Northern exposure

A by-election looms in the Northern Territory, plus not much else of psephological interest going on right now.

With the excitement of the British election over and done with, now begins the extended nothingness of the silly season. A few points worth noting to keep things ticking over:

• A by-election looms in the Northern Territory for the Darwin seat of Johnston, not far out from a territory election scheduled for August 22. This follows the retirement of Ken Vowles, who has held the seat since 2012. Vowles served as a minister after Labor came to power in 2016, but was one of three members expelled from the party caucus in December 2018 over a feud with Chief Minister Michael Gunner. Labor held the seat with a 14.7% margin in 2016, an election at which it won the two-party vote 58.5-41.5. A heavy swing at the by-election seems inevitable, but the Country Liberal Party to this point appears to be dragging its heels on naming a candidate. Labor has chosen Unions NT general secretary Joel Bowden, a former Richmond AFL player who says he’ll be putting in a 100% team effort. Former Chief Minister Terry Mills’ CLP breakaway party, Territory Alliance, is running Steven Klose, who according to the Northern Territory News held the curious position of “political adviser at the Northern Territory Electoral Commission”. Also in the field will be Braedon Earley of the Ban Fracking Fix Crime Protect Water Party.

• In other by-election news, there isn’t any. Confident speculation a month or so ago that Eden-Monaro MP Mike Kelly would be gone by Christmas has less than a fortnight to bear fruit, and there also are no visible signs of progress on suggestions that Mark Dreyfus and Brendan O’Connor would be pulling the plug in Isaacs and Gorton.

• Michael Koziol of the Sydney Morning Herald reports on jockeying for the Liberal preselection in Warringah, where the party faces the difficulty of its branches being dominated by conservatives in a seat whose voters gave Tony Abbott the flick in favour of independent Zali Steggall. Included on the watch list are “NSW upper house member Natalie Ward, Menzies Research Centre manager Tim James, Downer EDI executive and former Scott Morrison staffer Sasha Grebe, as well as management consultant and NSW Liberal Party state executive member Alex Dore”, along with Manly barrister Jane Buncle. Mike Baird, former Premier and now senior executive at NAB, set the hares running when he declined on opportunity to seek the position of chief executive at the bank, but “several Liberal sources doubted Mr Baird would want to take the pay cut to go to Canberra”.

• A number of victims of the Liberals’ 2018 Victorian election disaster are identified in The Age as potential successors for Mary Wooldridge’s Eastern Metropolitan seat in the Victorian Legislative Council, following her retirement announcement last week: John Pesutto, Heidi Victoria and Michael Gidley, respectively the former members for Hawthorn, Bayswater and Mount Waverley.

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.

5,091 comments on “Northern exposure”

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  2. Greensborough Growler says:

    ‘Apparently, Climate Change politics is the only game in town.

    Whatever happened to hospital schools, social welfare and our telecommunication policies.

    While a small minority fret that they are not in control and everybody should/could die, most Aussies are just getting on with life.’

    Unfortunately, some of the ‘most Aussies are just getting on the life’ are slipping into the ‘Small minority fret’ column. This would drought effected communities, irrigators short of water and people who live in the bushfire areas.

  4. Rex Douglas @ #4992 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 4:31 pm

    Boerwar @ #3461 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 7:27 pm

    Nader and the Greens were as ‘right’ as Rex and nath and P1 and Guytaur.
    The Naderites were right all the time.
    They were so right they sank Al Gore.

    More Trumpism ‘alternative’ facts from the Labor partisanship.

    I’ll settle for the fact that Bush voters sank Al Gore.

    The reality is that Florida’s Governor and the Supreme Court sank Al Gore.

  5. “This does not meet either the 82%/2030 OR the 100%/2040 threshold tests.”

    Hmmm does it meat the 100% 2050 test? That’s labor policy. Or have you forgotten that.

  6. Blobbit @ #4995 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 7:33 pm

    “Yes. But since they will be based on the amount of carbon emitted, they will be lower on LNG than on coal.”

    I wonder if they will. Why bother with sanctions at all? The most effective sanction would be for countries to simply stop buying coal and LNG.

    Any sanctions are going to be on anything other than fossil fuels, more than likely. Any country that will put a tariff on coal will be one that isn’t using it.

    There is no need to wonder – https://www.dw.com/en/imf-calls-for-huge-hike-in-carbon-tariffs-to-save-earth/a-50787293

  7. The government shows it priorities as Australia burns:

    The Department of Parliamentary Services has spent more than $380,000 replacing a coffee cart in Parliament House with a permanent coffee shop.

    The new kiosk, christened the Coffee Hub and located in the press gallery area of Parliament, was established to replace a mobile coffee cart perched in a corridor nearby.

