The electorate of Canberra covers the southern half of the national capital together with the bulk of the Australian Capital Territory’s thinly populated remainder, with northern Canberra accommodated by the seat of Fraser. Both seats were created when the territory was first divided into two electorates in 1974. The Australian Capital Territory had been a single electorate since the expansion of parliament in 1949, but its member only obtained full voting rights in 1968. A third electorate of Namadgi was created for the 1996 election, accommodating Tuggeranong and its surrounds in Canberra’s far south and pushing the Canberra electorate north of the lake to include the city’s centre and inner north. However, the previous order was reinstated when the seat entitlement to slipped back to two at the 1998 election, in large part due to Howard government cutbacks to the federal public service. The two ACT electorates presently have enrolment of around 130,000 voters each, compared with a national average of around 96,000.
The Australian Capital Territory electorate was won by an independent at its first election in 1949, but was held by Labor after 1951. Kep Enderby came to the seat at a 1970 by-election and carried over to Canberra in 1974, serving as Lionel Murphy’s successor as Attorney-General in 1975. He was then dumped by a 10.4% swing to the Liberals at the December 1975 election, and for the next two terms the seat was held for the Liberals by John Haslem. The seat’s natural Labor inclination finally reasserted itself in 1980 with the election of Ros Kelly, who served in the Hawke-Keating ministries from 1987 until she fell victim to the still notorious “sports rorts” affair in 1994. Kelly’s indulgent departure from parliament a year later was followed by a disastrous by-election result for Labor, with Liberal candidate Brendan Smyth gaining the seat off a 16.2% swing.
Smyth unsuccessfully contested the new seat of Namadgi at the 1996 election, and Canberra was won easily for Labor by Bob McMullan, who had served the ACT as a Senator since 1988. The reassertion of the old boundaries in 1998 caused McMullan to move to Fraser, the Labor margin in the redrawn Canberra being 5.1% lower than the one he secured in 1996. Canberra went to Annette Ellis, who had entered parliament as the member for Namadgi in 1996, while Fraser MP Steve Darvagel agreed to go quietly after a brief parliamentary career which began when he succeeded John Langmore at a by-election in February 1997. Ellis added 7.2% to an existing 2.3% margin at the 1998 election, and held the seat safely thereafter.
In February 2010, both Ellis and McMullan announced they would not contest the election due later that year. Large fields of preselection contestants emerged for both seats, with the front-runner in Canberra initially thought to be Michael Cooney, chief-of-staff to ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr and a former adviser to opposition leaders Mark Latham and Kim Beazley. However, Cooney shortly withdrew amid suggestions Kevin Rudd was ready to use national executive intervention to block him. The eventual winner was Gai Brodtmann, a former DFAT public servant who had established a local communications consultancy with her husband, senior ABC reporter Chris Uhlmann. Together with Andrew Leigh’s win in Fraser, Brodtmann’s win was seen as a rebuff to local factional powerbrokers who had pursued a deal in which the Left would support Mary Wood, adviser to Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek and member of the Centre Coalition (Right), and the Right would back the Nick Martin, the party’s assistant national secretary and a member of the Left, in Fraser. However, Brodtmann was able to build a cross-factional support base of sufficient breadth to prevail over Wood by 123 votes to 109.
The Liberal candidate for the coming election is Tom Sefton, a Commonwealth public servant who has served in Afghanistan as a commando officer. Sefton polled a respectable 4.2% as a candidate for Molonglo at the October 2012 Australian Capital Territory election.
[ShowsOn
There’s no need to be gratuitously offensive.]
I find it offensive that you become offended so easily.
[Actually the blue tie comment was a joke.]
It was more an ironic observation.
[ Gillard attacked millions of men who wear blue-ties to work every day. ]
I find it hard to believe you are really this dumb, ST – which means you are trying very hard to be deliberately offensive.
For your own good, please take William’s advice.
[It simultaneously portrays Australians as racist, elitist, insular, insulting and downright stupid, and also denigrates a close and currently friendly neighbor nation.]
