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.
frednk @ #4897 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:05 pm
As I (and the UN) have pointed out to you, not only can we affect supply, we will have to do so, because demand policies have proven to be insufficient.
Coal is a political tussle. The Blue team have been kicking with the wind in QLD and scooping up votes with their coal defence play. The Greens have been sallying into the breeze for many seasons and can hardly get a kick, playing coal-attack.
Labor do not actually want to play in the coal games. But they have little choice. The coal games matter to some of their fans.
There is a much bigger game on. But the Blues and the Greens want to keep everyone
watching the coal cup. It’s about as boring as 20/20cricket. It’s a distraction. It’s a decoy.
re the UK election, Boerwar was right. The numbers were not there to impose a second referendum, parliament was paralysed so ultimately the SNP and Lib Dems favoured a general election, which forced Labor’s hand. (There seems to be a distorted view among some that Labor+SNP+Lib dems could take control of parliament. This wasn’t true – they didn’t have the numbers – there were a substantial number of Northern Irish, independants, ex-tories etc and you couldn’t pretend they would all abstain from your grand plan).
Corbyn couldn’t have been rolled by the PLP. Its ultimately a membership decision and the majority of them loved him (and possibly still do). The administrative organs of the Labor party are in the hands of Corbyn zealots so no help there. Labor was doomed under Corbyn, but the only way Corbyn (and his followers) would realise that was following an election defeat.
RI
Coal is at the heart of the blocking of climate change policy in this country
Boring as F.
A grim reality.
Boerwar says:
Monday, December 23, 2019 at 4:22 pm
…”Wow. Straight from perfect policies through perfect politics to perfect snarking!”…
Says the Queen of snark.
Hi all,
I’ve been lurking here since a month or so before the election, and just wanted to wish all the bludgers a merry Christmas and new year.
I’d like to thank God (aka Mr Bowe) for maintaining this site and discussion forum. I work in the IT department of a local council on the mid north coast and we’ve been through a pretty rough couple of months with a restructure, some MAJOR outages (thanks NBNco and Telstra) and a bunch of other stuff going on. I’m normally very switched on but just haven’t had the time to keep up as much as I’d like lately (well aside from Amy’s blog on GA when the parliament is sitting, I never miss that) so this site has been wonderful in keeping up with things whilst I’ve been so busy.
To that end I’d like to thank BK especially for the dawn patrol, it’s allowed me to queue up articles on my phone for later consumption, and your synopsis is enough for the ones I don’t get to read. The cartoons have become a highlight of my day. I’m so glad to hear that your house survived the current fires and that you’ll be able to have a nice Christmas with the family.
I’d also like to thank the other bludgers like phoenixred, Lizzie, confessions, pegasus, C@t, and all the rest (list not exclusive for those I haven’t mentioned) who post tweets and excerpts from articles, as they’ve been magnificent in times where I couldn’t read things myself. And to Nicholas for his contributions on the NDIS and MMT (wish this reality was more widely publicised), Cud chewer for his knowledge of transport policy, and to the resident medicos for their contributions.
I might even dip my toe in in the new year and start posting some thoughts myself 🙂
Anyhoo thanks to all (and I do mean all, even those I don’t always agree with) for their contributions since I’ve been lurking and I hope you’re all making the best of our smoke filled fore ravaged holiday season
PS – Mr bowe, a donation is forthcoming after new year 🙂
RI @ #4902 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:16 pm
Despite the continual bleating of the Labor right partisans here, this has very little to do with the Greens. Labor chose to play the pro-coal strategy, and lost resoundingly as a result. They certainly need a new strategy, they should look for a new sponsor, and they should consider appointing a new coach as well.
E. G. Theodore @ #4892 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 4:55 pm
36-24-36 I wish! 😆
guytaur says:
Monday, December 23, 2019 at 5:18 pm
RI
Coal is at the heart of the blocking of climate change in this country
Says who? The Greens. Who gives a rats what the Greens say? They should dissolve themselves. They have been worse than useless. They have made everything much, much more difficult than would otherwise have been the case.
It seems that Morrison has said something about the Canadian firefighters being able to “enjoy an Aussie Christmas.” A barbecue? He’s so crass.
RI
You can deny all you like. It’s the simple truth.
No matter how much you try and pretend differently
Blobbit @ #4894 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:05 pm
Damn straight.
RI @ #4908 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:21 pm
No, Labor managed their most recent debacle all by themselves. And now instead of copping it and moving on, they (or at least one faction) are looking for someone else to blame, rather than have to change their position.
There was a quote from Trump about windmills a little while back, sadly it was abridged. We should enjoy the whole thing..
