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.
cud chewer
Save your breath. Befuddled is a lost cause.
I understand how important it is for you to see Turnbull get a pizzling on Lateline (atrocious interview very few questions about issues just gotcha questions but they did the same to Gillard) but mainstream does not watch Lateline neither does much it does trickle down to mainstream, other than the ABC up to its usual left wing bias. It is sad but true the voters that decide this election are watching My Kitchen Rules who don’t think there is much difference between Labor and Liberal. Whoever gets there vote wins this election.
Peter Costello on Turnbull (from Bolts blog today)
Turnbull began well. He promised to promote Liberal unity and told the party it could win under him….
Turnbull had used the polls as a weapon
. This is a two-edged sword. It will come back to haunt you if your own polls turn for the worse. At first, Turnbull did better. But …Turnbull’s satisfaction rating plummeted….
As he plunged in the polls, Turnbull needed to carefully reassure and cultivate the party base. Liberal supporters who work in the branches and hand out the cards on election day will compromise on policy if they think it will lead to government and the chance to implement bigger political objectives. But they do not see it as much of a trade to betray their policy beliefs in a losing cause…
A political leader cannot take his base for granted. He must give voice and confidence to the party… Turnbull promised to promote unity. But it is hard to think of any step he took to implement it. It is hard to think of any time when the party has been so deeply riven…. I have never seen a Liberal leader attack senior colleagues in the way Turnbull did.
Oh, I forgot to add that Costello wrote that in 2009. But never mind. It’s timeless.
DTT@92 – agree wholeheartedly, although if Dutton has aspirations (or animus) he may think he has something to gain;
And who can supplant MT in the LNP. Very few with any gravitas, claim to public fondness etc. The list is very small.
I cannot see Stan Grant signing on the the LNP bandwagon – what with them being the instigators of the disastrous northern ‘intervention’.
DTT@92: “Why are Farifax and Murdoch so hostile to Turnbull?
Malcolm is still Fairfax’s chosen one. It is just that they can’t ignore the reality of how bad Turnbull can be when it is being reported by the Murdoch media and is all over Twitter.
Social media (Twitter, Youtube, etc.) has made Fairfax more accountable.
This is a good article, and matches my own experience when I visited Finland. I have mentioned this before and I will try again, Finland has the best performing schools despite spending no more money on them than we do and (happily) having far fewer education bureaucrats. The best education policy is to sack the policy officers and give more autonomy to the teachers.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-why-finland-has-the-best-schools-20160324-gnqv9l
Of course, i would say the same about health and infrastructure policy officers too, but I guess we have to do something with all those surplus MBA grads :). Have a good (fri)day all. Beautiful here in Adelaide today, time to get out in the sunshine.
I’m not sure qui bono applies completely to Turnbull’s failures.
Mostly because they’re self inflicted.
Plenty have jumped on to help amplify and promote those failures so there is a bit of who benefits there, but again a lot of that is just people who hate Turnbull because they’ve seen him up close and are delighted to have the chance to have a whack at him.
But the point isn’t that he’s being brought down by enemies. He’s doing himself in and finding no one much inclined not to help him succeed.
Yes I saw that in my inbox too Socrates. The UK is quite different to us. I doubt much will come of it.
Cud
I think that Rupert MUST realise that destroying Turnbull boosts Shorten, so it is a logical assumption that Rupert prefers Shorten to Turnbull. Why??????
DD or not we are a few months from an election July – December is the window so 8 months maximum. A third leadership change would seriously damage the Liberals. So what is Rupert’s game? Has he perhaps gone doolally? No grand plan but editors winging it?
Yes, and when they start to give climate change the prominence and attention it deserves.
Last week a major report into the warming climate was relegated to the last item before the sport, and the words ‘climate change’ not even mentioned.
dtt,
I don’t think Rupert is going all out to destroy Tunrbull. He’s certainly not told his reporters to describe how Turnbull is fucking up the NBN to the tune of tens of billions.
If the Daily Telmecrap doesn’t do ridiculous photoshop front pages on Shorten, I’ll be very, very surprised.
Train wreck interview getting wide circulation, Sinodinos stinking to high heaven and now Tony playing Nice Smeagol showing photo’s of him meeting with the same Dave Cameron who avoided him like the plague back when he was LOTO.
Labor wins the day again without Shorten having to get out of bed.
GG was saying a few days ago it was hyperbole to say the Libs are stupid. Well it takes a very special kind of intelligence to pull a real constitutional stunt to effectively start a 103 day election campaign and then follow every single day after that with infighting and incompetence to make your opponents look good without them having to even lift a finger. That’s all on top of the three months of incompetence and infighting that had them so desperate to pull that stunt in the first place. Their plans are so cunning even they can’t work them out.
sohar – Ta.
