Empty chairs

Victoria’s Greens gear up for a party vote to fill Richard Di Natale’s Senate vacancy, plus similar developments for the state Liberals in Tasmania and Victoria.

As you can see in the post below this one, the Courier-Mail yesterday had a YouGov Galaxy state poll for Queensland that found both major parties stranded in the mid-thirties on the primary vote. State results from this series are usually followed a day or two later by federal ones, but no sign of that to this point. If it’s Queensland state politics reading you’re after, I can offer my guide to the Currumbin by-election, to be held on March 29. Other than that, there’s the following news on how various parliamentary vacancies around the place will be or might be filled:

• Noel Towell of The Age reports two former state MPs who fell victim to the Greens’ weak showing at the November 2018 state election are “potentially strong contenders” to take Richard Di Natale’s Senate seat when he leaves parliament, which will be determined by a vote of party members. These are Lidia Thorpe, who won the Northcote by-election from Labor in June 2018, and Huong Truong, who filled Colleen Hartland’s vacancy in the Western Metropolitan upper house seat in February 2018. The party’s four current state MPs have all ruled themselves out. Others said to be potential starters include Brian Walters, a barrister and former Liberty Victoria president, and Dinesh Mathew, a television actor who ran in the state seat of Caulfield in 2018.

• Former Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman’s seat in parliament will be filled by Nic Street, following a preference countback of the votes Hodgman received in the seat of Franklin at the March 2018 election. This essentially amounted to a race between Street and the other Liberal who nominated for the recount, Simon Duffy. Given Street was only very narrowly unsuccessful when he ran as an incumbent at the election, being squeezed out for the last of the five seats by the Greens, it was little surprise that he easily won the countback with 8219 out of 11,863 (70.5%). This is the second time Street has made it to parliament on a countback, the first being in February 2016 on the retirement of Paul Harriss.

• The Age reports Mary Wooldridge’s vacancy in the Victorian Legislative Council is likely to be filled either by Emanuele Cicchiello, former Knox mayor and deputy principal at Lighthouse Christian College, or Asher Judah, who ran unsuccessfully in Bentleigh in 2018. Party sources are quoted expressing surprise that only four people have nominated, with the only woman being Maroondah councillor Nora Lamont, reportedly a long shot. Also in the field is Maxwell Gratton, chief executive of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

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.

1,209 comments on “Empty chairs”

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  1. Now that, finally, more Australians are ignoring Murdoch’s media and his climate BS, it’s time we started to call out Kerry Stokes’ 7West media anti-truth climate BS.
    The man’s main interests are mining.
    Michael West Media has a good article by Jommy Tee

    Although best known as a media mogul, much of Kerry Stokes’ wealth is derived from LNG, coal, iron ore and beef, of which Japan is a major importer. Boosting demand is a key role of Australia’s Japanese ambassador, Richard Court. As a director of three Stokes companies, Court would be well aware of the flow-ons. So why not disclose his relationship? Jommy Tee investigates WA mining networks and political connections.

    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/ambassador-richard-court-stoked-to-be-in-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/

