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A circuit breaker is a very important thing in a circuit, but it doesn't do the work the circuit is meant to do.

Nobody is just shocked anymore, they are always shell shocked. Which is a different thing entirely.

It's no news to anyone that One Nation has led the last three major voting intention polls taken. But I wonder how many people who have expressed a dislike of our preferential system and support for a first past the post system are starting to have a rethink now that One Nation is polling at number one on primary vote intention. There's arguments for and against both systems. The way I see it, with a first past the post system you could end up with a government elected on a fairly small percentage if we had a few strong parties instead of the traditional two major party dominance. That might be our immediate future, ie: an end to the two party status quo. The preferential system can have a lot more unpredictable outcomes, that's for sure. I was reading some of the views of Dr. Shaun Ratcliff, principal of Accent Research regarding preferences. He was saying based on current polling, what happened in Farrer could replicate around the country at the next election. Here's a quote from him: "In seat after seat, the Coalition is predicted to fall to third place in seats it has traditionally held, either on primary votes or it is pushed to third by Labor on Greens preferences, with Labor then losing to One Nation – usually on Coalition preferences”. That would mean One Nation defeating Labor candidates with the unintentional help of the Greens. This is my interpretation of that if I'm correct - in a four cornered contest between Liberal, Labor, One Nation and Greens, the Greens get knocked out first and Labor gets most of their preferences, pushing the Liberals to third place. It's then a contest between Labor and One Nation, and if One Nation polls well on the primaries, they pick up the Liberal preferences to top Labor. I think either way, it would be Labor with Green preferences against either One nation with Liberal preferences or Liberal with One Nation preferences. Dr. Ratcliff said the effect can magnify a small change in primary vote into a large difference in outcome. He said: “A Coalition primary vote that was just a few points higher would win considerably more seats,”. Round about now, Albo might be checking his wardrobe to see if he's still got those brown cord pants. He'd certainly be hoping for a big turnaround in the next six months or time will be running out to do it. I think the government knows that momentum will be their enemy if they don't stop it, and stop it soon.

One Nation won't do that, it would be a grave mistake. But if they do, I'll stop supporting ON

Which I don't really understand. I'd be interested to know which policies in particular people are having a problem with. From my perspective they could do better in a few areas, but overall they're doing a good job.

Problem is Marty, the polls are showing us that an increasing amount of people think we've already got that.

I thought that big fat grub, Clive Palmer, had disappeared off the political scene, with my unreliable memory recalling that he said he was done with politics at the last election, where his party got hammered. But this morning, I got a flyer in the letterbox from Clives Party, like they're on the campaign trail again? Turns out, he's re-registered the United Australia Party again, after burying his Trumpet of Patriots Party unceremoniously, so he IS on the campaign trail again. He's talking about spending billions on advertising, to ensure he wins the next election. He obviously believes his money can buy every Australian, same as it does in America. I've got some news for him, he may waste a lot of his money again to achieve very little again, politically.

And there's the rub for the government. Increasingly less and less people think they are providing wise governance. What's behind the swing to One Nation is that a lot of people are increasingly feeling like the government and opposition have failed badly and they've had enough and want a circuit breaker. It's like a mild form of anarchy; tear down the house and start again type of mood.

Thanks for bringing me up to date.

Telling fibs again? https://www.onenation.org.au/issues

It used to be that Americans held their President in the highest regard and showed the greatest of respect. Trump has caused those things to be abandoned. He's attending a basketball Grand Final in New York, and instead of being cheered by one and all, he is being booed unanamously. We all love sport grand finals. By deciding to attend this one, Trump has prevented thousands of fans from enjoying the experience. The comom fan has been barred from going near the venue, or to participate in the parties that are part and parcel of the event. It's probably made worse by the fact that the New York team hasn't been in these finals for years. A lot of us know what it feels like when your underdog team finally makes it to the top. To paraphrase England's King Henry II, "Who will rid us of this turbulent pest?"

Who says that it can't happen again? Ther power was always there in the Constitution, it just wasn't used before. That's the reason we have out Head of State as we do.

The GG won't be dismissing any gov't. That was a unique response to the Frazer Gov't blocking supply. I agree with the Rest of your post. Hanson's problem will be internal stability and operating without breaking any laws. Nev

A government in the current political climate is fighting battles on many fronts. Its first duty is to provide wise governance. To do that it has to deal with a global economy that is shivering with fright because of the actions of the USA. That means it has to deal with cost-of-living. It also has to deal with what people are saying about the causes. One of those that people are saying is immigration. It would be a very brave government that shut the doors to immigration. I could list a whole heap of reasons, but you can fill the list from your own experiences. The next battle is dealing with how it responds to the murmerings of disquiet the people are making. It is clear to see why ON is proving popular. It provides an outlet for complaining. The unfortunate thing that I see is that ON has no documented policies. Also, the candidates it puts up have no experience in governing. The other three major Parties at least have that experience. The way I see it, if ON won government, we would end up in a pretty poor position. The question is: would the Govenor-General dismiss a ON government?

I don't think I'd like to make a prediction on what will happen in almost two years time. People lost a lot of faith in opinion polls when they got it completely wrong in the Shorten lost election. The party faithful at party election HQ were popping the champagne before the polls were closed, and an hour later they looked shell shocked. The thing is, that election was all about the two major parties and now something else entirely is happening. I don't live in a political monoculture as far as friends and people in general that I know. I've got close friends that vote Green and close friends who are paid up One Nation party members, so from one end of the spectrum to the other. But for the last few months it seems like everywhere I go I'm hearing stuff that looks good for One Nation and bad for Labor. The only prediction that I'd be game to make is that the coalition will preference One Nation, which is not good for Labor. In the past, the coalition has preferenced away from One Nation to try to extinct them as conservative competition. It's too late to do that now and if they did they'd just lose more base and wouldn't have enough support in the centre to survive.

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but.... The very first task that AI should complete successfully is to redesign itself to use far less electricity and no water. If it can't solve that problem, why should we trust it to do anything else?