Noteworthy developments since my last federal election post 24 hours ago:
• Ahead of the High Court’s ruling on Senator Bob Day’s challenge to the constitutionality of Senate electoral reform, to be delivered at 10am today, Jeremy Gans at the University of Melbourne portends its rejection. Gans notes the court has failed to issue orders in advance of written reasons, as it likely would have done if its ruling was anything the Australian Electoral Commission needed to know about.
• Another, less publicised election-related High Court challenge met an unsuccessful conclusion last night, with the rejection of a bid to keep the electoral roll open beyond its scheduled close of 8pm on Monday. The challenge sought to build on the High Court’s ruling during the 2010 campaign which invalidated Howard-era amendments that closed the roll to new enrolments on the evening the writs were issued, and to updating of addresses three days subsequently.
• A report by Rick Wallace of The Australian talks up Labor’s prospects in the Liberal-held outer Melbourne seat of Dunkley. The seat is being vacated with the retirement of Liberal member Bruce Billson, who narrowly retained it through the Rudd-Gillard years and bequeaths a 5.6% margin to the new Liberal candidate, Chris Crewther. According to Labor sources cited in the report, “one recent sample of a tracking poll in the southeast Melbourne seat had the ALP in front 52-48 per cent after preferences” – though based on what I know of tracking polling, the sample in question would have been about 200. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister is taking the seat seriously enough that he campaigned there yesterday. Notwithstanding Labor’s apparently strong show in this seat, the report also relates that concerns remain about the Melbourne seats of Chisholm and Bruce, where Labor is losing sitting members with the retirements of Anna Burke and Alan Griffin.
• The Australian’s report also says the Nationals are “increasingly optimistic” that their candidate for the seat of Murray, state upper house MP Damian Drum, will win the rural seat of Murray, which is being vacated with the retirement of Liberal member Sharman Stone. However, Labor is said to be dangling a carrot before the Liberals by offering to direct preferences to their candidate ahead of Drum, in exchange for the Liberals dropping their plans to preference the Greens ahead of Labor in the inner northern Melbourne seat of Wills.
• Labor has a new candidate for Fremantle following the disendorsement of Maritime Union of Australia organiser Chris Brown, who failed to disclose past convictions on his candidate nomination form. The national executive convened yesterday to replace him with Josh Wilson, deputy mayor of Fremantle and a staffer for the seat’s outgoing member, Melissa Parke. Brown won the initial preselection through the support of the Left unions on the party’s state executive, despite Wilson defeating him by a 155-110 margin in the ballot of the local membership. On Tuesday it emerged that Brown had spent convictions dating from his late teenage years for assaulting a police officer and driving under the influence. Brown claims to have raised the matter with party officials in April, only to be told spent convictions did not have to be disclosed (although the question on the nomination form is whether the prospective candidate has “ever been found guilty of any offence”). He also claimed his contact with the police officer arose accidentally while he was defending himself from an unprovoked attack by three assailants, and said the court had recognised mitigating circumstances when it gave him a good behaviour bond. I had a lot more to say about this in a paywalled article in Crikey today. One of the issues dealt with was the notion that Labor’s troubles might cause the seat to fall to the Greens, despite their modest 11.9% share of the vote in 2013. While the Greens were sufficiently strong in the immediate vicinity of Fremantle to win the state seat at a by-election in 2009, support for the party is a good deal lower on those parts of the federal electorate not covered by the state seat. This is indicated by the map below, which shows federal boundaries in red and state boundaries in blue, with numbers indicating polling booth locations and the Greens primary vote.
• Labor’s national executive has signed off on its Senate preselections today, capping a process that has produced two particularly contentious outcomes: the return of Don Farrell in second position in South Australia, and the sixth placing given to incumbent Lisa Singh in Tasmania. In turn:
New South Wales: 1. Sam Dastyari (Right), factional powerbroker and former general secretary of the state party branch, who filled the casual vacancy created when his predecessor as general secretary, Matt Thistlethwaite, moved to the lower house seat of Kingsford Smith at the 2013 election; 2. Jenny McAllister (Left), former party national president and technical director of a civil engineering firm, who came to the Senate in May last year in place of John Faulkner; 3. Deborah O’Neill (Right), member for the Central Coast seat of Robertson from 2010 until her defeat in 2013, who filled Bob Carr’s Senate vacancy in November 2013; 4. Doug Cameron (Left), former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary who was elected from number two in 2007 and 2013; 5. Tara Moriarty (Right), state secretary of United Voice.