  3. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    A rather pissed off David Speers describes the continued rise in government secrecy and opacity.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-09/we-have-regressed-on-transparency-right-to-know-politics/11942762
    Michael Koziol says that the Angus Taylor fake document affair shows how much you can get away with in politics these days. He concludes that we need a decent ICAC.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/angus-taylor-fake-document-affair-shows-how-much-you-can-get-away-with-in-politics-20200207-p53ytd.html
    Eryk Bagshaw reports on life on Christmas Island for those quarantined.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-tropical-holiday-life-for-evacuees-on-christmas-island-20200207-p53yqi.html
    Jack Waterford says that the sports rorts will taint the Canberra air for a long time. This is very good.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6619220/sports-rorts-will-taint-the-canberra-air-for-a-long-time/?cs=14329
    In quite a hard hitting contribution Greg Jericho writes that ‘good’ climate policy can no longer be our goal. It’s time to reach for perfect. Ouch!
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/09/good-climate-policy-can-no-longer-be-our-goal-its-time-to-reach-for-perfect
    While one scandal is almost over, the Government is still a thorn in our collective sides with more deceit and archaic ideals, writes John Wren in his weekly political roundup.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/wrens-week-bridget-mckenzie-falls-while-parliament-reverts-to-the-dark-ages,13576
    John Elder explains how and why the Pharmacy Guild is so good at leaning on politicians.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2020/02/08/pharmacists-political-donations-australia/
    Peter FitzSimons is worth a read today.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-bought-a-tesla-and-it-brought-out-my-inner-hoon-20200207-p53yof.html
    Federal Labor says private investors won’t touch the Morrison government’s plan to support a coal-fired power plant in Queensland “with a barge pole”.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6620528/no-appetite-for-coal-powered-plant-labor/?cs=14231
    Ebony Bennett opines that until we stop approving gas and coal projects, there’s no transition taking place.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6619628/until-we-stop-approving-gas-and-coal-projects-theres-no-transition-taking-place/?cs=14258
    Darren Gray reports that thousands of wine grape samples from this season’s vintage are likely to be laboratory tested as producers want to know whether grapes have been affected by smoke.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/we-re-flat-out-labs-running-overtime-testing-wine-grapes-for-smoke-taint-20200207-p53ymu.html
    The deaths of the three Abdallah children and their cousin, mown down by an alleged drunk driver in Oatlands last weekend, has shocked the nation. What has shocked people even more, perhaps, was the astonishingly grace-filled response of the children’s mother, Leila Geagea Abdallah.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/to-forgive-is-a-strength-not-a-weakness-so-all-power-to-the-abdallah-family-20200206-p53yi9.html
    Neil Brown calls out Israel Foalu’s hypocrisy.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/there-s-one-thing-more-important-to-folau-than-his-beliefs-20200207-p53ytn.html
    Experts are saying that Australia’s firefighting capacity would be better served by dedicated satellites launched to detect fires and provide real-time information to firefighters.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6607084/fit-for-purpose-satellites-on-the-cards-to-help-australias-bushfire-response/?cs=14225

    Cartoon Corner

    Peter Broelman

    David Pope

    Matt Golding



    Matt Davidson

    From the US (Diogenes take note!)




  5. I have vaguely wondered how the Morrisons were enjoying the smokey air in Sydney, but all is well.

    Taxpayers also coughed up more than $3000 during the 2018-19 summer for four Dyson fans but can be reassured they came with HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters, ensuring the Morrisons weren’t bothered by harmful bushfire smoke particles.

    I do find this Daily Tele article a bit petty, though.
    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/scomos-dysons-and-a-sous-vide-machine-paid-for-by-taxpayers/news-story/b5c262b97a657b808db22e425f3cd9bf

  6. Salon regular Lucian Truscott :

    I have seen the future: Donald Trump is going to get worse

    The only thing Donald Trump didn’t do in his victory-lap appearance in the East Room on Thursday was announce the pending arrest of Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi. He did everything else. He told his roomful of hacks and sycophants that the impeachment trial “was all bullshit.” They cheered. He called the Democrats and lone Republican who favored his impeachment and removal from office “the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever known,” “lowlifes,” “stone-cold razy,” “evil,” “sick,” “corrupt,” “scum,” “bad,” “horrible,” “vicious” and “leakers.” Stammering, wheezing, snorting and sniffling, he said those who impeached him were “mean.”

    Donald Trump is like a kid who gets on an elevator full of people and pushes the button for every floor. He does stuff because it pisses off the Democrats. He does stuff because it “owns the libs” and delights his base. He does stuff because it makes his pathetic, pinched little life a tiny bit bigger. I would say that he does stuff because it makes him happy, but I don’t think he’s capable of even a scintilla of joy. Mostly he does stuff because he can, and the big question we face, now that we’ve had an impeachment but failed to remove him from office, is whether he’s going to break the great American elevator and bring this country crashing down with him. I hope not, but every day he’s been in office he’s gotten worse, and it’s working for him.

