Call of the board: the territories

Zooming in on the federal election results for the three seats of the Australian Capital Territory and the two of the Northern Territory, all of which were won by Labor.

Wherein we finally wrap up the Call of the Board series, a slowly unfolding state-by-state round-up every seat result from last year’s federal election. Here we tie up the loose ends of the territories, where Labor achieved a clean sweep of five seats – an essentially foregone conclusion for the Australian Capital Territory (which went from two to three seats at this election), but a strong result for them in the Northern Territory (which may be set to lose its second at the next). Previous episodes of the series dealt with Sydney (here and here), regional New South Wales, Melbourne, regional Victoria, south-east Queensland, regional Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia and Tasmania.

Solomon (Labor 3.1%; 3.0% swing to CLP): The always marginal seat that covers Darwin has only gone the way of the winning party once out of the last four elections (in 2013), this time returning Luke Gosling after he gained it for Labor in 2016. Gosling’s 6.0% winning margin off a 7.4% swing in 2016 was the clearest win in the history of a highly marginal seat, the previous record having been Dave Tollner’s 2.8% win for the Country Liberal Party in 2004. This meant he had enough change to record the seat’s second-biggest margin even after a 3.0% swing back to the Country Liberals. As the map to the right illustrates, the pattern of swings in the seat reflected broader themes from the election: the affluent area around the city centre swung to Labor, but the lower-income suburbs of the north went the other way, and the more conservative new suburbia of Palmerston went further still.

Lingiari (Labor 5.5%; 2.7% swing to CLP): Warren Snowdon retained the remainder-of-NT seat of Lingiari, which he has held without interruption since 2001, his closest shave in that time being a 0.9% margin in 2013. The swings in the two Northern Territory seats have been closely matched at the last election, with a 7.5% blowout in Lingiari in 2016 followed by a 2.7% correction this time. There have been occasions in the past where swings varied widely between Alice Springs and Katherine on the one hand and the remote communities in the other, but not this time.

Bean (Labor 7.5%; 1.3% swing to Liberal): The ACT’s new third seat was created entirely from territory that was formerly in the Canberra electorate, whose member Gai Brodtmann did not seek re-election. David Smith, who had previously filled Katy Gallagher’s Senate vacancy when she fell foul of section 44 in May 2018, had no trouble holding Bean for Labor in the face of a slight swing. Left-wing independent Jamie Christie scored a creditable 8.3%, contributing to solid drops on the primary vote for both major parties.

Canberra (Labor 17.1%; 4.1% swing to Labor): The Canberra electorate covers the central third of the capital, and might be regarded as the true “new” seat since it drew territory from both of the previous electorates. Like Darwin, Canberra offered a miniature reflection of national trend in that the city’s inner area moved solidly further to the left, while the suburbs swung to the Liberals. This was reflected in a 4.6% primary vote increase for the Greens, reducing the gap with the Liberals to 27.8% to 23.3%. This is the lowest yet recorded in an ACT seat, but with the Liberal how-to-vote directing preferences to Labor ahead of the Greens, they would probably have remained out of contention if they had made up the difference. With the departure of Gai Brodtmann, its new Labor member is Alicia Payne, who dropped 2.0% on the primary vote to 40.5%.

Fenner (Labor 10.6%; 1.3% swing to Liberal): Labor’s Andrew Leigh suffered a slight swing from similar primary vote numbers to 2016, the main disturbance being the appearance of the United Australia Party with 4.1%.

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.

1,398 comments on “Call of the board: the territories”

Comments Page 2 of 28
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  1. Itza:

    Plenty of commentators have made the observation that Barr’s ‘complaints’ were just pretend that he was concerned at the appearance of the DoJ doing Trump’s bidding.

  3. Respect and a little bit of fear

    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/editorial/2020/02/15/respect-and-little-bit-fear/15816852009386

    Whatever it is, the society we have is an orderly one – deeply so. We created the myth of the larrikin so we might feel less bad about our deference to power. He is a sort of court jester who makes the draconian more comfortable.

