Australia General Discussion 4.0: It ain’t easy under Albanese

[AustralianSwingVoter]

During the 2019 election, the Liberal government promoted a car park program, however chose to build the parks disproportionately in vulnerable Labor seats or seats that the Liberals feared they might lose. This may have boosted their electoral prospects: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/when-47-car-parks-660-million-and-one-election-collide-20210630-p585h9.html

Nothing especially unusual, this programme was standard pork barrelling we've come to expect from both parties in every election. Though it is notable how poorly managed Liberal pork barrelling was last election, with this and the sports grants saga both being far too brazen without any veneer of plausible deniability.

What's really hilarious is that in the end this programme did nothing to help us actually win re-election. This poured money into outer-suburban seats most of which were reasonably safe and many of which swung to Labor anyway. Did nothing to help us in Queensland or Tasmania where the election was actually won. So we wasted all this money on impossible car parks in reasonably safe seats for no electoral benefit and a lot of bad press.

[(no subject)]

Dear the Hobart “Mercury”:

please use the headline TWENTY BRAVE DAYS.

Matthew

[Silent Hunter]

Beat Edwin Poots then?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

And the Tasmanian ALP has made the farcical choice of again returning Bec White as leader. In spite of losing two elections in a row they clearly have no better alternative so she’s getting a third shot!

www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-07/rebecca-white-re-elected-as-leader-of-tasmanian-labor-party/100272820

[CumbrianLefty]

Third time lucky?

(or perhaps not)

[GoTfan]

Oh well now, ain't this interesting . . .

https://twitter.com/abc730/status/1414153429585260548

Taken from the ABC's key points on this artcle:

• Australia contracted Pfizer for 40 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered by the end of the year
• In late June, senior business figures sought to make contact with Pfizer to find out if it was possible to bring forward vaccine deliveries to Australia
• Senior Pfizer executives told one senior Australian businessman that former prime minister Kevin Rudd could have some influence in Scott Morrison's absence

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Next weekend a by-election will be held in the Queensland state seat of Stretton after the popular local member died after a long battle with cancer. A safe Labor seat (outside the 2012 wipeout) Labor victory is assured and the only interest shall be the margin of victory and swing.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Labor has won the Stretton by-election with a rather mediocre result for both sides. The current swing is 1.6% to the LNP after preferences. That's a poor performance for an opposition, especially against a third term government, however Labor would still be disappointed to suffer a swing against them.

[NewYorkExpress]

YouTube has banned Sky News Australia, owned by Rupert Murdoch, for a week for COVID misinformation.

YouTube has barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week, saying it had breached rules on spreading Covid-19 misinformation.

It issued a "strike" under its three-strike policy, the last of which means permanent removal.

YouTube did not point to specific items but said it opposed material that "could cause real-world harm".

The TV channel's digital editor said the decision was a disturbing attack on the ability to think freely.

Sky News Australia is owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and has 1.85 million YouTube subscribers. The ban could affect its revenue stream from Google.

A YouTube statement said it had "clear and established Covid-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance".

A spokesperson told the Guardian it "did not allow content that denies the existence of Covid-19" or which encouraged people "to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus". Neither has been proven to be effective against Covid.

The videos in question "did not provide sufficient countervailing context", the spokesperson said.

[CumbrianLefty]

Too untruthful for YooToob, thats bad.

[(no subject)]

I’m not usually one to offer advice to my political opponents, but if Eric Abetz etc want to sink the forthcoming indigenous referendum, a thirty second advert with footage of people saying always was, always will be, aboriginal land, and sovereignty was never ceded, will work *excellently*.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

The Victorian Labor government has just intervened to kill an Inquiry into Cannabis legalisation, with Labor members flipping at the last minute to drastically water down the Inquiry's recommendations. Given the overwhelming public opposition to Cannabis Legalisation this is a surprise to no one, the only shock being it took them this long to kill it.

www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/andrews-government-quashes-push-to-legalise-cannabis-in-victoria-20210804-p58fq1.html

[Vosem]

The Victorian Labor government has just intervened to kill an Inquiry into Cannabis legalisation, with Labor members flipping at the last minute to drastically water down the Inquiry's recommendations. Given the overwhelming public opposition to Cannabis Legalisation this is a surprise to no one, the only shock being it took them this long to kill it.

