The BludgerTrack poll aggregate has, almost, moved half a point in Labor’s favour for the third week in a row, the exact two-party movement on this occasion being 0.4%. This was the result of two new polls this week, one from ReachTEL and the other the regular weekly Essential Research result. Newspoll was silent this week because, social media conspiracy theorising aside, it’s the practice of The Australian to have its polls coincide with the resumption of parliament, which means next week rather than this week. Whereas last week’s movement caused four seats to tip Labor’s way on the projection, this time there is but the one, that being in Victoria.
Nothing new this week on leadership ratings, but a fair bit to report on preselection:
• The future of the plum Liberal seat of Mackellar on Sydney’s northern beaches is a hot topic following Bronwyn Bishop’s resignation as Speaker. The West Australian reports that Bishop is “under internal pressure to quit parliament immediately”, but the 72-year-old Bishop says she’s set on another term. However, the crude fact that her pension will erode the longer she is on a back-bench salary makes this a doubtful proposition. It had long been thought that her successor might be her chief-of-staff, Damien Jones, who is a member of the party’s state executive, husband of state upper house MP Natasha Maclaren-Jones and, according to James Robertson of the Sydney Morning Herald, Bishop’s “local numbers man”. However, The Australian (paywalled) reports that Jones is “seen as ‘damaged goods’”, since it was he who booked Bishop’s infamous $5227 helicopter flight to Geelong – a view expressed by Tom Switzer, a former opinion page editor of The Australian and past preselection aspirant who is ruling himself out on this occasion. Others who have been speculatively named without ruling themselves out include Julian Leeser, a former Menzies Research Centre head currently working in government relations at the Australian Catholic University; Walter Villatora, chairman of the party’s Warringah federal electoral council and a campaigner for democratising preselection reforms favoured by the religious Right faction; John Ruddick, an ally of Villatora’s in the reform push; Greg Burton, a barrister; and Jim Longley, state member for Pittwater from 1986 to 1996 and a minister in John Fahey’s government from 1992 to 1995, who is now chief executive of the ageing, disability and home care division of the NSW Department of Family and Community Services. Longley challenged Bishop for preselection ahead of the last election.
• The West Australian reports that possible Liberal preselection candidates for the Canning by-election include “Mandurah mayor Marina Vergone, Murdoch University law lecturer Lorraine Finlay and party figure Nathan Gudgeon”. Another mentioned in the local press is Steve Marshall, a 57-year-old former earthworks businessman who says he will run as an independent if he doesn’t win, which doesn’t sound like a winning pitch to these ears. The West Australian also reports that Labor’s preselection candidates will include Matt Keogh, a commercial lawyer, president of the Law Society of WA, and member of the Right faction.
• Nationals veteran Bruce Scott has confirmed the long-held expectation that he will retire at the next election, making available his sprawling and safely conservative Queensland seat of Maranoa. Scott has been in the news of late due to his role as deputy Speaker – Phillip Coorey of the Financial Review reports that he hoped to replace Bishop, but the Liberals will not have the job go to a National. According to Penelope Arthur of Queensland Country Life, potential preselection contenders in Maranoa include David Littleproud, a Toowoomba bank manager; Robert Loughnan, mayor of Maranoa; and Cameron O’Neil, a Maranoa councillor. Cameron Atfield of Fairfax reports that state Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has ruled himself out, despite being “subject of pressure from some quarters of the Liberal National Party to run for a federal seat”. Labor’s preselected candidate is Dave Kerrigan, a rural health worker.
• The ABC reports that Steve Georganas will face opposition from “long-time Labor member” Delia Brennan in his bid for Labor preselection in the Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh, which he lost to Liberal candidate Matt Williams after nine years as member in 2013. However, The Australian reports that Georganas is “widely expected to win easily”. Mark Ward, a school teacher and candidate for the state by-election for Davenport in January, has won preselection to run against Liberal incumbent and Speakership aspirant Andrew Southcott in Boothby. Labor’s preselection process for Christopher Pyne’s seat of Sturt is ongoing.
• My paywalled Crikey contributions over the past fortnight or so concern Labor’s position on boat turnbacks and the contrast presented with the Labour Party in Britain, which appears poised to choose hard left ideologue Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader; the Tasmanian Greens preselection process that will shortly see former federal party leader Christine Milne succeeded by former state party leader Nick McKim; a Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry that appears to have been established due to Coalition concerns about emergency services union activists campaigning for Labor while wearing work-related apparel; the state of play in Western Australian state politics as the parties grapple with the implications of a just-announced redistribution; and, in yesterday’s edition, the coming prime ministership of Nick Xenophon.
BK at 935
Your family is having one of those rough trots, it never rains then it pours, hope all turns out ok. Thanks for the dawn patrol.