    Elections are routinely run on law and order because the giving up of rights is broadly popular. This is a reality Australians shy from, except when they’re voting. For a country unused to good government we are enthusiastic about its overreach.
    :::
    Policing is political. An ugly triangle links the tabloid media to the police force and the police to government. All benefit each other. Powers asked for are almost never denied. Results are of little consequence. Fear is useful and perception is everything.

    Surveillance is a comfort in this world. The federal government campaigns on it. While much policing is state-based, the Coalition has put bureaucrats in uniform and turned departments into quasi-military outfits. They know this is popular. It is the premise of our immigration system and the mass incarceration of First Nations people.
    :::
    …The comfort Australians feel around punishment is built on the knowledge it will be a particular class of people who are punished: the Indigenous, the poor, the mentally unwell.
    :::
    What he is describing are the elements that make policing a political tool: respect and a little bit of fear. It has served our leaders for 200 years and made the country thoughtless, anxious and contented.

    In the face of increasing environmental activism and, peaceful civil disobedience and civil dissent around global heating, legislation to criminalise such actions and the demonisation of activists are occurring at state level by governments of both major stripes, as well as at federal level where both major parties vote in lockstep on anti-terrorism and security-related legislation .

  4. Sally Yates: Trump is transforming the DOJ into his ‘personal grudge squad’

    Former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates has written a scathing column for the Washington Post in which she outlines all the ways that President Donald Trump has corrupted the United States Department of Justice in his quest to transform it into what she describes as his “personal grudge squad.”

    In her op-ed, Yates argues that the president’s constant tweeting about the DOJ has undermined its independence, as attorneys there might decide to make prosecutorial decisions based on whether or not they think the president would approve.

    The most obvious recent example of this came when Attorney General Bill Barr intervened to reduce the sentencing guidelines for Trump ally Roger Stone. In fact, Trump continued attacking the DOJ and its employees even after he got what he wanted from Barr.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/sally-yates-trump-is-transforming-the-doj-into-his-personal-grudge-squad/

  5. Player One

    Glad you’ve finally received help.
    The suspicion that Red Cross is more interested in its own future than helping current bushfire victims is surely borne out now.

  6. Confessions @ #51 Saturday, February 15th, 2020 – 9:47 am

    Itza:

    Plenty of commentators have made the observation that Barr’s ‘complaints’ were just pretend that he was concerned at the appearance of the DoJ doing Trump’s bidding.

    Yes, which was why I was a bit surprised that the New Yorker piece was so solidly of the opinion that Barr was trying to contain Trump, and why I made the post — talking points for an early Saturday morning before another storm comes a blowin’, apparently.

  7. Pegasus @ #53 Saturday, February 15th, 2020 – 9:48 am

    In the face of increasing environmental activism and, peaceful civil disobedience and civil dissent around global heating, legislation to criminalise such actions and the demonisation of activists are occurring at state level by governments of both major stripes, as well as at federal level where both major parties vote in lockstep on anti-terrorism and security-related legislation .

    Yup. The politicians know where this situation is heading. It is really just a matter of how fast people wake up to the fact that politicians are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

  8. We don’t need more political gamesmanship – we need integrity

    https://theaimn.com/we-dont-need-more-political-gamesmanship-we-need-integrity/

    “I can understand that they must address the employment fears of regional Queenslanders, but pretending that there will be an increasing, or even ongoing, number of jobs in the coal industry is not helping anyone.

    I can understand them wanting to put the focus on the government because they have been responsible for the last six and a half years of stewardship.

    But I am disappointed that, instead of offering alternative approaches, they seem to be devoting their energy to trying to humiliate a government that has no conscience.

    What a waste of time.

    Who cares about them “defeating the government” in a vote about who will be Deputy Speaker?

    Who cares about whether or not Matthias Cormann is banned from sitting in the swivel chair for three weeks?

