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.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #1327 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:13 pm
Well played, sir!
Well, the Constitution explicitly says that laws about tax can only be about the one tax.
How that relates to bills and parliamentary procedure I’m clearly unqualified to say, but the intent of the Constitution is clear about trying to avoid exactly what you are suggesting.
It is amazing to find how much GetUp! get up the noses of some of our extreme anti-Labor relatives. They are seen as the devil incarnate – possibly worse than the Greens! And their tactics of using a whole lot of ‘free’ volunteers to bombard certain electorates – it is seen by these relatives as positively undemocratic, and somehow sinister! One of them was banging on about how GetUp! should not have charity status – I told them that they in fact don’t have charity status, while the IPA does (which is bizarre and hilarious in a black humour sort of way.)
I really hope there are some polls out in the next day or so. My euphoria at seeing the Saints win their third game for the year (after winning 4.5 for the whole of last season) could just last that much longer with another favourable poll tonight or tomorrow!
‘It’s Time says:
Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 8:24 pm
Boerwar @ #1333 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:15 pm
It’s Time
There is nothing at all in the Constitution preventing it.
If unrepresentative swill persist in denying a mandate then bundled bills are one way to bypass them.
Rubbish Boerwar, the double dissolution is the mechanism to resolve such situations.’
There is nothing in the Constitution preventing bundling. And if those Bills are knocked back twice then the they form a trigger for a DD.
I said earlier that Cormann’s interview with Speers this morning could represent a ‘birthday cake’ of its own.
…
https://thewest.com.au/politics/federal-election-2019/federal-election-2019-mathias-cormann-struggles-to-explain-coalitions-tax-cut-plans-ng-b881168292z
“They are are humungous big swinging dicks. There is no end to these pricks.”
Ahhh, but can they keep it up over the campaign.
RR
They certainly hate GetUp! with a passion.
‘Jackol says:
Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 8:30 pm
There is nothing at all in the Constitution preventing it.
Well, the Constitution explicitly says that laws about tax can only be about the one tax.’
OK. So the one tax might be changes to negative gearing. Does the Constitution prevent that Bill from also including how the money would be spent?
The Coalition attempted ‘bundling’ but it ultimately didn’t work.
Confessions
I thought Mr Speers did quite a good job of cornering Mr Corman on that one. Mr Corman promised to provide Speers with the numbers, as if he was doing Senate Estimates.
The notion that Corman has never seen that particular number is as who might say interesting.
I think the Captain Getup campaign is about rallying the young adult vote to the Liberals, by looking cooler, and deriding their main rivals. Young adults is a demographic the Liberals struggle with, (outside party members families).
Yet it is so ham fisted it only emphasis3s how out of touch the young libs are with their campaign. It shows GetUp is getting to them.
Boerwar @ #1354 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:30 pm
Yeah, but the DD option means the voting threshold for election to the Senate is 7-8%.
I had thought that the original aim of Captain GetUp! campaign was to expose the evil manipulators who were secretly funding GetUp!
boerwar – again, the relationship between bills, parliamentary procedure, and what ends up being classified as ‘a law’ is not clear to me. What the constitution actually says is (s55):
Jackol
I may have to admit that I was talking out of my arse on this one!
Jackol – interesting. From memory, the Coalition were bundling cuts in areas they don’t like (Welfare, etc) with new spending.
Rocket Rocket:
It says a lot about the conservative side of Australia’s politics that its response to GetUp, a genuine, well-supported policy outfit that campaigns with real volunteers in electorates in order to engineer progressive policy, is a cartoon character with a fake Asian accent who dry humps the billboards of its opponents.
Boerwar:
IMO Speers is doing himself a disservice remaining with Sky News.
I suspect the thinking is that the unfiltered output of Donald Trump’s id got him elected, so it can work for them too. It’s basically gives the right a licence to believe that whatever they want to believe is, ipso facto, good politics. As manifestations of this go, Captain GetUp is probably no worse than Peter Dutton for PM.
These RWNJs are a laugh a minute!
Of course GetUp is against the Natural Order. The left has to get billionaire media barons to campaign for them like the Right.
Our great LNP will win the seats of longman Bass Braddon Lindsay
They will retain all 73 seats
So will have a majority of 4
Captain GetUp is a fitting footnote to the absurdities of the parliament just dissolved. It was pretty obvious from day one of Advance Australia that it was just going to be a Dad’s Army version of GetUp!, by turns comical and clueless.
When the contrast at the moment is between an opposition that has done policy work and a PM who seems only capable of stunts which misfire, why wouldn’t you try to put yet another pure stunt into the public gaze?
I’ve just started reading Troy Bramston’s new book on Menzies, which is pretty good. Menzies, of course, would have had no need, and no time, for Captain GetUp.
steve777 – as I said, I’m unclear about the relationship between bills and law, so eg, a bill that includes a series of amendments to a variety of existing legislation – if each piece of resultant legislation individually complies with s55 even if multiple laws covering a variety of topics were amended at the same time, it may not be a problem.
Although given that s55 is titled ‘Tax Bill’ it would seem to suggest that the intention was to prevent any such bundling, but might be rendered moot by sloppy wording.
The Taylor letter was about 2 our of 10 on the Richter scale. Taylor isn’t going to do anything. Zero.
