The Financial Review had a set of federal voting intention numbers on Friday from Freshwater Strategy, which were highly distinctive in having Labor leading by only 52-48, compared with 54-46 from the last such poll in December. The primary votes were Labor 34% (down three), Coalition 37% (steady), Greens 12% (steady) and 17% for the rest. Anthony Albanese was on 42% approval (down six) and 37% disapproval (up seven), a substantially narrower net positive rating than recorded by other pollsters, while Peter Dutton had less anomalous numbers of 30% (up one) and 42% (up four). A preferred prime minister question had Albanese with an usually narrow lead of 51-33, in from 55-29. The poll was conducted Monday to Wednesday from a sample of 1005.
Further findings from the poll:
• Support for the Indigenous Voice was down two since December to 48% while opposition was up ten to 39%, including a 20-point increase among Coalition voters and a seven point increase among Labor and Greens voters. This converted to 55-45 after exclusion of the undecided, in from 65-35.
• Only nine per cent felt the budget would put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates, compared with 52% who thought the opposite and 23% who said it would have no effect. Forty-eight per cent felt the country was heading in the wrong direction, up six, compared with 37% for right direction, down seven.
• Seventy per cent supported Peter Dutton’s call for sport gambling ads to be curtailed, with 13% opposed, and 59% supported his proposal to allow the unemployed to earn $150 a fortnight more without affecting their JobSeeker rate.
By-election latest:
• Amy Remeikis of The Guardian reports five candidates have emerged for Liberal National Party preselection in Fadden, with nominations having closed last Friday and a ballot of eligible local members to be conducted this Friday. The Gold Coast Bulletin identifies four of them: Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell, who is widely rated the front-runner; Dinesh Palipana, emergency doctor at Gold Coast University Hospital and the state’s first quadriplegic medical graduate; Fran Ward, founder of a charity supporting distressed farmers; and Owen Carterer, who would appear to have a low profile. “Long-term members” were backing Caldwell, but Palipana had support from “Young LNP party members linked to state MP Sam O’Connor”, though critics were arguing he would do better to run at the state election.
• The Age/Herald reported a spokesperson for Scott Morrison saying his departure from parliament was “not imminent”, and would certainly not be soon enough to allow for joint by-elections in Fadden and his seat of Cook. However, it could “possibly come at the end of the year”.
Other news from around the place:
• David Penberthy of The Australian reported last week that bitterly fought Liberal Senate preselection looms in South Australia, the flashpoint being the position of Senator Alex Antic. Together with like-minded Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick, Antic withdrew parliamentary support from the Morrison government in protest against mandatory vaccinations, and has lately courted far right sentiment by mocking Volodomyr Zelenskyy in parliament and following it up with a theatrically disingenuous apology. Antic was elected from third position on the ticket in 2019, behind Anne Ruston and David Fawcett. As religious conservatives make headway in a push to take control of a party that took a distinctly moderate turn under Steven Marshall’s one-term state government, there are said to be some hoping Antic might be pushed to the top of the ticket (though an unidentified and presumably conservative party figure is quoted denying it), and others hoping he might be dumped altogether.
• Sumeyya Ilanbey of The Age reports Victorian Liberal state president Greg Mirabella told state council yesterday that an external report into the Aston by-election found defeated candidate Roshena Campbell had “the highest recognition and positivity among Liberal names, even when compared with outgoing federal Liberal MP Alan Tudge”. This would not seem to sit will with a view that has taken hold in the party that Campbell’s lack of local connection to the seat explained the result, as reflected in Peter Dutton’s determination that a local should succeed Stuart Robert in Fadden.
• RedBridge Group has results from polling of Victorian voters on federal voting intention, which after exclusion of the undecided finds Labor on 41% (32.9% at the election), the Coalition on 34% (33.1%) and the Greens on 12% (13.7%). The pollster’s high-profile director of strategy and analytics, Kos Samaras, argues the Liberals’ dismal levels of support in the state among non-religous voters, Indian Australians and Buddhists in general puts it in an unwinnable position.
• In his column in the Age/Herald on Saturday, George Megalogenis wrote that “private polling for the Yes campaign is more encouraging” than this week’s Resolve Strategic result of 53-47 (although Kos Samaras of RedBridge argues social desirability bias effects in polling on such questions means proponents should not feel comfortable of even a national majority unless polling has it clear of 55-45). However, Megalogenis says “Queensland is now assumed as lost, with Western Australia doubtful”, with “Tasmania as the potential swing state”.