It was a silly remark, but it was an accurate reflection of Australian public opinion, in the context of the people-smuggling issue. The fact is that virtually everyone who has come to Australia by boat, or drowned trying to do so, has been enabled to do so by Indonesia. Indonesia lets them land at Jakarta airport, Indonesia lets them live illegally in the country for months or years, Indonesia lets them get on boats for Australia, Indonesia refuses to rescue them when their boats sink, even right off their own coast. Whatever Australian politicians and the ever-smiling SBY say, Indonesia has not lifted a finger to help us solve this problem, nor will they ever do so. Partly this is because their deeply corrupt and incompetent police and bureaucracy couldn’t do so if they tried (even if they weren’t being bribed by the smuggling industry), but mainly because they don’t see any reason why they should. Indonesia (and Malaysia) see Australia as a rich, white, empty country. Why should we worry about a few tens of thousands of illegal arrivals, they ask? We have plenty of room. Anyway, what business it is of Indonesia’s to help us police our borders, they ask? And they’re right. It isn’t their business, it’s ours. That’s why BOTH Gillard’s “regional solution” AND Abbott’s “turn back the boats” are delusional as solutions to the problem, because they both depend on co-operation from Indonesia, which will never be forthcoming.
[Oh dear! It was YOU I pointed out was being sexist.]
Except you didn’t. You made a silly throwaway remark, and changed the subject when challenged about it.
[ It was a silly remark, but it was an accurate reflection of Australian public opinion … ]
I disagree this is an accurate reflection of most Australians, although I know it would be true for many.
[ … That’s why BOTH Gillard’s “regional solution” AND Abbott’s “turn back the boats” are delusional as solutions to the problem, because they both depend on co-operation from Indonesia, which will never be forthcoming. ]
That’s a fair comment. But this is exactly why insulting Indonesia is just about the most stupid thing you could do if you actually want to find a solution. Help Indonesia find a solution, and we also have a solution. Insult Indonesia, and we will never have a solution – and quite likely have a serious military incident as well.
Unfortunately, there is one key difference between the two parties in this debate – one side wants a solution, and is willing to try anything – the other wants anything but a solution – they find it too useful politically to keep the boats arriving, and to keep people being lost at sea, which of course helps keep the issue on the front page.
meher baba a@ 4:35 pm | Permalink
[I]Clarifiction: in 1305, where I said “it’s possible that nothing that I say myself is true” I meant to say “it’s possible that nothing that I say ABOUT myself is true”.
But what I wrote has a certain validity to it as well. A sort of Freudian slip perhaps?
Or (if you are, like I am, fond of Ancient Greek philosophy) a case of “I, Epimenedes the Cretan say that all Cretans are liars.”
[/I]
Sorry. Does not pass the smell test.
If you want to establish your credibility, you have to do better, imo. Much of my response and I imagine others here, came from impression you were of the Labor fold.
Bar Bar
[If you want to establish your credibility, you have to do better, imo. Much of my response and I imagine others here, came from impression you were of the Labor fold]
Spot on!
‘Allo, ‘allo, ‘allo!
[FACTIONAL forces linked to the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei are making an unprecedented push for power in Liberal veteran Philip Ruddock’s safe northern Sydney seat of Berowra.
Four state seats in the electorate have already been battlegrounds at preselections.
Religious Right figures, including factional powerbroker and state Attorney-General Greg Smith, have seized three of these.
NSW Liberal sources say the religious Right is moving in several Sydney seats, preparing for preselections that could be held within 12 months.
But one told The Australian: “Most of the action is in Berowra right now.”
Some Liberals believe the activities of the religious Right are increasingly becoming a matter for Tony Abbott.]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opus-dei-shapes-as-a-challenge-for-abbott/story-fn59niix-1226065960567?sv=fffc66b7c59afded21d32645960a3651#.Ucal-YSZzGM.twitter
Not paywalled.
[It doesn’t matter that Rudd has demonstrated his unfitness for high offic]
Well of course that is a total lie, neccessarily created by those who knifed him for the purpose of justifying their stupidity.
Rudd was quite a reasonable PM and by virtue of HIS dealing with the GFC as evidenced by Ken Henry, should be considered a good and effective PM. Not bad for a guy who bought Labor in out of the wilderness where it would still be without him taking down Howard, and where it will be again if if he isn’t reinstalled.
Rudd is highly suited and effective for high office. The one is a proven failure at being the nation leader is GIllard.
That big fat moon is going to shine like a spoon.
