1 August 2018
Newspapers and media outlets in a rush to make themselves relevant within a life or death struggle for survival, push all sorts of controversy.
Two things stood out during the by-elections. Firstly the importance they made of the constant flow of polls, and secondly, the “Kill Bill” campaigns.
Despite knowing from past evidence that individual seat polling is notoriously inaccurate, Murdoch news continued to push them as though they were God’s gift to determining the winner – and they didn’t.
Again, despite having run the same course many times the “Kill Bill” campaign by Newscorp and others, yet again fell flat because Australians don’t like “playing the man.” The naming of Bill Shorten as a liar every day by the PM doesn’t cut with a lot of people, and he would be well advised to stop.
The importance of reporting factually what was said, or the truth or otherwise of it, seemed to take second place to whatever controversy could be manufactured.
The media do it because they like to think they alone have the power to elect governments, forgetting that it is the public that votes them in or out.
Finding the truth and reporting it should be more important than creating a narrative where controversy matters more.
But Newscorp has started its pre-election propaganda in earnest. Not even the failure to influence will stop them.
Confronted with going to the polls in the knowledge that they would repeat it again in a few months time, punters were faced with a number of local issues. That aside, the average punter would be well aware of the many national issues that the country faces. The first question they might ask is:
1 What good reason do I have to change my vote from last time? Should I change my vote because of all the nonsense about citizenship?
2 Since the Coalition repealed the ‘carbon tax,’ a tax that had been working well and emissions were dropping, the Coalition who had put ideology before the common good, the Coalition has staggered like drunken adolescents from one side of the street to the other.
Abbott’s former department head admitted that his mission to axe the tax was only ever about the politics. Nothing whatsoever about reducing our emissions and honoring our commitment to the Paris accord.
Scott Morrison has admitted that bringing down the price of electricity is more important that reducing our emissions, and will rely heavily on the National Energy Guarantee to do so.
But wait a sec. Labor has decided not to go along with the Coalition and it will now require the support of Senate crossbenchers.
Really, you cannot blame Labor. This is nothing more than a monumental stuff-up and a con job to boot.
What erroneous spin they have been conducting since they repealed the carbon price.
Labor says it will oppose the policy even if it is approved by the states and territories. Labor’s energy spokesman, Mark Butler has described the NEG’s carbon emissions reduction target as “unrealistic” and warned that the policy will adversely affect jobs and investment in the renewable energy sector.
Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes is of the same view, while Victorian Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain has questioned the need for the NEG.
So after more than 10 years of the conservative far-right’s view that they know more about climate change than 95% of the world’s climate scientists, we are no further advanced.
The Prime Minister has nowhere to go other than to revisit his conscience, examine it and say that he should have stuck with his original principles. Or confess, at least, that he is controlled by the far-right of his party.
3 It has been suggested that the Government will have to write down the value of the National Broadband Network, however Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says they have no intention of doing so.
Ratings agency Standard and Poors has issued warnings that the value of its investment in the National Broadband Network is under threat from 5G mobile technology, saying that it will eventually supersede its hybrid technology.
The ratings agency also says that Australian consumers compared to other countries pay much more for an inferior product. Unless it finds a way to reduce its rates, the NBN will turn out to be a very expensive stuff-up. Just like so many others this Government is responsible for.
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Other observations
In terms of the environment I wonder what price the people of tomorrow will pay for the stupidity of today.
On the NBN: The problem with designing a network to meet the needs of today is that it denies you the ability to meet the needs of tomorrow.
PS: I will leave the “My Health Record” debacle for another time, and I haven’t mentioned Robodebt, DVA and Comcare.
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4 The Abbott/Turnbull Governments haven’t a record of achievements to fall back on. Those that the do list are; a) jobs and growth b) tax cuts to companies with an annual turnover of up to $50 million and Australians earning more than $80,000 c) dubious historic education reform: transparent, universal, consistent needs-based federal funding for Australian schools (what about the Catholics?, and d) marriage equality. (I think the public can lay claim to that).
