Bolt from the blue

Conservative pundit Andrew Bolt has shut up shop on his prolific Herald Sun blogging activities with a cryptic “announcement from the seat of Higgins”:

Stephen Mayne has been onto this story for a while, and for once he’s close to the truth (from the linked article, written in 2006: “Maybe Bolt’s main chance will be in Higgins if Costello ultimately decided to spit the dummy and walk”). Given that I’m told he’s planning to write about this again, probably as soon as this morning, I want to say something here first before he does. This is it for the blog, at least for now. I can’t pre-empt the announcement that my local member and friend, Peter Costello, is about to make, but it would clearly be a conflict of interest for me to continue to write about politics here if I’ve privately agreed to become a player.

An April Fools’ Day joke would, of course, be highly out of character.

UPDATE: On the stroke of noon, Bolt reveals himself to be more fond of a jape than I had realised. He is however Still Not Sorry, at least with respect to me (see the third update on his post).

Other news: The chances of a rematch in McEwen have surely been greatly boosted by the disclosure that eight people in the electorate voted twice, although the case does not return to the Federal Court until May. And for those whose interest runs in that direction, Antony Green offers a post on contentious changes to electoral legislation in the ACT, which will make like difficult for independents wishing to run group tickets.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

360 comments on “Bolt from the blue”

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  1. Colin , even before looking at the theories Jack Kerry did not understand the most vunerable workers were victims of workchoices whether there are definitive theories or not. therefore Labour opposed it . It was not fair to workers anyway

  2. Fagin @ 152

    However repellent many find Landeryou and however contradictory his political preferences, his is one of extremely few sites to provide detailed analysis of factional politics based on apparently genuine and knowledgeable internal sources (hidden amongst all the other stuff, including the obvious slant).

    This sort of information is very closely guarded usually. And Landeryou’s sources stop at the Murray it seems (he must have f**ked the NSW people over in some student politics deal or something). Unfortunately, the general lack of timely and detailed information about factional matters allows people like David Clarke – the NSW Liberal Party’s right faction boss and easily the most powerful man in the branch now that Howard’s gone – to tell journos that factions are something only the ALP has and somehow not be called out as a liar.

    I was really struck a few weeks back by a conversation on this site about NSW politics in which people seemed to accept that Liberal Party factions are somehow less powerful or pervasive than the ALP’s. This may have been true when the professors who taught us Pol Sci 1 were going through student politics. It’s so far from the truth in the modern Liberal Party that it’s laughable, at least in NSW and Victoria (and I strongly suspect elsewhere).

    You can’t fault the public for not knowing this – the Liberal Party doesn’t boast about it and the media isn’t interested usually. There’s a real double standard from the commentariat though. If the NSW ALP machine had been taken over by the militant left we’d never hear the end of it. Yet the NSW Liberal Party machine gets taken over by the most radical mob in its history (even the Murdoch papers habitually describe them as the “hard right”) and there’s barely a peep unless one of Clarke’s state MPs actually threatens to punch someone. (Try googling Hawkesbury Williams Pringle for some background on that MP and a taste of Clarke’s methods, and then remember that these people will have a solid majority in O’Farrell’s partyroom were he ever to become Premier.)

  3. I was not going to say anything about Andrew L comments but seeing others have i will respond. He buckets people on his site but does not like people bucketing him back. Lol.

    Steve, one State that Labor will lose will be Tasmania and i will glad to see Lennon go, as i do not like him. Unfortunately i do not want the Libs replacing him, it would be better if someone internally challenged and replaced him.

  5. zoom @ 198,
    Disagree about unfair dismissal. Especially for small business.
    The unspoken basis of your post is that all employees act in good faith in disputes with their employer. But in fact there is a small minority that don’t, and for a small business, the presence of such a worker can make the owner’s life hell.
    It’s not an issue for a large employer – it’s just a cost to them, they just find the b*st*rd employee a sinecure, or pay them out in a massive way so they won’t sue for unfair dismissal, and the cost gets passed on to the customer.
    But if you run a business with say 10 staff or less, a manipulative, potentially litigious staff member means your life is a misery, unless there is a reasonable way to get rid of them.
    So small business end up using a coping mechanism, namely they hire fewer people, and take fewer risks.

