Australia’s property boom making the nation poorer

[themickey]

........"I'm on the side of homeowners": Morrison

Just a reminder........ news clip from 2019......

He was in it right up to his neck': How Scott Morrison deposed a prime minister

By Peter Hartcher March 26, 2019
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...deposed-a-prime-minister-20190312-p513jl.html

"This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him!" Credit:Artwork: Dionne Gain

When a reporter asked Scott Morrison if he had ambitions for Malcolm Turnbull's job at a joint press conference, he responded by throwing a friendly arm around his prime minister's shoulder.

"This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him!" he declared exuberantly.

That was on August 22, 2018. Two days later, Turnbull was gone. Morrison had taken his place......

 

[themickey]

• Politics
• Federal
• Australia votes

Corruption concerns prompt 31 judges to make rare election intervention

By David Crowe May 18, 2022

A rare alliance of 31 former judges has entered the election row over a national integrity commission by backing the case for a stronger watchdog and warning Australians risk being exposed to the “corrupt exercise of power” if parliament does not act.

In a forceful call for action, the group, including former High Court judge Mary Gaudron, QC, former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes, QC, and former Federal Court judge Michael Barker, QC, urges all sides of politics to set up a commission that could launch its own investigations and hold public hearings.

The group, including Mary Gaudron, QC, left, Catherine Holmes and Michael Barker, QC, says: “Nothing less than halting the serious erosion of our shared democratic principles is at stake.”Credit:Wolter Peeters, supplied, murraychamberswa.com.au

The open letter also rejects the political criticism of state agencies after Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption a “kangaroo court” and others in the government dismissed the need for tougher powers against wrongdoing in the federal government and public service.

“Nothing less than halting the serious erosion of our shared democratic principles is at stake,” the group writes.

“There must be conferred upon that commission a broad jurisdiction and strong investigative powers, including the power to hold public hearings, and respond to bona fide complaints from the public, so that serious or systemic corruption and misconduct can be adequately investigated and exposed.”

While the letter does not mention the “kangaroo court” comment, it strongly rejects the complaints about the state authorities.

“Despite recent criticisms of anti-corruption commissions, the widely accepted case for a well-designed national integrity commission remains impregnable,” the former judges write.

They note the federal government enters into contracts and makes grants worth hundreds of billions each year.

“This is public money, held on trust for the nation as a whole, to be spent in the national interest and not for unethical political purposes or illegitimate private gain,” the group writes.

“Where billions are to be spent and significant power is available to dispense it with little oversight, greedy people with convenient consciences and powerful connections will ensure that, with the manipulation of their influence, they will obtain illegal or unethical advantage to the detriment of the interests of the general public.

“And they will do so by means which only a specialist anti-corruption body will have the skill and power to detect.”

With the “teal” independent candidates campaigning on integrity while Labor leader Anthony Albanese vows to set up a tougher watchdog, the open letter escalates the political dispute over the integrity commission when the Coalition has played down the importance of the issue in shaping the election outcome this Saturday.

Morrison has proposed a commonwealth integrity commission that could hold public hearings for inquiries into the police or public officials but not politicians. The government proposal would not allow the agency to launch its own investigations or act on tips from the public.

Albanese is calling for a commission that can hold public hearings, launch its own investigations, act on public tips, issue public findings of corruption and look back at least 15 years to examine past behaviour.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has criticised the way Gladys Berejiklian was treated by an ICAC investigation.

Barker, who was a judge on the Supreme Court of Western Australia before his time on the Federal Court, said the open letter was intended for all sides of politics to “reinstate integrity and accountability” in the Australian political system.

“A national integrity commission with a broad jurisdiction, strong powers and public hearings is needed to restore trust in our democratic system,” he said.

“Without it, there is a real danger corruption will flourish.”
The letter will be sent to Morrison, Albanese, Greens leader Adam Bandt and minor party leaders on Wednesday morning.

The Centre for Public Integrity, a non-profit group including barristers and former judges, concluded last year that Morrison’s proposal was too weak but the new letter reflects a consensus from a much broader group.

“Unless checked, corruption corrodes the most precious values of a civilised society,” said former Victorian Court of Appeal judge David Harper, QC, a signatory to the letter.

“For those retired judges who have added our names to this open letter, the protection of the rule of law is so important that a public expression of our support for a national integrity commission dedicated to that end is eminently justified.”

Former Victorian Court of Appeal judge Stephen Charles, QC, a director of the Centre for Public Integrity, said billions of dollars in public money were being wasted on pork-barrelling.

“Institutions of democracy are being eroded. Important roles in government are being given to political friends. And there is no proper scrutiny of ministerial decision making. We must act now to rein in corruption in Australia,” he said.

