The first Roy Morgan face-to-face poll of Tony Abbott’s Liberal leadership covers the last two weekends of polling, and it fails to replicate the encouraging results for Abbott in Morgan’s two earlier small-sample phone polls. Labor’s primary vote is up two points on Malcolm Turnbull’s last poll to 49 per cent, while the Coalition is up 0.5 per cent to 35.5 per cent. The Greens are down 1.5 per cent to 8 per cent. Labor’s lead on two-party preferred is up from 58.5-41.5 to 59-41.
Festive preselection action:
• Former Davis Cup tennis player John Alexander has won the Liberal preselection for Bennelong, having earlier tried and failed in Bradfield. Despite predictions of a close contest, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the Left-backed Alexander had an easy first round win over local business executive Mark Chan, scoring 67 votes in the ballot of 120 preselectors. As the Herald tells it, “the right split and the hard right deserted Mr Chan”, although VexNews notes the seat is “not a centre of factional operations for either camp”. The also-rans were businessman Steve Foley and financial services director Melanie Matthewson.
• Wanneroo mayor Jon Kelly has withdrawn his nomination for Labor preselection in the Perth northern suburbs federal seat of Cowan, after earlier being considered certain to get the gig. This comes in the wake of a Corruption and Crime Commission finding that Kelly had put himself at “risk” of misconduct through his relationship with Brian Burke. Burke presumably knew what he was doing when he subsequently endorsed Kelly, going on to say he had “sought my help on many occasions and I’ve always been available to assist him”. The West Australian reported the withdrawal was the product of a “mutual” decision reached after “a week of talks with Labor officials”, which included federal campaign committee chairman and Brand MP Gary Gray. Potential replacements named by The West are Dianne Guise and Judy Hughes, who respectively lost their local seats of Wanneroo and Kingsley at the state election last September. The ABC reports a decision is expected in mid-January.
• The Western Australian ALP has also confirmed Tim Hammond, Louise Durack and ECU history lecturer Bill Leadbetter as candidates for Swan, Stirling and Pearce.
• The NSW Liberals have selected incumbents Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Bill Heffernan to head their Senate ticket, reversing the order from 2004. The Coalition agreement reserves the third position for the Nationals – I am not aware of any suggestion their candidate will be anyone other than incumbent Fiona Nash. Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports Heffernan needed the backing of Tony Abbott to ward off challenges from David Miles, a public relations executive with Pfizer, and George Bilic, a Blacktown councillor.
• Phillip Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald notes Left figurehead Anthony Albanese’s chutzpah in calling for the Macquarie preselection to be determined by rank-and-file party ballot, after the role he played in imposing numerous candidates elsewhere as a member of the party’s national executive. Albanese reportedly believes Left candidate Susan Templeman would win a local ballot, although the earlier mail was that the Right’s Adam Searle had the numbers and it was the Left who wanted national executive intervention.
• Final Liberal two-party margin from the Bradfield by-election: 14.8 per cent. From Higgins: 10.2 per cent. Respective turnouts were 81.51 per cent and 79.00 per cent, compared with 80.12 per cent at the Mayo by-election, 87.41 per cent in Lyne and 89.68 per cent in Gippsland. Question: if the results have been declared, why hasn’t the AEC published preference distributions?
• VexNews reports Saturday’s Liberal preselection for the Victorian state seat of Ripon was a clear win for the unsuccessful candidate from 2006, Vic Dunn, who my records tell me is “the local inspector at Maryborough”. Dunn reportedly scored 53 votes against 26 for Institute of Public Affairs agriculture policy expert and preselection perennial Louise Staley and four for local winery owner John van Beveren. Joe Helper holds the seat for Labor on a maergin of 4.3 per cent.
• The Berwick Star reports that Lorraine Wreford, the newly elected mayor of Casey, refused to confirm or deny reports she lodged a nomination for Liberal preselection in the state seat of Mordialloc last Friday. Janice Munt holds the seat for Labor on a margin of 3.5 per cent.
