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.
“Christ. Anyone would think it is against the law for a journalist to ask Daniel Andrews a question.”
Have you tried that one on Scott Morrison? If not, good luck getting him to answer anything. Usually doesn’t accept the premise of the question. Or hasn’t been worded up by Jen and the girls.
I’m sure you’ve swallowed the line that his COS (Finkelstein) knew about an alleged rape in the office of a minister the day after it happened but didn’t think to tell Sorrowful Scott for nearly two full years. Thought so.
Apparently Smirko was ‘showing his human side’ when consulting with Jen.
Unleash the spin wizard!
Good to see that Labor and the Greens are opposed to the dismemberment of the Family Court.
phoenixRED @ #1042 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 12:56 pm
What is sad is that he hasnt quit the party and become an independent senator. I feel sorry for him but… come on… if your party censures you for doing something morally right then how do you stay?
Late Riser @ #1050 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 1:41 pm
I read it as not on ‘whether to vaccinate’ – which is how it appears in the words chosen – but on ‘which vaccine is preferred’. In other words, some arse covering on which vaccine is best for the over 65s, mindful that theirs (the AZ) is not looking the best option.
Andrew Bragg, (filthy Tory senator) just argued that quarantine was a state responsibility. The Teenage looking ABC host just accepted that statement without a murmur. It’s their ABC.
Mavis @ #1053 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 1:52 pm
You mean they’re opposed to Pauline Hanson. Who knew.
Taylormade @ #1047 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 1:05 pm
I assume this has to do with Sales?
Nobody has a problem with Andrews being asked questions. He answers a heck of a lot of questions. What people are taking issue with is the stunt pulled by Sales which had very little to do with journalism.
I don’t think it has anything to do with how a father would treat a daughter. In my view daughters should be able to come to a father and be able to talk, fears success and mistakes , get a sympathetic ear and sound advice.
It’s about how a person managing an apartment should treat a member of staff alleging rape on company property. It’s a pretty serious offense. As criminal activity is accused I would have though putting it in the hands of the police would have been the right path. Let them sort it out, there is a small chance they have the people trained to deal with it.
ItzaDream:
Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 1:55 pm
[‘You mean they’re opposed to Pauline Hanson. Who knew.’]
What sensible person isn’t…? It goes deeper than Hanson though. The Tories seem intent on wrecking one of Whitlam’s towering achievements. Indeed, if they had their way fault-based divorce would be reinstituted.
I wonder when someone is going to ask Sorrowful Scotty about the criminal act of interfering with a crime scene. Even if they didn’t know about the rape claims (unlikely) then what about the illegal entry to Parliament House?
ItzaDream @ #1055 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 12:54 pm
That too. You’re not going to say there’s still a bit of doubt and the experiments on the old folk haven’t finished.
Simon Katichsays: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 1:54 pm
phoenixRED @ #1042 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 12:56 pm
GOP senator rips North Carolina Republicans for censure: ‘It is truly a sad day’ – “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.”
What is sad is that he hasnt quit the party and become an independent senator. I feel sorry for him but… come on… if your party censures you for doing something morally right then how do you stay?
**************************************************
Its all about POWER …… that’s why we rate politicians as dishonest and untrustworthy….. they don’t care how they get to the top or who they stomp on getting there ……. the old saying, all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely … they will cling to Trump like shit to a blanket because if he folds so does the rest of the GOP Pack of Cards
…… and then they are out on their arse and and slumming it for the rest of their lives
…. sure Trump is a total asshole but he is THEIR asshole and a heartbeat/corruption away from keeping them going from a rooster to a feather duster ….
Surely there would have be CCTV in Reynold’s office?
Morrison quoting from a statement made by the woman at the centre of today’s news. (I’m somewhat awkwardly trying not to use her name to respect her request for privacy.)
In one breath Morrison invokes her privacy to cover himself. Coward.
EDIT: Coward.
clem attlee:
Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 2:18 pm
[‘Surely there would have be CCTV in Reynold’s office?’]
I’m sure there would be. I guess the question is whether it
was turned off during the alleged rape.
Taylormade, I agree that journalist are only doing their jobs when questioning Andrews. The point is, they never seem to do it with the Tories!
I wonder if Scrott is pulling a Howard with the word “aware”? Howard flat out lied about the Iraq Wheat Scandal (?) .Claiming hand on heart he had not been informed about the goings on. Turns out the fecker was told but a Minister being ‘informed’ was a formal public service procedure. So he could claim he did not lie to the inquiry .Does a Minister being ‘made aware’ have a specific technical meaning ?
Morrison is now in desperation of the media especially newsltd to get the focus off what happen in minister reynolds office .
Look at Daniel Andrews propaganda is failing once again , will the focus be aimed at Mark McGowan since the state election is coming up
Simon Katich @ #1058 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 2:04 pm
When questions are premised with mistruths and false statements, the journo’s deserve blowback.
They have the most fragile of glass jaws…
Thankyou Jacinda.
Morrison runs a dangerously radical outfit.
Clem
The left needs to harden up when it comes to the media because they are nowhere near as bad as some people make them out to be. Every week i read here how bias and terrible Insiders is yet when i watch it i am left wondering what are the complaints about.
