@Banno and @Tom Storm,

We seem to have an unanimous general agreement of three answers to nil as regards election influences on nation wide surveyed results. But, at an electorate by electorate level, particular issues can have disproportionate influence with the run on effect in a tight national election..at least at the lower house level.
Nice item ( evidence based...) for the ironic wish list, Banno. Not disagreeing though, just living in a too early millenium to hope!

An aside of a non political nature...."an unanimous" or "a unanimous" ? "An" looks correct in print but clashes on the ear when verbalized, personally. Anyone else have this disconnect? Might be merely a local dialect/education blip? Or a personal propensity for an extended pause between those two words when verbalized in a sentence? Probably much of a to do about nothing!

Self deprecating smile

@Banno

"Australia has a long history.......before the USA changes its monarch"

Perhaps a Dutton govt next might be good on the face of what you're saying if the electorate was more politically savvy as an outcome. But it's a hell of a risk and the long term benefits look minimal, from the current and historical likelihood perspectives....short memories encourage the same mistakes to be made repeatedly. Wk? Hope vs Skepticism.

trying to find a balanced smile

Sometimes, the feeling is of an exhausted swimmer clinging to a floaty called "Hope they see it" in the stormy sea called "Despondency", at this time in the electoral cycle.

tired smile

Sorry, still trying to eliminate duplication.

frustrated smile

Sorry, still trying to eliminate duplication. — kazan

Too many windows? Good thing is you now can go back and edit those duplicates to add more stuff as you think of it.

Try to make a habit of looking on the bright side.

Only gives "half" the picture, plus the glare is too often playing the same role as the fog on the dark side. Something comfortable about short bouts of the dark side....know thy enemy as thy enemy knows you...
But, thanks for the well meaning pep. Looking out for those around you has to be part of the everyman's best take on living a good life.
Just an opinion.
cheery smile

Just think of all those taxpayer funded business lunches you will be able to enjoy...

You may be right. I’m not huge on politics, all I really know is never vote Liberal.

@Banno,
Interesting assumption that any taxes would be paid in the first place by those who do business lunches/junkets/upskilling, team building weekends, going on the reported company tax receipts, or lack thereof, of our "important" industries' giants. That is, the wage earning tax payers pay, through their income taxes, for the privilege of being employed by resource stripping multi nationals gutting the nation etc. Not just picking on the miners either. Motorways etc fall within that variety. Build infrastructure ( for the nation, of course) then toll the public for as long as the infrastructure is usable. Extolled as nation building! Good enough for a couple of reelections and then onto the next big deal. Same actors ( or family of),same modus, same results,same BS. Inventive minds used for spin instead of real repeatable national "wealth" creation. Yeah, get your ( being nice) "irony".

@Tom Storm,
Bit the same, unless you're born with the silver spoon ect.
Rule of voting... believe nothing of what you hear,and only half of what you see and have examined thoroughly. And then, follow the money trail anyway. And don't vote early, that's for the don't cares and the rusted ons, or, in these hard times, the overseas holiday makers.

Whew! Feel better after that. Time to examine the rations for tea, tonight...in these hard times!

relaxed smile

Hard to determine where cynicism (should ) ends and mere skepticism takes over....in the philosophy of politics.

concerned and still smiling

Laura Tingle has a piece on the ABC today about long-term results of the recent coronation.

If the US produces more gas, then there will be more competition for Australian NG. As the US pulls out of cooperative agreements - WHO, Paris, banking, tax and so on, it leaves space for China to fill.

The Albanese response has been to show a steady hand - "Keeping us out of recession. 1.1 million jobs. Getting inflation from a six to a two. Making sure that people's living standards are looked after — from a six to a two. Completing the NBN. Finishing Gonski … Turning the decline in Medicare around and, importantly, moving towards — just as Labor governments have created Medicare, [and] universal provision of superannuation — we're taking the steps, and I announced in December, for universal provision of childcare".

A taste of what we might expect in the run up to the election. All more or less true. How will it fly in the face of an opposition interested only in Australia Day, Auschwitz commemoration and business lunches?

@Banno,
"How will it fly....lunches?"
As usual, it will fly as well as the spin is received and impression making events unfold. Along with ads and the usual detritus used as fishing burly and paid for from the various interested parties' war chests.

From the wage earners' perspective, each election promise's effect upon mortgages and rents will be carefully assessed.

So,climate and energy mitigation, health, education, wages and employment etc. promises will all be most effective if they are couched in immediate cost of living reduction terms.

Credit card health will determine the election outcome. There are not enough wealthy social philanthropists/idealists to sway elections towards long term nation growing and protecting directions.

Oh, "democratic'' elections, when all the isms come out to play, but individualism determines the day!

Just another opinion.

Dumb punter smile

Forum Tips and Tricks - How to Quote

:up:

Thanks Banno,
Will practice and read and reread and reread ad nauseam, wading through the assumptions of common knowledge until it works. And then practice, practice etc.

exhausted smile

Crikey pointes out that Dutton now has two ministers responsible for reducing government waste...

Think about that. Perhaps twice as many bureaucrats reducing bureaucracy will reduce the bureaucracy twice as fast...?


Added: And whele you are there, check out Dutton has the worldview of a Queensland cop, someone once wrote. We should take that seriously

I can't see it, and I don't get why politicians are obsessed with Musk-wannabe reduction of bureaucracy. Every developed nation needs bureaucracy because it is the duct where the citizens can interact with the administration. This was one of the main pillars of the establishment of each modern society. If I need to pay taxes, where do I go? If I want to build a house in the middle of nowhere, where do I apply to get my license? Etc.