• The Country Voice SA website reports that one of its regular contributors, former SA Nationals president Wilbur Klein, will be the party’s candidate for Flinders at the March state election. The seats was held by the party prior to 1993, when it was won by its now-retiring Liberal member Liz Penfold.
• On Tuesday, The West Australian provided further data from the 400-sample Westpoll survey discussed a few posts ago, this time on attitudes to an emissions trading scheme. Forty per cent wanted it adopted immediately, down from 46 per cent two months ago. However, there was also a fall in the number wanting the government to wait until other countries committed to targets, from 47 per cent to 43 per cent. The remainder “ favoured other options to cut emissions or did not know”.
• Paul Murray of The West Australian offers some interesting electoral history on the occasion of the passing of former Liberal-turned-independent state MP Ian Thompson:
Shortly after the State election in February 1977, allegations began to emerge from both sides of politics about dirty deeds in the seat of Kimberley. Liberal sitting member Alan Ridge beat Labor’s Ernie Bridge on preferences by just 93 votes. The Liberals were the first to strike, claiming Labor was manipulating Aboriginal voters, but the move backfired badly. A subsequent Court of Disputed Returns case turned up scathing evidence of a deliberate Liberal campaign to deny Aboriginals the vote using underhand tactics and the election result was declared void on November 7.
Returning officers in the Kimberley for years had allowed illiterate Aboriginals to use party how-to-vote cards as an indication of their voting intention. What became apparent later was that Labor had put hundreds of Aboriginal voters on the roll and generally mobilised the indigenous community. The Liberals flew a team of young lawyers up from Perth to act as scrutineers at polling booths, with a plan to stop illiterate voters. The Court government pressured the chief electoral officer to instruct returning officers in the Kimberley to challenge illiterate voters and not accept their how-to-vote cards.
The court case turned up a letter of thanks from Mr Ridge to a Liberal Party member, who stood as an independent, saying “a third name on the ballot paper created some confusion among the illiterate voters and there is no doubt in my mind that it played a major part in having me re-elected”. Mr Ridge’s letter said that unless the Electoral Act was changed to make it more difficult for illiterate Aboriginals to cast their votes, the Liberals would not be able to win the seat.
Two days after the court ordered a new election, premier Sir Charles introduced in the Legislative Assembly a Bill to do just that. How-to-vote cards could not be used, nor could an instruction of a vote for just one candidate. Labor went ballistic, saying no illiterate voter would meet the test.
What transpired over nine hours was one of the most bitter debates ever seen in the WA Parliament and the galvanising of a new breed of Labor head kickers – Mr Burke, Mal Bryce, Bob Pearce and Arthur Tonkin, who came to power six years later. On November 10, it became apparent that the government was in trouble when one of the four National Country Party members not in the coalition Cabinet, Hendy Cowan, said he opposed the Bill because it disenfranchised all illiterate voters. When it came to the vote, the four NCP members crossed the floor and the maverick Liberal member for Subiaco, Dr Tom Dadour, abstained. The numbers split 25-25.
From the Speaker’s chair, Ian Thompson calmly noted that the law said when a Court of Disputed Returns ordered a by-election it had to be held under the same conditions as the original poll. If the Government wanted to amend the Electoral Act, it should do so after the by-election.
“Therefore I give my casting vote with the ‘Noes’ and the Bill is defeated,” he said. Hansard unusually recorded applause.
end year nears , perhaps time for th anual ” PB drongo goose ” award
? Minchin , Tuckey , Andrews , Nathan Rees , Christine Milne , Diogenes , Barnaby , Andrews , Group 77 mr ping a ping , Tiger ,
(sorry Troothy , nutty drivers donot qualify)
my vote goes to Tuckey , honorable menton to Barnaby
[Frank, Peter Young didn’t say jack shit about Chris O’Brien, outside of your own fevered imagination.]