President Donald Trump on Saturday renewed his long standing feud against windmills during a speech to the conservative Turning Point USA conference on Saturday evening in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“I never understood wind,” Trump said while criticizing the Green New Deal. “I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous—if you are into this—tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right?”
The president then attacked windmills for being “noisy,” before declaring that they also “kill the birds.”
“The world is tiny compared to the universe,” he continued. “So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air.”
“A windmill will kill many bald eagles,” Trump added. “After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”
“You want to see a bird graveyard, go under a windmill someday. You will see more dead birds than you’ve ever seen in your life.”
But this couldn’t top an earlier claim he made..
The president also claimed that windmills are extremely unreliable: “All of a sudden, it stops; the wind and the televisions go off. And your wives and husbands say, ‘Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight. But the wind stopped blowing and I can’t watch. There’s no electricity in the house, darling.'”
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-lashes-out-windmills-again-says-they-will-kill-many-bald-eagles-i-never-understood-wind-1478756
RI @ #3381 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:21 pm
If the Greens dissolved, the parliament would be in full support of more thermal coal.
That is a disastrous outcome for our society and environment.
Are you sure you want more thermal coal ?
“If the Greens dissolved, the parliament would be in full support of more thermal coal.”
________________________________
As opposed to current situation of a majority in both houses being in full support of more thermal coal, which is just fine
guytaur says:
Monday, December 23, 2019 at 5:23 pm
RI
You can deny all you like. It’s the simple truth.
The truth is not simple in this matter. Not at all. The more you and your kin single out coal, the less likely it is that anything can be done. This is all just Green Herring. Your position amounts to to no more than fiction.
Scope 3 emissions from coal consumption in Australia are falling. They will decline to nil in coming decades. This is great. But even so all life will remain on the endangered list. We are essentially fucked.
Rex
What has happened to Adam Bandt and RDN? Just checked their twitter feeds and they are MIA.
RI
Deleted for civility. See P1’s post.
sprocket_ @ #3391 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:29 pm
Perhaps they’re in a meeting with Peter Garrett …?
RI @ #4916 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:28 pm
I’m afraid it is … you just don’t like it.
You cannot be pro-coal and pro-environment. It is simply not possible.
Seems a fair comment.
What say you Holy Roller Scrott ?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12296305
In reference to the koala and firefighter pic:
“It was common for koalas to seek help.”
That’s very touching. Koalas don’t seem to hand around humans normally. Perhaps they have learned from experience, like the kookaburras who gather round at the sound of axes in the bush.
“No, Labor managed their most recent debacle all by themselves”
Absolutely. Unfortunately for the environment the Greens were as much of a failure. They neither formed government, always a longshot for them, nor hold the balance of power.
PageBoi
Nice to meet you. Compliments of the season. 🙂
We cannot avert climate change in Australia by ourselves. This is plain as day. All nations will have to collaborate or we will all perish together. Australia’s LNP rulers do their level best to frustrate international co-ordination to avert further global heating. This can only be changed if we change the ruling party. The Greens and the LNP are determined to prevent this. Essentially, they would rather see all life perish than to revise their political strategies.
This is not new under our sun. The single-minded pursuit of self-interest can be self-defeating. We can see this in real time every day. Unless and until we resolve the dysfunction in Australian politics, we will be no more than spectators at our own demise.
sprocket_ @ #4918 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:29 pm
They wouldn’t be on leave by any chance?
“You cannot be pro-coal and pro-environment. It is simply not possible.”
I’m going to agree with you.
The problem at the moment is that it’s been impossible to be anti-coal and win an election.
Remember how the ALP were going to steal your utes and the weekend?
Remember how the Green’s are irrelevant in this parliament?
Btw, the ‘ those quiet still voices’ Morrison is listening to with regards more gas and coal fired power stations – is actually derived from a favourite Pentecostal preaching meme..
Question: “What does it mean that God speaks in a still small voice?”
Answer: There is only one place in Scripture where God is said to speak in a “still small voice,” and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40; 19:12). Told that Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, was seeking kill him, Elijah ran into the wilderness and collapsed in exhaustion. God sent an angel with food and water to strengthen him, told him to rest, and then sent him to Horeb. In a cave there, Elijah voices his complaint that all of God’s prophets had been killed by Jezebel and he alone had survived. God instructed him to stand on the mountain in His presence. Then the Lord sent a mighty wind which broke the rocks in pieces; then He sent an earthquake and a fire, but His voice was in none of them. After all that, the Lord spoke to Elijah in the still small voice, or “gentle whisper.”
The point of God speaking in the still small voice was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations. Divine silence does not necessarily mean divine inactivity. Zechariah 4:6 tells us that God’s work is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” meaning that overt displays of power are not necessary for God to work.