Victoria: 1. Kim Carr (Left), leading figure in the Victorian Left, elected from number two in 1993 and 1998, and number one in 2004 and 2010; 2. Stephen Conroy (Right), an ally of Bill Shorten’s in the dominant sub-faction of the Victorian Right, who filled a casual vacancy in 1996, held top position in 1998, then second position in 2004 and 2010; 3. Jacinta Collins (Right), a former official with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association who entered the Senate in 1995, lost her seat from the number three position at the 2004 election after the party’s preference deal with Family First backfired (ironically, given her renown as a social conservative), won it back from top position in 2007, and held second position in 2013; 4. Gavin Marshall (Left), former Electrical Trades Union official who entered the Senate in 2002, and had top position in 2013; 5. Jennifer Yang (unaligned), scientist and former mayor of Manningham who unsuccessfully sought preselection for the lower house seat of Chisholm, and ran for the state seat of Mount Waverley in 2014; 6. Louise Persse (Left, I assume), former national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union.
Queensland: 1. Murray Watt (Left), Maurice Blackburn lawyer and state member for Everton from 2009 until his defeat in the cleanout of 2012, who last year defeated incumbent Jan McLucas to win the Left’s endorsement for top position on the half-Senate ticket; 2. Anthony Chisholm (Right), former party state secretary who last year won Right endorsement to succeed Joe Ludwig after he announced he would not seek another term; 3. Claire Moore (Left), who was first elected in 2001 and held second position on the ticket in 2001, 2007 and 2013; 4. Chris Ketter (Right), former state secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, who was first elected from top of the ticket in 2013; 5. Jane Casey, who I can’t tell you much about, except that she’s fron Mackay.
Western Australia: 1. Sue Lines (Left), former assistant national secretary of United Voice, who filled Chris Evans’ Senate vacancy in May 2013; 2. Glenn Sterle (Right), former Transport Workers Union organiser, elected from number two in 2004 and 2010; 3. Pat Dodson (unaligned), indigenous leader and former Roman Catholic priest, anointed by Bill Shorten to fill Joe Bullock’s Senate vacancy in March, which he eventually filled a fortnight ago; 4. Louise Pratt (Left), state upper house member from 2001 and 2007, elected to the Senate from top of the ticket in 2007, then relegated to what proved to be the losing proposition of number two in 2013; 5. Mark Reed (Left), director of campaigns and communications at United Voice.
South Australia: 1. Penny Wong (Left), the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, first elected from top of the ticket in 2001, relegated to number two in 2007, and promoted to number one only after a backlash against Don Farrell’s initial preselection win in 2013; 2. Don Farrell (Right), former state secretary and national president of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Union, elected to the Senate from number one in 2007, then voluntarily bumped to number two in 2013 (see above), from which he was unexpectedly defeated; 3. Alex Gallacher (Right), former state secretary of the Transport Workers Union, elected from top of the ticket in 2010; 4. Anne McEwen (Left), former state secretary of the Australian Services Union, elected from number on 2004, re-elected from number two in 2010, and now shunted to number four to accommodate Farrell; 5. Michael Allison (not known), network controller for SA Power Networks and delegate for the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union.
Tasmania: 1. Anne Urquhart (Left), former state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, first elected from number two in 2010; 2. Helen Polley (Right), former staffer to Premiers Jim Bacon and Paul Lennon, first elected from number two in 2004, re-elected from number two in 2010; 3. Carol Brown (Left), who filled a casual vacancy in August 2005, was elected from number two in 2007, and re-elected from number one in 2013; 4. Catryna Bilyk (Right), a former state political staffer, elected from number three in 2007 and number two in 2013; 5. John Short (Left), state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; 6. Lisa Singh (Left), elected to the state lower house in Denison at the 2006 election, defeated in 2010, and elected to the Senate from third position in 2013, then contentiously dumped to fourth position at the half-Senate preselection in June last year.
Australian Capital Territory: 1. Katy Gallagher (Left), the territory’s Chief Minister from 2011 until her resignation in 2014, when she resigned pending her transfer to Senate in March 2015 on the retirement of Kate Lundy.
Northern Territory: 1. Nova Peris, former Olympic hockey player and sprinter, who was installed as candidate at the 2013 on the insistence of then Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the expense of the incumbent, Trish Crossin.
