The Albanese government

[Smurf1976]

The Greens are anti development, they don’t want heavy industries.

Regardless of what the party actually wants, their recent official policy statements on the matter have called for more smelting, refining etc of minerals to be done in Australia. So taking them at their word they're at least somewhat favourable to the idea these days.

Agreed Labor isn't keen on small business due to the union aspect. The only thing I'm not sure about is how they seemingly lost focus on that in the first place.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Coalition's energy policy is based on sharp fall in industrial energy use which, realistically in practice, means large scale industry shutdowns.

The latter's what's tipped me into the Labor camp for the next election. A plan to wipe out what's left of Australian manufacturing is the last thing we need.

As for small business, I've nothing against it but far too much is just service economy based. It's cafes and the like or it's people going around to homes and doing some menial task like washing the dog or bringing them take away food. There's a place for that to an extent but ultimately it's not bringing one cent into the country from overseas, at the macro level it's consumption not production from a national perspective. Something that's extremely relevant given the state of the AUD and the almost certain future decline of some existing key exports.

Now if that small business is manufacturing product for export well then I'm all for it. Not if it's just more low value added services for locals though - that model's essentially the American one that people there are fed up with and suffice to say Trump didn't win by promising more lawyers or household services, his promise was about physical production.

If policies change then my vote will change and I've voted for both major parties within the past decade. If the Coalition came up with a better plan then I'll vote for it. It needs to be something that brings big $ into Australia though, we're not looking for make work schemes.

 

[JohnDe]

Regardless of what the party actually wants, their recent official policy statements on the matter have called for more smelting, refining etc of minerals to be done in Australia. So taking them at their word they're at least somewhat favourable to the idea these days.

Agreed Labor isn't keen on small business due to the union aspect. The only thing I'm not sure about is how they seemingly lost focus on that in the first place.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Coalition's energy policy is based on sharp fall in industrial energy use which, realistically in practice, means large scale industry shutdowns.

The latter's what's tipped me into the Labor camp for the next election. A plan to wipe out what's left of Australian manufacturing is the last thing we need.

As for small business, I've nothing against it but far too much is just service economy based. It's cafes and the like or it's people going around to homes and doing some menial task like washing the dog or bringing them take away food. There's a place for that to an extent but ultimately it's not bringing one cent into the country from overseas, at the macro level it's consumption not production from a national perspective. Something that's extremely relevant given the state of the AUD and the almost certain future decline of some existing key exports.

Now if that small business is manufacturing product for export well then I'm all for it. Not if it's just more low value added services for locals though - that model's essentially the American one that people there are fed up with and suffice to say Trump didn't win by promising more lawyers or household services, his promise was about physical production.

If policies change then my vote will change and I've voted for both major parties within the past decade. If the Coalition came up with a better plan then I'll vote for it. It needs to be something that brings big $ into Australia though, we're not looking for make work schemes.

All well and good when said. but the proof is in the pudding.

Insolvency figures released by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) show there was a threefold increase in the number of manufacturing insolvencies recorded in the first six months of 2023-24 compared to the same period in 2021-22, rising from 85 to 243. 22 Feb 2024​

Due to large increases in business operating costs, including but not limited to electricity and gas prices and new industrial relation obligations, we have seen the closure of manufacturing businesses. Not to mention the pin being pulled on the building of hydrogen plants across Australia.

Without small business there is no large manufacturing business. Small businesses are the ones that keep the workers fed and clothed, they are the ones that help reduce the cost of all the little parts, they are the delivery drivers, the cleaners, the person that fixes the trucks and cars, the printing shop down the road, the cafe, and don't forget the refrigeration mechanic with a crew of 10, or the electrician and crew, the plumber, the list goes on.

All those small to medium business are affected by the increased costs that the current government has put on them with their decarbonizing agenda and new industrial employment rules, and extra red tape.

Those increased costs get added to the bill when they all do a job for a large manufacturer that is trying to compete with the rest of the world. a world in which other governments are reducing the costs on business by cutting red tape and abandoning parts of their green agenda.