• The West Australian provides a sketchy report of polling by Painted Dog Research gauging the opinions of 1409 voters in Western Australia on Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton and Jim Chalmers. Albanese recorded an approval rating of “just under half”, with 26% dissatisfied, with Peter Dutton apparently scoring a parlous 16% approval and 48% disapproval. “About a third” approved of Jim Chalmers’ performance as Treasurer, while “just under a quarter disapproved”.
• The Age/Herald yesterday reported results on issue salience from last week’s Resolve Strategic poll, finding the cost of living with a huge lead as the highest priority issue, identified as such by 48% compared with 11% for health care, 10% for the environment and climate change and 8% for management of the economy. Cost of living has ascended to its present level from 16% last January and 25% at the time of the federal election in May.
Holdenhillbilly says:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:52 pm
frednk: We have Sussssan Ley
Yes, just to drive the point home.
Sprocket
I think Pageboi exaggerated Labor donations by 1000 times, not 100 times. Lets not understate the exaggeration!
If Labor really got $500 million in donations from one industry in one year there would be no need for more fundraising 🙂 Every staffer would be driving a Merc.
Not so in the real world.
”
sprocket_says:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 8:18 pm
PageBoi says:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:16 pm
@cat
Here you go
Nearly $500m to Labor in one year, nearly $700m to the coalition
Bought and paid for
https://reneweconomy.com.au/labor-and-coalition-enjoyed-more-than-1-15-million-of-fossil-fuel-donations-last-year/
The linked table shows around $500k in donations, about 100 times less than the $500m PageBoi claims
”
Pageboi and Rex really want LNP Government ASAP.
They really don’t want current ALP Government. You people are really worse Liberal supporters on this blog. They were consistent with what they wanted from the beginning.
”
Socratessays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 8:50 pm
Sprocket
I think Pageboi exaggerated Labor donations by 1000 times, not 100 times. Lets not understate the exaggeration!
If Labor really got $500 million in donations from one industry in one year there would be no need for more fundraising Every staffer would be driving a Merc.
Not so in the real world.
”
I never expected so-called lefties Rex and Pageboi have so much hatred for ALP.
Sir Henry Parkes @ #753 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 5:47 pm
Stop posting nonsense and I will.
Ven @ #805 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 9:05 pm
I did. 😐
PageBoi @ #779 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 7:16 pm
😆 😆 😆
This one is fascinating also. Australia made the top 15 armies by size in the second world war.
It leaves you wondering, what was Russia thinking. When the czar ruled they had they had the biggest army. Them days have gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1u4OrJBUbs
Cooma great-grandmother Clare Nowland has died in hospital shortly after police announced the officer who allegedly tasered her had been charged
frednksays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:31 pm
Rex Douglas says:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:23 pm
Trying to defend Labor for their sellout of Australian people to fossil fuel multi-nationals is a hopeless task.
I advise not to go down that rabbit hole.
As Australia is rapidly moving to renewable your post is basically bullshit.And yes the time to try and argue against such bullshit has long past. Let the nutters post their nuts. You manage many in a day, the scroll wheel is available to all.
===========================================
And we have sweet F all to show for it as the windfalls near their end. It should be clear to all bar the blinkered that the major parties do not have the guts and/or independence to stand for what is in the national interest and haven’t done so for at least 30 years now. It’s no surprise that their combined vote is in steady decline seeing as life satisfaction is clearly going backwards and the current purportedly left leaning govt is turning its back on addressing the fallout of this neglect that is going to cause further declining living standards.
Q: Cooma great-grandmother Clare Nowland has died in hospital shortly after police announced the officer who allegedly tasered her had been charged
How terribly sad for her and her family.
This has got to BE IT for the NSW Police Force….no more violence, internal investigations that go nowhere, no more harassing people with sniffer dogs, no more fine quotas, no more opposing pill testing / drug decriminalizing and other harm minimising measures etc…. they have held too much power since 1788.
But of course it wont be….
Torchbearer,
There will be no systemic consequences. The rum corp will not be tamed.
At what point do Russia’s other neighbours wake up to the fact their other borders are basically defenceless?
A nightmare scenario for the Russians is a government change in Georgian and Belarus governments.
