The most interesting poll of the day is YouGov’s Queensland state poll, which you can read about here, but we do also have some results from the fortnightly Essential Research poll courtesy of The Guardian, focusing on expectations for the budget. Fifty-one per cent of respondents expected it would benefit the well off and 30% expected it would benefit those on low incomes, but only 25% thought it would benefit them personally. Thirty-five per cent expected it would be good for the economy compared with 31% for bad.
More interestingly, 78% signed on to the proposition that now was a good time to “explore new ways to run the economy”, with only 22% opposed. Sixty-nine per cent favoured “direct investment by government in job creation and in projects with the objective of improving living standards” when it was offered as an alternative to “deregulation to encourage employment and tax cuts for wealthy Australians”, which some may consider a false binary. The full report should be out later today.
In other poll news, The West Australian has been dealing out further results from the poll of 3500 respondents that recorded a 16% swing on state voting intention to Labor – remembering that this was a poll of five selected marginal seats, and not of the entire state. The poll found support for Western Australia’s hard border at 77% with 14% opposed, and support for secession at 28% and opposition at 55%, with 17% somehow unclear of their opinion.
UPDATE: Full results from Essential Research poll are available on the website, although there isn’t the usual PDF file at this point. Regular questions on COVID-19 suggest a softening of concern over the past fortnight, with very concerned down six to 30%, quite concerned up seven to 52%, not that concerned steady on 15% and not at all concerned down one to 4%. Perceptions of government performance in response are little changed, with the federal government on 60% good (down one) and 18% poor (steady), and good ratings for state governments on 65% in New South Wales (down two), 45% in Victoria (down two) 69% in Queensland (up one), 83% in Western Australia (down one) and 81% in South Australia (steady), with due regard to the small sub-sample sizes here.
UPDATE 2: PDF file here.
Team establishment at work.
Shame on Labor for helping the Coalition give Clive Palmer a tax cut!
OC
Those Org Charts say it all. Bureaucracy with fat managerial bums in the top seats.
The DHHS should be spilt up after this debacle, and a new Health structure in line with other jurisdiction Area Health Services model established.
Firefox, when is Adam Bandt going to give a proper budget reply?
Has he nothing to say other than Twitter and Facebook snippets?
This is clearly disappointing for some, but the only sensible option given the massive 2nd/3rd wave occurring in Europe..
‘Australia travel ban likely to remain until late 2021: industry reacts
By Craig Platt
The Australian tourism industry has called for urgent consultation with the federal government after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flagged that international borders would remain closed throughout 2021 in an address to the National Press Club this week.
“International travel, including by tourists and international students, is assumed to remain largely closed off until late next year and then gradually return over time, and a vaccine to be available around the end of 2021 is one of the assumptions in the budget,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Simon Westaway, executive director of the Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) said the federal budget painted a “sobering picture” for the travel industry.
I’ve noticed the coalition have tried a few recession adjectives this week.
Started with corona recession, moved on to covid recession and Scotty tried covid-19 recession today. None roll off the tongue like Morrison recession.
Today we’ve had hysterical “Labor’s childcare package would benefit high income earners” without the slightest sense of awareness.
But no one on the government side has sounded particularly confident so one has to wonder about the internal dynamics.
“Firefox, when is Adam Bandt going to give a proper budget reply?
Has he nothing to say other than Twitter and Facebook snippets?”
***
Glad you asked! 😀
Greens 2020 Budget in Reply
Senator Nick McKim (Greens Treasury Spokesperson)
This budget has been delivered in truly exceptional circumstances. We are in the middle of a global pandemic that has hit us hard, but the pandemic has also exposed many pre-existing fault lines in our economy and in our society: insecure work, poverty, privatisation, social isolation and underfunded public services. These times, and this budget, may well be defined by a global pandemic, but even before any of us had heard of COVID-19 we had massive challenges facing us, and those challenges remain today. The earth’s climate is breaking down around us. We are living through a mass extinction event. Nature is being destroyed at record pace. The ecological systems that our economy and our society rely on are in crisis.
In economic terms, we are also in exceptional circumstances. Interest rates are at the lowest rate in the history of the Federation. Globally, interest rates are at the lowest level in recorded human history. Borrowing money has never been cheaper. Australian households are now carrying more debt than they ever have, and Australia’s level of household debt is second in the world only to Switzerland. Yet despite people borrowing more money than ever, more cheaply than ever, homeownership rates are going through the floor. In Australia, homeownership rates are now back to where they were in the 1950s. This is not because people don’t want to earn money. Workforce participation is at the highest rate it’s ever been. More people than ever are putting their hands up for a job. But wages growth is at the lowest rate since the Australian Bureau of Statistics started keeping records on it in the 1950s.
