The government introduced four electoral reform bills to parliament yesterday. Antony Green offers a good overview that notes what’s missing from the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry into the 2019 election: the particularly contentions measures of voter identification and optional preferential voting, and arrangements for handling an election during the pandemic, which will presumably have to follow at a later time.
To summarise:
• The most striking is a bill to triple the number of members required of a registered political party to 1500 and to disallow the registration of parties whose names contain, with limited exceptions, words already used in the name of a pre-existing party. The former requirement does not affect the significant exception that exists for parties with seats in parliament, as applies to Katter’s Australian Party, the Centre Alliance and the Jacqui Lambie Network (Antony Green notes it also helped Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party to both register and blag free ABC air time before the last election, not that this proved notably helpful to them). Parties will have three months after the passage of the bill to either pass muster or face deregistration, in which case they will not be identified on ballot papers or eligible for public funding. This would appear to be one in the eye for the Liberal Democrats, who this week confirmed Campbell Newman as their Senate candidate in Queensland.
• A bill encompassing “counting, scrutiny and operational efficiencies” gives effect to JSCEM’s recommendation that the pre-poll voting period should be cut from three weeks to two, which the Coalition, Labor and Greens members were all on board with. It also allows for pre-poll votes to be pre-processed in the two hours before polls close so the actual counting of the votes can begin without delay, which should address an issue of recent election nights in which election day booths are mostly in by 8pm but pre-poll voting centres often aren’t until 11pm to midnight. Similarly, the bill allows for postal votes to be pre-processed so more of them can be counted on Sunday.
• An “electoral offences and preventing multiple voting” bill includes a measure to prevent those suspected of multiple voting from persisting in doing so, and one to target behaviour the Liberal Party has complained of being subjected to by GetUp! activists, specifically “violence, obscene or discriminatory abuse, property damage and harassment or stalking”. Former electoral administrator Michael Maley wonders if the latter measure might capture heckling or asking difficult questions; electoral law expert Graham Orr notes it brings the activities of FriendlyJordies to mind.
• A bill to lower the threshold for which third parties campaigning at elections will have to register as political campaigners, requiring them to file annual financial disclosure returns. The current six-figure threshold does seem on the high side, but the cause of “public confidence in Australia’s political processes” would surely be better served by lowering the threshold for declaring donations to political parties.
Other news:
• The Australian Electoral Commission has published the full panoply of reports and data relevant to the now finalised federal redistributions of Victoria and Western Australia. Antony Green has worked his estimated margins into a finalised 2022 federal election pendulum.
• Rachel Siewert, Greens Senator for Western Australia, announced on social media this week that she will resign her position in the Senate next month. This will allow the party’s preselected lead Senate candidate, Dorinda Cox, to build her profile ahead of next year’s election, a common practice for the Greens.
”
William Bowesays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 4:29 pm
Player One’s lust for attention together with the determination of far too many people to give it to him is making this forum a pretty dismal spectacle right now.
”
Indeed
Royal Commission into the Afghanistan war. Really?
To rewrite history perhaps. Perhaps the Taliban didn’t run the nastiest regime in the last 30 years: providing a base for global salafist terrorism, including our mates in Jemaah Islamiyah. Fancy a Bali Holiday after covid anyone?
In lieu of a Royal Commission about we simply fast forward 20 years to this conclusion: “They came. They saw. They fucked around. They fucked off”.
frednk @ #3044 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 7:22 pm
But Bushfire Bill finally outwitted him. 🙂
Andrew. You are, of course, correct. An inexcusable faux pas. Warren Mundine!
Excuse me while I get the yolk out of my eyebrows.
The Australian Embassy in Kabul was shut after less than a weeks notice at the beginning of June.
The final Australian troops had left by the end of June.
If you were serious about repatriating Afghans who worked for Australia surely you would incorporate them in those processes.
Yes, it would take a bit longer, but at least you would meet your moral obligation to them.
Tingle still on 730.
”
boerwarsays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 4:29 pm
They have done tests somewhere and lockdown is reported to have a depressive impact on cognitive abilities. It is important in lockdown, therefore, to seek new intellectual challenges.