Perceptions are everything, by attacking Laabor, he by imputation attacked Chris O’Brien.
If you cannot see that, then I have this bridge for sale.
Ron
Surely Robb and his byzantine power plays should be a starter.
[Perceptions are everything, by attacking Laabor, he by imputation attacked Chris O’Brien.]
And, indeed, us all. Dear God, you’re a halfwit.
Gusface
“Ron , Surely Robb and his byzantine power plays should be a starter.”
absolutely Gus , I hav probaley missed alot others drongo gooses as well
I think everyone owes Peter Young an apology.
I was just taking my dog for a piss-walk just now and I saw this poster and took a photo:
👿
Finns
The fibs could really use your skills
😉
Gus, the fibs cant afford me 😉
Frank
I don’t want to go over old ground again. But my post about the ceremonial first sod thing was a statement about the NSW government (that is it couldn’t get things done on time).
It was not an attack on PM Rudd or a slur on Chris O’brien.
[nd year nears , perhaps time for th anual ” PB drongo goose ” award
? Minchin , Tuckey , Andrews , Nathan Rees , Christine Milne , Diogenes , Barnaby , Andrews , Group 77 mr ping a ping , Tiger ,]
Amigo Ronnie, Diog will give the rest a run for their money
[Frank
I don’t want to go over old ground again. But my post about the ceremonial first sod thing was a statement about the NSW government (that is it couldn’t get things done on time).
It was not an attack on PM Rudd or a slur on Chris O’brien.]
And by that Criticism you also attack Rudd, and Chris O’Brien – deny it all you want but that this the truth.
No amount of backpedalling or defending from William changes that.
The Finnigans # 2856
There is no need to make up fake photos.
As a matter of humour it is fine. Let’s hope everyone understands that.
Frank – #2861
I will leave it the man in the street to determine their own view on the subject.
Simply repeating falsehoods ad nauseum does not make things true. Although Hitler believed it did.
[Dear God, you’re a halfwit.]
Bilbo, i hope you will go to the confession real soon.
[Let’s hope everyone understands that.]
The intelligent one’s do.
[The Finnigans # 2856 – There is no need to make up fake photos. ]
Peter Young, my photo was not a fake. It was my creation. You were the fake one by claiming it was RUDDEVIL whereas it was RUDDED.
The Finnigans – #2866
A friend of mine is a male prostitute. I saw his advertisement in a newspaper. it had a body shot. I could tell it was not his body and asked him about it. He said -” it’s a real photograph – it’s just not of me.”
Your argument is similar to his, and just as deceptive.
However, the image you produced is not even a photograph
PY
“I will leave it the man in the street to determine their own view on the subject. ”
I was still in jail when barny happened so was not on th street
When one talks about fund raising incompetense ABOUT a funeral , to th people who KNOW th funeraled one such comment is hurting disrespectng th funeraled ones memory
subtle was you talked about a funeral nio matter what your inner posible innocent intents were , just do not coment on funerals , except with comiseraton
If you fire a machine gun adhoc down Bourke or York streets , youy may not intend to kill anyone , but if you do its still murdar
Ron
I wasn’t talking about a funeral.
yes thatshat you thought , but communicaton is making sure th other tinks th same as what you thought
Ron
Go back and read the original post and tell me how anyone remotely sane or otherwise, would have thought I was talking about a funeral.
thats what you think , now re- read my last post , someone did Now you could hav killed it by unnreserv retracton of any slite on O’Brien Then said your coment was generic re govts generaly and any implicaton of obrien was co incident and unintended Th reacton you received was obvous someone taking your woedrs diferent to waht you thought , so always then clarify
Ron
My comment was not generic re governments generally. It was specific to the NSW government.
