We continue to await the return of Newspoll for the year, which I imagine might be forthcoming ahead of the return of parliament next week. With Essential Research having an off week in the fortnightly cycle, this leaves me with nothing to report on the poll front. Two bits of electoral news worth noting are that the Liberals won the supplementary election for the Victorian state seat of Narracan as expected on Saturday, confirming lower house numbers of 56 for Labor, 19 for the Liberals, nine for the Nationals and four for the Greens; and that Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has announced that the by-election for the seat of Arafura, following the death of Labor member Lawrence Costa on December 17, will be held on March 18. With that, over to you.
Ven,
I did take the train on purpose in order to amortise my CO2 emissions. 🙂
Ballantyne
Nice work.
Labor should knock this on the head now and create a national gas reserve.
C@tmomma
Stay calm and use the Big Merino as one reference point and SuperMax as the other.
Hi from sunny Brisbane, C@t.
36C, feels like a pizza oven.
I see Labor partisans are still using the Voice to try and score political points. Shameless.
BK @ #2050 Friday, February 3rd, 2023 – 1:26 pm
For dumb TVs, you could get a Chromecast dongle for not very much money. Or, if you have an HDMI output on your computer/laptop, get a cable and plug it into the TV.
This conclave speculation seems very crude.
While Francis is not as reactionary as Pope Pole and Pope Nazi, he, and presumably his cardinals are hardly doctrinal radicals.
He has talked the talk but hardly walked the walk. What was last week’s revelation? That’s right – homosexuality is not a crime – a generation behind the west but possibly a new idea in Africa. BTW it’s still a sin.
What is needed is a 1958 situation; Vatican politics result in an aged compromise who everyone hopes will die soon but instead of just enjoying dress ups, he says “F@@@ the lot of ya; we’re having an ecumenical council.”
Vensays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 2:51 pm
”
C@tmommasays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 2:41 pm
I’ve just pulled in to Goulburn on the train to Canberra. 16.9C, feels like 8.1C.
”
Good onya for taking the train. Thumbs up emoji.
______________________________-
+1 Well Done!
To clarify, I do have a smart TV and regularly cast stuff onto it. There didn’t seem to be a cast button on the royal commission stream, at least when viewing it on my mobile browser, and wasn’t sure if that was an issue on my end or if the RC website just didn’t have that option.
Who would have thunk it?
Barnaby Joyce, “Ill-informed!”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-03/fact-check-barnaby-joyce-on-voice-to-parliament/101908172
Rex Douglas,
Labor’s Member for Robertson is as much against PEP11 as Sophie Scamps is.
Of course he isnt ill informed. He is deliberately trying to spread falsehoods to rile up his base and create division and scuttle this referendum. The real questions isnt a fact check on what he says, but why is he lying? Why does he really want the referendum to fail?
”
TPOFsays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 12:28 pm
poroti says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 12:12 pm
While the reports from Bludgerville’s RCWatch have been enjoyable and often very LOL there is a depressing thought.. The likelihood of these unfortunate goats being tossed into the Robodebt volcano are just the ‘unlucky’ ones. Should a similar penetrating gaze be cast upon any number of areas of government administration we’d probably see and hear all the same tales.
_________________________________
One of the key objectives of this commission, I hope, will be recommendations that can apply across the whole of the APS. It has certainly revealed fundamental problems with the way the Commonwealth government does its legal business.
However, I have never come across any government program which has had such an adverse impact on such a large number of fairly helpless people on such poor administrative and legal foundations. I hope I never see such a thing again. And it was all about money and votes by demonising a segment of society.
”
TPOF
Hope you never see such a thing again. That is possible. But the thing is there will be future LNP governments and you bet your house on the possibility that they will be worse than previous LNP governments because nobody in the current opposition seem to have any regrets how things went in last 9 years.
Mostly Interested says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 12:25 pm
Cronus
Fair question imo. What this does suggest, in the absence of any other information or facts, is that there is no clear position on The Voice in the Greens. There isn’t necessarily even a suggestion of significant support for The Voice. That there is no indication at least suggests some reasonable level of disunity in The Greens compared with what polls suggest the public appears to think is a fairly clear issue. I think many would find this surprising.
Sure that’s one reading.
Or they knew they could not get consensus with Senator Thorpe in the room. So have tacitly all agreed to reach a ‘party position’ without her.
Realpolitik on behalf of Bande?
——————————————————————————————-
And I think this is a part of the problem, absent any information, we’re left to pontificate (for good or bad) because a political party can’t/won’t inform the public of their position.
