The Abbott government plans to give itself the option of calling a double-dissolution election based on trade union corruption when Parliament resumes in mid-August, according to Phillip Coorey and Patrick Durkin in the Fin Review. Abbott will try to reap the reward for his $80 million investment in the royal commission.
So far the Government has only the Clean Energy Finance Corporation dissolution bill as a DD trigger. When parliament returns in August it plans to press forward with two anti-union bills.
One bill would restore the powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which were diluted by the previous Labor government.
The second is the Registered Organisations Commission Bill, already rejected once by the Senate. Its purpose is to subject corrupt officials of unions and employers’ groups to the same penalties that apply to corrupt business executives.
- On Sunday, Mr Shorten challenged Mr Abbott to a town hall debate on workplace relations, rather than “hiding behind” the “low-rent” Royal Commission into trade unions to do his “political dirty work” in the lead-up to the election.
“I answered over 900 questions in Tony Abbott’s Royal Commission,” Mr Shorten said. “I’m happy to talk about workplace relations. I do say this though – it is $80 million spent to smear its political opponents, and I say if Mr Abbott has the courage of his convictions, he shouldn’t be hiding behind a Royal Commission to do his political dirty work.
If Labor is to be hurt beyond Shorten losing some bark it should show up in the opinion polls. Newspoll didn’t publish anything this week.
Roy Morgan conducted a poll over the last two weekends. It showed the TPP gap narrowing from Labor ahead 53.5-46.5 to 51-49. Labor still leads, however Labor’s support at 34.5% is the lowest since April 2014.
Roy Morgan has the ALP’s support ‘crumbling’ but no-one else writes headlines about the Morgan poll, or reports it much.
Essential poll has Labor ahead 52-48, the same as last week and three weeks ago. Two weeks ago it was 53-47.
That’s just as well, because Shorten’s approval rating has tanked to its lowest-ever level of just 27%, while disapproval is at a game high of 52%.
Also Tony Abbott has opened up his highest lead of 37-30 as Preferred PM, with one third of voters still refusing to endorse either man.
Shorten has certainly lost some bark, but while Labor is ahead on the TPP poll I dare say the troops will not panic.
The public have a very poor opinion of the performance of the LNP Government. Essential poll (page 2) has one category in positive territory – Supporting Australian businesses with a net rating, good v poor, of +15.
Other categories are Relations with other countries -2, Managing the economy -5, Treatment of asylum seekers -7, Industrial relations -8, Education and schools -13, Supporting Australian jobs -17, Health services -19, Social welfare -21, Protecting the environment -21, and Climate change -24.
Remarkably perceptive!
BTW Phil Coorey doesn’t think Abbott is planning a double dissolution, he just wants to have a few decent trigger options in his back pocket.
Oh, yes please!!
A Double Dissolution would be a Win-Win for the citizenry of the once-sovereign nation of Australia.
Firstly, If the Liberals did have a their wishes come true by winning in a landslide, with the help of the off-shore Ministry Of Truth and with the interference of all of our new owners, they are so manifestly incompetent that outbreaks of social disruption would be inevitable. Scattered and random and reactive at first, such social disruption would soon become purposeful and effective. The Losers would respond in their usual manner with harsh laws and, of course, their new Masters would insist on extraordinary measures to protect their interests (to which The Losers would have no choice but to agree – the term “puppet regime” springs immediately to mind). So just make sure you have enough food and water put aside to see you through all the strikes and riots and over-reactions then sit back and watch all the fun – and DO NOT expect any sympathy or help whatsoever from outside Australia.
Pretty rough – but we might come out the winners in all this but only if we are vigorous, informed, alert, very patient, tenacious and courageous. Even if we did win eventually, we – or our descendants – would still be faced with the massive task of recovering what we could of the sovereignty we used to have.
Secondly, we might be lucky enough to actually unseat The Losers in a D-D election. Not very likely given the social conditioning of the electorate with such things as all the TV bully-shows which have successfully normalized un-Australian values – and the over-concentration by The Losers on Shorten (Why not? Focussing on The Jews worked for Hitler; on Liu Shaoqi for Mao Zedong; nothing like The Single Evil Enemy which appeals to the dumb-bunnies who believe everything they are told).
An ALP government – alone or in coalition with minority parties and independents – would give us a brief breathing space, I hope. Though our new Owners would have contingency plans in place to deal effectively, perhaps firmly, with that possibility. Crowbarring Tony and The Losers out of their offices for only a few days post-election would be very helpful.
I do not expect an ALP government to be much better than the present shower; the ALP has been so busy transforming themselves into Liberals, MarkII, that they are far out of touch with the real needs of the citizenry and they are incapable of making visionary, beneficial, prosperity-creating policy. Still, they are definitely the lesser of the two evils.
The real strengths of an ALP win in a D-D, whether in a hung parliament or a > 20 seat majority, would be that the minor parties and independents would add more real spice to Australian politics – further, that it would lead to the overthrow of the dills and loonies inside the Liberal Party and perhaps, a forlorn hope, that such a revolt might restore that party to its pre-Howard effectiveness.
The Nationals? They chose to commit political suicide by betraying their core constituency and now they are only a nuisance. Forget them; they’re dead and we’re just waiting for the hearse to cart away the carcasses.
Double Dissolution? Bring it on!!
Agree with GB.
Bring it on. I suspect the electorate would kick Abbott out so hard he wouldn’t stop till he reached the moon.
PS Tony Abbott seems to have blocked me from his Twitter account.
If it comes to a DD I, along with a raft of other people will doing my enthusiastic bit to ensure that Tony is no longer prime minister. I will also be doing my enthusiastic bit to increase the influence of the Greens.
However, I will be preferencing Labor ahead of the LNP for negative reasons rather than positive.
As GB infers one of the most urgent problems are the trade agreements that need to be passed by the Senate. We are giving away too much sovereignty and seriously disadvantaging Australian workers.
Shorten needs to find a bit of mongrel and oppose the trade agreements, laws that allow citizenship from a limited number of Australian citizens etc.
Good, and an ABCC with teeth not the original that only got a single conviction on its watch despite the rampant union crime uncovered by the RC.
And why not ?
A sane Senate would pass both Bills. DD trigger averted.
Sounds OK on the surface Jumpy. However, on past performance the details would need to be scrutinized carefully to find the tricky, unfair bits that this government is addicted to.