Scullin covers suburbs at the northern edge of Melbourne including Thomastown, Epping and Mill Park, from which it extends eastwards beyond the Plenty River to semi-rural outskirts and further suburban territory around Diamond Creek, a somewhat stronger area for the Liberals. The electorate traces its origins back to the seat of Darebin, which was created in 1949 to accommodate the area from Reservoir south to Preston. A seat bearing the name of Scullin existed in Melbourne’s inner north from 1955 until 1969, at which point it was abolished and the name reassigned. The newly renamed electorate of Scullin continued to cover the area immediately south of its present location, which was accommodated by Burke in the west and Diamond Valley in the east. Epping and Thomastown were absorbed by Scullin when Diamond Valley was abolished with the expansion of parliament in 1984, at which time Scullin continued to cover suburban territory around Hadfield further to the west, while the Diamond Valley area remained in McEwen. The electorate assumed its present character when the former area was exchanged for the latter with the redistribution that took effect at the 1996 election. Scullin as it has existed since 1969 has been held at all times by Labor, by margins ranging from 7.0% in 1977 to 27.6% in 1984. The current margin is 14.3%, following a 6.2% swing against Labor at the election in September.
Despite the dramatic changes in the territory it has covered, Scullin maintained continuity of representation in being held firstly by Harry Jenkins Senior from 1969 to 1986, and then by his son Harry Jenkins Junior up until the recent election. The elder Jenkins had been the state member for Reservoir from 1961 to 1969, and served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from the election of the Hawke government in 1983 until his appointment as ambassador to Spain in December 1985. His son then emerged as a compromise preselection winner after a tussle within the locally dominant Socialist Left faction, which took place against the backdrop of the events which led to its controversial figurehead Bill Hartley being expelled from the party. Jenkins faced a preselection challenge ahead of the 2007 election after the Right and hard Left reached a deal in which the latter was to back Bill Shorten’s move against factional independent Bob Sercombe in Maribyrnong, with the former to support youthful party operative Nathan Murphy in Scullin. This fell through after Sercombe agreed to go quietly, relieving pressure on Right members to fall in behind the contentious deal in support of Murphy, who has since entered state politics as a member for the upper house region of Northern Metropolitan.
Jenkins followed his father’s footsteps still further when he took on the position of Speaker after the election of the Rudd government in 2007. The Labor leadership hoped to improve their precarious position on the floor of parliament after the 2010 election by having Jenkins make way for an independent or Coalition defector, but this could not be effected until Liberal member Peter Slipper agreed to take on the position in November 2011, which proved to be a poisoned chalice for all concerned. Jenkins insisted he had abandoned the position of his own accord as he wished to resume participating in policy debate. He announced his intention to bow out of politics after serving out his term the following July. With the seat remaining a prize of the Socialist Left, there was no reported opposition to the preselection of the state faction’s secretary Andrew Giles, a Slater & Gordon lawyer and former adviser to state MPs Gavin Jennings and Lily D’Ambrosio.
ML
A Bishop fangirl are you?
Mod Lib
I was just answering one of your very stupid questions.
If Australia rescued a boatload of people off the coast of Italy and they wouldn’t take them, where do you want Australia to take them? The moon!
2 to 1 business leaders are for the carbon price.
QandA panellist poll
Centre:
Where do you think they SHOULD go?
That is the question.
Make that 3 to 1
[1236
Mod Lib
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 9:41 pm | PERMALINK
We had that debate the other night and you lost, like usual
Yes, I remember you trying to tell me that if a vessel got itself into distress next to an Australian vessel off the coast of Italy, you felt it was the responsibility of the Australian vessel to transport the rescued folk all the way to Australia.
…perhaps I just wanted to have that belly laugh from yesterday by reading that from you again? ]
Lol now that’s funny.
So I can get rescued off Newcastle by a Japanese coal boat and get a trip to Japan to ski the north winter?