18 months until the next scheduled election in Georgia
mj: “turning its back”
It’s the greens voting with the LNP that are blocking social housing legislation.
Prigozhin sounding increasingly desperate:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/mercenary-prigozhin-warns-russia-could-face-revolution-unless-elite-gets-serious-2023-05-24/
Pi, you would know that the Greens are trying to increase the amount of social housing and are using their balance of power in the Senate to that effect. I’d hope they can reach some mutual agreement but Labor’s starting position is strangely weak.
https://kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2023/05/emrs-liberals-crash-but-labor-doesnt.html
EMRS: Liberals Crash But Labor Doesn’t Pick Up The Pieces
A notable Tasmania poll following the government losing its majority.
mj: “social housing”
Are the greens blocking social housing legislation?
[x] Yes
[ ] No
Their words mean nothing. They are defined by their actions.
Pi , the Greens are not voting for it because it is obviously insufficient to address the growing housing crisis. Labor needs to recognise with a third of the vote it is not in a majority position in the Senate and negotiate an agreement that Labor and the Greens can settle with.
Mj: ” the Greens are not voting for it ”
Exactly. The greens are blocking social housing legislation. They can dress it up in whatever weasel words they like, but the only thing that matters, is that they’re blocking it.
Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Labor is also blocking any movement in not negotiating so they’re both tarnished in that regard if they can’t settle.
”
Holdenhillbillysays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 9:19 pm
Cooma great-grandmother Clare Nowland has died in hospital shortly after police announced the officer who allegedly tasered her had been charged
”
Now it is a murder charge.
”
mjsays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 10:15 pm
frednksays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:31 pm
Rex Douglas says:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:23 pm
Trying to defend Labor for their sellout of Australian people to fossil fuel multi-nationals is a hopeless task.
I advise not to go down that rabbit hole.
As Australia is rapidly moving to renewable your post is basically bullshit.And yes the time to try and argue against such bullshit has long past. Let the nutters post their nuts. You manage many in a day, the scroll wheel is available to all.
===========================================
And we have sweet F all to show for it as the windfalls near their end. It should be clear to all bar the blinkered that the major parties do not have the guts and/or independence to stand for what is in the national interest and haven’t done so for at least 30 years now. It’s no surprise that their combined vote is in steady decline seeing as life satisfaction is clearly going backwards and the current purportedly left leaning govt is turning its back on addressing the fallout of this neglect that is going to cause further declining living standards.
”
In 20 of the 30 years LNP was in power. They tried their darnedest including during the 7 ALP years when it became a critical issue to white-ant climate change initiatives or scuttle or or bury it or destroy it as much as they can. In the 7 years when ALP was in power Greens tried their darnedest to scuttle it as much as possible. Remember ALP never once had majority in senate in all these years.
In the case of that idiotic housing bill, the perfect is the enemy of the frankly stupid. Labor would be best advised to politely ditch it, and instead just increase funding for public housing by conventional means.
Also Labor would best remember that unless its planning to be out of office in two years (and surely it can’t be) than it will be wearing the consequences of its bad decisions.
Philip Coorey has reported in Australian Financial Review Labor is considering not running a candidate in Fadden.
Labor sources said the byelection, which Labor will almost certainly lose if it runs, threatens to be a distraction in the build-up to the conference. It will be the first live conference the party has held in five years and the first it has held in government since the catastrophic 2011 event that reignited the civil war between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
Already, the LNP has billboards in Fadden blaming Mr Albanese and Labor for the rising cost of living, something for which the voters of Aston gave it a leave pass.
With the local branch agitating to run a candidate, the final decision has yet to be made.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-hesitant-to-contest-fadden-byelection-20230523-p5dahg
Ven @ #824 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 11:57 pm
Murder requires intent. A manslaughter charge is more likely.
ItzaDream @ #816 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 10:48 pm
Bring it on!
For Ven,
Vale Tina Turner
https://youtu.be/bpuf6AmQH4M
And Clare Nowland has passed away too.
I’m sorry, I just don’t believe you.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/don-t-turn-on-police-over-taser-tragedy-says-commissioner-20230524-p5db0b.html
Niki Savva unlocks the key to Albo’s success as PM, and growth in stature.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/albanese-has-not-turned-into-the-incredible-shrinking-prime-minister-unlike-his-predecessors-20230523-p5dapv.html
Savva is in the Sydney Writers Festival this Sunday with Barrie Cassidy, Amy Remeikis and Laura Tingle at Carriageworks. Bludgers should get a ticket and go see if they’re still available. I’m sure it will be an interesting discussion.