5 Peter Dutton repeatedly plays the race card and this time the Prime Minister entered the fray. Men, women and children will next year enter their 6th year of imprisonment with no foreseeable release date. And they haven’t even committed a crime.
Will Dutton now continue with his wild almost crazy assertions that Labor will allow the boats to return if they win the next election?
Future leader they say. “Wow.”
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An observation
A leader with any character would slap down members of his cabinet who roam the road of racism with all the force of a heavy roller.
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6 The isolation of the voice of Barnaby Joyce may have been a political masterstroke, but it has left the National Party isolated and without a voice.
Who is it that leads them?
7 Abbott is not done with yet. He is now advocating we opt out of the Paris Agreement and also cut immigration.
8 Having proposed tax cuts to big business, Turnbull now faces dropping them. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. If he keeps the policy it is nigh on impossible to sell it, but if he drops it he will be seen not to have the courage of his convictions.
9 In times of national security, fears the propagandists have successfully promoted the LNP as being best able to handle those fears.
Should we expect something terrible to happen before the next election? Or just a lie about the possibility?
10 In spite of doubling our debt, the economy is being promoted as being in good shape by the Murdoch media. That’s not the truth, of course.
11 Jobs growth is being promoted as outstanding, but is barely keeping up with our immigration intake. Do the punters really believe the line being fed to them?
12 Climate Change is still of major concern to the public. True colours, please. That means both parties.
13 The Coalition contains some of the most outstanding liars and hypocrites our Parliament has ever seen, including the Prime Minister. Is it possible the punters have finally seen through them?
15 Please note: Polling in individual seats is notoriously unreliable. I told you so.
16 After having been dragged kicking and screaming by Labor and the Greens to have a Royal Commission into banking Malcolm Turnbull still wont contemplate a national ICAC.
17 Almost everyone besides the Coalition believes that unemployment benefits are one reason many Australians are poor. They are simply inadequate for people to live on.
18 The question is, “are we entitled to know?” When Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister after successfully challenging Tony Abbott the National Party placed certain conditions on him before they would form a Coalition.
Is he, or both, entitled to keep the secret to them selves or conversely are the voters entitled to know?
19 Last Wednesday morning Scott Morrison was doing a presser on News24. Addressing the price of electricity he said that if you wanted prices to come down you needed to support the government’s National Energy Guarantee policy.
He went onto say that higher emissions targets would result in higher electricity prices. The truth of that is very debatable however; my point is that if you believe what Morrison said then you can only conclude that the Coalition has entirely given up on lowering our emissions. What a con job they have been conducting since they repealed the carbon price.
You can almost get used to Murdoch’s lies and bullshit but this takes the cake.
22 We still await the outcome of the enquiry Michaelia Cash.
“What we know is [federal police] have referred the matter to the DPP,”
“They would not do that lightly … They only do that when they think laws have been broken.”
23 The Liberals have been in power 16 of the last 22 years. If people think the country is stuffed, they should know whom to blame.
24 For all ABC’s faults, I for one would march in the streets to demand it be protected, and I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people would do likewise. A comprehensive and factual news service is essential to democracy and the ABC is our only hope of ever having one.
25 Somebody sent this to me but for the life of me I cannot remember whom:
Five years since the Federal election campaign Labor lost ushering in the nationally destructive Abbott-Turnbull Government that has taken us backwards. Note: some items are already listed.
– No world leading NBN.
– No carbon price.
– No booming alternative energy industry.
– No Gonski scale school funding.
– A weakened NDIS.
– No republic.
– Damaged relations with China and our region.
– Subservience to the fascist Trump.
– Wage stagnation.
– Attacks on multiculturalism.
– Attacks on welfare for the poor and vulnerable.
– Massive tax cuts for the wealthiest. Australians and foreign corporations.
– Attempts to undermine Medicare.
– More expensive University degrees.
– $500 million cuts to university budgets and research.
