The recruitment of Peter Beattie to run for Labor in the crucial marginal seat of Forde was without question yesterday’s play of the day. However, Beattie will be far from the only Labor newcomer should his bid succeed, the weeks before the election announcement having seen an avalanche of preselection action as Labor scrambled to cover an exodus of senior figures in safe seats. In turn:
Kingsford Smith: Peter Garrett will be succeeded as Labor’s candidate by Senator Matt Thistlethwaite, who had a 136-105 victory in a local ballot held last month over Tony Bowen, Randwick mayor and son of Hawke-era deputy prime minister Lionel Bowen. Thistlethwaite first aspired to the seat when previous member Laurie Brereton retired at the 2004 election, at which time he was vice-president of the state branch of the Australian Workers Union. However, he was frozen out by then leader Mark Latham’s insistence that the seat go to Garrett. Thistlethwaite went on to serve as the party’s state secretary and convenor of the Right faction from 2008 until he was eased out of both roles with the promise of a Senate berth in 2010, having ruffled feathers by backing then Premier Nathan Rees in his determination to choose his own cabinet (which Rees used to dump Right potentate Joe Tripodi, together with the now notorious Mineral and Forest Resources Minister Ian Macdonald) and throwing his support behind Environment Minister Frank Sartor to replace Rees as Premier rather than Kristina Keneally. His Senate seat was secured in relatively bloodless fashion when incumbent Michael Forshaw chose not to contest the 2010 election, although this resulted in Graeme Wedderburn, who has been Bob Carr’s chief-of-staff both as Premier and Foreign Minister, being denied the seat promised him when he was lured from the private sector to serve as chief-of-staff to Rees.
New South Wales Senate: Matt Thistlethwaite’s Senate vacancy will now go to his successor as state secretary, Sam Dastyari, who today hands over the reins in that position to the erstwhile assistant state secretary, Jamie Clements.
Charlton: Greg Combet’s successor in the Hunter region seat is his deputy chief of staff, former Australian Metal Workers Union official Pat Conroy, who easily won a local preselection ballot with 57 out of 90 votes. Conroy’s path was smoothed by the late withdrawal of Daniel Wallace, a Lake Macquarie councillor and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser said to have had strong support locally. Wallace reportedly faced pressure from factional leaders concerned about his two convictions for assault. An earlier withdrawal had been Sonia Hornery, member for the corresponding state seat of Wallsend. The three unsuccessful candidates who saw out the process were Joshua Brown, a Muswellbrook Council policy officer and former staffer to Combet’s predecessor Kelly Hoare; Marcus Mariani, assistant director at the Department of Defence; and Chris Osborne, a local party activities. Mark Coultan of The Australian reported rumours that “key factional players• wanted the local preselection process to be overridden to impose the party’s assistant national secretary, Nick Martin, a Left faction member who unsuccessfully sought preselection for the ACT seat of Fraser before the 2010 election.
Rankin: In a rebuff to Kevin Rudd, the preselection to replace Craig Emerson was won by Jim Chalmers, former chief-of-staff to Wayne Swan, ahead of his favoured candidate Brett Raguse, who held Forde for Labor from 2007 to 2010. A ballot of local branch members reportedly ended in a 74-74 tie, which rendered decisive a 36-14 majority for Chalmers among the electoral college of union delegates which determined 50% of the final result. The preselection caused a split between the two main right unions, the Australian Workers Union having supported Chalmers and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association backing Raguse, and also within the Left, with the Electrical Trades Union backing Raguse but the rest supporting Chalmers.
Hotham: Simon Crean will be succeeded as Labor candidate in Hotham by Geoff Lake, a Minter Ellison lawyer and former Municipal Association of Victoria president who shares Crean’s association with the National Union Workers. Lake won the preselection ahead of Rosemary Barker, a disability worker with the Office of the Public Advocate, winning firstly the local party ballot 252-117 and then the public office selection committee vote 41-22 (with each accounting for 50% of the final total). Lake’s win was partly down to a split between Right potentates Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy, who had long been the pillars of a “stability pact” with the Socialist Left from which the NUW had been frozen out. Tensions between Shorten and Conroy emerged during the preselection to replace Nicola Roxon in Gellibrand, in which Conroy failed to support the Shorten-backed Kimberley Kitching, and inflamed considerably when Shorten decisively defected to the Kevin Rudd camp. The Left pleaded that the split made adherence to the stability pact a practical impossibility and abstained from the vote. John Ferguson of The Australian reports that a further layer of complexity was added by the fact that Lake and Barker had respectively had success in courting support from the local Cambodian and Vietnamese communities, in the former case with help from state Clayton MP Hong Lim.
