Waiting for 60minutes investigation into LNP rorts/scams.

Beg to differ - if Eden-Monaro is a big swing to the Coalition they'll just find it way too tempting; cement the LNP in office for another three years, why not?

ScoMo may have looked terrible during the bush-fires but things have moved very, very fast this year and I think they've come out of the COVID thing looking much better than they did out of the bush-fires. China is a worry and that situation is likely to deteriorate - maybe extra reason to look at an election in case that goes critical.

Don't forget a double dissolution could be called over the block of some triviality twice in which case they don't have to worry about timings. Hell, if the public mood is overwhelmingly in favour of the Coalition then maybe they'll come back with a much more friendly Senate, you never know.

You're insane.

We won't be voting this year or before October next year unless there is some massive scandal that brings down the government.

With a reported 100,000 mortgages in dire straits, and probably more by next year, punters may not look so favorably upon Scomo and wake up to the fact he and coalition are stuffing up the economy big time.

Beg to differ - if Eden-Monaro is a big swing to the Coalition they'll just find it way too tempting; cement the LNP in office for another three years, why not?

ScoMo may have looked terrible during the bush-fires but things have moved very, very fast this year and I think they've come out of the COVID thing looking much better than they did out of the bush-fires. China is a worry and that situation is likely to deteriorate - maybe extra reason to look at an election in case that goes critical.

Don't forget a double dissolution could be called over the block of some triviality twice in which case they don't have to worry about timings. Hell, if the public mood is overwhelmingly in favour of the Coalition then maybe they'll come back with a much more friendly Senate, you never know.

You're insane.

We won't be voting this year or before October next year unless there is some massive scandal that brings down the government.

No - that strategy has lots of precedents. Go to a poll to get a mandate from the public on how the government is going.

Whitlam did it; Hawke did and Howard did it too.

With a reported 100,000 mortgages in dire straits, and probably more by next year, punters may not look so favorably upon Scomo and wake up to the fact he and coalition are stuffing up the economy big time.

Finally something that we agree on!

My other thought is that if the economy deteriorates really badly post-COVID then they might be better off going early - there's a world of pain after the extra welfare runs out in September. I'm guessing the number of unemployed will be about 1.5 million. There's also the problems of mortgage 'holidays' starting to run out after this time... a lot of our COVID chickens coming home to roost after the footy finals.

ScoMo may not be thinking about an early election at all - but on the other hand...

Beg to differ - if Eden-Monaro is a big swing to the Coalition they'll just find it way too tempting; cement the LNP in office for another three years, why not?

ScoMo may have looked terrible during the bush-fires but things have moved very, very fast this year and I think they've come out of the COVID thing looking much better than they did out of the bush-fires. China is a worry and that situation is likely to deteriorate - maybe extra reason to look at an election in case that goes critical.

Don't forget a double dissolution could be called over the block of some triviality twice in which case they don't have to worry about timings. Hell, if the public mood is overwhelmingly in favour of the Coalition then maybe they'll come back with a much more friendly Senate, you never know.

You're insane.

We won't be voting this year or before October next year unless there is some massive scandal that brings down the government.

No - that strategy has lots of precedents. Go to a poll to get a mandate from the public on how the government is going.

Whitlam did it; Hawke did and Howard did it too.

Whitlam, Hawke and Howard actually had major policies though.

Scummo's government doesn't have major policies, they are just managers. Calling an election to seek a mandate only works if they have policies to put before the Australian people instead of just pleading not to get fired.

Howard is a poor precedent to rely on as far as calling an early election goes, because he didn't. The shortest of his four terms was still 2 years and 7 months (2 years and 215 days to be precise) which means it was within the normal election window rather than an early election. Equivalent would be Scummo calling an election next December.

Nobody (in the banking system) will call in debt until there is some economic recovery. Otherwise, each lender will fall like dominoes when their net assets become negative!

Also the idea that a Superfund will somehow rescue the borrower is fantasy. Remember the GFC in 2008? The funds went into lockdown.

Whitlam, Hawke and Howard actually had major policies though.

Scummo's government doesn't have major policies, they are just managers. Calling an election to seek a mandate only works if they have policies to put before the Australian people instead of just pleading not to get fired.

You could argue the same thing regarding the Labor Party - I can't recall a single policy announcement that Albo has made since the stonking election loss last year. Although in fairness COVID has blown everything else off the front page.

All the Labor Party ever seems to do is call for more welfare and more subsidies for everyone and anything - Tanya Plibersek has been relentlessly calling for the Liberals to bail out the universities that are presently shedding staff due to the lack of foreign students - why? They made out like bandits selling visas to anyone and everyone who came to this country with thirty grand - and now they want taxpayers to bail them out. On what basis - that their business model was unsustainable and now they don't want to sack anyone?

Howard is a poor precedent to rely on as far as calling an early election goes, because he didn't. The shortest of his four terms was still 2 years and 7 months (2 years and 215 days to be precise) which means it was within the normal election window rather than an early election. Equivalent would be Scummo calling an election next December.

