After a particularly eventful week, a whole bunch of electorally relevant news to report:
• The last official population updates have confirmed next month’s official determination of how many seats each state and territory will be entitled to in the next parliament will cause the abolition of seats in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and the creation of a new one in Victoria for the second consecutive term. Antony Green offers detailed consideration of how the redistributions might look, suggesting Victoria’s will most likely result in the creation of another safe Labor seat in Melbourne’s outer north-west, while Western Australia’s could either mash together Hasluck and Burt in eastern Perth, or abolish the safe Liberal south-of-the-river seat of Tangney, with knock-on effects that would weaken Labor’s position in Fremantle and/or Burt.
• In the wake of the 60 Minutes/The Age expose on Adem Somyurek’s branch stacking activities on Sunday, Labor’s national executive has taken control of all the Victorian branch’s federal and state preselections for the next three years. Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin have been brought in to serve as administrators until January, and an audit of the branch’s 16,000 members will be conducted to ensure that are genuine consenting members and paid their own fees.
• Ipsos has published polling on the recent demonstrations in the United States from fifteen countries, which found Australians to be supportive of what were specified as “peaceful protests in the US” and disapproving of Donald Trump’s handling of them, although perhaps in slightly lesser degree than other more liberal democracies. Two outliers were India and Russia, which produced some seemingly anomalous results: the former had a strangely high rating for Trump and the latter relatively low support for the protests, yet both were uniquely favourable towards the notion that “more violent protests are an appropriate response”.
• The Tasmanian government has announced the periodical Legislative Council elections for the seats of Huon and Rosevears will be held on August 1, having been delayed from their normally allotted time of the first Tuesday in May.
In Queensland, where the next election is a little over four months away:
• After floating the possibility of an election conducted entirely by post, the Queensland government announced this week that the October 31 state election will be conducted in a more-or-less normal fashion. However, pre-poll voting is being all but actively encouraged, to the extent that Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath says there will be an “election period” rather than an election day. This will mean “more pre-poll locations, longer pre-poll hours, and more pre-poll voting days in the two weeks prior to the election”.
• The Liberal National Party opposition was thrown into turmoil last week after the Courier-Mail ($) received internal polling showing Labor leading 51-49 in Redlands, 52-48 in Gaven, 55-45 in Mansfield and 58-42 in inner urban Mount Ommaney. The parties were tied in the Sunshine Coast hinterland seat of Glass House, while the LNP led by 52-48 in the Gold Coast seat of Currumbin, which it recently retained by a similar margin at a by-election. Frecklington’s supporters pointed the finger at the state branch president, Dave Hutchinson, who was reportedly told by Frecklington that his position was untenable after Clive Palmer hired him as a property consultant in January. The party room unanimously affirmed its support for Frecklington on Monday, as mooted rival David Crisafulli ruled out a challenge ahead of the election.
• The Queensland parliament this week passed an array of electoral law changes including campaign spending caps of $92,000 per candidate and limitations on signage at polling places. The changes have been criticised ($) by the Liberal National Party and Katter’s Australian Party, who complain that union advertising will now dominate at polling booths, and that the laws was pushed through with indecent haste on Tuesday and Wednesday.
SK
Ah. Beautiful species of a stunning genus.
Actually, the area between Golden Shores and…. starts with W… Wooyung would be worth a try. Developers keep trying to develop that stunning area. Get in while you can.
And there is an interesting little bit of bush between the freewway and the wastewater plant. If you can still get to it with the new road/bridge. It is also a significant aboriginal site so please be respectful. You can feel the significance in the hairs of your skin.
You could hardly make bee eater colours up:
https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=images+of+african+bee+eaters&client=firefox-b-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwikzdSt4ZTqAhXjyjgGHT9rCH0Q7Al6BAgKEDI&biw=1440&bih=683
I had one of the mesh face protectors. My assistant (who I revered) refused that and spray and instead would just rub his face every few minutes. By the end he looked like he had survived a chainsaw attack.
He reckon that from his time in New Guinea and getting malaria that he didnt feel the bites.
F me.
This is a real click bait headline. There is no “conflicting advice” when one reads the article.
I grew up with regent bowerbirds. Still my favourite. Pretty perched on a branch but when they fly past you in a dark forest it is unforgettable.