  7. Dyno , yes there are ‘trouble making bad’ employees however there are always ways to get them to resign for a clever small businessman.

    However the abolition of wrongful dismissal as been abused by Employers to get rid of good staff and r-hire replacements at lower wages.
    In any event if I had to choose between the 2 alternatives , I prefer to protect the 95% of good genuine workers

  8. 193
    Crikey Whitey Says:
    Breaking news, Lateline. Visit to Japan, earlier than anticipated. No further details given.
    Anticipate, Kev, anticipate.
    They are out to getcha.

    The actual story was that Rudd said they have been trying to settle a date with the Japanese since the beginning of the year, and it has only just happened.

    Spin? Maybe. But no more than the spin from the opposition, and their media mouthpieces.

  9. Tomorrows News.

    SMH. Iemma proposal. Gaol for parents who fail to send their kids to school. (!)

    OZtrailying. Kids abused in State Care, SA. (Surprise, not to me. Worked there. See Iemma.)

    Maritime union pressures Rudd Govt to release strategy docs Howard Govt, waterfront dispute. Read dogs etc.

    The Age. CEO Transport to step down. Ticketing thing.

    Fin Review. More Disaster, stocks shares and other shonks.

    Advertiser. As above. Kids abused. State Care.

    Radical hospital review/reforms. (Smarten up the slackers, nothing much else)

    Hobart Mercury. Proposal to swab steering wheels for drug traces.

    Students marching against Pulp Mill..

  13. Oh, too yuk, Frank. It is not so long ago that one read of Difference of Opinion being introduced as ‘so balanced.’ The ABC is at the tipping point. Over.

    I didn’t like my flippant tone at 211. Would you and William accept my apology.

    As have said before, I think WA is great. And clearly some of its inhabitants.

  14. [I didn’t like my flippant tone at 211. Would you and William accept my apology.]

    No offence, The West seems to ignore serious Journalism in favour of Tabloid Dreck, oh and anything involving Brian Burke.

  15. Noticed on Lateline that 8,000 Business’s insolvent in the last 12 Months. Workchoices didn’t help them.

    Also, Mortgage defaults doubled in the last 3 years. I wonder if it had anything to do with the 10 Interest Rate increases in that time under Howard & Costello’s management of the economy.

    I wonder how Bolter’s crowd can explain these two issues. All Rudd’s fault, I presume.

  16. [I wonder how Bolter’s crowd can explain these two issues. All Rudd’s fault, I presume.]

    And I’ve noticed that the main Bolter hasn’t returned from dinner – I wonder if he was battle scarred from playing with the big kids, and has returned to the sandpit with Bolt & and the rest of the Kindy kids ? 🙂

  17. Scorpio, so unfair.

    Workchoices did not have time enough to work its magic. Not helped of course by the unforeseen introduction of the Fairness Test.

    Told you that the Bolters would have returned to their hole.

  18. Its a lot more comfortable there. Everybody agrees with each other.

    Nothing helps one’s self esteem more than being part of a mutual master bation society.

  19. [Told you that the Bolters would have returned to their hole. ]

    Crikey, don’t you know that creatures of the familia rodentia prefer to spend much of their time in holes.

  20. Good to see all you regular Bludgers defending your turf so competently.

    Cheers to all. Off to bed. Early start today. Round 1 of the Veterans Closed Golf Championship. Must keep my competitive juices flowing.

  21. Cute and yes. Mind you, if they are creeping about, they may use that against us.

    My old neighbour, despite my condemnation of his water practices, is skilled in the art of making and setting traps, as well as disposing of the unfortunate rodents.

