Federal Politics

Extra The Spectrum
1243

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/wilful-blindness-greens-lawyers-insist-all-seven-mps-under-a-cloud--including-barnaby-joyce--must-go-20170928-gyqvr6.html

“In complying with obligations under the constitution, negligence should never produce a more favourable result than diligence. The referrals presently before the court fall into the category of ignorance or wilful blindness.”

Absolutely right. There are things I don’t like about the Greens but on this they’re spot on.

PS: This suggestion is mind-boggling…

…Roberts has rubbished legal arguments by the Commonwealth that some of the politicians embroiled in the dual citizenship saga should be let off because they simply did not know they were foreigners.

So why hasn’t he resigned, then?

…Roberts’ lawyers now argue his, “case is stronger than those who profess ignorance and thus did nothing”.

What, so knowingly violating the highest law of the land is…better?
I’m no lawyer, but I remember some basics, and the idea of criminal intent makes me suspect the opposite may be the more predominant legal view.

We have to wait until after full hearings 10 to 12 October, but at least it’s something other than the (seemingly) never ending marriage survey…

PPS: A comment piece from a former editor of The Canberra Times:

…Bad luck, bad judgment and bad management of the cards Turnbull has been dealt continue to dog him, but he seems strangely relaxed, apparently comfortably breaststroking rather than foundering…

(Sorry for the morbid thought:) Perhaps like someone who is calm & because he’s decided to go ahead and commit suicide? In this case resigned to his political fate?

One would think that Turnbull’s best chance of retrieving his political fortunes would be by doing something – anything – that earned him serious credit in the electorate. Alas, it all seems to be too risky, if only because he is now in a situation, as Abbott was two years ago, where his colleagues rather than the opposition hold him back. Turnbull’s colleagues, as much as the electorate, have lost faith in his judgment. There’s only so far he can go, and more of what he does now seems for show rather than substance…

1244

Wonder why the National party is so pro-mining…could this have something to do with it?

PS:
And Friday Michelle Grattan pointing out what should’ve been obvious to that idiot Dutton:

Is this some pathetic attempt from the right-wing of the LNP to again sabotage Turnbull?

(09:19 AEDT) on ABC’s Insiders Barrie Cassidy asking the Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop about Dutton’s idiotic labelling of people as “economic” refugees; she wiggled out of it (but we shouldn’t expect anything else).

(09:23 AEDT) on Fairfax Media’s story about federal pollies including Julie Bishop having taxpayers pay for their travel to the grand final, the Foreign Affairs Ministers response made this astounding/ridiculous claim: "The AFL grand final is a significant international event…"
I’d say the finals of a game only played in Australia is by definition not international.

1245

Queensland state poll today has obvious implications.

One Nation looking to repeat its success in the late 90s with a surge to 18%. Two party preferred is 52-48 to Labor. Pauline Hanson has a higher favorability rating than both major party leaders.

The one thing I can’t reconcile with is that there has been no precipitant for this result. There has been little else apart from Same Sex Marriage that could have changed the landscape of the voting public so quickly.

Very concerning for what this might also mean on a Federal level. One Nation is surging in Queensland but is flailing elsewhere.

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1246

I suppose it’s been a slow boil (e.g. think about power prices).

Hanson is a Queenslander which works for her in this parochial state but somewhat works against her elsewhere, so I wouldn’t read too much into it on a national scale, but for federal seats in Qld…?

Am I wrong in suspecting that Qld Labor backflipping on election promise(s) may have confirmed the cynicism that the current lot of pollies are just in it for power, and don’t actually stand for anything or believe what they’re saying?

Hanson - while demonstrating plenty of her own ignorance & stupidity - railed against some of the stupid things the federal gov’t has been doing (sadly she’s not wrong about everything), and unfortunately the us-and-them anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, anti-SSM stances play works on too many people.

2PP is always assuming some particular preference flow; usually the last election’s, but we’ll see how close to reality it is, and as always the votes in particular marginal seats is more important.

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1247

That’s the thing though. No major promises have been broken. Adani has gone ahead. Public services such as Queensland Health have been strengthened.

The only major fail has been Queensland Rail, which only really affects voters who were going to vote Labor anyways.

There is just no obvious reason for a backlash.

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1248
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1249

That’s a strange move.

1250

Well that’s a way out of the dual nationality issue.

1251

And that still is just embarassing; as is the reality in this story, once I got past the headline (which just didn’t seem right; this issue I first saw on a 9News report by Chris Uhlmann, early this week I think):

Last year, the former Deputy Chief of the RAAF, Air Vice Marshall John Blackburn, was commissioned by the NRMA to provide strategic advice on Australia’s fuel security.

He found Australia’s food, water, and medicine distribution was reliant on imported transport fuel and our supply operated on a “just in time” approach for logistical efficiency.

Long story short: at any given time, Australia has no more than two weeks’ worth of imported fuel in the country.

After that, everything grinds to a complete and catastrophic halt.

Today, instability around North Korea and territorial conflicts in the South China Sea make the shipping routes more insecure than ever.

That’s just scary.
Another dimension to Australia’s energy crisis.