SK
We used to take hundreds of bites when eel fishing. But…
… the more I learn about the viruses that mozzies spread the more careful I have become.
When in the Philippines I am totally phobic about them, going to great lengths to avoid even a single bite.
An interesting News . com article:
https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/coronavirus-victoria-did-protests-cause-victorian-covid19-spike/news-story/cb389440ca84946da4e2c25d121e766e
The BLM matters have led to no community transmission. Tim Smith is exposed as the total tosspot he is.
I think it says something really big. Outside is good – inside is bad.
Go outside, ride a bike, walk, get some fresh air. Don’t go to the pub, the shopping mall or play the pokies… Those activities are obviously bad for your health!
SK
Regents are beauties. I like the Riflebirds. When displaying they look a bit like their iridescent colours are powered by electricity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sj-UdjqlFw
Local facebook groups with complaints about long wait times at Testing Centres this side and it is a story on the Channel 7 4pm news. Not good when we are being names as hotspot
Little exchanges like this between SK and BW are the best of poll bludger. Very interesting.
guytaur
Imagine being the Finance Minister who looks at this graph and thinks, oh crap, we better watch out for hyperinflation https://twitter.com/GrogsGamut/status/1274887443745869824/photo/1
That graph is the yield on the 10 bond and not the CPI inflation rate.
I tried to explain to him the whole OHS stuff but he believed the spray would cause him more harm than the mosquitoes.
He died some years back of cancer and peeps were a little shocked I flew from a job in the NT to be at the funeral (as I had flown only a month before to see him when they stopped treatment). He meant a lot to me and taught me, amongst many things, patience, the virtue of calmness.
He tried to teach me how to talk to cows but I never mastered the language.
laughtong
A shame when people have made the effort. I still wonder how useful the testing is if they then believe all is OK.
Alpha Zero @ #1419 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:19 pm
Tim Smith needs all our support to bring on a leadership challenge. 😉
SK,
It’s a very moosical language, I hear.
laughtong @ #1610 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:21 pm
I just watched ScamMo on the 9 News and he swears he told us ‘there would be bumps in the road’. 🙄
Bill @ #1422 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:23 pm
I’d prefer a vigorous political debate just quietly…
Chicago Sun Times:
“70 shot, 11 fatally, so far this weekend in Chicago
The fatalities included a 3-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl killed in separate shootings “
Strange that there aren’t any protests about these.
Yes Rex, but you are boring.
Buce
There have been protests.
They were called the March for Our Lives Marches.
The Parkland High School survivors organised and led it.
laughtong @ #1421 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:21 pm
Any MSM items on Victoria need to be seen through the prism of a widespread systematic anti-Andrews narrative.
SK
It took me a while to realize the critical importance of going to funerals.
The more important the person has been in your life, the more important to be at the funeral, IMO.
One of the emotional perils of migration is that you tend to miss going to funerals that you should really have gone to.
We lost important people during the Virus and attended two efunerals. Everyone concerned did their best but it is nowhere like the real thing, IMO. If ever there is a vaccine there will be lots of unfinished business to finish.
SK
We grew up on a dairy farm and knew what the cows, calves and bulls were ‘saying’. We never got to a two way conversation, but!
Buce
I suggest you take your problem up with the NRA.
Rex Douglas says: Monday, June 22, 2020 at 4:30 pm
Little exchanges like this between SK and BW are the best of poll bludger. Very interesting.
I’d prefer a vigorous political debate just quietly…
***********************************************
Bucephalus : Monday, June 22, 2020 at 4:31 pm
Chicago Sun Times:
“70 shot, 11 fatally, so far this weekend in Chicago
The fatalities included a 3-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl killed in separate shootings “
Strange that there aren’t any protests about these.
_______________________________________________
Here you go, Rex – get stuck into Bucephalus aka CockwombleCrank just after your post above …..
Bucephalus @ #1430 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:31 pm
SK
Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed it. Must be going now.
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/high-court-inquiry-finds-former-justice-dyson-heydon-sexually-harassed-associates-20200622-p5550w.html
High court inquiry finds former justice Dyson Heydon sexually harassed associates
By Kate McClymont and Jacqueline Maley
June 22, 2020 — 4.29pm
Former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon, one of the nation’s pre-eminent legal minds, sexually harassed six young female associates, an independent inquiry by the court has found.