    MORE : https://www.salon.com/2020/02/08/i-have-seen-the-future-donald-trump-is-going-to-get-worse/

  8. David Speers

    The rival bosses of News Corp, the ABC and Nine Entertainment even shared a stage, giving a joint address to the National Press Club.

    So, what did this powerful campaign achieve? Absolutely nothing if this week was any guide.

    In fact, it feels like we’ve regressed when it comes to transparency.

    We’re more in the dark than ever before.
    …
    From time to time, governments talk about transparency and accountability, but there was none on display this week.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-09/we-have-regressed-on-transparency-right-to-know-politics/11942762?pfmredir=sm

  10. Kronomex says: Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 7:52 am

    phoenixRED,
    Don’t worry too much, Emperor Donald the First is only just getting started in the revenge stakes.

    ***********************************************

    I have no doubt you are very much on the money Kronomex :

    Donald Trump Definitely Learned His Lesson

    Anyone who has spent five minutes studying the life of Donald Trump knows that every time he dodges a bullet, he becomes more, not less, reckless.

    Which means that the lesson he was destined to take from impeachment was that he can get away with everything and anything. Trump learned that he owns the Republican party, that they will do whatever he wants, that they will sign off on all his criming.

    Trump learned a lesson this week, he learned that he is our mad king and nothing and no one can stop him. And the sad thing is: He’s right.

    https://thebulwark.com/donald-trump-definitely-learned-his-lesson/

  12. ‘Mr Newbie says:
    Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 4:36 am

    Bushfire Bill:

    I can’t think of any Law Of Nature that prescribes the perfect species mix, and requires it to be maintained forever. So, regrettably (and as sad a prospect as we might think it to be), cuddly koalas, buzzing bees, cute little pygmy possums, soaring eagles and blue-finned tuna fish (to name a scant few) could all be deleted from the Register Of Extant Species without troubling the Great Galactic Scorer or whomever keeps records of these kinds of things. We lost the dinosaurs and got along fine, didn’t we?

    Yeah, I mean, it’d be no *great* loss if bees become extinct, given that about 80% of the crops we use for food rely on them for pollination. No biggie if they go.

    It’s clear you do not understand the concept of the food chain. If one species dies, then everything that depends on it as a food source also dies, and everything that depends on *that* species dies, and so on, as you go up the food chain.

    Yes, some species can adapt and eat more of other things, but they are then competing with other species over the same limited amount of the new food source – which then has to be spread more thinly, placing stress on the other species.

    ‘Dinosaurs were apex predators, so their extinction wouldn’t have the same devastating consequences as the loss of bees. Just as if we humans went extinct tomorrow, it would only really negatively affect domesticated animals who depend on us for food, water and shelter. But take away bees and whole ecosystems collapse.’

    At least BB is not, I assume, a Greens and therefore can reasonably be expected not to get the environment more or less right. But if peeps like Mr Newbie are going to parade as environmentalists, they should at least get some of the basics right:

    ‘1. I can’t think of any Law Of Nature that prescribes the perfect species mix, and requires it to be maintained forever. So, regrettably (and as sad a prospect as we might think it to be), cuddly koalas, buzzing bees, cute little pygmy possums, soaring eagles and blue-finned tuna fish (to name a scant few) could all be deleted from the Register Of Extant Species without troubling the Great Galactic Scorer or whomever keeps records of these kinds of things. We lost the dinosaurs and got along fine, didn’t we?’

    No-one has posited ‘the perfect species mix’ which is required ‘to be maintained forever’. All ecologists accept that extinctions are a normal outcome of evolution.

    Of the ‘species’ you list ‘buzzing bees’ pollinate most of the world’s food crops and the immediate extinction of ‘buzzing bees’ would most likely result in the death by starvation of several billion humans.