Lalor: The candidate Julia Gillard backed to succeed her in her western Melbourne electorate, Moonee Ponds Primary School principal Joanne Ryan, emerged an easy winner after her stronger opponents fell by the wayside prior to the vote. The Australian reported that factional and gender balance considerations meant the seat was always likely to go to a woman from the Right, early contenders in that mould including Kimberley Kitching and Lisa Clutterham, who respectively had the support of erstwhile allies Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy. Clutterham withdrew after a disastrous radio interview with the ABC’s Jon Faine, in which she appeared stumped as to how to finesse her obvious lack of connection to the electorate, while Kitching pulled out and threw her support behind Ryan. Kitching had reportedly won support to seek the number three position on the Senate ticket instead, but here too she ended up falling short (more on which below). Yet another withdrawal was Sandra Willis, the daughter of Keating government Treasurer Ralph Willis. Facing only low-key opposition from two local party members, Andrew Crook of Crikey reported that Ryan ended up securing 74 votes out of 88 in the local party ballot and all but one of the 100 votes from the public office seleection committee.
Victorian Senate: The number three candidate on Labor’s Victorian Senate ticket will be Mehmet Tillem, Turkish-born electorate officer to Senator Stephen Conroy, who won 37 votes from the public office selection committee to 25 for the aforementioned Kimberley Kitching, a former Melbourne City councillor, current Health Services Union No. 1 branch acting general manager, and the wife of controversial former VexNews blogger Andrew Landeryou. The result was another rebuff for Kitching and her backer Bill Shorten following unsuccessful tilts at the Gellibrand and Lalor preselections. As had been the case in Hotham, the Socialist Left abstained from the vote on the grounds that the Shorten-Conroy split meant the Right had failed to fill its end of the “stability pact” bargain. Tillem will at the very least serve out the remainder of Feeney’s Senate term, which expires in the middle of next year, although his prospects for extending his tenure beyond that by winning a third Senate seat for Labor at the election appear slim (hence Feeney’s determination to abandon the spot for a move to the lower house).
Unlike some of us, Rosemour is not a fair weather pessimist ;).
Grey.
CW,
$10 to Rick Sarre in Sturt. 🙂
Good! Was worrying. Will need to work out how to do it. Maybe a ten dollar note in the mail?
I know Don and Rick, as it happens. Good blokes. Pity Rick is having to contest Pyne resources.
[ What are they waiting for?
$10?]
A point well made, though personally I anted up $100 the other day to the ALP. Mainly on the back of taking Murdoch on, which I respect greatly as good for our democracy in general, even though Im a member of the GRNs.
I gave the GRNs $150, of course.
I’m going to start a new polling organisation called Pub Poll.
Everyone down at the local gets a vote.
Lefty E
I offered a prize for the author of an article I quoted.
Grey won.
491
citizen
[ABC: “Abbott backflips on use of Treasury figures, says ‘net outcome’ of budget will be released before election”
So now Abbott has stabbed Hockey in the back over use of Treasury costings, just like he did to Pyne over Gonski. Who is actually making decisions on the Liberal election campaign?
It’s not impossible that Abbott will announce that he will keep the Government’s NBN, thereby shafting Turnbull in the process.]
Which would only leave keeping the carbon ‘tax’ (and shafting Hunt), and he will have the full suit of major Labor policies (and senior Liberal shaftings).
Credlin’s drink driving case is adjourned until after the federal election.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-09/abbott-chief-of-staff-peta-credlin-drink-driving-case-postp/4875740?section=act
[ABC: “Abbott backflips on use of Treasury figures, says ‘net outcome’ of budget will be released before election”]
The real significance of this is that they arent sure what their strategy is. There’s beena great attempt by the LNP to project confidence this week – but Im not sure its working.
Barely ever watch commercial free to air TV … Only election ads Ive seen have been via social media. All a bit ho hum.
Interesting piece on the ABC news re the rule changes to late enrollments this election with the AEC guy saying there had been huge numbers of late enrollments – 50,000 in the last few days. Did I read somewhere that this would be more help to the ALP as theyre mainly young people??
Except that the Media/Coalition already tried to say that Turnbull will complete Labor’s NBN already last year, and failed.
Through tricky wording.
