Australian Politics

Via The Australian: Josh Frydenberg has launched a forceful pitch for the government to follow through with moving its Israeli embassy to ­Jerusalem, despite a regional backlash and domestic pressure to influence Scott Morrison’s ­review.

By Leith van Onselen As predicted, the Morrison Government will reportedly cut Australia’s permanent migrant ceiling by 30,000 in the lead-up to the federal election, to take effect by 1 July 2019.

What a fool, via Domainfax: The Morrison government has told Indonesian ministers there is “less than 5 per cent” chance it will go ahead with a divisive new policy on Israel, in a comment that could clear the way for a diplomatic retreat to seal a $16.5 billion free trade agreement.

While Australia is doing its level best to not mention China in any of its recent policy shifts, China doesn’t care, via the ABC: Just days out from APEC, China has warned of a “cold war mentality” toward the Pacific in an apparent reference to Australia’s pledge to increase its influence in the region.

Migration Council chief and AIG supremo, Innes Willox, is in hot water today.

Jeff Kennett today predicts a Victorian election boil over: Four years ago the ALP was fraudulently using public moneys for its own electoral purposes — the Red Shirts Affair — and then spent voters’ money trying to stop it becoming public.

Is the Pope a Catholic?

Via The Australian: An exclusive Newspoll conduct­ed for The Australian reveale­d a seven-point fall in suppor­t for Mr Shorten’s centrepiece housing policy amid a softening market, although backer­s of Labor’s tax overhaul still outweigh opponents by 47 to 33 per cent.

By Leith van Onselen It’s been amazing watching Scott Morrison’s speedy transformation from mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ defender to a sceptic on the verge of slashing the permanent migrant intake.

I used to be a fervent Australian republican and would have supported this in the past: Australians will be asked to vote on a republic in a $160 million national plebiscite under a Labor plan that rejects a postal survey in favour of a public ballot to resolve decades of dispute.

The headless chook of Australian China policy runs on today.

Holding ever tighter to his Canberra bubble, Peter Hartcher again misled over the demise of Malcolm Turnbull on the weekend: The former prime minister set out the basics during his appearance on the ABC’s Q&A show on Thursday: “The economy was strong.

Shockingly, it appears ScoMo’s disastrous Newspolls were actually a honeymoon: Scott Morrison has failed to arrest the slide in support for the government, with his own approval rating taking another hit in the wake of Malcolm Turnbull’s tirade against those who plotted his downfall.

By Leith van Onselen With mass immigration opponent, Luke Foley, resigning from the NSW Labor Party’s leadership last week, I was nervous that Labor would change track and elect a ‘Big Australia’ puppet as leader.

Via Allister Heath at The Telegraph: “…It used to be so easy.

Via The Guardian comes the post-truth world: Malcolm Turnbull has declared his removal from the prime ministership remains an act of unexplained madness, and has accused leading conservatives of “blowing up” the government, in his first, take-no-prisoners public appearance since the leadership coup in August.

Via the AFR: China says Australia has agreed to adopt a “trilateral” foreign policy approach to the South Pacific which would see the two countries cooperating rather than competing for influence in the region.

Via The Australian comes more unsettling revelations about Dan Andrews’ China foray: A staffer in Daniel Andrews’s office has been linked to China’s United Front organisation, which co-ordinates Beijing’s overseas influence operations, amid growing criticism of the Victoria Premier’s decision to sign up to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

As we’ve observed before, there is nothing that the Reserve Bank of Australia and friends won’t do, no place they won’t go, to protect their pet housing bubble.

By Leith van Onselen The Coalition’s analysis of income and tax data for 2015-16 shows that 1.3 million Australians owned a negatively-geared investment property during that financial year.

Via The Australian: Amid growing concerns over the strategic implications of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative, a number of federal Labor MPs told The Australian they were astonished the Andrews government had decided to break ranks with federal Labor to back the controversial initiative.

Via News: MARK Latham has indicated he will be joining Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, saying an announcement would be made “soon”.