First up, note the new post below on the Western Australian state election campaign. To the matter at hand: as talk proliferates of a federal election later this year, there has been a noticeable uptick on the volume of preselection news to report.
• A Liberal preselection for the eastern Melbourne seat of Menzies last weekend produced a boilover with the defeat of Kevin Andrews, who has held the seat since 1991. Andrews lost the local party ballot by a 181-111 margin to Keith Wolahan, a barrister and former army officer. Wolahan was reckoned to have enough support locally to have knocked over Andrews ahead of the 2019 election, but was thwarted when the state party organisation took charge of the entire federal election preselection process, much to the chagrin of the membership. Wolahan had support from factional moderates but took to Andrew Bolt’s program on Sky News to push back against the notion that he personally could be so described, and put it to Virginia Trioli of the ABC that he “never joined the Liberal Party to be called a moderate and very few people do in Victoria”.
• It appears increasingly likely that controversial Liberal MP Craig Kelly will be bumped aside for preselection in his Sydney seat of Hughes by Kent Johns, who had the numbers locally in both 2016 and 2019 but was saved on both occasions by prime ministerial intervention. The Australian reported on Friday that Nationals MPs, apparently including Queensland Senator Matt Canavan, wished to recruit Kelly to the party, apparently with a view to him seeking re-election in his entirely suburban electorate. However, a Nationals source was quoted saying this “wouldn’t happen while Michael McCormack is leader”.
• Nine News reports New South Wales Deputy Premier and state Nationals leader John Barilaro is considering a move to the Senate. The Coalition arrangement in New South Wales gives the Nationals second and third positions on the Senate ticket at alternating elections, with the next election being the party’s turn for the unloseable second spot. The party’s position is vacant because one of its two Senators elected at the 2016 double dissolution, Fiona Nash, lost her position amid the Section 44 fiasco in December 2017 and it was won on a countback by a Liberal, Jim Molan. Molan lost his seat after being reduced to fourth position at the 2019 election but returned to the Senate upon filling Arthur Sinodinos’s vacancy in November 2019. Since he is now 69, he is presumably set to retire. The Liberals’ first and third positions on the ticket will presumably remain with the incumbents, Marise Payne and Connie Fierravanti-Wells.
• With the retirement of Labor veteran Warren Snowdon, Sky News reports his regional Northern Territory electorate of Lingiari is set to be contested for Labor by the former Deputy Chief Minister, Marion Scrymgour.
• The Northern Territory News reports the Country Liberal Party’s Senator for the Northern Territory, Sam McMahon, may face preselection challenges from Damien Ryan, the mayor of Alice Springs, and Linda Fazldeen, a Darwin businesswoman. The report says the preselection is likely to be held in June or July.
NSW – Nil local transmission, 2 travelers in quarantine.
27th day in a row with no reported locally acquired cases
Things unravelling somewhat for the Lincoln Project, thankfully they did their ‘one job’ to perfection in getting rid of Dotard..
‘Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt is preparing to step down from the anti-Trump media group, according to reports. He is said to have informed staffers late Friday, just a day after he was singled out in an open letter from former employees who accused the group of mishandling sexual harassment allegations and attacking those who tried to speak out.
The group has plunged into turmoil following reports that top leadership was aware of sexual harassment allegations against co-founder John Weaver as early as last summer, long before the allegations became public in January.
Following the reports by the Associated Press, New York magazine, and The New York Times, Lincoln Project senior adviser Kurt Bardella and conservative commentator Tom Nichols, who served as an unpaid adviser, announced their exits from the group earlier Friday. CNBC also reports that several donors to the group are considering stopping all financial contributions pending the outcome of an outside investigation.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lincoln-project-co-founder-steve-schmidt-to-step-down?via=twitter_page
boerwar: “Australia v Rest of the World
zero doses versus 160 million doses.
We have had dozens of Smirky McRortface Liberal logoed smoke and mirrors, but.”
Warning: heretical viewpoint ahead.
I keep reading on here how bad Australia’s vaccine policy is.
But it seems to me that countries like Australia and NZ, which can largely isolate themselves from the rest of the world, really should be in no hurry to roll the vaccine out: certainly not beyond a defined group of vulnerable/essential people (the elderly, quarantine workers, emergency services workers, health professionals, etc) for whom the current order of the Pfizer vaccine should be more than enough.
Some countries have rushed ahead with rolling out the vaccine to their general populations, but these are all countries in which the virus currently appears to be spreading out of control.
