Sins of commission

Kooyong and Chisholm legal challenge latest; by-election rumblings in Isaacs; Jim Molan strikes back; and the Victorian Liberals gearing up already for federal preselections.

Possible (or possibly not) federal by-election news:

• The Australian Electoral Commission has petitioned the Federal Court to reject challenges against the federal election results in Chisholm and Kooyong. The challenges relate to Chinese-language Liberal Party signage that appeared to mimic the AEC’s branding, and advised voters that giving a first preference to the Liberal candidates was “the correct voting method”. As reported by The Guardian, the AEC argues that “the petition fails to set out at all, let alone with sufficient particularity, any facts or matters on the basis of which it might be concluded that it was likely that on polling day, electors able to read Chinese characters, upon seeing and reading the corflute, cast their vote in a manner different from what they had previously intended”. This seems rather puzzling to my mind, unless it should be taken to mean that no individuals have been identified who are ready to confirm that they were indeed so deceived. Academic electoral law expert Graeme Orr argued on Twitter that the AEC had “no need to intervene on the substance of a case where partisan litigants are well represented”.

• Talk of a by-election elsewhere in Melbourne was stimulated by Monday’s column ($) from acerbic Financial Review columnist Joe Aston, which related “positively feverish speculation” that Labor’s Shadow Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, would shortly quit his Melbourne bayside seat of Isaacs with an eye to a position on Victoria’s Court of Appeal. Aston further reported that Dreyfus hoped to be succeeded by Fiona McLeod, the prominent barrister who gained a 6.1% swing as Labor’s candidate for Higgins in May. Dreyfus emphatically rejected such “ridiculous suggestions” in late August, saying he was “absolutely committed to serving out this term of parliament”, and again took to Twitter on Monday to say he would be “staying and fighting the next election”. Aston remains unconvinced, writing in Tuesday’s column ($) that the suggestions derived from “high-level discussions Dreyfus has held on Spring Street with everyone from Premier Daniel Andrews, former Attorney-General Martin Pakula, his successor Jill Hennessy and his caucus colleagues”, along with his “indiscreet utterances around the traps”.

Federal preselection news:

• Jim Molan has won the endorsement of both Scott Morrison and the conservative faction of the New South Wales Liberal Party to fill the Senate vacancy created by Arthur Sinodinos’s departure to become ambassador to the United States. However, the Sydney Morning Herald reports this is not dissuading rival nominee Richard Shields, former deputy state party director and Insurance Council of Australia manager, and the runner-up to Dave Sharma in last year’s keenly fought Wentworth preselection. Shields’ backers are said to include Helen Coonan, former Senator and Howard government minister, and Mark Neeham, a former state party director. Earlier reports suggested the moderate faction had been reconciled to Molan’s ascendancy by a pledge that he would only serve out the remainder of Sinodinos’s two-year term, and would not seek re-election in 2022.

• Rob Harris of The Age reports the Victorian Liberals are considering a plan to complete their preselections for the 2022 election much earlier than usual – and especially soon for Liberal-held seats. The idea in the latter case is for challengers to incumbents to declare their hands by January 15, with the matter to be wrapped up by late February or early March. This comes after the party’s administrative committee warded off threats to members ahead of the last election, most notably factional conservative Kevin Andrews in Menzies, by rubber-stamping the preselections of all incumbents, much to the displeasure of party members. Other preselections are to be held from April through to October. Also proposed is a toughening of candidate vetting procedures, after no fewer than seven candidates in Labor-held seats were disendorsed during the period of the campaign.

Self-promotion corner:

• I had a paywalled piece in Crikey yesterday which noted the stances adopted of late by James McGrath, ideological warror extraordinaire and scourge of the cockatoo, in his capacity as chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which is presently conducting its broad-ranging inquiry into the May federal election. These include the end of proportional representation in the Senate, the notion that parliamentarians who quit their parties should be required to forfeit their seats, and — more plausibly — the need to curtail pre-poll voting.