A Herald investigation has also uncovered further allegations from senior legal figures of predatory behaviour by Mr Heydon, including a judge who claims that Mr Heydon indecently assaulted her. The women claim that Mr Heydon’s status as one of the most powerful men in the country protected him from being held to account for his actions.
Bucephalus @ #1619 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 2:31 pm
You might think that in your closeted, superficial world.
Rex Douglas @ #1622 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:34 pm
I am tempted to believe the comments on the local facebook groups quoting actual arrival and departure times. 3.5 hours in one case. Not good at all. There is apparently a respiratory virus going around local kids but not covid
Leroy @ #1440 Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – 4:40 pm
Wow.
He’s now ‘disgraced former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon’.
boerwar says:
Monday, June 22, 2020 at 4:38 pm
I doubt that those doing the shooting are in the NRA or Republicans so why would l do that?
Just bad people with guns ?
Classic nra
The March for Our Lives marches were against lax gun laws, not shootings specifically committed by NRA members or Republicans.
Buce
I suggest you take your problem up with the NRA or with Trump.
You might learn something.
Josh(ua) Burns (Labor MP) on Karvelas is very impressive, IMO. Fluent and persuasive.
boerwar, Simon Katich
I have seen plenty of swampies, they are quite beautiful. Of course lots of carpet snakes.
All those shootings in Chicago shows there are far too many people not carrying guns. As the NRA will tell you “‘The only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. ” 🙂
“Alas, whatever Boris Johnson is, he is not a leader for a crisis. He is showman, a politician prone to giving the crowd what it thinks it wants rather than what it needs. He is a politician crafted for the television age with its ephemeral attention span, a politician who changes the script every five minutes. He is no Winston Churchill, and certainly no Clement Attlee or Ernie Bevin keeping the home fires burning. Rather, Johnson is a lazy fool who is out of his depth – and has been caught out.
Why did the British establishment elevate Boris to Number 10? Simple: they needed a front man to win the General Election decisively; see off Jeremy Corbyn and his ideological vision of a non-consumerist, non-“rat race” society; and deliver Brexit quickly. In effect, the very antithesis of dull Mr Corbyn to grab the TV headlines. And that is what they got.“
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18532291.reason-uk-now-governed-over-promoted-fools/
I have a nursery of swampies on my place, one about 10 m away right now. A mob of 3-4 others, with joeys almost out of the pouch, hanging out under the Guava trees out the back. A weed fruit they take to with gusto when it’s on. They’re literally outside my front door almost every morning and evening. Aside from cars and the odd dog chasing them, they’re one native marsupial doing very well around here now.
SK that’s Billinudgel Nature reserve, Rainbow Bee Eaters are there
Meanwhile
Australia’s devotion to coal has come at a huge cost. We need the government to change course, urgently
https://theconversation.com/australias-devotion-to-coal-has-come-at-a-huge-cost-we-need-the-government-to-change-course-urgently-140841
“The biggest lesson from the pandemic is that governments are our risk managers of last resort. Ours, both state and federal, have been prepared to inflict massive economic pain on businesses and individuals to protect our health, and we are grateful.
As we face the much larger but more slow-moving crisis of the heating planet, governments must stare down the fossil fuel industry and its supporters, for all our sakes, even if this inflicts on them some economic pain.
If they can do it for the pandemic, they can do it for climate change.
Judith Brett’s Quarterly Essay, The Coal Curse, is out today.”
Well we knew Justice Heydon was personally selected by Tony Abbott to screw over Bill Shorten, but this is wasn’t in the letters patent..
“Vivienne Thom, the former Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, interviewed a dozen witnesses, including five former associates. Dr Thom’s report found that the evidence “demonstrates a tendency by Mr Heydon to engage in a pattern of conduct of sexual harassment” which included unwelcome touching, attempting to kiss the women and taking them into his bedroom.
A Herald investigation can reveal that Mr Heydon’s predatory behaviour was an “open secret” in legal and judicial circles. Not only did he prey on his young associates during his decade on the High Court until his mandatory retirement at 70 in 2013, other females in the profession suffered at his hands.
