As the likelihood of a July 2 election firms, the preselection treadmill gathers pace. All the action this week is on the conservative side of the fence:
• New discord has emerged in the fractious New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party over its preselection for the Senate, after a party vote on Saturday delivered top position to Hollie Hughes, Moree-based autism support advocate and the state party’s country vice-president. This reduced the remaining incumbent, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, to number two, in defiance of the wishes of the Prime Minister, who had recently signalled his support by promoting her to the ministry. With number three reserved for Nationals Senator Fiona Nash, the result also meant neither of the Liberals’ winnable positions was available to Jim Molan, a former senior army officer who was heavily involved in the government’s efforts against unauthorised boat arrivals. Hughes has since forestalled a looming state executive intervention by agreeing to be relegated to number two. At issue was the presence on the preselection panel of two lobbyists and moderate factional operatives, Michael Photios and Nick Campbell, two years after Photios had been forced off the state executive by a Tony Abbott-sponsored rule forbidding the involvement of lobbyists. Opponents of the moderates cited in a report by David Crowe of The Australian claim that without the involvement of Photios and Campbell, Fierravanti-Wells and Molan might have taken the top two spots, with number three going to Andrew Bragg, policy director at the Financial Services Council. Tony Abbott described the outcome of the vote as “another exercise of stitching up”, which had been “tainted” by the involvement of Photios. If a double dissolution elections is called, the entire process will need to be revisited in a way that also accounts for Marise Payne, John Williams and Arthur Sinodinos, who were elected in 2013.
• Outgoing Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson has been preselected to succeed Andrew Robb as Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Goldstein. The Australian reports Wilson prevailed in the local party ballot over Denis Dragovic, a “lecturer, former hostage negotiator and columnist”, by the paper-thin margin of 142 votes to 140. Eliminated in the first round were Georgina Downer, with 66 votes, and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive John Osborn, on 18 votes. The vote came shortly after a pamphlet was distributed to preselectors describing Wilson as “a danger to our families, schools and the local community”, owing to his “unrelenting campaign for gay rights issues”.
• The Daily Telegraph reports Bronwyn Bishop faces defeat in the Mackellar preselection at the hands of Jason Falinski, owner of aged care business Carewell Health. Falinski was Malcolm Turnbull’s Wentworth campaign manager in 2004, and has worked for John Hewson and Barry O’Farrell. While Falinski is strongly associated with the moderates faction, the Telegraph reports he “will get the support of much of the Right because of an anyone-but-Bronwyn attitude caused by her switching sides on Tony Abbott”.
• A further three challenges have emerged against federal Liberals in Western Australia, in addition to the widely reported contest between Tangney MP Dennis Jensen and the state party’s former director, Ben Morton. Liberal sources invoked by Andrew Burrell of The Australian suggest Nola Marino is under pressure from Ben Small, although all I can discern of Small is that he lives in Bunbury. Elsewhere, Swan MP Steve Irons faces Carl Pallier, state manager of Suncorp Insurance, and Durack MP Melissa Price is opposed by David Archibald, a geologist.
• Seven Liberal Party members have nominated for preselection in the new southern Perth seat of Burt. Andrew Burrell of The Australian suggests the front-runner is Matthew O’Sullivan, “who runs Andrew Forrest’s GenerationOne philanthropic movement aimed at ending indigenous disparity”. However, Gosnells councillor Liz Storer is reported to be “backed by conservative forces”. Also in the field are Marisa Hislop, a small business owner; Daniel Nikolic, a company director; Lance Scott, the party’s divisional president; and a low-profile figure named Lesley Boyd.
• Sarah Martin of The Australian reports the Liberal Party has approached indigenous journalist Stan Grant about running for preselection against Labor’s Julie Owens in her highly marginal seat of Parramatta. The Liberals will be choosing their candidate for the seat through a trial plebiscite of local party members of more than two years’ standing, amid an ongoing brawl within the party over the power of head office in the party’s preselections.
