Two privately conducted ReachTEL polls from the past week to relate, followed by enough federal preselection news to choke on. Also note immediately below this the post on a new YouGov Galaxy state poll from Queensland. I should also observe that September 8 has been set as the date for the Wagga Wagga state by-election in New South Wales, to be held after Liberal member Daryl Maguire fell foul of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It presumably won’t be contested by Labor and will probably be of interest only to locals, but Antony Green naturally has a guide up.
On with the show:
• The Guardian reports a poll conducted for the ACTU has Labor leading 51-49 on two-party preferred. Other findings of the poll relate to wage rises, or the lack thereof: 47.6% reported not having received one in the past year, 32.9% said such as they had received did not cover the cost of living, and only 19.5% said their pay had improved in real terms. The poll was conducted on August 2 from a sample of 2453.
• Greenpeace has a Victoria only poll which, after exclusion of the 6.7% undecided, has the Coalition on 35.4% (compared with 41.8% at the 2016 election), Labor on 34.9% (35.6%), the Greens on an unlikely 18.6% (13.1%) and One Nation on 5.1%. Labor leads 57-43 on two-party preferred, compared with 51.8-48.2 at the election. The poll was conducted July 30 from a sample of 1118.
The preselection news bonanza starts in Victoria, where internal party democracy has been having a rough time of it lately, with Labor’s national executive and the Liberal Party’s state administrative committee both taking over federal preselections to protect sitting members amid factional unrest.
• The Labor vacancy created by the retirement of Michael Danby in Macnamara, as Melbourne Ports will now be known, is set to be filled by one of his former staffers, Josh Burns. The seat is reserved to the Right under factional arrangements, and Burns prevailed in a factional ballot with 61 votes to 49 for Nick Dyrefurth, executive director of the John Curtin Research Centre, and 16 for Mary Delahunty, a Glen Eira councillor (numbers related by Emma-Jayne Schenk of the Caulfield Glen Eira Leader). Delahunty called on the national executive to disregard the result, accusing Danby of hand-picking the attendees to the meeting and seeing that others were locked out, and complaining that 85% of those present were male.
• United Voice state secretary Jess Walsh will take second position on Labor’s Victorian Senate ticket after winning Socialist Left endorsement at the expense of incumbent Gavin Marshall. Marshall has been demoted to what is being described as an unwinnable position – number three according to the Herald Sun, though reports vary. The result is a defeat for Socialist Left powerbroker and Marshall ally Kim Carr, whose influence has diminished in the face of a new alliance between the Industrial Left and Right forces associated with state MP Adem Somyurek. It also contradicts the justification for referring preselections to the national executive, which was to protect sitting members.
• The Herald Sun reports a factional deal has set up state upper house member Daniel Mulino to run in the new safe Labor seat of Fraser in western Melbourne, making his existing seat in Eastern Victoria available for Jane Garrett. This was supported by Bill Shorten, and bitterly opposed by Garrett’s foes in the United Firefighters Union. Garrett is backed by the Industrial Left, which has been determined to find her a new seat after she abandoned her existing berth of Brunswick, where she is under growing pressure from the Greens. Mulino is aligned with the Right faction Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (although the internal politics of that union is a story unto itself), which was at first unhappy at losing influence within the state government, but has been mollified with the promise of an extra state seat.
• Jenny Macklin’s successor in Jagajaga, which is reserved to the Socialist Left, will be Kate Thwaites, a former staffer to Macklin, ABC journalist and, most recently, communications director at Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services. Thwaites won factional backing ahead of Sonja Terpstra, a local teacher and community activist.
• The Victorian Liberal Party’s administrative committee has rubber-stamped the preselections of all sitting federal MPs, ostensibly to prevent the party from being distracted in the lead-up to the November 29 state election. However, the real story by all accounts is that the dominant conservative faction wishes to protect Kevin Andrews in Menzies, who faced a challenge from Keith Wolahan, a former Blake Dawson lawyer who earlier served overseas with the Australian Defence Force.