    Certainly, the grants programs (aka political slush funds) have drawn deserved attention – but do you hear Labor saying the power should be taken away from government ministers to overrule a merits-based appraisal?
    :::
    When they pour scorn on Coalition jobs for the boys and girls, do you ever hear Labor saying that politicians should not be the ones handing out these jobs?
    :::
    Labor has many very good MPs but their strategists suck big time and their pandering to factions leads them to bad decisions. What is the point of Richard Marles?
    :::
    This Otis group who want to move Labor further towards what they call the centre are endangering your support from your base. They are thinking about their own re-election rather than the direction the country must head.

    We don’t want another party vying for a centre that keeps moving further to the right. We want people with integrity who make decisions based on expert advice about the best interests of the nation, not on how to appeal to people who will never vote for you.

    Offer us an alternative rather than a squabbling rabble only interested in themselves.”

  9. C@tmomma,

    You and Cud will have to let me know how intense D.E. is is going to be mouse/keyboard driven after you start playing. I have nerve crush in both hands and that causes problems for me with a lot of games.

    Your post at 8.36 a.m. – I see Baahh left out, “Now if you will excuse me I have to go and wipe off this brown smelly substance off my nose and then continue to fulfil my totally unbiased work in the Donald Office of Reveng…er, Deparment of Justice.”

  12. lizzie @ #55 Saturday, February 15th, 2020 – 9:51 am

    The suspicion that Red Cross is more interested in its own future than helping current bushfire victims is surely borne out now.

    Indeed. You wouldn’t believe the contempt for the Red Cross you see on the ground here. At our local emergency centre – which is still packed solid every day – Vinnies and Salvos both have 3 desks. Red Cross has 1 desk.

    The Vinnies and Salvos booths are snowed under, with people sometimes waiting hours to see them. Same for most of the other booths. But the Red Cross booth is always empty. I feel sorry for the person manning it. It’s not their fault.

  13. Trump is trying to undermine democracy in the US like the Coalition have already managed here. Getting independent institutions to do your bidding – investigating rivals and not investigating friends.

    But he has a long way to go to emulate the politically motivated RCs (dont trust my opinion on this – even Howard said they were politically targeted). And the peeps in the FBI and DoJ seem to have moral backbone that is harder to break.

  14. Bushfire Bill @ #10 Saturday, February 15th, 2020 – 7:48 am

    From The Guardian’s live COVID-19 blog:

    Airline passengers who have sat within two rows of a person suspected to have caught coronavirus should be quarantined, according to guidance published by the government today for transport staff.

    The guidance released by the Department for Transport states: “Any contacts of a possible case need to be isolated or quarantined. In practice for passengers who have travelled via airplane, this will include all passengers in the 2 rows in front and behind of where the possible case was sat.”

    Staff working on planes, trains or ships are recommended to cooperate with emergency medical services at airports or ports if a passenger becomes symptomatic on board.

    Meanwhile, transport staff should not wear face masks but instead stick to good hygiene to avoid the risk of coronavirus, according to the guidance. It advises staff not to wear masks as “they do not provide protection from respiratory viruses”. Instead, the best way of reducing risk is “good hygiene” and to avoid getting within two metres with a potentially infected person.

    Whew!

    There are no guidelines issued regarding restaurants or public transport, so I guess it’s OK to sit as close as you like to others in those situations, as long as you make sure first they are not infected. Apparently COVID-19 can tell the difference. Maybe it’s the altitude or something?

    How detecting whether someone within two rows is infected is not specified.

    Maybe Dr Wombat could give a lecture on the difference between airborne droplets and aerosols? That ought to calm the Nervous Nellies.

    A polite enquiry of the alleged infectee perhaps?

    One of those infra red thingmybobs they point at people in airports?

    Maybe we could just go out of our way to show solidarity with our fellow man, shake hands, give them a kiss and then wait 14 days to see if we develop symptoms?

    Let’s not panic, after all. Virtue trump’s a virus any day of the week. You can’t catch COVID-19 if your heart’s in the right place.

    Keep up the good fight BB. Larry Kudlow backs you – I wonder why? Others have a rather more nuanced view. The air in Dixon street is still safe to breath – unless you’re vaping in the vicinity.

