Post-leadership change turbulence costs the Liberals a sitting MP in a crucial marginal seat, as preselection hopefuls jockey for safe seat vacancies:
• Liberal MP Julia Banks yesterday announced she will not recontest her Melbourne seat of Chisholm, citing bullying she was subjected to ahead of last week’s leadership vote by the anti-Malcolm Turnbull camp. Banks won the seat on the retirement of Labor member Anna Burke in 2016, making her the only Coalition member to gain a seat from Labor at the election. Rob Harris of the Herald Sun reports the Liberals will choose their new candidate in a community preselection, which presumably entails an open primary style arrangement in which anyone on the electoral roll can participate. Labor has endorsed Jennifer Yang, former adviser to Bill Shorten and mayor of Manningham who ran second as a candidate in the Melbourne lord mayoral election in May, finishing 3.0% behind winning candidate Sally Capp after preferences. The party initially preselected the unsuccessful candidate from 2016, former Monash mayor Stefanie Perri, but she announced her withdrawal in May, saying she had been deterred by the expreience of Tim Hammond.
• Alexandra Smith of the Sydney Morning Herald cites “several senior Liberals” who say the “only real contenders” for the Wentworth preselection are Dave Sharma, former ambassador to Israel, and Andrew Bragg, a director at the Business Council of Australia and former leader of the Yes same-sex marriage survey campaign. The report says Sharma has moderate factional support, including from powerbroker Michael Photios, while Bragg is supported in local branches. It also says it is no foregone conclusion that Labor will contest the seat, despite having an election candidate in place in Tim Murray, managing partner of investment research firm J Capital. An earlier report by Alexandra Smith suggested Christine Forster’s bid for Liberal preselection appeared doomed in part because, as an unidentified Liberal source put it: “She is an Abbott and how does that play in a Wentworth byelection? Not well I would suggest.”
• Primrose Riordan of The Australian identifies three potential candidates to succeed Julie Bishop in Curtin, assuming she retires. They are Emma Roberts, a BHP corporate lawyer who contested the preselection to succeed Colin Barnett in the state seat of Cottesloe, but was defeated by David Honey; Erin Watson-Lynn, director of Asialink Diplomacy at the University of Melbourne; and Rick Newnham, chief econmist at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• Sally Whyte of the Canberra Times reports a Greens-commissioned ReachTEL poll of the Canberra electorate suggests ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja’s role in Malcolm Turnbull’s demise may have put his seat in danger. Elections for the ACT’s two Senate seats have always resulted in one seat each for Labor, but the Liberal seat could potentially fall to the Greens if its vote fell significantly below one third. After allocating results of a forced response question for the initially undecided, the results are Labor 39.6%, the Greens 24.2%, Liberal 23.7% and One Nation 2.8%. Even accounting for the fact that the Canberra electorate is particularly strong for the Greens, these numbers suggest there would be a strong possibility of Greens candidate Penny Kyburz overhauling Seselja on preferences. The poll also finds 64.6% of voters saying Seselja’s role in Turnbull’s downfall made them less likely to vote for him, with only 13.0% saying it made them more likely to, and 22.4% saying it made no difference. Among Liberal voters, the respective figures were 38.7%, 29.6% and 31.7%.
In other news, the Liberals in New South Wales are managing expectations ahead of a feared defeat in Saturday week’s Wagga Wagga state by-election, most likely at the hands of independent Joe McGirr. Andrew Clennell of The Australian reports a ReachTEL poll commissioned by Shooters Fishers and Farmers has the Liberals on 30.2%, Labor on 23.8%, McGirr on 18.4% and Shooters Fishers and Farmers on 10.9%, after exclusion of the 7.4% undecided. However, McGirr faces a complication in Shooters Fishers and Farmers’ unusual decision to direct preferences to Labor, which could potentially prevent him from overtaking them to make the final count. According to Clennell’s report, “any government loss post-mortem would be expected to focus on why the Liberals did not let the Nationals run for the seat”.
She – Old Mavis
We had a wonderful single aunt who was so nice to us when we were kids that I am almost tearing up typing this. I only found out when I was in my teens, after she had died, that the guy she would have married had been killed in the Second World War.
Murdoch media (UK branch presumably) has apparently tracked down the au pair in the McLachlan case. The girl was really only a bit player in the story and must regret becoming entangled in this scandal.
Headline in Murdoch tabloids:
“EMBARGOED – NO NEWS.COM, NO AUSTRALIAN, NO PERTH NOW, NO SKY Au pair Alexandra Deuwel, freed from detention by Peter Dutton after lobbying from Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Supplied
Au pair tracked down in southern France”
Murdoch tabloids seem to be currently ignoring the au pair for the Queensland copper, perhaps because they didn’t get to ‘break’ the story.
