Before proceeding with the latest preselection news, I have a still-active post with daily updates on the progress of Tasmanian state election count; a live results feature that I can’t promote often enough, since it remains by some distance the most detailed source of results data available; and a lengthy plea for cash from Friday from which I’m still vaguely hopeful of squeezing another donation or two.
On with the show:
• The long-awaited Liberal National Party Senate preselection has allocated top position on the Queensland ticket to James McGrath while relegating Amanda Stoker to third, maintaining an impressive bipartisan run of preselectors never getting anything right. Michael McKenna of The Australian relates that McGrath secured a sweeping 212-101 win from the “biggest ever turnout for a State Council Senate vote”. The second position is designated to the Nationals, and is duly a lock for Matt Canavan.
• Paul Starick of The Advertiser reports that Leah Blyth, who has the backing of the South Australian Liberal Party’s conservative faction to replace the retiring Nicolle Flint in the Adelaide seat of Boothby, may be poleaxed by the Section 44 of the Constitution. Blyth’s efforts to renounce a dual British citizenship even this far out from the election could fall foul of extended processing times arising from COVID-19, although others quoted in the report express doubt that it will really be a problem. Rival contenders include Rachel Swift, moderate-aligned proprietor of a health consultancy firm, and Shaun Osborn, a police officer who ran in the seat of Adelaide in 2019. However, Osborn is hampered by the optics of putting a man forward to replace Flint, whose experiences have been a key element in Liberal efforts to parry suggestions that disrespect for women is particularly a problem on their own side of politics.
• John Ferguson of The Australian reports dissension within Victorian Labor over the likelihood that former state secretary Sam Rae will secure preselection for the new seat of Hawke on Melbourne’s north-western fringe. The report says a draft preselection agreement reserves the seat for the Right faction Transport Workers Union, which remains associated with party powerbroker and former Senator Stephen Conroy. While Conroy evidently backs Rae, “other parts” of the Right are said to favour the position going to a woman, specifically Natalie Hutchins, the Andrews government Corrections Minister and member for the seat of Sydenham.
• Matthew Denholm of The Australian reported last week that “wholesale ALP federal intervention” loomed for the party’s Tasmanian branch, “barring a shock win for the party” at Saturday’s state election – which, for those of you who have just joined us, didn’t happen. The concern is that Left unions use their excessive weight within the branch’s affairs to do foolish things like deny preselection to Dean Winter, who was able to achieve his thumping win in Franklin on Saturday only because the national executive intervened to give him a place on the ticket. This would appear to be relevant to Labor’s preselections for the federal seat of Bass and Braddon, which it lost at the 2019 election, and also to the fate of twice-defeated state leader Rebecca White. The aforesaid Left unions are apparently keen on replacing her with David O’Byrne, who was outpolled in Franklin on Saturday by the aforesaid Dean Winter.
• The Liberal Party has done tellingly extensive research for its submission opposing the registration of a party under the name New Liberals, which included CT Group polling indicating that 69% of respondents believed a party thus named sounded like it had a connection with the other Liberal Party.
This is a perceptive observation about Populist Authoritarian national leaders, which I am looking at through the lens of our own national leader’s approach to his citizens in India:
I’m just thankful that Australia’s justice system is robust. It’s our bulwark.
C@tmomma @ #1246 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 – 8:33 am
+1
Thans BK for the Dawn Patrol.
US declares support for patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/us-declares-support-for-patent-waiver-on-covid-19-vaccines
G-7 Lists the Many Ways That It’s Deeply Unhappy With China
Top diplomats from the Group of Seven nations singled out China in a number of ways that will irritate the government in Beijing, from alleged human-rights abuses to its actions on Taiwan and incursions in cyber space.
In a final statement first obtained by Bloomberg, the language used to reproach the Asian nation echoed past communiques but it was the laundry list of concerns that will get under China’s skin, along with the chiding.
“We encourage China, as a major power and economy with advanced technological capability, to participate constructively in the rules-based international system,” the statement said as it singled out in detail the treatment of Uyghur Muslims and pointedly supported Taiwan’s “meaningful participation in World Health Organisation forums.”
“We continue to be deeply concerned about human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang and in Tibet, especially the targeting of Uyghurs, members of other ethnic and religious minority groups, and the existence of a large-scale network of “political re-education” camps, and reports of forced labour systems and forced sterilisation,” the ministers said following two days of talks in London.
