A good comment & analysis piece from Crispin Hull:
Tony Abbott’s latest essay in Contributor ‘delusional’
You can’t stop progress, the saying goes. But former prime minister Tony Abbott has turned that on its head this weekend, arguing that, “You can’t stop regress.”
Wow.
The delusion is that a majority think the same way he does on a range of questions.
…
In that respect Abbott is lucky, because so many people were wrong about Turnbull. They thought he would push for the things he believes in and move his party to the majority position on a lot of questions. Instead, he has turned out to be the man who wants to be Prime Minister for the sake of being Prime Minister, not someone who wants to be Prime Minister to do something.
…
The previous position was only tenable because it was an unquestioned status quo.
Abbott has been delusional for years. He was a terrible leader and a terrible prime minister and time and time again he’s proven to been a terrible human being.
The one thing I admire about Abbott is that at least he, in his own deluded way, believes he’s standing for something. He was terrible as a prime minister and embodies the worst of the right, but at least he fought for some vision, however fucked up it may have been.
…but it would’ve been nice if the article had the dates Gallagher’s nomination to run for the Senate was submitted and the date of the UK Home Office’s letter confirming renounciation.
Now a clear case of an LNP MP breaching s44:
Robert should have to pay back his salary for the period from which he was invalidly elected (until he was later validly elected).
True, but in 20 to 30 years you won’t be able to differentiate Brisbane from the Gold Coast. It’ll all be one big conurbation from Caloundra to Surfers at this rate.
One of the reasons why I roll my eyes at those saying Perth will overtake Brisbane by 2050. Perth will overtake Brisbane at its current size (already bigger than L.A.), but the boundaries of Brisbane’s metropolitan area will eventually grow to accommodate the massive growth of centres like Flagstone and Ripley Valley which are going to house populations size of Canberra in two decades (from essentially zero residents in 2000).
Who particularly concerns themselves with which decade Perth will be more populated than Brisbane?
No matter what their respective populations are, Brisbane will continue to be located in a swamp-like climate, with a retirement (and bogan) city on its doorstep, known to practically no-one outside of Australia, while Perth continues to establish itself as a major cosmopolitan centre on our west coast.
Ha. Fairfax leading today with a Mark Kenny comment piece on how Turnbull’s action on renewables last week (in the form of Snowy Hydro) has apparently lead to his increased polling performance in the latest Newspoll.
While it is perilous to conclude too much from single poll movements… the lift in the primary vote …and a bigger seven-point improvement in Turnbull’s lead as preferred prime minister, followed a (non-sitting) fortnight. It was one during which the PM had “appeared” to be taking action on electricity prices and to be spruiking his beloved Snowy Hydro expansion. A meld of perceived action and greater personal authenticity.
News bulletins beamed into households across the country in the days leading up to the survey hinted at that through glimpses of the old Turnbull – techno-Malcolm, enviro-Malcolm, leather-jacket Malcolm, real-Malcolm – enthusing boyishly about pumped hydro.
I’ve noticed Kenny becoming quite shrill lately, with his opinions hitting way wide of the mark. In fact, this was his mocking take on Turnbull and Snowy Hydro just last week.
Enter the distractions. This week (again) it is soaring power prices.
First to power. In addition to re-emphasising his Chifley-style nation-building plan for the Snowy 2.0 initiative, Malcolm Turnbull has called in electricity executives to see what progress they’ve made since a stern lecture delivered three weeks ago. The answers will be underwhelming.
Now, rather than Snowy Hydro which took up a few seconds of news vision on one night last week, what was instead the biggest topic with which Turnbull strongly associated himself over the last fortnight? His response to calls for removal or amendment of historical statues in Australia. In fact, just search Fairfax and see the difference in coverage between the two topics, including what was a prominent piece criticising Turnbull:
So, looking at the latest Newspoll - the reason for the uptick in Coalition support? A reduction in the One Nation and Other vote. Yes, these are totally the voters enthusiastic about Turnbull’s leather-jacket wearing Snowy Hydro stunt.
Fairfax political analysis is getting more stupid by the day. All about the clickbait (and melding news to fit into a far-left narrative, this time that Turnbull supposedly veering to the left and taking action on renewables has delivered polling success, when actually, it was the complete opposite).
It confirms what I’ve been saying for a long time now - Turnbull needs to veer to the right (it’s hard for him as he appears inauthentic) to win the next election. One Nation voters are often quite stupid, and quite easily see “Labor blokes as good old fashioned Aussies looking out for the small man”. Turnbull must ensure he directly appeals to these individuals and secure their vote rather than wait on preferences, as they are still not aware of how far-left Labor really is below the surface.
Turnbull calling out the Stalinist actions last week is a great start, and even though I’m constantly criticised and bullied here for mentioning the far-left, it was Turnbull latching onto criticism of the far-left which has turned the tide for him.
