Saturday salon 20/9

voltaire_230

An open thread where, at your leisure, you can discuss anything you like, well, within reason and the Comments Policy. Include here news and views, plus any notable personal experiences from the week and the weekend.

For climate topics please use the most recent Climate clippings.

The gentleman in the image is Voltaire, who for a time graced the court of Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. King Fred loved to talk about the universe and everything at the end of a day’s work. He also used the salons of Berlin to get feedback in the development of public policy.

Fred would only talk in French; he regarded German as barbaric. Here we’ll use English.

The thread will be a stoush-free zone. The Comments Policy says:

The aim [of this site] is to provide a venue for people to contribute and to engage in a civil and respectful manner.

Here are a few bits and pieces that came to my attention last week.

1. Margaret and David call it quits

After 28 years Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton have announced their retirement and At the Movies will be no more.

Sad!

For a wonderfully scripted and acted review of Margaret and David, here’s Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush.

2. Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

From Friday 19 to Sunday 28 September we have the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. As they say:

Spectacular gardens, country touring, live music and local food & wine, plus much more.

3. NZ goes to the polls

From The Guardian:

New Zealand prepares to vote after ‘strangest, dirtiest’ election campaign

Allegations of online subterfuge and deception over state surveillance have sidelined conventional policy arguments

From Roy Morgan:

Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows National (46.5%, up 1.5%) set to win a third term in Government on Saturday as support for a potential Labour/Greens alliance slumps to 37.5% (down 4.5% – the lowest since November 2011). Support for both main opposition parties has slipped – Labour (24%, down 2%) and the Greens (13.5%, down 2.5%) less than a week before Saturday’s NZ Election.

New Zealand First (8%, up 2%) appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the Labour/ Greens slump as the election approaches and former Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters looks set to have a prominent role in the new Parliament with NZ First projected to win as many as 10 seats. This is the highest support for NZ first for nearly ten years since August 2005.

4. Vlad will attend the G20

A couple of weeks ago Abbott, Julie Bishop and others, Bill Shorten too, were calling for the banning of Russian president Vladimir Putin from the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane later this year. But it’s not our call. The Fin Review says the feeling from other G20 leaders is, let him come so we can tell him what we think of him. Anyway China says he should be allowed to come, so I guess that settles it.

The Courier Mail says his security people have been here looking the joint over.

Meanwhile Obama’s security arrangements should be quite spectacular. The Daily Mail tells us he might use a bunch of helicopters to fly from the airport to his hotel. Will Hagon said the other day that the Americans would be bringing 50 cars, using their own rather than the high security BMWs we are leasing. That may include The Beast, which weighs about 3.5 tonnes, can turn within its own length and take off in any direction like you wouldn’t believe.

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5. Meanwhile our politicians are talking

To each other, in a new mood of reasonableness and bipartisanship, according to Laura Tingle.

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Talking about terrorism, about dealing with Islamic State, about renewable energy, about a referendum on indigenous recognition, and possibly even the budget.

We’ll have to see where all this leads, but for Abbott dealing with Labor emerges as an alternative to talking with Clive Palmer and the cross bench. Even Christine Milne is talking about talking about renewable energy and direct action.

Shorten, however, is laying down markers where (he says) he will not go, for example he’s OK with attacking ISIL in Iraq, but not in Syria.

On that score Bernard Keane and Guy Rundle are questioning whether our support of the Americans exposes us to more terrorist attention, and whether the action is calling the caliphate into being, plus whether it really has much chance of success. It’s all very troubling. From the outset it was clear that ISIL would do whatever it takes to get the West involved.

6 thoughts on “Saturday salon 20/9”

  1. jumpy, Swanee says that on his watch a million new jobs were created in the economy. So he must have done something right!

    Recently I drove over all the remade roads on the Darling Downs and the billions spent on sorting out the congestion between Brisbane and Ipswich. All Labor money and none to be seen yet from Abbott who wants to build the roads of the future, so he keeps saying.

    Swanee made $160 billion worth of saving during his time, which exactly equals the revenue write-downs against Treasury forecasts. Costello had $334 billion landed in his lap above forecasts, which he largely pissed against the wall.

  2. In NZ it seems the Nationals won 48% and may govern alone, turning Winston Peters of new Zealand First from rooster to feather duster. Labour sank further into the mire.

  3. Brian

    Swanee says that on his watch a million new jobs were created in the economy.

    Well, he would.
    Last time I visited a casino I won $ 2,500! 🙂 but I lost $2,800 doing it 🙁 .
    A lot of churn with a negative result in the wash up.

    Recently I drove over all the remade roads on the Darling Downs and the billions spent on sorting out the congestion between Brisbane and Ipswich. All Labor money and none to be seen yet from Abbott who wants to build the roads of the future, so he keeps saying.

    No no, all borrowed money that has to be payed back with interest by our kids.

    Swanee made $160 billion worth of saving during his time, which exactly equals the revenue write-downs against Treasury forecasts.

    So he should have balanced the books, yes?
    Perhaps he spent too much?
    Did he mention how much he spent ?
    Perhaps some off budget item made the hole bigger.

    Costello had $334 billion landed in his lap above forecasts, which he largely pissed against the wall.

    Treasury forecasts are based on the assumptions of the Govt of the day, Swan always overestimated and fell short, Costello underestimated and exceeded.

    Good old Swanee was just a good punter out of luck and those bloody lucky Tories seem to have no end of it.
    Costello cruises into the casino with a debt from Keating and walk out pocket-a-overflowin.
    Gives the loot to Swanee and he blows the lot, walks out owing the house a motsa.

    All about ” luck ” I spose.

    ( and to leave no doubt the above is just light hearted Sunday banter I leave it with some more comedy )

  4. On the NZ election John Key has run a pretty good economy and didn’t deserve to be booted. Strong incumbent increased their seats with a terrible Op leader in Cunliffe.
    Throw Kim Dotcom in with alleged email hacks, a book on the eave of the election about those hack between Cam Slatter of WOBH ( most popular blog there and blatantly right leaning ) and National pollies.
    The ” grubyness ” , rightly or wrongly, was seen to come from the progressive side. ( Bit of both imho )
    An obviously biased to the left MSM that very few trust.
    They have an MMP system that,s very tough tho win outright but it seems votes would rather the stably of the Nats to a Labour/Greens/NZFirst/Internet/Mana coalition.

  5. jumpy @ 4, you are wrong. Revenue is calculated by Treasury and Finance, Government decides on spending.

    It might be light-hearted Sunday banter, but you make out that Swan is some kind of clown. He may not have been a charismatic communicator, but he was a diligent and meticulous Treasurer, and in general a model for sincere politicians.

    Yes Costello did get lucky and yes, Swan spent more than we earned. The GFC was real. Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said that our response to the GFC was the best public policy he’d ever seen, and Swan was recognised by his peers as the world’s greatest finance minister for his part in our response. I’ve explained in some detail here Swan and Bowen’s legacy and the mess Hockey has made of it.

    Swan’s mistake was to go too firm on when we would achieve a surplus. In his book he admits this and details how he lost control of the economic argument as a result. He was blindsided by falling revenue which Treasury and Finance failed to predict. Swan remains proud of his final budget, and so he should, as it charted how we were going to cope with Gonski and NDIS and achieve a modest surplus of 1% of GDP over 10 years.

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