The document also took aim at Russia’s actions of “undermining other countries’ democratic systems, its malicious cyber activity, and use of disinformation.” The G-7 renewed calls on Russia to investigate its alleged use of chemical weapons in the poisoning of Alexey Navalny.
The tone sets the stage for when leaders meet next month in Cornwall along the English coast. U.S. President Joe Biden will make his G-7 debut and try to corral allies into taking a firmer stance against a rival superpower in the shape of China and a historic foe in the form of Russia.
It will take some convincing given China’s economic clout and how countries need such a key player on board for multilateral issues like climate change.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken essentially began to lay the groundwork with an informal proposal to counter what the U.S. sees as China’s economic coercion. Germany, France and Italy — the three European Union countries that participate in the G-7 — are beginning to move into closer alignment with the Biden administration but are not there yet.
Officials meeting on Tuesday spent some 90 minutes discussing ways in which China tries to exert leverage over governments and individuals through the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative or by leveling economic threats, according to a senior State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-05/g-7-deeply-concerned-about-china-s-human-rights-abuses-draft?srnd=premium-asia
Quoting myself from last night, re: Kevin Bonham’s take down of West Media’s polling ‘expose’ video:
“Almost Everything In West Media’s Polling Video Is Wrong”
I just copied a link to this blog piece into the comments section of West’s U-tube video with a “Oops. Do better” comment.”
_____
Try is morning my comment and the hyperlink had been scrubbed from the comments. Hmmm. ‘Independent media’ … maybe as integrity challenged as old media. I suppose as an old Fairfax hack, old habits die hard …
https://chaser.com.au/national/local-man-pretty-sure-he-knows-more-about-climate-than-nasa-david-attenborough-the-un-csiro-the-bureau-of-meteorology-the-ipcc-and-97-percent-of-people-who-study-this-for-a-living/
… 🙂
It’s difficult to argue with this statement …
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/death-of-the-river-system-nationals-make-it-legal-to-illegally-take-water-from-upper-darling/
Re Dave @9:12
”G-7 Lists the Many Ways That It’s Deeply Unhappy With China”
That’s how we should be making our concerns known to China, in concert with partners, firmly without running around yapping at China like an annoying poodle.
Listening to the Minister for Immigration (is it Alex Hawke?) on RN this morning.
Apparently it’s only a crime to come back from India if you then spread COVID into the community.
Not something I’d heard before….
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2029137
You must know that currently there is an audit of Arizona 2020 election ballots to find fraud. Arizona ‘election auditor’ is checking ballots for bamboo, because they obviously came from China. There is an allegation that 40000 ballots came from China. So they are checking for Bamboo. 🙂
https://www.pollbludger.net/2021/05/03/affirmative-inaction/comment-page-25/#comment-3601891
Hmmm, Kangaroo Courts (why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge), privileges over common law, shyster lawyers, urban assault force …, though I guess some, ethics, justice, morals is better than none …
Centrist New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman’s assessment of the domestic political environment will always be subject to a certain skepticism. After all, this is the man who famously insisted that the United States was always on the cusp of “turning the corner” in its war on Iraq (so much that his predictions spawned the derisive term “Friedman unit”).
Friedman writes:
We are not OK. America’s democracy is still in real danger. In fact, we are closer to a political civil war — more than at any other time in our modern history. Today’s seeming political calm is actually resting on a false bottom that we’re at risk of crashing through at any moment.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2029002
Ven
I am quietly confident that under the current DOJ, Trump and his cronies are going to be totally exposed.
Democracy will win òut
https://theunaustralian.net/2021/05/06/slats-to-replace-albo-as-opposition-leader-so-albo-can-focus-on-his-djing/
zoomster
He was saying that those big penalties were very unlikely to be applied .However if someone snuck back in and spread some disease that killed heaps people here then people would expect them to be whacked.
Victoria @ #1263 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 – 7:51 am
Eventually. It’ll be long, hard, bumpy road to get there though.
poroti @ #1257 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 – 9:55 am
Is it “sneaking back in” if you arrive on a jet that everyone knows came from India, pass through customs where the ABF official can see you’ve just come from India, and then follow whatever testing and quarantine advice they give you?
Can’t whack someone if they do those things, imo, public expectations be damned.
“Victoriasays:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:51 am
Ven
I am quietly confident that under the current DOJ, Trump and his cronies are going to be totally exposed.
Democracy will win òut”
Victoria
Did you have a chance to read the whole article? It is moderately long article.
