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.
ar
Yes the Corporate Democrats can start practising by not telling the left to shut up now when the primaries are not over.
Edit: To be crystal clear. The primaries don’t start until February.
And “the left” can practice not acting like Corporate Democrats (whatever that’s meant to mean) are somehow separate from other Democrats and not of the left?
@ADamBandt tweets
As the Liberals begin another week of pretending they’re doing something about electricity prices, just a reminder that the energy regulator found that electricity bills were _lower_ under the #Greens/Labor/ind carbon price than now, plus we were reducing pollution! https://twitter.com/AdamBandt/status/1173392401785688064/photo/1
Iran has warned the US it’s “ready for a fully-fledged war” after it was blamed for a drone attack on Saudi Arabia that wiped out five per cent of the world’s crude oil supplies.
Crude prices have rocketed more than 19 per cent since the attack on the world’s biggest crude-processing facility and the kingdom’s second-biggest oilfield in Khurais.
The attack is the single worst sudden disruption to the oil market ever, and senior members of the US government are laying the blame on Iran.
However, Iran denies any involvement and it has responded with fury to the accusation, going as far as to threaten US bases with missile strikes.
The Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard says its forces could strike US military bases across the Middle East with their arsenal of ballistic missiles.
A senior Revolutionary Guard commander, Amirali Hajizadeh, told Tasnim news agency: “Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2000km around Iran are within the range of our missiles.”
The devastating attack over the weekend halved Saudi Arabian oil production and could fuel a crisis in the region, it has been claimed.
Tensions were already high over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal.
“Because of the tension and sensitive situation, our region is like a powder keg,” said Mr Hajizadeh.
“When these contacts come too close, when forces come into contact with one another, it is possible a conflict happens because of a misunderstanding.”
He warned that Iran is now “ready for a fully-fledged war”.
Am I missing something……………?
Lambie………..wtte, “We should conscript volunteers……”
Bit like “compassionate conservatives” – totally irreconcilable use of language………….
ar
If you don’t know what Corporate Democrats are you have no idea about the debate in the US Democrat Primary race
guytaur:
[‘Most polls have not had Biden in the full fire of an election campaign.’]
The same goes for all the nominees. And, evidence that Biden’s a seasoned, capable campaigner is the fact that Obama chose him as his running mate.
Anyway, I’m sticking with Joe, in what really is a pretty average crew of Democratic candidates compared to, say, Obama, Clinton, B.
guytaur @ #1852 Monday, September 16th, 2019 – 10:27 am
So why don’t the punters know that.
Oh yeah, the m e d i a ……..
I just believe Kristina Keneally strategies when it comes to immigration, aren’t effective enough. I believe Labor should advocate the following;
Abolishing mandatory detention and calling it out for the pandering to racists that it is.
Drastically increasing the number of refugees
Abolishing the 457 Visa category (which is economically exploitative, because it gives employers a pool of cheap, easily exploitable labour)
The erroneous restrictions placed on legal immigrants. For example; temporary visa holders and overseas students can’t access Medicare or Centrelink benefits, despite many pay taxes.
Introducing strict hate crime laws, which can prosecute those who are found guilty of inciting hatred in the public arena.
Politically risky, however I believe it would be quite successful political. Also, Labor should be attacking the various laws made in the name of “border security” and “national security”, when infact they are measures which are contributing to a police state being built in this country. Greg Barns in his book “The Rise of the Right” while short is very comprehensive when it comes issues such as mandatory and those laws introduced, I have described above.
It is part of a political strategy I propose Labor should adopt to defeat the Morrison government comprehensively. This would require Labor to have a radical trans-formative agenda and democratize the party. Which would led to a dramatically increased membership, which can engage with a lot of ordinary Australians, this would counter the lies coming from the government.
Mavis
I disagree to a strong degree. My evidence is Biden losing in previous primaries. Not exactly election winning material if you want to argue electability.
I don’t. I want to argue get the base out. Choose the nominee that fires up the base. Thats not Biden.
mundo @ #1857 Monday, September 16th, 2019 – 10:31 am
Bullshit.
Someone from Labor probably said it once in front of a microphone and that was that.
Job done.
It’s the Labor way.
Well it kinda sounds like a meaningless label contrived to split the party and then hijack one of the halves while pissing off and ostracizing the other half for not being ideologically pure enough.
Have I guessed correctly?
Anyway my appraisal of Scott Morrison, Machvellian when it comes to political strategy, however terrible when it comes to actual governance.
ar
You are here advocating before the primaries are even started that the left needs to shut up and not advocate for their candidates because the party needs unity.
You have lost the argument. The party needs the base to turn out. Telling half the party to shut up and to start saying that using corporate democrats is a label to divide the party does not mean that label will disappear.
