Kicking off a federal election year with an overdue accumulation of preselection news, going back to late November:
• Liberal Party conservative Craig Kelly was last month saved from factional moderate Kent Johns’ preselection challenge in his southern Sydney seat of Hughes, which was widely reported as having decisive support in local party branches. This followed the state executive’s acquiescence to Scott Morrison’s demand that it rubber-stamp preselections for all sitting members of the House of Representatives, also confirming the positions of Jason Falinski in Mackellar, John Alexander in Bennelong and Lucy Wicks in Robertson. Kelly had threatened a week earlier to move to the cross bench if dumped, presumably with a view to contesting the seat as an independent. Malcolm Turnbull stirred the pot by calling on the executive to defy Morrison, noting there had been “such a long debate in the New South Wales Liberal Party about the importance of grass roots membership involvement”. This referred to preselection reforms that had given Johns the edge over Kelly, which had been championed by conservatives and resisted by moderates. Turnbull’s critics noted he raised no concerns when the executive of the Victorian branch guaranteed sitting members’ preselections shortly before he was dumped as Prime Minister.
• The intervention that saved Craig Kelly applied only to lower house members, and was thus of no use to another beleaguered conservative, Senator Jim Molan, who had been relegated a week earlier to the unwinnable fourth position on the Coalition’s ticket. Hollie Hughes and Andrew Bragg were chosen for the top two positions, with the third reserved to the Nationals (who have chosen Perin Davey, owner of a communications consultancy, to succeed retiring incumbent John “Wacka” Williams). Despite anger at the outcome from conservatives in the party and the media, Scott Morrison declined to intervene. Morrison told 2GB that conservatives themselves were to blame for Molan’s defeat in the preselection ballot, as there was “a whole bunch of people in the very conservative part of our party who didn’t show up”.
• Labor’s national executive has chosen Diane Beamer, a former state government minister who held the seats of Badgerys Creek and Mulgoa from 1995 to 2011, to replace Emma Husar in Lindsay. The move scotched Husar’s effort to recant her earlier decision to vacate the seat, after she became embroiled in accusations of bullying and sexual harassment in August. Husar is now suing Buzzfeed over its reporting of the allegations, and is reportedly considering running as an independent. The Liberals have preselected Melissa McIntosh, communications manager for the not-for-profit Wentworth Community Housing.
• The misadventures of Nationals MP Andrew Broad have created an opening in his seat of Mallee, which has been in National/Country Party hands since its creation in 1949, although the Liberals have been competitive when past vacancies have given them the opportunity to contest it. The present status on suggestions the seat will be contested for the Liberals by Peta Credlin, who was raised locally in Wycheproof, is that she is “being encouraged”. There appears to be a view in the Nationals that the position should go to a woman, with Rachel Baxendale of The Australian identifying three potential nominees – Anne Mansell, chief executive of Dried Fruits Australia; Caroline Welsh, chair of the Birchip Cropping Group; and Tanya Chapman, former chair of Citrus Australia – in addition to confirmed starter Anne Warner, a social worker.
• Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie yesterday scotched suggestions that she might run in Mallee. The view is that she is positioning herself to succeeding Cathy McGowan in Indi if she decides not to recontest, having recently relocated her electorate office from Bendigo to one of Indi’s main population centres, Wodonga. The Liberals last month preselected Steven Martin, a Wodonga-based engineer.
• Grant Schultz, Milton real estate agent and son of former Hume MP Alby Schultz, has been preselected as Liberal candidate for Gilmore on New South Wales’ south coast, which the party holds on a delicate margin of 0.7%. The seat is to be vacated by Ann Sudmalis, whose preselection Schultz was preparing to challenge when she announced her retirement in September. It was reported in the South Coast Register that Joanna Gash, who held the seat from 1996 to 2013 and is now the mayor of Shoalhaven (UPDATE: Turns out Gash ceased to be so as of the 2016 election, and is now merely a councillor), declared herself “pissed off” at the local party’s endorsement of Schultz, which passed by forty votes to nine.
• Hawkesbury councillor Sarah Richards has been preselected as the Liberal candidate in Macquarie, where Labor’s Susan Templeman unseated Liberal member Louise Markus in 2016.
rhwombat @ #2099 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:31 am
And mullets!
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1081855480899588096/tLP2gYFn?format=jpg&name=600×314
Rear Vision – ABC RN
Race Relations in Australia: from 1901 to the Uluru Statement
https://goo.gl/oqVjBD
(hope this works)
The proportion of ‘white Anglo Saxon types’ in Australia is lower than it was 60 years ago, but racism and xenophobia still has a similar influence within that group.
Damn, the link didn’t work, but the podcast can be traced.