Proof of the pudding is that Bieden is is spending trillions of dollars on people in the hope of turning the tide.
But William Bowe pointed he has second lowest approval rating for a new President after Trump after 100 days
No sense of history…
Paris: Britain has dispatched two navy patrol boats to the British Channel Island of Jersey after France threatened to cut power supplies to the island did not grant full access to French fishermen under post-Brexit agreements.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged his “unwavering support” for the island after he spoke with Jersey officials about the prospect of a blockade by French fishermen, some of whom have vowed to bring the island “to its knees”.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/british-navy-dispatched-as-france-threatens-retaliation-over-fishing-rights-20210506-p57pbn.html
a r
If you return at the moment without spending 2 weeks in a 3rd country then you are ‘sneaking’ back in. The ‘excitement’ starts next week when the ‘pause’ is supposed to end and we see what extra security has been added.
dave says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:12 am
G7 , Five Eyes whatever is never happy!
Zerlo says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:19 am
dave says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:12 am
G7 , Five Eyes whatever is never happy!
Perhaps if Chine stopped threatening other countries things would go a bit better.
frednk says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:22 am
G7, Five eyes not threatening other countries (TPP?).
IRAQ? Syria, etc ?
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/05/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is extraordinarily effective at protecting against severe disease caused by two dangerous variants, according to two studies published Wednesday.
The studies, which are based on the real-world use of the vaccine in Qatar and Israel, suggest that the vaccine can prevent the worst outcomes — including severe pneumonia and death — caused by B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in the U.K., and B.1.351, the variant first identified in South Africa.
“This is really good news,” said Dr. Annelies Wilder-Smith, an infectious disease researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “At this point in time, we can confidently say that we can use this vaccine, even in the presence of circulating variants of concern.”
1. Lack of Leadership to get people vaccinated.
2. Lack of Leadership to get people to do basic Hygiene, PPE, Social Distancing.
You can add:
3. Lack of Leadership in securing timely and confirmed orders
4. Lack of Leadership in putting 95% of the vaccine eggs in the one basket. Unfortunately, that 95% is the one not scaleable to be used on variants.
Our western LNP spokesman is no doubt champing at the bit to tell us how it doesn’t really matter that the AZ vaccine is basically useless against the SA and Brazil variants. God knows what will happen with the Indian variant when it – and it will – arrives. We also hear regularly that 7% of the Australian population with one jab after two and a half months while a negligible number is fully vaccinated is “all part of the plan”. God’s plan, no doubt, given our leadership. It can sit there with a straight face while the rest of the western world is sitting between 20% and 70% and making plans to open up. We will be told because we are relatively virus free that it doesn’t matter yet Saint Gladys is running around today in an absolute frenzy chasing a case(s) of which she has absolutely no idea of it’s origin. Maybe the Ruby Princess is back in town. Who knows? As long as we have the state completely open and 93% unvaccinated, all is Jake in Gladys world.
And I can’t wait for the justification in getting the cricketers home while the rest of the Australian passport holders – 100% of whom were permitted by this government to travel – are left to take their chances in a hellhole.
You’ve been warned. Don’t engage.
SM: If I said a couple of months ago that I could put in place a quarantine system that was 99.99% efficient you would think I was joking. But that’s what I have dun.(wtte)
No follow up questions from the press about the states or his constant pressure to adopt do nothing and let the aged die.
Stupidity Example #982745: Jarryd Hayne attempts to cover his face when entering court for sentencing. Why hide when there is approximately 500 hours of footage of you playing sport?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/world/americas/colombia-covid-protests-duque.html
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A teenager shot to death after kicking a police officer. A young man bleeding out on the street as protesters shout for help. Police firing on unarmed demonstrators. Helicopters swarming overhead, tanks rolling through neighborhoods, explosions echoing in the streets. A mother crying for her son.
“We are destroyed,” said Milena Meneses, 39, whose only son Santiago, 19, was killed in a protest over the weekend.
Colombians demonstrating over the past week against the poverty and inequality that have worsened the lives of millions since the Covid-19 pandemic began have been met with a powerful crackdown by their government, which has responded to the protests with the same militarized police force it often uses against rebel fighters and organized crime.
This explosion of frustration in Colombia, experts say, could presage unrest across Latin America, where several countries face the same combustible mix of an unrelenting pandemic, growing hardship and plummeting government revenue.
