Comings and goings

More internal party jockeying ahead of a federal election most expect to be held later this year.

Another week’s worth of federal preselection developments. For the latest on the Western Australian election campaign, see the post below.

• Richard Ferguson of The Australian reports there is “speculation” Senator Kristina Keneally might move to the House of Representatives amid a preselection battle with Right faction colleague Deborah O’Neill, in which the winner will get the factionally reserved top position on the ticket while the loser will be relegated to highly loseable third place.

• Nick Champion, who has held the seat of Spence (formerly Wakefield) for Labor since 2007, will move to state politics in the safe seat of Taylor at the next election in March 2022. Champion is aligned with the socially conservative Shop Distributive Allied and Employees Association sub-faction of the Right, and is a member of the pro-coal mining Otis Group. No apparent word on who might be in line to replace him in Spence, which is now a safe seat.

• The Brisbane Times reports the preselection of Graham Perrett, who has held the Brisbane seat of Moreton for Labor since 2007, faces a preselection challenge from state party secretary Julie-Ann Campbell, who among other things has affirmative action considerations in her favour.

• The South Australian Liberals have finalised their Senate ticket, with incumbents Simon Birmingham and Andrew McLachlan taking the top two positions and the third going to Kerrynne Liddle, a factional moderate of indigenous background who works as a staffer to Social Services Minister and SA Senator Anne Ruston. Tom Richardson of InDaily reports Liddle was chosen ahead of state party vice-president Rachel Swift by a margin of 130 to 78.

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.

1,276 comments on “Comings and goings”

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  3. billie says:
    Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 11:24 am

    …..

    Would be much better if La Tingle was the host

    Agree, Tingle doesn’t pretend she matters more than the person being interviewed and has a brain. Speers and Sales need to realize no-one really cares what their views are, and as for Sales not allowing the other party to get a word in, of what value is that?

  4. Socrates

    https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/02/14/britain-has-reduced-its-carbon-emissions-more-than-any-other-rich-country

    .

    OVER THE summer of 2020, as coronavirus cases fell and life in Britain felt briefly normal, something very abnormal was happening to the country’s electricity supply. No coal was burned to generate any portion of it for a period of more than two months, something that had not happened since 1882. Britain’s four remaining coal-burning power plants are zombies, all but dead. Within a couple of years they will be closed and Britain will probably never burn coal for electricity again.

  5. “ Maybe he could try and approach the issue as a human being.”

    Failing that, he could always approach the issue as the responsible CEO of the executive Government of Australia.

    Having his fixer and CoS ‘put the stick about’ carte blanche – without apparent oversight, and one of his ‘board members’ putting the heavies on her staff without his knowledge, if SfM’s claims of ignorance of what happened two years ago are to be believed (and I have a bridge to sell you if you do believe THAT, but of course in the absence of evidence one must give him the benefit of doubt) still make HIM – the CEO – responsible and accountable. This is but the latest example of a culture of corruption and cover up that surrounds the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government in a fashion that is unrivalled in Australian political history.

  6. Will Crown be allowed to run chook raffles in the meantime?

    Crown Resorts has officially been informed by the NSW gaming regulator it is no longer suitable to hold the licence for its new Sydney casino.

    In an ASX statement released this morning, Crown said it had been informed of the decision and that it had also been found to have breached a clause of the state’s gaming regulations.

    It said a consultation process with the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) had commenced.

    The company will be given the opportunity to address the breaches, in a bid to open the casino at Barangaroo in the future.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/ilga-tells-crown-resorts-it-is-unsuitable-to-open-sydney-casino/13158434

  7. Palmer Report offers news bites with lashings of partisan sauce, but on occasion also insight.

    Here’s a secret to winning election: the voters in the middle usually decide elections, and they don’t like losers. If all you do is complain about how the other side is “getting away with it all,” you’re painting your own side as losers – so you’re unwittingly telling people in the middle to vote for the other side. Be smarter than that.