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.

2,219 comments on “Sins of commission”

Comments Page 33 of 45
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  1. Crucial to a properly functioning democracy is a vibrant, questioning 4th Estate yet there’s scant evidence that journos are holding this government to account, maybe as a result of instructions from further up, maybe, as far as the CPG is concerned, the fear of being ostracised by the Tory leadership.
    Morrison and his motley crew wouldn’t get away with their shenanigans if they were subject to the same
    scrutiny of the US & UK press. One case on point, Morrison attempted to have Hillsong’s pastor join him at a WH state dinner, knowing that Houston hadn’t reported his father for sexually abusing children – ‘excommunicating’ him only to have him preaching in Canberra a month later. Morrison dismissed his error of judgment as merely “gossip”. And there the matter rested. Imagine the ensuing flak had a Labor PM acted similarly. The incidences of the MSM failing to hold this government to account are manifold.

  2. There is more in this than the attention-grabbing headline.

    Drivers may be more likely to crash if an obstacle appears at the same time as a heartbeat.

    To investigate how the beat of our hearts influences our reaction times, Sarah Garfinkel at the University of Sussex, UK, and her colleagues designed a virtual reality driving game. While participants were driving, obstacles would appear in the road, either in time with a heartbeat or between beats.

    When objects coincided with heartbeats, drivers’ reaction times were slower and they were more likely to crash. Garfinkel presented the results at New Scientist Live in London on Thursday, where she discussed the possible effect of systoles – the squeezing of the heart ventricles that occurs in the middle of a heartbeat – on driving.

    “If you’re driving and you’re in a highly aroused state and your heart is beating strong and fast, you will have more cardiac systoles, and that is going to impair your reaction time and ability to avoid objects,” she said.

    Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2219713-your-heartbeat-may-shape-how-likely-you-are-to-have-a-car-crash/#ixzz62HKQ6Cwy

  3. I see that some unnamed folks are having a bit of difficulty with having been caught out associating themselves 100% with Morrison’s talking points.

    Fair enough, IMO. Cognitive dissonance is always a tad difficult!

    Criticism of the shonk operation otherwise known as NSW Labor leadership is richly deserved. Criticisms of Labor appartchiks on the take, ditto. But when the very same people never attack the Liberals for their shonks you just have to think that there is a gaslighting agenda. They switch seamlessly between attacking individuals to attacking policies and back. Time is nothing. If the present is a slow day they resurrect RGR. Easy as that. They never let it rest.

    Then again these same people carry on endlessly about Labor’s climate policy. Fair enough, to a point. We don’t know what Labor is bringing to the table for the next election. Everything is up for grabs. But not one of these gaslighters has spent a nanosecond on the total bullshit that is the Greens Zero/2030 policy. The DO vent about Adani because that is in their talking points.

    But, on the totally undeliverable bullshit that is Zero/2030, not a nanosecond. Not a word. Straight through to the keeper.

    I don’t have any difficulty with balanced assessments of all the Parties pros and cons. But when an individual solely targets a single Party day in, day out… that individual as per today’s talking points is just the same as Morrison and is essentially doing Morrison’s job for him.

  6. BW

    Yesterday’s descent into RGR war was from what I observed the point being made.

    The war being distraction from a self identified Green poster praising Labor on economic policy.Edit: and resulting performance of management

  7. Having recently been in Istanbul, the photo of the Trumps – probably at their hotel site or close by – is in the Bosphorus. Now if you want to see conspicuous wealth, old and new money, this is the place.

    Think Point Piper through to Vaucluse (sorry Melbournians, there is no equivelance) with a touch of Middle Harbour through to Hunters Hill, with Ottoman era palaces and forts intermingled. This is the surrounds for Trump’s conflict of interest in Istanbul.

