The western Sydney electorate of Greenway delivered the government a crucial win at the 2010 election, prompting much soul-searching from a Liberal Party which had been tardy in preselecting candidates in this and other key New South Wales seats. Greenway now stands as Labor’s most vulnerable seat ahead of an anticipated tidal wave in suburban Sydney.
The current boundaries of Greenway extend northwards from Blacktown and Toongabbie, about 30 kilometres west of the central business district, through Lalor Park and Kings Langley to Kellyville Ridge and Riverstone. The seat was substantially redrawn at successive redistributions before the 2007 and 2010 elections, of which the first increased the Liberal margin from 0.6% to 11.0% and the second created a Labor margin of 5.8%, boosted by a 6.5% swing to Labor at the intervening election. The more recent redistribution largely reversed the effects of the former, restoring the suburbs south of the M7 which had been accommodated in the interim by Parramatta and Chifley. The scale of the changes was such that the redrawn Greenway had more voters from Parramatta than the electorate as previously constituted. To Macquarie it lost the areas of Hawkesbury which had temporarily given it a semi-rural rather than outer suburban character.
Greenway was created in 1984 and held for Labor by margins at or near the double-digit range until 1996, when inaugural member Russell Gorman was succeeded by Frank Mossfield. Mossfield retired after a low-profile parliamentary career in 2004, after suffering a 6.5% swing that reduced his seat to the marginal zone in 2001. He was succeeded as Labor candidate by Ed Husic, spokesman for Integral Energy and a non-practising Muslim of Bosnian background. The Liberals were perhaps more astute in nominating Louise Markus, a community worker with Hillsong Church, then located in the electorate. Amid muttering of a whispering campaign targeting Husic’s religion, Markus secured a narrow victory with a 3.7% swing, aided in part by an 11.8% informal vote fuelled by a bloated field of candidates and the electorate’s large proportion of non-English speaking voters. This delayed Husic’s entry to parliament until 2010, when he won the outer western suburbs seat of Chifley.
The buffer added by the subsequent redistribution allowed Markus to comfortably survive the 2007 swing, and its effective reversal at the 2010 election had her seeking refuge in marginal Macquarie, which had absorbed the electorate’s outskirts areas. In what at first seemed a secure new seat for the party, Labor endorsed Michelle Rowland, a former Blacktown councillor. Rowland was said to have been “courted” by the party, and was imposed as candidate by the national executive with the backing of the Right. This met with displeasure among local party branches, as such interventions usually do, with critics said to have included Frank Mossfield. Rowland went on to survive a 4.8% swing at the election to retain the seat by 0.9%.
A Liberal preselection ballot held last weekend was won by Jaymes Diaz, a Blacktown immigration lawyer of Filipino extraction, who was also the party’s candidate in 2010. Diaz is associated with the Christian Right faction of state upper house MP David Clarke, and is said to have forged strong local connections through his work as a Blacktown immigration lawyer. It was reported in early 2012 that the party planned to choose the candidate from a US-style primary in a “calculated bid” to freeze out Diaz, with Tony Abbott said to favour a different candidate (there was a disputed suggestion he had approached former rugby league player Matt Adamson).
In the event the matter determined through a normal local party ballot, the result of which confirmed his strength in the local party. Sixty-nine votes were recorded for Diaz against 27 for Brett Murray, a motivational speaker and anti-bullying campaigner associated with the “soft Right” faction of Mitchell MP Alex Hawke, and a solitary vote for accountant Mark Jackson. Other high-profile contenders were former Rose Tattoo singer Gary “Angry” Anderson and Hills councillor Yvonne Keane, both of whom withdrew when it became clear Diaz had the numbers. Padding out the original field of nominees were business coach Robert Borg, gym owner Rowan Dickens, senior financial analyst Mathew Marasigan, marketing manager Ben Jackson, Hills councillor Mark Owen Taylor, security supervisor Renata Lusica and, curiously, Josephina Diaz, mother of Jaymes.
