Ring in the new year with two months of accumulated news concerning preselections for the next federal election – not counting matters arising from Section 44, which will be dealt with in a separate post during the January lull in opinion poll news.
• After falling short in the Bennelong by-election, Kristina Keneally’s most immediate pathway to federal parliament is the Senate vacancy created by the resignation of Sam Dastyari. However, The Australian reports the position is being eyed by Tony Sheldon, national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, and Tara Moriarty, state secretary of United Voice – either in opposition to Keneally or in her absence, since it is not clear she would not prefer to await a lower house berth. The Canberra Times reports the looming creation of a third electorate for the Australian Capital Territory could present such an opportunity. Other possibilities mentioned for the new seat are Thomas McMahon, economic adviser to Bill Shorten; Taimus Werner-Gibbings, chief-of-staff to Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh; Jacob Ingram, 23-year-old staffer to Chief Minister Andrew Barr; Jacob White, staffer to Fenner MP and Shadow Assistant Trade Minister Andrew Leigh; and Kim Fischer, former territory ministerial staffer and current communications consultant.
• Another soon-to-be-created seat has been central to factional convulsions in the Victorian ALP in recent months. As in the ACT, population growth has entitled Victoria to an extra seat, which is expected to be established in Melbourne’s booming and strongly Labor-voting north-east. The Construction Mining Forestry and Energy Union wants it to go to Jane Garrett, who recently failed in a bid to move from her state seat of Brunswick to the Legislative Council after losing a Left faction ballot. Garrett feared Brunswick would be lost to the Greens, in part because of the efforts of the United Firefighters Union, whose dispute with Garrett over a pay deal caused her resignation as Emergency Services Minister in 2016. In tandem with other “industrial Left” unions, the CFMEU has walked out of the Left, which is dominated by Senator Kim Carr, and sought an alliance with the Right, which looks likely to proceed with the blessing of Bill Shorten. This will mean an end to the long-standing “stability pact” between the Carr forces and the Right, which has protected members including Jenny Macklin in Jagajaga and Andrew Giles in Scullin. However, Shorten insists he will ensure no sitting members are threatened.
• With George Brandis resigning from his Queensland Senate seat to take up the popular posting of high commissioner in London, The Australian reports a big field of potential successors includes three names from state politics: Scott Emerson, the former Shadow Treasurer who lost his seat of Maiwar to the Greens; John-Paul Langbroek, a former Opposition Leader who remains the state member for Surfers Paradise, but was unsuccessful in the post-election leadership vote; and Lawrence Springborg, repeatedly unsuccessful state Opposition Leader who did not contest the election in November (who would presumably faces a difficulty in being from the Nationals). Also in the mix are Joanna Lindgren, who had an earlier stint in the Senate when she filled Brett Mason’s vacancy in May 2015, but was unsuccessful as the sixth candidate on the Liberal National Party ticket in 2016; Teresa Harding, director of the Queensland government’s open data policy and twice unsuccessful candidate for Blair; and Amanda Stoker, a barrister.
• Surf Coast councillor Libby Coker has again been preselected as Labor’s candidate for the Victorian seat of Corangamite, after winning a local party vote over Geelong businesswoman Diana Taylor by 116 votes to 39. Coker ran unsuccessfully in 2016 against Sarah Henderson, who gained the seat for the Liberals in 2013.
• Mehreen Faruqi, a state upper house member, was preselected to lead the Greens’ New South Wales ticket in late November, winning an online vote of party members by a margin variously identified as 1301 to 843, and 1032 to 742. The preselection took place against a backdrop of conflict between the more moderate environmentalist tendency associated with the parliamentary leadership and Rhiannon’s hard left base in New South Wales. Anne Davies of The Guardian observes that Rhiannon will face “intense pressure to step down early”, so Faruqi can fill her vacancy and raise her profile ahead of the election.