www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/andrews-government-quashes-push-to-legalise-cannabis-in-victoria-20210804-p58fq1.html

I find it interesting that cannabis legalization has remained so unpopular in Australia and New Zealand even as it's become an uncontroversial majority opinion in Canada and the United States -- can you say more about this?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

The Victorian Labor government has just intervened to kill an Inquiry into Cannabis legalisation, with Labor members flipping at the last minute to drastically water down the Inquiry's recommendations. Given the overwhelming public opposition to Cannabis Legalisation this is a surprise to no one, the only shock being it took them this long to kill it.

www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/andrews-government-quashes-push-to-legalise-cannabis-in-victoria-20210804-p58fq1.html

I find it interesting that cannabis legalization has remained so unpopular in Australia and New Zealand even as it's become an uncontroversial majority opinion in Canada and the United States -- can you say more about this?

Canada and the United States are definitely the exception rather than the rule. There does seem to be a strong divide between the Americas and the Old World on Drug Policy, what is increasingly universally popular in North America is still political anathema in Europe and Asia.

[CumbrianLefty]

There is quite a lot of support for decriminalisation in Europe, no??

(though it varies from country to country, obviously)

[AustralianSwingVoter]

There is quite a lot of support for decriminalisation in Europe, no??

(though it varies from country to country, obviously)

Indeed, likewise in Australia (and the police are even starting to recognise the benefits of gradual decriminalisation). However this inquiry is focused on full legalisation, which remains a relatively fringe position both in Australia and Europe.

[Suburbia]

Aussies, talk to me.

What is life like as an untitled Aussie commoner?

Is there anything as the Australian Dream?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

NT Labor has taken a very comfortable victory in the Daly by-election. Thanks to the CLP selecting a candidate who lives 10 hours drive outside the seat the ALP candidate won a hefty 7% swing. Shouldn't read too much into it though after all the total turnout is a measly 3.5k votes.

[PSOL]

Aussies, talk to me.

What is life like as an untitled Aussie commoner?

Is there anything as the Australian Dream?

Seppo, stay out of Straya!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Aussies, talk to me.

What is life like as an untitled Aussie commoner?

Is there anything as the Australian Dream?

Seppo, stay out of Straya!

Just wait till Bronz learns that Australia changed a line in its national anthem earlier this year...

[S019]

Joel Fitzgibbon, a Labor MP, who has been critical of the party's direction on numerous issues, including climate policy, has decided to retire from the seat of Upper Hunter, Labor's majority in the seat during the 2019 election was 3 pts (52.98-47.02): https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/veteran-labor-mp-joel-fitzgibbon-to-quit-at-next-election-20210913-p58r3t.html

Another interesting note, this seat has been held by his family for nearly 40 years.

[Agonized-Statism]

I find it interesting that cannabis legalization has remained so unpopular in Australia and New Zealand even as it's become an uncontroversial majority opinion in Canada and the United States -- can you say more about this?

Not Australian but big Straya fan. If I had to guess, it's a somewhat smaller and more homogenous population with a more quintessentially British tendency toward social engineering, less libertarianism than the US famously developed on the frontier, and less mass incarceration/prison-industrial complex to discredit a war on drugs. Being right next door to the consequences of leaving drug manufacturing and trafficking to the black market- Mexico, now partly controlled by cartels- has certainly helped change minds over here. But correct me if I'm wrong.

[urutzizu]

Decision with huge implications, in the conflict with China:

It will be announced by Biden today that Australia will get nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology.

Australia's next submarine fleet will be nuclear-powered under an audacious plan that will see a controversial $90 billion program to build up to 12 French-designed submarines scrapped.

The ABC understands Australia will use American and British technology to configure its next submarine fleet in a bid to replace its existing Collins class subs with a boat more suitable to the deteriorating strategic environment.

Australia, the United States and Britain are expected to jointly announce a new trilateral security partnership on Thursday, with a focus on aligning technology and regional challenges.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/allied-naval-united-states-biden-australia-nuclear-submarines/100465628

[Silent Hunter]

That would be a step change in Australian naval capacity; SSNs are only limited in operational range by the food on board.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

People are assuming they'll be Astute class subs, which would be great news for BAE in Barrow and a feather in the cap for the government's "Global Britain" tilt to the Indo-Pacific. French foreign policy analysts are spitting feathers on Twitter.