• Melissa Grant of AAP reports on a second contestant for the Liberal National Party preselection to succeed Ian MacFarlane in the Queensland seat of Groom, joining the widely touted state member for Toowoomba South, John McVeigh. The candidate is Toowoomba general practitioner David van Gend, who describes himself on his Twitter bio as a “combatant on matters of life and death: euthanasia, cloning, abortion, gay ‘marriage’, faith and freedom” – his perspective on such matters being conservative.
Tony bbott HAS ended the soap opera; and moved on to comic opera.
we hear that the NSW Liberals have said that they will comply and release names of donors etc. The Oz then publishes a list.
Question is will the Libs actually do so themselves or forego the public funding of 4.5 million dollars?
I said yesterday that it would be hilarious if the unwillingness to disclose donors may have something to do with money coming via the mafia.
Today I heard from a “source” that it could actually be the case
victoria
[This from a person who has personally nobbled the biggest infrastucture tech project, the NBN]
Is there anyone of real influence who is calling his bluff? I can’t believe how stupid the msm are.
Ah Wind Farm Dysphoria Syndrome – here’s one I prepared earlier:
Damn. Now the acolytes of Sen Corgi St Bernardi will not only uncover the massive conspiracy that many of us in the Illuminati (AMA subbranch) have been conducting for 30 years to Deny The Truth About Lyme Disease, but they may also discover our other terrible secret: Wind Farm Dysphoria Syndrome (WFDS) is also a emerging infectious disease. We had better come clean to save our souls from Corgi’s Inquisitors.
Human disease caused by Borrelia alanjonesii has been endemic in NSW for at least 30 years, but it is only recently that many of the characteristic features of WFDS have been elucidated – and carefully concealed by publishing only in august journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Manly and Northern Beaches Tick Fanciers Monthly (Lifestyle Supplement).
WFDS is characterised by a debilitating fatigue in the presence of cameras, an affluenza-like illness, aesthetic distress and vertigo experienced on sighting a wind turbine (static or rotating) on land not owned by the sufferer (“Hockey’s sign”) and a constant high pitched murmur, maximal at 2GB and radiating throughout the twittersphere. There is said to be a pathognomic migratory rash, known as erythema chronicum taurofaeculomigrans, which occurs within minutes of sighting a turbine, spreads to the face, and fades immediately whenever a camera is focused on it. Reports of generalised arthralgia, sporadic somnambulism, autochthonous asthenia, proctagia fugax, malignant otitis interna, terminally irritable bowel syndrome, multiple hypersensitivities to non-organic and GMO products, chakra instability, total carbohydrate, fat and protein intolerance, turnip craving and lycanthropism have been made, though relative prevalence and incidence vary widely between postcodes, income bracket and exposure to shoutback radio.
Diagnostic testing is complicated by the fact that NATA accreditation interferes with all known serologic and nucleic acid testing in Australia. Overseas labs can confirm the diagnosis by a proprietary non-disclosable method that is reliable – provided sufficient funds are available in a Cayman Islands Trust Fund.
Treatment has been controversial. Life-long treatment with at least 100 gm of intravenous ceftriaxone daily, homeopathic topical doxycycline (10 ^ – 23 gm Q every full moon), probiotic yogurt-derived GcMAF and Shamanic Past Life Detoxification Behavioral Counseling or a combination of these have been suggested (on the basis of strong level 5 evidence only) in the latest edition of Therapeutic Guidelines: Gullibility Disorders.
In the only clinical trial published (Shonk Y & Dodge IER, Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, 2001, 15 (2) 3177-3179), a “borderline significant” advantage was found for treatment with large sums of CSG (“Fracking for life on the Liverpool Plains!”) Compensation Cash vs smaller sums of Adani (“Galilee Basin Coal is Delicious!”) Bank Guarantees, in an unblinded double-crossed single centre study of 2.7 Investment Bankers (…because there are some things that rats won’t do) in a secret offshore location that was definitely not a PO Box in the Cayman Islands.