Labor has completed preselections for the brace of Liberal-held seats where it is now reckoned to be competitive in Western Australia, after the resurgence in its fortunes in the state – all of which have gone to women:
• Hannah Beazley, policy adviser to Mark McGowan and daughter of Kim Beazley, will run against Steve Irons in Swan, which her father held from 1980 to 1996 before seeking a safer refuge in Brand. Hannah Beazley ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Riverton in 2013.
• Lauren Palmer of the Maritime Union of Australia has been selected to run against Ken Wyatt in Hasluck, winning out over the Left-backed Bill Leadbetter, a history lecturer who ran in the seat in 2016, and very briefly served in the state upper house earlier this year. This comes after the MUA threw its lot in with the now dominant Right (“Progressive Labor”) faction in pursuit of its oft-thwarted ambitions to establish a parliamentary power base, together with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
• Decorated police superintendent and Left faction member Kim Travers has been chosen to run against newly anointed Attorney-General Christian Porter in Pearce. Sarah Martin of The West Australian reported Labor’s administrative committee knocked back a nomination from Ann O’Neill, a campaigner against domestic violence whose estranged husband shot her and murdered her two children in 1994, who had not been a party member for the required period and was not granted a waiver.
• A little further up the pendulum, Melita Markey, chief executive of the Asbestos Diseases Society, will run against Michael Keenan in Stirling, and Melissa Teede, former head of the Peel Development Commission, will run against Andrew Hastie in Canning.
Bushfire. Bill says @ Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 12:02 pm
Or fair to anyone in that situation, not just Trump. Isn’t there something similar in a grand jury investigation?
A nearby relative subscribes. I am amazed that people pay for the pleasure.
Boerwar @ #2942 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 12:06 pm
Yeah , but then there’s labors unions such as the SDA aiding and abetting companies like Domino’s to drive down hourly pay rates…
lizzie says @Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 10:43 am
I think it was George Megalogenis who once said that Labor governments don’t know how to use power. If I was Andrews I’d be using my power to call a Royal Commission into all of this. Make sure the terms of reference include the media’s role, and make it broad enough so certain politicians may also be called before the commissioner to testify.
briefly says @Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 11:47 am
I can’t seem to ever recall hearing of a polical opponent of Trump being murdered on the street. Nor do I recall a pattern of journalists who are critical of the government being killed in the USA. As you infer, the USA and Russia are not morally equivalent.
bc
Not forgetting that Putin has an active pogrom against gays. This results in everything up to, and including, murder.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/09/victorias-gang-crisis-and-how-the-election-fuels-a-double-standard-on
Racist politicians have no place in our parliament.
Bc and boer…exactly!!
bc
While I do NOT say I believe the stories but there are lots of stories about supposed murders by the Clintons, the most recent being Seth Rich. I treat rumours of murders by Putin in Russia with exactly the same degree of sceptisism I treat rumours about Hillary having murdered Seth Rich. Note but do not believe without substantiation from impeccable sources (which never, never include political, military or economic rivals).
http://www.essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport
New state voting intentions. Good results for ALP in NSW, QLD,WA and SA. First time ahead in NSW. QLD government seems to be enjoying honeymoon effect after election victory. McGowan in WA seems to be going solid. Jay Weatherill will be happy with the numbers in SA.
Very tight race in VIC. Libs seem to be gaining on primary votes. A move away from the Greens, possibly to ALP.
dtt
‘ Note but do not believe without substantiation from impeccable sources (which never, never include political, military or economic rivals).’
And yet yesterday you told us not to worry about the source of information, but the credibility of the information itself.
Mind you, the day before that you said something similar to this.
I heard a rumour that the mafia was behind the disappearance of Donald Mackay
rossmcg
Only a rumour? McKay was chasing the drug trade. Put two and two together.
daretotread says @ Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Putin’s politcal opponents and media critics either wind up dead or in gaol. It’s happened enough times that there’s a clear pattern of behaviour. As much as Trump, and his predecessors, might like to lock his opponents and critics up it’s something he doesn’t have the power to do.
