Well, there is something to be said for government by bumbling, self-serving incompetence, provided you are not unemployed, burned out by a bush fire, flooded, ill, disable, or old - that is, provided you are not in immediate need of assistance from the common wealth.

Such a government stays out of the way of those who consider themselves independent, self reliant - that placated, unthinking, self-obsessed middle class rump that were taken in by the marketing last election. So the question is, how many of them are left?

Because eventually, everyone will need some of that common wealth.

Perhaps, but the power of misunderstood aspiration (temporarily embarrassed millionares and all that), and what is effectively a hostage economy in housing, together with misattributed blame - immigrants, the Chinese, city elites - still leave the door open to an engineered tragedy of the commons type situation (they're all engineered). Basically, I can't count on the power of real tragedy, visceral as it may be.

https://votecompass.abc.net.au/

I'm still off the top of the progressive scale, but I've apparently moved to the right - previously I was to the left of the greens, now I am to their right, but still to the left of Labor...

Seems we are in agreement. Haven't understood the electorate since '75.

My sense is that the electorate is pretty sick of Morrison as PM but that it's still going to be a stretch for Labor to flip it. I think Albanese's overall game has improved hugely in the last 6 months odd, he never seemed a credible alternative to me before then but he does now.

I'm still too burned I won't believe he will lose until I see it. — StreetlightX

Agree.

Have you noticed how the best of the Labor Party seem to be in the Senate?

Wong, Keneally, Dodson, Gallagher...

yes. Find it hard to be impressed with Tony Bourke and Chris Bowen, although Mark Butler comes across OK. Massive own-goal by Albanese on Day One, if he goes on to lose it'll be his epigraph.

But Gallagher immediately stepped up form behind him with the correct information.

Do folk pay attention to these set pieces? Lazy journalism.

Sure. ‘Go on, ask me anything!’ Couldn’t have been scripted better if the Government had set it up,

How clever are the Solomon Islands?

They are going to be much further up the aid budget in the future.

The poor old US thought Australia had the Pacific under control... Now they have to send a diplomatic mission and pay attention

Wonder if they are re-thinking AuKUS?

Should one laugh or cry?

If this had happened under Labor the Libs would be howling blue murder.

Peter Dutton is a national security threat.

SO... putting it all together, the plan is to declare war on the Solomon Islands?

How do the major parties rate on an independent anti-corruption commission?

Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare blasts Australia over criticism of China security deal

Well worth a read. How our relationship with the Pacific has deteriorated!

The relationship between tertiary education and voting has shifted, with higher levels of education increasingly correlating with voting for Labor or the Greens. The cost is the increasing alienation of the well-educated elites who once gave the Liberals their support.

The Conversation, again, a piece by Judith Brett from La Trobe University that sums up the demise of the Liberals.

But if Frydenberg loses his seat, that leaves the Liberals with Mr Potatohead. War with the Solomon Islands looks inevitable.

The Adam Bandt interview

The Greens are where the thinking happens in Australian politics.

https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essay/amen-snorter-rotten-fish/

I know this is just preaching to a choir but the choir is allowed to enjoy every now and then:

For Morrison, words are just distracting noises that come out of a hole in his head. They are not connected to any logic or fact or principle. They are not constrained by anything he has said or done in the past, nor do they commit him to any future course of action. To expect otherwise is to make a categorical error. Morrison’s political career provides no grounds for believing that he will ever give a straight answer to any question, offer a cogent and consistent argument, explain himself in any way, or do anything he says he will do. He has never baulked at any hypocrisy, small or large. He speaks in order to make the very act of questioning him an exercise in futility, addressing no concrete reality beyond the immediate imperative to generate static. It is a form of anti-oratory: the rhetorical equivalent of avoiding an awkward conversation by starting up a leaf blower.

...Morrison is, according to Sheridan, ‘the prime minister for all Australians, for Australians of all faiths and none’. The only problem with this assertion is that it is demonstrably false in all but the most narrowly technical sense. Morrison has led what may well be the most indolent, nasty, bumbling, dishonest, cynical and corrupt federal government in Australian history. In his term as prime minister, he has failed to achieve a single lasting reform for the long-term betterment of Australian society. He failed even to propose one. He has proved himself, over and over again, to be an abuser of executive power, a substantive policy vacuum, and a legislator of surpassing ineptitude. His ideological stance is little better than a collection of antipathies pursued in a spirit of vindictiveness. He is as dogmatic as he is shallow. The keynotes of his time in office have been rampant cronyism, industrial scale rorting for partisan ends, the funnelling of vast sums of public money into the coffers of private vested interests, deliberate undermining of public institutions, and an evident distaste for the very thought that the federal government should use any of the vast resources at its disposal to help anyone who actually needs help.

On these points, Morrison has been absolutely consistent. The major catastrophes of bushfires, floods and the pandemic have done nothing to alter his basic stance. Faced with the spectacle of his fellow citizens in desperate need, Morrison has responded in ways that are belated, inadequate, grudging and skewed — every single time. The defining feature of his political career is that he always seeks to use his position of power to disadvantage and, in many cases, actively punish sections of the populace he regards with disfavour. These include but are not limited to academics and university students (those studying the humanities, in particular), public school students, aged-care residents, Indigenous Australians, women, people with disabilities, anyone who relies on the public health system, Muslims, the entire populations of Victoria and Western Australia, gay and transgender people, everyone who works in the arts sector, everyone who lives in a safe Labor seat, and everyone who understands that climate change is a serious problem. Hands down the most disgusting and shameful piece of maladministration in recent Australian history was the Robodebt debacle, which weaponised the federal bureaucracy against the citizens it was supposed to be serving, targeting the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. The scheme was a shakedown, carried out with such calculated menace that it drove a number of its victims to suicide. It was subsequently found to be illegal. Morrison was its chief instigator.

So he knows Scotty, then...

Thanks.

Take a look at The real wages vs productivity gap

Australia needs to find a way of allowing real wages to grow at a faster rate than productivity, for a while — and, desirably, at the same time fostering a faster rate of growth in productivity — in order to facilitate not only faster and more sustainable economic growth, but also to restore our communal sense of prosperity.

And that's AICD. The Liberals are well out of step with their own people.

A couple of hours to go... Or three more years for this thread?

:eyes:

I have good beer and bad average beer set out in the fridge.

I am having company over, and have splashed out on a bottle of French Champagne, which we’ll either open, or not. (I won’t mention I have it unless it’s certain. Otherwise, it’ll have to keep.)

In my electorate the ALP incumbent, for whom I voted, scraped in by <400 votes last time. But there will be many interesting contests tonight; I think I’m more aware of all the seats and personalities than I used to be, probably because of the internet coverage.

Dutton might be losing Dickson.

SO sad...

But why blame Djokovic for this? — baker

No free will, eh? :snicker:

You mistake me for someone who might care. — Banno

:snicker: Djokivic is in Bulgaria and you're in Terra Australis. He can't do anything to you, neither can you to him.

Looks like it's the good beer... maybe.

Leader of the opposition.

oh my god this beer is so good its a 14.5%

Four Greens in the Lower House...!

That's nice.