What it means is the Corporate Democrats want people to shut up to give their candidate a clear run without competition of ideas in the primary.
Surrounding before a shot is fired is not how you win wars. Elections are symbolic wars. A battle of ideas.
We are months out from the first primary and here you are telling the left to shut up we need unity.
These Yemeni Houthis are worth checking out, here
Little snippets like
How good is Kim Jong Un.
Wot Jacks wants is for young kiddies to be paid to do clean up work after disaster strikes… Sounds like a great idea, the libs would prefer to take away their newstart if they don’t participate…
@QuentinDempster tweets
Gladys Liu declines to explain her part in mysterious $105,000 donation | The New Daily. Question to @samanthamaiden: Does ASIO routinely provide MP security risk assessments to national security committee of federal cabinet? https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/09/15/gladys-liu-liberal-party-donation/
‘I just believe Kristina Keneally strategies when it comes to immigration, aren’t effective enough.’
Partly because they’re not sustained.
Does anyone in the parliamentary Labor party get as worked up about the state affairs as many here do?
It doesn’t seem so.
No urgency.
No building.
No rage.
No enthusiasm.
No passion.
All gone.
Bob’s dead.
Gough’s dead.
Paul doesn’t care anymore because the party is fcking useless.
Oh hey there.
The big debate in parliament; should we move to four year fixed terms. I strongly agree. Otherwise we are permanently in campaign mode which makes for bad, short-term policy.
Tristo
I propose Labor should adopt to defeat the Morrison government comprehensively. This would require Labor to have a radical trans-formative agenda and democratize the party…
Instead of ‘proposing’ stuff that Labor should do, join. There’s a lot of heavy lifting to be done. Do some.
@sallyrugg tweets
Does it??? Sound like harmless ?? fun ?? https://twitter.com/sallyrugg/status/1173399394869080064/photo/1
‘Diogenes says:
Monday, September 16, 2019 at 10:51 am
The big debate in parliament; should we move to four year fixed terms. I strongly agree. Otherwise we are permanently in campaign mode which makes for bad, short-term policy.’
Two false premises, I believe.
(1) The Brits have five year fixed terms and they are in permanent election mode. The US has four year terms and they are in permanent election mode.
(2) That policy development can somehow be separated from the increase supply of narcissistic egos, from populism, from party partisan politics or from the attentions of interest groups by having an extra year in which to implement said policies.
BW
The best argument for fixed terms is that it takes the decision of when out of politics. The other one of it hurts investment and slows down the economy is really only for the LNP types and is in fact why we are seeing this now.
For me either way its not a big deal. As you point out five year terms did not stop the ultimate short termism of Brexit.
guytaur says:
Monday, September 16, 2019 at 9:45 am
Good Morning
WWP
I can’t agree with you more. For example. There are 20 million college students most of whom did not go out and vote at the last election. It was no accident the debate was held at a Black University in Texas.
Joe Biden will go down in the polls due to his inherent white privilege racism in the answer to the slavery question. Biden showed his age. Not by his teeth nearly falling out. Not by talking about record players, but by talking about how black people don’t know how to be good parents and need social workers sent into homes to help them.
This was a question relating to his previous comments about the effects of slavery. Thats not saying Biden intends to be racist. His comments come from another age of thinking and he totally disgraced himself with the racism white privilege of noblesse oblige in his answer.
You have invoked a stereotype of ‘old white folk’.
Dandy Murray @ #1691 Sunday, September 15th, 2019 – 9:42 pm
Douglas and Milko @ #1711 Sunday, September 15th, 2019 – 10:12 pm
Dandy Murray @ #1713 Sunday, September 15th, 2019 – 10:14 pm
Reaching back a long way in the memory banks, but pretty sure that D&M is asking the right question.
The reason is that water and ethanol don’t mix strictly additively by volume, but they do by mass.
Mixing by volume gives a slightly smaller total volume than simply volume A + volume B. The correction factor also varies with solution strength (% ethanol).
Given that a) you are using volume for the transfer measure (tablespoon), and b) the two transfers have different solution strengths, then the measurement unit is relevant.
How could we feasibly move to fixed four year terms when the the Senate has staggered six-year terms (requiring elections three years apart on average)?
No-one wants separate half-Senate elections to be a regular feature, so we’d have to move to eight-year terms. That seems a little on the long side to me.
guytaur @ #1863 Monday, September 16th, 2019 – 10:39 am
I haven’t advocated the position you say I’m advocating. You’re just plain incorrect there.
Also trying to sow some rift between “corporate democrats” and “everybody else on the left” isn’t the same thing as advocating a candidate or a policy. It’s petty division for the sake of petty division.