Can’t say I’m much of a fan of Guy Rundle, but he’s right on the money here IMO.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/stan-grant-affair-progressives-get-a-wake-up-call-others-hit-the-snooze-button/ar-AA1bB9bT?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=fcbbc435d8a541f3939bce04df1a33a0&ei=30
I particularly agree with him on the following points:
1. The now-infamous segment of the ABC’s Coronation coverage would have been absolutely fine as, say, a special episode of the Drum, but running it over footage of the guests arriving at Westminster Abbey was as inappropriate as running a bunch of talking heads talking about the evils of gambling in sport over the build up to the AFL grand final. And, as the ABC is meant to be impartial, there should have been at least one pro-monarchy person on the panel: Michael Kirby would have done just fine.
2. While Rundle’s use of the word “narcissism” is pretty harsh, it is true that Stan Grant does rather like to make it all about him. And he is marketing a book at the moment, and all publicity is good publicity. As Rundle points out, Grant is hardly the first ABC personality to come under savage attack from the Sky News After Dark crowd, Ray Hadley et al and is it really such a big deal?
3. The Yes campaign is now stumbling badly. One indicator of this is how little enthusiasm posters on PB have been expressing about it recently (I’ve been lurking, although I haven’t posted much). The established strategy – “it won’t have any power, it’s about being polite, and if you don’t vote for it you’re definitely a racist” – seems to me to be on life support. The possibility of there being a trojan horse inside the proposal in the form of the words “executive government” has gotten out of the bottle, and will be difficult to put back in. Mick Gooda is right that those words should be excised, but it might be too late even for that. I believe that voters were fully prepared to go along with something symbolic (eg, recognition in the preamble) and might even have been sold the idea of a Voice with teeth. But what voters are highly unlikely to support is a proposal that purports to be largely symbolic, but which they fear will have hidden teeth. I hope that, if the numbers continue to turn bad, Albo has the sense to defer the referendum. A successful No vote would be a dark day for our country.
President Zelenskyy, clearly writing off any prospect of either humanity or rationality from the Tehran theocracy, is appealing to what he hopes are these qualities in the Iranian people:
“Today, given that such attacks are ongoing, I would like to directly address the people of Iran. To everyone – to society, Iranian ulemas, every Iranian family, and those who can influence state decisions in Iran. Simple question: why are you complicit in Russian terror? Why are you on the side of an evil state?
The world sees what is happening, and all of you in Iran see it. Support for evil cannot be denied.”
… “When an Iranian drone kills a pregnant Ukrainian woman and her husband in their home, what is it for you, mothers and fathers in Iran? When your Shahed drone hits a dormitory with our students, people die, a fire starts, emergency workers arrive [at the spot], and in a few minutes, the second Shahed drone strikes, taking the lives of those who saved the lives of others… Why does Iran need such cynical killings? By the hands of Russia, but with yours and your weapons.
What do you people in Tehran, Shiraz, Saqqez, or any other city in your country get out of it? …
… “Russia started this war for enslavement. This is the war of a coloniser against a neighbouring nation…. The people of Iran could live very differently if they were not put on the same side with such evil as Russian aggression. Your Shahed drones, which terrorise Ukraine every night, mean only that the people of Iran are being pushed deeper and deeper into the dark side of history”
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/05/24/7403733/
https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/05/22/miscellany-freshwater-strategy-polling-by-election-latest-and-more-open-thread/comment-page-16/#comment-4114472
… meanwhile there seem to be a lot of foreign students with children?
Meher:
1. While it is true that the Yes campaign seems to be derailing like the republic campaign did, with clashes of egos etc, nobody has denied that changing the constitution was going to be a hard sell. I myself have made this statement many times over the course of the last 5 years. Even more so in the last 12 months.
2. The ABC’s capitulation to the News Corp narrative has been happening for many, many years now. ABC never defends itself in the face of News demands or accusations. Yes Stan Grant is a Look At Me performer, but that doesn’t change the fact that the ABC management left it too late to defend their staff member from racist bigots and ridiculous claims, and haven’t stood up to News ltd in the way other media outlets may have.
