The Guardian reports that leading political nincompoop, Christopher Pyne, doesn't intend to be distracted by polls “that come and go”.

It's two and and a half years to the next election (Pyne whinnies), and whether or not the polls are up or down “in February 2017” will be neither “here nor there” in 2019.

So, that's what St. Christopher thinks of us voters, folks. We will have forgotten the appalling antics of Turbull and Co. by 2019.

Some of us might. But those of us who take the welfare of Australia seriously will not; and, we are the 5% who change governments. Pyne doesn't seem to be aware of this, the chump!

Dear ttbn,

You're right predicting anything in politics is
risky at the best of times. Things can change in
a flash. Look at what's happened in the recent
past. Nothing is certain and politicians do have
to listen to the voters - as they should have
learned both in the US and here in this country.
Who could have predicted the wins for President
Trump, or for Pauline Hanson, Jacqui Lambie,
et al. Nothing is locked in concrete - but
one thing is certain - unless the politicians lift
their game - expect the unexpected.

Expect the unexpected. Within two and a half years. We could have another two and a half govt, on its way out.

Foxy, the signs were there loud and clear that a change was in the air so as to speak. Brexit Hanson and Trump were no accidents, they were a sign that the voters had had a gut full of being irnored and i have no doubt that the Oz voters are keeping a real close eye on Trump, because if he makes some serious headway in the next year or so, our voters will be looking for our very own Trump, the likes of Dutton for an example, teaming up with Hanson and perhaps even Lambie.

Lets face it,with the likes of gay marriege being the only real issue up for discussion, which by the way will have little to no effect on the state of our naton, we need someone to bring on real debate on issues like immigration before we can move forward, because very few people care about two queers having the right to marry, but most care about their elderly being cast aside, or their kids jobs going to immigrants rather than their own.

Foxy,

"Who could have predicted the wins for President
Trump, or for Pauline Hanson,...."

Me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZsBrab9TYI

The leftist gravy train sees a bump ahead with the Trump win. Start of a meltdown that will last for years. Too good.

The better question was, 'What rational person would have predicted a Clinton win?'.

Foxy, the link below explains much.
See: https://meanjin.com.au/essays/at-war-with-ourselves/

In it Mark Davis wrote: "The stock story of the culture wars is well known now: two tribes face off in a war of values: a beleaguered mainstream of ordinary Australians—‘battlers’, ‘middle Australia’, ‘families’—versus an unrepresentative, all-powerful ‘politically correct’ ‘leftist’ ‘cultural elite’. Dispatches from the front lines of this battle fill many an opinion column and radio talkback segment.

An endless parade of man-hating feminists, queue-jumping asylum seekers, leftist university lecturers, biased ABC journalists, grant-grubbing scientists, handout-addicted Aborigines, and sharia-law-promoting Islamic clerics populate our fevered media imaginations, their stories told with an obsessive-compulsive repetitiveness that creates its own kind of truth.

There’s barely an issue now that isn’t refracted through the lens of the culture wars and presented as a partisan struggle between ‘left’ and ‘right’. Indigenous rights, asylum seekers, gay marriage, the future of public broadcasting, keeping kids safe at school, Islam, even the science of global warming.

But there’s a clue in this reductionism.

In essence the culture wars are a finely honed media product, packaged and exported by the US right, and marketed through conservative franchises around the world—think tanks, right-leaning media, lobby groups, conservative political parties, partisan pollsters, and the professional purveyors of political division who work as party strategists. The product consists of a narrative template into which names, places and issues can be inserted to suit the occasion, but always the overarching story is the same: a broad-based, powerless ‘mainstream’ faces off against the outrages perpetrated by an all-powerful left ‘elite’. The context in which this product is marketed is the chaos and confusion that marked the end of post-war consensus politics in the late 1970s and that has been ongoing. Its fuel is rage and the sense of dislocation, disruption and insecurity felt by many after decades of economic and cultural change.

The solution offered isn’t to kick upwards against the entrenched economic power of the rich but to kick downwards against new claimants for rights and inclusion, who are identified as the real cause of the trouble."

Polls - what polls ?

Dear Albie,

Thanks for that.

Well stated and scary.