    The impact of prior mass extinctions, particularly when there were no humans around, has little instructional value in terms of the impact on humans of current extinctions.

    Mr Newbie says:

    ‘It’s clear you do not understand the concept of the food chain. If one species dies, then everything that depends on it as a food source also dies, and everything that depends on *that* species dies, and so on, as you go up the food chain.’

    The notion of ‘food chain’ is probably too linear for many species. It varies by species. Some species are highly obligate and will become extinct if the host becomes extinct. This happened to the coprophagous moth that depended for its food on the nest droppings of the Paradise Parrot. When the latter became extinct so did the moth. Very many species are flexible when it comes to food sources. It is probably generally more useful to think of ecosystems as multiple networks rather than as chains. In general, the more complex the networks, the more robust the ecosysems are to, say, a single extinction inside the ecosystem and/or to external changes such as those generated by climate change. One underpinning for this is that complex ecosystems generally have a much larger range of genetic material across and within species. But, if the species that goes extinct is a keystone species, look out. The thinking here is that if you remove that species you generate a cascade of extinctions and near extinctions which dramatically simplifies the networks.

    Mr Newbie says: ‘Dinosaurs were apex predators, so their extinction wouldn’t have the same devastating consequences as the loss of bees. Just as if we humans went extinct tomorrow, it would only really negatively affect domesticated animals who depend on us for food, water and shelter. But take away bees and whole ecosystems collapse.’

    Dinosaurs were herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. Mr Newbie’s premise is 100% wrong.

    There is quite a bit of senseless emoting and moral panic about the future of the planet.

    In terms of life itself, as long as just a very species species survive, evolution as a process will not stop Because of some, many or most extinctions. There is no particular evolutionary requirement for humans to be in that species mix. Competition for energy and nutrients will continue to be the go as long as there is some of the former to be had.

    By ‘survival of the planet’, some peeps mean ‘survival of the human species, and/or survival of our civilisation’ and or ‘survival of the current number of human beings’ and or ‘survival of current levesls of personal amenity’.

    As for the planet itself, the collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies will provide some interesting moments. As will the time when our Sun turns into a red giant.

    For all of the discussion above, entropy beckons.

  13. Sounds like Fitzsimons is auditioning to become a brand ambassador for Tesla cars. For him and Lisa it is always about the money.

  14. spr
    Looking at the image of Chuckie bekniggeting the Van, shouldn’t Chuckie be concentrating on where he is poking the sword?

  16. Morning all. Thanks BK. The Speers article is on the money about increasing secrecy. I take comfort in the fact that clearly is not biased and is not afraid to criticise the government when it behaves badly. This is encouraging for the sake of the future of Insiders.

    It will also be harder for right wingers to dismiss criticism of Scomo from Speers, given his history.

  17. It will also be harder for right wingers to dismiss criticism of Scomo from Speers, given his history.

    Apparently the Australian didn’t have any criticism of Insiders after that interview Speers did with Frydenberg. That must be a first.

  18. Flying under the radar:

    Why the Government blocked a law forcing nursing homes to reveal staff and food budgets

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-09/federal-government-blocked-law-nursing-homes-reveal-finances/11943380

    At 9.30 that day, some crucial amendments to aged care legislation were introduced which would force nursing home to reveal how they spent their $20 billion of taxpayer funds each year — specifically, how much went to staff, food and “the amounts paid out to parent bodies”.
    :::
    The Senate vote was taking place just five weeks after the scathing interim report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

    Among its findings of a “sad and shocking” system which was “inhumane, abusive and unjustified”, the commissioners also commented on the lack of transparency in aged care, with the numbers of complaints, assaults and staff numbers all kept secret from the public.
    :::
    The aged care industry has been successfully lobbying governments for years. The influence of the industry through government committees, thinktanks and policies is well known and is being rightly questioned at the royal commission.
    :::
    However, that excuse didn’t stop the Federal Government from its massive reform of putting the publicly funded Aged Care Assessment system out to tender last year.