    Interesting if not particularly enjoyable, is the generational emergence on the, I suppose, anciently travelled paths. Still get trapped, though.

  22. I must see if I can get someone to explain to me exactly what this so-called Academic is trying to say here.

    Whatever he is on, I wouldn’t mind trying sometime. It may help me to understand exactly what he is trying to achieve.

    http:www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23469026-7583,00.html

  24. You are referring to Frank’s 212, Scorpio at your 222.

    All we need to know is the orientation of the Sydney Institute.

    Wild guess?

  25. [All we need to know is the orientation of the Sydney Institute.

    Wild guess?]

    Gerard Henderson is one of the Directors – let’s just say “It’s Time” isn’t on their ipods. 🙂

  27. The Age has editorial has engaged with the others in the invented tripe of Rudd not visiting Japan on this tour. In fact a number of these commentators are referring to it as a Japan incident/problem or whatever, much in the way of the Carers payments invention by murdochs hacks – but there is no such problem except the beat created by the press itself in its imagination.

    The press as usual imagine something, write it, it gets repeated then, they quote it back as fact, from fantasy to fact. The person writing the Age editorial has gone moronic. Not that anybody reads them. Really this is lazy journalism.

    There was no issue until they made it one and, that caused Japan to say something just to shut the complaining commentators up. The nut also forgot to mention that Japan has its own domestic problems and also that it was Japan’s responsibility to call Rudd on wining the election.

    These people obviously get sucked in by their own inventions and are unable to remember what was reality and beat-up.

    I mean this line.. “sensitivities in the region have been exposed with the Japan incident..” is simply crap, invention. Japan incident? What incident was that fella?

    [Neither should it overstretch its ambitions at the expense of engaging less than fully with its neighbours. The sensitivities in the region have been exposed with the Japan incident and speak to how fraught relationships, especially between China and Japan, can be. Both countries are vitally important to Australia’s economic future. Despite Mr Rudd saying in his defence that he planned trips this year to Japan, such has been the feeling in Tokyo that a ripple in a teacup has turned into a storm. It is in Australia’s long-term interests that the world begins on our doorstep.]

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/pms-world-tour-and-obligations-to-neighbours/2008/04/01/1206850908897.html

  28. Agreed, about the carry on, Kina.

    [It is in Australia’s long-term interests that the world begins on our doorstep.]

    No more Mr Deputy Sheriff !

    At least someone on the Age has got it.

  29. It could be worse….we could have the American media which from my brief sampling is rabid one the conservative side and a little less so on the Liberal side…but either way most distasteful.

  30. Qld Nats meet behind closed doors this week end to try to form the Pineapple Party.

    “Mr O’Dwyer said that, if approved, the results of a plebiscite would be known within four to six weeks, in time to be ticked off by the Nationals’ state conference in July.

    Then the main task would be finding a name and colours for the new party.

    Most of the sessions this Saturday will be closed and a key fight is likely over the wording of the plebiscite question.”

    http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23468901-952,00.html

  31. Meanwhile Brough is breathlessly telling the ABC that he is cutting his holidays short and rushing back to get trampled by the Santoro faction in the race for President of the Queensland Libs.

  33. Doesn’t look good for the Party Troy at all, especially as they won’t be in a coalition with the Nationals at all.

    Also, the article doesn’t mention the Perth to Mandurah Railway, which was opened on Dec 23rd, and is VERY successful, despite any efforts by the West to show otherwise. 🙂

  37. The Queensland conservatives are getting messier by the day.

    The new Pineapple party at this stage looks like being the National Party plus Steve Dickson, if he doesn’t do a backflip, back down, go back on his word, or is able to be trusted to do what he says.

    The position of all the other Liberals is unclear and unstated. The Federal Liberals have had more to say than any of the State Liberals who are the ones actually affected by the formation of the Pineapple party.

