This week’s Essential Research shows no real change in voting intention on last week, with the Coalition up a point on the primary vote to 49 per cent, Labor and the Greens steady on 31 per cent and 11 per cent, and two-party preferred steady at 56-44. The poll also measures Bob Brown’s approval rating at 42 per cent and disapproval at 34 per cent (including very favourable figures among Labor voters of 60 per cent and 15 per cent); has 31 per cent favouring Kevin Rudd as Labor leader over 16 per cent for Julia Gillard (Gillard leads 40 per cent to 33 per cent among Labor voters); and 30 per cent favouring Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader with 23 per cent for Tony Abbott (Abbott leads 39 per cent to 26 per cent among Coalition voters). Further questions on the mining boom have 66 per cent believing it has benefited them “not at all”, 51 per cent supporting the mining tax (down one on mid-March) and 29 per cent opposing it (down five).
Federal preselection happenings in New South Wales:
• The NSW Liberal Party state executive has voted to dump Garry Whitaker as its candidate for Craig Thomson’s seat of Dobell. He has been replaced by Karen McNamara, a WorkCover public servant who reportedly has backing from the party’s right, who was defeated by Whitaker in the original preselection vote in December. Whitaker has since been struggling with allegations he had lived for several years without council permission in an “ensuite shed” on his Wyong Creek property while awaiting approval to build a house there.
• More proactivity from the NSW Liberal state executive in neighbouring Robertson, a seat the party was disappointed not to have won in 2010. Local branches have had imposed upon them Lucy Wicks, who herself holds a position on the executive by virtue of her status as president of the party’s Women’s Council. Wicks was identified by the Sydney Morning Herald last year as a member of the “centre right” faction associated with federal Mitchell MP Alex Hawke, which in alliance with the moderates had secured control of the state executive. Like the Dobell intervention, the imposition of Wicks occurred at the insistence of Tony Abbott – local branches in both seats have called emergency meetings to express their displeasure.
• Michelle Hoctor of the Illawarra Mercury reports Ann Sudmalis, the candidate backed by retiring member Joanna Gash, won Liberal preselection on Saturday in Gilmore with 16 votes against 10 for her main rival Andrew Guile. Rounding out the field were Alby Schultz’s son Grant, who scored four votes, and Meroo Meadow marketing consultant Catherine Shields on one. For those wondering about the small number of votes, the NSW Liberals’ preselection procedure involves branches being allocated a number of selection committee delegates in proportion to their membership, rather than a massed rank-and-file ballot.
• Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports the Nationals are in the “‘initial stages’ of discussions with popular independent state MP Richard Torbay about endorsing him for a tilt at independent federal MP Tony Windsor in New England”. Torbay has been the independent member for Northern Tablelands since 1999, and served as Legislative Assembly Speaker during Labor’s last term in office.
Lynchpin,
I admire the way you endure your boils.
William , have emailed subs@crikey .com.au , what do we have to do now ? Have been playing catch up and are on page 42. Public holiday tomorrow ?
scarpat @ 2269
classic
Nick Xenophon should not be too “Holier than thou” on the Slipper issue for someone who accused another under Parliament privilege
BW, you can fly to Singapore for $110 one way
Boerwar,
Have you been admiring James Murdoch’s work today as we all have?
To be told you have to have a haircut before you can pass Customs? I don’t think so!
Ducky, your feathers are too long
Is Xenophon still in our Parliament?
The right wing populists are the same as the left wing populists: magic pudding economics in the short run and ruin in the long run.
France has managed to gather a rather frightful national debt. Never mind the bankers. Every time that M Sarkosy tried to haul in the spending there was massive civil dissent. The latter is a no brainer because of the huge numbers of french people who are on the public teat. I am sure that M Hollande will resist the bankers to the bitter end, ie when France goes bankrupt. They have had practice at that sort of thing.
[Gillard has done a wonderful job os dumping the dirt onto their own heads!]
You should take a deep breath and consider who wants Slippers seat and who in the Liberal Party he would think he would be in competition with …
But then actually don’t even try.
Actual thinking about facts and right and wrong are a ‘don’t bother thing’.
Have you got a neat trick for us tonight? How about which party has held the majority of seats in the HoR for the last 30 years?
ML:
Abbott has been front and centre demanding Slipper stand down as speaker.
Are his demands based on the sexuality angle, or the complaint issue? If it’s the former, then its indefensible, and defies your suggestion that they’ve kept their traps shut.
If it’s the latter, then how does one explain Slipper’s occupation of the deputy speaker role as an LNP MP? Esp when you consider they knew about these allegations going right back to 2003, reportedly?
TLBD
[Have you been admiring James Murdoch’s work today as we all have?]
No. I have been a bit preoccupied. One of my offspring got married in a foreign land and I attended via Skype. I think that’s a first in my extended family on both sides. The world rolls on. It was rather cute, actually.
[If they only knew about allegations that he was gay, they should have kept their mouths shut, as they appear to have done.]
The Mod,
I thought the allegations were of Slipper having entered a young employee’s room through a window, before lying intimately with them and then urinating out of the same window?
[This little black duck
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:22 pm | Permalink
fess,
Who will be in The Chair on May 8. I want a name.]
Slipper.
Finns,
Your fins are too long.
我的媽媽說：”你快睡覺。現在，我不是關你的線。” 再見。
Victoria
[i may be reading too much into Slipper’s tweets, but he is up to something]
I think you are reading exactly what was intended.