  15. Nevada is next and the signs do not look good for avoiding another Iowa debacle. Perhaps what the media should be doing is downplaying expectations.

    The Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary should inform our expectations for the Nevada caucuses. First, do not be surprised if there are problems with Nevada’s process, which introduces early voting for the first time. Party officials scrapped a voting app similar to the one used in Iowa, but they are scrambling to come up with an alternative and to train its volunteer captains. What could go wrong, huh? (The New York Times reports: “Nevada Democratic officials announced new details on their plans on Thursday, writing in a memo that they planned to provide all caucus precinct chairs with an iPad and would rely on a calculator and Google forms to tabulate the totals.”)

    …

    Third, a caucus with a realignment process adds an extra degree of uncertainty. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, Buttigieg and Klobuchar over-performed. In the RealClearPolitcs averages, Buttigieg was at 16.8 percent in Iowa (where the last poll was more than two weeks before the caucus); his actual result was 21.3 percent. Klobuchar polled at 9.7 percent, but finished with 12.7 percent. In New Hampshire, Buttigieg also performed better than polling (21.3 percent vs. 24.4 percent) as did Klobuchar (11.7 percent vs. 19.8 percent). Sanders received about 3 percentage points less of the vote than his final polling average in New Hampshire, while Biden and Warren also dropped.

    Either because he does better than others in the second alignment or because he finishes strongly, Buttigieg may do better than polling suggests; likewise, Klobuchar’s momentum may not be entirely evident in polling.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/14/will-nevada-be-another-caucus-nightmare/

  16. https://johnmenadue.com/saturdays-good-reading-and-listening-for-the-weekend-52/#more-36146

    In view of the European trend towards multi-party democracy, it is strange that in Australia there is a widespread assumption that we are locked into a two-party system, disregarding the fact that, unlike the USA and the UK, our voting and constitutional arrangements do not constrain us to a two-party system. There is no impediment to Australia’s political landscape becoming more like that in mainland Europe.

    The MSM in lock step with the two major parties propagate the myth wtte a first preference vote for anyone else is a wasted vote. As for our federal system of preferential voting and how it works – sshhhh.

  17. I read about how people where not going to the Chinese restaurants, I though bugger this nonsense. Chinese takeaway to end the week. It would seem in our little country town the thought was pretty common. Ended up getting a free can of coke because of the wait. Snowed under was an understatement.

  18. Pegasus
    If you want to shout into the wind and achieve nothing vote green, don’t complain that most realize that the choice is Liberal or Labor and if you fight one as you do continually you support the other.

    We have what you fought for, you won, enjoy it.

  19. Dare I ask P1, what was your problem with the Red Cross?

    When I was travelling out back around New Years, and had had my fill of the commercial radio, I listened to some ABC radio. James Whatshisname was hosting some sort of telethon to raise money for the Red Cross. Someone texted in (not me!) asking what their record is on admin fees and other measures of charity quality. James ripped into the texter, saying – how dare he ask such questions at a time like this.

    Tosser. It is everyones right and dare I say duty to know about this when giving.

    Red Cross is normally pretty good and the funds are well used and directed. But others not always so. For example, I once had a doorknocker trying to get me to sign up for regular donations to Mission Australia. I asked how much of my money was going to go to Mission Australia and what their admin costs were. The chap was honest – he said ONLY 50% of the money goes to Mission Australia in the first year and he didnt have a clue about Mission Australias admin costs.

    Charities need to spend on admin. They need to pay wages (some people volunteer but many programs need paid staff – most people who work for charities earn well below average wages). There are overheads. But some charities are more aware of their duties in this regard than others, and use your money more carefully than others.

    Dont get me started on international aid programs and charities.