    Can Springborg survive if the Pineapple Party turns out to be just the National Party with a new name? Is there any point in forming a new conservative party that doesn’t include the current Liberal Members of Parliament? Can a coalition survive this process which looks like deeply dividing the conservative forces in Queensland rather than uniting them

    Will the Queensland Liberals just roll over and all become members of the Pineapple Party? Interesting Times.

  38. he Professor last night, speaking about what he thinks the ABC should be:

    The ABC should not advocate causes left, right or politically correct but should be a repository for a genuine diversity of views in addition to being accurate and impartial.

    … which basically means the ABC as a sandwich board, and not even for hire. They have to give free time to everyone’s press releases, whether they merit it or not.

    A carefully planned overseas trip by a Prime Minister, meeting heads of state, opposition contenders, lobbying the UN, carrying out important election promises, smoothing troubled waters, is trumped by the 2 of spades: some lowlife from the Opposition claims Japan is offended and therefore the whole thing is a failure, worse than that, a positive danger to international relations. Both get equal time at the head of the bulletin.

    A diplomatic triumph is balanced against the ex-Foreign Minister dummy-spitting for half an hour on national radio about the good old days.

    And sport, sport, sport… whenever there’s the hint of a cricket match played somewhere, above the level of local Colts, the entire day is given over to a tedious ball-by-interminable-ball description that would flake the paint off the wall with its stultifying inanity.

    Native ABC political journalists are not allowed to make commentary (ever seen anyone from the ABC on Insiders?), so News Ltd. hacks are bussed in to liven things up a bit.

    Well nobbled, ABC, the nation’s billboard.

  39. So now Kev is off to Japan, the MSM will start their attack dogs on him for being out of the country at a ‘crucial time’, what’s the betting?

  40. Steve, Anna must be rubbing her hands with glee over the state of the opposition in Qld, however it does not make for good government to have such a terminal opposition, challenging times!

  42. I wonder if we could start a “Kevin is not doing the right thing here” media circus of our own?
    I am outraged – outraged, I tell you – that Kevin is not dropping in on Israel and Palestine to fix the problem there whilst he’s in the area.
    We all know that Kev is a skilled diplomat. Fixing the Israeli/Palestinian crisis would only add an extra day to his itinerary and is obviously in the interests of world peace, democracy, human rights etc etc.
    He should also then be able to negotiate a successful trade deal with both parties.
    But no, he’s such a sinophile (read communist sympathiser) and smarty pants (he speaks TWO languages! How unAustralian is that? Alex is allowed to because he went to a private school and speaks French, which is essential for a diplomat cos otherwise you can’t read the menus and might end up eating snails – and anyway, Alex isn’t Australian, really, he’s sort of an English lord in exile) that he’d rather spend time with the World’s fastest growing superpower than spend a day solving a genuine world problem.
    As anyone from the latte drinking, chardonnay sipping, ivory tower elite knows, doing something Howard couldn’t do is big on Kevvie’s agenda. Howard also failed to solve the Israel/Palestine thing, so it’s a natural for Kev.
    Over to you, Dennis.

  43. With Japan in the bag, doubtless Kev’s next challenge by the MSM will be to castigate China re:Tibet. Even though egged on by Dubya, I hope he doesn’t.

    I have been trying balance the pro “independent Tibet” hysteria raging in the MSM. Letters to Fairfax asking for China’s POV have been ignored. While no apologist for China, I am alarmed at the one-sided, utopian myths promulgated by dispossessed landlords and their hangers-on. There just seems to be no balance, no alternative viewpoint; all we hear of the Chinese is jackboots and batons. No mention of modernisation, of schools, hospitals and transport – and of land re-distribution.

    My relatively superficial Internet research on “Tibet and slavery” suggests that China has done more good than harm. Any opinions?