I believe that it would be a complete mistake to absorb Musk's principle of reducing bureaucracy to near zero. I guess he doesn't need it because he is the richest man in the world, but when the rest of us demand to get drinking water out of a creek, where can I demand it? On "X" insulting woke posters?

If Americans voted to get rid of a government, it would be fine, but I only hope that this wave doesn't spread to the rest of modern nations like ours. That's the paradox. Some nations wish to have a bureaucracy (Pakistan or Iraq), and others want to get rid of it. Weird.

Crikey pointes out that Dutton now has two ministers responsible for reducing government waste... — Banno

that'd be right. Some other imaginary bogeyman for him to winge about. Everyone knows that whenever the Tories cut the public service, they then open the purse to thousands of overpaid consultants from the big end of town, who report to their shareholders, not to the electorate.

The usual reactionary move against change by conservatism...rinse and repeat.
Keep doing something the same way repeatedly and expect a different outcome. What's that the definition of, again?... or... Again, of what is that the definition?

disappointed smile

I can't see it, and I don't get why politicians are obsessed with Musk-wannabe reduction of bureaucracy — javi2541997

Well, this has been a consistent thread in English speaking governments for the past 40 years and a key plank in neoliberal driven politics. Its origins are Reaganism and Thatcherism. Cut backs often play to the populist notion that government workers are lazy and do nothing and are paid for by money "stolen" from voters through taxation.

What happened in Canberra was the public servants who were dropped took on contract work to do the same job for more pay.

In the interests of efficiency, of course.

The result was that the folk doing the work have less incentive to gainsay their bosses. They will not get the next contract.

But the public service has changed, the occupants of the higher offices are on shaky ground and will acquiesce to poor policy.

Hence robodebt and so on.

Again, in the interests of efficiency, of course.

@Tom Storm,

Pre-Raeganism, where would this pop notion of lazy pub servants come from and be so persistent in the minds of voters? Or is it ignorance and laziness of not looking into govt operations/productivity to see how the budget estimates stack up against expected/predicted outcomes?

In your experience and resultant opinion?

genuinely curious smile

@Banno,

Interesting curve put on the meaning/use of "efficiency" for political gain.
Used on both sides of the aisle with small adjustments to the specific departments/projects and desired outcomes.
Efficiency in cost presiding over efficiency of outcome being bullshittedly argued as the requirement instead of each being dependent up/assessed by the other. Appearance vs reality.

So, more of the same pap, wouldn't you agree?

interested smile

Pretty much.

@Banno,

A stacked system, this governing business!

leary smile

Compliant bureaucrats brings to mind the state of whistleblowers' protection, their motivations and the damage or otherwise to their careers. And the general state of objective truth in governance and hence back to philosophy.

lively smile

responses, where would this pop notion of lazy pub servants come from and be so persistent in the minds of voters? — kazan

No idea. But it's when an idea like this is weaponised into policy that it matters. I suspect the myth of the lazy government employee is an old one and probably motivated by an innate suspicion of anyone whose salary comes from tax payer's money.

In your experience and resultant opinion? — kazan

I have met many bureaucrats and politicians many are hard working and sincere, even those I dislike. Although these days the wise, mature veteran bureaucrats, who help to build departments and nurture public policy responses, are less frequently encountered as they have many been restructured out of circulation.

Yes, it is an old prejudice that public servants are lazy. I also met hard workers in the public administration. I don't know how it works in Australia, but here you need to pass different exams to get the vacancy. I know we (I work in public administration) are not perfect, but I have never understood why some folks think it would be better if I (like other mates) were replaced by AI or we reduced processes to non-existent public intervention.
After Valencia's floods, the funds for reconstruction come from basically the state because insurance companies are putting a lot of obstacles. Now, who is the inefficient one here?

I remember watching a TV program from Australia. It was about lorry drivers going to and fro. It comes to my mind the vast desert, reefs, and highways of Australia where those workers were driving by. I hope those public interest services and goods are managed by the AU government with competent public servants.

We also do a similar management here. Our Constitution even states that the surface, coast, beaches, and economic platform belong to the state. In my humble opinion, a state loses sovereignty if their politicians decide to lead the administration of key goods and services to companies. I can't even imagine what would happen if those firms have foreign shareholders. Like our forests and shores have a price? No way. That would mean our countries would have a price too.

Honestly, I thought Australian politics had a different distinct perspective on China, but...

Australia bans DeepSeek from government devices citing national security.

Why doesn't any government trust Chinese AI? :chin:

The Age, Melbourne's and Nine Entertainment's main paper, has as it's headline

Trump just dressed up ethnic cleansing as a real estate opportunity, and blew up ‘America First’

Continuing with

The leader of the free world advocates ethnic cleansing and dresses it up as a golden real estate opportunity. Here’s the dire, if hardly surprising, place we find ourselves just three weeks into the second Trump administration. — The Age

It doesn't look like Trump's gambit will carry much support here. What might be interesting is how Dutton, who has been pushing for more support for Israel, will step on this. maybe the Trump election will not play into Dutton's plans.

@javi2541997,

Not "trust Chinese AI"......heaps of reasons/rationales ranging from the competitive to the suspicious. It is difficult to trust in opacity in the current spin of global international politics. Probably no more than in the past! Just currently more "gaslighting"... if that the right term?

@Banno,

"how Dutton...will step on (or in) this." Probably in his usual way, change the narrative and trundle out some other "wrongdoing" of Labor and Albo to " feed (to) the chooks."

Is anyone else sick of all the isms being flogged currently in Aust politics? Or has the past, more than 50 years' attempts to rid the taint of working class bigotry from our society/nation, been in vain? Or is this interpretation a misstep to idealism by an cynic with a skeptic's thought toolbox?

Lightly jaded smile