3. I cannot see a better time to remind viewers of the role the monarchy played in the dispossession of Aboriginal land than at a time when our head of state is being changed over. Should the ABC have had a pro-monarchy commentator (to the extent that you could even be more pro-monarchy than the patched in UK coverage the ABC played that night)? Perhaps. But that wouldn’t change the simple truth of what Grant said.
Victorian budget, how long will the Victorian press carry on with the bullshit?
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Anthony Albanese’s premeditated transition from left-wing bomb thrower to centre-road prime minister has been fascinating, infuriating and bemusing to watch, depending on where you reside on the spectrum, writes Niki Savva who says that, a year into government, unlike his most recent predecessors, Albanese has not turned into the incredible shrinking prime minister. He has actually grown in the job.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/albanese-has-not-turned-into-the-incredible-shrinking-prime-minister-unlike-his-predecessors-20230523-p5dapv.html
Michael Pascoe reckons the ‘A’ in ALP stands for Albanese.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2023/05/24/michael-pascoe-anthony-albanese-alp/
David Crowe reports that a bid to tighten the safeguards on major road and rail projects has been blocked in federal parliament after Labor and the Coalition joined forces against moves by teal independents to reveal more about the $120 billion cost.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-and-albanese-unite-to-block-teal-transparency-demands-on-120b-of-projects-20230524-p5daw6.html
Colin Kruger tells us that the Australian Federal Police has been asked to launch a criminal investigation into the PwC tax leak scandal that has claimed the scalp of its former CEO and sent shudders through the consulting industry and PwC’s global operations.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/pwc-tax-scandal-referred-to-afp-for-criminal-investigation-20230524-p5db1t.html
NSW Police have charged an officer after he allegedly Tasered 95-year-old Clare Nowland, who died in Cooma Hospital on Wednesday, one week after the incident. Senior Constable Kristian White was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault. As an aside, I just hope there was a Registered Nurse on duty at the time.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-police-officer-charged-over-tasering-of-clare-nowland-in-cooma-20230524-p5db1w.html
Commissioner Webb has said she was also concerned that police were called to a private health facility to deal with a problem its staff could not resolve.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/don-t-turn-on-police-over-taser-tragedy-says-commissioner-20230524-p5db0b.html
A Taser assault on an elderly woman by NSW Police has caused national outrage and sparked an outcry for answers from the officers involved, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark who describes tasering the elderly as demented policing.
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/tasering-the-elderly-is-demented-policing,17539
There is a definite turning point in the quality and the humanity of Australia’s care for the elderly. The Aged Care Bill 1997 (Cth) was introduced as part of the new Howard Government’s 1996 Budget measures. It was to prove a huge gamble, which still wreaks havoc in the Aged Care sector. And it created a distinctly new group of players in our economy. It showed a government naively putting its faith in the market, writes Mark Buckley who says John Howard wrecked Aged Care for all Australians.
https://theaimn.com/john-howard-wrecked-aged-care-for-all-australians/
The Guardian reveals that the former Australian government continued to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a businessman convicted of corruption to provide offshore processing services on Nauru, even after he had pleaded guilty to bribing Nauruan government officials.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/25/morrison-government-paid-corrupt-businessman-millions-for-offshore-processing-on-nauru
Australia might not be in a recession, but households are about to feel as if they are, says Greg Jericho who lays out the numbers.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2023/may/25/australia-might-not-be-in-a-recession-but-households-are-about-to-feel-as-if-they-are
Senator Lidia Thorpe has walked out of a parliamentary hearing after being called a disgrace to the Indigenous community by Labor’s assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, reports Paul Sakkal
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/thorpe-storms-out-of-senate-hearing-after-labor-mp-calls-her-a-disgrace-to-her-people-20230524-p5db1c.html
James Massola writes that Liberal MP Julian Leeser has appealed to Australians to vote for the Voice to parliament, saying it will help transform remote Indigenous communities by tackling entrenched problems, as former prime minister Scott Morrison made a rare public intervention to urge a No vote.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voice-to-parliament-is-ill-defined-scott-morrison-says-20230524-p5daut.html
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is right to defend our history during the Indigenous voice to parliament debate, declares Peta Credlin.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/dutton-is-right-to-defend-our-history-during-the-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-debate/news-story/0d2658eae3225ee723d0fffe10ce2660?amp
Health Minister Mark Butler says he is concerned about Australian start-ups selling drugs online without doctors ever seeing patients’ faces or fully checking their identity, as one company pledges to improve its standards ahead of an anticipated crackdown. Natassia Chrysanthos and Nick Bonyhady tell us that the Medical Board of Australia is expected to tighten its rules for telehealth companies to potentially include banning doctors from prescribing drugs through an online quiz if they have not met the patient before.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/online-doctor-shops-face-crackdown-over-quick-quiz-prescriptions-20230524-p5dav5.html
A Senate inquiry into reproductive health is set to recommend increased accessibility of abortion services at public hospitals. Paul Karp reports that today the Senate community affairs committee will table its report recommending that the Albanese government work with states and territories to boost access to abortion at public hospitals.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/25/senate-inquiry-to-call-for-improved-abortion-access-at-australias-public-hospitals
Did News Corp target the ABC and Stan Grant? The answer’s in the numbers, explains Jarl Quinn.
