request by the business advisory firm FTI Consulting and given to the United Nations experts by Mr. Bezos’s associates for their assessment. Messages sent by the crown prince’s account throughout 2018 suggested that he had intimate knowledge of Mr. Bezos’s private life.
On Nov. 8, 2018, the report said, Mr. Bezos received a message from the account that included a single photo of a woman who strongly resembled Lauren Sanchez, with whom Mr. Bezos was having an affair that had not been made public. The photo was captioned, “Arguing with a woman is like reading the software license agreement. In the end you have to ignore everything and click I agree.”
At the time, Mr. Bezos and his wife were discussing a divorce, which would have been apparent to someone reading his text messages.”
Where’s Bodge-it McKenzie, has she gone into witless protection?
The committee wil be run by George C. and Stuart R.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/22/christian-porter-defends-bridget-mckenzie-over-36000-grant-to-sport-club-she-belongs-to
From Dawn Patrol (thanks BK):
”…Prince Charles has pleaded with world leaders and businesses to rapidly shift to a new economic model that revolutionises the interaction between nature and global financial markets and saves the planet from “approaching catastrophe”. A bit of leadership!”
I wonder if the ardour of today’s devout Monarchists will cool under King Charles III (or maybe George VII).
Not Sure
I never did do what Head Office told me to. It might be why I didn’t win an election.
I’m not sure how the quote of mine you used before proves anything about my reading habits, but as is so often the case, William is right.
I found this item interesting:
More than half of all Australians have been directly affected by the summer’s bushfire crisis, including millions suffering health effects, according to a new survey from the Australia Institute.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/23/bushfire-crisis-more-than-half-of-all-australians-found-to-have-been-directly-affected
Since the fire in my area, one of the biggest, at Gospers Mountain, I have noticed that I have developed a kind of smokers cough. But I don’t smoke! Never have! And I’m not even in the area directly affected by the fires, so I can only imagine how those people are getting on.
Nup. Aldi is great, and has give the Coles/Woolies duopoly a kick in the profits.
IGA, Spar etc. are hanging on to their local niches.
Lidl and Kaufland (who?) have missed the boat.
Terry Jones on Life of Brian:
“It wasn’t about what Christ was saying, but about the people who followed him,” he said. “The ones who for the next 2,000 years would torture and kill each other because they couldn’t agree on what he was saying about peace and love.”
Boerwar,
I think one other question in addition to your excellent list remains.
Will McKenzie walk quietly off into the night or will she and or her supporters confirm Morrison and his office were involved up to their necks in the decision making process ?
Morning all. I imagine Scomo will Be very concerned to find out how so many Liberal conflicts of interest were able to be reported in the media over RortGate.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/clip-reveals-mckenzie-gave-club-a-grant-after-joining-as-member-20200122-p53ttl.html
Next time the conflicts must be much better hidden. That is good governing.
But McKenzie is there so that the Nationals can say that they don’t have a gender problem, as BOTH of their women MPs are in the Ministry…
C@t,
I thought Whitlam’s speech was pretty interesting. It’s largely focused on the power structures within Labor which prevent it from winning office. At the time the States effectively voted as blocks.
I think it would be possible to argue that in 2020 the problem Whitlam highlighted remains, only with Factions replacing States as the gatekeepers of internal power.
KayJay @ #560 Thursday, January 23rd, 2020 – 4:46 am
Brilliant out of the box thinking Sir.
May your caffeine intake inspire more policy gems.
I see a major benefit of this policy will be a huge reduction in staffing and maintenance cost for aged care providers.
A year after switching to NBN, my FTTN (copper) connection has finally been fixed, and now delivers the 50/20Mbps I pay for. (It’ll never deliver 100/40.)
The cable fault had probably been there for decades. As long as the analogue voice connection didn’t crackle, Telstra was able to just “wet the string” and walk away until the fault reoccurred in 12-18 months.
Is there any truth to the rumour* that George C acquired a sports grant for his favourite ping pong club in Manilla? 🙂
* figment of my imagination
bakunin,
I thought you would have been all for collectives? 🙂
The truth about Climate change is finally revealed.
Thanks BK. Rowe’s depictions of McKenzie are very disturbing!
It will be interesting to hear Megyn Kelly.
In 1998 Ron Paul spoke out that Clinton should be being impeached because of his ‘illegal’ bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan for political reasons. Clinton was then wanting to also ‘illegally’ bomb Iraq, nice impeachment distraction. He warned such attacks will lead to “more attacks by terrorists”. Billy Boy sure set the pattern for the next 20 + years.
.
Ron Paul 1998 – Clinton Impeachment and Iraq (CSPAN).mov
https://www.c-span.org/video/?116695-1/situation-iraq-impeachment
Morning all
Speaking of the NBN
This summer the focus has obviously been the weather and its effect thereof.
Sunday we had an almighty storm and I happened to walk on deck at the same moment a huge thunderclap decided to strike near by. It scared the bejesus out of me.
It didn’t hit a pole in my actual neighbourhood, but about a kilometre away.