    I also caught quite a bit of Trump’s speech to a religious gathering, was promoted on Twitter. Now if you really want to see some gaslighting – he talked a lot about the Middle East, really only 2 topics. Firstly, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and how he brought the price down from $1b to $500,000 – demonstrating his business acumen. Secondly, boasting about the $50m he had authorised to ‘help Christians in Syria’ – no detail, but the gaslightees cheered and cheered.

  10. https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/a-native-plant-is-exposing-the-clash-between-traditional-knowledge-and-western-conventions-20190925-p52upf.html

    There have been similar debates from North America to India when Western companies have tried to patent the active ingredients in plants, after doing the research to medically validate centuries or millennia of traditional herbal lore.

    Meanwhile, the New Zealand government is backing a campaign by Kiwi beekeepers to prevent Australian rivals using “manuka” to describe honey from a particular tree because they say the word is the cultural property of the Maori and intrinsically connected to New Zealand in the consumer psyche.

    Western traditional knowledge has also been exploited. Pharmaceutical companies have long drawn on European folk knowledge of herbal medicines – think willow bark (which led to the development of aspirin) or St John’s wort. Meanwhile, Disney holds extensive copyright over its adaptations of fairytales, mostly from the European tradition.

    But there is a focus on Indigenous knowledge because the exploitation of it has special sensitivity in the context of colonisation.

  11. lizzie:

    [‘Looks as if the diagnosis was pretty frightening (and accurate), if the solution was to try treatment in the US.’]

    Sounds like pancreatic or esophageal cancer, but only guessing.

  12. Sprocket

    Labor doesn’t even have the guts to do symbolic stunts.

    It might outrage or cause inconvenience to voters.
    See cartoonists for why Labor is losing the perception war. Stunts have their place in politics.

    The Debt Truck was a stunt.

  17. @SisterOMalley
    10m
    Apparently no talking points on #poverty in National Poverty Week
    @ScottMorrisonMP @stuartrobertmp ?
    What WOULD Jesus do? Really?

    “Poverty” does not exist for Morrison’s cohorts. Their avoidance of reality is really shameful.

  20. KK is working hard against Dutton.

    [
    Kristina Keneally
    ✔
    @KKeneally
    I fact checked the Government’s talking points about airplane arrivals claiming asylum after the Prime Minister’s Office accidentally sent them to the media this morning…

    Here’s an updated (factual) version for you @PeterDutton_MP and @DavidColemanMP!]

  21. Jonathan Green @GreenJ
    ·
    34s
    The thing about the talking points shemozzle if not so much that it reveals the brain dead, rote-learned discipline of political performance … more disturbing is what it says about the impotence of most political media in the face of this play acting.

  22. ‘Player One says:
    Monday, October 14, 2019 at 10:19 am

    Boerwar @ #1603 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 10:15 am

    I don’t have any difficulty with balanced assessments of all the Parties pros and cons. But when an individual solely targets a single Party day in, day out…

    Much as you do with the Greens? ‘

    Nice try, but no potato. In the past week I have criticized elements of all three parties. You would have done the same, of course. For example, you would have noted in a post that the Greens’ basis for criticising Labor’s climate policies is a totally undeliverable platform which has been essentially degraded into a single political attack point: Adani.

  23. Talking points like today’s are usually sent in private to selected journalists, or conveyed verbally.

    The journalist is expected to convey them pretty much verbatim. This applies double to ABC journalists, and especially any in an overseas junket press pack.

    If the talking points are not reproduced, then the journalist in question better have a bloody good reason why not. One, maybe two deviations on minor matters, over time, may be tolerated, but this is only to establish the (false) impression that journalists can think for themselves. They can’t, not really, if they want to survive in order to qualify for the ultimate reward: a government staffer position.

  24. Boerwar @ #1622 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 11:02 am

    In the past week I have criticized elements of all three parties. You would have done the same, of course.

    Of course. But there is a difference – my posts are (overwhelmingly) critical of bad policy, no matter which party is under discussion, whereas your posts are (overwhelmingly) critical of one party, no matter which policy is under discussion.

