Australian Politics

Via the ABC: Scott Morrison has earnt a permanent place as a Liberal Party legend — returning the Government in what was meant to be an unwinnable election for the Coalition.

By Leith van Onselen Many of us were hoping in vain that a Shorten-led Labor Government would follow the will of the electorate and lower Australia’s immigration intake back to sensible historical levels: Sadly, the opposite is true.

Via William Bowe: Federal opinion poll aggregate and seat prediction model, drawing on polling by Newspoll, Galaxy, Ipsos, YouGov, Essential Research and ReachTEL.

Via the AFR’s official muckraker: Is there genuinely no bow too long for our sibling mastheads TheSydney Morning Herald and The Age to draw in their advancement mission for former Liberal deputy Julie Bishop?

Good job ABC’s The Business: The incoming Labor Government must immediately toughen the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) with a $6Gj price cap or export net back that includes LNG plant capital costs, whichever is lower.

Wishful thinking at the AFR: Labor is clinging to the slimmest of leads over the Coalition, putting it on track to fall over the line in Saturday’s federal election.

Final look at election odds before the election: There have been some improvements for the Coalition overall.

Via the ABC: Bob Hawke, Australia’s 23rd prime minister and Labor Party legend, has died at the age of 89.

Via Domain: Thousands of robocalls by Yellow Brick Road founder Mark Bouris urging voters to reject Labor at Saturday’s election have fallen foul of election laws amid accusations he told “lies” about Bill Shorten’s negative gearing proposals.

Via The Guardian: Labor remains ahead of the Coalition in the final Guardian Essential poll of the 2019 campaign, and a majority of voters believe Bill Shorten will be the winner on Saturday night.

Via Bloomie: Donald Trump ratcheted up his battle with China for dominance of 5G technology networks, moving to curb Huawei Technologies Co.’s access to the U.S.

We all know who made the Kingslayer.

Via The Guardian comes a non-fake lefty at last: She marked her return on Facebook, with a video straight out of a Quentin Tarantino film, buttoning her jacket, arranging her hair and slipping on stiletto heels to heavy metal music.

By Leith van Onselen From Roy Morgan Research comes an interesting profile of the Australian Greens: Greens supporters are concentrated in the highest socio-economic quintiles with 31% of Greens supporters in the highest socio economic AB quintile in 2018, unchanged from 2010, and 24% of Greens supporters in the C quintile, also unchanged.

Via the AFR: China sees a potential change of government in Australia as a chance to reset the bilateral relationship, which soured under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as concerns around security overshadowed the economic benefits.

Via The Australian: An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian also shows an upswing in popular support for Bill Shorten, whose net approval ratings have hit a four-year high.

I know it’s hard for them to let go with their history of Gough Whitlam’s leadership and all but it’s time the ALP gave up on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Quick update to election odds from earlier this week after the final leadership debate: Both major parties improved odds in seats they were already favoured to win, but there was little major movement elsewhere.

Here they are: Given the basis of them is the dodgy PEFO take ’em with a grain of salt.

Very important stuff from Clive Hamilton today: Understanding China’s Threat to Australia’s National Security  As long at the Communist Party rules China it will pose a persistent and serious threat to Australia’s national security.

Cross-posted from Mark the Ballot: A couple of days ago I made the following statement: I must admit that the under-dispersion of the recent polls troubles me a little.