Election minus five weeks

Candidates on both sides of the aisle drop out of contention, Peter Dutton suffers a self-inflicted wound in Dickson, and Shooters Fishers and Farmers rein in their expectations.

Two days in the campaign, and already much to relate:

• Labor’s audacious gambit of running former Fremantle MP Melissa Parke in Curtin has proved short-lived, after a controversy brewed over comments she had made critical of Israel. Parke announced her withdrawal after the Herald Sun presented the Labor campaign with claims she had told a meeting of WA Labor for Palestine that she could “remember vividly” – presumably not from first-hand experience – a pregnant refugee being ordered to drink bleach at a Gaza checkpoint. Parke is also said to have spoken of Israel’s “influence in our political system and foreign policy”, no doubt bringing to the party hierarchy’s mind the turmoil that has lately engulfed the British Labour Party in relation to such matters. In her statement last night, Parke said her views were “well known, but I don’t want them to be a running distraction from electing a Labor government”. James Campbell of the Herald Sun notes the forum was also attended by Parkes’ successor in Fremantle, Josh Wilson.

• Meanwhile, Liberal Party vetting processes have caused the withdrawal on Section 44 grounds of three candidates in who-cares seats in Melbourne. They are Cooper candidate Helen Jackson, who dug her heels in when told her no-chance candidacy required her to abandon her job at Australia Post, so that the integrity of executive-legislative relations might be preserved; Lalor candidate Kate Oski, who is in danger of being Polish; and Wills candidate Vaishali Ghosh, who was, as The Age put it in a report I hope no one from overseas reads, “forced to step aside over her Indian heritage”.

• Peter Dutton has been under fire for his rhetorical overreach against Ali France, the Labor candidate in his marginal seat of Dickson. Dutton accused France, who had her leg amputated after being hit by a car in 2011, of “using her disability as an excuse” for not moving into the electorate. France lives a short distance outside it, and points to the $100,000 of her compensation money she has spent making her existing home fully wheelchair accessible. Labor has taken the opportunity to point to Dutton’s failed attempt from 2009 to move to the safer seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast, where he owns a $2.3 million beachside holiday home, and by all accounts spends a great deal of his time. Dutton refused to apologise for the comments yesterday, while Scott Morrison baselessly asserted that they were taken out of context.

• Greg Brown of The Australian reports Robert Borsak, leader of Shooters Fishers and Farmers and one of the party’s state upper house MPs, concedes the party is struggling to recruit candidates, and will not repeat its state election feat of winning seats in the lower house. Nonetheless, it has Orange deputy mayor Sam Romano lined up as its candidate for Calare and plans to run in Eden-Monaro, Parkes and possibly New England. This follows suggestions the party might pose a threat to the Nationals in Parkes and Farrer, which largely correspond with the state seats of Barwon and Murray, which the party won at last month’s state election. Calare encompasses Orange, which Shooters have held since a November 2016 by-election.

• “I don’t trust our polling at all”, says “a senior federal Liberal MP” cited by John Ferguson in The Australian, apropos the party’s prospects in Victoria. It is not clear if the source was being optimistic or pessimistic, but the report identifies a range of opinion within the Liberal camp extending from only two or three losses in Victoria – likewise identified as a “worst case scenario” by Labor sources – to as many as seven.

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.

1,433 comments on “Election minus five weeks”

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  3. Yesterday, Bucephalus @9:14am stated that Laura Tingle’s article
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-13/politicians-bad-habits-come-out-at-election-time/10998218
    Was wrong when she said:
    “The Government came out all guns blazing to argue that Bill Shorten had attended Mr Huang’s daughters wedding, as if this somehow made it all OK, even if there was a Liberal cabinet minister, Andrew Robb, at the same event.”
    Bucephalus said Robb had retired by then.
    Bucephalus is wrong.
    The wedding was in January, and Robb announced his retirement in February.
    It took some doing but I found the date here.
    Smith is more concerned about Robb and Shorten rorting travel entitlements to attend, but it does show Robb attended as Minister.
    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2019/04/shorten-slugged-taxpayers-for-flights-limos-ta-to-attend-huang-family-wedding.html

  4. It is actually a very good tactic having KK as the attack dog. Shows Labor’s ‘women’s values’ in having a woman in such a job, and also makes it a delicate balance for Coalition if they attack her and use any sexist language whatsoever (which some members of govt will no doubt do).

  5. lizzie @ #700 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:50 am

    Simon Birmingham on ABC doing a clever job of accusing Labor/Plibersek of being racist and Labor of high taxing policies. Just like with the carbon price, everything is labelled a TAX.