The epidemiology of WFDS has been made difficult by uncertainty of specific diagnostic criteria, and the allegations of cover up of major outbreaks by a shadowy conspiracy of billionaire climate scientists (both of them) and UN World Government Agenda 21 Plan To Steal Our Golfs. There is absolutely no truth to the ugly rumors that Big Oil employed Christopher Monckton to establish WFDS in Australia – and even if there was, you can’t prove it, and if you try, we’ll arrange for our mate Peter Dutton and his Border Farce to declare you an On Water Matter for Immediate Rendition to Nauru. Despite this, suspicion remains that the virulent Australian strain was somehow exported to Canada, the US and other-anglophone-countries-with-lots-of-oil-and-coal-to-be-sold after one of His Lordship’s many world tours.
Transmission vectors remain unproven despite several moderate scale surveys to culture the midgut of Ixodes nymphs, bandicoots and Ladies Who Lunch at Avalon Cafes. PCR surveys of the Byron Bay and Gold Coast hinterland have been confounded by the universal finding of strongly upregulated genes of the Affluence Related Social Enlightenment and Holistic Orthomolecular Lexus Entitlement complex in all potential vectors tested. There is epidemiological evidence that transmission may, in fact, be meme based, and strongly correlated with exposure to 2GB, though the molecular mechanism of this process remains obscure. The effect is confounded by an equally strong correlation with exposure to News Corpse Ltd products and Rupertarian commentators, particularly on Their ABC.
The pathogenesis of WFDS has been postulated to be due to infrasound of particular frequencies, making it the first spirocheatosis to attract its normal hosts (elephants and large cetaceans) by broadcasting a signal of a frequency determined by its rate of spin. Please note that this implies that humans are only intermediate hosts, and might explain the noted predilection for humans with a BMI >30 to develop WFDS.
In other news: both Generalissimo Franco and Bob Santamaria are still dead, however the parrot still squawks, and a lonely figure still cycles the dawn roundabouts of Canberra, muttering about its precioussssss and singing the old Beach Boys hit “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb-bomb Iran!”
Lizzie
The msm are not stupid. They have their riding orders.
China to increase wind generation by 22% this year!
Already leads the EU on wind generation.
Meanwhile, in “innovative” Australia, we’re conducting idiotic witch hunts into completely non-existent “turbine syndrome”
WE ARE GOVERNED BY F*CKWITS!
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/03/24/china-increase-wind-power-capacity-22-2016/
This Cities (for re-election) Plan seems to be a really good episode of Utopia.
So why am I not laughing?
Must be the casting.
rhwombat
I managed to read your 1004, and you have made some clever and amusing points, but paragraphs?
I was just reading Loon Pond’s contribution from yesterday where Dorothy analysed Abbott’s self-congratulatory piece of pablum for The Australian this weekend and it just crystallised for me Abbott’s ability to, on the one hand, use as justification for some action one argument, but on the other hand, when it didn’t suit him to he would turn on a dime and behave in the way he had used as justification for another action.
The example we have put before us by Abbott for his success with ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ is that a large part of it’s success was due to:
‘ the refusal to discuss operational matters on the water to deny people-smugglers the oxygen of publicity’
Yet, that is EXACTLY what Aboott reveled in doing when it come to the ‘Death Cult’ of ISIS. He gave them all the oxygen he had in his taut little body in order to project himself as the balls out world leader capable of leading the charge into battle against them. Day after day, week after week, month after interminable month of his tenure. More than happy to give ISIS ‘the oxygen of publicity’.
Which is EXACTLY what ISIS crave, the oxygen of legitimacy given to them by national leaders who address them directly.
At last world leaders are beginning to see that the best way to tackle ISIS is to love bomb their countries after an attack rather than be alarmist and aggressive and to work towards minimising the psychological grip ISIS has over the West and Western leaders.
