If all else fails ...

Raise the fear level.

A classic ploy.   







The Australian government has raised the country’s terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, reversing a change made nearly two years ago.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is making the announcement in Canberra.

Intelligence sources said the decision to raise the threat level was not triggered by any single issue or ideology, but noted an overall increase in polarisation in Australia and other western countries.

The sources said social cohesion was under strain and Covid-era grievances were being exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The terror threat level was last changed in 2022 when it was lowered to “possible”.

The latest Newspoll has Labor and the Coalition tied on two-party preferred, after Labor led 51-49 in the last Newspoll three weeks ago. Labor is down a point to 32%, the Coalition up one to 39%, the Greens down one to 12% and One Nation steady on 6%. Anthony Albanese is down a point on approval to 43% and steady on disapproval at 51%, while Peter Dutton is is down one to 40% and up one to 50%. Albanese’s lead as preferred prime minister is unchanged at 46-39. The poll also finds 22% expect a majority Labor government after the next election, 33% minority Labor, 24% minority Coalition and 21% majority Coalition.

The monthly Resolve Strategic poll, showing Labor up a point to 29%, the Coalition down one to 37%, the Greens steady on 13% and One Nation down one to 6%, suggesting a two-party preferred very close to 50-50. Anthony Albanese’s combined very good and good rating is up two to 34%, with poor and very poor down three to 51%, while Peter Dutton is respectively up two to 41% and down two to 38%. Dutton maintains a one-point lead as preferred prime minister, which shifts from 35-34 to 36-35.

Very interesting that at least two "Teal" seats look likely to return to the Libs.

That would be causing some in Labor to break out in a cold sweat.   

The teals are at real risk of losing in the Melbourne seats of Goldstein and Kooyong, Mackellar in Sydney and Curtin in Perth.

The old adage that "the polls tighten just before the election" ... doesn't really apply this time. Given that we are about 6 months away from the General election - How can the polls tighten anymore than the current 50-50?   

Freebie Albanese losing more support, this time from some of the Labor faithful?

‘Done over’: Labor dismay over PM’s call to ditch environment watchdog

Mike Foley and James Massola
November 29, 2024 — 4.00am



Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scrambling to calm Labor MPs dismayed by his decision to override Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and cancel her deal with the Greens to establish a national environment watchdog.

Albanese called a number of MPs on Thursday morning to reassure them Labor’s commitment to creating an environment protection agency was not dead after he personally intervened on Tuesday night to cancel an imminent deal to legislate the agency in the Senate.

The prime minister reassured MPs – some of whom face a serious threat from Greens candidates at the next election – that the bill to create the agency could return to parliament in February and that the plan to create the environmental agency was not dead.

Labor committed during the 2022 election campaign to create national environment standards and an agency with the power to levy heavy fines to protect nature.

As the government scrambled to strike deals in the Senate with the crossbench to pass a raft of other legislation on the final sitting day of the year, there is a growing expectation in Labor ranks that parliament will not return next year.

While Albanese has always insisted his plan is to go full term and schedule the election in May, this masthead has been told by eight Labor MPs the poll would either be called in late January for March 1, or after the West Australian election for April 12. In either case, the government would not hand down another budget.

Albanese killed the deal to create the agency over concerns that a deal with the Greens would be weaponised by the federal opposition and the resources sector before the next election.

West Australia Premier Roger Cook said on Wednesday the EPA “was going to disadvantage West Australian industry”. The West Australian newspaper reported Cook had convinced Albanese to make the decision.

But in an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 program, Albanese ducked a suggestion Cook had helped influence his decision to scrap the bill, stating that he had simply informed the premier Labor did not have the numbers to pass the bill without amendments.

“I spoke to the premier of WA about my visit to WA next week ... I informed him that we didn’t have the numbers to get the bill through,” Albanese said.

Albanese denied that he discussed with Cook the electoral implications of the creation of an EPA in Western Australia, and stated the bill would not pass the Senate this year but could return to parliament in February.

“The Senate will consider it in February ... we fully expect to be sitting in February.”

Speaking publicly for the first time since her bill was scrapped, Plibersek told 2GB that senator Katy Gallagher, who organises government business in the Senate, had committed that the bill would come back in February.

She said Cook had not called her “about this legislation at all” but added that she hoped the Senate would vote it into law next year.

The Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), which is the biggest grouping in the party’s membership with 500 branches on the eastern seaboard, is horrified by Albanese’s failure to progress the agency Labor promised to create.

