Lockdown miscellany

Top end preselection news, a date set for a Queensland state by-election, and the latest on federal and state redistributions.

As a new financial year dawns, it’s all happening on Poll Bludger — in addition to this post, there is:

• A new post by Adrian Beaumont on Britain’s Batley and Spen by-election, French regional elections and the New York City mayoral election;

• A post on the new draft state redistribution for Victoria, including my calculations of party vote shares for the new boundaries;

• A post on the federal redistribution for Victoria, which has now been finalised, and which likewise comes with an accounting of party vote shares under the new boundaries, and some analysis of how the changes affects the Greens prospects in Macnamara and Higgins; and

• The regular bi-monthly donation drive.

Further developments:

• The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party has preselected Jacinta Price as its Senate candidate at the expense of incumbent Sam McMahon, who came to the position at the 2019 election. Price is the deputy mayor of Alice Springs Council and head of indigenous research at conservative think thank the Centre for Independent Studies, and ran unsuccessfully for the CLP in Lingiari at the 2019 election. McMahon was in the news last week after her unsteadiness while in the Senate chamber prompted allegations she was drunk, although she insisted she had in fact been suffering symptoms of severe hypertension.

• The mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan, has been preselected by the CLP as its new candidate for Lingiari, which will be vacated with the retirement of Labor veteran Warren Snowdon. Labor’s new candidate is Marion Scrymgour, former Deputy Chief Minister and current chief executive of the Northern Land Council.

• Federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has published the report from its inquiry on the future conduct of elections operating during times of emergency situations. After considering the recent experiences of Queensland council elections, the Eden-Monaro by-election and general elections in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, it offers fairly modest recommendations: to give the Electoral Commissioner the power to extend pre-polling periods and allow for no-excuse postal and pre-poll voting (which exists de facto in any case) should the circumstances demand it, and to change the Electoral Act to change the date of an election in an emergency, giving better effect to a power that already exists under the Constitution.

• July 24 has been set as the date for Queensland’s Stretton by-election, which will fill the vacancy created by Labor member Duncan Pegg’s resignation after a terminal cancer diagnosis in May, followed weeks later by his death. The by-election will be contested for Labor by James Martin, a former electorate officer to Pegg, and for the Liberal National Party by Jim Bellos, a police officer and former Queenslander of the Year. Labor’s margin in the seat is 14.8%; I’ll be publishing a guide to the by-election soon-ish.

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.

2,534 comments on “Lockdown miscellany”

Comments Page 1 of 51
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  4. You should Follow The Health Advice…until you shouldn’t. The botched handling of this Covid outbreak by NSW continues.

    Mr Dominello was initially told he was considered a casual COVID-19 contact and not a close contact over his proximity to Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, who has tested positive to the coronavirus.

    “NSW Health has apologised to Minister Dominello for this error and acknowledges that he was following the health advice we provided to him,” a statement from NSW Health said.

    “The risk assessment by NSW Health determined his proximity in the Chamber, during Question Time, on Tuesday 22 June for an extended period of time made Minister Dominello a close contact.”

    His reclassification comes after Mr Dominello earlier on Wednesday fronted the daily COVID-19 press briefing alongside Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-30/victor-dominello-given-wrong-covid-19-exposure-advice/100257320

  6. There will be no Dawn Patrol this morning.

    I collate and arrange it in MS Word until ready to copy and post but well into it this morning Word froze on me. I was forced to use the Quick Repair feature which shut the document down without saving. Even on resumption Word was frozen so I had to use Task Manager to stop it. Next time I opened it the application worked OK but the document could not be recovered.
    I have spat the dummy and I won’t have the time to start all over again and do a good job before it’s time to do the morning chores and leave early for the flatlands to buy a new cooktop – and that’s another story!
    Sorry folks.
    The short story of what I had put together is that the federal government is on the nose.

  9. Attention NSW peasants. What faction of the Rum Corp does this Dominello chappie belong to , spivs, religious nutters, rwnj , moderate ?

  11. I will have time – and now the inclination – to pull Cartoon Corner together.

    Edit: I can’t. Word is stuffed AGAIN!!!!

  13. Over at the Rupertariat HQ , The Australian ,the online version has ZERO mentions of Gladys on the “front page”. They have however conducted their daily Two Minutes of Hate , today’s enemy is Annastacia Palaszczuk. You’d need a full set of fingers and toes to count the number of mentions and articles.

  14. BK says:
    Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 6:54 am
    I will have time – and now the inclination – to pull Cartoon Corner together.

    Edit: I can’t. Word is stuffed AGAIN!!!!

    Well it’s maybe time to think about going O SX & Pages.
    Ps. It may be a problem with the unknown unknowns

  15. Morrison decision to overrule his own medical advice was on politics not health

    The co-chair of the Commonwealth’s expert vaccine panel (ATAGI) says Australians under 40 should NOT get the AstraZeneca vaccine, expect in ‘pressing circumstances.’

    Assoc Professor Christopher Blyth has told ‘AM’ the situations where under 40s should get AZ are ‘quite small’.

  16. The short story of what I had put together is that the federal government is on the nose.

    Thanks for your efforts anyway, BK.

