We seem to be going into an ill-timed poll drought, so to keep things ticking over, here’s a post focusing on Senate preselection news. Please note there’s a post below this one on this Saturday’s Wagga Wagga by-election, which is developing into a fairly interesting contest.
• Queensland Labor’s state conference determined its Senate preselection on the weekend, having been hurried along by a national executive concerned the Liberal leadership crisis might bring on an early election. In doing so it bypassed a vote that was granted to the party membership under rule changes in 2013. The top position has gone to Nita Green, a former staffer to Senator Murray Watt and the favoured candidate of the CFMMEU and United Voice. The position is reserved to the Left, and is being vacated with the retirement of Claire Moore.
Green’s ascendancy has been contentious because party rules reserve the position for a regional representative and she lives in Brisbane, though she says she will move if elected. Supporters of rival Left candidate Tania Major, a Cairns-based indigenous youth advocate and protege of Cape York leader Noel Pearson, have further complained of being ambushed by a process for the factional ballot in which a three-day nominations period was followed immediately by the start of voting.
The second place on the ticket, which is reserved to the dominant Labor Forum sub-faction of the Right, has been retained by incumbent Chris Ketter. The cancellation of the party membership vote saw off any threat from rival nominee Pat O’Neill, former army major and candidate for Brisbane in 2016, although he was reportedly unlikely to win in any case. Number three goes to Frank Gilbert, a former Mackay councillor and candidate for Dawson in 2016, and a member of the Old Guard sub-faction of the Right.
• Matthew Denholm of The Australian reports Tasmanian Labor’s union establishment has again lined up against Lisa Singh for Senate preselection, undeterred by the success of a below-the-line voting campaign in overturning her demotion at the 2016 election. Singh will presumably dominate the party member component of the vote, but is reportedly unlikely to do any better than the loseable third position. This is because the dominant Left wants places for an incumbent, Carol Brown, and John Short, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union official for whom Singh was relegated in 2016, while the Right is defending incumbent Catryna Bilyk.
• Tasmania’s Liberals are also conducting their Senate preselection vote on Saturday, and there are suggestions they too may repeat unhappy history from 2016. Richard Colbeck is again under pressure from conservative forces associated with Senator Eric Abetz, despite having almost matched Lisa Singh’s feat after being dumped to number five in 2016. He found his way back in the recount that followed Stephen Parry’s disqualification in November, and was promoted last week to the outer ministry, making him the only Tasmanian at that level of seniority. Brett Worthington at the ABC reports conservatives want the top position to go to Brett Whiteley, veteran of three winning and three losing campaigns at both federal and state level in Braddon, or alternatively to a woman. Further demotion beyond that would be particularly remarkable for Colbeck, as he is the only one of the four Tasmanian Liberal Senators facing re-election, the others having scored six-year terms. The other nominees for the preselection were detailed in an earlier instalment.
Quasar
Indeed it is. For me, back in the day, BK’s Dawn Patrol signalled that the blood had been sluiced off the walls, the broken glass swept up, the furniture straightened and the Bludger Lounge’s night shift had finished 🙂
SK,
Swans in a canter?
Boerwar @ #10740 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 11:31 am
I don’t think it’s only Scummo Bear’s God which has forsaken him.
Mari:
The ‘Finnegans’ also regularly post on the Guardian site.
‘re former PBers on Twitter, the one I am worried about is ruawake, last time I spoke to him was sick in hospital, nothing since
Simon² Katich®
I was thinking Animal but Crazy Harry is 😀 gold
mari:
That doesn’t sound good. We haven’t heard from CTar in a long time now, last thing he posted was he was having some kind of surgery or treatment.
Tom @ #3692 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:06 pm
So what Tom? First, provide these sources. Second, please expand on what brand and type of recording device these sources used to record the verbatim utterances of a near dead man whose mouth was three metres above them. I smell bullshit. See my Mark Twain quote, above and below
As an educated, intelligent and well read mature human being, I am sure that the flying spaghetti monster has more credibility than the holey babble. It is handy for extracting lots of money from the gullible, and buying fancy dresses, apartments, mansions and cars for the money extractors, but as an authoritarian document, it has flies on it, and maggots in it.
To repeat, the words of Mark Twain are most apropos at the present juncture. To quote his autobiography, which I commend to you all:
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from “authorities” who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”
Aunt Mavis
Re Finnegans, yes you are right, I know Finnie quite well
Simon² Katich®:
I can’t recall if I posted re. tonight’s Newspoll, but judging by the result in Wagga, I’m going for 55-45.