  44. Bushfire Bill (238) Your sarcastic statement about sport (ball by ball cricket commentary) on the ABC was completely unnecessary, and certainly not to the point of your assertion that there be ‘meritorious ‘ balance of political perspectives on the national broadcaster. If you have to indulge in your acerbic spruiking, keep it to politics. You are becoming a vexation to the spirit!

  45. David Charles

    I did not take it that way David – chill out mate.

    Hey, i used to work at the ABC – independent info comes out good about it. But I kind of agree with Bushfire Bill’s comment on it – The Liberal party spent the last 10 years trying to psychological intimidate it with for the most part, false claims of bias to try and and get the journo’s to ask softer questions, when already the Liberal party are under very little scrutiny. Its become anodyne – everyone’s opinion is not of equal merit – ABC Local Radio is so low brow – there really is only Radio National now.

  46. David Charles, not sure whether you’re serious or not, but I’ll assume serious.

    The preponderance of sport on ABC radio, in particular hours and hours and hours of cricket, day after day, with little reference to the importance of the game, time of the day, position of the day within the week or relative to surrounding events (like elections), and to the detriment of straight news, political reporting and public affairs – for gawd’s sake even traffic reports – is truly awful.

    There should be a Sports ABC radio network. A tiny (although not non-existant) proportion of listeners are interested in listening to droning descriptions of box-adjusting, sledging and the padding-away of balls to mid-off. A special Sports network would service them perfectly.

    However, if you don’t want the ABC to report real news, then running cricket in the place of normal programming (rather than as an alternative to it, on another station) is a perfect way to accomplish that. You cut budgets back. Your news reporters become stenographers. Sport, because it’s cheap, takes over.

    A Sports Channel for the ABC is a must.

  47. Howards foreign policy adviser trying to undermine Rudd.

    Our foreign policy should focus on ends, not means
    To secure strong community support for the Security Council bid, the Government needs to tell us how much that major diplomatic effort will cost, how it will be funded, and how Australians will benefit.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/02/2205555.htm

    Apart from obviously advising Howard to have no foreign policy except to ring George and Dick since when has a government needed to ‘secure strong community support..’ for these things when the community haven’t the slightest understanding of most foreign policy issues and their complexities. The guy seems to be still flying the Howard flag of dissing the Security Council.

    We know Howard supported Bush in every way especially on unilateral military action….attack Iraq, Iran, Syria. Woops, got stuck in Iraq.

  48. My relatively superficial Internet research on “Tibet and slavery” suggests that China has done more good than harm. Any opinions?

    I’m not sure I can respond directly to this issue, but I was slightly surprised to discover more of the history of China and Tibet. It seems that Tibet has never been a recognised independent country, and was only really autonomous between 1912 and 1950. I’m not sure where that leaves us in terms of supporting a secessionist movement or not.

  49. BB and Bird, I agree with what you say about the ABC. There are still good programmes on RN, especially AM, PM, Health Report, Religion Report (interesting even to an atheist!), etc. But I can’t distinguish ABC Local Radio from the commercials any more, and find it mostly uninformed twaddle. When RN has something on that I don’t want to listen to I turn to ABC News Radio which often has good feeds from sites such as Radio Netherlands. I’m not remotely interested in sport but don’t find RN overloaded with sports reports except that sometimes I question why a sports-related news item is accorded more importance than a more meaty political or international one. As BB has eloquently demonstrated, the quality of reporting in ABC radio and TV news is quite poor as reporters seem to have lost the capacity to critically engage with ideas and opinion. A separate ABC Sports radio channel would be good, though I’m not sure (given the poor quality of ABC local radio) that what replaces it would be much better.

  50. Bushfire Bill

    Just as Beethoven thought music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, it is possible that there are many in the community who think sport is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy on public affairs, and maybe the ABC understands that. Any of your ruminations on ball by ball cricket commentary or on anything else on the ABC other than its coverage of ‘straight news, political reporting and public affairs’, were not to the substantial point of your original post. That is self evident so I am now wondering whether your remarks were serious. Cheers.

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