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| Green and red numbers respectively indicate size of two-party Nationals and Labor polling booth majorities. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
The electorate of Gippsland has covered the far east of Victoria since federation, and has been in National/Country Party hands since the party was founded in 1922. It currently extends as far westwards as the Latrobe Valley towns of Morwell and Traralgon, other major centres being Sale, Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance. The Nationals’ hold appeared to be in serious jeopardy for the first time when the redistribution ahead of the 2004 election added Morwell and Traralgon, which had long been accommodated by the electorate’s western neighbour McMillan. However, Labor’s traditional strength in this area has been waning over the past two decades with the decline of its electricity industry, and a realignment among workers with a stake in coal mining resulting from climate change politics. Howard government minister Peter McGauran, who had held the since since 1983, increased his margin by 5.1% at the 2004 election, and the swing against him in 2007 was only 1.8%.
McGauran was the first member of the Howard government to leave parliament after the 2007 election defeat, resulting in a by-election held on 28 June 2008. This produced a three-way contest involving both the Nationals and Liberals as well as Labor, which at the time provided a spur to talk of a coalition merger. After a campaign dominated by the Rudd government’s “alcopops tax” and local concern over the prospect of an emissions trading scheme, the Nationals easily retained the seat, outpolling the Liberals 39.6% to 20.7% and gaining a 6.1% swing on two-party preferred – a surprisingly poor result for Labor given the strength of the Rudd government’s polling at the time. Labor’s primary vote fell 8.1%, and was down particularly heavily at the Latrobe Valley end of the electorate.
Gippsland has since been held for the Nationals by Darren Chester, who had previously been the chief-of-staff to state party leader Peter Ryan. Chester had earlier run unsuccessfully against Craig Ingram, then the independent member for the state seat of Gippsland East, at the 2002 state election, and sought Senate preselection at the 2004 federal election against Peter McGauran’s incumbent brother Julian, who went on to defect to the Liberal Party in January 2006. After his strong win at the by-election, Chester’s margin was little changed at the 2010 election, and he picked up a further 4.4% swing in 2013. Chester was promoted to shadow parliamentary secretary for roads and regional transport after the 2010 election, and became parliamentary secretary to the Defence Minister when the Abbott government came to power in 2013.
Socrates@135
That German analysis is what I thought happened all along.
Ukraine is part of the old USSR and has its military hardware from that source.
A large quantity of this equipment fell into the hands of the separatists when the took over several military bases. This almost certainly would have included the missile in question.
The separatists would include many with military training including some capable of operating the missile.
Russia had no reason or need to supply any such hardware or operators.
S777 and DMc
Spurr is a bit like Dreyfus in the sense (and possibly the only sense) that he is now a political football.
More specifically he publicly revealed the incompetence of the British Generals at Gallipoli etc.
My understanding is Murdoch carried a letter from the London Times correspondence addressed to the British PM about said incompence but Murdoch was searched enroute to Britain by the military and they ‘confiscated’ the letter.
So Murdoch wrote his own letter which was published.
He and Bean did their utmost to have Gen Sir John Monash removed from his command and had convinced Billy Hughes to do so, but Hughes visited Monash and was so impressed with him and his preparations and planning that he changed his mind and Monash kept his job.
The planning and command Monash demonstrated particularly at the Battle of Hamel became the textbook way of conducting attacks etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hamel
The Murdochs really thought even back then that they were ‘entitled’ to call the shots on most things.
Nothing much changes…
Tweet from Penny Wong earlier
Why is a nonentity like Spurr attracting so many comments here, basically regurgitating the same stuff over and over.
He simply isn’t worth it.
dtt:
From the SydUni ICT Policy:
6 Monitoring
(a) Use of ICT Resources is not considered private. Users of ICT Resources should be aware that they do not have the same rights as they would using personally owned equipment through commercial service providers.