The Albanes Labor government has been too interested in social engineering the country, starting with the Voice and moving by stealth to bring a society that they see in their eyes as worthy. This all costs something, someone pays, and at the moment it is business.

There are so many examples. What happened to our only wind tower manufacturer? What happened to Tritium?

What is gong to happen to Victorian manufacturing? Woodside Energy says it’s too late to avoid an economically damaging gas shortfall in Victoria thanks to a decade of political opposition to the fossil fuel industry.

Unless the Albanes Labor government come up with a believable solution for the next 5 years, we are going to go through more of the same; business and manufacturing insolvencies.

As for the Greens Party, their mention of smelters is during media presentations. They know that they will not win government, but they do know that they will be able to influence the Labor government as they did in 2010

Greens Election Policy Platform | The Australian Greens

greens.org.au

 

[Sean K]

This couldn't possibly be a one term government could it? I mean, I know they only got about 35% of the primary vote last run, but the electorate seem to hate the LNP even more.

At best it looks like a hung parliament and the ALP needing either the Greens (God forbid) or Key independants and Teals to form a government. It could easily go the other way.

Albo seems to have really cocked this up and is showing he's under pressure. Even the ABC are testing him.

Anthony Albanese has accused an ABC Radio host of “verballing” him during an at-times hostile interview with the public broadcaster, taking issue with questioning about his declining popularity.

Appearing on ABC Alice Springs on Friday, the Prime Minister became increasingly testy with host Stewart Brash after he was asked if it was “a bit dumbfounding that a first-term prime minister is claiming underdog status” and if he recognised he was “a bit on the nose with the electorate”.

In response the PM replied: “You’re verballing me there.”

Mr Brash replied: “Well that’s my job,” a claim that was immediately dismissed by Mr Albanese.

“No, no, no it’s not actually. It’s not the job of the ABC. There’s enough other media outlets that engage in that,” Mr Albanese said.
The ABC host continued with the line of questions, asking if Mr Albanese accepted “underdog status” to which the Prime Minister replied: “I’m confident that we will form a majority government after the next election.”

Later asked if he “was the problem” causing Labor’s sliding popularity, Mr Albanese referred to inflation being a global phenomenon and the government’s cost-of-living support.

Nearing the end of the interview, Mr Brash says: “I thought you’d have a go at me for verballing you over being on the nose with the electorate as opposed to being an underdog, but that’s OK.”

Now frustrated, Mr Albanese replied: “There’s enough people [who] join in. There’s a bit of media – and the ABC join in on it sometimes – OK, I’ve got to say … one thing … where…”

Mr Brash cuts him off before the interview ends with the song “Camp Dog” by Arnhem Land band King Stingray.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Mr Brash cuts him off before the interview ends with the song “Camp Dog” by Arnhem Land band King Stingray.

 

[Smurf1976]

Due to large increases in business operating costs, including but not limited to electricity and gas prices and new industrial relation obligations, we have seen the closure of manufacturing businesses. Not to mention the pin being pulled on the building of hydrogen plants across Australia.

Without small business there is no large manufacturing business. Small businesses are the ones that keep the workers fed and clothed, they are the ones that help reduce the cost of all the little parts, they are the delivery drivers, the cleaners, the person that fixes the trucks and cars, the printing shop down the road, the cafe, and don't forget the refrigeration mechanic with a crew of 10, or the electrician and crew, the plumber, the list goes on.

Absolutely.

The problem I see though is about Australia, referring to the country overall, having some sort of viable wealth creating industry going forward and in particular industry that brings money into the country. Because if we don't have that, we're on the road to financial oblivion given how reliant we are on importing a very wide range of goods.

At this point well the AUD's hovering around the 62c level. Not a crisis but it's starting to matter, it's starting to meaningfully impact the price of imports and that includes things for which there's no local alternative. It won't be good for the standard of living of Australians if it falls much lower and it's already impacting some industries such as entertainment.

Now looking at our top 3 exports, that being iron ore, coal and gas in that order, we're in an extremely vulnerable position where the writing is very much on the wall that it's a dangerous situation to be in.