Maybe if Tony Abbott had advocated that sort of thinking and showed some consistency in his own logic he may well have hung onto his job. As it is, by his contributions that are still on the public record he continues to show us that he was unfit for same. And no amount of polishing his knob, selectively and retrospectively, is going to alter that fact.
Elder at it again … saying it like it is in SA
http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/heave-away-haul-away.html
lefty e
[WE ARE GOVERNED BY F*CKWITS!]
There is no need for the asterix in “fuckwits”, lefty.
lizzie @ 966
“Discussion point. Does any clever Bludger have a suggestion as to how Mal could sheath Tony’s claws? Would it have been better to offer him a ministry, or would that simply have made things worse?”
The easiest way for Mr Turnbull to get a leash on Mr Abbott would be to check with the British government when he actually renounced his UK citizenship. If the answer received proves that Mr Abbott has been lying or has made a false declaration in a past nomination form, the latter would suffice to make him liable to disqualification from Parliament under section 44 of the Constitution.
A gentle and deniable threat to refer that to the AFP should give Mr Abbott food for thought. Alternatively, if anyone ever gets to the High Court with a case against Mr Abbott under the Common Informers (Parliamentary Disqualifications) Act, that might provide an opportunity for the Commonwealth to “assist the Court by putting all the facts on the table”.
C@t
Precisely why Abbott was dangerous. We have homegrown threats being thwarted, and from what I have been told recently, the elders in these communities have been the best resource law enforcement have had in being able to stop them. Abbott’s contribution was not helping at all.
pedant
In my view, If Turnbull were to do such a thing, it would basically blow up the party
[
kevjohnno
Posted Friday, March 25, 2016 at 10:02 am | Permalink
Short and sweet as in a prediction for Bill’s time as ALP leader.
]
ROFL. Kill Bill is so yesterday. All having tooooo much fun watching the Abbott/Turnbull cage fight.
victoria @ 1014: Well, maybe that’s the only way of getting Mr Abbott under control. Rather like the final chapter of John Wyndham’s book The Midwich Cuckoos, filmed several times as Village of the Damned.
Labor pretty much tried everything to deal with Rudd; they are in no position to offer advise re Abbott.
Republicans organise the greatest circular firing squad in human history.
[Thousands Petition To Allow Guns At Republican Convention For ‘Safety’
Without guns, attendees will be “sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers.”]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/republican-convention-guns-petition_us_56f70018e4b014d3fe234d28?section=australia
pedant
Abbott has his own cards to play. Remember he knows where the bodies are buried, cos he helped bury them. If a threat is made to Abbott, we can be asurred of mutual assured destruction
assured
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/26/sanders-wins-washington-alaska-caucus-election-results-delegates-clinton
[Bernie Sanders won overwhelming victories in Washington state and Alaska on Saturday, narrowing Hillary Clinton’s still significant lead in the race for delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president.
Sanders defeated Clinton in Washington’s caucuses 75% to 25% and 79% to 21% in Alaska’s, with about 38% and 72% of the states’ precincts reporting.]
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/27/north-queensland-mps-seek-referendum-to-split-from-rest-of-state
[North Queensland could become its own state under plans from a powerful bloc of MPs to force a referendum on the issue.
Katter’s Australian party (KAP) MPs Rob Katter and Shane Knuth, along with former Labor MP Rob Pyne, all north Queensland MPs, are reportedly mobilising against what they see as a lack of infrastructure investment and interest in north Queensland from a Brisbane-centric government.
Pyne, the now-independent Cairns MP, this week admitted he quit Labor to take advantage of the state’s hung parliament, believing he could secure more local projects and services for his electorate by making demands of his former party.]
victoria @ 1019: Like the final scene of Dr Strangelove.
Happy Easter to all. Stay safe and enjoy.
[North Queensland could become its own state under plans from a powerful bloc of MPs to force a referendum on the issue.]