So we’ve got wages growth at record lows but we’ve got the proportion of national income going to company profits at record highs. The end result of all this is that wealth inequality is entrenched, it’s significant and it’s rising. Record low interest rates, record high household debt, falling homeownership, record workforce participation, record low wages growth, record high company profits, rising wealth inequality—this is what we faced before we entered a global pandemic, and this is what 40-odd years of naked neoliberalism has delivered. More and more people are getting less and less, despite making a greater and greater effort. Meanwhile the big corporations and the super wealthy who own and run them sit back and pocket ever bigger profits and amass ever greater wealth.
Neoliberalism rewards wealth more than it rewards effort. It is a system where the rent seekers rule. It’s a system that, instead of repaying the biggest workforce in our country’s history with the standard of public infrastructure and public services that a prosperous nation such as ours should share and enjoy, has privatised and deregulated. It’s a system that’s created gouging monopolies that pay exorbitant dividends to the wealthy few and, at the same time, forces millions of Australians to take on paralysing levels of private debt just to keep their heads above the water. This is a system where if you’re not amongst the chosen few you must, to paraphrase Lewis Carroll, run as fast as you can just to stay in place, and to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that. This is a system where the game is rigged.
[Continues…]
Watch: https://greensmps.org.au/articles/greens-2020-budget-reply
Would that be the same Josh who based his budget on a vaccine being out and about in 2021 ?
Firefox
So lots of words, no solutions.
Well, that is 10 minutes I will never get back – 80% whingefest and sore-ing rhetoric, then 20% of aspirations..
(These are the aspirations..)
Our plan is built around a government backed jobs and income guarantee that would ensure that everyone has the income they need to live with dignity. It will also get us back to full employment as quickly as possible. No-one should get left behind, and the Greens’ plan ensures that no-one will be. This is a choice that our parliament can make.
Our plan is built around massive government investment in health, in education, in public and active transport and in the whole range of public services that people need and want, delivered at a high quality. It’s built around massive investment in manufacturing and renewable energy—far beyond that which is included in the government’s budget. These will be the building blocks of a fairer and cleaner economy. We can’t afford not to do this. This is a choice that our parliament can make.
Our plan is built around our Create Australia strategy—a jobs-rich plan for the creative industries in our country, underpinned by a commitment to get artists into our schools and libraries and a decent kickstart to get more Australian content onto our screens and live performances back to our stages. This is a choice that our parliament can make.
And for young people—who, as with all recessions, are copping the brunt of it—our plan is built around a next-gen guarantee: free education, a living income and a guaranteed decent job, if you want it. Our nation’s future depends on trusting in and believing in the next generation. This is a choice that our parliament can make.
With the money that this budget commits to tax cuts we can have a green recovery that creates hundreds of thousands of good, decent and well-paid jobs, ensures everyone has an income they can live on and creates a clean, strong and stable economy. We can set everyone up to live a good and dignified life while we respect nature and our planet’s climate. A plan to do this is not just possible; it’s necessary. This is a choice that our parliament can make.
Someone thinks he OWNS the Department.
Fancy a girl wearing an old pair of Tony Abbott’s undies to a presser.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/not-good-enough-albanese-s-budget-reply-angers-unions-over-aged-care-20201009-p563jw.html
Looks like the HSU is smart enough to work out that Albo Medicare Golding Childcare ends up shafting low paid aged care workers.
Hard to understand why Labor insists on giving free stuff to high income people! Go figure?
Shame comrades Shame!
“ How will you pay for it?”
Ah, the failed estate.
No wonder many get their ‘news’ from online …
Coles supermarkets are experiencing a nationwide IT failure that has shut down registers and forced management to close stores.
Disgruntled customers across the country have posted photos to social media of shuttered doors and malfunctioning checkout registers.
A Coles spokeswoman said it was not yet known what caused the outage and how long it would take to be repaired.
“Coles supermarkets are being closed temporarily due to a technical issue with processing payments in our stores. “Our team is working hard to fix the issue and stores will reopen as soon as possible.
“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience.
She looks like bloody Cindarella!
Sky puffing itself up today.
lizzie @ #1768 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 6:09 pm
Reporter asks inane questions and is dismissed by the Premier.