‘If Australia rescued a boatload of people off the coast of Italy and they wouldn’t take them, where do you want Australia to take them? The moon!’
Jakarta, of course.
[Boerwar
“Bishop fangirl”]
That sounds like something from a standup routine!
@Mod Lib/1249
I wouldn’t bring up NSW Health, considering the state the state is currently in…
Mod Lib
Where do you think the people from the Tampa should have gone?
That is more the question.
dwh
‘So I can get rescued off Newcastle by a Japanese coal boat and get a trip to Japan to ski the north winter?’
No, no, no. You get turned back and towed to Jakarta.
Peta and Brian told me.
[rummel
….So I can get rescued off Newcastle by a Japanese coal boat and get a trip to Japan to ski the north winter?]
Before you get too excited, it is only PB land, not the real world! :devil:
ML
Jealous of Marty having become Bishop’s ‘friend’ are you?
‘Before you get too excited, it is only PB land, not the real world!’
In the real world you get turned around and towed to Jakarta.
Peta and Brian told me.
[1262
Mod Lib
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 9:52 pm | PERMALINK
rummel
….So I can get rescued off Newcastle by a Japanese coal boat and get a trip to Japan to ski the north winter?
Before you get too excited, it is only PB land, not the real world! ]
Bugger,
Carry on with Stop the boats then.
It’s not a matter of taking Indonesia’s ‘side’. For at least 15 years the Coalition and it’s backers have been cultivating moral panic over asylum seekers in order to exploit the issue for political gain. They said the issue would be fixed by ‘picking up the phone to the President of Nauru’. They were wrong. They issued press releases saying asylum seekers were terrorists, criminals, disease carriers and cloggers of traffic while at other times pretending to be concerned about drownings. They said they could turn back boats in the face of clear statements from the military that it couldn’t be done and clear statements from Indonesia that they would not accept turned-back asylum seekers. They sabotaged attempts by the previous Government to address the issue.
Now Tony Abbott and his crew are the Government. The Coalition’s bombast over the last four years has been exposed as just so much clanging of empty vessels. But now it’s their job to find real solutions that maintain the integrity of our immigration program, deal fairly with asylum seekers and meet our international obligations. Slogans and bullshit won’t do it.
[Centre
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 9:51 pm | PERMALINK
Mod Lib
Where do you think the people from the Tampa should have gone?
That is more the question.]
To the nearest safe port.
You seem to be arguing that they should have been taken to Norway.
[Boerwar
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 9:52 pm | PERMALINK
ML
Jealous of Marty having become Bishop’s ‘friend’ are you?]
As with some of your other posts, I have no idea what you are getting at with this.
The quote in 1261 wasn’t made by me.
Jones can’t get the business people to shitcan emissions trading.
S777
‘The Coalition’s bombast…’
Well put.
dwh @ 1269
I resile.
@Mod Lib/1267
Considering that all of the Coalition Party’s lack of Investment, no port in Australia is safe.
The Aussie Home Loans guy’s house would have a fairly big carbon footprint, hideous.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/selfmade-millionaires-reveal-their-storeys/2006/12/30/1166895524100.html
[zoidlord
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 9:57 pm | PERMALINK
@Mod Lib/1267
Considering that all of the Coalition Party’s lack of Investment, no port in Australia is safe.]
It was the Coalition that fixed the ports in Australia….don’t you remember Patricks?
Business arguing for Labor PPL but trying hard not to be seen doing so
g
yep
It is interesting that the business crew are far from grovelling at Abbott’s feet.
These QandA business guests are far away from the crap that the IPA and BCA spew.
BK
Yep
If my dingy gets in trouble off the coast of Queensland can I call the Indonesians to come pick me up so I can enjoy a free trip to Bali?
ST
‘If my dingy gets in trouble off the coast of Queensland can I call the Indonesians to come pick me up so I can enjoy a free trip to Bali?’
Why is it illegal?
So I thought Abbott was going to stop the boats, not escort them to Christmas Island.
