Month of May miscellany

A number of Queensland preselections fall into place as both parties jack up preparations for a federal election that may be held as soon as October.

In addition to Saturday’s Upper Hunter by-election in New South Wales, the results and aftermath of which you can discuss here, I have the following electoral news to relate, much of it involving federal preselections in Queensland:

James Massola of the Age/Herald reports that “Liberal MPs believe an early election is increasingly likely after Josh Frydenberg’s well-received third federal budget”, although “much will depend on Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout”. An early election may still mean next year rather than this: according to an unnamed Liberal MP quoted in the report, “the thinking was it would be May 2022, now it’s February-March or maybe even October-November”.

• The Liberal National Party’s candidate for the Brisbane seat of Lilley is Ryan Shaw, an army veteran who served in East Timor and Afghanistan, and the unsuccessful LNP candidate for the corresponding seat of Nudgee at last year’s state election. The Prime Minister visited the seat with Shaw in two last week to promote the government’s HomeBuilder program. Phillip Coorey of the Financial Review reported the seat was one of two in Queensland that the LNP was “making a play for” – notwithstanding that “the Coalition is acutely aware that the huge swing towards it in Queensland at the last election could easily go the other way next time … without the red hot issue of the Adani coal mine, the Bob Brown convoy and an unpopular leader in Bill Shorten”.

• The second of the two Queensland seats the Coalition hopes to add to its pile is Blair, which Shayne Neumann has held for Labor since 2007. This is one of two seats which have been the subject of speculation surrounding former state Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, whose state seat of Nanango largely corresponds with it. The other is the rather more attractive prospect of Flynn, which will be vacated with the retirement of LNP incumbent Ken O’Dowd. Michael McKenna of The Australian reports Frecklington has “denied she had considered running for Flynn, but has not responded to questions about a possible preselection bid in Blair”. Another nominee for the LNP’s Flynn preselection is Colin Boyce, who has held the state seat of Callide since 2017. Labor announced last week that its candidate for the seat would be Gladstone mayor Matt Burnett.

• In Capricornia, another theoretically winnable seat for Labor in regional Queensland that inflicted a blowout swing on the party in 2019, Labor has endorsed Russell Robertson, who works at the Goonyella coal mine.

• Labor in Tasmania will conduct a ballot of party members as part of its process to choose a successor to Rebecca White, who resigned as leader after last month’s election defeat. The contestants for the position are David O’Byrne, a figure of considerable influence in the Left faction, and Shane Broad, whose profile is rather a bit lower. The membership vote will constitute 50% of the total, with the other half consisting of a ballot of the party’s state conference. I believe this will be the third such party membership vote for a parliamentary leader in Australia, after the contest between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese after the 2013 federal election, and that between Jodi McKay and Chris Minns after the 2019 state election in New South Wales (readers may correct me in comments if I’ve missed something).

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.

1,206 comments on “Month of May miscellany”

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  1. Doyley,

    Agree. Popularity as a measure of electability is a very unreliable indicator because it can alter like a wind change.

    Looks like Jodi is sniffing a wind change.

  2. The incident tripped generators at other power stations

    In a statement Stanwell Power Station said said three of its generators at Stanwell had tripped as a result of an event in the grid.

    Their capacity was reduced from 365MW to 16MW.

    “Stanwell Power Station operates four generation units, but one was already offline for planned maintenance,” the statement said.

    “Stanwell is working with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and Powerlink to gradually ramp the units back up to required capacity as demand returns to the grid.”

    Stanwell’s Tarong power station in the South Burnett region is operating as per usual.

  3. Catherine King MP
    @CatherineKingMP
    ·
    46m
    It’s 3 months since Brittany Higgins alleged that the PM’s staff were briefing against her loved ones.

    The only thing the PM has done is commission a whitewash report that repeats the malicious gossip that he then tabled without Ms Higgins’ permission.

    How is that respectful?

    It’s not respectful at all.

    Now all we need is to hear is the AFP brief to the DPP has been bodgied up to clear the alleged offender…

  4. P1

    Getting pensioners off the booze and stopping them wasting taxpayer’s money on gambling has surely got to be a good thing?