The USA has it’s faults, but it is nowhere near as bad as Putin’s Russia. People in the USA who live in fear of their government are generally nutters. People in Russia who live in fear to their government are generally acting rationally.
From the EPICA ice cores the earths temperature for the lat million years has been determined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Project_for_Ice_Coring_in_Antarctica#/media/File:EPICA_delta_D_plot.svg
A common feature seems to be a temperature rise before a rapid fall. My theory is the gulf steam stops.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/01/the-underestimated-danger-of-a-breakdown-of-the-gulf-stream-system/
We have had the rise. The gulf steam comes in very close to the Florida Coast and people are pulling some pretty big stunned turtles out of the water. They are supposed to be swimming in the gulf stream.
Who knows.
Lizzie
poor attempt at sarcasm in relation to Putin’s rumoured involvement in deaths of people who it is rumoured he does not like.
Sorry
Four women have now filed allegations with the police.
Several others have made their allegations public but have not gone to the police with their allegations.
McLachlan denies everything and has accused his accusers of being in it for the money or for notoriety. He is doing the Switowski ‘move along folks’ response.
Innocent or guilty, McLachlan’s career is crippled. He is no longer the Rocky Horror lead actor. Preparations for another series of the newly married Dr Blake are on hold.
The people were making a motsa out of McLachlan are employing the Sergeant Schulz defence, are employing classic crisis management and are indulging in classic damage control stuff. Their profits are almost certainly less than they would have been had the allegations not surfaced.
The women, some of whom detailed some alleged behaviours and the alleged painful impacts of the behaviours in front of a large TV audience, are, regardless of the facts, not exactly in what might be called the winners circle – either personally or professionally.
Without wishing to comment on Mr McLachlan’s alleged behaviours, it does rather seem that, in the interest of everyone’s livelihoods and investors’ profits, the old head in the sand routine has passed its use-by date.
Internet loses it after ‘very stable genius’ Trump appears to forget the words to the national anthem
Donald Trump on Monday took the field at the 2018 NCAA Football National Championship during the singing of the national anthem—and appeared not to know all the words.
Trump, who received boos from the crowd during his appearance at the Georgia vs. Alabama game, has made the national anthem a staple of his presidency, leading the charge against sports players who take a knee during the tune.
The irony of Trump’s apparent inability to sing the very anthem he claims to champion was not lost on the Internet.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/internet-loses-it-after-very-stable-genius-trump-appears-to-forget-the-words-to-the-national-anthem/
rossmcg
Sorry. I don’t read all the boring Putin/Trump stuff. Must try harder. 🙂
Lizzie
I don’t read it all in detail either but couldn’t resist the latest bit of nonsense
You don’t have to try harder. You do very well.
rossmcg
Thank you. I’m easily bored, that’s the problem. 😉
frednk
Ridley has ignored the elephant in the room in relation to the Arctic conditions on the Eastern seaboard of the US. It is abnormally warm in Alaska. Fossil profiteers engage in the logic of the gaps.
How can that be?
The broad answer in this case is almost certainly that the amplitude of the loops in the Arctic Jet Stream has increased AND that the loops are more prone to being either immobile or to moving more slowly. The practical result is that where the loops deliver Arctic air, there you will find abnormally cold outcomes. And that where the loops deliver tropic air, there you abnormally warm outcomes.
The problem with assessing the Gulf Stream is that there have not been enough measurements over time and that there is significant natural variability.
The latest measurements tend to indicate a significant slowing.
I am not sure of the dynamics of the Jet Stream but one possible rationale is that the temperature differentials between the North Pole and the Equator are falling significantly.
The main reason for that is the Arctic is, as predicted, heating up considerably faster than the rest of the planet – up to four times faster.
The Genius Spunkled Banner.
zoomster @ #2958 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 12:49 pm
On odd numbered days DTT excoriates Clinton and excuses Putin. On even-numbered days DTT lauds Trump and excuses Putin. Find the common thread.
dtt:
[The US paid for and corrupted Australian democracy in 1975, if you believe the Falcon and the Snowman which has a lot mere cred that the Steele dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign.]