    The move to privatise it was widely denounced by state ministers (including from the NSW Liberal Government), advocates and the medical profession.

    But the aged care lobby groups are big supporters of the change.
    :::
    Though the evidence is already there, they will face the same battle that grassroots advocates have been fighting for some time — a solidified force of industry and government who control both the power and the purse strings.

  19. This sneaked through when Sydney’s streets were thick with smoke in December.

    The Senate vote was taking place just five weeks after the scathing interim report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

    Among its findings of a “sad and shocking” system which was “inhumane, abusive and unjustified”, the commissioners also commented on the lack of transparency in aged care, with the numbers of complaints, assaults and staff numbers all kept secret from the public.
    …
    The Senate vote was taking place just five weeks after the scathing interim report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

    Among its findings of a “sad and shocking” system which was “inhumane, abusive and unjustified”, the commissioners also commented on the lack of transparency in aged care, with the numbers of complaints, assaults and staff numbers all kept secret from the public.

    The aged care industry has been successfully lobbying governments for years. The influence of the industry through government committees, thinktanks and policies is well known and is being rightly questioned at the royal commission.

    For example, when the Queensland Government proposed laws requiring nursing homes to publish their staff numbers last year, the federal Department of Health sent a six-page document arguing against it, saying it might “confuse or mislead” families and “appears to create a reporting burden on providers with no clear benefits to consumers”.

    If you think the Federal Government’s objections sound a lot like those of the aged care lobby, you wouldn’t be wrong.

    In fact, the industry group Leading Aged Services Australia (LASA) argued in its own submission that few families would be interested in accessing a website with such information and that the numbers could be used “to push a particular medically based care model (which may be contrary to the preferences of residents)”.

    That’s an argument LASA has been using for years. It’s code for arguing against more registered nurses for fear it spoils the “home-like” atmosphere of an aged care facility.
    …
    Commissioners Briggs and Pagone have called for a complete overhaul of this failing system.

    Though the evidence is already there, they will face the same battle that grassroots advocates have been fighting for some time — a solidified force of industry and government who control both the power and the purse strings.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-09/federal-government-blocked-law-nursing-homes-reveal-finances/11943380

  21. Greg Jericho

    ‘Good’ climate policy can no longer be our goal. It’s time to reach for perfect

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/09/good-climate-policy-can-no-longer-be-our-goal-its-time-to-reach-for-perfect

    Similarly, you could probably fill a long list of quotes by people over the past decade or so who have suggested of climate change policy that “we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good”.

    And yet rather than this suggesting we need to compromise, what it has come to mean is that we should excuse policy that is bad, because it is not perfect.

    If we are so worried about the perfect being the enemy of the good, wouldn’t we at least see some evidence of someone in the major parties actually suggesting a policy that could be described as perfect?

    The science of climate change tells us we need to reduce emissions and the sooner we do it the less the impact will be.

    And yet rather than see any “perfect” policy with this aim, instead we get supposedly good policy accompanied with caveats – talk of the need for transitional fuels such as gas or that a coalmine is fine – hey, let’s not be perfect! (And please don’t not argue about just how good something has to be before perfect becomes its enemy).

    So bad has this become that the carbon price instituted by the Gillard government is now considered some perfect policy too far beyond our political grasp.
    :::
    There has been some talk this week about new Greens leader Adam Bandt’s call for a “Green New Deal” and whether or not Australia should adopt such a US-style political term.
    :::
    We need some good intentions and we need to aim for perfection.

    The challenges and forces against action on climate change are large and powerful. As the past 30 years have shown us, being content to argue for a “good” third- or fourth-best policy is no way to win this fight, and neither is allowing those with bad intentions to tell us that what they want is good.

  23. You’v done it again BK with some good reads with the Dawn Patrol.

    From the BK Files.