    I trust this was said in an attempt at humour.

  5. lizzie @ #957 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 4:45 pm

    P1

    Getting pensioners off the booze and stopping them wasting taxpayer’s money on gambling has surely got to be a good thing?

    I trust this was said in an attempt at humour.

    Don’t stand outside your local RSL at the end of “happy hour”. You’ll be mown down by hoodlum pensioners doing donuts in their in zimmer frames 🙂

  6. Player one,

    Confusing comment by you I am afraid to say.

    What has 2PP in 2019 got to do with a response to a question in a poll released two years later ?

    Anyway just to play along perhaps 10% of the 12% of those who based their vote on the party leader love Albanese and will vote labor because of him ?

    A long bow to draw I know and I have no evidence to back it up but no more ludicrous a statement than your last post.

    Try harder.

    Any old record shops near you ? Perhaps time to look around and stock up on some new vinyl!

    The one record you continue to play atm is getting old and scratchy.

  7. Given the conventional wisdom is that senior Australians are a key constituency for the coalition, extending the welfare card to age pensioners would seem an odd idea for them to pursue.

    Of course Morrison could always market it as the best way to stop Labor from stealing the pension altogether.

    Nothing like a good scare campaign.

  8. P1

    I regard that comment as both patronising and ageist.
    Old age is really amusing until you have to suffer it.
    I think I’ll reserve my right to be offended.

    (Referred to 4.47 pm.)

  9. AEMO has issued an actual Lack of Reserve 2 (LOR2) market notice from 4:40pm until 9:30pm in Queensland. An actual LOR2 means that electricity reserve levels are less than the largest supply resource in the state.— AEMO (@AEMO_Media) May 25, 2021

  10. P1,

    Is just doing her It’s cool to be offensive” gi to keep her warm at night.

    She’s suffering relevance deprivation anxiety.

    All she’s got left is to abuse pensioners.

    Pathetic is her!

  11. To P1 and various other green bots attacking the PPM metric regarding Labor, can you please answer this, where are the greens sitting on that metric? They’re always saying they will make or break a government (as long as it’s a Labor government)so what have they actually done other than SFA?

  12. Our Glorious Media attacks China again:
    https://www.afr.com/world/asia/chinese-dissidents-fear-belarus-hijacking-precedent-20210525-p57v1b

    The incident has raised fears among the Australian Chinese dissident community on that catching an international flight anywhere might be dangerous in the future.

    “There is a direct connection with the situation in Belarus and people like me who criticise an authoritarian regime from outside Chinese soil,” the Chinese-Australian political cartoonist who goes by the name of Badiucao told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.

    “Stopping a plane – almost hijacking it -for political reasons is very scary.

    ———————————————————-

    The real enemy is the media – once again – At this point in time, Badiucao hasn’t linked the AFR article on his social media accounts.

  13. GG

    You are the one using LNP rhetoric about unemployed people. So as a professed Labor supporter tell yourself to fuck off.

  14. So, we’ve got the ever pissed off bagging pensioners for having a good time on their terms.

    Another reason to never take Rexxy and P1 as serious posters.

    Both are a total waste of space.

  15. Polly Wilson
    @PollyWi92611992
    ·
    2h
    First thing #Morrison did after last election was to give all parliamentary staff approx $27,000 salary increase & that’s all it took to buy their silence on rorts, corruption, protecting rapists, sexual harassers & abusers. No amount of money would buy my silence!

  16. @BernardKeane tweets
    Let me guess — “now is not the time” to discuss how unreliable coal-fired power plants actually are?

  17. GG

    Tell that to yourself.
    As I said to BB. Use block or don’t come to the site.

    You will not bully me into silence.

  18. Bert @ #971 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:03 pm

    To P1 and various other green bots attacking the PPM metric regarding Labor, can you please answer this, where are the greens sitting on that metric? They’re always saying they will make or break a government (as long as it’s a Labor government)so what have they actually done other than SFA?

    Gosh – just one paragraph, but containing so many incorrect assumptions!