  20. Political donations

    https://johnmenadue.com/saturdays-good-reading-and-listening-for-the-weekend-52/#more-36146

    The Pharmacy Guild

    More on those Australian Electoral Commission donation figures

    Last week we reported on political donations revealed on the AEC website. If you were a conspiracy theorist you would believe the Commission has deliberately made it hard to dig through their data because it’s highly disaggregated. (You need to download it into the mother of all spreadsheets before you can start to wring any sense out of it.) That’s probably why it makes little news.
    :::
    There was a degree of bipartisanship in political donations in 2019. But the Pharmacy Guild went with the betting markets, giving $591 000 to Labor and only $183 000 to the Coalition, as pointed out by John Elder in New Daily, in an article headed by a picture of two sad-eyed pharmacists, presumably fearing that the Morrison Government will seek revenge for the Guild’s ideological asymmetry.

    Elder’s article points out that in 2020 there will be a re-negotiation of the “Community Pharmacy Agreement”, which may help explain why this was the highest donation for 20 years. The two pharmacists pictured needn’t worry: the Community Pharmacy Agreement is negotiated behind closed doors and presented to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Remuneration Tribunal as a fait accompli – a “sweetheart deal” to use the industrial relations terminology of a past era. Pharmacists have enjoyed bi-partisan coddling, not only in terms of the regulated dispensing fee, but also in terms of mandated restrictions on competition.

    Stephen Mayne notes:

    Mayne notes the bipartisan quietness over the AEC returns. He also notes the general silence from the commercial media: why would they want to see limits on campaign expenditure, most of which goes into media advertising?

    ———–
    Stephen Mayne: Quid Pro Quo: who paid who before the Election and what do they want?

    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/quid-pro-quo-who-paid-who-before-the-election-and-what-do-they-want/

  22. Jennifer Rubin@JRubinBlogger
    ·
    5h
    Jake Tapper Rips Limbaugh for Buttigieg Smear: Mayor is Married to One Man, Don’t Know ‘What Number Spouse’ Rush is On http://mediaite.com/a/umgxk Bravo, Jake.

    The same goes for Trump, who also apparently doesn’t even bother to stay faithful to women he marries.

  23. (Mayne) also notes the general silence from the commercial media: why would they want to see limits on campaign expenditure, most of which goes into media advertising?

    That seems to me an excellent point.

  24. ABC RN Big Ideas

    A history of popular protest in Australia

    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/a-history-of-popular-protest-in-australia/11914654

    “Popular protest movements have helped shift attitudes and shape Australia. Suffragettes pushed for the right of women to vote. Millions marched to demand an end to Vietnam War. Early gay and lesbian Mardi Gras marchers paved the way for LGBITQ rights. Today, Extinction Rebellion protesters are taking to the streets. What are the ingredients of a successful protest? Do rallies and radical activism, still get results?”

    The program covers protests over land rights, apartheid and other forms of racial discrimination, gay rights, conscription, green bans, land rights, anti-war concerns, and development, going back to 1916. Around the middle of the program (29 minutes) is a discussion about present assaults on political expression by the Tasmanian, Queensland and Commonwealth governments.

    Panel:
    Patricia Turner – CEO, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation; Bob Brown – former Greens leader; environmentalist & activist; Peter Edwards – historian, honorary professor, ANU and Deakin University, author; and, Verity Burgmann – Adjunct Professor of Politics, Monash University, activist, author

  25. Nicholas Stuart – Militarising climate change is about seizing the political agenda

    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6624977/militarising-climate-change-is-about-seizing-the-political-agenda/?cs=14246

    Scott Morrison’s desire to mobilise the forces and give them a role fighting bushfires and other emergencies is absolutely understandable. It’s also a radical strategy to seize back the climate change agenda and position the Coalition for success at the next election.
    :::
    Instead of being about emissions (where the Coalition’s going to lose) it’s now about how we act (where Morrison thinks he can win).

    Instead of picking a fight he was bound to lose over emissions targets, Morrison reframed climate change as a national security issue. After all, that’s the Coalition’s strong suit. The military is now standing front and centre in the fight against global warming, just as he used it as a tool to “secure the borders” back in 2013.
    :::
    Faster than a rugby player swerving as they head for the try line, Morrison has changed the whole context of climate change as a political issue. He’s conceding global warming is bad but insisting he’s the one with a plan to keep us safe. And who cares about long-term plans to reduce emissions when the beds are burning?