I see a lot of similarities between Australia's present economy and the personal circumstances of someone who makes it big in an inherently short lived career such as professional sports for example. It's not going to last forever, the clock's ticking, so either the individual successfully transitions into an alternative career, invests enough to generate a passive income, or ends up stuffed once the inevitable happens. As it stands Australia seems well on the way to the latter scenario.

Politically that's a swipe at all of them. Anyone who can do better, anyone with a viable way forward, has my attention......

As for the present federal government, well I wasn't there but I'm told by a contact that strong words were said just before Christmas last year. I'll reserve judgement there.

 

[SirRumpole]

As for the present federal government, well I wasn't there but I'm told by a contact that strong words were said just before Christmas last year

About what?

 

[Smurf1976]

About what?

Story I've heard is it was very firmly about focusing on mainstream issues otherwise Labor will be back in opposition.

I wasn't there but I've no reason to doubt what my contact is saying.

 

[SirRumpole]

Story I've heard is it was very firmly about focusing on mainstream issues otherwise Labor will be back in opposition.

Very good advice from whoever gave that.

But then again, the indigenous get another big handout, deserved or not, so I don't know what the optics of that is.

Despite differences, there is a parallel with the US. The DEI agenda is on the nose with a lot of people. Why should the majority ethnic group work hard and achieve good school/uni results if positions are going to be given to people of less merit? Of course a minority person may be of the higher merit, there are a quite a few around(eg Chinese computer scientists), but the DEI trope should be dropped and it should be made clear that positions are appointed on merit and for no other reason.

 

[PZ99]

This is extraordinary. The Coalition have completely gone back on their own beliefs on this...

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/coalition-attempts-to-silence-attorneygeneral-mark-dreyfus-during-comments-against-antisemitism/news-story/339627cab426e452c3f1ee76db0f89a7

 

[SirRumpole]

This is extraordinary. The Coalition have completely gone back on their own beliefs on this...

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/coalition-attempts-to-silence-attorneygeneral-mark-dreyfus-during-comments-against-antisemitism/news-story/339627cab426e452c3f1ee76db0f89a7

The Opposition are shambolic in a number of ways. I don't know what they expected to achieve by this ridiculous motion.

 

[Sean K]

So, the tariffs still apply after Albo's very nice chat to Trump last night.

I wonder if Rudd was also on the line?

Rudd: “the most destructive president in history”, “village idiot” and a “traitor to the West”. I'm sure that helped.

But, some mixed messages.

 

[PZ99]

Meanwhile Dutton had to open his big mouth on it.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he wanted to send a "very clear message to the Trump administration" that the relationship between the two allies would be damaged if the tariffs remain in place.

US tariff exemption for Australian metal exports 'under consideration'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had a "constructive and warm" conversation with Donald Trump, after the president announced 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the United States.

www.abc.net.au

Dutton is another fugghead. So the party that started the inflationary spiral is now putting up the inflammatory comments as well. Thanks ma-a-a-a-a-te.

 

[mullokintyre]

Australia is unique, in that apart from being one of the five eyes and a strong ally, the US has the advantage of a trade surplus with OZ.
It makes little sense from a trade perspective, unless of course we are merely considered collateral damage.
trump would more likely see a closer ally in Dutton than Albanese, and he has already been bagged out by Rudd, so he may not see the Labour government in a terribly favourable light.
But then again, he probably has the fishnet stockings boy in his memory banks as one of the instigators in the fake steel dossier.
Mick

From USSC

Mick

 

[JohnDe]

 

[Sean K]

Any thoughts on these out of schedule citizenship ceremonies in Western Sydney just before an election?

I'm not sure they are 'out of schedule' or if they're all going to vote Labor, but as a new immigrant you'd feel pretty chuffed to have your citizenship fast tracked by a government of either persuasion.

Tony Burke flat out bald faced lying about how Dai Le was or wasn't invited to the ceremonies is a bit interesting.

Looks like James Patterson is going to grill Home Affairs in estimates today.