A shame the opinion piece on the ABC News site has so much nonsense like this:

An electric vehicle charged from the existing power grid already produces fewer emissions than the average petrol engine vehicle.

I’m not sure that’s true; if it is, it will only have recently become so with the closure of that extremely dirty/polluting Hazelwood power station.

With solar panels on your roof, most nights you could plug your car at home and fill up free.

Ah, no; you need to be charging your batteries when the sun is shining… unless you’re charging your car batteries from household batteries (like a Tesla Powerwall).

The distances between charging stations, and time to recharge are problems for anyone travelling far, but for within a city, sure, but wouldn’t commuters (& we overall) still be better off if commuters used public transport like rail, trams, buses?

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1252

Another federal MP using our money to run ads with bullshit attacks on the ABC:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/george-christensen-is-second-mp-to-use-taxpayer-funds-to-attack-abc-20171009-gyx9u7.html

Since when did this become OK? It’s appalling that Labor’s Michael Danby (MHR for Melbourne Ports) has been attacking the ABC for years, so it’s not surprising someone else would but for both to think it’s OK to use taxpayers funds is low.

The ad then calls on the ABC to “provide balance” by doing a story on the families in Townsville, Bowen and Mackay “desperately in need of jobs”.

So instead of actually doing something to help create real jobs the government are continuing their talking, raising false hope, and foolishly letting the public believe exaggerated numbers of mining jobs that have been claimed.
Mines no longer employ many people; so much is automated.
What happens when those ‘thousands’ of fantasy jobs don’t eventuate? How will the voters react when they finally realise they’ve been lied to (again)?
How about those workers at other mines that will lose their jobs because of the excess capacity going to be created by this unnecessary additional mine from this corrupt, polluting foreign company?

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1253

Tony Abbott: climate change is doing good.

akjsdfhkasjdfhjaksdhfjkafh

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1254

You wouldn’t think the LNP are actually in government by the way so many of them carry on

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1255

Pot, meet Kettle:

So the denialists moved from denying global warming is real to questioning if humans cause it, to how bad it will be (& whether anything needs to be done), to ignoring the extreme weather events (hot & cold ones), to now claiming it’s going to be good… how ridiculous.

Tell that to the insurance companies which will go broke with the massive payouts from severe storm damage.

I’d be OK with removing subsidies from renewables if all subsidies were first removed from non-renewable energy, but these luddites want to subsidise the most polluting & expensive old crap instead of investing in storage for cheap renewable energy. :frowning:

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1256

Interesting developments in Austria

It comes after new restrictions came into force in Austria at the beginning of the month banning the wearing of the full Islamic veil.

Also prohibited are clown disguises, medical masks and scarves to cover faces, with residents only permitted under certain conditions to wear them in public.

Elsewhere in the Austrian capital, a cyclist was said to have been arrested and fined for wearing a scarf over her face, according to local media.

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1257

The lobby group for big business has slammed the Federal Government for its apparent backdown on implementing the clean energy target (CET).

It was the key recommendation of the nation’s chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel — outlined in his June report on the future of Australia’s energy sector.
…
The Business Council of Australia’s (BCA) president, Grant King, spoke to ABC’s The Business on Monday to discuss how big businesses have reacted to the Government’s policy inaction.

The BCA “has given a lot of support to the full Finkel report, including the clean energy target”, and has “advocated strongly for its adoption”, Mr King said.
…
“If the Government is genuinely going to call into doubt the CET, then our view is it would need to suggest what the alternative is going to be — because we need something.”
…
“We clearly don’t like the fact that the Government directly intervenes in respect of individual companies, and decisions they [the companies] are better placed to make,” he said.

It’s pretty shocking when business is complaining so much about a Liberal government; with the stupidity of the likes of Abbott, perhaps next federal election business will actually prefer Labor to win.

I just hope the public are starting to see that the anti-science pro-coal nonsense being peddled by the LNP right-wing has increased power prices and power grid instability, and vote accordingly.

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1258

The thing is it’s only the extreme far right that go on and on about all this.

The right of center are much more logical in all of this as is evidenced by the business council.

It’s the ideological nut jobs like Abbott that are fucking this up for Australia.

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1259

This about sums Abbott. He’s just a fucking idiot.

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1260

“environmentalism has managed to combine a post-socialist instinct for big government with a post-Christian nostalgia for making sacrifices in a good cause”.

Abbott is totally nutty. Big business is making lots of money through green tech and renewable fuels. All it takes is for them to bother investing.

The biggest coal companies like Adani are being bankrolled by governments far more so than green energy. Where’s Abbott’s “post-socialist” concern on that front?

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1261

Just spoke to my partner in London and his work colleagues there said to him that twat use to be your PM that’s so embarrassing for your country.
Being a ex PM this moron will continue to make ridiculous attention seeking comments :roll_eyes:
IMG_20171010_183901

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1262

Look he did stop the boats, no deaths at sea. Yet when he was in UK I think, the whole word laughed at him by saying close your borders to terrorism but yet they didn’t listen to Tony. They opened their borders and said “come on in”. Which they should’ve listened. To be PM is a high achievement.