In through the out door

Sarah Henderson returns to parliament via a Senate vacancy and a hotly contested preselection, as Coalition MPs blow bubbles on electoral “reform”.

Two brief news items to relate on Australian matters, as well as which we have the latest of Adrian Beaumont’s increasingly regular updates on the constitutional mess that is Brexit.

Sarah Henderson, who held the seat of Corangamite for the Liberals from 2013 until her defeat in May, will return to parliament today after winning preselection to fill Mitch Fifield’s Victorian Senate vacancy. This follows her 234-197 win in a party vote held on Saturday over Greg Mirabella, a Wangaratta farmer and the husband of former Indi MP Sophie Mirabella. After initial expectations that Henderson was all but assured of the spot, Mirabella’s campaign reportedly gathered steam in the lead-up to Saturday’s vote, resulting in a late flurry of public backing for Henderson from Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, Jeff Kennett, Michael Kroger and Michael Sukkar.

Also, The Australian reports Queensland Liberal Senator James McGrath will push for the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, of which he is the chair, to consider abolishing proportional representation in the Senate and replacing it with a system in which each state is broken down into six provinces, each returning a single member at each half-Senate election – very much like the systems that prevailed in the state upper houses of Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia in the bad old days before the advent of proportional representation.

Ostensibly motivated by a desire to better represent the regions, such a system would result in a Senate dominated as much as the House of Representatives by the major parties, at a time of ongoing erosion in public support for them. The Australian’s report further quotes Nationals Senator Perin Davey advocating the equally appalling idea of rural vote weighting for the House. The kindest thing that can be said about both proposals is that they are not going to happen, although the latter would at least give the High Court an opportunity to take a stand for democracy by striking it down.

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.

2,838 comments on “In through the out door”

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  6. I love Bette Midler! She puts her finger on the button and presses hard!


    Bette Midler
    @BetteMidler
    ·
    19m
    YES, IT’S TRUE!! Melania, whose kid does not smoke, is worried about 6 people who died vaping, (according to #Bonehead, her spouse, the louse), but the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS who died in mass shootings and gun violence don’t seem to bother her! #Shejustdoesntcaredoyou

  8. Jacki M #HomeToBilo …
    @JMcK2018
    “the Lib party official said intelligence community sources had told him “We can’t tell you what to do but we don’t think it would be a good idea…concerns about Ms Liu’s associates…were flagged with senior govt officials as early as 2015”
    @ScottMorrisonMP

    However, the reason Morrison is hanging on with a vice-like grip to Gladys Liu is that she brings with her all the votes of the religious Chinese demographic. He doesn’t want to lose them.

  9. @SerkanTheWriter tweets

    Why won’t the media point out that evil Scott Morrison plans to literally steal money from the unemployed if they refuse or fail a drugs test even if they use THEIR OWN MONEY & SAVINGS to get high? You’re allowed to have $11k of your own cash before getting Newstart. Police state

  13. And now before the flame wars restart, a lighter touch.

    This may, however, bring out the agism in some of you. It might also suggest an ominous demographic trend.

    Actors Olivia de Haviland and Kirk Douglas celebrate their 103rd birthdays this year.

    The luminously beautiful Catherine Deneuve is a spring chicken of 77.

    But incredibly, Deneuve’s mother, veteran French actor Renee Simonot, is still with us. On Tuesday she celebrated her 108th birthday.

    Born in 1911, Renee made her stage debut at 7 in 1918. She appeared in numerous productions during the 1920’s and in French movies in the 1930’s.

    But one of her more significant jobs was to be the French-dubbed voice of Hollywood film stars in their film’s French release. And guess what: she was the French voice of Olivia de Haviland, in films such as Captain Blood in 1935 and The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938 (both starring the new Australian sensation Errol Flynn), and as Melanie in Gone With the Wind in 1939..

    Because of her daughter’s marital history, Renee Simonot was mother-in-law to director Roger Vadim and Marcello Mastroianni and is a grandmother to two of their children. Deneuve was one of seven spouses or partners of Vadim who also was married to Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. Fonda is approaching her 82nd birthday in December.

    While we are on the subject of centenarians, in March I missed noting on PB the 102nd birthday of one of the great voices of the 20th century, in an historic as well as musical context.

    So here is an advance birthday tribute to Dame Vera Lynn who will be 103 on March 20.

    This track was recorded nearly 83 years ago in 1937 when Vera was at the start of her career, just a girl danceband singer, and several years before she became an iconic vocal symbol for Britons surviving during World War II.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2-tOPjmYAo

  14. I could think of, going right back to the 1950s and probably in every decade since, various foreign spies using ‘journalist’ as their cover. It’s quite a common and useful cover, because journalists can go almost everywhere and ask questions almost everywhere.

