Essential Research has Labor recovering a badly needed point on the two-party preferred vote, with the Coalition’s lead back to 56-44 after rising to 57-43 last week. On the primary vote, Labor is up one to 32 per cent, the Coalition down one to 48 per cent and the Greens up one to 11 per cent. The survey also finds opposition to Australian’s involvement in Afghanistan little changed since November at 64 per cent, with 21 per cent wanting the current presence to be maintained and 4 per cent wanting it increased. Forty-four per cent agreed women were not “respected and treated fairly” in the defence forces against 31 per cent who thought they were, with a strong gender gap recorded in the expected direction. A timely question on Wikileaks had 53 per cent supporting its release of material against 26 per cent opposed, with 36 per cent believing the government had failed to provide sufficient support to Julian Assange in his legal travails, 22 per cent believing he had received appropriate support and 41 per cent saying they didn’t know. The survey also found strong support for unions, with 48 per cent saying they had been good for workers against 17 per cent bad, and 56 per cent agreeing they remained important for working people against only 19 per cent who disagreed.
Plenty of further recent news to report, most of it involving preselections, and most of it involving the Liberals.
• Patrick Secker, who has held the rural South Australian seat of Barker for the Liberals since 1998, has been defeated for preselection by Mount Gambier lawyer Tony Pasin. Sarah Martin of The Australian reports Secker received only 78 votes in the local ballot, despite personal endorsement from Tony Abbott and moderate SA powerbroker Christopher Pyne, against 164 for Pasin and 40 for a third candidate, Millicent real estate agent and Wattle Range councillor Ben Treloar.
• No such difficulties for Boothby MP Andrew Southcott, who trounced former state party president Christopher Moriarty in a late February preselection ballot by 195 votes to 35, with also-ran Mark Nankivell gaining nine votes. Rebecca Puddy of The Australian reports that “much of the support for Mr Moriarty had disappeared after the federal Labor leadership challenge became apparent”. Like Patrick Secker, Southcott has come under fire within the party over his poor fundraising efforts.
• Krystyna Pollard of the Blue Mountains Gazette reports that Louise Markus, the Liberal member for Macquarie, had little trouble seeing off a challenge from Charles Wurf, state division chief executive of the Aged Care Association of Australia, at a ballot held on February 25.
• The Liberals have again preselected marketing executive Fiona Scott, who also ran in 2010, as their candidate for Lindsay. The ABC’s Mark Tobin related on Twitter that Scott won the ballot held last weekend with 62 votes to 42 for Robyn Preston, a Hills Shire councillor. Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports that teacher Margaret Brand was also in the field.
• David Coleman, director of strategy and digital for Nine Entertainment, won a Liberal preselection ballot on the weekend for the Sydney seat of Banks, where Labor’s Daryl Melham had his margin cut from 10.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent in 2010. The Australian’s Media Diary describes Coleman as a factional moderate and “one of David Gyngell’s closest lieutenants”. Mark Tobin of the ABC announced on Twitter that Coleman won 60 votes at the local preselection ballot against 33 for Ron Delezio, a businessman who came to public attention after his daughter Sophie received horrific injuries in separate accidents in 2003 and 2006.
• Chris Paver of the Illawarra Mercury reports that five candidates have nominated to succeed the retiring Joanna Gash as Liberal candidate for the south coast NSW seat of Gilmore: Shoalhaven Deputy Mayor Andrew Guile, former Kiama councillor Ann Sudmalis, Ulladulla resident Grant Schultz, Nowra businessman Clive Brooks and Meroo Meadow marketing consultant Catherine Shields. Guile, a one-time staffer to Gash who has since fallen out with her, was rated as the front-runner in a report in the Mercury last October.
• Michael Burr, described by the Burnie Advocate as a “high-profile Devonport real estate business owner”, has won Liberal preselection for the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, which Sid Sidebottom holds for Labor on a margin of 7.5 per cent. Also in the field were Glynn Williams, a North Motton farmer and lawyer described by Chris Pippos of the Burnie Advocate as “ultra conservative”, and Jacqui Lambie, described in the local press only as a “Devonport woman”. Sean Ford of the Burnie Advocate reports that Burr’s backers included Senators Richard Colbeck and Stephen Parry and state MP Adam Brooks. It was thought that Brett Whiteley, who lost his state seat in Braddon at the 2010 election, might be another contender, but he announced in the week before the preselection ballot that he would instead focus on a return to state politics.
• ABC Television reported last night that Joe Bullock, the powerful state secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, is eyeing off Mark Bishop’s position at the top of Labor’s WA Senate ticket. Bishop, who was a number-counter for Kevin Rudd in his recent leadership challenge, says he is still considering whether to seek another term. The other Labor Senator up for re-election is Louise Pratt; there have been suggestions that Labor’s position in Western Australia is so parlous it might only return one Senator, which would be an Australian electoral first.
