Preselection news x 2

Eden-Monaro Liberals get the preselection ballot they wanted, and the Victorian Greens confirm candidates to fill Richard Di Natale’s Senate vacancy.

There are two situations vacant currently in the federal parliament: member for Eden-Monaro, with Mike Kelly’s successor to be chosen at a by-election on a date to be determined, and Victorian Greens Senator, with Richard Di Natale’s vacancy to be filled by a party membership ballot following a timeline I’m not privy to. The latest developments on these fronts are as follows:

• With Andrew Constance now in the rear mirror, the Liberals are going through a preselection process that has brought them to the closure of nominations, with the candidates not yet formally announced. David Crowe of the Sydney Morning Herald reported three likely starters: the presumed front-runner, Fiona Kotvojs, who ran in 2019 and remains popular in local branches; Jerry Nockles, an international relations expert and former Navy seaman; and Pru Gordon, a manager at the National Farmers Federation. Canberra news magazine CityNews reported that names being tested in Liberal polling included Nichole Overall, a Queanbeyan freelance journalist. Please note that there’s a dedicated Eden-Monaro by-election thread below this one.

• The Victorian Greens have attracted nine nominees to fill Richard Di Natale’s Senate vacancy, and helpfully laid them out on their website. The highest profile is human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in the seat of Cooper at last year’s federal election. However, Noel Towell of The Age reported in March that Lidia Thorpe, who won Northcote in a by-election in November 2017 but failed to retain it at the general election a year later, is also rated highly. The report said the same of Huong Truong, who held an upper house seat in Western Metropolitan region in the nine months before the election, but she is not among the nominees.

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.

1,274 comments on “Preselection news x 2”

Comments Page 1 of 26
1 2 … 26

  1. Good morning Dawn Patrollers. Not too much in today’s serving.

    Now referees are considering strike action before the scheduled May 28 resumption of the NRL season in protest over plans to revert to one whistleblower per game.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/outrageous-one-referee-plan-for-nrl-sparks-strike-threat-20200509-p54re7.html
    Here’s Peter FitzSimons’ weekly column.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/roll-out-the-barilaro-oh-what-a-barrel-of-funsters-20200508-p54r7t.html
    Australians are about to bear witness to one of the more fascinating rollouts (and the consequences thereafter) of a public policy in our nation’s history writes Peter van Onselen.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/coronavirus-jobless-rate-will-determine-coalitions-success-or-failure/news-story/63daca4fe19a2cf9bead19f15d2554f4
    The coronavirus tracing app has been downloaded more than 5 million times, while privacy concerns remain. Independent Telecommunications expert, Gary McLaren, argues that although the privacy concerns are valid, the marketing of the app should focus on the positives and not coercion by a government still struggling with trust.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/the-covidsafe-app-is-not-the-enemy-the-virus-is/
    Anna Henderson explores what might happen if COVID-19 resurges.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/05/09/australia-coronavirus-outbreak-restrictions/
    The Reserve Bank thinks the recovery will look V-shaped. There are reasons to doubt it warns Peter Martin. He makes some fair points.
    https://theconversation.com/the-reserve-bank-thinks-the-recovery-will-look-v-shaped-there-are-reasons-to-doubt-it-138213
    It won’t be long until Australians are packing up their travel bags again and heading interstate, but industry experts are warning against planning any big trips just yet writes Cait Kelly.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/travel/2020/05/09/interstate-travel-coronavirus-australia/
    Crispin Hull wonders if a national lottery could be used to fund the ABC.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6749587/time-to-take-a-gamble-on-the-abcs-future/?cs=14329
    Intensive care doctors say easing our COVID lockdown won’t put the health system at risk.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/icu-doctors-say-risk-of-hospitals-being-overrun-has-passed-20200509-p54rf1.html
    The response from our government during the pandemic has raised questions as to how to combat homelessness moving forward, writes Gerry Georgatos.
    https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/australias-homeless-situation-we-need-to-do-better,13877
    Dennis Atkins says Trump is using Australia to sell his crazy COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/05/09/dennis-atkins-us-is-using-australian-media-to-air-its-dirty-laundry/
    Melissa Davey describes how George Pell failed the children of Ballarat.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/09/why-didnt-he-help-those-little-boys-how-george-pell-failed-the-children-of-ballarat
    Education Minister Dan Tehan has criticised Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for heeding medical advice and keeping schools closed, writes Peter Wicks who clearly scores Andrews as the winner.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/premier-andrews-victorious-in-the-battle-of-the-dans,13876
    If you’ve been feeling uncertain, isolated, on edge, lethargic, pessimistic, and depressed lately you aren’t the only one. These are just some of the symptoms two thirds of Australians have reported as a result of the coronavirus crisis. And, for many thousands of us, these emotions can go far beyond being “down” or “blue”.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6749583/we-need-to-look-after-each-right-now/?cs=14258
    Barack Obama has reportedly said the “rule of law is at risk” in the US, after the justice department said it would drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/09/obama-leaked-conversation-us-rule-of-law-at-risk-flynn-case-dropped
    The right cannot resist a culture war against the ‘liberal elite’, even now says Nick Cohen.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/09/the-right-cannot-resist-a-culture-war-against-the-liberal-elite-even-now
    The idiot Trump continues to eschew key public health guidelines from his own administration, meeting with Republican representatives and World War II veterans last Friday without a face mask.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-flouts-protocols-as-virus-reaches-white-house-inner-circle-20200509-p54ret.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe

    Matt Golding




    Reg Lynch

    From the US





  3. The sort of headlines we will be getting here next week ?
    ………………………………………………………………………………
    Reopenings bring new cases in South Korea, virus fears in Italy

    …………..The mayor said gains made against the virus are now threatened “because of a few careless people.”

    South Korea’s capital closed down more than 2100 bars and other nightspots on Saturday because of a new cluster of coronavirus infections, Germany scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses, and Italian authorities worried that people were getting too friendly at cocktail hour during the country’s first weekend of eased restrictions.

    The new flare-ups — and fears of a second wave of contagion
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12330795

  4. Just when I was feeling sorry for Mike Kelly, he pops up with a new job with a US security contractor. Should I have been surprised by this?

  7. Do the Greens normally hold preselections for their Senate seats? I suppose they have to run a preselection this time given the vote on allowing members a say in the leadership.

  8. Great cartoon. Rampant right wing capitalists care far more about their profits than they do about people’s health.

  9. Stuart @ #4 Sunday, May 10th, 2020 – 7:01 am

    Just when I was feeling sorry for Mike Kelly, he pops up with a new job with a US security contractor. Should I have been surprised by this?

    If you were being fair, and you knew what went into the job of being a Member of Parliament and Local Member, you’d have to say that the new job is going to be a lot less onerous on Mike Kelly’s health and will allow him to attend hospital when he needs to.

    However, there will always be people who want to put a negative spin on things.

  10. To all the mothers and their families out there. 🙂

    I got a pair of Fiskars secateurs and a bottle of french perfume. 😯

  12. Firefox: Great cartoon. Rampant right wing capitalists care far more about their profits than they do about people’s health.
    ————————
    Yes… and the sky is blue… In fact this seems to be the position of your common or garden moderate/right wing capitalist, if you assess their actions and preferences, and though they would rarely be caught out actually saying that and would not admit it to themselves.

  13. “Do the Greens normally hold preselections for their Senate seats? I suppose they have to run a preselection this time given the vote on allowing members a say in the leadership.”

    ***

    Honestly have no idea what processes the Vic Greens follow but here in the NSW Greens we did have a preselection vote for our Senate spot. The awesome Senator Faruqi is the result of that vote.

    Exciting times for the Vic Greens for sure! Such a talented field of candidates.

  14. Australia doing Israel’s bidding now!

    “ The Australian government has told the International Criminal Court it should not investigate alleged war crimes in Palestine because Palestine is “not a state”, arguing the court prosecutor’s investigation into alleged attacks on civilians, torture, attacks on hospitals, and the use of human shields, should be halted on jurisdictional grounds.