Rex Douglas
The woman arrived here aged 6. So very much ‘Made in Australia’
RD
Just another attempted cover up job by the most corrupt govt in history.
Respecting the wishes of the victim of an (alleged) crime is a completely different matter to searching for the truth of what happened, what people were involved and what they did and knew.
“No comment” is the refuge of every corporate crook and of crooked corporation in the land. Morrison joins a bunch total shysters in trying to hush up what is a great embarrassment for himself and the party he leads.
Rex
If the statement is based on a mistruth then the politician should be able to handle it and who determines what is true because both sides call the other liars.
“Morrison:
Mr Speaker, as I said this morning, I became aware of the alleged sexual assault at about 8:30 yesterday morning. That is true. That is when I became aware of it, Mr Speaker”
Another obvious question to ask Morrison:
“Prime Minister, now that you are aware of the alleged rape in 2019, can you and Minister Reynolds assure the Australian people that the alleged attacker is no longer employed by the Liberal Party, and would never be pre-selected as a Liberal Party candidate in any future elections?”
Obviously, perpetrators of sexual crimes should not be seen to benefit from silence regarding their alleged offenses.
Scrott goes in for a bit of same same……….
.
.
Mr Speaker, this is a very difficult situation and it’s one that I’m sure the Leader of the Opposition would agree that, in terms of the safety of the people who work in this building, that no party has a mortgage on this type of behaviour
Mexicanbeemer @ #1073 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 2:40 pm
These days the Canberra Press Gallery (Insiders) are just a bunch of connected political operatives almost entirely devoted to their own job preservation.
The entire federal polity is corrupt.
After promising privacy he goes on to use her name again and again.
* Morrison used her first name.
And gets to the politics of the Liberal Party’s problem.
Ms Higgins also said that she was repeatedly denied access to CCTV from Parliament House from the night of the alleged assault, despite the fact another member of the staff had seen it.
“It went from the very front entrance of where the taxi would have stopped all the way through going through security all the way up to the suite,” she said.
“I knew that one of my other colleagues had seen it … so it was the strange thing where it felt like everyone had all this information on my own assault and I didn’t have any and I desperately wanted to see it.
“I asked at least half a dozen times to see that CCTV … it really hurt, it felt like a betrayal for them to withhold this one really small thing I needed just personally to process, to move on or just to understand what had happened to me.”
albanese must be feeling he is in charge to day, he is openly mocking Morrrision
Scott @ #1083 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 2:48 pm
Finally.
Love to here him ask Smirko if he needs to check with Jen first at some stage….
“Samantha Maiden
@samanthamaiden
·
34m
PM has just told the House of Representatives that his office didn’t know of the alleged sexual assault until Feb 12, when I contacted them. That’s interesting because the COS who dealt with incident works there.”
Rex
No doubt many of them see themselves as players and cheer for one side but we know who they are and the left should deal with it better instead of endless sulking.
PM has just told the House of Representatives that his office didn’t know of the alleged sexual assault until Feb 12, when I contacted them. That’s interesting because the COS who dealt with incident works there.”
Hes just a fucking liar from the shire.
Wouldn’t be the case normally a complainant would be given to access to CCTV.
Good thing Ms Higgins was not given the CCTV before the police and the making of any statement as well
I’d be astonished if there were CCTV inside the Ministerial office suite. Unless put there by ASIS (or some other agency under a warrant). In the hallways, yes. Inside the actual suite? No way.
Socrates @ #1085 Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 – 2:51 pm
Daniel Andrews sacked his CoS for withholding important information.
SfM should do the same or he’s a liar.
If Morrison has Maiden and PVO on his tail he is in trouble. If Sharri Markson joins in he is done.
Teflon Morrison will be protected again by the Murdoch scum in the end.
Further to Samantha Maiden’s tweet, I find it impossible to believe that the PM and the PMO were not aware of the alleged Higgins rape before 12 February. They must have known or found out after 4Corners ran the story on Porter and Tudge. As Maiden points out, the COS who handled the matter in Reynold’s office now works in PMO. Surely they would have checked on other risks like the Higgins story coming out when doing damage control on the Porter/Tudge story? Otherwise they weren’t doing their job.
Anyone believe an office full of media micro-managers left details like that unknown?
If he did know, he now owes some serious favours.
Socrates
Its impossible to believe no one in the PMO knew about it because the MO community is small clinky and interconnected so it would have been talked about at some stage.
Their options are liar or fool.
New radio and video footage from Capitol riot shows a coordinated attack and officers’ restraint
New police radio dispatches and security footage from the January 6 US Capitol riot paint an even sharper picture of how the insurrectionists at times showed little fear of the police as they launched a large and coordinated attack.
Radio dispatches broadcast officers’ distress as rioters broke through barriers and eventually lines of police. As rioters began to overrun the officers, creating an untenable situation, radio waves filled with desperate shouts and requests for back up.
“You’re going to need to get more help up here. We don’t have enough people to hold the line,” one officer said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/15/politics/video-dispatches-capitol-riots/index.html
Leadership.
Would you expect anything else from marketing.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/new-zealand-says-australia-abdicated-responsibilities-over-dual-citizen-arrested-in-turkey-20210216-p572xx.html