• John Ferguson of The Australian reports that a complex factional realignment in the Victorian ALP might yet save the career of Senator David Feeney, who at present is stuck with the highly precarious third position on the Senate ticket and is up for re-election next year. Feeney has been adrift of the dominant Bill Shorten-Stephen Conroy grouping in the Victorian Right since early 2009, when the former established a “stability alliance” which excluded Right unions the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the National Union of Workers and the Health Services Union. However, a deal was reached last month which brought the SDA back into the fold and allowed one of its members in the state parliament, James Merlino, to succeed the outgoing Rob Hulls as deputy leader. Sources quoted by Ferguson say that another aspect of the agreement was that if Feeney “failed to gain a winnable seat at the election, he would be accommodated after the poll, probably via a by-election”.
• The federal redistribution of South Australia’s electoral boundaries has been finalised with no amendment to the draft boundaries proposed in August, which were summarised thus by Antony Green.
• The NSW government will introduce legislation to prohibit members of parliament from also serving as councillors, which if passed would require independent Clover Moore to choose between her gigs as lord mayor of Sydney and state member for the Sydney electorate. The move would take effect when local government elections, including the election for the lord mayoralty, are held in September. Newly elected members would be obliged to relinquish council positions within 18 months. The legislation is supported by the Shooters Party but opposed by the Greens, leaving the swing votes in the upper house in the hands of the two Christian Democratic Party members. The Daily Telegraph reports the government is waiting on Fred Nile to be discharged from hospital before pursuing the matter with them, as it presumably does not have high hopes for his party colleague Paul Green, who is also the mayor of Shoalhaven. The Sydney Morning Herald relates that 29 current members of parliament would be affected by the change, among them 17 Liberals, four Greens, four Labor, two independents and one each from the Nationals and the Christian Democrats, although few doubt that a desire to target Moore has been high on the government’s list of motivations. While it is true that the move will, as Barry O’Farrell says, bring the state into line with Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, it is altogether unclear to me why it should not be left to voters to decide if they want a member of parliament serving them on council. Moore has indicated she would abandon her seat in parliament if forced to make a choice. She held off a strong challenge from Liberal candidate Adrian Bartels at last year’s election (which was mostly down to the huge swing from Labor to Liberal), surviving by 3.1 per cent after preferences. When asked by the Wentworth Courier, neither Bartels nor Liberal councillor and lord mayoralty candidate Shayne Mallard ruled out seeking preselection in the event of a by-election for Sydney.
Apparently the nats in the senate are full of singing syrup. I want to have them sacked for treating parlt with contempt.
Jeffemu, hey settle I’m actually a Manly supporter 1. and a Parra supporter 2.
But when it comes to money you gotta do what you gotta do 😈 😆 😎
I dont know you Centre, but we are enemies until Early October. LOL
[Its such a shame to see Grattan become such a partisan hack. How can any journo not condemn the behaviour of the opposition breaking convention with regards to pairing and illness. What a disgrace]
As a matter of fact, Grattan quite harshly attacked the Opposition over this on Fran Kelly’s show this morning. “This is a seriously ridiculous and very undignified argument”, she said. “There is absolutely no reason for the Opposition to go on with this nonsense.”
Wow. The ALP up in QLD is copping a beating.
I wouldn’t have thought so but this is going to be worse than NSW.
william… i am only a casual observer here but for you to suggest that michelle grattan has any degree of balance is a bit much – the two sentences you have quoted are the only words i have heard her utter that aren’t attacking either the pm or the govt in the last 12 months…
[but we are enemies until Early October.]
Cool 🙂
What are the odds the
makes it censure motion number 50 by the end of the week?
@GenGusface: Someone farted- actually it was abbotts PM hopes going out the window #mrrt #sen
William Bowe
[As a matter of fact, Grattan quite harshly attacked the Opposition over this on Fran Kelly’s show this morning. “This is a seriously ridiculous and very undignified argument”, she said. “There is absolutely no reason for the Opposition to go on with this nonsense.”]
She also declared the gov’s numbers crap because they did not take into account the secret and unknown Coalition “savings” claims.Bad gov for using the known facts and claims and not including unknown unknowns.
[As a matter of fact, Grattan quite harshly attacked the Opposition over this on Fran Kelly’s show this morning. “This is a seriously ridiculous and very undignified argument”, she said. “There is absolutely no reason for the Opposition to go on with this nonsense.”]
Twas Grattan’s talk with Kelly that I was refering to when I mentioned Grattan and Coorey attacking the Opposition.
