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.
@Tricot 1:04pm
“Clearly, [Labor being associated, even if it was by two degrees of separation with a pop-left noisy Southerner based minority party that promised to blackmail Labor and hence leaving Labor being perceived as …] threatening to take jobs away was not a good idea last time around.”
There, fixed that for you.
Or, more succinctly, the Greens were campaigning by saying “Vote Labor, and get Greens policies. Yay!” allowing the LNP to campaign by saying “vote Labor, get the Greens. Boo!”
I dozed off and was woken by a voice shouting, “How good is Queensland!”. To my surprise it was Mickmack doing an imitation of the energizer bunny, almost bouncing up and down as he congratulates them for knocking off Labor’s policies.
So why are they determined to stay addicted to coal union donations and back decades more of coal extraction, burning and exporting ?
Imputing motivations much?
Maybe they understand that to wield power, first you need to gain power.
Ah, A_E’s here. I’ll let you take the afternoon shift. Best of luck.
Dandy Murray @ #203 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 2:31 pm
You’re advocating more mixed messaging ?
Surely you’ve learned by now that doesn’t work ..?
The Greens used to have a target for outlawing the coal industry by 2030 but they squibbed that timeline.
Not that that matters.
I knew it. More wasting of everyone’s time.
Andrew_Earlwood
says:
Or, more succinctly, the Greens were campaigning by saying “Vote Labor, and get Greens policies. Yay!” allowing the LNP to campaign by saying “vote Labor, get the Greens. Boo!”
______________________________________
That’s a brilliant summary of the election campaign right there. For ten year olds.
Under false pretenses if need be (if we assume that Labor doesn’t actually intend to back decades more of coal extraction, burning and exporting)?
Oh for a party that can just campaign strongly on what it thinks is right instead of playing demographic stereotypes.
I’d vote for it. 🙂
‘a r says:
Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 2:36 pm
Maybe they understand that to wield power, first you need to gain power.
Under false pretenses if need be (if we assume that Labor doesn’t actually intend to back decades more of coal extraction, burning and exporting)?
Oh for a party that can just campaign strongly on what it thinks is right instead of playing demographic stereotypes.
The Greens used to have a target for outlawing the coal industry by 2030
I’d vote for it. ‘
You would have to ask the Greens why they scrapped it. I assume it is because the science pointed them in a different direction…
I still haven’t made up my mind whether Morrison is the most devious pollie ever to stand for Parl, or just a bully who runs with every nasty idea suggested by his advisors and supporters.
A bit of both, I think.
The salient factor is that not only do WE know he’s sneaky and devious, but HIS OWN SIDE knows it too. He is the Liberals’ Macbeth. They’ll come gunning for him eventually. Politicians like Morrison eventually offend everyone, friend and foe alike.
But for Morrison to play the race card so early (Lars dutifully also gave it a trial run here last night), saying that to even QUESTION Gladys Liu’s bona fides is a direct insult to 1.2 million Chinese-Australians, must mean ScoMo is feeling no small amount of pain.
Let’s se him spin his way out of this one. I doubt whether the Australian public will buy it.
BK @ #199 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 2:14 pm
Yes, I have felt there has been an undertow tugging at Labor ever since the election loss.
Things are not looking good, either for Labor or (more importantly) for Australia.
Boerwar @ #210 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 2:41 pm
scrapped it ?
[‘Labor leader Jodi McKay slammed the Premier’s response, and called for Mr Sidoti to be stood down from the ministry and referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).’]
Jodi’s right:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/how-did-you-get-that-property-minister-grilled-over-links-to-70-million-development-20190912-p52qjp.html
Morrison makes no attempt (doesn’t even bother) to answer this question.
“That’s a brilliant summary of the election campaign right there. For ten year olds.”
Clearly upping your mental acuity there naff naff.
Porter using ASIO to defend Morrison?
It’s good (but bad for Morrison and Liu) that sections of the RW/Murdoch media seem to be taking the running on this issue.
On redneck radio after the 6pm news, John Stanley (filling in for Ross Greenwood) spoke to a Murdoch(?) journo who reckoned this is a big story.
If sections of Murdoch media are attacking Morrison’s over-the-top and offensive utterances today, this could indicate the old man is not totally happy with the performance of the happy-clapper salesman.
And it was only yesterday that Uhlmann wrote that politics was becoming boring which suited Morrison who would be around for a long time to come!
It’s getting very, very nasty.
Dammit ❗
Somebody has to lift their game. We collectively voted for the (insert adjective) ‘s.
I voted Labor. (Greens as support player).
The reason why the media wanted Albanese is because he is the media’s puppet ,Labor members fell gullible to the media
The faults which Shorten had ,is nothing compared to Albanese faults, Shorten would seek revenge on the media and those attacking Labor
Citizen,
Murdoch has no love for the regime in China especially after they rejected his bid for a broadcasting license.
All Labor Party political ,party members and supporters should stop being quiet ,and start calling out the corruption of the Media ,IPA as the Liberal and National party propaganda unit
Guandong Gladys has turned on the crocodile tears. The Coalition is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
C@t
And everything was going so well.
Scott @ #221 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 3:14 pm
You’ve touched on a point that will likely be ignored in the election post mortem and that is the glaring deficiency in political talent to engage public support.