I hope ‘Dave’ is wording him up on how to handle SSM.
A running commentary on the Lateline interview was given prominent headlines by Fairfax and the Daily Telegraph (not paywalled). The Telegraph article began “IT WAS all downhill for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last night.”
dtt
What ratsak said.
Turnbull is doing a lot of it himself. Getting the leadership was hugely dependant on Morrison. Now look what has happened to Morrison since. As i said this nest of vipers are in real strife
It was obvious where this was headed, and some of us had pointed this out from the get go.
Murdoch wants the Libs in government, but not more than being on the winning side. If he has sniffed that Turnbull losing is inevitable then he’ll want brownie points with the new regime.
Or maybe Jerry has got his mind on another job?
One of the comments on Bolt’s blog
From last thread:
Question @ 653
That Lateline interview of Turnbull by Tony Jones was utterly embarrassing for Mal. He was contradicted numerous times by the well-prepared Jones. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
The Labor Party could do worse than replay that interview during the election campaign (too long, but you may get my point); when cornered with facts he tried to resort to the trusty old Mal charm – smiles and affability, and of course, the waffle.
God, the waffle.
Sneaky new NBN charge for FFFP connections (iinet advice to customers):
Given Murdoch’s less than enthusiastic endorsement of Turnbull, I’m beginning to wonder if the newly married 85yo mogul cares much about his Australian dominion any more.
Vic
Further – ICAC was probing this a year or more ago. They know who the donors were. I was gobsmacked that Sinodinos got away with his evidence which was SO OBVIOUSLY bull.
dtt
One of Rupert’s imperatives is that he and his papers MUST appear to be on the winning side. He’s gone against his own best interests before for this reason.
It’ll be two bob each way for a while. He usually decides one week out.
Amazing insight from one of Bolt’s commentariat on the article cited above somewhere:
Rupert’s in love and is looking kindly on the world – including Labor.
I missed the comment by John Reidy above before mine. Incredible that two Pbers pick the same comment in 15 minutes!
Toorak Toff
Let’s hope he keeps his prostate drained until after the election.
Steely
An MKR appearance to appeal to the uninterested voter is not a bad idea at all.
Shorten should try to get them to invite him and Turnbull on for a breakfast ‘cook off’ challenge.
I’m sure Shorten could rustle up some bacon, eggs, sausages and toast in quick order.
Turnbull could do English Muffins with Caviar and a Latte (any actual cooking he’d need to have his personal chef to hand).
I really think that some here are completely failing to understand the ABC problem that so many of us see.
It has never been asserted that there is some dark conspiracy involving ABC management literally sitting down all the staff and telling them that they have to favour the LNP and bash Labor.
It is not being claimed that there is an ABC policy that mandates biased reporting.
What is clear is that many of the reporters and hosts are consistently showing a bias towards the LNP and against Labor in what they report, the tone of the reporting, the double standards they show and most worrying of all through the bias of omission.
The most strident of ABC defenders will regularly pop up after one particular interview or report saying ‘look at that, the ABC criticised the LNP so there clearly is no bias at the ABC’ or wtte.
They remind me of the climate change deniers who are so quick to claim that climate change is not real using as their proof one day of rain or colder weather.
The ABC often still does great work.
I posted here the other night saying that Leigh Sales had done a good job in her interview with Bill Shorten.
Not because I thought she gave Shorten an easy ride but because she managed to ask reasonable questions, allowed Shorten time to actually answer before leaping back in, not merely looking to elicit ‘gotcha’ answers and on the whole being respectful and leaving out the usual snide and unprofessional jibes we usually see by the higher profile ABC personalities.
I will give credit when it is due.
But the fact that I am even giving Sales credit for merely doing her high paid, influential job properly is an indication of just how far the termites have spread in the ABC over the last 5-6 years.
Look at how the story involving Arthur Sinodinos was handled yesterday.
Can anyone credibly argue that if that story had of occurred during a Labor government involving a senior ALP minister that it would of been treated in such a matter of fact and vanilla way?
Whether because of some degree of heavying by management or because of personal biases from its editorial staff and reporters it can no longer be seriously argued that the ABC is upholding their obligation to provide balanced and even handed coverage.
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.
Even the Daily Terrorgraph is taking the piss out of Malfunction Turnbull.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/hey-malcolm-turnbull-have-we-got-a-slogan-for-you/news-story/72b7f2cf5469a5517a69a8fdfeaedd71
The awful truth is that now we now they want an election, there’s no way they can replace Mal without the dreaded “D-for-Dysfunction” word creeping out.
