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Following the swing in polling against Coalition parties in the Federal and Victorian governments, today’s polling for Queensland produces yet another such swing  on a TPP basis.  Interestingly, however, Labor also had a (small) swing against it and the swing leaves Newman only slightly behind (49/51) on that basis. It is difficult to judge the extent to which this is a swing against Coalition policies or reflects a failure  to explain them.  The Queensland commentator for The Australian argues it is unlikely that the Labor Opposition could win an election when it has offered “almost nothing” in terms of its own policies. The same might be said about Labor at the Federal and Victorian levels too. Also, why does Labor in NSW remain well behind when the Coalition also experienced corruption allegations and when the Coalition is going down a similar privatisation track as it proposes in Queensland ?

Re Iraq and the Middle East generally, the revelation that the Obama administration had intelligence warnings about ISIS adds to concerns about Obama’s strategic policy and about Kerry’s attempt to portray the ISIS attacks as a surprise.

Now the Libyan “kidnapped” by American forces  has been brought to trial in US civilian courts on the death of the US ambassador in Benghazi and an opportunity has been missed to interrogate him and, possibly, to also limit the disclosure that Obama and Clinton knew the attack was a terrorist one but initially denied that.

I mention here that my attention has been drawn to a 170 page publication in 2010 by an American private sector think-tank, The Center for Security Policy in Washington DC , on Sharia: The Threat to America. The  analysis concludes that the US Administration (both major parties) is wrongly rejecting the seriousness of the threat from extremist Islamists, that this threat is extensive and that it exists both within the US and outside it.  If anyone is interested I can email a copy.

As to Australians who have gone to Iraq/Syria, note the comments below by the Muslim who was to have delivered the Opera House lecture on honour killings viz, the West should “get over” the “few mistakes” ISIS had made. Do we want  Australian citizens who support the beheading of those who disagree with Islamic extremism?

On climate change, while it is encouraging that 25 Coalition MPs are calling for the Renewables Energy Target to be reduced, given Palmer’s now stated support for it such a reduction is unlikely to occur. One possible “solution” may be to try to persuade the States to liberalise their gas policies so that “cheap” gas becomes available as (in effect) a renewable.

Des

For copies of the articles referred to in this commentary please contact Des by email.

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