  11. Thunberg turns 17 in a fortnight, and 18 isn’t far off. As a 16yo the responses from Morrison et al. have been muted. That will soon change. I suspect rubbishing Thunberg will allow the deniers easy wins. (To my shame I don’t know enough history, but I think Joan of Arc didn’t end well.)

  14. Late Riser
    Joan of Arc did not end well. She was captured and tried for heresy, rather than her military exploits helping the French prince against the English. Her fate to be burnt at the stake was the standard punishment for heresy. I should know more but I certainly get your drift

  17. Rex Douglas

    All she said was this and a link to tv footage of the fire. She is right to wonder as Scrott in the face of it declares all is well.

    Greta Thunberg
    ‏
    Verified account

    @GretaThunberg
    Follow Follow @GretaThunberg
    MoreGreta Thunberg Retweeted Nine News Sydney
    Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible?
    Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires
    That’s what has to change.
    Now.

    https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1208682929855041538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208682929855041538&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbxmastragics.com%2F2019%2F12%2F08%2Fthis-venn-diagram%2F

  20. ABC News, Brisbane, 1 hour behind the rest of you.
    Morrison speaks, “…won’t respond with a knee jerk reaction”.
    Wife, “I’d like to show him a knee jerk reaction!”

  21. Cannot believe Scotty has said the choices he made re Hawaii was akin to a plumber having to decide whether to take another contract on a Friday or go home to the kids. WTF?

    And the Shovel was never gonna let that go!

    A plumber who was called in to do some urgent pre-Christmas repairs at Scott Morrison’s Canberra residence has followed the Prime Minister’s lead and pissed off to Hawaii for a week.

    In an interview this morning, Mr Morrison said a Prime Minister leaving the country in the midst of the country’s worst bushfire crisis was like a plumber taking an extra contract on a Friday afternoon. Plumber Dan Peterson naturally assumed that the reverse must also be true.

    “When I got the call from Scomo saying his toilet was blocked and would I do one-last job before knocking off for Christmas, I thought yeah no worries, that’s basically the same as taking the kids to Honolulu for a week. So I jumped on the next flight”.

    https://www.theshovel.com.au/2019/12/23/plumber-the-lodge-contracted-hawaii/

  22. We have rellies staying with us from Roachdale, Manchester. I’m fascinated with the way they speak. For instance, “I went pub to pub today”- omitting the determiner “the”. I never belittle one for unconventional grammar, punctuation, syntax – neither should you JW as you did with guytaur today.

  24. Danama Papers @ #5017 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 8:07 pm

    C@tmomma @ #5016 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:04 pm

    Danama Papers @ #5012 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 8:00 pm

    Apropos of nothing at all, just for interest’s sake:

    <a href="<a href="” rel=”nofollow”>” rel=”nofollow”>” rel=”nofollow”>

    Very profound, DP. 😀

    😆

    Got it fixed seconds before your post. See the one directly above yours. 😉

    Yeah, as soon as I posted I saw it. Those drones, eh? A-mazing. The camels aren’t too bad either! 🙂

  25. Mavis @ #5021 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 8:13 pm

    We have rellies staying with us from Roachdale, Manchester. I’m fascinated with the way they speak. For instance, “I went pub to pub today”- omitting the determiner “the”. I never belittle one for unconventional grammar, punctuation, syntax – neither should you JW as you did with guytaur today.

    Sorry, but I think JW was correct. If someone doesn’t put a comma in the correct place, or at all, then the meaning of any given sentence becomes opaque.

  26. PeeBee @ #5001 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 7:38 pm

    Greensborough Growler says:

    ‘Apparently, Climate Change politics is the only game in town.

    Whatever happened to hospital schools, social welfare and our telecommunication policies.

    While a small minority fret that they are not in control and everybody should/could die, most Aussies are just getting on with life.’

    Unfortunately, some of the ‘most Aussies are just getting on the life’ are slipping into the ‘Small minority fret’ column. This would drought effected communities, irrigators short of water and people who live in the bushfire areas.

    Give us the beat that soothes your soul,

  31. This is an amazing collection of Australian teenagers’ tiktoks about Scott Morrison’s trip to Hawaii:

    https://twitter.com/CaseyBriggs/status/1208698198522355712

    They go with this article:

    Young Australians on social media are mocking Scott Morrison and expressing their anger over his six-day holiday to Hawaii during Australia’s bushfire crisis.

    Morrison returned to work on Sunday, cutting his personal family holiday short by a day, after transferring responsibilities to the deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, last Monday. On Friday, the prime minister announced he would return early after the deaths of two firefighters, and said he “deeply regrets any offence caused” by the holiday.

    But his absence, and his lack of action on climate change, had already become a meme on Facebook, satirical news websites and TikTok, the video app popular among teenagers and younger users.