Are people seriously saying that the Australians of today should feel deep personal guilt for the dispossession and maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians, events which took place in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, events which happened decades before they were born and when their ancestors didn’t even live in Australia? Events which today are condemned by all but a tiny extremist fringe of Australian society? This blog can be a goldmine of info. on Australian politics, but gee there’s some rubbish in it too.
Sohar @ #2102 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 4:40 am
Unfortunately racism isn’t restricted to that demographic.
I can’t think of a culture that doesn’t have it to one extent or another.
Barney
Thank goodness you said that.
Greensborough Growler @ #44969 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:36 am
BUTAMAFA?
Parramatta Moderate @ #2105 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:43 am
Agree completely.
In fact, the xenophobia and Nationalism being espoused by Blair Cottrell, Neil Eriksen and Fraser Anning the other day embraced a pretty broad definition of ‘White’, if White Supremacy is what they are on about. I noticed at least one, Western Oriental Gentleman and another who looked to be from the Subcontinent, among the supporters of The United Patriots Front. And it is indeed the case that one of the most vocal supporters and figureheads to these people, is Danny Naaliah,of Catch the Fire Ministries. A man of Sri Lankan origin. 🙂
Parramatta Moderate @ #2104 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 4:43 am
I don’t see it as being about feeling personal guilt, but more about acknowledging our history warts and all without the airbrushing that some politicians and other groups attempt.
There are a lot of good features in our history, but there are also many bad ones.
Neither should be forgotten!
They all contain important lessons!
rhwombat @ #2108 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:55 am
“Bunch of Ugly Tattoos and Fraser Anning” – BUTAFA.
Read the initial letters. I went looking too, and found nothing, then the penny dropped.
Barney: “I can’t think of a culture that doesn’t have it to one extent or another”.
I agree. The problems arise when one culture dominates. You’ll note that the more multicultural an area is in Australia, the more likely the representation is progressive. In areas with strong Anglo-Celtic populations (e.g. outside the big cities), the more likely regressive representation.
Parramatta Moderate @ #44973 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:43 am
Yes, we are. Fuck off you pathetic acolyte of Howard (aka The Lying Rodent, The Evil Suburban Solicitor, Hyacinth Buckett’s Husband, Little Johnny, Shrub’s Deputy Sheriff, Rupert’s Prick, etc.).
Sohar @ #2113 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:59 am
The electorate of New England for example, with our esteemed representative Barnaby Joyce.
Wants the government to fund coal fired power stations, since the market won’t touch that sort of investment with a barge pole.
Trump’s ‘word salad’ history of Russia invading Afghanistan is evidence he’s someone’s ‘puppet’: Trump biographer
Appearing on MSNBC to discuss Donald Trump’s history-challenged description of Russia invading Afghanistan, a biographer of the president said that it was obvious he was being fed false information about a country he knows nothing about.
Speaking with AM Joy host Joy Reid, Tim O’Brien — who wrote “TrumpNation” jumped all over the president, describing him as clueless about the region and its history.
“We have to wonder why these talking points that are clearly Kremlin talking points end up in Donald Trump’s mouth,” O’Brien began. “He’s probably the most wildly ill-informed and illiterate president we have had in the Oval Office and he would be hard-pressed to find Afghanistan on a map.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/trumps-word-salad-history-russia-invading-afghanistan-evidence-hes-someones-puppet-trump-biographer/
rhwombat @ #2114 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:02 am
Who is the ‘we’ you speak for? Not me, that’s for sure.
And how did you get the ‘right’ to speak for the rest of the contributors here?
rhwombat,
You don’t speak for me, either.
C@tmomma @ #2117 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 5:07 am
+1
Sohar @ #2113 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:59 am
Not strictly true. Up here on the Central Coast of NSW, 3 out of 4 of our State government seats are held by the Labor Party but we are mostly still of Anglo Saxon and European origin, though it is slowly changing.
Also, I reflect on the SSM vote. Even though many Western Sydney, highly multicultural seats have Labor MPs, they voted against SSM in the highest numbers.
Roman Quaedvlieg was in charge of the secret on water matters for Morrison and the Dutton, and the less secret but still not transparent torture camps on Manus and Nauru. He may well need to look for redemption but his ‘look at me tweets’ are unlikely to hold it.
Also he misses the point, the ugly, idiot facists we saw in St Kilda, obviously aren’t the problem they are just the ugly boil on the cat’s tail which has Howard and his kids overboard racist fraud on Australia at its head. It is the size of the body in between that is the problem.
Re C@t @8:56 am – but no women.
don @ #44985 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:04 am
OK, Don, substitute “I am” for “we are”. My apologies for the hubris of passion – however, I would be surprised if the majority on PB don’t recognise and reject the whining excuse of the privileged not to question their advantage: “I’m not racist, but…”. “Parramatta Moderate” is a GRASPer shill – as can be gleaned from the pseudonym. It only appears when the RWFWs have committed yet another egregious offence.