The Republicans are veering into dangerous territory in defending their voter suppression.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/08/republican-us-senator-mike-lee-democracy
https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/10/06/essential-research-budget-expectations-polling/comment-page-36/#comment-3492580
Yeah, sounds like New Labour over on the quaint island off the coast of EUrope, Bliar etc (in came pig lover, May, BoJo), downunder KRudd7x7 (in came Tonicchio/ Fizza/ $houty), may be it is time for me finally to deliver to Wall St over in America (in came TDJT) …
John NOBEL @ #1762 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 5:55 pm
Labor needs to come up with a couple of killer lines to deal with this shit.
They can’t just let it slide as usual. Kill it stone dead this time.
Failed state ? you mean the one that has 1/3 of the debt level ? Who saved us from GFC ?
It’s Friday night. Time for some reminiscing.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1314461047252807681
Peta Credlin has the mask over the nose for news.com.au photographer. But it was under the nose the the Sky screen grab!
Looking at the organisational chart for the Victoria DHHS, there are an impressive number of high-level people with no appropriate qualification.
As John Ralston Saul said – management is NOT a topic appropriate for a university, but should be a trade qualification!
The journalists call such people “bureaucrats” if they work in public service, but “businessmen/women” if they work for their own benefit.
Credlin is ranting on Sky (only saw a few minutes in a grab), “I won’t let this go. I will go to every presser until…” All the deaths are at Dan’s door, never any blame for the LP, of course.
Lizzie:
Ms Credlin likes to be centre of attention, and also likes fighting.
Maybe she should run for office and see how that goes?
E. G. Theodore
Funny that she never has. Perhaps she prefers to load the rifles rather than be responsible for firing them.
Indeed Sprocket
The problem of Vic Health in one diagram
The federal retired bureaucrat blamed Kennet for making the small local boards too independent, local and political. Fits in with the view that Brumby/Andrews were unwilling to cope the opprobrium of dissolving them.
Daniel Andrews should have a question limit , if Credlin can not ask her question within 45 secs , then she misses out for the rest of the press conference
OC
I’m very frustrated that successive Labor governments have kept the local board structure for schools, as well. The boards are stacked with non-educators. Because they know nothing about education, the principal, as head of the board, is able to manipulate them.
One board I know of resigned en masse because the principal structured meetings to avoid answering questions. After repeated efforts, they decided that they couldn’t be responsible for decisions they were being made to take without sufficient information.
Victorian schools also control their own staffing budgets, which means they tend to employ the cheapest person for the job rather than the best.
Although I understand that local decision making in the case of employment isn’t necessarily a bad idea, selecting staff should be decoupled from their cost.
The NSW Education Department achieves this by making a provisional staffing budget, where the school has access to funding equivalent to every staff member receiving the maximum rate of pay. If they don’t use all the funds, they go back into general revenue, so there’s no incentive to scrimp.
When Kennett brought this in, there were enough permanent staff on the books that this didn’t have a major impact, but now most of those have reached retirement age. There are signs that the system is starting to crumble.
Well the wind blew one whole phase of my power out from my connection to the power pole this afternoon and so I have power to some things but not others. Of course it took out the modem and my computer and so I have to just get by with only my phone until it gets fixed tomorrow. Sigh.
Scott
Have Red Symons down the back and……………..
Lol poroti
“lizzie says:
Friday, October 9, 2020 at 6:35 pm
Credlin is ranting on Sky (only saw a few minutes in a grab), “I won’t let this go. I will go to every presser until…” All the deaths are at Dan’s door, never any blame for the LP, of course.”
Is she additional to, or a replacement for, the other annoying person(s) from Murdoch media?
If you have 1 hour to spend, this LIncolnProjectTV special for ex-Republicans is a must watch. Republican Governors, Ambassadors, Cabinet members, Congressmen, National Security Officials – all give detailed messages as to why Dotard has failed the party of Lincoln….
https://youtu.be/T_i6boHSsgk
C@tmomma @ #1367 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 6:53 pm
Just plug them into a power point that works.
Dan should say tomorrow, ‘This is my 100th presser for the Victorian people. This is your second for the Murdoch gutter. Now can you repeat the question?”
Oakeshott Country @ #1779 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 5:44 pm
It looks like an appalling organisational structure. There appear to be functions spread all over the department regardless of what other functions they will need to relate to and the responsibilities at the top are too diffused. As someone who used to do organisational design for a living i fail to see how much could happen at all except for people at the operational level knowing broadly how to do their jobs and getting on with it.
It is difficult to see how accountability could even be traced, let alone enforced.