How did Labor think this was a good idea? Probably the same advisors that told Albo it was a good idea to buy a $3.5m beach house before a cost of living crisis election.

 

[JohnDe]

Any thoughts on these out of schedule citizenship ceremonies in Western Sydney just before an election?

I'm not sure they are 'out of schedule' or if they're all going to vote Labor, but as a new immigrant you'd feel pretty chuffed to have your citizenship fast tracked by a government of either persuasion.

Tony Burke flat out bald faced lying about how Dai Le was or wasn't invited to the ceremonies is a bit interesting.

Looks like James Patterson is going to grill Home Affairs in estimates today.

How did Labor think this was a good idea? Probably the same advisors that told Albo it was a good idea to buy a $3.5m beach house before a cost of living crisis election.

Burke’s citizenship blitz betrays a government in election panic

Few government ministers would give up their weekend to clear an administrative backlog at any point of the election cycle, let alone on the eve of a campaign.
Which is why we must conclude that Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s explanation last Friday for unprecedented mass citizenship ceremonies in western Sydney is tosh. Burke was not there to reduce an alleged waiting list of 50,000 would-be citizens. He was there to stack the electoral roll with thousands of people he thinks will vote Labor.

If Burke has a late-onset passion for clearing backlogs, he and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus might turn their minds to the 35,000 people appealing visa refusals at the Administrative Review Tribunal. Two-thirds of these are students who have overstayed their welcome.

The average processing time for visa review is almost a year. The processing time for citizenship ceremonies is less than three months.

Ministerial behaviour as sordid as this betrays the panic in Labor ranks. Panicky governments make tactical mistakes.

The last thing Burke should be doing right now is drawing attention to immigration. None of the 1.4 million migrants who arrived between July 2022 and June 2024 is eligible to become a citizen but most of them will one day.

Tony Burke at the citizenship ceremony. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Images of Burke presiding over an industrial-scale citizenship ceremony in the style of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon conducting mass weddings is further evidence the government is out of touch with voters in the heartland where nothing matters more than the cost of living.

A government prepared to trade citizenship for votes forfeits any right to criticise the Coalition for targeting grants at marginal electorates. Former Coalition sports minister Bridget McKenzie was hammered for what Labor dubbed the sports rorts affair. The average size of grants was $147,901.

The prize of citizenship, however, is priceless in the eyes of millions of Australians who queued up to enter the country legally, worked hard and obeyed the law in the hope of one day gaining the security, stability and sense of belonging that comes with citizenship.

A minister who appears to be treating certificates like real-estate brochures in a box labelled “Please take one” is committing profanity in the eyes of patriotic, socially conservative blue-collar voters who were once rusted on to Labor but have been steadily rusting off for the past 30 years.

Once they would have been the core constituents in a seat such as Watson, which Burke has occupied since 2004. Today it is a multicultural enclave demographically poles apart from most of the rest of Australia.

More than half the population (55 per cent) was born overseas. Only 12 per cent had two Australian-born parents, compared with 13 per cent who had Chinese-born parents and 14 per cent whose parents came from Lebanon.

A quarter of Burke’s constituents are Muslim. Fewer than half (49 per cent) are in the workforce compared with 61 per cent across the country. The unemployment rate at the time of the 2021 census was 7 per cent compared with a national rate of 5.1 per cent.

This helps to explain why the first item that appears on Burke’s electoral website when one clicks on “How can we help?” is about Centrelink. The second item invites constituents to contact Burke’s office if they need help with immigration, passports, citizenship, visas or travel documents.

No help is offered for small businesses or families who are doing it tough.

It provides a small clue to Burke’s politically inept citizenship stunt. Burke is a career politician whose world view is distorted by the world he inhabits: a multicultural, statist dystopia in which branches are stacked, civil institutions are commandeered for base political ends and government is the answer to everything.

Burke wasn’t in parliament in 1999 when Michael Thompson wrote Labor without Class: The Gentrification of the ALP. Yet Thompson, as he explained why so many working-class voters abandoned Labor and voted for John Howard in 1996, might have been writing about him.