The open letter warns that a political solution to the problem, through elections and media coverage and the scrutiny of parliament, has not produced consequences in real-time when wrongdoing has occurred in the past.

“Without the commission we envisage, the right of Australians to have their taxes employed for the maximum national advantage will not always prevail over the corrupt exercise of power,” it says.

 

[themickey]

Opinion
Why modern politics goads us to be greedy, and forget the needy

Ross Gittins
Economics Editor May 18, 2022
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the...edy-and-forget-the-needy-20220517-p5am0g.html

Mark, a voter in the Melbourne electorate of Higgins, told the ABC’s Virginia Trioli this would be the last federal election he’d be alive to vote in. So he’d decided his vote should not be for him, but for the younger generation coming after him.

He wanted to cast his final vote for the party that best represented young people’s aspirations for their future. So he went to the local high school and got permission to talk to the senior students.

Poverty isn’t an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of life, it’s a policy choice, according to ACOSS.Credit:Getty Images

And which side did they pick? “It’s the Greens. And that’s the first and last time I’ll be voting for them,” he said.

It’s a sad commentary on modern politics that no mainstream politician would dare suggest we vote for them because they’d best advance the public interest. They know that we know their greatest interest is in advancing their own career so, to attract our votes, they offer bribes.......

 

[themickey]

Federal election winner to face months of rate rises
Ronald Mizen Economics correspondent
May 17, 2022 https://www.afr.com/politics/federa...-to-face-months-of-rate-rises-20220517-p5alxn

Whoever wins Saturday’s federal election will face months of rising interest rates and growing household cost of living pressures, with the Reserve Bank of Australia making clear more rate rises are on the way.

The RBA earlier this month moved to lift the record low 0.1 per cent cash rate to 0.35 per cent citingthe potential for a shift in “inflation psychology” that would make getting price rises under control more difficult.

Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe. Getty

According to the May board meeting minutes released on Tuesday, the bank considered a larger rise of 40 basis points and indicated a lift to 0.75 could be on the cards at its June meeting......

...............................
Yeah, it's all conveniently been put on hold untill after the elections, we don't want shit hitting the fan prior.

If Labor wins the elections, we can then start blaming them for the rate increases.

 

[themickey]

Following the leaders: where did all the voters go?
It’s the minders leading the blind as the media caravan follows Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese while they busily pose for campaign photos – and avoid meeting voters. By Fiona Harari

 

[themickey]

Opinion
Australia's election is a contest about character and competence
Six-week campaign has been uninspiring and at times unedifying

Michelle Grattan May 18, 2022 05:00 JST
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Australia-s-election-is-a-contest-about-character-and-competence

Scott Morrison waves during the campaign launch in Brisbane on May 15: Morrison made a late bid for momentum. © AAP/AP

Australians go to the ballot box on Saturday after a six-week election campaign dominated by economic issues and questions about the character of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the competency of opposition leader Anthony Albanese.

The polls have pointed to a Labor win. But with the electoral map complicated and the coalition's surprise victory in 2019, commentators are hedging their predictions. On Tuesday night, a Resolve poll showed the race tightening.

In his formal campaign launch on Sunday, Morrison made a late bid for momentum, pledging to give first homebuyers access to a portion of their retirement savings to help with housing affordability. It is thought the best Morrison could hope for is a hung parliament, which would mean negotiating with a clutch of crossbench MPs.

If Labor wins, it will be Australia's first change of national government since 2013.

In foreign policy, government and opposition have broadly bipartisan policies, so changes in how Australia would deal with the world under Labor would be a matter of nuance rather than substance.

During the campaign, the government has tried to make national security a theme. But Labor exploited Morrison's apparent unpreparedness for the recently-announced China-Solomons security agreement, although it is unlikely a Labor government would have been any better placed to ward it off.

The election has been uninspiring and at times unedifying, with scrapping in the weeds rather than any visionary policy debate.

Australia navigated the pandemic well on both the health and economic fronts. Its death rate was low, although that ticked up this year after restrictions were lifted. The government dropped its traditional preoccupation with debt and deficit to adopt an expensive JobKeeper subsidy scheme that kept thousands of businesses and millions of workers afloat.

The Australian economy has bounced out of the COVID recession strongly. Gross domestic product growth was 4.2% in the year to December. Unemployment has gone down to 4%, almost a five-decade low, and is set to go lower. Job vacancies are at a record high. Labor shortages are frustrating businesses, with employers anxious to see migration, halted when the borders were closed, increase quickly.

Despite Morrison insisting he has a plan for the future, what's on offer are mostly piecemeal sweeteners. The government's weakest point is Morrison himself, who has become toxic to an extraordinary degree with many voters.

