Kooyong
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| Blue and red numbers respectively indicate booths with two-party majorities for Liberal and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
Presently covering Melbourne’s affluent inner east from Kew and Hawthorn eastwards to Balwyn North and Camberwell, Kooyong has been held by the prevailing conservative forces of the day without interruption since its creation at federation, including by Robert Menzies throughout his 31-year career in federal parliament. The seat has had only seven members in its long history, of whom the first two were William Knox and Robert Best, the latter succeeding the former in 1910. Best was defeated as Nationalist candidate at the 1922 election by conservative independent John Latham, who ran in opposition to the prime ministership of Billy Hughes. With that end accomplished by an election that left the anti-Hughes Country Party holding the balance of power, Latham in time joined the Nationalists and served as Attorney-General in Stanley Bruce’s government from 1925 until its defeat in 1929. Bruce’s loss of his seat of Flinders at that election saw Latham emerge as Opposition Leader, but the defeat of the Labor government two years later was effected when Joseph Lyons led Labor defectors into a merger with conservative forces as the United Australia Party, with Latham agreeing to serve as Lyons’s deputy. Latham served as Attorney-General and External Affairs Minister in the Lyons government from 1931 until his retirement at the 1934 election, and a year later was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court.
Latham’s successor as both member for Kooyong and Attorney-General was Robert Menzies, who had been a state parliamentarian since 1928 and Deputy Premier since 1932. Menzies ascended to the prime minister after Joseph Lyons’ death in April 1939, serving for two years as the nation’s wartime leader before resigning in August 1941 after losing the support of his cabinet colleagues. Following Labor’s landslide win at the 1943 election, Menzies returned to the leadership of the United Australia Party which had been held in the interim by Billy Hughes, and brought fragmented conservative forces together a year later under the new banner of the Liberal Party. Two elections later he led the party to a resounding victory, commencing an epic 16-year tenure as prime minister from December 1949 until his retirement in January 1966.
Menzies was succeeded in Kooyong at an April 1966 by-election by Andrew Peacock, who went on to serve as a senior minister in Malcolm Fraser’s government from 1975 until April 1981, when he unsuccessfully challenged Fraser for the leadership. He briefly returned to the ministry from November 1982 until the election defeat the following March, after which he defeated John Howard in the ballot for the party leadership. Despite leading the party to an honourable defeat at the December 1984 election, he was obliged to surrender the leadership the following September after a bungled attempt to force Howard out as deputy. A party room coup returned him to the leadership in May 1989, but he failed to win the March 1990 election despite securing for the Coalition a narrow majority of the two-party preferred vote. He then relinquished the leadership to John Hewson, and served in the shadow ministry until his retirement from politics in November 1994.
The seat’s next member for Petro Georgiou, who as member for so prestigious a seat was generally assumed to have a career as a heavy-hitter ahead of him. However, he instead emerged as a permanent back-bencher and a thorn in the side of the Howard government, particularly in relation to his liberal views on asylum seekers. Georgiou retired at the 2010 election and was succeeded by Josh Frydenberg, a banker and former adviser to Alexander Downer and John Howard who had earlier challenged Georgiou for preselection in 2007. Frydenberg won the 2010 preselection with the backing of the Michael Kroger faction, while rivals associated with the then state Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu initially backed John Roskam, the director of the Institute of Public Affairs. However, Roskam declined to run and instead threw his weight behind industrial relations lawyer John Pesutto, whom Frydenberg defeated in the final round by 283 votes to 239. Frydenberg was promoted to parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister after the September 2013 election victory.
