Created with the expansion of parliament in 1984, Goldstein covers coastal southern Melbourne starting from Brighton, located about 10 kilometres from the city centre, and proceeding southwards through Hampton, Sandringham and Black Rock to Beamaris. The northern part of the electorate extends inland beyond the Nepean Highway to accommodate Caulfield South, Bentleigh and surrounding suburbs. The more inland areas are naturally marginal, but the affluence of the coastal suburbs has kept the seat in Liberal hands by stable margins ranging from 5.5% in 1993 to a new high of 11.0% in 2013.
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| Blue and red numbers respectively indicate size of two-party majorities for Liberal and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
The area now covered by Goldstein was accommodated by the electorate of Balaclava in the years immediately after federation, and then by the new seat of Henty when Balaclava was pushed northwards by a redistribution in 1913. Brighton was put back into Balaclava after 1937, and the new seat of Higinbotham covered the remainder after parliament was expanded in 1949. When Higinbotham was abolished in 1969, the area was divided between Balaclava, Henty and the new seats of Hotham and Isaacs. Beaumaris and Black Rock remained in Isaacs after Goldstein was created in 1984, at which time the new electorate extended northwards to St Kilda East. It assumed a more familiar form when it absorbed Beaumaris in the redistribution of 1996, which greatly reduced the Liberals’ competitiveness in Isaacs.
The various electorates which dominated the modern area of Goldstein were at all times in conservative hands, with the partial exception of Labor’s win in Isaacs at the 1974 election. Don Chipp held Higinbotham for the Liberals from 1960 to 1969, at which time he moved to the new seat of Hotham. Balaclava and then Goldstein were held from 1974 to 1990 by Ian Macphee, who emerged as the figurehead of the party’s moderates. Macphee was ultimately defeated for preselection ahead of the 1990 election by David Kemp, an intellectual leader of the party’s rising neo-liberal tendency, an event that provided a catalyst for Andrew Peacock’s successful challenge to John Howard’s leadership in May 1989. Kemp went on to serve in the Howard cabinet from October 1997 until his retirement at the 2004 election, as Education Minister until 2001 and Environment Minister thereafter.
Goldstein has since been held by Andrew Robb, a former Liberal Party federal director who had long been spoken of as a potential candidate for safe seats in New South Wales, where he had lived for two decades. However, Robb had originally hailed from Victoria, having been raised in a working-class Catholic family that supported the Democratic Labor Party. He came to the Liberal Party via student politics and a job at the newly established National Farmers Federation, which was an assertive voice for labour market deregulation during his period as executive director after 1985. As federal director of the Liberal Party, Robb oversaw the 1990, 1993 and 1996 election campaigns, after which he set up the marketing company Acxiom for Kerry Packer. His first term in parliament was the last of the Howard government, in which he was promoted to parliamentary secretary in January 2006 and thence to the outer ministry as Vocational and Further Education Minister in January 2007.
Robb nominated for the deputy leadership after the 2007 election, but was defeated by Julie Bishop. He instead became Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, and was briefly discussed as a leadership candidate when Malcolm Turnbull was embroiled in the “Utegate” affair in the middle of 2009. Shortly afterwards he made the surprise announcement that he was moving to the back bench owing to a depressive illness. He returned to the front bench in the finance portfolio in March 2010, from which he was resassigned to trade and investment after the 2013 election victory.
Trog Sorensen @ 647
[A lesser strategist than Tony Abbott might not have picked up on the need for this tactical shift.]
A better strategist would not have suggested sending armed cops and troops into that situation in the first place.
I also suggest the “tactical shift” wasn’t his idea, but was forced on him by wiser heads, Houston and Defence, i.e. people who actually know what they’re doing.
kezza
I have just spent a weekend with Puff and her dogs, so perhaps that is influencing me.
When you get a little snappy it always reminds me of a dog who has been mistreated and snaps at the hand that reaches out to it, in the belief that no hand will be gentle.
(This does not apply to Puff’s dogs, btw)
slothy
Sorry, I was being sarcastic.
I think Angus Houston was quite clear about this issue on Insiders when he stated that armed forces were not a good idea.
Tricot
Someone left the “un” off. Abbott and the AFP guy said “unarmed” and civilian” about a dozen times. As for the “rat bag” group. At the AFP and Abbott presser we were told they have been found to be “polite and respectful”.
The delay has been from Kiev’s end not the rebels. They have already agreed but there has been delay due to something needed to be ratified by Kiev .
[Bottom line from all of Abbott’s posturing.