Probably “surrounding” isn’t the word you wanted there. Though actually that’s a pretty good way to win small-scale battles. Surround, then fire. 🙂
Yeah, still never said that.
caf,
I believe that the Senate would go to 8 year terms if the HOR went to 4.
Caf
The NSW upper house is like that. 8 year terms. I doubt the average person in NSW is aware of the long term length.
West and south-east of Melbourne are latest development areas, I think. Not sure about the others.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/abc-books-bankstown-boot-camp-to-reconnect-with-burbs-20190915-p52rf0.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1568577946
The polling of support for the Democratic runners so far shows Warren and Buttigieg are improving. Warren is also the most-favoured second choice among supporters of other candidates. This suggests that as other candidates drop out Warren will likely gain more of their supporters than will her competitors. She has very low unfavourable and high favourable scores. At this stage, she’s looking like the eventual winner. She will have to beat both Biden and Buttigieg in the end to get there.
She is a lib-wing candidate who will both unify the Democratic Party and mobilise the activists.
The big debate in parliament; should we move to four year fixed terms. I strongly agree. Otherwise we are permanently in campaign mode which makes for bad, short-term policy.Diogenes”
———
Just blind assertions with zero evidence. Th ere is no evidence that the States that have moved to four year terms have suddenly become improved policy makers. It’s just they are safer from being held to account.
This policy to lower voter accountability is motivated by two motives.
1. To make life even easier for our unprincipled political class and their self-interest.
2. The drive to adopt all things American and replace anything that is Australian and a little bit different. It’s the cultural cringe of all youse Ozmericans.
ar
Yeah you have. I pointed out to you that telling people not to say stuff because the party needs unity and needs to get behind the nominee is the punditry narrative being run by the corporate democrats in the party. Rahn Emmanuel a prime example. The whole we can’t attack Biden because thats not civilised argument.
You may not have realised thats where its come from but its precisely the argument being run. Its the whole the left cannot use labels and the left cannot make arguments because it divides the party that theright is running.
Its an attempt to shut down the debate to give Biden a clear run without a battle of ideas. Its not going to happen and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that its what the primary system is designed for.
Were I a voter in the US, I’d certainly have my favourites in the Democrat primary race – but I can guarantee that no matter which of the 10 candidates that were on stage last week ended up on my ballot paper come November 2020, I’d be turning out to vote for them. Every single one of those candidates would be vastly preferable to another Trump term.
Greensborough Growler @ #1880 Monday, September 16th, 2019 – 10:37 am
That alone would be reason enough to oppose 4 year terms in the Reps.
Briefly
I didn’t invoke it. I am quoting stuff I have heard on US media that is part of the debate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/15/no-record-players-wont-solve-inequality/?noredirect=on
caf
Yes. Precisely why there is no need to tell people to shut up for party unity.
‘Corporate Democrats’ is code for anyone who isn’t Sanders.
It’s a typical example of Sanders-slander.
Nothing has disgraced the state of NSW more than paying David Oldfield eight years of wages to be a MLC
@RollingStone tweets
Ric Ocasek, the Hall of Fame Cars singer who fused pop, rock and New Wave into indelible hits, has died at the age of 75 https://rol.st/30h65LK https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1173398588275118080/photo/1
guytaur says:
Monday, September 16, 2019 at 11:11 am
Briefly
I didn’t invoke it.
Yes you did. But go ahead. Try to wriggle out of it. You know you want to. You will be unable to resist.
Briefly
😆
You talk of slander when you use Lib Kin and Liblings to pretend progressives are conservatives.
The comparison to the US election cycle needs to be cleared up. The House goes every two years for election. The President every four years (hence the mid term elections falling halfway through a presidential term).
The US senate is 6 year terms although they have a 3 different cycles. Ie, 33 seats are up for election in 2020.
Briefly
Look at what is being said. Have a look at your reaction to it.
This says more about you than me.
Briefly
Look at what is being said. Have a look at your reaction to it.
This says more about you than me.
guytaur @ #1885 Monday, September 16th, 2019 – 11:09 am
Yeah, and then I explicitly pointed out that your interpretion of my comment was incorrect and that I was happy for people to be “as loud as they want until there’s a nominee locked in”.
Now I’ve done it twice. 🙄
No idea who that is and don’t agree with the point they’ve made.
By all means have a battle of ideas. Just try to have ideas that are actually ideas and not just childish name-calling against other members of the same party.
And when the battle’s over and the nominee is locked in, leave the sour grapes at home, shut up about “corporate democrats”, and get loudly behind Not Donald Trump.
Because you know who’s even more corporate than a corporate democrat? A Republican. And you know who’s even more corporate than that? Donald Trump. Fight the real enemy. 🙂
Trump’s on the warpath:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/us-locked-and-loaded-after-saudi-attack-says-trump-20190916-p52rp4.html