    While highlighting how corrupt, dishonest, and extremist the other side is, be sure to point out the ways in which they’re also inept idiots. Voters in the middle like to believe that both sides are corrupt and dishonest to begin with; it helps comfort them with their decision to keep themselves parked in the middle. But they don’t like incompetence. In fact they see one side’s inept idiocy as a good tiebreaker, because it makes it easy for them to reject one side without having to care about policy issues.
    https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/be-smart-about-this/36651/

    Perhaps this is why so many of the questions being thrown at our State Premiers are about covid mis-steps.

    Voters in the middle like to believe that both sides are corrupt

    they see one side’s inept idiocy as a good tiebreaker

  8. How good is Australia KayJay – why we are still holding up our end at 150% when everybody else is falling. Recession? What recession! Thank god we keep re-electing ‘responsible economic managers’ to run the show.

  9. We received enough vaccine to immunise 70,000 people. It was reported that of the initial delivery 60,000 were retained for the second injection. So about 80,000 distributed. Which says to me that they only feel confident of receiving a measly 20,000 in the next couple of weeks so as to complete the immunisation.

  14. Andrews the Lifter versus Morrison the Leaner:

    We are actively pursuing and examining the construction of a purpose-built quarantine centre, a centre that would serve to replace in at least significant measure – maybe not entirely but in significant part – the work of inner city hotels.

    This will be based in large part on the Howard Springs model.

    People would be in the same location but not sharing the same spaces, so they’re not under the same roofline.

    It would be a cabin-style, village-style environment, where there would be fresh air, where there would be not zero risk but lower risk.

    That work is ongoing and a delegation of senior officials will to the Northern Territory as soon as is practicable to see firsthand how the Howard Springs facility is set up. In talk being some interstate colleagues overnight, I think there is a compelling argument for this, not just in Melbourne, not just in the Northern Territory.

    I know the Queensland government are working in partnership with the around a facility of similar structure.

    The two obvious candidates – Avalon airport, you’ve got space and you’ve got an international terminal and of course Melbourne airport as well.

    We will pursue both of those, do that work, it’s well and truly under way and we will report progress as that happened but I think we do have to have a proper conversation at a national cabinet level about what we can do, what further can we do to reduce the risk particularly in light of this UK strain and all that we know about that so when we have more to say about that work, then obviously, we’ll make announcements but that’s our intention.

    (Guardian updates at 11:34)

  16. Jaeger @ #971 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 10:20 am

    The Tamil family from Biloela have had another reprieve with the full bench of the federal court dismissing the Commonwealth’s appeal on an April 2020 judgment that Tharnicaa was not given procedural fairness when then-immigration minister David Coleman considered lifting a bar preventing her from applying for an Australian visa.

    The decision will not mean the family is released into community detention out of Christmas Island, but means they will not be removed from Australia while the legal process is still ongoing.

    I wonder if Jen will ask SfM to look at the innocent brown Australian children he has incarcerated on the island prison in the same way as their daughters …?

  18. Andrew_Earlwood @ #1009 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 11:45 am

    How good is Australia KayJay – why we are still holding up our end at 150% when everybody else is falling. Recession? What recession! Thank god we keep re-electing ‘responsible economic managers’ to run the show.

    Excellent reasoning. Praise the Lord ❗

    I received a blurb on my mini tablet concerning the US sixth generation (count em – 6) fighters. Our stopgap fallback position of using those proven war birds recommended by Ginger and Algy (the Sopwith Camel – of course) should see us right to defend the “Coal Loaders of Newcastle” (sounds like a song title).

    All together now children ===—===

    Anyone for tennis ❓

  23. 😯

    Benita Kolovos AAP
    @benitakolovos

    Premier Daniel Andrews says returned travellers at the Holiday Inn at Flinders Lane have chosen to wear garbage bags over their heads when being transferred to the Pullman Hotel to protect their privacy. “They’ve made that decision not us. And they’re entitled to,” he says.