    Australia was lobbied to make the submission to the court by Israel, which is not a party to the court.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/10/australian-government-tells-icc-it-should-not-investigate-alleged-war-crimes-in-palestine

  15. Excellent news re “asymptomatic” covid19 if one of the possible explanations as to “why is it so?” is correct.
    ……………………………………………………………………….
    2.2 percent of NZ Covid-19 cases asymptomatic

    ……………”If there’s a manageable number, you’re going to get better data. …………….because of the sheer number of cases, it just can’t be as reliable.”

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/05/09/1161521/22-of-new-zealand-covid-19-cases-asymptomatic

  18. This goes for Labor as well.

    Democrats, learn from your former Republican foes: Pull heartstrings, wave the flag and go straight for the jugular.

    Political warfare in this country has long been asymmetrical. Democrats tend to appeal to voters with arguments based on reason, fairness and economic self-interest. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but defeating President Trump and his GOP enablers is too important to leave any weapons on the shelf. Democrats need to learn to use the tools that Republicans have long wielded with tremendous skill and success: emotion, patriotism and cultural affinity.

    Not to be overly anatomical about it, but Democrats tend to target the head while Republicans go for the heart and the gut.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-always-appeal-to-the-mind-now-they-must-go-for-the-gut/2020/05/07/887fed66-9090-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html

  20. Roy Horn, who levitated tigers, made elephants disappear, turned himself into a python and mesmerized Las Vegas audiences for decades as half of the famed illusionist team Siegfried & Roy, died on Friday in Las Vegas. He was 75.

    The cause was complications of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to his publicist, Dave Kirvin. Mr. Horn, who lived in Las Vegas, tested positive for the virus last week and died at MountainView Hospital, Mr. Kirvin said.

    The German-born Mr. Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher’s long-running production, one of the most successful in Las Vegas history, ended on Oct. 3, 2003, when Mr. Horn, on his 59th birthday, was mauled by a 400-pound white tiger that lunged at his throat and dragged him offstage before a stunned capacity crowd of 1,500 at MGM’s Mirage hotel and casino.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/obituaries/roy-horn-dead-covid.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

  21. Coronavirus losses may force Newscorp and Rupert Murdoch to rethink Foxtel business model

    News Corporation is the latest international media company to reveal that it has been hit hard by COVID-19, with third-quarter accounts showing a $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) loss.

    It is a setback that spurred Rupert Murdoch to join the growing list of senior executives forgoing their bonuses for this year.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/coronavirus-challenges-may-force-foxtel-murdoch-to-rethink-model/12231094

    Couldn’t think of a more deserving company…

  22. Confessions @ #7 Sunday, May 10th, 2020 – 5:26 am

    Do the Greens normally hold preselections for their Senate seats? I suppose they have to run a preselection this time given the vote on allowing members a say in the leadership.

    Yep, that’s why Lee R and Andrew B left the last Parliament, she lost preselection and he didn’t stand, choosing to contest a House seat.

  24. I am so tired of this argument.

    On Tuesday, treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the National Press Club that the principles guiding the government had not changed: personal responsibility, choice, rewarding effort, “whilst ensuring a safety net which is underpinned by a sense of decency and fairness”.

    If ideology was absent, say many economists, social welfare academics and organisations that work to alleviate poverty, Australia would rethink a social security system they say was far from decent and fair, but instead punitive, trapping people in poverty rather than assisting them to find work.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/10/time-to-click-reset-coronavirus-offers-chance-to-end-australias-welfare-wars?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

  25. Kronomex

    Australian government tells ICC it should not investigate alleged war crimes in Palestine

    Would that be the same scum government who lectured China it has to be more transparent and allow in inspectors with “weapons inspector” level access to investigate ?

  26. Barney:

    I can’t say I’ve ever paid much attention.

    That said, I hope Lidia Thorpe wins the preselection.

  27. To Confessions who has me blocked by all accounts and will remain ignorant…

    Mr Bowe’s intro at the beginning of this thread:

    Victorian Greens Senator, with Richard Di Natale’s vacancy to be filled by a party membership ballot following a timeline I’m not privy to.

    Victorian Greens participate in every preselection ballot in their electorates/wards, federally, state and local. Every time.

    Grassroots democracy at its best.

  28. Bin…

    Beat me by that much.
    ——–

    Confessions

    For someone who professes to

    I can’t say I’ve ever paid much attention

    you spend a lot of your time focused on the Greens.