That may well be, LL and Poroti, but if a comment (in this case Andrew) says something which is very obviously wrong, why on earth shouldn’t I say so? It doesn’t do Andrew any good to be under a misapprehension.
William
Grattan’s condemnation re:pairs must have occurred after I left the car coz she was doing a wishy washy on the Coalition’s black hole.
And it was your comment which caused me to go looking for the Kelly interview, Scarpat, and I was listening to it not long before I saw Andrew attacking her for holding the exact opposite position.
Go Germaine – she’s spot on about the media on Q&A
Dee
TMI
😉
I think it may actually be possible, despite lots of other elections where it has been wishfully suggested, that the ALP may end up as a cricket team in QLD.
Worse still, if Bligh resigns as leader… there are slim pickings for others. Fraser-gone, Jones-gone, Dick-gone. There is resignation and hatred in the electorates around Brisbane. Voters have locked and loaded. Probably two elections later than it should have been…
I was most surprised by Grattan’s criticism of the opposition position on pairing Thomson and I agree with what she said.
I’m feeling much more relaxed this week. Life is good in God’s Own Country.
bluepill
[Wow. The ALP up in QLD is copping a beating.
I wouldn’t have thought so but this is going to be worse than NSW]
What would one expect from a state that thought the likes of Joh and Russ were the beez neez for decades and where white shoes never go out of fashion ? 😆 Labour has a Mt Everest size “It’s Time” to fight against them so no surprise for a flogging. Ah well people get the government they deserve. Or so they say..
Someone had a good point for Kate Jones at the forum yesterday.. What is the point of voting for a ‘local girl’ who has Ashgrove’s best interests at heart when she is part of a minority opposition?? She can’t get anything done and, on the basis of a pretty ordinary performance on Sunday, won’t be winning a lot of argument in parliament.
She has done nothing of consequence for either Ashgrove nor her previous Environment portfolio of any consequence. Not enough life experience.. another cog in the machine since age 14. Sigh. When will the ALP start attracting real, interesting, normal people again? All party puppets and Union twits.
[What would one expect from a state that thought the likes of Joh and Russ were the beez neez for decades and where white shoes never go out of fashion ? ]
This lacks any semblance of logic. The state of Queensland has seen the longest stretch of consecutive ALP governments sworn in since 1946 of any state in Australia. It was, arguably, also responsible for breaking the drought on Federal ALP government in 2007.
Queenslanders are a quirky/canny bunch. If you swing vote, you get listened to, you get money and your leaders (usually) think twice about being dickheads. Anna Bligh was the exception there, being tenacious, single-minded and absolutely determined to be a complete dickhead. Even a Queenslander can spot a dickhead like that.
poroti we liked Jo because he got things done and dragged us into the 20th Century. It was late in the piece when most of us realised how corrupt things were run. Things are different in QLD these days and it’s unlikely any government that messes with the CMC process will last long.
DavidWH – if te LNP win by a huge amount what is to stop them from getting rid of the CMC. There is no Upper Huse to pt a break on anything.
Can I express my extreme displeasure that two consecutive Speed Dating Fridays have been extremely curtailed or cancelled due to server maintenance issues.
For anyone interested, my key attributes include the fact the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is going to BROADCAST a PHOTOGRAPH that I PHOTOGRAPHED during the first week of April.
If this is of interest to you, I suggest you wait until this coming Speed Dating Friday (23/3) for me to explain in exhaustive detail the photograph in question, including but not limited to, the shutter speed, aperture, lens choice, focal length selection that I used to photograph this particular photograph.
BH us in three years time. No doubt in my mind that if the LNP messes with the CMC they will get thrashed next election.
[I’m feeling much more relaxed this week. Life is good in God’s Own Country.]
You’re about to have a change of govt there. Things always feel cleaner with a change of govt after a long term govt, esp when it’s an incoming govt of your hue. 🙂
shows
how did you get to stay still for so long?
his black hole must have taken extremely professional knowledge and finesse
WOW
joe was redacted from that last post
Well yes, but you’ve also nailed why it doesn’t really matter how much the ALP lose by – without an upper house elected proportionally, a small majority for the LNP is as much power as a huge majority in terms of the Queensland parliament.
As others have said, huge majorities actually present more problems for a government because you get all these half-baked candidates who get up who really shouldn’t have, and lots of backbenchers to cause trouble.
The main downside for the ALP of a huge loss is simply not having enough of a presence in parliament to do the legwork they will need to do to get back into government in future.
True confessions but I was feeling a bit down a couple of weeks ago though. Last week was a remarkable week and we were off the air for most of it. I had bragging rights four days in a row 🙂
Stephen Ragell @TheAviator1992
#MRRT passed everyone! #qanda
DavidWH:
Whoever wins in Qld matters little to me, but FWIW I never had doubts the LNP would win in that state.