Just rising now in clear skies in outer eastern Melbourne.
Dang !! Persisting down in Perth at the mo. There goes the “Moonrise” piccies of the “Super Moon” . Grrrr.
Am I late to the party? I just noticed Fairfax have tried to gazump the Guardian by putting up a mock “Guardian” website – http://www.theguardian.com.au/
How can they get away with this? I thought there were laws against this kind of thing?
Bar Bar –
How is meher baba responsible for an assumption that you made?
Does every commenter have to have a disclaimer at the end of every post summing up their political membership if any, their historical affiliation, what they had for lunch etc?
This is a blog with commenters.
Read the comments and choose to agree or disagree with what they say. Don’t get huffy about what some anonymous person on the internet says or doesn’t say about themselves – and of course where anything anyone says here about themselves is usually pretty much unverifiable.
If someone says something that you find interesting or perceptive just applaud it.
It’s a damn rare thing on this blog these days.
Overcast here too!
No Supermoon in Sydney
[bruce hawker @brucehawker2010 1h
I was in Kevin Rudd’s office the night he was deposed and so was Jess Rudd. We discussed how close the events were to the plot in her novel.]
So I guess the matter is now settled.
[That’s a fair comment. But this is exactly why insulting Indonesia is just about the most stupid thing you could do if you actually want to find a solution. Help Indonesia find a solution, and we also have a solution. Insult Indonesia, and we will never have a solution – and quite likely have a serious military incident as well.
Unfortunately, there is one key difference between the two parties in this debate – one side wants a solution, and is willing to try anything – the other wants anything but a solution – they find it too useful politically to keep the boats arriving, and to keep people being lost at sea, which of course helps keep the issue on the front page.]
It doesn’t matter whether we insult Indonesia or not, they won’t do anything substantial to help us solve this problem. I agree that insulting Indonesia is bad policy is other respects.
I agree that Labor wants to end the boat arrivals, if only because the issue has done us such enormous harm, while the Libs want only to exploit our discomfiture. But that doesn’t alter the fact that both Rudd and Gillard have failed miserably to get to grips with the issue. There is only one solution to this problem and that is to close our border by stating clearly that anyone who enters Australian waters without authorisation will be detained in quite unpleasant conditions (eg, on Nauru) until they agree to go somewhere else, and will get a visa. If that is held by the courts to contradict the 1951 Convention, then we should withdraw from it. If the courts block it some other way, we should overrule them by referendum. Now that is an election-winning policy, as well as being morally correct – but no-one has the courage to adopt it.
[Just rising now in clear skies in outer eastern Melbourne.]
Jealous.
It’s about to bucket down here, and forecast showers overnight. No super moon for moi.
[Most of the action is in Berowra right now.]
The Sydney Bible Belt is moving north east from the Hills District and Terry Hills
[and will get a visa.]
That should of course read will never get a visa.
confessions
There’s a thing called, I think, “recovered memory” which means the opposite of what it says. Besides, “I was there on the night” covers a lot of hours!
Clear sunny days in Melbourne most of this week. Hard frosts for the past three months. Glorious today. Clear as a bell.
The moon has decided to be our baby tonight.
“past three days” I should say.
poroti
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
AussieAchmed
I hope you popped in to the Pardoo Roadhouse, what I helped build 🙂 As for your backpackers lament I lament the gray nomads that have made Pardoo part of the lap of Australia journey. The seafood its volume and variety at the nearby Cape Keraudren were to die for when I first went there. Today ? Not nearly so much.
—————————————————
Pardoo – still one of the best hamburgers on the road though Sandfire do a good toasted bacon sandwich. Sandfire not the same since it burnt down, the re-build is demountables – miss the Tavern there
Bar Bar
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 4:01 pm | Permalink
So meher baba reveals himself as socially dry liberal – fan of John Hewson?
Pity, I was hoping his analysis was coming from an informed Labor position. This is probably why he doesn’t see that it is the strong Labor gene in Abbott’s background and psychology that has made him such a danger to the cause.
AussieAchmed @ 2:49 pm publishes a
collection of quotes from Tony Abbott’s book, Battlelines (2009 Edition) which presumably he thinks reveals Abbott to be a dill with no judgement skills. Alas, to the contrary.
