"Canberra News, Views and Opinion"
Christian Kerr (political writer for The Australian) has just facebooked that “It’s on”:
Massive rumours that a “tap on the shoulder” delegation had dropped in to see the PM have just swept Parliament House. Nothing appears to have happened, but…. A second set says that ministerial chiefs of staffs have been placed on high alert.
A new PM could easily see Canberra in election mode in days time.
UPDATE: Camps Gillard and Rudd are denying anything is on. For what that’s worth.
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Hell I hope no early election. Am hoping to sell my house shortly , well before the Sept elections, coz house prices will fall after election.
MERC600 said :
Except everyone in Canberra is saying that. So people with spare money are preparing to buy property straight after the election, negating the demand drop. I still think prices will fall, but not by much at all.
MERC600 said :
On the contrary, I have to sell my house this year, preferably in August-September, so an early election at least gives me hope that things may have returned to normality.
p996911turbo said :
All rational investors have factored price falls into their current offering prices. The time to get a bargain is now.
Whoooahhhh!
And we’re off and running!
Shorten has had a word with the mother in law?
Holden Caulfield said :
And there I was thinking Public Servants were rent-seekers who purported to be slaving selflessly for the nation, but are really just sucking off the teat of taxpayers.
How wrong am I!
Gillard and Rudd denying it? Could be the kiss of death required then.
Madam Cholet said :
If Rudd gets back in I hope the voters don’t fall for his spin like last time. He is just a car salesman from QLD who already sold us a lemon once.
Having said that, is here anounody else worthy?
MERC600 said :
The earliest an election can be held is 1st July otherwise Senate and House elections will be thrown out of alignment. The new government would have to hold a separate Senate election next year which will turn into a by-election and see a huge swing against the government. There have been three referendums to have House and Senate elections held on the same day. All were defeated. In the 1977 referendum 72% of Australians voted Yes but it was defeated because four states voted No.
And yet there have been many half senate elections:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/prspub/5YJ66/upload_binary/5yj666.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22half+senate+election%22
I’d be more inclined to believe it if the information wasn’t coming from The Australian, which has a massive anti-Labor bias and will do/say anything to destabilize the current government (Whether any help is needed in that regard or not…)
Sounds like BS to me. You don’t roll your leader after a 3pt bump in Newspoll.
Any news..?
Depends what the internal party polling is saying.
Newspoll is just theatre
johnboy said :
Internal party polling is for making the decision (and I doubt it would be saying anything much different this week than it has been for months.)
Public polling is for deciding on timing. If the plan were to paint her position as untenable, they’ve had plenty of time to do it and justify it on the back of public polls. Doing so this week leaves them open to accusation of axing her at the start of a recovery trend. I think they’re smart enough not to.
Besides, Christian Kerr is in bloody Sydney, if it were really on, I would think it’s the gallery reporters who would notice first. Sounds like a strategic leak, whether from the Libs or within Labor is the question.
are we allowed to throw shoes at her when she’s gone ?
Ozhair said :
+1
Murdoch’s greatest threat is the NBN. His business of paper media will be decimated when Australia is connected. He is doing everything in his power, via the Telegraph and Australian, to tear down the possibility of a Labor victory at the next election
Sigh…
7.30 report.
Julia appears to be channelling her inner Pauline Hansen on 457 visas…
Holden Caulfield said :
What about those Canberra houses where you can go up on the roof for a drink? Here I am drinking in the backyard like a sucker.
cranky said :
No, not really.
c_c™ said :
Would you like to expand on this comment?
cranky said :
Conspiracy! Yeah right. The Australian already loses money, I doubt if ol’ Rupert lies awake worrying about it.
I think the Labor Party is doing enough all by itself to ‘tear down the possibility of a Labor victory’.
Ah…Christian Kerr writes for the Australian. This explains why I’ve never heard of him, and never read a single word that he’s ever written. I reckon the only mainstream political/economic journalists worth reading are Peter Hartcher and Peter Martin. All else appear to be rubbish.
I may be wrong, but I’m calling this as a tactical move by the owners of the paper to disrupt the government. Or perhaps the plumbers were going in to fix the leaking tap in the shower of the PM’s ensuite, and Mr Kerr misheard it as a leak about a “tap on the shoulder”.
Last time I had a beer with Christian he was splitting his time between Canberra and Melbourne.
Just in case anybody thinks I’m being a little hard on Mr Kerr, I reckon that if you’re a journalist, and you’re writing for a national organ, and you decide to tweet something that strongly implies “We”ll have a new PM tomorrow”, then a tiny bit of fact checking might be in order first. Just a tiny bit. I mentioned this to my wife who is in the APS, and she said “Oh yeah, it was all over the department this afternoon”, so hundreds if not thousands of APS staff have evidently been following this rather than doing whatever it is they should be doing.
He may be onto something, as evidenced by all the furious denials from Labor figures, but at the moment it doesn’t seem all that credible. I wonder if he’s been the victim of a disinformation play by the Libs?
Never have so many been so jittery in the hope of being first to go twittery.
I think the bump in Gillard’s status as preferred PM is less to do with who’s heading the Labor party and more to do with the dawning realisation of just who is leading the Libs.
cranky said :
The print media was only ever profitable because of two things:
1. Advertising revenue
2. Exclusivity of mechanisms for news gathering and transfer
The internet has eroded both these, advertising is moving online and sources of information are now far more diversified. Social media is often faster than wires and spotters.
With the ubiquity of the internet and penetration of ADSL and 3G, the introduction of the NBN won’t accelerate the demise of print newspapers. A page loading a second quicker pales in comparison to the wider changes going on.
The danger but also the potential the NBN poses is to the traditional broadcast area of the media.
a couple of politically important bills need to pass the Senate first. I am expecting to see things to liven up next week.
DrKoresh said :
It was one poll, and against the trend and all other polls. Take a look at the Morgan poll, absolutely brutal.