Integrity back with the one line baits. Today’s special? The VOICE!
Labor bad cos Littleproud has got a position on the Voice, Dutton is pretending he hasn’t got a position on the Voice, and the Greens can’t reduce their positions on the Voice to less than 10 positions at any one time.
I am interested in the public opinion aspects of robodebt.
How many Australians have limited or no sympathy for welfare recipients, even in circumstances where the Commonwealth Government claimed a debt from them which wasn’t lawfully owed?
Simon Henny Penny Katich says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Barnaby Joyce, “Ill-informed!”
Of course he isnt ill informed. He is deliberately trying to spread falsehoods to rile up his base and create division and scuttle this referendum. The real questions isnt a fact check on what he says, but why is he lying? Why does he really want the referendum to fail?
_____________________________________
Basically we are left with two alternatives. Either the former Deputy Prime Minister is pig-ignorant of the Constitution and cannot be fucked to find out what a 1 minute search of the internet will tell him or else he is wilfully lying to the Australian public.
Either way, he is the type of crap that drags this country down. Not for his opinions, but for his laziness and divisive lies. And to think a majority of New Englanders prefer this to Tony Windsor!
Is the Voice where Shoebridge tries out a political knifing?
”
Oliver Suttonsays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 2:58 pm
Hi from sunny Brisbane, C@t.
36C, feels like a pizza oven.
”
What kind of Pizzas are cooked in Robodebt RC today? 🙂
Simon Henny Penny Katich
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Crookwell is colder. That place should just drop the “well”.
Can vouch for that. Worked in Crookwell for a couple of years in the ’60s. From memory, Crookwell is about 900 ft higher than Goulburn.
”
Rex Douglassays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:00 pm
I see Labor partisans are still using the Voice to try and score political points. Shameless.
”
So if you and Greens score political points using Voice it is not Shameless I presume?
“How many Australians have limited or no sympathy for welfare recipients”
Well, there’s you for a start, Lars.
I’m a hunk of burning love Oliver.
”
Boerwarsays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:23 pm
Integrity back with the one line baits. Today’s special? The VOICE!
Labor bad cos Littleproud has got a position on the Voice, Dutton is pretending he hasn’t got a position on the Voice, and the Greens can’t reduce their positions on the Voice to less than 10 positions at any one time.
”
BW
There may not as many positions in Kamasutra as Greens have on Voice. 🙂
Antony Green: My NSW election guide is up an running at https://abc.net.au/news/elections/nsw/2023/guide/electorates Preview yet to be finalised and candidates listed rather than profiled, but lots of history, analysis of past trends and comment on Federal election implications where appropriate
BREAKING: https://twitter.com/DavidShoebridge/status/1621364794568884224
Ven
True. But we should honor the Kamasutra for its cultural integrity and its design purpose: to make people happy.
You’re on the edge of reality, Lars.
It’s true Oliver, dark shadows follow me – especially on PB.
”
TPOFsays:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:23 pm
Simon Henny Penny Katich says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Barnaby Joyce, “Ill-informed!”
Of course he isnt ill informed. He is deliberately trying to spread falsehoods to rile up his base and create division and scuttle this referendum. The real questions isnt a fact check on what he says, but why is he lying? Why does he really want the referendum to fail?
_____________________________________
Basically we are left with two alternatives. Either the former Deputy Prime Minister is pig-ignorant of the Constitution and cannot be fucked to find out what a 1 minute search of the internet will tell him or else he is wilfully lying to the Australian public.
Either way, he is the type of crap that drags this country down. Not for his opinions, but for his laziness and divisive lies. And to think a majority of New Englanders prefer this to Tony Windsor!
”
TPOF
There is a possibility that he is pig-ignorant because he didn’t not know he was a NZ Citizen as per constitution. 🙂
What we have done all these years is that we applied lipstick on a pig ( Thanks Sarah Palin) and New England electorate thought it was a beautiful woman. 🙂
Although it’s overcrowded, Lars, you still can find some room.
Mr Scott is taking the new witness through a VERY extensive list of legal experiences he has never undertaken.
And now he asks if he can say he is a subject matter expert in administrative law.
Antony Green’s electoral guide may now be out, but as yet Labor does not appear to have found a candidate to oppose Perrotet in Epping.
Thoughts of Brendan Nelson as the train pulls out of the mighty Tarago. 😀
Oliver Sutton,
It’s Hot In the City?
Alpo @ #2026 Friday, February 3rd, 2023 – 12:45 pm
Are we back on this again?