Indeed it causes one to ponder just where we would be today if Bob Carr had succeeded in recruiting Abbott, with his political intelligence,intellectual ability for self reflection, social conscience, deep understanding of Labor tradition and history and competitive fighting skills back in 1988.
—————————————————-
You a comedy writer?? or just being sarcastic??
Social conscience – my left foot
alias
Perth has had much cold and clear for some time but the weather gods and goddesses have decided that tonight it be shite. The rain is so heavy that the satellite dish keeps getting blocked. As it is now as they say “As we speak” .
As for questions closer to earth, I’d like to join the chorus in welcoming back Bemused. He is in sparkling form, I see.
Bar Bar
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 4:01 pm | Permalink
So meher baba reveals himself as socially dry liberal – fan of John Hewson?
Pity, I was hoping his analysis was coming from an informed Labor position. This is probably why he doesn’t see that it is the strong Labor gene in Abbott’s background and psychology that has made him such a danger to the cause.
AussieAchmed @ 2:49 pm publishes a
collection of quotes from Tony Abbott’s book, Battlelines (2009 Edition) which presumably he thinks reveals Abbott to be a dill with no judgement skills. Alas, to the contrary.
—————————————————–
I was actually looking for anything other than more words etc about Leadershit…..yawn…
[ I mean it is just bizarre. Are tie colours really the biggest challenge facing the nation?]
As you clearly do not understand what carltons endorsement of hadley means one would hardly expect you to understand the blue tie remark.
I’m sorry to hear that Poroti and Confessions
The moon, already quite spectacular, is yet to clear some foliage partially obstructing the outlet where we are. But in about 20 minutes I’ll be able to offer a report of the super moon in all it’s unimpeded glory.
It’s an old cliche but spending some time gazing at the heavens does rather offer some perspective on more temporal matters (not referring to anything at all of course).
lizzie:
Isn’t that usually associated with events such as experiencing child abuse or witnessing a horrifyingly violent act?
But yes, ‘there on the night’ doesn’t necessarily mean the whole night.
AussieAchmed
[ Sandfire not the same since it burnt down]
Crikey ! I missed that news. How did that happen ?
What is it with my typing tonight? A full moon effect perhaps?
Anyway, I mean “obstructing the outlook” not “obstructing the outlet”.
To add to the atmosphere, we have a real wood barbie going. Embers glowing. Moon rising. Lovely.
Psephos
“There is only one solution to this problem and that is to close our border by stating clearly that anyone who enters Australian waters without authorisation will be detained in quite unpleasant conditions (eg, on Nauru) until they agree to go somewhere else, and will get a visa. If that is held by the courts to contradict the 1951 Convention, then we should withdraw from it.”
If this ‘opinion’ reflects that of the ruling oligarchy of the alleged Australian Labor Party by which you are employed, it is even more crucial that your ‘sheer pragmatism’ group be ousted, preferably before the election. That view is cowardly and miserable. It is refuses leadership, and if followed to conclusion would diminish every Australian while trashing a great and unique cultural feature of giving people a fair go. It is utterly obnoxious. Take it away and bury it before its odour soaks into our clothing.
1418
You presume immigration control is morally correct and the automatic and unchangeable immigration policy. I do not agree.
Also Australia could stop the boats quite easily. All it has to do is let the people whose only current way of getting to Australia is by these boats onto cheaper and safer plains. A lot of heat then goes out of the issue as stopping the boats is not, in reality, about practicalities but it is about the psychology.
[meher baba
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 4:18 pm | Permalink
Bar Bar@1291: thanks for clarification. My concept of “social” tends to be anything but “dry” if you get my drift.
I do indeed hold socially progressive, economically liberal views: the two things I hate most in politics are socialism and religion, with bleeding heartism a close third. ]
This pretty much describes my politics. I wouldn’t say that I “hate” all socialism. I believe in a need for Medicare and that there should be a safety net for those least fortunate in society. What I do object to is the all-too-oft-crossed span from that to propping up the mediocre and the lazy.
[If this ‘opinion’ reflects that of the ruling oligarchy of the alleged Australian Labor Party by which you are employed, it is even more crucial that your ‘sheer pragmatism’ group be ousted, preferably before the election. That view is cowardly and miserable. It is refuses leadership, and if followed to conclusion would diminish every Australian while trashing a great and unique cultural feature of giving people a fair go. It is utterly obnoxious. Take it away and bury it before its odour soaks into our clothing.]