No it doesn’t (watch out for confirmation bias); we can’t be clear why people’s view of Turnbull improved. Some will be because of the reasons Kenny described, some because of yours, but I doubt it’s all one or the other.
Some on the right have claimed that their ridiculous attacks on Shorten (suggesting he’s a communist) have worked, but it ignores polling showing people are generally supportive of Labor’s policies (when they know about them, and Labor are pushing those policies because they see them as popular).
On Turnbull, why wouldn’t actually addressing people’s problems be popular?
Power & housing prices have risen ridiculously after the LNP repeatedly promised the opposite (remember Abbott’s false claim that the carbon price was increasing power prices long-term [energy companies have confirmed the removal of the carbon price, with the uncertainty it’s created, has caused a stop in electricity generation investment & that’s why prices are increasing], and Howard’s misleading & false claim that mortgage interest rates would always be lower under the LNP? [Misleading because low rates don’t solve the overall housing affordability problem when you have unaffordably high purchase prices]).
Over two average salaries are now required to service an average Sydney mortgage. The lack of disposable funds is also part of why power prices (gas & electricity) are such a sore point for voters, and it’s a great concern for retail & other businesses.
That’s probably the most ignorant thing I’ve read on a blog in quite a long time. I could point to the mountain of evidence against your rant, but I wouldn’t bother. You’ve got to be having a laugh anyway. Cosmopolitan? How’s the weekend shopping going over there?
Yeah I agree actually. SEQ is already one large conurbation, particularly Brisbane - Gold Coast.
As for Perth overtaking Brisbane itself it doesn’t really matter because as you say the population within 100km of the Brisbane CBD will always be far greater. But even without that, I just don’t see it happening. Perth is boom bust and it’s growth has stalled so much the ABS have revised their forecast downwards. Brisbane on the other hand is growing faster again and in my opinion about to enter a period of significant growth. I mean compare the CBD’s for a start, Brisbane’s looks twice the size/height.
Mountain of evidence? Don’t think so. My post was entirely factual. Yes, Brisbane has the worst climate of any major Australian city. Yes, SEQ is a retirement home for those from NSW in particular. Yes, Gold Coast is bogan (the GC mayor himself admits so). Yes, I know you will point to Expo or G20 as evidence Brisbane is well known to people outside Australia, but these events are due to an internal push to recognise Brisbane as a 3rd city in Australia - you ask most people in the UK, mainland Europe or Nth America and I bet you my right arm Perth has greater name recognition.
Same way it’s going in Germany or France or the UK I guess.
As for whether Perth is “cosmpolitan” (dictionary definition: “familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures”), we all know Perth has the second highest proportion of foreign born individuals of any city in Australia. Brisbane comes in last. Brisbane is one of the least diverse, mono-cultural cities around. Sorry if the facts don’t suit you. And sorry if your “mountain of evidence” is actually an ant-hill.
If that’s the case, it comes back to my secondary point of Mark Kenny’s analysis being rubbish lately - he labelled what you term “actually addressing people’s problems” as a distraction last week…
But last week was theatre, even if it fooled some people (into thinking the gov’t are actually doing something) the criticism is valid (that nothing is actually being done).
How is progressing a major renewables project, and letting the Australian public know, theatre (and not politics at its most simple)? Did you want Turnbull out extracting extra gas himself last week instead?
An expansion of Snowy Hydro hasn’t been approved; it’s still just talk about a feasability study (and photo ops).
Talking to power companies about sending out letters is just fidgeting around the edges; it won’t really help to any significant degree at all.
For the 1st one I’ll be happy when the gov’t actually sign off on construction (not just a feasibility study).
For the 2nd, when they implement the CET (the key recommendation in that report they commissioned from the chief scientist).
And for a bonus, how about actually setting aside some percentage of natural gas for domestic use?
They’ve said they will if/when necessary, but they need to actually do it now to give certainty, which (like certainty about emissions & electricity storage) will allow investment, which should avoid prices going up more than otherwise, and that may just save some Australian industrial jobs (those sensitive to power prices).
This is all known, but because the idiots on the right love to ignore reality, the nation is suffering needlessly.
I love WA so much [not fucking weird at all]. Perth probably has the highest BpC (Bogan per Capita) in the nation. fucken rocko, Mandy, mandji, gossy, armadale (is there even a nice nickname for that), kelmscott, mirra, loony, Kwinana, balga, ballajura, big bad basso, midland, and a whole lot more all are bogan as shit.
Perth is also the meth capital of Aus, or it should be
A good analysis of the issues facing politics. Politicians love to talk about issues but grand ideas and solutions aren’t being put forward.
I’m seeing a lot of state and local governments pursuing grand ideas - Brisbane Metro and Cross River Rail, Sydney Metro and Light Rail, and the Melbourne Metro - but on the federal level we seem bereft of leadership and ambition sadly. Europe has done some great mega-projects of late, such as the continent wide High Speed Rail network. I don’t think anything of that magnitude here has been attempted for the last decade.