So tomorrow I may restructure the sock drawer but with the socks as proxies for some external reality.
Getting an appropriate framework is not as easy as it might seem.
”
You are too lucky with COVID in your area because of which you are already bored with your lockdown.
“… the failure to rescue our friends has got nothing to do with Morrison is a notion that you share with him“
That aspect certainly falls on Morrison’s desk. Not the others: although in my view he should have threatened to kick the Americans out of their Australian bases immediately and tear up ANZUS once Pompeo announced that the Trump administration was planning on releasing 5,000 high value Taliban prisoners into the wild – including the charming chap who has turned up as new self declared Taliban President and also including folk that murdered Australian soldiers in ‘blue on blue’ attacks.
Pretty easy to explain this government’s actions on anything with two questions:
– What is it going to cost?
– What’s in it for us?
About my posts today:
I think C@t and Guytaur share delusions that American has our back, therefore we should join with the Biden administration in ‘standing up to China’ because … of stuff … even though it is directly against our national interest to do so.
I wonder whether C@t and Guytaur fancy hitching a ride in the wheel well of the last C-17 transport out of KSA … fairly soon.
With friends like Biden … does one actually need enemies?
Double post
AE
America has our back as long as it is in their interest to do so.
Morrison joining the Quad may have been the only useful thing he has done as Prime Minister.
Edit: Get used to it. The US is coming to the Indo Pacific for good or ill.
‘Andrew_Earlwood says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:31 pm
Royal Commission into the Afghanistan war. Really?
To rewrite history perhaps. Perhaps the Taliban didn’t run the nastiest regime in the last 30 years: providing a base for global salafist terrorism, including our mates in Jemaah Islamiyah. Fancy a Bali Holiday after covid anyone?
In lieu of a Royal Commission about we simply fast forward 20 years to this conclusion: “They came. They saw. They fucked around. They fucked off”.’
________________________________
I suggest you calm your somewhat histrionic language.
We have just lost a two decade long war.
Of course there should be a Royal Commission into it. One of the features of the War has been the systematic way in which the Australian civilian population has been fed a constant stream of lies, half lies. The lies need to be teased out and they need to see the light of day. The way in which the lies were promulgated, ditto. This would necessarily look at issues such as the way in which the MSM was embedded with the ADF and where and how this failed to inform the Australian public.
One of the TOR should be the casus belli.
TOR 2 should be the war aims.
TOR 3 should be into why Australia fought as if the War was a limited war instead of a real war.
TOR 4 should look at the failure of command and control such that there was a run of war crimes.
I am sure that you could imagine some of the remaining TOR.
Dutton is on 7:30.
He’s very keen … and totally on the job … with his concerns … for white people.
Shame about the feckless inaction over Brown people that had our back and needed to be shifted months and years ago.
What a vile excuse for a human being he is.
– Who do we blame when we fuck it up?
guytaur @ #3066 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 5:44 pm
So America doesn’t have our back then!
Sir Henry Parkes:
If P1 prefers to be a Tory, that’s P1’s business. The vitriol levelled against P1 today is way over the top. You’re like a pack of hungry wolves, reminiscent of the way Pegasus likely felt when she decided to give this blog a miss. For a curmudgeon journo, you should know better.
Morrison has been a member of the Government which has prosecuted the War for nearly 9 years, for much of that time a Cabinet member and for part of that time, Prime Minister.
He lost that war. He retreated. He failed to protect those for whom he had a duty of care.
He must be held accountable and the ONLY way that this will occur is through a Royal Commission.
If that involves a TOR that includes the value of the US alliance, so be it.
”
andrewmcksays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 5:17 pm
boerwar says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 4:52 pm
It is not clear to me who, how or why the vaccination effort in Indigenous communities has failed so miserably.
It seems pretty obvious that Victoria is doing something right – see bar graph Rex provided. Like listening to the indigenous community and empowering Aboriginal controlled community health organisations to deliver the vaccines
”
GG, Victoria, zoomster
You wouldn’t know listening to Senator Lydia Thorpe and Victorian Greens and LNP don’t care either way. Sm I correct?