Dio, reference is made to “Long Day’s Journey into Night” – there you’ll, maybe, find succour.
Diogenes
Biscuits and Gravy (with Grits on the side) looked frightening, but it was delicious. But if I lived in Atlanta and ate that every breakfast the economy seats on planes would surely feel smaller.
citizen @ #601 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 7:22 pm
Probably because they don’t have her name as the Guardian didn’t reveal any! 🙂
MAGGIE Varcoe, the sister of Collingwood AFL star Travis Varcoe, has died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, surrounded by her beloved family.
The Advertiser confirmed that the 27-year-old passsed away after suffering a critical head injury during a football game on Sunday.
The Varcoe family have been a constant presence at the Royal Adelaide Hospital since Margaret, known to friends as Maggie, was rushed there on Sunday afternoon.
She had been playing for Angle Vale Football Club in the South Australian Women’s Football League grand final against Mt Lofty at Thebarton Oval, when she accidentally clashed heads with a teammate.
Laundy, Toathe and ors versus Kroger, Kroger and ors
Who do you believe?
In Victoria there is also a story in regards a female employee in the Bulleen Electoral Office of the Member for Stamoulis and her treatment by the prior Member
Resolution as I understand included continuing employment in the Bulleen Shopping Centre Office for the lady who made the complaint
I am unaware of any action against the former Member, who was exited to provide a Lower House seat to the current Member
Hello, Rocket:
Aunts and uncles definitely have a place in our lives. I remember mine with such pleasure. To keep them in mind, I use them as passwords.
Moderates are clearly being pushed out of the Liberal party. The same happened to the Republicans and as it happens I’m reading former GOP strategist Rick Wilson’s book and he outlines the myriad ways his party became the party of Trump and similar know-nothings.
I can totally see the Libs here doing the same.
Trump has gone on other tweetfest. Usually means another shoe about to drop
Louise Mensch
Louise Mensch
@LouiseMensch
·
5m
Somebody’s scared.
Quote Tweet
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The only thing James Comey ever got right was when he said that President Trump was not under investigation
Agree Confessions
The leaking of Sukkar’s address referring to those that were to be exited from membership of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party is telling
That is Sukkar who with Bastiaan and his wife now controls the Victorian Division of the LIberal Party – and who was celebrating his elevation to treasurer and Deputy Leader whilst Morrison was working the phones
My new persona: Dear Aunt Mavis. Good night to PB after night.
Moderates are clearly being pushed out of the Liberal party.
And an arrogant prick like Turnbull thought he could hold back the tide. He just gave them cover.
The irony is the stupid bastard probably laughed at the story of Cnut.
Trump should go and seek asylum in Russia. He is really not fit for purpose
(((DeanObeidallah)))
(((DeanObeidallah)))
@DeanObeidallah
·
40m
Replying to
@realDonaldTrump
Trump today now claiming that he never said he fired James Comey over “Russia thing” and that NBC’s Lester Holt doctored the tape. Here’s the clip. Do you believe Trump or your own ears and eyes?
0:18
3.7K views
C@t – I assume you’re using your web browser to see what the modem is doing rather than relying on the LEDs*?
I once had a “flang” (very close lightning bolt with instantaneous thunder; from flash-bang) kill one of my computers; naturally, it was the good one – not the old, expendable one with leaking capacitors.**
On the bright side, all of the components except the CPU and/or motherboard were fine, and lived on in its replacement.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Holden Hillbilly
That is very sad. I know young people can die in many ways but somehow death from sport seems just a separate species of tragic. I suppose because it’s usually non-deliberate trauma in something you have freely participated in for leisure rather than work/commuting. I presume it was a bleed on the outside of her brain from the description that she was OK at first then collapsed.
This will cast a pall especially over Collingwood and Geelong – whenever someone is killed playing the sport you are playing it sends a chill up your spine. I still remember when a cricketer was instantly killed in my association when I was playing. (batsman hit in chest by ball from a 16 year old fast bowler – almost certainly ‘commotio cordis’ though I don’t think that term was used then)
Emma Alberrici sums up the reality of Liberal coal mining policy in this tweet:
“EXCLUSIVE to #abcPM @alexbhturnbull “There is undue influence on Lib party policy by a small group of miners who have assets they probably regret purchasing that don’t make a lot of sense anymore & they’re trying to engineer an outcome which makes those projects economic” #auspol
So the Liberals have been corrupted into using public money to buy out some right wing investors from some bad investments.
“Moderates are clearly being pushed out of the Liberal party.”
