New Senate Poll Ordered For WA

[Todman]

Reynolds is now 4500 ahead.

 

[greennick]

I don't know how you can speak for all voters... but the public service was cut...infact the Abbott-Truss government was "hoodwinked"....


http://www.smh.com.au/national/publ...blic-service-staff-levels-20131128-2yee7.html

I didn't say I speak for all voters, however the polls around the election demonstrated that a majority supported cuts to the public service.

Thanks for the article, I think that guy is right, the way they do budgets in the public service is ridiculous. When I go out to my government clients, it is impossible to get them to do much work early in the year, however come March, man, it is on. They want to do anything they can. You go out there, they'll have new desks and computers. They just spend their entire budget so they can ensure it is topped up again next year as the same +3%.

I did an analysis on it for one department. In the final quarter, in one department the spend was twice that in the first quarter. Most of it was on consultants, furniture and fittings and grants. The things you can easily spend tonnes of money on quickly.

 

[greennick]

Reynolds is now 4500 ahead.

Thursday 10 April, 10pm - It is clear the Liberals will win the last seat. Postal votes continue the trend of the Liberal Party doing very well. Labor is holding its own on postal votes, but Palmer United is not and the Green vote is slipping badly. The Greens will still easily poll above one quota, but Labor's chances of election required the Greens to have the surplus they had on Saturday night, not the diminishing surplus of recent days.

 

[ep2018]

Thursday 10 April, 10pm - It is clear the Liberals will win the last seat. Postal votes continue the trend of the Liberal Party doing very well. Labor is holding its own on postal votes, but Palmer United is not and the Green vote is slipping badly. The Greens will still easily poll above one quota, but Labor's chances of election required the Greens to have the surplus they had on Saturday night, not the diminishing surplus of recent days.

People voting Greens usually aren't FIFO workers so that is understandable.

 

[greennick]

People voting Greens usually aren't FIFO workers so that is understandable.

Or country and older voters, which are the other typical postal voters.

 

[Power Raid]

I didn't say I speak for all voters, however the polls around the election demonstrated that a majority supported cuts to the public service.

Thanks for the article, I think that guy is right, the way they do budgets in the public service is ridiculous. When I go out to my government clients, it is impossible to get them to do much work early in the year, however come March, man, it is on. They want to do anything they can. You go out there, they'll have new desks and computers. They just spend their entire budget so they can ensure it is topped up again next year as the same +3%.

I did an analysis on it for one department. In the final quarter, in one department the spend was twice that in the first quarter. Most of it was on consultants, furniture and fittings and grants. The things you can easily spend tonnes of money on quickly.

In the military we had to spend our entire financial years budget by March to show we didn't have any fat too cut.

Meaning we had no funds for the last quarter. But guaranteed funding plus some for next year.

It's good to see nothings changed in 20 years!

 

[ep2018]

Looks like the senate will look very similar to how it would have looked had there not been a revote.

Liberal are a bit worse off though as the sports party probably would have been more willing to vote with the libs for policy instead of PUP.

 

[Xsess]

Well the good news regardless of the result is that Labor and the Greens no longer control the Senate. Both have pretty much become naysayers, blocking almost every bill.
Whilst PUP is a bit of an unknown quantity, we can probably be safe saying hasta la vista to the carbon tax. And good riddance.

 

[greennick]

As predicted Bullock won't stand down...

He said he imagined Ms Smith "would have been subject to some pressure" as a result of his comments.

"She's on the left, you know, and my comments were more pitched to a right-wing crowd, and people may have questioned (why) she's reacted to that pressure."

"I understand it. I think it's wrong and it's silly, but I understand it."

While he issued an apology last week, Mr Bullock said he would not resign.

"There are those on the left who believe the Labor Party belongs to the left, and there are those of us who disagree and say that the Labor Party can only be successful if it broadens its base to appeal to the average working person," he said.

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/b...d-step-down-20140411-36h9h.html#ixzz2yXff2OS8

McGowan wants the infighting to stop too...

"Have your arguments, have them inside, don't have them in public," Mr McGowan said.

"I don't think these are the things people in the broader community want to see on the front page of the newspaper."

Maybe just say no comment if you want to stay out of the papers in the future???

 

[greennick]

Looks like the senate will look very similar to how it would have looked had there not been a revote.

Liberal are a bit worse off though as the sports party probably would have been more willing to vote with the libs for policy instead of PUP.

Wouldn't have made a difference though as either way they need PUP, right?

 

[greennick]

In the military we had to spend our entire financial years budget by March to show we didn't have any fat too cut.

Meaning we had no funds for the last quarter. But guaranteed funding plus some for next year.

It's good to see nothings changed in 20 years!

My experience with government so far has been the more things change, the more they stay the same...

 

[Xsess]

As predicted Bullock won't stand down...