We still don’t really know all that much for certain about the various vaccines, including pretty crucial things like a) how long they remain effective; b) how they go against the emerging variants of the virus; and c) do they prevent people from being carriers of the virus?
Apart from our lack of certainty about these things, I also note that it’s summer, the country is effectively closed off from the rest of the world, and there is no proposal on the table to open international borders beyond the trickle of returning Australians who are going into quarantine (and the 1200 apparently essential workers allowed into the country for the Australian Open).
In short, how much help is a massive and expensive rollout of the vaccine to the general population right now going to be on top of what we are already doing?
I think that NZ and Australia are arguably going too quickly, and that this is probably driven by political concerns. We might have done better to wait a bit longer: particularly if it turns out the vaccine is only effective for 6 months or so.
Donald Trump was only able to win in 2016 (barely) because the Democratic Party adopted neoliberal economic policies that 1/ caused the Global Financial Crisis; 2/ failed to respond adequately to that crisis; 3/ tolerated elevated levels of unemployment and under-employment; 4/ eviscerated income support systems; 5/ neglected critical federal government investments in public infrastructure and services.
No neoliberalism, no Trump.
The Clinton and Obama Administrations did a lot of damage, and bear much of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump.
Report of NZ announcement today on their vaccine roll out:
Diane’s post in the SMH represents good old common sense:
[‘Once a upon a time there was a place called the Quarantine station in Sydney. The people would travel to Sydney from far away and the boat would pull up at the jetty to enable to people to walk to their accommodation and decontamination processes. Although not altogether at today’s expectation of comfort. Yet there was a private beach lots of fresh air its own little hospital and the possible bugs that may have come into the country were washed away. It is fascinating to consider that at that time we didn’t have smart epidemiologists and other like academics giving all sorts of advice. Common sense and strong public policy stood for an exceptionally long time.
Now it a is a four-star hotel, Q Station. It has a private beach, stunning views of Sydney Harbour, excellent cuisine and close to the city. Politicians and health experts had some smarts and vision at that time…’]
meher baba
Fair point. But with frontline health workers as the exception.
Meher Baba,
Everything you say is logical. But the FOTN was caught off guard politically and rushed into a decision to bring it forward to February. If it doesn’t happen in February, who carries the can?
Or will it be a case of Scotty being Scotty being Greggy being Stuart being Bridgy and just sweep it under the carpet and pretend that no promises were…wait – what is that fucking Dan Andrews doing now? The Sharkies are playing a trial this week. Listen, how about I call you Yoshi and you can call me Scomo. Have you seen that picture of me riding an F35? You couldn’t hear the Top Gun music but it was on. The vaccine will be rolled out in March like I always said it would be. Maybe. And it isn’t really important that no essential workers have it yet because when one of them needlessly gets infected and then infects everyone else on the bus while the rest of the world looks on then I can just do what I always do. Blame someone else. I don’t hold a needle, mate.
sprocket,
Rightwingers can’t run anything properly.
Not sure that ‘Thomas More might have known a bloke who was the son of one of the murderers…” is really conclusive…
It’s a shame that the Lincoln Project is in a state of flux but it served its purpose of helping to dispose of Trump.
Nicholas says:
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:26 am
And the fraudulent imposters who comprise the Faux would have to find another anti-Democratic populist to whom they could rally.
Donald Trump was only able to win in 2016 (barely) because….
Absolute fucking rubbish. The GFC commenced during the period of the Bush administration. Somehow you’ve whited-out the entire Reagan/Thatcher counter-revolution and the effect that had and still has on the social democratic plurality.
The Faux campaign for the election of Republicans. They despise the Democratic Party. The Faux are crypto-Trumpy. They hate the Democratic Party just as much as do the Republicans.
Truly, the Faux are RIABN – Republican in all but name.
A magnificent effort from Boris:
Another Brexit shocker: in France they speak french.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55993220
Weather Newcastle.
Pissing down with rain. ☔☂️⛈️
zoomstersays:
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:34 am
Not sure that ‘Thomas More might have known a bloke who was the son of one of the murderers…” is really conclusive…
___________
It seemed to me that it was conclusive when Richard III was crowned.
mundo @ 11.04am
“‘I hope Labor …..’
Don’t we all.”
Mundo
Be careful not to miss the bus, unless you want to be stuck with bexiboi and luxury length.
They have the stench of denial and the aroma of fear.