Mod Lib
Don’t shift goal posts. You asked a stupid question the other night and I gave you a reasonable answer that Australia by rescuing AS become primarily responsible for those people.
Don’t bring Norway into anything.
Now, the real point is that the Tampa should have been allowed to drop people on our shores.
The problem is, created by your party, that Howard effectively set a precedent and didn’t let them.
So when it comes to Indonesia doing likewise – choosing who goes to their country – stop digging 😯
@Mod Lib/1275
You mean the bribery that took place for waterfront?
One of the reasons we need the PPL is to promote breastfeeding meaning Nestle’s profits would tank, so the fact that she works for Nestle should be put front and centre when she is asked to comment about it!!!
(PS: I am talking about QandA)
[If my dingy gets in trouble off the coast of Queensland can I call the Indonesians to come pick me up so I can enjoy a free trip to Bali?]
I thought Abbott was going to “stop the boats”.
Why is he now escorting them to Christmas Island?
[Where do you think they SHOULD go?]
On lunch allowance tax free for the same ‘charity’ you work for.
An O/S Out Post.
BW @1271 [bombast]. Well put.
Thank you.
And of course, Tony Abbott admitted as much when he said opposition was mostly theatre.
Abbott is taking money from poor women in Woolies and Coles so that he can pay rich women $150,000 to breastfeed?
[One of the reasons we need the PPL is to promote breastfeeding…]
Is the best way to promote breastfeeding putting a $2 – $3 billion a year tax on big business?
@AJEnglish: UN climate change summit kicks off in Poland http://t.co/5wFVVqJTqJ
Mod Lib post 1122.re Palestinians
__________________
I don’t know or care much about some statement you claim was madxe by Golda Meir about the Palestinians,but I can tell what the Palestinians don’t like and it’s Israeli behaviour like this at the co-called”roadblocks of death” where Palestinians are routinely killed or abducted.tortured and jailed without
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/11/palestinians-killed-roadblocks.html cause |____________
@Mod lib/1286
And that’s why you and QANDA are out of touch, watching crap.
[Centre
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 10:01 pm | PERMALINK
Mod Lib
Don’t shift goal posts. You asked a stupid question the other night and I gave you a reasonable answer that Australia by rescuing AS become primarily responsible for those people.
Don’t bring Norway into anything.
Now, the real point is that the Tampa should have been allowed to drop people on our shores.
The problem is, created by your party, that Howard effectively set a precedent and didn’t let them.
So when it comes to Indonesia doing likewise – choosing who goes to their country – stop digging]
Ahem….not sure how to put this to you Centre but your own words above state “Australia by rescuing AS become primarily responsible for those people”
So, if “Australia by rescuing AS become primarily responsible for those people” then it stands to reason that Norway by rescuing AS became primarily responsible for the Tampa people”.
Tampa was a Norwegian boat.
[Is the best way to promote breastfeeding putting a $2 – $3 billion a year tax on big business?]
Bingo.
[Boerwar
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 at 10:03 pm | PERMALINK
Abbott is taking money from poor women in Woolies and Coles so that he can pay rich women $150,000 to breastfeed?]
Unless the poor women in Woolies and Coles own some of the biggest companies in Australia (the ones paying the 1%ish company tax), then no…..
Business will adopt emissions trading. They will be able to buy, sell, short, hedge, collect broker fees all without having to produce anything. Trillions will be traded. We will be able to watch the climate change b4 our eyes.
Full Pay Maternity Leave…. Good enough for Labor MP’s and their Union heavy mates… not good enough for union members or their non-union brethren.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds with these chumps
So what will the main line of questioning at QT
(1) policy shambles and internal Coalition divisions in the car industry
(2) policy shambles and internal Coalition divisions in the sale of GrainCorp.
(3) Coalition promotion of cruelty to Australian livestock.
(4) Boat shambles.
(5) The damage to our relationship with Indonesia.
(6) Raising the debt limit to half a trillion dollars.
Not bad for two months.