Four observations that grabbed me from Insiders this morning. One from Barrie Cassidy:
• “Paul Keating described his win in 1993 as one for the true believers. Last night’s was not. Kevin Rudd promised to govern for all Australians. His appeal within the Labor Party itself is tempered because of his conservative cautious stance on so many issues. He will be seen as the leader the party had to have to beat John Howard. Julia Gillard will be the light on the hill.”
Three from George Megalogenis:
• “I suspect Jackie Kelly tipped (Bennelong) over the line for Maxine McKew. Her performance that Thursday morning on AM radio – my understanding of the tracking polls, a few of them went mad on Thursday night. There was actually swings back to Labor in marginals where there were previously narrowings through the week.”
• “Going into this election, 12 out of the top 30 seats for single mothers were held by the Coalition. They’ve lost eight straight off the bat, another three are doubtful, they’ll be left with one out of 30. (Cassidy: Why?) Welfare to work. Mal Brough. May have been popular in the intervention into Aboriginal affairs, but you know, he wanted single mums to go to work. And if they didn’t go to work they were going to lose their benefits. If you think that this didn’t shift votes where the government didn’t expect them … I think it did.”
• “The Liberal Party needs to have a good hard look at its membership base. This wasn’t just Lindsay, we saw a breakout at the Press Club on Thursday where Liberal Party members were heckling female journalists including Michelle Grattan, I think there was a meanness of spirit in the Liberal Party this year that came from its grass roots. I don’t know what it’s about, but Peter Costello (sic) needs to have a good look at it.”
To elaborate on the second point. I don’t have figures on single mothers specifically, but Megalogenis’s demographic tables include data for single parents which shows 11 previously Coalition-held seats in the top 30: Wakefield, Cowper, Lindsay, Leichhardt, Dunkley, Dobell, Solomon, Page, Robertson, Kingston, Bass, with Macarthur, Hasluck, Blair, Herbert and Longman not far out. The only definite survivor out of these is Dunkley, with Labor narrowly ahead in Solomon, Robertson and Herbert, just trailing in Cowper and Macarthur, and victorious in the other nine.
Off topic and a bit of a side issue….
People dont realise how significant the loss of Mal Brough to Parliament was or how long he has been campaigning….
Apparently it all started several years ago…..there was a tv ad that broke into rugged cowboy music and ended by the voiceover saying…
Come to Mal Brough country.
(Ok I’ll go shall I?) lol
Did anyone else pick up that howards “I owe the liberal party more than the liberal party owes me” was a lift from his hero and partial namesake Winston Churchill’s “I have taken more from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me”?
Why is everyone convinced Peter Dutton is talented? I can’t think of a single memorable thing he’s done in parliament or the ministry.
Noel Pearson has effectively sidelined himself. It wasn’t a smart tactic insulting the new Prime Minister. And the huge swing to Labor in North QLD aboriginal communities would seem to indicate Noel was out of step with his colleagues.
854 – No it was stupid, and that must say something about the man.
Dutton is useless. good riddance. I cant imagine why the Libs would mourn his loss for long.
I think Brough cooked his own goose with welfare to work (if you know Caboolture, you’ll understand why it was a pretty dumb move) – but I can see why the Libs would want him back. He’s certainly one of their better performers.
I too tend to think they’ll need Turnbull’s dough….Its tougher in opposition when you cant get the taxpayers to fund your party’s election campaign.
And learn this well Libs: the anti-union nonsense got you **absolutely nowhere**. The failure of that fear campaign is a defining moment is 21C Australian politics
I dont think that Costello will stay long as a back bencher. He will possibly move into the finance sector where his experience in balancing the budget to within 5 billion dollars will entice the big money offers. Maybe a career in stand up will be more suitable where he can resurrect such hilarious lines such as “I always thought Cascade was a beer Mr speaker “Tapes of obviously false canned laughter could be played in the background .Or perhaps he will follow that well worn path of retiring politicians and become a lobbyist. He could cater to the long lines of persons seeking access to the Liberal Politicians despite the fact that they are facing at least the next decade in opposition as an ill disciplined irrevalent bunch of clowns.Then again I think that Costello will stay a back bencher for a long time until he retires onto his taxpayer funded fully indexed pension.
Nationals leader Mark Vaile will not stand again as party leader.
Front page of Australian on the web
Newspoll tomorrow??
Sorry the habits hard to kick…..
857, do you SERIOUSLY think Costello has ANY idea what it takes to run an economy? For pity’s sake he had a public service of gargantuan proportions to do the hard yards for him in that area. I though he was an economic illiterate whenever I heard him speak. And answer me this: If he was so good at economic management, how is it the Government sector grew on his watch to the largest it has ever been even?
hey 860…perhaps I should not attempt sarcasm.
Liberal leadership issue solved
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Liberal-Party-Leadership_W0QQitemZ320187798110QQihZ01