Groom at the top

Eight LNP candidates nominate to fill John McVeigh’s vacancy in the Queensland seat of Groom; and the federal government says it will act to retain the Northern Territory’s two seats in the House of Representatives.

Miscellaneous developments from the past week:

• The Toowoomba Chronicle reports eight candidates have nominated for Liberal National Party preselection for the Groom by-election, of whom the front-runners are Rebecca Vonhoff, a Toowoomba councillor; Garth Hamilton, a businessman; Sara Hales, former general manager of Wellcamp Airport; and Shane Charles, former Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise chief executive. Also in the field are “Elders Rural Services’ Andrew Meara … race car driver Daniel Cassidy, Australian Lot Feeders president Bryce Camm and Doctor David van Gend”, the latter being a firebrand social conservative whom the outgoing member, John McVeigh, defeated for preselection when he succeeded Ian Macfarlane in 2016. Notably absent from the list is Senator Matt Canavan, despite a decision by the state executive to leave it to the branch membership whether the seat should go to a Liberal, as it has since 1988, or a National. The date of the by-election is yet to be confirmed.

• Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said on Thursday that the government would introduce a bill that will ensure the Northern Territory retains its two seats in the House of Representatives, though by what mechanism is unclear. A Labor-sponsored bill currently before the Senate provides a crude guarantee of a second Northern Territory seat (without extending the courtesy to the Australian Capital Territory, albeit that its population is such that the question does not arise), but when the same issue emerged before the 2004 election, it was dealt with through a technical tweak to the population statistics used to determine seat entitlements. The bottom line is that the Labor-held seats of Solomon and Lingiari, created when the territory first became entitled to a second seat in 2001 and respectively covering Darwin and the rest of the territory, will continue to exist despite enrolments of less than two-thirds the national norm. It also means the House of Representatives

• The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is conducting an inquiry into the “future conduct of elections operating during times of emergency situations”, encompassing “restrictions arising from a health pandemic”, “access to polling places during times of natural disasters”, “other potential drivers of social restrictions, such as future civil unrest, or international conflict” and “alternative voting methods including early, remote and postal voting”.

• The West Australian has a Painted Dog Research poll of 932 respondents in WA showing 64% want the state’s hard border maintained beyond December, with 36% favouring a resumption of travel with the eastern states.Hou

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.

590 comments on “Groom at the top”

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  1. Player One @ #392 Sunday, October 11th, 2020 – 10:31 am

    Well, following to the logic of some here, I believe their plan is to make the recession longer and deeper, because that gives them a better chance of winning.

    Isn’t it more that they’ve decided that since people are buying what the LNP is selling, their only hope is to sell basically the same product? Opposing things and marketing your own product is so last century.

    Lars Von Trier @ #393 Sunday, October 11th, 2020 – 10:38 am

    Inevitably the next Labor PM will make their peace with Rupert or more likely Lachlan as the price of power.

    Then they don’t deserve power. The next Labor PM should demonstrate strength, not cravenness.

  2. I think there’s a fair argument that conservatives are tougher with the media.

    The reports at the time suggest it was the media that decided to remove Turnbull for instance because he wasn’t compliant.

  3. Gorgeous as always thanks C@tmomma. But I’m biased.
    Good to hear the move went well. Not so good on the power front though.
    Hopefully you’ll get sorted sooner than later.

    Good news. I managed to figure out the gravitas thingy. 🙂

    Edit: gravatar even

  4. C@t

    What a bummer! I lost power for about an hour last month. It seemed like an eternity.

    Fingers crossed. It gets sorted for you tmrw.

  5. Victoria @ #409 Sunday, October 11th, 2020 – 12:02 pm

    GG

    On the housing front. Do you think there will be more listings in next few weeks?

    In Victoria, yes. Other jurisdictions are doing OK.

    Expectations are for a 5% drop in prices by mid 21 and then a solid recovery in housing prices.

    Latest info/speculation is that there will be a reduction in wholesale interest rates either to 0.15 or 0.10% on Cup day.

  6. Firefox says:
    Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 10:38 am

    ….they now feel obliged to spend the rest of their days lecturing the left on how to successfully achieve four fifths of bugger all….

    The Faux need no lessons in this. They manage very well under their own steam. They need no lessons in blaming Labor either. Like their alter egos, the LNP, the Faux rail against Labor whenever they can.

    They should get the message: they are an obstacle to reform in this country. They would better serve their goals by dissolving themselves.

  7. From that memo from Trumps Doc… Trump is now through 10 days since symptoms started.
    So… Trump was symptomatic on the day of the debate. When he last tested negative is becoming a pretty important Q.

    And… Trump must not have had a severe infection, yet flown by helicopter to a hospital and required advanced care, supplemental oxygen and some pretty serious drugs.
    CDC

    Available data indicate that persons with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset. Persons with more severe to critical illness or severe immunocompromise likely remain infectious no longer than 20 days after symptom onset.

    The web of lies is thick to cover the thin skinned orange toddler.

  8. Certain sections of the media and other commentators have hooked onto the “ Morrison recession” description and are using it to bash labor.