Hopefully a statement about being near death will prolong life for Billy Connolly like it seems to have for Clive James.
Bob Ellis’ sole correct prediction for many a year was his death
The Kouk being cruel but fair!
Stephen Koukoulas
Verified account
@TheKouk
5m5 minutes ago
More
So many people view the RBA like the Marsh brothers – constant failure seems to endear them
Shellbell @ #2124 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:21 am
There has been a spate of celebrity non-deaths recently. Only last week Olivia Newton John announced she wasn’t dying. And now, Billy Connolly has done the same.
Steve777 @ #2122 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:19 am
I saw a couple in various photos from the event.
If we were to assay it, we’d find several pints of discrimination in the arteries of the national blood supply. It’s not so long ago that Tim Fisher could boast of enacting buckets of extinguishment of native title rights. And this continues, as the response to the Uluru statement and unwillingness to write indigenous recognition into the Constitution or to adopt a Treaty all affirm.
Graham ‘Richo’ Richardson still motoring along as well.
Parramatta Moderate @ #2104 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 4:43 am
Are people seriously saying that the Australians of today should feel deep personal guilt for the dispossession and maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians, events which took place in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, events which happened decades before they were born and when their ancestors didn’t even live in Australia? Events which today are condemned by all but a tiny extremist fringe of Australian society? This blog can be a goldmine of info. on Australian politics, but gee there’s some rubbish in it too.
_____________________________
It’s an important question how long inter generation guilt should last, something the Germans are dealing with too. Most of the Aboriginal tribes were so decimated that there are only a small handful of descendants around today, more remote tribes survived better.
The fact is that every property holder benefits from the original dispossession. Nothing can take that back but I think that the measure of how sorry we are for what happened is how quickly we ‘close the gap’. So far, not so well.
briefly @ #2129 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:26 am
Hopefully to be completely redressed via the election of a Labor federal government.
The interesting thing about Billy Connelly’s musing on his death was the fearlessness, patently genuine, in which he held the other side of the hill and the adventure into the spirit world.
I think his repost was not so much for himself as for his admirers.
If you consider that time isn’t linear, that all permutations and combinations exist in a non instant, the only thing to consider is when to change channels. You are simply rifling through files in search of the fearless state which is your truth. Go Billy.
nath is right. (Did I just say that!?! 😆 ) I live on the remnants of an Aboriginal midden, with a billabong out the back and across the road from Aboriginal rock paintings in the National Park. I must admit that every time that a shell peaks through the dirt I feel a little twinge of guilt, but what can I do? I don’t own the land.
C@tmomma says:
Monday, January 7, 2019 at 8:33 am
It wasn’t me who referred to the massacres of Indigenous Australians. To the best of my limited knowledge these were mostly carried out pre 1901. Therefore by British Citizens.
The Stolen Generation was effected by Australians on the other hand. That’s not right either. I would also say that that wasn’t done by fascists either.
In fact the massacres continues well into the 20th century. I have spoken to someone who claims to have witnessed one in the Kimberly in the 1950s.
I do not like the term “stolen generation” it implies that it only happened to one generation. It went on for a long time and covered at least 3 generations.
Last November.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/nationals-bans-22-members-for-life-after-investigation-into-neo-nazi-links-20181102-p50dnk.html
The Australian Securities Exchange is pursuing its hard line against Chinese firms, expelling a number from the exchange and proposing to impose new rules to punish dodgy listed companies and rule breakers.
China Dairy, Traditional Therapy Clinics, Winha Commerce, Wolf Petroleum, Ding Sheng Xin Finance and Premiere Eastern Energy were all delisted by the ASX in 2018 and there could be several more expelled under the proposed changes. ASX has also been increasing scrutiny of companies proposing to list on the local market.
The reasons companies are delisted include failing to lodge accounts, corporate governance problems, failure to respond to ASX queries, breaches of listing rules and long-term suspension of shares.
https://www.afr.com/markets/asx-propose-sweeping-regulatory-changes-to-stop-dodgy-listings-20190103-h19nny
I have the misfortune of seeing Richo a couple of times a year. He reminds of Albert Finney’s character in Cold Lazarus.
lizzie
This link will work for people.
Race Relations in Australia: from 1901 to the Uluru Statement
https://player.fm/series/rear-vision-program-podcast/race-relations-in-australia-from-1901-to-the-uluru-statement
As far as I know, massacres were not perpetrated by British Redcoats marching into the Bush, but by property holders forming a posse for the purposes of murder. Many of those property holders were the ancestors of current Australians and provided the wealth and inheritance that lives on today. Blaming the British is lame.
Yes, nath is very right. I feel guilt, which is a negative emotion which I struggle to covert into something meaningful. I bought this bush block, and then some, and one or two (I can’t remember now) owners removed I see the ‘original’ owner was The Crown.
The Crown!
I am on stolen property.
Also, while the Australian Commonwealth did not come into existence until 1901, The Colonial Parliaments had a great influence on events (Native Police). New South Welshmen, Tasmanians, Victorians etc were around a lot longer than 1901.
Thanks, poroti.
Peter Stanton,
Ah, yes, the Wild West. So where and how and when in the 1950s did the massacre of Indigenous Australians occur? I’m interested to know whether it was simply dispossession of landholders so as to get at the Mining Rights, or for some other reason.
I remember vividly, to this day, staying at Kalbarri, which is in the Gascoyne, not the Kimberley I believe, for 3 months, while I relieved for the local Pharmacist who wanted to go on a long holiday and I was put up in a holiday villa, a group of which had been built on top of the place where a massacre of the local Indigenous tribe had occurred.
It chilled me to the bone. I have never felt shivers up my spine like I felt staying there. And the nightmares! The worst I have ever had! I was so glad to get out of there.
Parramatta M. and Don
The reaction forthcoming from Parramatta’s initial comment and Don, your second response, is telling.
Framing the concern regarding the first people or any other later arrival in the divisive manner in which you both have is symptomatic of the underlying problem this country has in planning policy to become more inclusive as a nation.
No rational commentators are asking anybody to inherit the guilt for the sins of the first new arrivals against the first peoples, but rather to acknowledge that certain groups within our society are in need of particular attention to improve their lot. The first Australians are one such group.
The current group of yobbos participating in this faux nazi thing are just that. Other examples are equally telling. The LNP policy gurus would have us believe that relieving the wealthy of their tax obligations and the associated trickle down effect is for the benefit of all. The retail superannuation mob would have you believe that reducing all superannuation to their level of administrative usury is in the best of all superannuation beneficiaries. The owners of the undeveloped coal deposit abundant throughout the vast Australian lands tell us the country will collapse without the mining and selling of such deposits.
Parramatta Moderate, you may feel as much guilt for anything as you like, just allow others the same right.
Don, dare one to tell you anthing, you have your rights. Did you eat something last night which disagreed with you?
My own position, being pedigree convict by descent, having spent my formative years in the bush and having seen the emerging middle class of indigenous peoples of in later years, feel a need to address the lot of indigenous peoples. It’s often a thankless pursuit of one’s time, with few successes.
My own extended family have no feelings that I have.
I have German heritage. As a child I was bewildered at the anger directed at me and guilt I was told to wear. As an Australian travelling in Germany, as a child then young adult, I was struck by the deep reflection on WW2 in every day conversation and memorials dotted about. The shame was real but not crippling. I did not understand it until much much later, reading words by a Black Man from the USA, whose name I wish I had recorded for myself. WTTE, he pointed out that if you benefit today from the deeds of your parents then you carry their guilt. He was talking about inherited money, money made through exploitation of slaves and then of their free descendants in the USA. I understood my heritage. It takes strength to remember and live with dignity. Australia too needs it’s holocaust museums. Lest we forget.
nath @ #2140 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:35 am
I know this too. However, ‘For King and Country’ motivated a lot of ‘Australians’.
Also, you have to admit, the British did their fair share in the early days of the colony.
I am reading Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe which speaks in simple and well referenced terms about how we have suppressed evidence of aboriginal land management, agriculture, water and fishing sustainability, and other instances whereby we can deny the worth of the first people’s existence here and claim ourselves as the worthy ones. We have in fact destroyed the land with hoof and pasture, phosphates and dams. It will not return.
On a brighter note, I read this this morning:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/07/outback-regeneration-at-bon-bon-station-reserve-a-picture-essay
don @ #44985 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 9:04 am
I’ve spent quite a bit of time working in health systems where indigenous Australians represent a significant minority group: Parramatta, Blacktown, Broken Hill, Alice Springs, Mt Isa, Kempsey, Grafton, Maryborough (the original Australian slave port) etc. I have seen the practical effects of the persistent racism and discrimination that still contaminates Australian culture. It thrives on the back of the view expressed by “Parramatta Moderate” that “I have no responsibility for the past sins of my tribe.” Howard weaponised this to empower the corpse of Australian Torydom. Anning, Hanson and the BUTAMAFA are still riding it. Only one side of Australian politics thinks this is reasonable, but we are all responsible for letting them get away with the lie that it represents.
It is easy to pretend that it is only the pathetic fascists who promulgate this bullshit, but that too is collusion.