Internal ALP polling has it 53-47 nationally, “huge” in Victoria, and trailing 49-51 with a change of Lib leader, Shorten “values indicators” have improved in last month since ICAC out of the news. Abbott bottom of the barrell on all indicators.
zoomster
How are the coalition going to convince the electorate that changing leaders is indeed good when they do it
victoria
The one thing Tony can’t do is to say that he’s ‘retiring to spend more time with his family’. A sports injury perhaps?
😀
Abbott’s not going anywhere.
If the coalition dump Abbott they and the GG will never acknowledge that they ever said anything about changing leaders at anytime in the past. It is standard conservative double think.
Brendan Nelson seems to be a favourite go-to guy nowadays.
[The government finalised the five-person review panel on Friday.
The prime minister has previously said the exercise would be led by David Tune, the former secretary of the Department of Finance, and John Conde, the chair of the remuneration tribunal.
But the newly announced members include Nelson, who served as defence minister in the Howard government and opposition leader after the Liberal party’s 2007 election loss, and Jenkins, who was Speaker from 2008 until 2011 when Labor replaced him with Peter Slipper.
The final member is Linda Nicholls, the chair of Yarra Trams and a director of Medibank Private, Sigma Pharmaceutical Group and Fairfax Media.]
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/07/brendan-nelson-and-harry-jenkins-to-help-lead-entitlements-review
in looking up what former Prime Minsiters are entitled to (assuming Abbott will want to continue on his rorting ways), I cam across this treasure trove of everything you ever wanted to know about entitlements..an extract
[Former prime ministers
In addition to the benefits afforded under parliamentary superannuation acts, Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 and the Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002 former prime ministers who have left parliament have been provided with ‘a number of facilities at the discretion of the prime minister of the day’. These entitlements have included car costs and office entitlements such as office establishment and lease costs, fixtures, telecommunications, office stationery and publications. The 2010 Belcher review noted that:
While each former prime minister’s entitlements are individually determined by the incoming prime minister, they have come to be largely uniform in nature. The Prime Minister can also determine ad hoc benefits on a case-by-case basis.[51]]
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/ParlRemEntitlements
Richard di Natale on Insiders tomorrow morning
This is what coal-lovers like Abbott do not see.
“As a former secretary of India’s ministry of power, I know India’s challenges. Australian coal doesn’t make economic sense for us – but renewables do ”
[It is therefore simplistic and simply inaccurate to assume that new electricity generation capacity added to the grid will automatically reduce electricity deprivation among the poor.
There is also a growing public opposition to industrial projects, especially large centralised power plants, whether coal-based, hydro or nuclear, as they uproot thousands of families from their lands, pollute their environment and disrupt their lives. Upstream, coal and uranium mining activities are equally destructive.
Burning coal, whether local or imported, generates large quantities of fly ash containing toxic pollutants like lead, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, sulfur, mercury and radioactive uranium/ thorium isotopes, which adversely affect the health of the people near the power stations, often the rural poor, whose disadvantage is worsened by these health impacts.
Studies on people residing near coal-based power plants along the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have revealed unsafe levels of mercury in their blood samples, at times as high as 110 parts per billion. Similarly, studies around a coal power plant in the Punjab have indicated widespread radioactive contamination of the environment, impacting the health of pregnant women and children.
Such huge social costs outweigh the perceived benefits of coal.]
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/07/coal-is-not-the-answer-to-indias-energy-poverty-whatever-tony-abbott-says
Hmmm … TBA seems to have gone missing:
[Public documents confirm Education Minister Christopher Pyne spent more than $5,000 of taxpayers’ money flying himself and three family members to Sydney over the Christmas-New Year break in 2009.]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-08/pyne-claimed-5000-travel-allowance-to-fly-family-to-sydney/6682494
[I see these anonymous ‘quotes’ and often wonder if they are just made up.]
I’m pretty sure they are not made up. But the anonymity means that a small number of people can be quoted time and again and made to sound as though they were representative. Like if Rex D was quoted anonymously to indicate greater disquiet about Bill Shorten than really exists.
The simple fact is that in a Parliament of around 225 members, plus staffers and party apparatchiks, any journalist with a pulse is sure to find a couple of people to say what they want to illustrate a story, especially if they are well lubricated and can be reported anonymously.
But it is poor journalism because it is misleading and because it is distorting the reality of what is going on. It may or may not be representative of reality but we can never know because the journo requires us to rely on them to be accurate and they have provided no comfort that we can do so.
markjs at 956
Even setting all else aside, one only has to put oneself in the shoes of somebody who lives on penalty rates & ask themselves the simple question, how would I feel if these rates were removed & I was asked to work for les?
CTar1
This is one occasion where I’ll defend Pyne. IMO this is all getting ridiculous, because the journos could go on ‘discovering’ breaches for months.