Astrobleme
😀
Lizzie
You have to keep it simple for the drillers 🙂
An entrepreneur, huh? I rather think that the new CSIRO head has not started off well in a scientific organisation. :/
Maybe Spurr is parodying a bogan, but to what end? To show himself as some superior being? And he did this over two years? He’s persistent, and consistent, if nothing else. If nothing else, he’s an idiot for using his university email account to send these missives, particularly the one where he defames and belittles the Chancellor.
In any event, regardless of whether he’s engaging in parody or not, he’s pretty much toast as far as the vast majority of the student body would be concerned. He’ll be boycotted and rallied against until he’s forced to resign, so better be done with him now.
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
The country where I want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just watching TV
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
It’s the country for me
You’re so near to Russia
So far from Japan
Quite a long way from Cairo
Lots of miles from Vietnam
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
The country where I want to be
Eating breakfast or dinner
Or snack lunch in the hall
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
Gippsland has it all
You’re so sadly neglected
And often ignored
A poor second to Belgium
When going abroad
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Gippsland, Gippsland, Gippsland
Gippsland has it all
bemused
The Blood Oaf and MSM conveniently forget that it was widely reported that such missiles had fallen into rebel hands in the previous month . They had overrun an airbase and air defence facility. There was speculation at the time about whether they could/would use them.
briefly
That would be General Sir John Monash if you were being polite.
And worth every bit.
For followers of SA politics:
The by-election for the seat of Fisher (Bob Such’s seat) will be on 6 December. The writ will be issued on 8 November.
Also, it looks like Iain Evans has decided to resign his seat as of 30 October which presumably will lead to the writ issue and the polling day being the same as above.
While they look like probable Liberal wins, don’t rule out an independent win in one or both – depending on who’ll stand.
(Iain Evans’ seat being Davenport)
poroti@163
They had already shot down several Ukraine military aircraft.
Another issue that has been conveniently forgotten is that the crash site was in separatist territory and the separatists allowed access. Investigators only had to withdraw when Ukraine forces launched an offensive in the area. So who was it impeding access?
This really is an outrage, and a function of our absolutely BORKED faux-market in electricity.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorians-in-poorer-suburbs-paying-up-to-600-a-year-more-for-electricity/story-fni0fit3-1227095506736?nk=b260bc25e81912d1dfd97cf19a2c9fd7
So, there’s some competition in generation and retail: but a natural monopoly in distribution. So instead they set up regional distroubution networks, a la UK Rail.
then they each charge different prices. BORKED!
Clear case for returning distribution to state hands so we can apply cross-subsidy principles. No one should be paying $600 more than another taxpayer for a simple connection.
Happily the Federal GRNs have set up a Senate inquiry into eletricity pricing in Australia – well overdue.
bemused
It was why I initially had some suspicion about Ukraine forces. They had just lost three planes in a week and there were rumours Russian planes shot them down. Such rumours would have produced very itchy Ukraine fingers wanting to have a go at the supposed Russian planes.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/how-to-save-the-worlds-most-liveable-city-20141017-117jx5.html#ixzz3GdnExU11
I really like the top illustration on this article. Interpret from it what you want.
lefty e@168
I live in one of the areas covered by Powercor, said to be the highest charging according to the article. While I don’t buy all these wholesalers have to say, there is some truth in one where the bigger gaps between areas cost the company in terms of the cost of maintaining and running all the power lines.
Of course, if it was all one government run monopoly, there is the question of whether it’s cheaper or not from not having to run a profit (I could be wrong) but at least the cost would be divided equally across the network (at least in theory).
Anyhow, this continues the established fact that Australian power users (household, commercial and industrial) are paying for the cost of distributing power, rather than the source of the power itself (e.g. coal, hydro, large-scale solar, etc).
When is Brandis going to stand up and be counted! He should by now be out there defending Spurr’s right to be a bigot.
Answers in QT from Dutton , Barnyard and Truzzzz. Lordy what an inspiring line up .