  29. Perhaps the reason for his recent unhingement. That is the greater unhingement than his usual unhingement. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida all have large older populations, and Trump won seniors in 2016 by a not insignificant margin.

    A recent Morning Consult poll found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage over Mr. Trump among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/us/politics/trump-older-voters-2020.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

  30. “Beating coronavirus needs return to health surveillance, says WHO”

    If the world is to bring the coronavirus outbreak under control, nations must carry out the “basic principles” of public health surveillance, a top World Health Organization expert said on Friday.

    The call for a return to greater vigilance comes as more countries turn their efforts towards reopening economies battered by the pandemic.

    “We seem … to be avoiding the uncomfortable reality that we need to get back to public health surveillance,” Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said during a media briefing. “We need to go back to where we should have been months ago – finding cases, tracking cases, testing cases, isolating people who are tested positive, doing quarantine for contacts.”

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/beating-coronavirus-return-health-surveillance-200508192312573.html?taid=5eb5e0fc63ff070001872539&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

  31. Well, if your President was saying effectively, hey guys, you gotta take one for the economic team, you wouldn’t want to vote for him, would you?

  32. WA’s decision to keep its mines open amid coronavirus may have saved Australia’s economy

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/keeping-wa-mines-open-in-coronavirus-may-save-australian-economy/12227448

    Analyst Philip Kirchlechner, from Iron Ore Research, was even more explicit.

    “By keeping the mines open … Western Australia is supporting the whole country,” he said.

    “Iron ore miners are paying company tax which goes to the Federal Government, so it’s all the Australian people [who] benefit from the taxes the mining companies pay”.
    :::
    WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt said deciding whether to keep mines open was a big call, but he believed his Government got it right in keeping the industry going.

    “It was an incredible time, one of those things that I think I’ll look back for the rest of my life,” Mr Wyatt said.
    :::
    Mr Wyatt said the crisis had underlined the importance of WA’s mining sector.

  33. Children aren’t immune to racism. Here’s how you can talk to your children about it

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-racism-during-coronavirus/12216354?nw=0

    Naomi Priest, an associate professor at the Australian National University Centre for Social Research and Methods, said from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, people of Asian appearance — including children — had been targets of racism
    :::
    However, the impact on mental, social, emotional and physical health and wellbeing could be more profound on children who have experienced racism during the pandemic, according to the paper set to be published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.
    :::
    While there are increasing reports of racism against Asians since the pandemic began, these sentiments are not new, Dr Yin said, adding that they stemmed from pre-existing fears, anxieties and stereotypes.

    “The kind of dialogue we need, to move forward from this as a society, should focus on the broader context of pandemics and where they have arisen in history from different places,” he said.

    “Specific racial groups aren’t to blame for the appearance of pandemics, and anyone, regardless of race, can catch and transmit COVID-19.”

  34. Shakespeare lived his entire life in the shadow of bubonic plague.

    It was early recognized that the rate of infection was far higher in densely populated cities than in the country; those with the means to do so escaped to rural retreats, though they often brought infection with them. Civic officials, realizing that crowds heightened contagion, took measures to institute what we now call social distancing. Collecting data from parish registers, they carefully tracked weekly plague-related deaths. When those deaths surpassed thirty, they banned assemblies, feasts, archery contests, and other forms of mass gathering. Since it was believed that it was impossible to become infected during the act of worship, church services were not included in the ban, though the infected were not permitted to attend. But the public theatres in London, which routinely brought together two or three thousand people in an enclosed space, were ordered shut. It could take many months before the death rate came down sufficiently for the authorities to allow theatres to reopen.

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-shakespeare-actually-wrote-about-the-plague?utm_campaign=likeshopme&client_service_id=31202&utm_social_type=owned&utm_brand=tny&service_user_id=1.78e+16&utm_content=instagram-bio-link&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&client_service_name=the%20new%20yorker&supported_service_name=instagram_publishing

  36. “To Confessions who has me blocked by all accounts and will remain ignorant…”

    ***

    I sense I may have been blocked by some on here too lol. Ah well.

    I actually like reading differing points of view and having debates with people. I think it would be incredibly boring to live in a filtered “bubble” where you only read things that align with your own world view. Besides, reading the opinions of right wingers often reminds me of why I am proud to be a lefty lol.