    TikToks are short videos, between 15 and 60 seconds, where users lipsync along to film dialogue or music.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/23/australian-teens-turn-to-tiktok-to-mock-pm-over-hawaii-holiday-during-fire-crisis

    They are our future.

  34. C@tmomma:

    [‘Sorry, but I think JW was correct. If someone doesn’t put a comma in the correct place, or at all, then the meaning of any given sentence becomes opaque.’]

    Have you considered that there might be a reason thereof – I mean, other than what appears opaque? I’m friendly with some on a certain spectrum. I won’t take it further than that. I do hope you’re feeling better than you did this morning.

  35. Today I fought back against the Coalition’s First Great Global Warming Drought.
    I provided some water for a Blue-tongued Lizard.
    Which it lapped up with its beautiful blue tongue.
    What does it know about gas-fired power stations?

  37. Hi Mavis,
    Thanks for your kind thoughts. Feeling a tad better. I’ve spoken about it before, about how I am allergic to a lot of additives in foods and certain foods themselves, such that if I have something new and an additive sneaks past me I end up in all sorts of bother the next day. A migraine ensues, sometimes with accompanying exacerbated synaesthetic effects, or simply just headaches, nausea and dizziness. My mood changes as well. It’s horrible! And all I can do is wait for it to pass, and eat a lot of the foods that seem to make it go away, like Vegemite toast and honey on toast. Also, cheese platters have a positive effect, so I had one tonight-goats cheese, camembert, olives and cocktail onions on chilli jam crackers. All things I know I can eat with impunity. I should, therefore, be okay by tomorrow. 🙂

    And, I hadn’t had the thought you had about certain posters but it is a perceptive one, I’ll give you that. Whether correct or incorrect, I don’t know. 🙂

  38. How useful in the Global Warming Fight is Ms Thunberg?
    Her utterances are simplistic.
    What has she achieved?
    COP25 was a global wreck. Modi, Putin, Xi, Trump, Morrison and Salman did not listen to Ms Thunberg.
    She provides a useful foil for the Morrisons of the world.

  39. Boerwar says:
    Monday, December 23, 2019 at 8:51 pm

    …”The Greens played with fire and burned Gore.
    But they can’t admit playing with fire.
    Let alone scorching Gore”…

    Rhyming “Gore” with “Gore”
    Brilliant!!!

  40. When a plumber signs a new contract the plumber is going to work. Not going on holidays. Unless a bit of the old phoenixing is in the works.

  42. …”The Greens played with fire and burned Gore.
    But they can’t admit playing with fire.
    Let alone scorching Gore”…

    And what does it even mean?
    Poets wonder…

  44. “Gasp! We can’t give them…horror of horror…cash to help them and their families it would affect our surplus,” said Friedeggburger to Scummo. “What do we do?”
    “I know, let’s promise them a tax break for their selfless work and effort,” replied Scummo. “And when the next tax time rolls around we can conveniently find some way to say “Sorry, but we can’t afford it. Economy issues and all that.” then we can schedule them for another year or ten.”
    “Brilliant.”
    “How good are lies, eh.”

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-23/scott-morrison-anthony-albanese-bushfires-meeting/11823128

  45. Boerwar says:
    Monday, December 23, 2019 at 8:55 pm

    …”How useful in the Global Warming Fight is Ms Thunberg?
    Her utterances are simplistic.
    What has she achieved?”…

    Are you Andrew Bolt?

  46. ‘poroti says:
    Monday, December 23, 2019 at 9:03 pm

    Boerwar

    What has she achieved?

    More than you. So lift your game.’

    I doubt that, actually, but that is beside the point.

    The point is this: What has she achieved? Even more to the point, is she actually counter-productive?

  47. Boerwar says:
    Monday, December 23, 2019 at 9:07 pm

    …”I doubt that, actually, but that is beside the point”…

    Tell us about that time you started your own global movement influencing 10’s if not 100’s of millions of people?

  48. Thunberg has focused the youth and some not so youthful by being a symbol of what might be a denied future.

    For that she has great value – her ‘simplistic’ message resonates because it is devoid of all the arguments and justifications of our ‘fake news obsessed, spinning govt leaders, who have their head in their arses and their hands in the mining lobbys’ pockets’

  49. Simon Katich says:
    Monday, December 23, 2019 at 4:08 pm
    Why didnt this plane get sent to get him out of Hawaii?
    “An Antonov …“, remember MH17, still in the international justice system, don’t mention anything Russian, unless it is really bad news!

  50. Millions of Greta Thunbergs throughout the world will not be dismissed by older rich white fellows telling them to go back to school and learn.
    The world as we know it is changing at a ever increasing rate, on so many levels and fate will have its way.
    Morrison was always going to be a tiny blimp on the radar of significance and his ending for 2019 is nothing but pathetic.
    Greta will long be remembered, not Morrison.

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