So there are, in fact, worse things than winning elections.
alias:
Regular super moon updates would be appreciated. Even better if you could post some pictures.
Well primates.. are we all being nice to each other tonight??
What a diabolical mess the ALP is in.
It doesn’t matter which leader the ALP has:
1. It will lose the election
2. The Australian public is fed up
3. No amount of spin will convince ANYONE that the ALP will be united any time soon.
4. It has proven categorically that it cannot run a focused, competent, fiscally responsible government.
Bye Bye ALP. Sorry primates… keep picking the nematodes out of each other’s bums, you’ll need the protein to keep your strength up.
..and I thought the worst thing the ALP ever did was inflict Mark Latham on the Australian public as PM.
How wrong I was.
Disunity. Cronyism. factionalism. Corrupt ministers. Misappropriators of Union Funds. Useless corflute candy… Yeah, I reckon the problem is the leadership *Cuckoo-Cuckoo!!”.
Sean Tisme
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 5:13 pm | Permalink
HEH. Rudd would have sat as an Independent and had Gillard by the Short’N’Curlies
========================================================
You Liberals have an unhealthy fascination for Gillards body bits
confessions@1417
Hawker? Now there’s a man to trust!
Few Newspoll release time rumours flying around … apparently Sky and possibly Ten have said tomorrow but has anyone heard explicitly whether they have stated tomorrow night or just tomorrow?
I thought Sandfire was blown down in a cyclone recently?
Must be thinking of some other roadhouse.
castle
Carlton despises Hadley. That the ABC edit made it look otherwise was why he complained.
Player One
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 5:12 pm | Permalink
I think I speak for most Australians when I say F#ck Indonesia.
Christ! I don’t know who made this ridiculous comment, and I can’t be bothered scrolling back to find out – but I think this is possibly the single stupidest and most offensive comment I have read here on PB in months.
It simultaneously portrays Australians as racist, elitist, insular, insulting and downright stupid, and also denigrates a close and currently friendly neighbor nation – a nation, by the way, that happens to be the single biggest Muslim nation in the world, who quite rightly chuckle at our claims of military power, and who have already said they would take a very dim view of anyone trying to tow boats back to their country.
Stupid, or what?
Almost as stupid as the LNP “tow back” policy itself, which could easily lead us into a military confrontation from which we would not only come off second best, but also looking like a bunch of complete wankers to the rest of the world, who quite rightly looks at us and wonders why we even think we have an asylum seeker problem at all, given how many hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers many of them deal with on a yearly basis.
===================================================
Spot On.
Come on Sean Tsime….any retort…or as usual you gunna run and hide behind mummy?
PO:
Touche.
Nemspy opines..: “What I do object to is the all-too-oft-crossed span from that to propping up the mediocre and the lazy.”
This from someone too insecure to trust his own judgement to even vote!….talk of mediocre!!??
[If this ‘opinion’ reflects that of the ruling oligarchy of the alleged Australian Labor Party by which you are employed, it is even more crucial that your ‘sheer pragmatism’ group be ousted, preferably before the election. That view is cowardly and miserable. It is refuses leadership, and if followed to conclusion would diminish every Australian while trashing a great and unique cultural feature of giving people a fair go. It is utterly obnoxious. Take it away and bury it before its odour soaks into our clothing.]
I think I made it clear that my views on this matter are not those of the ALP or the government, or even of any significant faction within the ALP, which is one of several reasons why we are heading for defeat. And I am not an employee of the ALP.
Sean Tisme
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 5:18 pm | Permalink
It wasn’t just R*dd, but some of his claque as well.
It was an open ridiculing of their leader, and the kind of disunity that is very off-putting to voters.
Gillard was being a sexist bitch by saying men are misogynists if they wear Blue-Ties.
I think Rudd’s blue-tie stunt played well out in the electorate who polls consistently show are now dumping sexist Gillard in their droves, especially the men.
===============================================
Twit..did you even read the speech?
Provide evidence that of your claim about blue ties and sexist…….
No you cant – you are just an immature small minded troll who needs to get out from under Abbotts desk