Not going to happen. It’s at best a good story at a time when people are not that interested in good stories anyway.
pedant
Indeed
I’m an atheist … so I will wish everyone a happy few days off … 😆
An interesting quiz – Which Australian Political Party Shares Your Beliefs.
http://australia.isidewith.com/political-quiz
(Me – 77% ALP, 23% LNP)
jenauthor
And a happy few days off to you too. 😀
On that note, have a good day all. I am off to Easter luncheon
The only way to silence Abbott would be if Turnbull won the next election with a comfortable result. The worst result would be a narrow Turnbull win. A Labor win should see the back of both Abbott and Turnbull.
davidwh @ 1030: A Labor win would see the back of Mr Turnbull, because he’d know he would never be PM again, and the factors which nearly led him to leave politics before would become overwhelming. He’d probably do a Keating, gone before the resumption of Parliament.
But Mr Abbott will hang around like a bad smell. He’d portray the defeat of the coalition as being precisely what he presciently warned against in February 2014 and again last September. He’d see himself as having been vindicated. He’d see his brand of conservatism as having been vindicated. And he’d want to stay on to make life miserable for every one of the people who voted against him in the leadership ballot.
The problem is that, like Bronwyn Bishop, he has no real life outside politics. He’s not like John Brogden or Kate Carnell or Jeff Kennett or Jim Carlton or Robert Tickner, all of whom were employable in other high level roles. Nobody who has read Ms Savva’s book would want to touch Mr Abbott with a forty foot pole.
davidwh
[The worst result would be a narrow Turnbull win]
Agree.
There are two key issues which should be pursued by Labor:
1) Abbott and his policies are not going away, even with a Turnbull win, and if the win is narrow, they will be further entrenched.
2) The myth of the Coalition being better economic managers.
Interesting given the growing disillusionment with Turnbull.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/daniel-andrews-progressive-actions-speak-louder-than-malcom-turnbulls-empty-words-20160325-gnqzi3.html
peg
Whoopee doo. Clinton is so far ahead of him that she can afford to lose a state here or there.
Well I am a real screw up 65% Labor/57% Liberal/41% Green depending on the type of issues.
The 41% Green on social issues is a bit of a worry :devil:
[An interesting quiz – Which Australian Political Party Shares Your Beliefs.]
My result was split into three
93% Green 83% Labor 30% Liberal
1012
The Common Informers (Parliamentary Disqualifications) Act is rather soft. It introduced a statue of limitation of a only a single year (from the date of application), ruled out multiple people suing the parliamentarian effected and did not increase/stop the inflation based decrease in the financial penalty.
The single litigant provision is reasonable on double jeopardy grounds but the year limit and failure to increase/stop the decrease in the penalty make the act very week. They mean that the common informer would be lucky to get $15,000 if the MP had been ineligible for a year or more and that means it is a big gamble for mainly political reward. When the $200 per day was introduced by the Constitution, as 100 pounds per day, it was a quarter of the 400 pounds annual salary of a Parliamentarian (it was designed to put financial pressure on even the richest of parliamentarians) and in today`s money that would be a penalty of about $50,000 per day (linking it to the current back benchers` salary). the amount should be increased at least 10 fold and indexed.
Seriously.
Why are people still clinging to polls in the US that say one candidate is leading over another in hypothetical head to head contests?
Those polls are utterly meaningless and seem only to be considered relevant or accurate by ever Sanders supporters who are quickly realising that the game is all but over.
Sanders had a couple of good wins so far today but they are wins he was always expected to win.
Sanders failing to win a state like Washington would be like the ALP failing to win a seat like Blaxland or the Libs failing to win Curtin.
His problem is and always has been a failure to win contests that are run as a primary not a caucus and a failure to win the more delegate rich larger and more diverse states.
Victoria.
I said yesterday that it would be hilarious if the unwillingness to disclose donors may have something to do with money coming via the mafia.
I’m calling bullshit on your source, but I will keep on the look out on your posts for further information.
Zoomster @ 1034
I don’t think those here still hoping for a miracle understand just how far behind their man is.
