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| Blue and red numbers respectively indicate size of two-party Liberal and Labor polling booth majorities. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s seat of Flinders encompasses the southern part of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, including the mouth of Port Phillip Bay at Portsea, along with the area around Westernport Bay further to the east, including Phillip Island. Its territory along Port Phillip Bay commences at Mount Martha, 60 kilometres to the south of central Melbourne, from which it extends through Dromana, Rosebud and Rye to Sorrento and Portsea, an area popular with retirees. Its other major centres are Somerville in the centre of the Mornington Peninsula and Hastings along the western shore of Westernport Bay. The electorate has existed federation, and has covered almost the entirety of its present area since that time. It originally extended north to Dandenong and east to Drouin, Warragul and Leongatha, before the latter areas were absorbed by the new seat of McMillan when parliament expanded in 1949, and the electorate of Bruce was created to accommodate Melbourne’s south-eastern expansion in 1955.
Flinders has been won by Labor on only three occasions in its history, the most memorable being the defeat of the then Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, in 1929. Bruce recovered the seat in 1931, and it would next be won by Labor at a by-election in 1952, before returning to the Liberal fold at the next general election in 1954. Phillip Lynch came to the seat in 1966, going on to serve as Treasurer in the first term of the Fraser government, then resigning a month before the December 1977 election over his use of a family trust to minimise tax. Lynch returned to cabinet after the election upon being cleared by an inquiry as Industry and Commerce Minister, the Treasury portfolio remaining with his successor, John Howard. His retirement precipitated a momentous by-election in November 1982, at which Peter Reith retained the seat for the Liberals in the face a surprisingly mild swing of 2.3%. This sealed Bill Hayden’s fate as Labor leader, and he was toppled by Bob Hawke on the day Malcolm Fraser called the 1983 election the following February. It was at that election that Labor won Flinders for the third and so far final time, with Reith losing to Labor’s Robert Chynoweth without having had the opportunity to assume the seat he had won at the by-election.
With the enlargement of parliament at the 1984 election, Chynoweth moved to the slightly safer new seat of Dunkley, and Reith recovered Flinders with a swing of 1.5%. Reith held the seat with fair-to-middling margins until he retired after an eventful five years as a Howard government minister in 2001. He was then succeeded by Greg Hunt, who gained a secure hold on the seat with consecutive swings of 3.9% in 2001 and 3.5% in 2004. Hunt won promotion to parliamentary secretary in January 2007, and then to shadow cabinet in the important climate change and environment portfolio after the 2007 election defeat. He has maintained the environment portfolio ever since, although the climate change portfolio was abolished after the Abbott government came to power. Hunt’s present margin in the seat is 11.9%, following a 2.8% swing in his favour at the 2013 election.
Nicholas
Absolutely agree Keating had it all and did it with charm.
ET
The talk is about having more variety. Thats less Henderaon. Carlton, Keane, etc. Also who does political commentary for Tasmania and the Territories. They should get a go.
Keane at least is in the Press Gallery and so qualifies as an Insider. Henderson not so much
…yet no-one is able to relay a single comment from Henderson which could be classified as “extreme right”?
Could it be that it is PB that is infected with bias and not Insiders?
:devil:
It’s only a matter of time before countries with an ETS/Carbon Price start applying a “carbon tariff” on goods imported from countries, like Australia, that do not have an ETS/carbon price.
Anyone who thinks our public schools are hotbeds of lefty brainwashing is extreme right.
There is plenty of “opinion” about Henderson here, just precious little justification for you label of “extreme right”.
Everything
Surely you jest Henderson is a very very conservative right winger with absolutely no personality at all.
E, the labels “left” and “right” are not terribly useful for most discussions. Even more useless is the word “extreme”.
Was there an Insiders on today?
BB, I don’t watch much TV but I happened to be walking past it while someone else was watching just to catch GH talking about those lefty brainwashing centres that are our public schools.
Everything@48
Perhaps you could appear in your KKK apparel?
I am sure every so called ‘Mod Lib’ has it in their wardrobe.
AA,
Ullo, Ullo Ullo. What’s this then?
“The crucial final stages of free trade talks between Canberra and Beijing have been thrown into turmoil following China’s shock decision to impose harsh new tariffs on Australian coal supplies”.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/shock-china-coal-tariff-decision-throws-australian-free-trade-talks-into-turmoil-20141009-113vul.html#ixzz3Fshu1Jkm
Because he’s neither insightful nor able to comment without being a partisan cheersquad for his particular political party.
Clearly, folk here don’t like the idea of supporting the KKK wearing their garb into Parliament. So, equally clearly, it isn’t the case that there is a consensus that you can wear what you want into the Australian Parliament…..we get to have a say what you wear and the circumstances in which you wear it!
😉
Who said Henderson was “extreme right”? Certainly not me.
ET
Henderson reminds us that one need not be extreme right to be extremely tedious and vapid. He isn’t a member of the far right, but he is an insistent opponent of equity and an insistent apologist for unwarranted privilege.
We do have a far right in Australia, but they are few in number and few in parliament (Bernardi, Abetz, Andrews, Lambie, Madigan). Abbott is a very vulgar conservative populist but he is clearly someone who tries to pander to anyone he talks to on the conservative side so it’s perhaps better to put an asterisk next to his name.
In broad terms I’d regard Australia as having a centre-right populist party in contesting power with a reactionary conservative populist regime. The latter panders to the far right and channels the sentiments of its moneyed backers, while the former tries to avoid taking positions that would stir up the latter’s supporters.