Ron, to the extent that I can understand what you’re saying, you’re talking crap. Please stop it. Peter does not have to offer a “clarification” purely because Frank chooses to disrupt the board with an hysterical, idiotic hissy fit about nothing. No person of normal intelligence would have attached any value to what Frank was saying.
pedantic now
repost
thats what you think , now re- read my last post , someone did Now you could hav killed it by unnreserv retracton of any slite on O’Brien Then said your coment was generic re NSW NSW NSW govt generaly and any implicaton of obrien was co incident and unintended Th reacton you received was obvous someone taking your woedrs diferent to waht you thought , so always then clarify
suggest never coment on funerals , and if donot care what others actualy tink you
think , can puppy Kristina blog
William ,
“Ron, to the extent that I can understand what you’re saying”
we “crossed” , or crossed swords I did not rad th tones of pages on subject , i was not present , just my experience of anyting remotely ABOUT someones funeral does cause grievers feeling a slite on th departed , whether justified or not , that was my point sugesting never coment on funerals anyway had my say , no more on subjects
Well, I HAVE read the comments, and Peter did not state nor imply one single goddamned thing about a funeral, and he did not state nor imply one single goddamned thing about Chris O’Brien. The suggestion to the contrary is a fatuous invention of Frank’s.
I’ve been banned by me from talking further on th subject
but notise two “goddamned” in reply , feel i’ve been double damned now
[Well, I HAVE read the comments, and Peter did not state nor imply one single goddamned thing about a funeral, and he did not state nor imply one single goddamned thing about Chris O’Brien. The suggestion to the contrary is a fatuous invention of Frank’s.]
By Peter linking the Sod Turning Ceremony and Rudd’s promise at the funeral to be using a bulldozer to help build the centre, Peter was implying that there was no work being done on the construction site, when in fact the so Turning ceremony is just that, a symbolic turning of the first sod soil.
THAT is what I was criticising, and William should know better than trying to defend such a cheap shot by Peter against a new Premier.
Frank – #2879
A cheap shot against a new premier? No way.
Lets examine what happened to governance in NSW over the last few months. It was totally paralysed. It was paralysed because the then Premier was unable to attend to his duties, but was forced to fend off bushfires created by his own party who were leaking to the media and destabilising his leadership.
Some examples:-
Arts grants were supposed to be announced in September. They weren’t but were then to be announced in the first week of December. A hatchett job was done on Rees on 3 December. Arts grants were not then announced until 17 Dec (many employees were facing an uncertain future for 2010 until then).
Electorate stimulus packages (total $35 million) were to be announced on 4 December. Work was to commence on 10 December. The grants were not announced until 16 december.
Transport blue print – Rees was to announce the government’s blue print for transport on 4 December 2009 (transport is probably the most significant issue in NSW). Nothing has happened to any transport announcements under Keneally.
Why have the people suffered suffered this delay in governance? For absolutely no real reason. Why was it necessary to distract Rees from governance over a sustained period, since at least September? No real reason.
Keneally came into the job, installed in the place of Rees by the henchmen who had been destablising Rees.
A bit rich that the NSW electorate should excuse all these delays because she is “new” and needs time. If she couldn’t continue governance as was expected, she should not have accepted the job or at least be prepared to wear the consequences.
SNIP: The minimum level of intelligence required of comments on this site is not high, by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, the charge which is being repeated here falls well beneath it, and further repetition of it will not be permitted – The Management.
I not only implied she was not the original minister, i said she wasn’t.
And For Ron’s Benefit here is Peter Young’s Post in Toto, note the final paragraph about only being in the job 3 weeks.
[Peter Young
Posted Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:35 pm | Permalink
Could it happen anywhere else but in NSW?
In June PM Rudd promised work would begin on a cancer research centre by Christmas 2009. Today, 22 December 2009 using a silver shovel, Mr Rudd turned the first sod on the Lifehouse cancer research centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
If it was in any other state, you would expect that by now work would have been well and truly underway, with at least the foundations laid out, in accordance with the PM’s promise.
