Not the Wentworth by-election thread

Some preselection news, and a thread for discussion of political matters not directly related to the Wentworth by-election count.

For discussion focused on the count for the Wentworth by-election, which turns out not to have been as over as you thought it was last night, the live results thread is still in action. For general political discussion, I offer the following post, with my usual semi-regular updates of preselection news.

Phillip Coorey of the Australian Financial Review reports a New South Wales Liberal Senate preselection next month is a three-way contest between Jim Molan, Andrew Bragg and Hollie Hughes. Molan found a place in the Senate last December by the grace of Section 44, after securing only the unwinnable seventh position on the Coalition ticket at the 2016 double dissolution, to the chagrin of conservatives including Tony Abbott. Then followed the disqualification of Nationals Senator Fiona Nash, followed by the determination that the sixth candidate on the ticket, the aforesaid Hollie Hughes, was likewise ineligible due to a position she had taken on the Administrative Affairs Tribunal. Now it appears Molan is primed to take top spot, and since the third position is reserved for the Nationals, this leaves two and four to be fought out between Bragg, whose decision to withdraw himself from consideration for preselection in Wentworth is now looking pretty good, and Hughes, whose Section 44 complication is behind her.

• The Port Macquarie News reports three candidates have nominated to succeed retiring Luke Hartsuyker as Nationals candidate for Cowper: Patrick Conaghan, a former police officer and North Sydney councillor who now works locally as a solicitor; Chris Genders, a newsagent; and Jamie Harrison, former Port Macquarie-Hastings councillor and owner of an electrical business.

• The Burnie Advocate reports Gavin Pearce, who has been described as a “farmer and ex-defence force member”, has been preselected as Liberal candidate for Braddon ahead of “Devonport business identity Stacey Sheehan and property developer Kent Townsend”.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,550 comments on “Not the Wentworth by-election thread”

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  1. Andrew Bolt is terribly unhappy with Fran’s send up of the Liberals on Insiders yesterday and his mate Rowan Dean as good as said that the ABC should be privatised over it.

    I thought she did a damn good job and anyone here who hasn’t seen it should do themselves a favour and look it up. Very amusing and very well sung for a rank amateur.

  2. Rudd on 7.30… is it really necessary to go over all of this again? Get on with life, Kevin. You got back as PM. Wrecked the party and the government, and destroyed your own legacy.

    Why continue to inflict your own grief on others?

  3. C@tmomma @ #1298 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 7:45 pm

    nath @ #1294 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 7:31 pm

    C@tmomma
    The old man, and getting older, will meet his match in Bill Shorten.
    ___________________________________
    At their first meeting Shorten will drop to his knees, kiss the ring. He will offer whatever Murdoch wants, including Chloe’s phone number, and then be dismissed like a starving waiter.

    You truly are an execrable individual! beyond humanity and redemption. And I sincerely hope that Mr Bowe takes a close look at this latest abomination which has been emitted from your computer in the sewer you dwell in!

    FWIW, I think that is a step too far.
    If we all ignored him, he’d get sick of talking to himself.

  4. A Shorten Government should looks at opportunity to weaken Newscrap. Now if he could make them pay their tax maybe they’d sell up and leave.

  5. Darn @ #1298 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 4:51 pm

    Andrew Bolt is terribly unhappy with Fran’s send up of the Liberals on Insiders yesterday and his mate Rowan Dean as good as said that the ABC should be privatised over it.

    I thought she did a damn good job and anyone here who hasn’t seen it should do themselves a favour and look it up. Very amusing and very well sung for a rank amateur.

    Was Bolt and Rowan Dean so outraged about At Home with Julia, and the way media outlets generally mocked the Labor govt? I have a feeling Bolt expressed his displeasure about AHWJ, but could be wrong about that (I don’t read or listen to him).

  6. Puffytmd
    Shame on you, Nath.
    ____________________
    OK. I gather it was my comment re Gillard and applause that caused you to be so upset. Well if Gillard can say this about Rudd, I think my comment shouldn’t be too controversial:

    “the difficulties of his childhood had produced a man who craved attention and the applause of the crowd”

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-says-kevin-rudd-was-a-man-desperate-for-applause/news-story/7c0e7e61faf00fe98ea8d9c0a0668cbd

  7. Senate Estimates is good viewing, the Environment and Energy Commitee is a cavalcade of embarrassing statements from ministers being run past the hapless public servants. It really does shine a light on the Coal Crew and their desire to trash good public policy.

  8. Scummo and friends have heard the message – climate change, coal mines, wage growth, penalty rates, kids in custody, stability. Sounds easy.

    It would be easier to blame the former PM for not send a text!!

  9. Sprocket_ @ #1311 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 5:07 pm

    Public Admin Committee hotting up over no Cabinet process for Scotty’s Jerusalem embassy BrainFart

    They should hot up over the half a billion dollar gift with no governance process to the GBRF in my view. Everyone knows the Israeli embassy brain fart was a one time gig pitched to the Wentworth by-election.

  10. My quote of the day:

    Tony Abbott, on the backbench of the House of Representatives, his expression blank, but his leg jiggling madly…

    Jacqueline Maley

  11. C@tmomma says:
    Monday, October 22, 2018 at 7:57 pm
    Darn,
    Before Fran Kelly became an ABC journalist, she was a singer in a band

    Ah – that would explain it then. It certainly caught a few people by surprise I think – me included.

  12. C@tmomma @ #1264 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 5:18 pm

    What an amazing photo in this article of a man, a survivor of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, dropping to his knees at the feet of Julia Gillard!

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/of-all-the-politicians-julia-gillard-was-the-only-one-survivors-really-wanted-20181022-p50b8z.html

    From the article:

    The man who had kissed Gillard’s feet was in the crowd.

    His name was Frank.

    He was a former student at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat. His abuser was Robert Claffey, now jailed, one of several priests from that place who casually broke the children in his care with vile abuse.

    “I’m not a Labor person,” he said.

    “But I always said, if I ever see Julia Gillard, I will drop to my knees and kiss her feet.

    “Our unmarried, deliberately barren, atheist female prime minister, she has done more to protect the safety and welfare of children into the future than all the other prime ministers combined.”

  13. Thankfully bemused is not here to give his unique take on the Rudd interview.
    The Rudd Gillard merry go round has been averted.
    That said, Rudd is full of shit.

  14. Adrian

    (1). My calling out c@t’s reference to Nath as an “a…hole” makes me an idiot, says you. Even though I was merely fulfilling my role as Watcha …….self-appointed by Divinity …. and doing so in the ordained sanctimonious manner.

    (2). But you then call c@t for referring to Nath as an “execrable individual”.

    There seems to be an inconsistency there.

    Soooo…….You score 100% for breaking InGroup silence in (2) , but since you scored only 0% for your InGroup silence and solidarity and succumbing to your fear of c@t in (1) , your average is 50%, a bare pass.

    Nevertheless you are heading in the correct direction, so I will encourage you with a “well done!”

  15. Krudd the bastard waits until the Day of the Apology when FPMJG gets accolades for the RC into Child Abuse in Institutions to run his whinge on ABC 7.30 and keep up to his old tricks. He is a sleaze.

  16. Am totes over this invictus nonsense.
    Old firies, coppers, medical workers all have their own annual get togethers without any hullabaloo what so ever.

  17. Thank you C@t and JM for that article. I have tears – the images in that article say it all!

    And suddenly with blinding clarity I can see why Rudd picked today to go in the media about his book: it’s all about running interference on any kudos Gillard gets. He really is embittered and washed up.

    :large

  18. Puffytmd @ #1326 Monday, October 22nd, 2018 – 5:19 pm

    Krudd the bastard waits until the Day of the Apology when FPMJG gets accolades for the RC into Child Abuse in Institutions to run his whinge on ABC 7.30 and keep up to his old tricks. He is a sleaze.

    It doesn’t say much about his respect for those being apologised to either, trying to suck away attention from them and the acknowledgement of their suffering by federal parliament.

  19. A look at the Fran band
    .
    “Toxic Shock – Intoxicated 7″ EMI Custom 13236, 1981

    ……………………this week we bring you a high-energy post-punk rant from Melbourne……………… Lumbering under the uninspiring moniker of the Girl’s Garage Band prior the single’s release, a new name would present itself after a late-’70s outbreak of illness caused by high-absorbency tampons: Toxic Shock……………………………………………….Some years later, vocalist Fran Kelly would become a respected Australian political journalist, eventually interviewing Fraser for ABC Radio National. Funnily enough, Fraser’s resemblance to life-threatening menstrual sepsis didn’t come up as a topic of conversation”
    http://wallabybeat.blogspot.com/2011/02/toxic-shock-intoxicated-7-emi-custom.html

  20. The Silver Bodgie says:
    Monday, October 22, 2018 at 8:15 pm
    Heckle and Jeckle alias Bolt and Price bitter as ever tonight.

    Yes. My schadenfreude is overflowing tonight. I think Bolt just labelled Morrison as ‘shallow’.

  21. Henry,
    Anything that puts disability and especially mental health injury in the spotlight is a good thing. Other services have get togethers. This is more than a get-together or a reunion. And the awareness of injury, both physical and mental, from service will assist those such as firefighters, ambos, emergency service workers who have the same problems.

    Just because it is organised by a member of a family designated ‘as royals’ does not mean the Invictus Games and its participants are worth denigrating.

    I sat watching one of the competitors tell their story describing the symptoms and a grown man next to me, a member of my family, said ‘That’s me’.

    Please re-evaluate your understanding.

  22. C@tmomma
    says:
    Monday, October 22, 2018 at 8:13 pm
    Bye, bye nath! Nice knowing you!

    You look like you could use a little love yourself.
    ____________________________
    Who is this poor man you are making fun of in that photo?

  23. Confessions,
    Yes. I picked up on that straight away. He wanted to suck oxygen from The Apology and anything Julia Gillard gets kudos from, and trash it.

    I am angry that the ABC ran that tonight of all nights. They could have waited until tomorrow.

  24. The Guardian:

    The second volume of Kevin Rudd’s book will be launched tomorrow.

    Both Rudd and Claire Moore will be there for the event, which will be held in parliament just after lunch.

  25. Today I watched the Invictus Games Indoor Rowing competitions. I wish it was on TV. Luckily I can get You-Tube on my TV but there are not enough streams of all the events.

    The ABC is obviously suffering from the budget cuts, unable to put on a wider coverage of these Games.

  26. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/22/australia-spends-480000-more-in-legal-fees-on-nauru-detainee-healthcare-claims

    “The Home Affairs department has spent almost half a million dollars in legal fees in three months responding to court applications for urgent medical transfers of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru.

    The amount revealed at Senate estimates on Monday afternoon vastly eclipses the total for the entire previous year, and applies to about 37 cases – sometimes involving multiple people – brought to court since 1 July.”

  27. Darn , you don’t understand how hard it is for the average Lib battler:
    New cars every couple of years
    Private schools for both the kids
    European holiday every year
    Trip to the snow every year
    Getting the 5th negatively geared house….

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