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).
Are the kiwis starting to wake up to the fact that wall straddling is not an option and that canoodling a genocidal megalomaniac has its economic limitations?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/25/a-matter-of-time-new-zealands-foreign-minister-warns-china-storm-could-be-coming
That’s brilliant Itza. Love the fact that despite all the changes in the game, it’s still instantly recognisable from a 150-year-old painting.
The crowd, not so much!
GG
You accuse me of judgementalism for saying don’t demonise people. Then you call me a sociopath.
You reveal much about your character.
BREAKING: Petulant, unreliable trading partners are unreliable.
frednk @ #1000 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:29 pm
I just did a quick calculation. If we asked NSW and QLD to turn off all their poker machines, we would have plenty of electricity for everything else … and everyone would also be a little better off by the end of the crisis.
The MCG has changed a little bit.
boerwar
Thank fuck we in the West aren’t also being groomed for war or it will end very badly………………………..oh wait 🙁
Sounds as if this was just another announceable for the bye-election.
Spray @ #1002 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:30 pm
I love the scoreboard under the gum tree. They weren’t too good at gum trees in those days, still Europeanising them a bit.
Is it Texas which refuses to connect to the nationwide grid and when most of their generators froze last winter, the price of electricity soared and consumers were hit with astronomical bills?
Again on Texas, why not give everyone a free gun or two, and be done with it?
Another on eof those quiz show moments which demonstrates just how clueless the average punter is.
Q; In 1949, which Prime minister described the Labor party as ‘the light on the hill’? a/ Gough whitlam b/ Robert Menzies c/ Ben Chifley
A: (from 40-something year old) Robert Menzies.
Sheesh.
SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem) field enabled.
Brittany was not part of her own rape investigation until she requested it. Unbelievable!
The old cricket paintings and cartoons are amazing not least of which because the crowd seems to be rarely watching the game.
Michael Tanner
@MichaelTanner_
·
22m
Eight articles on the Upper Hunter by-election, six mentions of Labor’s fall in primary vote to 20%, zero mentions of the National’s fall to 30% (from 60% in 2007). Incredible.
It seems rumours of Jodi’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
lizzie @ #1012 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:39 pm
She’s only a woman after all. 😡
Guytaur,
Now you drop in to further perfidy.
I am shocked that you think calling me a demon will release you from the reality that you are nothing but a wanker on the periphery of sensible commentary.
You are a side show concession. Just one of the clowns with their mouth ready to consume the ping pong ball of whatever life presents.
lizzie says:
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 5:35 pm
Mark Dreyfus
@markdreyfusQCMP
·
25m
Mr Morrison’s magic money!
$600 million for a gas fired power plant no one wants, and no one can find it in the Budget.
Sounds as if this was just another announceable for the bye-election.
The amazing thing is, people actually expect it to be built.
lizzie @ #1007 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:35 pm
I linked earlier to the video on Twitter of the time in Estimates where the Public Servant was asked to find it in the Budget Papers. he couldn’t. I was gobsmacked!
C@tmomma
A damned good reason for Jodi to remain is that it would be a big up you to Fairfax + Mordor Media and where they can shove the ‘agenda’ they had.
shellbell @ #1014 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:39 pm
Rarely or really? That lot look pretty focused, bar a bit of canoodling, and there’s more than a few ladies – good for the colour and aesthetics I guess.
C/- the Guardian
Presumably the disgraceful threat would have been accusing him of protecting a rapist
“Hooke, who in March released a statement revealing he had “relevant discussions” with Porter’s accuser from “mid-1988 until her death” in June 2020 and with Porter from 1992 onwards, was at the November meeting.
Though most of his evidence was held behind closed doors on Tuesday, he told the court that he had released the March statement “partly” because he had been named in two articles in the Australian and the Adelaide Advertiser.
The other reason for releasing the statement, he told the court, was because he was “aware of an article that would be appearing in the Australian that Saturday where one of the authors of that article had made threats against me through an intermediary”.
Isn’t that the point? *confused*
boerwar @ #1000 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:29 pm
She probably got schooled when she was in Australia recently.