I think the billboard in question belonged to Advance Australia.
Rocket Rocket @ #1353 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:30 pm
The Libs hate Get-Up because its threatens the right wing stranglehold on the flow of political information in this country that has lasted for 100 years. Without that stranglehold, all they’ve got is a bunch of shit policies that they can’t sell. Get-UP and the like are a true existential threat.
Citizen.
Of its opponents. Not by its opponents.
Newspoll 52-48. Primaries up for Labor and the Coalition.
Wayne @ #1372 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 8:48 pm
—
What happened to winning back all 16 seats lost in 2016 Wayne ? Isn’t it past your bed time.
Today’s Rowe. Love the Cash ‘Uteless’.
:large
“As manifestations of this go, Captain GetUp is probably no worse than Peter Dutton for PM.”
Agreed. My main sadness with that as a concept is that we still have, what, 5 weeks to go, and probably haven’t yet reached peak stupid. 🙁
Captain GetUp and his sidekick take a visit to Captain Cook’s landing at Kurnell – I reckon Scotty is writing their lines…
https://mobile.twitter.com/CaptGetUp/status/1116593095716392965/video/1
antonbruckner11 says:
Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 8:55 pm
The Libs hate GetUp because, along with Labor, it highlights how ineffective the Right is at generating any sort of grassroots support.
I reckon its 39 Coal and 38 Labor. One more point for the Coalition to get to 40, and then at least we have a contest.
michael @ #1379 Sunday, April 14th, 2019 – 9:01 pm
—
Source ?
“it is seen by these relatives as positively undemocratic, and somehow sinister! ”
And that, i think, says something pretty fundamental about their attitude to democracy. whatever you think about Getup they have the support of enough VOLUNTEERS to be a significant political force. Thats what frightens the RW.
“Captain Getup” seems to me to be an attempt to use humor by the RW. But..they just dont really get the humor thing.
Chris Kenny chatter…
Kenny just gave it away at 9pm.
Atkins tweeted no Newspoll tonight.
Have just come back from Josh Wilson’s launch at “Little Creatures” in Freo. I.e. “the Socialist Republic of Fremantle”. Such a great venue overlooking Fisherman’s Harbour. Albo gave a great speech. Everyone very positive. He likened Freo to his own electorate. I will be in Canning to try and knock off Andrew Hasting on Election Day.
I think it would be easy for labor to win if not for the Murdoch press and Stokes’s West Australian newspaper. Lies ,lies,lies.
I found the NYT articles on the Murdoch family very in lightning.
So where is the Newspoll?
“Chris Kenny chatter…”
Ahh…woof woof from the Coalition running dog.
@Sandra
Good luck on the campaign, keep us posted. Best thing about the comments here is peoples’ campaign experiences.
frednk: “It’s the accidents. Coal destroys square miles of low grade country ( fly over the open cuts in Queensland if you don’t believe). Nuclear accidents destroy 100 sq miles of prime real estate.”
Yes – so that’s a contingent land factor (of high value land) in nuclear electricity production, which needs to be accounted for.
And of course coal consumes land factors in two ways:
– land destroyed (but low grade in most cases, at least in AUS)
– extracted coal consumed
Boerwar
“I had thought that the original aim of Captain GetUp! campaign was to expose the evil manipulators who were secretly funding GetUp!”
Interesting. Do they mean the more than 10,000 core members who regularly contribute funding? I confess I have been one of those doing it for more than ten years. Shocking of me.
Confessions: It’s not 9:30 yet.
For those of you waiting for polls don’t forget its NSW Upper House results day tomorrow.
I am holding out hope for Lib Dems loss.
Nuclear reactor technology
Most if not all technology currently in production is derived from that developed to power nuclear submarines under the program run by Hyman Rickover. Submarines (and aircraft carriers) have extreme requirements in relation to corrosion and other things, which don’t apply to on land reactors. It might be possible to develop land specific technology that is safer, but that’s not where the USGOV defense funding (which was most of the funding over history) went.
“Despite the Labor leadership chaos the Gillard Government was one of the best in my lifetime. It was a time of compromise that gave us excellent outcomes.”
Most of which are ash. Remember the East Timor Solution? The People’s Convention? The Real Julia? A Good Government that lost its way. And the biggest tomali of the lot “no carbon tax under a government I lead”. Now I know, I know – the whole “in context” and full quote was quite consistent with how things technically shook out after the election but the fact remains – Credlin and the shitgibbon she ran were able to manufacture the lie because it had a truthy quality about it: Gillard had promised to find a new political consensus on climate before acting – the public expected to be taken along in this process, not simply be told: “surprise” – I have a deal with the Greens and my consensus is the three amigos supporting me for supply in the lower house. That was a fucked deal and it killed Gillard stone dead because it said “something” about her character that the public had been unseasy about ever since 90% went to sleep on night with one, still well liked and respected PM (albeit a little tarnished) and woke the next morning to Koshie saying “surprise Australia, you have a new Prime Minister”.
Never again. Never.
Right now, or should I say in about three months time, there is a positive and real need for a Shorten Labor Government to put the Wiggle and the Greens urgers in their box and make it 100% clear to the Australian public that it is as good as its word.