The PM is reported as saying:-
“I said when we farewelled Chris at a state funeral at St Mary’s Cathedral in June of this year that if I had to drive the bulldozer myself by Christmas then I would do so, in order to make sure that we got this project underway.”
Alas, instead of a bulldozer, the best NSW could offer the PM was a ceremonial shovel to turn the first sod.
What is surprising is the PM is also reported to have made this comment:
” The premier is working hard. I have worked with her hard through my office and our health agency on this particular project here at RPA. ”
Given that Keneally has been Premier for less than 3 weeks, the centre is not in her electorate and she did not previously have ministerial responsibility for it, it is difficult to understand what the PM was talking about. I hope he was not referring to the hard work of organising the sod-turning ceremony.]
STFU , i asked what it was and got no reply but from some reading it appears yu can make a poster disapear for ever ! So as we speak , i may be invisible
Assume th one to be made invisible gets a warning , or do they just get vaporized away ?
In some ways do not like it as its a bit disrespectful not reading what peole say or just skipping thems if they seem annoying alot hav said they skip me like Adam , well no loss with hims but interstingly when i coment on israel barbarism on Palestiniens all of a sudden he hasnot skippd me at all and replys , funny that
but then from memory of bob1234 being my stalker , sort of my special parrot , may be he special case of making invisible
[I not only implied she was not the original minister, i said she wasn’t.]
You may be interested to know that when there is a new Premier of ANY political flavour, they inherit Projects and jobs started by their predecessors.
This is but one example.
By linking two totally unrelated articles you managed to attack the poor woman for takinmg part in something that the Premier of the day would’ve done – would you have made the same attack if it transpires that it will be Barry O’Farrall who may well be opening the Centre in 2012 ?
Frank –
Maybe you can offer an explanation as to why it was necessary to dump Rees and instal Keneally.
I understand you are close to the Labor Party (although I doubt whether you are close to NSW Labor).
[Frank –
Maybe you can offer an explanation as to why it was necessary to dump Rees and instal Keneally.
I understand you are close to the Labor Party (although I doubt whether you are close to NSW Labor).]
It is called politics and it happens. Next silly question
If the O’farrell government drags the chain and doesn’t enable the centre to open as planned, of course he will be panned.
Frank -# 2887
So NSW suffers because of personality and factional warfare being carried out in NSW.
I am sure the people appreciate that.
[Frank -# 2887
So NSW suffers because of personality and factional warfare being carried out in NSW.
I am sure the people appreciate that.]
I suppose your faux outrage would not occour if Rees had died suddenly, or was forced to resign for health or some sort of political scandal etc ?
Face it, Leaders change and the business of Government continues including ceremonies and other events startedv by previous leaders.
Frank, Rees died the death of a thousand stab wounds in the back.
Rudd spoke of all Keneally’s hard work. Someone said that his statement was the diplomatic, polite and correct thing to say when he was in NSW. I am able to accept that. But my acceptance of that does not imply any credit on Keneally. Especially since it took Rudd 2 days to contact Keneally after the assassination.
Frank, I appreciate you are rusted onto Labor – and cannot tolerate any criticism of the generic brand Labor – wherever it is. Might I respectfully suggest you carry out some research into the NSW parliamentary Labor party and it’s behaviour since 2007. After that if you believe the NSW government is beyond and undeserving of criticism, I would be astounded.
PY@2891
I shall not even bother replying to such a complete and utter load of Bollocks – but suffice to say you have no clue about the realities of Govt and the running of a State and/or Country.
And William has the gall to call me a Half-wit, compared to your reasoning and logic, I’m a Rhodes Scholar.
Well, while I don’t agree with Peter’s generally sour disposition, I have to say that on the specifics of the NSW state government, he has point Frank.
You can’t just say something “a complete and utter load of bollocks” without backing it up. And in the case of the NSW government, that’s a pretty tall order.