    Labor is about to be outflanked. Again.

  26. ‘Pegasus says:
    Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 9:48 am

    In the face of increasing environmental activism and, peaceful civil disobedience and civil dissent around global heating, legislation to criminalise such actions and the demonisation of activists are occurring at state level by governments of both major stripes, as well as at federal level where both major parties vote in lockstep on anti-terrorism and security-related legislation .’

    Your self-pitying whinging is totally pathetic. Off you go. Protest now. It is the right time. We have just had over a week of protests, civil dissent, etc, etc, etc, in the nation’s capital. Nobody much noticed except the participants who were, presumably, whinging about being turned into ‘criminals’.

    One person’s ‘civil disobedience’ is another person’s law breaking.

    Off you go, don a singed koala suit, wear a placard, and do stop this pathetic whining.

  27. Speaking of Pete Buttigeig’s gayness being a plus or minus in his bid for the Presidency, who else but old PussyGrabber himself weighs in.

    And Dotard has such a slime ball way of getting what he wants into the public domain without owning it. All the ‘I’m hearing…’ and ‘They are saying…’ bullshit gets a good work out here. And throw in the plausible deniability on which he has built his reputation.

    “President Trump revealed in a Thursday interview that he would be open to voting for a gay candidate for president.

    Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera asked Trump on an episode of his podcast released Thursday if Americans would “vote for a gay man to be president.”

    “I think so,” Trump said. “I think there would be some that wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t be among that group, to be honest with you.”

    “I think that it doesn’t seem to be hurting Pete ‘Boot-edge-edge,’” Trump continued, using a phonetic pronunciation of former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s (D) name. Trump has previously joked about the former mayor’s last name. “It doesn’t seem to be hurting him very much.”

    Trump added, “But there would certainly be a group. You know this better than I do. There would be a group that probably wouldn’t. But you and I would not be in that group.”

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/483062-trump-reveals-he-would-vote-for-a-gay-presidential-candidate

  28. BB I’m no expert but have take an interest as I was to go to Europe in July.
    Coronavirus seems to be vary infectious, people seem to be able to get it and recover with ease, others not so. The death rate seems to be no worse than a bad flu. Spanish flu was said to be 10% and they didn’t stop that at a time when it took months to get to Australia. The death rate is not even close.
    Indonesia is saying they have no case?
    WHO Is saying 18 months for a vaccine.
    It makes sense to slow it down as much as they can so that health services don’t get over whelmed,
    but it is hard to see it being stopped in the modern world.
    I’m pretty sure Australia won’t be closing down it’s cities.
    No value in panicking, I hope I am wrong but I don’t think I will be going to Europe, this is not going to be over in five months.

  29. Today’s disease names are less catchy, but also less likely to cause stigma

    https://theconversation.com/todays-disease-names-are-less-catchy-but-also-less-likely-to-cause-stigma-131465

    What’s in a name? A lot when it comes to disease outbreaks, according to the recent communication from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the previously named coronavirus. The virus will now be named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease named COVID-19.

    While it has been noted that picking a name might not seem the most pressing problem in the middle of an outbreak, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus laid out the important considerations behind it in his announcement. Guidelines recommend avoiding “references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people,” he said, adding these measures aimed to prevent stigma.

    The WHO renaming hopes to stymie racism and framing of COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus”, that has come with reports of discrimation.
    :::
    Fear needs a name and naming suggests a response, but not always is the response acceptable to everyone.

    Examining the past shows avoiding stigmatisation was not of primary importance in dealing with large outbreaks of disease. Rather, the search for scapegoats took precedence.

    Now, in effect, a greater fear (of the worse effects of stigmatisation) is being used to combat and correct a medicalised fear. Can misinformation be minimised by the best non-stigmatisation efforts of the WHO? Only history will tell.