The excuse being GST, yes - but it was still a very early poll.

The other possibility is (of course) the Liberals may not be able to get major bills through the hostile Senate as the year goes on in which case they may have no choice but to consider a double dissolution.

Nobody (in the banking system) will call in debt until there is some economic recovery. Otherwise, each lender will fall like dominoes when their net assets become negative!

Also the idea that a Superfund will somehow rescue the borrower is fantasy. Remember the GFC in 2008? The funds went into lockdown.

This is where some Liberals have been even more irresponsible than the Labor Party - Member for Bennelong John Alexander calling for superannuation to be freed up to allow investment in housing purely on the basis of his scare-mongering that house prices will crash "the worst in 130 years" without radical intervention (ie new credit). It's really only a disaster if you are a big-time gambler on the property market like this bloke, and frankly I don't think the government should lift a finger to bail those people out - if you're speculating in that way you need to be responsible for your own actions and not expect a bail-out (although it seems to be the norm to expect it now-days!).

Realistically I'm not sure if the superannuation system will survive into the future anyway given that it might need to be acquired by the government to bail out the banks if it all goes pear-shaped ... funny how the total value of the superannuation pool ($2.2 trillion) is almost the same as the total value of housing mortgages in Australia ($2.1 trillion).

The RBA was going to tell private companies who provided housing data to consumers to stop reporting in April - by coincidence CorgLogic did in fact stop reporting its daily indices. Were they told to? ABC:

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) considered asking private firms to stop telling Australians about slumping property prices, when the early period of coronavirus panic stoked fears of a housing market crash.

In a release of highly classified documents from inside Australia's central bank, economists discussed the need to treat the housing market as dysfunctional — and potentially shut down data sources letting investors know.

Lindsay David, the founder of LF Economics, said it was shocking the central bank would contemplate asking private sector data collectors to stop informing the public.

"I personally think it's absolutely disgraceful conduct by the RBA that they have appeared to resort to giving what appears to be a manipulation of the information members of the public do and do not have access to in relation to house prices and debt."

That they even contemplated suppression of bad news to prevent consumers getting the real picture is appalling - the entire board should be sacked. As per my previous post, there's a huge amount of vested interest in Australia having world-beating house prices (Sydney is more expensive than Manhattan or London) and yet the government is actively working with the banking system to prevent any kind of deflation hitting the market - why?

This will only make things worse for our nation in the long run because it's preventing the operation of a normal market; something the 'economic rationalists' have been telling us for decades is a huge sin. Obviously they only want markets to operate normally when it benefits them!

Looks like our best friend and biggest export destination has been hacking us again - timed to coincide with a meeting of the "five eyes" intelligence heads I believe - from News.com.au;

Australia is currently being hit with a massive cyber attack by a foreign government, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed.

In an urgent press conference called this morning in Canberra, Mr Morrison said the ongoing, "large-scale" hack was being executed by a “sophisticated, state-based cyber actor”.

“This activity is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure,” Mr Morrison told reporters.

“We know it is a sophisticated, state-based cyber actor because of the scale and nature of the targeting and the tradecraft used. Regrettably, this activity is not new. Frequency has been increasing.”...

Mr Morrison would not be drawn on whether China was behind the attack. “I can only say what I have said,” he said.
“The Australian Government is not making any public attribution about these matters. We are very confident that this is the actions of a state-based actor. We have not gone any further than that. I can't control what speculation others might engage in on this issue or, frankly, any other. I have simply laid out the facts as we know them and as we have disclosed today.”

This is beyond a joke; a foreign state launches repeated cyber-attacks on our highest levels of government and institutions and we're not going to take any action about it? No wonder they think we're a walk-over that will eventually succumb to their sphere of influence and abandon all our democratic traditions and ties.

This is beyond a joke; a foreign state launches repeated cyber-attacks on our highest levels of government and institutions and we're not going to take any action about it? No wonder they think we're a walk-over that will eventually succumb to their sphere of influence and abandon all our democratic traditions and ties.

Good to see Trump is in our corner as we go out in front taking on China. Meanwhile! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-asked-chinas-xi-to-buy-us-farm-products-to-help-him-win-re-election-bolton-book-says-2020-06-17?mod=economy-politics

This is beyond a joke; a foreign state launches repeated cyber-attacks on our highest levels of government and institutions and we're not going to take any action about it? No wonder they think we're a walk-over that will eventually succumb to their sphere of influence and abandon all our democratic traditions and ties.

Good to see Trump is in our corner as we go out in front taking on China. Meanwhile! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-asked-chinas-xi-to-buy-us-farm-products-to-help-him-win-re-election-bolton-book-says-2020-06-17?mod=economy-politics

Heresay from a nobody.

China won't give up until we either do exactly as we're told or we have no trade relationship with them at all any more.

Good; we should never have kow-towed to that dictatorship anyway - it was always going to end like this.