    Ah yes, because Australia is just lousy with undercover commie spies parading around as journalists. They’re after all of Australia’s Earth-shattering national secrets and cutting-edge military technologies (like nuclear subs retrofitted with diesel engines because we’re too far behind the curve to service a nuclear fleet)! 🙄

  15. Also… what happens in the US in 2020 will have a far greater impact on Australian politics (on things like climate policy and possibly the political fate of Morrison) than anything we say on here.

  16. Angus Taylor says he’s sick of the ideology and politics in the energy industry and has challenged the sector to focus on problem-solving.

    The federal energy minister has told a Clean Energy Council event he wants to tackle problems in the industry and find the right balance between energy sources.

    “There’s been a lot of ideology and a lot of politics in this industry for a lot of years,” he told industry leaders in Canberra on Wednesday night.

    “If we can get beyond the proselytising and the politics, and focus on the problem solving, I think we can solve the problems.”

    Meanwhile, Labor is considering scrapping its policy of cutting carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to focus on longer-term climate change targets.

    Opposition MP Pat Conroy said Labor’s net zero pollution target for 2050 was more important than its 2030 ambitions.

    “Labor is evaluating all its policies and we need to make sure that we adopt a trajectory that delivers net zero emissions by 2050,” he told The Australian.

    “That has to be the overriding objective.”

    Speaking to industry figures, Mr Taylor said one of the biggest challenges for the sector was ensuring the reliability of the system, given a bigger portion of electricity now comes from renewables.

    His concern comes from Australia meeting its 2020 renewable energy target, which Mr Taylor – an outspoken critic of wind energy – doesn’t plan to extend.

    Under the target, 33,000 gigawatt-hours – or 23.5 per cent – of Australia’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020.

    While Mr Taylor says this creates reliability challenges, the industry is concerned investors will turn overseas due to a lack of long-term policy from the federal government.

  17. SK

    Yes. It appears the US Presidential race may even have more impact than Labor given their recent record of not voting for the things they believe in just because the Greens put the motion up.

    Not a good look refusing to back a climate emergency declaration just before the worldwide climate strike.

  19. ‘While Mr Taylor says this creates reliability challenges, the industry is concerned investors will turn overseas due to a lack of long-term policy from the federal government.’

    This is serious.
    Labor is on to this.
    Dog with a bone.
    They’re all over it.
    Won’t shut up about it.
    They’re going to do Taylor quickly.
    The bloke is useless.
    Labor’s got this.
    ….oh, wait….

  21. “Meanwhile, Labor is considering scrapping its policy of cutting carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to focus on longer-term climate change targets.”

    Given that we’ll stand still or, more likely, go backwards while the Coalition remins in office, that makes sense.

  22. Meanwhile, Labor is considering scrapping its policy of cutting carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to focus on longer-term climate change targets.

    Fair enough. We just lost 3 years to these donothings. But dont go weak on it.

    I read last night that a reforestation on pasture can hope to make about $2500/y per ha in carbon offsets. That is barely enough. It is one area that a carbon price or market could really make a difference to. Or, as I said before, an ALP government should just do… buy properties going bust and pay someone to plant it out. Ex cropping properties are best.

    Anyone know if you are allowed to selectively harvest the wood from a carbon offset plantation so long as you replace the tree? Does the carbon stay stored in the cut wood or is it released from the soil/branches/leaves and thus excluded as an offset?

  24. Marsh again. FFS.

    He’s a flat track bully, so they give him a flat track to bat on. It’s a pity for him that Archer and Broad are quality bowlers, and will be itching to have a go at him. Fitness doesn’t help with shoddy technique.

    Bowling wise, he’ll get very little help from the wicket.

    Still, I look forward to a 10-man Aussie side defeating England.

  26. Steve

    Yeah abandoning the commitments Labor made in government in signed treaties makes real sense.

    Commitments we now know were underestimated with the world in shock about how its going to have to ramp those targets upwards. Its not just because of the burning of the Amazon.

    Edit: Renewables target was met ahead of time.

  27. Antony Green @AntonyGreenABC
    ·
    20m
    Whatever Gladys Liu has or has not done, it highlights how bizarre the Section 44(i) citizenship debate has been that it has no relevance to Ms Liu’s standing but resulted in Barnaby Joyce and several other MPs being disqualified as subjects of a foreign power.