Does anyone have knowledge of the current NZ electioneering system? I remember it being very straightforward in the 70’s but I lived in the country where there were no how- to-vote cards, posters nor pamphleting. Our information came from the Herald and the radio and suspect the cost would have been minimal. Seemed more democratic and didn’t seem to be reliant on corporate funding/ lobby groups but I could be wrong.
I am appalled that today’s debate is not being broadcast by the ABC which could be heard/watched by everyone.
‘How the Coalition has failed on three key economic promises ‘
Better growth, a smaller deficit and higher wages have failed to materialise, giving the lie to the Liberals’ claim to be superior managers
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/13/how-the-coalition-has-failed-on-three-key-economic-promises?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet
As predicted, Bob Day’s case couldn’t go two rounds with a revolving door.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-13/senate-voting-reform-challenge-thrown-out-by-high-court/7410986
All those getting their knickers in a knot over Turnbull not knowing Mossack Fonseca’s were the legal firm that drew up the documents establishing the entities that they were operating through – shows how little you know about how businesses run.
I’m not surprised – I have no idea the name of the Lawyers who set up entities for which I have and do act as a Director – both For-Profit and Non-Profit organisations.
It’s not a detail Directors outside of the Company Secretary would generally have anything to do.
Millenial, Medicare is wholly owned by the state. It is wholly owned by The Australian Department of Human Services, which funds it, and all of the people who work for it, work for the state. Companies and professionals apply to get money from the Medicare, and therefore the state, for performing services. It is an exact definition of a socialist enterprise.
compact crank @ #204 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Yes. It seems to me that the role of Directors in the world of business is to pocket humungous board fees and run around doing impressions of Sergeant Shultz. The appointment of mates and mates of mates in an endless circle of directorships is one of the great rorts of the Liberal business class.
And the reason why they are so outraged at having union leaders on boards of industry superannuation funds is that this lurk is denied to their mates. Even though the union directors actually care about the fund members, who are also union members.
Privi Izumo
Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:57 pm
I guess then the dept of defense and the entire/all govt are socialists!!!
Crank
That’s so. I gather it’s cost them a bomb as well.
compact crank @ #204 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Any entity that has you as a director has much more to worry about than remembering the name of their lawyers … except, I guess, that they will probably need to know this before too long.
Millenial, according to the ABS, in 2015 there were 1.9 million direct public sector employees in Australia. In 2016 there were 11.9 million employees, which comes out at ~16% of working people in Australia work for the public sector.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6248.0.55.002
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0
That doesn’t even include the indirect employment (like service providers of Medicare) to state-owned enterprises. When you add onto that things like the holdings of companies like the Future Fund, in that all of the profits of that are returned to the state, the number is even higher.
What you’ll find if you look is that almost all countries in the world have varying degrees in this. There isn’t a single country that doesn’t have a significant amount of this type of arrangement. This is socialism. Australia practices it a lot, probably similar to the US, but less than most European countries.
The fact is every country practices socialism. A lot.
CC
Regardless, he should have had someone investigate this as soon as the Panama Papers were out, and been out there on the front foot.
First law of Public Relations – if there’s anything which has the potential to make you look bad, be the one to out it.
guytaur @ #187 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:25 pm
There is no reason at all for the G vote to increase. You may want it to. But that will not deliver any change. The G vote will likely fall because of the errors they’ve made and continue to make.
corporate_misfit, indeed. In a true capitalist society the army and the police would also be privatized.
TPOF – awesome comment
but it doesn’t address the truth – which Legal firm created the legal entity that people are Directors of is a detail the vast majority of Directors would have no idea about. it is generally an irrelevant detail.
Dayks11: I don’t like the way the Murdoch press, the shock jocks and the tabloid current affairs TV shows tend to gang up against individuals.
But Duncan Storrar shouldn’t ever have been elevated to heroic victims status in the way that he was. First of all, his main “point” – that the Turnbull Government’s tax cuts should be directed towards lower income earners – didn’t actually relate to him in any meaningful way, given that he doesn’t actually pay any tax at the moment, and presumably never (or hardly ever) has done so.
Also, he’s an extremely poor choice of “victim” for anyone to wish to elevate, given that it turns out that (if the Murdoch press are to be believed), he’s a serial perpetrator of stalking/threats against women: domestic violence being one of the key issues du jour for people who are concerned about “victims” in our society.
Victim politics is always silly IMO: there is always a strong risk that a self-proclaimed “victim”, “battler”, subject of a miscarriage of justice, etc. will, on closer examination, turn out to be rather selective with the truth about their circumstances.