Mr Heydon, via his lawyers, denied “emphatically any allegation of sexual harassment or
any offence.”
A current judge told the Herald that Mr Heydon slid his hand between her thighs at a professional law dinner not long after he joined the High Court bench.
“He indecently assaulted me. I have no doubt it was a crime and he knew I was not consenting,” said the judge.
Indecent assault, which involves the unwanted touching of another person in a sexual manner without that person’s consent, can attract a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
Despite telling him to “Get your f**king hands off me” the judge, a barrister at the time, said Justice Heydon was too powerful to complain about. “The power imbalance is such that he is so senior…He was a giant of the profession.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/high-court-inquiry-finds-former-justice-dyson-heydon-sexually-harassed-associates-20200622-p5550w.html
Just drove back from Melbourne today and crossed the mighty Murray into the Premier State.
Drove through some of the dodgy areas but made sure the windows were wound up tight.
And who can forget this?
“Dyson Heydon, the royal commissioner under mounting pressure to quit over his links to the Liberal Party, was on a panel that awarded a young Tony Abbott a life-changing scholarship to Oxford University.
Mr Heydon was part of the seven-member Rhodes Trust selection committee in NSW that in 1980 handed the prestigious Rhodes scholarship to the future prime minister, then a 23 year-old student politician at Sydney University.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dyson-heydon-was-on-panel-that-awarded-tony-abbott-his-prized-rhodes-scholarship-20150817-gj0o8o.html
The most corrupt government since Federation did not just pop out of the blue, fully formed.
sprocket_
I wonder how many in the MSM knew about Heydon’s reputation when they reported on the RC.
Holy shit! What a hypocritical scumbag is Heydon!
This ain’t no rumour. No less than the High Court have investigated, and found the facts proved.
All that plonking by him at the TURC, and he had his hand up the skirt or down the knickers of almost every young female associate he could lecher after.
His boldness was so brassy it makes you shudder to think how many women DID “come across”. We only heard about the failures.
‘Quoll says:
Monday, June 22, 2020 at 5:02 pm
I have a nursery of swampies on my place, one about 10 m away right now. A mob of 3-4 others, with joeys almost out of the pouch, hanging out under the Guava trees out the back. A weed fruit they take to with gusto when it’s on. They’re literally outside my front door almost every morning and evening. Aside from cars and the odd dog chasing them, they’re one native marsupial doing very well around here now.’
How very fortunate you are.
Fuck me, the litany of allegations against Dyson Heydon are legion – I wonder if Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard knew this when the old lecher was peering at them in the KangarooCourt Royal Commission?
“Mr Heydon is also alleged to have indecently assaulted the then president of the ACT Law Society, Noor Blumer, at the University of Canberra Law Ball in April, 2013.
According to a statement from the university, Mr Heydon was “removed from the event and returned to his accommodation”, following a complaint of “inappropriate behaviour” from a student the same night.
Ms Blumer said while she sat next to Mr Heydon at the dinner, he started “feeling up the side of my leg”. Then, on the pretext of discussing adoption law with her, he took her to an empty room where he attempted to forcibly kiss her.
Ms Blumer, who is the director of a Canberra law firm, was “upset and disgusted”. She left the ball immediately. The next day she took a lengthy contemporaneous file note of the evening, which the Herald has seen, and also notified the university.
In a statement to the Herald, Professor Murray Raff from the University of Canberra confirmed that Ms Blumer complained to him the next day “of inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour towards her at the Ball, by the retired Justice of the High Court of Australia, Dyson Heydon.”
A female student, who also attended the ball, also reported an unpleasant encounter with the judge when he commented on her breasts, she said.”
……..
“The legal profession’s dirtiest and darkest secret is no more,” said Mr Bornstein, a Melbourne principal with law firm Maurice Blackburn. “His repeated sexual harassment of young women who were starting out their legal careers was and is known to many people.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dyson-heydon-was-on-panel-that-awarded-tony-abbott-his-prized-rhodes-scholarship-20150817-gj0o8o.html
P.S. Good for YOU, Josh Bornstein! What a legend you are.
This is obviously what was alluded to here, late last night.