– Shrinking home ownership.
– Every day cost of living up.
– Higher debt.
26 Although science tells the Government that sugar, salt and fat are the main causes of our health problems, it refuses to limit the amount of these toxic substances in food.
27 The Prime Minister’s refusal to acknowledge the Uluru Statement in our constitution is a tragedy and should be revisited ASAP.
28 A Facebook friend sent this list. The PM has FAILED abysmally to:
– Set a high standard in government
– Stand up to the IPA bullies
– Stand up to traitor Murdoch
– Hold his party to account
– Display moral leadership
– Call out racism
– Be truthful
– Respect Melbournians, one of the best cities in the world
– To dismiss racist Dutton
– To protect the vulnerable
He is totally UNFIT to be PM, ever. Disgusting coward. Like others he is racist, he backs racists, he fails to call out racists, he encourages racists.
29 The Coalition spent two years fending off a royal commission into the banking sector. When Shorten and to be fair, the Greens, got their way, look at the results.
Now they are trying to fend off a national ICAC.
30 Perpetual infighting between the ultra right neo-conservatives and the moderates has been a hallmark of this Government, and who knows, the Prime Minister might even resign.
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My thought for the day
The real enemy of neo-conservative politics in Australia is not Labor or indeed democratic socialism. It is simply what Australians affectionately call. A fair go.
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Yesterday Peter Dutton came out with two interesting statements.
The first was that he does have ambitions to lead the Liberal party. He was not clear whether that ambition was to lead from opposition or as prime minister but with his level of popularity within the community we must assume he was expecting to lead from opposition.
More interestingly, whilst he confirmed that the government would again present the corporate tax cuts to the senate he also conceded that if the cuts were not passed, the government would not take these tax cuts to the next election.
Normally a government with a signature policy of this sort would stand by it and take it to an election to get a mandate from the electorate and in some cases they would, when facing senate intransigence, take their policy to a Double Dissolution although this latter strategy didn’t work out so well last time.
So, we must assume that the government accepts that their proposed largesse to the big end of town is a dog of a policy and one that is so lacking in substance that they wouldn’t even take it to the people.
So, why would they take it back to the senate at a time when their attachment to Pauline Hanson is waning and her frequent backflips haven’t worked in their favour so far. Clearly to get Pauline to flip again and vote for this legislation they would have to make it worth her while : perhaps an all expenses paid luxury cruise on the RMS Queen Elizabeth taking in the British Isles and Scandinavia could do the trick !
Mr Lord,
There is no more accurate description of the failings and almost criminal behaviour of this rotten government than your denouement today. Thank you for putting it all together so plausibly and flawlessly. Murdoch and his minions are the bane of our democracy. There are others in the media who are also complicit in destroying our way of life, but hypocritical journalists like Katharine Murphy, are the more obvious visible ones.
Thanks Henry. I’m a fan of Murphy. How do you figure the hypocrisy?
By far the worst poll Limited News released was the one purporting to show that if Albanese was Labor leader they would easily win Longman and Braddon as compared to Shorten who was likely to lose those seats. I think the margins given by Limited News for an Albanese win were roughly what Shorten achieved in winning the seats.
I spent many hours handing out for the Greens at both prepoll and election day booths in Mayo. The most telling observation I made – the LNP mantra was ‘Georgina for the Liberal Party’. No mention of what may be good for Mayo or the country. No mention of policy (presumably IPA as there is very little from the LNP). Thank you for itemising the myriad failures of this most beholden and inept collective.
“The Prime Minister has nowhere to go other than to revisit his conscience,…” All he has to do is find it first and I expect it will be buried somewhere in his mind in the equivalent of a huge block of mental concrete and self-aggrandisement.
They do have one achievement to fall back on, the word “No!” repeated ad nauseam springs to mind.