  17. poroti @ #9 Thursday, July 1st, 2021 – 6:51 am

    Attention NSW peasants. What faction of the Rum Corp does this Dominello chappie belong to , spivs, religious nutters, rwnj , moderate ?

    Spiv. He is from a massively wealthy car selling fam. ‘Just up the Windsor Road!’ 😀
    (Sorry, that was the tag line from the ads that used to run. All. The. Time. On TV.)

  19. Sceptic @ #14 Thursday, July 1st, 2021 – 7:04 am

    BK says:
    Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 6:54 am
    I will have time – and now the inclination – to pull Cartoon Corner together.

    Edit: I can’t. Word is stuffed AGAIN!!!!

    Well it’s maybe time to think about going O SX & Pages.

    I just stick the cartoons in one of these little ol’ boxes when I do them. Works for me. 🙂

  24. This “go talk to your gp” buck passing by Birmingham and others regarding Morrison’s az bombshell for under 40s is frankly a copout. What is this magical consultation supposed to achieve apart from the gp saying “err, yeah there’s a risk”? Any information a gp could give about az they can find out for themselves. Most under 40s wouldn’t even have a personal gp to go to

  25. C@tmomma says:
    Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 7:13 am

    Short answer. No. And, interesting to note, Chris Uhlmann was on the wrong side of the science again. First, SA Blackout cause. Second, AZ vaccination.

    This is where that has to be media regulations , they should not be allowed to get away with these kind of propaganda for the lib/nats

  26. Big A Adrian @ #24 Thursday, July 1st, 2021 – 7:15 am

    This “go talk to your gp” buck passing by Birmingham and others regarding Morrison’s az bombshell for under 40s is frankly a copout. What is this magical consultation supposed to achieve apart from the gp saying “err, yeah there’s a risk”? Any information a gp could give about az they can find out for themselves. Most under 40s wouldn’t even have a personal gp to go to

    It’s called, Duck Shoving Legal Responsibility 101. Morrison is a master at it.

  28. Morrison today should be made to hold a virtual press conference to apologise for giving advice against ATAGI health advice for his own political survival

    And resign or call the federal election

  29. Hot of the ATAGI press. So who ya going to take medical advice from , Scotty from Marketing or people like this guy ?
    .
    .
    Posted 41mminutes ago
    ATAGI co-chair Christopher Blyth says there are very few situations where he would advise younger people to get AZ; ………..associate professor Christopher Blyth, said it should only be considered in “pressing” circumstances.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/atagi-co-chair-pours-cold-water-on-morrison-az-comments/100257392

  31. Lucky for Scotty he is not in the US. I reckon lawyers would be lined up 10 deep ready to pounce at the first adverse reaction to AZ by a ‘younger’ person who followed his ‘medical advice’.

  33. Government by Press Release. That’s the way the Morrison Government rolls:

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison authorised the use of $15 million taxpayer funds to upgrade a commuter car park simply by issuing a press release along with five other Liberal MPs saying it would happen.

    The project, one of 47 funded in a program slammed by the auditor-general for being opaque and failing to award funds based on merit, has since been cancelled.

    Former Finance Department deputy secretary Stephen Bartos said the use of a press release to allocate money was “appalling governance”, even though it was within the law.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/really-bad-practice-car-park-project-chosen-by-morrison-press-release-20210630-p585nd.html

    Scott Morrison and the electorate:

  38. A young kiwi who took a chance to visit Sydney is now trapped and not impressed how the NSW ‘lockdown’ is being run or observed by people.
    .
    .
    McGuinniety said it worries him how many people in Sydney are not taking the lockdown seriously.

    “It’s joke – half the shops are open, and some gyms if you wear a mask. A friend sent me a photograph of Bondi beach, and it looked busier than usual.”
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/125606880/covid19-kiwi-stuck-in-sydney-says-bubble-travel-is-not-worth-it#comments

  43. Virtually a local extreme weather event – a smashing hail storm. It generated a boom in an industry, cost a motsa, and will inevitably feed into higher insurance costs for all Australian car owners:

    ‘The massive January 2020 hailstorm which rolled through car yards in Belconnen, across the Acton Peninsula, Barton and Fyshwick, pounding jampacked car parks and punching out laminated glass as it rushed south, damaged 44,700 vehicles in just 15 minutes according to government data.

    It was the most significant and damaging hailstorm to hit the territory since 1999.

    The event spawned the arrival of an insurer-driven, fast-track vehicle repair operation of the size most Canberrans had never before seen, as well as tens of thousands of written-off cars, windows smashed and panels battered, parked on grass to the north and south of the city, waiting their turn at the auction house.’

    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7321016/canberras-car-fleet-hailed-as-the-nations-youngest-heres-why/?cs=14329

  44. Victor Dominello is in the ‘moderate’ faction of the NSW Liberal Party, a protege of Michael Photios.

    And despite being from a used car sales family, I have to fact check the normally well researched and accurate C@t, the ‘Up the Windsor Road from Baulkalm Hills’ jingle was for Tony Packard Holden.

  46. C@t @ 7.07:

    It was Tony Packard who was “Up the Windsor Road”. From memory Ferdie Dominello’s base was in Hurstville.

  50. Victor Dominello will be back and ready to take the leadership off Gladys before the upcoming NSW election , personally i think he will be just as bad

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