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/we-will-not-cancel-the-nbn-turnbull-20120629-217f3.html
[ ABC: “Abbott backflips on use of Treasury figures, says ‘net outcome’ of budget will be released before election” ]
6 pm on the friday before the poll.
Grey.
Got it. Facebook. Monday.
Will do in name of Grey.
Congratulations!
Aaron Bakota
How does one contribute to your campaign? I have a friend in the electorate who wants to know
Like · · August 2 at 11:25pm
Rick Sarre – For Sturt Hi Aaron, thanks for the message- all offers of assistance are very welcome, your friend is welcome to send an email to me rick.sarre@australianlabor.com.au, or call me on the campaign phone. Regards
August 3 at 12:07pm · Like
Aaron Bakota Thanks Good luck with the campaign! The parliament will be a better place if you’re elected and Chris Pyne is gone!
August 3 at 12:10pm · Like
Just Me
Posted Friday, August 9, 2013 at 8:37 pm | Permalink
491
citizen
ABC: “Abbott backflips on use of Treasury figures, says ‘net outcome’ of budget will be released before election”
So now Abbott has stabbed Hockey in the back over use of Treasury costings, just like he did to Pyne over Gonski. Who is actually making decisions on the Liberal election campaign?
It’s not impossible that Abbott will announce that he will keep the Government’s NBN, thereby shafting Turnbull in the process.
Which would only leave keeping the carbon ‘tax’ (and shafting Hunt), and he will have the full suit of major Labor policies (and senior Liberal shaftings).
—————————————————
Abbott does not consult with the Liberal caucus.
He is a dictator.
He announced the Paid Parental Leave plan without taking it to the Party room
Rossmore. Yes.
‘Interesting piece on the ABC news re the rule changes to late enrollments this election with the AEC guy saying there had been huge numbers of late enrollments – 50,000 in the last few days. Did I read somewhere that this would be more help to the ALP as theyre mainly young people’??
The Coalitions NBN will be rolled out faster and cheaper.
What would you prefer… FTTN in 2 years or FTTH in 20 years?
Interesting aside from a mid 20s family member who barely ever comments on politics today.
On hearing that Vote Compass indicated the economy was the number one issue in voters minds he stated “Idiots, dont they realise Australia has the best economy in the world?” He got even more irate when AS was identified as the second most important issue … Thought it was all a beat up.
Quite made my day…. I’ve clearly done something right as a dad…:)
@Sean/865
False.
FTTN will take same time if not longer.
The conventional wisdom is that young voters are more likely to favour Labor and the Greens. John Howard believed that to be the case. That’s why the Howard Government passed a law to cut off enrolments at close of business on the day election writs were issued. Fortunately that piece if voter suppression was deemed invalid by the High Court in time for the 2010 election.
[What would you prefer… FTTN in 2 years or FTTH in 20 years?]
Are you actually that much of an idiot ST, or just doing a remarkably insightful caricature of one??
Sean T 865 I thought the LNP were opposed to the NBN. Or did I get that wrong?
[There will be no restrictions on audience response meters, otherwise known as the worm, during the first election campaign debate between the two leaders.
Labor and the Liberal Party have agreed rules for Sunday night’s debate between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition leader Tony Abbott.
They stipulate there are to be no restrictions on audience response meters which generate the worm – an on-screen line tracking viewers’ positive or negative reactions in real time.]
What does this mean? Will we still have a worm for the debate?
[FTTN will take same time if not longer.]
NBN has missed every single target it has ever set for itself in it’s corporate business plans.
Labor have had 6 years now and less than 200,000 houses are connected to FTTH.
Steve777
‘The conventional wisdom is that young voters are more likely to favour Labor and the Greens. John Howard believed that to be the case.
That’s why the Howard Government passed a law to cut off enrolments at close of business on the day election writs were issued.
Fortunately that piece if voter suppression was deemed invalid by the High Court in time for the 2010 election’.
Absolutely right.
Not so long ago, William provided me a refresh on that particular act of bastardy.
@Sean/872
Standard defense mechanism, take two steps forward, one step back.
[Are you actually that much of an idiot ST, or just doing a remarkably insightful caricature of one??]
NBN is the worlds slowest FTTH rollout.
They have missed every single target they have set for themselves in their own corporate plans, the lastest by 40%.
It’s not a question of whether it’s a good technology, it’s a question of whether you will actually ever get it in your lifetime.