    Peter FitzSimons is worth a read today.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-bought-a-tesla-and-it-brought-out-my-inner-hoon-20200207-p53yof.html

    Pause to make fresh coffee – ☕

    Mr. FitzSimons includes a joke in his article. 😆

    Australia’s regional infrastructure is not yet up to supporting your machine. My trips to a funeral in Victoria’s Beechworth and a speech in Casino in northern NSW became a tad problematic for the lack of Tesla Superchargers in those areas capable of charging the whole thing in an hour, and giving you another 500 kilometre range – and you need forethought to sort it out. But I am still glad not to have to spent a red cent or a single second in a petrol station for 18 months.

    I vaguely remember election talk about charging stations – obviously a load of old cobblers – electric cars – not for real Strayan drivers wanting cars built for Strayan conditions.

    and anyway –Peter – apparently you know not whereof you speak

    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/bushfires-should-make-us-reassess-electric-car-craze/news-story/c11f4966ecf9b37d329a0b11e5eddd8c⏬⏬

    And as people lined up to get fuel this summer to evacuate fire regions, what would have happened if they’d had to wait for the one or two fast chargers, taking a couple of hours at a time, rather than 10 minutes at the bowser? And how would electric fire-trucks work!

    Make no mistake, much of the climate cult is a Trojan House that conservatives should never drag into the heart of their policy citadel yet the usual moderates were at again in the Coalition’s party room last Tuesday.

    Now, I’m all in favour of protecting the planet, and want clean water, clean air, pristine beaches and beautiful bushland as much as anyone. And I want lower emissions too. Provided that does NOT mean unaffordable, unreliable electricity; the destruction of heavy industry; the disappearance of meat from our diets; animals from our farms; and drastic changes to everyone’s lifestyle, and country.

    Ms. Credlin includes no joke. 😢

    Therefore brethren I say unto you – let us not build fast charging stations because — Sorry I haven’t figured that one out yet. Perhaps we should give up eating meat first or wait until sheer weight of numbers and drivers armed with pitchforks and flaming torches march daily on Federal Parliament and as for Electric Fire Trucks – well it stands to reason that electricity and water don’t mix or something.

    And another thing mes amies —

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/a-blow-as-nationals-hero-walks-away-from-cabinet/news-story/858054eba87eb18398c7037448cc6240

    Heartfelt apology. I misread the titles – I thought I was reading about a “National Hero” and therefore cease and desist and retreat and retire to drink my coffee ☕ in quiet contemplation of past and present sins. 😈

  24. Political donations and another powerful industry lobby group – the Pharmacy Guild:

    How and why the Pharmacy Guild is so good at leaning on politicians

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2020/02/08/pharmacists-political-donations-australia/

    The Pharmacy Guild of Australia donated more than $770,000 to political parties last financial year, ahead of the federal election – and ahead of the largely secret but sometimes volatile negotiations over the new Community Pharmacy Agreement that is due to come into effect in July.

    The big political spend – more than triple the donations made in previous years – also comes at a time when pharmacists are looking to further push into primary care, despite opposition from doctors.
    :::
    It has a successful history of riding herd on emerging policies that would have benefited consumers, but eaten into member profits. For this reason it is sometimes referred to as the most powerful lobby group in Australia
    :::
    The $773,800 donated by the guild to political parties in the last financial year was significantly higher than in previous years. Most of the money (more than $590,000) was a loser bet, going to the Labor Party, which was expected to win.
    :::
    The wash-up? What appeared to be, on the face of it, a modest, sensible proposal has been put on hold.

  25. I await with a complete lack of confidence for Jericho to stop talking and to start walking.

    I recommend that Jericho takes the Greens New Deal Co2 Emissions Strike Pledge as a start. It will not turn Jericho into a zero netter but it will get him some of the way there. When it comes to perfection, every ton counts.

    I assume that the Guardian is CO2 neutral otherwise the perfect columnist could not possibly be writing for it.