  24. Benita Kolovos
    @benitakolovos
    ·
    45m
    Victoria’s COVID-19 Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar has an update on how many people are self-isolating:
    * 59 household and social contacts
    * 499 hotel quarantine guests and staff
    * 1189 people linked to exposure sites
    * 1191 people linked to Terminal 4 at Melbourne Airport

  25. OL

    My mother (96) just rang with an anecdote about Pancake Tuesday from her days in boarding school.
    She’ll probably whip up a batch later.

  26. Morrison destroying the Family Court for Pauline’s vote.

    Mark Dreyfus
    @markdreyfusQCMP
    ·
    3h
    URGENT: The fate of thousands of vulnerable children and families will be decided by the Senate today. The Morrison Government has just listed for debate its radical bill to effectively abolish the Family Court.

  27. Lidia Thorpe from the Greens just stood up in the Senate and called out the disgusting racist culture that exists in her workplace and slammed “what’s her name” (Pauline Hanson) for hurling abuse at her across the chamber.

    It’s wonderful to see these brave people standing up to their abusers and holding them accountable, however it’s a terrible indictment on our political system that racism and sexual abuse is still a common occurrence.

  32. Sally McManus
    @sallymcmanus
    The Government will try & pull the wool over the media & cross-bench Senator’s eyes by removing one small aspect of their IR Omnibus changes & spin it that they have “fixed” it. Removing the BOOT for two years is only one problem – there are PERMANENT changes that hurt workers

    1. Employers will no longer have to explain an agreement to employees
    2. Employers will not have to give employee a copy of the whole agreement
    3. Employers don’t have to tell workers they have started bargaining for a month
    4. The Fair Work Commission is stripped of powers to ensure workers are better off
    5. Unions will not be allowed to assist the Fair Work Commission in assessing non-union agreements
    6. The Fair Work Commission will be force to “tick and flick” with time limits and limitation

    Bargaining is how wages go up. All of these changes benefit employers, giving them more power to cut and keep wages low. They ALL need to be rejected.

  33. lizzie
    “Whenever I see Pauline Hanson I am reminded how well she fits the old description “fishwife”.”

    Someone once referred to her as ‘Eva Prawn’. I want to give credit where credit’s due, but I can’t recall who came up with it.

  34. We watched Morrison’s presser this am and my mind can’t get past his comment wtte that ‘at the end of the day Britney said what she has said and we have to deal with that”.
    Poor old Scotty. Spitting chips that it came out at all.
    And yes, I screamed at the telly when he, with such a sorrowful face, mentioned Jenny and the girls.
    Aaagh! I hope I live long enough to see him thrown out.

  35. Kakuru @ #1033 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 12:49 pm

    lizzie
    “Whenever I see Pauline Hanson I am reminded how well she fits the old description “fishwife”.”
    Someone once referred to her as ‘Eva Prawn’. I want to give credit where credit’s due, but I can’t recall who came up with it.

    I am jsut very pleased that Lidia is able to return Poorlene’s fire and stand up to her. Libs certainly won’t and ALP sometimes need her vote.

  36. BH

    It’s a small point, but all the comments have been about ‘Britney’ when her name is Brittany, even calling her Britney Speers (which MP was that?). Just more evidence that people aren’t listening.

  37. lizzie
    Thanks. How easy it is to do that. I was sure they were all saying Britney. Will check next time.

    One more thing. After having worked with sexual abuse victims for many years, I know how hard it is for them to come forward so Brittany has been very brave. Many powerful men in the area where I worked managed to keep identities quiet, hustled through back doors at Court, etc. It infuriated me.
    Now we have this brave girl’s name splashed everywhere but who is the perpetrator? Why can’t we know?

    We’re having a better day with OH’s COPD today so he’s just ready for a visit to the Library. I’m hoping to sign up for ebooks too. Be back later.

  38. I see that there is international blowback against the use of hostage ‘diplomacy’ by rogue states like China.

    It is not ‘diplomacy’.

    It is kidnapping as a form of international blackmail.