How does the Falcon’s story have such significant “cred” that you would encourage a fellow PBer
as follows?
[Where is your outrage or is it OK if the white hats undermine democracy with socialist leanings but mean and nasty if anyone undermines democracy with capitalist leanings.]
And why should we then not believe the stories from Russian journalists (and widows/widowers of journalists who allege attempted murder/murder or the raw stats as to the numbers of mysteriously deceased Russian journalists?
[These are rhetorical questions. Any answer would IMO be valueless.]
Windhover
[These are rhetorical questions. Any answer would IMO be valueless.]
I am liking your style!!!!
Bless you, Tandberg. You’ll be missed.
In fairness. Putin needs no excuse.
If anyone in the West were competent enough to have the same success weakening the NK regime as Putin has weakening the West, they wouldn’t be making excuses for it, they would be celebrating it.
The traitors in the USA colluding with him to weaken the USA are the ones needing an excuse.
Boerwar @ #2969 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 1:09 pm
The simplest – and most depressing – explanation I have heard runs as follows:
All storms represent a massive release of energy stored in the atmosphere – a single cyclone releases as much energy as 10,000 atomic bombs. Global warming means more energy is being added to our atmosphere all the time, summer and winter – energy equivalent to 126,000,000 atomic bombs a year. So, storms will continue to get more frequent and larger – whether tropical cyclones in summer or snowstorms in winter.
Or, in other words … you ain’t seen nothing yet!
I believe Catalyst covered the issue in “Extreme Weather”: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3796205.htm
Hello again bludgers.
Back for another year.
Player One @ #2902 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 10:08 am
Or he may have talked to P1!
BURN MORE GAS!!!
I can never work out why Russia has more clout than Australia.
By almost any measure, they are behind us in wealth.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Australia/Russia/Economy
They have a total GDP which is about one third more than Australia, true.
But our GDP per person is more than three (or 5, depending on the metric) times Russia’s.
Our Gross National Income is half as much again as Russia’s, and 11 times more per person.
Our inflation rate is one third Russia’s.
I guess not having ICBMs and nuclear warheads makes a difference.
bc @ #2978 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 1:53 pm
No wonder Catalyst got the chop!
It seems to me fairly obvious that most of you cannot read with a level of comprehension avove year 10 or totally lack the concept of logical thought.
Yes Zoomster EVERY source needs to be treated with caution but the INFORMATION contained needs to be noted.
As I pointed out to you yesterday, sorry to be (patronising but I really get fed up with being patronised by people who fail to understand even what i am saying) every source has its biases and you need to read looking at what they say and what they do not say. You need also to be aware of your OWN biases and the tendency to seek knowledge which confirms ones own prejudices (I am sure I am as guilty of this as any one else but I hope I have the honesty acknowledge it).
So the information contained in any article must first be examined for fact ie did someone die, did 20 people die was it murder etc, were the crowds really big, was there a home invasion etc. Now never assume you know the facts. After all accusations of murder were made routinely in medieval times. Some may have been true.
Once you establish the facts you can consider the analysis. In accusations of murder whether they are against Hillary Clinton or Vladimir Putin you need to consider the three basics means, motive and opportunity, but since they are powerful and well connected we can more or less assume that they could find the means and opportunity, so it all comes down to motive. In the cases of both Hillary and Vlad there is plenty of motive.
Essentially then that leaves a subjective judgment about the morality of the players. “she would not do that” or “he is nasty and would.” Basically emotional, juvenile and essentially stupid analysis. What you then need to do is keep an open mind and NOTE the accusation without making any kind of judgment call.
It is then that you can start to seek confirmation of your own gut feel or bias. You again can note that the accuser hated the person and MARGINALLY discount their accusation, also recognising that as in any good who dunnit the person making the accusation against another may in fact be the murderer.
OK now is that too complex to understand. If the Trump campaign makes an allegation that Clinton murdered Seth Rich (they did) you assume that it is political bias and discount very heavily. If the CIA makes a claim that Putin murdered 199000 journalists you assume that it is political bias and discount heavily. OK.
