How the utterly incompetent old burnt out union brown noser Bull S. misread Bennelong.




China syndrome leaves unanswered questions about Australian politics. Did the scandal surrounding senator Dastyari and his links to Chinese businessmen spark backlash in Sydney by-election?
By LACHLAN COLQUHOUN DECEMBER 18, 2017 12:04 PM (UTC+8) 214

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal-National Government won a crucial by-election in Sydney during the weekend, but the result posed more questions than it has answered.

What we do know is that the Liberal Party incumbent John Alexander, forced to seek re-election by revelations that he may have British dual citizenship and therefore unable to sit in Parliament, hung on to his seat despite a 5% swing to the opposition Labor Party.

On a two-party preferred basis under Australia’s system, Alexander won 55% of the vote and his Labor opponent 45%. Strangely, for a by-election, both sides are claiming they are winners.

The victory for Alexander, a popular former tennis champion who represented Australia at Wimbledon and in the Davis Cup, means that the Turnbull government has hung on to its one seat majority in the Australian House of Representatives.

But this is where certainty ends. Key questions still need to be answered. For example, can the 5% swing against the government in the Bennelong seat be replicated in the next general election?

After all, Labor fielded a star candidate in former New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally, and she may have been responsible for much of the swing.

Also, if the 5% swing was repeated, Turnbull would be out and the Labor Party would win more than 20 seats and be in government. Yet that raises another question: Could the swing in Bennelong be repeated nationally?

Another intriguing question is whether the Bennelong result will re-boot the government, which has endured an horrorific 2017? Turnbull, naturally, is talking it up but the closely watched Newspoll survey shows the popularity needle has barely moved for the government.

Put together during the same weekend as the by-election, the News Ltd opinion poll showed Labor leading Turnbull’s conservative coalition by 53% to 47%. This is the 25th consecutive Newspoll the government has lost.

It is worth recalling that Turnbull moved on previous Prime Minister Tony Abbott and challenged him after he lost 30 consecutive Newspolls. If the trend continues, will that embolden Conservative rivals to mount a leadership coup attempt?

Finally, what was the impact of the Asian, and particularly Chinese, vote in Bennelong? The election took place immediately after a scandal in which Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced to resign because of his links with Chinese businessmen close to the Beijing Government.

Turnbull’s administration leveraged the revelations that Dastyari had accepted Chinese donor funds and had also lobbied colleagues against meeting with Hong Kong democracy activists as a sign that he had questionable loyalty to Australia. One called him a “double agent.”

Media coverage of Beijing’s influence on Australian public affairs has been a running story in the country for most of 2017. The Dastyari affair brought it to a head, prompting a ban on foreign political donations.

But how did this influence the large number of Chinese voters in Bennelong? Did they agree with the government line that interference from Beijing was compromising Australia’s sovereignty?  Or did they view it as “China bashing” and react against it by voting Labor?

For observers of Australian politics, this final question is possibly the most relevant because it addresses the changing demographics of the country and the political sentiment of Asian voters.

According to the 2016 Census, 21% of the population of Bennelong, an electorate on the north-western suburban fringes of Sydney, are of Chinese ancestry, while 4.7% are Korean. This 21% is significantly higher than the national average of 3.9% with Chinese ancestry.

So what did Chinese voters do in the ballot box on Saturday, in an election where the “China Issue” was front and centre, and a major campaigning point for both leading candidates?

On the one side was a government pointing the finger at Beijing, and at Labor opponents, for seeking undue Chinese influence in Australian politics. On the other side, Labor’s Kristina Keneally blasted the government’s “China phobia.”

Analysis of the Bennelong vote by The Australian newspaper found that Chinese voters had largely swung to Labor. The biggest swings against the government came in polling booths with the largest Chinese populations.

In two suburbs, where voters of Chinese ancestry accounted for 34.5% and 32% residents, the swing to Labor was 12% – more than double the average swing of 5%.

Read the rest of the downfall of Bull S. here

http://www.atimes.com/article/china-syndrome-leaves-unanswered-questions-austral...

Bill Shorten changes position like a pinball in a machine

He stands flor nothing except vast debt and being in bed with the radical Greens Party

Don't forget... Shorten was AGAINST the Gay Marriage referendum but leapt on board when the result was an outstanding success for the vote

He is a liar in every way and cannot be trusted to take the garbage out let alone run a Country

Gee this will be all rather devastating for the ever loving Lefty LW.

The gecko troll is feeling left out and wants some attention.

I won't take up unnecessary space quoting the op, but yes, AGAINST ALL THE ODDS, I can see Turnbull winning the next election.

I am not sensing a doom & gloom atmosphere in business or society generally that would portend a change of government.

Could be wrong of course, but we'll see.

How much goodness can Australia take as the triumphant Lib Govt goes from success to success and saves Australia from being dragged down into the Socialist gutter by the toxic pariah Bull S. ?

Economic success will win the election for the Libs.



Could a boom and budget surplus save Malcolm Turnbull as PM?
By Peter Switzer Published: Monday, December 18, 2017

Hold the press! Positive headline alert coming from major newspapers with Treasurer’s budget showing our debt is $11.9 billion lower than what was forecast!

But wait, there’s more — it’s now conceivable that we could be back into a budget surplus by 2020, which would be great timing, as that’s when I’m going to be more cautious about a US recession and Wall Street crash!

And the timing could not be better for a PM, whose Government has been clobbered for the 25th time in a row by Labor in the popularity survey called Newspoll!

The current score is Labor 53% on a two-party preferred basis to the Coalition on 47 but it was 54-46 on the previous poll, so there’s some improvement. And a booming economy in 2018 with the budget deficit shrinking and debt evaporating might be the news that could turn around Malcolm Turnbull’s Government stocks.

One of the great reasons Australia weathered the GFC storm without a recession was because the Rudd Labor Government inherited a big budget surplus and virtually no debt thanks to the Howard Coalition Government.

For Treasurer Scott Morrison the economy is turning and will help his reputation as the nation’s top bean-counter if he can set Australia up for a budget surplus in three years time.

Today we will hear that the MYEFO — Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook — will show the budget for this financial year is expected to wind up $11.9 billion better than was guessed at May when the Budget was handed down.

Net debt is tipped to top out at 19.2% of GDP in 2018-19, which was heading to 19.8% in May, but our economy is growing faster than expected and so the deficit and debt drops.

The gross debt improvement will be higher at $23 billion but it still climbs to $583 billion by 2020-21.

A Fairfax report makes a worthwhile point: “Crucially, from this current financial year, the government will no longer have to borrow money to pay for everyday expenditure on pensions, health and education - a year ahead of schedule.”



It all goes to the budget bottom line and if the Oz economy keeps growing in 2018 and 2019, as I’ve tipped for over a year in this column, then the improvement in our finances might not only be better than expected, but it could actually make more Australian voters give Malcolm’s Government another chance in the 2019 poll.

http://www.switzer.com.au/the-experts/peter-switzer-expert/could-a-boom-and-budg...

The Kat seems to have been smelling the catnip.

Truly a powerful force in the discussion of the topic.

And Mal's new super election winning ministry is being sworn in.