Don’t hold your breath waiting to see a positive outcome on the Harpy.
where does one find the number of jobs lost this quarter, it seems to me even employment is stagnant as all the positions are created, but the unemployment rate is not dropping. I assume that this must mean that there are factors nullifying the number of jobs created such as;
people losing jobs
people having more than one job
people moving into the employment market
why are we not informed of that ? in reality, there probably has been no jobs and probably no growth as well
The LNP/IPA governments complete and utter ineptitude on climate change will be one of their downfalls. Climate change is becoming more and more obvious to the average punter.
“Ratings agency Standard and Poors has issued warnings that the value of its investment in the National Broadband Network is under threat from 5G mobile technology, saying that it will eventually supersede its hybrid technology.
The ratings agency also says that Australian consumers compared to other countries pay much more for an inferior product. Unless it finds a way to reduce its rates, the NBN will turn out to be a very expensive stuff-up. Just like so many others this Government is responsible for.”
OK, John, now try the NBN in regional areas. My Telstra copper phone line speed got up to about 3kbs, but usually about 1.2 kbps until I upgraded to a satellite link. I am 10 km from the town base tower.
In Moree, represented then by John Anderson of Eastern Star Gas for CSG drilling in the Great Artesian Basin, and now the Northern Inland Rail, formerly Leader of the Federal National$, with 2km line of sight to the Telstra tower, I could get reception ….. very very, slowly!! So much for a government member in touch with the need in regional communities for adequate communications with the world.
“Who is it that leads them [the National$]?”
The Brown’s cows of Australian politics are led by group of unthinkers with their focus on creating a 19th century wonderland of hereditary titles for landed property owners, powered by steam driven, coal fired power stations losing about 50% of the generated electricity on the state wide power-line grid. National$ are good Christians, in NW NSW, practicing water theft from the MDB because increasing farming profits is what capitalism is all about, preferring to promote self-confessed adulterers as representatives of the party, and generally having their hand out to government for money at every possible occasion.
“Abbott is not done with yet. He is now advocating we opt out of the Paris Agreement and also cut immigration.”
It is important that Tony Abbott continue advocating for such 19th century policies on behalf of the coal barons like Gina. Such enlightened thinking ranks with the “success of trickle down economics”.
“Rupert Murdoch’s Australian arm has told a government inquiry the Internet has transformed the ABC and SBS into “news publishers” who have the advantage of being taxpayer-funded, while denying commercial competitors revenue.”
It is unfortunate that poor Rupert is still seeking approval from his deceased father who began this vendetta against the ABC at its inception in about 1932. Successive politicians of all persuasions have recognised the importance of an independent ABC, EXCEPT the US citizen who owns over 70% of the mastheads on the MSM. If he is concerned about competition perhaps he should improve the content of his products. Alternatively, we could follow the Fijian example and require all mastheads to be owned by single nationality, Australian natural persons or corporations having at least 90% ownership by Australian natural persons.
“For all ABC’s faults, I for one would march in the streets to demand it be protected, and I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people would do likewise. A comprehensive and factual news service is essential to democracy and the ABC is our only hope of ever having one.”
Hear!! hear!! Move over John I will be standing with you.
Too much for one morning John …. all too true and so easily fixed.
That anyone from this present government has the nerve to call opposition members liars is unbelievaBull. This mob would have to be the biggest liars in Australian political history, the most cruel, secretive, unfair government that I have ever experienced in all my years on earth.
As for the mudrake press can’t wait to see the headlines at the next election, will they stoop any lower than they did with Rudd dressed in a Nazi uniform, Hitler mustache and the headline ‘Kick this mob out’. Whatever happened the journalists code of ethics? Then again maybe they don’t have any journalists at News Corpse.
Yes, what happened to true blue Aussie adage; fair go/ fair crack of the whip…
It’s forgotten, now we divide and conquer, it’s us and them, private/ public, rich/poor, Christian /Muslim, able-bodied/disabled, white/black( or brown, yellow), McMansion/homeless, arriving by air/by sea, working/’dole-bludging’, and so much more…..
