At the top of the sidebar are links to guides I have up for three by-election campaigns currently in progress, including yesterday’s new addition:
• Queensland’s festival of democracy on March 28 looks set to receive a new attraction after Jo-Ann Miller’s announcement to parliament yesterday that she is resigning as member of the eastern Ipswich seat of Bundamba, effective immediately. After two decades as Labor member, Miller has grown increasingly estranged from her party over time, a particularly interesting manifestation of which was an appearance alongside Pauline Hanson on the campaign trail two days before the December 2017 state election. One Nation did not field a candidate against Miller in 2017, but has been quick to announce it has a candidate ready to go for the by-election, who will be announced on the weekend. Since Ipswich was the birthplace of the Hanson phenomenon, this could yet make the by-election more interesting than the 21.6% two-party margin suggests. Tony Moore of the Brisbane Times reports Steve Axe, Miller’s electorate officer, will contest the preselection, but Sarah Elks of The Australian reports the front runners are two candidates of the Left: Nick Thompson and Lance McCallum, who are respectively aligned with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and the Electrical Trades Union. I have a provisional by-election guide up and running which takes it for granted it will be held on March 28, though this is yet to be officially confirmed. Also on that day will be the Currumbin by-election and council elections, including for the big prizes of the Brisbane city council and lord mayoralty.
• Further on the by-election front, I had a paywalled piece in Crikey yesterday on the Greens preferences imbroglio in Johnston.
Legal matters:
• The Federal Court is hearing a Section 44 challenge against Josh Frydenberg relating to his Hungarian-born mother, which complainant Michael Staindl argues makes him a dual citizen. Frydenberg’s mother and her family fled the country in 1949 as its post-war communist regime tightened its grip on power, describing themselves as stateless on arrival in Australia. Staindl maintains that the whole family’s Hungarian citizenship rights were restored with the collapse of communism in 1949. Staindl is also pursuing defamation action against Scott Morrison over the latter’s claim that his action was motivated by anti-Semitism. The Australian ($) reports a decision is expected “within weeks”.
• In further legal obscurantism news, Emanuele Cicchiello has withdrawn from the race to fill Mary Wooldridge’s vacancy in the Victorian Legislative Council on the grounds that he once pleaded guilty to an offence carrying a prison term of more than five years – for improperly claiming a concessional train fare when he was 19. The Australian ($) reports that those remaining in the field are Asher Judah, former Property Council deputy director and Master Builders policy manager, and Matthew Bach, deputy director of Ivanhoe Girls Grammar.
Redlands Mowerman @ #1299 Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – 6:33 pm
You mean … apart from reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Well sure, apart from that … not much.
Redlands Mowerman @ #1299 Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – 6:33 pm
and here I was thinking the big batteries swoop in to save the day when the old coal fired power plants break down in the heat…
LVT
I thought you had dropped off the peg? Sad you haven’t.
lizzie @ #1301 Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – 6:36 pm
We do indeed seem to have a plague of pentecostals!
Comment from Sara Jade, the body language person, on Speers interview with Albo. Looks as if some were right about his antagonism to Labor???
lizzie says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Comment from Sara Jade, the body language person, on Speers interview with Albo. Looks as if some were right about his antagonism to Labor???
Sara
@_sara_jade_
·
7m
Speers looks really bad for someone in his position. His whole body is scrunched up and his ankles tightly wound around each other. Closed off to Albo . Uptight. All is clear now.
___________________________
Not surprised at all. Albanese refused to play the gotcha game and Speers got nothing out of him worth a headline.
TPOF says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:48 pm
lizzie says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Comment from Sara Jade, the body language person, on Speers interview with Albo. Looks as if some were right about his antagonism to Labor???
Sara
@_sara_jade_
·
7m
Speers looks really bad for someone in his position. His whole body is scrunched up and his ankles tightly wound around each other. Closed off to Albo . Uptight. All is clear now.
___________________________
Not surprised at all. Albanese refused to play the gotcha game and Speers got nothing out of him worth a headline.
__________________________
Speers has also officially lost Bushfire Bill as of today! V.bad news for Speers!
Lars Von Trier says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:18 pm
sprocket_ says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:10 pm
For what it’s worth, we should have a NewsPoll tonight.
__________________________________
You can pass the waiting time by looking at your teenage Tania Plibersek photo…..
_______________________
At least Sprocket has improved his taste:
And nath has lost me again.
William, I’m sorry, but I am going to have to withdraw my funding … the juvenile But nasty shit from the likes of nath and LVT have taken the cake.
I don’t care if they are pissed or think they are making jokes.
While there was a lot of friction in past years – the nastiness and juvenilia is just too much.
Please cancel my subscription – I’m gone.
copious cartoons and memes of trump and morrison’s obesity is fine..but shortens tits are a bridge too far.