  25. ‘Player One says:
    Monday, October 14, 2019 at 11:09 am

    Boerwar @ #1622 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 11:02 am

    In the past week I have criticized elements of all three parties. You would have done the same, of course.

    Of course. But there is a difference – my posts are (overwhelmingly) critical of bad policy, no matter which party is under discussion, whereas your posts are (overwhelmingly) critical of one party, no matter which policy is under discussion.’

    I can’t recall a single post of yours’ criticizing the Greens Zero/2030 platform for being both politically and practically undeliverable within the 8 years they will have left after the 2022 election.

    Over to you.

  26. Boerwar @ #1625 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 11:14 am

    I can’t recall a single post of yours’ criticizing the Greens Zero/2030 platform for being both politically and practically undeliverable within the 8 years they will have left after the 2022 election.

    Over to you.

    Then you must have the memory of a goldfish.

    I have said many times that the Greens policies are outdated, inconsistent and (in any case) irrelevant since they will never be implemented, and also that the Greens are preventing the rise of a true environmental party in Australia.

    Over to you.

  27. Fox News staff warns of an ‘exodus’ as consequence of Shep Smith resignation

    As CNN reported Smith’s departure is only the beginning.

    “It feels like death in the news division,” said one senior Fox employee. The source explained that many staffers were “shocked” at the news, and some were crying. “At least we had him.”

    Another Fox News employee said, “staffers were openly weeping” after Smith made the announcement. The person explained that some “were here and have stayed here solely for” Smith.

    “Don’t be surprised if there’s an exodus,” the staffer told CNN. “Fox hasn’t just lost Shep today.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/fox-news-staff-warns-of-an-exodus-as-consequence-of-shep-smith-resignation/

  31. lizzie @ #1620 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 10:58 am

    KK is working hard against Dutton.

    [
    Kristina Keneally
    ✔
    @KKeneally
    I fact checked the Government’s talking points about airplane arrivals claiming asylum after the Prime Minister’s Office accidentally sent them to the media this morning…

    Here’s an updated (factual) version for you @PeterDutton_MP and @DavidColemanMP!]

    ” rel=”nofollow”>

    KK is working hard virtually single handed against the entire apparatus of this fucked administration.
    Surely it’ll rub off on some of her colleagues.

  33. guytaur @ #1587 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 9:32 am

    Good Morning.

    May I suggest some material for a Labor talking point.
    Don’t forget to email the journalists

    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/net-debt-tops-400-billion-and-humiliates-mathias-cormann/

    Talking point one.

    Biggest takers* in history. Supply graph.

    Interesting autocorrect changed taxers to takers.

    Time to roll out the Debt Truck.
    C’mon Labor, do it.
    Seriously what do you have to lose?

  36. Firefox:

    [‘One Nation members are apparently plotting to remove Hanson as leader…’]

    PHON wouldn’t survive without Hanson. So I hope she’ll be removed.

  37. Firefox @ #1614 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 11:40 am

    Very interesting article in The Courier Mail. One Nation members are apparently plotting to remove Hanson as leader…

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/revolt-rising-in-the-ranks-of-one-nation/news-story/fb75218d8b9abea08c95499355549405

    Ah, so you have a subscription to a News Corp rag? Is that because you find their perspective alluring, or because working for The Greens requires you to read it?

    You do know you can’t read their stuff online any more without first subscribing?

  39. Firefox says:
    Monday, October 14, 2019 at 11:40 am
    Very interesting article in The Courier Mail. One Nation members are apparently plotting to remove Hanson as leader…

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/revolt-rising-in-the-ranks-of-one-nation/news-story/fb75218d8b9abea08c95499355549405

    These folk take themselves far too seriously. ON is a token for symbolic protest. Hanson is the symbol. If they remove her their vote will fall to less than 1%.

    Excellent. I hope they do it.