It actually makes the evidence given at the enquiry more credible – how would you know who made any particular decision at any particular time?
Boral execs can’t avoid Setka suit over ‘malicious’ blackmail charges
Boral executives have lost a bid to throw out John Setka’s damages suit against them that alleges they provided false statements to police that led to a failed blackmail case against the unionist.
The Victorian Supreme Court held the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union’s Victorian secretary’s legal action against Paul Dalton and Peter Head for malicious prosecution and false improvement was arguable and should proceed to trial following the spectacular collapse of the criminal case against Mr Setka in 2018.
CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka says the blackmail charges were “an ideologically-driven attack on a union and on me personally”. Chris Hopkins
But Victorian Supreme Court Associate Judge Melissa Daley said the Department of Public Prosecutions’ role was not a bar to finding the executives were “the real prosecutors”.
Judge Daley said the claim the executives were the “instigators” of the criminal case was at least arguable considering they were the only other attendees at a meeting where the unionists allegedly made the blackmail threats.
“A review of the authorities concerning when a person may be liable for false imprisonment indicates that [the union leaders’] contention that [the executives] will be so liable if it was found that they deliberately provided false information to police, is at least arguable, such that their claims should be permitted to proceed to trial,” she said.
Malicious prosecution was also not limited to “spite and ill will”, she said, and could extend to purposes “other than the proper invocation of the criminal law”.
The union leaders argue that the executives’ statements to police were part of “a broader legal and public relations campaign” by Boral and its then-CEO Mike Kane against the CFMEU over its industrial ban.
They claim the executives were motivated by anti-CFMEU sentiment, a desire to punish Mr Setka and Mr Reardon over the ban or to gain favour with their boss, Mr Kane.
“The extent to which [the executives’] actions reflected or were directed by Boral’s corporate policy with respect to the ban and the CFMEU is a matter that can be explored at trial,” the associate judge said.
https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/boral-execs-can-t-avoid-setka-suit-over-malicious-blackmail-charges-20201009-p563mc
sprocket_
Or “I’m so glad that after so many months you have bothered to take an interest “
https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/10/06/essential-research-budget-expectations-polling/comment-page-36/#comment-3492590
Yup and all “photo-op and no follow-up” sounds great for the FIFO that is Canberra ACT, “inside the Belt Way”, just not Main St …
Though I did note powder is being kept dry for a broadside or ambush at the appropriate time, beyond childcare, keeping the lights on, which given Wuflu, climate, economy, end of the hyperpower period …, 2007 comes to mind, 1986 may be, or even further back?
Then again, perhaps is does come back to are you better off, in terms of services, competency (people seem to remember the likes of Obeid in NSW, or Nbnco …, presumably sprorts or WorkSlaveChoices mkx), policy?
Citizen
Rachel is on leave so Peta is taking over.
John NOBEL
Re PM Photo Op and Vanish Morrison. There would be legions of people affected by the bush fires who have been dudded in what Scrott announced vs what was actually delivered. Labor should be seeking to highlight them and their grievances. The same for all the others left in the wake of his usual announcement without follow through.
Not a bad read –
How a Packer didn’t get his own way
James Packer’s grilling at the NSW casino inqury suggests the family’s aura of invincibility is fading. The seeds of this crisis were sown long ago.
…Aside from that one light moment with Bergin, Packer’s demeanour throughout his evidence was that of someone exhausted by his lot in life.
The Packer aura of invincibility seemed long gone.
https://www.afr.com/companies/games-and-wagering/how-a-packer-didn-t-get-his-own-way-20201008-p563b3
lizzie @ #1775 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 6:35 pm
Victorians will turn on her if she makes it about herself.
“Lizzie says:
Friday, October 9, 2020 at 7:18 pm
Citizen
Rachel is on leave so Peta is taking over.”
Thanks Lizzie. Perhaps Dan should ask Peta if Rachel found the interrogations too tiring and needed to take a holiday (given that he has appeared every day).
Does not compute. Headline
Actual
.
The Curtin research found 73.5 per cent of people will gain from the budget measures this financial year.
Almost 31 per cent will be less than $25 a week better offer, 32.1 per cent will be between $25 and $75 a week in front while 10.7 per cent of people will gain more than $75 a week.
10.7 per cent of people will gain more than $75 a week.
Rex Douglas says Friday, October 9, 2020 at 7:26 pm
Given Sky’s viewing numbers, I doubt anyone will even notice, let alone care.
citizen @ #1797 Friday, October 9th, 2020 – 7:30 pm
Dan’s still standing!