I notice no one misses Bemused.
Confessions
Re Ctar1 , I tried to find out from a couple of people who knew him, like us nothing. Not good
Well, there was plenty of cantering going on.
Besides, you criticised me for my lack of optimism. So I had a go at it.
If I was the ALP I’d be running on corruption.
NBN deliberately corrupted to not work.
Climate change and renewables deliberately lied about
ABCC worried about stickers and fans while employers kill people on building sites
There is an angle on truck drivers and safety but I’m not across the detail
1/2 billion dollars to their mining mates to not help the barrier reef
Au pairs, one law for Dutton and Morrison’s mates, not the law everyone else has.
Robodebt fraud
Protected the banks, couldn’t give a stuff about wages.
If I was the ALP I’d be running on corruption.
NBN deliberately corrupted to not work.
Climate change and renewables deliberately lied about
ABCC worried about stickers and fans while employers kill people on building sites
There is an angle on truck drivers and safety but I’m not across the detail
1/2 billion dollars to their mining mates to not help the barrier reef
Au pairs, one law for Dutton and Morrison’s mates, not the law everyone else has.
Robodebt fraud
Protected the banks, couldn’t give a stuff about wages.
Aunt Mavis @ #3711 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:29 pm
Got it! 🙂
Mari:
[‘Re Finnegans, yes you are right, I know Finnie quite well’]
Thanks for the confirmation; I wasn’t sure but thought that his posts were very similar to those he posted years ago. He’s a Labor warrior, similar to Frank.
I think GG misses bemused. Like that old pair of levis (that started to feel like fleecy track pants) that your better half chucked out. Or a dearly beloved cat that used to piss on your favourite chair that the vet ‘took care of’.
I don’t speculate on specific Newspoll outcomes. However, yesterday’s Wagga by-election indicates that it will be dire for the Libs.
Regardless, they’ll still be in Government. Without Turnbull’s vote, managing the numbers in the HOR will be a tough ask. I’m not sure who of the Indies is lining up for the Government. But, the government is on a knife edge and may fall very soon.
Simon² Katich® @ #3712 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:31 pm
That’s not optimism. That’s LSD standard hallucination.
Aunt Mavis
Both Finnie and Frank are labor warriors. Some of Finnies tweets are hilarious
Observer:
[‘The question is “are Wayne and MB one in the same?”]
I know MB but can’t recall Wayne.
Would you please assist an old man’s memory?
Greensborough Growler @ #3712 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:29 pm
While I frequently disagreed with Bemused’s opinions and style, for me PB is both a little poorer and a lot politer on the whole. Whether that is due to mere absence or the manner of expulsion is hard to say.
Could I ask someone who knows, what’s Gusface’s twitter handle?
I hear Turnbull is in NY shopping for jewellery. On the flight home…. Lucy will be in the sky with diamonds.
Mari
I also was wondering about ruawake – whether I’d missed stuff when “offsite”
Aunt Mavis @ #3723 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:41 pm
Wayne was/is a hoot. 9/10ths troll and the rest akin to an escaped experiment. Unique. “Or great LNP will win the next election in 2020 ina landslide and Morrison will go on to be the next Menzies.” That sort of thing. Wayne has been mostly silent since the super-Saturday by-elections.
Late Riser @ #3722 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:41 pm
I think that’s a pretty good assessment. There’s no doubt that there is less mean spirited snark and there seems to be a more posters and a broader range of opinions expressed. But, there is no doubt that Bemused did have some things of interest to contribute.
Gladys accepts the result in Wagga and will “double down” to rebuild trust ahead of the March state election:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-accept-the-message-premier-says-mistrust-of-politicians-decided-byelection-20180909-p502nf.html
WeWantPaul @ #3581 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:33 pm
Labor and Liberal accusing each other of corruption. Now that would be welcomed warmly by the ‘others’.
Just heard this on BBC news
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/08/first-ever-case-of-monkeypox-recorded-in-the-uk
I remember a frightening episode of the TV series “ER” where these kids come in with their parents having recently been living in Africa and it is thought they have smallpox. I think it was the end of one series and the start of the next (where it was found to be the related but less deadly monkeypox).
Simon² Katich® @ #3724 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:43 pm
Very good!
Many people thought that Turnbull was a political high flyer. In the end he was just a low flyer with occasional gusts of wind.