[Pyne defended his own decision to charge taxpayers thousands of dollars to fly his family business class from Adelaide to Canberra in late 2013 because it was “within the rules”.
“That’s right, for the opening of parliament – because I’m the leader of the house, I’m a new cabinet minister, it is the opening of parliament, my four children joined me in Canberra,” he said.
The Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who was also part of the Today show discussion, said it was “fantastic” that Pyne’s children were able to see the swearing in.
“Those kids are not going see their dad this morning,” Albanese said.
“It is not, I don’t believe, unreasonable that Christopher’s kids were there to see him sworn in just as the day that I was sworn in as deputy prime minister my son was there along with my wife. It’s a proud moment in our family. It’s part of, in terms of dealing with the issues that families have and it is reasonable.”]
lizzie
One of the most frustrating things about Abbott is that he never tries to justify his statements with any analysis whatsoever, just slogans, and rarely allows himself to be subjected to a long form interview.
TTFAB @ 990
[ He does seem to have some political acumen for dealing with the voters.]
I’ve not seen any of that re Scum. He is certainly not a lightweight, nor a buffoon, but he comes across to me as arrogant and fake. His strength is the ability to deliver an outcome by hook or by crook. It worked well in Immigration because most voters did not give a damn about the who was hooked and crooked by his conduct. I have yet to see any serious achievements in his new portfolio, although he does not treat the Senators as though they were swill and then expect them to play nice, the way Pyne does.
I think he will be a hard sell to the public. The big plus on the voter side is actually the absence of a negative. He is not a hapless incompetent the way Abbott is proving himself to be to even his biggest supporters.
victoria
It will All Be Labor’s Fault.
Labor stuffs up leadership changes, the Liberals know the proper way to do them.
The media will praise the Libs for the smooth and orderly transition, unmarred by any of the silliness of Labor.
Trog
No, no analysis, no discussion. He was billed as a ‘thinker’, a ‘philosopher’ (of sorts). A hollow man, after all.
…and, of course, quickly move on to “Now that the Liberals have found the courage to dump an under performing leader, Labor should….”
@zoomster/1000
If they are plugging Scotty.
Then Scotty = Kevin Rudd.
Bishop = Julia Gillard.
lizzie
My 1010 is about a 5 day trip to Sydney rather than to Canberra for the opening of Parliament.
zoomster
It says a lot for the shallowness of the Liberals that you (and others) find it so easy to predict their probable excuses (I don’t mean that you are shallow!!).
Burke needs to be sacked. If as a taxpayer I am spending tens of thousands for employees of my country to travel around representing me they need to be focused on more than how they can bonk their chief of staff. Disgusting creep just as bad as Abbott.
I will continue my Greens protest vote until someone of some small decent integrity is engaged to provide leadership in government. Probably will be the rest of my living days I guess.
I am sick of hearing the bullshit about how hard it is to be a politician. No more excuses just get rid of the scum regardless of political persuasion. No personal integrity = no job as a politician.
Both sides of politics must be absolutely desperate for the travel stuff to go away. Parliament resuming can’t come fast enough.
CTar1
Oh, sorry. BTW, did you pick up that Pyne actually employed a professional negotiator to get his last lot of education changes through the Senate. Where’s Mr Fixer now?
lizzie
[id you pick up that Pyne actually employed a professional negotiator to get his last lot of education changes through the Senate.]
Yep – it’s a classic. $150,000 to do what Pyne shoild be doing himself.
@lizzie/1024
Yeah so he doesn’t take personal responsibility as education minister!
(btw, has he actually done anything as Minister?)
ICanCU
Have you considered that your ‘outrage’ is being fired up by the way the media are reporting the events around Burke’s trips, squashing them into a short period so that motivation, cause and effect are distorted?
1018
That is inevitably the case.
[$150,000 to do what Pyne should be doing himself.]
Still failed.
ICanCU
I feel the same about Burke and I am sick to death hearing their excuses.
Where has integrity gone?
North Korea has been busy, it wants it’s own time standard:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/08/07/north-korea-establishes-its-own-time-zone-in-order-to-stick-it-to-wicked-japanese-imperialists/
[ICanCU
Posted Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 12:47 pm | Permalink
Burke needs to be sacked. If as a taxpayer I am spending tens of thousands for employees of my country to travel around representing me they need to be focused on more than how they can bonk their chief of staff. Disgusting creep just as bad as Abbott.
I will continue my Greens protest vote until someone of some small decent integrity is engaged to provide leadership in government. Probably will be the rest of my living days I guess.
I am sick of hearing the bullshit about how hard it is to be a politician. No more excuses just get rid of the scum regardless of political persuasion. No personal integrity = no job as a politician.]