The filibustering over the MRRT continues in the Senate.
[poroti we liked Jo because he got things done and dragged us into the 20th Century. ]
Absolute rubbish. Joh thrived on a gerrymander which favoured his country demographics after post-war population movements and which he fine tuned to an outrageous extent. His god bothering fundamentalism and ignorance tried to drag Qld back more than a century in education and social development. He got things done which assisted his white shoed supporters or which pork barrelled his country seats at the cost of infrastructure to support the vast majority of the State’s population.
Joh was a saint compared with the ALP currently and the NSW ALP until very recently.
Not one charge on Joh. Not one day in jail.
Nuttall was up to his elbows in honey. Spence lied to parliament and under oath: http://austlawpublish.com/20070326%20Australian%20Criminal%20Law%20Journal%20issue200703.pdf
Lucas lied on several occasions in parliament about the health pay debacle and Anna Bligh’s own husband has legendary status in QLD as the highest paid nepotically employeed person ever in Queensland. Not a bad effort.
“The appointment of Bligh’s husband, Greg Withers, to run the Office of Climate Change was blatantly nepotic.
Bligh erred again when she appointed former Labor mate Steve Bredhauer to a $118,000 Asian trade job.
And she lost credibility by allowing Works Minister Robert Schwarten to give former Cabinet colleague Chris Cummins a $100,000 job as an IT adviser.
The failure to bring home Dr Patel, the dithering over to the Purcell assault claims, and the controversy surrounding former ministers Merri Rose and Gordon Nuttall were also a clip around the ear to Bligh’s claims of integrity.
Nuttall, of course, has not been found guilty of anything and may walk away scott free. But the case served to magnify suspicious deals between Labor and big business.
Enter Mike Kaiser.
Bligh gave the former disgraced Labor member for Woodridge the job as her chief of staff on a salary package of $268,000. She topped it up by about $100,000.
Remember Kaiser had resigned the seat after allegations of electoral rorting.”
Courier Mail June 28th, 2008.
Yep. Sir Joh was a pure Saint compared to this lot.
its getting feral in the senate
Brown’s amendments to MRRT ruled out of order on Constitutional grounds.
Just remember Labor invented the gerrymander, Jo just perfected it.
Corman doing a SSO? When do they just drop the blade and git r done?
bluepill, there is a Qld thread I believe.
[The main downside for the ALP of a huge loss is simply not having enough of a presence in parliament to do the legwork they will need to do to get back into government in future.]
Jackol – a little like NSW which will be in Opposition for 2 terms at least. BOF, with a massive majority, has broken many promises already but nothing much is said about it yet JG is slaughtered for having to compromise in a minority govt.
It will be interesting watching how the LNP will cope with the rush of power.
[Just remember Labor invented the gerrymander, Jo just perfected it.]
Does that make it right?
imacca:
The Greens gave Cormann an in.
Bob Brown stuffed it up.
Am i the only one who finds Corman quite painful to listen to? How many times has he used the word “dodgy” in the last few minutes.
QLD parliament is what it is. Like most, I’d favour an upper house too. However, both sides of the political fence have basked in the freedom it affords the party in government. If Bligh was genuinely concerned about power to the degree she is now she could easily have put the constitutional wheels in motion when she had the power.. as if.
What is does mean is that, as a double-edged sword, Queensland can easily move faster than other states when a government is serious about something. Beattie and his Smart State was a great initiative and now has attracted serious Science and Engineering to QLD and plenty of research hubs to foster it. Joh revolutionised low-fee independent schooling (now 45% of all education providers from P-12), he also built lots of stuff, wrecked a fair bit of environment and had a penchant for dams.
Bligh spent hundreds of millions on dams only to turn around and not build them. She locked up wild rivers, caused divisions amongst indigenous Australians who weren’t bothering anyone. She also lied about privatisation of core assets and had no upper house to block the stupidity. Dickhead. Bye Bye Anna.
Imacca
i think of MATHIAS as the terminator post lobotomy
It’s time Bob Brown retired. He doesn’t appear to have the nuance needed for a hung parliament, and now only gives free hits to the Liberals and National parties.
[The Greens gave Cormann an in.]
Looks like it. 🙁
Apologies William. I dont have the stomach to actually listen to the Fran and Michelle Tony love-in of a morning. Another PBer had posted that she had not criticised the opposition
Evening All
Bob’s causing a bit of trouble hey – as he should, as long as it goes through in the end it’s all good 🙂
[Not one charge on Joh. Not one day in jail.]
Pity about some of his ministers. You must have missed Chris Masters report on 4 Corners in the 1980s. Without a doubt Joh’s government was probably the most corrupt in Australian history.