Aunt Mavis
It’s always “all politicians”, never “our fault”
Rocket Rocket
No you didn’t re ruawake unfortunately he was having transfusions I think then nothing
Yabba re gusface i know suggest you put @gusface in search column and you should find it
Yabba says:
Sunday, September 9, 2018 at 2:11 pm
…… the fact that the actual authors of virtually all of it are completely unknown. In particular that the oldest known manuscripts of the gospels ‘according to’ the various supposed apostles, have no author’s names attached at all, and were all written in Greek dialects which did not exist at the time of ‘christ’.
___________________
Thanks, I did not know that.
At the same time, though perhaps anonymous and written later, some of the epistles attributed to Paul were written by a particularly nasty piece of work:
“Women should remain silent in the churches, They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
and:
A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
there are others.
GG:
[‘But, there is no doubt that Bemused did have some things of interest to contribute.’]
That he did.
There are 10 + Lib MPs that are dual citizen. Some may not want to sacrifice this for a likely term in opposition.
Greensborough Growler @ #3728 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 12:48 pm
Well I for one am delighted that he was booted. I suspect other women commenters are too. The place is much better without him, and yes, I too have noticed more people commenting here.
lizzie:
Wow that’s an unusually biased remark by Atkins!
Confessions @ #3605 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:55 pm
Sadly there are one or two other abusive bullies still remaining.
Aunt Mavis @ #3675 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 1:42 pm
🙂
Rex Douglas @ #3739 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:57 pm
You, for one.
Maybe you can be, ‘managed out’?
Katich: shuffles across, plays to mid wicket, no run.
C@tmomma @ #3609 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 3:00 pm
You continue to stalk me. Not a good look.
Aunt Mavis @ #3727 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 2:48 pm
She could start by resigning.
Absent that, she could cancel the stadium splurge.
After that, have a go at rooting out the corruption in the MDB system.
On a different tack: and I wasn’t on PB last night, so perhaps it was already discussed (in which case my apologies for raising it again).
I was interested to see the results of Liberal and Labor Senate preselections yesterday. And I can only say that, in this instance, the Libs got it 100% right and Labor pretty close to 100% wrong.
The Lib committee that selects Senators is heavily dominated by the right of the party, but yet it swallowed its pride and did the right thing by selecting the moderate north-west Tasmanian Richard Colbeck at the top of its ticket. Below him are two fairly impressive businesswomen from Hobart: Claire Chandler and Tanya Denison. It’s about the best possible list of candidates they could put together.
On the Labor side, alas, the ALP have gone for Carol Brown at the top (as you would expect, because she’s from the dominant Left faction), Catryna Bilyk at #2 (again as expected, as the Right can typically expect one of the top two spots on numbers). The entirely logical thing to do would be then to have put Lisa Singh at #3. But, of course – after the humiliation of being defeated by Singh from below him on the ticket in 2016 – AMWU state secretary John Short is being given another run in the last winnable spot and join his predecessor as state secretary, Anne Urquhart, for a prolonged, but comfortable spell on the back benches of the Senate.
Singh is a highly intelligent and articulate non-Anglo [well, half-Anglo] woman who has fallen foul of the Labor party machine for having the temerity 1) not to belong to a faction and 2) to beat Short in 2016 (which has seen her effectively ostracised within the party in Canberra since that time), would have had a reasonable expectation of a Ministry, possibly eventually a Cabinet spot, in a Shorten Labor Government. In comparison, one might expect that Carol Brown is a faint chance for an outer ministry in time, and Bilyk and Short have virtually no chance of ever getting there.
Singh has less chance of winning from 4th spot in a half-Senate election than she did from 6th spot in the 2016 double dissolution, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her pull out altogether. There will undoubtedly be a protest vote against Short, but probably not enough to stop him winning the 3rd seat – particularly given a likely substantial swing to Labor – and I guess the Labor machine is banking on this. But I reckon it sucks that the factional system so clearly compels the talented to make way for the far less talented.
C@tmomma @ #3743 Sunday, September 9th, 2018 – 3:00 pm
Momma,
Rex is a no trick pony. I’ve blocked him for months. The only time I see his pathetic jottings is when others respond.
The message is ignore the cretin and he’ll disappear.
WB, you or any one else does not need to do anything else.
lizzie:
[‘It’s always “all politicians”, never “our fault”]
It is our fault, though the people in my circle aren’t concerned with politics. I attempt to get them interested but with limited success, save recently when I was asked by a relative to assist with a visa application, telling him that Dutton’s a nasty piece of work. Shortly thereafter, he lost the Immigration portfolio to a moderate. My great nephew-in-law then spread the word due to the fact that it’s personal.