  38. Firefox

    That’s why I am here on PB. It appears though that some would prefer their own echo-chamber and woe betide anyone who pricks their bubble.

    Diversity rules!

  40. It all started with Scotty from Marketing and will end with some other patsy being thrown under the bus.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-09/pm-involved-in-sports-grants-funding-scandal-labor-says/12231342?section=politics

    What’s the bet that The Rupert will lean, just a little bit, on his bicycle racks in Canberra to help an old mmaattee out.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/coronavirus-challenges-may-force-foxtel-murdoch-to-rethink-model/12231094?section=business

  41. Good to see Peggy fighting hard to get out of that wet paper bag again.

    Maybe she might succeed today.

  42. Just finished watching The Loudest Voice on Stan, about the establishment of FoxNews – Russell Crowe is great as the odious Roger Ailes.

    The whole divide and rule, narrowcasting, talk to the viewer prejudices whilst titillating with bimbos and himbos found its summit in the Trump candidacy. We now get to see the unravelling in real life.

  45. ‘Time to click reset’: coronavirus offers chance to end Australia’s welfare wars

    The doubling of jobseeker was the biggest change to social security in decades. Now experts want the government to push aside ideology and establish a permanent equitable safety net

    This is the third in our series on Life after lockdown, which looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic could change Australia for good

    by Gay Alcorn

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/10/time-to-click-reset-coronavirus-offers-chance-to-end-australias-welfare-wars

    The idea of “mutual obligation” has been a mantra of all major parties. It has always been a requirement to look for work if you receive benefits, but the rules had become deliberately cruel, according to critics, dividing people into the “deserving” and “underserving” poor, with the unemployed undeserving. For 25 years, there was no real increase in Newstart beyond inflation, while aged pensions kept up with average living standards.
    :::
    The union, which represents workers in hospitality, hotels, casinos, warehouses and health, argues for a government “jobs guarantee” backed by a government subsidy, which would mean employers could not put off people during the crisis. It wants an “emergency income guarantee” for everyone else at the minimum wage of $740 a week.

    “The system is broken and it’s not good enough to patch it up and sail on through,” he told Jacobin recently. “We’ve seen these crises keep coming; after 2008–9, they said it was a once in 50-year thing. Ten years later, a pandemic knocked capitalism over very quickly. Just look at the way it is unfolding in the United States. And on top of it all, we’ve got a climate crisis that keeps ratcheting up every year, which also threatens the system.”

  46. I don’t see the Kelly move in taking his Committee on Intelligence and Security “background” to a US security company that wanted to increase its activities in Australia being any different from Christopher Pine taking his Defence Dept. “background” to EY, a company that wanted to expand its footprint in defence contracting in Australia.

    Anyway, isn’t Kelly cashed up from being in one of the best super schemes in Australia?

  47. ‘Life in isolation for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s wife Jenny has been “challenging” but at least one good thing came out of it for her family.

    “I haven’t seen Scott as much as I have in past six weeks for 13 years really,” she said.’

    That’s nice.
    Now fuck off.

  48. Stuart

    I thought there was some rule about not taking a position within a certain time in the same area, but as Pyne and others have got away with it, I suppose it’s a case of Who cares?

  49. will be very valuable to Palantir software

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/outgoing-labor-mp-mike-kelly-takes-new-job-security-company/12229842

    “Founded in 2004, Palantir specialises in the shadowy practice of data mining, and in January its growing global business was privately valued at $US20 billion ($30.61 billion).
    :::
    American spies are known to use Palantir software to link together the huge cache of data gathered by security agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA).

    Palantir software has been used by Australia’s Defence Department since 2011, and the company has secured millions of dollars in contracts with security agencies such as the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).”
    ————-

    How Palantir Falls Short of Responsible Corporate Conduct:
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2019/09/12/what-companies-can-learn-from-palantir/#24ec4f4216e0

    How Peter Thiel’s Palantir helped the NSA spy on the whole world:
    https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/how-peter-thiels-palantir-helped-the-nsa-spy-on-the-whole-world/

Comments Page 1 of 26
1 2 … 26

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *