Roughly six months out from a likely federal election, a gathering storm of preselection action. (Note also the thread below this one on the Victorian election campaign).
• Phillip Coorey of the Australian Financial Review reports Scott Morrison has sought to save Craig Kelly from a preselection defeat in Hughes, but that moderate backers of challenger Kent Johns are not to be deterred. According to a source identified as one of his conservative allies, Kelly “has been remiss in looking after his branches and would be lucky to have 25 per cent of the vote”. Quoth a moderate: “As far as the moderates are concerned, Malcolm Turnbull saved Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Angus Taylor and Kelly last time, and look what they did to him.” Among the quandaries this raises are that Kelly may react to his defeat by moving to the cross-benches, further weakening the already shaky position of the government.
• There have been a few suggestions that Barnaby Joyce may fall foul of a new candidate-vetting process the Nationals have introduced, ostensibly to prevent further Section 44 mishaps. Figures in the party appear to have been putting it about that Joyce might face trouble due to the fear that even after the events of the past year, there remain “skeletons in the closet”. However, inquiries by Richard Ferguson of The Australian suggest that “a few members on the NSW Nationals’ 84-people-strong central council do plan to refuse to endorse Mr Joyce but they are in the minority”.
• David Johnston of the Border Mail reports nominees for a Liberal preselection vote for Indi, to be held on December 8, include Steve Martin, project manager for the Mars Petcare Wodonga plant expansion and Seeley International’s relocation from Albury to Wodonga, and Stephen Brooks, a local businessman. Another potential nominee is Greg Mirabella, husband of former member Sophie Mirabella. The seat’s independent member, Cathy McGowan, has not yet committed to seeking another term. The report also raises the possibility that Senator Bridget McKenzie, who is preparing to move her electorate office to Wodonga, might run for the Nationals.
• Christian Knight of the Nambucca Guardian reports the Nationals have preselected Patrick Conaghan, a local solicitor who was formerly a police officer and North Sydney councillor, to succeed the retiring Luke Hartsuyker in Cowper. The other candidates were Chris Genders, a newsagent; Jamie Harrison, former Port Macquarie-Hastings councillor and owner of an electrical business; and Judy Plunkett, a Port Macquarie pharmacist. Conaghan appears to have won over half the vote in the first round.
• Labor has recruited Brian Owler, neurosurgeon and former Australian Medical Association president, as its candidate for Bennelong. The party had initially preselected Lyndal Howison, communications manager at the Whitlam Institute and the party’s candidate in 2016, but she agreed to step aside for Owler.
• Gladys Liu, director of Blue Ribbon Consultancy, has been preselected as the Liberal candidate to succeed Julia Banks in Chisholm, having emerged “the clear winner in the field of eight candidates”, according to Liberal sources cited by Benjamin Preiss of The Age. Other candidates included Theo Zographos, a Monash councillor, and Litsa Pillios, an accountant. James Campbell of the Herald Sun reports Liu had backing from party president Michael Kroger and conservative powerbroker Michael Sukkar.
• David Alexander of the Pine Rivers Press reports the Liberal National Party has preselected local small businessman Terry Young as its candidate for Longman. The party recorded a portentously weak showing in the seat at the Super Saturday by-election on July 28, for which Young was an unsuccessful preselection candidate.
what are big differences between the ALP and the Liberals in relation to ‘social justice’ presented at this election? I can’t see much of a difference.
_____________________________-
Earlier today Douglas and Milko set out in detail the enormous, unnecessary and brutal damage being done by the dishonest and dishonourable way the current government is dealing with ARC research grant applications. In terms of public impact this is imperceptible, but in terms of the impact on the future intellectual and cultural development of this nation it is truly terrible.
Labor never acted this way. And I can’t see it acting this way in future.
A small example of the myriad differences between the Philistine, arrogant, selfish and morally corrupt clowns we have in government now and the only possible alternative at the next election. Look at so many other things – outsourcing of traditional government functions and loss of skills, the appalling treatment of everyone who has to deal with Centrelink, the brutal pleasure that Dutton takes in what is happening on Nauru etc, etc, etc, etc, etc
It’s one thing to say that Labor should be doing more or much more in changing direction from where these bastards have things now. It’s quite another to indulge in the tedious and just plain wrong same/same virtue boasting.
Labor should take a leaf out of John Howard’s book. John Howard post-retirement is emerging as a pretty out there right-winger. In Government, for example, he pretended to believe in climate change and avoided brain farts like the Embassy move idiocy. He got 80% of what he wanted and dragged the Overton Window several kilometers to the right.
Any party who’s policies I supported 100% would be too far left to be electable, and so useless.
Confessions
I saw a video of a guy arguing that it is the turning of the ‘news’ into a ratings battle ground which saw standards dive. Specifically television but I suppose online click bait rules and that is no formula for ‘quality’ coverage.
IIRC Louie Gohmert is a Tea Partier and therefore an idiot.
poroti:
You only have to look at what is broadcast on TV these days to know that is true. The quest for eyeballs has sent our media to the bottom of the barrel.
TPOF I agree with you on that score. I am not arguing for a return of the Coalition, that doesn’t mean I’ll just be happy that any old thing to replace it. That’s just politics as football teams. Which I detest.
The point I’m making though is that there is not even a small bag of policies addressing social justice. I’m not expecting the Whitlam reforms, but what about something?
Confessions says:
With people getting fed sensationalist shit many of the pollies know it act accordingly 🙁 Reality becomes oh so ‘yesterday’. Not that pollies in ye olde days didn’t shovel bovine excrement.
poroti
CIA knows that it is Saudi prince who ordered the Khashogi killing
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1813520
poroti @ #807 Saturday, November 17th, 2018 – 6:22 pm
Some of those pollies literally shoveled stuff at the media.
Ven
And if there is one thing I’ve learnt over the years it is the absolute honesty and trustworthiness of what the CIA tells us 😀
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/16/cia-determines-saudi-crown-prince-ordered-journalists-killing-washington-post
I imagine it’s only the underlings who carried out the murder who will end up themselves being killed by the regime.
And now for something completely different.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2018/nov/16/anonymous-testicle-checking-booth-debuts-in-new-zealand-video
Preparing for Brexit maybe?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/17/bug-grub-sainsburys-to-stock-edible-insects-on-shelves-in-a-uk-first
Thinking of that Ruddick guy trying to get the Liberals to have grass-roots votes for all pre-selections so that ‘true’ (ie far right) Liberals will be preselected – I wonder what he thinks of Craig Kelly’s branches in Hughes all turning on him trying to turf him out.
Nath
That’s a really good insight, goes back to I live in a society not an economy.
Housing neg gearing wages education are both economy and society issues but there has not been much on social equality as you say.
poroti @ #796 Saturday, November 17th, 2018 – 9:10 pm
This is pathetic. You know why? And I remember it well, so no amount of attempting to recast history in a different light to suit your malign intent, will cut it, but Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard was making the point that being on Welfare, whether you are a Single Mum, a young, or an older person, is a stultifying and depressing place to be. Far better to be given the opportunity to engage in work which brings more into the family coffers than a Welfare payment does. And having looked at that sort of life from both sides now myself, it’s an unalloyed statement of common sense and actually shows her generosity of spirit and care and concern for these people, to think the issue through and know what the best thing for them would be. Like a leader should do.
Sing along with “Opinion Rhapsody”. A nice take on Social Media 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=123&v=IABRgZH12YA
Julia Gillard retired at age 52 on 200k a year. Perhaps she should have that pension removed otherwise she might get stultifying and boring. Surely it would be better for all of us and Julia herself that she gives up her 200k plus perks and to use her legal skills for the benefit of the downtrodden and people in need.
Social policies are great in terms of ‘what do they stand for?’ But bread-and-butter issues are what win elections … and regardless of what Morrison tries to ell us, we are ALREADY in election mode (just like the local shopping centre started spruiking Christmas crap on November 1.
Rocket
The Saudis will only pretend to execute their security ops.
nath
Just as well Gillard is championing the downtrodden and people in need on an international scale. Oh, and at beyondblue, too, of course.
It’s one thing to say that Labor should be doing more or much more in changing direction from where these bastards have things now. It’s quite another to indulge in the tedious and just plain wrong same/same virtue boasting.
Not to mention the political anarchists latest meme, that we should elect more independents and smash the majors to smithereens!
I mean, has anyone thought about the fact that many of these so-called ‘Indies’, have tried and failed to find a place in the major parties. That is, they are Misfits. Already proven not to be able to work together collectively and collaboratively towards a common goal that will benefit more citizens than they disadvantage. In other words, to work selflessly for the Common Weal. Where you win a little and lose a little and ultimately end up with a happy medium.
Like bees end up making honey. Not like a bunch of angry wasps, buzzing away in order to simply advance their own ability to make more wasps.
zoomster @ #820 Saturday, November 17th, 2018 – 10:20 pm
Exactly. Devising practical solutions for depression and despair.
zoomster
says:
Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 10:20 pm
nath
Just as well Gillard is championing the downtrodden and people in need on an international scale. Oh, and at beyondblue, too, of course.
________________________
Well she is the Chair of beyondblue and good on her for that. It’s a nominal, part time role at best. But surely, according to C@t’s logic, a 200k a year welfare cheque paid for by the tax payer to retire at age 52 is not suitable, either for herself or the taxpayer.
Talking about cricket..
Cutting through the spin: the brutal reality of an Ethics Centre review
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cutting-through-the-spin-the-brutal-reality-of-an-ethics-centre-review-20181116-p50glt.html
An article about Simon Longstaff and the ethics centre.
One particularly interesting quote
Since then, they have held the mirror up to finance bodies and the military and complex corporations. Longstaff says the patterns can be eerily similar from one to the next, with cricket’s review, for example, having some “uncanny parallels” to those uncovered by peeking behind the cupboards of the banking and finance industry.
Their methodology is not to compare an organization against a benchmark, but how close are you to the thing you want to be.
The gap between the values you say you stand for and what you actually do can be revealing.
nath
That’s just one of her roles. She works internationally on education, with a particular focus on the poorest countries.
What do you do for the good of society? Oh, that’s right – occasionally you make a donation.
zoomster
says:
Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 10:32 pm
nath
That’s just one of her roles. She works internationally on education, with a particular focus on the poorest countries.
What do you do for the good of society? Oh, that’s right – occasionally you make a donation.
____________________________________
Julia swans around New York mostly, gives a few speeches, attends celebrity events. all good fun. and we are paying.
Former PM Julia Gillard has traded Labor luminaries for celebrities as her unlikely friendship with Barbadian pop superstar Rihanna continues to grow.
While Australia’s first female PM used to pal around with the likes of Simon Crean and former boyfriend Craig Emerson, she rubbed shoulders on Thursday night with US rapper Lil Kim and model Emily Ratajkowski at Rihanna’s third annual Diamond Ball fundraiser.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/gillard-shows-off-new-party-allegiance/news-story/e93d2bcde9d0467f3f1aa726d76700f1
Having watched Shane Warne for more than 20 years I’ve just noticed he’s got two different coloured eyes (heterochromic iridia). David Bowie had it as well.
I don’t know if these NYT editorials already got mentioned, but they just came across my screen today:
* https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/09/opinion/expanded-house-representatives-size.html?ref=oembed
* https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/10/opinion/house-representatives-size-multi-member.html?ref=oembed
The first is a proposal that the US House of Representatives be expanded to match the international average. The Australian parliaments (state and federal) are also too small and should be expanded. The smaller the electorate is, the easier it is for voters to contact their MP, and the more likely the MP will be influenced by their voters — not by lobbyists.
The second is a proposal to introduce STV into the US House of Representatives. States would divide themselves into districts of three or five members, whenever possible, (the graphics imply other sizes are possible too) and elect their members in that fashion. STV done well — for instance, Hare-Clark with the Robson rotation — is one of the best voting systems ever conceived, granting voters power of the political parties and seeing representation in line with support. Since America insists on using voting machines I can’t imagine they would ever use Robson rotation, but any (GVT-less) form of STV is an amazing improvement.
To have eminent Americans like the editorial team of the New York Times advocate for this improvements is absolutely amazing. These would be true improvements to American democracy, on a par with the Civil Rights Act.
Dio and our other medicos might be interested in this failed experiment at a Private Public Hospital:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/a-farce-perpetrated-on-the-people-of-the-northern-beaches-20181116-p50gjp.html
C@t
All those things happened when the new RAH opened about a year ago as well. Total fiasco which has cost us $2.3B for a building not fit-for-purpose. Spotless can’t deliver services and are haemorrhaging money. The running of the hospital was $180M over budget this year. PPPs are a disaster but state governments love them.
How about we implement a law that states parliamentary pensions are only paid when the politician meets retirement age. Or for simplicity, when the age pension kicks in for their respective gender. That’s a policy I would support.
“What do you do for the good of society?”
Well…nath could refrain from inflicting himself on it. That would increase the worlds happiness quotient…or at least PB’s. 🙂
I still don’t understand what’s wrong with paying our politicians money after they leave, so they don’t have to seek the support of rich companies for an income when they leave office by favoring them when they’re in office. $200k/year is cheap compared to wage cuts and tax loopholes. Anyone opposed to this is opposed to good, fair government for all Australians. They’re downright unpatriotic.
How about we make all ex parliamentarians report any earnings to Centrelink on a fortnightly basis. If they earn too much their pension could be reduced. Then after a couple of years Centrelink could lose all the data that they had been suplied, and they could get annual data from the tax office and pretend that that was evenly divided over the year and then tell the ex parliamentrians that they owe Centrelink money.
Without wanting to get too specific, the workplace experiences of my very own Her Indoors, and especially the HR troglodytes she and I had to deal with – the same idiots who were put in charge of (cough, cough) “managing” the staff transition to the new Healthscope Shangri La at French’s Forest – convinced us at a very early stage that getting out of NSW Health in Sydney’s Northern Beaches was a preferred career move.
We continue to receive a constant stream of calls from HI’s ex colleagues, many in tears, most ladies, over 55, complaining about the shabby treatment they have received from NSW Health, and are now recriving from Healthscope.
It was all eminently predictable, given the second rate “Workforce” nongs in charge of the move.
Diogenes @ #821 Saturday, November 17th, 2018 – 10:20 pm
Khasshoggi is a pretend execution?
Dio, Cat
I can but agree on the folly of PPP deals. They are usually just fee engines for legal and finance firms. Taxpayers either pay more, or get denied services, or both. Health in SA has been the most incompetently administered department for years. The SA transport department sensibly avoided PPP freeway deals that have failed so often in other states. Why did SA health fall for it?
Diogs,
Bowie didn’t have different coloured eyes. One had been damaged and had a permanently dilated pupil.
Felix
That is very interesting. I read the first one about expanding the House from 435 to 593. Will read the other tomorrow. The District of Columbia could also do with some true ‘voting’ Reps – there are numberplates there which have the slogan “Taxation without Representation” on them.
Someone quoted that cube root rule here a few days ago and I meant to look into it. Under that rule Australia should therefore have about 292 Federal MPs, and seeing as the House is twice the Senate, it would mean around 97 Senators and 195 Reps.
D&M, if you’re about, thanks for the ARC run-down this morning.
We wait in hope. At least I’m not betting Australian PR or citizenship on having a research job for the next three years, like some I know are.
The APEC summit highlights that Labor will need to treat foreign affairs with unusual caution when it assumes office, unlike the incumbents. The China US tension is a problem.
“Speaking shortly afterwards, Pence bluntly told the audience of Asian and Pacific leaders: “Do not accept foreign debt that could compromise your sovereignty … Know that the United States offers a better option.
“We don’t drown our partners in a sea of debt, we don’t coerce, corrupt or compromise your independence”.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/xi-warns-of-dangers-of-conflict-while-pence-lets-fly-20181117-p50gnu.html
This statement is simply rubbish by Pence. The US has financially gutted several nations over past debts, notably Argentina, and now Venezuala. Why should a protectionist USA expect other smaller nations to fall in behind it? Of course China is a threat too. Australia may be better off adopting a position of neutrality to both in this century, as Keating has suggested.
No, Nicholas, I am not. She would best to live in a culture where there was a UBI and there was no stigma attached to it. No “helpful” bureaucrats, no judgement, no forms, no special treatment.
Give me your phone number. I’ll get my sister to give you a call. Yes, you will regret that.
Seriously Nicholas, you don’t get the impossibility of this. There is no job you can design for her that she will accept or treat as anything other than patronising and inadequate and not commensurate with her status. In fact the harder you try the more she will tell you to piss off.
More generally. No one wants to be judged. No one wants to be put in the hands of a bureaucrat.
You said JG jobs will be voluntary. That automatically excludes my sister doesn’t it? So too does it exclude a lot of other people who are for various reasons not going to be sufficiently motivated or even posses the relevant life skills to even engage in the process.
Nicholas, I don’t dismiss the value of government job creation. What I am skeptical of is to what extent our culture will allow a JG to not become another stigmatised work for dole scheme. Put it this way, you think its difficult for our culture to accept a UBI. But its the exact same cultural problems that will screw up a JG. You’re facing the same practical issues.
Don’t be so fucking patronising. My sister is an adult in lots of ways. She lives in her own (rented) house and doesn’t go out and stab anyone. She does come here twice a week and whinge hysterically about how life sucks. But eventually she (somehow manages to) drive home.
Your belief in the power of a managed system with wonderful caring bureaucrats is misplaced. What my sister needs is a universal basic income. Something she would have come to accept as normal as a teenager and like I said, she may not be happy not having a high social status job, at least she won’t have to get mum to pay for her car rego.
This is one of the many ways the current social security system fucks with those not on social security. All this cost cutting really just cuts into the incomes of families.
Oh and btw, before you say it. Yes it would be nice if the DSP actually paid her bills. And it would be nice if Newstart were also raised to that level. And it would be nice if we weren’t wasting money evaluating and assessing and stigmatising people by doing so. But you seem happy with that element.
Nicholas there are people who slide through the cracks. There’s no need to have discriminatory levels of social security payments. It should all act like a UBI.
So why not extend the concept and make it non inflationary via the taxation system and other adjustments.
Also having a UBI and JG in parallel can work. In fact they complement each other. With a UBI there is still a strong incentive to work (you get paid) and it also means that people treat a JG job as a genuine job and not something they are actually forced to have to deal with and accept, no matter how stupid because of the relatively poverty otherwise. And conversely not having that coercive effect means that when the government offers JG jobs they actually have to be well thought out, meaningful jobs that people actually want. Otherwise as I said, the combination of poverty welfare and the JG is that JG jobs will tend towards menial and demeaning. Its just the way real people will behave, Nicholas.
LU I got a copy of Utopia for Realists on the basis of a radio interview with the author.
It shows you how busy I’ve been that I’ve not read it 🙁
Hi Rocket Rocket, I think it was me who mentioned the cube root law. I certainly have a thing for it. Given all the constitutional constraints, and assuming we’re applying the cube root law to the parliament as a whole, my calculation is for 14 senators per original state in the current parliament, and 16 in the next. One of the political scientists most closely associated with the cube root law have described the NYT proposal as “weird” for applying to both houses, but I think it’s fair enough in a parliament/legislature where (a) both houses are powerful and (b) both houses are democratically elected.
If I had my druthers, I’d modify the Commonwealth Elections Act, so that the clause that talks about calculating the entitlement, first they would calculating the number of senators per original state:
1. Take the population of the original states.
2. Find the cube root of that figure.
3. Divide that figure by three (since two members go to the House of Representatives and one to the senate, and we are calculating the senate).
4. Divide that figure by the number of original states.
5. Round that figure down to an even number (because you need to have half elected and each half election, so you need an even number).
The figure obtained in 5 would then be the number of senators per original state. I propose rounding down rather than to the nearest value since the resulting number will be a little high — as we don’t include territories in the calculation. And because I think it would be easier to allow for an automatically growing parliament if it grows as slowly as is fair.
At present this yields 16 senators per original state for a senate of 100 members and 199 MHRs when you add in territory representatives, the Tasmanian overhang (of one MHR) and any possible rounding errors. If the ACT continues to grow and receives 6 MHRs, it’ll get an extra senator too under existing laws. Which I support.
If we follow the custom and only try to target the cube root in the lower house (using a divisor of 2 not 3 in step 3), then we get 24 senators per original state, 148 senators and 295 MHRs. Tasmania earns six MPs in its own right, but Canberra still only gets 5 and therefore only 2 senators.
Cud Chewer. It took me 6 steady weeks to read UFR, a few pages at a time. And then stop to think for a bit. It was an easy read. And easy re read.
Gawd…..Lou Reed was incredibly good.
John Lee Hooker…heard him doing his boogie on YouTube today, supported by Santana…stars, radiant genius…unbelievable …and Nina Simone, who is an inspirational voice for liberation, a celebration of life itself…I’m kind of hooked on her…so beautiful, such a voice, such a sensibility
LU
True. He had anisocoria (blown pupil) from a punch in the neck as a kid. If you look at lots of his publicity shots, they changed his left (blown) eye into having a brown iris to exaggerate the weirdness.
Socrates
‘Why did SA health fall for it?”
If you had ever met any of the braindead morons who work for SA Health, you wouldn’t have asked that question. A decerebrate sheep could easily rise to the top of SA Health.