Meher- the view you’ve expressed is pretty orthodox rather than heretical- though maybe not around here. Norman Swan for one has been persuasively making those points for some months. I get the political temptation of course to weaponise the timing of vaccine rollout, given that it’s been almost impossible to land any blows on Scomo and co, in an era when incumbents are mostly Teflon coated. However, of the innumerable examples of egregious policy and practice by the Federal Government, I don’t think the vaccine timetable rates. If circulation of more infectious virus strains, or other developments suggest that an acceleration of the timetable is a good idea, then great. I’m all for evidence based policy and flexibility .
Late Riser @ #2740 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 10:03 am
I feel like you’ve applied the RINO term backwards. It’s the Trumpists who are the RINOs. An actual Republican would be 100% against government stimulus payments to individuals (Trump and his base/followers both want the payments).
Republicans are meant to be fiscally and socially conservative, and “small government” in a way that doesn’t actually allow the plebs any rights beyond buying and carrying as many guns as they want. Trumpists have forgotten the fiscally conservative part of that, at least.
a r
You’re right of course, but it’s the Trumpists who are using the term RINO. I first heard it used by Don Jr. If I see it used again I’ll post a link.
Nicholas
“Donald Trump was only able to win in 2016 (barely) because the Democratic Party adopted neoliberal economic policies ”
Bullshit.
Mavis @ #2747 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 11:14 am
Mavis, I must say the first two sets were tremendously exciting.
Your boy Nick, hugely entertaining.
But in the end, Thiem’s steely maturity, focus and skill won the day.
No surprises.
mundo @ #2768 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 11:58 am
…having said that I am of course ashamed of myself for spending so much time watching two multi millionaires bang a ball around.
Late Riser
Toomey has announced he will not be running for re-election in 2022.
Regardless of denials, I recall saying a few days ago that the positions of Crown directorsd might be actionable in terms of their fiduciary duty. And sure enough:
https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/about/media-centre/media-statements/2017/federal-court-class-action-filed-against-crown-resorts-ltd/
Former Crown directors and Chair Helen Coonan might soon be referring to themselves as “the defendants” 🙂
Late Riser says:
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:03 am
I’ll be surprised if much changes in the GOP. They threatened to get rid of the “RINO”s when the Tea Party came along. Nothing changed.
The Senate won’t get the 2/3 majority.
The caravan will move on.
MB wrote:
One wonders exactly when the Right will stop switching their attacks on Andrews from “Not enough” to “Too Much”, and back again.
If there is one thing we have learnt about this virus it’s that waiting to see if there will be a major breakout is usually waiting too long.
Victoria is not a laboratory. In a laboratory failed experiments get written up and then incinerated.
Victoria is, however, a society. Victorians are not lab rats. The consequences of failed experiments are real.
We think we know a lot more about the virus than we knew a year ago. That may even be true. But to fall into the trap of thinking that dealing with it is routine in every way, while a tempting thought, is dangerous.
Over-reaction – if that is what Andrews has done – remains the safest course.
Remember when she tried to use a tax dodge on her home at Palm Beach?
Pity the rest of the population don’t have your amazing retentive abilities!.
It would lead to a change of government!.
OMG! I’m on the same wavelength as Norman Swan?
I knew I hadn’t been myself lately…
mb
How will you feel when you are on the same wavelength as Dee Madigan?
N says:
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:13 am
I don’t recall any LNP politicians calling for the ABC to be shut down.
Make them comply with their Charter and better reflect Australian society rather than be social and climate activists – yes.
Privatise – yes.
But not close down.
meher baba
After the Swan ‘shock’ perhaps another one. Ardern is on a similar wavelength, a while back she said that because of NZ’s good position re covid they can afford to hang back a bit to get a better idea of each vaccine’s real world performance. Front line workers are asap but the general NZ population is slated for the second half of the year.
Democratic Senator Schumer is asking for a unanimous Senate vote to award Officer Gooodman the Congressional Gold Medal for bravery.
Apart from the wholesome sentiment, it’s a helluva gotcha against the Republicans who are forced into a rather tiny space if they refuse.
https://youtu.be/tzyAhSs5uVw
Mavis @ #2287 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 10:45 am
As a long term Richardian, if that so called historian relys on Moore, then the whole basis of what he is saying is rubbish. Moore’s story of the boys being murdered and buried under a stone staircase in one night without people noticing is farcical.