LEAN has campaigned for a federal environment watchdog since 2017, including most recently with posters produced in the last month. The establishment of the agency has been listed on Labor’s national policy platform since 2018 and an election commitment since 2022.



One Labor MP said they were concerned about a backlash in their seat, but another MP said the proposed agency was unpopular in Western Australia – where Labor needs to hold on to a raft of seats – and suggested the EPA was dead “in the water”.

WA Labor MP Josh Wilson said the government had been ready to create the agency “but unfortunately after months of obstruction, the Greens have delayed their arrival in the land of common sense too long”.

“I’m glad we will return to our environmental reforms in the new year because Australia’s remarkable biodiversity clearly needs better protection. I hope all stakeholders can take a more sensible approach in 2025,” Wilson said.

Some MPs have suggested there were elements of the proposed deal with the Greens that would be unacceptable to the party, while others have backed Plibersek by stating she had not offered any concessions other than commitments to deliver what was already party policy.

It is understood that the Greens had sought and got agreement from Plibersek that in exchange for their support for the agency, Labor would establish national environmental standards.

“There was nothing on the table that wasn’t cabinet endorsed, existing Labor policy. It’s hard to see why we’d smash our own stated priorities,” Wade said.

...

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/done-over-labor-dismay-over-pm-s-call...

A terrible set of numbers for a treasurer and Reserve Bank governor

Shane Wright
December 4, 2024 — 7.30pm

Jim Chalmers and Michele Bullock have plenty to ponder after the poor September quarter national accounts showed an economy in real trouble.

For the treasurer, the problem is political.


Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock and Treasurer Jim Chalmers.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

By any measure, the living standards of most people are going backwards. Economic output per person has been falling for the best part of two years as a combination of low wage growth, high interest rates and high taxes hit households.

The past year has served up a combination of energy supplements, cheaper medicines, near-free public transport, the stage 3 tax cuts, a lift in wages and a jobs market so tight it’s got the Reserve Bank jumping at shadows – but none of this has been enough to get households spending over the past three months.

Household consumption – the driving engine of the economy – has fallen since March.

Instead of spending money, households have increased the amount they squirrel away in their bank accounts or under the mattress.

Immigration and public spending – including major projects such as suburban rail and defence equipment – is keeping the country barely ticking over.

Maybe people were saving so they could go on the mother of all spending sprees through the Black Friday sales, but you wouldn’t bet the government’s re-election on it.

Unhappy households aren’t often inclined to give their political leaders the benefit of the doubt. Chalmers knows that all too well.

No matter how much he tries to find a golden thread through these bleak numbers, there’s no getting away from the fact they show consumers are scarred and fearful.

At the Reserve Bank, governor Bullock can’t be feeling confident about how her institution is running the economy.

Its forecasts about economic growth and household consumption and wages growth, released just a few weeks ago, all look too high.

Fears of a wage-price spiral, which scared the bank for a year, proved ill-founded. A growing number of economists suspect the bank’s theory that unemployment needs to be around 4.5 per cent to curb inflationary pressures is incorrect.

The “narrow path” that both Bullock and her predecessor Philip Lowe talked about seems more like a single thread of old rope over a deep gorge. Economic growth has not been this poor, outside of COVID, since the 1990-91 recession that devastated much of the country.

Chalmers’ idol, Paul Keating, won the 1993 election with a million people out of work, suggesting even the largest economic difficulties can be overcome.

But in 1931, Labor treasurer Ted Theodore lost his seat as the Scullin government was swept from office after just one terrible term in power as the Great Depression began.

Theodore wasn’t helped by the central bank actively preventing him from trying to support the economy.

That’s something to ponder for both Chalmers and Bullock over the summer.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/a-terrible-set-of-numbers-for-a-treas...

The engine of Australia’s long-term prosperity has broken down, with an ailing private sector propped up by government spending splurges and record population growth.

It’s not a sustainable game plan to raise material living standards, which have fallen by more than 10 per cent during the past three years and in dollar terms are around the level they were five years ago.

Jim Chalmers highlights rays of hope – inflation is down, tax cuts, wages growth, bill relief – but voters aren’t buying it.
Tom Dusevic

I’m not seeing any cost of living release.
I’m not seeing any housing help ( and I mean for Australian family living in cars because there is nothing to rent).
I’m thinking I’m actually worse off than four years ago.

I’m hoping the election is called soon.