Confessions says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7:54 am
“How often does the saying ‘do as I say not as I do’ apply to the OTT religious types who are quick to cloak themselves in their religion while behaving contrary to the judgement they cast upon others.”
Just like all the CO2 Preachers flying around the world, living in magnificent homes and hotels and telling us all not to.
I’ll believe there’s a crisis when those telling us there’s a crisis start acting like there’s a crisis.
poroti @ #1262 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 – 10:11 am
Ah, so it’s been defined legislatively. Do not like.
Just like all the CO2 Preachers flying around the world, living in magnificent homes and hotels and telling us all not to.
Give us some names or at least a count of them, Buce, or I’ll have to accuse you of making shit up again.
Bucephalus @ #1277 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 – 8:41 am
One group has science supporting them,
the other has myths that are more than 2,000 years old.
Australians hoping international travel will return to normal next year have been dealt a blow, as the Federal Government warns borders are unlikely to reopen until the end of 2022 at least.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said despite the rollout of the vaccine, global outbreaks and new mutant strains, such as those in India, left the world facing as much uncertainty as ever.
He said this meant Australia’s international borders – which have largely locked Australians in since March 2020 – would likely remain shut well into next year.
He is not going away
Turnbull rejects Coalition’s byelection candidate
Holdenhillbilly says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:57 am
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said despite the rollout of the vaccine, global outbreaks and new mutant strains, such as those in India, left the world facing as much uncertainty as ever.
———————
Birmingham is not a medical expert or in his portfolio to give medical advice
If at first you don’t succeed …
Starship 15 successfully returned and landed right way up (without exploding) on its fifth attempt.
Skip along if interested
Lift off 6:30
Apogee around 10:00
Descent around 11:00
*Completely unreal landing 12:00*
https://youtu.be/z9eoubnO-pE
Holdenhillbilly at 10:57 am
Birmo lets slip the actual expected date for completing the vaccine roll out ?
Zerlo says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:28 am
frednk says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:22 am
G7, Five eyes not threatening other countries (TPP?).
IRAQ? Syria, etc ?
Others do it, is not an excuse. China has chosen their path and can not complain if there are consequences. As their success depends on integration into the international order they will be serious. It is just the way it is.
poroti says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 11:01 am
Holdenhillbilly at 10:57 am
, as the Federal Government warns borders are unlikely to reopen until the end of 2022 at least.
Birmo lets slip the actual expected date for completing the vaccine roll out ?
———————-
Bit of luck Birmingham and others in the lib/nats will be on the opposition bench by then
The whole highly selective bits of this book bits of that book religious clap trap being pedalled by Morrison and his ilk is merely conscience salving auto suggestive verging on hypnotic feel good self serving bull shit. In my not too humble opinion. I personally find them some of the most unholy people ever too grace our public space.
End of rant. Off to practice the piano. Being lashed with rain.
Constitutional law expert, Professor Helen Irving, explains why the Australian government cannot treat its own citizens as pariahs. She says the India travel ban is clearly unconstitutional and a breach of our rights
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/india-travel-ban-is-unconstitutional-20210505-p57p73.html
………………………………………………………………………….
The above article by Prof Irving is a very useful summary of the legal issues to be raised in the challenge to the Biosecurity Act ban on citizens returning to Australia from India.
As Irving states the power to ban citizens from returning to Australia must come from a constitutional source. If there is no source for the exercise of such a power then it is unconstitutional and therefore invalid and ineffective.
Irving identifies 3 possible sources of the power to ban returning citizens:
a) the quarantine power under s.51;
b) as an incidental power to the quarantine power (i.e. the power to jail returning citizens is incidental to the quarantine power by ensuring enforcement of the ban).
c) an implied nationhood power (that is a power necessarily to be implied into the Constitution to allow responsible government to function as the Constitution must have intended);
Irving notes that none of the sources of power she identified are absolute and certainly application of any incidental power to Q or implied nationhood power must be proportionate to the purpose said to enliven the power.
Irving concludes that the power to ban Australians from coming home and criminalising their return to stop the spread of Covid 19 “are clearly excessive and not incidental to quarantine.”
I disagree. Citizens have been subjected to all sorts of restrictions of fundamental rights in support of measures to contain the spread of the virus. The State Government power to impose lockdowns in Melbourne, with curfews etc have been validated in the courts as have the bans on travel to and from States.
There is nothing arbitrary about the ban on citizens wishing to return from India- it is clearly specific to a threat arising from India. That bans may have been imposed at other times on citizens returning from other places is utterly beside the point. The question must be: Is this ban an exercise of Q power?