]
So the other ~170 fed. cops and an unknown number of SAS cooling their heels in Europe will now be coming home? If so, how much did this exercise in hairy chest beating cost? Will no one think of the ‘Budget Emergency’?
The States have been invited to appear at the HC asylum case to make submissions on the exercise if executive power.
It would be unusual for a state government to oppose the Feds if their political interests coincide so I expect only SA to appear
[There will be a total of 49 police on site, 11 of whom will be Australian]
So that is worth all of the grandstanding we have seen from Abbott?
Thank God we have Angus Houston in control there is a very decent and respectful man unlike our noxious PM.
Fact we know about Australian involvement in M17
20 AFP in the Netherlands doing victim id work.
170 AFP pre-positioning to Ukraine (operational secrets has infected the AFP commissioner) my bet is they are in the UK.
SAS troops somewhere, secret squirrel, fairy snuff.
11 AFP plod doing FIFO work with the Dutch.
Thats it. Until the next presser when Abbott may thank locals for getting most of the bodies into bags, sorry just joking about that bit.
@ruawake/658
I thought there was a budget emergency going on?
Dinosaurs may have been far cuter than we thought.
[Many dinosaurs were ‘fluffy like a chick’, new findings suggest
Almost every dinosaur was either covered in feathers, or had the capacity to grow fluffy ‘chick-like’ feathers, new findings suggest]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/many-dinosaurs-were-fluffy-like-a-chick-new-findings-suggest-9630714.html
Part of Abbott’s potential poll bounce was stolen by Israel. Once their attack started the MH story fell down the order. Thayt and Commonwealth games athletes doing well.
Why can’t we have people like Angus Houston in the cabinet. Instead we get f%(king lawyers like Hockey and Cormann – too many on both sides.
Trog Sorensen @ 653
[Sorry, I was being sarcastic.]
Oops, my sarcasm detector must be on the fritz. 🙁
[I think Angus Houston was quite clear about this issue on Insiders when he stated that armed forces were not a good idea.]
I’d be very surprised if Abbott wasn’t being counseled on the absurdity of this right from when he first floated the nonsense. If he wasn’t then heads need to roll. Or is he so insulated that such advice can’t get through. In which case heads still need to roll.
Cormann’s a lawyer?
Where did he get his degree?
[The High Court should sit in judgment of the decisions of lower courts when the broader justice of the case and the rights of the parties so decide.]
Yep. Casual day-to-day stuff but what they’re there to do. The high-faluting can be fitted in between.
Am I supposed to say ‘Go Waratahs’ now?
zoomster
[no worries – with me she suffers from the delusion that I feel slighted because she thinks fran is a better teacher than I am (or something)… you get used to it.]
Actually, my first run-in with you was about Julian Assange. Otherwise we got on like a Labor house on fire.
I objected to your stance. And we argued back and forth.
In the end, you weren’t going to change my mind, nor me yours.
As far as teachers go, from what both you and Fran had written, Fran most resembled my Grade 5 teacher. A person who was willing to give a kid a go. Who recognised there was something troubling happening at home.
I thought you were second-best, in those stakes, although not very far behind.
Most of the time I respect your point of view. But I’ve come to realise if I don’t agree with you, then you’re not the sort of person to ever give an inch.
A bit like my father. And I didn’t bow to his will, and I’m certainly not going to bow to yours, without a logical explanation.
Just like the recent conflagration between us about calling the cops on a neighbour.
We obviously disagree on this point, too.
But that doesn’t stop me from thinking you’re a pretty terrific person in terms of what you do for a community, for a district, for a region, or for what you do for the Labor party.
I do
admire your polite restraint. And your never-ending contribution to your community.
And, not the least, your incisive criticism of prognostications in the dailies.
More strength to your arm.
Wasn’t there a hint in Joe’s biography that Abbott has a tendency to make policy decisions without consulting anyone? Sounds as if Houston has been ignored.
guytaur
Also a mistake by some drunken separatist doesn’t seem all that much worse than the calculated slaughter by Bibi Netanyahu.
[my first run-in with you was about Julian Assange]
Ahh, Julian Assange. The moss must need chipping off him by now.
slothy
The AFP boss said he always wanted it to be unarmed police/civilians to go in so Abbott would have been told. Angus Houston would almost certainly have said the same.
You mean Senator Assange, don’t you?
CTar1
[Am I supposed to say ‘Go Waratahs’ now?]
Yes, but remember it is spelt “C-r-u-s-a-d-e-r-s
Fulvio
Cormann has a law degree froma Catholic University somewhere – I don’t know whether he has ever practised – seems to have spent most of his “working life” as a political operative.