Elsewhere:
• Matthew Killoran of The Courier-Mail reports five candidates are seeking preselection for a Queensland Senate position reserved to the Left, which is being vacated with the retirement of Claire Moore. The front runner by all accounts is Nita Green, a former staffer to Senator Murray Watt, who is backed by the CFMMEU. This is despite Green being based in Brisbane, and party rules reserving the spot for central or north Queensland (Green says she will move there if successful). Others in the field are Leanne Donaldson, who held the state seat of Bundaberg from 2015 until her defeat in 2017, and lost her position in cabinet when it emerged she had failed to pay nearly $8000 in council rates; Julie McGlone, Tourism Australia marketing executive; Tania Major, Cairns-based indigenous youth advocate; and Karin Campbell, an occupational health and safety consultant.
• Paul Starick of The Advertiser reports that Georgina Downer, who for some reason wants to run in Mayo again, will face opposition from Reagan Garner, human resources manager for ReturnToWorkSA. However, Starick reports Downer is the “overwhelming favourite”.
• Sally Whyte of the Canberra Times reports there are five nominees for Labor preselection in Canberra, where a vacancy is available as a result of the Australian Capital Territory’s House of Representatives seat entitlement increasing from two to three. They are John Falzon, chief executive of St Vincent de Paul; Kel Watt, a lobbyist for the greyhound racing industry; Jacob Ingram, a staffer to Chief Minister Andrew Barr; Simon Banks, managing director for lobbyists Hawker Britton; and Alicia Payne, who has worked as a staffer to Jenny Macklin, Bill Shorten and Lindsay Tanner. Falzon has been endorsed by the Left, Watt and Ingram are seeking endorsement from the Right, and Banks and Payne are unaligned. Falzon has been in the news lately after a picture emerged of him wearing a t-shirt with Lenin emblazoned on it, while Watt has been the target of a dirt sheet being circulated within the local party. The preselection process will be completed early next month.
• In South Australia, Labor will deal with the abolition of Port Adelaide by having the homeless Mark Butler run in Hindmarsh, and moving Hindmarsh MP Steve Georganas to neighbouring Adelaide. The latter is being vacated by Kate Ellis, and has turned from a marginal to a fairly safe Labor seat as a result of the redistribution changes. Paul Karp of The Guardian reports the deal involves a Senate seat being forfeited by the Left, of which Butler is a member, with the top two positions on the Senate ticket to be taken by the Right.
• Nathan Hondros of Fairfax reports Labor’s likely new candidate for the marginal Liberal seat of Hasluck in eastern Perth is James Martin, Mundaring Shire councillor and director of Marketech Ltd, a firm that develops stock market trading software. The position became vacant after the withdrawal of Lauren Palmer, an official with the Maritime Union of Australia, who cited health reasons. Andrew Burrell of The Australian reports Martin is a member of the Progressive Left faction, which combines forces of the Right (the SDA, TWU and AWU) and Left (the MUA and CFMMEU).
• Luke Hartsuyker announced this week he will not seek another term in the mid north coast New South Wales seat of Cowper, which he has held for the Nationals since 2001. No word yet on who might succeed him as Nationals candidate, but Rob Oakeshott, who ran unsuccessfully against Hartsuyker in 2016, is not ruling out running again.
Barrie raising Greenwashing of the GBRF board members – Josh says it’s urgent they get showered with taxpayer’s money
$444m lump sum? Josh says ask the Labor Party why they did it too
“I find the previously mentioned Niki Savva strangely attractive.”
Get help.
Frytheplanetberg foundering badly on the GBR stuff. They are going to suffer badly when parliament goes back.
Seems to me that the Libs are now trying to spin this that there WAS some kind of assessment before the money was handed over?? And Fry………. seemed to me to be edging towards that the did it on departmental advice???
I hear the sounds of an excavation getting deeper……….. 🙂
It is a beautiful day (well, it aint hailing and nudging 6° which is already significantly higher than yesterday got). Not gonna watch Insiders. Not gonna read BKs list. Instead off with the kids to a cafe and then some netball practice. I feel like a lucky man.
I have a lot of man love for this guy…..Turn it up peeps…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH6TJU0qWoY
sprocket_ @ #447 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:19 am
And that’s where so much of it stays as well. In the private hands of those who run the GBR Foundation for their ‘Administration Costs’, while the rest goes to organisations who beg them for it and satisfy THEIR agenda.