    Exactly. It’s a craven attempt to bring Bill Shorten and federal Labor down the same way they brought NSW Labor down. Fcs! Adani is an Indian company, in just the same way that Fisher and Paykel are a New Zealand company! It’s just a statement of fact. No racist overtones about it. What is racial though is the covert way that the Coalition are asttempting to target the Indian electorate demographic in Australia with this dog-whistling stuff.

  6. jenauthor @ #704 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 7:02 am

    It is actually a very good tactic having KK as the attack dog. Shows Labor’s ‘women’s values’ in having a woman in such a job, and also makes it a delicate balance for Coalition if they attack her and use any sexist language whatsoever (which some members of govt will no doubt do).

    Plus she is very good at cutting through.

  13. Forgive my clearly sexist remark, but by gee Anika is very easy on the eye…

    More importantly she’s the fairest of Newscorp journo’s alongside Farr.

  14. C@t:

    And guess who cut funding for youth services in their first budget in 2014? And never restored it I should add.

  16. Good point from Mark Kenny. Morrison tearing up announcing the disability services RC, then a week later one of his senior ministers is attacking someone with a disability.

  18. ‘Plus she is very good at cutting through.’

    And she’s got a pair. Unlike most of the men in the parliamentary Labor party.
    Hmm, now what to do about this big scary tax shite the government is running before it takes hold……(30 days of thinking music…)

  29. RDN already confused about Greens approach to Energy policy. Basically agreeing with Labor policy except for the timing but criticising Labor anyway.

  33. Confessions says:
    Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 9:12 am

    Good point from Mark Kenny. Morrison tearing up announcing the disability services RC, then a week later one of his senior ministers is attacking someone with a disability.

    Good point???

    Or did he just listen to KK?

  34. Originally an importer of domestic refrigerators,[3] Fisher & Paykel now holds over 420 patents[4] and bases its identity on innovative design, particularly in the areas of usability and environmental awareness.[5]

    The company’s trademarked appliances include Active Smart refrigerators, AeroTech ovens, DishDrawer dishwashers, Smart Drive washing machines and Smartload top loading dryers. The company also manufactures gas and electric cooktops.[6]

    In 2004, Fisher & Paykel Appliances purchased the United States-based cookware manufacturer Dynamic Cooking Systems, and Italian cookware company Elba in 2006.

    Fisher & Paykel had grown into a global company operating in 50 countries and manufacturing in Thailand, China, Italy and Mexico. [7] The company had a manufacturing base in Australia for almost 20 years and nearly 70 years in New Zealand, but stated it can no longer compete with low cost labour countries and had to close them. [8][9]

    In 2012, Haier, a major Chinese appliance manufacturer, purchased over 90% of Fisher & Paykel Appliance shares.

    Is F&P a NZ company or a Chinese company with global operations?

  37. Rex Douglas says:
    Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 9:10 am

    Forgive my clearly sexist remark, but by gee Anika is very easy on the eye…

    More importantly she’s the fairest of Newscorp journo’s alongside Farr.

    Just on a par with your usual superficial observations.

  38. You can see why Di Natale is largely ignored. He is all over the place. A unity ticket with CA. Next sentence, not a unity ticket with CA.

  41. RDN going hell for leather to get his talking points out given the national platform.

    And I think we pretty well do know how Julian Assange accessed his information. Wikileaks hacked it.

  42. The Black Wiggle says that Adani ‘will be Front and centre’ – we Got a convoy….

    How did that work in Batman?

  43. The Gs are in no shape to be fighting Reps campaigns. To the extent they campaign against Labor they will alienate Labor-positive voters, who are their core constituency.

  45. Here is a suggestion for the Greens: that they start holding themselves to account for not holding the Liberals to account.

  46. Oh dear, RDN hasn’t learned the lesson of Batman. The answer to everything is not Adani which is now in the hands of the Qld state govt.

  47. Di Natali says on Insiders that 80% of coal produced in this country is exported. So only 20% of coal produced is used in this country.
    If we do not export the coal then countries that buy them from us will buy them from elsewhere.
    Our country can certainly change to renewable energy based economy because we have the resources.

  50. When the Black Wiggle talks about a strong and positive program, let’s not forget that it was his party which voted with the Coalition in 2009 to destroy the first and best attempt at a carbon reduction program this country had. In the name of ideological purity they decided that it was better to ditch the imperfect but workable and hold their breath until the better came along. How did that work out for you Greens?

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