According to you, Labor has been lying to the electorate since before the election. They did so in order to win. Ok, that’s not all that unbelievable – all political parties lie to the electorate when it suits them. Also according to you, Labor never intended to deliver on the stage three tax cuts in any meaningful fashion. But that’s a bit of a stretch – because there is no way they can not deliver on them – in full – without suffering significant electoral backlash. Not least because they have repeated their full support for them since the election on several occasions. Why would they do that if they really intended to back away from them? Finally, according to you, Labor will put the tax cuts in place but then reverse them almost immediately. And this is where your claim becomes simply unbelievable. On what possible grounds could they justify that? No party could hope to survive such blatant and egregious mendacity.
I understand that you are embarrassed by Labor’s regressive tax policy and that you hope they will be abandoned. But this does not constitute evidence that they will be.
At the end of his evidence the previous witness Nathan Williamson, a former deputy secretary of DSS, was asked direct questions about his conversations with Ms Essex and evidence she gave about what he said about the legal issues with Robodebt.
She said he told her it was legal and there were opinions to support that.
He said he had no recollection of them and the words said to have been used would not be typical of him.
Ms Essex didn’t impress me.
Player One @ #2139 Friday, February 3rd, 2023 – 3:46 pm
I think it’s clear by his comments over past months that Chalmers, as a matter of urgency, is inclined to either change or scrap S3.
However there are likely others within the cabinet who don’t have the want or courage to stand with Chalmers.
Boerwar @ #2093 Friday, February 3rd, 2023 – 2:45 pm
Of course they have done something. They have adopted Tony Abbott’s signature climate policy. No wonder he’s all smiles these days. Or did you think that was just wind?
Integrity’s Voice one liner bait tanked.
But Integrity is in luck.
Integrity did not even have to run the one liner bait on S3.
Removing the last vital components of the intervention have caused chaos as everybody who knows the situation on the ground understood. What did the idiots think would happen if you increased the amount of money you had to spend on grog by 50% and allowed communities that had been mandated as dry to all of a sudden be able to drink grog in them. They simply can’t understand whats happening from that distance, their understanding of aboriginal issues is what they find out over a coffee with the latest leader out of Redfern.
We know have a fifth generation without functioning parents and you wonder why Alice is going up in flames. We just gave their parents double the money to kill themselves with…”THE CHILD WHO IS NOT EMBRACED BY THE VILLAGE WILL BURN IT DOWN TO FEEL ITS WARMTH”
What has struck me about the royal commission hearings is that there were so many witnesses who had neither the curiosity nor logical capacity to examine the obviously flawed averaging method of debt calculation.
Or was it lack of willingness or courage to do so? A bit like those people who won’t go to the doctor in fear of what the advice and consequences might be.
Rex Douglas says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:31 pm
BREAKING: https://twitter.com/DavidShoebridge/status/1621364794568884224
**********
After their 2 day workshop, I thought it might have been his announcement of support for the Voice.
Joyce is the equivalent of the good people of New England cutting off their noses to spite city people. So many country folk have bought the ‘us v them’ BS their leaders have fed them for a hundred years. It gets people like Joyce elected no matter what he says or does – in fact, the worse he behaves the better.
The Greens are back to making all sorts of demands, noises and the like. Medicare access for prisoners, fixing up Morrison’s gas drilling decision and psychiatric drugs. The usual noisemakers are on full decibels. It turns out that Labor is a bad government.
But the Greens are silent on the Voice. Bandt simply hands the baton to Mundine, Littleproud and Dutton.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/feb/03/australia-news-live-medicare-national-cabinet-anthony-albanese-dominic-perrottet-daniel-andrews-robodebt-royal-commission-voice-to-parliament-vic-nsw-qld-politics
Steelydan does a bit of the old triangulation. The point here is that he cares for Indigenous People, supports the Voice, Makarrata and Treaty and sincerely wishes that the hundreds of millions cut from remote Indigenous programs had not forced remote communities to shift into Alice with predictable (and predicted) results.
Good on you, Steelydan!
BK says:
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 3:57 pm
What has struck me about the royal commission hearings is that there were so many witnesses who had neither the curiosity nor logical capacity to examine the obviously flawed averaging method of debt calculation.
Or was it lack of willingness or courage to do so? A bit like those people who won’t go to the doctor in fear of what the advice and consequences might be.
____________________________________
I think that is the nub of much of the evidence so far. I also think that there are a few senior people, including ministers, who were very invested in robodebt proceeding and everyone else was trying to avoid being caught up in any conflagration by turning their minds as far away from the central issue as possible.