  19. @tanya_plibersek tweets

    NSW will now be adopting an affirmative consent model in its legal system. Because silence isn’t consent. Freezing because you are terrified isn’t consent. It’s not consent if someone promises to wear a condom and then slips it off during sex. Consent is an ongoing conversation.

  20. Rex,

    And as a response, RERT negotiations have begun for the next week or so. Fire up your old diesel gensets!

    Go here and look at the predispatch price forecasts for the next 24 hours, esp for Qld. https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem

    Hello market cap!

    A quick calculation using the forward curves, if Qld retailers have to buy all their energy from the spot market tonight they would pay an extra $700 million for the power… tonight alone.

  21. Player One @ #982 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:11 pm

    Bert @ #971 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:03 pm

    To P1 and various other green bots attacking the PPM metric regarding Labor, can you please answer this, where are the greens sitting on that metric? They’re always saying they will make or break a government (as long as it’s a Labor government)so what have they actually done other than SFA?

    Gosh – just one paragraph, but containing so many incorrect assumptions!

    Well correct me where I’m wrong.

  22. guytaur,

    Oh, how Donald Trump of you. i bet bet you put on the orange hair wig before you post just to keep yourself focussed.

    I don’t care. You are a waste of space.

    You are totally irrelevant, can’t hold a sensible discussion and as far as I am concerned are an abusive piece of crap.

    Now stop being an arsehole before I get angry.

  23. Dandy Murray @ #984 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:13 pm

    A quick calculation using the forward curves, if Qld retailers have to buy all their energy from the spot market tonight they would pay an extra $700 million for the power… tonight alone.

    As I have said many times, our electricity regulatory regime is “broken” 🙁

  24. Bert @ #985 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:14 pm

    Player One @ #982 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:11 pm

    Bert @ #971 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:03 pm

    To P1 and various other green bots attacking the PPM metric regarding Labor, can you please answer this, where are the greens sitting on that metric? They’re always saying they will make or break a government (as long as it’s a Labor government)so what have they actually done other than SFA?

    Gosh – just one paragraph, but containing so many incorrect assumptions!

    Well correct me where I’m wrong.

    I probably don’t have that long to live.

  25. Dandy Murray @ #984 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:13 pm

    Rex,

    And as a response, RERT negotiations have begun for the next week or so. Fire up your old diesel gensets!

    Go here and look at the predispatch price forecasts for the next 24 hours, esp for Qld. https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem

    Hello market cap!

    A quick calculation using the forward curves, if Qld retailers have to buy all their energy from the spot market tonight they would pay an extra $700 million for the power… tonight alone.

    It’s real fingers gripping the edge of your seat stuff to watch! NSW spot price just surged to nearly the Qld level as the evening peak started to kick in!

  26. *Change of subject alert*

    This is quite something, and I’m not too mad about cricket, or Melbourne for that matter (pace pace).

    Samuel Calvert (1828-1913)
    Cricket Match Between Victoria and England Melbourne Cricket Ground 1873

    Going up for auction tonight (I’m a browser wannabe window shopper) expecting $5-7K. And the auction guy is married to Germaine Greer’s sister, I believe. What else … he’s from Nuu Yoik.

    https://www.shapiro.com.au/lot/samuel-calvert-1828-1913/

    It is lovely, isn’t it.

    (Hope it works, but doubt it)

  27. Guytaur,

    You are so judgemental of others but have always excused your own abusive behaviour.

    This is not unusual for Sociopaths like yourself.

    Hypocrisy is your reason for existence and all you’ve got to sustain your broom cupboard existence.


  28. Player One says:
    Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    Dandy Murray @ #984 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:13 pm

    A quick calculation using the forward curves, if Qld retailers have to buy all their energy from the spot market tonight they would pay an extra $700 million for the power… tonight alone.

    As I have said many times, our electricity regulatory regime is “broken”

    Actually it is doing what it should, paying a price high enough to crank up every small generator that can be connected to the grid.

    What is lagging is having the price reflected back to the customer. It would be a good night for all to eat salads.

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