William if you are around I thought the national executive had held the Hasluck vote and that Mundaring councillor guy did get the gig, Bill Leadbetter getting 1 vote, a swan councillor getting no votes and the Mundaring guy getting the 20 something balance. But I could have just dreamed it.
sprocket_ @ #452 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:21 am
The Labor Party did it properly.
The Labor Party din’t splash the cash all over the GBR Foundation in one almighty orgasmic lot.
The Labor Party only gave the GBR Foundation $12 Million. Not $444 Million.
Except one BK link. I know one of the coaches at Rostrevor. I will try to get the goss.
A subtle rebuke of Workman by Lenore Taylor.
Well there was a ballot:
That in the event a ballot is required, this ballot of the National Executive shall occur at 10am AEST on Wednesday 25 July at a location to be determined by the National Returning Officer; and
So now, whether you treat staff badly and whether you get staff to do things other than strictly electorate allegations is enough for you to be made to stand down from parliament now. According to Niki Savva.
Thrice Frydenberg said ‘there was (past tense, not – there is) an urgent need to spend the money on the reef’
I still reckon the only *urgent* need that was (by consequence now past), was the upcoming UNESCO report in which they held off listing the reef as ‘endangered’.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-06/great-barrier-reef-avoids-in-danger-status-after-unesco-decision/8683970
Anyways, its only half dead.
“The main criteria for getting the $444m was being able to raise funds from the private sector”
I have a radical alternative idea to raise funds in the private sector …
Taxation …
And so what price did Malcolm Turnbull pay for bullying HIS staff? Remind me again how the Prime Minister of Australia paid as serious a price as Emma Husar did.
“So now, whether you treat staff badly and whether you get staff to do things other than strictly electorate allegations is enough for you to be made to stand down from parliament now. According to Niki Savva.”
Obviously only if you are a labor person the LNP wouldn’t have the same standard.
Why hasn’t Barnyard been hounded out of politics?
Mike Seccombe rightly points the finger of ultimate blame for the Husar matter squarely at the NSW Labor cesspit.
“And so what price did Malcolm Turnbull pay for bullying HIS staff?”
I am waiting for Bill to simply say “I will not be lectured by a man who screamed at his staff wearing only his underpants” …
Andrew,
It’s the Twiggy Forrest philosophy. I shouldn’t pay tax, and instead donate to the charitable causes I choose. And get free publicity for grandstanding. This philanthropic mantra of the billionaire class is in the ascendancy with the Coalition
“Mike Seccombe rightly points the finger of ultimate blame for the Husar matter squarely at the NSW Labor cesspit.”
A convenient get out of jail card for the feckless CPG if ever there was: simply regurgitate the most vile, provably false slut-shaming allegations, not follow up on the real story and then retire to the National Press Club for drinks between noon and stumps blaming Labor.
Rex Douglas @ #467 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:34 am
Yeah, yeah, whatever. As if anyone in NSW Labor cares what you think.
Let me just say that by doing what they have done to Emma Husar, the protagonists in this shit fight have vastly overplayed their hand and won’t be given the job of coffee boy in the NSW ALP, let alone anything else.
Sprocket – exactly.
I basically hate the whole charity culture.
“It’s the Twiggy Forrest philosophy”
Yeah it is and his philosophy is terribly inconsistent, having made all his fortune exploiting (lawfully) WA natural resources, he turned around and suggested Native Title holders should NOT be able to economically exploit the land, that somehow that was wrong if you surname isn’t Forrest. Not all that smart but the kind of guy the LNP (and some dumb Labor guys) worship because money.
sprocket_
“And get free publicity for grandstanding. “.
.
And bonus ! Get a great tax write off.
If the govt throws $444 million at the foundation, why the hell would it bother to go out and get private funding? There is not even a requirement for matching funding.
Zap. Lenore skewers the due diligence bull. If they did D D, it didn’t involve talking to the recipients.
I was at the local football yesterday with my son and caught up with the dad of one of my childhood friends, and it brought back a memory that reminded me of the contempt with which journalists should be held.
The dad was a freelance journalist. One day when I was 18 or 19 we were at his place and he got a package in the post with a story he’d written, plus some photos for a story he was going to write. The story he’d written was about a deep sea fishing trip, and the photos he received IIRC were from a round the world yachting trip. He’d never been deep sea fishing or on any yachting trip.