Annoying to meet people who have been connected to the NBN. Its like they’ve got a colour TV and Im stuck with black and white. Not one of them would go back to copper. They’re like the cat that got the cream.
[6 pm on the friday before the poll.]
Yep. the only people they’re fooling with this stunt are themselves.
Dinner time for the Workplace injured.
I will be back.
4th test will be reverse of 3rd, except rain won’t save Australia.
@Sean/875
And world’s fastet uptake, the most important number.
Matter of fact, can I claim copyright on that FTTN – FTTH, B&W – Colour TV analogy?
For mine, LNP looks anything but confident. Why would they change their stance on Treasury and bottom line figures on Friday (trash day) if their strategy was working so well? Why would they have rolled out anonymous sources in QLD to spruik internal polling with no numbers after Beattie? More importantly, if they not be going hard with their anti Rudd ads right now is they were vote winners? Why would Rupert go overboard if he didn’t need to?
The boats have stopped, people like Kevin, they dislike Abbott and everyone knows they have a grab bag of policies that don’t add up. They’re in trouble. This is not what success looks like.
Sean Tisme
Posted Friday, August 9, 2013 at 8:53 pm | Permalink
FTTN will take same time if not longer.
NBN has missed every single target it has ever set for itself in it’s corporate business plans.
Labor have had 6 years now and less than 200,000 houses are connected to FTTH.
——————————————————
yet again lying. you have learnt well from your Liberal masters on telling lies.
NBN first Corporate Plan was not until 2010…
2013
minus 2010
equals 3 yrs….simple maths, something Libs have trouble with
Today’s Chris Hadfield:
https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/365787531721183234/photo/1
Patience Sean T, patience. I share your pain at the slow roll out, but once u get it I’m sure you’ll be quite delighted with the FTTH NBN. You’ll have a smile on your face for weeks…!
Rossmore@876
Plenty of examples the other way around, ie Queenslanders who voted ‘Angry Ant’ and who soon after were sacked.
The cricket is looking grim already. Early wickets are crucial on this pitch. So far, nothing.
Rossmore
Posted Friday, August 9, 2013 at 9:05 pm | Permalink
Patience Sean T, patience. I share your pain at the slow roll out, but once u get it I’m sure you’ll be quite delighted with the FTTH NBN. You’ll have a smile on your face for weeks…!
———————————————————–
Given his constant ranting about how the Liberal Plan is better he should refuse to connect – a person with scruples and honour would..
triton:
I just hope our team improves by the time England tour Australia! Not looking good though.
Rossmore,
NBN says FTTH is available in my area.
I put my address in the little NBN map and what does it say? Unavailable, Construction in Progress
Meanwhile I put the address of the person across the street and it comes up as Ready for Service.
WTF is going on?
Dave 886 Im a Mexican … Who is Angry Ant?
@Sean/890
You didn’t read.
Check this site out Sean:
http://www.mynbn.info/stats
[ NBN is the worlds slowest FTTH rollout.
They have missed every single target they have set for themselves in their own corporate plans, the lastest by 40%.
It’s not a question of whether it’s a good technology, it’s a question of whether you will actually ever get it in your lifetime. ]
The Libs set up a privatised monopoly Telco that was going to charge what it wanted for whatever service it wanted to provide. Fraudband wouldn’t have even popped into the minds of Coalition spin doctors if the NBN hadn’t been created.
Sean T I’m in the same boat mate. So bloody frustrating.
Sean Tisme
Posted Friday, August 9, 2013 at 9:10 pm | Permalink
Rossmore,
NBN says FTTH is available in my area.
I put my address in the little NBN map and what does it say? Unavailable, Construction in Progress
Meanwhile I put the address of the person across the street and it comes up as Ready for Service.
WTF is going on?
—————————————————
they know who are and that you keep bagging them
who is st talking to apart from his lower body part? o dear pb aint same – although old JG palace guard was much tougher and intelligent than anything LP can throw out. still find lp darlings as robotic in thinking and word. no capacity to discuss only toss out verbal bullying. o well four weeks and peace of mind
Rossmore@891
Qld – Newman
Sean T, and I hear if the LNP get in they’re going to stop the FTTH roll out. Bastards across the street get the FTTH NBN and I end up being stuck with a crappy second rate copper connection.
What is wrong with this country?
[ Meanwhile I put the address of the person across the street and it comes up as Ready for Service.
WTF is going on? ]
Your on the list to get stay on ‘tory copper’ permanently.
Even if abbott wins.