What an extraordinary notion, I quote you John Lord:— “The Prime Minister has nowhere to go other than to revisit his conscience, examine it and say that he should have stuck with his original principles.”
The man has no principles other than the one of self-aggrandisement.
Turnbull employs Dutton who has the morality of a Goebbels, the German propaganda minister in Nazi Germany who persecuted the Jews; Turnbull, the man who trashed the NBN, a communications network that might have been the best in the world and a huge asset to our nation; Turnbull, the man who treats the catastrophe of climate change as a political plaything; Turnbull, who would return a tax benefit to bankers who are the most dishonest of all our citizens.
Turnbull is entirely without decent principles. The avuncular smile is the disguise of an avaricious autocrat.
John Lord, you are far too kind and forgiving.
Malcolm is a master debater. He can argue any proposition. At Sydney Uni he argued the affirmative case in “A woman is just a woman but a good cigar is a smoke” by writing a dirty poem in a bush ballad style – something which earned him the University’s Henry Lawson Prize for Poetry (and a cash prize), but the condemnation of his mother who had won the prize in 1948.
“She was horrified her son won for his ribald rhyme, taking it as proof that societal standards were slipping.”
I have just finished re-reading ‘on the beach’.(My copy cost 6/- when I bought it all those years ago.)
In it Neville Shute refers to the madness of millions of people supporting a government which would drop atom bombs on its neighbours…. ” the only hope would have been to educate them out of their silliness’… But how could you have done that?….they’d all left school’ ….. ‘Newspapers, you could have done something with newspapers.’
The more things change ……..
At least now the police cannot scrutinise medical records to trash, say, a protestor’s reputation because of depression or some such ailment.
After the massive fires in many countries, the floods and the drought, how can anyone deny climate change? Governments are supposed to protect their people but all this lot can think of is to shut up refugees for good on hostile, impoverished islands. Refugees many of whom are fleeing US abetted wars.
The Murdoch Press is a public menace to humans and other animals alike, though the planet will produce other creatures eventually.
Maybe you are right Michael.
In the early 1960’s the writer Donald Horne observed that Australia was a lucky country run by second rate people who shared in that luck. This was a time when the Liberal Party had been the major party of government for some time.
What observations Mr Horne would make of the present shambles, royal commissions and all, might be a tad worse.
A first world country unlucky enough to be run by fourth rate people would be my guess. But to be fair we are not alone in the world on that score.
“For Anglophiles and rugby players, the Rhodes was died-and-gone-to-heaven time. Winners must be scholars fond of sport who display “moral force of character and instincts to lead”. The award to Abbott came as a surprise, particularly to those who had seen him up close on the SRC. One jibe at the time was, ‘second-grade footballer, third-rate academic and fourth-class politician.’,”
Selamat pagi, JL,
I love August 1 a horse born yesterday turns one today the others born from today on turn one August 1 2019.
Your post make it an even better day.
Certainly clinton showed one side of the meaning of the reliability polls. My ego got a boost when my assertion that septic tanks will never make a woman president proved accurate.
The by-election polls followed the trend that this old cynic suspects is fixed not just by the structure of the question(s) or the selection of districts but by reducing the ‘random’.with those districts ie a margin of -/+5% is a range of 10%.
After the zeal of editors like rebekah brooks murdoch’s mob are not beyond the direct fiddling of results.
Whatever we think of murdoch and his zealous employees he knows what the public wants and his editors are slaves to his formula of ruthless influence over the public.
“Auletta observed that Murdoch was frequently on the phone to his editors and this prompted him to ask: “of all the things in your business empire, what gives you the most pleasure?” Murdoch instantly replied: “being involved with the editor of a paper in a day-to-day campaign…trying to influence people”.
After the 2010 election – which resulted in a minority Labor government – Murdoch summoned his Australian editors and senior journalists to his home in Carmel, California. He made clear that he despised the Gillard government and wanted regime change. In 2011, Murdoch met Abbott and told his editors he liked him. His newspapers (a couple of which had actually supported Gillard in the 2010 election) thereafter campaigned strongly against the Gillard government, particularly on the issues of asylum seekers and climate change.