Irving says as an ipse dixit that the ban is not incidental to quarantine. Her unexpressed argument might be that use of the verb “to ban” makes plain that no quarantine action is occurring, because quarantine involves a process by which, in this case a citizen, may after a period of mandated isolation reintegrate into mainstream Australian society. Citizens who are banned ipso facto face no period of isolation.
My ipse dixit response is: If the ban is not incidental to quarantine what is it? It must be the case that periods of isolation in quarantine will be referenced to the time that the isolated medically is required to be isolated. In some situations it must be the case that facilities for quarantine are not adequate to isolate for the medically mandated period. It would be an utter abnegation of the power to Q for the Cwth Government to say “Oh, since we do not have the facilities to Q for the recommended period we just have to let whoever or whatever the risk is to enter.
When Irving describes the ban and criminalising provisions as excessive IMO she misses the point. It is NOT the role of the courts to determine policy. The ban (which is only temporary, at least for now) has been put in place to prevent the overwhelming of our Q facilities. Criminalising breaches has been thought necessary to ensure people do not ignore the ban and thereby overwhelm the Q facilities.
The proper institution to test whether those steps are excessive is executive government – answerable to the people at the ballot box – not the Courts.
There is no doubt the Cwth government has been asleep at the wheel in respect of quarantine issues since the pandemic began last year. There has been an abject failure by it to ensure a fit-for-purpose quarantine system be established.
Fair enough in emergency of the early days (March 2020) for the Cwth to allow quarantine to be run by the States from inadequate hotels and with makeshift protocols. But HQ should only have EVER been a temporary measure, to give the CWth time to establish properly run Q systems from places removed from our major populations. Compulsory land acquisition for Q purposes would have over-ridden any State or private citizen quibble.
But no, despite HQ systems in every State time and again “failing” (i.e. performing exactly as you would expect a not-fit-for-purpose system to operate), beyond the Cwth blaming individual States for their failures, it has done nothing to develop a national fit-for-purpose Q system in fulfillment of its Constitutional responsibility. It is still intended, apparently, to continue to run the HQ system in our major population centres with all the risks and faults that we already know exist.
The Cwth has even largely ignored the recommendations of the Halton report in December.
But IMO, the ban and criminalising of citizens, however unpalatable, will be found to be a constitutionally valid exercise of the legislative power.
Whether the ban is legally valid will therefore depend on whether the exercise of the power was in conformity with all requirements of the Biosecurity Act, also to be tested in the forthcoming case. About this I do not know the specifics of any complaints or the response and do not comment.
Finally, the question posed by Irving at the end of her article is poorly framed.
She asks “Those who believe that the constitution permits Australians to be imprisoned for 5 years simply because they have come home must ask themselves what an unconstitutional law might actually look like.”
Would that the question was so “simple”. It is not. Imprisoning citizens for 5 years who return home in knowing breach of the law and who imperil the health of the whole Australian community is an utterly unexceptional legislative action. Suppose Mr Cricket took a yacht to Broome and sent his Covid-19 infection throughout the Kimberleys killing many. Would 5 years be sufficient?
Interesting that the case in NSW is a close contact of a top Liberal in the state. A bit of Ruby Princess going on here?
U.S. COVID update:
– New cases: 46,085 ……………………… – New deaths: 793
– In hospital: 37,223 (-417)
– In ICU: 9,842 (+15)
593,140 total deaths now
NEW: 70% of all seniors in the U.S. are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, CDC says
( India reports 412,373 new coronavirus cases, by far the biggest one-day increase so far, and a record 3,979 new deaths )
The greatest barrier to Australians returning to Australia is the limited number of seats available each week.
To the average person, i.e. one that can’t afford a business or first class ticket, this is a much greater restriction than that being imposed on Australians wishing to return from India.
Frednk says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 11:02 am
“look over there” excuse.
The west should look at supporting recovery of economies and poverty in their own countries.
China has dealt with racism, xenophobic, bigotry for the past two years due to blame game over covid.
Dandy Murray says:
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 10:49 am
Everyone who flys to a COP conference.
Kerry
Thunberg
Sohar @ 11.18:
Don’t think the suggestion has yet been made that Perrotet is directly connected with the original person, just that both were in a particular brasserie within the same time frame.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/hunter-coal-miners-don-t-have-enough-funds-for-land-rehabilitation-20210505-p57p4b.html?btis