Arguably the tax cuts in the budget could have been better targeted, but IMO it’s the sort of issue best looked at holistically rather than in terms of its impact on selected individuals.
Player One – see, and there you fail to understand – the Lawyers for a company often are completely different to the Lawyers who set up the entity. Businesses chop and change Law Firms for many reasons and often use multiple Law Firms for their different specialty areas.
briefly
Greens vote falling I will believe when I see polling showing it and election results.
In the meantime what we do know is that the swing is on against the LNP. The only question is how big is it? It looks to me like in WA the swing could be amongst the biggest. I know its looking really good at State level.
briefly
Looks good from a progressive point of view of course.
compact crank @ #214 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for your approval. More generally though, it is the rough way that some business handles seriously important things like probity that is in question. It’s the mentality that all’s fair in love and war when it comes to making a motza. And if you get caught in something less than ethically upright, wave it away by claiming a lack of knowledge.
If it is really serious, either scapegoat some poor shmuck or even pay someone to take a fall. Or lose your memory temporarily, like Alan Bond.
Meanwhile, tear to shreds some poor (literally) bugger who dares to ask an embarrassing question to the wealthy class. Because that’s the way the organs of wealth work.
And at the broader level, the real estate industry is pouring millions into opposing negative gearing – because nobody makes more money more quickly out of rising real estate and an overheated market than the real estate industry. Although it is all public service on their part.
Millenial, I wouldn’t be offended about not knowing this about socialism. It’s amazing how few people actually know what it is, how much it’s done, and what the alternatives are. So what I was saying to begin with in that capitalism and socialism are opposites holds true as long as you understand what those opposites entail. Feudalism was overthrown by capitalism, and after a few decades of mostly unrestrained capitalism, the people at the bottom of the capitalism pyramid didn’t think there was too much difference between feudalism and capitalism. So socialism was developed on the heels of capitalism so that individualism would be tempered with the needs of the community.
Where capitalism goes, socialism always follows.
Zoomster -absolute bollocks – he probably had never heard the name before and had absolutely no reason to think it would be an issue.
I have no idea who the lawyers were who established the entities I’ve been a Director for, or who have drawn up Commercial Leases I have signed up to.
Crank
You have just given a perfect reason not to pay directors. If they know nothing and have no responsibility what is the point of them.
I’ll be surprised if the Greens break 10% in WA. Expect the ALP to bounce back and the LNP fall to be softened by recovery from the PUP aberration.
Guytaur – your “know nothing” comment shows that you know nothing.
Which Law Firm draws up the documents to establish an entity is irrelevant. It’s like them knowing which firm does the printing of the stationary – it is irrelevant. It does not rate as an issue Directors focus on when carrying out their duties.
meher @ 1.16
It is a pity that Duncan S. was lionised in this way because it detracted from the real issue of the arrogant put-down mentality of both O’Bigmouth and the peak industry guy. Taxation is not about people getting more cash out government than they put in. And someone’s immediate financial problems are not going to be solved in giving someone else money in the hope that they will hire another employee who will, hopefully have enough money to put into the economy, etc.
But people choose to do what they do and some people thought it a good idea to fling a bit of charity Duncan S’s way. It certainly did not deserve the front page evisceration of a Melbourne paper when there are plenty of wealthy spivs running around Melbourne who have destroyed entire families by misappropriating their wealth built up over a lifetime while working for a bank.
It’s why I’ve gone more left wing as I got older. Sheer disgust at the way wealth and power destroys small, defenceless people to distract from a proper examination of the great crimes they are perpetrating.
[It looks to me like in WA the swing could be amongst the biggest. I know its looking really good at State level.]
It does look as though Labor will do well in WA – however the problem they have is that there is not much low hanging fruit. A swing of 5% gives the ALP only one seat and 7% (normally a very big swing) will only only give them three. Depending on what happens east it could be a long election night waiting for the west to decide the show.
Crank
You cannot claim their are duties and that they know nothing at the same time.
Its kinda black and white like that.
compact crank @ #224 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 1:28 pm
Yet you didn’t explain what Directors do to earn the huge fees they get for a few hours work a year.
compact crank @ #204 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Voters won’t be getting anything in a knot. They will just form the obvious conclusion about Turnbot. He’s a bit too sharp for them.
CC were those entities established offshore and were you a made a director when they were established? It’s the little details that help jog your memory.
CC – which is why you get a staffer to check for you.
If you don’t know whether or not any of the many companies you’ve been involved in might be involved, you get one of your vast numbers of staffers to find out.