Madame Kero Head is earning her dough today – running shotgun for Team Australia’s finest in the House of Reps
I had a visitor and missed it. Have Labor landed any blows that hurt, or are Team Australia just boring everyone’s socks off?
lizzie
The urge to Zzzzzz is strong this Question Time.
Labor is jabbing away but Madame Kero Head has the big bag of excuses open right now.
Isn’t lil’ Gregory Hunt turning into a right little smart arse
In regards to my earlier post: Even though Evans is resigning on 30 October and issuing a writ on 8 November for that seat is doable, the Speaker of the HoA (Michael Atkinson) has apparently said the Davenport by-election won’t be until next year.
poroti@169
I never thought of that!
I have never really doubted it was the separatists and I have always thought it unlikely they deliberately shot down an airliner.
Getting to the bottom of it will be extremely challenging and maybe impossible.
Tossing around ill founded accusations doesn’t advance the cause.
…genuflects with enough sincerity…
If Peter Garrett wasn’t responsible for home insulation fires, in what way was Bronwyn Bishop responsible for kerosene baths?
Raaraa@171
Power distribution is a classic natural monopoly.
It needs to be either publicly run, or very tightly regulated in an appropriate manner.
Regulation is very problematic as recently discussed by some French joker who won a Nobel Prize for his work on it.
Peter Martin had an excellent discussion here http://www.theage.com.au/comment/a-nobel-prize-in-how-not-to-get-ripped-off–wow-will-the-power-bills-go-down-20141017-117ocb.html
The trouble with competition among retailers is that the beneficiaries are the young and smart who are able to negotiate the best rates and discounts. The losers are the poor and less educated who are less able to negotiate.
Spurr
The problem for reactionaries: They’ve always got to find someone to react to their shite. they just can’t sit on it
Must be awful for them.
Poor fat, white old wrinkly blokes
William Bowe@182
There are lots of old ‘home remedies’ that actually do work so I could never quite figure out what all the fuss was about anyway.
Was anyone actually injured?
There sure was a lot of hyperventilation over very little.
Because she’s a liberal dragon with a head you’d never get tired of cream pieing
WB
Fair enough, but throwing lit matches into the bath really was a step too far.
She’s a Liberal and Liberals are always responsible for bad things happening.
I think we just reached the grassy knoll
DW
snap!! from each side
🙂 Kinkajou said it with much more flair than I could.
William
I’m a little tired of the “kero head”. It wasn’t as if they were bathed in pure kero, anyway, and as bemused said, some home remedies work.
BTW
did you say East German security?
WB
Both cases depend on the details of who knew what, when and the actions they took.
It is entirely possible for one to be in the clear and the other not to be, with no application of double standards or hypocrisy. To draw a link between the two first requires making a case for their equivalence.
kinkajou please I don’t deserve a “snap” for my comment.
Other than one being held responsible and suffering a RC and the other only suffering the butt of a not very funny joke, one was the minister responsible for sector that failed and one had absolutely zero responsibility for the sector that failed.
DW
It was the mirror image of my own, from the obverse ( I know you’re being mischievous about the Libs)
Surely you aren’t being serious DN?
Almost time to end speed dating and go for a work break
Greg Jericho reckons that Germany’s potential for recession will not affect Australia’s economy directly because the EU’s share of Australia’s exports has been declining for years. However, it would reduce demand for China’s exports to the EU (the second biggest destination for China’s exports after the US), which would reduce China’s demand for Australia’s minerals, so it would hurt Australia indirectly.
Germany would benefit from deficit spending to stimulate domestic demand but it will not do this because of the EU’s restrictive fiscal rules and because of Germany’s deepseated aversion to deficit spending.
Does Germany’s attachment to austerity economics have different origins and reasons from those of Anglo economy neoliberalism?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2014/oct/20/australia-destined-europes-economic-malaise