Based on that post, while you seem familiar with the trait of being a disgusting creep, identifying personal integrity let alone judging it would seem way beyond your reach. The Greens are welcome to have you.
[ MTBW
Posted Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
ICanCU
I am sick to death hearing their excuses.
]
A man phoned into John Faine on Friday telling of the Scottish Parliament having all its members on-line and providing a detail of ALL their expenses regularly up-dated …that is what is needed here. A trawl through EVERY MP and a list of their expenses detailed and publically available on a regular basis ….
I agree that should the Liberals bite the bullet and dump Abbott, a friendly and compliant mainstream media, especially the Murdochracy, will provide cover and boost the new leader.
phoenix
[A trawl through EVERY MP and a list of their expenses detailed and publically available on a regular basis ….]
Couldn’t agree more!
@Steve777/1034
Yup.
Just like how they are promoting Trump in USA with Fox.
Josh Taylor @joshgnosis 34m34 minutes ago
They want bakers to be able to refuse to make gay wedding cakes but complain when TV networks refuse to air their ads http://m.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/seven-and-ten-reject-anti-samesex-marriage-advertisement-20150807-giu2f0.html?skin=smart-phone …
[ICanCU
I feel the same about Burke and I am sick to death hearing their excuses.]
ie Burke is in the wrong faction.
BTW ICanCU, Sarah Hanson Young has her own problems with entitlements. Still voting Green?
[I feel the same about Burke and I am sick to death hearing their excuses.]
You may as well sack all of them. They ALL do it, because the rules specifically provide for family to accompany ministers and members on one or two trips a year.
Your high dudgeon about Burke is EXACTLY what the Daily Telegraph and the shock jocks (no slouches themselves when it comes to perks) wants you to think. You have been moulded into the seething, hating, cynical mess Murdoch wants you to be.
I hope this makes you happy. I’ve heard spending your life loathing the world can be quite a pleasant experience, at times. It takes the weight of your own troubles off your shoulders.
Fox *hates* Trump. The longer he stays in the race the more aggressive their rhetoric against him will become.
He’s leading because he’s the only guy most people being polled have heard of, not because he’s getting a Fox push.
Gary
ICanCU has a right to vote for whomever he pleases.
No politicians should get away with the “within the rules” garbage. The public has a right to know how their taxes are spent.
[1030
MTBW]
We should learn to be rather more accepting of politicians’ private affairs. They have nothing to do with public policy or a person’s capacity to argue for a party program or carry out the duties assigned to them.
Many very great political leaders have had lovers. Roosevelt, Clinton, Kennedy, Curtin and Chifley all qualify. Evidently, nor was Menzies immune to such attractions.
We should permit politicians a private life, such as it might be. As long as their conduct does not involve a misuse of power or of their office, the private obligations of politicians to their spouses and others in their families should remain in the private domain.
If we go looking for interior, personal reasons to disqualify MPs from serving, soon there will be none left.
BB
And in the real world people are living on the streets and homeless.
I couldn’t care less who a pollie is bonking as long as they don’t try to pretend they’re holier-than-thou.
They all doing it Gary, don’t put the blame just on the Greens.
Everyone in Parliament needs to be sacked.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/national/2015/08/06/hockey–hanson-young-expenses-emerge.html
Burke = Labor
Hockey, Bishop, Abbott = Coalition Party
Young = Greens
Which is why I am glad to not be a supporter for any one, while having major parties splashing out on tax payers money on themselves, while they are creating budgets that have austerity ‘feels’ to them, and selling our country to other countries.
briefly
Could you please explain to me where I mentioned “private affairs”.
[BB
And in the real world people are living on the streets and homeless.]
By that logic perhaps we should all be homeless and penniless until we can all take our families to Uluru together. We’d be The Happy Country then.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned about the Burke family’s trip to Uluru was that – apart from it being sanctioned quite specifically by the rules – flying is the ONLY way to get there, unless his critics are suggesting he should drive. There ain’t no trains and there ain’t no sailing ships that can do the journey.
I do not know why some have so much trouble with this. You may be sick and tired of hearing how hard politicians work, but whether you are or not, they DO work hard. They are very often far away from home for extended periods. That’s why the family can go along on the odd trip (literally one, or is it two?). I, for one, don’t begrudge them this.
It’s only when it comes to rorting the system that the annoyance kicks in. Bishop could have taken the train to Geelong, or been driven there from the airport. It probably wouldn’t have taken much more than half an hour longer than a helicopter, what with all the changeovers and ferrying from terminal to terminal she’d have had to do.
the,
The problem with your “bonking” theory is that many people think it is them that is being “bonked”.
[Gary
ICanCU has a right to vote for whomever he pleases.]
I didn’t say he couldn’t. Just wondering, in the name of consistency. If you’re going to vote for against a party over the entitlements issue then choosing a party will be a nightmare.