Jen,
If you leave because of those twats, they win.
jenauthor says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 6:59 pm
William, I’m sorry, but I am going to have to withdraw my funding … the juvenile But nasty shit from the likes of nath and LVT have taken the cake.
I don’t care if they are pissed or think they are making jokes.
While there was a lot of friction in past years – the nastiness and juvenilia is just too much.
Please cancel my subscription – I’m gone.
____________________________
Pretty much at the same point. I’m sure the fuckwit using the monicker ‘Nath’ and the other fuckwit who stole the name of a foreign film maker will rejoice that their complete arseholery has been successful.
Jenauthor
Concur with BB.
They ain’t worth a pinch
Jen, same as BB.
jenauthor
Yet you are fine with the OTT obsessive abusive (psychopathic ?) ‘Greens are Evil Incarnate” posts . At least as nasty and abusive as whatever nath and LVT chuck into the lounge.
poroti says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:13 pm
jenauthor
William, I’m sorry, but I am going to have to withdraw my funding … the juvenile But nasty shit from the likes of nath and LVT have taken the cake.
Yet you are fine with the OTT obsessive abusive (psychopathic ?) ‘Greens are Evil Incarnate” posts . At least as nasty and abusive as whatever nath and LVT chuck into the lounge.
_____________________________
If you like the two fuckwits so much you’re welcome to them.
Are we getting a Newspoll tonight? Hopefully that will give people something to talk about other than themselves.
TPOF
Who needs to like a poster ?
Vic, and others – sorry but I mean it. I was going to type a broader summation of why but nath’s response said it all.
Distract from the real reason … in other words? ‘Who me?’
My reason is not the pix and the tits or nath (in particular’s) obsession with Shorten … it is the way he uses such things to attempts to belittle or degrade other posters.
In all the years I have been coming here, there has been a degree of friction when people touch other’s sore points or argue their points-of-view.
But since those two arrived, the tone has degenerated to a ridiculous degree. Egged on by the personal nastiness and constant derogation, nath in particular has dragged others down too, forcing others to attack in their own defence.
Since buying a new computer I haven’t been able to block out the shills and I am aghast at some of the stuff that has ‘gone through to the keeper’.
This is supposed to be public forum for people to discuss polling and politics. And we have these arseholes agitating then sitting back and have a good old wank over the reactions they cause.
Well, much as I like supporting William’s work … I have neither the time or inclination to read the garbage that goes with it.
Jenauthor
I do understand what you mean.
I know they enjoy getting reactions, hence why I dont ever bother reading them. I dont like my time being wasted on their drivel.
Oh, and poroti – you’ll notice that I have never ‘piled in on any Greens in a personal manner’. I don ‘t agree with personalising it.
And if you recall – I have also suggested that the ALP/Green war is counter-productive.
Until tonight I don’t believe I have made a personal attack on another poster except, perhaps, to say I intended blocking them.
jenauthor says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:20 pm
But since those two arrived, the tone has degenerated to a ridiculous degree. Egged on by the personal nastiness and constant derogation, nath in particular has dragged others down too, forcing others to attack in their own defence.
_________________
How absurd. I hardly ever get involved in offensive arguments on here. To blame me for all the arguments and abuse on here is just ridiculous. And no doubt part of your campaign to have me banned. You are extorting William in fact, not me. Ban these two, my money’s gone and encouraging others to do the same. Sad.
I’m sorry to hear that Jenauthor, but from my perspective, the clear fact is that what Nath and LVT do wouldn’t bother you at all if they directed it at the Liberal Party, and I’m not about to impose differential standards based on what side people are on.
Poroti makes a reasonable point.
For example many here make merry about Trump’s “tiny hands”. The implication, often explicitly stated – and often by some here who are the first to squeal “misogynist!”, “sexist!” or similar – is “tiny hands = tiny penis”.
Whatever the size of his hands and/or his penis – and what does that matter anyway? – Trump has no control over those aspects of his anatomy. They’re his biological lot as much as his gender or the colour of his hair. It’s quite hypocritical of, especially the women here, to comment snarkily (or otherwise) on that.
Likewise, so Shorten has man-boobs. “So what?” should be the response, not packing up and leaving. That’s exactly what the naths and the LVTs here want.
Challenging and debating policy positions is healthy , in my humble opinion.
Boerwar @ #1120 Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – 11:43 am
Why do you think I live there? And who said the 60 million trees all had to be colocated? Or put on existing farmland, for that matter. There’s plenty of land in Australia that’s absurdly fecund and not currently used for agriculture. Plants love it here. In the non-desert-y parts, anyways.
Planted seven trees in the backyard last year. I say that counts for myself and two other Australians. Only 59,999,993 trees to go.