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/did-news-corp-target-the-abc-and-stan-grant-the-answer-s-in-the-numbers-20230524-p5daxm.html
Cooperation with the US could drive Australia’s clean energy shift – but we must act fast warns Wesley Morgan.
https://theconversation.com/cooperation-with-the-us-could-drive-australias-clean-energy-shift-but-we-must-act-fast-206199
Mike Foley explains that there are three roadblocks holding the Albanese government back from tougher regulation of native forest logging, following Victoria’s declaration it would shut the industry down in its state by January: unions, lobbyists and the fear of a political backlash if it does anything at all.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-three-things-stopping-tanya-plibersek-from-protecting-native-forests-20230524-p5davj.html
The recent announcement by federal ministers Tanya Plibersek (Environment) and Murray Watt (Emergency Management) of substantial investment in upgrading the nation’s flood warning gauge network is welcome. But gauging is only part of the problem of flood warning: there is another element which is not routinely well recognised in flood management circles, explains Chas Keys.
https://johnmenadue.com/flood-warning-full-potential-not-achieved/
Victorian private schools that charge more than $7500 a year are warning they will be forced to increase fees, cut programs or shed staff to pay millions in payroll tax from which they were previously exempt. Why SHOULD they be exempt?
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/private-schools-say-they-ll-be-forced-to-increase-fees-as-sweetheart-tax-deal-ends-20230524-p5daw8.html
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the conflict in Ukraine unless the elite gets serious about fighting the war.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2023/05/24/wagner-leader-yevgeny-prigozhin-warns-russia-revolution/?breaking_live_scroll=1
Clarence Thomas should resign from the supreme court, for the good of the court, argues Steven Greenhouse who, after laying out his reasons, says, “Anyone so allergic to complying with basic ethical standards has no place working in government – and least of all serving on the supreme court, where we should expect the highest ethical standards. It is time for Thomas to go.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/24/clarence-thomas-should-resign-from-the-supreme-court-for-the-good-of-the-court
Donald Trump threw up his hands in frustration as a judge scheduled his New York criminal trial for March 25, putting the former US president and current candidate in a Manhattan courtroom in the heat of next year’s presidential primary season.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/angry-trump-told-to-clear-his-calendar-for-remainder-of-ny-criminal-case-20230524-p5dax1.html
In a rare moment of lucidity, Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/24/republican-bill-ten-commandments-texas-schools-fails
“Arseholes of the Week” nomination goes to the couple who have been charged with modern-day slavery offences after they allegedly kept a woman as a domestic slave at their home in Melbourne’s south-western suburbs for about 10 months.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-couple-allegedly-kept-domestic-slave-at-point-cook-home-20230524-p5dayy.html
Cartoon Corner
David Rowe
David Pope
Matt Golding
Mark David
Andrew Dyson
Fiona Katauskas
Mark Knight
Seriously, Spooner needs help with his unhealthy obsession!
From the US
Tina Turner came out to do promos for the pre-NRL rugby league Winfield Cup.
This was the first of the series, 1989. It (sadly) features the now defunct Balmain jersey, killed off by the Murdoch marketing idiots.
https://youtu.be/tXIzp0ok24I
Tina Turner dead at 83
(And her fascination with Rugby League players in speedos)
https://youtu.be/tXIzp0ok24I
Meha:
“ The now-infamous segment of the ABC’s Coronation coverage…”
Infamous to whom? Oh that’s right the reactionaries who has sold out and strip mined this continent and disappeared the First Nations peoples for 233 years. Them. The forelock tuggers.