Walked back in to find power and internet out. Power did come back on within 10 minutes, but not internet. Soon realised that as we had recently switched to the NBN my landline was also kaput. Something that never ever happened before. I never lost connection to my landline no matter the weather or power outage. This is one big downside to the NBN.
Anyhoo technician came and replaced modem and advised that the lightning strike in area had disabled many modems which needed replacing.
It is easy to see how this summer of weather has impacted in so many different ways.
C@t,
Murray Bookchin who died in 2006 was a theorist in the anarchist tradition, and his work was quite influential in Green politics in the 80’s and 90’s. He wrote an essay in 1969 titled “Listen, Marxist!” which attacked the 60’s revival of Marxism on the basis that it ignored fundamental changes in society. It’s quite ironic that after the near-death Marxism suffered in the 80’s and 90’s, it has been reanimated in the 21stC for a new generation that didn’t witness the decaying totalitarianism of the old Soviet states.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bookchin/1969/listen-marxist.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/22/democrats-are-winning-argument-even-though-theyll-lose-senate-trial/
Fess
I’ve always been a fan of Adam Schiff. But his handling of these proceedings has been exceptional.
Sprocket
You may appreciate this thread on the Bezos and Crown Prince saga. It gives a very good timeline.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1220028653909823488.html
Vic:
Yes he has been exceptional. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the Democrats have truth on their side too.
And for those of us following the Trump saga. There is a thread of timeline in regards to the mobster Lev Parnas. If accurate it clarifies for me why he has done the interviews with Maddow etc.
https://mobile.twitter.com/blakesmustache/status/1218590153616306178
Confessions
It may already legal. I used to work for a US multinational and in a jaw dropping moment discovered they had a company policy for “bribery” outside the US. It was OK as long as you were bribing the local officials to provide certain services such as water/power/mail that otherwise would not be obtained.That was the best part of 20 years ago so it may be very different ‘these days’ but it would be odds on most US companies would have had similar rules.
Fess
True that. Lol….
‘bakunin says:
Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 8:28 am
C@t,
I thought Whitlam’s speech was pretty interesting. It’s largely focused on the power structures within Labor which prevent it from winning office. At the time the States effectively voted as blocks.
I think it would be possible to argue that in 2020 the problem Whitlam highlighted remains, only with Factions replacing States as the gatekeepers of internal power.’
If you want to know what has happened in Australia for this nine year spell of three consecutive governments, focus on the Coalition.
Any fool can slag Labor. And many fools do.
poroti:
If Trump’s actions had been above board and within policy there would’ve been no need to lie repeatedly about it (his impeachment lawyers are STILL lying about it in the Senate), attempt to obstruct the work of Congress in identifying the facts surrounding his Ukraine dealings, or cover up the phone call.
bakunin,
You might enjoy this observation on divisiveness in society by the CEO of IndigenousX, LukeLPearson(I think he’s the son of Noel Pearson):
Pearson In The Wind
@LukeLPearson
It’s awesome that the ppl who complain about Aboriginal ppl being ‘divisive’ every 26th Jan also complain about immigrants, refugees, ‘the left’, academics, and all the other groups they divide people into…
Also, people such as Bookchin are good at analysing what ails society and what an ideal society should be like but they are woeful at mapping out a path to get from here to there. Except via ‘Revolution’ (viz Bernie Sanders). Or prescribing anarchy. However, as I try and tell my son, proud, testosterone-fuelled boy that he is, anarchy can never be the solution to what ails society as it can never be perpetual, just like there has never been a perpetual motion machine successfully invented. So all the energy involved in anarchy will thus be dissipated and what you will be left with, again, is the alphas at the top, just a new bunch, and society will still be beset with the same old problems that our new overlords may have the odd solution to. But it will never be the perfect that they believed in when they started on their quest. Ego and human nature will always be stumbling blocks. 🙂
Boerwar
So the power structure of Labor has in no way had a deleterious effect on their lack of ‘winning” then, of ‘fixing’ the problem ?
GG
That one is the oft-repeated and totally junked ‘undersea volcanoes are heating the oceans’ meme.
It is a feature of denialism mongers that they endlessly repeat fake science.
p
All I want from the bakunins of the world is a break from the incessant slagging of Labor as if Labor is the only Party with issues.
Here are some other issues that bakunin might have considered in the same context:
1. Why not consider the religous freakery that underpins many of the deal in the Coalition
2. Why not consider the fundamental split in the Greens between those who care for the environment and those who want the Revolution.
The broader context is that six years of bakunin’s ‘analysis’ was part of joined up attempt to Kill Bill and Sink Labor. It was joined up because the focus was always on Bill. Not so much on Sleazy. The Greens were not just back in the pack on this. They were leaders of the same old, same old. They spent a disproportionate amount of their attack time against Labor.
They are now into Assassinate Albo and sink Labor.
By all means dissect Labor’s organizational difficulties. But no party organization is an island. Perhaps a bit more time spent on why the Greens’ polling is treading water during our Climate Gotterdammerung might be in order?
Nope. Bakunin chooses to slag Labor. Never the Greens.
Boerwar
A suggestion that what Whitlam spoke of may still be there but in a different form, you are a bit of a ‘petal’ to call that “slagging Labor”.