Preselections: Groom and WA Liberal Senate

Early manoeuvres for a Liberal vacancy in a looming federal by-election, and a preselection to fill Mathias Cormann’s Senate seat set for November 7.

With Newspoll and Essential Research both having said their piece this week, there is likely to be a fortnight gap between federal polls. Not counting state and territory election action, which you can be assured you will be hearing more about shortly, there are two important preselections on the boil on the conservative side of politics:

• A situation is vacant for the Liberals in the Toowoomba-based federal seat of Groom following last week’s resignation announcement from John McVeigh, the member since 2016. In a column for the Brisbane Times, former Newman government minister and current 4BC presenter Scott Emerson says the vacancy presents an opportunity to head off a stoush over the order of the next Senate ticket between James McGrath and Amanda Stoker. The winner of this fight will get top position while the loser must settle for third, second being reserved for the Nationals. Emerson reports that this amounts to a battle between moderates and the Christian Right, of which McGrath is apparently one of the former. The suggestion is that Groom might give McGrath an opening, but in this he could face opposition from locals who support the claim of Toowoomba councillor Rebecca Vonhoff. Suggestions the seat might be of interest to another Senator, Matt Canavan, are complicated by the fact that he is a National, the sensitivity of which was illustrated when the LNP organisation blocked an attempt by the seat’s previous member, Ian Macfarlane, to jump ship from Liberal to the Nationals in 2015.

• Nathan Hondros of WAToday reports the Liberals will hold their preselection to fill Mathias Cormann’s Western Australian Senate vacancy on November 7, with the winner to take third position on the party’s ticket at the next election behind Michaelia Cash and Dean Smith. There would appear to be three nominees: Julian Ambrose, stepson of the late Perth construction billionaire Len Buckeridge; Sherry Sufi, an arch-conservative party activist; and Albert Jacob, former state Environment Minister and current mayor of Joondalup, who emerged as a “last-minute nomination”. Jacob held the coastal northern suburbs seat of Ocean Reef from 2008 to 2017, when he was defeated in the landslide the tipped the Barnett government from office. Cormann is reportedly lobbying for Ambrose, and his backers are pressuring Sufi to withdraw.

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.

2,450 comments on “Preselections: Groom and WA Liberal Senate”

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  3. Jim Chalmers MP
    @JEChalmers
    ·
    2m
    Kicking off budget week with @David_Speers this Sunday on @InsidersABC
    #auspol

    It’s a pity that Chalmers suffers from considerable delay on the line.

  6. Yabba
    Not quite.
    My understanding is that if the house has to decide the presidency, the congresspeople from each state must caucus to decide on their single vote. It is not a decision for the State lower houses.
    The real issue, as I see it, is the counting of the electoral college votes before the joint sitting. On the appeal of a member of the house and a senator the joint sitting can decide to ignore a state’s votes. Unfortunately the Democrats can’t claim the high ground on this as several congressmen but no senators have tried to overturn votes in previous elections.

  8. Phillip Moore
    @phillipwmoore49
    ·
    42s
    The history of re-skilling workers in this country is littered with failure. In the late 70s some genius decided it would be a good idea to retrain abattoir workers as retail butchers. Only problem was abattoir workers tended to communicate by flying offal.

  9. @ C@t:

    “ We could have been making EVs in Australia. ”

    This little Aussie company has been developing EV vans, utes and cars for The last few years. Aussie designed and assembled. Prefabricated body parts made in China.

    On sale next year apparently.

    https://www.ace-ev.com.au/

  12. lizzie @ #2182 Thursday, October 1st, 2020 – 7:30 am

    …
    The restaurant industry says there is no conclusive Australian evidence showing indoor dining is more risky than outdoor dining.

    …
    “There is no science in Australia, the country we live in, that shows dining indoors or outdoors is any safer,” he said.

    …

    I can see why the Government has gutted the CSIRO and reducing University research funding.

    Apparently the Government has discovered that Australia has it’s own unique Science and Mathematics, (refer back to PM Turnbull,) that apply within its borders. 🙂

  13. ———
    The ship is about to sail on Trump’s chances
    ———
    The country and the planet need the republican rats to jump ship rather than be enablers of post election chaos.

  15. So I assume the restaurant industry did something like this –

    “We placed randomly chosen diners within one metre of a known COVID case, seating one lot indoors and one outdoors.

    Fourteen days later, we did a follow up, to find that equal numbers of the diners had acquired COVID at that event.

    Hence, our conclusion….”

  16. zoomster

    I believe “anecdotal evidence” (aka gossip) is their preferred source of information to base claims on. Then there is of course consulting with the professors at Shoutback Radio University.