The highly intelligent left the Liberal party with Hewson. The moderately intelligent are going now with Turnbull. That only leaves the lunatics remaining.
Socrates @ #616 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 8:04 pm
That is a huge story!!! 🙂
It has to be said (shouted) –
STOP THE AU PAIRS!
Socrates, Barney
Not being an economist or financial person I only really noticed the term “stranded assets” a few years ago. And the current climate (!) is providing perfect examples of such for study.
As the producer of the Ellen show tweeted about Trump: He’s. Lost. His. Fucking. Mind.
Can you lose something you never possessed in the first place?
Rocket Rocket @ #620 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 8:13 pm
Listening to Canavan speak it seemed obvious that their motivation was to get at the coal while it was still worth something, i.e. a dead asset, but this seems to put in place a piece that more clearly explains their motivations.
a r @ #622 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 8:24 pm
Ask a thief! 🙂
Without their coal-backed donors the LNP are essentially busted. They will not be able to meet their routine operating costs nor run effective election campaigns. It’s really now a matter of the people v. the baronial class.
You can’t make this up! (may have been posted already)
https://www.afr.com/news/josh-frydenberg-assured-sydney-melbourne-property-downturn-orderly-20180829-h14p36
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has emerged from briefings with the nation’s key economic regulators [ASIC and APRA] satisfied that the slowing of the housing market on the east coast is orderly and that an expected tightening of the labour market could help end flat wages growth.
Did they also mention their remarkable work over the last few years, which quite clearly demonstrated their wisdom as well as their independence from the sectors that they were regulating? And that Josh’s new boss Scott Morrison had been ever so right in voting 23 times to oppose something as ludicrous as a Banking Royal Commission?
briefly
Your reference to Barons had me picturing Turnbull as King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 by the barons – and there are some striking similarities 803 years later!
First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.
“EXCLUSIVE to #abcPM @alexbhturnbull “There is undue influence on Lib party policy by a small group of miners who have assets they probably regret purchasing that don’t make a lot of sense anymore & they’re trying to engineer an outcome which makes those projects economic”
The difficulty the gas companies in question face is that they signed “pump-or-pay” contracts for gas delivered to Nth Asia, with the “pay” component at a significant premium above the market price. Then the stupid arseholes found their reserves didn’t match their forecasts. So now the greedy bastards are pulling as much gas from the east coast network as they can, so they don’t have to pay the “or-pay” costs. Because paying them would destroy them.
So instead the stupid arsehole greedy bastards rip the rest of us off. They are willing to have gas prices in Aus get really close to the “or-pay” price they are facing – anything to preserve profit. The action is killing downstream industries who played no part in taking on the risk, rather than penalising the stupid greedy bastards who signed up for a massive gamble. What a pack of arseholes.
And it’s continuing to be supported by the LNP.
LU
I do remember years ago when the companies were pleading with the Federal and State governments to link up all the gas pipelines so that the whole Eastern half of Australia could benefit from this brilliant network. I thought at the time it sounded fishy.
RR…the barons today are exerting themselves, for sure, but not so much against the crown as against the commoners. In particular, they’re preparing to tithe the people and demand subsidies from the common revenue. Their property is not merely private and protected from the crown, their incomes are to be guaranteed by the crown.
The crown is meant to represent the common interest these days. This has been turned on its head.
We have a Carta Corrumpere et Secretum
I do remember years ago when the companies were pleading with the Federal and State governments to link up all the gas pipelines so that the whole Eastern half of Australia could benefit from this brilliant network. I thought at the time it sounded fishy.
I’ll admit I was suckered. The gas was supposed to flow from Qld south, not have every spare MJ piped up to Gladstone.
a r says:
Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 9:35 pm
Lord Haw Haw of Arabia @ #502 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 7:34 pm
Perhaps it should be “le deluge, la merde”?
Close, but that’s a bit of a nonsense. I’d go with le déluge de merde.
That’s topically apropos at the moment and an apt description for the current government generally.
**************************
I was always crap at French…
la merde frappe le ventilateur
French is such a great sounding language 🙂
Biscuits (scones) in gravy? Are you kidding me?
Scones are for eating topped with jam and cream, and accompanied by a cup of Earl Grey tea.
briefly
I did like the “limitations on feudal payments to the Crown” bit though, which has some resonance when looking at the actual tax paid by the largest corporations.
You are right about the moderate Liberals –
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/mad-and-morally-irresponsible-liberal-moderates-roast-new-emissions-stance-20180830-p500r2.html
They are at about level CR (critically endangered) on the conservation status list, soon to join the Thylacine in oblivion.