Higgins
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| Blue and red numbers respectively indicate booths with two-party majorities for Liberal and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
Held by the Liberals since its creation in 1949, Higgins owes its blue-ribbon status to the affluence of Toorak and suburbs further to the east, including Glen Iris and Malvern. Prahran in the electorate’s west provides a strong basis of support for Labor and the Greens, while Carnegie and Ashburton in the south-east are naturally marginal. At the time of the electorate’s creation the Toorak end was accommodated by Fawkner, which prior to 1949 had boundaries resembling those of Higgins today. Higgins assumed its present character when Fawkner was abolished at the 1969 election. The seat’s inaugural member was Harold Holt, who had previously been member for Fawkner since 1935. Holt remained in the seat until his disappearance in December 1967, at which point it was used to parachute Senator John Gorton into the the lower house to enable him to assume the prime ministership. Gorton stayed on for two elections after being deposed as Prime Minister in March 1971, before indulging in a quixotic bid to win one of the Australian Capital Territory’s newly acquired Senate seats as an independent in 1975. Roger Shipton subsequently held the seat until 1990, achieving prominence only in 1988 when he stood firm against maverick businessman John Elliott’s designs on his seat. Shipton stared down Elliott only to lose preselection to Peter Costello, who was at no stage troubled in Higgins through his 11 frustrating years as Treasurer and Liberal deputy.
On the morning after the November 2007 election defeat, Costello made the surprise announcement that he would not assume the leadership. Speculation that he might later do so lingered until October 2009, when he announced his resignation from parliament. The Liberals had at this time just completed their preselection for the following election, which was won by Kelly O’Dwyer, a National Australia Bank executive who had earlier spent four years as an adviser to Costello. O’Dwyer was chosen ahead of Toorak businessman Andrew Abercrombie by 222 votes to 112, with candidates earlier falling by the wayside including Tim Wilson, then a policy director at the Institute of Public Affairs and now a Human Rights Commissioner, and the IPA’s executive director John Roskam, whose bid reportedly suffered from an article he wrote for The Punch which had put Costello’s nose out of joint. Tony Abbott said in April 2011 that O’Dwyer was “knocking hard on the door of that Shadow Cabinet”, but she is nonetheless yet to have won promotion.
dave
I am not watching, but she was in ABC Melbourne radio the other day. Jon Faine fhe host was suggesting that rehashing the AWU slush fund from 20 years ago to the RC and having JGillard called as a witness, was merely political. Fran responded by saying wtte that the coalition see the value in negative headlines. Jon Faine responded that it was so long ago when JGillard was a lawyer and she us no longer in politics. But of course Fran was not critical of her tory friends at all
“@annajhenderson: Treasurer Hockey; “We never said that we were going to never change a tax or alter a tax” #Budget2014 #auspol”
briefly @ 44
[He was a kind of cardboard cutout villain.]
Smith, the sly Machiavellian menace, was my hero in the 70’s, as my friends and I regurgitated his famous epithets for the Robot to each other, and towards our teachers.
I didn’t occur to us that he was a near pedophile, always grabbing Will or Penny and holding them between himself and some hideous alien monstrosity.
“Zach, indeed!”
Nope Insiders is garbage.
Switches off.
Better already.
Having now seen the week’s worth of various grabs and segments of ministers appearing before cameras and journos, I maintain my view of a week ago that the govt is doing a terrible job of framing its budget in some kind of context that makes sense to people.
“@billshortenmp: Last May Tony Abbott promised no new taxes – this May, he’s increasing taxes! RT to remind him of his promises http://t.co/JFFTz7wwMm”
Vic –
[ But of course Fran was not critical of her tory friends at all]
Its just so blatant. I ceased listening to morning RN because of her over 10 years ago.
@BernardKeane: “…it’s a bit of a populist stunt. It’s the easiest trick in the book to slag off politicians.” Tony Abbott when Rudd froze MPs’ pay, 2008.
“@political_alert: Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten will hold a press conference in Melbourne today, 10.45am #auspol”
Yep Rudd froze MP wages in 2008, and we know what happened to him.
Excuse the french, Abbott is fukt. 😀
Watching Insiders, I’m beginning to wonder what world journalists live in.