Sorry William – but you just missed my point s well.
Thanks for all the years of service.
‘…the clear fact is that what Nath and LVT do wouldn’t bother you at all if they directed it at the Liberal Party..’
I’m sorry, what? One minute you’re complaining about personal attacks on posters, and the next you’re saying that personal attacks – which is what jen is complaining about – are OK if they’re directed at Labor supporters??
Because that’s what nath and LVT do. They target people, personally, who support Labor.
Calling C@ a drunk, for example – as LVT did frequently, and we pointed out to you frequently – wasn’t a reaction to whatever she’d just posted, it was a personal attack, aimed at denigrating a poster not because of what they were posting but because of who they are.
Baiting me with posts which did not reflect anything I’d ever said, apropos of nothing at all – sometimes when I hadn’t made a post for hours, certainly not in response to any post I made – were attacks because I’m a Labor supporter, not because of any argument I was mounting.
If you think they add anything to the conversation by this kind of behaviour, then you’re… wrong.
And if your response is that we give as good as we get – – we appealed to you, multiple times, for you to do your job, and you’ve come back with crap responses like that one, so we’ve had to defend ourselves.
What? No, I’m saying that personal attacks, which to some extent are a fact of life on a site like this, are okay and not okay to the same extent regardless of whether you’re pro-Labor or anti-Labor. I understand that Nath has been unpleasant to you personally, and this reflects poorly on him. But it’s not a greatly exceptional circumstance in the life of this site. Invoking C@tmomma as an innocent wronged party in this suggests you are losing the plot.
I’ve been called a murderer, rapist, fuckwit, grub, dog…..
Cheap and nasty as they are, nath and LVT are hardly Robinson Crusoe there… targeting people, I mean.
It’s more that this is ALL they do, and you very rarely hear a reasoned opinion from either of them. It’s ALL snark.
Newspoll predictions …?
55-45 to Labor.
I can believe every bit of that, Rex. And when things like that occur, your tribal enemies don’t even notice.
Rex, Im going to put money on 51:49
But with scomo really sliding back and Albo extending prefered PM.
Truth be told… the Lefty Luvvies are just as vicious and pitiless as the Rightards. It just doesn’t fit their picture of themselves as holier than the rest of us.
Having said that, even the worst of the Luvvies occasionally write something interesting and thoughtful that isn’t pure snark.
My two bobs worth
1. nath at least tries to add to the discussion, eg opining that eucalyptuses should be removed from the Australian continent, to limit bushfire impact. So keep him on the island.
2. LVT adds nothing, never does. He/she/it takes cheap shots at commenters. I thought LVT was banned already? If not, should be.
nath, the manure of the intertubes. LVT / ESJ……the flies buzzing around it.
Comes with the territory and fits into the business model of people selling new mouse scroll wheels.
Why isn’t William protecting me from these attackers! Zoomster, call him quick!
Rex Douglas says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:48 pm
Newspoll predictions …?
55-45 to Labor.
__________
53-47
nath
Cos you so ugly ? 😉
51/49 to Labor against the power of the Murochracy.
BK:
Is that real or in hope?
Confessions
Just a guess.
Why not engage with News Limited? Rudd , Keating, Hawke, Whitlam all did it.
Why is it now some form of purity test for Labor not to do so? I would have thought it was worth it to get into government?
Lars Von Trier
Apart from kissing his ring meaning they adopt Rupert’s nasty vicious philosophy ?
Not really poroti – kiss the ring and get into government – doesn’t mean they need to subscribe to the right wing stuff.
How much was the News campaign in 2019 BECAUSE Labor wanted to show it could get into government without News ?
‘a r says:
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:32 pm
Boerwar @ #1120 Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – 11:43 am
Maybe so for an inner urbs peeps who have no idea of what is involved.
For a start you would have take 600,000 ha of higher quality farmland out of production.
Why do you think I live there? And who said the 60 million trees all had to be colocated? Or put on existing farmland, for that matter. There’s plenty of land in Australia that’s absurdly fecund and not currently used for agriculture. Plants love it here. In the non-desert-y parts, anyways.
Planted seven trees in the backyard last year. I say that counts for myself and two other Australians. Only 59,999,993 trees to go.
1. The trees do not need to be co-located. However distributed, they do need 600,000 ha of good farmland or they will not be absorbing your 25 kgs of CO2 every year.
2. Where are the 600,000 ha of ‘fecund’ land currently not used for agriculture but useful to grow forests? I doubt it exists.
3. The policy point is that there is virtually nothing in the public policy debate about the scale of effort needed to sequester CO2 to ensure the ‘Net’ bit of Zero Net Emissions. We can’t even cover off the wine habit CO2 emissions.
I can’t remember what the last Newspoll was, but I’m tipping 50-50.