The fact that Sanders won in Washington particularly is newsworthy in the same way that the sun came up today is news.
It was always going to happen.
Their attempts to flog a dead horse are admirable but more and more starting to look a bit sad.
Dan Gulberry
An excellent quiz, which gave plenty of room for nuanced answers.
Zoomster,
I posted something on the US Primary thread but was wondering if you had any thoughts on it.
It seems to me the biggest issue for a hypothetical President Sanders isn’t a hostile Congress but the states. While Team Sanders is discussing the ethics of Superdelegates and such to win the nomination it seems to underlie the point of how arcane the whole system of election is – indirect election by convention and delegates. Surely pushing for single-payer healthcare requires a fundamental change in the way American politics works and I was curious if you’ve heard Sanders address this point. Would Sanders’ allies stay with him if he threatened their power in State legislatures and Gubernatorial offices.
On a side note, I really have been surprised by how nasty Sanders supporters are towards Clinton and her supporters. One lady quoted in the Guardian said she hated having to be so much as near a Clinton supporter… bizarre.
1040
The sun does not rise you flat-Earther!
Clinton could still be indicted over the emails.
Labor 96%, Greens 95%, Liberals 15%…
[frednk
Posted Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 11:02 am | Permalink
kevjohnno
Posted Friday, March 25, 2016 at 10:02 am | Permalink
Short and sweet as in a prediction for Bill’s time as ALP leader.
ROFL. Kill Bill is so yesterday. All having tooooo much fun watching the Abbott/Turnbull cage fight. ]
Just so we are clear Fred, that is not my opinion just how I see the Libs using C@t’s slogan.
Bugler,
Just read your post on the other thread.
You make some excellent points.
Particularly how Sanders would struggle to get any support from Democrat reps and senators for some of his program considering he has spent the best part of 40 years slagging off at the Democrats.
The fact he has sought to piggyback off the Democrat Party because he would never have a chance running as an independent puts lie to this man of principle bs he and his supporters try to portray.
If by some miracle when the convention comes around he is even level pegging with Clinton in pledged delegates he would fail to gain the support of many super delegates at all.
Why would those people vote for a man who is a johnny come lately to their party and has done absolutely nothing in 40 years to help get these people elected to office and infact has often actively worked against them.
Me – strong Greens/Labor, quite low LNP.
A bit of a shock with the Greens.
The next lot of fun with Mr Abbott is going to come when some journalist asks him to rule out challenging for the Prime Ministership after the election in the event that the coalition only win narrowly.
Bernie Sanders isn’t just a safer bet for this election cycle; nominating him is better for the long-term viability of the Democratic Party. There’s a great need for alternatives to deficit hawkery (aka economic illiteracy), austerity, punishing the poor, hollowing out the middle class. If the Democrats don’t offer an alternative they will only further erode their public standing and increase disenchantment with the political class. Around the world, right-wing nationalists are making inroads because the Left isn’t offering anything other than a continuation of an unsustainable social model.
SUSC
I deliberately left my Greens result out of the post.
It was actually 96% Greens 77% ALP 23 %LNP.
Issues I disagree with Labor on are:
– Allowing the sale of agricultural land and water to foreign buyers.
– Allowing CSG mining (fracking)
– Allowing the export of live animals to foreign countries
– Regulation of the internet
– Abortion (although it seems Labor don’t actually have a stance on that)
– Increased military spending
– Foreign aid
– Taking a stance against Japan over whaling
– Increase in MRRT
– Asylum seekers on boats.
As an aside, here are the things I agree with the LNP on:
– The sale of agricultural land and water to foreign owners
– Internet regulation
– Coal companies being subject to additional regulation if they use water
– Universal Dental care
It really surprises (and disappoints me) that Labor seem to support selling our food and water assets to foreigners, even if it is subject to approval from the FIRB.
Other disappointments include allowing CSG mining (fracking), and regulation of the internet. Even tech-unsavvy people know how to completely bypass any “firewalls”, so it is an utterly pointless exercise.