Blobbit @ #4925 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:34 pm
The Greens are irrelevant, unless and until Labor chooses to make them relevant. So far Labor has resisted this, which is fair enough. But that is not good enough for the Labor right faction. They must demonize the Greens because they can see that this situation may change soon … and they are desperate that this not happen. They know they would have to give up coal if it did.
Meanwhile, Australia burns.
RI
And here’s someone who doesn’t even seem to understand the irony of his position.
lizzie @ #4932 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 5:39 pm
In the parallel universe where Australia leads the world in … well, anything really 🙁
It’s not possible to change environmental outcomes by making a scapegoat from coal and coal miners. The political exploitation of coal is intractable. The Greens are addicted to it, as are the LNP.
We can be reasonably sure that in the aftermath of the fires in NSW, support for the LNP in their central QLD seats will have increased. The political logjam cannot be broken by blaming coal.
From this morning
sprocket_
Scary . Scrott will of course think he is doing Dog’s work and so the rest of the country can bugger off while he gets on with it.
Blobbit
By the time of the next election electric utes are going to be a reality.
Hopefully the Democrats will have won and put a Green New Deal in place.
Australia will be out on the proverbial limb all on its own.
Plus more tragic hot summers will take their toll on the let’s burn more coal advocates that deny climate change
Katoomba?
Apparently he didn’t show. Went to Mudgee instead …
Cud Chewer @ #4819 Monday, December 23rd, 2019 – 12:23 pm
You seriously believe a second referendum would’ve ended Brexit? SRSLY?
“Plus more tragic hot summers will take their toll on the let’s burn more coal advocates that deny climate change”
Indeed. Which is why the focus needs to be on winning an election. Can’t see telling those seats in QLD to f off is going to do it.
Anyway, there two distinct conversations going on here – what needs to be done, which is easy to define, and how to get it implemented politically, which is hard.
Saying we need to stop burning coal is the easy bit, frankly.
Blobbitt
My only point has been arguing for the expansion of coal does not help people take Labor seriously on the environment. I said this before the election.
The damage of the Greens convoy was highlighting to both sides that Labor was weak on its environmental credentials. Despite this we have evidence from post election autopsies that Labor won voters on the environment.
It’s just Labor has let itself be sold the story it was the Greens fault not theirs the convoy had such impact.
My point is by the time of the next election Labor has to have its transition plans in place. Then run a debt truck around Murdoch dominated areas. Etc.
No matter what Labor does it has to counter the narrative of the right. Not boost it.
‘If the Greens dissolved…’
Politics, always politics.
The Greens won’t dissolve!
We’re safe. Huzzah!
God instructed him to stand on the mountain in His presence. Then the Lord sent a mighty wind which broke the rocks in pieces;
Jeez, that was some fart! 😆
And just a reminder…
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Victoria Registry
Owen Dixon Commonwealth Law Courts Building Level 7, 305 William Street MELBOURNE, 3000
24 December 2019
New South Wales Registry, Court No. 1, Level 21
2:15 PM Judgment
1 VID1018/2019
by Videoconference
(New South Wales Registry time) VANESSA CLAIRE GARBETT V GLADYS LIU & ANOR
2 VID1019/2019
by Videoconference
(New South Wales Registry time) OLIVER TENNANT YATES V JOSHUA ANTHONY FRYDENBERG & ANOR
Justice MiddletonCOURT 6A (Level 6)
12:30 PM Case Management Hearing
1 VID180/2018 DAVARIA PTY LIMITED V 7-ELEVEN STORES PTY LTD & ORS
2 VID182/2018 PARESHKUMAR DAVARIA & ANOR V 7-ELEVEN STORES PTY LIMITED & ANOR
Pageboi,
Thanks for your eloquent best wishes and I second your sentiments, especially the thanks to BK and his elves.
I rarely post but have been lurking since Possum Com days and look forward to posts by experts in their field such as Socrates, Cudchewer, etc. as well as the verbal flair of the likes of BB . And the daily whimsy of KayJay who never ceases to surprise, leavening the contentious political climate.
Finally, the cartoons are a highlight , an antidote to what can seem as unfathomable stupidity.
Best wishes to all for the festive season.
Morrison seems to be wandering around a lot these past two days trying to give the impression he is deeply affected by the bushfires (and going for the photo ops with unfortunate fire fighters and fire victims).
Expect to see him handing out slices of turkey and plum pudding on Christmas Day. Well he can’t be upstaged by Albo, can he?
I bet the PM is hoping that the court finds in favour AGAINST the incompetent Liu so he can do a quick execution and therefore distraction against the events of the last week.
However that might mean a by-election but the perfect opportunity to reset the LNP optics on CC etc.
Speaking of Liu
According to friends has not been seen in Chisholm for some weeks.
Suspect she may have retreated to HK to avoid scrutiny.