Moore got his information from one of Richard’s enemies – Bishop Morton of Ely, and Moore himself was only 5 years old when the events happened. He was writing in Tudor times as well.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Schmidt, now that he has joined the Democrats, goes to work for them.
zoomster:
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:34 am
[‘Not sure that ‘Thomas More might have known a bloke who was the son of one of the murderers…” is really conclusive…’]
No, it’s not but if you’re were putting together a circumstantial case for events that occurred 538 years ago – couched in secrecy and with the almost absolute power of a Lord Protector, as Richard then was – it shouldn’t be dismissed. The fact is that Richard III coveted the throne and with the two princes out of the way, he achieved his ends. This would constitute a pretty solid motive even in the present day.
United States COVID-19 data :
492,521 total deaths
Today – 100,288 new cases ………………….. 2,908 new deaths
ABC fact Check has begun 2021 with the Statements made by Craig Kelly in his corridor stoush with Tanya Plibersek:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-12/coronacheck-craig-kelly-tanya-plibersek-fight-parliament-covid/13144628
Nicholas is partly right because one of the problems of the last thirty years has been governments of both sides repeatedly using the market has an excuse to do nothing and that fed into the rise of Trump but the blame for the GFC rests with Greenspan.
Mavis
You assume he coveted the throne to start with.
It’s quite possible he did, but there’s very little evidence to suggest it from the time.
Thinking of the Melbourne comrades…
It’s corrupt practices in plain sight and the Liberals don’t even care:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-13/former-boss-office-national-intelligence-job-political-lobby/13148216
Mavis @ #2345 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 12:40 pm
I will only say that Richard was bequeathed on the early and unexpected death of his brother, an almost impossible situation. Kill or be killed pretty much. Each Lord protector in their recent history had met a sticky end. The older Prince was 12 and would have his majority within a few years. He had been raised by his mother’s family and had little contact with Richard. Richard had largely lived in the North after the death of the middle brother George of Clarence. Much speculation that George was aware of the issues with the King’s marriage.
His brother trusted Richard enough to add codicils to his will on his death bed, appointing Richard as Lord Protector.
I have little time for any historian that takes the More story as gospel truth and there are a number of real traditionalists out there. There is a growing body of evidence that does not need to rely on that story.
Dual citizenship is like having a Liberal Party member who is also a Labor Party member.
It is like have a Melbourne Football Club member who is also a Collingwood Football Club member.
Bernard Keane and Michael Pascoe are good journalists who do not bag Labor unnecessarily. This story suggests there are still some in Labor ranks who are far removed from fighting against crony-capitlism, never mind fighting for wage justice.
“Despite hearing testimony from experts, the Senate Economics Legislation Committee has given the green light to what is essentially a legacy media subsidy”.
https://twitter.com/MichaelPascoe01/status/1360196649142812675?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
Don’t spin it away. The deadwood responsible for this needs to be removed soon, so that Labor is electable later this year.
zoomster @ #2789 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 12:57 pm
Rubbish. It was all over twitter.
In response to Meher Baba at 11.00am
I think it is fair to say that NSW has more runs on the board than Victoria re covid19 at the moment, despite the Ruby Princess fiasco that was quickly swept under the carpet.
But if this new faster travelling strain of the virus which has caused Victoria’s current shutdown gets away in NSW at any time soon I think they could be in heaps of trouble. It will take much more than a very good tracking and tracing system (even a gold standard one) to stop it. They are not bullet proof, as many of them seem to believe they are and any complacency could easily end in a very tragic outcome.
boerwar @ #2793 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 1:07 pm
Kevin Sheedy claims to buy a Club Membership for all AFL Clubs every year.
laughtong
We will never know but i think Richard iii was responsible for the boys being killed because that was how leaders cemented their position and i think it happened after Richard moved against the Woodvilles only to discover Edward’s disapproval.
The murders were probably done by or under direction of Buckingham because not long after the boys disappeared the two men fell out so that tells me Buckingham wasn’t rewarded as he expected then there is the tale of Richard iii liking Elizabeth of York but where did that story come from. It sounds to me like Elizabeth lured Richard into thinking they could be in a relationship only for her to find out what happened to her bothers then she throw her lot in with Henry.
This is a really important observation made by the NYT fashion writer:
Can I just say that the number of times I have almost fallen over trying to get into a skirt or a pair of pants (and sitting down to put them on doesn’t work that well either because you have to stand up when they are half on and may fall over anyway), is becoming too many to count as my arthritis makes lifting my leg high enough more and more difficult. So if we are to have ads it would be good if AI could actually be, you know, intelligent.