I don’t remember a pre election clamour to spend money on roads. We had lots of candidate forums in Indi. I don’t think anyone ever leapt to their feet demanding to know the candidates’ position on this.
I particularly don’t recall people saying, “Well, I’m willing to pay more to go to the doctor or to fill up my car, as long as we get better roads.”
“Roads’ will, of course, create some employment, which is of course good, but so would rolling out the NBN, investing more in health, education, childcare and so on.
(And investment in these areas, given the lead time major road projects need, would impact more quickly).
But in JournalistLand, slashing all of these things in favour of building more roads is apparently going to lessen voter anger against the measures in the Budget.
It won’t work for Napthine (in fact, I doubt any ordinary Victorian has much of an idea of their infrastructure spend, given the lack of coverage I’ve seen of this) and it won’t work for Abbott.
OMG JBishop whingeing about travelling Qantas business class (however much in jest) just tops off the perception that the govt is so out of touch!
zoomster
Napthine and Co are on the nose, and in part they can thank Abbott and Co. Victorians have not taken a shine to the North Sydney crew at all
Fran Kelly betrayed her political bent at the time of the formation of the Gillard government.
She was so sure the Indies were going to go with Abbott that she slipped in a “we” meaning her side of politics when making reference to Abbott.
She could not help herself.
The topic of FK’s politics has come up on several occasions on PB and those who have knowledge about her, indicate her pedigree is somewhere from the DLP in the mists of time.
Similar comments have been made about Chris U.
I really don’t care what their politics are as long as they try to be professional.
Of course, when the ABC bashers come out and claim it is some kind of leftie mouthpiece, they have nowhere to go with the likes of Fran, Chris and Macca who are quite ready and able to insinuate, what I see, is conservative narrative into their presentations.
Macca is the one who takes the cake for me. Three hours, every Sunday, of faux Australiana, mum, dad, the farm, the bushies and how it is all going to the dogs in the cities.
Love the flag, honour the Queen and bring back conscription – its all kind of there for those who bother to listen to this stuff.
And speaking of Julie Bishop, the lines of government are well and truly being etched into her Tory face.
A much tougher gig in government than being a princess in Opposition.
[Tricot
Posted Sunday, May 11, 2014 at 10:03 am | PERMALINK
And speaking of Julie Bishop, the lines of government are well and truly being etched into her Tory face.]
Sexist and childish
Blast from the past. Unedited version so you can see the spin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EyW7oFk6n8
zoomster
As i mentioned during the week, the main commentary i have heard from young and old,
is as follows_
extension of fhe retirement age to 70
super not being able to be accessed until retirement
petrol price increases,
medicare co payment.
And Nothing at all said on road infrasfructure or higher taxes for the wealthy.
E
No mention of Gender there. Similar things have Been said of Fraser, Obama, Hawke etc. A perception of the stress of office.
Of course maybe you think Tory is sexist
Victoria
The one I’m hearing from my kids and their friends is Why is Abbott breaking his promises?
Jamie Briggs is my local rep too. In as safe a Liberal seat as you’ll get. I’ve always thought he got the job to keep him on hand as a policymaker & not so much a local “go to” representative. I’ve never seen him & that’s fine by me but stories are still told of a reception he got in Birdwood not long after taking the reins as local candidate.
The mention of lines on face is clearly about attacking a lady about her appearance. It is exactly what confessions used to ramble on about incessantly whenever there was any mention of it in relation to Gillard.
The fact that no-one but me says anything (other than supportive comments) about this nastiness speaks volumes about PB.
sprocket
My kids have basically said that they knew Abbott was a bullshit artist and nothing he is saying or doing surprises them.
Of course, i have been influencing their thinking about Abbott and Co for a number of years.
😀
E
Mention of lines on face has been said anout male politicians in office. If anything its equality.
No mention of gender at all. You are whistling dixie on this one.
Who cares about the roads, I take a train to work
guytaur:
No worries- you support Tricot’s comments.
Got it.