Trust in Morrison has dramatically worsened since the 2019 election, despite some improvement during the pandemic. He did himself immense harm when he went on holiday to Hawaii during the devastating 2019-20 bush fires and then, defending himself, said, "I don't hold a hose, mate."

Morrison's integrity has come under sustained attack, which has played into Labor's hands. French President Emmanuel Macron said Morrison lied to him over Australia's now-canceled contract for France to supply submarines. A Liberal state premier called Morrison, in a leaked text message, a horrible person; Barnaby Joyce, leader of the Nationals, the coalition's minority partner, described him as a liar in another leaked text message dating from 2021, when Joyce was on the backbench.

Last week Morrison admitted that he could be a "bit of a bulldozer" and promised to "empathize" a lot more if reelected. Polling suggests the coalition would be in a better position on Saturday if Treasurer Josh Frydenberg were leading.

As it is, Frydenberg and a number of moderate Liberals in traditionally safe seats are fighting for their political lives in the face of challenges by teal candidates, so dubbed because they represent a mix of Liberal blue and environmental green.

These candidates, predominantly professional women, are campaigning primarily on climate change and the need for a federal integrity commission. The government has adopted zero net carbon emissions by 2050 but is a laggard on medium-term targets.

Thus the Liberals are battling on two fronts - against Labor and against the teals. It is near impossible to predict how the teal challengers will fare: all could fall just short, or a handful could be elected.

A firebrand in his youth, Albanese is from Labor's left faction but is now a centrist. He served as Infrastructure Minister in the Labor governments of a decade ago and as leader of the House of Representatives, including during the last hung parliament from 2010 to 2013. He was very briefly deputy prime minister.

Anthony Albanese speaks during the campaign rally in Brisbane on May 15: Albanese is from Labor's left faction but is now a centrist. © Getty Images

He lacks charisma, and one problem going into this campaign was that many voters had little or no firm impressions of him. But in contrast to Bill Shorten, who led Labor to defeat in 2019, he is not disliked by voters.

During the campaign, Albanese contracted COVID, and his frontbenchers had to step up to fill the gap. This had its positive side because the Labor team has some impressive performers, including its very popular leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman.

For three years, Albanese has run a small target strategy, driven by Labor's 2019 experience when it offered a bold platform. He has continued this approach in the campaign, including adopting some of the government's policies.

Morrison paints an Albanese government as a risk to the economy and to national security. The government highlights that as a minister, Albanese did not hold an economic portfolio.

When Albanese embraced the idea of a rise of 5.1% in the minimum wage last week to match Australia's latest annual inflation rate, the government denounced him as irresponsible. But Albanese, running hard on cost of living issues, was able to turn this to his advantage with the argument that the lowest-paid should not be left behind.

After flying around the country for six weeks, whoever wins on Saturday will be back on a plane immediately to attend the Quad leaders summit in Tokyo on Tuesday. For Morrison, this would be routine.

For Albanese, who has said he would visit Indonesia early and attend the Pacific Islands Forum, it would be an important first test on the international stage.

 

[nitrene]

Albanese seems a lot better than Morrison. At least he seems like he would be more likely to help middle class & poor.

Albanese seems a lot like Biden with his lack of economic experience and Morrison seems a lot like George W Bush with his out of touch Christian background. Albanese has a degree in Economics but never went into the profession. Reading wikipedia he seems like a life long politician. He can't be worse than the current administration.

 

[themickey]

He can't be worse than the current administration.

Exactly, Morrison has had his chance and squandered it, time for the boot.

 

[themickey]

• Australia votes

Opinion
Dislike of Morrison remains the dominant factor in this campaign

Niki Savva Award-winning political commentator and author May 19, 2022
https://www.smh.com.au/national/dis...-factor-in-this-campaign-20220517-p5am7a.html

It had all the hallmarks of a dead man walking when Scott Morrison promised, without actually admitting to his transgressions and in fact seeking to redefine them, that if only he could be spared execution he would be a better man and a better leader.

The narrow track to victory that he had been predicting so confidently for months suddenly loomed as his path to political oblivion.

Scott Morrison’s description of himself as “a bit of a bulldozer” was a come-to-Jesus moment.Creditionne Gain

After more than three years in the job, after countless accusations of bullying, hypocrisy, fibbing, fudging, fumbling, blame shifting, incompetence and failing to rise to the occasion, after millions of people had already voted, with a week to go, Morrison appeared to have a come-to-Jesus moment, which he felt compelled to share with all Australians.

Finally acknowledging that perhaps he was the problem, he vowed to change. He couldn’t say exactly when or how he would change, except that he would work at being more empathetic and more inclusive, as if his only defect was the perception he lacked compassion, rather than candour and competence. It turned out to be what a friend describes as a ScoMopology. Valid only on the day of issue.