Thompson concluded that Labor had been captured by a university-educated professional elite that was consciously rebranding Labor as the party of the activist middle class, appealing to a rainbow coalition of special interest groups. Thompson’s book was endorsed by Martin Ferguson, a former ACTU leader, who represented the Victorian seat of Batman for Labor for 17 years.

Mark Dreyfus.

In a frank foreword, he criticises the “middle-class tertiary educated ‘femocrats’ (who) speak only to and for their peers” and special interest groups “skilled at cloaking their self-interest in the language of compassion, and whose moral outrage is often levelled at fundamental working-class values such as hard work, independence and the traditional family.” Ferguson’s views were once mainstream in Labor. Today, it is hard to identify a single senior figure on the Labor side who sees the world as Ferguson did.

The retirement of Bill Shorten left the party entirely in the hands of people such as Burke and Anthony Albanese, political careerists with no higher aim than being in government. The attitude and instincts are as far removed from the working class as it is possible to imagine.

Peter Dutton will make further incursions beyond the red wall in this year’s election. The seats most at risk are not those such as Watson but the white-flight suburban outer ring where white, socially conservative blue-collar voters are in the majority. They include seats such as Whitlam in the Illawarra, where 78 per cent of the population were born in Australia and two-thirds of those born overseas have lived here for at least 25 years. The unemployment rate in 2021 was 4.2 per cent, considerably below the national rate.

Tony Burke joins independent Fowler MP Dai Le and Liverpool mayor Ned Manour during a citizenship ceremony.

If inflation and energy prices don’t drive these people to the Coalition this year, then immigration probably will. They would have watched agog as Burke powered up the multicultural production line.

To secure a paltry number of extra votes in Watson, Burke has accelerated the mass defection away from Labor in NSW and Victoria. Worse, his actions have further undermined public support for multiculturalism. High immigration numbers under Labor, the pressure on house prices and the changing character of our cities had boosted the ranks of multiculturalism’s discontents even before the Jewish community became the target of sectarian intimidation and violence.

Gough Whitlam’s immigration minister, Al Grassby, was the inventor of multiculturalism in Labor mythology, if not in fact. Burke will be the minister who presided over its end.

The message from the heartland is abundantly clear. Australians not only want to decide who comes to this country but the cultures from which they come.

Nick Cater is a senior fellow at the Menzies Research Centre.

 

[JohnDe]

Anthony Albanese’s response to the drill says a lot about his lack of attention to detail and the political strife it gets him in.​

​

He claimed that China provided notice of the drill “in accordance with practice”, when it provided no advance warning at all.​

​

And he wrongly claimed the alert from the New Zealand frigate shadowing the Chinese flotilla was received by Australia “at around the same time” as the Virgin pilot’s notification to Airservices Australia. In fact, the warning came through 50 minutes later.​

​

His looseness on such a serious matter should send shivers down the spines of his colleagues given an election announcement is imminent.​

Australia, we are completely unprepared for China​

There has been ‘unprecedented surveillance’ of the three Chinese warships that have lurked off Australia’s coast for more than a fortnight.

The scale of the debacle surrounding China’s live weapons drills in the Tasman Sea was laid bare this week, not by the opposition or the government but by Greens Senator David Shoebridge.

“I’m trying to work out how it is with a $55.7bn budget, we find out from a Virgin pilot and a delayed notification from New Zealand,” he told Senate estimates on Wednesday.

Shoebridge, despite his political stripe, is well informed on defence matters. His brother, Michael Shoebridge, is a former Defence official and a noted security analyst.

His point was well made. For all the billions taxpayers have poured into exquisite military capabilities, the Australian Defence Force only learned about Friday’s live weapons drill second-hand and after the fact.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says there has been “unprecedented surveillance” of the three Chinese warships that have lurked off Australia’s coast for more than a fortnight.

If that’s the case, why was Australia happy to hive off its some of monitoring of the Chinese warships to New Zealand, which notified Australia of the live fire drill 90 minutes after it began?