As for Wilkie!
Which way is he bouncing today? Believe he met with Credlin & she said ‘no deal’ on pokies.
Finns
I miss Singapore and $110 is a good buy for a trip over.
TLBD
“Boils”? I don’t get it.
[Have you got a neat trick for us tonight? How about which party has held the majority of seats in the HoR for the last 30 years?]
7 elections to ALP compared with 4 to Libs if I am not mistaken, so I would guess the ALP (although the 1996 and 2004 wins were big!).
TLBD
I did scan the commentary and Mr J Murdoch appearsto have early onset selective dementia. He forgets everything interesting and remembers everything dull.
Boerwar,
I remember you saying you were hieing you hence. Where is the thence and do you have good stuff to relate?
[The Mod,
I thought the allegations were of Slipper having entered a young employee’s room through a window, before lying intimately with them and then urinating out of the same window?]
Well, then you know a hell of a lot more about those allegations than I do!
I have not seen anything to suggest the 2003 allegations were anything other than consensual. If they were not consensual, then that individual should make a complaint as well.
Ducky, my Mama told me, you cant hurry love.
I still can’t get over Le Pen’s attack on the poor old bloody bakers, just doing their best to punch out the baguettes.
It’s really got me stirred up.
Excellent! Boils can be very nasty, I understand.
[If it’s the latter, then how does one explain Slipper’s occupation of the deputy speaker role as an LNP MP? Esp when you consider they knew about these allegations going right back to 2003, reportedly?]
What allegations in 2003?
The only thing I have seen or heard is that he was cuddling someone in bed. Drake seems to know more, but there is still nothing in Drake’s post that is either a civil or criminal matter.
I just want to know who is paying the lawyers.
Boerwar
Congratulations are in order!
On that note, night all
TLBD
[BW, you can fly to Singapore for $110 one way
To be told you have to have a haircut before you can pass Customs? I don’t think so!]
Singapore has the most relaxed customs arrangement I have come across in recent years. You get your passport stamped and you get on the metro for a quick trip to downtown. No probs. (Just don’t bring drugs because they will execute you.)
OTOH, my experience with Australian customs peoples has been rather inconsistent. Some are friendly and helpful. The Darwin mob in particular tend to be Kafka-esque Little Hitlers.
v
Thank you.
[Driver of Slipper was in at Queanbeyan court house getting a JP to sign a stat dec on further alligations of slipper fraud.]
Rummel, do you have any basis on which to be reporting this as fact?
TLBD
[I remember you saying you were hieing you hence. Where is the thence and do you have good stuff to relate?]
Always happy to help but can’t make head nor tail of that one… you on the turps, maybe?
Drake,
Le pen is an antiantidisestablishmentarian.
Boewar,
hence = from here
thence = there
turps = yes.
Moddy – Do the work if you want to play the game.
Do you expect me to do it for you? I could deflect but am enjoying Leveson and trying to do other stuff as well.
🙂
Boerwar,
Must admit I have not been to Singapore airport. Just hearsay.
LBB, I presume the subs people will be taking care of business on Thursday.
James is back in his box.
Mod Lib @ 2295
I am not privy to any future career plans of ‘the senior ranks of the ALP‘.
However, I am sure they would not be as deluded as some here and will increasingly see the need to make some changes in preparation for winning the next election.
[James is back in his box.]
For his sake, he’d better be wearing one.
James’ adversarial attitude counts against him. His carers must think otherwise for he is still on that high.
So long as we can hang on Til the end of next year we are in with a chance. Every day the Government survives, the less the chance of a lib win. Every day we see the Coalition frustration growing. Nice eh…. No matter what is thrown, we seem to hang on despite the odds. I suspect Hitler felt the same way about the Brits in the first years of WW2. Well get this Libs …. We are still here and we will fight u to the bitter end.
Mme le Pen is the face of the recidivist dark side of french racism/fascism/ultra-natinalism.
M Sarkosy tried to get on the right side of her followers by deporting the Romany from France. But it was a fool’s errand.
To gain the le Pen votes he would have had to deport several million french citizens of magrehbian descent and the muslim persuasion.
The le Pen mob have ambitions to de-citizenize these folk and export them back to countries that have already made it perfectly clear that it is no go. In short, the le Pen mob believe that you can solve a problem by wishing it away.
The seeds for the next french revolution are being sown, howed and fertilized as we watch.
R
[So long as we can hang on Til the end of next year we are in with a chance.]
Well, we’re stuffed then. Coz the election has to be before the end of next year. 17 months max left, I understand.
Rossmore:
If there is a political catastrophe for the Libs, fine. We just go with a Plan B.
There is an ongoing political catastrophe for the ALP. Trouble is, they just knocked off their Plan B (for the second time!).
From here on in, there is only a Plan C or D left, which is not a good look…
[What allegations in 2003?]
The allegations of sexual harrassment.
Lynchpin @ 2298
Latham is a flake and best ignored and forgotten.
You have the chance to be part of the fight-back on Saturday – the beginning of the turn around in Queensland.
I envy you. Give it your best.
TLBD – How many letters was that in antidisestabterisilm – I’ve forgotten?
James does not need boxes: he only faces lobbed tennis balls, he thinks.
He knows the game the inquiry is playing but can’t really join. Sheltered upbringing.