    What they fail to realise or refuse to is that labor is not just looking short term. Government spending announcements made in the budget on Tuesday night are largely simply announcements. Infrastructure spending off into the never never. Tax cuts that will be saved and tax credits that will only be useful when workers lodge their next tax return. Hiring subsidies that will discriminate against those over 35 and thus open to rorting and or to sack older workers and simp,y replace them with those under 35 and cheaper. No job creation just job replacement. The list goes on.

    Labor is punting on the recession lasting longer than it should and being deeper than it should because of the froth and noise ideological budget delivered on Tuesday.

    In six months time the “ Morrison recession “ may just be the meme for those times. Labor is getting in early.

  9. doyley @ #424 Sunday, October 11th, 2020 – 9:43 am

    Certain sections of the media and other commentators have hooked onto the “ Morrison recession” description and are using it to bash labor.

    What they fail to realise or refuse to is that labor is not just looking short term. Government spending announcements made in the budget on Tuesday night are largely simply announcements. Infrastructure spending off into the never never. Tax cuts that will be saved and tax credits that will only be useful when workers lodge their next tax return. Hiring subsidies that will discriminate against those over 35 and thus open to rorting and or to sack older workers and simp,y replace them with those under 35 and cheaper. No job creation just job replacement. The list goes on.

    Labor is punting on the recession lasting longer than it should and being deeper than it should because of the froth and noise ideological budget delivered on Tuesday.

    In six months time the “ Morrison recession “ may just be the meme for those times. Labor is getting in early.

    If memory serves right, I recall an interview with Peta Credlin (?) where she said it took about nine months (?) for their attack on Labor regarding carbon tax to get mainstream traction.

  10. With the Vic Liberal Opposition being so totally inept, we Victorians are very lucky to have cross benchers such as Fiona Patten from the Reason Party to keep an eye on Labor SDA hacks like James Merlino.
    It’s these type of Labor hacks that are the greatest danger to Daniel Andrews remaining Premier.

  11. Lizzie
    You did not miss much. He is still suffering from amnesia.
    Only change was regional businesses, motels, cafes etc have to check ID of customers to ensure they are not from the big smoke.

  12. Eric Feigl-Ding
    @DrEricDing
    ·
    1h
    Breaking—Dr Conley now claims Trump is not infectious. He cites CDC criteria, yet CDC clearly says severe #COVID19 cases are infectious for 20 days. And his viral load might be down, but he also has synthetic antibodies. Synthetic doesn’t equal immunity. Ct value also unreported.

  13. Yet again Taylormade only puts forward the info he deems important, Dan also reported the hotel inquiry requested his and members of his departments phone records for the 27th of march and he will comply asap as well as the usual info.

  14. Wallabies have won! The toss.

    Nate Silver gives them a forecast 15% of buckleys chance of winning and is assuming all undecided ref decisions go to the allblacks.

  15. Pennsylvania is the Swing State to watch this election it seems. Both candidates have been there lots lately.

    Texas likely to be won by Republicans by foul means not fair.

  16. Well recall those earlier photos of blue t-shirt clad Dotard rally attendees?

    Well Dotard spoke for all of 18 minutes, rather than the normal 90 he does at these ‘rally’s’. And what enticed such a crew to show up? Most were paid to be there… Rent-a-Crowd..

    “Some guests for Saturday’s White House event on the South Lawn, which will be President Donald Trump’s first since testing positive for the coronavirus, had their travel and lodging paid for by controversial conservative activist Candace Owens’ group BLEXIT, according to emails obtained by ABC News.

    Supporters, who are also scheduled to attend a separate BLEXIT event earlier in the day, were invited to attend a “HUGE outdoor rally” by the group and asked to fill out a form that notified them that BLEXIT, a campaign urging Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party, will be covering travel costs.

    Guests were later informed they would be receiving an invitation from the White House to attend an event with Trump.

    In an email from Owens, obtained by ABC News, attendees were told “EVERYONE MUST BRING A MASK TO BE ALLOWED ENTRY ONTO THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS.” and that “absolutely no exceptions” will be made.

    MORE: Trump planning to host 1st in-person event since diagnosis at White House on Saturday: Sources
    Still, wearing a face mask will not be required. Attendees will have to submit to a COVID-19 screening the morning of the event, which will consist of a temperature check and a brief questionnaire.

    Guests will first attend a “BLEXIT Back the Blue event” on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument before heading over to the South Lawn for the president’s remarks, according to a schedule obtained by ABC News.

    https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/candace-owens-blexit-group-pays-attendees-travel-trumps/story?id=73531036&id=73531036&__twitter_impression=true

  17. A r I think it was Whitlam who said only the impotent are pure.

    Media and politics have always been intertwined – ain’t going to change.

  18. Insiders has fallen in ratings as it is a circle jerk of leftie journalists that adds nothing to the national conversation.

  19. Reference the Trump fan who voted twice. NOTE, she got caught and is still facing the consequences, further proof that voter fraud is not significant outside of Trump’s sick mind.

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