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.
In fact, most of the criticisms of various states is that they frequently do not live up to Liberal Democratic ideals. That if they did then maybe they’d have a stronger hand to play when it comes encouraging and convincing other countries to adopt them.
I think we can all agree that hypocrisy weakens one’s position. It should be a matter of priority to reduce one’s own hypocrisy, which people in Liberal Democratic states at least have some control over.
16 cases today from 45000 tests in nSW
3 cases are aged care residents but they have been fully vaccinated which is a very good thing,
16 new cases in Sydney.
Any testing data to compare with testing numbers on previous days?
16 in NSW to 8 pm
14 linked already
13 in full isolation
1 in partial isolation
2 in community
Probably Does not include 3 in nursing home
EDIT: DOES INCLUDE NURSING HOME
Thanks Vic. Sounds like testing numbers are down which would be consistent with past outbreaks for weekend testing numbers?
Fess
Day before There were 56000 tests.
Victoria @ #2163 Sunday, July 4th, 2021 – 11:03 am
Moving in the right direction. Next few days very important.
45000+ tests – usual weekend dip
Fess
Weekends generally have lower testing rates.
”
ItzaDreamsays:
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 10:14 am
I thought the three panelists were good, including David Crowe (car park rort the worst of the worst). Speers as usual a pretty pathetic sycophant. Birmingham was the very model of a lying obfuscating Minister.
The issue of the indigenous population and vaccination got a good run.
All up, worth watching.
”
Itzadream
You probably know about ‘Stockholm syndrome’. 🙂
Display Name.
Such an example is Pork and Ride or the war crimes investigation into the SAS.
We make exactly the same criticisms of the US and other western countries especially when attacking whistle blowers.
It’s the very thing BW harps on about when talking about Hong Kong and Uyghers. We are just applying the same principles to ourselves.
I passed an outdoor group fitness class in a park in Redfern driving by yesterday.
Unless it’s all people from the same household this would seem contrary to Dr Chant’s just announced instruction.
Thanks Vic 🙂
It seems the Great Ocean Food sub-cluster was the event that pushed the state into lockdown
A good set of numbers today.
Outside exercise groups are up to 10 people – if more than that Crimestoppers are your answer
There must be some good localised data coming from that West Hoxton Park party in terms of spread and effectiveness of vaccination
People from this area should get tested
NSW Health
@NSWHealth
·
9m
NSW Health’s ongoing sewage surveillance program has detected traces of the virus that causes COVID-19 at a number of locations around Sydney. A detection at St Marys sewage treatment plant is of particular concern, as there are no known cases in this cat
Nsw figures today will disappoint the PB covid political death riders!
Hope springs eternal – maybe they will worse on Monday !
People still trying to travel outside Sydney and not wearing masks! Just unbelievable.
Enjoyed a lovely 10 km walk from the Spit, where Mrs Shellbell and I had our wedding reception, to Manly proper where we were wed.
Lots of people out in their activewear. Meagre diversity.
Gee the Corso is a dreary place.
Didn’t see it myself but apparently the Manly markets were open.
Nobody is hoping that Lars. The affected areas are in some kind of lockdown right now. If that doesn’t work, what’s left?
There is no mandate in Greater Sydney to wear masks outdoors.
Lars
Yeah cos us Victorians really want the virus back in our state.
Steve777 @ #2174 Sunday, July 4th, 2021 – 11:21 am
There is if you’re sitting at a bus shelter or public transport area.
Hooray a journo finally asking the right questions about non-essential goods and services being opened.
‘DisplayName says:
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 10:51 am
boerwar
You’re making things up again.
There have been plenty of positive posts about the US since Biden replaced Trump, and while there are also plenty of comments criticising the actions of various states, who has criticised Liberal Democratic ideals?’
______________________________________
Posts on the state of our democracy are universally negative. What positive posts about the US? There have been some about preferred individuals but none that I can recall praising the United States or, for that matter, the West. There have been plenty of negative post on same.
If the premier is worried about indoor venues like shopping centres why doesn’t her govt mandate their closure?
Excellent progress on community cases. Well done Australia!
BW
There are positive things said about the US.
I have said them myself.
Eg. All the posts about accountability for Trump with Criminal prosecution and Congressional inquiries. These are positive posts affirming the Democratic institutions are holding firm.
Tricot says:
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 10:38 am
“The fundamental issue for the Chinese government is social stability/control and this is seen, and largely accepted by the Chinese people, as preferable to chaos and weakness.”
You say that is if the people have any choice in the matter. They accept it or they are dead along with their families.
Fess,
Redfern Park is like this all the time. Young people who feel invulnerable?
The Chinese fan dancers are good. Always social distance, and have stopped meeting there for the lockdown
Time to tee off on Gladys being crap at managing the Rona.