Dan
Yep, the Comrades shafted Rupert well and good, closing down his Star network on the mainland. And he had even married a Chinese spy, in order to ingratiate himself.
On balance, the CCP decided they didn’t want an alternate information source run by someone with a track record of bringing down governments.
Liu went after the RW religious vote at the election. There must be more than a few people who are now regretting they voted for her since the Chinese Communist party is very anti-religion.
I can confirm the shop on Canterbury Rd, Box Hill south had her mug on it… As for what went on in there or what it was there for???
I couldn’t believe my ears when Sussan Ley raved on about how we all love our coasts and the rivers and we (LNP) are doing our utmost to save them, rabbit, rabbit. How do they learn to lie like this?
lizzie @ #232 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 1:34 pm
It’s a “talent” they’re born with.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has ordered an urgent review into the conduct of Sports and Multiculturalism Minister John Sidoti in connection with his property investments, including whether he used confidential information for his personal benefit.
Ms Berejiklian said the review would examine Mr Sidoti’s compliance with the Ministerial Code of Conduct and whether any “conflicts of interest were appropriately managed”.
It will also examine whether Mr Sidoti “in his current or previous roles, had access to confidential information that may have benefited his personal interest”.
The review will be conducted by Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Tim Reardon.
Ms Berejiklian announced the review after Mr Sidoti endured a baptism of fire in his first budget estimates as a new minister, which was dominated by questions about his personal property portfolio.
“I believe the public’s confidence in the integrity of government decision making is absolutely paramount,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Labor leader Jodi McKay slammed the Premier’s response, and called for Mr Sidoti to be stood down from the ministry and referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
“We can have no confidence that this minister has done the right thing,” Ms McKay said.
Ms McKay said she was would refer Mr Sidoti to ICAC if the Premier hadn’t done so by the end of Thursday.
“To be told we’re unable to ask about a person’s individual actions because of their race actually has more than a hint of racism and a patronising tone about it IMHO. #QT #Auspol”
Somebody forgot to tell ICAC. Ernest Wong should have used this defense.
Husic now on Sky talking in terms of whether Lui may be in breach of s.44(i), the part which goes to:
‘Is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power…’
Just poppin’ in to say g’day to all the progressive boomers, especially from Qld, who delivered Labor such a thumping election victory.
Nearly six months on, how are we all traveling?
From Alex Greenwich, Independent for Sydney
Dear
This Saturday at 11am in Hyde Park, please join me to support women across NSW by attending the rally “Trust Women, Support the Bill”.
Next week the Upper House will debate the co-sponsored legislation I introduced to decriminalise abortion in NSW and we need a strong public show of support for the bill.
The legislation before the parliament removes abortion from the crimes act, and regulates it as a health care matter between a women and her doctor.
You can RSVP to the rally HERE. Details are:
Date: Saturday 14th September 2019
Location: Hyde Park North, Sydney
Time: 11:00am-1:00pm
I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!
Alex
Littleproud has done the old switcharoo:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/sep/12/liberals-labor-morrison-albanese-politics-live
Hi Burgey
We’re all a bit sensitive here at the moment. Fights sometimes break out behind the shelter sheds.
I guess it’s already occurred to him but I messaged Anthony Klan to go ask Julia Banks for an answer to his question about Gladys Liu’s ‘Mandarins’. She doesn’t owe the Liberal Party ANYTHING.
Here it is, folks, from the Australian Greens policy website.
‘An orderly phase out of fossil fuel mining, fossil fuel based electricity generation and consumption of fossil fuels consistent with the emissions reduction plan.’
flub, flub, flub.
Yay!
Penny on point:
Penny Wong during the attempt to suspend standing orders, on the government’s response to Gladys Liu:
Burgey
I was travelling through the Downs. No water and no crops. I travelled down the Newell. For most of the way, no water and no crops. Those crops that are in, are doing fingers-crossed because if they don’t get follow up rain they will have enough growth to stop their remaining few goats from starving but no harvest.
A month ago I walked across the Darling without getting my socks wet.
There is a wildlife holocaust going on out there: fish, birds, trees… you name it global warming is killing it.
If I went north this week I could have travelled through the smoke of around 150 wildfires.
How you traveling? All good?
Must ask Dutton:
Do they have au pair anchors for baby anchors?
‘Boerwar says:
Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 3:57 pm
Here it is, folks, from the Australian Greens policy website.
‘An orderly phase out of fossil fuel mining, fossil fuel based electricity generation and consumption of fossil fuels consistent with the emissions reduction plan.’
flub, flub, flub.’
The Greens target date for zero emissions is 2040.
Yep, put the two together and the Greens are tacitly allowed for the possibility that there will still be coal mining after 2040 because it will not affect Australia’s emissions one way or another.
Let’s run a convoy to Di Natale’s house and protest at this double dealing policy shonk!
Yay!
Quoll says:
Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 12:47 pm
You expect noting but shit from LNP, but on the same day Labor appears to be caving entirely on any real action on climate change, carbon pollution and the inevitable global heating and ocean acidification.
….
Oh dear all those stunts, and all you get is Labor deciding they have had enough of the Greenshit.
Now if the Greens amount to anything it would not matter what Labor did now would it.
Boerwar @ #242 Thursday, September 12th, 2019 – 3:57 pm
For others who are seriously interested have a read
https://greens.org.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/Greens%202019%20Policy%20Platform%20-%20Renew%20Australia.pdf