Seems Morrison was used by Turnbull who thought he could take the people with him, without worrying about the party.
Even Leigh Sales and Tony Jones seem to have gone off him in a big way.
Something strange is happening. I’m starting to think a meltdown might be on the way. But Turnbull can’t melt down. He has to stick it out, all the way, 15 weeks of it. Special Senate sittings (with all the tricks that can play on his mind), election campaigns, rumour, turmoil, trouble, upheaval and all the rest. And his party with him. And their backers – you know, all the ones on the list NSW Liberal HQ – plus of course the punters.
And (as someone said above) Bill Shorten hasn’t even had to get out of bed yet!
I made a joke before about Turnbull needing a Zimmer Frame by July 2. It was only a joke, but now I’m not so sure…
The Senate could remove the prospect of a DD by adjourning until 12 May.
Turnbull would be reduced to complete impotence….and certain defeat either at the hands of his own party or the electorate.
Yes, its very clear the LNP do not have this election in the bag.
They start favourites, but that is simply the legacy of nation-wide relief over the end of the Abbott disaster. It has nothing to do with how Turnbull has governed, the sole effect of which has been to rapidly diminish his standing.
Now theyre about as united as Labor circa 2013, heading into an endless campaign on the back of a bluff the crossbench has already called, with massive corruption scandals plaguing their own party as they try to prosecute the ABCC.
It need to hang together from here, through the budget in particualr, but Morrison and Turnbull clearly hate each other.
Make no mistake – this has started disastrously for them. AND THERE’S 100 DAYS TO GO!
Remember this image when Turnbull took the leadership off Abbott. It is a House of Cards
https://theconversation.com/malcolm-turnbull-ousts-tony-abbott-in-dramatic-party-coup-47512
The good news is that no one is listening to the right wing ranters on Fox.
“According to OzTAM ratings figures Sky News averages 12,000 viewers nationally between 6pm and midnight, peaking between 8pm and 10pm at 18,000. For comparison, ABC News at 7pm averages 1m nationally”.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/25/straight-news-or-fox-news-andrew-bolts-show-sends-sky-further-right-on-the-night?CMP=twt_a-media_b-gdnmedia
A highly amusing piece on the LNP’s travails
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-its-been-a-sad-sad-week-for-arthur-sinodinos-20160324-gnqgwx.html#content
GG
Having both Bolt and Credlin on board should boost their ratings substantially.
(Yes I am being sarcastic).
Latest from mumbles.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-24/brent-the-fight-for-liberal-identity/7273580
It’s likely that no-one listens to Fox precisely because of the RW ranters.
There mindset is very far removed from that of most people….people that really do not want to be raved at by Crazy Heads.
Reminder of articles written at the height of ICAC
Neil Chenoweth
1h1 hour ago
Neil Chenoweth @NeilChenoweth
Brickworks’ $50K to Free Enterprise Foundation led to revelation of Peta Credlin emails Sinodinos tried to suppress http://origin-www.afr.com/p/national/peta_credlin_emails_revealed_at_dKqNsVBmjWAFUjVy09SP1K …
GG
I would agree with the report that Sky news does straight news reporting and in that sense far superior to ABC. Where it falls over as the panel shows dominated by right wing nut jobs
I know. I know. I’ve got it!
TOWARDS SERENITY
(©)
I doubt the Jones interview will has much collateral in the wider stream of things.
1. Turnbull is in Budget preparation mode. So, he is very limited in what he can say about the plans in the immediate future. This happens every year.
2. The Jones interview was on the Thursday night before Easter. Plus the AFL kicked off last night. Seriously, do you think anyone is really engaged in politics atm?
3. The Murdoch media don’t like Turnbull. Well, hold the front page.
4. Scott Morrison sooking in the corner to his media mates because Turnbull told him some home truths. Well, if anyone remembers his unicorn speech at the NPC, his resort to slogans at any time, to his backflips and table setting strategy to developing economic policy, you’d say he deserves the bollocking.
5. Oh, and the Belgian Ambassador is peeved. Well, why doesn’t he direct that at his country’s security services that have cocked up so badly.
Really, everyone is having fun. But the interview was just the usual combination of fluff and gotchas.
Is this the David Archibald running in Durack??
http://www.davidarchibald.info/
dan,
It’s where all the RW nutjobs go to die. No one ever built a shopping mall at a cemetery
If Sky News is where all RWNJs go to die, the ABC is where they are trained.
This is a classic!!
Dan Gulbery @130
Bernie Sanders has “Feel the Bern!”
If only Malcolm Turnbull had gone with “Feel the Serenity”
we’d all be laughing with Malcolm (man of the people) laughing at himself right now.
GG #145
I’ll get Clive Palmer on the phone.