You know what WAS infamous mate? The ABC sending along Chris Ullman to ‘narrate’ Gough Whitlam’s funeral in 2014: we had to put up with two hours of that reactionary gaslight Gough and the Whitlam Government.
If the referendum fails it will because of the small pea sized black hearts of folk just like you.
I don’t think that ‘executive government’ matters that much – either way – in the grand scheme of things: not given our system of Responsible Government (ie. the executive is always answerable to Parliament anyways); but the die is cast and if the wording was changed now it would be seen as weakness and would lead to an even greater pile on by folk just like you.
Snap OC – that video from a happier time for the code
The Morrison government paid millions of taxpayer dollars for Nauru processing to a businessman convicted of corruption, Guardian Australia reports. His name is Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani and he paid $120,000 in bribes to two people, including a Nauru MP — but the paper says the government leased Bhojani’s Budapest Hotel for accommodation for offshore processing at the same time and for years after. Bhojani, together with his brother, controlled companies in Australia, Nauru, India and the UAE, and the AFP started looking into him in 2015, ultimately charging him in 2020 for foreign bribery related to phosphate mining contracts. Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton had “jurisdiction over both the AFP and the department of home affairs during the period of the AFP investigation into Bhojani, his being charged, and convicted”, the paper notes.
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a rsays:
Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 12:21 am
Ven @ #824 Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 – 11:57 pm
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Holdenhillbillysays:
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 9:19 pm
Cooma great-grandmother Clare Nowland has died in hospital shortly after police announced the officer who allegedly tasered her had been charged
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Now it is a murder charge.
Murder requires intent. A manslaughter charge is more likely.
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Then what could be intent to taser a 95 year old, who is walking with walker? A person, who uses a walker holds it with both hands. Obviously a 95 year old using walker cannot rush towards the police.
That policeman is 33 years old.
#weatheronPB
Unbroken blue depths,
offer room for reflection.
There’s something missing.
so what could of the police dun in stead of what they did use some other way it would be a dificult position for the police officor
Oakeshott Country @ #842 Thursday, May 25th, 2023 – 7:25 am
The NRL was a very different looking code back then. From the teams to the jerseys to the players themselves.
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Michael Pascoe reckons the ‘A’ in ALP stands for Albanese.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2023/05/24/michael-pascoe-anthony-albanese-alp/
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I reckon Michael Pascoe has a “on the road to Damascus”. I remember a Pascoe who was a right winger while working for Kerry Packer Channel 9 and Murdoch. (Wiki: Born in Queensland, he started his career at The Courier-Mail, and then worked for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong for three years. After returning to Australia he worked for the Australian Financial Review and the Macquarie Radio Network, before becoming the finance editor at Nine Network for 18 years.[1])
From the article: “Left wing silenced
The AALP has silenced the ALP’s left wing. Mr Albanese, the former leader of the left, has effectively abolished it.
Exhibit A is the AALP swallowing Scott Morrison’s last stunt holus-bolus – AUKUS.
A party suffering a national security policy vacuum beyond saying “me too” to avoid being wedged, adopted in a few hours with minimal briefing a vastly complex commitment with ramifications for generations to come.
Nuclear-powered submarines of dubious worth but massive cost when/if they are finally delivered, a dramatic escalation of our defence ambitions, snubbing any consultation with and thus offending our nearest neighbours, sacrificing Australian sovereignty to America’s declared ambitions to further its own interests against China, turning Australia even more into an American military base, the laughable spin of trying to sell nuclear submarine assembly as nation-building make-work – none of that could be worn by the ALP’s left wing without a massive fight. But there’s no ALP left left.
No debate, no discussion, no weighing of consequences. And all to try to capture the last issue where Labor doesn’t clearly lead the LNP – national security and defence.
A rubber-stamp defence review that was written before it was started is being followed by a quickie Senate committee once-over-lightly of the necessary legislation to abolish Australia’s commitment to not be a nuclear nation.
Submissions for that committee close this Friday, but don’t worry if you miss the deadline – the bipartisan AALP/LNP numbers can be relied upon to disregard any dissent.
With the left abolished, the AALP is all right now.
All the right moves
For the old ALP right, its leader and deputy PM, Richard Marles, is performing as Defence Minister as if he’s Peter Dutton with hair.”
“The “DC candidate” is what fits as Marles pushes Australia all the way with the USA and then some.”
Thanks BK!