    After all, if we are in a climate emergency, then the good is the enemy of the perfect and the old zero net starts at home and at work.

    At the larger level, I look forward to Jericho joining a political party that will actually deliver his ‘perfect’ and not just talk about it. Naturally that excludes our particular perfectionist party which is currently scoring all of 13% in the polling. As Jericho states, the good is the enemy of the perfect.

  26. Credlin (from KJ’s link)

    ‘Now, I’m all in favour of protecting the planet, and want clean water, clean air, pristine beaches and beautiful bushland as much as anyone.’

    When she was running the Abbott Government she appointed the first of the four worst environment ministers we have ever had: Hunt.

    Neither Credlin nor Abbott showed a scintilla of concern for the environment.

    And she still at it.

  27. On the preselections, don’t the Greens have any quality candidates to replace RDN? Thorpe and Truong are rejects from the state parliament. Surely there are fresh people in Victoria who could step up?

  28. Well, I’ve just spent the last half hour clearing up deadly shards of glass off my son’s bedroom floor after a gust of wind blew his window completely out of the frame and sent it crashing to the floor! 😯

  30. C@t:

    We had windy weather overnight too and at one point I thought the bedroom window was going to blow in! Glad your son wasn’t injured in the process.

  37. If you’re interested in the subject of over population, check this guy out –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UbmG8gtBPM

    Some basic messages:

    – we’ve already reached replacement level. (The problem is that, as people are living longer, the population will continue to rise despite this).

    – we should reach 11 billion but that can be coped with.** It’s unlikely, on current projections, that we’ll exceed this.

    I haven’t tested the guy’s statements but it all seems very evidence based.

    Question for those who haven’t seen the doco: What is the average number of children born to a woman in Bangladesh?

  43. Isn’t it refreshing to see an interview insist on having their question answered? None of this ‘let’s move on’ business.

  44. Are you happy to see a new coal mine opening or not?

    Marles hedging and not answering Speers question re does he support a new coal-fired power plant if one decides to go ahead without government subsidies and meets the environmental approvals.

  45. Pegasus
    Sunday, February 9th, 2020 – 8:43 am
    Comment #18

    lizzie
    Sunday, February 9th, 2020 – 8:46 am
    Comment #19

    Good information. Who care I wonder – who will get it – will families be just so glad that at last somebody is looking after my Mother, Father, Granny, Mad Uncle Eric – and in such a wonderful “homelike environment”.

    In fact, the industry group Leading Aged Services Australia (LASA) argued in its own submission that few families would be interested in accessing a website with such information and that the numbers could be used “to push a particular medically based care model (which may be contrary to the preferences of residents)”.

    That’s an argument LASA has been using for years. It’s code for arguing against more registered nurses for fear it spoils the “home-like” atmosphere of an aged care facility.

    What, I ask myself, what (I repeat myself constantly) is this “particular medically based care model” with which we a not being confronted ❓ Who I ask myself, who (repeat and fire for effect) are these mythical residents being asked for preferences ❓

    Having spent eight years (about 6 – 7 hours per diem) visiting in nursing homes I further ask myself what is the model of the “home” on which the “Aged Care Facility” is based. I have not, as I recall through a glass darkly, ever resided in a house, hut, dormitory, tent or similar in which those supposedly giving care mostly don’t talk with/to the carees but instead chat with themselves (working in two’s you see).

    So children – don’t you worry about that – a benevolent Government has you, and your loved ones best interest at heart – so go away and continue to visit/not visit your Mother, Father, Uncle Eric etc, collecting the “Rose Coloured Glass” at the front door as you arrive – secure in the knowledge the previous unsatisfactory arrangements are being reworked to sound different but remain the same.

  49. I don’t know how you can have bipartisanship on climate policy when the coalition has Nationals prepared to scuttle anything agreed upon.

  50. Marles doing a good job.

    Every question he turns back onto the failure of the Coalition government and their internal divisions.

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