  31. frednk @ #78 Saturday, February 15th, 2020 – 9:34 am

    BB I’m no expert but have take an interest as I was to go to Europe in July.
    Coronavirus seems to be vary infectious, people seem to be able to get it and recover with ease, others not so. The death rate seems to be no worse than a bad flu. Spanish flu was said to be 10% and they didn’t stop that at a time when it took months to get to Australia. The death rate is not even close.
    Indonesia is saying they have no case?
    WHO Is saying 18 months for a vaccine.
    It makes sense to slow it down as much as they can so that health services don’t get over whelmed,
    but it is hard to see it being stopped in the modern world.
    I’m pretty sure Australia won’t be closing down it’s cities.
    No value in panicking, I hope I am wrong but I don’t think I will be going to Europe, this is not going to be over in five months.

    Why would you think you would be “safer” in Australia than Europe?

  32. Pegasus says:
    Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:47 am

    Does anyone else want to tackle BW’s “pathetic whining”? Speaking for myself, life’s too short.

    BW makes some very good points.

  33. Intent on gaslighting’: Race discrimination commissioner calls for anti-racism funding

    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/intent-on-gaslighting-race-discrimination-commissioner-calls-for-anti-racism-funding-20200214-p540so.html

    The Chinese community is being “gaslighted” in some quarters as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the Australian Human Rights Commission has warned, as it calls for more funding for its anti-racism work.

    Race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan said on Friday he was hearing “a great deal of distress among diverse communities” as a result of the flu-like illness. “[People] are worried about being victimised and are concerned that not enough it being done to protect them by combating racism in the community,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

    He had heard reports of Chinese children being bullied at school, students ostracised at universities and people being denied rental accommodation as misinformation and fear about coronavirus spread.

    “There are clearly some people intent on gaslighting the Chinese community at a time when it is vulnerable and suffering on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak,” Mr Tan said, referring to the practice of mocking those who call out racism or making excuses for it so they come to doubt their own perception or experience.

    His comments came as Labor’s multiculturalism spokesperson, Andrew Giles, this week called for a new national anti-racism campaign, saying there had been a rise in xenophobia towards the Asian community due to the virus, including reports of Chinese people being yelled at on public transport and denied rides via apps like Uber.


  34. It’s Time says:
    .
    Why would you think you would be “safer” in Australia than Europe?

    You have to get there. I can’t see being locked up in an aluminum tube for 24 hours with 400 other people as a positive, and it the panic continues, there are new risks, getting back.

  36. Pegasus says:
    Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:47 am
    Does anyone else want to tackle BW’s “pathetic whining”? Speaking for myself, life’s too short.

    ______________________________

    That’s exactly how I feel when I skip your cut and pastes!

  37. A tough day for the QANON peeps. First McCabe and now Vindman.

    Katie Phang@KatiePhang
    ·
    40m
    Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy announced that the Army will not investigate Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman over impeachment testimony.

    https://politi.co/3bNqA9Q via
    @politico

  38. peg

    (Not having a go at you, you’re just the one who posted them —)

    The articles you posted at 9.48 and 9.57 seem to contradict each other.

    One says that voters are more comfortable with a shift to the right, the other that Labor doesn’t need to go there to attract voters.

    Too many commentators seem to be telling Labor what to do not from the perspective of what will actually win votes (which is, alas, a grubby necessity if you’re to do anything about anything) but instead, pushing their own personal barrows.

    To some extent ‘I didn’t vote for Labor because…’ can be a good starting point, but that assumes that one’s personal beef with Labor is exactly the same beef every person who decided not to vote for Labor had. By definition, that’s a self indulgent attitude.

    And I think the whole pudding is being over egged. Everyone expected Labor to win, because of the polls. Thus the election result was a shock.

    The result is people have over reacted. If Labor didn’t win, then, the meme goes, everything Labor did must have been not only wrong but disastrously so. It must have had the wrong policies, it must have campaigned badly, it must have had the wrong leader, team, campaign staff etc etc – rather than that (of course) there was room for improvement in all of these areas.