Butch. That is real arrogense. You did not mention Abbott as the first alter net govt, the world has seen since the Second World War.
Since then we have had a DD election which did not work but went backwards.
I hope you are happy with your 25 percent reduction of the lowest paid employees in Australia.

Come, come, Is Mise, you can't predict the weather for yesterday let alone the winner in a two horse race.

Pyne is a grub, he always reminds me of some pouncey public school boy, who's forever running to the headmaster with tittle-tat, trying to get some other poor sod into the shat! Like some mealy-mouthed ferret, Pyne is always "sniff'n the breeze" to see which way the winds blowing so he's facing in the right direction to take advantage. Pyne is the most detestable politician in Australia, bar none, and that includes Pauline Hanson, Tony Abbott and even Barnyard Joyce!

Nice try there Doog, a 25% reduction you say.

Just like your labor puppet, Shorten, you bend the truth for the benefit of a good story. The 25% reduction applys to Sundays and public holidays only. Get it!

If it does not come in many more will loose their jobs. Get it!

Every second street corner has three coffee shops staffed by school kids. Whatever happened to innovation . Public holidays are public holidays and should be taken. Your reduction is an arm twist and will not pass the pub test.

Ok Doog, so i assume you accept you have been caught out exaggerating the truth.

As for coffee shops being manned by school kids, its simply because the coffee shop owner cant afford seniors. As an example, a coffee in about 1980 cost $2.80 (no GST) so if that same coffee were to keep pace with increases, it should now sell for about $8.00 (GST included), but the consumer wont pay this.

Unfortunately, unless you are in an industry effected by penalty rates, food, retail etc., you are not qualified to comment because you don't understand the complexity of the business, because if you did, you would understand. The simple 'pub test' as you call it is this, why should it cost twice as much in labour to make a coffee on a Sunday as on a Monday?

Don't feel bad if you can't answer the question because nobody can. It's one of those 'what's good for the goose, is not good for the gander' situations.

While on the subject of restaurants/coffee shops, are you aware more than 50% of restaurants in Sydney are closed on Sundays simply because wages make them non profitable? Restaurants are effected worse than coffee shops BTW.

How is that good for jobs?

I have no doubt the Libs will cave in on this one, and not implement the changes, which will result in less jobs and a continuation of cash wages being paid. How is that a good thing.

Cash money is not going to stop while cash money is in the system. Every transaction has to be electronic money. The savings will come from not printing money . Plus a deluge of tax from roasters because cash has always been roasted.

doog, there is only 40 coffee shops within a 5km radius of my joint, most open 7 days a week, a real shortage. If 99% of the population was not addicted to caffeine then there would be 40 crack houses within a 5km radius of my joint, and not the socially acceptable 20 such establishments we have now. They even serve 'baby chino's, not the crack houses, but the coffee shops, it 'gets the little ones addicted early in life.

Yes I have seen the baby chino,s being dished out. That has to be the most perverted crime of all times.. Nothing like starting from the cradle.
Coke had to change their formula. And coffee shops are allowed to do what they like.
That are no more than junki shops, and staffed by kids.
Where I am they get kids to sell counterfeit on the streets, because they will not jail kids and that is in the pushers favor..

How is this for arrogance, Tony Abbott has demanded Malcolm Turnbull start putting the boot into low paid workers and their penalty rates. This coming from one of the biggest freeloading politicians Australia has ever seen. A fella who resided over a government who almost to a man, and a woman, had their snouts firmly in the taxpayer trough. Who will ever forget how the useless slug of a poly Bronwyn Bishop was taking $5,000 taxpayer funded joy flights in a helicopter, all with Abbott's approval.

Albie Manton.

I liked your well articulated post on the problems the aloof elites,academics and politicians have caused in Australia, America and Europe in general.
And yes a lot of the feminists is these groups are guilty of pushing these ideas too.
Hilary Clinton being a prime example.

I nearly challenged you on one of your posts I read recently and some of the
comments you made about women but your post on here was so intelligently
articulated I revised my assessment of you.

But maybe one day we may have that debate.
But I am not very keen on the Hilary Clinton type of feminist, however I am very
strongly pro justice and equality before the law for women in any society because I remember and know what life was like
for my mother and aunts back in the 1940's and 50's.