The morning shows followed suit and ‘kick this mob out’ slogans finished his vicious campaign off.
The average punter has no idea about your issues:
refugees right behind dutton
bishop right behind sacking her and giving he overseas aid money to farmers and veterans(american right wing sites) I get a couple of likes for adding pensioners and get gentle abuse for increasing newstart – not the bludgers wam
n10 is the most important campaign shorten has to wage the rabbott won by lying about debt labor went through the gfc with AAA the rest of the world failed this mob would fail miserably but Aust thinks they are the economic managers.
For billy/tania to win they must kick the lnp in the balls or go to bed with rupert
I just got a newsletter from my Liberal MP Karen Andrews, the last paragraph of which starts “In contrast to the division and deception of Labor …..”
Do they really believe this sort of thing, or are they under orders ?
Now they are touting Mathias Cormann’s credentials as new leader and member for Wentworth.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/comment-why-mathias-cormann-could-be-our-next-prime-minister/ar-BBLj1Kc?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=mailsignout
News Corp. is a significant beneficiary of corporate tax cuts both here, in the US and no doubt from the Tories in the UK. In return for this largesse, he uses his enormous influence to keep his favourite regimes, in power. This must stop. I’m not sure how — perhaps his death might lessen his influence. It is indubitable Murdoch plans to expand into Russia, plans stifled when the FBI under President Obama investigated Murdoch in 2012. As far as I am aware, this case was not settled, but its aftermath literally reverberates to this day. This post from Reuters is not fake news but unsettling. https://www.reuters.com/article/murdoch-russia/fbi-looking-at-murdoch-operations-in-russia-idUSL2E8E7HJN20120309
Oldfart: the unemployment rate has barely moved because as the rate of job creation is not growing in line with the natural increase in the workforce (new job seekers entering the workforce upon leaving studies), importing of workers from overseas and the increase in the participation rate.
So all the crowing of Coalition ministers about a million jobs created under their watch is inadequate so they deserve no credit.
They refuse to use their fiscal power to increase demand and thereby actually make significant reductions in unemployment.
Kaye, regarding Rhodes scholarships, you did well to have the right people on the selection Committee, even if you could not repay them for decades.
PeterF: As far as I know, you don’t need to repay a Rhodes Scholarship. It’s not a loan. The money comes from earnings on investments using Cecil Rhodes’ ill-gotten gains as a corpus.
Totaram ……….. I don’t remember mentioning having to pay back benefits of the scholarship. Perhaps you might understand my reference if you did a search on just who was on the selection committee..
It might also help if you were to read ‘Game of Mates’.
@Kaye Lee: Things are getting desperate for the Liarbrals when they suggest that the “Bull Manure Belgian” is foreman material. Better that Benito Dutton, undoubtedly, but then so is a dead drover’s dog.
Bring on the next Federal election so that we may dispose of this unprincipled LNP misgovernment.
For the benefit of the lazy/time challenged,
The ‘payback’ reference made by Peter F was regarding the historical relationship between Tony Abbott and Dyson Heydon.
In the 80’s Heydon was highly influential in spring-boarding Abbott’s career by providing dubious references that enabled Abbott to obtain a coveted Rhodes scholarship.
30 years later Abbott seemingly returned the personal favour, granting Heydon, an obvious political partisan, a lucrative position heading the royal commission into trade unions.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dyson-heydon-was-on-panel-that-awarded-tony-abbott-his-prized-rhodes-scholarship-20150817-gj0o8o.html
PeterF: Apologies. I misread your post. And I have a copy of “game of mates ” too. Yes, Dyson Heydon was paid back in spades, although that was hardly necessary was it? I mean many of the people on the Rhodes committee are themselves ex-Rhodes Scholars or people well-connected with them so they belong to the entitled class. But of course, we know that what they have is never enough and more is always better.