The last step before extinction is EW (Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range). Some moderate Liberals must feel like they are currently living in captivity, but maybe some could form a population outside their historic range (The Liberal Party).
Good night all – another day, another societal crisis to fight in the morning.
Cheers RR
Puffytmd @ #635 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 9:48 pm
Nup, hot scones straight from the oven with butter and Vegemite, and definitely no tea. 🙂
The story about the Italian au pair is currently the top story on the ABC website. Is this ScumMo’s worst week ever already?
Cut and paste.
Courier Mail, August 14:
Simon Benson, The Australian, May 28:
Sharri Markson, Daily Telegraph, August 31:
imacca @ #549 Thursday, August 30th, 2018 – 8:40 pm
Yank biscuits are more like a damper, cooked in a skillet or two aluminium pie plates crimped together and used as a camp oven. Often used as a substitute for bread. Quite tasty actually
Observer
The north south pipeline can only go one way. From North to South.
And yes the Liberals did what the Liberals do; complety messed it up. To my knowedge there were issues but they got the desal plant going again.
They are both resources that protect Melbourne from drought. It’s just one more action to add the long list of Liberal digraces.
Socrates said “The highly intelligent left the Liberal party with Hewson. The moderately intelligent are going now with Turnbull. That only leaves the lunatics remaining.”
Aww! Don’t be stoopid!
Someone is leaking in and on the Liberal Party, payback time… and like AuPairDutton, these leaks are making Cabinet ministers have to lie about what really happened
From Phil Coorey in the AFR..
“Cabinet minister Michaelia Cash has become the latest target of the payback culture inside the Liberal Party, after allegations emerged that she declined to provide a witness statement to the Australian Federal Police investigating the leaking of a union raid from within her office.
Senator Cash, who was demoted in Sunday’s leadership reshuffle after turning on Malcolm Turnbull, rejected any assertion she refused to cooperate.
>……..
A senior Liberal source familiar with the situation said when the police came investigating, Senator Cash “was asked to cooperate and she didn’t”.
She instead referred the police to her public statements on the issue, telling them “I said everything I know at Senate Estimates, I have nothing to add,” the source claimed.
She was subsequently subpoenaed by the AWU as a witness. She instructed her lawyers to fight the subpoena.
Sources close to the senator rejected the assertion she was uncooperative. They say her reference to her public statements was the equivalent of giving a voluntary statement and the police were satisfied because “there was no follow-up by the AFP”.
Peter Dutton should come out and say, regarding AuPairGate
“I shal decide who comes, and the circumstances in which they come!”
C@tmomma says:
Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 9:26 pm
Thanks ‘fess. Me too! I am just resigned to it happening from time to time. We live on an Ironstone ridge and it attracts lightning bolts like a lightning rod. All the surge protectors in the world can’t stop it happening. I am sanguine about it though.
_________________________
In that case, is it worthwhile thinking about an industrial strength lightning conductor?
Or did the lightning strike elsewhere, and then travel along the electricity lines?
Many years ago our copper cable telephone line (no internet in those days) went out after a lightning strike (or several of them) and when I went out with the technician into the paddock to look at the concrete junction box buried underground, the glass insulators (seems strange, what they were doing there?) had melted, as well as sundry other damage.
So somehow the lightning had found a way to the copper cables and melted the junction box.
The fix involved laying the new telephone cables on the ground for a distance of about 500 metres, in amongst the grass and the sheep poop.
And it stayed like that for six or seven years till they got around to burying it.
Bert 547am
Yank biscuits are more like a damper
Yes, that is probably closer to it than scones.
Meanwhile in Victoria there are about a half dozen Liberal State members whose electorates overly Chisholm and Deakin, and who are sitting on margins of around 5%, who can now see that they are the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ (how apt) for their new coal-fondling PM and still-Minister (as I write this) Dutton who are keeping much the same policies that took down Turnbull.
Fans defending Barnaby by saying it was a joke. Hmmm.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Waleed Aly pulls Dutton apart over his actions on the au pairs.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-s-au-pair-drama-shows-hypocrisy-of-immigration-policy-20180830-p500np.html
Even after he’s dead John McCain gives it to Trump!
