With only four more sleeps to go:
• Latika Bourke of Fairfax reports Liberal internal polling shows the government set to be crushed by a 14% swing to Labor, reversing the 57-43 two-party split at the last election and all but doubling Labor’s existing complement of 21 seats out of 59. Among the seats the Liberals are said to be pessimistic about are Joondalup (10.1%), Kalamunda (10.3%) and, remarkably, Jandakot (18.1%). A list of further potential Labor gains includes Darling Range (12.8%), Burns Beach (11.5%) and Riverton (12.7%).
• A report in The West Australian’s weekend edition listed Joondalup, Kalamunda, Bicton (10.6%) and Southern River (11.0%) as the “last-stand battlegrounds for the Barnett government as fears of a double-digit swing to Labor grip the Liberal Party a week from the election”. Belmont (1.2%), Forrestfield (2.2%), Perth (2.8%), Swan Hills (3.9%) and Morley (4.7%) are, naturally, “all but written off”.
• The West Australian reports today that One Nation’s candidate for Scarborough, Margaret Dodd, will take her opposition to the Liberal preference deal to a new pitch by displaying “put the Liberals last” posters at polling booths. The posters feature images of Dodd herself along with Pauline Hanson, who says she is “not happy with this at all”. Dodd says she will announce on Thursday whether she will distribute the 30,000 how-to-vote cards the party has printed for her.
• Flux the System has claimed/admitted responsibility for the twenty-six upper house independent candidates whose preference tickets perfectly accord with the micro-party preference deal that also encompasses Family First, the Liberal Democrats, the Daylight Saving Party and Fluoride Free.
• The Sunday Times’ pre-election editorial concluded: “It’s time for fresh ideas. And new leadership. The Sunday Times supports the election of Mark McGowan and his Labor team.”
• From my paywalled contribution to Crikey yesterday, previewing Pauline Hanson’s whirlwind week-long state visit:
When Hanson came to Perth in late January, news coverage focused on the “rock star” reception she received at suburban shopping malls. This time around, viewers could instead see the very different spectacle of Hanson stammering her way through responses to sharp questions on controversial subjects.
• And from a piece on the Nationals’ proposed mining royalties hike from Friday:
The policy bears all the stylistic hallmarks of party leader Brendon Grylls, whose remarkable electoral achievements over the past decade largely reflect his success in imposing the Royalties for Regions scheme on the Barnett government. This reserves a quarter of the state’s mining royalty revenue for regional projects, and would itself be first for the chop under any rationally ordered scheme to restore the budget to health, if either major party dared countenance it. But whereas Royalties for Regions offers a politically happy confluence of thinly spread pain and thickly concentrated benefit, the loser this time around is the most powerful enemy that anyone in Western Australian politics could contrive to create for themselves.
B.C.
there is a guy who comments over at The Guardian who reckons Roe 8 and 9 are all about giving people in the western suburbs easier access to the Kwinana Freeway so they can get to their holiday homes in the South-West sooner.
When you read how this project went from being something basically scrapped nearly a decade ago to being so urgent that it had to start before the election and in defiance of environmental protocols that is not as silly as it sounds.
It boggles the mind how badly the Barnett government squandered the mining boom. History will judge this government very harshly, and perhaps we can put to rest this idea that the Liberals are somehow better economic managers than Labor. I don’t hold out hope though as it seems a particularly resilient myth.
I hope the people of WA see through the easy targets and hollow populism of One Nation, but I remain nervous. I heard William on the radio the other day and, if I remember correctly, his opinion was that the polling in Australia is more accurate than America or the UK. Still, there is a large population of disaffected people here who have lost houses, cars, income and jobs and are casting about for someone to blame.
[ I’d expect little swing though in river and western seats (Cott, Nedlands, Churchlands, South Perth and Bateman), and muted in Bicton]
This is curious as I have been getting more pro Labor contacts in Bicton than in Wanneroo and Kalamunda. Too many people in Wanneroo seem to be obsessed with abortion.
“It boggles the mind how badly the Barnett government squandered the mining boom.”
They spent the money before they had it. They bet the farm on high prices for the next 20 years and then the price crashed. To compound this, the kindly international conglomerates went on a production binge and an austerity programme. Automated rail & trucks plus labour cuts with efforts to force the competition out of business.
The benevolent & kindly international conglomerates need to be taxed more but they have even Labor running scared of that.
Barnett on 7.30 with Leigh Sales had one simple response when quizzed about the mess WA’s finances are in – shafted with the GST, it’s all Canberra’s fault, we wuzz robbed, ad nauseum.
Sales did not really have the wit to dissect him, although he sounded whiny, tired and full of excuses.
I have purchased a sizeable number of industrial strength shredding machines which are now serviced and available for hire. Reasonable rates.
Anyone know where and how I might realize a return on my investment?
I don’t know that the electorate will be that muted in its reaction to Dean Nalder in the seat of Bicton.
I think the supercilious pretender will be looking for a job next Sunday.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-08/wa-election-potential-conflict-over-glenn-druery-senate-job/8336948
WA election: Potential conflict over preference whisperer Glenn Druery’s Senate job
By Rebecca Turner
Updated 53 minutes ago
Self-styled preference whisperer Glenn Druery has offered his lucrative political consulting services — worth a reputed $50,000 per person elected — to WA election candidates, using his business card as a senior adviser for Senator Derryn Hinch.
The official business card is headed with a red impression of the Commonwealth crest and lists Mr Druery as a representative of Senator Hinch, but includes a personal, rather than official, email address.
It raises questions over whether Mr Druery is adequately separating his Commonwealth taxpayer-funded role as a political staffer from his private business interests.
Mr Druery handed the card to independent Legislative Council candidate Michael Tucak on the eve of “preferences weekend”, just after the nominations ballot was held by the WA Electoral Commission (WAEC).
During this weekend, the voting tickets which are crucial to win an Upper House seat were hammered out before the WAEC deadline of February 13.
Remember that Nalder only took over from the green tinged and ineffectual independent Janet Woollard last election.
As useless a member as she was, she managed to hold the seat as an independent for at least two elections. Only the perception of her after her son’s boating accident (rich spoiled kid), and her alleged disregard of the injured victim of the accident, led to her demise, not the charm and charisma of Nalder and the Liberals.
The proposed (Liberal backed) Wave Park at Tompkins Park has the locals squealing like the proverbial stuck pigs over environmental issues, loss of bird habitat, loss of passive recreational areas, increased traffic, lack of parking, horrendous access and egress on Canning Highway, removal of trees and natural vegetation, Indigenous Heritage issues, eviction of sporting clubs, noise, and loss of river views.
Even blue ribbon Liberal areas like Burke Drive Attadale and Dunkley Avenue Alfred Cove/Applecross are openly rebelling, and many residents who have never voted Labor before are vowing to do so now.
The times do not suit Dean Nalder.
Fulvio
I was going to suggest the Roe8 project office could use them. But after seeing Barnett’s resigned look on TV, I think you are too late. The shredding has probably already started. An RC into Roe8, who was behind it, and if anyone getting a contract donated money to the Liberal party should be high on Macgowan’s To Do list. Probably second only to raising mining and oil and gas royalties.
Dean Nalder isn’t running in Bicton – he won that fight and got Bateman (a very safe seat, just like Alfred Cove). Matt Taylor (former MP for Bateman) is running for Bicton, and he’s the one who could lose.
When gloating, try to get it right. I’ll be voting for the red/green side of things this weekend, but some of the premature triumphalism here shits me up the wall.
New thread.