    And, of course, the next election will throw up a different set of circumstances to the last one. Tweak all of the last election’s failures to bring them up to a high peak of perfection, and Labor might still lose, because what worked/didn’t work last time is not much of a guide to what will/will not next time.

    Labor has to be careful not to throw babies out with bathwaters; it also has to be careful not to take on board too much well meaning advice to lurch in any particular direction.

  40. TPOF

    Apparently, other cut and pastes are acceptable to you including your own. I understand your need to single me out for your snarking which you feel the compulsion do when you pop up.

    But, hey, thank you for your attention. I do understand why you don’t want to inform yourself of alternative views. It’s really simple to click on the link provided which, unlike some others, I supply 99% of the time (unintentional errors of omission can happen).

  41. lizzie

    ‘(Mayne) also notes the general silence from the commercial media: why would they want to see limits on campaign expenditure, most of which goes into media advertising?’

    One of the perpetual issues I’ve dealt with when campaigning is local media complaining that we’re not spending money with them….always with the implication that, if we don’t, we can’t expect good coverage for our campaign.

  42. …as a result, I media monitor campaign reporting locally, and then, rather than reward local media outlets who don’t give us balanced coverage, we would focus letter box campaigns or similar in those areas..

  43. z

    As I have said before, I don’t necessarily provide links to which I agree with 100% or whatever. They provide ‘food for thought’. As I have said many times over the years, I deliberately come to PB because it is obviously not a ‘safe place’ for Greens, in contrast to Laborites, and I do not wish to participate in an echo chamber.

  44. The other thing is: if the election SUCH a disaster for Labor, they should have lost more than 1 seat (net).

    The corruption message should be voiced loud and clear right up to the next election. One thing aussie voters hate more than infighting, is corruption.

    If Labor can keep the heat on the corrupt activities of this govt, it should make for a better showing.

    The other thing is honesty over coal mining jobs. These people will need to be retrained … not because the ALP will shut down coalmines, because the market will.

  46. frednk

    I haven’t checked for a couple of days, but it still seems to be the case that there haven’t been any new countries reporting the virus for about a week now. This suggests that the containment/quarantine strategies are working.


  47. Pegasus says:
    Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:54 am

    frednk

    By flying to Europe you obviously haven’t committed to BW’s pledge.

    No I haven’t, but I think the way for is wholesale adoption of renewables as fast as possible and an orderly exit from coal as demand falls. Take advantage of the opportunities that are opening up.

    BW’s pledge should be taken before you try and destroy.

  48. We were planning to visit (South) Korea in April but have postponed for the meantime. The issue is not Korea itself which I am sure is just as safe as Australia but the flights and the possibility of being quarantined somewhere in Australia or overseas.

  49. z

    In my neck of the woods we have decided letter boxing is a waste of time and resources, both financial and human.

    Of course, both major parties have lots of money to burn. Just this week we received a flyer from Liberal Liu and another one from Labor upper house mp Leane. Did we read them – No. Tossed into the recycling bin….

  50. ‘Simon Katich says:
    Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:59 am

    By flying to Europe you obviously haven’t committed to BW’s pledge.

    NO LATTE FOR YOU! 1 YEAR!’

    365 kg of CO2 emissions for a year’s worth of latte.

    That is about 14.6 tree’s worth of sequestration.

    How much CO2 emitted in a single return flight to Europe? You would have to include construction emissions, terminal emissions, hangar emissions, six lane highway to the airport constructions emissions, runway emissions, etc, etc, etc.).

    In a real climate emergency real Greens would not fly – or they would plant and maintain the trees equivalent in sequestration. (The ticket carbon offset only covers the flight fuel so it is fake news.)

    The Greens notion that they are forced to continue the world’s second highest per capita emissions because the Government MAKES them do it is facile, and intellectually and ethically dishonest.

    Despite a lot of posturing about how unfair it is to ask a Greens not to fly, the Greens cannot have it both ways: either they have a climate emergency and they behave accordingly, or there is no climate emergency and they behave accordingly.

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