Same sort of work experience qualifications as Christoper Pyne i.e. nothing of substance, apart from studying to be an ar%%hole.
Trog Sorensen@668
Netanyahu is worse.
I used to sympathise with Israel seeing them as the David surrounded by the Goliath of all the Arab states.
How naive I was!
The sensitive bit is that Abbott is able to play the role of Chief Mourner – and I guess nobody would begrudge this role.
The conservatives of course would be upset if the opposition accused Abbott of playing politics and perhaps so.
But, and this is the salient point, for the whole week the conservative press have milked Abbott and Bishop’s profiles as being wonders too behold.
The West had a sick-making editorial on the Tuesday of last week I think it was, telling us just how good our Great Leader is, and then on Wednesday a huge page one spread of Julie Bishop hailed a “Woman of Steel”. Equally sick-making.
The conservatives have played the domestic impact of this Abbott-Bishop stuff to the hilt.
The point is that now that Abbott has in fact played the domestic political impact for all it is worth he is vulnerable every time from here on in when he decries the role of the UN or demand Oz just concentrate on things around our zone.
The sad thing for Abbott is that if the BBC is anything to go by, the world news has long passed the used by date of MH17 as being all that newsworthy – other than the EU mulling about how to get at Putin.
slothy
Have reduced the setting on my sarcasm obfuscation app.
lizzie @ 667
[Wasn’t there a hint in Joe’s biography that Abbott has a tendency to make policy decisions without consulting anyone?]
I doubt the brain cell he uses to make the decision even consults the other one!
poroti
[es, but remember it is spelt “C-r-u-s-a-d-e-r-s]
And their Dogs.
Slothy and Trog
Quite right.
Whilst Russia and the USA have probably always been involved in wars somewhere since WW2, they have always involved other nations’ wars and / or confined to another nation ….. something like that.
I don’t think there has been a real threat of a WW3 ….. don’t know for sure but this is my take on it.
However since the demise of the USSR and then the Crimean “secession” and the wishes of Russian ethnics in East Ukraine expressed by the arise of the current rebels, I have had a sense that Russia might just be a tad sensitive about this whole box and dice, and more so after MH17.
So I thought that other nations would automatically give deep thought to any idea of forcefully trying to take control of the crash site lest the actual MH17 matter itself became secondary to military action as a result of MH17 motivated soldiers and rebels engaging in shooting at each other, with Russia playing some role in the background. I thought that other nations would be a bit circumspect, a bit patient, a bit oriented towards negotiation.
From what I gather, Netherlands and Malaysia, the two most directly involved nations were indeed circumspect, as gar as can be judged from info available here in Australia.
Only Abbott was gung ho from the start, full of aggro talk. Apparently he could not conjure up an image of Australian soldiers shooting at the rebels and vice versa, and just what the implications of such would be.
Fortunately today Angus Houston put my mind to rest in his interview with FKelly. Without mentioning Abbott by name, Houston calmly tore to shreds everything Abbott has been saying this week.
A generous interpretation of Houston’s words is “Tony, you got this wrong”. A realistic interpretation of Houston’s words is “Abbott ….. you are an fwit talking crap. Hopefully you’ll listen to what I’m saying and shut the f… up”.
Thankfully Angus H and not Angus 3Star Whatever, Morriscum’s lackie and government sycophant, was the one sent to the Ukraine.
Ctar1,
Or rabbits!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo
After announcing that we were sending over half of the AFP to launch the Invasion of the Ukraine, Abbott’s next announcement will be that we are sending a troop of boy-scouts armed with water pistols. What a frickin’ moron.
@StuartSyvret: “Beyond Contempt” – This is going to be a fascinating & important book; by @peterjukes – read the preface here: http://t.co/VqkXNMceD2
Tricot
Unfortunately we’ve got a fair bit more of the MH17 Abbott to endure yet.
Anything up to 38 or so funerals to go and numerous nightly news clips.
His dominant fluoro vest tendencies stamp him as one who will want to be recorded hugging every bereaved relative he can, come hell or high water.
Kezza
I hereby raise a white flag.
psyclaw@679
There is a need for the area around the crash site to be quarantined from military action while recover activity is under-way.
Ukraine can play a part in this by ceasing any military activity in the area so that negotiation and subsequent co-operation is only with the secessionist forces.
From what Angus Houston said, this is not really a problem and the local population and the secessionists have been as good as one could wish.
Now that Abbott and Bishop have had to buy totally into the whole Rudd UN thing, it will create some real problems for them down the track. e.g. Australia being the odd sheep out in Ban Ki Moon’s global action on climate change.