Bullock deserves great credit for the stances he took in the leadup to the election. Found myself agreeing with just about everything he said. This honesty is obviously too much for many within the Labor party to handle, but its people like Bullock who are the only hope for them. If and when they dissendorse him, I think he'll be a fantastic independent.

 

[greennick]

Bullock deserves great credit for the stances he took in the leadup to the election. Found myself agreeing with just about everything he said. This honesty is obviously too much for many within the Labor party to handle, but its people like Bullock who are the only hope for them. If and when they dissendorse him, I think he'll be a fantastic independent.

I voted for him much higher than anyone else on the "left" in the BTL voting. I guess that is because he is hardly on the left.

 

[samFFC]

Bullock deserves great credit for the stances he took in the leadup to the election. Found myself agreeing with just about everything he said. This honesty is obviously too much for many within the Labor party to handle, but its people like Bullock who are the only hope for them. If and when they dissendorse him, I think he'll be a fantastic independent.

Don't think he can become an independent senator, as he was elected from the Labor ticket?

 

[samFFC]

Well the good news regardless of the result is that Labor and the Greens no longer control the Senate. Both have pretty much become naysayers, blocking almost every bill..

Do you have stats for this?

How many DD triggers would Abbott have if they blocked "almost every bill", compared to the small amount that are actually blocked.

Or does your dislike of the Carbon Tax mean that is worth hundreds of other bills?

 

[Todman]

It's still going to be difficult for Abbott to pass things through the senate regardless of if the Libs get the last seat or not.

It's probably better that horsetrading needs to be done.

 

[greennick]

It's probably better that horsetrading needs to be done.

I would rather it end up being compromise (policies ending up being somewhere in between what each side wants), rather than horsetrading (ie, each side gets what they want in their pet projects).

 

[The_Reaper]

McGowan must really hate his federal labor counterparts. They're killing his recent momentum.

 

[Andre]

Thursday 10 April, 10pm - It is clear the Liberals will win the last seat. Postal votes continue the trend of the Liberal Party doing very well. Labor is holding its own on postal votes, but Palmer United is not and the Green vote is slipping badly. The Greens will still easily poll above one quota, but Labor's chances of election required the Greens to have the surplus they had on Saturday night, not the diminishing surplus of recent days.

The ALP better hope the postal votes stop coming in. The ALP has already lost more votes as a percentage received last year then the Liberals. With the postal votes favouring the Liberals so much they may end up the biggest drop in % overall as well. That'd be hard to sell as anything, but a 'We don't like Abbott quite as much as before, but we think Shorten is even worse the Gillard and Rudd.'

 

[The Speaker]

Maybe the majority only see two parties that are capable of governing the country in the manner they want??

They do, but that's because those two parties have entrenched themselves as being the 'governing parties'.

It's not to do with ideology.

 

[DivideandMultiply]

The budget doesn't need to be in surplus, but most people want it to be in surplus. We are currently wasting about $12b a year in interest payments, this number will only grow. Can't you think of better things for us to spend $12b a year on?? I don't think the budget needs to be in surplus every year, however my opinion is it should be on balance in surplus throughout the fiscal cycle. This allows a few things. Firstly, the government to have somewhere to go when the economy goes south without having 30% of the budget each year as debt (like the US had during the GFC). Secondly, I am of the opinion that slightly contractionary fiscal policy combined with slightly expansionary monetary policy is the best policy setting for the economy when we want it in neutral, this encourages private investment, while keeping the appropriate brakes on the inflation rate.

However, it's a trade off. We balance growth and stability, against the immediate interest on repayments .

Take the GFC. Post GFC economic stimulus has contributed to our current deficit, thus our interest repayments on the national debt however the risk of doing nothing and allowing the country to record negative growth, likewise opting instead for austerity could have provided a two sided sucker punch . Firstly we risked losing our AAA credit rating, which means borrowing at a higher rate and secondly austerity means higher unemployment, lower consumer spending and a decrease in tax receipts. Thus when servicing the debt, interest payments are higher, yet the state also have less means to service the debt, thus it takes longer to pay off and we again spend more in interest repayments

Things like welfare and health spending are important for different reasons. Welfare spending helps both prevent crime, thus increasing productivity, as well as helping the service economy via consumer spending. Health spending is important for both social stability and productivity .

 

[Docker Clint]

Reynolds is now 4500 ahead.

Linda Reynolds should sent Joe Bullock a thank you card, just for shits and giggles.

 

[ep2018]

Are we any closer to a result?

 

[Docker Clint]

Are we any closer to a result?

All over bar the shouting.

1 David Johnston Liberal Party
2 Joe Bullock Australian Labor Party
3 Scott Ludlam Australian Greens
4 Michaelia Cash Liberal Party
5 Zhenya Wang Palmer United Party
6 Linda Reynolds Liberal Party

 

[samFFC]

Yep Reynolds well ahead of Pratt and pulling away. Comfortable 6th seat winner.