And why wasn’t an RAAF surveillance aircraft in the area to hear the Chinese radio warning which was picked up by a Virgin pilot and relayed to Defence 40 minutes after the exercise window opened?

Anthony Albanese’s response to the drill says a lot about his lack of attention to detail and the political strife it gets him in.

He claimed that China provided notice of the drill “in accordance with practice”, when it provided no advance warning at all.

And he wrongly claimed the alert from the New Zealand frigate shadowing the Chinese flotilla was received by Australia “at around the same time” as the Virgin pilot’s notification to Airservices Australia. In fact, the warning came through 50 minutes later.

His looseness on such a serious matter should send shivers down the spines of his colleagues given an election announcement is imminent.

The Coalition has seized on the inconsistencies, accusing Albanese of misleading the public and being “weak” on matters of national security.

Penny Wong was sent in to clean up the mess on Thursday, applying her trademark indignation to accuse the Coalition of politicising the episode.

“What Australians don’t want in the face of these circumstances is reckless political games from people who claim to be leaders,” she said.

But her intervention was as political as those of the opposition, and its forcefulness a reflection of the coming federal poll.

China’s leaders in Beijing must be patting themselves on the back at the merry hell their warships have created while adhering to the letter of international law. This of course was their aim all along.

As Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty told Senate estimates: “The Chinese are signalling. They are practising and rehearsing, and they are collecting (intelligence).”

Chinese warship south of Tasmania on Wednesday. Picture: New Zealand Defence Force

The presence in the naval task force of one of China’s most formidable vessels, a Renhai cruiser with more than double the firepower of any of Australia’s warships, was designed to send a message to Australia about the nation’s vulnerability.

This is Beijing saying, “We can hit your biggest east coast cities”.

The takeaway for Australia is we are completely unprepared to counter China’s powerful bluewater navy, not to mention its long-range missiles, despite record levels of defence spending.

The navy’s Collins-class submarines are old and unreliable. Its workhorse Anzac frigates are tired and in need of replacement, but the first of nine new general purpose frigates won’t be delivered until the end of the decade.

The botched Hunter-class frigates program won’t produce a ship until the early 2030s, and AUKUS may or may not deliver Australia a nuclear-powered submarine from the early 2030s.

Meanwhile, investments in missile defence have been downgraded and the ADF has virtually no lethal drones.

Defence officials should hang their heads in shame that the ADF is in such a poor state that it couldn’t even keep on top of the activities of three Chinese ships between Australia and New Zealand.

Senior Labor and Coalition figures should join them, having failed to renew the force sufficiently over the course of successive governments.

The scale of the debacle surrounding China’s live weapons drills in the Tasman Sea was laid bare this week, not by the opposition or the government but by Greens Senator David Shoebridge.

“I’m trying to work out how it is with a $55.7bn budget, we find out from a Virgin pilot and a delayed notification from New Zealand,” he told Senate estimates on Wednesday.

Shoebridge, despite his political stripe, is well informed on defence matters. His brother, Michael Shoebridge, is a former Defence official and a noted security analyst.

His point was well made. For all the billions taxpayers have poured into exquisite military capabilities, the Australian Defence Force only learned about Friday’s live weapons drill second-hand and after the fact.


Defence Minister Richard Marles says there has been “unprecedented surveillance” of the three Chinese warships that have lurked off Australia’s coast for more than a fortnight.

If that’s the case, why was Australia happy to hive off its some of monitoring of the Chinese warships to New Zealand, which notified Australia of the live fire drill 90 minutes after it began?

And why wasn’t an RAAF surveillance aircraft in the area to hear the Chinese radio warning which was picked up by a Virgin pilot and relayed to Defence 40 minutes after the exercise window opened?

Anthony Albanese’s response to the drill says a lot about his lack of attention to detail and the political strife it gets him in.

 

[IFocus]

Ok who here gave Dutton the tip to buy the bottom of the banks?

 

[sptrawler]

Ok who here gave Dutton the tip to buy the bottom of the banks?

Come on @divs4ever , own up.

 

[JohnDe]