OK.
Can you name me a single commentator that you think meets your criteria for being an Insiders panelist that comes from the right of the political spectrum?
Oops
E
Bizarre.
All of one person responded to you on the topic of KKK attire – and that was to mock you – and you have somehow generalised it to this statement.
Everything@64
I haven’t objected.
It is ‘National Coming Out Day’ in the US today so a good day for you to come out as a full blown KKK supporter and drop your ‘Moderate’ cloak.
Damn!
Just drop the ‘in’ from my last .
Henderson is just another boringly repetitious Lib whose main duty is to be a pop-up ad. He should have to preface Everything he says with the disclaimer “I’m a hack. I lie for a living.”
Ok, 2 people. I missed guytaur.
Refusing to allow burqa-wearing women into parliament would be discriminating on the basis of religion.
Refusing to allow KKK garb-wearing nuff nuffs into parliament not so much.
There is a genuine debate to be had about the issue of burqas in parliament, esp as it’s entirely feasible a muslim woman who wears the burqa could be elected to parliament or jag a job with the press gallery, or within PH itself. Trying to draw equivalence with white sheet-wearing racist idiots is just ridiculous and unnecessary.
so you DO support the KKK wearing their garb in Parliament?
Everything@75
I support your right to ‘come out’ and wear your garment of choice into parliament.
E
I don’t particularly care what attire people walk into parliament wearing.
Personally I’m not interested in whether they are ‘left’ or ‘right’. I’d rather watch insightful commentary rather than repetitive bullshit political agendas.
Which is why I no longer (or very rarely) watch these types of political commentary shows anymore. They’re all cut from the same cloth.
However, one wonders what sort of equivalence you’re trying to draw between the KKK and Muslims.
yes, I understand that confessions. The point I am, gently, trying to make to you is that your concept of “insightful” appears to coincide with your political views!
confessions, just let me check, would you support the KKK nuff nuffs entering parliament even if they weren’t wearing their garb?
@LottieSchnauzer: Foreign Fighters Bill unconstitutional, say lawyers
George Brandis just isn’t a very good legal draftsman http://t.co/38zi2iBRLb
E, point us to an insightful comment of GH.
I will also throw in here that it still takes something like seven years before the solar cells on your roof reach the point where they’ve paid back their carbon debt
That’s a lot less than it will ever take coal
BK thanks.
Good article from the Independent on Team Debt. Labor should be making a big song & dance of it.
If you think Gerard Henderson has anything insightful to offer the ABC’s audience, then that’s up to you. Personally, and as I’ve often observed, the man appears to be still fighting the Cold War.
I was just want to know whether confessions whether it’s nuff nuffs or pointy hoods that confessions doesn’t like ;).
E is trying to suggest that advocating violence on racial grounds should be tolerated because some Muslim women wear the niqab.
I would no more permit E’s fictitious Klansman to wear their costume in Parliament than I would let someone in an SS uniform parade at the War Memorial.
Henderson is the only person to criticise ICAC for its attack on the NSW Libs.
His theory appears to be that because election funding by developers is legal outside NSW so its perpetuation within NSW is not corrupt…mmm
I suggested to Q&A they should have a show on corruption to coincide with the report to come out in late Jan 2015 with Henderson, Watson SC and Fitzgerald QC on it.
DN:
Surely that’s a rhetorical question…
confessions
This is quite clearly not a serious discussion and wasn’t even before I joined it.
Rubbish
OK, so you are arguing that YOU CANNOT wear whatever you want. That was the point I was making.
Gerard was making the point that we should go back to the traditional education with a stronger emphasis on Judeo-Christian heritage.
92
Everything
Incitement to violence is unlawful…yeah…you disagree with that?
AA et al
As I said, I’m not anti household solar (although, as I’ve outlined before, it would be better to invest in larger scale solar facilities).
This is the elephant in the room —
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/5/14/solar-energy/1m-solar-roofs-no-reason-celebration
Now, I’m not as pessimistic as the author of that piece. We can walk and chew gum. 1% is better than nothing.
But – and I’ve said it here a few times – households aren’t the problem. Households reducing their carbon footprint carries the danger of illusory action – “I’m doing what I can, so I don’t need to worry about whether we’re pulling our weight as a nation” (anecdotally, I know of people who drive over 100k to work and back each day who justify this on the grounds that they’ve got solar).
It is industrial use of electricity which is the main driver of emissions, by a huge factor. That’s what we’ve got to address. That’s where the dollars should go.
E
I notice you managed to say that without referring to the left. Something GH didn’t manage to do.
Well, actually, this is exactly what you’re trying to do. You are saying that incitement to violence – in the case of the KKK, the celebration of violence – is to be compared with other non-violent, non-racist acts of personal expression.
As usual, you are faking it.
And, of course, the burqa isn’t being banned from Parliament. What’s proposed is that anyone wearing one has to sit in a separate area.
If someone wants to do that wearing a KKK costume, go for it.
They won’t, for the same reason that KKK costumes – unlike burqas, which are at least worn in a very, very small number of cases – are not worn down the street.
I have a feeling that the matter would be dealt with without need for Parliament officers to get involved.
http://zorahzorah.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/lateline-albericie-and-the-anatomy-of-an-islamophobic-stunt/
I’ve never seen anyone wearing KKK garb on the streets and afaik the KKK does not operate or at least have the history of operation in Australia as it did/does in the US.
Can’t help thinking the argument is rather pointless.