After a few days trying to explain, coincidentally after a tightening of the polls, he said people had misunderstood what he was trying to say when he described himself as a bulldozer.

Of course. That prompted sceptics to add a different suffix to bull, and make the observation that there would be no incentive at all for him to change if he was relected.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison admits he can be a bulldozer on issues and concedes he needs to change his ways.

Then on Sunday, he announced a policy which good or bad, workable or not, went to Liberal values, had the potential for popular appeal and more importantly set up a contest with Labor, which a few MPs including Tim Wilson Andrew Bragg, James Paterson and Jason Falinski had been pushing without success since late 2020.

If he had shared his personal epiphany along with his policy to allow superannuation to be used by first home buyers months earlier, even on April 11, the morning after he called the election, rather than promising that day we would hear more about transgender women playing sport, he might have been better placed than he is now, although he still thinks it’s possible that he will get a five minutes to midnight reprieve.

And of course it is possible, in the way that anything is possible.

There is a divergence between the major parties on the general impact of Morrison’s latter-day conversion. In NSW, Liberals familiar with the latest polling report a narrowing, particularly in seats where housing affordability is a big issue.
Labor does not dispute a tightening in some seats, but insists its polling shows the Coalition’s housing /superannuation policy, coming six days out from the election, has been received cynically by voters in three key seats in three states, Victoria, NSW and Western Australia. They fear being left poor in retirement, that it would push up prices, and will do little to resolve affordability issues.

NSW Liberals were not claiming to be ahead, but they reported there had been some improvement in seats like Bennelong, Robertson, Page, Banks and Hughes, that they were just ahead in Gilmore, there were signs of movement in the Labor seats of Parramatta, Macquarie, Dobell and around the Hunter, and they have begun putting more resources into Eden Monaro.

According to Labor, Morrison got little or no bounce out of his launch, Bennelong still looks gettable, and as well as Chisholm and Higgins, Deakin has come into play, partly because of the stronger anti-Morrison sentiment in Victoria, and partly because of concerns over historical branch-stacking and bullying accusations against Michael Sukkar.

Meanwhile, polling by the independents in the inner-urban Liberal seats they are challenging shows climate change is still the number one issue, followed by integrity or the economy. In every one of those seats Morrison is a potential vote loser, particularly in Goldstein where his net negative is minus 23.9.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and independent Kooyong candidate Monique Ryan (left). Credit:Luis Ascui

Conversely, all the publicity about Josh Frydenberg losing Kooyong appears to have driven Liberals back to him – not because they have stopped loathing Morrison but because they do not want to destroy the party’s future. Liberals were confident Frydenberg would win, but according to one the Coalition would not pick up a single seat in Victoria.

Liberals in the teal seats have had a terrible time trying to convince people that a vote for them is not a vote for Morrison, leading one MP on pre-poll duty, where there is a desperate shortage of volunteers, to graphically describe the task as a “real mind-f---“.

There has never been such an orchestrated disavowal of a leader by a party and its members as there has of Morrison in this campaign.

The only photos seen of Liberal candidates with Morrison have been put around by their opponents.

Overall, Labor believes it is better positioned this week than last week – which was better than the week before, partly thanks to their leader’s improved performance – but will not breathe out until vote counting finishes on Saturday night. That is sensible. The Resolve Strategic poll for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald was the first to show the inevitable narrowing of the gap.

Anthony Albanese fronted the National Press Club on Wednesday to make his final set-piece pitch. It has always been a vital part of every election, as much about the questions as it is the leader’s ability to handle them and to reach beyond them to the tens of thousands watching.

Albanese was solid, neither stumbling nor soaring. He would not have frightened off a single voter and might have even swung a few his way.

Morrison reached for a knife and sliced off his nose to become the first leader in more than 50 years to spurn that platform. A strange unit for sure.

On one issue Liberal and Labor strategists are agreed: dislike of Morrison remains the dominant factor in the campaign.

The antipathy to Morrison is so embedded Labor is banking on it having the power to surmount any lingering doubts about Albanese, unless he stumbles between now and Saturday.

 

[themickey]

FEDERAL ELECTION 2022
Your last-minute guide: Coalition and Labor policies explained
With only days until Saturday’s election, here is a comparison of the major election promises from the Morrison government and Labor.

........................


'TheAustralian', Rupert Murdoch's newspaper today, blatantly pro Morrison and anti Albanese.

I thought newspapers were meant to give balanced opinion.
No coincidence the photo of all women, because apparently women don't care for Morrison this election due to his duplicity, so they are attempting to swing the female votes.