Ven
That is a good point. I trust that all the other jurisdictions urgently learn from whatever lessons Victoria has to offer.
“ Morrison joining the Quad may have been the only useful thing he has done as Prime Minister.”
I’ve mentioned this before, but you really need to bone up on late 19th century history. Perhaps the penny will finally drop – though you being you, that’s highly unlikely – the Quad is the most retrograde, horrible awful backward dangerous and downright stupid institution we could ever associate ourselves with: a repudiation of, the antithesis of, all the good and excellent work that Australian governments have achieved in creating, developing and promoting APEC and the G20 as the the correct and paramount institutions to guide us safely through the Asian century. Fuckwits Biden and Morrison have blown that too pieces. Hopefully not irrevocably, but things are pretty grim right now.
Let me buy you a clue Guytaur: we need to be entwined in multi lateral institutions where we engage with the likes of China and Russia, not little power blocks where we talk about and inevitably strategise against the likes of China and Russia.
please … dont bother replying. I’ve read your bather about how the Quad is multilateral. You literally have no idea.
Mavis is really a genuine duffer these days.
Always expressing his inner blackboard monitor
”
lizziesays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 5:23 pm
The man who tested positive for Covid-19 in the Northern Territory on Monday has refused to tell authorities whether he has been vaccinated or not, authorities say.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the man had been co-operating in every way except on disclosing whether he had been inoculated.
“He won’t divulge his vaccination status, so we have to operate as if he is unvaccinated,” Mr Gunner said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“He may be vaccinated. But he won’t tell us.
“I don’t know why he won’t tell us his vaccination status.”
Mr Gunner said the man was a US citizen and that NT authorities had made the decision to “respect” his decision not to disclose his vaccination status.
https://www.news.com.au/national/northern-territory/nt-records-no-new-covid19-cases-but-chief-minister-warns-not-out-of-the-woods/news-story/6e1b2db0bf6099d23589fafdee9c505f
”
Because it is lizzie, I am saying WTH.
A-E
IMO the QUAD is OK for provocation and for little else. It reminds vaguely of SEATO and of CENTO.
boerwar @ #3071 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 7:53 pm
From a few items in the media I think the Qld government did a sweep through rural and remote communities a while ago and vaccinated everyone in sight regardless of their nominal priority status. I imagine this would have included a lot of first Nations people .
It also overcame the problem of vaccination teams having to go back to small communities multiple times as they worked through the priorities, only doing a few people each time.
Of course Qld Health was criticised in the media for adopting this sensible procedure.
boerwar
A few months back some senior Indian government guy pretty much said India is on board only when and if it coincides with what India wants otherwise meh. I took that as a pretty good indication of how ‘solid’ the ‘Quad Squad ‘ were/are
‘poroti says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:02 pm
boerwar
A few months back some senior Indian government guy pretty much said India is on board only when and if it coincides with what India wants otherwise meh. I took that as a pretty good indication of how ‘solid’ the ‘Quad Squad ‘ were/are’
____________________________
It is arguable that India’s enthusiasm for participation in ‘QUAD’ activities, such as joint naval training exercises, is in direct proportion to actual acts of Chinese military hostility along and, across, the Line of Control.
Ven
Billie thinks the man is a FiFo worker in mining. My first thought is that he’s an anti-vaxer.
”
Shellbellsays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 5:45 pm
If the Ashes proceed, it will be a Justin Langer led team against the English team with the weakest batting line up since Don Bradman’s last test in 1948 and a bowling attack led by ancients.
The ACB will be charging premium prices for park cricket.
”
Again I am in disagreement with shellbell.
It is not Justin Langer led team. It will be led by Tim Payne if he is not removed as Captain. Ian Chappel will be furious that you are giving so much importance to the coach in Australian cricket.
When it comes to English bowlers they have 2 very good bowlers in Mark Wood ( currently probably the fastest) and Robinson. Whether Anderson is an ancient or not, he is highest wicket taking pace bowler in the world only about 100 wickets away from greatest bowler Australia had produced. Even Ian Chappel said in his Cricinfo article that England has very good bowling attack when compared to Australia.