YB
I live near the metropolitan ring road that connects to the western ring road. There have been expansion works going on for years now and the last section near me is yet to be done.
Roadworks just seems to annoy everyone. Of course they have to be done at any given time, but the disruption it causes, is not seen in a positive light.
@political_alert: New Essential Research polling out today on GP co-payments. Here’s the statement from the poll’s commissioner, CHF: https://t.co/W37JiceXmO
Vic true, but when will the Abbott get it into his thick skull that a significant amount of people in our cities use public transport and therefore spending on Roads is absolutely meaningless.
E
I believe in eqaulity. If its fair enough to talk lines on face for a male then its fair enough to do so for a female.
Stress from work has its effect. Noting this is equality so yes I support tricot in his comments against your allegation as not borne out by the facts.
YB
I know the east west link is not popular amongst those that live in and around fhe area, but the construction industry workforce are looking forward to its construction. They need projects to keep them employed. Of course, there could always be a priority given to public transport work
@ABCNews24: .@CHFofAustralia on GP co-payment “We will see parents prioritising the needs of their children over their own health needs” #Budget2014
guytaur: good to know you support comments about politician’s appearances,
I will make a note of that for the future! :devil:
“@abcAndrewG: Consumer Health Forum @ABCNews24 ‘GP co-payment will shift burden to hospital emergency depts’ #Budget2014”
Yes, guytaur, but Bishop isn’t a woman, she’s a LADY.
guytaut
Have any of the govt MPs confirmed there will be a medicare co payment?
E
I seem to remember you not making any objection about comments about Obama’s hair colour changing si I will note your rank hypocrisy
Mod
so you’ve missed all those comments about Abbott’s ears, the way he walks, that he’s been blacking his hair, etc etc.
Don’t indulge in them myself, but it seems a bit strange you’ve missed them.
(Let alone all the comments about Gillard’s hair, earlobes and glasses, which I don’t ever recall you objecting to).
‘The fact that no-one but me says anything (other than supportive comments) about this nastiness speaks volumes about PB’
The fact that you spend such a large part of your time on a forum you clearly despise speaks volumes about you.
victoria
Its not been ruled out in pressers.
lizzie
Touche’
guytaur
Thanks.
[guytaur
Posted Sunday, May 11, 2014 at 10:27 am | PERMALINK
E
I seem to remember you not making any objection about comments about Obama’s hair colour changing si I will note your rank hypocrisy]
I dont support the use of comments about a politician’s appearance as part of a political attack.
Feel free to search for my many years of posts here to see whether I have attacked ALP politicians based on their appearance.
Do I support comments about Abbott’s appearance- of course not. That is different to coming onto this blog to defend someone who is making a comment about someones appearance (which is what you did).
[guytaur
…..I will note your rank hypocrisy]
Noted.
[zoomster
Posted Sunday, May 11, 2014 at 10:28 am | PERMALINK
Mod
so you’ve missed all those comments about Abbott’s ears, the way he walks, that he’s been blacking his hair, etc etc.
Don’t indulge in them myself, but it seems a bit strange you’ve missed them.]
You seem to have forgotten the many posters here who refer to Abbott with the :monkey:
I haven’t missed them, so it seems a bit strange that you say that I have missed them.
It is also strange that you come here to make a post about my response, but refrain from making any comment about the “lines on the face” post. Says a lot.
E
Good try at spin. You alleged a comment was sexist. I responded saying why it was not.
That is all. Comments on appearance is a whole different issue.
Are you saying that you DONT support comments on appearance then?
“@DrCraigEmerson: Government now going after Australians with disabilities. Rigorous eligibility tests already apply. Attacking the vulnerable is disgraceful.”
E
Not commenting to your change of subject. View past and future posts make up your own mind.
Yes, ModLib – it says I looked at the comments about Bishop and thought they were fair enough, given similar comments made about male politicians.
E
I note you are not defending the Government. Interesting.