What you do not do is behave like blithering morons and accept that because the goodies (ie USA) make an accusation it is hunky dory whereas when the baddies do it is a wicked calumny. Frankly that is Tony Abbott lizard brain stuff. Bad guys versus bad guys.
don @ #2981 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 1:56 pm
As does having the ability to simply walk nearly a million troops across a land border into many countries in both Europe and Asia. Plus a demonstrated propensity for doing so!
don says @Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 1:56 pm
It does. And so does spending USD26.1 billion vs USD84.5 billion, with “active frontline personnel” of 58,000 vs 766,000, tanks 59 vs 15,398 and aircraft 408 vs 3,429. (source http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-worlds-20-strongest-militaries-ranked-2016-4/?r=AU&IR=T/#no-3-china-18).
P1 you are forgetting one of the cardinal rules of war.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia!
Don – maybe spanning 160° of longitude is another arrow to their quiver.
bc
So do Hillary’s political opponents. Probably by chance but a case can be made if you want to do it.
I do agree that Putin does jail his enemies mind you that one who was jailed for year the oligarch loathe some creep who stole so much probably deserved every bit of it.
However we in Australia jailed Pauline. Now I cannot stand anything she stands for but her persecution and jailing was decidedly Putinesque.
Hypocrisy just a little.
Ides of March @ #2986 Tuesday, January 9th, 2018 – 2:06 pm
I think that only applies to Westerners. It seems to be a popular pastime amongst many Asian countries!
Genghis did ok. No air support either.
Tamerlane?
Hmmmm, The Raj?
Opium wars?
Don
Russia has a huge land mass as does Australia.
It is very very rich in mineral resources again as is Australia.
It has land borders across two continents although it has limited access to warm water ports unlike Australia
However it has NUKES and it has oil and gas which we do not have.
It also seems to have a pretty high level of technological capacity, especially in rocketry.
At this point in time it has a very high level of national pride which is of great assistance. This is a reversal of the period in the 1990s.
Of course you could ask why does France or the UK have such clout.
daretotread says:
Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 2:01 pm
It seems to me fairly obvious that most of you cannot read with a level of comprehension avove year 10 or totally lack the concept of logical thought.
You are an absolute imbecile.
DTT
Sorry to say this but others’ on PB inability to interpret your words as intended is not the others’ fault, but rather a lack of cohesive explanation in your narrative. I say narrative because when I do read your posts, they come across as partial fiction.
So please do NOT suggest others have an inability to read at a level you expect. From my own experience here, I’d suggest many here have the ability to read/analyse/dissect at a very high level – thus your posts come under scrutiny for lack of consistency.
We are all, like you, infected by a degree of bias, depending on allegiance. But to accuse others of lack of comprehension ability is way off base.
To add to DTTs post, which I actually agree with.
Russia, UK, France and Germany all have something that Australia does not.
Smaller, near neighbours that are strongly influenced by them.
Russia still has significant influence in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus and a few others. They also have significant influence on European countries further west through their energy exports.
The UK, France and Germany (at least until Brexit, it’s a bit more complicated now) had the entire of the EU as ‘satellite states’.
Australia has New Zealand. The countries we export to (China and Japan) are much bigger than us – they influence us, not the other way around.
Don according to Global Fire Power (which ignores nukes) Russia is the second most powerful military with China third close on its heels. These three are the big guns in the room
In the second tier a long way behind are India and a whole host of other countries including UK and France.
We come in in the fourth tier at no 22 closely followed by North Korea
Jen
When people here actually make the effort to read and understand what i write then you can post that point. Until then I stick to my comment.
Learn to read!
You personally have not made any obvious misinterpretations so do not take it as aimed at you but there are a number on here who do and I have totally lost patience with them.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (FWIW), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria, Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldova, maybe FYROM and some recent efforts with Iran and Turkey.
And as for warm water ports….. just wait a couple of decades.