America never has had our back why do you think they trampled on us on economics ?
National Security?
Secret Trade Agreements which allowed US companies to sue the Australian Government
DMCA laws
I wonder how many will believe it ?
.
Taliban announces ‘amnesty,’ urges women to join government: Live
………….”They should be in government structure according to Shariah law.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/17/evacuation-flights-resume-as-biden-defends-afghanistan-pullout
Greensborough Growler:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:54 pm
[‘Mavis is really a genuine duffer these days.
Always expressing his inner blackboard monitor’]
Perhaps. I just don’t like bully boys & gals; that’s why I like you. When even the moderator of this blog said, with words to the effect, that no one likes P1, he gave imprimatur to single out a poster whose main sin seems primarily to go against the groupthink that prevails on this site. Never mind, there’s always safety in numbers.
“ A-E
IMO the QUAD is OK for provocation and for little else.”
Exactly, a Biden delusion. He really is a man of the 1970s in many unfortunate ways.
Perhaps C@t and Guytaur can enlighten us all about the point of provocation, when viewed from the perspective of our National Interests.
If he’s a US citizen then presumably we can put him on a plane back to t he US?
‘poroti says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:09 pm
I wonder how many will believe it ?
…’
____________________
I doubt whether is one single Taliban entity ATM. The answer to your question will depend on the how the intra-Taliban tensions are resolved, IMO.
Mavis,
Always the blather from you.
You’re the one that tickled the till despite all your alibis.
Do you need a donation, fuckwit.
‘Cud Chewer says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:13 pm
If he’s a US citizen then presumably we can put him on a plane back to t he US?’
____________________________________
We do it our Kiwi perps. Surely same same would do?
Someone told me today that James Anderson is the biggest loser in test cricket. Nobody has been in more losing test teams in the history of the game. I don’t know if that is true but I am sure as heck gonna tell everyone it is. Simon Katch said. Nah, you’ve got that wrong, the biggest loser in world cricket was Ricky Ponting…lol.
BB
They have almost the entire human race to choose from! Spoiled for choice really.
Oh what a tangled web we weave…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-17/prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-us-legal-action/100384316
”
boerwarsays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:23 pm
‘Bushfire Bill says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:16 pm
Just watching Morrison on ABC TV News lament his own government’s failure to rescue Afghan embassy workers and interpreters, as if he had nothing to do with it. He styled himself as a pathetic, helpless onlooker in a disaster of his making.’
_________________________________________
Yep. Right up there with members of the MSM bewailing the failure of the MSM.
We need two Royal Commissions. The first is into the Afghanistan War. The second is into the Vaccination clusterfuck.
”
Only two?
I see I hit a nerve with AE.
A reminder it’s great to avoid provocation but it’s also great to avoid Chamberlains mistake of appeasement.
It’s always been a balance between the two as China rises.
So when you say it’s provocative ask yourself to whom and why?
Ven
Before the vaccination clusterfuck was other covid related clusterfucks.
Not sure what the collective term is for multiple clusterfucks..
Ven
The JobKeeper billions that went to the plutocracy are a no brainer, IMO.
They could do a grab bag of corruptions and do a Royal Commission into Corruption while they are at it.
Cud Chewer @ #3094 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:24 pm
An orgy!
Greensborough Growler:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:14 pm
[‘Mavis,
Always the blather from you.
You’re the one that tickled the till despite all your alibis.
Do you need a donation, fuckwit.’]
I always respond to another’s post, born of good manners. Indeed, even if the response is like yours.
“ A reminder it’s great to avoid provocation but it’s also great to avoid Chamberlains mistake of appeasement.”
When you have finished reading up on 19th century politics, and have properly absorbed those lessons, you should then move onto understanding 1930s politics.
You really are hopeless.
Mavis,
You are a liar.
”
Douglas and Milkosays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:39 pm
About my posts today:
”
Me too D&M. ☺️
My OH just now asked me why is everything so quiet with you. I said ‘nothing’ and keep reading and posting replies to other posters.