We asked him what was going on, pointing out he hadn’t been deep sea fishing, and he told us that you didn’t need to do these things to write about them, you just needed a few good photos and you could write a good story based on the photos. We responded along the lines that you can’t do that, and he said sure you can, I’ve been doing it for years, and pulled out a folio of the stories he’d written about things he’d written about but hadn’t done. So we are clear, every single one of those stories was a work of fiction. He’d not been fishing, or yachting, or any of the other things he’d written about as if he’d done them.
Shorter Josh… “The Labor Party”… “My department”…
Clueless.
C@tmomma @ #471 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:40 am
The NSW ALP remains a toxic, self-interested, cesspit of nastiness.
Don’t normally watch Insiders, but does Cassidy normally allow the conservative commentator twice as much airtime as the other two combined?
The exerable Savva is being allowed to dominate every discussion.
C@tmomma @ #472 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 6:40 am
Will they be expelled from the Party?
ItzaDream @ #513 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 7:43 am
She is one of the top performers in the press gallery and has been for some time now.
“There is not even a requirement for matching funding.”
This is probably the most amazeballs aspect of the whole scandal.
If Truffles kept the decision making power to award grants for reef research and mitigation programs within governemnt, but engaged with the GBRF on the basis of “you raise 2 dollars, and we will contribute 1 dollar, up to $444million” I’d support the program. Absolutely.
“Don’t normally watch Insiders, but does Cassidy normally allow the conservative commentator twice as much airtime as the other two combined?
The exerable Savva is being allowed to dominate every discussion.”
I stopped watching long ago, but that was the normal formula.
Confessions @ #482 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:45 am
and makes the hapless gooey malcolm eyed Murphy look just that.
And Niki Savva, inadvertently, bells the cat on the money going to the GBR Foundation.
It is ONLY going to be used to find ways to prevent farm fertiliser runoff and continue the, so far fruitless cause, of trying to eliminate the Crown of Thorns starfish from the GBR.
NOTHING about dealing with the effects of Climate Change on the Great Barrier Reef.
I’m finding it increasingly difficult to even listen to Turnbull.
Turnbull: ‘ A Skills-based Migration program, wholly and solely’.
Yeah, so the business types can continue to drive down the wages of OUR skilled workers.
Can you imagine a Senate debate on population given some of the numpties and the cross benchers in the current Senate. Ugh!
C@t, the $444m is to mitigate the effects of Climate Change
“If Truffles kept the decision making power to award grants for reef research and mitigation programs within governemnt, but engaged with the GBRF on the basis of “you raise 2 dollars, and we will contribute 1 dollar, up to $444million” I’d support the program. Absolutely.”
I wouldn’t, the point of this fund is to ensure the money isn’t spent advocating for, or doing work that might evidence a need for, you know stop mining polluting, or stop ships through or anything that smelt like action on climate change. Given those things that would most benefit the reef are almost exclusively not going to be allowed to get anywhere any of those funds it would be no better if there were 1.3 billion.
ItzaDream @ #488 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:48 am
Smooth and smarmy.
Confessions @ #488 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:49 am
So voters need to be proactive and put the ‘numpties’, from BOTH sides, last on the ballot.
Niki Savva s p e a k i n g s l o w l y and dominating debate.
‘People in regional areas doing it tough’. Barnaby Joyce is NOT your saviour!
C@tmomma @ #492 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 9:50 am
remember ipecacuanha?
“Why hasn’t Barnyard been hounded out of politics?”
Exactly. He was given a free pass before his by-election and is now being allowed to rehabilitate himself. Why? He has a truckload of questions to answer, and not about his family arrangements.
Barney in Go Dau @ #464 Sunday, August 12th, 2018 – 8:43 am
No, sorry. I have some respect for Greg, but on this he is wrong. Like many “Big Australia” apologists, he sees our staggering population growth as merely a political or economic problem. On sustainability, this is what he has to say …
I mean … “euphemism”? Seriously? One suspects he has not spent spent much time outside the bubble of Canberra recently 🙁
Disgraceful treatment on “Insiders” of Emma Husar – I thought last week’s montage was beyond the pale, but there’s no excuse for a rehash now.
Bill Shorten’s Aussie Adventures…. 😆