Oh Piers. 😆
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXn7Y5S8Y3k
Mari,
I have heard stories along those lines too. Because I live in a fire prone area, quite a few people around here work for the Department of Sustainability and Environment, as firefighters, environmental managers, etc. I know quite a few graduates (in environmental science or development) who would normally have guaranteed jobs in the DSE currently unemployed or working in retail. That story does not surprise me.
I know the lead guitarist of the Nissans ……. Rex Goh.
RG is Singaporean, n an ex member of Air Supply. He is undoubtedly Australia’s best, n shits from a great height on some of the higher profile Aus guitarists.
He is in extremely high demand as a session muso. Many would be surprised to know that his everyday instrument is home made by a mate in SA who specialises in using components from damaged/ old guitars to create new premier instruments for virtuosos.
[Michael Rowland @mjrowland68
@Phil_B7 @p_totaro @margokingston1 What the Sunday Tele did was disgraceful. I’ll have more on the back story tomorrow morning.]
You can’t just build a big building and call it a national gallery. You have to have stuff to put in it. World-class art is now fantastically expensive, and not much of it is for sale anyway. The advantage the NGV has is that it started collecting major European artworks in the 19th century, when they was much cheaper and much more plentiful in the market, and also when Victoria was one of the wealthiest places in the world. All the other galleries are starting a long way behind, and given the state of the world art market now, they can never catch up. That’s why the NGV will always be the national gallery.
Darren @djmer1
Was it reported that Press Council has been *CALLING FOR CHANGES* like and beyond the News Media Bill 2013? http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/convergence-review-final-report/?LocatorGroupID=662 … #auspol
[Michael Rowland @mjrowland68
@Phil_B7 @p_totaro @margokingston1 What the Sunday Tele did was disgraceful. I’ll have more on the back story tomorrow morning.]
Last night Chris Kenny showed how fragile NewsLtd. people are and tomorrow Rowlands will show how the
ABC has been used by them.
Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk
There are 6 more RBA meetings: 6 more jobs releases; 2 more inflation and GDP released until election day. All should be noteworthy
Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk
The AUD strength is unrelenting… it is likely to be a new 28 year high tomorrow or early this week.
FOR THOSE LIVING NORTH OF THE TWEED.
On ABC News24 they are replaying todays Insiders.
If you want to watch Piers go ballistic it will be on soon.
It had me in stitches today. Worth a watch.
I have it on impeccable authority that Ms Rhineharte has offered to fill up any capital city NG with world class paintings.
All PM Saffon will have to do is get the buildings built.
[Psephos
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 8:07 pm | Permalink
.
NGV will always be the national gallery.]
Only if you go to a gallery to look at old European paintings. If you want to see that sort of stuff go to Europe, good examples to be found in your average pub, well the local gallary anyway. Today’s paintings are tomorrow’s treasures.
Rinehart’s paintings can’t be any worse than her poetry, right?
The greatest tragedy for Australian public art collections was the hideous conservatism of the NGV when it had possibly the richest art bequest in the world for its time – the Felton Bequest.
It did succeed in buying some significant art, albeit of increasingly doubtful provenance.
But, when the NGV had phenomenal resources, it could have been buying impressionists, expressionist and abstract art all first class, for a song, etc, etc, etc… Instead, the petty bourgeois running the show slavishly stuck with academic art of the most hideously boring kind.
There was a footnote to this. One of Menzies’ ill-fated ambitions was to establish an ‘Art Academy’, I believe in the 1940’s, presumably hoping to re-establish reactionary control over Australian art.
BH:
I wish the ABC would stand up to News ltd more by reporting their own take on things rather than that of the OO. Fran Kelly’s program is esp guilty of this.
[But, when the NGV had phenomenal resources, it could have been buying impressionists, expressionist and abstract art all first class, for a song, etc, etc, etc… Instead, the petty bourgeois running the show slavishly stuck with academic art of the most hideously boring kind.]
Exactly, Australia is not Europe, the curators have done the Australian art industry a real disservice.