  39. my mind can’t get past his comment wtte that ‘at the end of the day [Brittany] said what she has said and we have to deal with that”

    Morrison’s is a very troubling point of view. Does he imply that Brittany lied? Is he annoyed at the inconvenience?

    The adjectives are crowding me again. But a couple of nouns might be “coward” and “ignorance”.

  41. lizzie: “It’s a small point, but all the comments have been about ‘Britney’ when her name is Brittany, even calling her Britney Speers (which MP was that?). Just more evidence that people aren’t listening.”

    An earlier poster referred to her as Brittany Murphy.

    Her name is Brittany Higgins.

    BTW, watching the Project last night and listening to Ms Higgins’s complain that the Parliament House administration seemed to be extremely tardy in releasing the CCTV footage to the AFP, I couldn’t help remembering this story from 5 years back in which CCTV footage was used to investigate a Parliament House employee who was alleged to be leaking sensitive material to John Faulkner, with the ultimate consequence that Carol Mills, the then head of the Department of Parliamentary Services, had her employment abruptly terminated.

    https://www.themandarin.com.au/33993-carol-mills-responds-went-wrong-dps/

    I wonder if that past incident involving video footage has any relevance to the current one?

  42. GOP senator rips North Carolina Republicans for censure: ‘It is truly a sad day’

    On Monday night, the North Carolina Republican party voted to censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial last week.

    Following the vote, Burr lashed out at his state’s party, saying, “My party’s leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of our great nation.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-censure-impeachment/

  44. Re Late Riser @1:15. Morrison’s is a very troubling point of view. Does he imply that Brittany lied? Is he annoyed at the inconvenience?

    It sounds like he just wishes the problem would go away but it won’t so he has to [be seen to] do something.

  45. phoenixRED @ #1043 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 12:26 pm

    On Monday night, the North Carolina Republican party voted to censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial last week. Following the vote, Burr lashed out at his state’s party, saying, “My party’s leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of our great nation.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-censure-impeachment/

    The Planet America guy has a decent analysis of the GOP’s actions.

    ‘You knew damn well I was a snake’

    Trump could still face criminal and civil action, and Congress still has the option of invoking the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump returning to office. Think of [the acquittal] as a good behaviour bond. The hope of McConnell and many other Republicans is that they can somehow keep Trump’s voters without having to keep Trump in 2024.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/why-does-trump-still-seem-to-hold-sway-republican-party-us/13155588

  46. Had it not had the potential to spoil my makeup I would have teared up upon hearing Morrison’s shtick re. Ms. Higgins – that he and Jen had a talk last night and she said
    what would you as a father do in the same circumstances? The questions remain when did this phony first learn of the alleged rape and did he use his influence to cover it up bearing in mind the election was due on May, 18?

  47. Christ. Anyone would think it is against the law for a journalist to ask Daniel Andrews a question.
    He is the highest paid Premier in the country with the worst health system in the country.
    The journalists are only doing thier job.

  48. TGA approves the AZ vaccine.

    In a statement the TGA said it had approved the vaccine for use in people aged over 18 years.

    It said while people over the age of 65 “demonstrated a strong immune response” to the vaccine, there were not enough people infected by COVID-19 in the clinical trials to determine the overall efficacy for that age group.

    “The decision to immunise an elderly patient should be decided on a case-by-case basis, with consideration of age, co-morbidities and their environment taking into account the benefits of vaccination and potential risks,” it said.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/coronavirus-astrazeneca-vaccine-approved-for-use-in-australia/13115784

  49. “Britney Spears. An anagram of Presbyterians. Just goes to show how religious her parents were…”

    Cute. While we’re at it, Roy Orbison is an anagram of “boor’s irony” (best I could come up with in a short period of time).

    Is there any evidence that Britney’s parents were aware of the anagram they had created?

  50. “The decision to immunise an elderly patient should be decided on a case-by-case basis, with consideration of age, co-morbidities and their environment taking into account the benefits of vaccination and potential risks,” it said.

    Hmm. That reads like boiler plate for all medical treatments and basically cover for, “It’s complicated. We can’t say.”

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