  18. zoomster @ #2215 Thursday, October 1st, 2020 – 8:18 am

    So I assume the restaurant industry did something like this –

    “We placed randomly chosen diners within one metre of a known COVID case, seating one lot indoors and one outdoors.

    Fourteen days later, we did a follow up, to find that equal numbers of the diners had acquired COVID at that event.

    Hence, our conclusion….”

    Surely you’d need parallel groups containing no COVID carriers! 🙂

  19. We often get extras from colesworth deliveries. We asked them, and it costs them more to collect them from us than they lose in revenue. Plus sometimes they throw in samples.

    An acquaintance of mine in rural Wisconsin once received an entire ride-on lawnmower boxed up in a wooden crate mistakenly from Amazon. They told him the same thing – just keep it.

    What Fairtrading NSW has to say on the matter:

    Businesses that provide unsolicited goods and services to consumers can recover those goods/services up to three months from the day after the goods/services were received. This is known as the ‘recovery period’.

    If you contact the business in writing and advise that you do not want the unsolicited goods/services, the recovery period is reduced to one month.

    During this time, you cannot unreasonably refuse to allow the supplier to recover the products from you, and if you damage the goods during this period, you may be liable to pay compensation.

    If the unsolicited goods have not been collected in the recovery period, you can keep the goods without any obligation to pay.

    Note: You are not entitled to keep products if they were not intended for you, for example, the packaging was clearly addressed to another person.

    https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/buying-products-and-services/buying-products/unsolicited-goods

  20. Trump family terrified Brad Parscale will flip on them and expose their racket to save himself: report

    On Wednesday, Vanity Fair reported that members of President Donald Trump’s family are worried that the president’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale will flip on them, and help the authorities pursue a campaign finance investigation into them, to save his own skin.

    “Parscale’s public meltdown happened while he is reportedly under investigation for stealing from the Trump campaign and the RNC,” reported Gabriel Sherman. “According to the source close to the campaign, the Trump family is worried that Parscale could turn on them and cooperate with law enforcement about possible campaign finance violations. ‘The family is worried Brad will start talking,’ the source said.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/trump-family-terrified-brad-parscale-will-flip-on-them-and-expose-their-racket-to-save-himself-report/

  21. Covid 19 must be rampaging in India. 10 passengers on the same flight to NZ who arrived last Saturday have tested positive for Covid 18 on their day 3 test. So they all would have had the lurgi when they left. The previous month 17 passengers on the same India-NZ flight had Covid-19.

  23. Josh Butler : Australia’s top doctors have warned rushing workers back to offices could lead to “health and economic hell” as they rebuke Morrison.

    When have we ever known Morrison to make a decision that benefits people?

  24. lizzie @ #2205 Thursday, October 1st, 2020 – 9:54 am

    Michael Pascoe
    @MichaelPascoe01
    The point of Morrison announcing another “10 year plan” is that it allows him to add up spending way out in the political never-never to manufacture a headline number e.g. “$1.5 billion”

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/09/30/australian-manufacturing-plan/

    But Sky is celebrating.

    Scrooter wants to be a bit careful, he’s likely still going to be here 10 years from now and might be making a sticky situation for himself.

  25. lizzie
    Ah but lizzie,Scrott likes to add at the end “when/if it is safe to do so ” so if anything goes wrong it is not his fault cos obviously it wasn’t ‘safe to do so’ 🙁

  26. The busy beavers in the MSM and VicLibs must be gratified that their “titanic” efforts have finally borne fruit and Andrews is losing some support.

  27. Caf, further to your post about non-ordered deliveries. A few years ago I ordered a new pair of safety boots from my employer’s supplier. They sent the wrong size. After genuine apologies they sent a correct size. I asked what to do with the wrong sized boots and was told to put them in the bin. (I didn’t, I gave them to a mate) The paperwork with the replacement had the cost, $15.40. Those same boots would cost about $180 at a retail outlet.

  28. By raising things that will happen in the future, Morrison implies that he thinks they should happen now, otherwise there is no point in raising the subject.

  30. lizzie @ #2223 Thursday, October 1st, 2020 – 9:07 am

    Josh Butler : Australia’s top doctors have warned rushing workers back to offices could lead to “health and economic hell” as they rebuke Morrison.

    When have we ever known Morrison to make a decision that benefits people?

    So Parliament will return to a more normal sitting schedule!

  36. Scott Morrison has rebuked the New South Wales energy and environment minister Matt Kean for describing the controversial Narrabri coal seam gas development as a “gamble”, declaring Kean is out of step with the premier and the state’s own policy.