Nielsen tonight FWIW
1453
psyclaw
[I know the lead guitarist of the Nissans ……. Rex Goh.]
Bodacious Cowboys!
Boerwar:
[There was a footnote to this. One of Menzies’ ill-fated ambitions was to establish an ‘Art Academy’, I believe in the 1940′s, presumably hoping to re-establish reactionary control over Australian art.]
To be fair, I don’t think you can reasonably describe Menzies as a reactionary!
Ok I give up. I know “the OO” is the Australian, but what does it stand for?
I mean, other than “whatever Rupert wants”. Where does the OO come from?
the Canberra National Gallery has by far and away the best Aboriginal art collection. Some truly magnificent pieces.
Sadly, the rest of the stuff is “a bit of everything”, so apart from touring exhibitions, not much there.
Could do with being bulldozed, would clear out the concrete cancer in one fell swoop.
mimhoff:
OO = Opposition Organ
frednk & Boerwar,
The NGV does have the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square for Australian art, and a very respectable collection of Asian art. Its other New World collections probably need a bit of work.
Opposition Orifice
BW,
I’d argue that owning the resources is of diminishing vale.
You can actualy have exhibitions projected in to your home screen. The added value is commentary and even videos that give the painting context within the times it was created.
The age of constructing buildings and bureacracies to simply look at things is over.
Opposition Organ
when the Libs get back in, The Australian will change to the GG = Government Gazette
When the Libs were in power, it was the Government Gazette.
I keep having this recurring thought if Bill Shorten has to make the trip to Yaralumla to explain to mother-in-law what he is advising.
Awkward.
Looks like Hugh Rimmington about to dump bigtime on the Daily Telalie
[hughriminton @hughriminton
My quotes on media reforms offered to “Men In News” article: “Minister Conroy’s moves are interesting. They deserve a proper debate.” (More)]
GG
True, but I think that shows how the galleries have missed the point when they bought pictures of things for people to look at. There’s a lot more to art than the sights and sounds we can replicate easily with computers.
And thanks all for explaining the meaning of OO. I was trying to figure that out for ages…
frednk
Not really. They should have sent someone to Paris, St Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna around the beginning of the 20th century to buy up van Goghs, Manets, Kandinsky’s, Monets, Picassos, Gaugins, Braques and the like. Cheap as chips by today’s standards.
But they just did not get it, so they missed the one great chance for Australia to have a world standard art collection. What we have instead is a world standard collection of some of the dullest of 19th century acadmic art works. Parts of this Australian cultural backwardness lasted into as late as Whitlam’s time when there was an uproar about the purchase of Blue Poles. That this was defended by Crean during his launch of the Government’s cultural policy on the basis that it was a good buy because it was worth tens of millions more than we bought it for, reflects an ongoing incapacity to appreciate and defend Blue Poles for its artistic worth. It is, quite simply, one of the most significant works of 20th century art. That is what Crean should have told his audience.
What Australia can still do well now is focus on subsets of art: Indigenous art, asian fabrics and ceramics, prints, and such specialized areas.
In partial answer to Dio’s query, btw, many of the travelling exhibitions visit more than one gallery in Australia and all the major and most regional art galleries actively support themed exhibitions in other galleries by lending works for the exhibitions. One of the successful intiatives of the NGA is the provision of travelling exhibitions to places that otherwise simply would not get them… smaller regional centres and the like.
[Looks like Hugh Rimmington about to dump bigtime on the Daily Telalie]
ABC’s Michael Rowland the same – as per tweet above.
BH@1457
BH – Hopefully the penny is dropping for some in the ABC how they and the rest of the country is being conned by murdoch.
Mind you I don’t know how much is beyond the control of ABC reporters etc and controlled by program producers etc.
It will be interesting to see what Michael Roland comes up with – I was impressed by him when he reported from the US and underwhelmed by his ‘performance’ when he returned home.
mimhoff,
We’ll be in violent agreement if you’re not careful.