There really is no excuse for him not knowing.
Hey Wiiliam
Just caught up on your Fremantle comments. Very interesting.
guytaur @ #218 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 1:20 pm
It would look even better if the G’s were not campaigning against Labor.
TPOF
CC is actually right on the point about lawyers. Drawing up company documents along with simple conveyancing is too trivial a matter for most directors to even think about. It would only be if there was a court case pending that they would get to know/choose the legal firm and or barristers. They probably would not know the names of junior barristers either. The broker or whoever sells or arranges the company will have a preferred legal firm and in the case of simple stuff it will be whoever tis the cheapest or if you have a lot of such work whoever can provide consistent reliable service.
briefly
The Greens are campaigning for the Greens not against Labor. Just like Labor campaigns for Labor.
Stop whining about a fact of life.
It’s no accident we have a debate on a night when voters love to switch off
For Malcolm Turnbull though, it might also be the safest place to hide: out in the open, in plain sight. Why else would he have chosen that moment for his first head-to-head outing with his political stalker, Bill Shorten?
Friday night’s Sky News forum in the Windsor RSL in western Sydney is the first material answer to that question.
The pair will appear before 100 carefully selected uncommitted voters to answer questions that can deal with literally anything, from local concerns like the flight path of Sydney’s second airport, to difficulties with access to aged care, the state of broadband, hospitals and local crime.
Turnbull’s task is to genuinely commune with ordinary people after being dubbed “Mr Harbourside Mansion” by Sky’s guest commentator and former Tony Abbott chief of staff, Peta Credlin on Thursday. But just in case he cannot, his handlers will take some comfort from the fact that most ordinary people will be doing something else at the time.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016-opinion/election-2016-its-no-accident-we-have-a-debate-on-a-night-when-voters-love-to-switch-off-20160513-gou7uj.html?google_editors_picks=true#ixzz48VItwlDG
Doesn’t really matter if Mal didn’t know the name of the law firm ( which beggars belief anyway) , he sure as hell would have known it was set up in a tax haven.
This is part of Mal’s plan for prosperity, but doesn’t get much publicity. Andrew Robb has cut and run.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/tpp-the-devils-in-the-unknown-details-20151007-gk326i.html#ixzz48VIe1Jm6
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook
However I do agree with Zoomster in that the momemnt the Panama stuff broke, Turnbull should have hired a lawyer to do due diligence on all jhis affairs and trawl for anything or everything of concern. Lucy might also have done it. He should NOT use his own PM staff.
compact crank @ #204 Friday, May 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm
……………………………………………..
Fine – explain that to voters, get mr polly waffle turnbull to explain that to voters.
It’ll keep the focus on the topic – where Labor want it.
DTT
We understand delegation. However Directors have duties to carry out. Breaches of such duties are why we see Directors get fined and jailed when they breach them.
As zoomster points out they have staff.
No excuse
Except CC when it is all part of a scheme to avoid vast amounts of tax. I suspect as usual you are missing the point.
TPOF – if you have a problem with Directors Fess then take it to the Board of the Company you are investing and see what they say. If you don’t like it you can disinvest and move your money somewhere else.
If you don’t own shares in a private company then it’s none of your business how much the Directors or employees get paid.
Crank
Fine. Then we can arrest Turnbull for supporting alleged Terror funds if we are going to ignore legal structures entirely.
I have no doubt our CC will get good advice from Uncle Arfur on that…….if Senator SeeNoDonors can remember what he actually did as a director of AWH ?????
DTT
My point was about the cosy wealth club of Directors and other senior people in charge of businesses and companies. It is a point that has not yet been picked up on.
Personally, I don’t care what precisely Turnbull knew of some minor transaction 20 years ago on his path to extreme wealth. What I do care about is the way that the rich boys and girls club goes about its business. And that is being subsumed.
And, as you well know, if the boot was on the other foot the Compact Cranks of the world would be engineering an outrageous conspiracy placing Bill Shorten at the centre, etc. And we know that because that is exactly what Abbott did in drafting the terms of reference for his witch hunt royal commission. And the lovely Turnbull did not hesitate in drawing on the tainted evidence advanced by the Commission counsel to smear Bill Shorten in Parliament.
Excuse me but I am the only “Baghdad Bob” around here. Or is it “Baghdad Bill”? Or perhaps “Bullshit Bill” or “Batshit Bob”?
(sigh) One does lose track sometimes.