    The prime minister on Thursday used an interview on the Sydney radio station 2GB to tell Kean, the NSW Liberal frontbencher and a vocal advocate for renewable energy, to pull his head in, declaring “if you are not for gas, you are not for manufacturing jobs”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/01/morrison-rebukes-nsw-environment-minister-for-calling-narrabri-gas-project-a-gamble

  37. lizzie @ #2236 Thursday, October 1st, 2020 – 9:47 am

    Scott Morrison has rebuked the New South Wales energy and environment minister Matt Kean for describing the controversial Narrabri coal seam gas development as a “gamble”, declaring Kean is out of step with the premier and the state’s own policy.

    The prime minister on Thursday used an interview on the Sydney radio station 2GB to tell Kean, the NSW Liberal frontbencher and a vocal advocate for renewable energy, to pull his head in, declaring “if you are not for gas, you are not for manufacturing jobs”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/01/morrison-rebukes-nsw-environment-minister-for-calling-narrabri-gas-project-a-gamble

    Yep, those renewable electrons just don’t have the balls for manufacturing!

  39. Quoll says:
    Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 9:34 am

    Trumpian tax policies in Australia for these fossil fuel companies
    ———————————
    Quoll
    Corporation tax is not based in revenue / income.

    So why are you using misleading information?

  41. The decision to rely on poorly trained private security to guard in quarantine hotels was a mistake, but it was not a uniquely Victorian mistake. A private quarantine guard in New South Wales was not only infected with Covid-19 but then went on to work at a court and the Sydney Market in Flemington. NSW was lucky to not suffer Victoria’s fate.

    The Ruby Princess was a mistake, and so too was Treasury’s estimate of the cost of jobkeeper. Mistakes do happen. But regardless of what mistakes led to Victoria’s second wave, the decision to impose stage 4 lockdowns was a monumental success that has delivered health and wealth benefits to the rest of Australia.

    If the Morrison government is concerned about the enormous cost shouldered by the good folk of Victoria, they should post a great big cheque – along with a great big thank you letter – to the Victorian people. Don’t hold your breath.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/01/thank-you-victoria-australia-as-a-whole-is-healthier-and-wealthier-because-of-you?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=soc_568&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1601513341

  42. Guardian. Labor’s response to Morrison.

    After a talking up an imminent major manufacturing package, this is nothing more than a re-packaged, re-announcement.

    Today’s $1.5 billion is less than what this government is cutting from the Research and Development Tax Incentive – an initiative crucial to our advanced manufacturing future.

    The Morrison Government’s bill before parliament will rip nearly $2 billion out of research and development, which will directly hurt Australian manufacturing.

    The six priority areas announced today were all identified in Labor’s 2012 PM’s Manufacturing Taskforce Report and announced in the 2013 Plan for Australian Jobs, raising the question – where has this government been for last seven years?

    The majority of the funding will come in the form of grants, which is particularly concerning considering the Morrison Government’s terrible track record when it comes to grants – think sports rorts.

    The Modernising Manufacturing Fund element of the package is simply a re-announcement of an election commitment from the chief marketer, the Prime Minister.

  43. [‘The judge said indemnity costs, intended to cover a higher proportion of a legal bill than is typically awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit, might be ordered “where there has been unreasonable, inappropriate or otherwise unjustifiable behaviour” during proceedings.

    The conduct of the Obeids “satisfies all three of those descriptions”, said Justice Hammerschlag, and the family had made baseless allegations of misconduct “of the gravest kind” against Mr Ipp.’]

    Indemnity costs are not awarded haphazardly. What’s more, Obeid’s counsel, Newlands SC, was reprimanded by the NSW Bar Association for his carriage of the proceeding against the former head of the ICAC. The Obeids must have more money than sense.

  45. I’m sure mundo will think today’s reannouncement of a 2012 Labor Manufacturing Plan by his mate, ‘Scrooter’ the Treasury Rorter, is a genius move. 🙄

  47. For mates in Australia, corporate tax is inversely proportional to how much you donate to the LNP or ALP obviously.

    I get it, for pissant Laborite bludgers it is far more important to carp on about Trump, whilst hiding their own Trumpian attitude to taxes for their mates. Or alterantively going on forever about that other Oz duopoly, Colesworth.

    Must be pages of jaunty stories for the memoirs and obituaries in preparation, about how in the time where decision and transformation was required, that no time or inane tag team BS was left unposted by the laborite partisans of PB. For years and years.

    Your families, descendents and indeed all future Australians will no doubt bow down in wonder at how a small rabble of laborites committed so much of their life and time to such significant endeavours. Sure to change the face of Australia and the future of everyone, well done eh.

  48. Quoll

    Or alterantively (sic) going on forever about that other Oz duopoly, Colesworth.

    Do you only read one or two posts each day and then your head explodes? This is irrational.

  50. Lizzie

    The article you linked by Richard Denniss is the first sensible piece I have seen in the media.

    Would be good for the federal Labor team to have a good read of it and maybe just maybe come out to bat for Victoria for a bloody change.

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