  28. Oh dear. The Climate Change policy wars are breaking out again, so I’m off to do the weekly shop. No doubt they’ll still be raging when I return. 🙄

  31. Cat

    Well Labor is turning its back on a decade of policy. Policy that worked. I think the Gillard Government Climate Policy has a lot to do with us meeting renewable targets along with Labor State governments keeping those targets

  32. @MsRebeccaRobins
    ·
    9h
    #auspol Liu used wechat to frighten elderly Chinese that if the ALP won government they would change laws to hurt Chinese ? this is dirty very dirty

    Yet Dave Sharma said we mustn’t accuse Gladys Liu of anything because that would be racist. 🙁

  33. @matthaggis666
    ·
    5m
    Here we go, the LNP are trying to paint Gladys Liu concerns as racism… Same playbook as Frydenberg concerns are “anti-Semitic”. #auspol

  34. Steve777 @ #71 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 9:33 am

    “Meanwhile, Labor is considering scrapping its policy of cutting carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to focus on longer-term climate change targets.”

    Given that we’ll stand still or, more likely, go backwards while the Coalition remins in office, that makes sense.

    Meanwhile, Labor is considering scrapping itself.
    Since the Coalition will remain in office for the foreseeable future, that makes sense.

  35. Cat

    I will put it simply. Labor was working with the international community and having Australia play its part in world action.

    Now Labor has turned its back on that because a few coal minders have taken Labor hostage.

  37. bug1:

    [‘The security services were probably feeding The Guardian these “exclusives” as part of the process of bringing it onside and neutralising the only independent newspaper with the resources to receive and cover a leak such as Snowden’s.’]

    The article makes for disturbing reading. That The Guardian was invited to comment but failed to do so speaks volumes. I don’t think I’ll make any further donations until such time as the Editor comes clean.

  38. guytaur @ #76 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 9:35 am

    Steve

    Yeah abandoning the commitments Labor made in government in signed treaties makes real sense.

    Commitments we now know were underestimated with the world in shock about how its going to have to ramp those targets upwards. Its not just because of the burning of the Amazon.

    Yeah, makes sense.
    The coalition can go into the next election saying Labor are probably set to dump all these policies as well. You can’t trust Labor..etc…etc..etc…

  39. Australia’s team looks much better balanced with the inclusion of Marsh.
    His bowling will provide much needed support for the quicks who have looked cooked at times during games 3 and 4. This is especially so given that Lyon’s effectiveness as a wicket taker seems much reduced, possibly due to his finger injury.
    All of our left handed bats have looked like they could be dismissed by the next ball faced, the whole series. The right handed Marsh will hardly suffer by comparison.

  40. Just for a laugh…

    david munk @davidmunk
    Oh my god. Water minister for NSW on climate change and drought. She’s remembering there was no rain in King Arthur’s time.

  42. Re 45% renewables by 2030. We could just put the date back to 2033, assuming that the renewal percentage in 2022 is about the same as it is now. Or maybe some thing like “increase by 20% in 10 years”.

  44. “The SMH editorial takes a position that Jacqui Lambie has no mandate for ransom.”

    Morrison has no mandate except tax cuts for corporations and the well off.

  45. All of our left handed bats have looked like they could be dismissed by the next ball faced, the whole series. The right handed Marsh will hardly suffer by comparison.

    Except Head is averaging higher in this series than Marsh’s test average. A test average that includes a lot of flat tracks.

  46. For those griping about the descent of PB into tepid comments about cricket, it might be because, despite all, it is more interesting the batshit boring stuff – which has been going on for ages – with the likes of………….. Get the Greens, Greens are a pile of doggy-d0, Greens are wreckers, Greens are really Libs/Labor/Nationals in disguise………and several other combinations of put-downs.
    At the moment Labor is adrift and goodness only knows when it will get its mojo back, but sure as hell, blaming the Greens is not the main game in town……………
    The LNP can fall back on inertia at the moment and make if look as though they are in control of things……………they the the political enemy, not he bloody Greens

  47. ‘This follows her 234-197 win in a party vote held on Saturday over Greg Mirabella”

    That strikes me as a somewhat unconvincing victory, she should have romped it in and yet 197 people voted for GM…..trouble at mill I suspect…..

  48. ‘At the moment Labor is adrift and goodness only knows when it will get its mojo back,’….

    Sheesh, I’m glad there’s someone else out there not drinking the from the big bin…..

  49. @AboutTheHouse tweets

    We start this morning with a suspension of standing orders motion, moved by @markdreyfusQCMP. Events in the House are, as always, streamed at http://aph.gov.au/live https://twitter.com/AboutTheHouse/status/1171930646031167488/photo/1

    @markdreyfusQCMP The bells are now ringing for a division on the question that the motion moved by Mr Dreyfus be agreed to.

    @markdreyfusQCMP By a margin of 68-72, the question is resolved in the negative. The Standing Orders will therefore not be suspended.

    @markdreyfusQCMP The breakdown of this vote will be available on the House Division Database shortly. http://aph.gov.au/divisions

    Of course this is just another stunt. It doesn’t mean anything after all its up to the government.

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