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/an-nfl-player-and-a-russia-dissident-mccain-s-symbolic-final-rebuke-to-trump-20180831-p500vj.html
Phil Coorey says Michaelia Cash has become the latest target of the payback culture inside the Liberal Party, after allegations emerged that she declined to provide a witness statement to the Australian Federal Police investigating the leaking of a union raid from within her office.
https://outline.com/c2HbdC
Eryk Bagshaw reports that Australia will take a leading role in forging an EU-style free trade agreement in Asia as the world reels from a tit-for-tat trade dispute between the world’s two superpowers, China and the US.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-push-eu-style-trade-deal-in-asia-20180830-p500qa.html
David Crowe examines the types of bullying employed in politics.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/was-it-bullying-or-just-politics-as-usual-20180830-p500rw.html
And Jenna Price tells us why politics has so much anarchy, confusion and muddled thinking.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-politics-has-so-much-anarchy-confusion-and-muddled-thinking-20180830-p500o8.html
Michelle Grattan Laments that Australia’s “coup culture” has become so entrenched that it now holds serious dangers for our democracy.
https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-the-high-costs-of-our-destructive-coup-culture-102416
Using a lot of old David Rowe cartoons Phil Coorey explains how Abbott could become the last man standing.
https://outline.com/WLnd78
Joanne McCarthy reports that the Australian Catholic Church will release its response to the child abuse royal commission today as Pope Francis struggles to control internal and external challenges over his handling of the global child sexual abuse crisis. It better be good!
https://www.smh.com.au/national/church-s-response-to-child-abuse-royal-commission-due-friday-20180830-p500v1.html
The Lowy Institute’s Michael Fullilove writes that to have influence in the world, it is useful to present as a serious country with a functioning political system. At the moment, we look ridiculous.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-world-is-looking-at-australia-and-laughing-20180830-p500q2.html
James Fernyhough writes that Turnbull’s failure to address climate change may be his legacy.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/08/30/turnbulls-abject-failure-climate-change/
Suzanne Rickard reminds us of what water restrictions mean as Sydney becomes more likely to go down that track again.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/it-s-time-sydneysiders-make-it-personal-and-save-their-own-water-20180830-p500pz.html
Nicole Hasham says that senior Liberal figures have labelled the Morrison government’s stance on climate change as “mad” and “morally irresponsible” as the party’s moderate wing reels at the ultra-conservative takeover of Australia’s energy policy.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/mad-and-morally-irresponsible-liberal-moderates-roast-new-emissions-stance-20180830-p500r2.html
The AFR’s Matthew Stevens writes that new federal energy minister Angus Taylor has followed a depressingly familiar blueprint in mapping out a terse set of policy priorities that remain blinkered by retail politics and that reflect an oddly un-Liberal belief that government knows better how to manage power markets than does industry.
https://outline.com/dADaVb
The Murray-Darling Basin plan could fail to deliver on its next phase and $5bn of taxpayers’ funds is at risk unless urgent changes are made to how the plan is being implemented, the Productivity Commission has said in its five year review. A water envoy perhaps?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/30/immediate-action-required-to-salvage-murray-darling-basin-plan-review-warns
Eryk Bagshaw explains how Labor wants to win over Coalition business voters.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-labor-wants-to-win-over-coalition-business-voters-20180830-p500q8.html
Workers are missing out on wage rises because the deregulation of job protections has gone too far, new International Monetary Fund research has found.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/we-ve-got-very-little-power-freed-up-labour-market-robbing-workers-20180829-p500hm.html
According to Simon Jenkins hooligan Brexiters now offer a mad, dystopian future nobody voted for.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/30/brexiters-future-crashing-out-hard-soft-brexit-dominic-raab
Argentina has hiked interest rates to 60% as it takes dramatic steps to restore confidence in its plunging currency in the latest sign of turmoil among emerging market economies this year.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/30/argentina-raises-interest-rates-to-60-to-shore-up-peso
A man has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill employees of the Boston Globe newspaper, in messages repeating Donald Trump’s claims that journalists are the “enemy of the people” and “fake news”. Trump’s America!
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/30/boston-globe-man-arrested-death-threats-fbi-robert-chain
Social justice advocate Renée Eaves writes that almost 30 years later, and Queensland is back where it started, showing all the hallmarks of the pre-Fitzgerald era. Internal investigations have been replaced by the “Ethical Standards Command” which more often than not allows police to investigate their colleagues.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/31/almost-30-years-later-all-the-signs-of-the-pre-fitzgerald-era-are-back
Joe Gutnick gets a nomination for “Arsehole of the Week” as he stiff his creditors and gets back to business.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/joe-gutnick-settles-305m-bankruptcy-for-less-than-1-75m-20180830-p500nw.html
Cartoon Corner
Another classic from David Rowe.
Nice work from John Shakespeare.
Paul Zanetti takes us to the red centre.
Mark Knight and the AFL ticket system meltdown.
And he really well exposes political bullying.
From Matt Golding.
Jon Kudelka and the au pair invasion.
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/5236d390892bb2cc6269af25e2639e28
David Pope has some au pair and envoy fun.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
More in here.