GG
Wow. Consult a dictionary about what the word demonise means.
poroti @ #1020 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:44 pm
And she’s got Jordie on her side.
poroti @ #1019 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:44 pm
Precisely, as I’m sure they had the pieces already written about Chris Minns and his links to Jamie Clements, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid.
Labor have dodged a bullet.
“Shareholders profiting from catastrophe?”
The big players, on both sides of the market, have contracted positions, so it’s neither here nor there.
It’s the marginal players and risk seekers that will reap their rewards. E.g. if you had a big battery or PHES in Qld atm, you would be absolutely cashing in.
The night creature in the roof is awake.
“The night creature in the roof is awake.”
Hello possum! 😀
boerwar says:
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 5:16 pm
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/2021/05/25/pla-warplanes-rain-down-thousands-of-munitions-in-s-china-sea-shooting-exercise
BEIJING (Global Times): The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy announced on Monday (May 24) that it recently conducted a live-fire exercise in the South China Sea, in which warplanes rained down thousands of munitions at maritime targets as the pilots enhanced their sea assault and precision strike capabilities.
While the announcement came only a few days after a US warship trespassed into Chinese territorial waters in the region, analysts said that it was not a targeted response, since the exercise was a regular one aimed at enhancing combat readiness, and a single US vessel is too weak to be a proper target.
A brigade attached to the PLA Southern Theater Command Naval Aviation Force organized JH-7 fighter bombers for a live-fire shooting exercise at a maritime target range in the South China Sea, with the focus being precision attacks and saturation attacks, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.
————————–
deliberately misquoting for your anti-china rants.
ItzaDream @ #1028 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:48 pm
God I am so glad I don’t have one of them scurrying about in my roof any more! Though I could never decide if it was a Possum or an Antechinus. 🙂
Mission accomplished?
The Guardian blog
Presumably the prosecution will still need to prove beyond reasonable doubt the absence of affirmative consent.
ItzaDream @ #1025 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:46 pm
Though my son told me Jodi had been distancing herself from him recently as he went on the attack against Barilaro and Bruz had launched the Defo proceedings against him. Probably a wise move, all things comsidered.
Tweet of the day.
C@tmomma @ #1035 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:53 pm
Quite so C@t.
C@t
FMD ! If he had links with that lot they’d have had rocks in their heads to select him. Rupert’s orcs would have had years of articles ready to roll.
Cat
It’s a wise move for both parties.
Credibility is helped by independence and Labor doesn’t have to wear the parts of Jordie’s comments that turns voters off.
Apologies for the long post.
I have edited it so a refresh will remove the irrelevant stuff.
RD at 5:55 pm
But but but they told us it is not a race.
.
‘This is not a race’: Government defends……..
https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-vaccination-hits-milestone-figure-as-nick-coatsworth-receives-jab/87d4b0ba-3142-4c6b-b2fe-187e02d63df2
If in doubt, Brush Turkey.
Dandy Murray @ #1028 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:48 pm
Which doesn’t make it right. There’s a reason we have some of the most expensive electricity on the planet 🙁
Nick Coatsworth gets 5ccs of common sense and reality?
C@tmomma @ #1032 Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 – 5:51 pm
Easy. One wears ballet shoes. The other wears Doc Martens.
It creates, maybe, an interesting legal dilemma.
An accused exercises his right to silence in a sexual assault case so does not contend, from the witness box, that affirmative consent was given and the judge must instruct the jury that no adverse inference can be drawn from that silence while giving the five new directions about other inference which cannot be drawn from the dress, demeanour of the victim.
Commiefornia is a new word I just learned today.
(slang, derogatory) The US state of California, regarded as excessively politically liberal, extreme far left, or communist.
“My” possums don’t live in the roof. They live in the trees around, cross the garden by means of power line, and thump down on to the roof at regular intervals every night. That wakes the poodle, who hollers “intruders”, and that wakes me. The cavalier, bless him, snores peacefully on the pillow next to my head.
Barney in Tanjung Bunga says:
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 5:51 pm
Leaving the country to decide their wartorn country themselves?