  41. Morrison has done so many stunts since he became Prime Minister, that I have lost count. Those who are politically engaged often laugh at them. However they seem have worked in targeting the disengaged low information voters. Given we live in an age where politicians who are good with marketing have done well electorally. Morrison happens to be of these politicians.

  42. Morrison’s sophistry knows no bounds, claiming that Turkey’s onslaught on the Kurds is a ‘unilateral’
    action. Well, of course, it is. That said, if Trump hadn’t pulled US troops from the area, there’s no way Turkey would’ve attacked. We now have the Kurds seeking Syria as an ally, with ISIS regrouping. And it’s improbable that US sanctions on Turkey will have the desired effect:

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-readies-turkey-sanctions-hammer-20191014-p530g2.html

  43. The issue in ‘border protection’ is the trafficking of humans, the trafficking of labour rights, the trafficking of workers, the sale of visas and rights of residence, the arbitrary cancellations of citizenship and summary deportations and the suspension of the legal and other civil rights of trafficked persons.

    The debate should be reframed around the disruption and prevention of these abuses.

    The political beneficiaries of our laws have been the Liberals and the Greens. They will resist attempts to reform them or to participate in multilateral measures intended to disrupt such abuses.

    These abuses are going to become very much more prevalent in the coming few decades. We have no institutional means for dealing with them.

  44. “Ah, so you have a subscription to a News Corp rag? Is that because you find their perspective alluring, or because working for The Greens requires you to read it?

    You do know you can’t read their stuff online any more without first subscribing?”

    ***

    Have you ever heard of Paywall blocker browser add-ons, Cat? 🙂

    Get Firefox (not me, the internet browser lol) and use your imagination in Google search.

  47. Give me KK’s dismemberment of Dutton’s media release over Bandt’s parliamentary stunt any day.

    However in terms of actually changing anything, both are about equally futile. 🙁

  48. Seriously what do you have to lose?

    They would lose even more credibility on economic matters and they would be accepting conservative frames that bias policy away from progressive goals.

    What is misleadingly termed the public debt or the national debt is really just this:

    The number of dollars that the Australian Government has spent into existence and has not taxed away yet.

    It is the savings of the non-government sector.

    It is the net financial assets of the non-government sector.

    It is all previous government deficits added up, minus all previous government surpluses.

    It is an accounting record of a stock. It is not an interesting number. It has no implications for policy. It doesn’t create a burden for the federal government or for taxpayers.

    It is wrong and stupid to claim that this number:

    prevents the government from increasing its deficit spending now

    will require the government to raise taxes in the future

    If you say that you want to reduce the national debt, you are really saying that you want to reduce the private sector’s savings. Why would you want to do that?

  49. Firefox @ #1628 Monday, October 14th, 2019 – 12:08 pm

    “Ah, so you have a subscription to a News Corp rag? Is that because you find their perspective alluring, or because working for The Greens requires you to read it?

    You do know you can’t read their stuff online any more without first subscribing?”

    ***

    Have you ever heard of Paywall blocker browser add-ons, Cat? 🙂

    Outline doesn’t work any more for any News Corp publication.

    And, yes, I have heard of them, in fact, probably before you, as my late husband was into computers from the days of ‘Build Your Own Sinclair Computer’ in Popular Mechanics. It’s why I have a completely unique gmail address without the need for added numbers at the end, which I got on Day 1 of gmail’s public release.

    So, therefore, what I was getting at was the fact that KayJay or a r, I can’t remember which, told us last week that even Firefox’s Add On app to get around News Corp paywalls wasn’t working any more but they had one from a while ago which still seemed to work okay.

    So, if that’s the one you have, fine, I don’t. If not, then what specifically are you referring to?

  50. Just so you can see how it’s done, Cat. As you can see up the top I’m not logged into to their site. I have no account with News Corp. Yet I’m in the “subscriber only” section.

    Yep. F you Murdoch lol.

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