You can hardly insist on consensus on something like MH17, and then argue that other things of concern to the rest of the world, such as action on the health, economy and environment for future generations is of low importance.
[Tricot
Posted Sunday, July 27, 2014 at 6:24 pm | PERMALINK
The sensitive bit is that Abbott is able to play the role of Chief Mourner – and I guess nobody would begrudge this role.]
Hell no, not me.
Let’s see. Abbott has to attend the funerals of 27 Australian nationals.
And then he has to fly off to various countries to bury those nationals who had lived in Australia for some time – you know, those people he claimed as Australians, to make the death toll = 38.
That’s another 11 funerals, the latest (the 38th) being an NZ national.
Good luck tony. Let’s see your compassion, etched in your brow, replicated for the press.
GG
[Or rabbits!]
Classic and still 😆 .
KEVIN-ONE-SEVEN
Abbott channeling Maxwell Smart.
[Maxwell Smart: I think it’s only fair to warn you, this facility is surrounded by a highly trained team of 130 Black Op Snipers.
Siegfried: I don’t believe you.
Maxwell Smart: Would you believe two dozen Delta Force Commandos?
Siegfried: No.
Maxwell Smart: How about Chuck Norris with a BB gun? ]
CTar1
I have always supported the Brumbies in their finals, so it is only right and just….
I saw this story about the NSW resolution of Labor recognising a Palestinian state.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/27/labor-may-consult–recognising-a-palestinian-state?CMP=ema_632
[“NSW Labor welcomes the decision of the Palestinian Authority to commit to a demilitarised Palestine with the presence of international peacekeepers, including US forces,” the amendment said.
“If, however there is no progress to a two-state solution, and Israel continues to build and expand settlements, a future Labor government will consult like-minded nations towards recognition of the Palestinian state.”]
What a great step forward by the party to adopt this resolution. Long overdue. We really get nothing out of our blind support of the nation that abuses stolen or forged Australian passports to do its black ops, and trades with us very little. There is good reason for Labor to adopt this position, as well as the fact that it is morally and legally far more credible than the status quo.
[The sensitive bit is that Abbott is able to play the role of Chief Mourner – and I guess nobody would begrudge this role.]
Not me either, this is the role of the GG, not the PM. I assume Cosgrove is in The Netherlands waiting for a coffin to salute when he should be visiting families in Australia who have lost loved ones.
Shellbell – I’ll get it done.
Go Tah’s (best next).
They’ve earned their chance. My guys done twice in similar ways.
[Repent Ye Whackos! @geeksrulz 6m
Malaysia says only 30 investigators needed at crash site. Sending 190 AFP unnecessarily increases tensions.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/fewer-can-do-the-job-on-mh17-site-investigation-malaysia-20140727-zxcac.html#ixzz38em1ncT7 … #auspol]
I think it would be safe to say Abbott has made the wrong call on each decision.
ruawake
The military style honours for the MH17 coffins is incongruous.
[After announcing that we were sending over half of the AFP to launch the Invasion of the Ukraine, Abbott’s next announcement will be that we are sending a troop of boy-scouts armed with water pistols. What a frickin’ moron.]
Just giving them a bit of work experience.
Trog Sorensen@695
Yes, I just don’t get it at all.
But it seems the Ukrainians and Dutch got it going.
If I was a bereaved relative, I would not want it at all.
[Almost all jobseekers will be required to work for the dole under tough new federal government rules expanding the scheme.
The government is making it mandatory for jobseekers aged 18 to 49 to work for their welfare payments from July 1, 2015.
Those aged 18 to 30 will be required to work 25 hours per week while people aged 31 to 49 will have to work 15 hours.
Those over 50 will have the option of participating in the program.
The new rules will ensure jobseekers are actively looking for work, Assistant Employment Minister Luke Hartsuyker says.]
– See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2014/07/27/-work-for-the-dole–for-all-jobseekers.html?cid=BP_RSS_SN-TOPSTORIES_1_Workforthedoleforalljobseekers_270714#sthash.RKBMx0vX.dpuf
Abbott’s initial aggressive stance may have played well at home but it was never correct. Right from the start we new that the separatists – or even the Ukraine – were suspects, as well as the unlikely possibility of direct action by Russian forces. Until Abbott actually knew what was going on, it was stupid to telegraph aggression to Putin, the one guy able to help you achieve your short term objectives, and to do this before you have even spoken to him.
Sun Tzu would not have approved.
Dee:
From a few years ago, but still,
http://theconversation.com/work-for-the-dole-doesnt-work-so-why-is-it-coalition-policy-784