It’s in Aged Care – panic now. Any death in Aged Care now has to be declared a COVID-19 Death.
How can we make this sound as bad as possible?
Buce
That’s very unfair. Aged care is federal. Not a state responsibility
guytaur @ #2196 Sunday, July 4th, 2021 – 11:32 am
Colbeck is still minister therefore Covid still getting into aged care residences.
Just scandalous.
You’d think that after 655 Victorians in aged care died re Covid, things might have changed.
Morrison still hasn’t addressed the issue.
Why is Colbeck still a minister ..???
Rex at 11.38am
Why is Colbeck still a minister ..???
This Government repeatedly demonstrates that good old Aussie value: mateship!
Confessions at 11:23 am
Essential services may mean many things. For a number of Sydney’s Eastern suburbs botox injections and beauty therapy would be considered “essential services” 🙂
Reason for the lockdowns are to get the cases to decline , which why lockdowns benefit ;
Lets hope the lockdown is not lifted too quickly
boerwar
You said “criticism of Liberal Democratic ideals”. There are few (if any?) criticisms of those, at least none that I recall.
As for the “state of our democracy” well yeah, people tend not to comment on things that already work the way they want, they complain about all the things that don’t. We want a federal icac. We want less money in politics. We want more competent politicians. We don’t want the Greens. We want a vote, but we already have that so we don’t say it …
Those criticisms about the state of our democracy, by the way, imply that we want Australia (or The West) to live up to “Liberal Democratic ideals”, which implies we approve of such ideals in the first place.
Some people are much harder on themselves than others. So what?
Yeah, it’s self absorbed and maybe overly self-critical. But if that’s your observation (which it doesn’t appear to be, rather it’s something-something-fifth-column-apologist-something-China-something-enabler-Xiphiliac) then you could just say it:
– We’re too self-absorbed and should pay more attention to external affairs.
– We’re too self-critical and should be more positive about ourselves.
There, I said it. Two sentences. Done!
How about you do a proper quantitative survey of all PB posts and tally comments on all sides? Quite frankly, you appear to have a bias in noticing negative posts. Most people do, it’s like the news, you only notice the mass of stuff that triggers you. Also, many people say something once and they’re done. You could easily miss it.
That said, it’s true there’s stuff we don’t say because we take it for granted. It’s probably also true that we’re biased to post more on stuff that triggers us than on stuff that doesn’t. Hey, there’s someone we both know who’s a great example of that …
In any case, I’m not going to buy your anecdote unless you provide data.
For example, one recent positive thing I said about the US is that one of the strengths of their culture is that they are willing to take risks and forgive failure (hence their technological and scientific advancements). Should I repeat that every day just so boerwar acknowledges me? Pffft.
Others have pointed out the rejection of Trump as a demonstration of the resilience of the US’ Liberal Democratic systems. Others have said they’re glad the US is working with others internationally again (which implies they have a generally positive impression of the US even if they don’t explicitly state it). They don’t repeat it every day either, why should they?
Display
The word Green is a trigger for a lot of posters on this blog. 🙂
Note that we also spend a lot more time complaining about ourselves because, in the end, we have some influence over our own behaviour, as opposed to the behaviour of others. That makes reflecting on our own behaviour significantly more meaningful, as it can actually effect change, than reflecting on the behaviour of others.
I haven’t seen a post on the demise of Trump as an example of the resilience of the US system or a post expressing joy at the US working internationally with others again.
How amazing.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/not-my-experience-liberal-mps-say-they-haven-t-witnessed-sexism-20210703-p586jt.html
Why are there less tests done on the weekend? You’d think people had more time than during the week.
Tuesdays numbers will tell the tale as all the people who waited until after the weekend will be tested Monday.
Still, only one case in the community is very good news.
‘DisplayName says:
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 12:03 pm
Note that we also spend a lot more time complaining about ourselves because, in the end, we have some influence over our own behaviour, as opposed to the behaviour of others. That makes reflecting on our own behaviour significantly more meaningful, as it can actually effect change, than reflecting on the behaviour of others.’
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Uh huh. Why the disparity in posts critical of the US compared with the posts critical of China (mine excepted)?
This was posted 59 minutes ago. I have not seen on News 24 so I hoped Albanese delayed due to Covid press conferences not the ABC ignoring.
@AlboMP tweets
Media Conference from Parliament House at 1120am about the Government’s incompetence in rolling out the vaccine and stubborn refusal to build fit for purpose national quarantine facilities
I doubt you saw my positive comment on their culture either.
boerwar
Because we identify closely with the US? Why do we get so much US media here? Why are Australians so invested in who wins the US elections to the point of taking sides? Who else do we do that for? Maybe the UK and that’s it.
In other words, we are close enough to the US (and UK) to bother aligning elements (e.g. political sides) of our society with elements of theirs, at least philosophically.