The “realities of Govt and the running of a State” bear little relation to the horrors going on in the back alleys around Macquarie St., Sydney 2000. One gets the feeling that NSW is being run by and for the benefit of financial donors to the Labor party and that the “government” (sic) doesn’t give a flying f**k who knows it. While donations to the Liberals are ramping up in the expectation that they will be elected next time, there are still a lot of favours – bought from Labor and paid for by their backers in construction – that are yet to reach maturity. Why else would certain Labor right wing movers and shakers go to all the trouble they’ve gone through?
As a pretty rusted-on Labor voter (and one who votedfor them last time in NSW) I’m ashamed of what they’ve become: naked power brokers, snouts to the trough, in a last minute feeding frenzy before they get the chop. I’m even more concerned that some (if not a lot) of this will rub off on federal Labor.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/indonesia-detains-17-asylum-seekers-20091227-lg4b.html
[Indonesian police say they have detained in East Java province 17 Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers who were trying to reach Australia.
…
“They had no documents on them and they wanted to go to Australia to seek asylum,” Iqbal said.]
Can someone please tell me what happened to their documentation, and how they got from Afghanistan to Indonesia without it? Cheers
Frank
Don’t try to delude us that Keneally’s ascension was just a normal change of leader that occurs when someone retires or dies.
Keneally immediately sacked the Chief of Staff of the Premier’s office (Graham Wedderburn) and the Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and installed her own people in those positions. Hardly a smooth change-over with a continuance of government as before. Surely you have sufficient understanding of organisational behavioural to understand the impact sudden unplanned changes at the top have.
And another thing, Rees had a plan for the run-up to the 2011 election. oddly it included a plan to wedge the Liberal Party on “moral’ issues, to wedge the conservative catholic section and the more “liberal” wing. Hard to see Keneally carrying out that plan. However wise Rees plan was, he at least had a plan. Keneally has none. The best thing she could do after her election was to call a caucus meeting and do a think-tank style white-board exercise.
Rees offered to serve in the new cabinet. His conditions were that Tripodi and Ian Macdonald (he sacked them)were not appointed ministers, political donations reform was continued and the Labor national executive intervened in the NSW branch. He was not appointed to cabinet by Keneally. One can only speculate why his conditions were not acceptable to Keneally.
Rees spoke of labor principles being stretched to the limit under the arrangements in place. He was referring to the deal done with the Shooters party and Fred Nile. Rees was happy to tear that up. We are yet to see if Keneally re-activates it, but suspicions remain.
Frank, why don’t you take a leaf out of Rudd’s book – and distance yourself from the parliamentary NSW Labor party. Why would you want to be an apologist for NSW Labor?
SNIP: See previous snip.
Bushfire Bill #2893.
Very eloquently put.
It has substantially more credit because you declare you are a rusted on Labor person.
Frank – #2896
I reject your lies.
Frank – @2896
I did not quote what Rudd said at Chris O’Briens funeral. I quoted what PM Rudd said to the media at the sod turning ceremony. Don’t you understand that?
[Frank – @2896
I did not quote what Rudd said at Chris O’Briens funeral. I quoted what PM Rudd said to the media at the sod turning ceremony. Don’t you understand that]
To Requote you:
[Could it happen anywhere else but in NSW?
In June PM Rudd promised work would begin on a cancer research centre by Christmas 2009. Today, 22 December 2009 using a silver shovel, Mr Rudd turned the first sod on the Lifehouse cancer research centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
If it was in any other state, you would expect that by now work would have been well and truly underway, with at least the foundations laid out, in accordance with the PM’s promise.
The PM is reported as saying:-
“I said when we farewelled Chris at a state funeral at St Mary’s Cathedral in June of this year that if I had to drive the bulldozer myself by Christmas then I would do so, in order to make sure that we got this project underway.”
Alas, instead of a bulldozer, the best NSW could offer the PM was a ceremonial shovel to turn the first sod.]