Boerwar
[Posted Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 8:31 pm | Permalink
frednk
Not really. They should have sent someone to Paris, St Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna around the beginning of the 20th century to buy up van Goghs, Manets, Kandinsky’s, Monets, Picassos, Gaugins, Braques and the like. Cheap as chips by today’s standards.]
Art didn’t stop at the end of the 20th century, what is being produced today is as cheap as chips, and buying some of it would actually support the art community.
[Bugler
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 7:51 pm | PERMALINK
Mari,
I have heard stories along those lines too. Because I live in a fire prone area, quite a few people around here work for the Department of Sustainability and Environment, as firefighters, environmental managers, etc. I know quite a few graduates (in environmental science or development) who would normally have guaranteed jobs in the DSE currently unemployed or working in retail. That story does not surprise me.]
Is that right in that case sickening, not it was dated in January what has been done. Where is Rummel when he could possibly shed some light on this.
Dio
[I really can’t see why Canberra has the NGA. ]
Because the Cops throw things in the river over at your place. Much more civilised in Canberra.
I’ll be turning up for the Turner’s.
[But, when the NGV had phenomenal resources, it could have been buying impressionists, expressionist and abstract art all first class, for a song, etc, etc, etc… Instead, the petty bourgeois running the show slavishly stuck with academic art of the most hideously boring kind.]
There’s some truth to that, though it is exaggerated by cultural lefty types. The NGV did buy a lot of junk (now in the basement), but they did buy modern art as well – some of it also junk, of course. They also bought things that could now never be bought, such as the Tiepolo. Also, the NGV still gets a million a year from the Felton investments, much of which is spent on contemporary art.
[There was a footnote to this. One of Menzies’ ill-fated ambitions was to establish an ‘Art Academy’, I believe in the 1940′s, presumably hoping to re-establish reactionary control over Australian art.]
It was in 1938, when he was Attorney-General. His main artistic advisers were Lionel Lindsay and Max Meldrum, a pair of arch-reactionaries, and Meldrum an anti-Semite to boot.
The daily tele misrepresenting Rimington, and using a photo obtained weeks ago?
And they are arguing they dont need more regulation
LOL
Gaugin? I believe Gina thinks that’s a gas project in WA.
CT
[Because the Cops throw things in the river over at your place. Much more civilised in Canberra.
]
Are you referring to the gay Uni lecturer?
A private collector in Adelaide has a Renoir, Klimt and Schiele stolen two weeks ago.
There is some doubt about their providence to say the least.
Gorilla
i thought that this would be what Gina understands Gaugin to mean: “I have just been gaugin myself on a lovely cheese cake and 72 lamingtons”
GhostWhoVotes @GhostWhoVotes
#Nielsen Poll 2 Party Preferred: ALP 44 (0) L/NP 56 (0) #auspol
Diogs,
Living in Banyule, which is the general area wher the Heidelberg Scholl painted back in the late 19th Century, you can actually hire out artworks from the Council’s extensive range for your own walls.
Dio – Water colours … Turner would be suspect!
(How is your painting going?)
BK Remember the debate here in Nov 07 on big issues -shall we call The Oz the Opposition Orifice or not. Eventually we sorted it out to O Organ. Bludgers never shirk the hard decisions 🙂
Dave Rowland was good as a correspondent. His work on the 08 Obama election was really good. Breakfast is a shallow program for him altho he’s a pretty face in the mornings when I’m looking like the backend of the blackberry bush
New thread.
BH
Yes I remember, but I think it is generally accepted that it is the Opposition Organ.
Re Piers & Insiders,
Was sitting in bed with my 2yo twins this morning watching Insiders on abc24 ( they would prefer Peppa Pig on abc2, but hey, swings & roundabouts – have lost count of the number of repeats of In the NightGarden I have watched).
This is quite relevant because, from the moment Piers vented, till the end of his quite animated rupturing of his spleen, the bubs were absolutely captivated at the sight & sound of his cartoon like fury.
And then they sat quietly with me till the end of the show.
If nothing else, I would like to thank Piers for granting me this rare moment of peace whilst watching a tv show I want to watch.